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absolutebl · 2 months

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Top 10 Best BLs on iQIYI

Love For Love's Sake

Korea 2024

This isekai KBL is about a man who must win a game by convincing a reserved teen outcast to fall in love with him. Of course, that teen represents himself and his own unhappiness. Like many queer narratives, this show is actually about self worth, trust, and found family, and it is VERY on the nose. But I don’t expect subtlety from my BL and I enjoyed it's truly lovely redemption arc and earnest performances. While I found the narrative a touch disjointed with overworked filming angles and poorer than average captions, this is certainly much better than early KBL in terms of consistency of tone, script, and immersion. Highly rewatchable and charming, which counts for a lot.

Blueming

Korea 2022

It’s a tiny bit dark and a tiny bit bittersweet, almost too honest to a university experience and first love for BL, but if you want your mind ever-so-slightly messed with and your intimacy hellishly sweet, this BL will do it for you in a coldly distant manner, while bitch slapping you with self worth issues. I wasn’t into it at first, but the leads are solid and by ep 5 it got really good, becoming a narrative about self discovery meets understanding and accepting others people’s flaws without hurting them. Ultimately we witnessed two characters maturing because of each other and their mutual affection, without that affection becoming the conflict point. Instead, tension was built around other aspects of identity, popularity, and self-worth. While production values were a touch lower than usual for Korea, Blueming included decent kisses and other forms of intimacy and a satisfying ending plus there’s judicious and very elegant use of tropes, this is a great BL.

Laws of Attraction

Thai 2023

This is a great gay suspense thriller with several solid couples, fun plot, killer characters, queer rep, and a happy ending. Charn may be my favorite lead character in all BL. However, this show is not entirely BL, more on the fringe, like Manner of Death. There are several "singing incidents" and this pair is a little weak in the chemistry arena, but it's tons of fun. All the triggers tho.

Love Tractor

Korea 2023

Most of this country-set BL had me feral for the beautiful broken city boy and his hot young farmer. Hyung romance, puppy/cat pairing, open frankness meets jaded reserve, language play, water hose frolicking, only one bed, just all my favorite tropes. This show was basically a light-weight Restart After Come Back Home and I’m not even slightly mad about that. But (and you knew there was a “but” coming) something about the cringe of the final 2 eps and the impermanence of the ending (both of which highlight the fact that ultimately these 2 are I’ll-suited: too different and too far apart) left me with the feeling that they probably won’t last as a couple. However, in this case, rare for me, I forgive it this finale for my love of the rest.

Unintentional Love Story

Korea 2023

A boy who just lost his job due to faked corruption charges accidentally discovers his ex-boss's favorite artist, now a recluse. Evil manager offers him his job back if he can convince the artist to rejoin society. Instead, they fall in love. I found the artist a bit stiff and reserved but Gongchan (maknae of B1A4) is a fucking GIFT - he carried this show (which I do not expect from the idol element). He was luminous with extraordinarily expressive eyes, just drown in the emoting abyss. The external conflict, social tension and pressure is complex and beautifully executed, plus Korea gave us legit side dishes (NOT a love triangle, hally-fucking-luya).

Bon Appetit

Korea 2023

Romance between an office worker the man from his past next door who cooks well. It was very sweet and cute tale of food as love in the All the Liquors family of KBL. I’m not wild about it, I did enjoy it, I was happy to have it show up on my dash, but ultimately it will simply become one of the KBL crowd.

My Only 12%

Thai 2022

Y-novel adaptation (author Afterday - Bad Buddy) and strong little BL romance (tailor made for SantaEarth) about holding onto first love and childhood, but it’s buried under waffling family drama and formless side characters so that it took a lot of digging to get to - still I recommend it for the killer softly domestic couple chemistry.

A Breeze of Love

Korea 2023

Tsundere insomniac grump reunited with his sunshine jock ex (human sleeping pill) who now hates him. Basketball is also involved. While the simplicity of a reunion plot makes this more cohesive than most KBLs, it is a tad stiff and slow, never managing to lift itself out of "pretty and pretty enjoyable" - I liked it but I don’t think I’m going to remember much about it.

Between Us

Thai 2023

Featuring the hugely popular side characters from 2019′s Until We Meet Again, WinTeam, adaptation of the y-novel Hemp Rope. It’s a serviceable series about hot swimmers flirting and dealing with family drama in a sweetly earnest manner, but ultimately it squanders the talent in play. I would’ve preferred a cleaner narrative arc, less angst and more plot, fewer couples, and a shorter series. That said, there’s nothing objectively wrong, sub-standard, or off-putting about this show. And it has lots of consent and other good qualities. It’s fine.

Dear Doctor I'm Coming for Your Soul

Thai 2022

This is a romance between a doctor trying to save his patients and a reaper who is both his enemy and (eventual) lover (basically the genius premise of a gay Doom at Your Service). High concept looks good on you, Thailand. It’s lovely to see KarnNat back on screen together and they are still great, and Karn is just as painfully beautiful as ever. I enjoyed this one more than it’s ending deserved, and the best I can say is that it’s not strictly HEA but if you’re okay with Life: Love on the Line, you’ll be okay with this BL.

(source)

This list updated Spring 2024, not responsible for cool stuff that aired on iQIYI (or was taken off the platform) after that date. Some stuff on iQIYI is also on other platforms and if I loved it, I listed it there not here.

This is part of a series continued here:

#best BLs on iQIYI #iQIYI #recommended bls #top BLs list #korean bl #thai bl #Love For Love's Sake #love supremacy zone #Blueming #Laws of Attraction #Love Tractor #Unintentional Love Story #Bon Appetit #My Only 12%#A Breeze of Love #Between Us #Dear Doctor I'm Coming for Your Soul

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lullabyes22-blog · 4 months

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Im not sure if this was answered already but what do you think was going through silcos head when Finn tried to stage a coup? More specifically the part where Finn got sliced and silco had a small heart attack cause the possibility of him dying in that moment was NOT low.

That's honestly one of my favorite scenes, and showcases so many complex dynamics, on so many levels<3

Like - on the surface, it's obviously a taste of the day-to-day pressures of leadership Silco contends with. He's King of the Hill in a snake-pit: everyone vying for his position, his second-in-command's loyalties suspect, his own seat on the throne forever precarious.

It's a reminder. The Undercity is a dog-eat-dog world - and Silco has made it ten times worse with the strife and suffering his Shimmer empire sows, even as he's created leeway for more economic and social opportunities by changing the Lanes into an enterprise.

And on a deeper level, it symbolizes the cost of power he's coveted since episode one, and the price he must pay to hold on to it, while his own priorities are increasingly veering off in the direction of a little Blue Bundle of Booms. Who, need we add, by the simple fact of her existence, actively makes his day-to-day governance of such a large operation that much more difficult.

