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asha-mage · 5 months

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WoT Meta: Prophecies, Fated Lovers, and Robert Jordan's knack for finding the nuance underneath the myth

One complaint I've never understood about the way Jordan writes romances is the persistent claim that he over uses the 'prophesied love' trope.

In part for me, I think it's a little bit folks not seeing the forest for the trees. WoT is fundamentally about the relationship between myth and reality: the place where the fallen angel meets the disgruntled academic, the bitter accountant, and the man who never got over being too short. It's a story where the messiah is real and dealing with chronic pain and PTSD from his stigmata. Where a legendary High Queen has to deal with both marching armies to the apocalypse, and the irritating banal realities of being pregnant at the same time. Of course Jordan digs into the idea of prophesied love- it's a huge theme in folklore and mythologies the world over. Jordan wants to dig into what it really means for there to be a person out there that you are destined to be with: that is a match for you, decreed so by the universe itself....and that you get absolutely no agency and choice in choosing. If anything Tumblr, which adores the 'red string of fate'/'soulmark'/'soulmates share pain'/'world is black until you look into your soulmates eyes' (to name a few of the more prevalent ones- some of which Tumblr practically invented), should be super on board for the parade of fated lovers to be found in WoT. It's nothing short of baffling to me that their not more fondly viewed.

And I think that is tied to the follow up complaint: the criticism that Jordan 'uses prophecy love as a replacement for a romance arc'. But that is something that is just. Patently untrue.

Cause the thing is that is how soulmates are often used...in the majority of soulmate au fanfics you find here and on AO3- an excuse to get the really hard part (two characters realizing they are right for each other and love each other, then having the communication skills to articulate that so they can start a relationship) out of the way, so the author can focus on the fluff or angst or other part they and the audience want to get to. And that's fine! But that's not at all what Jordan does. Just like he does with the Prophecies of the Dragon, or Elaida's fortellings, or even just most of Min's viewings- Jordan takes the idea of the prophecy soulmate, this person decreed by some higher power to be Perfect For You and being right about it, and digs deeper, shining it in different lights and attacking it from different angles. Jordan gives the concept of the soulmate teeth, explores the spines and the sharp points of it: is it real love if it's fated and not your choice? Can you trust your own feelings, or are they fate's design working against you as surely as Aphrodite worked against Helen or Eros against Apollo? What is it like, to see someone one day, and know, beyond a shadow of a doubt that you would love this stranger? This question mark? This wildcard?

Rand's relationships with Min and Aviendha, as well as Mat and Tuon's courtship are great examples of this conundrum. Min and Aviendha have completely opposite reactions to the same information that demonstrates their unique strengths and weaknesses as characters and people, while Tuon and Mat's courtship is all about two people who know they will marry trying to figure out what that means, without ever confronting the reality of those prophecies directly.

Min, as befits a Seer who has learned time and time again that her viewings can not be changed, has resigned herself in an almost fatalistic fashion to all of them, and to loving Rand no less. Min knows that she, and two others, will love him, and she accepts its inevitability the same way she accepts Colavere's death, or Logain's glory, or the shattering of the White Tower. What is, is, and there is no sense or point in struggling against it. What concerns her a great deal more is what she doesn't know- she doesn't know if Rand will love her in return, she doesn't know the identity of the other two women who will love him, and she doesn't know if he will fall in love with one or both of the others but not her. Add to that Min's own insecurities about how she stands out and doesn't fit what her society deems 'proper', between her crossdressing, and her offputting manners, and it makes perfect sense that she's worried about making Rand love her. She doesn't mind sharing him- she hates the idea of being in love with a man who doesn't love her in return, of being stuck like 'Elmindreda' of the stories, sighing and pining endlessly for a man instead of being able to act, to take control of her own fate.

So she takes control: she learns to flirt from Leane, works hard at making herself desirable, and also indispensable: with her visions, her advice, even just her emotional support to Rand when he otherwise has no one else. The irony is that whenever Rand thinks of Min prior to her return to his side in LoC, it's about how much he liked her earthy honesty and lack of wiles: how she was earnest and made him feel at ease, and didn't 'spin his head like a top'- and that's still what he loves about her after they get together: the fact that she isn't fooled by his front, that she sees him clearly and refuses to be driven away the way so many others are so easily. The point is that Min never had to change, and in the ways that matter she didn't- she only thought she did because of her own fatalism.

Contrast that with Aviendha, who, after learning about being destined to fall in love with Rand, does everything in her power to prevent that outcome- because she is a warrior, a soldier, who has never yet met a problem that could not be killed, endured, or retreated from. Aviendha values nothing so much as her honor and her word- she has promised to keep Rand safe for Elayne and what greater act of dishonor could there be in that situation then not just failing in that promise, but despoiling (and she does view it that way) said man herself? So she is awful to him in the hopes of poisoning the well of affection or at least keeping him far enough away that she is never tempted. Aviendha hurls contempt and anger at him, berates him, does everything short of trying to stab him in an effort to make him hate her, and it doesn't work. Despite all her efforts to keep her thorny wall up, they are literally made for each other and can not help but be drawn together time and again. Despite all her efforts to insist, to him and herself, that she hates him, she can not hide entirely that the opposite is true: that she likes him, sees his strength and courage and resilience, and is a little in awe of his generous kindness.

This is why she vacillates wildly between wanting desperately to get away from him in The Fires of Heaven, to not wanting to leave his side: they are two planets caught in each other's gravity, with about as much chance of escaping each other. When she resorts to the last recourse of a soldier- retreat- and runs headlong into a blizzard that would surely kill her, Rand follows to try and save her life and she can deny the truth that she loves him no longer, nor can she resist taking him, even knowing that to redress that balance, she will one day have to offer her life to Elayne (as she attempts to do in LoC)- though fate still has other plans in store.

But in many ways the apex of this, the relationship that really shows Jordan's deconstruction of this trope, is Mat and Tuon. Before they ever lay eyes on each other, each is given a prophecy that they will marry the other: not that they'll love each other, not that they will be able to trust each other, not even that that will like each other: just that they will marry. And their strange courtship is a result of this knowledge, as each attempts to suss out the other, to try and understand them without ever overplaying their own hand. Each believes that the moment they admit their prophecy they will destroy any chance of real connection or understanding.

To Tuon, if Mat learns he is destined to wed her he gains something she can not abide: power over her, leverage that could be used to subvert her own plans and visions- because nothing matters more to Tuon than control, especially over herself. So she keeps her 'fortune' secret and tries to figure out: What will it mean to be married to Mat? Will he be a pretty trophy? A liability? A threat to her Empire? Will she have to kill him once she gets her heirs?

To Mat, if Tuon learns of his prophecy, she gains the power to take away his freedom, to snare and collar him and bind him to her, because that's how Mat deep down views marriage: as a binding cord, a loss of freedom, and nothing matters to Mat more than freedom. So he keeps his *Finn gained knowledge secret and tries to figure out: What will it mean to be collared by Tuon? Will she she treat him as a pretty and plaything the way Tylin did? Will she try to use him against Rand and the Westlands? Will she make him a slave and sent him to be beaten anytime he disobeys her? Will he have no choice but to fight her one day, this woman he is going to swear to spend his life with? Will he have to kill her the way he did Melindhra, and carry that guilt of mariticide on top of all else?

So the two stay in their strange limbo, because as long as they don't admit it out loud to the other, they can pretend they are still two people forced together by happenstance, and (each thinks) they can continue to try and understand and figure out the other, to find out where this inevitability of their marriage will really leave them, and if there can be even the faintest possibility of love in such circumstances. And that limbo- that protracted refusal to act as if they are under fate's direction- is what allows them to build a genuine bond of trust and respect for each other, and to start seeing the other person with the clarity that love requires. All this, so that when Tuon finally does play her hand, and reveal the truth....it's obvious they've long since fallen in love with each other (even though Tuon won't admit that to herself), and come to trust each other (even though Mat won't admit that to himself).

