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musette22 · 3 years

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Hi Minnie! Hope you can help me settle an argument my brother and I are having about EG!Steve. I'd love to hear your thoughts about this with shipping goggles off, looking at it purely in terms of characterization, narrative, and good writing. Better hang on though, it's going to be a long ask! (sorry in advance for spamming you!) 1/7

So my brother and I were watching FatWS and once again got into a debate about whether Steve's last actions were a disservice or in line with his characterization and narrative, given that the Russos confirmed (and therefore it's Word of God/canon, even if it did sound reactionary to the immediate backlash after EG) that Steve created an alternate reality when he went back, and didn't just live in hiding in the past of the OG timeline. 2/7

Because of this, my bro argued that: 1) the total character assassination that is the idea of Steve just sitting back and letting all the shit happen happen is no longer a problem - for all we know, the alternate reality oldman!Steve came from might have become utopic already due to his presence and foresight. He played coy when talking to Sam so we don't know for certain he didn't save Bucky, get rid of Hydra, and enact social reform when he had the chance. 3/7

Likewise, 2) the accusation that Steve would rob Peggy of her husband and children is a non-issue as Steve went back to a time before Peggy and Daniel got together - I argued here that it was still wrong for him to do given that he KNEW for a fact that Peggy lived a happy life, whereas it was a gamble if he could give her the same. My bro shot back when you truly loved someone, you want them to be happy and to have what's best for them. 4/7

So if Steve chose to go back to Peggy, he had to have believed that he could give her the best life. That Steve based that decision purely on his own assessment is pretty in character (e.g. pushing to become a soldier because he thought that was how he could do his part, even though at the time, he'd have just been a danger to himself and other soldiers; not signing the Accords because he believed in his team's judgment in crises above gov't oversight that might be influenced by politics). 5/7

And lastly 3) he might have settled into the past and started to move on, but what was wrong with him choosing to be selfish and going to the past when given a chance? Why was it wrong for him to go back to a time he knew, where he was beloved by both Peggy and the public, and when he could also save Bucky early? In terms of character growth, wouldn't it be fair for him to finally learn he could be a bit selfish and choose happiness, after a lifetime of nearly suicidal selflessness? 6/7

Our debate was based on confirmed canon with shipping put aside. So I put forth the sin of leaving a traumatized Bucky, Sam, and world behind, that Steve's actions were surely the result of a man broken by grief again and again, and that choosing the past was him running away - which, I argued, was a horrible way to end his character arc. But my brother asked me why I thought so, because wasn't this the so-called 'soft epilogue' that Steve deserved, one that was most in line with canon? 7/7

***************

Hey love! Very interesting argument you and your brother are having here… I’m sure he’s a great guy but I have to say that I vehemently disagree with him (as you probably already guessed lol). Soooo many people have done an excellent job at explaining why, shipping aside, Steve’s ending in EG was absolute bollocks, and I’m certain I could never argue this case as well as all of them have. Nevertheless, I’ll do my best to explain why, in my opinion, your brother is wrong :p I’m going to put my reply under the keep reading tag, because it is long.

1. The Russos and Markus & McFeely (the writers) never managed to agree on whether Steve really did go back to an alternate timeline, and if so, how that would have worked, exactly. When they were asked, after EG had been released, about whether Steve would have just sat back and let everything he knew was happening/going to happen in the decades to come, both to Bucky and to the world at large, they came up with this ‘alternate timeline’ solution, but they kept contradicting each other on the logistics and technicalities of it (like how would old man Steve suddenly be able to jump timelines to come back to give Sam the shield in EG? And how did EG Steve attend Peggy’s funeral, like they also suggested, which would technically have been in a different timeline?). Which makes it pretty clear that this wasn’t something they’d considered beforehand or even all agree on afterwards, and therefore it can’t technically allowed to play a role in judging the rightness of Steve’s ending in EG if we’re looking at it from a ‘the creator’s word is law’ perspective. Moreover, there is nothing to indicate in EG itself that Steve knew he’d be able to create alternate timelines, so that would’ve been a crazy gamble on his part. Also, him ‘playing coy’ in that final scene with Sam really isn’t a convincing indication that he was actually, canonically, talking about anything besides marrying Peggy.

2. Which bring us to point two: Peggy had literally told Steve she’d lived a happy life with her family, and told him in no uncertain terms to move on. If Steve really loved her, he would have accepted her wishes and allowed her the dignity of her choice (something Peggy herself, in CA:TFA, had told Steve was important to do when you care about someone) to move on from him once she believed him dead. Steve deciding that he would be better for Peggy because he believed was a better man than the person she ended up marrying originally would be the most un-like Steve thing to do, ever. Steve has never once shown that he thinks of himself as the hero or better than other people – he simply wants to do the best he can to help make the world a better place. He would never say “Peggy deserves the best and I believe I am the best, therefore she will have me, regardless of what she thinks or wants.” Steve drinks respect women juice, that’s clear from all of his movies, and deciding the course of her entire life for her, taking away her agency, whether in his own timeline or another, would be utterly disrespectful to Peggy.

3. As for the next point: of course there’s nothing wrong with Steve being selfish for once – Steve is human, and all humans are selfish sometimes, and that’s okay. But, as Chris Evans already explained multiple times prior to Endgame, Steve had already made selfish decisions in the past, namely when it came to getting Bucky back and keeping him safe. Shipping aside, Bucky was presented in all the Cap movies as Steve’s very best friend, and was even called his ‘soulmate’ (platonically or otherwise) by M&M (the writers). So when, in Civil War, Steve was presented with a choice between duty/what was expected of him by the government versus saving Bucky/keeping Bucky safe, Steve was selfish and chose Bucky. That, canonically, made sense. Peggy being presented as the ultimate love of Steve’s life, who he loved and valued more than anyone or anything else in the world (which is what happened in EG), canonically does not make sense.

In CA:TWS, Peggy told Steve to move on. When Peggy died, Steve buried her and mourned her, and then not long after, he canonically kissed Peggy’s niece. Then, in Infinity War, Steve saw Bucky turn to dust before his very eyes in the “Blip” (a conscious decision on the writers’/directors’ part to show how Steve once again lost what was most important to him while helplessly standing by) – and the next thing we know, Steve is leading a support group for other people who lost loved ones in the Blip, and starts talking about losing… Peggy? Huh. Also, Steve going back to a time which your brother calls “a time when he was beloved the public” doesn’t add up, either: technically, Steve went back to a time where people loved an idea of him, but also believed him to be dead. So either he would have had to have found a way to convincingly stage his own resurrection (meanwhile possibly leaving the other version to vegetate in the ice..? depending on how this timeline malarkey was supposed to work), or he would have lived his whole life hidden behind some fake persona – which does not sound like Steve at all, does it?

4. Finally, let’s talk about Bucky some more, because I think we need to to be able to assess the situation properly. I understand that your brother may believe that shippers are often delusional and only see what they want to see etc, but there is ample evidence, canonically, of Bucky being the most important person in Steve’s life – the person he would give up the shield for, the person he would give up his other friendships for, the person he would give up his life for. Peggy may have been a recurring character in character in the three Cap movies, but she was never presented as the principal motivator of his actions, or as the love of Steve’s life. You know who was? Bucky. Sure, that love wasn’t canonically romantic in nature, but there can’t be any doubt that Bucky meant more than anything to Steve. Therefore, Steve choosing to have a ‘soft epilogue’ that entails him spending the rest of his life without Bucky – and, more importantly, Bucky to spend the rest of his life without Steve – contradicts everything we’ve learned about their relationship (platonic or otherwise) in the rest of the movies, does it not?

Also, the Russos have said something to the effect that Bucky and Steve were now both mentally ‘well enough’ to not ‘need’ each other anymore (because as we all know, that’s exactly how friendships work…), but it’s pretty clear from EG that Steve was still traumatized by everything he’d been through, and going back to the 50s would have meant he would never be able to get proper help with that and in fact could only talk about any of it with Peggy and Peggy alone. Moreover, M&M have literally said in interviews that Bucky wasn’t all that well yet, mentally, and TFAWTS also shows convincingly that Bucky was not actually in a good place when Steve left him. So that would have meant that Steve either did not see this (unlikely, given how close they were) or did not care (unlikely, given how close they were).

It would have meant that for the first time in all these movies, Steve decided “to hell with Bucky’s needs, I’m gonna just be selfish because I’ve earned it and claim my trophy wife because actually I am the best man for her, despite the fact that she’s already lived a happy life that I will be negating against her wishes, but that’s fine because maybe I’ll be able to create a different timeline, and maybe I’ll be able to save Bucky from all his trauma anyway, but then again maybe not, but that brings me back to my first point of to hell with Bucky’s needs” - which does not make a lot of sense to me, personally. Not to mention that, in exchange for his ‘soft epilogue’, Steve would also leave the world to sort out the post-Blip mess without him, and leave all the other friends he still had left and clearly cared about a lot to boot. I would not call that character growth, I would call that character disintegration. If your brother insists on taking the creator’s word as gospel and that we have to accept that Steve really did do what he did at the end of Endgame, and that wasn’t just a case of bad, lazy writing fuelled by greed, then to make a decision like this, Steve would have been either an asshole in disguise all along, or mentally extremely unstable.

There you have it, my two cents! I hope this helps a little in settling the argument with your brother, anon! Lots of love ❤️

#anti endgame #steve rogers #minnie answers #Anonymous

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general-du-vallon · 3 years

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I find it really bizarre how there are multiple story-lines in the BBC Musketeres about slavery where the slavers are treated sympathetically. By which I don't mean that all slavers should be inhuman, because people who were part of the slave-trade were human and were like us (I'm white), we have to see ourselves in them, I think it's really important that we see ourselves in them and see ourselves as part of that history. So having Bonnaire who is charming, likeable, interesting, entertaining character who I like and then am horrified at myself for liking, that's great, that does something interesting with the narrative of 'slave traders are all evil and souless' and reminds us that, no, slavers are us, we can still easily perpetuate those sorts of systems.

(racism and slave-trade content warnings, as you'd imagine)

This is long, so basically it'll be - Bonnaire and the season one episode, Pierre Pepin and the season two episode, and then a little bit on Bonnaire's return in season three.

I haven't rewatched for this random splurge of thoughts, but I think the Bonnaire episode in season one is an okay arc. I could probably say something about how I think it's not necessarily bad, but definitely worth interogating the ways the writers give the majority of the story and character beats about slavery to the mixed-race Porthos character. But really what I think needs interogating is two things.

First, the way the episode tries to balance this heavy subject with Athos's history, which is more important to the series-long arc. It ends up (accidentally?) drawing uncomfortable parallels.

There isn't really a good way to compare or contrast a white man's guilt and grief over his (white) wife who was executed (by him). There's never a graceful way to push aside generational trauma from the ongoing slave-trade, or a black man's grief over discovering a man he looked up to is a slaver. Especially not when you're trying to juggle staging that grief and trauma with the white characters' trauma and grief, and most especially when it's the white stuff that turns out to be the main narrative drive of the series and the rest just gets put aside not to be brought up again. It's just bad. There's a lot more to say and think about, but that's a starting point.

Secondly, Paul Munier. Paul fucking Munier. Guys! He's part of the slave-trade too! framing him as an honest merchant is fucked up. He's not the good guy. We can't go 'okay so Bonnaire is bad, but the things he has got through the slave trade, those belong to Paul Munier, who bought them, and is honest and good'. The slave-trade was a triangle - you go to Africa and you kidnap and enslave hundreds of human beings, you take them on ships to America and plantations, you force them to produce sugar-cane and rum (rum is what Bonnaire is drinking on that wagon, when he's telling Porthos dreamy stories). Sugar and rum, those are like, bywords for 'slave-trade'. And then you sell those comoddities and you buy whatever the fuck you want to sell to fuckers like Paul Munier and bring it back to France, and then you go to Africa again. Paul Munier is part of the slave trade. He might not buy and sell human beings, but he supports and props up Bonnaire, and he benefits from the slave-trade.

He might be a good guy, I dunno. I odn't think it's a black and white issue of he's a merchant therefore he's the bad guy. But I think it's worth interogating and thinking about who gets to be innocent in this story.

I know Bonnaire comes back in series three but I'm ignoring that for this second. The other narrative around slavery I think about is actually the one in season two, where the king and d'Artagnan are kidnapped by slavers. Sigh. What are we going to do about this one, huh? there is a lot. I'm gonna put aside the whole 'white slaves' thing because I don't know what to do with that. It took me a few times watching this show to realise 'oh, right, yeah, Milady is a slaver'. Between series one and series two, she made money by selling humans. I know she's moraly ambiguous but I think that gets brushed aside and reframed very quickly. I don't think any of these characters are really framed as slavers. I forget their names, I think Stephen something? The brother who gets gutted by Rochefort in the palace. Yeah, he's a slaver too.

Other than the writers quickly forgetting that these characters are committing attrocities (it's not THE slave trade, so it is different, which I guess might be where the white slavers thing comes in, which is still, no, I still don't know what to do with that). I think the main issue with this narrative arc is what you'd expect the issue to be - the black character. Pierre Pepin.

Where do we begin with that? That was just a lot of bullshit. Pierrre Pepin is a black man in shackles,which is always a questionable choice when you're thinking what to put on TV to be honest. Especially when you then go about killing the him, and wow do you ever want to have second thoughts about having him die for the white royal. That's just not good. I don't like that he's against the king's systematic opession based on class and race, then he does a little turnaround when he meets the king. I guess the 'becomes a royalist when he sees that the white dude is nice' is necessary for the 'willing to die for his king' thing. I'm gonna go with a big nope for all of this.

There's a slave-narrative in each of the three seasons; there's Bonnaire, then there's Pierre Pepin's story, and then Bonnaire returns. He might not be a slaver anymore in season three, but the episode deals with Porthos's reaction to him, so it becomes that - the damage he did is not erased by him being quirky and funny. Again, the very real generational trauma that the slave-trade still inflicts is pushed aside for another character's past and current grief. I know Santiago Cabrera is Chilean and is brown, I'm not saying he should be pushes aside either. Just noting that in each episode Porthos's grief is set up in competition to another character's grief, and it's interesting I think that it's one of the other's backstories in each case. I don't have a conclusion about that, I'm just observing I guess. Anyway, each season has these slave-narratives, I think it'd be interesting to pull these out more and think about the ways the slave-trade is referenced and written about in the series, and why it's done in these ways.

I said it was bizzare how these narratives treat the characters who are perpetuating and benefiting from the slave trade, as well as the characters who are explicitly slavers. I also think it's definitley a choice to shove in multiple storylines about white people, in these narratives. Again, I know the Santiago Cabrera isn't white, but whatever Aramis's friend in that episode is called, is.There is the scene in that episode where Constance (a white woman) has a go at Porthos for the way he stitches Bonnaire, and Bonnaire is largely treated sympathetically in that episode. The characters on the periphery of the slave-trade are barely acknowledged as such, and characters like Milady and Stephen Mautrim (name is off the top of my head I'm not sure) are pretty much absolved of that, and I think we mostly just forget that part of Milady's story. And Pierre Pepin. God, I still don't really know where to start with his story.

I think it's worth thinking about these narratives and interogating this, because the slave-trade was a real historical event and a real trauma that still has impact today. The way we write about and consume stories about it is important. It's also important to remember that Porthos's mother was written as a freed woman because Alexandre Dumas's grandmother was a freed woman. It's a very real and very close history that's being used for these narratives, and it's heavy, you know? You've got to give it space to be heavy. It's a heavy part of this fandom, too, because it's not just something that's in the show, it's something that's in our fandom spaces. The racism and white-supremacy that makes these narratives what they are is part of our fandom.

so... those are my random thoughts on that .

#i haven't edited this #bbc musketeers #the musketeers #meta #racism #slavery

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adrunkgiraffe · 3 years

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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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pennhursts · 4 years

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The Arc of Jane “El” Ives/Hopper/Byers

This post will detail her specific character, and why I think her story will end on a bittersweet (heavy on the bitter) note.

But let me make it clear, and say that this is in no way what “will” happen in the next season(s) of stranger things. I’m not a writer on the show, and I can’t say with any certainty that this is “confirmed” or what have you. This is purely my own speculation from a narrative standpoint, and if it isn't to your taste, that's cool, because my take doesn't matter too much.

Oh, El.

