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astrea16 · 8 months

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F1 drivers as equestrian disciplines

—an important analysis from a horse girl at heart

If you don't know shit about horseback riding, that's honestly great and I hope you can learn a thing or two from my brainrot.

Charles Leclerc: Show jumping

What’s more iconic than a good old obstacle course with dozens of sponsors plastered every five feet? Aside from Il Predestinato’s very marketable image (Longines is actually a huge sponsor in the industry and they make watches, so,,) I feel like this discipline perfectly reflects his skills as a driver. His raw talent makes him a ferocious threat over the course of one lap and his intelligence is an incredible asset to calculate the best trajectory and angles of attack. Show jumping is thrilling, stressful, and makes you hold your breath until the very last second—just like a good qualifying lap. I feel like Charles would love the attention of doing victory laps around the arena with one fist in the air before spraying everyone with champagne.

Lewis Hamilton: Dressage

I actually had to rethink this one and wonder whether or not I’d picked this discipline because he was British, but I think my point still stands. This man lives for his sport and for the crowds, and I honestly think that as long as his ass is in a car he would drive laps around an empty track all day. Dressage is majestic, it’s prestigious, regal, and the epitome of elegance. This discipline accepts nothing less than excellence and the judges are notorious for being extremely picky, rarely ever giving the maximum score to a movement. It may not look as impressive as show jumping and its counterparts, but it is undeniably just as intense. The goal is to make it seem effortless, like the rider is dancing with their horse and everything else has stopped existing. And look—we all know Lewis is a fashion icon, that one person everyone can’t help but look at when they enter the room. That’s what dressage feels like. It’s classy, sophisticated, sometimes a little bit pretentious—in short, the one that lives under the spotlights. I also think it’s too big of a coincidence that Isabell Werth—the most successful dressage rider of all time—holds the Olympic record of seven gold medals in all equestrian disciplines.

(Also: Nico gets the same assignment ;))

Lando Norris: Show jumping

Something about this guy reminds me of that one friend at the stables that would be there every competition weekend and whose biggest dream was to participate in the Olympics. And yes, that applies to the entire grid, but it feels more prominent for Lando who’s younger and a bit less experienced than some of the older drivers. I don’t want to call it innocence (especially because it must be long gone after five years at McLaren) but there’s something about him that hits you right in the feels and reminds you about the dreams you gave up on. He’s got the drive of a winner and a fun energy that I think suits show jumping quite well. I feel like sponsors would adore him and try to put his face everywhere—probably in an attempt to refresh their image.

Max Verstappen: Eventing

Intense, unforgiving, and hella dangerous, eventing is the perfect discipline for thrill-seekers and people who dislike staying in the same daily grind. Which is funny because we’re talking about Max Verstappen, the guy who spends all of his days glued to his sim chair, but let me explain. The strenuous nature of eventing doesn’t necessarily come from the exercises themselves but from the way they are arranged one after the other with little time to rest in between. This equestrian triathlon often takes place over three days: one day for dressage, one day for cross-country, and one day for show jumping. The goal is to challenge the athletes’ resilience and stamina with various tests. The first one, dressage, determines the ability of the rider to keep their horse in control and perform a series of movements in a relaxed manner. Cross-country is a test of strength. The athletes have to power through an outdoor course of around thirty natural obstacles within a given time range, while making sure that they are saving energy for the third day. Finally, show jumping requires precision and fitness, which—combined with all of the other skills required by eventing—make this discipline the most complete and challenging of all, and therefore the most suitable to our reigning champion imo. As much as I would rather praise other drivers, Max genuinely seems like he never has a bad day and just… knocks it out of the park every single time. And trust me, that’s not something you see often in any kind of sport. Besides, I can easily picture him covered in water and mud, galloping through the forest like a cannonball.

Lance Stroll: Polo

Polo is expensive, classy, luxurious—what more is there to say? Lance would make a great polo player, as long as he’s got the team spirit and isn’t afraid to potentially lose his kneecaps.

Zhou Guanyu: Hunter

Hunter is basically the athleticism of show jumping mixed with the elegance of dressage. The horse/rider combination is judged on their style and technique, and that also comes down to presentation. Both athletes must look neat and well-groomed and have excellent manners throughout the competition. As opposed to show jumping, which can get quite… extravagant at times, hunter isn’t about being the fastest. It’s about who’s got the best equitation and achieves the cleanest performance possible, and that’s why I think Zhou would absolutely slay in this discipline. (Note that my judgement isn’t actually based on his abilities as a driver but rather on his incredible outfits which I KNOW is awfully subjective, but I never claimed to be right in the first place.)

BONUS

Sebastian Vettel

I think Sebastian could have had a career in show jumping before realizing that it wasn’t his thing at all and he retired to do endurance or some western discipline, before getting dragged back into the industry by Charles Leclerc who quickly became his protégé. Although Seb is no longer competing, he’s basically Charles’s mentor and has a ton of tricks up his sleeve from his time as an Olympic rider. He’s actively against horse racing and when he’s not busy coaching, he probably likes to run off somewhere more peaceful—like in a farm lost in the depths of the countryside.

#has anyone thought about this before or am i insane #seb being in this is so much funnier knowing that he used to name his cars #horse racing isn't included because it sucks <3 #charles leclerc #lewis hamilton #lando norris #max verstappen #lance stroll #zhou guanyu #sebastian vettel #horse girl

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angelsdean · 1 year

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I'm not denying the misogyny in earlier seasons but I also just rewatched s1-5 and I can't recall a woman ever turning Dean down and him turning around and calling them a bitch. Yeah he uses that word too often but tbh does he actually call women it that often?? I seem to recall him just using it generally, which makes a huge difference. Still not great but still big difference.

Like yeah I was annoyed and uncomf with how often he hit on women but they usually weren't super drawn out scenes and his actions towards women who weren't written just to be eye candy by ACTUAL misogynistic writers, he treated as equally as everyone else.

There's absolutely no denying his behavior s1 (arguably up until he goes to hell) teeters that line, but I feel like those early seasons have been remembered as way more gross and extreme than they actually are... But tbh what's new about how people view Dean's character and how's he conflated into things he's not

Hi! I saw your ask earlier but then got caught up with work things and since then i've also posted this, which analyzes the instances of dean using the word "bitch" throughout s1 and the contexts in which its used, which like you said is mostly exclusively in general phrases, most commonly his "catch phrase" son of a bitch.

As for the flirting, like you said a lot of his behavior varies depending on the writer. And in a show like this where there's been so many different writers it's something to take into consideration when analyzing a character's actions. I tend to focus on which behaviors are most consistent throughout. There are some things here or there that just are completely ooc with past consistent behaviors and are indicative of like, the writer's own misogyny creeping in rather than consistent with Dean's own behaviors and I think that's something important to take note of when doing character analyses and "studies." Like the one that always jumps out to me that is just SO inconsistent with Dean's character is in 4x13 After School Special where Dean says three of the high school cheerleaders are "legal." All of Dean's interactions with young people / teenagers both before this and after shows him in clearly a mentor role or respectful and understanding toward them. I'm think especially of his interactions toward Claire and Krissy. Or in the fanficiton episode. He doesn't treat any of those girls as anything other than what they are: kids. So that instance in 4x13 just stands out as massively ooc and it's an episode written by Dabb who, imo, does not get Dean + Kids at all. But anyways, that's a whole other thing lmao.

But yeah, I really feel like a lot of people could do with a rewatch. Many just have this hazy memory of Dean flirting and checking women out in the early seasons and have exaggerated those moments into a whole other character. I think those early seasons where definitely a product of their time. Early 2000s television was often very sexist and had its problems. And some of that is reflected on how Dean's character was written and portrayed. But it's not nearly as bad as many make it out to be. And from a meta / analysis perspective I view a lot of those moments as reflecting the struggle and conflict between Dean's overcompensating masculine persona and his real self he's trying to hide.

#sorry for writing essays lmao all of this is just so fun and interesting to discuss for me #vics spn rewatch #replies #dean studies #mymeta

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idkhowtopickausername · 1 year

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Are you still doing the unpopular opinions meme? 🔥 Naruto leftist discourse (and a precision: since Naruto Tumblr is the home of Naruto fans criticizing the Shinobi System and the narrative and so a huge chunk of the critique of the show on here is centered on those aspects, do you think people sometimes go too far and take it too seriously or don't take it seriously enough, etc.)

Hi! Yeah I’m still doing the ask game!

Yeah I do think there are times I see people taking it too seriously and people not taking it seriously enough. I think it’s good and important to be able to see how the stuff the show frames positively re: the shinobi system is really fucked up and to be able to see that Sasuke’s perspective is fundamentally correct despite him being vilified, and to be able to see that the ideas of morality that are being presented are very hypocritical and at times pretty awful. And when people who are actively engaged in Naruto discourse on here choose to dismiss or make fun of that analysis it does bother me, because I know they’ve had it explained to them and still refuse to see it.

That being said when it comes to the fandom on Tumblr it matters much more to me that people understand the problems with the show’s messaging than that they like the same characters/ships as me, and while there’s some characters that I don’t really see the appeal of and somewhat distrust the opinions of most of their fans, and vice versa characters I love and distrust the opinions of people who dislike them, I care more that people generally understand why the show’s messaging around genocide and its condemnation of the use of violence to resist a violent system are bad. I think getting super vitriolic towards people based on their subjective feelings about characters or ships is a bit embarrassing to witness. And similarly getting really vitriolic over people like not taking things seriously enough because they ship [x] or whatever or have some minorly flawed take, and claiming that they’re inherently selfish and morally depraved or something because of that is like kind of absurd to me lol, like it’s genuinely not that deep.

Also when people compare in-universe events to actual real-life atrocities it’s taking it a bit too far imo. I also think that while there are definitely connections between people’s opinions on fiction and their politics, and fiction is inherently political, you can’t reliably extrapolate people’s irl politics from their opinions about Naruto like I know people who are definitely leftists who I think have mundanely bad naruto opinions bc they’ve just never thought that deeply about it until I talked to them, and I’ve run into a couple of people on here who were Sasuke stans but turned out to be politically conservative, like there’s no clear line you can draw and it’s a bit weird to think that way imo. Also when people like to claim that Sasuke stans are like using Naruto discourse as a substitute for political engagement it’s hilarious lol like why don’t you think people can have hobbies like talking about fiction they like and also be politically engaged irl, they’re not mutually exclusive.

I think the reason leftists are drawn to analyze Naruto this way is partly because it illustrates really well the hypocrisy of systems that are inherently violent but treat resistance towards the status quo as the only real form of violence, and also illustrates how a militarized profit-based system affects lots of characters in different ways on a personal level. And I think Sasuke does develop a (flawed but still powerful) revolutionary ideology over the course of the story, and he has a big pivotal role in the story, and that resonates with a lot of people, myself included. He’s also a really complex and sympathetic character imo who manages to both feel very real and human and grow and change in meaningful ways (e.g. not just be the mouthpiece for a certain political viewpoint) and also opposes the dominant system at the same time.

#ask

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beautiful-02-08-18 · 9 months

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If there’s one thing I very much like about the Running Man Animation show, its the character designs and how it oozes out of said characters. You can learn a character’s personality and even their relationships just by looking at them. I want to focus on the personality their rooms have, assuming they designed it themselves.

Liu’s room has a bunch of posters plastered on the walls to show his enthusiasm in participating in the Running Man Championship and his general upbeat attitude. His desk is also a small workshop for his inventions. Its neat and tidy except for the desk.

Gai’s room shares the same aesthetic as one would expect from a ninja. On his desk there seems to music gadgets. This is a reference to the fact that Gai’s real-life counterpart Gary, a former member of the Running Man show, makes music. The giant statue in his room is where his brothers hide. There’s also seems to be monkey bars for him and his brothers to move around.

