What was it like when Mark and Cesar reunited? Was Mark kinda iffy around Cesar because of the whole alt pretending to be him thing

Mark and Cesar reunited around four/five months after their initial deaths, and although they both had their bumps and damage from their respective situations; Mark had been a lot more psychologically damaged by the torment caused to him via the guy that both killed and looked like his best friend.

When the two reunited, Cesar was nearly all over him super excited; happy to see his best friend yet albeit upset about the fact that she only learned of Mark’s similar fate because of their reincarnation as ghosts. Mark, on the other hand, had any and all excitement about seeing Cesar again clouded by sheer panic; because Alt!Cesar and Cesar both look like mirror copies of each other, the only difference being small ones like tone of voice or how they hold themselves.

Their relationship was a bumpy one to repair back to normal, because they both still cared for and missed one another but Mark’s pre-death PTSD mixed in with the trauma of his situations prior to his suicide left him unable to stomach even looking at Cesar for awhile; they also find out the hard way that Cesar can’t touch Mark without a warning. [fun-fact, although Mark’s wings are angel ones and he doesn’t have any connection to birds (minus Jonah endlessly calling him one) he actually smacks things away with them like some species of birds do!]

Even if Cesar felt guilt for his appearance being a factor that made Mark so scared of him for the first while, he still knew it was a mere factor of unfortunate events.

Mark on the other hand, never really learned to forgive himself for the ways he lashed out in panic or avoided Cesar all because of something he feels he should be able to get past.

Things are rough for the first while, but they missed each other to much to let the gap hold them back.

do you have any thoughts on cazador as a character? personally i really loved the parallels between him and astarion & the way that the master/spawn relationship is used as an allegory for cyclical abuse. the scene with cazador’s master’s skull where you find out that he was once victimized in the exact same way that he later victimized astarion was really a lightbulb moment for me re: what vampirism represents in this game.

BOY DO I, i don't think much of it hasn't already been said, though. He's a tragic character in his own right of course, not that that takes away from the awful man he is.

Me and my boyfriend make fun of him a lot, we call him "the best BG3 character" as a little inside joke between us and come up with ridiculous scenarios of things that might have occurred throughout those 200 miserable years the spawn had under his command lol. Maybe he had a month where he was really specific about the shoes everyone wore, maybe once every other decade he had a weird week where he tried to be "nice" only to become frustrated when his efforts weren't immediately met in kind by the rightfully-terrified spawn, maybe between all the torture and horrific-ness he just did some plain weird shit like making someone crouch by in his fainting couch and wait by open-handed for grapes that he dramatically chewed on and then spat right out since he can't actually eat them lmao

And that's hysterical but I think we also started doing that because when you meet Cazador, when you first hear his voice and see his demeanor in person your immediate reaction is probably somewhere along the lines of "THIS is the clown you were so scared of, Astarion?"

And the answer is, of course, yes. This embarrassing little man stuck in a cage of his making instills fear beyond comprehension in Astarion and all his siblings. This man who undoubtedly showed all these spawn, inadvertently, the strangest, most arguably "human" aspects of himself at some point or another during these two centuries they had together is also an absolute monster. And i really like that! I think its far more effective and fitting for his story than if he was, lets say, a Ketheric type.

(this got very long so, more under the cut)

Look at Ascended Astarion in the epilogue now, for example. Everyone agrees that he's an absolute fucking dork - and I think we all also agree that he will go on to destroy the lives of many people beyond repair, especially his own, until the day he is killed.

In the topic of vampirism as an allegory for abuse, I both agree and also don't, at least not exactly - i just think it's deeper than that. I've spoken about this in another post but i find it incredibly refreshing how, to me, it seems like Baldur's Gate 3 has no interest in painting vampirism as sexy or fun past a surface level. It's a curse that nobody asks for unless put in a situation where they feel as if they have no other way out, and it shapes and haunts you for the rest of your undead existence.

Even if you enjoy its benefits at first, that has a time limit. You will see your family and loved ones die, you will see culture evolve while you stay perpetually the same. You will experience so much hurt and pain because the only thing that makes life truly sweet is knowing that it is finite, and eventually it will wear down all of your humanity. And since you can't die unless you are scorched by the sun, staked, or dismembered, you must live with the knowledge that you will never have a peaceful death - and since you won't have a peaceful death, you better not die - and if you don't want to die, you better not be weak - and if you don't want to be weak, you must seek out power at all cost and slash things like love and friendship out of your life.

And what is funny, is that in his attempt to be more like a mortal - to eat, drink, walk the sun, such incredibly simple desires - Cazador (and Astarion, if he ascends) is accidentally only drawing further away from the person he supposedly once was, because that fear of weakness has already utterly corrupted his soul.

That's quite a grim way to look at it, of course. But I genuinely think that it is the natural conclusion of something like immortality.

That's why I quite like that, even after Astarion has found happiness, even after he finds his peace, he still doesn't exactly embrace being a vampire - because It's not something he should be expected to embrace. I think it's a very unique take on the trope.

I also want to leave here this message written by his character writer, which really got me thinking about him on a deeper level since i saw it months ago. It is specifically about the sexual aspect, but I think it branches beyond it too, when you think about it.

idk how to put this sorry if this comes off as rude/confrontational I'm not trying to be — when you say stories about forgiveness/reconciliation, do you mean more the type about forgiving & reconciling with family, or more generally (so like including - this isn't the best example but I can't think of any better rn - catra for example? where it's about being trapped in hurting people because of trauma and breaking out of that)? or is the thing you dislike more stories' framing of forgiveness as a moral imperative?

sorry if this doesn't make sense I'm just curious what you think bc you've raised some interesting points and would really like to see you elaborate on them

don't worry you don't come off as rude whatsoever! while i think my points apply broadly to how forgiveness is treated across media (rare actual example of cultural christianity) -- i obviously am not, like, against forgiveness or stories about forgiveness on principle. what i dislike about all the narratives about people forgiving their abusive parents is that:

like you said, it's always framed as a moral imperative. there is always an underlying assumption that forgiving the abuser is the 'right' and 'correct' thing to do, that not doing so would be wrong. this is tremendously insulting to survivors who have every right to not forgive their abusers!

in most of these narratives, the parent barely does shit to be forgiven. there's very often a narrative equivocation, in fact, between parent and child. like, sometimes the parent won't even be expected to apologize -- sometimes, even more grotesquely, both the parent and child apologize for their shared supposed 'wrongdoing'. this is also obviously insulting to survivors, who are not in any way responsible for their abuse or for having a poor relationship with their parents.

the reason why this in particular pisses me off so much is that it mirrors and in turn contributes to the cultural expectation on abuse victims in real life to maintain contact with their abusers, the constant casual pressure from everything from strangers to friends to acquaintances saying 'well, can't you just put it behind you?' or 'look, he's changed' or 'she's your mom' or 'you'll only have one chance to have a relationship with your siblings' or whatever the fuck. the sanctity of the family is a cardinal value across a lot of societies and this sanctity means a constant, neverending societal pressure to bow to sweeping abuse under the rug. i've seen many people i care about struggle deeply with feeling obligated to maintain relationships with family members who treat them like shit and make htem miserable every time they interact bc of exactly these sorts of sentiments being everpresent in their cultural environment. & these narratives always paint that sort of pressure as being well-founded and fair and ultimately for the better, which is absolutely repellent to me.

so, yeah. i am not against narratives where an abusive person actually confronts their actions and changes and repairs that relationship (that's another fucking thing, these narratives always put the onus and responsiblity on the character who was abused to forgive rather than on the abuser to earn forgiveness, just like in real life familial abuse victims are always fucking expected to be the ones to repair the relationship). i think such narratives can be powerful and compelling and explore questions of what the value of 'forgiveness' or 'redemption' even are, as well as dispel the mystique and exceptionalism often attributed to the 'abuser' as a holistic malevolent figure that can be cleanly separated from every other parent/grandparent/sibling/etc.

