#i really don’t think he’s noticing the homoerotic subtext that they have even though it’s staring at him right in the face
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talking to my brother about succession and trying to remain normal is like playing a game on extreme difficulty
#i have the brainrot and i feel like it shows#he isn’t as insane about the show as i am sadly lol#like he’ll mention tom and/or greg and i have to physically restrain myself from going overboard on talking about them and acting feral#i really don’t think he’s noticing the homoerotic subtext that they have even though it’s staring at him right in the face#he’s gonna watch the nero/sporus and forehead kiss scenes and not think anything of them and i’ll want to rip my hair out#like dude open your eyes???#it’s not even like i’m making it up or reading too far into it#it’s not even subtext at this point it’s just text#he’s gonna watch the tomshiv betrayal and not understand the deeper meaning of it and what it means for tomgreg#i don’t understand him sometimes#not even just tomgreg just the show in general he doesn’t get certain stuff and i’m just sat there like 🫡#he keeps saying shiv is the worst character more than fucking LOGAN who’s an abusive piece of shit????#and who is just an absolutely disgusting person all round#he thinks shiv is evil for cheating on tom but logan can abuse his kids and it’s not bad i want to tear my own face off#like not excusing shiv bc granted she has done shitty things but it’s nothing compared to what logan has done#and as much as i love tom he’s not innocent either#anyways my brother is fucking weird as fuck but we been knew
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can you tell us more about your midnight cowboy essay?
Sure! I wrote it over 10 years ago and I can't lay my hands on it, but I’ll talk about it a little. For the paper we were supposed to compare a piece of media and its adaptation. It might have been for a History of Film class. There are a lot of differences between the book and the movie, but most of the changes made were to simplify and streamline the story. It's really a great book to movie adaptation. Obviously big spoiler alerts if you haven't seen Midnight Cowboy.
The first thing that came up was the main characters hair colors. In the book their hair colors are actually switched making Ratso Rizzo a blond and Joe Buck a brunet. That's pretty unimportant in the grand scheme, of course, but it's the first thing I noticed. After seeing the movie it was tough to picture Ratso as a blond.
Joe Buck's back story is really streamlined in the movie, but the emotional beats are all there. The book goes a lot into Joe's childhood being raised by a series of blondes, eventually ending up with his grandmother who gets taken out by a lot of younger cowboys who Joe grows up idolizing. His mother also went on a lot of dates with cowboys and it’s suggested that she was a sex worker.
The movie combines two traumatic incidents in Joe's life into one series of flashbacks. In the movie a teenaged Joe is caught with a girl in the backseat of his car and they are both gangraped by a group of men. The viewer learns this via a series of disturbing images and barely there scenes that spells out the situation as clearly and artfully as a 60s film can and, honestly, still hold up pretty well today.
In the book the girl is used by teenagers and young men, they literally line up each night to have a turn. Joe is the only one she has ever enjoyed having sex with and they start up a secret relationship, but her father finds out and has her committed. Later, Joe is living with a male hustler who he finds attractive in a conflicted way. It's been a long time since I've read the book, but at some point Joe is raped by him and, I think, another man. Again, the scene kind of fades out to the point that I can't remember if they drugged Joe before or not. It’s still clear what happens, though.
Ratso's backstory, however, is completely different. In the movie the pair visit Ratso's father's grave and he tells a story about how his father was a shoeshiner. It gave his father back pain and after he died they couldn't get the boot black out from under his nails so they had to bury him in gloves. It's a poignant scene and one I really like, and it's a good, short background that explains why Ratso tries so hard to get ahead and refuses to do work that he feels is beneath him.
In the book, though, Ratso gets lost among the many kids in the Rizzo household. Ratso was born with a club foot and was ignored by his parents to the point that he almost died of pneumonia because no one noticed he was ill. There’s a line about finding him curled up under the stove nearly dead. Every week Ratso’s father would take the family out to eat and they took up the biggest table in the place and his father was so proud of his gigantic family. Slowly all of Ratso’s siblings and his mother either die or leave until it’s just Ratso and his father sitting at a shitty two-top by the kitchen every week. At this point Ratso is his father’s favorite by default, but all his father does is feel sorry for himself instead of trying to have a relationship with his only remaining child.
It could have been done, but I can understand why they cut Ratso’s backstory considering the movie focuses mostly on Joe. Even though the book is from Joe’s pov, Ratso’s childhood takes an entire chapter and I think it would do it a disservice to reduce it to flashbacks. It might also be confusing since all the flashbacks in the story are from Joe, while the only flash-forward fantasy is from Ratso. This makes Joe a reflection of his past and Ratso the forward thinker and planner.
Both the book and movie show Joe’s arc from an idealistic young man who needs to be saved or taken care of to an adult who’s willing to take care of others. The book especially does a good job of this. The relationship between Joe and Ratso in the movie is more homoerotic than in the book. This is partially because near the end of the book as Ratso becomes more helpless and their roles switch, Joe starts to think that he’ll get married to a girl and Ratso will be like their child. In the movie there’s no inner monologue to clarify Joe’s feelings towards Ratso. On set, both Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman picked up on the homoerotic subtext in the script and may have played it up. There was an article I read where Dustin Hoffman was talking about how the characters should have been sharing a bed, for example.
This is getting away from me, but I do want to mention a scene that I think was perfectly transferred from book to movie. Joe gets invited to a party by this hippy, Andy Warhol-esque couple and there’s a scene on the stoop in front of the building. Ratso is getting sicker and he’s sweating and most likely feverish, but Joe is super excited to go to this party. On the stoop Ratso gets really self-conscious about how sweaty he is and his general appearance and Joe comforts him. He untucks his shirt and uses it to wipe Ratso’s face and fix him up and Ratso just kind of holds him and leans up against him. It’s exactly like the book and is a great example of adapting a scene from book to film.
Like I said, it’s been about 10 years since I read the book and wrote the essay and a few years since I’ve seen the movie so bear with me on my memory here. The essay was, I think, 5 to 10 pages and I have no idea where it might be, but this is just a little bit of overview/what I remember.
Fun Facts! Dustin Hoffman put rocks in his shoes to get Ratso’s limp right and in one take coughed so forcefully that he vomited on Jon Voight’s shoes. They obviously didn’t use the take, but it’s the scene where they’re crossing a bridge in profile.
I think most people know that “I’m walkin’ here!” is an adlib because they didn’t have money to shut down the street for filming and that taxi really almost hit Hoffman. I think most people don’t know that the suit he’s wearing was found in a dumpster by the costume designer.
#i've surely misremembered things#and no one asked for this to be so long#the essay was way more eloquent i'm sure#midnight cowboy#god i love midnight cowboy#vonder writes#long post#asks#i realize i've written an essay about an essay
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Um this might be annoying but your descriptions on that mutuals as svt members was so wholesome! So I thought if you could name your mutuals and say what you like abt them? Your favorite thing about them kinda? Idk I thought it was cute but you don't have to do it if you don't want to ! 💚💚💚
i went through my following list and i think these are all of my carat mutuals/friends <3 i only included those who i'm mutuals with here on this blog, but with that in mind i hope i included the right people/and all of you! if not, i may have gotten confused with your main and sideblogs. :/ i divided this into 4 sections (because that's how i think of them in my head, lol). so, without further ado, here they are in the order of my following list (from the most recent):
caratblr
@leechaerok (mirelle) - mi!! i love how you are always striving to be positive and that this is something you share and extend to other people! you literally remind me of sunshine and i hope that only good things are coming ur way. ily!!
@ohoshi (cora) - cora my naughty (IN A PLAYFUL WAY) friend <3 cora's really fun to talk to and she keeps you on your toes. idk why i didn't follow her earlier (i didnt know i wasn't following her jsdjkdsjsdk). extremely talented!! also love the upbeat vibe.
@soonyoungs (cara) - same with cora, i've been seeing cara around but never got to interact with her until recently! i love how versatile cara is and how she always always always appreciates even the little things. 10/10 would let her visit my home again <3
@wrongnanab (aya) - i get mom/older sister friend vibes from aya and i think it suits her a lot. she’s also not afraid of reaching out and i love that sm about her!! i relate to her a lot and i love how she’s always there.
@junhaoshua (e) - something interesting always comes up every time i speak to e! i also love her initiative and how well she manages her time. she’s really passionate about the things she likes and i love how she can get people to be interested in them too!
@choibeomgyus (kale) - kale has excellent taste! i love her aes so much. <3 her work is particularly right up my alley and i just love how clean looking they are. kale’s also such a sweet friend, and she’s not shy about showing affection. i love her sm!!
@dokyom (izy) - izy’s one of the first carats i first followed when i got into caratblr and i’m so glad to have made that decision! her work always wows me and although we haven’t talked much, she’s one of the people i always look out for in here.
@seohoshi (nele) - nele, my mutual at heart. <3 the way we became mutuals is so funny and memorable to me, and i can’t say that about most people! i really like the way nele presents herself as well. she can have fun while still being collected, which i find really interesting. i think she’s someone who brings stability, but i can’t really explain why i get that from her. <3
@art-hao (carrie) - goddess on earth. so elegant. a literal virgo. i love how carrie doesn’t want to be too invested in one single thing. that being said, she’s multitalented, yet is skilled in each of the fields she’s venturing in. she also speaks what’s on her mind, and i admire that a lot. what can’t this woman do :/
@svtreasure (kate) - kate is one of the first people i got to talk to here on caratblr! and although she’s not on here that much, i always look forward to seeing her. i feel like i have to protect her like a younger sibling <3
@uriboogyu (lee) - lee definitely has feisty younger sibling vibes which i think is so cute! like carrie and e, she’s not afraid of saying what’s on her mind. lee is also such a go-getter! the future is very bright for this one <3
@smallkore (kore) - i remember first talking to kore after she tagged all 3 of my active blogs in one post, and i thought it was kind of funny <3 kore is super talented and entertaining! i also think she’s super interesting, and i love her strange picture collection. <3
@rq-s (katrina) - katrina is also one of the first few people who i interacted with here on caratblr! she is so supportive and always has a nice word for everyone. even though she isn’t here much, i always like seeing her around <3
@boosbin (isa) - iconic. legend. will kick your ass. my beloved <3 isa is SUPER talented and she never fails to amaze me. she’s also very relatable and is super fun to talk to! idk i’m just really fond of isa lol
@dk-s (zay) - i love zay’s sense of style and her overall aesthetic! she also is really smart and gets really invested in her interests. i love her dedication and initiative!
@scoupsy (dreamy) - dreamy and i haven’t really talked much aside from interactions here and there, but she’s someone i really admire. i love how she doesn’t take anyone’s shit and knows what she wants. she’s really skilled in her areas of interest and takes pride in her excellent work. love that about her!!
@julyprince (madison) - i was really shocked when madison followed me back because i love her work so much! i love how she is so consistent and dedicated (honestly, the constant 9 sets say it all <3). she’s intimidating at first, but she is actually so nice and likes reaching out!
@xuseokgyu (belle) - one of my treasured moots. belle is literally the seok to my soon. <3 she doesn’t know it, but i was kind of shy during my earlier days in caratblr, and she encouraged me to be myself just because she was always reaching out to me. i see belle as someone who really nurtures and is just a reliable older sister for me!
@haniehae (anna) - also one of my favorites <3 anna doesn’t really need too much words but u can always feel the love from her by her little tags here and there. she’s also super supportive and very appreciative of the little things! anna is such a cute person to have around. i lalso love how much work she puts into caratblr. also an amazing dancer oh my god???????
@jaemtens (kevin) - like dreamy, kevin and i haven’t really talked much, but i always love seeing him on the dash! one of the people i admire. it absolutely blows my mind how he has a phd (about to have one? :D) and that he’s still somehow able to make gifs (BEAUTIFULLY!) consistently. love that dedication, wish that were me!!
@tearsofsyrup (vi) - vi thinking of me and tagging me on cute stuff really just makes me feel so :’>. i love how easygoing vi is and i just feel light whenever we interact!!
@soonhoonsol (chey) - everyone’s bestie!! chey literally is the go-to person on caratblr. idk how she manages to do it but she’s always so nice to everyone and really does go out of her way to make everyone feel comfortable! chey has a special place in my heart, and my stay in caratblr wouldn’t be the same without her. <3
@iiasha (emily) - you all don’t understand how much i LOVE emily. i can’t even explain why i love her i just do. she’s also one of the first people i followed when i came on caratblr and i’m so glad to have met her here on our own personal hellsite. emily’s the perfect balance of smart, cool, and funny (this sentence sounds lame as fuck but idk how else to put it)! i appreciate how much she likes her job and that’s something i hope to also imitate! i’ve said it before but i also really love how generous she is. emily also made my stay here on caratblr very enjoyable and i always love reading her text posts <3 i think tumblr junation would nearly die without her so go thank her rn. (she also spotted me turning full dinonara without me even noticing that i am one so. <3 /mwah/)
@coupsnim (izzie) - izzie gives me calm artsy vibes. her work is always stunning omg. queen of red lips (and i think it’s so fitting bc it suits cheol the best imo???). ALSO love how much she loves cheol!! izzie’s just a sweetheart. <3 would also support ur 0 note posts, lol.
@kyeomshine (lyns) - lyns coloring queen <3 i looove how clean and cohesive her work always is! she’s also one of the people who encouraged me to stay here on caratblr (although she doesn’t know it!!). and though we don’t see lyns as much nowadays, i still think of her as the resident dk fan <3 one of the memorable people for me.
@heartgyus (rhys) - my sister (dISGUSTANG!!). my enemy. THE mutual to have homoerotic subtext with. rhys is actually my closest friend on caratblr. she’s multitalented, almost all-knowing, and has prettie vibes. i’m not elaborating anymore from here on out because i just know she’s gonna be a little devil about it on the dms. 🙄
@hanwooz (kellie & christine) - one of my absolute favorite blogs! i think of them as one of the constants of caratblr. i absolutely love their posts sm and just enjoy when they’re around!! (and how do ur gifs always look good omg tell me ur secrets pls <3)
@7ww (yasmin) - one of my favorite (if not my favorite) gfx maker!! i love how you can immediately tell something is from her because of their trademark look. we haven’t talked yet, but she’s one of my favorite carats!
@mngys (sofi) - coolest person in the world. idk why we’re even mutuals i don’t deserve this <3 sofi always has the coolest ideas and i look up to her sm!! i’ve also seen her from the birdie community before i got into caratblr so i’ve been following her for quite some time now, but we became mutuals here!
aes carats
@vixenjun (kaya) - another one of my beloveds <3 i always say kaya is funnie and sexie but she really is, and those are always the first words i think of when i’m reminded of her. one of my absolute favorites. a bestie that's close to my heart. <3
@tiddie (deniz) - i don’t see deniz posting much about svt anymore, but deniz is one of my first carat moots (i followed aes carats first). this one really witnessed my jeonghan downfall. :/ so funny. is a great friend!!
@bwaldorf (ramasha) - A SWEETHEART!! ramasha and i don’t talk much anymore but when i think of her i only am reminded of good things. i rmb how much she supported my weird posts back then <3 also iconic aes hello????
@vernons (oona) - oona and i are literally just vibing here <3 i actually met her from the aes side of tumblr before i got into caratblr (like deniz) and discovered that she’s also a carat! i really like oona’s presence and i just feel like she’s someone i want to protect. <3 also makes amazing pastries. she’s also so pretty!!!!! (i really like ur hair sm i think i’ve said this before lol) a cute friend. would send u things saying ‘this reminded me of u’, and i’d get heart attacks from it jsdjdjksd
@oldbooks (fawn) - my frog friend. i think it’s so cute that fawn shares this agenda with hao <3 also unexpectedly tags you on things and leaves cute little notes/tags that makes me want to :’). sophisticated taste!! also really friendly. ily!!
@scoups (hani) - hani is so friendly and takes really good care of her friends!! i was intimidated of her at first, but learnt that she’s an absolute sweetheart. i love how she’s also giving us sm svt content when she’s around! hani’s a supportive friend that you’ll always find yourself looking for.
