#especially when they’re doomed by the narrative to never have what they want

[sophiasrant]

I am not immune to best friends who are in love with each other

#especially when they’re doomed by the narrative to never have what they want #I was gonna say secretly #but everyone else knows but them tbh #this is about #timkon #damijon #dark sparks #lifetane #stucky #zukka #robstar #trobed #troybed #ghostflower #gwiles #clintasha #ladynoir #patrochilles #drarry #shitpost #sophia rants #huskerdust

[charcubed]

I NEEEED people—especially those with unfathomably large platforms???—to start doing just a tiny bit of internal evaluation before they log onto a blue website and say “I don’t want these queer characters to fuck in canon” or “I’d be fine if these characters never kissed again” or whatever.

This is a post about Good Omens and the prospect of Aziraphale and Crowley potentially having sex in season 3. It's a response to a tweet that I'm crossposting, but let it be known the above statement and this topic applies broadly across multiple fandoms too.

But anyway, in regards to Good Omens specifically:

I am seeing this take that essentially boils down to "Canon has now made it clear that these characters want to have sex with each other through subtext (i.e. Aziraphale and the ox), but I don’t want that to reach narrative completion because the idea of them having sex makes me uncomfortable or isn’t my personal preference” and it is, to put it mildly and delicately, A Very Bad Take.

This is rhetorical (and I do not expect or particularly want an answer), but: explain to me how and why queer characters who are unavoidably visibly queer (aka 2 "man-shaped beings") fucking on screen wouldn’t be a net positive, especially when you can indicate how canon has set it up.

Presumably, some people say things like this because ~they want to see them as visibly ace.~ Okay. But by some of these people’s own admission, there IS more evidence in canon now to indicate these characters crave sex with each other (vs arguing otherwise)... yet people would rather that be ignored/erased all for the sake of them feeling comfortable or feeling better about what canon shows or doesn’t show explicitly??

I’m sorry, but—speaking as an ace person, to be clear—your personal preferences for the story shouldn’t / don’t affect anything here. There’s too much in this.

Yeah, I understand on a personal level not having “representation.” I almost never see myself or my unique experiences and identity reflected in stories. And yet, I also understand that that doesn’t change any story or the world in which we live. Things like this are not said in a vacuum.

Any queer characters having sex on screen IS a net positive. It is rare and impactful, and openly calling for or hoping for otherwise when canon points to its potential is a detrimental alliance with purity culture, whether intentionally or accidentally. Because we live in a Goddamn society!

Who knows (other than Neil Gaiman) whether Aziraphale and Crowley ARE going to fuck on international TV. None of us do! But the subtext right now blatantly says they’re starving for it. And you don’t have to like the prospect of that, but honestly? We SHOULD get to see it play out. There’s no truly legitimate reason we shouldn’t ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Whether you "prefer" it or not.

And my ultimate hot take is… if someone balks at the idea of that or doesn’t understand the importance of it, despite even seeing the subtext… then they should perhaps unpack that? Just a thought.

Truly the way fandoms are managing to hit either “subtext doesn’t count :/ ” or “let’s keep it to subtext so it’s ‘open to interpretation’ :) ” nowadays depending on what corner one visits is MADDENING. Whiplash-inducing. Surreal. And so much nonsense you can’t pick where to start.

So! I do genuinely hope I'm not kicking off discourse but I felt this Needed To Be Said (and on more than one site). Because posts like “even if they never kiss again, we’ve won <3 “ make me want to be like…

These characters are YEARNING. Do not doom them and us to it. For once, we can reach for the stars and maybe–against all odds–pull them down. Embrace it!

---

[Update: after more discourse has occurred, I have somewhat elaborated on this further, from the POV of the significance of the queer themes in Good Omens and more specifically how they center illicit pleasure/desire]

#good omens #good omens season 2 #good omens spoilers #good omens season 3 #neil gaiman #aziracrow #ineffeble husbands #I'm OVER ITTTT. #this is the delicate version of this rant. trust me. I tried to keep it chill for the sake of posting on main #char writes things #PS adding some brief tags now that the discourse has Escalated: #Mr Gaiman can be pedantic on the internet and pretend by omission he's never heard of subtext all he wants. #it's not what his story is saying and I do actually think he DOES know how to do stories. so. love & light to whatever his deal is. #(what I mean: do not come into my house & try to say 'neil said the ox scene isn't sexual.' inaccurate + that's a whole suitcase to unpack) #(I have now written about All That at length elsewhere with exasperation but it doesn't need to be linked in this post lol.)

[physalian]

Physalian's Top 10 Narrative Pet Peeves

*For now*

In one way or another, these all boil down to “Author took a shortcut and I absolutely noticed”. In other words, most of these stem from Manufactured Sincerity.

All of these come with the caveat of *except when done well*. I’m ordering these from “I’m annoyed but I’ll get over it” to “Nope, DNF”. 

10. Sad times = Alcohol

Everyone drinks when they’re depressed apparently. Only women or fat men are allowed to eat away their sorrows with ice cream and guilty pleasures. No one’s allowed to go on a self-pity shopping spree. No one just goes to bed.

They drink. Or they go shoot something. Or punch a wall. It’s usually out of a flask or a crystal decanter. It’s usually whisky (specifically bourbon) or scotch, or something out of a brown paper bag.

Maybe this is my own bias as someone who does not drink, but writers, please come up with more diverse ways to show your character is mourning someone or something, beyond immediately heading straight for the alcohol. Not everyone likes liquor, not everyone owns a decanter set and crystal glasses.

Let them eat or shop or sleep or get high, or watch their favorite show or a really sad movie or listen to emotional music. Let them cry if they’re bad boys. Don’t make them punch walls.

9. Down time = Sexy Times

This applies of course only to narratives with implicit or explicit sex scenes and what I mean by down time is those situations where characters are either on the run or have some crucial deadline to meet, some race to win, what have you, and the second they get some time to breathe and have a heart to heart, they both let their guard down and ignore impending doom and sleep together.

If you’re in the real world and you are that stressed for any of the reasons above, you’re going to be constantly looking over your shoulder, worrying about what you’re going to do next, wondering if you should even stop to rest, not be dead on your feet but have enough energy to bang.

Obviously if it’s played for humor, that’s different, but in dramas, or especially in environments not suited for intimacy (looking at you fantasy and sci-fi) it just feels ridiculous and particularly gratuitous. Non-aces please tell me if this is a legit thing you would do, I sincerely want to know.

It also tends to happen with near strangers who’ve only known each other for several days, possibly weeks with little buildup, and they also tend to be at each other’s throats bickering incessantly. Save the sex for after you’ve won and can really dedicate all your attention to enjoying it.

8. Pointless Filler Pit Stops

Or ones that last way too long for no reason. I love filler, but only *productive* filler. It doesn’t have to service the plot, but it does have to develop at least one character, a relationship, the lore, somebody’s backstory, or be really funny and/or interesting to sit through.

Usually, it feels like it’s there to pad the run time or slow the pacing, but rarely does anything for the overall story. A fair bit of season one of ATLA is filler pit stops, but even when they go to all these random places for one-off adventures, the story is still showing us the world they live in, making it a teachable moment, introducing important characters, foreshadowing, or is just mighty entertaining to watch.

ATLA has only one pointless filler pit stop: the infamous Great Divide. It doesn’t positively develop any of the main trio, we never see these side characters again, Aang’s story is a complete lie so it doesn’t develop the lore or the world, and, most importantly, it’s just frustrating to watch. Your first job as a writer is to entertain, and this episode is annoying.

7. Fridged Character Motivation

I don’t mind the “fridged lady love” inherently. It’s a quick and dirty way to give your brooding hero backstory and everyone is familiar with it. I’m annoyed at how it’s the only nuance these characters tend to get, like this man’s dead wife/girlfriend/dog is his sole motivation for everything he does in life and all his goals.

I like broody badasses. I don’t like one-note broody badasses. His character existed before he met his dead love interest. Who was he back then? Does he have any friends who hate the man he’s become? Old mentors who’ve lost their faith in him?

This man’s arc is usually not even therapy-via-violence to get over his dead wife, it’s just a ham-fisted excuse to make him mean and short-tempered. Who is he, unrelated to this fridged character?

6. Dumbass Villains

The villain has captured the hero and friends and plans some dastardly torture to break their will. The villain has all their tools prepared and monologues about how easy it’s going to be, and the hero usually says something along the lines of “you can’t break me” or “I can take it,” whatever. And after several pages or minutes of screen time, the hero’s right, and then the villain breaks out plan B: The hero’s love interest, or their parents, who have just been waiting in the wings.

Why is this almost never plan A? The hero can always handle the pain, and always breaks down the second it’s someone else’s health on the line. Why doesn’t the villain, who’s always pissed at the lack of results, start with the proper motivation?

It’s either this or they wait until the perfect dramatic timing to reveal some skill or weapon or ultimatum after precious time has been lost, deadlines have been missed, and money has been burnt. Or they’re in the boss battle and they wait until the hero thinks they’ve won to pull out their secret weapon.

Unless you can give your villain a valid reason to not start with all the tools they have at their disposal, it might as well be a reverse deus ex machina. Even if it’s something as simple as Plan B hasn’t arrived on scene yet.

5. Everybody Has a Somebody

A topic I plan to expand on so I’ll keep it short here. Basically, the story wraps up and every eligible single character has a love interest they’re in varying stages of romance with. No one is spared, or they’re already dead. It’s a race to the finish line to give these characters significant others because that’s just what you do, it’s what audiences expect, there must be a romantic subplot.

Particularly annoyed when it’s an ensemble cast and the entire hero team only has relationships with other members of the hero team and no one outside this unit of 6-10 characters (*cough* Percy Jackson *cough*). No one is allowed to be single, or happy that they’re single. Everybody has somebody, no matter how well developed or plausible this relationship is.

4. Half-Baked Twist Villains

No one likes these characters and I’m not saying anything new here, and yet it still keeps happening. This one comes from just recently rewatching the abysmal Cars 2 (which is older, I know) and just trying to untangle this plot. This plot, that Pixar rinsed and repeated in Incredibles 2, and really thought no one would notice. This plot, where the villain creates a problem that doesn’t exist to make their own agenda look better, whether that’s malignant superheroes or green fuel.

Both try. Neither pretend the story is absent of a villain, unlike, say, Frozen. Both movies have a villain, they just have a hidden identity. The reveal just never hits as hard as the writers expect it to because, once again, they didn’t actually do the work to write a competent villain, they just slapped a “villain” sticker on their foreheads and called it a day. Why? Who cares.