Miyo’s room is noticeably barren compared to the others, but it makes sense as her goal was to spy on Charming Gold and any distractions must be eliminated. She has this big vase on her desk, but I don’t know what it is.

Kuga’s room has a similar style to Gai’s, but this one is more rugged. He’s room is literally his training ground, and it has little personal touch from him. Other than what seems to be paintings tucked away in the corner and a small desk with a Bars tapestry above it. Kuga has some weaponry in his room for some reason, which I found odd as we had never seen a member of the Bars tribe use weapons as far as I know. He’s pillow also seems to be made out of wood, which I just found odd. The way he positioned himself while he was sleeping suggest a rugged character from him.

Lonky’s room screams of royalty and vanity. With elegant tiles and furniture, including his very own massage chair that takes up huge amounts of electricity. There also seems to be a painting or picture of himself. The way Lonky sleeps is unimposing coming from a prince, but I like the small worldbuilding detail of his pillows, which are long to accomodate the Giraf tribe’s long necks.

Pala’s room is full various kinds of herbs and books. He is a scholar after all, and the greatest herbalist. Although, his books aren’t even in the shelves properly making his room slightly cluttered so it shows that he’s a little scatterbrained, but overall its very cozy. The way Pala sleeps is neat because he’s sleeping on his back facing forward, and since he’s a member of the Empa tribe he has horns and you can’t sleep on your sides with it. Pala is also hugging his staff since we know how its really important to him.

Popo’s room is also rather barren, other than the pillows and boxes he has in abundance. Admittingly, this has me stumped. The boxes seems to have came from the stuff he ordered, as shown when he was opening one to get a card. Although, some boxes don’t seem to had been opened and could have been done to show how Popo is materialistic, as he originally wanted fame and fortune. The pillows are possibly there to have came from his cutesy get-up, not to mention he’s sometimes acts like a spoiled child. The way he sleeps is also huddled up, a common trait among cute characters from what I’ve seen, and probably because he doesn’t want to get cold. Popo is seen using a sleeping bag and a heater because he canonically hates the cold.

I would had done Charming Gold’s room, but it feels more like a throne room than his own personal room. I did noticed the decoration style Charming Gold’s has in his place is similar to the ones he were seen in his flashbacks around 1,000+ years ago. For someone who likely killed his own tribe to near extinction, he still has the same taste.

Anyway, thank you for reading my analysis as an aspiring character designer!

#running man animation #running man #character design #environment design #analysis #character analysis #character study

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saunne · 9 months

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Any tips on writing floriography??

Oh, hi fellow lover of flowers and symbolic languages ! You can't imagine how happy this question makes me 💐. I never really had the opportunity to rant about this specific interest of mine so sorry, "Pavé César" incoming.

For what use ? Passive vs Active Representation

The first question to ask yourself is the framework in which you want to use floriography. You won't use it the same way in a fanfiction, a regency novel or a thriller.

Floriography is above all a symbolic language where emotional meanings and messages have been associated with plants, especially flowers. The use of floriography can, in my opinion, be active or passive. I consider representation "active" when the meaning of the flowers used is expressed clearly within the text and "passive" when this meaning is left to those who have a vague idea of floriography.

Concrete example : A detective analyzing the meanings of the flowers of a bouquet found at a crime scene is an "active" portrayal while comparing a reincarnated character with a lotus flower through spun metaphor throughout the text is "passive".

Passive floriography is regularly used in video games, especially on character splash art. The meaning behind the flower is never made clear in the blurbs, but the players' analysis of it and how it relates to the character's lore is what gives it meaning.

Example : Blade, from Honkai Star Rail, with the red spider lilies

Knowing what this flower represents takes only a few minutes with an internet search or a bit of general knowledge, due to its frequent use in the world of animation/manga. But it is only when we put this flower in comparison to Blade's lore that this representation makes sense.

Your best friend : Sources

Impossible to cut it : if you want to get into floriography, you need sources. Floriography is a simple yet complicated language, where each flower can have several meanings, several flowers can have the same meaning or the meaning can completely change depending on the color of the flower. I prefer to use several sources and cross-reference the results to be sure to have the broadest idea possible of the different meanings.

Just to give you an idea, I got my hands on about twenty pdfs of copyright-free books that I'm going to cross and compile into a single huge document to be able to use Ctrl + F and make my searches faster. But I do this because I'm obsessed with floriography and that I spent 3 years in a bachelor's degree in history cross-referencing sources for my homework.

If you just like it as a hobby, people have already made very well done books. If I had to recommend just one, it would be Floriography, by Jessica Roux.

Each double-page provides the most common meanings of the flower, a beautiful illustration and above all, something that I really appreciate : correspondences to create bouquets. An entire section of the book is solely on thematic bouquets.

Specificities : Culture and History

Another thing to think about is that floriography has been practiced by many diverse cultures throughout history. But when we talk about floriography now, we're mostly talking about Victorian floriography.

This does not mean that the rest of the world has ceased to exist.

Asian cultures have very strong symbolisms for a wide range of flowers and one of the important counterweights to Victorian floriography, in my opinion, is the Japanese hanakotoba. It is interesting to be interested in the meanings of flowers other than in our culture of origin and how these other cultures have come to associate a particular flower with a meaning different from ours.

Your second best friend : Senses

Next, for something more "hands-on", how do I write floriography ? Well, for starters, I'm mostly a big user of passive representation. I would put the meaning in the author's notes, but I generally prefer to just depict the flower and leave its meaning unsaid, except for those who will fetch or link to the clues I weave throughout my text.

To do floriography, there is no need for the flower itself to be present. Its representation may suffice: in patterns on fabric or in a memory is just as effective as having the real thing present in the scene. To take an example : A character that I like to write has a complex relationship with longing and I often introduced this notion very early on, by making one of the core memories of his childhood the strong camellia perfume of his adoptive mother, which is also the last thing he smelled before she left him.

Then comes the way to introduce the flower itself. The first sense is usually sight, the second smell, and the third touch. It is sometimes interesting to separate from one sense, particularly that of sight which is often overused, to focus on the more neglected ones such as smell and touch. If the flower as a physical object doesn't have to be present, showing it in deflected ways such as a lingering scent or the delicate relief of embroidery is something I love to do.

When it comes to descriptions, I'm also big user of comparisons : a blood-red rose, a fiery orange marigold, a dandelion with plumes as light as the wind that scatters them, a petal soft as velvet, a stem brittle as glass.

The flower itself should not be alone, it should belong to a whole, be connected to other things. I'm not going to describe a bouquet just to describe a bouquet, even if it happens to be very fancy one. No, I will link the choice of flowers to a conversation that took place between certain characters, to the vivid memory of a childhood home, to the regret of a past relationship.

Flowers are not an end, they are a means.

Here it is, I think I have said it all. Sorry for the length lmao, hope it wasn't too laborious to follow. Do not hesitate to contact me in dm to talk about floriography, I would be happy to discuss it !

#writeblr #writers on tumblr #floriography #language of flowers #writing tips #unnanswers

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decepti-thots · 2 years

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☕️ the Optimus Prime ongoing?

look, i get why a lot of the fandom, even the part of the fandom that likes exRiD, often bounces off the OP ongoing to one extent or another. it's a book with a lot of caveats required when recommending it; both in that it has some pretty significant flaws narratively, and that what it's even trying to do in a lot of cases is simply not what a lot of people want out of their TF comics. but i really really like the OP ongoing. at its best it has some of the most interesting and subversive approaches to iconic parts of TF, especially Optimus himself, that we've seen in any major continuity; it pulls together Barber's concept for IDW Optimus more completely than anything else, and as someone who really respects what he went for with that character personally, that alone means I get a lot out of it.

its big flaws are pretty easy to nail down, tbh. it exists during the mandated hasbroverse stuff that forces a lot of chaff into the world and ongoing narrative of IDW1, and it's forced to bear the brunt of it among the three ongoings. it comes at a point where Barber is being stretched REAL thin by his writing and editorial responsibilities, and there is a very real dip in how tight the storytelling is that i have always assumed was in part related to what must have been just an overwhelming amount of work Barber had to do each and every month on these comics by that point. (the devil works hard. Barber, when running TF comics, worked harder.) at times, Barber gets extraordinarily excessive regarding his tendency for extremely deep cut referential lore-heavy stuff, which if nothing else makes the fact OP was supposed to be a new-reader-friendly soft relaunch HILARIOUS. and content wise, there are some swings and misses in there for sure.

but still. i do like it. i think it does such a good job at making Optimus a central character, as distinct from necessarily a protagonist, and showing through all these other characters around him the weight he exerts on his narrative and his world. it's a story interested in the consequences of a character like Optimus being able to exist, someone who is mythic walking around still alive and interacting with those around him, and the near impossibility of leveraging anything like that for actual good because it will always bite you in the ass.

and it has so many compelling characters! arcee gets her due here, following on from exRiD. some of the best soundwave content in the comics is found here, and i love barber's soundwave. aileron, jazz (GUYS, JAZZ IS IN THIS ONE, WILL THAT MAKE U READ IT), a resolution for sideswipe... and yeah, the series understandably has a reputation for being Barber at his most overly convoluted and plot-heavy and fanwanky, but it also has some truly compelling emotional threads because dammit Barber IS good at writing emotional arcs, and he deserves to be known for it too. the issue where Arcee says goodbye to a dying Sideswipe makes me cry. the Arcee/Aileron throughline is wonderful and a hugely important part of her arc. the stuff he does with Soundwave thematically slaaaaps.

...this is really long so i'll finish with a couple final points. one, i think basically any analysis of Prowl's character in IDW that skips OP entirely is just inherently incomplete. one day, i want to write about what Barber does with Prowl in the flashbacks re: looking back on and recontextualizing some elements of the character. and two, this run has two of my favourite single issues in the entirety of IDW; the annual, Starscream: The Movie, and #25. so yeah. it's flawed and not for everyone, but i think people should really give it a chance.

#ask meme

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kickthecan-revolution · 2 years

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I’ve had to take a couple of meetings the last two days but it was worth it, I needed to get the feedback on the model I’ve put together to validate the feasibility analysis my team and I did on what is needed for a successful implementation. Everyone loves it and my instinct to not launch it too early without feedback from our Regional Directors was correct - they are running multi-million dollar businesses and need to have a say where their payroll goes. I met with our EMEIA Director this morning with my boss on the line as well - my boss’s boss is in London and offered to take her through the model but the Director said “if OK, I’d rather Diane take me through it, she has a level of detail that’s important.” which was hilarious and awesome. We stayed on for an hour, talking about our stores, our leaders, what they are all experiencing right now - she teared up, it’s so hard and my model is going to help if we create the right change management around it. My heart was so full after our conversation, she said “after 14 years, you’ve finally done it. congratulations.” And not a backhanded compliment, she knows how difficult it’s been and all of the obstacles we’ve faced.

It’s so huge. We’ve done some work that is going to help so much. This larger Retail University idea needs the payroll plumbing first and this will do it. One of my team broke down in tears last week, she feels so disrespected by our current senior Leadership and so lost in her role - what she didn’t know is behind the scenes, my long-time best friend, sister cat colleague R and I- the person who I’ve led the training team with forever - figured out a way of positioning my team with the Big Boss of the new vision of this university so we can do that work instead of the insanity we’re in now. I got on the phone with him and subtly showed him how my team can help - this morning, she sent me a screenshot and with the note “we are currently discussing how to get your team engaged on this”. So it’s happening, but my doesn’t know it yet because I won’t share it until it’s secured. One of my skills is political savvy - my borderline tendencies create belief that every moment needs to be survived, not lived - so interactions with others always has a “succeed or die” component to it which makes me particularly adept at being liked, ensuring others are heard, that I match their energy and understand their needs. That’s a need in Corporate America despite its darker and more broken intent. And, I am a Socialist by nature - I authentically care about everyone’s success and believe that a good solution means success for everyone’s individual projects and have innate ability to synthesize them into one big solution, but talk about that solution so everyone’s priority is seen and heard in it. So they are willing to work with me. Caring for people and telling the truth are more than just sentiment - they are the agents of change and for people who ultimately value good things, work (eventually).

