What a about Caliborn makes him so cool in your opinion?

Go keep track of his progression as an artist alongside his development as a character and think about how these are intrinsically linked. Ponder the fact that he is both at his most obnoxious and at his most amateur when trying to ignore his unique style explicitly brought on by his canonical learning disability and mimic others rather than truly be himself. Consider how his explorations of art are genuinely cool, not a bad thing, and how we get some really neat multimedia stuff out of it.

Caliborn may be a shitty little teenage wretch but the way he is portrayed as an artist and as a disabled person is both really good and very real. It comes from a place of love. His learning disability is handled with a degree of gentle care that you would not really expect from Hussie. The place Caliborn's art style ends up in is so fucking sick and I actually unironically love it. The technique he uses is really interesting. It's intentionally reminiscent of an Etch-a-Sketch, and I'm a little obsessed with it.

This is so fucking good. I mean this seriously. He's right - that is some Pure Art Skill.

I just love the way art is employed as a necessary component of his character arc. It's so neat. You don't see visual cues that intricate too often. Usually it's just in character design, but watching his entire art style and even his medium of choice change several times over is fascinating. You can really tell Hussie had a lot of fun with him. He's also just really, really fucking funny. Just about every sentence that comes out of his mouth is Grade A Absolute Fucking Gold, and I'm honestly obsessed with his dynamic with Dirk. This may get me thrown to the wolves, but I personally think Dirk and Caliborn have way more chemistry than Dirk and Jake. Maybe that's because we actually see Dirk and Caliborn interact on screen... Lmao.

Necessary Topic: I don't know why people hate him so much. Like, I understand hating his misogyny and fatphobia, sure, but those are deliberate character points and not just Hussie-isms. I see people act like Caliborn is indicative of Hussie, as if Homestuck-era Hussie wasn't, like, famously really fucking good at writing female characters and absolutely not a misogynist. Caliborn's a parody of Homestuck Anti-Fans - which is a term we really ought to bring back, god, anti-fans are absolutely still a thing and good lord they're everywhere - who really were just shitty little bigoted haters. Calliope, the opposite side of his coin, was representative of, essentially, "the best kind of Homestuck fan" - an ultimately sweet young teen girl who willingly dedicates almost all of her time to this piece of fiction she loves so, so much, who draws a lot of fan art for the joy of it all, has OCs that don't fit any of the design conventions in Homestuck whom she pairs with the characters in it for innocent fun. Someone who has a lot of theories and analyses, writes a lot of fanfic, and is genuinely just having a lot of fun. Everyone loves Calliope. Even the characters in Homestuck love Calliope. They just think she's the cutest, sweetest little thing they ever did see. Caliborn was the worst kind. He sucks on purpose. No one likes him. He is a total nuisance to characters he is by all means trying to impress. I love them both.

It's also just funny that he's a canonical Intersex Transmasc who is probably Gay and this has, like, no relevance to anything about him, really. So no one really talks about it. Gender Hilarious, Gender Nefarious.

so i just went through your entire anti-lok tag and everything you said in it was SO WELL WRITTEN. i wanted to ask if you might have any analyses or anything (or just good old rants! we love being bryke haters) - about something that i noticed, which is this sort of... ATLA/TLOK dichotomy between how all aang's villains seem to be focused on gaining power/dominating the world or whatever, but the villains in TLOK seem to revolve around very pointed targeting of korra and specifically stripping her of her agency/bodily autonomy, but i don't know how to expand on that point.

(idk just. TLOK has a whole list of scenes that make me VIOLENTLY uncomfortable in a way even the worst of ATLA doesn't? and i thought you might have some input to share about it, if you don't mind me asking)

thank you sm!! i'm glad you enjoy my lok and bryke salt <33

i know what you mean, because it's something that struck me when i was watching lok as well. korra's villains are far more personal to her (particularly in what they do to her, or want from her) than azula or ozai or even zhao ever were to aang, and while that isn't necessarily a bad thing (in fact it can often be good to have a personal relationship between your hero and villain; just look at how much more impactful and meaningful zuko and azula's arc was compared to aang and ozai's), there is a way to do it right and that was... not what bryke did.

we didn't need to see korra brutally bloodbent and stripped of her bending, or brutally attacked by unalaq, or brutally tortured by the red lotus or - you got it - brutally beaten up by kuvira (over and over again, might i add). i'm not saying that violence never has its place in storytelling, but it needs to have an actual purpose that's not just shock value. atla, for instance, knew when and how to utilise violence: the sight of gyatso's skeleton in the southern air temple, aang's murder by azula, even katara bloodbending... the violence in all of those scenes was necessary either to communicate vital information to the audience, or drive home the emotive and narrative significance of the moment, or both.

in lok though, bryke hardly, if ever, achieved either of these objectives - especially because it was mainly only ever korra who got the brunt of the violence. no other character is repeatedly targeted and assaulted and violated even half as much as korra is, even when they're facing the same antagonists. tenzin's fight against the red lotus in book 3 gets a tasteful pan to black (one of the few times i think bryke did use violence purposefully; knowing what not to show is just as important as knowing what to show, and leaving the audience with the dread of tenzin's fate was actually sadder and more terrifying than letting us see what happened to him) but korra's agonizing torture at the hands of the red lotus is so long and drawn-out that it begins to veer into torture porn.

imo, this can probably be attributed to two things: 1) bry.ke thinking trauma = character development because they don't know how else to write a good character arc (and they still somehow fucked it up - i will never forgive them for making korra thank zaheer, of all people, for helping her overcome her trauma, like what the absolute fuck bry.ke), and 2) they wanted lok to be "more mature" than atla, which shows both that they fundamentally didn't understand atla, or what constitutes good storytelling, and also that someone desperately needs to tell them that simply upping the violence and hamfistedly handling "complex" topics does not maturity make.

(given the way bryke has written women, i also have to side-eye the fact that the strong-willed, independent, brown female protagonist is beaten and battered and torn down far more than the peaceful, affable light-skinned male protagonist ever is, even during an actual war.)

and of course, contrary to what our dear bryke probably expected, simply brutalizing korra season after season in the name of shock value and development did not, to anyone else's surprise, make lok the better show in the end.

People dislike Dirk? You're telling the same fandom that popularised the phrase "vriska did nothing wrong" dislikes Dirk? You know sometimes Im kinda glad that I read the comic a year after it concluded and a year before I became active on Tumblr because the fandom in it's heyday seems to span the weirdest talking points

anon the first two sentances was enough to tell me that you weren't on tumblr around 2016 and sooner. 2013 had everyone characterizing him as a brony weeb boy with the usual braindead borderline homophobic ship content of the time, but when I was really into Homestuck, claiming that Dirk was abusive, manipulative, and a narcissist was the common meta and widely-accepted fanon. Additionally, Dirk and Vriska being read as fucking character parallels was a common talking point as well, made popular by an asshole named swamp-wizard who was famous for being 'anti mogai' and basically scum of the fucking earth. People writing him as he actually was in-canon was a rare occurrance. Pretty much all of their 'proof' of him being manipulative and arrogant and him 'forcing' Jake into a relationship came from Hal's logs pre-entry into the session, and pointing this out would have you told that him and Hal were the same, even though Dirk himself fucking hated Hal. Being a Dirk apologist (aka anyone who actually knew his character) was seen as a major red flag and liking/kinning him made people think that you were some sort of condescending, self-important asshole. There was a guy called optimisticDuelist who wrote big meta posts on dirk and jake and dirkjake in general who was slowly working on setting things right, but then the epilogues dropped and everything went to hell.

I seem to be cursed with falling in love with complex characters that are horrifically butchered in fanon, but in Dirk's case, it's probably the worst example because a.) Dirk is hilariously sensitive and sweet in the webcomic, if you looked past how he THOUGHT he saw himself, and b.) The asshole writers on the epilogue team basically made fanon Dirk canon, both to specifically upset people and because they too believed him and Vriska were character parallels (fucking HOW). Which was such a kick in the goddamn nuts to someone like me, who was both a character analyser and a man who shared a lot of Dirk's insecurities/paranoia, struggles with his sexuality, and particular brand of depressive disorder. I don't know how/if the fandom changed, but when the postcanon shit dropped, the monster they made Dirk into basically became the smug 'I told you so' of the fandom. I left because it was legitimately deeply harmful to my mental health. And that's not even TOUCHING how bad people butchered Jake.

(Apparently optimisticDuelist was also on the epilogue/post-canon team and was trying to fight to make Dirk and Jake better, but got literally harassed into silence and kicked off under claims that as a man, him pushing for more nuance was him 'threatning people (women) in the workplace' or some other shit like that. So that gives you an idea of the type of people working on the post-canon content.)

this is me asking about qui-gon

thank you, dear. You're a real one.

For the last several weeks, I have been running into people shitting on Qui-Gon in every tag on every platform I go on. And I am emotionally bored and intellectually fascinated with this take.

It's like there is this dichotomy in the Obi-Wan side of Star Wars fandom (we are disregarding the anti-Jedi people rn because I respect zero of them and zero of their takes).

Qui-Gon was the worst and cannot be redeemed. He is nothing but an abuser and never did he ever like, let along love, Obi-Wan.

Qui-Gon was the softest, most gentle master ever. He only ever loved Obi-Wan and tenderly taught him how to be a jedi while also being his adoring jedi-father.

Naturally, as someone who has read a few of the Jedi Apprentice stories, begrudgingly watched The Phantom Menace, and recently seen the Kenobi show, I am just baffled by both of these takes.

To start, TPM and the Kenobi show are all about Obi-Wan grieving his master, and then trying to reconnect with his master, so that is clear and obvious so we will set that to the side.

JA Obi-Wan, however, is honestly hysterical in how annoying, disobedient, and bratty he is.

And like, maybe I don't agree that Qui-Gon should have left him in a Civil War, but in these books I read Qui-Gon as an adult who has been through some serious shit (lost a child, lost a master, lost a partner) and who has been pressured into taking care of an especially energetic, overenthusiastic dependent with pre-existing self-worth issues before he himself is ready to. He is also someone who's teaching style involves allowing a child to see the consequences of their actions and stepping in only when the child is truly out of their depth, which is also a form of compassionate teaching that respects a young person's agency, believe it or not--so his methods and general being is not inherently good or inherently bad.

But forgive me, I am applying nuance to a character. I must digress.

I think what baffles and fascinates me about fandom tendencies towards Qui-Gon is

1) They are almost entirely fandom-made, and rather than do their own research and thinking, folks are by and large content to just do what everyone else is doing.

2) Even when people do go back and read the source material for Legends, they come at it with a fandom bias which they then do not recognize/point out in their analyses, which is hilarious and so faux-intellectual I want to ask them if they feel very very smart.

3) Qui-Gon exists in fandom almost entirely to further Obi-Wan whump narratives.

To be clear, I'm okay with that last point because Obi-Wan whump is like, a whole narrative in Star Wars itself (although I personally, can only endure so much Obi-whump as I prefer characters with agency in their stories), but it does make me wonder if people ever think about Qui-Gon as a character on his own.

The answer is no. Don't worry, I'm not that naive.

Anyways, I just wish there was some variety in the tags and that one could find material on Qui-Gon without having to navigate the 'Qui-Gon Jinn's A+ Parenting' 'Qui-Gon is a good jedi but not a good man' 'Qui-Gon is a good master' tags.

Like it should be ludicrous and hilarious to people that this minor character is so polarized in fandom that you have to tag things like that such that one trench of people doesn't come in and attack you in your comments section.

It's wild!!

