#in short: i am reading the narrative as it currently exists in canon
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could you explain to me why you think bucktommy forever would be narratively satisfying but there's no possibility of them introducing a love interest for eddie that would be satisfying? i don't understand
I DON'T think bucktommy would be narratively satisfying.
I DO think there is more potential in the current narrative structure for them to make bucktommy endgame work in a reasonably narratively satisfying way (IF Eddie's story wasn't a factor, which it is).
I also don't necessarily think it would be impossible for them to bring in someone for Eddie if I'm imagining they have all the time in the world to make that work. But the reality of the current narrative is that I don't think they have all the time in the world. And as talented as these writers are, I don't see any way they could introduce someone entirely new, with no connection to the current narrative, and make me buy that person as Eddie's endgame. There just isn't time. A couple of years ago, I would have said that I thought Eddie could have an interesting and satisfying ending to his story if he learned that he didn't need romantic fulfillment to be happy. Since then, however, they've really doubled down on Eddie's loneliness and desire for a romantic partner AND they went for the queer Buck storyline. When you add to that all of Eddie's history with Buck and the way he's welcomed Buck into his life and embraced him as a partner both in his own life and in Christopher's, I don't see any way for them to disentangle that story and introduce someone else (unless it was Tommy, maybe, but nobody's going to want to hear that).
It would just take SO much work and time that I'm not sure they have because it would take several seasons, I think, for it to really reach any level of satisfying.
The difference with bucktommy is simply that it would take very slightly less work (though still a TON of work) for a few reasons.
First, Buck is just Buck. With Eddie, there's also the Christopher of it all to contend with, which adds a complicating layer that extends the work that needs to be done in Eddie's story in a way that doesn't exist for Buck's story (as important as Christopher is for Buck, it's very different from what would need to happen for Eddie who is literally Christopher's parent). So Buck's story has fewer complications to contend with, especially since they've already gotten it off the ground with Buck's queer awakening and introducing his relationship with Tommy already at this point in canon. So there would literally just be less time involved.
Beyond that, Tommy is already an established character in universe. They don't need to do quite as much work to help us get to know him, because we already do, even if only peripherally. But he is established as significant to the stories of other characters beyond Buck. He had a role to play in Chimney's, Hen's, and Bobby's (and hell, even Eddie's!) stories long before he ever became significant to Buck's. So, developing his place among the team and their extended family is not nearly as complicated as it would be with someone entirely new—and even someone from Eddie's past wouldn't have the history with the team, so still, more complications there.
So, yes, I think bucktommy has more potential in the current narrative structure (if—and ONLY if—completely divorced from Eddie's storyline, which it can never be).
But not only do I not actually think either could be a satisfying ending for either Buck or Eddie in the current narrative, there actually isn't anything to suggest that the show is doing the work it needs to to make that potential a reality, either. Because they are not separating out Eddie and Buck (frankly, they're entwining them further). And they aren't even doing any work to flesh out Tommy’s character. I know fandom has grown really attached to him, but the reality is that the character is currently just being used as a pawn to move Buck's story forward. Tommy has a past with the 118 that creates a lot of potential, but that potential is not being used. The character is, frankly, pretty flat at the current moment. They haven't even tried to bring him back into the 118 fold—the only people he's really interacted with since his reintroduction are Eddie and Buck, when there has been plenty of opportunity to fold him back into the team in ways that would at least have him vaguely interacting with the others (like, I don't know, Chimney actually inviting him to the wedding or Hen even acknowledging him at the bachelor party). Their relationship is cute and sweet, but there's nothing that indicates it's any deeper than any of the other relationships Buck has had thus far, and they are actively juxtaposing the bucktommy relationship with the buddie relationship in a way that makes very clear just how surface level that relationship really is when compared to the depth of Buck and Eddie's relationship with one another.
So, no, I don't think bucktommy are going to be endgame, nor do I have any interest in them being endgame. But I recognize that there is currently—literally, in the canon narrative—more potential for bucktommy to work if the show really wanted to make it happen and put in the work, mostly because of Tommy’s history with the rest of the 118.
On Eddie's end, there is no current canon potential. There's no current love interest they could turn around (especially because Edy is a shit human being and people would riot if they actually made Marisol Eddie's endgame). There's no past love interest they could bring back that wouldn't somehow have to be worked into the rest of the team. There's the additional complication of the Christopher of it all and how much that changes where Eddie's story can go and how quickly it can be developed.
It's quite literally just the difference in time. If Buck's relationship with Eddie wasn't a factor, I think they could do it in two seasons for bucktommy. For Eddie and this currently non-existent love interest, I think it'd take a good three or more, and even then, I think it would have to be someone they introduce as a part of the team (Lucy? Ravi? Tommy?) because anyone separate wouldn't have any room to develop sufficiently.
But the reality is that, frankly, the ONLY narratively satisfying ending for Eddie and Buck is one another. Any other option would require dismantling so much beautiful storytelling that I cannot see how it would ever be worth it.
#in short: i am reading the narrative as it currently exists in canon#and bucktommy are there and a love interest for eddie who is not buck is not#anon#asks answered#buddie#bucktommy#911 discourse#i guess??#i don't understand why this is apparently a controversial opinion#like. it's a narrative. i'm reading the narrative. as it exists.#as it currently exists buck is the only answer#i'm not going to rest my narrative satisfaction on making up hypothetical love interests outside of the current narrative
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omg can i know ab betty and simon bc i also have one with like multiple parties at once im curious...
hello!!! sorry this took forever to answer (and for the... absolute novel that is the answer) this is surprisingly a very loaded question LMAOOO also sorry if i misinterpreted the question... i realized halfway through that you may have been asking something completely different...
putting under a [read more] to avoid being a terribly long post on the dash
First, I know you don't have a lot of knowledge on Adventure Time lore (at least I think..) so I'll probably be going on several smaller tangents and explanations of things so that the rest of what I explain makes sense. :3 If I get off topic, that's proooobably why.
Second, the first "arc" of Reader's (my oc for anyone new here) story is heavily inspired by this fic, though I am currently rewriting it to be a bit more separate, and all of the later arcs are completely original. I like giving credit where credit is due, however.
OKAY! So now back to the actual question LMAO
In Adventure Time, there is a great war among humans somewhere in the 90's-2000's. It's a nuclear war that wipes out most of humanity and leaves a lot of radioactivity around, essentially creating an apocalypse for any surviving humans. In my au, this war takes place sometime in the late 90's.
The seeds for Reader and Simon being in a relationship exist as early as the early 90's, though circumstances regarding the both of them being unable to further their education together prevent it from ever really going anywhere. Reader (who is still female presenting) struggles to keep up in the very male dominated field of anthropology and archaeology in the 90's while Simon easily finds his footing in doctorate programs. (He's cis in this au sorry Simon.. it just makes the most narrative sense.)
Reader eventually loses contact with Simon as they drift away from each other and this is around the time that Reader goes missing, finding an ancient shrine and making a deal with a deity to survive the upcoming war. This is about 3 years before the nuclear fallout from the war.
Meanwhile, Simon and Betty have met and the canon events of Fionna & Cake / Adventure Time are playing out for them! They find the Enchiridion (a magic book Simon was looking for to prove his studies on magical relics isn't bullshit), fall in love, get engaged, and this is around the time Simon loses contact with Reader. And then Reader's family reaches out to Simon. Reader has been missing and no one can find them. Betty comforts Simon during this time, but there isn't really much anyone can do. Eventually Simon finds the crown and becomes cursed, and Betty time travels 1000 years into the future to help save him like in the show.
And we're back with Reader! Who accidentally overslept surviving the war by 800 years. They wake up and realize very quickly that they are (1) no longer human and (2) definitely not in the 20th century anymore... After a while they also learn they are immortal.
About 200 years later, Reader is a successful healer, using 20th century medical practices and whatever they can find in centuries old texts. They've gotten quite the reputation as many families have been using their practice for generations, and rumors have spread that they can cure even curses (much to Reader's chagrin). This is when Betty, who is now going insane desperately trying to save Simon, visits their shop. Of course, when Betty learns that Reader can't, in fact, cure curses, she's pissed. They get into a big fight and Betty is banned from Reader's shop. The two don't interact again by the time Betty actually does save Simon from being cursed as the Ice King, and Reader never puts 2-and-2 together.
To make a very long explanation a very short one, Betty saves Simon by fusing with a chaos deity named Golb, becoming Golbetty. She then returns to this void between universes, leaving Simon once again mortal but now all alone.
12 years later, Simon and Reader reconnect! They slowburn fall in love, but Simon isn't really over Betty, esp when it comes to wanting to save her. Simon is trying to reach Golbetty through an ancient shrine, but Reader is completely unaware of this. Reader is left in the dark when it comes to a lot about Betty, actually, but respects Simon's privacy.
The two of them settle into life together after reconnecting after 1000 years, both having long accepted the other died in the 90's, and things seem okay for the most part...
WE'VE HIT ARC 2 WHO CHEERED
Okay so things aren't all that okay. Turns out becoming a weird pseudohuman fucks with your self-image and connection to humanity, who would have thunk! This isn't anything new for Reader, who already associated their being nonbinary/transmasc with being turned into a creature shortly upon settling in the Land of Ooo (tho: author's note, they were always nonbinary, it's just hard to accept that when you're already struggling to make a life for yourself in a male dominated career in the 90's. Reader is mega-coping.) But reconnecting with Simon kind of made it... worse. Sure, Simon was cursed for a while but he got out of it mostly human, where Reader is very much not human. They find themself comparing how they once were to how they are now and feeling inadequate for Simon. Simon tries his best to help, but there's only really so much he can do.
Things only get worse when a witch comes along who claims to know exactly what kind of creature Reader is. Reader is a golb-beast, a rare (often only thought to be mythical) creature created by being cursed, or in some interpretations blessed, by Golb. Reader is the only one of their kind known in existence, and this witch worships Golb.
Knowing magic, she is able to manipulate Reader's curse so that they attack Simon, almost killing him, and in the chaos of everything she kidnaps Reader. The captor (I need to name her..) has a mansion that is decorated with statues and artwork of Golb, think Catholic cathedrals, and she initially locks Reader in the basement where she has a dungeon of sorts. She's kind of really fucked up and treats Reader like an exotic pet she tamed rather than a sentient human and even goes as far as to only let them eat raw meat it's crazy.
Reader keeps up hope that Simon will come for them but the captor tells them (a lie) that Simon ran away from them when they attacked him. He's scared of Reader being a beast and won't be coming back for them. While Reader doesn't believe this at first... the longer they're trapped the more doubt starts to set in.
Meanwhile Simon is actually losing his mind trying to find Reader after healing from his wounds, but to little avail. It takes months before he even gets a real lead. Eventually he is able to rescue Reader but in the chaos a fire starts. A statue of Golb falls and crushes the captor, killing her instantly while Reader watches. It should feel good but... Reader is emotionally crushed.
It takes them a long time to get used to being back in the normal world again. There's a lot more I didn't cover here bc it isn't too important to Reader and Simon specifically, but there's a lot Reader has to overcome. This entire situation really sets them back on feeling human and accepting themself as they are. This time, Simon can't even seem to really help them when they're at their worst.
(continued in a reblog bc apparently i flew too close to the sun with this post...)
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Arsène Lupin: Gentleman-Burlgar: The Anti-Sherlock
In the late 19th century/early 20th century, writers seemed to develop of taste for creating highly intelligent main characters and putting them into all sorts of odd situations.
Think Sherlock Holmes. Jeeves the butler. And, our current focus, Arsène Lupin.
Arsène Lupin: Gentleman-Burlgar is a 1905 collection of short stories by Maurice LeBlanc. As implied by the title, Arsène Lupin is a thief and the stories all center around his criminal exploits. Lupin is basically an anti-Sherlock. Both characters were written around the same time period and often take place in similar upper class settings. But while Sherlock devotes his time and intellect to solving crimes, Lupin devotes his to committing them.
However, I can easily see why the Lupin stories have not maintained the same level of pop culture significance as the Sherlock canon. The Sherlock stories have a distinct and notable cast of characters that readers come to care for. This collection did not have that. Most of the characters are one-dimensional side characters, meant to be robbed and cry wolf. The only one I distinctly remember is Lupin’s police nemesis, and even that is only because his character is a genre convention.
The character of Arsène Lupin himself is not much better. He exists more as a mysterious criminal archetype than a full character in his own right. Which would work in a detective narrative, but is harder to care about as a main character.
Additionally, one of the things people love about heist stories is the feeling that unconventional justice has been served. Often, heist stories are about lower class or beaten down people avenging themselves against the rich who took advantage of them. Think Robin Hood or Leverage or Ocean’s Eight. Even the modern Lupin series made by Netflix is about a man getting revenge for his father. But in the original Lupin stories, we don’t get that sense of justice. All we see is a mysterious, who was possibly already rich or upper class, robbing other rich people. Satisfying in some ways, but not the same feeling of justice.
It’s not a bad collection by any means. The stories are fun and easy to read. And this is only the first nine stories ever published, so perhaps the later stories help to remedy my issues with this particular collection. But I never found myself particularly attached to the character of Lupin in any way.
(Fun fact for readers: I am not the only way to make comparisons between Lupin and Sherlock. Maurice LeBlanc himself wrote an crossover between the greatest detective and greatest thief. However, Doyle never approved of this crossover, so it was edited to Herlock Sholmes instead of Sherlock Holmes. Now that Sherlock is in the public domain, modern reprintings will use the correct name, but older editions may still feature Herlock.)
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 6/10
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figured I should reply to your response so here goes: I understand where you're coming from, I would love it too if they made Harvey or Bruce or both of them queer! It would fit, open up narrative opportunities and also simply be nice, considering how much if a staple Batman is in pop culture. And like I said in the other ask it's a possibility that Harvey gets to be made bi eventually, moreso than Bruce.
However, while DC did recently realize they have a growing demographic of lgbt+ people or allies that like reading their stories and started acknowledging that part of the fandom more, it is still a giant company ran and owned by predominantly straight (old) men. Is representation getting better? yes! but it is not anywhere near the point where DC would let their editors sign off on making their flagship queer because the majority of their readers is not queer themselves and the loudest part of them are actively against representation. Have you seen the reactions to that panel where it looked like Bruce and Khoa almost kissed? This one might have been DC testing the waters and the loudest reactions were overwhelmingly negative or confused. Do you know the Telltale games? The devs wanted to make Bruce bi to allow the players to romance more characters but DC vetoed that decision. Yes, there are prominent queer characters in DC but most of them are either wlw like Ivy or Harley, young or teenage characters like Tim Drake or characters that have always been queer and only later became more popular like Constantine or Ghostmaker. This doesn't make them bad rep, not at all! but these are characters that are more "safe" to make queer either because they are minor characters or because their male readers won't feel as "threatened" (which is stupid ofc queer rep doesn't threaten anyone but that's what bigots say they are "threatened") by them because they're young or wlw. DC has a problem with adding queer rep for their pre-existing adult male characters, it is getting better but it is still there.