And yet she's his Ace in the Hole - his literal Kingmaker - who's stolen a goddamn Hex-gem from Topside to arm his cause, and who is inadvertently the reason Talis decides to request a parley, because the Council are coming to grips with the chilling possibility that the Undercity may declare war, and that there could be mass casualties on both sides.

Then the whole scene is just a flawless summation of the mounting chaos that is engulfing Silco, and how it reflects in his personal relationships. Because he is being left behind by the breakneck pace of change that Jinx now symbolizes, and because he did screw up, and let his allies down, and because he is growing older, and less adept at the game, because fatherhood is slowly unfitting him for the 'survival of the fittest' mold he'd once been so gung-ho about.

And of course, playing into the whole scene is the fluid power dynamics between him and Sevika. Ostensibly, she's his right hand, and therefore his subordinate. And yet, in that moment, she's that thin line keeping him safe from a literal coup under his nose. All because, in that moment, he's reduced to his core components: his words, his most potent weapons, and the spiel about loyalty, where he actively appeals to the impetus that drives Sevika as a character:

"Brothers and sisters, back to back, against whatever the world threw at us."

On one level it's a deeply manipulative statement. And on another, he's making sides, and making plain he's on her side. Literally: Look how much we've suffered, look how far we've come, look at this callow whelp threatening to undo it for his own ego.

That bit of dialogue is almost a plea, and puts his cards on her table. It also puts the onus of whatever comes next on Sevika, and gives her the choice: Kill me, and doom our cause or Kill Finn, and we'll stay to fight another day.

And you can tell by his expression that he's not sure what the outcome will be. It's a flip of a coin, and he's inwardly prepared to meet his maker if the gambit fails.

And then, ofc, Sevika shocks us all by choosing to side with Silco.

Not only that: she cuts Finn's throat with the same arm she lost by saving Silco's life in the Cannery.

The narrative symmetry is just... mwah~

My favorite part is the way Silco transitions from "Oh shit I lived?!" to "Hmph. Of course I lived."

Because it gets down to what makes Silco such a compelling character. It's not simply his strategic mind or his cunning. It's his talent to think on his feet, and to adapt to the shifting currents.

He's succeeded in a volatile environment like the Undercity because he's not fixated on The Plan to the detriment of all else. Rather, it's because he finds new avenues to execute The Plan each time there's a change in the larger environs, which remain beyond his control because this is not a character in a position of privilege.

This is a ruthless man at the mercy of progress' black underbelly, as much as any other character in the story.

There's so much more I could say about this scene. But it's truly the moment I came to adore both Silco and Sevika as a terrifying duo, and to understand that there is so much history and so many layers between these characters that the series never gets a chance to explore.

#asks #arcane #arcane league of legends #arcane silco #silco #arcane sevika #arcane finn #arcane meta #silco meta #sevika #finn

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aangspocket · 15 days

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1st thought: NATLA vs ATLA's pacing, plot-line, characterization...

Hello everyone, For my first post, I’d like to start with NATLA & ATLA storytelling format differences which plays a huge part for each counterpart’s story direction. Also, I’m not a native english speaker so apologies in advance for grammatical errors!

I grew up watching the show since I was young and every year I do a re-watch, I’m now working in the entertainment industry and had experiences in script writing for comics. My first impression of the live action show was just okay because I binged it till 4 a.m(never again), after another rewatch I fell in love with the show and came to appreciate it much more. It’s true that the only way to truly enjoy it is to judge the show on its own merit but I also agree it's impossible not to compare with the OG show, being an amazing animated show ever made. The LA show isn’t perfect, but it was very fun and just everything I could ever asked for. I’m so happy I got to watch ATLA again with a fresh mind! I can accept most of the changes they made and even prefer the live action’s version, unfortunately the script and directions for many scenes could be a LOT better. I'm glad that the casts were outstanding and very likeable (in and outside the show), especially for my top 2 favourite characters from the OG show, Aang and Katara.

Gordon Cormier was able to embody such a complex character as Aang, having to act as the main character (in a huge high budget show), a fun-loving demigod with incredible responsibilities, while being the only survivor of a genocide, is not an easy feat especially for a child actor, little dude did his own stunts! He even acted the mocap(motion capture) expressions for his digital double, mind you.. He was 12 years old!

Kiawentiio is an excellent indigenous actress, Katara characterization in NATLA is different from the OG show, instead of starting off as the sassy-strong willed Katara that we were familiar of, NATLA Katara started kinda timid+wooden, sulky, shy but hopeful, and later on as the story progresses, we can see her becoming more brave, and confident, and even more better.. Her bending ability progression is shown gradually alongside her confidence! To put it simply, NATLA Katara is given an arc to grow. And I found myself rooting for her even more (because I know what she will be in upcoming seasons).

Unfortunately, NATLA Aang & Katara didn’t get enough praise & love that they deserved, this is due to the changes on their characterization that felt unfamiliar to majority of audiences which are the OG show watchers.

Let’s talk about the main reason why the main GAang (and a lot of other characters, actually) character development plotline ( in season 1) changed in this adaptation; the changing of narrative format, adapting cartoon show to a live action drama.

Many would argue that NATLA has similar total running time with ATLA(the OG animated show) “then why can’t they do the pacing like the OG show?” I think it’s impossible to compare the two (plotline wise) as both have different episodes format and mediums. NATLA has 8 episodes with 1 hour~45 minutes long running time for each episode, whereas ATLA book 1 has 2 episodes with 20 minutes running time for each episode. In ATLA the audiences are given time to breathe for each episode due to short running time, and even shown Katara’s monologue in the beginning of all episodes for a fresh start, therefore episodic format works well for ATLA. In NATLA the show is 45mins~1 hour long with no breaks and no intro monologue (except for episode 1) so the episode runs full stop. And because it's an 1 hour show, the storyline should have a clear purpose & tension to make the audiences emotionally invest with the story. The episode narrative format follows a Three-arc structure(inciting incident->midpoint->climax followed by aftermath) each episode is always high tension, has a main theme + lesson that ties multiple plotlines all together cohesively and continuity with the next episodes, which is why it's hard to show the GAang taking a lot of detours in every episodes as it doesn't help much with the tone and narrative direction of the story. With these two formats in mind, many things could fall flat if they had adapted ATLA’s plotlines 1:1 to NATLA. The biggest aspect is : characterization. Let’s be real, it's live action show.. we're seeing actual children, actual humans emoting, actual 12 years old getting attacked by fire blasts.. It would feel jarring to see Aang riding Elephant koi minutes after he found out his whole family was brutally killed, It would make sense to see him feeling guilty and not letting Katara (and sokka) to fight alongside him in ep 7 after he accidentally brought them to spirit world and almost got them killed in ep 5(but I’m glad Aang comes to terms with it!), also if sokka’s (blatant) sexism is solved within 1 episode (in kiyoshi island which is only the 2nd episode) it wouldn’t feel as rewarding because it's solved too early (also the sexisms wouldn’t land well in live action..could feel too forced or.. cringe).

