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wilcze-kudly · 2 months

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The Kuvira/Suyin parallels

So, this is piggybacking off my previous post about the Opal/Lin parallels, and to be honest I've always loved making this comparison, wince it's just so damn ironic and juicy.

Suyin and Kuvira are, of course, adversaries through a lot of the show, however, I think it's, mostly due to their similarities.

Both Kuvira and Suyin are, at their cores, leaders of their self made factions. Both also built said factions as coping mechanisms to the abandonment/neglect they experienced as children.

Both these characters garner the affection they lacked as children by having people depending on them. And also controlling said people. Suyin, by building a city and clan she was the matriarchal of. And closer to her, personally, keeping her family tight knit and her children isolated from the wider world and heavily dependent on her. As for Kuvira, it projecting her trauma onto a suffering nation and fashioning herself into being a hero of the people. Someone the people adored.

You don't really need to do a lot of mental gymnastics for this one. They were both isolated and lonely as kids, so they created environments where they were important and revered.

There's clear pressure from both these women for their "people" to conform to the rules they set. Suyin threatens Kuvira and Baatar Jr with banishment. One another occasion, she enables Korra's hunt for Aiwei, despite the obvious risk this endeavour would bring. While Kuvira's methods of control are more... barbaric? I'd call concentration camps barbaric but to each their own.

Suyin 🤝 Kuvira threatening poor earthbender himbos. God I wish that were me.😨👀Haha who said that?

They're fiercely protective of their carefully crafted status quo, since it is, essentially, a coping mechanism. The further it falls apart, the further their own psyche does too.

Suyin's qorst nightmare is her family and city falling apart, while for Kuvira it is when her Empire crumbles.

They can become increasingly manic and desperate the more danger their 'works' are, tossing any moral code or even sanity out the window.

They'll grasp at any straws to protect what's theirs. Suyin pressured Korra into going into the Avatar state, despite Korra's clear discomfort. Kuvira, meanwhile, harnessed the energy of the spirit vines and laid waste to Republic City.

There both even willing to endanger their allies, even those closest to them. Suyin taking her youngest sons on a dangerous mission to try and kill Kuvira (someone they most likely knew as children) while Kuvira herself nearly murdered Baatar Jr, her fiancé and closest supporter, just for the chance of taking out Korra. Rip Beifong brothers you really are the true victims here.

This desperation is understandable... its all they have. Both Kuvira and Suyin grew up alone, feeling unloved by their families. This led them to acting out. Be it for attention or any other reason, they ended up being too much to handle for their parents

We all know about Suyin scarring Lin, right? And this being part of the reason Suyin was forced to leave her home and dropped off at her grandparents. I find it interesting that it is implied that Kuvira too severely injured her mother, perhaps this also being the catalyst for her being given away by her parents too.

Perhaps because Suyin's second chance was so good for her, she wished to extend one to a troubled young girl. I firmly believe she saw a lot of herself in Kuvira (for better or for worse). The line about "hurting someone in this family" easily made me think of what Suyin did to Lin and see that she regrets it and doesn't want Kuvira to go through the same.

Regret, however does not fix all and neither Kuvira, nor Suyin know how to atone for what they've done.

It seems hard for either of these characters to understand the hurt they've caused nor that their actions have consequences. However, Suyin and Kuvira are treated rather kindly by the narrative. We've seen planty of people talk about how Su is coddled by the show's writing. And Kuvira is treated with a similar gentle hand. Redemption is a muddy subject for me, however I will say that bothese very complex and fascinating characters were done extremely dirty by shallow writing.

However, I will finish this long silly ramble by saying that it is very in character for Su to forgive Kuvira, despite this possibly making her children uncomfortable.

A huge part of Suyin's ideology is believing in second chances. However it runs deeper than that. As stated before, her family is the most important thing in the world to her. And Kuvira is part of that family. It's not surprising that Su is hurriedly doing damage control on everything after B4 and everything that happened.

I find Kuvira and Suyin fascinating characters. Their trauma, their drive and the mild insanity with delusions of grandeur is what really pulls together these two tormentors of the Beifong family together for me. ❤️

Also, on a side note. I find it very curious when people like one of these characters, but dislike the other, since they are so similair with their arcs and personalitywise. If you are a Kuvira stan and a Suyin hater or a Suyin stan and a Kuvira hater, could you clue me in a little on the thought process? Is it like. Just vibes? Or is it one of the small differences between Su and Kuvira that feels so jarring that it seperates them completely?

#sleep deprivation got to me at the very end sorry yall #kuvira #suyin beifong #baatar jr #baatar #wing beifong #wei beifong #lin beifong #legend of korra #tlok #avatar #the legend of korra #avatar the legend of korra #atlok

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animusxy · 2 years

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Aemond Targaryen x Blind! Reader Pt. 3.5

Summary: How you came to stay long term in the Red Keep and becoming closer friends with Aemond and Helaena.

Requested: I've had quite a few people comment and privately request for having the reader to feel Aemond's face to know what he looks like so that is also included.

Warnings: Nothing different from the previous ones. SOFT! Aemond.

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 3.5 / Part 4 / Part 4.5 / Part 5

Aemond:

Now if anyone had asked you how you were able to get so close with these two in the coming years, you would respond with luck and timing.

After Aemond's maiming he became much colder, borderline psychotic some would go so far as to say. You disagreed but only to a degree.

Yes, Aemond did change. But you could understand why. He wanted to be the best swordsman in the seven kingdoms. A job that required two functioning eyes.

Due to his lack of eye, he suffered from differences in perception. It was much harder for him to gauge where an opponent was in comparison to him so blocking and striking was momentously harder.

Don't even get him started on his massive blind spot.

But regardless, you became friends with him before that change in personality had truly set in.

Had you met him a few years later, you were sure that your lives would've been much different.

Aemond knew that his would be more miserable which was likely why he acted more or less the same to you over the years. You didn't want anything in return for his time and care.

Honestly, you just wanted him to look after himself and not his family that he was so hellbent of keeping together. Even if he had a love-mostly hate relationship with his older brother.

It was absolutely safe to say that Aemond trusted you with thoughts that he did not with his mother. Now, he loved his mother a lot, but it did feel as though it would only be reciprocated if he sacrificed something to help her.

With you, it was easy. You only wanted him to be able to relax. That's what you wanted to spend his time doing and he would be lying if he said it didn't work.

It seemed that nowadays he was only able to be truly relaxed around you and maybe Helaena.

You asked him to read his favourite books to you in the Godswood. He had a wide range of literature knowledge, so you were never bored by the books he read to you.

Sometimes he asked if he could lay his head in your lap, you accepted of course.

I mean, who wouldn't?

You often jested about characters in the books and relating them to people that you knew of around the Red Keep, leading to multiple fits of laughter as you imagined different scenarios.

Further on in time, after he had turned 5 and 10 years (yourself being 4 and 10) you would ask him to take you down to the training yard.

He wasn't sure why and he knew you wouldn't be able to take part because of your condition.

Don't worry, he'd probably give you secret self-defence classes in the middle of the night when he thinks you're ready.

You just wanted to see how he was improving, or rather hear.

When you complimented him after his training, he would ask how you knew that he was improving.

You answered simply 'Your feet don't scruff as much when you move. You move more confidently; I can tell my how much weight you put into your steps. Plus, I can actually hear Cole struggling when your swords clash. You are indeed improving.'

You remembered when you first asked if you could touch his face, he was stunned for a second but knew why you were asking such a thing.

'Are you sure you would like to do that?' What if you felt his scar and realised that being see with someone as hideous as him wasn't worth your time.

He almost wanted to refuse but alas you would not stand down.

Aemond was finding it much harder to say no to you now anyways.

The first time you did it Aemond was only a few inches above you as both of you were only just in your teenage years (or whatever they call it in that period).

You had placed the palms of your hands on the crown of his head and gently ran them through his lengthening hair. Targaryen hair, as you had found when comparing with Helaena, was rather fine and sleek but they made more strands than other hair colours as you came to find.

You started at the top and then came down, feeling over each of his facial features.

You only ran your thumb over his scar and eye patch as you knew how self-conscious he was of it.

At the time he had softer features, the only thing that remain constant over the years was the shape of his scar.

You agreed to do this at the end of every month, just to see how his face changed over the years.

It was usually a few months at a time that you would recognise a change.

You were always anxious to feel someone's face as it was a very intimate thing for you to do. You hadn't even done it with all of your siblings because they thought it to be weird and unnatural.

Eventually you grew more comfortable, especially since you did it so often with Aemond.

Each time you noticed he would be a little bit taller, eventually you found yourself having to balance of the tips of your toes to reach the top of his face.

Eventually he just started leaning down further to do it and after a few back cramps you just decided to do it while sitting on two chairs facing each other.

The more you grew comfortable the bolder you became and the more excited you were to see how he had changed.

You can imagine his surprise that instead of going from finding the length of his hair to his forehead, you went from his hair to holding his cheeks and feeling along the cheek bones and his jaw line.

He could've sworn he felt his heart flutter

He was happier than he'd ever admit when the cheek holding part became part of the regular routine.

Extra:

Sometimes when Aemond's paranoia of his family got the best of him, an effect from how he was raised it's harder to surprise someone whose expecting all hell to break lose, he would find himself asking 'Would I really fight and die for these people?'

His mother? Most of the time, when she wasn't insulting you or scolding Helaena for her visions.

Aegon? Hard pass, nothing needs to be explained here. Well, he liked to think that but no matter what, Aegon was still his brother even if he hated him for everything he'd done and who he was.

Helaena? Yes, if he was fighting for her then he was fighting someone willing to harm someone so sweet and innocent.

When he would think about this question for you, he would silently turn to look at you.

Watch quietly as you made a small flower crown that you would place on your head before chuckling about how atrocious it must look because it would pretty much fall to pieces straight away.

He thought about how we would go to his sister later and ask her to teach him how to make one himself so that he could surprise you with one later.

He gave you a bright smile that, sadly, you or anyone else would never have the pleasure of seeing. He wouldn't smile like that around anyone but you.

'Yes, I would absolutely kill for you, and I would not apologise for ever doing so, anyone who is trying to harm you is clearly my enemy.'

Tag List:

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#prince aemond #aemond one eye #aemond targaryen #house of the dragon #hotd season 1 #queen alicent #aemond targaryen x reader #helaena targaryen #aemond imagine #aemond stannies #ewan mitchell's face deserves a tag of its own

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the-greendalehumanbeings · 2 years

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It’s interesting how every time CVD is asked about Kate or the Sharma family, he constantly talks about their indian heritage, representation, and all the cultural moments the show decided to include more than he talks about them as characters. Whereas Simone Ashley mostly talks about Kate’s character, her relationship with Anthony and more than she does on the sharma’s indian heritage. I mean all of that is .... very telling. It also explains the writing for the Sharma family.

It’s pretty clear the show didn’t care about the Sharma’s at all beyond being a box to tick for diversity points. It would have been better if they focused on writing all three as complex and multi-dimensional characters rather than adding moments of cultural representation (which was also done badly). We have more scenes of Kate preparing chai, than scenes explaining of her backstory. We don’t know the name of her parents or how they died. The one brief conversation Kate and Edwina have about their father is focused on Anthony, rather than his character or their grief. In comparison Anthony and Gregory get an entire scene where they get talk about their father and grief. Mary could have been killed off and it wouldn’t have made a difference because she only ever did *anything* in two scenes. Edwina’s character suffers because her arc revolves around being the third wheel in Kate and Anthony’s love story. The writers then did not bother to give her a proper resolution, because her character was only utilized as an obstacle to prolong the drama, and once that was achieved they stopped caring about her. However, Kate’s characterisation suffers the most from all of this. Her character’s personality and role were altered to make her the mirror of Anthony (not for representation). The problem with these changes is that they don’t bother to explore them so Kate’s characterisation often feels hollow. The show is so focused on making her the perfect mirror/love interest for Anthony, they end up sidelining her backstory, motivations and point of view. Kate has lost both her parents, has watched her father become a widower and her Mother become a widow. But her grief is never even gets mentioned? Why isn’t she worried about loosing a spouse like Anthony was? She has no It’s nuts to me that people claim Kate’s fears in the books were mostly about her relating to Anthony, when Kate’s ENTIRE character in the show was changed to make her the perfect match for Anthony.

There is no good reason for the Sharma’s to come from India instead of Somerset. This change barely affects their character aswell. There is no homesickness or culture shock. No mention of friends or family they have left behind in India. Edwina is seemingly unaffected by the fact that she has left the only home she has ever known to get married in a foreign country. Kate is completely happy to remain in England despite spending the entire season insisting she will return to India. It’s likely that they will never return to India, a fact which doesn’t seem to have any emotional consequences for either of the Sharma sisters. I mean I don’t think the writers could handle any of this in a nuanced way, but it’s weird how all of this is completely ignored. We see Kate talk about life in India with Anthony and with Dorset. To be clear I didn’t want the show to discuss India at all, given all the implications and because they lack the ability to handle the topic with care. But if they were going to talk about it why didn’t we get a conversation about their home between Kate and Edwina, rather than Dorset? I know the reason is because the show only cares about the Sharma’s coming from India for diversity points, rather than actually caring about how this change would affect these characters.