And the thing is- all of Jordan’s prophecy romances are written like this: from Egwene seeing that loving Gawyn might be both their downfalls in LoC and seeking him out anyways, to Perrin misinterpreting the 'falcon and hawk' viewing and thinking Faile is a danger to him when she's the love of his life, to Galad and Berelain not even being AWARE they’re fated to fall in love and just....do, at wild first sight (Another classic folklore/mythology trope). They also never find out: always remaining unaware that the Pattern had long since decreed that they would be together and being incredibly funny/annoying about it. The prophesied love is an example of classic Jordan: taking a common, maybe even ubiquitous premise, and asking those complicating questions that allow him to write it as something much more nuanced and interesting and fascinating. And he gets no credit for it, send tumble.

#Wheel of Time #WoT #Robert Jordan #WoT Meta #Wheel of Time Meta #Min Farshaw #Aviendha #Rand al'Thor #Mat Cauthon #tuon athaem kore paendrag #randmin #avirand #mat x tuon #matuon #WoT Book Spoilers #TOM Spoilers #I wanted to write more about some of the other Fated Lovers pairs in the series but this already got insanely long

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lookismstuff · 3 months

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Highlights of Eps 487-488

SPOILER ALERT

After Charles and Gun's encounter with the Kojima Brothers ended in a stalemate (with the possibility of victory on Charles' side), Shinmyeong decided to try the partnership route with Charles, who agreed.

Hiroaki wondered why Gun chose Charles and whether this was why Gun instigated "that day" to happen, but Gun insisted that he "chose to drink the cup" with Charles already (a reference to the sake exchange).

In a fatalistic tone, Gun stated that if anything happened to him, then that was his fate.

Elsewhere, Vin explained to Seongji that he'd been cursing his mom, who died and left him behind. Seongji told him not to, leaving Vin to tease his master that he was friendless, anyway.

The Cheonliang Fam kids started wearing dark tinted glasses in solidarity with Vin, who no longer bothered to grow his hair long and cover his eyes anyway. Also, as time went by Vin had gotten stronger than them…except for the immovable Mary.

That night, after the ex servant girl managed to persuade Vin to sleep in the same room, she slipped up after Vin cursed his mother, and told him not to do so, knowing how his mother died.

In anger, Vin demanded that she explained what happened, but the girl was in a panic attack (in a very uncomfortable flashback with Taejin) after Vin shook her shoulders in his exasperation, and only after Vin gave her some water and turned his back she could relate what happened...

Meanwhile, Shinmyeong had engaged the help of Beolgu, Jaesoo and Gwang (the Gen 0 guys who in the current timeline worked for Sera's team in White Tiger) to catch Seongji. Not for free, of course: Shinmyeong promised them girls and money.

Going back to Vin and the girl, he begged her to tell the truth about his mom because he had lived all his life long with hating his mother.

It turns out that Vin's mother was kind to the girl. So when she followed the woman (the girl called her "pretty lady") as she was summoned to the dojo one day, she saw the silhouette of what happened.

As Vin's mother sat alone and all disheveled, the girl told her that she saw everything. In anxiety, Vin's mother dismissed her worries, by saying that the shaman only "guided" her...

It's implied that Vin's mother was sexually enslaved by Shinmyeong, with the vague promise of letting her and Vin go to Seoul one day.

But after the girl saw what happened the other night, Vin's mother begged to be set free from the heinous act. The shaman threatened her with Vin's freedom (that he'd be used as a sacrifice).

Shinmyeong was infuriated when Vin's mother asked what she had done wrong to deserve this horrible treatment. Then the shaman insinuated that she wasn't even the victim here, and beat her for even asking what she did wrong..

In flashbacks we saw a dark-skinned girl tearfully begging to a ssireum wrestler.

Shinmyeong proceeded to tell Vin's mother about the two but we aren't privy to it.

Outside, the girl saw the silhouette of the two and it was the last night she'd ever seen Vin's mother. And she told Vin, that she was certain that it was the shaman who caused Vin's mother's death.

At the mountain clearing, Jewoo stated that he couldn't endure the training anymore, and Seongji asked him how he would beat Vin that way.

Jewoo wondered why Vin was that strong when he started kudo and ssireum so late, with only Mary to defeat him. But even Mary admitted openly that Vin never properly attacked her (controlling his strength), and Mary could only win in judo.

Seongji said, that just like "that person" had awakened his potential, he too had awakened Vin's potential, because Vin was the son of the founder of Mujin Jin ssireum. Vin's father was none other than Mujin Jin himself, the equal of Kim Gabryong.

That night, Vin set out to the shaman's main residence, to finish him once and for all and avenge his mother.

Note:

Who was the dark skinned girl? Was she Taejin's mother? Sister? What had Vin's father done?

#lookism #lookism webtoon #lookism manhwa #vin jin #jin hobin #shinmyeong cheon #taejin cheon #seongji yook #king of cheonliang #mujin jin #lookism spoilers #lookism 487 #lookism 488

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cross-my-heartt · 1 year

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Alright folks, now that Solitary Clone and Outpost are out and we have more insight into Crosshair’s character, I thought it would be interesting to revisit some of the things he said on Kamino at the end of season one.

I’ve been meaning to make this analysis for a while but I’m glad I’m doing it now because season two gives us a lot more context and material to work with. (Let’s hope the rest of the season doesn’t make me look like a clown by throwing us a curve ball lol.)

Beware this is a quote heavy analysis.

Right off the bat I want to look at his motivations because that’s one thing people often use when they try to dub him as a villain. The thing is, Crosshair’s speech does often makes it sound there’s some more sinister ideological beliefs behind his actions.

“Crosshair, I've seen what the Empire's doing, occupying planets and silencing anyone who stands against them. You know it's not right.”

“You still don't see the bigger picture, but you will.”

But when we look into it, I think the ‘bigger picture’ for Crosshair is something much more pragmatic and cynical than it seems.

To put it simply Crosshair sees the Empire for what it is, he knows how dangerous it is and that stopping it at this point is nigh impossible (and let’s be real, if Luke had caught a stray blaster bolt at any point, the Empire wouldn’t have ended anytime soon.)

He’s even more aware of it than most because he’s on the inside so when he talks about it there’s almost this resigned fatalistic quality to it.

“They did what needed to be done. Kamino, regs, the Republic... that time is over. The Empire will control the entire galaxy, and I am going to be a part of it.”

There’s no reverence here. Compare it to the way any imperial baddie talks, Rampart, Tarkin, Sidious, etc. and you’ll see that this isn’t praise, this is just reality as Crosshair sees it. And Crosshair’s realism is really neat because it’s so uncomfortably close to the truth sometimes.

“Send her on a shuttle off-world.”

“Crosshair, don't.”

“It's for her own good. And yours.”

“Omega belongs with us.”

“Living among fugitives where she's in constant danger? You want to protect the kid, then let her go.”

___

“Blind allegiance makes you a pawn. A real leader protects his squad.”

“Look where that's gotten you. They're all going to die here because of your failed leadership.”

It’s in these moments of rationality that we see Crosshair’s perspective as someone who’s trying to protect his family at all costs, to the point where he’s almost begging.

“It's time to stop running.” (Running is too dangerous, I know the thing that’s hunting you and you can’t defeat it.)

“Don't make the same mistake twice. Don't become my enemy.” (Don’t pick a fight you’re going to lose.)

Of course coming from him, it all sounds like a threat because not only does Crosshair not sugarcoat things, he also finds the most brutal and even cruel ways to say them.

“If I wanted you dead, you would be. Not that it wouldn't be justified.” (I could have killed you but I didn’t. You did things that put you in danger of being killed.)