When people complained that the characters personalities changed, I think many people mistaken it for the tone of the show. NATLA did very well on capturing the horror of a genocide and 100 years of war, the situation feels more dangerous, fire can actually burn you to crisp and not only knocking you back like the OG show portrayed (I understand it’s a show for kids). If the tone of the story changed, of course the many aspects would change as well. It’s kinda sad because the heart of ATLA is these three kids doing side quests with jokes, goofing around while being the hero in the midst of 100 years of war... which unfortunately for the most parts, those moments are taken out in NATLA(glad it's mentioned in the background!). But again, like what i wrote in previous paragraph, due to running time and episode format, this plotline has to change.

Many people feel dissatisfied about the characterization for the GAang, and felt the Fire Nation squad’s development are better written, while I agree that the show felt more favourable towards the FN characters but this is due to the fact that The Fire Nation squad characterization and development are more or less the same as the OG show, they feel more familiar to us and even Azula & Ozai are more fleshed out in NATLA, Whereas our main 3 characters personalities changed quite a lot, cartoon gags won't work well in live action adaptations, the trio mostly shown doing side quests that felt like main quests (less goofing around) and are given their own arcs that’s slightly different than their OG show counterparts. So naturally as an OG show audience(mind you, many of us have watched the show 20x+ probably) watching NATLA’s GAang would feel a bit jarring, like they don’t look familiar, they felt…wrong. But I disagree. Do note that our main 3 character developments are more subtle than the Fire Nation squad, which is why I think they're easily overlooked by the majority of audiences(hence the endless wrong takes people have online). I’d say, the Fire Nation squad(especially Zuko) development is more ‘telling’ than the main GAang in both ATLA and NATLA, it’s more easy to ‘see’ an antagonist turning into a hero whereas the main GAang roles are the same throughout 3 seasons, their developments happened ‘internally’ (psychologically). I wholeheartedly agree that book 1 episodic format is more favourable towards OG GAang dynamics, therefore I can see why the NATLA writing team changed their character development direction. Tl;dr despite its changes, I love the main 3 character arcs in NATLA as we can see their character development clearly;

Aang actually seems very.. very.. guilty and more responsible for being the Avatar although he lacks confidence due to his grief. I love how his ‘running away’ from his duties is basically him asking past avatars to take over his bodies to fight on his behalf, like he keeps saying ‘I’m the avatar, I have to do this’ but when he actually has to face the reality he just stutters and asks for backup from past avatars and even giving away his body to the ocean spirit. And I really like that he feels very guilty of the death of his family to the point that he cannot defend himself and he just accepts everyone's blame for running away (although it’s not true). I also don't see the problem with Aang not running away but instead taking a short walk(or fly) with Appa.. the weight of guilt is still the same, if anything.. it's more depressing because he didn't intend to run away.. he was just trying to mentally prepare himself to take on the role, also Aang grew up in a loving peaceful and supportive environment.. with a mentor like Gyatso, I don't think Aang would take such a daring decision to run away. There are so many details that I really like about his 'new approach' of characterization throughout the season. I'll elaborate more separately in another post (same goes for Katara and Sokka).

Katara is tenacious and hopeful but she’s carrying a huge guilt of her mother’s death which blocks her bending skill from developing and later on able to overcome it. Honestly, seeing her new character arc feels more rewarding! also her bending ability development feels more natural than the OG show, and it’s very nice to see that she’s also very creative at it! imitating other bender movements, that’s a sign of a master. And although many people dislike the idea of her becoming a master despite not having a proper education, I love the fact that she’s able to achieve it by her own effort, and I think the writers intended to do this so Aang can solely practise water bending with Katara, Katara probably will play a huge part in shaping Aang as the Avatar (I’m internally screaming, I will elaborate more in future posts)

Sokka is no longer ‘sexist’, but his ‘sexism’ translates in different form, just not verbally as the OG show. He's a little cocky(and judgemental) in the beginning because he’s carrying this huge responsibilities (that he wasn’t ready to take) he’s trying to look strong (no time to grief unlike Katara, he has to step up as the big brother) and finally learns that sometimes just being present with someone who needs him, physically (not just fighting like how SWT tribe leaders defines leadership value, at least the way he sees it in past memory scene during ep 5) is also as valuable (I’m happy that his main character development isn’t from him being sexist).

Going forward, from the trio last scene in ep 8, I believe we will see the trio that we know of, joyful but wise Avatar Aang, brave and strong but very caring Katara, supportive-charismatic leader Sokka.

Kataang has always been my favourite pair from the OG series. I'm a sucker for the friends-to-lovers trope, I find this relationship to be very honest and grounding. There's no better lover than your own best friend, your own person. the pacing that the OG series had, helped a lot in building Kataang’s relationship growth(also the whole team), It flows naturally and gradually, the friends-to-lovers trope is explored really well in book 1, which is possible because book 1 episodic format. In NATLA, I am glad to see that Aang didn't fall in love with Katara right after he wakes up, Katara didn't even pull Aang down during avatar state in Southern Air Temple(I’m glad it was Gyatso, makes soo much sense honestly), and many many scenes from the OG show that got removed (Aang showing off his skill and making Katara jealous in Kiyoshi island for instance) nonetheless I was really really happy to see hints here and there and it finally pays off when Katara pull him out from his avatar state in NWT (I will elaborate more in another post) I’m so EXCITED to see slow burn KatAang, I have predictions of what their relationships development could look like in upcoming seasons, i’m hopeful that the writers can elevate their relationship dynamics better than the OG show, and since we’re getting teenager Aang & Katara, I’m very very excited to see more mature approach of their relationship growth.

Closing thoughts, ATLA was amazing but you see.. nothing is perfect in this world, there's always room for improvements, book 1 felt like the creators weren’t sure whether the audiences would like to see more and they were trying to play it safe because they knew how heavy the show would be later on but at the same time it was a NickToons show, fortunately this is NATLA’s advantage over ATLA, since the show runners are aware of the whole storyline, able to raise the rating to PG-13(iirc) + with the episode count and running time, they were able to push back and pull in components from different seasons, for instance they pull in Ozai & Azula (because there might be not enough time to flesh out both of them in later seasons & to enhance the tension because they pull out the comet plotline due to irl actors aging) and push back the trio's characterization by giving them starting arcs to grow as our heroes.

There are so many things that I appreciated about NATLA, it’s so sad to see the a lot of people refusing to accept the changes and rejects the potential. Sure the scripts could be a LOT better, but if you see the nuances and details that they added to strengthen the plot-line you’d be surprised how well thought out the show is.

End of thread, thanks for reading this long ass thread! I’m open to any discussions, suggestions and opinions! See you all in my next post!