Ultimately I actually don’t mind if a show with indian characters does not showcase indian customs or language (esp if they are going to butcher it). This is not to say that I want them whitewashed & there are different cultural norms that would be part of an indian character’s identity but usually when shows try to portray Indian culture... it never goes well. Largely because there are not enough Indian writers in the room or they are not listened to. I would rather the show just lets them have depth, be nuanced, complicated and get storylines focusing on their character and development.

#all of the good representation was despite the writing not because of it #I understand enjoying the show but let’s not pretend that the Sharma family was well written #bridgerton #kate sharma #edwina sharma #mary sharma

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blurryface-never-left · 2 years

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Please tell us about your demaverse hc's??? We're going to get news on our host's mom's condition today, and we need something to keep him distracted from the bad news that's probably going to come of it... (Plus, there are lots of twenty one pilots fictives who I think would love to hear about it -James of the Storyboard Collective

I hope things get well for you guys and your hosts mom! I had some health stuff affect a family member not to long ago and we're still in the midst of dealing with the changes its brought. Just know your strong and will overcome what life throws at you. And thank you for letting me ramble about my little Dema/TOP fixation, I don't have anyone outside the internet to talk to about my love of this band lol. This is gunna be a tad long, and I still didn't put all the headcanons and AUs I have.

Its hard putting all my thoughts/headcanons/AUs or whatever you want to call them into words, so apologies in advance for any incoherent ramblings! Im also typing this out between breaks at work so that's also why it took so long to respond. I'm sure they aren't 100% original as a lot of my worldbuilding of this story comes from theories and AUs I've read and just took bits and pieces from so if you see something here that looks familiar to someone elses just know I don't claim these as completely original thoughts.

-I'll start with my favorite AU headcanon, which is that I think the world of Trench came to be via some sort of apocalyptic tradegy that befell the world. Possibly wiped out a massive chunk of the human population, led to the development of a walled off city(Dema), and is used as an excuse by the bishops(who I believe possibly manifested from this horrible tragedy) to enact an authoritarian type control over the city to prevent anyone from leaving. It explains why its not common for escapes to happen because everyone is conditioned to believe the world outside of Dema is uninhabitable.

I like to think the first Banditos were possibly a group of people who didn't fall for the lie that Dema was a safe haven and chose to stay in the wilderness of Trench where they chose to take in those who successfully escaped from Dema. Over time the majority of people who make up the Banditos are Dema escapees who made their goal be to saving everyone from the city.

Its also ties in the gas masks we see from Lane Boy. Whatever cause the end to happen, probably required gas masks. Possibly a nuclear war of sorts.

-On the topic of the Bishops. I don't know whether they are canonically human or semi human or what have you, but I headcanon them as non-human. Maybe some form of demon, idk, I haven't gotten that specific, all I know as I can't see them as human. I know in terms of themes they're supposed to be manifestations of mental illness, mostly depression and anxiety, but in terms of lore, I expanded on that concept and made it a part of their characters rather than just a metaphor. They feed off of misery/suffering, so things like vialism is a perfect way for them to feed. Its why their so adamant on keeping everyone in the city. Its easier to manipulate a certain amount of people in a small confined space. I have more about this using The Outside music video but it take up this entire ask if I went into more detail here.

- I see Blurryface as both a part of the bishops and their own separate being. The best comparison is that of the Holy Trinity in Christianity. God makes up The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit, yet all figures can be viewed as separate entities. All the circles of the Blurryface album(i.e, Blurry's face) are the representations of the Bishops. I know a lot of people now equate Blurry with Nico due to the song Stressed Out being Nicos song and the song that formally introduced us to Blurry, but I got so used to seeing Blurry as separate from the bishops that I can't possibly view Nico and Blurry as 100% the same. A lot of my Blurry headcanons go out the window if Nico and Blurry are just one being. It also completely negates the other bishops from the picture too. I just think Nico is more responsible for the creation of Blurryface rather than IS Blurryface. Plus the Holy Trinity comparison goes well with TOPs tendency to use Christian themes in their music.

I got a few more if you or anyone is interested, Im still at work so Ill have to do it on a day I have off.

#top #textpost #ask #headcanon #why did i not tag this fuck

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wtficedance · 1 year

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GP Espoo RD Quick Thoughts

Gilles/Poirier

* strengths: putting the ChRS at the very beginning so it doesn’t disrupt the rest of the choreo. Mirrored portion of the MiSt is very visually interesting where each does a rocker and counter instead of the same turn. Ice coverage in the PSt is very good with some interesting use of crossed hand in hand, however very little of it during the turns themselves.

* weaknesses: no true latin character in either rhythm or choreography, especially outside of their one rhumba section where it’s unclear whether they’re trying to express cha cha or samba and the only integrated choreo is a New Yorker Cha Cha step or a solo Samba roll. Weak edge quality by both especially during the MiSt with very little ice covered as a part of the actual step or turn. Mostly covered in basic stroking or chassés. A weak rotational lift for one of the top teams in the world especially given that they’ve also repeated their previous RD RoLi for 4 years. Overall, significantly little ice covered on one foot, significant amounts of two-footed skating in a RD which isn’t broken up by a stationary element like the ChRS or StaLi.

Twizzles: W3, M2

PG pirouetted in 2nd set, -1 level

PP pirouetted in 2nd set, tripped out of the 3rd set acting as their 4th and only level C feature, -2

MiSt: W2, M3

PG hopped rbi counter

PG flat rfo rocker

PP flat rfo c-step (if you called Piper strict she also flattened out on the entrance edge but not to the degree Paul did)

PSt: PSt3

PG very flat exit of rfo rocker

Hawayek/Baker

* strengths: significantly stronger salsa and cha cha character reflected in choreography and interpretation than G/P. I think Jim Carrey allows them to remain quirky but also authentically latin in a way I would say the entire field has struggled with this year. Really enjoy their MiSt with the use of the swing c-& s-steps as well as the ina bauers, a lot more ice coverage on the curves of the turns themselves. In particular the LFO rocker to direction change exit with the inside edge ina bauer is so effective. Also love the fake out of looking like KHaw is going into a RBO rocker out of the 2Tw but instead going for the skid stop.

* weaknesses: strongest elements at the beginning, underwhelming straightline lift that doesn’t reflect the character or timing of the music, rather open in the PSt when I would love to see some more flares with changes of hold.

Twizzles: W3, M4

Not sure about the first feature, extending the leg forward makes it look like they’re not maintaining that 45 deg extension (normally done to the side). Not sure if that’s the camera angle or what, but that could potentially be a loss of level for both.

KH loses level on that second set pirouette

MiSt: both 3

I would ding them both on the swing RFO S-step for not holding the LBI exit for nearly long enough, but everything else looked really clean, C step overall curve looked pronounced.

PSt: 4

all turns clean!

Carreira/Ponomarenko

* strengths: choosing Bossa Nova! Adria did a fantastic job on choreography for the top half of this RD, does such a good job emphasizing how much Christina’s command has improved. Particularly love the changes of edge into rocker and XB steps after the counter. Good use of closed hold in parts of the PSt. Strong lift but I think it suffers a bit in comparison to T/V who hold the top position instead of moving through a change of pose. I think the first two music selections are A+ and do a great job of showing off their maturity and improvements.

* weaknesses: ice coverage on steps and the exit edges, particularly in the MiSt on both the S and C steps, just very little speed carried onto that second curve given how well they’re emphasizing and holding the entrance edge. Anthony in general is looking tentative and scratchy on turns. I think it hurts them to end on that samba in a rather stagnant ChRS after such a strong RD that primarily showed their fluidity and Christina’s vastly improved extension & body/edge control. Would love to see them rework that section.

Twizzles: W4, M4

No checking or pirouetting! only minor thing is Anthony’s leg is a lot higher on their little kick flare after the first set and Christina’s coupe is a bit neater. That’s kinda it. Really well matched in that second set.

MiSt: W3, M2

AP rfo rocker flat

AP rfi bracket scratched on exit

both flat rfo c-step

PSt: PSt3

CC rfo rocker ✅

AP rbo s step ✅

CC lfi counter (in hold, super crisp with that right leg extension on the entrance edge) ✅

AP rfo c step (flat on entrance)

Turkkila/Versluis

* strengths: carriage, extension, posture are the class of the entire ice dance field, and not just at this event. The samba portions at the beginning and end are really well done and not frenetic like some ice dancers tend to slip into to mimic the speed of samba steps. The helicopter turn entrance to their rhumba section after the twizzles is a fantastic use of movement to set a mood change. Outside hold to killian in PSt is effective and I would love if they would use more of it in the second half of the PSt. In the MiSt Im really fond of the RBO S-step immediately into the counter.

* weaknesses: at times a bit too polished and formal. The rhumba section is more just slower movements and not like specifically rhumba movements other than really the lift. Would love to see the ina bauers in their PSt connected through more intricate changes in hold or combinations of steps. Missing that first “and IIIIIII-“ in Wicked Games in the PSt is a huge missed opportunity especially if you’re gonna use it for rhumba when it’s not rhumba music. The second stop in the ChRS and in the MiSt (tho I think the exit is great) are slightly too long to be effective IMO.

Twizzles: W4, M3

Matthias pirouettes in that second clockwise set

MiSt: both 2

both slightly too flat on that rfo entrance to the rocker

both flat rfi bracket

PSt: PSt3

MV rfi counter ✅

JT rfi s-step ✅

JT rfo rocker ✅

MV lfo c step ❌ flat

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asleepinawell · 1 year

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1899 thoughts

I don't usually post reviews of stuff I watch/play but since I made a gif set and people tend to see those as a recommendation I figured I would

thoughts below the line. very mild spoilers that don't give away anything important. not fully positive so if you loved it and don't wanna read any criticism maybe don't click and save us both a headache

1899 was always going to be burdened with the mixed blessing of being from the creators of Dark. Dark was an unbelievably fantastic show and almost impossible to live up to and it's hard not to compare 1899 to it. 1899 does not benefit from the comparison. overall the larger story and twists didn't feel as tight and connected as Dark and it felt like things got less coherent as it went, going for the big reveals that changed everything rather than tied everything together

all that being said, I was rarely bored while watching it and I got through it in two sittings (could have been in one but sleep). it was visually fantastic, the atmosphere was superb, and the soundtrack choices for the opening/end songs, while definitely overused in other things, were still great. I found the characters to be intriguing especially in that a lot of them were not particularly likable which is something Dark also did well

the first bunch of episodes were the best and it faltered more and more as it went on. the big twists were kinda obvious and I wasn't left with the desire to sit down and hunt through theories online after like I was with Dark

I think it tried very hard to recapture what Dark did and used a lot of similar ideas and suffered for that. it would have been better if the next show this team had worked on had felt more distinct

other thoughts which include those mild spoilers:

there was a female character with rape as a backstory (which is shown in a flashback unfortunately) and if there's one tired, shitty trope I hate it's definitely that one. it was obvious from pretty early on that that's where that storyline was headed and I was resigned by the time it got there and then it was even worse than I'd expected. major points off for that one

also had a woman who can't give birth as part of a tragic backstory which is another dumb overused trope but wasn't brought up enough to annoy me that much

there was a storyline with a character of color that I was kinda hmmmm about but don't feel qualified to fully comment on. at least this cast wasn't all white like Dark, though it was still heavily white

something I did really like was the fact most of the characters were speaking different languages and didn't understand each other for the duration of the show. they did some neat things with that and it was also great to hear all the other languages constantly

multiple queer characters. they were all a mess but so were all the straight characters so it didn't feel like oh those toxic gays. I didn't have any strong feelings about them but it was cool they were there

the creepy kid managed to not annoy me which is an achievement. I was kind of apathetic towards him

again worth noting that it was wonderfully shot and the music was great

I did not get bored watching it except in a few parts that dragged in the last two episodes

overall I'd give it a B-/C+ though it started out as a B+. it was set up for a season 2 and I'll probably watch that if it happens

worth watching if you're in the mood for a surreal mystery with paranormal and sci-fi overtones and aren't expecting a masterpiece. worth trying not to compare it to Dark though that's hard to do. not something I'd be like 'you have to watch this!' about

#mp #keeping it out of the tag since it's only partly positive #spoilers below line

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baronvonkrieger · 1 year

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How Cracked stole “The Grinch”

“How the Grinch Stole Christmas” should be a book with a lesson so simple, even a six year old can understand it. Sadly, the person of this Cracked video, which calls this “Philosopher Reacts”, misses the point of the book, that an aware six year old could easily grasp. In all fairness, the commentator may not have the capacity to read the printed word, so instead he uses the worst adaptation of the Dr. Seuss classic, to show the evils of Christmas and consumerism, which is Jim Carey's film called “The Grinch”(2000).

I find “The Grinch” an entertaining film, but it is an awful version of the story. Jim Carey does an amazing performance of the title character, but as an adaptation of the story, it suffers because of that. It turns the simple and loving community of Whoville, into an annoyingly loud group, who exist to consume or party. Since the person making the Cracked video hates capitalism so much, it makes sense that he would pick this film, since the Whos in this film are perfect representations to him how he projects most of what he thinks how tools of Capitalism celebrate Christmas. If he had used the original book, or if he found reading the original book beyond his ability to comprehend, the original animated version animated by Chuck Jones, it wouldn’t have worked to illustrate the point he was trying to make. Both the original book and animated special do a very good job presenting the message of the story; that Christmas is at it’s heart a celebration of community and family.

