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itsclydebitches · 3 years

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RWBY Recaps: Volume 8 “Fault”

Hello, everyone! We’re not even bothering with an introduction today, let’s just get straight to the only thing that matters.

HERE HE IS, THE MVP OF THIS EPISODE, OF THE WHOLE VOLUME, THE SERIES, THE ONLY ONE I CARE ABOUT RIGHT NOW

I’m joking… but only a little. In all seriousness we will get to Ren, but you all want to hear a funny story first? I somehow got it into my head that there was no RWBY episode this week—the holiday and all—so I poured all my meta time and energy into a ridiculous Ironwood analysis as a placeholder, only to wake up this morning and find the strongest (and most complicated!) episode this year waiting for a recap. Like some sort of grimm nosing into my inbox.

Okay, so it’s not a funny story, but if RT would just do a better job with their website my life would be a whole lot easier.

So here we are, taking a look at the episode “Fault.” Quick question, is every episode this volume going to have a one-word title? It’s not a criticism, I’ve got nothing against a punchy name, I’m just curious since RWBY has never done that before. If anything, they’ve gone more for symbolically significant phrases like “A Brawl in the Family,” “Players and Pieces,” and “The Lady in the Shoe.” I wonder what sparked the change.

Anyway, we open on Robyn laughing about some story she’s told, something about Joanna losing a fair fight for the first time, presumably to her. This is what we’ve learned about Robyn since this volume started: she refuses to acknowledge that she had a hand in Clover’s death; she was asked by Blake and Yang to keep the Amity secret but, according to May, couldn’t keep her mouth shut about it; and she tries to cheer Qrow up by bragging about her own skill.

Alrighty then.

Obviously, this little story fails to land. “Tough crowd tonight.” Robyn looks to Jacques as well as Qrow when she says this and since she clearly doesn’t care about cheering him up, she must want to get a rise out of him. Create something, as she says at the end of the scene, that’s exciting. Robyn just really loves to start fights. Against Ironwood, Clover, bickering matches with Jacques—stories told about winning them! If she’s not fighting someone she’s not interested.

Qrow does eventually give the smallest smile though and Robyn cheers. “Did I win?” They both quickly grow serious again though and Robyn says she’s “sorry for what happened. It wasn’t your fault.” Her apology would mean more if she was apologizing for her actions, not providing a generic ‘Sorry for your loss’ like she had no hand in this.

Qrow then insists it was his fault… but, of course, not for the reasons why he’s actually responsible (also, didn’t we do this two weeks ago?). For starters, Qrow blames his semblance for everything that went down, despite the fact that his semblance is not responsible for him breaking Clover’s aura, or Tyrian stabbing him. The most we’ve seen his semblance do is cause minor mischief, which in and of itself is absurd considering we’re meant to believe that it has kept him from his family most of his life, and informs choices like whether he’ll travel with the group in Volume 4. Still, it’s not unexpected that he would blame his semblance and think that having friends is a “childish dream”—depression is one hell of a liar—but rather, it’s frustrating that no one is helping Qrow see the truth of the situation, both the good and the bad. He certainly doesn’t need Robyn providing generic platitudes that absolve them both of their choices.

You know what the worst part is? The two kind, level-headed adults with enough distance to help Qrow acknowledge his mistakes while also correcting him about his misconceptions… are Ozpin and Clover. The former is still ignored by the cast, the latter barely got to be a character before he was killed.

Qrow goes on to say that he “made a deal with the darkness and [Clover] paid the price.” I’m sorry, what does that mean?? Outside of referencing his team-up with Tyrian, that’s the most dramatic, nonsensical thing he could have said. Qrow doesn’t admit to the team-up though, rather he starts blaming Clover for his own death.

Precisely like a good chunk of the fandom has done 🙃

He says that Clover just “wouldn’t let up” (translation: he wouldn’t agree to let me go when I was under arrest) and that they could have “worked together against Tyrian if Clover had just—”

There’s a lot to cover this episode, so I’m not going to dive into another explanation of all the justified reasons why Clover didn’t trust Qrow in that moment and why Qrow was the one who “wouldn’t let up.” If you’re interested in that rundown, head here.

Side note: can RWBY please stop with the weird mouth closeups? I’m begging the animators. Especially when so much else in this episode is gorgeous.

Yes:

No:

Robyn’s response is to make it all about her. I say, as a hypocrite, because my instinctual response in comforting someone is to also bring up a way that I might, sort of, know what they’re going through. It’s something to work on and, as always, I’d be more receptive to Robyn’s attempts if she weren’t failing so spectacularly in every other aspect of her characterization. Case in point: she says that having a truth semblance tends to make people push her away, but we’ve never once seen that. We’re introduced to Robyn as she’s adored by Fiona. The people celebrate her. Yang and Blake trust her immediately, for no reason, and comment on how useful her semblance is—they’re not concerned with it. Ironwood likewise works with her and allows her to use her semblance on him in public, at least for a time. May spoke fondly of Robyn last episode. She just finished a story about Joanna… where is this pushing away you speak of, Robyn? I really wish RWBY would consider things ahead of time and actually show them to us, rather than just having characters announce that they’re (supposedly) there.

Nice symbolism though with Robyn touching the electric bars and pulling her hand back. You reach out, you get hurt, curl in on yourself, blah, blah, blah. Too bad it’s not a moment attached to an actual struggle of hers.

Qrow buys it though, saying he’s never thought about it that way before.

You know, I get why a lot of people in the fandom hate Clover. I can’t even claim I’m much interested in him as an individual. I’m sick of straight, white, able-bodied men getting the spotlight, which is one of the things that drew me to RWBY in the first place… so theoretically Robyn should be the better choice for Qrow’s BFF, right? Especially in a world where FairGame only existed in RT’s social media queerbaiting. Give us the badass gender-bent Robin Hood instead of the boring military man!

On paper it sounds great… which is why it’s astounding that RT bungled that so badly.

Qrow never finishes his thought about Clover because the Ace Ops come in to return Watts to his cell. Interesting. The writing has definitely made Ironwood stupid, but perhaps not as stupid as he could have been? If he got Watts to hack Penny (we don’t yet know what’s going on with her during all this) and then promptly shut him away again, that’s just about the best way you can follow up on your worst decision.

Harriet spots Clover’s pin and tells Qrow “You don’t get to keep that,” but then doesn’t take it from him. See, that right there is a better motivation for potentially opening the cell. Qrow says he didn’t kill Clover, Harriet shoots back that his blood was on Qrow’s blade (again, focusing on the wrong way that he’s guilty), Robyn challenges her to get the truth via her semblance… and Harriet considers it? Why? She’s not the one struggling with her loyalty here, that’s Marrow, yet he’s the one who has to pull Harriet back with “What are you doing?” when she looks at the keypad. Have Marrow almost be swayed by Robyn’s taunting, or have Harriet almost open the door because she’s furious and desperate to get Clover’s pin back. Either one of those would make more sense than this.

Also, no one checked Qrow during his arrest/before he was thrown into his cell?

Also, note that Marrow uses a nickname here—“Hare”—so I’m continually unpersuaded by the ‘They’re not friends’ claim. Yes, Harriet hits his shoulder on her way out… and Ren will later scream at Jaune about cheating. Harriet being in a bad mood because their leader was just murdered isn’t evidence that they’re not close, no more than Ren responding to Everything Traumatic Ever is evidence that he doesn’t care for his friends.

Also (x3), Robyn calls Harriet “mohawk”?? Can’t this woman come up with a single good insult?

As the Ace Ops leave Robyn lays back down on her bunk, exactly as she was before, and says, “Well, that was almost exciting.” Kind of like this scene! Luckily, the episode is about to get a whole lot better.

The music immediately picks up as we segue to Ren, Jaune, and Yang chasing after Oscar. On the whole I really enjoyed this scene, largely because it shows the group doing their best—in a way that feels persuasive. I’ll admit that others have a point about them just standing around while the Hound changes form—yet still failing because, you know, our villain is actually powerful! However, there are, as always, some nitpicks.

One of the first bits of dialogue we get is Ren noticing that the bikes can’t stand being in the cold for very long. It bugs me that bikes suffer more from the cold than the civilians do. To say nothing of the fact that it once again doesn’t amount to anything. Their bikes carry them through the whole battle and Jaune looses his because of a grimm. Then Yang manages to fix the totaled bike with a single part, despite the continued cold. Why bother introducing this as a problem when it’s meaningless each and every time?

The three do demonstrate some great teamwork though. When Yang yells that she wishes one of them could fly, Jaune uses his shield to launch Ren at the Hound… so that he can get dragged through the air, hitting rocks. This poor guy. I like that though because no, these teens shouldn’t be perfect, strategic masterminds and yes, they’re in the kind of situation where they just have to try something and see if it works. Jaune can’t think ahead to what Ren will do once he grabs the Hound, they just have to get him to that point and go from there. Which they do. Ren snags a boulder to slow them down further (that’s smart) and Yang goes higher to fire at the Hound’s face (don’t hit Oscar he doesn’t have aura!!). They’re at a crazy disadvantage here and still trying their best to get our boy back.

The overall tone is… fine? Again, love supportive Yang—that high five with Jaune was wholesome—but it continually feels weird to get that when Oscar is in the literal jaws of death here. On the whole though the scene keeps to the action and seriousness of the situation, which I appreciate. We’ll talk more about tone during the outpost scene.

It's looking like they might be making some sort of headway when the Hound lets out a roar that, as Yang puts it, calls for backup. 1. Yay giving this grimm even more power to mess with the cast, 2. Holy shit there are so many grimm around. See, scenes like this is why I’m side-eyeing the anti-army rhetoric in the show (a stance I’d otherwise agree with 100%). Because do you see how many there are? That’s not Salem’s army, that’s just the normal grimm hanging out around Atlas. The cast is screwed if anyone were to, say, order them to attack the kingdom…

Kudos to RT for bringing back the centipede grimm though. I honestly thought they’d just be a one-off action sequence in Volume 7.

While everything is falling apart Ren catches a glimpse of Oscar, complete with rosy cheeks to make him look super young, and the sight fills him with

He starts climbing towards the Hound and we cut away.

Meanwhile, Jaune’s bike is hit with some of the centinel’s acid (again, not the cold causing problems) and he takes a tumble, managing to keep his feet before Yang snags him. Moments like that really do show how far he’s come and I’m glad we got to see such a moment in an episode where his cheating was brought up. Jaune then uses his shield to fly over one of the dragon-y grim, but... wait. The shield is flexible?

Literally what is the point of that? As a shield, I mean (it clearly works fine as a ramp). If you can just tip it over like that then so can the grimm or another fighter. Forget how tiny the shield is, all a monster would have to do is boop it and it would fall over. In fact, it probably should have with the grimm scratching at it before. Seems rather useless, unless you’ve got writers crafting convenient situations. Also, does Jaune have multiples of this thing? He picked it up before, but there’s no way he found that one again. Idk, I’m really not feeling this addition to Jaune’s arsenal. Better to give him a range option so he’s more versatile.

Still, they fly over the grimm and the two let out a sigh in synch. Whatever else we might have to say about this volume, RT is definitely giving us different interactions and team-ups. Well done there. Why, Jaune and Yang have managed to survive all that together!

Oh wait, never mind. They’ve gone off a cliff.

Honestly, I’m shocked they actually went over. I thought Yang would stop in time, or we’d have a classic moment of them tumbling off the bike and ending an inch from the edge, maybe going off slow with time for one to hang on. But nope, they plummet and it was done with such confidence by the camera that for a split second (the illogic of killing them both off aside) I thought that was it. They’re done for. Lucky for them, Ren catches them at the last second, managing to snag Jaune’s sword and them and immediately use his semblance so the grimm doesn’t eat them. That’s skill, baby!!

But you can see why he’s pissed, beyond just the fact that his semblance is holding this group together. It’s not Jaune and Yang’s fault that there was suddenly a cliff, but last we saw Ren he was heading towards Oscar. He had a plan. Granted, not one that was likely to lead anywhere given the Hound’s power (and the plot needing Oscar to reach Salem), but that’s not the point. He was pulling himself towards their kidnapped friend and then at the last second had to cut himself loose to save two others. This moment wasn’t anyone’s fault, but it would take someone with no emotions at all not to be frustrated by it.

So we leave the trio literally hanging out and return to Ruby’s group who is threatening kids!

Seriously though WTF, Weiss? Look, I haven’t always been kind to Whitley. In fact, I think there’s a Volume 7 recap where I really laid into him for his attitude and for supporting Jacques. But then—with the help of some friends and other anon perspectives—I thought about it for a hot second and considered how little power this child has. I was wrong to blame him for so much given the various circumstances here. It took, like… five minutes of thinking, and that’s for a fictional character, not a real life brother. Weiss clearly hasn’t given her brother five seconds of thought. He’s in the same abusive household that she was. He wasn’t blessed with combat abilities and a semblance to easily escape. He didn’t have Weiss there to guide him like Winter guided her. He had to watch BOTH his sisters abandon him to Jacques… so when exactly was he supposed to learn to be better? Why would he be inclined to? Weiss was an entitled racist when she got to school and needed new friends to show her a new path. She admitted as much last volume! Yet the fact that Whitley is completely alone in this house while their mom locks herself in her room to drink doesn’t register at all? This woman, an adult out to save the world as we’re frequently told, never once considered what it took to get her here and realize that Whitley has had none of the resources she did?

I want to emphasize that Weiss threatens him with her weapon. It’s not just that she’s dismissive of him and his plight, she’s also happy to use violence if Whitley doesn’t do exactly as he’s told. Violence… against her brother… who is a child… without any training. Again: WTF, Weiss? You know how I was praising RWBY last episode for not having the group beat up the Atlas personnel? Yeah, we get this instead.

Then she tells him to go to his room??

Speculation is that Whitley is about 2-3 years younger than Weiss. Or, to put it another way, roughly the same age as Weiss’ leader, Ruby. She’ll follow Ruby unquestioningly into world-changing decisions, but sends her brother to his room like a toddler? Which is it, RWBY? Are 17 year-olds leaders you should listen to, or babies who must leave the room while the grownups talk? He certainly can’t be any younger than Oscar, so again, she’ll fight beside him, but treat Whitley like this? Whitley isn’t exactly going to offer help in a respectful, eager manner, but that “Fine. What do you expect me to do?” was incredibly open given his situation. He was willing to help and that was the perfect opportunity to have him, you know, do something. Something small and innocuous that wouldn’t threaten the team if he betrayed them, but kept him around so he could talk to someone. But nope. Weiss just sends him to his room after criticizing him for not understanding that they’re “busy trying to save Atlas.” Weiss, what does Whitley know about all that? He’s locked up in this manor after your father was arrested and the one news clip we’ve seen said that no one knows why Ironwood recalled his forces, or what’s up with those grimm overhead. She’s acting like he should have any idea what’s happening right now.

Also, all of this is coming on the heels of Willow begging Weiss not to forget her brother, so that’s just great. RWBY has the rest of their time in the manor to fix this, because if Weiss comes out of that scene having only been handed the means of arresting Jacques… that’s just bad all around.

Finally, should we talk about how strange this choice is? Last episode we saw the group flying away and I assumed it was them leaving Atlas to go back to Mantle. It certainly looked that way, but now they’ve decided to stay until Nora is awake. Why? Isn’t it more dangerous here? I mean, they didn’t know the staff was gone and there are still arrest warrants out. Was Weiss just going to threaten anyone who dared report her? Where are these shields Ironwood spoke of? Have they gotten through them somehow, or are they currently trapped in Atlas?

This is “Oscar is in the slums, leaves the slums, learns they’re going to the crater, but the slums are actually the crater, so we’re heading back now” all over again.

The one good thing about this scene is that Blake and Ruby talk! …for about two seconds lol. Eh, better than nothing. Blake says that if Ruby is worried about Yang she could try calling her. Ruby has, and Yang isn’t picking up.

Does Ruby think she’s in danger or ignoring her? Unclear. We, however, know that Yang is now lost in the middle of nowhere with no reception and no transportation back to Mantle. The three of them start trudging towards an outpost Ren spotted, needing to find shelter “before this weather drops our aura levels completely.” So what about everyone without aura?? I wish that I could check off the bingo space again because this is ridiculous.

Ren, once again, isn’t in the mood to talk, but unlike Jaune, Yang can’t leave something alone. So she coaxes him to tell him what’s wrong and you know what? She does a real good job at first. She’s encouraging, but her voice is level and she doesn’t come across as accusing. Well done, Yang.

Things quickly fall apart though as Ren says EVERYTHING I’VE EVER WANTED TO SAY TO THIS GROUP. Holy shit, everyone, let’s count ‘em up:

Nothing is going smoothly so let’s stop pretending it’s all fine

Oscar has been horrifically kidnapped that’s #bad

This is not a normal part of being a huntsmen

We don’t know the first thing about being huntsmen!

Every time we’ve had to make real decisions we got them all wrong, yay us

We’re trapping a city here for Salem to destroy whenever she feels like it, yay us x2

Our leader is barely more than a kid and one of us cheated our way here

People are going to die because of us

“I’m just saying what nobody else wants to”

Yang’s response? Incredibly weak imo. Just as weak as the fandom’s has been since this conflict started in Volume 7. Her argument against letting Atlas go is that Salem won’t just let it fly away with her whale… but no one knows that. She’s certainly just letting it sit right now! Assuming that something won’t work because you expect the worst is not a compelling reason not to try.

Her argument against their ineptitude? They saved Haven, took down a leviathan, and got the lamp to Atlas. Let’s break that down a little more.

Did they fight well at Haven? Yes… overlooking that Weiss would have died if not for a timely semblance reveal. But the real point here is that they “saved” the school by getting the Relic. Problem is, they never won the relic, it was handed to them. Literally. They retrieved it not because they were capable of overpowering Salem’s forces and a Maiden, but because Raven decided she’d rather her daughter be a target than her. That doesn’t tell us anything about the group’s skill, only about Raven’s flaws.

They took down a leviathan… after drawing it to Argus in the first place. That’s kind of an important detail when Ren is trying to make the point that their decisions suck. Also, how did they take it down? Using Ruby’s silver eyes, which only worked because Jinn randomly decided to let her stop time. Oh, and also using the rest of Cordovin’s mech that they hadn’t yet destroyed. Again, nothing about that fight demonstrates their skill, only others’ abilities, resources, and the strange favoritism they benefit from.

Getting the lamp to Atlas. Well, you drove Ozpin away who was your ticket across the border. Then Maria told Ruby how to save you all from the Apathy (and Ruby herself was the only one able to resist long enough to demand you get the Relic back in the first place). You started that leviathan fight and ended it surrounded by Cordovin’s fleet. So how did you get to Atlas? Because she let you cross. How did you reach Ironwood? Because he dropped your arrest. Yang stopped Adam, yes, but that was its own, separate fight. Regarding the “getting to Atlas” point they botched that up completely.

Basically, this resume of victories is unpersuasive, to say the least. Yang highlights the end goal rather than acknowledging Ren’s point: have we, as individuals, actually made things better lately?

They absolutely have not.

Note how, in contrast, Ren includes himself in this criticism. He doesn’t just lay responsibility at Ruby and Jaune’s feet, he’s second on the list for being underprepared. For messing up. He’s just an “orphan from nowhere” and this tells us that, unlike Qrow, Ren is actually concerned with this problem and his own place in it. He’s not just blowing off steam and running from his responsibility. Rather, he’s making important points here yet, as he says, no one else wants to listen.

And that’s why the scene ultimately sucks. “But, Clyde! It’s a speech straight out of your metas!” Yes it was and it was beautiful to witness, but the problem is that Ren’s supposed to be wrong. Jaune glares at him before leaving. Yang clenches her fists and asks if he just wants to push everyone away. He’s left hanging his head. Then later they talk about how “broody” he is and provide advice about how to stop doing that. The takeaway here is not, ‘Holy shit, Ren is right and we should rethink our choices,’ but rather that Ren is wrong and needs to come over to their ‘correct’ perspective.

I love that this was laid out. I love that the group is actually fighting for once (way better than Ruby and Yang’s ‘fight’). I also love that we finally see what’s bothering Ren… but we all know this isn’t leading anywhere. The scene ends with Jaune dismissing everything by stating that if Ren doesn’t want to be a huntsmen, fine, but he has a job to do. Ren is supposed to feel guilty here for… telling the truth? Jaune is supposed to look like the hero for soldiering on with his responsibility while moody Ren drags behind. The scene is great, but the purpose of the scene sucks.

Actually, I’d like to talk about a portion of the outpost scene real quick. Skipping ahead, because we really see here how little RT believes the words that they’ve put in Ren’s mouth. Jaune admits that he’s right about cheating into Beacon… but nothing else. Indeed, that “mistake” is swept away because he’s earned his right to be here now. You shouldn’t care about that anymore! Ignoring the point Ren was making about how much they’re in over their heads. Yang apologizes to Jaune on Ren’s behalf, making it clear that she cares more about his potentially hurt feelings than any of the points Ren made. Remind you of anything? Like oh, say, that time Yang cared more about Jaune’s feelings than whether he’d hurt Oscar after slamming him against a wall? All of this despite the fact that Yang JUST accused Ruby of the horrible situation they’re in. Now Ren acknowledges that they’re in a horrible situation and Yang… doesn’t care?? Again, RT is good at giving us the pieces we want, the surface level stuff, but is rarely able to combine it into something fulfilling. If anyone actually takes Ren’s stance seriously, changing their ways rather than talking him out of it, I’ll be shocked.

Especially since the real nail in the coffin of this scene is Jaune telling him that “The more you hide from what you’re feeling, the more alone you’re going to feel.”

Jaune………..buddy……….pal…………were you asleep during that scene? Ren DID tell you what he was feeling. For the first time he did come clean about everything he was experiencing and you both rejected him for it! He’s not pulling away because he’s hiding from what he’s feeling, he’s pulling away because he did show it and both his friends reduced it to “pushing [them] away.” Which is it, Jaune? Should Ren be more open, or should he stop saying things you don’t want to hear? It’s a more complicated version of telling your parents about your interests, them mocking those interests, and then they’re surprised when you don’t share things with them again. I mean, the gall of Jaune to reject everything Ren said in the moment, ignore it after he’s calmed down, and then lecture him about being hiding his emotions.

Jaune and Yang (and the story) don’t want Ren to say what he really thinks, they want him to say what they think. Ren should speak up, but only if he’s going to agree with them.

So Ren sits out in the snow because potentially dying from cold is better than staying in a room with Yang and Jaune. I can’t really blame him lol.

One last thing about the fight scene. Remember how May was put in her place last episode for not using Penny’s name? Well, Yang doesn’t either. Granted, “the Maiden” isn’t as overtly insulting as “tin can” (or whatever it is May said), but it amounts to the same thing: both are replacing Penny’s individual identity with her status as a tool they can use. May sees Penny as the cool tech girl who can get them into the military base. Yang sees Penny as the cool magic girl who is the answer to all their ‘How do we win this?’ problems. Everyone is using Penny. Ruby to launch Amity, Ironwood to open the vault, but you know RWBY will never have a scene where Penny corrects Yang about her name and Ruby looks on, smug. Because the group can continually make the same mistakes as the adults/antagonists around them, but aren’t called out on it in the same way. Ren calls them out and he’s told he’s wrong.

Anyway, the tl;dr of this scene is that Ren is the best. Too bad the story doesn’t realize that.

We then move to my poor Oscar who wakes up looking at his own feet, Ozpin’s voice is as reassuring as it can be under the circumstances. “Oscar? Don’t panic. We’re going to be okay.” I mentioned two weeks back that I hoped the show would explain why we didn’t see Ozpin try to take control during the Hound fight and we still don’t have an explanation, so that’s disappointing. This line is all we get from Ozpin because that’s the norm now. We moved from him being written out of the story entirely to having one or two lines an episode (excluding a speech meant more for the audience than the characters). So, improvement? But a lackluster one, I think. Especially given that he is the focal point of this entire situation with Salem.

I’m avoiding the elephant in the room though. Oscar’s torture is horrifying. In the sense that it should be horrifying. Salem might still inexplicably not be attacking Atlas—and what she’s after at any given time might be getting more and more muddled—but she’s absolutely terrifying here, which is what we needed. The mix of assault with that nurturing tone is just skin crawling. “My long lost Ozma. Found at last” while she (I think?) shows images of their daughters. Honestly, I only heard that from friends, didn’t catch it myself, but then my eyes are shit to begin with. I couldn’t see a thing in this shadowed shot.

(It’s like watching Game of Thrones all over again.)

Oscar tries to pretend to be Ozpin and he does a damn good job with “I’m sorry the reunion isn’t living up to your expectations.” It’s not enough to fool Salem though. She says he’s “not him” yet and I’m again reminded that the show continually references this merge without showing us any change. They’re apparently closer to one person now, but they still speak as individuals. Oscar has Ozpin’s magic, but hasn’t used it, even when his life was on the line. The closest we get to evidence that the merge is underway is that Oscar attempts to lie about knowing Jinn’s name… but what the hell else is he supposed to do here? I suppose he could go the action hero route and shout that she’ll never get the answer out of him, but trying to lie is by far the safer option. That doesn’t tell us that he’s becoming like Ozpin, or even that they’re truly “like-minded souls” as Salem claims. It just tells us that Oscar has two braincells to rub together and can say a short sentence without totally giving himself away. Maybe the kid played a few rounds of Remnant’s Among Us.