I truly hope people can look at what they're doing and go 'oh, this is actually absurd' because just admitting that might help us in the longer term to write interesting stories.

Thank you for letting me rant ❤

I'm deeply relate Ryoma in a way I don't want to accept.. I even tried to break the fingers I own to stop myself doing the things even I fear and I'm so pissed at the fandom about Ryoma's characterisation. He is not the guy who deserved to reduce being depressive edgy one, analyse him more you cowards!

And i hate gonta x ryoma way too much because of how their characters get flanderised often when they paired.

And yes yes yes! Kokichi didn't buy it while Gonta buying the lie Ryoma told. This is why Kokichi and Ryoma feels like they have some sort of respect to eachother. And i like the sprite Ryoma laughing with Kokichi. That was cute lol

And again I switch the topic because of one thing you pointed out; parallels. I should let go tsuhara (Tsurugi x Kinji) but when we talk I realised something.

Uehara believed he deserved the death penalty so I realised one thing. Tsurugi affected him much as he affected Tsurugi too only difference they had was.. one of them have the chance the think of the topic while other don't and I start to hardly ship them for one blabber we had again. Wow

(I relate to Ryoma too, but I'm in a much better headspace now then I was when I was first playing Dr. I think if he knew he had a hand in that, he'd be happy)

Yeah, like Gonta and Ryoma have good potential as a ship, but the ship attracts most of the worst Gonta and Ryoma fans so I hardly ever find content for it.

Like, Gonta's toxic trait is that he will do anything to help people, but not ask the people in question thier thoughts. Despite his inferiority complex, he trusts his own judgement the one time I wish he wouldn't.

And half of Ryoma's arc is him asking for the tools so he could help himself, so reducing the ship to "Gonta helps Ryoma because he's pure" is the most boring dynamic they could have! I could see Ryoma helping Gonta out actually! I could also see it turn toxic, but thats just because I love toxic relationships. (in fiction, IRL do not recommend!)

Listen, Danganronpa can have some of the best parallel character arcs I've ever seen and they never capitalize on it, and it drives me insane. Half of the time, the characters in question never interact. Ibuki is the anti!Sayaka, or what Sayaka could have been if she valued authenticity more. Despite Fuyuhiko not directly killing Natsumi, he and Mondo still have a shitton of unhealthy coping mechanisms in common!

Another is so much better in that aspect. Still would like to lock Tsurugi and Kanade in a room together and watch the fallout.

I posted 341 times in 2022

That's 341 more posts than 2021!

75 posts created (22%)

266 posts reblogged (78%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@a-treatise-on-velociraptors

@yuzu-all-the-way

@funnytwittertweets

@curioscurio

@beyoncescock

I tagged 266 of my posts in 2022

Only 22% of my posts had no tags

#yuzuru hanyu - 52 posts

#attack on titan - 19 posts

#me - 15 posts

#omg - 11 posts

#demon slayer - 9 posts

#oof - 9 posts

#shingeki no kyojin - 8 posts

#attack on titan spoilers - 8 posts

#kdrama - 6 posts

#best boy - 6 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#he was so passively going along with everything while also seeming to have an unreasonable grudge against yo han that i couldn't understand

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

I would re-watch Strangers from Hell because now that I live in a tiny apartment filled with strange people I understand how things progressed the way they did

how easy it is to go crazy when craziness is all you know, how the people who surround you become your world and standard of normalcy, how people can get under your skin and draw out the worst in you while your focus is so hyperfixated on the stew of psychopathic behavior that you can't even see what's wrong anymore, especially when that person seems, at first, to care for and understand you...it's given me food for thought and a hefty impetus towards introspection. I'll definitely be thinking about this show a lot in the future. Bad company truly does corrupt good morals.

HOWEVER,

I ALSO got physically ill at that (human? question mark?) BBQ table scene when the lights were flashing and THIS man was like

It was truly ADVANCED DARKNESS and I got such awful heebie-jeebies i had to drop it then and there. maybe I'll finish it later...or maybe not!!! I think the lesson was great but it was a bit much for me

10 notes - Posted November 17, 2022

#4

wait i figured it out

If eyes are like OuO it is my favorite

See the full post

15 notes - Posted November 30, 2022

#3

Just started Devil Judge because I heard it referenced alongside "The Merciless"

Looove the concept and I think there's a lot that can be said about it, as for the plot, idk what's going on yet but THIS GUY ^^^ is GORGEOUS ^^^ so I'll keep watching~ hehe~ i had a crush on him like 10 years ago from Protect the Boss and holy guacamole he looks the SAME but now EVIL??? Or...NOT??? NOT SURE?? (I drew awful fan art of him as a young kpop teenager before that was a thing!!! It was TVXQ! era in a small town, someone looked at my sketchbook and asked 'why'd you draw an angry Hawai'ian man' and I answered "actually this is Ji Sung he's a Korean actor" and then they're like 'why'd you draw an angry Korean man' I've remembered this interaction for 10 years) First ep was a lil confusing but as per Kdrama rules you must give it at least two eps before drawing a conclusion.

Also everyone keeps saying things like "Lawful husbands" and from the amount of trespassed space bubbles and mysterious stares in the first episode I'm expecting some bromance or maybe ANTI bromance?? bro-loathing?? I guess there will also be a point where I'll say "oh, that's what they meant", we'll see!

20 notes - Posted November 17, 2022

#2

A VERY SPECIFIC CROSSOVER:

See the full post

24 notes - Posted November 17, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

If the idea of Goncharov's *story* appeals to y'all (like, outside of the meme, if you were like, 'oh, I would watch that movie if it existed'), "The Merciless" should probably be on your watchlist

It's a complicated angsty relationship gangster tension plot-twisting ride of a tragic violent shoot-em-up heartbreak-fest and I have so many feelings about it hhffsdfghhghghhhhhh

(and it got like an 8 minute standing ovation at Cannes if that is convincing to anyone)

ALSO in the running for "existent gangster movies that are literally earth shaking in scope and layers of analyses" is my all-time favorite "A Bittersweet Life"

(100% on Rotten Tomatoes btw)

See the full post

51 notes - Posted November 22, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

Azriel's shadows do NOT run from Elain Archeron: a discussion of the text

Please don't share or screenshot this post without credit.

Disclaimer: as always, the following analysis is purely my own interpretation of the text, and may very well be inaccurate. We'll have to wait until we get Azriel’s POV, in his own (shared) book, to find out the truth.

One of the prevailing theories that Elriel antis (and Elain antis in general) love to bring up is that Azriel's shadows run - or recoil - from Elain; that they are scared of her for a variety of hypothetical reasons, and that, at best, this means he could never fully love her or, at worst, she must be evil... especially since his shadows "danced" with the curling breath of another female character.

Like many Elain fans/Elriel shippers, this idea didn't mesh with the understanding that I had of Azriel's shadows, which predated ACOSF; specifically, that his shadows acted to both comfort and protect him - emotionally and physically - when required, in addition to their aid in spying and winnowing etc, and that their in-text disappearance served to suggest that Azriel was feeling safe and secure in himself, if it was not intentional.

So, with that being said, let's have a look at, and then analyse, the quote in question, with the use of other references from the text.

SJM is often very particular in her choice of wording, so our old mate the dictionary should - and does! - help us to sort this out.

"His shadows skittered back at the sound."

Skitter:

To move lightly and quickly.

A fishing technique; to jerk the bait across the water.

When Azriel’s shadows "skittered back," they simply moved "lightly and quickly" back towards him. That is literally all.

The second interpretation, that his shadows were attempting to lure Elain to him, would actually imply exactly the opposite of the theory favoured by most alternative shippers: that Az's shadows do, in fact, like Elain enough to act as his wingmen when it comes to romancing her, and that they are neither put off nor scared of her; it's ironic that a winged male requires a wingman, but I digress. This idea would even be supported by the text - they helped him when he gifted Elain with her necklace at solstice, and appeared to prepare to defend her when she was arguing with Nesta in ACOSF - although, for the sake of this discussion, we'll concentrate on the first definition only, as the second is admittedly obscure, and doesn't seem to fit with other uses of the word "skitter" throughout the ACOTAR series.

It is likely significant, then, that "skitter" has no negative connotations - unlike "recoil," or other variations favoured by Elriel and Elain antis - so, given that Azriel's shadows also "skitter" in a wide variety of situations, including to his own breath (ACOMAF, chapter 29), unilaterally deciding that the quick and light movement that the shadows made in response to Elain's breath is inherently a bad thing is misguided, to say the least, and also potentially disingenuous.

"They'd always been prone to vanish when she was around."

Vanish:

To disappear suddenly and completely.

Become zero (mathematics specific).

Disappear:

To cease to be visible.

It sounds like Azriel's shadows don't actually run away and leave him when Elain is around, rather, they simply become invisible. Once again, assuming that this is due to fear of Elain herself is unfounded, potentially a little biased, and is actually - in my opinion, of course - demonstrably false.

Let's discuss why...

Firstly, Azriel himself told us that his shadows would "always" be with him, earlier on in his bonus chapter. Unless this is meant to suggest that he will eventually lose his shadows in some way, which would negate this entire debate about them preferring one potential love interest over another, I'll take it at face value and assume that his shadows will remain with him for life; that being said, I do think that they will be compromised before the end of the sequel trilogy. His comment suggesting that they cannot be blinded is just asking for it. But back to the point: Azriel mentioned that his shadows would always keep him company. 

Ergo, when they "vanish," it should be safe enough to assume that his shadows don't actually go anywhere, without being ordered to do so by Azriel himself (or a higher power - perhaps Koschei?), they just cease to be visible. However, even when faced with Koschei the Death God, Azriel's shadows only hid behind the protection of his wings. They remained visible, kept whispering to him, and did not run.

So, thinking logically, if Azriel’s shadows remained visible around Koschei, the biggest threat in ACOTAR, why would they run, recoil, or otherwise from Elain, of all people? Unless SJM is intending for her to be more fear-inducing than Koschei the Death God himself - the Big Bad of the sequel trilogy - which I highly doubt, then it doesn't make any sense. Of course, if you are attempting to invalidate a ship that threatens your personal preference, you may think otherwise. I understand, nobody likes to be incorrect, and people can and do get very emotionally invested in books and shipping, but it serves no purpose to intentionally misconstrue the text for a ship over which none of us has any control. SJM will write what she has always planned to write, she doesn’t do fan service, and the behaviour of Azriel’s shadows in the first ACOTAR trilogy appears to suggest that their brightening is not inherently a Bad Thing. 

Pre-ACOSF, Az's shadows lightened around Mor - his past, unrequited love interest - and Elain, his then future, and now likely, or imminent, requited (and endgame) love. They also disappeared when he was noted to be looking comfortable, or at ease, such as when he was under the sun at the lake, training with Feyre; coincidentally, Elain and Mor both have strong associations with sunlight. Make of that what you will.

At the infamous, pre-war High Lords' meeting in the Dawn Court (ACOWAR), after Azriel's outburst against Eris, Feyre, his High Lady, who is also known as "Stars Eternal" - and remember, the sun is a star - managed to get Azriel to calm down to the point that his shadows "lightened into sunshine."

Further, at the end of ACOWAR, Azriel’s shadows "lit up" in direct response to Elain's smile. 

At this point in the series, Az and Elain had met more than once, in the human realms, before Elain was turned fae; they had shared tea in Velaris before the war - again, possibly multiple times - while she recovered from her Hybern-related trauma, and they had also been through the war itself, not to mention a harrowing rescue, together. He lent her Truth-Teller, for crying out loud. No matter whom you ship together, I don't think that it's unrealistic to consider that Azriel and Elain were friends by this point in time.  