However, even in his 22 minute video, attacking consumerism, he uses an example from the film, that isn’t consumerism, to help make his point. It’s when Mayor Augustus Maywho offers Martha May Whovier a car if she will marry him, it’s pointed out that the car was paid for by the taxpayers. This is more in keeping with a communist state, where state property is distributed at the pleasure of who ever holds a political office. The Mayor isn’t going to buy a car to give to his wife, rather the state will provide her with one at his discretion. There’s a word for this in a non-communist country, it’s called graft. Considering how many elected officials become wealthy after becoming elected officials, it’s also called Congress.

It makes sense that this you-tuber would entitle his video “The Philosophy of Christmas: The Grinch Was Right”. There are many Christmas films he could have picked that illustrated the meaning of Christmas much better. “Miracle on 34th Street” “The Christmas Carol” “It’s a Wonderful Life”. However, when you hate Western Civilization and Capitalism, you are going to want to show a film that really doesn’t do a very good job of presenting Christmas positively, leading a child in the film to question the meaning of the season, and not a single adult giving her a decent answer. A story which makes the center character of the story look better, by making all the characters around him worse in comparison. Judging by the title of the video, if he thinks the Grinch was right all along, then a better ending for the Carey film would have been the Grinch dumping the sleigh on top of Mount Crumpet. The title suggests where the Grinch was wrong, was having a change of heart. Perhaps it’s the author of this video, who desperately needs a visit from three spirits.

if you wish to see the video, here’s the link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zvpG01aeDE

#The Grinch #Jim Carey #Christmas #Cracked

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san-fics · 2 years

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Why the authors of Miraculous Ladybug hate Felix so much

It’s obvious that Felix is important — and they can’t deny it, and couldn’t even resist making him to be the reason of a big Ladybug’s failure in season 4 finals. And they left him in that scene looking at the burning Paris side by side with her anyway (the scene from PV-trailer, where Ladybug looks at the burning city together with Felix-Chat Noir).

Funny dynamics, isn’t it?

But why? Couldn’t they use Lila as a villain-type role? Or even Chloe?

And why did they even brought Felix back after saying that he won’t appear in the show?

On my opinion, the answer is purely psychological.

Felix is like a first born son to show, that they had to give away and someone else raised him...) — and that is why we often see Felix as an older sibling in fanfictions — because the fans intuitively feel his status.

Felix is more mature in comparison to a playful and sheltered Adrien, who of course took some hardness from his father (that we saw for example when he made Lila get Mari back to school and some other moments), but still much softer then Felix.

Adrien has his feminine side a little too developed sometimes. That’s how he gives the ruling role to Ladybug, for instance, although they start out as equal partners. And even when she becomes a Guardian, Chat Noir whines and suffers from her secrets instead of making a firm stand.

But also being so soft as Adrien! They even made him a princess to be saved! Come on! Is this what you expect from the leading male character?

So while Adrien is nice and all, he can never reach Felix’s potential of freedom and inner strength (not to be confused with the bravery, ‘cause that he has).

I think the authors of the show hate Felix for this, for being strong, self-sufficient, extremely smart, playful in his own way, but strict at the same time, taking from life what he wants and making decisions that he considers necessary. And with all that inner depth and outer freedom they had to refuse him. Give him up for sweet Adrien.

So now that they were aloud to bring him back to the show, they can’t stand but show his strength and importance, even making him an antihero (not the villain, btw, ‘cause he didn’t actually hurt anyone directly, but left to the hero’s fight their own fights, and played on their weaknesses in order to get what he wants.

After all — nobody asked Ladybug to give him that miraculous.

Felix also has a great relationship with his mother, which makes him potentially much more adequate in building relationships with a girl, while Adrien's position would be distorted by rigidity (taken from his father) on the one hand and infantilism on the other.

To naive children for whom this show is made, Adrinette couple seems perfect, but in practice the two would not last long together. At the same time Felix would found the way to conquer Mari if he wanted to and found how to build a deep relationship. And with passion everything would be good as well.

That’s why I love to write Canon Felinette much more then even PV. I mean, PV are sweet and classic, but Canon Felix, who returned to the show as an antihero has just SO MUCH MORE potential.

I can see him as a strong man next to Marinette, with this girl changing the direction of his actions with her warm heart, and he can be that internally strong support that she really needs. Because while Adrien-Chat says the encouraging words based by his belief he n good, Felix would make sure that the good would happen, no matters the ways of reaching it.

He also wouldn’t stop by her rejections like Adrien did if he fell for any of Mari’s guises — I’d rather expect him to trick her into falling in love with him — until it wouldn’t be important why and how their romance started.

Because we saw that he is ready to play till the end to reach his goal, and not only with honest and direct methods that both Marinette and Adrien mostly use.

And Mari herself — who can still phones and dress funny to sneak to Adrien’s house — much closer to Felix’s way of acting, so honestly — they would understand each other much better then the “go the higher road” boy — once they would have a common goal.

So I see I went a little further then just the “why the MLB-authors hate Felix” topic, but it’s all about the same. Felix has a strong position to be at the leading male role in this show, and they feel it, and they’ll use him as such, even if they will have to turn him to the other side of the barricades.

Just because they cant let him go from their mind.

Drama of life)

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deafchild2000 · 2 years

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Lizzie Saltzman Was Wrongly Diagnosed as Bipolar When She Really Has Borderline Personality Disorder

When it comes to Legacies, I admit as a blogger, I didn't post a lot about Lizzie Saltzman. Either if I do, it's using her #Lizzie Saltzman tag to bring other people to relevance to my Legacies posts, Inheritance fanfiction, highlighting what she did wrong (and not blaming it on Bipolar Disorder), or connecting her with anti Josie posts.

This is one part of the last one but also explores Lizzie.

I'm guilty of a bit of ableism, but only joking with my mom by saying she's bipolar when she suffers from Depression with OCD - long story (which isn't technically wrong since both are under the umbrella term of "Depression").

Owning up to that, as a writer, I do serious research whenever I contemplate writing a character with a mental disability.

Lizzie Saltzman is a piece of work in Legacies and I find her growth fascinating when it comes to comparing her from season 4 to season 1 (and early/late Originals and The Vampire Diaries).

To be frank, she's bossy rude, self-centered, selfish, and a lot more I won't bother to add. However, she's sensitive, caring, honest, willing, and progressive in fighting against her brain chemistry. That growth is something I find rather appreciative in a story about being supernatural and dealing with mental health.

So, looking back at her episodes and comparing it to my restarch, I initially though I was wrong and something got lost in translation, but after double checking and realizing our lovely Legacies fans & Lizzie stans on Tumblr caught it too, I reached a conclusion:

Elizabeth Jenna Saltzman does NOT have Bipolar Disorder!

It's too obvious now, that Julie had the idea for Lizzie having it but not committing to the symptoms right, much less say what TYPE of BP she has!

Looking at it, if she had BP, it would be type 2.

For example, in a related yet unrelated comparison, one character from a show who's acted our the correct symptoms of Bipolar Disorder was Eliott Demaury from Skam France. Now, I don't watch the show, per se, but fanvids filled me in, and watching the scenes where his disability is shown fits everything all my textbook researched to a T! Especially the boat scene, if ya'll Skam fans know what I'm talking about!

Bipolar symptoms:

Mood: mood swings, anxiety, deep sadness, euphoria, general discontent, guilt, hopelessness, or loss of interest or pleasure in activities

Behavioral: compulsive behavior, impulsivity, irritability, restlessness, or self-harm

Cognitive: lack of concentration, racing thoughts, slowness in activity, or thoughts of suicide

Sleep: excess sleepiness or insomnia

Psychological: depression or grandiosity

Also common: rapid and frenzied speaking

See? Simple, easy to see in Lizzie, and if you were a half decent writer, easy to pick out for your character.

But handpicking out symptoms doesn't always work.

Yes, there are differences between men and women woman with bipoplar disorder, but as a writer, I don't play with statistics unless I created odds that meet my favors.

What do I mean? Here are two of the main differences that stick out like a sore thumb: Regardless of gender BP surfaces in, men discover their diagnosis 5 years earlier (the early 20s) than women (late 20s) & Women with BP are frequently misdiagnosed! While children as young as 5 can be diagnosed with as young as 5, there's only a guess that she was diagnosed once her age started hitting double digits!

Meanwhile...

Borderline Personality Disorder is a mental disorder characterized by unstable moods, behavior, and relationships. Something that sounds more in line and more narrow in ages for young children when it refers to Lizzie. And considering the symptoms (list below) overlap with BP, it's easy to reduce how she could have been misdiagnosed!

Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms:

Behavioral: antisocial behavior, compulsive behavior, hostility, impulsivity, irritability, risk taking behaviors, self-destructive behavior, self-harm, social isolation, or lack of restraint

Mood: anger, anxiety, general discontent, guilt, loneliness, mood swings, or sadness

Psychological: depression, distorted self-image, grandiosity, or narcissism

Also common: thoughts of suicide

Notice that mania isn't on the list. Wanna know why? Because:

"Borderline personality disorder involves a longstanding pattern of abrupt, moment-to-moment swings -- in moods, relationships, self-image, and behavior (in contrast to distinct episodes of mania or depression in people with bipolar disorder) that are usually triggered by conflicts in interactions with other people."

So if you just happened to be that witch who made the new werewolf student at your school uncomfortable - and downright said your happy he killed his girlfriend to be able to meet you - and took it out by rampaging on your boarding school's kitchenware and stopping yourself just in time before nearly cutting down your father?

Then, your name is Lizzie Saltzman!

Looking back at this scene in 1x01 in a BPD perspective and not a BP perspective, backed by the fact we (the viewers) don't know she's actually Bipolar by 1x10 and referenced again in 1x12.

Which was either intentional or they had no idea whether to write her as bipolar until later!

And since BPD has types, I'd believe Lizzie suffers from Discouraged Borderline Personality Disorder.

Discouraged Borderline Personality Disorder Symptoms:

mood swings that can last for as little as a few hours, or up to a few days, but no one else can see them

suppressing feelings of anger or denying that you feel angry

withdrawing when you’re upset

avoiding talking to others who have upset you and cutting them off instead

blaming yourself whenever there’s a conflict

persistent feelings of guilt and shame

having a “thin skin” and taking things personally

extremely poor self-esteem

feeling like you’re a burden to others

feelings of numbness or emptiness

feeling detached from the world and sometimes feeling like you’re in a dream (derealization)

people-pleasing, even at a cost to yourself

deep-seated fear of rejection

social anxiety and self-isolation

fear of being alone, yet pushing people away at the same time

inability to build connections with others (depersonalization)

self-harm or suicidal thoughts

Acting inward can complicate an already invisible mental illness. With quiet BPD, you may direct significant feelings toward yourself without letting others see them. Such intense emotions may include:

anger

anxiety

emotional attachments/obsessions

fear of abandonment or rejection

mood swings

self-blame and guilt

severe self-doubt

rage

And of course, with a misdiagnosis as big as this, there's bound to be consequences, and who do I point at to state the explosive setbacks:

This girl here! Caroline's gone and Alaric is busy being everyone's parent, so this girl who makes ableist comments left and right shares half of the blame. Not to mention her issues left Lizzie unable to have a life without her!

The other half?

🔽

There's a myriad of reasons why people would not take their meds and if Lizzie's episodes are anything to go by, I'd say not just bad med but incorrect medication would make Lizzie worst!

#Lizzie Saltzman #alaric saltzman #josie saltzman #legacies #anti josie saltzman #bipolar disorder #BP #borderline personality disorder

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septembercfawkes · 3 years

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Principles of the Steadfast, Flat-arc Protagonist

Last week I debunked six myths about the steadfast (also known as the flat-arc) character. Now, I would like to share 6 principles of writing a positive steadfast protagonist.

Steadfast/flat-arc characters are characters who don't drastically change their worldviews over the course of the story. In contrast, a change character will do largely a 180 flip in worldview from the beginning of the story to the end of the story.

For example, in Wonder Woman, Diana begins the story with the perspective that we should fight for the world we believe in. At the end of the story, she proves that true by using it to defeat the antagonist (this helps make up the story's theme). But in Frozen, Elsa begins the story with the worldview that one must be closed off to be safe and authentic. Because of the story, she learns that, actually, we must be open to be loved authentically (that might mean we get hurt, but some love is worth the hurt). This enables her to set things right, which proves that perspective true (and helps make up the story's theme).

Both flat-arc characters and change characters have negative versions: a character who remains steadfast to an inaccurate worldview and suffers punishment for it, and a character who changes from a true worldview to an inaccurate one and suffers punishment for it. Negative versions of each type are harder to find, but not nonexistent.

Almost all protagonists are positive change-arc protagonists. This means that almost all writing resources help writers write positive change-arc protagonists. This also means there are very few resources to help writers write steadfast protagonists.

You often can't apply change-arc advice to steadfast characters. It doesn't work.

