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#its why vee refers to himself in third person
mdhwrites · 6 months
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Why TOH really doesn't want a theme of discrimination.
Every demon in the show is depicted as evil, dumb or as good... because they don't want to be a part of demon culture.
That's the thesis and it's not an over exaggeration. In the main cast, the only demon of the DEMON REALM is Hooty who is treated as slow, less intelligent than the other members of the cast, and as a joke by the writers as he never elevates himself above being simply comic relief. Association with him seems to be the earliest sign that Lilith is meant to be seen as a joke and her relationship with Hooty ostracizes her from the rest of the cast. Makes her appear weird because she's the only one who can like the bird tube.
Otherwise, they're all antagonists. Most of them are just one note villains for that matter. In S1, every demon with a real speaking role is a villain. The monster hunters, Warden Wrath, Tibbles, the basilisk, the publisher for King and even Boscha if her third eye denotes demonic heritage. Anyone who we see at least as neutral are pretty much just background characters. The ones from the prison in the first episode are really the only ones who get a moment of heroism.
Now you might say: What about Bat Queen? She's the richest person on the Isles and she... Isn't a demon. She's a palisman. Made by, or at least for, a god with the insinuation they give. Bare minimum: Not for any demon known to the Isles. So she doesn't count.
There ARE witch antagonists in S1 thankfully. They're Matt, who goes on to obviously be a good person at heart, Amity who... Duh and Lilith who is also redeemed. None of this happens to any of the demons though even if ostensibly this is their world since the entire dimension is named after demons.
Which, as a note, also is part of why saying TOH is anti-colonial means ignoring an entire race.
Even KING, who should have been the demon representative in the main cast, was then retconned not to be one. Worse yet, only once that retcon began did the show start treating him with any real respect. As a demon... He was just a dumb comic relief character as far as the show is concerned.
So when we FINALLY get a reoccurring demon... It's Kikimora. That should be all I need to say there.
Now the final argument: Vee. Vee is a good person, right? She's not a villain or antagonist, just a good person. And you would be right. The framing on Vee is the problem. As the ONE genuinely just good demon, we have to evaluate how she is different. She is different... Because she rejected the Demon Realm. Her parallels with Luz are even supposed to make it clear that she is better at being a human THAN LUZ. Which has the awful implication, if we want to say TOH has anti-discrimination theme, that the only good demon, is a domesticated demon. One who wants to be a human.
That's. Fucking. Awful.
And just to cover my bases: Yes, discrimination is more than a race thing but the concept of discrimination on race is actually pretty much the only one ever brought up. The fact that no one gives a shit about ethnicity or sexuality or gender actually hurts the theme because you have to project those things onto the show instead. And any allegory to discrimination is explicitly done through races. Fantasy races but that still frames it as a racial issue so its theme on anti-discrimination is going to struggle to branch out beyond racial lines because it effectively ignores that any other form of discrimination might even EXIST.
And for the finale!... I don't think any of this is on purpose by the writers. Yes, they bring discrimination into the show but just like how real life conflicts will often ignore the complexities of all the groups present, such as us referring to all Native Americans as one whole group rather than their separate tribes and histories, the show effectively forgets about the demons. They're just there for flavor because if literally all of the characters of the demon realm were elves, it wouldn't feel like it fits the name at all. It adds spice to a scene and adventure if you have demons of all sorts and sizes.
But the witches are the conventionally attractive characters who are easy to latch onto and so they are the main cast. Everything that looks other becomes a target for villainy because of that juxtaposition. Unfortunately, none of this helps any sort theme of inclusivity. That we are supposed to look past the outer shell and see the person within, regardless, race, gender, sexuality, etc. like that.
Instead, TOH tells a very basic fantasy story and in doing so, falls into the fact that a lot of classic fantasy was written by racist white dudes and the fact that the term demon is charged due to LOTS of religions that paint them out as wholly evil. Without actually interrogating these concepts, it can be easy to fall into them.
So yeah, I think this is a theme people need to stop trying to apply to TOH.
