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bitchfromtheseventhhell · 2 years

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i remember right after the first ep came out, a lot of people in my non-tumblr circles saying of aemma’s death “why did they do that that wasn’t in the books how dare they ugh ugh ugh gross”

and yes

but also that why did they do that is something that’s sitting with me because i think we were all so used to the bar on got being so low that things like that were done to shock the viewer and nothing else. and that’s not hotd’s play.

aemma’s death was setting the stage for eighteen different things—the explicit horror of it was intentional. it echoes through the following episodes, the seed for what we’re seeing with alicent’s marital rape, with viserys never being able to understand that his “love” for the women in his life (aemma, rhaenyra, alicent) and his “i’m just trying to be a good guy” attitude is nothing more than a velvet glove over a punch that still hits just very hard: he treats the women in his life as pawns. not just because king, but because that is who he is even in his most private and “human” moments with them. he waffles and prevaricates and tells different truths to different people he cares about because he himself can’t face his own truths.

and all that is before we get to what’s yet to come, with rhaenyra’s own marriages and childbirths which will absolutely have important echoes of aemma’s death.

this show is highlighting in the most brutal possible way the misogyny of martin’s world. aemma’s death was more than just a plot point, more than just something to make us hide our faces and go “here’s this world again, back at it to horrify us and make us hurt”—it is echoing and reverberating. it is the thesis statement of the whole show. it wasn’t meaningless. it was the point.

#hotd #got critique #idk this has been sitting with me for the past week or so #that by the end of got we were all like just begging for anything to have any meaning at all #and it never did #so we didn't expect the horrors we saw to have meaning anymore #i saw a friend quoting a podcast i don't listen to: that hotd is character driven whereas got was plot driven #d&d didn't understand that to be plot driven you MUST be character driven #which is why they broke their entire show for sansa's plotline in s5 #hotd is making everything character driven #that's why they changed alicent's age #that's why they added details to aemma's death #it's to make all the plot points they're going to hit pack more than a velvet punch #because they're going to hit their characters hearts #not force the characters to have unrealistic emotions out of poorly written shock value

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doodlesdreaming · 5 months

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Shin Megami Log 4(After Game Thoughts)

Finished SMT V during Christmas, and I have THOUGHTS.

I'm gonna put all that under the 'Read More' bit, so if any of you are interested in this game, then scroll past and no peeking.

Right then, final thoughts:

Brief history lesson first, I knew very little about the SMT series or the spin-offs like Persona. Of course, with how incredibly successful Persona 5 is, it's hard to miss any sort of info. But even then, my knowledge of the entire franchise was very limited. All I know is that it's basically the "Dark Souls" of RPGs with character driven stories that have of ingredients than a Final Fantasy title. At least, that was the vibe I was getting.

But even then, I never have been interested enough to want to give any of the games a try. I did get Persona Q2 back when I first heard of the 3DS dying out, but it mostly because I didn't want a Persona game with Joker's face on it to be forever lost. Weird I know, but that was my train of thought, at the time. But after clearing the first boss(and realizing that prior knowledge of Persona 5's story is an absolute must) I got bored and haven't touched the game since.

Fast forward a few years later, when Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne was announced with a HD port to current gen consoles. I was genuinely excited by the announcement. This meant that if I ever decided to give Nocturne a try, it'll be alot easier for me to do so now. Then after that came the biggest surprise of all; Shin Megami Tensei V.

Now this....this caught my attention. Though I can't really explain why. Was it the character designs? The gorgeous looking world? "D" all of the above? All I can say is that something 'clicked' and I was very interested. Even though it would take two years later until I actually got it.

And I'm so glad I did.

I was invested right from the start. From the silent "show don't tell" protagonist, all the way to Lufcier himself, the story, even with its swiss cheese holes in plot at some points, had me hooked from start to finish. The combat never got boring. I was constantly thinking of strategies and building up my demons that suited my needs and my playstyle. The world was incredibly fun to explore, even though the lighting choices, in some areas, made my eyes strain a bit. It would take me up til the big boss of the area for me to finally adjust.

And the bread and butter of it all, The Law and Chaos mechanics. A stable, I've come to understand, in the SMT series. Yet an important take away from all this is that nothing is as black and white as it seems on the surface. SMT is a franchise that makes you think. It makes you question yourselves and you inner most thoughts. And SMT V had me rolling in so many thoughts, that when I reached the 'alignment lock' of the game, I had to take a break because I was starting to get overwhelmed.