Luckily, whichever protagonist type you're writing, each story actually has pretty much the same structural pieces--they're just arranged differently. Some are reversed while others receive more emphasis.

Today I'm going to explain how these pieces are different for a positive steadfast protagonist story, in comparison to the common positive change protagonist story.

This is a little like being left-handed in a right-handed world. That's it--the steadfast protagonists are the lefties of the storytelling world.

First, I would like to acknowledge those in the industry who have helped me understand the flat-arc protagonist and therefore influenced this post. If you want to learn more about this protagonist, check out these resources:

K. M. Weiland's Character Arc Series (Katie is amazing and this is honestly the best resource I've found so far on flat-arc characters.)

Character Arcs by Jordan McCollum (This book has a brief section on the flat arc.)

"Character Arcs 102: Flat Arcs" at The Novel Smithy (Lewis succinctly breaks down the flat-arc protagonist's three-act structure.)

Dramatica Theory (I already mentioned last week how Dramatica uses the term "steadfast" instead of "flat arc")

Writing Characters Without Character Arcs by Just Write (Youtube video)

I'll also be doing more posts on this protagonist type in the future.

1. Reversing Orientation: Change <--> Steadfast

Despite being the "lefties," almost every story will feature a key flat-arc character, like I mentioned last week:

In stories that have a change protagonist, the steadfast character will be the Influence Character. The Influence Character is typically someone the protagonist has an important relationship with, especially through the middle of the story. This is usually a love interest, mentor, or sidekick, but it can be almost anything. Of course, there are variations to the Influence Character, and you can learn more about them in my article on them. The Influence Character also serves as a thematic opponent, to some degree.

Why is the change protagonist most commonly paired with a steadfast character?

Dramatica Theory argues that it's because in order for a story to feel "complete" or "whole"--to properly mimic the human experience--we need to witness each perspective. Otherwise, it feels like something is missing.

It's not impossible to have a change protagonist be paired up with another change character, it's just that when this happens, usually an outsider who is steadfast gets involved and becomes the real Influence Character for both of them. It's also not impossible for the "Influence Character" to be more than one person. A story may have multiple Influence Characters, or even have a group that functions as the Influence Character.

In a story that features a flat-arc protagonist, the types are reversed. The Influence Character becomes a change character:

Moana is steadfast while Maui is change.

In Arrival, Louise Banks is steadfast while Ian is change.

In Cinderella, Ella is steadfast while the prince is change.

In Princess Mononoke, Ashitaka is steadfast while San is change.

In Wonder Woman, Diana is steadfast while Steve is change. (Steve's change isn't as drastic, but if you watch, he moves from disbeleiving the world Diana talks about, to believing in it.)

Usually, this pairing is positive steadfast protagonist and positive change Influence Character. This means that the Influence Character will usually start on the inaccurate worldview--the opposing side of the thematic argument. They will at least voice or tap into it in some way. By the end, they will have an accurate worldview, adopting the steadfast protagonist's perspective.

Generally speaking, anyway, as there are of course exceptions and variations.

So in a sense, when working with a steadfast protagonist, you are reorienting the structure to focus on the steadfast character, instead of the change one.

2. Inaccurate Worldview: Within <--> Without

The positive change protagonist has an inaccurate worldview in the beginning--this is sometimes referred to as the "lie" (as K. M. Weiland says it), "misbelief" (as Lisa Cron says it), or "flaw." He will overcome this on his journey and embrace the accurate worldview--the "truth." The truth is also the thematic statement.

The positive steadfast protagonist has the "truth," the accurate worldview, the thematic statement, from the beginning. This means that the inaccurate worldview needs to come from outside them. They need to encounter it in the environment.

You need to have the inaccurate worldview present. Otherwise, there is no opposing argument, no moral conflict.

A theme is essentially an argument about how we live our lives. You can't win an argument if no one is disagreeing. Someone needs to oppose the truth--I like to think of this opposition as the anti-theme. It is essentially the "lie," "misbelief," or "flaw." It is the worldview that is proven wrong by the end of the story.

It's just that with the flat-arc protagonist, that will hit them more from the outside. They will either:

- Enter a society run by the inaccurate worldview

- Have the inaccurate worldview enter their society

- Already live in a society riddled with the inaccurate worldview

Remember, a "society" is simply a collective--it can be as small as a school club or as big as a global government.

I don't know for sure that it always has to be a collective, but even if it's primarily an individual, the inaccurate worldview will still be within the surrounding characters--so in a sense, still part of the environment and society.

In Arrival, Louise is quickly surrounded by people who don't value or understand communication, or how it can avoid confrontation. She does. But she has to put up with that opposition and convince others to share her perspective.

In Princess Mononoke, a demonic boar full of hate and rage enters Ashitaka's peaceful society. After killing it, Ashitaka must journey far away to a land ruled by hate--where he is the only person who stands for peace.

In Wonder Woman, Diana must leave her society behind and enter a world war where humankind doesn't simply fight for a better world, but actively kills the innocent.

Rather than the protagonist transforming within, the positive steadfast protagonist will transform those around them, making the environment a better place as they hold steadfast to the true, accurate, worldview.

3. Internal Journey: Changed vs. Challenged

There is sometimes this idea, this . . . inaccurate worldview 😉 in the writing community that steadfast protagonists can't have rich internal journeys. As someone who loves the internal journey the best out of the plotlines, and who loves many steadfast protagonists the best, I don't find this to be true. Some of the most emotional internal journeys I've experienced, have come from positive steadfast protagonists. And one doesn't have to look far to find examples: The story of Jesus in the New Testament has moved whole nations.

It's fair to say that some steadfast protagonists don't have much of an internal plotline, like classic Superman or 007, but that has more to do with structuring plotlines than it does with character arcs.

For the change protagonist, the internal journey will largely be about transformation--a change. It's a journey to become a better person, and that can be a rich journey indeed.

For the steadfast protagonist, the internal journey will be a test of their beliefs--a challenge. It's a journey about ultimately choosing to hold strong in what you believe in, even if it seems the whole world is against you, (and for a steadfast protagonist journey, that's probably a good idea).

In a strange way, though, these two internal journeys are two sides of the same coin. After all, the change protagonist believes his worldview is the accurate worldview--that's why he has it! He doesn't believe, or at least doesn't clearly see, that he needs to change. The obstacles of the plot will reveal to him he could be wrong, that he needs to fix something about himself. Similarly, the steadfast protagonist believes she's right, and the obstacles of the plot will challenge that by suggesting she could be wrong and needs to bend to the opposing force.

One might argue that the main difference, then, is that the positive change protagonist succeeds at the end by changing, and that the positive steadfast protagonist succeeds at the end by not changing. But I think most of us would agree it'd be more helpful if we differentiated them a little more.

Because the transformation aspect is missing from the steadfast character, it becomes arguably more important to nail the other features of the internal journey. It's not that those features don't exist in the change journey, it's just that without the change itself, they carry more weight and become more centre stage (generally speaking).

One of the aspects that becomes critical, is that the steadfast protagonist needs to pay a high cost. If having an accurate worldview and using it to change the world around them is about as difficult as a stroll in the park, it can become annoying fast. Real life just isn't like that. Even when we are doing good, we still experience hardship, suffering, and opposition. If the steadfast protagonist doesn't have to pay a cost, then they're not really having their beliefs tested.

While a change protagonist's pain may come more from being wrong and having to change--in a sense being "punished" for being wrong--a steadfast protagonist's pain will come from being right and suffering for it, and having to remain true despite that. Essentially they embody the adage, "No good deed goes unpunished."

For example, in Princess Mononoke, in Ashitaka's quest to bring peace to a world at war, Ashitaka must endure a bullet, stabbing, and face death. He's no one's enemy, but he sometimes gets treated as one. He would likely suffer less if he just joined the war efforts and embraced the inaccurate worldview, or if he simply left. Likewise, Jesus holding true to his beliefs in the New Testament, led to him being crucified.

As the obstacles of the plot mount, the steadfast protagonist will be asked to doubt their worldview. Some steadfast protagonists entertain doubt more than others. This may lead to the protagonist wavering in his or her beliefs. Ashitaka entertains doubt only a little, while in Wonder Woman, Diana is brought to her knees by doubt, nearly turning her back on her beliefs. Doubt will usually be strongest at the end of the middle--what some call "The Ordeal," which will lead into the “All is Lost” and "Dark Night of the Soul" moments.

Often, in order for this to work well, the opposing argument needs to appear valid. It needs to look as if the inaccurate worldview could actually be the accurate worldview. It needs to look like the anti-theme could actually be the theme. Like the "lie" could actually be the "truth." This means it becomes perhaps even more important, for you as the writer, to show the legitimate strength of the opposing perspective. If it's obvious the theme is the "truth," then there is no need for the protagonist to experience doubt. There isn't even a need to have a thematic argument. The protagonist may also (or sometimes, instead) doubt his ability or worthiness to live and spread the truth. For more on the power of doubt with flat-arc characters, check out K. M. Weiland's article "Why Doubt is the Key to Flat Character Arcs."

Like costs, stakes become more critical. Stakes are potential consequences. They put pressure on the protagonist and give their choices meaning. If sticking to their worldview means they must suffer steep consequences, their actions carry more weight. It's easy to do what is right when you have nothing to lose. If I found a lost dog, it would be easy for me to look at its tags and return it to its owner. If I found a mean dog trying to bite my hand the evening before my piano recital, wrangled it, saw it belonged to my worst enemy, and still chose to return it--that reveals just how committed I am to saving those lost.

The steadfast protagonist needs to be challenged and tested--one of the best ways to do that is to raise the stakes. Raise them high enough to get them to hesitate, to doubt, to pay a steep cost. In a rich internal journey, we want to push the steadfast protagonist to her limits. What is it going to take to get your protagonist to consider the opposing side? To tempt her to give up her beliefs? In a sense, through the middle, we are really throwing temptations at the protagonist, trying to get her to give in to the opposing argument. Sometimes the most powerful way to do this, is to give the protagonist conflicting wants.

In reality, the audience can't fully see just how steadfast the protagonist is, if she doesn't have to suffer costs, legitimate doubts, and high stakes. It's only in the face of adversity, can we measure true character.

That is the meat of the steadfast protagonist's inner journey.

* I would like to add just one warning, however. In your quest to make your steadfast protagonist struggle, it's important he or she still has some victories along the way. Just as it becomes annoying if the steadfast protagonist never has to struggle, it can also become annoying if the steadfast protagonist never has any success.

4. Ghost/Wound: Inaccurate Belief <--> Accurate Belief

(This is a repeat section from last week. I just thought it would be helpful to have all these elements on the same post.)

A "ghost" is a past, significant, often traumatic event that motivates the character to adopt an inaccurate worldview (the "anti-theme" or the "lie" or the "misbelief"--depending on your preferred terminology). In the industry, this is also sometimes called a "wound." You can learn all about ghosts/wounds in my article, "Giving Your Protagonist a Ghost."

But in a positive steadfast protagonist, this is often flipped. The ghost is often a past, significant, sometimes traumatic event that motivates the character to adopt the accurate worldview (the "theme" or the "truth" if you prefer).

For example, Cinderella's mother, while on her deathbed, tells Cinderella to always be kind. This motivates Cinderella to do just that.

Of course, not every character will have a ghost addressed in the story.

For the positive steadfast protagonist, the ghost may be largely resolved.

But not always. They may not have complete closure and peace. And it's possible they are still traumatized by the event.

Sometimes adhering to what is true can be nearly as haunting as having regrets. It's just that the haunting will come from either the cost of the truth, or, a lack of power--a lack of control--during the ghost. Generally speaking anyway.

In The X-Files, Fox Mulder, in the overall story and theme, is a positive steadfast character. The ongoing theme is an argument of belief vs. disbelief. (The motifs, "I want to believe" and "The truth is out there" speak to that.) However, Mulder has an unresolved, traumatizing ghost: his little sister was abducted by aliens.

This event cements him to the thematic truth of belief and motivates him to investigate anything unnatural. But this happened at the cost of his sister.

Sometimes the trauma comes from not being able to do anything, just as Mulder was powerless to stop the abduction.

Other times it may come from not being able to stop a loved one from choosing the inaccurate worldview--the "lie," "anti-theme," or "misbelief." The steadfast character may be haunted by the outcome of someone else choosing the lie.

5. Want vs. Need <--> I Want the Need

For all other character arcs, what the character wants and what the character needs will be two different things. You can learn about want vs. need in depth here.

In a positive change arc, the protagonist will want something that will manifest in concrete goals, which helps make up the plot of the story. Elsa wants to live in isolation to be herself, so she runs away and creates an ice castle (accidentally freezing the kingdom in the process). The need will be a realization that is thematic--it will be the thematic statement. Elsa needs to learn to be open to love to be authentic--that's what will actually solve her problems.

For the positive steadfast protagonist, the want and the need will be more closely aligned. The protagonist wants what is needed. In a sense, he starts the story with the need. However, the need still has to be applied to the concrete world, which isn't necessarily easy. In a sense, we are taking the need that is within, and trying to apply it to the "real world," which is without. For example, if I know I need to exercise to be healthy, then I probably also want to do that. But that means I still need to put in the work. It also doesn’t mean I know everything about the process--because I may not have full experience with it. I might need to learn a new skill, like how to swim properly.

