#dont you want to examine them and their parallels and the way they are both so strange about relationships but they're finding a way to car | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mishapen-dear · 6 months

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thinking about 4halo again and dying

they just. they used to be so sweet together. and then the election arc managed to genuinely turn them against each other (and bad is still affected by being caged in the museum) and i would NOT have been surprised if a rebellion had started within the next few weeks after their last fight and. they used to be friends and then they almost destroyed each other

and then the eggs went missing

and there are so many parallels between them, but one of the biggest parallels is how they're both protectors. they both protected the eggs (and, when he became president, forever extended that protection to the other islanders) but the eggs went missing and they had to put all of that aside. Forever was quicker to put it down than Bad was (it felt like only a very temporary truce, from Bad's end), but they put their problems on hold, because their eggs. were gone.

and another parallel. the destruction. both of them with their plans to cause ruin because then, maybe, theyll get their kids back. bad caused most of the grieving arc damage directly, and got aypierre and antoine to help him. he dug holes in the ground. he placed mines everywhere and leapt into them. he started the lavacasting process of the fed building (and was interrupted by admins, so he stopped, but philza and fit were still right to laugh at him lmaoo). he drilled a hole through the side of the federation office from a huge distance away. he has chosen to hurt his friends and himself to get the eggs back. whatever the cost.

forever destroyed the island. or he planned to destroy the island. or he was interrupted just before he destroyed the island or or or. I don't know. but it was big, and it was bad. bad enough that the feds had to step in and forcefully drug him, and kickstart the happy pills arc.

and the happy pills arc..... oughghghgh as fucking awful as it was for their characters to experience i genuinely truly think that it saved them from each other. when he was first told about forever being fucked up bad was still in the "i need to kick his butt" mindset, and was all ready for an excuse to kill forever. and then he saw forever. and the first proposal happened. and bad was angry and he was sad and upset and he was careful. forever tried to kill him. bad decided to save him. forever kept trying to marry him. forever kept taking the pills. forever was so scared of his own anger and all of the damage he could and would have caused to his family that he kept taking drugs that kept him so out of his mind he hallucinated his son was just sleeping safely at his house.

and they both tried to kill each other. and they both failed.

and bad showed phil and cellbit (and tubbo) the item scanner that dapper discovered, which could destroy him, because nothing else was working. because they needed to save forever. because bad was reminded by then that forever was a victim of the federation instead of just a mouthpiece for it. and then when forever woke up he saw bad, suffering, and so excited to see him awake.

and now they're here on opposite sides again with forever projecting his protection urges onto the fed worker in bad's basement and bad frustrated that he isn't being believed and his evil plans of giving ron lemons apology brownies is being interrupted and. look at them. soft "i hate you" and the appreciation room and bad's quiet heartbreak when he learned about forever being missing and the "i miss you" book bad got mad at because it asked him not to torture fed workers. does anyone hear me im so ill about them. do you understand they care about each other so much and the happy pills arc reminded them of that. forever realized bad is colourblind and bad assumed forever was poisoning him and then forever helped bad cheat on another colourblindness test and forever was giving bad flowers and bad was accepting them and accepted that he was colourblind despite his previously constant denial and! i don't know if im being comprehensible and i dont really care i will be honest i just need you to know i am frothing at the mouth like a rabid little beast. they are a TRAGEDY of miscommunication and external pressure but they love so so much. platonic or romantic or qpp they CARE and it tears me to shreds

#qsmp #4halo #i feel like ive talked about this exact thing like three separate times but #its one of those things that really Kills Me #and its CRUCIAL to understanding them and their relationship #they were fighting and now have found peace in hell #and forever using his care for bad as a distraction to not focus on his Own woes #and the way he's so sure bad needs help the way he was helped that at heart bad is a good person who doesnt want to be hurting people #and in a Way he's right. bad doesn't want to hurt his loved ones. everyone else? yeah. in a heartbeat. but his family...#but he's still makign the choice to do it. it's not lashign out in desperation the way forever destroying the island was #bad is hurting people with Purpose. he's putting thought into it. he's testing people and their knowledge and their motivations and he will #use them all as tools that can be bent and broken if it means they get the eggs back. he'll do it to himself too #especially to himself #ghhhgrhrgh the way theyre both self sacrificial and self destructive the Parallels the fucking parallels #i can best examine their relationship from a bbh pov and it agonizes me because i can't get all the nuance of forever's pov #because i dont speak portuguese yet :c #so best i can do is talk crazy about them like a Lure for other analyst shippers #pspspssps dont you see my ship. dont you see how canon 4halo is !!! in 8 acts #dont you want to examine them and their parallels and the way they are both so strange about relationships but they're finding a way to car #in a way that works for them #pspspsps #like me talking about qbbh vacation arc got the fandom acknowledging his sillies and directly got me a friend to talk about him to (hi kia!#maybe it will work here also #come to the dark side we have complex relationship dynamics that are frequently misunderstood and mislabelled #YOU can help change the world

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slenderverse · 10 months

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love to see the watchmen stuff coming from you. i was working at the comic shop when doomsday clock and rorschach was coming out so i remember it pretty well :~) rorschach is my favorite character even though he's terrible. in every way. i kind of love him for it while dr manhattan is the worst guy ever. what are your thoughts

in a joking manner here r my thoughts:

in all seriousness my favorite characters r probably laurie, dan and rorschach :) i want to pin adrian to a corkboard like a moth and study him. adrian himself isnt an interesting character (or atleast as interesting as the others) but lord his dynamics w others need to be put on trial i think there's so much shown potential there. comedian is interesting and manhattan is too i jut also hate them both w a burning passion. obviously both of them are insane parallels abt the lost of humanity due to trauma that is treated as the norm or seen as simply just "as things are" (u ever think abt how comedian was 16 when he joined the minutemen? the same age laurie was when she joined the crimebusters?)

love what happened w laurie in the hbo series. love the rorschach comics. complex emotions abt the movie its both insanely accurate yet also makes me wanna rip my hair out bc there are some choices there that are absolutely insane??? are you fucking kidding me???? WHY. WHY DID U DO THAT TO MANHATTAN AND LAURIE'S ARC. HATE IT HERE.

before watchmen is good. most of it is shit but what is good is amazing. i love the minutemen i love the lore established there. obviously we can't talk abt watchmen adaptations without acknowledging how DC fucked over alan moore and dave gibbons but like. i am happy to get more content that i get to pull apart and examine because lord knows we're never getting the same type of content other DC franchises get.

THE VIDEO GAME IS SO WEIRD THE FIRST CHAPTER OF IT IS FASCINATING. I LOVE IT. THE SECOND CHAPTER IS BULLSHIT. UGH.

if prompted i could give personal reviews abt everything that ive read/consumed w watchmen. like detailed reviews. i think abt it constantly.

i actually have a watchmen oc/self insert bc thats how i consume media his name is jeremiah and he is. well! he sure is.

i dont like how most of the fandom writes dan and rorschach as a romantic relationship. not because i don't think there's something insanely homoerotic going on i just don't think they're able to be a functional couple. they've never gotten married but have divorced 20 times and 18 of those were rorschach's fault. i think there's a lot of untouched dynamics going on w adrian and comedian but i think that's just the watchmen that's in my head.

AND UHHH if i were to ever be in charge or have influence in a watchmen series i think we need something that focuses on the time when crimebusters first formed up until the keenes act. i realize that's been touched on in the comic but i found a lot of before watchmen rlly neglected that. i want more detail on backstory. my friend says that dev patel would play a great dan and honestly i think we should see where that goes. need more dan media. idc if he's "boring". he's my favorite war criminal.

#answers #brakshow #watchmen #dooo not think u meant or expected this much detail #and even then im kinda holding myself back from going into insane detail #watchmen is one of those media that i rotate in my mind Constantly but am in a stalemate where i dont have ppl to talk abt it with #so it just sits there and explodes #long post

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probably-haven · 3 years

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Hello!! After seeing what you wrote about xiaoven fics I went to see what things you usually write and omg, your archon Venti headcanons????? I am absolutely in love. So if it isn't annoying, could you talk about xiaoven or Venti or Xiao or whatever ship or character you like? I don't care what you are going to say, I just want to know more about your thoughts ^^

I- is this... bestie, this is essentially a free ramble pass- kerujsgheskdfug. Trust me when I say that in no way is this, and in no way will it ever be annoying in the slightest- i literally- lets just say rambling off thoughts is kind of my specialty, especially when provided a topic to branch off of because otherwise I'm just- really indecisive about it so- iujskdh yeah- 100% definitely down to talk about Venti, Xiao, and/or Xiaoven XD. Also, yes- it may have been awhile since i last posted one(cuz again, indecisive about which direction to take part 5), but the Archon War Era Venti headcanons are still without a doubt my favorite posts I've made. It's just such an interesting topic with such endless potential that so few people actually think about or consider or even realize is there, so i always just get really psyched whenever i see someone interact with them lol.

.... this ended up being a bit of a mess: warning in advance

Anyway! onto the actual content!

- You see the thing about Xiaoven is that there's a lot of different ways that it could end up working out, and just personally my favorite way of portraying Xiaoven in my mind is as an unlabeled relationship because if anyone in genshin would give off that vibe its these two. And a number of other reasons.

- Firstly, I heavily headcanon Venti as being an aroace polyplatonic or perhaps heavily demiromantic. However, regardless of this I just don't think that Venti is really the kind of person to worry about how he should label his feelings, thinking it's silly to try to put them in one box or the other, especially with feelings and emotions being as fluid as they are in general. Plus it fits his whole God of Freedom vibe. I just- dont think he's the biggest fan of labels or social categorization in general.

- And secondly on the hand of Xiao... his defense mechanisms are very much ingrained in his personality. It's probably hard enough for him to not go into fight or flight(the answer is fight) at the slightest affection at first, at the slightest feeling of vulnerability. Even further down the line, with his fierce dedication to Liyue, I cant help but get the vibe that the moment he recognized that he was falling for Venti he would begin avoiding him, not only to avoid distraction from his duty, but to avoid corrupting him or losing him in general like he has with like basically every other person he gets close with(even believing that the cycle had repeated once more when he first heard of Morax's death)... now imagine Venti tryna slap a label on their relationship and tell me Xiao would have a positive reaction.

- The thing with Xiaoven.... honestly, i feel like theres more ways that it can go wrong than it can go right, but if they do manage to make their relationship work out, it's just simply beautiful in all terms of the word.

- Lets talk about killing. - During the Archon War, both were forced to kill a large number of people and gods alike- Venti out of a need to remain alive to protect Mondstadt, it's freedom, and the nameless bard's legacy by extent- and Xiao out of servitude to the god that was once his master

..... actually- break here- ive talked a lot about Venti on this blog but I havent actually spoken about Xiao all that much- so i should probably do that a bit first... do note though that my characterization of Xiao is pretty flexible actually- this is just- the possible characterization of him that i tend to favor as being the most- uh- "realistically complex"

Theres a line I saw this one time in a certain story: "He is a trained weapon. That's what he is, was, and always will be. You cannot change that so stop trying." And i just- think its a really interesting concept- that applies pretty well to Xiao now that i actually think about it. - the concept behind it is this: After spending more than a vast majority of his life killing or otherwise in battle, it's become a part of who he is, a normalcy that after centuries and centuries would be near impossible to get rid of or reverse, and even if it was possible, with his karmic debt constantly eating away at him its unlikely he has enough time left for that to happen. - it sounds like a cruel thing to say about him- but in context it's actually pretty layered and i think about it a lot. It's not as much a "he's a killer lol, that his whole personality" its more of a "The centuries of trauma he experienced have conditioned him into a constantly alert and battle ready mindset while also shaping his dehumanizing inferior-in-worth-but-superior-in-capability view of himself that would have likely been necessary to get through those time, and at this point he's been under that conditioning for long enough that it's essentially ingrained itself in his personality."

- the main idea is- it's a part of who he is, that needs to be accepted as who he is because its not something that he can just up and change. It's not all he is of course but his constant battle mode, as though always waiting to be ambushed or to be granted a new target to eradicate.

a couple character story quotes:

-"His past of service under the evil god had rid Xiao of his innocence and gentleness. All that remained within him was the means to kill and the weight of his sins. The only way he could be of service to mortals was in combat." -"Xiao does not feel any hatred. Having lived for over two thousand years, no single karmic debt constitutes anything more than a fleeting memory. No grudge can last a thousand years; nor is any debt so great that it cannot be paid off in this time. Xiao has spent many long years alone. But his battles have never been in vain." -"where did Xiao have to return to? He was merely leaving the battlefield." -"since Xiao wages a constant war against dark forces powerful enough to devour Liyue in its entirety, any bystanders who witness him in the heat of battle are likely to end up as collateral damage." -"The war he fights can never be won, and will never come to an end." -"Because ultimately, the one with whom Xiao wrestles is himself."

i feel like at some point this very nearly did consume his whole personality, almost turning him into nothing more than a being of slaughter under Morax's control, devoid of any "humanity" at all, consumed and corrupted by his karmic debt like his fellow yakshas before him. - until he experienced a moment of clarity- a song in the wind, the peaceful melody of a dihua flute. - and pulled back from the border of something he wouldnt have been able to return from, there a was a shift in his mind- a concept grown unfamiliar enough with time that it took him a great time to identify what it was; a curiosity. Something that there was no place for on the battlefield, something that by all means should have been completely useless to Xiao, and yet he held onto that curiosity, slowly regaining over time, a sense of who he was and who he could choose to be with each song that the wind chose to carry towards him every once in a blue moon.

and eventually that curiousity turned to longing. Longing "for a day to come when he will wear the mask and dance — not to conquer demons, but to the tune of that flute amid a sea of flowers"

...... uh- heh- if you couldn’t tell already i have a tendency to make my characterizations/analyses of characters more serious that i probably should.

to summarize: Xiao is constantly toeing the line between his ingrained nature and his humanity- almost as though still trying to decide how much of that humanity he deserves to have, how much he is allowed to have, and how much is safe to have.

^looking back after writing this, i think the best way to explain it is that this is the view that i keep in mind/the lense that i tend to most enjoy looking through and refering back to while examining and/or analyzing his character, actions, story, lines, and overall personality.

idk- i kinda got off track but i just think its a really interesting interpretation to think about because it has some really interesting implications ig- it’s not the full extent of how i view him of course, but i kinda got ahead of myself and its long enough as is so ill just elaborate as i go- Lol i actually have in progress playlists for both him and venti and just- vibes- i could ramble about the playlists alone for hours explaining everything... It’s probably a problem- uh- ill keep going now lol.

anyways! stepping off the angst path for a brief break! Brought to you by their lines in the snow: both waiting for it to get thick enough, Venti for the purpose of a snowball fight and Xiao for the purpose of a tasty and nutritious breakfast.

but its actually something of note that Xiao doesnt actually need to eat so anything he does eat is usually out of obligation or enjoyment- so like.... snow.... like i dont blame him, but of all things- an adeptus who refuses to eat basically anything but almond tofu looks at the freezing-cold-floor-water that yeeted itself from above and decided at some point- damn- that seems more edible than basically ever single actually edible thing ever.... im gonna eat it- like- im glad if eating snow makes him happy but- at the same time...