what i'm against is narratives where someone who is abused has their feelings delegitimized -- their rage is wrong, counterproductive, they need to let go and move on, they need to forgive their abusers and let them back int otheir lives because oh, they did something wrong too or oh, their abuser had a difficult life, or whatever the fuck. to which the answer should be a flat -- no. they don't. all the more power to people who choose to do that if that's what makes them happiest and safest but absolutely nobody has a moral obligation or need to forgive an abusive family member. obviously i am exaggerating slightly when i say every abusive parent subplot should end with the parent being killed with hammers, but i'm using the hammer murder as a synechdoche for a narrative treating an abuse victim's antipathy towards their abuser as something legitimate and justified and obviously reasonable rather than a flaw or something they need to move past.

it's really interesting to think about avatar in the context of the mid-2000s when it came out, specifically its relationship to the war in iraq -

like, it's a show that comes down hard on the side of "war and imperialism and colonialism are wrong", in a time period when the US was heading off to imperialist war. there's even an episode where we get a look into a school in the imperialist nation and see kids reciting a thinly-veiled analogue for the pledge of allegiance and being taught that the people they invaded had more military power than they really did. it's honestly kind of radical - you could get in real trouble for refusing to say the pledge, but here we have a kids show protagonist who doesn't say it and that's portrayed as a good thing. the US justified the invasion of iraq by claiming they were building weapons of mass destruction, and here we have the show's villains exaggerating their victims' military power to justify war. doing what the US did is bad guy behavior.

but on a different note -

i was watching katara and hakoda's reconnection scene on youtube at one point and i saw a bunch of comments from people saying the scene reminded of their own relationships to their fathers in the military. i can't find the video now, but i've been turning that over in my head a lot. hakoda leaves his children to go to war because of a devastating attack that kills someone he cares about. kids in the early-mid 2000s may have also experienced a parent going off to war because of a devastating attack that killed people. those kids would probably relate to katara and hakoda's relationship.

and yet that feels like a really strange reading combined with the all the stuff about the fire nation being the US. hakoda goes off to fight the nation that's committed genocide against his people, that's hardly the same as someone in the US going to fight in the iraq war. is the show pro-iraq war because hakoda is portrayed as a soldier leaving his kids to fight a noble fight? or is it anti-iraq war because its villains are imperialists that use the same propaganda as the US?

or, for another example: there's a strong theme in the show of cycle-breaking, of not responding to violence with more violence. zuko has every reason to want revenge on his father, katara has every reason to want revenge on yon rha, aang has every reason to want revenge on the fire nation (as represented by ozai) but in all of their pivotal confrontations, they choose not to follow through. plenty of americans were certainly feeling ready for revenge at the time, and here comes a show saying pain and violence should not be answered with more of the same.

that's an anti-war message, but it feels like a similarly strange reading. all of these characters are victims of the fire nation's imperialism - comparing them to people in the US post 9/11 feels wrong. their desire for revenge seems far more justified.

but the parallels are there, and i don't think they can be ignored. that was the context the show was created in, and as much as it depicts victims of imperialist war, its target audience was kids in an imperialist nation. the seemingly contradictory nature of of these interpretations makes total sense when you take that into account.

as someone who was a kid in the 2000s (9 years old the year atla starting airing) the things that kids could reasonably know about the war included:

there was a scary attack where a lot of people died

people want to fight the bad guys who did the attack

adults in their lives- their parents or friends' parents or their older siblings - might be going off to fight

everyone is super intense about saying the pledge of allegiance

the bad guys are Very Scary and Dangerous, at least that's what people say

and the show speaks to these realities. it depicts a school that teaches lies and forces kids to recite a pledge of allegiance analogue, it depicts characters dealing with a desire for revenge, it depicts a parent leaving to go to war. it prompts kids to question what they're being taught, helps them understand the pain of people around them, and provides them comfort and assurance that they're still loved even if their parents are absent.

it's not like victims of imperialism being relatable to the target audience of "kids in an imperialist country" is a bad thing. it doesn't detract from the show. atla's cycle-breaking theme is still powerful because it's just well-written, we can really feel the characters' pain and understand why revenge isn't the way for them to get justice and closure. hakoda and katara's relationship is still compelling because there are plenty of reasons a loving parent might have to leave their children and plenty of ways that even people that love each other can have a fraught relationship. it never comes off like the colonized are just as bad as the colonizers, even if their stories do have some parallels to US soldiers and citizens.

i feel like the show's resurgence in the 2020s has led to a lot of really great discussion of its themes, but i feel like its fandom here skews a little younger and might not be as able to look at it through this lens specifically. and it's an important one, and a fascinating one.

Listen. Could Dead and Loving It be a fraction of the length and maybe finished by now if I only focused on Danny and Jason?

Possibly

Would it be a better story?

Probably, from several perspectives

But it absolutely would not be the same story, and nor would it be the story I want to tell

Because I am hopelessly addicted to ensemble casts, and I don’t want the boys to exist in a vacuum. I want Jason to run off with his siblings and with Danny’s friends, and I want Danny to fuck with the bats

I want them to touch all the parts of each others lives that existed before they met, and will still continue to exist after even if things change forever between them

I want all the background characters to interact with each other, have their own inner worlds and their own motivations, and yeah, this absolutely means this is not an efficient telling of a slow burn romance

Because the story isn’t the slow burn romance

The story is these two people, and the world they live in, the story is the way Duke and Cass both see Jason differently than Dick and Tim ever could and that matters, and that none of them are wrong

The story is Danny finally telling people who will listen about the Anti-Ecto Acts, and all the fucked up things the GIW do, and being able to ask for help and have that be okay

The story is messy and complicated and will have so many rises and falls, so many pivotal moments that are drama and combat and so many that are just two people talking to each other and finally seeing eye to eye

The story is the way that Jason’s relationships with his family can finally mend, now that he has someone who can get him the help he’s needed

The story is the way that Danny can come to terms with the responsibilities of being a king, the constant question of agency and power and what he’s worth if he’s only Danny and not the Ghost King

The story is Clockwork fucking with the pair of them because he specifically thinks it’s funny (he’s right)

And yeah, there’s a slow burn romance in there. There’s also a coming of age tale, and a story about healing and reconciling and moving forward knowing you cannot change the past, but you can do better

Unless fucking Clockwork decides you can change the past because yeah then it’s fine to just go do that I guess

I was kinda considering breaking the story out into multiple chunks because holy fuck is 100k an intimidating chunk of words, but I’m not gonna

It’s all one story, and you will be my hapless victims as we get to fucking 300k or wherever this beast ends because we are not here for efficient story telling and motion of the plot

We’re here for the connections, the characters, the meaningless bullshit that would absolutely be cut in anything anyone ever wanted to sell, cuz I am not selling this

Imma write every fucking scene I wish I got from books, TV, movies, podcasts, actual plays, every fucking time I scream at the characters to just fucking talk to each other because messy is good too

Messy is okay

Stories don’t need to be marketable to be worth telling, and this one’s gonna be too long and intimidating for some people and that’s okay

But I fuckin’ rolled in from Critical Role which averages around 500 hours of content per campaign and a cast of 7 plus Matt’s NPCs

And I STILL want more goddamn character moments from all of them so I haven’t found a size yet that I can’t manage

I love reading focused stories that I can get through fast, and fuck, look at the rest of my AO3; I will fucking never diss a one shot, or a short story, or a piece that really focuses in on one or two characters

Delicious, I love them, my bread and butter

It’s just not what this mess is gonna be, and that’s okay too

Gods be fucking willing we will not have another six chapters that take place over the course of three hours, but we’ll just have to see how that shakes out cuz I’m being possessed by a seemingly infinite number of plot bunnies and my own tendency for “hey it’d be funny if”

And oh boy has it been funny every time

so, about Billy and Max's relationship, i don't get why everyone is so up in arms about it.