Beyond her minimal arc in season one, where her narrative purpose was to show the very serious effects of abuse and manipulation on the part of Brenner, as well as her opening of the gate, her multi-season development has been heading in a very specific, obvious place. Self-actualization and becoming her own person, separate from the lab.

I think a lot of casual watchers came away from season 3 with sort of a “okay,, what now?” type of attitude, and I can’t say that I blame them. Both in season two and three she’s been given the journey of self discovery (with Kali, then Max) and while both carry their own emotional weight, they don’t seem to be held up as important plot lines in comparison to others, such as Max opening up emotionally, and Steve Harrington’s entire season 2 redemption being especially apt examples. As the audience, we are told that El is coming into her own, multiple times, but we are never actually shown long-lasting effects of this, instead opting for one-off easter egg references and her many, many wardrobe changes (which I adore, by the way).

In season one, Dustin, Mike, and Lucas’s stories are all somewhat the same; finding Will and accepting El as their friend. But when you look at season two, everyone has their own different, independent directions to go in. Especially if you focus on every other party member. Dustin & Lucas’s arc’s revolve around love; for Lucas in specific, becoming a more emotionally open, compassionate person. This is vital to his development and subsequent relationship with Max. And as for Dustin, well, he learns that Steve ain’t shit with women, but he gains a valuable relationship in him, even though he doesn’t ‘get the girl’. Will struggles (per usual), primarily with the trials and tribulations of possession-- along with his PTSD. Mike, time and time again shows symptoms of major depression and separation anxiety, his feelings for El having become nearly codependent. Max’s story lies in her horrible family life & opening up, the latter being something her and Lucas share in common. And El’s.... is focused on self acceptance, “who” she is; her familial history. And it was done again in s3. She’s shown who she can be by Max, but she’s still defined by her powers, and by extension her life in Hawkins Lab. I am of the belief that the Upside Down will take a backseat in Season Four, so that the human villains of Dr. Brenner and MKultra can really shine. Brenner was hinted at having survived the demogorgon for a reason, and I’m excited to see where it’ll go, and how it will affect El as a character.

Listen. It would be entirely amiss to not reference her on-again off-again boyfriend, Mike Wheeler. The short version of my thoughts on their relationship (in relation to her arc) is... it isn't meant to last. The long version is that all the charm that their childhood love held fully disappeared come season 2. I'm not saying this because I hate El or Mike, or because I prefer Mike with Will. I side eye their specific relationship because if the Duffer Brothers Incorporated™️ love anything, it’s a slow burn. I won’t get too into it in this post, but seeing as Jopper, Jancy, and even Lumax all had romantic “rivals” in their way,, the fact that Mileven just.... doesn’t? Well, it makes me suspicious. The “endgame” romantic relationships on the show are always flawed in ways that are fixable and realistic, fixed through personal development and communication. But Mike and El haven’t been on the same page since season 1, and if my speculation does end up holding some water, they won’t be seeing eye-to-eye dating wise until they’re broken up for good. Anyways, on with the meta. Sorry for that very long side-bar.

It’s not rare to read people clamoring for El to do a myriad of things to truly “become her own person”, like breaking up with Mike for good and sticking with Max, or staying with Mike and not being Max’s friend anymore, etc.

(it’s funny how all of these have really nothing to do with El as a human being, just a participant in a relationship. makes you think, huh?)

I see people wanting her to develop *more*, and while it’s a valid want, I don’t see it happening the way people expect. The duffers aren't trying to flesh her out at all, as I don’t think she was never meant to be the character of a young girl. Rather, she was meant to be a tragic example of parental abuse and science going too far, her story ending with her death at the end of season one. This initial story is a *tragic* one, which is why I think she's doomed (I have a very strong gut feeling that the series finale will *heavily* mirror season one’s, though my proof is non-existent. just a feeling) Her arc, sad as it is, might be that she never will get to be a normal child, or not for as long as she should. And that's really sad... but also very complex writing which I appreciate.

Here’s where things get sad. In the end, while she may come fully into her own, neither powers or abuse victim defining her, I feel her resolved arc will be short-lived. I think El, ultimately, will end up repeating history. Her fatal flaw of caring too much for the people around her will truly be fatal, and so I think she will ultimately sacrifice herself so that Hawkins will finally be rid of the Upside Down, for good.

Which is exactly the type of heartbreaking thing that I could see them (the writers) doing.

But who knows, maybe they’ll do what they did in season one and hint that she’s not gone after all. Or I'm completely wrong and she’ll live through the finale. Either way, thanks for reading :)

#stranger things meta #stranger things speculation #meta #el hopper meta #jane ives #jane el hopper #el byers #eleven #st4 #stranger things #stranger things theory

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sometimesrosy · 5 years

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I have a feeling that Jason is going to wait until the very last episode of the series to let bellarke kiss. He’s such a troll lol

I don’t have that feeling. Your feeling comes, I think, from social media and interviews. I have always been more focused on story than on getting clues from the creators. I depend on my own ability to break down a story. I think that a lot of JR’s social media and even interviews are designed to keep the “will they/won’t they” of Bellarke going. He doesn’t want people to be sure. Because the will they/won’t they builds romantic tension. HOWEVER.

That’s not how the story is going. He’s writing an epic romance that has mythic weight behind it, which is the OPPOSITE of a will they/won’t they story. An EPIC story, where they always come together, where they are soulmates, where their love persists past space (literal) time (literal) and death (literal) is ANYTHING but uncertain. Also, JR’s social media presence is not really as anti-bellarke as fandom makes it out to be. He says one questionable thing per season, it seems, and the fandom blows it all out of proportion to erase all the narrative development on screen, and I just don’t have the patience for that. Fandom wants 100% bellarke certainty, and JR does not want to give that. All he has to do is say “misinterpreted” and he doesn’t even have to say WHAT he thinks is misinterpreted or who is doing the misinterpretation, all of a sudden the ENTIRE fandom thinks he’s saying Bellarke isn’t romantic.... which he didn’t. He can just HINT at a thing, and the fandom FLIPS THE FUCK OUT. It’s exhausting, frankly.

And it doesn’t fit the story on screen. I don’t know why fandom thinks one line in an interview takes precedence over one SERIOUSLY bellarke centered season. Do we forget that he designed the season?

He developed a romance story in seasons 5 and 6 that made the ENTIRE show about Bellarke. Not just them getting together to save their people, but season 5 had Bellamy needing to save Clarke, to get her back in order to save HIMSELF. And Clarke needed to save Bellamy, even if it meant “letting him go” to save HERSELF. They were necessary TO EACH OTHER, not just the team, not just the battle. Self.

Now in season 5, this is part of the main plot, but the conflict was still external. Still Diyoza, Octavia, Worms,

In season 6, he got even closer to it. Clarke and Bellamy were back together, as soul mates and partners, alas there was a romance between them, keeping them apart, canon girlfriend and then who is this asshole with Clarke?? Jealousy, ah. And yet, they both let each other go as romantic figures in order to be with each other as partners and soulmates... until... until....until Clarke is killed. Then the rest of the story just fades away. Clarke feels like giving everything up, Bellamy is happy, he has a family and a home now and he’ll take care of Madi. She did her job she can let go until Monty snaps her out of it, and then she reaches out to... BELLAMY! Who until he found out she was alive wa ready to give up, too. They’re safe, he won’t fight anymore. He would keep going for his family. But once he finds out Clarke is alive.

Boom. The story THE STORY the main story is now about Bellamy saving Clarke. The CONFLICT was Josephine wanting Clarke’s body. While the rest of Earthkru struggled with the moral complications of these body snatchers and what it meant to be complicit with that system, Bellamy was focused on one thing. Clarke’s BODY. And putting Clarke’s mind back in it. He left his people behind to save who he could save, who he NEEDED to save.

This is not a misinterpretation, it’s canon. He trusted them to take care of themselves and Echo to protect them, and he would save Clarke. A choice was made. Bellamy chose Clarke.

I get why JR would want to put confusion there. Because Bellamy made the canon choice, and Echo supported it. “Go save Clarke” she said. That also was controversial, because JR said it made Echo a hero. And we were all like, huh? How? Or how more so than anyone else? (and if that choice made her a hero in the narrative, then why were all her heroic plans utter failures. she was supposed to save Murphy from being killed and instead, murphy and raven and abby saved themselves and Echo was captured, and given nightblood and nearly turned into Simone. She escaped that with Gaia and Miller, but even so, was just in hiding until she could get back with the ACTUAL heroes of the show. Clarke (suddenly they could get he barrier down) and Bellamy (suddenly they could defeat the sanctumites.) Saying she’s a hero outside of the story doesn’t change that, while she is a warrior and even sometimes a leader, she doesn’t do a very good job of protecting, saving, or winning.

If you follow only Echo’s narrative arc, she’s a dangerous warrior with a dark past that she struggles with and a yearning to be free, but a desire to belong and be valued. She wants to be independent and strong, but is held back by the kings and queens who have claimed her for their subject. I think it’s a feminist story of identity and empowerment, and she might be the hero in her own story, but she’s not in this one, and if letting Bellamy go save Clarke makes her a hero... then that’s because she’s letting go of the man she loves, the way Clarke let him go in season 5, so that he may be with the one he loves. It would make the heroic arc of her personal story letting go of the belonging that she found with spacekru to face herself, to be independent and to BE herself. BUT that’s not total canon yet, just me defining her personal narrative arc that I see developing, so saying Echo is a hero is EXTREMELY ambiguous.

Does it mean she’s the new romantic lead? No. She’s not that kind of a hero. In fact, her story isnt a romance story at all. It’s an individuation story, a woman finding her identity and breaking free. If she were the hero of a romance story with Bellay then Bellamy should have been more concerned with her while he was off saving Clarke, and their reunion should have been more romantic and less relieved family. Sorry. That’s just how it is, because that’s how romantic stories are told.

In fact, if B/E was the romantic story, when they reunited they should have run into each other’s arms with light flares representing the emotional intensity, and shared their deepest fears and sorrows about what happened while they were separated, and the camera should have focused on their faces so we the audience could see their emotional connection. THAT would be how we would be shown a romantic story between Bellamy and Clarke oops Bellamy and Echo. But we weren’t. Bellamy hugged Echo and then looked at Clarke and the close up reaction we saw was CLARKE’S. Remember, close ups are how the filmmakers tell us to pay attention to a character’s emotions.

B/E was a canon relationship in seasons 5 and 6 but it was NOT a story. It put obstacles in the way of Bellarke and the Blakes in s5 but really, season 5 was about Bellamy getting Clarke (and Octavia back) and about becoming the hero that he is meant to be, the leader. It was about Clarke rejoining Bellamy and her people and still feeling on the outside, which, to be honest, is not just from 6 years alone but ALSO from everything that happened on the ground. Season 2 on had her isolated from her people again and again.

The only person she felt close to was Bellamy, and her 2199 calls proved that. She couldn’t reach him but she kept calling. She didn’t call her mother. Who she also couldn’t reach. She didn’t call all of spacekru. She didn’t call Lxa... who she ALSO couldn’t reach. They were all equally unreachable. But she called Bellamy and kept calling him. Because whether she could reach him or not, he was there with her. His heart was carried with her, inside of her heart.

So season 5 was about the Bellarke reunion and how they were separated by circumstances and the new world, Echo, Madi, Octavia, Eligius, Loyalty. But in the end, they chose each other. The most essential union for them was each other and only when they were together did it make sense, could they reach victory.

So that leaves s6 with Clarke and Bellamy TOGETHER, as soulmates and partners, however the things that got in their way were, 1. B/E 2. Buried feelings of guilt and rejection. 3. Josephine.

1 B/E as obstacle would not be an obstacle if Bellarke were romantic. But Clarke, jealous, has chosen to let Bellamy go to be with Echo because they love each other and if she can’t have Bellamy romantically, then she’ll have him as family. Bellamy is constantly drawn to Clarke, even though he is wit Echo, and this raises the tension between B/E because he is actually comparing the two and Echo comes out on the losing end. But when he sees Clarke moving on (wisely) to someone else, he turns back to Echo. That’s not really as wise, because the problem is he has bigger feelings for Clarke. Even if Clarke didn’t care for him, as he always fears, it’s not so good to be in love with someone else and stay with your girlfriend. There is an ACTUAL romantic tangle happening here, as much a some people want to pretend that the existence of B/E means that Bellarke CAN’T be romantic. I’m actually arguing that with the way the two relationships are framed, one as romantic but minor and troubled, and the other as non-romantic soulmates beyond death and the center of the story, that B/E as an obstacle is proof of romantic endgame Bellarke.

2. Buried feelings has Clarke making choices that keep Bellarke apart. If Clarke were honest about her feelings, Bellamy would be forced to face his own love for Clarke and let go of Echo. But she’s not. She’s being noble and self sacrificing again and probably doesn’t believe he loves her that way. On top of that is the guilt from leaving him to die. She needs him to know she is sorry for that, but she also runs away from the deep meaning of the 2199 calls. That she runs away from those means that Bellamy is STILL resonating with the concept that she doesn’t love him THAT WAY, that risking him is worth it. She’s reiterating the part about him being her “family,” and then flirting with Cillian. So he, being noble and self sacrificing himself (but maybe not as noble as her because he picks a fight with echo over her not benig like Clarke yikes,) and recommits to Echo. UNTIL. Clarke is discovered bodysnatched and thought dead and he’s lost her and he pulls away from everyone and buries all those feelings and hides them from Echo too, despite the commitment to be emotional with each other. WHY? Because buried feelings. So when she’s found alive, those feelings can no longer be buried. Because NOW saving Clarke, getting Clarke back, not letting Clarke die, NEEDING Clarke and, still unspoken, LOVING Clarke are no longer subtextual but textual and THE MAIN PLOT. NOT the obstacle. The motivation. HOW he will save Clarke and how, in fact, he does save her.

3. The MAIN OBSTACLE OF SEASON 6 was HOW WILL BELLAMY SAVE CLARKE. Not how will they save their people. Not how will their people save Clarke. Not the morality of saving Clarke. Not how does Bellamy/Clarke become a hero. Not oh no the hard choices. Just simply. BELLAMY MUST SAVE CLARKE and he must confront his feelings to do so. And face a villain in her body who is trying to manipulate him. Meanwhile the villain’s love story is paralleled to Bellarke’s love story. AND BELLAMY SAVED HER WITH HIS LOVE WHEN ALL HOPE WAS LOST AND GAVE HER MOUTH TO MOUTH/TRUE LOVE’S KISS. And she was brought back to life and to him. The following episodes were them wrapping up the battle against these villains, whose worst crime was murdering Clarke. And whose biggest mistake was giving Bellamy hope that he could get his love back. CLARKE.

Troll.

There’s no troll here.

This is a fucking brilliant, heart stoppingly romantic story.

We’ve got a whole season where the truths of season 6, that Bellamy loves Clarke and that love is bigger than anything, and Clarke loves Bellamy so much that she can reach out past death to him, and that Echo is made of Ash and does not want to be a slave anymore, are going to resonate with Monty’s desire that they all live a good life where they can find happiness and love. Clarke won’t lose the people she loves anymore. Bellamy has faced that he needs Clarke and can’t lose her and she is central to his needs. And Echo has confessed her identity and begun to break free of being the good spy to her master (the master is Bellamy.) All this is part of canon. And it came out in season 6.

To be honest, I don’t know when he’ll make them kiss.

It doesn’t matter. I doubt he’ll leave it to the end, because he is BUILDING to a conclusion where their union is an emotional payoff. This show DOES emotional payoffs. AND it does sex. In order to work that emotional payoff and give us the punch of Bellarke getting together means they have to do it before the very last episode, i think. I mean, maybe episode 13, like Bellamy saved Clarke three eps before the end. IDK.

But.

That’s not trolling. That’s a bonafide epic love story. No trolling included. That’s GIVING. That’s being so committed to the story you’re telling that you ignore all the bad fandom takes from people who think they can do better. And from the bitter people who didn’t get what they want. Sour grapes we call that.

And as long as we’re sitting here, going, “Oh that JR he’s a villain he’s trolling us he hates us he’s never gong to give us what we want,” then we’re going to miss the fantastic story he IS giving us.

And I’m not going to ruin Bellarke or The 100 because I’m narrow minded, spoiled and stubborn. You want to ruin your enjoyment because you think some man you’ve never met is a troll out to get you? When he’s the one who invented this story and committed 7+ years of his life to bringing it to life? That’s on you.