For the part about TwoFace showing up a lot recently: I get why it would seem like they are pushing him for some unspecified reason lately but they are doing this with all of their rogues from time to time. You gave an example yourself: "Like did the Riddler get this much love when the The Batman movie came out?" Yes: The movie, Dano's comic run, Killing Time, the story arc right before the current TEC run, getting the first comic in the One Bad Day series, the appearances in the Audio Adventures, showing up in Batman Unburied and that version getting his own spin-off podcast, appearances in other comics or the HQ show and ofc that comic in last year's Valentine's anthology. They did have him appear in multiple projects including as a lead character, but so far that didn't really build up to anything. On the contrary, DC had implicitly confirmed him as bi in the Valentine's short over a year ago but so far his queerness has not come up again in comics, not even implicitly. The HQ show made him gay, yes, but the HQ show is made for a different demographic than regular DC canon and also got to make other characters queer too without that having any bearing on the comics. And the Riddler is a character that has been queercoded a lot more over the years than Harvey has, so if DC is this vague (and that's what that Valentine's comic was, it was very very vague to give plausible deniability) about the queerness of a character who most readers probably read as fem or queer in a majority of his appearances anyways, then they will most likely be even more vague about characters like Harvey or Bruce, who most readers read as very masculine straight men.
Again I am not trying to ruin your fun, I completely agree with you that making Harvey or Bruce queer would be great and that DC should just do it! They should not care about alienating their straight audience and could gain a lot of queer fans! But it is not very likely that they will and if they do anything in that direction at all it unfortunately most likely will only be some vague hint at Harvey's sexuality that can be brushed off as just something good friends would say or do (like they did with Riddler's Valentine's comic). Which is unfortunate but as long as most of the decisions at DC are made by (conservative) straight men it is better to not get your hopes up too much or else you'll get disappointed
Sadly (?) I don't have nearly as much to say here. This is just an excellently formulated response. And thank you for answering my question in regards to rogues getting random spikes of love from the company! I've only been in comics fandom for ~3 months, so there's still a lot I don't know, especially when it comes to general comic trends. This was very informative and I do greatly appreciate it!
Ultimately, we can't tell what the future holds until we get there, but I am glad that at the very least, you agree with me that making Harvey and/or Bruce queer would be the right call for DC to make, even if it's unlikely.
But just one possible counterpoint... Someone at DC had to sign off on Gotham Knights, right? The CW ain't exactly a bastion of queer representation given how they famously sent Castiel to superhell at the end of Supernatural and how they made Jughead straight (as far as I can tell) in Riverdale even though he's ace in the comics. And yet one of the main characters of Gotham Knights is confirmed to be trans in the very first episode! While general LGBT representation is getting a lot better these days, trans representation for main characters is still fairly unheard of. If any show is going to have the sheer gumption and audacity (/pos) to make Bruce Wayne interested in men, it would be Gotham Knights! And I think there is a decently good chance that Harvey will get into a mlm relationship in this show if the kids are already being confirmed as queer!
Is it likely? Probably not. But it is possible!
#batman#harvey dent#bruce wayne#two-face#dc#the riddler#riddler#edward nygma#queer#queer representation#lgbt#lgbtqiia+#lgbtqia#lgbtq#queer community#gay#two face#twoface#detective comics#dc comics
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For the writers ask game: 1, 5? ✨
Hi! Thanks for the ask :D
What fic of yours would you recommend to someone who had never read any of your work? (In other words, what do you think is the best introduction to your fics?)
I have vague recollections of being asked this a few years ago (maybe it was the same ask game coming back again), and my answer then was Black Widow - a Naruto fic based on Rin&Obito - because I thought it best showcased my tendency to play around within the canon narrative, but at the same time twisting things around so it's basically a canon compliant alternate universe - although technically it might not be AU at all.
The one downside with recommending that one now, I think, is that I write for several fandoms, and Black Widow was my last foray into writing for Naruto, and was also written several years after my previous fics for that fandom, so it's almost certainly my best work for that fandom purely because I was a better writer when I wrote that one. (That's not to say I've lost interest in the world of Naruto - I still have a few ideas knocking around including an Obito&Shisui one that I really love - my muses have just categorically refused to engage with writing anything for it for the last few years.)
More up to date with what I currently write, I would instead say that Dawn Rises From The East - a Michael Yew-centric Percy Jackson fic - might be a better introduction. It's a far more recent fic for the fandom my muses have been solidly engaged in for the past year, but it shares some broad strokes with Black Widow, if not in plot in how my mind worked to play within the letter of canon without actually following the heavily-implied spirit of it.
Both are oneshots, because I think that's a more realistic ask than to direct someone towards a longfic from the start, but for people who prefer wordcounts the other side of 100k, Tales From The Heart - a 260k+ Heart Pirates-centric One Piece short story collection - runs through all the genres I write and gives a much broader scope of what you're likely to find from how I handle fluff, whump, angst, found family, friendship, etc. The only genre that's almost entirely lacking from that series is romance - and I very rarely write that anyway, so I'd call that an accurate representation!
5. What do you wish someone would ask you about [insert fic]? Answer it now!
You didn't specify a fic for this, so I suppose that leaves me to pick a fic as well, which is a bit of a choice when I've got *checks AO3* almost 350 of the things, but I'll go with a currently-backburnered project I am very fond of (and will continue to write one day!) - Long Way From Home - a Scott-centric Thunderbirds fic.
What surprised me the most about the differences between TOS and TAG's technology, and is it going to be relevant later on?
I had a lot of fun researching this fic. For the most part, for the TOS worldbuilding anything that I can't take straight from canon, I've extrapolated based on what technology existed in the 1960s, and tried to jazz it up appropriately as though I was someone from the 1960s trying to imagine the future. It gave me a great springboard to follow when I started reaching holes in the original worldbuilding which turned into glaring chasms when using a narrator from a very different futuristic imagination.
That being said, the thing that surprised me the most - despite the fact that, logically, it makes sense - was not a difference, but rather a similarity. Of course, TAG was very faithful to the broad strokes of at least most of the Thunderbirds' designs, with Three and Five being the ones with the biggest shifts (understandably so, given how much we expanded in spacecraft between 1965 and 2015), so there were always going to be more similarities than differences between the controls of the two Thunderbird Ones, but I hadn't expected that to expand further into aircraft controls in general. Poor Scott was originally doomed to a long haul of re-learning how to fly from scratch, before I discovered that jet plane controls have apparently barely changed in the last fifty years - this immediately changed a few things, which have even started to show themselves in the published chapters so far. Scott will regain his wings a lot faster than originally planned! As for where else that might take him in the story... well, readers will find out one day!
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This got long, whoops. Thanks for the ask!
Questions for Fic Writers
#x-authorship-x#ask me#naruto#riordanverse#percy jackson and the olympians#one piece#thunderbirds are go#black widow#dawn rises from the east#tales from the heart#long way from home#may be squealing a little that torship sent me an ask
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All fans are equal but some are more equal than others. NOT.
There’s been quite a few people in the fandom lately getting very stressed, feeling they’re obligated to constantly be on the defensive re: their fandom choices.
Apparently, whoever has a different opinion about a character or a ship must be said character’s/ship’s stan i.e. overzealous and/or obsessive, i.e. not an objective viewer. Even worse, they must be a dreadful person, who condones a number of moral offences that said character/ship perpetrated (or is thought to have perpetrated). Because, of course, the only acceptable reason for appreciating/enjoying a fictional character or dynamic is their morality. And, by that reasoning, fans who support the correct character/ship must be better fans and better people.
Nothing is more ridiculous than the notion of the objective fan. An “objective” fan is called a “viewer”. You and I, Riverdale friends, we are not just viewers. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have created blogs and dedicated hours of our lives to a fictional couple from an extremely mediocre show. We are still undoubtedly capable of critical thought and objective analysis but we are also aware of our own emotional investment in the show. (Or, at least, one hopes). As a fandom, we engage in activities that exist independently of the show. Fandom is a space of free expression. No one gets to play the higher moral card here. Needing to loudly tell everybody how wrong they are? That’s not the sign of an objective viewer. That’s the sign of a viewer who is also extremely invested, just for different reasons than I am.
Are we seriously holding the morality card over people’s heads for a show that used a poc woman’s pregnancy (Toni) as the means to retroactively establish trauma for a white male (Kevin), all the while touting it in every media possible as a woke response to the BLM movement?!
Are we seriously holding the canon card over people’s heads for a show that treats its 5th(!) season as a tabula rasa?! If the Lodges new backstory in 5x12 shows anything, it’s that s5 is not a time-jump. It’s a reboot.
There are so many people “enlightening” others on their inability to understand canon …
Seriously? That’s the hill you’re willing to die on? Canon Riverdale? You think that people don’t understand what they’re watching? That they’re interpreting canon incorrectly?
No, but seriously: canon for a TV show consists of what the characters say, what the characters do and how the actors portray them. Does this really apply to Riverdale?
Let’s take Donna for example.
Canon explicitly tells us Donna did what she did to avenge her grandmother. At the same time none of her canon actions were against the people who were actually responsible. So, riddle me this, fandom friends: why did Donna do what she did, as per canon?
Let’s try this another way:
Donna is a psycho bitch. Both in terms of Riverdale’s canon (the writers’ intention) and real-life criteria. To create a tag that reads “Bonna for ever uwu!” is deranged.
On the other hand, her character is (like a lot of Riverdale’s characters) an inconsistent caricature. Canon uses ridiculous dialogue and a lot of the Bonna scenes are cartoonishly enemies-to-lovers tropey. To create a tag that reads “Bonna for ever uwu!” is hilarious.
This doesn’t mean that Bonna is a canon couple. It does mean, however, that a Bonna crackship is based on Riverdale’s campy and over-the-top canonic writing.
A viewer who thinks Bonna is disgusting is not more “objective” or more “correct” or more “true to canon” than a viewer who thinks Bonna is funny. Nor are they a better person for it, and this cannot be stressed enough.
Similarly, who is canon Cheryl?
1. Cheryl is an absolute bitch: if a privileged student was calling an actual homeless boy a hobo in your real-life school, you would neither think her a queen nor use “hobo” affectionately in your tags, comments etc.
2. Cheryl is a deeply traumatized person: her father killed her brother, her mother killed half the town and forced her in conversion therapy, she attempted suicide and more.
(Note #1: this more does not mean more than the other Riverdale characters).
(Note #2: nor is it an excuse for her rudeness, affectionately called “mood for chaos” by the writers).
3. Cheryl is also a caricature of the archetypal mean girl who’s there for laughs and meta comments. She’s not to be taken seriously.
4. Cheryl is lgbtq+ representation …
5. … who canonically shits on other lgbtq+ characters.
6. Cheryl is one half of Choni, who are canonically presented as an uber couple.
7. Choni is also, as per canon, a couple with an acute power imbalance (cough!gaslighting!cough) that visually very clearly panders to the male gaze.
But most importantly:
8. Cheryl canonically is not the sum of her parts. The different facets of her character do not intermingle in any meaningful way.
Was Betty kissing Archie specifically a sore spot for Jughead?
Canonically no [2x14]. But, also, canonically yes [5x03, 5x10].
Are there seriously fans that are astonished that Betty is making some highly questionable choices while investigating?! Did they just discover Dark™Betty/Killer Genes Betty? That is canon Betty! Was it ok before because she was then smooching Jughead instead of giving him the cold shoulder? Honestly, the only newly outrageous part of s5Dark™Betty is the fact that she still believes in “killer genes” despite having spent 4 years at Yale …
As for liking/disliking Betty and morality …
Look, I’m going to be very honest: I am NOT particularly enjoying s5 Betty. And it’s not because of b*rchie.
S5 Betty has 99 problems but the sexcapades ain’t one.
For me, it’s the fact that she’s turned into s1 Alice 2.0. But surely that’s not news either? Ever since the first info about the time jump, everyone and their mother have been speculating about the teens becoming their parents …
Just because Jughead is better written (and written to be more likable), it doesn’t make him more worthy of redemption. Just because the writers are keeping Betty’s redemption “secret” (insert eye roll) for their big reveal in the season’s penultimate episode, it doesn’t mean she won’t have one.
Simply put, the writers have made Jughead more likable. He’s still the underdog. He’s the only character in Riverdale actively trying to deal with his trauma, since the very first post-time jump episode (working at Pop’s explicitly to fend off the debt collectors). He has scenes with a new and extremely likable character (Tabitha). He has the only new plot line (the Mothman). Said plotline is narratively already tied to both his unknown past and the town’s destruction by Hiram. His behaviour is explicitly explained, even as his recent trauma remains unknown. He’s transparent.
In comparison, s5 Betty is traumatized but not the underdog. Her trauma (TBK killer) is both known to us and a repetition of previous storylines, which makes it narratively less exciting. She is completely disconnected from any other storylines. She comes out as being judgmental and self-interested: telling Tabitha Jughead’s not her business while previously accepting his help? Berating Polly for lying while not keeping in touch and lying about her own life (TBK)? Please note: I’m not saying there isn’t a reason behind her behaviour, just that it comes out in a negative way.
You don’t like Betty’s current behaviour? You don’t consider trauma a good enough excuse? Cool.
You feel sorry for what she’s going through? You consider trauma to be a valid explanation for her behaviour? Also cool.
Personally, I don’t give a flying fig, either for Betty’s trauma or Jughead’s. Because, even though Trauma™ is s5’s actual mystery plot, narratively speaking, trauma never affected the plot of the past 4 seasons, nor s5 trauma will affect future plots, once revealed. And you know what? That is also cool.
None of the above is better.
And just because I’m not enjoying Betty right now, it doesn’t mean that I don’t want her to overcome her current situation or that I won’t cheer for Bughead like a River Vixen on fizzle rocks, once they reunite.
This thing though, where people are made to feel as if they owed anyone in the fandom an explanation about why they like the things they like, because, somehow, their preferences are a reflection on their character or their cognitive abilities to read a TV show? This is a joke.
There is no “wrong” way to consume any show, let alone Riverdale, with its fractured format, its short-term memory and its see-sawing characters.
Look, everybody’s here for their own reasons. For most people this is a place of escape. No one’s escaping better than the other, because of how they enjoy their teen TV show ...
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Wanda Maximoff / Reader - WandaVision Canon Divergence
Gif is not mine.
Summary: You liked the simplicity of life in Westview, it was quiet and mundane, completely different from what you have lived all your life. So when a witch rewrites the reality around you, you are slightly annoyed.
Warnings: This is trash, lot of swearing, idk really know what i was trying to write here., a bit of fluff but mostly my attempt at humor; hopeful ending.
Words> 3895k ///// Read on AO3 too.
You were trying to remember how you got where you were. Your last memory was making breakfast, a little while after feeding your cat, and then everything went silent. You blinked again, and there were people in your house, whom you called husband and children, who were smiling and speaking words that you thought were funny.
And now sitting on your bed, while a stranger slept next to you, you could finally realize that something was not right.
Feeling a ringing in your ear, you tried to wake up. It felt like someone was inside your head, pushing your consciousness down. You took a deep breath, clenching your fists, using all your mental control to resist.
And then your memories hit you in an instant, and you lost your breath. All your life returned to you. Rising abruptly from your shock, you looked around.
Your house was completely different from before, and your first impulse was to look for Mr. Whiskers, but you couldn't find him anywhere.
Looking down you noticed that you were wearing an old dress, and you grumbled discontentedly. You hate dresses. You didn't have time to worry about it, though.
You tried to remember who was controlling you, but every time you thought the image was getting through, you heard a noise, and lost your concentration.
Turning to the man sleeping in your bed, you frowned at the image. He was the newspaper delivery man on Seventh Street. You had never had any contact with him at all. And now he looked troubled, as if he was having a bad dream.
You raised your fingers to the man's forehead and read his thoughts.
Choking on the intensity of the pure pain you felt, you stopped touching him then, stumbling backwards. What the fuck was that, you thought. But remembering the dream, you now knew who was doing it to him.
