#it wasn’t intended but I can understand if that can be interpreted | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

canonicallyobserving911 · 1 month

Text

Buck & Eddie: An EXPLANATION (NOT AN EXCUSE) for the basketball incident

After rewatching different scenes included in 7x4, the basketball scene where Buck appears to ‘intentionally’ bump into Eddie which caused Eddie to be injured pissed me off. It frustrated me so much that I wanted to figure out why the scene was included in the episode because they were playing a friendly game of basketball and there shouldn't have been any injuries.

Even though I’m not well versed in sports, I do know enough about them to understand tackling someone usually happens in U.S. football not basketball, so the full body contact wasn’t necessary if Buck just wanted to block Eddie’s shot (get it… Buck was trying to block Tommy’s shot with Eddie, it’s a double entendre 🤪😜). The point is, I figured there had to be more to Buck’s behavior than him just being ‘jealous’ of someone he met like once a couple of weeks prior. Also, I wanted to know why Buck didn’t immediately apologize to Eddie and I think I may have found the answer.

Full Disclosure: I do NOT condone violence of any kind in any instance because it’s unacceptable behavior no matter how it’s viewed! It’s never the answer to a dispute and use of words can usually resolve a matter when there's a disagreement. In this scene BUCK DID NOT DO THAT AND I HATED IT! Therefore, his actions on the basketball court were unfathomable and it doesn’t matter if they were INTENTIONAL or not since he bumped into Eddie so hard that Eddie fell and injured his ankle. He could have broken it or received a permanent injury from it, so IT WAS NOT OK!

Before I delve into my interpretation, please understand I don’t think Buck was fully aware and I hope he wasn’t intentionally trying to hurt Eddie. However, I do think his actions were 70% subconscious and 30% conscious because he had to know on some level, that his actions were over the top especially since he told Maddie he didn’t like how he felt left out from Eddie spending time with Tommy after only two weeks.

THIS POST DOES NOT INTEND TO PROVIDE AN EXCUSE FOR BUCK’S BEHAVIORS, IT’S SIMPLY A POSSIBLE EXPLANATION FOR THEM.

Please note: these are my interpretations and observations of episode 7x4; therefore if someone doesn’t agree, it’s ok because two people can have different opinions and they can coexist. One person’s opinion about a scene or an episode doesn’t have to be like someone else’s and it doesn’t make one person’s opinion right and the other’s wrong or vice versa. Everyone consumes and interprets media differently and just because one person sees something one way and they liked it, it doesn’t make it so for someone else since everyone has different backgrounds and experiences. Please try to use GRACE when reading other’s thoughts on a matter.

Now back to the regularly scheduled program…

Don’t read below the cut if discussions and interpretations of the shooting, Eddie’s breakdown or the basketball scene are triggering.

Before you start reading, please note, THIS IS NOT ABOUT OS! HE’S THE ACTOR WHO PLAYS BUCK SO DON’T GET THIS POST TWISTED. BUCK IS A FICTIONAL CHARACTER AND OS IS A REAL PERSON. NO ONE KNOWS OS PERSONALLY EXCEPT FOR THE PEOPLE HE ALLOWS IN HIS LIFE.

Another Reminder: before you read this please REMEMBER this episode was told from BUCK’S POV!

After carefully analyzing the basketball scene, I remembered something about Buck’s past. Everyone who knows the character is fully aware that he doesn’t want to be left behind or abandoned again. That's why it's important to note that in season 7, Maddie’s getting married to Chimney, Bobby and Athena almost died on the cruise and Hen and Karen are adopting a baby. Everyone in their found family is moving on with their lives and IMO, when Buck realized Eddie had moved on too, he couldn’t handle it because Eddie’s supposed to ALWAYS be there. They have each other's backs and have had them since 2x1. But it seems like Buck forgot one thing, he pushed Eddie away in 6x15 with that BS line about Natalia seeing him and outside of work, they weren't spending time together anymore.

In 7x4, Eddie found a new friend (who wanted him but I’ll elaborate on that in another post) and he was having a great time going to fights in Las Vegas, spending time working on his cars and going to karaoke, basically he was doing the damn thing but Buck couldn’t handle it since Eddie and Chris are his FAMILY! They’re the two people in his found family that are his but he’s either too scared to say something or I don’t even know what but the point is, he expects them to be there whenever he’s lonely and wants to cook some lasagna or something. But this time they weren’t since Eddie moved on and Buck didn't know what to do about it (Hint: all he had to do was open his mouth and talk🙄).

After I remembered the aftermath of the shooting and Eddie’s breakdown, I realized, in Buck’s mind, he thinks the only time he gets to be with Eddie in the way he wants to be with him (AS HIS HUSBAND) is when Eddie’s hurt (related post linked here) which is FALSE AND UNFOUNDED but in Buck’s mind, he doesn’t know that. If this is his rationale, then he needs to go back to therapy because it’s not true. Eddie added Buck to his will and named him to be Chris’ legal guardian but it appears he still hasn’t fully dealt with his abandonment issues yet and until he does, it's likely he won't be able to move past them.

Before Eddie found a friend with similar interests (which I thought was great) Buck got to be Eddie’s everything and he was Chris' other dad. He's never been a guest in their home and he's slept on their couch numerous times (related post linked here).

That was then and this is now since things changed in season 7 because it appears Buck started to believe his position in Eddie’s and Chris’ lives was in danger and that’s why he reacted the way that he did in 7x4. He thinks the only time Eddie and Chris need him is when Eddie’s hurt and to prove my point, I’ve included two examples below.

In 4x14 (full video of the shooting linked here), after Eddie had been shot and he was in the hospital, Buck was at 4995 S. Bedford St. taking care of their son Chris while Eddie’s then girlfriend, Ana was sitting by Eddie’s hospital bed even though he was in a coma.

Buck had full control of the house and he was fully responsible (with Carla’s assistance whenever he had to go to work) of taking care of Chris, making sure he went to school all while they waited for Eddie to wake up. Make no mistake, Buck was sitting in Eddie’s chair at the dining room table. He’s Chris’ other dad and has been for years.

In 5x14 (video linked here), Buck was literally living with Eddie and Chris after Eddie’s breakdown. He was taking care of the house and their son whenever Eddie went to therapy. He made sure Chris did his homework and he was waiting for his HUSBAND (EDDIE) to come home so he could cheer him up👀.

Chris called him in a panic and Buck rushed over to help. Now, even though Buck had a girlfriend (whom he used to help him get information on how to help Eddie with Equine Therapy), he was literally staying with them to make sure Eddie and Chris both got what they needed.

Bonus points: Buck called Bobby (his found dad) to stay with Eddie so he wouldn’t wake up alone while he left to take Chris to school.

In 7x4, Buck tried everything he could to get EDDIE’S ATTENTION (it was Eddie’s attention he was seeking) but nothing worked since Eddie was so enamored with Tommy and all of Tommy’s toys (I’ll elaborate on this topic too in another post). Buck was pissed so he encouraged Chimney to go to the basketball game with him but trust and believe Buck wanted to be there so he could see EDDIE!

It appears Buck was irrational and irritated and the more he saw the new bond between Eddie and Tommy, the more furious he became.

This is where things get messy because in Buck’s mind (reminder this is from his POV) it’s possible he thought that if he physically injured Eddie, he’d get his place in Eddie’s life back and he’d be able to play the role of HUSBAND (to Eddie) and DAD (to Chris) like he did in the past.

Buck truly believed Tommy was a threat to his place in Eddie’s life and that’s the reason why he reacted the way he did during the basketball scene. The idea of him losing Eddie was real this time just like it was during the shooting and Eddie’s breakdown but there's ONE MAJOR DIFFERENCE.

EDDIE’S HAPPY!

He’s not hurting or pressing Buck to hang out with him and Chris because he went and found a life while Buck was entombed in his loft with the death doula. It’s something Buck couldn’t process or comprehend since he wants Eddie to be there waiting for him.

Buck can’t fathom a life without Eddie and Chris because they're his family and trust and believe he’s never felt threatened by Ana or Marisol because he KNOWS Eddie’s not into them. Reminder, he was the one who told Eddie to breakup with Ana instead of him trying to stick it out like he said he was going to do.

Buck is HYPER aware of Eddie in every scenario which is the reason why he noticed Eddie's discomfort in 5x2 while Ana and Chris were at the firehouse. Also, he ignored Ana when they were there. He wouldn't even look at her. Buck's not bothered by Marisol either because if he was, he would have told Eddie in 7x1 to have her talk to Chris about women instead of asking him to do it.

When Buck’s facial expressions are examined, it’s easy to see he looks mortified at what he'd done to Eddie and the hints of their shared trauma from his past was mixed in too.

This was especially true while Eddie was on the ground.

Bonus points: when was the last time Buck saw Eddie injured and lying on the ground?

Ding, ding, ding… THE SHOOTING! Buck risked life and limb to save Eddie after he was shot in the middle of the street. And I believe he would have reacted differently if Tommy hadn't stepped in and said something that caused Buck to deflate.

Things were different this time because Eddie wasn’t shot but he was injured but Buck caused it and he wasn't able to fix it or save Eddie and take him home or to the hospital. Buck tried but Tommy shot his own shot which caused Buck to foul out of the game and by proxy he thought out of Eddie's life.

In the above GIFs, it’s easy to see how he wanted to reach out to Eddie but his hands wouldn’t move the same way he couldn’t touch him in 4x14 while they were riding in the back of the 133’s fire engine.

Before I end this post, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention how Buck has hurt someone before; it wasn’t physical that time but it was emotional.

BE CLEAR, I’m not a fan of Taylor Kelly’s and I’m not comparing him asking her to move in with him after he did a dumb thing (his words to Maddie in 5x13) with the way he injured Eddie. But I am using this as an example to show his lack of comprehension regarding how his actions affect others and the way it continues to persist.

In 5x13, when he went back to the loft and she was sitting on her own couch, he said, “You think I trapped you” and she responded, “Am I wrong?”, his response was, “I’m not sure”. I think on some level he did know since he was afraid someone else was going to leave him. Eddie wasn't at the 118 and Maddie, Chimney and Jee-Yun had just returned to Los Angeles.

Two years later, in 7x4, Maddie asked him, “You didn’t mean to hurt him (EDDIE), did you?”; he responded, “I don’t know”. His response was very similar to the one he gave Taylor and on some level, I believe he does know since he was 'jealous' of EDDIE hanging out with someone other than him.