This moment highlights another justification for Ozpin’s secrets though. He lives an existence where he is not in control of his own (“own”) body. At any point the host he’s with could falter, fail, turn on him, and in doing so give crucial, world ending information to the enemy. It’s already happened on a small scale, with Oscar successfully taking control, stealing the Jinn information, and giving it to the group. Now here he’s being tortured. How long can he last? Will Oscar give up Jinn’s name? If Ozpin didn’t have the location of the Relic locked up tight in his own consciousness, would that information be lost too? I’m not looking to blame Oscar for anything here—I don’t want to imply that this situation is karma for him taking Jinn’s name, or some such nonsense—I just want to acknowledge that this is the sort of stuff Ozpin has to worry about. If he shares these secrets then that’s more fallible people who are capable of giving that information to Salem. If he keeps them…well, he’s the only one who has to keep his mouth shut during a torture session. His host might want information about the Relics, there’s an argument to be made that they’re entitled to them, but if I were Ozpin I wouldn’t want to take that risk either. The question has essentially become, “Would I trust a 14 year old to keep quiet while tortured by a witch?” Maybe Oscar will! He’s enough of a BAMF to manage it… but that’s still not something I’d want to bet on. Better that Oscar simply doesn’t have that information to give Salem, period.

So obviously this “working relationship” that Salem wants isn’t going well. When Oscar lies she jumps straight to torturing him.

This was legitimately hard to watch and I’m torn about that. On the one hand it’s what I wanted: a scary, powerful Salem who uses the tools at her disposal to get what she’s after. That’s great! Yet I’m still reminded of how far this show has gone to literally beat up the child of the group. Oscar is the one punched into a tree, attacked by a friend, shot by an ally, the star of the show’s most horrifying kidnapping, now the first to be outright tortured by Salem. I don’t really have a point here, I’m not looking to level any specific accusations at RT, I’m just commenting on the pattern and acknowledging that it makes me uncomfortable. There are parts of a story where you’re supposed to be uncomfortable—like the villain torturing a hero—and then there are parts where you’re uncomfortable because the writers seem overly focused on showing images of a specific kid suffering and that’s… weird.

I’m not sure what to make of that just yet.

Anyway, Salem’s magic here is surprisingly pretty. Pretty and painful, but I expected more red and blacks, perhaps some spikey imagery, so the rainbow was an interesting surprise. Given the amount of pain Oscar is in, I suspect too much of that would kill him, so Salem calls in Hazel to continue the interrogation. The first few hits he deals are for Haven, the others for his sister.

See, this is why RWBY needs to actually embrace its “life isn’t a fairy tale” theme. You cannot show me child torture in one week and then move to Ruby “We’ll win because we’re the good guys ^_^” Rose the next. The whole reason why Ironwood (and Ren now) was right is because this is the shit reality they’re dealing with. You didn’t run when you had the chance and now Oscar (and Ozpin) is being tortured. You keep talking about saving Mantle, but the only reason why they’re not already dead is because the writing randomly turns the cold danger on and off. This mix of horrific, real world danger and unjustified confidence doesn’t work.

…also, I officially don’t want any redemption arc for Hazel. This guy is beating on a child because he’s convinced that he’s Ozpin, blaming Ozpin for his sister’s decision, all while forwarding a genocidal maniac’s plans. Hazel and his ridiculous shirts can just get on out of here, thanks.

Finally, I just want to say... this is the woman a lot of the fandom defended. This is the woman you wanted raising those girls and blamed Ozpin for trying to escape with them.

This is how Salem treats children.

Oh, and all of this is without his aura because it just broke. So Oscar is in serious, non-fantasy trouble here.

Someone please rescue him soon 😭

We finish up with some frankly boring stuff with the rest of the villain cast. We learn that the Hound is an “experiment” and a new one given that Cinder has never seen it before. Salem’s dialogue is admittedly great—“Do you hear that, my pet? She thinks. She wants.”—but Cinder just rehashes everything we’ve heard from her before. She wants the Winter Maiden power. She has trouble remembering that she’s playing at Salem’s slave. She even rehashes the exact same line, “Without you, I am nothing.” Why are we wasting time on this when we had that tantalizing backstory before?

Bleh.

Salem tells her in no uncertain terms to stay put.

So Cinder immediately leaves LOL.

She just wants to “check on” Amity tower because she “knows those kids” in ways Salem doesn’t. I’m admittedly slightly confused as to how Cinder knows to go there? Did she believe Ironwood’s lie that it was finished even though it apparently IS finished now? Has she overheard something? I’m not sure. Frankly, keeping track of that stuff in RWBY is headache inducing, so let’s just roll with it.

Neo, the only one with a brain around here, makes it clear she thinks Cinder is an idiot for going. Emerald, always the Cinder fan, offers to go in her stead. She’s been working on her semblance, so I expect we’ll see something cool with that soon. They head off, apparently not worried about what Salem will do to them when they get back.

Which is when we move to the outpost for our final scene, most of which I’ve covered. I only have two more things I want to bring up here.

The first is the tone. As said earlier, the tone of the Hound chase wasn’t horrible, but I find myself disappointed in the overall attitude of Jaune and Yang. Yang is making jokes about how they can’t fly, high-fiving Jaune, and they’re both shrugging off Ren’s concerns. Jaune says he won’t be able to sleep due to worrying about Oscar, but neither of them act particularly worried. Which isn’t to say they need to be sobbing the whole time or whatever, just that Ren is the only one who feels real here. They may not agree with his stance about everything else, but they’ve all experienced the same event: watching a grimm that can morph, talk, and think horrifically kidnap a teammate. Shouldn’t there be more emotion attached to that? Things have gotten better with Oscar than they’ve been in the past, largely due to details like Nora’s hug at the beginning of the volume, but let’s be real, they’re still not perfect. Do we think Jaune and Yang would be this nonchalant if Ruby were kidnapped that way? Say all you want about Ruby being her sister, or others being teammates for longer, but the fact remains that Oscar has been taken to Salem herself and the only one reacting to that in any meaningful way is Ren.

Who they say will “brood himself to death.” That right there. The one guy freaking out about your kidnapped friend should not be described as “brooding.”

All of which segues into my second point, namely that Yang doesn’t seem to care about Ruby anymore either! She asks Jaune, “Do you think she thinks less of me?” for not going to Amity and when Jaune reassures her that Ruby will always love her, Yang’s response is, “Yeah… Ruby.”

She was thinking about Blake.

The kicker? I thought she was talking about Ruby too. Because Ruby is her sister. Because she and Ruby had the fight (“fight”). Because Ruby was trying to call her to check in. Because Blake and Yang didn’t even acknowledge that they went on different missions here. I thought Blake was like Jaune, not really taking a side and just heading with Ruby because the team is splitting down the middle. Where did this worry come from?

And I want to praise RT here (I really do) because I can see the effort. I said Blake and Yang needed to spend time apart, they have. I said they needed to work through their co-dependent identities, now Blake is reminding Nora (and theoretically herself too) that someone you love is just a part of you. I said that the group couldn’t be a hive-mind, now there’s disagreement. I said the show needs to make Blake/Yang canon at some point and you can’t do that if they don’t talk about and to each other. So I fully admit that this is everything I asked for… so why does it feel so badly done? No matter how many boxes it checks off, it’s still a moment where we thought Yang was finally worrying about her sister again—like she used—and then it’s ‘Sike! It was really just about Blake! Again. Yang is worried about a problem that was never even introduced.’

I suppose that’s why it doesn’t work for me. Yang and Ruby had the falling out, but Yang and Blake, somehow, become the focus. Is it really so hard to write Yang as a sister and a potential love interest? Yang apparently can’t care for Ruby and Blake, Weiss can’t care for her team and her brother, Ruby can’t care for Mantle and Ironwood… it’s like each character gets one (1) thing to put their emotional energy towards at any given time and that’s it. That’s all they get.

On the flip side, this is why Ren feels like a person this episode. He cares about Mantle, and the future fight, and their past mistakes, and his place here, and the problems within the team, and Nora… He feels like a well-rounded person! vs. Yang and Jaune who don’t even consider his perspective, vs. Yang having a fight with her sister but only cares about Blake. They’re one-dimensional in comparison.

It is, as always, disappointing.

As the group “broods” then the camera shows us a piece of the ice nearby, slowly cracking as Jaune says that “Things always seem to get worse before they get better.” Well, that’s unexpected. I didn’t think our opening would be literal. I’ve been worried about Atlas falling on everyone, not everyone falling… to whatever is underneath the kingdom as a whole. Is the kingdom falling apart? Or is something waking up and moving towards the surface? If RWBY can reproduce the characterization we got with the Hound, I wouldn’t be opposed to another leviathan grimm rising from the snowy deep to assist Salem…

Though how the fuck group will survive everything and that, who knows lol.

And that’s our episode! Issues aside—most of which have been ongoing issues. We knew they were there—I think this was our strongest episode so far this volume. Well done! There are still problems, no doubt, but at least I was only bored for a small portion of that 20 minutes. Let’s just keep heading in that direction.

Exciting Saturday, huh?

Regarding bingo updates:

RWBY actually re-used a grimm I thought they’d abandoned, so well done there.

No civilians around for the giant grimm army to attack, so that was fine. Kind of strange though that they completely disappeared after the Hound left.

The timeline is starting to get wonky. For example, what kind of stakes am I supposed to expect when Cinder decides to head to Amity? Is it currently empty? Is Pietro there? Has Penny made it yet? I said weeks ago that RWBY would need to follow multiple groups to fill out fourteen episodes in just two days—and they’re definitely doing that—but that means we don’t have a clear sense of what events are happening simultaneously and what are meant to be linear.

No Winter or Ironwood this episode.

Watts is back with Jacques! Potential for team-up 2.0? That will admittedly be hard with Qrow and Robyn there, unless those two escape.

(Oh yeah, I thought Qrow and the others would be held in the military base and Ruby would find him during her heist… but she doesn’t even care that Qrow is in jail.)

Maria is still a ghost. If we hit the halfway mark with her not doing anything I’m calling the space.

I definitely wouldn’t call this cliffhanger needless. That’s actually a cool way to end things, even if Jaune’s line was pretty on the nose.

Neo may be getting closer to backstabbing Cinder if those expressions are anything to go by.

Still waiting to see if Amity works.

And finally, drumroll please! …

“More obvious Blake/Yang implications without confirming a relationship.” Yup, I’m marking that this week. After Blake’s ‘just a part of you’ comment and now Yang only being worried about her reaction? Definitely calling it. If RWBY confirms a relationship this volume I’ll eat my words—and some celebratory cake — but until then salt prevails. Especially after the fiasco that was Supernatural.

Still no bingo. Ah well, maybe next week lol.

Until then! 💜

[Ko-fi]

#rwby #rwby spoilers #rwby volume 8 #rwby fault #rwby recaps #mymetas

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ilikekidsshows · 3 years

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This episode just really showed off why love triangles are messy. Marinette now has two boys waiting on her, who she knows for a fact are in love with her, and she’s ignoring it. She never discusses Cat Noir’s feelings for her to his face because she knows he wants a definitive answer. She’s happy that Luka’s in love with her, but it doesn’t seem she’s gonna act on it either. They’re going to be milking that love triangle because that’s the only reason to introduce one, but it always makes the person stuck in the middle look like an indecisive jerk, even when they have sympathetic reasons for hesitating. And here’s the thing: Marinette does need time to calmly make up her mind about which boy she likes the best between Adrien, Cat and Luka, so Luka not asking for an answer right away was the right thing to do. However, just like Kagami says, Marinette hesitates. A lot. More than she should. She’s been leaving Cat Noir on a ‘maybe’ since Glaciator, and I don’t think she’s going to suddenly change her tune because there’s two boys mooning over her instead of one. She’s not even trying to make up her mind, so any time Marinette spends not addressing Luka’s or Cat’s feelings is her deliberately leaving them hanging.

I brought up in my analysis of Backwarder that Fu being Marinette’s foil means her romantic life will probably be put on hold. But this episode made me realize it’s been on hold since Glaciator, and now it’s doubly so. She’s making Cat Noir and Luka wait for her answer to their confessions, because she’s still seeing if things with Adrien might go somewhere. Adrien is Marinette’s Miracle Box; according to the sunk cost fallacy, Marinette has put so much time and effort into winning Adrien over that she’s duty-bound to see the course through, no matter if it succeeds or not and no matter how long it takes, and no matter how long she will have to push back actually giving Luka or Cat Noir a straight answer. Everything else will have to wait until The Adrien Situation is sorted. In short, when you have the freedom to choose, you must accept the responsibility that you have to make a decision.

Except she’s utterly incapable of dealing with the Adrien matter. Luka and Cat Noir are going to be waiting indefinitely because Marinette is stuck in her relationship with Adrien, unable to let go and unable to move forward to either a mutual confession or a rejection. She knows by now how difficult approaching Adrien is to her. She should take responsibility and tell these boys not to wait on her, because she’s going to be spending the next year or two trying to confess to her number one choice. But she won’t, because her next “Get Adrien to fall in love with me and profess his undying devotion to me” plan could work and that would solve both the Luka and Cat Noir situation for her because she knows both of them would bow out gracefully if she was already in a relationship, and this way she doesn’t have to hurt them by telling them “no”. Marinette hates the idea of letting people down, so she’d rather wait and leave the boys in limbo in the hopes that something else will sort the situation between them out, than reject them outright and hurt them in the process.

Also, Luka keeps being enforced as the “easy” option. He fell in love with Marinette at first sight because his musical powers gave him the ability to read her soul or something. Marinette didn’t need to do anything other than exist in his general vicinity and he fell in love with her. Now he also confessed to her with no effort on Marinette’s part needed to make it happen. All of Marinette’s hopes and dreams about the dream romance are right there within her reach, and she didn’t need to put together a single scheme for it to happen. Either this relationship is a hint to Marinette that, if she and Adrien are meant to be, things will eventually just slide into place, or Luka is just meant to signify instant gratification for no work versus Adrien’s hard work with no guarantee of reward. I do understand why it’s necessary to give Marinette this option of another suitor she could be happy with: this will show the audience that Marinette’s dedication to Adrien is true: she could have had everything she wanted much more easily, but if she won’t settle for anyone who isn’t Adrien, it means she loves him for him and not the idea of him. A couple where neither party never looks at someone else never really knows for sure if they’re each other’s number one choice. Picking your eventual partner over others means you truly place them above others in your regard. However, that just makes Luka “proof that Marinette really loves Adrien the most”, meaning his feelings for Marinette will ultimately be about Marinette and her relationship with Adrien, not about Luka himself.

While I’m concerned for his possible role as an emotional prop, I did like the characterization we finally got for Luka. He’s chill, true, but he can reach a boiling point, and I would have loved to see what his conflict resolution style is when an Akuma doesn’t interrupt him. For now, his temperament seems to be settled in the middle of the scale with Marinette and Adrien, with Marinette being on one end with “full on aggressive confrontation” and Adrien being “first instinct is compassion and trying to find a peaceful solution” on the other. Similarly, his approach to love is a mixture of the two. Luka prefers to straightforwardly state it outright, instead of trying to pull off some grand gesture like Marinette prefers. However, he’s still more tempered than Adrien, waiting a bit for a good moment when Marinette seemed receptive before coming out with the confession and making sure he had just the right words to get his meaning across. His Akuma knowing that speech implies it had been prepared somewhat, which, together with his first appearance pointing out he’s bad with words, implies he must have agonized over his little speech until it was perfect.

#miraculous ladybug #miracublog #miraculous tales of ladybug and chat noir #episode wrapup

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jamiejohnsontalk · 4 years

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LGBT Representation in Jamie Johnson as Compared to Other Kids’ Media

Pinned to the top of my blog because I’m quite proud of this post, and I still want newer followers to be able to see it.

From what I know, LGBT representation is relatively new in media. Not just kids’ media, but media in general. I don’t even think I knew what gay meant until I was like 11. And I didn’t know that religions didn’t exactly have the greatest opinion of gay people till my GCSEs. In that sense, I was lucky. I knew I was gay before I knew what homophobia was, so I have always been comfortable with who I am. But others didn’t have life that... Well, simple I suppose. I’ve always known who I am, but other people, well, in the worst case scenario, gay people can become homophobic themselves and grow to hate themselves. This might seem like a sidetracky introduction, but I think it shows the importance of LGBT in media. For someone like me, it can help to start to normalise gay people to my family. Even though they’re still homophobic, at least they’re able to watch programmes with LGBT characters in. I met someone who’s dad wouldn’t watch any shows with LGBT characters in it. And for how rare gay people used to be in media in general, they’re even rarer in kids’ media. Why is it that Disney Channel only had their first gay main character in 2017 when homosexuality was legalised in... 2003 in the US. Wow, I can’t lie, I looked up that statistic expecting it to be way earlier. OK, but it was legalised in 1967 in the UK. So why did I never see any gay characters in my childhood? I’ve known I was gay since I was 9, but I must have first seen a gay character in, OK, it was Doctor Who. Captain Jack was pansexual. So I did have some LGBT representation. But there wasn’t much. And again, not in kids’ media. So, let’s look at some of the kids’ media that changed the landscape for LGBT rep in kids’ media. Sarah Jane Adventures and Wizards vs Aliens We’ll start with what I think is probably the worst types of LGBT representation. First of all: Wizards vs Aliens. Benny came out. But I can’t remember the show ever talking about it again after he came out. Sarah Jane Adventures. Yes, it’s not Russell T Davies’ fault that he never got the chance to let Luke come out in the show, and yes, he got to have Luke come out in the memorial episode for Sarah Jane on YouTube, but even before Liz had... Luke had left the main cast, so his coming out would have still meant less to audience members. Gravity Falls had a coming out at the very end of the show, and I believe so did Adventure Time, so they fit in this category too. Compare that to Dillon from Jamie Johnson. Yes, there’s a reasonable chance we won’t see him again after this season, but if it is, he gets to leave on a high. We get to explore his coming out journey. Steven Universe Steven Universe is great for LGBT representation, and it’s great for normalising LGBT representation. You’ve got a huge variety of LGBT characters, because the Gems are all gay (Except Rose). So you can understand that there are different types of gay people (Love Victor did that too, but I’m not sure how many people would watch it). Steven universe is definitely the gayest kids’ show. High School Musical the Musical the Series fits in this category too. Carlos is out and proud. And we don’t see his coming out, more his love life. Again, great rep. Normalises gay people. Jamie Johnson is nowhere near the level of gay that Steven Universe or High School Musical the Musical the Series is, but I think that it’s less meaningful than other shows I’ll mention and Jamie Johnson. It’s the same reason Victor said “Screw you” to Simon at the beginning of Love Victor. We don’t want to see gay people who have it easy. We want to see gay people who are like us. Who have been through stuff and have come out the other side alive. We want hope, but that doesn’t come from seeing gay people who have it easy. I see people playing football and risking corona and I’m jealous. I want to play football again. I see gay people have it easy: Same. I wish I could have it that easy, and it makes me sad. Steven Universe is a great show, and has great rep, but I think even kids’ media should have something closer to home. Andi Mack and Diary of a Future President I love how they portrayed Cyrus and Bobby. We got to see Cyrus’ story from realising he liked guys to being able to say “I’m gay” to showing his crush he likes him (though homophobes can pretend the bench scene was just a friendship scene). Cyrus’ arc was great, and the bench scene was perfect and the only problem with it was that it deserved a fourth season so we could see Cyrus and TJ in a relationship. Diary of a Future President though. I was heartbroken when Bobby didn’t come out to Liam. But then I found out there was a season 2 and I was OK, because it’s hard to come out. It’s as if all the shows make it so easy to come out to the first person, but it’s not. The first real life person I came out to, I came out at 22. And they had come out to me first. And I had to write it down on my phone. I couldn’t say it out loud. So yeah, seeing Diary of a Future President take it slow is amazing, and I love it, and it’s also what they did with Dillon. Some people think that they only really intended for Dillon to be gay from season 4. But, I think that they’ve known since the beginning. I plan to do a character analysis on Dillon after my rewatch, but I think I found something that shows they must have known since at least season 2. (I expect the analysis will be a lot shorter than this. Sorry for the crazy length. And if it’s a crap read. I don’t essay well). But if they knew from the beginning, that was a brilliant move on their part. The only thing that makes me unsure is how Dillon took 3 years to realise he might be gay, but it’s possible that he denied it to himself until he realised Elliot was gay. Because there’s no way he wasn’t thinking he was gay in season 4 episode 5. He didn’t think he was asexual, his reaction to Ruby’s foster mums suggested that he was interested because they were gay. But regardless, I love that they took it slow. Not everyone can come out as easily as others, and having someone like Bobby, or like Dillon, is so much more meaningful than Cyrus, even though Cyrus is an amazing character. Bobby and Dillon are more relatable because they’re finding it tough to come out. The Dumping Ground I kept trying to decide whether I thought the dumping ground or Andi Mack/Diary of a Future President had better LGBT representation. In the end, I decided that I preferred the Dumping Ground’s representation. Yes, in Andi Mack and Diary of a Future President, we get to see the coming out journey of Bobby and Cyrus, but even though Andi Mack touched on homophobia, a lot of people didn’t even realise Kira was blackmailing TJ, making him afraid of how people would react if they found out he was gay. A number of people just thought TJ was being an idiot. But the Dumping Ground had a gay couple wanting to foster Gus. And IIRC, Johnny thought it was wrong because they were gay. Something like that would foster (see what I did there?) potential discussion between parents and children about gay adoption. Some kids watching the show might have been gay and if they watched it with their parents, they could talk about it with them. Gage their reaction. Maybe even come out to them. The Dumping Ground’s episode was great. And then May-Li came out. And we never got to see her full journey, But we did get to see her journey to being accepted by her grandmother I think. And that’s something. And Now On To Jamie Johnson Just like the Dumping Ground, Jamie Johnson has been able to tackle serious issues. I mean, season 1 dealt with Jamie’s cheating father. You’ve got Zoe being a carer, Dillon getting diabetes. But in terms of LGBT representation, it’s season 4 and season 5. Season 4 episode 5 was incredible. I remember telling all my friends about it, and how amazing it was that CBBC were doing this. To recap: Ruby said her heroes were her foster parents, causing Dillon to ask Ruby about it. She thought he was being an idiot, even though in actual fact, he was excited that someone else was gay and trying not to show it. Dillon told his dad that Ruby had foster mums while he was telling him how Ruby’s biological parents weren’t in her life anymore. Liam, Dillon’s brother, used it to rile up Ruby’s sister Alba until she attacked him. She probably would have gotten expelled from the club, but Sienna filmed the incident so everyone found out what really happened, and it was Liam who got expelled. I think Alba only got excluded. What I find really awesome about the storyline though is not just that they had it. It was that the consequences of Liam’s actions set the course for the rest of the season, aka Dodgy Duncan. Liam’s actions caused the club’s image to go down the drain, and sponsors to leave, and that’s what made Duncan turn to the dark side. And it’s a subtle way to just say “Homophobia is bad”. Because Liam’s homophobia caused all the problems in the rest of the season. The First Time Dillon Let Himself “be Gay” Dillon took a long time to come out. And, like me, I think for a long time, nobody really suspected he was gay, in real life or in the audience. He never really showed it. I’m pretty sure when I was a kid, I would act super offended and upset if someone jokingly called me gay. So, yeah, it’s a slow burn. And we didn’t get any hints that he was gay, but that happens. Gay people are good at hiding, I think that’s why gay kids are often portrayed as loving theater. They already have to act their whole lives. It’s not easy to be in the closet. But I think that once Dillon was able to leave his father’s shadow, he was able to be more comfortable with himself, leading to him coming out to Elliot in episode 7. I think he had crushes before, specifically Michelle from season 2, but Elliot was the first time he felt like he could be himself. So here we have two massive points from other shows, but they haven’t been done together. The discussion of homophobia in the Dumping Ground, and the Slow Burn from Diary of a Future President. Social Media Presence Andi Mack made a huge deal about Cyrus being gay, like a week before the episode where he came out aired. HSMTMTS had Carlos be a gay stereotype from the trailer, and OK, Steven Universe was always gay. But Jamie Johnson, and the Dumping Ground didn’t make a big deal about it beforehand. They didn’t scream to the world “Look at us! We’re woke!” They showed it. They let people see for themselves, they let people debate for two weeks on Dillon’s sexuality, and they didn’t tell everyone that this was the episode Dillon would come out (though they made sure that everyone knew they should watch this episode). They just let people see for themselves. And after the episode aired, they made their move. They had the Jamie Johnson logo in rainbow colours to celebrate pride, they had a guide on how to react if someone comes out to you, and they had a history of pride, and I expect they’ll do even more on their social media after this week’s episode. @tkstrand reckons the Delliot post is Jamie Johnson’s most liked instagram post. I don’t know whether the other shows did this, but it’s a great gesture regardless. Oh, and there’s the fact that they’re doing a Bafta zoom conference on how they tackle issues. Choosing the Right Character and Breaking Ground for CBBC A lot of people on Instagram said that they thought it was Boggy who should be gay, and while I think either storyline would be great, I think that the writers made the right decision. 1) Boggy is an amazing person. He’s not afraid to be himself. I think, if Boggy was gay, then he wouldn’t have as much trouble coming out as Dillon is having. Of course, Boggy is going through stuff right now, but I still think he would have been a lot braver than Dillon and so we wouldn’t get the storyline we’re getting now delving into homophobia 2) If Dillon does have a minor or major role in season 6, we might get to explore homophobia in professional football, which would be super exciting 3) While Boggy is an amazing character, I’d reckon kids tend to gravitate to the coolest character as their favourite. And while Boggy radiates cool. (Seriously, check out the two posts I made on how sarcastic he is. And just look at his hat at the beginning of episode 1!