He probably convinces Venti to eat snow too though and Venti wouldnt even resist I mean he’s wind and has probably consumed worse things in his time so- 2 anemo cryptids with glowing tattoos sitting in Dragonspine monching snow in the dead of night is an amusing thought to me.

- kay, now back to more serious-toned thoughts

One of the things about the ship that i really like is the different contradicting parallels between them:

A lot of how i view Xiao’s character is someone formed largely by the things he cant control and who was forced to accept that accepted that and learned to thrive in it as much as he can. Venti on the other hand is surrounded by things he cant control and is ever adapting to control as much as he can while embracing whatever he cant as being part of the unpredictability of the world, seeing beauty in it.

both of them have lost people and do what they do to honor their memory: Xiao continues to do what the Yakshas once did And Venti chooses to do what his friend couldn’t

Xiao’s power coming from himself and Venti’s from others And both seem to appear to use their power for their own gain while truly helping others behind the scenes

both have killed a lot of people during the archon war Xiao views it as another necessary event out of his control and Venti would likely view it as a tragedy he chose to enact himself

and this is where we meet out balance

Xiao- contrary to how i think a lot of people view him as thinking of himself as a monster- seems canonically to have accepted this as part of his duty, as long as those he killed are not mortals. I dont think he enjoys it no- but someone has to do it and he’s just accepted that its a part of his duty Venti on the other hand-

See the beauty of the ship- as someone with an angst-centric mind- is this- these are two of the most traumatized mfers in the game

Xiao is by far the one who needs the most help and who can serve to benefit most from the ship- but he is nowhere near self aware enough to recognize that there’s anything wrong or unhealthy about his mindset in the slightest-

whereas you have the contrast with Venti who sorted through most of his trauma with the nameless bard alone during the archon war and while the result appears more healthy- is still really not- but he’s not self aware of that either because i mean- who’s going to tell him? nobody even knows.

however- venti is aware enough to notice flaws in Xiao’s mindset and “Venti” enough to want to help them through it-

Xiao- while not aware enough to recognize the flaws in Venti’s mindset, can recognize where it contrasts with his own, and is blunt enough to point it out- and then it’s out there to be mulled over-

they’re so similar and yet so different and a feel just conversing between the two of them, being in each others precense, just being exposed to two mindsets that are so very different could do both of them a whole lot of good.

GEEE THAT BIT OF RAMBLING HAD LITTLE TO NO DIRECTION AT ALL- LET ME-- LET ME MAKE THIS START MAKING SENSE- WITH... DYNAMICS OR SOMETHING

I don’t think Xiao needs to sleep really- and i dont think that sleeping would do anything except make him uneasy at first- he’d probably just get nightmares after all he’s been through- but with Venti he would soon learn that it doesn’t have to be that way, lulled into the first peaceful sleep he’s had in... as long as he can remember.

anywho back to not making sense cuz im fickle and i think most questions about ships are best displayed through character interactions so like- a possible exchange thats cliche but cliches exist for a reason

Xiao: Why do you try so hard to help me, it isn’t easy. I know that much Venti, with the most adoring expression: Because you’re worth it, obviously Xiao: But surely there are others more deserving of- Venti: No Xiao, everyone is just as deserving as the next person, you included Xiao: Then why me above others? Venti: ehe, cuz ur my warrior of course [O//////O oh shit, hes right] Xiao: My contract is with Morax alone [gay panic but in broody yaksha]

it’s kinda difficult cuz neither of them really address their feelings. I mean Venti does but he does it very indirectly and its rare that he ever does it with like- genuine directness- even spilling his backstory was in the form of a song- and told in the third person- so a lot of their interactions would often have some deeper meaning, especially with Venti being the bard he is.

I come up with a lot of- errant thoughts about Xiaoven- but this is making me realize that a true analysis of their ship is rather difficult because it just encompasses so many dynamics so its hard to settle on just one and not go rambling about who knows what bouncing from one end of the ship to the other- Because you truly can and thats the beauty of it

within one moment you can be having a heartfelt conversation about the archon war the impact of lost friends and times past, and the next moment Venti is trying to forcefeed Xiao an apple while Xiao screams about disrespecting the adepti and its just- so lovely

so while they have picnics with nothing but apples, dandelion wine, and almond tofu they can sit down and talk about the dreams Xiao once devoured, and the dandelion wine and apple cider that the first Ragnvindir invented from the plants that never could have grown in Old Mond. The foods that tasted of familiarity, or of the grilled ticker fish Pervases always used to eat, foods that tasted of friends and frankly family that had since passed, glaze lilies and cecilias and qingxin flowers scattered in the surroundings and woven into Xiao’s neat braids and Venti’s now messy ones, rebraided by the steady and inexperienced hands of one unused to gentle action.

and then of course Venti steals Xiao’s tofu once the mood becomes too grim and replaces it with a bottle of wine that Xiao refers to as “vile poison,” a remark that fatally wounds Venti as he collapses on the floor, proclaiming how he can only be healed by a Yaksha’s kiss. Xiao ignores this of course and simply takes back his tofu with a slight smile on his face, but as Venti persists he soundlessly places a kiss on his own palm before intertwining their fingers and pulling him back up from where he was dramatically sprawled on the floor, grumbling about how such action was “unbecoming of an archon.” A sign of affection only Xiao would ever know about. But Venti is literally wind and I hc his senses work differently anyways so he definitely knows- plus Xiao’s face is red as the blood of his enemies and the way he is pointedly not looking at Venti at all really speaks volumes anyways.

-Venti playing epic battle music whenever Xiao goes into fights in what looks like a ridiculously extra performance to anyone else but is actually doing wonders to keep Xiao’s karma at bay

-Venti preaches the practice of “kissing wounds better” and Xiao is unfamiliar with this medical treatment but views it as unnecessary regardless because adepti have accelerated healing, doesn’t mean he’s going to stop him though.

-Messages whispered on the wind

-Venti’s 1000 year sleep- an accident, not a fun time for the yaksha, and not a fun time for Venti once he woke up. Venti is actually more afraid of restful sleep than Xiao is, hence the sleeping in trees thing, but when Xiao is there, he can sleep restfully with faith that Xiao wont let another millennia slip through his fingertips.

- Xiao tends to make excuses when doing things that aren’t necessary to his duty, like in his birthday voice line “Have this, it’s a butterfly i made from leaves... Okay. Take it. It’s an adepti amulet -- it staves off evil” because at the current point in his progress it helps him to feel like he’s allowed to do these things. Not wanting to put him off from progress, Venti never comments on his excuse but never fails to whisper a quick reminder of how proud he is of how far Xiao had come.

- Xiao’s karma saddens Venti greatly- not only because of how it effects Xiao but also because its a reminder that as much as Venti tries to honor the memory of those he’s killed, there will always be those who resent him for it, and when he took the option of living away from them, he truly can’t blame them. - And when he gets too wrapped up in thoughts, whether around this topic or similar ones or otherwise, eventually, he’ll hear the sound of a flute on the wind. It’s not divine by any means, but as his own wind connects him to the source, he gets the sentiment all the same. “What impact does one individual’s remaining wrath have on the present. You have done much to help the living in the present” the unspoken idea that Xiao has included himself in that statement, because now, with Venti’s help he’s beginning to learn just how to experience living for himself.

- Venti’s form and Xiao’s mask are off limit topics though because if either mentions it the other will counter with the opposite and the mood will turn immediately bitter at the idea that both know that what they’re doing is destructive but neither are willing to change

- Venti who has different tells for negative feelings than most people because as much as he likes to pretend it is- this form isnt his, and Xiao who is able to identify those

- many fanfics and headcanons have Venti recognizing when Xiao is uncomfortable and getting him out of those situations. I see that and I love it but i raise you: - Venti taking Xiao to Mondstadt, careful that he doesn’t get to the point that he’s uncomfortable. And nothing goes wrong exactly, but Xiao notices the the way Venti’s cape is blowing in the wind, the way he’s holding his weight, barely on his feet so much as floating on the wind, connected with the ground only for the sake of appearance, all the while he looks just as happy go lucky as ever. And without a word, he grabs his hand and teleports them both out of Mondstadt. - turns out it was just a slight thing that reminded him of the archon war (cuz i will die on the hill of him having more tragic backstory than just Decarabian), and he of course gives a sincere if not flustered thanks to Xiao, because he’s really not used to people noticing.

- Venti trying to vent sneakily through fictional stories and Xiao is just like “Didn’t that basically happen to you” and Venti is just like “<_< shit”

- Venti once said affectionally that he wished he had met Xiao sooner and Xiao immediately and seriously shot it down by saying “If you had, I would have been forced to kill you” and both of them now stay up at night wondering who would have won that fight, not sure which result would have hurt more. (because honestly I have no idea who would win in that fight and that terrifies me- I like to think it would have been one of those legends that end with “and the fight persists to this day” or something along those lines)

- “How long have you been together?” “Adepti have no need for-” “1000+ years T^T how dare you deny our love” “O///O our...? ...useless”

- its disney- let me explain- i have this- i have this headcanon inspired by watching too many animatics- - so venti has a human form that isnt his- which he would have had to get used to moving in- and he’s a bard- - uh- anyway- as a third degree black belt in mixed martial arts, i can speak as an authority on this(not really an authority since i havent gone since quarantine but lets pretend). We have a thing referred to as the big three(most things do), and those things are martial arts, gymnastics, and dance. The idea is that they reflect really well off of each other and the best in any one category are good in all three. Timing, balance, form, discipline, technique, hand-eye coordination, grace, ease of motion, they all play a part- anyway-

- Venti taking Xiao’s prowess in martial arts and acrobatics and teaching him how to dance, and as someone who’s extremely skilled in the first two, the third comes easy to him, almost naturally. And it’s delicate and beautiful and lovely and it isn’t hurting anyone. And Venti points all these things out and more and despite how much Xiao insists that he feels ridiculous he truly does enjoy it and it goes a long way towards helping him form more healthy views of himself and his worth. - Verr Goldett walked in on him once and made a joke about performing at the inn. unfortunately Venti was there and agreed on Xiao’s behalf before he could protest and- and it wasn’t as bad as Xiao thought it would be... he still wouldn’t do it again though without reason, but with good enough reasoning he could probably be convinced.

- anyways point is he likes dancing to Venti’s songs and i just think that’s really cute - just picture the idea that all the animatics you see actually have the potential to be canon- ugh

- venti tries holding something out of Xiao’s reach since he’s taller and Xiao just fucking teleports

- both need their space but when they dont, all they have to do is speak the other’s name and they’ll be there.

- and because i just had to.... love languages

- lets start with Xiao- i don’t think he’d view acts of service or quailty time as a love language tbh, and he blunt but really bad with words so affirmation is out, leaving gift giving and physical touch. However, he seems to view most material things as meaningless so- - Xiao who’s love language is in his fleeting touches, something he’s only recently grown comfortable with because of Venti, and now is giving back, which he knows he doesn’t have to do, but that he want’s to, though he’ll still continue to make excuses for each one. “you were shivering” “The inn is high up, you could have fallen..... I said what I said, you’d question an adeptus?”

- and as easy as it is to say words of affirmation for Venti- he does that for everyone- i want to say his is actually acts of service - its the acts of service that let him see just how much Xiao has progressed afterall, from teaching him to dance, to playing another song on the flute, to supplying him with the almond tofu he seems to enjoy so much. Every little thing he does helps Xiao to grow and he couldn’t be happier about that.

- of course most of my headcanons for the ship do take place latter into the relationship because- y’know the less serious unhealthy vibes allow for greater range of thought, but i do still love to think about the serious implications so i kinda hopped back and forth. So sorry about how messy it is btw, i kinda- got carried away- it kinda got some kind of structure near the end tho so- maybe it’s okay. anyway- back to... lol something, we’ll see where thought forests lead.

#genshin impact #genshin xiao #genshin venti #xiao #venti #xiaoven #genshin analysis #genshin headcanons #xiaoven headcanons #xiaoven analysis #this is a mess i really shouldnt be putting all these tags but oh well #oh wow the grammar and spelling here is truly repulsive #sorry to all my english teachers i have failed you all

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oh-theatre · 4 years

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Livin’ It Up: Chapter 3

Chapter title: Its All Coming Back To Me Now

A/N: New, bad, sorry. Comment? Sorry for short, important.

words: 1340

summary: return

pairings: Eventual logicality, eventual prinxiety, eventual demus, eventual Moceit (Which then goes back to Logicality and Demus)

warnings: Swearing, alcohol, underage drinking, drinking, parties, kissing, throw up, slight self harm, emotional abuse

Ao3 Link

“Ugh of course he did” Virgil sighs, throwing his journal across the room. Patton giggles still scribbling away at his homework. Virgil sits up, rubbing the nape of his neck with sympathy in his eyes. “Im sorry Pat, i know you wanted...not that”

“Hey its ok! I gave it a shot, plus the night I had was fun” Patton admits, he shrugs away his thoughts but finds himself doodling in the corner of his calculus work. “This is pointless” He shut his book away, returning it neatly to its spot on his desk. “My brain cant focus” He threw his eraser towards Virgil “Tell me about Roman” He smirks.

“Ok look nothings happened since the party” Virgil tells, and Patton listens, well until Virgil begins to ramble about their theatre project. His mind was in too many places at once, and he loved Virgil but once his gushing ended and his worries set in, Patton couldn't focus. His mind wandered to that fateful night, under the amber lights of a bustling evening.

“But they're so sticky” Logan scrunched his face, watching Patton thank the shop tender for his caramel apple. Patton rolls his eyes with a playful smile.

“Delicious is the word you're looking for” He corrects, Logan still doubtful. “Come on, take a bite” he offers, holding it up. Hesitant at first, Logan eyes it, was he examining the apple? Oh god, the way his glasses sat on his nose practically falling, Patton swears he could hear his heartbeat.

“Alright” He says, he holds his glasses, Patton strengthens his hold as Logan takes a bite out of the delectable treat. Logan's eyes quickly fly open, a surprise as he chews.

“Congrats Moreno! You're one of us common folk now” Patton teases, the wind ruffling both of their hair. Logan nods, taking yet another bite, Patotn didn't mind, he found the small chipmunk like chewing adorable. “Come on Simon, there's more to show you” He jokes, Logan takes his hand allowing the cheerleader to guide him. The apple was gone quickly but neither minded, it made their commute easier.

Patton had to wonder if Logan had ever been outside however, every little new thing sparked him, the bored robotic look in his eyes disappeared with a new flicker of excitement. Patton adored it. He grew fond of how Logan would fiddle with his fingers, it was soft.

“Just ignore them” Logan whispered as the pair walked towards a more quiet spot.

“Hm?” Patton hummed in response, a small skip as the gravel crackled below their feet.

“The girls and guys staring, just ignore them” And Patton had been. It was hard not to notice, each with daggers in their eyes but even if tonight was just a one time thing, or whatnot Patton was here to enjoy himself, enjoy the carnival he had spent weeks preparing and try something new. And it was nice, even if he did notice the winks Logan would throw out, the boredom as Patton chatted with people and the constant phone checking.

