#that is another meta for another time but WOW am i thinking about this Intently and how different the saga would be if smeyer were to Commi
Note
Wiggins!) the bizarre thing about the vampire men in the cullen family all seem to be at least subconsciously what Smeyer wants Bella to have but can’t seem to get over her initial vision of what she saw in her drafts or whatever. It’s odd that every single one of the Cullen men are like strongly devoted (but mostly devoid of personality because it’s so Bella centric) but when you compare them to Edward they seem interesting in some ways. Like Narratively we’re supposed to have this threat that Edward is constantly holding back from killer her but I don’t feel like we see that. Conversely, Jasper is constantly the one who is suffering about human smells and is the more vampire-like. But he’s also a glorified lap dog. So it’s like ‘oh he’s a monster but he’ll never hurt me” (things Alice has said out loud. Man even psychics slip up. I swear her powers weren’t so accurate until Smeyer needed an excuse for plot reasons)
Emmett feels like when some women say they like waifish guys because they don’t want to seem like they’re vapid for liking “big dudes with muscles” so of course you pair Emmett with the “shallow blonde”
Carlisle, I swear only exists so Edward has someone to model but I would also argue that he’s proto-Edward before whatever reworking she had to do when writing Twilight for a YA audience and brought him back as a different character.
Yeah a rant
hello again bestie Wiglet! (note to self: learn Photoshop so i can shop Jacob's bad wig onto a pic of Piglet)
this is such an interesting take! thanks for sharing. i totally see what you're saying. in all the Cullen men we see both a blend of softness & devotion *and*, interestingly enough, a patchwork of patriarchal ideas of what a man "should" be. & this idea comes to the forefront with the depiction of the love interests
smeyer wants us to see Edward as the chivalric gentlemen from the Days of Yore. we see this in the opening doors, the cutsey little romance taglines ("you are my life now," "look after my heart; i've left it with you," "so the lion fell in love" etc), the knight saving the damsel in distress, the expensive tokens of his affection, etc.
at the same time, in both Edward & Jacob we see the crude traits of the Patriarchy Dreamboat kinda guy. if i had to sum it up, it's like the guy you see in 80s movies. "bad boy." "opposites attract." he's a jerk. he's a hunk. he's domineering. he's allowed to show emotion only & especially if that emotion is anger. he's persistent in his efforts to get the girl, going so far as to kiss her without her consent if it's For a Good Cause (Edward in New Moon post-Volterra, Jacob in Eclipse). he's a cool guy who's In Control 👉😎👉
perhaps that's why the Twilight saga appealed so such a large swath of women & girls. the women, who grew up with the notion that they could have the true love of their dreams so long as they submitted to the patriarchal social contract, saw the contract being fulfilled in Edward. (i.e., "you can be the king if you treat me like a princess.")
on the other hand, the 90s/00s girlies who grew up in the midst of a feminist revolution & who could see the glimmer of a dismantled patriarchy on the horizon were attracted to Edward for the flashes of radical feminist love they saw: the unapologetic expressions of emotion, the honesty of him sharing his vulnerabilities & weaknesses, Bella's ability to override Edward's will when necessary, etc.
sorry, i know this isn't really the crux of the rant you submitted, but it is extremely interesting to see these contradictions playing out in all the male characters of the saga. it's almost like smeyer is having this internal debate with herself without even realizing it...
#twilight meta#twilight renaissance#the twilight saga#i have been reading too much bells hooks (jk that's impossible) and have been thinking about radical feminist theory &#how it actually both applies and does not apply to twilight#i've been wanting to write a meta about it but fuck it#fuckmeyer 2.0 only takes meta requests i guess#anyway you brought up a really good point about how the cullen men are all a mix of what smeyer wanted Edward to be#and yet she was too afraid to realize the vision to its fullest extent#like yes she wants the muscles but she wants Edward to be soft and loving and delicate#and she wants Edward to have an Unforgivable Past but not SO unforgivable that he's completely damaged goods#and she wants him to be Devoted but not SO devoted that he's 'pussywhipped'#and she wants the devout religiosity and Goodness of Carlisle but she recognizes at the same time that women & readers want conflict#my response was getting long and frankly i didn't want to derail or dtract any further from the facts you were spitting but#i see what you're saying and i think you touch on something very incisive about the vision versus the execution of twilight#if we imagine a saga in which Edward WAS balls-to-the-wall Edward...what kind of character would we see?#that is another meta for another time but WOW am i thinking about this Intently and how different the saga would be if smeyer were to Commi#thanks for sending this my way!!!#cheers <3
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REIGEN. prepare for another can of worms so bad i had to censor some bc it was too personal!
TRANSCRIPT kinda:
ok. reigen. ive said a LOT about him, already wrote a pretty good summary to WHY i like him and why he's a stand up guy who is frustratingly and compellingly human in all the mistakes and fuck ups he made. I like him a lot. of course. i like him in a way that he is my dark mirror. my cautionary tale. as i succinctly put in These Tweets:
"Thinking about reigen again (saying this as if looking at him and thinking about him is peering into the dark mirror of my psyche and how his downfall would be mine lest i change my ways and ideals on becoming a person and what it means to be someone of worth)"
"He is so me (the tone of my voice is that less of admiration and awe and more reluctance and unending doubt on oneself)"
Since this is less meta and more My Opinion on them, let me paint you a picture. because god knows im Not Normal About Him
i am 15. this is the first time ive read and watched mp100. i see reigen, a stand up guy who has good intentions and is a good mentor to his disciple. I go "wow! hes so cool!" unaware of the Nuances of his character, his blatant and obvious flaws of being selfish and self serving, who has made a home in this obviously flawed and bound to fall apart Normalcy he has with mob. I have bought into his lies.
i am 19. i am now a certified Adult (i was very much still immature then) with all the cards to prove it and i still dont get him. he frustrates me. He fucks up in a way that is arguably avoidable, even without the gift of foresight. He's childish at times, immature even, but somehow he always know when to flip the switch. to be more serious. to read the room. i dont get why he keeps his business going when he's completely capable in doing something more lucrative. why couldnt he just do something that makes more sense?
I am 21. I get it now
#if you think the ritsu one was personal. oh boy#asks#kinda#mp100#mob psycho 100#reigen arakata#arataka reigen#my art#good lord. im gonna stop for now ill answer the others later. the two i answered was a lot LOL
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The Final 15 Min: You’re a dark horse Mr Fell
Or: Azirawhy?
I’ve spent the better part of this weekend in bed with my cat, drinking cocoa, rewatching scenes from GO and reading and writing thousands of words of s2 meta, so first of all, thank you again Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaimon and this incredible fandom - you’re all geniuses and as a result I am literally living the dream. Secondly, after writing and rewriting my own extremely long meta a dozen times I’ve decided instead to link to the other metas that have essentially already said everything I wanted to say and condense my comments beneath them. I’ve also added my theories for season 3 based on my analysis of s2. However, despite my best intentions and having just using the word ‘condensed’ this turned out to be pretty long anyway, so you can find all this and more under the jump below.
My favorite possible explanations for the ending:
1) Aziraphale is lying to protect Crowley
I first found this theory here and here
And then it’s brilliantly explained with great attention to detail here. This piece includes SO many details that I had missed from the convo, referencing back to scenes from s1 as well as 2. Hats off and round of applause to this author. Just, wow.
I love this theory so much and a part of me wants it desperately to be canon - it explains away all of Azirphale’s foot-in-mouth shortcomings and cringey to downright horrifying wtf moments from the final scene, but after watching the final scenes 26495362893 times I’m landing more on the side that:
2) Az is being expertly manipulated by Metatron, and these shortcomings are all of his character flaws coming up and out in one horrible regurgitatation.
Extremely detailed and thorough multi piece meta going into exactly how Metatron is manipulating him and why it works here.
Briefer but also clear and thorough single post essay here.
3) Or some combination of the two.
Again, having watched this countless times I just do not buy that every single think Az says in the final scene is part of a master plan to deliberately break up with Crowley, but I do think
He’s as scared as he’s relieved/excited
And I don’t know if he’s actually relieved/excited but he’s definitely confused, surprised and increasingly panicked when Crowley insults him, turns down the offer and leaves, which is part of why I don’t think it’s entirely option #1
He is trying to stop the love confession or at least delay it for another time when Metatron is not standing right outside the door (hold that thought!)
And finally there are some lines that just don’t make sense, even from the angel who we’ve heard spout all kinds of nonsense about how “I am good and you are, unfortunately, evil.” Yes, I might buy that he might still think heaven is ultimately good and “the side of light” that’s just been run very poorly by “bad angels” who aren’t as good as Aziraphale at knowing what god really wants in the situation (as he tells himself in the Job episode). But “I’ll run it and you can be my second in command.”???? A blank stare at “if heaven ends life on earth it’ll be just as dead as if he’ll ended it”??? However, this brings me too…
The character arc we didn’t see
I love this post about expectations as a fandom and what we’re actually shown versus what we as ravenous shippers want and expect to see and couldn’t agree more.
What were we actually shown about Aziraphale and where he’s at with his repression and denial? Right in episode 1 Jim says “You know what it’s like when you don’t know anything at all and yet you’re totally certain that everything would be better if you were near one particular person?” and Aziraphale panics, jumps upright and begins backing away frantically while saying “NO. I have no idea what that feels like. What makes you say that?”
We haven’t seen Aziraphale have his come to Jesus moment yet (pun intended) in season 2. While we get to see Crowley hit over the head with the ‘holy shit this is romantic love’ anvil, Aziraphale has a different realization coming and we’ve already been told what it will be.
It’s not “they look at each other and realize they were made for each other.”
It’s “they realize they had misunderstood each other.”
I think in many ways Aziraphale is already unconsciously acting like they are a couple, possibly more so than Crowley, but we don’t see him acknowledge his feelings out loud. We see his evolution through the 3 mini episodes to go from everything is black and white to life and Crowley and even himself are made up of shades of gray, but apparently that wasn’t enough to finally seal the deal for his ultimate “realize they had misunderstood each other” moment, otherwise the season wouldn’t have ended the way it did. Despite how far he’s come he hasn’t fully yet come to terms with his deeply rooted belief that demons=bad or mostly bad and angels=good or at least better than demons. I think that those beliefs showed their face in the worst possible way during that final argument, and that’s part of why Crowley was such a hard no to the whole situation. It’s not just a no to going back to heaven as an angel, it’s also ‘I can’t believe you still think that way about me.’
I don’t, however, think Metatron knew things would go that deep. I don’t think he knows either of them very well at all, but he knows Crowley would never go back to being an angel and he felt confident enough to manipulate Aziraphale (once on his own) into proposing just that and then he pushed them together before Aziraphale could process anything and stood back and let the explosion happen.
There are a couple very well written posts already out there about how the problem is not so much miscommunication as it is fundamentally not agreeing, how deep down Aziraphale doesn’t like that Crowley is a demon and still thinks of him as the angel he was, and how Crowley twisted the knife in Aziraphale’s insecurities that I think all add up to spell out this story really well. To this I’ll add, I think they both condescend and in ways look down on each other. While still being very much in love. I want to keep this short so I’ll try to stick to one example: in the Job episode Crowley said “you’re an angel, you can’t be tempted” while obviously tempting him (“you’re an angel, I don’t think you can do the wrong thing”) which is gentle but also mocking, because Crowley is literally tempting him in that moment. Then there’s times when he’s less gentle (“how could someone so clever be so stupid?”). From Aziraphale we have endless examples of his “holier than thou” attitude. Yes I think some of it is part of their coded-spy-talk but when you say and behave a certain way for years let alone eons even if some part of you knows you’re joking it becomes real.
To sum up - in season 2 we got our realization that they were made for each other from Crowley for sure and maybe from Aziraphale - I mean, those were a LOT of heart eyes in the bookshop before Metatron arrived and the whole grabbing his arm thing when B talks about finding something better than choosing sides. But the realizing they’ve misunderstood each other is what we’ve been set up for in season 3 and I think the misunderstanding is on both sides.
