#I think there's a really interesting discussion to be had (with many potential viewpoints) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

amchara · 1 year

Text

Info from Cassie's Dublin Event

So, I bought an online ticket to Cassie's Dublin chat from earlier this week, and listened to it this evening while doing some chores. It's a really decent one- lots of Chain of Thorns discussions and the moderation was fairly tight. Very enjoyable to listen to! I've typed up a few of the Q&As - and one of the moderator questions from right at the beginning, and then the last few. I may go back and grab a few more but this is all I'm typing up tonight.

Also, she all but confirmed who the novella is going to be about. Spoilers and such below the read more. Questions are answered about potential dark Chain of Thorns alternate ending, Adult POV Shadowhunter books, potential Malcolm and Annabel story, most interesting villain / hero who would make a great villain, Matthew and Tessa happy endings.

Okay, as we probably all knew/predicted: Yes, it's going to be a Matthew novella. Cassie definitely confirmed it's going to be about him. Maybe visiting some of the other characters and popping in. Probably not Jordelia in Constantinople because she wants them to have a sweet honeymoon and nothing bad to happen to them and novella's require conflict. Maybe an online short though- like she's written before.

Okay, on to the questions-

After the pandemic - you changed your mind about certain characters and events in Chain of Thorns. For the better, for the worse?

I mean, I think for the better. I hope. It was very very early on in the pandemic and… I had been thinking- goin back and forth in my mind, between various potential endings. As I always do, when I’m plotting anything. For TLH, I remember thinking at some point, I could not write as bleak an ending, I had- I usually have endings ranging from all sorts of things happening. And I remember a few things that made it- at one point thought of an incredibly bleak ending. But then decide that didn’t make any sense. Because if everyone in TLH were to die, I did not understand how Will and Tessa could go on to have any semblance of a happy life. They both would’ve been traumatised forever. Tessa as we know her in the present would not be the person she is, so it didn’t really make sense. So I booted it. And then, there was still some thoughts I had- I don’t know, the transient tragic effects of time, everything vanishes, everyone dies eventually, and I thought, you know what- we got that in TID and that is not what I want to be thinking about and writing about right now. I want to think about human resilience and love and the good things in life and boy- it was a uniquely bleak experience - not that unique anymore, one day we were working around with many other people or in school and then you’re completely alone, and you don’t know for how long. Doing all the work by yourself, and that’s the experience I had.

---

Older characters taking central roles in future books?

Understand why you want to see it but it’s not YA and you can have a little bit of older characters, like I had to fight really hard to get Diana’s viewpoint in TDA because she’s like 25 and that’s too old. A question of genre you’re writing. And if you’re writing YA I can’t see a lot of ways you can have a lot of adult characters doing a lot of stuff because core and point of YA that this is about Young Adults who have the agency and direction and are doing and are responsible for making the choices and if there are adults around, those adults will sit on those kids. And will prevent them from making those choices because its the adult’s job to protect kids. So it is a really hard line to walk. In having those parents in the Last Hours I had to be very careful about the amount we saw of them and the amount that they could affect what was going on. They were away or their will was restrained in some manner or they didn’t know what was going on because if they did, they would step in and take over.

And I think the way to do what you’re asking, is to do adult Shadowhunters books. And there’s no reason not to do that. It’s absolutely possible to write adult shadowhunters books that exist in the realm of adult fantasy. Always thought interesting to follow Clary and Jace or Will and Tessa and do an adult book that talks about them as adults and has them as the forward facing characters and that would be something I would be very interested in doing. I do think it would be adult though. (Which we know means spicy). My publisher is like ehhhh (joking)

Would you ever write a novella about Malcolm and Annabel?

That seems really fun, all the things I like - doomed love and bad weather. I have thought about it. Glad at least one person would like to read it because not everyone as into doomed love and bad weather as I am. We know a lot of details about relationship and their lives and I feel it would be fun to see that. Writing Malcolm in TLH was such strange experience because we know Malcolm from TDA, he’s a bad guy, a murderer, a betrayer, a multiple murderer and generally not good. But in TLH this is Malcolm before all that, he was a good guy and now- I have written good people turned bad, but to write someone as good before bad and not even pretending/faking was really interesting and had me thinking a lot more about his relationship with Annabel and what that obsessive love did in terms of being a very good force in his love and then a bad one. Very interesting.

Which fav villain to write and which of our stereotypical heroes to write would make an excellent villain (Me: It’s Julian- why are we even pretending about this?)

Sebastian was fav because what makes a villain interesting in a lot of ways is how close they are to your heroes, and he was Clary’s brother! And he was a loathsome individual but he was really interesting to write especially because if he hadn’t been given demon blood as a child, might’ve been decent person and we see at end of book that there could’ve been alternate timeline where he wasn’t villain and just Clary’s brother. And that was really interesting, I had the most fun with him.

Audience member: I think Magnus

Oh my god, that’s such a sad thought! Poor Alec, what is he gonna tell the kids- Dad’s gone evil? I can’t even think about that, not that I don’t think he wouldn’t be a good villain, very inventive and powerful so would be terrifying villain. I think, if you know about TWP and read TDA, we’re going to see Jace as a villain. So I have been working on that and he makes an excellent villain because he all these qualities - he’s determined, never gives up, if he wants something, will make sure he gets it, terrifying villain. Super strong and all that- and these qualities making him a good hero also make him a scary villain. Look forward to it.

Is it possible for Matthew to have a happy ending in his life?

Very sweet question. Matthew is based on someone I know and love, my stepfather who was an alcoholic before he met my mother and by the time he met her, had been in AA and never drank again in his life. Remember talking to him about it, he was the sweetest guy and most kind and you could talk to him about anything, and I said, it’s so wonderful you’re no longer an alcoholic. And he said, I am an alcoholic, I’ll always be one, I am just an alcoholic who doesn’t drink. And it really lodged itself in my heart. Because I love him so much as a father and he has this thing in his past, it makes me so sad.

And as I went on to know him (tries not to tear up- died five years ago.) He didn’t think of it that way, he thought of it as being an alcoholic as being just something part of his life, he didn’t drink. He didn’t think of it as bad, shameful, negative, he thought it as something that had made him stronger and kinder. And when I think of that, I think about Matthew. And that is - I want to be clear that, I didn’t want anyone to wave a wand at the end of the book and say Matthew, you’re cured, you’ll never want to drink again. I wanted to go through the process of Matthew realising he has a problem, wants to stop, does stop with the help of his friends. And he may always be an alcoholic who doesn’t drink but like with my stepfather, it makes him kinder (he’s already kind), kinder, sweeter, stronger, better. So I think- you know. I don’t want anyone to look at the fact that he had this illness as a tragedy. I want them to think about it as a thing that makes Matthew who he is, who is a very wonderful person. And he deserves a happy ending, and yeah- absolutely (tearing up) and while it is not always about deserving, sometimes- in this particular case, I think it would be a really nice message to see Matthew get a happy ending. And that’s all I’m going to say.

Audience member: I think it was incredible that you were able to share- I know it’s really sad that he went through that and everything but its incredible you’re able to portray a piece of what he went through, in this character. Because Matthew as a character is going to live on forever in your writing, so you made his memory eternal, which is really cool and I admire that.

(Cassie: That’s so sweet)

Ever think of loophole where Tessa is able to become mortal and live out her human life rather than have her live on forever (Cassie clarifies - you mean, live out her human life with Jem? And then die at the same time.

Um. I think we’ll have to see what happens because we have another couple in that situation, which is Magnus and Alec. So, we have to think (audience groans) - immortal people going around having affairs, making people fall in love with them and then not dying- how selfish. We have to think about how it would be to have only one of those couples live out that ending. So we’re thinking about-

(interviewer- there can only be one?) Like Highlander? There can only be one happy ending? I don’t think of it as a sad ending necessarily because what do you get with anyone you love- you get a lifetime and what your lifetime in these books are, it differs. But I do think its interesting because we have more than one couple in this situation, so I think we have to think about- how does this work and what’s the messaging about only one of them getting this particular killer ending. So.. we’ll have to see how it goes, obviously I can’t say anything. I know. We were all happier five minutes ago.

Tagging: @belle-keys @ibrushmyteeth-donttellanyone @themimsyborogove @lifeofbrybooks because I think you'll all have some vested interest in some of these answers. :)

#chain of thorns #chain of thorns spoilers #the dark artifices #tessa gray #annabel blackthorn #malcolm fade #jace herondale #matthew fairchild #magnus bane #alec lightwood #the mortal instruments #jem carstairs #will herondale

198 notes · View notes

roobylavender · 7 months

Text

something tangential to the enforced motherhood post i reblogged but while dc's contention with this concept is pretty horrid and distasteful in general what i find worse is the fan reaction in batman circles, specifically with regards to talia and selina. on one hand, you have the very obvious projection of a racist and xenophobic trope onto talia where she is stripped of any and all personal agency and to the point her character can never be severed of motherhood or even worse only viewed as an abusive party within the concept. fans not only project their own experiences of abuse onto her despite these projections being contrary to her own ambitions and writing prior to her character assassination; they also, in the event they don't want her to be an abusive mother, decide to relegate her to a static concept of motherhood where she has no existence outside of raising damian and where there isn't even a possibility of toying with the idea that she may not have actually acquiesced to the concept of motherhood to begin with. i'm always so surprised by how little people seem to contextualize the life talia led as lex corp ceo with her potential role as a mother. how would she be able to live that kind of isolated, purpose-driven life where she could set every personal desire aside for the sake of her duty to the world if she was expected to parent a child first? this is a rare viewpoint i've never really seen expressed but one reason i find morrison's portrayal of bruce and talia as parents to be really ironic is bc i think the roles are nearly reversed. at that point in her life and with the slew of burdens and responsibilities on her shoulders i honestly think talia (regardless of what immense affection i'm sure she would have for her own child) would be the one who had trouble acclimatizing to her role as a parent, versus bruce who made it his intent for several years to parent various children and when he found out talia was pregnant impliedly committed to shielding that child (and her) from violence and a vigilante life at all costs. it's a narrative thread i really would have loved to see explored but on a practical level would likely be impossible to do not only bc of dc's handling of asian mothers and their racist degradation due to their juxtaposition against white fathers, but also bc of dc and dc fans' constricted view of motherhood to begin with. either you're a good mother or you're a bad mother. there's no room for the in-between nuance of possibly loving your child but not knowing how to balance that responsibility bc of what you view as important responsibilities you have to others

on the other hand, you have dc fans' engagement with selina's relationships with younger orphans and sex workers in her community. this is a really interesting one to dissect in light of ship wars specifically bc while i agree that there isn't any sense in having selina act as a mother-figure to bruce's children i also don't really agree with people's justification that she's not a "motherly" character. it's once again a very striking example of the restricted perception people have of motherhood or of behaviors commonly associated with that role, bc i don't think people who say this are really criticizing her ability to be a mother at all. what they're actually criticizing is her capacity to care. there's oddly all too many people who believe selina's anarchy or more self-serving nature is antithetical to any expression of compassion. so what you end up having is a phenomenon where one group of fans is eager to see her co-parent with bruce and another group of fans is eager to see her severed of any significant connections at all bc it somehow fits her "villainous" nature. and all-in-all, from both sides, her relationships with kids like holly and arizona are completely obscured. there's no room made to discuss how selina can possess deep empathy for young people whose experiences she identifies with and that she can care for them and even take them under her wing without necessarily wanting to adopt them, but that if she wanted, maybe she would adopt them. i honestly feel like that was the direction alan grant and doug moench were going in with arizona in the early 90s had mary jo duffy not abruptly excised arizona bc, like a lot of fans, she thought having significant emotional attachments was antithetical to the catwoman persona albeit there was no actual canon to back that notion on a behavioral level. i don't think selina has to be a mother, but i also don't think it's an infliction of stereotypical gender roles on her to imagine a scenario where she might adopt a stray, esp if that scenario occurs within a context where she is still independent and forging her own way of life and liberty. if anything, taking care of holly and arizona were some of the highest points of her narrative, bc they were a looking glass through which to explore selina's capacity for love and mercy, in spite of all of the trauma and abuse that she had to suffer at the hands of others

to me, the problem with dc's contention with motherhood is not so much that it's attached to these women at all, but that the definition of motherhood used is entirely framed with a heteronormative understanding of the family unit, despite the reams of potential to explore characters like talia and selina as independent figures acting outside of that traditional hierarchy

#to be deleted #does this make sense. no. but i think about it a lot and wanted to put it down somewhere. so

54 notes · View notes

xplrvibes · 3 months

Note

alright im half way thru and here are my thoughts so far:

1. I truthfully don’t know any of the controversy around joe rogan, i just know he’s hella popular for being controversial and he’s someone i’d be on edge to have a convo with bc what i have seen is he questions everything and he isn’t afraid to let you know he doesn’t agree. but snc seem to really like him and vibe with him and it does seem super out of the blue for joe to want ghost hunters to come investigate his place (I hope this isnt a set up). either way, sounds interesting.

2. that contract from o-park mall is challenge worthy. they spelt colbys name entirely wrong (misspelt his last name and used his nickname and not his legal name) making it null and void from my understanding. i would also say the same abt sam as they used a nickname not a legal name. A good lawyer could wiggle them out of that if they cared.

3. loved hearing colbys take on religion. im the same, i’m not so much religious as i have a relationship with God. i think thats way more important than being in a religious community. and i also feel the same way about just knowing there’s something else out there. also interesting he was the only one on the table who doesn’t have dreams of dying. chop that up to trusting in God and not being afraid bc he knows God has the perfect plan and everything is in control, or just generally not afraid to die for other reasons, who knows. definitely fascinating, either way.

alright i’ll be back in 1.5hr hours with part 2 comments. I probably missed a bunch of stuff i could’ve commented on but these are my standout comments.