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swiftfootedachilles · 4 months
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achilles! pls talk to me about early gallavich with trans mickey and enby ian, your thoughts are always such a delight <3
YAAAAYYY SOMEBODY WHO CARES ABOUT T4T GALLAVICH!!!!!🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
honestly - staying within canon as much as possible - i think nb ian would be essentially the same. he feels content enough with being considered a boy that he never considered any alternatives. he doesnt really learn about genders outside the binary until he dates trevor, and it takes a lot of dismantling internalized cisheteronormativity to fully realize himself
when he and mady start hanging out, he tries the whole "im gay on queer" facade for a few days but it falls apart pretty quickly when he and mandy get high and she convinces him to let her do his makeup. he loves baking with debbie no matter how many offensive things lip yells from the living room. he even kinda likes when fiona and vee and getting ready for a night out and they ask him what he thinks of their outfits
after he and mickey start banging and kinda becoming friends, he asks mickey questions about how he knew he was a guy, how be knew he was gay, etc. and its definitely eye-opening to him. he cant explain why, but it makes him super uncomfortable when transphobes say "youre fucking a trans guy so youre essentially straight" like being gay is just such a huge part of what makes ian ian. he doesnt figure it out for years, but its because being gay is inherent to his gender. being gay isnt just being a guy who fucks guys (though thats definitely the best part). its informs not just how be interacts with other men but how he views himself. his feelings are comparable to that of lesbians and dykes whose genders are simply "lesbian" or "dyke." theres a culture that surrounds it and complicates ones relationship with gender. hes a queer, a pansy, a fag. hes gay!!!
especially after dating trevor, ian sees gender as very performative and becomes somewhat gender-apathetic. he doesnt feel dysphoria and is still comfortable being viewed as a man and calling himself one. but he doesnt have strong ties to maleness like mickey does. mickey knows hes a man. he feels like his body is disconnected to his mind, he hates being viewed as anything other than male, he is very dedicated to the social performance of masculinity. where he gets upset about "not passing enough" if someone asks his pronouns, ian loves when someone asks him and doesnt immediately assume he primarily or only uses he/him. he loves dressing up nice to go to the gay bar (aka show off mickey) and people say "girl i love your outfit so much" "she is the moment!" it just makes him feel warm and sunny inside. he lets franny horribly paint his nails and get lipstick all over his face. he has deep philosophy conversations with liam about gender, sexuality, race, and societal expectations for all 3. he lets mickey introduce him as "spouse" to strangers. he gives mickey second hand embarrassment by referring to his dick in the third person as "she." ian is just vibing and living her best life!!!!
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Go Go Nekoma! Push it, Push it Nekoma! Coaches Chemisty (pt. 1)
Warnings: Angst, breakups, mention of virginity loss, Swearing
⚠️THIS FIC IS 18+ NSFW, MINORS DNI ⚠️
Word count: 6000+ (split into 3 parts)
"I'm really sorry Y/N. I just don't see this going anywhere. We are both leaving for college soon and going to different schools at that" your boyfriend of the past 2 years, Naoi Manabu said as he looked down to the ground kicking the dirt below his feet.
Your eyes watered as you drown out the words he's saying.
"B-but we can make this work. I can come see you on weekends and we can still see each other over holidays and school breaks" you plead trying to save a relationship you know is doomed.
The past weeks had been rough to say the least. Manabu had been growing distant from you. Making excuses and staying later for volleyball practice to avoid walking home with you. To say it hurt would be an understatement. It broke your heart.
"Y/N I'm sorry, I just can't do this" Manabu said as he looked up seeing tears welling in your eyes.
"I love you. Doesn't that mean anything?" You say sternly as tears roll down your cheeks.
"Y/N-" he starts saying as you place your hand in front of his face.
"No. Don't. I gave you everything. I stuck by you through it all! I stayed late to walk with you home from volleyball practice. I came to as many games as I could! I stayed up late helping you study! Fuck I gave you my virginity!" You scream.
The emotions are just too overwhelming.
"Y/N-" Manabu tries to say as you turn.
"No. I'm done. Good luck with your life Naoi" you turn away letting the tears flow as you start to jog away.