In Moana, Moana already knows who she is on the inside (thematic statement)--she knows she and her people are meant to sail--but she still has to learn how to sail.

Ashitaka knows the world needs peace, but he doesn't know how to make peace happen within a war. He knows how to have an inner peace, but he doesn't know how to make the external world--the societies around him--peaceful. He's trying to figure it out along the way. He's trying to figure out how to apply a personal experience to the public environment.

The protagonist may still need a greater, more complete understanding of the need, the theme, and how to properly apply it to the real world. We all want to solve world hunger--but how do we actually do that?

On top of that, as the protagonist struggles to meet the need, you may want to tempt him with a conflicting want. In Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 2, Peter Parker both wants what is needed (to be a self-sacrificing hero) and wants a personal want (to live an ordinary life with Mary Jane Watson). This creates inner turmoil. (And also gives more meat to the internal journey.)

As tests and doubts get heavy, the other want may appear more "right" and enticing. It will almost certainly appear easier.

As tests and doubts get heavy, the flat-arc protagonist may lose sight of the need. In Wonder Woman's "All is Lost" moment, Diana doesn't want to fight for the world she believes in anymore. The world doesn't deserve it. She loses sight of the need, the theme.

In short, the struggle comes from trying to apply the need, being tempting with another want, and/or losing sight of the need.

6. Protagonist Changes <--> Cast Changes

I touched on this earlier, but it's worth giving its own section.

In many positive change protagonist stories, the protagonist will change to the worldview some of the cast members around him have. In Spider-verse, Miles Morales must learn to persevere like the other spider people around him.

In many flat-arc protagonist stories, the cast around the protagonist will change their worldviews to match hers. Moana's journey changes not only Maui's understanding of himself, but Te Fiti's, and everyone's on the island as well.

In some flat-arc stories, this can be critical at the "All is Lost" moment, because if the protagonist is suffering serious doubt, the supporting cast can bolster her by now acting on the accurate worldview, which is essentially what happens in Wonder Woman. As Diana crumbles under doubt, all of her team members enter the fray, prepared to die to make the world a better place. Their selfless sacrifices wake her up, and she recommits to the theme, finding the strength to take on Ares.

Some stories may emphasize these changes more than others, but pretty much always, the Influence Character will at least experience a noticeable change--usually demonstrated near the same place in structure that the change protagonist will change.

But applying the steadfast protagonist to story structure will be for another day (hopefully in the coming weeks). Stay tuned!

#writing tips #writing tips and tricks #writeblr #fanfic #nanowrimo #writing reference #writing advice #protagonist #steadfast protagonist #flat-arc protagonist #moana #arrival #princess mononoke #wonder woman #character #character arcs #writing help

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itsclydebitches · 3 years

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I kinda wonder, what could bakugou do (hori write bakugou to do) to make him less popular with the "anti" crowd. Like He was a horrid child no doubt and people who try to put blame on Deku or lessen the terrible shit bakugou did aren't great. But as we don't rly see it, we have to assume bakugous behaviour wasn't stopped, we only ever saw his mum "punishing" him when he was being rude after getting kiddnapped. Nothing will excuse what bakugou did, but he has stopped? He's overall a harsh person but he's not harrassing and bullying people anymore, specifically not deku, he's trying to attone for what he did to deku and has now apologised for it. His behaviour was never viewed as justified or good in the series, he's a scary figure in middle school, we're not meant to like his behaviour, so the series itself hasn't justified his actions.

As someone who relate to both bakugou and deku more than I'd like to admit (never told someone to jump tho, that's fucked lol) so I can 100% understand not liking or even hating bakugou but as someone who's not 15 anymore, looking back I also made a lot of really shitty decisions and like bakugou have tried to make up for it, and like deku I was 'friends' with people who hurt me.

Is there anything he can do for the "antis" to just dislike him rather that be "anti"?

(I'm very sorry if you've talked about this somewhere, you can just tell me to look for it if you have, I'll continue to look for your posts on the subject)

Hey there, anon! I think I’ve spoken about this only tangentially and/or in my main Bakugo meta, which is too big for anyone sane to read. So yeah, let’s chat here!

For me personally—and that’s all I can ever do: speak personally. I think it’s important to keep in mind that there is no single solution to please the “anti” crowd. Each fan will be looking for something slightly different in Bakugo’s character, much of which might contradict what a “stan” is currently enjoying. Given how charged a character he is, I'm not sure it's possible to get the entire fandom to like him—what I’m looking for hinges on having a different reading of the story than you seem to. Meaning, I think the series does justify his behavior. Not in any overt, super obvious way like having all the characters go, “Wow, Bakugo! I sure do love how you threaten people all the time. That’s super cool and heroic!” Things are rarely that straightforward. Rather, it’s in a more subtle, but consistent manner that paints a rather conclusive picture across hundreds of chapters.

Simply put, Bakugo is continually rewarded for his actions. Or, if not outright rewarded, his actions are ignored in a way that implies silent acceptance. Characters may not always like what he does... but they're willing to let it slide because Bakugo's heroism was always treated as a given, not something he had to earn and prove.

With the ever necessary disclaimer that I’m not fully caught up yet, here’s a list of some of the things that stood out to me in the first half of the series:

Bakugo’s bullying made him the most popular kid in school.

Bakugo’s bullying was ignored by/outright supported by the teachers.

Bakugo’s bullying did not hinder him from getting into U.A., one of the most prestigious hero schools around.

Despite acting horribly throughout his time at U.A. too, this behavior was continually ignored by the teachers and other authority figures around him.

Bakugo’s struggle to realize that other people aren’t “trash” doesn’t hurt his achievements in any way. He still gets top scores, still wins the tournament, etc.

Bakugo’s behavior gets him special attention from All Might, the greatest hero and Bakugo’s personal idol.

His behavior doesn’t make others dislike him in any manner that’s taken seriously. Everybody is still willing to not just put up with Bakugo, but—in time—start treating his behavior as a quirk (no pun intended lol) that they’re secretly fond of, rather than something he should legitimately be striving to change. Kirishima is the most overt example of this.

This is compounded by his behavior constantly being framed as humorous. Much like with Mineta’s perverted actions, characters might superficially go, “No, that’s bad!” but the story never demands any significant development because then we’d lose the “joke” of Bakugo screaming in rage at the slightest inconvenience, threatening to murder someone over nothing, constantly belittling everyone around him in a “funny” manner, etc. When fans talk about development of a manga character as archetypal and extreme as Bakugo, most don’t really want to see significant change to his base personality. Because then that would result in someone who doesn’t look like the “real” Bakugo: someone nicer, more even-tempered, more mature, etc. But for those of us who were never drawn to that personality in the first place, the continued acceptance of his rude, egotistical, and violent behavior is discomforting. The easiest comparison I can draw is between this and Bakugo’s mother slapping him. That slap is meant to be another “joke”—we see it constantly in shonen anime, something "humorous" you shouldn’t take too seriously because haha, it's just an overprotective mother—but many fans do take it seriously, using it as the basis for a whole “Bakugo was abused and this explains his behavior” reading. Well, I take the “joke” of Bakugo’s threats and insults seriously, especially in a story that starts with something like telling Izuku to jump off the roof. In the same way that many fans want others to treat Bakugo’s mother as a serious topic that has had a negative influence on his development, I want the series to take Bakugo’s everyday actions seriously as a negative influence on… well, everyone around him. But it doesn’t. His base personality is grudgingly adored.

The above two points are seen most overtly in Izuku, who never wavers in his respect for Bakugo despite how Bakugo treats him. Not just prior to U.A., but during their training too. Izuku, as the protagonist, is the emotional heart of this tale, so when he talks about how inspiring Bakugo is, it encourages the reader to see his behavior as inspiring too. Rather than, as said, something that needs to change. Izuku's continued friendship with Bakugo, his adoration of him, and his acceptance of the way he's treated has severely warped how the entire story sees Bakugo's actions. After all, if #pure Izuku can see the good in Bakugo, why can't everyone else? He must not be that bad after all.

I could get into detailed analyses of all the above—like how Bakugo was the one comforted after attacking Izuku outside the dorms at night and how the messed up relationship he has with Izuku is upheld as something to nurture; how the remedial courses he had to take were made to be rather silly, thereby undermining their supposed importance to his development; how Bakugo’s kidnapping had nothing to do with his flaws, but much of the fandom uses it as a way to dismiss any appropriate consequences because, “Hasn’t he suffered enough?” etc.—but in the interest of keeping this within a readable length, I’ll leave it at that. The point is that Bakugo has always been privileged when it comes to his behavior, resulting in others either outright praising it, ignoring it, or demanding that he change a miniscule bit, which always keeps him far below the standards of both his peers and the expectations of a hero. Everyone in 1-A must learn to be even better than the good people they already are... Bakugo needs to learn that other people aren't dirt at the bottom of his shoes. It's never been a particularly impressive development when pit against the rest of the class. All of which can make something like an apology feel pretty hollow. Yes, he’s apologized and I say with all seriousness that that’s great! But how does that apology stack up against 300+ chapters of content? As Bakugo’s words highlight, he's been a really awful person up "until now": he was consumed by Izuku being “miles ahead of [him],” he “looked down on [him]” because he didn’t have a quirk, he “didn’t want to recognize that,” he “hated that,” “grew distant,” “tried to beat you down,” “opposed you and tried to show my superiority over you,” and ends it all with, “it probably doesn’t mean anything telling you all this” before finally getting to the “I’m sorry.” This is basically a laundry list of how horrible a person Bakugo has been for the entire series, with an acknowledgement that this apology is coming really, really late. This is the moment where I could START to like Bakugo, depending on how he acts form here on out, but that pivotal moment arrived after six years of content and in the final arc of the story. It’s too late. Bakugo needed this kind of self-reflection and positive action 250+ chapters ago so he could (hopefully) grow into a better person across the story, not at the story's end. What we got instead is 322 chapters of him being a really horrible person, but the story going out of its way to excuse or even praise that behavior the majority of the time.

As a quick comparison to end on, I think what Bakugo needed was what Soo Jin got in True Beauty. You don’t need to have seen the drama to follow along. The tl;dr is that she has a lot of the core qualities of Bakugo: an all-consuming drive to win that was created due to abusive parents with high expectations, resulting in her bullying a peer to a pretty horrific extent. The difference between them is how the story frames their actions. When Soo Jin becomes the bully she loses everything. Rather than succeeding academically, her grades plummet, making it clear that this anxiety and self-doubt (things the fandom keeps insisting Bakugo is struggling with, but that rarely ever show up in the text) is actually impacting her day-to-day life. Her best friend drops her because she’s not going to support her choices. The boy she likes rejects her. She’s eventually forced to start over somewhere new - which importantly separates her from the girl she was bullying - and get some distance from her parents, resulting in the growth needed to become a healthier, happier, good person again. So when Soo Jin apologizes to the girl she hurt, it feels earned. The story continually recognized how horrific her actions were and put her into a place where she either had to change, or continue losing at everything else that was important to her. Bakugo? Bakugo doesn’t lose. Oh, he claims he does because he’s comparing himself to Izuku constantly, but that’s just him thinking in extremes. He still wins academically. Still wins many battles. Still wins at having friends. Still wins by maintaining the prestige of being a U.A. student. Still wins by getting All Might’s attention. Still wins by receiving Izuku’s respect and an agreement to maintain this rivalry that Bakugo is so obsessed with. Bakugo comes out well 99% of the time, he just thinks he's "lost" because he can't stand not being the absolute best.

For me, the story needed to have Bakugo face consequences for his behavior, not receive rewards and/or have others ignore it, and that revelation/apology needed to come way, way sooner. For me the issue is not a specific action that Horikoshi can have Bakugo do in the next chapter and them bam, I like him now. The problem is Bakugo’s entire concept, how he’s received by the entire cast, and his run across this entire series. "Entire" is the key word there. Which is why the “But he’s apologized. What more do you antis want?” reactions don’t sit well. What we wanted is a better written redemption arc across those 300+ chapters, not a single scene that’s meant to have us forget all the other problems inherent in the story. At this point it’s a far more complicated situation than, “Bakugo just needs to do X, Y, and Z and then we’re golden.” At the end of the day, Horikoshi failed to make me like him as a person and I’m pretty sure he isn’t going to change Bakugo enough to make him likable to me. Bakugo was never the sort of character I’d be inclined towards without a serious, nuanced redemption arc, but sadly, a core, crucial part of that redemption arc took six years to arrive. At this point there’s no way to change the problems in Bakugo’s writing for that huge chunk of the series and not enough time left in the series, it seems, to do the work we should have seen across the entire run. Honestly, idk if the Bakugo we'll get going forward is someone I can just dislike as opposed to being really uncomfortable with, but my money is on there being too little story left and too much investment in upholding Bakugo's base personality for that to happen. I could absolutely be proven wrong! But I think the problems are structural and needed to be better dealt with from page one, not hastily patched over in the final hour.