###

I called the interior designer who helped me with my place to start phase 2, furniture is expensive and I don’t want to fuck it up. I don’t need anything fancy but I need an expert to help me invest the money I am (now) willing to spend; at first I wasn’t because of my loathing to contribute to the landfill but after falling asleep on my sofa and waking up to a bad back, I want a new couch. And I want a cool kitchen table and the storage unit to not smell like cat litter. And I think I want to figure out how to put a hot tub on the terrace. So she’ll help me figure all of that out.

####

I treated myself to some pancakes this morning but now I’m going to focus on my health. I’m going to lose some weight and be a better advocate for my body. The way I eat now is grounded in emotional soothing - I can have a different relationship to food now. My own.

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mega-hustler-blog · 1 year

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stairset · 6 years

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Since the series finale is coming up I wanna talk about all my absolute favorite Rebels episodes, in the order they aired bc ranking them would be so hard and I'm lazy, and why I love them because I feel like I owe it to a show that's been a huge part of my life for the last few years and was one of the things that got me through the nightmare that is the teenage years.

Rise of the Old Masters: I think every good show has that one great episode early on that just tells you "this is gonna be a good show, we have a plan" and gets you hooked, and I believe this was that episode for Rebels. Spark of Rebellion was a solid start, Droids in Distress and Fighter Flight were slower episodes to help you get to know the characters a bit more, and then this episode is, for lack of a better term, when shit started getting real. Ezra and Kanan's relationship starts developing, the Grand Inquisitor is introduced in person and makes a great first impression, we get some of our first major Clone Wars connections, etc. It also uses Yoda's famous "do or do not" line to deliver a nice message. "I'm not gonna TRY to teach you anymore. If all I do is try, that means I don't truly believe I can succeed, so from now on, I WILL teach you".

Path of the Jedi: Once again, Kanan and Ezra both have a lot of development here, both as a team and as individuals. The crazy visions that Ezra experiences were some of the darkest and most intense things in the show at the time, and Frank Oz guest appearing as Yoda's voice and Ezra finally constructing his own lightsaber are both great crowd pleasing moments. It also happens to be the first appearance of the world between worlds, though neither Ezra or the audience realized it at the time, which just goes to show how far back the writers planned everything out.

Call To Action: Tarkin makes his debut and calls out our other villains on their relative incompetence throughout the season, even going so far as to, erm, make an example of two of them, and succeeds where they have failed, even capturing Kanan in the process. Despite the cliffhanger, it's a bittersweet ending as the crew does succeed in their mission to deliver a message of hope to Lothal and the surrounding systems. This is where the stakes start to raise, and it shows.

Fire Across the Galaxy: Ending the first season with a bang, the crew rescues Kanan on Tarkin's star destroyer above Mustafar, the stolen TIE from Fighter Flight actually ends up being relevant, the Grand Inquisitor is sent off in the perfect way, the crew joins with Pheonix Squadron, giving us our earliest look at the growing rebellion, and of course the moment everyone remembers, the reintroduction to Ahsoka Tano, and her former master not long after. It was the perfect way to end the first season while getting everyone hyped for the next.

The Siege of Lothal: Everyone was absolutely hyped for the season 2 premiere and it did not disappoint. While many worried that Vader would be toned down for the show, he proved to be as threatening as ever, outsmarting our heroes time and again, kicking Kanan and Ezra's asses, and putting his pilot skills to use by taking on the entirety of Pheonix Squadron himself. And of course there's the unforgettable scene where he and Ahsoka sense each other and James Earl Jones delivers the iconic, bone chilling line "the apprentice lives".

Stealth Strike: This episode was just fun, plain and simple. Kanan and Rex's bickering, Ezra's interactions with Sato, it was all hilarious and entertaining. It was sweet seeing Kanan and Rex finally start getting along, and it also happens to be one of the few times Commander Sato played a major role in an episode. Despite Sato's fairly minor role in the show I always liked him, so seeing him in the action with the lead characters was nice.

The Future of the Force: The Inquisitors are after force sensitive children to ensure that they don't grow up to become Jedi, and it's up to Ezra, Kanan, Zeb and Ahsoka to stop them. Kanan, Ezra and Zeb having to get out of the apartment building with the Inquisitors hot on their trail was intense and lead to an entertaining chase through town, and it all culminated in the elic fight between Ahsoka and the Inquisitors where we see her brandish her white lightsabers for the first time. The episode also serves as a bit of a continuation of the Clone Wars season 2 premiere, in which Sidious hires Cad Bane to help carry out a very similar plot.

Legacy: The episode starts off intense with the Empire attacking the Rebels at their current location after Ezra accidentally gave it away in the previous episode, while the rest is much slower, as Ezra follows a trail of force breadcrumbs to Ryder Azadi, from whom he finally learns the tragic fate of his parents. I think I speak for a lot of people when I expected him to reunite with them, so the revelation of their deaths was a bit of a shocker, and Ezra's reaction, his vison of being with them on a better Lothal, and Kanan's statement that they'll live on in him were all beautifully tearjerking.

Shroud of Darkness: Even though this episode basically exists for the purpose of setting up the season finale, it still stands on its own as a fan favorite, and rightfully so. Our Jedi Trio of Ezra, Kanan and Ahsoka see lots of cool, trippy visions in the Lothal temple, including the Grand Inquisitor and the revelation of his backstory, the return of Frank Oz as Yoda (this time face to face), and of course Ahsoka getting confirmation that Vader really is her old master, with Matt Lanter reprising his role. The episode also has a number of iconic shots, including the temple guard avatars surrounding the Inquisitors, Ahsoka seeing Yoda in an homage to The Last Crusade, and Vader entering the Lothal temple at the end to meet with his Inquisitors in person.

Thhe Mystery of Chopper Base: A rather straight forward adventure, featuring the crew having to rescue Rex from some creepy ass spider creatures. Like Stealth Strike, this episode is simply fun. It's got so many great interactions between our main crew. But there's also a lingering feeling of dread throughout because, because you know there gonna be separated soon and that something's gonna go wrong because, well, it's Star Wars. It leads into the season finale perfectly.

Twilight of the Apprentice: We all remember this one. We all remember our exact reactions to everything in it. Maul is introduced, Ezra starts being tempted by the dark side, the Inquisitors are all killed off, Kanan is blided, and of course Ahsoka and Vader have their climactic duel that was built up for the whole season and did not disappoint, and the last minute or so simply showing the aftermath of everything that happened as “It’s All Over” plays is so effective with absolutely no dialogue. Not only that, but, and I’ve said this before, this episode is also the point where all the big parts of the timeline directly come together. In this episode, Rebels, Clone Wars, the prequels, the originals and even the sequels are all directly connected in a way that they never were before, and it’s not until a later episode that they’re all connected on that same level again. This episode, and subsequently the whole show, is the fulcrum of the Star Wars saga.

The Holocrons of Fate: Maul makes his return and has his sights set on both the Sith holocron from Malachor and Kanan’s Jedi holocron so that he can combine their power to learn any knowledge he desires. This leads to our mind-blowing climax in which Maul learns through the light of the holocrons that Obi-wan is still alive and sets off to find him, while Ezra sees a vision of twin suns, also pointing to Obi-wan, albeit in a less direct way. While the whole episode is entertaining the ending is truly what sets its place as one of the best simply because of the epic factor.

The Last Battle: This episode is simply a half hour of pure unadultered Clone Wars nostalgia and I loved every goddamn second of it. Everything from the battle of Christophsis soundtrack to the return of the droid humor from tcw to General Kalani from the Onderon arc being there to the heroes having to team up with the droids thanks to Ezra being the voice of reason and making them realize they were all just pawns for Palpatine and he is their true enemy, and the yellow Clone Wars style title card at the end with the Clone Wars theme playing during the credits, it’s just a giant love letter to the entire Clone Wars fanbase, a thank you for helping the crew get where they are today. It shows how much they truly appreciate their fans, which shouldn’t be a rare thing with content creators but it is.

An Inside Man: I have a sorta complicated relationship with Agent Kallus, who I guess isn’t an agent anymore but that’s beside the point. I don’t like him that much as I feel his redemption arc could’ve been handled much better and he could’ve done more to earn it, which I’ve talked about before. Yet despite this, I love not only this episode but another Kallus centered episode later on that I’ll get to. This whole episode is intense and excited. Mister Sumar, a minor character from season 1, is reintroduced only to be brutally killed by Thrawn, seeting the stakes for the episode, and establishing Thrawn as an effective villain. While Thrawn’s episodes before this one were more about him simply studying the heroes from behind the scenes, this is the point where he starts taking direct action against the heroes, and does it damn well. He figures out all their tricks that all the Imperials before him overlooked, and Kanan and Ezra only barely get out.

Visions and Voices: Maul returns once again to finish his mind connection with Ezra, leading to the return to Dathomir where the ghosts of the Nightsisters serve as the Guest Appearance Of The Week and posess Kanan and Sabine in rather creepy ways, Ezra also discovers Obi-wan is alive while Maul finds out where he’s hiding, and of course Sabine gets her hands on the darksaber. Like Shroud of Darkness this episode exists just to set up a climactic fight in a later episode, but still stands on it’s own.

Trials of the Darksaber/Legacy of Mandalore: I put these together because they’re basically a two-parter and because I love them for largely the same reasons. These were the first Sabine episodes where she finally got some real, major development as a character. Previous Sabine centered episode seemed to all follow the pattern of “have some dialogue hinting at her backstory that we give away in the sneak peeks then no other answers” and it was frustrating because beyond that those episodes were solid episode, but the way they kept promoting them to be bigger than they were did effect my enjoyment of them at the time. These episode finally resolve that problem and give us payoff to all those hints, and boy was that payoff satisfying. We get the backstory of the darksaber, Sabine training, we’re finally introduced to her family, and the final battle between Sabine and Gar Saxon is simply epic.

Through Imperial Eyes: This is the other Kallus episode that I love despite my “meh” opinion of the character. The banter between Kallus and Ezra is very entertaining to watch, Kallus’s plan for framing Liste as the traitor to keep his cover is very clever, though obviously not clever enough to fool Thrawn, who once again proves to be a great villain and shows that he can hold his own in a physical fight, and of course Yularen appearing was cool.

Twin Suns: The long awaited final showdown between Obi-wan and Maul, who actually finally dies for good, like is really, seriously, legit, for real, in actuality, finally permanently dead, deceased, lifeless, killed, devoid of life, sleeping with the fishes, an ex-person. At first I was in the crowd of people who were like “what the fuck” at how quick he went out, but in analysis I wouldn’t have it any other way. It shows how much Obi-wan has wisened over the years whereas Maul never learned, never changed, and tried the same thing he did on Qui-Gon, and it proved to be his final downfall. The way Obi-wan holds Maul’s body in his arms the same way he did with both Qui-Gon and Satine so many years before, and shows sadness and pity that it couldn’t have turned out differently is absolutely beautiful and heartbreaking. The cartoons made Maul such an interesting character, and cemented him as one of my favorite villains, and I couldn’t ask for a better conclusion to this decades old rivalry.

Zero Hour: While not as mind blowing as the previous season’s finale, Zero Hour is still and intense and action packed way to conclude the season. We see the end of Pheonix Squadron and the beginnings of then true Rebel Alliance, Sato gets an epic and heroic send off, the fight in space with Ezra and the Mandos is epic, the Bendu gives us a glimpse of his true power, and Thrawn is as great a villain as ever. The whole thing is simply epic.