Putting on the first pair of shoes you found around the house, you walk out the front door, trying to feel the energy of the witch who was doing this, as you walked around the town.
A woman stopped you, smiling strangely. You had never seen her around here before.
- Are you all right, darling? - she asked. You noticed that everything looked antique, the clothes, the decorations.
- Actually I'm looking for someone. - You answered, and she kept that weird friendly smile. You didn't trust her, and honestly, all this nonsense was getting on your nerves.
- Oh, I can help you if you like. - She said cheerfully, and you took a step back. She didn't seem to mind, then spoke up: - And how is your family? I hear Thomas is giving you trouble at school.
You blinked in confusion, starting to get annoyed.
- Who the fuck is thomas? - You shouted. - You know what, stay away from me!
The woman stood there in shock for a moment, and you took advantage of this to turn her around and keep walking.
But then you felt something grab you by the neck, you fell breathlessly to your knees, raising your hands to remove the grip, and noticing that it was magic. Great, two witches, you thought.
- You won't spoil the narrative, dear. - said the woman, now sounding much more threatening. She loosened the spell just so that you could breathe, and then turned you to face her. - I didn't know we had another witch in town.
- I am not a witch. - You grumbled. - I'm a mutant.
- I beg your pardon?
- A fucking mutant. - You retorted angrily. - You don't have much of that here, do you.
- And why are you here?
- Can you please let me go? - You strike back, and the woman looks at you with irony. - I'm not going to attack you.
- Oh, I wouldn't dream of it. - She sneers. You let out an impatient sigh.
- Look, I was living very well here. And then somebody put a 1950s filter on my life, and just disappeared with my pet cat. And I really liked him. - you say, getting up. - So if you and your witch friend can take whatever all this shit is somewhere else, I'll be very grateful.
The woman considered for a moment, and then smiled, offering a hand for you to shake. You raised your eyebrows.
- Agatha Harkness, sweetheart. - She introduced herself, and you shook her hand, feeling the magical energy in her fingers. - I'll tell you everything.
She said as she released you from the magical chain, and dragged you by the arm along the street.
Agatha served you tea when you arrived at her house. You noticed that the place was also decorated like in the forties. Your head was hurting a little, you could feel the pressure of the magic trying to make you obey.
- It's painful, isn't it? - says Agatha, looking at you closely. - I have never seen a human resist with such intensity.
You shrug.
- It's just mind control, isn't it? Everyone can learn to resist it. - You say, making Agatha laugh slightly.
- Oh, no, dear. - She denies it. - This is magic. It is not so simple to avoid.
You take a sip of your tea, it tastes good after all.
- Weren't you going to tell me what's going on here? - you ask, changing the subject. You don't trust Agatha, and you have no intention of chatting with her.
She lets out a giggle at your impatience.
- We have a witch in town. - She explains. - The very powerful kind. I'm trying to find out what is going on here.
- Do you work for the government or something?
- Oh no, I am from a special organization. - She says mysteriously, you shrug. You don't really care, you just want things to go back to normal. If Agatha can help you with that, you will work with her.
- Fine then. - you say, finishing your tea. - And how do we end this spell?
- It doesn't end. - she says, and you blink in surprise. - The witch who conjured it needs to remove it.
- Fucking hell. - You complain, getting up.
- Where are you going?
- To talk to a witch! I'm sick of this shit.
You open the door, but Agatha uses her magic to close it at the same instant. You let out an irritated grunt.
- What's the problem? - You say to her, turning to face her. Agatha has a thoughtful expression.
- What exactly are your abilities?
- It doesn't matter. - You say. - I won't use them. Can I go now?
- I intended to play the girl's game to find out what's going on here.
You let out a short laugh.
- You're kidding me, right? There are thousands of people here who have had their lives completely changed, and you have the power to put an end to it, and you're more interested in studying the witch than stopping her. - you exclaimed angrily. And then you opened the door, Agatha didn't stop you this time, a mixed gleam of surprise and curiosity in her eyes. - I'm going to end this nonsense now. I don't have the time or patience for games.
You left the house, looking around, and were slightly startled to see Agatha standing right next to you, as if she had just teleported there. She gave you a mischievous smile before pointing to the next residence.
You stepped forward to the front door, and knocked on the wood. It didn't take long for you to answer the door.
- Hello, good evening. - Greeted a tall, blond man. You hesitated for a moment, the noise his mind echoed was low, almost non-existent.
- Vision, darling! - Said a voice beside you before you could respond. Agatha placed one hand on your shoulder as she greeted the man with the other. They smiled politely. - I wanted to introduce my niece to Wanda! She came from the south to visit me.
You frowned, blinking in disbelief. Vision smiled, making room for the two of you to enter the house. Agatha pushed you inside, whispering in your ear to play nice, and you rolled your eyes without patience.
And then a woman entered the room, and you could tell you were relatively surprised at how beautiful she was. But this was no time to think about things like that.
- Agatha, darling, good evening! - greeted the woman.
- Hi Wanda, how are you?
They greeted each other with a quick hug while you stood there, arms crossed, not believing the acting.
- This is my niece, she came to stay at my house for a few days. - Agatha said, giving you a gentle nudge with her elbow to introduce yourself. You let out a sigh, forcing a smile at the redhead as you held out your hand to her.
- I am Y/N. - You said, and almost choked when Wanda touched your hand, feeling an electric current go through your body. Wanda's eyes widened, probably feeling it too, but she didn't say anything, letting go of the squeeze.
- We just wanted to say hello, and see how you were doing. - Agatha said with a smile, and Wanda looked at her in the same way. And then the man named Vision came over, hugging the redhead on the side and matching smiles. You squeezed your eyes shut, not believing the scene.
- Is everybody here crazy? - you exclaimed with irritation. Wanda and Vision looked at you with confusion, and Agatha made an angry expression as if to tell you to shut up, but you just raised your hand at her and kept talking. - Look, I don't know what's going on here, and honestly I don't care. If you could just stop the whole show, I'd appreciate it.
All three were quiet for a moment, completely confused. And then the doorbell rang
As Wanda went to answer the door, Agatha pinched your arm, and you just grunted in pain, asking her if those people were mental.
- Pietro? - said the woman looking tearful. The man hugged her then, and then when he turned to you, you let out a surprised exclamation.
- What the fuck are you doing here? - you exclaimed, and everyone looked at you in confusion and surprise. But you felt a mixture of relief and happiness. - Peter, how are you here?
You asked, approaching the boy. But he had a confused expression, as if he didn't really know you. You shook your head in irritation.
- Okay, this is too weird. - You declared. - What the hell is going on? How did Peter get here? Who are you, and why don't I have any pants in my closet?
Agatha let out a nervous laugh, probably hoping that the couple would reconsider their little outburst. But then Wanda acquired a serious expression, her eyes glowing red as she stood in front of you.
- Who are you? - she asked.
- I'm the one who is asking. - You countered. - You are the one who invaded my town and changed the decoration of my house. And more importantly, where the fuck is my cat?
Wanda looked surprised for a moment, and then she held up one hand, a red glow coming from her fingers. You raised your eyebrows.
- I'll ask you again.
- Was that meant to intimidate me? - You reply with irony, nodding your head at the red glow.
- Wanda, dear, what's going on? - Vision asked, sounding really confused. You imagined he was being controlled too. Wanda looked slightly perturbed, and then she launched a large amount of energy at you, pushing you hard enough to break through the wall, and you rolled a few feet into the grass outside.
- Fucking great. - You grumbled as you stood up. Wanda was already coming toward you, her fists and eyes red.
- I want you out of my home.
You wiped the grass from your clothes, laughing wryly.
- You are the one who came to my town, Wanda. - You say in a calmer tone. - I just want things back to normal, and more importantly, I want the newspaper vendor out of my bed.
- I don't understand what you are talking about. - Wanda says with a mixture of confusion and anger in her voice. You frown. Did she really not know what she was doing?
You looked away from her to Agatha, who seemed to be enjoying the whole conflict. You let out a grumble of annoyance.
- That is great. Fucking great. - You muttered as you began to walk in circles, wondering what exactly to do. - Look, I don't know exactly what's going on here. But I do know that this is not my life. And well, it's nobody's life either. That guy over there is not even from this universe! - You explain and point at Peter, or Pietro, with your finger. He looks at you with raised eyebrows. - I just need you to undo whatever this is all about.
- I don't ... - Wanda murmured, looking perplexed. You sighed.
- Maybe I can help you remember. - You suggest. Wanda nods her head in agreement.
Agatha approaches quickly, a smile on her lips.
- I would like to participate, please. - she says. You roll your eyes.
- This will only take a second. - You say tenderly to the redhead. And you raise a finger to her forehead and one to Agatha's, and then you remember.
You see Agatha's memories first. All the hate, and the ambition. She and Wanda walk beside you through the memories. You look closely, wrapped up in the feelings. Agatha had a lot of anger and a lot of hurt, but she was extremely powerful.
She doesn't seem to mind sharing, and even the most painful memories no longer affect her.
When you see Wanda's memories, however, everything seems to hurt like a freshly opened wound. The death of her parents, the loss of Pietro, and the death of Vision. You feel her emptiness, her pulsating pain. It takes the air out of your lungs, and you just wish you could take that feeling away from her. No one should ever feel this way. As you wade through the memories, you don't understand why none of the people in her life helped her deal with her grief.
When you stop looking at the memories, you are back in front of the house, no time has really passed in reality, only in your heads. Thick tears stream down Wanda's face, and you resist the urge to dry them, thinking that you didn't really have this intimacy.
But before you can say anything, Agatha lets out a laugh that startles both you and Wanda.
- Have you gone mad too? - You remark, but a purple haze comes over her, and then she is wearing a different costume. You figure it's her "`witch's outfit,'" and let out a giggle.
- You have no idea how dangerous you are, Mrs. Maximoff. - She says, lifting herself into the air with her own magic. You should know better, witches are always so dramatic. - You're supposed to be a myth.
Wanda looks a mixture of nervousness and impatience. You just cross your arms, waiting for the speech to be over.
- A being capable of spontaneous creation, and here you are. Using to serve breakfast for dinner. - Agatha says with irony. You frown slightly, not catching the reference. - All this little life you have created here. This is chaos magic, Wanda. And that makes you a Scarlet Witch.
- Okay, that's enough, right? - You interrupt, putting yourself in front of Wanda, only to look at Agatha impatiently. - What exactly are you planning to do? Because if I'm not going to help the city, my interest is zero.
Agatha looks really shocked by your intrusion, and it takes a second, or rather a muffled laugh from Peter, or Pietro, laughing at the situation for her to acquire an angry expression and launch a big magic energy ball at you.
Letting out an impatient sigh, you watch the shocked and impressed expressions as you just absorb Agatha's power.
- Good, let's do the introductions then. - You say, and raise your hand, pulling Agatha to the floor. All that theater was wearing you out. - My name is Y/N. I am what you call a mutant, or homo superior. My abilities consist of absorbing, altering, and enhancing the powers of other mutants. The cute one over there - you signaled Pietro - is from my universe too, his name is Peter Maximoff. I came to this world after an accident, about seven years ago. I never made it back. A bald woman put me in this city, and told me to live a quiet life here. And everything was fine, until you arrived. - You say, pointing at Wanda. - Look, I've never met any Wanda Maximoff in my world, but I know we have scarlet witches there. Anyway, would you have any way to remove the spell from Westview? I'd like to get back to my normal life.
Wanda is in shock for a few seconds, and Agatha lets out a laugh. Maybe she has finally given in to insanity, you think.
- You can't stand in my way! You don't know how much I've had to sacrifice to get here.
- Agatha, stop the drama. - You respond, walking over to her and helping her to her feet. - I didn't do anything, I just absorbed the magic you threw at me. What did you expect to do anyway, huh? Absorb Wanda's power?
Agatha grimaces, nodding. You roll your eyes.
- That's ridiculous, you have more than enough power, - you say. - What's the problem with villains and boundaries - You grumble and walk toward Wanda, smiling tenderly at her. - Hey, Wanda. Can we liberate the city now? I'll wait for you to say goodbye to Vision.
Wanda frowns, and you give her a sad smile. It takes a moment, but she nods, turning toward Vision, who had been watching everything in silence until now. She walks back into the house, fixing the wall she had thrown you through as she enters, and you figure they will say goodbye with a little privacy.
While you wait, you turn to Agatha and Peter.
- So who will tell me how he got here? - you ask, with a mixture of seriousness and playfulness in your voice.
Agatha sighs impatiently.
- I made a deal with a demon. Simple stuff, really. - She says.
You raise your eyebrow.
- Oh yeah, right. - You agree with irony. - Is he at least the Peter Maximoff of my world, or just a spiritual copy?
- You'll have to ask Mephisto that. - She answers. You let out a sigh, running out of patience. And then you walk over to Peter, and read his mind. And you see nothing but Westview.
- Great, it's empty. - You grumble. Peter looks surprised. - You have a whole life here. His name is Ralph by the way. - You say. - I just don't understand where the super speed comes from.
- Well, he's still a copy. - Agatha suggests, and you shrug, turning to her.
- I imagine you'll try something very illegal and dangerous if I let you out of here, huh? - You joke, and she flashes you a wry smile.
- You could be a nice girl, and lend me some of your abilities. - She looks at you suggestively. You raise your eyebrows wryly.
- On my world they said that a mutant like me would be responsible for annihilation. I don't think it would be wise to use my abilities on people as powerful as you.
Agatha fakes a hurt look, but you surprise her by holding her hands.
- You will stay away from Wanda, okay? - You ask tenderly, making Agatha's eyes widen. - Or I will drain every last drop of magic out of you myself.
What could you say, having seen all of someone's memories created a bond. You can't help but care about Wanda. In fact, you even cared about Agatha too.
You watched as Hex began to diminish, finally realizing that you were in a kind of bubble until now.
Putting your hands in your pockets, you smiled at the other two beside you. - I hope it doesn't hurt.
Peter laughed, but Agatha seemed too shocked by your last words to react to anything.
Hex finally reached you, and you watched the house in front of you turn into a plot of land. Wanda stood in the center, her head bowed.
You waited for her to walk over to you.
- What happens now? - she asked in a broken voice. You smiled, trying to cheer her up.
- I'll take you out for some hot chocolate. - You say, offering your arm for her to hold. Wanda gives you a sad smile, but accepts. As you walk with her toward your house, you wave to Agatha and Peter.
You let out an exclamation of joy when Mr. Whiskers runs to your feet just as you open the door. You pick him up, petting his ears as he purrs. Wanda follows you across the room, appearing unfocused.
You place him on the floor, and motion for Wanda to sit down, as you head toward the kitchen to prepare the chocolate for you two.
- Here it is. - You say as you bring the drink to Wanda. She has a lost look in her eyes. You bite the inside of your cheek, not knowing exactly what to say. - Do you want to talk about it?
Wanda shrugs, tasting the chocolate.
- I don't know what else to say. - She confesses, her voice breaking. - I'm tired.
- I'm so sorry for everything, Wanda. - You say sincerely, looking at her. You want to wipe the tears that threaten to fall from your eyes. - But I'm going to stay with you now. You won't be alone anymore.
Wanda looks away, tears finally streaming down her face. She excuses herself, wiping them away quickly.
- Why are you doing this? - she asks. - Why are you helping me?
- Why wouldn't I? - You shoot back as if it were obvious.
- I just kidnapped an entire city. You don't even know me.
