#fundamental tenets of her character | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

homielander · 2 years

Text

“i can’t believe alicent got all catty just because rhaenyra had sex with someone else” please rewatch the first five episodes i’m begging you

for one, there’s the obvious fact that she vouched for rhaenyra to the king, and it resulted in her father losing his position in court and being dismissed in disgrace. with that dismissal, the last bit of alicent’s sad excuse for a support system was dismantled. otto may not be anywhere close to a good father but he’s been alicent’s only family for years. and we’ve already seen that alicent feels lonely — she confesses as much. she’s a young non-valyrian queen who self-admittedly has no friends in court. aemma at least had the advantage of enjoying a natural closeness with her husband and not being so visually distinct from the rest of the targaryen house.

this loneliness is why warnings of a looming inheritance crisis resonate so soundly with her. she has no allies, and rhaenyra, the only person she truly trusted and went out of her way to protect time and time again, had no trouble lying to her face on her dead mother’s memory. viserys may genuinely want to keep their children safe (though it’s worth noting he hasn’t been seen interacting with any of them on screen even once, and between his kingly duties and decaying health it is likely that he is not an active father, thus further proving to alicent that they are not held in the same regard as rhaenyra) but it is his death that will create the power vacuum, so if they are endangered he has no way to stop it. and despite daemon generally being a loose canon, neither viserys nor rhaenyra really do anything to rein him in — daemon literally waltzes in to the future queen’s wedding feast and nothing is done. in alicent’s view, the only person who has her best interests at heart is her father — a politically astute man who seems genuinely convinced that there is a war coming. so her paranoia is understandably worsening by the day.

another problem is that, while alicent probably can’t quite put her finger on the nature of her feelings for rhaenyra, she obviously loves her very deeply. this love is what causes dutiful, obedient alicent to defy her father and convince viserys not to name their son as his heir. this love is what makes her vehemently deny her father’s claims about rhaenyra’s virtue to the king without heeding the potential consequences. when viserys announces that he will marry alicent, it is not herself she worries for, but rhaenyra to whom she immediately looks. it’s also possible that some of the visceral outrage she feels upon hearing the news of rhaenyra’s transgressions is jealousy. so the betrayal is enhanced a hundredfold because rhaenyra lied and because it is rhaenyra.

and some of her reaction can obviously be attributed to the patriarchal standards of westerosi society. alicent is deeply religious in a way few asoiaf characters have been shown to be — she routinely prays in order to feel closer to her mother — and has clearly internalized the tenets of the faith as well as its inane standards for women (namely that premarital sex is forbidden). she’s also been raised to be a perfect southern lady-in-waiting, which only strengthens this attitude. so a good part of her is actually scandalized by rhaenyra “sullying her virtue” — especially when the crown has been working tirelessly to make one arrangement after another to secure rhaenyra a suitable match of her own choosing (that kind of freedom is unheard of at this point).

but, horrified as she may be, alicent is also envious that rhaenyra has these avenues available to her in the first place. she says to ser criston that she can understand how a young woman could get lost in the heat of the moment in such circumstances, but alicent fundamentally cannot understand. she and rhaenyra started off in similar positions, giggling and blushing over handsome knights at tourneys, but rhaenyra gets to live out her girlhood fantasies while alicent is married off to a man old enough to be her father, who calls her to his chambers in the middle of the night while his flesh is literally rotting away. in alicent’s eyes, it must seem that rhaenyra has the option to choose her own husband, her own destiny, and yet she continues to discard her good fortune while still flaunting her acts of rebellion (which are enabled by the king and ultimately cause no harm to her reputation).

the point is that there is a host of factors contributing to alicent’s turning point in 1.05. how anyone can see all this play out and still reduce alicent’s motives to “pettiness” is beyond me.

#alicent hightower #house of the dragon #not anti rhaenyra im just explaining alicent's pov

323 notes · View notes

t-he-art-of-beauty · 2 years

Text

Season 1 is actually so good? Flint’s character development in it is stellar? The first few episodes are a bit cryptic, they show us the vibes, the major players, the environment, the setting, they set the plot into motion and establish the first main goal, the Urca de Lima, as a step stone to the larger end goal of a safe and stable Nassau independent from England, but Episode 7 is when we really get going. Some extremely fundamental things happen for Flint which set him on a path to so many of his later decisions and to the central and extremely important Flint-Silver relationship.

There are three essential and amazing scenes happening in rapid succession: 1. Hal confronting Flint about Billy and the letter. 2. Flint confronting Miranda about the letter. 3. Eleanor finding Flint drinking in the tavern.

All these three scenes are in some way about Flint’s desperation throughout his entire journey to find someone who loves him not despite what he believes, not despite his ambitions to change the world by sheer willpower, but for them. Who shares them, who shares his obsession. To feel the rush of what he had with Thomas again. Because that was when he learned to love and be loved like that and that love is what has kept him alive so far and while he likes to pretend (probably also to himself) that his ambitions are just for the better of everyone, deep down he is also just scrambling to keep Thomas’ memory alive.

Now Hal breaks their partnership off by expressing disbelief that Flint is actually interested in the common good of the pirates. He twists his finger into the wound that Thomas’ plan and by extension Flint’s ideals never considered: Should they even be the arbiter of others’ fates, are the people he wishes to govern over so unable to choose their own path in a constructive way? Do they really know better? Hal realizes Flint has never truly seen him or the pirates of Nassau in general as his equals and the rush of being caught up in the captain’s grandeur (and I mean… attractiveness all around) just doesn’t outweigh the energy it takes to uphold the cognitive dissonance anymore.