Almost on cue the sky opens up and rain pours down on your head. This is just like one of those awful romance novels. The girl gets dumped by the love of her life only for rain to continue to dampen her day. Just fucking fantastic.
This was quite literally the worst day of your life.
*8 years later*
"Y/N darling can you please water the flowers outside. I forgot to have Vee do it this morning" Your boss asks you politely with a smile.
"Of course! Let me just finish this arrangement and I'll get to watering. You can head home if you like Bella. I know your poor husband must be starving waiting for you" you giggle as Bella rolls her eyes.
"Let him die. No good worthless piece of crap. Couldn't even take the garbage out last night like I asked him too" Bella huffed as she walked over to your table.
"Stay single Y/N, trust me getting married is for the birds. Sure you meet some handsome young man and he charms his way into your life but the MINUTE he says 'I do' its all down hill from there" Bella says to you as she sternly shakes her finger.
You can't help but laugh. Bella is in her 70s and has been married to the same man for 50 years. He's really very kind and helpful in the shop when he comes and visits. Sometimes you think Bella expects too much from her husband but she's quick to shut you up.
"If you don't establish dominance Y/N, these men will walk all over you! You are young and beautiful. You don't want any man. And if you do, find one who will worship the ground you walk on. A man who will lay his coat over a pile of manure for you to walk. A man who will put your pleasure before his own" she says as she lectures you for the 10th time this week.
Bella loved you like her own daughter. Her son had moved away years ago and wasn't around much. She often invited you and Vee to have dinner with her and her husband. The dinners were entertaining to say the least. Usually ending with Bella ranting about how naive women now a days are or how shallow men are.
You enjoyed your time with Bella and her husband even if you didn't share the same sentiment as Bella did.
You hadn't been on a date in over a year. Every relationship seemed to go the same way. There was never a connection. You tried hard through college and after to find someone but always managed to come up empty.
After you graduated college, you took a high paying job in Tokyo. While you were more than qualified for the job, it provided you with little pleasure. It wasn't until you stumbled into Bella's flower shop that you found yourself truly happy.
Surrounded by beautiful flowers and arrangements. It was like heaven. You returned to Bellas weekly to get a bouquet. Soon you found yourself becoming friends with Vee and Bella. It wasn't until Bella mentioned needing help that you made the decision to quite your job and start anew. While the jobs pay was much less than you had become accustom too, your lifestyle really didn't change. You sold your suits in exchange for overhauls, shorts and t-shirts. You got accustomed to dirt below your fingers rather than finely manicure nails. Sure it was a big change but you were so much happier.
You're days were long and busy. Often starting early and closing late. You didn't have family close by, and no significant other so you often took extra shifts and offered to help so the other two ladies could enjoy their husband's.
Both ladies knew about your past dating relationships and the "one that got away" as they so ironically referred to it.
You couldn't lie to yourself. You often thought of Naoi Manabu.
What was he doing?
You were sure he had to be married by now. It had been 8 years since you had last seen him.
After you broke up, you avoided the man like the plague. It helped you only had a week before school ended and you graduated. It didn't seem like he was too worked up over your break up. You had spent far too many nights crying over him.
You felt like you had lost the love of your life.
You, in fact, had.
💐🏐💐🏐💐🏐💐🏐💐🏐💐🏐💐🏐💐🏐💐
"KENMAAAA" Coach Nekomata screams "stop running from the ball! We've been over this a million times!"
"I'd like to keep my limbs thanks" Kuzome Kenma whispers as he turns back to see Kuroo Tetsuro snickering.
"Kenma you act like you've never blocked a ball in your entire life" Kuroo teases the setter mercerously.
"Well I wouldn't have to if someone had read into the switch" Kenma glares at Kuroo who's smile drops.
"Alright that's enough" Naoi shouts as the boys return to their practice match.
He sits next to Coach Nekomata as he sighs "do you think they will be ready for nationals? We've only got a month before we leave. They've still got a long way to-"
"Naoi have faith. They will be ready. They are strong" Coach Nekomata smiles as he watches the boys continue to practice.
The game ends as the boys begin to pack up the gym.
Yaku Morisuke sighs as he finishes his stretches.
"Yaku what's got you bothered" Kuroo says as he kneels down to the team libero.