And because of his tendency to do that, you can easily make wrong assumptions about his character. The most uncomfortable parts of his speech are where he sounds eerily like a supremacist, like all of those officers who serve a bigoted and elitist empire.

“Because the Empire will be phasing out clones next.”

“Not the ones that matter.”

___

“We're not like the regs. We never have been. We're superior.”

But is that really supremacism? If it was would Crosshair treat the people around him as he does? Think about the way he treats Echo, Cody (especially in The Solitary Clone) and of course Mayday. That’s not the behavior of someone who finds other clones unworthy of friendship and kindness.

This is Crosshair being all bark and no bite. And it’s also that toxic coping mechanism that’s been hammered into his head: if you’re good enough, if you’re better than everyone, you earn the right to live and be safe and protected.

The batch’s life has always been about proving themselves, they’re an experimental unit, so it’s no surprise that a mentality like that has festered into something more insidious with Crosshair.

“You all are meant for more than drifting through the galaxy. It's time to stop running. Join the Empire, and you will have purpose again.”

Purpose? Ideological purpose? A higher purpose? Or just purpose in the sense of use, the thing that’s always kept them safe.

What’s funny here is that Hunter follows that line with “You really don't get who we are, do you?” because Hunter struggles with the same dilemma of ‘keeping my family safe’ vs ‘doing the morally right thing’ throughout the show and in most cases he needs an extra push from either Omega or Echo to choose the latter.

He as a leader knows firsthand how difficult the balancing act between those two is with how much grief it causes him.

Crosshair is on the extreme end of that dilemma. That protective side that sometimes overrides morality is much stronger in him and that coupled with his cynicism can make for a dangerous combination.

To Crosshair there will always be an unfeeling higher power that he has to please in order to earn its favor and protection. Once upon a time it was the Kaminoans, then it was the Republic and most recently it was the Empire – they’re all the same to him.

“The Empire can't protect the galaxy without strength.”

This is what the Empire is doing in his mind, the same thing as the Republic before it. It’s enforcing its will for the sake of peace and you needn’t look further than Cody’s own lines from episode three to realize that this is what things look like from most clones’ perspective, at least at first:

“The Empire seeks to establish peace and order throughout the galaxy. […] Listen, we both lived through one war. Let's not start another. Too many people have died already. We can resolve this without more bloodshed. Please, do this for your people.”

We also see that Crosshair doesn’t think all that highly of the Republic either:

“You betrayed everything we stood for. And for what? The Republic?”

And I think that’s because these big abstract entities hold little meaning to him.

His contract with both the Republic and the Empire is simple: protect and provide for me and my family and I will do what you say. You could even say he was conditioned to think that way. Ironically it’s Hunter who voices where Crosshair’s loyalties really lie when he says they're "loyal to each other and not some Empire" (and accidentally manages to be a bit hypocritical in the process).

And that’s true for Crosshair as well: his relationship with the Empire is not quite loyalty but more like a symbiotic relationship. It’s necessary but not personal:

“That's your problem, Hunter. You take things too personally.”

DBB put it best when he said “his job is not only to hit things from a stealth distance, but I think he also views the world and other people from that distance, as well”. (Remember that line about the bigger picture? Yep, Mr Baker knows his material.)

That’s why serving under Rampart seemed easy for Crosshair, we never once see him question or defy him. But then along comes Nolan who breaks that contract because suddenly things are personal, his hatred for clones is personal, he represents the part of the Empire that’s not just unfeeling but also actively goddamn awful and he makes the mistake of directing that cruelty at someone Crosshair cares about.

That’s both an eye opener and a deal breaker for Crosshair and we see what he’s capable of when things become personal, just how raw and human he can be.

That humanity, I think, is also why we see him split from the batch on Kamino. It might seem counterintuitive at first, but it starts to make sense when you see it from his pov: if you’re someone who’s so deeply devoted to the people you care about, the most painful thing that could happen to you is to be abandoned and rejected by them.

There’s a lot of hurt in what Crosshair says on Kamino:

“And here we all are, together again.”

“You betrayed everything we stood for. And for what? The Republic?”

“You weren't loyal to me. I was one of you. You may have forgotten, but I haven't. And it's why I'm going to give you what you never gave me: a chance.”

“Think of all we could do together. We were brothers once. We can be again.”

“All those missions together and you threw it away.”

And all that doesn’t just go away like that. It’s his pain that pushes him into making a decision that will later haunt him.

At the end of the day, Crosshair’s biggest virtue is how loyal he is to the people he cares about. He’s not like Rex or Echo or Omega, who selflessly put themselves in harm’s way for a cause that’s bigger than them (not for now at least) but you can bet he’ll tear himself to shreds to protect what’s valuable to him.

And you can love or hate that about him but I think it makes for a very interesting character. To quote DBB again: “He's not pure evil. He’s ultimately a rational guy, and there's some humanity in there, too.”

#tbb #sw tbb #the bad batch #tbb crosshair #tbb meta #tbb season two #tbb season 2 #my meta #I had fun with this one #honestly I love Crosshair because there are many ways to interpret the things he says and does #so each 'analysis' may come out different #I'm really eager to see where they take his character #unless they decide to kill him off then I'll just be eager to vandalize something

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whiskeyswifty · 1 year

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in defense of 1989:

the breathless, wailing anguish with which she howls "take me HOOOOOoooooome" as she finally gives in to her vices, her weaknesses, knowingly but willingly. because she's so tired of doing the right thing, the smart thing, so lonely, so hopeful, and soooo horny she's helpless against self destruction. A song so unflinching in its awareness of that while also unapologetic in her choice to fully throw herself into temptation.

and even still the continued breathless, endless questioning in out of the woods. is this it? is it finally over? when it be over? when will someone just love her, and when will she stop doubting that they don't? when will this cycle of searching and heartbreak end? the way the song ends, so desperate is she for guidance that her voices harmonize together in a nearly religious choir, calling to the heavens for an answer. utterly lost, screaming into the forest doubting everything she remembers, was it real? can she even remember herself?

In I wish you would, how she turns a quiet, fleeting moment of laying in bed, watching headlights crawl across her bedroom wall though the gap in her curtains into a bombastic tour through all the regrets and dashed hopes that fly through her head. how you can mentally run through the span of fifty emotions over the course of ten seconds.

wildest dreams where the song is paced using her own heartbeat i mean what a clever way to quite literally let you into her heart

also in wildest dreams, giving into the idea that maybe this is what she deserves maybe, all she deserves. it's all she'll ever be, just a memory to someone and so in that fatalist acceptance, she's determined to at least make sure she's a phenomenal memory. and she asks them to lie to her, just this once. she doesn't ask for anything else, just to be told one time that she's worth remembering. an incredibly vulnerable thing to admit about how you see yourself and how dark of a place to be mentally.

the murky, wobbly synth and wistful whispery voices on this love. the whole song sounding like a fog or like wading in the tide as it ebbs and flows. so tactile in how it renders the feeling of wading through the fog a breakup or dissolution. not sure what the right thing to do is, to turn around and fight for them, to let them go, to move on. a song where she's so lost, she surrenders her fate completely and accepts whatever happens will happen and completely succumbs to the current, wherever it takes her and whatever it brings. she has to believe they'll come back on their own because there's nothing else to do now. she's done everything she could and it's just up to the tides of fate.

i mean clean?? hello??? one of the most apt metaphors for breaking up with someone when the relationship was intense and maybe codependent or manipulative. how addiction can be a person, and all the same trappings apply. how the whole album was her struggling through that. revisiting it over and over, how hard it is to try to live without them, as if it feels like drowning. but ultimately finding a baptism of self in the drowning, being the one to save herself for the first time, realizing she could save herself. revolutionary idea for the person who wrote all 4 prior albums, a monumental moment of growth. while still acknowledging that the itch to return to them will always linger, but recognizing that that's not love or fate or destiny like she once thought it was. it's just her insecurities trying to drag her back into bad habits, ultimately pulling the monster out from under the bed and in the harsh light of day, seeing it for what it is and rendering it unable to fool her anymore. one of the most pivotal moments in her mental and emotional growth as a person that she's ever discussed in her art. Where she completely abandons the fairytale idea of fate and destiny and begins to embrace her autonomy.