“Is that what you are to us now. A sovereign. Levying a tax.”

Next is Miranda. She comes right for the underlying drive of grief, revenge and the desperate attempt to keep a memory alive by building a “safe, righteous, self-determined home” for the now fractured and incomplete Hamilton-McGraw triad, wrapped in it Flint’s identity as a queer man. At this point Flint assumes that she is the one to understand this, to truly grasp what this means to Flint and share this (given the Maria Aleyne history it’s understandable that he has held onto this assumption). But she denies sharing the vision, expresses her frustration and loneliness and goes for the final punch by sharing how she remembers and interprets Thomas’ perspective on the situation.

“This path you’re on. It doesn’t lead to what you think it does. If he were here, he’d agree with me!”

At this point Flint, for the first time in the show, is shown actually doubting himself. The two people he has been closest to and trusted the most in his time in Nassau so far have drawn back their support, have attacked two core tenets of his ambition. The scene with Eleanor merely puts a band-aid on the situation. Her blessing, her understanding of his drive is important structurally, because she is a vital political partner, but I do not believe it means as much to him. There is a really interesting moment full of actual (sexual? romantic?) tension or rather potential there, but it ends with a forehead kiss. Flint appreciates the partnership and deeply respects her, but probably more from a parental perspective, she isn’t truly an equal, based on life experience and age alone. But things are already in motion, the show must go on, the band-aid will have to suffice.

“Perhaps a little doubt in me is called for.” “What happened out there?” “Tell me, we’re not crazy you and I?” “Crazy?” “To put ourselves through all of this when the outcome is so uncertain?” “The outcome is only uncertain for those who disbelieve.”

The hole ripped in Episode 7 is essential for all further developments, it opens space for Silver to become an important person in his life, it opens space for him to reconsider trying a path involving pardons, as in season 2. It also foreshadows or mirrors or just resonates with how all these relationships around Flint ultimately end: Eleanor scraps her ambitions for love, Silver scraps Flint’s and Madi’s ambitions for love, even if he is reunited with Thomas in the end he is never truly reunited with the feeling he chased the entire time: Being loved for his ambition, by somebody who shares it, facing the world and shaking his fist at it, believing change is possible and yet not having to be alone.

What a lonely place to be in.

[image descriptions

image 1: Close-Up/Over the Shoulder Screenshot of Hal Gates in conversation with Flint. A bald pirate looking down with a somber and concerned expression.

image 2: Close-Up screenshot on Captain Flint, glinting eyes, in the midst of his desperate plea to Hal. He’s a red-haired & bearded man with a desperate, pleading expression.

image 3: Miranda Hamilton and Captain Flint in their house on Nassau, both are seen from behind, Flint is about to leave through the front door, Miranda is leaning towards him in the foreground, calling after him.

image 4: over the shoulder screenshot on Flint, looking at Eleanor Guthrie with a somber expression, pinched eyebrows, slightly opened mouth, almost considering.]

#flint #black sails #meta #bs #i might have to share my more detailed ramblings on each separate scenes at a later point...#arghhhhhhhh #eleanor #miranda #pirate media #hal gates #me

281 notes · View notes

jellogram · 6 months

Text

Every time I watch Black Swan it gets funnier that the first time I saw it, as a repressed teenager, I did not understand that Nina was gay. Yes that is a fundamental tenet of her character. Yes she has weird dream sex with Mila Kunis. I simply related to her too hard to understand that she was gay. I was like "Yeah this is a normal relationship to have with sex and girls. Of course she wants to bang Mila Kunis, that's normal."

I literally saw a woman onscreen fuck another woman but because I was projecting onto her and also wanted to fuck the same woman, and I clearly was not Gay, the idea that Nina might be queer completely went over my head. That's like some quantum denial right there. Meta shit. Ever been so deep in the closet that you have to deny a fictional character's sexuality because it's too much like yours.

7 notes · View notes

siover · 2 years

Note

Talk to me about autistic Shiv bestie

im so terribly self indulgent when it comes to autistic shiv but just in the way of prattling.. to me (one of) the core tenets of shiv's character is that she is necessarily fundamentally alienated from emotional sincerity and honesty and this in part comes from 1) the very hostile sexist environment she was raised in that insisted on reducing her to a trophy, logan's trophy, at a very young age 2) logan's involvement 3) caroline's lack thereof, despite shiv's repeated attempts to connect with her into adulthood and 4) her only path to success (read: survival) being to prove them all wrong.

so she constantly plays a part all through s1--the part of the distinguished professional who just happens to be the daughter of Logan Roy--as well as s2 and s3--but this time the prodigal daughter returning to emblazon a new path beyond her father's footsteps--in a way that she becomes what she Wants. not in that she achieves her goals, but in that she grows to define herself and her relationships by how well they fit into the persona of whom it would most benefit her to become, if that makes sense.