I know not every one lived in abusive households (kids in abusive house holds reflect their guardians abuse but as a love language cause we're so screwed in the head and it's literally the only way we know how to interact with others in a family sense) but still did y'all not fight with your siblings, like fight-fight, physical and emotional... did you not have offensive nicknames that slowly became a term of endearment... did y'all not bond over your hatred for one another... like my sibling was my enemy first and foremost, but right after that he was my best friend.

there relationship felt so normal to me, like yeah, he was rough at times (please take into consideration the character Dacre and the other actors were trying to portray and not the duffers who pushed actors boundaries and forced racist plot lines that both Dacre and Caleb fought against) but everything he did was a trauma response. he's a scapegoat, forced to take the blame of everyone's wrongdoings in the eyes and hands of his abuser. every time Max steps out of line, whether she knows it or not, it gets Billy hurt. there is resentment, but Billy never tries to hurt her. he loses his cool, he lashes out, but he has so much bottled up it to be expected, he's literally being beat emotionally and physically by his dad. he actually shields her, never letting her become aware of the abuse even to save his own skin. he tries to discipline her himself the only way he knows how, so she doesn't make herself a target to Neil. it's a dynamic they were forced into, it needs to be taken into consideration when thinking about there relationship.

I think Billy was a character that could only truly be understood by abuse victims. yeah others like him, but normally the defining feature of their attraction is his looks, his false persona he uses to attract fake friends and older women so he can feels some semblance of control and motherly love, or they want a pity project. which like, is fine, but I think having his character constant dulled down to a hot guy with confidence and anger issues kinda ruins him within the fandom. the second we stop seeing him as the victim he is, the second he becomes a villain. and it hurts as an abuse survivor with a sibling (we have the same age and family dynamic as max and Billy, with me being older) whose abuse made a not so pretty dynamic with said sibling, it feels like shit. I spent so long trying to convince myself that I wasn't just another abuser to him, that I never meant to hurt him, that we were victims of our parents and we both hurt one another because we didn't know anything else. but a Billy is a villain in the eyes of those who ignore all that, and it hurts, that representation for the not so nice side of being an abuse survivor is dragged to high hell cause he can't be babied or infantilized. it's not fair, I don't care if you think that's drastic, it is not fair that abuse survivors who aren't your little beans, to finally get good representation in media immediately have that character demonized.

billy and Max's relationship as portrayed by Dacre, is your typical abuse altered sibling dynamic and we need to treat it as such. it isn't lesser then your average relationship, it doesn't hold less value, it isn't less important. its an abuse victims normal, and hate to break it to you, max is a victim but Billy isn't her abuser, he is a victim as well, and sadly they are forced to bump heads. get over it.

they are allowed to hate one another, they both deserve apologies from a shit ton of people including each other. max might deserve one more then Billy in terms of between each other, but he still deserves one. they can both be guilty of causing harm, whether they meant to/if they were a victim or not. but at the same time, I have lived that dynamic, and I know how deep down, you love your sibling more then you love yourself, especially as the older scapegoat. you feel this need to protect while not physically able to, so you do your fucking best, and it will never feel like its enough.

if they had a chance to grow a siblings, if he could just escape and find a place were he was loved, he would be the best big brother. we know he is an empathetic person, a good, kind person. but even the kindest of people can snap, and only knowing abuse would do that. if he had a chance to grow and he joined the party, he would be such a big brother. none of those kids would know pain or violence if he could help it. he would be their scary dog, so to speak. but he would also be the type of walk them through every scraped knee with a gentle tone, he'd be the silent shoulder to cry on, the person you go to for a big hug, the group punching bag (not like in the bad way, but like the type to just tussle with the kids whenever they were rambunctious). he would probably love Joyce like his own mama. he clearly craves a moms touch and if he found a place were he didn't have to charm and seduce someone into touching him gently, he would break in all the right ways.

I speak from experience, and I will never stop defending him. give him a break, please.

Not to fuel 'Jonathan d13s' agenda again but the fact that it makes so much sense.

People talk about how Mike and Max sometimes parallel each other but Will and Max parallel each other more than Mike and Max do.

Jonathan dying to protect Will & Billy dying to ''protect'' the group would be a nice parallel because Jonathan and Billy in their way are actually foils to each other too. One is a brother who broke the cycle of abuse and is supportive of his little sibling (Will). The other one continued the cycle of abuse and dumped pain on his little sibling (Max). I mean in a way Billy and Will parallel each other too since they were both victims of the MF once but one of them died the other didnt. And you can make the argument that Billy and Will are opposite of one another too, since Billy was a brother to Max and Will is El's brother but the difference is that Billy wasnt able to be saved from the MF while Will was. S

Anyway what I mean is that, Jonathan dying makes so much sense especially considering Will be in danger in the next season and he promised Will that he will protect and be there for him. Jonathan being Will's brother automatically puts him in danger in the first place. And if Vecna kills him and takes him to his mind realm then Will can talk to Jonathan there (sort of paralleling how Max talked to Billy) by using his psyhcic connection to Vecna that they share, he can directly enter Vecna's mind space.

I would want Jonathan to live and get a happy ending and Jancy to be endgame but ngl him dying actually makes so much sense in every aspect.

I totally agree with this, Jonathan is one of my favorite characters but I still think this would make sense for the narrative and for his character arc that started in s1 too because dying to save Will would resolve the guilt he has in a way...

and I agree, I have talked about how they will definitely make them talk again in Vecna's mindspace if he dies because Will needs to resolve part of his grief and I think Jonathan would tell him to be himself completely and bring Will to finally accept himself because he wants to follow what Jon thought him...

it would be absolutely heartbreaking but it would be a good writing choice for the show in my opinion!

Also the show is made by two brothers and the relationship between Will and Jonathan is heavily influenced by that...

I think they would 100% do this and make the central part of stranger things the love & care between these two brothers!

plus it could work to trigger Will's superpowers

it could make Mike and Will grow even closer because Mike would be there to support him like Hopper was for Joyce

and it could give Will the strenght to confess his feelings to Mike because he feels like anything could happen and he doesn't want to lose time anymore and wants to be himself fully...

A quick guide to things you can actually credit Taika Waititi for

I keep seeing posts making fun of the tendency to give more credit than was due for TV shows like OFMD, WWDITS, and Flight of the Conchords to Taika Waititi. So for those who keep making them: can you not? It’s not cute, it’s not funny, and half the time it’s just plain mean. But the other reason it annoys me, as a media theory nerd and film buff, is that you could all be putting your energy into distinguishing and celebrating all of the things that this certifiable genius has given the world

There are plenty of Taika Waititi films that I grew up loving, because they struck the perfect balance between ‘If Ken Loach was a kiwi’ and ‘If Wes Anderson was funny’ but they rarely seem to get much of a look in. So here is your ultimate cheat-sheet, one-stop-shop, complete with unsolicited reviews of every film Taika has actually written and/or directed starting with...

Two Cars, One Night (2003)

I will never stop going on about this film, to the extent they’ll probably have to put me in the ground with the words ‘It’s only 11 minutes long, so you’ve got no excuse’ just about formed on my recently deceased lips. It was nominated for Best Short Film at the 2005 Oscars and is widely credited with establishing its director as one of the most exciting creative prospects that a small, sparsely populated island without much of a presence in world cinema had to offer.

The brilliance of Two Cars, One Night is that it cloaks itself completely in the visuals of New Zealand’s grim social-realist tradition, but manages to interject warmth, humor, and hopefulness, in the unlikeliest of places. The two main characters meet in the parking lot of a hotel bar, where their parents are off getting drunk. Their accents and use of local slang mean some viewers may need to turn on subtitles to know exactly what’s being discussed.

But the sweet optimism of the child’s-eye-view, and the unwillingness of the writer to cast them as victims of circumstance would go on to become a staple in the majority of Taika’s more commercial film catalogue. Also it’s on YouTube, so you really have got no excuse 

Rating: 11/10

Taika Waititi plays: No one, this is probably the only Taika Waititi film which doesn’t feature at least one cameo by Taika Waititi, otherwise it’s perfection

Taika has actually written and directed six other short films (three of which were basically Marvel promos) but I’m including this one with the full-length features because it’s just so damn good.

onto another hidden gem...

Eagle Vs. Shark (2007)

I first watched this film as a preteen after my sister and her friends rented it for a sleepover. Full disclosure: None of them liked it. I think they assumed they were meant to be watching a quirky rom-com, but to apply that label would be doing the film a gross injustice.