In The Name of the Rebellion: We finally saw the Rebel Alliance on Yavin 4 in all its glory, Saw makes a return and, as I said when the episodes first aired, I believe the Moral Ambiguity with his character, while still not perfect, was handled better here than in Ghosts of Geonosis, but i don’t feel like repeating myself so just look the post up if you haven’t read it already. Anyway Saw’s interactions with Ezra and Sabine were a lot of fun to watch, like if we’re still giving everyone space fmaily nicknames then Saw is like the slightly crazed but still kinda cool uncle in this episode. All the connections to Rogue One were a ton of fun to piece together, and it was great to finally see a giant kyber crystal that’s actually fully animated. Also Jennifer Hale was in it so that’s pretty neat.

Flight of the Defender: A very simple and straight forward episode. Ezra and Sabine steal the TIE defender prototype, they crash it and hide the hyperdrive, we meet the white lothwolf who helps them get back to their friends. I can’t even really explain why I like this one so much tbh, but I do.

Jedi Night/DUMJE: We all know why these episodes are here. I couldn’t ask for a more epic and heartbreaking send off for Kanan’s character, and I’m glad that they dedicated the entire following episode to showing how the rest of the cast deals with their grief in different way rather than glossing over it and immediately moving on to the Mortis stuff. It’s surprisingly rare for characters to get to properly grieve in this franchise despite death being so common. Obi-wan, Galen, Han, Luke, the entire population of Alderaan, the other characters have to get over these things pretty quickly so it’s nice to see a more realistic aftermath for once.

Wolves and a Door/A World Between Worlds: I’ve made my thoughts on these episodes very clear since they aired on Monday, which is that they are quite possibly the most mind blowing thing I’ve watched in a very long time. The connections to Mortis and callbacks to all the movies and to Clone Wars, the voices in the background, the beautifully animated moving pictures, the return of Ahsoka and the revelation of what happened to her, Sidious making his debute with Ian McDiarmid himself providing the voice, it’s all incredible to watch. Like I said about Twilight of the Apprentice, this episode is one of the few times where we get an idea of just how connected everything really is, that it’s all one big story. No wonder the two episodes are also so tightly connected to each other, they truly are where all the parts of the saga come together in ways they never could otherwise.

#this is quite possibly the longest post ive ever made im just. so passionate about this show ok #its so important to me i just had to make a big huge analysis about why i love it so much #im gonna miss it so much but im glad its gonna get the proper ending it deserves #instead of getting canned while still in its prime like tcw #star wars rebels #shut up tristan

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bkdkdeeznuts · 2 years

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katsuki’s save to win in 285

285 will absolutely never cease to make me tear up, but also scream into a pillow. because. how. how the FUCK is there so much to examine and analyze in ONE CHAPTER. fuck off, horikoshi. i’m going to scream.

The most important thing to remember when reading 285 is Izuku and Katsuki’s save to win / win to save narrative (first introduced in chapter 120, shown below).

What All Might means by this is that, essentially, they are two halves of a whole. In order to ultimately win, they need each other. Izuku can’t win without Katsuki’s save, and Katsuki can’t truly win without Izuku at all. So, what they need to do is learn to win and save, respectively.

This line is what sparks their development. Katsuki goes to work on his internal conflict (learning how to save), and Izuku goes to work on his physical conflict (learning how to win). We get to see both of them achieve small victories within their goals (saving Eri is a big highlight for Izuku, and the fights against class 1-B are a big highlight for Katsuki), but nothing too huge for the most part.

That is, until chapter 285.

The most important thing to keep in mind when examining 285 is that stupid fucking line from 120. It’s to keep in mind that Katsuki is saving to win.

In that moment, saving Izuku meant that Katsuki was winning. Which means multiple things, the most obvious one being that Izuku is crucial to winning the war. Izuku has OFA, which is the quirk made to directly challenge AFO. In order to beat Shigaraki, they need OFA. Simple. That’s the main plot of MHA. Cool. Just about anyone could point that out.

Don’t get me wrong, even if that really was the reason Katsuki’s body moved on its own, that’d still be cool as shit. Early manga Katsuki might not have even had the realization that Izuku is crucial to winning the war, in fact, I’d say he definitely wouldn’t have. Look at this fucker during his and Izuku’s fight against All Might.

Katsuki is one of the most intelligent characters in the whole series, but his fatal flaw (in the early manga, anyway) is his pride. The fact that Katsuki has grown enough to use his save to win in 285 is telling of his development enough.

So, when Katsuki sees Izuku inches away from death, he sees the threat of failure. Katsuki “The Image of Victory” Bakugou, does not want to lose, so he takes the hit for Izuku. Once again, simple. Very very basic analysis. It’s not wrong, per se, but here is what you’re missing:

Katsuki wasn’t thinking of losing the war when his body moved on its own. He was thinking of losing Izuku.

“Blah blah blah, losing Izuku means losing the war! We established this!” Wrong! You’re wrong. You don’t get it. Sit back and enjoy the show, because I’m about to blow your fucking mind.

Look at the little Google slideshow that Katsuki made at the bottom. There’s not a single panel of Shigaraki, is there? Not a single panel of him losing. Not a single panel of anything involving the actual war, really. So, what can we gather from his silly little Favorite Deku Moments collection?

We can gather that, when his body moved on its own, he wasn’t thinking about losing the war. He wasn’t thinking of the threat of Shigaraki winning. He was thinking of nothing but Izuku.

(A bit off topic, but we all know how those damn antis can get. One could argue that Katsuki’s little, “head empty, just Izuku Midoriya” moment was just his life flashing before his eyes. Which, honest to God, I am praying someone uses that argument on me one day, because I would laugh my fucking ass off. If that was his life flashing before his eyes, that implies that Izuku is his life.

Also, that is his life flashing before his eyes, in a way. He’s thinking of all the things he has yet to apologize / thank Izuku for, and now he may not get to. This man is so fucking gay oh my GOD)

Anyways, he was thinking of Izuku. Not about winning the war, but about winning Izuku.

Let’s compare this to Izuku’s win to save ideology. We have seen time and time again that “winning” doesn’t necessarily mean coming out on top. This is particularly evident in Izuku’s match against Shouto during the Sports Festival. Although he technically “lost,” Izuku won in the sense that he got Shouto to use his flames. Again, during DVK2, Izuku didn’t “win” the fight. But he won in the sense that he got Katsuki to finally open up and have a conversation, and also in the sense that he now has someone else to help him with OFA.

In MHA, winning does not mean the physical type of victory that you typically think of when you imagine “winning.” And this is exactly the case in chapter 285. Katsuki was not thinking of winning in the physical sense. He was not thinking about winning the war, or even about beating Shigaraki.

In his mind (at that moment) winning meant saving Izuku. Winning meant not losing Izuku. Not in the sense of winning against Shigaraki, in the sense of winning to him. Winning as in, without Izuku, Katsuki is nothing. Izuku is his world, his motivation. Katsuki Bakugou, the boy who only ever thought of winning and being the best, was willing to die for Izuku. Not for the sake of actually “winning,” but for the sake of himself. For the fact that, without Izuku, he has no purpose.

Without Izuku, he is losing.

#i'm actually so sick of them #the way this isn't even like. a quarter. of what i have to say about 285.#i am sick to my stomach actually !!#mha #bkdk #mha analysis #i hate gay people

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faelapis · 3 years

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i know some of you guys will probably instinctively wince because you got caught up in gamergate during your youth and only reformed/grew out of it later... but i think many would really benefit from watching the feminist frequency tropes vs women series (yes, it's been review bombed to hell and back by anti-sjw types.)

i was a huge fan of it back in the day, watched all the videos - but unlike current discourse, which is (and i’ve also been guilty of this) hyperfocusing on the perceived flaws of a single intellectual property, it took the broader approach that we ought to be critical of just how common these tropes are.

it really helps you look at media with a bird’s eye view, if you’re new to that kind of analysis. seeing your fave there doesn’t mean they’re “bad,” it means that they’re a part of a broader pattern that maybe shouldn’t be so widespread. you can always make justifications for why a certain trope exists within the context of (your favorite media), but the point is the broader discussion, NOT individual examples.

this is part of why it’s so frustrating how many “response” videos will pause the video at a split frame showing an example to mock - trying to “disprove” problematic aspects by arguing about the very particular examples - rather than understanding it as a critique of the tropes themselves. like. guys. the point isn’t whether mario is problematic. the point is how integral damsel in distress narratives and heteronormativity are in video games right up to present day.

this, i think, is also useful when judging the "base intentions" or "base politics" of a piece of media. a huge part of what initially appealed to my feminist sensibilities about steven universe was how it avoided many of the problematic tropes that plague most animation even today.

outside of representation, it also intentionally challenged the notion of hierarchy itself, by making its "heroes" thoroughly flawed and dressing down the notion of the perfect leader. a lot of media will challenge authority, but then just install a "good" king to replace the "evil" one. SU future is super important here, as it challenges the notion of steven as the "good" diamond/leader to replace the "bad" ones. you can't just replace the leaders, you gotta dismantle that unfair hierarchy. good intentions can lead to bad outcomes when someone thinks of themselves as a hero or savior, and hence "above" others. hence, a degree of empathy for everyone in that system is key. you're not better than them, and they're not better than you.

that's also a big reason why the criticism it eventually got was so frustrating to me. there seemed to be little awareness in the fandom how it was still better and had more progressive sensibilities than 99% of the media out there. it was like they thought steven universe was the first cartoon since the 40s to ever have blind spots, rather than that being the norm.

so, yes, there is also individualistic appeal to understanding the commonality of tropes as they relate to underlying systemic issues. when (non-youtube 🙃) critics call something “progressive” or “refreshing,” it’s usually not because they have lower standards than you or can’t see the problematic nitpicks - it’s because they’re able to put it in the context of what most media is actually like. they haven’t hitched their wagon to hating or loving one piece of media. they can't; they have to look at A LOT of media.

i’m far from the first to say this, but this kind of systemic approach is also applicable to things like the bechdel test. the point was never that passing or not made an individual intellectual property “good” or “bad” - it was how. fucking. common. it was for media to center men and male perspectives. it was pointing out that most movies don’t have several female characters who are able to have dialogue about something other than men. yes, trash like showgirls passes. nobody thinks that makes it good.

~drama about individual pieces of media tends to get more clicks and views, and that is occasionally important! i’m not saying individual pieces of media or its fanbases can never be questioned or, inversely, defended (otherwise, how could i justify spending so much time defending steven universe from that big overblown hypocritical backlash?)... but it also makes me sad.

like. i’m 25. i’m not that old, but in fandom spaces i feel fucking ancient. i feel like i'm from a different time in terms of media consumption and analysis - one where me and my fellow lefties knew that all media was in some way problematic.

maybe it was just more "in your face" then, so it was easier to spot... but whatever the reason, i felt like a huge part of leftist analysis was the acknowledgment that everything, even the media you love, is a product of a broader, unfair system. just like people are shaped by that system, too - and that's "the enemy," not individuals or individual works of art (almost like SU had a point about that). the unfairness in society at large will be reflected in the products that culture creates and consumes. so intentions and caring does, actually, matter.

#media analysis #writing #media criticism #steven universe #feminism #feminist frequency

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the-lone-witch-and-secret-room · 3 years

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The Owl House and pacing, a perspective from a fanfic writer that works with a large cast

I’ve seen a bunch of complains about the way The Owl House is paced lately. People claiming that it’s bad writing, and rushed, and whatnot. But from how I see it, you’re complaining for all the wrong reasons, and to the wrong people.

TL;DR: this is an overlaying issue with Disney and the industry that doesn’t allow long shows anymore, essentially forcing writers to pick between good pacing and complex stories being told with large casts.

