#esp since the season is already so short. all of this really helps to flesh out the plot and side characters in those 4 eps

[spacedlexi]

i just think a "friended/romanced + saved + trust aj" violet does such a good job rounding out the plot and characters of S4 and i dont say that lightly

she walls people off out of fear just like S3 clem did and learned to grow out of through the compassion of others. feeling like she could have done more to save minnie being what initially makes her step up to lead, but her accepting her love for clem (and clem choosing to save her) is what leads to her Truly accepting the school and everyone inside it as her Home and gives her something to fight for ("i tried my damnedest not to care about either of you. and i still couldnt tell you why." "i know where youre coming from. after losing so many people, sometimes its easier to keep everyone at arms length." "and then you wonder why you fight so hard to stay alive. i dont wonder anymore."). this being the reasoning behind violets detachment from the school, as well as a negative home life impacting her idea of what a home even was. but together they turn ericson from a prison into the home theyve BOTH been looking for, renaming it together, and envisioning it for the future together. the two of them understand each other deeply, from what theyve lost to how its affected them and the poor ways theyve decided to react to it. but through their support of the other, they BOTH get to evolve into more relaxed and confident versions of themselves, who know Exactly what theyre fighting for

her troubled relationship with brody and getting to learn more about what happened with the twins/violets reaction to it and how she ultimately blames herself/brodys guilt about her part in it and how she misses violet. getting the chance to mend that relationship before its too late. the 3 of them becoming closer because of it. and getting to develop clems friendship with brody leads to a more impactful moment later in the basement

her relationship with tenn reflecting clems relationship with aj, in the way they both made the decision to look after their respective boys after their primary guardians died (ajs parents, tenns sisters). both of them can understand the responsibilities they have taken upon themselves, and how hard it can be to do right. the 4 of them become a tight knit group quickly. especially in EP2 as vi supports clem while tenn supports aj through the marlon fiasco

her confused relationship with minerva introducing interesting conflict both within her relationship with clem (who has her own personal conflict with minerva, which vi still ties into through her relationship with both minnie and tenn) and the over arching plot, which has themes of learning when to let someone go because they are no longer who they once were (clem and lilly "we were family once", mitch about ms martin "you get all caught up in who people used to be, and you cant deal with whats in front of you", violet about minnie "the real minnie? shes been gone this whole time and i have to stop mourning her")

having a saved violet on the boat expanding the conversation with minerva about her motivations with the delta. violet apologizing for never looking for her, minnie saying she knows she would have but that its too late now, so sure this is just the way things have to be. getting to hear minnie say "you can be rewarded, just like i am", giving us insight into her character. and clem getting the last word before she rams the door down, her and violet fighting minnie Together. and violet saves clems life, making the Choice to shoot minerva, which in and of itself is a huge moment for violets character in regards to her relationship with both minnie And clem

and aj shooting tenn on the bridge brings things full circle, by putting violet in the same position louis was in EP2, where aj has killed the most important person to her, in an effort to save her life, and now she must reckon with those feelings the same way louis had to about marlon. not so easy now is it violet? ("so youre mad, but sad" "can i be that for a while?" "yeah, its ok")

just... ough... violets whole character just fits into Everything so well, but in a way that elevates the characters and plots around her, while also developing her into her own

#plus tenn dying with minnie feels like looking at a clem and aj Bad End and that feels intentional #and vi being there fighting minnie for tenns life....the boy she took it upon herself to look out for.. and losing him 😭 #ALSO i feel like the whole point of S4 is raising aj into someone clem trusts. like did you do a good job raising him or not?? #like through the decisions i made i Did naturally trust him in that cave. but after seeing other routes i can def see why some didnt #but even if clem doesnt trust him in that cave he still proves later in the barn that he knows when to make his own call #its more about what clem has to lose/how long it takes for her to trust aj. he knows what hes doing now. clem says as much #none of this is me saying picking louis' route is BAD. im just pointing out the ways violets works on so many levels for me #esp since the season is already so short. all of this really helps to flesh out the plot and side characters in those 4 eps #but anyway this is why i cant stand violet slander especially when people say she was underdeveloped compared to other characters #i just think youre not paying attention to her #but what else is new for female characters #twdg #it speaks

[syncogon]

critiques of the ftg movie

I will preface this by saying: I strongly dislike pre-biasing people regarding a work; I think that everyone should, and should be allowed to, make judgments about a work after experiencing it themselves. But after watching the movie on Friday, and dipping my toes in the mess of cfandom right now, I felt motivated to write this discussion of where I think the movie falls short, and fighting back against a lot of cfandom sentiment. Will probably write about what I liked about the movie at some point later, because, overall, I did really enjoy watching the movie, and I think it is still worth seeing.

