#okay narratively i understand she does stuff but also
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listen to me. ive already talked about how ptsd haver gordie would struggle to be around the science team, but think about darnold. okay?
(this turned out longer than i thought it would so im sparing you the experience of scrolling past it. true darnold pepper heads will read on. i know this to be true)
think about her. she was like, one of the only people who ever really Helped rather than hindered gordie during canon, and she did it completely of her own goodwill. the bit of time where everyone met darnold was a distinct respite from the chaos of the rest of black mesa. at least, it was as calm as it could get with the whole crew there fucking around. and darnold, while eccentric and silly, is undeniably the most emotionally intelligent person gordie met that whole time. and she had some self-preservation instinct, causing her to stay behind, which i would say makes darnold way better for gordie to be around than any of the other characters. because darnold knows and understands to some extent what happened, she was there after all, but she's not so intimately connected to the events that it would make gordie uncomfortable.
i think darnolds narrative function as a respite in canon could carry over to post-canon stuff too... i think darnold is someone gordie could confide in and actually get some reasonable responses from. i know a lot of people put tommy in the role of like. designated gordie therapist post-canon but i really can't see that. tommy just does not share the same outwardly friendly and curious demeanor that darnold does, at least not to me. and i can't imagine him really giving a shit about anything gordie says 😭. sorry. but darnold is different to me! i can imagine a frazzled and traumatized gordie going through old work emails trying to find a way to contact darnold again, looking for closure she'll never get. i can imagine her contacting darnold, anxious out of her mind, but finding that, when they do eventually meet up for coffee and darnold does some wacky shit to her own drink for funsies, she can roll with this. this is nice, to her. i think she can be a lesbo about it to be quite honest with you.
i have this scene in my head of like. somebody— probably coomer— throwing some kind of party and of course gordie feels obligated to come despite knowing in her heart its a terrible idea. and of course, she ends up spending much of the party standing awkwardly in a corner trying not to freak the fuck out and jumping out of her skin when coomer gives her a friendly (hard as fuck) punch on the arm. darnold has been spending the whole party rummaging around the bar and making all kinds of beautiful and fucked up cocktails, and when she notices gordie shes like "dear god that poor thing." so she makes a special little drink just for her, approaches gordie, and offers it to her, saying: "you seem a little glum. this should cheer you up!" and gordie breaks down sobbing on the floor because its so nice and shes so overwhelmed and nobody has shown her that kind of kindness and generosity in so long.
darnold also internally freaks out a little bit, scared she fucked something up, but she reasons that regardless of why gordie's crying, it's probably a good idea to take her outside and away from all the lights and sounds. so she does; she helps gordie up, escorts her out to the porch, sits her down. and they talk. gordie apologizes profusely for ruining the party and being weird and whatever and darnold earnestly replies that she was only there for the drinks anyways, she doesn't quite care for parties in the first place. gordie chugs the cute lil drink darnold gave her, and its good, and she tells darnold as much. darnold is very thankful that its so dark out because she is so so so flustered and she hopes gordie can't tell. gordie leans on her, though darnold is well over a foot shorter than gordie, so really it's functionally gordie resting her head on top of darnold's.
gordie is very much a lightweight and she gets more drunk from that one little glass than someone whos like 6'2" should, so darnold offers to drive her home to her apartment. gordie agrees, and she's even more handsy with people when she's drunk, so she's all holding onto darnold for support and rubbing her thumbs into her shirt and getting distracted. it is not good for darnolds composure in the slightest but she is trying so very hard to be normal about it. they make it back to gordie's apartment.
as they make it inside, gordie, drunk on both alcohol and the overwhelming feeling of being cared for for the first time in ages, tries to kiss darnold. darnold is a hopeless romantic to me. she wants to accept so bad but she's responsible, so she laughs it off and tells gordie they should get her to bed. gordie agrees and within minutes she's out like a light.
darnold stays the night, hopeful for the morning.
#barking#welcome to my twisted mind.#hlvrai#freenold#hlvrai orange soda#gordie freewoman#gordon feetman#darnold pepper
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Okay, so when it comes to “What Remains of Edith Finch” I’m generally among those who subscribe to the reading that there is nothing supernatural about the ‘family curse’ - that it is nothing more than an unhealthy coping mechanism that became a self-fulfilling prophecy through a tradition of neglect and recklessness also maybe some slew of undiagnosed hereditary mental illnesses. But one aspect of this interpretation that I’m not really on-board with it is the idea that this makes the ending of the game, like, a totally unambiguously ‘bad’ tragic ending.
Well, either way it’s always a pretty sad ending, y’know. Everyone is dead. I mean in the sense that, like, if the ‘curse’ is nothing but the stories of the Finch family making them think they’re cursed - then Edith writing her little book and passing on these stories to her son is just perpetuating the Curse and probably dooming the poor boy. They would’ve both probably been better off if Edith did let those dangerous stories die with her. Right?
Well, that’s not really how I see it. I don’t really think this is a narrative is about how Edie and her outlook on death is, like, 100% totally wrong and dangerous and Dawn Finch was 100% totally in the right about trying to escape the family stories - as much as it is about Edie and Dawn both being flawed women and neither really handled their grief perfectly. Since Edie’s attitude kinda dominated the family and Edith herself kinda used to side with her great-grandma over her mother, the story focuses more on her realizing that, y’know, Dawn’s perspective might have a point. But just cause Dawn might’ve had a point doesn’t mean she was always right either. I think the point is more that Edith has to understand both her great-grandma’s and her mother’s side so she can strike a healthier balance between both of their attitudes.
Like, the thing is that the ‘Curse’ is mostly just generational trauma (and if there is a real supernatural Curse than it is still a metaphor for generational trauma), and the thing with trauma is that wallowing in it and letting it define you like Edie did is really not healthy - but neither is repressing it and trying to run away from it like Dawn tried to do. Edie might’ve been wrong about many things, but she was right about this:
The ‘Curse’ won’t leave Dawn and Edith just cause they left the House, or just cause they stopped listening to Edie’s stories. Because the Curse and their Trauma are the same, so it will follow them in some form wherever they go. The big thing I keep thinking about is Edith’s comment after Sam’s story.
This isn’t about Sam’s death being especially important for figuring out the ‘mystery’ of the Finch Curse, or it being an especially fascinating or beautiful story or whatever. It’s because it was an especially traumatic event for Dawn, that undoubtedly effected her for the rest of her life. But due to her fear of the effects of Edie’s Stories, she never really opened up about it with her daughter in any way. Seeing the pictures of Dawn and Sam’s last trip together, Edith feels she now has a greater understanding of what made her mother tick - and wishes she could’ve known about it when she was still alive.
And that does go farther down the family tree. Sam was the first Finch to show a real dislike to telling the Stories like Edie like. Although admittedly he wasn’t quite the rebel Dawn was:
And pretty much everything about how he acted around his children, especially the real shitty stuff, was informed by the trauma of Calvin’s death.
And, like, obviously Edie’s idea of handling trauma did no favors to him, (She made him share a room with his dead twin for eleven years) but I think also his attempts to almost totally avoid and repress his Issues when he became an adult only made things worse and not better.
Now, you might be wondering how this relates to Edith and her son Christopher. Well, the first thing to remember is that Edith didn’t know for sure she was going to die when she started that journey. She wasn’t just planning on leaving that little book to her son in case she dies - she wanted to learn the stories too, and have a better understanding of the stories she knew already. Because these stories inform the trauma she grew around, and she wanted to understand it better before she became a mother. Dawn knew quite a lot about the danger of growing up in a household that wallows in and romanticizes trauma - and did her best to avoid repeating this mistake with Edith. Edith knew quite a lot about the danger of growing up in a household that repressed and runs away from trauma - and she doesn’t want to repeat it with her child as well.
And as for writing it down for Christopher in case she’s not around to share the stories with him. Well, the first thing to note is that I think that even if Christopher never had Edith’s book - he was already bound by the ‘Curse’ from the start. Like, yeah, he doesn’t have the experience of growing up with a traumatized parent raised by another traumatized parent raised by another traumatized parent - but growing up knowing his biomom died at childbirth can be a pretty traumatizing experience on it’s own. We don’t know much of his family situation outside of that, but the fact that there seem to be no one around to escort the Literal Child as he takes a ferry to go lay flowers at his birth mother’s grave doesn’t really bode well.
So I think, first things first, from that angle, Edith’s journal could be importantly therapeutic to him as well. You know, have some sort of connection to his mother and her side of the family that he’s otherwise can’t really have? Like, this book isn’t just some darn list of dead Finches. There’s a lot in here about Edith herself and her own thoughts and her life and family and that’s maybe connection Christopher would want with her? Something that might make him process his grief for her a bit better? Something to make him feel more connected with that side of his family?