- Everyone makes mistakes. - You joke and shrug. - Your mistakes are only bigger because of your magic. Besides, I saw your head. You were in pain, and you lost control. You would be surprised how many times I have seen this happen. - You count, and Wanda shakes her head in disbelief at your reassurance. You give her a smile, and signal her to drink the chocolate before it gets cold.
You are silent for a moment before she speaks again.
- I can't stay here. - she says. - This city. Vision... he...
- Let's leave, then. - You interrupt her, seeing that she was about to cry again.
She looks at you in surprise, laughing slightly.
- What are you saying? You live here.
- And? - You shrug your shoulders. - I can sell the house. Buy a van, live on the road. Take you to all the places you don't know. - You joke, making her smile. - I told you, Maximoff. You won't be alone. I like you.
Wanda places the mug on the coffee table in the living room and presses her face against her palms for a moment, sighing. Then she looks at you.
- And when are we going? - she asks and you smile, feeling excited.
- Whenever you want.
- Now.
You laugh, placing your mug next to hers on the table.
- Your wish is my command, madam. - You joked before getting up.
You stroked Mr. Whiskers from inside the shipping box while you were in the front seat of Wanda's car. She looked at you tenderly before she started the car, and you drove out of Westview.
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Hello tumblr. I have returned from a long period of inactivity, because I must bring the good word to the corner of the Star Wars fandom that used to be my main fannish home: there is a new era of Star Wars canon that was made just for our taste. It is called the High Republic.
WHAT IS THE HIGH REPUBLIC?
The High Republic is an giant multi-media project being carried out by the Lucasfilm story group to create a brand new era of Star Wars canon. It is set a few hundred years before the prequel era (so, a long time after the Old Republic era), in a period of peace and stability within the Republic. It currently includes several English language adult novels, a YA novel, two serialized comics, a manga, some short stories, and some short video blurbs published on facebook and youtube. A TV show for Disney+ has also been announced, but is a few years off. This project is unique in Star Wars, in that all of the different parts are being written together by one writing team, and are coordinated to tell a cohesive story. Also, what has been announced is just the beginning – they have stated that there will be three different sections of the High Republic, and everything we have had announced so far is just part one. As a note: this is an era for which there was NO pre-existing canon in Legends, so it is totally new territory.
OKAY, THAT’S NICE, BUT WHY SHOULD I BOTHER TO CHECK IT OUT?
There are SO many reasons why the High Republic is worth your time to explore. I will try to outline some of them here below the cut (without any significant spoilers).
IT IS A LOVE LETTER TO THE JEDI
This is the era for everyone who loves the Jedi and wants to understand how they got to the point they did in the prequel era. It shows Jedi at their best: saving people, working together, being completely in tune with the Force (in so many beautiful and original ways), demonstrating creativity and flexibility and being rewarded for it, actually thinking through the ethics of things like the mind trick, and DEALING with their emotions rather than repressing them. It shows us how the rigid Jedi culture was saw in the prequels was a corruption of something that was originally healthy and uplifting. Jedi in this era are allowed to be flawed, and to grow, and have a community that supports them in doing so. This is the Jedi culture so many of us created as fix it fic for the prequel era, but made canon.
IT IS AN ERA OF HOPE
There are some serious problems in the High Republic Era. Without spoilers, the era opens with a terrible humanitarian crisis, laid over the Republic equivalent of the New Deal from US history. We see a lot of examples of people doing their best to be good to each other, and working for a more just and kind galaxy. They acknowledge that things are not perfect, but people from many different backgrounds (Jedi, politicians, farmers, pilots, business people) work together to try and make things better. I don’t know about you all, but with the darkness we see in the world today, I NEED some of that optimism in my escapist media. The High Republic provides that.
IT WILL GIVE YOU FEELINGS
The existing material so far is structured to really let you emotionally invest in the characters and their struggles. Unlike with many eras of Star Wars canon, characterization is not sacrificed for the sake of plot (though never fear, there is PLENTY of plot). That means there is huge scope for empathy. I’m not going to lie; I cried within the first three chapters of Light of the Jedi, as did several other people I know. It is POIGNANT in a way that feels truly genuine.
IT IS FUN
The writing team understands that, in the end, Star Wars is space fantasy. If your space fantasy is nothing but serious, gritty grimdark, it becomes pretentious and unbearable. So, for all that there is some heavy content in the High Republic (VERY heavy content – the Nihil should really have their own content warning), it has many moments of levity that keep it from taking itself too seriously. For example, the High Republic made Jedi bodice rippers canon. Also, characters like Geode exist (yes, that rock there is a CHARACTER). The result is something which honors the spirit of Star Wars, and keeps you engaged without being tedious or ridiculously depressing.
THE WRITING TEAM HAS DIVERSE PERSPECTIVES
The main writing team consists of five people: Justina Ireland, Claudia Gray, Charles Soule, Daniel José Older, and Cavan Scott. You will note that includes two people of color, two women, and one out Queer person (in fact, one of the writers is all three of those things). This is a far cry from the white-cis-straight-man-dominated writing teams we have seen in the past. And when they bring in other people to the project, they make a point of looking for perspectives that aren’t represented on their team – for example, the manga is being co-written between Justina Ireland and Japanese writer Shima Shinya, and Ireland has stated in interviews that Shinya is taking the lead on the writing.
IT VALUES MEANINGFUL REPRESENTATION
That diverse writing team means a cast that looks WAY more like the real world than any other era of Star Wars we’ve seen, in terms of representation. There are multiple characters of color, who are both heroes and central to the story. There are at least five canonical queer characters to date (a MLM couple, an Ace character, and two NB character). [EDIT: Thank you @legok9 for letting me know about the NB characters]. Among binary gendered characters, there is a very even balance of men and women. The writing team has also stated that they will be incorporating more representation of disability in the works to come. And the story is so much better for it – representation is included here BECAUSE it makes for more creative, believable, and original storytelling.
IT IS ACCESSIBLE
Because of the multiple formats, and the fact that it doesn’t rely on you knowing any prior lore, the High Republic offers many avenues to engage for people with all kinds of needs. Know nothing about Star Wars canon and feel intimidated about catching up? The canon is all new in this era anyway, so you’re fine. Can’t handle flashing lights? No problem – the little bit of video content that exists is totally free from the strobing effects that caused seizure and sensory issues. Need purely audio content? You can still have a full experience of the High Republic with the gorgeously sound-scaped audiobooks. Don’t have the attention span for books or long movies? Then the comics are your friend.
THERE IS SOMETHING FOR ALL
Between the books aimed towards adults and teens (and their respective audiobooks), the kids books, the comics, the manga, the short stories, AND the eventual TV show on Disney+, there is going to be content in the High Republic that suits most audiences. And that is just what has been announced so far – there is still more to come for phases II and III. This isn’t Star Wars written towards one group or demographic – it is Star Wars for everyone.
DID I MENTION THE FANCY JEDI UNIFORMS?
Because cosplayers and fanartists? This is the era for you. We are getting Jedi in silks with elaborate gold embroidery. Jedi with jewelry other decorative elements. Even the practical field uniforms have tooled and embossed leather. If you want to draw or make Jedi that have some of that that sweet LoTR-esque high fantasy aesthetic, the High Republic has your back. (Not going to lie – I am ALREADY imagining the time travel AUs. Put Obi-Wan in fancy clothes!)
OKAY, YOU’VE SOLD ME. WHERE SHOULD I START?
I strongly recommend everyone looking to get into the High Republic (who is old enough to be on Tumblr) start with Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule. I alternated between the physical book and the audio book, and found it delightful in both formats. After that, you have a lot of options. You can read or listen to the audio book of the YA novel A Test of Courage by Justina Ireland. You can check out the currently running Star Wars: The High Republic comic from Marvel, or the Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures comic from IDW. Or you can skip straight to Into the Dark by Claudia Gray. Honestly, there is no wrong order to try out most of the High Republic.
IN CONLUSION
The High Republic is Star Wars written for people who DON’T want Star Wars to be a good ‘ol boys club for salty white dudes who don’t want to see anything but more of Luke Skywalker. It offers broad representation, and optimistic narrative, and whole bunch of awesome Jedi content. If you are someone who fell in love with Jedi in the prequel era, the High Republic will give you more of what you loved. And if you are totally new to Star Wars? The High Republic is here for you too.
So, go check it. And then go write fic for it (please, there are only, like, 14 fics on AO3, I am dying).
#star wars#the high republic#jedi#long post#recs#book recs#representation#seriously I cannot recommend this highly enough#everything about the high republic is so very tailored to what I love about star wars in general and Jedi specifically#also...sorry I had been absent here#I swear I still love you all#I just have limited interaction spoons these days and spend most of them on costuming stuff
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some thoughts on queerness in narrative (using cobra kai as a main point)
1. intro
It’s interesting getting to engage with pop culture right now versus even five years ago, where there was something kinda sordid and undercover about queer reads of text and even just talking about being into stuff very passionately while being queer in spaces that included creators was considered somehow icky (supernatural is always a good example, but definitely was just the most visible of these types of interactions between fans and cast/creators). Obviously that’s where a lot of modern definitions about queerbaiting and bury your gays comes from.
A lot of this kind of drama centred on queer ships rather than queer characters in their own right (dean/castiel, merlin/arthur, derek/styles and maaaan just a lot of white brunette/blond pairings, which is another post and I acknowledge that Lawrusso is also literally that... the irony)
But also this isn’t so much about “shipping.”
2.
There’s a danger of flattening out the ways in which we create a dialogue with text when it becomes just about whether or not our ships become canon (in general the way fandom discourse revolves around ships can be incredibly unhelpful for engaging critically with text) – for context I am queer and I’m queer through my transness and aromanticness and asexuality, and I also write a fair bit of shippy fanfiction and analysis, but personally am not (always) thaaat bothered about how the connections with queer-coded people are realised in text, as long as those connections are acknowledged in a queer way. How that works varies from text to text. There is no one-size fits all proper queer representation.
An example: SE Hinton (because I just read The Outsiders/watched the movie) being really dismissive of people reading her characters as gay on twitter (why do we ever try to do this sort of deep textual analysis on twitter, why do creators – like Hinton – think that they ought to espouse opinions on twitter, why twitter folx?)
I wrote – kinda for the void, because I write a lot and I like posting some of that on tumblr, but I don’t expect people to engage necessarily – about how The Outsiders is absolutely a queer text, whether or not the creator intended for it to be. Long story short, queerness has been – and often still is – illegal and/or frowned upon in canon text, so a semiotics was created to make something queer if you knew how to read it. The fact that cis-straight creators play with and use those semiotics without knowing doesn’t negate the fact that that language is there and was deliberately created for that purpose.
That also doesn’t make it queerbaiting. Maybe cis-straight dumbassery, idk (wouldn’t be if you just went “huh, didn’t think about that, cool read”)
Intentionally playing with and acknowledging those semiotics also isn’t necessarily queerbaiting.
Definitely queercoding though.
3.
Anyway this is all a bit murky territory, so let’s talk about Cobra Kai, my current little obsession, and about Star Trek, my always-obsession. Time-was you could get sued for your Star Trek fanfiction. Nowadays that fanfiction can get turned into a for-fun zoom play and read out loud by the two actors who played the original characters (Alexander Siddig and Andy Robinson). This is very fun, new territory for a lot of us.
Meanwhile Hayden Schlossberg and the other writers of Cobra Kai are openly aware of the fact that lots of people read their lead characters – Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence - as probably bisexual (and probably as in love) and are on good terms with several active members of fandom and fic-writing. This is… so fucking fun. And it doesn’t have that weird overtone of shit like Teen Wolf (“We’re on a ship” winky-face, followed by that about heel-turn “just think it’s weird and strange” or however tf it was described later on - that shit: definitely queerbaiting).
In Star Trek there’s a slim-to-none chance that these characters will ever become canonically queer in the main text, but the acknowledgement and the light-hearted open engagement with it makes such a massive difference (not that Siddig and Robinson weren’t talking openly about it as far back as the 90s).
In Cobra Kai there is no obligation to make Johnny or Daniel canonically bi because there’s been no promise to do so – there is, in my opinion, an obligation to create a world in which queerness exists and not just on the sidelines. In the same way as there’s an obligation to generally create a world that accurately depicts what LA looks like in multiple other ways (cough, not mainly white, cough). If a part of that were through exploring how 80s era toxic heteronormative masculinity could throw people deep into the closet for most of their lives, hey, that’d be a neat storyline (such a neat fucking storyline), but it’s not the only way to do it.
While I do like canonically queer couples in stories, I also think it’d really limit what queerness can do for a text if that were the only way it was represented - sure I ship Lawrusso, but I find the above-mentioned analysis of toxic masculinity’s effects on the characters-as-queer-coded to go much deeper than whether or not they get together.
I also would love trans and/or other-gender characters - we all know Johnny needs his “gender-what?” ignorance challenged and the potential for characters like that to fit into a narrative around trauma, loneliness, and misfit-families is kinda perfect (and when I say characters, I mean that plural, we’re not a one-size fits all).
Lastly I think there is also an obligation to do exactly what the showrunners are doing - what didn’t happen with Hinton or SPN or Teen Wolf or Star Trek of yore or so much other popular fiction: say, oh yeah, that language is absolutely there, we recognise it, we can read it and it’s not weird or sordid or something to be judged. So that’s already a massive thumbs up/promising start.
4. some final thoughts:
Idk where all this’ll go. I’m still missing a lot of canonically queer representation - and when I say representation I mean more than just shoving in a queer character into a scene and not thinking about how that affects the world that’s been established. But I’m feeling a lot better about queerness and story than I used to.
I’m hoping that whatever comes moving forwards in culture in general it’ll have some thought put into it. I’m hoping that queerness and queer allegory and coding will be recognised more and more as important reads of text and will go into informing how something is made (Hannibal, Black Sails, Sense8, Pose). I’m just hoping this’ll mean some interesting, intelligent, wildly varied narratives.
Just very excited.
#cobra kai#lawrusso#johnny lawrence#daniel larusso#my writing#garashir#ds9#st: ds9#julian bashir#elim garak#alexander siddig#andy robinson#i made an on purpose choice here to talk about m/m ships in my examples#to be very Precise in my comparisons#funnily enough all four shows i mention at the very end have more (and all canon) queer rep than that#i also had a tangent about the current weird discourse on what-you're-morally-allowed-to-ship but that isn't quite the point here#although in general i will reiterate that i find the focus on shipping to be very unhelpful and limiting and y'all need history lessons
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Dimension’s Ridge Announcement!
Hi everyone, With all the rise in Sonic media and the great releases coming up, such as The New sonic game in 2022,the sonic movie 2, sonic prime, and literally anything Idw has been releasing including their new side series “Imposter syndrome”, I am challenged to up my game and release information on my long running project in the works. Especially Since sonic prime and Idw is literally gonna blow out all the spoilers before I do if I don't start releasing stuff first. Since its been happening constantly, I gotta be a step ahead.
So, without further ado, I introduce you to the World of Dimension's Ridge.
Dimensions Ridge is My personal Alternate Universe that seeks to combine all aspects of sonic media. In fact, its super similar to the upcoming Sonic prime, archie and Idw Comics in this regard, with it possibly being a bit more ambitious, or at least equally as ambitious as Idw.
The Series will follow a number of favorite canon and non canon characters alike, but will also their universal counterparts and alternate universe selves.
The Main overarching plot line is that a Existence level Threat is putting everything in jepoardy. This Creature Known as an Existence Eater spreads its influence to a planet by releasing its minions into it, then after enough time, it comes to absorb the planet, thus erasing it from existence entirely, as if it had never been there in the first place. This has been happening for quite a while, until a few people caught onto it. They began leaving messages and warnings to others in a attempt to save them.