For context: the fandom I wrote for before I got into The Owl House had a pretty small main cast. There were a few reoccurring characters, but most of them only showed up like five total times over the course of four seasons or had little personality, so my main cast I was writing about always consisted of my main five characters, with occasional cameos here and there. All characters were living together and experienced the adventure from the same perspective. There was one overarching storyline and not multiple. The interpersonal relationships still varied, though, for obvious reasons.

Now think about how large The Owl House cast is, and why that’d send them running into issues. Or don’t, because I have a whole-ass in depth analysis under the cut because this got unreasonably long.

(Also I’d appreciate a reblog, I spent… an unreasonable amount of time on this, lol)

The Owl House is different. There’s the main characters: Luz, Eda, King, maybe Hooty, technically (someone recently pointed out that he’s technically the titular character of the show and I’m still processing that, lol).

But they also have a HUGE additional cast to work with. There’s Lilith, Eda’s sister, and the main antagonist of season one, who has a lot to her character and gets a ton of screen time. There’s Amity, and there’s Willow and Gus, Luz’s friends. They’re all very fleshed out characters, and got a bunch of screen time and development, despite “only” being reoccurring characters and not the main characters.

Then there’s characters that have played a fairly minor role so far. There’s Belos, the big bad villain, who we will likely learn a lot more about this season. There’s the Golden Guard, the new main antagonist our cast deals with personally, who we’re just starting to learn more about. There’s Camila, Luz’s mom, who, despite only showing up a couple of times in the show so far, is very relevant to Luz and how the plot will ultimately turn out. There’s Edric and Emira, Amity’s siblings, who despite only showing up a few times as well seem to have a very worked out personality and background and also have a story that is (at least to some extent) going to be told according to the AMA.

There is at least one more seemingly important character whose role in the bigger story is hard to tell at this point, Raine, but according to the description of the episode, they’re probably going to influence the story a bunch.

There’s Alador and Odalia, who are responsible for a lot of their children’s toxic behaviors, and seem to have bigger plans that will probably be relevant later on.

The characters that are only focused on for an episode or two (like Matt and the troublemaker kids) all have very worked out personalities and even short arcs.

And heck, even characters like Boscha, who is extremely minor and seems like a very one-dimensional bully for the most part, get their moments that hint at there being more to them. We know Boscha has a clingy mom, that apparently has a rivalry with Odalia and works with Amity’s parents. The scene at the beginning of Wing It Like Witches tells us a lot about her general mindset and how she’s embraced that winning at whatever cost is the only thing that matters.

This leaves us with: 3-4 main characters

3 friends with fleshed out stories

Lilith, who is probably the most relevant aside from the main cast

Belos, the main antagonist, and the Golden Guard, currently starting to become a lot more relevant

A whole handful of minor reoccurring characters that have the potential to become bigger characters at any point in time

A handful of minor reoccurring characters that mainly seem to be there to further the story, but still get to have distinctive personalities and motivations (looking p.e. at the troublemaker kids)

That is AT LEAST 9 pretty major, relevant characters whose stories have to be tackled in the same show, in addition to the people that joined in season two and a huge supporting cast of well-developed characters that clearly also have stories of their own, even if not all of them will get told.

On top of that, the Owl House lives from exploring different relationships and different storylines. There’s the overarching story of how flawed the system is that will likely end with them overthrowing Belos, but there’s so much more.

Eda and the curse. Eda becoming a better mentor for Luz. Eda coming to terms with the loss of her magic.

Luz learning to cast magic with glyphs. Making friends for the first time. Slowly falling in love with Amity. Fighting to be able to learn whatever kind of magic she wants to. Learning that she’s not a burden to people. Struggling with her relationship with her mom, and trying to restore the portal so she can get back to her. Figuring out her future and what she really wants.

Lilith trying to cure Eda, and now in season two coming to terms with the loss of her magic and fixing her relationship with her sister. Lilith learning to ask for help.

Willow switching tracks. Willow growing more confident.

Amity becoming a better person, fixing her relationship with Willow, standing up to her parents, falling in love with Luz. Starting to fix her relationship with her siblings.

King finding out where he came from.

Hints at Gus struggling with decision making and stressing himself out less. Gus learning to be more selfless. Struggling with his magic track and being the youngest in his grade.

The newly introduced plot point with the Golden Guard. The plot point about the rebellion that will get introduced next episode.

The mystery with the letters.

And I’m like 90% sure I’ve forgotten something.

That is… a lot of different plots and relationships that are in some way important to the story.

In comparison, as stated, the last show I wrote for focused mostly on the same five characters and their relationships with each other, and one overarching plotline aside from some minor interpersonal relationships with two people’s family members that weren’t even introduced for several seasons. The first season fully focused on establishing the bond within this found family with exactly 1 important reoccurring character, an antagonist that had little personality and got a total of one line of backstory before he died.

If you have 90% of a season to develop 5 characters who live together, that’s a lot easier to do than developing twice the amount of important characters + introducing reoccurring characters season one of The Owl House has—the majority of which have separate lives and do not live together and thus can’t be focused on at the same time.

I’ve seen a bunch of people complain recently that the pacing of The Owl House is off, that the writing is bad, that the show is rushed, etc. etc.

And I get those complains. Believe me, as a viewer and also as an author that takes a lot of time to develop each character and their issues individually, I 100% get it.

But as an author that’s currently learning how hard it is to tackle a cast of the size that The Owl House has, I’ve also come to a whole different understanding from the perspective of the writers on the show.

For context, Locked Out focuses on a couple of serious themes, in the same way that the show does. It has 4 main plotlines: Amity Camila and Luz, Edric and Emira, Eda and Lilith, Willow and the Grudgby Squad (as well as a Gus arc that ties into the last one while also being its own thing, we’re getting to that part). So far, it prominently features: Luz, Amity, Camila, Eda, Emira, Edric, Willow and Gus, and to a lesser extent King, Lilith and Boscha, Skara and Amelia in relation to the separate plots.

That’s eight main characters across five different households. And then there’s the reoccurring characters that will have a larger role later on that I’ve not even had the opportunity to bring into the story yet/feature in a more prominent way. The cast is still growing.

And heck, I have all the time in the world to write this thing, because I don’t have an episode limit, or a deadline, or a limited amount of money to produce it.

For Locked Out, it took me 120k to get through a single week of plot at a very high level of character development, with about as many important characters as TOH has in season 1, and with an equally high number of reoccurring characters, some minor, some major. I think you can compare it to the show pretty well. I’d say, if I were to split Locked Out into episodes, I’d set one episode at about 10k. That would be 12 episodes. 12 episodes to get through a single week. Heck, even if I said 20k words were to be one episode, which I’m pretty sure is too much realistically, that would still be 6 episodes for one week.

And TOH covers more than three months.

That would be at least 72 total episodes to get through the three months of summer camp. And we’re currently progressing past that point.

72 episodes.

Let that sit for a while o.o

Everything that’s happened in season one (which as we know now was about 2 months) would have happened in 48 episodes rather than 19. Pacing-wise, everything would happen at less than 0.5x the speed. The first four episodes of season two would’ve been 24 episodes, assuming we hadn’t skipped a week and a half and had instead shown the immediate aftermath of the petrification ceremony, too.

And I’d love if we could have that, and if we could actually develop the characters and their relationships that thoroughly.

But the sad fact is that shows like The Owl House do not get the amount of episodes that would be required to develop every single aspect of the show to its fullest potential. Disney rarely greenlits shows of 150 episodes anymore. They used to, once, (Phineas&Ferb for example had 130+ episodes—you could tell one hell of a story in that many episodes), but that’s not a thing anymore. And the writers know that going into a show. They know the chances their story will be told in that way are very low.

And thus, the writers, especially ones working with large casts, have to make a choice: cut characters they love, and plots that are important to them, because they know they won’t get the amount of episodes required to do everything perfectly, OR include most of what they want to do, but at the cost of the pacing being off and everything seemingly happening too fast.

The Owl House crew went with the second option. The biggest issue the show has isn’t bad writing. The show’s biggest issue is that its cast and the story the crew members want to tell are too big for the amount of episodes they’ve been given (especially now that Disney decided to cut season 3 down into just three 44 minute specials).

And that’s on Disney, and Disney alone.

The crew is making the most of the amount of episodes they have, and unfortunately the lack of time forces them to rush things, and to sometimes sideline characters to focus on others.

Lilith got a bunch of screen time in the first four episodes. I’m sad to see her go, but she’s basically guaranteed to be back by season 2B. And there’s other people that have gotten way less focus than her so far. We‘ve seen basically nothing of Willow and Gus for the first few episodes, and I’m super happy Gus finally got some focus! We haven’t been inside Hexside all season except to see Luz expelled! And episode seven is even going to introduce a new character. Sometimes there’s parts of the story that certain characters don’t have a place in. And it sucks if they’re characters you like. But Lilith has to go for a bit so other characters can get the same amount of spotlight she did. At the end of the day, Lilith is not part of the main cast. She’s a very important reoccurring character, yes, but so are Amity, Willow and Gus. The main characters are Eda, Luz and King, and they’re the only ones that will always be around. And heck, even Eda got sidelined for a bit in the last two episodes, because we needed to focus on other characters. If not even the main characters are always around because we need some spotlight time for other characters, you can’t expect any more minor reoccurring cast member to be.

God, I wish they’d be given more time and more episodes to bring every part of the plot to its full potential, but they don’t have those, so they sometimes have to take shortcuts that unfortunately cheapen the story here and there. It’s the only way they can hope to tell their story to the end at all. And that makes me hella sad because it’s so obvious that they have an incredible story to tell, and that there’s so much more to so many of the characters we just don’t have the time to focus on.

The thing is: I liked the episode with Gwendolyn. It sends an important message that will hopefully get some parents who watch with their children thinking, and I’ve seen a couple of people talk about how close to home it hit for them. I have also seen a couple of people complain about that being too fast—and also just in general about things in the show getting sorted out too fast. And I get it. At least with this particular episode, I 100% get it.

(I’ve also seen some people complain that “Amity stood up to her parents too fast in Escaping Expulsion”, but I vehemently disagree with that. We’ve been building towards that moment since season one, with her doing more and more things that were technically defying her parents. I don’t see how this was rushed.)

Just… please don’t blame the writers. Dana even said that Keeping Up A-Fearances is one of the episodes that hit very close to home for her in the recent stream iirc? So I highly doubt this was rushed on purpose, or because the whole thing is “bad writing” when the entire writing quality of the show says otherwise.

A lot of shows in general have the issue that they have to be written season by season rather than as a full story these days, because there’s always a chance that they won’t get a next season. How large scale the story they want to tell actually is doesn’t matter if there’s a solid chance they won’t get to do any of it.

From a viewer perspective, I get being frustrated at the pacing being off. But from a writer perspective, the chances are very high that this is a choice they had to make, rather than one they wanted to make. And I don’t think you can truly see this if you’ve never worked with a fleshed out cast that large—Locked Out was really eye-opening for me in that regard.

This isn’t simply a case of bad writing/bad pacing by choice. It’s forced. They’re forced to rush through their plots because otherwise they won’t get the chance to tell certain parts of the story at all. And the saddest thing about this is really that those 72+ episodes to flesh out these plot points further wouldn’t have been an impossible thing to get, at a time.

Go for Disney’s head. Yell at the industry for being what it is today, for constantly axing shows before even giving them a real chance. But this isn’t on the crew.