#BNHA #My Hero Academia #anti bakugo

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linkspooky · 4 years

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TogaChako - Good Girl and Bad Girl

Toga Himiko and Uraraka Ochako embody the classic good girl slash bad girl dynamic. It’s a classic dynamic in which one girl will represent what is the traditionally held notions of what a “good girl is” ie/ pure, nice, friendly and the other girl will embody the opposite of that a “bad girl” impure, mean, slutty. Inevitably, these two girls will fight. However, the crux of the good girl bad girl dynamic is that while the girls are total opposites on the outside, inside they’re the same, cuz they’re both girls after all.

Uraraka and Toga are written to be compared, they’re character foils, because the conclusion we’re supposed to come to isn’t one of them is good, one of them is bad, one of them is selfless, one is selfsh. Rather, they’re written so we see it’s the difference in circumstances that made them who they were. Toga became bad because bad things happened to her. Uraraka is good, because she was born into a good life. What makes a bad girl bad and what makes a good girl good? More under the cut.

1. Good Girl

Describe Uraraka Ochako. She’s a normal girl. She’s spunky. She puts other people first. She became a hero to help her parents make money, and feels bad because her motivations aren’t as selfless as say her close friend Izuku Midoriya’s. (But that’s wrong because she literally is being selfless, her reason for becoming a hero has entirely to do with benefitting someone else and not herself). She’s supportive, and friendly. She’s always cheerful and never lets herself get too down.

Uraraka represents the standard of a good girl in hero society. She’s always ready to help her friends, but ultimately she’s kind of passive. She works hard but is not too ambiitous. She’s selfless and always thinks of other people before herself. She has all of these good qualities.

However, I would argue Uraraka is a lot more complex then this. On the surface she seems to be just a good, nice girl who wants to help others, but her internal mechanisms are complex. While yes I agree Uraraka doesn’t have much of an arc so far due to lack of focus, there’s a difference between not having an arc and not being a complex character.

A simple character - what you see is what you get. A complex character - Has internal mechanisms that show the surface isn’t as simple as you thought.

A simple arc - character moves through the plot without changing who they are. A complex arc - character struggles in a way that fores them to change.

Uraraka’s inner mechanisms are complex in that there’s more too her in what we see at the surface, it’s just she hasn’t been challenged in any way. The plot doesn’t address her flaw and try to force her to change.

With that in mind let’s get into Uraraka’s character. Uraraka is defined to her goodness. Uraraka pushes herself to always be good to others. The reason being is that Uraraka is a very sensitive girl who is attune to the feelings of other people.

Uraraka gets serious for just a second, and people remark that she doesn’t seem like her normal self.

Uraraka then immediately backs up and gets embarrassed. She goes out of her way to beat herself up and denigrate herself in front of others, insisting her motivations are much more selfish than people like Ida and Deku.

Uraraka then tells Deku and Iida that she’s not becoming a hero for her own sake, but for someone else’s. Her entire motivation is to help both of her parents live easier lives, because she feels like she’s been a burden on them and pursuing her own dreams would be too selfish.

Uraraka is very secretive of her own feelings. She’s almost afraid to come off as selfish which is why she doesn’t share what her real goal is. Also, when she starts to get a little motivated to accomplish something for herself, everybody around her remarks how different this is from the fun-loving Uraraka they all know. Also, one last detail Uraraka never even talks about herself, and her friends don’t really think to ask, because Uraraka just so naturally makes things about others and not herself.

It’s already been elaborated why the reason Uraraka grew so perceptive. Uraraka’s parents were struggling to make ends meet and she grew up in poverty, and even if she has good parents that try really hard not to let the effect of this struggle show in front of her, Uraraka saw it anyway because kids are always watching their parents.

Uraraka learned to be sensitive to her parents needs, to never demand too much for her parents, her behaviors all became centered around not becoming a burden to others.

Uraraka thinks it’s only natural to put others first and help others before helping herself. That other people’s happiness is more important than her own. Because she’s someone naturally empathic. Because she’s someone naturally able to see the pain and struggle other people go through, because she grew up seeing it. However, the problem with this behavior is it makes Uraraka essentially a support to everyone else.

Uraraka is constantly putting others up on a pedestal and using that as an excuse to lower herself further and further. As cute as her admiration for Deku is, it’s also a bit unhealthy - as she uses it as an excuse to beat herself up. She sees Deku as this amazing person, whose always struggling to help everyone, whose always saving everyone for completely selfless reasons and she always suffers in the comparison.

I think part of Uraraka wants to stand out like Deku does, and has the same desire to go all out to save people, but Uraraka is so used to being secondary in her own life she can’t bring herself to.

Uraraka can’t even cry in front of others. I think, the most telling behavior she has in the entire series is the moment where she breaks down on the phone describing everything she did wrong because this is how Uraraka sees herself. She’s so extremely critical of herself, and constantly apologizing for herself, while at the same time hiding what she really feels from others.

Uraraka has all these self esteem issues that she basically just shelves so she can play the good, nice girl, that gets along well and is friends with everyone.

Uraraka assigns the role of group placater and peacemaker for herself because it’s something she’s so naturally good at and she’s always thinking of others, but because of that, Uraraka herself suffers. Uraraka only knows how to help people by belittling herself and her own role in things.

Uraraka’s greatest fear is being selfish. She doesn’t want to look like a bad girl. That’s the connection between Toga and Uraraka, because what Uraraka is afraid of ultimately is living her life the way Toga does.

2. Bad Girl

Toga is everything that Uraraka is afraid of being, and lives the life that Uraraka is afraid of living. Uraraka is someone so afraid of being selfish, and getting distracted that she is not even allowed to have a crush on a boy. Whereas, Toga lives her life chasing what she loves. Everything Uraraka represses about herself, Toga expresses. That’s the difference between the two of them.

When Uraraka first encounters Toga, her willingness to chase what she loves looks from Uraraka’s perspective to be entirely monstrous. Uraraka sees Toga as a selfish monster, because in part she is afraid of appearing that way.

Toga Himiko the bad girl.

However that’s far from the whole picture of Toga. When we see her away from Uraraka’s perspective she’s entirely different. She’s someone empathic, capable of being kind to others, and thinking about others feelings.

Toga’s just as capable of reading other people and addressing their feelings as Uraraka is. However, there’s still a key difference in their behavior. Uraraka acts to avoid conflict. When she intervenes, what she usually does is act in a way that avoids stepping on toes, and touts the “we should all get along and be friends’ line. Whereas, Toga is someone who directly addresses the conflict and the hurt feelings of others.

For Uraraka the most important thing is getting along with others. For Toga the most important thing is being true to her own emotions. Which is why she’s able to directly address the problem with Twice, she didn’t tell him to bear with it, she told him she knew he was in pain but that the two of them could take down the mafia together.

Even Himiko’s most selfish monster moments aren’t really that monstrous. Himiko’s reason for stalking both Uraraka and Deku is not because she’s weird and creepy, but because she wants to be a normal kid just like them.

Himiko’s reason for sucking the blood of high school girls and taking on their appearances isn’t because she’s preadtory, it’s because she’s been a runaway with no home for two years and she’s terrified of getting caught.

Himiko who is framed as a selfish monster, is actually quite the normal girl. She’s a normal girl reacting to the pressures of the society around her. The kicker is that Himiko isn’t someone who just decided to flip and turn out this way, she is only the way she is because she tried to live like Uraraka did at first.

Himiko tried to push everything down and live like a normal girl. She tried to lie about herself so she’d be a good, nice, harmless girl. She only became so selfish, because she tried to live selflessly first. She only prioritizes herself, because she was used to putting herself down before this. We see her classmates react to her, they all describe Himiko was the kind of girl that Uraraka is right now.

However, behaviors in Uraraka that are self-defeating and unhealthy, are absolutely ruinous in Himiko. Himiko has no sense of self, because she spent so long trying to be what others wanted her to be. Himiko is who she is, in reaction to the pressures of everyone around her.

When Himiko tries to figure herself out, she always gets the same response. Why do you have be so selfish? Why can’t you just act normal? Which completely ignores the fact that she TRIED and that’s what got her here.

The main difference between Uraraka and Toga is not one of them being good, and the other being bad. Toga’s been through way harsher life circumstances. Uraraka has parents that affirm her identity, and Toga’s parents deny her over and over again.

The point of the good girl bad girl dynamic is that they’re both girls in the end. Yes, Uraraka’s never reacted as badly as Himiko has. However, Uraraka’s also never been pushed so far. In fact someone as empathic as Uraraka can be oblivious to the suffering of others.

Uraraka doesn’t see what Himiko is going through, because she hasn’t suffered the way Himiko has.

It’s like. When you have a good sibling and a bad sibling. The good sibling always behaves because they conform to the pressure their parents put on them. The bad sibling acts out in response to that pressure, and because of that their parents have to discipline them and they end up soaking up most of the parent’s attention. In that situation the good sibling can come to ressent the bad sibling for acting out and needing attention in the first place.

Reasonable child and unreasonable child. There exist these black and white categories to define children into where one looks good and one looks bad, that actually totally fail to address the child’s behavior because people are complex and therefore don’t fit into black and white categories. But, Uraraka is still working with that black and white logic when it comes to heroes and villains. Even though she’s usually so good at sussing out the complex nuance of other people’s feelings.

This is what’s happening here in this chapter. You can apply the dynamic between the two of them to the conflict at large. Toga is selfish for acting out and causing problems for others, because she wants her own personal grievances to be addressed. Uraraka is sefless because all she cares about right now is helping the most amount of people. Uraraka is willing to repress herself, and put others needs before her own, because what’s most important is everybody gets along.

However, Uraraka insinuates, the same way that Himiko’s parents once insinuated that Himiko’s acting out just makes her selfish.

We’ve seen this conflict before. Himiko literally went into the conflict to ask this question. Do problem children like her count as “everyone”. However, no matter what happens this arc, no matter what critcisisms the villains levvy against the heroes we get the same hollow repettition of “Heroes save everyone”. Which is why Himiko looks just about to snap here.

Uraraka who is used to brushing conflicts aside and avoiding them for the sake of “everyone gettling along” sees the girl who can’t get along with “everyone” and calls her selfish. To Himiko, this is the same words she’s been hearing her entire life. “Why are you making a fuss? Why can’t you just be normal.”

From one perspective, yes Uraraka is the one fighting seflessly because she’s just trying to save as many people as she can and Himiko is getting in the way of things. However, Himiko is someone who grasps the bigger picture. Himiko addresses the problem directly rather than sweeping it under the rug, there are people who aren’t saved by the hero system. Those people are just as in need of saving as what heroes deem to be innocent people. You can’t claim to save everyone and then ignore the suffering of people you deem as “bad”. Himiko seems like she’s acting selfishly, but then again she’s acting for the sake of people like Jin who died because heroes insisted that his life was less important.

Uraraka is at the same time very perceptive to the suffering of others, and also very oblivious, and it has much more to do with personal hangups than anything else. She doesn’t want to see Himiko as someone similiar to her, because Uraraka is someone so deathly afraid of coming off as selfish. To the point that she treats people with genuine grievances against society as selfish childrens making demands for atttention.

Uraraka is the one who can’t face herself, and therefore the answer she gives Himiko is to the effect of “Shut up and deal with it.” It’s a very personal thing for Uraraka once you realize that Uraraka has also been shutting herself up all this time, pushing herself down, always letting people walk all over. Uraraka is capable of putting herself aside for the sake of others, so as a result she sees people who can’t put themselves aside as selfish.

“I can do it, so why can’t you? Why can’t you be normal?”

I hammer down so hard on this point because there’s a difference between placating and conflict resolution.

Placating comes from a place of “I want the conflict to go away” or “I want the hurt feelings to go away.” Placating is just saying whatever you think the person you’re talking to wants to hear in order to please them. It’s behavior that’s based entirely around avoiding conflict. Uraraka placates, she sweeps it under the rug, she swallows her grievances for the point of everyone happily getting along together.

This placating also applies to the hero system at large. It’s not really designed to save everyone, so much as make the vast majority of people feel safe at the cost of the minority.

When there is a problem does Hero society directly address the issue? Or do they sweep it under the rug for the appearance of everyone getting along?

I think the fact that every time a villain brings up a problem this arc, the heroes just shout “Heros save everyone” and “Heroes never give up” is evidence of the latter. That’s why, when Uraraka says it, when Hawks says it, “Heroes save everyone” just comes off as hollow because in the very same breath they both make it clear that Toga and Twice are not part of the everyone who gets saved.

#himiko toga #uraraka ochako #mha meta #my hero academia meta #my hero academia #mha 288 #mha 288 spoilers #bnha 288 #bnha 288 spoilers #himiko #uraraka #ochaco #ochaco uraraka #toga himiko

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archies-litterbox · 3 years

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You know... tonight I'm thinking about how I and much of the rest of the fandom had alot of positive feelings about Wizards, even though it had its share of imperfections, in comparison to ROTT, which had such an overwhelmingly negative response.

And I think it's because much of the criticism of Wizards was centered around what we didn't get to see, while criticism of ROTT is largely centered around what we did see (and what we shouldn't have seen).

Two of the most popular criticisms I saw of wizards when it first came out were:

1.) The story was so tightly condensed that there was alot that didn't get to be explored.

2.) Zoe didn't get to have a larger role.