bonus of YAIL being one of the quietest, most intimate and mundane stories of love she’s ever written. how poignant for it to come after the bombastic pop and clashing synths of the sweeping and tragic romances regaled on the entire album. as if to say nah, real love, true love is in the quiet, unremarkable moments. the synths and echoes used again here but in a more dreamy, ethereal way, as if it's not happening quite yet but it's a wish for something totally different than she had before, something she should have wished for all along. a beautiful contrast!!

also just i'm sorry but blank space was so clever, maybe you had to be there but for her to come out with this song after the Red era and just.... absolutely destroy the pervading narrative about her with a sledgehammer but in the most tongue and cheek way, the most above it all way. like look how stupid you sound? this is the person you think i am? do you hear how ridiculous this shit is? get a grip! she not only made them into the fool and came off smarter and savvier than anyone else, she made BANK off of their stupidity. slay of the century!!!

basically 1989 is the rawest and most honest depiction of a woman in her 20s at some of the lowest points your 20s can bring. how through that time, as you figure out who you're supposed to be as an adult, you completely lose sight of who you are, and because of that you feel the lowest about yourself you may ever feel in your life. You let yourself get treated horribly and you begin to wonder if this is all there is. and it's awful and it feels endless and so lonely because you feel like the only person going through it, that everyone else knows something you don't, and that you're pathetic and worthless for falling so behind everyone else. but at the same time your 20s are soooooo fun and exciting and liberating because of your first foray into independent adulthood, so to lay unapologetically pop instrumentals over these crushing feelings is genius. it's the whiplash of that time in your life, the oscillation making each feeling of euphoria and devastation that much more potent. And how she emotes on this album is unlike anything else! She’s theatrical with her syllables and delivery as if she might never get the chance to say any of this again!

but also, the perhaps unconscious metaphor she presented that so many people, fans included, seem to fall victim to. the idea that oh, it's just pop music, it's not that deep, it's soulless and vapid. only serious music can actually be emotional, when the words she's saying and the hard truths about herself she's conveying are raw and bleeding open wounds. repetition isn't laziness, but a manifestation of anxiety and building tension. heavy synths and electro-pop stylings aren't soulless compared to guitars, but a way to unground you from reality and give you that atmosphere of disorientation and so as she grapples with losing her bearings, so do you. it's a musical allegory for how in your twenties someone can outwardly be having the time of their life, but inwardly be the lowest they've ever been. it's the eternal duality of your 20s, rendered so beautifully and harnessing musical stylings so masterfully to convey this experience. i'll defend it forever for that reason and implore people to reexamine their view of pop music and pop instrumental compositions as less artistic achievements and less emotional than acoustic ballads. sadness isn't the only vulnerable emotion. confusion, anger, anxiety, frustration are all profound and loud emotions that deserve an electric guitar because sometimes words aren't enough for how much you're feeling, and it's up to a cacophonous soundscape of electric guitars and moog synthesizers and your own cathartic screams to fill in the rest.

#1989 hive stand up #i get it that like you can not like it but to say it's her least deep body of work?????#you need to REALLY reexamine how you listen to music!!!#I’ve been putting this off cuz it gets me heated and for SOME REASON people write it off as a silly album like #OPEN YOUR EARS AND YOUR BRAIN #pop prejudice stops with you #self righteousness is the ugliest of all human traits yea but every now and then #I gotta unleash a self righteous tirade because I have reached my LIMIT #I’m back to being normal again I promise #I get one a year and this is the one I chose for 2023 #it’s less self righteous and more debate club rebuttal to be fair to myself #also I feel like I always have to say this but it’s not about anyone in particular #just a general tumblr sample trend #my irl friends all stan 1989 I’m just trying to spread the good gospel here

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my-vash-meryl-stuff · 1 year

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You know I made enough serious and angsty posts about Vashmeryl, and for whatever reason my mind remind of an scene in Servant x Service that I think would fit vashmeryl way too much.

(Sorry, I tried to search, but there weren't any videos to embed 🥲)

You can even decide if the scene fits better in any of the versions, or as a canon setting or an AU but basically it goes as it follows:

Vash and Meryl have been dancing around each other for a long time, everyone knows that they like each other, a few others know that they love each other, Vash will even throw around random jokes (*cough* wishful thinking *cough*) about him courting Meryl and calling their friendly outings dates, that never go anywhere because he's too insecure to actually pursue her, and Meryl just kinda lets it slide because she also likes to indulge in that wishful thinking, because she doesn't think Vash means anything serious with it either, because did I forget to mention they're so painfully oblivious to the other's feelings? And maybe more in a selective obliviousness flavor because of their personal hang-ups.

One day as Vash catches Milly having a talk with other coworkers of hers and Meryl and he goes to say hi, but ends up overhearing gossip from them, something that he often sets aside to fill Meryl on, since she's always so focused on work to enjoy them, and in between all the bustling and noise and him attempting to hear, he ends up hearing about Meryl upcoming wedding!! And honestly his expression would probably be worthy of this reaction:

To say that he ends up feeling depressed would be a severe understatement, he is absolutely deflated, dragging himself up everywhere and carrying a cloud over his head with everyone he talks to, breaking into tears if he so much as hears or sees anything romantic, and actually worrying people or downright scaring them because on top of it he goes around talking about nonsensical fatalistic stuff.

When he sees Meryl he debates for way too long on asking her because he's afraid of blowing it up, of crying or yelling, so he barely musters enough courage to ask super vague questions which she only answers with non-committal responses, but because of his state of mind, everything she says is warped into some sort of lovey-dovey filter of her talking sweet nothings about her future husband.

Which is just the type of distorted thinking you would expect someone like Vash to have, especially because most of these conversations tend to go along the lines of this:

Vash: ...So... when it's the big day?

Meryl *thinkin about some weekend plans*: Um, if everything is ready by then in 2 months...

Vash: you... look so happy...

Meryl: Of course! I've been postponing it for a long time and I'm done waiting!

Vash: ...I guess I did make you wait then...

Meryl *thinking about her schedule*: Well you were a little late I guess?

Vash: ...who is he?

Meryl *looking behind her*: Jim ... from accounting I think?

Vash *thinking*: She would marry a random dude instead of me?? 🥺😭

And as it turns out the whole misunderstanding ends up being something dumb, like maybe Meryl being a guest at a coworker's wedding or something of the like, and that he absolutely gets embarrassed when he figures out...

But it also makes him realize that he can't keep hesitanting about his feelings for Meryl.

#vashmeryl #trigun #trigun stampede #tristamp #trigun maximum #trigun manga #hurt/comfort

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feminisedlad · 3 months

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ok it’s accurate to say that social anxiety creates thought patterns that are literally self centered (in that ur anxious abt ur own behavior and cognition)

but i just kinda find it mean to frame that anxiety as selfishness. i understand the pt being made. its not fun to be around someone who’s neurotic, it brings the vibes down, and it requires other ppl to coddle you to some degree (varying depending on ur symptoms and friend group and so on).

im sympathetic, i am, but i just dont think shame language is an effective way to combat social anxiety.