Now, let’s also consider the fact the Finch Curse is at least somewhat public knowledge: the Odin Finch newsreel mentions it, Barbara’s death was very well-publicized at the time - and the ‘Tales of Terror’ comic calls it “another ghastly tale inspired by America's most unfortunate family” - implying that they expected their readership to be at least kinda familiar with the idea of the Finches being ‘cursed’. I think that’s pretty likely that, even without the journal, if Christopher dug even a little bit into who his birth mother was he would’ve found at least a mention of a rumor of a ‘Family Curse’ .
Or, hell, seeing how the Finches (and especially Edie) seem to have been local celebrities around Orcas Island - if Christopher lives anywhere near that area, really all it will take is him saying something like “hey, I’m Christopher Finch!” or “my mother’s name was Edith Finch” and then someone would say “oh yeah, like the famous Orcas Island Finches? That cursed family that keeps dying?” and seeing how he has no living relatives on his mother’s side - he would’ve probably believed it, or at least allowed the possibility to wriggle into his heart - and then… well, the Curse will just live on regardless of Edith.
Note that Christopher is already wearing a cast before he even read the book (and is, again, a child taking a ferry to visit his mother’s grave all alone) - it seems like something of the ol’ Finch recklessness has already made it to him, whatever it’s in his genes somehow or just the rumors of the curse getting to him. But it is not entirely on Edith’s journal.
And like, one of the things I think made the Curse such a problematic mindset is the way it prevented the Finches from ever learning from their mistakes. You know, if every death is a result of a malevolent supernatural force haunting the family - then there’s no need for introspection of how what they could do better in the future. Challenging this mindset was probably one of the best things about Dawn’s mindset. But learning from past mistakes is equally impossible when you convince yourself it’s all the fault of a supernatural curse as it is when you straight-up have no context for what happened before. If nothing else, the stories in this journal can serve as a useful lesson about not clinging to the past, or not letting your grief define you, or how you shouldn’t try and make a perfect 360 degree spin on swingset or how you SHOULDN’T LEAVE A BABY ALONE IN A BATHTUB JESUS CHRIST
Because it’s not like this journal is just, like, a totally uncritical reiteration of Edie Finch’s stories for the next generation or something. I think the game makes it pretty clear that although Edith Sr. and Edith Jr. are meant to mirror each other on some level, their attitudes when it comes to the stories of the family are pretty different.
Edie was characterized as someone who cared more for what makes for a good story over the truth, as someone prone to inventing or exaggerating tales, as someone who reveled in the romanticism of being Doomed, and memorialized the death of her loved ones more than their life. Like, one of the things that really crosses a line for me about the Edie Finch Method of Grief is just how much the circumstances of the death are prioritized over the life the person had before it.
It’s not always so blatant cause the Finches tend to die in ways that poetically tie with their personality and hobbies (Molly loved animals and fantasy and she spent her last moments in a hallucination of transforming into various animals, Sam loved hunting and photography and he died taking a picture while hunting, Walter loved trains and ended up being run over by one) but… there’s certain areas where it’s actually kinda unclear if the connection is actually there or if Edie is kinda forcing it for the sake of a good story.
Like, Barbara was a horror movie child star and her death reads like a cheesy horror story - but that’s because Edie chose a cheesy horror retelling to represent it. Maybe if we knew the real story of how she died, it wouldn’t be quite so on-the-nose. Did Gus actually love flying kites to the point it defines his entire personality or was that just something he did on the day he died? Either way, he’s defined by that one activity forever now.
And Gregory… like I’m sure he enjoyed bath-time, but the fact he’s memorialized almost exclusively with bath toys and soap is kinda fucked-up. I’m sure he had other toys he loved to play with outside the tub as well, but all of his memorials are focused entirely on the thing that killed him.
Edith’s attitude, as can be seen through the game, is different. Edith can appreciate the beauty of Edie’s stories but also cares quite a bit about truth and accuracy. The difference is most obvious when it comes to their books. Both Ediths wrote a story about coming back to their old childhood home and discovering the family secrets - only Edie’s story, “The History of the Finches”, seems to be complete fiction and based on what she would’ve wanted to be true, while Edith did actually go to her old childhood home and tried to record it as accurately as possible. And while she’s limited in telling the death stories that Edie kept records of, she also notes the points when they seem ridiculous or inaccurate to her.
She documents the tall-tale about how Sven was killed by a dragon, but also clarifies that he was killed while trying to construct a dragon-shaped sled. Rather than just perpetuating Edie’s joke for the sake of the fantasy.
Plus, she doesn’t just focus on the Finches’ deaths, she does try and tell Christopher about their lives as well. It’s not always easy, since with the older generations Edith often doesn’t have much to go on outside of Edith’s memorialization, but she does try to get a General Vibe out of them from their room and other mementos they left behind (like Sam’s improvised darkroom in the wall-passegeways) rather than just the death story. And when it comes to the people Edith actually remembered well herself - Lewis, Dawn and Edie - she’s constantly telling little anecdotes and details of their life together.
In a way, I kinda divide “What Remains of Edith Finch” into three main parts. The first third of the game, with Edie’s kids, is the one that centers on the mystery of whatever the ‘curse’ is real or not - and is also a character study of Edie herself via the lense of the people that she lost. The second part is basically that but for Dawn, it’s about Edith learning to understand her mother’s character via the loss of Sam, Gregory, Gus, Sanjay and Milton. The Lewis segment is a transition between that third and the last third - which is about Edith Finch herself. Even if Edith can paint a full picture of both life and death for all of her dead relatives, she can at least give Christopher a good insight to his mother, grandmother and great-great grandmother.
And notably, the two people Edith ‘has’ to memorialize herself without Edie’s postmorten involvement, Edie herself and Dawn, get a very different treatment from every other Finch. They don’t get a ‘proper’ Death Story documenting or describing their last moments. The closest thing is Edith’s flashback of the day they moved out of the House, which is more of a Death Flashback for the Finch Family as a concept than to Edie and Dawn as individuals. We do know that Dawn died of some sort of illness, but it’s delivered to us at the end of a longer passage about the life they had together. And we really don’t know anything but how Edie died at the end.
If Edith doesn’t know how Edie died, she’s shown no interest in trying to figure it out - if she does already know, she doesn’t think her spesific cause of death is important to write down for her son. The important thing is for him to learn what kind of person Edie was in life, and Edith has more than enough understanding of her great-grandma to memorialize her without defining her entirely through some sort of of romanticized tragic death.
And, like the most important thing to remember is that Edith questions the concept of the Curse in her journal. Like, the game and the journal are one and the same. So, like all of these passages that are important for the ‘there’s no supernatural curse’ interpetation:
Christopher is reading these lines as well. If we are capable of playing “What Remains of Edith Finch” and understanding the ‘Curse’ as being a self-fulfilling prophecy - then Christopher is also capable of reading his mother’s journal and coming to the same conclusion. I mean, it’s not a certain thing. There’s plenty of players who read the Curse as a real supernatural force and that’s also a valid interpetation of the game’s text. And there’s like, actual grown-ass adults who played this game and decided it’s actually about a serial-killer granny. So maybe it’s asking a bit too much from a little grieving eight-years-old to immediately understand this as a story of unhealthy trauma coping mechanisms through the generations.
But my point isn’t that there is 100% no possibillity of Christopher dooming himself like every other Finch before him, or that Edith made the objectively correct decision in writing this journal and basically saved her son from the ‘Curse’. It’s just that he’s not doomed... it can still go either way. Christopher might have read this and started to believe in the Curse and perpatured the cycle onwards, or he might have come to the same conclusion Edith did - that believing in these stories made them real - and decided to try and do better than those who came before him. Or maybe he came to one conclusion but will later change his mind. As long as he’s alive, there’s is at least the possbility that things will turn out better.
“What Remains of Edith Finch” ends with the shot of the two things that ‘remained’ of the two Edith Finches of the game. The House is What Remained of Edith ‘Edie’ Finch Sr. A glorious and sad monument of mourning, now forever frozen in time as a memorium for the tragedy of the Finch Family. And Christopher is What Remained of Edith Finch Jr. An actual living human being with his whole life ahead of him, who still has the potential to doom or save himself.
Good luck.