Being an existence level threat, this will take the combined effort of every Version of Sonic,Tails,Sally, Eggman and everyone else if they want anything to be left in the multi-verse. This Story is about how they all come together to do just that.
However that is the main plot. The story follows many minor or sub plotlines and stories that all connect and weave into this ultimate narrative. For Stories featuring Sonic and friends, Stories start off in the classic area and work their way into the modern area as the characters develop and mature, so we get to see and live their journey alongside them. For older characters and parents, I wanted them to have a more staple involvement in the series, even if only at the beginning. Their Adventures as the World slowly slips into chaos can be read in War on Mobius.
While there are Prequels to the beginning of the story, such as the “Rift War.”, the main storylines that kicks off all the other starts is one of my current productions “War on Mobius.”This follows the economical and political collapse following the Recent End of The Rift War and begins the Egg Empire's rise to Power.I would like to mention that The Egg Empire Now consists of the collective versions of Eggman all working together as a family. Egg Fam for short. But we have Great additions such as boom eggman, Ova Eggman, Aosth Eggman, Satam Eggman, Russian Eggman,Eggette, and a few custom additions such as Omelette and Scramble.
Things That happen in War on Mobius will be seen effecting or influencing the states of things in my Classic Era Story “Classic adventures.” and others ones such as “The Freedom Fighters.”
Alongside canon appearances of less known or scrapped characters and designs, such as Tiara and Honey the Cat, Readers can expect appearances of my own characters, both as counterparts to main characters, and also as people who drive the story forward and show interesting and dynamic opinions of their changing world. A few Such ones would be “Tribal Ties” Focusing on the Tribes of Echidnas, Bayblonians and Pangolins Tribes, all of which play a part not only in Mobius history, but also will play a vital part in its future.
After Classic adventures, comes one of my long running claims to fame and a personal favorite of mine from my early script writing days. Zone Runners. This takes place after the Events of Classic adventures and as the world has been influenced by the political unrest in War on Mobius. It follows the Group of People on the East Side of the World as they try to fight back against the Egg Empire, Newly risen Oscillators Group, and The Very lack of Sonic and Freedom Fighter there. This series will also begin unraveling some of the mysteries behind the existence eater and the ultimate narrative. Originally this concept came from the Fleetway comics, and ever since I've been completely inspired to incorporate this into my own series. If anyone was ever on Sonic Amino, they might have seen me post things related to it back in the day.
I also wish to be a more character focused series as a whole, one who focuses on the people collectively as opposed to just Sonic himself. I want it to as if each character us actually a main character and can save the day, and that the day is only won because everyone has done their part, whether powerful or powerless.
To that End, I have many characters stories intertwine, or lead to one another. Some characters will have branching off stories, while others will be closely intertwined, and always interact with each other, regardless of who the story is currently focusing on.
A few I'd like to notable mention is, Shadow's Ark, Silvers Sanctuary, and Heir of Sol. Focusing on the characters Shadow, Silver, And Blaze Respectively.
While I have a lot of other Titles for the stories respectively, I'd just to touch on a few more before I close.
Worlds collide finally answers the question in sonic media about two planets and the dimensional connundrum of sonic rush and sonic 06. While also bringing together multiple characters who were on their own paths, for the collected purpose of setting up how everyone will be needed much later.
Dimension Forces is, a reimagined Version of Sonic Forces, including a whole new team of villains to take on the heroes from our prior stories. I call them: Forever Force. The Main Three Hitters Being the Villains Infinite, Eternity, And Enigma. In this Story we'll get to see Whispers team in action, and also get to see new stories involving Gadget and His Brother Widget, and a host of other rising heroes soldiers and returning cast members.
I also had this Idea that the wisps were able to use their abilities on their own, except in smaller weaker versions then when they had a mobians help.Thus you could call in drill air strikes and other things to help you in battle, and the flew alongside you rather than in containers. I had these idea way long ago, but what do you know Idw beat me to the punch again in rise of the wisps. However I would just like to say before they do it too, that I had the idea of the wisps combining their powers, as if anyone played Sonic simulator, you would know you can actually combine wisp powers. If its the same type, its twice as strong with a bonus effect. If its different, you can combine the strengths of two different powers. Think how eggman used cube with laser in the boss nega wisp armor.
Speaking of Sonic Simulator! Thats another Story I have plans for. Following alongside the events of Sonic colors, Sonic simulator follows the group of hedgehogs abducted from Mobius and sent to eggman's interstellar amusement park as part of an organic experiment to take out sonic. Suggested by The Leader of the Oscillators, These hedgehogs will now have to work together to prove their worth to Eggman and as worthy adversaries of Sonic! But what of their past memories? What will happen if they remember? And if they do, can they escape? Find out! Also its follow up story leads to sonic lost world.
I'd also like to talk about the Idw Verse Mini series I have been working on! Getting Art from the Talented CatRage and getting to voice my Ideas to My Friends as well as My sister, I present my own Miniseries! Mimic's misadventures!
This story takes place between the events of Idw's Bad guys, and follows mimic's operations and struggles as he tries to complete his missions, and deal with people of similar caliber to himself. Will this mercenary manipulate his way easily out of another situation? Or has the Octopus finally met the one group who will send him back to the ocean? Find out!
Currently, this miniseries has 5 canon issues and one undecided.
1.Ghost Of The North.
2.Into the Spiders Nest
3.Hunt is on
4.Jaws of a Predator
5.Belly of the Beast
undecided: 6.Seaside Escapade.
Currently I am writing the script for Part 1 of Ghost of the North and hope to finish up the Audio drama reading for it soon.
So this is all the stuff I've had in production for the past few years! Along with my co writer Pinky heart.
Please, Please! Reblog or retweet this. It would mean the world to me. Also please! Ask as many questions as you'd like. I'll answer as many as I can, and would love to hear everyone's thoughts and opinions, as well as questions and inquires involving the series.
#Dimensions Ridge#Ghost of The North#idw mimic#sonic mimic#mimic's misadventures#Sonic Prime#Sonic Forces#War on Mobius#Classic adventures#Idw mini series#Idw Bad Guys#Sonic idw#Sonic Fan story#Zone Runners#Sonic Zone Runners#Au#Sonic Au#Sonic Audio drama#Sonic comic#Fan comic
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Star Wars: Visions - Episode 7: The Elder
Onward into the last trio of Visions episodes! This has been nothing but enjoyable thus far, and I’ve heard good things about these last three.
Episode 7: The Elder
Produced By: Trigger Inc.
Directed By: Masahiko Otsuka
After six episodes, we finally have one that definitively takes place in the Republic era. I’ve been regarding these shorts’ indeterminate time periods as I see them, but with a bit of misfiring: the one I thought worked perfectly in the post-ROTJ era turned out to take place far in the past (and in an alternate take on the series), and the one I thought would have worked well as an Old Republic piece turned out to be intended as a far-flung sequel. But this time, we’ve got a relatively solid timeframe established in the short itself.
Some time during the time of the Galactic Republic, two Jedi - a master and his padawan - patrol the Outer Rim when they are suddenly distracted by a sudden flare-up in the Force: a call to something dark and unknown. Arriving on a backwater planet, they track this disturbance to a mysterious old man who traveled into the mountains recently. But something seems wrong, and the more they investigate the more it they find ties from this old man to the thought long-dead Sith, as well as hints that the whole encounter might just be a trap...
This is another “Jedi arrives at a simple village, and is forced into a battle with a darksider“ story - unsurprising, when narratives like that are so popular, and each of the short films were made independently of one another. This time, much more attention is placed on the darksider themselves. The setting of this one illustrates its tension: this is a time period before The Phantom Menace where the Sith were believed extinct, so sudden clues to imply they may still be around are unbelievable and deeply unnerving to the main characters - and this slow unsettled atmosphere composes the center of the short. In the end, the heroes defeat the villain, but obtain no answers - as they must not, for the Sith won’t reveal themselves for some time - and the story ends with them moving on, unsure.
The master and apprentice are fun characters. Not quite as developed as some of the other characters we’ve seen thus far, but they do have a fairly fun banter to them. It’s a trend that masters and apprentices end up countering each other in personality to a degree in Star Wars - wilder masters beget more serious padawans, and vice versa - and it continues here: the master being a dour, cautious and somewhat paranoid sort, whereas the padawan is emotionally expressive, lacking in worry and ever-direct in his words and actions. You can tell that they are wildly unprepared for what they are about to walk into - even the master, who is knowledgeable and powerful enough to face it regardless - and that endears them to the audience as the story goes on.
The antagonist is is the biggest draw, however. A murderous swordsman type: obsessed with nothing but the fight and proving his skills in battle by luring hapless opponents into battles to the death. It’s a character type that’s fairly common in samurai narratives, and thus one which I’ve always been surprised to see so little off in Star Wars media. Eschewing most of the Sith ideology, the Elder only cares about bigger and bigger challenges, deadlier and deadlier stakes. He is introduced having massacred a giant monster, and ends gleefully throwing himself into a fight with someone he knows may be his better, murdering and manipulating all the way to ensure that the fight happens. And the fight itself reminded me somewhat of the fights from the Filoni series, particularly the Obi-Wan and Maul fight in Rebels where the visual direction was all about getting more out of less. The motions are less elaborate, but are instead quick and deadly, which ups the impact.
The Sith having a pair of light-shortswords made espeiclaly for an interesting fight - digressing again, but I’ve always felt branching out into different kinds of lightsaber weaponry would allow the series to evolve the swordsmanship aspect of the Jedi and other force users a bit more. The idea of giving Rey a light-pike, for instance, was one that got a lot of traction for a while and one I wish the films had adopted. There’s a degree of baby steps in regards to how versatile the Jedi can be that the main series tends to adhere to whereas these short films in general have not felt constrained by - whereas the light-weedwhacker of The Duel is obviously a bit excessive, the idea of shortswords or longswords for Jedi, or other varieties of bladed weapons, is something imo the series could well look into.
If there was one thing that felt off about his one, on the other hand, it was the animation as a whole. It isn’t something I’m unfamiliar with, watching anime as much as I do you’re sure to find a few series that do the same thing, but it may be a bit jarring to go from the previous short films - which were very fluid and expressive in animation - to this one, which is a lot more stiff. Everything is very intricately and elaborately drawn - with deeply etched character designs and vivid backgrounds - but very limited in animation, with less physical emotion and range. A curious choice, given how Trigger’s other film - The Twins - in this set was the complete opposite: extremely animated in all respects. Characters mostly just move their lips and incline their heads, until the fight starts - and the fight itself is, again, an example of getting more out of less. There are thus times in the short where the shot almost appears to be static for long periods of time. This is, once more, a stylistic choice which I am not unfamiliar with, but I’m not as sure that it affords well to the film’s story. But it does have the effect of also drawing attention to the antagonist - The Elder himself is by far the most vividly animated character in the story, and it makes him and his menace fly off the screen in comparison.
All in all, a good episode. But that’s not the only thing we’re here to look at. As you’ve probably cottoned onto by now if you’ve been reading all of these, the Visions shorts are all currently non-canon. However, in a franchise like Star Wars it is not uncommon for installments like this to get examined for official continuance if they have a lot of support from us, the fans, and - importantly - if they fit well into the universe. So here, we’re also looking at whether each short fits into the universe, and how well.
And what are the chances of this one fitting into the universe? Pretty Good Odds. This short was careful to design itself such that it could easily fit into the time period it takes place in: another backwater planet with a sheltered culture, making it unlikely to contradict anything, two remote Jedi with a far flung assignment also unlikely to contradict anything, and the characteristics of the setting are actually baked into the plot: the Jedi of this time have no idea extant Sith still exist, and thus are left stymied by the mystery this Elder presents. In the end, they obtain no answers, either: only smoke and ambiguity of a lost lead.
So I could easily see this being popped right into the continuity with no hassle to anyone. And it would definitely be interesting to see: did the Elder really leave the Sith to pursue his own bloodlust. If so... that was his history?
If this short accomplishes one thing, it’s delivering on the mystique surrounding the SIth. Not to mention giving the world a few more nightmare faces to dream about - nobody in the Star Wars universe is scarier than a Sith on the prowl...
#star wars: visions#the elder#star wars#disney+#trigger inc#studio trigger#masahiko otsuka#dan g'vash#tajin crosser#creepy old sith#noncanon#good episode#pretty good chances#sci fi anime#star wars anime#Animated Minds for Animated Times
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BUILD ME A CANON
Earlier this week, Delhi University's Oversight Committee removed works by writers Bama, Mahasweta Devi and Sukirtharani from the university's syllabus for undergraduate students of English. Bama and Sukirtharani are Tamil Dalit writers whose work looks at the experiences of the marginalised. Mahasweta Devi, a Bengali writer, was well-known for her Left-leaning politics and for being an advocate for tribal communities and their rights. She passed away in 2016.
I'd suggest one moment's silence for the Oversight Committee committing an oversight, except this is not an oversight. An oversight is an unintentional mistake, but this seems very intentional. As the DU clarified in a statement later, "the syllabus of the course has been passed through a democratic process with the involvement of all the relevant stakeholders and necessary deliberations at appropriate forums” (emphases mine). The university claims the English syllabus is suitably diverse and inclusive (suitably being the key word here) and it's interesting that as part of its defence of the Oversight Committee's decision, DU has pointed out the process of coming to that decision was "democratic". What it doesn't acknowledge is that if the committee is full of people who belong to dominant groups and doesn't have members who represent the minorities and the marginalised, then the committee's "democratic process" is critically flawed.
The DU statement came after the Academic Council submitted a dissent note, protesting the Oversight Committee's decision. The Academic Council described the Oversight Committee's functioning as vandalism and alleged it has been harassing liberal arts departments. "It is important to note that the Oversight Committee does not have any member from the Dalit or the Tribal community who can possibly bring in some sensitivity to the issue," said the Academic Council in its note.
There was some noise on social media about the decision to drop works by these three writers. Most of the discussion that I saw was about Mahasweta Devi's dropped short story, Draupadi. (Apparently the Oversight Committee chair complained the short story doesn't show the military in a good light. From what I remember, it's the police. They carry out wrongful arrests and brutally gangrape a tribal woman.) There's been far less discussion of Bama and Sukirtharani's works on English Twitter, who have mostly been referred to as the "two Dalit writers", like an addendum to Mahasweta, which is infuriating in itself. I know that this is probably because not enough people read translations. Particularly translations of literature from Indian languages.
There is also little talk about what has replaced the dropped works. One of the authors who has been included is apparently Pandita Ramabai, identified as an upper caste writer (Brahmin, if I'm not mistaken). I've no idea if her writing continues to feel relevant and/ or engaging, but it is all sorts of bizarre to "replace" a 20th century author with someone who died in 1922. Also, if she was included because she was Brahmin, I hope they have fun reading her book The High Caste Hindu Woman which is, I'm told, deeply critical of how sexist Hinduism. Whether or not Pandita Ramabai voiced any opinions of casteism in Hinduism, I don't know.
Even though translations don't get read as much, the fact is, the writings of Bama, Mahasweta Devi and Sukirtharani have been translated to English and other languages. They're part of different university's syllabi and for better or for worse, DU is not such an influential player in academia. If DU's decision to drop these writers convinces some Indian universities to do the same, we can only hope that other universities (in India and abroad) will start thinking about including them in their syllabi (if the writers aren't in them already). In a not-so-distant future, it's very likely that there will be universities abroad that will have a more diverse, inclusive and representative portrait of Indian culture in their syllabi while institutions like DU remain mired in a casteist, Hindutva bog. At that point, who should decide what will make the canon for Indian literature? The Indians or the foreigners?