I’m in it for the epic love story. Not a kiss. A kiss is a kiss. Not love. A sex scene might be hot, but it doesn’t make true love.

Bellarke is told over the course of 7 YEARS. I’m not actually interested in reducing it to them hooking up.

People who treat us like we’re stupid for being satisfied with this story we’re getting while THEY get kiss/confess/sex with no endgame, or kiss/sex with no story? Like, yeah, I will actually take my scene where Bellamy brings Clarke back from death over your half-a-sex scene and then no interaction, or your post goodbye-sex “let’s not talk” cuddle-scene. YEAH MAN. I NEED YOU MY LIPS TOUCH YOURS AND MY LOVE ALONE DRAWS YOU BACK FROM DEATH. There is actually no interpretation in that. They said she was dead. He said no my heart will save her head, told her her loved her, and gave her the kiss of life and she heard him and came back, fighting. When Josephine had already killed her. She woke up in his arms and had eyes only for him. And the next episode was full of them caring for each other and touching. TOUCHING. Intimate.

Troll? what troll?

Maybe people consider me delusional because I ignore bad fandom interpretations and JR’s not so great social media presence. It’s because I’m paying attention to the show, pretty much only the show, and I LIKE IT.

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spaceorphan18 · 5 years

Text

Finding Kurt Hummel: A Wedding

Masterpost

6x08: A Wedding

It’s kind of fitting that I’m writing this on the weekend that Darren and his lovely long time girlfriend/fiancee Mia are getting married. It’s also Love, Love, Love week in the TDB rewatch, and I mean Valentine’s Day weekend (but eh I’ve never cared about that.)

Anyway! .. Alright guys - we’re here! The culmination of the entire Klaine arc -- right here and... Alright, let’s be honest, this episode is, well, lacking. Personally, I think they could have added another hour to the episode - fleshed out the reunion just a tad more, given Blaine’s mom an actual story, and maybe not tie Klaine and Brittana in a nice bow together (personally - Klaine eloping would have been an interesting route).

But this is Glee. And it was more interested in being propaganda for gay marriage. And hey!! I’m totally here for all the gay marriage, and LGTB rights -- yes let’s do that!! But here... they sacrificed organic story for their message, which is mostly why I think this episode is disappointing. It kind of forgot about the heart of the characters

High-End Barn Wedding

So - we kick off the episode with Wedding Planner!Kurt... so for all of you who wished Kurt had planned his own wedding, well -- he mostly did. Actually, Artie is supposed to be the one who’s the wedding planner - but what has he really done? Really? It seems fitting that Kurt would take over the job.

While I don’t hate this episode (or even feel as disappointed by it) the way some of you do -- there are a few things I am sad we didn’t get with Klaine’s impromptu wedding shenanigans. I would have loved to have seen some kind of bachelor party shenanigans -- complete with a return of Cooper to crash either Blaine’s or Kurt’s weddings. I mean - how much fun would that have been?? Not to say that later, Cooper didn’t show up and throw some bachelor parties anyway after they got married. ;)

So, here’s my first issue with the episode. Kurt has a whole scene where he tries to calm down Brittany cause she’s freaking out and projecting her anxiety about getting married onto the little details of the barn set up. (Huh - totally wish we could have seen pre-wedding neurotic Kurt, too.) Kurt’s calm and collected and gets things going.

Okay, what frustrates me is that in the script - IN THE SCRIPT - there’s a moment where Brittany lingers on more about Kurt and his called-off wedding, and Kurt gets a little dreamy about the wedding planning, etc, etc -- and honestly, this one section would have fixed, like, 90% of my issues. See -- narratively speaking - Kurt needs a reason, a catalyst to run off and go see Blaine. He doesn’t have one in the episode, which makes the whole reunion feel out of nowhere and jarring. -- Likewise, in Love, Love, Love - the reunion was slightly out of nowhere, but at they at least alluded to it in a few lines and slightly set it up at the end of season 4.

But this time around, episode 7, being totally Blaine focused doesn’t have room to give Kurt his ‘ah-ha!’ moment. Which means there’s a link that’s not there. It was in the script... and then they cut it out. Why?? I don’t understand.

So, if they didn’t want to go that dreamy over a wedding thing - they could have also give Brittany the chance to tell Kurt about Blaine and Karofsky splitting up -- which would also be a catalyst and cause Kurt to start running. Mostly, though, this episode just isn’t well written. **shrugs**

Anyway - we get some awkward jokes from Brittany about Kurt’s ‘boyfriend’ being older than his dad. Which is - ew. But also I really don’t think Kurt is considering Walter his boyfriend, especially since Kurt just kinda doesn’t even acknowledge the comment. Meanwhile, to prove this episode is just awkwardly written - there’s a joke in here where Brittany doesn’t know that Burt Hummel is Kurt’s dad. But the set up is that Kurt calls his dad by his first name -- which he’s never done... ever. Who would say their parents’ name instead of saying -- hey my dad could help?

The details of this episode are... just not good, which is truly the unfortunate thing.

Run, Kurt, Run

So -- without any kind of set-up this scene feels... well... a little awkward, so let’s pretend Kurt has reason to feel that he and Blaine are actually going to the wedding together (there’s nothing missing from the script that sets it up either, btw.)

Basically - he’s doing the mature thing of telling Walter first that it’s over -- not that there was much to end, honestly. Obviously, he’s been talking to Walter about the Brittana wedding - enough so that Walter thinks they’re getting tuxes or something, (he’s really kind of assuming here) but Kurt says straight up - no, he’s going with Blaine. And the subtext here is --- hey it’s been fun, but I’m totally getting back together with my ex -- as if I haven’t talked about him enough, he totally kissed me, like, a week ago, and I came back here to get him, and I think we’re ready to be ‘on’ again, so you’re a nice dude, Walter - but I’m going in the direction I’m supposed to be.

Walter doesn’t seem shocked or surprised or even hurt that this is all going down. We get a lovely speech about young love and how Kurt should feel lucky that he gets to be in his youth to experience young (gay) love. And, I mean.... it’s a nice speech and all, but it feels more like older gay talking to younger gay about how he wishes he could have been wiser in his youth to run towards love. And an other example where the episode leans in to the idea of ‘gay marriage good’ rather than showing us how it can be good by organically letting these couples have their moments. Oh show...

The part I do like about Walter’s speech, however, is the advice he gives Kurt (which is actually similar to Brittany’s only taken in a different direction). He tells Kurt to go live, get hurt, get back up again, hang on to love, and, well, god I’m going to say it, don’t stop believing. And it almost feels like this is something that Kurt’s been waiting to hear for a while -- this kid has placed a protective shield around his heart for a long, long, long time now and he’s ready to be fully open with it again. He’s ready to let Blaine in fully -- and this is the reason I’m fine with the wedding being so soon after the reunion (even if the narrative is super awkward).

This whole journey from mid-season three to now has been about growing up, and figuring out how to be adults in love, and understanding that being in an adult relationship is different than the fairy tale their relationship started out being. And I love that concept -- love it! Even if I think how they told it is bumpy, awkward, and lacking a few key moments.

So -- in a mirror to the scene where Blaine and Karofsky split up (yeah - this “break up” is definitely the same kind of sentiment) Kurt starts running to go find Blaine...

Alright - so while this little reunion scene is rushed, I do like the urgency of it. From the moment Kurt runs in the door - he’s all, I love you, I’ve always loved you, I want and need you -- right now. He’s anxious - because he’s completely being emotionally honest right now -- and that’s not something Kurt really ever does. Blaine’s a little shocked at this development - but he’s been ready, too, so hey let’s just confirm we’re back together and call it good. (And yes, they probably had sex right then and there with the door open - because TV logic, but also because they just need to be with each other right now, and the talky stuff can wait until after the physical release.)

So. This idea that they get back together without solving their issues... here’s what I want to say about that. First of all -- Kurt has his one line of -- ‘I know everything was a mess before but now it’s not’. And, yeah, that does kind of wallpaper over things nicely - but I’ll argue that it’s also true. They had to work a lot on themselves this time around and they did that (mostly between season 5 and 6, actually). Kurt -- who sometimes runs away from the emotionally difficult situations (he broke it off with Blaine because he feared emotionally difficult would lead to something that can’t be fixed) has now run back into Blaine’s arms, knowing well that his heart will get bruised in what will be their long relationship -- but like the advice he gave to Blaine last season, it’s about trust, and he trusts himself that it’ll be okay.

Look - they’re always going to have issues, because every couple does. They’re always going to have things to work on and work through -- because that’s real. They aren’t two kids in a fairy tale relationship anymore, they’re two adults understanding what being in an adult relationship really means. And yeah, Glee could have fleshed this moment out, could have Kurt and/or Blaine explicitly say that - but you know? They really didn’t need to.

They fixed themselves in the early episodes of this season, the elevator gave them their friendship back, along with the ability to be with each other in an enclosed space, and Transitioning demonstrated that the spark is (as it always was) still there. So all they had to do was ditch the plot devices boyfriends and commit to each other.

And I do love this little moment, as Blaine just is like ‘fuck it’ and goes in for the kiss. While Kurt relaxes into his arms, finally able to reach the goal he set out for himself in the beginning of the season. My only “issue” with this scene is that they could have let it breath a little longer -- let the kiss be a little longer as they begin to enjoy each other again. But because this is Glee, and five million things going on, it’s cut away from very quickly.

American Gothic

So - according to, um, something this cute little moment was just Chris and Darren screwing around. I’m not gonna meta Klaine and American Gothic (the name of the famous painting in case you didn’t know.)

Instead - I’ll take a moment to talk about Blaine’s mom. Again, in the script, more stuff about her -- the reason she’s there was to do Brittana’s make-up (and, you know, be apart of the the mom’s group number). It’s hinted that Blaine’s dad left her and Cooper says hi. Geez. I also think it’s super weird that she hasn’t met Carol -- but did the writers give a shit? Nope, I just feel bad for Gina Gershon who is a lovely actress and they could have done so much with her, but instead do virtually nothing. I mean she and Blaine don’t even get a scene together. Ah well.

This scene is also, well, awkwardly written. Does Burt not know that they’re back together? (I find that hard to believe.) The prep work for this scene just don’t make much sense. Okay -- who was this written by? Hmm staff writer Ross Maxwell who’s been there since season three. He wrote Dance With Somebody, but also Previously Unaired Christmas and Sweet Dreams. This was directed by Bradley Beucker who did a lot of the big Klaine episodes, so I can’t even place fault there. Idk - this episode’s details are just so jarringly off, and there’s enough of them that it does take me out of the story a little bit.

Alright, so beyond my complaining about awkward set ups. Kurt gets told for the second time in fifteen minutes that he’s got to squeeze life to the fullest. You can’t predict what’s gonna happen next -- death, hardship, etc, etc, so live your best life, whatever that might be. Burt (hilariously) blames his philosophizing on there being a wedding, but Glee’s season 6 meta kick is still firmly here.

The thing I love about Kurt here though as he listens to his dad (and Carole) ramble on... he’s so happy and relaxed and reflective. Being together with Blaine again has just put his life back on track again. He is where he’s supposed to be and for the first time since the season started - he’s smiling and wistful and I love this kind of zen Kurt. But he’s also paying attention to his dad, too. This is all obvious set up for Kurt’s decision to get married on the spot, but it’s a nice sentiment, too -- that yeah, take a leap of faith - because you never know how long you’ll have the chance to do so.

Legit Brittan-emergency

I like the first few seconds of this scene - where they’re just casually chatting about the wedding while holding hands. They’ve been (nicely) not separated since they got back together, and I like this underlying theme that they want to have close physical contact as much as possible cause they missed quite a lot of that over the summer.

Anyway - Sue storms in and ruins the moment - and they aren’t playing dumb again! They won’t be getting locked in an elevator in a barn in Indiana so Sue can force them to have sex. Nope - that’s for the fic writers ;)

She’s got something else in mind...

Hey... at least she used the their season 6 (?) promo pics and not the creepy version she had in her hurt locker. It’s hard to say when Brittany got involved. I’d say the moment Sue walked in with the tuxes and the stand-ups. But Brittany claims she had this figured out while planning the wedding - which explains her kinda weird passive-aggressive attitude towards Kurt in the first scene, but since half of it was on the cutting room floor, it’s hard to buy here. But, you know, Santana’s gonna be okay with it and Brittany stops time with her mind, so you can figure the timeline out yourselfs on that one.

So, let’s break this down a little, shall we? After Brittany gets through her rambling about Klaine being role models (sure...) Sue jumps in and continues to break the fourth wall. Yeah -- she manipulated and kidnapped them, but she is... not us in this instant, but the writers. Because that’s what writers do -- we torture our characters so that they can have the happy ending we want to give them.

However, the Doylist view is not a favorite among many, so I’ll say - I’m not excusing Sue for her behavior. Don’t manipulate and kidnap people... it’s not nice and can be pretty hurtful. So - no, I’m not condoning Sue’s actions -- just explaining how Sue’s outside the narrative completely at this point.

I know a lot of people didn’t like this whole idea of Kurt (and Blaine) being what feels like forced to get married. And I will say this -- no one was forced to get married. No one was coerced. And had the script done its job correctly (I mean it tried - within the Walter and Burt speeches respectively) Kurt (and Blaine) being thrown an impromptu wedding would have felt much more organic. But this is Glee... in a world where real life rules don’t always apply.

I will say... had Kurt not wanted to - he would have flat out said no. No one has ever pushed Kurt Hummel around, least of all Sue and Brittany. In no way, shape, or form did anyone force Kurt to get married. And I really would like to make that clear -- there’s always a choice.

So - here’s the thing... Kurt’s mind is spinning. Things like this, this is crazy. His entire life, he’s tried to plan out to be perfect, and it’s always kind of blown up in his face. At the same time, life has always made him struggle, and now he gets the chance to have something nice -- and that’s... unexpected in the least.

Let’s hear his arguments...

This is crazy -- because it is. Who shares their wedding with someone else just for the hell of it? No one - because that is ridiculous.

He and Blaine just got back together -- but Kurt isn’t that concerned about this part of it, because he does know he and Blaine are forever. He’s beginning to get giddy with the idea here, but no - logic still prevails. It’s not that he and Blaine just got back together that’s the issue... it’s that Santana wouldn’t let them. But, eh, no, Santana’s gonna let things go cause plot.

He then says the following... It’s romantic. Sweet. And a little weird. Not -- I hate this idea. Not, it’s not going to work. Not, I don’t like these kind of surprises and I feel threatened. No, he’s smiling and excited and his mind is reeling at the prospect. He’s trying to be (semi-)logical about this, but his big, romantic heart is winning out.

Kurt says there’s no possible way they can get married, and looks to Blaine for confirmation...

Meanwhile, Blaine’s in the background. He’s a little timid, because he’s the one who never stopped wanting to be married. His only line is (lamely) about the rings, which Sue has covered. Honestly, I would have asked about the marriage license, but I’m sure Sue has one of those already forged as well.

But the thing is - when it comes down to it, Blaine’s ready -- he’s always been ready, and he’s just waiting for Kurt to finally, finally say yes. We get them holding hands, as Blaine stutters his way through an awkward speech. And then we cut to commercial....

Ug.

No really, why did this have to be an act break cliffhanger? Again, this writing! You could have had Blaine give a nice speech about being ready, and just waiting for Kurt and being okay with whatever they choose to do... and then Kurt could say that he does, indeed want to be married to Blaine. It’d have been a nice romantic moment here that... well, is no left to fanfic writers, I suppose. I also think it might have helped give Kurt some agency some felt he was lacking in this scene.

In addition, there is a nice wrap around moment - Kurt says in the series premiere during the break up scene - maybe he doesn’t want to get married. Now he’s faced with that choice again, and it comes full circle. Well... maybe in fact, he does...

I will say... the end of the scene, Kurt’s not scared Blaine will say he wants to get married and he’ll be forced into it. He wants to see if Blaine really does, because if he does -- Kurt’s given his choice. He’s scared, but also thrilled, because he could be given a pass to indulge on this huge romantic moment.

At Last

The moment Kurt comes on screen, we know his choice has been made, and look how he has this happy-drunk look on his face. As soon as Blaine said (off screen) that he wants to be married, Kurt probably snapped to and bam! let the romance happy-times begin. He knows -- based on all his previous experiences - that marriage won’t be an easy thing. He does. But now is their time to have a wonderful and lovely start to their marriage (and free!!) why not take this leap?