- aussie anon

I finished the podcast late last night and then immediately went to bed without really doing a deep dive into my thoughts on the whole thing (aside from a few choice areas that stuck in my brain and had to be discussed in dm's last night lol), so I'm going to use your reviews to sort of start my own review, and then will probably finish up with an additional post later on side thoughts - cause I have a lot lol.

1, The thing with Joe Rogan is that he kind of plays both sides of the fence, in terms of not just politics, but pretty much anything going on (he will have on conservatives and liberals, will have on atheists and people like snc, will have on scientists and then people who believe in UFOs, etc) and so he tends to be very controversial because of that. I don't listen to him, his viewpoints on certain things aren't really my cup of tea and he has in the past said some stuff in his pursuit of riding the fence that was not good and gross and everything, so this is not me defending him or whatever - but at the end of the day, he has the most listened to podcast on earth and love him or hate him, is a household name. Them being invited on his podcast, being treated very well by him, and then him keeping in touch with them and inviting them out to his comedy club is objectively a big deal for them and their visibility and they aren't going to turn that down because twitter - who has pretty much made it clear they lowkey hate snc anyway lol - have an issue with the collab.

I actually found that part of the conversation interesting, because the whole thing came about because his daughter was a fan of theirs, which I just find kind of hilarious and random. Imagine how many people of notoriety and fame they meet or could potentially meet because those peoples' teenage children are fans.

2, I don't think they would actually get arrested for showing up at that mall at this point in their careers, anyway - most malls do not have the uumph to take shit like that truly seriously, and both S & C have made it public that they've been back in there since (one time right after the release of their book, Colby went into their Barnes and Noble with his mom and illegally signed a few of the books on the shelf and posted about it all over his instagram lol). But it is objectively kind of hilarious that they are "banned" from entering the mall and yet they've had consumer products in three of their stores (B&N, Hot Topic and Zumiez), and have had their faces on the store fronts of two of those three.

3, I strangely found that interesting as well, and I normally tend to zone right the fuck out when people talk religion (sorry, all). I was raised Catholic but am not religious these days in my own life, although I certainly do believe that something else has to be going on, hence all the ghosts and stuff. But for whatever reason, hearing others talk about religion always makes me feel wildly uncomfortable - I think it's just feeling like that's something personal and so different from person to person and I just don't like feeling like I'm intruding on their privacy by hearing it (even if they are offering it up freely), if that makes sense? I don't know, I'm just weird about those conversations in general.

But I find it interesting when these two talk religion, firstly because of the content they make and how it would tie back into their own personal belief system, but also just how interesting it is that this is one of those areas where they kind of balance each other on opposite sides of the scale, and yet somehow come together perfectly at the end. It's an interesting phenomenon with them.

Also, all of them talking about dying in their dreams and Colby just piping in with "I've never died in my dreams 😃" like go off, you sweet little just happy to be there king.

#asks #aussie anon #snc video review

3 notes · View notes

colourful-void · 3 years

Text

Supporting Satoshi - an examination and comparison of JN36 and XY121

Part One: Snowballs do not cure depression but it was worth a shot

You know that episode of Pokemon where a gym leader beats Satoshi in a battle so hard that one of his pokemon gets mildly hurt (though there's no long term effects) and because of it he becomes depressed, closing himself off from his friends before someone comes along to pull him out of that mental state, and also severe weather phenomena is involved and a reflection of a persons mental state? Or rather, the two episodes?

So when I was watching Journeys, I noticed an episode that had a similar-- but distinctly different-- plot to an xy episode I had seen before. And what was particularly interesting was that while I couldn't stand the xy episode, the journeys episode was one of my favourites. I won't drag this out for you guys, I love the journeys episode and re watch it a LOT and the xy episode sort of just leaves me with a sour taste in my mouth. and don't go claiming its solely ship bias, because i saw the xy episode first and disliked it then.

This will analyze both of these episodes, comparing them against each other. Specifically within the context of how Goh and Serena both help Satoshi through a similar situation There will be some discussion of AmourShipping and Satogou in this analysis. I'm going to be a bit negative regarding Serena's actions and the potential "romantic" weight of them here, but I want to be clear that I Do Not dislike Serena as a character. Personally, I wish the writers had given her more room to grow outside of her romantic interests, but I do not hate Serena as a character. I do, however, disagree with her actions in this episode. Please don't take this out of context and dont be ship fighting in the comments, it's boring. This is a comparison of These Two Episodes, not of Goh and Serena and their respective ships as a whole.

This part mainly focuses on the xy episode and the second will focus mainly on the journeys. It's only divided into parts because of the tumblr post limit.

(If you like the xy episode or hate the journeys episode, awesome! having your own opinions is great. these are mine though, so i hope you'll listen to them)

With that out of the way, let's start. And I'm going to use mostly japanese names here because I'm taking screencaps from the subbed japanese copies.

The set up for each of these episodes is eerily similar as pointed out in the gag at the start.

Xy has a bit more set up before the episode in question though, with the initial loss and retreat into the forest by Satoshi taking place the episode before. The episode opens up proper with Satoshi taking time to breathe to himself, alone in the forest.

Emphasis is placed on him taking a deep breath, aided by the visuals showing them (thanks cold air) and the silence of the rest of the soundscape, with the only other sounds being the wind and some bird pokemon, plus some falling snow.

Journeys Satoshi starts off in a better mental state than Xy, with the episode starting off with him jogging along with his pokemon.

However, we can still see that he's been affected by the last battle he lost, against Saitou, as he's putting a lot of effort into training and doing better.

Which, doesn't go well for him, as he loses his next two battles as well, and drops in the World Championship ranking as a result

And he's pretty upset about it too. Same thing as over in xy. In both cases, a respective friend/love interest notes that Satoshi is upset and expresses concern.

He's got support from his friends in both situations! But that support comes across in very different ways.

But, to understand how that support manages to affect Satoshi, we need to understand the problem at play.

Now, I wanna make something clear here. Satoshi's problem is not that he is a sore loser. I'm not arguing that's not a contributing factor, or that he's not upset about the loss (particularly in the world championships), He's still bitter about the lost part, but the root of the problem is not losing, he's been shown to be fine with losing (if not a bit more motivated to win now) in prior episodes.

Satoshi's problem is that his pokemon are getting hurt. Satoshi's problem is that his pokemon are getting hurt, because they're losing battles. Satoshi's problem is that his pokemon are losing battles because he's not training them well enough. And to clarify, that's not my viewpoint, it's his. Satoshi's problem is that he's not good enough for himself, and he feels that that's something he has to fix on his own.

So how do we help him?

Our weather event in question is introduced in separate points in the episodes, but I'll cover them both now.

In xy, it's this snowstorm, which conveniently becomes a problem directly after Serena returns to the Pokemon Centre.

In journeys, it's a sandstorm! That's in near direct contrast to a snowstorm! Incredible.

Heading back to xy Satoshi, things aren't going great in the forest. Luckily, Serena's run off to find him.

I think it's of note here that Serena runs off with the best intentions, she wants to help Satoshi, plain and simple. It just sort of goes wrong along the way.

It's worth noting that Xy Satoshi tries to bring himself out of being sad by the tried and true method of "stop being sad"

Despite telling himself this, he doesn't get anywhere. Which makes sense, because it's not getting the the root of the problem. It's not even addressing it at all. He's just trying to 'be better', which isn't even a battle strategy. However, it is something I can see him saying, so this isn't a critique of Satoshi's thought process, but me pointing out that this isn't really effective. Which is supported by the narrative, because again, he doesn't get anywhere, he doesn't even move.

I can't show it in screencaps but the lights in Satoshi's eyes are shaking here, something that they consistently do throughout the series when he's feeling a particularly strong emotion. Keep that in mind. It couples well with another trait of his, and that's his hat!

And by that I mean how he hides his eyes with the brim of it when upset, something he does exactly as Serena shows up and calls out to him. Now, he's not upset that Serena is here. He's upset about the pokemon stuff still. He's trying to hide the fact that he's upset from Serena.

Serena starts off with her speech well, trying to appeal to Satoshi to let her in and talk things out. And maybe it's because he wasn't ready for it yet, or because of the way she phrases it (a lot of 'i' and 'me' language which can be helpful but can also come across as though she's making it about her. not her intent i don't think, but a possible interpretation.), it's not her fault for how Satoshi reacts regardless.

But how Satoshi reacts is not good.

Now it's really interesting to note that before this, Serena was standing while Satoshi was sitting, putting her above him in terms of active power, when it comes to how the shot is presented, but when Satoshi stands up, the camera tilts with the movement so that they're on equal level. Neat!

And Serena yells in return, scolding Satoshi for not talking about it. Not the best move, since pushing someone to talk about something that's upsetting them isn't really productive, but she's trying here and she's frustrated.

Satoshi continues to withdraw and self isolate, claiming it is his problem and that he wants to be left be. Now, this is the mindset of a clearly upset person and isolation may not be the best option, but he did make the explicit request to be left alone here.

He's clearly upset as he turns away from Serena's eye and slumps over a little.

And then Serena throws a snowball at him.

Angry as he is, you can see Satoshi's expression change when he sees Serena's reaction.

Serena tells Satoshi that she's not like the Satoshi she knows, who is always full of energy and positive and a leader, and a bunch of other positive traits. The problem here, is that Serena's looking at an idealized version of Satoshi. And while the intent here was probably meant to be something more like "you have so many wonderful traits about you I know you can do this", coupled with the snowballs and the phrasing, it seems as though Serena is scolding Satoshi for being sad.

Or rather, being angry with him for not living up to her idealized version of him, and not wanting him to express any negitave emotions.

Which is sort of a really bad mindset.

The snowballs continue, never once does Satoshi fight back. In fact, he stops arguing entirely after the first one. Serena knocks him off his feet and tells him he's not being himself, before running off. (In the english dub, Serena claims that Satoshi isn't being "the real satoshi" and then demands that the real Satoshi be "given back", so it could be worse)

Satoshi decides to literally run his problems away, because it will help him reach some kind of conclusion, and immediately trips and falls down a large hill. No, I'm not making that up. Something like this just isn't like him. He's just gotta stop being sad!

Now personally, I really disagree with the idea that "being upset" isn't "like a person". That's because based off of my own experiences, I know it can be really damaging to hold the mindset that any negative emotions you feel aren't a part of you and that you shouldn't be upset because you're usually a positive and happy person. Not the case with every person, but I personally really have a problem with shows telling children that they just shouldn't be upset instead of processing their emotions in a meaningful way. (The journeys episode doesn't do an outstanding job of it either, but this is a bit of a tangent anyway. A show that does do this right is "OK KO! Let's be Heroes" which actually deals with this problem in greater depth and does a fantastic job of it.)

But the snowball scene ends here. Now I'll get back to Journeys in a moment, but since Serena has finished her part of the comparison for the most part, I'm going to summarize a bit more of the xy episode.

Satoshi decides to literally run his problems away, because it will help him reach some kind of conclusion, and immediately trips and falls down a large hill. No, I'm not making that up.

The snowstorm kicks in, Serena get back annoyed, then similarly groans and yells, and the whole xy gang + pokemon go running off in search of Satoshi. Pikachu appears the most concerned.

Now Serena tells the others she lost her cool and said something horrible to Satoshi, but explains its because Satoshi is someone she admires. Cool motive, I get it, still kinda bad.

and in the end, it's not Serena's words that get he message across to Satoshi. The solution to this problem was Satoshi finding a way to reaffirm his abilities and instinct.

In the xy episode, he helps some pokemon out of the tree, and when his very cool frog friend shows up, they're able to work together with their bond to save this one from falling off a cliff.

Here's the point. Satoshi learns by doing, by actions. He needs to see first hand that there are ways of getting past his problems, and that it's worth having the courage to keep going. The lesson is about valuing pokemon as equals and partners, and specifically that trying to be better as the trainer alone isn't going to help.

This is essentially where this plot line ends, team rocket is there for a bit as well but as much as i love them they're not relevant here, and some fun stuff with the league, love it not important right now its like 3am and I'm not sleeping until this is finished so we gotta keep things moving.

This was no doubt Serena's intent to get a similar point, but she goes about it the wrong way. She tries to convey this with words, as conversation and motivational words have helped her in the past (Elle's words of praise stick with her, Satoshi's words from when they were kids, etc). It's a good idea, but their different ways of learning and growing from a similar situation are incompatible, and that's why things don't work out in Serena's favour. There's also still the problem of "pulling yourself together" not being helpful in this case.

There's also a very similar line in this scene to the one at the end of the journeys episode, as Satoshi says to his frog that they should start over from scratch. It's essentially the same phrase with different wording. It's great. The Storm ends as he realizes this as well! Wonderful in terms of pathetic fallacy.

The gang all reunites, its nice. Satoshi thanks Serena for what she said after apologizing to everyone, which contradicts what he said earlier but I've already established that I dislike this message here so I won't go over it too much. I guess he's right in a literal sense in that in response to her words he went and ran until he tripped off a cliff but the emotional growth here was because of his own actions (and the frogs), not Serena's. Sorry Serena, you'll get em next time.

So. What about Goh?

Well...

(Part Two here on account of image limit!!)

#pokemon #anipoke #pokeani #pokemon analysis #pokemon xy #pokemon xyz #trainer ash #trainer serena #trainer goh #i dont wanna use the amourshipping tag to put negtivity in it that seems mean #analysis #this was written in the 2-3am area but the next part was written 12 hours later so thats a neat fact #long post

61 notes · View notes

utilitycaster · 3 years

Note

Speaking of Halas, it was briefly brought up in the most recent episode that he might've been digging around in the ruins of Aeor some time before he got stuck in the gem, and to me it seems pretty likely: the first thing they found of his other than the Happy Fun Ball itself was some winter weather gear stashed separately (I think) from the rest of the pocket-dimension-thing, which may not have been an intentional hint to Aeor but is interesting nonetheless; what do you think?