But Dillon is the more traditionally cool character, so he’s more likely to be a fan favourite (that and the fact that he’s the best developed character in Jamie Johnson). So for those who aren’t necessarily homophobic, but don’t really understand homosexuality, Dillon is the perfect choice to have written as gay. Because after next week, the people who don’t believe Dillon is gay might leave the episode with a new understanding of LGBT people. It’s been done with TJ, who’s also a cool character, but people who want to ignore the gay subtext can because it was never said out loud in the show. And I reckon Dillon is a groundbreaking character for CBBC. Benny left soon after he came out, Luke left before he came out, May-Li is part of an ensemble cast, so in terms of a small number of main characters (the core 4 in JJ being Dillon, Jamie, Zoe and Boggy), so I think Dillon is the first gay main character (not ensemble character) on CBBC who has gotten a major gay storyline. Could be wrong, let me know if I am! Groundbreaking in General From what it looks like, the next episode is gonna focus completely on Dillon’s coming out storyline. Forget kids’ media, I don’t think I’ve seen an adults’ show that has an entire episode solely dedicated to an LGBT storyline. (Even Reunited from Steven Universe wasn’t completely focused on Garnet). Love Victor was jam packed with side stories and I think even Real O’Neals always had side stories to it. If another show has done this, I’d love to hear, but if Jamie Johnson really has the whole episode dedicated solely to Dillon, I think it’s huge. I only hope it doesn’t mean that the storyline will be forgotten about in the last 4 episodes, but since the head writer of Jamie Johnson is LGBT, I have no doubt they’ll do it justice. Does Jamie Johnson Have the Best LGBT Representation in Kids’ Media? No, I don’t think it does. Andi Mack has 2 seasons where we follow Cyrus on his coming out journey and Steven Universe has a lot more LGBT people, including a non-binary character. But in the aspects Jamie Johnson does well, it excels at. The homophobia storyline(s), and Jamie Johnson’s instagram presence. And having the best developed and best defined character be the one to show kids how to treat gay people. Thursday could be a historic moment for Kids’ television if they do this right, and I think they will. So I hope that everyone enjoys the episode! No, I swear this wasn’t a long promo for the next episode. No, I am not sponsored. Yes, this post was extremely long, I’m really sorry about that. I hope it’s worth the read. If not, don’t worry, this will almost definitely be my longest post. No, I don’t know how to have a “continue reading” button. Does anyone happen to know how? Thanks! Edit: Apparently 4 O Clock club had a gay main character first, so I got that wrong, but I still hold that Jamie Johnson is groundbreaking.

#jamie johnson #delliot #lgbt representation #analysis #long post #Seriously this is a super long post

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dansiere · 4 years

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THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE; Mun & Muse - Meme.

fill out & repost ♥ This meme definitely favors canons more, but I hope OC’s still can make it somehow work with their own lore, and lil’ fandom of friends & mutuals. Multi-Muses pick the muse you are the most invested in atm. tagged by: @breselin, & @citialiin; thank you for the tag! I was planning on stealing it. tagging: @rosiqe, @noirtux, @goldgliitters, @ndeavor, @reminiscentsky, @battleshell, @ettards & whoever else wants to do this. Just steal it & tag me. -- go wild.

My muse is: canon / oc / au / canon-divergent / fandomless / complicated [loosely affiliated mainly due to the fandom’s size. I am quite open to crossovers of any kind, really even if it takes me a while to open up.]

Is your character popular in the fandom? YES / NO. [she is one of the deuteragonists; has been around since the pilot & while she has been sidelined during the epilogue, she was usually at least around with her story arc / actions having a huge impact on the overall story as such.]

Is your character considered hot™ in the fandom? YES / NO / IDK. [I guess so? Then again, that’s an objective statement so I am just? Assuming? I personally find her general aesthetics to be quite amazing; she is a dance battler, graceful & elegant; a ballerina with a classical theme that runs through her design & attitude like a red threat. I have a weak spot for stuff like that.]

Is your character considered strong in the fandom? YES / NO / IDK. [surprisingly, Pearl is considered to be the strongest non-fusion Crystal Gem according to the show (until Lapis Lazuli comes around). -- I assume prowess wise Pearl is high up next to Garnet & Rose whenever she can actually get her crap together due to having fought countless battles &, most importantly, survived the war in which she fought & shattered opponents thrice her size.]

Are they underrated? YES / NO / IDK. [partially yes, partially no. She is controversial for sure but just as popular. At some point, the show delved deeper into her issues & actually had her mess up quite severely; the fandom’s reaction was so harsh that the showrunners had to interfere by “apologizing for making her human”. Pearl has always been a target for extreme criticism; some of it justified, some just straight down ridiculous. -- It’s easy to forget what kind of complexity a character can offer when her resolution arc happens literally ten episodes before the show ends.]

Were they relevant for the main story? YES / NO.

Were they relevant for the main character? YES / NO / THEY’RE THE PROTAG. [Pearl becomes Steven’s guardian / mentor after the death of his mother Rose Quartz & can later be considered his stand-in mother alongside Garnet. It is safe to say that her actions have influenced Steven the most, both negatively & positively.]

Are they widely known in their world? YES / NO. [she earned herself the title ‘The Renegade’ during the war for being the first (& arguably only) pearl that broke out of her conditioning; she used to be a wanted criminal / traitor to her own kind for 5000 + years until her record was cleared upon the beginning of Era 3 (aka official end of the Gem War). She is still being referred to as ‘The Renegade’ now & then; while she used to be proud of the title she has grown to resent it a lot these days.]

How’s their reputation? GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL. [it depends on who you ask; Homeworld Soldiers? Well, they despise her; she is a defective Gem & a war criminal. She stands for all that is wrong with the rebellion; I mean a pearl who refuses to serve & calls herself an individual? a warrior? THE SCANDAL!! Some soldiers are afraid of her, call her ‘Rose Quartz’ terrifying renegade’, even. However, in her ranks aka the rebellion, she is being seen as a silent heroine. A celebrated war hero, Rose Quartz’s right hand & sole confidante (some even whisper that there is more between them).]

How strictly do you follow canon? — uh... well. Not really but... kinda? Steven Universe’s canon is messy & occasionally QUITE inconsistent. -- while it gives you vague details, some lore can best be compared to a gaping void. Thus my reason for partial divergence isn’t lack of good character writing (because Pearl is very, very complex even on screen), but rather inconvenient lore holes & SU’s habit of leaving important facts uncommented, “unshown” or just stuck between the lines. While I don’t mind deep analysis, some of those “buried facts” fly other people’s heads which leads to terrible, terrible fanon takes. -- in order to distance myself from that, I usually take canon & expand it with my own headcanons & metas based on lore / show analysis. I often alter / cut what does not fit my narrative BUT I always root my stuff in actual canon occurrences.

Sometimes, I just straight down change certain things that canon messed up in my pov. For example, in order to make it explicitly clear that she fell in love & rebelled on her own volition (even if it has been confirmed like ten times by now), my Pearl is around 1500 years older than the original & (in)directly served White Diamond before being handed to Pink (not the only reason for that change but well I will elude on it eventually). She was a default pearl with no customization & usually spent most of her time with organizing matters in the palace until Pink accidentally broke her customized pearl; Pearl was then 'poofed’ & handed over; she possessed a more sensible personality & a strict rule protocol that was supposed to help her “raise” Pink Diamond into the ranks of a ruler. Most other changes are rather minor but very important or essential to my portrayal (for example whenever “A Single Pale Rose” is concerned: Pearl suggesting the “sealing of the secret”, her not wearing the dress from the beginning, her not calling Pink “my diamond”, her arguing with Pink long before the fake-shattering took place, etc etc.); the epilogue series is another can of worms I will get to eventually but lemme just say I didn’t really like the way Pearl behaved / the plot-bound ooc-ness she sometimes yielded to & other stuff.

SELL YOUR MUSE! Aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutuals. — well, she is a lesbian space rock from a strange universe; whose body is basically a manifestation of light? She is probably the most passionate being you will ever meet. -- if you are looking for a speedrun through human history, she is your gal. If you need someone to beat up some bullies, she will gladly come & smack sense into people; if you want to learn everything about Gemkind, sit down & listen because she won’t stop talking any time soon.

By definition, Pearl is a good person; the extreme loyal kind, absolutely & helplessly dedicated to a cause. She wears most of her emotions on her sleeve, comes off as genuinely caring, protective & trustworthy. She is empathetic & observant, she will always be there for you in one way or another. She is smart, loves to read & indulges in the higher arts such as (romantic) poetry, singing, painting, music (violin, piano, bass) & dance (predominately classic ballet / waltz but she has grown rather fond of jazz lately). Her knowledge about Earth & all that lays beyond is vast & if you ever want to see whatever is out there, she is the type to take you on a space tour with no questions asked. She fences, has learned to wield a lance, can engineer very well, has a very peculiar but... sorta adorable kind of humour that can either be hella obnoxious or super funny. There is no in-between. Pearl loves science, baking, housekeeping, ice-& roller-skating & is more than willing to take people along whenever she visits the rink. If you ask her for advice, she will gladly give it; if you need help, she will be the first to raise her hand. Pearl is orderly, has a strong sense of justice & a fierce, dedicated kind of resolve.

Now the OPPOSITE, list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?). — Pearl. Is. A. Mess. No questions asked. She is an introverted, nervous, neurotic, grief-- & trauma riddled mess who loves to pretend & rationalize things to death. Her self-esteem is abysmal, she is extremely jealous, obsessive & possessive [to the point where she straight up murdered men just because they dared to be around her girlfriend]. Her mind is a compartmentalized mess of repressed memories & heavy, untreated cptsd woven into it; Pearl lives too much inside her head & gets overwhelmed by her emotions far too easily; she feels too much all at once & lets her temper get the best of her.

She is self-centred, does not seem to understand that words & reckless actions hurt people, believes that only she deserves to grieve Rose & willingly destroyed relationships just to soak in her own misery; self-destruction is her forte & she will indulge in it no matter the consequences. She is often high-strung, judgemental, always has to be right, overachieves & overdoes whenever a chance is given. -- she can be petty, arrogant & desperate for validation. -- Needless to say, Pearl is the kind of person that pretends to be fine for years but once she cracks she reveals that she is anything but. -- she cannot move on, hates men, & just is a lot to deal with. Getting in touch with her means you run the risk to get dragged into her mess, whenever you want it or not.

What inspired you to rp your muse? — first & foremost, my love for complex, purpose-driven female characters. I am a sucker for the “introvert, plagued lady” type & once parts of Pearl’s past were revealed during Season 1 I was sold. Pearl seemed relatable to me, extremely human & raw in her behaviour. While I love most of the SU cast equally, Pearl just wouldn’t let me go. Her aesthetic is amazing, her past intriguing. -- her connection to ballet & classical music, her elegant & graceful design just spoke to me.

What keeps your inspiration going? — music. music. oh, and music. Poetry, long walks (I am not kidding), analysis, meta & hc writing, discussions with writing partners or my rl partner @rosiqe.

Some more personal questions for the mun.

Give your mutuals some insight about the way you are in some matters, which could lead them to get more comfortable with you or perhaps not.

Do you think you give your character justice? YES / NO / I SINCERELY HOPE I DO? [ despite my emo peculiar take on the character, I do hope that people hear her voice whenever they read my replies. ]

Do you frequently write headcanons? YES / NO / SORT OF? [ I wish I could post more but I am very, very slow & a perfectionist at heart. -- I try to compensate for my lack of actual hcs by rambling in my tags. Most part of the time said ramblings include personal headcanons or analyses of specific scenes that include personal takes on pivotal situations; while I gather & write them down eventually, it can take me a long time to get stuff done. -- it is easier for me to jus blabber on & on in the tags. ]

Do you sometimes write drabbles? YES / NO [ all my ask replies are drabbles, ngl. ]

Do you think a lot about your Muse during the day? YES / NO

Are you confident in your portrayal? YES / NO / SORT OF? [... a sore topic. While I love my headcanons & have gotten quite proud of my writing over time, I constantly doubt myself regarding the “ic”-ness of my responses. I like to believe that I am doing rather well, but I am not confident, no. ]

Are you confident in your writing? YES / NO. [ it took me a long time to develop my style; while I always struggle to believe in my portrayal I am quite confident in my writing as such. I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea but in general? I am proud of it. ]

Are you a sensitive person? YES / NO. / SORTA.

Do you accept criticism well about your portrayal? — Well, yes. As long as it is the constructive kind. I love receiving feedback, may it be negative or positive. I will most likely try to discuss criticism with you; aka if you (i.e) tell me that Pearl shouldn’t have (C)PTSD, I will deliver canon proof & state my reasoning for my decision to implement it in my canon, etc. What I will not do is tolerate character hate or unreasonable hate towards my writing. Be assured that I will never headcanon something that has no solid footing in canon.

Do you like questions, which help you explore your character? — ABSOLUTELY. Send me random hc / meta asks, I beg you.

If someone disagrees to a headcanon of yours, do you want to know why? — sure. As stated above, I will probably discuss stuff with you. The chance of me dropping a headcanon however are rather low.

If someone disagrees with your portrayal, how would you take it? — Hm... it depends on what they don’t like. If it’s my writing, well, why are you following me to begin with?? If it is my take on things... well again, why are you following me? I stated in my rules what you should expect & that I will not water down specific aspects of a complex character. Disliking my portrayal is fine since I know that my kind of writing / analysis isn’t necessarily everyone’s tea but... again, why would you keep following me?

If someone really hates your character, how do you take it? — um. Not... well? While I will never excuse my muse’s actions, I dislike groundless bashing. In regard to Pearl... well. As stated above, I expected backlash the second I created this blog. Pearl is one of those characters the fandom either loves or hates; her canon relationship to Rose was branded toxic by a ton of people, people call her uncaring, salty, insane & straight up manic, she seemingly has no redeeming qualities, she is a bitch, too perfect (LOL) or arrogant & apparently has no character? I love it when people say stuff like that because... did we watch the same show? Is there a version of SU I don’t know? Please tell me, I wanna see it for myself! Some hot takes in this fandom are atrocious & make me want to commit a crime.

-- but I digress. I have spent too much time in her tag in 2014 + & I have seen quite the fights over the most ridiculous things; Pearl, in particular, got quite the flack for stuff that eventually got resolved in season 5 [which, again, was way too late but well]. In the end, clowns will be clowns, no matter what you do. I just don’t get why you would follow someone if you hate their character to begin with.

Are you okay with people pointing out your grammatical errors? — yes, but please don’t be rude about it. I am German, English is my second language. I am currently learning Swedish / improving my Swedish so mistakes can always happen. Additionally, I am someone who posts her replies in the middle of the night & while I proofread a lot & most likely fix posts after I posted ‘em, some mistakes can still slip through.

Do you think you are easy going as a mun? — ... I like to believe I am but I know that I am overly passionate & I can come off as too strong or too fierce sometimes. I can be too much, I can be too excentric (I’m a Scorpio, Karen); I have strong opinions in regard to my characters & I will not hold them back. I criticise shows mercilessly & I will plough through canon as much as I please. Stans & I usually don’t get along. HOWEVER, I am a meme. I love lame jokes, I am awkward, & sometimes very, very insecure. In the end, I just wanna talk about my favourite characters & develop sth wonderful. I keysmash unironically, I use old memes unironically. I mean I have been writing for ten + years & I am about to smooth sail post the 24 age border aka I will turn 25 soon which renders me old according to tumblr standards. I am just here to have fun before the staff comes to lock my account down due to my status as an rp-senior. -- yeah... that is the kind of stupid ass humor I mean. I digress but... please, I am an awkward, rambling mess, just hit me up via dms & you will see what I mean.

#[[ this took me way too long honestly but I finally did it. If you find some spelling or grammar errors keep 'em. I got tired #njfuwefhe but yeah if you need some blog data?? This is prob your best bet ]]#ooc. 𝗮 𝘄𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝘀𝗻𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗱.

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adecila · 5 years

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Game of Thrones – 8x04 “The Last of the Starks” episode analysis – or who the fuck ever let D&D write stuff

You know I am pretty much like this dude here –

so I will be the woman to lead this ship or so help me all the old gods and the new.

Spoilers, d’uhh.

Aftermath - but everyone has their wardrobe on fleek, hair looking fab and they even had time to clean the entire field of Winterfell

The episode starts with the funeral pyre and how DARE you make me love Jorah even more and twist the knife in my heart. And did you have to show me Theon, Beric, Edd’s and Lyanna’s bodies???

RUDE.

Jon is doing a big speech and it is nice and drove the sobbing further, but I get it this is Jon’s turf so he has to be the one making the big speech. That is such a Dany thing though, and I can’t help to think, when put into perspective with the rest of the episode, that it’s yet again a thing Dany has lost. But more on that later.

The pyres are lit, sad music, more sobbing from me. OOOPS BUT DID YOU CATCH THAT JONERYS EXCHANGE OF LOOKS? Because I did! I can’t help but think how he looks at her for reassurance and she feels it and she turns and she is just.so.broken. And then she cries and I cry again.

A feast for crows the survivors

And then we get a feast and suddenly everyone is happy and stuff… ok, I guess life goes on. Maybe Sandor’s crass remark, under the guise of a funny moment, was meant to make us think on it. But maybe that’s too deep for D&D who the fuck knows.

Let’s talk about Gendry’s legitimisation.

Dany does it quite publicly, and small exchange between her and Tyrion makes sense. Honestly, if she hadn’t done it herself then and there, it would have come up at a later point, but with 2 episodes left there’s no time. S.ansa does her shady looks because she throws shade and Bran just stares into the void smh.

In which I am the Hound unimpressed and eating his chicken.

Davos x Tyrion

The Lord of Light fucked off into the sunset when he saw D&D’s piss poor writing and honestly same. He probably fucked off when he saw Melisandre was still getting his prophecies wrong.

Every time S.ansa comes into frame my soul leaves my body a bit more because whY THO.

Tyrion x Bran the 3ER

Cool beans Bran, that’s how you use you abilities? OMG JOJEN FUCKING DIED FOR YOU–

“I mostly live in the past now” - to me this means Bran has become this empty shell of a man and he just visits the past and checks out cool shit. It’s like a kid who gets access to YouTube for the first time. Heck he can even see his dad or whoever else he misses if he feels anything at all now. Because if he doesn’t even have “wants” then? What was the point of it all? God I swear the writers will not rest until they will have reduced all characters to tropes and empty shells of their former selves.

Tormund and the gang around Jon; Tyrion with Jaime ; Dany alone

This scene right here was the beginning of the end. Remember when Tormund was a dude who was in awe by strong women? D&D don’t. He suddenly is so far up Jon’s ass nothing could take him out. Guess it pays off for him in the end since Jon just gifts him Ghost.

S.ansa just fucking stop OMG PLEASE STOP WITH THE FUCKING LOOKS JFC.

But where was Missandei??? Why was Dany alone? And what the fuck was that look, VArYs?? Someone give Dany a hug because my god the isolation is real. Fuck. STOP. TAKING. EVERYTHING. FROM HER.

Never have I ever… thought the writers would stoop so low but here we are

So it’s all fun and games until it isn’t.

Poor Tormund. Jaime never deserved Brienne and that’s a fact.

And the mystery of Willa, the sassy Northern girl has been solved! Bless!!!

SanSan, but with more misogynistic undertones than you ever thought

Yeah you know what, I am not touching this scene. Fuck D&D for daring to say that.

Gendrya - or the moment Gendry decided to pull a Ted Mosby

I feel so bad OMG they did this ship so dirty. However. Arya saying that was expected. But I call bullshit on her never rethinking her decision. Girl’s got a list and she just can’t NOT try to finish it, I mean, wouldn’t you? After you killed such a big boss as the NK?

At the same time, they would be trying for faux feminism, pulling a Arya doesn’t need a man to be happy. Guess the sex was just to try it? Wow can you believe they cheapened this ship and that beautiful moment like that?

I’m so sorry babies, you deserved much better. Guess Gendry was always meant to have his heart broken by a Stark girl once he became a Baratheon. Wow.

Weirdly enough!!! And spoiler maybe?? Leak? Idk. But I feel like Gendrya will prevail (also because she looks heartbroken to reject him like that…). When asked if Gendrya will rule the 7K, Friki said no, these two aren’t made for ruling anything. For what’s worth, Friki mentioned he does know Arya’s endgame and shebis confirmed alive in the Dragon Pit in 8x06 :)

Oathsex

Uff yeah I did not like that. It felt wrong in the context and it felt cheap and I…. yeah IDK. And then Jaime leaves. He could have at least told Brienne that he is he only one who can kill Cersei or IDK, but not leave her like that. Jeesh dude my poor Knight, she is gutted by him.

Jonerys makeout and chat and hey who wanted angst? Turn on your location I just wanna chat.

Sooo flip side: I somehow, for the second time, predicted a thing in my fic. HOWEVER D&D keep only getting half my fics because GURL DID YOU NOT GET THE SMUT MEMO? AND THE FLUFF MEMO?

So Dany goes to find Jon, again, who is tipsy, and Jon suddenly remembers to give Dany some comfort for having lost Jorah…

The set up for Dany saying ILY it’s a bit .. ehh. But her actual words: “He loved me, but I couldn’t love him back, not the way he wanted it. Not the way I love you. Is that alright?”

A+ scene. I love how he can’t help himself and as soon as she is in his arms’ range he just pulls her into him, BEFORE she asks “Is that alright?”.

Uff emo side note here, this scene and this phrase reminded me of this song. Listen and sob. you’re welcome.

On that depressive note, wow that make out tho. Two things I learned from this scene: 1 - Jon is horny drunk, which same; and 2 - Jon is a tiddies guy like he dove in and went for the tiddies, which also same. Am I Jon? Is this why I keep guessing his fucking reactions but D&D won’t give me the rest????? We’ll never know.

And… then Jon stops and pulls back. And I KNOW that in the BTS we are told he is disgusted or whatever along those lines, but to me?? That look means he is CONFLICTED. And listen, if y’all wanted it to make it to mean "disgusted" then you should have made Kit do it differently since YOU KNOW HE WAS FAKE GAGGING TO EMILIA EVERY OTHER MINUTE. YOU CAN’T KEEP ADDING SHIT LATER YOU FUCKING DUMBASSES YOU EITHER PUT IT IN THE ACTUAL SHOW AND THE ACTUAL ACTING OR STFU.

But I guess to me that rejection was more for the general audience than for us. C’mon he clearly loves her, his dick was so hard he was about to nut then and there. Stop bringing your 21st century considerations into a feudalistic fantasy where you have Royals and dragons. Also FUCK YOU VARYS BECAUSE EVEN IN THE NORTH AUNT AND NEPHEW MARRIED SO FUCK YOU BALDIE.

I digress. Then Dany echoes what Jon himself thinks/said - wishing she would have never known. And then we get something that I felt when she was alone and sad at the feast. “I saw the way they looked at you. I know that look; the same way people looked at me, but never on this side of the sea” - yeah so I need a break.

This here - cemented for me what I think the show is doing: stripping everything away from Dany: her armies, her children, her people and the love her people have for her… then Jon. And I don’t mean that as in the sense of some bullshit fleak. No, I mean it in the context of this episode. Because Jon never says I love you back (and maybe @normalisjustafairytale is right and Jon is afraid to say it after Ygritte), and he rejects her, and he says he can’t NOT tell his sisters, even if Dany begs him not to. So in a sense, for now at least, Jon is being taken away from her. So you have all this isolation and losing and losing and then what does she have left? The only constant in her life? The fucking Iron Throne. Because at the moment there is nothing else for her and she probably feels like she will be nothing without it. Hence why she presses to go and take Cersei down. I won’t lie to you, it is cheap writing and very lame and honestly I have read fics a million times better than this bullshit, but they will, at one point, hit us with the boatie reveal, and when that happens, and when Jon fucking finally pulls through and stands by her side, she will have something else, a different constant in life. Moreover, because she realises that the people here in Westeros will never love her, she will have even more of a reason to bow out, say a big fuck you, take her boatie and her hubs and get to her house with the red door.

This is not just wishful thinking, it is very much D&D, and they will of course “humble the powerful woman” (I puked in my mouth by writing that). But also, my consolation is that with this episode, heck even the people who weren’t necessarily her fans, are on her side and asking her to burn KL down. Which I don’t think she would, but more on that in a different post. God this post is already long.

*bathroom break*

BAck. Then Dany echoes what I also said in my fic ugh I hate myself what we all know and are thinking: it doesn’t matter if Jon doesn’t want it; it matter that there are people out there (fucking S.ansa jfc this fucking UGGHDGugduzdahidfg) who don’t like Dany and will support Jon immediately over her. She is right and he is stupid for not seeing it.

I guess I also got my bending the knee from my fic. Kinda. FUCK.ME.

I cannot believe that my Queen had to BEG him and Jon had to be so naive. BOY DID YOU NOT UNDERSTAND THE LESSON FROM YOUR FATHER? Two can keep a secret is one of them is dead, Jonno. Did you not watch Pretty Little Liars??? Why the fuck do you think Ned Stark didn’t tell his wife?? LMAO she would have sold him just like S.asnsa blabbed on you, guess the J___sas were right, it was a bit of a Ned x Cat parallel, probably Cat would have sold Ned also in a fucking instant. Dany is absolutely right. This shit cannot be contained because you don’t know how people would react to it.

“She’s not the girl you grew up with” … BOOM.

I love how he cradles her face into his hands MY FUCKING HEART MY HEART.

Pause. The part where she begs remind me of this traumatic moment:

… fuuuuck. Anyway.

And I love how she turns the tables on him. But Jon… is still Jon for plot reasons I guess. Maybe he didn’t understand why Ned had to keep the secret for so many years.

The end of the Northern plot - BYE NO ONE WILL MISS YOU

The Starks can choke. They are cancelled.