Its nice

It was nice

“So now im like i don't know! Should I dye my hair!” Virgil finishes, Patton coughs away his thoughts.

“I might have adhd but you can really go down a rabbit hole” Patton laughs, Virgil chuckles a flash of red on his cheeks. “Not a bad thing, and i think you should dye your hair if you want. No matter what you're gonna look great” Patton compliments. “Crap! We’re gonna be late” He checks his watch, morning homework sessions on monday were a usual. Except when they forget to actually get to school.

“Id say race you there but i dont wanna get there any faster than I have to” Virgil says, and with that they rush out the house.

~~~

“Does he have to looking so fucking cute” Logan spits, Roman stops his words instaly and looks to where an angry Logan glares.

“Uh Im sorry, imma need my friend back” Roman pokes, Logan turns to him, his eyebrows tightened. “Dude, what is going on with you” Roman questions, Logan slams the locker shut trying to distract himself from Patton and Virgil standing just a few steps down the hall at their own lockers. “Just a reminder that you-”

“Roman I am fully aware of what happened, I am also fully aware that the only reason Patton has not spoken to me is my own fault” Logan leans against the locker paralleling Romans pose. “However I am still infuriated that he looks that cute” Logan sighs. He wasn't wrong, even if Roman and Patton had their...issues he still knew his former friend. And Patton had an incredible eye for fashion.

And today was no exception. He wore a dropped shoulder cropped pullover, striped with white, pastel blue and pink, finished with a white collar. His light blue jeans sat comfortably on his legs cuffed at the bottom to show off his white sneakers. His belt was prominent and no mistake and his backpack slung over just one shoulder as he unpacked his belongings into his locker.

Objectively he was cute, but Roman was distracted by Virgil. He stood next to Patton talking away, his outfits always suited him and his defensive look only made Romans face flush more.

“Welp, you win some you lose some” Roman shrugs, patting his friend.

“I so appreciate the sentiment dear friend” Logan's sarcasm was not lost on Roman.

“Come on, you need some sushi in you” Roman takes his friend's shoulders, preparing to guide his friend towards the exit. Each has a free period that bleeds into lunch so why not take advantage?

~~~

“Is it bad that I want to wear Romans varsity jacket?” Virgil whispered as he darted his eyes away from the said jock who only stood a few feet away.

“No, it's adorable” Patton says, he organizes his things in his locker, ignoring as Logan and Roman begin to walk towards them. He knew rationally they were headed towards the exit but the small inkling of fear if they were to come up to him was still present. But quickly his mind was taken elsewhere with an abrupt cheer.

“One! Two! Three!” He hears, why was that voice so familiar? “Who missed me!”

“Janus!” Patton recognizes, he spins with unfiltered excitement rushing through the hall. Janus laughs as he sees his friend racing towards him wasting no time to wrap him in his arms and spin him quickly. Their embrace was pure elation, Virgil caught up to the pair with his own grin. They finally parted ignoring the crowd around them, specifically two boys who had decided sushi could wait.

“Buttercup!” He grins, Patton giggles delighted. He had missed Janus so much, and the sweet way the nickname fell only increased the buzz in his heart.

Someone else in the hall was not feeling the ecstatic energy. Logan glared his shoulders tightening under Romans hold. What was this envious sweat dripping from him as he watched Janus snake a respectful arm around Patton's waist, cupped to keep his gentlemans distance.

But Logan wasn't allowed to be mad

He saw Carly down the hall, she winked at him receiving a disgruntled scowl in return. He watched Brittany and Martin walk by him, each a flustered look.

And why should he care, he had the whole school, why did he need-

His thoughts were interrupted by the most intoxicating, sweetest sound to ever bless his ears. Pattons little giggle as he clutched to Janus for stability. He may have been seventeen but he towered over the boys, including Logan. Virgil seemed happy enough but Logan couldn't get over Patton. Patton stood blushing, his hand never left Janus’s side and he was...flashing the brightest smile.

Why did Logan want to be the one to cause that reaction

“Oh shut up moreno” He whispers to himself, swiping away from Romans grasps he shoots Martin a wink before making his way to lunch, a hesitant Roman followed.

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wolf-stark · 3 years

Note

You ask I deliver — both tfatws asks in one!

tfatws weekly ask 1

i finally saw ep1!! i wont be able to see ep2 until thursday at the earliest but i already have some Thots on this ep. here are the ones I remember

first is, and i'm so sorry for this, a grammar lesson. an appositive is when you stick an additional phrase in between commas, dashes, or the like. i actually just used one! the "and i'm so sorry for this" in the first sentence of this paragraph is an appositive. thing is, most english speakers don't normally use them when they speak, only in writing. so i'm always on high alert whenever i hear somebody in tv or movies use one. (it's generally a marker of bad screenwriting). anyway there was one right in the beginning of the episode. the white army guy yelling at sam wilson said "first lieutenant Torres, our intel officer, will be helping on the ground." yeah so. the writing of this series started out on the wrong foot for me. but the rest of the episode was obviously tons and tons better (every interview i see with malcolm spellman makes me love him more and more)

the contrast between the opening minutes (falcon action sequence) and the rest of the ep.... i would 100000/10 rather watch a series with just sam and bucky dealing with life. i dont give a single crap about the flag-smashers or any of that. i just want sam, sarah & fam getting their boating business back on the ground & yeeting racist dickwads, bucky going through therapy and making amends, sam and joaquin being bros, sambucky homoerotic tension, etc.

the cinnamontography! wandavision mostly used cinematography to signify era n stuff. tfatws doesn't have wv's premise to go off of, so here's some tricks i noticed:

with sam there's obviously all sorts of shots with the captain america iconography next to his face, but he hasn't totally claimed it. there's the mural of steve rogers in the background; there's sam staring into the shield like it's a spectre of steve's face; there's sam looking into the exhibit, the shield and sam separated by glass and a layer of camera focus. steve is a constant spectre, always there, an idea, a symbol himself. sam's relationship with this iconography is distanced. he is separated by glass exhibit walls. by painting canvases. he doesn't yet feel worthy to take on that iconography. this whole thing was pulled off quite well but also a bit on-the-nose if only in quantity. there's just sooooo much fancy iconography stuff

speaking of the exhibit, there's something that i get real pissy about. it's when like, there's an action going on you're supposed to be paying attention to but the cinematographer is like,,,, hey! check out this location! or this headline! or something! there was a lot of that in the exhibit. the camera was like, you could focus on sam and rhodey's convo (which was fine but could have been so much better with an extra like 10 minutes of deep character study talk) but noooo you want me to look at the symbol for the united nations and read all the text about bucky who hasn't even showed up yet. shut up i know the lore and ill watch the shot-by-shot breakdown yt vids you don't have to make the shot this long jkdsalcjklasejf

my fav trick was with bucky and the therapist. i had seen a clip of the scene with bucky and the therapist beforehand and i thought the cinnamontography was super obnoxious, but then i was like, oh duh. the shots frequently change the distance between the camera and its subject. sometimes it's uncomfortably close and sometimes it's really far. a clear allegory for the duality of therapy, esp for bucky! therapy is an invasive process wherein he is ruthlessly examined, picked apart, and berated for his trauma (this therapist is crap in every way btw, "mean therapist" works for greg house and greg house only). so the camera goes close. it makes the viewer claustrophobic like bucky. but when he's like "no i haven't had any nightmares" the camera suddenly goes really far. we see bucky as this tiny head in the center of the bottom of the frame. we are distanced from him. he has pushed us away. we cannot see him. he lies because he is vulnerable. so yeah, amazing work there. the therapy scene was hard to watch on purpose!

did bucky slip a note to yori inside the dollar bill? bucky stop making me emooooo. the suuper awkward fake smile has me 😭 (veteran trying to adjust!)

mark my worrrrds when sam asks someone y the govt picked john “white bread” walker they’re gonna say “we needed somebody everyone can get behind....someone uncontroversial, someone everyone can see themselves in” like that exact racist dog whistle

tfatws weekly ask 2

just saw ep2 so im taking advantage of the 2 seconds i can be on tumblr without worrying about tfatws spoilers before new episode drops

when isaiah said "your people put me in prison for being a hero" and bucky thought "your people" means hydra. 🤦‍♂️

speaking of racism, the interplay between sam being Black (anti-Black racism) and sam being the Falcon (negrophilia, "can i take a selfie w you as i deny you a loan?") and the intersection between the two (j*hn lichrally called sam "steve's wingman"! he takes the crypto out of crypto-racist in like 2 seconds!) !!!!!!!! a Black celebrity's Black experience, the separation of man and identity!!!! (thinking about vanessa bayer in snl in that skit "beyonce is black" telling her black friend "you're not black, you're...my girl!")

after sam gets racially profiled by cops we see j*hn standing in front of cop cars cinematic parallels turns out j*hn is racist who knew

this therapist sucks major ass but she got bucky and sam together in the same room and ready to collaborate...that's something ig. it was lichrally couple's therapy she said she used her miracle exercise with couples sambucky antis get blended

bucky says "he was wrong about you so maybe he was wrong about me"...that's not how people talk. when therapist asks bucky, the guy who doesn't talk at all about himself, "y do you hate sam", the last thing bucky's gonna do is actually connect his hatred of sam to his own self-worth issues. bucky generally refuses to talk about himself, so why would he talk about himself in the one context that nobody ever links back to their own neuroses: hatred of other people? one thing human beings hate most is admitting we're wrong. admitting you hate someone because of your own issues? that's a major therapeutic step. bucky would absolutely have to be prompted to do that. even like one or two lines of dialogue more would have set up that line better. but in terms of the actual thought? an amazing way to take the sam/bucky relationship. bucky bases his self-worth on steve believing in him, and if steve is wrong bucky has no self-worth, so 1) he has to develop self-worth disassociated from steve's assessment of him and 2) he has to love himself before he can love sam, and 3) he has to realize that sam giving up the shield is a sign of sam's humility not his unworthiness.

conversely, we don't get into why sam hates bucky? yeah sam has the right to hate a guy that has tried to kill him (albeit while brainwashed) multiple times, and now shows up in his life just to bash him but. everything happens so fast i cant follow their relationship

in fact i dont feel like i understood much of anything. like y did bucky and sam go on that mission together? how connected are sam/bucky/joaquin with the government? doesn't bucky just want to retire now? literally what is everyone doing/feeling and why???

if battlestar becomes a knowing commentary on the black best friend stereotype i'm gonna party, but i dont expect much of that

the interplay between man and symbol. captain america is obviously a symbol. the shield is obviously a symbol. but steve rogers? the. man behind the cowl? he too seems to become a symbol. a paragon of a good guy, so good he's unreachable. steve was just a guy stop idolizing him the last thing steve would want is to be idolized

as the resident musician/music nerd on mcublr, 1) that captain america rally music slaps, but 2) re: the song at the end of the ep, if you're just gonna rip off mozart's lacrymosa then at least play mozart's lacrymosa. we wont blame you the lacrymosa slaps (if you dont know what im talking about go on yt and search it up youll recognize it fo sho

look i love enfys nest as much as the next guy but if tfatws is gonna get erin kellyman to play another innocent little gurl blackmailed into the fakeout-villain position (her text seemed to suggest as such) then 😡 like why can't women just....be evil? young, freckly, innocent-looking women? girls are not untouchable pure objects but full of rage and resentment just as much as anyone can be

bonus ep1 comment: bucky says about that senator whose car he hijacked, "she continued to abuse the power i gave her." fictionaldarling on yt say that he says "i" because he can't disassociate himself from his winter soldier persona which begets endless and senseless guilt. like dude. can i not be emo for like 1 second.

OKay. First off, as much I enjoy your sending it to me, what made you decide to send me these??

TFATWS WA #1

Don't worry about getting this to me as early as possible. I usually don't watch the episode right away.

1. Cool writing lesson.

2. Everyone wants a comedy show [like Friends] about the MCU superheroes.

3. Cinematography is always a beautiful thing.

4. Sam definitely has to carve his own Captain America status for himself, outside of Steve's ya know everything.

5. They have to do that for people who was just now tuning in because they're in love with Sam Wilson or Sharon Carter.

6. I think the therapist was taking a 'tough love' approach for Bucky, because she likely has some very strong opinions about the literal assassin she's been assigned to give therapy too. She did not choose to talk to him, she was assigned that make that clear in the second episode.

And, Bucky isn't lying when he said it wasn't a nightmare. It wasn't a nightmare, it was a resurfaced memory. So, technically he wasn't lying - and yes, the camera does move away because while he's saying he didn't have a nightmare, he's not expanding on what actually happened - so, he's still pushing the therapist/us away.

7. Bucky, and Steve, have/had a TON to adjust to.

8. Yeah, I agree that will be the bullshit line they give. If they ever actually talk about it.

TFATW WA #2

Yeah, always got to take advantage of avoiding those spoilers lmfaoo.

1. Honestly, that line was double meaning. Both about White people and Hydra [which is made up of mostly white supremacists/nazis] So, the line is gesturing to both White People in general and Hydra assholes together. I think the terminology is “double edge sword”??

2. This whole paragraph structure confused me, ngl - so I'm going to answer it the best I can. I do like that they're not ignoring the fact that Sam being Black is 1000% the reason he's not the Official Captain America - because the gov't is racist as hell.

I also like the little lines about how they point out little things about Sam's Falcon persona, like that kid calling him 'Black Falcon' specifically and Sam's response show the split between Sam and Falcon itself.

John is a dick for calling Sam the wingman of Steve Rogers. Sam was a hero all on his own before Steve asked him to join up again. [Side note, it's lichrally??]

3. Exactly, the parallel of Sam being profiled and surrounded while just on the street and John being surrounded by fans and being able to spring Bucky with apparently only a few sentences shows a Loooooot

4. Honestly, at this point I wonder if she's not actually a therapist and is just an agent assigned to assess Bucky outside of an Official Building. I do know, however, that her 'look at each other and speak' exercise is actually a real therapy practice. It's just a little slower.

5. Actually, I think he would've blurted that out. That whole line. I don't think Bucky hates Sam. I think they could've done the scene better, but I think that had Sam prodded him/the therapist been more annoying Bucky would've lost control of his emotions and blurted out the whole "If he was wrong about you, he was wrong about me" but I feel like the writing for this show is just... not there. Sometimes you blurt shit when you get overemotional and I think that was what Bucky was supposed to be like.

6. I don't think Sam hates Bucky, I think he doesn't trust him though. I do wish they'd talked about that though. The whole 'talk to each other' scene should've been a LOT longer and a LOT slower.

7. Sam and Bucky's relationship is being fast tracked because they don't really know how to work the relationship out, writers-room-wise. Bucky is technically retired, but I feel like he's trying to live up to Steve's expectations and doing what Steve would've done and we all know that if Steve was there, Steve would've jumped on that plane with Sam. It looks like Sam/Bucky/Joaquin are a side-team based from Military services but as Sam says they're all free agents so...?

8. Sadly, They seem to just be propping up to be another stereotype.

9. Captain America is a symbol. Steve Rogers is a man. But now Steve Rogers is an idol because of all the shit he's been through and honestly, it's not a bad thing he's become an idol for people - it's using Steve as a reason to make White Bread Walker the next Captain that makes Steve's idolization so fucked.

