#but it was just executed badly

[satanistsparklingunicorn]

Just finished Gideon the Ninth with a lot of expectation and I'm really disappointed :((((((

#not in an angry way even #i'm just sad #I thought this was going to be the peak lesbian couple #and it wasn't #I'm just so tired of the same tropes being used over and over again in lesbian media #and this one was different #it seemed so promissing 😭😭😭😭😭 #but it was just executed badly #and i'm really sad about it #maybe its success will encourage other authors to play with not-so-wholesome lesbians? #i hope! #the locked tomb #gideon the ninth

[0xeyedaisy]

Everything and nothing

#This is very badly executed but I just wanted to get this idea outta my head #monart

[lurking-latinist]

Actually I take back what I said in the tags of that “what would fix your blorbo” poll. 10,000,000 USD, in specifically that form, would potentially fix Horatio Hornblower. Untold riches in United States money, unaccountably delivered to a Royal Navy captain? What could it possibly be but the price of treason? They’d hang him for certain. And he’s always so angsty when people don’t hang him. He wants so badly to be punished for things nobody else thinks are that bad. Maybe if they executed him as the result of an anachronistically phrased Tumblr poll, maybe then he’d finally be happy.

#alternatively he could in fact defect to the Americans #he considers doing this in an uncollected short story (by csf - not fic!) for Absolutely No Reason At All #he’s captaining King George’s yacht and they see an American ship and he has this intrusive thought or something #to the effect of ‘I could just give them the King. They probably wouldn’t execute him and the war would end’ #he thinks about it for a minute and then doesn’t #I think forester retconned it for timeline reasons or something #but to me it is peak hornblower. so maybe THAT would fix him. I do want him to go rogue so badly #hornblower

[bidokja]

I was joking a while back that the actor they have playing KDJ for the orv movie was too handsome for him and a friend who's read orv was like "KDJ is actually secretly attractive!!" And I just felt my soul leave my body right then

SIGHS...

Okay. Buckle in. I'm gonna finally actually address and explain and theorize about this whole...thing.

I'm not gonna cite any exact chapters cause it's like 11:30 and I've got an 8 hour drive in the morning but I'll at least make an approximate reference to where certain things are mentioned. Also, this post is just my personal interpretation for a good bit of it, but it's an interpretation I feel very solid about, so do with that what you will. Moving on to the meat of things:

There is one (1) instance in the web novel that I know of which describes specific features of Kim Dokja (especially ones other people notice). This takes place when members of KimCom are trying to make Kim Dokja presentable to give his speech at the Industrial Complex (after it's been plopped down on Earth). This is when they start really paying attention and focusing on Kim Dokja's appearance since they're putting makeup on him; I still don't think they can interpret his whole face, but they can accurately pick out and retain more features than usual. If I remember correctly they reference him having long eyelashes, smooth skin, and soft hair. These features can be viewed as (stereotypically) attractive.

Certain parts of the fandom have taken this scene and run with it at a very surface level, without realizing (or without acknowledging at the very least) that this scene is not about how Kim Dokja looks. This is, in part, due to not realizing or acknowledging why Kim Dokja's face is "censored" in the first place, and what that censoring actually means. I think it's also possible that some people are assuming the censorship works like a physical phenomena rather than an altered perception.

I'll address that last point first. The censorship of Kim Dokja's features is not something as simple as a physical phenomena. It's not a bar or scribble or mosaic over his face. If that were true it'd be very obvious to anyone looking at him that his face is hidden. But his face is not hidden to people. They can look at him and see a face. If they concentrate on his eyes, they can see where he's looking. They know when he's frowning or grinning. They see a face loud and clear. But what face are they seeing? Because it's not really his, whatever they're seeing.

No one quite agrees on what he really looks like. And if they try and think about what he looks like, they can't recall. Or if they do, it's vague, or different each time. We notice these little details throughout the series. Basically, Kim Dokja's face is cognitively obscured. Something - likely the Fourth Wall, though I can't recall if this is ever stated outright - is interfering with everyone's ability to perceive him properly. This culminated in him feeling off to others; and since they don't even realize this is happening, they surmise that he is "ugly."