Both of the above passages from ACOWAR appear to be evidence that Azriel's shadows can and do in fact lighten, or brighten, when able or required, and that it can happen in response to positive emotions (relaxing after the incident with Eris at the HL meeting, and Elain’s statement at the end of ACOWAR, which made Feyre’s "throat tighten" with feeling).

But what does this mean in practise? If we follow this line of thought, and assume that there could be a sliding scale between dark and light, upon which the shadows would fall at any time, then perhaps at some point along this scale, the shadows, or whatever they may truly be, are neither dark nor light, but neutral enough to become invisible - to “vanish” - in their surroundings? The idea of a sliding scale seems to be supported by Feyre’s description of Azriel and Elain exchanging Truth-Teller in ACOWAR: “Light and dark, the space between their bodies a blend of the two.” 

Could the right person, mood or feeling, allow Azriel’s shadows to lighten into invisibility, or perhaps beyond, into sunlight? Is there, therefore, some sort of link between shadowsingers and lightsingers, such as them being two sides of the same coin, or belonging to the same Court, one that may be currently missing? I have so many questions - and, as I've said before, I doubt that lightsingers are truly evil - but this deserves an entire post of its own.

This is obviously my personal interpretation, so please feel free to make of it what you will, but in addition to sunlight creating stronger, more defined shadows, shadows should, hypothetically, become less visible as they lighten; ie. they would eventually disappear, or "vanish" (see aforementioned dictionary definitions). Furthermore, if we pay close attention to the wording above, in the post-war ACOWAR quote, Elain’s smile grew, "bright enough" to light up Azriel's shadows on the other side of the room. This sounds eerily familiar to what Cassian noted at the Hewn City, in ACOSF. 

I have discussed this passage from Cassian already, but I do think that it's significant that "the brightness" was "leeched" from Elain's face when she was visiting the Court of Nightmares (though there are other interpretations of this scene, and we don’t yet know which is correct). I suspect - though I could obviously be wrong - that Elain's magical abilities, and future role in the Hewn City, are being foreshadowed here. It should come as no surprise, then, that Azriel is also strongly tied to the Court of Nightmares. Could this have been Elain’s innate sunlight attempting to lighten a place that is heavily associated with shadows? Does Elain make not only Azriel feel safe and comfortable, but an entire city - which is really a sub court - as well? 

So, given Elain Archeron - spring and sunlight personified - is almost certainly not going to become a villain to top even the likes of Koschei, from which Azriel’s shadows would truly recoil and hide, I feel fairly confident in the evidence-based theory that I’ve just laid out: 

The shadows - hypothetically, of course - lighten in response to situations in which Azriel is around those who make him feel either happy, comfortable, or secure in himself, or when he has ordered them to do so, for the sake of a mission, or not scaring others. Sometimes this lightening results in a neutral, or invisible shadow, and at other times the shadows turn into sunlight. 

The shadows also move in response to emotional and physical stimuli, such as preparing to defend Azriel, or someone for whom he cares deeply, skittering when a breath hits them (examples include Azriel, Cassian, and Elain), or to help their master gift a rose necklace to the woman he most likely loves.

In addition to the shadows acting to defend Elain in ACOSF, Elain is likely both someone around whom Azriel feels accepted and comfortable - in fact, they have each brought comfort to the other from the start - and also has a power that is compatible in some way with Azriel’s shadows, so she is able to magically affect their place on the hypothetical “light to dark” scale, even if neither she nor Azriel currently aware of it. If they are carranam (a concept from the Throne of Glass series), I will cry. 

I understand not gelling with certain characters, or preferring one ship over another, I really do, but to read with the blinkers of bias means that your interpretation will end up being skewed. I admit that I have preferred the idea of Elain and Azriel together since reading ACOMAF - I never thought she'd end up with Graysen, or he with Mor - even though I was happily open to Elain and Lucien accepting their bond until I read ACOSF (though it did seem less likely after ACOFAS). Could my own understanding of the text be weighted towards Elriel? Of course! I freely admit that. But, in my opinion, the text also clearly speaks for itself, and one instance of dancing shadows in a bonus chapter that most readers won’t see shouldn't, and doesn't, undermine three novels and a novella worth of foreshadowing. It's meant to be obvious.

*

If you enjoyed this, please consider reblogging. 💜

i do actually want to get my thoughts down on dune but don’t want to subject anyone to dune against their will so they are under a cut

first of all i want to make clear that i have only read the first 3 books (dune/dune messiah/children of dune) and have no intention of reading more. furthermore as it is well established that frank herbert viewed these three books as a trilogy and had planned and partially written all three books whilst writing the first, i think it is appropriate to view them as a single work of literature and will be analysing them as such here.

i think dune carries a lot of contradictions within it because at some level it is an anti-imperialist story written by a racist white man, and this is something that manifests itself throughout the entire trilogy

its easy to read the first book and come away with the impression that it’s a white saviour narrative; this is because it’s exactly what it is. but it specifically plays with the white saviour narrative and tries to expose its fatal flaws in ways that don’t really become apparent until the second half of the trilogy. and throughout this the view the narrative seems to take on the characters also changes; in the first book kynes and stilgar are presented as pretty much unilaterally good people who want the best for everyone and paul is generally presented as a well meaning person. 

kynes, the coloniser who is himself a white saviour narrative of sorts, fancies himself as having “gone native” yet at the same time introduces the plan to transform arakkis into a wet planet, a plan that the narrative eventually condemns as a colonialist exertion of control, an ecological disaster, and borderline genocidal in its destruction of fremen culture. by the end of children of dune, though kynes is long dead, the narrative has changed from viewing him as a caring sympathetic visionary to at best a naiive fool and at worst an insidious force who kickstarted unspeakable evils.

stilgar is, i think, the most interesting character to me, as he’s arguably the most tragic character. at every point in his arc he makes what is ostensibly the right decision—trading the harkonnens for the atreides secures more rights and better conditions for the fremen, and the ecological transformation lessens the burdens of life on dune. for this he is initially portrayed as noble (and i very purposely invoke the “noble savage” trope that herbert was using). but by the end of the trilogy it becomes clear that stilgar has feet of clay, that he simply traded one coloniser for another and in the process royally fucked everyone over by siding with that coloniser.

and paul, who by the second book is a dictator responsible for tens of millions of deaths, is reduced to being a miserable lone wanderer in the desert regretful of everything he ever did or stood for; he only gains any moral victory in the end by reversing course to speak out against the colonisation, assimilation, and ecological transformation of dune.

dune is a deeply racist book series. it is deeply orientalist to its core and is rife with racial stereotypes even outside of the fremen. the fremen, as a portmanteau of indigenous peoples around the world, are at every turn exoticised, sexualised, treated as barbarians or noble savages, and aside from stilgar are largely non-characters. aside from stilgar the fremen have little agency; aside from stilgar the narrative shows us that only the white coloniser characters are worth caring about. despite all this, these same coloniser characters are shown to be rotten to the core and their actions one way or another are eventually revealed as morally reprehensible.

dune’s attempts to be anti-colonialist can only fall flat because of these contradictions. it asks us to believe in the personhood of the fremen and sympathise with their plight yet refuses to portray them as more than tokens in a world of political intrigue amongst white colonisers. to the very end as it attempts to unravel these white heroes and reveal them as complicit, it is always other white heroes who get the final say. it is consistently undercut by its own colonialism.

Character Analyse

Jerome Valeska and Jonathan Crane

Fandoms: Gotham, Batman (Nolan Verse)

ⁱ ᶜʰᵒᵒˢᵉᵈ ᵗʰᵉᵐ ᵗᵒ ˢʰᵒʷ ʰᵒʷ ᵃⁿ ᵃⁿᵗⁱ-ˢᵒᶜⁱᵃˡ ᵖᵉʳˢᵒⁿᵃˡⁱᵗʸ ᵈⁱˢᵒʳᵈᵉʳ ᶜᵃⁿ ᵈⁱᶠᶠᵉʳ ᵇᵉᵗʷᵉᵉⁿ ᵗʷᵒ ᶜʰᵃʳᵃᶜᵗᵉʳˢ ᵗʰᵃᵗ ᶜᵃⁿ'ᵗ ᵇᵉ ᵐᵒʳᵉ ᵈⁱᶠᶠᵉʳᵉⁿᵗ ʷʰⁱˡᵉ ᵗʰᵉʸ ˢʰᵃʳᵉ ᵃ ˢⁱᵐⁱˡᵃʳ ᵖᵃˢᵗ

Jerome Valeska

Character: Impulsive, charming, aggressive, manipulative, extroverted, creativ, selfish, funny, entertaining, mood changes, crazy, joyfull, arnachistic

Disease: probably anti-social personality disorder (aspd= sociopath) and past childhood trauma (abuse)

Past: The abuse of his mother, her brother and lovers changed Jerome and made his childhood unbearable. Even his twin brother turned against him. Jerome was beaten every day, he was told how useless he is. At some point it damaged him so badly, he just snapped. He killed his mother and finally felt free. He didn't had to hide anymore, he didn't had to act like an innocent boy anymore. Jerome build his own persona and played his part well. He certainly was not sweet and caring, it was just an act. But keep in mind that Jerome wasn't born bad, he was raced into something bad.

Coping mechanism: Jeromes coping mechanism is probably laughing. It looks painfull and forced at times even. It has different sounds (sad, happy, bubbly, angry, nervous, irritating, arrogant...) Drama and overplaying from situations are potential coping mechanisms as well.

Appearance: Jerome is always laughing/ grinning/ smiling. Mostly known for his ginger hair and scars. Jerome was a really handsome young men, later in the show his appearance matched his damaged personality (in a good way). He wears tailored fancy suits or leather strait jackets that fits his craziness. Jerome seems to be dominating, sadistic and masochistic, even acts flirty and with a certain sex appeal to intimidate people. He acted really sexual in front of Leslie Thompkins and Sarah Essen for example. He is rather tall (6'0) and athletic build.

Actor: Cameron Monaghan, 27, us-american

ᶜʳᵉᵈⁱᵗ ʲᵉʳᵒᵐᵉᵛᵃˡᵉˢᵏᵃˢᶠᵃᶜᵉ

Doctor Jonathan Crane

Character: arrogant, calm, selfish, cold, rather introverted, a little intimidating, loyal, perfectionist, cold hearted, provoking, intellectual, manipulating

Disease: anti-social personality disorder (aspd=sociopath), hints of a dissociative personality disorder (did), probably a childhood trauma, paranoia

Past: We don't know anything about his past, we don't know how he met Ras al Guhl or Falcone. But in the comics Jonathan Crane was left by his parents and abused by his grandmother. He was bullied by his class mates. Those factors may have caused an anti-social personality disorder (It is kind of proven that he is a sociopath anyway) and maybe a dissociative personality disorder. I'm not sure about that, but it is kind of hinted in Batman begins. Which leads us to the next point...

Coping Mechanism: He probably gets triggered easily which was seen in Batman begins when he got a taste of his own medicine. I think that he has some form of DID. Think about it, he wasn't able to cope with his fears so another personality or so called alter took over to protect him and his mind. Why else would he say all of a sudden:

"Doctor Crane isn't here right know. But if you'd like to make an appointment-"

He is obsessing over fear because he wants people to feel what he felt as a child everyday. That's why he experiments with them and make them live through there worst nightmares.