and tom is such a key part of this--the secret sauce, even, if you will. i don't even think she realizes just how much she grows to genuinely love him and depend on him until the beach scene in s2--it's so easy to read her response to him asking "is this real" before their wedding as cruel but to her it's genuinely baffling, because the validity and significance of that as a factor that has never occurred to her. like maybe this is projection dialed up to a 110 but i do think shiv assumed tom knew it was more about being A Couple than about love, if that makes sense. (which is probably why autistic shiv is so closely tied to lesbian shiv in my head--it's about choosing the assigned roles so you can pretend you had agency in conforming, that it works for you because you let it, it's about faking and masking to make it in a space that's inherently hostile to you and your needs and after being forced to playact at "normalcy" for so long you've lost sight of if there's ever a real person waiting underneath or if you're just an onion all the way down. anyway!)

also shiv's relationship with perceiving and being perceived--how she offers to share her struggles with marcia if marcia can reciprocate, the few bathroom scenes she has scarcely involving mirrors--is SO interesting to me. she uses perception as a weapon and is hyperaware of how the same can be done to her..something something the rejection of being Seen and hence being Loved at the cost of a shot at being respected!! when sarah snook said shiv is uncomfortable with vulnerability and flexibility bc she isnt secure in herself!! the invisible and visible barriers of being a girl and knowing you don't fit in the boxes you should + the invisible and visible barriers of being a woman and having to figure out the boxes or risk ridicule

this is getting SO long and increasingly incoherent but i couldnt end without adding autistic shiv makes even more sense in the context of autistic kendall. for one thing, the mirrors--shiv desperately rejecting a parental figure and being the only person she needs while kendall desperately needing to feel, well, needed--but also kendall is everything shiv has learned not to be and his failure to mask is an integral part of that! it's not a coincidence that logan asks shiv for affirmation when rava says iverson needs time to adjust before he comes to dinner, and the unsaid relief of "at least it wasn't me," when logan tears kendall down for things shiv contends with herself only grows louder each time imo

#autistic shiv is something that can be SO personal #i mean none of this is new and #idk if any of this makes sense #and i had a whole spiel abt the iverson scene which tumblr (thankfully) deleted lmao but yeah its abt masking denial HOPE (that its enough)#and all the bells say being abt shiv (and the others) learning that it will never be enough ......... shrimp emotions #shiv roy #ily for asking this <3 #char tag

63 notes · View notes

frankensteincest · 7 months

Text

this book series is fascinating. forcing sex workers is punishable by law and violates one of the fundamental tenets set by their gods but also every sex worker is taught to flirtatiously but securely untangle themselves from a patron who gets too handsy. there are so many contradictions like this but the main character narrating them is blind to it all bc she was conditioned into being such a ‘bond-slave’. then again, in her narration, she addresses an audience, presumably mostly her own countrymen – like a chronicle. so there’s an added dimension of does she truly adhere so thoroughly to her conditioning, i. e. the dominant ideology of her society, or is it a veneer she feels necessary to adopt.

#log.

3 notes · View notes

volunteerismandanarchy · 8 months

Text

One of the greatest challenges human beings face is how to tease apart a bad act from a good character — or, conversely, a toxic personality from the good and worthy things he created. How do we separate the long-time childhood friend from his insane Facebook polemics? The good neighbour from his bad politics?

“People are thoughtless all the time,” writes Alexandra Hudson in her new book, The Soul of Civility, while arguing that the best way to depolarise our society is to recognise that good people can have bad ideas. This idea is classically Christian, but also fundamentally American: even after the Civil War, a central tenet of Reconstruction was that those who fought for the Confederacy should be given grace for having chosen the wrong side. But that’s a principle it’s easier to hold to in the wake of victory than in the fog of war — or, as this past week’s events have reminded us, War Discourse.

#Unherd #kat rosenfield #Alexandra Hudson #Civility #Israel-Palestine Conflict

2 notes · View notes

chocobothis · 11 months

Text

Character Questions: Solus Ve’tra

Crap Cutting Core Characters

(The current plan is to do this for my various Fandom OCs.)

Internal

1. What do they want and why do they want it?

More than anything in the Galaxy she wants the simple life she had imagined for herself as a child. Back then it was to get married, have children, and prepare to eventually lead her clan when the time came. She would do so beside Ursa of Clan Wren because they would become the next Wren-Ve’tra Set. Based upon her hobbies and interests she would likely become the clan’s personal historian but also serve as one for Mandalore Sector itself. Her grandfather trained her in the arts of politics and spycraft, including assassination, to potentially serve as an aide and advisor to the Manda’lor. It was something he, and others before him, had done because, “Clan Ve’tra serves best from the shadows.”

She wants it for the simple reason that that's the life she dreamed of and frankly deserves. Every hardship that’s been thrown at her she’s handle with dignity and grace; all while sticking close to the tenets of the Resol’nare and the Mandalorian Creed. When she was thrown to the Jedi Order she knew it made her dar’manda. When she was led to Jabiim then back to Mandalore things changed significantly for her. Her place within Mandalore itself was larger, and more public, than she had wanted but it was crafted for her. Still, she wants (and deserves) that beautiful, simple life after all of the work she’s done.

2. What scares the hell out of them?

Something happening to those she loves when she should have been able to stop it. It’s a very real thing that has happened to her numerous times throughout her life. Knowing that she’s capable of surviving it (or in some last second cases managing to alter it) does nothing to fully soothe her. Because the danger prowls unseen and unknown at the edges of her senses.