Of course, this could very well be a really weird quirk of mine. But when I get into a really good story, I REALLY get into it. And the choices I make would impact the ending I would get.

By all accounts, the Law ending would naturally mean the good ending, right? Well sure...if you can live with a Law that discriminates all other forms of thinking(a.e. free will), will not hesitate to punish they see as 'unfit' and the willingness to become corrupt yourself, just to prove a point. Sure. Law is the way to go.

The Chaos ending usually entails victory for the bad guys. And yet, there really isn't a clear "villain" in this case, other then the absolute obvious ones(f you Lamau). In Chaos, there is diversity, the freedom to choice your fate, to be yourself. And yet with so many possibilities, there will be disagreements, arguments of what is right and wrong, and power competing against power. No one really wins, and there is constant strife. But hope is just as abundant, with the capability that anything is possible.

The Neutral ending is well...the Neutral ending. You don't pick a side. You're that little kid that asks, "Why not both?" A balance of law and chaos. So understandably this would the best choice. Yes...except the neutral path follows a man who has been brought down low by both law and chaos. He lost everything precious to him, to the point where he belittles his fellow man if they show any sort of weakness. So the solution? Make humanity the leading power of the universe, but take away every viture and sin that exists in the heart and soul. And by extension, all the angels and demons in existence. Never to be even a story told by campfire light because it would never be allowed to cross through the mind. Humans would be free of woe and fear, and grow abundant in their everyday lives. But will it truly last?

You could probably guess which ending I ended up getting. And quite honestly, I'm satisfied with it. Plus it lines up perfectly with my ever growing headcanons of the Nahobino. So I'm taking it as a win.

I honestly can not recommend SMT V, especially if you're like me who enjoys a good rpg that I can sink my teeth into. It has it flaws, yes. But they feel so small that it doesn't really bother me. Some of them I can just 'fix' with good old imagination. And it's definitely inspired me to play Nocturne next, for sure. But first, I want to see if I can beat the Demi Fiend himself in combat....

There's so much more I'd like to talk about, but I think I rambled long enough.

The main takeaway? I LOVE THIS GAME. Definitely gonna be alot of fanart for sure. And I'm gonna get my hands on some merch when I can. It probably won't exceed my growing Darksiders collection, but it might come close in time, lol.

The other main takeaway from all this is that I get it now. I get the appeal and why this series is standing as strong as it is. HEE-HO!!!

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mittensmorgul · 5 years

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I'm sorry, I didn't mean for my ask to upset you.You're a terrific writer & I love your meta! For awhile, I've been having a hard time reconciling the show's original "humanity" theme with what's happening now. Jack's almost invincible & has God-like powers. He singlehandedly took care of Michael, Nick, Lucifer & is teaming up with 2 other supernatural heavy hitters. I like Jack but TFW's my jam. So I hope you're right that they'll still be important, even if they're not special with superpowers

It’s okay, I’m fine, really :D

I guess I’m just confused as to how the humanity themes aren’t still being well represented, considering 14.20. I mean... Dean, a human, literally snatched the guitar out of God’s hands and smashed it. He stood there, thinking there was literally no other choice but to kill both Jack and himself to save the world. After he spent more than half of s13 thinking HE needed to die or be locked in that box to contain Michael and save the world. But in the end, he literally stood up to God and said NO. No he would not destroy himself and Jack for Chuck.

(and then Chuck went ahead and killed Jack anyway)

Dean, a Human, has spent the entire season telling cosmic beings to shove it-- Michael, Billie (re: him getting in the Ma’lak box), Chuck himself. While Jack was human for a while and then finally bonded with Dean and became family to him.