In episode 125 he said he hadn’t gone; granted he’s not exactly a trustworthy guy but I don’t see a good reason to lie about this and he did provide what information he knew. I do think there’s a chance he had considered it and may have been preparing, but I don’t think he necessarily went himself. It’s not totally clear how long after Aeor’s fall Halas lived, since he was living in the midst of the calamity, the timeline of which is vague.

I have two separate alternate possible answers:

1. The boring and practical one: he lived on a flying city that at least spent some time floating over what is modern-day Zemni Fields, ie, high altitude and in a cooler region of the world.

2. I think there’s sometimes a hesitancy to incorporate fourth-wall/meta information in theories, but in actual play I think the best theories often at least take it under consideration (and the worst often deliberately do not). We know that Matt did not initially intend the Folding Halls of Halas to stay with the party, but Twiggy gave it to them. We know Matt incorporated the permaheart into the build when the party was frustrated during the Angel of Irons arc and had indicated they were going to see Yussa, and additionally included the notes that became Widogast’s Transmogrification, but had Twiggy kept the ball, those would not be closed-off avenues - they would just be in different places. The fundamental secret of DM-ing is that the DM is frantically shifting the set pieces around from time to time based on what the players want or need while making it seem like consistent, real scenery, and Matt is very good at doing this in game but he’s pretty honest out-of-game that he does it.

So the cold-weather gear in episode 45 very well might have been meant, at the time, as a hint for when the Aeor shoe dropped that Halas could be a resource,. But in episode 45, I’m sure that while Matt had outlined the character of Essek Thelyss he couldn’t have predicted the Mighty Nein could reliably count on him, or the Dynasty at all, when they finally got to Aeor. He didn’t know how exactly the Aeor arc would happen nor precisely when. So any theories I have need to incorporate the simple fact that sometimes, Chekhov’s Gun shows up in episode 45 and actually doesn’t really mean anything, because the first act was assuming a very different second act and the use of the Chekhov’s Gun metaphor when discussing actual play is a very tricky thing. Which is to all say: the cold weather clothes were just a *Tim Curry voice* Red. Herring.

I already got pretty off topic above (something something Clue The Movie jokes something something “too late”) but I wanted to add one more thing which is that Halas interests me less as any sort of plot hook or resource, even though he could indeed become one if someone gets possessed, or if Yussa is rescued and decides to go 0 for 3 on resisting wizardly temptation, and more so as worldbuilding. I can only explain this by bringing up the Neal Stephenson book The Diamond Age, a post-cyberpunk classic I love very very much. It famously opens with a chapter describing an almost ridiculously stereotypical tough guy loner fringes of society archetypal character of the cyberpunk genre, follows him as one of a few early viewpoint characters, and then (minor spoilers, but not really) he gets killed within the first 50 pages. The point of that exercise is to indicate that this is post-cyberpunk instead and the story isn’t about him.

To me, Halas is in a way, playing a similar role. He’s a powerful mage involved in politics, some form of immoral or amoral, doing all kinds of necromancy and pursuing immortality...and he’s literally crystalized and stagnant. I mean, it’s not terribly subtle - the previous campaign ended with the defeat of Vecna, god of being a wizard who does immortality shenanigans.

I don’t, to be fair, know if this is deliberate, but we’re currently in a story where elements of the Age of Arcanum may come back depending on what goes down in Aeor (Devexian being merely one of many potential hooks/causes) and the impact it might have on the arcane is fascinating, and Halas helps set that stage.

#the only thing that will make me want C3 to not be in Issylra is if it's EVEN MORE FOCUSED ON WIZARD STUFF #critical role #long post #meta #known gem wizard hotsauce lutefisk #Anonymous

32 notes · View notes

tuiyla · 2 years

Note

Hi,

So I'm not invested in Klaine but I have found some comments here and there on how heteronormativity played a role in their relationship dynamic. Some things like: making Kurt conveniently more fragile in order to make Blaine protect him, give him the traditionally female roles in some situations and Blaine the male one.

And I think is interesting because it's so ambiguous and I kind of can see both sides. We know Glee broke stereotypes at the time by making Kurt have traditionally feminine interests (I think it's totally unfair to dismiss that as him being a stereotypical gay) but he shouldn't be the one in the "passive" role, if that makes sense. But was it a problem of the show or in universe? Because they seemed to be self aware of this potential perception at times and they did varied this dynamic - which made ppl start to see Blaine as stereotypical in later seasons, funny enough.

Thoughts?

Hey!

I'm blanking on examples of what you're saying, especially the fragility-protection thing but maybe others more well-versed in the Klaine story can chime in? Please, really do feel free to. I am however so down to talk about in and out of universe perspectives and how gender roles and dynamics affect even - or particularly - the queer relationships. So down!

Because they seemed to be self aware of this potential perception at times and they did varied this dynamic - which made ppl start to see Blaine as stereotypical in later seasons, funny enough.

Could you please elaborate on this? Again I'm blanking on examples and I'm not that well-informed on fan perceptions, to be honest. Most of what I know about how the fans view these kinds of things is based on reddit and I don't know how representative that viewpoint was of fandom as a whole.

But just to say in this first round of the discussion, I have many, many thoughts on how Kurt's femininity and him being perceived as a stereotypical gay guy is handled in the fandom. I have a draft for an essay all about this but god, when will it write itself? Long story short, I find it infuriating when people call him a "walking gay stereotype" and fail to a) contextualize his story in the atmosphere of 2009/the early 2010s and b) realize that part of representations goal is to be able to have all kinds of queer identities on screen. So even if Kurt does start out as a bit of an exaggeration because of early Glee's satirical nature, you're so right that it's unfair, frankly just bonkers to dismiss him because of those ~stereotypical~ traits. A lot of it boils down to effeminophobia and this more general fear of playing into stereotypes which, phew, this is why this is a bigger topic lol I could go on and on about this.

I'm digressing too much, the point about Kurt is that his femininity or traits that are traditionally perceived as feminine are good, actually. But to your point about Klaine, I can sort of see how people would say that about their dynamic and apply gender roles/heterenormativity. I can't think of loads of examples but there are some where the two were split into "girls and boys" categories and Kurt fell into the former. And am I mistaken, or there are a fair few instances in season 3 where Blaine is one of the boys (The Rain in Spain comes to mind) where Kurt is absent for one reason or another? I think Glee established Kurt as someone who feels more comfortable with the girls early on (and again this is its own topic) but then it also just, sort of by default, had Blaine hang with the guys in ~bro~ scenes and ND boys performances. And there is something to be explored there in regards to their relationship and how heteronormativity applies, in a sense that oh, this binary is established, but I think for the most part it's just Glee doing its thing and not thinking too deeply about it.

The beauty of queer stories is that they're inherently transgressive so Klaine is never going to fit into a heteronormative lens, but I think you are right in that it's interesting to explore how it still affects them because of the society we live in. And like you say, both in-universe and out. Again I can't actually think of examples when Kurt was in that more passive, traditionally feminine role and Blaine as the more masculine one but I think if we were to call it a problem, it'd be an out of universe one. I don't think Kurt and Blaine ever felt like they were inadvertently adhering to gender roles, like, it wasn't like Kurt took on a more passive role so he can be saved and Blaine a more active one so he can be a knight in shining blazer.

And that reminds me, the only example that really comes to mind is of course the very beginning with Blaine encouraging Kurt and helping with the Karofsky situation. But I don't think that situation is particularly gendered like this and Blaine's way of helping Kurt is far from being the toxic masculinity bs we usually get from other Glee boys. That's not to say gender dynamics aren't present and aren't worth exploring, but if what you're saying Anon is that the fandom thinks they fall into heteronormative gender roles... I disagree. I think their dynamic is refreshingly queer in that it doesn't fit neatly into that but it's certainly telling when people try to make it do that. And when Glee defaults to things like Blaine being one of the guys, of course.

Wow this is a right mess but I hope I could articulate some of my thoughts and please, you or others do continue this discussion. Always good to be critical of how heteronormativity impacts stories and specifically queer stories, both in how they're made and how they're interpreted.

#glee asks #klaine asks #making it its own thing just in case #kurt hummel #blaine anderson #i am so sorry if I'm less coherent than usual i need to go to bed #but i didn't want to keep you waiting anon and make you think i wasn't gonan reply #anon #flashed back to the feudal lord and handmaiden debacle ngl #i'm sorry i don't have the bandwidth to make more sense lol #kurt asks

5 notes · View notes

systematicmasspoisoning · 4 years

Text

Traitor Tubbo

I've seen so many excellent theories as to who the traitor is and I would like to throw my hat into the ring. I see several possible options. Depending on how this is received, this could be part one of a few. Reminder, this is all speculation. I'm analyzing a character here, not the streamer themselves, and in reality no one, especially not these teens and 20-something role players, are genuinely intending to be malicious or calculated. This is a game. But they're playing it, and my heartstrings, so damn well.

My top theory for the traitor? Tubbo.

Traitor Tubbo is definitely a fan favorite, and I'm probably a bit biased. I watch his streams most often and perhaps am overthinking things. But here's my supporting evidence: I think Tubbo has the most motivation because it's been established that Tubbo is underapprecited and underestimated. He's assumed to a yes-man, Tommy's right hand man. Schlatt specifically made him Secretary of State because he knew it would be a kick in the gut to Tommy.

But everyone also knows that shit gets done when Tubbo is on the server. This kid is dedicated. Guess thats what quarantine does to a Minecrafter. He planned the fesitval, helped streamline Pogtopia's potatoes, is an expert in redstone, is draining the ocean and making allies with the Badlands (BBH, Awesamdude, Antfrost, a few others).

Jschlatt said in his speech at the Festival that Tubbo gets things done (only to kill the kid like 10 minutes later :sadface:) and Wilbur said, later, that the planned Manberg Hotel probably won't be built now that Tubbo is (supposedly) on Pogtopia's side. I see parallels to Eret's traitor arc: he was the deus ex machina who saved them in Season 1 from being arrested for drugs, built their walls overnight and was given little credit for it. Wilbur still says to this day, "The walls I built to protect us."

Underappreciation fuels betrayal on this server. And Eret was smart. Overpowered, almost, from all his grinding (some of which he did with Tubbo, for hours on end.) He knew the revolution was 'never meant to be,' that L'Manberg was the losing side. He betrayed for power and kingship. Tubbo has different motivations - he doesn't advocate for violence, so he's said, and he just wants people to get along. He doesn't want a war. So what might he do for peace?

We all know, if we watch old SMP Earth clips and his Among Us streams that he is big brained. He's sometimes malicious and mischievous when he wants to be, as attested by his recent stair pranks. So him being the peaceful, owo baby boi side character isn't necessarily fact. It's a bit. A role, along the lines of Tubee and Big Law. He's much more.

Speaking of the stair prank, so funny, but had the potential to be cruel, too. Anyways, he clearly said that he was watching Tommy's stream, and saw Tommy die to the stairs. Then he pops on the server later and acts clueless to what went down, though he knew, mentioned in his stream earlier that day, that something important was going to happen that day. He turns up while they're discussing traitors, is quick to take control of the conversation and point out that the traitor is likely Wilbur (for being 'technically' on Dream's side, the side of chaos.) Fuel is added to the flames of confusion and infighting.

Playing dumb is one of Tubbo's most popular bits. It farms awes, as Tommy says. People underestimate him and assume he has no reason to lie. Tommy so easily believed him when Tubbo said he had the discs. In the Dream Betrayal stream, Tommy confronts Dream about the location of the discs with Tubbo in the call. The misunderstanding is cleared up. They don't question Tubbo's earlier statements. They also don't question it when Tubbo mentions he has blackmail on Dream. I have no idea what that might be, we can speculate on that all day. But when it comes to the discs, I think Tubbo lost a bargaining chip there. His lie was very thin. But we know he's good at lying (when its actually important) and thinking quick on his feet so I feel like there must be some motivation behind it. I don't know how, but I think the discs will definitely play a part in the coming war.

That same stream, with Dream's betrayal, Wilbur even foreshadowed Traitor Tubbo. He was making a list of their allies on the wall in Pogtopia and, despite his chat screaming at him to include Tubbo, he leaves the kid off the list and dismisses chat's worries. I'm being a little dramatic here, but can you imagine Tubbo coming across that? Seeing himself, once again, left out of the loop, off the list of people they can trust, possibly considered unimportant now that he's filled his role as a spy and had his arc seemingly completed? Back to being a yes man, a footnote in L'manberg's history, the sidekick to the protagonist, a foil who is killed off to fuel the protagonists' need for revenge.

Except, in Minecraft, you don't really die. You're respawned. Tubbo didn't die when he was executed on the day of the festival; a celebration he planned, was proud of, so excited to take part of that he used a dyslexic font to write his speech.

Some notes about the festival.

1. His excitement. He was looking forward to it. I say let him be excited, that's not necessarily suspicious - he worked damn hard on it.

2. But, I have thought about his difficulty choosing a side. He showed interest in blowing up L'Manberg, but then turns on a dime when Tommy says it's bad, and then comes up with a diplomatic response of "I trust your better judgment, Wilbur " There was the added element of peer pressure from Wilbur and Tommy, granted, talking over him and assuming his viewpoint. He's not always a yes man, he stands up to himself with Tommy constantly, but the scene with him on the roof with Tommy and Wilbur shows how little he is kept in the loop. (Him understanding peer pressure likely led to him forgiving Techno so easily. But I also wonder, and others have too, if he forgave Techno.... too easily.)

3. This isn't so much of a point but something that keeps the writer in me up late at night. He was very grateful when Schlatt praised him, probably something he didn't hear often under Wilbur's rule.

4. He said the phrase. In spite of him not advocating for violence, he said the phrase that would trigger an explosion. The choice was in his hands. That is assuming he got Wilbur's DM telling him what to do, but Tubbo had been told by Wilbur to check his DMs and they had been exchanging whispers frequently throughout the stream, Tubbo taking orders from Wilbur to hurry things along. On that note, why a DM? Why didn't he give Tubbo the order through a whisper thru minecraft where we could see the wording? Likely because they use their DMs to push along major plot points and discuss serious matters. This wasn't just an order from Wilbur, the character, this was an order from the streamer who has the most role playing experience and has admitted to being the puppetmaster behind a lot of Tommy and Tubbo's major actions. Tubbo, who has always tried to advocate for peace, supposedly was told a trigger phrase that would blow the place up, and he said it. It was so out of character for him, that I was surprised, and Wilbur was surprised too, from how Tubbo scrambled. So, I don't know - did Tubbo know it was a trigger phrase? What did the DM say?