And I think both of these criticisms share one uniting sentiment: we wanted more. The audience loved what we did see, and we wanted to see more of it. We wanted more of Douxie's time in the spotlight/more of Camelot explored/more of The Pink-Haired Girl And What She Means to Douxie. It's INTERESTING and WE LIKE IT.

Since the show only had ten episodes, there was alot that had to be squeezed down/removed to fit in the time allowed, but Wizards spent the time it did have giving us amazing characters, compelling dynamics, and interesting lore expansion that the audience was ENTHRALLED by, to the point where much of the criticism of the installment comes down to: the audience was so intrigued/fascinated by this content that the fact that there isn't more sucks.

Now... cut to Rise of the Titans.

With its runtime of nearly two hours, it theoretically had the chance to do more of what Wizards, as great as it was, couldn't fit in: more of Douxie in the spotlight, expansion on his other relationships (like Zoe & ADP), compelling lore expansion, and smart utilization of characters & completion of character arcs for a satisfying ending.

And... it didn't deliver.

Firstly, let's get one of the big ones out of the way: it used a good ~10 minutes (?) of its runtime, which it could have used for doing something like 1.) a scene of characters who didn't get to interact much in the trilogy 2.) showing us why douxie and nari stopped running/them running at all 3.) my personal favorite, a scene of human jim coming home to his mom - and used it to give one of its side characters with the best character development I saw in the series... one of the grossest "comic relief" subplots I've seen in a long time. I would have rather Steve not been in the movie at all (like perhaps he heard arcadia was in danger and went to make sure his step-dad was okay) than seen that.

...Moving on.

What Douxie was able to do in the movie was good: he was VERY enjoyable to watch on-screen, and his big brother/baby sister dynamic with Nari was simply too precious.

But, like Wizards... it wasn't enough.

After finally getting his chance in the spotlight in the last installment, Douxie was sidelined and kept losing the people he loved left and right for what seemed to be for the mere sake of making him suffer (Nari dying as she killed Skrael/Archie getting stuck in the Hong Kong Trollmarket) when he'd already had to grieve Merlin in Wizards. He also doesn't use his most iconic item from Wizards: his spellcaster guitar. Sometimes, honestly, it seems like all he was there to do was 1.) suffer 2.) do spells (guitarlessly) to help people out and 3.) scream "NARI!"

(But Colin's voice acting DE👏LI👏VERED! Everyone's did, really. There were honestly alot of other aspects to the movie like voicework/animation/music that were really good and it sucks to see it dragged down by all the staggering missteps in writing.)

And arguably the worst aspect of that? His sidelining wasn't even unique to him; to me, every protagonist from the subsequent series' post-trollhunters seemed to be sidelined for the sake of Jim's spotlight.

Which wouldn't have been a problem... if it was used for any other confliction/crisis than him doubting being the trollhunter without the amulet, a question that was already answered in Trollhunters.

Aside from the fact that Jim felt strangely out of character, the whole ~confliction~ he had over being an amulet-less Trollhunter was redundant and felt unnecessary (I sort of wanted Merlin's ghost to show up and thwack him and say "WHAT DID I SAY!? WHAT DID I TELL YOU!?" and dip back out). In my opinion, a better confliction to explore would have been his connection to his humanity, which he'd just gotten back, or coping with what he'd done as a beast under the order's control. But instead, it badly recycled an old aspect of his arc that was already discussed in Unbecoming.

Besides Jim being what I never thought he'd be, an irritating and honestly sort-of unlikable protagonist, other characters were greatly underutilized as well.

...Especially Nomura.

First of all, they made the ridiculous decision to send two trolls with Douxie to Brazil in the daytime, knowing trolls TURN TO STONE IN THE SUN. But THEN, just for the sake of showing how deep Nari is under control, she pulls Nomura into the sunlight and shatters her when she gets petrified. It happens out of nowhere for complete & utter shock value.

To me, it seems like they brought in Nomura for the sake of having Nomura, and then they didn't know what to do with Nomura, so they killed Nomura.

And honestly, not knowing what to do with the characters and deciding to just nerf/kill them was this movie's whole thing.

But it's okay, because we have... the COP-OUT-ENDING-O-MATIC 3000! 🥳🎉

Oh, wait, sorry... the kronosfere.

[underwhelming party favor noise]

There's really no need to repeat myself on what it did - if you watched R*TT, my condolences you know what I'm talking about, and if you've read this far along, you're probably ticked about it too.

So, because of this little ball of SHAME AND BAD THINGS combined with Jim's edge-brood OOC-ness, not only did the movie give us underwhelming/unsatisfying/devastating-and-not-in-a-good-storytelling-way plotline and giving us so much that was... bad, it took away everything that was good - everything we loved. It was the second worst thing introduced in the story (the first is the entire garbage heap that is 7 kisses = MPreg (even though akiridions are projections from CORES)), and to be completely honest I WISH skrael and bellroc broke Nari and Douxie's spell before nari could say "kronosfere will make right"

(...AND the ninth configuration thing too tbh)

So... while Wizards spent the short time it had giving us something amazing, Rise of the Titans, instead of continuing to deliver on what Wizards couldn't fit in, squandered the potential it had as a finale and used its time to give us gross subplots/frustrating once decisions/underutilization, as well as to take everything else down with it at the very end with the Green Shame Orb.

And... yeah. Technically, it's not exactly two months post-ROTT anymore, because it's like 2 am on the 22nd, but I thought about this a lot felt compelled to share.

#mine #tales of arcadia #toa #rott #rise of the titans #toa wizards #wizards #enjoy my bang-energy fuelled rant lol im gonna go finish a fic

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hanascrisis · 3 years

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A REVIEW: Fake Slackers (Mu Gua Huang)

I. GENERAL OVERVIEW

LENGTH: 112 Chapters and 3 Extras

GENRE: (BL) Slice of Life, High School Romance

MAIN COUPLE: He Zhao and Xie Yu

BRIEF SUMMARY: Xie Yu, a repressed genius playing dumb in school (2nd last place) and kicking ass otherwise, becomes desk mates with another famed rebel He Yu, who has grades that are dead last in ranking. The two navigate high school in an elaborate game of imposter, fooling their peers, their teachers, and each other, only to develop a romantic relationship through their solidarity.

LINK: https://fake-slackers.carrd.co/

II. CATEGORICAL RANKING & BREAKDOWN

I read this novel fairly recently, after reading multiple with historical settings, including the famed Dumb Husky and his White Cat Shizun (2ha), so this was definitely a breath of fresh air. The novel itself reads like a slice of life story set in high school, with small snippets of life and no “proper plot with an end goal”. The only real development throughout the book is that of the relationship between He Zhao and Xie Yu, their ever evolving closeness with their classmates, and He Zhao/Xie Yu’s ongoing battle to keep their secret identity as geniuses from everyone around them. Because of this, the book is quite “nostalgic” and reminiscent of what its like living life in high school and falling in love over the accumulation of small gestures and connections. While I ended up laughing my ass off over some parts, overall, reading the book made me feel how listening to “Mystery of Love” Sufjan Stevens makes me feel, which is probably the best way to describe it.

1. CHARACTERIZATION ~ Rated 10/10

I greatly adore the characterization of every character in the book, from the teachers, the ridiculous classmates, Xie Yu’s “found family” in Black Water Street, to the two main characters themselves. The characters in the book all have their own distinct personalities and motivations that might otherwise clash, but all the relationships in the book demonstrate how they can fit together rather harmoniously due to circumstance. By the end, the friend group He Zhao and Xie Yu created included people who usually would have no relation to each other, but their bond was built over the years they had spent “suffering” through thick and thin together within the four walls that was their classroom. You could really label their friendships as “unlikely” ones, but the author really displays how meaningful each of these interactions between the characters are, especially during times of adversity where one or more are struggling. Its really sweet and heartwarming to read.

With the two main characters, both are characterized at the beginning to be “rebels” who behave badly, with low grades and picking fights every other day. They both garnered a reputation within the school as two rivals who rule their respected “half of the territory”, intimidating all students and frankly becoming inapproachable. But being in the same class together as deskmates, on the contrary to everyone’s preconceived notions, they get along extremely well. This leads the people around them to see both of them in a different light, and befriend them as two classmates who are subject to the exact same school related struggles. The dynamic between the two characters and the development in their relationship just feels so natural and smooth, with small gestures building up to a very straightforward, non-chalant confession, to then dating. Its quite nice and mellow, in comparison to a lot more grandiose and overdramatic confessions and love stories we see commonly in the romance genre. Its also quite refreshing to see two people who are both shameless in their affection, not easily flustered. Their relationship is sweet, in the way that warm water with lemon and honey is sweet; gentle and warm, but not tooth-rotting.

2. WORLD BUILDING ~ Rated 9/10

Because it is a slice of life, there is not really the necessity for there to be intricate world building like in the case of any xianxia genre novel. However, in terms of the ability for the author to create a world in which has a bidirectional relationship of influence with the main characters, the author does this very well. The author is able to create a clear juxtaposition between Xie Yu’s previous life in the poorer Black Water district, and his life as the second son of a wealthy business man, and how his environment ultimately plays into his relationships, characterization, and some of the major decisions he makes such as hiding his true abilities. Because of this type of juxtaposition, the book is also able to touch on more heavy, “angsty” themes, such as classism and the portrayal of people divided between classes, as can be seen from the relationship between Xie Yu’s mom and the people from Black Water Street who were with her when her and Xie Yu were hiding from debt. While the themes prevalent tend to be more serious, the author maintains a balance and still adheres to the bright and warm “slice of life” style, making the book really easy to follow, and frankly quite relaxing to read.

3. PLOT DEVELOPMENT ~ Rated 8/10

The direction the story takes is fairly obvious from the first few arcs of the book, which generally makes the plot development quite predictable, but this is NOT A BAD THING. While I knew what was going to happen anyway, the suspense and tension created prior to the “big reveal” was done so well I was basically screaming and laughing for those 6 or so chapters. It made me giggle, and also slam my fist into the table. I loved the interesting concept and how their two lives were able to intertwine by a shared secret common to both of them. The game of “cat and mouse” as they attempted to fool each other and everyone around them that they were indeed the two worst students personally gave me a death note-esque vibe, without the unnecessary drama and a more mundane goal. Hence, I found the plot EXTREMELY ENJOYABLE to say the least. The book was more comedic situationally, but it was definitely the type of book that makes your face hurt from smiling too much.

III. FINAL THOUGHTS

RECOMMENDATION: I DEFINITELY recommended this book, especially to people who are looking for an enjoyable, sweet slice of life book with a high school romance. One of the “selling points” of this book, if you will is how the arrogant and flamboyant + aloof and distant combination of high school boys falling in love feels so natural, as if they are really just two people who get along really well as best friends, with the added depth of intimacy. It feels “normal”, like a partnership that is just deepened over time, and I love it very much. Reading this book both filled my heart and also left a gaping hole in it (out of jealously because me, when?). I do really recommend this book if you are looking for one with limited angst, filled with nostalgia and subtle, slow burn, high school love.

#danmei #sliceoflife #bookreview #highschoolromance #highschool #fakeslackers #fake slackers #muguahuang #hanashonestreviews #BLbookreview #book review

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riddlecrux · 3 years

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Light seen through the windows: an analysis of windows as a literary tool in Elriel relationship

I would love to preface this meta with my favorite disclaimer that everything that I will be discussing is based on what I have gathered from SJM writing. The quotes used in this post will serve as a starting point for further analysis. Additionally, I will be using things such as symbolism, metaphors, and literary device methods to build up my reasoning and beliefs. On another note, this, as usual, is strictly pro-Elriel meta. If they are not your cup of tea and you wish to comment, please be civil and bring arguments supported by the text.

So many of us like to gaze and stare through the windows daily. Looking at the world behind the glass often is considered a form of tranquility that we feel. Windows are essentially doors that lead us to whatever lies behind them - the last border between being in one place and then in another. It isn't then surprising that windows serve as symbols and metaphors in literature. From the start, whenever I read a passage about windows in ACOWAR I was reminded of Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. You may ask why?

Emily Bronte used windows as symbolism in her work. They are very important for her characters and their personal arcs. They are symbols of barriers, misfortunes that characters face. Windows there are metaphors of various obstacles estranging Bronte's characters from achieving their hopes - realizing that the dreams they had will be not fulfilled. As I don't want to get spoilery with Wuthering Heights, I'm going to draw conclusions in a very neat manner. Bronte used windows as a connection to nightmares that one of the main characters was suffering from - it ties to the fact that in his nightmares he sees the person he had loved, haunting him. Because of the relationship with a said woman, the imagery of windows in this particular scene symbolizes death, an obstacle that stands between both of them. Throughout the book, we also get glimpses of how windows might be used as a metaphor for social classes and the contrast between them, and how Heathcliff and Catherine have to go about it. Along with the windows, doors are also used as a symbol of trapping someone in one place, obstructing them from achieving their dream or preventing them from reaching out to their loved one. Not to mention that during a very particular scene with Catherine, she wants the windows open - a symbolism of her wanting to feel free, to connect with something she knows, she longs for. This leads to the conclusion that windows in Bronte's novel are symbols of life and death, they are the in-between - a symbolic barrier.

