#its about the narrative foils

[moonfireshadow]

Rewatched Saltburn and I'm obsessed with Farleigh and Oliver's tutoring scene. The essay specifically. For those who don't remember: Oliver did his homework and all his assignments and genuinely gave a well thought out essay for their summer assignments. Farleigh shows up hungover and late and didn't even read the books. But the teacher immediately loves Farleigh and is chatting him up with an interest he barely tried to show Oliver. Even after Oliver gives his presentation and shows that he's clearly a much better student than Farleigh. Obviously this is the real start of their rivalry. But it's also such a beautiful look into their characters and how they mirror eachother. Farleigh understands Oliver's essay, I believe. But like the teacher he's bored by it. The knowledge and work is there, but the presentation of it is boring and strange. Academic and correct, but lacking the appeal to the audience. (Which, can we talk about the fact Farleigh was genuinely listening at all? The teacher zoned out and switched channels, but Farleigh was interested and paying enough attention to know the exact number of times Oliver used the word "thus" in his essay. They respect each other truly even if they despise eachother at this point, and refuse to acknowledge the grudging respect.) So Farleigh does what he does best, he gloats over Oliver. He picks apart the style of the essay and it's presentation rather than addressing the central argument or topic. This delights the teacher and frustrates Oliver who is like, "so you're going to critique the style of my essay rather than it's substance? Seems a bit lazy" and that's the core component of these two characters.

Farleigh is ALL about presentation. He knows how fragile his pedistal is placed up and in view for everyone to see. He's a charity project, just like every other rando of the month. Sure he has some familiar connection, and that's given him a leg up in this world. But it's still shakey at best. He always has to give the correct performance, say the right words, keep his audience on HIS side. Unless he wants to get knocked down with the rest of the common rabal that he knows he's belongs with, but can't stand the idea of. So yes, of course he picks apart the one thing he knows Oliver is failing at. He takes his one advantage over Oliver and uses it mercilessly to both entertain and secure his audience on his side. (I wonder if the positions had been different some how, if Farleigh would have had anything to say about the substance of the essay itself. He was paying attention to it, did he want to have a real academic conversation? Did he possibly want to try and connect to Oliver in that way? A real and non performative way with someone who's so similar to him?)

As for Oliver, obviously his character is intelligent. He does the readings. He does the research. He puts the time and effort in to *learn* in the way Farleigh never does. And it must infuriate him that his essay is so easily pushed to the side for a cheep critique that doesn't even address the central argument of his essay. Of course he would hate Farleigh from the start for that. It's such a quick negation of all that Oliver has to offer and give just because it's not wrapped up in a pretty bow. And that's just his character. The substance is there, the intelligence is there. But it's not enough. It will never be enough. Because Oliver doesn't know how to translate it to his audience in a way they'll care about. He learns and tries to mimic, but it always falls short because he just can't seem to figure out the way to blend in and present himself so seamlessly as Farleigh.

And that's why they're such perfect mirrors of each other. They're both intelligent and clever. But they've found different ways of getting what they want and proving themselves. Farleigh is the face and the presentation, Oliver is the substance and body. In another world imagine what these two could have done and been if they hadn't been pitted against each other for the same prize. And the fact Oliver definitely deliberately shoved Farleigh out at the perfect time so he wouldn't get hurt and killed? Oliver and Farleigh respect and admire the other. But their tragedy is they can never be on the same page or team because the world they're in says there is only room for one. And they'd both do anything to get that title.

