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ladyluscinia · 7 months

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Ok, I think I might be exiting the "are you fucking kidding me?" period and ready to make a real argument, so lets talk about Three Act Structure!

Is OFMD S2 just the "Darkest Hour"?

A very common explanation I've been seeing for some of the... controversial... aspects of S2 is that it's meant to be that way. That the middle act is where the protagonists hit their lowest point. Where we get the big failure point. Where everything looks kind of shit.

S2 is supposedly just that point. It's The Empire Strikes Back. People have been making that comparison since before the first episodes even dropped, telling everyone to expect something that could be disappointing or unsatisfying - it's just a matter of needing to wait for S3 to pull it all together.

It's not a baseless framework to consider the show through - I'm pretty sure David Jenkins has mentioned it in interviews (or at least mentioned he planned for three acts / seasons) so it's certainly worth asking how he's doing at the 2/3rd mark.

So - quick summary of Three Act Structure:

Act 1 introduces our characters and world. It includes the inciting incident of the story and the first plot point, where a) the protagonist loses the ability to return to their normal life, and b) the story raises whatever dramatic question will drive the entire plot. Act 2 is rising action and usually most of the story. The protagonist tries to fix things and fucks them up worse, in the process learning new skills and character developing to overcome their flaws. Act 3 is the protagonist taking one more shot, but this time they are ready. We get the climax of the story, the dramatic question gets an answer, and then the story closes.

If you want examples, the Star Wars Original Trilogy is a very popular template. And, hell, he said it was a pirate story... the main Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy also does a solid job with their three acts.

Let's compare. (Spoiler: I'm not impressed 🤨)

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First thing I need to establish... Wait. Two things. First is that Three Act Structure is flexible, so we can't really analyze success or failure by pulling up a list of necessary plot beats that should have been hit in X order. Second is that if you tell me you are writing a romance with a Three Act Structure - where "the relationship is the story" - the first thing I'm going to do is ask you how you are adapting it. Because while there's not necessarily anything preventing you from applying this to a character driven plot, most people are familiar with it as plot structure for externally driven conflict.

Unless there's a reason the status of the main relationship is intrinsically tied up in the current status of the war against the evil empire, a standard Three Act Structure is going to entail either an antagonistic force that absolutely wants your main couple apart being the main relationship obstacle OR the romance aspect being a subplot to the protagonist's narrative adventure. None of those sound like how the show has been described.

So how is OFMD adapting it?

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Act 1

(Can't figure out how well Act 2 is doing if we don't start at setup.)

Right out the gate, OFMD breaks one of the main "rules" for a story where the Acts are delivered in three parts. Namely the one where the first Act is treated as an acceptable standalone story, with it's own satisfying yet open ended conclusion.

In Star Wars, A New Hope ends with the princess rescued, Luke finding the Force, Han finding his loyalty, and the Death Star destroyed. The Empire isn't defeated, the antagonists still live... the story is not over, but this one movie doesn't feel unfinished.

Similarly, Curse of the Black Pearl gives Jack his ship back, Elizabeth and Will get together, and Norrington has the English Navy let them all off the hook and give Jack and the pirates one day's head start.

OFMD's final beat of S1 being Kraken Arc starting is not that, even if Stede returning to sea is still a pretty hopeful note. Now... I don't necessarily think this was a bad call. At least, not if the story is the relationship. It's easy to close on a happy ending and then fuck it up next movie if the conflict is external and coming for them. Not so much if you're driving the story with your protagonists' flaws, in part because it should be really obvious at the end of setup that your main characters need development and can't run off together right now. I actually like that they were risk-takers and let S1 look at the situation clearly vs doing a fragile happy end, because it takes into account the difference between a character-driven and plot-driven narrative.

I think OFMD's Act 1 actually ends at maybe the Act of Grace? Well, there through the kiss on the beach, counting as our "first plot point" before everything goes wrong, basically.

At that point, they have setup the story and characters. We've been introduced to Edward and Stede's current issues. Signing the Act of Grace does make the intertwined arcs between them real - it's no longer a situation that either one of them could just walk away from like it was in 1x07 - and we narrow in on the (alleged) driving question of the show:

It's not about "Will Stede become a great pirate?" or "Will we develop a better kind of piracy for the crew?" - the show is the relationship and the big question is "What is Stede and Edward's happy ending?"

Act 1 ends on their first solution, being together and making each other happy and admitting it's more than just friendship. Act 2 starts, appropriately, by saying both of them are currently too flawed for that to go anywhere but crashing and burning.

Now... looking back, what does Act 1 do well vs poorly?

I think it's really strong on giving us the foundation for BlackBonnet's characters and flaws. We aren't surprised Stede goes home or Edward goes Kraken (or at least... we weren't supposed to be surprised. There are still a lot of holdouts blaming Izzy for interrupting Edward's "healing" despite how at this point in the story it doesn't make sense for Edward to have the skills to heal... but I digress). The relationship question is compelling at the end of S1, the cliffhanger hooks, and the fandom explosion of fics did not come from nowhere - the audience was invested.

I also think Act 1 does a great job of settling us in the universe. We understand the rules it abides by, from how gay pirates are just a fact of life to how there's no important organs on the left side of the body. Stede has a muppety force field. Rowboats have homing devices, and port is always as close as you want it to be. Scurvy is a joke. The overblown violence of pirate life is mostly a joke, but we are going to take the violence of childhood trauma seriously.

Lucius's fake-out death, while technically part of Act 2, works well because Act 1 did a good job of priming everyone to go "obviously this show wouldn't kill a crew member for shock value, and we're 100% supposed to suspend disbelief about how he could have survived getting flung into the sea in the middle of the night." And we do. And we get rewarded for it.

Regarding antagonists - a big focus of any setup - the show is deliberately weak. The one with the most screentime is Izzy, and he's purposefully ineffective at separating our main couple. Every antagonist is keyed to a particular character, and they function mostly to inform us of that character's flaws and development requirements. The Badmintons tell us about Stede's repression and feelings of inadequacy, and Izzy tells us about Edward's directionless discontent and tendency to avoid his problems. Effectively - the show is taking the stance this will be a character driven narrative where Stede and Edward's flaws are the source of problems and development the solution. No person or empire (or social homophobia) is separating them...

...which leads me to something not present - there nothing really about the struggle of piracy against the Empire. Looking at Curse of the Black Pearl... we see piracy is in danger. The Black Pearl itself is described as the last great pirate threat the British Navy needs to conquer. Hangings are omnipresent - Jack is sentenced to die by one almost as soon as he's introduced to the story, when his only act so far had been to wander around and save Elizabeth from drowning. OFMD tries to invoke this kind of struggle in 2x08, but there's no foundation. Our Navy antagonists are Stede's childhood bullies, and so focused on Stede the crew isn't even in danger when they get caught. The Republic of Pirates is getting jokes about being gentrified, not besieged.

Even the capture of Blackbeard by the Navy is treated as a feather in Wellington's cap but not a huge symbolic blow against piracy... because we just do not have that grand struggle woven into Act 1. You only know the "Golden Age of Piracy" is ending if you google it, or have watched a bunch of pirate shows.

Overall, a solid Act 1, well adapted to the kind of story they've said they were looking to tell - a romance in the (silly-fied) age of piracy, instead of a pirate adventure with a romantic subplot.

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Now, Sidebar - Where is the story going?

The thing about the dramatic question - in OFMD's case: "What is Stede and Edward's happy ending?" - is that a) there's normally more than one question bundled up in that one + sideplots, and b) while you aren't supposed to have the answer yet, you can usually guess what needs to happen to give you the answer.

Back to our examples... Luke's driving question is "Will the Empire be defeated?" Simple. Straightforward. Also: "Will Luke become a Jedi?" The eventual climax of our story from there is pretty obvious... the story is over when Luke wins the war for the Rebellion in a Jedi way. That's the goal that they are working toward.

Pirates of the Caribbean is a bit more complicated. We're juggling more characters and have a less defined heroic journey, but there are driving questions like "Is Jack Sparrow a good man?" and "Is Will Turner a pirate / what does that mean?" and even "Will the British Navy defeat piracy?" They get basic answers in Curse of the Black Pearl, and far more defined ones in At World's End. Still, this is another plot-driven narrative. They've laid the foundations for the Pirates vs Empire struggle, and when that final battle turns into the trilogy climax then you know what's happening.

OFMD is not doing a plot-driven narrative. To judge how they are doing at their goals, we have to ask what they think a happy ending entails in a character sense.

Clearly it's not the classic romantic sideplot, where the climax is the first kiss / acknowledgement of feelings. They've teased a wedding in Word of God comments a lot, so that's probably our better endpoint. Specifically, though, a wedding where both of our protagonists aren't ready to flee from the altar (big ask) and where they've both grown enough that their flaws / mutual tendencies to run away from life problems won't tank the relationship.

In Stede's case it's still massive feelings of inadequacy and being too repressed to talk about his problems. Also he ran away from his family to chase a lifelong dream of being a pirate - "Is Stede going to find fulfillment in being a pirate captain, or will the real answer be love?" Edward meanwhile expresses a desire to quit piracy and retire Blackbeard, but we also find out he's struggling with massive self-loathing and guilt from killing his father - "Is retiring what Edward wants to do, or is he just running away?"

If they are going to get to a satisfying wedding beat at the climax of their story, what character beats do we need to hit in advance?

Off the top of my head - both characters need to self-realize their flaws (a pretty necessary demand of anyone who runs away from problems). They are set up to balance each other well, but also to miscommunicate easily. They have to tell each other about or verbally acknowledge that self-realization so it can be resolved. Stede has to decide how much being a pirate means to him. Edward has to decide if he's retiring and what he wants to do. They both need to show something to do with getting past their childhood traumas given all the flashbacks. Through all this, they also need to hit the normal romance beats that convince the audience they are romantically attracted to each other and like... want to get married.

Oh, and this is more of a genre-specific sideplot, but once they demonstrate a behavior that hurts the people who work for them, they need to then demonstrate later how it won't happen again. Proof of growth, which is kind of important in a comedy where a lot of the humor is based in them being massively self-centered assholes. Stede doesn't earn his acceptance in the community until he kicks Calico Jack off the ship, making up for causing the situation with Nigel in the first episode. A workplace comedy can get a lot of material from the boss as the worker's antagonist, but if you want the bosses to stay sympathetic you have got to throw them some opportunities to earn it.

All that sounds like a lot, but like - the relationship is the story, right? If we spend so much time on establishing flaws big enough to drive a story, we also have to spend time on fixing them. Which is where the turning point hits.