Final thoughts:
The coffee or death metaphor as literal - YES. Both in the first time we see it where Michael is threatening death and Metatron arrives to offer coffee, and secondly when Aziraphale asks “where would I get my coffee” (I.e. not die) and Metatron answers by not answering and saying instead (summarized) “we know you’ve partnered with Crowley, come to heaven and he can be an angel again and you can work together - that’s where you’ll get your “coffee” (as opposed to the (false) other option which is death).
I don’t feel like enough’s been said about the final scene with Metatron in the elevator. His whole body sighs as if in relief and he gives Aziraphale A Look.
This whole body sigh sigh says to me “thank fuck I finally got this gd angel in the gd elevator” and the final look over at him seems to have a taste of “what trouble is this idiot going to cause me next?”
Oh Metatron, you have no idea 😈. Because Aziraphale is definitely planning something, from the second he heard the phrase “second coming.” We already know he would stop Armageddon alone if he has too.
Because it’s all about protecting for Aziraphale. Did anyone else think it was odd that Aziraphale, who was soooo keen and literally bouncing up and down with joy at having The Mystery of Jim/Gabriel to solve, suddenly switched to dropping the mystery entirely and it never comes up again? Then on one of my many rewatches I realized Aziraphale was 100% in detective mode until Shax casually mentions that Crowley is risking destruction for him, which is the first Aziraphale has heard of Crowley being in trouble. Michael Sheen gives us the eyebrow raise of infamy and seems pretty cool, calm and collected about it but Aziraphale then lies to Crowley about anything strange happening and goes on to then frantically plan the greatest shopkeepers and trade association monthly meeting of all time and never questions Gabriel about who else he was at the bar with and never mentions The New Clue again. He drops solving the mystery entirely and throws himself into the ball. Because he wants to dance with Crowley?!?!! 😍🥹🥰 Maybe. But if Nina and Maggie get together then heavens suspicions are allayed, and Aziraphale has just learned that Crowey’s entire existence is in danger. He can’t protect him from hell but he can try to get Maggie and Nina together and protect him from heaven. That doesn’t happen but what happens instead? THE Voice of god herself, the top of the bureaucracy, shows up and offers Aziraphale the very protection for Crowley that he just tried to Jane Austin into existence?! Regardless of whether he fully believed Metatron, partially believed, or is 100% playing him for a sucker, he believes going along with Metatron will protect Crowley as well as “make a difference.” Which one is the main goal and which the happy side effect? Is there a difference? Does Aziraphale have any conscious awareness over what he’s doing? I have no explanation for the bitter “I forgive you” and have not yet read a theory that resonates.
#I cannot write a short post about these two#but why would I want to?#when the subject matter is so rich#thanks again#neil gaimon#good omens fandom#good omens#good omens 2#good omens 2 spoilers#good omens meta#good omens theories#good omens season 3#good omens s3 predictions#Metatron is the worst#ineffable fandom#ineffable husbands#arizacrow#aziraphale#Crowley
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ITSAY/IPYTM thoughts
In three parts because that's how I wrote it.
Oh-aew in a shirt which seems like the most meta English t-shirt text ever in Thai BL(ish) world (and there have been many others) but also seems like something Oh-aew would somehow own.
Part 1
I wasn’t assuming I’d have a ton to say about I Told Sunset About You. I wasn’t even planning on starting it at the particular moment I did, I just had it in mind I’d do so soonish. But wow, this drama hit me like a ton of bricks.
I tend to enjoy it when there’s a small gesture or moment onscreen that brings me back to uncertain romantic moments of young adulthood. Oddly enough, it’s often how someone leans (not kabedon-ish looming fwiw)—make of that what you will. (There’s this one moment in Between Us that hit me with something I can only describe as the world’s hardest pang.) But yikes, having so many... I guess first love feelings come up so hard and fast is really unusual and compelling, but almost too powerful for a sensitive creature such as myself. It’s certainly beautiful in an important way I think art is meant to be beautiful. But it’s less uncomplicatedly enjoyable than some things.
I don’t always have to identify with one character over another, even if one character is positioned as the protagonist of a story. I don’t always identify with anybody, though certain stories will pull me in in that way. But man, ITSAY gives me vertigo. Teh’s paradoxical mixture of obvious feeling and self-conscious reserve might normally make it so I’d be seeing things firmly from his perspective, but instead I whip back and forth between Teh and Oh in a borderline-painful way. I guess I just want so badly for them not to hurt each other.
Billkin’s left eyebrow jiggles like even Teh’s face is fidgeting nervously. At the point I’m currently at in the series, it feels like this kid is going to explode leaving only a fine mist. PP Krit is so still as Oh that it’s at least momentarily tempting to perceive him as solid, confident. But his steadiness is one of watching and waiting SO intently.
I feel like I could write an essay about the blinking alone, much less the overall category of looking. I don’t especially want to write it, but it’s there.
About midway through episode 2 I found myself kind of relieved to confirm there are only five episodes. I wanted to hurry through those most acute push & pull moments. But here I am at the beginning of episode 4 and it feels like it’s been a dang eternity.
Part 2
Back again after ending ITSAY and getting 4 1/2 episodes into IPYTM. I’m not writing about this show because I decided to do so, but because I don’t seem to have a choice. Not that I wouldn’t choose to do so, it’s just moot.
I think I’ve finally put into possibly inadequate words a thing Billkin does a lot as Teh. Sometimes his face just kind of goes... offline. He’s telegraphing despair while his face settles into a stiff mask. I find it a lot more true to life than what many actors do in similar scenes, but also very relatable in a way that’s painful! Again, in an art way. In a way that puts into practice the fact that we don’t only watch and read stories to pass time but because they help us understand ourselves. But part of me is annoyed, like a kid who’s been told to get in the car only to find they’re being taken someplace totally unforeseen and unappealing.
I find myself not wanting to explain what PP Krit is doing as much, but not because what he’s doing is less carefully crafted, certainly not because it’s less affecting. I said earlier that I was bouncing back and forth between identifying with each of them but not long after that first note of mine I stopped being able to identify with Teh very much. It might be a stretch to relate the events of this show too much to an experience of my own, but I was probably the Oh-aew in my first serious relationship, which was a very long one that was completely tied up with my entire college experience and a long first stage of adulthood.
I don’t judge Teh too harshly, but he just seems SO young. Like, younger than I may ever have been. Part of what makes this show good at what it does is that I don’t quite know what’s going on with him a lot of the time. There’s certainly a part of me that wants someone to explain what goes on in his head, but the ambiguity works for this show’s narrative style.
Maybe this will become more apparent, but am I supposed to have a strong conviction as to what Jai’s deal has been? Because that guy seems determined to give some of the most intense mixed signals I’ve ever witnessed. I feel like the director was going okay in this shot you’re in love with Teh. Okay now in this scene you feel like Teh’s kinda gross.
Honestly Teh is super gross! Billkin is a cute kid and Teh has many endearing qualities but he is a MESS. About half the time (well, half the time we see him onscreen, who knows what he does during time-jumps) the kid is barfing feelings like No-face from Spirited Away after he’s eaten nearly everybody who works at the spirit bathhouse.
I strongly suspect these characters and performances would bring up different things for people other than myself. This show is taking my personal buttons and stomping on them; presumably for others it stomps on slightly different or even opposite buttons, and for others it might trigger very little whatsoever of their own personal baggage.
Well, back to it I suppose.
Part 3
I feel less urgency now that I’ve reached the end point of the two series. Which is good for me but it means I have less to say at this point.
I’m very curious as to how a rewatch of these two series would feel to me. At first I thought a rewatch might be great—often that way I can relax and appreciate things more, since I’m not distracted by suspense as much. But I could just as easily wind up dreading certain moments. So many public scenes, yall. So much shame being experienced!
I would like to take a short moment to appreciate Hoon. His mom-pleasing powers may have complicated things for Teh, but it was such a relief to me that he was a sweetheart and a good brother.
I’m glad there’s a happy ending but I’m relieved Oh-aew got several chances to be resentful. (Not that I would have been unhappy with some less-than-happy endings. Too happy an ending would have been odd tonally anyway for this show.) I’m pretty sure I laughed out loud when Oh-aew was like but this time if you have a problem can you tell me and we can talk about it?
I was so glad Tarn got a little cameo at the end. It felt like giving her her due. Recognizing how that moment made me feel makes me realize how much I appreciate Tarn having interiority and agency as a character.
In other news, maybe I’m now one step closer to being able to see Na Naphat onscreen without immediately thinking of him as Tawan from Kinnporsche. And usually saying “f*cking Tawan!” in my head. It hasn’t happened yet, but I hope to get there. I’m sorry Na Naphat, I guess that performance was almost too good.
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Many thanks to my wonderful friends for helping me unfuck part of my fic. I am now feeling quite chipper about it again.
I also want to dump a little quick backstory/lore info here re:Sara and her stupidity. I may have mentioned it on this blog before, but if so only glancingly... so.
I'm putting it under a cut because it's ... ish? spoilers, but not really? because this is mainly meta-knowledge. and I don't think any of the characters will ever actually figure any of it out. OH WELL.
Backdraft as a group is/was older than it let on, but its form and function had seen a lot of radical changes in the ~half century prior NC0.
Backdraft used to have a very purist policy for their membership - it was a "I do what I want" club comprised largely of rich Imperial families and their kids. You didn't join this group you were invited - and you could only actually join if you could prove you were some stripe of Imperial descent.
(I need you to picture that the kind of folks running this would be the kind of folks who would've been on Prozen's side, pre-crazy.)
As time went on and politics became bland by way of a benign but totalitarian government, the populace lost both interest in and knowledge of their backgrounds. Imperial or Republic heritage didn't matter anymore, not to anyone but a select few. As proto-Backdraft's membership was aging out and dying off, it realized to survive as an organization it had to relax its requirements.
The furor this caused led to the Committee structure being formed, so there wasn't (as intense) squabbling over leadership and the way things were being run.
A lot of older folks in what soon became known as Backdraft caught and maintained good-old-days-itus, in which they began to resent the org being "polluted." But most everyone at this point had fixated on Backdraft's control and moneymaking capabilities - completely losing the original concept(s) in the process.
Enter Sara and her years-long power grab. In the process of viciously making her way up the ladder, she learned about the org's history and had the bug put in her ear about the good-ol'-days. She wanted to return Backdraft to being Imperially-rooted for the following reasons:
-she, herself, is categorized as from the Imperial line
-she thinks herself superior to other folks and is, in fact, aware of her Zoidian genetics, minus the knowledge that they're Zoidian.
-her understanding of history boils down to "when the Republicans touched shit everything got fucked up, wow." Which is a gross oversimplification and hilarious misunderstanding of Literally Everything, but this is the kind of shit that happens with history! Especially when immersed in roiling Agendas.
Which tl;drs to, if she decides people need to die, she's going to target one group over another, very much. Sara this is eugenics please stop
In reality:
-Raven is the reason Sara's bloodline is considered Imperial. Ryss never made it into the recorded equation. Considering that Raven himself probably wasn't of Imperial descent (his parents seemed kind of faction/location agnostic - which is a whole other population nuance rarely considered), Sara isn't really Imperial at all.
-As a result of the Cataclysm, records went to SHIT. And a lot of information was basically re-compiled after entire cities & their associated recordkeeping had been destroyed. What could be recovered and rebuilt was, to a degree. But a lot of information came from people's recollections. Most records have a large degree of uncertainty in them.
-Once science recovered a little, there were sufficient advances in technology to allow a degree of insight and provide better resolution for well known families/lineages. But most people didn't care by this point... and this kind of information was seen as little more than a rich person's vanity pursuit. (please see: the other post I did awhile back about modern technology's development being oddly stunted due to many societal factors, most of which are intentional)
-The genetics of Ryss's bloodline are known but not associated with her or Zoidians. They're erroneously lumped in with all the other genetic fuckery going on with Imperial bloodlines... almost all of which was self-imposed by the royalty and nobility early on inbreeding too fucking much.
-Sara's dumb quest to have Best Baby resulted in her having None Baby - she miscarried multiple times. Vega was her last try, more-or-less an accident, and absolutely not what she was after: on paper, Vega's father is Republican thru-and-thru.
-...because anyone in from Hiltz's lineage are Republican. He sired kids in a Republican colony when he lived with the Scholar. Whoops, nobody knows.