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so i just read a post explaining why the op (and, according to the op, a lot of other people, even tho the post in question only had 32 notes, some of which were from people who disagreed with them) didn't like the cut to the crown keepers in last week's episode. while i'm totally on board with people not jibing with stuff that just doesn't work for them, i wanted offer some reasons why this seemingly hard pivot to people who are not the main characters of the story being told was a good decision to make (note good decision, not inherently the best decision, which i believe no one, including the dm, at a ttrpg table should ever be expected to make).
matt had an extremely powerful, extremely unexpected character decision dropped in his lap in the final moments of the previous episode. we don't know exactly how much time matt has between recordings, maybe a full week, maybe not, but either way, there's a very real chance that matt just did not have enough time to fully prepare a session to deal with fcg's death and what comes next.
sam now has to create a new character that a) is of a level with the rest of the party and b) makes narrative sense for him to be there. that takes time for both him and matt, and they might just need some space to work on that. when laudna died, marisha was willing to sit away from the table for several weeks because she knew that she wanted laudna to be resurrected, but sam may not want the same thing, and that's okay!
matt may want to fold the crown keepers into his main story, some or all of them—particularly dorian, whom both liam and the fans have been asking to return for a while now. dorian is clearly important to orym and the story that liam is trying to tell, and bringing the crown keepers in may be matt's way to do that.
matt—and dms generally—has always had to straddle a very fine line of making sure that his players are the main characters of their story who feel like their actions have real consequences and effects on the world, while also understanding that in reality, it doesn't make sense for half a dozen chucklefucks to have such an outsized effect on major cosmological goings-on like *checks notes* the potential release of a god-eater. this becomes especially true when you're on your third campaign set in the same world, and your players' previous ultra-powerful pcs are still around and definitely more adept and connected than their current pcs are. i, personally, think matt does a great job at walking that line, and one of the things he does that i appreciate is that he doesn't shy away from the fact that a) his players are powerful but not the most powerful and b) his players aren't the only one who care about what's going on in the world and who are taking actions to effect change. the current plotline re: ruidus is absolutely world-shaking and is causing all the divine girlies to cower in their demiplanes, so of course even the evil ones are going to be calling on their champions to help out. it makes more sense for opal to be involved (which, btw, matt has been hinting at for a while now) than not.
matt might need a fucking break! he's been doing this consistently for nine years now, and shit is complicated! handing over the reins to aabria for a week or two or three may be what he needs to not get burnt out.
dnd is an emotional game, and the entire cast might have been rocked hard by fcg's death. some space away for a week or two could help them process and regroup to get back into a story that is otherwise very stressful and action-packed.
or it's none of these! what do i know! i'm a random idiot on the internet! matt doesn't consult me on these matters! (though my dms are open if he wants to chat, i do have ideas)
i think it's tempting to think of the decisions made in and around critical role (or any ttrpg show) like those made for a television series, because the episodes are serialized and we love them so much. but this show is, first and foremost, a group of friends playing a game together, and not a carefully constructed narrative with the primary goal of entertaining an audience. the audience always has been and, frankly, always should be second to the wishes and fun of the people around that table. matt would not have asked aabria to step in and dm a crown keepers side arc if he didn't think it was a good decision for him and his players, and that priority is the correct one. we are being invited in to watch these friends have fun together, and that's a privilege that we're super lucky to have. as long as the cr story isn't doing things that are outright abusive or harmful to the cast or the audience, i don't think we should begrudge them the choices they make in the name of their own game.
again, it's okay if you're not vibing with the crown keepers! i didn't love the aeor arc of c2! not everything is for everyone! but i think accusing matt and the cast of narrative malfeasance is a bit much when, tbqh, they don't answer to us. they answer to each other.
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This person genuinely thinks that Aang would be a better character if he kidnapped a baby?? Or would be more interesting?? Honey, why would he do that. That's not him being boring, that's just him not committing an actual, terrible, crime. Alos it's his show, it's literally called 'Avatar the Last Airbender' of course he's going to get more episodes focusing on him, it's his show???
"Aang being a main character limits him to being a role model'' by brother in Christ, this a Nickelodeon show. Even Zuko is a bit of role model, in the sense of him being a way to teach kids "Just 'cause you're hurting doesn't mean it's okay to be a dick to others. Please apologize if you ever hurt someone."
Also Aang DOES make morally questionable, and downright incorrect, choices that the narrative address. Fleeing when the other airbenders want to send him away, hiding the map to Hakoda from Sokka and Katara, trying to learn firebending before he's ready and then vowing to NEVER use that bending again, trying to trigger the Avatar state, wanting revenge on the sandbenders, shutting off emotionally to not deal with his pain over losing Appa, refusing AND accepting to ignore his love for Katara to fully master the Avatar state, his innitial refusal to continue pretending he is dead to hide from his enemies, the Ember Island kiss, and even his refusal to kill Ozai (before the actual Deus Ex Machina happens).
Aang is challenged all the time. He grows all the time. He is allowed to be wrong all the time. Yall are just mad he was the protagonist instead of your favorite.
And while I agree Sokka didn't have much of an arc, I disagree about Toph never growing even if there were some issues with her storyline. She went from someone who was terrified of accepting help from others as that had always meant "lose all agency" her whole life, to someone that consistently relies on her friends. She went from uncooperative because "she carries her own weight" to being a team player that even offers her friends emotional support. She even makes the first step to reconciliate with her parents.
LOTS of characters had arcs (Iroh, Jet, Mai, Azula, and even King Kuei- that's how stories work. The reason some of these were handled better/given more or less screentime is because Bryke insisted on having only three seasons, even though the show clearly needed a fourth. It had nothing to do with "the problem of having a protagonist" - that's not a problem if you're a competent writer with enough time.
Also, if you see Katara in the FIRST DAMN EPISODE talking about how much she wants to learn waterbending AND how grateful she was to be allowed to be a kid again, yet you're suprised to see her become such a badass whose happy ending is helping end the war and thus be allowed to be a kid again because "she's just Aang's love interest", that says a lot more about YOU than about the show.
Avatar's writting has problems, yes, because no work of fiction is perfect because no writer is perfect. But the overwhelming majority of complaints from some fans come not from acknowledging those flaws, but from a complete inability to understand some REALLY basic storytelling stuff that the show handled with excellence.
That's what happens when you're too focused on what you want to see to actually look at the story playing out in front of you: you miss incredibly obvious things that the writers made as easy to follow as possible since the show is aimed at 7-year-olds.
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i've seen actually a few different people/users leave comments or tags about wanting to check out scavenger's reign after seeing my glowing praise of it, but also being very nervous to do so, because they're excited for a lesbian who looks like them (azi), but despite my gushing, i keep mentioning how the show is full of body horror, brutal deaths and characters having a bad time;
this is a very valid concern to have, given how a character like azi might be treated in another show, i was going in with tempered caution as well
without spoiling too much, you can lay those worries down.
the show treats her very well.
if you'd like some more elaboration, i've put it under this readmore!
azi is put into stomach-churningly dire "an alien is about to eat you/do a big big body horror/assimilate you" situations the least of any of the characters, and not even because she's being given a lack of stuff to do/experience in the plot!
i think we only see her get "afflicted" by something the way sam does once, and its very mild compared to everyone else (basically she gets a really bad itchy rash after successfully prying some weird would-be paralytic puffballs that get stuck to her) and even this one instance is quickly resolved by other fauna, in a very nice sequence of scenes that is clearly a healing/relaxing experience for her.
while she is put into danger and is trying to survive like everyone else, she gets tossed about in action setpieces she makes it through with minimal injury, more than enduring The Horrors;
she gets to have better luck because more of her narrative screentime is, by design, already dedicated to emotionally bonding with her robot buddy, levi, as they suddenly and rapidly attain self-awareness, and levi encourages her to find the beauty and harmony in this nightmarish nature documentary they got marooned in.
this helps her lighten up just in time, too, because she is, very understandably, stressed almost to her breaking point by the point the show starts, having one of the better crash landing sites of any of the survivors, and i bet the other survivors all wish they had a robot tagging along to help,
but being stranded and lonely and trying to not lose hope of rescue. she misses her girlfriend, and is feeling increasingly vulnerable (negative) and afraid, especially when situations occur where she gets reminded she does need help. azi starts the series being kind of mean to levi, and having to balance her confusion, worry, and then awe of levi's transformation, and let herself accept she does need that help.
azi is not the gruff grr nothing phases me nothing hurts me the writers dont have to try giving me depth i'm just the badass butch who exists to fill the death quota later so a lighter/more fem character can survive;
her vulnerability reveals itself without much fuss, and is eventually tended to both by herself and others. we get flashbacks that show she was naturally introverted, but clearly wanting to overcome that in order to socialize and get closer to someone (girls...)
she goes through it for other reasons, but i promise you, the show treats her very well, i feel. she and levi are probably-nah, definitely, my favorite characters in it, and the show would not have blown me away the way it did without them here
SR has 3 main story threads; Azi and Levi, Sam and Ursula, Kamen and The Hollow. of the three, Azi and Levi's is the heart, and is the most romantic, in multiple senses of the term. i might right a breakdown of what i love most about all three threads? but yeah
now, if you still need the "okay but does she or her gf die" y/n:
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azi and her girlfriend both survive the events of the show, and reunite in one piece! they may or may not throuple up with the robot.
i sure hope they do.
you can't tease us with scenes like this and Not
OH: also, when a new antagonist shows up later in the form of a lethally pragmatic blonde woman named Kris who tries to boss azi around, i did get nervous, but Azi soured to max on her and spoke exactly what i hoped was the intent at the exact moment i felt it was critical to avoid me going "hrrmmm don't like these Implications"
(the Instant azi detects blondie is trying to haze her into being a new teammate to be bossed around, azi immediately gets rightfully pissed and rejects it, and schemes to get the tagalong kid to see this also and on azi's side in the long run, which plays out and kris gets rapidly shuttled out of the plot and then pretty damn well humbled in the only blatant Sequel Hook present. i Appreciated that. Would have loved to love you Kris I love evil women but then you pulled That Stunt and now you can go wither alone in the corner
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Flamebird Analysis: The odd treatment of Bette Kane and her history/experience
Batwoman (2011-2016) #1
Okay so first of all, Kate; rude much?