3. Consequenceless Revivals

I love revivals, I love bringing characters back from the dead, love watching it, love writing it, love the drama.

Don’t love it when they’re suddenly back with no explanation or price to be paid. A character death should be a major event, and if you kill a character just to make your audience sad, then bring them back with zero effort, death begins to lose meaning in your world. CW shows are particularly terrible at this, specifically the TVD universe and Supernatural.

In the earlier seasons, when Sam or Dean died and came back, they still experienced character growth by dying and the experiences in hell, the PTSD inflicted, the new emotional battle scars. Even when Dean died a thousand times in the “Mystery Spot” episode, the point wasn’t “ha ha funny Dean dies again,” it was exercising Sam’s crippling codependency on his brother, as Gabriel says. There are consequences, either for the character’s psyche, or a cost for bringing them back to life.

2. Wimping Out on Promised Death

This decision makes me want to throw the book at the wall, or pause the movie and walk away. It’s the penultimate battle, the prophecy is upon us, a character or one of two characters must die to save the day, it cannot be impeded, avoided, or circumvented. We’ve known this is coming since the story began and are prepared for the tears and bloodshed.

Then the magical miracle springs out of nowhere and everyone gets to live. Kill them. Please. Even if it’s my favorite character, I’d rather cry over their death than be disappointed by plot convenience. If this is the tragic, fulfilling end to their arc, then that’s how I want it to end. Rarely do these characters get revived in a satisfying loophole everyone should have seen coming. I just feel manipulated.

1.  Forced Miscommunication

*Picture me walking a stadium hawking Pointless Drama like cotton candy and cans of beer* Cheap Drama! Anybody want some Cheap Drama? Cheap Drama!

In the real world, people make misassumptions all the time and many of us are conflict-averse. We avoid talking about our problems to those who’ve wronged us like we’re polarized magnets. Forced miscommunication doesn’t care about anxiety, which would be fascinating to explore as explicitly anxious characters suffering legit mental issues is under-utilized. No, these instances just have characters eavesdropping or snooping and, out of character, make all these outlandish assumptions, refuse to listen to explanations, and start a fight that lasts juuuuust long enough until it’s magically resolved without consequence.

It doesn’t do anything for the story. It exists independently of these characters’ relationship and has zero impact once it’s resolved. I am 100% down for a single miscommunication causing an emotional outburst so extreme that it has the offended party seriously considering the strengths of their relationship, but it never happens that way.

—

TL;DR: The existence of a trope does not do the job of writing a compelling story for you. If you can look at any one scene in your book and not explain why it matters, what impact it has on the plot, story, or characters, delete it or rewrite it so it does. Even if it only exists to be funny, there should still be something gained from the experience.

#writing advice #writing resources #writing tips #writing tools #writing a book #writing #writeblr #character development #how to write #pacing #character death

[absolutebl]

This Week In BL

April 2023 Wk 1

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs. Organized by which ones (in each category) I’m enjoying most.

Ongoing Series - Thai

Bed Friend (Sat YT, GaGa & iQIYI uncut) ep 8 of 10 - actually this installment was better than I expected after the dreaded extension decision. I am still enjoying this one a lot, but I think it’s slipped out of 10/10 contention. Sad. I thought I high heat was finally gonna break into top 10. 

Future (Thai Sun YouTube & Gaga) ep 3 of 5 - More of pretty much exactly the same and exactly the same clingy cuteness. This is a great but sublimely dumb show. It is beyond sappy. Also EVERYONE is queer. EVERYONE. I don’t like the premise that you have to leave your friends when you get into a relationship, but it does happen. I guess Fuse has to find Tee a bf? Also, babies first fight. 

Pastsenger (Thai Weds Gaga) 5 of 12 eps - Boring. But cohabitation and lots of other tropes like feeding, head in lap, hair wash, helmet buckle. Kiew is SUCH a boyfriend. Also a brief lap sit (bet @heretherebedork​ is happy). Plus unnecessary side dishes. 

A Boss and a Babe (Fri YouTube) ep 6 of 12 - ForceBook are performing their characters well and consistently, but the narrative is fighting them and contradicting them all the time. We’re told boss yells at babe but never see it, then boss says he’s never mean even though everyone says he is mean (be we never see it). It’s crazy-making. They are cute bfs who make me smile because they are ForceBook and for no other reason. GMMTV should be thoroughly ashamed of misusing these two a 2ND TIME. Especially as this is one of their few pairs willing to do higher heat. You can’t hear it but this it MY ANNOYED TYPING VOICE.  

Tin Tam Jai (Tues Gaga & iQIYI) ep 7 of 12 - I just like the side seme. Sorry main couple, you are not in my heart. P’Doc Park just seems uninterested, don’t force it nong Tin just go with P’Plearn who is all up in your business and defining EAGER. 

Chains of Heart (Sat iQIYI) ep 8 of 10 - It always takes me forever to get around to this one (even when I’m not on site), honestly if it weren’t nearing the end I probably would just drop it from sheer frustration. How can a show that’s meant to be suspenseful be this dull? I guess Din’s secret identity was the twist reveal? Not much of one. What about his son? I am so confused by this show and so do not care. What a disappointment. 

The Promise (Thai Weds YT) ep 6 of 10 - ON HIATUS UNTIL APRIL 19.

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Our Dining Table AKA Bokura no Shokutaku (Japan Thurs Gaga) 1 of 10 - OH MY GOD IT’S SO CUTE. It is pretty much exactly like the manga and I am all over fine with that. Expect this BL to be soft af, gentle, sweet and another cozy BL to add to our new roster (post forthcoming I promise). Also don’t expect a kiss. Honestly, I don’t care, I love this yaoi so much and I am delighted to see it on my screen and so well cast. It’s disgustingly charming. 

Unintentional Love Story (Korea Thurs iQIYI) 7-8 of 10 - (here’s how I’m getting it) Oh they’re so cute and ridiculous confessing and hiding out. Also the sides are EVERYTHING. This is actually turning into a pretty decent BL. I like that the bfs tease and play together it’s sweet. This is a very huggy couple for Korea. And then DOOM. Betrayal. Argh! Pain.  Nooooooo. Long eps and lip wobbles galore. We all SUFFER until next week. 

The Eighth Sense (Korea Weds Viki) eps 3-4 of 10 - I actually re-watched the first 2 eps bf I watched this week’s installments. We know Jae Won is popular, rich, sunshine who wants to be loved but estranged from his fam. Ji Hyun is a shy, serious, polite country boy deep in first crush. Despite this dichotomy it’s JH who seems more comfortable in himself and, possibly, his sexual preferences. There’s a homoeroticism to this show that is not normal for BL (I know... but it isn’t, certainly not KBL). Reminds me a bit of ITSAY + Shelter + His the series. The director is doing some very interesting things that makes the watching experience chewy. Note the actors have been told to match strides whenever they walk together? So far as the narrative goes timing on the kiss (good kiss tho it may be) indicates that the plot will be fall out from kissing (tragedy), not build up to a romantic relationship. (Timing is a bitch.) Also… this is what we call being “dicked around by a closet case.” Baby’s first love is NOT going to go well. On the bright side, baby got himself his first fag hag to comfort him after the inevitable heartbreak. Honestly? I’m finding this rough going because it’s SO TENSE but I can’t stop watching. And clearly I have a lot to say about this show. 

It’s Airing But ...

Love Syndrome (Thai Sat WeTV) stopped at ep 2 of 12 - I’m just not into any aspect of it (except Lee Long Shi and I can watch him in Tin Tem Jai) - saving to binge if the end is solid.

Venus in the Sky (Sat YouTube) pilot/tester?) 0 of 10 - not entirely sure what’s up with this one distribution-wise, but the pilot was cute, classic university-set pulp. I hope it happens because the leads are cute with good chemsitry and I thought it was fun. However, it totally holds together as it’s own little short story too.

Cafe In Love (Thai ???) 10 eps on Ch3+ - Thai pulp, about trying to save a coffee shop. FairyGodBLer came through for me, but I’m collecting to binge just in case. It’s my new policy with the grey stuff.

Destiny Seeker (Tues WeTV Thailand) 10 eps - it’s not on any WeTV I can get ahold of. Bad Buddy the pulp rebirth meets Japanese handsome host club action. Same as above.

Make a Wish (Thai Weds ?) from WaGa Creative staring Fluke Natouch (OhmFluke UWMA etc...) & Judo (The Miracle Of Teddy Bear) in a medical-fantasy. About a doctor who sees ghosts and a deity who resides in a Bodhi tree that earns merits whenever he fulfills a wish based on a y-novel by Sammon (Manner of Death, Triage). Same as above.

My Beautiful Man Eternal (Japan ????) - 3rd installment, but a movie that released 4/7 which means it’s a pain to get hold of.

In Case You Missed it

My Blessing popped up on YT. Thailand gave us a hour long take on the “my ghost boyfriend trope” with predictable results: decent heat, pulp story (which is to say no story, really) and good kisses, but it ends with death/separation. Don’t bother unless you are a particular fan of Boat (I Am Your King 2). I am, but he was, once again, underserved by this script. Sigh. 2/10 

Gaga is airing Japanese drama: Me and My Husband’s Boyfriend (concludes April 14). This is a full series dropping over two weeks. Sort of a poly romance meets psychological manipulation that starts with cheating and has lots of other taboo stuff like teacher/student. The lynchpin is an out bisexual poly manic pixie dream nightmare? boy. Don’t be deluded into thinking this is BL, it’s not even messy BL. It’s just Japan being Japan. Complete with Terrible Kissing (TM). I found it an interesting subject matter but can’t in good conscience recommend it to a BL watcher. 

Myanmar dropped a BL short called The Love Ring you can watch in on YouTube. It’s an interesting first(?) attempt with paranormal elements. It feels a lot like early Pinoy mixed with Vietnamese BL. It has a nice HEA and is worth 20 minutes of your time if you’re curious about the evolution of the genre. Considering the state of LGBTQ+ rights in that country what it is primarily is very very brave. I give it a 6/10 

Next Week Looks Like This:

Starting: 

04.14 Naked Dinner AKA Zenra Meshi (Japan Gaga) - not really my thing but yes I’ll watch it

04.15 My Story (Pinoy YouTube) - not my fandom but I will give it a go

Finishing: Unintentional & Future (@heretherebedork and I are gonna cry) 

No proper post for April but remaining release I know of is:

04.18 Step By Step (Thai WeTV) - office age gap, I am all in! Even though it’s WeTV. Sigh.

April is looking a bit slender so I might start watching Destiny Seeker or Cafe in Love, or both.