IMO, Buck wasn't able to get the emotional skills one usually obtains while they're growing up because of the raggedy Buckley parents since they emotionally abandoned him and Maddie. He’s deathly afraid of losing those he loves but he can also be selfish with his presence whenever he gets to make things all about him. Reminder, he admitted it to Eddie in 3x9 during his second apology about the lawsuit. He said, "I'm sorry I wasn't there Eddie. You and Chris needed me and I had my head so far up my own behind with that stupid lawsuit." He was able to fix it back then and there wasn't any other people like Tommy hanging around to get at Eddie.

Additionally, two more examples of the way he makes things about himself happened in season 5 when he was dating Taylor and they remained entombed inside of his loft. They never went anywhere except for the separate trips they took to Oklahoma when she went to visit her dad in prison. It happened again with Natalia at the end of season 6. Since he wasn’t visiting Eddie and Chris, it appears he was entombed in there again with her so there’s that.

Be CLEAR, Buck is 32 years old (not 30 like the show lied and said he was in 6x11 because he was 28 in season 3 (3x1 Maddie said it to Bobby and Athena) and he was 29 in season 4 (4x5 proves it when he said it himself to Maddie) and since MATH IS A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE, it’s the same no matter where someone lives. The fact is 2 + 29 = 31, therefore he was 31 in season 6 and he should be 32 in season 7). Buck should be able to express himself with words instead of acting like someone in middle school. That’s possibly the reason why Maddie told him about the kerfuffle she had when she was 14 years old and told him not to act like someone that age.

The point of this post is Buck was/is afraid Eddie’s leaving him again but this time it’s different. Buck had all but abandoned Eddie and Chris while he was dwelling inside of his loft with the dEaTh DoUlA and when he finally emerged after breaking up with her, he thought Eddie and Chris would be there waiting for him but this time they weren’t. Eddie found a new friend and Buck felt left out so in his conscious and subconscious mind, he figured if he hurt Eddie, he would be the one there to take care of him like he’s done every time in the past.

But… Tommy stepped up and said, “I can take him because I brought him and there’s an urgent care near his house”. If you look at the expression on Buck’s face, you can see he felt like it was over. He’d finally done the one thing he thought he’d never do (even though he broke Eddie’s heart in 6x15 with his BS line about “She sees me”) but anyway, he didn’t have a leg to stand on anymore since Tommy was there for Eddie and he helped him by taking him to urgent care.

I HATE THIS SCENE AND I WISH THEY HAD FOUND A BETTER WAY TO HANDLE IT. I don’t like it when either of them gets hurt.

Finally, Buck needs therapy to deal with his inability to handle his emotions. I know a lot of people want him to just move on from his traumas but the fact is he hasn’t and that's why he needs to get help to be able to learn how to process his thoughts instead of him just providing lackluster responses like, “I don’t know” or “I’m not sure”.

His behavior was inexcusable so HOPEFULLY, he’ll have to APOLOGIZE in CANON to Eddie who’s never intentionally injured him.

Will he apologize to Eddie for acting like a middle schooler in 7x5? Only the showrunner, writers, producers, actors and actresses know the answer to that question.

#buddie #eddie diaz #evan buckley #christopher diaz #buckley diaz family #the buckley diaz family #911 abc #911 spoilers #911 on abc #911 meta #911 speculation #911 season 7 #911 season 7 speculation #anti tommy kinard #anti bucktommy #anti eddiemarisol #anti marisol

81 notes · View notes

lxmelle · 2 months

Text

Geto was loved even in death.

Wouldn’t it be nice if he were judged by his intentions in the afterlife - wherever that was? He had suffered living with the love he had. We see through the eyes of those left behind, that the ill deeds didn’t define him, as strange as that may be to us as readers in the real human world we live in. Geto’s influence and loving nature were far reaching; Gege certainly made him so treasured by many even after his death. If Gojo was touched by his caring influence, this was also Geto’s will he passed onto his students.

NOT spoiler-free as I’ll be referring to the recent chapter, 255.

I wrote this the other day:

And honestly it’s long enough; here’s part 2.

Is it obvious I’m suffering from brainrot? All my drafts from jjk brainrot are rivalling my thesis/dissertation from way back (lol)

Here is more under the cut:

I’m really moved by the reasons for why Miguel and Larue have decided to join in the risky fight against Sukuna.

It’s very obvious that Miguel is reluctant at first. He says he he’d rather terrible curses arrive at his shores than to fight with Sukuna, adding that he doesn’t see himself having any ties with Japan any longer.

We can deduce that this was part of Gojo’s plan for the possibility that he dies/loses, and I had a post about this saved in my drafts - but I guess I never got around to finishing it. Basically, in sum, he will achieve giving Geto a cremation (avenging him) and gets to show off to his students (which he does enjoy) by going all out (soo satisfying), and in the worst case scenario, he loses but gets to go all out, weakens Sukuna (for the rest to handle), and idk if he really is that romantic (so it’s really stsg headcanon fantasising) he will die on the same day as Geto.

The Opening theme is rather beautiful in that it interprets Gojo having the words, “we’ll meet again” stuck in his throat, which he doesn’t say. But I’m a bit weird and tend to separate anime from manga. But it’s worth noting that here.

I digress. Back to Miguel and Larue who have moved to speak privately without Yuta.

In a previous post I wondered aloud about what Yuta knew about Geto from others aside from being villainous and I guess this implies he doesn’t know much, since he wasn’t close to Miguel enough to sit around to chat with them. It makes sense.

Miguel and Larue both agree they followed Geto in jjk 0 because they wanted to see him become King. What does this even mean, really? Gege, you’re missing stuff out again!

Nevertheless, we understand how reluctant Miguel was. He enquires that Larue intends to do, clarifying: is it for revenge or to take Geto’s body back?

And it seems like their main motivation for putting their lives on the line... is to honour Geto’s memory. Like a traditional ritual one makes for the dead (customary in Japan on death anniversaries - not limited to the year, but also number of days).

It’s incredibly moving how much they love him. This is actually what led Miguel to reconsider. We see him go silent as he thinks “...” before he reaches a moment of clarity/a decision.

Tbh I have issues with interpreting his statement in between the two panels (re: hell) in Japanese - it doesn’t directly indicate if he is referring to the former part of the conversation (whether he thinks Geto is in hell), or the latter (he thinks the battle will be hell). The phrasing goes like this: “no matter how I think about it: it’s hell.” - I’m not a native speaker so it’s difficult for me to be certain which is right. But the consensus is as translated above. Larue thinks Geto is in heaven, Miguel thinks it’s hell, and we see the airport scene where presumably Haibara and Riko with Kuroi have been there for over a decade. lol. Who knows!

So the bottom line is… regardless of where they think Geto ends up in the afterlife, Miguel is willing to give Geto a send off that’ll even reach hell. Or, despite it going to be hellish, he will do it. It also seems so heartwarming how they still emphasise family and friendship in wanting to fight together - perhaps things we can surmise had meant something to Geto.

They will fight Sukuna because it is for Geto. Geto was so loved that they would risk themselves - not for a title, not for revenge, but out of … love. Again. That’s pretty damn loving. Can we imagine what Geto did and was to them, for them to experience such loyalty and reverence?

Sadly, it goes without saying that Geto’s body being used as a vessel and puppet by Kenjaku has possibly evoked an emotional response by those who cared for him - namely Mimiko and Nanako, and also Gojo. Arguably, even if it were a death without his body being hijacked, Gojo did refuse to cremate his body or have it processed “by the book” of jjk high through Shoko. If that’s not out of a form of love (or “consideration” as Kenjaku put it), I don’t know what is.

The twins went against what Geto wanted for them (to carry out his will) to fight against immensely power beings in hopes they could bring him home. Those were their reasons to fight. Gojo scheduled 24th December - this was after he teleported to Kenjaku immediately upon unsealing so he could bury Geto. We saw Larue and Miguel’s. Toshihisa is alleged to be quite weak, and despite potentially being considered a son to Geto (if his life situation did mimic that of the twins’ - source: jjk character book), he opts to follow the inherited will as prescribed by Geto.

It’s all love. Geto was loved, I’m telling you. I want to shout if off the rooftops because that man just looked so darned sad and deranged after he lost it.

So. Continuing where I left off: Everyone thus far has had a reason to go into battle with Sukuna. I wonder what / who will actually reach him? I hope it’s Yuji ... and that Megumi will react again at some point. They have their own themes relating to love and purpose. I’ll leave them to someone else more familiar with their characters to write about!

And now I’m going offside quite a bit, but it’s still of relevance to Geto and the theme of love that seems to surround him. Way back to jjk 0 and Hidden inventory.

I wanted to just bring this into the picture as well now that I’m already writing a post on that topic, but please feel free to stop if you’re bored now.

So. Jjk 0!

There were direct parallels with Yuta & Rika and Gojo & Geto. This was also confirmed by the director when discussing their vision for the movie. The light novel also drew a link between Geto and Yuta where they were described as being too sincere for this world.

There is a direct theme of love - the type, is open to interpretation.

Kenjaku also makes reference to this in the Shibuya arc. So to me, it remains relevant. Love in its many forms is somewhere in what Gege wishes to convey thematically.

Within jjk 0, Geto seemed to pursue power but this was also a symbolism where power = love. It is twisted. In light of recent events, we know that the pursuit of power leads to the dilution and even absence of love. Love that gives birth to power becomes cursed. So it seems.

As we know, Yuta bound his lover to himself to gain power.

If only he had Rika (metaphor for love: Gojo) he probably wouldn’t have had to skulk around the shadows consuming curses which he hated doing. Geto was lamenting on the past in the above panels. He probably was determined to carry on, as he vouched to give it all he got (Haibara’s last words to him echoing here).

A flashback to the past:

Geto doesn’t do things in half-measures. To avoid hypocrisy, and I headcanon that it was a merciful killing to protect them from him, he kills his parents. To die by his hands than to be used as a pawn to get to him. For them to see the horrors their son could be capable of. It is so very wrong, and we can see the twisted nature of his love in this interpretation.