There was clearly a lot of miscommunication and weird things that day so all of this is speculation. However, from Tubbo' side of the stream, you can see the deliberation when he finished the speech. The pause. The silence, like he was finished, but then Schlatt reminded him (not the real quote) "Anything else?" And then. Tubbo took the leap. To us, the uninformed audience, it seemed he was willing, in that moment, to allow the chaos.

He was given a role of power, and it backfired on him so quick after, but I would like to rewind to the moment Wilbur decided to give Tubbo a deciding role. I knew Tubbo would be playing a big part this season, cause the boy deserves it, but Wilbur putting that decision in the hands of Tubbo? Wow. *Chef's kiss* Wil's reasoning was, if Tubbo wanted to prove he wasn't a yes man, he'd make the decision NOT to pull the trigger.

But Wilbur also said that Schlatt approved of the speech and would know if Tubbo deviated, putting Tubbo at risk of being caught. He was caught anyway, obviously, but there was a moment there... where Schlatt was giving Tubbo a choice, too. To say the phrase that would prove he was a traitor. Like...Schlatt knew what was planned, and wanted to see what Tubbo would decide. Maybe it was a trigger phrase for something else, not just the bombs.

Point is. Tubbo, technically, saved the day. He was, in physical form, the button. He was the deciding factor for great destruction. He said the phrase, but instead of Manberg being blown, Schlatt moved quickly to trap Tubbo and start a bit that would STOP WILBUR IN HIS TRACKS. The button was never fully pressed. Tubbo's Traitor/Spy Arc was halted, and a diverging plot formed, one where Tubbo is exiled too, trusted again by Pogtopia, and the land isn't blown to smithereens.

As Wilbur has said time and time again, when you introduce a weapon in a story, it has to go off at some point. Traitor Tubbo has been on our minds since the day he was left behind in Manberg and given a position, (once again, might I add, as a right hand man, a loyal lackey. Never the lead.) Has that arc met its completing? Did it go off with a bang?

One possible theory is that, well, no. This has all been premeditated. Not scripted fully, but I feel as though there are strings being pulled by a master who knows how to tell a story.

When he was asked to be a spy, Tubbo's position was nearly revealed time and time again but it was Schlatt who decided he was too bored to continue walking down the tunnels. It was Schlatt who easily accepted Tubbo's blatant lie that he was pregnant and allowed for so much betrayal under his nose.

What I'm saying here is that Schlatt is, in fanfic terms, soft for Tubbo. In a less fluffy way, what I'm suggesting (which has been suggested before) is that Tubbo wasn't a double agent. He was a triple agent.

I've read a lot of fucking books, and when you're a triple agent and one side is getting suspicious of you, what's the greatest length you can go to to prove your loyalty to someone? Die for them. Organize your execution. Throw yourself on top of a bomb.

But like I said. You don't die in Minecraft.

(While I'm on the subject, does anyone find it interesting how Tubbo focused on messaging only Wilbur while Technoblade was on stage, whispering 'i thought he woulded hurt me?' and the like. Wouldn't you, if you were being executed, contact your best friend to get you out of there? Or the clearly stalling 'ally' holding a crossbow to your head? But it wasn't Tommy or Techno that Tubbo needed to convince of his innocence. Its Wilbur who was sus of him.)

I digress. Tubbo didn't die, but he execution=exile and he's living full time with Pogtopia. He's proven his loyalty. When Tubbo is asked if he's a traitor, his best friend quickly jumps to his support and says, something to the effect of, "Schlatt killed him! He couldn't be a traitor!" Suspicion is thrown off him.

He wasn't even there when Dream revealed there was a traitor. He. Played. Dumb.

Meanwhile, streaming on his own, Tubbo is seeking out tridents and OP bows, working on Redstone traps, refusing to get netherite for Tommy, going so far as to trap his friend's house under the guise of a prank, and appearing in TeamSpeak calls to listen in while Tommy was mining gold with Dream (around the time Tommy was pressuring the green bastard to reveal who the traitor is.)

Tubbo has also been building a reputation as someone with bad wifi and a constantly crashing game, so he can conveniently leave situations and not help out when he doesn't wanna. Sidebar: I have to wonder if Tubbo will even stream the day of the war. Schlatt doesn't stream, and neither did the Dream Team when they were villains. It builds up tension and the audience wonders about their motivations. Granted, Eret did stream so his betrayal was a huge surprise, but recently Tubbo has, quite often, made a point of struggling with bad wifi and a game that seems to crash when he's not the one streaming. It wouldn't be too suspicious for him to claim technical difficulties so he can slide under the radar and not have snitches and stream snipers tracing his steps. This is a stretch, but it would be Big Brained to meta game the war.

I've watched a lot of Tubbo's streams lately. It's probably not healthy, and I'm probably connecting dots that aren't there.

But here is my prediction(s) for next week.

Dream said, jokingly, the traitor is Tommy. Despite Tommy's adamance, it may just be possible. He just doesn't know about it yet. Maybe Tubbo talks Tommy into betraying Wilbur. (Wilbur, specifically, and not necessarily their cause, which is not to be exiled and have a not-blown-up L'manberg.) Tommy has said he couldn't be the traitor because he wouldn't betray Tubbo (followed by "Wilbur, too...well...he is a little crazy lately" and you can hear Tubbo in the background making noises of agreement.)

But if betraying Tubbo was no longer a worry? I think, for Tubbo, and for the discs, Tommy would negotiate new terms with Dream. Another end to the war. Another peace treaty. Let's be real, once Tommy switches sides, Pogtopia will crumble. Him and Tubbo are the linchpins.

To continue, Dream supposedly has a contract with Schlatt, and in the stream today, he was leaving banners with a big red X on different properties, like in Tommy's house. Marking territory. He made a point of doing it while Tommy was streaming, following the kid around into the nether and giving shields with the giant red X to supposedly Pogtopian allies (Awesamdude, George.)

Wilbur told Quackity in the Dream Betrayal stream that he worries that Dream's deal with Schlatt is to rescind Manberg's independence. To give power back to Dream. To get Tommy's allyship, Dream may propose instating Tommy as president. Those are Wilbur's predictions. They're not far off the mark. Or maybe I'm just as paranoid as him lol.

I think Dream is trying to manipulate Tommy, but what will the terms be? Presidency? Or Freedom?

I'm not sure that Tommy wants to be president. He likes to play around and while he's shown he can be good at coordination and leadership, (for example, the recent MCC thing where he taught Quackity how to play and they kicked ass,) Wilbur is quite right. Tommy shouldn't be president. Narratively, we all know the server would become....chaos. Okay, that might be kind of fun and he's got good ideas.. I like the kid, and he's grown so much, but he's not "mature enough." Not like Tubbo is, according to Wilbur himself (this is referencing the Stays in The Pit battle). Dream has also said, in the eboy collaboration, that the only Dream SMP player in the video whose stood a chance was Tubbo.

Tubbo has said he doesn't want to be president either, but shit gets done when Tubbo is on. Nature is preserved, giant builds are coordinated, events planned (with cute little digital invites sent to players). The few times that Tubbo has shared his opinion about drama on the server (there's a moment before the Pit that he gives a good speech) he's shown sound logic, great empathy, a willingness to compromise, to have fun and strengthen their community.

There's an old saying, that those who seek power shouldn't have it, and those who don't want the power are the ones who deserve it. If peace wants to be preserved on the SMP, maybe Tubbo should be president, and Tommy should see what it's like to be the right hand man. Or maybe, they will simply run off to a distant jungle base and leave the war to the adults.

My point is, Tubbo is Chekov's gun. Tubbo is the button that hasn't been pushed yet. He may be the deciding factor to change the tide of the war, by changing Tommy's loyalties. Tubbo might not be fully loyal to Schlatt, I could be totally off about the triple agent thing, but he's certainly not loyal to Wilbur. To Dream? We'll have to see. From what we've been shown so far, his loyalty is to himself and to Tommy, and in the end, its usually him and Tommy against the world.

If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. It's fun to speculate. He's just a kid, a smart one granted, and he's having fun; he isn't evil. Unless Evil Tubbo is the next huge arc, the villain of Season 3???? God I would love that. Go feral kiddo.

There are other streamers who are equally over looked and unappreciated and have just as much motivation to be the traitor. Niki is a strong contender, have ya'll heard about the letter she wrote to a mysterious 'friend?' Or, or, what if Philza gets whitelisted? What if there's no shocking traitor at all, just Dream trying to cause division in Pogtopia? What if it's us, the viewers, who were the traitors all along for being dirty snitches? (@rainbowtransform, great theory.)

I'm sure I'll be surprised no matter what the outcome is. But nothing would please me more than to see Tubbo get the spotlight he deserves.

Let me know your thoughts?

41 notes · View notes

lumilasi · 3 years

Note

I'm just curious what your thoughts on Shigaraki are. Im praying he gets control back. I would be so sad if the body take over is dragged out. It looks like they are going the save Tomura route which is great but my thought is that means we won't get him back till the end.. I swear if they have Eri rewind him 😤 I hope it's OK to ask you this, if not please ignore and accept my apologies and have a good day. ☀️🌞

Ha ha it’s alright! I don’t mind talking about my favorite character, and musing out my thoughts about what might happen. Of course, keep in mind this is just my thoughts/viewpoint, and I would never say anything I muse out about this is a fact; I’m not the writer after all. I’m just going over the story bits we already know and considering what could possibly be the story-direction we’re going towards!

(Also warning, this is probs gonna get a little long-winded because I have a lot of thoughts about this, and Tomura and Izuku’s stories are pretty tightly tied to the larger one at hand about the world they live in.)

To give you a short summary: I think Tomura might indeed stay possessed for a while, and perhaps Izuku could team up with his friends to help save him from this possession. I also don’t think Eri should be using her powers a whole lot right now in the story, given her trauma and age. She needs to heal herself first to avoid unintentionally causing more damage to her mental state. Trauma recovery takes time, often more than what we’ve seen so far in the manga.

And now for the long-winded explanation (under the cut so this post isn’t ridiculously long:)

So, considering the overall narration and themes Horikoshi has used in the manga, it feels reasonable to say that one of the end goals in all likeness is to “save” those the current society would not bother saving, including Tomura, and especially Tomura, considering his character and story kind of symbolizes the overall failures and problems of this society. His BG touches on so many bad things and problems wrong with the way their world runs currently.

(Apathy from people being over-reliant on heroes, lack of proper help for mental health, hero idol worship that makes people neglect their families over their duty as a hero, abusive parental figures, dehumanization, etc.)

Izuku’s main goal, the goal of his story after all, is to become the greatest hero as the beginning narration expressed. The most reasonable way to do that given the things we’ve been shown about this world, is to do something none of the current heroes would; save those deemed “unfit” to be saved. It’s not only something personally fitting to Izuku’s character, but holds larger symbolic meaning for the overall narrative. I actually saw somebody discuss this particular topic in a post a while back, that put it better than I ever could.

(click the link if you’re curious to read it, it’s a pretty interesting one)

Now, what that saving means in practice is likely going to be more complicated, since the people in question have done bad things that deserve consequences, and I won’t deny that.

However, one of the biggest issues is, that the way this society functions seems to kind of be the very source of these villains doing bad things. If only somebody would’ve bothered to pick up this scared kid walking on the street before AFO got to him, none of what is happening now would have happened. (or at least, it would’ve been someone else in worst case scenario)

So, to go back on what you actually asked about; I do think that in order to reach the goal Izuku was set, he does need to free Tomura from that possession, that’s probably the least he can and should do.

In that sense, it would honestly make sense it would happen close to the end of the story as the best way to symbolize Izuku becoming the greatest hero - saving even the person who everybody else likely deemed unworthy of saving.

Not to mention, I recall Horikoshi mentioning that he planned the ending to be something where heroes and villains have to team up to reach an end goal of sorts. Izuku teaming up with Tomura’s friends to save Tomura could fit into this concept.

As for Eri...her rewind powers are bit of a...yeah. I also have lot of thoughts about that so bear with me.

They’re pretty difficult from narrative perspective, because they come off very “deus ex machina” or “magical fix all” that removes any stakes, and I’ve seen from the fandom people wishing Eri to just magically fix everything each time somebody is horribly injured, which...that’s a tad disturbing to me? Asking this little traumatized girl who’s seen lot of horrid injuries and gore to view MORE of it potentially, to heal your favorites? Even if she’d want to do it willingly (which she probably would out of gratitude) she’s, what, six?

(yes I know this is fiction and I might be taking this a bit too seriously, but I am also looking at this from the narration point of view, and her doing these magic fixes would also actually be bad for the story narration IMO, I’ll explain below)

She’s just a child, she probably can’t really grasp yet what she can and can’t handle, when it comes to her trauma, and what is and isn’t good for her. Eri “magically fixing everything” is an absolute no from me, both for her own sake and from narration perspective.

Like I get it, anybody would be sad when their fave gets hurt, I am too, but Eri’s a traumatized child, and tbh having her magically fix everything at her current state would in my eyes go against the point the narrative is trying to make, about the need for change and doing things better from the previous generation. Her rewinding these “changes” in the story, as a traumatized kid, is basically holding up the status quo that is harmful. Using somebody’s remarkable power out of duty to do good while potentially ignoring the impact it can have on the individuals own well-being, which basically will hindrance their ability to do said good in the future.