@snwo (joy) - refined taste. funny text post advocate. i love joy’s vibe sm!! i first got to know her when she had a hao url and i was super intimidated of her. now she’s one of my absolute besties! aside from her impeccable taste, she’s also such a great friend. this one always has ur back. ily ms joy <3
@sataemism (sof) - sof literally the funniest person in the world!! i’m always happy to see her and she brings me so much joy. very lowkey chaotic vibe (the taemin and hoshi urls speak a lot abt this lol), and just a very fun person overall!!
birdie carats
@flowerbeom (kat) - kat, like the rest of those in this category, is someone i’ve been following for a while now as i came back to tumblr because of got7. kat and i haven’t really talked much but always interact with rb/s and likes and i love that JSDJSDKJDSJ that being said kat’s tags are always so enjoyable to read. + it’s so funny as well that when we actually got to talking we didn’t realize we had a lot in common! a very generous friend. gave me a yugyeom pc even though i’m literally from another continent. 😭
@tuanzie (joanna) - content queen. i looove how joanna’s work has a trademark look to them! they’re always so gorgeous and smooth-looking. i love how joanna’s able to speak her mind and would not take shit from people. i see her as someone brave, but not too out there! also someone you can rely on to put reposters on hit lists mwah<3
@gotseventeens (belle) - my name twin <3 belle is actually one of the people/reasons why i got into svt and i’m eternally grateful to her for that!! we’ve been talking since i first became a birdie but somehow we both have 0 recollections of our conversations JSDJDKSJKSDJ tumblr wouldn’t be as fun for me if belle weren’t around ngl. i love how she seems to be mature yet you’re also up for a wild ride with her!! she’s my own personal wonu <3
@secndlife (karoline) - i’ve also been following karoline since i was a birdie, but we only became mutuals here! i love her writing so much and i enjoy seeing her lose her mind over hoshi (mood <3)
@defgyus (val) - i often associate belle with val and i think they have a lot of similarities!! val also gives me the mature yet fun vibe. i think val’s so successful and i admire her a lot!! i love her work sm and just love how she interacts with people. very warm and homey!!
more carat moots i haven't really talked to but enjoy seeing on the dash
@emailclub (emily), @kyeomblr (maddie), @joshuahong (bea), @delicatecy (deli), @mintyseoks, @syuperseventeen (nat), @haol (mali), @svtclub (hannah), @cutiejoshi (siri), @chanswu (mandy), @jeonghannie (myrena), @squishy-woozi (kris), @wonwooo (hiba), @rameniji (rain), @cafevernon (ish), @hoshluv, @minghyu (nicole), @mingyiu (katya), @yeol (tat), @dearkyeom (kristy), @seokgyus (kai), @bbaksu (akemi), @1adyluck (sushi), @shineesbag (gen)
#i didn't know i had this many mutuals lol#and i just figured out i was mutuals with some just now sdkjkjdkjsd#also#are u my mutual anon <3#y.ask#anon
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Meta asks
that thing Eddie does where he tries to get Buck to look him in the eyes when he's trying to comfort him is so soft and it kills me every time
Nonnie, thank you for this ask, this is truth and you should say it! And it’s one of the things that makes it feel different to a regular friendship, good as it may be, because there’s something so intimate about it, so connected and... in need, I’d say, like Eddie doesn’t just want, he needs to know that Buck is okay. Add to that his thumb on Buck’s pulse point, on that very intimate, some might say highly erotic spot (it’s me, I’m ‘some’) and it’s a wonder we didn’t all spontaneously expire after that scene. Buck included.
Hi! I love your Buddie Meta posts! The Buck Begins ep was so so good. I really loved the scene where the team comes to help Buck, and after watching it a couple of times, I noticed how incredible the song lyrics are in that moment. Just before Eddie reaches Buck and is the first one to grab the line, the lyric is literally "the future I just can't touch" !!!!?? Am I nuts for reading too far into this...but Eddie is the only one we get a close-up of, and after that lyric?? HE is Buck's future!
Thank you so much for the kindness, Nonnie! *hearts* Also? Yeees! I actually wanted to do a meta post looking at all the songs playing during Buddie scenes and their lyrics... I will at some point! But because it’s already been on my mind, I can say that I don’t think you’re reading too much into it. BTW, for anyone who doesn’t know: the song is So Far by Ólafur Arnalds. The lyrics are perfect for describing Buck’s mindset in that moment of desperation overall, but there are other songs with similar lyrics. So it feels significant, choosing this one, with its climactic moment that calls attention to itself when it mirrors the climactic moment of the whole ep, while cutting out a small section of the song, so that the last line before the climax is the one you quoted, Nonnie, even though it’s not the original last line before the song’s climax, AND while making the choice that it would be Eddie who comes into view right at that moment and Eddie whose face is visible up close and Eddie who’s the only one to get that treatment during that scene. You couple all that with how many moments we’ve had between Buddie where the lyrics seemed to be significant and it doesn’t feel coincidental.
Hi! I absolutely adore your meta posts! They really lift me up whenever the fandom seems to lose a bit of hope on buddie becoming canon. I feel like parts of the fandom keep going from thinking we are being spoon fed buddie content and surely it'll become canon to "the writers are homophobes and buddie will never be canon because they cut back on their scenes together" and it's giving me whiplash. But you make great analysis and your posts are always consistent, and I'm so glad for them!
Thank you sooo much for this, lovely Nonnie! I’m so happy to know my meta posts help. And TBH, I don’t blame fandom. Because it’s hard to have faith in something happening if there’s very little precedent to it, you know? Though I think that could actually also be a selling point for the executives on the show. They do something groundbreaking like making Buddie canon and 911 will become a part of queer history and talked about even decades after the end of the show. Currently, Henren and Josh and Michael and David are all nice rep (for gay people), but it’s not new in the same way that Buddie would be (especially if they do let them identify as bi).
Back to fandom’s whiplash, especially when other fandoms have let people down, it’s easy to feel despair. After all, it used to be that homoerotic interpretation used to be explicitly unwanted by TV execs. Then they discovered they could have really loyal fans of this without losing homophobic viewers, by using homoerotic subtext and never delivering on it. And at the time, that was progress. Because shows recognized those queer ships fans and started valuing them (though not enough to lose other fans). And then they started getting backlash for not delivering, they started being accused of exploitation of the fans of such ships. The term ‘queerbaiting’ was coined. Sometimes fans are too quick with it, but other times I find using this term as criticism to be fully justified.
Now, a lot of shows where fans had hope, to me they felt like they were consciously queerbaiting and I never expected them to deliver. But 911 strikes me as different. It doesn’t have the same infatuation with toxic masculinity that many of those other shows have, its viewers have already shown that they’re into/cool with diversity (enough for LS to actually use the diversity angle as a main selling point from the get go), the general vibe of the show is that it really does care and wants to make things better (or we wouldn’t have gotten storylines like the one with Michael being stopped and searched because he’s black) and at this point, TV execs have more experience with the fandoms of such ships, they know their value and the possible criticism. So that 911 execs are clearly aware of fandom and presumably, wouldn’t want the backlash, yet they continue to provide so much Buddie fodder with each ep, it makes me have hope in a way I haven’t with a lot of other ships I had, where I had fun in fandom, but I was always conscious canon isn’t happening. That’s not how I feel here. Is my feeling a guarantee of anything? Nope. But as long as you want it, I’ll continue to share it and what makes me feel the way I do. And then we can hope together that what I’m feeling isn’t wrong. ;) Thank you again, Nonnie, sorry this got long and hopefully this was helpful in some way! XD
Hope you’re ALL having a great day! xoxoxox
#buddie meta#911 meta#911 season 4#9-1-1#911meta#evan buckley#evan buck buckley#eddie diaz#edmundo diaz#eddie x buck#buck x eddie#love ranting about them#can you tell?#buddie#ask#anon ask#fandom love#kindness#911 on abc#911abc#911 abc
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Who Can Say if I've Been Changed For the Better?: Ferdibert Does Wicked
This concept has been a bit in building. It started from a much-loved cover by Hubert and Ferdinand’s VAs inspired by their support line and the broad observation that these two are a musicals couple who absolutely would sing their feelings in all manner of theatrical AUs. It continued through my later observation that there’s ample material to carry that idea even further, albeit with a shift outside of Crimson Flower for a better tonal match. Still, I’m not quite sure what to call this project; it’s not really a headcanon nor is it fanfic by any means. I’ve written a handful of longform character/narrative explorations before, although when it comes to FE I’ve previously been inspired to do so only for Jugdral characters. That setting is somehow both underdeveloped and deceptively dense - and I suppose in a way you could say the same of Three Houses as well, insofar as it’s been incredibly popular for fan content of all sorts.
Regardless of what this post is in terms of my fandom output, the following isn’t exactly a Wicked AU as such. Rather, it’s how I would envision a hypothetical blend of the non-CF routes of FE16 centering around the Eagles trio and set to the structure and songs of the musical as organically as possible. There are no 1:1 analogues with characters and plotlines from Wicked, because few if any would exist without a lot of tweaking; to use the VA cover example, Ferdinand might be a decent proxy for G(a)linda, but the mere presence of Edelgard substantially complicates Hubert’s claim to the Elphaba role. The similarities only unravel further from there, but I did my best.
Writing this out gave me the opportunity to play around with Edelgard’s character as a way of addressing what I and many others in my circle have long considered to be some of the major problems with her canon presentation. For Ferdibert meanwhile I got to make use of my headcanons for how their relationship would develop outside of their support line, in a way that mostly preserves Hubert’s delightful evil wickedness. Add some ruminations on how one would splice together the non-CF routes in a dramatically satisfying fashion, some snark directed at the non-character of Byleth, and a bit of background Dimidue/Lions OT5 for spice and that just about sums it up. Enjoy this…whatever this is.
Act I
“No One Mourns the Wicked”
The show opens on the citizens of Adrestia celebrating the death of their emperor and the end of her bloody war. Ferdinand rides in, resplendent on his steed, and is hailed as the new Duke Aegir as he relates to the crowd the news of Edelgard’s death at the hands of the combined army of liberators. The “Are people born wicked?” flashback sequence is replaced with a summary mostly in pantomime of Edelgard’s backstory: the Insurrection, her being taken to Faerghus and then returning, and then being experimented on by the Agarthans before agreeing to work with them. Notably Hubert is not named or referenced anywhere in this song, appearing only as a boy at Edelgard’s side at appropriate times during the flashback.
“Dear Old Shiz”
Someone in the crowd finally brings up Hubert, the emperor’s vile and murderous minister, and accuses Ferdinand of having been his friend. With Ferdinand even more flustered than Glinda since his “It depends on what you mean by friend” definitely carries sexual undertones, so begins the flashback to Part 1. There’s an equivalent intro of Garreg Mach, so one may feel free to insert any headcanons for school songs here. The following dialogue scene establishes the student body in general and the dynamic of the Eagles trio in particular: Ferdinand pompous and eager to one-up Edelgard at any opportunity, and Edelgard and Hubert cold and dismissive toward his antics and just about everyone else for that matter. Edelgard is instantly enamored of the quiet new professor, of course. Because the room assignment conflict doesn’t make a lot of sense with the monastery’s setup, instead Ferdinand is incensed that Edelgard is chosen as the Eagles’ house leader over him even though it’s been ages since a Hresvelg has attended. Neither Nessarose nor Morrible has an exact equivalent (although Seteth can act in Morrible’s role as the academy’s main authority figure), so the segue into the next song ends there.
“The Wizard and I”
Now alone together, Edelgard and Hubert have a brief dialogue outlining their villainous plans for the school year. This establishes Hubert’s hypercompetency but also how detached and professional Edelgard is around him. Then comes the song, now “My Lady and I,” which serves as Hubert’s character introduction. In tones more sinister than Elphaba ever reaches - you know he’d have fun with “When people see me they will scream” - he outlines his history with his lady, that he delights in serving her because she validates his work ethic and gives him an outlet for his ruthlessness and cruelty. Where Elphaba fantasizes about the Wizard removing her green skin, Hubert instead goes full Nice Guy, believing that once he’s given Edelgard her continental empire and crushed all her enemies she’ll be so grateful that of course she’ll put out for him.
“What Is This Feeling?”
You could rip the tone of this one directly from the Ferdibert C support and change nothing - homoerotic subtext included. I like the thought of Hubert replacing Elphaba’s deadpan one-word summation of Galinda with a mocking imitation of Ferdinand's most memetic line: "He is Ferdinand von Aegir!". The chorus can be made up of any number of other students excluding Edelgard, who’d happily agree that Hubert is ugly, creepy, and downright unpleasant.
“Something Bad”
The content of this song and surrounding scenes would have to be completely altered, but they work as a necessary reminder that the plot of Part 1 is still going on in the background of all the school drama. Seteth runs through the major events up to Chapter 9 of the game, including the bandit threat, Flayn’s kidnapping, and the experiments on the Remire villagers. The audience/accompaniment for this exposition dump ought to be Dimitri and Claude with Byleth as a silent observer (more on them later), with Edelgard brushing off the news and eventually being the one to shut down the song as Morrible does. There could be some small side character moments in here as well particularly involving the Lions and Deer since they get so little focus in this story.
“Dancing Through Life”
Speaking of which, this was an awkward sequence to place. It matches up chronologically with the ball in Chapter 9 and the main part, Fiyero’s, is a dead ringer for Sylvain and his flirty, hedonistic nihilism (“Nothing matters / but knowing nothing matters!”), but it’s hard to tie into what’s going on with the Eagles trio particularly with the Ferdibert timeframe preserved, i.e. unlike Elphaba and Galinda they don’t become closer until after the timeskip.
As such I see this song as an opportunity for little vignettes with the other students: Dimitri angry over how Dedue’s talked about and hoping they can share a dance (fitting contrast with the coldness of Edelbert), Felix prickly between Dimitri’s recent outbursts and Sylvain’s showboating, Claude hinting toward the bigger picture with Hilda flitting between her excitement over the dance and knowing more than she's letting on, Dorothea casually taking note of Edelgard’s fascination with Byleth (see just below), Bernadetta as a wallflower who doesn’t want to be disturbed (a setup for Act II), etc. Thanks to one of the Forging Bonds events in Heroes I had the thought that the "You/we deserve each other" through line that later gets attached to Nessarose can become one for Dimitri's relationships, with Felix initially throwing it out at him and Dedue and the two of them then turning "We deserve each other" into a romantic line...and then an ironic one and finally a triumphant one come Act II, by that point with Felix et al included as well.
I’m not sure that the following scene of Galinda and Elphaba bonding on the dance floor really needs an equivalent, although it could be altered to something Edeleth-related. In any case Ferdinand ought to get a dance scene of some nature, so he can try to show up Edelgard as he brags about in canon.
“Popular”
It would be a travesty to have a musical starring FE16’s cast and not give Dorothea and/or Manuela a solo. This song works quite well for the former, and it doesn’t intrude on the Ferdibert development with the aforementioned timeframe and how the lightly sapphic vibe doesn’t translate well to two guys. Dorothea has taken note of her good friend Edie’s crush on their mysteriously wooden professor, and she senses the opportunity for a makeover. Not as exaggerated as Dorothea trying to make over Hubert, naturally, but I still think this works out well. Also, Galinda’s observation on leaders, “Did they have brains or knowledge? / Don’t make me laugh! They were popular!”, is darkly comedic when said to Edelgard.
“I’m Not That Girl”
This song comes with preceding dialogue scenes for setup, so those first. Edelgard emerges fresh from her makeover (given her general hot for teacher fixation, I’m thinking she’d lean pretty hard on the naughty schoolgirl look) to Byleth silently grieving Jeralt’s death - bad timing there. She’s as callous about it as she is in canon, only now with more clumsy flirting, and while it’s impossible as always to tell if Byleth notices or cares Hubert most certainly does. The scene segues into the Eagles trio together, with Edelgard alluding to the upcoming events in the Sealed Forest and indicating that Hubert should meet up with her later for some more villainous scheming after he’s ditched Ferdinand. Ferdinand, indignant about being left out of the loop as he is in canon, grumpily points out that he was a much more splendid dancer at the ball than Edelgard, makeover or not. To his utter surprise, Hubert acknowledges that this is true before leaving. This leads into the actual song, altered from homoerotic via triangulation of desire to an outright sexual awakening for Ferdinand. He realizes that part of his jealousy toward Edelgard is that he wishes Hubert were devoted to him instead, and tells himself not to get his hopes up because he’s, well, not that girl or even a girl. We shall of course leave aside how anyone could be attracted to someone as repulsive as Hubert; that’s part of the inherent comedy of this pairing.
“One Short Day”
This was the hardest song to place in this whole project. The touristy trip to the Emerald City just doesn’t have an analogue in the story of Three Houses, especially not late in Part 1 when tension is mounting toward the upcoming reveal and war. It took me a while to realize that it works wonderfully as an Edeleth piece: Edelgard invites Byleth to Enbarr for her coronation, but that scene is left offscreen in favor of a light romp through the city that further highlights Edelgard’s crush as well as her emotional immaturity in spite of everything she’s about to do. She just wants to have a fun day out and take in the sights and eat sweets with her beloved teacher, and it’s all very “Edge of Dawn”-esque where Edelgard knows she’s about to do terrible things that will change everything forever and hopes to prolong the time until she has to take that step. Adjustments to the lyrics could even work in reference to that song to make the similarities more apparent. An awkward/funny issue here is that I envision Byleth to be totally silent throughout this musical with no sung or spoken parts, which would naturally make them having a duet impossible and make Edelgard’s fascination with them even weirder. Even their gender should be left ambiguous throughout, somehow never confirmed if it’s m!Byleth or f!Byleth. It would take a lot of reworking, but I can see the value in it.