And Gojo delivers the ultimate blow that leads to Geto reflecting - depicted by the mysterious ellipses “…..” (gege really likes the reader to work hard huh) - insinuating it is impossible for Geto, so don’t even bother trying. The blossoming possibility of discourse was nipped, as the strength differential was implied - you’re the strongest now, whereas it used to be “we”. There was no more place for Geto; it was probably a misunderstanding. Gojo was protecting everyone in his own way, and the only way he knew how.

For power, Gojo was a source - but Geto couldn’t do that in Shinjuku, nor earlier in the arc, when Gojo himself was on the brink of insanity and deferred to Geto about annihilating humans as he held Riko’s dead body. Geto in the scene above acknowledges their different paths they needed to take - Gojo had a place as part of the elite at the school - Geto was already facing an execution order.

And after hearing Gojo’s condescending tone in an emotionally-fuelled attempt to reach out to him. He turns away to protect his friend from himself, and himself from his friend. Anyway, I touched on this in my previous post. Geto feels they had fought and didn’t deserve a place next to Gojo. But deep inside, even his body remembers the sound of Gojo’s voice, reacting to it when called despite his soul no longer being there.

sigh. Moving on... back to jjk 0:

After witnessing the bonds through willingness to sacrifice and the love between these students, Geto was really moved. Gojo trusted Geto retained his sense of humanity / love / idealism - even if it would lead to him sacrificing himself.

He was finding it difficult anyway:

He could always empathise with love. I suspect he tried his best, but the binding vow for Yuta’s life was also just the cherry on top to make Rika super saiyan.

Kenjaku knew Geto probably could’ve won though, had he been more selfish.

Geto conceded without a fight with Gojo. Maybe it was a matter of trust in that they both knew his living on borrowed time. As the light novel insinuated, this was the only way it could ever end. And Gojo would have to carry the curse that was Geto. This seems... so cruel.

He did his best. He perhaps always wanted the love but set it free.

He did so many things for others in spite of himself, in sacrificing himself, in staining himself with blood drenched hands.

Avenging Riko by killing Sonoda. Note how manipulative “humans” are by using Jujutsu rules against them.

He embraces a life of smoke and daggers. Living in lies and half truths in order to live, survive, and find justice in a wicked world.

Watch me closely, I’ll protect you, I’ll avenge you, this is how you protect yourself.

This is the path I’ve chosen.

I’m not saying he was right or justifiable. His character is just tragic. The system had set him and others to fail.

The worm foreshadows Geto’s maternal nature. Calling him “okaasan”. I mean, this very worm had a binding vow with Toji. And now it calls for a new owner? I’m not sure if Gege had anything else in mind with this... is the womb protrusion domain Geto’s? But that’s tied to a sorcerer’s soul…. Anyway, I digress again. (Sorry). Geto did have a martyr complex and was written captivatingly well by Gege. The extra touches where how he has been perceived by others and the effect he has (and continues to have) on those we see.

And I just want to leave this heartbreaking thing here:

Source from twitter/now X:

Wouldn’t it be so sweet for Geto to get one (love declaration) at the end of his life, regardless of the way you perceive Gojo and Geto’s relationship?

Wouldn’t it be nice for him if he could know that his family who he instructed to flee had all loved him, adored him, and would honour his sacrifice in differing ways...

Instead, a form of love meant his body was desecrated and used by Kenjaku. His girls were killed, and his full potential was not quite realised at all.

If only things were different.

Gojo should have kept him in his basement!

But at least, I think, Gege is giving Geto some love even after his death.

For that I’m thankful.

And thanks for reading if you made it this far with my rambling!

If you want something more light hearted I have a fluffy fic up on AO3 (it isn’t great but i enjoyed writing it to fantasise about what happens at the airport) and if you want more angst and pain, please browse my tags (lol).

95 notes · View notes

kittencomicslol · 1 month

Text

I was awake again last night unable to sleep so I wrote more, except this time I wrote self indulgent Gyutaro fluff

No tws, this is literally just fluff. It was intended to be the modern AU but after re-reading it I realized it could really be interpreted as the og universe or the gakuen

———

Gyutaro had no problem being cruel or degrading to anyone who upset him, or even anyone at all for that matter. But you… you were different. He was fond of you, for some reason he himself wasn’t exactly able to wrap his head around. Maybe it was the way your voice sounded so sweet when you spoke to him?.. how you seemed so genuine and enthusiastic about your interests without a fear to hide yourself?.. the strange amounts of sympathy and empathy you held towards anyone despite he himself being unable to understand how you could feel such things?… or maybe it wasn’t one little thing. Maybe, just maybe it was all of you.

You laid in bed with him, snuggled up so close you were nearly on top of his slim frame. He didn’t mind of course, why would he? He would never understand why or how he deserved someone as kind as you to be so close, but he wasn’t going to lose it.

The comforting feeling of his boney calloused fingers running through your hair was something that made you feel almost numb. He had every capability to harm someone, break bones, to cause damage. Yet with you he was so careful and delicate down to every single strand of hair you had, his fingers delicately grazing your scalp as he petted you.

“Sweet girl..”

He cooed, his croaky voice nothing more than a hushed whisper you could hear as you laid with him. The way you ever so subtly leaned your head into his palm to signal for him to keep going made his heart flutter, his stomach doing flips. And how could he deny giving you what you wanted after a long day? You were his lover after all, and you deserved nothing but the best.

“You tired..?”

He asked softly; though he already knew the answer to that question. You had a stressful long day of work and when you had time to lay down with him you refused to get up. Your Nodding in response to his question was all he needed for confirmation that you were most likely going to fall asleep like this. It had become a habit for you to fall asleep on top of or right next to him, especially when you were exhausted. If it were anyone else he would have been annoyed; but with you? God, he couldn’t ask for anything better.

“It’s funny.. even when you’re all tired you’re still the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen..”

He teased, leaning down to place a little kiss on top of your head, eliciting a giggle from your lips. You drape your arms around him as a way to feel closer than you already were, your legs tangled with his own as you basked in his presence.

Gyutaro attempted to move his hand from your head down to rub your back, but it seemed like you had different plans. Lazily, your arm raised and he felt you gently grab his wrist and direct his hand back onto your head.

A light chortle escaped Gyutaros lips at your little action of nonverbal communication to signify what you wanted.

“Is that where that goes, pretty thing?..”

He teased slightly, not hesitating to give into your demands as he ran his fingers through your hair once more. A little hum escaped your lips as you nodded in response, letting him know that yes; his hand did go there.

The pleasant wave of euphoria that washed over you whenever he used one of those cute little nicknames was enough to make you sigh with content. Worm, Cretan, sad sack, imbecile, were all words you had heard come out of his lips, yet never directed at you. It seemed all of his loving delicate vocabulary was strictly saved for you and little Ume.

“You’re so needy, you know that?..”

You only giggled in response.

“You’re the one who always spoils me..”

You muttered, teasing him back as you held your body close to his own. Gyutaro snorted slightly, ruffling your hair a bit.

“How can I not when you’re always so damn cute? Not my fault I wanna keep my woman happy.. I can't help it.”

Gyutaro moved his free arm to snake it around you, pulling you close against his chest while his other hand still played with your hair. You couldn’t help but giggle at his teasing that you had grown all too used to. Yet it never seemed to get old.

“Oh it must be so hard for you, being the best boyfriend ever, must be such a chore I’m sure..”

You responded with a chuckle, tilting your head up just slightly in order to be able to kiss his neck a few times. He rolled his eyes, holding back a little snicker.

“Might as well be a chore considering how much princess treatment I give you.”

Your lover moved his hand slightly to move some of your messy hair from your face, his gaze meeting your own as he looked down. A smirk tugged at your lips due to his teasing, giving him a little squeeze in response.

“Yea, yea.. you know you love doing it though~”

That was definitely one thing Gyutaro enjoyed about you as-well, the playful banter you two had. It was a nice way for him to let off steam and spend time with you without having to do too much. After all of his struggles he didn’t figure he would ever be able to have such domestic interactions as this.

But oh how you proved him wrong..

And he loved you for it, every little single thing about you, every single little moment he spent with you. All of your flaws, when you were angry or sad, every. Single. Damn. Thing.

He was drawn out of his thoughts by a little yawn escaping your lips, resting your head back down.

“I love you, Taro..”

Your words made his heart flutter and his head go blank. No matter how many times you could say that it would always have the exact same effect, and he loved it.

“I love you too, sweetie..”

#demon slayer #gyutaro #demonslayer #gyutaro demon slayer #kimestu no yaiba #kny #gyutaro shabana #gyutaro x reader #demon slayer x reader #gyutaro fluff #fluff fanfiction #toothrotting fluff #x reader #self indulgent #lots of cuddles and praise my favorite #gyutaro my beloved

62 notes · View notes

winchester-reload · 1 year

Text

I have a few thoughts about the Winchesters finale, and though I wasn’t gonna weigh in on this, it turns out I needed to write this down to get it out of my head, so here we go.

I understand that Misha was approached to be included on the show and that there was a “scheduling conflict” that included multiple conversations with Jensen. Here’s my interpretation of that:

I believe Cas was supposed to make a cameo in episode 13 to tee up the confession resolution—this was always the episode where they were going to crack open the “surprise twist” even before learning they would only get 13 episodes total. In the original scenario, episode 13 would have been the hellatus episode rather than a finale, leaving room for everything to come to a head with episode 22 instead. It’s then they would have given us the actual Dean and Cas reunion. This would have wrapped both stories nicely with each group going off into their own respective sunsets—their own happy endings, while still leaving all the room for the new crew to explore more seasons; all along, we see, The Winchesters was about Dean and Cas as much as it was about Mary and John.

When they didn’t get the back half of the season picked up, I assume they feared it would be more dangerous to show a Cas cameo without getting to address the confession, so Misha likely opted to be left out instead. With the only hint to Cas being Dean’s line that he was looking for his family when he found the Akrida, then directly drawing the parallel that Jack and Bobby were “family.” The core crew for Dean has always been Bobby, Sam, Jack, AND Cas. And he wasn’t looking for Sam because he was still on earth. So who’s left? You might be compelled to believe he was window shopping AU versions of his parents, but he confirms he ran into the Akrida in this world and then sought to interfere with the order by approaching John in an effort to prevent it from spreading to Sam's world. (Why Cas would be AU hopping, idk. The boy is really afraid of being shot down, I guess.)