10. I don't know anything about music so I have no opinion here, sorry.

11. Enfys?? Also, I think they did the whole Innocent Girl Thing as side commentary for Bucky lowering his guard about seeing a young girl rather than a guy.

12. Bucky is the Winter Solider. The Winter Solider is Bucky. That is how Bucky will always see it because although he was brainwashed, it was still him and he remembers all of it. When you have constant memories of something 'someone else' did, you tend to not be able to pull the two personas out of each other. I want Bucky to take up the title, White Wolf instead of Winter Soldier. Honest.

This is all my opinion, I’m honestly a little disappointed with the writing of TFATWS so far so... I’m not really optimistic about this.

#Asks

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akechicrimes · 4 years

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Hey crimes, feel free to disregard this tangent but, do u ever feel like P5 inadvertently or otherwise implied Goro was right with his fake “vigilante justice operates outside and the law and thus must be brought to heel” opinion? What with the fact that the Yaldabaoth confrontation implies the thieves work perpetuated humanity’s sloth AND THEN after an entire game showing us the hundreds of people who were at the v least COMPLICIT in shido’s machinations, a system which is (1)

ohhhhh this one is fun!! this is a super neat question, ty for asking!!!

hmmmmmmmmm

im going to try and break this down into parts, partly because persona 5 is such a convoluted mess with its own lines of thinking, so tell me if i dont do it right. the issues are: (1) goro definitely did say that operating outside the law was bad just on principle that you shouldn’t operate outside the law, and (2) persona 5 did definitely go on to say that all of the phantom thieves’ operations outside the law didn’t come to anything in the first place anyway, because they were only targeting individuals instead of mass systemic corruption/their presence was enabling people to become more apathetic.

i think what persona 5 is trying to get at is that it’s not necessarily that acting outside the law is bad, but that, like you said, targeting only individuals doesn’t work as a tactic. so vigilante justice (e.g. batman style of taking down supervillains) cannot compare to societal reform through collective action.

when i say collective action, i mean that i think persona 5 is trying to point out that “systematic” corruption is really just a corruption of many, many, many individuals working in concert--and that “reform” could just be said to be the opposite, which is activism from many, many, many individuals working in concert.

obviously the ending cutscene where akira;s social link network gets together to protest his arrest is the best example of collective reform, but i think one of the things that i rly like about shido’s wide-spread conspiracy is that it does a rly good job of paralleling akira’s social link network, and pointing out that in the same way that shido’s conspiracy is a collective effort of many many many people that make up a “system,” akira’s widespread social link network creates the opposite effect of a collective effort of many many people that make up a force for change.

which is why having the phantom thieves as a group itself just promotes more apathy--you get one group of people doing all the work for the rest of society, when if anything’s going to change, we need everyone on their feet.

which surprisingly correct, insofar as i’m aware. if society’s going to change in a substantial way, beyond just changing the hearts of a handful of abusers and letting the rest of the system remain untouched, everyone’s got to be involved. collective effort. do your part. wash your hands. stay indoors. don’t forget to vote. seriously, wash your fucking hands.

but when it comes to whether or not persona 5 says that you shouldn’t be acting outside the law...

i think persona 5 really really really really really doesnt want to be caught promoting lawbreaking while also being You Should Break The Law: The JRPG.

part of this trouble, i think, is just because they need players to actually like the characters in the game, and therefore all the character have sympathetic reasons for breaking the law. because persona 5 has to sell marketable characters, too, persona 5 itself makes it pretty clear that people who operate “outside the law” are usually not evil dipshit criminals who love sin. the people in persona 5 who act outside the law are usually people who dont have enough power to operate inside the law in the first place. akira, the pt, and goro all seem to have resorted to what they did because they had no societal power at the start, wound up with a persona (aka fast and easy power source), and wouldnt have been able to do anything about their situation otherwise. characters who operate outside the law (like takemi with her vaguely illegal practice, or kawakami and her also vaguely illegal sex work, or iwai and his vaguely illegal gun business) are still supposed to be waifus you are sympathetic towards.

(...i think i accidentally called iwai a waifu? hmm. on second thought, i’ll just leave that sentence as it is.)

and i really do have to point out that persona 5′s attitude of FUCK COPS is insanely strong. like. persona 5 HATES cops. and that doesn’t let up basically ever, at all, at any moment. for anything. persona 5 wants me to believe that makoto will become a good cop in the future, but if i wanted to find an existing good cop, i’d have to go all the way back to persona 4. like!! shit!! goro akechi is the closest thing we have to a good cop, and he has a pet guillotine for CEOs and his middle name is komaeda.

and that part of the big attitude with FUCK COPS is that it’s another way of morally exonerating the phantom thieves. i think... although the game ultimately concludes with “you should probably not break the law any more because the metaverse is gone,” it’s difficult to argue with the fact that persona 5 is a game in which it presents you with 10000000000000 reasons to break the law and feel Great about it.

(another tangent: i feel like one of the big undercurrents of persona 5, and especially the TV station, is that the phantom thieves are justified in their lawbreaking because the police aren’t doing their fucking job. like, someone’s got to keep people safe, and if the cops don’t like the phantom thieves, maybe they should get off their asses and actually get the criminals before the thieves do. akira literally was on live television and he was like ALL COPS ARE BAD and goro was like wow. anyone else think that was really sexy? @ the guy in the glasses in the back, call me later when you’ve leveled up your charm and knowledge.)

so atlus is in this place where they’ve pointed out that people break the law because they dont really have any other choice, and also persona 5 the game HATES cops, and also persona 5 the game cannot tell you that breaking the law is bad because it is literally A Game About Breaking The Law, but at the same time, they cant really go around promoting crime. from a doylist perspective i was 100% unsurprised that they came up with a fancy narrative reason to get rid of the metaverse and their change-of-heart abilities and just the phantom thieves in general, because all of those are a threat to the status quo. although the game might be right that relying on the phantom thieves to change society for the rest of the population makes the rest of the population lazy and apathetic, it’s pretty convenient that this means that the kids are now no longer able to break the law. so persona 5 really wants people to do things the kosher way, e.g. protesting and such.

hhfmgmhfmghfmgfmghmfhgg. taking this all with a grain of salt, because again, i do think atlus is trying very hard to avoid saying that people should break the law:

i think atlus wants to say that it’s not necessarily acting outside the law that’s not right, but the fact that just loading the phantom thieves with a ton of power makes people apathetic, and changing the hearts of a few individuals is Not enough to get rid of something like shido’s conspiracy. so instead they say, you shouldn’t break the law because it’s not effective without collective reform.

i think another thing that persona 5 wants us to believe is that for the most effective reform to be achieved, people both inside and outside the law/system have to be involved in the collective effort to improve society.

e.g., toranosuke wants to be a man of the people--someone who speaks for the people who are outside of the diet, but toranosuke himself is someone inside the diet. sae’s the other good example; the phantom thieves protest akira’s arrest at the end of the game, but sae, as the insider in the justice system, has to be there to hear and work with them. and this might just be because i watched haru’s s link last night, but i feel like takakura is a really good example: haru pushes back against the company’s shitty policies with her “outsider’s” perspective (quoted because she’s technically the largest shareholder, she just hasnt ever been really involved in how the company is run), but takakura, as the company president and most powerful person at okumura foods, has to be there to hear her request and agree with her, and make company changes based on her requests.

and it’s for this reason that persona 5 wants us to consider maybe lawbreaking isnt morally bad, just not effective.

i wish i could say that that’s more bad atlus writing, but it’s not. i’ve only really examined changing schools on an institutional level, but the best examples of institutional change in school administration have always been cases where the administration, parents, and community members all work together. in some cases, parents bring up requests for the school to accommodate their needs, and the administration listens and works with them. something something--everyone needs an advocate. the point of a lawyer is to advocate for you. the point of a politician/representative is to represent you and your interests. so on and so forth.

(and i also wish that it could be as simple as saying, “wow atlus said something right for once!” because that’s not true, either--acting outside the law can be outrageously effective. persona 5 trying to tell us that acting outside the law to get shit done isn’t effect smells like corporate trying to tell its workers that unionizing doesnt actually do anything.)

(and i also wish that persona 5 would have acknowledged that sometimes, it takes more than just an extremely moral person to change the world. take toranosuke, for example--i’m sure that if he gets elected, he’ll go out there and be a wonderful representative of the people, but at the same time, can’t we also simultaneously acknowledge that any politician who can make “politics” a career for profit will always be incentivized towards self-interest? in the same way that a military for profit will always be incentivized towards war?)

but insofar as whether or not persona 5 thinks that vigilante justice/acting outside the law is in and of itself morally bad--i’d say probably not. i think they want us to think that it’s not effective.

this is a slight tangent that kind of goes off the issue of whether or not persona 5 is concerned with whether or not breaking the law is moral or effective. i was going back through goro’s dialogue in the engine room--who knows if that’s going to be changed in royal--but i was trying to figure out exactly what the phantom thieves condemn him for. (fucking difficult as fuck considering how bizarre that dialogue was at places.)

the first one is murder, which goro is unimpressed with (LMAO. KING). the second is that he operated outside the law, to which he replies that they did the same thing (valid). the third is that his form of justice was “selfish,” in that it only served his personal need for revenge. at that point, goro changes the subject--which is not really surprising, since goro admitted long before the engine room that his quest against shido was for his own personal satisfaction.

that is to say, the phantom thieves can’t say that they don’t operate outside the law, because they do--however, if the phantom thieves can’t be legally exonerated, the phantom thieves are morally exonerated despite operating outside the law because they do it for the benefit of others. that’s actually not an incorrect statement from the phantom thieves, although i dont think they’re doing it for Society Writ Large. the phantom thieves in every single palace have taken on targets to help someone else: firstly ann and ryuji and shiho, then yusuke, then various shujin students being blackmailed by kaneshiro, etc, etc. i remember pretty distinctly that ann insists that she doesnt want to get involved with madarame just for drama or fame (whereas ryuji wants to pick a big target just for the sake of getting famous), but she agrees to get involved with madarame’s palace because she doesn’t want to leave yusuke to possibly kill himself like a previous student.

because the phantom thieves are not able to say that they haven’t operated outside the law in the same way that goro has, the dividing line between them is instead that the phantom thieves are doing so selflessly. but this is just an elaboration on the question of whether or not “is lawbreaking moral?” rather than necessarily “is lawbreaking effective?”

there’s an argument that nothing goro or the phantom thieves did was effective in the long run, and there’s an argument that sae is proof positive that working inside the system won’t be effective, either.

anyway, unions are effective. so maybe we should agree to wash our hands and join a union.

#mine #meta #clouis-loumentine

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ratspberry · 3 years

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many naruto thoughts head overloading

ok im only like 20 episodes into shippuden and i skipped a Lot of filler in original naruto bc i do not have the patience </3 (i will come back to the filler one day though) and while i love this anime theres so much i wish... was not written how it is

first of all sakura... i love her sm and i just wish her character was given some more care like at this point in shippuden im actually really enjoying the direction shes taken but i heard a lot of her growth is sidelined when sasuke comes back into the picture and thats my biggest issue. im sorry but if youre going to introduce a TRIO of main characters i want to see that main group equally fleshed out. first going all the way back to the beginning i wish that sakura was allowed to fight??? like we KNOW shes super smart and has powerful chakra so even when at that time she wasnt the most skilled fighter (as far as we KNOW at least. given that we barely got to see her fight who knows!) she couldve in the very least played a similar role to that of shikamaru as far as leadership and strategizing. and ok her crush on sasuke should have dissipated a lot more after the chunin exams. even though i do hate to see her spend so much time fawning over sasuke when hes not even particularly kind to her i think a crush in the beginning could still work IF the moment of her cutting her hair (“sasuke likes girls with long hair”) and her battle w ino during the chunin exams were like an eye-opening moment for her when she was like “wtf am i doing i am going to work hard as a ninja to prove that i can do this to MYSELF and MY RIVAL first” (which. ok she does get to this point later and again i love her learning chakra and getting strong as HELL during her training w tsunade but again. i want to see that REMAIN parallel to the enormous power level leaps that sasuke and naruto make. also let sakura and ino have a fun friendship rivalry that has nothing to do w sasuke) . i think it would be better if she naruto and sasuke were just friends who ALL help and motivate each other. and so when sasuke leaves sakura is STILL super fucked up over it and maybe even has a hard time trusting naruto again after he comes back? (but ofc she eventually does bc power of friendship) like IDK loss of one best friend, then almost immediately after your other best friend (who u just learned secretly is sealed w the nine tails and the akatsuki is after him just like orochimaru was after sasuke) leaves you for THREE YEARS??? kind of a salt in the wound moment! also im simply not even going to touch on all the comphet marriages in the end

next im going to talk about rock lee my friend rock lee who i adore. anyways he either should not have foregone the surgery from tsunade or died from it. HEAR ME OUT! this surgery was good in showing how powerful tsunade is as a healer but like? was it necessary? after she brought naruto back to life??? as far as lees characterization his whole thing is that he may not have special jutsu or the same prodigal abilities as his peers but he can still be as powerful or more powerful! and idk i hate when characters have serious life changing stuff done to them and not seeing it fully explored in the story. like ok so we’ve got tsunade telling lee (who cant be older than 12? 13?) theres a 50/50 chance he’ll die in the surgery to heal him. and then guy ENCOURAGES HIM, HIS FAVORITE STUDENT, to go through with the surgery so he could then go on to be a ninja and continue risking his life?????? so i thought that was pretty screwed up. which leads me to the two paths that i think would be interesting to see play out: 1. lee doesnt get the surgery, but continues to train as a ninja. his injuries still exist but lee learns to fight WITH the injuries and creates a really cool badass unique fighting style and goes on to be a great ninja like he dreamed 2. lee dies in surgery. id hate it i would and i dont WANT lee to die but it might be a fuckin wakeup call to all these adult ninjas urging kids into warfare. lee is beloved by all so it would be a good moment of pause for everyone to think like “ummm so the systems that be are kind of majorly fucked up.”

those are the two main ideas i had but heres a few misc things:

-jiraiya can be the author of as many trashy romance novels as he wants but him hitting on younger women and being like a peeping tom and UGH the way he was introduced w narutos ‘sexy jutsu’ is just. not good. take it out.

-let tsunade look her age. like the whole “she uses her chakra to make herself look young”? i dont buy it. i dont care that you just didnt feel like drawing a woman who looks over 20. you will do it anyways bc i said so.

-i dont dislike n/ruhina as much as i dislike s/susaku bc at least its clear theres a mutual respect and admiration there but hinata, like sakura, has so much more potential to be explored. idk if its looked at in filler or later in shippuden (id sure hope so) but i think her parallel to sasuke is kind of interesting? both have intimidating, extremely powerful older brothers (i know neji is technically hinatas cousin or smth but whatever older brother figures. also i know hinatas sister is also supposed to be super powerful but idk her yet) who are held in high esteem by their families and have all this pressure on their shoulders to want to surpass them? given that neji didnt um. do the things itachi did clearly its not the SAME between hinata and sasuke but i feel like examining the hyuga family dynamics would be SO interesting in comparison to sasukes arc. i didnt mind seeing hinata motivated by naruto the first few times but like. there is SO MUCH MORE THERE than JUST hinatas relationship to naruto.