“A Sentimental Man”
The core of the Wizard’s character is not all that different from Rhea’s. Both were thrust unexpectedly into positions of authority that required them to enact a large-scale deception to maintain their power/safety, and both are driven somewhat by parental feelings. The tone of the Wizard’s songs doesn’t align well with Rhea, but once you cut out the vaudeville and do some rewording I could see this one working as Rhea addressing her child (among other things) Byleth at the Holy Tomb just before the Flame Emperor reveal. Of course the dramatic irony hits differently; Rhea knows who and what Byleth is whereas the Wizard doesn’t learn about Elphaba until the end of the show. Nonetheless this would still establish Rhea’s character and motivations as well as set the stage for the impending betrayal.
“Defying Gravity”
Said betrayal being Byleth’s, who decides to stand by Rhea and condemn Edelgard as the Flame Emperor when she arrives with her army. This is another song in parts that would need to be broken up. Edelgard gets the bulk of it, but the middle sections between Elphaba and Glinda could work as a kind of separated duet with Edelgard and Hubert attempting to convince Byleth and Ferdinand respectively to join them. Because of Byleth’s silence only Ferdinand can reply in song; only he and Edelgard add the “my friend” bit to the end of this segment, to illustrate the unevenness of Edeleth and Ferdibert at this point in the story. Then things turn to full bombast, albeit darker than in Wicked proper. Edelgard does the belting, Hubert’s sinister laughter reverberates below her (would it be too tasteless for him to be leering up her skirt the whole time?), Ferdinand has Glinda’s mournful “I hope you’re happy!” toward Hubert, and through this and the reprise of “No One Mourns the Wicked” the major events of the timeskip are enacted in pantomime or silhouette. Byleth tumbles off a cliff, Rhea is taken captive as is Dimitri but Dedue rushes after him, and Claude makes a tactical retreat. Side note: “And if I’m flying solo, / at least I’m flying free” is classic Edelgard fixating on Byleth and forgetting that Hubert exists.
Act II
“Thank Goodness”
A surprisingly tough one here. The core of the song, pivoting around the double meaning of “I couldn’t be happier,” suits early Part 2 Ferdinand perfectly, second-guessing his choice and, outside of CF, melancholy about fighting his homeland. In terms of plot it’s an easy translation too, with the crowd announcing the terrible things the Empire has been doing to win its war - persecuting believers, abducting civilians and turning them into Demonic beasts, consorting with inhuman shadowy figures who can disguise themselves as ordinary people - and the assembly working as a way to bring together the leads of the three routes: Byleth, Dimitri (who had Dedue always at his side and thus never had a full psychotic break), Claude, and Seteth, with Ferdinand representing the Adrestian resistance. It’s only the wedding announcement that’s hard to pin down, and I toyed with a number of ideas including Dimidue making yet another public declaration of devotion to one another or Ferdinand planning to follow through with his arranged marriage to Bernadetta they have in their supports (which makes more sense in light of the following sequence). In the end though I don’t think the marriage element is strictly necessary, leaving the song as a means of catching up with the cast five years later and seeing them united against Edelgard - with Ferdinand’s private regrets the only sour note.
“Wicked Witch of the East”
More a dialogue than a song, but still important. Bernadetta is arguably the Eagle other than Hubert most comfortable supporting Edelgard, because all Edelgard has to do is put Count Varley under house arrest for Bernadetta to sing the emperor’s praises. I can also see her as the same sort of self-centered, negligent ruler that Nessarose becomes in Wicked, not because of an unrequited attraction but because of her reclusive desire to be left alone. I see this scene playing out as Hubert surprising Bernadetta at her estate, angry about rumors that she may be helping the rebels and/or engaged to Ferdinand if going with that plot point after Edelgard has done her the favor of locking up her father. He’s fully prepared to, ahem, “persuade” Bernadetta, but before he can break out the torture implements Ferdinand arrives asking for her to support the rebels’ cause.
Farcical, sure, but it gets the two of them together again after five years and underscores how strong their UST has become in their time apart, with Hubert too flabbergasted to attack a known enemy and Ferdinand expressing how happy he is to see Hubert again despite everything. Each learns that the other isn’t as happy about his chosen path as he’d hoped, in Hubert’s case because his lady has grown ever more distant from him as the war has dragged on. Bernadetta cuts through the tension by bringing things back to the song (sort of) and blurting out that she knows both sides are marshalling their forces near Gronder Field. Ferdinand is too caught up in the fraught romance angle to do more than leave with this new information, but Hubert recovers enough to condemn Bernadetta for her flagrant misrule (venting by inference his frustrations toward Edelgard in the process) and resolve to set her on fire for her treachery.
“I’m Not That Girl (Reprise)”
The Gronder rematch happened offscreen - and Bernadetta was indeed set on fire - and on the Imperial side Edelgard is left increasingly frustrated over her losses and hurt that Byleth still refuses to listen to her and continues to fight her regime. You may notice that I’ve shuffled around the middle of Act II, necessary at this point in order to better line up with FE16’s story and Hubert and Edelgard’s separate narrative climaxes while also ensuring that those climaxes don’t overlap too much. This song is only a brief reprise, but it’s a significant one; Hubert finally realizes that Edelgard will never love him. It’s also kept gender-neutral, because Byleth.
“As Long as You’re Mine”
That segues naturally into this moment. Ferdinand sneaks into Enbarr using his unexpected stealth powers (I usually talk about Dedue having them, but Ferdinand shows he’s no slouch in his Mercedes supports) and encounters Hubert. Their UST boils over in a furor of awkward, impassioned sex and also this song. I like the idea of rewording some of Fiyero's lines to incorporate Hubert's acidic snark: “Maybe you’re brainless, / maybe you’re wise.” It’s all very desperate and sensual, ending with Ferdinand taking Elphaba’s line about feeling wicked for the first time - which will have a dark reverberation two songs from now.
“Wonderful”
Again, axe the vaudeville and it’s a solid Rhea song. There’s just the small problem of Rhea being captured at this point in the plot; I thought about moving this number toward the very end at first before reconsidering. While Hubert and Ferdinand are rolling in the sheets, a distraught Edelgard confronts Rhea in prison. Rhea responds to Edelgard’s frustrations with Byleth with her backstory in song, much more somber than the Wizard but, like him, still willing to rehabilitate her estranged listener. The bits of this song about the nature of history are especially relevant to what Edelgard falsely believes about the church and what she views as her own legacy, so I could see this as an interesting character study on what Edelgard actually wanted with her war apart from dragon genocide. There’s a lot that could be done here in the dialogue surrounding those revelations.
“No Good Deed”
However the interrogation of Rhea turns out, Edelgard takes a leaf out of SS Dimitri’s book and visits Byleth alone at the monastery, only to be as harshly rebuffed as is possible to be without the rebuffer speaking. Then comes this song, which was incidentally the one where I realized that Edelgard would need a major role in FE16-does-Wicked even with the Ferdibert focus. Hubert fully embraced his evil wickedness long ago and wouldn’t think twice about being wicked or being perceived as such, but Edelgard is a different matter. Here she breaks down, admitting that her good intentions were largely selfish and that she regrets that her war has cost her any relationship she could have had with Byleth (continuing the joke at his expense, Hubert goes unmentioned when Edelgard names the people she’s lost/failed). It ends with a foreshadowing of her Hegemon form, the sign that she’s abandoned all pretense of goodness and become truly wicked.
“March of the Witch Hunters”
Another ensemble/vignette piece, checking in with the various members of Byleth’s army as they prepare to storm Enbarr. Dimitri hopes for the chance to forgive his stepsister, Claude has big plans for the continent and wants to remove the threat Edelgard poses, Seteth is desperate to find Rhea, and Byleth…is there. As in many of the songs, the self-righteousness of the crowd here rings more sincere and less hypocritical than in Wicked given Three Houses has actual villains, but it still works.
“For Good”
The song that inspired this whole thing, now with many paragraphs of context to set it up instead of only some fluff based on the Ferdibert A+ support. Ferdinand sneaks into Enbarr (again) ahead of the battle, and their second love ballad is more somber as they resign themselves to their fates. As in the VA cover, Hubert refuses to ask forgiveness for anything and Ferdinand is fine with that.
“Finale”
Wicked reduces the final battle from The Wizard of Oz to silhouettes backed by sections of “No One Mourns the Wicked,” and that’s what comes here: Ferdinand and Hubert facing each other in battle, Edelgard becoming the Hegemon before being defeated and then dying as in AM’s final cutscene, and Dimitri taking the throne with Dedue at his side and proclaiming his intention to do all he can to restore both the Kingdom and Duscur - and that his first act as king is to announce that he and Dedue have decided to open their marriage up. This is met with much manly cheering and stripping and someone (Ashe?) saying incredulously that he didn’t even know they were married. End silhouettes.
The final scene with the Wizard and Morrible becomes Claude, Seteth, and Byleth rescuing Rhea. Rhea names Byleth her successor as leader of the church and says that she will go into quiet seclusion and do what she can to correct her mistakes. This all suits Claude just fine, who tells everyone that he’s off to take care of some other business and that Byleth will make a great archbishop - and also they can have the Alliance, no big deal. As with the King of Faerghus’s gay orgies, the King of Almyra’s grand ambitions are too large for this story to do more than allude to.
Next, Ferdibert does a version of the Elphaba/Fiyero scene, with Ferdinand revealing that he had Hubert spared on the condition that he help root out any remaining Agarthans and that he remain under house arrest at the Aegir estate. Ferdinand was also required to assume governance of the Empire, because Dimitri wasn’t getting that dumped on him as well. They can be together, but the general population can’t know that Hubert survived lest Ferdinand’s reputation and basic ethics be compromised…which in a darkly funny hypocritical twist then segues to Ferdinand pontificating before the crowd at the beginning of the show, reprising “For Good” with Hubert until they’re drowned out by “No One Mourns the Wicked.” Thus the story concludes on one of my favorite things about Ferdibert: perhaps even in this non-CF continuity Ferdinand wasn’t changed for the better by falling in love with the Most Wicked Man in Fódlan, but they’ve both been changed….
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Fall 2020 Anime Season:
Golden Kamuy Season 3 is, so far, just as good as the first two seasons. For anyone unfamiliar with the show, it follows a former soldier called “Immortal Sugimoto” (nicknamed so for his tendency to survive a lot of shit that would kill most people) and a young Ainu (the Japanese equivalent of Native Americans) girl as they search Northern Japan (and even parts of Russia) for hidden Ainu gold. The story is pretty wild, with threats coming from the wildlife and the harsh, snowy conditions as often as from mercenaries, assassins, and various other human dangers. The cast has expanded enough that we have several separate groups of cool, well-written characters roaming about (and they’ve shuffled a bit from season two, making their interactions very interesting). Sugimoto remains one of my favorite anime protagonists. He’s one of the more brutal, violent main characters I’ve seen, but, strangely, also one of the nicest. He’s kind to innocents (both people and animals) but will slaughter his enemies without hesitation. He’s also pretty funny. Then again, almost every character is subject to the show’s weird but endearing humor. It’s very hard to dislike any character, even the ones who are quite cruel. The show is also notable for having a lot of homoerotic subtext. The beefy, handsome men sure do love taking their clothes off and wrestling. Like, taking it ALL off. Multiple times per season. Yeah. Watch this show, everybody.
Ikebukuro West Gate Park is a new show this season that I was initially interested in because it reminded me of Durarara!! in that it’s set in Ikebukuro and features color gangs. That’s where the similarities end, however. Whereas Durarara!! had tons of supernatural elements and just plain craziness, IWGP is more realistic by comparison. The show follows Makoto, a seemingly normal guy who seems to function in a sort of “odd jobs” type of role for a color gang called the G Boys. While they’re a gang, they don’t seem like criminals or thugs, or even delinquents. They really feel more like a club, held together by their respect for the leader referred to as King. So far the series seems to be episodic in nature, with most stand-alone episodes focusing on some sort of social issue, from drug addiction to immigration. It’s interesting to see these issues presented in such a sympathetic light, viewed through the lens of Tokyo’s youth. The art is nice, with varied character designs and animation that’s just good enough that you don’t notice the problems very often. The music is a highlight, with my favorite opening theme of the season and one of the better ending themes.
Magatsu Wahrheit is a show I was very iffy on at first. It has a lot of things working against it. It’s based on a video game I’ve never heard of, the opening theme is one of the cheapest, most unimpressive things I’ve ever seen (note: it does improve a few episodes in!), and the series overall has a low budget feel (though nowhere near as bad as Gibiate from last season). But the story is actually very interesting and very well written. The basic premise is that Young Man A (I’m not remembering these weird names, sorry) works as a delivery truck driver in your usual “modern fantasy” setting (kingdoms and monsters and other medieval fantasy trappings alongside trucks and cars and advanced science laboratories). When he’s loading up his deliveries, Young Man B, a fresh recruit in the kingdom’s military and general goody-two-shoes, randomly offers to help Young Man A load his truck. Young Man B spots some boxes off to the side and, assuming they were part of the load, puts them into the truck while Young Man A is talking to his boss. These boxes turn out to be illegal weapons being smuggled by a group of... freedom fighters? I guess? This, in turn, drags Young Man A into a shit storm of trouble when the illegal weapons are discovered in his truck. It also leads directly to tragedy for Young Man B as well, setting them both on wildly different but similarly dangerous paths. The whole idea that a simple act of kindness for a stranger sets off such a terrible series of events is pretty engaging. As it stands in the show right now, Young Man A is the more compelling character. He’s just a truck driver. He’s a coward who runs from danger and wants no part of any of this. But at the same time, he can be surprisingly brave at times (usually when a child is in danger). In a twist on the usual trope, these spurts of bravery are rarely rewarded. At least twice, his decision to act has led to heartbreaking tragedy. So far Young Man B is your typical “idealistic youth realizing the military isn’t comprised entirely of nice people” type of character. As such, he’s just not as interesting. He hasn’t had as much screen time though, so hopefully he’ll grow as a character. I guess it says a lot that I’ve written so much about the show, and almost all of it is about the plot. But the plot is really the only remarkable thing about it. In this case, that’s enough.
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni is, well, a bit of a trainwreck. And I’m not necessarily talking about the quality of the show. Let me explain: The show was marketed as a remake of the 2006 anime, which was one of my all-time favorite series. I was pretty excited about it. Lots of new fans who had never watched the original started this one. The first episode was okay. I wasn’t crazy about how shiny everything looked (I realize the original’s visuals are a bit dated now but at least they were unique, this new one looks like pretty much every harem anime from the past five years) but the story seemed to be doing good and I looooooved the use of the original opening theme song as the closer. Then episode two dropped, and the fandom basically exploded. The first few minutes of episode two reveal that this is not a remake, but a sequel! Shock! At first, I was impressed by this little bit of manipulation. It felt exciting to realize the truth. But then it dawned on me (and the rest of the fandom) that new viewers who came to watch this were screwed over. Those first few minutes of episode two spoil some very important things from the original series (we’re talking major spoilers here), and it’s going to ruin a lot of plot points for those who never watched the original and now want to go back and watch it first. So here’s a PSA: If you’re new to Higurashi and want to try this new series, DON’T unless you’re okay with watching a sequel that spoils the original.
Okay, so now let’s talk about this new series/sequel. First, the good points: The ending theme is GORGEOUS. Just... go watch it. Soak it up. The opening isn’t bad but I can’t help comparing it to the far superior original opening. Aside from the overly shiny and generic character designs, the rest of the visuals are pretty great. The scenery in particular is very nice. In terms of story, I like the idea of beginning each new “arc” by staying close to the original story, then throwing in some pretty wild deviations that make them end in completely different ways because a character that lived through the original is trying to make subtle changes (that so far have ended up turning out very badly). When it comes to the bad points, one in particular sticks out: It’s not scary! The original had some truly unsettling moments, and so far this one hasn’t even been creepy. It’s had some moments that obviously tried to be scary but have failed miserably. For example, the early scenes with Rena in the original were actually terrifying. But I felt none of the intensity or creepiness in this sequel. Still, it’s nice to see these characters again and to see how this story deviates as someone tries desperately to change the outcomes.
Haikyuu!! has another new season and... I don’t really know what to say about it. I’ve talked about this show several times now. Looks like this season is going to focus primarily on one long match, a concept I’m not crazy about. They also made the baffling decision to cut in with a full episode about a rival team’s match right in the middle of showing the match with the main team. I mean I love seeing more of the rival teams but it felt disjointed to do it this way. Still yet, it’s a fun and energetic show full of great characters and easily understood volley ball matches.
Jujutsu Kaisen is probably the most hyped up new show this season, and I would say it definitely deserves that hype. It’s a pretty familiar shounen fighting anime setup: A teenage boy acquires special powers and joins a school to train so that he can use those powers for good. However, following that formula does little to negate just how fun and well-done this series is. A lot of people have compared it to Naruto (the protagonist is a vessel for a powerful entity, he joins a trio of characters with a more serious and moody black-haired boy and a chick, and they have a badass teacher with silver hair who keeps his face partially covered). So sure, it’s like Naruto... except it’s much better than Naruto in every conceivable way. The animation and fight choreography are consistently fantastic. The main character is not the least bit annoying. The only chick in the group (there are more cool ladies in the story, just not in this group!) is a badass in her own right and her story and motivations have absolutely nothing to do with romantic interest in any of the guys. Even the teacher character is incredibly fun. The music is great, with my favorite ending theme of the season. You know it’s an excellent ending theme when people start making different versions of it using characters from other shows. It’s so, well, fun. A word I keep using here, because that’s the first word that comes to mind when I’m watching this series.