It goes far to explain the vast narrative parallels we saw reflected in the Monster Club crew if it was intended as a setup for the confession payoff. It honestly doesn’t make a lot of sense otherwise. There’s no reason these people should be living Dean's experiences and regrets every episode unless the writers wanted the viewer to be thinking about the lessons and resolutions in how they relate to Dean too.

Additionally, as this has been a largely uncontested take, this is Jensen's well-funded fanfic come to life. Complete with the embracing of many of our favorite fanfic tropes and emphasized by Dean’s own words throughout the season. Because this is an obvious embrace of that “write your own story” fan side, I believe the reason Dean couldn’t even say Cas’ name in the episode is because they were going to change the spelling from “Cass” as it was in the show proper to the fan-adopted (and more accurate) spelling of “Cas,” which would have appeared in the subtitles and later the script pages. And even that little thing right there would have been a huge giveaway to the whole game. And a very dangerous thing to do if there wasn’t going to be enough time for follow-through.

But the truth is, this isn’t a game for many people, and the harm that can be caused by good intentions is just as real. It also begs the question: why should this be so difficult? The answer is it’s not. Edging forever isn’t fun. It’s torture. I understand there’s an art to storytelling, but your audience is weary, and trust has been violated too many times. Even still, the flip side of that coin is honest to god respect for DeanCas endgame means taking the story and the reveal seriously. It’s a tightrope walk. And one that Robbie somehow managed to keep balanced after the finale, without it falling either way. Also we also need to consider the possibility that Jensen did pitch a full-on destiel love story spin-off but got shot down, opting to couch it in a more CW-branded world instead. He’s mentioned over half a dozen pitches were rejected. It's up to you whether you want to give him the benefit of the doubt on that.

But, I’m gonna be honest here, I don’t know that we will ever get that resolution we crave. Even Robbie confirmed The Winchesters were always meant to “go it alone” after the first season. It’s hard to imagine Dean popping in there to fuck around again after that handoff. But the dude is clearly a very restless sea-faring*, swoopy-haired mofo right now, so I’ll leave that one up to the SPN multiverse and the new Mr. Superwholock’s magical universe-traveling impala. (This show used to be about what again? *looks at notes*.) And FWIW, if they do get green-lit for a whole second season or are allowed to move networks, I believe a good-faith effort will be made to tie the narrative parallels we saw in season one to some real Dean and Cas resolution. If there gets to be a world where John *might* not turn into an abusive dick, then this possibility has to be true too.

For the record, I enjoyed The Winchesters, all the new characters, and the doors the finale opened for the possibility of more. I would have been fine half-watching it with no promises, empty head no thoughts, but I got my clown** suit on again, and though I mostly kept quiet, unlike last time, I did regrettably manage to drag a few friends down with me yet again. Though the spec sessions were epic, and we did get some art out of it—it still rocks the boat when the base level expectations were only 1. Dean alive, and 2. seeing Cas again.

But for anyone, like me, upset by the (likely unintentional) Cas-baiting or anyone still reeling about why this stuff can hit so hard, here’s an interesting article about the way our brains respond to fictional characters. Tl;dr: There’s nothing wrong with you. This is science. And while you’re at it, take a look at this article about the very real power of disenfranchised grief over character loss.

Ramble on, fam. And take care of yourselves.

<3 Jackie

*Um hi he appears as a sailor? Literally, on a show with a story Dean is writing whose audience is looking for a resolution to a conversation between two people who’re famously the “most shipped” characters of all time? That’s not an accident. That’s intentional. And it’s another reason why there might be a bitter taste in your mouth. These nods came without resolution, so it still feels dirty, despite the brilliant Easter egg.

**I hesitate to say “clown” here because the lesson on episode 12 was that the clowns were the ones who chose a self-induced limbo rather than face some personal hard revelations. That sounds more like a certain closeted character than it does the people cheering him on, and that felt like an intentional nod too.

***obviously, this is my own rambling spec as I try to reorder my thoughts in the wake of the finale.

#the winchesters #destiel #spnwin #jackie's talking #meta #finale thoughts #my art

409 notes · View notes

heerinnie · 5 months

Note

jay, 64! <3

𝐖𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐚 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐈𝐭?

𝐏.𝐉𝐒

SYNOPSIS: Park Jongseong a.k.a. Jay was a bad fortune, always in some kind of inconvenience having to fight to get away from the issues surrounding him until you came along and made him a better man.

WARNINGS: Angst/Fluff - sad ending ig, mentions of domestic ab/se, abandonment, jay x fem!reader (anything else let me know)

(Not proofread)

WC: 810

^^SFW UNDERCUT

Never intended, never meant. Your involvement with Park Jongseong was never supposed to happen and yet it did and you couldn’t be happier.

He was a bad fortune, always in some kind of inconvenience having to fight to get away from the issues surrounding him and the people causing them. Not you though, you always stayed even if your mere presence could kill him he’d take the risk and become a martyr for his affection.

Abandoned and alone, you and jay strolled around the empty night streets lightened by flickering street lamps that normally should have you heaving out of fear yet you felt safe. Safer than being home, safer than being at school or anywhere where Jay wouldn’t be found. It’s not that you were being hurt at home or mistreated at school, it was far from that at least you thought so yourself- it was just that measly and soul sucking feeling that came with the distance Jay would unwillingly have to give you during the day time since he wouldn’t want you ti get associated with a person like him. A ‘lawless and negligent delinquent’.

But he was far from that, he wasn’t some wrongdoer that taunted the streets of your town. He was not an irresponsible offender that everyone claimed him to be, nobody helped him and nobody listened to his so called sob stories that were genuine cries and pleads for help and action so he can grow up to a good status. He got discarded like an empty candy wrapper with remains of sweetness that disintegrated and decayed when the rain came. He got moulded into who he was today, cold and bitter to the world that failed to save him.

“Are you cold?” Were the first words that left jays mouth after strolling in silence for a while,

“No yeah, I’m good”

“I feel like there’s something on your mind, wanna talk about it?”, his sudden movements came to a halt as his soft eyes examined your expression.

No matter how many times you told Jay you’re alright he always knew that you weren’t. It was strange, it almost felt like his heart strings were being pulled to your direction engulfing you into a warm and secured hug you both quietly needed. Best friends are like this right? They feel what the other feels? Think the same thoughts? They get goosebumps whenever they make physical contact? That’s all platonic, it had to be.

For Jay it wasn’t, he knew from the first time he saw you, you’d be the one for him and then when you made an effort to understand him even with his reputation he wanted nothing else than to wife you up right then and there.

Jay had his moments. Metaphorically speaking he’d be a bungee jumpers worst nightmare, some thrill seeker would want to jump at the opportunity they found only to find out they just accepted a near-death experience. If the cord snaps you feel immense fear about your fate, the only difference between jay and a broken restraint is that you’d be able to survive one. Interpret that however you want, your own guess was no better than theirs.

For all the cynical moments with jay there were always more beautiful moments at bay, like when you first saw him cry. Ideally seeing someone cry shouldn’t be a comforting memory, however with the context of jay feeling so secure in your presence he finally let himself go and it felt sickly bittersweet to see someone so damaged feel so vulnerable for the first time in forever.

It’s not everyday you’d stumble upon lilies of the valley but every time you did you couldn’t help but recall jay’s words.

“If I ever leave, remember me by these” he said passing you the delicate flowers, obviously taken a back by his words you couldn’t help but wonder what he meant by that. Is he leaving? Is he in trouble? Is he in that headspace again? Your thoughts raced to the worst possible scenarios before Jay took your hand into his and placing the bell-shaped white flowers behind your ear.

“Don’t worry darling” his voice cooed. “I didn’t know how to tell you and I still don’t know how I’m supposed to word it out-” the nerves started to settle in, “but I decided that it’d be better for me to move”.

It felt like a bullet just ripped you through your heart. A pain that could take down the strongest army. Now all that’s left here were the memories you made with Jay and all the firsts you had with him.

You’ll never regret meeting Jongseong, you’ll never forget meeting jongseong and you’ll never forget loving jongseong- even if it’s been years since you’ve held him in your arms, even if you never got the chance to let him know.

A/N: And so I’m back, I rested at home for a bit. I’m so glad I finally finished this and half of the other requests I got! Thank you to everyone who reached out after I posted about my tiny break. Hopefully I’ll start posting regularly again and I’ll be able to share more of my work <3

91 notes · View notes

halfratsalready · 1 month

Text

“No-one’s perfect, but mom says we’re not trying hard enough.”

Some thoughts on Jack’s legendary avatar quote and its implications.

Everyone is super curious about who the “we” in this quote is, but when I first read the quote, I actually didn’t think of it as referring to a third person. Essentially, I think a lot of people interpreted this as Jack saying that Night Swan said something like “you’re not trying hard enough.” But when I read this avatar quote, I interpreted it as Jack saying that Night Swan herself said “we’re not trying hard enough.” Obviously, I could just be interpreting it wrong, but I don’t think I’ve seen anyone talk about it in this context, so I thought I would throw my thoughts out there.

(This turned out way longer than intended so there is a TL;DR at the end!)

I’m not saying that Night Swan would actually be referring to herself in saying “we aren’t trying hard enough,” which sounds weird at first, but lemme give you an (admittedly kinda unrelated) example.

When my cat would do something he wasn’t supposed to do, I didn’t just tell him “no.” Obviously, cats don’t understand spoken language, but I think we as humans tend to talk to pets like we do children and I don’t have children so this is the closest personal example I have. Basically, if my cat got his claw stuck in something, I didn’t say, “you don’t put your claws in things.” I would say “we don’t put our claws in things.” I don’t have claws and this sentence clearly doesn’t apply to me, but I still used the words “we” and “our.”

Unbeknownst to me at the time, this is actually part of a parenting method called positive discipline, where scolding is rephrased to become more like a lesson. Something as simple as replacing “you can’t do that” with “we don’t do that” actually has profound psychological implications that make children more likely to act on the things they are told.

There are several studies that have been done and many more that are ongoing into the power of word choice when it comes to personal pronouns (I, you, we, etc). Using the word “we” implies a shared experience and can be more persuasive. Other studies have shown that children better learned how to play games when they were taught the rules using the generic-you or we pronouns.

According to Harvard Business Review, many leaders and higher ups in the business world use “we” in place of “you” because it implies community and makes the person being spoken to feel like they’re part of something as opposed to being singled out.