-But this ruins Sara's whole feeling-real-special thing, so she went full sunk-cost-fallacy and ignored it all. And though she does love Vega, you can't help but wonder if this colors her perception of him at all ... or she's just in complete denial of reality and substituting her own (yeah, it's this one.)
The amount of characters who have any of this knowledge is very small and getting smaller by the minute. :I
again, oh well.
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Girl, i remember months back when you used to discuss the absolute hypocrisy of people and the idiotism when it comes to shipping discourses. Boooy oh boy, i wish many shared your mindset though because from my fandom experience and not just in JJK, the fact that even milennials love to act like they hold the objective truth onto the story and it's characters is downright hilarious, to top it off calling anyone else that has a different interpretation illiterate and lacking in basic story telling understanding.
This is probably gonna be another one of mine "welcome to the internet/fandom shit" but it's not even far off. Like, it's one thing to make metas and form your own analyses and thoughts on what you've consumed. But going out of your way to constantly shit talk and say how anyone else that doesn't see the same thing as you as delulu and dumb? Like, it just comes down to someone gaslighting themselves or being so fuckin arrogant to the point they love to treat their opinion as a fact, and that's a funny part because word opinion flies over their head. Like, if i disagree with ship A and don't see it as such what they see it, do i really need to be called a clown and a dumbo who denies what's right in front of me apparently? or am i just a person who read the text and had a different understanding? Anyhow, this shit never gets old it seems, i expected to see it from Gen Zs but from milennials? that's just - yikes. I guess not everyone outgrows their "know it all" mindset lol
sorry, it's very venty but i loved how you responded to your baiters before because these kind of people really need a reality checkers.
Welcome to jjk-confessions Sunday... I think today IS Sunday for once.
Wow. Talk about bringing back memories hahaha.
I'm just such a troll, you know? That person came into my inbox with obvious negative intent. I don't like being bullied or letting bullies think they can bully me. Besides, they had some nasty holes in their logic, I wasn't going to not troll them bahaha.
But... like... I ship the pairing in question, right? (I'm pretty sure I know which ship we're talking about), and yet, every time I read "you're an idiot for not seeing them as canon, look at all this evidence" I must admit I have to roll my eyes because these are the same people that will deny any of the evidence for a post about why the "rival" ship is canon.
True story. I've seen it happen.
So that's my rant about it haha.
About age. Ok so. There's this manga I read that I believe has a predominantly older female fanbase. I'm not 100% sure. I won't say names either. But man, I avoid the fanbase like the plague precisely because of the attitude around owning the truth.
So, no. Lol. People my age, and older too, are still attached to their version of the truth.
Thanks for stopping by anon!
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Deltarune Theory: Ralsei is a guide for the script
It feels crazy that Deltarune Chapter 2 has only been out for like, what, two weeks? As of the time I’m writing this, and yet, there has already been so much secret hunting and speculation over this. Not even the full game, and people already go crazy over it. Naturally, I am part of this craze. In fact I was one of the people that played it as soon as it dropped.
And, I thought it was only me, but, at least for a little while, Ralsei’s behavior struck me as… odd. Not outwardly malicious, but just… odd. Particularly the first bit of the game, it was just so… happy and convenient? And Ralsei was at the center of it all, orchestrating it, making sure everything happened accordingly.
Eventually, that initial feeling of distrust went away, but… not quite. And it seems a lot of people began to feel the same way, pointing out bits about Ralsei that are just… out of place. Things that didn’t seem to stand out in the first chapter, are now popping out about him.
Questions include:
How does he know about what’s outside the Dark World, about the school?
How does he know about the game mechanics and call them out by names?
Why is he so interested in keeping the balance between only Kris acting and him and Susie doing magic?
Why does he seem so eager to dismiss what happened with Spamton NEO?
Why doesn’t he turn into stone or even get weak at any point during the time he spends in Cyber World?
Are the parts of his name and design connecting to the Dreemurr’s intentional, and if so, what does that mean for his relation to Kris?
How and why does he take player control away to look at what Susie is doing? Why must he wait until Kris is willing to do it? What does he tell them when he succeeds in this?
Now, I don’t intend to pose here “a supreme theory to rule them all”, I’m just a guy having fun and I’ve seen people voice particularly similar ideas to this one I’ve had, so I want to at least try to answer these questions through a relatively simple idea that would, almost entirely, immediately answer ALMOST all the doubts.
First, let’s start with some steps to build up this idea. For one, we know for a fact that Ralsei holds knowledge over game mechanics and may even break the fourth wall at times.
But we also know that Ralsei’s design resembles a lot of characters from Undertale we know and were fond of. For one, he can be likened to Toriel in the sense that he is the one to give you the first tutorial of the game and his clothes resemble her original outfit as well. Another connection, much more common, that people have made is that he is like Asriel, no doubt due to his name being an anagram, but also due to the fact he is also a cute young goat.
I would like to do a complete turn around here though, and say I do not think any of this points to Ralsei being related to Kris in the familial sense, for more than one reason, but my main one being that I don’t think Toby would be as frankly disgusting as to imply such a thing when there is so so much teasing in the direction of Ralsei possibly having a crush on Kris. I mean… really, Toby?
You know, I’m not too sure this would be the smartest idea, Mr. Fox, but alright.
However, I do think all these hints in his design and name have a purpose. And it has to do with how us, the fandom, see these two characters. For one, they are very beloved characters, and Toriel is one that we associate with her tutorials and guidance, whereas Asriel is one that people have yearned to see more in action. They are back, in a sense, but not present in our adventures so far.
What I’m getting at is that Ralsei is specifically designed to be the darling of the fandom. He is made to be loved, to be trusted, to cause feelings in us that make us want to protect him and accept his advice. This, in a way, also affects the in-universe characters who see him, as Susie put it: “as a big portable teddy bear”, whose job is “giving hugs”.
And I don’t just mean this in a character design way, like “oh wow Toby was so smart to make a perfectly marketable boy!” No. I think Ralsei exists as a meta element, his form being a direct manifestation of what we want to see.
He looks like that because he wants us to see him and lower our guard and expect his guidance. Remember how his form was shadowy and vague throughout all of chapter 1 until the very end of it and how he poofs into nothing but a pile of clothes in both chapters so far, no matter what form he’s in? What if he’s a shapeshifter? What if Ralsei isn’t even his real name? That certainly would explain why he says he doesn’t know what being Ralsei-like is like.
Ralsei? Ralsei? Oh God he’s gone.
Now, do I think he’s lowering our guard in the sense of leaving us vulnerable for an attack? Not exactly. I think it's so we learn to accept him…
Accept that he is a GUIDE for the game’s script. His entire existence hinges on guiding the main characters, specially Kris, throughout the story, and making sure the whole story, all seven chapters, play out exactly as planned.
You see, Ralsei isn’t evil. His goal is pretty simple, actually: guide us, the player, throughout the game, making us feel as safe and happy and secure. In that sense, of course he pushes so hard towards the pacifist route. After all, that’s the one that’s closer to a completionist route, as the sparing + recruiting mechanic adds more characters to your town, and therefore more content. He wants you to see all this content and get the most enjoyment out of it. His code urges him to bring you the best experience possible.
This would also answer why he does that thing with taking our control away from Kris and to watch Susie’s shenanigans. Because it’s satisfying to us. Notice how stressed out and pushy he gets in the alternate route when Susie comes out of Noelle’s room without being able to let us see what happened. He knows he messed up, something went wrong. He was supposed to let us see, so that we wouldn’t be bored, because God forbid the players be bored.
Just imagine this going through his head.
He also seems to genuinely care about Kris and Susie, and with good reason, as he knows these are the protagonists, and he is supposed to care for their well being too and ensure they reach their goal. I do think, however, there is a good amount of being genuine in his care, as he has no reason to react so boldly sometimes to either of them, showing outrage or affection in pretty telling ways. He isn’t heartless despite carrying out this job.
However it is also worth noting, for all his care, he cannot do the one thing that Kris would desire the most: free them from our grasp. And that is his ultimate failure towards them, and may end up creating conflict later on in the game.
From, here, there are two possible pathways:
Ralsei does not know about the dilemma Kris is going through, and believes Kris is entirely oblivious and passive towards being in a video game. He may even end up being the final boss to fight, as he desperately tries to keep everything on rails while Kris very much does not care for any of that.
Ralsei is entirely aware of what’s going on with Kris, after all, everything in a game’s design is planned, even the cutscenes, therefore even Kris’ struggles. Ralsei knows of the fate that lies ahead, that Kris will eventually be free, how it all ends. But to get there… is still a road ahead.
I think Ralsei’s affection towards Kris will definitely be explored in the later chapters. Not just because of the teasing we’ve been getting, but, if Ralsei really is a guide of the game’s code and script, what would that mean for him to get so attached towards the character the player is controlling?
Ralsei will have to make a choice. He will either recognize Kris is suffering and cannot wait any longer, or be faced with possibly having to fight them himself. This is why those two pathways matter as well. If he doesn’t know, his choice will come later and it will be an unpleasant surprise for him to find out the game universe is breaking apart around him with the self awareness of certain characters. If he does know, however, his choice is NOW, and waiting for the inevitable will be torture.
Just how long until he breaks? Or will he keep the facade until the very last chapter?
Like I said, I don’t intend this theory to be the biggest, most revealing and coherent theory. But… It could add a very interesting layer to Ralsei’s character, as well as answer many questions posed beforehand. He knows the school layout and game controls because he is part of the code. He can get to the other Dark World’s easily and remain unharmed because the game demands him to be. He looks like this so that we love him. He wants to give us the most fulfilling Castle Town so that we will love the game. He doesn’t protest even when Kris does things like try to give him the thorn ring, because to him, everything will be okay anyway. Everything he is, is for us. He isn’t evil or malicious per se, he just opposes Kris’ biggest need.
But he may have gotten himself attached. And that may be a clue to sparing him if he does become a final boss.
But! Tell me what you thought of this theory! Do you think it’s way too weird and farfetched, or do you think it’s possible that it could happen? Or maybe you agree with some stuff but not with other stuff? Go ahead and tell me!
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A hphm character tier list please!! Bonus point if added reasoning/ explanation!
Have a great day :3
I doubt there are any placements on this list that would truly surprise anyone, but let's go through the different rankings. I didn't name them, by the way. Those were the categories that were already offered. I could have renamed or recolored them I suppose, but I didn't wind up doing so. Let's go in ascending order.
"Avada Kedavra." Self explanatory. Three of these characters are absolutely evil and irredeemable pieces of trash. And then there's Lockhart. He's just here because he pisses me off. Granted, so does Rita Skeeter, but she doesn't ruin an entire dating quest. At least when she shows up, it's because it's a quest about her. Fenrir Greyback purposefully infects children and describes them as "delicious" so...yeah. I'd put him even lower if I could. Albus Dumbledore's placement is also not a surprise if you know me. I hate him with all of my hate. Patricia Rakepick is also here and I doubt I need to explain why.
"Send to Azkaban." They don't bother me as much as "Avada Kedavra" but I am still not a fan. The Volde-clown Boggart is personally annoying in presentation but also as a plot device. For Peeves, there is the Prank storyline of Year 5. Enough said. The Weird Sisters creep me out, Filch and Mundugus are generally annoying, I discussed Rita, and the Dementor literally calls Azkaban home. That leaves Wormtail. I don't passionately hate him but he's not exactly a good person either.
"Kinda Sus" This is where I placed all of the characters who I, for whatever reason, do not trust or otherwise find shady, the ones who give me a bad feeling. This doesn't have to be plot related either, for cases like Ethan Parkin or Madam Hooch, it might just mean that their behavior is sometimes questionable. Of course, this is also something of a joke, like putting the Red Cloak on the list. For someone like Moody, it's more obvious - everyone knows I don't trust him. Characters like Bilton and Madam Villanelle are technically on our side, but they could be spies. If a character is a known villain, but their agenda and the depth of their evil is unclear, like The Dark Witch and the White-Robed Wizard, they also go here. Jacob and MC being placed here is somewhat of a joke, but it's also somewhat meta. Jacob is like Moody, his intentions are still unclear to me. And the game keeps teasing the idea that MC may fall to the Dark Side.