P.S i appreciate the follows, reblogs and love! also i cant seem to post a reply, hopefully this issue will be solved soon

#aangspocket yapping #natla positivity #natla appreciation #gordon cormier #aang #avatar aang #kiawentiio #katara #ian ousley #sokka #atla #netflix avatar #avatar netflix #avatar the last airbender #kataang #pro kataang #pro natla

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korovaoverlook · 9 months

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I Sacrificed My Writing To A.I So You Don't Have To

I was thinking about how people often say "Oh, Chat GPT can't write stories, but it can help you edit things!" I am staunchly anti-A.I, and I've never agreed with this position. But I wouldn't have much integrity to stand on if I didn't see for myself how this "editing" worked. So, I sacrificed part of a monologue from one of my fanfictions to Chat GPT to see what it had to say. Here is the initial query I made:

Chat GPT then gave me a list of revisions to make, most of which would be solved if it was a human and had read the preceding 150k words of story. I won't bore you with the list it made. I don't have to, as it incorporated those revisions into the monologue and gave me an edited sample back. Here is what it said I should turn the monologue into:

The revision erases speech patterns. Ben/the General speaks in stilted, short sentences in the original monologue because he is distinctly uncomfortable—only moving into longer, more complex structures when he is either caught up in an idea or struggling to elaborate on an idea. The Chat GPT version wants me to write dialogue like regular narrative prose, something that you'd use to describe a room. It also nullified the concept of theme. "A purity that implied personhood" simply says the quiet(ish) part out loud, literally in dialogue. It erases subtlety and erases how people actually talk in favor of more obvious prose. Then I got a terrible idea. What if I kept running the monologue through the algorithm? Feeding it its own revised versions over and over, like a demented Google Translate until it just became gibberish? So that's what I did. Surprisingly enough, from original writing sample to the end, it only took six turnarounds until it pretty much stopped altering the monologue. This was the final result:

This piece of writing is florid, overly descriptive, unnatural, and unsubtle. It makes the speaking character literally give voice to the themes through his dialogue, erasing all chances at subtext and subtlety. It uses unnecessary descriptors ("Once innocuous," "gleaming," "receded like a fading echo," "someone worth acknowledging,") and can't comprehend implication—because it is an algorithm, not a human that processes thoughts. The resulting writing is bland, stupid, lacks depth, and seemingly uses large words for large word's sake, not because it actually triggers an emotion in the reader or furthers the reader's understanding of the protagonist's mindset.

There you have it. Chat GPT, on top of being an algorithm run by callous, cruel people that steals artist's work and trains on it without compensation or permission, is also a terrible editor. Don't use it to edit, because it will quite literally make your writing worse. It erases authorial intention and replaces it with machine-generated generic slop. It is ridiculous that given the writer's strike right now, studios truly believe they can use A.I to produce a story of marginal quality that someone may pay to see. The belief that A.I can generate art is an insult to the writing profession and artists as a whole—I speak as a visual artist as well. I wouldn't trust Chat GPT to critique a cover letter, much less a novel or poem.

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just-some-guy-joust · 22 days

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What’s Kazooie’s deal. Please tell me about them.

thank you so much for asking he's one of my favoritest guys in the world ok so

oldies who have been here since the lovecore swag showdown and perhaps those who were here for the deep sea fish tournament may remember the oc i put into the lovecore showdown, amedeo. for those of who don't, the basic rundown is amedeo is a gamer who is so obsessed with being a perfect friend and getting people to love him he gets manipulated and turned into a demon and ends up killing one of his friends before hitting his redemption arc.

for those of you who were here last time and paying attention, you may also remember the oc i put in the doomed by the narrative tournament, eden. she is a normalcore girl who ends up discovering her world is a video game and she is simply an npc. and now she's actively falling into a spiral of helplessness as she tries to help the player escape reality while never giving a fuck about her well being or whether or not she can be considered a real person.

both of these ocs are from the same story. other members of the cast include: the guy amedeo killed who now haunts their electronics and gets a sick robot body, a demon from the monster realm who is the first monster to set foot in the human world in a good while and ruins the world by refusing to do his job as player 1, an assassin who is also the lead/drummer of his band and got paid like 3 bucks to go kill the last guy and he was just fine with it, player 2 of the game who is in a death spiral and WILL delete as much of the game as they can if they don't finally escape, a tv head robot monster guy who is part of the aforementioned band and can't be normal about his crush on the assassin so he just starts mind controlling people in an attempt to kill him, amedeo again i cannot stress enough how much of a freak he is i love him. all of these characters end up involved in complicated plotlines revolving around the center of the story, the gamer club that most characters are part of. they turn into demons, get killed by demons, face the complex morality of being a person, face the complex morality of being a bunch of code in a video game, and more.

and then there's kazooie.

kazooie is a 24-27 year old transgender aroace man who runs the gamer club. he is a solid 5'3. his main hobby is gaming. he acts a little bit like a prick but he's always making sure the members of his club are having a great time. he named himself kazooie because he is autistic and his first fixation was on banjo kazooie. he lost his leg around his tweens and he does not feel very strongly about it, it's just a thing that happened to him.

the most exciting thing that ever happens to him in this entire fucked up convoluted story, is the assassin can't find his original target but kazooie was right there so he figured he'd just kill kazooie and call it good, which kazooie then got out of by talking fast enough about music for the assassin to start rambling about his band and want to be friends instead.

that's it.

kazooie's most important trait for the plot is that he runs the gamer club so he is involved with a lot of the plot but also everything just barely misses him by a couple inches and he mainly just has a normal day while his friends are out here experiencing the most bullshit buckwild experiences possible. and i Love Him. he's everything to me. he is so sweet and lovely and full of mischief and he's so silly and he loves his role and tries so hard to make the best of everything. he is just some guy and its what everyone needs so bad. in the middle of all the chaos, kazooie is always there scheduling club meetings so everyone has a moment to breathe and play some games together. he is so fucking normal.

also he's amedeo platonic partner/bestie/roommamte. ok here's some art of him

all above art by me

all above art by hershelchocolateart

#asks #-mx narrative #some guy joust #I. LOVE. HIM. SO. FUCKING. MUCH #this ask took me an hour to answer thats how much i love him

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suffarustuffaru · 1 month

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If you don't mind me asking but when did you first get into re:zero

yeah i dont mind at all :o ig yallre gonna hear my full origin story now haah. its my—my… ok id say tragic backstory but i dont think this is really that tragic LMAO. my humorous backstory? silly backstory?

anyway i got into rezero in summer of 2020!! this was months before s2 started airing and by around this time there was just s1, s1 directors cut may or may not have been out?? i forgor :<, but then s2’s first teaser came out right about now.