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Act 2: How it Starts

This is where the full story reality-checks your protagonist. Glad you saved your boyfriend and embraced new love in Act 1, but his repressed guilt means he's about to completely ghost you, and your own abandonment issues and self-loathing are about to make his dick move into everyone else's problem.

Again, it's a non-conventional choice OFMD has this start at the very end of S1 rather than with a sudden dark turn in the S2 premiere, but it's still pretty clearly that point in the Three Act Structure.

In Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back opens with a timeskip to our Rebellion getting absolutely crushed and hiding on a miserable frozen planet. The Empire finds them as the plot is kicking off and they have to desperately flee. They get separated. Han and Leia try to go to an ally for help and end up in Vader's clutches. It's a sharp turn from the victorious note that A New Hope ended on.

Pirates of the Caribbean's Act 2 starts dark. Dead Man's Chest opens with our happy couple Will and Elizabeth getting arrested on their wedding day for the "happy end" escape of the last movie. Jack has not been having success since reclaiming his ship, and we'll soon find out he's being hunted by dark forces. As for the general state of piracy, we get a horrifying prison where pirates are being eaten alive by crows, and a new Lord Beckett making the dying state of piracy even more textual. "Jack Sparrow is a dying breed... The world is shrinking."

The key here is making a point that our heroes aren't ready. This is the struggles part - things they try? Fail. The odds do not look to be in their favor.

Now, OFMD apparently decided to go all-in on flaw exploration, especially with Edward. The first 3 episodes of S2 are brutally efficient in outlining Edward's backslide. In S1 you could see he had issues with guilt and feeling like a bad person. S2 devolves that into a destructive, suicidal spiral where Edward forces his crew into three months of consecutive raids, repeats his shocking act of cruelty with Izzy's toe offscreen (more than once!), escalates it with his leg, and finally they state directly that Edward hates himself for killing his dad so much that he fears he's fundamentally unlovable and better off dead.

Stede's struggles are subtler, but most definitely still there. He's deliberately turning a blind eye to tales of Edward's rampage, half from simply being too self-centered to care about the harms Edward causes others, and half from being unable to face or fathom that he had the ability to hurt Edward that much. Upon reunion he wants to put the whole thing behind them, not addressing why he left in the first place. Very "love magically fixes everything" of him, except Stede is no golden merman.

Interestingly, here, BlackBonnet's relationship dysfunction has very clearly been having a negative impact on the surrounding characters we care about. Make sense, since it's the driving force of the story, but that also adds a lot more relationships we need to make right. Like... Edward is the villain to his crew. The show focuses on their trauma and poisoned relationships with him. And then draws our attention even more to Stede taking his side to overrule their objections to him.

For a story where the conflict and required resolutions are primarily character based, and the setup had already given the main couple a good amount to work with, dedicating a lot of S2 to adding more ground to cover was... a choice. Potentially very compelling on the character end, certainly challenging on the writing end... but not a complete break with the structure.

Bold, but not damning.

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Act 2: How it Ends

Now it is true that Act 2 tends to end on a loss. Luke is defeated by Vader and loses his hand, and Han has been sent away in carbonite. Jack Sparrow for all his efforts cannot escape his fate, and he and the Pearl are dragged to the locker.

But the loss is not the point. The loss is incidental to the point.

Act 2 is about struggles and failure, but it's also about lessons learned. There's a change that occurs, and our cast - defeated but not broken - enters the final act with the essential skills, motivation, knowledge, etc. that they lacked in the beginning.

Luke Skywalker could not have defeated the Empire in Return of the Jedi until he'd learned the truth about his father and resisted the Dark Side in The Empire Strikes Back. (Ok, confession, I'm using Star Wars as an example because literally everyone is doing so, but frankly it's a better example of formulaic Three Act Structure repeating within each movie because on a trilogy level - relevant to this comparison - it is a super basic hero's journey in a very recognized outfit and as such the Act 2 relevance is also... super basic "the hero tries to fight the antagonist too early" beat where he learns humility. Not really a lot going on. So, for the better example...)

Dead Man's Chest has a downer ending with the closing moment of the survivors regaining hope and a plan against an enemy now on the verge of total victory - a classic Act 2. But in that first loss against Davy Jones we get Will's personal motivation and oath to stab the heart, Jack finally overcoming not knowing what he wanted and returning to save them from the Kraken (being a good man), Elizabeth betraying Jack (being a pirate), Barbossa's return, and Norrington's choice to bargain for his prior life back. The mission to retrieve Jack from the World's End is the final movie's plot, but things are already on track to turn the tables back around as we enter the finale.

Now, relevant sidenote - one major difference between Three Act Structure within a single work vs across three parts is that Act 2 continues into Part 3, and only tips over into Act 3 about midway through. This is because obviously your final movie or season cannot just be the climax. That's why both movie examples start with a rescue mission. They have to still be missing something so they can get the plot of their third part accelerating while they go get whatever that something is.

But if you wait until the 3rd movie / season to get the development going at all - you're fucked.

Jack's decision in the climax of At World's End to make Elizabeth into the Pirate King goes back to the development we saw in the Pearl vs Kraken fight in Dead Man's Chest. So does Elizabeth's leadership arc. Will's whole arc about becoming Captain of the Dutchman gets built upon in the third movie, but it starts in the second. Not just as an idle thought - he's actively pursuing it. Already consciously weighing saving his father vs getting back to Elizabeth as soon as he makes the oath. Everyone is moving forward in Act 2. Their remaining development might stumble for drama, or they might be a bit reluctant, but I know that they know better than to let it stick, because they already faced their true crisis points.

I'm not sure we can say the same about OFMD.

S2 does a good job of adding problems, yeah, but there's not really any movement on fixing them. Our main couple stagnates in some ways, and regresses in others.

Stede opened Act 2 by running away in the middle of the night back to his wife without telling Edward anything. We know he did it because of feeling guilty and his core childhood trauma of his dad calling him a weak and inadequate failure. Now in S1 he actually speedruns a realization of his shitty behavior with Mary, but what about S2? Well...

He continues to not talk to Edward about... pretty much anything. My guy practiced love confessions galore but Edward only finds out about going back to his wife via Anne, and it gets brushed aside with a love confession. He seems to think Edward wants him to be a dashing pirate, or maybe he just thinks he should be a dashing pirate. Idk, it doesn't get examined. Regarding his captaincy, they give him an episode plot about Izzy teaching him to respect the crew's beliefs, but this is sideplot to a larger arc of him completely overruling their traumas and concerns (and shushing their objections) to keep his boyfriend on the ship so. That.

Stede kills a man for reasons related to his issues, shoves that down inside and has sex with Edward instead of acknowledging any bad feelings. At least this time Edward was there and knows it happened? Neither Chauncey's death nor his dad have been mentioned to anyone. He gets a day of piracy fame that goes to his head, gets dumped, and ends on a complete beat down by Zheng where he learns... idk. Being a boor is bad? He's still wildly callous to her in the finale, and spends the whole time seeking validation of his pirate skills. He reunites with Edward, kisses, and quotes Han Solo.

Where S1 ended on a great fuckery, his S2 naval uniform plan after they regroup is ill defined except to call it a suicide mission - and we don't get to see what it would have been because it devolves into a very straightforward fight and flee. And gets Izzy killed. Quick cut funeral (no acknowledgement of his S2 bonding with Izzy), quick cut to wedding (foreshadowing), quick cut to... innkeeper retirement? Unclear when or even if BlackBonnet discussed Stede's whole driving dream to be a pirate and live a life at sea, but I guess that got a big priority downgrade. Despite the fact he was literally looking to Zheng for pirate-based compliments in the post-funeral scene.

I guess he's borderline-delusionally dogged in his pursuit of love now - so unlikely to bolt again - but he's also got at least a decade of experience mentally checking out in a state of repression when he's unhappy. And he's stopped being as supportive and caring toward the crew in that dogged pursuit, while arguably demonstrating a loss in leadership skills, so, um, good thing someone else is in charge?

And if Stede is a mess, Edward's arc is so much worse.

As established, they devote the Kraken to making Edward worse. He literally wants to kill himself and destroy everyone around him in the process because Stede left, and this is fixed by... Stede coming back. That's it. The crew tries to murder him and then exiles him from the ship (and Izzy takes the lead on both, indicating exactly how isolated Edward has become), but it's resolved in half a day by Stede just forcing them to put up with his boyfriend again. Like they think he murdered Buttons and still have to move him back in???

The show consistently depicts Kraken Era as a transgression against the crew, but they also avoid showing Edward acting with genuine contrition. He admits he historically doesn't apologize for anything, and then mostly still doesn't. It's a joke that he's approaching probation as a performance (CEO apology), and then the only person he genuinely talks to is Fang - the one guy cool with him - and the only person who gets a basic "sorry" is Izzy - the guy he really needs to be talking to. Edward's primary trauma is guilt, but apparently he only feels it abstractly after all that? He's only concerned with fixing things with Stede, despite Stede being about the only person around who hurt him instead of the reverse.

Speaking of primary traumas, Edward hating himself doesn't really go anywhere after the beat of self-realization. Apparently Stede still loving him is enough of a bandaid to end the suicide chasing, but he doesn't like. Acknowledge that. Edward is maybe sorta trying to go slow so he doesn't hang all his self-worth on Stede again (you can speculate), but they a) absolutely fail to go slow, and b) he doesn't make any attempt to develop himself or another support structure. Just basically... "let's be friends a bit before hooking back up." And then we get the whiplash that is Blackbeard and/or retirement.

Kraken Era is Blackbeard but way worse, like no one who has known Blackbeard has ever seen him. In the Gravy Basket Edward claims he might like being an innkeeper, before destroying his own fantasy by having the spectre of Hornigold confront him over killing his dad. The BlackBonnet to Anne & Mary parallel says running away to China / retiring makes you want to kill each other - burn it all down and go back to piracy. Stede rightfully points out prior retirement plans were whims. Edward gets sick of the penance sack after a day and puts his leathers back on to go try "poison into positivity". But also claims to be an innkeeper (look - two whole mentions!) when trying not to send children to be pirates after teaching them important knife skills.