Co-written with Loren Taylor (then Loren Horsley, who plays Lily) Eagle vs. Shark is a black comedy about dysfunctional families, coping with grief, and the reality of being straight up awkward in relationships.

Jarrod (played beautifully by Jemaine Clement) and Lily get together after he invites her to a ‘dress as your favourite animal’ costume party, but he then announces rather dramatically that he’s returning to his hometown to fight the guy that bullied him in high-school.

Lily is something of a social outcast herself (she’s treated as odd for the fact she’s lived with her brother Damon since their parents’ deaths, and is generally an introvert) and develops a huge crush on Jarrod even though he’s kind of a dick to her. She and Damon agree to drive Jarrod back to his hometown where they meet his father, siblings, and the nine-year-old daughter from a one-night-stand that he’s kind of indifferent to. 

Legend has it that Taika Waititi wrote the script for Eagle Vs. Shark in under a week and ngl, it shows, but visually, emotionally, and thematically, it’s still a beautiful and very overlooked film. On the whole Americans don’t tend to ‘get’ the style and whimsy, and some people find the random bits of claymation distracting, but they were all winning touches for me.

Rating: 8/10

Taika Waititi plays: Jarrod’s late brother Gordon, who appears posthumously in family photos and home-videos, Jarrod’s father tells everyone he died saving a child from a fire. (Spoiler warning: It isn’t true)

Which was followed three years later by an understated masterpiece...

Boy (2010)

Now that you’ve watched Two Cars, One Night, and you’re thinking ‘wow, I loved that, but I wish it was longer, and in colour’ I’ve got great news for you!

It’s not an exaggeration to say that Boy is probably one of the greatest films ever made on location in New Zealand (yes, LOTR stans, come at me as much as you want, you can’t change my mind) it captures the perfect Waititi blend of being side-splittingly funny and gut-punchingly tragic. It’s got the constant thematic references to 80s pop culture that Stranger Things fans, who never lived through the 80s, go nuts over. The protagonist has a little brother who’s convinced he’s got super-powers and the narrative occasionally reinforces his belief by making things happen to confirm it.

In some ways its heavily autobiographical, but I think a lot of viewers tend to overstate how autobiographical, so just to set the record straight: though Taika spent his summers with his grandmother and cousins in Waihau Bay, he was an only child, and his Russian-Jewish mother bears no resemblance to the fictional dead Maori mother-character of the film. He’s always maintained it was the small details (like Alamein Snr. starting his car with a spoon in the ignition) that were based on direct recollections from his actual childhood. And as far as we know his father never buried a giant stash of money in a field which was later eaten by a goat.

Also, Taika’s commitment to shaming deadbeat dads everywhere is pretty impressive here. Most screenwriters, when faced with characters that bear some resemblance to their loved ones, tend to go easy, portray them through rose-tinted sunglasses, and accept the premise that all parents and parent-figures are just doing the best they can. Not this time. Taika takes an already flawed parent-figure and makes him worse, deconstructing the fantasy of the absentee hero dad and replacing it piece-by-piece until the viewer’s like ‘dayum.’

Rating: 20/10 essential viewing for any lover of independent cinema

Taika Waititi plays: Alamein, who manages to make Darth Vader look like father of the year. OFMD stans will appreciate the portrayal though, as there is definitely some crossover with Taika’s portrayal of Blackbeard.

What we do in the Shadows (2014)

This one actually does tend to get a lot of traffic on tumblr (though less so than the TV series which followed) so there’s not much more I can say about it except: this right here, is how you do a mockumentary. I was in my first year at university when WWDITS was released, and given that most of my new friends were really into old-school horror, it gave me a great gateway to force them into endless re-watches of Flight of the Conchords instead *evil laugh*. It was co-written and directed by Jemaine Clement, and is a good example of why the two of them are easily the funniest comedy-writing duo since... well, I can’t actually think of any funny kiwis from previous decades, so there you go. 

The basic premise, though it’s been well-publicized by now, is that a group of vampires from different centuries live in a shared house in a suburb of Wellington, and the film chronicles their lives together. But on top of the sheer hilarity of the hijinks that ensue, is the overarching theme that, as both creators have pointed out, these guys have eternal life, they can literally do anything they want, and what they often want is just to waste time on earth like the rest of us. And yes, Jackie walked, so Guillermo could run.

Rating: 10/10

Taika Waititi plays: Viago, though the 379-year-old Victorian dandy is beloved of fan-artists everywhere, so I’m sure you already knew that.     

Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)

This one is probably the most political Taika Waititi film. All of the elements of his previous work, in giving child-characters the primary perspective on the unfolding events, and establishing the protection of their innocence and ambitions as a narrative triumph, are still present, but the plot makes a lot of major and minor digs at the foster care system. Taika began working on the script in 2005, but despite the complexities of the locations, it was all shot over five weeks on a single camera, which is an achievement in itself. 

I don’t want to give too much away without spoiling the plot (which is pretty fast-paced and more reminiscent of an action-thriller than a charming social-realist comedy-drama) but the absolute glue that holds this film together is the dynamic between juvenile delinquent Ricky Baker and his grouchy hermit foster-dad Hector. Adapted from a novel by Barry Crump, its runaways framed-as-fake-abduction story-line can feel a little close to home to anyone who’s worked in children’s social services, but underneath the film has a lot of heart, and some excellent 90s hip-hop references.

Also Rhys Darby has a long cameo as a hermit called Psycho Sam, so jot that down.

Rating: 9/10

Taika Waititi plays: an unnamed fundamentalist minister, idk, he’s only in one scene, but it’s pretty funny. 

Thor: Ragnarok (2017)

First things first, you can gripe on about Marvel here all you like, but I am an unapologetic fan of this film, and all that led up to it. I love Thor. I’ve loved Norse mythology ever since I was a kid, so a Thor film directed by Taika Waititi? Yes please. Especially since Ragnarok draws on some of the older comic story-lines from the 70s and 80s.

Visually, its incredibly different for any Marvel film before or since, though it borrows a little from the unashamedly retro sci-fi of Guardians of the Galaxy. It was also Taika’s first big-budget project, though not the first time he’d made a cameo in a super hero film, or referenced them in previous work. Crucially, there’s no romantic sub-plot in Thor: Ragnarok, which was extremely refreshing, with focus instead being on the much-loved sibling relationship between Thor and Loki. Taika was handed a great cast, strong visuals, and the keys to an endless string of mega-budget sequels and prequels, but boy did he deliver.

When you google ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ one of the first auto-suggestions which comes up is ‘Why is Thor: Ragnarok so good?’ I’d like to think it has something to do with casting aside establishment wisdom about what makes a superhero movie and using your well-honed gift for crafting compelling story-lines, hilarious dialog and characters people actually want to root for, to create something altogether different. And someone finally made Thor the himbo he was always destined to be, which helps.

Rating: 10/10  

Taika Waititi plays: Korg, though plenty of people, including my partner, didn’t recognise him at the time, due to him being a giant boulder-man with a slightly higher-pitched version of his usual accent

Jojo Rabbit (2018)

Spoiler alert: a few minutes into this film, an animal dies. While watching it for the second time in the presence of my family, I had to stop myself saying something. My sister, never having seen it, reassured everyone that said animal would not, in fact, die because Jojo Rabbit was ‘not that kind of film’.

So, I hate to burst your bubble if you find yourself in the same position, but this is Taika Waititi we’re talking about (whose animal body-count as a writer is creeping towards Wes Anderson levels of ‘does the dog die?’) it’s also the sort of film where nothing is off the table in the pursuit of the funniest form of black-comedy. Working from a screenplay he first adapted in 2011, Taika reclaims the long, proud, though not entirely successful, tradition of satirizing Nazis in order to take the wind out of their sails. In doing so, he creates the perfect war-film for a generation unfamiliar with the horrors of war.

Thematically it’s very similar to Boy, though the parallels tend to get lost in the sheer beauty and visual spectacle of its colourful 1940s setting. If I was ever to teach a film-studies class on masterful use of the child-as-unreliable-narrator, these are the two I’d pick.