it was quarantine…. i was bored one day and wanted smth new to watch… and by then id only really briefly seen rezero—like you know that s1 promo poster with subaru standing there while surrounded by some of the main girls in s1 (beatrice felt emilia rem ram)?? yeah id seen that. in the back of my mind i kinda assumed the show was just another one of those abt a dude surrounded by his harem of girls or smth?? :< but then i learned the Real Premise is the time travel. via death!!!! and ive always loveddd angst and whump so i was like “NO FUCKING WAY I HIT THE JACKPOT” and eagerly looked into rezero some more to see if it was worth watching. and then i saw all the shit reviews on rz that never seemed to agree on if it was good or not…… and then gigguk’s video…… and then i saw mother’s basement on youtube make a defense of rezero s1 and i was like!!! ok fuck it im watching this show. i want the angst i want the complex time travel shit. i think id spoiled myself on a couple of subarus deaths by this point trying to decide if i should commit to rezero and then i started binge watching s1!! esp when i was like ok this is a good time to get into it s2 was announced right??

anyway i got hooked on rezero fr 👍👍 the first s1 emisuba lap pillow had me quaking in my boots ;-;;; and i was already invested from ep1 bc i liked the characters a lot already!!! i am simply BUILT DIFFERENT i loved subaru from day one!!! by the royal selection episodes ofc i was dying of secondhand embarrassment but tbh i grew even more invested in rezero after that!! i was and still am super impressed that the narrative had the balls to have subaru fuck up sooo so so bad there. like seeing that emisuba argument and the julisuba duel for the first time was crazyyy. the conflict was really good and the latter s1 development…. woagh.

and then you know i finish s1 and i immediately get to researching how to read, i read arc 4’s wn and bawl my eyes out from the sheer amount of rollercoaster both the emotions and Long Ass Novel gave me (yes i was bawling my eyes out at parent and child) (yes i was bawling my eyes out at choose me) (yes i was bawling my eyes out for all the suffering loops) (yes i was bawling) (i have no clue how i read all those pages fr like that arc is massive), i speedrun arc 5, i accidentally spoil certain bits for myself (arc 6 stuff), i read most of arc 6 in spurts, tune in every week for s2 (and bawled my eyes out seeing the s2 part 1 op for the first time) etc etc!! one thing lead to another and now i am here…….. three yrs in this fandom… nearly (?) a yr being active on rezero tumblr… HAH

also i made a reddit account back inn…. 2020 or 2021 bc i wanted to be a tinyyy bit active in rezero reddit (this was half a mistake btw. i think i have more balls of steel now but my younger self was sooooo naive. shaking them by the shoulders. this is an anime fandom!!!!!! and this is reddit!!! whatre u expecting???? i am less shy now on the internet thats for sure!!). anyway im still a tiny bit active on rz reddit now after not touching it for like a year. now i use my reddit account for spreading otto propaganda and slander /lh …../hj

but anyway ive never been active in fandoms until rezero and thats bc id usually lurk and a lot of my past hyperfixation medias were :< big fandoms :<<< but then. ok im a fanfic enjoyer and i didnt write much fanfic or publish fic at all before this fandom but then in 2020 after watching s1 i checked rezero’s ao3 page and *sniffles* *sobs* thERE WAS ONLY LIKE 2 PAGES ON THERE MAN….. A WHOLE DESERT…. yes and then one thing lead to another and now there is more fic and also ig id be considered an english fic writer elder maybe…… i started posting in like fall/winter 2020? and maaaan im one of the only ppl from that era whos still posting i think!!! ive seen the entire english fanfic scene pop up!! ive participated in a bunch of community events… sooo wild to think about. i feel old guys!!!

but now i have gotten more and more active in the rz fandom yes :3 its been fun!! rezero is very important media to me and ive met lots of cool people in my time here :) when october 2024 rolls around itll be s3 time (AAAAA HYPE HYPE HYPE) and like four yrs of me being in this fandom?? its wild but my lifes genuinely changed a lot bc of me getting into rezero!! met lots of cool people… made pals… gotten my writing and art out there and improved on it via. large amounts of rezero fanart HAH.. became more unhinged.. etc etc :D even got to meet one of my buddies i met via rezero irl 👍👍 more irl crossover events will happen i swear.

also gigguk in my eyes redeemed himself for his old rezero skit vid by making a glowing review for rezero s2 with his pals. i can forgive him i suppose :<<<

in conclusion: idk if i count as a fandom elder but i sure have a lot of my own fandom lore pfft :<<<

#ask #suffaru post #people including english professors have told me theyre impressed with my writing but truth is ive just been writing a shit ton of anime #fanfic for the last three or so years LMFAO

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burst-of-iridescent · 11 months

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so i just went through your entire anti-lok tag and everything you said in it was SO WELL WRITTEN. i wanted to ask if you might have any analyses or anything (or just good old rants! we love being bryke haters) - about something that i noticed, which is this sort of... ATLA/TLOK dichotomy between how all aang's villains seem to be focused on gaining power/dominating the world or whatever, but the villains in TLOK seem to revolve around very pointed targeting of korra and specifically stripping her of her agency/bodily autonomy, but i don't know how to expand on that point.

(idk just. TLOK has a whole list of scenes that make me VIOLENTLY uncomfortable in a way even the worst of ATLA doesn't? and i thought you might have some input to share about it, if you don't mind me asking)

thank you sm!! i'm glad you enjoy my lok and bryke salt <33

i know what you mean, because it's something that struck me when i was watching lok as well. korra's villains are far more personal to her (particularly in what they do to her, or want from her) than azula or ozai or even zhao ever were to aang, and while that isn't necessarily a bad thing (in fact it can often be good to have a personal relationship between your hero and villain; just look at how much more impactful and meaningful zuko and azula's arc was compared to aang and ozai's), there is a way to do it right and that was... not what bryke did.

we didn't need to see korra brutally bloodbent and stripped of her bending, or brutally attacked by unalaq, or brutally tortured by the red lotus or - you got it - brutally beaten up by kuvira (over and over again, might i add). i'm not saying that violence never has its place in storytelling, but it needs to have an actual purpose that's not just shock value. atla, for instance, knew when and how to utilise violence: the sight of gyatso's skeleton in the southern air temple, aang's murder by azula, even katara bloodbending... the violence in all of those scenes was necessary either to communicate vital information to the audience, or drive home the emotive and narrative significance of the moment, or both.

in lok though, bryke hardly, if ever, achieved either of these objectives - especially because it was mainly only ever korra who got the brunt of the violence. no other character is repeatedly targeted and assaulted and violated even half as much as korra is, even when they're facing the same antagonists. tenzin's fight against the red lotus in book 3 gets a tasteful pan to black (one of the few times i think bryke did use violence purposefully; knowing what not to show is just as important as knowing what to show, and leaving the audience with the dread of tenzin's fate was actually sadder and more terrifying than letting us see what happened to him) but korra's agonizing torture at the hands of the red lotus is so long and drawn-out that it begins to veer into torture porn.

imo, this can probably be attributed to two things: 1) bry.ke thinking trauma = character development because they don't know how else to write a good character arc (and they still somehow fucked it up - i will never forgive them for making korra thank zaheer, of all people, for helping her overcome her trauma, like what the absolute fuck bry.ke), and 2) they wanted lok to be "more mature" than atla, which shows both that they fundamentally didn't understand atla, or what constitutes good storytelling, and also that someone desperately needs to tell them that simply upping the violence and hamfistedly handling "complex" topics does not maturity make.