Killing Ned Low is a serious, bad thing that prompts ill-advised sex and then going hardcore into retirement mode - leathers overboard, talk about mermaid fantasy, get retirement blessings from Izzy, end up dumping Stede for a fishing job instead of talking about how he's enjoying piracy. The fishing job, however, is also a bad thing and a stupid decision because Edward is a lazy freeloader fantasizing about being a better person. We have an uncomfortable, extended scene of "Pop-Pop" weirdly echoing his abusive dad and then sending Edward to go do what he's good at - disassociate, brutally murder two guys, fish up the leathers, rise as the Kraken from the sea. He continues with comically efficient murder but also he's reading Stede's love letters and seeking to reunite with him so... wait, is this a good thing? Post makeout / mass slaughter he's trading compliments on his kills with Zheng so. Yeah. Looks like it. Murder is fine.

Wait, no, skip ahead and Izzy is dying and Edward suddenly cares a whole lot as Izzy makes his death scene about freeing Edward from Blackbeard. Now being a pirate was "encouraging the darkness" because Izzy - a guy who had little to no influence over Edward's behavior - just couldn't let Blackbeard go. Murder is bad again, and he is freed. Minus the little detail that the murder he explicitly hates himself over was not related to Blackbeard or piracy whatsoever, so presumably haunts "just Ed" still. Anyway he's retiring to run an inn with Stede now, as the "loving family" Izzy comforted him with in his dying moments sails away from the couple that can best be described as the antagonists of their S2 arc. Also Edward implicitly wants to get married. It's been 3 days since making out was "too fast". He's still wearing the leathers.

So most of the way through Act 2 and Edward's barely on speaking terms with anyone but Stede, who he has once again hung his entire life on really fast? Crushing guilt leads to self-hatred leads to mass murder and suicide, but only if he's upset so just avoid that. He's still regularly idealizing Stede as a non-fucked up golden mermaid person (that maybe he personally ruined a bit) because he barely knows the guy. His only progress on his future is "pirate" crossed out / rewritten / crossed out again a few times, "fisherman" crossed out, and "innkeeper ?"

Just.

Where is the forward movement?

It's not just that the inn will undoubtedly fall apart - it's that the inn will fall apart for the near-exact same reasons that China was going to at the beginning of Act 2, and I can't point to anything they've learned in the time since that will help them. I guess Stede realized he loved Edward enough to chase after him, but that was in S1! They should be further than this by now. You can't cram another crisis backslide, all the Act 2 development, and the full Act 3 climax into one season. Certainly not without it feeling like the characters magically fix themselves.

If they just fail and keep blindly stumbling into the same issues because they don't change their behavior, then Act 2 doesn't work. You're just repeating the turning point between Act 1 & Act 2 on a loop.

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Where Did They Fuck Up?

Actually... lets start on what they did right.

The one consistent aspect of S2 that I praised and still think was done well in a vacuum (despite being mostly left out of the finale) was the crew's union-building arc.

With only 8 episodes and more to do in them than S1, side characters were going to get pinched even if the main plot was absolutely flawless. That was unavoidable. With budget cuts / scheduling issues, we regularly have crew members simply vanish offscreen outside of one scene, meaning cohesive arcs for your faves was not likely. Not to say they couldn't have done better - my benefit of the doubt for the TealOranges breakup and Oluwande x Zheng dried up about when I realized he was literally just her Stede stand-in for the parallel - but something like Jim's revenge plot from S1 was realistically not on the table without, like, turning half the crew into seagulls to afford it.

The union building works around this constraint really well. They turn "the crew" into the side arc, and then weave Izzy's beats in so that they aren't just about Izzy. The breakup boat crew working together to comfort each other and protect him turns them into a unit, and Stede's crew taking it upon themselves to address the trauma vibes while the captains aren't in the way solidifies it across all our side characters. The crew goes to war with Stede's cursed coat and wins, they Calypso their boss to throw a party, and they capitalize on a chance to make bank with an efficiency Stede could only dream of.

We don't get specific arcs, but Frenchie, Jim, and Oluwande are defaulted to as leaders in just about every situation, and Roach is constantly shown sharing his inventions with different characters. Individuals can dip in and out without feeling like the sideplots stutter. Any sense of community in S2 is coming from this arc - even if there are cracks at the points where it joins to other storylines (Stede and Edward, Zheng, etc.)

So why does it work? Well, because it's a workplace comedy, and you can tell they are familiar with working on those. They know where the beats are. They know where to find the humor. They know how to build off of S1 because they made sure the bones were already there - an eclectic group of individuals that start as just coworkers, but bond over time in the face of their struggle against an inept boss who they grow to care for and support while maintaining an increasingly friendly antagonism because, you know, inept boss.

OFMD does its best work in S2 when it's being true to its original concept... and its worst work when it seemingly loses confidence in its own premise.

"The show is the relationship," right? It's a romance set in a workplace comedy. The setup of Act 1 was all about creating a character-driven narrative. So given that... where the hell are we getting the dying of piracy and a war against the English Navy?

That's not a character-driven romcom backdrop, it's an action-adventure plot from Pirates of the Caribbean or Black Sails. It's plot-driven, creating an antagonistic force that results in your characters' problems. Once the story is about the fight against the Empire, the dramatic question becomes the same as those adventure stories - "Will the British Navy defeat piracy, and will our protagonists come out the other side of the battle?"

Forget the wedding. The wedding is no longer the climax of the story, its back to the happy ending flash our romantic subplot gets after winning this fight.

Except, of course, trying to pivot your story to a contradictory dramatic question near the end of Act 2 can be nothing short of a disaster, because either you were writing the wrong story until now, or you've completely lost the plot of the real one. I shouldn't even be trying to figure out if they are doing this, because it should be so obvious that they wouldn't.

And yet.

What do the Zheng and Ricky plots add to the story if not this? Neither of these characters have anything emotionally to contribute to Stede and Edward - they truly are plot elements. It's a hard break from the S1 antagonist model, but it also takes up a lot of valuable screentime. This was considered important, but still Zheng's personality and motivation only gets explored so far as it's an Edward-Stede-Izzy parallel with Oluwande and Auntie, and they only need the parallel for Izzy's genre-jumping death scene. Which follows a thematically out-of-left-field speech about how piracy is about belonging to something good (workable) and how Ricky could never destroy their spirits (um...?). And then David Jenkins is pointing to it and saying things about "the symbolic death of piracy" and speculating S3 might be about the crew getting "payback"??? An idea floated by Zheng right before our temporary retirement, btw.

Fuck, the final episode of S2 didn't have time for our main couple to talk to each other because it was so busy dealing with the mass explosion of Zheng's fleet and Ricky's victory gloat. We get lethal violence associated with traumatic flashbacks until they need to cut down enemy mooks like it's nothing, at which point we get jokes with Zheng. The Republic of Pirates is destroyed outright, and it feels like they only did it because they got insecure about their "pirate story" not having the right kind of stakes. Don't even get me started on killing a major character because "Piracy’s a dangerous occupation, and some characters should die," as if suspending disbelief on this aspect makes the story somehow lesser, instead of just being a fairly standard genre convention in comedy. Nobody complains about Kermit the Frog having an improbably good survival record.

Did someone tell them that the heroes have to lose a battle near the end of Act 2, so they scrambled to give them one?

Just... compare the wholly plot-driven struggle in 2x08 to Stede and Edward's character-focused storylines in 1x10 and tell me how 2x08 is providing anything nearly as valuable to the story. Because I can't fucking find it.

At best they wasted a bunch of time on a poorly integrated adventure plot as, like, Zheng's backstory or something, and just fucked it up horribly by trying to "step up" the kind of plot they did for Jim. In which case the whole thing will be awkwardly dropped but damage is done. Otherwise, they actually thought they could just casually add a subplot like this because they've done something wildly stupid like think "pirate" is a genre on the same level as "workplace comedy" and can just trample in-universe coherency while you draw on other media to shore up their unsupported beats.

Bringing us to the most infuriating bit...

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"...end the second season in a kinder spot."

If this was the goal, the entire season was written to work actively against it in way that is baffling and incompetent.

The really ironic thing is that the reason that the Act 2 part typically gets a downer ending is because of the evil empire that OFMD did not have to deal with until they pointlessly added it. A plot-driven story has an antagonistic force - a villain - that the heroes need to defeat. Something external working against them. The story ends when they beat the thing, and it's not much of a climax if they do most of the defeating before you get there. Ergo, they have to be outmatched up to the climax. Ergo, the second part cannot end on them feeling pretty comfortable and confident going into the third.

The same rules do not apply in the same way to a character-driven arc.

We already established Edward and Stede declaring their love is not the end of the story. Nor, necessarily, is both of them confidently entering a relationship. Even once they've developed a bunch they will have to show that development by running into the kinds of problems that would have broken them up before and resolving them better.

David Jenkins keeps talking about this idea that S2 is getting a hopeful open ending and S3 will get into potential problems, and like... I don't see any reason why they couldn't have done that successfully. They didn't, but they could've.

If S2 grew them enough as characters and then had them agree to try again in the last minute of the finale, they absolutely could have had a kind and hopeful ending where you were confident they could do it. And then a potential S3 can show that. It's a bit rockier than they were counting on, but they have learned enough lessons to not break up. And then the overall plot can build to proposal (start of Act 3) and wedding (the romantic climax). It doesn't have to be a blow out fight to be emotionally cathartic.

(Hell, the main rockier bit that they overcome in the S3 Act 2 portions could be marriage baggage. I'm sure they both have some. It would work.)

In the same way focusing on our character's long term flaws and character-driven conflict makes an Act 1 "happy ending" more difficult, I suspect it makes an Act 2 "happy ending" easier.

Instead they wrote an Act 2 that failed to convincingly start development and got confused on its direction, and then presented a rushed finale ending in a copy of the predictable disaster from S1 as though it's a good thing. They yanked the story at least temporarily into an awkward place where a romcom is trying to sell me on a bunch of serious drama / adventure beats that it has not put the work into, and inviting comparisons to better versions of those same beats in other, more suited media that make it look worse. The need to portray everyone as reaching happy closure overrules sitting with a major character death and using it for any narrative significance, while still letting it overshadow those happy endings because a romcom just sloppily killed a major character with a wound they've literally looked into the camera and said was harmless.

If I'm being entirely honest, Dead Man's Chest ends effectively at Jack Sparrow's funeral and then cuts to the British Navy obtaining a weapon of mass destruction, and it still feels kinder and more hopeful just because I leave with more faith the characters are actively capable of and working toward solving their problems.

OFMD S2, in contrast, has half-convinced me our main couple would live in a mutually obsessed, miscommunication-ridden horror story until they die.