2023 forthcoming BL master post (see comments, some are inaccurate, NOT KEPT UPDATED)

Adventures in Captions

I think the word they were looking for was “disappointed” but I am going to start going around saying “a little bit failed” just as a matter of course. Suits my life well.

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

We stan consent in this house and will always give props when it shows up in BL, probably until the end of time. Look I got so used to dub con consent is still novel and exciting, okay? (Boss & Babe) 

Yes King of the Obvious, but thank you for actually confessing. Is there ED for a confession? King has a bad case. 

Is that... Thailand? Recommending therapy? WOW. Props. (Bed Friend)

(last week)

Current Kpop earworm? I’ve been dipping back into the well a lot recently, so it’s FTISLAND’s Severely. Look I just really miss Lee Hong-gi’s voice. 

#this week in BL #bl news #BL gossip #upcoming BL #new BL #best BL #BL reviews #Thai BL #korean bl #Taiwanese BL #Japanese BL #live action yaoi #Rakutan Viki #gagaoolala #GMMTV #Kpop earworm #ft island #Bed Friend #Future the series #Pastsenger #A Boss and a Babe #ForceBook #Tin Tam Jai #Our Dining Table #Bokura no Shokutaku #adapted from a manga #Unintentional Love Story #The Eighth Sense #My Blessing #I Am Your King 2

[nances]

Here’s a handful of cautious optimism as a treat, my brothers in byler

I think there’s a huge misconception about the state of this ship atp. You guys do realize we’ve always been 10 steps ahead of the general audience, right? We knew Will was gay as early as in 2017, some were aware of this back when the first season released too. If I’m not mistaken, the idea that Will might be in love with Mike was around and going strong especially post-season 2, and especially after that one line in the script “Will isn’t looking at the cute girl, he’s looking at… Mike”

Most of us expected explicit byler in season 3, needless to say we were morbidly disappointed. What we did get, however, was yet another hint at Will being gay, and the number of articles with speculation about Will’s sexuality started increasing exponentially. Any way you break it down, we really only got evidence of Will being gay, and there was little indication of him having feelings for Mike.

Season 4 brought the plot line of Will being in love with Mike to the table in canon. We got to see how strong his feelings for Mike are, how they are absolutely eating him up and yet he’s still putting the happiness of his sister and the person he’s in love with above his own, even if that means he suffers. We saw both him being in love with Mike, being absolutely selfless about it AND beating the homewrecker allegations. Personally, I’d call this a W.

Now I understand why we had our expectations regarding byler so high up, Noah’s comments were only stirring the pot. I don’t know if he was truly trolling, and all this buildup amounts to nothing, but he did say “they can’t end it there”, and on some level, he’s aware of the outline for season 5.

If this is indeed gaybaiting, I by no means want to defend that but we have to acknowledge that his idea of “building up byler” pretty much matches that of the general audience’s. We’re only getting groundwork as of right now. As much as we like to joke about him having a secret account on here, a couple of years ago he was, on some level even hostile about the prospect of Mike and Will being gay.

The fallout of what vol.2 turned out to be hit hard, there’s no denying that. Most of us were shocked they actually ended up fueling midleven even more, despite the fact that we were so convinced that going that route would essentially be anticlimactic and bad writing. There was a lot of dissatisfaction with using Will’s feelings as a prop for the straight ship (understandably so.)

But the thing is, the general audience is now for the first time properly aware of the possibility of byler being canon, and a lot of people are picking up on just how bad the lead-up with the monologue was. A lot of people agree that midleven is getting repetitive, and that the monologue was mediocre at best. Is it really indicative of delusion to assume that this ship is being set up for doom? Meanwhile byler’s popularity is skyrocketing and the tag has gained yet another thousand followers after the release of Vol.2 alone.

We don’t know what’s going through the Duffers’ heads. Oh I wish we did. But we really don’t. We do know for a fact though that they don’t really rewatch their show (albeit I hope they’ve learned their lesson after this) which drastically diminishes their credibility as skilled writers. In terms of cinematography and soundtrack, Vol.2 was absolute peak, but the narrative, however, was a mess. They left a lot of loose ends untied, and they’re going to have a shit ton of exposition to do next season.

So either they’re really shit writers, or midleven was anticlimactic and mediocre on purpose.

Despite everything, there’s still the fact that one of those loose ends is Will’s lying about El commissioning the painting. It’s evident in the letter in episode 1 and as far as we know, she’s never really played D&D. If they’re really as good at constructing stories as they’re hailed, we should expect this to go somewhere. Because the Steve and Nancy stuff was left unresolved as well. Same with Max’s letters. If they really decide to leave all of that unaddressed, it simply won’t be a look good for the show.

Bottom line is, they did say they wanted to write an authentic story, and I really hope they realize that having the main guy and main girl end up together is the most overused trope ever. We should all sit on the fact that we did get a fairly good amount of content to advance byler, and that they could’ve just left this storyline about Will’s feelings for Mike out altogether. They made a conscious choice not to. Now I don’t think that half of the shit presented in the byler slides was intentional, but I do think that there still is a chance that they’re heading towards a midleven breakup and byler endgame. I could be wrong, but this is just how I see it now that I’ve let it simmer for a while. We’re still in for an entire season, jopper’s development spanned over 4 seasons and jancy got together in the span of one, so realistically, anything is possible.

#idk if this dissertation of mine makes sense at all it’s 2am and i’m rendering an edit as we speak & i’m really tired so sorry if it’s #incoherent #byler #stranger things #will byers #mike wheeler #stranger things season 4 #stranger things theory

[andrewwtca]

when are we reborn? a messy Final Fantasy VII Rebirth essay

FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH SPOILERS AHEAD

I just finished Rebirth yesterday. It took me 72 hours. There were some things that I didn’t love—but I loved the majority of it, and god were the things I loved amazing. This is genuinely one of the greatest video games I’ve ever played and one of the most immersive stories I’ve ever witnessed. This is what video games can be. I’ve seen some people call it a must-play and I have to agree. It’s just such an experience.

And, in my typical fashion, my brain already started to literary analyze. The game presents so much in nearly every aspect a theorizer or analyzer would want, leading me to wonder what its forefront means. So behold a very messy impromptu essay about the meaning of Rebirth.

what’s in a name?

Let’s start with Remake. What does its title serve to do? It informs about what the story will give us from three angles: first, a meta angle. It’s letting us know that this is, obviously, a remake of FF7. Secondly, it provides a narrative angle. It’s letting us know that everything we hold true about the world of FF7 will be remade. We learn this through the inclusion of the Whispers, who provide a literal narrative reason for why the story is different this time around. Destiny and fate are now active forces in the narrative. And finally, it provides insight into the characters. It tells us that what we are going to see is the same characters but in a completely new light. This is especially true with Cloud, who we see in the original (hence dubbed ‘OG’ and ‘the OG’) act stoic and standoffish until hours and hours in the game. In Remake, we see the ‘true’ Cloud shine through very early on, through his kindness and headaches.

And Remake is also just a badass name for the series. The Remake trilogy. That’s just good.

What is the meaning of Rebirth then? From a meta angle, we can see that it’s giving birth to a completely new world, one we never got to experience in the OG. With its tens of quests and hours upon hours of side content, we are witnesses to a rebirth of what FF7 is and can be. From a narrative angle, rebirth refers to the establishment of new timelines. The world is reborn time and time again, branches of the original timeline that are usually doomed to end in disaster. (Hence, Sephiroth Reborn.) And finally, when considering the characters? That’s where the word rebirth truly shines.

role call

FF7 is praised for having such a strong cast of characters. While some people may fairly argue how this holds up over the compilation, the OG has a diverse, fun, and just alive cast of characters. From a vengeful man learning how to let go of his anger to fight for justice and his daughter to a teenage ninja wanting to liberate her country, we get such a colorful range of stories that it’s no wonder FF7 attracts such a wide range of fans.

And it’s not just as individuals: as a team, the characters are a delight. They are the essence of found family with a connection to one another that highlights the true theme of the game: that the true way to combat capitalism, threats to the planet, and evil as a whole is through love. It’s hard for me to even pinpoint a single relationship that highlights this the most because they’re all so important to the narrative of each other’s character growth.

We have Cloud who inspires the cast and the cast helps learn him to accept and love himself. We have Aerith who teaches the cast about the world and the cast gives her friendship that she never felt in her life. We have Tifa who teaches the cast about willpower and the cast teaches her self-confidence. We have Barret who teaches the cast about the will to never give up and the cast gives him the steps to giving up his pursuit of revenge and fighting for the ones he loves. We have Nanaki who teaches the cast about their authentic selves and the cast lets him be his. We have Yuffie who teaches the cast about the importance of community and the cast gives her a community that unconditionally cares for her. We have Cid who teaches the cast about finding new dreams and the cast gives him a way to achieve those dreams. We have Vincent who teaches the cast about responsibility and the cast teaches him about self-forgiveness. We have Cait Sith. This is the most bare-bone summary of what they bring each other emotionally, not even touching on individual relationships or their place in combat.

But when talking about this story from a meta perspective, what actually ties these characters together? In the OG, it’s a bit unclear. They all have some reason for fighting Sephiroth and they all have some reason for wanting to save the planet. They have some introduction that gets them on this wild train ride, but what was the reason for putting this cast together? What lets them build this relationship?

Remake and, in particular, Rebirth makes it simple: loss.

giving and taking

With all that Rebirth gives us, we have lost so much. In going from Midgar to the rest of the world, we’ve lost the familiar steel sky, we lose the familiar streets, and we’re thrust into the unknown journey. All our characters lose their normality: Cloud is no longer a slum merc, Barret is no longer with Marlene, Tifa is no longer a bartender, Aerith is no longer a flower seller, and Nanaki is no longer an experiment. (Note for that last one: loss is not always a negative experience.)

In this unknown journey, we are constantly exposed to these two extremes of gaining and losing. Following the Bandits' journey, they lose their bandit identity, gaining one of a corporate entity before forgoing that one and returning to their roots, but in a new light. Following Kyrie’s journey, she constantly tries to gain a new life as a merc but due to her laziness, loses it before reuniting with her grandmother, the Angel of the Slums, and re-establishing her life in a new light. It might seem like they are gaining, losing, and then returning to their original state, but that original state is gone. Just like how Sector 7 may one day exist again, the plate is gone, those people are gone, and things cannot go back to how they were.