All of this is to say that saying “we’re not trying hard enough” could be a manipulative choice of words on Night Swan’s part. By using the word “we,” she would be implying a sense of community that could make Jack more likely to strive to try harder than were she just to tell him outright to try harder (and none of this is to say that she still couldn’t be referring to others in addition).

TL;DR, I interpreted Jack’s quote as coming from a direct quote from Night Swan, along the lines of “we’re not trying hard enough, are we?” Not only is it reminiscent of the way we hear adults speak to children, but it also has psychological implications that could be an attempt on her part to make him work harder at trying to achieve perfection. Saying “you’re not trying hard enough,” whether it’s just to Jack or to him and others, comes across like an attack, and while I don’t think that Night Swan particularly cares about hurting feelings, I do feel like she’s smart enough to know that her choice of words is important, especially to a child who is very easily influenced by words alone.

I’m not saying that I think this is the right interpretation, but I thought I’d share it because I haven’t seen anyone else talk about it this way :)

#food for thought I suppose #I didn’t mean for this to be so long #you can really tell I’m a writer huh #just dance #jack rose #jack rose jd #jack rose just dance #night swan jd #night swan just dance #just dance fandom

41 notes · View notes

funhouse-mirror-barbie · 2 months

Text

Looking back at Steven Universe I had a lot of criticisms, but there were also a lot opinions and discourse that REALLY didn’t sit right with me—one of the biggest ones was the discourse surrounding “Storm in The Room”

I remember there being a lot of posts about how “Rose” was gaslighting Steven by asking him if he really believed she purposefully made him to run from her mistakes.

And I just. As someone who is close to their parents BUT also has had a lot of fights with them, and has had a lot of moments where I felt EXACTLY like Steven does during this scene, it was always very clear to me that this whole conversation and episode was Steven working out his complicated feelings about Rose on his own.

The “Rose” in the gif above is not real. It’s not actually Steven’s mom. That’s like. That’s the whole point.

Steven asking Room!Rose if she just created him to run away from her mistakes, and her responding by asking him if he really believes that, is Steven having an internal dialogue. He is talking things out with himself. It’s something I’ve done myself MANY times when I get in arguments or need to untangle my own feelings about something.

Steven’s fear and anxiety is that he wasn’t created to be his own person, but to fix Rose’s mistakes. However, on some level he doesn’t really believe that, he knows rationally Rose loves him and did not INTEND for him to be hurt by her past actions. But regardless of her intent, Steven was still hurt. And that hurt is real and important.

This room manifests Steven’s desires, feelings and thoughts. I always interpreted that scene as Steven coming to terms with the fact that his mother isn’t perfect and wonderful like he previously believed her to be. It’s him realizing she’s a PERSON who had flaws and did bad things.

He has to let himself feel the anger and hurt and betrayal and be upset before he can think rationally again and realize that no, he doesn’t really believe that his mom only made him to hide from her mistakes. But it’s still upsetting. It’s still hard. And as he says in this scene, he has to pick up the pieces of everything Rose left behind.

THAT is the point of this scene, and of “Storm in the Room” as a whole.

Something that I haven’t heard or seen talked about in regards to Steven Universe’s themes is the fact that, in life, you will hurt the people you love sometimes. And that you will be hurt by them in turn.

This happens multiple times through the series, and I personally think it’s done so well because the way the characters are written feel very true to life. The relationships in Steven Universe rupture and break, but the characters come together to repair their relationships again and again.

That is what a healthy relationship actually looks like—they are not devoid of conflict. Instead the people in the relationship work through conflict when it arises.

The reason the conflict in Steven Universe is so engaging to me personally is because its focus is on interpersonal relationships and how they take hard work and time.

This is something that is so important to understand, for kids and adults alike. That the people who love you become a part of you, and that they will hurt you—and while that doesn’t make them evil or malicious, that pain is still real and deserves to be acknowledged and those feelings should be treated seriously.

#steven universe #su #rose quartz #rose quartz su #su criticism #I guess???#su critique #Steven universe critique #media literacy #? I guess????#steven universe criticism #sorta?#funhouse convo #media criticism #media critique

35 notes · View notes

septembercfawkes · 9 months

Text

(No spoilers) So I wasn’t going to share my thoughts on Barbie, but if you haven’t noticed, it’s really hard for people to NOT share their thoughts on Barbie! It’s like Disney’s Enchanted had a baby with a Will Ferrel movie, but bizarrely thought-provoking. So if you don’t like those films, you will *not* like this one!

But that’s what I went in hoping it was, and for me, it delivered. As my friend said, I smiled through 99% of the thing, and the other 1% was spent trying not to cry.

It’s not perfect—I feel the climax should have been rewritten to prove the themes and complete the characters arcs. Those almost always reach their conclusions during or before that point. Without that, essentially *all* of them had to be completed in the falling action, which made it feel disproportionately long, but honestly, it was all entertaining, so I didn’t care.

It was clear everyone working on this film had a blast—the costume details, sets, and musical numbers were 💯. I wanted to see this since I saw the main trailer, but almost skipped it with all the negative attention it was getting. So glad I didn’t and I went and made up my own mind.

I had heard the film was anti-man, it’s not. You need to understand the framework of the story. Ken is certainly underdeveloped BUT THAT’S THE POINT. In the history of Mattel, Barbie has been everything—president, doctor, athlete, construction worker. She has a dreamhouse, car, bike, pool. Mattel has literally given Ken *nothing*, not even a real vocation! As a result, Barbieland is a complete matriarchy, and whether you live in a full-on matriarchy or patriarchy the opposite sex is left stagnant, underdeveloped, and incapable of reaching individuation. And that was kinda the point.

Like most Hollywood films, I would say it leaned left, yet the film both gave voice to and poked fun at multiple perspectives, without oversimplifying them. Some have said that a sign of good quality art, is that it lends itself to multiple interpretations, each of which can be backed up with supporting evidence. I think it was intended that this film have multiple, justified interpretations. And I think that’s one of the reasons there is so much buzz and even debate—people can watch the SAME scenes and draw different conclusions. I’ve seen comments that Greta Gerwig “accidentally” argued X or Y—I don’t think it was an accident at all. I think she completely intended there be multiple ways to interpret things.

**—-spoilers—-** ⚠️

I super wanted to talk about Barbie’s character arc, and one of the main themes of the story. I love how the first thing that goes wrong with Barbie, is that she starts having thoughts of death, when death is impossible in Barbieland. She doesn’t want to go to the real world, but does with the intention of returning back to her perfect life and perfect, though albeit child-like, state-of-being. She lives in a perfect world that never changes. She goes to the real world, and it’s complicated. She’s not loved by everyone. She has to experience negative emotions. She witnesses complicated relationships and states of being. And what’s terrifying, is that there is always change.

Flash forward to the end. Barbie is visited by the spirit of Ruth, her creator. Ruth explains as a creator why she made Barbie, and also points out how humans all have the same ending: death. But the creations, the ideas and concepts—like Barbie—they get to go on living. And Barbies realizes she would rather cry, would rather go through the turmoil of real life, would rather experience the terror of change, and would rather die, to become a creator and have meaningful real-life relationships. She doesn’t think about a dream house. She doesn’t think about a dream job. She doesn’t think about awards. In her mind, she sees human relationships—friends, family, and mothers and daughters.

The closing scene is of her going to see a gynecologist. Yes, it’s a joke in the sense that Barbies don’t have privates, but I feel like it can be interpreted another way to have a deeper meaning, connecting right back into relationships and creation. I think it’s a great closing scene to book end the prologue opening. One could argue, we’ve come full circle.

Honestly, I’ve thought about it a lot, and to me it has really resonated with the story of Eve and the Garden of Eden (Latter-day Saint interpretation). Some things are worth the cost of death. Even if that means no longer living in a paradise and having to deal with really hard ups and downs and complicated emotions. This is one of the big reasons I loved Barbie.

But again, as I said, I think there is room for plenty of different interpretations. 😊

#barbie #barbie movie

92 notes · View notes

inkdemonapologist · 9 months

Note

I'm more curious about the personality of your Sammy!

I'm not too deep into the hole Call of Cthulhu thing and i'm still digging around. Besides personality I am curious about Sammy and the lost ones. What his relationship is like with them and such (if they are around. Or in general for Batim/Dark Revival what you think of it)

As far as personality goes, overall, I read Sammy as a counterphobic type 6, and this applies to basically all of my Sammy interpretations, haha. If you’re not an enneagram nerd, this is the “skeptic” type – I see Sammy as an anxious person deep down who wants (but finds it hard to believe in) something or someone he can trust to be stable. Understanding that little conflict is hugely important for making sense of his actions; Sammy subconsciously wants something to trust in so badly that he aggressively mistrusts to protect himself from that one huge vulnerability, one I don’t think he fully knows that he has. I've seen him described as a follower at heart, and that rings true to me; he comes across as cynical and unimpressed as a human, but when he switches to his blindly devout worship of the Ink Demon, it’s not as much of a personality change as you might think.

TIOL is actually a really good example of this. When Joey introduces himself as the head of JDS and tells Sammy and Jack he’d like to hire them, Sammy’s first serious question is the weirdly revealing “how do I know it’s real.” He doesn’t first ask what the job would entail or what kind of work the man’s theoretically looking for; his very first response is to bluntly assume this man they just met might be scamming them. But then as soon as Sammy sees the place, which is little more than a room with a piano in it, he believes Joey’s claim that they’re planning to expand without question, as if he was TRYING to be skeptical but isn't actually that good at it. Joey is mystified by him for most of the tour, but it’s actually apparent in Sammy’s wording that he’s interested and getting invested – which shouldn’t be a surprise. Sammy’s immediate mistrust and assumption that the offer was too good to be true was just as telling as Jack’s sparkle-eyed excitement: he already wanted the job.

Anyway, I see Sammy as someone who’s serious and cynical to protect a vulnerable heart that wants someone he can safely rely on and doesn’t think he’ll get it. He values stability and survival over happiness (better the devil you know than the devil you don’t) and doesn’t like taking big risks, but he’s also not careful; he’s not good at thinking things through or identifying his own feelings, and often acts impulsively towards whatever makes the most immediate sense to him. A lot of his rudeness isn’t intended to be mean – he just doesn’t see the point of social niceties and isn’t interested in worrying about them – but he is ALSO not always thoughtful, projects his stress and frustration onto others, and is not good at looking at things from someone else’s perspective. Sammy can be volatile, and between the ink and the overstimulation he's obviously experiencing on the job, some of that genuinely isn't his fault... but some of it is his own choice to lash out at everyone around him before ever looking within or trying to improve things.