Anyway, I kind of love that he gets to walk with Brittany. They’ve got an interesting history together - and are both special unicorns, and I love that they get this little aisle walking moment together.

Meanwhile - let’s talk about the song At Last, beautifully sung by Mercedes and Artie. Klaine’s season 6 story, again being told not in songs that they’ve sung. This song is very them - and was originally going to be used during their car makeout session back in I Do, but I’m glad they saved it for here. It does fit Klaine, Brittana, and the whole gay marriage thing nicely.

Look at this bb waiting for his future husband to walk up the aisle. Again, I love how happy Kurt is! How relaxed! He even looks younger in this scene, because, c’mon, when’s the last time he’s been /this/ happy?? (Totally, btw, not the face of someone who doesn’t really want to be up there ;)) Kurt Hummel is getting married - and he is fucking excited about every last ounce of it.

Burt’s Speech = Gay Marriage Good and worth fighting for!! (I’m so glad they legalized it the summer after this was out)

I do like that in Burt’s speech, however, he does mention, again, some sentiments he did back in Love, Love, Love -- marriage is freakin’ hard. But it’s worth it if you keep working at it.

Oh - which probably brings me to another issue people had. All season Kurt keeps reiterating that they’re too young to get married. (And yeah, ngl, they are - and I really didn’t need this in my Klaine story) But two thoughts on this

1 - Kurt was holding on to the too young thing as an excuse for the other issues they were having... yeah, he didn’t want Finchel to get married because they were too young, but also definitely not ready. Kurt’s been through a ton, and at this moment, knows he and Blaine are committed to each other, so why not make it official -- especially since they are gay, and now can get married, it is a big deal.

2. I’ve talked a lot about Klaine being a fairy tale - and, while I don’t believe the story stops once you get married, and also believe Klaine was spiritually married back in Love, Love, Love, their story remains being framed as a fairy tale, and this is the happy ending, so narratively, it does all make sense.

The vows. Yeah, um, okay. So - my biggest issue here is that they’re all spliced together. This speech, kind of, doesn’t work - I mean, Santana says she’s been bullied? Really? They’re trying to tie both narratives together and tie that in with the theme of ‘gay marriage good’ and ug, c’mon. They could have nicely had one couple go and then the other, and it could have been a little more personalized. But whatever.

I will say! I think Kurt has the best lines, though. I love, love that he talks about being someone who always walked in the dark, and that Blaine did not force him into the light, but tore the stuff down that covered the sun. It’s really a beautiful notion - and one that says just how much Kurt loves, appreciates, and wants Blaine in his life. He’s always walked on his path on his own, but he doesn’t want to be alone anymore - Blaine is vital to him, and he always wants Blaine there to help him through.

I also like the sentiment that they’re a work in progress. It’s a nice nod to the fact that it isn’t the end of the story (while it is mostly for Klaine and absolutely for Brittana).

(Also - possibly shallow side note - Chris and Darren are just way better actors than Naya and especially Heather, and putting them side by side is a little jarring, too. Oops.)

Because touch and holding hands has always been a part of their narrative...

Old Marrieds...

Happy Big-Ass Double Gay Wedding!

Was it everything you ever wanted? Meh, no, but I’ve never been a fan of weddings in general - and nothing was gonna be able to top the proposal anyway. This is where the whole double wedding with a theme of social progression got in the way - because I think it stripped both couples (a little) of their own personalized story. But it was fine, and did what it needed to do. And Klaine got their happily ever after.

OTP

Yes, Kurt’s face is how I feel about (most of) the rest of the episode. We could have gotten a nice moment between Blaine and his mom - instead we get a full minute of Brittany’s dad being awkward and weird and unnecessary.

So, then Santana goes into this whole speech about OTPs. Omg... I know some people got uncomfortable with the fourth wall breaking in The Hurt Locker (both parts) but here I get a little squicky. Who uses otp in real life? And Santana has hats, god...

But, that aside, Kurt’s face is loving and happy when Santana mentions that he and Blaine have found each other - and it’s sweet and nice. And... omg, you can tell they’re back together again because to the background my lovely couple -- we’re playing by season 3 rules again!

No, okay my biggest issue -- bigger than the whole they don’t really get a first dance thing - is that they don’t get a moment to reflect -- at all -- about getting married. And this is kind of a trend -- they get together in Original Song, do they really get to reflect on that? Eh.. not really. What about their first time in The First Time?? Nope - they don’t speak about sex again for a long, long time. What about getting engaged??? Eh, not really anything on that -- so I shouldn’t expect anything. But man - it would have been nice if they had one private moment together just so they can have that one private moment together to revel in the fact that they are married and together-together.

(so, now we’re to two scenes this episode is missing for Klaine - shoulda been a two hour long episode...)

Instead of anything meaningful, we’re going to have songs now because we’re contractually obligated at this point to do something in this music-related show. (god, does this episode shoehorn in the music). I am kinda laughing at HeYa, though, cause it’s so, so meta. I’m also incredibly glad there was never a song Called CrissColfer.

Why didn’t Kurt, Blaine or Santana get to dance during this song though? Boo...At least they’re in the background...? Oh wait, they do at the end? And Blaine kinda dances with his mom, while Kurt dances with Carol? I mean, it’s kinda cute, but I’m still rolling my eyes a little.

And then we get more songs! This time the Treble Tones bring up the Moms for - I’m So Excited. I mean, I get it - if you’re gonna have Gloria Estefan on and not have her sing, it’s a bit ridiculous. But, ngl, I’m a little bored by this one. And it’s essentially two in a row (though the unnecessary Tina proposes to Mike plot happens in between). Kurt freaking out over Carole going crazy is kinda cute, but not enough to help the second half of this episode from being bogged down in musical numbers that feel obligatory.

We close out the reception-of-no-plot with Our Day Will Come. I like the little intro, where Kurt gets giddy about calling Blaine his ‘husband’. And it’s a sweet thank you to Brittany and Santana for letting them do the thing. But..

Okay, this is where I would have wanted, maybe... a more romantic song, sung by someone else, so that Klaine could slow dance. That was, like, the one thing I wanted in the second half of the episode, and I didn’t get it. I am a little sad about it. But at least they get to sing and look lovingly at each other?

This song is... fine. I’m surprised they hadn’t done this particular quartet before. It’s got a nice 60′s island beach theme going on. And it’s... again... a gay marriage = good song. It’s not really about Klaine or Brittana, it’s about gay people getting married. And - really, I promise, I am so happy that everyone is now able to get married here in the U.S. I want all the gay rights (and all the rest of the letters, too). But, c’mon, guys, you can sell that without being explicit -- these characters meant enough to enough people that just by them getting married and having a normal and organic way of things, it would have sold your message just fine without having to hit us over the head again with it.

There is a little bit of the lyrics I’d like to pull out though...

Kurt with Blaine: Our dreams have magic Because we'll always stay In love this way

If you’d like to know how the writers think this romance will play out... well, then, there ya go... and the show’s now over, so this is the way they’ll always be in our hearts. :)

The Gender Gentle AnderHummels

So, this is perhaps my favorite scene in the episode, and not just because of Kurt in that Kitten sweater. I think it’s because it’s the only scene in the episode that breathes a little, and allows both couples not to be saddled with the weight of carrying a HUGE MESSAGE of a VERY SPECIAL EPISODE - but about these two couples being themselves. It’s also the only time we really get to see Married Klaine interacting outside the tiny bit we get in the series finale.

Sue’s there to give them their honeymoon packages -- (oh Sue, meddling still in their plans...) And it’s okay that you guys only get a weekend versus Britanna’s month in the Bahamas... Brittana doesn’t get any more screen time, and you guys only get your one episode off. So, there’s that.

But then we get this little tag at the end (complete with season 2 scoring!) where Klaine and Brittana get a moment to themselves. I like that Blaine says that he can’t believe they got married, while Kurt is totally not fazed by that at all, and instead is amazed they survived the reception. (I’m sure the two of them snuck out early)

But then there’s this moment, where Kurt reaches behind him, automatically, for Blaine’s hand and they both look so, so happy. There was a big post going around for a while with intensive meta on it about this single moment, and man, I wish I could remember what it said, because it probably summarized it much better than I can. Beyond the whole hand holding thing -- again, the two are just so comfortable with each other - having found each other, and having made a life long commitment.

And, here’s why I think getting married wasn’t such a bad thing for this narrative. The ring is a symbol. And that somewhat toxic downward cycle the two of them can get into now gets reversed. Blaine is secure in his relationship, and of being loved, as well as being able to be out on his own, not relying on Kurt entirely, and because of that, he doesn’t get clingy or insecure, which in turn gives Kurt the breathing room he needs, and when Kurt is feeling not closed in, he becomes affectionate and open and will continue to reach for Blaine’s hand, and marriage is a reminder (to both) that they have to keep on working because they’ve made the commitment. (This was a horribly worded paragraph, sorry)

But my point is - they are now secure as individuals and secure in their relationship, and while, yes, I needed a few more scenes to flesh out and have the story make full sense, I’m happy to have this last scene that kind of encompasses everything together and puts the nice bow on it. They are both so, so happy and relaxed and in love in this scene, and it’s amazing because of it.

And yes - Brittany will probably call them on their anniversary every year (I kinda love the meta of that -- that Klaine and Brittana are always tied together now), but they’ll probably only see each other once every five-ish years or so. Their lives will go on and they’ll grow up further and away from each other. But, their love is all tied up together, and it’s a happy moment for both couples.

So yeah, that’s the wedding episode! It feels... slightly anticlimactic for as big as the series long story was -- but you know, even with all the scenes I’d have wanted in it, I’m not sure if it’d ever had been fully satisfying. And, you know, it’s true what they say about it being about the journey not just the ending. But, you know, they still got married, and the story still is something we’re talking about, and I still love that it kind of marries the idea of the fairy tale with a real relationship.

And, I’m a little sorry this is the end for Brittana, because it does feel, in a lot of ways, like a penultimate episode. Brittana is now done (which is another reason I think they got the bulk of the episode) but Klaine’s story has room for a little more in the final episodes - and I’m glad they get to have their nice little coda.

#finding kh #kurt hummel

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momestuck · 5 years

Text

Let’s read Hiveswap Friendsim... volume 18!

Imagine I edited the final shot of End of Evangelion here to put trolls on it. That’s more effort than I’m actually willing to put in. Imagining it is probably almost as good.

This chapter is fittingly called “Of Endings, Many”.

The opening narration is kind of pointed and sarcastic. It jokes about saying trite things like ‘the circle is complete’... and then goes elsewhere.

“You’ve got enough friends, now you need answers-” - and then it interrupts itself, realising it’s just the intro screen.

I wonder who writes the intro screens?

This time we have... another jadeblood, and also a final pair of purplebloods, the second troll pair.

Lanque

Lanque is written by the mysterious “V”, who previously managed to get us to lick a clown’s armpit and then wrote some interesting things about intertextuality. I have high hopes!

Content warning: Lanque’s story deals explicitly with sex with a man, in a situation of dubious consent on the player character’s part.

Lanque’s theme I’m sure I recognise from Homestuck proper, though I’d have to do some digging to see what it’s reprising. It’s called “yall know i just do the music right” - another James Roach piece.

It begins with us getting a call from Lynera. The narration somewhat uncharitably says “that nutty bitch is exactly the sort of destabilizing influence your life needs right now”. In a positive, not sarcastic way at least.

She wants to start making friends herself...

The narration is really in a hurry this time around. We reprise the party background from the last episode.

I appreciate the kind of breezy enthusiastic chaos in V’s writing.

We’re in a cape, bra and fishnets. A perfect outfit for the final chapter.

Wow the narration just isn’t giving a shit anymore. Final chapter striking hard.

We try to figure out whose hive we’re going to... and oh shit, it’s Ardata’s. First troll we ever met, as well. The party is described as a “frathouse rager” - which, Lynera acknowledges, is not her scene at all.

Is the narrator already drunk? Or is Ardata fucking with our head again?

Ardata declares that it’s a ‘kiiickback’ for all the ‘world’s fiiinest iiinfluencers’... and neither me nor Lynera is invited. Apparently she heard about it from someone called Lanque, who’s also not invited.

What is up with this narration? It’s coming across like a standup performance.

At that point, Ardata drops a... nsfw warning on us.

I didn’t actually realise this volume had an ‘accompanying mature content description’. I think what I’m gonna do is... obviously I’m gonna play the chapter, but I will put specific content warnings before sections of the post that have potentially triggering content, and if there are explicit images, I will pixellise out any explicit bits before I embed them in the post. spoiler alert: this ain’t exactly Ladykiller in a Bind there.

That’s a hell of a warning, huh. Especially given the previous armpit-licking chapter by ‘V’ was about at the absolute limit of sfw horny anyway. Fuck knows what they’re about to inflict on us now.

Also: James Roach’s track name is starting to make sense. Apparently he wants to distance himself from this episode, semi-ironically at any rate? God, what are we in for.

So, presumably the ‘oof, you’re too scared’ link takes us to an abrupt end to the chapter, we’ll check it later. Let’s go on in.

Quick soapbox: as much as I hate the kind of shallow analysis that throws around ‘problematic’ as a summary judgement of a work - nah actually, you can’t just disclaim shit under ‘challenging or controversial material’. By the same token that you can write whatever shit you want in a Homestuck computer game, critics - and random nerds on the internet, which is to say, the entire audience of this game - can discuss it however we find appropriate.

Nevertheless, you haven’t actually done anything worse than make me lick a clown’s armpit so far, and we can approach challenging themes in a way that says something meaningful and important, so let’s see what you have for us, V. To be honest I’m expecting some kind of portrayal of sexual violence given all the disclaimers, but who knows.

The party sounds like hell.

To Lynera, who remains glued to our arm, it’s ‘more than she was expecting’. But before we can leave, Lanque arrives.

I was wrong about what I thought was Lanque’s theme. Lanque’s theme is a slow, mournful saxophone piece. Maybe the music before was Lynera’s theme, and I just forgot how it went?

The narration mentions a ‘curious red stain’ on Lanque’s shirt. They’re obviously going for a whole ‘sexy vampire’ type thing with him. Maybe a Twilight parody, with Lynera in the Bella role? That would be a little dated, though.

I vaguely recall that it was said at some point that the jadebloods were all women. Which makes me suspect that Lanque is a trans guy, and this story is gonna touch on themes of transness and such. That could be something I completely confabulated, though. I’d check the wiki but no doubt it’s been updated by now, and I don’t want to spoil myself on this arc.

He seems to be in a flirty mood. Not sure how old either of these two are supposed to be.

Oh yeah. The knifemeter actually hasn’t shown up in this episode so far. He expresses surprise that Lynera has friends. Or at least, friend.

Eesh, this guy gonna be another Zebruh?

Lanque asks about us and we blather about being an alien, and also general disaster.

It’s really hard to get the sense that this is a loud party where we can barely hear each other over the noise, given both the narration and the soft jazz background.

He says something about not biting unless asked. So if it’s not already obvious... either a genuine rainbow drinker (hey, if Kanaya could do it at age 6 sweeps/13 years, no doubt he could at age... whatever age he is!), or someone who likes pretending to be one.

Anyway, our protag is apparently not overcome by friendship lust at this point, and tries to play wingman and put Lanque’s attention back onto Lynera. This... doesn’t go as well as expected.

(2.43 sweeps, that is - about 5.3 years)

Hmm, why would that be? This could be like, a transphobia thing? Do trolls have that? I’d say of course they fucking do, but apparently they don’t have homophobia, and their gender system... well who the hell knows how troll gender works, having all the signifiers of gender in the real world but none of the material consequences.

Anyway, Lanque calls Lynera a ‘nasty little bitch’. But then immediately says he’s not one to criticise.

So... maybe it’s not a trans thing? We’ll see. Lanque continues being a huge dick, suggesting that Lynera is interested in him because the ordeals are coming, and she wants to take the chance to fuck before they roll around.

Lynera is kind of... not surprisingly pretty hurt.

The narrator challenges Lanque on his rudeness without a choice.

Ah, the classic ‘she deserved it’ defence. Second only to the ‘it didn’t happen, but if it had, they would have deserved it anyway’ defence.

The protag demands to know why Lanque even invited Lynera if it was just to have such a huge go at her like that. Lanque’s explanation is... kind of unclear.

It’s not like she got much of a chance to defend herself there. So far my impression of Lanque is: this guy’s a huge cock. Or possibly a huge nook. Idk what the troll equivalent is.