---

Additional Reading

Normally I link stuff like this in the post, but that requires more excitement than I'm feeling right now. Here's my alternative:

Where I thought they were going with Edward - really outlines the mountain of character development they still have unaddressed

Where I thought they were going with Izzy - touches on a lot of themes that might be dead in the water & also context that's still probably relevant to why Izzy got a lot of focus in S2

My scattershot 2x08 reactions

An ask where I sketched out the bones of this argument, and another where I was mostly venting about the fandom response

This one, this other one, and this last one (read the link in op's post too) about genre shifts and failure to pull them off

The trauma goes in the box but it never opens back up - the whole point of Act 2 is that they needed to start opening shit like that - and also they focus so much on needed character growth and so little on following through

They can't even carry through on character growth that we got last season???

Why Izzy's death feels like Bury Your Gays ran smack into shitty writing

EDIT: Oh and this post is REALLY good for outlining the lack of change in way less words than I did

#our flag means death #ofmd #ofmd s2 #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd meta #three act structure #character arcs #blackbonnet #genre #blackbeard ofmd #stede bonnet ofmd #my meta #ladyluscinia #ofmd critical

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destinysbounty · 4 months

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This is by no means an original take but I shall say it all the same: the majority of Cryatalized's issues could be easily resolved by having both halves be separate seasons - or at the very least getting the s11 treatment where they are both distinct arcs that are connected yet not necessarily the same plot.

Hear me out. Plot threads from part 1 that never got resolved, like the new ninja thing orHounddog McBrag's arc or Nya's reunion being unsatisfying, and the ninja still technically being wanted criminals? Have that be its own separate, contained story. Even if they save Nya in the first few eps, they dont get to see her properly until the very end due to them being on the run, which makes that eventual reunion much more cathartic as well as giving them an emotional motive that still carries over from the season's beginning energy involving the ninjas' grief. We'd get more time to explore everyone's grieving processes in greater depth, and actually give Nya a satisfying arc of coping with her newfound powerlessness and feelings of guilt. Maybe it can be a more grounded storyline - corruption within Ninjago's justice system, or the prisons were planning to do something awful to them, or they realized the judge had no intention of ever letting Nya visit them again so they break out of jail just to reunite with her one last time. Or, yeah, maybe some villain shows up and they have to try and stop them. Either way, if Pt1 had been its own season then that would allow all the storylines and arcs for that part to be resolved much more satisfyingly.

Then, with the Nya and ninja crimonal situation resolved in one way or another, Part 2 as a separate season could have much more effectively dived into stuff like Overlord lore, Harumi's redemption arc, Lloyd's oni form, and general Garmafam drama.

On top of that, thia new two-season system would also fit into the Wildbrain season theme in a fun way. We had Fire and Ice, Electricity, Earth, Green, and then Water. The Pt1 season could then be Creation, with the Pt2 season being Destructuon.

Ultimately, the biggest problem with Crystalized was that it tried to bite off more than it could chew, and tried to juggle too many ideas at once without affording enough time for each of those individual storylines enough time to be effectively resolved. By splitting them into two distinct storylines with their own antagonists, climaxes, and resolutions, the plot threads introduced in both halves would have much more space to get the conclusions they needed.

#500 notes and i rewrite - *gets shot*#ninjago #destiny post

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thekingofwinterblog · 6 months

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Soul Eater - The Manga's Unsatisfying Ending.

It is not a big secret that the Manga ending of Soul Eater is not a well recieved one.

There are a lot of very obvious criticisms of it, wheter it be the way the story has no real climax, the relationship between Crona and Maka is a no ending tale that pretends othervise, or the damn madness of boobs.

There are a lot of things to critique about it, just on a surface level. I have seen plenty of them through the years. What I have no seen though is someone delving into why, on a thematic level, the Manga Ending does not work.

Crona

The biggest problem by far, is Crona's choice in the end, because Manga Crona makes the wrong choice at the end. The cowards choice.

Rather than going out and facing the world, and risk the hurt that comes with opening oneself to other people, Crona instead makes the choice to stay to "Atone".

In other words, the lessons of abuse that Medusa hammered into Crona from childhood, of being completely undeserving of forgiveness is not overcome at all.

Crona admits to not being able to go back to the world after everything horrible that has happened, every sin, every crime, every wrong turn.

In the end, this is fueled by cowardice. By choosing to stay, and keep Asura in check, Crona falls back on every single bad lesson Medusa ever taught.

It's all your fault, you dont deserve forgiveness, you dont deserve a happy life, you cannot grow.

I dont think most readers really realised the full implications of all of this, when reading the manga ending the first time,

But the feeling that something is deeply, deeply wrong with this ending is there all throughouth this ending.

The thing is, that on paper this ending could have made sense, after all this kind of self sacrifice ending has been done a thousand times throughout anime and manga... But it does not work here.

It does not work, because in the end, it completely proves Medusa right. She managed to break her child, and in the end, Crona NEVER managed to recover from it.

One of the single biggest problems fans have with the Manga, is that Medusa's death, the final ending of the single best villain the series ever had, feels incredibly cheap.

This is completely true... but not because Crona murdered her in a pique of insane rage and bitterness, but because thats the final note Crona's story ends on.

Medusa's story feels cheap, because there is no real follow up and closure, and far, far more importantly, a thematic rebuttal to her actions.

Medusa getting herself killed by her own child on purpose is not a problem. The fact that she is not proven wrong in the end IS.

The Manga ending with Crona choosing to seal asura on the moon, rather than having to confront the world, and risk it all on a final battle that the crew might, or might not win, proves that Medusa's assessment of Crona as a coward who could never face their fears and always takes the easy way out, was right.

And that is a TERRIBLE note to end the story on.

However the problems with this ending goes much further than that. It also(unintentionally) rejects Soul Eater's themes.

What is the most defining image from the soul Eater Manga? The one image that sums it up it's themes in one go?

The answer is this one, from chapter 15.

An ending where Crona gives up everything for Maka could work as a tragic ending... But it can't work in Soul Eater, because Self Sacrifice for the greater good or even the people you love is not one of it's main themes.

Soul Eater's main theme is comeraderie in spite of every difference, of embracing one another no matter how much it might not make logical sense.

Or as Maka and Asura's final conversation in the anime puts it, that madness and bravery are two sides of one coin.

It is a form of madness to open yourself up to other people, to risk judgement, to risk having your heart broken or hurt by opening yourself up to other people... And yet that is exactly what the protagonists of Soul Eater does all the time.

And it is best summed up in that spread from chapter 15, where 7 different people with a whole ton of personal issues puts all of it to the side, to stand together as friends against the world.

Because they have the bravery to do so, the bravery to take a risk and open themselves up to other people, to take a leap of faith.

Bravery and madness together.

THAT is Soul Eater's main theme, and it is one that it ultimately rejects in the final two chapters of the manga, and not just with Crona, though that is certainly the worst part of it.

Maka and Spirit

But the ending does not just reject it's own themes on the big scale, it rejects it on the smaller one too.

One of the plot points of the last two chapters that left a BAD taste in a lot of peoples mouths, is the interactions between Maka and Spirit.

And make no mistake. It is BAD. Really, really bad, and just like with Crona's choice not to take the risk of going back into the world and having to deal with it all, it COMPLETELY rejects its own themes for the sake of a bad, bad joke, told at the worst time.

Upon the sealing of the moon, Spirit and Maka comes face to face with the seeming reality that Spirit(and several other people) are about to be sealed with Chrona on the moon.

This leads to a very sweet moment from Spirit, where, in what he assumes will be the final time Maka sees him, chooses to give her a smile to remember him by, so her last memory of her dad wont be him cowering in fear from his impending end.

Which is then completely undone in the next chapter.

When returning to earth, and confirming with her own eyes that yes, maba did save her dad with her magic, Maka's response is to revert right back to the spitefull girl she was at the start of the series.

She once more deliberately rejects her dad despite her very, very real feelings of love and relief upon seeing him alive.

It might not seem like much, but in the end, this one, single moment, in the final chapter of the series, proves that Manga Maka could never defeat Asura, because unlike anime Maka, Manga Maka was not, in the end, able to overcome her own personal fears about opening herself up to others.

Just like Crona in the previous chapter, Maka does not overcome her own personal fears of opening her own heart for the people she loves, despite the risks involved.

And that is an absolutely TERRIBLE note to end Maka's entire journey on, given every single bit of character development she has had before this is about doing that exact thing.

Soul Eater Evans

Now the problems with Soul Eater isnt nearly as bad as the problems with Maka and Crona, where their choices ultimately ended up undermining the mayor themes of the story, it simply tries to shove in the idea there was some greater journey for soul eater, where he had some massive lifechanging revelations, just the usual and generic "I have become way stronger thanks to you".

It's not a Bad note to end his character on, but it's telling that rather than just reciprocrate Soul's very obvious flirting, Maka in the final panels is far more conflicted, and in the end, uses his own words to reaffirm her devotion to Crona.

I like Souls a lot, but the fact is, that at no point in this story did he reach a point where he earned this ending, where he could genuienly say that he was done running away from all his problems. At no point did he seek out his broher to reconnect, he did not reconnect with his family, and while I am glad he was able to reembrace his love for the piano in a healthy way, there is a far cry from that, to being able to claim he's conquered all his demons.

Ultimately Soul's actual journey in this story, is the fact that he is not the main character. That is how he is introduced, as a guy who very clearly wants to be this story's focus, but the fact is, he isnt.

Maka is. it is her journey that we actually follow, is her growth and choices that defines this journey, and it is her relationship with Crona, not her relationship with Soul, that this story places all its hopes, dreams, themes, and climax on.

The fact that this climax ultimately failed as a story, does not change that fact.

This is not to throw shade at Soul and his development, as he IS a good character, with his own journey, but the brutal fact is, that he has not earned this ending at all.

He is Maka's partner, and that IS a HUGE part of this story... but it's not the part that the entire climax was built around, and put all its chips on.

The final pages trying to pretend othervise is another way this ending ultimately failed as a story... but its NOTHING compared to the way it failed Maka, Crona, and it's themes.

Conclusion

While im very, very negative towards the climax of the manga, this is not to say that the ending is completely devoid of good parts.

Kid making peace with the witches is a very fitting ending for his character, and fits right in with the Story's themes... Unfortunately, the conflct between Witches and Meisters/Death was not the aspect of this story that everything hinged on.

less said about the madness of boobs, the better though.

Overall, the ending is not the worst thing ever made... It is certainly not Attack on Titan, who's ending and denouncement of free will destroyed it down to it's foundations... Nor is it an ending that does not make any sort of sense within the context of the world and its mechanics... But it is a BAD ending, that completely fumbled its themes at the single most crucial point when it truly mattered at the finish line.