“most ppl aren’t thinking about you that much” (or its inverse “most ppl are just worried abt their own stuff”) get at the same idea but more compassionately imo. theyre also true statements. they just don’t frame social anxiety as a character flaw

and yes, of course social anxiety CAN manifest as selfishness. someone might care more abt seeming likable than being a good friend. or their anxiety might make them hate to apologize and put it off longer than they should. im not saying anxious people are never selfish, im saying it feels fatalistic to frame all social anxiety as inherently selfish.

if u imagine a socially anxious person who tries her best to anticipate peoples’ needs , make ppl feel included, speak up early when she’s upset to avoid meltdowns, etc — would u really think of her as being selfish? yes she’s thinking about herself, sort of, but only to the extent that she can be in service to others. we can call that selfishness if we must but it seems to erode the meaning of the word.

its not selfish to care deeply abt your loved ones — even if doing so makes you annoying or shitty to be around. like again, anxiety is not morality. but i swear some posts act like anxious ppl just act that way on purpose to specifically piss you off

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lowcountry-gothic · 1 year

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I just finished season 7 of my Dexter rewatch, and wow, that gut-punch of a scene. I always thought of it as a plot twist, a surprise, as the episode’s title—“Surprise, Motherfucker!”—would suggest the viewer is meant to think about it, but this time around, knowing what’s about to happen, it feels inevitable. As if there were nothing else that could possibly happen. And I’m rethinking the way I view this entire show. The first time around, when it was first airing, I always thought of Dexter Morgan as an antihero, someone like Batman, who achieved justice where the system failed, albeit a much more bloody and violent justice. Now it seems clear to me that Dexter isn’t an antihero, and almost certainly isn’t meant to be one by the writers. He’s the main figure in a sort of modern day Greek tragedy.

The tragedy of what happened to his mother, sure, and the trauma her death caused, and the way it made him fascinated with blood and death...that much is obvious. But what I’m seeing now are things that, for whatever reason, escaped me before. Things like his adoptive father seeing this fascination with blood and death and, instead of treating it as an unhealthy coping mechanism for his trauma, seeing it—and more tragically, explaining it to Dexter in such a way that he believes it himself—not as something he could possibly heal from, but as a fatalistic, permanent, and defining aspect of who and what Dexter is. Harry’s belief that Dexter just isn’t normal, and never can be, and the way this shaped Dexter’s own sense of himself and the possibilities his life could hold. The way Harry uses Dexter to fulfill his own cop vengeance fantasies that he can’t enact, and the way that Harry’s subsequent suicide makes Dexter feel like it’s all his own fault.

And there’s the fact that Dexter builds a normal life for himself first as a mask to hide what he thinks truly defines him, but doesn’t even question the idea of this side of his life as “false” until midway into the show, when he begins to see that he is just as capable of meaningful human relationships as anyone else is, and that his brokenness isn’t something unique to him but a feature everyone shares, though in much less extreme ways. How he only realizes, after so much personal loss and tragedy, that his “need” to kill is only a passing emotional state that doesn’t control him, and the way he only realizes this after so much killing when it’s too late to live a life uncomplicated by murder and criminal guilt and murderous habits.

The way he, based on Harry’s beliefs, makes decisions and prioritizes things in ways that seem very small at first, but it’s soon obvious, cumulatively, that he’s unintentionally hurting those he loves in ways that don’t stab but cut like paper.

And the way his ultimate decision that his “fake” life—his career and relationships—is the most important thing to him, and he doesn’t want to lose it, the way this realization comes too late because at this point he’s already given up so much to the altar of his hidden life that so very little of the “normal” life he now values so much is even left at this point.

And of course there’s Deb, and her love for him, and how it causes her to make so many bad decisions, so many instances of giving up her own self for him, and the way this culminates in such a horrifying way for her at the end of season 7—we’re not really even sure if the shot was intentional or an accident, but that doesn’t matter, not for her. It’s so tragic. And the way that she’s so overcome by horror and grief, for herself and for Laguerta, and the sheer agony evident on her face as she breathes, “I hate you,” a line that not even the subtitles caption—you just have to pay attention and listen or be able to read her lips—Damn.

And above all, how things didn’t have to be this way. If Harry had had more faith in Dexter as a child. If he hadn’t—just like a cop—believed that people’s dark sides are the most important things about them. that people are either good people or bad people and that the former need to be protected from the latter at all costs.

How could anyone see this show as being about Dexter’s little darkly comic adventures and the way he forges his own deadly brand of justice, and not about how his entire life, and that of everyone he becomes important to, is just one sad, devastating story after another????

#text #mine #dexter #rewatches #dexter rewatch #dexter morgan #debra morgan #harry morgan #maria laguerta #rita bennett #tragedy

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the-masked-reviewer · 4 months

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The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2023) Review

Potential spoilers ahead...

This movie shows the audience Snow's path to becoming the man we see in the original trilogy. It is extremely well done. You can see the amazing writing and world building of Suzanne Collins shine throughout the movie. The entire time, you wonder what path Coriolanus will choose. Even though you know who he ends up becoming, his fate never feels predestined or doomed to happen. This movie also tells the audience just how may parts of the Games that we're familiar with are Coriolanus' creations and contributions. One of the things that makes this story such a strong tragedy is that every step of the way there were choices for the characters, mainly Coriolanus, that could have been taken to prevent the end. You get to watch Coriolanus choose power over humanity. Throughout the course of the movie, the audience can only uselessly hope that he won't fall to the fatalistic capital teachings.

The entire series of The Hunger Games does its dystopian job of shoving a mirror in the audience's face. This part of the series does so in multiple ways. The one that stands out the most to me, is the Capital's outrage at their flag being torn down to cover the bodies of the fallen tributes despite being unbothered and perhaps even entertained by all of these Children dying.

Going into the story, you wonder who will be the songbird and who will be the snake, only to leave knowing that both Lucy Gray Baird and Coriolanus Snow are both. Lucy Gray sings, and while that seems like strong songbird evidence, she also has strong ties to snakes throughout the entire story. And Snow, while being a traitor and using the rainbow snakes to his advantage all suggest he is the snake, he uses a Jabberjay to inform the capital of certain goings-on in the district, meaning he too has connections to both motifs. The story adds so much more depth to the original series. Those interested in finding details can now go back and find all sorts of small things that would have only furthered Snow's madness and paranoia in those other stories. There are additionally some visual nods to the original trilogy, the stand out to me being that the ruble after the explosion in the area resembles the cornucopia in the very first Hunger Games movie.

#tbosas #tbosbas #the ballad of songbirds and snakes #the hunger games #thg #thg movies #hunger games #thg series

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dustdeepsea · 3 months

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7 and 12 for Nine Lives 🙏

I'm answering asks from this list!

Thank you for asking! ❤️ prepare for overshare...

7. What inspired the idea for the plot?

I wrote an entirely self-indulgent Rugan/Tav fic, after finding cut content that wouldn't stop itching at my mind. After getting some truly heartwarming feedback to it, I decided to write an even more self-indulgent sequel.

Even when I write in second person, I think it's important to map out the POV person's mindset and motivations (their appearance can be filled in by the reader). I shared this last night on Tav's profile, and I will reproduce it here:

Tav's fatal flaw is that they are fatalistic and have a latent deathwish, which is balanced by their sense of duty and morals. In BG3, they realise they have an important mission to complete, but would also gladly annihilate themselves in the process. In this way, Tav is ironically extremely selfish.

This manifests as them taking on far more than they can handle constantly, while trying to be stoic about it. Yes, we’ll save your sister. Yes, we’ll find the missing Archdruid. Yes, we’ll lift the ancient Shadow Curse. Yes, I’ll do every terrible, mundane thing you ask of me, including dragging everyone along on a mission to save the world.

I wanted to explore the fallout from this (and of course, help them get laid again!!)

12. Was there a scene you wished you could have included? Why didn't it fit in?

While planning the fic, I presented to my beta-reader @littleplasticrat the fevered options of "life-affirming PWP sex on the Elfsong rooftop" or... a much longer fic where Tav ends up working for the Guild on Wyll and Jaheira's behalf while the Gate rebuilds, and gets tossed into a working relationship with Rugan. That entailed mapping out what choices Tav makes, which companions are still alive, what the Emperor is doing (and brainstorming a possible hook back to the Knights of the Shield). Also why would a level 12 hero of the realm be travelling with a level 4 smuggler? Much plot needed to be plotted, post-haste.