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itsclydebitches · 3 years

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The Bad Batch: A Crosshair Analysis

Hello, Star Wars fandom! I have just completed watching—and loving—The Bad Batch, which you know means I now need to dump all my thoughts about the first season into the tumblr void. Specifically, thoughts on the complicated drama that is Crosshair. I have no doubt that the majority of what I’m about to say will be old news to anyone who watched the show when it came out (I’m slow...), but I’m writing it all out anyway. Largely for my own sanity enjoyment :D

I want to preface all of this by saying that the above is not an exaggeration. I love the show and I love the entire cast. My enjoyment in each of the characters is directly connected to my enjoyment of the season as a whole, which I say because I’m about to get pretty critical towards some of the characters’ choices and, to a lesser extent, the writing choices that surround those. Does this mean I secretly hate The Bad Batch? Quite the opposite. I’m invested, which is presumably just what Filoni wants. I’m just hoping that investment pays off.

But enough of the disclaimers. Let’s start with the matter of the inhibitor chip. I’ve seen fans take some pretty hard stances on both sides: Crosshair is completely innocent because he’s definitely been under the chip’s control this whole time, no matter what he might say. Crosshair is completely guilty because he said the chip was removed a long time ago and he chose to do all this, no moral wiggle room allowed. However, the reality is that we don’t know enough to make a clear call either way. The audience, simply put, does not have all the necessary information. What we have instead is a couple of facts combined with claims that may or may not be reliable. Let’s lay them out:

Crosshair was definitely under the chip’s control at the start of the series.

He was able to resist it to a certain extent, resulting in a pressure to obey orders coupled with a primary loyalty to his squad. See: telling Hunter to follow the Empire’s commands—which includes killing kid Padawans—but not turning his team in as traitors when they did not. It’s an in-between space.

Crosshair’s chip was then amplified to an unknown extent. I’m never going to claim I’m a Star Wars aficionado—I’m a casual fan, friends. Please don’t yell at me over obscure lore lol—but within TBB’s canon, no one else is undergoing that experimentation. The effects of this are entirely unknown, which includes Crosshair’s free will, or lack thereof.

Crosshair then becomes a clear tool of the Empire, hunting down innocents, killing on a whim, the whole, evil shebang.

In “Reunion” he’s caught by the engine and suffers severe burns to his face. One leaves a scar that covers precisely the place where the chip would have been extracted.

Removing the chip leaves its own scar behind. If Crosshair’s was removed, we can’t see that scar due to the burn.

After these events Crosshair seems to mellow a bit. He does horrible things under the Empire’s orders—like shooting the senator—but is still loyal to his squad—killing his non-clone teammates to give TBB a chance, saving AZ and Omega, etc.

Crosshair claims that his chip has already been removed. However, Crosshair is arguably an unreliable source if he’s been lied to or if the chip is still there, encouraging him to manipulate the team.

Crosshair claims it was removed a long time ago, which is incredibly imprecise. As we can see from just some of the events listed above, precisely when the chip came out—if it came out—makes a huge difference.

Hunter realizes this and presses for clarification, but Crosshair dodges giving it. Again, a legitimate belief that it doesn’t matter, or evidence that he can’t say because something else is going on? We don’t know.

Hunter checks Crosshair’s head and finds the burn scar which proves… nothing. As stated above, they wouldn’t be able to see the surgery scar one way or another: its existence or its absence. It’s useless data, as Tech might say. I’ve seen a few fans claim that Hunter was also feeling for the chip with his enhanced senses, but 1. I didn’t catch any evidence of that in the scene and 2. Even if we assume Hunter did that anyway, the chips are notoriously hard to spot. Fives and AZ couldn’t find the chip at first when examining Tup. Ahsoka had to use the force to find it in Rex. TBB themselves couldn’t find it at first in Wrecker. If machinery consistently fails to find the chip on the first couple of tries—it’s meant to be a hidden implant, after all—why would we believe Hunter’s senses could pick it up instantly? Maybe he missed it, or maybe it wasn’t there at all.

Crosshair appears to be struggling with a headache in the finale, just as he was at the beginning of the season and just like Wrecker was for the first half.

The point of listing all this out is to emphasize how ambiguous this whole situation is. I don’t want to use this post to argue one way or another about whether Crosshair’s chip is really out. I have my preferred theory (the chip’s still in, but only partially functional), but at the end of the day none of this is conclusive. The writing takes us in what I hope is deliberate circles. Crosshair says the chip is out? Crosshair is not a reliable source of information until we know if the chip is out. What other evidence is there that the chip is gone? A scar? We can’t see if there’s a scar. Hunter’s abilities? He only checked once for a canonically hard to find implant—if he actually checked at all. And why would the Empire want the chip out? Well, maybe it has to do with that push towards willing soldiers, but if that were the case, why leave Crosshair behind and have the “clones die together”? By that point he was one of the most willing, chip or not. Did they have to take it out because of the engine accident? Pure speculation. We just don’t know and THAT is the point I want to make.

Because it means the rest of the Bad Batch didn’t know either.

The core issue I have here is not whether the chip is in or out, or even how long it may have been in if it is out now. The issue is that TBB spent 99% of the first season believing that Crosshair was under the chip’s influence… and they didn’t try to do anything about that. They abandoned him. They left a man behind. Does this make them all horrible monsters? Of course not! This shit is complicated as hell, but I do think they made a very large mistake and that Crosshair has every right to be furious about it.

“But, Clyde, they couldn’t have gone back. It was too dangerous! Hunter had a duty to his whole team, not just Crosshair.” True enough and I’d buy this argument 100% if Hunter hadn’t spent the entire season throwing his team into dangerous, seemingly impossible situations to save other people. Crosshair became the exception, not a hard rule of something they had to avoid. They went back to Kamino for Omega, a kid they’d only had one lunch with, despite knowing how dangerous the Empire was. They went into the heart of an occupied planet to rescue not just a stranger, but one belonging to the Separatist government. They helped Sid when she asked and there was plenty of compassion for the criminal trying to take her place. Most significantly, there wasn’t the slightest hesitation to go rescue Hunter when he was under the Empire’s control, in precisely the same place. Every explanation I’ve seen fans come up with—Kamino is too fortified, they don’t know where Crosshair is, they can’t risk Omega being captured, etc.—also holds true for Hunter, yet there wasn’t a second of doubt about needing to at least try to help him. And his rescue was arguably far more dangerous given that TBB knew they were walking into a trap. Going after Crosshair would have at least had some element of surprise.

I think the problem with these justifications is most easily seen in “Rescue on Ryloth” and, later, “War-Mantle.” In the former, we do watch Hunter decide that going on a rescue mission is too much of a risk, only for Omega to talk him into considering it.

Hunter: “It’s a big galaxy. We can’t put ourselves on the line every time someone’s in trouble.”

Omega: “Why not? Isn’t that what soldiers do?”

Hunter: “It’s not worth the risk.”

Omega: “She’s trying to save her family, Hunter. I’d do the same for you.”

The arguments that sway him are ‘Soldiers should help people’ and ‘Soldiers should specifically help their family.’ So… what does that say about their feelings for Crosshair? They’re willing to put themselves on the line for the parents of a girl they met once at a drop site, but not their own brother? That’s the message the writing sends. “But, Clyde, the difference is that they had an advantage here. Hera’s knowledge of her home planet tipped the odds in their favor.” Yeah… and Crosshair is stationed on TBB’s home planet. Even more than them collectively having the same knowledge that Hera does, “Return to Kamino” reveals that Omega always had additional, insider knowledge of the base: she has access to a secret landing pad and the tunnels leading up into the city. That knowledge was given and used the second Hunter’s freedom was on the line, but it never once came up to use for Crosshair’s benefit.

“War-Mantle’s” mission puts this problem in even sharper relief. Another claim I’ve seen a lot is that TBB only took risky rescue missions because they needed to be paid. The guys have got to eat after all. Yet Tech makes it clear that going after Gregor will lose them money. They’re meant to be on a mission for Sid and deviating for that won’t result in a payment. He explicitly says that if they decide to do this, they won’t eat. They do it anyway. No money, no intel, a huge risk “on a clone we don’t even know.” But that’s not what’s important, the show says. All that matters is that a brother is in trouble. This time it’s Echo pushing that message instead of Omega. When Hunter realizes that they’re about to try and infiltrate an entire facility and they don’t even know if this clone is still alive, Echo points out that they took that risk once before: for him. “If there’s a chance that trooper is being held against his will, we have to try and get him out.”

Yes! Exactly right! So why doesn’t that apply to Crosshair?

“Because he tried to kill them, Clyde!” No, that’s the easy, dismissive answer. A chipped Crosshair tried to kill them. AKA, a Crosshair entirely under the Empire’s control. The only difference between his enslavement and Gregor’s is that Gregor’s chains were physical while Crosshair’s were mental. And again, the point of everything at the start of this post is to show that no one knows when or even if that chip was removed. TBB definitely didn’t have any reason to suspect that Crosshair was working under his own power until Crosshair himself said as much. We might have been able to make that case at the start of the season, but “Battle Scars” removes any possible confusion. The entire team watched Rex reach for his blaster when he learned their chips were still in. The entire team watched Wrecker become a totally different person and attack them, just like Crosshair did. The entire team forgave him instantly and had their own chips removed. So why in the world didn’t anyone go, “Wow, Crosshair has a chip too. He was no more responsible for attacking us than Wrecker was. We need to try to get him out, no matter how hard that might be, just like we had to try for all these other people we’ve helped.”

But they didn’t. No one even considered rescuing Crosshair. They only went back for Hunter and, when they realized Crosshair was there too, they didn’t change their plans to try and rescue him as well. He’s treated as a particularly threatening inconvenience, not another team member in need of their help.

The problem I have with how this all went down is that the team treated Crosshair like an enemy despite all evidence to the contrary. Despite Omega outright saying that this isn’t his fault, it’s the chip, the group seems to decide that he’s gone crazy or something and that there’s nothing they can do. “It’s fine,” I thought. “They don’t really get what the chip is like yet. They don’t understand how thoroughly it controls someone.” But then “Battle Scars” arrives and Wrecker is treated with such compassion (which he deserves!) only for the group to continue acting like Crosshair is somehow different. It’s easy to say, “But Crosshair shot Wrecker” and ignore the easy pushback of, “and Wrecker nearly shot Omega.” Up until Crosshair’s own accusations and Omega’s ignored comments, TBB’s understanding of the chip’s influence and the lack of responsibility that accompanies mysteriously disappears when the show’s antagonist becomes the subject of conversation. This is seen most clearly in how Hunter tries to frame things during his talk with Crosshair:

“You tried to kill us. We didn’t have a choice.”

“Can’t you see that they’re using you? It’s that inhibitor chip in your head.”

“You really don’t get who we are, do you?”

Hunter mentions the chip, but he acts as if it’s Crosshair’s responsibility to overcome it: “Can’t you see…” Of course he can’t see, that’s the entire point of the chip, the thing he currently believes Crosshair still has stuck in his head. But Hunter and the others—with Omega as a wonderful exception—never seem to have accepted this like they did for Wrecker. When Crosshair “tried to kill us” it’s seen as a deliberate act that he chose, not something forced on him like with Wrecker. When Hunter talks about their ethics, he subconsciously separates the team from Crosshair: “You really don’t get who we are, do you?”, revealing a pretty ingrained divide between them. Even Wrecker gets in on the action, the one brother who truly understands how much the chip controls someone: “All that time, you didn’t even try to come back.” What part of he couldn’t try is not hitting home here? Again, for the purposes of this conversation it doesn’t matter whether Crosshair was chipped this whole time or not. The point is that TBB believed he was chipped… and yet still expected him to somehow, magically overcome that programming, writing him off when he failed to do that. He’s consistently held responsible for actions that they were told (and, through Wrecker, saw) were completely outside of his control. Even when we factor in his claim that the chip was removed, TBB has ignored all the evidence I listed at the start. No one, not even Omega, challenges this super vague and strange claim, or seeks out proof because they don’t want to believe that their brother could willingly do this. There’s just this... acceptance that of course Crosshair went bad. Why? Because he was an asshole sometimes? Taking it all as written, it doesn’t feel like the batch considered him a true part of the team. Certainly not like Wrecker or Hunter. As shown, the batch will go out of their way, risk anything, forgive anything, for them. They have a level of faith that was never shown to Crosshair.