Appearance: Intense blue eyes and raven black hair and a sharp jawline. He seems intimidating at times, cold and arrogant but allows himself to smile at times. He has an small to average high and is rather slim. Jonathan often wears glasses and a suit. He seems to take care of his appearance and is most likely professional. His eyes are probably the most recognisable thing about him. He uses his mind and intelect to manipulate with an intelligent choose of words and a calm behaviour. He doesn't really show how angry he really is.

Actor: Cillian Murphy, 44, Irish

ᵍⁱᶠ ⁱˢ ᵐⁱⁿᵉ

I hope you liked it :) What do you guys think @valeskakingdom @valeskaduh? You two are more professional with character analyses then I am haha

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT TECHNOBLADE (or A Narrative Analysis of the Dream SMP Doomsday Event) - Script

Heyo! Per request I am posting the script to my video of the same name here on tumblr. I must warn you that just reading the script will probably not give you the full experience, so I would encourage you to watch the video (linked above).

There might also still be a lot of grammatical errors in the text, because I don’t proofread.

Okay, so! I don’t want this to turn into a reaction channel OR a Dream SMP channel for that matter! I am planning on doing a big dumb, way too long analysis video on the Dream SMP which will – at my current pace – come out in five years. I am already way too late on this one.

Spoiler Alert for the Doomsday Event that took place on the 6th of January in the Dream SMP. Surely the worst thing to take place on the 6th of January 2021 … I’m sorry, what’s this about the Capitol?

In case you don’t watch the SMP and need context: The Dream SMP is a Minecraft Multiplayer Server, that, throughout the last year, has transformed from a normal Let’s Play to an ongoing new-media series streamed by multiple high-profile streamers such as Dream, TommyInnit or Technoblade. It comes complete with script – by which I mean loose bullet points – and story events. It has attracted a large fanbase specifically invested in the story and less so in the actual gameplay content. Like I said before, I will probably do a big video on the Dream SMP at some point in the future.

The storyline is long and complicated and trying to explain it all would take up the majority of the video and there are other channels who have already done a much better job than I could ever hope to do, so give them a watch. I’ll try to summarize all that is pertinent to what I will talk about in this video.

Okay, let’s speedrun this summary. Cue the music!

Major Players here are TommyInnit, a founder of the independent nation of L’Manburg, Technoblade, an anarchist who was deep in conflict with L’Manburg, Tubbo, Tommy’s best friend and current president of L’Manburg, and Dream, the ruler of the Kingdom of the Dream SMP (even though he is not the king, but we’re not going to get into that right now). Tommy had in the past been exiled by Tubbo for endangering L’Manburg’s shaky peace with the Dream SMP. Tommy had then teamed up with Technoblade, who was hellbent on destroying L’Manberg after some prior altercations – more on that later.

Tommy and Tubbo came into conflict during a festival set-up to celebrate the friendship between L’Manburg and the Dream SMP. After punching out their feelings, Tommy came to the realization that his friendship with Tubbo was more important than his vendetta against Dream and those who exiled him. Techno took that change of heart badly and teamed up with Dream to destroy L’Manburg … and that’s exactly what happened.

Techno and Dream, with little to no opposition, obliterated L’Manburg with no hope for recovery leaving its inhabitants stranded hopeless and alone.

… And that’s what you missed on Dream SMP!

Okay. So, usually I just put whatever thought slime drips out of my mouth hole into your subscription box. But then I asked myself: “Am I not taking this a largely improvised nonsense story from a bunch of 16–24-year-olds a little too seriously?”. And then I remembered. I’m a pretentious bitch. I made an 18-minute video explaining why the popular commentary YouTuber memeulous is secretly the time travelling Anti-Christ, REASON HAS NO SWAY OVER ME!

So, like the English Major drop-out that I am, I will present you with two theses, which I will then combine into one … supratheses! That word doesn’t exist, I just coined it, it’s mine! I am very smart!

[I know words, I have the best words!]

 Thesis #1: The Fandom focuses too much on Character Analysis in Favour of Narrative Analysis

The Dream SMP is truly something special. It is uniquely singular in how it tells a story of this scope through its chosen medium. While there is an overarching script that lays out the plot points of the future, each of the 30+ streamers on the SMP are their own cameraman, director, writer and actor. You cannot watch “the Dream SMP” – if you attempted that, you would be 80 by the time you caught up to the Doomsday Event. You have to choose whom to watch. You have to choose your focal point character.

Because by the way the story is told and consumed – aka in such a compartmentalized fashion; you watch one streamer and get one character’s perspective – it has sort-of unintentionally conditioned fans to look at the SMP and its characters less as one coherent story with messages and themes and more as sports teams they can root for. You’re Team Techno or Team Tubbo or Team Tommy or Team JackManifoldTV (formerly known as Thunder1408) and every other side is in the wrong! It’s like Twilight for a decade old children’s game about virtual Lego!

Okay, I’m exaggerating, but the amount of discourse perpetuated by and revolving around so-called “apologists” – a terrible term that unfortunately has caught on – is really not something that I think is good for how we interact with the story of the Dream SMP.

The Dream SMP is discussed a lot on character-based level, which is, like I said before, hugely advantaged by the way the story is consumed by its audience. With traditional, visual media such as film for example, the audience can be made more aware of what messages the narrative might try to communicate on a narrative level without the need for an explicit narrator to tell you the moral.

As an example, in a movie you could have a smash-cut from the Butcher Army’s discussions about neutralizing the danger Technoblade poses to Techno being nice around villagers or taking care of animals. This would communicate on an extradiegetic level, that the Butcher Army is in the wrong with their assumptions. Alternatively, you could contrast Techno’s declarations that power corrupts and that Tubbo’s administration is cruel with Tubbo choosing not to punish Ranboo for his association with Techno – thus the narrative would communicate that Techno’s view of Tubbo and by extension the government is one-sided and not true to reality.

Stuff like that helps the viewer understanding a story holistically and manages to communicate stuff like themes and morals without having to solely rely on in-character logic and argumentation, which, as Ghostbur put it so eloquently, is comprised of a bunch of unreliable narrators.

Character analysis is great if we want dive deep, if we really want to give a character flavour and understand their motivations. It helps make the universe feel like it is alive, like it’s real. But – and this might be a shocker for you – it’s not real. It’s written. It is construction – and as such, in its construction, it has messages and themes and morals, intentionally or unintentionally.

By being so focused on specific characters and their individual journeys, viewpoints and motivation we really run the risk of not looking at the bigger picture and fail to see what the overarching narrative is actually communicating. And we may also fail to understand how characters might or might not fit into the overarching narrative.

Speaking of which …

 Thesis #2: Technoblade experiences very little Meaningfultm Thematic Conflict

Okay, let’s talk about Technoblade. I’m sure I’m not going to get any hate for this one.

I want to preface by saying that I don’t watch Technoblade’s streams; I catch up though clip channels and summaries. I’m mainly watching Tommy, Tubbo and Quackity – which is honestly already more than I can handle – but I want to be clear that while I’ll try to be as even-handed as possible – like I explained previously – the way I consumed the storylines will undoubtedly leave me with some bias.

Also, needless to say, I’m talking about the character Technoblade, not the actual content creator, unless I specifically say so. That should be obvious.

Now, I’m not doing a Technoblade character analysis, because that would be hypocritical of me – seeing how I just bitched about the overwhelming amounts of character analyses in the fandom – but I’ll try my best to summarize what is necessary.

Technoblade’s interesting in that he is a very static character – at least inwardly – he doesn’t change much. He is very steadfast in his beliefs and ideals and has very little introspection. He doesn’t question himself; he doesn’t waver, he is never in a bind about whether what he’s doing is right or wrong. He is very much a parallel to early TommyInnit – who, of course, famously said “I’m always in the right”.

And I want to emphasize that I mean this in no way as a critique of Techno’s character. A static character provides a nice contrast to more dynamic characters and can balance them out. It can also be utilised by the writing as a character flaw – which is what I hope content creator Techno is going for.

Like Techno doesn’t have a lot of empathy in the sense that he is particularly skilled at or interested in trying to see the viewpoints of others. There is never an attempt to reconcile, for example, the goal of the Pogtopians to reclaim L’Manberg and install another administration with his desire for an anarchist society. This is also compounded with his overreliance on violence as the only tactic for conflict resolution – Techno has a whole thesis statement about violence being the only universal language. I’m sure you’ve heard the quote.

And lastly, what really drives this all over the edge, is his all-or-nothing approach when dealing with the enemy – he is not so much eye for an eye as he is – to use another biblical example – you make fun of me for being bald and I’ll sic two bears on you that maul and kill you and 41 other children.

There’s also the open and completely unacknowledged hypocrisy of a self-described anarchist working together with a man that installs and dethrones Kings with his every whim – someone who – and I cannot stress this enough – hits about every box when it comes to the definition of tyrant.

So, what I’m saying is that Technoblade is the Dream SMP equivalent of Dick Chenney. C’mon you know it’s true! He will bomb that freedom into your country whether you want him to or not. That’s some cogent political commentary in the year 2021.

Okay, so now that I’ve outlined his character, what kind of conflicts does Technoblade face. Well, it’s mostly physical or external. He fights a lot whether it’s against Quackity or Sapnap or bodying Karl Jacobs five times in a row. And – with the exception of maybe Sapnap – none of it is challenging. Technoblade is the best PvP-Player on the server – there really isn’t much tension to be had from a purely physical fight.

So, how are these fights supplemented emotionally. Well, internally there is not a lot going on. As I said before, Technoblade isn’t really an introspective character. Even during his shouting match with Tommy there’s not a sense that Technoblade is wavering or unsure of himself in the way that Tommy is. He exposits that one of the reasons, he acts like he does is that he feels dehumanized; that people only use him like a weapon and then discard or even try to neutralize him once he’s no longer useful.

But that is not something that Technoblade has to grapple with – it’s not conflict for him, it’s more conflict for Tommy. Technoblade is self-assured in that he’s a person and not a weapon – it’s almost like there was a character arc there, where Technoblade self-actualizes and breaks away from the people that want to use him. But we didn’t see any of it. Technoblade unleashes the withers; then he goes into retirement because he wants to be, I suppose, and then he returns to violence as a reaction to the Butcher Army. There is a story of vengeance here, but not any conflict about being used. There is never a point where we see Technoblade come to this realization or comes to assert himself.

In season 1 there’s never a push from Pogtopia where the narrative frames them as exploiting Technoblade. He fights with them of his own volition, he gives them weapons and armour of his own volition. Nobody pressured Techno into procuring their inventory for the fight. And in Season 2, he’s the one to approach Tommy about their potential partnership – he is in the position of power here, explicitly not Tommy.

Like, I’m sorry, if this ruffles some feathers, but I really don’t see this arc where Technoblade is being used. There’s a story of misunderstanding and maybe co-dependency – but not of dehumanization. This entire line of thought seems to solely reference that moment, where Tommy says to Sapnap “I have the blade” during one of their wars – which, to base an entire emotional arc around that without any further set-up, is, and I’m sorry to say that, incredibly flimsy.

Okay, so we covered physical and emotional conflict? But what about conflict on the narrative level? Well, that leads me to my suprathesis …

 Suprathesis: The Narrative is Unclear on how it treats Technoblade … and that’s Not Good.

Here’s a Hot Take: The narrative of Season 1 treats Technoblade way less sympathetically than that of season 2.

Let me explain. The narrative of Season 1 revolves mostly around Wilbur and Tommy. The emotional fulcrum of the overall narrative is Wilbur’s rise and fall from Grace – and Tommy succeeding him as symbol of L’Manberg’s “special”-ness. Now I will talk about all that more in detail, when I talk about Season 1 of the Dream SMP. So, you’ll just have to go with me on this one for now.