I can let fixing Mirio’s quirk pass, because he wasn’t horrifically injured in a manner that could potentially trigger Eri’s traumas. It was still a tad risky in my eyes to make this kid do it, because even if she did train for it, what if things went horribly wrong and she made Mirio disappear? That would’ve just caused her unnecessary mental anguish. They basically got lucky there that Hori was kind enough to make it work.

I would not mind so much, if the person having this power wasn’t a traumatized kid basically, in a story that is about a flawed system and the harmful effects it has on the individuals living in it with the way it currently runs.

So personally, I don’t want to see Eri use her powers at this point in that manner. She’s still recovering herself and probably not mentally ready to handle these things. Once she’s in a mentally better place, older and more capable of understanding what is or isn’t good for her, then she can go ahead and rewind people’s lost limbs left and right and use her quirk as the next generation superhero healer. But not right now, not when she’s still just a kid with horrible trauma.

Plus, I feel her point in the story was less about her power, and more about her parallels with Tomura; she could’ve become like him if she hadn’t been saved, and in turn, Tenko could’ve been like her if he had been saved.

So, from narrative point of view, It feels likely (though I could be wrong of course) that Tomura will remain possessed for a while, and Izuku’s end goal (or one of them) is to save him from the possession, and perhaps they’ll work together to defeat AFO. This last part I’m not that sure about though, given we still don’t have all the puzzle pieces. There’s probably a lot more to be learned about AFO himself, that will have an impact on how the story goes. We’ll see.

So yeah. Sorry this is kind of long, but sometimes you need lot of text to properly convey your thoughts xD Plus I’m just kinda used to writing long pieces of text.

#my musings #answered ask #bnha tomura #shigaraki tomura #midoriya izuku #bnha izuku #mha izuku #manga spoilers

11 notes · View notes

alottamoney · 3 years

Note

This is very frustrating because you can't be messaged.Nevertheless I would like to share something very serious with you. These are strictly speculation. Firstly I would like to clear my position with Taekook.Long story short: I believe them.

Quite recently I stumbled upon a theory about Taekook's coming out process that seemed very logical to me.The summary of the theory is, the art that BTS has been releasing from the beginning,or from 2015-16 to be exact, have been quite evidently inspired by Taekook's journey from discovering themselves, to then losing themselves, to then finally be able to find their happiness and true-self with each other.From Stigma, to DNA,to FAKE LOVE.A lot of BTS songs are talking about a hurtful love filled with sadness.Also, the kind of songs Taekook listens to and covered from the beginning traces that journey from sadness to happiness.From the official songs,Singularity, The truth untold,Heartbeat,House of Cards,Whalien,Make it Right to name a few.It's justified to assume that BANGPD supports them and love them.But if it is so then why the separation from time to time?According to this theory it is to prepare the ARMY very slowly to getting used to Vkook.We have seen since 2017 taekook is used to promote the Album the most,to hype it up,and once the Album's released,it's the watchful eyes again.BangPd was very supportive of Jkwon,a kpop idol who likes drag.But he also told him that you cannot throw a stone into a still lake and expect everyone to be fine with it.It will take a long time to get the water to settle down.What bangpd is doing with Taekook is he is engineering a very long process of getting people used to the message of acceptance through messaging of their album,love myself,be yourself.He is creating a generation that is used to these ideas so that when that stone lands,there will be no ripple.

Now nitpicking time.Tae and BangPD share a mutual dislike for each other.It's not a secret.Because Tae made it obviously clear on many occasions. Everyone in the kpop world knows it.Starting from Taekook's relationship, V was being portrayed as a non-essential member.Idk if it was a coincidence,but taekook is the king of coincidence and the timing somehow matches.It got to the point where he had only 1/2 lines in a song. If you know Tae's journey, you would know and I'm not gonna elaborate the extent to which it was bad.I also get the feeling he doesn't like Kookie's personality(he doesn't respect him) because he has a psychological need for Tae built in him.The golden Child of BTS.If BangPD is supporting Taekook and engineering their smooth coming out,and taekook are in on it,then why do they seem displeased when separation happens?It has happened so many times that there is no other option to consider than them being unhappy with the situation.

My pessimism will take over from this point.It's about money in the end.I personally believe BangPD supports lgbt.Before elaborating on my point I want to present someone else's viewpoint who I had a discussion with.They are even more pessimistic than me.A bit hilarious too.According to them if BangPD really supported Lgbt he would not try to corner Tae like that.It's an unwritten code among lgbt that you hold each other's relationship up despite your personal things.According to them BangPD used all these messages for marketing purposes and used Taekook and the members as a gimmick for it.That's why he was okay with Jikook but not taekook.Tae did not like jikook happening on stage to the extent it was happening but it was given a free pass in the name of it being just a job.According to this person,an lgbt supporting person would never do something like that to a lgbt relationship.Scary stuff.

Now my elaboration : BangPD is not necessarily protecting Taekook or BTS,he is protecting his investment. He wants to engineer a smooth path for their coming out but only under his term?I know before military it's unthinkable and even after that, my opinion is Taekook are not the declaring in a statement type couple.They prove by actions,not by words.That's why I am a bit confused as to what pd's thoughts are regarding Taekook future.All I know is that Tae does not like it when someone instructs him how to behave in his own relationship.He's been throwing middle fingers left and right to whoever can see.If they are not on the same page with Pd's plan for them,then....what?On a sidenote: I am sure JJK and KTH1 mixtapes are getting delayed due to profit sharing issues.You just know they are going to break every record out there.V said in 2019 that his mixtapes were ready for release that year,and he wanted to see how ARMY react to it and then he uttered something very interesting"It's going to be delayed anyway"..then he laughed in the brattiest way possible at the staffs while spoiling 😂 BH couldn't get that sweet sweet money from "Sweet Night".Going back to my previous point,it really seems like everything is connected to money.Does BANGPD want a situation where if Taekook have to come out,whether by accident or something else,he can be there to take advantage of the situation?Like saying he supported them all along,and the money will come in as support for them pours in.Idk how that will a viable situation.For one, Tae will consider eating poison before agreeing to letting PD use his personal relationship for circus,and it's fair to assume BangPD knows it.Then what about the possibility that PD really is like a strict parent,who wants the best for his children even though his methods are torture.Did he think taekook not being a couple was in their best interest?Taekook's interest/BTS' interest?Like I said, I personally believe pd supports lgbt.He doesn't like Tae's personality,his rebellious streak.I could be wrong but would his personal dislike move him to create tough situation for taekook even though he supports lgbt.It seems unlikely because wouldn't it create unhealthy environment within the group,pd must have known this.Or did he think it's just a teenage romance,one push and it will break easily.All of these possibilities because all I have gotten that TK are not happy when their relationship is micromanaged.

Now there's Lisa in JK's Vlive correcting his steps in Euphoria.Guess we are all delulu at this point.I really think that was Lisa though.Don't ask.I'm sorry for this long ask.Please share with me what you think.

Hi anon, I'm happy that you shared your views on Taekook. My opinion on this topic might be disappointing but I'll share anyway.

First, I don't have a coming out theory because I don't think any BTS member would willingly reveal any sort of romantic relationship because of the fan frenzy around them.

I don't analyze MVs, lyrics, and such because these things involve a lot of input from a lot of people: producers, composers, lyricists, designers, stylists, choreographers, etc. It's much more than just BTS sharing personal stories and trying to find clues about the members' private lives from them is a pointless venture according to me. The covers and song recommendations made by Tae and Jungkook in the earlier years, like you pointed out, have more weightage in this regard.

About Bang and his relationship with Tae and Jungkook: I think there is a large gap between fandom perception and what has actually been shown. While I don’t think Tae is Bang’s bias, I also don’t think he dislikes him or is out to sabotage him. It is even possible that him “favoring” Jungkook does not extend beyond his potential marketability. He seems indifferent for the most part to them as individuals. Assuming Tae and Jungkook are in a relationship, I agree that maybe Bang did not take it seriously until he had to. He could also have done a lot more damage than just separate them on screen or cut them out of content so I don’t think he micromanages them outside work (or may he tried and Tae and Jungkook are just that inseparable🤷🏻‍♀️). He might even consider it beneficial, not in a direct financial manner but in that it makes them easier to control and monitor- two less NDAs to worry about. It doesn’t help that Tae and Jungkook are also very erratic in a way that can’t be attributed to company micromanagement. That could explain some inconsistencies, they’re also figuring it out (and they’re a bit dramatic about it in my opinion).

Jokwon hasn't said anything about his sexuality explicitly, I don't know if this counts as an example of Bang's support of the LGBTQ community but he seems open-minded enough and he hasn't said or done anything homophobic. Tae and Jungkook though are part of his biggest cash cow so, while he might not be homophobic it's not a stretch to assume he has different standards for them vs Jokwon who isn't signed to his label. About using the members and Jikook as a gimmick, I think that is simultaneously complicated but also not that deep and it’s probably a separate discussion; in short, I don’t think Bang is thinking farther than taking advantage of and promoting a popular (easier?) ship but it seems to have affected the relationship of the members involved (Disclaimer: I don’t think that all permutations and combinations of relationships between the members have a possibility of being “real”. I don’t think it’s an everyone loves everyone situation.)

Will Bang or the company try to take the credit if Taekook are outed by accident? The way they act, I feel like they are pretty confident that no such thing will happen. In the very minute chance that it does, I think they'll wash their hands of Taekook and let them fend for themselves. I don’t think they’ve done the groundwork to benefit from such a situation nor do I think they are making it easy for Taekook. The narratives put forth in In The Soop and other content do the opposite of cushioning the blow. There’s no overall consistency and it’s really hard to predict how such things will play out, so I don’t know if they have any plans centered around Taekook right now much less back when they discovered that Taekook might not be typical bandmates.

I'm not sure what you meant by that last paragraph but why Lisa?

#taekook #vkook #ask me questions #bts taehyung #bts jungkook

2 notes · View notes

fullcirclehealthcareers12 · 3 years

Text

Health Care Reform - Why Are People So Worked Up?

For what reason are Americans so animated about medical services change? Proclamations, for example, "don't contact my Medicare" or "everybody ought to approach cutting edge medical care regardless of cost" are as I would see it clueless and instinctive reactions that show a helpless comprehension of our medical services framework's set of experiences, its current and future assets and the financing difficulties that America faces going ahead. While we as a whole can't help thinking about how the medical care framework has arrived at what some allude to as an emergency stage. We should attempt to remove a portion of the feeling from the discussion by momentarily analyzing how medical services in this nation arose and how that has shaped our reasoning and culture about medical services. With that as an establishment we should take a gander at the upsides and downsides of the Obama organization medical services change recommendations and how about we take a gander at the ideas set forth by the Republicans?

Admittance to best in class medical care administrations is something we would all be able to concur would be something beneficial for this country. Encountering a genuine sickness is one of life's significant difficulties and to confront it without the way to pay for it is decidedly startling. Yet, as we will see, when we know current realities, we will find that accomplishing this objective won't be simple without our individual commitment.

These are the subjects I will address to attempt to bode well out of what is befalling American medical care and the means we can by and by take to improve things.

A new history of American medical care - what has driven the expenses so high?

Key components of the Obama medical services plan

The Republican perspective on medical services - unregulated economy rivalry

General admittance to cutting edge medical care - a commendable objective however difficult to accomplish. Click here Full Circle Health careers

how would we be able to respond?

To begin with, we should get a little chronicled viewpoint on American medical care. This isn't proposed to be a depleted investigate that set of experiences yet it will give us an enthusiasm for how the medical care framework and our assumptions for it created. What drove costs increasingly elevated?

To start, how about we go to the American common war. In that war, dated strategies and the gore exacted by present day weapons of the period consolidated to cause shocking outcomes. Not by and large known is that the vast majority of the passings on the two sides of that war were not the consequence of genuine battle but rather to what exactly occurred after a combat zone wound was dispensed. In any case, departure of the injured moved at an agonizingly slow clip and this caused extreme deferrals in treating the injured. Besides, numerous injuries were exposed to wound consideration, related medical procedures and additionally removals of the influenced appendages and this regularly brought about the beginning of gigantic disease. So you may endure a fight twisted uniquely to kick the bucket because of clinical consideration suppliers who albeit good natured, their intercessions were regularly very deadly. High losses of life can likewise be attributed to ordinary disorders and sicknesses in when no anti-microbials existed. In all out something like 600,000 passings happened from all causes, more than 2% of the U.S. populace at that point!

How about we jump to the main portion of the twentieth century for some extra viewpoint and to bring us up to more present day times. After the common battle there were consistent enhancements in American medication in both the arrangement and treatment of specific infections, new careful strategies and in doctor schooling and preparing. However, generally all that that specialists could offer their patients was a "keep a watch out" approach. Medication could deal with bone breaks and progressively endeavor unsafe medical procedures (presently generally acted in clean careful conditions) yet drugs were not yet accessible to deal with genuine diseases. Most of passings stayed the consequence of untreatable conditions, for example, tuberculosis, pneumonia, red fever and measles or potentially related confusions. Specialists were progressively mindful of heart and vascular conditions, and malignant growth however they had practically nothing with which to treat these conditions.

This fundamental survey of American clinical history encourages us to comprehend that until as of late (around the 1950's) we had for all intents and purposes no advances with which to treat genuine or even minor illnesses. Here is a basic point we need to see; "nothing to treat you with implies that visits to the specialist if at all were consigned to crises so in such a situation costs are diminished. The basic certainty is that there was little for specialists to offer and subsequently practically nothing to drive medical services spending. A subsequent factor holding down expenses was that clinical medicines that were given were paid to using cash on hand, which means via a people individual assets. There was nothing of the sort as medical coverage and absolutely not health care coverage paid by a business. Aside from the extremely penniless who were fortunate to discover their way into a foundation emergency clinic, medical services costs were the obligation of the person.