Yeah no. Bye. Fuck S.ansa or Sandra, who the fuck this OOC shitty ass character is. Fuck every single one of them. Wow, emotional manipulation at its finest. I just love how they basically called this episode the last of the Starks because they just character assassinated all of them. Edit: LMAO you know what this is? The shitty family that pulls over one member and tries to break him up with his wife, for the sole reason they don't like her. Because fuck their brother's happiness. Because they are fucking selfish people.

Jaime x Tyrion x my headache

Let’s add to the list of cancelled people Jaime and Tyrion just for that fucking chat.

“I will pay you double” ex machina, and that’s how the Bronn issue is solved. Just as Friki said, btw.

Arya x The Hound

So I guess Arya just fucking lies through her teeth now smh, since she was guilt trippig JON JUST MOMENTS AGO and she just up and leaves BECAUSE FUCK FAMILY I GUESS

Tyrion is suddenly afraid of Dany so I guess we are supposed to excuse Sandra’s petty shady jealous ass

Sandra is fucking jealous and insane. Littlefinger will be proud. Her face though. This fucking bitch doesn’t like that he is a Targaryen LMFAO she is scheming so hard bahahahahah

She is fucking cancelled. They murdered her character the moment they took her out of the Vale. FIGHT ME ON THIS I FUCKING DARE YOU.

Jon x Tormund x Ghost - say your goodbyes

Hey hey hey so that line where Jon belongs in the North? The real North, which for Tormund is North of the Wall since he calls Winterfell the South? Guess where those waterfalls from 8x01 are?

Jon is the worst dog owner KILL ME.

Fucking Sam Tarly

Jon was like yeah no don’t name your kid after me. Interesting how he could tell from a hug that Gilly was pregnant. Hope Dany starts showing soon *wink wink boatie is still coming*

The IT or Southern plot

Tyrion x Varys

I cannot wait for Varys to die. Like, he is spewing inaccurate information and then, he is suddenly against Dany and suddenly only Jon is a war hero. Just because he has a dick. Fuck D&D and their sexist asses Also VArys keeps talking about the realm LMAO YOU KNOW WHAT I SEE? I see kings dying all around you, and the only constant it’s you. Who is the problem, I wonder?

Euron ex machina

Makes no fucking sense. But I guess nobody cares anymore.

Yeah I screamed when Rhaegal died. And I screamed again with Dany.

I guess Dany couldn’t just fly behind Euron’s ship and roast them all for plot reasons.

Dragonstone mess

Fuck you, Varys. And fuck you, Tyrion. Not you, Greyworm, ILY *hugs tightly*

BONUS: FUCK YOU JAIME FUUUUUCK YOU FOR LEAVING BRIENNE LIKE THAT. BYE BITCH GOOD RIDDANCE.

King’s Landing mess & the shitty ass parley that even Captain Sparrow could have organised better

Ew how much time has it passed since Cersei is already claiming to be preggers?

“So much for the breaker of chains” - is again, a sign they are trying to strip Dany of everything she has and is.

Tyrion and Qyburn - ew, but also Qyburn has a point, why would Cersei surrender? Oh and I think the point to save Rhaegal from the NK only for him to die at the hands of Euron is to further handicap Dany and make the Cersei threat real, and have a reason to keep Drogon away from KL - HAVE YOU ALL SEEN THE SCORPIONS EVERYWHERE?

Ugh Tyrion stop trying to get Cersei to love you LMFAO she doesn’t. But I know, it is hard to break from toxic relationships and abusers. Tyrion told Cersei “you are not a monster” and she literally went “HOLD MY BEER”.

Missandei’s death made me sick to my stomach and traumatised me for life. We should all collectively agree to NEVER give D&D our attention again and never let them write anything again.

Missandei hatefully spewing DRACARYS as her last words was so strong it made me start crying because holy shit this was a peaceful person, and for her to show this much hate and rage was so gutting… fuck me. I am crying again. I think she also meant, besides from the obvious, “there is no reasoning with these people, so why bother. Might as well blow it the fuck up.”

And Grey’s reaction wow - again, I was about to puke, despite the scene not being the most gorey on GoT, but it was so intrinsically and viscerally wrong my mind could not deal.

In conclusion

Poor Dany, she has lost everything. EVERYTHING. She is literally at her lowest. After the discussion with Jon, she slipped back the Queen mask - like you can pinpoint the moment she does so! And she keeps it on in front of everyone else but her dragons.

I am expecting a very very cold (but very fragile inside) Dany in 8x05. I am expecting her to push Jon away. Oh and at the ending of 8x04 she totally just gets up on Drogon and goes back to Dragonstone. No way she does anything yet so soon.

I haven’t watched any of the BTS and Making of videos, nor have I watched the 8x05 promo. Will do soon.

Stay strong, jonerys is still going strong. I am here until the very end and I still think this will end with jonerys together. Will it be good writing? Nope. But it will end well. As I keep saying. We’re missing the “sweet” in this fucking “bittersweet” shit show. Stop saying it ends badly because of 8x03.

If you need me, you know where to find me. Image of me in the fandom. Except I charge nothing.

Oh and PS: FUCK D&D.

#got spoilers #got spoilers 8x04 #got 8x04 analysis #game of thrones

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shewasanamericangirl · 5 years

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kamen rider 555 review

kamen rider 555, also known as kamen rider faiz, sure is a show. it’s a show about humanity. about how we decide our sense of right and wrong. about the choices made when we weigh our lives against those of others.

a secret struggle is at hand. people vanish mysteriously, leaving no trace. bizarre grey creatures appear and attack. every now and then, those who have died--or by all means should have died--are seen still up and walking around.

to put the situation far more simply than does it justice, humanity is evolving--and yet, the change isn’t nearly as profound as it appears.

plot: the story of 555 is dense and dynamic. there isn’t filler, there’s no gag episodes, it just keeps moving forward. there were a lot of days while watching it that i only felt up for one half-hour episode, just because so much happened in it. a lot of worldbuilding fits into those 25 hours, and yet i was still left wondering more about how it all works. at the heart of this story are the philosophical and moral themes--and it doesn’t really try to push any aesops on you; it’s up to you how you feel about the choices made and the outcomes thereof.

characters: 555 has a lot of characters, many of which are wonderfully developed and genuine. (kyuranger, i love you, but a huge cast is no excuse for uneven characterization!) there are characters to love and hate intensely, and there are plenty who’ll probably just make you go “meh”. collectively, they are all fundamentally human--a concept this story begs the definition of. my favorite characters are the taciturn takumi inui, the strong-willed mari sonoda, and the softhearted yuji kiba.

visuals: what a very grey world--which is thematically fitting, i guess. even the most sunny and colorful scenes feel clouded. the suits are bold and striking in design. the riders’ transformations are simple, but damn cool. the CGI isn’t great compared to what we’re spoiled with in neo-heisei rider, but 555 doesn’t rely on it to the extent that that gets in the way of enjoying the show.

fights: i suppose if i went back with a fine-toothed comb, i could probably pick out a couple of fights that are skippable, but in general every fight in the story adds to the plot. most of faiz’s powers didn’t particularly make an impression on me. his accel form, though, that was cool--it lets him move at the speed of sound for 10 seconds, allowing him to land many attacks in a very short time. the fights themselves didn’t particularly blow my mind, but this series doesn’t run on cool beatdowns as much as it does on human drama--which the fights are steeped with.

music: i’m listening to the soundtrack right now, actually. the music’s good, but i don’t think much of it’s going to stick with me, to be honest. the opening theme, “justifaiz”, is a jam, but what i really love about it is how meaningful the lyrics are--each episode, i’d find myself reading the translation of them and contemplating how the words relate to the storyline. that one phrase, “the end justifaiz the means”, invokes the machiavellian themes i’ve picked up on in a lot of heisei rider; you could definitely get a lot of material for a machiavellian analysis of 555.

subs: hoping for something a little more viewer-friendly than tv-nihon, i decided to give agony’s 555 subtitle project a shot. i’m not a fan. there’s a lot of typos, and some of the translation choices for nuances such as honorifics and that oh-so-tricky term “senpai” didn’t convey what was being said so well. it was usually clear enough to understand, though the occasional caption did leave me going “uh, what?” i can’t recommend the agony sub.

my tokusatsu reviews often have me gushing with excitement over cheery, silly, brightly-colored series. on finishing kamen rider 555, my feelings were sad and contemplative. much like the desaturated visuals, that’s what’s appropriate for this story. if you’re up for a weighty and meaningful science-fiction tokusatsu that’ll make you think and feel, faiz is an excellent choice.

what defines “humanity”? what makes someone “human” or “inhuman”? what traits does that encompass? you may have clearer answers to those questions after watching kamen rider 555.

out of curiosity, i’ve already gotten a 4-episode jump on my next watch-alone tokusatsu series: mirai sentai timeranger, another yasuko kobayashi season of super sentai. i watched 555 on @shylax‘s recommendation, and timeranger is another favorite of his. i already love sion to bits, and yuuri is the coolest!

#kamen rider 555 #kamen rider faiz

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tidustargaryen · 5 years

Video

youtube

Pourquoi la Saison 8 de Game of Thrones est Décevante

Why the Game of Thrones season 8 is disappointing

The video is in French but I really like the analysis of the writing, or the bad writing rather, of the showrunners, so I will translate the text as best as I can. Some French expressions do not exist in English, and vice versa, so I hope everything will make sense.

All that is in parenthesis and italics will be my thoughts on what he said in the video, all that is between ** and italics will be interesting passages during the video that accompanies his text.

It's long, sorrynotsorry :p

------------------------------

There was a lot of hope for this season 8, the final season of the biggest series of the moment. And necessarily who says hope, said disappointment, but this disappointment it does not come out of nowhere. It's not just a spectator affair not happy because they did not have the end they wanted. Yes the season has undeniable qualities, whether in terms of production, photography, music or special effects that are just impressive. But also suffers from a lack of writing, and it is because of these faults that some of the spectators did not so much hang *Benioff who said "Dany kinda forgot the iron fleet ..." *

So these different writing problems can be grouped into four points:

I - Change of the writing process

The last seasons of GoT are not written in the same way as the first seasons that followed the plot of the books, there is a thread on twitter that explains that pretty well, so I'll summarize it and add some examples.

To put it simply, there are two methods for writing stories, one is the “Plotters” and and the other is the “Pantsers". Each of that methods had its advantages but also its disadvantages that the authors tries to regulate during the rewriting.

The “Plotters” (like J.K. Rowling) write a detailed story plan in advance, so they have more ability to write effective storylines, but their characters can sometimes be bland and puppet of the plot, we can say that the plot is the engine of the characters.

The "Pantsers" discover the story as they write it, wondering how such a character would react to such situation. They are therefore easier to write realistic characters. The flaw of this method is that sometimes the characters can sometimes become entangled in sinuous intrigues, and the author may find it difficult to relate all of this to a satisfactory conclusion. We can say that the characters are the engine of the plot.

GRRM is an excellent "pantser", according to him, write a story is like cultivating a garden, he plants seeds of characters and lets them grow, and that's why each plot, each surprise, is so effective, everything that happens to the characters is the consequence of their past choices. The problem is that, his garden gradually escape him, and the author is struggling to get by to write the rest, it is difficult to take some characters where they should be for the rest of the history. He often gives the example of Daenerys who is stuck in Meereen, and G.R.R.M does not want to use abrupt or forced resolution to have her go to Westeros.

But let's go back to the show, for the last two seasons the showrunners did not follow the method of Martin, who did not succeed them anyway, and they acted in plotters, they gave themselves 13 episodes to conclude the series and they thought about the different elements and the strong moments that they wanted to integrate, where they want the characters to finish, what did the audience want to see, how to surprise them, etc. They did a sort of end "specifications" for the show, for example, for season 8:

- Arya kills the Night King

- Daenerys goes crazy

- Jon kills Daenerys

- Bran becomes King

It only remains to connect all this. So they took the characters where they wanted them to be, physically and emotionally, the problem is that this change in writing process is not without consequences and it is felt for the viewer.

In the first seasons, the characters created their own destiny, their actions seemed logical, true to their character, and they suffered the consequences of their actions. But in these last two seasons, instead of being the engines of the plot the characters have become the puppets of the showrunners, and that's why some characters seem to be only the shadow of themselves *Baelish trial extract*, it's pretty visible with Jon Snow who has clearly become a "duck" in the last season. But where it is most striking is with the character of Tyrion, who has lost all his genius and who has become the worst advisor in the world.

List of rotion tips from Tyrion:

- Make peace with slave cities

- Do not attack KL directly

- Attack by surprise Casterly Rock

- Go get a wight beyond the wall

- Etc ..

Consequences :

Loss of soldiers, cities, allies and a dragon.

But really the worst advisor, he only advised bullshits. Just look at the Tyrion of the first seasons for a few minutes to instantly see the difference.

Generally speaking, when "intelligent" characters are in fact more stupid than spectators, it is because there is a concern for writing. * from an interview with Tyrion saying "they are in a crypt, no one has thought of that, he can revive the dead, and they put women and children in a crypt! With all the corpses! So ... Tyrion is intelligent, but not so smart as that I suppose. "

But back to our favorite "plotters" to reach the main point of the plot that was the transformation of Daenerys into "Mad Queen", Daenerys had to be greatly weakened, and at the end of season 6, when she comes to Westeros, she is all-powerful with her three dragons, her armies, and her allies, and so she and all the characters around her are "forced" to make unusually bad decisions, though Daenerys does, she listens her advisors or not, it ends very badly for her.

There was no winning scenario for Daenerys.

In the level of debility of the characters, the season 7 also offered us a magnificent expedition beyond the wall, with a ridiculous motivation, in order to take a wight to Cersei to prove to her the existence of the threat, the real reason for all this was to offer a dragon to the Night King (and also for the fanservice), because the plot needed the Wight Walkers to cross the wall, and besides, Cersei had nothing to do with it, so it was totally useless (But this bring beautiful pictures).

And what the series shows us is that she was quite right to not care (lol) because they did not need her at all, the union of all men ( Jon speech) all this, useless. Just a little dagger well placed ...

II - Show > Logic

The second annoying point of this season is that logic and consistency are often sacrificed in the name of the show and the surprise. For example, at the military strategy level we have seen a lot of debility, whether it is to put the soldiers in front of the walls, and the catapults in front of the soldiers, or the front charge of the Dothraki against the Army Of The Dead, it’s true that it was pretty plans ... Another choice that, in my opinion, was made to shock and be spectacular, it is the burning of the city of KL by Daenerys. The problem is not the madness of Daenerys, besides I think it's a very good idea in terms of plot and character (not to me ... already done => Cersei), no problem is the degrees of this madness and it is that it is very sudden, the tumble goes very fast and especially very far, it almost seems that it is a switch in mode On / Off *genes targaryen: Off / On *

Let's get back to her character, what we learned from her in all these seasons is that she is totally ruthless to her enemies (like many other characters ...), but she is is also merciful to the innocent (much less other characters are ... lol) her character could be summed up in that. And so in KL, once the city surrenders, she begins to slaughter innocent people, whereas she does not kill them before the bells ring. So, if I understood correctly, it's the fact that they surrender to make her want to kill everyone ... Logic. Even her father, the Mad King, had a much better motive for burning the city, KL was being sacked by Tywin's army and so the Mad King had lost the war, destroying was the desperate gesture of a king who had already lost everything and did not want to leave anything to his enemies (the logical reaction that should have had Cersei ...) and in addition he thought to be reborn as a dragon so there was a gain for him, while for Daenerys, there is no gain for her, there is no reason to slaughter the population, except to make a beautiful demonstration of special effects (and push people to hate her and give a reason to kill her). There was, however, a way to have her massacre innocent while keeping the consistency of the character. Daenerys could have simply refused the surrender and rushed to the Red Keep to kill Cersei, and too bad for the innocents inside, in clear, that she forgets her mercy to punish Cersei *without burning the whole city* that would have been consistent. You may think I'm quibbling, but for me it's important that the characters are treated well.

III - Realism

The third fault of this writing that I would like to raise is a change in the internal logic of the series. We often hear GoT is a series that wants to surprise the viewer, and shock, as we have seen with the execution of Ned Stark, the main character of season 1. Yet if we dig a little, the desire to the saga has never been to surprise, to jostle the tropes of fantasy yes, but not to surprise in itself. In the first seasons, those that followed the books, the surprise was just a consequence of the internal logic of this universe, realism. In the early seasons there was a cold realism, a political realism, *George: "Art must reflect life"* As I said earlier, when a character made a mistake, he paid the consequences *Robb and the red wedding* have far-reaching consequences, and that's what surprised the viewer because it's something we're not used to seeing. In the fantasy stories, we have been used to the fact that the moral hero is untouchable, invulnerable, and even when everything seems lost, he was always saved at the last moment (as in season 8 for Arya and Jon, plot armor very strong) but in GoT, it did not work like that (Except in season 8 lol except for Dany: '() each action had its consequences, and even for the most moral of all heroes, the scenario never came to their rescue, and that's what works, and what was even better was that the events that surprised us so much at the time, we could have seen them coming, we should have seen them come even, so much they were a logical consequence of what had happened. *Red Wedding extract*

In the first seasons, the surprise was a consequence of the realism whereas in season 8 the surprise is a consequence of ... of ... the surprise ...

*Dany kinda forgot the iron fleet ..*

This is the choice made by the showrunners, they want to surprise the audience, shock them, make the series unpredictable, even if the logic and consistency suffers, but something surprising is not necessarily good (now they know it lol but it's too late for GoT fans ...) all events must be logical and coherent with the characters, and this realism that was part of the identity of the first seasons of GoT what it becomes in season 8? Well it was a little slaughtered ...

We have seen characters in impossible situations, for example during the battle of Winterfell, on many levels it seems that the characters are literally overwhelmed by the army of the dead and yet they get along ... no doubt thanks with their armor +8 in scenarium. It's as if these situations did not really have consequences (some shots, the characters are overwhelmed and get out while Jorah and Dany have a lot fewer deads than the others who attack them and yet Jorah dies ???? ???) *Jon overwhelm by the dead, the plan just after show him attack the dead, but there are far fewer around him than before ....* And it's the same for Daenerys's army, which is slaughtered during the first charge. All the lights of the Arakhs go out, but in the end, that's fine, we're taught in the following episode that only the half of the manpower was destroyed, coherence level ...

And then the burial of realism comes with the scene of Bran's election to the throne, well I will not talk about the fact that it has nothing to do with his character's arc of the Tree Eyed Raven who does not want the power, let us also forget that there are little Lords who have nothing to do in these deliberations *Brienne, Davos, etc*

So why the great Lord of Westeros who must elect a King choose Bran Stark? These great Lords, who logically are supposed to defend their personal interests, and not the people's (not like Dany would have done it! Like Tyrion telling Jon about the usefulness of the Night's Watch now: "It must be a place for the bastards and broken things to go "... Nice your new world ...) These Lords who are mostly ambitious, how they were able to agree to put Brandon Stark on the throne, in addition Tyrion's arguments are completely nul, that's how, logically, it should have happened:

*Editing in the video : Tyrion says: "And who had a better story, than Bran the Broken ..." After a few seconds, all the Lords laugh out loud *

In a realistic situation, the one who has the biggest army and the strongest alliances should have claimed the throne for himself/herself (like Robin the capricious child who controls the Knights of the Vale or Dorne who does not implied in no war before and has its army intact ((yes Ellaria swear loyalty to Dany and was attacking by Euron, but her army did not leave Dorne)), even Yara could have tried something ... but...ok...) or they all agreed to declare the independence of each kingdom, but no, all these great Lords have become angels who want the good of all (it's not the GoT that was sold to me ... lol It is well known, the nobles always do good for the common people). In addition they accept the independence of the North without saying anything, without even asking the same thing. So we have a Stark Queen of the North, another Stark King of the 6 Kingdoms, everything is fine, in terms of political realism, that’s sucks, and that's where we see that the change of writing has been radical over the seasons. In the end, this internal logic of realism, which was the strength of the series in the early seasons was swept and so it is not surprising that many fans of the first hour are disappointing.

The show conclude on a rather classic happy ending (if you think this has a happy ending, you have not paying attention ... it's hilarious this meme now lol) for the remaining 4 Stark, then is it a bad end? (Yes !!!!) It depends on what you are looking for as a spectator, in the same way that there is different type of author, there is also different type of spectator, there are those who are more in the analysis, which gives great importance to the plot and the internal coherence of the story, and there are those who are more in the emotional, who are attached to the characters and therefore relieve that they have a positive end (I totally agree, for me it's the consistency that is essential, I do not find any logic when I look at the last two seasons compared to the first six seasons , so it's a very bad end for me , besides, my favorite character was massacred ... so ...)

No end could have satisfied everyone (but here they still screw up the entire show lol)

IV - Rushed

Last but not least, there were too few episodes to conclude a story of this magnitude, everything goes too fast (too little dialogue, and too much weakness in those that we had) the war against the Wights Walkers was prepared during 7 seasons, we were told and repeated that it was the real war, that all the others were futile *Jon in front of Cersei and his speech on the only war that matter...* Almost all the plot of the season 7 is about the AOTD, and finally in the season 8 the threat is wiped out from the first battle (it was impossible to fight the battle for few days honestly, they could not have held long against the Night King, and all the Wighs Walkers and the dead, I would have preferred a massacre in Winterfell, and some characters who runs thanks to the remaining dragons or on foot, we were promised a slaughter, in the end, very few deaths during the battle, the slaughter took place at KL, but that on extras ... I will have seen a bittersweet end with almost all Westeros decimate, very few humans left, and a magical way thanks to Bran and his abilities to kill the Night King and his army. But well ...) the threat of Wights Walkers is destroyed in the first battle, and without much loss. The impression that this gives is that, in the end, Wight Walkers were not so dangerous that it was enough of a little dagger well placed. (Also have no answer on all the symbols etc ... it will be necessary to watch the prequel to know ... The answers should have been in the show, with a number of more important episodes!)

It's a shame, this war would have deserved a whole season.

In the last two seasons there are also very brutal ellipses, sometimes incoherent * Dany who will help beyond the wall, she arrives, despite the distance, in time to save the team Jon ... * the showrunners take sometimes big shortcut, by example Varys treason seems instantaneous and premature and barely 5 minutes later he is burned. And the worst is the madness of Daenerys, which is too sudden, not progressive enough (and illogical for the character, from my point of view), and seems a little artificial.

The most frustrating thing is that HBO was up for more episodes, but the showrunners decided to do just 13 we do not know why (Star Wars? XD I sympathize for you the fans ^^)

We would have loved to have more episodes and in addition it would have allowed to develop the intrigues, not to give an impression of sloppy end.

Too bad there were good ideas in this season, Daenerys who goes crazy is a very good idea (still not agree ...), the Stark who unite to defeat the Night King was also a good idea ( you forget Dany there ... without her ... without her they would all be dead and it would be much better!). The problem is not the big choice of plot (except Mad Queen Dany ...), it's how they are developed, too suddenly, everything goes too fast and seems to misuse, and as it's GoT and that we love this show, we would like so much better (especially when the fans invest so much money in the show ...)

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I do not translate the end because even if it's a very good series as he says, the end completely ruin the good seasons for me, if I want to watch the first 6 seasons in the future, I always have in the head the horrible ending and I will have one desire, it is turn off my TV from the first episode. Having Daenerys as a favorite character, seeing her abused, raped, used and then seeing her get up, become stronger, become a queen, and know how it ends for her ... no thanks. But it's not only Dany, the other characters have also suffered a massacre, coherence, logic and realism have been slaughtered in favor of surprise and spectacle.

I could have summed it up in one word, or two: Hollywood, Money.

#daenerys targaryen #video youtube #anti got #anti d&d #bad showrunners #bad writers #tyrion lannister #jon snow #george r.r. martin

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ralfstrashcan · 5 years

Text

3x19 Reaction / Commentary

I didn't even skip breakfast today, it's almost as if I'm a real functioning adult ahahaha.

SDFALFJSKLDFJASDF I'M ALREADY A MESS

Ngl those first few shots made me think I had fallen headfirst into a zombie apocalypse movie. Wind swooshing through the speakers, no living soul in sight, no cars driving, just Magnus walking along the street, on the Boulevard of Broken Dreams hahahahaha sorry I'll stop.

Wow what a jerk.

There's been so many hilarious jokes about the “What fool summoned you” line, and my favorite one will forever remain this.

So, points to Magnus for asking, minus points for buying this shit not-sound-at-all story. Even “fatherly love” can't just screw the laws of nature, okay, Magnus shouldn't just skim over this. Then again I can definitely cut him slack on this because he is a little preoccupied with other problems at the moment.

Listen, Magnus's body language throughout this whole scene (and also throughout the sneak peek we saw for 3x20) is so expressive. Imma skim over it because I plan to do a thorough Relationship / Scene Analysis for Magnus and Asmodeus, so let me just leave this picture here uncommented.

No wait, I have a question. Isn't Magnus's magic occupied with guarding Lilith's home? Did Asmodeus pick it up before summoning himself or did he call it just now? Also, does Asmodeus know that Lilith is on the loose? Then again, is she even? Because no Shadowhunter can be bothered to look for her and she did say that she wanted to go back to Edom... but that was probably a lie to get Cain to cooperate. And how could she even send herself back to Edom? So many questions. Anyway moving on because who cares about Lilith.

Magnus's face when he gets his magic back. ....................yes I have no witty words here, sorry.

Lol okay I have. I love this scene, I absolutely LOVE Magnus's face and how expressive it is, but I've also been dreaming of an epic eye-sparkling, energy-crackling mid-battle-scene where Magnus regains his magic for uhhhh almost a year now, and in terms of dramatic-ness this was pretty anti-climactic. And I think we can agree he won't lose his magic again and then get it back in a more dramatic fashion. Also where are his cat eyes I feel cheated.