Zack’s entire episode is about this loss of normality. His normal before Nibelheim was Shinra. His normal after Nibelheim was the labs. His normal after the labs was that struggle to survive and take care of Cloud. And finally, when he makes it to Midgar? The world is ending. He’s gained a second chance and he’s about to lose everything for good this time, when he’s already lost so much of his identity. With Aerith unconscious, he has lost any sense of direction and doesn’t know where to go or what to do. He just wanted to start where he left off, but where he left off no longer exists. He has no choice but to forge forward.

All the different timelines show him gaining something: in the timeline where he goes after Cloud’s cure, he gains apathy toward the end of the world. In the timeline where he goes after Biggs, he gains a will to keep going, to reclaim his life. In the timeline where he does nothing, he gains access to an entirely new world; that ending doesn’t quite hit the mark, but it follows the pattern. With all that Zack has lost, at the very end, he gains something, for better and for worse. He has forged forward, through loss gaining something new.

The very game starts with that showcase of loss: Cloud’s retelling of the Nibelheim Incident. Despite his version not being accurate, this tragedy is the epicenter of Cloud’s character and goes on a tidal wave of losing and gaining. It starts with something lost: Nibelheim burning. And then, something gained: Cloud’s status as an experience. Lost: Cloud no longer knows who he is in those experiments. Gained: Zack saves him, and his status is now free. Lost: Zack dies. Gained: Claiming Zack’s memories, Cloud Strife, First Class Soldier is created.

Or, in other words: Cloud is reborn. Again and again, Cloud is reborn. Once as an experiment, again as a free, comatose man, and once again as a SOLDIER (see: a mentally ill, conscious man). Cloud ‘dies’ and is ‘reborn,’ and he is constantly redefining himself, whether by choice (such as in Advent Children) or against his will (such as pretty much every other moment in his life.)

This theme of loss leading to rebirth is shown masterfully in the beautiful Trial of the Ancients sequence. We have Nanaki who loses his freedom, even loses his name, becoming Red XIII. We have Tifa who loses her home, loses her father, and loses everything she’s ever known. We have Yuffie who loses Sonon, leading to an extreme mental breakdown. We have Barret who loses his wife, loses his best friend, and loses his home indirectly due to his actions. And we have Aerith, who loses her mother and loses the only life she’s known.

Not shown in the trials, we know what the others have lost: Cid (whose backstory in OG was his losing the ability to make his dream of going to space come true) who loses so much freedom due to Shinra and loses Elmyra. Vincent who loses Lucrecia and loses his place in life. Cait Sith (see: Reeve) who loses the lives of thousands.

These characters do not know the extent of each other’s losses—they are not even aware of each other’s losses. But they are connected through it. They have all lost so much; and yet, they are reborn.

Nanaki becomes Red XIII who becomes a new, loved Nanaki. Tifa becomes a bartender who becomes a warrior for the planet. Yuffie becomes a part of a new team who becomes her true glowing self. Barret becomes a father who becomes the leader of an AVALANCHE branch. Aerith becomes a new daughter who becomes a florist. Cid becomes a pilot who becomes the team’s pilot. Vincent becomes a non-literal vampire who becomes a leading force against Sephiroth. Cait Sith literally died and was literally reborn.

They are reborn from their memories and through their love. Their loss carries them forward, oftentimes hindering them from connecting with others. And yet, it is that hindrance that connects them. It is the struggle that connects them. What they lose in immediate friendship, they gain in lifelong comradery. For example, Cloud and Barret couldn’t see on the same planet, let alone eye-to-eye when they first met, and they, throughout Remake, became each other’s ride or dies.

Even we, the players, are reborn in the story. We experience the loss of Aerith once again in a new light, in a new tragic twist, and we have gained so much by the reimagining of her character and here we are again, losing.

With every step we take, we are leaving the one behind us. They are footprints that we have made, footprints we cannot erase, but we have left them behind us. And we continue to forge forward a new path. We cannot be born again, for we are already alive. Yet we can reinvent ourselves with the knowledge we have.

who we are

So, who gets to be reborn? All of us.

Every gain is a loss and every loss is a gain. There’s loss, gain, and grief everywhere. Grief is love lingering, and there is love everywhere. Grief is loss and grief is gain. These characters have lost so much, have had so much grief piled onto them that it should surely destroy them, and yet they gain: they become new versions of themselves, for better and for worse.

That is the meaning of Rebirth and that is the message of Rebirth: love, live, lose, and then do it all again. That is what ties us together in life. Love and loss are two sides of the same coin like life and death. There cannot be one without the other. And if you let loss overtake you, you stop living; much like Sephiroth. He let the loss of his normality define him. He lost everything and was reborn one last time as a monster.

We lose every single day. We lose keys and we lose arguments and we lose our minds. And we gain every single day. We gain friends and we gain insight and we gain new ways forward. And so, we are reborn every single day. Every step we take, every word we say, we are redefining who we are, who we want to be, and who we can be. Just like how all of Cloud’s new hobbies (dancing, crossdressing, photography, cards, chocobo racing) in Rebirth give him a new path forward, so too do all our choices. Our fates are up to us, just as it is up to them. We are the ultimate harbingers of our destiny.

So when are we reborn? Every single second we are alive. So make the most of life, and above all, love and lose.

I hope this ‘essay’ was readable. I hope you gained something and hopefully didn’t lose your mind. Thank you for reading!

#ff7 #ff7 rebirth #rebirth spoilers #media analysis #literary analysis is my special interest #andrew's essays #meta essay #ff7 meta #if there's any big issues lmk I wrote this on 5 hours of sleep while fasting #they just make me feel things #grief and love and all that...

[bionicghost]

My theory and analysis for simon and his plotline in fionna and cake (under the cut)

Looking at that whole bit at the end of the episode where he’s trying to get Betty back. I mean first of all such a parallel to when Betty had Magic Man’s hat and tried to do some magic summoning bizz on ice king because being with him like this was “living life in a fun house mirror” which incredibly similar to the clips and magic taboo shit simon is doing especially with the encirideon and the fact that he spends the whole episode wanting his old life back and wanting to be with Betty again. They’re doomed lovers!! Constantly trying to find their way back to each other but they can only do so at the cost of themselves.. can never be together.

Evil choose goose from the pep butt special episode was so funny. Simon really went off the rails and just decided to kidnap him for a magical conduit. The freaking shrine with golb lol. Simon and Betty are such mad scientist x mad scientist. I’m wondering if evil choose goose mentioning fiona and cake is what caused that connection, or if it was just echoing what’s been on Simon’s mind this whole time that he’s been “back.” Fionna and cake did mention that statue has been there for 12 years, the amount of time he’s been Simon.

The way he says to golb “find me a path” to Betty and is trying to arrange the pieces - he thinks he’s failed because choose goose interrupted. However, theorizing that the way back to Betty is through his own mindscape. Fionna and cake’s world is clearly a creation of his own headspace. The way Cake pops out of the back of his head like that. The ice symbolism and the ice prince in fiona/cake’s dream. The statue of Betty, the characters we all know put into Fiona and Cake’s world, THE CHEERS THEME, the 20th century, all echoes of Simon’s old life and of the story of Fionna and Cake.

So curious if this series is going to end with him being successful and finding Betty or if its going to be more about getting closure and moving on. Clearly it hasn’t worked in the past when Betty and Simon have tried to manipulate the universe under any means to get to each other. I could see the story with Fionna and Cake being more like a Simon wishing he was in her world, her wishing she was in his, they realize what they’d miss if they were switched, then see they have to move on and make their own reality work. Or maybe they will just work together to change their realities and Simon will get to be with Betty and Fionna will get magic. I feel like it’ll be a tricky thing to pull off though without undoing the narrative adventure time has been working on for a long time.

Honestly so happy that they’re doing this series because the end of adventure time was so open ended. It was clear the story wasn’t over yet, as ice king/simon were never wanting to just be a human again in OOO. Marceline and Bonnie spent all this time being friends with ice king and getting use to where he was in the world. In many ways, Simon was happier that way as well, he mentions that in the second episode. If he was ice king, he’d feel like he was still part of the magical world. As Simon, he only feels like he’ll be happy in his old life (with Betty). Also at the end of adventure time, Betty just being trapped forever felt super unsatisfying, especially with how much her character develops in the search for Simon. I feel like this season will really give some closure there.

And of course just more time to develop and show Bubbline and Gary + Marshall Lee!! The original series was robbed of being able to show full gay content. We’re all living our best lives being able to see them happy! Excited for the potential slow burn Gary/Marshall Lee and seeing that develop, as that’s not something we got with Bubbline.

#adventure time #simon #fionna and cake #fionna and cake spoilers

[fatgumsurpremacy-remastered]

yandere emesis blue tho.. 😭 imagine you as a random citizen just get thrown in the mix

This is such a hilarious idea actually, I mean- in its own respect it’s horrifying!

They’re on a preset destiny and they are STILL going on about “What if I need them?!”

Babygirls, yall’re doomed by the narrative.

Characters: Conagher Brothers (Platonic), Dell himself, spy, soldier, medic

Tw: Yandere stuff, killing, time loops, feelings of general insanity, stalking and harassment, delusions, gaslighting?, bugging, mentions of skinning, incel vibes radiating off of spy.

Congaher brothers: Zed and Maynard love their younger brother, so of course when they’re told to get close enough with you they do so willingly. Though they aren’t expecting to get attached themselves. They genuinely approve of their brothers choice and make a point to try and hint at him. They fight for your attention a LOT. Which is difficult to get considering their predicament. But they gotta act fast because they know when Dell is gonna need you. Its gonna have to take some convincing from Maynard because Zed is too childish and whiny about you refusing to go. Maynard suggests that the ‘attraction’ they run is owned by their brother and you should go. They feel bad when they have to kill you and go on. They feel really bad, especially because what they were told to do was to make sure your conscious only was ran through the respawn. They however, refuse because it’s ducking rude Dell should have you only to himself. Becomes sort of a Persephone situation.

Dell: Dell can’t find himself getting mad at his brothers for getting attached, though this does mean he makes targeted alterations to the timeline. Some key to getting you near him. You’ve seen him in ‘dreams’ from what he can gather. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t pleased with the look of fear on your face, as collected as he is he can’t deny himself that satisfaction. You talk to him more through ‘dreams’ and he’s proud that he’s been able to make you laugh on more than one occasion. He knows what he can do to get you through the respawn machine but here… here he can build a solid connection with you without infringing on his brothers time to build a platonic bond. He’s proud to have strategized this, and he knows when y’all get together, for eternity that you’ll thank him.