-all of these kids need therapy but ESPECIALLY sasuke like the signs were there. halfway thru the bell test thing SUPER early on sasuke went into a full-fledged “i am an avenger.. i have to kill a certain someone” monologue and given the fact that everyone knows his entire clan was killed and that sasuke is likely VERY traumatized... who thought it was a good idea to let him become a ninja before addressing any of that. my god. like i love kakashi and i know he has his own devestating backstory and that hes a product of the system but why the Fuck would he let sasuke take the chunin exams. give team 7 a year more of training and getting to know each other and give sasuke some time to create bonds and maybe even open up emotionally and begin to heal and then MAYBE we can THINK ab chunin exams.

-asuma and ino apologize to choji for telling him not to eat as much challenge? did asuma not know that chojis clan uses food to replenish their chakra? it would make sense if ino didnt know but chojis teacher?? either way still p fucked, leave choji alone

-speaking of ino i want more of her character tok. why was she not included in that mission to save sasuke that shikamaru, her TEAMMATE, led?? was there an explanation for that?? i feel like her not being there was a missed opportunity for some real growth/bonding between team 10.

-speaking of the last bullet point shikamaru being like “ugh women 🙄” is tired and boring. very misogynistic “i hate my wife” facebook dad humor. cut that shit out

-orochimarus coding and his whole um. intent as a villain is just very. Hm. i dont think i like that very much but im not going to go into it bc im sure its been touched upon a million times

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tatsimpya · 4 years

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Hiii welcome 2 my twisted mind as i attempt to talk my way around a thought that bubbled in my head. Also sorry in advance if the formatting is like fucked i wrote this Immediately when i woke up on my phone

So we know akechis mask is a venetian mask w/ a long nose. In commedia dell’arte, there are several masks that possess long noses, pantalone, il capitano and zanni. Of these three the last three I think comprise Akechi’s. Uh. Well personas.

The il capitano mask, while the nose is usually rounder, tends to be red. The il capitano character’s gimmicks are:

• That he is not really a captain, only appropriated the name for himself

• Makes up shit to impress others, usually of the militaristic conquests.

• Doesn’t realize when others don’t buy his act

I’m only listing the ones that are probably relevant or parallels Akechi, or rather Detective Prince Akechi. The costume of Il Capitano tends to be that of an exageration of what he wants to be (in this case a boisterous military captain). Then theres the Noms de Guerre, Il Capitano make flashy titles for himself that are made up or Long. Kind of like detective prince ahuhu.

So yes I think the detective prince persona is a bit of Il Capitano, but what about the Zanni?

The Zanni nose beak thing is sharper than Il Capitano (and i quote “the mask (Il Capitano’s) has an obviously phallic design” because commedia dell arte is just one big dick joke)

There are. So many different types of zanni its actually kinda disgusting. Within the zanni archetype or. Role or whatever, there are at least 4 other stock characters. But there is a nice dichotomy of Zannis at least. And I believe that a play must always have two Zannis, and I believe that Akiren has fragments that represent probably commedia’s most famous character: Arlecchino (or Harlequin)

Anyway back to the first zanni that i think represents akechi, their traits are: clever and witty, capable of tricking and cheating anyone they encounter. The second zanni stuff doesnt really fit but he’s usually an idiot. Arlecchino falls into the second zanni stuff, so maybe its less about how it really is and more of how akechi sees it.

Also another interesting thing, both zannis are always tied to a character called Pantalone, who tends to be the person who hires them. Pantalone is a greedy character who wants to be at the top of the social order yea i think you can see where I’m going with this, even if its not fully accurate.

So yeah i think its just kind of fun to examine Akechi through a Commedia Dell’arte lens also please i need this so i didnt waste two years of my life studying theatre.

Please dont take this seriously i just thought it was fun ><

#text #i dunno if i wanna main tag this goro akechi this is kind of the ramblings of an insane person #but sure ill shoot #p5 #goro akechi #sorry in advance

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mousehole5000 · 4 years

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tgcf lb the third chapter 14 - 21

okay hit me with the lore

Xie Lian hadn’t spoken his next words before the teenager said, “He dug it out himself.” Startled, Xie Lian asked, “Why?” The teen replied, “He went mad.” -digging out your own eye okay worm

If there were demons in this world who would scam or entice the hearts of people, then there would also be humans who would fool demons. There would exist much ongoing exploitation and betrayal. He said, “If it was handed over in infatuation, yet only results in broken bones and scattered ashes, it would indeed render one’s heart to feel aggrieved.” okay also kind of dope i love it when humans and demons get some back and forth. also this feels like it could be foreshadowing

awwww xie lian giving away his only steamed bun what a sweetheart

everyone keeps telling me this book is also a tragedy but now im just laughing at the visual of headless ghosts carrying their heads around and bickering

chronic bad luck and chronic good luck meet... what will happen to our heroes...

Xie Lian raised his head, softly saying, “You are tenacious, extremely dedicated, and despite many bitter encounters with frustrations and dashed hopes, you’ve stayed true to your heart. More often than not, your misfortunes will turn into blessings, calamity to prosperity. You will continue to have good fortune, my friend, your future is radiant and will blossom spectacularly.” All the things he said were made up on the spot, so they were complete nonsense. - fhklasjksldfdfh i know this is a ploy but still this was funny. also why didnt xie lian try to pick up palm reading from another source when he fell? are they just not as good? is he pretentious like that? either way i hope we find out more about what he got up to during those 800 years

Xie Lian felt rather skeptical on how he only ate half a bun for the duration of the entire day. If young people took advantage on their good health like this, sooner or later they would surely end up passed out on the streets. - xie lian is directly calling me out for my quarantine eating habits im sorry king ill do better

Previously, it had always been Xie Lian telling other people ‘it’s alright, it’s okay’. Today was the first time he heard those words spoken back to him, leaving him with an indescribable feeling. - awww okay this got me

oh my god there was only one bed

again comedy of the year. “oh you’re putting up a curtain that repels evil thats so interesting. on an entirely unrelated note im going to make you a door”

Brushing past him, San Lang pulled out the bamboo chopstick. He swayed it twice in front of him before saying, “It got dirty. I’ll throw it out later.” - edgy bastard moments begin

Xie Lian could hear the deliberation win Ling Wen’s tone. One thing he could be sure of was that she must be in a difficult situation. He said, “Okay, I understand. Since this is inconvenient for you, then there’s no need for you to say more. In addition, the two of us never had this conversation in private.” - awwwww considerate crown prince xie lian

“What, do you guys know him?” Xie Lian said. “……” Fu Yao coldly replied, “No we don’t.” - all men do is lie. also love the petty little broom dispute. i know its actually quite intentional and that only makes it funnier. also guys stop wrecking xie lian’s home he just got it fixed up!! if anyone breaks the new door ill be highly disappointed in them

Xie Lian nodded his head. “That’s right. I wrote it. If you guys continued fighting in there, I would be pleading for reconstruction instead of renovation. Then, I would really have no dignity left.” - see xie lian said if youre not going to contribute to it then please dont fight in my monastery its been through enough

Earlier, when Fu Yao had entered, he hadn’t gotten to examine the interior furnishings. Now, after standing in this crooked, shabby house for quite a while, he was able to see it all. As if his entire body, from head to toe, was uncomfortable, he asked, “You live in a place like this?” Xie Lian handed him a chair and said, “I’ve always lived in these kinds of places.” - ive seen this quote before and it really is just that “damn bitch you live this like?” meme. amazing

Fu Yao did not sit, his expression also turning rigid for a second. It was hard to tell what the look on his face was. It seemed nine parts blank shock and one part schadenfreude. - THIS IS MY NEW FAVORITE EXPRESSION I WOULD LOVE TO SEE IT

In the desert, the difference in temperature between night and day was drastic. During the night, the freezing temperature was cold enough to seep into one’s bones, yet it was still tolerable. But come daytime, it was a whole other experience. The sky here was incredibly clear and expansive with dashes of white clouds, but likewise, the blazing sun was just as fierce. The group continued to walk, but the more they walked, the more it felt as though they were going into an enormous steamer basket. The hot air emitted from deep within the earth felt as though a day’s worth of walking could steam a person alive. - YES DESERTS YES

okay xie lian is so kind and so generous? he keeps giving stuff away when he has almost nothing and making sure that others are taken care of first..... love him

Xie Lian watched them put on airs. But when such airs were discarded, they finally got physical. Separated by the space of the table, the three of them fought with the poor water bottle, pushing it back and forth. - if these three really are who i think they are this is even funnier. the very clear toying thats going on is truly delightful

Even before, Xie Lian had always thought that although this teenager was always smiling, his smile often made it hard for people to distinguish whether it was actually genuine, or whether it was mockery in the guise of compliments. However, this time, anyone would be able to tell that there wasn’t even half an ounce of goodwill in his smile. - yeah that about sums it up. not even half an ounce of goodwill damn that sure the hell is not a lot of goodwill

He had Ruoye go grab onto something sturdy and stable, but Ruoye ended up grabbing onto San Lang! - awwww thats kind of cute. also the mental image... im going to make this its own post too but

im waiting for xie lian to cough up all that sand hes eating and say something funny when we’re back on the ground. i hope we get more very literal decisions from ruoye

It should be noted that there was a common saying within the mortal realm—a powerful dragon cannot crush a snake in its old haunts. - oh i like this and the translators note This is an old Chinese adage that basically means, ‘even a powerful man cannot crush a local bully.’

“General.” Nan Feng and Fu Yao both spoke at the same time, “What?” - CONFIRMED I CALLED IT tbh it was kind of obvious now ig now im just waiting. also again hysterical. if youre gonna hide your identities boys fucking lkafjfjlkdaf; try harder to remember that youre hiding

To be demoted again and again, to the point one couldn’t be demoted any further…… this kind of experience honestly felt too familiar. Xie Lian felt two gazes collectively fall on his body, but he pretended not to notice and continued reading the text on the stone slate. - this is a funny little set up for what seems to be a parallel between xie lian and this central plains general. he tripped on his own bootlace??? this HAS to be xie lian parallel what does it mean. oooh the common people on both sides of the conflict were the ones who commemorated him? interesting..

San Lang faintly smiled before he whispered, “No, I made that up. Since they had laughed at him before, making them kowtow to him now wouldn’t be asking too much, right?” Xie Lian looked and saw that it was really true. There was already no more text left to translate on the stone slate. He had originally wanted to sigh, but now he just found it funny. Thus, he also whispered, “Why are you so cheeky?” San Lang stuck out his tongue. The two of them were laughing when suddenly, someone screamed, “What is this!!!???” - okay they are funny and i respect the deception. also oooh scorpion tailed snake. oooh a horde of them. a classic cave blunder

“Yeah! The results are relatively the same as worshipping that rubbish immortal! The more you worship, the unluckier you become! “ “……” For an arrow to hit the bullseye despite being in a place so distant and unrelated, Xie Lian was left with no words. - oh my god xie lian are you wearing a spiritual “kick me” sign because it really feels like you are

HE GOT STUNG XIE LIAN NO

#i need to take a break from this i got fic to write #tgcf liveblog #mouse mumbles

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shadowingthemoonlight · 7 years

Text

SNOW pt.3

summary: after the accident, you were told your memories would come back to you, but it had been 3 years and you still didn’t know who you really were. Bucky remembers you, you were one of the things he clearly remembered but when he approached you and the life that had once flourished in your eyes was gone, as with the memory of him, was it worth the risk of telling you?

Pairing: buckyxreader + the Avengers

cher=snow

снежинка=snowflake

italics=memories bold=thoughts/dreams

word count: 1.9k

warnings: angst, fluff, fear, blood

PART 2 PART 1

holding his breath whilst his eyes examined the brown paper folder which contents seemed far too dense, his pupils lingered upon the letters which settled top left of the cover. his thumb traced the familiar name followed by the softening of eyes as the name its self-created warmth at such little contact. bucky knew that what lied beneath the cover of the folder, submerged in the pages would not only hold fragments of his haunted past but additionally hers, bringing uncertainty to the desire to open the folder completely. releasing his doubt through the exhale of his lungs, his fingertips found the paper clip which clung to the abundance of files and brought the item into the sunlight. tied to the briefing of his former comrade was 2 images of (y/n) from a time before and after he had met her. in the first she looked so young and radiant, her skin glowed followed by a joyous smile. The right image, however, made Bucky’s nerves crawl as the ghostly eyes that looked into the lens were not only laced with light bruising but had lost all sense of life, followed by a vanished smile. two instructors stood beside her with hands snaked around her forearm holding her tightly in place with one being a woman, whose blond hair fell just above her shoulder and the other, unfamiliar. “Tony found it with all the other hard copies of the Hydra information that he had gathered over the years, didn’t take him too long to dig back up as he knew where to look this time” Steve announced drawing Bucky attention away from the images, who responded with a confused look. “Natasha found one a while back about you” Steve reassured with a smile. “how long until we reach our destination?” Bucky questioned uneased at how the quinjet was flying. “ a couple more miles west, we’ll have to land quite a bit from the building as the area is used by the public, the surrounding forest will help cover us though.” steve stated whilst gesturing his hands over the screen that mapped out the area. While Steve continued to go over the mission bucky felt various emotions emerging from the files in his hands, which wasn’t practical when breaking into a modern Hydra base so he decided to not tread any deeper into them, and set the folder down without giving it another thought. “Do you think they have her?” gulped Bucky hearing the worry in his voice cut the air. “I can’t be sure buck, we’ve been monitoring this site for quite some time but it is suspicious that activity has picked up since you ran into her.” Bucky longed to see her again, that was certain, but prayed if she was somewhere in the building that she would be alive as the guilt began to set in that this could all be his fault.

harsh light clawed at your closed eyelids bringing awareness to the heaviness of your body and dazed mind. trying to raise your eyes was a challenge in its self-most mornings yet the disorientated state which you were in as you realised your body was seated up right, cause your eyelids to lurch open. bringing in your surrounds became difficult as the white walls reflected the harsh light provoking you to squint but in a few moments the light began to settle, and a new worry set in. regaining body strength you felt the grim pull of leather restraints embracing your thighs, shins, ankles and unsettling as it was, it wasn’t something which felt new. lowering your head the skin of your neck came in contact with an inhuman collar restraining you from much movement at all, and when you tried to bring your fingertips towards your throat, a severe pain plunged your wrists as the unknown cuffs tightened as you pulled cutting deeper into the already wounded flesh.