The narrator decides to ‘Switzerland out of’ this conversation. They say this out loud, of course. Who needs an internal monologue, these days?

Lanque invites us to stay - we’re ‘much more interesting’ anyway. Eesh. I’m inclined to look for a ‘fuck right off where’s my pepper spray’ button, but that’s just me being a lesbian I guess. (Pepper spray is also illegal in the UK. I’m pretty sure.)

Yeah, you said it. He says he’s got ‘less time to waste than most’.

Bryn sees a meta joke about the narrative structure, Bryn clicks the screenshot button.

(Speak of the screenshot button, I had to rebind it to make it easier to paste the screenshots, you see in Ubuntu-- oh, you’re asleep?)

Anyway I kind of expected a choice around about now, but no, we barrel forwards, and end up dancing with Lanque. He takes our hand and leads us to another part of the house.

At that point, Elwurd shows up! I wonder how much of the cast is set to make an appearance in this chapter. If it’s all 35 trolls we’ve encountered so far, this is gonna be a long chapter!

Elwurd seems to be Lanque’s dealer. Not sure what drug she’s selling exactly. Apparently ‘you a drone?’ is the Alternian equivalent of ‘you a cop?’...

Anyway, Lanque buys the drug, and peer pressures us to take it. We’re like, nuh-uh.

We did not, we tell him, ask him to buy drugs for us.

I’m proud of you, protagonist. At the beginning of this story you’d have done anything to get a friend.

At that point, Diemen makes his reappearance. We really are going through the entire cast here, huh.

Yeah. That one’s just too obvious.

Anyway, undrugged, we get to dancing.

God, V, we get it, you want to fuck trolls. The narrator goes with it, though.

I find it kind of interesting how, like... our protagonist in the beginning and ending sketches is pretty much like, a marshmallow, indicating that they represent some kind of AFGNCAAP. But over time, little assumptions leak in. For example, we’re some kind of American nerd - our education system included a ‘high school’, and we had the option to learn Spanish there. We are relatively physically unfit. The wordplay suggests we know English.

Sometimes it’s deliberate - clearly someone made a choice to make it so that our protagonist has opinions about rap and knows a bit about professional wrestling, to suit the themes of the chapters. Those aren’t like, presumed traits assumed of the Homestuck audience, but things that kind of carve out a specific identity

So yeah... we’ve already had the whole ‘cheese person’ thing in Fozzer’s route, and here they’re straight up declaring the protag has pale skin. (Which doesn’t mean they’re white, necessarily, but they are apparently not Black, say.) I think that’s kind of a shame - a wasted opportunity.

Homestuck has already traded a lot on the ambiguity of its characters, which the fandom tends to read as implicitly white, except for like, a relatively small corner. This came to a head at points - most infamously the ‘CAUCASIAN’ controversy during the trickster mode phase, when Hussie ‘jokingly’ declared that his previously ambiguous characters (shaded pure #FFFFFF white, implying a ‘blank slate’) were ‘CAUCASIAN’ in bright flashing letters - at least while in trickster mode. After backlash, the panels were left as-is, but ‘CAUCASIAN’ was replaced with ‘PEACHY’.

Friendsim could have been an opportunity to improve the record a bit, especially as its narrative explicitly addresses many questions of societal oppression and occasionally makes explicit analogues to racism. But... they didn’t do that. Alas.

Anyway, moving on.

Apparently I’m very predictable because the very next panel addresses this exact line of thought.

I feel like this and the ‘not racist’ joke in the previous arc by ‘V’ are kind of... well I don’t know anything about ‘V’, and what they might be intending by these jokes. Here, it’s kind of parodying the whole thing in Homestuck rather explicitly... but whether it’s like, challenging it? There’s definitely a reading that’s like... pointed sarcasm, challenging the source material’s noncommital laziness.

Hey art interpretation is hard lol.

V’s writing is unusually striking, in a way I’m not quite sure how I feel about. I will think more about that once we’ve fully explored this chapter.

Things are getting pretty meta. He comments how we’re paper thin and he can see our blood. We’re like, ok, so you’re a vampire then?

This is the kind of thing! Writing that’s like... on the edge of like, telling a story and just directly talking to the reader, pushing us to engage with ambiguity and metaphor.

To release the tension a bit, the narrator does a ‘sexy dance’.

Anyway, we don’t get to find out what Lanque really thinks of our sexy dancing. Because at that point, Bronya shows up. Lanque decides it’s time to go.

...to a respiteblock, where else. So much for this being a friendsim and pointedly not a dating sim.

We are, it seems, safe. Lanque politely asks if we’d like to kiss. There’s another reminder that this is a very nsfw not for kids scene about to go down in this room right now.

So that’s apparently going to be our decision here. FUCK THE BOY/DO NOT FUCK THE BOY

...no, that’s not our choice. We’re kissing the boy no matter what. This is also portrayed in first person view, because consistency is important!

Apparently our blood tastes ‘sharp and dangerous - like a weapon’.

I feel like this is about to answer a whole fucking lot of fandom questions. At least as far as Hiveswap canon is concerned - arguably a separate entity to Homestuck canon, though obviously, like an expanded universe, designed to be read almost exclusively with intertextuality in mind. An elaboration, I guess.

There’s more like... hey check it out we’re going NSFW. Still nothing like a choice button yet.

One thing I find interesting is like... while this game is packed with lesbians of various stripes, and evidently many of the writers are gay or bi women, all the trolls who get really horny scenes have been boys. (Two of them written by ‘V’, admittedly). Mallek first with his shirtless scene, then much more recently Marvus, and now Lanque.

Also look at these guys. Pretty sure V has a type.

Anyway, the narrator makes the mistake of saying something vaguely derogatory about buckets.

Not sure like... what he finds derogatory there. Mentioning ‘buckets’ vs ‘pails’ (might be a distinction between reproductive and non-reproductive sex?), or saying that he doesn’t seem to have one? He says it’d be his first time.

With an alien, huh. *xenofucker fist bump*

Instead of a sex scene, we get a lore drop.

Once he gets shipped offworld, there will be no more ‘sneaking out of the caverns’. To Lanque, this effectively means his life will be over. This is his last chance to fuck!

A little overdramatic, dude!

Before we can get to it, Bronya interrupts.

So we get interrupted by Bronya. This is finally our choice point. Do we dob Lanque in, or do we fuck?

Regarding ‘problematic’, the main thing I’m seeing is like... Lanque is, at best, barely of age. Since he’s talking about getting shipped offworld soon, I’m guessing he’s close to troll adulthood. In terms of real-world narratives, this is taking on the general tone of ‘college story’ - complete with allusion to a frat party.

I think like... I’m going to read this whole visual novel, and write what I think about it. However, I can also totally understand why you would not want to read this kind of ‘first time’ story. So I’m going to leave that branch to a readmore at the end of the post. Above the cut, to give you all some kind of ending, and we’ll go down the ‘call his mum’ branch. Lol it’s not nearly as nsfw as they make it sound, there’s nothing that really need readmores, nevermind this lol.

Bronya busts the door open and tells him to get dressed immediately.

Lanque gets his mean streak back on, and goes in on Bronya now.

He does love the word ‘bitch’, does Lanque. He tells her she’s not actually his lusus (oh yeah, lusii... it’s been a while since we’ve seen one honestly. The last one was the goat.) She slaps him. He pretends like it was a sex thing.

This is not pretty. Bronya launches into a lecture on Lanque: sneaking out, being an ass to Lynera, and...

Yeah, maybe it’s a good thing we didn’t get further involved.

Apparently he’s not deterred by the fact that we literally called Bronya up to get out of fucking him, and adds us on Chittr before he leaves.

So that’s an ending. Sweet look, protagonist.

But it’s not the ending ending. We get a final screen.

Sure, I want to understand. Is this going to be some kind of direct artist-to-reader commentary on what they were trying to accomplish with that chapter?

The text box turns white, and the font changes. I bet this is Doc Scratch. So no, probably not that. In fact, this segues straight into the epilogue. I think there are different versions of the epilogue depending how you approach the final chapter, or else we were supposed to play the other branch before Lanque, so for the sake of putting the epilogue at the end, I’ll save it for a future post. (I’ve already written it up.)

Now, the other Lanque branches. First of all, refusing at the NSFW notice.

So they poke fun at the reader for like, not accepting the NSFW notice. Uh-huh. You know that Steam doesn’t automatically give a mature content warning if you’ve set up your account that way right? Which I guess is my own fault lol.

Anyway, doing this leads to like... a totally different arc, and a totally different canon. Huh, I genuinely expected they’d like just end the story there.

It’s a cozy party now, apparently.

This version of Lanque is... different.

For one thing, he’s got a flower crown. And instead of soft sexy jazz, we have a pretty piano piece. He says hi to Lynera and me.

Hmm. Not entirely un-hornified, then.

Lynera gushes wildly about us, recapping a whole bunch of plot.

It turns out, rather than taking drugs and having sex and other such risqué things, this party is a chill poetry reading.

So I realise this entire branch is just like, an extended joke at the reader. Look how un-edgy this is. We’re going to support our friends and read poetry.

In this one, instead of asking to kiss us, he asks to hold hands before we read poetry. And he says this is a poem about a past relationship, and it might be a bit raw.

We get Lanque’s poem, in full.

I was going to copy-paste the whole thing in, but it’s quite long, so let’s be uncool and respect copyright or whatever because my fingers were getting tired. It is quite good... addressing loss, and memory, and the lingering influence of a past relationship. It makes me wish I had ever developed the ability to appreciate and comment on poetry, because I feel like I just don’t have the vocabulary to comment on it, or what it might connect to, or anything else. The narration agrees: raw, emotional.

I imagine, though perhaps this is presumptuous, it is reflecting something quite real in the real life of ‘V’.

Lynera also gets the chance to read out a poem. She happens to have one on hand. It’s about Bronya, sure enough, and her loneliness and alienation.

Afterwards, she is self-deprecating.

This version of Lanque is kind and reassuring - the complete opposite of his persona in the sexy branch.

We leave with Lynera after hugging it out. Reading her poem, and being with other trolls in this way, seems to have really helped Lynera. There’s another pointed bit of defensiveness at potential critics.

Soapbox: This is the state of discourse, where the complex feelings we have in relation to fictional works must get flattened out into strict ‘rules’. A character can easily support lesbian and bi interpretations; it can be a relief to bi people and upsetting for lesbians when one of those possibilities is ruled out by having her express interest in a man (not that this, ultimately, rules out lesbian interpretations, since a person can of course be mistaken about their feelings).

To lesbians, it is perhaps likely more salient that many characters they identify with end up expressing attraction to men, and this can seem like yet another instance. To bi women, narratives about picking a ‘side’ are perhaps more likely to be salient, and it can be relief to have an explicitly bi character.

The only conclusion we can draw is that gender is a hellish system of punishment and exploitation, and we should seek to be kind to each other and also abolish it forthwith, write our own stories, and abolish the stranglehold that capital holds on all aspects of our lives including the symbolic media we use to understand the world.

All that said, this repetitive defensiveness about ‘problematic’ writing does kind of annoy me a bit, even if I can understand where it comes from. Let your work speak for itself.

Anyway, that’s enough huge essays (I say, falsely). Let’s finish out the branch.

“...right?”

This branch finishes out with a poke at the whole structure of the game so far - the good endings, bad endings, and so on. We’ve not made a friend, but we have made a stronger connecting with an existing one.

I’m not sure how seriously we should take that given the way ‘valid’ has become pretty much a joke word, if this is still an extended dig at the audience, but there we are.

That was a surprisingly long and rich branch for a first choice, which is kind of nice, actually.

If we click ‘no’ on ‘do you want to understand’...

We just get a game over screen with us sitting in our watchtower looking sad.

So now... it’s time for the nsfw section discussed above. Except... it’s a total fakeout.

First of all, we get an implication that it’s not his first time at all. Anyway, then we get to it. Which is to say, we get a fade to silly anime joke. God, this is like those old 4chan stories where they’d set you up for a sex scene and then rickroll you or something.

We get a ‘dorito faced anime boy’ joke I guess?

Afterwards...

Lol.

Anyway, in this branch, he doesn’t add us on chittr. Lol.

So yeah we die of shame. Welp.

God I can’t believe I thought this would actually go there. Of course it would be a joke at the audience.

Looking back, well, you know, reading the metaphors: he’s a predatory guy and lied through his teeth to get into our pants. Obviously it’s not his first time; obviously he’s not about to bugger off to space and never have sex again T_T, obviously the shit he said was just to get us to fuck; this isn’t just cheesy narrative tropes but within the fiction him playing the protagonist in order to get us to fuck. Complete with the whole attempt to drug us, and make it very unambiguously rape. (Which no doubt Elwurd knew). He got us to explicitly consent before we did anything, but also did enough shady shit so as to make that ‘consent’ kind of questionable when viewed later.

Viewed in that light... what I originally thought was just someone writing a horny fantasy about a hot dominating guy who’s totally into you~ is actually like... a pretty sharp piece of writing about shit pulled by men. There were plenty of warning signs - the ‘objectifying’ way he looks at you, the way he attempts to drug you, etc. I would like to imagine that IRL, rather than taking it as a piece of fiction, I wouldn’t be vulnerable to the same tactics. (Well, obviously I wouldn’t from a guy, at any rate). But it’s kind of a nicely written piece to make you feel stupid and taken advantage of afterwards like... why the fuck did you go along with this.

Though given that this kind of thing is something that people like... actually go through, I feel like they could have warned for it better than ‘challenging and controversial material’. Yes, that might have robbed it of some of its power; but it would also mean that it wouldn’t trigger people who have trauma over this exact kind of thing.

So.

“V”.

Honestly, my strongest feeling about “V” is one of respect. Both their stories have been a weird blend of cheeky, challenging and playful, with some very astute elements and an enormous amount of energy and intensity. They’re prepared to fuck with the reader in ways both silly (lick the troll’s armpit!) and rather more serious (this whole arc), they fuck around with canonicity and narrative structure in creative ways... I wonder what else they’ve written?

There remains only these two clown twins, and the epilogue.

Barzum and Baizli

To finish out the set, we have another pair. The Alternian text says ‘The Soleil Twins’, so I guess that’s their surname. The twins are written by Kieran Miranda, who previously wrote Azdaja, Stelsa and Charun.

The story begins with day nearing, and the protagonist friendless. They get the idea to like... head over to relax with Skylla, but before they can, they run into a house.

A very haunted looking house.

An easy choice for us to begin. ‘No fucking way’ naturally skips this arc, right?

Nope, back at the house. We get another choice: leave left or right. I picked left. I doubt it matters.

Yep, that kind of house. We can’t escape.

After a struggle, we reach the door.

Inside, we immediately pass out with a sense of nausea. Lovely. This can only go well. We hear something like bugs skittering away.

The mansion does at least seem to be explorable. Unfortunately, the door leads to a portrait gallery full of clowns, which is not the most welcome place to end up.

Someone tunes one of the portraits. It turns out to be a TV. Dramatic piano chords come in.

Oh hey it’s some friends.

Their shtick is that the one on the right finishes the one on the left’s sentences, the one on the left speaks in all lower case, and the one on the right speaks in all caps.

They want us to find them. They’re very bored you see, and want to play a game. This is, I understand, an allusion to the Saw series of horror movies, in which I gather a person places people in buildings full of sadistic traps, monitored by various cameras and a small puppet with spiral cheeks. So I guess that’s us now.

We get our first real choice.

I think the door is too obvious. If there’s not another exit, we’ll have to take the door anyway - though that’s likely a different branch, realistically speaking.

We discover a hidden door. Behind it is... a hole in the ground.

I guess we have instant-death options later than usual in this chapter. Our final thought is about the terrible loss of our Chittr profile.

Well, that’s fine. Let’s see what happens if we go straight into the house instead of wandering around.

Approaching the house immediately just skips the wandering around; the text is the same. It was a fake choice. Skipping forward, let’s see what happens if we take the obvious door, not the hidden one.

As we move down the hallway, the lights come on and the walls start bleeding. Lovely. Glorious sense of interior decoration. Tip top.

Beyond the door, we end up in another dark room. Maybe this one will be more of a true CYOA, with death options in every room.

But no. Not immediately, anyway. Ropes come out of the ground and tie us up. The two trolls who were watching us make themselves known.