#saltburn #farleigh start #oliver quick #saltburn spoilers #character analysis #i just really feel gay for these two #its about the narrative foils #im obsessed

[atlasllm]

past is borderlining annoying to me but so far the emotional impact of scrooge's past is in fact hitting with me

#its about the NARRATIVE FOILS #atlas speaks;

[chiquilines]

Yeah im late to the bandwagon but i've been itching to redraw them for some days now,, theyre so small

#this scene means so much to me #its such a shame that bones made them look like ass #fr how hard is it to draw a nose?? #anyways im going through my tgchk arc again #my shipping tendencies rotate in a very predictable pattern😭 #it usually goes miryumi>midjoke>mmjr>tgchk #so expect Things #i have a playlist ready and all #they are sooooooo playlistable #my skrukles #my mentally ill products of their society #my queers #my narrative foils #my mirror characters #my doomed to be together and happy about its #togachako #tgchk #himiko toga #ochako uraraka #mha #bnha #my hero academia #wlw #chiquilines draws

[quatregats]

Something I've been thinking about is how Patrick O'Brian manages so skillfully to write characters whose actions contradict their beliefs, which I think is honestly a big part of why his characters feel so real. Mostly with Stephen and Jack—e.g., and perhaps most notably, Stephen has notably leftist sympathies (honestly I have no idea how to characterize his politics in period terms) who nonetheless becomes very comfortable with his rise to the landed gentry, while Jack is a card-carrying Tory who much of the time sympathizes far more with working class sailors and farmers than with the upper classes—but I'm sure he does it to a lesser degree with some of his minor characters (James Dillon, while perhaps not precisely minor, comes to mind), and I love that he's able to do that, especially the way in which he embeds it in the narrative. We see how they're all unreliable narrators of themselves; we understand how they want to be seen and how that does and doesn't coincide with the reality, but most importantly, this isn't presented as something reprehensible, just as a part of their own humanity. They are not their expectations for themselves, but they don't need to be those expectations to be beloved.

#stephen is especially guilty of this and i think it's very interesting how he thinks of himself versus how he acts #which is probably an essay on its own #but i do think that this is another point he and jack make a fun foil on #(for jack this manifests much less explicitly but i think it's definitely still there) #i can't think of other characters atm besides james dillon #(who okay. his actions don't contradict his beliefs exactly but there is a weird and complex relationship between them) #though i do suspect that there are probably more #idk i've been thinking about this a lot because o'brianizing hornblower has brought to the forefront #how different those two authors treat internal/external narratives #patrick o'brian is kind of like yeah they don't really line up but that's okay that's just what it's like to be a person #while for hornblower and cs forester it's like the internal narrative is so unbelievably unreliable and negative #but the external narrative also seems to be resoundingly positive #(which is probably why. in my humble opinion having watched two episodes of it. the tv show is much more Fun) #writing hornblower in o'brian format is just like wow there is no weirdness going on did i write him wrong #but no it's hornblower he just sounds so much more normal without the 24/7 mental gymnastics #perce rambles #aubreyad

[keyouix]

see nell totally understands sofia and why she did what she did (to be an independent woman in their society is to struggle and suffer endlessly) They were both married and now they're alone! nell had her father and sisters to come back home to but all sofia had was people who would just use and use and use her intellect for their own benefit. and she was fine with it! because she got to be left alone.

sofia's fear of life without that safety her status as the sister of a lord is what drove her the whole season (and a little bit of love for her idiot brother) and nell knows this (maybe not explicitly, but she Knows)

nell has been living in a holding pattern, she believed billy to be the spirit of her dead husband watching over her and in a way he is, because as long as she has billy she can keep on living in that idea that the man that gave her an opportunity to be herself is still with her and she can continue to live the life she wants. but she loses billy because of idiot boy whose name i forgot and sofia!

but! as soon as billy is back with her (which based on the last scene happens) nell is probably gonna care significantly less about her grievances with sofia (not her idiot brother though)

and on sofia's end once she's lived a life on the run and figures out her she is strong enough to live without the safety of her status than her grievances with nell will diminish.

like they are so ripe for enemies to lovers, sofia just needs some character growth first, which she is totally set up to get!