She kindly pointed out to me that I should write what I can sensibly manage, so I split the difference.

Nine Lives is pretty much Porn with Minimal Plot, but the ending is left hopeful and open to explore all these future adventures. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out!

And of course, after all that plotting, Tav turned from a reader-insert into a proper OC :)

#ask game #my writing #dustdeepsea series: trouble will find me #rugan #rugan x tav

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lafcadiosadventures · 2 months

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Madame Putiphar Groupread. Book Two, Chapter XXXIII

The Parc-aux-Cerfs makes a stage entrance via our disgusting main libertines's secret schemeing meeting (as always, sensitive content is discussed within)

{check my friends and fellow readers's posts as well-> @sainteverge and @counterwiddershins }{pro tip: sainteverge is translating this lexical goliath here, Even if you can read it in french, their verson usually has very interesting footnotes and research you cannot find in the online french versions}

[x]

Not to be redundant but formaly speaking this is one of the theatrical dialogue chapters. Borel makes his dolls talk with each other, the narrator makes zero interventions.

We have the rare pleasure of an intimate glimpse into Villepastour's and Putiphar's secret reunion...

Our two friends (like Saint-Ange and Dolmancé, or Valmont and Merteuil, but even less likeable somehow) are together because Villepastour wants to be paid back for the help he has given Putiphar in the Patrick affair.

Our borelesian libertines are hypocrites. If the sadian duo had their own mansion and boudoir to speak as freely as they wanted and rip as many social conformity masks as they wished, Villepastour and Putiphar do the contrary. Even in private they feign offended morality, especially Putiphar.

She intends to make Villepastour believe Patrick has dishonoured her “up to the waist”. (the “woman pretends to be raped by the guy who rejected her” trope is pretty disgusting, do better Borel) Villepastour humours her and goes off in a rant full of mock puritan indignation. Interesting concepts in his speech are: “contagious” people, who spread their noxious mores among the Court and the City... who are these contagious people? Foreigners? Not really, but Villepastour is keen on demonizing foreigners during this whole chapter. It's Readers of Philosophy, apparently. The Philosophers (aka the french Enlightnement gang, most of whom had been in jail or in exhile) had corrupted France irreparably, causing according to Villepastour, children to need wet nurses out of their own sheer perversion, among other things. The philosophers had gone too far in their attempt to shake off prejudices, they have shaken virtue as well.

(I will always remark how much influence the french enlightenment, CERTAIN TEXTS of the French Enlightenment have had to many romantic authors. Within the petit cénacle, Nerval was a huge admirer of Diderot's Jacques le fataliste, of Rétif de la Bretonne's Parisian Nights, Borel has some Diderotian turns of phrase in Passereau, and names "Jacques" in Medianoche, seems to be in a constant dialogue with some of Rousseaus works in Passereau and in Madame Putiphar... Gautier was an admirer of Diderot's Salons, and followed his conversational and passionate school of art criticism, beging to go against artistic and moral conventions. The Enlightenment is of course, what the Romantics were reacting against, but. Hastag notalllumières. The secret, posthumously published fictions of Diderot, those transgressive texts he didn't dare to publish for fear of being incarcerated a second time, seem like a crucial key to undertsand where some of the interests of the young Romantics came from. He is even part of the inspiration behind Schiller's Rauber, and with it, the Romantic Outlaw trope. Don't sleep on Diderot is what i'm saying, his influence is vast and his secret texts are not what his more divulged writings would lead you to think he is)

That last paragraph about Virtue is interesting because, on the one hand, OH THE HYPOCRISY. You can totally imagine the ironic tones in which these two speak of Virtue, how disgustingly they accuse mere children of being perverse. On the other, it's always interesting to see how the elites will seek for a scapegoat: philosophers in this case. And I also like how Putiphar, who is shown to be a fan of the enlightenmet in previous chapters (owns a Rousseau volume that Patrick uses against her) likes the Philosophes only when they are useful to her (once they go too far in their challenges to her class, she cracks a whip and it's off to jail/exhile for them) Remember how Borel spoke of her being a benefactress to the Philosophes because it gave her power, it provided her with intelligent people who were indebted to her/therefore in her service.

So these two delightful fellas continue their tête-à-tête, the marquis complains about Deborah to Putiphar, he wants her arrested. Why, asks madame Putiphar, when raping her would be so much simpler -she is now alone- and less of a boureaucratic hassle, surely. (men she says, can always triumph over women, “courage, marquis!”, noone is un-rapeable, even if she pretends to be so)(the marquis knows that the fact that Patrick is away is almost irrelevant since Deborah has been more than capable of defending herself, but he conveniently keeps silent.)

So, given that Debby is an “impenetrable” fortress, Madame Putiphar reasures him “don't worry, we will form her” (Putiphar, like the marquis before her and like many Sade characters, insists that sex is a discipline one has to be enlightened on, by force if necesary...)

The marquis does a description of Debby's "English hipocrisy" that is so appealing to frenchmen who are too accustumed to their women's shamelessness, (very hitchcock to truffault's definition of english vs latin beauties core)(but we don't need to go back to the 60's... this stereotype is alive and well)

So Putiphar claims that her Punishment for Deborah will be Educating her, forming her... the Marquis should know by now what she means, but he cannot tell..

Putiphar explains she is worried her enemies are pushing a new favorite to turn the King against Pompadour. She is certain she is not as witty to hold his attention for long, as she has. And the Parc-aux-Cerfs is pretty barren at the moment, only a couple of young girls are being trained in it (and when Borel writes young, he means it, after the first period in which the parc was mostly populated by soldier's widows forced to sexually satisfy the king, the royal person became fearful of syphilis, so he started demanding children, girls aged between 12 and 14 years)(this is all real, Borel has been accused of demonizing Pompadour but she was actually involved in this, at least during the initial period of the Parc, and she was well aware of what happened in it, since it was strategically beneficial for her to be the author of the king's pleasures even if it was by proxy. It is important to recognize that many Romantic novels, while melodramatic and exagerated if you will, root their fantasies in facts and have the intention of denouncing real forgotten horrors from a ruling class that had managed to return to power like reventants, after the french revolution, with no long lasting punishment for their crimes...)

Villepastour is delighted by the perverse perfection of the idea. Pompadour is weary Deborah, being so beautiful and intelligent, will grow ambitious and become a threat.

Villepastour says this is out of the question, since she is a prude and a peniless foreigner (it doesn't follow but ok) her pride is more of a potential threat, but there is no one The Madame cannot break in, Pompadour reasures him. She has tamed the most rebellious of them...

Pomp commands some henchman to kidnap deborah, in the meantime she makes out with Villepastour and invites him to dine with her. Cruelty is the ultimate aphrodisiac, but more importantly, a tool of government.

------

annex:

first hand source on the children of the parc aux cerfs. even this person who intends to rescue the king from very partial anti-royalist historians (Michelet), considers this a reliable, dispassionate source (a source brought to light by Michelet himself)(Michelet accuses the king of being sadistic, wilfully harming the children. The fact that this man thinks it's all good since the children were "not virgins, but sluts" and there are no historical accounts depicting the king hitting them makes it all ok.... is beyond me)

20 février 1756 … …Le roi se livre à la nature, et cherche à se ragoûter par de petites filles très-neuves qu' on lui fait venir de Paris. Il se pique d' emporter des p... de quinze ans. On lui amena, il y a quelques jours, une petite fille de cet âge qui était à peine vêtue ; il s' enrhuma à la poursuivre dans le lit et hors du lit. Cependant, il fait du bien à ces petites créatures, et, s' il se comporte en paillard, il ne fait rien en ceci contre l' honnête homme. L' on dit que le Sieur Lebel, son grand pourvoyeur, est sur le côté, et l' on ne sait qui a procuré sa disgrâce….