I mean, come on, even he gets to show them!! Btw what a dick cunning move to use them to manipulate Magnus. Since they made a compelling argument the first time around.

Also LOL Asmodeus playing nice for one second and when Magnus denies him he immediately shows his hand with “I won't take no for an answer.” Man has no patience XD

Finally I wanna give a huge HUGE shout out to Magnus for resisting Asmodeus becuase can you even imagine how low he must be feeling and yet he has enough presence of mind left to realize that whatever comfort Asmodeus offers can't be true, there must be a hook and it's best to stay away. Dude what strength.

“I only lost sight of her for a minute.” “Enough time for the Evil Rune to have taken hold.”

Uuuhhhh since when?? Did they also go to the bathroom together before?? Did I miss that?? I mean, sure, Clary was drifting sometimes, but she spent a whole half episode in the same cell as Jonathan with Jace “away” behind the glass wall and out of her sight, so...... yeah. This is a little sudden.

She keeps saying that but we have yet to see her actually filter anything. #nofilter

“No one can hurt us if we get to Morning Star first. And once we have that sword the entire world will be terrified of us....”

So he wants that evil sword not to open a rift but to keep the NY Shadowhunters off his back so he can live his life in peace. I-n-t-e-r-e-s-t-i-n-g.

Yes, good. Finally learned your lesson.

.............Or not??? I mean it's not like Clary pretended to be on his side before, to lull him into a false security and gain the upper hand. Why would he fall for it now? Because he acts like Jace is the only risk factor here, and Clary is of course truly and wholly on his side. I mean, true, the circumstances are different since she freed him and all, but like. Guy must have trust issues by now. Where are they.

Also

he should start a self help group with Alec hahahahahaha *weeping*

Me, waiting for the next episode of Shadowhunters. (Also I just noticed Simon says “me neither” not “mine neither” so it sounds as if he's not Izzy's thing, either and LOL I couldn't agree more ahahaha.)

Uh-huh, I agree. Perfect timing. I mean, it's not like there was a glaring 98% there earlier, and as if he didn't have plenty of time before to bring this unfortunate line of conversation up. This is on you, Simon. Don't blame the filtering.

HAHAHA ASK ALEC, HE'S GOING TO THROW IT AT HIM HAHAHAHAHAHA

Seriously though. Just, uh, crush it into powder, add some saline solution, done. And I'm not even a scientist. This is intuitive. The heck.

I'm 1000000% on board with all of this, okay. Over excited Alec is the best Alec. Handholding is the best. Magnus's weariness of surprises is headcanon confirmed. Yes to all of it.

So there were a few lines that were widely interpreted as allusions to their kinky sex life and tbh I never bought any of it because I thought it was seeing too much where there was nothing, but this is so very obviously meant in a kinky way that I'll accept it. Another headcanon confirmed ahahaha this episode is so generous to me.

Ugh I'm so gonna have to write something about that. And knowing myself, it'll be sad closeted Alec daydreaming of all the things he can never have.

Question time, what are those weird rivets thingies? Do they hold any meaning? Is their placement of importance? Because they look very deliberate and very there. I'm confused.

Also, this scene was designed to drive me crazy. There's 7 different shots where we see the lock's placement and there are no less than 3 (!!!!!) different placements. Placement #1, #3 and #5 are consistent (though really, #1 and #5 shouldn't even count because they are clearly the same shot, just with Magnus's hand reaching for the lock) on the left side of the yellow lock, to the bottom left of the Dips lock.

Then we see Alec placing it in an empty compartment at the very edge of the construction (placement #2), only for it to be on the compartment below that in the next shot (placement #4), sharing space with a little gray-blueish lock. This is the same place from where Magnus removes it then (placement #6).

I hate inconsistencies, okay, and I really did notice all this the first time watching. I can't not-see stuff like this. The only fun that comes out this detail obsessiveness is the lock that clearly ships Captain America and Captain Marvel (left) and the lock that was placed from two years in the future (right) because ahahahaha did the show forget it takes place in 2016?? It would seem so.

And yes, I chose to focus on this instead of the fact that Magnus incinerates their lock because that hurts my heart too much to think about, okay. That scene was perfect, the music swelling in all the right places and just. So heart-wrenching. I might've teared up a little. You can't prove anything.

Why she not removing those paper thingies? Seems impractical.

Paint on face trope? Check.

Yeah Raphael, lemme pay you some respect for facing your mistakes like that. I like it a lot.

Istg if they don't give him GPS this time and just rely on the tracking rune again, which Jonathan and Clary will insist he blocks, then imma flip my shit.

.......................so many fanfics want to be written here, okay. So many.

Also is no one gonna talk about the fact that they all put the ring on the pointer when that's not the intuitive position to place a ring? For security reasons alone you should put it on your middle finger so it doesn't accidentally slip off. Oh right, I forgot. Magic ring.

I love how Alec's voice wavers and you just know he sends Jace away because he'll start crying if he doesn't (even if in this screen cap Alec looks weirdly happy). Btw headcanon that Jace didn't realize something was up at first and was only tipped off when Izzy asked earlier if Alec was okay, and then he prodded at the parabatai connection and realized... there was nothing. Just a solid wall of nothing, because Alec's been sealing off his feelings completely.

1) Wow, Simon, your condolences are amazing. 2) Please, explain? Is she in a coma? Walking around as if she'd had a lobotomy?? But whatever, just skim over this, she's a minor character anyway and nobody cares about her *shrug*

This is the LAZIEST plot convenience I ever had to see with my own two eyes. I really can't work up the energy to rage about this. Just, wtf. Then again, not calling ahead with vital information seems to be Luke's Thing, just remember the 3x15 disaster. At this point it might as well be considered a character trait of him and no longer plot convenience. *sigh* Also, Shadowhunters are major creeps, am I supposed to believe they don't have a few liters of all of their soldiers' blood stored away somewhere, for reasons?

Uh-huh, Izzy. And if you care to remember, that was about 20 episodes ago. And since vampires have a constant craving for blood they seem to have some kind of metabolic. If you want to tell me that Jace's blood is still IN Simon, then either a) he's been chipping away at the Jace-blood-stash he has hidden in his second gastric and if that runs out he'll no longer be a daylighter or b) Jace's blood went into Simon's cells and changed him on a molecular level..... in which case, to extract it they'd have to remove it, un-daylighter-ing Simon in the process. Or maybe just parts of him? Imagine if he was a daylighter except for his left arm or something. In any case, this is majorly ridiculous and I can't believe I have to suffer through this.

????????????? Who opened that portal? I mean, if he had to call on a warlock to get away, wouldn't it have been easiser for Izzy and Co. to stop him from running through that portal and make him donate some blood first? Instead of forcing this bullshit logic on me? Ugh. But I get it, this is necessary to justify a Sizzy scene. Whatever.

Hahahhahha.

Which means nothing, since Jace can activate his runes without his stele. Or did they forget that part again?? I mean, it's been half a season since he last did that.

“And if it wasn't for our connection I suspect you'd do it again.”

lolololol hilarious.

HAHHAHA WILL YOU STOP WITH THE HILARITY

Honestly, the way they all act I get the distinct feeling I'm watching an exasperated kindergartener and two particularly clingy toddlers vying for her attention XD

Uuuuhhhh yeah hit me with more Malec Flashbacks to make me feel shitty, why don't you.

Okay, consoled. Btw thanks for confirming another headcanon that between the two of them Magnus is the one easier swayed by puppy eyes.

HAHAHAHA of course my mind immediately interpreted that as a misguided pun about Magnus being a Prince of Edom hahahaa wtf Alec

Dammit, his eyes. You can really see how he's allowing himself to start dreaming about it.

Also, can't believe they had a kiddie talk with at least some seriousness, what, two months into their relationship?? Haha. And internally Madzie was like “Uh boring grown up talk, at least I got my sprinkles.”

See, this is what I have problems with. On the one hand, even with all his emotional turmoil going on, Magnus is still enough in his right mind not to fall for Asmodeus's sweet talking, but on the other hand he revisits all of those memories and doesn't realize Alec breaking up with him can't have been real? This doesn't really add up. Either he is out of his mind with emotions that he can't see this very very strange happening for being something fishy (then he shouldn’t have been able to so easily resist Asmodeus), or he's still level-headed enough not to be driven by emotions entirely (then he should have realized the breakup was fake).

toddler fight intensifies

I'M WHEEZING HAHAHAHAHAHAH R U FOR REAL. Also remember my statement from last week? Where I said “I mean, in a way it's nice to know that Demonic Clary isn't smarter than Regular Clary.” Turns out she's so much worse than Regular Clary XD

Lol Raphael is that still you talking or the Plot Point? Because ngl, when I saw that sneak peek promo thingy where Jordan eyes the dramatically last vial of serum in the Institute I immediately thought they want to cook up a conflict there, where he steals the last vial needed to help save Clary and bla bla bla. I really hope they don't go down that road because I feel he should be better than this by now. *sigh* In any case, while I enjoyed the first part of this plot line with Raphael coming here to make reparations, this feels really forced and convenient.

OH MY GOD THANK YOU SIMON FOR ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS WTF I NEED ANSWERS

Wow can't believe they pulled this obvious and clearly unfitting parallel to Sizzy. I mean, Simon lost his glasses back in S1 and even before that Izzy noticed he was hot in like ep 2. She's been appreciating him as a friend since at least 2B if not sooner. So please don't pretend that she just didn't notice what a great guy he is, because she did. She knows he's someone you can count on, who's there when you need him, with advice or a joke or just to listen to you. She knows all this, and has for seasons. But, surprise surprise, you don't fall in love with everyone who's a great guy and a good friend. That is a thing. Friendships are a thing. Anyway, at least I can wholeheartedly agree that in any possible scenario Izzy is the hot girl XD

HAHAHA JACE THAT'S PAYBACK FOR ALL THOSE TIMES YOU INTERRUPTED MALEC HAHA KARMA IS A BITCH RIGHT

.......or just use glamors to look like Downworlders. Just saying.

Jonathan using the cuts to get a secretive chest grab in on Jace, but I know all those sleazy tricks and you can't slip that feel-up past me #busted

*weeping tears* yeah, and he'll never get the real deal. what a tragedy.

“...the Downworlder club. I think the runes front and center on my neck make a compelling argument, don't you agree?” Also the foreboding background music totally spoiled this 'twist.' (I'm using ''s because it was totally obvious this wouldn't work.)

Look I just love Alec, okay. I LOVE ALEC.

*waves hand* elite guard *waves hand some more* blue mark on his neck *smacks self in the face with waving hand* look i'm pretty sure Meliorn doesn't have a mark like this and he's like, the only Seelie that gets regular screen and talking time with the queen. But I'm way too behind schedule to start looking into it, I might edit something in here later (or never ahahaha).

OH DEAR THE MOMENT OF TRUTH

YES YES YES PLEASE

DUUUUDE WHY ARE YOU GIVING HIM IDEAS WHAT THE HELL

Also, remembering that short sequence of Magnus shooting red magic at his temples from the promo doesn't bode too well for the rest of the episode. Dammit.

You had one job, Lindsay. One. Job. (Yes, please imagine the Loki Gif here. I just love him a lot, okay. Loki <3<3<3)

(^pls imagine her little disenchanted headshake because any screen caps I tried to take made her look drugged out of her mind lol.)

Yep, this is it. This is it.

Sooooo.... how exactly did they persuade the bouncer? Just curious.

HAHAHAAHAH duuuuuude hahahhaa.

........when exactly did Jonathan spy all that? I mean, I've been having questions about the pacing since that ep with the Baby Jonathan Flashbacks, because that manibus whatever demon? Referring to 2x05. So Jonathan only got to earth after that? Howwww? Not thanks to Valentine, right, since he didn't even know Jonathan existed until 2x15 where Jonathan intercepted him from his portal to Idris? And didn't they say Sebastian Verlac disappeared half a year ago?? How does that all match up?

In any case, I feel like the seelie queen suddenly having a warlock boy toy who she can't order into her realm and who she has monthly scheduled appointments with that the whole shadow world knows about is a) totally absurd b) pretty ooc for her and c) reeking of plot convenience. They just couldn't find a better excuse for her to be at a certain place at a certain time. They should have made her attend a fashion show, or hell, a gardening contest. Would have been more credible than whatever this is.

“I grab the queen. Clary portals the three of us away.” “The four of us, including the queen.”

HAHAHHAHAHHA I CAN'T XD XD XD #slightly consoled

WHEN THE HELL DID JONATHAN READ / WATCH THE SHINING ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW WTF!!!!!

1) This doesn't work in real life. Do you have any idea how much time it takes to catch a snow flake or a raindrop this way? I know because I've tried, and the anwer is ages. 2) Seems a very uneconomical way to distrubute drugs. Whoever invented that business model must be in deep depts by now. 3) What kind of shitty plan was that on Jonathan's part? Get Jace on drugs, he'll surely expose himself to be a traitor? I hate the fact that it works. I hate that everyone's shitty plans always work (re: Sizzy's dilettantish prison infiltration) because that's why they all keep making shitty plans. Positive reinforcement and all that. The only one who always gets punched in the face for making okay-to-good plans is Alec, and that's why he's the overthinker. So unfair.

“Well this is awkward because I just stole it for you.”

So frakkin predictable. Also, how did he steal it from the table when Izzy and Simon where guarding it?? It clearly was still there when Maia left and like

Did Jordan just grab it and run? So many questions.

Don't get me wrong, that whole forging the sword sequence was super badass, but like, if you're wielding scorching hot metal it seems a little impractical to just wear security goggles and a leather apron. There were freaking sparks flying and Izzy ducked. What the hell. What about, idk, unconventional but, a protective suit?? And Simon isn't any better. “Oh, I could die from this sword? Just lemme hide behind this doorway real quick.” *sigh* One of these days a character should die because of dumbass behavior, maybe that'd teach them all a lesson.

Also, this is totally logic. They had a splinter from the original sword that they then made tons of serum from, which they saved 3 vials of..... and somehow this was still enough to forge a whole new frikking sword that's apparently just as powerful as the original one. I don't even know where to start with this bullshit.

.................dude, if you wanted to persuade her you should have pointed out the ring to her. But maybe this isn't about logic at all, this is about wanting to know if he is Clary's first choice without logic or reason, and that would make sense for his character, even if it's not the most sensible or productive course of action.

Me, during the fight scene: “Wow, I believe all that Seelie guard slaughtering is not going to end up in a Downworlder vs Shadowhunter war again..... ha..... hahahaha.”

Arguing with a possessed person. Again. Honestly this is the, uhhh, fifth time this happens on this show? And people just seem to never learn. SIGH

Yeah, by not following the plan and acting stupid, so my sympathy is pretty limited aka non-existent. Btw his slide across the Institute floor was hilarious. And also, pretty nice of Clary not to just kill him. This is the second time she's spared him. Interesting.

ISTG IF THIS SCENE ENDS WITH A CLIFFHANGER IF HE GOES THROUGH WITH IT OR NOT IMMA FLIP MY SHIT

*manic laughter* I love that this makes so much sense. Asmodeus needs Magnus's heartbreak so he'll be susceptible to Asmodeus's influence. So his motives are shitty. On the other hand it's not as if what Asmodeus says to Magnus isn't the truth. Fighting through this will make Magnus stronger, no doubt. Knowing he can be this low and still get back on his feet without running away and succumbing to the pain. And I'm glad, for obvious reasons, that Magnus didn't go through with the memory removal because ain't nobody got time for those issues. Mending the breakup in a satisfying was will be hard enough as is. Back to the scene at hand, I gotta say I love this about Asmodeus: He doesn't lie outright, he mostly lies by omission, and he speaks enough truth to really screw with everyone's perception. It's awesome. He is such a great antagonist and his dynamic with Magnus is highly fascinating.

Conclusion: Not enough Malec (seriously, their only scenes together are flashbacks? the frakkin audacity) but tbh I'm still too high on endorphines since the memory removal didn't happen that I'm mostly okay with it. And the Jonathan-Jace comedy was nice.

#shadowhunters #3x19 #magnus bane #alec lightwood #isabelle lightwood #clary fray #jace wayland #asmodeus #simon lewis #jonathan morgenstern #maia roberts #kyle #luke garroway #raphael santiago #reaction

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rocknrollbodhisattva · 5 years

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The Paranormal and the Sitcom: A So Weird & Girl Meets World Crossover Essay

Inspired by @fi-phillips | @thats-so-weird | @boymeetsworldconfessions | @rilaya | @rileymatthews-xo

Introduction

From 1999 to 2001, Zoog Disney aired a paranormal show named So Weird, the Disney version of the X-Files. Micheal Jacobs revived Boy Meets World with a continuation called Girl Meets World. On the surface So Weird and Girl Meets World have nothing in common. The former show filmed in Canada, the latter was filmed in California. Cooksney and Jacobs couldn't be more different, Jacobs is known for comedic sitcoms like My Two Dads, John Astole and producer Jon Cooksney, focused on speculative fiction. Astole worked on Stargate, and the 1980s Twilight Zone revivals. Disney Channel hosting their television shows is their only commonalities so far. What made these programs successful was pushing Disney's Astole limits on what considered acceptable. As a result, So Weird was the darkest show Disney Channel aired where Girl Meets World was one of the smarter television shows of modern Disney Channel. Audiences don't think of Disney tackling death acceptance, religion, or feminism

Fiona "Fi" Philips (Cara DeLizia) along with her older brother Jack, join their mother Molly Phillips (Makenzie (Phillips) on her comeback tour. Having a Rockstar mom isn't easy, especially when evil spirits begin stalking Fiona. When Annie (Alexz Johnson) arrives a paranormal panther follows suit. Riley Matthews (Rowen Blanchard) along with her best friend Maya Hart (Sabrina Carpenter) continue the lessons her father learned almost Boy Meets World. At six years old I loved stories about hauntings and dark creatures, so, So Weird naturally appealed to me. Nostalgia over Boy Meets World influenced my decision to watch its sequel and the quality of it surprised me. This cross-over essay's purpose is dissecting these shows popularity and their similarities rather than their differences.

Surface Similarities & Differences

At the surface level SW and GMW's similarities are minor., Fi Phillips and Riley Matthews are our brunette primary protagonists; Annie Thelon and Maya Hart are our blonde secondary protagonists. Fandoms hated Annie and Riley because they interfered with the fandoms' favorites then subsequently blamed for the lackluster third seasons. Celebrities Carpenter and Johnzon used their shows as advertisement for their music careers. Actually Disney gave Carpenter a record deal before casting her as Maya. Carpenter is talented but still sounds like a Disney pop star, however, Johnson has more experience. SW had better music because there was a larger variety of genres like Rock, Pop, Blues, and Celtic music. SW alluded to Celtic and Greek mythology like changelings and sirens. GMW alluded to BMW and nothing else like Cory and Shawn's jellybean scene. Both shows had actors who appeared in crime shows including Carpenter and Eric von Detten.*1

What else SW and GMW had in common was that they had realistic friendships and family dynamics. Friendships weren't used as problem-solving devices but to deepen the characters. Jack (Patrick Lewis) and Clu (Eric von Detten) hung out because they wanted to not because the plot required them to. Parents were written as people. Molly struggled with widowhood and had goals outside of being a mother. Irene felt inferior to her younger sister and Ned Bell was a biker before he married Irene. In addition, Cory taught History yet offered fatherly advice to his daughter and her friends. Single mother, Katy, struggled with her part-time job and caring for Maya. As siblings, Jack/Fi and Riley/Auggie neither fought constantly nor always got along. 'Singularity' Jack and Fi do nothing but argue but in 'Medium' Jack uses "colourful language" when a psychic angers Fi. In GMW, Riley and Auggie argued in 'Forgiveness' then have a touching moment in 'Christmas Maya.' When writing only children Jacobs and Astole never relied on only child stereotypes instead showing the complexity of being one. Not to mention, as an only child myself, I loved this. Maya and Annie weren't spoiled were confused over siblings concepts, like sharing. Trapped in endless detention, Annie's confused by Jack standoffishness finding out that he falsely believes that Annie's replacing his sister. After assuring him that was never her intention, she and Jack become friends. Likewise, Maya confuses Rucas' (Riley/ Lucas) relationship with that of a brother-sister one because she doesn't understand how siblings act. Siblings are loving and friendly but also bicker like Lucaya (Maya/Lucas). Eventually, they develop sibling dynamics with other characters, Annie/Jack and Maya/Lucas.

Neither show's focus was on romance. SW focused on family while GMW focused on friendship and love interests didn't appear in more than one episode. Jack's girlfriend, Gabe, appeared in 'Angel.' Ryan was Fi's first kiss in 'Second Generation' and GMW had two date episodes. 'Brother' was about Cory and Topanga's date night; 'First Date' was about Lucas and Riley first kiss. If romance wasn't plot important then why did GMW develop a shipping war while SW was immune to such disputes? In comparison to GMW, SW had limited couple options meaning there weren't many options before couples became slash or incestuous Those options are: Annie and Fi with either Clu or Carrey. GMW avoids this pitfall with a diverse amount of characters but started shipping wars by introducing the leads and love interest simultaneously. Fanon favourites were Jack/Annie, Carrey/Molly, Lucas/Maya despite the intended couples are Cory/Topanga, Riley/Lucas, and Fi/Clu.

Why did Anti-Annie fans hate her less than Anti-Riley fans? Again, the fandom hated Riley more because of differences in character casting. If a Jerkass character is among the main cast the fandom automatically absolves them, giving their retribution to the kinder characters. Maya's the "broken bird" so fans will prefer her and discount Riley giving fans reason to pair Maya in a love-hate romance. For extra information on this, TvTropes offers an analysis using Nickelodeon television as examples. SW main characters aren't jerkasses toward their friends meaning Annie gets less hate and Friend-Lovers are on equal levels with Love-Hate ones.

Seekers: Fiona & Riley

Seekers of the 12 Archetypes are constantly searching for expanded knowledge of the world at large or themselves. Riley and Fi want to understand other people's perspectives in a worldly sense (Riley) and supernaturally (Fi). However both are open-minded toward unproven phenomenon as opposed to our blond protagonists who rather "go with the flow." Also as the primary protagonists they possess the most contradictions of their worlds. Fi's an amateur parapsychologist but wants a normal life to protect her family. ('Lightening Rod') Fi is a computer geek struggling academically but loves learning new subjects ('Tulpa', 'Escape', 'Vampire'). In comparison, Riley succeeds with her schoolwork but is naïve to the world around her. ('Pluto') She insecure often becoming victim to peer pressure but craves uniqueness away from her peers ('Popular', 'Jexica') Riley and Annie love feminine hobbies – makeup and shopping – but love masculine pursuits too. Both of them love the outdoors, athletics, but are terrible at sports. ('Ski Lodge' in GMW and 'Sacrifice' in SW) Riley can't make the cheerleading team but loves basketball; Fi fails at baseball but tries appreciates the sport. ('Singularity', 'Rah Rah') Contradictions make them rounded characters but causes internal conflict when they attempt to form a stable Ego.

Upon waking up in the middle of the night, Riley eavesdrops on her parents where she doubts if she's good enough compared to her parents. After all Topanga is a successful lawyer, Cory is a successful teacher, and have a perfect fairytale love. ('Cory & Topanga') Unable to connect with her father, Rick, Fi seeks resemblances between herself and him. Just like Riley's atelphobia, Fi feels disconnected from her family because of her paranormal interests. An example is 'Strange Geometry' where Fi feels betrayed that her mother kept Rick obsession a secret. Since Lucas doesn't differentiate between Riley and Maya during the love triangle, Riley further doubts her worth as a girlfriend. In the pilot and a deleted 'Upstate' scene, Riley molds herself into Maya so she'll have an identity. Constant identity searching is another aspect of the Seeker archetype.

Caretaking drives our protagonists to seek out the world's answers. Fi wants closure with her father yet her investigations aren't just for her benefit, but for the benefits of her loved ones. Molly's friends Rebecca left when she was Fi's age, thus Fi confronts Rebecca's "daughter" so Molly will have some closure of her own. Reluctantly, Fi leads the two of them to Rebecca's house where history repeated itself again; Rebecca's family disappeared again leaving Molly more betrayed and confused. 'In Forgiveness' Riley back talks to Kermit wanting answers as to why he left her best friend when she was younger. Town members become annoyed by Fi when she forces them to remember the alien invasion the day before. ('Memory') Fi helps a coma girl's mother and grandmother with technology to revive the girl from her coma even though these people are strangers to her. ('Lost') Riley invades her friends' boundaries so Maya will have hope ('Master Plan'), tries jumping into a bull pen to save Lucas ('Texas'), and keeps her friends in a stairwell so they'll reflect on their surroundings ('High School'). Fi challenges Bricriu to hangman so he'll stop possessing her brother. ('Will-o-Wisp') Riley gives up her relationship with Shawn, her godfather, so Maya will have a father. She forgets her affections for Lucas so Maya will have a chance at love. ('Texas', 'New Years') Occasionally their actions cause annoyance among their friends but its for the greater good. Sacrificing one's own desires is the key component in the Caretaker's goal.

Creators: Annie & Maya

Creators turn illusion into reality and similar to Seekers, Creators are invested self-identity and possibilities. When we're introduced to Annie and Maya both are immediately drawn to creative fields. By the ending of 'Lightening Rod', Annie confides in Fi that she's always had an eerie connection to music and find inspiration from something as insignificant as a stick. Furthermore, Mr and Mrs Thelon inform Molly that Annie has the ability to master most any instrument. 'In the Darkness', the theme song, shows Annie playing as well as popular instruments like the guitar. Maya gained that same artistic guidance from the stars or a paint war. ('Meets Boy', 'Upstate', 'Maya's Mother'). Partly due to Carpenter portrays her, Maya masters singing and guitar quite easily. ('1961', 'Creativity') An added bonus to Annie's is that they act as retrocognition from her past.