"I'm just thinking about Mai. I really like her but how do I even tell her. Confessing isn't really my strong suit" Yaku says as he rubs the back of his head.
"How about chocolates? Or maybe flowers?" Kuroo says with a smug grin "girls love flowers!"
"Tsk like you'd know Mr. Periodic Table" Kenma says non-chalantly as he walks by.
Yamamoto Taketora and Haiba Lev laugh at the rooster headed team captain as he glares at the 2nd year setter
"Are you even sure she likes short guys Yaku?" Lev laughs as the team shakes their head.
Yaku runs up to Lev kicking him straight in his back.
"Dumbass" Yamamoto shakes his head as he puts the remaining volleyballs away.
"Why don't we go check out that flower shop on the way home? What's it called like Bella's or something. It looks pretty nice" Kuroo says as he gestures to Yaku.
"Kai, you coming?" Kuroo says to his fellow third year and co-captain, Kai Nobuyuki.
"Sure I'll tag along" Kai speaks softly with a smile.
"Alright guys good practice! Remember we have practice this Saturday as well in preparation for nationals" Naoi shouts as the boys groan.
"And Kenma no skipping out. I'll have Kuroo drag you here if he has to" Naoi glares at Kenma who shakes rolls his eyes and huffs.
The boys showered and change, preparing to head to the flower shop as they wave their fellow teammates off.
Naoi boards the train heading home to his small apartment. To say things have gone to plan in his life would be an understatement. While he was doing what he loved, his love life was lacking to say the very least. He had tried numerous relationships, only to have them fail because he could never fully commit. He often found himself in a one-sided relationship where his partner would confess their love but he couldn't.
It became draining for the people he was with so he ultimately stayed single. He knew, in fact, what the problem was. The problem was that he had messed up the only relationship that mattered to him. He'd blown his chances with the only person whom he ever truly loved.
He had blown his chance with you.
When he decided to break up with you, he really thought it was for the best. He knew you had a bright future ahead of you and he couldn't help but feel like he was weighing you down. He thought it would be best to let go before it became impossible. Not that it wasn't hard to do. It broke him.
He found himself unable to date for years. You had been his first everything and you had been it. He eventually forced himself to move on. Having one night stands and short term relationships but never more. Commitment was hard when it wasn't you. He still kept the ring he had wanted to give you for your third anniversary.
Unfortunately he never got the chance to after he inevitably broke you heart. He often found himself staring at it, wondering how life would have been if he had in fact stayed with you.
By now you must be married with babies he thought to himself. It hurt to think about but he knew it would never be. You'd never be his. And he'd never be truly happy.
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Teen Wolf and the problems of Unreliable Narration
magessI have been open about how I feel about Teen Wolf's unreliable narration as a framing device, in that I think it was ambitious but it failed terribly but there is a lot of questions about it that need exploration.
Why is it unreliable? How much of it is unreliable? Why does it fail? What did it hope to achieve?
To start the meta writers en masse do not agree on how much of it is unreliable, it ranges from the last episode - almost certainly, to the last season half  - sure does explain that mess, to all of it.
I'm in the all of it camp but there is nothing absolute in the answers the show gives. 
Often that is the problem with Teen Wolf, there are no absolute answers and often when people come to us with questions that's what they want, so I know personally I give them all the information I've got with my answer so they can decide for themselves. 
but in conversation with @demonzdust about the question of unreliable narration - sort of in a vague way I realized that the understanding of what unreliable narration is was preventing understanding of what it meant.
Any story told by a fixed narrator [not an omniscient third person] is "unreliable". It is not a pejorative or negative term, it is simply a statement of truth, an axiom. This is because people, whether fictional or not, are unreliable.
The best example is five people, who are all fixedly honest, see an accident as it happens from five different places. None of these witnesses have anything to lose or gain from the accident but all five of them give unreliable eyewitness accounts. This is for several reasons, their view of the accident might be limited by foot traffic, cars, buildings, they might be in a building and see it out of the window. They might have turned their head at the noise of it and so only saw the aftermath. Then there is natural neural filling where the brain fills in details that it didn't necessarily witness, so if you see a car speeding past you and then hear an accident and turn your brain might fill in details that you didn't personally witness. Then there is how people repeating the same story might, in all innocence and unaware that they are doing so, take in aspects of someone else's version of the story. 