#renegade nell #this makes no sense but its 6am and i haven't slept #narrative foils should kiss about it to sum it up

[howlonomy]

Ms. 15.5%

#yttd #your turn to die #shin tsumiki #sou hiyori #sara chidouin #joe tazuna #keiji shinogi #my art #goes on a tangent about how sou felt like sara was probably just waiting to ambush the group and attack and how he had 0% and she had 15% an #super normal ab them btw. narrative foils #I HOPE THIS PIECE MAKES SOME SORT OF SENSE. im having a really hard time explaining it/myself but like. yeah. #this is shins pov so. hopefully that puts it more in perspective #saras covering ip my favorite detail on the first one but: sara image the stripes are in the shape of 15.5. sou image the tail stripes are 0 #anyways i spend 800 yrs on this and i still feel like its not very good. peace and love

[antoine-triplett]

#marvels runaways #deanoru #nico minoru #karolina dean #graphics #LIGHT AND DARK NARRATIVE FOILS #its about balance in the universe babeyyy #<3

[ahotknife]

t-shirt that says I <3 DEUTERAGONISTS

#lucinda.txt #its actually all about the hero's best friend companion lover narrative foil what have you its all about them #laurent of vere one of the deuteragonists of all time #samwise gamgee also. like you could argue hes not really but he is. because hes right there next to the protagonist the whole time.

[lesbianralzarek]

you know an m/m ship makes good, compelling sense when the tag is filled with lesbians. we're not here because its sexy, we're here because we're right

#im on a mission to make it common knowledge that wyll and astarion have mountains of canon evidence that they are DOWN BAD #its about the narrative parallels and foils. its about how they could fix each other. its about how they could make it worse #its about the traits they bring out in one another. the sides no one else sees #its about how no one was talking about it in early access OR the first couple weeks after full release #its about how theres very nearly 5x as many fics for an adjacent ship that i think is dumb as hell but i prommy i can be civil about #and so i wont say anything more on the subject

[not-a-font]

So I've just recently watched Arcane, and it's an absolute banger of a show. 10/10 would recommend.

A part of why I think it's good it because it's doesn't really have heros and villains in the conventional sense. All the "villainous" characters have clear motivations, and the narrative highlights the ways they justify their own actions in a way that frames them as understandable even if they are undeniably wrong.

That is... With two not-so-notable exceptions.

These two assholes, whose names I completely forgot and had to look up.

These two are some of the few characters framed as completely and totally unsympathetic. This is very intentional because each one is meant to exemplify what exactly is wrong with the place they help lord over.

For Piltover, the story presents it as an elitist society full of decadence that doesn't care for anything except for it's own economic expansion.

Of the main characters that could exemplify this, there's Jayce, who's actually a pretty decent guy who wants to use science to improve lives but gets stuck in the politics of it all. There's also Mel, who at first seems to be the very pinnacle of an ambitious corrupt politician, only for the story to juxtapose her with her war mongering mother and have her start a relationship with Jayce, which rounds her character and also paints her as sympathetic.

So when all your main characters to complex to properly convey to the audience the problems of your society, you have to show it off through the side characters. Hence, we have Hoskel (that I originally misspelled as Holdaak for some reason lol)

Hoskel is in no way sympathetic. He's fat and greedy and stupid. Mel gives him a children's toy and he's still trying to solve it six years later. When there's a crisis, his first concern is his wine shipments. He's everything wrong with Piltover, so when the audience is done being captivated by the compelling characters, they can look at Holdaak and go "ah yes, this is why the poor is repressed and the government is completely corrupt."

Same goes for Zaun. It's hard to use Silco as a way to represent all the problems with Zaun because the audience is too focused on his compelling relationship with Jinx. Yes he's a kingpin controlling the masses with drugs, but the audience can see how he got there, and right now he cares more about Jinx than his own power.

Meanwhile we have Finn, a lesser kingpin complicit in Silco's regime and actively riding off of his coat tails for the sake of his own power. He's dissociated with the plight the average Zaun denizen to the point that he can't even breath the same air as them without choking on the ground.

When the audience is wondering why Zaun is so much worse after Silco took over, they can look at that guy and go, "ah yes, it's because people like this guy are benefitting from the addicted masses."