(given the way bryke has written women, i also have to side-eye the fact that the strong-willed, independent, brown female protagonist is beaten and battered and torn down far more than the peaceful, affable light-skinned male protagonist ever is, even during an actual war.)

and of course, contrary to what our dear bryke probably expected, simply brutalizing korra season after season in the name of shock value and development did not, to anyone else's surprise, make lok the better show in the end.

#anti lok #anti bryke #apologies for how long it took me to get to this ask! thank you for being so patient <3 #as an aside i see your tags and comments on my posts a lot and i always love reading them #please feel free to let me know more of your thoughts anytime! <3

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findafight · 11 months

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It was also so ooc for Robin to want to be friends so badly with Nancy in s4. Plus her encouraging Stancy to get back together? Whoever this person was, it was not my Robin. Like s3 Robin would be wtf are you doing girl. Because let's be real she hated Steve for years because her crush only had eyes for him. How would she not have a grudge for the girl who hurt her person, her bff??? It doesn't matter if Steve never bitched about Nancy or that he would only say positive stuff about her, Robin still sees that her bff is hurting. And with the cheating rumors going around, Robin is smart and can connect the dots.

R/nance doesn't even make much sense as a friendship. I absolutely loved your take on one sided R/nance when Nancy was questioning why Robin didn't really want to hang out with her or preferred the group. And then when Robin told her it's because of Steve and how Nancy never really reflected her wrong doings because it's been so long, that was so good. Because again realistically Robin wouldn't want to hang out with people if it hurts her bestie. Like you said they share everything, Robin would have to limit herself, she couldn't talk as openly about her relationship with Nancy to Steve because it's awkward and over time I think she would conclude that's simply not worth it. Her relationship with Steve is more important to her.

In s4 Nancy should have been the one to make it up to Robin, not Robin begging for Nancy's attention. It would allow Nancy to finally get some character growth and her reflecting on past behavior would also introduce Stancy in a more natural way other than "oh hey Steve, Jonathan is not here, btw you are hot". She basically gets everything handed to her without any work (when it comes to her personal life, I'm not saying she doesn't work hard when it comes to other stuff). Like Robin immediately wants to be besties and Steve still worships the ground she works on, there are never consequences for her hurtful actions and thus no growth as an individual. Like Nancy as a character is still the same as she was in s2, she never reflects on her behavior because the narrative lets her off the hook so she doesn't really have to apologize for anything . It would have been so interesting if Robin was cold to her in the beginning as she was with Steve, maybe even a bit colder.

I think that just because Robin is not good at reading people in the moment, she still is able to make those connections later. Plus, after the first few weeks after Starcourt growing pains between stobin, Steve is probably the one person she knows she can read with accuracy (both because she now knows him, and because he allows himself to be vulnerable in front of her). So what with Steve's guilt/martyr complex and all the rumours that must have followed at school the week after halloween, regardless of Steve brushing them off and probably actively denying that Nancy cheated (literally he doesn't know she did. no one who knows would tell him, and he blames himself openly for the end of their relationship), she'd probably piece together that Nancy did a number on his heart. So I would have liked to see Robin giving Nancy more of a side-eye in S4, especially if her and Steve were getting a bit flirty. Tbh I know I've mentioned it before, but the only reasonable explanation for Steve making not just eyes but flirting with Nancy, is that somewhere along the line, Steve and Robin got it in their heads that Jon and Nancy had broken up (hence Nancy not going to cali with mike). Because we know so little about Steve's parents, but we do know his dad cheats and Steve knows about it and is extremely sensitive to infidelity. I could maybe see him tell Nancy he still had feelings for her before fighting vecna, to get it off his chest before potentially dying, even if he knew she was still with Jon, but not the other stuff. Literally would not make sense for one of the most defining and pivotal traits he's had since s1, or for robin to encourage it.

ooo. yeah I agree. I guess the one-sided rnce post really was attempting to explore a situation that makes Nancy realize that her actions have impacts on people she potentially cares about that cannot be unaddressed. There's a through-line in the show of Nancy's actions, regardless of what they are, as being completely justified and right. So when her and Jon fight in s3, she never has to actually address her part and classism in it. (they were both wrong!! Both of them should have apologized!) In s2, when Steve does reasonable not-wanting-to-get-disappeared things, the narrative treats him like he's a bad boyfriend for being unsupportive. When Nancy cheats on him, TPTB retcon it by saying they broke up at the party or in the alley, removing any guilt for Nancy's actions. For her interpersonal relationships, we don't see Nancy putting much work or effort into them. Hell, we see steve apologize immediately for threatening Dustin's teeth when he was getting frustrated and said he went too far. And Lucas apologizes to Will in s3 too. So the show can show us friends putting in effort to not leave each other hurt. It would be neat to see Nancy actively trying in her relationships. Apologizing or opening up a conversation or something. idk.

I think there was some potential for an interesting friendship between Robin and Nancy. But yes Robin deserved to be a bit wary of Nancy! I can see Robin trying to be her friend a little bit after starcourt, attempting to put Barb leaving her for Nancy behind her, but Nancy not really being open to it so it sort of soured Robin to her. And then in s4 when the Upside Down is back Nancy trying to be Robin's friend and robin, having been burned by Nancy before, is now suspicious of why she suddenly wants to be friends now. That would have been such a fun dynamic to have! Like Nancy being kind of jealous of steve and robin's friendship both for her wanting to have a friends, and possibly, if they were still going with it for whatever reason, for her romantic interest in steve. And Robin being protective of both her own and Steve's hearts from Nancy! neat!

Post s4... yeah. I don't see Nancy actively wanting to be friends with the other people who fight the Upside Down. like, sure maybe she'll exchange numbers and split a bottle of wine with the older teens, but she wouldn't be cuddly call-after-nightmare friends with them. Not just because of personalities, but because I think she'd want to put everything to do with Hawkins behind her and look to her future.

We see her only stay in contact with the person she is dating, and not really anyone else. Like. in s3 we see Steve have connections with the Party and after that with Robin, but only see Nancy with her boyfriend. I think it's really important for Nancy to have an arc that isn't about romance, or about her guilt about Barb. or at least, not her unresolved and continuing guilt about barb. It could be about her moving forward and having close friendships again despite that guilt. But at this point, I don't think could happen, as it would require more groundwork than the show can afford to give to it this late in the series. I just want her to end the series single, ready for uni and moving on from what happened. I want her to be free of Hawkins, in a way she cannot be if she's dating anyone involved with the Upside Down, especially when any of her three popular ships are all hung up on the town or the people in it in a way she doesn't seem to be.