Jojo Rabbit won the oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, and narrowly lost out on Best Picture to Parasite, so if you’re looking for an accessible, commercial though not entirely comforting route into the Waititi film canon, it’s the logical choice. Stephen Merchant is hilarious in it too.

Rating: 20/10 this isn’t even a critique, I have no criticism to give

Taika Waititi plays: Hitler. Or rather, a childish, imaginary-friend version of Hitler who provides insight to the protagonist. Which puts him up there with Gillian Anderson on the unsettling list of ‘Evil historical figures played by actors you definitely wouldn’t kick out of bed’.   

If you want a more digestible version of this post, there’s a great little seven-minute video on IMDB which goes into the key narrative and visual themes in every Taika Waititi film

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390579/

But I also wanted to offer some clarity where television was concerned:

Taika did not, as has been claimed, write any episodes of either WWDITS the series, or OFMD (he directed and produced three, and one episode respectively) though he did write and direct four episodes of Flight of the Conchords (the best four, imho) and those included the music-videos for ‘Mother’uckas’ and ‘Leggy Blonde’ (another very fine performance by Rhys Darby). He also directed five episodes of The Inbetweeners, an episode of The Mandalorian, and six episodes of the Kiwi observational comedy Super City.

One thing he’s generally un-credited for is writing the initial screenplay for Moana, though it was heavily adapted from that draft, and being the co-creator of the mockumentary series Wellington Paranormal.

Anyway, happy watching, I personally cannot wait for Thor: Love and Thunder, or Next Goal Wins.     

Aside from noticing a shift in how "found family" is portrayed in fandoms these days, I wonder if this is a semi-conscious side effect of Tails over the years being semi-shafted until the past decade. (Aside from AOSTH{though was often a kidnap victim} and Boom, most adaptions had him downplayed or outright replaced. Yes, Prime, this technically includes you. The comics aren't exactly clean either, but Archie is the most guilty.)

But yeah, I get the appeal of "parental big sibling" tropes. Not every sibling relationship is the same though, or is all peachy. I don't think Sonic thinks Tails is so inept that he can't trust him to be on his own in most circumstances, young or not. (Fox is more likely to run INTO trouble than make it himself. High intelligence doesn't mean you won't do dumb stuff on occasion; especially if you're not well-versed, but I sooner buy the idea of 'baby' Tails having separation issues than willingly getting into a shootout with cops. Not unless he was saving someone anyway) Sonic's influence on Tails is mostly guidance and support. While Tails does seek approval, Sonic does not have huge authority over him. Tails striking out on his own and living his own life doesn't make his bond with Sonic any less close. Reunions can be just be as emotional, y'know? (Plus, wouldn't Sonic be proud of that? For Tails to achieve his dreams through his own efforts? Give me a Sonic being the loudest person at his little brother's science presentation.)

Also, I don't think Tails would care who Sonic dates. Curious at best, and I'm sure he would want to be on good terms with his romantic partner and even bond with them, but I don't think he nor Sonic would appreciate the former being babied at every turn. Plus, wouldn't Tails being a gremlin by giving snide, knowing looks to Sonic be funnier? (And there's plenty of sibling activities that doesn't involve parenting one another: Movie nights, water gun fights, pranking, sparring, camping, gaming. Even just napping in the sun under a tree.)

Likely another side effect to the "non-action" and "dependency" Tails got hit with. (Which is funny because I have witnessed at times back then of some accusing Tails of being potentially appearing too competent to the point of making Sonic look "weak". Wanting Tails to have limits on his mechanic skills is one thing, but saying he should stick to tinkering vehicles only is very restricting though?) Nine may have endured bullying longer, but it doesn't mean it stopped having an effect on Tails himself. (Called names, had his tails messed with, people smashing his inventions. He may grown to embrace his qualities, but he clearly still has self worth issues that is ripe for exploring more. Nine's is mainly trust. Companionship too, but mostly trust. They've both been hurt, one was just lucky enough to get support early and ongoing.) Heh, I could go on a tangent on how finicky fans are at the thought Tails talking back to Sonic or dare have a different opinion than him and Nine gets a pass because he's "Anti-Tails", but that'd be another essay. xD (But yeah, hopefully Prime ends well.)

((Oh, and cool ponytail Tails art, btw. :] ))

Hmmm, could be. Early portrayals call still influence the way people see a character, even after all those years. (I mean, Sonic and chili dogs thing even got canonized and everything)

I definitely see Sonic as more of a mentor rather than parent figure. I think Sonic has a lot of trust and respect for Tails, and it's hard for me to imagine Sonic like. Grounding Tails or something similar. If this happened I imagine it would be such a wild concept to Tails he would think it's a joke, but more importantly Sonic wouldn't even think of doing this, I don't think he thinks of himself as that kind of authority figure in Tails's life. And Sonic is Tails's biggest fan definitely. I like that one bit from a q&a where Sonic gets asked who's smarter, Tails or Eggman, and he immediately picks Tails... (It's so cute, idk, especially since there's no way to actually prove it, and it's probably not even true (of course, "smartness" is relative), and then he goes on to say how Eggman is still a close second and very dangerous and not to underestimate him)

[No comment on the shipping thing, I pretty much agree though]

I've mostly seen people wanting Tails to have a limit on his skills to make him as a character more "grounded" and "realistic", but Shadow can have 10000 superpowers and I don't see anybody complaining. You know what else is unrealistic? Flying by spinning your tails. Especially since Tails was portrayed as this "pan-purpose scientist" since the beginning, and it's not a part of "flanderization". Like for sure, vehicle engineering has always been his specialty and biggest interest, but for example he made a Chaos Emerald radar back in Sonic 3, and had a robot back in Tails Adventure. People bring up the fact that he struggled with a plane prototype in Adventure 1 as an example of him being not that great with his mechanical skills initially, but he had already made a rocket back in Sonic the Fighters at that point.

Yeah, bullying messes you up big time, and it's not easy to get over it... If this wasn't something Tails had to deal with in the past, he might have a completely different outlook on himself nowadays, even if he still felt inadequate. Though I do like how the games don't really push this into our faces all the time, it's just a part of the backstory that helps understand the character better but you can still understand what's up with him even if you don't know the details. (Also makes me think he probably doesn't talk about this, it's something that only Sonic knows about most likely, and even then still probably not in detail).

(There's a lot of things that I don't quite like in Prime, I just don't bother talking about it, but I'm pretty optimistic on how they're handling Nine! (& Tails))

(Haha thanks =^-^= )

So I have a theory for Stranger Things but I don't wanna even possibly spoil anything for someone so if you haven't watched the new season don't read on from here.

I think Nancy is gonna die.

I have many reasons, and before any of you get mad at me for saying that; I love Nancy, it is not a comment on her character or me wanting her to die. I think it's where the show is headed.

Reasons:

Biggest one is because Nancy is caught in the trance by the end of the season.

Why take her of all of them? He doesn't know much about her, all of them pretty much have easy things to target in some way or another.

They've gotta up the stakes this season, more than they have been doing. Someone has to die. They hinted at Max but since she didn't die during that encounter, I think for the most part Max will be safe. Why have her escape if they're just gonna kill her again? But Nancy they didn't set up before. Nancy was chosen and is hearing the backstory. She helps them solve things a lot, she is connected to so many characters. They've killed some people before but not really any truly main characters. The biggest one we lost was Billy (and Bob). They fake killed Hopper, but brought him back very quickly.

The cops are making it very clear they are searching for Nancy and are worried about her. She kinda seems to be their biggest concern at that time. Since everyone in town is looking for someone to blame, it would be awfully inconvenient for Eddie to be right where another victim has been found.

She has had a lot of her relationships being developed this season

Such as: Steve, Robin, Jonathan, and pretty much any other character. She's gotten a deeper connection with them.

First with Steve: They're pretty much saying Steve and Nancy will get back together.. but what if that doesn't happen? What if, after they started liking each other again, she dies when she's right next to only him in the upside down? Considering most of the time in the series he's trying to protect Nancy and him being into her has been a key part of most of this, it would hurt Steve a lot. They've had a couple times where they point out how willing to go head on into danger to save each other Steve and Nancy are. Her jumping into the lake without a second thought, him not wanting Nancy to go alone (or even with Robin.), every time he goes to protect her first. It would make it an extra gut punch if he was the only one actually there and able to interact with Nancy but he couldn't save her, no matter how much they tried to this season.