Technoblade, by contrast, doesn’t really have much going on thematically in Season 1. He mostly exists as a sort-of utilitarian character – he is an accessory to make story beats happen. Like him executing Tubbo doesn’t open up any sort of thematic conflict involving him – on a character level it sets up antipathy between him and Tommy and it grants us some insight into how he operates with his violence speech – but on a larger-scale narrative level it really just shows how far Wilbur and Tommy have drifted apart in how they react to the event.

His biggest contribution is during the Season 1 finale, but even there he plays second fiddle to Wilbur. Not just because Wilbur does way more destruction with his explosion than Techno does with his Withers, but also because Wilbur had an emotional and thematic climax to his arc and by extension the entire storyline. Like Techno’s is a cool moment and very epic visual but in terms of thematic relevance, his Theseus-speech is really more set-up for Season 2.

And Season 1 is very unambiguous about L’Manberg being good and Tommy’s ideals ultimately being morally justified – I mean, they have a whole speech about it in the end and it was built-up throughout the entire Season – Techno is cast in a … less than sympathetic light. He is, if not a villain, then definitely an antagonist.

But with Season 2 the narrative is either uninterested in or not very clear on exploring Technoblade’s flaws.

Like ask yourselves: is Technoblade’s character ever consciously challenged by the narrative? Are his actions ultimately shown to not be in the right? Are his beliefs about government and power ever called into question? Are the negative consequences that his actions cause ever shown to be larger than the “good” he does?

I think what exemplifies this the most is how the Butcher Army event played out on December 16th. Now, during that event, the Butcher Army, which was comprised of Tubbo, Quackity, Fundy and Ranboo, managed to apprehend Technoblade, who at that point was living the quiet retirement life, and tried to have him publicly executed – without trial.

Now, smarter people than me have pointed out that the Butcher Army had a bevy of in-character reasons that can justify or explain their actions. And that’s definitely interesting, but as I said before, I want to get away from that and look into how the Butcher Army is treated on a narrative level. Because this is one of the few instances where the otherwise grey-loving Season 2 has some very clear narrative intent when it comes to morality.

The Butcher Army is very deliberately framed as almost cartoonishly corrupt and violent. They very forcefully investigate Philza, mock him and then put him under house arrest – and there’s just no remorse in the script even from normally sympathetic characters like Tubbo.

Compare and contrast with the Tommy-exile scene, which is also an act of moral ambiguity and is treated as such. And things get even worse once the Army arrives at Technoblade’s abode and attack him after he softly tells them that he has left that live behind him. They then proceed to take his horse hostage, mock him and execute him without fair trial – and I haven’t seen it but from live commentary I gathered that Techno really played up the whole softie-schtick before the Butcher Army arrived. I mean, before the big Technoblade vs Quackity fight, Quackity had whole villain monologue for Christ’s sake.

And even afterwards, the Butcher Army really plays up the corrupt angle with Tubbo proposing a festival as a guise to publicly execute someone. And again, I know that on an intradiegetic there’s nuances and it’s not really comparable to the Red Festival, but in combination with what the audience has seen up until that point and with how much it feeds into the already established themes of history repeating itself and becoming like your predecessors, it really does not paint a pretty picture of the Tubbo administration.

You can feel the heavy hand of the script on your shoulder, which is a feat seeing how – as discussed before – that’s not something that can be easily accomplished in this medium.

And that is what I mean when I say that Technoblade is not really challenged by the script and is in this case even emboldened by it. Because after this whole ordeal the thought of Technoblade taking revenge by destroying L’Manberg doesn’t seem like such an extreme response to the viewer – even though in my opinion, it is.

As of right now it is too early to say how the narrative will judge Technoblade’s actions in the future. Will they be framed as extreme but ultimately justified or perpetuating a cycle of ever-escalating vengeance? Will we ever see a government that’s not just at best misguided and at worst completely awful?

Ultimately, I believe and hope that Technoblade will be challenged by the narrative, mostly because a character that cannot, believably, be physically challenged, who doesn’t have any meaningful internal conflict about what he’s doing; and who does come out on the other side having everything he always believed in be proven completely in the right by the narrative, would be incredibly boring. Not just to watch but also to play as.

As it stands now, if the destruction Techno, Phil and Dream inflicted upon L’Manburg is framed as ultimately in the right, I would find it personally a distasteful message to send. I would ultimately say that the “correct” way to counter corruption in government is to completely obliterate the entire country. Like we’re not talking simply disbanding the government – that’s not what Doomsday was – we’re talking complete and utter annihilation. And that would be cynical and depressing. Like, call me a big softie, but even bothsidesing this argument would be bad.

Like, I’m not calling for Technoblade to be transformed into or treated a monster like Dream. But I personally feel like the narrative needs to acknowledge that the Doomsday was something that was taken way too far and that it ultimately brought more harm than good. And Technoblade needs to held accountable by someone who is not a cartoonishly corrupt government-official or who is in conflict with him anyway, like Tommy.

I thought Philza or Ranboo could do that but seeing how their storylines are progressing I don’t believe that will be the case. But who knows, maybe Captain Puffy will come through for us. We stan a Queen.

 Conclusion

So, yeah, I made this entire video just to air out my grievances with how one-sided the mode of analysis is in the fandom, because no person actually involved with the production of Dream SMP will ever see this.

But after everything I am cautiously optimistic, that content creator Technoblade knows what he’s doing. He has talked in the past about how his character is a bad guy and he loves his Greek myths. After all what’s more Greek myth than hybris being rewarded with punishment? [Technoblade never dies] That bodes well for him.

Also, this isn’t the video I promised at the end of the last one!

Okay, I know I said I'll take what I got and still love the show—and I still really, really do—but the more I dwell on it and stew in my turmoil of feelings, the more...depressed I get about the ending. Honestly, it was just all kind of messy and underwhelming after so many good, fast-paced and resourceful episodes.

1. We already know everything wrong about Han Seo's end, I don't even need to hash it out. If you don't understand what was wrong with that... 🤷🏻‍♀️

2. I was okay with Cha Young getting shot for the protection of Vincenzo; cliched as it was, they still kept her pretty in character with the way she stood up against Han Seok while being held at gunpoint. However, they took it too far by having her get shot, just to simply stay in a hospital bed until the very end. No action for her, no behind the scenes work, no second party (what the hell was the point in that anyways?), just—reduced to an invalid in bed for saving the love of her life. After all she's done, after always wanting to be right up in the front lines. I know one of the issues with her getting shot was the overused setup for Vincenzo to reveal his feelings, and honestly, I didn't mind that. But that doesn't even work, because he doesn't. He clearly is worried for her and we know he loves her, yet it doesn't spur him to make any further move. Han Seok already killed his mother, it doesn't even add to the narrative of him having a loved one get hurt to do something. He would've still killed Han Seok brutally regardless if Cha Young had gotten hurt or not. She deserved to be a part of it all. And I don't mean the killing. She didn't have to hit the button. But she deserved a final line to Myung Hee at least since she's her father's murderer. I'm pretty sure the Geumga men got more action than she did.

3. Han Seok gathering a bunch of mercenaries seemed filler. It makes sense for the purpose of hiring people to kill Seung Hyuk, but they literally added nothing to the very mediocre face-off with the Geumga men. In fact, the face-off at the beginning of episode 19 with the whole Cassano family was way cooler and more dynamic than whatever you call that. How the hell did they even know specifically where to find Han Seok and his men? Vincenzo and Cho were the only ones aware of the tracking device anyways. I mean, I could've lived with that, except, why have them come fight? We know they can stand on their own, it's been very much established multiple times. The stabbing wasn't even done by one of the hired men, it was done by Han Seok. Just seemed really messy and unnecessary; simply there for the purpose of having some of the Geumga tenants have one last moment.

4. The whole Guillotine File thing had such a great setup. It seemed very anticlimactic just for Vincenzo to whip it out and tell Gi Seok to take it. Like, they made a huge deal of using it to take down everyone, he even says nobody but himself knows where it is, then whips it out to hand it over like nothing when he could've used it for, oh, I don't know, being pardoned so he doesn't have to leave for a whole year. Which—

5. A whole year? Come on, you just can't have me fall for the fact that this guy, whom even the Director pardoned for a bit of time, has to leave for a whole year with no way or alternative reason to come back for more than just one day because he has to sneak in with Italian delegates? I'm calling bullshit.

6. I love Vincenzo and Cha Young. They truly do love and deserve each other. But the ending for them? Nah. I hate the fact they pulled a CLOY, I really do. You're telling me Cha Young has to be content with spontaneous year to year visits or has to go visit an island in Malta to be with the one she loves? FUCK NO. I'm manifesting a completely different end for that, same with Han Seo, don't @ me.

7. Where the fuck was Inzaghi? He didn't even get to say goodbye in episode 18, seriously, what the fuck.

8. The gold storyline was okay. I'm glad they didn't leave loose ends, but it once again just didn't sit right after all the buildup. They moved it all to her house and she sleeps on a hard ass gold bar bed. Queen behavior, but still.

9. Bye Bye Balloon. We all wanted it. We didn't get it.

As you can see, the more I ramble, the less eloquent and structured my points become. All in all, did they tie most of the loose ends up? Yes. I'm glad they didn't kill Mr. Lee off, I would've been too pissed for words if that had happened along with Han Seo. In my opinion, they didn't leave an open ending, which would've made things ten times worse. And it really isn't the worst finale I've seen. Far from it, contrary to my points. It's just after so much anticipation, building, excitement, and truly amazing episodes, it fell very flat for a finale. Way more bittersweet than needed.

However, I will end on some good points because I don't want to ignore them either.

1. I love Han Seok's and Myung Hee's deaths. Absolutely love it, so much that somebody would probably deem me crazy for how much I enjoyed it. Myung Hee fire dancing to her zumba music was so poetically beautiful. Han Seok and all the references to Greek mythology or whatever as he's left for the birds was stunning. Both of them being cocky until they realize how miserable their deaths really are going to be was pure enjoyment for me. Nothing says satisfaction like watching the pure horror take place on their faces as they beg for Vincenzo to just end it instead. They really and truly did deliver with their deaths, and I am still shocked and pleasantly delighted with how they didn't shy away one bit with the brutality of it.

2. I'm glad they at least gave Cha Young her moment somewhat in the end. She got to take down the Tae ho lover and his mom in retribution for both Vincenzo's mom and her dad. Her sass and savagery in the end gave me the hint of original Cha Young I'd been craving for the whole episode. And the fact that she got to lead the Cassano Geumga family was great too (despite how cheesy that walk up and taunting of Kingmaker and his guys was).

3. I'm glad Gi Seok was promoted, and I'm especially glad he and Mr. Cho get to work together. Those two are the best and deserve everything.

4. As much as they could've really polished it, I'm glad Vincenzo and Cha Young got their moment. At that point, I think my standards and expectations were so low that I was blown away by their kiss. I didn't expect it at that point and thought we were going to be left with them walking off together. It was still a pleasant surprise, nonetheless.

5. I really do like what the monk said to Vincenzo. Wrapped up his feelings regarding his lifestyle very well, and I thought it was the perfect balance of philosophical and realistic as you could get. He needed to hear that, and I'm so glad he got some form of content and peace with who he is in the end.

6. I really love that they didn't stray away from Vincenzo truly being an anti-hero. He even refers to himself as a villain, and I'm glad they didn't try to gloss over that in the end just so it could look good morally. His take on justice is very...Vincenzo Cassano. Befitting.