Both blondes quickly give up old lifestyles for chances at an art or singing career. For example, Annie's ecstatic she'll join Molly's band on tour, granted her parents reason this is so Annie will have a normal and balanced life. ('Lightening Rod') Impulsive, Future Maya leaps at the opportunity when she receives a SoHo gallery internship. ('Bay Window') Creators share the fear of not having an identity. When a recording agent steals Annie's voice and likewise when the art teacher grades Maya's painting as incomplete, the girls doubt their self-worth. In 'Carnival' Annie's reflections mock her abilities when she rescues her friends from an evil ringmaster. Season one Maya wonders if Riley was right and Maya's troubled past is responsible for her artistic ability. What's more is that the Creator archetype gives the character a dangerous duality; either they're practical with their art or they drown themselves in their disillusion. Which is why the Orphan archetype lurks beneath the Creator.

The Thelons and Hart families are alive but their actions produce an orphan effect on their daughters. Traveling across the globe before the So Weird eventsprohibitedestablishing permanent roots somewhere. Kermit's physical abandonment compounded with Katy's emotional abandonment ensured that Maya wouldn't have a support system. Although being an only child isn't problematic, not having someone to depend on made connecting with others difficult. Neither would form a real connection until they made surrogate families out of the Phillips and Matthews families. Its not surprising their friends would find them selfish at times.

Death Acceptance

The major difference between Cooksney and Jacobs is Cooskney never intended lessons for So Weird whereas Jacobs' moralizing hindered character development on Girl Meets World. Jacobs's lesson was the vague statement, "People Change People" I'd argue his actual moral is not taking people for instead. Cooksney's moral, if you could consider it one, was sacrifice. Fi gets lost camping and sacrifices immediate help to save Big Foot. ('Sacrifice') Barring those morals, the writers over-arcing themes of both were acceptance. SW's primary theme was death acceptance for the Phillips and Matthews family with the minor theme of childhood acceptance Annie) and Maya. All stories lead back to sex and death, Disney's not going to discuss sexuality, but death resounds through every film since Disney's inception. Also no SW or GMW character was exempt from death confrontation. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross's Five Stages of Grief: Anger, Sadness, Denial, Bargaining, and Acceptance aren't linear and one may never gain acceptance. All the characters are stuck in one of the stages and only Fi gains acceptance.

Earnest Becker's seven reasons why people fear death are as followed:

1. Fear of pain

2. Fear of not knowing what becomes of our bodies

3. How our dependents will manage after our death

4. How our loved ones will cope emotionally after our death

5. Fear of an afterlife, such as eternal oblivion, or Heaven/Hell

6. Fear of dying with an unlived life

7. Fear of dying with uncompleted projects

Thantophobia is why humans behave the way they do. Rick's untimely death when Fi was three-years-old affected her because she has no memories of her father. She often resented her brother and mother because they knew him and she did not. Rick/Fi's shared fear is emotionally coping of his death. Maya struggled with coping with the metaphorical death of her father, possibly thinking he's dead to her. Kermit intentionally abandoned his family, whereas Rick intended on returning to his family, but he didn't plan on evil spirits murdering him. Fi and Maya are stuck in the anger phase of grieving. When her grandfather is visited by a banshee, Fi tracks the creature down and asks Death personified the fairness in taking her father away from her. Death responds that it will even the imbalance by extending her grandfather's life for a time. But for seasons 1 and 2 Fi copes with death by actively seeking the paranormal afterlife to escape and accept death.

Jack's death phobia is similar to Fi's except he fears losing his sister and mother like he lost his father; his nightmare is a manifestation of that fear. In the midst of gang's lucid dream, Jack leaves them for a method to awaken from the dream but is transported to the night of Rick's. Dream Rick promises he'll return, but knowing the future Jack chases after his father. Fear trapped Jack in Grief's denial stage subsequently causing his resentment of the paranormal his dad loved so much. And it's not until 'Changeling' when Jack accepts his dad's death when he starts singing again. Surprised, Clu comments that Jack hadn't sung since Rick died. Jack responds with, "Well, maybe it's time I started again."

Minor episodes such as 'Fall' (SW) and 'Gravity' (GMW) discuss death on a smaller scale. 'Fall' details Ned and his childhood friend, Sam, on the death anniversary of their other friend's drowning. Haunted by the memory, Sam is literally haunted by Pete's ghost leading to Pete's recent. The men's responses to death are vastly different; Ned would rather forget Pete's death and Sam tries to confront it. Both are part of the grieving sequence but overall, 'Fall' discuses the myriad of complex emotions after death. Childhood deaths are rightly considered "Bad Deaths" whether or not loved ones are complicit with the death, we often feel that we could've prevented it. Sam is stuck in the bargaining and grieving stages before he can move on. As the men relive that fateful day admits he was scared of dying and can finally accept death now. In 'Gravity' the teens are crushed when a beloved bakery owner dies leaving the bakery to Topanga. The episode ends with Auggie opening his gift with a note reading "It's not My-Kranian bakery, I'm dead." Cory phones telling him that he is glad Feeney isn't dead, perhaps this was an allusion to 'I Dream of Feeney' when Cory wished him ill. Riley gives the eulogy and everyone learns to cherish their loved ones while they're alive.

Next is Molly and her death phobia in the series. Molly's emotions toward her husband are erratic in all three seasons. It's been over a decade since Rick's death and she still hasn't accepted it. In the Christmas episode 'Fountain' Molly admits to a young Fi that her loss bothers her. In 'Medium' Molly began to resent Rick's memory because she felt haunted by him wishing that she could forget him. Molly misses being a lover but is guilt-ridden because she feels like she is betraying her husband. ('Fathom') And in season 3's 'Muse,' Molly and the band travel to the town of their first concert to recapture the inspiration she felt there. Molly never gains acceptance over death and I loved that this option was shown as well. Not everything is wrapped up in a happy ending.

The final lesson is accepting your own death. Self-death may be literal like the episodes 'Rebecca', 'James Garr', 'Angel' or 'Grave Mistake'. Or death can be metaphorical like Riley becoming new personas, Maya losing herself, or the death of love. The former episodes dealt with the concept of immortality and coming to terms with one's final moments. Fi investigates a girl claiming to be Rebecca's daughter in truth, she's Rebecca herself. Amazed at how much this immortal girl knows and has seen in her years, Rebecca refutes this saying that she hates her immortality. She can never marry, she had to leave Molly, her only friend, behind. Who wants to live forever? 'James Garr' is about the titular character undergo cryonic preservation as a cancer cure. The procedure's successful, but James Gar hasn't a soul anymore with this realization he gives his life to an elderly patient Jack met. In the subplot that elderly man dying of cancer beleives that whenever death comes for him he will greet death with willingness and bravery. James Garr realizing his hollow life switch places with the man so he can live a little longer. 'Grave Mistake' is about a family friend of the family who's been receiving death threats and runs to Annie and the Phillips for help. With Annie's guidance, the woman discovers her dead husband wrote "You're dead" so that she'd remember she died. It's rare that a children's show relays the message that death isn't ominous, it's part of life.

During an interview Cooksney admitted that if Disney had allowed them to, Fi would descend into Hell to rescue her father's soul.*2 Jack would have discovered his past life as a Celtic knight who begged that his next incarnation would be as Fi's older brother. Moreover, it explains that dragon's fear of Jack in 'Strangling' and aside from familial bonds, knight life explains his overprotection of him mom from a mermaid siren. ('Fathom') A tenet of the Order of the Good Death's death positivity is "I believe that my open, honest advocacy around death can make a difference, and can change culture." Cooksney probably didn't intend for SW to have so much death focus but it's applicable to the show.

'Yearbook', 'Triangle', and 'Ski Lodge' are examples of metaphorical death. Whenever Riley embraces different personas, she's undergoing an Ego Death in an attempt to discover her true self. She becomes a Goth Girl so her classmates visualize her shadow side. Contrary to her masquerade, Riley's shadow side isn't Goth but is a metaphor of her dark side coexisting with her light side. Maya lost herself during her dalliance with Lucas to understand her relationship identity contrasting he singular identity. Later on during the love triangle's conclusion, Riley's first comment is "This love triangle needs to die. Nature knows that it needs to die." Of all her friends Riley mentions death the most, examples are 'Yearbook', 'Gravity', and 'Pluto.' Continuing with this death theme involve the teenagers' fantasies as a metaphor for the death of their romance. During their respective daydreams, Riley and Maya inform each other that their dream romance isn't reality. In Dream Riley's fantasy she dies, in essence, the girls kill their ego and their romances to grow.

Childhood Acceptance

Transforming themselves from childhood trauma are Annie and Maya's ultimate goals within the series. Annie's panther and Maya's hope are key in reaching their transformations. For this essay portion, I'm using Widow's Walk', 'Pen Pal', and 'Annie's Song.' For Maya's episodes, I'll use are 'World of Terror 3', 'Forgiveness', and 'Goodbye.'

Symbolically the panther represents the death-rebirth cycle and confronting fears. According to Spirit Animal's website, those with the panther guide are blessed with powerful protectors. In addition, panthers indicate supernatural journeys with occult leanings. Therefore her character's introduction served a purpose in So Weird despite being unplanned. Finally as Annie's panther endows her with strength to confront any obstacle before her.

'Widow's Walk' acts as a transition between death acceptance into childhood acceptance. Tired of her age limiting her privileges Annie swaps ages with an elderly woman. Shocked by her transformation she finds a bottled message from the woman's husband. Desperate for her youth back Annie begs the woman to reverse their ages. Selfishly, the woman refuses due to her thinking that her husband's waiting for her at home not realizing he died in sea storm that turned the woman into a widow. Growing weaker daily Annie knows if she can't convince the woman of the truth she will die. When Annie feints in an attempt to reach the woman and true to its nature, Annie's panther appears at her side giving her strength to continue on. Obviously Annie's successful getting her age back. What's interesting are the contradictions between the elderly woman and Annie. Both characters fear death desperately clinging to life, but Annie's aware of death while the woman would rather delude herself of human mortality. At the climax the women's remorseful of her selfishness wishing she knew how to reverse her wish. Annie's regrets her wish understanding living in the present is better than living in living in the future.

Similarly 'World of Terror' along with 'Pen Pal' shows the girls' adolescence if their positive influences were absent in their lives. By befriending Jennifer and not meeting Riley, Annie and Maya become rebellious Goths. Maya no longer believes that she deserves good things; Annie pushes her friends away. Following this change, Alternate Annie's panther is a worthless tattoo, Alternate Maya begins bulling Riley for not letting her in her bedroom. . Deprived of hope or understanding our alternates protagonists cannot accept their pasts. Being Disney, these girls defeat their alternates. Annie through using her panther power, Maya through befriending Riley in the parallel universe.

These last three deal with Maya and Annie discovering the truth and making amends with their childhoods. In 'Forgiveness' Maya writes and letter to her father, Kermit, in an attempt to forgive him as part of Cory's homework assignment. That following day Kermit returns to town hoping what his daughter said in her letter was true. Unable to forgive Kermit, he leaves once more reducing Maya to tears. As a result Maya realizes she's forgiven herself for believing she had caused Kermit's departure. By forgiving herself, Maya's ability to accept her past and find a new father figure in Shawn Hunter when he adopts her in 'Goodbye.'

In the penultimate episode the characters travel to a Native American reservation as a break from touring. Unlike her friends Annie can't enjoy her day off with strange flashbacks coming to mind. Coyote possesses the tribe's leader when a little girl becomes lost in the forest, forcing Annie to remember her childhood memories. Years earlier the Thelon family visited a jungle for a research assignment, little Annie awakens before her parents do and wanders into the forests. She happens across a petrified tribal man and it's only when a poisonous snake attacks her she realizes the danger she's in. As her parents discover their daughter's disappeared, the man rushes her to his village in an attempt to save her life. With shaman magic, the man's father removes the venom and takes Annie to a location where her parents will find her. Grateful Annie sacrificed her life to save his son, the father promises to protect her all her life in the form of a panther. With full understanding of her childhood, Annie manages to accept her past as Maya did.

Conclusion

Girl Meets World and So Weird are different shows catering to wildly different audiences. Still, each character follows similar archetypes as well as themes people wouldn't expect of Disney Channel to allow on their network. More importantly, the fact that it does shows its capability to portray mature, darker subject matters for all audiences. Readers may disagree with my argument but these are shows the current generation should watch. Girl Meets World is a television show that my generation should watch. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my essay and I would love it if you gave me your opinions on each program, as well.

End Notes

*1 – Many Disney Channel actors starred in Law & Order: SVU episodes. Von Detten, Carpenter, and Kimberly Jean Brown as examples were in that Law & Order spinoff. Someone even wrote a crossover fanfic of GMW and SVU. If a fan theorist could invent a theory that Disney and any crime universe are connected I would be ecstatic.

*2 – Walt Disney has had hell landscape stories since the 1930s. Silly Symphonies' 'Goddess of Spring' had Satan-Hades drag Persephone to Hell. Fantasia ended with the song 'Night on Bald Mountain' where Demon Satan tortures souls only stopped when Holy light/God intervenes. Frollo damns Esmerelda to Hell if he can't possess her and little mentions God and Satan. (Hunchback of Notre Dame) CoCo takes place primarily in the afterlife. Disney Channel could've done a Hell episode.

Links

www . orderofthegooddeath resources / death-positive-movement

so-weird . proboards

Disney . wikia wiki / So_Weird

www . youtube user / OrderoftheGoodDeath (Ask A Mortician)

www . youtube user / littlemissfuneral (Little Miss Funeral)

www . youtube user / UnderTheKnifeShow (Under the Knife)

www . fanfiction s / 6178294 / 1/Love-As-True-As-Time

www . fanfiction s / 6067416/1 / An-Ultimate-Hey-Arnold-Essay

www . spiritanimal . info / panther-spirit-animal /

post / 125280313440 / so-weirdgirl-meets-world-parallels-these-are-my (SW & GMW)

#so weird #girl meets world #mine #fi phillips #annie thelen #alexz johnson #cara delizia #maya hart #sabrina carpenter #riley matthews #rowen blanchard #disney #disney channel #the disney channel #comment leave notes #reblog

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mst3kproject · 6 years

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209: The Hellcats

With both the writer and the star of Sidehackers on board, we know we’re in for a delightful fun-filled romp.

Detective Dave Chapman is murdered by some sort of extremely small mob (kind of a mob-let) before he can close in on their drug smuggling operation. His brother Monty gets back from Vietnam or somewhere just in time to hear the news, and being played by Ross Hagen, he decides he’s going to have to get revenge himself. He and his fiancée-in-law Linda decide to dress up as bikers, get themselves invited into the gang that does the drug-running, and bring down the whole operation from within.

For a long time, I felt like there had to be a lot missing from The Hellcats, because when I would watch it as an MST3K episode I was never totally sure what was going on. Surely the Brains had removed something very important when they edited this film for the show. Then I started doing this blog, and I got cynical. If you’ll recall, I thought the same thing about movies like Laserblast and Swamp Diamonds, and it turned out I was wrong – the stuff they took out was even more irrelevant than the stuff they left in. Yet upon re-watching episode 209 again, I got that same old feeling. Where were everybody’s motivations? Were they in the missing scenes?

Of course they fucking weren’t.

I’ll give you a specific example: I thought there had to be more to the scene at the airport, where Monty and Linda meet up after Dave’s death. Remember in movies like T-Bird Gang and Wild Rebels where the police want somebody to go undercover and get evidence? I figured there would have to be something like that, but there isn’t. Instead, as I said in the summary, the only reason Monty decides to do this himself seems to be because he’s Ross Hagen, and when Linda tries to protest, he won’t let her out. Why can’t they let the police handle it? You’d think the movie would want to offer at least a token reason.

What about the relationship between Linda and Monty? She’s introduced as his brother’s fiancée. She’s posing as his girlfriend when they meet the bikers at the Moonfire Inn (a place where the real-life Manson ‘family’ hung out), but she quickly becomes actually jealous when first Cyclops Woman and then Sheila take an interest in him. Is she supposed to have fallen in love with him in the week or so since Dave died? This is never dealt with explicitly but their tender parting, with Linda urging him to come back soon, seems to imply it.

Like Megara in The Loves of Hercules, Dave is the movie’s fridge meat: he’s only here to die, and only dies to motivate Monty and Linda. We know him about as well as we knew Megara, and we don’t really care about him or about the bond these other characters supposedly had with him. Once Monty and Linda have ingratiated themselves with the gang, events move off in other directions and Dave is pretty much forgotten about. It’s at least kind of refreshing that the movie places a man in this role, but then it goes and kills one of the girl bikers in order to anger her boyfriend. Two fridges in one movie!

There’s more stuff missing. Like, who are the other biker gang, who assaulted the artist and model and then showed up to challenge Snake to a race? They seem to pop out of the void and then fade back into it. How did Monty know where Sheila and Linda had gone when they went to see the moblet boss? He was too far behind to have followed them.

Meanwhile, the things that are in the movie look and sound terrible. The photography is awful: it’s out-of-focus, poorly-framed, jumpy, washed-out, and badly-lit… often all five in the same shot! I watched the scene of the Hellcats’ Company Team-Building Picnic two or three times trying to figure out if it were supposed to be day-for-night or if it were just really crummy filming in general. I favour the latter but I’m still not sure. There’s at least enough light to tell what’s going on, which is a step up from some of these movies, but it’s bland and flat and everything looks like somebody’s home movies.

The actors are terrible. The moblet boss in particular sounds like he’s reciting the times table in every scene he’s in. Everybody else is better than him, but that leaves them a lot of room to suck. Most of the ‘bikers’ look like they’re accountants or something dressed up for a theme party.

The music is bad, with not a single memorable song. I can hum the Hellcats theme that plays over the opening and ending, but I remember it mostly because it reminds me of the Zombie Stomp from Horror of Party Beach. A song about the brutality of a motorcycle gang should not sound like Playful Teen Beach Movie music! Later, when things get actiony, we get what sounds like cheesy spy movie music. It’s weird.

The crappy music plays over a lot of padding. There are long-ass scenes of bikers on the road, and of the gang drinking, dancing, and fighting in the bar and at the picnic, while nothing much happens. These make the movie longer, but they also provide something to show while the music plays, and the music really is the point because believe it or not, there was a soundtrack album for this movie. I wonder how that went.

Insofar as the movie means something, it has an anti-drug message presented through the character Hiney’s bad trips (his version of Roses are Red does at least make me snicker) and the Mexican guy’s addict girlfriend begging for a fix. This is as unsubtle as anything in Reefer Madness, if slightly less melodramatic, and it doesn’t merit deeper analysis.

Then there’s the ending, when the gang is undone by sheer bad luck. Instead of our heroes gathering evidence, finding out who was responsible for Dave’s death, and getting revenge, the whole drug operation falls apart as a result of a traffic accident. One of the girl bikers crashes her bike after running over a board on the road, and the police lay a trap, knowing the gang will come back for the drugs she was carrying. The man who does so decides to just turn everybody in to save his own skin. Monty and Linda show up at the moblet’s HQ, where Sheila has gone for… some reason… and the final fight has far more to do with escape and survival than with revenge.

Monty and Linda participate in this climax but they are not in any way responsible for it. An act of revenge does occur, but it’s on the part of the biker gang, who want vengeance for the dead girl on behalf of her grieving boyfriend. If Monty and Linda had simply left things to the police, as Linda herself recommended, all this would probably have happened exactly the same. Like Cabot in Outlaw, or Cal and Ruth in This Island Earth, they’re entirely useless in their own movie!

Of course, in Outlaw and This Island Earth, we had some idea of the personalities of the people we were watching. In The Hellcats we’ve barely met Monty and Linda and what we’ve seen of them doesn’t particularly encourage us to like them. Monty gets off his plane and immediately vows revenge, and the next time we see him is roaring up to the Moonfire Inn on a bike with Linda clinging to him. We first meet Linda carping at her fiancé about him ignoring her in favour of work. If he’d lived and been the hero of this movie, she would have been the nagging girlfriend whom he eventually reconciles with after realizing how important family is. We don’t know or like Monty or Linda well enough to root for them, and we definitely haven’t seen enough to care about their emotional bonds with Dave.

I find myself comparing The Hellcats to The Sidehackers and trying to figure out which movie is worse. The Sidehackers did at least try to be about something (religion), but it was a nasty misanthropic movie that killed off both the protagonists and the antagonists, and left a bad taste in my mouth for days. The Hellcats doesn’t have any themes besides Drugs Are Bad and the characters don’t appear to grow or learn anything from their experiences, but it doesn’t hate the audience the way The Sidehackers did. If I had to pick one of the two to watch again, I don’t know which it would be. I mean, The Sidehackers is less boring, but I hate it so much more.

Have I just lost patience with these movies after over a hundred of them? Or was this one actually that bad? I don’t remember being so annoyed by it when I watched it as an MST3K episode but then, I only watched it once – the flashback host sketches disappointed me so I never bothered with it again. Too, I’ve learned a lot about what to pay attention to when I’m watching a film, and I probably have a very different perspective on shitty movies now than I did when I started this blog. I wonder… when I’m finished the full run, maybe I should re-visit some of the early entries, and see if I have any new thoughts on them. Maybe they’ll suck more than ever.

#mst3k #reviews #the hellcats #women in fridges #60s

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itsclydebitches · 5 years

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RWBY Recaps: The Greatest Kingdom

Hello, glorious RWBY fandom! It’s that time of the year again. No, not the holidays. Rather, it’s the roughly twelve weeks where my Saturdays are lost to the void of churning out 4,000+ words of typo-laden analysis for our favorite web-series. Does that sound like a good time? If so, stick around and keep reading.

Now, those of you who joined us last year will recall that I took issue with numerous aspects of Volume Six. Many of you are capable of summarizing these aspects in great detail considering that the conversation never stopped on my blog between January 26th and, well, today. But for those of you who don’t otherwise suffer my metas or who might be joining us for the first time, here’s a very short guide to the stuff we’ve been chatting about the last few months:

Holy shit they really went all in on dragging Ozpin, huh?

Is the group part of a collective consciousness now? What happened to diverse thinking?

Should un-licensed teenagers steal military property and start grimm-drawing battles with national allies? No or double no?

We hate adults? Is that really a thing?

When will Oscar’s on-screen development come back from the war?

There are numerous, numerous other connected topics, from Rooster Teeth’s handling of physical assault all the way to theories regarding the relic’s potential influence and Jinn’s motives, but that’s the basic gist. Oh, and we now have a subset of the fandom who got big mad over fans headcanoning trans!Nora based on her new color scheme. ... So that’s where we’re starting this volume off.

Just so we’re all on the same page:

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

Anyhoo, with that bare-bones context out of the way, let’s dive in.

We begin, as usual, with a shot of the shattered moon. Except this is the first volume where we know precisely what happened to it and all it may mean for humanity. It lends a certain amount of gravitas to our start. Now, rather than the more generic, “Ah. Right. That motif. Still a mystery, huh?” shots of the moon function as a quick reminder of the group’s new stakes. 99% of the time the focus is on Salem and our heroes’ attempts to keep this genocidal dictator from destroying and/or enslaving the entire world, but “The Lost Fable” set up that the true, end-game antagonists have always been the gods. Even if Salem is destroyed, they still exist as a continued threat to humanity. If they wish to use the gods to help them in their quest against Salem, they likewise risk their judgment. Having introduced them, that’s a tricky problem the show is going to have to solve before its end.

For now though we pan down to the Atlas military, numerous ships and lots of chatter over the radio setting up precisely how massive, organized, and deadly this army is. I would like to remind everyone that this is what the group deliberately decided to piss off by not merely stealing an airship, but unnecessarily attacking the head special operative of the Argus base. The fact that the military has grown more “aggressive” in Weiss’ absence has no bearing on her original knowledge that stealing/attacking this group would be a horrendous idea. She knew it. Qrow knew it. Everyone ignored that in favor of Jaune’s idiotic plan. I bring this up not to rub more salt in a long open wound, but to re-establish how the group is, thus far, unable to think ahead and accurately weigh the consequences of their actions. More on that later.

Their ship, Manta 5-1, is welcomed home and instructed to land so that a security team can debrief them. Whoops. Jaune, again in his infinite wisdom, reminds everyone that they achieved their goal of getting to Atlas. So now they just need to find some answers, yeah? Not quite. Weiss immediately points out that landing with a stolen ship means that security won’t let them anywhere near Ironwood… which, again, is something that holds true regardless of whether the military got more aggressive and their leader more dictator-y. This is not new information. Oddly enough, a group of teenagers with only one licensed huntsmen among them (considering that Maria is presumably still keeping a low profile) flying a stolen airship doesn’t exactly breed the sort of confidence that lets anyone---paranoid or not---approach a leader. These were all issues from the start that the group didn’t bother to consider in their haste to finish this mission.

“They might even take me back to my father,” Weiss says. Another concern that they’re only realizing now, yet one that the fandom latched onto immediately. Though mostly in the wrong way. It’s because Jacques is a threat that they should have found a more covert way into Atlas, or waited to hear from Ironwood, or just send Weiss herself with Cordovin’s blessing… Yes, much of the fandom got quite defensive at that suggestion, claiming that sending Weiss “alone” (she never would have been alone. Bird uncle. Fits into a suitcase grandma) was tantamount to handing her to Jacques wrapped up in a bow. Except, as is made perfectly clear here, it’s their illegal activity that endangers them. Which is more likely to get you sent off to daddy? Acting like a child by stealing military property and then getting caught? Or entering Atlas as a huntress with a special operative’s blessing, carrying instructions that you are to meet with Ironwood as soon as possible? To say the team dropped the ball on this one is an understatement.