#arcane #arcane analysis #arcane silco #arcane mel #arcane jayce #zaun #piltover #first time doing the thing where you make an actual analysis instead of ranting incoherently #hope i did well #anyways i just love arcane and it's foils #literally everything and everyone is a foil #goes very well with the two city narrative #also both holdaak and Finn are totally under the thumb of the better character (Mel/Silco) #but for holdaak its willingly but for Finn it's because he can't do anything about #also mel giving holdaak a children's toy amd him keeping onto it for so long is really funny for me #Mel was like: lol he's to dumb for a 3x3 let's just give him a pyra-mix

[crow-ooc]

man fuck romance me and my homies form meaningful relationships that parallel and are opposites of each other in the narrative

#thinking about being aroace #man sometimes i like ships and other times its just #let people be people with their incredibly complicated relationships #that said i love narrative foils and parallels #crow talks

[aimeramie]

I've seen discussions about why Ochako's face is covered on page 7 of chapter 394 when she says that she fell in love with Izuku, and I don't think it's because there should be any doubt about how she feels.

I think she is in love with Izuku, but her eyes are not shown because she is simply not declaring her love to the person she is in love with. She is talking to Toga right now, not Izuku. I think Ochako's full face will be shown when she finally tells Izuku how she feels about him.

( As the panel at the bottom of page 13, chapter 393 suggests she wants to do. )

Ochako is jealous of the smile Toga wears when she declares her love. I think we will see Ochako's smile when she ultimately does the same. When the time comes for Ochako to actually confess her love ( and she most likely will before the manga ends ), it is more satisfying if her whole face—smile and all—is shown to the person she is actually in love with, and that person is Izuku.

edit: I kind of went off in the tags. I am not going to move the tags into the actual post, so if you are interested in more thoughts ↓

#boku no hero academia #midoriya izuku #uraraka ochako #toga himiko #izuocha #i think toga will be happy for ochako when she confesses. if toga lives of course. #it would be silly to have a big moment about ochako's love for izuku here in her fight with toga. #it is important for ochako as a character to reach the conclusion that she shouldn't hold her feelings back because they are part of her. #understanding of self through the other: literally why toga was created for ochako and they were developed to match each other. #basic narrative foil business. #but there is more to this confrontation than ochako loving izuku. #ochako is facing toga because she wants to save her and talking at length about how she loves izuku would never accomplish that goal. #her love for him is a point of connection between her and toga yes. #a starting point really since it leads to a realization that ochako is jealous of toga. #*insert page 14 of chapter 393* #see how that gets a whole page of its own? #see how ochako's whole face is shown? #ochako expressing her jealousy of toga's candid nature when it comes to love is more significant here... #because that feeling is something between her and toga. #it is reciprocated. #jealousy is more significant here because toga is jealous too. of ochako. of other people being able to love and smile while she could not. #she says this on page 10 of chapter 394 and page 13 of chapter 395. #ochako becomes toga's hero by doing more than confirm she is in love with izuku. #she goes to extreme lengths to save toga and everyone around her and that is given greater importance in this moment than a confession. #as it should. #an emotional moment about ochako's love for izuku would happen between her and izuku. #not between her and toga. #basically ochako's full face is shown when her thoughts and feelings are about toga. #when she extends her hand to help her. when she tries to connect with her heart. #i am barely in the bnha fandom at this point 😂 but i do still enjoy thinking about my faves.

[ultramarine-spirit]

I don't think Jennette is Athy's foil. Their interests are somewhat opposed to each other, but Jennette is not dramatically different from Athy, nor does her character serve to highlight Athy's character.

A foil is a character that, from a narrative point of view, contrasts with another character (usually the protagonist), to highlight their qualities. The foil usually exhibits opposite or conflicting traits, and they serve to better reflect the other character's traits and motivations.

Claude, Lucas and in the manhwa Anastasius have ideas and values that are very different from Athy's, especially regarding family. However, Anastasius is clearly Claude's foil, and Claude is more of a deuteragonist than anything. I could kind of see him contrasting with Athy (because of reasons similar to Lucas', those being, how they chose to deal with their grief), but I think his role is to be Anastasius' opposite.