I love this show still, would still recommend it, and would still do it all over again. I'm so glad I was able to be active in this fandom and see so many wonderful discussions, people, and analyses. I'm going to miss these weekends so badly.

The Grishaverse Ship Survey Results

So! After all of that, we finally have the results! What is the general opinion on the ships in the Grishaverse? Well, that’s for you to read below! It’s actually pretty interesting and, while some parts make sense, there were definitely some parts which... surprised me... Anyway, onto the results!

Everything in this post can be split into:

The Grisha Trilogy

Six Of Crows Duology

The Nikolai Series

Shadow and Bone: TV Series

Most Enjoyed Ships

Least Enjoyed Ships

Crack Ships and Shipping Discourse

Notes from the Survey 

(note from mod emily: i tried to bold all of fritz’ comments, but i might have missed a few! be aware there are two of us analysing here :))

The Grisha Trilogy

The first book series we asked about was, of course, the first chronologically: the Grisha Trilogy. The most popular ship, with 83% voters for this series selecting this, was Genya/David (Fritz was glad to hear that; Yes I am). This is likely due to the lack of alternate romantic interests in the series, which seems to be a major issue for Alina’s ships. It also seems to be one genuinely enjoyed by most fans, in contrast to Darkling/Alina and Mal/Alina (each around 30%) and Nikolai/Alina (just under 20%), for which I have definitely seen plenty of debate. The second and third most popular ships for this series were Tamar/Nadia (55%) and Nikolai/Zoya (47%). Interestingly, Genya/Alina (43%) and Zoya/Alina (30%) ranked surprisingly high, especially considering how few of my friends and associates I hear talking about them. Good for them!

Honourable mentions:

Alina/Sun (no doubt inspired by that crack fic I wrote a while back) (Still havent read that out of fear)

Alina alone (a common concept among those surveyed, though most mentioned it later)

Zoya/Genya or Alina/Zoya/Genya

Six Of Crows Duology

This series was a little less divided, I would say. Predictably, Kaz/Inej came out on top with a whopping 96% of voters (:relieved:), with Wylan/Jesper next (90%) and Nina/Matthias just after (83%). None of the others really came close, despite Nina/Inej gathering 35% of the votes and Colm/Aditi at 25% (yeah, I’m not sure why that was so popular on AO3 either, but nobody really has objections so I assume that’s why it amassed so many votes). As Six of Crows is decidedly less divisive about ships and doesn’t have such controversial ships (more on that later), it seems the fandom agrees with canon pairings and the votes are... pretty unanimous.

Honourable Mentions:

Jesper/Wylan/Kuwei

Polycrows (platonic or romantic)

Kaz/Inej/Nina

Whoever didn’t read the instruction about this being for only the book series and put Jesper/Milo. I will never escape. 

The Nikolai Series

This one is a little harder for me because I actually haven’t read this... so over to Fritz for analysis! But first, the stats. At 85%, the most popular ship is Genya/David, followed by Zoya/Nikolai at 77%. Tamar/Nadia and Nina/Hanne draw at 61.5% and Nina/Matthias has 56% voters onboard. There’s no real honourable mentions for this one, sadly. Hello Fritz here! Read the books and very glad to see Genya/David as the top ship as it damn well should. Although still a bit surprising since its more of a side-arc of the two and only ties in with the importance of the story at a specific chapter that I feel like I don’t need to elaborate about, if you read Rule of Wolves. (I believe the popularity of the ship also sky-rocketed due to ROW) Following of course Zoya/Nikolai, the high ranking makes sense, it is the main ship and lets be honest they deserve it <3

I think the only really surprising thing about this is the high votes for Nina/Matthias since [SPOILERS CROOKED KINGDOM] he’s dead so I feel like people should move on from that. Nina/“Hanne” having not as high a ranking as I would’ve thought, but with Matthias still being in the frame I guess we shouldn’t be surprised either.

Shadow and Bone: TV Series

This one is really interesting, with the exclusive show watchers now taking part! We have 89% voting for Kaz/Inej, 76% for David/Genya, 71% for Matthias/Nina, 67% for Ivan/Fedyor (that’s a thing???-->Yeah they had a few somewhat sweet interactions in the background-->nvm i watched it you’re right fritz) and 62% for Mal/Alina. What’s really surprising is how high Malina is compared to Darklina, with Darkling/Alina at 36%. Who knows, maybe Fritz’ analysis can shed some light on this?

Yes yes Fritz to the rescue: First of all we have to see their interactions a little different from what we already knew of them by the end of episode 8. I still think it is a surprising number, since the Darkling in the show isn’t as nasty as he was in the books BUT over all his actions are now seen on TV. We all thought the deer antlers were a necklace amirite? Well no apparently not, the darkling used the worst kind of small science to fit Alinas collarbone to the bone and out comes a gruesome sight: a reason why many people might have started thinking: Wow what a disgusting person he is. And on the Malina “ship”: Mal finally has personality!! jkjk :eyes: Mals and Alinas friendship has been portrayed way better in the show and I believe that the people noticed more chemistry between them especially by the end of season 1. So I’m still a little surprised Darklina has such a low ranking (what with him being all sweet and cuddly in the middle of the show) but it makes sense and the Malina ship as well. Their vibes are just *chefs kiss* and thats coming from someone who didnt even like any of these “ships” <3

Loving the quotation marks for the word ‘ships’, Fritz. Over to the honourable mentions!

Honourable Mentions:

Jesper and Milo (isn’t milo a goat? guys, why?)

Nadia/Marie (huh that didn’t appear anywhere else)

One person had several - Kaz/Inej/Jesper, Dubrov/Mikhael, Dubrov/Mikhael/Mal - and yeah, you can really see the show differences in these mentions right? (whose dubrov...and whose mikhael...)

16% actually voted for Inej/Alina which is wild to me because of book context (they did have chemistry in the show tho :cowboi_smirk:)

Another person with several! We have Nina/Inej, Genya/Alina, Zoya/Alina, Zoya/Genya/Alina. Very sapphic. Good for you.

Kaz/Jesper and Nina/Inej all in one

That’s a lot of honour and mentions but it’s so interesting to me and I think you should see too

Most Enjoyed Ships

The most enjoyed ship was Kaz/Inej. This had unparalleled support, being at 35%. Jesper/Wylan, which was next on the list (23.5%) and Nina/Matthias (18%) were also pretty popular. Most of the others were quite low, though interestingly Mal/Alina only had 1 vote (plus one for the show version). Overall, the SoC ships were a lot more popular in this section, which makes sense - this part is really about your favourite ship, and those were more unanimous in the last sections.

Least Enjoyed Ships

Most people said Darkling/Alina, which got 47% of the NOTP votes. A lot more people disliked Darkling/Alina than liked Kaz/Inej. Make of that what you will, but I take it as a somewhat general agreement among many of you guys. Mal/Alina was also strongly disliked at 22%, but around a half or more of these were clarified to be about the book version of the ship specifically. They really must’ve upgraded in the show! Jesper/Kuwei and any other Darkling ships were also voted by a few, but all of these pale in comparison to the anti-Darklina votes. Shoutout to the person who said Apparat/Anyone. I agree, though it’s not something I thought of before seeing this response. Also one person said they didn’t like the poly ships, which I hope meant just the ones mentioned earlier and not all poly relationships in general... Another shoutout to whoever said Kaz/Heleen, because why did I have to read that. A fun question, all in all!

Crack Ships and Shipping Discourse

I love talking about crack ships, so let’s start with that! This time, I really don’t want to have to count and list because... well, let me show you:

I think that sums up the sheer variety, to be honest. Then again, it would be rude not to mention that the most popular were Jesper/Milo, Darkling/Nikolai and Alina/Sun. (If you’re still confused about that last one, I take full responsibility.)

YES KAZ/KRUGE I SUPPORT!!!

Honourable mention to this:

which was a lot to take in, and:

Now for the discourse. Yep, the part you probably came for. 

Actually... maybe you didn’t? Looking at all of these responses, I see a lot of people genuinely don’t care about ship wars and so on, and often enjoyed the books regardless of the romances involved. Quite a few disapproved of the ongoing (though small) wars between Darklina and Malina, and others had a similar line of thinking, saying we should maybe stop focusing so much on it. You guys are right. I know this is a ship survey, and the conclusions should not include that shipping isn’t as important as we make it (Yes it should), but... that’s where it’s at.

And then again, a lot of you guys expressed disapproval for Darkling/Alina, discussing how it is often one-sided and manipulative and overall unhealthy, so I could be completely off with that last one. Some people mentioned that they ship this but as a slightly different version that the one given to us, recognising the flaws of the canon ship.

Someone said they headcanon Tolya as aroace (OMG YES!!). We need more aroace characters, so thank you for that headcanon :) We also have a few gay ships mentioned here, and one person telling us they love Malina. Yes, you’re right - it’s pretty unpopular, it turns out. Someone else said Alina should’ve been single, and I agree, actually!

One person rickrolled me here. Thankfully, Youtube’s ads saved me. *wipes forehead*

I leave you all with this, in the end:

Notes from the Survey

Statistics Stuff:

The top ships were taken from AO3, so some ships may be more focused on in other books and may not provide accurate statistics for an earlier series.

The main circles this was sent around may have had bias as most people are from the same discord server, which has debated these topics in the past. Hence certain ships may have lower-than-average results. In future, this could be improved upon by sending this to other servers and areas of the fandom.

Personal bias may be present in the analysis, though I have tried to minimise this in the more formal sections.

Observations and Notes from Me:

You guys really don’t like Darklina. Or you love it. Usually one or the other. Wow.

Be glad I didn’t talk about any of the cursed ships in this. The things I have seen... (:cowboi_eyes:)

I thought more people would rickroll me, ngl.

What Surprised You Guys:

Kaz/Inej/Jesper

A few of you guys saw some of those cursed ships, and that surprised you. Well, me too!

Nikolai ships being in the TV Show section at all, what with his character not being in the show (yeah what was up with that huh tztz)

Inej/Alina

The existence of The Severed Moon

Darkling/Nikolai(/Alina)

How fun the quiz was :D

Things You Sent Me:

Bee Movie copypasta

“Nobody expects The Spanish Inquisition!”, except via an AO3 link

A fun fact about enzymes! I liked this one

Fic recs for Feriku and Sarai (esp for Wylan/Jesper shippers)

Another rickroll

Nice compliments :) aww you guys

I asked everyone for some kind of placeholder name and never used it. Sorry! But hey, anonymity, right?

Closing Statements

If you got this far (I feel like ive been sitting here for hours), thanks for reading! This was fun to do and I hope you enjoyed all of this too! The survey is still open for anyone who hasn’t done it but wants to. If I get a huge amount of new responses, I might update this post! But for now, adios!

-mod emily (and mod fritz)

Loki Episode 1 initial reaction

Mixed opinions so far. I could write an entire essay on this, and maybe I will at some point, but here are my initial thoughts, starting with the negative:

I really despised the first twenty minutes. It’s so jarring. Loki’s dialogue, especially, doesn’t sound anything like Avengers!Loki. His speech patterns and entire dialect are suddenly different, much more modern and filled with too many Earth-specific terms with no explanation. There’s no easing the viewer into the difference, it’s just suddenly there and it’s horrendously whiplashy

The same applies to the presentation of his character. Avengers!Loki was grandiose and majestic and witty, even when he was being defeated. This Loki... isn’t. He comes across as juvenile, bumbling, over the top in more of a cringey way, and he’s the butt of the jokes that rely on his humiliation. He doesn’t feel like the same character from any of the movies to me, or, at least, not for the first twenty minutes

With the desert scene... Yes, it bugged me that his hair was suddenly shorter and didn’t just look like a messed up version of Avengers!Loki’s hair. And it also bugged me that Loki didn’t understand what the humans were saying in a different language. Was the Allspeak not working? Or if Allspeak doesn’t exist in the MCU, are we supposed to believe he studied the English language or that Asgard and Earth happen to share a common language?