Talentless Nana is one of those shows that’s going to be difficult for me to talk about without spoiling a very cool surprise. This surprise comes at the end of episode one (basically, the show makes you think it’s about something, but turns out it’s about something completely different). So if you want to really enjoy that surprise, stop reading this and go watch episode one before coming back. If you’ve already watched it or don’t mind having the surprise spoiled, here we go: The first episode sets up the series to be a cheap Boku no Hero Academia knock-off. We have a school of “talented” (super powered) kids training to use their powers to save humanity from (so far) unseen monsters referred to as “the enemies of humanity”. We are told one boy has no “talent” or special power and he’s ridiculed for this. There’s a new transfer student named Nana, a super sweet and cheerful girl with pink hair who has the ability to read minds. There’s also another transfer student, a sullen and quiet boy named Kyouya who hasn’t disclosed what his “talent” is. With that setup, I think a lot of people were ready to dismiss it as “BNHA, but not as good”. But then, a few minutes before the first episode ends, we’re hit with the twist that reveals what this show is really about: Nana is the one with no “talent”. She lied about being able to read minds (the boy we thought had no talent did actually have one). She’s a totally normal human being, and she has been sent to infiltrate the school and kill off the students, the true “enemies of humanity” (called so because their powers make them incredibly dangerous). Thus, the show is about a normal human girl using only her wits and skill in manipulation to kill off super-powered individuals. Watching her work is an absolute delight. She is ruthless and incredibly intelligent, but she does have one major problem: the other transfer student Kyouya, who is at least as smart as she is and is suspicious of her right off the bat. But since he’s not sure she’s up to no good, he can’t really act on his suspicions. Nana in turn knows he suspects her, so she has to be careful around him. As a result, the two become “friends”, constantly watching and outmaneuvering each other. In this way, the series reminds me of the early, best parts of Death Note, with the mental sparring between Light and L. But the most fun you’ll have with this show is watching Nana come up with ways to deal with each new “talent” she comes across, from the ability to time travel to necromancy, all while having no special power of her own. The art is nice, a bit generic, nothing too fancy. The music is great, with one of the better opening themes this season.
Moriarty the Patriot focuses on the classic Sherlock antagonist Professor Moriarty. Let me get this out of the way first: I know next to nothing about Sherlock. I haven’t even watched any of the various tv shows about him. What I know of the character basically comes from mentions of him in Detective Conan. So I’m coming into this series with no preconceived notions about these characters and no other versions to compare them to. Anyway, Moriarty as a series is about class warfare. Moriarty as a character pretty much embodies the phrase “eat the rich”. If you’re familiar with the phrase and understand its meaning, you’ll probably like this show. Moriarty works as a professor, but his side job is as a “Crime Consultant”. He helps the poor lower classes get revenge on the cruel nobles and elites who have wronged them. This revenge most often involves murder. There’s something refreshing about how unapologetic it is. In most anime, the hero tries to find other ways to punish evil than by actually killing them, or there’s some lesson involved about how revenge isn’t the answer or how killing someone who wronged you makes you as bad as them. In this series, there’s absolutely none of that. People get their revenge and, so far as I’ve watched, seem to be living much happier lives afterwards. In this way the show totally avoids being preachy. The art is gorgeous, with classy character designs and lovely backgrounds. There’s a certain lushness to it. The music is very nice as well (particularly that poppy ending theme). The only downside is that this has probably ruined me for watching other versions of these characters now. I mean, once you see them as sexy anime pretty boys, it’s hard to see them as anything else.
Carry Over Shows From Previous Seasons:
Black Clover
Best of Season:
Best New Show: Jujutsu Kaisen
Best Opening Theme: Ikebukuro West Gate Park
Best Ending Theme: Jujutsu Kaisen
Best New Male Character: Moriarty (Moriarty the Patriot)
Best New Female Character: Nana (Talentless Nana)
#anime reviews#seasonal anime#fall 2020 anime#anime recommendations#text#jujutsu kaisen#moriarty the patriot#munou na nana#ikebukuro west gate park
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Unpopular Opinion: Johnlock edition
So, I am, as invariably suggested by my blog and username, a major Sherlock fan. I absolutely love it. The first time I watched it, I immediately related to it, and my peabag brain instantly saw a friend in John Watson. Sherlock’s character, on the other hand, was quite unconventional to me. I couldn’t bring myself to quite like him for the first 2 episodes. He was.....different. I knew I wanted to watch the series just for the dynamic duo and their and sweet friendship. The cases I couldn’t at first care for much, but eventually that changed too. I always was completely amazed by how well they had managed to adapt the series to the 21st century and their subtle winks to the original canon too was quite impressive. Eventually, I fell in love with it, and proceeded to watch the entire series thrice. in a row. I was, and still am, completely obsessed.
Then came the thought, which was also somehow initially suggested subtly by the show itself, ” What if Sherlock and John are in Love?” I must agree, I had read too many conspiracy theories about certain celebs being closeted to not come up with that question.
At first it was just a thought. But then, critical analyses on tumblr came up. I couldn’t stop reading them?! and so many of them were thought-provoking and persuasive and honestly, I was living for it. The phone = heart theory is still one of the best Theories I’ve read among all the fandoms I’ve ever been in. And that is just one among many. JohnLock was everywhere. Other ships were persistent, but none could reach the amount of fervor as JohnLock. And I was living for it too. I still really enjoy all the adorable fanfics and the ever-interesting theories, and honestly, at this point, my motto is “I’ll find homoerotic subtext even if it kills me”.
Shipping is ok, shipping is good. But here’s the deal we need to talk about: we shouldn’t justify our ships to the point of interpreting every action as romantic. This propagates unrealistic expectations and results in harmful stereotypes.
Yes, I’m talking about the unending debate on Johnlock.
From season one itself, Johnlock was phenomenal. It is widely argued that the show-runners themselves inserted subtle hints, and hence, birthed this beast on their own. The Sherlock fandom remains one of the oldest fandoms in the world, with its beginnings rooted in the Nineteenth Century when ASiS was published, and since then many have argued about the latent homosexual subtext embedded into the writing, my point here being people have been shipping Johnlock for well over a hundred years. Hence, It’s not really a surprise that people are still drawn to this ship. But to be shipped by this magnitude of people? This invariably suggests that there’s material provided to us by the creators themselves that is very blatantly obvious about the relationship. And while in most cases shipping two characters is completely okay in itself, according to me, shipping Johnlock has further validation in the fact that there is proof of intent of it becoming canon eventually (at least in the first two seasons).
Like I said before, shipping is OK, shipping is good.
But is shipping okay if we take it to the point of over-analysing every move?
Sherlock is a comfort character for me. God knows half of my maladaptive daydreams are about him being a father figure towards me. My entire twitter tl and Tumblr dashboard is stuffed with cutesy or angsty things about him, and that’s great! But being in the fandom for about eight months, I’ve realised how this sort of feed eventually resulted in me completely forgetting the original storyline, and more importantly, in me forgetting how flawed a character Sherlock is!
Everyone(including me, the first time) freaks out in HLV because of how Sherlock isn’t listed as John’s pressure point. I, however, think we should question ourselves: Why should John still consider Sherlock that tantalizingly close to himself as he was in the beginning? John learnt his best friend had died, and he decided to do the bravest thing he could: make peace with it and move on. BUT NO! The Ghost of the man who loved him returned from the grave to haunt him! Here I talk about the other possible reasons why Sherlock wasn’t a pressure point for John in HLV.
I am tired of this constant sugarcoating of Sherlock’s character. I am tired of seeing constant posts about how Sweet and caring Sherlock is and how much he loves John and how he loved her more than Mary. I am done with over analysis of every single shot where Sherlock looks at John, completely done. This shot below? It’s been overused for so many fanfics and cheesy romantic lines that I forgot that it’s supposed to be a look of GUILT.
Anyone who knows me knows that I love sherlock so dearly because he’s a very unlikeable character. That is precisely what sets him so far apart from the other characters. Sherlock started off with a hateful and dismissive character, but through the course of the events he undergoes a lot of emotional development. And that is truly noteworthy. In TFP he said for Mycroft, “ He did the best he could (for Eurus)...” and that is truly sentimental. This sort of development is always heartwarming.
What I want people to understand is that Analysis is, obviously, important. And CRITICAL ANALYSIS more so. And it’s saddening to see so many people glossing over the critical part of the analysis. Why is it so wrong to point out HOW HURTFUL SHERLOCK’S ACTIONS TOWARDS JOHN HAVE BEEN? Why is it wrong to to point out Johnlockers borderline bully other shippers?
Can we finally talk about the problematic aspects of Johnlock, or rather Johnlockers?
Even though I’m relatively new to the fandom, I’ve noticed how dismissive people are of anything negative said about Sherlock. In the beginning, it was endearing, really; but now I see this pattern of constantly singing praises of Sherlock’s character, and it has lead me to realize how detrimental it can be to the relatively younger audiences. Sherlock is Rude, period. There’s no question about it. And this constant glorifying of his rudeness and arrogance and dismissing it as a quirk could very well possibly give the impression that arrogance and vanity are in fact not so bad, and hell, it might make one seem a little cooler even ! Oh, don’t be mad if I act like my comfort character ! I’m quirky like that !
Constant bashing of the creators. And when I say constant, I mean it. This sort of bashing about is never-ending. And when I say this, I don’t mean that the creators were perfect; some of their mistakes were, quite frankly, blatantly ignorant ( like Irene the Canon Lesbian falling for Sherlock), but I don’t see enough people praising it for what it is. Even now there is so much slander against the creators ( and personally I feel bad for Mark Gatiss because he’s actually on twitter and is constantly spammed). Is it really a surprise that the creators hate the fans and especially the Johnlockers? Was it supposed to be so shocking when Martin said that being in the show wasn’t very fun anymore because of the fans?
We just don’t actually analyze anymore! I get that we haven’t got any new content for FOUR muheffing years but please I literally don’t see anything that’s actually interesting or analytical anymore and that kills me because that was the reason I joined this fandom- to read and comprehend the subtext, and the AMAZING META! All I see are cute couple-ish pics of ben and Martin and tbh we can do so much better than that?!
Johnlockers have so much actual stuff to talk about? There is literally so much going on Subtextually, and yet all I see is people losing their mind over any interaction between Sherlock and John. This is so unfair! AND it’s detrimental too! With people painting every interaction as romantic in nature, the younger teenagers in this fandom who might not have experienced Love or Attraction may glean unrealistic ideas about them! It is difficult as it is to navigate oneself through romantic entanglements, let alone being fed such rose-colored ideas! And I say this because although I don’t know much about the audience on Tumblr, but Stan Twitter is like, (at least) 50 percent teenager-fuelled. It actually isn’t healthy for them at all.
Stop with the Benedict-worshipping for God’s sakes. Are you only in here because of him? We all get it, he’s absolutely stunning but come on, we’re here for the stories too right?
Romantic love is important, no doubt. But you know what’s completely overlooked? The platonic sort of love. And it’s tiring. Sherlock and Molly/Janine/Irene/John are all amazing duos and each pair has it’s own uniqueness and tang to it! Let’s not constantly dissect everything in the name of shipping, shall we?
lol looking back at it, I feel like it’s a vent rant for the prevailing circumstances on Stan Twitter. I apologize if anything I said hurt anyone, it wasn’t meant to. I completely understand that shipping people is for...recreation (?) but this was just my opinion. Let me know what you think about it!
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The Homoerotic Subtext In Victorious: Jade and Tori
I’ve done a lot of nothing during quarantine. The same old same old, wake up at noon, eat something, find the homoerotic subtext in every straight film/show/video game I come across. Isn’t that how we all spend our afternoons?
It started with Taylor Swift, and the wlw undertones in all of her newest songs. Despite being in a long term relationship with a man, she penned lyrics like “those days turned into nights, slept next to her, but I dreamt of you all summer long” and “what would he do if he found us out? he’s gonna burn this house to the ground,” So of course I went from hating on all of this straight media, to searching for queer scraps in the background of these art pieces. From the new summer Disney flick, Luca, to the characters in my newest copy of Red Dead Redemption 2 on Xbox One.
I always loved Victorious, it’s been one of my favorite shows since I was a child. The strange humor, the funny remarks. Always wondering why I liked the sassy, demanding Jade instead of the swoon-worthy womanizer Beck.
So, in quarantine, when I heard that Victorious was coming to Netflix, I re watched the entire show and couldn’t help but notice all of the queer innuendos, and rather flirty scenes between female actors. Of course- I’m not the first person to ever notice this. The homoerotic implied relationship between Tori Vega and Jade West had been shipped plenty of times and edited to oblivion by young, gay teens.
Since this is all news to me, I thought I’d go through every episode of Victorious and tell you what is gay about it, from a lesbian’s point of view.
Pilot
I never noticed how queer coded Victorious is, especially this very first episode. The sexual tension between the girls is almost too much, I have to drink some water every few minutes.
It’s clear to me that Jade is taking advantage of new girl Tori, and trying to establish her superiority because of her own fears and insecurities.
[Tori bumps into Beck, spilling coffee all over him]
Tori: Oh my gosh!
Beck: Ah, it’s cool
Tori: No, here- I think it’s coming out.
[Tori attempts to rub the coffee stain out of Beck’s shirt]
Beck: You might be making it worse, actually.
[Jade enters]
Jade: Dude, why are you rubbing my boyfriend?
Tori: I-I just spilled coffee on-
Jade: Get away from him.
Beck: Relax.
[Beck kisses a reluctant Jade on the cheek]
Our very first introduction to Jade West is her making sure everybody knows Beck is her boyfriend. Multiple times throughout the episode, she cuddles up to him, picks him as her partner, and kisses him in front of the whole class. There’s a straight explanation to this, but there’s also a queer one. Jade is insecure in her attraction to girls and feels as though she needs to prove herself and everyone else that she does, in fact, like men.
Sikowitz: Jade, you will captain the first group of the day. Choose your actors.
Jade: Cat, Eli, Beck, and Tori. Tori, why don’t you go wait in the hall?
Tori: Uh, okay.
Jade: I have great news that’ll cheer up this whole family. I went to the animal shelter and got us a dog.
[Pulls Tori into the classroom by the arm]
Tori: Uh, yep! I’m the new family dog. Woof.
Jade: Uh oh, looks like this dog has bugs in her fur.
[Jade strokes Tori’s hair]
Tori: Uh, woof?
Jade: Oh, it’s okay! I read on the internet that coffee works great for getting rid of fur bugs.
Beck: Maybe you shouldn’t-
Andre: Jade-
[Jade dramatically pours the coffee on Tori’s head]
Jade: What’s the prob, dog?
[Tori runs out of the room, contemplating quitting Hollywood Arts]
Jade not only wants everyone to know that she’s straight, but she also wants everyone to know that she possesses a dominant personality, and isn’t afraid to get dirty. In this case, she does all that she can to make Tori’s day a living hell, all because she touched her boyfriend.
I don’t recall this as normal straight girlfriend behavior, there’s gotta be a fear of being outed rooted down deep in Jade’s bones- right?
The episode leads to a scene whereas the two girls are arguing, and there are only a few notable lines:
Jade: Just where did you come from?
Tori: Kangaroos.
Jade: Lousy animals, Kangaroos, they're awkward and dirty.
Tori: Maybe they learned from you.
[The classroom tenses, the girls getting more and more angry]
Jade: No one talks to me like that.
Tori: Obviously someone should.
Jade: Please run in front of a bus!
Tori: Quite obnoxious of you to say.
Jade: Really?
Tori: Sure was.
Jade: Thanks. [Sarcastically]
Scenes get tense as the girls grow closer to each other, getting more and more upset.
But it’s also a lot like playing cat and mouse.
Day 1, Jade picks Tori for her team, day 2, Tori picks Jade for her team just to spite her. The submissive trying to declare dominance, whilst the real dom notices the attention seeking. When Jade says that no one speaks to her like that, and Tori proceeds to comment that someone should, a sexual tension is cast into the air. It’s obvious to any viewer.
The condescending flirtatious “Really?” Followed up by the bold “Sure was.” Is very queer coded. No one talks like that to someone they don’t find attractive. C’mon.
Author’s Conclusion: Jade feels the need to be angry and rude to anyone who threatens her heterosexuality. She possesses a fear of being outed, and does whatever she can to maintain a normal relationship with a man. But even her attraction to girls and her dominant personality can’t hide, as her actions reveal the closet to be made of glass.
Tori Goes Platinum
Tori: “Everyone else was coming to cheer you on, so... Figured I would, too. And you look way better in that than I would have.”
Jade: “This isn’t right. This was supposed to be your night. I can’t do that to a friend.”