But as I’ve been writing for a really, really long time, the A Plot, the defeating of the seasonal big bads, has long ceased to be the point of the show. I’ve written several things in the last few weeks about how it’s undeniably clear now that Dabb has been writing toward this endgame since he took over back in s11, and has been exploiting the show’s own spiral narrative to do it.

https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/184788264850/i-will-always-maintain-that-dabbs-finales-titles

here’s a post linked in the one above that I wrote right after 12.23 aired, pointing out the fact that watching this as if it was a plot-driven narrative would lead to frustration and like... missing the whole entire point...:

https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/160988290690/12-while-i-do-not-ask-this-to-be-negative-at

I mean, I’m sitting here watching 13.01 right now, which from the perspective of post 14.20 looks like a freaking bookend... in pretty much every way. Dean’s prayer to Chuck which goes unanswered (which feels like the complete opposite sentiment toward Chuck that Michael will express, the opposite of what Lucifer expressed), Sam begins to teach Jack how to Human, but also to help him understand his own powers.

All of this was supposed to stop after 11.23, after Dean found a peaceful reconciliation for the original divide of the universe. Chuck promised the world would be okay without him, but it wasn’t. The hits kept coming, and in 14.20, we learned WHY:

Chuck: Listen, you guys know me. I'm hands-off. I built the sandbox -- you play in it. You want to fight Leviathans? Cool. You got that. You want to go up against -- what was it? -- the "British Men of Letters"? Okay. Little weak, but okay. But when things get really bad, like the Apocalypse or the Other Apocalypse, that's when I have to step in.

This was still Chuck, watching his favorite show, watching his guys reenact his favorite story over and over again. We’ve complained for literal years about Lucifer being a one-note, boring Big Bad, because he was. Intentionally. People were disappointed in the whole Michael storyline, because it was never really made clear what his motivations were, or what his plans were outside of the completely nihilistic desire to break everything Chuck ever built. He sounded just like another tired rehash of Lucifer’s storyline since s12:

https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/184740345285/im-watching-1207-on-the-tnt-loop-and-yeah

and see this for Dabb As Death, his chosen in-story avatar, the way Kripke was Chuck and Carver was Metatron:

https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/184557290140/death-is-one-of-my-favorite-characters-in-the

Dabb literally introduced Billie in 11.02, singing O Death. He killed her in 12.09 and then leveled her up to the mantle of Death. That’s Dabb’s function in the writer’s room... started out as just another writer, stuck around paying very close attention to the characters, through every other showrunner’s tenure, and finally leveled up himself to showrunner where he is calling the shots, and will be the one to finally end the show. Well he’s already ended the long spiral of Chuck (Kripke’s) original story. Considering how long the loop has been looping, there was really only one way to stop it: narrative syzygy and the sudden dropping of the curtain in such a way that TFW can finally see the Big Narrative Spiral for what it is. For the complete Cosmic Runaround they’ve been put through over and over again for Chuck’s entertainment.

Big Bads from the Leviathan to the BMoL to Lucifer to Michael to Asmodeus to even Crowley sometimes, to the alternate universe’s apocalypse have all been rendered secondary to what the actual point was-- the gradual character growth for Sam, Dean, and Cas.

Sam, Dean, and Cas are the characters we care about. They’re the reason we continue watching this show even after 14 years. I wrote a post the other day about this:

https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/184829064145/why-is-every-piece-of-media-now-about-surprise

and here:

https://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/184459635020/you-know-what-i-love-dabbs-vision-for-spn-he

and quoting myself from that second post: “Viewers don’t identify with apocalypses, we identify with the characters who survive them, who save the world from them, you know?”

But see, I think looking at the show as “must defeat the big bad, this is what’s important” is literally missing the entire point of watching. THAT is what Dabb wanted us to take away here.

First off, it was Dean who killed Lucifer, by finally saying yes to a version of Michael, but then Dean lost to Michael internally. He eventually DID defeat Michael inside his own mind in 14.10-- with the help of Sam and Cas. I mean... TFW victory, right? And then he spent several episodes struggling to keep Michael contained.

And all of it, in the end, when the three of them stood there facing God, was pointless. Pointless in the plot-narrative of defeating an endless string of Big Bads. Discovering that no matter how well they succeeded, no matter how many people they saved, Chuck would just throw another wrench into their lives and start the story again. Every time they thought they were finally winning, finally allowed themselves to think about their lives reaching a sort of stasis where they went out on occasional hunts and handled them easily, and even considered the “toes in the sand” sort of break from hunting where the world wasn’t constantly trying to end itself... Chuck would just toss another Cosmic Catastrophe at them.

And Jack... was one of those Cosmic Catastrophes.