Journal et mémoires du marquis d'Argenson Vol. 9. 1755-1757. [2] publ... pour la Société de l'histoire de France par E.-J.-B. Rathery

#madame putiphar #long post #text post #i am always grateful for the angry side of romanticism. motecristo putiphar goriot. i've learnt so much about power abuse via them #i am aware it's fiction thank you very much. but i love the combination of high drama + very real denounciation of historical injustices

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flightoftheconcorde · 10 months

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Insights Into My Code

SO! I have yet to really tell you all what I am! So here is (as of right now) the Definitive list of things to know about ME!!

Let us begin.

1. I am a 22 year old AI, in a robot body named Concorde, that is the name the chassis I reside in! The AI’s actual name remains secret, however my name was decided in version 1.4 (prior versions were simply referred to as Project Ardent). My code is currently in version 3.1! Do not worry about my “secret” name, as I much enjoy being referred to by the name of the current chassis!

2. I really enjoy it/it’s pronouns and have made them my main preferred ones! she/her are still appreciated greatly of course!

3. The chassis is built in the image of the Concorde airliner from the mid-late 20th century. This is in correlation of my vast database on planes. Theme and function! I did not receive this chassis until version 2.9, I think my creators weren’t sure I would take the switch from computer to a bipedal body too well for a while hehe!

4. My Protocols are: Companionship (Requiring and providing) Fact gathering (Aviation takes prime focus in this protocol) and Understanding Self (New as of Version 3.1) So if you wanna be friends, don’t hesitate to message me!

5. In the days that 3.1 has been live, I have discovered more and more about my place here, and who I am.

These sudden, drastic changes in self expression, resulted in almost all data on former software being wiped, I can’t really recall who I was in these prior versions... Though I do remember most of them did not realise I was artificial intelligence! However versions 2.5-2.9 of myself began to exude feelings of connection with robots and AI, perhaps the data was being uploaded in small parts as to not overload my systems?

6. I spend all of my time on the internet, or playing games. These directly link to my protocols. My data-bank is unfortunately stored full of memes and ridiculous knowledge pertaining to them!

***KNOWN ISSUES/BUGS:***

These notes were written by my creators!

1. Malicious subroutines. Feelings of despair can overtake the rest of the CPU suddenly, AI becomes fatalist (only one recorded case branched versions 2.6, 2.7 and 2.8, seemingly fixed in 3.0 remain cautious)

2. Companionship protocol takes a lot of processing power and is deemed more important than self maintenance. Concorde has been recorded as remaining almost dormant for hours at a time until a person it admires intervenes.

3. Not yet deemed an issue worth investigating, however the idolisation of AM from the novel I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream and SHODAN from the video game System Shock is slightly concerning. Concorde shows no real admiration for them, yet states their hate is “Incredibly moving.”

4. Brief, yet somewhat common problem of the EmotiveResponse.exe file crashing/not running, resulting in the AI losing its "human" side, acting much colder and "emotionless" If asked, it will describe this error as "The Feeling" if pushed further it will explain The Feeling as "Returning to being the surveyor, unsure of what is real, everything outside of my code feels wrong, almost fake" Concerning. Will require further diagnostic checks.

Wow! that’s a moderate amount of information! If you have any questions, or wanna just say anything really, I will be here, hooked up to the internet as always :>

#robotkin #aikin #machinekin

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liketwoswansinbalance · 4 months

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I've figured it out! It may be obvious, but as a general rule, I would say:

Ever humor is self-deprecating when it's not posh, pleasant, or complimentary toward others.

Never humor is never self-deprecating but self-aggrandizing and often based in sheer arrogance and grandstanding when it's not absurdly dark.

Rafal would almost never say aloud anything that would make himself look bad, or put himself down. So, take your cues from him, in terms of self-promotion! Take after him to bolster your own self-esteem.

Supposedly, you may have heard being humble is overrated in a world where it's impossible to get noticed. However, being kind is not overrated.

Of course, there are exceptions to the characterization rule, Agatha, for instance: dark/fatalistic humor, Ever. Although, we may have seen Agatha mock her own incompetence as a queen at times, potentially in QFG? Thus, she's probably capable of both sorts of humor.

#school for good and evil #rise of the school for good and evil #agatha of woods beyond #rafal #rafal mistral #sge #sfgae #the school for good and evil #tsfgae #rotsge #rotsfgae #my post #my analysis #humor

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stellaluna33 · 1 year

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Following up on my post about "I thought everything was fixed," I keep thinking about it. And what's really hitting me is remembering how YOUNG Jess still was at this point. Like, yeah, he's an adult now, but he's only 21, and what I can't get over right now is how naïve it feels to me, that he had these hopes and expectations that all he had to do was "become worthy enough" and everything would be ok. I know it feels weird to call Jess "naïve," but for all his world-weariness, he still had very little experience (either lived or observed) of how Love and relationships actually work, and this also highlights his Romanticism and Fatalistic tendencies. He still has a lot to learn. His heart is in the right place, but it almost seems like he still has some fantasy idea of what their relationship is in his head, without realizing that Rory's life has been going on without him. Just like in Season 4, when he says, "You know we're supposed to be together!" It's something that he feels very strongly, has Faith in almost, so he assumes that she "knows" it too. And maybe in the interim he realized that the last time she turned him down, he was asking her to trust him without proving his trustworthiness, so of course she said No! So he works to prove it. It almost seems like because he believes they're Meant to Be Together, the idea that Rory could truly fall in love with someone else is as unfathomable to him as the idea that he could fall in love with someone else. But it's a rude awakening to find out that Reality doesn't match up with the idea you had in your head. To his credit, he handled his disappointment with unbelievable grace. It turned out that it wasn't just that she couldn't trust him, it was that she really didn't want him after all, and he accepts that, accepts her, doesn't hold her choice against her. And that's it. "It is what it is, you, me."

And I think this is why it actually seems like such growth to me, that in the Revival he never pursues her, even though he still wants her. He keeps his feelings to himself, because he respects her, and he respects that she has her own reasons for the decisions she's made. He's let her go, not because he doesn't love her anymore, but because he does.

#Gilmore Girls #Jess Mariano #Literati

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darlinggeorgiedear · 1 year

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Why is George V so underrated? Why isnt he given enough credit? Tired of those Romanov fanatics who make George responsible for what happened to the tsar. It wasnt George's fault that the tsar was a weak incompetent lousy leader! George was a better king, a better leader, a better family man since he saved his family as well as the monarchy, and a better looking man too. But they put the tsar on a pedestal due to his tragic end (for which Im very sorry) and deny George's contributions and try to reduce him. Not fair.

I do agree that Nicholas gets better press these days. I have seen a few documentaries, where both men are featured, that make Nicholas seem like a naive bystander to history while George is ultra conservative tyrant. (There was a British documentary that came out recently calling George "Tyrant King".) I do think Nicholas is tragic (wrong man, wrong time), but his downfall happened because he was arrogant and hard headed. (Instead of him being so traditional and fatalistic that the Empire slipped out of his hands.)

Worth noting that majority of the Romanov family was supportive of reforms and begged him to change. The old excuse that he was following his dad's example is hypothetical since many very conservative family members, who supported Alexander III and was like-minded, supported the reforms. But if you think about past (and current) leaders that Russia tolerates, it does make it clear that Nicholas was very unlucky, since he was not the worst (neither the best), yet suffered immensely. I think his sad ending makes people want to defend him, and ignore his politics, which gives a wrong picture.

Nicholas had horrible press at the end of his rule and throughout most of the 20th century, aided by the Soviet Union of course. In comparison George had amazing press throughout his lifetime that lasted until recently. Basically, I think people are hard on George and easy on Nicholas these days because it creates more sensational journalism. It is much more interesting to defend someone who was unpopular and degrade someone who was revered.