Those, however, are all past options now far out of reach. Weiss decides then that she’ll simply call Winter and I absolutely adore Kara’s voice acting here. She managed to imbue so much into a single name, conveying Weiss’ realization, hope, and love for her sister in just two quick syllables. I feel like I got more insight into Weiss through that moment alone then the entirety of Volume Six. Only problem? Blake notices another feed where a recording of Winter emphasizes that anyone found breaking Atlas law will face punishment---something our group will be quite familiar with by the end of the episode---and Qrow decides that they probably shouldn’t go charging into Winter and Ironwood’s hands until they know more about the situation.

Which is the smartest decision we’ve seen in a while, considering that Ironwood’s own feed leaves little to the imagination. He continues to sport that beard, giving him more of a disheveled appearance compared to Volumes 1-3. His voice is as authoritative as ever and he literally towers high above all the people he’s supposedly protecting, keeping his distance from both the city and the airships that ‘govern’ it. A few moments earlier we got to see the startling contrast between the military life and the civilians’. Warm reds and browns give (in this case a literal) down-to-Earth feel and the neon signs are easy markers of a low-class neighborhood. You know the stereotyped kind: cheap food and cheaper entertainment. Compared to the whites and blues of the Atlas clouds, paralleling their elite (and thereby expensive) technology, the city below feels like a slum in comparison, reinforced by the dirty, drunk, and at times violent background characters that populate it.

As Maria says later, “A home in the clouds is as bright as it gets,” to which Nora responds, “Unless you’re the one having to look up at it,” something she’d be very familiar with as a child stealing bread in the otherwise plentiful looking Kuroyuri. There are contrasts in coloring, dialogue, as well as framing here. Compare Ironwood’s sky-high observation to Pietro’s existence as a black man, in a wheelchair, doing volunteer work in what’s established as a dump. He’s as “low” as he can possibly be and acknowledges that he prefers to actually be among the people, not standing literally or figuratively above them. Just in case the audience misses these cues, we get some rather ominous music on top of all that and fearful looks between Ruby and Yang.

Ironwood’s recording says that some people may view these as “uncertain times,” likewise contrasting Glynda’s recording in the very first episode, announcing that they live in an “extraordinary time of peace.” Whether there’s uncertainty or not, Ironwood promises that Atlas will remain “safe and strong,” even if the other Kingdoms have begun to falter. The speech has a very ‘Us vs. Them’ quality about it.

“He looks tired,” Ruby comments and I just need to chuck another fandom into the mix real quick because:

Under these circumstances, “tired” doesn’t just require the John Mulaney advice of, “Get some rest, tall child!” It’s a clear dig at the leader’s capabilities and even their mental faculties. “James… what have you been doing?” Qrow asks, thereby re-framing “tired” as the nice euphemism for “gone off the deep end.” It remains to be seen though precisely how much of Ironwood’s paranoia is literal paranoia in the sense that it’s illogical and undeserved, and how much of these changes are highly undesirable, but potentially justifiable decisions. After all, we as the audience know precisely how dangerous Salem and her crew are. We know why Beacon fell. We’re privy to the stakes in a way that the average, angry Atlas citizen is not. All Ironwood can do in the face of such odds is try to prepare for every eventuality… it just looks like he’s reached a point where those preparations have started infringing on basic human rights. It’s a very sad setup. A classic case of the wrong things done for the right reasons.

There’s a check-in from the radio tower, whoever’s in charge wondering why Manta 1-5 hasn’t gone towards their landing pad yet. Maria comments that the lady should take a hint and starts finding a different place to land. Which in hindsight is kind of funny because they obviously did take a hint… and then sent out a special team to deal with the implications of that hint.

As the group starts exploring we get a lovely shot demonstrating how much they stand out in this new environment.

Though there’s some color in the neon signs, the otherwise overwhelming brown/beige/black/red makes elements like Nora’s pink skirt and Weiss’ white hair stick out like sore thumbs. As we’ll see in a minute, there are obviously in-world difficulties with them passing as average citizens, but it’s also a signal to the audience that, for now at least, they’re really out of their depth. This is the “greatest kingdom” referenced in our title.

Maria is leading them to a friend of hers when a bot takes an interest in these obvious outsiders. It approaches Yang at the back of the group, takes an unexpected picture, and she responds by kicking it into the street where it sparks with damage before getting hit by a truck.

(Flashback to Ruby and Penny, anyone?)

Now, I’m honestly on the fence about this moment. You could make the case that they’re all traumatized fighters and responding to that flash was a logical, instinctual response. You can even argue that, just hours after taking her first faunus life, Yang is more than a little on edge—even though the premier doesn’t reference this incredibly significant event at all, outside of Blake’s quick realization that her blade is still broken. Both are valid and easily supported readings. However, I’m still hyper aware that this is Yang. The character who, for two volumes now, has been characterized very strongly by her, “attack first, ask questions later” attitude. Out of all the characters we could have seen instinctively attacking something that hadn’t actually done her any harm, choosing Yang holds the most weight. The story also lightly acknowledges that this was an extreme response, what with the group staring at her and Yang’s sheepish expression.

Whether it’s specifically in the context of trauma over the fight with Adam, or more broadly acknowledging Yang’s tendency to both assume and act on the worst in people, I hope this volume helps her manage these instincts. One talk with Tai about not punching through problems isn’t going to cut it. Especially when her forceful attitude has caused much of the internal conflict recently.

It’s after this that the group is accosted by a drunk man, functioning largely as exposition to explain what’s been going on in Atlas and why the people are so scared and angry about it. Pissed enough to get literally pissed, of the inebriated variety. Here then, we return to the “this group of teenagers is really bad at thinking ahead” issue that I mentioned earlier. Ruby is all ready to start a fight---referencing her newfound willingness to escalate situations that don’t necessitate escalation---and it’s Blake who holds her back, reminding Ruby that they can’t afford to cause a scene. Which is fantastic. Except they end up causing a scene anyway when the drunk calls Blake a “stupid faunus” and Weiss uses a glyph to chuck him into the trash.

Is seeing a racist asshole get his just desserts extremely satisfying? Absolutely and from a representation perspective I’m thrilled to see Rooster Teeth taking a hard stance in their story. From an in-world perspective though, that was an incredibly bad decision. We’ve been establishing since minute one of this premier that the group needs to be cautious. Blake herself, the victim here, just told Ruby not to endanger the whole group by defending her honor… and then Weiss swoops in to do it anyway. There are two priorities here, to your friends and to your mission, and the issue is that Team RWBY has a tendency to consistently prioritize the former, something that wouldn’t be an issue if this was still a low-key story about a group of students and not would-be, formal huntresses trying to save the world. The choice to attack rather than walking away---paralleling last volume’s final battle---speaks to their inability to think ahead and weigh their priorities. “It was worth it,” Weiss says, but is it? Now that you’ve caused the scene that you couldn’t afford? Now that this guy recognized your glyphs and you’ve blown your cover? I realize I’ll probably get heat for this, but there’s a difference between calling out micro-aggressions in everyday life and calling them out when you’re fugitives trying to keep an invaluable relic safe. It would have said more about the group’s maturity if Blake had succeeded in avoiding a scene and they expressed anger/sympathy among themselves that she had to put up with that shit. Throwing guys into dumpsters is satisfying as hell, but it’s not the action of a level-headed adult conducting a job.

Provided that the story actually acknowledges how young they are and that it’s expected they make such mistakes, we’re golden. As it is though, these issues are usually brushed aside. Later Maria says that Pietro “likes to keep a low profile. Something I’m coming to realize you know nothing about,” but it’s said in a joking, fond manner. This isn’t treated as an actual flaw and is therefore not set up as something for the team to work on. And that, right there, is the heart of the conflict between RWBYJNR and Ozpin. He’s a fine scalpel. They’re a sledgehammer. RWBY continually introduces threats that require a delicate touch---whether it’s the possibility of spies in your midst that force you to carefully monitor who has what information, or needing to move through a city without drawing attention to yourself---these battles require a certain level of strategy and without fail our heroes are characterized as people who can only solve their problems through direct, immediate violence. You don’t walk away from a fight. Ever. Be it Cordovin or a racist drunk. The more I see of their behavior, no matter the good intentions behind it, the more it makes sense to me that Ozpin lied and kept his secrets. Our heroes simply don’t have the patient, level-headed, forward-thinking personalities required to fight this kind of delicate war. Their talent lies in the hack-’em slash-’em situations.

Anyway, I’m getting off topic. The group runs from the guards that show up after the drunk guy incident and they manage to make it to Pietro’s place. After some fun dialogue about whether he remembers Maria and the state of his shop, we get a potential explanation for Maria’s strange behavior on the train. Everyone remember this?

Obviously the camera focusing on Maria helps us, the audience, realize that she’s a character who will eventually become important to the story, but it’s also a bit coincidental that she’s hanging out near Team RWBY’s room. Especially when she inexplicably ends up on the back half of the train when everyone else was evacuated. It was clear at the time that she’d deliberately stayed back, but to what purpose no one was sure. Here, Maria gives a general answer about how she thought this group might have needed her guidance while fighting all those manticores… which is still an odd explanation to my mind. Because up until her confession leaving the farmhouse, Maria wants to keep that low-profile. She’s done with being the Grimm Reaper, so why get involved now? Especially when, with hired huntsmen to protect the train and a large group of teens with their own weapons, she probably would have assumed they were all in good hands? Even if it was just a fighter’s natural instinct to help, what would that guidance have looked like? Pretending to be a normal, formal huntress lending a hand where she can? Admitting she’s the Grimm Reaper? Is she still able to fight? There’s still the highly coincidental nature that Maria, the greatest huntress of a generation, just happened to be traveling the same route as and randomly became interested in the group involved with Salem, gods, and the relics.

To be clear, I’m not really arguing that there’s some big conspiracy surrounding Maria. Coincidences are common in all fiction because if things happened based on real-life probability, it would all be pretty boring. Rather, I’m simply pointing out that between losing her eyes as a young adult and coincidentally getting involved with Team RWBY now, we pretty much have no idea what Maria has been up to for most of her life. If the story wanted to establish some sort of betrayal/trickery/what-have-you, there’s room for it.

That would make me super sad though. I quite like Maria.

We learn more about Ironwood’s increasing paranoia, a hint that not everyone on the council is happy with his changes---that mysterious woman we keep seeing on the posters, perhaps?---and the acknowledgement that whoever helped bring down Atlas’ tech at Beacon has to be “Either a genius, or one of our own.” Probably both. Enter Watts, seen typing at a computer in our opening.

With all this info bearing down on them, a few characters like Jaune and Oscar start asking whether they can just leave and yes, please tackle that, because it’s a very important question. Right now the show has stalled the, “Will the group continue the fight against Salem and what’s their reasoning for doing so when they all think it’s pointless?” question by throwing up another roadblock with the relic. They got it to Atlas, but they’re not sure they can hand it off to Ironwood yet, which just leaves them twiddling their thumbs. That portion of the quest isn’t technically complete yet, putting off an answer as to whether and why they’ll go onto the next portion. We need to tackle the group’s new motivations though. Soon. I sincerely hope that when Ironwood announces he has a way of defeating Salem, we finally get the group challenging their own assertions that such attempts are fundamentally useless. We had a whole volume of, “Oh no. Oh god. Salem is immortal and all our work is for naught.” We need at least a little attention paid to the development of a new perspective to counteract that.

Before things can get too bleak though, Pietro recognizes Weiss as a Schnee. Yang, in a lovely moment of support, desperately tries to re-direct the conversation back to the council. Pietro then recognizes her arm, puts it all together to get Team RWBY, and drops the loaded comment, “My daughter has told me so much about you.”

Many fans saw it coming. Even more hoped for it. Honestly? I think that’s great. Too many shows nowadays rely on “twists” that don’t actually make sense, or even undermine the original setup. Those are frustrating beyond belief and feel like the authors are selling out good story for cheap, undesired shock value. The fandom saw Penny’s resurrection coming a mile away? Great! That just means Rooster Teeth did a good job of setting up that possibility and then following through on it.

I’ll talk more about Penny’s introduction in a moment, but first I just want to throw out that I legitimately enjoyed the fight scene. Good action and creative teamwork at times. I particularly liked Weiss and Ren working together to take down four grimm in as many seconds. Oscar likewise takes a grimm out with a very impressive strike… more impressive than I was expecting from him, honestly. Right now I suppose I’m just inclined to shrug that off with, “He and Ozpin are slowly merging, so he picks up stuff way faster than everyone else,” most notably Jaune. Also, I’ll be blunt. I wouldn’t touch canon-based rosegarden with a ten-foot pole. You know, because of all the issues like a massive age difference, two minor characters involved, questions of consent, the fact that Ruby was Ozpin’s student---pesky ethical concerns like that. AUs though? I think the ship is adorable. Provided that Oscar is fully his own person and there’s consent on both sides appropriate for whatever ages they currently are in your fic or fanart? Very nice. So, it’s for those fans that I point out an entirely coincidental parallel: Ruby saves Oscar from a grimm with a bullet in nearly the exact same manner that Blake saves Yang from a grimm with a bullet. Make of that what you will.

Back to Penny though. Overall, am I thrilled that she’s back? Absolutely. I actually spoke about this recently while answering an ask, expressing how much I’d enjoy this very scenario: having her consciousness saved and thus allowing for her resurrection. Do I think her new look is adorable? Yes, yes I do. “And yet,” you say, “It sounds like there’s a ‘but’ somewhere in there, Clyde.” Yeah. Sadly there is. Because although I’m happy to have Penny, I wasn’t particularly taken with how they re-introduced her.

Simply put, there was far too much humor for what should have been a touching, emotional scene. With the exception of one moment where Ruby tries to voice the word “killed,” everyone treats Penny’s resurrection as a surprising, but not terribly notable event. Yang, Weiss, and Blake express a sort of long-suffering fondness as they comment on how wholesome this is. Pietro laughs at any shock over her “death” and shrugs about how yeah, it technically was. Whatever. Qrow takes the time to nonchalantly say that things are going better than he expected. Ruby is holding it all together with barely a blink. Penny herself is nothing but exuberance and funny dialogue. Maria cracks a joke about how she has no idea who this child is. Jaune goes, “Well, that was unexpected” as if Penny had showed up in Atlas when they all thought she was in Vacuo. That sort of surprise. The whole thing is treated flippantly with, “Never a dull moment.” Summarized, all this really isn’t the appropriate reaction to realizing a friend is no longer dead.

Yes, Ruby was the closest to Penny by far---we can’t expect everyone to get misty-eyed---but does everyone remember what her death was like? It was the turning point of the entire series, not just for the audience, but the characters as well. Penny was the first casualty of the Fall of Beacon and her death was appropriately gut wrenching. It was then shown across every TV turned to the Vytal Festival, the moment where the whole world watched their golden girl, Pyrrha, unintentionally murder a newcomer who turned out to be a robot. Moments later grimm start attacking and the safest place on Remnant is destroyed. Penny’s death heralded all that. The one time we see Ruby tackling the trauma of it all is when she speaks with Oscar and, notably, crumbles a bit when she instinctively uses Penny’s catch phrase.

What I had hoped for was the group grappling with the sudden, completely unexpected shock of getting one of two losses back; working through the knowledge that their lives have been defined by two friends’ death and now one of those has been retroactively erased. Perhaps we’ll see that in future episodes, but right now it feels like a disservice to the impact Penny’s death had on the characters and the story to treat this as such a comic, light-hearted moment. Let Penny tackle-hug Ruby and then let Ruby give her a much more sincere embrace. Let her cry. Have Yang put a hand on Ruby’s shoulder, giving her a look that expresses how she understands what this means to her. Have Jaune looking away, devastated that Ruby miraculously got her friend back, but such an event is impossible for Pyrrha. Let him or Oscar or Ren or anyone seriously acknowledge that, holy shit, this is a joyous occasion we never expected to experience. We’ve spent months dealing with trauma and pessimism, now here’s Penny, reminding us that there’s still so much good in the world. Have someone acknowledge that sometimes the impossible happens (cough-defeatingSalem-cough). You can allow the moment to function as the momentous occasion it is and then lighten the mood by having Maria announce that she has no idea what’s going on.

This isn’t the first time Rooster Teeth has implemented comedy when they were better off sticking with drama. See: the choice to animate punching Ozpin last volume in an absurd, cartoon style. So yeah. Happy to have Penny back, but that first moment felt underwhelming, to say the least.

We then have an admittedly very cool shot—

— (semblance? Just awesome drama?) right before the group is taken out in seconds by Atlas’ elite. They’re… I don’t know how to spell their name yet. Is it something like Ace-Ops for elite special operations? Or Aesop like Aesop’s fables? Potentially both? Idk. The fandom will figure that out in the next day or so, if they haven’t already. What’s important though is that this group charges our team with stealing an airship, illegally entering the city with it, and starting an unauthorized fight in the streets. If I could just take one second to…

Ahem. I’m good. Seriously though, if I’m at all optimistic for Volume Seven it’s because the story is finally acknowledging that the group made some pretty massive mistakes last volume. Not that it looks like there will be much punishment attached to that. Between them meeting with Ironwood in the trailer and the Blah-Blah-Ops’ clear status as heroes this volume (they’re in the opening a bunch and seem to be working with RWBYJNR), I’m not yet convinced that this arrest will lead to anything other than getting precisely what they want: seeing Ironwood. To be clear, it’s not like I want the group languishing in jail for twelve episodes. That would be one hell of a boring volume. But rather, I’m interested in whether the story will continue to imply that Atlas is in the right for arresting them, or whether Episode Two will quickly turn that on its head and forcefully announce, as they did in Volume Six, that these actions are an egregious insult because we’re the protagonists. How dare you not let us do whatever we want?

Because the group was in the wrong here. It can be easy to miss considering that the rules they’re refusing to obey are tied up in a dictator-like society---aren’t we the heroes for ignoring and circumventing evil Ironwood’s laws?---but what they actually choose to do has far more of an impact on innocent civilians than it does on The Man. Like endangering all of Argus with your needless battle. Or, to a much smaller extent here, jumping into a fight when you’re not authorized to do that. Now, I actually don’t blame RWBYJNR for that one. They are huntsmen and it’s their job to protect the people. Going out to defeat grimm is 100% their thing. Rather, I’m talking about stuff like their commentary on Atlas’ defenses. When the fight starts we get, “I guess the city’s defenses aren’t doing much” and “Somehow that doesn’t surprise me.” It’s more of that, “Us huntsmen are the only true defenders of the world. Your attempts with robots would be funny if it weren’t so dangerous” attitude. It’s a certain level of arrogance. As we see just a minute later though, Ironwood’s setup works. Because the civilians all know to get indoors. Because he has Penny. The robots hold off the grimm until she arrives, defeating the rest with a speed and an ease that frankly doesn’t compare to what we saw the group accomplishing. She does from above what it took nine of them to manage, often (as we saw with Oscar and Yang) with great danger to them in the process. When they’re bound and accused of unauthorized fighting, it’s clear that they were, in fact, shouldering their way into a situation where they weren’t needed---and potentially causing trouble in the process. Rules exist for a reason. Are they always perfect? Far from it, but in the characterization folding over from Volume Six, the group has forgotten that most of the time rules are there for others’ safety. They have been thought out. This particular situation is easily defendable (of course they’re going to go fight grimm) and there were no consequences to the group jumping in when they weren’t allowed (like property damage or injured civilians), but this moment does function as a good representation of the overall problem. Just because there weren’t consequences for saying, “Screw your laws” this time doesn’t mean there won’t be in the future. Or that there hasn’t been in the past.

It likewise stands out to me that Qrow consistently tires to use his “I’m a licensed huntsmen” as a justification. He flashes it at the two goons on the train to get them to back off. He tires to use it to get past Cordovin. He now tells his captors that he has every right to fight and protect the people because of this card he carries. Qrow is well aware of how important the status of a huntsmen is in this world… yet he’s running around with eight fighters who don’t have that legal backing. I don’t think the show would ever go for my suggestion of another school arc so they could finish their training, but at the very least we should provide some sort of loop-hole for these characters. Have Ironwood provide special licenses based on their heroics at the Fall of Beacon and their work since. Because right now we have a world that’s continually emphasizing being a huntsmen as a job, something you earn the right to call yourself, yet 95% of our group doesn’t have that right in the eyes of their society. We know they’ve done great, secret work to protect the people. But the people only know that these are a bunch of teens with one year of formal training. So you really can’t blame any officials for going, “Sorry. We’re not in the habit of letting random people with weapons cross our borders. Or fight in our streets.” It’s like if a bunch of 14-18yos arrived at a crime scene with guns and demanded that they be let in on a case. No, we never graduated from an academy, but you should adhere to our demands anyway. The good intentions are there, but you need to iron out the formalities first.

Really, RWBY should just fix the whole license thing with a throw-away plot point if they’re not going to tackle it seriously, just so this isn’t an ethical issue anymore. I’d rather smooth it over soon since the story doesn’t seem interested in tackling whether a group with one year of formal training should be allowed that status. So just give it to them and let’s move on. They might still run into issues with Atlas, but at least the rest of the world won’t be expected to trust them purely on faith. Not everyone belongs to a small town terrorized by a geist, with four random teens as your only option for safety.

Which finally, as the doors close on our group with heavy heads, brings us to the opening. Some things to pay attention to:

1. We get a glimpse of that mysterious woman shown in numerous posters across the city.

(I’m likewise interested in the very long shot we got on this “show your teeth” graffiti.)

2. Watts and Tyrian are presented as primary antagonists. Interesting that Neo and Cinder aren’t there (not that I caught anyway), especially since we know they were heading to Atlas last volume as well. It makes me think that they’ll be the true threat at the end of the volume. Keeping things quiet, even in the intro, so we have no chance of guessing their plan.

3. The main conflict seems to be between Weiss and Winter, as opposed to Weiss and Jacques as many originally assumed. Those expressions don’t bode well.

4. We still see an image of Ironwood briefly flickering to Jacques though as an angry citizen throws a rock at it. Implying Jacques is secretly pulling the strings? James has simply become too much like him? We’ll have to see.

5. We get a shot of Oscar and Ironwood… training? Fighting? I’m inclined to say fighting based on his and Ozpin’s past difficulties, but that’s also up in the air.

6. The image of our staff…

…and 7. an absolutely massive cast this volume. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I’m concerned with RWBY’s insistence on continually introducing so many new characters, particularly characters who are important enough to warrant decent development. There simply isn’t time for them all.

(Although, is Maria in that shot? Wonder if she’ll leave the group now that she’s done her duty of helping Ruby out with her eyes.)

Which brings us to the end of the premier! Finally, I’d like to end with a personal note. As is quite obvious, I’m still watching and recapping RWBY, but I feel like I should be upfront about my overall lack of investment in the series right now. Chock it up to getting burned last volume, fading interest in a long-running show, just growing up and changing… I don’t claim to know precisely why I’m no longer jazzed about a new volume like I once was. But, if I perhaps appear overly critical of what I generally thought was a good—and honestly better than expected—premier? That’s probably why. The details just don’t cut it for me anymore. All caps, screaming excitement over Penny’s return or Qrow’s new outfit just doesn’t resonate much, which leaves me with a more critical perspective on the show overall. So if that’s something you’re interested in, stick around because, baring unforeseen circumstances, there will be more metas over the next three or so months. More invested in a flailing celebration of RWBY as a whole? You’re better off hitting up another blog.

Basically, you know that shot in Pietro’s?

Note the “Days since our last nonsense” sign combined with the defeated expressions. That’s what RWBY feels like to me these days. A lot of nonsense and limited enjoyment. Ah well. Maybe Volume Seven will prove me wrong and I’ll be re-invigorated by the end of the season!

Until then, ❤️️

Minor Things of Note

Maria refers to the group as “kids” in the airship and Penny as a “child.” Acknowledging last year’s debate, I stand by the argument that just because many (but not all) of the group have reached the age of maturity in our world doesn’t mean they’re on par with the adults they were so recently rejecting. There’s a reason why the very old Maria naturally uses “kid” and “child” and it doesn’t come off as weird.

I really like the design of Pietro’s chair. Giving him something that walks on four legs is both different and a nice nod to nature among all the tech. Also, kudos to the Pinocchio reference on his bookshelf in the form of a whale.

Nora remains as adorable as ever. I particularly liked her energy in Pietro’s and her high-key annoyance at Ren getting a jump on the fight. I’m interested in what we’ll be learning about her this volume.

Not sure I’m a fan of Rooster Teeth using these squeaky toy noises whenever the group is comically surprised by something. Comedy is great, we need it in this story, but sound effects like that are remnants (ha) of a tone we haven’t really seen since Volume 1. I think the show can still get away with exaggerated facial expressions---Nora in her excitement, Ruby laughing at Jaune’s Pumpkin Pete’s sweatshirt---but this feels a bit out of place now.

“Maybe Atlas isn’t as safe as we thought” and yet, astoundingly, no one is inclined to ask Ozpin to weigh in on this. Even now that they know he’s listening. I think I’ll start a tally. See how many episodes it takes to actually acknowledge, let alone act on, the primary conflict of Volume 6.

Image Credit

Personal screenshots from RWBY

Transflag: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Transgender_Pride_flag.svg

Doctor Who GIF: https://tenor.com/view/doctor-who-tired-harriet-jones-gif-5627138

How I Met Your Mother GIF: https://giphy.com/gifs/celebrate-2o5Ypf4fP6ahq

#rwby #rwby volume 7 #rwby volume 7 spoilers #mymetas #rwby recaps

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momestuck · 5 years

Text

Let’s read Hiveswap Friendsim... volume 18!