It's the second time this week that we've heard conversations about erasure in the Indian cultural scene. Earlier this week, social media was on fire after the Indian edition of the Rolling Stone carried a cover story about the record label and music platform Majja, featuring two artists best known for their collaborations with Dalit rapper and lyricist Arivu. Rumour has it that the Rolling Stone cover was bought by Majja, presumably to promote upcoming albums by those two artists. However, since Dhee and Shan Vincent de Paul are currently riding a popularity wave because of their work with Arivu, many readers — beginning with director Pa Ranjith — expected the cover story would be as much about Arivu as Dhee and Shan Vincent de Paul. People also pointed out that Arivu had effectively been removed from a (disastrous) remix of "Enjoy Enjaami" (the original song is amazing).
Shan Vincent de Paul, one of the artists featured on the Rolling Stone cover, issued a statement on social media saying he had the utmost respect for Arivu and had no intention of erasing him. He clarified that the story was part of his efforts to promote his new album Made in Jaffna, which he's releasing with Majja. "I have no control over how the Press chooses their messaging or what narratives they push," de Paul wrote, which would be an excellent point if the cover wasn't bought. He may not have control over the narrative, but he's hardly an irrelevant cog in the wheel. Instead of attempting to exonerate himself, de Paul could have acknowledged that the story doesn't give as much space to Arivu as it should. I am, of course, presuming he's read the story.
If the rumour about the cover being bought is true then Rolling Stone and Majja are complicit in deciding a narrative that sidelines Arivu, either intentionally or carelessly. More than half of Rolling Stone's cover story is about "Enjoy Enjaami" and there is just one quote from Arivu. This sidelining may not be deliberate — the way DU's Oversight Committee's decision was — and it could be an example of the kind of unthinking oversight that the privileged commit all the time when it comes to acknowledging the contribution of the marginalised. Either way, the impression conveyed by the two organisations is that Arivu is not the person they want to promote. Countering the decision of the establishment — it doesn't get more establishment than Rolling Stone and Majja. One of Majja's founders is legendary music director AR Rahman — is the reaction on social media. The songs being freely available on multiple platforms and the (relatively) free access to the artwork and arguments by Dalit creators and critics on social media makes it difficult to invisibilise Arivu.
A translation of Mahasweta Devi's Draupadi is available online as are some of Sukirtharani's poems. DU has dropped Bama's novel Sangati. I'm not sure if there's an extract that's available online. It is not lost on me that it's easier to listen to a song than it is to read a novel, or a short story, or a poem. It is also not lost on me that the fact you can bob to an infectious beat makes it easier to not register the deep-rooted casteism referenced in the lyric, "Enna kora, enna kora, yein chella peraandikku enna kora? (In what way is my darling grandson any less?)" There are no such distractions when you read, for example, Sukirtharani's My Room Needs No Calendar: "As they write on me/ with their penises,/ I will my body to stop/ slithering away."
Sukirtharani and Bama minced no words when they were asked to respond to their works being dropped from the DU syllabus. "I was not surprised at all. Dalit voices such as myself and Bama’s are speaking for all oppressed women, not just Dalit women," said Sukirtharani. "I don’t see this necessary as an exclusion of just Dalit writers as we have seen how progressive writers whose works speak against caste, Hindutva, fundamentalism have also been removed in the recent past. These things will happen in our society, but we cannot be ignored." She said she wasn't going to ask for an explanation, but believed DU owed her an explanation. At the very least, they should have intimated her about the works being dropped. "When they want to project an image of India wherein there are no caste and religious inequalities, our works point out that caste and religious inequalities exist in our society. So, it is obvious that they want such works removed from the syllabus," she said.
Bama said, "For more than 2,000 years, we have been segregated, our histories have not been written. This government is trying to strangulate our voices, but we will shout. The youth of this nation have understood [what is happening]. Rather than being upset, we are angry. The anger will reflect in our works in future.”
I find myself wondering if the business of building a canon was always so complicated and rife with uncertainties. Will the books, music and art propped up by commerce and politics be the ones that make up our mainstream cultural identity? Could we build a better literary canon for Indian literature if more excerpts and poems were available online for free, if more works were translated? Would we care more if the literature was easier to access or would we still dismiss it because they're translations, because the works are by Dalit women? Can the conversations that we hold in the informal spaces of the internet be loud enough to make the canon more inclusive, to make the mainstream expand its narrow definitions? What is more likely to make it into an archive and survive into posterity — the Rolling Stone Cover image or the many "fixed it" versions that people created online? Is it possible that both can and will be preserved? Does dropping the works of writers like Bama and Sukirtharani and Mahasweta Devi make them invisible? Will the dissent make a few more people buy Bama's novel? Will it make some curious enough to look up Sukirtharani's poems?
The words, the tech, the platforms, the imagery — are all these still the master's tools? How long must one wield them before they can claim the tools to be theirs? Will they always be the master's tools and not "our" tools? Is the master the one who cares for the tools and uses them better? Is the master the one with the loudest voice and the deepest pockets, the one who can bribe the boys and hire the deadliest mercenaries? Who decides when the tools have been reclaimed?
#Building a canon#Indian academia#Life in a progressively undemocratic country#Arivu#Bama#Sukirtharani#Mahasweta Devi#Indian literature#Culture and identity#Rolling Stone#Music#Enjoy Enjaami
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Old School X is a project interviewing X-Files fanfic authors who were posting fic during the original run of the show. New interviews are posted every Tuesday.
Interview with Syntax6
Syntax6 has 17 stories at Gossamer, but you should visit her website for the complete collection of her fics and to see the cover art that comes with many of the stories (and to find her pro writing!). She's written some of the most beloved casefiles in the fandom. I've recced literally all of them here before. Twice. Big thanks to Syntax6 for doing this interview.
Does it surprise you that people are still interested in reading your X-Files fanfics and others that were posted during the original run of the show (1993-2002)?
I’m delighted but not surprised because I’ve written and read fanfic for shows even older than XF. Also, I joined the XF fandom relatively late, at the end of 1999, so there were already hundreds of “classic” fics out there, stories that were theoretically superseded or dated by canon developments that came after them, but which nonetheless remained compelling in their own right. That is the beauty of fanfic: it is inspired by its original creators but not bound by them. It’s a world of “what if” and each story gets to run in a new direction, irrespective of the canon and all the other stories spinning off in their own universes. In this way, fanfic becomes almost timeless.
What do you think of when you think about your X-Files fandom experience? What did you take away from it? What did you take away from your experience with X-Files fic or with the fandom in general?
(I feel these are similar, at least for me, so I will combine them here.)
First and foremost, I found friends. There was a table full of XF fanfic writers at my wedding. Bugs was my maid of honor. I still talk to someone from XF fandom pretty much every day. Lysandra, Maybe Amanda, Michelle Kiefer, bugs…these are just some of the people who’ve been part of my life for half my existence now. Sometimes I get to have dinner with Audrey Roget or Anjou or MCA. Deb Wells and Sarah Ellen Parsons are part of my pro fic beta team. I have a similar list from the Hunter fandom, terrific people who have enriched my life in numerous ways and I am honored to count as friends.
Second, I learned a lot about writing during my years in XF fandom. I grew up there. Part of this growth experience was simply due to practice. I wrote about 1.2 million words of XF fanfic, which is the equivalent of 15 novels. I made mistakes and learned from them. But another essential part of learning is absorbing different kinds of well-told tales, and XF had these in spades. Some stories were funny. Others were lyrical. Some were short pieces with nary a word wasted while others were sprawling epics that took you on an adventure. The neat thing about XF is that it has space for many different kinds of stories, from hard-core sci-fi to historical romance. You can watch other authors executing these varied pieces and learn from them. You can form critique groups and ask for betas and get direct feedback on how to improve. It’s collaborative and fun, and this can’t be underestimated, generally supportive. The underlying shared love of the original product means that everyone comes into your work predisposed to enjoy it. I am grateful for all the encouragement and the critiques I received over my years in fandom.
Finally, I think a valuable lesson for writers that you can find in fandom, but not in your local author critique group, is how to handle yourself when your work goes public. Not everyone is going to like your work and they will make sure you know it. Some people will like it maybe too much, to the point where they cross boundaries. Learning to disengage yourself from public reaction to your work is a difficult but crucial aspect of being a writer. You control the story. You can’t control reaction to it. It’s frustrating at first, perhaps, but in the end, it’s freeing.
Social media didn't really exist during the show's original run. How were you most involved with the X-Files online (atxc, message board, email mailing list, etc.)?
I participated in ATXC, the Haven message boards, and the Scullyfic mailing list/news group. For a number of years, I also ran a fic discussion group with bugs called The Why Incision.
What got you involved with X-Files fanfic?
I started reading XF fanfic before I began watching the show. I had watched one season two episode (Soft Light) and then seen bits and pieces of a few others from season four. I’d seen Fight the Future. Basically, I’d seen enough to know which one was Mulder and which one was Scully, and which one believed in aliens. An acquaintance linked me to a rec site for XF fanfic (Gertie’s, maybe?) so that I could see how fic was formatted for the web. I clicked a fic, I think it was one by Lydia Bower dealing with Scully’s cancer arc, and basically did not stop reading. Soon I was printing off 300K of fic to take home with me each night. I could not believe the level of talent in the fandom, and that there were so many excellent writers just giving away their works for free. I wanted to play in this sandbox, too, so I started renting the VHS tapes to catch up on old episodes (see, I am An Old). After a few months, I began writing my own stuff.
What was it that got you hooked on the X-Files as a show?
I had to be dragged kicking and screaming to The X-Files. I’m not a sci-fi person by nature. I think my main objection is that, when done poorly, it feels lazy to me. Who did the thing? A ghost! Maybe an alien? I guess we’ll never know. You can always just shrug and play some spooky music and the “truth will always be out there…” somewhere beyond the story in front of you. You never have to commit to any kind of truth because you can invent some magical power or new kind of alien to change the story. I think, by the bitter end, the XF had devolved into this kind of storytelling. The mytharc made no kind of sense even in its own universe. But for years the XF achieved the best aspects of sci-fi storytelling—narrative flexibility and an apotheosis of our current fears dressed up as a super entertaining yarn.
What eventually sold me on the XF as a show is all of the smart storytelling and the sheer amount of ideas contained within its run. At its best, it’s a brilliant show. You have mediations on good versus evil, the role of government in a free society, is there a God, are we alone in the universe, and what are the elements that make us who we are? If Mulder and Morris Fletcher switch bodies, how do we know it’s really “them”? The tonal shifts from week to week were clever and engaging. For Vince Gilligan, truth was always found in fellow human beings. For Darin Morgan, humans were the biggest monster of all. The show was big enough to contain both these premises, and indeed, was stronger for it. The deep questions, the character quirks, the unsolved mysteries and all that went unsaid in the Mulder-Scully relationship left so much room for fanfic writers to do their own work. As such, the fandom attracted and continues to attract both dabbling writers and those who are serious craftspeople. People who like the mystery and those who like the sci-fi angle. Scientists and true believers. Like the show, it’s big enough for all.
What is your relationship like now to X-Files fandom?
I look at it like an old friend I catch up with once in a while. We’ve been close for so long that there’s no awkwardness—we just get each other! I love seeing people post screen shots and commentary, and I think it’s wonderful that so many writers are still inventing new adventures for Mulder and Scully. That is how the characters live on, and indeed how any of us lives on, through the stories that others tell about us.
Were you involved with any fandoms after the X-Files? If so, what was it like compared to X-Files?
I ran the Hunter fandom for about five years, mostly because when I poked my head back in, I found the person in change was a bully who’d shut down everything due to her own waning interest. A person would try to start a topic for discussion, and she’d say, “We’ve already covered that.” Well, yes, in a 30-year-old show, there’s not a lot of new ground…
Most other shows, Hunter included, have smaller fandoms and thus don’t attract the depth of fan talent. I don’t just mean fanfic writers. I mean those who do visual art, fan vids, critiques, etc. The XF fandom has all these in droves, which makes it a rare and special place. But all fandoms have the particular joy of geeking out over favorite scenes and reveling in the meeting of shared minds. It will always look odd to those not contained within it, which brings me to the part of modern fandom I find somewhat uncomfortable…the creators are often in fan-space.
In Hunter, the female lead joins fan groups and participates. This is more common now in the age of social media, where writers, producers, actors, etc., are on the same platforms as the rest of us. Fan and creator interaction used to be highly circumscribed: fans wrote letters and maybe received a signed headshot in return. There were cons where show runners gave panels and took questions from the audience. You could stand in line to meet your favorite star. Now, you can @ your favorite star on Twitter, message her on Facebook or follow him on Instagram. In some ways, this is so fun! In other ways, it blurs in the lines in ways that make me uncomfortable. I think it’s rude, for example, if a fan were to go on a star’s social media and post fanfic there or say, “I thought the episode you wrote was terrible.” But what if it’s fan space and the actor is sitting right there, watching you? Is it rude to post fanfic in front of her, especially if she says it makes her uncomfortable? Is it mean to tell a writer his episode sucked right to his face?
Do you ever still watch The X-Files or think about Mulder and Scully?
I own the first seven seasons on DVD and will pull them out from time to time to rewatch old faves. I’ve shown a few episodes over the spring and summer to my ten-year-old daughter, and it’s been fun to see the series through her eyes. We’ve mostly opted for the comedic episodes because there’s enough going on in the real world to give her nightmares. Her favorite so far is Je Souhaite.
Do you ever still read X-Files fic? Fic in another fandom?
I don’t have much bandwidth to read fanfic these days. My job as a mystery/thriller author means I have to keep up with the market so I do most of my reading there right now. I also beta read for some pro-fic friends and betaing a novel will keep you busy.
Do you have any favorite X-Files fanfic stories or authors?
I read so much back in the day that this answer could go on for pages. Alas, it also hasn’t changed much over the past fifteen years because I haven’t read much since then. But, as we’re talking Golden Oldies today, here are a bunch:
All the Mulders, by Alloway
I find this short story both hilarious and haunting. Scully embraces her power in the upside down post-apocalyptic world.
Strangers and the Strange Dead, by Kipler
Taut prose and an intriguing 3rd party POV make this story a winner, and that’s before the kicker of an ending, which presaged 1013’s.
Cellphone, by Marasmus
Talk about your killer twists! Also one of the cleverest titles coming or going.
Arizona Highways, by Fialka
I think this is one of the best-crafted stories to come out of the XF. It’s majestic in scope, full of complex literary structure and theme, and yet the plot moves like a runaway freight train. Both the Mulder and Scully characterizations are handled with tender care.
So, We Kissed, by Alelou
What I love about this one is how it grounds Mulder and Scully in the ordinary. Mulder’s terrible secret doesn’t involve a UFO or some CSM-conspiracy. Scully goes to therapy that actually looks like therapy. I guess what I’m saying is that I utterly believe this version of M & S in addition to just enjoying reading about them.
Sore Luck at the Luxor, by Anubis
Hot, funny, atmospheric. What’s not to love?
Black Hole Season, by Penumbra
Nobody does wordsmithing like Penumbra. I use her in arguments with professional writers when they try to tell me that adverbs and adjectives MUST GO. Just gorgeous, sly, insightful prose.
The Dreaming Sea, by Revely
This one reads like a fairytale in all the best ways. Revely creates such loving, beautiful worlds for M & S to live in, and I wish they could stay there always.