Next up with Robin: They pretty much didn't interact last season at all, but this season they're already getting really close. Robin goes with Nancy and they discover clues together, she and Nancy split up together to search, they agree that they've become friends, they obviously have grown to like one another. Robin doesn't have many close friends, and she seems to be getting attached to Nancy really quickly, and it would be another person hurt to lose her.

Mike: They've spent the entire show so far growing closer. You can tell they care about each other and dont seem to really hate each other nearly as much as most siblings anymore. Mike has a need to be there and help as many people as possible, and if something goes wrong he blows up. Whether it's to himself or someone else, there is a lot of blame and he will blame someone. Especially if he wasn't there to know what happened.

Finally, Jonathan: Jonathan would take it really hard. There would be a lot of intermalization and he would probably pull away from everyone. He'd most likely feel guilty for pulling away from her and not going over to go to college with her. They finally got together, and then they were pulled apart again; this time they won't get together again, though. It'd be the final ending for them, after all their on-and-off relationship stuff, he wouldn't have Nancy anymore. He wasn't there to save her, he couldn't help, and he lost one of the most important people to him.

Those are pretty much most if not all of my reasons so far, I really hope I'm wrong, but a lot of things are pointing me to that theory so..yeah.

march's monthly: from bee and rose

Stay Awake by Megan Goldin

▪︎ mystery novel ▪︎

there’s a fuzziness between sleeping and waking, a moment where it seems dreams and reality are star-crossed, impossible to remember where you are or how you got there, or even what you last did. there are times when you just can’t fall asleep…or is it because you won’t let yourself? because you’re afraid of what you’ll see, what’ll happen, what you'll forget? 

this is what it's like for liv reese. she forces herself to stay awake, writing messages on herself as reminders, and drinking a whole lot of coffee—all so that she won’t forget. because every time liv falls asleep, all her memories from the past two years disappear and leave her disoriented. her last one is of a phone ringing in her office, her hand reaching to pick it up. this is liv.

lost and confused in a new york city that is nothing like the one she remembers, liv sees a local news report in which a victim’s blood has been used to write “WAKE UP!” on the window—and in her handwriting. the worst part? the same message is written on her hand, where anyone can see it.

liv has no idea what she’s done the past few nights or the last two years. who has she become? what’s happened to her friends, her apartment, her cat? how did she get here, with the markings on her arms, blood on her stomach, and a knife in her coat?

but there is someone who does know; someone who knows her better than they should. there’s someone who’ll do anything to make her forget. 

▪︎

from rose

i got this book from bee, and i’ll be honest—i was doubtful (although to be fair, it had very little to do with the book, and everything to do with bee. she’s earned herself a reputation for recommending horrifying, nightmare-inducing mysteries, which… no. just no). this book, though? really really good.  

first of all, the book is told in different timelines and perspectives. somehow, the author manages to make this nice and confusing, and yet make complete sense at the same time. at the end, especially, it’s easy to see how the crime was pulled off, how the clues hidden throughout the book point to the murderer, etc. the book also deals with trauma, certain types of sleep disorders, and all manner of relationships. as a result, it feels very—sometimes painfully—real, and it’s easy to relate to liv and see just how terrified she is. 

from bee

i remember seeing an ad for this book while shopping with my mom and siblings a couple years ago—it was a while before i got to read it, but it was one of the first really good murder mysteries i've read.

another thing i remember was adoring the way it started. it's always fun when an author throws you into a scene with as little context as the character, and goldin does this in such an amazing way. the coming together of two character's paths creates a lot of suspense and i was really satisfied with the way their interaction went, even if under unconventional circumstances.

(don't pay any attention to rose, i recommend very good books)

▪︎

bonus: spotify playlist!

Cozy Wednesday featuring Shade Grown (Barks & Beans Cafe Cozy Mystery) by Heather Day Gilbert #Review / #Giveaway @heatherdgilbert #GreatEscapesBookTour

Shade Grown (Barks & Beans Cafe Cozy Mystery) by Heather Day Gilbert About Shade Grown Shade Grown (Barks & Beans Cafe Cozy Mystery) Cozy Mystery 8th in Series Setting - West Virginia WoodHaven Press (December 11, 2023) Paperback ‏ : ‎ 190 pages ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8987556955 Digital ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0BPQ8KHZR BOOK EIGHT in the Award-winning BARKS & BEANS CAFE cozy mystery series!! Welcome to the Barks & Beans Cafe, a quaint place where folks pet shelter dogs while enjoying a cup of java...and where murder sometimes pays a visit. During Lewisburg's popular summer home and garden tour, Macy and her brother Bo discover new aspects of their hometown's history. One of the last homes they visit features a lush commemorative shade garden marking where a Civil War soldier's bones were buried. As Macy pauses to admire a bed of blue hostas, she glimpses a shadowy shape lying beneath the dinner-plate leaves. It turns out to be the body of famed movie star Cody Franklin, who'd purchased the garden house as a quiet country retreat. Back at the cafe, Macy speaks with Cody's distraught sister, who lets slip that she's afraid her brother's killer will target her next. Macy's heart goes out to the bereaved sibling, and she agrees to speak with Cody's local acquaintances in hopes she'll uncover some helpful backstory. But someone powerful is lurking behind the scenes, and Macy has to zoom in on the killer before everything fades to black. Join siblings Macy and Bo Hatfield as they sniff out crimes in their hometown...with plenty of dogs along for the ride! The Barks & Beans Cafe cozy mystery series features a small town, an amateur sleuth, and no swearing or graphic scenes. Dollycas's Thoughts Macy Hatfield and her brother Bo have taken some time off from their Barks & Beans Cafe to enjoy Lewisburg's annual summer home and garden tour. They arrive at a property now owned by movie star Cody Franklin. His yard features a commemorative shade garden that marks where the bones of a Civil War soldier are buried. While looking at a bed of blue hostas Macy noticed a body beneath the large leaves. The famous new owner of this home and garden is dead and it is not from natural causes. Mr. Franklin's sister shows up at the cafe and she wants Macy's help to find her brother's killer who she thinks is coming after her next. Macy can't say no and agrees to ask some questions of the involved parties but she feels there is more to the story of Cody Frankin's death. Something shady is going on. She just hopes she can get to the facts before the killer strikes again. _____ Heather Day Gilbert has created a cast of strong and engaging characters. Bo and Macy have a wonderful brother/sister bond. They are close and always have each other's back. They can work together, do fun things together, and sometimes solve a murder together. They each are in romantic relationships with great people. Summer runs the animal shelter that provides dogs for the Barks portion of the cafe. She and Bo are now engaged. Titan McCoy is a six-foot-five FBI Agent who is usually on a secret assignment but always finds time for Macy, more so when has gotten herself involved in another murder. She has created some lovable animal characters too in Macy’s Great Dane, Coal, Bo’s kitty, Stormy, and Vera’s dog Waffles. Vera lives next to Macy's and the cafe and keeps her eyes on the neighborhood. These core characters are surrounded by a great supporting cast too. All the characters continue to evolve and develop as the series continues. It is truly like visiting old friends every time I open a Barks & Beans Cafe Cozy Mystery. The author has written a complex mystery too. With a celebrity victim there are some interesting suspects but mix in the small-town drama, some mysterious strangers lurking about,  old secrets and lies, twists and turns, and a good deed gone wrong and you have a splendid mystery brewing. Macy has a way of getting people to talk and has Bo and Titan come in at the right time with important assistance. I was totally gobsmacked by the way this story played out. It was so well-plotted that I fell for each point of misdirection right up until the very end. I really enjoy the way this author tells a story. I escape right into them with such ease and am always entertained. She also knows how to set up a fantastic cliffhanger that will have her readers yearning for the next book in this series to be released. Knight Brew will his stores on November 18, 2024. Shade Grown is a marvelous addition to this series. Well-developed characters wrapped up in a top-notch mystery add up to a Perfect Escape in my book. I can't wait to return to the Barks & Beans Cafe! Your Escape Into A Good Book Travel Agent About Heather Day Gilbert HEATHER DAY GILBERT, an RWA Daphne du Maurier Award-winning author and 2-time ECPA Christy Award finalist, enjoys writing contemporary mysteries with unpredictable twists, much like the Agatha Christie books she read growing up. Her novels feature small towns, family relationships, and women who aren't afraid to protect those they love. Find out more at heatherdaygilbert.com. Author Links Author Website     Facebook Page    Twitter/X    Instagram    Goodreads   Bookbub Purchase Link Amazon  The Rest of the Barks & Beans Cafe Cozy Mystery Series The Barks & Beans Cafe cozy mystery series in order: Book 1: No Filter Book 2: Iced Over Book 3: Fair Trade Book 4: Spilled Milk Book 5: Trouble Brewing Book 6: Cold Drip Book 7: Roast Date Book 8: Shade Grown Book 9: Knight Brew   Coming November 18, 2024 Standalone Novella: House Blend TOUR PARTICIPANTS - Please visit all the stops.  January 9 – Literary Gold – AUTHOR INTERVIEW January 9 – #BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee – SPOTLIGHT January 9 – Novels Alive – REVIEW January 10 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – REVIEW January 10 – Baroness Book Trove – SPOTLIGHT January 10 – Nadaness In Motion – AUTHOR INTERVIEW January 11 – StoreyBook Reviews – SPOTLIGHT January 11 – CelticLady Reviews – SPOTLIGHT   January 11 – Ruff Drafts – SPOTLIGHT January 12 – Cozy Up With Kathy – REVIEW January 12 – Sapphyria's Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT January 13 – Mystery, Thrillers & Suspense – SPOTLIGHT January 13 – Maureen's Musings – SPOTLIGHT January 13 – MJB Reviewers – SPOTLIGHT January 14 – The Book Diva's Reads – AUTHOR GUEST POST January 14 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT January 15 – Reading Is My SuperPower – AUTHOR GUEST POST January 15 – Christy's Cozy Corners – REVIEW a Rafflecopter giveaway Have you signed up to be a Tour Host? Click Here to Find Details and Sign Up Today! Want to Book a Tour? Click Here Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” Read the full article