#soul eater #soul eater evans #soul evans #crona gorgon #maka albarn #spirit albarn #medusa gorgon #meta #spoilers #ending #themes

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kittensartswriting · 6 months

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I watched a book review video, where there was a broader argument that political fantasy is inherently hard to end in a satisfying way and it got me thinking. Because I'm writing a political fantasy myself, I have a lot of thoughts.

I do agree with the argument in some ways. I think many fantasy genre conventions work against political plotlines, so ending it in a satisfying way requires breaking those conventions. So, the argument was that there's broadly three ways for a political fantasy to end and none of them is very satisfying. First, it can end to the protagonists losing. Second, it can end to a protagonist becoming the monarch. And third it can end to the protagonists abolishing monarchy. First is kinda obviously unsatisfying. Second is unsatisfying because it doesn't address the underlying systematic problem about the previous regime, monarchy being inherently unjust, that in a political fantasy should be one of the core themes explored. Third is unsatisfying because establishing democracy after monarchy is in reality a process that takes generations of political struggle, not last act of a book.

There is of course couple of assumptions already in these arguments, which are typical genre conventions. Fantasy governments are usually feudal monarchies and the protagonists are very often royalty or have potential in becoming one, and this is doubly true with political fantasy. I agree with the argument that all those three options are unsatisfying, but I don't think they are the only possible endings, just what usually happens in political fantasies. Specifically I think they are the options when following genre conventions. The genre conventions I'm talking about are not necessarily the assumptions I already mentioned (monarchy and royal protagonist) though changing them can open more possibilities, but rather protagonist with strong character agency, closed endings and story structure with rising action and decisive battle at the climax. Basically I'm talking about the story where saving the world/country rests upon the hero and they defeat the villain which fixes everything.

There's nothing wrong with these genre conventions on their own and they do work very well in a lot of fantasy, but I would argue that they clash with a political story. In reality real political change doesn't come to the scheming or battle between couple of people, it's collective work done for generations. Every person under a political structure has agency (though often power to use that agency is not evenly distributed), which means that politics is in mathematical terms a chaotic system - unpredictable and complex. That's why it's impossible to predict in the moment the political outcomes, but later, when looking at history, the patterns are easy to see. The agency of one person doesn't mean much in grand scheme of things, not even a very powerful person. Their power comes from something, so if they wish to wield that power, they have to uphold it. So if you give the protagonist in a political story a lot of agency, suddenly they are the one single-handedly making the politics and the people of that world become a mass of drones without agency, who don't have ideology, material interests or even opinions. This completely flattens politics and imo any ending will be unsatisfying.

One thing that I find is very much lacking in most political fantasies, is ideology. I think because we are not often taught about the ideological debates and disagreements that led to every political change in history, we often think of ideology as a very modern thing, but it's just inherent part of politics. Every political change starts with ideology, which comes usually long, generations even, before any large political action. It can start with intellectual elites or on grassroots level, but there will always be some thought leaders that define the emerging ideology, which allows it to spread. For ideology to spread the ground needs to be fertile for it. For example instability, economic or otherwise, is very fertile ground for anti-authoritarian ideologies, even more so than injustice and lack of personal freedom. Different classes are also more fertile for different ideologies. Those in power are obviously more open to ideologies that justify their power, while those not in power are more open to ideologies that question the power structures. After ideology has become popular, it still needs power to actually enact change. If it's popular among those with high relative power, that's easy, but if the opposite is true, to gather enough power, they need a popular uprising with power in numbers. That requires much more resolve from each individual, because while they have collective power individually they are still vulnerable, so uprising is personally extremely risky. Which is why a popular uprising needs in addition wide spread desperation.

Still, popular idea and power to enact it is just the beginning. Then starts the long and hard process of actually doing it, which is basically never linear. There were peasant uprisings thorough Middle Ages trying upturn feudal system, but it took centuries for it to actually collapse, in some places in Europe and around the world there were still feudal structures in 1800s. For a major change to really take root, it has to become generally accepted, and when you have just overturned a previous regime, there's obviously still a lot of people who do not accept the new system. There's couple of options, you can go the guillotine route, where you can try to forcibly strip them of their power and/or kill them and their supporters, which most certainly leads to a civil war with uncertain outcomes. Or you can try to work with the old powers, which most certainly leads to them resisting change as much as possible and diluting the changes. It's not really possible to get a clean change from one system to another at one go. It can even get reversed quite quickly. Usually large systemic changes require at least couple of attempts before they stick.

The point of this tangent is to illustrate that if a political story ends neatly tied up, it feels untrue to reality. A revolution, a coup or a reformation is just the beginning of a structural change. The structure of rising action and decisive climax also doesn't fit to how politics work. Winning an army or dethroning a monarch is just a step to the direction of a new regime. The ideological opponents won't just abandon their deeply held beliefs the moment they lose power. It also ties to the character agency, if the protagonist is part of a regime change, they definitely shouldn't be the one coming up with the new regime or it's ideology. There should be already existing popular movement for it before the MC comes into the picture. (Looking at you game of thrones with the last episode going "what if we come up with a new system out of nowhere without any prior ideological discourse on the spot and everyone just agrees?")

But usually strong character agency, closed endings and decisive climax are thought of as basis for a satisfying fantasy story, so how would a political fantasy be more satisfying without them? Firstly I would argue they are not always necessary for a satisfying story, but I will say it's harder to make a story satisfying without them. My solution to this is to have different primary plot than the political plot. By that I mean for the protagonists to have different primary goal from the political struggle and it's pursuit being the primary plot, while the political struggle is the secondary plot. The primary goal should of course be connected to the political goal. I think the best way to handle it is to have that primary goal be the reason why the character has their political goal, so the political struggle is an obstacle in their primary goal. The primary goal should be something personal, more intimate in scale and tied to their character arc. This allows the character to have more agency over the outcome of their primary goal and for their primary plot to have a closed ending even if the political struggle doesn't, and has the added benefit of making the political struggle more personal and concrete. The primary plot could be revenge against a monarch or freeing from a political marriage or a lot of other options that forces the character to enter the political arena.

With a dark political fantasy, the ending also doesn't need to be perfectly happy to be satisfying, in fact in dark fantasy the ending is usually more satisfying as a tragedy or bittersweet ending. It could even have a corruption arc, where we watch the hero turn into a power hungry villain, or the protagonist could be antihero from the beginning. In a story like that it can be a perfectly satisfying tragic ending for them to lose or to get to the throne and be just as terrible as the previous monarch. Related to this, I have seen couple of popular posts that express annoyance at people who complain about fantasy having overwhelmingly monarchies as settings. The argument is often that part of fantasy is exploring a completely different mindset from us and to people who lived under monarchy it was just expected fact of life. I think this is generally compelling argument. For a fantasy adventure to have monarchy that goes without questioning is not some secret monarchist messaging. Same goes for a dark fantasy where there's oppressive monarchy that's not changed by the end. But I think with political fantasy it's different, because the main theme should by definition be about politics and power. So if monarchy (or a different political structure) goes without questioning in a story like that, I think the story is lacking in depth. Or maybe it is secret monarchist propaganda.

Also just to add to what I alluded in beginning, I think there's a lot of potential for interesting and satisfying political fantasy with different political system from monarchy and/or protagonists with lower class status, but I wanted to mainly make the point that I think the issues with political fantasy are mainly in the story structure. I don't think there's anything wrong with monarchies in fantasy, I have written monarchies in fantasy, and will in future too, but I do think that beyond political fantasy too sticking to monarchies by default is a little limiting.

To be clear, these are just my thoughts on this, not any rules that would apply to every story that could be described as political fantasy, definitely not. And a lot of this is about preferences. I would love to hear other toughts too!

#writeblr #worldbuilding #fantasy #writing advice #kinda #political fantasy

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axailslink · 1 year

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Judy Harmon Hc's

• Judy is the definition of acts mean and is mean

• Doesn't smile much but when she does you are usually the reason

• Loves hearing you talk she calls you 'songbird' because as she's said before "you talk so damn much"

• Completely different when you both are alone

• Kissing is her love language and she takes it very much to heart if you peck her lips instead of giving her a full kiss

• Demands your attention with just a simple look

• Feisty as hell

• Loves holding her rifle it's something about having a little extra weight in her hands that makes her feel good

• Can be violent but never to a lover of course however anyone else she's quick to throw punches first talk later

• Do not let the height fool you she is the dominant person in the relationship

• She has a stone cold face however when you are anywhere near it lightens you can literally see her eyes smile before she does

• Judy loves when you touch her in any kind of way whether it be sexual or a simple hand hold

• Can not deal with being away from you for too long she will complain the whole time

• OVERPROTECTIVE? Absolutely if you're joining her while she's patrolling anything black panther party related she's standing in front of you rifle in her hand and she's made you grab her switchblade. "That pig moves you better be gone"

• If she sees you hurt her in any way, shape or form all of her morals are thrown out of the door

• Surprisingly was very nervous your first time like didn't know where to put her hand nervous you had her sweating and shit

• Not easily jealous or threatened by another attractive person in fact she laughs at someone trying to get with you. (It took her a while to get your number so yeah seeing anyone else trying is a hilarious sight.)

• Arguments with her can last forever because she's so damned stubborn

• Claims to hate cuddles but loves skin to skin contact 🙄 make it make sense

• After an intense night -whether it be fighting the pigs or fucking- she just wants to lay with you skin to skin completely nude the only warmth you two are using is each other. She loves that.

• Can't do the whole secret thing and doesn't care that you're both women

"I don't see the problem I love her just as much as a man loves his wife. Sounds like some made up bullshit to me y'all stay tryna control the next motherfucker"

Nsfw kinda 🤷🏾‍♀️

• Wants your eyes on her at all times especially when you're climaxing "look at me"

• Walks you like a dog it's honestly kind of embarrassing but if she's missing you and gets the smallest moment alone with you she's grabbing you by your pants and pulling you to a corner with some sort of privacy

• Does not like repeating herself and she won't

• Heavy on wanting you to beg for her "I'm sorry what did you say? I couldn't hear you...did you say faster?"

• Loves to overstimulate you just because she loves seeing your legs shake and hearing your mumbles, whimpers and whines drives her crazy

• Aftercare is a must and will never leave you without it

• Loves teasing you while you're in the bath will touch will bite will nip but she won't give you what you want. Her fingers will rub every part of your skin except where you truly desire it. So long story short she's fucking annoying and will tease you for her own personal fun.