The Lost Ones aren’t a thing in the Cthulhu AU. In Escape AU, none of them survived the escape, and Sammy’s relationship with them was something that kind of haunts him now – they were his flock, and he cared for them, but he knows he wasn’t a good leader. I’ve talked about this before, but I tend to interpret Sammy as someone who exploited his followers’ desperation and loyalty for his own protection; even if he did look after them and was the closest thing to hope and care they had. That’s a big reason why Escape Sam was convinced he should stay separated from Jack for a long time – it’s not just Sammy refusing to believe he deserves love (though it’s that too), it’s also Sammy recognising that he was a cult leader who destroyed Jack and then took advantage of his confusion and loyalty.

I don’t know if this answers your question but uh, THERES SOME OF MY THOUGHTS

#i love sammy dearly but also i think he creates a lot of his own problems #sammy lawrence #i know you have questions you always do #i feel like there's probably a simpler way to answer 'what is his personality like' than dissecting his subconscious insecurities but #unfortunately this is what im like lmao

48 notes · View notes

alexiethymia · 1 year

Text

In relation to that earlier (crack)post, it dawns on me that for all that they call him ‘Aizen-taichou’, neither of Aizen’s vice-captains really choose him.

Sure, Aizen has only disdain for bonds, but I’m also of the interpretation that he tried to replicate at least a facsimile of them through twisted ways - loyalty, dependence etc. - but it always boiled down to no one would ever be able to understand him because no one was at his level, so he discards them.

What makes a prodigy? Age? If so, Nanao would be considered one. Intellect? But no one really alludes to either Hirako or Urahara as a prodigy. Maybe potential, and if so it would make sense that Gin and Hitsugaya are referred to as prodigies. And it would make sense to show that Aizen was at around the same age (at least physically) as Gin when he started to question everything. Despite being prodigies, Gin and Hitsugaya had what Aizen didn’t - people who understood them and made sure they didn’t feel too “other”. From his perspective, I could easily imagine Aizen perceiving his fellow prodigies as being held back by those bonds, at not even attempting to nurture their potential to be ‘god-like’. I am also of the theory that Aizen did want to bring Hitsugaya into the fold, or that he had a sense of his potential so if he wasn’t going to be under his control like Gin, then he had to be cut down.

But going back, when I say that neither of Aizen’s vice-captains choose him, this is prefaced with the context that both Gin and Hinamori were people he cultivated for years, maybe even centuries. Aizen showed Gin his true face (or as true as it could be knowing that Gin meant to kill him) while showing Hinamori the ideal captain, the image of the best captain even. But unlike Gin’s vice-captain who fights Hinamori to defend him (no matter how sick and self-loathing it made him feel deep inside), Hinamori despite being ordered by Aizen himself couldn’t manage to avenge him (she didn’t even try to her fullest capabilities). This was not in Aizen’s plans, and he even says it himself. Aizen was one of the most revered Captains, and he intentionally manipulated Momo to become dependently loyal on him, to the point that, he alleges, ‘she couldn’t live without him’. But if both were a test of loyalty, Kira passed his while Hinamori didn’t. And Gin rewards this (in a twisted sort of way) by involving Kira just enough that he could make sure that he and Rangiku were outside the blast point.

I could easily believe that Aizen intentionally did make Momo fall in love with him (his use of the words, ‘as a man’ in his letter for example), but unlike Hitsugaya who was ready to commit murder and treason just to keep Hinamori away from threats, she couldn’t fully severe that connection with Hitsugaya to avenge him. For all that Aizen seems to be above Hitsugaya and Gin, and they both lose to him, they will always have something he will never have. Even later, Momo despite the centuries of hypnosis chooses to stand on the battlefield against him.

In other words, in that confrontation, as a vice-captain, Hinamori couldn’t do for him what Kira did for Gin, and as someone who ‘loved’ or ‘admired’ him, she couldn’t do for him what Hitsugaya was willing to do for her, and this is after years and years of intentional emotional manipulation. For all of his ambitions, he failed to be the most important person for someone he intended to mold for that exact same purpose. And this is why in the realm of canon and headcanon, I do believe that as much as Hitsugaya hates Aizen, Aizen also hates Hitsugaya, just as much, insofar as someone like Aizen is capable of hatred. This is where you can see Aizen’s surface level understanding of bonds, as well as his being an unreliable narrator. His plan was for Kira and Hitsugaya to kill her, both people shown to love her, and when they couldn’t do it, for him as the person she ‘loves’ to deal the final blow. Did he really think that either Kira or Hitsugaya could actually go through with it? Maybe because he assumed that Momo actually would (because he knows the lengths Hitsugaya would go through and suspects the same of Gin, so as someone she ‘loves’ he might have had that same expectation of her).

He made sure she knew who was the one to hurt her, and he did it in the cruelest way possible. When I think about his overall plan, the interaction in Central 46 never had to happen. He already had his distraction. He didn’t have to deal death blows to both Hinamori and Hitsugaya, especially since no one at the execution knew what was going on at Central 46. In fact, it was because of that interlude that Unohana was able to warn the rest of the Gotei. But that wasn’t just an interlude. It really was part of his plan to kill Hinamori because ‘she couldn’t live without him’. Or maybe he convinced himself of that fact.

Even with Gin. For all that he says it was all part of his plan, and that he only kept Gin around because he knew Gin was going to kill him, I find it difficult to believe that he told Gin Kyouka Suigetsu’s weakness with that in mind. This is where his being an unreliable narrator comes in. When all is said and done, he can just claim it was all part of his plan. But I noticed he let his guard down when Gin claims to have killed Rangiku, and that he acknowledges that he could have been wrong about Gin having feelings for Rangiku. It seems to me that having another prodigy who was against Soul Society was something that he maybe wanted? And that he was just waiting for Gin to fully cut off those ties (to Rangiku) and prove his loyalty, in a manner of speaking.

So showing both his true face and his ideal face didn’t secure him the loyalty that he [wanted]. All the pieces fell into place, but it was actually his vice-captains who acted against his expectations. He claims it was Hirako’s rejection or suspicion that allowed him to hollowfy the Vizards, but even when he actually and actively exerted his influence over them, still neither of his vice-captains choose him. Even Urahara, who he considers an intellectual equal, still does nothing about the Soul King despite knowing the truth, because Urahara also has existing bonds he wishes to take care of. No matter how many people he hurt and defeated, and no matter that he considers it all a part of his plan, no matter that he doesn’t consider bonds important in the first place, ultimately Aizen was rejected on every front.

#bleach #bleach meta #aizen sousuke #hitsuhina #ginran #ichimaru gin #hinamori momo #hitsugaya toshiro #matsumoto rangiku #hirako shinji #urahara kisuke #I love squad 5 dynamics #there’s so much betrayal #ramblings about bleach

210 notes · View notes

cosmicjoke · 1 year

Text

Levi and Shipping Part 2:

I’m pinning this post. Again, because I keep getting asks about Levi and his commitment to humanity and his promise to Erwin, and I swear to fucking god, if I get one more. But whatever. Here, read this if you have a question. It answers all your questions, though why anyone would even have one at this point, after seeing Levi in the final episode is beyond me:

I posted this as a response in my other post about Levi and shipping, but I wanted to post it as separately as well, since it’s so long, and it addresses some important things I didn’t go into in detail in my initial comments.

I’m not saying people that ship Levi with Erwin are solely responsible for this notion of Levi not caring about humanity, but that IS an idea perpetuated by the idea that Levi made his vow TO Erwin, as in, he made it FOR Erwin and Erwin alone and there were no other contributing factors. Yes, technically, Levi made the vow TO Erwin. Erwin, after all, was his commanding officer. He was in charge, and Levi was fulfilling a final order. That isn’t, however, in any way, shape or form indicative of a “special” relationship between them, and certainly not of a romantic relationship. That’s pure poppycock. I’ve said before that when Isayama wants two characters to be linked romantically, it’s EXPLICIT. Eren and Mikasa, Historia and Ymir, Renier and Historia, Bertoholt and Annie, Marlow and Hitch, etc, etc... It’s OBVIOUS. One doesn’t need to read secret, subtle meanings into the text, or rely on wildly differing interpretations in meaning to conclude that these characters are linked romantically, even when the romance is one sided. So to try and claim that Levi is “in love” with Erwin, or somehow specially linked to him, is pure fantasy.

Yes, Levi’s promise was directly to Erwin, and he does say “I promised HIM”, but one can easily interpret that as Levi viewing the promise as a direct order, given to him by his commanding officer, one whom he personally chose to follow, not out of romantic love or loyalty, but out of a belief in Erwin’s ability as a leader. When one filters Levi’s choice through the personal intimacy of a romantic relationship, it colors it in a completely different light then what is actually intended in the text. That Levi cares about ALL of his comrades is implicit in both his character and the text, in his actions and speech. I never said anywhere that Levi’s main goal was to take out Zeke, just that it’s a goal of his that gets misinterpreted by so many people because of the insistence of some that it was a promise made out of “love” and “devotion” to Erwin. People interpret it as Levi PRIORITIZING his love for a single man over the betterment of humanity, SPECIFICALLY because of the implication that it was made out of personal love.

One of Levi’s defining characteristics, though, is that he wants to make sure nobody dies in vain. That the lives of his comrades, that THEIR sacrifices, aren’t made for nothing. That’s a defining quality to Levi’s character, and anyone who denies it as such is lacking a fundamental understanding of who he is as a person. With that in mind, it isn’t any kind of leap in logic, or “logic gap”, to extrapolate that Levi’s promise to Erwin that day included ALL OF THE SOLDIERS that went to their deaths with him. Levi’s need to kill Zeke isn’t an act of revenge, as you pointed out, but neither is it a personal declaration of love and loyalty to Erwin. It’s a way for Levi to make sure that that SPECIFIC sacrifice, on that day in Shiganshina, wasn’t one made without purpose. Zeke’s death is literally what all those soldiers died for. They gave their lives specifically so that Levi would have the opening he needed in order to kill Zeke. And thus, until Zeke is dead, Levi can’t say that those soldiers dying had meaning. He can’t justify their deaths. They died for something very specific, Zeke’s death, and Levi needed to deliver that death in order to make their sacrifice have purpose. I don’t know why this is so hard for some people to understand.