"Do you even go here?" Wow, do you ever stop to notice how many characters HPHM actually has? And this tier list included all of them, even the ones I would never have thought of. I literally just used this category to place all of the characters who do not technically attend Hogwarts school, though in a few of those cases like Aurelie, it definitely came off as more amusing. Additionally, I used this ranking for all of the characters who could be considered forgettable. Either by the fandom or the game itself, such as the prefects and poor Elora Dunn. Look, if the tier list has to actually list their name in the picture so that I can remember who they are, maybe they don't need to make the list, that's all I'm saying.
"Don't care." Mostly interchangeable with "Do you even go here." Again, the cast is so huge, that I'm not going to go through every character that I placed here. These past two rankings can mostly act as a summation for the majority of the characters for whom I don't particularly like or dislike. Emily Tyler hasn't returned or been developed as an antagonist in a while, so I don't care. Trelawney giving another prophecy is boring and conflicts with canon, so I don't care. Cedric Diggory is one of the most in-your-face examples of fanservice I've ever seen, so I don't care. But again, not all of these are negative. I think the Red Cap is funny, even if his storyline is brief. I love seeing Dobby, Arthur and Molly. I always love seeing them. I could go on.
"Ok." For the characters who, when I look at them, my immediate reaction is a generally positive one. I could probably get interested in a fanwork about these guys. For many of them, there is great potential to be explored but it just hasn't happened very much. Diego would not have been this high a year ago, but he's been fleshed out. Characters like Andre, Duncan, and Tonks...whenever they're in the spotlight and get genuine development, I'm interested. It just happens so rarely. The same goes for the Weasley boys, for Badeea. Other characters go here because I personally like them, even if they aren't that relevant. People like Aberforth and Percy. But two people can wind up here despite being very different and my having completely separate feelings about both of them, like Alanza and Ben.
"Like." Everyone that I would probably write a fanwork about someday, if I could actually motivate myself to finish my current WIP. Talbott, Chiara, and Jae are genuinely interesting and compelling. They might not make my top five, but they would make my top ten. I will always love Flitwick and what HPHM has done for him, I don't even care. Keep in mind, this doesn't mean I condone everything that the character has done...Ismelda has a lot to answer for, but it doesn't mean she's not interesting. And Penny can be very interesting too, but usually only when she's put under intense stress. As heartless as it is to say. You may also be surprised to see Myrtle here, but similar to Flitwick, I just love what this game did with her. Some of these could rise or drop a ranking pretty easily too. Like in hindsight, maybe I should have switched Duncan and Myrtle. It's not a big deal either way, I guess.
"Must be protected at all costs." Self explanatory. For the most part, these are all my favorite characters in the game, and the ones who I would lay down on railroad tracks for. Another character who climbed higher over time is Skye. If it wasn't for how much people message me about her, I may not have gotten quite as invested. My love for Orion is well documented, Rowan is the reason I started playing this game, Beatrice was the breakout character of Year 6, and Tulip x Merula is my OTP for this game. I could gush about any one of these kids for six paragraphs but the bottom line is that they are my favorite characters. It is at this point that we have entered "top five" territory.
"GOD TIER ~ ALWAYS" Characters who reign supreme and are factually flawless. It's not surprising to see characters like Dennis and Fang up here because critters are, generally speaking, leagues above humans simply by default. We can also see her majesty Queen Bean ruling from the sky, guarded by her champion, the arbiter known as Erika Rath. You are entitled to your wrong opinion if you fail to see the divinity of these characters.
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Sayre - Snowflakifying my protagonists
Wow, look at me eating my words. I remember first chatting with Avery (HopeForTheWitch) on Discord and complaining that I found Lily to be too much of a Mary Sue (she has red hair, green eyes, was very kind, beautiful, an incredibly talented witch… and she’s fridged. Probably the fact that she’s fridged is the one characteristic that makes her likable? Does that make me an awful person? Hey, at least James got fridged too!) and one of the things I set out in doing in this fic is to humanize her.
I’d like to think I’ve met with some success in that regard, since she isn’t exactly the favorite sister in this fic, at least for some of the people who posted comments and found her incredibly naive and stupid for insisting on being friends with Snape (I maintain that that isn’t my intention; JKR did that lmao), so what exactly am I doing now, connecting the Evans family with the Pureblood Rionach Saye, one of whose children founded Ilvermorny, but more importantly, came from the Gaunt family, and therefore a descendant of Salazar Slytherin?
Well, the easy answer to that is because I can. I’m writing the fic; so whatever I say pretty much goes. The other portion to that is because I’ve got plans for how I want this angle to pan out later on into an actual plot point. And no, not for Lily. Or even for Holly. This plot point is for Petunia’s character development. But that isn’t important to this just yet, since we aren’t talking about Petunia, but about Lily.
The real meat of this meta wanking over my fic is that while Grandma Evans was originally a Sayre in this story, it barely even matters that she was. Isolt Sayre, for all intents and purposes of this fic, was the last Sayre who was a witch. Grandma Evans wasn’t descended from her, but from another child, who was a Squib, and therefore was never written about in the wizarding history books in the seventeenth century.
Why is this important, you may ask. Well, that’s just the thing, isn’t it? Mr Evans is around, say, his late thirties to early forties in this fic, set in 1971. That would have him born around 1927-1935. He says that Grandma Evans had him late in life, which would put her in her mid-forties when she had him, so she would have been born around 1880. Rionach Sayre died in the 1630s. There’s over 200 years between her and Grandma Evans’ birth. That’s a lot of Squib generations born with the Sayre name. Eventually, they would have stopped being categorized as Squibs and just recognized straight up as muggles, which still basically means that Lily is, you guessed it, still muggleborn. The generational thread between her and Rionach Sayre is so long and populated with so many non-magical births, that it barely matters that her grandmother originally came from not one but two Pureblood families.
Grandma Evans is awfully attached to her original name because she’s hoping that would mean someone magic would come out of her line (she’s not very different from the Blacks in this respect, is she? I think it doesn’t make her very sympathetic, which is really how I intended her to be. There’s nothing special about her family even though she’s convinced herself that there is, likely over her adoptive family’s desire to erase her original identity to better assimilate her into their family so she could grow up into a well-adjusted adult, but that sort of backfired and now she’s this rather barmy isolationist and bitter old woman) She wants to be magical, but failing to be born that, she’s fine with living vicariously through her granddaughter, who is, but who has no idea about her heritage. That’s why she’s so insistent Holly tell Lily when the right time comes. I think that’s the distinction I’m trying to paint.
The books constantly compare Voldemort and Harry, how the same and yet different they turned out to be. Well, here’s another one of those similarities yet is in fact a difference. Voldemort reveled in discovering his familial connection to Salazar Slytherin. Holly doesn’t care, doesn’t even realize it, and at the end of this chapter, completely forgets Grandma Evans’ story. Lily isn’t even aware. Only Petunia shows a modicum of interest. That’s going to come up again later.
And now, I’ll get off my soapbox, about how my characters aren’t special snowflakes. But you know what? They are, and I don’t fucking care.
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Wei Wuxian - On Loving Lan Wangji
(Or 'I was supposed to be writing fanfiction but my character notes got ahead of me and now I have another meta')
One of the most charming things about CQL!Wei Wuxian is this: up to the end, I don't think he has realized that he is in love with Lan Wangji.
I mean, we know. The world around them knows. Heck, I think even Lan Wangji knows, because bless this boy, I think he resolved his own 'I am in love with Wei Wuxian' arc even before the show's half-way point.
Wei Wuxian, though? I don't think so. Funny enough, in CQL-verse, there were already hints of something promising between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji even before Wei Wuxian's death, unlike in the novel where Wei Wuxian was completely in the dark and only developed feelings for Lan Wangji in his second life. CQL-verse though gave them that foundation of them being two people who were drawn to one another from the start, who became friends and even established a bond so close they can consider themselves as soulmates. Again, all these before Wei Wuxian even died.
I would like to once again send my heartfelt gratitude to Xiao Zhan for all those interviews that gave us a glimpse of his headspace as Wei Wuxian. In a few of these interviews, Xiao Zhan mentioned how part of Wei Wuxian's next life involved having to resolve things in the last one, and this actually included his learning to trust Lan Wangji again.
In his old life, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji had to struggle with a beautiful relationship on the verge of collapse, brought by Wei Wuxian's seeming refusal to let go of his ghost cultivation path, and Lan Wangji's conviction that Wei Wuxian had to return to sword cultivation because any other path would harm him. The tragedy of it all was that they were both in the right—Wei Wuxian required an alternative path to fight for what he believed was right despite having lost his golden core, and Lan Wangji (who did not yet know about Wei Wuxian's core) was also correct in that ghost cultivation was affecting Wei Wuxian's psyche. All these came to a head at Nightless City, with Wei Wuxian, heartbroken over having lost the people he fought so hard for, went against the whole cultivation world. In that state, he also saw that Lan Wangji was still against him, tried to stop him, even though Lan Wangji himself was still conflicted though his heart was still with Wei Wuxian in the end.
Now, this time it would be Wei Wuxian's character song that makes things interesting. His character song seems to be set while he was in that space between his two lives, looking back at a life that strayed so far away from where his good intentions would have wanted it to go. He recounts his life, but interestingly and heartbreakingly, when we reach the chorus, although the words are actually never the same, the lines are nonetheless about the same single thing:
Chorus 1:
I have tried to take a jar of liquor with a smile
And once fought with the most beautiful person in Gusu
Chorus 2 (here, the lines dedicated to the subject are even longer):
I was once stunned by someone
And teased the cloud patterns with my fingertips
The sudden vibrations of a zither
I wonder why I am remembering these deep in my dream
Chorus 3:
I also once had someone in the mortal world
To love and to long for
The chorus always starts talking about Lan Wangji—and yet, it doesn't really sound like Wei Wuxian fully realizes how much this person means to him. He looks at it from a distance, perhaps because it was a life that was already over and he was regretful about how things had ended. The feelings are bittersweet—and just wow, those lines where Wei Wuxian calls Lan Wangji as "the most beautiful person in Gusu" are just too powerful for my poor, weak heart. Note though that with Wei Wuxian, this could mean either he did think of Lan Wangji as the most beautiful person in Gusu, or he just took it for granted that Lan Wangji was known as the most beautiful person in Gusu. Or it could be a bit of both, with not a lot of overthinking because... ah, Wei Ying, Wei Ying.
Fast forward now to after Wei Wuxian's resurrection. We know he and Lan Wangji were not in a good place because Wei Wuxian hid from him at first. He got anxious when he heard the juniors talking about Hanguang-jun, and actually discouraged them from calling him over. This was the man he once called his soulmate! How bad of a fall-out had theirs been for things to change so drastically. It definitely took some time for Wei Wuxian to feel comfortable around Lan Wangji again.
Two things, I think, softened Wei Wuxian. First, Lan Wangji's drunken confession in CQL-verse was that he regretted the events leading to Wei Wuxian's death. It made Wei Wuxian realize why Lan Wangji was looking for him in the first place, all this time. He sought to comfort Lan Wangji and explained that he was not to blame. We can see Wei Wuxian was moved by how gently he took care of Lan Wangji that night, drunk as he was.
Second was Lan Xichen telling Wei Wuxian about the events after his death, what punishments Lan Wangji endured and how he retained his faith and conviction about Wei Wuxian even after all of that. Even the story about their mother was telling; it was a glimpse of how strongly and stubbornly Lan Wangji loves someone, and how deeply that love goes, even if he does not say anything in words. Lan Xichen reminded Wei Wuxian of how adamant and persistent Lan Wangji had been about saving Wei Wuxian in his past life. Wei Wuxian said that it was unnecessary for Lan Wangji to have done these things, to suffer through his loyalty to Wei Wuxian especially when Wei Wuxian was already dead. But somehow it must have proven something to him, too, and gave him a sense of security with Lan Wangji.