“she’s awake” echoed a male voice followed by heels clicking across the stone ground, every step making the beat of your heart slightly increase. you felt the needle before you saw it, the warm hum of chemicals flooding the skin of your shoulder. “I see you like drugging people” snarling as the familiar face of the woman appeared in front of you, taunting the syringe as tho it was a trophy. “That wasn’t a drug sweety the first one was but this"looking at the small amount of liquid which was left “this is a cure! I’m only replacing what we once took from you” and with the turn of her heel, she strutted away with the sounds of her footsteps descending rocking you into another unwanted sleep.

looking down the scope of his rifle, Bucky mapped out the area, counting how many guards were surrounding the building while Steve used a device which scanned the building from afar and created a 3D hologram of the building, inside and out. “there’s 5 towards us, 2 parallel us and 1 sniper up top” Bucky confirmed into hîs head piece waiting for steves reply. “You take out the sniper and the two either side of us while ill deal with the others.” “yes cap.” 3 gun shots pierced the air, alerting the other 5 on the ground to brace themselves, and that’s what they tried to do but Steve and his shield were too quick, and their unconscious bodies littered the ground. The two men sprinted towards the double doors which now flung open as more troops tumbled out towards them, taking the bullets bucky fired and the shield in which Steve threw. “There are multiple holding cells underground, it’s likely that she could be down there” stated Steve.

a calming tune of a song entered your mind, filling you up with warmth and peace as the melody sounded so periodic.

oh my precious girl if you ever become afraid I’m with you in this necklace it will keep the monsters at bay

“keep it close to you (y/n) always keep it close” “yes mom”

you thrashed against your restraints as memory after memory flooded back with the anger acting as fuel, but only cutting and bruising yourself even more than you already were. the 3 vacant years of your life that were spent not knowing anything, we’re now starting to remember it all. you remembered what they took What they did and who he was. “you have some guests” spoke the woman who stood at the door with her hand resting upon the handle. “No, please no Adeline” you begged her as you recognized the look on her face. Adeline grasped the handle of the door, and escorted in were 4 figures, each face covered by a bag. “The car crash, it is such a common death” smirked Adeline and she wandered over towards you and crouched down undoing the leather around your ankles. “can you remember anything about it?” she asked while working her way up, undoing the cuffs around your wrists. staring blankly at her, she pulled you to your feet using the collar still clasped around your throat. you stood helplessly as two men aimed their guns at you and watched as she fished into her blouse pocket and revealed a silver chain wrapped around her fingers. “there never was a car crash (y/n)” Adeline slowly spoke drawing each word out and finishing the sentence by letting the chain sway in her hand. “Where did u get that?!” you stuttered while staring at the chain witch ended with a dainty snowflake. all Adeline did was laugh at your question and brought her attention to the 4 masked figures in the room. “you know what kind death isn’t as common these days?” she grimly put as she removed the first bag whilst remaining eye contact with you the entire time. “is the death, at the hands of their own daughter” stepping aside, the unmasked figure raised there head leaving you in complete shock, you knew what was about to happen and moments later a handgun played in your right hand. “Why don’t you raise the gun, and say hello to your mother” Adeline cackled while ripping the other 3 remaining bags revelling your father, younger sister and brother. “do i have to say the words cher?” Adeline mocked knowing you had no choice in the matter. You tore your eyes away from where your family stood, not wanting to see the faces that they possessed. “Look at your mother” she screamed with annoyance and as you followed her command a single tear rolled down your cheek. holding the pendant a final smile left Adelines face as she parted her lips to speak “снежинка.”

bucky heart raced as they inched closer and closer towards the last interrogation room. “Steve!” Bucky shouted “I just heard 2 gunshots from inside” They both sprinted towards the door and with another gunshot sounding from inside, they both break through the door. the horrors of the scene which they had just fallen into were all too familiar to Bucky. There stood Adeline whose gaze was fixed on (y/n), and there she stood without any will of her own, the look of death glistening in her eyes as she held her handgun with a finger wrapped around the trigger. 3 bodies already were bleeding out, two of which were no older than 12. “oh my precious girl if you ever become afraid I’m with you in this necklace it will keep the monsters at bay” the woman hummed who had the gun pointed towards her head.

“but if the necklace shall fall dont threat for I will always be in a place called your heart where my love for you thrives in harmony“sobbed (y/n) whose steady hand was now shaking.

“снежинка” the final shell from her handgun fell towards the ground and he watched her body became limp as the handgun cascaded down. her knees buckled beneath her own weight followed by the cries as she reached for the woman. “it’s ok mom, everything going to be ok” she whispered trying to stop the bleeding, but Bucky watched her face turn pale as she saw the other 3 bodies that had fallen at her hands. “what have i done.”

she wispiered raising her head towards him

“what have i done.”

#bucky barnes imagine #bucky barnes #bucky barnes x reader #bucky one shot #bucky x reader #bucky barnes smut #steve rogers #steve x reader #steve x bucky

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bikenesmith · 6 years

Text

here are my thoughts on the good shit

# the gifted spoilers

(this is very long)

i missed last weeks & this weeks gifted episodes Live On TV because of work but i caught them both online right after the ep ended

(if you dont know you can watch episodes online for free on the fox website an hour after it airs central time; if you have a tv provider that carries fox you can watch it on the website live or right after)

soooooo basically, first off, i love lorna and i love marcos and i trust him dearly with lorna tbh. which like originally i was like Dont Like This about an established oc lorna ship right off the bat + the pregnancy thing but it’s very good so far

stlil apprehensive about the struckers re: fenris twins connection (though that plotline hasnt been explored further just yet) and to be honest they’re not getting too much character development and aren’t very interesting, especially the kids. i feel like there’s some potential there but they’re so cookie cutter and bland when compared to their co-stars.

reed’s development the past two episodes has actually been real interesting (for what it’s worth, him being a human ex-mutant prosecutor) and lorna totally chewing him out in the cell was refreshing and Necessary. i can at least admire his attempts to turn himself around and use his past sins to help mutants.

in contrast i don’t really have much sympathy for jace, i mean dad & daughter things always make me emotional no matter what, but seriously. you kill mutants because your daughter was caught in the crossfire? “i want bodies” etc... jail every possible sympathizer...bye. your trauma doesn’t excuse your prejudice b!

SPEAKING OF, the so-far-only-vaguely-mentioned catastrophe that supposedly involved the xmen & brotherhood and resulted in the disappearance of both groups and intensified mutant oppression & incarceration like. had me leaning in. the mystery of the history of that world is really fascinating to me, especially seeing this as a new universe that is a sort of parallel of another universe(s) that has/had it’s history closely examined in like 17 years of media.

and ughhhh i’m nooooot sure how i feel about the dreamer situation. there’s some really upsetting Themes connected to her powers (”don’t worry, you won’t feel a thing”) etc. ive mentioned this before but this connection of mental manipulation powers expressly to non-consensual themes in xmen is Real Bad and Feels Real Bad and is regressive honestly considering psionic mutant issues

certainly dreamer does not experience the same thing perhaps jean or charles or emma does, but the same message is there. the same “stay out of my head” message is as well. and the question of the necessity of mental manipulation is as well, but the gifted communicates that we are supposed to agree with blink (”what you do is wrong”) and not think about the fact that if not for dreamer’s actions many would be dead.

blink saying “what you do is wrong” instead of “what you did is wrong” is an important choice of words and despite the difference of the nature of dreamer’s powers, it speaks to an important dilemma among empaths/telepaths/people who can manipulate mentally of deciding when using their power for some greater good is good or bad and how that distinction relies heavily on other people’s boundaries and opinions (in a way that is heavily subjective).

most telepathic mutants find themselves being called upon to do things to people for Good Causes that are no longer Good Causes when they do them to another group of people or another person despite a similar type of urgency..which can be painful, isolating, and confusing.

for example dreamer being told she may need to wipe reed’s memories to protect the underground, but being told her decision to manipulate blink’s memories to make her open a portal is bad. blink saying “what you do is wrong”...communicates the idea that mental manipulation powers are inherently uncomfortable and “wrong” unless one can control how that person uses them/unless that person is serving ones purposes specifically. which is an idea that is like. present. no one wants to be mentally controlled.

it’s a very messy situation and a lot of it has to do with trust and consent and survival, and it just hasn’t been properly touched on through the eyes of someone with mental manipulation powers in xmen media.

anyway in conclusion the gifted has just been getting better & more complex and thought provoking & im very happy about that.

#the gifted spoilers

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conflictcrafter · 4 years

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The Humanity of Lord of War

when you make an artwork, you have to figure out your role. being the maker of something is the surface role. and it is necessary. the next step is to pick a shovel and dig. or mine.

we do not determine roles for the heck of it. we do it because it is both the goal and the core. the goal, the core, and the means should align. and when things are in order, beauty emerges, organically, even when the surface looks chaotic.

Andrew Niccol knew what his roles are in Lord of War. one of them is to explore an inquiry: what does it mean to be human?

this question has been explored in many punk films. Ridley Scott and Philip K Dick's Blade Runner films comes to mind. George Miller has also examined the question specially well in the recent Mad Max: Fury Road. these films put humanity in future punks, in a certain point in post-humanity, to hammer the question down.

Lord of War doesnt play with punks (we can call it presentpunk though). the historical events and the political conditions depicted in the film still ring bells. theoretically, the question is easier to grasp since it's set categorically in the present. this film, again, is not a punk where this question of humanity is often explored. but this is why literature or film is so beautiful: narrative elements, in this case the setting, bare different ways to answer the same query. also, familiar settings may bring out the most outlandish of answers.

What does it mean to be human 1: Beware of The Dog

Yuri (Nick Cage), after making his first gun trade, approaches his younger brother Vitaly (Jared Leto) who cooks in their Jewish family restaurant. while Yuri convinces Vi to be his gun trade partner, Yuri notices a poster in the kitchen that says: Beware of The Dog. "We dont have a dog (also why you put that in the kitchen?)," said Yuri. to which Vi responded:

"To remind myself to beware of the dog in me. The dog in me who wants to fuck everything that moves, fight and kill weaker dogs. I guess it's a . . . to remind me to be more human."

halfway through the film, Vi succumbs into cocaine addiction due to Yuri's involvement in his life. it was as though the film was telling us that Vi is indeed a dog. running and fucking around.

but when Vi finally met "a girlfriend," he changes and leaves the cocaine. Yuri comes back into his life and convinces him again to be his partner. in a deal in Sierra Leone, Vi, now sober, witnessed the bloody effects of illegal gun trade to African civilians.

in an effort to sabotage the deal and potentially save innocent people, Vi is able to blow half of the arms and is consequently killed by the warlords.

Vi dies a martyr. loyal dogs die as martyrs. martyrs transcend humanity.

What does it mean to be human 2: I Won’t Fail as a Human Being

Yuri returns home to his wife Ava Fontaine (Bridget Moynahan) who now knows about her husband's illegal gunrunning business.

Ava is informed by idealistic Interpol agent Jack Valentine (Ethan Hawke) of her husband's illegal arms activities. he reminds Ava that her parents were gunned by people who got their guns illegally from arms dealers like Yuri.

later that evening, Yuri comes home to a naked wife, unable to wear her silk sleeping dress, unable to lie on their bed, because to her, "Everything’s got blood on it."

she confronted Yuri and he finally confessed to his wife his real occupation. she tells Yuri to stop it since they have enough. but Yuri said he couldnt just quit because it isnt about the money. it is what he is good at.

Ava tells her husband that she "is a failed actress, a failed artist. But she doesnt fail to be human."

while Yuri feels that being human means getting one's dreams, having a lucrative lifestyle, proving to other humans that one is the best; for Ava though, humanity is as simple as not inflicting harm to other human beings.

What does it mean to be human 3: The Reptile Tail

after being confronted by Ava and Vi, Yuri finally decides to go legit. suddenly, he is not an arms dealer anymore, and he got agents confused.

this is the part of the film that youd wish the main character has truly changed, with all the things and relationships he has at stake, youd want the main character to change. Niccol teases us that, that narrative relief. but if you know how plot works, you know Yuri hasnt reached that ultimate fall.

so after going legit, he is pulled back into the arms dealing business by the self-proclaimed president of Liberia, Andre Baptise.

you would want to feel that Yuri would be doing it forcibly in fear for his family's safety. but no. when the scene with him and the Andre cuts, we hear Yuri:

"At four and a half months old, a human fetus has a reptile's tail—a remnant of our evolution. Maybe that is why I could't escape. You can fight a lot of enemies and survive. But if you fight your biology, you will always lose."

Yuri's biological mumbling here is based on the evolutionary development studies of Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) which theorizes that embryonic stages of development reflect the previous adult evolutionary forms of the specie (ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny).

Yuri is basically saying that since humans were previously non-humans, reflected by having actual tails while developing in the womb, humans will always go back in to behaving as animals. and that we can never fight it.

Yuri is wrong. for starters, Haeckel's hypothesis, the Recapitulation Theory, is long defunct.

while embryos have "tails," this does not represent the evolutionary process of a specie.

we don't have embryonic tails because thats how we evolved. we just had tails. that's just it.

thus, we are not echoes of a long evolution of reptiles. and what Yuri is telling himself is merely a rationalization defense mechanism to justify his illegal arms dealing.

and it's completely human to rationalize immoral behavior.

in insisting biology and in exercising rationalization, Yuri has perfectly demonstrated the frailty of human beings: giving intellectual justifications to humans' animalistic tendencies. Yuri has satisfied the id in booming his ego.

but being human isnt only about rationalizing.

being human also means thinking about the welfare of other human beings.

Yuri has become, if not the best, one of the bests in illegal arms dealing. in essence, he has become a superpower in the trade. but Yuri, in Nietzsche's eyes is far from being an Ubermensch.

in Kant's eyes, Yuri has trampled the categorical imperative.

in our eyes, Yuri is not a hero.

and this is what makes him human: his acceptance of life's dramatic irony. he knows, he sees, he "appreciates" the negative implications of what he does, and what's coming. yet he still does it. he is helplessly and happily trapped like all of us.

II.

although we follow closely the life of Yuri, in a "story" perspective, it's Vitaly that ultimately follows the heroic arc. Vitaly is the proxy hero to Yuri, Yuri doesnt undergo metamorphosis. but Vitaly does.

hence the film is a character study of how a human being can become a monster: by allowing and being part of something that is systematically bad and irreversible.

Niccol illustrates the monstrosity of Yuri not by making the character violent. he ingeniously does it by portraying Yuri as a kind and generous person who often describes and treats the people who are really close to him well. he, in his monologues, talks a great deal about them in good terms. yet he never talks about himself in such way. in fact, he never talks about himself at all.

and this where NIccol's genius comes: he makes Yuri seamlessly not talk about himself because in truth, Yuri hates himself. and a monster is a monster is he hates himself.

in the end, nothing is solved. what wins is the human basal instinct to harm others and at the same time, be detached from it. more than a narrative work, the film is a challenge:

how much humanity are we willing to let go to feel human?

III.

the film has managed to be an artwork that also talks about important world issues. and if there is something that an artist should takeaway from the viewing, it should be seeing how art and function can go together neatly.

the only failure of the film, albeit minor, is despite the great research that the creative production team has gone through to parallel real events, it fell short in interpreting Interpol's function properly. Interpol doesnt at all conduct arrests.

aside from that, Lord of War is a solid 9/10 for its take on the question of humanity.