What do YOU Want from Stranger Things Season 5?

Part 4!

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 (when it comes)

Warning: SPOILERS FOR ALL STRANGER THINGS EPISODES UNTIL THE END OF SEASON FOUR VOLUME TWO

So, as you guys might know, I'm currently writing a fanon version of Stranger Things Season 5. The idea is to be canon compliant up until the very end of the fourth season, and from there, give all the characters the fifth season that we, the fans, want for them. I've been looking at as many theories and repeated tropes in fan content that I can - but I want to see if I can hear from you guys directly.

So here are some questions for YOU! Your answers will inform how I write the story, so please leave a comment if you can!

So tell me, what do you want to see in regards to:

Mike Wheeler?

Alright, let's face it, Mike was a mess last season. He fell in and out of Will and El's good graces several times. Of course, we as viewers know that he's struggling with his own identity, his own self-worth tangled up with what El thinks of him, as we heard him tell Will. So...

How can Mike find his own self-worth as a separate entity from El?

How can Mike find support from his family and friends during that self-discovery?

What might cause El to set a boundary between herself and Mike, necessitating his acceptance of himself?

How should Mike react to the death of Eddie, who he clearly idolized?

How will Mrs. Wheeler's new overprotectiveness come into play as Mike goes on to fight yet another deadly battle?

What events or situations would bring Mike closer to his sister Nancy?

Does Mike already have an idea of Will's feelings for him?

How would he react to the reveal?

Given Mike's struggles, should he be Vecna's next target?

What would Vecna's attack look like to Mike?

What might Mike be forced to confront about himself?

How would the other party members react to seeing Mike being attacked?

How might Mike's behavior change after being forced to confront those things?

Lucas Sinclair?

Lucas has consistently been the least problematic character on the show, and yet he can't seem to catch a break. His friends ridiculed him for having mainstream interests (basketball), but he still chose them over his new friends on the basketball team when it came down to it. When one of his new friends, Patrick, was a victim of Vecna, he felt he didn't have the right to mourn him. That grief likely combined with his grief for Max when she was attacked, and from what we saw, he hasn't left her bedside. So...

How will Lucas be affected by everything he went through in season 4?

How will he feel Max's absence?

How can he realize he did nothing wrong when he joined the basketball team?

Would Lucas have unresolved feelings about how Mike and Dustin treated him?

How would he deal with those feelings?

What would make Dustin and Mike realize they treated him poorly?

How will Lucas' guilt over not reaching out to Max manifest now that she's in a coma?

How can he overcome that guilt?

What could possibly convince him to leave her bedside?

What should Lucas' hero moment be in the new season?

Erica Sinclair?

Erica has become more developed and important to the plot in every season, and the final season should be no exception! She was shown to have matured immensely between the third and fourth seasons, and after being instrumental in the party's plan to defeat Vecna and being physically attacked by a bunch of jocks, we can expect her to continue to evolve. The last we saw of her, she was standing by her brother at the hospital. So...

How will her experiences in season 4 change her?

How will being forced to adapt so quickly and at such a young age hinder her?

How can her youthful imagination help the party?

What unique roll could she play in the battle against Vecna?

What more could we see from her commitment to her brother?

How will their relationship as siblings change, now that they have so much shared trauma?

How does Erica feel about what happened to Max?

How might the party's treatment of her change after what happened to her last season?

Doctor Owens?

Doctor Owens has gone from Will's glorified psychiatrist in season two to a major part of El's support group and our last known connection to the original experiments at Hawkins National Lab. Unfortunately, the last time we saw him, his fate was unknown, left in the hands of Lt. Col. Jack Sullivan. So...

What did Sullivan do with him?

How could Owens successfully convince Sullivan that El isn't the threat?

How might he convince him to help her fight Vecna?

What information might he have that would prove helpful, or even crucial, in the fight against the Upside Down?

What assistance might he be able to provide to the party?

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 (when it comes)

Okay so with everything going on right now and all the exciting new information, there is one thing I see being overlooked a lot, and that is something I want to talk about: Natsuo Todoroki.

In almost every scene he appears in during the manga, he mentions Touya, and I really want to try to imagine the sort of effect this new information will have on him.

Natsuo and Touya have a clearly established relationship as kids, and while Fuyumi says they played together a lot, in one translation of a the scene in 253 Natsuo says that Touya used to tell him everything, implying that they also talked openly about what Endeavor was doing to their family and how they felt about it.

Natsuo was entirely ignored by Endeavor as a kid to the point where his existence was hardly acknowledged, and with information from the new light novel we know that Rei hardly took care of him either after Shouto was born. Natsuo would have been about four, not nearly old enough to do things on his own and was likely raised mostly by his older siblings.

Now imagine what it was like for Natsuo when Touya died. He would have been 10 at the most, and however Touya died (and I say died because it was considered a hard fact to the Todoroki family for almost a decade) and wether or not he witnessed it does not change the fact that it has been one of the most traumatic, defining events of his life so far. Not only was he still very much a child, Touya was likely his best friend and the single person he could rely on. Touya and Natsuo helped each other through the trauma they were both experiencing, so I can’t even imagine how devastating it would have been for Natsuo to lose his sole support system so suddenly without any grief counseling in sight.

If you think about it even now, at the core Dabi and Natsuo share strikingly similar viewpoints on hero society as a whole, and they both despise Endeavor for the same reasons. They also both seem to be very emotionally driven and have internalized their feelings that show only under stressful circumstances.

I am going to attribute the different outcomes in who they are now to Natsuo still having a stable home and Fuyumi to help him cope, and whatever happened to Touya he was almost definitely homeless and alone so it was easy for him to fall in with a group of loveable societal rejects (although I very much want to know exactly what he did for the years between ‘dying’ and joining the league).