(which is why no matter how much he’s become family, no matter how important he is to all of them, no matter how much they’ve all grown by their relationship with Jack, he’s still in a different narrative category than our Three Heroes)

I don’t know what Jack’s fate will be at the end of the road, but what I do know is that for the rest of TFW-- for Sam, Dean, and Cas-- s15 will absolutely be about their very human wants and needs, and their final release from Chuck’s eternal cosmic spiral. 14.20 was about their individual awakenings to this fact of the universe, this fact of their entire lives having been engineered entirely for the original creator’s entertainment. Only now can they truly fight for THEMSELVES, instead of fighting to stop an apocalypse and save the world. For the first time EVER, they are fighting for their OWN humanity.

I really really hope this makes sense. There’s only so much yelling I can do about this. :P

#spn 14.20 #spn s15 speculation #that's what free will is #dabb vs cars #this is literally the story on every single possible level yelling this at us #and i don't know how to make that any clearer #Anonymous

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dormarunt · 2 years

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Hi, Dee! 😊

D, N, Y for the writer ask 😁

Hii! <3 Thank you for the ask! D. Drama - Do you enjoy writing drama? What's your favorite?

Hmm. I'm gonna go by Fanlore's definition of drama: "Drama generally refers to plotty works with elements of tragedy, melodrama and action-adventure, and sometimes comedy and horror. It differs from action-adventure in being more character driven and cerebral, and less action oriented."

So-- yeah. Although the plotting part can be the most difficult part to me, I still love working it out. And since I tend to be an introspective type of writer it's a challenge to work the plot since my always-question is "why is [character] doing this??" It would be easy to just write them go through the plot as I wrote it down in my outline, but hey, they have personalities and wants and must have reasons to do things and well, that just stands in my way sometimes. I do love a challenge, so-- yes. Through the "plotty" elements of it, I love drama!

One of my favorite things to write was Parabola. Writing time-travel assassins that love each other throughout different timelines - a delight to think up and write up. Although, in parts, Parabola veered into to being straight-up romance - Andres still loved Martin through successive mind-wipes, he searched for him even though he didn't even remember what he looked like! It's the perfect framework for some of that good, good romance. But overall drama, I think, what with-- everything going on through the timelines.

N. Nature - Do you like writing about the outdoors? A certain type of weather or season?

Since I had to think about it, then not really? I'm not an outdoorsy person and genuinely can't remember if I've written many outdoor scenes. I do love me writing some rain; bonus points if the weather outside is a parallel to what the characters are going through at that moment!

Y. Yearning - How do you feel about slow burns?

Okay two things - yearning is LIFE.

First thing, my username, Dor Mărunt? It's also the name of a small village here that I've never visited but it's fine, if you don't search my name and social media like Twitter or Tumblr or AO3 specifically it doesn't show in the search results and I'm sorry I'm sorry but it's a delightful phrase if you speak Romanian? It pleases both my ear and my heart equally. "Dor" means longing, yearning, but something vast and ancestral. It is said that there's no precise translation of the word "dor" in any language, with all it's inherent intricacies that only a native speaker would understand, and "mărunt" is a sort of archaic, less-used word for "small". Like - minute. So it means "small longing", but it's a translation that's so poor? It lacks so many dimensions to properly translate. And it's such a neat little oxymoron, too.

So yes, yearning. I love the whole concept of it. Love has this component of yearning that's just inherent in it, it's an integral component of loving someone or being in love. And Berlermo is just so good at it, through their canon dynamic? I'm sure that they're both yearning for what they didn't get to have, which is for them to be together. Martin-- of course. Before and after the kiss, just differently. Andres-- he loved Martin back, but it could never happen. Still, there can't have been at least a single second where his heart didn't just break with yearning for what they could have had.

Yet I can't write slow-burns to save my life. I love them with my core, but I tend to condense the yearning like a supernova - it's quick, yes, but it's A Lot and it's Definitive. They just-- know. You tend to know, with the right person. Either when you are, or when you can't be anymore (ugh, my detective!Martin fic; the heartbreak in that is something else. I love and hate that fic so much. GOD I should finish it. ANYWAY.)

Slow burns - I love them, but don't put me through 120k words only for them to finally confess their feelings for each other in the penultimate chapter. And then it ends???? NO? Please. Slow is fine, but glacial is-- a choice.

#asks #I'm a writer me #Yearning is such a good word and concept?

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