What does medical care protection have to do with medical care costs? Its effect on medical care costs has been, and stays right up 'til the present time, totally tremendous. At the point when medical coverage for people and families arose as a methods for enterprises to get away from wage freezes and to draw in and hold workers after World War II, practically overnight an incredible pool of cash opened up to pay for medical services. Cash, because of the accessibility of billions of dollars from health care coverage pools, urged a creative America to build clinical exploration endeavors. More Americans got protected through private, boss supported health care coverage yet through expanded government subsidizing that made Medicare and Medicaid (1965). Likewise financing opened up for extended veterans medical care benefits. Finding a remedy for nearly anything has thusly gotten extremely rewarding. This is additionally the essential purpose behind the huge swath of medicines we have accessible today.

I don't wish to pass on that clinical advancements are something awful. Think about the huge number of lives that have been saved, expanded, improved and made more profitable subsequently. Be that as it may, with a subsidizing source developed to its present extent (many billions of dollars every year) upward tension on medical services costs are unavoidable. Specialist's offer and the vast majority of us interest and gain admittance to the most recent accessible medical services innovation as drugs, clinical gadgets, analytic devices and surgeries. So the outcome is that there is more medical services to spend our cash on and until as of late the majority of us were safeguarded and the expenses were to a great extent covered by an outsider (government, managers). Add an unquenchable and unreasonable public interest for access and treatment and we have the "wonderful tempest" for increasingly elevated medical care costs. Furthermore, all things considered the tempest is just heightening.

Now, we should go to the key inquiries that will lead us into a survey and ideally a superior comprehension of the medical care change proposition in the news today. Is the current direction of U.S. medical services spending economical? Would america be able to keep up its reality seriousness when 16%, heading for 20% of our gross public item is being spent on medical care? What are the other industrialized nations spending on medical care and is it really near these numbers? At the point when we add legislative issues and a political race year to the discussion, data to help us answer these inquiries become basic. We need to burn through some energy in understanding medical services and figuring out how we consider everything. Appropriately outfitted we can all the more wisely decide if certain medical services proposition may settle or deteriorate a portion of these issues. What should be possible about the difficulties? How could we as people add to the arrangements?

The Obama medical care plan is perplexing without a doubt - I have never seen a medical services plan that isn't. In any case, through an assortment of projects his arrangement endeavors to manage a) expanding the quantity of American that are covered by sufficient protection (just about 50 million are not), and b) overseeing costs in such a way that quality and our admittance to medical services isn't antagonistically influenced. Conservatives look to accomplish these equivalent essential and wide objectives, yet their methodology is proposed as being more market driven than government driven. We should take a gander at how the Obama plan deals with achieve the two targets above. Keep in mind, incidentally, that his arrangement was passed by congress, and starts to genuinely kick-in beginning in 2014. So this is the heading we are at present taking as we endeavor to change medical care.

Through protection trades and an extension of Medicaid,the Obama plan significantly extends the quantity of Americans that will be covered by health care coverage.

To take care of the expense of this development the arrangement expects everybody to have medical coverage with a punishment to be paid in the event that we don't agree. It will purportedly send cash to the states to cover those people added to state-based Medicaid programs.

To take care of the additional expenses there were various new charges presented, one being a 2.5% duty on new clinical innovations and another increments charges on revenue and profit pay for more affluent Americans.

The Obama plan likewise utilizes ideas, for example, proof based medication, responsible consideration associations, similar viability research and diminished repayment to medical services suppliers (specialists and clinics) to control costs.

The protection order covered by focuses 1 and 2 above is a commendable objective and most industrialized nations outside of the U.S. give "free" (paid for by rather high individual and corporate expenses) medical services to most if not the entirety of their residents. It is essential to note, in any case, that there are various limitations for which numerous Americans would be socially ill-equipped. Here is the essential disputable part of the Obama plan, the protection command. The U.S. High Court as of late chose to hear contentions with respect to the defendability of the medical coverage order because of an appeal by 26 states lawyer'

1 note · View note

ineffable-endearments · 4 years

Text

Psycho-philosophy & the angels, fallen or not (part I)

I swear I wasn’t taking any mind-altering substances while I wrote this. It’s very heavy and I’m not sure anyone will enjoy it, but I felt like I had to get it out.

And now it’s too long to be just one part. Here is the first part anyway.

It’s established that Aziraphale and Crowley symbolize the “opposing” sides of human nature, but I have a pretty difficult time with believing that they actually represent “good” and “evil.” THEY believe they represent “good” and “evil.” But even before the two of them develop their humanity by spending time on Earth, before they start to affect each other, they both have philosophies that are far more complicated than just “do good things/be helpful” or “do bad things/be hurtful.”

Before you can be “good,” you need a definition of “good.” And the same goes for “evil.” And I absolutely do not think that the characters’ personal definitions of “good” and “evil” match with the narrative’s definitions of “good” and “evil” (which I’m not strictly sure it really has). So...what might they represent more closely?

In extremely broad terms based more in dictionary definitions than in the finer points of academic philosophy, I’d cast Crowley as the individualist and Aziraphale as the collectivist. Individualism is the prioritizing of the individual’s interests over a group’s interests. Collectivism is the prioritizing of a group’s interests over the individual’s interests.

Obviously, this is heavily informed by abuse from their Sides. Hell motivates its demons to behave by making them fear for their own souls using physical intimidation. Temptations are also usually focused on taking advantage of some selfish motivation in humans. Heaven, meanwhile, motivates its angels with the promise of the Greater Good, intimidates its angels with the belief that disobedience is out of line with the Greater Good, and shames its angels for acting with any sort of personal interest.

“What?!” you say. You’re going to cast Crowley, the guy who initially hatched the plan to try to save the world at great personal risk, as the self-centered individualist, and Aziraphale, the hedonist who’s just about ready to watch the world burn at Heaven’s command until Crowley buys him lunch, as the collectivist one?!

Well...in a way. Because while the characters believe they represent these ideas, and while they genuinely buy into them on some level, the whole point is that the two viewpoints taken to extremes end up looking awfully similar. They also rely on each other, no matter how much they try not to.

I should clarify a few things before arguing any more.

The perceived “selflessness” of collectivism is sometimes idealized, and that’s why it maps onto the supposed “goodness” of Heaven, but it doesn’t actually mean kindness, compassion, or goodness. It means not considering oneself - including one’s own identity, preferences, or moral conscience. Likewise, the perceived “selfishness” of individualism is often vilified and gets cast as evil, which is why it maps onto Hell, but all it really means is placing one’s own perspective at the utmost importance, which can be beneficial depending on who’s doing it.

I’ve seen some incredibly smart commentary on the Good Omens book being a just-barely-post-Cold War novel comparing, among other things, Capitalism (heavy on individualism) and Communism (heavy on collectivism). I thought the analysis I read was brilliant, it told me a lot that I had not thought of before, and I would love to read more. But that’s not what I want to talk about here.

In this essay, I’m really sticking to the terms “individualism” and “collectivism” as they inform the psychologies of individual people (Crowley and Aziraphale). I’m trying to have a discussion that I think is important, because it’s important for humans to have a healthy notion of how individuals fit into their relationships and communities, but my commentary is much more vague and not tied to a specific moment in history. I’m frankly not very qualified to talk about the Cold War, anyway.

Crowley and Aziraphale are a couple of paradoxes. At least, they’re paradoxes until they discover Earth as their true allegiance, at which time they just become two balanced angels of neither Heaven nor Hell.

CROWLEY’S PHILOSOPHY

Crowley knows he’s supposed to represent Hell and the kind of self-interested desperation that drives people to damnation - a kind of extreme individualism. But he’s been condensed into an Earthly being who’s formed relationships and preferences and loves and, gosh, although he wouldn’t admit it, a conscience. Unlike Aziraphale, he’s much more OK with this sense of identity, because individualism is not incompatible with being, well, an individual. But he does struggle with the fact that he’s supposed to be working toward The End Of All Things for his own self-preservation when his real wish is for The Continuation Of All Things.

Most of Crowley’s decisions are framed from his own personal opinions. He approaches the world as he sees fit, which includes accepting his job of damning souls because he has to or he’ll get destroyed. He does what he needs to survive, so you could say he “answers to the higher power of Hell for self-interested reasons,” but for moral purposes, Crowley does not answer to anyone. Interestingly, though, he DOES have a conscience based in his own feelings.

By personality (not because he serves some moral power but because it’s just his personal preference), Crowley does not like certain kinds of cruelty. He’s willing to do his job, but he doesn’t enjoy taking free will away from people, for example. And in most cases, outright violence (like Hastur turning into a pile of worms and eating the telemarketers alive) is not something Crowley is into, either. In this case, the fact that he’s self-motivated means he has enough imagination to grasp what it’s like to be another person, and while he’s willing to upset people/give people the opportunity to damn themselves/generally be inconsiderate in public, Crowley simply does not enjoy the experience of destroying others without giving them a choice.

Oh, and we can’t forget: “You’re supposed to test them, but not to destruction.” It’s Crowley’s personal feelings that lead him to believe Armageddon shouldn’t happen, and Crowley’s personal feelings that lead him to act out against Hell.

With all that said, Crowley feels a profound love for the world and Aziraphale (whether he’ll admit it or not) because he really enjoys it on Earth, and he wants to keep enjoying it. Therefore, all of his “individualism” ends up working in the favor of the “greater good” anyway. In the end, Crowley temporarily loses hope and stops fighting, but by this point, he’s already had his positive effect.

It’s kind of like Terry Pratchett’s powerful quotation about witches being selfish. “All witches are selfish, the Queen had said. But Tiffany's Third Thoughts said: Then turn selfishness into a weapon! Make all things yours! Make other lives and dreams and hopes yours!” Maybe it’s not so intentional on Crowley’s part, but the outcome of his love for Earth and his bond with Aziraphale ends up serving the interests of others.

Crowley’s journey involves a less drastic change than Aziraphale’s. Once he thinks it’s possible to fight for the world and survive, he doesn’t have a single qualm about it, because he answers to his own standards, not anyone else’s.

AZIRAPHALE’S PHILOSOPHY

Aziraphale, on the other hand, has to basically figure out that it’s a good thing to use his own judgment instead of Heaven’s. In doing so, he has to rewrite his belief system and even rework his identity.

Aziraphale knows he’s supposed to represent the collective, Heaven, the Greater Good. But he’s been condensed into an Earthly being who’s formed relationships and preferences and loves and a conscience and an identity of his own. At first, this feels wrong to him, because many of his personal interests go against Heaven’s. It’s why he’s so incredibly good at repressing and denying; he has this sense of Self but doesn’t believe he’s entitled to it and doesn’t realize there is any way to separate from Heaven, so as far as he knows, to allow this Self to grow and flourish would ultimately be extremely painful and potentially dangerous. You can tell the other angels aren’t happy with his sense of self, either, as far as he allows it to go (see: any interaction in the bookshop, Gabriel’s behavior over the sushi).

Aziraphale is so oriented toward the Heavenly collective that he literally denies himself his own judgments, his own opinions. He’s convinced that Heaven is the Greater Good, so he accepts that as reality no matter how absurdly wrong their actions might seem to someone with an iota of common sense. He has not been allowed to have an opinion on it, and he will not form one now. He does intensely enjoy performing altruism and does not approve of Heaven’s plans to drown all of Mesopotamia and turn Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt, but he will even push aside the satisfaction of kindness and the fear of cruelty if he’s told that his feelings don’t fit within the Great Plan.

It’s important to note that as far as Aziraphale believes, the existence of Hell and the work that Crowley is doing for Hell is in fact part of the Great Plan. He says as much to the Archangels when they bully him outside his bookshop.

Aziraphale is enthusiastic and adoring about life on Earth and about humans - and about Crowley! And oh, he does indulge. But he sees this all in a rather passive way, at least at first. He is simply enjoying the world and allowing the Great Plan to unfold. He does not think he has the right or ability to defend the world from Heaven’s judgment, even though he wants to. So, like Crowley’s self-orientation coming full circle to serve the interests of others, Aziraphale’s orientation toward the collective comes full circle to become very self-serving.

THE TWO TOGETHER

Enter Crowley’s judgment. Crowley is really fantastic company, but I think the specific thing he did in the long run was to help Aziraphale see that his own desires and judgments matter. Even when Aziraphale temporarily disavowed their relationship, Crowley’s influence was strong - would the Aziraphale who was standing on the Wall of Eden, or the Aziraphale who witnessed the Great Flood, have chased Gabriel around asking if the war was necessary, or would he have called the Metatron to argue everyone could be saved? Even when Aziraphale doesn’t actually ask questions, these interactions are an assertion of Aziraphale’s own feelings and judgments when he’s being told to be quiet and fall in line. And I really do not think he would have made these assertions before his long Arrangement with Crowley. In this way, Crowley gave Aziraphale the world and the gift of Being Himself.

As for Crowley, he doesn’t care about any Great Plan and thinks Heaven’s will is positively odious, but Aziraphale is convinced that the cosmic dance between the two of them is just ineffable. By playing along with that notion, Crowley allows it to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. The meaning of Crowley’s existence goes from “just make everyone as miserable as possible” to “balance out Aziraphale” which really means “create a world that doesn’t suck as much as Heaven or Hell, which are both insufferable.” In this way, Aziraphale gave Crowley the world and the gift of Being Part of Something.

#good omens #good omens spoilers

56 notes · View notes

tominostuff · 4 years

Text

Tomino x Hosoda on Wolf Children

Source - https://char-blog.hatenadiary.org/entry/20140720/1405889329

Date: April 2013

--What was the reason behind Mr. Tomino giving this movie such high praise when it was released?

Tomino: Anyone who has experienced child-raising understands that children are an uncontrollable “wolf-like” existence to parents. I saw some opinions that marrying a “wolf” is disgusting but there are times when a boyfriend/girlfriend who seemed beautiful during the romantic stage suddenly changes into an existence even harder to understand than a wolf. In this way, [Hosoda] took a very normal story that everyone experiences and skillfully used an animation metaphor to keep the film within a very easy to watch time frame. It's frustrating to admit but Director Hosoda has become very capable.

Hosoda: I was very encouraged by your earlier comments so I’m sincerely grateful to you.