Second of all... was Flamebird's costume really that impractical? Especaially when compared to Kate's costume.
While admittedly Flamebird's original costume was not exactly the height of practicality...
(Although she still seemed quite capable of holding her own in it)
Beast Boy (2000) #2
However she later does in fact get a more practical outfit which she also kickass ass in.
Beast Boy (2000) #4
And we do know that its Flamebird's second (more practical-looking costume) which Kate burns, as Bette ends up suiting up in her aforementioned spare after Kate fires her...
Batwoman (2011-2016) #3
While I am admittedly not an expert on combat outfits; Flamebird's second costume to me seems like it walks a good line between aesthetic and practicality. It has plenty of flair and style to it, but also appears quite flexible and overall not really too drastically different from Kate's Batwoman costume in this regard (rather hypocritical of Kate to say "you need a uniform" while she wears a long wig for no apparent reason apart from style).
If anything...
The "uniform" which Kate gives Bette kinda strikes me as being less practical for the situation compared to the Flamebird costume which she burned. Like Bette's mask seems to be just a piece of fabric tied around her face, which certainly feels like it should be looser and not be as sleek and flexible as the Flamebird costume.
Building off this, from what I've seen and looked over so far, the treatment of Bette kinda feels like it has a weird... juxtaposition at times between what's getting told and what's being shown, I guess.
Like on one hand...
It's shown by both Bette's comments here and the existence of her old Flamebird costumes that she has been experience vigilante for sometime. Longer than Kate I think, if I'm understanding the timeline all correctly.
There seems to be this odd case of both having Kate and the narrative treat Bette as an inexperienced rookie... while also having Bette and the narrative establish Bette as having been a Teen Titan, who has fought Deathstroke and presumably has years of experience.
Even Kate's codename for Bette indicates a rookie status...
However despite the references to Bette's past career and capabilities, and Bette's protests of being more capable than Kate gives her credit for, and Kate also immediately feeling quite shitty at how harsh she was when firing Bette...
The narrative still, from what I understand, kinda vindicates Kate entirely by having Bette get brutalised to the point of falling into a coma immediately after she defies Kate by heading out as Flamebird after getting fired... so I guess Kate was right? I don't know.
Like I said, I just find all of this quite of a weird portrayal. I've been curious about Bette lately on account of her being the original Batgirl (or rather, Bat-Girl), which is a very iconic mantle to the general "Bat-Mythos" even if Bette herself is far less remembered.
I guess one thing I find especially strange is how this is from the first issues of Batwoman 2011... meaning that this was right at the start of the whole New 52 Reboot stuff and so they could've presumably just retconned Bette's experience to make her an actual rookie sidekick instead of this weird half-measure where they both establish her past experience as canon while also otherwise ignoring it.
There's other stuff which I could go over; such as Bette's coma, her stint as Hawkfire, her enrolling in West Point... all of which probably has room for more detailed specific analysis by someone more familiar with both Bette and also the Batwoman comics (I've only fairly recently started looking into this stuff out of curiosity as I work my way through learning more comic history).
So I'll skip to a more recent appearance by Bette in 2017...
Detective Comics (1937—Present) #967
This whole exchange feels once again like Kate ignoring Bette's history, experience and capabilities. Especially the whole "pass second year in the top 99th percentile of your class and maybe I'll put in a good word with you to Batman" thing. No one else needed be top of their class at West Point, or attend West Point at all, to be a superhero. And it just seems strange to have Bette getting forced down that specific road.
Like; going by publication history, Bette was considered part of the original Teen Titans team due to debuting in the 1960s-1970s period. In fact she joined the team before the likes of Beast Boy, Raven, Starfire and Cyborg (at least in terms of publication anyway).
While I'm not entirely certain how her current age placement in the roster, they did still at least establish her as being a Teen Titan who fought Deathstroke and so presumably in the same generation as Nightwing (even if possibly a bit younger) and other core members. The from what I understand the Titans are currently considered senior and experienced enough to be the current "top team" of the hero scene in canon.
So all together this adds up to, as I keep saying, a strange contrast between Bette's stated/implied history and how she gets treated by the narrative.
DC's Legion of Bloom (2023) #1
Last year Bette did make a return as Flamebird (not Hawkfire). Which could mean one of two things...
Kate finally acknowledged Bette as ready/worthy/experienced enough to go out on her own
Bette went screw it and decided she didn't need Bette's permission
Honestly kinda hopping the later cause it brings to mind a bit of the Beast Boy comic which I quite liked...
Beast Boy (2000) #3
Better gets a very stern reprimand from Nightwing (some she admires), and is told she's not cut out for this world and quits. This comes after she's spent most of her appearance in this run being kinda a comedic relief in the form of her repeated failures to bail Beast Boy outta jail (since she's never posted bail before and didn't know how)
But after this..?
Beast Boy (2000) #4
She comes back, with a new (more practical-looking, as I discussed before) costume and beats up several bad guys to help out Gar (who in turn really appreciates her arrival and assistance).
Batwoman (2011) #3
Making this post I've noticed an interesting similarity and contrast between Beast Boy and Batwoman comics in regards to Bette. Both times, Bette gets very sternly reprimanded and told she's not cut out to be a hero and ordered not to be one by someone she admires/values the opinion of.
Both times she defies them and goes out anyway, putting on the same costume both times in fact.
But while the Beast Boy comic portrays her as competent and capable, even having her involvement appreciated by Gar...
Meanwhile in Batwoman?
Batwoman (2011-2016) #4
Bette's defiance almost immediately ends with her horribly injured, and in turn accidentally helps the DEO work out Batwoman's identity.
Two events regarding the same character which that character reacts to in a similar manner but one ends with her vindicated and the other... very much not.
DC's Legion of Bloom (2023) #1
Moving back to Bette's recent appearance in DC's Legion of Bloom. West Point is 4-years in total, and when we last saw Bette she was on her second year at the latest. So with the nature of comic book time, I find it unlikely she'd already graduated.
Her return to Flamebird could also have something to do with Infinite Frontier (I don't fully understand how it works, but apparently everything's canon now again sort of?) re-canonising Bette's competence? That sounds like kinda an amusing thought tbh; multiverse shenanigans happen and Bette wakes up one morning feeling suddenly competent again. Good for her.
Anyway I hope this is a good sign for Bette's character. Even if she's unlikely to be a major player, would still be nice for her appearance to at least depict her as capable. Plus as I said, comic book time means if she does actually stick to West Point, then she'd unlikely to be graduating (and get allowed to be a vigilante) anytime soon. So at that point you might as well just let her go be rich and play tennis since its not like that's a route to her actually doing anything.
Bette seems pretty neat from what I've seen of her, so I wish her the best. Even if Legion of Bloom continues the running joke of her trying and failing to recreate Titans West.
#professoruber thoughts#bette kane#mary elizabeth kane#kate kane#katherine kane#batwoman#batwoman 2011#dc's legion of bloom#hawk and dove#detective comics#beast boy#beast boy 2000#gar logan#nightwing#dick grayson#hawkfire#flamebird#batgirl#bat-girl#plebe#bumblebee#dc's infinite frontier#new 52#comic criticism#comic analysis#teen titans#titans west#comic essay#tw: blood
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someone with way more energy than me needs to write about how many writers (in various mediums) took exactly the wrong lessons from asoiaf, most prominently mistaking grrm's narrative risk-taking for a simplistic "kill your darlings / no one is safe" approach.
I mean, yes, the first book does kill off the closest thing it had to a protagonist 3/4 of the way through. Yes, a big chunk of the cast of characters dies abruptly and shockingly in the Red Wedding. But this is not the only way that GRRM pushes the narrative in unexpected new directions. For instance:
Just off the top of my head:
He also periodically adds new points of view that shed a completely different light on the story. We're suddenly no longer hearing about Dorne from a distance, we're IN Dorne, we're getting their side of things. Suddenly Melissandre is telling us exactly what she's up to. Etc.
After reading about someone second and third hand for several books, suddenly they are a point of view character and they are... not what you were expecting. They give us a different take on the world and on other characters that we didn't have before.
Some of these POVs are deeply unlikeable. They can be unpleasant to read about. They are supposed to be this way.