_____ non-film image sources in order of appearance: 1. https://image.slidesharecdn.com/defensemechanism-160520104849/95/defense-mechanism-40-638.jpg?cb=1463741864

2. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/30/22/3b/30223b65bc57c735199209472b57c0b3.jpg

3. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/c0/16/e2/c016e21b69049ab2c7a02caa1bd9e24d.jpg

#Lord of War #Andrew NIccol #kant #nietzsche #ubermensch #categorical imperative #freud #rationalization #defense mechanism #human #humanity

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sights-on-the-scifi · 4 years

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THE COMPLETE SIGHTS OF SCIFI STAR WARS REVIEW PART 3.

https://sights-on-the-scifi.tumblr.com/post/189204895641/the-complete-sights-of-scifi-star-wars-review-part PART 2

THE ORIGINAL TRILOGY 1977, 1980, 1983.

The movies that started it all! For this part of the review ill be covering only the theatrical prints of the original movies and not their special editions as I dont view those as legitimate versions of these classics. Ill examine their strengths, their weaknesses and more.

A NEW HOPE/STAR WARS 1977.

What more is there to say about this movie that has not already been said by countless others? This film represents a defining moment in cinematic history and the start of a franchise that has been going strong for 41 years inspiring countless imitators and successors like MASS EFFECT for example. Well, while there is not much new stuff that can be said for the qualities of its storytelling, pacing etc and there are obviously cracks on its surface... There are still things in it that thanks to new media context, have really enriched its universe and appeal to me personally and I assume this is the same for many others.

With age and the media which surrounds it STAR WARS has only gotten better and better so ill be talking about the ways in which this universe both provided a foundation for amazing things to come and in so doing was enhanced by what eventually did so.

AN AWE INSPIRING UNIVERSE BORN OUT OF THE SIMPLEST SCENE.

I dont think it is an exaggeration to say that this famous Cantina scene in STAR WARS is probably almost single handily responsible for making this universe feel so diverse, culturally distinctive and expansive. It was that good at inspiring awe and wonder in audiences that its effects can still be felt in all of STAR WARS media today! What this really was way back in 1977 is simply the filmmakers gathering a collection of random props, makeup effects and alien masks... Putting them on a bunch of actors who were then told to mingle to create the illusion this was a planet full of alien life. But an unexpected result of these simple efforts was that future creators would take all of these elements and use them as a foundation to enrich the universe in small and large ways.

Everything you saw in this Cantina, today has now been given extensive backstory in lore or been reincorporated into future STAR WARS media. Not only that but this scene has also been reinterpreted/reinvented countless times in the series, a part of this franchises identity.

For example who would of thought back in 77 that two random dudes wearing these blue, bulbous space alien masks would become the catalyst for creating an entire species in the STAR WARS universe? What we now call the Duros. Not only that but it would also be a species that gave us memorable characters like Cad Bane and Shriv two personal favourites of mine! :D

Ofcourse you also have the fan favourite Rodians etc.

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THE TONE AND AESTHETICS OF A GALAXY AT WAR.

The war depicted in STAR WARS shares a lot true to life parallels with our own world and its history. People have called this series WORLD WAR 2 IN SPACE! and that is because of the obvious fact that well... It is! A band of Rebels in this case standing in for the allied nations fighting for freedom and democracy against a bleak, authoritarian and ruthlessly militant galactic empire who stand in for the Nazi war machine. The costumes for the imperial leadership was intended by the designers to evoke the aesthetics of fascism, this extends to the design of their technology, architecture, military and the naming of the soldiers within it. “Storm troopers” this is the name of an elite branch of German soldiers for example, Darth Vaders helmet also echoes the look of WW2 German soldier headgear.

Even the actors cast to portray these ruthless characters within the empire share close resemblance to top Nazi leadership. This extends to hair style and individual performances... The leadership is shown to be petty, cruel, spiteful and short tempered arguing over how brutal their tactics should be to incite fear. The tool for which they use to assert dominance and control over the galaxy. Like I described in earlier review post parts, I really love how the new STAR WARS media provides greater clarity and context to this organisation of evil, giving us more reason to despise it and relate to the rebels doing everything they can to stop it.

Take a battle scene from STAR WARS, make it greyscale and put it next to a WW2 movie or real life photo of the conflict and you will see some striking resemblances.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE REBEL ALLIANCE.

The rebels are portrayed in STAR WARS to be much more colourful, given the WW2 parallels this means they also share a lot of resemblances to allied troops and pilots. Their soldiers are less equipped but are much more relatable to the audience because in contrast to the Storm Troopers you can see their faces, you see their fear but also their bravery in the face of this relentless enemy especially in the opening sequence as they defend the princess from imperial forces. Women are also shown to be play an active role in the politics of this galaxy and even the fighting as Leia resists interrogation and can even defend herself if need be.

Future STAR WARS media really expands and deepens the relatability of this alliance by showing us the reasons they fight against this fascist empire. Also the diversity of their leadership and forces are shown to us with the inclusion of species from all over the galaxy come RETURN OF THE JEDI be that with the famous Mon Calamari Admiral Ackbar or Rogue one’s Admiral Raddus.

THE MUSIC OF STAR WARS.

Without John Williams score it is safe to say that this franchise would of not been as successful as it was. The emotions it generates and the way it themes the struggle between good and evil is breathtaking even years later, other composers have been chasing its shadow ever since too, with varying degrees of success.

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Its classic symphony orchestra at its finest. This kind of soundtrack is also widely used in most WW2 film media.

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.

This movie has been called a masterpiece and for good reason as it takes what was established in the first movie and expands on it in incredibly unique and also dark ways all with sleek film making techniques. Showing our characters at their lowest point, providing shocking story revelations, expanding the true meaning of the force and more... This was all accomplished not by Lucas this time but by director Irvin Kershner which brings up a very important point. STAR WARS is truly at its best when its given to different directors who can really take a good long look at this rather simplistic source material and then reinterpret in a unique way to become something greater.

STAR WARS owes its success to the talents of not one, but thousands of people all in many different creative departments too especially the music for example.

Through the eyes of Irvin Kershner we get a much darker, but much more complex vision of the STAR WARS universe and its great cast of both new and returning characters. To this day the EMPIRE STRIKES BACK serves as the gold standard for what constitutes a greater follow up to a science fiction story or its middle chapter. MASS EFFECT 2 for example is a game that tried to echo this films darkness and more complex story directions, which can be felt in the visual design, narrative themes and more.

Without EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, this franchise would have not had the boost it needed to go from being simply popular to then being cemented in the pop cultural conscious for years to come. So much of this movie is now essential to the franchise canon and identity that Lucas’s prequel trilogy also tried to chase its shadow with ATTACK OF THE CLONES and REVENGE OF THE SITH with mixed success...

I love it, perhaps even more than the first movie which is a rare feat for a sequel to pull off.

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RETURN OF THE JEDI.

This final movie for me has to be the weakest link in the original trilogy... It serves as the STAR WARS franchise’s crossroads title, wherein the values that defined this series started to become a little strange, distorted and perhaps even altered in detrimental ways. If you want to know where the bizarre humour, crazy dialogue and more in the STAR WARS prequels originates from for example. Welp, this is your answer unfortunately...

RETURN OF THE JEDI in comparison to the first two movies is weaker in terms of pacing, themes, cinematography, originality and more. A lot of this stems from the fact its not trying to be as bold and risk taking as the EMPIRE STRIKES BACK for example, it is silly and self referential in a way that it distracts from the areas it does succeed at. All of this is in service to the franchise embracing its marketability over true creativity...

I still love the final confrontation between the Emperor, Luke and Vader... The battle to destroy the second DeathStar or the fun if a bit nonsensical rescue of Han Solo in the opening. But I dont love the Ewoks, the groan inducing dialogue, or the rubbish comedy that damages the overall tone and stagnates the middle of the story.

RETURN OF THE JEDI is still a fun adventure, just not the most solid... In general a third entry in a science fiction franchise is never going to be as good as the first two. So perhaps it was to be expected.

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Welp! That is it for this retrospective of the original trilogy! :D Still there is more to come as we look at the media that will take us into THE FORCE AWAKENS so stay tuned for that!.

#star wars #Original trilogy #Science fiction

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bi-antagonist · 7 years

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(posting it like this instead of answering cause I put an “under the cut” line and we all know tumblr mobile screws it up when you break text in an ask)

Sorry for taking so long, I wanted to give my full attention to this ask aaaaaaahhhh I'm slow at this.

Anyway, thank you for asking! This is an au I'm all too happy to share (since I dont plan on ever writing it lol)!!! It got a little bit out of hand, but whatever

Idk exactly how they would join Team Rocket, but it probably would take some manipulation on Giovanni's part

In this AU they start their journey later (Red with 15 and Green with 16), so Giovanni doesn't see them as mere kids and takes them more seriously right from the start

Green is the easiest to persuade. People said his success was due to his grandfather's name, that he was too arrogant, too forward, too this, too that... media doesn't go easy on teens, especially on teens like Green. And my man Gio took advantage

Red was the hardest... but at his age, he quickly realized he hated fame and media and cameras. He actually took down the Team Rocket hideout and reached Giovanni at Silph Co but... he was slowly getting fed up. He was so done.

Idk the details yet, but both of them give up before Viridian and join the rockets. They don't even become grunts, they go directly to rank A and start wearing the black uniform. No one’s shocked

They never end up stepping further and wearing silver (rank A+). Giovanni deems them too rebellious and independent for that. Why? Simple:

- They don’t wear the uniform properly. Green uses the black crop top with nothing below it, and he also cut off the sleeves during summer because it was too hot and unfashionable (even when you’re a criminal in kanto you gotta follow the trends). Red refuses to use long gloves and wears his cap instead of the official Team Rocket one. - None of them follow the poison type aesthetic, fuck that shit. - Oh? You aren’t supposed to hang around the boss and annoy him? Word? Well too fucking bad. - Giovanni is tired. It at least distracts him from the fact that wow, Persian really needs to visit the pokemon salon soon

Most of their missions are causing ruckus as a distraction, fighting higher ranked trainers to prove Team Rocket's strength (aka: battling gym leaders over and over again just to prove a point), humiliate the league by once in a while stepping out and winning battle after battle against the elite four (Lance has so many bags under his eyes he could sell them)...

In fact, they have a thing for going in there and becoming champions once in a while. Them. World known criminals. Red has been champion for two years now and Green is pissed

One day they see Leaf and are like "nah, that one is good to take the throne, she can be champion without us playing around anymore"

She becomes champion a few months afterwards. She steals the title from Green - who had finally won against Red ten minutes prior

When they do wanna act like normal citizens and do mundane stuff, they get disguises: Green flattens his hair, buys expensive clothes and walks around like a model magazine catalogue (working for the mafia brings money),... if people recognize him they say nothing

Red just has to throw a hoodie over his cap and boom, no one bats an eye. He has a talent when it comes to becoming invisible

Once Giovanni turned to Red and asked if he didn’t want to give him his Pikachu, since it was a strong pokemon and Team Rocket could benefit from "examining" it. The murderous look Red shot his way was enough to shut that idea down

The older they get, the more Giovanni starts going to pokemon-ebay. The bags under his eyes are Gucci and they're worth money

He's not tired because they are a mess (okay, that’s a lie, they wear him out a lot), he’s tired because they make Team Rocket grow considerably and give him more shit to work on

Red slowly establishes a law where every pokemon they test and experiment on has to be well treated and needs some heavy dose of human affection and attention. At first everyone was like "fuck no, that's not evil enough"... but then they realized treating pokemon well brought benefits and improved the quality and results of their work so they went with it

Green is in charge of training the rookies along with other rank B rockets (gym leader parallel much?)

Ethan one day appears out of nowhere and tries to bring them back to the good side. He's kicked in the ass for the next twenty battles just for his hero complex

When he does win against them, they pay him an expensive breakfast and give him Red's old masterball

The money comes from Lance’s credit card, which Green stole

Green adapts easily to villain life... Red? Not so much.

He never wanted to be a bad guy. He wakes up at night and just stares at the ceiling for hours thinking what he has done with his life

One of those nights he gets up and goes to Green's quarters. He never sleeps on his room afterwards (green's bed is warm, familiar, and sometimes makes him forget all of his mistakes because hey, at least he gets to wake up at 5am with someone pressed against his back, cuddling him)

Green doesn't admit it but he thinks about his family a lot. And what a disappointment he must be

At least Giovanni doesn’t treat him as second option

It sucks to be a hero stuck on the role of villain

After a while Team Rocket’s sadistic side starts to rub on them and they (Green especially) just start to… be awfully intimidating in battle while giving off a misleading, serene look

Red manages to get even more deadpan than before. Seriously, when he’s on missions, it doesn’t even look like he has a soul till he starts battling and some maniac passion is brought to the surface

Red and Green get together without even realizing it. Sleeping on the same bed, watching out for each other in battle, see who can dress the uniform faster, who can get to the other side of town first, assaulting the kitchen at 4am to make pancakes, chasing away ghosts in Lavender Town, fussing over Ethan and Leaf when they should be trying to knock them down instead... suddenly they are holding hands and wishing each other good luck. Soon they cuddle without realizing. Soon they kiss each other after a rather rough day and are like woah, this' a thing now.

Don’t take all of this as a cute story tho, they’re in Team Rocket, and even though Giovanni ends up getting a little bit softer, he’s still their boss at the end of the day. He still sends them off on awful mission that leave them nauseous, he still threatens them whenever they screw up big time, and most importantly, he’s still an awful man who only cares about money and success

He wouldn’t have picked Red and Green otherwise

#namelessshipping #trainer red #trainer green #team rocket au #wow this got a lot longer than i was expecting #if anyone wants to add tot his feel welcome #this is a mess ahah #but damn i've been thinking about this au for ages now #sorry to give such a long answer #i managed to turn an ask in something this long omg kill me

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ascwomenandfilm · 4 years

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The Beguiled and the Female Gaze

Because the male gaze is a cinematic reflection of the existing patriarchal power structure, I don’t think an argument can be made for an equivalent female gaze. While women can certainly objectify men based on appearance and sexual desire, the male gaze is unique in its being a tool of how women are already viewed outside a film. Cinema didn’t create the male gaze, it incorporated the way women are systemically objectified and judged based on how well they conform to standards of femininity into an art form. Thus, there can be a coinciding female perspective within film, but I believe that the male gaze comes with an implication of power that the female gaze does not have.

That being said, I think The Beguiled did manage to subvert the traditional male gaze in terms of prioritizing female sexuality and desire in the way the film is framed. In Harrison Tunggal’s review, he points out the ways in which Coppola as a female director centers the female characters’ gaze over the males’. The way the film is shot makes it clear who holds the power, putting McBurney in the place of the audience as a spectator. Underneath it all it is the women’s desire that drives the plot, not the man’s, even in scenes where the gendered power dynamics seem to blur. It’s reminiscent of Briellat’s Fat Girl, another female director who explores the complicated nature and contradictions of female sexuality in a male power-dominated setting. There are parallels between Anais’ rape scene and the sex scene between McBurney and Edwina, both highlighting male strength and power with underlying female desire. Both scenes have a feral, dreamlike quality which serves to almost remove the acts from the bounds of social convention. It gives the scenes a perverse sense of autonomy, despite the fact that both Anais and Edwina have reason to fear for their lives. The Beguiled and Fat Girl paradoxically redefine the male gaze by leaning into power imbalance and violence while centering female sexuality. It’s not the female gaze so much as a female interpretation of and experience with the male gaze, focusing on female desire while also addressing the reality of unequal power in sexual situations.