3. What did they believe by the time they were 10?

The Galactic Senate, and therefore large swathes of the Republic, were even shitter than she’d been led to believe. Meeting them, even as a tiny initiate, doubled down on the negatives of classism, xenophobia, etc. The Senators played nice with the Jedi but they had favorites; Solus knew she was not nor would ever be one of them. They didn’t want an Outer Rim, Mandalorian Savage handling anything for them that wasn’t war. Her value would be as a soldier instead of the politician she was trained to be.

The Jedi Order was more diverse than she originally thought but had a lot of Core Worlder Decay. There were many good people she met among them. She also met people who dislike that she was one of a small batch of exceptions to become an Initiate. They wouldn’t like her and they didn’t have to. But, she would make damn certain they respected her and her skills.

Mandalore would have to have another war to grow to its full potential. Whatever was happening with the New Mandalorians was a pause in conflict. There were things she did not yet fully understand at ten but she had enough Special Dreams to look for the patterns. She also knew seeing what was happening to her home hurt. No one followed the Resol’nare.

4. What is their fundamental truth?

Love is the most powerful force in the galaxy be it love of clan, planet, power, etc. People would fight and kill and die for what they loved. They would do impossible things with a strong enough conviction born of love. Beautiful and heinous acts came from what someone believed. Hells, her strongest uses of the Force were born by digging into love; not fear, not anger, not calm, but love. Every act she committed, every supposed vow she broke to the Republic and the Order, happened because she loved her Mandalore above all else.

5. What makes them happy? (What do they think makes them happy?)

Her Mandalorian community because they are her everything to here. She felt comfortable enough within the chaos of Death Watch during The Clone Wars to get pregnant. There would be no perfect time to have children, she had the support around her, and she believed in her own skills. It was difficult but she managed to have twins and raise them while running from the Empire for being an ex-Jedi/Enemy of the Empire.

Mandalorians are stronger together.

A Mandalorian is never truly alone.

Those two beliefs are the backbone of Solus when stripped to her barest qualities.

External

1. What are their family relationships like?

Complicated.

That is like the nicest, most diplomatic way to say because her blood family is a dumpster fire on Mustafar. I wouldn’t say they’ve got Iron Throne Successor Level Drama because they aren’t going to just knife each other as the first option. But, under the right circumstances it could happen.

Her paternal family is entirely out of the picture; she’s a one night stand baby. All she knows is he’s full Sephi, has shit taste in women, and has weak genetics. She and her maternal grandfather, Jai, are so similar that Clones could place them as related from minor observations only. She wasn’t even using Ve’tra as her surname at the time.

Her maternal family is a bullet affair and that’s just their relationships with or around her.

Jai Ve’tra (Maternal Grandfather): He loves Solus more than anything within this life or the next. But, he fucks up his familial and romantic relationships enough that it’s Profolific among the True Mandalorians and Others. When he panics he resorts to Spycraft therefore acting without sharing many, if any, of the details for the whole picture. He’s certain he’s doing the right thing for the best outcome.

+ Solus spent about sixteen years under the assumption he was ashamed of her. That he exiled her to the Core World and Jedi Order because she was so unfit to lead she wasn’t worth putting down.

+ When she learned he disappeared for a decade with the Cuy’val Dar her first response was to call him “A coward who wouldn’t clean up his own messes.” If she wants to get really pissy at him she’s bringing in the Manda’lor Fett Problem. (Hint: She’s not fond Mandalorian Blood making and training the Republic’s Army.) Because look at the coward he followed into hiding?

+ There’s a special level of pissed about the New Mandalorians he helped stay in power. Not sticking around to see the fallout and/or not acting is still an action. Because he’s Jai Fucking Ve’tra who was Galidraan and survived against all odds. A name some Jedi know to cower from. He’s the Jai Ve’tra who served as advisor to multiple Manda’lore: Jango Fett, Jaster Mereel, and further back. People would have listened to him. Hells, his the one who taughter her a Ve’tra served Mandalore from the shadows with plans and actions. He’s a fucking politician, spy, and assassin. Live up to their name and their Ancestors and clean up the Sundari Mess.

+ Her joining Death Watch tore his heart apart and she doesn’t care. If he won’t act then she will. Pre Vizsla is Manda’lor and isn’t a Ve’tra’s place in shadows to the Manda’lor’s left? An advisor, spymaster, and whatever is required of them. She knows her duty as a Ve’tra and as a Mando’ade. Rally when called.

+ The part where she marries Pre out of love has him screaming into the void. Remove the Manda’lor Title, the Death Watch Debacle, and everything else and he just finds Pre to be an intensely irritating person. He was around for the “Younger Vizsla who is fond of speeches.” A older teenager with a well-formed political opinion is a goddamned nightmare.

Harti Wren (Maternal Grandfather): He’s her second grandfather by virtue of being Jai’s most stable romantic relationship through out there lives. Yes, this includes the ex-wife with whom he had children. He and Jai raised Solus between the Wren Stronghold, Ve’tra Stronghold, and honestly war camps. She’s the light of his life and his granddaughter/daughter. He didn’t know Jai was handing Solus over the the Jedi Order until after it happened. After being forced to swear on their Ancestors, the Manda, and the Ka’ra, he left Solus in the Order. Instead, he fell back to working with the Journeyman Protectors of Concord Dawn. He did keep a fund set aside for Solus when she came home because she would.

+ Solus owes part of her love of flying to him. He was the first person to have her up in a fighter with him. It wasn’t during combat but she was there. Due to living on his hip she also was around the mechanics too.