Moving on to the other point about what the censorship means: To be blunt, the censorship of his face is an allegory for his disconnect from the "story" (aka: real life, and the real people at his side). The lifting - however slight - of this censorship represents him becoming more and more a part of the "story" (aka: less disconnected from the life he is living and the people at his side). The censorship's existence and lifting can represent other things - like dissociation or depersonalization or, if you want to get really meta, the fact that he is all of our faces at once - but that's how I'd sum up the main premise of it. (The Fourth Wall is a larger part of the dissociation allegory, but that's for another post).

So you see, them noticing his individual features isn't about the features. It's not about the features! It doesn't matter at all which features got listed. Because they could describe any features whatsoever and it would not change the entire point of the scene. Because the point isn't what he looks like. The point is that they can truly and clearly see these features. For the first time. They are seeing parts of him for the first time. Re-read that sentence multiple times, literally and metaphorically. What does it mean to see someone as they are?

This is an extremely significant turning point dressed up as a dress-up scene.

---

P.S. / Additionally, I'm of the opinion that Kim Dokja is not handsome, and he is not ugly. He is not pretty, and he is not ghastly. Not attractive, nor unattractive. Kim Dokja isn't any of these things. More importantly, Kim Dokja can't be any of these things. The entire point of Kim Dokja is that you cannot pick him out of a crowd; he is the crowd. He's a reader. He's the reader. Why does he need to be handsome? Why must he be pretty? Why is him being attractive necessary or relevant? He doesn't, he doesn't, it's not. He is someone deeply deeply loved and irreplaceable to those around him, and someone who cannot even begin to recognize or accept that unless it's through a love letter masquerading as a story he can read. He is the crowd, a reader, the reader. He's you, he's me. He's every single one of us.

#orv #orv analysis #orv meta #orv spoilers #mine #ask #there's also the meta that he is described with these (stereotypically) pretty features as they are about to try and 'sell' him to a crowd #which feels to me like a very pointed way to convey how 'beauty' is commodified. how audiences like 'attractive' characters more #note: made some edits to add in a couple of sentences my brain forgot in the moment so make sure u reblogged those if u do #tag edits for further commentary that isnt strictly relevant to the point i was making: #do i think that this face censorship was executed as well as it could have been? nah. #not that it was like. done Badly. it's followed through to a certain point. its established enough for me to make this post at least. #but i do think it is the one thing in the web novel that SS didn't capitalize on. #like. they still stuck the landing but it was not as picture perfect of an execution as the rest of the metaphorical stuff in orv #also. this (not the face censorship specifically but the 'hes just some guy' point of it all) is one of the big reasons i think that- #-visual adaptions of orv can never quite work. they can do the best that they can with that medium but a lot of nuance is lost- #-simply by virtue of it being a visual medium #i personally think the only way a visual medium could work would be one where they commit to the power move of not showing kdj's face #(until a certain point (of view) that is) #his face is always facing away or out of frame or hidden by someone or something else in the way #commit to the fucking allegory or simply perish

[journey-to-the-attic]

one thing i've noticed about obey me's story is that it generally delivers on big dramatic narrative moments, but often neglects the surrounding scenes and especially the fallout. there is of course, the oft-talked-about lesson 16, feat. mc's death that never gets brought up again, but then there's also s2's amnesia arc, which ends things with "mc has the ring so everything is completely fine forever"

om has a habit of doing this, where a realm-wide (or heck, universe-wide) problem is hand-waved away by the appearance of a convenient fix-it, which is usually either an object or just ~magic~ (magic as a plot device in om in general is handled poorly but that's a story for another day)

in some cases they just don't address the fallout at all. at least belphie talks about what he did in lesson 16 - but, see nb s2, wherein levi floods the entire devildom, submerging entire houses, and they don't bring it up again afterwards. as far as i remember too, belphie's mini-arc in this season wasn't really given room to breathe, either

but here's the main thing (spoilers for nb lessons 38 and 39)

i've just done these two lessons and in hindsight lucifer's mini-arc feels like a lot of missed potential

honestly they could have excluded diavolo entirely - his main purpose was to stall for time so that the brothers could show up. the moment where he kneels was cool (more on that moment later), but the way they've written him in means that the angels kinda. don't get to do anything? at all?