However, focusing solely on the gendered aspect only touches the surface; to truly understand the idea of the female gaze, specifically in the film The Beguiled, there must be an acknowledgement of intersectionality in how race plays a part in viewing cinema. The subject of race, or rather the lack thereof, was something Coppola was criticized for, erasing Edwina’s identity as a biracial woman and leaving out the character of an enslaved Black woman. This alleged whitewashing was explored in Sonia Rao’s article, which pointed out that given its context of the Civil War race should have been mentioned more than in a single throwaway line. This brings up the problems covered in Watermelon Woman of the ways in which Black women are excluded from historical and cultural narratives in the media. Dunye exposed the ways in which white feminism has failed Black women, and The Beguiled is a prime example of a supposedly feminist film which excludes the struggles of Black women entirely. The Beguiled cannot achieve a truly feminist vision on film because it is glaringly selective about the type of women it gives voice to. If it creates a female gaze, it is a female gaze defined by whiteness, and as such cannot claim to represent all women. This is not to say that the film does not have worth within feminist critique, but it must be named as it is: a white female gaze, and a white feminist vision on film.

Angela Jade Bastien’s article takes a different perspective on how The Beguiled handles race. She argues that the fact that the film focuses solely on white women allows it to critique the ways in which white femininity overlaps with white supremacy. Rather than play into tropes of white female frailty and purity, as is common in most period films, Coppola shines a light on the privilege inherent in their positions, and the ways in which the characters manipulate it to fulfil their own desires. According to Bastien, it’s an exploration of the “myths of white womanhood — how they use fragility as a shield for deviousness and insulate themselves from the horrors of a world that they too are responsible for” (Bastien 4). This comes in stark contrast to the 1994 Little Women, which Grasso’s article lampooned for playing into myths of white Republican Motherhood, portraying a wholesome fantasy rather than a reality. It is certainly noteworthy to examine the different ways in which the two films use the context of the Civil War. Both steer clear of the unsavory political and historical realities of the war and slavery, but The Beguiled in its absence provides commentary on the ways in which ideals of white southern womanhood are rooted in subjugation and the weaponizing of white female fragility. Little Women portrays white women the way they want to be seen, The Beguiled shows them as they are. Gillian Armstrong’s film was a reflection of third wave feminism, centering white female voices within a socially acceptable heteronormative family structure, The Beguiled was a reflection of Coppola’s directorial fixation on, as Bastien puts it, “the beauty and fragility of white women” (2). If there’s an argument to be made for the female gaze, it’s one defined by whiteness, and as such must be analyzed within the social context in which it was created: a largely privileged sphere creating a privileged female aesthetic within film.

Given these limitations, I cannot with good conscience say that The Beguiled is successful at creating a truly feminist vision on film. I believe that it certainly serves a purpose in deviating from narratives dominated by the male perspective, but lauding it for creating a true feminist vision is too broad a claim when it focuses on white femininity specifically. It has its place within the new feminist framework of film analysis, but it is certainly not the be all and end all. Ultimately I do not think there can be a female gaze because there is no one female vision, nor can we expect there to be. The male gaze speaks to the male dominated power structure in film as a reflection of society, which is why it can be so essentialist a term. It’s a way to let us think critically about how patriarchy affects media, it’s a broader social analysis. Because there is no female equivalent to that power structure, because there is no matriarchy, there can be no argument for the existence of the female gaze that has the same implications or offers viewers the same perspective or social commentary.

Bastien, Angelica Jade. “How The Beguiled Subtly Tackles Race Even When You Don’t See It.” The Vulture, 10 July 2017, https://www.vulture.com/2017/07/the-beguiled-subtly-tackles-race-even-when-you-dont-see-it

Grasso, Linda. “Louisa May Alcott's "Magic Inkstand": Little Women, Feminism, and the Myth of Regeneration.” Frontiers, 1998, pp. 177.

Rao, Sonia. “Sofia Coppola’s ‘The Beguiled’ criticized forleaving out a slave narrative from theConfederate South.” The Washington Post, 22 June 2017. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2017/06/22/sofia-coppolas-the-beguiled-criticized-for-leaving-out-a-slave-narrative

Tunggal, Harrison. “‘The Beguiled’ subverts male gaze through Sofia Coppola’s powerhouse direction.” The Daily Californian, 29 June 2017, https://www.dailycal.org/2017/06/29/beguiled-sofia-coppola-nicole-kidman-colin-farrell/

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Forget Dystopias, These Sci-Fi Writers Opt For Optimism Instead

New Post has been published on https://writingguideto.com/must-see/forget-dystopias-these-sci-fi-writers-opt-for-optimism-instead/

Forget Dystopias, These Sci-Fi Writers Opt For Optimism Instead

Its hot, and youre walking. Shuffling, actually. Youve spanned a seemingly endless chalk-dry plane, and youre thirsty, run-down, exhausted. You think about your flaking, parched lips and aching muscles, and about how your arduous journey will be worth it if you ever reach your destination. An immigrant, youre searching for a new place to live, because the place you call home has become barely livable. Youre thinking about the hot dirt sweat-caked on your skin when youre interrupted by an even greater pain — your tooth, recently implanted with a geo-location chip, is practically vibrating. This means youre close.

So begins Madeleine Ashbys short story, By the Time We Get to Arizona, published last year in Hieroglyph, a collection of science-fiction stories meant to inspire readers about the possibilities the future holds, rather than invoke fear about impending societal doom. Solutions to climate change catastrophes abound in the series; so do suggestions for jumping forward in our approach to space exploration technologies. Ashbys story — a spinoff of her Masters thesis on making border security more humane — explores a world where guns and guards are replaced by sensors and facial recognition technology.

Conceived of by Neal Stephenson — a celebrated writer whose most recent novel ventures a guess at what post-Earth diplomacy might look like — Hieroglyph showcases a growing crew of writers who, by commission or by choice, present sunnier alternatives to the now-prevalent, Hunger Games-fueled dystopia trend. These arent the stifling factions of Divergent or the heart-pounding twists and turns of The Maze Runner; they arent the bleak worlds crafted by Margaret Atwood or even the fable-like, anti-technology morals embedded in movies like Wall-E. Although many of the stories in Hieroglyph highlight societal problems, they have technological solutions to those problems embedded within them.

The anthology, along with the few others like it, was divisive in the science-fiction community. One camp, headed up by Stephenson, holds the belief that scientists and engineers could use a positive push from the writers whose job it is to imagine what the future will look like. Writers, Stephenson asserts, have a responsibility not only to confront social problems, but to provide potential solutions, too. So, a socially disheveled community like The Hunger Games Panem might feature a technology that allows citizens to communicate with each other, and fight back. Because these writers are using their fiction to provide solutions to contemporary problems, many necessarily couch their stories in grim scenarios the characters must escape from. Sexism, racism and classism are addressed, if subtly.

This doesnt sit well with the other school of readers and writers, who lament the days when an interstellar story was a joyride, whizzing quickly past social justice issues towards thrilling plot twists. One particularly rabid breed of decriers are the writers who make up a group called the Sad Puppies, who banded together during The Hugo Awards to stack the vote against minority and women writers. The problem, they claim, is that the science-fiction community has prioritized social justice and diversity, ignoring superior prose and more inventive stories as a result. Science-fiction, they say, is about fun. Its about escaping the problems of the real world through otherworldly scenarios — including dystopias — in which a central hero implausibly conquers evil alone, rather than with the aid of collective thinking and the useful technologies that arise from it.

The future of science-fiction — which, if George Orwells Nineteen Eighty-Four or Aldous Huxleys Brave New World are indicators, runs parallel with the future of science and technology on our own planet — probably lies somewhere on the vast, auroral spectrum between these two approaches. So, its worth examining both, and the groups of writers propelling them.

***

Now is not a time for realism, Margaret Atwood said in a recent interview with NPR, succinctly summarizing why so many literary writers flock to fantasy, to dystopia, to amplifying the threat of impending problems — environmental and political — that arent yet a reality.

Though the genre has seen a spike in popularity within teen-centric reading communities, its seeped into the realm of grown-up storytelling more than ever. Which isnt to say its unfamiliar territory for writers of adult literary fiction. In fact, dystopian stories began, arguably, with a weird, little book written by Mary Shelley in 1826 thats since become a beloved classic: The Last Man. The story centers on a plague-addled Europe, where a man named Lionel struggles to survive alongside various extant communities. Theres a false messiah, political turmoil, and all the other makings of a present-day dystopia. Though Shelleys book wasnt recognized until the 1960s, others like it by Jules Verne and H.G. Wells surfaced shortly thereafter, spawning a sub-genre of writing that asks timeless questions about human nature, and how it responds to dire, life-threatening scenarios.

But today, with a few notable exceptions (Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, Gold Fame Citrus by Claire Vaye Watkins), popular dystopian stories have lost a bit of their original complexity. They tend to be thinly cloistered morality lessons, better suited for young readers. Rather than highlighting the nuances of human interactions, they tend to generalize, and draw hard lines between good and evil.

Why are more and more adult literary writers, and adult literary fiction readers, opting into the rather nihilistic and juvenile genre? Its a quandary posed again and again by columnists, providing more questions than answers — perhaps because the answer is hazy. It could be that the genre distracts readers from present realities, or provides a puzzle-like, limited scenario for a protagonist to work through, so different from the more fractured plot of real life. Or, it could be that our present realities seem increasingly fantastical, due to the quick proliferation of disastrous events filling our Twitter feeds alongside our friends quotidian musings.

Madeline Ashby believes its the latter.

There are elements of dystopia in everybodys lives, she said in an interview with The Huffington Post. Remember the Christmas protests in Ferguson? Theres this image of riot police under this big electrified, Seasons Greetings banner. If you search for Ferguson plus Seasons plus Greetings, youll find the picture. I found it, and I tweeted in all caps, WHY DO SO MANY KIDS LOVE DYSTOPIA? HM, I WONDER.

Ashby cites her own dystopia-like governmental interactions as inspiration for many of her sci-fi stories, including By the Time We Got to Arizona. In 2006, she immigrated to Canada, and says the process, for her, was dehumanizing.

My immigration took over a year, she said, adding that she feels fortunate — for other people immigrating to Canada, two years is the average wait-time.

During that process youre essentially a number and a sheet of paper. You feel it every time they ask you progressively more invasive questions, Ashby added, sharing an anecdote about how immigration questions reduce complex romantic relationships to statistics-based judgement calls. [Theyd ask] things like, Can you describe to us the number and monetary value of gifts exchanged between the two of you. And then you start to think, oh, OK, the quality of my relationship is already interpreted through capital. I have a monetary value.

In her short story, Ashby acknowledges these issues, but also offers solutions to the problem. She notes that by working change-inspiring technologies into her plots, she’s at the very least offering readers a sense of hope.

Dystopia is very useful in grappling with the world as it exists, Ashby said. Its a really stylized, formalized way of talking about things that are already happening in practice. But utopia, or more optimistic stories, can also be useful, because you can imagine a future that you actually want.

Ashbys fiction is informed by her other, more technical approach to writing. After studying Strategic Foresight and Innovation at the Ontario College of Art and Design, she started getting gigs drafting potential future scenarios for organizations such as Intel Labs and Nesta. Envisioning the future on behalf of corporations and research labs isnt exactly an established career path — actually, it sounds a little like something out of a sci-fi novel. But Ashby isnt the only writer who moonlights as a narrative scenario practitioner. Theres a host of organizations dedicated to allowing sci-fi writers to draft potential outcomes for specific companies or entire industries. Sci Futures, a sort of think tank dedicated to providing these services to clients such as Crayola, Ford, and Lowes, has a pithy tagline encapsulating their mission: “Where sci-fi gets real. A comparable organization, 2020 Media Futures, describes its mission as, an ambitious, multi-industry strategic foresight project designed to understand and envision what media may look like in the year 2020.

So, the research interests are vast. Of her work with Intel Labs and beyond, Ashby said, They often tell me, we want the future of intelligent systems, or the future of warfare in smart cities, the future of a world without antibiotics, the future of programmable matter, or the Internet of things.

Because Ashby spends considerable time dreaming up innovative solutions to social problems, she cant help but imbue her stories with similar gizmos and features. Her stories dont always involve positive situations for her characters, but they do often incorporate technologies that could solve said characters problems.

This is the central tenet of techno-optimism, the breed of science-fiction writing thats working to counter the rough terrain of dystopia, barren and desolate as it is; thirsty, it sometimes seems, for a solution thats bigger than a big-hearted narrator.

Writer and anthology editor Kathryn Cramer was a reluctant adopter of the genre. When aforementioned writer Stephenson, author of Seveneves, approached her to edit a collection of stories united under the banner of positive change, she worried the stories themselves would suffer from lack of plot, and lack of diversity. But, as she commissioned works of techno-optimism, she realized the genre promotes diverse voices rather than suppressing them. Her fears were quelled.

When we contemplate dark scenarios or disasters for the future, it is perhaps an ethically and morally good thing to do to figure out what the solutions might be, especially technological solutions, Cramer said in an interview with HuffPost. If we look at the 20th century, there are a whole lot of things that changed our lives in good ways, and solved a lot of problems, ranging from vaccines and refrigerated food transportation to frozen food. Some of them are sexy, like space travel, but a lot of them are things that improved everybodys lives in ways we might notve expected. Preservatives, things like that.

Cramers altruistic outlook hints at her thoughts on what a book can, and should, accomplish. While she believes writers have a responsibility to push innovation in a positive direction, some readers and writers think that mindset interferes with the quality of a story. So addressing societal problems, be it via extended, post-apocalyptic metaphors, or via similarly bleak settings peppered with hope, doesnt sit well with all sci-fi readers. Most notably, there are those — cue the Sad Puppies — who are nostalgic for the days of so-called Golden Age sci-fi: Star Trek-like space-travel adventures that offer a means of briefly escaping the restrictions of the real world. Nimble writing and world-building is supposedly the aim for such stories; political opinions, solutions-oriented and otherwise, are actively eschewed.

But the Puppies agenda — which resulted in No Award being given at the Hugo Awards this year in categories for which only white men were nominated — extends beyond particular tastes in writing styles. Claiming science-fiction has opted for affirmative action-guided decisions rather than supporting story-centric writing, they lobbied to place white, male writers — including themselves — on the award ballots.

Ashby spoke passionately against the Puppies movement: Thats part of their battle cry: Why do we have to think about social issues in our science fiction? Why do we have to think about other genders, or sexualities, or economic circumstances? Why cant it just be fun like it used to be? Well, yeah, Im sure it was really fun when you werent thinking about it. Everythings a lot more fun when youre not thinking about it.

Thinking about it, according to Ashby, involves confronting the dire state of life for some social groups. It involves constructing a narrative that encourages the reader to consider the lives of others, rather than just getting lost in his own fantasy world, in which he alone is the hero and the solution. It involves hope not in the form of a triumphant narrator, but in the technologies we can create when we do something really miraculous: work together.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

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