SPOILERS below cut, obviously (although not very detailed):

A lot of early-viewer Chinese fans were complaining about Ye Xiu’s OOC-ness, I think mostly complaining that he came across as too “weak,” but honestly, I disagree. If I come across some rebuttal-worthy argument by some particularly disgruntled and well-spoken cfan, maybe I’ll elaborate on that more. But Butterfly Blue has addressed that complaint on his Weibo, and I agree with him - to paraphrase translate, you need to evaluate whether your so-called “OOC” is in reference to YOUR understanding of and hope for the character, or the character that the novel gives. I, and Butterfly Blue, think ftg!Ye Xiu was within the realm of consistent characterization, and I think that the most intense fans making a fuss about that are too blinded by their love of Ye Xiu that the version of him in their minds is warped.

Regardless of all that, my two biggest issues with the movie boil down to the following: 

1) The Xue Mingkai subplot: Xue Mingkai leaving for half the season, Ye Xiu just allowing that, Excellent Era making it to the finals with 5 players (is someone playing in both individual and group? is the healer playing in those matches? are they really playing all their team rounds with only 5 players??), Ye Xiu just kind of blindly hoping for the best all this time, and Xue Mingkai just randomly returning *in the middle of the team round* and suddenly all their cooperation problems are solved even though they haven’t played together for possibly months. I have pretty good suspension of disbelief in general, but this just didn’t make any sense at all. I would buy that this kind of conflict happened with him leaving, but not dragged out over such a long period of time. Honestly, all they needed to do was to shorten the time Xue Mingkai was gone to like, missing one match – that would keep the significance of the conflict without making it illogical or making Ye Xiu seem dumb. In fact, taking away what makes this illogical, Ye Xiu’s attitude regarding this issue is very similar to his attitude with Qiao Yifan in the beginning, An Wenyi through Season 10, and the other kids of Happy, which is a good nod to character and core value continuity. Therefore, that is now the version of events that I’m accepting. There was no reason they had to make this such a big thing and drag the resolution of this conflict all the way to the finals, especially since we already got good moments of Ye Xiu’s turning him around.

2) The movie’s pacing – in general, things feel too rushed. I think it’s just a problem of time constraints; the movie’s only like an hour and a half long, which is nowhere near enough time for the kind of story they want to tell. The story could have been really good spread out over like 6 or even 12 anime-length episodes. We essentially have 10+ or so new characters each with their own stories, and the movie just didn’t give enough time to develop all of them and make me *really* care about them. I essentially have to rely on headcanons and fic and my own imaginings now to flesh out the versions of them in my head. I do agree that I wish we saw more of Ye Xiu being awesome (not cheesily so) outside of purely game context, and some might argue that as a Ye Xiu OOC issue, but I feel like that comes back more to this issue of lack of time rather than characterization. 

I, personally, can look past these things enough that I appreciate what the movie DID do well – Su Muqiu’s death (you know it’s coming, and yet it still hits you like a skidding car-) and the aftermath, esp w/ Su Mucheng; the general look and feel of the colors, sound, animation etc; the fights; the new character interactions and personalities and roasting (insufficient Wu Xuefeng notwithstanding). I can use my own imagination to augment the parts of the story I really did enjoy. And I will probably write another post elaborating on these good points… and/or lots and lots of fic. This movie was excellent idea fodder.

I do understand the fans’ disappointment. I just think that a lot of the anger is excessive, and misdirected. I would understand if BB never helped create anything relating to QZGS ever again, if only so he wouldn’t have to deal with the inevitably-upset, insane fandom – as happened with Fang Rui, his love exhausted. I hope that doesn’t happen. 

#quan zhi gao shou #qzgs #qzgs commentary #for the glory #mine #cfandom is a hot yikes... this is why you gotta stay out of these kind of big fandoms sigh #god i wish bb would write us more prequel chapters though