I wanted Loki to put up more of a fight. I don’t mind him being defeated by people more powerful than him, but it felt like he resigned too quickly and allowed himself to be shoved around by them too soon. I wanted him to struggle more, it felt weird for him not to try harder to go all death and destruction and for it to not require more pain inflicted on him to get him to (reluctantly) go along with it

The humour in this show didn’t do it for me. It felt out of place and not even particularly funny to begin with. Yeah, yeah, I get it, they want their show to be irreverent and zany, whatever draws in the largest audience, right? But if they were going to go for that style of humour, it could be done so much better than how they did it here. And I’m reiterating please just let Loki be witty, please

Once it got to the part where Loki’s watching himself on the screen, everything got a lot more palatable for me and the last half has made me more hopeful

I’m liking Mobius so far. He actually tries to understand Loki and listens to him. He has empathy but he isn’t going to let Loki walk all over him either. Mobius sort of feels like a guide for viewers who are unfamiliar with analysing Loki’s character and not taking him at surface level, and he asks some of the right questions. I want to see where they’re going with Mobius and Loki’s dynamic

From the instant I saw Loki watching himself in the trailer, I was hoping he’d learn about his hand in Frigga’s death and his own death, and we got that! And more! We also got Odin's death and Loki and Thor’s reconciliation. I liked that they gave it time for the emotional impact to hit, this was the part that started giving me hope again. This was the first time when Loki’s character felt actually recognisable to me. Also, yes, I did enjoy the ouchies

The whole D.B. Cooper thing didn’t feel like something that Thor 1!Loki would have done in his past. It just didn’t. When I saw that in the trailer, I was hoping it’d be a variant Loki or our Loki having to be in disguise or something, but nope, it’s supposed to be part of our Loki’s past

Neat. By the sounds of it, Mobius will be ‘hiring’ Loki to help him catch a Loki variant. I was hoping for that and the play of Loki’s worst enemy being himself

He escaped faster than I thought the show would let him. I mean, he isn’t all the way out yet, and I don’t think he will be, but still, at least he managed to do something and tried to put up more of a fight. I’m still surprised there were no deaths though

The whole ‘we use Infinity Stones as paperweights’ thing... I get that they’re trying to establish the TVA as a more powerful entity than any we’ve come across in the entire universe, but at what point do you stop keeping having to one up the power of what’s already been established in the MCU? This isn’t so much a criticism as it is something I find interesting as a discussion point

On the bright side, at least most of the stuff I didn’t like in the trailers is out of the way now

I was hoping to come to a more solid conclusion about whether or not I’ll like the show after the first episode, but I’m still undecided. It’s so frustrating because a lot of the issues with it could have been so easily fixed. It’s set straight after Avengers Assemble, therefore Loki should feel like Avengers!Loki. I don’t know why that’s controversial. Just look at Avengers!Loki’s speech patterns and apply them! How hard could that have been? Even if they wanted more ‘accessible’ dialogue for him (and, yes, I’m tired of the anti-intellectual trend these days), they could have gradually eased him from the more Shakespearesque stuff to the dialect he has in Ragnarok, and that could have had an in-universe explanation of him picking up language/assimilating or whatever. But they didn’t. Just, bam, it’s different now because we said so and we don’t care if it doesn’t make sense. I’m so tired of things being constantly retconned and I still don’t know if I have the energy to justify it to myself to myself anymore.

But yeah, I think there’s a good chance of the worst being out of the way now. Could be famous last words, but my hope hasn’t been completely destroyed. The first half really didn’t sit well with me at all, but the latter half was far better, even if it wasn’t perfect.

And I’m sure I’ll think of a bunch of things I should have added to this list straight after posting, but oh well.

184. Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

Owned?: Yes Page count: Unknown/not numbered My summary: Someone is hunting the Watchmen. Costumed heroes were outlawed years ago, and yet the ex-heroes are being attacked, one by one. War looms on the horizon, and the world seems to just be getting worse. There’s something here, something big on the horizon. But when the dust settles, what world will be born? My rating: 3.5/5         My commentary:

Every few years or so, I have a lingering itch to reread Watchmen. If you’re a comic book person, I’m sure I don’t have to explain the legacy of Watchmen to you. It reshaped comics at the time into the edgy anti-hero focus of the 90s, seeking to deconstruct the superhero comics of the day and provide a more real, politically charged world. The result is...something I used to unequivocally love, but on this reread I’ve found myself less enamoured, and I’m trying to unpick why. I mean, it’s still a masterpiece of a comic! Just wasn’t hitting as much as it did, I suppose.

I think a part of my reaction to Watchmen lies in its deconstructive thesis. I’m not really a comics person - not in terms of superhero comics, anyway. I’ve never read a single issue of any superhero comics to my recollection, and while I’ve seen some movies, I’m way less familiar with the genre. This was written to pick apart the tropes and narratives common to superhero comics of the time, and I know that because I read it somewhere, not because I’m familiar with the genre. As such, a lot of its subtleties, I’m sure, just fly on past me.

And this is a nuanced narrative! For what little plot there is (that’s not a criticism, just an observation about how this book is mostly flashbacks and character work more than straightforward plot happenings) it’s jam packed full of symbolism and meaning, artfully conveyed through both word and illustration. Manhattan’s flashbacks are wonderfully constructed, giving the reader a unique insight on what it would be like to be removed from time as he is. There’s a chapter that’s a palindrome in terms of the scenes it shows, there’s a lot of interesting mirror imagery, plus its use of media to further the plot. A pirate story runs parallel to one part of the story, providing insights into what’s happening. There’s dense mythological/historical symbolism, particularly where Ozymandias is concerned. Sure, some of these mythological nods or imagery aren’t subtle (Rorschach’s mask being black and white with no room for shades of grey springs to mind) but they work well.

Speaking of, Rorschach is far and away the most interesting character. He’s terrible! He’s a bigoted, hateful, disgusting little man, but he’s also arguably the main focus character through most of the comic (he’s certainly the first whose POV we see) and he gets a lot of development as to exactly why he’s like that. He’s also got some nuance - we see him pausing and ultimately leaving alone his former landlady who trashtalks him on the news, because of her kids, who remind him of himself at that age. He’s incredibly compelling and really interesting to read about, even while being literally the worst. His story is a tragedy of a hateful, bitter man being unable to compromise even in the face of the worst of human existence.

Characters I enjoyed far less this time were Manhattan and Veidt. I don’t know what it was - well, okay, I do. I hate the Hollywood Scientist sort of character, detached and rational and unwilling to see any beauty in the world or human existence. Sure, Manhattan’s narrative does work to analyse and contextualise this behaviour, but overall the entire trope just annoys me, and those characters were pretty much just that trope personified, so. Naturally I wasn’t all that interested. I don’t know, give me regular human beings who aren’t mega-geniuses or literally God or whatever any day.

That’s all here - next time, this blog gets a bit spooky. Who wants a ghost story?

Why do you think Voldemort never hooked up with another woman but Bella ? Were his choices limited to his ranks ? Were most women afraid of him ? Did he find Bella convenient since she was his DE and married? Don't men get bored with too much devotion ? She let him know how much she cared about him . Was she simply good in bed so he didn't need to look elsewhere? Was her being married another thing he found convenient? Was she convenient or special ? How was he as a 'lover' in your opinion ?

well, you provoke me and i oblige - or as i like to call it: the 100th novel-length essay on bellamort.

the reasons that in my eyes ultimately made bellatrix “the only one” for voldemort are many and various, but at the end of the day it has everything to do with who and how i think he was as a person.

as i said many times before and i feel the duty to keep specifying, over the years i started to consider these characters in a more adult and complex way, imagining them as real life persons and not fairy-tale villains and that’s where my analyses of them come from. sadly what jkr told us about their relationship is close to nothing, so all we have here is thought processes and fervent opinions about their few, filtered by harry’s eyes and painfully public interactions.

now, voldemort’s character, if looked at beyond the pure ideal of power and darkness that he so carefully built around himself, is clearly a human being as deep as the very pit of hell and full of contradictions, twistedness, beauty and voids to fill.

bear with me, because you cannot really understand what i think bellatrix was for him without explaining how i see his psychology first, which i think many many times is overly simplyfied and excused with a shrug and a “well, he’s evil”:

voldemort was born with a genius intelligence and magical talent, the most handsome looks and yet he was not only completely and utterly alone, but also a completely broken human since birth. his mother porpuselly conceived him putting his muggle father under a love potion, so he’s basically the direct offspring of the worst kind of rape: not only his mother abused his father physically, forcing him to have sex with her without his consent, but even emotionally, because she forced him to have feelings for her - as untrue as they might have been. not only that, but voldemort was clearly unloved by his parents from the very start, abandoned by them both in different ways before he was even capable to remember them. he had then been raised and abused since the most tender age in a filthy orphanage where everyone shunned and feared and made him believe he was insane, treating him god’s knows how badly, because he was able to do “things” no one else could, things that made people uncomfortable (think at how bigots can abuse children nowadays with the excuse of possession without magic or the devil even existing, i wouldn’t be surprised if tom as a child was put under monstrous rituals with the hope of exorcising him, it was after all the 30s in a really degraded and poor environment). imagine the hate, the resentment, the fear, the basic instinct to survive and only caring about himself that must have started to boil inside of him in the most dangerous of ways. he surely had the inclination to became what he ultimately became from birth, but goodness how life helped him. he learnt to defend and avenge himself from such a hostile world from the very start, it was a matter of surviving or succumbing. and then, at some point of his young age, he finally started to master and taste something that made him feel good, that made him feel right about himself, he started to enjoy the feeling of being in control of his abusers, of manipulating them, of hurting them, of taking what he wanted from them, the feeling of power - and moreover, a power that directly originated from inside himself - his power. he obviously started to consider himself his own savior, he started to intimately feel special, better than anyone, superior. at the same time he started to hate muggles, because muggles had been his first real source of utter isolation and pain (thing reinforced by the discovery, many years later, that his father, the reason he had to go through all that, was one of them). then, out of the blue, he was told that “more” he had so strong inside of himself was indeed magic. imagine the feeling of validation he must have felt about his uniqueness and superiority, imagine how powerfully his addiction to this wondrous thing he could finally name must have taken definitive root inside of him. magic became his everything, his religion, his purpose, his assurance of never having to feel weak, vulnerable or defenseless ever again. magic was the fuel that alimented everything he literally had in the world and that he ever felt comfortable to ever want (uniqueness, power, superiority, extraordinariness). human relationships were ludicrously out of the question in his eyes since he was a child. human beings were not reliable nor trustworthy. human beings were an utter disappointment, everyone was beneath him and no one really deserved his consideration anyway. magic was everything that really mattered. without magic, he was literally nothing - or at least that’s what life had convinced him of. an existence of his not desperately clutched on and inextricably intertwined with it was not something he even dared to fathom for himself. if you understand this, if you understand the perversion of his dependency towards magic, everything he ever did becomes painfully clear. magic for him was something so fundamental, so deeply mingled with his very being (and this is probably also the reason he indeed was the most powerful wizard that ever lived), that growing up he became more and more desperately obsessed about preserving and strengthening it. this is the root of his every choice, from venturing into the dark arts turning out completely disfigured but incredibly more powerful, to believing he could actually be the first immortal in history, to his entire anti-muggle politics. not only muggles were inferior and disgusting to him, but their mingling with wizards was in his eyes a dreadful threat to the very existence of magic and therefore everything special he ever had been. as a result, he ventured deeper and deeper into it, never to come back. no magic act seemed against nature to him, because he considered himself one with it. this is where his iron-rooted god complex comes from and i think it’s something a little more complicated than simple megalomania. but this is also where his problems with his own humanity (and other’s) started. at some point he really considered himself more than human, of a different species. no aspect of humanity meant anything to him, on the contrary, i think he had terrible problems with every basic human behavior, from caring, to having to eat and drink to survive, to sweating and having sexual impulses - and, of course, to the ultimate form of humanity, dying. i think he was profoundly disgusted by his and other’s physicality, to anything that could remind him of his mortality, even a breath.