Medic: Medic himself is not amused with the situation he finds himself in. A person deciding to follow him around after he’s done with his job, en route constantly asking him about his day. But as he notices more, as the loop continues he noticed you more. He noticed how you’d always smile with brilliance. How you always remarked him so happily, even though he felt he didn’t deserve it. And what would happen if he just decided to- keep you? To keep tapes, to keep mementos. He’d get this violent itch, to wear your skin against his. To dance with you in the night but in the end, when your image flashed across his eyes he couldn’t. He couldn’t even fathom why he would do that. Or think that even. It’s creepy to you when at the same time a man who looks like your perfect stranger wreaks havoc on your streets, a flash appears outside your window. Something bright blue, almost neon. Then you hear on the news that your stranger was found dead.

Soldier: He’s an idiot when it comes to love but never to passion. He notices the familiarity you have. Rinse and repeat he can count on you giving him the order of the most eventful day of his life. He doesn’t know that of course. He keeps a small picture he was able to convince you to take with him. He keeps it in a band under his helmet. He loves the way you do everything, and he counts on you to make his morning more livable. He, having served in the Second World War just wants that stagnant comfort. You remind him of everything good. And that’s why he gets the exact same thing you recommended the first time he can to you. Coffee black, with one cream. Sausage Gravy and flaky biscuits, with fried chickens, and fruit. He memorizes it, and he carrys your voice like an anthem. (Going as far as to hide a Walkie-Talkie talkie in your house so he can tell what you’re doing when you get home.) he’s most calm when he can hear you breathe.

Spy: Jacques believed he was entitled to you before he even started working with Jane. He’d always seen you walking and constantly tried to woo you to no avail. He eventually decided he’d become very pissy with you when not offered sufficent attention. He’d become very very outspoken about his rejection, going so far as to track you til you threatened to tell the police. Not caring he’d advance till he managed to find where you lived. If you tried to change the place you’d stay it would only put you closer to him. And he liked it that way. Until he didn’t, until you started to feel off as well. The same song and dance skipped over and repeated and then where it ended it would start again. You’d change a tactic and he would ensure your day was hell until the day rewound.

….

#yandere maynard conagher #yandere zed conagher #yandere Dell consgher emesis #yandere Fritz Ludwig #yandere Jane Doe emesis #yandere Jacques Morneau

[azarairisa]

Okay, I just want to put this out there - as disappointed and angry as I am, I do actually believe that byler is endgame even after watching that shitshow and here are my reasons:

1. There are still WAY too many things that simply do not make sense without byler being endgame; things the actors said, the way Mike was acting toward will all season, the way will lied about El “commissioning” the painting, etc. (Not to mention the plethora of reasons and evidence in previous seasons outlined in the byler google doc)

2. It didn’t feel to me like they were actually denying byler or preventing it from happening eventually - they simply didn’t address byler either way. Mike didn’t say he was IN LOVE with El, in fact he only regurgitated what Will said to him in a moment of panic when El was about to die. And afterwards, we never see El say I love you back, or even talk about what Mike said. That feels shallow. Either the duffers are the worst writers on Earth, or they’re trying to make the ship feel hollow and doomed to end.

3. I have personally never seen a gay ship (or any ship really) make as much narrative sense as byler. Plus with David Harbour’s quote about how ‘there’s a story there revealed in the final season that was really building all along’ uuhhhhhh yea it still kinda feels like they’re gonna pull a Big Twist in some core way with Mike and will.

4. The duffers went on that whole rant in that one recent interview about how they ‘debated but decided they would tell the story they wanted to and not the story people are expecting’ or whatever. M1leven is the most obvious, cookie cutter, expected ship, and I think even fans of the ship would tell you that.

5. Mike and Will were very clearly paired between two other couples in the very last shot of the season - tell me that’s not intentional, especially since it’s in the FINAL SHOT,

Even though byler was left mostly unaddressed in volume 2, all of the reasons we believed in byler still exist. It still makes the most sense narratively, it still best explains the behaviors of multiple characters, it still explains the behavior of the actors and writers in interviews (they know what will happen in season five). The Duffers seem to be doing something really shitty which is making it seem straight passing and ambiguous and undefined so they can keep their straight audience going into the final season. Which, fuck you duffers- but I suppose I understand why they’d do it (they still shouldn’t have though).

Im not trying to beat a dead horse or string anyone along with false hope. It really just does seem to me that byler endgame still makes logical sense and we should not despair completely.

#byler

[daisychainsandbowties]

So I cannot do horror at all I am too weak stomached for it and thus have never seen alien and likely never will, a travesty I know- especially because I love scifi :'( However obviously I just stayed up way too late in order to read your alien au because everything you write is just incredible and like I don't even know, but your writing is just like honey, viscous and thick and amber hazed and it lingers sticky, sticking in my thoughts. Idk if I'm making sense cus I'm tired but yeah! Incredible! I will be thinking about this all day tomorrow when I'm yawning my way through work amazing as always :) :) :)

i watched alien when i was maybe 4 or 5 so to me it’s like a disney movie, and also my favourite one in the world. as a kid i loved the set design; the way everything is kind of plastic and dirty and old because this ship is a just hauling ore it’s not high tech it’s got a skeleton crew it’s in no way prepared for what it finds out there.

also i loved Ripley and her little cat and i think the pacing of it which is slow & intelligent and sweaty and full of steam and heat and water and dust and blood. it ticks all the casper boxes and keeps giving me new things to stare at in awe like even as an adult i get to read the wikipedia & see quotes about the designs of the aliens and i get shit like how the alien that crawls out of john (very) hurt’s chest is “unmistakably phallic in shape” and how a critic described its “open, dripping vaginal mouth.” they are knocking on my door with that one i’ll be honest.

anyway that’s what made alien au so fun to write it’s a messy marriage of two things i love very much and i get to put my sticky transgender fingers into all the sci-fi and horror things i love.

space as a character and also as narrative framing. blood, and also absence, silence, what you can’t see and what you can’t unsee. it’s all very fun. plus getting to have transfem beatrice & an ava who never got to touch grass or go home, who finds this deadly airless freezing place (and calls it home anyway).

i’m really glad you liked this first part. 🥰 i wanted to give a nod to alien’s slow-dance toward violence & also i think its restrained use of violence overall. this first movie they can’t use guns, they’re made of skin and bone they’re just people and they’re trapped and nobody wants to help them and they were doomed from the beginning. but i guess the thing about Ava and Bea and Lilith i love is that they all look at “doomed from the beginning” and tell it to go fuck itself

#wn alien 1979 au #anon #i loved writing this chapter so much 🥰 #i’m really glad you enjoyed it so sorry to steal your sleep 🥺

[wifegideonnav]

well i… finished act 5 act 2. gonna have to rewatch cascade a bunch of times and probably read the act summary on the wiki but i have officially reached the end of the act

still enjoying it a lot but it’s getting harder and harder to read. summing up a rant i gave my friend, i’m not super in love with the sense of predestined futility - or more accurately, i don’t feel that the narrative has properly addressed that yet and justified why i should be reading about these characters who were like 100x doomed from the start.

there are so many characters and so much happening that nothing is lingered upon, which is nice pacing-wise but not so nice emotional-impact-wise. i also think the “everybody dies a bajillion times and it’s fine until all of a sudden it’s not” thing works against it in a sense, especially when the narrative doesn’t stop to mourn anyone who’s actually dead, bc by the time you realize hey wait maybe like. vriska or dad or feferi/nepeta/equius etc are dead for real it’s been like 200+ pages and you’re like well ok. what do i do here exactly.

and i know that that’s an intentional choice hussie made for how he wanted to craft his narrative - im wishing for things that he deliberately chose not to give. im not trying to say that these choices are flaws in his writing, just that as an audience member i tend to prefer the tlt method of dealing with death, where one main character dies and then the entire next book is about another ripping herself apart because of it.

im not giving up by any means, or even saying that this is what’s dominating my reading experience. like i said im still enjoying myself and appreciate most of the creative decisions that hussie is making. it can just feel very draining i suppose, watching these characters i’ve come to care about - almost all of whom are literal children - fighting so hard so futilely, and so far, imo the narrative hasn’t paid that off. however, with that out of the way, here are (some of, bc this shit was long as hell) my thoughts on the act, more or less in order:

i have literally no interest in johnkat. probably partially bc my friend is so into davekat that ive been conditioned to just wait for that to happen but also bc they have no chemistry. sorry to any johnkat shippers out there but idc it’s boring

i have slightly more but still negligible interest in john/vriska. probably bc i… don’t really care about john. sorry to any john stans out there but idc he’s boring

karkat and terezi sharing a keyboard to argue my beloved

rose my beloved. but also. sweetie :/

vriska my beloved. but also. SWEETIE :/

kanaya my beloved. you’re doing great no notes

oh yeah dave and terezi manipulated the stock market. still don’t 100% understand that but whatever good for them

yeah ok the dream bubbles. christ. like ok i GET it but they’re still annoying

i love jade’s dynamic with karkat she really goes from “teehee im just a silly little girl haha” to “im going to eviscerate this motherfucker”

bec prototyping himself was genuinely such a good reveal

is it just me or is john's power like. way lamer than the other kids' lmao. like it's still cool, def better than nothing, but come on

not too much to say abt the exiles but i love them

also with all the fucking timeline bullshit that's going on i literally can't wait to reach the end and reread with the uhsc mod that lets you follow a specific person's timeline. i canNOT keep track of what's happening when for who

it is literally so funny that vriska has been the cause of jade's narcolepsy this entire time. like wow girl you really took the opportunity to be a massive dick to her huh

LET'S BE SANTA

frogs. ok sure. why not.

fuck doc scratch all my homies hate doc scratch. i will say though. he is a fantastic character.

holy shit eridan and gamzee snapping and killing like everyone. that was buckwild what the fuck. not gonna lie idc that equius is dead, and nepeta, feferi, and tavros were never my faves. but got damn it sucks that they're dead. (ostensibly. still not one thousand percent convinced)

sad karkat :(

murderous kanaya :D

WV "DRIVING" AHHHH

oh god the ancestors. sorry but i simply do not care about that shit. like i know that they're actually relevant but. :/

also i don't like the trope of chains of events being echoed across generations. like damn get your own plot. also it ties into that determinism and futility that i'm grappling with

i will say though. mindfang mentally thanking redglare for taking her arm because then her battle against his honorable tyranny because it made it "a fair fight"? hot. i'm brave enough to say it.

aradia is cool as fuck. i wish we got more of her/her personality

aradia's ancestor is also cool as fuck. sucks that literally nothing she did to resist her fate worked or mattered

the scratch stuff is genuinely interesting narratively/in terms of a plot device. again it still sucks that the beta kids aren't actually going to get to win the game themselves. like i assume they'll be talking to/guiding the alpha kids but like. god it's so unfairrr i bet there'll be angst about this

rose going grimdark is so fun. also LMAO john trying to chat with her in that flash game portion

TEREZI god i love her. sucks that she killed vriska tho bc i love her and also i ship them. oh well murder is not necessarily a roadblock to them getting together. troll romance sure is weird. i have hope in my heart.

vriska isn't dead forever bc no she isnt <3

the betty crocker shit. is funny. and also stupid as hell.