Look at these pages and panels. It proves Levi is talking about ALL of them, not just Erwin:

Levi sees in his minds eye the other soldiers charging to their deaths that day in Shinganshina, not just Erwin. That’s Marlow specifically that Levi is remembering as he’s crushed by rocks. Does Levi have some special love connection with Marlow? No. And then, Levi says in the next panels “Erwin... It looks like I’ll finally be able to fulfill the vow I made to you that day. Your DEATHS meant something. At Last I’ll be able to prove it.” Not death. DEATHS. Plural. He’s talking about multiple people, not just one. His promise is for all of the soldiers that died that day, not just Erwin. Yes, he made the vow TO Erwin, but that doesn’t mean it was just FOR Erwin.

As for Armin, again, it’s absurd to try and claim that Armin played no significant role in Levi’s choice to let Erwin die. Yes, of course, it was a personal choice for Levi in that he no longer wanted to see one of his friends suffer, and he decided to end that suffering for him. It was the humane choice, made over the abstract notion of the greater good. Indeed, it’s a testament, imo, to Levi’s humanity as a character. To how he values individual lives as greatly as he does the collective whole. But it’s also equally true that Levi weighed and considered multiple factors when making that choice, INCLUDING the conversation he’d overheard between Armin, Eren and Mikasa the night before. He thinks specifically about Armin’s eyes, and how the light in his eyes while speaking about his dream of seeing the ocean reminded him of the same purity and innocence he once saw in the eyes of his veteran comrades. He thinks specifically of Kenny and his dying words about how everyone is a slave to their dreams, and how if you can’t give up on those dreams, it will eventually corrupt you. He saw and realized that corruption happening in Erwin. And he weighed that against Armin, who DID give up on his dream. He let himself die. He didn’t have to be ordered by anyone, the way Erwin did. Armin willingly gave up his life and his dream for the greater good. He hadn’t yet been corrupted by his dream. Erwin HAD. Erwin was all kinds of messed up. Levi recalls specifically asking Erwin what he’ll do, once he gets to the basement, and remembers Erwin telling him he doesn’t know. He has no plan beyond that. He recalls Kenny telling him that without their dreams to keep them going, some people have nothing, no reason to live. All of this recollection occurs during and after Erwin starts speaking in a delirious, incoherent manner to his dead father, asking him how it is they can know there aren’t any people beyond the walls. Levi realizes in that moment that Erwin is still a slave to his dream, and that pulling him back into the land of the living will only bind him once more to that dream. A dream which was the only thing keeping Erwin’s demons at bay. Once that dream was fulfilled, there was no indication whatsoever that Erwin would be able to keep those demons back any longer. Robbed of the one thing distracting him from his crushing sense of guilt, what does one think would happen to him? He was already folding under the weight of his guilt at the end, before he could discover what was in the basement. Take that dream away, and there would be nothing between Erwin and his guilt. Assuming he would be the same as ever, able to operate and command with the same sureness and conviction, is a stretch, to say the least.

We’re just gonna’ pretend like these panels don’t exist? I don’t think so. Levi says “Erwin, I didn’t choose you... And I have no regrets about that. Because I entrusted the future to that kid who had the same look in his eyes as all of you.”

And once more, I reiterate, Levi thinks specifically of Armin. In chapter, what is it, 136, during his internal monologue, he recalls Armin’s eyes, how they resembled the eyes of his fallen comrades when they still had hope, and thinks about how he doesn’t regret his choice because of that. If you don’t think this is a clear indication that Levi partially made his choice based on the fact that Armin still had a pure and innocent dream, and how that would in the end be of great benefit to humanity, then I think you’re purposefully ignoring vital information to fit in with your desire to believe Levi and Erwin have a special connection.

Again, I never said that Levi didn’t let personal feelings play a role in his choice regarding Erwin. Of course he did. But it also wasn’t a choice made in total disregard to what was best for humanity either, as some like to say. Armin very much factored into Levi’s choice. He chose him in part because he knew that Armin had what it takes to guide humanity. Not as a replacement of Erwin, but as his own person who, nonetheless, had that hope and belief required for such a task. People often miss the fact that Levi alone knew of Erwin’s struggles. It was ONLY to Levi that Erwin admitted to his true motivation and weaknesses, at the very end. Only Levi knew how fragile Erwin had become. Quoting Floch, of all people, accusing Levi of making “selfish choices” doesn’t hold much weight, because Floch didn’t know shit. He didn’t know what state Erwin was in. He didn’t know how much guilt he felt, or the danger he faced in becoming totally corrupted once his dream was realized. Only Levi knew that. So even Levi calling his choice “personal” doesn’t disprove that Erwin’s general mental unwellness played a role in Levi’s choice. Levi knew Erwin wasn’t going to be the same, once his dream was realized. That’s the point of him recalling Kenny’s words about dreams and being a slave to them. Again, how one could not see that this revelation about Erwin and his mental health played a role in Levi’s choice confuses me. It absolutely did.

Just wanted to add these pages to this post, as once again, I think it makes pretty damn clear, not just from the images in the panels, but from the order of the panels and how they correlate to Levi’s thought process, that both Erwin’s well being AND Armin’s potential and purity lead Levi to his choice.

I don’t see why it’s so impossible for some people to accept that Levi was both considering Erwin’s personal suffering AND Armin’s suitability to lead humanity toward freedom. The only reason I can think of is that some people want to believe Levi is beholden to Erwin in some way beyond friendship or subordinate and commander. That they want to believe Levi loved Erwin so much, that the power of love entirely dictated his actions here, which really goes back to what I was saying about how shipping can color and cloud your ability to view the story and characters objectively. The placement of these panels, the inclusion especially of Kenny’s words about how people “couldn’t keep going unless they were drunk on something”, and Levi remembering Erwin admitting he had no clue about what would come next once he saw the basement, Erwin’s delirious rambling immediately following Kenny’s words about being a “slave to something”, and the memories of Armin’s eyes and his innocent and pure enthusiasm for seeing the ocean, are all clearly meant to be read as a large part in Levi’s choice. Why else include all these panels, otherwise? Eren pleads with Levi to consider Armin’s pure hearted motivation in the moments before all this, and how that makes him just as capable as Erwin to lead humanity, while Floch goes on a rant about how Erwin deserves to suffer for all he’s done. Again, it’s so obvious, at least to me, that both Erwin’s well being, and Armin’s purity and potential played a role here. Like in the panels I posted in the post above, Levi speaks to Erwin about why he didn’t choose him, “because I entrusted the future to that kid who had the same look in his eyes as all of you.” Levi flat out says it. He entrusted the future to Armin. He trusted IN Armin to be able to save humanity too, because he realized that in order to save humanity, you also need someone who fully believes in that salvation’s possibility. Erwin no longer believed in it, but Armin did. I don’t know why that’s such an awful thing to admit to some shippers.

#Levi Ackerman #Erwin Smith #attack on titan #shingeki no kyojin

105 notes · View notes

laundrybiscuits · 1 year

Note

Do you think Eddie was flagging in the show?

If this approaches discourse, I'll understand if you choose not to respond.

This is kind of a multi-layered question, but I think it’s worth talking about in the context of broader approaches to fandom.

I haven’t seen these terms used for a while, but fans used to talk about “Watsonian” and “Doylist” explanations as a good shorthand for “in-universe logic/rationale” and “out-of-universe motivations.” For example, the Watsonian (as in what John Watson might think) explanation for a villain monologue might be that the character wanted to prolong his moment of victory because he wasn’t ready to let the feud go. The Doylist (as in what Arthur Conan Doyle might think) explanation might be that the author needed to pad out the wordcount.

The important part is that neither of those lenses is wrong. They’re just different ways of looking at a text.

Word of God (i.e. what the creators say about a work in interviews etc.) is not the same as canon, and canon is not sacred. It’s just what’s on the screen or page.

I’m going to be a little self-indulgent here and bring in some Death of the Author by Roland Barthes, because I literally have a page of quotes stored on my tumblr. Admittedly, the translation I have is a little dense, but I think I’ve pulled out the key points. (Also, caveat that this is not the only valid way to do lit crit, but I think it can be very helpful in fandom.)

“The text is a tissue of citations, resulting from the thousand sources of culture.”

I think about this all the time in regard to fandom, because it reminds me that texts don’t spring fully-formed from some ethereal plane. The cultural and literary references you grew up with, as well as the ones you continue to consume, feed directly into whatever you produce as a creator. That’s why my number one tip for young creatives who want to improve is to be intentional about the media they consume*. That’s where inspiration comes from: just tip more material into the slurry of your subconscious, and see what alchemized new thing bubbles to the surface.

That also means that as critical readers, we can always try to see connections and patterns, regardless of Word of God. However, it’s important to remember that those connections and patterns are not necessarily lodged within the text itself…and that brings me to my next quote.

“The unity of a text is not in its origin, it is in its destination.”

It’s rarely useful or interesting, in the context of fandom, to treat a text as an artifact to be excavated. It’s much more relevant and functional to ask what you as an individual get from the text—what your own relationship is to the themes, motifs, ideas, messages you’ve gleaned from your experience of reading/watching. Every reader has a different relationship to the text, because every reader is a different person with a different history.

The difference between fandom and Extended Universe-type stuff isn’t just licensing. Frankly, I personally would find that a pretty boring fandom experience, if absolutely everything were strictly canon-compliant and cross-referenced. Fandom is transformative, which means it interprets and reinterprets texts as a form of consumption/creation, and that necessarily means a willingness to discard anything that doesn’t suit whatever story we’re trying to tell.

In other words, Eddie doesn’t have a canon sexuality. Hell, very few characters in general do. As I mentioned in the first footnote to my last reply, it’s useful to think about sexuality as behavior + identity + desire; we often see behavior on screen, but we rarely see the other two in an explicit way. We can read him as flirting with Steve, we can read him as flirting with Chrissy, or both, or neither. That’s how fandom works.

So, do I think Eddie was flagging in the show?

Let’s break that question down into a few different aspects.

Doylist: do I personally believe that the various people involved in the show deliberately intended Eddie to flag as a(n implicitly MSM) sado top?