• This woman lives in your thighs you will wake up to her kissing up your thighs on many mornings it's a tease thing of course but sometimes she furthers the action especially if she knows she won't be home at a reasonable time

• Her favorite thing to do to you is to bend you over a counter and ram her fingers inside of you knuckle deep just before she has to leave because she knows that's all that will be on your mind as you're working, eating and going about your day.

• Never leaves you unsatisfied if you're unsatisfied she's unsatisfied

• Oh my God's you let her anywhere near your cooch oh she ain't stopping until her jaw is locked and in pain

• Your legs squeezing shut or shaking is only motivation for Judy in fact call her name out while you at it because it does nothing but rile her up

• "Captain Harmon" yeah you might want to remember that she prefers that name

• Seeing as you are rarely seen with a man she does everything possible to make sure people know you are taken so you have plenty of marks to show it. Hickeys usually trail from your neck to your inner thigh when it comes to Judy.

• You licked her fingers clean once and now she loves to see you do it all the time

"there we go clean that shit up"

• Loves to try new things and is always open to an experiment

<3 <3 <3 ᴊᴜᴅʏ ʜᴀʀᴍᴏɴ

uoɯɹɐH ʎpnſ <3 <3 <3

"Cum on my tongue and I'll be home on time tonight to finish this off correctly"

"stay still"

"You know my name don't play with me"

"I should tie you up next time... I hear that's something new folks are doing"

"If I have to repeat myself you gone piss me off"

<3 <3 <3 ᴊᴜᴅʏ ʜᴀʀᴍᴏɴ

uoɯɹɐH ʎpnſ <3 <3 <3

A/n: I had way too much fun with this shit anyways enjoy buh bye ✌🏾(I'm so I'm love with this woman y'all have no fucking idea.)

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ratgrinders · 22 days

Note

I’m not super into the fandom side of d20 but I do watch religiously so i dont know where to really ask this but what do other people think about the downtime mechanic? Earlier in the season I really liked it bc it felt like a good way to include a bunch of less critically important things in the narrative (like going to classes and extracurriculars) without it feeling like the narrative was dragging. But the last two downtime episodes have been deeply unsatisfying to watch bc the plot is so much bigger now and successful rolls can no longer be addressed as they happen and they have to be put off until we’re out of downtime, and so the episodes end up feeling like filler? I don’t I feel like it’s great Fabian and mazey went on a date but this episode really kind of ground to a halt any momentum the end of last weeks episode built for me.

Thanks for the ask!

Tbh while I enjoyed this latest session of downtime, I do kind of get what you're saying. Earlier sessions of downtime I thought worked really well as a way to have the Bad Kids move through the year in an organic way while also introducing a prioritization mechanic that I thought really fit with the theme this seasons of stress and responsibilities piling up. I think its natural though that since now we're moving in to the crux of the mystery and the climax of the story that we'd naturally expect an escalation and things moving very quickly rather than the slower pace downtime was made for.

I think Brennan removing the need for an academic track was his way of addressing this shift in priorities, since like he said now they have more time to devote to the mystery. And for what its worth most of the rolls made in this downtime were in service of this mystery, as even the relationship track rolls revealed new info about the plot.

i do think the downtime mechanic has served its purpose and won't be used for much longer anyways. If I had one minor note its that without the downtime mechanic the Bad Kids most likely would have immediately followed up on the Rat Grinders and their Mountains of Chaos trip, but we'll be getting that next episode anyway so I think this last bit of downtime was just to have the teacher evals (which I thought were really fun lol) and give space for any last relationship goals before heading in to the finale.

#dimension 20 #fantasy high #fantasy high junior year #fhjy spoilers #original post

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thescreaminghat · 4 months

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so i watched suzume. . .

And it was good—the animators, vas, musicians, and other talented people who worked on this film deserve so much praise for their work.

On the other hand (and this is a purely personal exercise that isn't meant to detract from Makoto Shinkai's vision for the piece), I think the overall theme of the film might have been better served if the story centered on the ups and downs of Suzume's relationship with her aunt Tamaki, rather than Souta.

Suzume is very much a story about grief—set against the tragedy of the 2011 tohoku earthquake, Suzume's personal struggle with the loss of her mother is arguably our entryway into understanding how this tragedy continues to shape the relationship between Japan’s very geography, its history, and its people.

I believe that central to this narrative focus is Suzume’s complicated relationship with Tamaki, her mother’s sister, who raised Suzume for much of her life after the loss of Suzume's mother. For me, one of the most important moments of Suzume and Tamaki’s relationship is shown at the climax of their disagreements with each other. After being Suzume's sudden departure from their small town (partially out of that rebellious teenage desire to not be "suffocated" by Tamaki's presence; we'll get to Souta’s role in this later) and Tamaki's understandable worry about Suzume's wellbeing (which leads her to embark on a wild goose chase after Suzume, though we’re not shown much of Tamaki’s personal journey), Tamaki yells at Suzume while the two are at a rest stop with Souta’s friend Serizawa. Tamaki bitterly states that raising Suzume after her sister's death had been a suffocating burden on her as well, as she couldn't find love and live the life that she had wanted because of her responsibility. This leads Suzume to shrink back in disbelief, as she recalls a pivotal memory where, after wandering in a snowstorm in search of her mother (and encountering the Ever After), she is found by Tamaki, who cries and affirms that Suzume will always be her daughter. It's a heartbreaking scene. We can empathize with both characters—Suzume is closer in age to most viewers, and we know that she doesn’t really hate her aunt’s presence, as the stress of her chase after Daijin and Souta’s temporary “demise” has whittled away at her emotions. Similarly, we can imagine that Tamaki herself likely hasn't overcome her grief at losing her sister, and that her outburst wasn’t truly genuine—she does love Suzume, but she wants her adoptive daughter to understand the sacrifices she had made, because she had no one else to confide in or rely on. We anticipate that this is the emotional crux of the movie, showing the relationship of a surrogate mother to a child who has gone through deep, unresolved trauma, now burdened with the consequences arising from the "imbalances" of the spirit world, itself a metaphor for the turbulence of living and of losing.

. . .and then the movie doesn't do anything with this scene. It's suddenly cut short with the random appearance of the keystone Sadaijin, and any lingering tension from that scene is resolved offscreen, with Tamaki and Suzume regaining each other's trust in the next scene. It feels unearned and deeply unsatisfying, especially when the emotional core of the film then gets transplanted onto Suzume's emotional relationship with Souta, a college-aged man whom she has known for less than a week (Suzume, by the way, is in high school, and even if they don’t “get together” in the movie, it makes me a bit uncomfortable seeing someone who is implied to be in their twenties being the implied romantic interest for a seventeen-year-old).

So, I thought, what if the movie kept its cast of characters, and the general sequence of events, but instead of Souta being the one cursed by Daijin to be the keystone (an act that initiates the film's events), it was Tamaki? This is going to be broken up into a few reblogs since it's too long for one post, but here's how I would structure it. (Part 1 of 2, and with a lot of my own hc interactions)

The beginning of the film can stay the same, including Souta's appearance. however, the driving force for Suzume to go to the isolated spot where the first door is located is an argument with Tamaki, rather than her implied curiosity regarding Souta. Perhaps, in this fight, we see bits of Tamaki's personality that may come across as "suffocating" to a teenager, even if she meant well.

Suzume, bothered by Tamaki's presence and the dream that she had of wandering through the Ever After, goes to this isolated spot to get away from everything, which is where she encounters the door and Daijin. Perhaps she's sulking a bit, and makes some sarcastic remark about someone like Souta being able to travel (something that would show her interest in leaving the small town she currently lives in). She then opens the door, Daijin escapes, and she goes about her day as in the film, until the worm appears above the skyline.

She then runs back to the door, where she encounters Souta again. They close the door, and Souta explains what he does and what the door represents. She brings Souta back to their house for medical treatment (except without any of the weird romantic tension between them), and they begin talking about Suzume’s life (perhaps about her room, the chair, and her dreams, as Suzume imagines the kinds of dangers—and thrills—that come with Souta’s position as a Closer).

This is where Tamaki comes back into the story. Tamaki, returning early to check on Suzume and encountering Suzume and Souta together, thinks the worst and begins to berate Suzume. They get into another argument, with Souta trying to calm the two down. Suzume, already stressed from the day's events, wishes that she can be "free" of Tamaki.

This is when Daijin appears on the windowsill, shit-eating grin and all, and says something along the lines of "Ok, Suzume. I can do that—because you're just like me." And then Tamaki is suddenly turned into a chair.

The same chaos ensues, with Tamaki, Souta, and Suzume chasing after Daijin until they get on the ferry. This is where Souta can give some more exposition, saying that he's never encountered this before, while encouraging Tamaki and Suzume to try and come together as he figures the whole thing out. Perhaps this is also the time where we get more information about Souta's personal life (in this version, it is information about his desire to become a teacher, as well as info about his relationship with his own mother, who was killed during a dangerous mission she took on as a Closer.)

The trio continue chasing after Daijin, with the group splitting up by necessity (thus allowing Tamaki and Suzume to have more screentime together). Specifically, Souta finds out that another door is opening off the path of travel they are taking after Daijin, and he instructs Tamaki and Suzume to continue their journey while he takes care of the other door. Before he leaves, he gives Suzume another key he keeps in his possession, which he reveals belonged to his mother.

Suzume and Tamaki continue onwards and meet Chika, the girl on the motorcycle. Suzume and Tamaki then cooperate in closing the door opened by Daijin. In this version, I think it would be interesting if Daijin is actually actively opening doors, not simply leading the pair to doors that are about to open. This serves as a huge bonding moment for Suzume and Tamaki, as they previously couldn’t go a day without arguing over the best way to do things.

Suzume and Tamaki stay at Chika's place (and have the downtime with Chika that is shown in the movie), except Suzume's dialogue with Tamaki consists of her confessing that she is jealous of Chika's independence and the bustling atmosphere at Chika's home. Tamaki is initially angered by this, but gradually calms down in her “chair corner” as she sees Suzume and Chika having fun, perhaps even reminding Tamaki of her own childhood with her sister.

When Tamaki falls asleep, she sees visions of her sister, which both frightens and immobilizes her (i.e. literally her survivor’s guilt “anchoring” her in place). This is meant to replace how Souta gradually descends into his “death” when he sleeps.