Imagine I edited the final shot of End of Evangelion here to put trolls on it. That’s more effort than I’m actually willing to put in. Imagining it is probably almost as good.

This chapter is fittingly called “Of Endings, Many”.

The opening narration is kind of pointed and sarcastic. It jokes about saying trite things like ��the circle is complete’... and then goes elsewhere.

“You’ve got enough friends, now you need answers-” - and then it interrupts itself, realising it’s just the intro screen.

I wonder who writes the intro screens?

This time we have... another jadeblood, and also a final pair of purplebloods, the second troll pair.

Lanque

Lanque is written by the mysterious “V”, who previously managed to get us to lick a clown’s armpit and then wrote some interesting things about intertextuality. I have high hopes!

Content warning: Lanque’s story deals explicitly with sex with a man, in a situation of dubious consent on the player character’s part.

Lanque’s theme I’m sure I recognise from Homestuck proper, though I’d have to do some digging to see what it’s reprising. It’s called “yall know i just do the music right” - another James Roach piece.

It begins with us getting a call from Lynera. The narration somewhat uncharitably says “that nutty bitch is exactly the sort of destabilizing influence your life needs right now”. In a positive, not sarcastic way at least.

She wants to start making friends herself...

The narration is really in a hurry this time around. We reprise the party background from the last episode.

I appreciate the kind of breezy enthusiastic chaos in V’s writing.

We’re in a cape, bra and fishnets. A perfect outfit for the final chapter.

Wow the narration just isn’t giving a shit anymore. Final chapter striking hard.

We try to figure out whose hive we’re going to... and oh shit, it’s Ardata’s. First troll we ever met, as well. The party is described as a “frathouse rager” - which, Lynera acknowledges, is not her scene at all.

Is the narrator already drunk? Or is Ardata fucking with our head again?

Ardata declares that it’s a ‘kiiickback’ for all the ‘world’s fiiinest iiinfluencers’... and neither me nor Lynera is invited. Apparently she heard about it from someone called Lanque, who’s also not invited.

What is up with this narration? It’s coming across like a standup performance.

At that point, Ardata drops a... nsfw warning on us.

I didn’t actually realise this volume had an ‘accompanying mature content description’. I think what I’m gonna do is... obviously I’m gonna play the chapter, but I will put specific content warnings before sections of the post that have potentially triggering content, and if there are explicit images, I will pixellise out any explicit bits before I embed them in the post. spoiler alert: this ain’t exactly Ladykiller in a Bind there.

That’s a hell of a warning, huh. Especially given the previous armpit-licking chapter by ‘V’ was about at the absolute limit of sfw horny anyway. Fuck knows what they’re about to inflict on us now.

Also: James Roach’s track name is starting to make sense. Apparently he wants to distance himself from this episode, semi-ironically at any rate? God, what are we in for.

So, presumably the ‘oof, you’re too scared’ link takes us to an abrupt end to the chapter, we’ll check it later. Let’s go on in.

Quick soapbox: as much as I hate the kind of shallow analysis that throws around ‘problematic’ as a summary judgement of a work - nah actually, you can’t just disclaim shit under ‘challenging or controversial material’. By the same token that you can write whatever shit you want in a Homestuck computer game, critics - and random nerds on the internet, which is to say, the entire audience of this game - can discuss it however we find appropriate.

Nevertheless, you haven’t actually done anything worse than make me lick a clown’s armpit so far, and we can approach challenging themes in a way that says something meaningful and important, so let’s see what you have for us, V. To be honest I’m expecting some kind of portrayal of sexual violence given all the disclaimers, but who knows.

The party sounds like hell.

To Lynera, who remains glued to our arm, it’s ‘more than she was expecting’. But before we can leave, Lanque arrives.

I was wrong about what I thought was Lanque’s theme. Lanque’s theme is a slow, mournful saxophone piece. Maybe the music before was Lynera’s theme, and I just forgot how it went?

The narration mentions a ‘curious red stain’ on Lanque’s shirt. They’re obviously going for a whole ‘sexy vampire’ type thing with him. Maybe a Twilight parody, with Lynera in the Bella role? That would be a little dated, though.

I vaguely recall that it was said at some point that the jadebloods were all women. Which makes me suspect that Lanque is a trans guy, and this story is gonna touch on themes of transness and such. That could be something I completely confabulated, though. I’d check the wiki but no doubt it’s been updated by now, and I don’t want to spoil myself on this arc.

He seems to be in a flirty mood. Not sure how old either of these two are supposed to be.

Oh yeah. The knifemeter actually hasn’t shown up in this episode so far. He expresses surprise that Lynera has friends. Or at least, friend.

Eesh, this guy gonna be another Zebruh?

Lanque asks about us and we blather about being an alien, and also general disaster.

It’s really hard to get the sense that this is a loud party where we can barely hear each other over the noise, given both the narration and the soft jazz background.

He says something about not biting unless asked. So if it’s not already obvious... either a genuine rainbow drinker (hey, if Kanaya could do it at age 6 sweeps/13 years, no doubt he could at age... whatever age he is!), or someone who likes pretending to be one.

Anyway, our protag is apparently not overcome by friendship lust at this point, and tries to play wingman and put Lanque’s attention back onto Lynera. This... doesn’t go as well as expected.

(2.43 sweeps, that is - about 5.3 years)

Hmm, why would that be? This could be like, a transphobia thing? Do trolls have that? I’d say of course they fucking do, but apparently they don’t have homophobia, and their gender system... well who the hell knows how troll gender works, having all the signifiers of gender in the real world but none of the material consequences.

Anyway, Lanque calls Lynera a ‘nasty little bitch’. But then immediately says he’s not one to criticise.

So... maybe it’s not a trans thing? We’ll see. Lanque continues being a huge dick, suggesting that Lynera is interested in him because the ordeals are coming, and she wants to take the chance to fuck before they roll around.

Lynera is kind of... not surprisingly pretty hurt.

The narrator challenges Lanque on his rudeness without a choice.

Ah, the classic ‘she deserved it’ defence. Second only to the ‘it didn’t happen, but if it had, they would have deserved it anyway’ defence.

The protag demands to know why Lanque even invited Lynera if it was just to have such a huge go at her like that. Lanque’s explanation is... kind of unclear.

It’s not like she got much of a chance to defend herself there. So far my impression of Lanque is: this guy’s a huge cock. Or possibly a huge nook. Idk what the troll equivalent is.

The narrator decides to ‘Switzerland out of’ this conversation. They say this out loud, of course. Who needs an internal monologue, these days?

Lanque invites us to stay - we’re ‘much more interesting’ anyway. Eesh. I’m inclined to look for a ‘fuck right off where’s my pepper spray’ button, but that’s just me being a lesbian I guess. (Pepper spray is also illegal in the UK. I’m pretty sure.)

Yeah, you said it. He says he’s got ‘less time to waste than most’.

Bryn sees a meta joke about the narrative structure, Bryn clicks the screenshot button.

(Speak of the screenshot button, I had to rebind it to make it easier to paste the screenshots, you see in Ubuntu-- oh, you’re asleep?)

Anyway I kind of expected a choice around about now, but no, we barrel forwards, and end up dancing with Lanque. He takes our hand and leads us to another part of the house.

At that point, Elwurd shows up! I wonder how much of the cast is set to make an appearance in this chapter. If it’s all 35 trolls we’ve encountered so far, this is gonna be a long chapter!

Elwurd seems to be Lanque’s dealer. Not sure what drug she’s selling exactly. Apparently ‘you a drone?’ is the Alternian equivalent of ‘you a cop?’...

Anyway, Lanque buys the drug, and peer pressures us to take it. We’re like, nuh-uh.

We did not, we tell him, ask him to buy drugs for us.

I’m proud of you, protagonist. At the beginning of this story you’d have done anything to get a friend.

At that point, Diemen makes his reappearance. We really are going through the entire cast here, huh.

Yeah. That one’s just too obvious.

Anyway, undrugged, we get to dancing.

God, V, we get it, you want to fuck trolls. The narrator goes with it, though.

I find it kind of interesting how, like... our protagonist in the beginning and ending sketches is pretty much like, a marshmallow, indicating that they represent some kind of AFGNCAAP. But over time, little assumptions leak in. For example, we’re some kind of American nerd - our education system included a ‘high school’, and we had the option to learn Spanish there. We are relatively physically unfit. The wordplay suggests we know English.

Sometimes it’s deliberate - clearly someone made a choice to make it so that our protagonist has opinions about rap and knows a bit about professional wrestling, to suit the themes of the chapters. Those aren’t like, presumed traits assumed of the Homestuck audience, but things that kind of carve out a specific identity

So yeah... we’ve already had the whole ‘cheese person’ thing in Fozzer’s route, and here they’re straight up declaring the protag has pale skin. (Which doesn’t mean they’re white, necessarily, but they are apparently not Black, say.) I think that’s kind of a shame - a wasted opportunity.

Homestuck has already traded a lot on the ambiguity of its characters, which the fandom tends to read as implicitly white, except for like, a relatively small corner. This came to a head at points - most infamously the ‘CAUCASIAN’ controversy during the trickster mode phase, when Hussie ‘jokingly’ declared that his previously ambiguous characters (shaded pure #FFFFFF white, implying a ‘blank slate’) were ‘CAUCASIAN’ in bright flashing letters - at least while in trickster mode. After backlash, the panels were left as-is, but ‘CAUCASIAN’ was replaced with ‘PEACHY’.

Friendsim could have been an opportunity to improve the record a bit, especially as its narrative explicitly addresses many questions of societal oppression and occasionally makes explicit analogues to racism. But... they didn’t do that. Alas.

Anyway, moving on.

Apparently I’m very predictable because the very next panel addresses this exact line of thought.

I feel like this and the ‘not racist’ joke in the previous arc by ‘V’ are kind of... well I don’t know anything about ‘V’, and what they might be intending by these jokes. Here, it’s kind of parodying the whole thing in Homestuck rather explicitly... but whether it’s like, challenging it? There’s definitely a reading that’s like... pointed sarcasm, challenging the source material’s noncommital laziness.

Hey art interpretation is hard lol.

V’s writing is unusually striking, in a way I’m not quite sure how I feel about. I will think more about that once we’ve fully explored this chapter.

Things are getting pretty meta. He comments how we’re paper thin and he can see our blood. We’re like, ok, so you’re a vampire then?

This is the kind of thing! Writing that’s like... on the edge of like, telling a story and just directly talking to the reader, pushing us to engage with ambiguity and metaphor.

To release the tension a bit, the narrator does a ‘sexy dance’.

Anyway, we don’t get to find out what Lanque really thinks of our sexy dancing. Because at that point, Bronya shows up. Lanque decides it’s time to go.

...to a respiteblock, where else. So much for this being a friendsim and pointedly not a dating sim.

We are, it seems, safe. Lanque politely asks if we’d like to kiss. There’s another reminder that this is a very nsfw not for kids scene about to go down in this room right now.

So that’s apparently going to be our decision here. FUCK THE BOY/DO NOT FUCK THE BOY

...no, that’s not our choice. We’re kissing the boy no matter what. This is also portrayed in first person view, because consistency is important!

Apparently our blood tastes ‘sharp and dangerous - like a weapon’.

I feel like this is about to answer a whole fucking lot of fandom questions. At least as far as Hiveswap canon is concerned - arguably a separate entity to Homestuck canon, though obviously, like an expanded universe, designed to be read almost exclusively with intertextuality in mind. An elaboration, I guess.

There’s more like... hey check it out we’re going NSFW. Still nothing like a choice button yet.

One thing I find interesting is like... while this game is packed with lesbians of various stripes, and evidently many of the writers are gay or bi women, all the trolls who get really horny scenes have been boys. (Two of them written by ‘V’, admittedly). Mallek first with his shirtless scene, then much more recently Marvus, and now Lanque.

Also look at these guys. Pretty sure V has a type.

Anyway, the narrator makes the mistake of saying something vaguely derogatory about buckets.

Not sure like... what he finds derogatory there. Mentioning ‘buckets’ vs ‘pails’ (might be a distinction between reproductive and non-reproductive sex?), or saying that he doesn’t seem to have one? He says it’d be his first time.

With an alien, huh. *xenofucker fist bump*

Instead of a sex scene, we get a lore drop.

Once he gets shipped offworld, there will be no more ‘sneaking out of the caverns’. To Lanque, this effectively means his life will be over. This is his last chance to fuck!

A little overdramatic, dude!

Before we can get to it, Bronya interrupts.

So we get interrupted by Bronya. This is finally our choice point. Do we dob Lanque in, or do we fuck?

Regarding ‘problematic’, the main thing I’m seeing is like... Lanque is, at best, barely of age. Since he’s talking about getting shipped offworld soon, I’m guessing he’s close to troll adulthood. In terms of real-world narratives, this is taking on the general tone of ‘college story’ - complete with allusion to a frat party.

I think like... I’m going to read this whole visual novel, and write what I think about it. However, I can also totally understand why you would not want to read this kind of ‘first time’ story. So I’m going to leave that branch to a readmore at the end of the post. Above the cut, to give you all some kind of ending, and we’ll go down the ‘call his mum’ branch. Lol it’s not nearly as nsfw as they make it sound, there’s nothing that really need readmores, nevermind this lol.

Bronya busts the door open and tells him to get dressed immediately.

Lanque gets his mean streak back on, and goes in on Bronya now.

He does love the word ‘bitch’, does Lanque. He tells her she’s not actually his lusus (oh yeah, lusii... it’s been a while since we’ve seen one honestly. The last one was the goat.) She slaps him. He pretends like it was a sex thing.

This is not pretty. Bronya launches into a lecture on Lanque: sneaking out, being an ass to Lynera, and...

Yeah, maybe it’s a good thing we didn’t get further involved.

Apparently he’s not deterred by the fact that we literally called Bronya up to get out of fucking him, and adds us on Chittr before he leaves.

So that’s an ending. Sweet look, protagonist.

But it’s not the ending ending. We get a final screen.

Sure, I want to understand. Is this going to be some kind of direct artist-to-reader commentary on what they were trying to accomplish with that chapter?

The text box turns white, and the font changes. I bet this is Doc Scratch. So no, probably not that. In fact, this segues straight into the epilogue. I think there are different versions of the epilogue depending how you approach the final chapter, or else we were supposed to play the other branch before Lanque, so for the sake of putting the epilogue at the end, I’ll save it for a future post. (I’ve already written it up.)

Now, the other Lanque branches. First of all, refusing at the NSFW notice.

So they poke fun at the reader for like, not accepting the NSFW notice. Uh-huh. You know that Steam doesn’t automatically give a mature content warning if you’ve set up your account that way right? Which I guess is my own fault lol.

Anyway, doing this leads to like... a totally different arc, and a totally different canon. Huh, I genuinely expected they’d like just end the story there.

It’s a cozy party now, apparently.

This version of Lanque is... different.

For one thing, he’s got a flower crown. And instead of soft sexy jazz, we have a pretty piano piece. He says hi to Lynera and me.

Hmm. Not entirely un-hornified, then.

Lynera gushes wildly about us, recapping a whole bunch of plot.

It turns out, rather than taking drugs and having sex and other such risqué things, this party is a chill poetry reading.

So I realise this entire branch is just like, an extended joke at the reader. Look how un-edgy this is. We’re going to support our friends and read poetry.

In this one, instead of asking to kiss us, he asks to hold hands before we read poetry. And he says this is a poem about a past relationship, and it might be a bit raw.

We get Lanque’s poem, in full.

I was going to copy-paste the whole thing in, but it’s quite long, so let’s be uncool and respect copyright or whatever because my fingers were getting tired. It is quite good... addressing loss, and memory, and the lingering influence of a past relationship. It makes me wish I had ever developed the ability to appreciate and comment on poetry, because I feel like I just don’t have the vocabulary to comment on it, or what it might connect to, or anything else. The narration agrees: raw, emotional.

I imagine, though perhaps this is presumptuous, it is reflecting something quite real in the real life of ‘V’.

Lynera also gets the chance to read out a poem. She happens to have one on hand. It’s about Bronya, sure enough, and her loneliness and alienation.

Afterwards, she is self-deprecating.

This version of Lanque is kind and reassuring - the complete opposite of his persona in the sexy branch.

We leave with Lynera after hugging it out. Reading her poem, and being with other trolls in this way, seems to have really helped Lynera. There’s another pointed bit of defensiveness at potential critics.

Soapbox: This is the state of discourse, where the complex feelings we have in relation to fictional works must get flattened out into strict ‘rules’. A character can easily support lesbian and bi interpretations; it can be a relief to bi people and upsetting for lesbians when one of those possibilities is ruled out by having her express interest in a man (not that this, ultimately, rules out lesbian interpretations, since a person can of course be mistaken about their feelings).

To lesbians, it is perhaps likely more salient that many characters they identify with end up expressing attraction to men, and this can seem like yet another instance. To bi women, narratives about picking a ‘side’ are perhaps more likely to be salient, and it can be relief to have an explicitly bi character.

The only conclusion we can draw is that gender is a hellish system of punishment and exploitation, and we should seek to be kind to each other and also abolish it forthwith, write our own stories, and abolish the stranglehold that capital holds on all aspects of our lives including the symbolic media we use to understand the world.

All that said, this repetitive defensiveness about ‘problematic’ writing does kind of annoy me a bit, even if I can understand where it comes from. Let your work speak for itself.

Anyway, that’s enough huge essays (I say, falsely). Let’s finish out the branch.

“...right?”

This branch finishes out with a poke at the whole structure of the game so far - the good endings, bad endings, and so on. We’ve not made a friend, but we have made a stronger connecting with an existing one.

I’m not sure how seriously we should take that given the way ‘valid’ has become pretty much a joke word, if this is still an extended dig at the audience, but there we are.

That was a surprisingly long and rich branch for a first choice, which is kind of nice, actually.

If we click ‘no’ on ‘do you want to understand’...

We just get a game over screen with us sitting in our watchtower looking sad.

So now... it’s time for the nsfw section discussed above. Except... it’s a total fakeout.

First of all, we get an implication that it’s not his first time at all. Anyway, then we get to it. Which is to say, we get a fade to silly anime joke. God, this is like those old 4chan stories where they’d set you up for a sex scene and then rickroll you or something.

We get a ‘dorito faced anime boy’ joke I guess?

Afterwards...

Lol.

Anyway, in this branch, he doesn’t add us on chittr. Lol.

So yeah we die of shame. Welp.

God I can’t believe I thought this would actually go there. Of course it would be a joke at the audience.

Looking back, well, you know, reading the metaphors: he’s a predatory guy and lied through his teeth to get into our pants. Obviously it’s not his first time; obviously he’s not about to bugger off to space and never have sex again T_T, obviously the shit he said was just to get us to fuck; this isn’t just cheesy narrative tropes but within the fiction him playing the protagonist in order to get us to fuck. Complete with the whole attempt to drug us, and make it very unambiguously rape. (Which no doubt Elwurd knew). He got us to explicitly consent before we did anything, but also did enough shady shit so as to make that ‘consent’ kind of questionable when viewed later.

Viewed in that light... what I originally thought was just someone writing a horny fantasy about a hot dominating guy who’s totally into you~ is actually like... a pretty sharp piece of writing about shit pulled by men. There were plenty of warning signs - the ‘objectifying’ way he looks at you, the way he attempts to drug you, etc. I would like to imagine that IRL, rather than taking it as a piece of fiction, I wouldn’t be vulnerable to the same tactics. (Well, obviously I wouldn’t from a guy, at any rate). But it’s kind of a nicely written piece to make you feel stupid and taken advantage of afterwards like... why the fuck did you go along with this.

Though given that this kind of thing is something that people like... actually go through, I feel like they could have warned for it better than ‘challenging and controversial material’. Yes, that might have robbed it of some of its power; but it would also mean that it wouldn’t trigger people who have trauma over this exact kind of thing.

So.

“V”.

Honestly, my strongest feeling about “V” is one of respect. Both their stories have been a weird blend of cheeky, challenging and playful, with some very astute elements and an enormous amount of energy and intensity. They’re prepared to fuck with the reader in ways both silly (lick the troll’s armpit!) and rather more serious (this whole arc), they fuck around with canonicity and narrative structure in creative ways... I wonder what else they’ve written?

There remains only these two clown twins, and the epilogue.

Barzum and Baizli

To finish out the set, we have another pair. The Alternian text says ‘The Soleil Twins’, so I guess that’s their surname. The twins are written by Kieran Miranda, who previously wrote Azdaja, Stelsa and Charun.

The story begins with day nearing, and the protagonist friendless. They get the idea to like... head over to relax with Skylla, but before they can, they run into a house.

A very haunted looking house.

An easy choice for us to begin. ‘No fucking way’ naturally skips this arc, right?

Nope, back at the house. We get another choice: leave left or right. I picked left. I doubt it matters.

Yep, that kind of house. We can’t escape.

After a struggle, we reach the door.

Inside, we immediately pass out with a sense of nausea. Lovely. This can only go well. We hear something like bugs skittering away.

The mansion does at least seem to be explorable. Unfortunately, the door leads to a portrait gallery full of clowns, which is not the most welcome place to end up.

Someone tunes one of the portraits. It turns out to be a TV. Dramatic piano chords come in.

Oh hey it’s some friends.

Their shtick is that the one on the right finishes the one on the left’s sentences, the one on the left speaks in all lower case, and the one on the right speaks in all caps.

They want us to find them. They’re very bored you see, and want to play a game. This is, I understand, an allusion to the Saw series of horror movies, in which I gather a person places people in buildings full of sadistic traps, monitored by various cameras and a small puppet with spiral cheeks. So I guess that’s us now.

We get our first real choice.

I think the door is too obvious. If there’s not another exit, we’ll have to take the door anyway - though that’s likely a different branch, realistically speaking.

We discover a hidden door. Behind it is... a hole in the ground.

I guess we have instant-death options later than usual in this chapter. Our final thought is about the terrible loss of our Chittr profile.

Well, that’s fine. Let’s see what happens if we go straight into the house instead of wandering around.

Approaching the house immediately just skips the wandering around; the text is the same. It was a fake choice. Skipping forward, let’s see what happens if we take the obvious door, not the hidden one.

As we move down the hallway, the lights come on and the walls start bleeding. Lovely. Glorious sense of interior decoration. Tip top.

Beyond the door, we end up in another dark room. Maybe this one will be more of a true CYOA, with death options in every room.

But no. Not immediately, anyway. Ropes come out of the ground and tie us up. The two trolls who were watching us make themselves known.

Carnivalish music kicks in. We finally get a clear view of our captors.

Baizli right (allcaps), Barzum left (lowercase). I’ll try to remember that.

The twins say some predictably sinister stuff about removing our intestines (acid tubes, in trollspeak). The narrator grumbles about once again being reduced to the status of ‘torture muppet’.

When we express a desire to leave, Barzum and Baizli swap both demeanour and capitalisation rule. Now Baizli looks sad, and speaks in lowercase, while Barzum is pissed and speaks in caps.

These two twins, in the tradition of creepy twins, seem to share one mind. Which means they can hardly prank each other! They need someone else.

They rev up a chainsaw and suddenly... we’re back in the same room we started.

Looks like we’ve had another bit of time fuckery from The Powers That Be. Compare Fozzer. The loops kick in, faster and faster. Glued. Buried alive.

Having read the epilogue, all I’ll say is that it seems like someone is trying very hard to push us onto a timeline that ‘works’.

There’s a joke about time loop movies which I don’t get because I haven’t seen very many time loop movies.

After ‘20 or so’ loops, we decide we’ve had enough. But we get a choice of what to do about it.

Let’s try ‘Fuck this.’ first.

This turns out to mean attempting to intimidate the twins instead of begging them to release us.

While they’re baffled by this display, we make a break for an air vent. Surprisingly, we make good our escape. There’s a mention of all our jogging training with Stelsa, which happened in a non-canonical timeline - there was a whole thing about it! - but fair enough. Guess that’s another thing that persists between timelines. Or maybe the protag just thinks they went jogging with Stelsa in this timeline.

We find we’ve missed a bunch of texts from Skylla while we were out, and plan to head over there. But alas... the space loop is still in effect.

We end up back at the house. Unable to escape from the pocket dimension, the branch ends...

So let’s try the other option: ‘remember who you are’.

Come, try to remember...

And that is, of course... FRIENDSHIP. This time, we have something to say to the clowns (after ensuring we haven’t pissed ourselves).

Not killing us is apparently a novel idea for the twins. Or rather, they didn’t plan to kill us - just cut us up a bit, unaware that we wouldn’t heal right back up. The protag corrects the misconception.

So now we’re teaching the creepy clown kids the meaning of friendship. Novel!

The lights come up and they put on a little circus show for us. Apparently this building is not their hive.

They show us various other dangerous-looking circus tricks with the torture/circus equipment. Ah, says the narrator, so risking their lives is these kids’ hobby.

It turns out these kids hatched from the same egg. They tell us they do in fact share a mind entirely - one mind, two bodies.

And at last we end up chilling out and sharing stories.

With this friendship established, we sense a shift of some kind. We take this as a sign that the door might have finally opened.

Not only is the door open, but the ‘pocket dimension’ has dissipated too. The power of friendship! ...or fulfilling some secret design of whoever created the pocket dimension. Mmm.

How touching.

There’s a fakeout victory jingle, which turns out to have been a prank. They explain that... the creepy blood seeping walls and so on were their ‘chucklevoodoos’, but as for the time loop... Not them at all.

“Do you want to understand?” asks the prompt again. Time... for the epilogue.

#momestuck #lets read hiveswap friendsim #sex cw

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