Tomino: In preparation for this interview, I read many reviews of the film and was reassured by what I saw. Mothers who are currently raising children would write, “this film is a very accurate portrayal of a mother.” I thought, finally animation has produced a “film” that could appeal to a wide audience. There’s something revolutionary in a different way from Miyazaki films. For example, among the reviews, there were some wondering whether the director was conscious of Waldorf Education while making the film.

Hosoda: To get straight to the point, no, I was not aware. The main mother character, being placed in the special situation where she could not rely on general medical institutions to raise “the wolf children”, had no choice but to prepare for children's illness with books, ranging from the classics like "Childcare Code", "Encyclopedia of Childcare" and "Pediatric Medicine", to books on natural remedies. It was simply a matter of Waldorf Education being among those books but what’s interesting is the audience noticing this book cover in the corner of the screen and debating the theories written in those books on their blogs. I think it represents how urgent of an issue child-rearing is for parents.

Tomino: I will not affirm or deny that particular theory of education, but I was surprised that mothers, who have a deep knowledge of children's literature and education, made statements that captured the work to this pedigree. As I thought, this work is seen by a fairly wide range of people. However, when I heard the opinions of the anime industry, I got the sense that they were discussing within the narrow confines of genres. In the first place, I don't really understand the tendency to organize media by identifying people into markets or generations and I think this tendency is making recent works lacking.

Hosoda: I too, think that this newest work has come to a place outside of the usual anime context. Up until Summer Wars I wanted to find out how far I could take world building and see what’s beyond that, while staying within the genre film. On the other hand, there are "movie fans" who have a wide field of view and on the other, there are also many people who like genres films like action, horror, romance, etc. From those people I received criticism which prioritized the laws of genre films, for example, "If you write a werewolf character, that character has to be persecuted and shot by the police and die.”

Tomino: That’s exactly what someone caught up in genres would say. Anime has a narratology centered around action, but I felt Wolf Children went outside of that. The very fact that unfamiliar terms such as “Waldorf Education” came up is proof that there are people who believe this movie goes beyond the confines of anime. In other words, it was conveyed that Hana, the mother character, is not as anime-like and pretty/delicate as the picture, but a woman who carried out strong child-rearing with considerable knowledge and insight. When I saw those reviews that touched upon the very core themes of the plot, I thought that anime was finally established as a medium.

Hosoda: Exactly. This time, I was very happy to see women, especially those in the middle of child raising, discuss this film from the viewpoint of a fellow mother. There was sound debate, including criticism. It's proof that the motif of this film is universal. After all, in both movies and anime, world building and expressions have wider potential than genres.

Tomino: That's exactly right. In my case, I’m very greedy, so if I am to express something to the world, I want it to become popular. I'm not interested in producing something that is only accessible to a narrow group of people who like certain genres. If you start making pandering work for niches, you will become a niche yourself and you will set up a flag to be discriminated against and beaten by society. If you are given the opportunity to express yourself in a public place and show your will, it’s better to be liked by everyone. Of course, being accepted is the premise that business is built upon as well. So, people tend to go in the direction of "it is easier to sell if you specialize by genre", but a work created upon that idea will last for at most two to three years. If I am spending a lot of money to make it, I want to do big business, show a concept that will last 10 years, 20 years, 50 years, and make it sell for a long time. There are quite a lot of works that are forgotten after the momentary box office profit. In that sense, Wolf Children definitely showed a new frontier of "things to express to the public" and I believe that the evaluation and recognition in the next 10 or 20 years will be much higher than it is now.

--What kind of expectations does Director Tomino have for Director Hosoda for the future?

Tomino: I don't have any particular expectations, but more what I would like people to pay attention to is the fact that not everything was made by Mr. Hosoda. The existence of scenario writer, Ms. (Satoko) Okudera is huge and it must’ve only been possible because they were in a realistic space where they could observe children. To the point where you might not have been able to make it if the timing was off by about a year or two. This is a realistic work. So while I think, wow you did really well, unfortunately I also think you’ll never have another chance like this. The moment you are told, "that was a hit, let's do it again!", you may fall with a boom so watch out for that. *tl note cough cough* mirai no mirai *cough*

Hosoda: I may have obtained credibility from the box office hit but I believe every movie comes down to the original project proposal. In the future as well, it will depend on the spirit of challenge and fun imbued in each and every proposal. Instead of thinking, “This particular one was a hit so the next one has to go even higher,” I would like to seek a unique enjoyment of movies to share with audiences for each project. So even if I am asked to make another installment of this movie…

Tomino: I mean you can’t, can you?

Hosoda: Yeah, it is a complete work as it is. I will move on to the next new work. At that time, I have to forget all the previous works and start from scratch thinking about what is interesting in this world.

--How do you feel about Mr. Tomino’s previous statement about making work for the public?

Hosoda: In the case of Wolf Children, the starting point of my idea was from a very familiar place. At the time, my wife and I were having a hard time making children. Therefore, the desire to raise a child and become a parent is directly reflected in the movie. At the same time, I thought that the motif of "raising children" is universal not only to us Japanese but to all over the world. Anyone in any country experiences it. Even if you have no children, you experience being raised by your parents. It's a story common to all humankind, so I thought this was a project that had the potential to be viewed by everyone. That's why I said something like the "child-rearing" film genre, but I realized that there is no such movie (laughs). In the first place, it is difficult to film a live-action movie of a situation like "growing up slowly", and I can't find a movie about a child where the parent is the main character. It’s always the conflict filled story of “overcoming parents in order for their children to grow up." I planned it as a "story from an observational perspective" about how parents watch the growth of their children, but I was really in trouble because there was nothing to refer to. Originally, movies originated from counterculture, so I think that is also related.

Tomino: I was surprised to hear that, but it again reaffirmed the superstition that we could express freely, it’s actually not free at all. The fact that Wolf Children is taken for granted even though it’s doing such special things is amazing. Because at the end of the day it's a cliché story, isn't it? But due to the fact that it is universal …….

Hosoda: Yes, it's a very cliche story you can find anywhere.

Tomino: But the moment it was illustrated through animation techniques, it looks revolutionary. This is actually an embarrassing story because something too obvious should not look innovative. It's a tremendous work because even that aspect can be learned from it.

Hosoda: No no, as a creator, I just started from a very straightforward ideal and aspiration, thinking, "I want to do something like this, something like that, when I have a child," in line with the feelings of my wife and I. When I interviewed fathers and mothers who are raising children as references, they talked about hardships like "I can't sleep at night, I'll run out of personal time", but it all sounded enviable to me. “The fact that you are carrying all of that on your back is amazing!” is how I felt.

Tomino: I see....I couldn't have imagined cutting in from that angle. Even though your own children aren’t that old yet, each one of the scenes are neatly arranged by age. While I was watching the film, I couldn’t understand how you could possibly depict the children’s growth so accurately but listening to your story just now, I think I understand half of it. Were you yearning to be a parent to that extent?

Hosoda: Yes, I was aspiring for it. If I didn’t hold ideals toward the idea, I don’t think this movie could’ve been made. If I had actually experienced a sleepless night with a newborn child, I don’t think I would’ve been able to make a film out of it. Because I had a longing for it, that became the power behind the realism. Even though there are some weaknesses to it not being a lived experience, I felt this was the only time I could make this film. Rather than my personal feelings when I first wrote the plot, I am amazed and grateful towards the secretary company and distribution company that took on such a challenging story.

Tomino: It’s exactly as you say. After all, in the anime industry, we, the creators, are contaminated with the preconceived notion of anime. The staff who had the sensitivity to identify such potential in this film only with that title and proposal is certainly amazing.

--Which scene was the most memorable for Director Tomino?

Tomino: It's rare for me, but I smiled at the last cut. Even though it was a cut with a loose composition without any ingenuity, I giggled, mimicking Hana. It’s because I thought, “Parents are just like that, aren’t they.” As the conclusion of a movie, this was really amazing because usually one would want to include something message-like here. If it were me, I’d be too scared to keep her just seated at the table and would make her look towards the mountains and say “Are you doing well?” There aren’t many movies that end so neatly like that. After all, it is a film that raises the story of the movie and the overall representation theory in a fairly dramatic way. However, looking at director Hosoda's career, you've improved your skills for the pursuit of the genre of anime, and you also love anime as an audience member, right? When trying to pursue such a versatile story with a natural theme, Mr. Hosoda's strength of "animation lover" may turn into a weakness and become a double-edged sword.

Hosoda: It's exactly as you pointed out. But I don't think it's possible to stop liking anime anymore.

Tomino: Of course you can't. Therefore, there is no choice but to plan movies in a straightforward, rule abiding way. In my case, I had the same kind of trouble with Gundam, so I know it's harsh. That’s the extent to which Mr. Hosoda hit the nail on the head and got out of the environment where just making work for the sake of doing the job would pass.

Hosoda: However, while there are hundreds of thousands of movies in the history of movies, from many different people from many different cultures, I still think there is something out there that hasn’t been depicted yet. That is my "hope" that I have to keep making for my son who was born.

Tomino: That's the right line of sight. If you have that perspective, I think you can still make many works in the future. Those are probably words that can only be spoken by someone who felt “maybe what I’m creating is not anime?” since The Girl Who Lept Through Time. Because I personally have never come up with the logic that "there may be something that hasn’t become a movie yet."

Hosoda: What? That has to be a lie. Director Tomino was the one to provide that concept. We have been encouraged by that for over 30 years.

Tomino: No, I have the confidence to say that I don't have that kind of creativity or writing abilities.

Hosoda: There’s no way that’s possible. If so, why did we enjoy the thrill of going “I would've never thought up of this!” every time Director Tomino’s new work came out?

Tomino: That's because, in my case, I'm only thinking about the responsibility of "expressing to the public." Regardless of the fact that there were restrictions due to having sponsors involved with big robots, I have come so far only thinking about the narrow exit of, “if other people make it like this, I will do it this way.”

Hosoda: However, as far as I can see, it seems that Mr. Tomino's work pushes itself beyond and is located far above that, while being aware of the public consciousness.

Tomino: Yes, to that, I can be very clear. Because I don't trust the modern public. How can we raise the public to highbrow and make them Newypes? I desire to continue thinking about these feelings towards the future through the theory of communication. Am I overreaching? That's why I'm taught that "a writer must have a perspective like Mr. Hosoda." I couldn't become a fiction writer because I didn't have that sense. Even looking at the relationship between Hana, Yuki and Ame, I realized that "Drama is something that must be assembled like this."

Hosoda: To me this is an unbelievable story. That relationship between Hana, Yuki and Ame could easily be replaced with the path taken by Commander Doba and Haruru and Karara of Space Runaway Ideon. However I couldn’t write the fierce drama of that parent and child as is…

Tomino: If you say Wolf Children feels lacking because it’s simply about child-rearing without the fierce drama, then you are wrong. Things that everyone already knows. Things that everyone actually has hidden deep inside of them, to be able to just say those things straight out and lay it bare in public. Things like the sensual sense of distance in human relationships, you depict so naturally. I personally can't do that, so I forced it through with an easy-to-understand structure and logic. Passionate feelings required for a drama originally requires a sense of distance, and it should be drawn within that. Whether the distance when a hand stretches out and touches another person is true or good, false or true… that sense of distance is a wonderful way to show the goal of the story naturally. Director Hosoda is allowed to have confidence in his ability to direct those kinds of scenes.

Hosoda: I believe that great directing is not in the skills but luck. There was an intangible something that fit the content and tone of the movie. It was good that I was able to stick it out until the moment when I thought "this is good!" for each cut. Those kinds of moments are luck, and the director is the type of person who has to wait for those moments to happen. I think the directors are blessed with their each individual type of luck.

Tomino: I think that as well and also think that, ideally, a play cannot be made unless you are prepared to make it after understanding the whole world.

Hosoda: That being said, while I think the motif I chose this time is good, I also realized that my ability as a director was not caught up with it, but I still had to go through the pain of making it anyway. I don't really understand the whole world, and I don't have enough expressiveness…

Tomino: if that is the case, then I think you’re okay. What’s important is the awareness that “my abilities may not be enough.” There are certain things that can only be built upon that awareness and even if it's making scenes, it’s not something that can be done by one person. Overcoming obstacles with brute force, saying, "There is no choice but to do it like this," sometimes becomes a form of expression that exceeds one’s own ability. The better the movie, the more I think that the camera is set up with the humility that “I can't do it all by myself,” and you can see the power of the group that one doesn’t see in individual work.

Hosoda: For sure, and that’s important in animation as well.

Tomino: Even with desk work like anime, not everything can be controlled by oneself. With such humility in mind, please continue to create soft Hosoda works that everyone can enjoy.

Hosoda: I’m very honored to receive these words. I will continue to use them as encouragement.

#yoshiyuki tomino #mamoru hosoda #wolf children #translations #interview

2 notes · View notes

olderthannetfic · 4 years

Photo

37 Days Till Escapade!

There’s still time to make it to this year’s con. It’s going to be a good one!

Due South was a staple of late 90s slash fandom and predictably popular at Escapade. It was a fun buddy cop show about a mountie and two different Chicago cops named “Ray”, Ray K and Ray V, or as I like to think of them:

The Cute One and The One Who Can Act

>:D

I kid! I kid!

The series started out by teaming Fraser up with Ray Vecchio, salt of the earth local Chicago cop with the stereotypical big Italian family and a sadly prescient surname. After two seasons, the show got canceled. Fans went nuts trying to get it renewed. For once, their beloved show actually came back!

But as often happens in these situations, some of the actors had already moved on. Ray V’s actor left the show and was replaced by “Ray” K for reasons too stupid to need exploring at this or any other juncture.

(Okay, look, he’s undercover as Ray V so Ray V can go undercover with the mob. They look nothing alike. Ray V’s family has to play along with this. Like I said, it’s absurd.)

Incidentally, if you see fans using some version of “For reasons that do not need exploring at this juncture”, that’s a Due South reference.