Malus Genius, by Plausible Deniability and MaybeAmanda
Funny and fun, with great original characters, a sly casefile and some clear-eyed musings on the perils of getting older. This one resonates more and more the older I get. ;)
Riding the Whirlpool, by Pufferdeux
I look this one up periodically to prove to people that it exists. Scully gets off on a washing machine while Mulder helps. Yet it’s in character? And kinda works? This one has to be read to be believed.
Bone of Contention (part 1, part 2), by Michelle Kiefer and Kel
People used to tell me all the time that casefiles are super easy to write while the poetic vignette is hard. Well, I can’t say which is harder but there much fewer well-done casefiles in the fandom than there are poetic vignettes. This is one of the great ones.
Antidote, by Rachel Howard
A fic that manages to be both hot and cold as it imagines Mulder and Scully trying to stay alive in the frosty wilderness while a deadly virus is on the loose. This is an ooooold fic that holds up impressively well given everything that followed it!
Falling Down in Four Acts, by Anubis
Anubis was actually a bunch of different writers sharing a single author name. This particular one paints an angry, vivid world for Our Heroes and their compatriots. There is no happy ending here, but I read this once and it stayed with me forever.
The Opposite of Impulse, by Maria Nicole
A sweet slice of life on a sunny day. When I imagine a gentler universe for Mulder and Scully, this is the kind of place I’d put them.
What is your favorite of your own fics, X-Files and/or otherwise?
Bait and Switch is probably the most sophisticated and tightly plotted. It was late in my fanfic “career” and so it shows the benefits to all that learning. My favorite varies a lot, but I’ll say Universal Invariants because that one was nothing but fun.
Do you think you'll ever write another X-Files story? Or dust off and post an oldie that for whatever reason never made it online?
I never say never! I don’t have any oldies sitting around, though. Everything I wrote, I posted.
Do you still write fic now? Or other creative work?
I write casefiles…er, I mean mysteries, under my own name now, Joanna Schaffhausen. My main series with Reed and Ellery consists of a male-female crime solving team, so I get a little bit of my XF kick that way. Their first book, The Vanishing Season, started its life as an XF fanfic back in the day. I had to rewrite it from the ground up to get it published, but if you know both stories, you can spot the similarities.
Where do you get ideas for stories?
The answer any writer will tell you is “everywhere.” Ideas are cheap and they’re all around us—on the news, on the subway, in conversations with friends, from Twitter memes, on a walk through the woods. My mysteries are often rooted in true crime, often more than one of them.
Each idea is like a strand of colored thread, and you have to braid them together into a coherent story. This is the tricky part, determining which threads belong in which story. If the ideas enhance one another or if they just create an ugly tangent.
Mostly, though, stories begin by asking “what if?” What if Scully’s boyfriend Ethan had never been cut from the pilot? What if Scully had moved to Utah after Fight the Future? What if the Lone Gunmen financed their toys by writing a successful comic book starring a thinly veiled Mulder and Scully?
Growing up, I had a sweet old lady for a neighbor. Her name was Doris and she gave me coffee ice cream while we watched Wheel of Fortune together. Every time there was a snow storm, the snow melted in her backyard in a such way that suggested she had numerous bodies buried out there. How’s that for a “what if?”
What's the story behind your pen name?
I’ve had a few of them and honestly can’t tell you where they came from, it’s been so long ago. The “6” part of syntax6 is because I joke that 6 is my lucky number. In eighth grade, my algebra teacher would go around the room in order, asking each student their answer to the previous night’s homework problems. I realized quickly that I didn’t have to do all the problems, just the fifteenth one because my desk was 15th on her list. This worked well until the day she decided to call on kids in random order. When she got to me and asked me the answer to the problem I had not done, I just invented something on the spot. “Uh…six?”
Her: “You mean 0.6, don’t you?”
Me, nodding vigorously: “YES, I DO.”
Her: “Very good. Moving on…”
Do your friends and family know about your fic and, if so, what have been their reactions?
My close friends and family have always known, and reactions have varied from mild befuddlement to enthusiastic support. My father voted in the Spookies one year, and you can believe he read the nominated stories before casting his vote. I think the most common reaction was: Why are you doing this for free? Why aren’t you trying to be a paid writer?
Well, having done both now, I can tell you that each kind of writing brings its own rewards. Fanfic is freeing because there is no pressure to make money from it. You can take risks and try new things and not have to worry if it fits into your business plan.
(Posted by Lilydale on September 15, 2020)
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Why you should watch RWBY
TL;DR:
Summary: RWBY is an epic fantasy with themes like found family, the struggle to remain hopeful, the younger generation growing up, villain redemption, and systemic evils.
Strengths: RWBY has unique and memorable characters. The show is smart. It has excellent cinematography and animation. It has representation. It tackles hard topics. It’s got incredible music and it’s free on RT’s website.
Weaknesses: RWBY has some early growing pains, specifically volume 2’s finale, as well as budget and polish. Later on, volume 4 is weaker than the rest. Volume 8's finale is extremely distressing for a lot of viewers (and we haven't seen the follow up to those events yet). The fandom can be bad at times.
Misinformation: The early volumes being bad, the racism plot line, and the animation (not the same as “budget and polish”) are not as bad as you may have heard from YouTube.
Suggested viewing order
Red Trailer, White Trailer, Black Trailer, Yellow Trailer
Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3
Volume 4 Character Short
Volume 4
Volume 5 Weiss Character Short, Volume 5 Blake Character Short, Volume 5 Yang Character Short
Volume 5
Volume 6 Adam Character Short
Volume 6
Volume 7
Volume 8
(I did my best to make this spoiler-free. When there are spoilers, they’re worded ambiguously enough that someone new to the show would never guess what’s going to happen just by reading this.)
What to expect
The world of Remnant is filled with monsters called the creatures of Grimm. Warriors called Huntsmen and Huntresses defend humanity. Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang go to school to become the next generation of heroes. Together they make Team RWBY (pronounced, “Ruby”)! Joining them is team JNPR (“Juniper”), made up of Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren. But evils even more dangerous than the Grimm are ready to make their move, and school quickly becomes an afterthought…
(I mention these next two topics specifically bc they can immediately turn someone away based on bad expectations.) There is a fantasy school setting, but RWBY is not a show about school. School topics are not a dominant idea: it seems to resemble a setting like Harry Potter, but the actual focus of the show rarely touches on things like classes or homework or tests, and we quickly move on. There is romance and it has a role in the plot, but RWBY is not a romance show. On the scale of romance in FMAB to She-Ra, RWBY falls somewhere in the middle.
What is RWBY about, then? RWBY is like an epic fantasy or high fantasy, despite first appearances. Perhaps not every genre convention is followed, but at its core, RWBY is about an epic struggle of good and evil.
RWBY contains themes such as found family, the struggle to remain hopeful, the younger generation growing up, villain redemption, and systemic evils.
Strengths of the show
The characters are unique and memorable. One of the cool things is that they all draw inspiration from a real life fairy tale, myth, or something else. They designs are all top notch. One character who died with extremely little screen time even got so much fandom love, they included the character in a mid-hiatus short later. The characters have unique weapons, too; in the world of Remnant, a weapon is an extension of ones’ soul, and they reflect the variety of their owners. They’re also just plain cool; Monty was famous for following the “Rule of Cool.” And their individual stories are all compelling and interesting.
The show is smart. As a fandom, we generally pick up on the narrative hints the creators are dropping. And our predictions usually come true, but not in a way that makes the show predictable and boring. We very rarely guess exactly what will happen, but we have some similar idea of it. It’s just excellent foreshadowing.
RWBY also likes to play with tropes, as an extension of this. Often it will challenge them, or subvert expectations. In other cases, RWBY uses tropes to avoid showing us what we already know will happen. This occurs in both characters and plot. For example…
SLIGHT SPOILERS FOR VOLUME ONE FOR THE REST OF THIS PARAGRAPH: Jaune’s entire character arc is about trying to be the anime protagonist, and learning that he doesn’t have to do things alone, and it’s ok to be a support main. The show sets up the narrative in a way that looks like, oh of course the direction it will go is him becoming the main character, but then it destroys toxic masculinity instead.
Our characters are smart, too. Plot-induced stupidity generally doesn’t happen. (A few big mistakes or errors in this regard aren’t actually the fault of the narrative, either, but animation and miscommunication and failure to execute. And those aren’t common.) It goes beyond just “not being dumb,” however. The villains’ plans are incredibly clever, and our heroes sometimes even guess at the usual “plot twists.”
The cinematography is just incredible. There are numerous freeze frames with extreme attention to detail that reveal character motivations or arcs or foreshadowing, there are many effective cuts and moving parts, there are soooo many parallels and callbacks, and visual cues such as lighting and color all are used appropriately to convey emotion and assist the narrative. It is one of the biggest overlooked strengths of the show, imo, simply because a lot of people in the fandom don’t notice these things as much for whatever reason, or else don’t give as much praise about them.
The animation is extremely good as well. Budget issues and technology issues aside (which means a lack of polish), the actual animation? The fight choreography, and all the other parts of animation that aren’t just “expensive CGI” are all wonderful. You can have very shiny, polished turds after all, and RWBY is like the opposite: not very polished, especially early on, but very well animated. All the trailers, volume 1 episode 8, the volume 1 finale, the volume 2 penultimate episode, and basically everything else hold up extremely well even today. If anything, the worst fight animation was in volumes 4 and 5 because of Maya growing pains, and those are an example of being more polished, but not necessarily better animated. Animation of faces has always been good, animation of characters has always felt lively. Aside from a few small actual hiccups (that one person running across rooftops for instance), it’s well done.
There are LGBTQ+ characters. The treatment of one of the recent trans characters, in volume 8, was nothing short of amazing. They worked with a VA who was trans. The moment of canon confirmation was important to the character for backstory, because of course that affects the character’s life, but not the only important thing about the character. The representation is not in-your-face or pandering. And there is a split of representation among the main cast and the minor characters, with promises of more to come (notably they’ve said they’re working on more mlm for future volumes, too).
RWBY is not afraid to tackle hard topics. It deals with things like mental illness, systematic racism, and cycles of abuse. It’s not because the show is trying to earn “gritty and dark” points, it’s because those are some of the topics that real people have to struggle with as well. And the show handles most or all of them very well, in a way that shows respect and an honest attempt to depict these things as best they can. (NOTE ABOUT VOLUME 8: THERE IS A VERY DIFFUCLT CONVERSATION CURRENTLY HAPPENING. I am on the side of, let’s wait and see what happens next because the story isn’t over, so we haven’t really seen the fall out. But I understand why this paragraph feels really difficult to agree with if you've seen the volume 8 finale. I trust the track record of the rest of the show, personally.)
As an example, the show has a theme that villains are rarely evil just because. A lot of villains choose to do bad things because they were hurt in some way. Some lived in poverty; some were hurt by racism; many of them are victims of abuse. But the show doesn’t make excuses for them. It’s possible to be both sympathetic and still choose evil over and over again (that’s called tragic). The ones who eventually do try to do good again are not always forgiven, either.
The music is amazing. I can probably count on my hands the number of times I’ve heard someone say otherwise, which is astonishing when you consider this fandom.
It’s also free on RT’s website. (A paid, “FIRST” subscription removes ads and lets you see new episodes one week early, but they all eventually release for free.)
Weaknesses of the show
Early volumes’ growing pains exist, much like most or all other shows. (Even some of the greatest were not immune to this, like ATLA.) In this case, however, it’s a little bit rougher. A large reason why is that this was kind of the first big thing from RT to ever come out. If you remember back almost a decade ago, their only other big thing at the time was RvB, which was machinima. They pretty much started from scratch with everything, from assets to VAs to animation to writing. Imagine if a random twitch streamer, like Ninja (idk who’s popular these days) said one day, “OK let me just direct something that’s intended to be the next great movie series of all time, like Star Wars, with a $4 bill and an iPhone camera.” Then went out and actually made something. Of course it would be rough…but then it turns out the movie is actually really good. And then you get to watch over the next several years as everything gets better and better until it’s honest-to-god comparable to the MCU. That’s kind of what happened with RWBY.
One specific growing pain was the volume 2 finale. Pretty much everything else up until that point, I love about the show. But the finale just fails to deliver on the build up of tension from other episodes. Some of it is because of later plot developments that we didn’t know at the time; some of it is because of just not great writing; some of it is because of just not great animation; and yes, some of it is budget. Regardless, it’s a low point for the show.
Speaking of, the budget for the early volumes is super small. The infamous volume one shadow people, the infamous person jumping across the rooftops in volume two, and just production quality isn’t high compared to a major release from some established studio. These are real weaknesses of the show that for some people, make it unwatchable, and if that’s you, that’s ok.
One last weakness of the show, the screen time per episode, especially early on, is NOT a full 20 minutes like you may expect of an anime (or anime-inspired-western-media, for those of you who will die on the “RWBY is not an anime” hill). This is a trend that has stuck with the show, a shorter run time per episode, for generally the entire lifetime. On one hand, it means it’s a little less daunting to catch up or rewatch than the number of episodes might imply. On the other, early on, some episodes have a little weird pacing. It also means the writing had to adjust for this, so while RWBY got really good at telling a story within a shorter amount of time, there’s also challenges with that too. Perhaps one of the notable ones is the pacing, with slower moments sometimes feeling like it takes up too much screen time, or not enough. Volume 4 was a particular struggle for the crew, both because they switched animation engines and also for the story.
Common complaints that I don’t agree with
I don’t agree that the early volumes were actually bad overall. Growing pains, yes, but not bad. I attribute that complaint to overly focusing on one character’s storyline, back when it wasn’t clear there was so much more to come and before people realized the show would challenge the tropes instead of falling into them. It’s pretty much just volume 1 when people say this anyway, most of them I’ve heard admit that volume 2 was a lot better (except the finale) and almost everyone loves volume 3. And looking back on it, I do think volume 1 holds up.
Tying into this, the racism plot line is another common complaint. I don’t think it’s actually executed quite that badly. I think it makes sense for there to be regional differences in the amount of racism we see, it just so happened that we only saw a very small and isolated environment, Beacon, for much of the early volumes. (Incidentally, that’s actually similar the environment I myself grew up in.) It’s not perfect, though. But there’s no doubt that the later volumes do a better job portraying this. Again, I attribute it mostly to people not knowing how long the show would run for at the time, so of course if that’s all we saw, it would’ve been bad. But it’s not. I have a lot of respect for Miles and Kerry for even attempting to handle the racism topic in the first place. And for the faults that DO exist in this plot line, I credit them for learning and growing past that too, and doing better in later volumes.
The animation is not bad. I’ve already touched on that earlier, but people confuse “budget and polish” with “animation.” Give me RWBY any day over Michael Bay’s Transformers: no matter how much polish those robots have, they’re still a confusing mess to try and follow. And the polish isn’t even an issue once we get past the growing pains of Maya and get a bigger budget, because wow does this show look good now.
Between these three complaints I hear about often, I think those are the biggest ones. And they’re all generally done in bad faith, based not on just those but on other more provocative statements people also make with them. That’s part of my issue with the fandom, specifically the vocal but small parts of the fandom, because they’re just repeating these things from early days that aren’t true. But YouTubers gotta get those rage and hate clicks somehow, right? Unfortunately it discredits the show a lot and influences other people’s opinions into not giving it a fair chance, because it’s become a narrative of “RWBY IS BAD” when they all won’t shut up about it. So yeah, fandom can be bad, join at your own discretion. (Of course, all fandoms have annoying parts, and my interactions with the fandom have been good overall, otherwise.)