Then you get into the witnesses as individuals who have preconceived ideas and biases which they use to fill in the story. Even if this is innocent and non-offensive it still makes their version of accounts unreliable. 
However it being unreliable does not make it unusable, it is through correlating all of the evidence, including the eye witness testimony that a decision about what actually happened is reached, so all the details in their story that line up are used.
And that's just one accident.
In narrative we see it most often in first person narration. That one character should not have all the information or access to all of the story [it's bad writing when they do], so their narration is unreliable because of that. So in Teen Wolf how we rarely see the villains monologuing in private and when they do the lighting is often the "dream lighting" which I'll go into in more detail later. If the whole show is narrated [like How I met your mother] then these details were filled in, either imagined or told to the narrator.
There does not have to be malice in an unreliable narration - but there can be.
In Wuthering Heights for example as bad as Heathcliff is to Lockwood in Nelly's version of events [the one that Lockwood recounts] he is a puppy strangling wife-beating son of a bitch, but Nelly blames Heathcliff for the death of her beloved Catherine [who was no better than Heathcliff].
There are five types of unreliable narrator in fiction.
These are : The clown; the picaro; the naif; the liar; and the madman 
We do actually see all of these narrators in Teen Wolf.
The clown plays with expectations and narrative forms to twist the story into the version that they want = Peter does this in Visionary.
The picaro is a braggart to oversells their own part that they played in the story to make themselves seem much more spectacular than they are = Noshiko does this in the Fox and the Wolf
The naif is innocent, they do not know what is going on and tend to just roll with it, most naifs are children = The child does this in Memory Lost
The liar flat out lies, twists the story to advantage and is doing it knowingly, often to get out of some sort of crime = Gerard does this in Visionary.
If Scott is our narrator from Pilot then he is a liar pretending to be a naif, although I do not question the majority of the narrative until 6b there is evidence that Scott has tweaked some of the details very early on.
In scenes where Scott is without someone who can corroborate the story he is much more capable than he actually is, for example in season 1 in the scenes where he is alone with Allison he's got game, he is slick, flattering and amazing at flirting. In scenes where the two of them are in a group Scott completely lacks game. As Allison died she cannot corroborate that that is the way that it happened.
That scene is a great one to show unreliable narration because it doesn't mean anything, it doesn't alter the narrative, at that point the kid is more picaro than liar, but it is a lie.
Scott is introduced as a liar by his mother as early as 102, we see Stiles lie badly and Peter who we are told, often, is a liar, only lies off screen, on screen he twists the truth to get the outcome he wants. Peter is "the clown" in a vee neck sweater, but continually we see Scott lie, to his girlfriends, to Derek, often by not revealing information but sometimes he flat out lies.
And considering how he promotes what happened to make himself look better in inconsequential scenes does he do it in consequential scenes?
That's the rub
if Scott narrated the entire show then we cannot trust canon at face value, we have to investigate the glitches and come to our own conclusion.
if Scott narrated 6b it explains why it's a complete mess and the only thing narratively that makes sense of that season is him mentioning Monroe to gain Alec's trust.
if Scott narrated 620 then 6b is a mess for no reason and we can take canon up to that episode at face value.
As I said I'm in the all of it camp because there is so much reference to unreliable narrators throughout the show, the fiction named or referenced in the show is all unreliable narration [Othello, Heart of Darkness, Metamorphosis], the show uses techniques of unreliable narration [the Rashomon effect, flashbacks, other people telling stories that happened to someone] and we knew as early as season 1 that someone was skewing the events in Scott's favour. 
Or to put it simply the show believed that Scott was the hero but the narrative wasn't as keen. @Sublimeglass pointed out in season 3 that the show and tell were two very different narratives.
There is, within the study of unreliable narration, an explanation for this. It's complicated but I'll try and explain it simply, when a writer creates a narrative character they are writing in three voices [when they do it well] but not necessarily intentionally.