+ For the first couple of months, Solus told herself that Har’ba’buir would rescue her. He’s not as sneaky so she’ll know he’s coming. But, he’ll come for her...right? When it didn’t happen she broke down in little ways. It meant that she was exiled and a failure. The most impulsive person wouldn’t break the rules to save her.

+ He does work to mend the fences with Solus when she’s back. It won’t be the same but he wants his kid back. The fact he personally met Tor Vizsla adds fuel to why he hates Death Watch. He also remembers Pre when he was a younger pain in the ass.

+ One of the things he admits is he understands why Solus and Ursa picked Death Watch. People failed them both at every turn. They were made into soldiers and leaders painfully early by even their own standards. This option gives them the a sense of control because if they’re going to war it is on their terms. It’s a gross oversimplification of events that has caused shouting matches between him, Solus, and Ursa. But, he’s trying and it means so much. He also apologized sincerely to Solus.

Seraphine Farr (Maternal Grandmother): She’s a staunch New Mandalorian from Kalevala. There’s never been any deeper explanation for why she’s picked this party for her entire life. Satine’s ascension was good to her and that’s all that matters to Seraphine. When her son died, she doubled down on protecting her daughter from harm’s way and indulged her. It was part of what made Jai feel suffocated enough to kidnap their first grandchild when she was an hour old. Seraphine barely had the chance to hold her but more or less recovered.

+ Here and Solus would have never seen eye to eye on anything. Solus was the worst of her husband’s traits intermingled with defiant streak. Pre would’ve been someone she was less thrilled with but he’s a New Mandalorian Governor. The whole Death Watch thing would’ve been “Ah, that’s why she liked him.”

+ She’s dead to Solus. An impressive sort of dead that would have implied decades of hate. But, it’s because she’s dar’manda. Not even a regular one but one who wants to be a Core World Noble so badly she’ll roll over to show them her unarmored belly. It’s disgusting.

+ Honestly, she liked Solus better as a Jedi because there was Prestige (to Outsiders) with having a Jedi in the family. Now, she’s a goddamned disaster hellbent on taking the world apart

Bijou Farr (Mother): Having a child when she did really wasn’t her plan. But, there’s a community around so it wasn’t like having a baby would’ve been the absolute worst thing. There was a certain ease with bouncing back from Solus being kidnapped because of it. Jai using her own child to shut her out of ever leading Clan Ve’tra stung.

+ Should she have tried to “raise” Solus it would’ve been a disaster. Her daughter would’ve appeared more as a rival than her child. Jai would not have been subtle about preferring Solus. She’s the future of Clan Ve’tra; not the child he’s described as “incapable of even leading a dollhouse”.

+ Solus has the same “You are dead to me” toward her mother. Maybe a little stronger because this woman isn’t even competently using her political power.

+ There’s a huge disconnect where she straight up forgets that she technically has a daughter. It’s a very abstract thing because she never had to care for a child. It’s more like she had a growth that people celebrated then missed a little when it went away.

Aymeric Ve’tra (Uncle): He died at least a decade before Solus was born. It happened on a mission away from Jai.

+ Solus calls him her “favorite relative” because he’s never been a pain in her ass.

2. Who do they look up to?

There’s been several people over the years. It started with Jai and Harti. That grew at points to include Jaster Mereel, various Ancestors, her Jedi Master Leska, and people from legends and myths. History was her stories more often then not. For a period of time there was Jango Fett because Jai made their Manda’lor sound larger than life. That made Geonosis a whole Experience beyond watching most of the Jedi die in a meat grinder. But, the only two that have came around and stayed, flaws and all, are Ursa Wren and Tarre Vizsla.

Ursa is seven years her senior, the leader of Clan Wren, and half of their generation’s Pair. Their clans have been allies since Krownest was inhabited by them. Eventually, a sort of tradition evolved with the presumed future leaders growing up together. If there was too much of an age difference then one would would serve as a teacher and mentor to the other. Not that she needed that tradition to be on Ursa’s heel as soon as she could walk. Even the vast changes between her being pushed to the Order and leaving, that early relationship stuck. Ursa is the person she turns with questions or to help. She’s effectively led Krownest since she was fourteen; the respect Solus has for her is immense. It makes her feel way better that she has Ursa for motherhood questions.

Tarre is an exceptionally weird case that happened because the star aligned, the Force thought it was funny, the Ancestors wanted to play a joke, whatever it took. But, Solus’ exceptional prowess and connection to the Force (and honestly kyber) along with the Jedi Temple being a Force Nexus forged a bond between them. Those factors mixed with her having a very, very solid run in with the Darksaber cemented a connection. So, she has a several millennia old Mandalorian Jedi as a sometimes mentor. It just requires some weird meditation or a sorta of séance to chat. Even when she complains about the Force Bullshit, she does appreciate having this connection at all. Existing between the two, conflicting world messed with her mind. He’s someone who understands to a degree.

3. Friends - people typically hang out with others who are like-minded

The best part of the Jedi Order was that she met her three best friends: Lumi Kirrin, Jazari Naaji, and Alijah Kastor. Nothing else there was anything but an extended trauma conga line.. All four of them were Age Exceptions (the other three were six years old to her seven) the Order made, in Katarn Clan, and ultimately being shortlisted as potential/future Jedi Shadows. They became Padawans at the same time because of the same event, got black beads as their first beads, and mostly moved through the Order and Galaxy on similar paths.