Some of them are strikingly limited for whatever reason, maybe they are 8 years old or they are isolated or mentally ill, but their viewpoint is still essential to the narrative.
These povs contradict each other often. The pov characters are sometimes wrong. They're sometimes lying, even to themselves. They're lacking important information to inform their actions. And this is done not simply for rug-pulling, but for psychological verisimilitude.
Okay, there are other examples of narrative risk-taking, but really the way GRRM uses the close POV is the main innovation of this series, not the ruthless killing off of characters.
Not all of these risks pay off, but they are all propelling the story forward and so are all of the character deaths. Yes, there are characters that die. But these deaths have purpose - there are consequences that take the story to entirely new places. It's not nihilism! It's meaningful! These are the biggest consequences of all, the ones that throw open the spine of the story and snap it into place. The result is that you are not reading the same story in book 4 that you are in book 2, it has evolved beyond the original premise in a way that is organic and necessary and while remaining consistently the same narrative. With each book of ASOIAF the story unfolds a little bit more and turns out to not be the story we thought we were reading in the best possible way.
AND YET. We are looking today at a media landscape, at least partially created by the TV adaptation Game of Thrones, that prides itself in killing off characters, using antiheros and unreliable points of view. And none of them seem to understand what all of this was FOR. They constantly feed characters into a narrative meatgrinder for shock value and yet the story doesn't GO anywhere. The essential premise just resets, treading water, and there are little or no consequences reverberating through the story for most things that happen. The narrator proves unreliable so that the author can say "Ha ha! I tricked you!" and absolutely nothing else. There isn't a metanarrative that is being propelled forward, no overarching concept to unify everything that's happening so that it's not just "stuff that's happening." Themes are for eighth graders, puzzle-boxes have nothing inside. Your lips are moving, but you're not saying anything.
And then they'll reduce GRRM to evil santa who murders characters and it's so, so frustrating.
#I mean obviously the HBO adaptation is one example but there are many more#including some that I like! but they get exhausting with this stuff!
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Why is it that it *urks* me S so easily plays the narrative with these porn loving young girls?! All he works for and accomplishes, he disrespects himself allowing his reputation to be linked to those kind of very young women. How can it be okay for him to let people believe he is a *man whore* (as the group of so called haters say)? It's not like they could still play the narrative with a beautiful woman that does not post her body parts all over social media!! I just feel like everytime they link him with one of those women, I lose a little more respect for him. For me, it also takes away from the love I've always seen between him and C. Ugh! I feel crazy for it bothering me! Am I the only one?!
Dear Bothered Anon,
I am sorry for the substantial delay. Flu happened still, and I wanted to have a clearer and rested mind in order to properly answer your question.
I shall again be brutally honest and say I really don't care at this point what brought you here: sincerity or elicitation of shippers' reactions on this very meh week-end. It doesn't really matter, either: but since Mordor is regularly accusing us of spoliation of evidence, I thought your submission deserved a careful answer. I know that annoys the shit out of them, too - not gonna lie, I am always pleased to oblige.
For our readers that have a normal life and were not here for Marple's midnight stalking session, here goes a summing-up of the facts (I hope you don't mind):
A video snippet of what is probably a more extended FaceTime conversation between S and Amanda Tutschek ( https://paintedpeachla.com/), a topless artist and painting tutor (100 USD/hour/class) from Vancouver, BC (but currently active in Venice Beach, Ca.) surfaced on Marple's account, supposedly dropped in her DMs by a good Samaritan. It is a nine second snippet ("... yeah...I was gonna put this one up here... but so funny... I was literally doing this yesterday and I was thinking about you...") with the comment: "Pimping out @samheughan's walls in Ireland (IE flag emoji)". It stayed on Tutschek's Instagram account for about four hours and then was promptly erased.
You start by telling me "S is playing the narrative with" the #silly calendar girls crowd. Is he, in this instance and if so, how can you (or anybody) be so sure?
Two scenarios are at play here:
First scenario: S/his people leaked this on purpose. Therefore, S is a troll.
Second scenario: Tutschek posted it as an Instastory on purpose. Therefore, S is a victim.
If S is trolling the fandom and I believe he is (only not now and not like this), why would he leak this on purpose? To emphatically let us know they're 'obviously not together'? To stir the pot between Queen *urv and Marple? To consolidate his man whore image, just when he was taking part in a critically important event in New York? I can understand the Lord of the Rings rigmarole (grinned for days), but assuming he is behind this strange snippet would be stretching the fabric of facts a bit too much, to my taste.
Also, despite *urv's delirious opinion ("he had a bedroom voice"), I think he just sounded tired and vaguely friendly: yes, I do think it's his voice. Not earlier than Friday evening, I received a video call on Fb from M, a (Taurus, hehe) former high school mate and one of my best friends. She always makes a point of telling me stuff like "I was buying grapes at the farmer's market and thought about you, how you absolutely hate them, so I called"/"I am at the Opera with Professor So-and-So, I told him about my brilliant friend in Athens, wanna say hi ?" That doesn't mean M wants me, the woman is happily married with two teenage boys. But she is a kind soul, with a superb understanding about what a friend really means (including being candidly obnoxious and immediately forgiven for it).
If Tutschek posted it out of her own accord on Insta, the reason would be simple: coat-tailing for clicks, shits and giggles. The insistent Ireland reference would point to that: I mean, the woman scrolled all the way down to the flag emojis to make sure we got the point (and in the process, more innuendo, mayhap). That would also explain why she promptly took it down: either because she realized somehow she pushed things a smidge too far or because she was strongly encouraged to cut the crap.
Seriously, whatever. This is just another episode of low-cost fuckery, irrespective of the two possibilities I just discussed. Her art is not as memorable as the bosom she generously shares with the world. It is borderline depressing and nothing to write home about, if you ask me. And the fact that the fandom quickly placed her in the same social circle with Quarantein Gia and Paparazzi Clarke, well... another major eyeroll, just here. The expected effect was exactly the one you described: to quietly gnaw at people's respect of S and also to chip a bit more of the fairytale.
This will happen only if you let them. These people, whoever they are, cannot challenge your reason, because there is nothing interesting or even logical about idiotic tidbits like this one. But they can and they are challenging and playing with your emotions, in order to instill doubt, insecurity, fear or disgust. I will not discuss Marple's editorial policy here (like her legally disingenuous use of someone else's material), simply because I do not want to give that derailed jukebox further space on my page. It is my sensible choice not to let these people in my world more than they deserve to be (very little). Maybe you should try it too, Anon. It could work for you as it did for me, once I came to terms with it.
I am not even sorry about the length of this answer. Haters gonna hate. I could not care less. Thanks for dropping by.
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any billy hcs?
OKAY I'm finly tackling this. lightning round.
I know that the general fandom perception of billy (in a few different circles anyway) is that he's trans, and I DO understand this. however it's not my personal headcanon. if you want to know why it's simply because the idea of him being a chaser is like insanely funny to me so. stu is trans and billy is weird about it. this is my dynamic.
as for sexuality, I've described this to people before, but to me he's bisexual on a technicality. what's that technicality? he REALLY thinks he likes women. like he's convinced himself he does. (he does not.) so like, if anything, he'd consider himself bisexual and so I call him bisexual. but. he's gay. dykwim.
anyway yes billy is a bi chaser and he is down horrible for stu though he can't really show it. I don't know if I even brought this up in my stu headcanons post but I do think they are BOTH autistic and bpd so they're really failmaxxing as a romantic duo
billyboy loomis is the undisputed mommy issues king, I think him and his mom were very close when he was a kid, like almost to the point where she was smothering him, but he loved her and became codependent with her. I think that's a theme for billy - codependency. he grew to be that way with his mom, and since I personally believe that him and stu have been friends since childhood, he also grew a little fascination with him at around the same time. he's always been Weird about stu in a myriad of ways, but the moment his mom abandoned him it was almost guaranteed that his closeness with him would turn into its own codependency. and it did.
I think his family has moved around a lot, only settling in woodsboro when he was maybe eleven or so. that's when he met stu.