Fraser/Ray V already had a following amongst slash fans of the later zine era, but Ray K hit just at the right time. It was 1997: the public was getting online, and fandom was expanding rapidly. Free mailing lists and online fic archives were possible on a scale they never had been before. And Callum Keith Rennie is awfully pretty, isn’t he?

I think you can guess what happened next.

Overnight, the new juggernaut with The Pretty One dwarfed the old ship. The show changed tones somewhat, and later viewers who were pimped in through the new ship didn’t always even bother to watch the first two seasons. Remarks were made about the shipability of the balding one. Fans who felt like their efforts to save the show were what eventually got it renewed felt betrayed both by canon and by fandom.

Massive butthurt ensued.

So virulent were The Ray Wars that there are places on LJ/DW where to this day you cannot talk about Due South without instantly restarting the fight. If there was one silver lining it was the many snarky Livejournal icons proclaiming: “I swing both Rays”.

I’m bi and I like terrible dad jokes. I am required to love that.

Sample lulz from isis, though made by lozenger8. I know like 50 of you had these damn icons, but it’s probably been 15 years since I actually saw one used.

Escapade Due South panels include:

1996: Perfectly happy couple, or the world's most dysfunctional relationship? And where does the wolf fit in?

1998: Is 3rd Season an AU? (Get that strange man's hand off my Mountie! Is Due South like M*A*S*H* - strong and secure enough to survive the loss of a major character? Or will Fraser wake up and find Ray Vecchio in the shower, and the third season just a dream?)

1999: Can this Fandom Survive with Two Rays? (No matter what you say, they're both good for Benny. And bad for him. Is there room in Benny's universe for two loves? Maybe neither of them is right for him. Turnbull, anyone? )

2000: Season 3/4 (Fraser/Kolwalski: who's really in charge here? Who's needier?)

2002: Swingin' both Rays (Fraser cares for both of them, so why can't we? Is it possible to accept all seasons as canon? Is it necessary, or desirable, to go beyond OTP in order to embrace all the wonderful characters Due South offers?)

2003: Small Fandom or Monster in the Closet by Alice in Stonyland, Sharon Marais (This panel will discuss both viewpoints; audience is encouraged to share their stories and opinions.)

2014: Due South Retrospective (Let's stage a dramatic historical reenactment of the Ray Wars for the benefit of those who missed it the first time around! Or we could skip that part and just talk about how awesome Benton Fraser is.)

2017: due South: For Reasons That Continue To Need Exploring At This Juncture (Whether long-time fen or new to this fandom, an opportunity to give and get fanworks recs, share links to social media due South community sites, display show-and-tell due South memorabilia, squee about canon and about fanon. May also include topics that are Canadian Six Degrees (AKA Six Degrees of due South).)

2018: Do Slash (Rey Fraser/RayV? Fraser/RayK? Ray/Ray? Fraser/Ray/Ray? Red ships, green ships, other dS ships? Let's show the love for any of them! Share fanworks recs! Reminisce about how we first found dS slash! Discuss dS slash zines (plus some announcements about NEW dS slash zines).)

Personally, I’ve seen exactly three episodes of Due South: The first one, the first one with Ray K that’s a huge callback to that, and the one where Fraser fakes his death. (What? A girl has needs, okay?)

As pretty much a bystander, I gotta say... wow, the potential between the Rays is so interesting.

Here’s Ray V off on this deep cover mission for ages and ages while Ray K is pretending to be him and hanging out with his family and his old partner. Imagine the loneliness and insecurity of knowing you’ve been replaced at home. Imagine the mindfuck of stepping into some other guy’s life and feeling like a fraud. Ray K ends the series riding off into the sunset with Fraser... while Ray V marries Ray K’s ex wife. Whut?

It is no surprise then that my very favorite Due South vid--and it has a lot of competition because this fandom is known for vidding--is Phoenix by Scribe. It’s a constructed reality of Vecchio’s time undercover. (Helpful of that actor to have been in like 800 mafia canons!) I saw this at Bitchin’ Party a number of years ago and was blown away.

Phoenix on AO3

Due South has tons of great fic, making it another great older fandom to check out. The big archive was the Due South Archive, but like so many other great slash archives of ages past, it now resides conveniently on AO3.

I suppose Due South must have had a het arm of the fandom at some point, but if so, I sure don’t know where it hung out. Fanfiction.net has like 800 stories, as compared to AO3′s 12,580.

Due South on Fanlore

Due South on AO3

Countdown to Ray Wars 3.0:

10...

9...

8...

#fandom history #due south #escapade 2020 #escapade con

34 notes · View notes

theghosthybrid · 4 years

Text

Little-Discussed Bits from “Change Your Mind!”

When the finale to Steven Universe aired on January 21, 2019, it blew my mind. I watched it at least a dozen times, and it felt fresh every time.

Soon after it aired, so many neat details were posted, discussed, and admired. I noticed a few interesting things myself but held off on posting to see if anyone else picked them up. Now, on the one-year anniversary, today feels like the perfect day to whip out these thoughts! To my knowledge, these particular things didn’t seem to garner much discussion or notice.

Let me know what you think, and happy anniversary, Change Your Mind! Without further ado:

• Gem Reformation Suspense •

The way that Gem reformation was handled in Change Your Mind really helped to build suspense for the scene in White’s head. Up until Pink Steven formed as a separate-yet-linked viewpoint from Flesh Steven, we as audience members were sharing Steven’s fear that he really wasn’t himself at his core. This was intentional! If the Crystal Gems had successfully reformed without Steven fusing with them, we would have been reminded that Gems reform by first cycling through their history, thus removing that sense of fear and urgency from the audience.

Obviously, we as viewers know (especially upon rewatching) that basic fact about Gem biology, but in the heat of the moment, that fact wouldn’t necessarily be front and center, so what seems like an “oh yeah, obviously!” moment in hindsight was temporarily forgotten in order to feed the emotional catharsis.

• Look, I Helped! •

White Diamond thought she was helping when she took control of Yellow Diamond and Blue Diamond. If she wanted to control them from the start, she could have easily zapped them from the get-go, rather than listen even a little bit. Recall that, per Yellow a few episodes prior, the fact that Steven was able to get even a few words in was very impressive compared to the lack of attention Yellow herself received from White for going above and beyond to do her bidding across the galaxy.

(forgive the different caption style; white text didn’t exactly mesh with this scene)

In this later scene, White reveals that possessing this many Gems at once was spreading herself thin, so clearly it’s more of a last-ditch effort for her. She’s desperate to get things back to normal, by any means necessary. Yes, she’s being antagonistic and petty. Yes, she probably realizes that this method of “helping” wouldn’t exactly be well-received. However, her definition of helping includes doing things that are “for [your] own good,” implying that she Knows Best™. Who cares if the help makes someone happy, as long as it’s effective in the end? Steven Pink asked for help, and that’s exactly what he’s she’s going to get.

• Sitting Out This Dance •

If fusing to make the largest Gem possible to scale the combined Diamond ship was the goal, why didn’t the others join in?

Let’s break it down by each individual.

Bismuth may be one of the OG Crystal Gems, but literal millennia have passed for Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl whereas only a moment has passed for Bismuth, having been bubbled the entire time. The rapport is completely different. Yes, they’re still comrades and still love each other, but until Bismuth effectively waits out her jet lag, she won’t be on the same effortless wavelength as the current quartet.

Lapis Lazuli only knows traumatic fusion. While she was clearly supportive and excited for Obsidian, Lapis herself is very much still uncomfortable with fusion, even in Steven Universe Future, singing “That mirror was a prison, and fusion was the same!” It’ll take her a while to even get comfortable considering it again, and even then, she is under no obligation to fuse ever again if she doesn’t want to.

Peridot is, at this point, still discovering her powers and potential. As an Era 2 Gem, she was made during a resource shortage and has fewer abilities. Even after discovering her ferrokinesis, nobody (least of all Peridot) knows if she even has the ability to fuse. As she said in Too Short to Ride, “My lack of skill is an objective fact.” Plus, she already tried fusing with Garnet and did not succeed. However, whether she is too nervous or simply lacks the ability, the fact of the matter is that even if Peridot is able to fuse, she is also under no obligation to attempt fusing if it makes her uncomfortable.

Connie, as a Human, can’t fuse with Gems. The only reason she’s able to fuse at all is via Steven. It’s been posited that, much as other multi-Gem fusions exist, there’s no reason Stevonnie couldn’t join in an even bigger fusion. In fact, the Crewniverse was even asked this and more-or-less confirmed that Stevonnie could fuse. So, if she’s part of the current rapport, hasn’t been traumatized by fusion, and is clearly able to fuse, why not include Connie?

The answer is simple and ties into my final point as to why we are seeing just Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, and Steven fuse: thematic closure.

Obsidian is trust. Obsidian is power. Obsidian is cooperation. Obsidian is compromise. Ultimately, Obsidian is the ultimate display of familial bonds, borne of trials and tribulations, enhanced by seasons of character growth, and the perfect resolution to so many questions both in and out of the narrative.

#steven universe #su #change your mind #su meta #sierra likes to ramble

25 notes · View notes

theregoesmylurkerstatus · 5 years

Note

It frustrates me when people look back at the Nott confrontation and are down on Molly, but refuse to acknowledge Nott was doing one of the things they dislike Molly for when the group confronted Molly. She wasn't understanding or caring like they pretend. She patronized him and assumed that what she wants should be what he wants, without acknowledging that knowing who she used to be is a different situation entirely from his. He was mean because he wanted her to see that he could have been evil

Well, I think we have a fundamental disagreement here: I personally believe Nott WAS very compassionate to him during the discussion of his past. I think his story hit her hard because she saw so many similarities to her own.

She didn’t assume anything. The first important thing she says is in fact a question. None of what she says comes across as her trying to push him into doing what she wanted. If anything, with hindsight it’s clear that she was trying to figure out where he was coming from, why he had such a different attitude to his old life than she did.

Nott says three (yes, three) things total that entire conversation that are of any real significance. The first is, “Are you sure? What if you had friends, or family?”

He asserts he doesn’t care, because he doesn’t consider that person him. Nott clearly disagrees but drops it. Nott doesn’t speak up much again until the end, where she says, “I think you need to know where you’ve been to know where you’re going, but I respect your feelings-” and Molly cuts her off to say, “And I think that you are fretfully ignorant and full of platitudes.”

(Cool! So the “you’re not as smart as you think you are” comment wasn’t a one time thing said in a moment of frustration! That was something he really thought! Because, you know, zone of truth! To his credit he finishes with, “but I like you anyway,” but I personally don’t think that makes up for the incredibly dismissive qualifier to the sentiment.)

Nott’s argument to him literally finishes with a gesture of support; “if you ever change your mind, I’ll be here to support you.” Could you infer that she refused to let go of the idea of finding out who he was? Maybe. But she ultimately makes it clear that it’s his decision and she wants to help him in any way she can. And she was under that zone of truth too. She must have meant it.

And that’s it. Those are all the relevant things she says to him during that entire discussion. Caleb and Beau are a LOT more pushy about getting info that conversation, and even then I think they’re pretty good about it. Nott hardly contributes at all. She tries to be understanding even while struggling to put herself in his shoes and imagine herself waking up after her death without memories and walking away from her husband and son. She brings up her own fears by asking about potential friends and family (a perfectly reasonable question) a single time. He rebuffs her, she drops it. She mentions she disagrees with him but says she understands his viewpoint and says she’ll support him. He rebuffs her again for bringing up the possibility that he’ll ever want to pursue his past by trying to scare her (in a massive show of how not amazing he was at reading people, since he thinks notorious goblin hater Nott would be scared by him being a goblin killer). Nott shrinks in on herself and looks down, avoiding eye contact for the rest of the scene. Caleb literally cuts in to stop what he can tell might turn into an argument.

Well, actually, Nott does say one more relevant thing. When Beau says to Molly, “I like you a little better now,” Nott quietly adds, “Me too,” without looking up.

Honestly, rewatching this scene doesn’t actually make me think the relationship between Nott and Molly was more balanced; it just reinforces how much he minimised her. He clearly thought she had nothing of interest to say or add any of the time. Nott, for her part, tries to understand how his viewpoint intersects with her own concerns, and then lets it be.

Nott is a stubborn bastard, but she’s also an accepting stubborn bastard, and lot more empathetic than Molly tended to be. Molly tried to do good whenever it suited him and he had moments of compassion, but it shines through in his character that he had no interest in relating to others. He built himself a very strong sense of self to compensate for the fact that he didn’t know who he was – he tried to take control of it by abandoning whoever he used to be even as it abandoned him – and as a result he was allergic to stepping out of his own shoes.

Molly’s attitude to his past was very interesting, and it was something he felt strongly about and wanted the others to understand. I think it’s something that scared him a lot, because he could sense that whoever he used to be… wasn’t a good person. From the hints he got from his past, I totally get why he’d run fast and far. Hell, that’s arguably what Caleb and Yasha did with their fucked up and scary pasts, too – ran as far and fast as they could.

But Nott during that conversation was far from unreasonable. The lack of understanding between Nott and Molly (and Fjord) was a two-way street. They were very different people. All I get from her during that conversation was her feeling out how he felt about what her biggest concerns were as someone coming from a similar situation. When it became clear he felt very differently, she doesn’t even come close to trying to push him to seeing her view, or “patronising” him, or “assuming” anything. At most she passive aggressively hints that he can always change his mind.

I… don’t really think that’s comparable to dismissing Nott’s skills and value as a person, and stomping all over what she feels and believes out of frustration.

#critical role #c2e14 #c2e13 #nott #molly #ramblings #ask #i get where your coming from but nott in this conversation isn't even close to how molly acted in the argument the ep before #if anything nott tries to alleviate the tension of what probably felt like the group cornering molly (like they'd done to her)#by constantly making jokes to redirect focus away from him every once and a while #so yeah i understand how frustrating it can feel for someone to rag on your fav character #but i don't... see it #Anonymous

65 notes · View notes