After these things, love (or at the very least, trust and attachment) just seemed to develop naturally from there. Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are good together especially as "partners-in-crime", so to speak. They are a very effective team, and while this goes to show how naturally compatible they are, the adventures they go through just also strengthen the bond between them. What finally cemented their relationship in this second life, resolving any other doubts Wei Wuxian might have had with Lan Wangji, was that face-off at Lanling, where Lan Wangji had the opportunity to deny Wei Wuxian again in order to retain his respected status in the cultivation world. Lan Wangji refused, announced that he knew it was Wei Wuxian from the start, and told Wei Wuxian that it wasn't so bad, walking in this path of his.
They were noticeably inseparable from there. What makes my heart sing about this is that this time, Wei Wuxian is more actively sticking to Lan Wangji. He needs no one else other than Lan Wangji, has complete faith in him. Back in Yi City, we saw how confident he was that Lan Wangji would win against Xue Yang, he was not even worried when he took the kids to safety. Then at the Burial Mounds, when he drew the spirit attraction enchantment on himself to drive away the corpses, he refused any other help, saying Lan Wangji was enough to protect him.
There were many other instances. In Lotus Pier, he was constantly with Lan Wangji, and even presented him to his family. He accepted insults about himself from Jiang Cheng, but not even his guilt towards Jiang Cheng would allow him to let his brother insult Lan Wangji. Even his asking Lan Wangji to take him away from Lotus Pier after the confrontation with Jiang Cheng was telling, because Wei Wuxian used to be self-sufficient and was uncomfortable asking for help. But he was doing so freely with Lan Wangji.
Even before entering the Guanyin Temple, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji had a conversation about Wen Ning—another staple in Wei Wuxian's life—needing to find a life for himself. Interestingly, the thought that Lan Wangji (who was about as attached to him as Wen Ning was) similarly needed a life free from him did not even occur to Wei Wuxian. He would let Wen Ning go, but Lan Wangji stays.
Then, at the Guanyin Temple, when he found out that everyone seemed to know about his losing his golden core, Wei Wuxian checked with Lan Wangji first, asking, "So do you also know?" By this point, Lan Wangji had become a far first in his mind, far from everyone else. Wei Wuxian looks to him first, and before facing anything else that remained against him, he has to check first that things between him and Lan Wangji were okay.
This is also why the last episode is so heartbreaking. After the events at the temple, Wei Wuxian whisks Lan Wangji away and makes a run for it. Escaping did seem to be his intention, too, because when Wen Ning and Lan Sizhui—the most harmless, loyal people to them both—caught up to them, Wei Wuxian looked disappointed that they were caught.
Of course, he then learned that Lan Sizhui was none other than their beloved A-Yuan, and that was a heart-warming reunion all around. Eventually though, Lan Sizhui and Wen Ning said their goodbyes, and Wei Wuxian turned to Lan Wangji, wondering where they would go. He never thought to even ask Lan Wangji where he would go, never thought it would be anywhere Wei Wuxian wouldn't be, because already he learned to be secure that Lan Wangji would never leave his side. In a way, he took it for granted that Lan Wangji would no longer leave him, but to be fair to Wei Wuxian, after everything that had happened and given his own feelings towards Lan Wangji, it was an easy assumption and mistake to make, to have that sense of security towards someone to whom one's heart was so drawn to.
Somehow though, I do think their parting might have done Wei Wuxian some good. Again, Wei Wuxian is a dense motherf*cker not the type who digs deeply at his own mind and feelings (heck, the boy falls asleep during meditation, and never forget the 'Do you like Mianmian?' incident), doesn't label things and just rides those feelings out openly and freely. Time apart from Lan Wangji could have given him more space to assess what he was feeling for the guy, what it meant to miss him, how badly he was missing him, and so on. And we know he missed him badly, because who in their right mind would play their theme song atop a mountain, looking like they were about to cry? How afraid he was to look behind him and find that maybe Lan Wangji wasn't really there, that it was all in his head… oh, Wei Ying.
So, yes. We did not get the "I love you's" (nor "that night, I really wanted to sleep with you!" lmao) in the drama, but this also makes sense because Wei Wuxian probably also did not even know, or did not know what to call it, or whatever the heck they were. But spending those days (perhaps even months or years) away from Lan Wangji were clearly difficult for him, enough for us to know that their reunion would bring Wei Wuxian such relief, he likely would never let Lan Wangji go again. And maybe, just maybe, when they meet again, that's when it all comes to Wei Wuxian, the feelings he isn't able to keep anymore, and he would just burst out, "I miss you! I love you!"
#so is friday meta night going to be a thing#how do these things just happen#but really though wei wuxian#i love this boy#and i especially love the CQL version of him#my eternal thanks to xiao zhan for giving us such a wonderful and lovable wei wuxian#i adore him#may he be happy with his lan wangji#meta#the untamed#chen qing ling#cql#mo dao zu shi#mdzs#wei wuxian#lan wangji#wangxian#cql spoiler#because i suppose this would be the entire show
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Chapter 252 - Thoughts
This chapter absolutely blew me away. So much emotion crammed into so little space.
1. The Trio “win”
I love the disgruntled Bakugou slipping out of the unwanted hug - and getting away from those uncomfortable feelzies - taking stock instead of the aftermath of the blitz-fight. That’s quite the escape-maneuver there.
Shouto is equally hilarious, furtively trying to cover himself with ice to disguise that half of his clothes burnt off. It reminds me of his S1 hero costume. He manages to make it look cool too - windswept hair, lugging the villain around, oh-so-cool.
A rare Deku sassing Bakugou! - Their relationship feels like it has changed subtly. Bakugou is much more mellow with Midoriya, he toned down his insults and they don’t have much bite to them. And Deku calls out Bakugou more on his unaccaptable behaviour - I will count later how many “Kacchan!”-s we’ve heard during this one week.
But this comeback is a good one, and I hope Deku will catch on that this is the best way to interact with Bakugou.
Also, he almost steals Bakugou’s moment to gloat, when he’s the first one to point out their total victory. Poor Bakugou though - he’s boasting moment is totally ruined by Endeavor conceding immediately that they were great and that he screwed up. It’s no fun being petty, when the other person is just down.
Although it seemed to me that the gloating was his attempt at deflection, because he saw another Todoroki-feelz avalanche coming his way (and because he didn’t want Endeavor to have a meltdown in the middle of the street.
But we already know that it’s mission impossible to stop the Todorokis from oversharing. So of course they have to conduct their business on the busy street. It becomes serious / heartbreaking real fast.
2. Natsuo and Endeavor
Every time I think Endeavor’s redemption arc cannot get better, it always does. Natsuo and Enji finally continue that talk they had at the first Todoroki dinner after the Nomu fight. And Endeavor this time truly owns up to being a shitty father, to hurting Natsuo, he even accepts the blame for Touya before Natsuo can bring it up. Natsuo, despite being shaken by Endeavor’s confession, doesn’t change his view - he’ll never forgive Endeavor (because he’s not kind like Shouto - recalling Midoriya’s perspective on forgiveness - and also how his good-intentioned words hurt Natsuo inadvertently).
I love how nuanced all this is. Midoriya’s well-intentioned meddling may have helped Shouto and Fuyumi, but hurt Natsuo. His point was valid, but doesn’t mean it was valid for everyone.
Also, it’s strange that Natsuo just assumes that Shouto decided to forgive - could these boys just talk?
And then Endeavor finally, maybe for the first time in his life does something right by Natsuo, when he tells him that he’s plenty kind despite never forgiving...
That person staring from the car is a brilliant visual.
Wow. This line hit very hard - right on point.
Shouto doesn’t say anything through all this conversation, but with all the brilliant reaction panels you can see that he’s watching - and I feel like he finally sees whatever he was looking for. Endeavor changed; he accepts and validates the feelings of his children, he tries to do right by everyone, tries to find a way to give the distance Natsuo needs, the family Fuyumi wants, the new start for Rei. He did this at beginning of the internship arc with Shouto too, when he accepted his speech and his wish for their relationship to be professional, but I think Shouto being inside that situation couldn’t fully absorb that. Here, he’s observing from outside, and it’s different.
I really wonder where this leaves him - after all, he remains in contact with Endeavor for his work-study.
3. Bakugou’s hero name.
I love everything about that short panel of them discussing at the station. Shouto managed to sneak into his hero costume. Look at his fanclub squealing in the background!!!!
And wow - it’s the first time ever Deku call him “Bakugou” - and probably the last time, so I’ll be sure to save this screenshot - as Kacchan confirms that he chosen a hero name and it ain’t Bakugou.
He must have found the clarity he was looking for during this week if he’s settled on something, “his wish of what he ought to be”.
Midoriya is so excited (he’s totally fanboying there) - but Bakugou is not telling him what it is, and not to Shouto either (that’s a nice little 3-way banter after all the Todo-tears) - he has to tell someone else first (logically Best Jeanist - cue a Bakugou / Hawks confrontation brewing).
I wrote about my Ground Zero v Kacchan thoughts yesterday. I’m team Ground Zero personally, but I can see the thematic values of both (and we may get an option 3).
4. Odds and ends
There is a bit of meta-conversation by Ending of Endeavor’s diminishing light, by the driver of Endeavor being targeted and the darkness growing and by Endeavor feeling like the light is there to stay - looking at the trio.
It feels like in this arc Endeavor got to the end of the road - he belongs in the past and his only role now is give the best future he can; to his family, to the fledging heros.
After doing right by Natsuo, Endeavor also tries to give Fuyumi what he thinks she wants (I’m not too sure if she’ll be ok with his self-imposed distance, because I feel like that despite everything, Fuyumi still cares about her father). But it’s good that he finally acknowleges all her very hard work.
And Hori again pulled off the feat - here I am, rooting for a character I hated from the first moment he graced a panel, while simultaneously rooting for all his victims. Well done!
There is another little tidbit about Touya (other than Endeavor acknowledging that “he might as well have killed him himself” - which makes me still think Touya having a quirk-accident after attempting something he wasn’t supposed to...)
Sounds like Natsuo is carrying his brother’s hurt, not only his own.
#bnha#bnha meta#bnha manga spoilers#bnha 252#bnha 252 spoilers#endeavor internship arc#endeavor#todoroki natsuo#todoroki shouto#bakugou katsuki#midoriya izuku#wonder trio#todoroki fuyumi#endeavor redemption arc
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I have been through this journey before, so I get to be actually frustrated about it.
IUnder a read more because im not subjecting y’all to this. Also: I should caveat I haven’t watched the episode cause I’m waiting till its on Netflix but I have watched way too many other episodes of Supernatural so I have a right to say these things.
TL;DR: I mean you all knew Cas’ confession was fucking bullshit and that SPN is...hm. But I’d like to actually express my genuine frustration, for a moment? I’m going to say things you already know, but I have too much knowledge of this show and too much stupid meta in my brain about a series I haven’t genuinely enjoyed for at least 5 years which makes this not just blandly bad but disgustingly insulting to me not even as a gay just as like. A writer?
Or, even shorter: Cas’ confession is just a Charlie Bradbury Speedrun
So. As some of you may know if, for some reason, you followed me back in 2013 (and till...okay fine 2015), I used to be, uh. Really into SPN. Really, I was into Destiel. Like, as in, I slogged through seasons 1-3 to get to Cas and am also really vulnerable to the Sunk Cost Fallacy and projecting onto characters. (I was in 8th grade in 2013, okay? Get off my back)
Also, because I monopolised use of the TV, I kind of...also got my parents into it? In a “this is silly but fun” kind of way.
Over time, critiques of the show from viewers, learning what queerbaiting is at all, fatigue with how long it was going, and also fatigue from how characters I enjoyed, like Rufus, or Crowley, or Ellen, or Jo, or Kevin, or Charlie, or Cas a few times, kept getting killed off. As time went on, it didn’t escape my notice that, aside from Cas, all of these characters fit one or more of the following criteria:
They were a woman
They were a person of color
Were Queer or Queer-coded in some way (listen Crowley was bad rep but at least Mark Sheppard actually kissed a man on screen)
I also just...generally got tired of the way the show treats women and sidelines people of color.