- Jade is the most concerned person in the room when Tori begins acting differently after landing a gig at the Platinum Music Awards. Leading a class wide discussion, Jade discusses Tori’s change in behavior and provides her own evidence and proof to back up her statements. When Tori enters the classroom, Jade confronts her without hesitation, and seems to be the only person who cares enough about the pop stars well being. (Authors note: Only someone who truly cared about another would notice when they’re acting different and confront them to try and fix the problem...)
- When Tori refuses to wear the ridiculous outfits the record label provides, her opportunity to perform at the Platinum Music Awards is stripped away. Jade is asked to fill her place, and despite saying yes, she hesitates for a moment. These matter of seconds prove Jade has some kind of moral in her mind telling her that doing this would hurt Tori, and hurt their relationship.
- Beck and Tori don’t realize that they are still on video call with Jade, and the two almost kiss. Tori backs away, the following conversation takes place.
Beck: “Then why can’t we kiss?”
Tori: “Kissing your friends ex boyfriend...”
Beck: “Since when are you and Jade friends?”
Tori: “We’re kind of friends, I think. And kissing her ex boyfriend... I can’t do that to a friend.”
Despite the overuse of the word friend, this is still a sweet moment, and when Jade overhears this exchange, she realizes taking this opportunity away from Tori isn’t the right thing to do.
-
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Thoughts on the 8th ep of Hypmic Rhyme Anima. Spoilers beware
Ep.1 | Ep.2 | Ep.3 | Ep.4 & 5 | Ep. 6 | Ep. 7
Love that every time its a MTC centric episode im so busy that i can’t watch it the day it airs
I like how the beginning of the episode kinda mirrors the events in MTC’s story in ARB
hey hypmic you wanna try making it Less obvious who the culprit is? like damn you’re just giving away secrets like its candy. First Ramuda, the Ruikawa and now these two assholes. Might wanna keep your cards close before you spoil the ending of the anime
oh wait they already did that nvm :p
Samatoki please have some sense of self preservation and ask what its about before accepting something. but I guess it also speaks to how trusting he is of those he lets close to him which also explains a bit more as to why he hates Ichirou’s guts
Love that Jyuto is actually choking the information out of someone and Samatoki is actually gathering intelligence and creating boards out of it. Most people expect the opposite from their characters and it such a great dynamic
I find it hilarious that Rio uses older computers but that brings up the question of “How far into the future really is hypmic?” bc those computers look to be from early 2000′s which would be A N C I E N T and completely unusable for hacking come a time when WWIII happens
Iris on a bike has no rights looking as hot as she does. The vehicle CGI is really nice too and so is her character model on top of the bike. Loving how Iris completely owns the two cops
The MTC love here is jsut. through the roof i can die happy now that i’ve seen Samatoki aggressively caring for his teammates animated and voiced. like, please. just. help. I can.t/ MTC care so much for each other I would hug them all and tell them good work, you can finally go rest now uughghghgh MTC guys. MTC
But mannn Iris is so cool, approaching MTC without any fear
I find it hilarious that Saburo would pose as a game dev from dubai which yknow doesn’t make any sense if you think about it. but whatever it just makes me laugh at how easy it is to fake a lot about yourself because yeah! it is easy!
The whole conversation about cops and good cops seems a bit off considering ACAB but considering Japan who has largely swept both BLM and ACAB under the rug it isn’t surprising. That isn’t to say that Japan doesn’t care, its just that these movements aren’t on the spotlight so topics like these don’t carry as much weight
lol yeah he should have expected to be stabbed from the front lol
SRKHFSKJD Rio please stop living in the water, i can’t believe he did that lol
Love the SamaJyuto subtext in the translation lol
Jyuto’s sequence is kinda cute in a way ahaha
The kurosawa-esque b&w screens are a nice touch to the song as well as the MC Name drops and hypnosis speaker drops. Idk about Rio’s 2DIE4 reference though since it doesn’t really rhyme nor does it add much to the rap itself
The song itself is pretty nice but it isn’t a bop like Fallin’ was. It has a different more gritty feel to it that i don’t hate but isn’t my style
Of course Iruma pulls this situation into his favor, its so typical of him.
Rio didn’t speak much here and took a general backseat to everything. I wonder if it was because during the time of recording this episode, Rio’s VA, Kamio Shinichiro, went down with The Virus (you know the one) so he couldn’t record much. Who knows but best boy. just let me hear best boy’s voice please
Ramuda’s phone vibrate actively annoys me oh my god it makes my skin crawl
If Ramuda’s sleeping on the couch then that really does confirm that Ramuda lives in his studio. Not surprising considering everything we know about Ramuda but at the same time, please get like a futon or smth sleeping on a couch will only hurt your back
Ramuda just busting in is fun
but im not sure how to feel about two divisions shoved into one. like this is basically telling us who is the important divisions, Ikebukuro and Shinjuku. Obviously BB are the protagonists of the series what with the staff coming out to even say that Ichirou is the hero, and if you know what happens then you know why Shinjuku is also highlighted which. also gives away the ending of the anime. again. I’m just glad that the team decided to stick with the irl results bc if they didn’t, they’d have a lot of angry fans
Back to my main point tho, this just. pisses me off. I love FP and MTC and to see them sidelined like this doesn’t feel fair. they deserve full eps to themselves bc if I’m being honest, these two teams have some of the best inter team dynamics out of the current cast. I understand that budget issues and episode constraints exist but this is just kinda frustrating that my main division has been tossed aside and the team that gets the most overall development gets thrown away too
Im not surprised that they cheated because gambling anime is about who can outcheat the other and the mind games played. thats the thrill of gambling series is the psychological factors in it
Ramuda emulating Gentaro’s speech is cute
The mindgames are not present at all and I expected that lol
thats.... midly gay gentaro lol do you always go around pressing shit into people’s mouths while leaning in close? thats pretty gay lol i love the homoerotic subtext present in this episode. First SamaJyuto and now GenDice
no speaker summon sequence? thats slightly disappointing but whatever. the anime is really doing FP dirty by cutting a lot of corners with their episodes
I never noticed that Ramuda and Gentaro hold their mics in their left hand while Dice holds it with his right. neat detail
I love how even in a battle FP still keeps their preppy attitude
Gentaro looks so awkward to the little sway and kick thing in the song lolol
This is probably one of the songs that I like the least. Jackpost is a very Dice song and not really fitting for either Ramuda and Genaro. I think i’d like it more if it was a dice solo or dice centric but the emphasis was pretty cleanly spread so that makes it pretty hard to enjoy
Oh hell yeah FP meshing as a team is just, so cute. Though that foreshadowing with Ramuda and his candy is just. wow
Yup they kept the og brackets so I think the anime’s going to stick with the IRL results. Which means that any tension they try and build won’t work for ppl who are already familiar with the series but I hope they don’t take that fact as an excuse to slack off
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Pacey and Dawson Gay Subtext at end of Dawson creek season 6
The last two episodes of Dawson's Creek don't make sense if you view without queer subtext. Meaning from a subtextual point of view it isn't what happened in Dawson's creek rather Dawson's tv show. And while that something worth explaining it's not what this meta is about. However, I am not here to talk about that rather the two episodes before that and two scenes of pacey and Dawson that directly address the gay subtext.
In the first scene I am gong to talk about which is in episode 6 21. Pacey has revealed that he lost Dawson’s money and gay chaos occurs.
Pacey: Actually, Jo, um... why don't you hang out for a second, 'cause you're gonna have to hear this sooner or later anyway.
Dawson: What's goin' on? Are you ok?
Pacey: Man, and we were just gettin' back to be friends, too. It's such a shame to ruin that. Dawson: What are you talking about? What would ruin it?
Pacey: Money. Money would ruin it.
Dawson: W-what happened?
Pacey: It's gone. Your money's gone, my money's gone, some guy on long island's money is gone
Dawson: What--what do you mean gone? That was all the money that I had.
Pacey: I know it was, Dawson, and I honestly thought Stepatech was gonna take off, I swear to you.
Dawson: Right. Yeah, o-of course. Otherwise why would you blatantly ignore my request to sell the stock?
Pacey: Man, I was just tryin' to do the right thing.
Dawson: Ah, damn it, Pacey, this [Joey is standing awkwardly in the middle of this looking back from one to the other with tears beginning to well up in her eyes]
Dawson: [Dawson sighs] You're always tryin' to do the right thing. You're always so eager to be the hero, you never quite see all the pieces of the puzzle.
One of Pacey's character flaws is that he wants to save everyone because he never felt safe at home as a child and Dawson who has known him since he was ten knows this very well. Also, he referring to when Pacey dated Joey and broke his heart.
Pacey: Dawson... you came to me with your dream because you thought I could help make something of it, and somehow this comes back yet again to the fact that I screwed you over?
Joey: Ok, you know what, you two? Let's just stick to the topic at hand. Ok, so we can just solve this problem by going inside and trying to get calm... and we'll talk about it.
Dawson: Joey, talking about this is not gonna solve anything.
Joey hasn't quite figured out Dawson and Pacey are having a lovers quarrel and just wants them to get along.
Joey: What are you talking about?
Pacey: He means it's not about money. So fine then, let's just talk about what's really goin' on here.
Joey: You know what? I see no reason to drudge up baggage from the past just to fill in the moment, Pacey. I mean, let's remember something. This exchange between you and Dawson is purely a business exchange, and I think we need to remember to keep it at that.
Dawson: She's right. It is business between us, 'cause god knows we haven't been best friends in a long time, have we?
Pacey: No, we certainly have not.
Dawson: You wanna know why we're not friends, pace? It's not because of what happened with Joey, even though that turned my world upside down. It's because from that day forward, I realized that you hadn't been my friend for... maybe quite some time, 'cause the second you made us competitors
The first, really important thing here is that Pacey dating Joey turned Dawson's world upside down. Dawson is kinda saying here that compulsory heterosexuality made them competitors. But also that they lived their lives trying to reach higher achievements than the other. Although I don't think this is true. I think Pacey thinks of Dawson as the man he's eternally trying to be better than so he doesn't have to admit he's in love with Dawson.
Pacey: That I made us competitors? No. No. Now--now you're rewriting history, Dawson.
Dawson: I remember when my best friend had a choice and chose to turn his back on me. If you'd ever stopped settin' us up against each other, you woulda realized that you and I are not that far apart.
Pacey really broke his heart he betrayed Dawson in Dawson’s eyes. He just reiterating what I said early about being competitors.
Pacey: Ah, spare me the speech. You are not gonna convince me that our world's... are anything alike. You're just upset because I broke outta mine.
Dawson: Broke out of yours? How? By putting on a suit and slavin' away at something that doesn't even interest you? You made money. Congratulations. You impressed us all.
The putting on a suit line is reference to the way Pacey’s job is referred to a costume as in performance of Heterosexuality specifically under a capitalist environment.
Pacey: How dare you. You know nothing about me, man. I was good at my job.
Dawson: Then why am I broke?
Pacey: Because that's life! I didn't make that choice! I have lost, literally, everything! What do you want from me, man? Does this make you happy, that you're back on top now? I mean, you always liked it better when you were in charge, so is this what you wanted? Does this make it all right?
Dawson can be controling and self centered and Pacey knows that very well. Also you always liked it better when you were in charge has homoerotic undertones.
Dawson: You don't wanna know me, pace. You wrote me off a long time ago.
Pacey: Really? Really? Back when we were the best of friends? When we were brothers? Was I just outta the house every time you tried to call me over the last 3 years?
Again Pacey broke Dawson heart by dating joey
Joey: Ok, can you guys just stop it? I can't stand here and listen to you guys do this anymore
. Pacey: I didn't mean to lose your money. I didn't know that that would happen. I'm sorry.
Dawson: Yeah, so am I. This-- this was just a big mistake from the beginning, I guess.
Pacey: Heh. Ok.
One more very importamt scene from this episode. Joeys goes to talk to Pacey after the fight.
Joey: You ok, Pace?
Pacey: You don't have to do this.
Joey: Do what?
Pacey: Sit out here with me. I know you'd rather be in the house with Dawson, so why do you just go and help him lick his wounds?
Joey: Things never change here, do they?
Pacey: No... because these are the roles we were destined to play.
The roles he refering to our heterosexuality.
Joey: No, Pace, these are the roles we chose to play. I mean, look at us, sitting out here on this dock in front of the same house we've been haunting for years. We're practically ghosts of our former selves, and honestly, I don't think anyone really remembers what they're mad about anymore.
Joey saying some very important things in here. One that the theses roles(heterosexuality) are things that they are choosing because then they don’t have to admit there gay. However I don’t quite she understood that Pacey broke Dawson’s heart.
Pacey: Mm, I wouldn't be so sure about that.
Pacey is still thinking like a straight man.
Joey: Pacey, if I wanted to go back into that house, I would've gone a long time ago. Don't you know me at all by now?
Pacey: Well, I don't want you sitting here feeling sorry for me. Joey: I don't feel sorry for you. I feel for you, Pacey.
Pacey: [Sighs] Joey: God, can't you ever tell the difference?
Pacey: I don't know. [Sighs] I don't know, because you and I have had a very confusing run of things. Especially lately.
Joey: [Scoffs] Ok. You know, and no matter how much I love you or how long I stay with you, you're only gonna remember the moments when I leave.
Pacey: Well, you gotta give me that much, because those are pretty much the most painful moments in my life.
Joey: That's because you ask for them, Pacey. I'm sorry. You do. Your whole life, you spend so much time expecting the worst that you don't even notice the moments when people are loving you, and, Pacey, people spend a lot of time loving you.
Pacey: Well... with all due respect, Jo, my best friend just walked away from me, but that's not even the worst of it. The worst thing is he hasn't even really known me for the last 3 years, so please, clarify that for me. How does that qualify me as a man with a support network?
Thing haven’t been the same since Dawson broke Paceys heart. Joey doesn’t even matter if he cant have Dawson.
Joey: Well, you have a person sitting right here, don't you? But of course, that's not enough. Not until you let it.
She never be enough because he’s in love with Dawson
Pacey: In what world do I have you? Joey: Look, just because I don't fit into that... place you want me to doesn't mean there's not a place for me, Pacey.
Pacey: [Sighs]
Joey: Does it?
Pacey: Joey, this isn't your fight, anyway. Joey: You're right. You're right. It's not my fight because it's been over for a really long time, Pacey, [Sighs] And it is up to you to make it right.
She telling him to go fight for Dawson. He needs to repair his relatonship with Dawson.
Pacey: I don't know how to make it right.
Joey: Well, you're gonna have to figure it out. You know, that's the thing about ghosts. They say that... they don't leave until they're at peace with what they left undone.
So now were on to the last scene of 621 in which Pacey and Dawson talk. Pacey has collected money for Dawson’s movie.
Scene: The ruins. Dawson is there waiting, when Pacey comes walking up and notices Dawson and knows that he has been duped. And goes to walk over to join Dawson.]
Pacey: Hey. Dawson: Hey. What are you doin' here?
Pacey: Uh, the same thing you are, I'd suppose.
Dawson: Actually, I came here to meet Pacey: Meet with Joey? Yeah, so did I.
Dawson: I get it. [Sighs] Joey potter: Amateur peace broker.
Pacey: [Sighs] Dawson: So where is she?
Pacey: I don't know, but I'd say that she is probably not coming. I think she has this kooky notion that you and I are gonna work this out between ourselves.
Dawson: Well, that's... not gonna happen.
Pacey: Yeah, I know. That's what I told her, but we're talkin' about a girl who's never really listened to a single word that either you or I has ever told her, and I did, I said it to her, I said, "look, Jo, things will never be the same between Dawson and I." She doesn't listen to me. You know her, she's stubborn, that girl.
Dawson: [Sighs] Well, if she's not comin', I'm gonna take off. I've got somewhere to be.
Pacey: Hold on for one second. [Sighs] Look, you said some pretty crappy things the other day.
Dawson: Yeah. So did you.
Pacey: Yes, I did. And I meant them 100%.
Dawson: I know, so did I, pace, and that's the thing, I don't know how we get past that.
Pacey: Well, maybe we don't. Maybe that's the point that we just don't get past it, we realize that... we can't go back to the way things used to be, and there's nothing we can do about that 'cause the guys that we are now are worlds apart from the guys that we were back then. The only tie that really binds us together is the fact that we still love the same woman.
So the bottom line of what Pacey saying is that they aren’t the same kids who broke each other hearts. Also the line about the same woman is the compulsory heterosexaltiy talking.
Dawson: [Sighs] It always comes back to that, doesn't it?
Pacey: Yes, it does. Yes, it does, and you know what? I don't really regret a single second that I spent with her, and I'm guessing you don't either. In fact, I really consider us pretty lucky... that a--a woman like that would give either one of us the time of day.
They love her she there bestfriend. And there honored to love her and have her in there lives.
Dawson: You know, it makes sense.
Pacey: What does?
Dawson: Why it never worked out for either one of us. All we wanted was her. So much so that we destroyed our friendship... and in the end, all she ever wanted was for us to be friends again.
Joey is a lesbian and was never interested in either of them romantically. They were suffering do to comphet and convinced themselves they wanted her. They were in love and Pacey broke Dawson’s heart by dating Joey.