SAD KARKAT :((

ok i guess the stuff about karkat's ancestor and the history of the troll race is kinda interesting. whatever.

everyone's in love/hate with gamzee all of a sudden?? literally why. troll romance sure is FUCKING confusing

that was a pretty anticlimactic climax to the gamzee situation, gotta say

cascade was confusing as fuck i don't have thoughts on it yet

so yeah that's it! if you're still reading, why? let me know what your thoughts on act 5 act 2 were when you read it, or your thoughts on my thoughts lol. just pls no spoilers for anything past cascade!!

#hs #op

[a-student-out-of-time]

Problem is; people really don't like sympathising with bullies. Especially because most people who play Danganronpa have been bullied for one thing and another.

//As i said, I can understand that. The thing is, the stories essentially treat being a bully as if it’s a defining personality trait, when that’s not how bullying actually works. The problem really extends beyond DR and into a lot of flat writing in general, but I’ll stick to my point.

//If the stories actually had them receive some kind of comeuppance other than death, like what was actually happening with Hibiki, if we actually took the time to address these things and show why what they’re doing is wrong and why it happens, it would at least feel more narratively satisfying.

//It’s so bizarre to me how people can find ways to defend characters who’ve literally committed mass murder or blown up planets in the name of a greater good, but an emotionally volatile teenager who doesn’t understand the true scope of their actions is unworthy of anything but death.

//And as I also said, if you don’t want to include them or sympathize with them, you don’t have to. I would never force anyone to sympathize with people who cause them real, continuous pain on a regular basis.

//I’m just saying, if someone includes these sorts of characters solely to torment and kill them for being terrible people, especially when those people are thin caricatures of people who really bullied them, it can really come off as childish and petty.

//I say all this not for the sake of defending bullying, because it really can be a very harmful experience that not enough people take seriously. I say all this from a storytelling perspective, as well as to make a point that all of us can and have done things we regret.

//We can all exhibit behaviors that are harmful and toxic without being terrible people. Ascribing these sorts of traits to only “bad people” is an easy way for us to fall into bad behaviors that might harm others without us even being aware, and offering some degree of depth and understanding can help us be aware of that, and to forgive others and ourselves for doing so.

//There are real cases of real people who stopped being bullies because people stood up to them and fought back. Ironically, sometimes they even become friends afterward. That’s something I’d like to see in DR, and more stories in general: a reminder that not everyone who starts off as a toxic person is doomed to stay that way forever.

#mod talks #a student out of time

[healerelowen]

@pinksparklelps

Oh yeah, I never brought up how Aspen died did I? 

Well if the snake bites on their face and shoulder didn’t say anything, they get nommed on by a danger noodle. How exactly did it happen, I have no clue. I didn’t think about beforehand so Imma just make one now.

My best guess is a confrontation with the other three clans. They’re very suspicious of SteelClan because all three of their leaders are dead simultaneously at the same time SteelClan’s medicine cat mysteriously disappeared and then reappeared the next morning. SteelClan is obviously confused because they didn’t know that the leaders were dead and were too busy focusing on the fact that their medicine cat was missing.

So they’re arguing and Aspen’Spirit is like ‘Ayo, leave us alone we don’t know anything about this.’ and then Dark’Wave(aka Royal) is like ‘Dude stfu your clan murked our leaders.’ and then Aspen is like ‘NuH uH’ and so they’re bickering and fighting until things start to get a bit physical. Aspen leaps at Dark who doges out of the way causing Aspen to stumble into a small mountain of rocks.

Up until this point, everyone’s forgotten that adders exist and it’s only then that SteelClan realizes that Aspen was doomed by the narrative. Snake is like ‘Ayo what you doin’?’ and doesn’t wait for answer which results in Aspen getting bit on the face and then shoulder when they accidentally roll onto the snake upon landing on the ground. 

SteelClan is horrified and is obviously upset at the other clans even more so than before. Aspen is screeching in pain and dying horribly while SteelClan is panicking trying to save the medicine cat. Do the other clan medicine cats try and help? Kind of?? They kinda just tell SteelClan what they need to do but otherwise just dip. And surprising to no one, Aspen dies from the snake noms leaving SteelClan even more depressed.

If you have an idea please tell me because I feel like I’ve been forcing your hand into things and I want you to get your own ideas in as well. Especially for this as I think you’d be able to do something really cool with this./pos/lh     

#steelclan

[semper-legens]

159. The Terror, by Dan Simmons

Owned: No, library Page count: 935 My summary: 1845. Sir John Franklin is leading two ships full of men into the Arctic ice to find the Northwest Passage. They have provisions to last years, state of the art ships, and no chance against the Arctic winter. The provisions spoil, the crew lose hope, and the ice is creeping in. But the Arctic has other horrors waiting for these men. There’s something on the ice, and it’s coming for them... My rating: 4/5 My commentary:

Ah, the Franklin expedition. What, men undertaking a foolhardy journey in an unfamiliar environment and ending up getting stuck and resorting to cannibalism before dying horribly is something I am interested in? What a surprise! Yeah, this is totally one of my weird morbid interests, so this mammoth novel about the expedition’s demise was totally on my radar, especially since people were raving about the TV show adaptation when that came out. Overall I had a good time with this book, despite its length I found it very well-paced and gripping, and I was totally into it. There were some bones of contention I had, which I’ll talk about under the cut, but overall I liked it.

First off, I gotta shout out to the fact that this book has a bunch of different characters who are similar-seeming white dudes, and yet I remembered who they all were and could distinguish them well. Which doesn’t often happen with books of this kind, so kudos. This book was grim as hell, but in a very engaging way. I liked the use of the different narrators to show different points of view on the expedition and different mindsets (Goodsir is the one I blorbo’d). I liked how things just kept getting worse, and worse, and worse at a fast rate of knots. The oppressive atmosphere the book created was almost overwhelming, and definitely interesting to read when it’s Cold As Balls out! The supernatural element was the only grand-scope part of the plot I wasn’t so sure about, I feel that the Franklin expedition’s interesting enough on its own to carry this kind of narrative without introducing an explicit Scary Monster. Personally I would have drawn back on the Scary Monster angle, made it a bit more subtle and ambiguous, but that wasn’t the story Simmons wanted to tell.

The portrayal of the Inuit in this book is...interesting. Every POV character is racist. They’re all white British men from the 1840s, of course they are. It’s never really portrayed as a good thing, the framing of their thoughts is more to show what white British men from this era would think - people are surprised, for example, when Dr Goodsir treats an injured Inuit man. (The Inuit are also universally referred to with a word now recognised as a slur.) And the characters dismissing and treating the Inuit badly is framed as terrible by the narrative. I’m thinking mostly of the incident where one crewman, Hickey (more on him later) wants to kill an officer, and murders him shortly after he’s met with an Inuit group. This group was wary of the officer, but eventually managed to communicate and shared food with him. Hickey killing him and, worse, framing the Inuit for his death dooms the entire surviving crew - a partnership with the Inuit could have led to food for the starving men, to the Inuit teaching them how to hunt and fish and gain food for themselves. But Hickey made them into a scapegoat, and that comes back to bite everyone. (Cannibalism joke!)

But at the same time, there’s Lady Silence. She’s a young (possibly even teenage) Inuit woman who comes onto the ship after the man she was travelling with was killed. The captain keeps her around so that she could maybe teach them how to get food. There is a lot of emphasis on her body. She is constantly mentioned as being naked under her parka - part of this is for contrast, to show that the crew’s decision to wear wool that gets wet and freezes was a bad decision, but the framing of it is very sexual and definitely crosses the line of being fetishising, especially when men keep seeing her naked and fantasising about her. Again, this is probably meant to be the POV of men who have been on a ship for years and are racist and have complicated thoughts about seeing this woman, but the framing crosses over into fetishising her. I also don’t know how much the Inuit legends and mythology mentioned in the book are based on real myths (apart from Sedna, I know that one) but there’s a chance the book could be iffy along those lines, not knowing about the culture I cannot comment.

So the Hickey thing. Hickey is a crewman in a relationship with another crewman. He’s also an evil murdering racist cannibal. His group is the only group shown resorting to cannibalism, and it’s more murder-cannibalism than survival-cannibalism. (Bringing sick crew along as reserve food stores, shooting crewmen without casting lots for food, that sort of thing.) And, look, I have views about cannibalism I don’t think it’s in and of itself a morally bad act. But portraying the cannibalism like this really draws a line to the contemporary view on the idea of the Franklin expedition eating people - the Victorians were horrified that anyone could think that white British men could do something so barbaric and uncivilised. And having one of the only (not the only, to be fair, but certainly the most prominent) gay men portrayed as an evil cannibal...it’s not a great look, is all I’m saying.

Next up, some epic fantasy, and a young street rat learning there’s something magical about her...

#The Terror #Dan Simmons #bookblr #book blog #book blogging #4

[the-lone-witch-and-secret-room]

Camila Noceda and Flawed Parenting

A perspective by a flawed person with loving but extremely flawed parents

I’m genuinely baffled at some people’s hostile reaction towards Camila. Like… do any of you have flawless parents that always know the best solution instantly, make no mistakes and never get emotional?

My parents are great. They’re super supportive and I love them very, very much. Overall I think I got very lucky in the parents department.

But god, they are far from flawless. I still live at home, and despite all the good, there’s moments when I can’t take my dad anymore. He’s the kind of dad that stayed up until two am to help me with homework when I was in school, and he does so, so many things to make sure I’m happy. I know that. But despite all of this, I have told my mom in emotional moments before that I’m not sure if I can keep living with him, because for all his good sides, he has a couple of fatal flaws that sometimes make him unbearable.