#robin buckley #nancy wheeler #stranger things #stranger things meta #anti ronance #findaanswers #anonasaurus #finda's rambles

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armoricaroyalty · 4 months

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5 royal simblrs I love

There are, of course, WAY more than 5 amazing royal simblrs out there, but I wanted to take a moment to shout out just a few people in my community!

@nexility-sims: the most unique royal simblr on the block

N. is, of course, a very dear friend of mine and I MAY be accused of bios in the matter, but her story is simply the best one out there. In a community prone to retreading the same material over and over again, she is doing something wholly different and wholly original by choosing to focus on a non-western, non-European culture. She's an incredibly engaging writer and the only person whose world-building posts I come back to and read again and again. She puts an incredible level of care into everything she does, and I am so PROUD to be her friend and coexist in the same creative spaces with her.

@funkyllama: colorful, creative sims

One thing I love about Gracie's story is the way that she steps outside of the narrow Royal Simblr box. Her characters (my beloved Elle especially!) have unique, quirky styles and dress in fabulous colors and patterns that you just don't see much of on Simblr. She's coming to the end of one story and beginning to gear up for the sequel, so now is a good time to jump in and start reading.

@wessexroyalfamily: complex family drama, just getting into gear

This is a relatively new story, but it already has a fully formed setting with lots of complex family drama. This story is full of great little world-building details and narrative flourishes, and shit is really starting to pop off. Now is your chance to get in on the ground floor and start reading a wonderful story before it gets huge, so you can say you were there way back when.

@housekonig: thoughtful, fascinating royal intrigue

I know firsthand just how much effort and thought Jamal puts into every single one of his posts. His builds are amazing and all of his posts are so polished and full of great details. He's got more passion for worldbuilding in his little finger than I do in my entire body and his posts definitely reflect that effort and attention to detail!

@the-lancasters: the most royal royal story out there

Jennifer's story has been one of my favorites for a long time, simply because she includes so many little details about the working lives of senior royals that a lot of stories (mine included!) gloss over. She has a deep knowledge of how royal families actually function and works that knowledge into her story. My favorite arc in her story (other than her current one, which happens to feature one of my characters in a starring role!) is definitely Marcus and Sarah's romance, which turns the royal setting on its head and focuses almost entirely on the private secretaries instead of the royals themselves.

#simblr gratitude day

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belle-keys · 1 year

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The People versus Grace Blackthorn (Meta)

So this is Part 3 of my little breakdown of the characters in The Last Hours, and here we have one of my favorite characters. I invite you to listen to Meg Myers as you read. Here we have Grace Blackthorn, who I would argue is one of Cassie's most complex and sympathetic female characters and antagonists across all series.

Preface: I will reference sexual abuse and grooming a few times in this (not in detail though), so just keep that in mind. Also please note that I absolutely recognize from the get-go what Grace did to James, Charles, Matthew, and others was indeed sexual assault (or at the very least, is akin to it) and that the bracelet was the magical equivalent of a roofie. I'm not particularly interested in breaking down Grace's actions or their obvious, undebatable moral depravity as much as I'm interested in her intentions, her childhood, her emotions, her complexity, and her character's treatment in the story. And moreover, I wanted to write this just because people in this fandom generally have no appreciation for nuance in a woman when men are somehow always forgiven, even for making indefensible choices.

This is not so much a defense of Grace Blackthorn as it is a deep dive into the awful treatment of her character by other characters in the context of the story and also by the narrative. A heads-up: While this isn't really about my personal feelings, I didn't particularly like what the story did with and did to Grace Blackthorn. If you absolutely hate Grace or characters that are like Grace, characters who have done unspeakably awful things and yet remain not merely the sum of their acts, then just skip this, because I have more favorable things to say about her character than about the way the story handled said character in Chain of Thorns.

Grace's Bitter Ending

It's quite strange how Cassie chose to wrap up Grace's arc in Chain of Thorns, because there was definitely a shift in the treatment of her character. Grace's character arc felt incomplete at best, which is really the only way I can think to describe her character's journey in ChoT despite the story having humanized her for the entirety of Chain of Iron. Grace Blackthorn wasn't villainized by the narrative, let's get that straight, Grace did actions to villainize herself, but the other characters in Chain of Thorns have even less of a nuanced perspective on Grace Blackthorn's background and story than the readers do, which is saying a lot.

Grace's arc ends on an acrid note: She has no friends, her relationship with Jesse has been permanently tainted, the one person in the main ensemble who was willing to defend her is quite dead, and she has retreated to the fringes of society. No, I'm not implying that she needs to be forgiven by James or any character for what she did - that's not even something I'm factoring into this discussion, and her forgiveability and forgiveness by the good guys is neither here nor there. But the path was paved for Grace to have a redemption arc, and you could also argue that she did what she needed to do to have said redemption in the context of the narrative, even if she didn't get redeemed in the eyes of the characters. But she got neither, which makes for a hollow conclusion to a stunning morally grey character. I was not expecting sympathy from the other characters towards Grace inasmuch as I was expecting a ChoI-esque sympathy from the narrative, especially considering that we're that she willingly went to the Silent Brothers, confessed to Cordelia about the gracelet, finished developing fire messages, and also helped the gang save London without expecting forgiveness in return for her actions. If we were to separate our personal morals from the equation, we would see that Grace's lack of a solid conclusion in ChoT, despite the story's obvious success in humanizing her and explaining her actions prior, makes an unflattering point: that redemption is simply unavailable to some, despite all the precedence in the world.

Chain of Thorns failed to reconcile the sympathetic, humanizing elements of Grace that we were given in Chain of Iron with the overall plot, the characters' perceptions of her, and with the narrative. It's incongruous, and it’s incredibly black-and-white storytelling that has only pushed for the demonization of Grace's character.