and that’s why i don’t really think even as a most handsome young men he even spared girls or women a glance. i think he considered the whole thing far beneath him, as if a god was interested in exchanging fluids with worms. i also think deep down there was simultaneously an intellectual and not only a physical element in his disgust: i think he considered his good looks something pleasant to look at in a mirror (he only deserved the best, even in a face), quite useful, but in general absolutely meaningless and void. not to mention that was his muggle father’s face, the revolting beauty that doomed it as a child and that shamed him every day looking back at him in the mirror. the entire crowds of girls that without any doubt must have fawned over him at school were probably amusing to him in rare particularly good days and insufferable and despicable the rest. no one deserved to be around him, no one could understand his real greatness or void anyway, no matter how low they rightfully bowed - and they had to bow, but from a fair distance. i think the mere thought of sex was something absolutely revolting to him.

until.

now you are probably starting to understand why i needed this endless preface to answer your question.

i think bellatrix was something really unexpected for him, that came relatively late in his life while he was busy with everything else, building an empire and becoming a most powerful immortal creature, and it was extraordinary enough to enkindle something in him, in his humanity, at first even without his consent or him even noticing.

yes, you heard me right, despite all i have just written, lord voldemort was still human being and of a really damaged and flawed kind, no matter what he stubbornly wanted to believe about himself.

i think the first immediate reason that sparkled voldemort’s interest was that bellatrix somehow reminded him of himself. and we do know that he was really able to love only himself. this is the ultimate narcissistic thought process. she was everything he admired of his own qualities: beautiful, dark, incredibly intelligent and magically skilled, proud, ambitious, ruthless, power-angry. they were incredibly similar. but she was at the same time somehow more than him, she actually was what he thought he was supposed have been: the heir of one of the most noble and ancient magical families of britain, pure powerful blood in her veins. it’s obvious he took her under his wing, thinking such a talent was a most valuable addiction to his cause, especially because along all that, bellatrix was able from the start to show him a loyalty, usefulness and adoration of a different, truer kind from all the others. and i think he really valued that, i think he was completely aware she was the only person he could really trust and i think it wasn’t a secondary thing for someone who had never really trusted anyone from the day he was born - that he was aware of it or not. one thing is believing your followers are loyal to you and your cause (an example is snape), another is having the absolute certainty that someone will always be at your side, no matter how desperate the situation - and only bellatrix was ever able to provide him that. he was intelligent enough to tell the difference. i think bellatrix’s unfaltering loyalty and mind-presence at azkaban for fourteen years after his apparent demise was something that really won his respect and admiration. and no, i don’t really think voldemort was the kind of person that gets tired of too much devotion, at least not a true, sincere one, as the kind bellatrix’s provided him from day one. i actually think he was in desperate need of it, consciously or not. voldemort probably had, in my vision, a peculiar relationship with devotion and servility: he thought everyone owed him as much, but was at the same time quite annoyed by too much of it (killing people who said too much “my lords”). but not too much of bellatrix’s, and it’s probably because of the fact hers was of a deeper and more honest kind of devotion.

we don’t have to forget bellatrix was almost as egocentric, proud and vain as him, this is the woman who sits on chairs as if they were thrones. she was wizarding royalty and she sure as hell acted accordingly, she was used to have everyone bow to her (and if they didn’t, she made them). and the fact that she, this fearless tigress, only bowed to him, out of admiration and not blind fear (even if a healthy component of fear was indeed present in her as well), was certainly a reason of great pleasure and amusement to him. don’t even forget i totally believe bella amused him as hell. can you imagine anyone else rendered a blathering idiot in front of him, following him so closely, too closely, speaking without asking, etc, who would have lived to tell the tale? bella was allowed things no one else was, pet name included.

she was one hell of a woman, painfully like him, that literally melted and would have died any moment for him. this started to move things inside of him that i’m sure at first he didn’t like, especially the physical impulses. i said many times i’m convinced at first he was resolute into killing her. the fact that in the end he didn’t tells the tale for me. who knows, maybe the killing in the middle turned into other primordial activities. sexually, i do think he had the need to use a fair amount of violence, not so much because he wanted to hurt her, but to deal with the mortality/humanity aversion, and i think bellatrix was the only woman who was mentally built to not only understand, but enjoy that. i think bella’s legs went week in front of his displays of power, no matter if the victim was her. i wasn’t really a matter of dominating her spirit, but totally possessing her body for him. funnily enough, i think he absolutely respected her in his own twisted way and that she totally thought the same. that respect had nothing to do with their physical and political power dynamics.

again, they were absurdly similar and well-matched. i think at some point she became invaluable to him in a similar way magic was, so much he actually risked his own life and failure to ensure she wasn’t captured again. everyone else was disposable, but not his bella. he could have punished her the rare times she let him down, but as a death eater, not as a person. i think bellatrix was the only case in which the two things in his mind were actually separate even if linked.

they fond each other in darkness and voldemort, lover of uniqueness, surely understood the extraordinary quality of such a relationship. he wanted only the best for himself, he deserved as much, and bellatrix was the actual best in his mind. she, having a similar thought, had inside of her a dramatic and overwhelming pull towards darkness, power and violence, and he embodied them all and much more in her eyes.

so, in conclusion (because i could go on for several other hours), for sure bellatrix was also, along with all the other things, convenient to him, not so much because she was married, because i think neither of them gave an effing fuck about it, but because she was perfect for him in basically every single way (best death eater, genius, skilled, pureblood, devious, not afraid of his darkness but drawn to it, loyal, submitted to him but only to him), as if he himself had carefully molded out of clay his ideal match.

as to how i think voldemort was as a lover - really, really painfully disturbing, as his whole character. i don’t think him really able to separate passion and violence, for example, and i see him really prone to dangerous mood swings, trust issues and destructive tendencies. he was also surely overly possessive of bellatrix, his bella. he was the only one entitled to treat her as he pleased, no one else, no matter if he had just crucioed the hell out of her. lay a finger on her and you are dead. also, i don’t really think he ever told her just how much she meant for him, on the contrary i think whenever he thought she was getting too close and him too attached, he would mercilessly push her away, even violently.

but at the same time i see him quite thoughtful and appreciative of everything bellatrix was, much more than any other man or husband of that society. he really thought she was the best besides himself. that he told it out loud or not, i think he was well aware of all bellatrix’s qualities, especially the ones she directed towards him, and was intimately and very deeply proud of her. i think he was really grateful for her existence and the moment she died he just knew everything was lost.

Why is Slytherin the worst house in Harry Potter stories (in my opinion):

First I want to say that I'm a proud slytherin, but in my opinion Salazar Slytherin is the worst of Hogwarts' founders – Hogwarts would be a better place without him and Gryffindor – and to me Slytherin has some of the worst characters of the plot. Even some of them has changed, showing regret and becoming a better version of themselves, we don't have any (really) good references in the house.

I'll start by analysing the particularities of slytherins and how could a slytherin be really virtuous; then I'm going to explain why we don't have any good slytherins at Harry Potter and lastly I want to describe how the House may have changed after the Second Wizarding War.

Ambition, cunning, intelligence and determination ... a certain disregard for the rules... they use any means to achieve their goals and they also have highly developed senses of self-preservation.

To me the greatest power of the Slytherins is willpower, they are driven by their values ​​and they seek to challenge the morals and standards of society. They don't remain quiet when something displeases them; they put their biggest dreams as a life goals; they have high expectations and are not satisfied with what they consider an ordinary existence.

Slytherins tend to only make friends with people who share their values ​​and goals, but only alone they can be themselves; they may have difficulty expressing themselves and can often be misunderstood or seen as selfish and indolent people, because they tend to put themselves in first place (which is not really a bad thing, is it?).

One of the characteristics that Slytherins value in themselves is their intelligence, their ability to abstract and think for themselves and develop unique ideas (also often misunderstood). They also tend to hesitate before acting, so as to weigh all possible outcomes before deciding exactly what should be done.

At their best, Slytherins would be driven by values ​​such as justice, equality and freedom; they would aim to make the world a better place for everyone, where everybody had the chance to develop and be the best of themselves; they would fight against all forms of injustice and seek the best life they could have, not in the luxury and exploitation of others, but in dignity, simplicity and resilience.

It's more likely that a slytherin would dedicate their lives to formulating ideias that could lead to a revolution, than to live by charity. They could be leaders or act alone, but they would rather create a space where everybody could be a leader of themselves, because they cannot bear subordination.

So if it's possible to exist such virtuous slytherins, why we don't see them in the story? The first reason is the house's own history and bad fame. The founder himself, Salazar Slytherin, valued above all his pure bloodline and the hierarchy between pure-bloods, muggle-borns and muggles. But that doesn't mean that slytherins need to carry those same values. So why this wicked fame persisted?

Living in the shadow of the world, wizards were forbidden to perform magic in the presence of Muggles, they needed to hide. Many were dissatisfied with this reality and decided to justify the rise of the wizards by arguing that they, being endowed with magical powers, are superior to Muggles and therefore must dominate them. This idea would be ambitious at that time; it promised a better life to wizards and was based on anti-Muggle values.

As Slytherins are endowed with great ambition and with the need to defy morals and norms, still having a founder with anti-Muggle ideals, Slytherin house became the ideal place for the emergence of anti-Muggle ideology, gaining the reputation of having wicked wizards.

This ideology became very strong during the First Wizarding War and the Second Wizarding War. In the meantime Slytherin achieved it's fame. Young wizards with pure ancestrality would have the ambition to join into Slytherin and the determination to practice their ideals at Slytherin's home, where they would meet wizards who shared the same ideals. As we can see, Harry Potter himself possessed the qualities of a slytherin, but by associating the house with the dark wizards, he used his determination to enter Gryffindor.

We can imagine that after the fall of You-Know-Who, the ideology of pure bloodness fell apart. This ideology was supported by the myth that there were pureblood families, but we know that these families hid the mixture of bloods to maintain their status. We can believe that after the Second War Slytherin house became a more propitious place for the development of new values.

Well, another reason why we don't see nicer Slytherins in the Harry Potter books, is that the story was written through Harry's vision. We cannot forget the split between Gryffindor and Slytherin. So we can believe that even when Harry was at Hogwarts, there could still be Slytherins as virtuous as the characters in the other houses. Perhaps they fought against the tyranny of the other Slytherins, perhaps they were misunderstood and bullied inside their own house or by members of other houses. How much did Slytherin's bad reputation influenced those young students?

Finally I want to say that, as a slytherin myself, I aim to be the best version of a slytherin I can be. To all slytherins out there: use your ambition, your intelligence and your determination to build a better world! Our generation (the millennials) was the next after Voldemort's fall and we are responsible for the growth of new values into our house.