My mom listens to me and is very open to being educated on certain topics, but she has her flaws, too. She hates when I fight with my dad, and gets so torn up about it that I’ve once apologized to my dad out of fear of her getting into a car crash otherwise. She’s very vocal about certain flaws of mine, and sometimes uses the things she does for me as leverage against me when she gets very emotional.

And both of my parents pay a lot more attention to my brother because he needs it more, because he’s more of a “problem child” while I “seem so capable” even when I’m not.

And guess what? I’m not a perfect child. I make mistakes sometimes, some of them pretty severe. Just like Luz, I’m the kind of person that struggles to communicate certain issues of mine to her parents. I’m stubborn, and when I get emotional, I say very hurtful things sometimes. So do they.

And this has nothing to do with my parents being horrible or abusive. They’re neither of those things.

The takeaway from this should not be that my entire family is made up of terrible people, but that we’re all flawed in our own ways, despite loving each other and trying our best. There’s things about my parents I wish I could change, and there are things about me that my parents wish they could change. And to an extent, that’s perfectly normal.

In our strengths and flaws and frustration with each other, we’re all human.

Specific, spoiler-y Camila and Luz things under the cut since this got very long.

We have no indication that Camila has a pattern of emotionally manipulating Luz. Her “emotional manipulation” as I’ve seen some people put it, is people for some reason thinking that the second you become an adult, you’re suddenly perfect and can no longer make mistakes, lest you’ll be dubbed horrible and abusive.

The whole concept is absurd to me. There is no perfect way to parent. There simply isn’t. Of course, there’s some genuinely abusive patterns that are horrible and inexcusable. But out of the parenting styles that aren’t, which one works depends on a number of factors, one of which absolutely includes that every child is different and has different needs. Camila is an amazing parent for Vee, giving the kid everything she’s ever longed for. She’s not an ideal parent for Luz. And that’s because Luz and Vee have fundamentally different needs.

Likewise, Luz is a pretty great child for Eda, but not a perfect fit for Camila. Luz relates to Eda a lot more than she relates to her mom, and that’s why the two of them have an easier time understanding each other. Both of these mother-child relationships exist, and one is not more doomed to fail than the other, but I think you’ll agree that the better you understand someone and where they’re coming from, the easier it is to communicate, pick up on certain signs, etc.

As mom and daughter, Camila and Luz are both flawed and have issues seeing the other’s perspective because of how different they are. And we should simultaneously acknowledge both of their roles in the issue and give both of them the space to learn and grow past those issues.

Luz struggles to communicate her problems. She doesn’t want to burden people in the demon realm, and it’s a given that this started out as not wanting to burden her mom. So she keeps quiet about her issues. Camila tries hard but can’t read her daughter’s mind, so there’s only so much she can do to understand and help the way Luz needs her to. Hell, Eda, who Luz is a lot more open with than her mom, struggles to help her, because Luz doesn’t tell her what’s wrong. I don’t see anyone calling Eda a terrible mom for that.

Camila tries her best, but she struggles to understand her daughter because of this, and because of how fundamentally different they are. She loves Luz’s creativity, we actively see her supporting it in the new episode—she keeps the weird stuff Luz made because she thinks Luz will regret throwing it away, and even plays along in what she assumes to be some elaborate role play because “she’s glad Luz kept her creativity even though it’s not made things easy for her at school”. But at the beginning of the show, said creativity got out of hand and people got hurt. Luz could’ve gotten hurt. So of course Camila had to interfere. I love Luz dearly, but she thought it was okay to bring snakes to school and set off fireworks inside a school building. Creativity is great. Doing reckless stuff that causes people to get hurt is not.

In sending Luz to camp, Camila tried to have someone else fix her issue because she didn’t know how to help Luz. That was a mistake, and a bad one at that, but she’s realizing that. She looks disheartened when Vee tries to throw out Luz’s stuff, because she never meant to change her daughter or take that part of her away. She just thought Luz needed a reality check—which, for the record, is something the narrative actually agrees with.

Luz spends her time in the demon realm getting reality check after reality check, realizing that even her ideal fantasy world where she has everything she always wanted doesn’t mean she’s free of consequences. She goes overboard constantly, causing:

-Eda to be forced to fly into a trap because Luz is chasing a fantasy (Witches before Wizards)

-Eda to almost be branded by her sister because Luz doesn’t think through why Eda doesn’t use magic to publicly announce her presence constantly (Once Upon a Swap)

-Eda and the twins to get kidnapped by a Slitherbeast because Luz stole Amity’s wand (Adventures in the Elements)

-Her friends to get hurt when she goes overboard trying to help Willow (Wing it like Witches)

-Eda to be captured and almost petrified because Luz thought she could just steal from the Emperor with no consequences in an attempt to help (Agony of a Witch)

I’m like 90% sure these aren’t even all. None of those make her a terrible person, for the record, but as all humans are, she is flawed and makes bad choices. She learns from these experiences and matures, just like her mom had hoped she would at camp. She’s also made friends there, which was another thing Camila wanted for her daughter.

You’ll probably realize that a lot of Luz’s behaviors I mentioned follow one of two patterns: 1. Luz’s idealized fantasy world causing problems, when she walks around with rose tinted glasses and gets people in trouble in the process because she hasn’t thought about the consequences, and 2. Luz trying to help someone she loves, but instead making things worse in the progress. The issue with this one is often that she doesn’t communicate her ideas/listen to the people she’s trying to help—like when Willow and Gus said they’ve had enough of Grudgby, or how she never actually talks to Eda about the healing hat idea before doing something reckless.

…does the latter one sound familiar to you at all? No? Because it’s the exact same thing that Camila did.

Some of the things Luz does are reckless and actively endanger others and herself, and that’s something that I think we need to acknowledge before judging Camila. As Luz’s mom, it’s Camila’s job to interfere in those situations. That she made a mistake while trying to protect Luz doesn’t make her a terrible person, especially as, again, the narrative proves her right to an extent.

I’m not saying her making Luz promise to come back and stay isn’t something that hurt Luz—it absolutely is. But it was born out of desperation. She’s emotional and in shock. She’s so full of pain and regret. She just wants her fourteen year old daughter home safe, and there’s nothing abusive or even morally ambiguous about that.

From Luz’s perspective, what she says is absolutely heartbreaking, but from Camila’s, it’s perfectly reasonable. I doubt Camila has the full picture, but even if she does, she’s had a full fifteen seconds to process that her daughter has not only been lying to her for months, but chose to leave her, and is in the demon realm of all places. Of course she’d be emotional and upset about that! Who wouldn’t? Camila isn’t a robot. If she’d been calm about this I’d be way more concerned, honestly.

My parents don’t get mad that easily, but if I would lie to them for weeks on end, they’d be pissed off too, not even taking the running away from home part into account. That’s a normal thing. People don’t like being lied to. Camila is absolutely devastated in that moment because she’s scared that Luz left because she hates her, when Luz actively states that her leaving wasn’t about her mom—which is another thing we should really be acknowledging.

Abusive parents suck and abuse should obviously never be apologized or trivialized, but saying something hurtful in the heat of the moment isn’t the same thing as being an abusive parent. My parents have done this. I’ve done this. And yes, those things can be emotionally manipulative, but there’s a huge difference in whether that’s a habit or a person speaking out of hurt and desperation in a very specific context. I doubt there’s anyone on the entire planet that hasn’t had a bad moment where they’ve said something like this because they were hurting. People lash out when they hurt, and they beg for reassurance when they’re scared. That’s something we all do.

The whole mindset of “all parents have to be perfect and can never get upset or make any mistakes” is harmful as hell, and honestly also very unrealistic. No parent is perfect, and especially people like me who have a relationship with their parents that’s very good overall should know that.

Once you have a child, parenting is a non-stop learning process, every day for the rest of your life. Taking away that room to grow and expecting perfection isn’t helping anyone, especially not struggling single parents.

And I see Camila as someone who is very willing to learn, because at the end of the day, all she wants is for Luz to be happy. Let’s give her some time to wrap her head around this whole situation. Let’s see what she says once she sees for herself how happy Luz is in that world, may it be via the videos eventually coming through or Camila visiting and meeting Luz’s found family, her friends and her girlfriend.

Ultimately, I don’t think Camila will force Luz to stay at home, but we have to give her some time. She wants what’s best for Luz, and she’s gonna need some convincing that a dangerous magical world is what’s best. I feel like that’s very normal considering the circumstances.

Her and Luz need to work on their communication on both ends, they both have things to learn, but I’m certain they’ll manage to fix their relationship in the long run.

If the bunk bed is any indication, I think Vee is gonna stay in the human realm permanently while Luz sleeps at home but keeps attending Hexside in the daytime. That feels like a solution that keeps everyone happy, and allows Luz to spend time with all the people she loves. I can’t see her being forced to choose at the end.

As a closing statement: Eda isn’t an ideal mom, Amity isn’t an ideal friend or girlfriend and neither is Luz, Lilith isn’t an ideal sister… but that’s because no one is ever an ideal anything. Being flawed is a big part of being human. Everyone has different facets to their personality. Their flaws are what makes them such great, relatable, believable characters.

And I feel the same way about Camila. She’s an extremely believable character that reminds me of my own parents, flawed but very loving nonetheless.

(Also honestly, I think it’s pretty telling that some of you guys immediately bash the black single mom that’s obviously trying her hardest while giving the benefit of the doubt to Alador, who has been portrayed as neglecting and threatened his six year old daughter on screen. This was already a thing before we knew much about either of them, and I’m disappointed but unfortunately not very surprised that it still is.)

#the owl house #toh #lumity #luz noceda #Camila noceda #Camila the owl house #toh spoilers #owl house #Camila toh #toh meta #eda clawthorne #luz x amity #eleena rants #noceda family #yesterday’s lie #toh season two #the owl house season two #Vee Noceda #spoilers #owl house spoilers #the owl house spoilers #luz toh #luz the owl house #toh Camila #character flaws #long post #spoilers under cut #Personal

[umbran6]

The Argument Against Caleo

Spoilers up to Blood of Olympus and beyond. Beware! (Or not, the book series has been out for a few years, get over it). I wrote this after seeing a user wondering why people didn’t like Caleo, or in some cases, hated it. Here, I want to explain the answer as much as possible while doling out my own points. 

One of the main grievances I have as a fan of Leo Valdez would be the ship Caleo, or Leo x Calypso. It’s a complicated ship, to say the least, with multiple issues that make me question why people like the ship. And I admit it, they initially had some chemistry, but there’s multiple issues that Uncle Rick produced through making such a relationship that makes it extremely open to criticism, criticism which I will explain through this post.