I think they were both independently weird freaks of their own nature, as in, billy has always had his horror movie and psychology fascinations, but stu really amped up the crazy for him. like many people, I hc that stu is a big hunter and likely showed billy how to hunt and gut animals, and I even think he introduced him to the more gorey, less plot-centric horror movies that he loves. I also think the buck that they share was stu's initially, who then gave it to billy sometime after his mom left.
as for current day (read: 1996) stuff. a lot of people tend to stereotype stu as The horny one in their dynamic, but idk. they're both teenage boys and if anything, billy was the one trying the hardest to get laid in the movie lmfao. (I know there was an actual reason behind it but I do also think he just wanted to fuck lol) I think they're both raging horndogs and they rile each other up all the time.
we never see anyone but randy with an actual job, but I think billy's done some under the table type work around town. he strikes me as a guy who'd do good at a mechanic shop, or something. nothing too serious, just whenever he needed some pocket change he couldn't swipe from his dad.
as for horror movies... oh man.
billy is a real pretentious guy. he likes horror, he likes thrillers, but he's not as much of a gorehound as stu. that's not to say he doesn't like it - but it usually only interests him when it's the real deal. in terms of movies, he's actually your pretty generic film bro type, in that I think his top three are psycho, silence of the lambs, and the original house of wax. were he alive today, he'd be BIG into the 'elevated horror' genre, I think. think jordan peele and ari aster. overall he's a real snob about it, he can only get into a horror movie if the killer is someone he can idolize and get into the mind of. he's not a fan of monster movies, thinks it's scarier when the monster is just a regular guy. psychological horror is right up his alley, and I think he'd also love candyman for the way it combines artful and intriguing psychology into a more typically 'slasher' narrative.
I could talk about how billy watches horror movies forever but I'll move onto music so this post doesn't become a novel. I think he's big into rock, pretty similar to stu's taste in that regard. I think he'd really love green day, for sure. I also think he'd like the cure and REM, maybe soundgarden, too. he's really into anything moody or brooding in some way. besides rock though, I also think he enjoys older, more classical stuff. I could see him buying a film score cd and listening to it to sleep, or something.
SO. YEAH those are some of my billy hcs.. like I said w stu I have like a million thoughts about both of them that I couldn't possibly include in a single post so if you have any specific questions about stuff I didn't cover .. lmk ^_^
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This blog is such a wonderful resource, thank you so much for taking the time to make and update it.
I have a question about intimacy that is kind of complicated by other forms of discourse but here goes: I’m working on a horror romance with a Black heroine. The love interest is not human but could be thought of as a sort of vampire, so he doesn’t have much consideration or understanding of personal boundaries.
My question is, how can I navigate the dynamic of this creepy, dark romance while not making it so uncomfortable that Black readers lose interest. I’m working on a way of avoiding having him touch her hair, since he wouldn’t know not to, but are there any other forms of contact/interaction that would turn Black readers away. I know the genre itself makes this kind of complicated since it’s already an acquired taste, but I’d like to hear your perspective on it. Thank you!
Okay so the thing about not touching Black women's hair is not "you just don't do it". It's also the history behind WHY it's racist. Also, it's just a consent thing, regardless of race. You certainly wouldn't want someone touching any part of your body if you didn't want them to, yes? So if your character is from a background where touching like this is acceptable, but his Black partner is not okay with it, it's actually a form of intimacy and love that he grows to learn how to respect her, to understand her and her boundaries. I allow the people I love to touch my hair (when I want to).
Now, from how you've made it sound, the idea is that it's supposed to be "creepy/dark". You're walking a tight rope here; microaggressions aren't romantic, and many Black readers aren't going to read into those actions as "dark romance" the way your nonblack readers might, especially if he understands why it's racist and does it anyway.
If your Black heroine is actually into harder physical actions like hair pulling and stuff, maaaybe? Ik plenty of women that like their hair pulled and other stronger play, but that's still a matter of consent. If your heroine is into the possessive lover thing, that plays a part in the kind of responses she'll have. It really depends on her as well; it's a relationship dynamic. If she likes that sort of thing, but still has boundaries, it'll come off better (versus her receiving racism from her partner and your narrative calling it romantic. THAT is definitely a turn off).
But yeah, Black people aren't a monolith when it comes to relationships, as well as what they're willing to read in relationships. What some people hate, some might really like. Your best bet is to understand the niche you're in, and maybe find Black fans and authors in that space. Read what they like and write, see what options you have.
Also, just a wild idea, but if you're going really explicit with it, Black BDSM blogs/sites? If there's anybody who knows about limits and boundaries and consent (as well as how race plays into some of the play), the good BDSM folk usually do lmao. I wish I could offer you more help.
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Okay: how fucked up is it that Nishiki was buried next to Kazama of all fucking people instead of, uh, I don't know, maybe his SISTER???
It's honestly frightening how Yuko was just erased from the narrative. For all intents and purposes, she was just a plot device, a contributing factor to Nishiki's downwards spiral. It's understandable why even fandom forgets about her (no character model, no voice, no personality whatsoever) but in-universe, it's really fucking insane.
Like you're trying to tell me that Nishiki, Yuko, Kiryu and Yumi used to be really close as kids. I think it's in an RGGOnline story that Yuko was the one who helped Yumi open up when she arrived. But for some reason, when the game series starts (even in Y0) Yuko is suddenly just "Nishiki's little sister", which is bizarrely distant of them.
Like what could have happened, in-universe, that just made everyone except for Nishiki forget about Yuko?
Sure, you could make an argument along the lines of, "due to her condition, visitation rights were limited". But even if so, that wouldn't be grounds to become straight up APATHETIC towards her. Even if they couldn't visit (which I doubt they couldn't) they could have exchanged letters and gifts via Nishiki, could have shown more interest in her well-being, could have had conversations through the phone with her. You'd do all of that and more for someone you (allegedly) view as a sibling.
And the pre ten years in the joint stuff aside, why did Kiryu never ask about Yuko? (At least from what I remember) Like does he even know that she's dead? That would be an explanation for them not burying the Nishikis together but it also wouldn't make sense because if Yuko were still alive you'd think she'd be in the picture.
And Kiryu KNOWS that Nishiki hated Kazama enough to shoot him. Why bury Nishiki next to (I think literally in between them) Yumi and Kazama?? Considering how much Nishiki cared for his sister, wouldn't it be more proper and merciful to reunite them in death? I'd understand it if the game stated that for example there isn't actually a vacant grave next to Yuko's or that Kiryu didn't know where it was or something.
But Yuko literally doesn't get brought up at all in the ending. She served her purpose as a narrative device and that's it.
I seriously believe that this is just a flaw in the writing. They fleshed out the story and forgot to make it make sense upon closer inspection. And that's definitely forgivable from a media-consumption perspective. Even though YK1 has many, many writing flaws I did still enjoy it. But it's just so wrong and cruel in-universe.
#Now granted i might not remember some stuff and thus have inadvertently told some lies here so feel free to correct me#Because i admittedly didn't pay much attention to Yuko initially#my rants#nishikiyama akira#yakuza#rgg#nishikiyama yuko#this thought about the location of nishikis grave came to me at seven in the morning today and it hasnt let me go since#kiryu kazuma#yakuza kiwami spoilers#yakuza kiwami
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ATLA Live Action Stream of Consciousness (Episode 4, Part 2).
Are we doing Cave of Two Lovers? With Sokka and Katara?
As a folk music girlie I love the minstrels (Sokka cannot consistently shake on beat).
It’s so musician core to go into a dark cave just for the acoustics.
OMA AND SHU ARE GAY NOW!!! LET’S GO LESBIANS LET’S GO!!!
I love lead hippie guy he sounds like he’d sell me some kombucha.
SECRET TUNNEL!!!
I like that people actually remember Iroh being a war general and have bitterness towards him for that. One of my critiques of the OG was that they didn’t address that enough. (On a narrative level I’m fine with that Earth Kingdom soldier beating him up but my emotions were like NO!)
Bumi stop torturing poor Aang.
HOORAY Zuko made a good decision for once!
“I’m coming Uncle.” MY HEART!
The Sokka/Katara arguments continue to be interesting and develop the characters well.
This guy was in Ba Sing Se okay that’s INTERESTING!! And I like the direct Ba Sing Se story gives Iroh more accountability. NOW IROH TAKE THE ACCOUNTABILITY!
This is a great addition because now we the viewers want Iroh to get rescued but also we really understand the Earth Kingdom soldier here.
Why is Iroh so angry though? I’m all for character expansion but at we don’t need another moody character here.
FLASHBACK WE’RE GETTING A FLASHBACK!!
IS THAT LEAVES FROM THE VINE FOR IROH AND ZUKO I CAN’T THE EMOTIONS!!!!
But it is funny that Dallas Liu is here because isn’t Zuko supposed to be like 11?
I like Katara being so forgiving and so adamant about being forgiving.
Why does Sokka get all the credit for leading the tribe? In the original Katara bore that burden too but ofc they have to take every important thing she did and give it to a male character.
Why does Bumi get to decide whether Aang should be the Avatar? I don’t like him he doesn’t scare me he’s just annoying.
Why are the badger moles scary now?
We like when Zuko gets to kick some ass too! I love this scene (but Iroh’s still too angsty for me).
Okay Katara saving Sokka and fighting things out doing more things is she getting better? If so I wish they’d showed more signs at the beginning if it was supposed to be some sort of character arc.
I do like Bumi dropping war truths on Aang. I’d like it more if he didn’t irritate me. 100 years and he’s still fed up over some friend drama?/
I actually like the stuff about making hard choices. Something I often think about when writing Azula.