The final straw really came with Charlie’s death. It got us all excited, because she hadn’t been back in a bit! And it was interesting to see how reuniting with her dark side from Oz had changed her! (yeah remember the fucking Wizard of Oz storyline? The writers sure don’t!) And maybe she’d get developed! Because at this point, Charlie and the fairly good writing of her character was a major upside for the series! Charlie was cool, fun, gay, and morally complex in a way...none of the female characters had been before her, in large part because by definition, her relationship with the boys would always be platonic.
And then. Offscreen. She is violently murdered. For no damn good reason. Like, literally, her being brought back in this episode after fucking off to europe after having returned from fucking off to Oz seems to have filled two purposes in total.
The codex is solved (but Sam doesn’t know till next episode)
Charlie is dead, which means Dean can be angry, specifically at Sam, and kill more people because he’s the big bad this season.
That’s it. Two things. Twooooo whole reasons to do this episode. Whoopee.
But you didn’t come here for this, you came here for me to rip this reveal to shreds. Don’t worry, I’ll get there. What I want in your minds is that Supernatural already had a really good anddynamic queer character. And then they killed her off to make Dean angry. No, it doesn’t matter that they brought her back in season 13 or whatever. They made that decision.
After the rage this incited, I started realizing general flaws in the writing (I had probably already noticed them but now I was angry enough to complain.) Every conflict is born of Sam and Dean not communicating/taking on burdens and Dean being angry at Cas for reasons that ranged from good to ridiculous, but in a way that always went way too fucking long, (which...yes, does make the “you do it for love” gifs fucking hilarious). It didn’t help that seasons 11 and 12 were next, which meant Demon Dean and GOD’S FUCKING SISTER, plus the decision to resurrect Mary, which, while I do like her later scenes, as a season 12 finale it...well I’ll be honest it kinda sucked. It undercut the majority of the Winchester’s’ arcs and their slow and painful journey out of their father’s toxic vengeance quest and knowing Mary as a person when it’s too late to know her was one of the last semi-compelling grounders of the narrative.
By this point it was a hate-watch for my parents and I.
So then, I’m at college, and I’m not watching anymore cause I don’t have the motivation or access to Hulu to continue, and SPN is bad. I watch the Scooby Doo crossover when it comes out and my friend and I make fun of it, and we also continue making jokes about Dean and Cas and queerbaiting because we’re queer, but I don’t keep up. My Dad does though, so when I return, I watch some with the fam and lads. It’s even more tiring without context.
So flash forward to Quarantine, my sister, the only one with taste, has left, and we have run out of netflix to watch. So we return to the well, and seasons 13-14 are. I’m gonna say it. Bad. Really fucking bad. The cycle of bad communication continues, season 14 has like seven antagonists and the way it’s structured makes it so I literally cannot remember the timeline of a season I watched 3 months ago. Oh also, they have a queer coded cannibal snake monster for...well I guess Jack’s snake bud was cool but like. Huh wow it’s almost like these writers don’t handle queers well.
Our one saving grace is Cas, but he’s barely in any episodes, though I did note that his deal with the empty, being happy completely for one moment killing him, that struck me as “this has potential and I know they’re gonna half-ass it somehow.” Also Jack and Mary, but then oh...plot….The most compelling it gets is literally the finale.
But then, 3 days later, the first half of season 15 comes out on Netflix and it’s...actually kind of acceptable. The new character they give Jack’s actor is fun to watch him play until they make him evil. Exploring just how toxic Chuck can be gave the series direction again. The alternate future was genuinely scarring, and Eileen’s return was genuinely moving. Most of all, though, Cas got the opportunity to tell Dean no, that Dean was being unfair to him, had always been unfair to him, and he was sick of it. I had no illusions, I knew Destiel was never gonna happen, and Cas was gonna die, but giving him that bit of agency, letting Cas grow and be self-sufficient, and be angry with Dean not for existential reasons but interpersonal ones, was such a good sign for me, and Dean grew too! Dean fucking apologized for being horrible and Jensen Ackles had a...yknow what, ill give it to him, he had a good acting moment.
But the thing. About. The “I love you.”
Let’s take it in parts.
What was good: I’m gonna admit it, lads, “Wanting what I can’t have” - AS A LINE - is good, and, structurally, there is something to the Empty Deal that could have been an interesting aspect of Cas’ arc when it comes to self actualization and being on even footing with Dean. The problem is, this is Supernatural, and that arc only comes up when I bring it up because character study, even in bad media, is fun for me.
What was bad:
I mean. Like. All of it? All of it.
Okay. Fine. I’ll be specific.
Cas dies immediately when - possibly because- he is revealed as having feelings for Dean. They kill him as they queer him, that’s a Bury Your Gays Speedrun right there.
Like the least they could have done is have him mention it to someone in another scene or something to establish some romantic feelings on the part of canon a full episode beforehand. That would have been the literal bare minimum.
When Cas starts praising Dean, for some reason both the writing and Misha’s acting take a bit of a downswing (from...where it already was). Cas, whose most powerful moment this season was acknowledging that Dean’s anger at him is cruel and unfair, flatly praises him for doing everything out of love and it reads with a misunderstanding of both Dean as a character and Cas’ understanding of Dean. Dean is angry! VERY ANGRY! And it’s a problem he needs to work on and rarely does.
Talking out of my ass, a better speech would have been about how Dean is angry because of his love for Sam, family, and the people around him, how, for better or for worse, he can’t help but be angry on behalf of others, and that his journey of moving that tendency towards the better is what made Cas care so much. Guys this alteration to the metaphor took 2 minutes to write tops I am an Art History student and these are TV WRITERS WITH YEARS OF EXPERIENCE CAN YOU TELL THEYRE NOT TRYING YET?
A better speech would, of course, have come out of a better series. My point: this part was half-assed. Poorly written. Wow it’s almost like the series is also poorly written.
Also, Misha is the better actor of the three(***OF THE THREE), but his choices in that scene are jarringly out of character which. Makes the bad writing worse. It doesn’t help that they cut to the same fucking shot of Dean 3 times. The chemistry in that scene makes it feel so fucking hackneyed. Because it is.
This combines lead me to the point: (wait there was a point to this?)
As someone who does not have the luxury of watching this capsized ship fall into boiling seas from a distance, it is less insulting to me that they did this so last minute and then sent Cas to the Void than it is how they did it. They had ingredients for something that could have been compelling enough to me as a former fan of the show to think that they had put effort into it, that they had decided months, perhaps even years ago to do this, and had crafted a storyline around it. That this was an intentional decision they cared about. It wasn’t. It was barely even pandering, because it’s almost insultingly blatant.
SPN kinda proved to me that it didn’t care about queers when Charlie was killed off. It proved it to me again when Cas, not only died in confessing his love for Dean but did it in the weakest result of what could have been a surprisingly strong story.
#destiel#i don't fucking care im tagging it#bury your gays#queerbaiting#homophobia#also: i should say there are a lot of moments where i refer to aspects of the writing as good#this either means i was 14 when I watched it#or#it's something that i find compelling#that#IN ANOTHER SHOW#OR IN A HYPOTHETICAL WHERE THE WRITING ISNT LADEN WITH HOMOPHOBIA#could be fun to explore#like there are these structural motifs#and themes#which could have made the show good#could have made that confession...passable#but they didn't even write it well by supernatural standards#is my point#My other point is i get to actually be mad about this because I actually watched and put emotional energy towards this show#i shouldnt have but i did#so now I get to write about it#and if you reply we been knew to this post#youre correct#but also#wow do you maybe think I was already aware of that?
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Destiel Chronicles
Vol. XLIII
It was a love story from the very beginning.
Being Useful for You
(9x09)
Hello My Friends? Are you enjoying this hiatus and the Holidays???
Here I am with a new meta from this series, this time I'm gonna talk exclusively of episode 9x09 Holy Terror. The Destiel scene here is a classic one, full of flirtation, had been analyzed a hundred of times, so it will be a hundred and one! 🤣🤣
I want to say thank you to my friend @agusvedder she made all the gifs for this meta and discussed the episode with me, thank you my dear! 😍💕
Now, let's began.
Let it shine
When the episode starts... There's this faction of the angels coming into a bar for a fight with Malaqui's angels.
The nuns were singing...
♪ This little light of mine ♪
♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪
♪ this little light of mine ♪
♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪
♪ this little light of mine ♪
♪ I'm gonna let it shine ♪
♪ let it shine, let it shine, let it shine ♪
Which is a prelude to Castiel recovering his angel's powers.
But then, inside the bar... The rebels angels, anarchists, were listening this song...
you got a nasty disposition ♪
♪ no one really knows the reason why ♪
♪ you got a bad, bad reputation ♪
♪ gonna hang your head down and cry ♪
♪ you got bad, bad luck ♪
♪ bad, bad luck ♪
♪ you got bad, bad luck ♪
Again this is talking about Castiel, like that bad one between the angels. The one with the bad reputation.
And is not casualty Cas will take the grace from one of the rebels. Because his rebellious nature.
Flirting in front of Sam
When they arrived to the bar, Dean and Sam found Cas already investigating as an FBI agent.
And because Sam was ignoring the whole "Zeke" situation, he saw Cas working and it was fun for him, feeling all proud, he went with the river.
But Dean wasn't amused. He knew the whole angels want to kill Cas issue, so he knew Cas won't be safe.
But... There was a really blatant flirty situation between Human Cas and Dean.
Castiel was a little drunk, because it was his first time doing that, I think he repeated that like twice, and a very easy going fluidity of words and second meanings.
Let's see ...
CASTIEL: It is so good being together again. You know, this is my first beer as a human. I hope it's okay, me joining you?
SAM: Why wouldn't it be okay?
DEAN (looks alarmed at this turn of the conversation) You know, Cas, are you sure you're ready to jump back into all this? I mean, it seemed to me like you'd actually found some peace.
CASTIEL: Hey, you once told me that you don't choose what you do. It chooses you.
DEAN: Huh?
Dear is still his role model, and more now that he's a human.... But the flirtation starts with a suggestive movement coming from Castiel. He had lived a couple of flirty situations with Dean in episode 9x06, even if he's kind of innocent, he is not that innocent when is about seduction, as I said so many times, he knows about seduction, and maybe he could notice some of these in Dean when he came alone to see him in the Gas n sip. And then in the car. So he knows... Now there's not boundaries between them. They're both humans... So... A little of alcohol and he went for it...
Look at Castiel's eyes and head movement, he also caressed his bottle gently, with a seductive gaze, he know perfectly what he is doing.
SAM: All right, well, then, in that case, we have to figure out, uh, who are we up against, what do they want, and how do we stop them.
CASTIEL: Well, Bartholomew wants to reverse Metatron's spell. Presumably to – to retake Heaven once his following is large enough. (...)
Wow... Here. Castiel had lived the fact that Dean had been jealous about Nora, so, why not try jealousy again? Yeah, let's mention this reaper... So Dean picked up that ball quickly.
The reaper you banged well that was kind of hard, and not with a buddy face of approval there... He looks mad, and jealous. Yeah, the reaper you banged, is like a jilted Lover recriminating a betrayal to his lover.
And Cas responds... Yeah, and you stabbed.
And his face is like YEAH, YOU WAS JEALOUS.
We all know Dean killed her because he killed Cas. But the tone of the conversation takes another context because their faces. Is like they're playing there to change the cause of April's death. You stabbed her because I had sex with her and you was jealous of her.
Tasting very dangerous waters... Dean redirect the chat to how hot she was.
Dean is the one who replaces the gay tension, to the straight safe place. And Castiel follows him. Because he is not unaware of this. He knows exactly what Dean is trying to do. And when Castiel does that, Dean comes back again to openly flirt with him.
That's a very suggestive gaze, and line, and everything, he even smiled at him with the tongue between his teeth, looking adorable, he know he looks adorable doing that, and I'm pretty sure he uses to seduce. Even the touch in the shoulder, everything here is pure flirtation my friends... And Sam was there... Pure thrid wheel soul looking at them in awe, how they're doing that at sunlight.
Then he will try to be a good brother, and leave them alone, but my sweet Cas didn't pick up that intention... And he will offer himself to go for more beers.
SAM (smiling at the exchange)
All right. I'm gonna get us another round.
CASTIEL: Nah. I'll get it.
CASTIEL hops off his bar stool, then returns.
Mm. (swigging the last of his old beer, and setting the bottle on the table.)