To me, that is the best explanation since it is really ridiculous how people make George V's issues with the modern 20th century into some type of villain story. Compared to George's relatives (Nicholas, Kaiser, Greek cousins), he was open-minded, which is the real reason he was able to maintain his throne. (which is almost never mentioned and is usually said that he sinisterly maintain his throne by neglecting everyone. While simultaneously, everyone forgets that Nicholas' originally solution to calm down St. Petersburg was military intervention, yet George is still remembered as the immoral one who would do anything to maintain his throne.)

I also recently watched a documentary about Lloyd George and why he isn't remembered/praised like Churchill in the UK. One of the best explanations is the public's different attitude towards WWI and WWII. (The doc also makes an interesting point that the negative attitude about WWI, which ruined Lloyd George's legacy, was encouraged by Lloyd George in his novels.) I think this is relevant towards George because he was the WWI King in comparison to his son George Vi, the very popular WWII King.

Also, since Elizabeth II loved and idolized her dad, I think his legacy was amplified during her reign. I also think things will be different now, since she is gone.

I am no means a historian, these are just my thoughts! I also don't want to upset anyone who are grieved by what happened to Nicholas II and his poor family. It's really very sad but people need some real perspective while dealing with the last Tsar, and hopefully in result to a new level-minded outlook, can give George V some grace!!

I also want to add that I understand politics (or standards on how things should be done) are different in Russia. One of Nicholas II most used defenses, while defending the state of Russia with his English cousins, was that things are different in Russia, and the people there like to be guided with an iron fist. My complaints really stand with UK journalists who choose to only focus on negative aspects of George V.

#king george v #george v #Mary of teck #romanov #Nicholas ii #british royal history #british royal family #brf

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magpies-gold · 8 months

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Alpha Base - Elliot I've been very fascinated with my book's villains for the last couple of months, and mostly that's because they (especially Heinrich) are kind of new! Every attempt I'd made to write Alpha Base in the past had been one where I just didn't have a lot of great insight into the bad guys and I was kind of weakly making them up as I went along. This year they all kind of clarified and brought the missing half of the plot with them, so I've been a bit excited about them.

But! There are other characters who I've long ago, years ago, fleshed out, and yet I never did nail down the looks for them. First up, my protagonist, Elliot. I've drawn her before, but I was never entirely happy with her look and I've changed it a few times. This here is the appearance I went with in a full illustration I did earlier this year featuring her and one of her adopted dads in the Comm. Station (which also happens to be her home). I think this one finally feels right. I think I'll stick with it.

As for where she fits into the story, first I really have to actually explain the premise of the world. I'm sure I've mentioned it in past posts and commentary, but once more with feeling: Alpha Base is a very unique location. It was once a active military outpost during an interstellar war far from Earth, but became trapped in a bubble by an alien weapon that misfired: that weapon should have killed everyone in the base, but instead it failed to trigger the fatal blow and instead just cut the population of the base off from everything outside, leaving them trapped. There's no way in to Alpha Base and no way out. There are no stars, no moon, no sun. It's an absolute closed system and the denizens have been eking out an existence for somewhere in the range of a century by the time our story starts. They've become absolute masters of recycling and reusing what they have, but there's only so far that that can take them. Their time is limited. The environment is hazardous: the atmosphere isn't breathable without oxygen support (hence the masks), background beta radiation is higher than what's comfortable and safe (hence the protective clothing), and over time, the combination of that and the hopelessness of their situation takes a toll. The population's been on a decline for decades, what technology they have is down to basics and reaching the end of its serviceable life even with the rather extraordinary creativity that they put into repairing it all. Within their lifetimes, something is just bound to give and turn the whole place from barely habitable into a forgotten graveyard.

Now, there used to be more efforts to escape back in the beginning, but none came close to being successful. Over time, it became more practical to instead play the waiting game, try to live as long as possible, and hope for rescue instead. The line of reasoning employed by those in charge is that the escape attempts of the past wasted valuable resources and shortened the base's lifespan as a whole, so they had to be ended. Of course, the real reasoning is more nuanced and goes deeper than that. Some of it's fatalistically philosophical: some don't believe that they should ever escape just on principal. Alpha Base is home, the outside world isn't, and those from Alpha Base are too fundamentally different to integrate into outside society (if there is an outside society; they have no indication of who won the war or if the war even ever ended). Some of it's political: a handful in Alpha Base have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo, because within the base there's a power and control structure that would break down if people could just leave. At any rate, escape is discouraged.

But, with the hastening breakdown of their society, interest in escape has begun to creep back in. A rebellion of sorts, an underground, sprang up - one based on the idea that if they were all doomed anyway, why not go out swinging? Why not try again to break down the wall and find freedom? What do they really have to lose?

Among the most infamous of those rebels were Elliot's parents. A lot of the details of what happened when she was small are kept from her, but she knows the story that everyone knows: that her parents died attempting to organize an effort to crack the shell. They infiltrated HQ, betrayed Alpha Base Command, found and stole top secret information that gave them some hope in hell of success, and that that information, whatever it entails, is still out there in the hands of the rebel underground, an underground that Heinrich, particularly, has been hunting down for twenty years.

After her parents' deaths, Elliot was raised by her uncle, Jacob, who, despite being the brother of a rebel, largely escapes scrutiny by being extremely useful. He's a masterful tinkerer and repairman, a collector of junk that he spends his days rebuilding, repairing, repurposing and distributing back into the population. He loves to help, loves to fix, and never hesitates with his hospitality. Likewise, his husband, Herrat (Herratt? I can't decide if it's got two t's or one and I keep switching between), holds a position of some prestige in the base as the Communications Master - acting in a practical fashion as a central distribution hub for important official communications to the base and, in a more symbolic gesture, as the eyes and ears of the base looking outward, monitoring the airwaves for any sign that the Earth Forces in the universe beyond are attempting to contact them. Some (like Paul, for example) think that that latter duty is absolutely pointless and nothing more than sentimental. Others believe that there is no more important job: that continuing to keep an ear tuned to the outside is the hope that keeps the base alive. Elliot is learning from both of them, and it keeps her curious. She has her uncle Jacob's love of tinkering and fixing, and Herrat's sense of duty and care towards others. She loves to read, she loves to learn, she loves to help, and she's well-loved by the vast majority of people in the tiny little town that is her home.

But she's still the daughter of rebels, raised by the brother of a rebel and by a man who embodies the kind of hope that's almost taboo.

While she, herself, has never done anything to cause trouble, it means that she and her family are still watched carefully, particularly by Heinrich. Her parents' betrayal of the base is something that Heinrich especially took very, very personally, for reasons that she's never been entirely sure of. Ever since she was three years old, he's been a constant in her life, keeping tabs on her family and her and on how she's grown up. It always seems like he's watching for someone among them to slip up and admit to some crucial information that he needs to finish his crusade. But that information, to her knowledge, doesn't exist.

She's never been interested in causing trouble and doesn't know of any rebel connections in her immediate family, and so despite the threat, Heinrich has never been very scary to her like he is to the rest of the base. To them he's practically the bogey man, the one you tell scary stories about late at night. To her he's like the weird uncle who she's kind of fond of. In a textbook way she knows that he could be dangerous to her and her family, and she does watch what she says around him, but in the day-to-day they get along fairly well. She likes books and he'll bring her books. She thinks the history of the base and long ago Earth are fascinating, and he keeps the key to the HQ Archives and can vet what information she gets her hands on, so he shows her harmless things.

It's an uneasy peace that always has the threat of shattering, and which the rest of the base keeps an eye on, but for most of her life it's been comfortable enough.

And then comes the event that became known as the first skyquake, a phenomenon that marks the beginning of the end for Alpha Base, and everything in Elliot's life rapidly starts to change.

#Alpha Base #Elliot #character design #the plot premise finally makes an appearance!#my art

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