“Severe and unyielding,” Tech says and he’s absolutely right, but I’d seriously challenge this idea that any of the others would have automatically done better if the situations were reversed. It stood out to me that each batch member has a moment of doubt throughout the series, a brief glimpse into how they think the Empire isn’t that bad, at least when it comes to this particular thing. Basically, a moment that could lead to a very dangerous line of thinking without others to stomp it down. Wrecker announces that he’s happy working for whoever, provided they give him food and let him blow things up. Tech finds the chain codes to be an ingenious strategy and is clearly fascinated with their development. Hunter initially wants Omega to stay on Kamino, despite knowing that this Empire has already, systematically killed an entire group of people: the Jedi. Doesn’t matter. She’s still (supposedly) safer there than she would be running with the likes of them.

There’s absolutely no doubt that those three made the correct choice in defying the Empire, but I believe that their ability to make that choice is largely dependent on them having each other. They survive together, not apart, and it’s their unity that allows them to make the really hard calls, like setting out on their own and opposing such a formidable force. But if Tech’s chip had activated and he’d been left behind, would he have muscled through to escape somehow...or would he have gotten caught up in all the new technology the Empire offered him, succumbing to both his chip and the inevitability that if his squad no longer wanted him, why not stay? Would Wrecker have escaped, or been easily manipulated into a new life of exploding things? Would Hunter have been able to push through without his brothers, or would he have become devoted to a new team to lead? Obviously there’s no way to ever know, but it’s always easier to make the right decisions when you have support in doing so. Crosshair had no support. His team left him and yes, they had to in that specific moment, but the point is that they never came back. As far as we saw throughout the season, they never planned to come back. They all talk about loving the Crosshair who existed when life was easier, but they weren’t willing to fight for the Crosshair that most needed their help. When he says “You weren’t loyal to me,” he’s absolutely right. The same episode, “Return to Kamino,” gives Omega two powerful lines that the group rallies behind:

Omega: “[The danger] doesn’t matter. Saving Hunter is what matters.”

AZ: “You must leave.”

Omega: “Not without Hunter.”

The key word there is “Hunter.” Danger, stakes, risk, probability… none of that matters when Hunter needs help. Crosshair did not receive that same level of devotion.

Which creates a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. The group is upset that Crosshair isn’t rejoining them, but they fail to realize that he has no reason to trust them anymore. He’s not joining the Empire because he’s inherently evil and that’s that, end of discussion. He’s joining it because above all Crosshair wants a place to belong… and TBB has made it clear—unintentionally—that he does not belong with them. The horrible actions that Crosshair took under his own free will (theoretically) came after he realized that doing bad things while under the Empire’s control was, apparently, unforgivable. If it wasn’t, his team would have come back to rescue him. They could have at least tried. But they didn’t, so Crosshair is left with the conclusion that either what he did under the Empire’s control is something the group can’t forgive him for, or they can forgive that (like with Wrecker) and he’s the problem here. He’s the one not worth that effort.

“The Empire will be fazing out clones next,” Hunter says. To which Crosshair responds, “Not the ones that matter.”

He wants to matter to someone and events show he no longer matters to his brothers. So why not stay with the Empire? I mean, we as the audience ABSOLUTELY know why not. Self-doubt and feelings of isolation aren’t excuses for joining the Super Evil Organization. Crosshair, if he is under his own control, is still 100% in the wrong for supporting them, no matter his reasons. So it’s not an excuse, but rather an explanation of that very human, flawed, fallible thinking. He needs to be useful. He needs to be wanted. Crosshair is an absolute dick to the regs and I have no doubt that a lot of that stems from the harassment TBB has experienced from them (with a side of his inflated ego), but I’d bet it’s also due to Crosshair’s intense desire to be valuable to someone. He keeps pointing out the regs’ supposed deficiencies because it highlights his own usefulness. When Crosshair fails to find Hera, the Admiral says that soon he’ll get someone who can, looking straight at Howzer at the door. It makes Crosshair seethe because his entire identity is based on being useful, yet no one seems to need him anymore. TBB seems to no longer want him. The Empire no longer wants clones. Now even regs are considered a better option than him, the “superior” soldier. Everywhere Crosshair turns he’s getting the message that he’s not wanted, but he’ll keep fighting to at least be needed in some capacity, no matter how small. Even if that means overlooking all the horrors the Empire commits.

“All you’ll ever be to [the Empire] is a number,” Hunter says and he’s absolutely right. But to TBB recently, Crosshair hasn’t even been that. He’s been nothing. Nobody worth coming back for. To his mind, at least being a number is something.

I hope that all of this resolves itself into a conclusion that is kind to each side (preferably without a Vader-style death redemption), especially given the still ambiguous state of the chip, but from a writing standpoint I’m admittedly a bit wary. We’re obviously meant to believe that the batch all love each other, but as established throughout this entirely too long post, this season did a terrible job imo of proving that they love Crosshair. Or, at least, proving that they love him as much as the others. If this was really meant to be just a matter of miscommunication, with Crosshair making terrible life choices because he only thinks he was abandoned, then we as the audience would have seen the batch trying and failing to get him out. Or at least establishing a very good reason why they couldn’t take that risk, hopefully with entirely different side-missions so the audience isn’t constantly going, “So you can risk everything for Gregor... but not Crosshair?” I’m VERY glad that Crosshair was allowed to air his grievances to the extent he did, but the end result of that—Hunter continually denying this, Omega walking away from him in their rooms, neither Tech nor Wrecker actually sticking up for him and acknowledging the chip’s influence during at least some of all this—is making things feel rather one-sided. It’s like we’re meant to take Crosshair at his word and accept that he’s this garden-variety antagonist who joins the Empire because yay being on the winning side… despite all these complications that clearly have a huge impact on how we read the situation. It doesn’t help that the show has already embraced an inconsistent manner of portraying chipped-clones. We know every clone has one, we know only a couple clones are aware of the chip’s existence (and can thus try to get it out), we know they enter a “Good soldiers follow orders” mindlessness once activated… yet towards the end we see a lot of side character clones thinking for themselves. Howzer decides that he’s no longer loyal to the Empire, giving a speech where a couple other clones throw down their weapons too. Gregor was arrested because he likewise realized how wrong this all was. But how is that possible? Do the chips completely control the clones, or not? Are these clones somehow exceptions? Are the chips beginning to fail? All of that has a bearing on how we read Crosshair—what were his own decisions, how much he was capable of overcoming the chip, whether that changed at all during certain points—but right now that remains really unclear.

It’s details like that which make me wonder if all these other questions will be answered. Will the story resolve all those ambiguous moments surrounding the chip, or brush them off with the belief that we should have just taken Crosshair at his equally ambiguous word? Will the story acknowledge Crosshair’s points through someone other than Crosshair, allowing it to exist as a legitimate criticism, rather than the presumed excuses of an antagonist? I’m… not sure. On the whole I’m very happy with TBB’s writing—despite what all this might imply lol. Until my brain picks over the season and discovers something else, my only other gripe is not allowing Omega to form a solid bond with Tech and Echo, instead putting all the focus on big brother!Wrecker and dad!Hunter. I think it’s a solid show that does a lot right, but I’m worried that, unless there’s a brilliant answer to all these questions and an intent to unpack both sides of the Hunter vs. Crosshair debate with respect—not just falling back on, “Well, Crosshair is with the Empire so everything he says is automatically bad and wrong” take—we’ve just gotten the setup for a somewhat messy, ethical story. For anyone here who also reads my RWBY metas, I’m pretty sure you’re not at all surprised that I’m invested in going, “Hey, you had one of the heroes suddenly become/join a dictatorship and do a lot of horrific things, but within a pretty complicated context. Can we please work through that carefully and with an acknowledgement of the nuance here, rather than throwing the ‘evil’ character to the proverbial wolves?”

God knows TBB is leagues ahead of RWBY, but I hope things continue on in not just a good direction, but one that tackles the aspects of this situation that many fans—and Crosshair—have already pointed out. As much as I adore the cast—and I really, really do—it was discomforting to watch a found family show where 4/5th of that family so completely wrote off one of the members and crucially have, at least so far, refused to acknowledge that. I want complicated, flawed characters, but that’s only compelling when the storytelling admits to and grapples with those flaws. We have quite firmly established Crosshair’s flaws in Season One. I hope Season Two delves into the rest of the team’s too.

Aaaand with that meta-dump out of my system, I’m off to write TBB fic. Thanks for reading! :D

#The Bad Batch #TBB #Crosshair #Star Wars #SW #mymetas #do I take my life in my hands #by posting SW meta?#probably lol

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cyndavilachase · 4 years

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I’m Looking Forward Now 💖Thank you and good bye

So, it’s been a little over a week since Steven Universe Future ended…

I’ve been hesitant to write this, honestly, but I’m tired of holding myself back from properly expressing myself in fear of appearing overly invested in the media I consume, even in private. Writing helps me organize my thoughts and feelings, and I feel like these thoughts in particular may resonate with many, so I want to share them. I want to talk about what Steven Universe has done for me personally, both as an artist, and as a person.

I’ve been around since the day the first episode of the original series aired. I actually remember when Steven Universe was just a logo on Wikipedia’s “List of Upcoming Cartoon Network Shows” list, back when I was a freshman in high school. It piqued my interest, but when commercials finally dropped for it, I thought it was going to be bad because of the way marketing handled introducing Steven as a likeable character. There was still something about it that made me want to give it a chance though, so I went online and watched the pilot before the first episode's release. I was hooked immediately. I knew I was going to love it, and I did. I fell so absolutely in love with Steven as a character, and the world that he and the gems lived in. I became obsessed. I was always so excited for new episodes to come out. Little did I know what else it would do for me as I went through my adolescence alongside it.

As the show progressed, it was evident that what I wanted out of a western animated childrens’ cartoon was finally coming into fruition: this show was becoming serialized. There was continuity, there was plot, there was character development-- it was getting deep. It was pushing the groundwork that Adventure Time laid out even further (thank you, Adventure Time).

I will give credit where credit is due: earlier western childrens’ cartoons I grew up with like Hey Arnold, and Rugrats, among others, also touched on heavy topics, but Steven Universe was able to take similar ideas (and even more complex ones, concerning mental health and relationships) and expand on them outside of contained episodes and/or short arcs. These themes, which were a part of the show’s overarching story, spanned across its entirety. Continuity was rampant.

What did this mean? It meant kids cartoons didn’t have to be silly and fun all the time and characters weren’t just actors playing a part in 11-minute skits. Steven and the gems would remember things that happened to them, and it affected them and how they would function and play a part in their story. This was a huge deal to me as a teenager. I always wanted the cartoons I grew up with featuring kid characters to feel more. In my own work, I often felt discouraged when combining a fun, cutesy western art style with themes as dark or layered as anime would cover. I always thought it had to be one or the other because an audience wouldn’t take a combination of the two seriously enough, based on discussions I had with classmates, friends, and online analysis I read at the time. Steven Universe proved to me otherwise. This show was opening the door for future cartoons exploring in-depth, adult concepts. I felt so seen as a kid, and was inspired to stick with what I love doing.

I was actually very worried about the show’s survival. It was in fact immensely underrated and the fandom was miniscule. Then in 2014, JailBreak dropped, and it’s popularity exploded. Part of it was because of the complex plot and the themes it was covering like I mentioned, but also because of its representation.