On the other hand, windows in literature signalize something called "art of watching", and usually it is connected to a female protagonist that observes life, events through the window. Not to mention, the most famous association to windows such as "windows to the soul" - which, of course, is more metaphorical. It allows us, the audience, to connect with the character's inner feelings, struggles, as we are presented with the emotional aspect of said person. They are the bridge between the inside and outside. Windows are also a source of light, which we humans crave. Looking through the window one can absorb the light, which can resonate as a symbol of growth and change. Metaphorically we see the light from the window when we feel a need to light up the darkness inside us. They expose us, our inner feelings, and struggles.

When I read ACOWAR I have noticed that SJM decided to use windows, quite clearly, in the indication of two particular characters. Azriel and Elain. For the first time, when we met Elain again in the third book the window is a big issue.

"The suite was filled with sunlight. Every curtain shoved back as far as it could go, to let in as much sun as possible."

We have a clear description of the sunlit room, curtains shoved to further underline the need for light.

"And seated in a small chair before the sunniest of the windows, her back to us, was Elain."

In the brightest place in the room sits Elain, in front of the window. She is exposed to the sun, to sunlight and is absorbing that light - which is highlighted during this scene (which makes it important to note).

"Her skin was so pale it looked like fresh snow in the harsh light. I realized then that the color of death, of sorrow, was white."

The sunlight exposes Elain, its harsh light makes her pale, almost translucent. Even Feyre realizes the graveness of this picture comparing this white hue to death. As you can see the chain of events in this scene played like that: sunlit room -> curtain swept away -> Elain sitting in front of the window -> sudden comparison to death.

"She had been always so full of light. Perhaps that was why she now kept all the curtains open. To fill the void that existed where all of that light had once been. And now nothing remained."

Feyre deducts that the need for light on Elain's part is a desperate call to brighten the darkness inside her - which perfectly aligns with the metaphorical usage of windows. Elain basks in light in a helpless cry for help. The very dark void that appeared within her after being Made eats her away. It sucks her immortal life away - the one which she yet didn't get used to. On the other hand, we as readers are presented with the fact that Elain is trapped. In this Fae life, in this room, in this situation in which she grieves for her past and many what-ifs.

Nothing. Not even a flicker of emotion. “Everyone keeps saying that.” Her thumb brushed the ring on her finger. “But it doesn’t fix anything, does it?”

Sitting in front of the window - a sunny one to be precise, which symbolizes life, growth, and change, Elain is presented in a contrast to her surroundings. To show that visible barrier that her person has to overcome. She realizes that her dreams are meant to be unfulfilled, that they are unreachable.

"My stiff, limping steps, at least, had eased into a smoother gait by the time I found Elain in the family library. Still staring at the window, but she was out of her room."

The next time we see Elain she is out of her room - her "cage", but even though she left the boundaries of her entrapment she still chooses to linger around the windows. As Feyre notices, Elain gazes through the window - we are obstructed from Elain's POV and it's hard to imagine what she could be thinking about. Yet the symbolic manner of using the window as some sort of mirror, a passage that happens throughout the series, allows me to think that the metaphorical usage of windows, in this case, isn't a far-fetched idea.

"Elain didn’t turn. She was wearing a pale pink gown that did little to complement her sallow skin, her brown-gold hair hanging in loose, heavy ringlets down her thin back."

SJM uses this sentence to highlight that it isn't just a quick glance out of the window - in fact, it is constant staring through it. It is important for us as readers to note that this thing, window gazing, is an occupation that lasts for long periods of time. It isn't something trivial, it is something that showcases the importance of said windows in Elain's journey.

“What are you looking at?” I asked Elain, keeping my voice soft. Casual. Her face was wan, her lips bloodless. But they moved—barely—as she said, “I can see so very far now. All the way to the sea.”

Feyre decides to ask Elain who is still gazing through the window. Her answer is very ominous and holds a great deal of importance, but also underlines the fact that she is drawn to the window. Not to mention that what she is seeing is the sea - another vastly discussed symbol. In this situation, I believe that the interpretation can lay in a more psychological aspect of the matter rather than a literary one. In the works of very well-known psychiatrist Carl Jung the sea "symbolizes the personal and the collective unconscious in dream interpretation". So from his notes there comes this annotation that caught my attention, "The sea is a favourite place for the birth of visions."

Elain is a seer who constantly gazes through a window which symbolizes the in-between, life and death. These two are connected to one another and SJM used many things to further develop Elain's character as a powerful figure.

"Elain only turned toward the sunny windows again, the light dancing in her hair."

After the whole conversation Elain doesn't move from her spot, quite the contrary she returns to her previous activity. Gazing through the window. Once again we are reminded about the sun and light - which signalizes that Elain tries to undergo through the process of rebirth, but also tries to break free from the unhappiness that came with lost dreams.

"Something in my chest cracked as Nesta’s eyes also went to the windows before Elain. To check, as I did, for whether they could be easily opened."

Here we have an instance of both sisters realizing that Elain spending so much time in front of windows can be dangerous, as in her attempting to jump from them. Once again, the symbolism of death.

"More steps—no doubt closer to where Elain stood at the window."

Elain is still beside the window when Lucien tries to talk to her. Even alone she seeks the place next to the window to stare.

"But sunlight on gold caught his eye—and Elain slowly turned from her vigil at the window."

Elain is still by the window, for the whole scene she is there not moving an inch from it. Furthermore, the word "vigil" is also an interesting choice. There are different meanings of it, but I find these ones very telling and suitable for this instance: a period of sleeplessness; insomnia, a watch kept, or the period of this and a devotional watching, or keeping awake, during the customary hours of sleep. We can speculate about what happened to Elain while she was in the Cauldron, what made her so withdrawn from life and so desperate for the light. I want to believe that we as readers will get our answers in the next book since Elain being a seer with unknown powers makes her a perfect target for Koschei with which she has already had connections.

She looked away—toward the windows. “I can hear your heart,” she said quietly.

Again, during the whole conversation, she doesn't move away from her spot next to the window. Windows for her, start to become a symbolism of change and rebirth - the things she probably wished while being confined to her room.

Elain only stared out the window, unaware—or uncaring.

We have another mention about staring - which further highlights how important windows are as a literary tool for Elain's character. She seeks light, she wants to overcome this barrier that was thrown at her the moment she was Made. She, perhaps, watched through the window to observe the life which was stripped away from her and turned her into this immortal being. Or, maybe she just desperately wanted to brighten up the darkness that gathered inside her because of that whole situation. Another important thing to note is that this scene is a first moment alone with Lucien - her mate, which should have been very painful for her. The conversation also held a lot of weight, yet she valiantly stood by the window as if somewhere behind it she could find an answer.

“So it can’t be a perfect system of matching. What if”—I jerked my chin toward the window, to my sister and the shadowsinger in the garden —“that is what she needs? Is there no free will? What if Lucien wishes the union but she doesn’t?”

Here we have an instance of "art of watching" in which Feyre observes Azriel and Elain through the window. By watching them she comes to the conclusion that both of them are better suited and actually can comfort each other in comfortable silence. The window here is used as a barrier to showcase parallels of two couples: happily mated Feysand and unhappily in love with other people Elriel.

"But I looked to Azriel, currently leaning against the wall beside the floor-to-ceiling window, shadows fluttering around him."

And here we are start with Azriel and windows (also in ACOWAR). He is another character that has an extraordinary connection to windows. He is often mentioned next to them and somehow parallels Elain's behavior - staring through windows, being near them.

"I blinked, realizing I’d been lost in the bond, but found Azriel still by the window, (...)."

As we can see Azriel lingers next to the window without moving away from it - as the scene progresses we know that the conversation lasts a good ounce of time, yet Azriel stands in his place by the window.

"Azriel didn’t so much as turn from his vigil at the window, though I could have sworn his wings tucked in a bit tighter."

The same wording, the same imagery. Both used for Elain and Azriel. Both of them keeping vigils at the windows, staring through them as if they could find an answer through them.

"The main room of the guardhouse was stuffy and cramped, more so with all of us in there, and though I offered Elain a seat by the sealed window, she remained standing—at the front of our company. Staring at the shut iron door."

This scene is when Elain is about to confront her lover - Greysen. It is underlined that she rejected her usual spot, which is by the window, and preferred to face the door. She was trapped, she knew that a very important discussion will take a place here. She chose to look at the door rather than at the window, which in this matter could symbolize hope for a change - she stared at the door which metaphorically means transition or imprisonment.

"(...) close to Elain’s side as she and my sister silently kept against the wall by the intact bay of windows."

Another instance of Elain and her being content with being next to the windows.

"I’d seen Elain staring out the window earlier—watching Graysen leave with his men without so much as a look back at her."

"Art of Watching", but also the window's symbolism of dreams that were unfulfilled. At that moment, we can assume, that Elain realized that her dreams concerning human life and her future with Greysen would only be unattainable dreams/hopes.

“What now?” Elain mused, at last answering my question from moments ago as her attention drifted to the windows facing the sunny street. That smile grew, bright enough that it lit up even Azriel’s shadows across the room. “I would like to build a garden,” she declared. “After all of this … I think the world needs more gardens.

At the end of ACOWAR, we have this powerful moment, in which Elain gazing out of the window sees sunny streets = life. A chance of rebirth, which also beautifully overlaps with the fact that she proposed building a garden! The in-between that she balanced on while gazing through the window for so many times turned from death and misfortunes into life and hopes of the future.

ACOFAS

"Elain politely refused, taking up a spot in one of the wooden chairs set in the bay of windows. Also typical."

From Rhysand's point of view, we can deduct that even they are aware of the fact that Elain and windows are something notable. It is a place where she feels comfortable and probably spends a lot of time.

"Beyond the windows, darkness had indeed fallen. The longest night of the year. I found Elain studying it, beautiful in her amethyst-colored gown. I made to move toward her, but someone beat me to it."

In previous quotes, we could gather information about how Elain craved the light and how desperate she was to lighten up her person. Here, we can see that she also started to embrace the darkness. She is again by the window, observing the darkness as if no one else was around her. And of course, the one person who goes towards her at that moment is Azriel, a personification of darkness in the books.

Azriel strode to the lone window at the end of the room and peered into the garden below. “I’ve never stayed in this room.” His midnight voice filled the space.

Azriel went straight to the window. And not an ordinary one, but the one through which you can see the garden. Life and light. I know many were theorizing if what kept Azriel so occupied by the window was Elain, but I would love to put some of my thoughts in this discourse. Yes, I do think that what caught his attention, or who caught his attention was Elain. However, Elain at that moment represents life and light - the things that are associated with windows. And if you spin it around you have Azriel=darkness, death staring at Elain=light, life. The in-between, the very initial symbolism of window in literature. Not to mention that in this scene we have Azriel watching the light and next we have Elain observing darkness.

“No,” Azriel said, not turning from the window.

Azriel remained at the window. “Will Nesta stay here if she comes?

“I’d still be surprised if they remember once the storm clears,” Azriel said, turning from the garden window at last.

We have a whole scene in which it is so heavily implied that Azriel was constantly staring through the window, not even bothering to move away from it. We also have another highlighted thing which is the fact that it was a garden window.

There was a tiny box left on the table by the window—a box that Mor lifted, squinted at the name tag, and said, “Az, this one’s for you.”

A small thing, yet a very sweet one. The fact that even his present was placed close to the window, which starts to become an Elriel thing.

ACOSF

"She’d barely slept for fear of Elain walking off this veranda, or leaning too far out of one of the countless windows, or simply throwing herself down those ten thousand stairs."

We have a reminder that during her stay at House of Wind, Elain was a symbol of death. She carried it on her while being associated with windows that were used as a source of light that helped her heal.

"Elain stood at the wall of windows, clad in a lilac gown whose close-fitting bodice showed how well her sister had filled out since those initial days in the Night Court."

Even when she visits Nesta, she takes the place by the windows. It is something that is strictly connected to her. As if the windows were part of her now.

Elain’s smile was as bright as the setting sun beyond the windows. “I thought I’d drop by to see how you were doing.”

Light, sun, life = Elain.

“You’ve got good coloring, I mean,” Elain clarified, striding from the windows to cross the room. She stopped a few feet away. As if holding herself back from the embrace she might have given.

SJM still used the passages to underline the passage of time that Elain spent standing next to the window. It is a place in which she feels good and perhaps safe.

"They’d sat in them, before this fire, so many times that it was an unspoken rule that Azriel’s was the one on the left, closer to the window, and Cassian’s the one to the right, closer to the door."

We also get the information that Azriel always was the closest to the window - which is an odd thing to add without a deeper meaning. As if to further build up that connection between him and Elain - that both of them are aware of the fact that they are also the symbolism of the allegory of windows. I believe that SJM really researched that light and darkness trope, with which she built and she is still building up Elriel. The windows are just another tiny nugget that further envelopes both of them as one. Because while Elain transformed from death to life, she still welcomed darkness and embraced it - and Azriel opened to the life and light, seeking it. As I said, windows are a literary tool, which perhaps wasn't the main idea in the SJM text, but the amount of parallels between both of them and even the same wording applied to different scenes tells me that it's yet another connection between them.

#elriel #pro elriel #elriel meta #azriel x elain #elain and azriel #pro elain #pro azriel

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