Carnivalish music kicks in. We finally get a clear view of our captors.

Baizli right (allcaps), Barzum left (lowercase). I’ll try to remember that.

The twins say some predictably sinister stuff about removing our intestines (acid tubes, in trollspeak). The narrator grumbles about once again being reduced to the status of ‘torture muppet’.

When we express a desire to leave, Barzum and Baizli swap both demeanour and capitalisation rule. Now Baizli looks sad, and speaks in lowercase, while Barzum is pissed and speaks in caps.

These two twins, in the tradition of creepy twins, seem to share one mind. Which means they can hardly prank each other! They need someone else.

They rev up a chainsaw and suddenly... we’re back in the same room we started.

Looks like we’ve had another bit of time fuckery from The Powers That Be. Compare Fozzer. The loops kick in, faster and faster. Glued. Buried alive.

Having read the epilogue, all I’ll say is that it seems like someone is trying very hard to push us onto a timeline that ‘works’.

There’s a joke about time loop movies which I don’t get because I haven’t seen very many time loop movies.

After ‘20 or so’ loops, we decide we’ve had enough. But we get a choice of what to do about it.

Let’s try ‘Fuck this.’ first.

This turns out to mean attempting to intimidate the twins instead of begging them to release us.

While they’re baffled by this display, we make a break for an air vent. Surprisingly, we make good our escape. There’s a mention of all our jogging training with Stelsa, which happened in a non-canonical timeline - there was a whole thing about it! - but fair enough. Guess that’s another thing that persists between timelines. Or maybe the protag just thinks they went jogging with Stelsa in this timeline.

We find we’ve missed a bunch of texts from Skylla while we were out, and plan to head over there. But alas... the space loop is still in effect.

We end up back at the house. Unable to escape from the pocket dimension, the branch ends...

So let’s try the other option: ‘remember who you are’.

Come, try to remember...

And that is, of course... FRIENDSHIP. This time, we have something to say to the clowns (after ensuring we haven’t pissed ourselves).

Not killing us is apparently a novel idea for the twins. Or rather, they didn’t plan to kill us - just cut us up a bit, unaware that we wouldn’t heal right back up. The protag corrects the misconception.

So now we’re teaching the creepy clown kids the meaning of friendship. Novel!

The lights come up and they put on a little circus show for us. Apparently this building is not their hive.

They show us various other dangerous-looking circus tricks with the torture/circus equipment. Ah, says the narrator, so risking their lives is these kids’ hobby.

It turns out these kids hatched from the same egg. They tell us they do in fact share a mind entirely - one mind, two bodies.

And at last we end up chilling out and sharing stories.

With this friendship established, we sense a shift of some kind. We take this as a sign that the door might have finally opened.

Not only is the door open, but the ‘pocket dimension’ has dissipated too. The power of friendship! ...or fulfilling some secret design of whoever created the pocket dimension. Mmm.

How touching.

There’s a fakeout victory jingle, which turns out to have been a prank. They explain that... the creepy blood seeping walls and so on were their ‘chucklevoodoos’, but as for the time loop... Not them at all.

“Do you want to understand?” asks the prompt again. Time... for the epilogue.

#momestuck #lets read hiveswap friendsim #sex cw

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sleepymarmot · 6 years

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A couple of months ago, after finishing COUNTER/Weight, I spent about a week in a total hangover, relistening to scenes and having feelings. I took some notes, but procrastinated posting them, and then finally got distracted. But, a) I hate leaving things I intended for tumblr unposted, even if they have value only for me, and b) I also hate posting things out of order, and there's a big TM liveblog incoming. So, here's a bunch of really random thoughts about C/w from past me.

The gnosis virus did go nowhere huh. I was hopeful for a minute when one of the finale intros mentioned it, but that was it. What was the purpose of that arc even. [Note from present me: Lol. At least I feel better about this one!]

Oh, and the patch AuDy left never reappeared either. And the idea from the faction game that Aria's images owned by EarthHome/Petrichor transmit Rigour code… That's the flip side of the coin. On the one hand, it's really cool to see the creative process – on the other, it sometimes feels like you're listening to people write a script for the tv show, but only get to see a half of the finished product. It's fascinating to see the universe grow organically and the players to come up with new ideas and get excited about them – but that means numerous retcons, some of them not even presented as such, because the creators forgot what the previous revision was or didn't thought it was important. It's a unique feature of the medium that player choice directs the narrative and it's not bound by railroading – but that means some roads lead nowhere, and some branches dry and fall off.

It's a bit harder to make peace with something that could have easily been developed more within the existing plot of the show. How come there's a player character whose consciousness consists of three different people in various combinations, but nobody seems to be curious how that works? No PC or NPC ever asked “Which one of you is speaking right now?” or something. The final episodes made a lot of things clearer, but it still felt too little, too late. Hard not to be reminded of that gripe about certain two characters sharing one character sheet one of whom was left underdeveloped and half-forgotten… Both are very ambitious concepts that require a double amount of work from the player, so I feel bad complaining they weren't realized to full potential, but…

Speaking of L&D… I still want to know how the hell did that one engineer all by herself design 4 gods, one of which became a basis for technology that was advanced even for the civilizations 80,000 years later? This woman singlehandedly surpassed any technological achievement of humanity before and after. Who Is She

I saw a “Wake me up: before you go go / when september ends / wake me up inside” meme and thought “heh, this sounds relevant, which member of the Chime is which?” and it already made me sad, but then I realized that I'd never actually heard the september song and looked it up and. The lyrics fit so well. What the fuck. It's an old song everyone keeps joking about. Why is it appropriate for a legitimate fanmix. What. I guess the word “September” will never be the same again for me.

I looked up the rules for Firebrands, the game used for the finale. Oh my, challenges for the dance minigame are so overtly romantic when you see them in a list together! Imagine this cast of characters having to answer to “do you place your hand upon my elbow, shoulder, waist, or hip?” lmao. Also I didn't realize “May I?” was part of the rules for “stealing time together”. (And I found out there's a party version of that minigame with bug-themed challenges. I might have dug too deep…) "Tactical skirmish" is a really fascinating concept, I've never seen such a masochistic combat system! Really faces the player with the violence they're inflicting: sure, you can always fight on, but are you ready to live with what you'll have to do? But for it to work fully, you need a lot of non-expendable NPCs on both sides. The one with the most likeable team wins! (Like Mako did.)

I'm relistening to Three Conversations and it's pretty interesting that Ibex has a bunch perfectly lifelike android bodies, right? There is no such technology seen anywhere else. Did Righteousness develop and privatize that? Are they so complex that only a Divine would have enough computing power to successfully mimic organic life? Can Aria convince Righteousness to help her perform on stage without leaving her duties? Also, like with AuDy, I wonder how Ibex & Righteousness' consciousness works. Is it a single mind, spread across every body he has, or even anything Righteousness is running on, having a bunch of different conversations at once if he needs to? Or is the original Ibex just gone, and what's left is a personality imprint hanging on to the connection to his still living body, imitating his former self like the automated recording Cass saw wore his face? In other words, has Ibex completely fused with Righteousness, or assimilated and destroyed by it? Does he not exist anymore as an independent singular being, or does he not exist at all? Most info indicates the former, but there was also “You’re not in there anymore” “No”.

If Orth and Jace are anime fans with their Kingdom Come and Panther, then Ibex is the guy who's way too into dinosaurs or paleontology. It's as if the heads of various confessions were called Triceratops, Stegosaurus etc. and only one of them knows wtf that means, and also he compares his Divine to… Were there scavenging dinosaurs? I'm looking at an article that suggests T. Rex might have been a scavenger, so yeah he would compare Righteousness to a goddamn T. Rex.

Hey what do you think is the most thematically aproppriate part of the Hieron anime for Orth to watch alone at night during the Kingdom game. What's the best thematic parallel for when he turns off the episode and thinks he made a mistake. Do you think that he once, after a long day and a long month and maybe a long year of feeling helpless and doomed, sits down for a distraction but ends up sobbing “How could they let this happen to Mother Glory”

On Joypark, there are definitely statues of Eidolons, ancient and holy, that were repainted and repurposed as Hieron deities. Imagine a giant Greek or Roman style marble statue of Apote – and it’s painted over as Samot, with an anime face and in really bright plain colors like these “reconstructions of original coloring” that actually only use base colors so they look like cheap action figures.

I was reading Austin's top ten games of 2016 list on Waypoint and he gave first place to The Sprawl! Aww!

The Downloads folder in my phone gallery is funny bc it mostly consists of every freely available f@tt map and also that one photo of Tristan Walker (because I tried to redraw it, very unsuccessfully). I go check a map and every time am met by Ibex just. staring at me. It's unsettling

Some of the many options for how Apostolosian gender could have been presented:

Apostolosians prefer to be addressed by the most neutral available human pronoun, represented as "they" in English, because the human languages don't have anything close enough

Apostolosian pronouns are represented in English by a set of real-life common pronouns and neopronouns

There's a list of Apostolosian pronouns and they're just used in English verbatim (Really impractical because the players need a cheat sheet, but the most fair)

Humans apply human genders to Apostolosians. Apostolosians may be offended, may find it convenient, or something else

As Austin said in the post-mortem, the Eidolon system is not gender. It's represented in English by titles/honorifics/etc

Any of the above, and the creators are aware of the difference between personal pronouns, grammatical gender, and social gender

And that’s not even touching the core problem of what the concept of gender in a futuristic, techonologically advanced society would look like. Yes, I'm complaining about this for the third time but I'm just. So tired of native English speakers' takes on gendered language. They could have made Apostolosian gender look like anything and they made it look like that fucking mess... God, I really hope TM is good enough to make me forget and forgive the experience of listening to “he... sorry, they” for 100 hours. [Note from present me: Well… mostly]

Here’s my take on this: eidolons in Apostolosian language are absurdly broad noun classes with associated classifiers (which fits both the idea that they’re gender but not actually, and that each of them is a patron to several unrelated aspects of life) Apostolosian: the word “(Apo)thesa” is used to refer to people who follow the corresponding eidolon, as well as for counting buildings, heavy machinery, military units, specific strategies and tactics, log entries, historical documents and chronicles, history textbooks and monographs, and eras :) Human: what the fuck

Very critical, imaginative worldbuilding in which 80,000+ years into the future humanity somehow has 21st century gender and 21st century capitalism! TBH, I find any sci-fi set in the far future inherently silly – we can’t really imagine the future technogy and its effect on society. But it feels like C/w barely even tried, and to hear it boast about “critical worldbuilding” is kinda strange. I assumed that meant they build the world critically, not that they recreate modern society or some aspect of it and criticize that! It’s just another Star Trek then! And it was already clear right during the setup when they said “We don’t want Star Trek aliens” and immediately created Apostolosians.

I haven't seen a single piece of fanart with Taako and Mako. Come on, does nobody want to see these two next to each other! Especially considering the outfits artists like to put Taako in!

I really don't understand how and why people do fandom activities on Twitter and Discord where the creators also have accounts. It gives me so much secondhand embarrassment. I can barely peek at Twitter posts before running away. Old-fashioned opinion apparently but I strongly believe the main fandom space and the interaction-with-original-creators space should be separate. I need a space where I can voice my opinions, especially negative ones, with complete freedom. I need to be able to say exactly what's on my mind. But I wouldn't want any of the people on the podcast to read something unfiltered like my complaints above. Being in the same space as the source content creators obliges any decent person to be diplomatic and constructive. And the creators, in turn, need a space where they don't come across complete randos yelling at them about something they said in a podcast three years ago. I'm already feeling uncomfortable because hearing to strangers pour their hearts out for hundreds of hours gives me way too much insight on who they are as people. Of course, nothing’s stopping them from lurking on Tumblr or AO3 and even reading this very post, but a platform where they have official accounts is still a different thing! I even feel uncomfortable talking about the podcast creators using their first names so much. To my ear, referring to a total stranger by first name, especially if it's a shortened form, sounds so rude! I'm not their friend, I don't have that right! But, of course, writing something like “Mr Walker” in my liveblogs would have been even weirder, nobody does that...

Is it a common experience to not even think about fanfiction after listening to Hieron, but going straight to AO3 after C/w? I feel like since Hieron is still a work in progress, writing/reading about it is stepping on the GM&players' toes, and C/w is finished so it's like they gave us the keys to the playground, it's the fandom's turn now. This story has so much blanks and they must be filled! In one of the early episodes they joked that something cute they said would encourage people to ship Mako/Cass and I was like "Bold of you to assume they aren't already" and, indeed, I was right and it's the most popular C/w ship on AO3. Too bad I’m so indifferent to it…

It’s a shame we never had a full scene with Ariadne or even learned what they were up to during the finale.

I still don't understand how Ibex went from “evil CEO” to “leader of a proletarian revolution”, these sound like completely opposite concepts to me

I probably have talked about this too much and have pretty much given up on ever getting a clear picture due to all of these reimaginings but… Righteousness and Voice… Ibex takes Righteousness out of Mako but he still has Voice, that was pretty much openly stated, correct? So how does that work? I’m guessing Righteousness is hidden somewhere in Voice’s code. But if so:

Did Maryland know? On the one hand, she’s too competent not to. On the other, why would she ever allow or accept that?

How did Righteousness not get corrupted by Rigour too? Maybe it did, but broke off the connection with the rest of itself to contain the damage? Or maybe, on the contrary, it kept in contact and was sending intel to Ibex the whole time? But in that case he would have provided more help in the finale.

#friends at the table #blah blah blah

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paulisweeabootrash · 6 years

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Follow-Up Post: The Rest of the R.O.D. Franchise

It’s time again for Paul is Weeaboo Trash! Since I posted my review of R.O.D. the OVA, I've read all of both manga serieses — Read or Die and Read or Dream — and have started the TV series, R.O.D. the TV. I have some lingering questions about what I've read and watched so far, but by shamelessly reading some spoilers from the fan wiki, it looks like almost all of my remaining plot questions about the OVA and the manga will be explained in this series*. Phew!

However, I am much less confident now about whether all four installments in this franchise are supposed to be in the same narrative universe. Read or Die and the OVA seem completely compatible, especially if it's literally true that "everyone returned to their daily lives" at the end of Read or Die. And the TV series is clearly a sequel to the OVA, weaving in the characters from Read or Dream. But even from the first episode of the TV series, there are a couple of things that would make it strange for it and Read or Dream to coexist — for example, Michelle and Maggie apparently have both not been to Jinbōchō, where the first scene in the fourth volume of the manga takes place (which would have been less than a year earlier, based on character ages, if both were in the same universe, so it’s unlikely they just forgot), and the story arc they're starting with where they're serving as bodyguards for Nenene Sumiregawa (who was introduced in the original Read or Die manga) loudly echoes parts of two story arcs from Read or Dream.

Whatever the continuity is supposed to be, the explanation for why it’s like this is probably just that the TV series and Read or Dream were being written at the same time, both by Hideyuki Kurata, so maybe he just decided to use the same story elements in different places and changed his mind about a couple things. And at any rate, it's rare and interesting to see a franchise, anime or otherwise, that's at least easily reconcilable across different media, let alone one where the same story continues across different media**. The only similar situation I can think of off the top of my head is the comic book continuation of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

The Read or Die manga sets up the background for ROD the OVA, set some time shortly before it. I really should’ve read it first. We get to see Yomiko fleshed out much more as a character, and explore her past and the inner workings of the British Library. There are still of couple of points where things seemed unclear, but that may be issues in translation or my own failure to pick up on things. I don’t know. Read or Dream then picks up after ROD with a new set of protagonists, Michelle, Maggie, and Anita, three Hongkongers who have formed a fictive family, treating each other as sisters although they are not related. Like Yomiko from the earlier Read or Die, they are Paper Masters. Rather than working for the British Library or another secret organization, though***, they are trying to scrape together a living as translators, private detectives, and eventually bodyguards at their home business, the imaginatively-named Three Sisters Detective Agency****. This starts out lighthearted in the manga, then gets more towards the serious (and action-heavy) end of things, with a story arc that would be right at home in Read or Die by the last volume, and continues in this heavier mood in the TV series.

I'm not going to go through and summarize the rest of the franchise in any further detail; instead, I am just going to highly recommend them all. Although you can just jump in at the OVA, or at either manga series, I'm not sure it would work as well for the TV series, and I highly recommend you read and watch the franchise in publication order. If you're lucky, maybe you can find someone selling them all packaged together, like I did.

May the power of paper protect you.