No. I don’t. Honestly, I simply don’t trust them that much. I don’t think they had queerness explicitly in mind when they created Eddie, but that doesn’t change the fact that he is queer-coded, much like a Disney villain. He represents anxieties about nonconformity and morality—of course he’s going to resonate with queer people.

Ultimately, though, I don't really care about this particular creative team's intent. It's not interesting to me. There are so many shows that I enjoy more than ST for their artistic choices, and I'm interested in hearing the intent behind those, but specifically what I personally enjoy about ST is the stories its components let other people tell.

Watsonian (1): do I personally believe it’s within Eddie’s canon characterization to be flagging?

It’s not impossible. It’s also not impossible that he’s just aping more generic metal accessories. Personally, I think it’s somewhat unlikely that at 19-20, living in the middle of nowhere and with the various plates he’s spinning, Eddie’s had enough exposure to kink to be really confident and knowledgeable about flagging. But I’ve also heard some pretty wild stories about small town gays back in the day, so I’m willing to be convinced either way.

Watsonian (2): do I personally believe it’s within Eddie’s canon characterization to be a sado top?

This is venturing into some even trickier waters, but my answer’s very similar to the last question—it’s not impossible. You don’t need to be a particular kind of person to be a top/bottom/dom/sub, no matter what the old fandom flamewars may have claimed. (Being in my early teens and witnessing the SasuNaru vs NaruSasu discourse was not a good way to learn about this.) Different parts of the same experience can resonate with people for different reasons, and there’s more than enough wiggle room to interpret literally any character in any way.

(I will say that people who actively seek out DMing tend to enjoy controlling a scene to evoke particular emotional responses from players, and that's the angle I find most plausible for Eddie.)

I am personally agnostic on the matter of Eddie’s sexual preferences. As a reader, it’s most important to me that those preferences are coherent with the rest of the characterization within the fic. As a writer, I tend to characterize him as pretty switchy for the same reason I tend to characterize him as gay and into mythology: I am just projecting onto a blorbo.

That’s all any of this really is.

*On a practical level: I often suggest to young creatives that they make a habit of identifying at least one thing they like AND at least one thing they don’t like about art, whatever form that art comes in. It builds critical faculties by making sure you actually digest the art you're consuming, and it’s also a good reminder that even the worst piece of dreck (probably) has something worth learning from—and even the most sublime masterpiece has flaws.

#askbox #WHY NOT witter on for 1k words about a knot of hot-button issues for my 100th post. why not. christ.#overusing the word 'personally' to emphasize that IT'S ALL SUBJECTIVE art is fake critique is fake live ur life #I'm just...the kind of insufferable person who has a color-coded spreadsheet rating all the musicals and plays I see #again: I will delete & block at the first sign of discourse! can u tell I have like. tumblr trauma from 2013 #ST meta for TS

73 notes · View notes

feuilletoniste · 25 days

Note

Wait I'm so confused, how is Glazer saying 'we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the holocaust being hijacked to justify genocide' remotely anti-semitic or in anyway an issue? Why is there letter calling that out (or calling out an out of context fragment of what he said)?

A garden-path sentence is a sentence which appears to say one thing but, upon further attention, actually says something else. These kinds of sentences are often intentionally created to be confusing and make people think, but they can also be unintentional. For example:

The horse raced past the barn fell down.

The first six words would have you think that the intended meaning of the sentence is going to be that a horse (subject) raced (verb) past a barn (object), but that’s not the case! If you don’t get it, think of the sentence as follows:

The horse, which was raced past the barn, fell down.

In Glazer's statement, the sentence "We stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked to justify genocide" is an unintentional garden-path sentence: the first part of the sentence would imply that Glazer is saying, "We stand here as men who refute their Jewishness." Then, it could be inferred, he continues by adding, "[We stand here as men who refute] the Holocaust being hijacked..." and so on.

Technically speaking, this is also a grammatical error (albeit not one that would be easy to parse in verbal communication). The correct punctuation would be as follows:

We stand here as men who refute their Jewishness’ and the Holocaust’s being hijacked to justify genocide.

That is, "the hijacking [of the Holocaust and of our Jewishness]" (object) is what "we refute" (verb). Without those apostrophes to mark the possessive forms, however, what Glazer is literally saying is that he refutes his Jewishness. Glazer claimed this wasn’t his intention; it doesn’t really matter, in my opinion, because the reception of a message determines its efficacy. It was a poorly phrased statement that required his clarifying its intention after (what I consider understandable) backlash from other Jews.

As a final note: the confusion could have easily been avoided entirely were Glazer (or whoever wrote the statement) a better writer. For example:

We stand here as men who refute those who would hijack the Holocaust and our Jewishness in order to justify genocide.

Or:

We stand here as men who refute the action of hijacking the Holocaust or Jewishness in the name of justifying genocide.

Or something else entirely! The point is that it was a confusing statement that could easily be interpreted in multiple contradictory ways; ergo, a bad statement. "I don’t like how people invoke the Holocaust or their own Jewishness in order to justify [insert your preferred cause here]" is a perfectly inoffensive statement, in my opinion, but that’s not what Glazer said, and it’s definitely not how it came across.

#tl;dr grammar and phraseology are important and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise #mine #asks #anonymous #antisemitism

8 notes · View notes

sandraharissa · 8 months

Text

Even tho ‘Nina makes Crowley realise he’s in love’ has become quite a popular interpretation I’m still sticking with my previous interpretation of ‘Crowley knew the whole time, likely since the Eden wall scene’. It’s bcos this twist on their relationship does nothing for me and all I see from other ppl who liked it is ‘Oh Crowley’s such a dum-dum, of course he’d just do all those things but remain oblivious, he’s so silly’.

Now I’m not mad at anybody specifically for having a different interpretation but I wanna share my own thoughts about the interpretation itself, and by ‘share my thoughts’ I mean bitch about it.

In s1 so much of Crowley’s behavior is so intentional, he’s the one always pushing for them to have more interactions, he was the one who suggested the arrangement, he’s always inserting himself in Azi’s life, he’s the one insisting they are on their own side, he’s suggesting running off to Alfa-Centauri, he’d do anything like postpone Satan and any other of Azi’s whims just for him, he’s the one who at the end when they’re waiting on the bus appeals to Azi again trying to reinforce that they’re together on the same side, but probs the most obvious example of all the ‘you go to fast for me’ scene. There’s so much potent drama and tragedy there for Crowley if he’s pursuing Azi the whole time, how else would you even call what he’s doing in s1?

“Well, can I drop you anywhere?”

“No, thank you. Oh, don’t look so disappointed. Perhaps one day we could… I don’t know. Go for a picnic. Dine at the Ritz.”

“I’ll give you a lift. Anywhere you want to go.”

“You go too fast for me, Crowley.”

So when I watched this exchange the first time and assumed it has a deeper meaning cos they’re both talking in code and using the car as a metaphor for being ready to take their relationship to the next level I wasn’t right and the scene isn’t really that deep or romantic cos Crowley was really just suggesting spending more time together that evening like always and had no deeper desire or meaning to convey and also completely missed the meaning of Azi’s words?

For the love of God he walked into a church burning his feet for Azi’s sake in this grand sweet gesture just completely unaware of why he’s actually doing it? Doesn’t it take away so much depth and agency and meaning from that interaction? If it’s not intended by Crowley as a grand sweet gesture cos ‘he’s the love of my life, I’d do anything for him’ but as far as Crowley’s aware he’s doing it just because?

I think that’s why I dislike it so much, it exchanges the imo super compelling drama and a tragic angle to Crowley’s character with ‘oh it’s just so typical of them to be so smart yet stupid ha ha’. Like honestly, yeah sure, I get it, it fits the Pratchett-esque type humor, it IS in character for them to be dum-dums but it’s kinda disappointing imo if this comedic aspect of their characterization was taken so far as to be used as an explanation for really serious aspects of the development of their quite tragic relationship.

I think part of this is also this paradox of how having inhuman characters in stories doesn’t mean anything cos fundamentally they still need to behave human in order to be relatable to the audience and not come off as flat and simplified versions of ‘human’, what ppl often think of as poorly written characters. And oftentimes attempts to create ‘otherworldly’ characters that are still compelling simply result in cishet writers making all their robots/aliens/angels aro/ace/trans, so creating completely human characters with human experiences. I think there’s a limit to how far you can take a character who’s lived with humans for 6k years and presumably loves them and say that he wholly misunderstands the most basic and important aspect of humanity like ‘feeling love’ before the character becomes ‘silly’ beyond understandable or relatable.

Azi being clever yet stupid cos his internal character conflict results in him not knowing how to reconcile his relationship with heaven to his relationship with Crowley? Fantastic. An extremely human experience of dealing with an abusive family too, and not at all anything truly celestial/alien.

Crowley knowing Jane Austen personally from a heist but missing the fact that she wrote novels and their cultural relevance, a la grandpa who lives under a rock? Or him organizing a heist to *looks at notes* steal holy water, a la demon who doesn’t know how christianity works and that he could get it for free by asking? Hilarious. Crowley having character quirks like his thing with ducks? Great.

Crowley spends 6k years consistently and vigorously pursuing one person (one!!!) and performing grand romantic gestures but sike, it was unintentional cos he’s so removed from the human experience and emotions that he’s got no self-awareness? Meh.

It’d be another thing if the whole time Crowley was shameful and in denial of his feelings and behaved like Azi e.g. “we’re not friends and I don’t even like you”, with him I totally agree that he must have realized recently and has still not processed it and his family trauma, but the intent and purpose and intensity with which Crowley pursues a relationship, even just a friendship, with Azi in s1 really makes it unbelievable to me that he’d do it completely unaware. During the talk with Nina he may have realized that his relationship with Azi is comparable to the human romance and opened his eyes to the possibility of e.g. kissing and realized he needs to make a move and stop dancing around the topic but I completely reject the idea that he didn’t know he loved Azi.

Warning. Bitterness incoming: Currently waiting for s3 to inspire an interpretation that *that scene from s3* is when Azi realizes he’s in love, cos he hasn’t done so in 1941, s1 and s2, and during the kiss scene apparently.

#ineffable husbands #ineffable husbands meta #good omens #crowley #crowley meta #my:good omens #aziraphale

19 notes · View notes