look - raphael has a gorgeous character moment at the end of 37 where he cries for the brothers' plight. like you don't understand this had so much potential!!! he didn't really do much in s1 (and might not have actually been himself??) so i was hoping this would be his chance to shine, but instead he's on the sidelines. simeon gets the most to do, and even then it's really not much. luke doesn't do anything, unless you count those blessings he and simeon give mc, but they don't really factor in at all??

what especially doesn't make sense about diavolo's role here is that lucifer turns on mc after they step in to protect him. this is meant to be a pay-off to diavolo's less savoury motivation for saving the brothers, revealed in his arc in nb s1, but all lucifer does is say it, get mad, then completely forgets about it once all is said and done

if that's all they were going to do with it, why bring it up at all? from a character standpoint, it makes more sense for mc to shield one of the angels - again, raphael this could've been your moment. (alternatively it could've been a call-back to the og s1 where mc shields luke in the underground tomb)

the appearance of the brothers was welcome, but at the same time i don't quite buy that they all got out of their respective predicaments completely fine. (also where did mephistopheles go??) lucifer also calms down very quickly, which is a great moment for the power of family, but at the same time i feel like he would've needed at least a few more dialogue boxes of him registering through his rage that his brothers were there. eh, this is more nitpicky than everything else

the brotherly moment was 10/10 though. love these guys <3

but i hated the final resolution so so much. sure, have god forgive him, whatever. but why would you end it all with a "papa loves you"???? if it had been raphael or simeon saying it, maybe i could get behind this as a symptom of the celestial realm's unhealthy society, but LUCIFER, whose greatest fear was revealed to be his father in s3 of the original story?

om has never made it seem like god's relationship with the angels was anything other than controlling and borderline abusive, and for some reason (if the poignant flashback is anything to go by) they've done a complete heel turn into "actually it's fine because he loves the angels". it could be read as representing how children often still cling to abusive/controlling parents, but i doubt it - especially coming from lucifer, who started a war and lost a sister in direct opposition to his father

and i get the whole deal with "lucifer was so beautiful as an angel" but it feels really disingenuous to the brothers' arc (about settling into the devildom and coming into their own as demons) to harp on about it. like, fuck that, have lucifer cast away the angel form, or at least have some pushback from him in the aftermath. have mc tell him "you're even more beautiful as a demon" or something

then in lesson 39 everything's back to normal. it's a very cute lesson and i had fun in the moment, but it feels off. there's no discussion of what happened, everyone's completely fine. there's got to be some psychological after-effects to all of that, no? for lucifer especially if not the brothers who got frozen as well???

though lucifer's dragon gift was very sweet. i can't stay mad at that old man

#i think a big issue is that om's juggling a lot of characters #even back when it was just the brothers they had trouble evenly distributing development and characterisation #(and beel's still constantly getting the short end of the stick) #nb is very good at delivering concepts but it's 50/50 whether they're executed well #am i being picky about this silly otome game? perhaps #but it's very much a character and story driven game so at the same time this is kinda the whole point #om is not badly written. otherwise i wouldn't have been stuck in the devildom for like 4 years now!! #but there are so many threads that could be so good #that the writers either miss or weave into the wrong knot entirely #obey me

[thecrimsonjaguar]

i think when it comes to the F+C finale it's important to see where the writers were coming from. And it's easy to do that, the lesson/moral they gave simon is fairly clear: Simon needs to appreciate his life because Betty sacrificed so much to get him here. alright, cool, that's good on paper.

I do Also think that the execution was poor.

up until this point, the crown has represented/could be viewed as many things. Alzheimer's, substance abuse, and anything else people have called it. In this series, a newer interpretation has arose: Suicide. And I'm certain the writers were aware of this. Depression and suicidal ideation are such strong themes in this series that they can't NOT be purposeful.