I do see a recurring theme that the Avatar is supposed to be violent and Aang refuses it…that’s a theme I like.
Okay leader Katara I see you!
This ending is sweet I do like it (they kept the cart ride from the show!)
ANOTHER FLASHBACK?!
Iroh’s energy in this flashback is what I need more of.
AAW THEY’RE PLAYING LEAVES FROM THE VINE AGAIN!
I’M ON THE FLOOR THEY CAN’T DO THIS TO MY HEART!!!
#atla#atla live action#netflix atla#natla#avatar the last airbender#aang#bumi#sokka#katara#zuko#iroh#atla stream of consciousness
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Let's talk about why Blank Space by Taylor Swift is an Ian Gallagher song.
The ironic tone of the song is so important and key for this, Taylor presents herself as this serial dater that makes men fall in love with her by being exactly what they want, makes that relationship a living hell because it seems, according to the narrative that the media spreads, that she's the problem and then they leave her. She's embracing the character that the media built for her and she's doing it with irony and sarcasm, like "oh, yeah I'm so crazy I even have a list of all the men I've dated".
So keeping this in mind, let's see the connections to Ian. In my mind this song encapsulates his character from s4 to s10 but specially in s6 and s7. What do we see him doing in those two seasons? Dating men that aren't Mickey. And he tries, he tries really hard to be what they want, what they need. He even, specially in Caleb's case, tries to separate them from his family so they don't know he's not this well put together persona he's trying to be. But that's his nature, a nature that he also embraces with irony and sarcasm every time he talks about his bipolar. He keeps that tone every time he thinks or insinuates that any of those relationships could end because of that, because it seems like he's the problem, like he's the one being what everyone needs until the worst comes. Until this nature he can't stop manifests itself and the relationship ends.
He views himself as a mess, as a problem, as this fucked up thing no one can't fix because there's nothing to fix. He thinks he’s this thing that can lie and pretend to be okay, to be fine until it's not, until it breaks and it hurts you leaving you with a nasty scar. Obviously this comes from the idea that he could end up being like his mum, being destructive. He feels that being in a relationship with him is just waiting for the fatal final mess that at some point will come, you could even say he thinks he's a nightmare dressed like a daydream. He can be what you want, you can fall in love with him but the end is right there waiting. The destructive nature he thinks he has in him it's patiently waiting.
It feels like he started those relationships knowing they would end, that they would be a name on that list the song mentions and maybe the rumor would spread and "they'll tell you I'm insane". Though that line could also be a reference to the reputation that having the same mental illness as his mum builts for him.
But then, Trevor. He lets Trevor know some stuff about his family and this time it's not only him the destructive element, it's his family at least in s7. And he lets him know probably because he has seen other complicated lives because of his job, so he could understand and not judge unlike Caleb who had a very stable and normal life. So he tries, he tries to be everything Trevor needs, he listens, he nods and smiles and understands. He tries to be better and know better and tries, he tries so hard to fit in Trevor's world, in Trevor's life. But it happens again, he's just dressed as a daydream because he wants to be loved so bad that he would be anything for that, he would be that boy for a month. But once again, never forgetting the irony and sarcasm of it all, the worst is yet to come. And of course, everything ends but Trevor couldn't say he didn't warn him. Ian told him about his mum, about his bipolar so he should've seen it coming, right?
Turns out boys don’t want love if it’s torture even if that's what he has seen in his parents, even if he has seen destruction being part of love. But he will take those relationships way too far, because he's young and reckless and will watch them end knowing it was gonna happen, knowing everyone knew it would because this is what he does, this is what that nature he understands as his, does.
This is why Blank Space is an Ian Gallagher song, because in an ironical and sarcastic way, he embraces the idea of him being the problem, the reason why his relationships don't work.
#it makes sense TO ME#gallavich#shameless#mickey milkovich#ian gallagher#gallavich headcanon#gallavich meta#i guess idk
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gaang + fire nation girls and their opinions on yellowjackets??
okay well i've talked before about how katara suki and ty lee watch yellowjackets together as well as assigning each character their yellowjacket counterpart, so check those posts out too, if you want!
aang: he knows katara loves it, but he can't watch it, he finds it too upsetting and creepy
sokka: he enjoys it but katara can't stand watching it with him because he's always shit like "well if they had just listened to ben they wouldn't be in this mess" or "they should be nicer to nat" and he's killing the vibe -_-
zuko: it gives him nightmares but the good kind so he keeps watching. he's a little bit obsessed with adult shauna and adult misty they are like camp icons to him
toph: appreciates the soundtrack and also sokka's very biased recaps wherein each episodes mostly details what fresh misery his best friends nat and ben (and occasionally simone) have had to endure this time
suki: she loves the aesthetics, the tone, the suspense, the humor, the music, and most of all, the hot babes. i think she is a vangirl and a lottiegirl first and foremost so s2 was a beautiful gift to her. also she'd be lying if she said she hasn't read a fanfic or two
mai: she likes it but she thinks shauna should have, at the very least, kissed jackie's corpse, if not outright fucked it. ear eating was a good start and all, but doing your dead bestie's makeup is honestly not even weirder than what the average mortician does on a daily basis, so kind of disappointing to be honest.
azula: doesn't watch it because any tv show that isn't on hbo is too pedestrian for her refined tastes, but if she did she would be so obsessed with taissa she would be the number one taigirl and she would ship taishauna like her life depended on it!!!!
ty lee: it is one of her favorite tv shows ever because it involves lesbians eating human flesh in a bacchic frenzy and what can be better than that. she's a shaunagirl because she thinks shauna is the most unhinged and therefore the sexiest. she's the type of fan who is constantly coming up with fakakta theories about lore and where the show is gonna go next. if suki can constantly spam the yj groupchat with taivan fucking nasty in the lake 5k words then ty lee is at least allowed to predict that antler queen is actually a literal spirit of the wilderness who is personified by their very faith in the supernatural, right?
katara: a show depicting various women struggling to deal with their trauma in unhealthy unappealing destructive ways, toxic teenage girljocks who take soccer way too seriously, exploring taboos in relation to the colonial assumptions of society vs the constructed bogeyman of "the wilderness" that exists in the white supremacist imagination, and nuances of patriarchy vs relational modes of knowing through both absence and presence is exactly the kind of narrative that katara would be compelled, nay, transfixed by, even if she does have some well-deserved critiques when it comes to the show's execution, especially some of its blindspots when it comes to the issue of racialization. hence why she is the biggest yj head in this house (which is why i saved her for last). like she has a whole side twitter just for yj posting. she loves all her milf children equally, except she might have a teensy bias towards taissa for the simple fact that she is the best at soccer. katara is one of those fans who studies the soccer game in the pilot as a way of gleaning insight regarding the characters, because actually she's a really big nerd when it comes to things like that. she didn't like nat at first because she'd show up drunk to practices and that pissed her off, but then nat shared that strategy with kevyn tan's son and she decided that she was okay. stuff like that. despite the fact that she and suki have gotten into screaming matches debating jackie's sexuality ("i don't understand how you can think she isn't a lesbian how else are you supposed to read her character" "maybe she just kind of ...sucks? ever think of that?????") and also nat's (katara being of the opinion that nat is straight is actually so bravely correct of her, in this instance, despite suki's totally sympathetic objections that if nat is straight then how are she and lottie gonna partake in the milffucking?? hm?????) and also ben's ("no straight man would be carrying all those condoms with him for a weekend work trip" "suki not everyone is gay you can't just assign homosexuality to everyone you think is hot" [...] "okay i stand corrected just this once"), she is extremely emotionally invested in every single one of these characters, and seeing any of them get hurt or die makes her feel physically ill (yes, even laura lee). aang's like "you know, if this show is getting bad for your mental health, you don't have to rewatch every episode five times to pick up on nuances and easter eggs and potential foreshadowing" and katara's like "but if i don't then how will i be able to properly characterize them for my greek mythology AU novel-length fanfic???????" because she is totally normal about the show and everyone can agree on that.
#imliterallysobored#asks#the gaang and#mostly#katara#synthesis#modern au#because it incorporates katara being a soccer player. i guess#also do not ask me for yj fanfic recs i have never read any and i never will. just pulled those examples outta my ass#based on what i think could be compelling theoretically#and yes i do think that nat is straight. dont @ me!!!!!