One of my main points against them is that the ship was created on a very limited time scale. Although we aren’t given an exact date to date of when Leo and Calypso met to when they fell in love, we can safely estimate it to be a week at best. Such a limited amount of time from going through the multiple stages of a relationship already stresses the limits of the suspension of disbelief.

A counterexample would be Percabeth, or Percy x Annabeth. Throughout the series, we aren’t introduced to them being romantically involved until the Titan’s Curse, which was two years after they met. Specifically, this is brought up by Aphrodite, the goddess of love herself. Admittedly, Percy and Annabeth were twelve years old when they first met, when romance was definitely out of the picture, especially with a quest to get the Master Bolt.

However, from there we get to see multiple examples of their character depth, ranging from their respective fatal flaws to their ambitions, hopes and dreams, and their friendship. We get to see the slow build up of their chemistry, which was a really good writing move on Uncle Rick’s part. These characters took their sweet time to get to where they wanted to go, and despite the false romantic lead of Rachel, they still got together.

On the other hand, we don’t see enough of this between Leo and Calypso — we only see one book where they interacted with each other in The House of Hades, and that was only for a handful of chapters. While they are definitely older so they can jump straight to romance (some may say too old, but I’ll get to that) its still a pretty huge gap to jump through without making it stick. This makes it hard to root for a ship when it is built on a rather faulty foundation from the ‘they just met’ to ‘they get together’, especially when they don’t have a lot of events to show their chemistry.

Which brings me to Ogygia, which has raised a few red flags for me when looking at it from a retrospective point of view. Now, we know what the main issue of the island is that the hero who landed on said island can’t leave until Calypso falls in love with them. And we’ve seen this with Percy during the Battle of the Labyrinth, where he lands in the island and Calypso falls in love with him while tending to his wounds from, you know, being erupted from freaking Mt. St. Helens. Needless to say, this falling in love with each other montage happened quickly to the point of suspicion, which sets up the complication that Calypso and Leo might have fallen in love due to magical intervention.

And hear me out, because although this  might be a pretty big pill to swallow, we have evidence for this through Percy. It only takes one chapter for Calypso and Percy to meet, and the next he’s willing to consider leaving Camp Half-Blood and Annabeth behind to live on the island when Hephaestus gives him the choice to leave Ogygia or stay. We don’t even get an explanation on why Percy considered giving it all up just so he can be with her. All we know is, girl meets boy, now they want to live on an isolated island forever. It’s especially absurd considering Percy’s hamartia (fatal flaw) is freaking loyalty to those he loves.  Needless to say, It’s a huge YIKES, especially when we apply it to Leo and Calypso. 

It also raises the possibility that the romantic relationship between them is doomed to failure. And if you guys want to fight me on this, let’s look at Jason and Piper, a couple whose relationship started with a similar foundation. Piper had romantic memories implanted into her brain by Hera through the use of the Mist, while Jason was reduced to a Tabula Rasa (a blank slate for those who lack culture) by said goddess. They broke up before the Trials of Apollo because it was clear that when the dust settled, Piper had been aware that their romance was a lie and that their intentions to stay together was a mix of delusion and pressure from freaking Aphrodite. Leo and Calypso get together under what is arguably a very similar set of conditions if Ogygia’s magic had any influence on their relationship, and that this magic could wear off if given enough time. 

Third, and here’s a pretty big one for me, would be Calypso’s character, mainly because there are a lot of unfortunate implications attached to it. In The Blood of Olympus, she was turned into the divine equivalent of Princess Peach, with Leo being her Mario (except he saves her with a badass metal dragon). Its extremely unnecessary to make a character, especially as one such as Calypso, get  turned into the typical reward of a B-Class action movie. It’s insulting and puts her up as a trophy, a narrative that is definitely not ok by any means necessary.

In another direction, Calypso is also really, really worrying when things don’t go get her way. First, let’s look at The Odyssey, the first myth she pops up. Calypso had imprisoned Odysseus for ten years on her island until Hermes said to let him go, and although it gives them plenty of time to fall in love, it also raises the implications of stockholm syndrome. Then we’ve got the fact that Calypso cursed Annabeth out of spite, implicitly saying that she wished the daughter of Athena would suffer the same isolation that she did, which came to reality when Percy and Annabeth met the Arai in Tartarus. And Annabeth wasn’t even aware that she was still in Ogygia, much less intentionally intervened in the matter. When Percy left Ogygia, rather than be angry at Percy, Calypso cursed Annabeth out of all people to suffer the same loneliness and misery she went through. That’s some Hera at her worst levels of spite. 

Through such evidence we can see that Calypso is extremely wrathful towards those who break her heart even though they don’t want to. It certainly implies that Calypso isn’t in a good state of mind, and could easily repeat said actions if provoked. We could almost compare it to Medea and the original Jason, but at least in that case, Medea has every right to be pissed off at Jason and take her revenge. Calypso’s curse and how she handles things certainly implies a level of immaturity that would end in disaster if they broke up.

One issue that, I’ll admit is more from my personal point of view is that the ship took a lot of Leo’s character and threw it in the garbage in Blood of Olympus. Though we see him do a lot of stuff behind the scenes, the fact that its all for the goal of reaching Calypso just reduced him to someone who is more focused on love than, you know, fighting the evil goddess that was responsible for killing his mom and getting sweet sweet revenge. While the revenge plot can be cliched sometimes, it can be played well, while romance and the typical ‘always save the girl’ trope is just overdone. If Leo had been allowed to, you know, be more focused on other things rather than Calypso, we could have seen a lot more variety in his character.

For example as one of the possible character arcs he could’ve gone through, Leo has always been alone among the couples, often being isolated. Heck, Nemesis herself stated that he would always be the seventh wheel, and that he would never find a place among his brethren. Though some fellow tumblr users have taken this in multiple ways, either saying that he should learn to be happy by himself or that he is socially isolated in the Argo II because of these romantic relationships (I prefer a mix of both). Uncle Rick just giving him a girlfriend seems like taking the easy way out of solving such an issue and abandoning what could’ve been a rather interesting character arc. The relationship isn’t a bad thing if we remove some of the unfortunate implications, but it is a bad way to end what is a complex and realistic problem for a character and in some cases maybe possible in real life.

One more minor but still yikes worthy point is that there’s a huge age gap between them. We’re not talking about the ‘Hazel is 15 and Frank is 17 and in one year that’ll be a problem because then Hazel will be jailbait’ age gap. And even then, we can argue that Hazel is older since she is chronologically ninety-one years old. No, Calypso is older by millennia in terms of mindset and body due to the perks of being a goddess, while Leo is sixteen.

God-to-Mortal relationships are already complicated, even with emotionally and socially well-functioning adults. The fact that Leo is underage, inexperienced with romance (despite his flirting, Calypso was his first kiss), and has been through a freaking ton of trauma in his youth, does not make this okay. At best, they’re both mutually interested in each other but may have different expectations when it comes to a relationship. At worst, Calypso is taking advantage of a boy just so she can get out of Ogygia and possibly dumping him later on like the wrapping of a candy bar. Even though Calypso lost her immortality during The Trials of Apollo, that doesn’t even compensate for the immense age gap alongside Leo’s guilt at the possibility that he might’ve been responsible for her losing said immortality.

Oh, and about Leo... I’m a fan of him, but I can admit that he is in a bad spot both mentally and emotionally throughout the series. He’s lost his mom due to a mix of his own powers and Gaea’s trickery, and never had the chance to fully process that event and come to terms with it. The foster home system alongside his own trauma has forced him to hide his emotions through a façade of happiness and jokes when it’s quite clear to me he needs a therapist, stat. He's also run away from several foster homes, implying this means he was and still is being affected by the event. His mask is still on during The Blood of Olympus considering he hid a lot of things from Piper and Jason.

Speaking about them, not helping this matter is the fact that he’s rather isolated in terms of friendships since Jason and Piper, his supposed best friends are more interested in locking lip rather than, you know, actually hanging out with each other.  He doesn’t have good friendships with the rest of the Seven, and the closest ones he does have is with Hazel and Frank. And even then they start off in the wrong spot since Frank is very insecure about possibly losing Hazel to him during Mark of Athena while Hazel in the meantime, is also dealing with the fact that he is the descendant of her possible boyfriend Sammy Valdez. 

This could indirectly have made him desperate for affection since he has nobody else to confide in during the rest of the series, which is a bad mental state to be in when one lands on Ogygia, the island that we’ve seen could possibly force two people to fall in love with each other. A romantic relationship is not something that he needs or something that will help him in the future. He needs more than that, and having him in one that could end in disaster is the last thing he needs. 

And that does not make him a bad person, much less a bad character. While some who are similarly emotionally and socially isolated may turn to violence or creepy behavior on those they want affection from, Leo does not do that to the other characters. It just means that he as a character needs more time to recover and develop before we go giving him romantic relationships, much less one with Calypso.

That’s not to say that they don’t have some things in common. Both are starved for love and affection, with Calypso being constantly rejected by heroes while Leo was rejected by foster homes and his own family. It’s a trait that they have in common, but it shouldn’t be the only thing that they have in common, especially since it is laced with a trauma that is clear they haven’t had help processing. They need to develop more as characters and as friends before they should be paired together.

So… yeah. The Caleo relationship is, in my eyes, doomed to failure, or at least heavily flawed after taking the above points into account. Uncle Rick, as if seemingly aware of these criticisms, has put the relationship in a rocky place by The Tower of Nero, giving them the possibility of overcoming the above criticisms and their own flaws, or giving fanfic writers an out and pairing Leo with another character or have him single, but happy. Either way, in my opinion Caleo is a bad ship when it comes to how it was created, alongside the flaws and unfortunate implications it has.

While I can see some of the chemistry the ship has, you can’t just use a couple of moments where they get along as evidence that they belong together, especially with the above reasons. That’s like using a band-aid to cover a bullet hole without removing the bullet, stopping the bleeding, and preventing infection. If both characters and their relationship had been given more time to develop, I would understand how they would get together. 

#Leo Valdez #percy jackson #Annabeth Chase #piper mclean #jason grace #Frank Zhang #Hazel Levesque #Caleo #Anti-Caleo #Percabeth (slightly mentioned) #Critique #Critique of a ship #Unfortunate implications #just... unfortunate implications all around #Greek mythology #Greek Myth #Percy Jackon and the Olympians #Heroes of Olympus #trials of apollo #Cupid is it possible you can take back an arrow?