Pacey: Ok, I'm gonna ask you this once, and then I promise you I'll never ask it again. Is it possible?
Dawson: For us to be friends again? [he thinks then smiles] Anything's possible.
Everytime Dawson and Pacey get in a gay fight they do the interaction above. It’s cute but its also flirty and it reads as can we get back to together more than can we be friends. They love each other and even though they fight they never really give up on there love. Anything’s possible is kind of like there cute little make up thing they do when they fight. The use of anything implys never ending and by extension an eternal love. It’s romantic and also in the actually scene they have eye sex and its very gay. This like them admiting that there in love, they removed Joey from the context of there own relationship and basically said there love is eternal its a great ending to there relationship.
Pacey: Fair enough. Look, uh, this is for you. [Pacey hands Dawson the envelope with the money.]
Dawson: What's this? Pacey: Well, I hope you don't mind, but I took the liberty of going to several local businessmen and asking them if they'd like to invest in a very promising young filmmaker, and, by and large, they were all very receptive, though there was this one dentist, and I don't know how she got this in her head, but she seems to think she's an actress, so you might have to give her a little role, like a cameo at most. Just warnin' ya.
Dawson: Thank you. Pacey: Don't mention it.
So we end the story of Pacey and Dawson on three important points :Joey is a lesbian, Pacey and Dawson are forever in love and they don’t need have the relationship they had when they were kids they can just be boyfriends.
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The Real Ghostbusters: Part One
Pairing: Dean x Reader
Word Count: 1,665
Warnings: typical supernatural violence, language, angst, blood, you know the usual
Author’s Note: I do not own anything from Supernatural. All credit goes to their respective owners. Any and all comments on these are appreciated. I really want to hear what you guys think about this one!
Feedback is the glue that holds my writing together.
Tags at the bottom
There was only one thing on your mind ever since you left Gabriel in the warehouse was his words on Amara. The Michael and Lucifer thing was tragic, of course, but you couldn’t help but think of Amara. She was everywhere you looked. It was bad enough you had dreams about her; now she was affecting you when you were awake. Neither of the brothers knew how bad it is for you since you didn’t like talking about it. They had enough problems of their own, that they didn’t need your dreams to worry about since there was nothing they could do about it.
Chuck texted Sam urgently to come and meet him at a hotel along with “life or death” and “911”. Thinking he was in trouble, you and the brothers hopped into the car and drove all night to get to where he was. The motion of the car didn’t help your headache. Medicine wasn’t going to help you if your magic couldn’t. The only thing you could do was lie on the back seat, fold your legs close to your body, and close your eyes tightly.
“You okay, sweetheart?” Dean asked from the front seat.
“Yeah, just a headache,” you sighed.
“Hang on, we’re almost there,” Dean promised as he stepped on the gas pedal.
It didn’t take him long to get to the hotel that Chuck was staying in. When he parked, you forced yourself out of the backseat even though your headache seemed to get worse. You could have sworn you saw Amara out of the corner of your eyes, but you couldn’t be sure about it. She was affecting your daily life, it was getting hard to shut her out.
Walking around the shrubs and bushes, you stopped in your tracks when you saw row after row of Impalas that looked identical to Dean’s. Dean must have seen the same exact thing because he stopped as well. Sam passed by you, and when he noticed you two didn’t follow him, he turned around and urged you to come.
“Come on!” Sam didn’t seem to notice the cars, and you shook off the strange feeling before approaching the stairs that lead up to the hotel.
Chuck was seen pacing at the bottom of the stairs with his finger in his mouth to nervously bite at his nail.
“Chuck! There you are!” Sam exclaimed, sending a pulsating wave of pain throughout your skull.
“This is going to be hell,” you muttered to yourself as you joined the men.
“Guys?” he asked, clearly surprised.
“What’s going on?”
“Ah, nothing. You know, I'm just kinda hanging. What are you guys doing here?”
“You told us to come,” you winced, pressing a hand to your right temple.
“Uh, no, I didn’t.”
“Yeah you did, you texted me. This address, life or death situation. Any of this ringing a bell?”
“I didn't send you a text.”
“We drove all night!” Dean shouted.
“Please don’t shout,” you whispered, and Dean placed a hand on your shoulder as if to apologize for doing so.
“I'm sorry, I don't understand what could—oh no.”
“What?”
“You made it!” Becky screeched from the top of the stairs.
Groaning, you backed away from the group to try and prepare yourself for what is about to happen.
“Oh, ah, Becky, right?” Sam asked.
“Oh, you remembered,” her voice lowers. “You been thinking about me.”
“I—”
“It’s okay,” she interrupted the younger brother, “I can't get you out of my head either.”
“Becky, did you take my phone?” Chuck asked before noticing you off to the side.
“I just borrowed it from your pants.”
“Becky,” he sighed.
“What? They're going to want to see it!” she squealed.
Chuck decided that the brothers could handle this on their own, and he walked over to you to see if you were okay.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m going to ask you this one question, and I need you to be honest with me, okay?” you blurted, looking at him through squinted eyes.
“Okay.”
“Does the name Amara mean anything to you?” you hoped.
Chuck’s mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water, unsure of how to answer the question. He seemed a bit nervous at the question, but he didn’t have time to answer it. A man with a clipboard came out of the hotel to address Chuck.
“Hey Chuck? Come on pal, it's showtime.”
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, turning to face the brothers, “for everything.”
Chuck left your side and entered the building. Taking a deep breath, you entered the building last before finally understanding why Becky was so excited and Chuck was so apologetic. A large man with a stein of beer walked past you and the Winchesters with a smile.
“ha-ha-ha. Hey Dean, looking good.”
“Who the hell are you?” Dean snapped.
The man turned back to him with a confused look. He was wearing similar clothing to Dean, straight down to the Samulet around his neck.
“I’m Dean too. Duh,” he chuckled.
Dean looked at his brother who was just utterly confused. Along with some other men who were dressed like Dean, there were also people dressed as Sam and even as you. To complete Sam’s look, they had long-haired wigs on with plaid, and for you, they wore bright blue eye contacts to represent the very real magic inside your body.
“What the fuck?” you whispered.
Along with the people dressed as you three, there were also people dressed as monsters you’ve killed in the past such as the scarecrow that was really a pagan God, demons with black contacts, Bloody Mary, and there were people dressed as Rufus, your dad, and even Ash. A scarecrow came closer to Sam with a scythe in one hand and a can of soda in the other. He waved his scythe in Sam’s face while pretending to scare him.
“Uh-oh. It's Sam, Dean, and Y/N. I'm in trouble now. Have fun you two. Aaaah!”
Sam gave the biggest bitch face to the man, and Becky was giggling next to the giant.
“Becky, what is this?” you asked the fangirl.
On the far end of the room were tables of merchandise with the Impala on coffee cups, chuck’s books on display, and a lot more things relating to your life.
“It's awesome!! A supernatural convention, the first ever!” she laughed.
Sam still sported his bitch face, Dean was confused as fuck, and your headache only got worse.
“Welcome to the first annual Supernatural convention,” the convention manager addressed the small crown that faced the stage inside the conference room. “At 3:45 in the Magnolia room we have the panel, 'Frightened little boy, the secret life of Dean'. At 4:30 there's the 'Homoerotic subtext of Supernatural’. Oh, and of course the big hunt starts at 7pm sharp. But right now, I'd like to introduce the man himself, the creator, the writer of the supernatural books. The one, the only, Carver Edlund!”
Cheers erupted from the crowd as Chuck walked on stage. If he were to look at you right now, he would see Sam and Dean with stone-like expressions and you with a painful one, but still deadly.
“Ok. Ok good, this isn't nearly as awkward as I,” he clears his throat nervously, “dry mouth.” He grabbed a glass of water and began gulping it down without a break. There was complete silence in the room until he asked the million-dollar question. “So, I guess... questions?” Everyone’s hands shot up in anticipation of getting picked. “Uh, you?”
“Hey, Mr. Edlund,” a skinny young man in the front row said with a grin, “I was just wondering, where'd you come up with Sam, Dean, and Y/N in the first place?” Chuck glanced at you and the brothers who cocked your heads in curiosity of his answer.
“Oh, ah, I... it just came to me,” he chuckled nervously.
Dean purses his lips and tilts his head back. Hands shot up in the air, and Chuck picked on the person dressed as the hook man.
“Ah yeah,” the man spoke in a heavy German accent, “Why in every fight scene, Sam, Dean, and Y/N are having their gun knocked away by the bad guy? Why don't they keep it on some kind of bungee?”
That comment made Sam interested, Dean pissed, and you annoyed at the kinds of questions that were being asked. This definitely wasn’t helping your headache. The only good thing about this convention is that Chuck didn’t write about Amara yet, so no one knows what she looks like or how she dresses. The only person who knows what she looks like is you… and apparently Gabriel.
“I... yeah, I really don't know.”
“Ja, follow up. Why can't Sam, Dean, and Y/N be telling that Ruby is evil? I mean she is clearly manipulating Sam into some kind of moral lapse. It's obvious, nein?”
Now, Sam is pissed, Dean is thoughtful about this, and you are still annoyed. Becky is shooting death glares at the hook man, and you knew she was about to do something dramatic. She walked down the row of chairs until she made eye contact with the man.
“HEY! If you don't like the books don't read em Fritz.”
“Okay, Okay, just… okay, it's okay. So, next question,” Chuck smiled nervously before choosing someone else. “Yeah, you.”
“Yeah, at the end of the last book, Dean goes to hell. So, what happens next?”
“Oh. Well there lies an announcement, actually. You're all going to find out,” he nodded, looking at you and the brothers who could only eye him suspiciously. “Thanks to a wealthy Scandinavian investor, we're going to start publishing again.”
Becky outright jumped into the air in excitement, and everyone else in the room started cheering and clapping loudly at the news.
“I can’t be here right now,” you whispered, opening the door and leaving through it.
This was just proving to be too much.
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Some aesthetics and other notes for RJ-LM
Jehan- New Romantic style. Try to keep it a bit more casual.
Overall a dark academic look to the group. They are law students and med students from at least the middle class.
Very casual for Feuilly. He is just a tradesman and not in a great place financially.
Occasionally show them more casual. They would wear hoodies and hats and what have you because it’s comfy.
Marius needs a goth-style look but like very casual.
Cosette needs a style that is feminine and goth but not too over the top. Valjean does let her wear this in public after all. Think like hippie witch goth but it’s not pagan it’s catholic.
Eponine needs to look even more worse for wear than Feuilly. She can have whatever clothes, but they are not new and her personal health isn’t the best because they are essentially squatting. Same for Azelma if she gets in this.
Gavroche is definitely wearing a shirt that is too big for him and maybe some kind of shorts that are very obviously just pants that got too small so he cut them. Think floppy sole converse.
We definitely want to give a like almost stoner style look to Grantaire. And because the musical has messed up our perceptions so badly, we need to include green.
Same with Enjolras, we have to have some red and we also have to give a more tough look to him. Think punk meets dark academic.
Bahorel needs a darker red. Maybe a muscle shirt because that just feels so right.
Joly is a med student and is the biggest hypochondriac so I feel like that would be reflected. Think more fashionable clothes that would still be comfy because I might have the flu and what if I got sick I need to be comfortable.
Courfeyrac is probably the preppiest dude but not in a stuck up way. More so in like a frat bro way.
Combeferre is a true academic that probably is just here between shifts at his pediatric hospital so what ever he is wearing can go from casual to hospital just like that.
Bossuet would just be a mess. His clothes would either be like bad pun t-shirts or clothes that would be super nice if it wasn’t for the fact that they have stains that can’t come out or holes that he didn’t notice.
Valjean just dresses like every other dad. So if we see him we just don’t see him standing out.
Javert is a bitch
If we see the thénardiers then they should just look like the most white trash family you have ever seen.
Also when we see LeCabuc make him look like how the undercover policemen at protests look. The colored armbands and protective vests.
The person that Enjolras kills at the barricade needs to look a LOT like him or her.
Les Amis need to be more diverse! Little privileged white pots would not be fighting this fight. Show me women, show me people of color, show me disability, show me queer. These are the people fighting because they are the people who have their rights taken away because of the system we live in. That being said some exceptions do exist,
Courfeyrac needs to be male because it makes more sense that Marius would stay with him if he is male.
Any characters with first names stay the gender that they are because I’m not changing names.
The worst type of discrimination is towards people of color, so in a weird turn I think Enjolras needs to be white. This fight doesn’t affect him/her as much as it does the others, but he/she is still fighting it.
Now that I’m thinking about it I think that Bossuet needs to be male too or else they would need to be played by a woman with alopecia because he is bald.
And Joly and Bossuet need to be the same gender because that adds the ambiguity of what is happening with them living together.
Also Grantaire needs to be the same gender as Enjolras because we need that homoerotic subtext.
Edit: my mind has been changed. Grantaire can be either but the most important thing is that they can play the part right. It’s all about the yearning and the subtext but also like, smoking week and drinking and getting loud.
So that leaves me with this:
Enjolras 🚺
Combeferre 🚺
Courfeyrac 🚹
Feuilly 🚺🚹
Prouvaire 🚹
Bossuet 🚹
Bahorel 🚹🚺
Joly🚹
Grantaire🚺
Marius🚹
Cosette🚺
Eponine🚺
Gavroche 🚹
Feuilly and Bahorel can be either. I think male Bahorel is more in character, but female Bahorel is hilarious and I’d honestly be afraid of her. Feuilly would be more tragic as a female, but I don’t think tragic is exactly what we want for Feuilly. We want more empowering.
Now that I’m typing it out I think I would prefer Male Feuilly and Female Bahorel but really whatever happens happens. It would be nice if one of them was female because we need more girls, but whatever.
Also, female Enjolras is good energy. White Enjolras is some kind of energy. Plus, we could go one of two ways with Female Enjolras. 1.) Flip the script and make her very masculine as opposed to being male and being very feminine. Or 2.) when she is not about to fight people in the streets, she is like a super girly girl and we get that juxtaposition.
I like 1.) better but I’m biased. Also she needs to have hair long enough to blow in the wind. Hair should be blonde. Eyes should be blue but if they aren’t that’s not the end of the world.
Marius should have black curly hair that is not too long.
Cosette should have medium to light brown hair NOT Blonde.
Eponine should be a redhead and so should the other thénardiers. Gavroche can be more strawberry blonde though.
Joly should have a cane. We can figure out a reason later but that is an important thing for literally no reason.
Also with the current fan interpretation and with the style, I feel like Jehan would definitely wear makeup.
We can figure out what on earth Grantaire’s red waistcoat will be in this later. I’m thinking like a red leather jacket or some other red article if clothing that Enjolras is currently wearing so it’s like « I’m wearing it because see I’m like you. I’m all revolutionary » but like he’s still wearing a stupid stoner hat.
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About Shipping
I was thinking this morning about why I so avidly "ship" Destiel. Why it means so much to me and why it's main texting is something I focus on even with the persistent hate and nastiness from people who are against it.
In our culture there have always been shippers. People have been shipping characters since long before I was born and probably will be long after I'm gone. Slash shipping is a huge part of that. People will generally ship anyone if they think the two characters have good enough chemistry.
The thing is, I DON'T ship. I never have. Not in the way that shippers are known for. I certainly don't multiship. That's not to say that those who do ship characters because "they are hot" or "they have chemistry" are wrong. They arent. Ship and let ship and all that. It's just not for me. I can't watch a show and just pick two characters or especially two characters who are supposed to be best friends and force my mind to see them in a romantic or sexual way.
I could never ship Spock/Kirk or Johnlock for instance. Even with the queer coding I won't see it unless I see it as part of a love story playing out in the text. Because queer coding does not make a love story.
This is the big difference that I find when I talk to other destiel "shippers" like myself. I know many people like me who have never been part of "shipping" culture, who've never been in fandom or read fanfiction before Destiel.
Destiel is different. I'm not saying it's better than those other ships, just that it's different. It doesn't work the same way.
Like how when we are young we consume fairy tales until they are ingrained in our subconscious to the extent that generally we can recognise an intended romantic pairing within the first 5 minutes of the story. No one is gonna watch the Princess Bride for the first time and not inherently KNOW that Princess Buttercup and Wesley are meant to be, even when he is "mostly dead".
I didn't "ship" Buffy and Spike. Their story resonated with me in the same frequency as the fairy tales of my youth. It was as clear as can be after a certain point in the show that their story was a romantic one. (Sorry Bangel shippers).
It's easier with het pairings. Most people are conditioned to see romance first between characters of different genders. It's why When Harry Met Sally asked that infuriating and misguided question "can men and women ever JUST be friends?" It's why after watching the first few minutes of the first episode of Big Bang Theory I rolled my eyes and turned to my mum and said "well obviously Leonard's gonna end up with Penny". But in that case I didn't ship them, because whilst I recognised the intended love story, I tend to rebel against it when it's so obvious it's boring. (Big Bang Theory then went on to be the most problematic piece if bullshit still airing on TV INCLUDING Supernatural.)