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Not to be anti-Sam because she really is a good person, but the way she consistently prioritizes the ghosts' desires over her husband's needs without any hesitation is kind of weird lol. I mean, she's lucky she happens to be married to the sweetest, best sport in the entire world, because most people would not put up with even a fraction of what Jay does. It's true that Sam inconveniences HERSELF a lot too, but she also gets the advantage of interacting directly with the ghosts. Jay doesn't even get to form real relationships with them yet has to constantly and majorly sacrifice for them, and his wife seems to just take it for granted that he should be willing to immediately do everything and anything for them without complaint. On a different but related note, Alberta declaring that Sam was being selfish last night was just beyond the pale ---by that point Sam and by extension Jay had already done WAY more to help Alberta with this random new love interest than anyone else would! It's one thing when the ghosts expect Sam and again by extension Jay to go out of their way to help with a serious issue involving family member or to resolve a mystery surrounding their death, but the implication that Sam and Jay should blow up their lives to keep Alberta's boy toy around for a little longer is just ridiculous imo. It kind of seems like the ghosts are more selfish and entitled this season overall, but maybe it's just me. I don't mind that they're somewhat self-absorbed---it's to be expected and adds to the comedy---but they seem to be regressing rather than growing! Maybe they're leading up to a narrative where Jay finally puts his foot down and Sam ultimately chooses to side with her husband over placating the ghosts...?!
I definitely think the ghosts are getting way too comfortable with Sam always advocating for them over Jay (and even herself, as you say). You're not being anti-Sam at all, in fact I've thought everything you say myself.
I mean, in a sense, I understand why Sam does what she does: she is a caring person and she has the means to help these people have experiences that will give them richer, fuller afterlives in ways they can't achieve themselves, so naturally she wants to give it a shot for them. And when you put Jay in the mix, Sam is treating him like the ghosts treat her: just assuming that because he's naturally very accomodating, she doesn't have to ask, or be polite, or even accept no as an answer.
I really would like to see Jay take the reins more because unlike Sam, we know he can draw lines with the ghosts and doesn't hesitate to do so. That's another reason why him being able to see them would be so good: not just because of the fun that would come from him being able to see Pete, but also because he could be the muscle or the force when them that Sam seems to be incapable of being. And then that could lead to them both eventually being able to really be on the same team about the ghosts, not just Sam saying do this and Jay saying okay.
As for Alberta...yeah. Her calling Sam selfish was a real slap, you know? I mean again, I get where Alberta is coming from: With Saul, she's finally having a chance to experience a relationship again and it's frustrating that Sam just gets to cut it off. (And I shouldn't have been surprised how much Jay was willing to do but I was, honestly. Go him.)
But naturally, because they don't usually get to see things from Sam's point of view, they can't put themselves in her place. Being dead gives them a very limited world and worldview where they are more having to be helped by Sam instead of equally being in a position to help her also.
(And I think that when it comes to changing that, Alberta could be one of the first to figure things out. I mean remember when she could be heard in the Alexa and got annoyed by everyone asking her to tell Alexa stuff...giving her a moment in Sam's shoes, which she found annoying. I think more moments like that for all the ghosts wouldn't hurt for sure.)
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In an answer to another question, you said that Amphibia acknowledges how change can be beneficial but also difficult and harmful, partly because the ‘quick’ and ‘forced’ change Andrias inflicts on Amphibia by trying to bend the world to his will is presented in a negative light. This is a very good point, but isn’t there a bit of a double standard when it comes to the forced change inflicted by the Guardian?
At journey’s end, the Guardian drops Anne back in Amphibia with three shards for a one-way trip home. It was nice of them to give her a ticket back to Earth…but it also forces Anne into a position where she has to leave a world she loved enough to give her life for, and potentially never see her found family again.
Now, it would be pretty hypocritical for Anne to talk a big deal about accepting that things change whether we like it or not in All In, only to turn around and pick a fight with the god of the multiverse out of a refusal to tolerate being separated from the Plantars. But the Guardian didn’t even consult Anne or ask her if she’d be okay with this before putting her in this position. They just…sent her back, left a little note saying “TTYL,” and didn’t even explain why they couldn’t give her a way back to Amphibia.
Sure, the Guardian knows how much damage was caused by creating the stones to see what mortals would do with unlimited power. Recreating the stones for Anne would have easily risked another disaster happening. But if the Guardian is truly all-powerful, surely they could have given the Calamity Trio a two-way portal that couldn’t be exploited by the wrong hands?
And in the deleted alternate ending, the Guardian does recreate the stones anyway when an old Anne forgets the deal she made and forces them to start their search for a replacement all over again. Now, this alternate ending isn’t canon, so it might not actually be what the Guardian would do, but again, the Guardian never explains why they’ve given one-time-use-only shards.
By all appearances, this is a quick and forced change to inflict on Anne, Sasha, and Marcy. You say the forced changes Andrias inflicts on Amphibia are portrayed as bad, but the narrative doesn’t even question the forced change brought about by the Guardian. Nobody raises so much as a word in condemnation of its actions. Not once does Anne even think to look up to the sky and ask ‘What gives? I sacrificed my life to save Amphibia, and you won’t even give me a two-way portal?’
I understand two-way transportation would have contradicted the message of accepting change and how love transcends distance. But throwing an entity who supposedly could, but won’t, give them a way back muddles things, in my opinion. A big part of Anne’s arc was learning to stand up for herself. Shouldn’t she have stood up to the arguably unfair hand she was dealt?
(Sorry for how long this ask was, I just have a lot of thoughts on this stuff and I get carried away rambling sometimes XD)
So for the sake of focus, I'm going to take all the stuff about the two way transportation and Anne supposedly being out of character for not arguing about the stones and put them to the side. One: because you yourself admit that approaches are flawed, Two: things get deleted for a reason. I could literally probably give you a clear, logical, narratively consistent reason why EVERY storyboard we're shown for TOH was changed or deleted, and Three: I could genuinely go into each topic on its own and so it would make this blog incredibly long.
Instead, I'm going to focus that while it wasn't my first point, I did continue for one more line about why Andrias' change upon the world was so destructive. I specifically point out that it is forcing the world to be something it is not and to bend it to his own will. It is selfish and uncaring of others and the show's themes of community always punishes selfishness.
Instead, the Guardians' final choice... Actually evokes the first sin in Amphibia's timeline, at least for the trio. The Guardian's logic is actually pretty easy to figure out after all. After what the girls did, especially Anne, they deserve a chance to go home, even if the Guardian is now done with allowing inter-dimensional travel, at least easily and by his intervention. So they're given shards to allow them to choose what form of change they want, what sacrifices they will make, but change HAS to happen either way. It is simply best for everyone, you yourself admitted this and a two way portal would not magically fix the issues with it, from the Guardian's perspective to keep the worlds separate..
It is not selfish. Instead, he is doing it for the best of the dimensional community... Just like Marcy's father was going to make them move likely for the sake of keeping his job or a promotion or any number of reasons that were likely motivated by trying to keep his family together or help them prosper. The change it would inflict on Marcy would not be of her own choosing, just as we cannot control the change those around us inflict upon us, but it wasn't done maliciously, nor was forced to be faster than the nature of the change required. There is no way to make a change like that smooth or consequence free. It was always going to hurt, much like when someone around you dies.
Instead of running though, the trio embrace it and head back home where they'll have to deal with reality the most. It's a stark contrast to, while still paralleling, the actions that began the show. A scared girl running from inevitable change and deciding a fantasy world was better than her actual home. For an ending, it's perfect.
So why not show the pain? Well... Because a story needs to end eventually. Amphibia in the end is extremely optimistic about good intentions, community and change so showing Anne or any of the trio cursing God himself for not giving them a fairytale ending makes literally no sense to include in the finale and just adds more time whining when that time could be better spent saying farewell to the characters and staying committed to the hopeful message that it has.
That's something I don't think a lot of people entirely get with stories. There are actually plenty of TOH scenes I've dug into HARD not because there isn't a logic to them or I couldn't explain to you why the characters are behaving the way they are or because it is literally written badly but because, you know... It needs to actually serve the story and the point of a scene. Even if it doesn't 100% adhere to pure logic, it needs to adhere to the thematic and emotional logics of the piece. Those are ALWAYS more important.
Otherwise, you get people bitching at SpyxFamily for the fact that trained spy Loid doesn't give a shit that his wife has literal superhuman capabilities. Logically, they're correct. But... The show IS a comedy. And 90% of the time, Yor's strength and skills are used comedically because that is the tone and purpose of whatever scene is going on. It adheres to the logic of what the show at least pretends to be. It's actually why I find myself questioning the serious portions of the show more. Not because they make less literal sense but because they make it so when the show shifts back into silly times with Anya at school, it is fucking JARRING.
And for Amphibia's ending, the point is how much good change has done these characters. Saying farewell and embracing how much both the characters and the audience have treasured the characters they've been with. There's a reason why the epilogue, and even the farewell before it, come across like a curtain call to a play as much as a natural scene. A final chance to say farewell before we probably never see them again. And, you know, because they commit to that instead of trying to prove they're so smart or address every potential thing someone might claim is illogical about the show mostly set in a frog world, it is able to genuinely say goodbye to those characters and stay emotionally and thematically consistent throughout.
Because those things, in 99% of stories, is WAY more important than being 'logically correct'. It's also why I don't really think there is a better version of Amphibia's ending. Period.
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