So their attempt at teaching Simon to appreciate Betty's sacrifice can ALSO be read as: Simon, the suicidal, on the verge of a relapse-man, gets put into a body of a child, (and that is very powerful imagery that does not help, actually) and is told nearly expressly that he fucked up in his relationship with the love of his life. He is told he should have sacrificed more for betty. And he says to himself: "Maybe i wouldn't have even found the crown". Basically it's simon pinning the blame on himself for his 1000 year curse on his mistakes with Betty. Which of course can be read as Simon's self loathing but the show does nothing to refute his statement, which i also have issue with. Simon putting on the crown was stated to be a Mistake. it was an accident. No matter what, the crown cursing him Was Not His Fault. Ever. It's not Betty's fault, it's not Simon's, it. was. a. Mistake.

regardless on if they should or should not have introduced these new flaws into simon's character, having simon learn his mistakes like This feels. icky. to me.

#adventure time #simon petrikov #at spoilers #at fionna and cake #I've been thinking about what I would do to change this #because i feel the need to put my money where my mouth is #i cant just say “this needs to be written better lol bye” #i need to prove that alternate ideas WOULD work #and right now my script has actually deleted casper and nova entirely #because i don't know how to keep them #casper and nova were really fun ideas #and the execution was fun too #but i cant seem to make the whole “simon possessed shermy and plays casper and nova” plot point work with my rewrite :( #will accept any suggestions if anyone's got anything! #another thing about the lesson simon learned #is that it -in universe- could have backfired so badly #simon could have Doubled Down #simon was already so depressed and prepared to throw his life away for someone else #and then he gets confirmation that “Actually. You Didn't Sacrifice Enough.” #Simon lets betty go in the bus scene #but what if he just... failed to learn the lesson she was trying to show him? #what if he goes “you're right betty. I should have sacrificed more for you like how you did for me.” #“i can't sacrifice anything for you now. i'm sorry. but for fionna and cake's world... i still have that chance.” #sorry im in fucked up thoughts land #at thoughts

[insufficientchill]

rough sketch of a pair of tomb effigies depicting unidentified noblemen, Chapel of Saint Indech Gateside, Fhirdiad, after 1270

#not to break up the dd/2-posting but i just stumbled on this in a folder #i executed badly but i still like the concept! #FE3H #sylvix #do not follow for more FE3H content it is extremely unlikely there will be any!! #inks

[thatsitso]

Yes I finally watched Trigun

#trigun #trigun stampede #vash the stampede #trigun fanart #vash #my art #my #art #drawing #sketch #fanart #I should have started it earlier tho so I could experience it week by week the fandom is so fun #but I'll be there for the finale at least ehe #and yeah I really liked it! #there were some meh things but overall I really enjoyed ittt #like the main conflict between the humans and the plants was kinda typical #and the villain brother doesn't have a really interesting personality or reasonings #or characters like Rollo that just came out of blue and they're somehow connected and we just get a two minute flashback and like 🤨 #how am I supposed to feel anything about them like I see he's super important to Vash and the other guy to Wolfwood but ueh idrk #that was executed badly imo #but despite that it was great like seeing the backstories and finding out who Vash is and stuff that was really engaging #I like #and the fandom is so good hshs #also now I'm really curious about the original I think these bad things were better there so I'm planning to read the manga later #yea that's it byee

[hayleysayshay]

‘Mike actually wanted to leave Button House for a while’ you know I didn’t get that at all. I believe the words he wrote ‘I love it here’ in s5e6 indicates that he does love Button House and wanted to stay. I get that people can have complicated feelings in real life, wanting to stay and wanting to leave, but these are fictional characters. They do not exist outside of the 30 minute television episodes and the words and actions shown, and this fictional characters feelings before the finale were clear that he wanted to make Button House work.

I don’t think fan headcanons justify the finale, nor is it that strong an argument to lean on headcanons to say the finale is good, actually, or makes sense, actually.