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W/A/S/CONTENT scores, overall: 3 / 4 / 3 / !

Weeb: What I said in the OVA review also applies to the other parts of the franchise, mostly. There's very little that's both culturally-bound and not explained in the dialogue. Possibly the most distinctly Japanese things are how students interact with each other in the two manga serieses and, unfortunately, that the very idea of a Chinese person being anti-Japanese is described dismissively as him being "some head case" rather than part of a long-standing international conflict.

Ass: In addition to what I noted in the OVA review, there is brief nudity in the Read or Dream manga. Most sexual content is distressing rather than titillating, see content warning below.

Shit: Overall, the other parts of the franchise might be better than the OVA in writing and characterization. I don't know if I'm judging fairly There are still a few things I found confusing, and so far I don't think the art is as consistently good in the Read or Dream anime as in the other three installments. It also reuses music from the OVA, which I personally enjoy, but it feels cheap. But it's great and I refuse to rate the franchise as a whole any lower than I did the OVA on its own.

CONTENT WARNING: Ooooh boy. I don't know what I expected. There's the sudden pivot to disturbing violence in the OVA which I mentioned before. The original Read or Die manga contains some other horrifying moments like that. But most in need of advance warning is that Read or Die contains a rape scene that is, unfortunately for those who might want to just skip it, actually an important part of the plot.

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* However, I am not at all convinced that the dates on the fan wiki's timeline are right, and it only seems to be based on the two anime. So... huh.

** Or, at least, without being so inconsistent it can't really be called a single narrative universe, retconned into oblivion by later writers of a more "official" narrative, or both, although to be fair, each of those examples involves a very large number of different writers.

*** Well... not anymore...

**** They keep calling it "Paper Sisters" in the manga, but the first character in the name is clearly 三, "three", and is translated as such in the show.

#anime review #follow-up #R.O.D.#Read or Die #ROD the OVA #Read or Dream #ROD the TV #weeaboo trash

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progmanx · 6 years

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So? Part 2?

Well, now that it’s been released digitally, I can actually answer this question. Thank you for your patience. So, uh, spoilers, if you haven’t read Turf Wars Part 2 yet. I guess.

Short version: It’s just as bad as Part 1 (if not worse), but for slightly different reasons. For mine and @lokgifsandmusings‘s thoughts on Part 1, you can read our several articles about the first installment, as well as our good friend Bo’s take on Part 2 who makes some excellent points on why nothing works. I’m going to do my best not to reiterate the things he’s discussed, as I think his work does a better job of laying out that argument than I could. So go read that first, if you want.

Slightly Longer Version (That’s Shorter Than The Short Version?): Mike (there’s no way Bryan is actually consulting on anything aside from the art; Asami is his baby) clearly neglected to rewatch his own series/re-read his own series bible, and the scope of this negligence goes so far beyond nitpicking it’s baffling. The narrative threads and characterization of our two heroes are jumbled and essentially nonsensical.

Extremely Long Version: Sigh. I would like to preface this by asserting that my opinion of Turf Wars is in no way related to the work I did with RRaU, or Spin the Rails as a whole. Sure, I thought a lot about the world and this relationship, but frankly no conclusion I came to couldn’t also be reached by anyone else who puts in the time. Just because Mike continued the narrative differently doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like it automatically. The fact of the matter is, I really wanted to like this. It just so happens that the method Mike chose is…like, kind of the worst possible amalgamation of bad narrative decisions he could make short of turning full edgelord.

This got extremely long, hence the moniker, so it’s under the cut.

Anyway, my problems and critiques of Turf Wars are that of the product itself, how it chooses to continue the story of the animated series proper.

Now that that’s out of the way: I kind of hate almost everything about it. Yeah, I’m probably gonna lose followers for that. I want queer rep, and I want it badly, but if we can’t even criticize what we get without getting thrown out onto the street, how will it get any better? It’s not all or nothing.

Not even Turf Wars is all or nothing. I still stand by what @lokgifsandmusings and I said in our pieces regarding Part 1: It’s an overall good thing that it exists, and it’s not hurting anyone. However, that does not mean I think it itself is actually anything close to good, narratively speaking.

If I really had to boil down all of my problems with this…since Bo’s argument regarding how these books are overly stuffed with narratives that have no connection to one another aside from the fact that Asami gets kidnapped (we’re gonna dissect that one) and that none of it actually serves any purpose other than treading water for…something is so comprehensive and great. Seriously, read it!

Fact of the matter is, there’s no reason for any of these narratives to exist. It doesn’t push anyone’s character forward, with the exception of Zhu Li, Toguka (who even cares?), possibly Keum, and I guess by default Raiko by making him more of a jerk. None of those characters are the principal cast, meaning that this whole damn thing is, as far as I can see, really weird, overwritten filler.

Filler for what? I have no earthly idea, but if the only thing that changes out of this graphic novel series is that Zhu Li becomes President, then…you could have done that off-screen. Like how Raiko won. Neither Bryan nor Mike know how to write politics (or business, but that’s another conversation) so why not? Saves a lot of time.

Okay, so, there’s one other change that could happen in this “filler arc”. And it’s something that everything so far seems to be pointing to as a resolution. For anything to make sense, Asami has to basically say to Korra, “I’m a liability and will only keep getting in the way, so we either have to keep our relationship a secret or break up.” Probably to get rejected by Korra, or the world, or something. Which is just…terrible and ridiculous, as I’ll outline more in this post/rant/essay/dissertation. It has nothing to do with them being a same-sex couple, which is somehow both not as bad (because that shouldn’t matter) and worse (because of Kya’s infodump in Part 1).

Anyway, on to the biggest issues above all: our two “protagonists”. Well, more like the title character and also that lady she’s banging. Because it’s really hard to see how Korra and Asami are actually relevant to any of the narrative threads in this story aside from the ones they are forcibly pulled into so they can react to things. And this isn’t even accounting for how Mike is somehow able to write literally everyone else just fine except for Korra and Asami! It’s so freaking weird!

Korra, even more than she was in Part 1, has been almost comically back dialed to her Book 1 characterization. At best, it’s Book 2, but that is a stretch. Everything she does it to try and bust some heads, and even goes out of her way to physically assault Raiko’s campaign advisor. This isn’t even accounting the flagrant abuse of the Avatar State in Part 1, or the many other microaggressions that keep popping up.

Book 4 Korra would not do this. That was like—it’s her whole fucking series arc. She doesn’t look for fights! She tries to resolve them before they get bad, and especially with Asami she backs down and tries to diffuse and explain the situation. Like, you know, that time when Asami snapped at her in 4x07 in contrast to how Mako snapped at her also in 4x07?

But it goes deeper than tossing out years of character growth because “lol conflict”. I felt that the interactions between Korra and Asami here read embarrassingly straight. What I mean by that is, it’s how I imagine a straight dude would believe “special” relationships (ie queer, who aren’t) should be written. It’s something that a lot of non-queer writers struggle with, since there’s this false belief that treating those “different” from you as unique or better props them up, when in reality it artificially props them up in a way that is inherently insincere. Mike wants to show us he understands how important this relationship is, and how it’s important to him, but the words he’s choosing have the opposite effect.

It reminds me of the “Magical Negro” trope that originated in Hollywood as an absurd, and then eventually harmful, overcompensation for making sure people knew that they weren’t racist by making every minority character in a given film the perfect wisdom to set the hero on their journey. It’s same basic principle, as Mike is trying to make sure as loudly as possible that we know he’s super supportive of all of this…but the outcome is just plain weird and dangerous, even though his intentions are absolutely good.

Remember that bit in Part 1 where Asami says that the Spirit World is special and unique, like their relationship? Welp. It’s not. It was exceptionally well-written and true-to-life in its queerness but I guess not anymore, huh?

They’re more caricatures of their former selves than they are actual characters in these moments. The purest irony here is that these scenes, the “relationship scenes”, are actually pandering. Like, while the show wasn’t and yet anti-korrasami people kept yelling that it was (it wasn’t; that’s not how animation production works) boom, here we go. Actual pandering. (And yes, this is an entirely subjective opinion, but isn’t that kinda what this ask was for?)

Thirsty Asami, Overprotective Korra; these characterizations not only don’t make sense, but they’re exactly what the fandom has been asking for despite neither of them really fitting at all with previous characterizations. These things are supposed to build off one another, and yet they just go in random directions. Okay, fine, in fairness, Thirsty Asami only doesn’t make sense in the context we see it here, rather than a general sense. She can be horny, but that was the weirdest segue to that sort of tone, and it felt shoehorned in as fanservice. Need proof? Look no further:

I mean, seriously? The final lines of the TV show? That’s…every single fanfic writer has at least considered doing that because of the free sentimentality points due to the emotions attached to that final scene, but good lord that is some blatant not-helpful fanservice that, to me, feels automatically pandering right there.

Because that’s what their relationship reads as in these comics. Fanservice. It’s meaningless fluff that seems as though it’s actively refusing to progress either character in personal and communal growth. It serves no other purpose than to reinforce the idea that Asami is a liability (and that Korra’s feelings are the so super strong for her you guys that she’s overprotective lmao). Which is so beyond absurd a notion to have, according to the show itself, because Korra has been present for almost every doofus Asami has decked:

This is also depicted in the end of Part 1, where Korra chooses to save Asami (who is either drunk or high as balls considering her hilariously inept and counter-canon combat performance) from a rock instead of Tokuga. Which just ties into what happens to Asami at the end of Part 2. Yes, the kidnapping. I already talked about the kidnapping, and lo and behold, I was right. Tokuga kidnaps Asami to get to Korra (how original!), and is weirdly okay with them being in a relationship. Remember that homophobia in this universe that may still exist in the Fire Nation because nobody bothered to clarify that? Welp, apparently it didn’t mean squat because Korra just flat out tells a security guard that she’s dating Asami when they were all like “hey let’s keep this to ourselves for the time being”. Even the supervillains don’t care that queer people exist, I guess?

Which of course leads to this scene:

Okay, no. No, there are…so, so many ways to get out of this scenario. First, that’s not a real knife. It’s a fire made in the shape of a blade. It does have mass, but whatever level of “sharpness” it has can’t really retain shape because it’s FIRE. It’s not ice. Asami could presumably just run through it, suffering some nasty burns, and jump to safety because there are plenty of people there who could catch her. Second, that dude is an old man. Asami has taken down multiple terrorists simultaneously. She could just kick him in the balls with her heel. It’s super easy. Third, Asami has been trained in “self-defense” since her mother was murdered (we’ll circle back to this) by firebenders, the implication being that it was the Agni Kai Triad.

So, Hiroshi, being a hardcore genocidal anti-bender crazy person with a daughter insists that she start learning to defend herself at the age of like 5…what do you think those lessons are? I’ve covered this in my Jings and Other Things post, but frankly it doesn’t take a whole lot of thought to realize that “oh he’d make sure she was trained to fight against benders.” That actually circles back to point two, since hey, remember how firebending works?

Remember when Uncle Iroh was all “firebending comes from the breath, not the muscles”? Which lead to Zhao getting his butt kicked by Zuko? All Asami has to do is knock the wind out of this old geezer and jump. Or break his concentration, because, again, not a real knife. This is something she would absolutely know.

Elbow his stomach, kick him in the balls, bite his knuckles, break his nose with the back of her head, kick out his legs, throw herself backwards—the list goes on. Something so fundamental to the universe, to the point that it was sort of Zuko’s whole thing, rebelling against Sozin’s perverted firebending teachings (DANCING DRAGON FORM) through the previous series, being ignored and seemingly retconned because…Mike forgot? And didn’t do any research on his own work to make sure it remained consistent? Uh, okay.

You don’t need to be an action director to think of any of these, especially if you’ve seen the TV show in question. Also, just as an aside to Korra not being able to locate Asami…she, uh, has spirit GPS? Remember that? Through the vines? Found Wu, and Jinora. Just kind supports my theory that Mike forgot to watch his own show. Since that was like, important to Korra’s healing arc.

Anyway, for Asami’s character as a whole…good lord. I don’t…she’s, again, either drunk or high as balls. I mean how else do you explain her being super chill and okay with working with Zhu Li in the first place? Didn’t her husband steal her company? Something that Zhu Li had to have been complicit in considering she was in prison with him? None of this makes any sense! Asami’s convictions on what is just and what is not are kind of her core (remember the Equalists?), so for them to just be thrown out because plot is a little strange and disconcerting.

I’m not saying she wouldn’t work with Zhu Li for the good of the city; she did the same with Varrick and that rings true to me because it’s not like she spent three years rebuilding the fucking thing. Of course she’d be protective of it! It’s also her home. But all of that pales in comparison to the single most glaring thing that is addressed briefly, in passing, in Part 1, but isn’t even mentioned in Part 2:

I just—Korra got a phenomenal healing arc. Asami is the second half of this couple that they are banking these book sales on, and she’s not given room to grieve? To acknowledge that her father was not only murdered, but sacrificed himself to save her life and how complicated and conflicting those feelings have to be considering he tried to murder her back in Book 1? Yeah, that is a meaty subject matter that can absolutely be tackled by a comic. You just sort of have to actually do it and not sweep it under the rug. But that’s what they do, despite the fact that he’s been dead for, oh, I dunno, like less than a month? Nobody can recover that quickly. No one. Not even the Avatar, and we literally saw that in action.

I get that Kuvira isn’t physically in this, and that the corpse of the massive mecha-giant that could not have possibly been moved via conventional means (it was covered in vines that not even Korra can safely remove, remember?) is randomly missing after Korra and Asami get back from their vacation but I really feel like Raiko’s surrender directly leading to Hiroshi’s death is something that could easily be dug into. Even if it’s not totally rational, because it doesn’t have to be because grief and emotions are not rational.

I mean, I doubt I need to get into the fact that Asami is once again sidelined in a plot that should be about her (the reconstruction effort was literally her thing between Books 3 and 4), since that one is just—it’s there. That’s what it is. Zhu Li gets it because she’s around, I guess? And because Raiko is a terrible President who needed to get ousted anyway (why is he not letting people get their food???), but why wouldn’t whatever theoretical legislature just impeach him while Korra and Asami were on vacation? What purpose does this narrative actually serve since we already don’t like Raiko and would want anyone in that position that isn’t him? Preferably someone who lost in the first round of elections—I’ll stop there. It just unfolds with the slightest tug.

SPEAKING OF DEAD PARENTS (perfect segue) remember when I reminded you that Asami’s mother was murdered by firebenders? After a break-in? When she was five? Wow that must have been pretty traumatizing for her considering it literally radicalized her father into becoming a genocidal maniac. Which, you know, makes it extremely strange that this isn’t brought up or addressed when Jargala and her crew do like, the same thing to Asami.

Wow that’s scary, isn’t it? Possibly PTSD flashback level scary, if Mike had remembered that important aspect of Asami’s history. Yet this is not brought up, and it doesn’t seem to inform Asami’s character at all despite the fact that it should probably be the second thing that comes out of her mouth when she discusses the encounter with Korra.

But wait, it happens again with Tokuga, who just ransacks her place, which just makes it worse. It’d be bad enough not to have Asami explicate this connection the first time around, because she could be bottling her emotions (she does that), and we find out about this later, but to do it twice in the same graphic novel? In quick succession? Yeah, Mike just plum forgot.

I don’t think I need to explain further why being lazy with a canon that you yourself poured your blood, sweat and tears into is not a great look. But that’s what the story Mike wrote is saying.

So, yeah, those are most of my issues with Turf Wars Part 2. Thanks for reading through to the end!

Other random thoughts on how none of this makes sense:

Why does Republic City have Kuvira’s military armaments in a warehouse? Even if the war is somehow over, which it can’t be because that’s not how anything works, it’s still Earth Empire property.

Why do any of those mecha-suits even work after Varrick’s EMP?

Why is Ba Sing Se offering relief efforts when that’s the capital of the country that just invaded the United Republic— seriously they’re still at war you guys you can’t just capture the enemy commander and win

How does Tokuga’s half-spirit form allow him to control spirits? Wouldn’t that make them hate him more?