Suzume and Tamaki head off and are picked up by Rumi, the mother who works at the hostess bar. Initially, Tamaki whispers to Suzume that she doesn’t want Suzume hitchhiking with a stranger, but Suzume tells her that sometimes they need to rely on others to get by. The same comedy shenanigans with Rumi’s children can be kept in—I think it’s more fitting that Tamaki plays the role of the “toy chair that can speak” in order to keep the children entertained, because she probably, after all, raised Suzume on similar silly stories.

Suzume and Tamaki run to the abandoned fairgrounds to close the other door when the worm appears. I think this scene becomes more impactful when Tamaki is the chair and not Souta, as her decision to save Suzume from falling from the Ferris wheel and letting Daijin go would highlight her parental worry for Suzume, though perhaps this isn’t fully realized by Suzume in the midst of her adrenaline rush. Suzume, however, does look upon the fairground as a place that she wants to go to with Tamaki, when all of this is over, though she keeps this to herself.

Suzume, watching Rumi work her shift as a hostess, comes to appreciate the struggles of being a mother more. Similarly, Tamaki wants to connect with Rumi as a peer, but is limited by her chair form. Seeing Suzume bond with Rumi makes Tamaki want to be there for Suzume, as she sees Suzume slowly maturing into her own person. However, neither Suzume nor Tamaki feel ready to fully open up about these nuanced feelings, as they fall instead into a comical back-and-forth when they’re alone.

Suzume and Tamaki manage to get to Tokyo, where they meet up with Souta. He tells them that he’s been doing whatever research he can to try and figure out how to break Tamaki’s curse. This is where he can explain the keystone lore to Suzume and Tamaki.

The giant worm starts appearing over the city. Tamaki insists that Suzume get out of Tokyo. Souta agrees, and tells Suzume and Tamaki to leave, stating that he can handle the worm himself. Suzume refuses, stating that she’s not going to let anyone else die—the “else” implying that she too still feels survivor’s guilt over her mother’s death.

Despite Souta’s attempts at reasoning with her, Suzume is adamant on staying—Daijin appears and mocks her, telling her that she only knows how to let her aunt dictate how she lives. Suzume rushes ahead without Souta and Tamaki. Tamaki and Souta chase after Suzume, with Tamaki yelling at Suzume again, calling her “rash”, "always making her worry and chase after her," and “thinking and behaving like a child”.

Perhaps Suzume covers her ears, as Tamaki’s words begin to blend into Daijin’s laughter as he scrambles towards the worm. Perhaps Suzume screams out loud, screaming that she felt as though Tamaki had never believed in her, that even when an entire city is threatened, Tamaki cares only about herself, and knows only how to chastise and suffocate Suzume. This shocks Tamaki, but before she can respond, the trio are shot up to the worm’s back, and Souta attempts to seal the worm. However, Daijin interferes and Souta is injured. Suzume then tries to grab Daijin, only for Daijin to purr contentedly and state that he understands what Suzume is feeling—that is why Tamaki will now be the keystone, and both of them can be free.

Suzume turns to Tamaki, only to find that she is unresponsive. Ice is forming around her, as Suzume’s words echo over and over in her mind. Perhaps Tamaki then screams in grief as she sinks deeper into her regret and memories of her sister—that is when we get her screams about how much she had sacrificed for Suzume, and how much happiness Suzume took from her (basically what she said during the rest stop confrontation).

(pt 1 end)

#suzume #suzume film #suzume no tojimari #tamaki #souta munakata #daijin #this movie was spectacular visually and in its theming but i think it really should have focused on suzume and tamaki #souta is fine as a standalone character but he really felt out of place in the movie #like an addition to what should have been a movie about suzume's growth

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panda-puma · 7 months

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oh, I've had a hunch that Sanji got... cranked up to 11 in the anime. after OPLA I became manga-only reader, as I wanted the rawest possible OP experience and also bcuz reading is quicker than watching the anime 😅 (I'm still not even halfway through -- recently started Impel Down -- but it is such a great story, I already love it so much!!!) but I also started dipping my toes into the fandom. and I saw people hating Sanji for being a gross pervert. but while reading the manga, this man gave me more of a love-sick puppy vibes??? all the swooning and fussing over Nami and Robin seemed almost sweet (him running towards them with flowers in Skypiea or cotton candy in Long Ring Island? c'mon, that was adorable) he has his moments but they aren't even that bad, tbh. I wondered that maybe it was a misguided hate towards his special treatment for women (chivalry?????) rankling feminists, tired of men treating women like wilting flowers in constant need of man-help but no, people seemed very dead-set on him being a straight up pervert and I realised... oh, those are anime fans... oh, no... what happened here, and I got discouraged from trying to watch the anime, since if it changed Sanji, one of the main characters, it was very likely to change other things, especially given how old the anime is. and then I realised that it already changed things even in the first episode and I kind of... stuck to the manga for now. maybe I will watch some movies just to see the One Piece world prettily animated 🤔

(Long post) First of all, some recommendations for you so you can enjoy the animation ^^ If you want to enjoy One Piece animated with an "Oda feel", watch the movie "Strong World". The script is written by Oda and you can watch it after finishing Thriller Bark. Like with the rest of the movies, the content is not Canon content, so what you see on them doesn't really happen in the real One Piece story (even if some of the enemies pasts are canon), but this one is the best and more on character we can probably see.

After that, Oda was executive producer in "Film Z" (supposed to be after FishMan Island Arc, but preferably after Punk Hazard Arc to avoid spoilers) and "Gold" (watch after Dressrosa Arc). His involvement with these movies is not so big, tho, so watch them with that in mind. (For example, in "Gold" Oda only rewrote the script of the climax of the story, because he was specially unsatisfied with how that part was done. They had to redraw the last 10min of the movie OvOu)

Also he was a producer in "Red" (watch after Wano Arc), and he made a lot of interesting comics and things that are canon pre-Movie... but the Movie on itself is weird. They changed many things of his initial notes and the characters are very "out of character" in my opinion. It has very good music and animation, tho! But yeah... watch with caution ^^U

(I was not gonna mention it at first, but why not... there is also "Stampede", but "Oda stated that he would not have allowed the movie's story to be produced if it was not a commemoration of the anime's 20th anniversary." So... I wouldn't watch it if you expect anything that makes sense in his world or characters xDU)

(You also have the OVA "One Piece - Defeat Him! The Pirate Ganzack", which pre-dates Toei's Anime adaptation. Oda took a lot of interest in this OVA, and he praised it a lot when it came out in 1998) ----------- And second, in my opinion, you made the right decision going to the Manga! As you say, it is the best way to get the rawest version of the story. And also way faster to read it than to watch it xD

I'm glad you love it so much! ❤️ It is really an amazing story, and I hope you keep enjoying it ^^

And now, oh boy, about Sanji... (this is gonna be a very reduced and fast thing I'm gonna write, but I plan on analyze the differences between the Manga and Anime in this other tumblr, if you want to see more eventually):

Your hunch is completely correct. Sadly Sanji's character is completely obliterated in the Anime ^^U

He is reduced to his perverted side (and very veery amped up), or to being mean and fighting all the time. He has nothing of the kindness he shows in the Manga, only the things they can not exclude for the story to make sense. The many fillers also show a different Sanji than the one shown in the Manga. The Anime also shows Nami completely disgusted by him very often, which influences the way we see him as viewers. She just treats him like a slave when she is being "nice". (Nami is also very different in the Anime. They all are different people in the Anime, honestly u_uUU)

So yes, I think most of people who hate him for being gross and a pervert mainly have their first and only contact being the Anime. And it is understandable feeling like that, because it is seriously a bad representation of the character. He is not himself at all.

The Anime reaches an even more unpalatable degree after the time-skip. ---- [((Little Spoiler of right After Time-Skip: Sanji comes back more sensitive to pretty women in the Manga, which translates into many nosebleeds until he recovers. But in the Anime they had always shown him in that level of pervert, or even worse! So they had to amp it even MORE and show him harassing random women and everyone being disgusted around him... something that doesn't happen in the Manga! It makes the character really stand out in grossness))] ----

As you say, Sanji in the Manga is a sweet guy, and only shows as a real pervert sometimes... but it is shown in a funny way. And Nami and Robin react in a non-negative way, mostly just amused that he is such a dummy. But everyone knows he is just harmless.

He totally acts like a love-sick puppy and has those sweet romantic outburst, but he can be a normal human being. And most importantly, treats them mainly as friends and human beings. Anime Sanji could never xDU

Please, feel free to make more asks ^^

#ask #one piece manga #one piece movie #sanji #black leg sanji #nami #cat burglar nami #one piece anime #comparison

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haunted-xander · 6 months

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Fontaine, as a whole, is a nation I feel was so nearly perfect, but also just... somewhat unsatisfying.

Like, the exploration is nice, the puzzles and mechanics are fun, but... it's so easy. I have the entire map 100%. I didn't use a guide for most of it (only for Special Stuff like the treasure maps and foggy branches), nor did I have the treasure compass. All I had to help me was the hydroculus resonance gadget. The only regions in the game I got to 100% without any guides before was Galesong Hill (which, tbh, most ppl probably have at 100% or close %), and Hypostyle Desert (simply bc the underground ruins were so much fun to explore). Everywhere else I used a guide for at some point. During 4.0 I literally felt like I had to hold back on exploring just to not finish it too quickly. Yeah.

The world quests have a lot of interesting stuff going for them, especially the Narzissenkreuz questline and the ones in/around Merusea Village. But... they feel like they're missing something. I don't feel like I'm properly done with any of them, even though there isn't really anything more to add. The Narzissenkreuz quests had a very strong start, I cared about the characters involved and the lore they're a part of, and having it be 3 questlines that combine into one comprehensive story was really fun, but the ending feels... unceremonious almost. I can't pinpoint what's wrong with it, it answered what it needed to and it made it clear what everyone was doing going forward, but... it feels off. Anticlimatic, almost, despite it having the climax it needed. The world quest I was most satisfied with was the Questioning Melusine And Answering Machine quests, and it's a largely self-contained one. Everything else feels... unfinished, almost. But also not.

And the Archon Quests are so so good, but also... weird at parts. First of all, Childe's out-of-nowhere traumadump early on is jarring, especially since... they didn't really follow up with it properly? Like yes, the Narwhal and Skirk ended up relevant but... not to him, for the most part. The important questions this conversation prompted wasn't elaborated or followed up on, which is what could've justified including it at all. We still have no more clues as to why the Narwhal connected with him, we don't know what caused his restlessness or why his vision messed up, and Skirk was kinda just... there. She loredumped and that was that.