#bbc ghosts #yes I get that they always had problems with button house #but Mike did not want to leave for a long time #bbc ghosts spoilers #ghosts #again I get the finale. i just think it’s badly executed #yes I saw a post and yes it’s weird #it’s not just Alison. they both loved button house

[boypussydilf]

i saw on instagram someones au of simon just leaning really really hard into the “my fiance is a god now” thing and basically being a weird obsessive golb priest about it and at the time i thought it was kinda dumb and cheesy but my perspective has shifted now. that rocks

#overcompensating for how they never brought up him being Like That in ep2 again #im basically scrabbling for any aus and alternate endings and different ideas abt them and what they could do #as a fusion of. being sad over the part of their ending that makes sense but just makes me real sad #and being frustrated over the stuff that doesn’t make sense and is executed badly #basilposting #atposting #fionna and cake spoilers #ish

[icryalotandiamnotproductive]

I think I haven't showered in 3 days

#executive dysfunction #depression #depressive episode #i smell badly #im just too tired #piss off #i wanna d #word #kms #dont mind me #personal

[sysig]

What your fave says about you: Sona/Undertale edition (Patreon)

#Doodles #UT #So many sonas and characters lol #Ended up filling the other side of the zine with something self-indulgent :) #Actually came from the same kernal as a digital-specific idea but these are what I've ended up with in the moment! #Zine doodles end up...silly lol #I draw with pen logic! And mm... I won't say I'm Displeased with them but there are things I'd change for sure #Overall the vibe is there just not completely the execution lol #I'll get it better when I do the digital version >:3c It'll be like how I see it in my head and then I'll have both! Nice #For the moment tho doing an eight-highlight reel of the who's who was fun :) #Obviously starting with myself and my fave <3 This terrible little flower whom I love with my whole heart #I really do love him - I'd go and rewatch my fave scenes with him but the in-built guilt haha #The next was easy! My fave sona gets my second fave character! Papyrus only loses to Flowey by a hair's breadth anyway lol #Anyone in the thread remember that time I compared Charm to Papyrus lol #They both want people to like them so badly! They go about it very differently tho lol #Papyrus would be a good influence on her :) Just be nice to people! Ironically she'd probably agree more with Sans lol #Speaking of! Eli would be the type of person who goes digging around in the backend and Totally claims to like Gaster the most #Y'know because secret values and stuff! Super sneaky like! But actually their fave is Snas lol #You are Basic Eli just accept this lol #Ficus was an easy pick for Napstablook - they would absolutely lay on the floor and think about being garbage with them #That deadened gaze lol #Ulex looks so uninterested in Alphys lol they're just bad at talking - dissimilar from Alphys in that they've got the stoic thing going on #They're not awkward just not good at making friends lol #Hall of Mirrors would absolutely love Undyne lol - being friends with her and cooking together would make HoM So Happy haha #Another obvious one - Othersona already comes with spider imagery! Muffet was the clear choice haha #They are having a cup of spiders and they are enjoying it :/ Lol #And finally Holosona and original calculator-body Mettaton haha - she prefers this version over EX and NEO #She'd probably like NEO - she absolutely plays the Genocide run on purpose - except for how OHKO he is lol #A different sona likes NEO tho... #Anyhow ♪ Might talk more about their different play styles in the digital version :D When I get there anyway lol

[rouge-the-bat]

i should be able to live doing nothing but engaging with my hyperfixations. all my mental problems would be solved like that

#i wanna get back to transcripting yuyu but i need to be. productive #i very badly need to box up more of my shit bc were gonna be moving soon #among other shit that i need to do. so id feel guilty just transcipting all fuckin day #but im also not being productive anyways bc im too overwhelmed and anxious bc adhd executive dysfunction kicking my ass #ugh. ugghhgghhhhhhhhhhhhgggggghgg

[effable-as-f]

I've been trying to figure out the best way to word this and I think I have so bear with me

Aziraphale loves Crowley. That's plain as day, he loves seeing Crowley happy, he loves receiving affection from Crowley. But I don't think he particularly likes making sacrifices or pushing himself out of his comfort zone, when Crowley has shown time and time again that he's willing to do the same for him.