By The Clone Wars they had all sort of realized that ultimately they didn’t want to be Jedi for various reasons. When the war was over they would leave as a foursome too. That plan changed because Solus left dramatically not even a year into the war. Lumi was on her heels, as her own memorable explosion, a month later. Jazari knew she would leave when Clan Skirata left the Republic. Alijah became the only one who knew she would wait out the whole thing; Order 66 ousted her.

Even now they’re close while standing on their different, if at times intersecting, paths.

Within the spheres of Death Watch and Mandalore she makes new friends that she has some things in common with. Her own little group becomes the people she married (Pre and Bo-Katan), Ursa, and Alrich. Axe Woves occupies a weird space at the edge because she’s never too sure how close she wants him to be. later on Koska Reeves occupies that same space. Others are varying levels of friends but not to this degree.

4. Is there anyone they do/don’t trust? Why?

Solus had training from Jai and the Order on how to exist within the shadows as a sort of assassin. If there is trouble happening she needs to not only anticipate it but neutralize it before it happens. The way she operates is to strive to be the smartest person in the room but consider herself the second smartest; it keeps her from growing lax or allowing ego to take over. She completely trusts so few people (Jazari, Alijah, Lumi, Pre, Bo, Ursa, Alrich) that one would assume she’s lonely. It also seems like it would be the antithesis of someone who values community. She’ll trust them with her and her children’s lives but not her secrets.

5. How do they talk?

Her natural voice is a lower, honeyed tone; something warm and comforting. People tend to enjoy listening to her speak because she’s just got one of those voices. Anyone unaccustomed to a Manda’o accent likely thinks she sounds scary or mean. Her word choice changes by need but she tends to lean toward a lighter intellectual. Expect a lot of swearing at times because she’s a seasoned warrior, starfighter pilot, and Rallymaster (no matter how hard she protests the title).

There’s also her Advisor/Leader Voice that comes out when she wants people to get their shit together. It’s one that’s dripping with the tone that tells someone to do what she asked the first time. Or, that she sounds like she knows exactly what she’s doing so they should fully trust that she does.

Otherwise she becomes whoever she needs to be in the moment. A lighter, higher tone to add to a sort of doll-look to be disarming. Highly formal to keep appeal to egos well stroked. Husky and low to lean into the seduction to get someone alone. The possibilities are endless because she’s whoever she needs to be.

+1 Do they have any medical conditions that would have an impact on any of the answers above?

Well, she’s got so many different traumas leading to PTSD her therapist would need a therapist to sort it out. Independent of that is a whole anxiety disorder that should make her look like a malfunctioning vibroblade in the Force. It’s a wonder Mace Windu doesn’t name Shatterpoint Induced Migraines after her. A degree of compartmentalization that should scare people because she’s very, very good at “Helmet on, heart off” and “It’s just pain”. One of her Force “Gifts” is a sort of Past Vision that’s made up her dreams more or less since birth; she does have some control and focus on them now. Somehow she is both functioning and thriving.

#star wars #star wars ocs #solus vetra #jai vetra #harti wren #this was both long and fun #my writing

6 notes · View notes

mamawasatesttube · 3 months

Text

you guys i have so many thoughts about tdr. i have so much to say. like i don't want to be super mean but dude that comic fucking sucks and i can't lie i think it made me kind of homophobic actually

#my stance up to now has been that i don't really care about tim/ber but now that i have read this. dude...#it sucks that they gave a canon queer tim narrative to someone who uses homophobia as shock value and virtue signaling points #and who actively tears down characters who don't like her special little uwu flawless oc (kate im so fucking sorry)#there's no substance to this relationship i don't see why they even like each other #bc she keeps just stating oh they're perfect they make each other so happy but she doesn't like. show that at all #and i HATE the shock value homophobia like i cannot overstate how much i hate it #oh these random cops are homophobic (that's how you know they're BAD!)#oh bernard's parents are homophobic (that's how you know THEY'RE bad too!)#it's so hamfisted and it reads like such. cheap storytelling #especially bc tim as narrator doesn't even get to have ANY thoughts on his own queerness or seeing this homophobia in the world around him #and then she can't go more than two pages without being like BTW BERNARD IS THE BEST EVER AND TIM CAN'T STOP THINKING ABOUT HIM #while against this ugly backdrop of shock value homophobia #there's no substance to this relationship. why do they even like each other. it just falls apart if you examine it at all #because she just is fundamentally incapable of writing either of them as people with character flaws #for fucks sake she can't even be consistent with tim's BASIC character tenets. ''i always dreamed of being batman'' false lmao #but then to follow it up with ''i never wanted to be batman i always wanted to be my dad''#and then on TOP OF THAT to make the Only mention of Jack drake and his impact on tim's life ABOUT BERNARD AGAIN.#yeah sorry im a hater now. this was shit tier #rimi talks

19 notes · View notes

utilitycaster · 2 years

Note

I sort of wish Vex, and even Pike to some degree, held more reservations towards helping them like Percy did. They didn’t need to be as vehement, but it really felt like they were just vessels to hand BH the story. I wouldn’t have like that level of just giving the characters what they want from any NPC, but especially former PCs that I feel should have more depth.