Why do the triads agree to work under him when all he’s got is a tentacle arm? They could just set him on fire and be done with it

What is the point of Keum, like, at all? Why does he even exist? He got kidnapped at the end of Part 1, but we have no emotional stake in his existence

Why are Mako and Bolin relearning how to value one another’s different skill sets? This is like the fifth time or something

#Anonymous #asks #turf wars spoilers #korrasami #meta #the legend of korra #korra #these are all just my opinions #turf wars

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frosteblaze · 6 years

Text

100 followers!!! 0.0

Gasp! I can’t believe it already! Thank you all so much! I thought to commemorate this moment, and so that you can get to know me a little better I might do this. Feel free to do it yourselves, so that I can learn about you as well!! 

Get to know the Inazuma Fandom Meme~

How long have you been a fan of Inazuma Eleven?

Oh gosh. How much time ago was it… 5 or 6 years I think. It’s just, it’s been very active around these years, then I moved to other interests. But recently it’s been a pretty hard time for me, so going back to old “childhood” fandom has been really a blessing. Because IE is an anime that’s just so enjoyable to watch, I don’t have to think hard about it, it’s just so refreshing…

How did you find out about Inazuma Eleven?

TV mostly. I was bored and scanned through channels and stumbled upon Inazuma Eleven and just, found it really interesting. It was around episode 40, where Raimon is battling Epsilon and Fubuki was starting to have problems with his double personality, and I thought “Huh, that character is interesting”, so I checked the anime on wikipedia and went through 126 episodes in a month. And then bought the games and rewatched IE two other times in the span of a year. So yeah. You could say I “came for fubuki, stayed for everything”.

Favourite IE Character(s)

As you might have guessed, Shirou takes the top spot, along with Endou, Gouenji and Kidou.

Favourite IEGO Character(s)

Tenma and Kyousuke. Maybe also Hakuryuu. I have to rewatch Go and finish Galaxy to be able to really tell.

(Yeah I know I just listed protagonists. I just… get really invested in their story, they always end up my favorites)

Least Favourite Character(s)

I don’t know, Fuyuka maybe? I think she’s a bit shallow… But there’s no character I really hate.

Favourite OTP and ships?

Yeeeeeaaaaaah, I… don’t really ship. Not my thing, really.

Favourite BROTP?

Break Trio! And all siblings relationships are fantastic. Also I like the juxtaposition set by the narrative between Fubuki and Gouenji, and Kyousuke and Hakuryuu. It’s a bit of partnership/rivalry I dig.  Also first years Go; Tenma, Shinsuke and Kyousuke. They’re fun. Captains and childhood friends Endou and Kazemaru and Shindou and Kirino are also fun. Also Endou and Natsumi, lol.

If you were in a team of your choosing, which school?

Raimon, because I’m that shallow because they’re the heroes DUH. Also Oumihara because that will be a lot of fun.

What position would you be playing?

In real life, I’ve been a Goalie the few times we had to play soccer in P.E.. So it’s either that or midfielder, because I would love to be able to control the ball and the field like Kidou or Tenma do. It’s cool.

Favourite hissatsu move(s)?

Uhmm uh… Hard… Let’s go by categories:

Catch: God Hand because it’s just… iconic. Also the one with the Anchor from the Pirates in Go because lol. And Shinsuke’s Miximax hissatsu. Block: Snow Angel, Deep Mist (so fancy) Dribble: Heaven’s Time, Meteor Shower, Look! An UFO! because that’s the best thing I have ever heard of, and Soyokaze Step (I still, have no idea how he manages to move like that. Soyokaze Step is a hissatsu I never get tired to watch) Shoot: Fire Tornado and Eternal Blizzard and Inazuma Break because Iconic. Bicycle Sword because I can’t believe that’s the name of your strongest Hissatsu, Kyousuke. Also God Break and White Hurricane because Wow. Ryuusei Blade because it really looks hard to pull off. Like, you can see Hiroto struggling. And Space Penguin because lol. Also Crossfire.

There’s definitely more but those were those I could think top of my head.

Favourite Season?

Oh gosh, can’t really choose. Depends on mood. Let’s see:

IE:

FF Arc: Most fun. Nothing’s really complicated, just hella fun. Aliea Arc: Most Heartbreaking. Damn those emotions. Also all characters introduced in this season are great. This season feels like an adventure trip, like if the FF Arc was school, this is summer camp. FFI Arc: Hard to really say, but… I feel like my babies grew up ya know? And they are ready to take over the world. The feeling is hard to explain, maybe makes me feel very proud? To have seen my babies come this far? Also very fun like FF, but more serious as well. All around most round-about season I guess.

GO:

Holy Road: Wow, just the perfect mix of emotions, nostalgia and fun? Definitely the most emotional of Go yet. My favorite of Go for now. Chrono Stone: Most crazy. Pleased the history nerd in me. I feel like there’s a lot of missed potential and the ending disappointed me, but still fun. It’s definitely my favorite Game tho. Galaxy: I’m like, halfway through, so it’s still a little early to judge. Did not not like it as of yet.

Favourite Episode?

In IE, Episode 5 is hella fun. So is Episode 70-71. The match Raimon vs Epsilon around Episode 40 are really emotional I loved them. Other uhm… can’t tell at the moment.

In Go, I need to rewatch to really say, but where Tenma figures out Gouenji, where he first realized Soyokaze Step while arguing against Shindou (that was INTENSE), Endou’s first appearance? Also Chrono Stone’s first episode is so heartbreaking holy shit.

What does Inazuma Eleven mean to you?

It’s just, so stupidly fun. It’s one of those things I don’t have to think hard about liking. It’s just so simple and fun and was such a big part of my childhood, it just, always cheers me up when I’m feeling down.

Do you contribute to the fandom? (Graphics/Gifs/Writing/Art/ Supporter)

I guess I make gifs. Would do Graphics once I figure out how to use the program. I used to draw when I was little, but not anymore. Maybe one day. I’m more like, a shitposter.

Yeah, I’m the Inazuma Eleven shitposter.

Recommend some of your favourite Inazuma Eleven blogs

Alright so @shawn-and-aiden-frost-9 @ichiroutas-other-eye @linabigface @aishakami (great Art!) @letsplaysakka @inazumaelevenconfessions @vraberika @zafiro-satoshi (also great Art!) @ishidoshuuji (inactive but still great content) and that’s it mostly. I’m still kinda new. I would love to get to know more people here!

#about me #get to know the Inazuma fandom meme #long post #not ie #100 followers

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actuallyredorchid · 7 years

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SH thinky-thoughts

The writing on Shadowhunters has a lot of good qualities. It’s very clearly character-driven (as opposed to plot-driven), and both the character arcs and the relationship arcs have got consistently more nuanced, deeper, more interesting and more entertaining throughout, especially, season 2B. I think that the writers have really started to find their footing in that, and it’s producing some very strong episodes in terms of character-driven content.

It’s not a clever show, though. From a plot perspective, I’d even say it’s a pretty sloppy one. Anyone who’s sat down and tried to piece together exact timelines for it knows that there are quite a few instances where you need a LOT of goodwill and suspending disbelief to make things match up. Especially with the backstories (Jace’s ever-changing age is my favourite example). And from where I’m watching, the same thing is true for the overall writing, meaning that I don’t think making sure things like plot and timelines are kept consistent throughout the narrative is really a priority in the writers’ room (unlike, e.g. developing the different characters themselves).

I think the flashbacks in 218 were great examples of this. “Magnus didn’t have a beard in 106″/”Eeeh, it’s too much hassle to have Harry shave and having the makeup department give him a fake one until it grows back. It’s fine.” “We don’t have Magnus’ shirt from 106 anymore.”/”Eeeh, it was dark red. Pick another one that fits the styles he usually wears.” “Magnus didn’t wear a jacket in 207″/”Well, he should now, because removing it will look great on camera.” And so on.

And sometimes, this bites the writers and showrunners in the ass (same as it did JKR, whose writing has similar problems, such as “everything important happens on a Tuesday”), because we in the fandom both a) pay close attention to everything, and b) build and expand on the story told on screen to fill the universe based on our interpretations of the limited data we have. And we try to make all the pieces of the puzzle fit, even when sometimes, the most likely explanation is simply “Huh. We didn’t think about that.”

I love meta (like, so much; it’s one of my favourite things about fandom), but I’m wary of doing it for Shadowhunters, myself, because I see very strong similarities between it and HP (writing-focus-wise, that is), and I’m still not completely over the shock and crushing disappointment when all the “clever ambiguities” I’d been raving over for literally years turned out to just be... plot holes XD. And the most important thing I took away from that experience, on a personal level, was that I had to learn to be okay with the fact that every writer has a different focus, and that we all we all see different things as important in what we write.

It’s put me in a bit of a weird place though, which I’m not used to being in. I still love reading the meta (especially the clever ones), but I’m trying my best not to put any emotional stock into them, because when it comes to intricate-plot-arc-spanning-a-full-season vs. what-works-best-right-now-for-the-scene-we-want-to-do, Shadowhunters tends to go for the latter, and I need to keep reminding myself of that in order to be able to keep enjoying the show as much as I am (It’s been really good practice, actually. Bit like double-think. “Wait. That doesn’t make sense--OH WELL, to the back of the brain it goes, NOW, back to the awesomeness that is Maia!” lol).

So for 220 (which I can’t help theorising about, because it’s the finale, and meta is still so much fun :D), I’m setting my expectations to something very WYSIWYG, meaning the Consul’s probably the leak, Imogen will probably realise it and likely be killed as a result. Jace will die and be revived through Angel wish (Angel!Giles!), and Clary will have a loooong, crying scene. Magnus and Alec will have a too-short actions-speak-louder-than-words moment on the battlefield, where they both risk their lives for each other and then declare themselves back together, and Harry and Matt fit hours worth of A++ acting into 30 seconds of screen time (I would not be surprised if the “I don’t want the world, I just want you” makes its way into that somehow). If Robert isn’t in S3, then he’ll probably die saving one of his kids. Seelie queen is an unknown. I’m very excited to see what Valentine offered her. No idea what Luke or Simon will end up with. I’m 50/50 on them pretty much saving the entire world and them being completely in the background. Guess we’ll see.

Also: DRAGONS. I do love dragons. It’s going to be awesome. :D

#shadowhunters #meta #personal #sh spoilers

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stainedglassthreads · 7 years

Text

Important ANnouncement

Hello, everyone~ This is LK here. Or Wayvern. Or Glass. Or whatever name you know me by. I’ve got a LOT of names, wow!

Anyways, I’m here with a very important and kinda sad announcement, so listen closely. Or read closely. Whichever! Anyways, you guys may have noticed my Undertale fanfic Triad hasn’t updated in, like, months. And my Pokemon comic Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Renegade’s Redemption hasn’t updated in, like, a year.

I am simultaneously immensely saddened and greatly enthused to inform you I will be cancelling Triad and continuing PMD:RR. Because Triad has the unfixable flaw of not containing the characters Morpheus the Darkrai and Selene the Cresselia, since it’s not a Pokemon story, while PMDRR IS, so that flaw can be very easily fixed.

I understand that a lot of you will probably be very upset over this! A bunch of you got attracted by just Undertale stuff. Which is a… very intriguing game, I shall indeed admit. For that reason, I will tell you all the things I intended to have happen during Triad, and its sequel, Myriad.

Ready? Here we go.

Where did we leave off? Oh, yes. Waterfall arc.

In the Inner section, some important stuff happens. It’s mooooooooooostly the same as the game? Only, of course, Asriel’s there. Oh, and we find out Asriel can’t actually use his magic anymore. Or, his flame magic. Instead he’s got Friendliness Pellets. Gosh golly gobsmackers, wonder why that could ever be? Asriel and the human decide to skip the Undyne hang-out, too, because they think Lost Souls are creepy. Wow, Azzie, you’re a hypocrite.

Pacifist arc, the human here FINALLY starts showing EMOTIONS thank god they are so stupid to write when they’re pretending to be a tough little stoic. They befriend Monster Kid because they can both empathize over how cool Undyne apparently is. Monster Kid tries helping the human in their fight against Undyne…

Unfortunately, though, they get murdered. This triggers some very important plot development in the human. Very important.

And in the Genocide one, welp, you can guess what happens. Lovely LOVE is accumulated, human continues transformation into ‘apathetic serial killer’, etc do we really need 5000+ words describing it when one sentence will suffice?

Now, Hotland is kinda interesting. We get the point of view of not the humans… But that fabulous flamboyant robot, METTATON. Mainly because 18+ chapters of writing one person’s thought process gets boring. It’s about TIME we switch things up a bit.

Oh, right, and the DENOUEMENT arc! Oh my god you guys had no idea how excited I was for this arc, because the name just perfectly perfectly describes it, it is the ONLY true name! Because you see a Denouement is the final part of a play, movie, or narrative in which the threads of the plot are drawn together and matters are explained or resolved, and also the climax of a chain of events where things are decided or made clear AND ALL THAT HAPPENS IT’S LIKE FATE

ANYWAYS ANYWAYS ANYWAYS get this!!! So for the first one, it’s Genocide boss battle. But I decided that just that is… welp, pretty odd? I mean, Flowey/Asriel is the boss in almost every fight, and then we have… that lazy bones. And yeah, toughest fight in the game yadda yadda, but jeez people we have a THEME here.

So I took some cues from that Possession AU thing and now it’s Sans AND Flowey fighting you. I fixed it!

The next part is, basically, the human in the Genocide run murders Asgore. It’s literally three sentences. I’m not sure why it’s its own chapter. In retrospect, that was a stupid idea.

Then it’s the human in the Pacifist run doing the Asgore fight. And then Photoshop Flowey. But the Pacifist human is an impatient little hypocrite and just murders the Souls and Flowey, because it never occurs to them to call out for help because they’re too prideful.

So we have the reveal for the Inner Timeline here, FINALLY. You people were totally right, Asriel won in the Pacifist Timeline!! Which explains why the friendliness pellets thing, and why the human isn’t the same one as the Pacifist Runner, and why Asriel doesn’t have a-- wait actually it explains nothing. Except maybe the Lost Souls. Huh. But that’s what’s happening so I guess that’s what we’re doing?

So this next chapter is… The entire True Pacifist Route. All of it. Not sure how the human figured it out, but whatever.

Oooooo, the next part things get INTERESTING~ Chara takes Frisk’s Soul-- wait a second who’re these ‘Chara’ and ‘Frisk’ people and why weren’t they mentioned before?

So after that… Photoshop Flowey reveals he is a separate entity from Asriel and OOOOOOOOO Inner Runner and Asriel SOUL MERGE to destroy him once and for all!

And the Inner and Pacifist Routes MERGE and Asriel is back and it’s a happy ending for everyone! And that’s Triad! And Myriad…

...Well, it seems like fluff at first, I trick you all into thinking it’s light and happy.

And then the murders begin…

First is… That heartbreaker Error Sans comes in and murders Sans and kidnaps Frisk. Oh me.

And then… Fatal Error comes in and kidnaps Asriel and harvests his code and leaves Asriel an empty shell. Oh my.

Toriel and Asgore team up to fend off Error… Only for Cross and Nightmare to drop in and murder them while they’re distracted. Oh dearie.

Undyne and Alphys accidentally summon Ink… They go off to fight Error and Cross and Nightmare…

Only Cross really dislikes Error so they start fighting instead and in the process the very fabric of reality is unraveled in dramatic and gory fashion. All currently in the IAD AU are caught by the destruction. Basically the only two in this fic who escape are Frisk and Fatal.

Frisk wanders around the Antivoid… Oh, yes, and eventually this drives them absolutely insane and they become my new OC, Error Frisk. We see plenty of Error Sans but I have never once seen an Error Frisk, about time we remedy that,

Then we seg into Illiad which is the final fic in that series, and it’s basically a war between Error Frisk and Core Frisk.

So that’s all! Thanks for reading Triad, you can stick around and see the spectacular Selene and her wonderful brother Morphy in PMDRR if you want a REAL stor--

LK: Selene, why are you on my computer.

Selene: ...Um.

LK: ...The frick is all this.

Selene: ...Good question?

LK: Why would I kill off everyone in my story? That’s silly. Death is too easy and fast an escape.

Selene: Well, it’s what you do in the Genocide Route for Triad! LK: That’s different. It’s a foregone conclusion that that gets reset. ...Wait a second. Are you jealous?

Selene: :P

LK: Okay, fine. I’ll get working on PMDRR again… Right after I finish Triad. I’ve got a lot of planning to do for Myriad, anyways…

Selene: ...Wait really? You’re not abandoning it?

LK: Heck no. You and Morpheus are my children. And that fic has one of my very few OTPs.

Selene: Eheheheheheheheh~

LK: Now get off my computer.

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