I hope I'm not alone in thinking that this season has been showing us all the ways that Aziraphale and Crowley's relationship is sort of... inequal--Aziraphale doesn't respect Crowley's wishes about making changes to the Bentley and only stops once Crowley threatens to treat his belongings the same way, he's dismissive of his concerns about Gabriel, he's too distracted with his ball to listen to Crowley's warning about the actual small army of demons outside their door--all the while Crowley's TOP priority has been Aziraphale and making sure that he won't be harmed, by Gabriel, Heaven, or otherwise.

I mean this in the nicest way possible, because it makes perfect sense for his character, but I think that Aziraphale has always been portrayed as kind of selfish and hypocritical, and I think that's on purpose and it's something that he needs to work through before he'd ever be ready to take his relationship with Crowley to another level. I think he's started to take for granted that Crowley will always be there for him, and that what makes him happy will always make Crowley happy, when that's not the case. He said it himself: Crowley goes too fast for him. Despite all the progress he's made, he's still stuck in his desire to go back to a fantasy of "the good old days" that never existed.

#good omens 2 #good omens spoilers #good omens meta #aziraphale is so traumatized and so brainwashed and he wants so badly to feel like he's doing the right thing #and he's so sheltered and naive and thinks he can fix everything on his own #but crowley just wants them to be able to REST and be FREE and HAPPY and TOGETHER #because it's not their responsibility to try to fix the system that fucked them both over #part of me wonders if a big source of their conflict #is the fact that crowley SAW the cold casual cruelty with which gabriel tried to send aziraphale to his death #and aziraphale didn't #because deep down in his heart he STILL somehow believes Heaven is on the side of pure good #and he wouldn't see michael simply providing the holy water to execute crowley in the same way #because he's been taught to believe that simply ALLOWING bad things to happen is not as bad as doing it yourself #the demons are the ones doing the actual killing their hands are still clean they're still holy #WHOO that felt good #I haven't done a long 'essay' type post like that in a WHILE

[marypsue]

I do want to make it nice and crystal clear, in case anyone is less than certain: I love talking shit about bad choices made by things I love. I also am a writer, and tried my hand at writing a 'season' of a television show that I loved just for fun, and it was fucking hard. And the only deadline I had was self-imposed, and the only limitation on the locations and effects and costumes and etc was my own imagination. TV and film writers have a difficult job and the conditions they increasingly have to do it under only make it more difficult. Giving people no time, no resources, and unreasonable expectations is going to lead to worse storytelling, and I'm in full support of the writers' and actors' strikes.

And I'm going to give the Duffers infinite shit forever for some of the choices that they made, as the showrunners, about what kinds of stories they want to tell. They've earned it.

#stories live or die on execution and execution is suffering badly under the current studio system #most people are just out there doing their best #but like. i'm gay and i love to complain. #and also I'm quite sure that in a lot of these cases the writers *also* know that what came out was not their best work #and with time and space and support it could have been better

[tatertotcosmonaut]

This sounds so weird but I feel like we’re in this wave of media criticism where if stories aren’t “realistic” or aren’t “complete reflections of the real world” then people brush it off or it’s seen as generic or “low content”.

There’s nothing wrong with liking realistic stories that are dark and gritty, or stories that are dark satires of common genres (such as The Boys with its satire on the superhero); but a story that’s light and comedic and uses tropes can be just as much of a good story as stories that decide to deconstruct those tropes and explore the darker paths they can take.

I’ve legit seen “characters just don’t die in the story :/“ or “this is so unrealistic” used in media criticism for stories that are fantastical in nature. What measure of realism are you using 😭? And is character death something necessary to make a story good?

It just feels like media criticism or literacy has turned into “if a story doesn’t have the specific things that I like then it’s bad”, which is not how you analyze things. It’s fine to not have intrigue in a story if it doesn’t interest you, but just say that instead of trying to make a reason for the story to be bad.

#media analysis #this is not to say that stories can’t have bad writing or bad execution #there are many cases where something is just written terribly or was a stupid writing decision that effects the story badly #but you have to analyze if it’s genuinely bad writing or your personal interest and squicks