So I don't ship characters. I DO recognise romantic tropes and love stories being built into a piece of media. Destiel pulled me in not because these two guys are hot, not because the actors have good chemistry, and even because they are heavily queer coded. None of those things alone indicate a love story. Destiel pulled me in because it so clearly WAS a love story.
Baring in mind before Destiel I had never even considered a queer ship. I was stubbornly heteronormative and had no fandom interaction. I know many other Destiel shippers who say the same thing.
When I look at season 4 DeanCas now for instance, I can see the sexual tension clearly. It's painfully obvious once you are tuned in. I remember picking up on it and wondering if Cas was gay, but brushed it off pretty quickly. In seasons 5 and 6 I picked up on the gay jokes, the standard homoerotic flirtations which SPN had already been doing much to my own discomfort with Sam and Dean since season 1. So I ignored it.
6x20 was the first time something changed. The first time it was written with a slight romantic lense. It made me sit up and pay attention and by that point I was convinced that Cas's love for Dean was more than platonic but still my heteronormativity denied me from really considering it.
(As an aside, I recognised Dean's bisexuality quite early on but didn't think about it too much. For me it was just a thing that was unspoken but pretty much fact.)
From season 8 onwards I sat up and paid attention. After watching 8 seasons worth of this show it had chipped away at my heteronormativity until it was practically non existent. I can't remember exactly when I had that lightbulb moment, but it was during season 8 when I said "shit this is actually a love story".
After that, yes I saw it, i bought into it, and i adamantly supported it. It still took me another few months and binge watching through to the end of season 9 before I even thought about getting online. This was in the summer between s9 and s10 and for the first time ever I was watching a queer love story play out on front of me. For the first time in a long time I was watching a love story that wasn't a boring repeat of every other dumb het love story going. I was captivated.
I don't "ship" and I'm not just "another shipper". There is a reason a huge portion of Destiel fandom sees the canon potential and calls out for this to happen in the show. There is a reason why practically every day new people fall down the Destiel rabbit hole and find us online, especially when the majority of those people are like me in that they have never "shipped" or been in fandom before. Even the ones that have, the ones that have interacted with fandom for years and had many other ships and slash ships in their lifetimes have admitted to me that Destiel is different.
Destiel isn't like other ships, because it's not a "ship" as such. It's a canon slow burn love story being played mainly in subtext but with many textual nods and implications. You can't compare it to any other non canon fandom ships of the day. The only ones that come close are canon love stories.
My point to this long rambly post is to stress that those claiming that Destiel is nothing more than a fetish ship, or a fanon based delusion with no canon material to back it up, those who dismiss Destiel as just another fanon slash ship, and claim that we are entitled for daring to wish it to be brought to main text. Those people are wrong. They are wrong because all we, as destiel supporters need to do to see proof of how wrong they are, is to look at ourselves and ask the question WHY do I "ship" it?
You "ship" it because it's there in the show and you are recognising the love story being told. If you don't see it that way, but still ship it, fine. Though I guarantee you are in the minority.
We have been conditioned since children to recognise love stories when presented to us. Destiel is a love story that you are noticing. That is all. That is why it isn't just another slash ship reliant solely on attractive actors, actor chemistry and a touch of homoerotic tension. It's so much more than that, and when people reduce it to that and claim it's no different to Johnlock, to Spirk, to Sterek or one of the many other fanon slash ships out there it makes my blood boil.
I'm not a shipper, I've never been interested in shipping. But I do know a love story when I see one and nothing anyone could say would change my mind about that.
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Riverdale Couples and Ships as Romantic Tropes (Part II). 🌹
Here is Part II of the list!
#11. Bughead (Jughead Jones & Betty Cooper; ROMANTIC TROPE: CHILDHOOD FRIENDS ROMANCE)
Childhood Friend Romance
Childhood Friend Romance is a part of romantic plots, when characters develop romantic feelings for someone who they spent their childhood years with. Often the pair will see each other as Just Friends (and may even deny accusations that they might have a different type of relationship); then, when puberty hits or when they meet again after being apart for some time, they will realize that the other is all grown up. If the pair goes through a Puppy Love phase from the very beginning, a Childhood Marriage Promise may be involved. Resistance to see a childhood friend as a potential romantic partner is known as the "Westermarck effect", a theory that claims that people who grew up together before the age of 6 are likely to become hardwired to think about each other Like Brother and Sister, with a Stupid Sexy Friend squicked reaction to the notion of romance. (Other studies question this on the basis that though few of the people they examined had major romantic relationships with childhood friends, many had crushes and romantic feelings that just didn't make it.) Subtrope of Childhood Friends. See also Patient Childhood Love Interest, a subtrope common in Harem Series. Compare also with High-School Sweethearts. Often benefits from First Girl Wins.
#10. Veggie (Reggie Mantle & Veronica Lodge; ROMANTIC TROPE: SLAP-SLAP-KISS)
Slap-Slap-Kiss
"[Punches Hiccup on the arm] That was for kidnapping me. [Kisses him on the cheek] That was for everything else."— Astrid, How to Train Your Dragon
This trope is nothing but universal in romantic stories. It frequently brings to a close the Will They or Won't They? phase of a Romance Arc. When a male and female character spend a lot of time bickering, it is all but inevitable that sooner or later he will interrupt her in mid-rant by suddenly grabbing her and kissing her. (Less frequently, she grabs and kisses him.) The kissed one rarely resists, and usually responds wholeheartedly. Usually this is triggered by their hostilities reaching a climax that results in an exchange of slaps, followed by a moment where both stare at each other in combined confusion and shock, after which they dive into the kiss. Either way, the kiss prompts both to realize that they've been in love all this time — the rationale being that they wouldn't argue so much if they didn't give a damn about each other. Normally results in some kind of permanent change in their relationship. The concept is related to the theory that hate is not necessarily the opposite of love so much as its twisted twin; its opposite would be apathy. Ergo, lots of contained emotion towards a person might be translated into lust given the proper catalyst. Pulled off successfully, it can be... quite satisfying. Otherwise, not so much. This trope is a major factor in Foe Yay shipping, since such arguments between those characters in the actual shows are often similar to examples of this trope (or even get Why Don't You Marry It? reactions). It should be noted that in Real Life it's not exactly a sign of a healthy relationship, with the exception of a little roleplay between consenting adults. Note that this trope is mostly Exactly What It Says on the Tin. If there is no kiss, that's Belligerent Sexual Tension. Dating back at least to William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. Compare "Shut Up" Kiss, Love at First Punch, Belligerent Sexual Tension, "Take That!" Kiss, Vitriolic Best Buds, and Destructo-Nookie. Often considered in similar terms to Foe Yay. Tsunderes are often involved on at least one end. Kiss-Kiss-Slap is this in reverse (kissing, then fighting).
#09. Jarchie (Archie Andrews & Jughead Jones; ROMANTIC TROPE: HO YAY)
HoYay
Homoeroticism, yay! Those moments of plot, dialogue, acting, etc., that fans delight in interpreting as homoerotic. It probably originates from the old days, when the homosexuality taboo was serious enough that every gay pairing was considered a Crack Pairing, so when authors wrote same-sex characters as very intimate with each other, audiences largely accepted that they are just very good friends, and moved on, or when authors wrote outright references to homosexuality, most just laughed at the sheer absurdity of the thought. With the gradual dissolution of homophobic moral codes, more and more writers have been able to publish and share their work uncensored, changing media forever. Nowadays, Yaoi Fans and Yuri Fans willingly interpret any interaction as potentially gay, for characters without canonical orientations and even for those specifically stated by their creators to be straight (in which case the author may be very annoyed by the fans' insistence otherwise). Cultural differences also have their say here. The level of accepted physical intimacy between close friends and adult relatives is hardly constant across various eras and nationalities, so, for example, the hugs and kisses which seemed mundane for an antiquated reader may appear blatantly erotic in the eyes of a contemporary one. In particular, the concept of Romantic Two-Girl Friendship — and Romantic Two-Guy Friendship — highly intimate yet platonic, only began falling out of use in the latter half of the 19th century. When this is done intentionally, it's Homoerotic Subtext, or possibly Implied Love Interest or Ship Tease. In the related trope called Foe Yay, even rivals or mortal enemies can get this treatment by fans and writers alike, especially if they have a more friendly past together, or one is inordinately obsessed with the other. In Fan Fic, this is the direct cause of many a Slash Fic.
#08. Choni (Cheryl Blossom & Toni Topaz; ROMANTIC TROPE: OPPOSITES ATTRACT)
Opposites Attract
"Strange extremes meet in love's pathway."—The Scarlet Pimpernel
Strong relationships, in both TV and real life, thrive on how each member compensates for the other’s weaknesses with their own strengths, and vice versa. A Motor Mouth just isn’t as funny if he doesn’t have the Straight Man to torment. Similarly, only when a sweet, shy person is paired up with an equally jerkish one is their kindness and shyness made all the more noticeable. It is all but guaranteed that the characters’ differences will cause more friction than harmony between them. That’s what gives the Odd Couple its fuel for Slap-Slap-Kiss, Will They or Won't They?, and Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other situations. Bickering and mushiness in one package. What’s not to like? The Odd Friendship also has elements of this, but tends to focus on how the differences make them see each other, and maybe the world, through new eyes. Perhaps the serious one is Not So Above It All, or the Shrinking Violet has an inner strength they never knew they had. A Moe Couplet also does something similar to this, focusing on how each half of the couplet brings out the other's endearing or nurturing traits. Opposites attract has become so widespread in buddy cop shows, in the form of Serious White Guy meets Loud Black Guy, that it branched off into its own subtrope. About the biggest challenge in creating a day-and-night dynamic is to keep the attract and repel cases relatively balanced. When the pendulum swings too far toward the repel side and the characters seem more interested in torturing each other than helping out, it’s no longer cute to watch; it’s just masochistic. The key (both in fiction and in Real Life) is to watch the pair's goals. If they want the same thing but use completely different methods to achieve it, it's this trope. If they want different things entirely, it's a divorce waiting to happen. If you add a third-party mediator for balance, you get a Power Trio. Contrast Birds of a Feather. Compare Too Much Alike.
#07. Cheronica (Cheryl Blossom & Veronica Lodge; ROMANTIC TROPE: VILLAINOUS CRUSH)
Villainous Crush
"Just fear me. Love me. Do as I say, and I shall be your slave."— Jareth the Goblin King to Sarah,��Labyrinth
This trope applies whenever a villainous character has romantic and/or sexual feelings for a heroic one. If this crush takes a turn for the perverse (and most such crushes tend towards this), this can lead to tropes like I Have You Now, My Pretty, Forceful Kiss, Bathe Her and Bring Her to Me, And Now You Must Marry Me, Scarpia Ultimatum, and Go-Go Enslavement where the villain tries to force their desires upon the character, although none of those require a Villainous Crush. Additionally, the villain may become a Stalker with a Crush. If the crush itself is a motivating factor in their Start of Darkness, then it's Love Makes You Evil. This trope isn't always negative, though. This trope can conversely be a very humanising trait for an Anti-Villain. The heroic character may become a Morality Pet, and can be fairly certain that their villainous admirer will never harm them or allow harm to come to them, barring certain exceptions. They may even step in to protect them from other villains who have fewer compunctions. Taken all the way, it may become Love Redeems. If the feelings are mutual or an actual relationship develops, then it's Dating Catwoman instead. When this is purely subtextual, see Foe Romance Subtext. The specific variant when the Evil Empress captures the hero to seduce him is Villainesses Want Heroes. Not to be confused with Foe Yay, which are purely audience reactions.
#06. Archosie (Archie Andrews & Josie McCoy; ROMANTIC TROPE: BIRDS OF A FEATHER)
Birds Of A Feather
Grace: My mum always said opposites attract. Rich: That's magnets. We're people.—Skins
Relationships, particularly romantic ones, tend to thrive when the people involved are similar. People are simply more likely to get along if they share common interests, values, beliefs, and goals. Thus people with similar personalities will often flow together easily, whether romantically or not. The dynamic of this pair differs widely from Opposites Attract pair. Their personalities can often be interchangeable and both of them can have a same role if they are a part of a group. However, their common obstacle is having a harder time to compensate for each other's weaknesses. Be warned, writers: while often Truth in Television, this trope can sometimes be seen to create a poorly written Love Interest who just happens to be a Gender Flip of the main character. When the commonalities are much fewer but still create a bond, see Commonality Connection. Contrast Too Much Alike.
#05. Beronica (Veronica Lodge & Betty Cooper; ROMANTIC TROPE: ROMANTIC TWO-GIRL FRIENDSHIP)
Romantic Two-Girl Friendship
"It was perfectly acceptable at Baker & Inglis to get a crush on a fellow classmate. At a girls school a certain amount of emotional energy, normally expended on boys, gets redirected into friendships."—Middlesex
At the beginning of adolescence, there is a time when friendship is emphasized, usually junior high/middle school. These friendships can have very strong emotional bonds, and, when two girls develop a close bond, it will almost appear to be a romance. They hold hands. Getting together to do something is a "date." Fights are treated as a "break-up." They're willing to sleep next to each other in the same bed (and maybe even cuddle). They're also sometimes capable of moving and speaking in perfect unison. They may not actually be in a romantic relationship, but it is emphasized in such a way that if they were, you'd assume it'd look this way. In the Western world, this was far more common up until the late 1800s, and applied to both men and women, even into adulthood. It was referred to as "romantic friendship." This practice waned at the turn of the 20th century as adults, particularly men, did not want to be mistaken as homosexual. Note Generally, it still only occurs between young girls, where it is more socially acceptable and not indicative of sexual orientation. In Japan, this is known as "Class S" and is far more common than in the West. Due to the influence of Western female literature,Note the Japanese developed a belief that young girls are expected to have friendships with each other that emulate boyfriend–girlfriend relationships. This is considered a temporary but wonderful part of adolescence, which they can later "graduate" from to "real" relationships with boys. To remain in a "Class S" relationship past middle school is seen as a sign of immaturity, although it is expected that these friendships will continue into adulthood without the romantic elements. The possibility of one or more of the girls involved in a "Class S" relationship being truly invested in the other romantically is usually ignored. If the romance starts to become too passionate, parents may try to intervene to separate the girls. This should never become physical that way; it would "corrupt" the Incorruptible Pure Pureness, which is then traded in for marriage. If the girls do cross the line into sex (or even passionate kissing), they are no longer this trope, instead becoming Schoolgirl Lesbians, and are treated differently. Compare Heterosexual Life-Partners, where it just doesn't seem as romantic but remains a tremendously important personal bond, above and beyond a genuine romantic relationship. Also compare Experimented in College.
#04. Varchie (Archie Andrews & Veronica Lodge; ROMANTIC TROPE: UPTOWN GIRL)
Uptown Girl
"She's a rich girl, she don't try to hide it, Diamonds on the soles of her shoes. He's a poor boy, empty as a pocket, Empty as a pocket with nothing to lose."—Paul Simon, "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes"
You know the story. It's a love story. Our lovers are from different worlds — one wealthy, one not. The poor girl has fallen in love with the Gentleman Snarker, or the Unlucky Everydude secretly courts the daughter of the richest man in town. And she loves him too. Maybe it was Love at First Sight. Maybe she has a habit of slipping out to the seedier side of town for a night of fun. Maybe they've been friends their whole lives and the difference in status never really mattered. Will their love be enough to let them be happy together?
In any case, this is usually played out in one of three ways:
The poor guy and rich girl mutually fall in love, and neither one cares about their differences in wealth. People around them, however, do, and conspire to interfere with True Love.
The poor guy falls for the rich girl, even though he knows that she's out of his league. Undaunted, our hero engages in some Zany Scheme to get her to notice him or be impressed by him. This usually ends with the girl revealing that she doesn't care if he's rich or poor, and that she loves him for who he is.
The poor guy and the rich girl fall for one another, but he doesn't know she's rich at first. When he finds out, he's either intimidated by her wealth once he finds out, or else doesn't think he's good enough for her. As before, she doesn't care about such things, and has to convince him that he's the one she wants.
When the rich girl wants nothing to do with the poor guy, but slowly warms up to him, it's a different trope entirely. Note that the roles aren't locked by gender: a working-class girl who loves a rich boy also fits this trope, as do two lovers of the same gender. A relationship variant of the Odd Couple and quite often overlaps with Nobody Thinks It Will Work. Also often leads to cases of I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me, either with severe case of insecurity (like the third type above), or simply the poor guy being constantly feeling lucky and appreciative that someone so rich could fall for him. If it's not just the fact that she comes from money, but that he feels like she's above him, she's a Peerless Love Interest. Compare with All Girls Want Bad Boys, which often follows the same socioeconomic groups (or the inverse, if the girl is The Ingenue and the boy is an Gentleman Snarker or Spoiled Brat). Can overlap with Single Woman Seeks Good Man as it is the guy's personality that wins her heart (as is the case mentioned above). Not to be confused with the Brittany Murphy film Uptown Girls, which doesn't use this trope. Not to be confused with City Mouse either. This is transitioning into Dead Horse Trope territory, since interclass marriage is no longer shocking, and the expectation that men should be the breadwinner in the family is much weaker today than it used to be. On the other hand, it may become an Undead Horse Trope with the emergence of culture wars and new waves of social stratification. For the non-romantic variant, see Interclass Friendship. For the version endemic to India, see Type Caste, although that trope is not restricted solely to marriage and relationships.