Yeah, just made my post about Vex specifically (again, Pike I'll buy because of the fundamental tenets of the Everlight) and I like how Percy was played (and I think Keyleth just completely dipping was pretty funny, ngl) but as I said about 4SD, I truly, truly do not understand how Matt, an experienced DM, did not think that having a character on a specific mission for Keyleth and who lost his husband and father-in-law defending her would not come up as an shortcut solution. I actually am not terribly annoyed at not going into the depth of former PCs because you can watch 115 episodes of Campaign 1, 3 seasons of TLOVM, and 2 sourcebooks if you want that; but it is true that they kind of feel like vessels to achieve a resurrection. Like, on some level, it's like...if you want to revisit Whitestone, run some one shots?

For what it's worth having an astral projection-like excursion is actually a pretty good way to handle it and I'm enjoying that a lot! But I keep coming back to the following, and keep in mind that I am not Asian nor north African, but like, it really fucking sucks that we have a campaign set on Marquet, and that all this effort was put into getting sensitivity consultants to work on Marquet, and then we're doing the Whitestone Nostalgia Tour instead, when it would be so easy for Eshteross (or Manaia or whoever) to have a long-shot contact in Ank'Harel who could achieve the same thing while expanding what we know about the world and without all this weird baggage.

#answered #Anonymous #critical role spoilers #cr discourse

37 notes · View notes

lonesomedotmp3 · 1 year

Text

it's not even that big a deal it was just so obnoxious (also this isn't relevant to anything but I've lost my retainer and I'm seconds away from losing my mind about it. but whatever.) but the thing I was gonna complain about was basically that an old friend of mine (HISTORICALLY a friendship that was never difficult per se but not something I enjoyed experiencing for longer than a few hours because we are both way too similar and fundamentally different people. especially politically. but anyway) told me today that she's gotten into supernatural and that I should watch it and I was like. first of all did I hear that right. second of all respectfully I will not be doing that <3 and she was like why not and I gave all my reasoning this and that and THEN. when she kept pushing. I was like idk I'm just not interested in a show where all the main characters are men. and oh my god you guys you would've thought that I demand those actors be publicly executed. you would've thought I said we should take away men's rights to vote and let women have dictatorial control over every state and every country on earth. it was ludicrous. she couldn't get her head around it. "but their gender is irrelevant!" absolutely not fucking true do not pass go do not collect 500$ on SUPERNATURAL. you're telling me it doesn't matter that it's a show fronted entirely by men written by men with at least initially a male audience in mind. the show that I haven't seen but also know from being on here is supposedly about tenets of masculinity and (and I don't know if I believe u people but it's what I've heard) deconstructing the myths that surround it? that's not relevance? it's not relevant that I've been told all the women we're introduced die? "well everyone except the main characters!" YES. THE ALL MALE MAIN CAST DON'T DIE. it's literally tiring to get stories about men all the time. all the time. and not a single woman in sight in that one. so no I don't want to watch it at least not now. because I'm so tired of watching a story entirely about men. that's not a crime. and she was like yeah but they're not homogenous archetypes due to gender they're all different like the brothers' relationship is the heart of the show and they're so different from each other. and I fully just had to be like yes I understand how characters work. I still don't care. It's not that I think all male characters are the same it's that I'm tired of all stories centring men. in fact I'm tired of men getting varied and complex stories and characters while women are pushed to the side and ignored! so no! I don't care about those men! and then she went "you realise you're making no sense right now" (direct quote she actually said this verbatim to me) which just proves there was no point attempting to get her to understand this at all because she's so stuck in the mindset that equality means never thinking about how gender impacts things at all (this type of thing has happened before. anything more leftist then "women can do whatever men can do!" is too much for her apparently. and she hasn't budged on this in several years) that she'll never consider for a moment that it is not deranged nor evil of a person to want to see more women on their tv. wow I had more to say about that than I thought. but isn't that fucking insane?

#like i guess I've been spending too much time on here apparently it's controversial to say u don't want to watch a show that's all abt men #i also said that the nov 5 episode was homophobic and she was like i actually think it's incredible and generous #and revolutionary of the writers to acknowledge the relationship on the show even if they didn't intend it #and they didn't know how to write it but it's nice they tried! like jesus are you always like this. sorry that's mean #but can you be a fucking hater with me for a second?#she's just so naive about everything gender and sexuality like oh well I'm sure they meant well oh how could that be homophobic #oh im sure that wasn't what they intended but what about this etc etc. and it's like sometimes shit is just sexist. or homophobic #.txt #and fucking post!#found my retainer over the course of typing this btw

5 notes · View notes

thosemintcookies · 2 years

Text

I think the worst crime of the current DD run is that it reads really liberal. It sets up interesting stuff about prison abolition and the spectre of personal guilt in matters of justice and even race issues and whatever but it doesn't follow through with a real statement on it, not to mention i really don't think a white man should be like. THE face of these conversations? We already have Luke having all these conversations. I think the fact he just sort of chose to go to prison is a certified white girl boss moment it's literally the set up to orange is the new black where the lady realizes she's the least interesting person there. It sets up fun stuff about the community, how to spend money in ways that are actually helpful to community interests etc. Idk we could have had Elektra learning to take an interest in the city beyond her ties to Matt, who she hasn't dated in 20 years. You have the best annual ever (Mike!) But then you barely utilize him and just make it petty family squabbles until he legitimately dies. I'm being a stinker hates but I have siblings and as much as I hate them we've endured the same traumas and also I love and support them. I wanted to see them connect.