Lucas fits a little more. He has an extremely similar backstory to Athy's (rejected and neglected by his biological family, kept away from the main house, then abandoned by his teacher, he chooses to "go to sleep" instead of facing his depression). Because of his traumatic experiences, Lucas chooses to freeze his heart instead of risking getting hurt again, which is the opposite of what Athy ultimately decides to do: Accept that she loves Claude and considers him her father, get hurt over and over, but nevertheless try to build a healthy relationship with him based on honesty and trust. This is what changes Lucas, (metaphorically and kind of literally) melts his heart, and makes him fall in love with Athy. However, Lucas is never truly put in a position where he is opposed to Athy. On the contrary, he is the character that stays by her side unconditionally, helps her reach her goals and protects her. That's why his role is the love interest.

I have thought about this topic before, and I always concluded that Athy simply does not have a foil. However, while answering this ask, I realized that there's a much better candidate for that position: LP!Jennette is wmmap!Athy's foil.

They both wanted to be loved by their family, but while Athy wins Claude's heart (at first by acting but shhh) by the sincere feelings of love and the relationship they slowly develop over time, Jennette never truly wins Claude over, unbeknown to her. The thing that makes Claude "love" her is the manipulation of her black magic. Moreover, while both LP!Jennette and wmmap!Athy know that their own good situations hurt the other (LP!Athy, wmmap!Jennette), wmmap!Athy goes very far in trying to befriend Jennette and help her, which can't be said for LP!Jennette (to be clear, she was never actively cruel to LP!Athy, but she also never tried to help her). What reflects their contrast the best is that, both know or learn the truth of their parentage, but Athy ends up telling Jennette the truth. LP!Jennette stays quiet and acts as if she is ignorant (which, as she herself admits, further hurts LP!Athy), because she feels Claude owes her the family and good standing she has, as he killed her real father.

I think the fact that wmmap!Jennette explicitly tells Athy that, if she were in Athy's place, she wouldn't have done what Athy did (comfort her, reach out, and talk to her first), is the novel's acknowledgement of how differently LP!Jennette and wmmap!Athy acted. While both had innocent and understandable desires, and you could say both were selfish in their own ways, LP!Jennette always prioritized her interests over anyone's (this is another conversation, but she also knew Ijekiel didn't love her and was unhappy, but she still kept him as her fiancé because that was her desire), which is the opposite of that wmmap!Athy did. More extremely put: wmmap!Athy saves Jennette from being executed or punished in any way because of the black magic storm she caused at her 18th birthday party. LP!Jennette does not do that for LP!Athy when she is framed. LP!Athy is executed, the day of her 18th birthday.

#disclaimer i have to put every time i touch this topic: this is a narrative analysis not an attack on any character or judgement of them #i don't care about any discourse please don't send me character hate im not interested its boring. Anyways- #going into this post i was like 'nah Jennette is not Athy's foil at all' but the more i wrote i realized LP!Jennette is kind of Athy's foil #i'm still kinda 'ehhh not sure' on the idea but i think she is the closest Athy has to a foil #if you are weirded out by me treating wmmap!Jennette and LP!Jennette as different characters... its because they are #wmmap!Jennette is not Athy's foil. While they have many differences she isn't in the narrative position of being Athy's foil #LP!Jennette however is another story. That's why the extra where wmmap!Athy goes to the LP dimension hits so hard #who made me a princess #i suddenly became a princess #suddenly became a princess one day #wmmap #sbapod #sbap #athanasia de alger obelia #athanasia #athy #jennette magrita #jennette margarita #wmmap meta

[fate-defiant]

Honestly what with him being stuck in one unaging, unchanging state with his only remaining connection to his former self being this vague notion that he must fight and protect and sacrifice with no regard for his own well-being - there really is something of The Ghost Knight in Mytho.