#03. Falice (FP Jones & Alice Cooper; ROMANTIC TROPE: UNRESOLVED SEXUAL TENSION AKA UST)
Unresolved Sexual Tension (UST)
"To repress one's feelings only makes them stronger."— Yu Shu Lien, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Two people are obviously attracted to each other, but some element of the story is keeping them apart. This tension is frequently referred to as UST in fandom, where it is pronounced "oost" or Yu-Ess-Tee. Also known as "Long Unresolved Sexual Tension". Belligerent Sexual Tension is a way to keep the UST by having the couple fight each other too much to actually get together. They Do is when it gets resolved (Literally Falling in Love might help). Shipping Bed Death and Strangled by the Red String are when it gets resolved badly. Compare All Love Is Unrequited, Will They or Won't They?, Just Friends, Moment Killer (a staple of a UST relationship), Maybe Ever After (a more uncertain version), Cannot Spit It Out. Contrast Official Couple, when the couple is already together, and Friends with Benefits, where the primarybond in the relationship is sex.
#02. Barchie (Archie Andrews & Betty Cooper; ROMANTIC TROPE: WILL THEY OR WON’T THEY?)
Will They Or Won’t They?
"Pam is very attractive, no question. If I didn't have an award show to host, I could easily see having two or three seasons of will-they-won't-they sexual tension that ultimately goes nowhere."—Conan O'Brien, Emmy 2006 opening skit, after crashing, The Office (US)
Two characters, often combative but with obvious Unresolved Sexual Tension, resist going into a full blown relationship for a rather long time. Usually the two characters will be presented so that "they will" is the conclusion to root for; only rarely is the question of whether the writers think they should in any real doubt. Actually ending the dance is a tricky business. It is difficult for shows to recover from the loss of a major source of dramatic tension represented by an unrequited relationship. Many shows Jump the Shark or suffer Shipping Bed Death when the two characters finally get together. A common problem is that the show suddenly becomes about the relationship rather than remaining true to its original premise. Sometimes an attempt is made to introduce a new source of dramatic tension, but it is frequently cheesy and lame. To avoid this, many shows choose to answer the question and end the show nearly simultaneously via a Last Minute Hookup. Of course, the opposite can also occur. Shows can go out of their way to avoid resolving the relationship, making ever-more-desperate narrative leaps. In longer-running shows, they may even have the characters hook up for a little while, only to split up over and over again, until by the time they finally let the characters get actually, technically married, the show has lost its viewership anyway. Belligerent Sexual Tension is often a victim of this. Sometimes a Love Epiphany can be used to have a character realize his/her feelings, but still not resolve the question, just add a new dynamic to it. A fundamental Shipping-inducement strategy. See also Almost Kiss, Held Gaze, Relationship Upgrade, Moment Killer, Everyone Can See It. When a series ends without even a hint of resolution to will-they-or-won't-they, it's No Romantic Resolution. If it's more ambiguous, it's Maybe Ever After. Contrast Friends with Benefits, where they definitelydo it, but without the emotional baggage. Compare Just Friends and They Do. Contrast Platonic Life-Partners and Ship Sinking — they won't. See Just Eat Gilligan if it's a major plot point. See also Break-Up/Make-Up Scenario when they separate for some dramatic reason, spend a time apart, then reconcile (usually with a kiss, which breaks the Will They Or Won't They)
#01. Jeronica (Jughead Jones & Veronica Lodge; ROMANTIC TROPE: BELLIGERENT SEXUAL TENSION AKA BST)
Belligerent Sexual Tension (BST)
"Wonderful girl! Either I'm gonna kill her, or I'm beginning to like her!"— Han Solo about Princess Leia Organa, A New Hope
There's a couple, usually a sometimes sweet, sometimes grouchy female (Tsundere) paired with a secretly-kind jerk (Jerk With A Heart Of Gold), who are not able to admit their feelings. At the top of their lungs. Despite the conflict, there is an attraction. This is usually obvious to everyone around except the couple. Confront them with the obvious, they'll deny deny deny. Sometimes they will progress to admitting their friendship but insist they are Just Friends. Eventually, they can admit their feelings to practically anyone except their loved one. It ends up where both characters dance around admitting their feelings as if the words "I love you" are some sort of death curse, much to the frustration of the audience and the other characters. Older Than Steam, since this is used in Much Ado About Nothing, and has varying degrees of popularity at different times. If there is a Love Epiphany with one of these characters, expect it to change nothing, at least in the short term. This can even be true in established long-term relationships; see Like an Old Married Couple. If the whole relationship is defined by the belligerence, it can become The Masochism Tango. If a pair of outright enemies has this sort of attraction, it's a case of Foe Romance Subtext and when it ultimately goes from subtext to text, then it's Dating Catwoman. See also Slap-Slap-Kiss, No Accounting for Taste, Well, Excuse Me, Princess! and Defrosting Ice Queen. If we're lucky, at the end we may get to see a moment of Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other. Expect this couple to be either extremely popular or completely hated by the fandom. For the platonic version, compare Vitriolic Best Buds and With Friends Like These.... Not to be confused with Hate at First Sight, although it may overlap.
#barchie#jeronica#bughead#varchie#veggie#archosie#choni#beronica#jarchie#falice#cheronica#riverdale#gifs aren't mine
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rank the lachesis archetype
This is going to be inherently less entertaining for everyone involved because, with one exception, all the Lachesis characters are women and as such I have no frame of reference for how they might be in bed. It’s arguably even more awkward for me than something like the Camus or Jagen archetypes because a Lachesis is defined first and foremost by what might be called aspirational incest - how deeply she desires to fuck her brother. Anyway:
Lachesis: The original might be the most audacious, but because she exists against the backdrop of Jugdral where everything is just kind of like that it’s not nearly as scandalous as one might think. I’m totally on board with more recent portrayals playing up her obsession with Eldigan, a star-crossed love undeterred by any number of one-night stands with surprise pregnancies and/or an unsatisfying and probably sexless relationship with Finn wherein they bonded over the dicks of dead men they’d never get (again). She’s not!French, her promoted class is hilariously OP, and she does her messy best to be a mother to her children even though she’s definitely not ready for it or in a situation conducive to competent parenting. 9/10, not perfect but her successors would be hard-pressed to ever surpass her or her monumental legacy of incest.
Nanna: Lachesis Gen 2, literally. Codified the valkyrie as the class most strongly associated with this archetype as well as diversified their incestuous portfolio via her two predestined pairings: with her first cousin (and son of Eldigan) Ares, and with Leif who was raised alongside her as a brother. FE5 gives the nod to the latter and Leif/Nanna does indeed make more thematic sense in the context of the unification of Thracia, but I’m docking her a point since her more canon-endorsed love interest isn’t biologically related to her and because I like Diarmuid better can he be gay in the remakes please?. 7/10.
Clarine: Meh. Haughty and obnoxious without much to recommend her unless you like characters with that sort of personality, and now that we’ve moved on from Jugdral actual incest and for the most part pseudo-incest just isn’t in the cards anymore. To her credit she doesn’t go for either Perceval or Elffin even though both of them seem like they’d be ideal husband material for her. Instead, she appears to follow Lachesis’s lead and go slumming for men noticeably beneath her when she can’t get brotherly dick. 4/10, could be helped out by a remake with FE6 being as comparatively thin on characterization as it is.
Priscilla: As with many older Western fans she was my first exposure to the archetype, and it’s the oddest thing to me that she’s garnered something of a mild hatedom. I find her inoffensive for the most part; she may attempt to come between one of the GBA era’s seminal M/M pairings but it’s not like she succeeds, and there’s a certain satisfying verisimilitude to all but one of her pairings ending badly on account of her boyfriends’ lower social statuses. Plus, a healer and strong offensive caster on a pony is always fun - and she’s the best of those from the GBA games, beating out Clarine’s bad MAG, L’Arachel’s bad availability, and Cecilia and Selena’s...everything, really. Does FE8′s meta still favor mage knight!Lute? She could be a contender I guess. 6/10, I really don’t get why she’s so disliked.
Mist: An odd case of a Lachesis who belongs to the archetype purely on a meta level, one of Tellius’s numerous examples of taking a bunch of series staples and jumbling them all up for fascinating results. In Mist’s case this jumbling takes the form of one of the many relationship fake-outs between the two games. FE9 appears to favor her cutesy prepubescent connection with Rolf, only for the sequel to pair her up with Rolf’s big brother Boyd instead. Now how does this fit the Lachesis archetype? Well, Mist’s problem is that her actual brother is gay (or some kind of not straight where he’d not much be interested in plowing his little sister, really not the point here), so she transfers all that illicit sisterly affection onto a friend of her brother who’s similarly thick in more ways than one. 3/10, not a bad character, but she’s a strange Lachesis to discuss as such and each game screws her over as a unit in a different way that makes it very hard to appreciate her as the lone valkyrie in Tellius’s roster.
Leo: The token male Lachesis, awkwardly enamored of his busty big sister. It’s a shame that his incest subtext (well, that incest subtext - he’s still totally down for banging his adoptive sister because Avatar) was largely buried in the localization, but to be fair I don’t think it would have mattered that much when the guy’s got a bunch of other stuff going on. His male harem of retainers who do a very poor job of convincing anyone of their collective heterosexuality, for example, or his drama queen tendencies contrasted against those times when it feels like he possesses the lone brain cell of the Nohrian royals. He’s not even in FE14′s unisex valkyrie equivalent class by default, although it is in his secondary class set and it gets a lot of love anyway between his Gothic lolita little sister and his gender nonconforming son. And did I mention his weird thing with tomatoes? Like I said Leo has a lot going on; being one of the millions of men in-universe and out who fap to Camilla barely even registers. 5/10, a novel concept but he’s so much more than a Lachesis. Also, it barely exists in localization.
Clair: Not a proto-Lachesis or anything of the sort in FE2, more of a very mild Catria toward Alm. The remake presented us with Faye as one of the most disturbing takes on the Catria archetype, and Clair got a fresh new design and personality most strongly reminiscent of Clarine instead. FE15′s Clair does offer up one or two interesting new takes on Lachesis, mostly in how self-aware it all is and how she one-ups every woman on this list crushing on a guy with gay subtext by existing against the backdrop of the hotbed of homoerotic longing that is the Deliverance. She and Fernand out each other’s attraction to Clive, and even once he deserts them to find a man who understands him she’s still stuck in line behind Mathilda and Clive’s loyal, fawning subordinates (and Python). It’s up for debate who comes out worse in the end. Sure, Fernand gets betrayed and killed by his rebound, but at least he gets to die in Clive’s arms. Clair marries Gray, which continues in the Lachesis tradition of massively lowered standards. 6/10, a lot less annoying than Clarine and heavily embedded in some prime queer content, but on her own she’s just a bit above average as a unit, as a character overall, and as a brother lover specifically.
Three Houses unfortunately lacks a Lachesis, unless Wave 4 surprises everyone by tossing one in somewhere. If I had to squint very hard and pick one I’d say that Flayn comes closest to the archetype, as no fewer than three of her romantic support lines (Byleth, Ferdinand, Linhardt) invoke the specter of incest though it’s usually Crest-derived rather than standard biology. I wouldn’t call her a true Lachesis, but perhaps like the game’s nod to the Christmas knight archetype it’s meant to be a more understated thing.
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Three Men & a Baby (1987)
Date watched: 22 June 2019
Some extremely light entertainment for a lazy Saturday afternoon.
I was big on this movie when I was a kid, and watching it now, while I still think it's good, it did raise a lot of questions.
Plot:
Tom Selleck, Steve Guttenberg and Ted Danson all live together in one sweet-ass New York penthouse apartment. I think it's the penthouse because their apartment has its own lobby and they seem to have a whole floor.
It is excellent. Actually, just thinking about it, it must be the top floor because they've got a whole glass atrium section in the middle, like, holy shit guys. Money.
This apartment is amazing and it has everything, and three dudes live there, and these three dudes are mid-30s/early 40s (for Selleck, at least). And they have sweet-ass parties in their sweet-ass apartment.
So one day a baby is dropped off on their doorstep, and it turns out the baby is Ted Danson's, but he's away filming a movie. At the same time another package is dropped off, which Danson is meant to hold onto for some people to pick up, but this package gets lost in the couch and forgotten about in the chaos of the new baby.
Guttenberg and Selleck have to then look after the baby whilst simultaneously threatening to murder the fuck out of Danson, and because they're men, and they have no experience with children, they are predictably terrible at it.
A couple of days later these two shady dudes turn up to collect "the package", and because Danson and Guttenberg think the package is the baby, they hand the baby over and then promptly find the rightful package in the couch which contains a buttload of heroin. Selleck then runs downstairs to get the baby (which one of the bad guys is literally trying to put in the boot of his car, wtf), cops get involved, and then Uncle Carmine from the First Wives Club shows up on the scene as the detective in charge of narcotics to investigate them re the whole heroin mishap.
At this stage, because they're so incredibly inept, they have the baby back but they also have the heroin (why they didn't just hand over the heroin I don't know but I guess that implicates them so maybe not a great idea?). Then Danson rolls back into town and is like a baby, wtf, but then they all decide that they're going to take care of the baby so there's a heart-warming 80s montage of them doing "guy stuff" with the baby, such as hitting on women, etc.
Here's my thing – I really tried to find some intense homoerotic subtext in this and I just couldn't. They're clearly not gay, which is disappointing.
ANY-WAY, things with the drug dealers finally come to a head but our three heroes end up outsmarting them, and then they're like yay, we're out in the clear, we've got this baby, we're going to raise it as three dads, everything will be great, and then the baby's mother, Nancy Travis, rolls back into town wanting to take the baby back.
So they're disappointed but they understand that she's her mother and that they have to let her go, which is quite adult of them really, because I mean, Ted Danson is the father and he could've pressed for equal rights or whatever, but they're like, okay, she's going back to England, that's okay.
Then they decide no, we can't let the baby go, so they chase her to the airport (this is an 80s comedy, so there is the obligatory chase-to-the-airport sequence), but the plane is already leaving, so dejected they return to the apartment where Nancy Travis is sitting on the ground crying because she doesn't know how to be a single mother. So they offer to let her move in with them and bob's your uncle, it's now three men, a baby and a lady.
Thoughts:
I seriously question why these three men need to be living together in New York. I know that real estate in NYC is expensive but these three dudes live in a massive penthouse apartment, top floor, with their own lobby, and they each have essentially their own wing of the apartment. So I guess they are roommates but it's not like the Friends-style of roommates where they're living on top of each other.
But seriously though, I get the impression that Tom Selleck is the money-maker here (Ted Danson is a working actor but not a successful one, and Steve Guttenberg is a cartoonist), so… he's obviously said to his two buddies, hey guys, let's live in a sweet bachelor pad together, because… he… doesn't want to live alone? Or to save money? But he's so rich and he lives in a penthouse, what money does he need to save?
And then the women just come over and fuck the guys and nobody thinks it's weird that these three successful guys share an apartment?
And like, Nancy Travis just… leaves her baby with strangers. She literally just leaves her precious baby with strangers. I know she was struggling with post-partum depression etc etc, but she leaves her baby with strangers. And nobody calls her out on it! SHE JUST LEAVES HER BABY ON A DOORSTEP. WHAT.
SHE. LEAVES. HER. BABY. WITH. STRANGERS.
What the FUCK would she have done if she'd come back and the baby wasn't there? What if those three had decided fuck this shit, we're putting the kid up for adoption? What the fuck then, NANCY?
Like honestly, she GOT LUCKY.
She leaves her baby with strangers. I could not get over it.
My other thing with this movie (despite the stunning lack of homoerotic subtext) is that the whole heroin subplot really didn't need to be in the movie. You're not watching this movie for the gritty heroin subplot. You're watching this movie because you want to see Tom Selleck, Steve Guttenberg and Ted Danson be really shit at raising a baby, whilst also being handsome and wearing questionable 80s attire.
Some of the outfits they put Selleck in are a crime, seriously. And don't even get me started on Nancy Travis' hair.
ALSO – another thing I noticed a stunning lack of – NO CROP TOPS FOR GUTTENBERG. You mean to tell me that you've cast 1980s heartthrob STEVE MOTHERFUCKIN GUTTENBERG in this movie and you haven't put him a crop top?
SHAME. SHAME ON YOU.
#three men and a baby#1987#movies#movie review#the 80s#tom selleck#ted danson#steve guttenberg#nancy travis#that guy from CSI#tom selleck's moustache#tom selleck's chest hair#a stunning lack of crop tops for guttenberg#zero homoerotic subtext#10/10 would fuck guttenberg tho
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