There's other oddities too, like Traveler getting upset at the twins for hiding their Fatui affiliation. Traveler has every right to be upset with them in that moment but... not for that. They should be upset because they lied about the magic show, not about being Fatui. Like, you literally called Childe you're friend just the other day! And he's literally tried to kill you (well, okay, not "kill", but he was still an enemy)! And later on you're suddenly fine with Arlecchino, a person we have seen time and time again is an absolutely terrible person? Because, what, she cared about this one specific problem that affected innocent lives? Really?

Furina and Childe not getting checked up on by basically anyone at the end of 4.2s AQ feels not only out of character (you're gonna tell me Traveler isn't gonna check on them after all that happened? Really?) but also just... very shitty. The only one who seemed to even care was Neuvillette, everyone else just kinda... forgot about those two. Despite the fact that 1) Furina was a well liked public figure who, even after the truth was revealed, people very much still cared about, and 2) Childe literally saved the entire nation but stalling the Narwhal for over a month. Even Neuvillette couldn't so much as deter that thing until he got his full powers back, and you're telling me nobody, not even the people who where directly saved by him, even wondered what became of him? Really?

The characters are fantastic here, don't get me wrong, everyone is lovely and I adore them all, but the way the story handled certain things is just... not great. It's unsatisfying. It feels like there were things they wanted to do but either chickened out of or simply didn't get to include. It's so jarring.

#i didnt mean for it to get so long but oh well #fontaine is so so good but just. somewhat off. and unsatisfying #also when i was going through the narzissenkreuz line #during 4.0 i felt like the cut-off for the next stage(s) of the quest for 4.1 was this... awkward cliffhanger #like yes ofc i understood they had to cut it off so they could continue in another patch #but the way they did it felt so weird and odd #and the cut-off for 4.1 to 4.2 was even worse #because not much even happened there other than caterpillar getting introduced and included #the story didnt really... progress #and then when it did conclude in 4.2 it didnt feel good #it was odd and unsatisfying #even though i dont know whats missing #i realize i used unsatisfying to describe it a lot but #that is what it is #unsatisfying #maybe the interlude chapter will help improve it #or maybe it wont #sigh. i miss sumeru. it had its own issues but the writing and exploration was peak #and the lore! the lore was amazing!#i miss sand. i want to explore the desert all over again it was so much fun #4.2 spoilers #childe #tartaglia #ajax #genshin impact #xander rambles

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jedinotes · 2 months

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The Power of Dune Part Two’s Final Act: Stepping Away From the Messiah

Stunning photo by Jack Davidson

So I didn't think I would be talking about Dune in my first post for this page (considering that I intended it to be more Star Wars focused and also since I haven't read the Dune books yet), but the final stretch of this movie has been on my mind ever since I left the theater a few weeks ago.

(Spoilers for Dune: Part Two)

It's strange in the sense that we are suddenly distanced from Paul, and also in that the climax seems to accelerate the story faster than ever before. So far (in both movies), there has been a pretty strong focus on Paul and a very deliberate pace that let all the plotlines simmer. It’s a masterclass of immersion, both technically and emotionally. The humanity of its characters aren’t lost in the many elements at play. Paul is a character whose empathy and how it makes him conflicted with what is placed before him make him quite likable. Spending so much time with him, Chani, and Stilgar makes us grow attached to them, not just because they’re the heroes, but because they feel real. And yet we’re pushed away. In the third act Paul's dark transformation happens swiftly (you’d initially think from how it’s shown the water of life turns you evil), and by the story’s end we only see Paul from a distance in the eyes of other characters, unable to see him resolving the concerns we’ve wrestled along with him, unable to get a good read on his motivations anymore. The final battles with our heroes happen rather quickly as victory over the Harkonnans and the Emperor comes pretty easily. On one hand this shift could feel unsatisfying, and the first time I watched the movie I was a little unsatisfied. But I’m not here to say this is a fault of the movie; in fact, this shift results in something greater happening, and it’s the most powerful triumph of Part Two’s story.

By the end, even when we do zoom in on Paul we're not sure what's really behind his intensity. (All the Dune screencaps are from Dune Perfect Shots 4K on Twitter).

Dune’s story up until this point, from what I know about these two films at least, is all about complexity, discerning the many variables, the need to carefully monitor both these variables and one's own behavior. The importance of mastering oneself. (This video by Alt Shift X talks about this really well, and it definitely helped me understand this aspect of the story better). But Paul’s tests, like the Gom Jabbar in Part 1 and the worm ride in Part 2, carry not just that significance but also the danger of a prophetic horror being more and more certain. Therein lies an irony - you can gain power but tied to it is something much larger that’s out of your control. This becomes pretty key to the whole story, and there’s something I was reminded of that helped me put all this into perspective. I brought this up in my first-time watch review too, but I think I have more to say about it now. But bare with me as this might end up being convoluted.

In one of my classes this semester we read the poem “The Promised Land” by Gabeba Baderoon, and I was really struck by this image that it alludes to called the Angel of History. Described by Walter Benjamin based on the painting Angelus Novus by Paul Klee, it depicts an angel whose wings get caught in the winds of a destructive storm “blowing from Paradise.” It’s trapped in the storm’s momentum going forwards with no way to escape. All the while, its head is permanently twisted backwards, forced to watch the wreckage of the storm, named progress, gathering below it. From what we discussed in that class this disturbing image suggests that all the events of history, all that we do or achieve or create, is not a series of events affecting each other, but instead one ever-building catastrophe barreling forwards. Both the Bene Gesserit’s century-spanning machinations and Jessica’s usurping of it all by birthing a boy. Whether the Harkonnen house or the Atreides house controls Arrakis. All of these are merely before a future that’s larger than any of them individually; the messiah and his holy war will come regardless. Even if it’s towards her own end rather than that of the Bene Gesserit, Jessica still uses their propaganda to facilitate his rise. The two houses end up converging anyways in their family trees with the Baron, and Muad’dib Atreides embraces it, merging the two families’ ideologies like the Kwizatz Haderach was always intended to. Whether his sudden ruthlessness is him embracing his desire for revenge or actually a strategic choice after sifting through the past and futures laid out, we’re denied of knowing for sure as we look at him from afar, and this denial by the film questions if the answer even matters much. The Angel image and the movie’s narrative dispel the idea that we have the capability to easily fix things when we make progress. It’s a notion that renders reasoning or means as having little ability to empower, envisioning us all moving towards the same horror anyways. It suddenly renders all the complexity of the plot and these competing ideas and factions inconsequential. And I don’t mean that in a bad way — it’s crucial to what the film is really getting at.

"We're Harkonnens... so that's how we'll survive. By being Harkonnens."

“You of all people should know there are no sides, Reverend Mother.”

Now, it’s fair to question the nihilistic bent of this (are we in the real world truly powerless to stop to this continuous catastrophe???), but the Angel of History and Dune use the stories they put forth as cautionary tales where that all-encompassing bleak endgame are meant to deconstruct our notions of progress and control. If we are powerless to shape history, how strong is the power we wield? And how good is the power we wield? As we strive for “paradise” and celebrate attaining it we often forget what happened as we got there, and we fail to see where we really are. If the reasoning for our actions doesn’t empower us, the effects of them in turn are even more debasing. The Baderoon poem that alludes to the Angel of History does so to examine this too. In its discussion of the end of apartheid and the ushering in of a democratic South Africa, “The Promised Land” weaves in the legacy of the jazz pianist Moses Molekelwa, who, despite influencing the poem’s speaker’s attitudes towards social progress (and appearing as an idol in that sense), is shown as getting off the hook in the eyes of history for strangling his wife to death. The triumph of his music is remembered while his wife’s murder is willfully forgotten, and the poem concludes that “our forgetting is also our home, which is why we will never leave the old country.” Baderoon warns of when the celebration of progress doesn’t factor in the ugly parts we still carry with us into the future, and her allusion to the Angel of History works to convey that danger. (Obviously the real anti-apartheid struggle of South Africa is very very different from the story of Dune, and I wouldn’t want to compare them to each other. Dune’s exploration of complicated progress instead speaks more towards the dangers of charismatic leaders and the co-opting of a cause). The only thing I want to highlight is just that Dune, Baderoon’s poem, and the Angel of History all hone in on the need to not lose sight of the now.

This is why the third act’s shift away from Paul works so well. The film doesn’t show people “forgetting” necessarily, but we do see them caught in the fervor without acknowledging what’s happening to them. Paul is an exception in that he sees it all: his arc sees him changing his perspective on the destiny laid ahead and taking control to ensure it happens on his terms. He doesn’t really turn evil, but since we’re denied of seeing past his new icy exterior as he looks ahead with his prescience, the film instead turns us back to the now, like the angel looking behind. We're with Chani now, the only (non-psychic) person who’s seeing this all. We already believe in Paul’s goodness. If we were to see what Paul sees and fully understand his reasoning, it would make it easy for us to downplay the costs. The story thus has us focus on the consequences of Paul’s path beginning to gather in real time, the Fremen being exploited as they are led into a coming bloodbath by their messiah.

And this is the sadness of it all, right? Things that were once honorable, like Jessica protecting Paul like she promised Leto and the legacy of Leto that Gurney hopes for Paul to carry with him, are twisted into foul and manipulative actions. Good intentions and real connections, like Paul’s empathy, his and Chani’s relationship, and his and Stilgar’s friendship, all give way to the storm.

The quickness of the third act’s events compounds this danger. The path Paul takes may be the best possible option after considering all the variables, but the story doesn’t revel too long in the glory of his successful leadership and strategy.

The awe-inspiring images speak not to just heroism but something volatile and intoxicating. It's not that the film oversimplifies the moral dilemmas at stake, but by letting the big battle, Gurney slaying Rabban, and Paul slaying the Baron happen all too easily, it removes the focus from only being the powerful exploits of Paul and the Fremen and adds emphasis on how they become like Harkonnens and how the Fremen become entrenched in Paul’s conquest. The Harkonnen bodies are burned like the Atreides were before them, and the Fremen Fedaykin ultimately fight carrying the Atreides banner instead of their own. They lose sight of this fact as they place all their faith in Paul, their cause and faith co-opted. It happens so fast and it can’t be stopped. We’re caught in the momentum of the storm raging, pushing us forward, and at the same time the film adjusts its focus to ensure that we don’t forget to recognize the consequences of Paul’s choices. This is what I find so compelling about this movie — we’re given a story that details the complexity of all things and also ultimately denies complicated factors and necessary evils of becoming excuses that wave the wreckage of progress away.

Hopefully this was enjoyable to read and wasn't pretentious or anything! Lemme know what you think about the movie!

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