There is the writer with their ideas and biases and preconceived notions that the writer cannot escape [so in third person this is the omniscient voice]
there is the narrative as the writer sees it [so in teen wolf this would be the show]
there is the narrator who has their own ideas and biases [and in teen wolf this would be Scott]
it is where these three voices do not align that we get "glitches" or places where show vs tell.
A good example of this is the blue eyes. We do not know what they mean, but we know what Scott thinks that they mean.
Scott, who got the explanation from Peter, believes that you get blue eyes if you killed an "innocent", however the narrative doesn't support this [Peter doesn't lie but that doesn't mean he can't be wrong] because if blue eyes = killer the hunters would have an easy job identifying that information and removing killers from packs. There is no evidence in the show that the hunters know what the blue eyes mean, and with the evidence the show puts forth blue eyes more likely means a wolf with a power boost which was most likely from killing, but as the pain drain uses the same ability as the consumption of someone's spark [it's a minor form of it] then its likely, considering the amount of pain Scott has consumed, that if he became a beta again, even without killing, Scott would be blue eyed.
Scott believes blue eyes means killer and is therefore bad, but the narrative [the writer] doesn't agree with him.
Scott believes that villains shouldn't be killed but the narrative very much disagrees because they keep coming back, and the writer believes in the judicial system as much as possible by supporting the sheriff in his decisions more than Scott.
So we have the three voices.
Then we have "dream lighting" and mirror verse.
Mirror verse is complicated and to try and keep this meta shorter than war and peace I'll summarise it, at certain points in the narrative things change very slightly, books are reversed so they read backwards, shirts change, writing appears and disappears, character positions are flipped, clocks change time and then go back again, magnets fall from the fridge and are restored and often have nothing to do with the story as it's happening, but those scenes where it does happen often end up are often key scenes about character.
For example in season 2 when the kanima breaks out in the library the scene is in mirrorverse, and it is the scene where Erica has the epilepsy attack despite being a werewolf, in mirrorverse that is a thing that happens, and Stiles reveals knowledge that he should not have, about triggering her healing.
Dream lighting, as we've been calling it, is easier. The scene is dark, lit from behind with a blue-grey filter. We see it in every dream sequence except Lydia's in season 2, we see it when Stiles is talking to the bandaged figure in 3b, we see it in s4 when Scott dreams about killing Liam, we see it in 6b when Lydia has the visions of the spider's webs. And if it was just in dream sequences that would be it, however it's not. We see it a lot of time in scenes which Scott should have no knowledge of [both the Dennifer and Draeden sex scenes have this lighting, as does Donovan's death], in the scenes where phantasmagoria is at play [where it is hard to tell dream from reality], we see it in Scott's triumph over Peter in 412 [where he is lit like the emperor from star wars with the circular window]. The Beast in S5 is mostly shot in that lighting, when Liam and Scott fought in the library it had that lighting as well.
And the lighting tells us that those scenes are suspect, if most of the scenes are dreams then it's likely that those scenes aren't "real" either, but reality is fluid in Teen Wolf.
So it's likely that those scenes are the ones that are most unreliable, where Scott has lied. If we take Liam and Scott fighting in the library the lies might be what Scott said, it might be that he fought back against Liam, it might be that Liam said other things, or it might be that the fight never happened. It might be an innocent it happened so fast I have no idea what really happened I'll fill in the details, or it might be an entire fiction.
And there is no absolute answer, there is no answer that says this is exactly what happened.
All of the evidence says Scott is an unreliable narrator, but we can't say for how much of the story, and we can't say where he lied, but we can say why - to recruit Alec.
Far TL:DR
The narrator is unreliable but that's not necessarily a negative thing, he's a liar but his lies in the show are generally well meaning [one thing @magess said recently that was more true than she probably intended is that Scott believes himself to be a good person - he's not but he believes he is and he tries hard to be but it doesn't, at all, come naturally to him]. We can not say absolutely where the narration starts but we can say why it's unreliable and what Scott hopes to gain from it.
The next rewatch means taking more notes with what we know now, because we've got all the information we're going to get, now we have to unpack it until it won't unpack any more.
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