You know, I've never done this before.
And that line again, he is too cute. But what Cas, you had never flirted so openly with Dean? 🤣🤣🤣
Cas' prayer
But not everything was fun, because we had right there our official cockblocker, Gadriel.
So, is goodbye again.
Castiel is by himself and he decided to give a try to the pray.
If you recall in episode 9x03 Castiel went to a Church and he found a woman that talked about what faith meant to humans. Well he tries to use some of that, trying to contact other angels to get some info about the case.
That scene of Castiel praying in different postures was delightful. Trying to use what he learned, being human again. He even asked to himself if he's doing it properly.
When he was captured by Malaqui, he uses his strategy again. Malaqui names him like THE GREAT CASTIEL, and he is indeed. His innate soldier flaws again, and he was able to steal grace and scape from their captures. Not just that, but he killed all the angels in that place.
Why he decided to take Theo's grace and came back to the game like an angel? Because he heard Ezequiel was dead. And again Sam and Dean were in danger. And he felt he wasn't useful in his shape as a human. He thought maybe Dean was trying to protect him because he thought he wasn't useful like that. So he wanted to be useful.
I did what I had to
I will talk about this quote in another volume because it repeats all over season 9, and twice in this episode, first Theo and then Castiel.
But, let's come back to the fact that Castiel took a stolen grace (in one of the most sexy scenes I ever saw... Well... Is Misha, he makes everything hot) because he wanted to save Sam and Dean, to be useful to the battle. And he felt he would be more useful as an angel.
So, he called Dean by the phone (pointing Cas knows Dean's number) and we had this sad conversation...
CASTIEL (on the phone) Dean, I don't have a lot of time, so listen. The leader of the opposition is an angel named Malachi.
DEAN: How do you know that?
The concern is all over Dean's voice, he needs to know because he knows this case was very dangerous for Castiel, and he feels guilty for leaving him alone. Even if he knows Cas is strong, his protective nature can't handle the fact he failed to his friend in protecting him.
CASTIEL: He had me. I, uh, I was tortured. But I got away.
DEAN: How?
CASTIEL: I... I did what I had to. I became what they've become. A barbarian.
Here is the quote, is the mission, for the mission, he became a barbarian.
DEAN: What are you – Cas, where are you?
Dean is sensing Castiel is making bad decisions again, he thinks because he wants to help angels, but the truly reason why is HIM AND SAM.
CASTIEL: It's better I stay away. They're gonna want me even more now. But I'm gonna be all right. I... I got my Grace back. Well, not mine per se, but it'll do.
This is it. Cas is an angel again. Dean and Cas know they're in war, but... They had began something... Now the boundaries between them are here again... So is kind of frustrating...
Castiel smiles... The mojo is so Dean, to describe his grace. Yes is sad because they will be separated by that difference, but is necessary...
When Cas says I'm an angel, Dean asks immediately : And you are okay with that?
Because, what would be nice for Cas being a human? He suffered a lot, he doesn't even had a place, or his own bed. Why on Earth Dean was thinking Cas was feeling great as a human? He is not talking about those things, at all, he knows Cas was not having a great life, or great human experience. Then why Dean is asking this? Because of them. Him and Cas. It was obvious they were free, to do, say or even flirt with each other, and that felt good. The easy going, because they were both humans, not boundaries between them. Because both of them knew this. Even with that cockblocker and being apart, maybe Dean was thinking it wouldn't be for ever and eventually, Cas will be living in the bunker with them and maybe... Just maybe... They could be finally together.
So... Because they felt that thing between them, so real now that Cas was a human, so reachable... Why now to choose to be an angel again? Right. War. Mission. That's the way Cas thinks. Goodbye opportunity...
Then, Dean was about to say something... Something we will never know, because Castiel cut him off, I know this is frustrating, but the way Dean says CAS, it could be something coming from his frustrated and concerned heart.
And Cas ... He needed to be useful for Dean. For his mission.
To Conclude:
Castiel and Dean kept flirting. Cas being a human, without boundaries, knowing Dean had flirted with him in episode 9x03, decides to do the same, Dean doesn't stays back, and flirted with him too in front of Sam.
Castiel decided to get back to the game as an angel when he hears Dean and Sam were in danger. He also felt he wasn't useful for Dean, because he rejected him twice, so maybe for this war, he needed to come back powerful like an angel.
I hope you like this meta, I'll see you in the next one!
Tagging @metafest @magnificent-winged-beast @emblue-sparks @weirddorkylittlediana @michyribeiro @whyjm @legendary-destiel @a-bit-of-influence @thatwitchydestielfan @misha-moose-dean-burger-lover @lykanyouko @evvvissticante @savannadarkbaby @trickster-archangel @dea-stiel @poorreputation @bre95611 @thewolfathedoor @charlottemanchmal @neii3n @deathswaywardson @followyourenergy @dean-is-bi-till-i-die @hekatelilith-blog @avidbkwrm @anarchiana @dickpuncher365 @vampyrosa @foxyroxe-art @authorsararayne @anonymoustitans @mybonsai1976 @love-neve-dies @wildligia @dustythewind @wayward-winchester67 @angelwithashotgunandtrenchcoat @trashblackrainbow @deeutdutdutdoh @destiel-is--endgame @destiel-shipper-11 @larrem88 @charmedbycastiel @ran-savant @little-crazy-misha-minion @samoosetheshipper
@shadows-and-padlocked-hearts @mishtho @dancingtuesdaymorning @nerditoutwithbooks @mikennacac73 @justmeand-myinsight @idontwantpeopletoknowmyname @tenshilover20 @teddybeardoctor @pepevons @helevetica @isthisdestiel @dizzypinwheel @jawnlockwinchester
If you want to be tagged, just let me know.
If you want to read the previous metas from season 9, here are the links...
Vol. XL; Vol. XLI, Vol. XLII
Buenos Aires December 23rd 2019 9:32 PM
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backhanded compliments & the art of commenting on other people’s creative content without being a complete twat waffle
WARNING: This is a long post.
I'm a word person. That's probably why, when I do find myself becoming irritated by someone else's unsolicited critique, it is almost always due to their choice of words. Words are important and very powerful. Words have different meaning to different people. Which is why we need to take care when choosing them.
Now, whenever possible, I will click on the profile of the person who left the unsolicited critique and try to get a feel for what type of person they are. Just so I can better understand why they might have left the comment in question. If it is clear they are not a native English speaker, I stop right there. Learning a foreign language is hard. English is one of the most ridiculous languages on the planet. So, mastering its nuances is a challenge for someone who may not have grown up using it. I’m sure I have offended at least one person with my Spanish, at some point. I’m working on it.
BACKHANDED COMPLIMENTS
When I say choice of words, I am implying almost exclusively to something known as a backhanded compliment. A backhanded compliment is a statement that seems, on the surface, to be positive, but is actually an insult.
If you are not familiar with the backhanded compliment, I direct you to the mom from American Beauty who says to her teenage daughter "Honey, I'm so proud of you. I watched you very closely, and you didn't screw up once!"
There are a lot of reasons why people make such comments. It would be reductive to suggest they are all suffering from some form of insecurity, although many of them probably are. Some may genuinely believe that they are being helpful. Others may be jealous of the attention another person is receiving and want to either sabotage them or find a way to get in on the action.
However, it is most likely that the type of person to give a backhanded compliment is either very young, very sheltered or very privileged. And thus, they may not realize that their opinion about something may not carry the same weight on the internet as it does in other venues. Or they may not realize that the world is filled with people who are more informed and more experienced than they are. They mistake their opinion for objective analysis and therefore, offer it freely and without hesitation.
Now, I would like to state that if you see something and you REALLY think it is problematic, you should absolutely offer your critique. Note: if you dislike or disagree with something, that does not make it problematic. Anything that promotes the maltreatment or marginalization of any living thing is problematic. Even so, you should stop and ask yourself whether your critique will accomplish anything or if it would be more worthwhile to simply report the post in question and move on.
That being said, here is MY analysis of some of the backhanded compliments I have received over the years (amalgamated for brevity), and a guide to leaving more constructive/supportive comments for the content creators in your life.
ARTWORK (including photography)
“Definitely not my style, but beautiful.”
Do we need to know that it's not your style? If you think it's beautiful, just say that.
“This is so great, but it would have been better if you had used yellow instead of red!”
Color choice is a creative choice and its value cannot be objectively measured. Just say it’s great and move on.
“Wow, this is way better than your old stuff.”
Do I need to explain why this is bad? I hope not.
“Wow, you're really improving.”
Slightly better than the previous one, but still bad. This is a really good example of something that might even feel like a compliment, but actually isn't. Saying that someone is improving is basically saying that it needed to improve.
Unless you are speaking to your own student or a child, or a really close friend or family member who has openly shared with you their desire to improve as an artist, this is completely unnecessary.
It's important to remember that not everyone is doing things with the same objectives as you. Not every artist or photographer is aiming for technical mastery. If an artist creates something that is very personal and feels pleased with it, the last thing they want is for someone else to come along and tell them what’s “wrong” with it.
Really ANY comment that suggests that the piece of artwork in question would be improved if it were altered in some way is a no no. Unless you are an art teacher or someone has specifically asked for you to give them this information, or you are paying someone to make something especially for you.
FANFICTION (or really writing in general)
“Oh man...I was so excited when I saw your story summary, until I saw the pairing.”
Do not comment on a story just to tell the author that you don't like their pairing. Ever. If you accidentally click on a story without seeing the pairing and you are disappointed, your feelings are valid. But there’s no need to let the author know.
"This was good but I don't think (character) would say (quoted dialogue)."
Then, you should go and write a story with that character, but where they say different things.
"I noticed you used a semi-colon in the third paragraph. Semicolons are actually supposed to...."
Critique grammar, punctuation, spelling and writing mechanics ONLY if you are the author's editor, the author's teacher, or if the author requested it. Period.
If you are commenting to point out what you believe to be a factual error, stop and ask yourself...is this really an error? Is the error intentional? Does the error represent the views of the author or the views of a specific character in a fictional work? Does this story have a reliable narrator? If not, might that narrator be misinformed or biased? And the most important question to ask yourself before correcting an author...do I actually know what the fuck I'm talking about?
Once, in a story, I referenced Copernicus and mentioned that he was imprisoned by the Catholic church. Which we know that he was. Someone commented to leave a long, bullet pointed explanation for how this is a common misconception and that the Catholic Church never mistreated Copernicus, along with many links to articles and videos as evidence. Guess who made all the articles and videos? The Catholic Church. SKIP!
When commenting on a fictional work, consider letting the author know how the story is making you feel. Speculate about what you think might happen next. Express excitement and anticipation. Ask a question for clarification about what you just read. And you can never go wrong by simply thanking the author for taking the time to provide you with free entertainment.
MEMES & JOKES
I love to make people laugh. I have been making people laugh since I learned to talk. This was actually bourne out of an inability to interpret facial expressions. I couldn't tell when people were angry or annoyed. But when they were laughing, I knew exactly how they felt.
That being said, people on the internet LOVE to tell me when something isn't funny. The only problem with this is that humor is very subjective and often very esoteric. I have made memes that I knew were esoteric and knew that not everyone would understand them. I have memes just for birdwatchers. Hell, I have made memes just for a dozen people who participated in a specific academic discussion. But it amazes me how people who don't get a joke are often most compelled to comment and let me know that it isn't funny. How can you know if you don't understand it? Is it so hard to imagine that things exist for which you are not the intended audience?
It's perfectly okay to comment and say you don't understand, and ask for an explanation. But if you look at something and think "I don't understand this, therefore it lacks value" you may have some growing up to do.
Before reblogging someone else's joke to add to the joke, stop and ask yourself whether your intention is to correct or improve upon the joke, or if you are attempting to laugh along WITH the OP.
We've all done this, I'm sure. I know I have. But it really inconsiderate to hijack someone's meme, meta or artwork with a completely unrelated discussion. I can't tell you how annoying it is to post something and check my inbox days later, only to find pages of notifications of people reblogging my shit over and over as part of some completely unrelated discussion.