I remember when fandom theorized that Garnet was a fusion due to grand, tragic reasons. Turns out, she’s simply a metaphor for a very loving w|w relationship. This was huge. I cannot stress how important it is that we continue to normalize healthy canon queer relationships in childens’ media, and Steven Universe finally was the first to do that proper. Introducing these themes offers the chance for a kid to sit there and ask themselves, “Why is this demonized by so many people?” I asked myself exactly that. Ruby and Sapphire were my cartoon LGBT rep. They were the first LGBT couple I ever ecstatically drew fanart of. I was dealing with a lot of internalized homophobia at the time, and they showed me that I was allowed to love women and feel normal about it. The process of overcoming this was a long one, but they played a part in my very first steps into becoming comfortable with my sexuality. I could go on and on about it’s representation in general-- how it breaks the mold when it comes to showcasing a diverse set of characters in design, in casting, and in breaking gender roles. It’s focus on love and empathy. Steven himself is a big boy, but he's the protagonist, and the show never once makes fun of his weight, or any other bigger characters for that matter. It wasn’t hard to see why the fandom had grown so large.

Fandom was always a joy for me. It was a hobby I picked up when I was in middle school, like many of us here did. I would always cater my experience to fun, and fun only. I only started getting more deeply involved in SU’s fandom when I had just turned into an adult. During the summer of 2016, between my first and second year of college, I drew for the show almost every day non-stop when the Summer of Steven event was going on and posted them online. This was a form of practice for me in order to become not just more comfortable with experimenting with my art, but also to meet new artists, make new friends, and learn to interact with strangers without fear. I dealt with a ton of anxiety when I was in high school. When I was a senior applying to art school for animation, I decided I was going to overcome that anxiety. I made plans to take baby steps to improve myself over the course of my 4 years of college. Joining the fandom, while unforeseen, was definitely a part of that process. I started feeling more confident in sharing my ideas, even if they were fan-made. I fell in love with storyboarding after that summer, when I took my first storyboarding class, and genuinely felt like I was actually getting somewhere with all of this. I remember finally coming to a point in my classes where I could pitch and not feel hopelessly insecure about it. I was opening up more to my friends and peers.

But this process, unfortunately, came to a screeching halt.

My life completely, utterly crumbled under me in the Fall of 2017 due to a series of blows in my personal life that happened in the span of just a couple weeks. My mental health and sense of identity were completely destroyed. All of that confidence I had worked for-- completely ruined. I was alone. I nearly died. My stay at college was extended to 4 and half years, instead of the 4 I had intended. I lost my love for animation-- making it, and watching it. I could no longer watch Steven Universe with the same love I had for it beforehand. It’s a terrible thing, trying to give your attention to something you don’t love anymore, and wanting so desperately to love again. I dropped so many things I loved in my life, including the fandom.

Healing was a long and complicated road. I continued to watch the show all the way up until Change Your Mind aired in the beginning of 2019, and while I still felt empty, that was definitely a turning point for me with it’s encapsulation of self-love. I was hoping James Baxter would get to work on Steven Universe since he guest-animated on Adventure Time, and it was incredible seeing that wish actually come true. The movie came out and while I enjoyed it and thought highly of it, I was still having issues letting myself genuinely love things again, old and new. It was especially difficult because cartoons were my solace as a kid, when things got rough at home. I remember feeling sad because the show ended, and not getting the chance to love it again like I used to while it was still going.

By the time Steven Universe Future was announced, I was finally coming around. I was genuinely starting to feel excitement for art and animation again. I wasn’t expecting there to be a whole new epilogue series, but happily ever after, there we were! Prickly Pear aired, and the implications it left in terms of where the story was going did it. I was finally ready to let myself take the dive back into fandom in January of this year. My art blew up, something I wasn’t expecting considering my 2-year hiatus. Following this, I was invited into a discord server containing some of the biggest writers, artists, editors, and analysts in the fandom. I had no idea there were so many talented people in the fandom, some already with degrees, some getting their degrees-- creating stuff for it on the side just for fun. The amount of passion and productivity level here is insane, and so is the amount of discussion that has come out of it.

I didn’t realize it at first, but it was actually helping me gain back the courage to share ideas. I lost my confidence in pitching while I was taking the time to heal, and graduating meant there would no longer be a classroom setting I could practice in. This group helped immensely.

I have made so many friends through this wonderful series, and I have so many fond memories talking to like-minded creatives, getting feedback and a myriad of sources for inspiration, as well as all of the memes and jokes and weekly theorizations that came about as we all waited on the edges of our seats for episodes to air. I needed this so badly, I needed to get back in touch with my roots, when I would go absolutely hog-wild over a cartoon I loved with people who loved it as much I did. Future has been a blessing for me in this way. I graduated feeling like I was back at square-one, but now I feel like I’m on my way again.

It’s 2020 and while I’m doing great right now, I am honestly still recovering from the total exhaustion that followed after graduating a few months ago, and finally leaving the campus where my life fell apart behind. Needless to say, watching Future was like looking into a mirror. Watching one of my favorite characters of all time-- one that grew up with me-- go through so many of the same things I went through not too long ago was absolutely insane to watch unfold. It’s such an important thing too, to show a character go through the process of breaking down over trauma and all the nasty things that come with it, and to have them go on the road to healing. Steven got that therapy. He wasn’t blamed. The gems were called out. The finale was everything I could have ever hoped for. The catharsis I experienced watching it was out of this world.

As I continue my own healing journey, I will always look up to the storyboard artists, revisionists, and designers that I have been following over these past 7 years, as well as the new ones introduced in Future. It's been such a joy watching these artists release their promo art for episodes, talk about their experiences working on the show, and post the work they've done for it alongside episodes airing.

Thank you Rebecca Sugar, the Crewniverse, and the fans, for making this such a truly wonderful and unique experience. Thank you for reminding me that I am, and always will be, an artist, a cartoonist, and a fan. Thank you, my followers, for the overwhelmingly positive response to my artwork. I have had so much fun interacting and discussing the show with you all again over these past few months. Steven Universe and it’s fandom will always have a special place in my heart, and it will always be a classic that I will return to for comfort and inspiration for decades to come. I am sad that the cartoon renaissance is over, but so many doors have been opened thanks to this show. I am so, so excited to see what this show will inspire in the future, and I hope one day I get the opportunity to be a part of that.

Goodbye Steven, thank you for everything. I wish you healing, and I wish Rebecca and the team a well-deserved rest. ♥️

-Cynthia D.

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saintapoptosis · 3 years

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Dark Entries: A Goth Music Overview

The tags on that aux cord post are really grinding my gears on this Monday evening so I’m making it my responsibility to educate people on this site as to what goth music actually is. I know this is going to get on some people’s nerves and generate some discourse because the “what is goth?” debate never seems to end, but at the end of the day I’m just some stranger on the internet who’s not even old enough to be in most goth clubs in my country. This is just my interpretation and explanation of it all for the curious.

The long and short of it is that goth is a music based subculture. there’s no requirement to being goth other than listening to the music- which seems to be what’s confusing a surprisingly high people on this site. i’m not going to judge you for calling mother mother or my chemical romance goth up until this point. the subculture is largely underground and obscure by nature. Popular legend has it that the goth scene was born in 1979 when British rock band Bauhaus released the nine-minute long single Bela Lugosi’s Dead, but if you ask me that oversimplifies how it all started and isn’t even their best classic goth song. Goth is better understood as a progression from the punk explosion of the late 70s to what came after: the aptly named post-punk genre and beyond. Goth wasn’t the only genre that came from post-punk- new wave, shoegaze, and most alternative rock as we know it did too! Post-punk (British post-punk specifically) was and continues to be a lot of things compared to punk: noisier, faster, slower, stripped-down, more “intellectual”, weirder, and more emotional than early punk rock (the early British goth scene was also heavily linked to one particular club in London called the Batcave which just makes sense). Bands like Joy Division, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bauhaus, the Cure and the Sisters of Mercy also brought a dark, gloomy feel to the experimental do-it-yourself attitude of post-punk and are widely considered to be the founding gothic rock bands. Groups like Xmal Deutschland, Clan of Xymox, Sex Gang Children, Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, and Pink Turns Blue are also hugely important to understanding the sound of the early scene (as well as the look) but didn’t achieve the same mainstream success.

But to make matters more complicated, there’s more than one goth “genre” because none of this is simple and no one agrees on this stuff in the scene. The usual laundry list of “goth” genres is as follows: gothic/goth rock, post-punk (widely contested ), darkwave, ethereal wave, deathrock, coldwave, and sometimes industrial. Angela Benedict explains it well in this video. Deathrock in particular is interesting because it was basically the “American version” of goth music and subculture for a long time and is widely called “too punk for goth and too goth for punk”. Darkwave and industrial are products of the scene getting its start in the early 80s when synthesizers became commercially available. Whether or not industrial in particular counts as “goth” or not is one of the quickest ways to start a fight among goths and also because nobody seems to be able to agree on what’s “real” industrial music. Metal isn’t widely considered to be goth music proper but I have yet to meet a goth who doesn’t like at least a little bit of metal. Historically that crossover didn’t really happen until metal started getting more creative as well (after all, the 80s were the golden age of fratty hair metal and toxic masculinity and neither of those things mesh well with goth style and sensibilities).

Now that I’m done rambling about the early history of the goth scene, here’s some short answers to the inevitable goth faqs:

Isn’t goth also about aesthetic and fashion?

Yes, but they can’t be fully separated from the music and community. The music generally inspires the fashion and we really like copying the outfits, hair, and makeup of musicians. Goths don’t own in dressing in all black and there’s plenty of goths out there who don’t “dress like it” (including myself and MANY goth and post-punk musicians).

Are you all satanists/pagans/witches? Are you all kinky?

More often than the average person but it’s more a consequence of being in a counterculture community than anything else. Goth and alternative women aren’t your fetish or your future “big titty goth gf”. We just like a certain style of music and just happen to dress weirdly sometimes.

Why don’t more people know that goth is about music?

Goth music generally doesn’t sell well because so much of it is too abrasive or weird and most artists are pretty far underground. Goth musicians also had a habit of denying involvement with “the goth scene” early on and goths, punks, metalheads, and emos are generally lumped together in mainstream media. Gothic fashion is much easier to rip off and sell than the subculture itself is. You (and more likely than not) your parents have probably heard and enjoyed semi-“goth” music before if you like Depeche Mode or The Cure.

How do I get into the goth subculture?

Listen to the music. Spotify’s Dark and Gothic playlist is surprisingly good and I’m partial to this massive Spotify user-created playlist of old and new bands and this mix on Youtube with lesser-known bangers. Goth music varies widely but a fuckton of it is made to be danced to because we hang out in clubs a lot of the time. The map below isn’t quite accurate but may be able to help you find your local community be it a club or a nonprofit organization! It’s fine to be confused and it’s perfectly alright to ease into it slowly without worrying about how to dress.

Where’s Your Goth At? A Worldwide Map of Goth Clubs and Events

Why do you guys like vampires so much?

They represent the pain and suffering of the human experience in a way that humans don’t plus Anne Rice’s Interview With the Vampire came out in the 80s and Bauhaus and David Bowie were in a movie about vampires. They also just straight up look cool.

More resources:

Before Bauhaus: How Goth Became Goth - a history of the dark music that paved the way for the scene. this channel has a couple more goth history videos.

Poseurs, Elitists, and Goth - a good explanation for why listening to goth music matters as well as why being a hardass about listening to the “right” goth music sucks. also very entertaining and made by @cadaverkelly who’s posted a TON of goth music on this site and has an entire channel dedicated to the subculture.

The Music of the Goth Subculture: Postmodernism and Aesthetics - an academic paper for nerds like me to parse through that has a ton of context and analysis on the goth movement and its origins.

#goth music #80s goth #goth subculture #goth #gothic #zemmoa.txt #what prescription adderall does to a mfer #long post #bauhaus #the cure #joy division #post-punk #siouxsie and the banshees #new wave #music history #punk

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