So now finally, I will try my best to predict how Natsuo might react to the information that his brother is alive, especially assuming he finds out through the same video that Rei does. Horikoshi went out of his way to establish a relationship between the two, so either way it will definitely be heartbreaking.

First off is knowing that Touya is alive. Even with that information alone and nothing about Dabi himself, it would not explicitly be joyful. A huge part of who Natsuo has become is because of how his past-e.g. losing Touya- has shaped him. A significant example being that in the new light novel we learn that he wanted to be in the medical field to help people in situations like his mother ‘whose hearts have been hurt’. I think before any sort of positive emotion this information will definitely rattle him to the core, as it has Shouto and Endeavor. This is not just about Touya being alive, but it’s about how much of Natsuo’s life has been shaped by his death. I’d imagine under normal circumstances some form of joy or excitement would set in after the initial shock, but judging by the content of the video I can’t imagine that.

And finally we get to Touya’s status as a criminal, terrorist, and his admission to murdering over 30 people. I’m going to re-iterate what I said before, that Natsuo obviously looked up to his brother, and the image of teenaged Touya that he has been imagining and hearing in his head for the past decade is so drastically different from who he is now. **Now we have no reference point for how Touya was as a kid, wether or not he exhibited early antisocial tendencies or wether he was as kind and protective as the fandom seems to think of him. My point still stands that Natsuo looked up to him as a kid and immortalized him in his memory, so the cognitive dissonance between the Touya he knew and the Touya that we see now will also be destructive.

**Another side note, I wrote this before I saw the translation that Touya considered kiling Shouto while they were kids, which is certainly chilling and adds a whole nother level to this mess, so take that as you will

I honestly have no idea how he will react based on this last point.

One one hand, Natsuo is known for his brutal honesty in expressing how he feels, and this could be no different. There is definitely the possibility that he could blame Touya for abandoning them and betraying them, along with the horror of knowing how many people he murdered.

There is also a much different response to anticipate, mainly because Natsuo is also a very sympathetic person with a particular soft spot for his older brother, and may choose to view him as more as a victim.

Horikoshi is an incredible writer and is very capable of portraying subtle and complex emotions in his characters, and he is also well known for uncanny parallels and coming full circle in his writing, so I have theorized for a while now that the sibling’s responses to Touya’s return might be opposite to their willingness to forgive Endeavor, based mostly on their relationships with both of them. I think it would be poetic if Natsuo (who again is very emotionally driven) would have an initial response of just wanting to reunite with his brother and willing to overlook his transgressions in the moment, Shouto would still walk a middle line of being very conflicted and unsure, and if Fuyumi would blame him the most, for abandoning her and inadvertently leaving her to sacrifice most of her childhood and getting a higher education to look after the house and her younger brothers, as that had been a shared responsibility previously.

If you made it this far in the post, thank you so much for reading! Most of this is just speculation, but it’s been on my mind for a while so with the final reveal out of the way I have long been prepared to rant about the significance of Touya in Natsuo’s life and how his return would affect him. I’d love if you’s be willing to share your thoughts on all this before the next chapter.

Peace!

I think there’s a really interesting phenomenon in the “Succession” fandom in how people talk about Shiv. There seems to be constant fighting between two extremes - namely, “Shiv is a victim, and people who have a particular dislike of her only have that bc of misogyny” and “Shiv is a terrible person and an emotional abuser, full stop.”

And the thing is - like every single other character in “Succession”, the truth about Shiv is… complicated. Misogyny is a part of her story, and there are many ways in which she is a victim. She also treats the people around her, especially Tom, terribly. She saves the company at the shareholder meeting, but also alienates most of the senior management of Waystar within days of being promoted to President of Domestic Affairs. She demands an open marriage, but the reasons are rooted in deep family trauma which has harmed her ability to trust. She’s incredibly conceited and believes she’s better, intellectually and morally, than everyone else; but, she is consistently shunted aside by her family. She’s complicated!

But the thing is - so is every other character on the show. And yet the discourse around characters like Kendall, Roman, and even Tom and Greg, addresses that nuance. Obviously people tend to lean more to one side than another, but there is an understanding that - yeah, Tom behaves abusively towards Greg, but there is genuine affection there; yeah, Kendall performed wokeness in a borderline disturbing way in season 3, but is deeply impacted by the trauma he’s suffered; and so on and so forth. People are able to acknowledge the flaws of the characters they love and the wounds of the characters they hate - except when it comes to Shiv.

And it drives me a little bit nuts, because Shiv is such a fascinating character! I’m saying this as someone who, yeah, is rubbed the wrong way by Shiv, especially season 3 Shiv, in a particularly aggressive way. At this point I think she is, legitimately, my least favourite character. A lot of that is due to my personal experience - there are specific aspects of her character that remind me of people I worked with in an emotionally abusive workplace in the recent past, so I have a more visceral reaction to her shit than the other siblings. At the same time, I used to root for her! Especially through season 2. I think the way she’s treated Tom is horrific, and she’s really not emotionally healthy enough to be married to anyone - but I do feel for the traumas that brought her to this point, where she’s too broken to have anything approaching a healthy relationship.

I guess my point is that - there are valid reasons to dislike Shiv that are not just “I hate women”. There are valid reasons, even, for her to be your least favourite character, that aren’t just “I hate women”. At the same time, reducing her to just being an abuser (which, tbh, I think is a loaded term that doesn’t always strictly apply to Shiv), without understanding her backstory and her trauma and how she got to that point, is doing a disservice not just to the character but to Jesse Armstrong’s work. It’s okay to like Shiv! It’s okay not to like Shiv! It’s okay that other people’s opinions differ from yours! Liking or not liking Shiv doesn’t give you some kind of moral high ground.

TL:DR; I wish I saw more nuanced discourse about Shiv in the fandom. She’s just as complicated and interesting as the other characters on the show, and I think we should do more to acknowledge that.

I just found your blog, and read your post on Billy, and literally could not agree more. My parents worked with kids, a lot of them suffering from childhood abuse. Over the years I've become friends with them, some of them were very angry and mean when I first met them. And its hard seeing people I know be treated as a villain on the show. I could never understand what it would be like to see a character you relate to be killed in a violent way, and make it seem like he deserved it??? And the Duffer said they wanted a new villain in the show, but why did they have to make him a victim of childhood abuse. Could he not just be an ass like Tommy or something?

Anyway I think Billy deserved a redemption arc, and I think espically in season 4, I feel like his personality would work really well with the rest of the group. I also believe he and Max should have gotten that sibling relationship they both needed. Plus I would have loved to see them together, as would literally everyone else.

In my mind he's still alive, him and Max have moved back to California, and he taught her how to surf.

Thank you for this. I think people try and disconnect shows way too far from reality. Like fiction is fiction, reality is reality; but in the grand scheme of things, they are two sides of the same coin. How we see media in one way or another shows how we view reality.

Seeing so many people want billy dead, how many people saying he deserved not only his painful death but to be abused and go through the trauma of being possessed and being used to do horrible things. it's scary. Like I want these people to be forced to look a traumatized person like billy, a person who reacted similarly to billy, in the face and tell them they deserved every horrible thing that happened to them and that they deserve to die horribly.

Like people want to separate billy's experience and his actions so far from real life that their true colors show. they don't care about trauma or mental health, it doesn't mean anything to them if its not palatable, if its not pretty or objectifiable.

And then people who have worked/been around people like him, or are in essence like him, had to watch their hatred be supported by the masses. I fall into both categories, I have gone through very similar life experiences and reacted similarly, but I want to go into child psychology and social work. Most of my friends I have known since we were kids have similar backgrounds to him. and it hurts so much to think people want us dead, at least deep down.

I can only imagine how you feel about this, having been so intimately connected to people like him. it has to hurt equally so, if not worse.

I would have loved for him to be redeemed as he was supposed to. had the show had another human antagonist he would have been, it was in one of the original drafts for season 2 and 3. I try to imagine what it would have been like for him to have gotten a chance to escape, to get better, to live happily. he would have been a great addition to the group, he'd have been very protective, and even wise. he knows what its like to have a shit ton of trauma so young, he would have been a great person for the younger kids.