Once again, if you're commenting to point out a factual error, ask yourself whether the error was intentional. I recently made a meme about the Star Trek films in which Data uses contractions. All of his dialogue is ridiculously out of character, in fact. Which is kind of part of the joke. But someone felt the need to reblog AND comment to let me know that Data wouldn't say that because he doesn't use contractions. Which I already know. Because, well, I’ve been a ST:TNG fan since the day it first aired on TV. I don't even know what to do with a comment that, to be honest. I kind of feel sorry for the other person for not grasping the joke.
So, how DO you compliment someone whose work you enjoy? Imagine yourself speaking to them in person. Imagine that they are emotionally invested in whatever they have created. Consider your objective. Are you expressing appreciation? Or is there something else going on.
And avoid qualifiers.
When a compliment includes words like "if" or "but" then it's probably not a compliment. You would be so pretty IF you lost some weight is not a compliment.
Choose words that are unlikely to be misinterpreted.
If someone's art or writing IS improving and you really want them to know, a good way to do that is to use the word evolving. Wow, I really like the way your art is evolving. This works because it implies that the art is changing over time, as the individual grows as a person.
I know what some of you might be thinking...ugh...it's like you can't say ANYTHING anymore! Aww...boo hoo, fam. As a person on the spectrum, I’ve spent my entire life dancing around other people’s feelings, navigating neurotypical subtext and struggling to say things without offending anyone. This is a cake walk compared to that. And I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but if actually thinking about how other people feel BEFORE you share your opinion would require a great deal of effort on your part, it's possible that you're just an asshole.
TL;DR
Creators of original content are actual human beings with feelings. Don’t offer them unsolicited advice or criticism. Think before you comment.
#I know this is long and no one is putting a gun to your head and making you read it#these are just my views#backhanded compliments#unsolicited opinions#unsolicited advice#how to comment without being an asshole#theory of mind#unwanted critique#critiquing#commenting on fanfic#fanfic comments#I have autism if I can be tactful then so can you
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I’ve seen people say that while they admit that there are romantic feelings on both sides for JB, they don’t think they’ll ever be together romantically or sexually. Someone said that their relationship is about honour and duty and that Jaime will probably knight Brienne and then return to Cersei (they specified, ‘but as an enemy’). Another said that they prefer for Jaime to be alone if he survives this ordeal bc he needs to heal from his toxic relationship. Can you counter this? :(
Of course I can because that argument completely ignores the point/message of Brienne’s character lol. You cannot read her chapters and come away with that take, unless you truly are dense af.
I’m going to be linking to some of Chicky’s “organized rants.”
Jaime and Brienne is a love story. (
Their individual character arcs involve honor and duty but there’s also a huge emphasis on love. I don’t know why anti arguments act as if the author is writing just one theme. I would say, “this isn’t a YA series” but even YA novels have more complexity than what people reduce Martin’s writing to.
I mean… love is a central theme to both of their characters. They are both ultimately driven by love, and they both have parallel arcs that juggle the relationship between love and honor, exploring how they relate and interfere. I’m not going to go into much detail though, because it has been done a million times, but I’ll speak a bit about the love aspect.
Brienne felt unworthy of being a lady because of the mockery she endured as a woman. So, after falling in love with Renly and “the bitter tears she shed the night her king wed Margaery Tyrell,” she left Tarth to be a knight in his KG, because that was the only way she could marry him. Brienne doesn’t reject being a lady because she hates the idea of it, she ran away because she felt she couldn’t be one. She wasn’t willing to settle for some dumbass who treats her like dirt, so she clung to her more masculine traits and used them to get ahead and be beside a man who treated her with respect and kindness. She was… literally introduced to the readers (and viewers of the show) on a romantic rejection plot line……………
And yet, when Renly cut away her torn cloak and fastened a rainbow in its place, Brienne of Tarth did not look unfortunate. Her smile lit up her face, and her voice was strong and proud as she said, “My life for yours, Your Grace. From this day on, I am your shield, I swear it by the old gods and the new.” The way she looked at the king—looked down at him, she was a good hand higher, though Renly was near as tall as his brother had been—was painful to see.- ACOK
Brienne was on her feet as well. “Your Grace, give me but a moment to don my mail. You should not be without protection.” King Renly smiled. “If I am not safe in the heart of Lord Caswell’s castle, with my own host around me, one sword will make no matter … not even your sword, Brienne. Sit and eat. If I have need of you, I’ll send for you.” His words seemed to strike the girl harder than any blow she had taken that afternoon. “As you will, Your Grace.” Brienne sat, eyes downcast.- ACOK
Brienne dropped to her knees. “If I must part from Your Grace, grant me the honor of arming you for battle.” Catelyn heard someone snigger behind her. She loves him, poor thing, she thought sadly. She’d play his squire just to touch him, and never care how great a fool they think her. - ACOK
Like Brienne, Jaime left his role as heir out of love, to have a chance to be by Cersei’s side as a member of Robert’s KG. Do I even need to go into Jaime being a serious romantic and love being at his core?
I will quote this tweet from @usefulspinster every time this is brought up because it honestly can’t be put any better.
“GRRM has a character for who love has been a cruel joke and one that takes love very seriously and pointed them at eachother. If you don’t understand how that’ll play out, I can’t help you.”
And I’m going to say this for the millionth time:
GRRM literally said his intent with their relationship was to take the traditional format of Beauty and the Beast (A ROMANCE) and switch the roles and genders.
“But he is subverting it by making it platonic”
Except… no… because MAKING BATB PLATONIC DEFEATS THE ENTIRE FUCKING POINT. He is subverting it by switching the roles and genders, something that is never explored with this tale. THAT’S subversion. He isn’t changing the theme and message of the tale. FFS, subverting doesn’t mean changing the entire core.
BatB as platonic DOESN’T WORK. The core of the tale is about being ROMANTICALLY DESIRED AND TRULY LOVED despite your appearance. Not, “you can make a good friend even if your’e ugly! :D” because uh… when they do form a relationship with someone, they often remain as just friends anyway because of their appearance???? lmfao fuck.
Brienne’s problem isn’t focused on making friends. She had her father, Catelyn, Pod, even to an extent Hyle. They didn’t look at her and scream and run away, never being friendly. In her POV she isn’t sitting there reflecting on how she is so friendless and all she wants is a bff. You know what’s constantly repeated over and over again in her chapters? Her romantic undesirability because of how ugly she is. Oh wow that sounds kinda like… I DUNNO?! THE CORE OF BATB?
(Not only that but one of GRRM’s is actually a romantic and one of his favorite fantasies is BatB. He even had a television called BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and he was angry that he had to kill off the woman because it ruined his romance story.)
Anyone who has read her chapters, and isn’t lying about reading them, can see that she’s head over heels in love with Jaime.
Now, read the bet and tell me romance isn’t a part of her arc.
“yet now…”
We’re hit over the head with it so often that it’s impossible to miss.
People who don’t see the romance arc are either a) choosing not see it because it ruins their headcanons or ships or b) Brienne isn’t the typical character to have a romance arc that’s serious and isn’t there for comedic relief. She’s ugly and a female warrior and people are conditioned to see those types of characters as either love-less out of choice, or having romance not even come up for them. It also plays into the whole “love weakens a strong female character” bullshit, and they don’t even realize that’s what’s happening because for most people it’s unconscious.
The seeds for the Jaime and Brienne relationship trajectory are found in both of their POV chapters, but at least half of the JB relationship is explored through Brienne’s chapters. The laughable out-of-context meta you see is from antis who have other motives, have lied about reading her POVs carefully because boring, and some even admitted to not reading Brienne’s POVs at all.
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Special 6: Thoughts
Wow isn't this nice a new episode comes out just days after I actually start posting my own content again
Anyways, I found the special to be lots of fun and very interesting. This is going to be 100% TTS meta ramblings and this half is largely Magnus-focused with some mentions of Emps by symbolism and parallels.
So the first thing I notice is that Magnus didn’t want to be the DM- he wanted to play the game. Which seems like it was a semi-smart move- while half of the adventure going south was due to the player’s shenanigans, Magnus also failed to adapt as a DM to what the players want. I’ve been in a lot of DnD games, and let me tell you not all games are actually about creating a story. Sometimes it’s more fun to have mercenaries run around creating all the chaos they can, sometimes the group just wants to kill things. The only thing that has to happen is the entire group and the DM have to want the same type of fun from the game. Ironically, Magnus and Decius are the only two who want a story-focused game, and Magnus winds up killing Decius’ character because it doesn’t mesh with the rest of the group. Killing a character whose player refuses to fit with the group is a valid tactic for a DM to make the player shape up or get out- but it’s ironic when Magnus has the same issue as Decius.
Any tabletop game ALWAYS works best if the DM can roll with what the players want. If players want story, that’s fine, the DM should focus the game on the story. Sometimes players even want to be railroaded (though ironically in this case, I notice that Magnus actually wasn't railroading until the end- he let them do what they wanted and even tried to roll with the punches at first). But when the DM wants one thing and the players want another, you create problems. The group will almost always come together before the DM does, so the DM HAS to be adaptable. Magnus has all the skills a good DM needs except that adaptability and that willingness to sacrifice his goals in the game for the player’s goals.
Magnus has an Idea of what he wants to happen and struggles to let that Idea go. Even when it’s a vague idea such as ‘create a narrative’ he’s too focused on it. Magnus shows that early on he tries to respect the player’s decisions by throwing new enemies and encounters their way when they mess up his plans (trust me I have seen railroading, and the first half was not railroading). But by the end Magnus is too stressed and he shows that deep down, his faith in the players is false and he just can’t believe they’re able to take care of themselves. Then Whammudes of all people states a powerful truth- that their mistakes and their choices are theirs, and thus have meaning and value to them.
And that’s the biggest screw-up any DM can make. If you want to play well, you NEED to trust your players as a whole. Because letting the players be creative and make their own choices is a TREMENDOUS part of the fun in a tabletop game! Taking that away is where the DM becomes an author, not a DM! One of the greatest narrative advantages to DnD is that the players can surprise the DM- it’s a good thing when the unexpected happens! Because now you have to roll with it, and make something new and fun that the DM couldn’t have thought up on their own! There is inherent value in the unexpected results of player decisions- just as there is inherent value in the unexpected actions any human, no matter how powerful, can take.
If Magnus were a better GM, he could’ve salvaged the game early on. The first time things messed up, when the starting NPC died, it wasn’t really anyone’s fault but the dice. He even provided the murder-happy party with new targets to murder. If he’d been a better GM, his role would’ve been to let them follow their goals and create their narrative from there- for example, instead of having the party instantly captured he could’ve had them stumble upon an Ogre village and given them a chance to attack it. The story is now being dictated by the players- kill 1000 Ogres- but it’s a story that can be engaging for all of them.
The role of a GM, as “god” of the game-world, is not to dictate the players or even really to create the world itself (seriously I’ve had games where we wound up re-shaping our entire world from cyberpunk slums to inter-galactic empire). The GM’s role is to support the players in their decisions. If they want to slaughter indiscriminately, provide challenge and trials, but make it all possible and reward them for doing so- because indiscriminate slaughter has become the new goal of the game! If they want a story, provide the trappings of one. If they face a monster they cannot beat- let them find a way out. A second time Magnus could’ve been a good DM when he failed, was by rewarding Emps’ clever plot by having Custodisi knocked out in the fall, letting the party think he was dead and letting this mission be a success.
What I’m trying to get at is that Magnus’ failures as a DM reflect his father’s failures as the leader of mankind. @coaxionunlimited has a really really good post on this, but the basics of it is that the Emperor fails to be a good father and a good leader because he’s too focused on control and not focused enough on guidance and trust. Which, yeah- my entire ramble here is basically how Magnus reflects that as a DM. If the parallels are intentional in the special, then it makes the fact that Magnus originally wanted to be a player a whole aspect of character development for Emps right there we’ve never seen before. Although it might have interesting implications for the basis behind Emps’ “I am a man not a god” thing- and perhaps some implications that Emps really did feel pressed into the role of galaxy-conqueror.
#if the emperor had a text to speech device#tts meta#magnus the red#character analysis#tts#the inherent value of human autonomy#DnD#tabletop gaming#Good DMing#Bad DMing#waxing philosophy
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