Idk matts character is previously established to be one of narcissistic self interest and extreme guilt but I think also that he's naturally violent and vengeful. He's extremely self-justifying and he thinks his sadness absolves him of his selfishness. But in this run his intentions are more or less justifiable in a vague "moral goodness" kind of way and not "this is what I want" kind of way. I know a lot of people are coming from the Netflix show where they sanitized his intentions but the most annoying parts of him were his white saviour complex even then.

Also I don't get the impression there's any input from real religious people in this run all the dialogue about religious morality read black and white when in religious communities I've been in (other than cultish fundamental groups, whose faith I found rather shallow to be fucking honest) It's been about growth and development and complexity. A core tenet of Christianity is the fundamental worthiness of everyone. It's love at the core of the universe. It's personal guilt over one's own sins but these arise from goodwill and love of those you've wronged. What kind of freak only feels guilty about murder because God told then it's wrong. I don't know. There aren't easy answers in atheism or religion. Philosophy hasn't been solved.

Like in studying criminology the hottest take and the biggest takeaway is that community connections and love drive people away from violence and addiction. We could have been having the story where Matt realizes that the connections he has redeems him, that guilt is an emotion of inactivity, that using the prison system as his way of absolving his guilt rather than restorative action with the people hes wronged is silly and useless.

Maybe it's because I think white people telling me about their guilt is annoying. Maybe it's because people have talked down to poc for their "backwards" beliefs and a lot of the talking points feel similar. Everyone is an annoying liberal and no one knows how to embrace each other.

2 notes · View notes

vanquishedvaliant · 2 years

Note

If the gayness can be denied it can just as easily be called queerbaiting. Text (and subtext) is less impactful and meaningful than action, even in the right direction. I think if gay people say it's not good enough isn't that an indication that it isn't good enough or enough for them to feel represented?

No.

There’s been a concept in social media activism that the primary perceived value of queer content in media is how loudly it demonstrates inclusion of a particular identity, and a lot of popular media gets judged solely on this aspect, like it’s checking off a tickbox for binary approval.

A kiss has been chosen by many of these circles to be the most concrete binary proof you can have for a character’s queer sexuality, but putting aside the fact that many identities don’t benefit from that at all; (theoretically a bi person would have to kiss 2 different genders to ‘prove’ themselves this way, why would a trans person kissing anyone prove anything, asexual or aromantic obviously inapplicable, etc) w

It’s simply incorrect that text is less impactful than “action”, given that media is Text. The Text is what comprises its “action” and what it’s statement of intent is. A kiss is not action, a kiss is Text. A gay character that does kiss or meets whatever satisfaction the audience deems for “representation” is still a creation of Text as much as a gay character that never kisses anyone. There’s no separation there. This wholesale disregard of theme and meaning of text and subtext in fiction and instead only approving media-friendly headline screenshots is one of the greatest tragedies of modern popular culture.

Treating the ‘undeniable’ existence of a queer character as “action” and “representation’ and not examining the actual context of their inclusion and what the story says about their identity, their lives, and their experiences is how you get Disney’s First Gay Character popping up in the news twice a year- it’s become more important for the headlines to State that you have one than for them to actually be important or meaningfully written, or for the story to have anything to say about the character or their lives. At this point of popular social media understanding, Queerbaiting simply does not mean what people have begun to use it to describe. Queerbaiting was intended to refers to deliberate marketing attempts to accrue viewership by over-promising the presence or importance of queer content to Bait in queer viewers hoping to be included. The key part of Queerbaiting is the intentional misdirection here, and because of that there is a very important distinction between queer subtext that is created to build intentional undertones and that which is included specifically to tease and entice viewers with the promise of more.

Many anime shows that people accuse of queerbaiting are doing exactly the opposite; in the case of Flip Flappers the overwhelming Text of the story is largely and centrally focused on the burgeoning sexuality of a young girl as she grows up and realizes that what her heart desires may conflict with expectations set by herself, her family, and society at large. That remains true through to the end of the story where she makes a breakthrough in her understanding of herself and her place in life and her sexuality is a major part of that.

A kiss is not at all required for this, but because there isn’t one people somehow become convinced that the story is “baiting” them desptie the actual meat of the story itself being fundamentally about being queer. Now, there’s definitely room for subjective differences in appreciation here, especially taking more Yuri works as a whole (particular Slice of Life), in which many of them do place their queer undertones as a less central tenet that aren’t deeply explored. I’m not saying that you as an individual can’t feel that you’re not satisfied without a more substantial story; but it doesn’t mean these stories have Failed in their role of Representation; they still have value and purpose whether they meet that shallow criteria or not. And it doesn’t mean that they aren’t Real and these characters aren’t quite obviously gay to anyone paying even the slightest attention.

What I’m actually hearing most of the time is that people consider the capital r Representation buzzword to tick off a box of “HAS LESBIAN” to be more important to them than actually reading a Story about gay people that has something meaningful to say; Add further to this deeper disqualifying factors restricting death, tragedy, “unhealthy” relationships, etc. And you quickly begin to cut down the number of stories you accept to only those which portray a superficial, consumer-friendly veneer of queerness.

This is in itself a sanitization of Queer identity that doesn’t celebrate or represent anyone; it’s selling an idea of Queerness that is clean, palatable, easily accessed.

That’s simply not enough to satisfy me, and it shouldn’t be for you either.

#vivi original #i have more to say but im tired of writing this

2K notes · View notes