#princess tutu #mytho #i mean we know that already. like the dude is literally mytho's pride. he fully lets go of his one shred of existence once its returned to #once its returned to mytho #but we really dont talk about it enough #the episode unfortunately pits fakir against the knight so we get lost in that particular sauce but #they're literally reflections of eachother #or rather they are eachother? #how do i put this #i feel like. a very plausible reading of the episode and mytho;s character #is that his pride is what ties him to his role as a ''prince who loves all'' #cos like. once he breaks his own heart he is a shell. a ghost of his former self and all his accomplishments #hes cannot love all because he cannot love anyone #so the only thing that still makes him Him #is what he did out of that perfect selfless fairytale love: fight and save and sacrifice #he's literally on autopilot #You know. Like a certain Someone. #some-ones. #why did the show never stop to compare and contrast fakir and mytho;s attachment to their roles actually. weren't they concieved as like. #equal and opposites?? narrative foils??? The White Prince and The Black Prince??????? #there was still something to that even after fakir's development went off the rails why miss this opportunity to elaborate on mytho's chara #ran out of letters again #god #my point is what the fuck. what happened. ooooooh im so miffed now im miffed. #fate.txt

[dwreader]

Hi same anon, I appreciate your response and get what you’re saying. I suppose I’m just still quietly confident that the writers aren’t going to do that, like I really don’t think the amnesia thing is gonna be this big reveal or something I think it’s just a device for the story to move along and not have everything revealed at once and to compliment the memory is a monster theme as kind of a foil to Louis’ experience. You’re right though it’s about how they frame it so I’m just gonna choose to trust them for now and we’ll see if I have egg on my face…

I mean to me it's like.. is there any possible way daniel's amenisa bullshit is pertinent to louis/claudia/armand's main arc? i mean the DM theory that involves like years of his life (as hinted by the soundtrack title) and not just the night of the interview being hazy. ABSOLUTELY not. it's a devils minion storyline that at best only marginally involves louis, if at all, and i guess maybe draws some parallels to louis's story bc i guess unless something happens to a white character ppl won't understand?? which again, for a season that's purported to explain what the root of louis's guilt re: claudia is about and also WHY louis would call armand the love of his life, what is that doing there? is daniel going to suddenly remember that armand actually explained his evil plan to him once in the 80s?? again, in the book, louis comes to this realization on his own over time and doesn't need some white guy to explain it to him lol. it simply undercuts the loumand relationship, the claudia mystery, and louis as the driver of the story of s1-2. as for keeping the mystery, well the show only audience doesn't know what happened to claudia yet?? and its not like daniel got to that part of the story in the first interview so there's a lot that he and the audience don't know, which is more than interesting enough to be the narrative thrust of the season. however it just doesn't feel like the show has confidence in that.

#i dont like the daniel as narrative foil thing either tbh #kind of adjacent to the daniel as audience insert thing #but its all about how audiences need a white face to relate to things louis has gone thru

[pizzazz-party]

trying to formulate my opinions on The Spot by holding my sister as a captive audience while i loudly rant around her apartment

#it is a cold fucking day in hell when i let a middleaged white man take credit for a black teenager’s accomplishments and choices. #i don’t care if he’s fictional #i can’t believe some of you are eating what he’s saying. if we’re rejecting miguel o’haras idea of destiny then why are we accepting #this monologue from a dumbass who can’t accept that he’s the way that he is because of his own fucking choices #you CHOSE to work for those labs YOU CHOSE not to evacuate sooner #he couldn’t have predicted what happened next. but don’t pretend you didn’t choose this #anyone can be spiderman but miles had to CHOOSE this #your fake ass had nothing to do with his leap of faith in the first movie… #miles is made of everyone he has ever loved and respected #fuck this destiny nonsense. the spot sees Miles spark and CHOOSES to mold himself into its shadow in a desperate bid #to feel like his miserable life has any meaning #he’s a threat he’s a narrative foil he’s got the insane visuals to mirror miles. but he is NOT destiny incarnate. #the next movie is going to be about Miles rejecting The Spot as much as he rejects O’haras rules #he said it himself he’s sick of other people telling him what his story’s supposed to be about #damn what is it about writing in the tags that makes things more cohesive. #across the spiderverse spoilers #atsv spoilers #spiderverse spoilers #pizzazz meta #edit: for the record i think The Spot is a great villain and i do appreciate what he does for the narrative #but i dont believe him like i believe in miles