Onto other complaints, some say the cast is bloated. I don’t agree, but I don’t think this one is in bad faith. I think we get the important characters as much screen time as we can, and the minor characters don’t actually detract from that; one of the differences between good minor characters and bad ones, is that bad ones take up too much time. RWBY has a ton of characters but many of the minor ones don’t actually take up too much time. So it appears bloated, but actually I don’t think it is.
Finally, a small word on the no-no topics. Adam, and Monty. Adam is like the champion of the Monty topic. Which essentially boils down to “Miles and Kerry are ruining Monty’s vision for the show.” Toxic fandom is truly awful and I have no respect for anyone who says anything like that. Shame on all of you. This isn’t really anything negative about the show, but the fandom, and tbf all fandoms have toxic parts. But toxic fandom can be a real and valid reason to not watch a show. Thankfully they seem fewer in number these days, but I think they’ve evolved into hiding behind other characters or topics, so you know. Beware. Again, it's not too hard to avoid them or block them, and my interactions otherwise with most fans have been good.
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Another weekend, another attempt at this godforsaken fanfic. XDD It’s pretty short, too, so I’m not even sure where it’s getting all this combative energy. Usually the claws don’t come in until you at least pass the 3k mark? Or at least something brief but ambitious. This fic is neither long nor ambitious. But then, I find writing Bleach fic of any sort extremely difficult, so maybe that’s just how it all is regardless of length or ambition. I can only name one weekend where that was not the case (THOUGHT WE’D TURNED A CORNER IN OUR RELATIONSHIP, BLEACH FIC. GUESS NOT.)
— One of the things I find difficult about Bleach fic has to do with my relationship to the characters and how much privacy I think they’re due and how that shapes the writing process. I realize that sounds ridiculous lol. They are little make-believe people. They are owned no privacy. (But they areeeeeeee.) Like, I have a fandom where my relationship to the characters is basically like "you know, you’re just gonna have to deal with this. I’ll follow your lead through this scenario, but this is what we’re doing. Suck it." And for my Pixar Cars, our writing relationship is mostly determined by how much I think they can handle. Animated cars are very sensitive. Like, ah, soft bean. Can’t be overstimulating you! But for the Bleach characters I want to write, my hangup is like, the knowledge that they’d probably prefer that anything they do… not be written. XP And who am *I* to push? Even though I think a big part of fanfic is literally to be pushy, and to see what impression that leaves in the wax. Like, maybe that’s the whole point. (Which leads me to the existential question that has followed me since my first go-round with Bleach, which is whether Bleach is a fic fandom for me or not. But I’ve never actually participated in fandom without writing and I don’t think I know how to do that, so it’s a dilemma.)
— Anyway, in light of characters and their privacy, I’m finding that a looser third person feels more appropriate than my go-to POV, which is typically a very tight third limited that hedges stream of consciousness. Propriety aside, though, I’m not yet sure how to make a loose third interesting to me? Like, what can this POV do for me? I dunno. (My one true POV love is second person, which imho is bestest in all circumstances, but it is a drug and I need to exercise temperance.)
— Also I’m a dumdum and came up with a premise in this fic that means I now have to refer to a character by a name I don’t personally refer to him by, and every time I type it my brain shouts NO. Self-inflicted pain!! I tried a timey-wimey stylistic workaround for this but it was so convoluted I was like, nah, self, you’re just gonna have to deal. XP
— Something I keep experiencing in this fic is this desire to tie things up. For extended metaphors to come full circle and for characters to get from point A all the way to point B. For there to be a Narrative Arc. I’m not really sure why, because generally speaking I think a lot of what I write outside of Bleach tends to be pretty vignette-y at its finest and underelaborated at its worst. But apparently my line for "this is fine" is different (or thinks it needs to be different) here than it is in other fandoms. XP For this angery fic that hates me I’ve probably cut as much as I’ve written at this point, lines out of paragraphs and multiple second halves. I think it keeps trying to stretch further than the narrator is presently able to take it.
Maybe he’s the one who wants it to be neat, idk? But I think he’s also more responsible about not forcing things than I am, so maybe it’s just me.
— If I had to characterize the process thus far, I think it’d be that teeter-totter between "yo, if this is going to be a story, it needs to be more than just you talking circuitously about mushrooms" (TRAGICALLY I don’t even think there are any mushrooms left in the current draft, even if that’s where this started) and "yo, this is trying to do TOO much, the premise is meant to support less." Like, you need to do the work of finding the meaningful energy here, but you can’t just come back with the kitchen sink of everything these characters could potentially think about. They really can’t do anything with most of that in this moment.
I think cutting aggressively has definitely helped me like it more (in that I like it more right now than I have at any point in its existence to this point), and I think it’s helpful to think that the ending isn’t supposed to exist in the fic itself—it exists in the canon that succeeds it. So the task isn’t to arrive, but to honor canon enough that that connection is strong enough to work.
^ But I also keep trying to do that in really overdetermined ways lmaooo. I think part of that is not having written very much for Bleach and feeling like, gotta practice my scales! Like, the idea is new to me in that I have not written it, but also very un-new—so much so that even I am bored by it. XDD I don’t want to bore myself but I also don’t want to be like, wow, that non-existent march from Point A to Point Z^i sure is...something!
— If you clicked on this cut for some reason and are reading this, you might be thinking, "Wow, B3 is really uh,,, overthinking this,,," Please know that the first half of this writing experience involved almost no thought and mere prayers. That did not work this time; ergo, Plan B! But I like getting nerdy about POVs, too, so Plan B is also fine. Uglyyyyyyy dumpling sssssssss
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Meet My OCs masterpost!
It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these and I’ve gotten a lot of new followers and several new OCs in that time. Enough now that I should probably put them under a read more. OCs are divided up by main setting that they fall under - even though all my Fallout content takes place in its own ‘verse (distinct from the canon Fallout verse in that there are horses, among other differences), the various coasts tend to be pretty separate. Without further ado:
Fallen Knight
Fallen Knight is a longform fic that is currently and irregularly updating. It takes place in the Commonwealth in 2287-2289, featuring a mix of canon characters (often modified to my own convenience) and OCs. It can be found here.
Christopher Farris, aka the Fallen Knight (Lone Wanderer)
[image ID: a drawing of Christopher Farris by @scarecrow-forest. He is a white, blond man wearing a baseball cap, a green shirt, and a long tan vest. He is holding a baseball bat and has a pip-boy on his arm. End ID]
Christopher is my lone wanderer that I ported to Fallout 4. He is (currently) a Brotherhood of Steel Knight alongside Paladin Danse. He is the main character of Fallout: Fallen Knight. He has a strong moral compass and idolizes the knightly ideas of protecting the weak and confronting the strong. Content for him on my blog can be found at #fallen knight.
Kristine Finch, Minuteman General
[image ID: a screenshot from Fallout 4 of Kristine Finch. She is a light-skinned woman in a blue shirt and tan jacket, with a cowboy-like hat. She is standing in front of a ramshackle wooden building with a neon sign that says “Minuteman HQ”. End ID]
Kristine is my Minuteman OC and the General of the Minutemen. Under her leadership, they have worked to make the commonwealth safer by uniting various settlements to exchange resources and provide mutual defense. She has also published the Minuteman Guide To Commonwealth Travel, also known as the Blue Book, a handy pamphlet for settlers and traders making their way across the Commonwealth. Content for her can be found at #one if by land.
Thomas “The Trigger” Calvani
[image ID: a screenshot from Fallout 4 of Thomas Calvani. He is a white, brown-haired man in road leathers with various leather armor layered over it. He wears a pair of reflective aviator sunglasses and a green bandana covering his face. He is standing in front of power armor with flames painted on it. End ID]
Thomas Calvani is a ne’er-do-well from the Atom Cats who has somehow managed to continuously fall upwards, somehow culminating with him as the Overboss of the Nuka World raiders after trying to go to Nuka World with MacCready and Cait. Content for him can be found at #tales from the commonwealth.
Greetings from Appalachia
Hector Sanchez (Reclaimer)
[image ID: a Vault Tec ID card from Fallout 76. It belongs to Hector Sanchez, a latine man with brown hair, a Vault 76 jumpsuit, and a van dyke beard. He is smiling and giving a thumbs up to the camera. End ID]
Hector Sanchez is an amateur cryptid hunter from Vault 76. Raised in the vault on his mother’s stories of cryptids before the war, he left the vault with his best friend Hazel in search of cryptids to find. Content for him can be found at #greetings from appalachia.
Fallout: Brave New World
Brave New World is a collection of various OCs who end up in the Mojave wasteland at the same time, in around 2289 or so. While no unifying narrative yet exists, I am planning some ficlets/short form fic around these OCs.
Ace (Courier 6)
[image ID: a screenshot from Fallout: New Vegas of Ace. He is a latine man with an eyepatch, a black cowboy hat, and a black leather coat over blue jeans, with several belts and bandoliers. He is standing in front of Dinky the Dinosaur and pointing a gun off screen. End ID]
Ace is my courier, and a member of the Great Khans. Still a teenager when Bitter Springs happened, he was separated from the rest of the Khans and spent his remaining teenage years doing odd jobs around the Mojave and avoiding the encroaching NCR, culminating in a fateful job for the Mojave Express. He now finds himself down one eye, hunting the Mojave for Benny and the platinum chip. Content for him can be found at #ace in the hole.
Sophia Mobius
[image ID: a screenshot of Fallout: New Vegas of Sophia Mobius. She is a white woman with white hair and round, cat-eye glasses. She is wearing a red labcoat and has the holorifle strapped to her back. End ID]
Sophia is a Followers medic turned disciple of Doctor Mobius after a chance encounter with a crashed satellite sent her to the Big MT. She later traveled to the Sierra Madre casino with Arcade and Veronica to hunt down and stop Father Elijah. She is now working with the Veronica and Christine to convince Brotherhood members to leave, smuggling out technology if possible, to assist the Followers of the Apocalypse. Content for her can be found at #followers of mobius
Martin Goldberg aka the Silver Canary (Reclaimer)
[image ID: a drawing of Martin Goldberg and Emmerane Black, aka the Silver Canary and Coal Black, by @rotarydials. Martin is a dark skinned man with silver hair and a beard. He is dressed in the Silver Shroud’s outfit - a black and gray trenchcoat and fedora with a silver scarf. He carries a submachine gun, which he is pointing off camera. Emmerane is a white woman with short black hair. She has black goggles and a black cloak over a white shirt and red vest. She is doing air-guitar motions. They both have pip-boys. End ID]
Martin Goldberg, known better as the Silver Canary, was a pre-war vigilante and the inspiration for the Silver Shroud. As a staunch anti-fascist and anti-capitalist, he had several encounters with the movers and shakers of American industry, notably Robert House, whose suite Martin broke into while he was visiting a West Virginia plant. Upon learning about Vault-Tec’s plans for Vault 76, he broke into Vault Tec University, changing the list of vault residents to a list of random West Virginia citizens, as well as himself.
While in the Vault, Emmerane Black, a moody young woman born in the vault, declared herself his nemesis. When they left the vault in 2102, he learned of this, and instead decided to take her under his wing, forcibly adopting the young supervillain. Though they clashed often at first, they quickly found they had more in common than they realized, and soon teamed up to take on certain targets - most notably the Brotherhood of Steel.
At some point in the following years, both Martin and Emmerane ghoulified, and in the late 2200s, Martin traveled west, to find his old nemesis, Robert House. He now haunts the areas around Vegas, a mysterious spectre doling out justice to the wicked. Content for Martin and Emmerane can be found at #the silver canary and coal black. Emmerane belongs to @corsairesix
Caroline Keene, Ranger of the Wastes
[image ID: a screenshot from HeroForge of a black ghoul woman with short braids. She is wearing a cowboy hat, long duster, cowboy boots, and a shirt and pants that are all brown with tan accents. She has a revolver and a knife strapped to her hip and a repeater on her back. She is offering a hammered tin cup to the “camera”. End ID]
Caroline Keene was a park ranger in a firewatch tower in Monongahela National Forest when the bombs fell. After a few days of quiet introspection, her and some of her fellow rangers agreed to make their way to the nearest town to find survivors, slowly making their way to Flatwoods and then Morgantown to join the Responders.
After helping the Responders stabilize Appalachia in the wake of the Great War and faction infighting that followed, Caroline traveled west, continuing to help out those in need as he crossed the country that had once been America. During this time, she began to ghoulify; though initially and understandably distraught, a community of ghouls in what was once Texas helped her to accept her condition. Upon arriving in the Mojave, she found that her reputation as the “Ranger of the Wastes” preceded her, and she was recruited by the desert rangers, though she left again when they were incorporated with the NCR. Now, she has settled in the Mojave, starting a brahmin and bighorner ranch with her partners, and helping shelter, teach, and raise lost and disaffected youth in the Mojave. Content for her can be found at #ranger of the wastes
The King of the Road (Chosen One)
[image ID: a screenshot of Heroforge of a dark skinned ghoul in a black suit. He has a red tie and a red cape, and is wearing round glasses and an opulent crown. He carries a spear and has a holstered revolver on his hip. Near his feet is a pile of coins and a gray cat, ready to pounce. End ID]
The King of the Road was once the Chosen One of Arroyo, but became disatisfied with the duties of ruling and the pressures of being the tribe’s chosen one. In 2244, he left Arroyo, wandering New California as a drifter. He abanoned his name and title, choosing instead to take the name of the King of the Road as his renown as a drifter grew. He ghoulified due to his exposure to radiation over the years, but took to the change rather well. He continued to travel the roads of New California, eventually finding his way to the Mojave wasteland as the NCR did. Content for him can be found at #king of the road (when I make it).
Angelia King
[image ID: a Heroforge mini of a white woman seated on a white horse. She is wearing a tan jacket over a brown chest piece, chaps, and tan cowboy boots. She has a red bandana around her neck and several belts around her waist, one of which holds a holstered pistol. Her left eye is covered by an eyepatch and there is dark makeup around both of her eyes. She has short dyed blonde and red hair that is shaved on one side. She is brandishing a rifle towards the camera and there is a sawed-off shotgun on her back. End ID]
Angelina King, the leader of the Nightstalkers, a gang in the Mojave in 2289. When Ace drives the NCR out of the Mojave, she at first believes that she will be allowed to operate with relative impunity; however, when the NCR supply trains stop coming from the west (no longer needing to fight a war that has been lost), she starts hitting caravans first and then larger settlements, carving her way across the Mojave towards New Vegas. Content for her can be found at #the nightstalkers strike again.
Other OCs
Hannah Alton
[image ID: a screenshot from Heroforge of a white woman wearing a forest green cloak. She has a brown cloth wrapped around her chest and blue jeans on. She has a quiver of crossbow bolts on her hip and is holding a crossbow. She has red hair and several piercings. End ID]
Hannah Alton is my PC for our Fallout: New Orleans campaign run by and using the PBTA hack Powered by the Nuclear Apocalypse made by @corsairesix. Hannah is a “raider” from a gang called the Robbin’ Hoods, a gang dedicated to stealing from New Orleans’ ghoul aristocrats and redistributing their wealth to the town they’re based in. Content for her can e found on #fallout New Orleans and #powered by the nuclear apocalypse
#queue#fallen knight#one if by land#tales from the commonwealth#greetings from appalachia#ace in the hole#followers of mobius#the silver canary and coal black#ranger of the wastes#king of the road#fallout new orleans#powered by the nuclear apocalypse#the nightstalkers strike again
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