Burning the Witch

Most of the fandom's hatred for Grace started in Chain of Gold, and I have a hard time believing it's just because Grace was immediately characterized as this apathetic, gothic ice princess. The reality is that most readers already hated Grace before they even realized she was involved in shady demon bracelet shenanigans. And it's because she was getting in the way of their ship, that is, Jordelia, which, in some sick and ironic twist of fate, is part of the reason half the fandom also hates Matthew. Yes, I ship Herondaisy as much as any of you, but that's beyond the point. What I'm saying is that it seems so many people hate Grace and have been calling for her death or for her Marks to be stripped because their vitriol comes from a place of... shipping wars, and not offended morals. But it also comes from a place of internalized misogyny (which is very easy to apply to Grace, as she's not just a female antagonist, but also a very soft and feminine female character). After all, Grace's own femininity and Tatiana's own internalized misogyny were the factors that facilitated Grace's seemingly inherent capacity as a villainess in the trilogy. Let me say that again: Grace was forced to be the villain by virtue of her womanhood. Such a progressive trope! Some of Grace’s hate also comes from the fact that Grace (and Alastair) are perhaps the most relatable characters of the The Last Hours gang. The global readership is in no way as wealthy or as privileged as James or Lucie or Cordelia. The readership of The Last Hours, however, can keenly relate to Grace's isolation and loneliness because we all spent almost two fricking years trapped in our dorms and houses because of quarantine and social distancing. And frankly, on a purely statistical basis, most people's parents are likely to display qualities more akin to Tatiana’s than Tessa’s. I cannot think of a fourteen-year-old in the world who would not listen to the orders of the one person on whom they're entirely dependent, especially when it's an abusive caregiver who's involved lest they face death, abuse, or exile. Grace is a lonely, isolated girl who's been repeatedly sexualized in the story, who has no friends, and who struggles with her own actions and feelings, and that is incredibly relatable to a 21st-century adolescent female audience which definitely can explain, in part, the pitchforks. It's not an easy experience to see a piece of yourself in the villain.

The Venn Diagram of Victims and Perpetrators

Let’s bring some facts into the discussion, and a lot of what I have to say here are things that this post by @thousand-winters and the anon in the post reminded me about (so thank you). Grace was repeatedly hit by Tatiana and she was forcibly pimped out in Paris by Tatiana to seduce grown men when she was twelve. She was dependent on Tatiana and the threat that she would be cast out into the world or hurt if she did not obey. She was brainwashed by Tatiana to think the Herondales and Lightwoods were her enemy, was forced to put the bracelet on James when she was fourteen, and likewise, it was made quite clear that Grace took no pleasure in serving Tatiana. Grace was also prohibited from being a Shadowhunter, or at least, from training as one. She was interrogated by the Silent Brothers repeatedly (even in jail she wasn’t safe), and was prohibited from having any friends or companions, save her dead brother (who she was also commanded to seduce). It is correct that Grace was a perpetrator by the very definition of the word, but why is it always that this negates readers’ recognition that she was also a victim of her own circumstances, a victim of unspeakable trauma herself? And despite all of that, she was not even given the honor or closure of finally killing Tatiana.

And what’s worse is that the other characters who experienced trauma in their own stories, like James and Cordelia, got extremely favorable endings and closure to their individual traumas, as it was recognized that they indeed faced trauma. Grace’s own childhood trauma, none of which she was responsible for, was never addressed by other characters nor by the narrative as something from which she rightfully deserved healing. Despite the intense suffering she has undergone and the hand she’s dealt in life, it seems that what she has faced as punishment is still not enough the appease the readership’s bloodlust. The clash between her nature and her nurture was not even weakly echoed in the story’s conclusion. It was never recognized by the characters or by the narrative that Grace could indeed be the biggest perpetrator as much as the biggest victim of abuse, of grooming, of isolation, or of helplessness. Chain of Thorns, most of the main ensemble, and even the fandom have refused to acknowledge that multiple things can be true at once, thereby stripping Grace, à la lack of media literacy, of her complexity of feeling and of the harsh multiplicity of her character. Chain of Thorns, by virtue of Grace’s bitter ending (see first subsection), has ordered for Grace the sentence of Hell when a contemplation of Limbo is far more appropriate. How is it that we can sympathize with Sebastian Morgenstern by virtue of five poetic last words and yet refuse to acknowledge the complexity of Grace’s character after three whole books of backstory and explanation? Grace cannot and will not be absolved by the fandom, because the parts of her that warrant any absolution have been erased and neglected.

Kit Lightwood, Attorney at Law

As you can tell, I've been having some fun with my titles and subtitles. Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, Christopher was supposed to be that voice in the narrative that saw the nuance and acknowledged the shades of grey that comprise Grace Blackthorn (quite literally - her literal color palette is grey and silver, which is neat; it speaks to flecks of dust and the glint of blades). He was the only person in Chapter 24 who spoke in favor of Grace, in that he did not excuse her actions but pleaded for a degree sympathy towards her. This was perhaps my favorite thing that Christopher Lightwood has ever done, but then he immediately died. Grace Blackthorn was left to the jury without counsel after that. That scene was difficult for me to read, and not because anything James and the gang said was untrue (nothing they said was untrue about her). But rather it seemed like that entire conversation was designed, in tone and metatextual treatment if not in content, to remind us who were the good guys, the heroes, the victims. And yet again, the scene failed to acknowledge in any way, save Christopher, that Grace's own actions of perpetration were directly a result of her own victimhood. I don't believe she's owed forgiveness or sympathy, and I don't think there's any ethical argument you can make to say that she should be forgiven either (that doesn't factor in at all). But again, there was a failure to acknowledge that she was also a groomed child and that she was Tatiana's ward and pawn, someone simultaneously volitional yet powerful. I was especially surprised at Jesse's own lack of awareness of the fact that Grace had little to no choice in her actions. There was no recognition of the reality that Grace was severely mistreated and hurt by Tatiana because she was a girl (note that Jesse was loved by Taiana by virtue of him being male and the Blackthorn heir), because she was not Tatiana's blood (something Tatiana reminded her about), and because she was given the power of ensorcellment against her own will because she was a pretty girl. At best, Jesse was incredibly blind to what Grace suffered, and at worse, he was so protected by his male privilege in Tatiana's household that he failed to acknowledge the part that Grace's own evil powers played in bringing him back to life. Moreover, he has clearly been bestowed in Chain of Thorns a personality and unshakeable moral code that was designed to immediately ingratiate him to the Thieves and their own sense of, uh, impenetrable and sanctimonious honor. His own instantaneous condemnation of Grace reveals an obliviousness at best and unbelievable apathy at worst, and Jesse Blackthorn is the last character for whom this response made sense.

Conclusion: Estella can’t come to the phone right now because she’s dead

By way of conclusion, I'd like to say that I thought Grace was a promising retelling of Dickens' Estella at the start. And Cassie has explicitly stated that the idea behind Grace was to explain such a character rather than to make her sympathetic, which, Cassie has somewhat succeeded in. Nonetheless, Grace's character did absolutely nothing new with Estella and nor did it allow for a fair deconstruction of the femme fatale trope. We know little of who Grace Blackthorn is, despite having a very clear picture of her motivations, her background, and her emotions. And it's weird because we do have brilliant, complex, nuanced characters like Alastair and Matthew in The Last Hours. Grace Blackthorn has been stunted by her abuse, her upbringing, by her powers, by the gracelet, but also by her place in the story from a metatextual perspective, facilitating a slow and deliberate fandom crucifixion across all platforms. And all I'm left with is... why?

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emblazons · 1 year

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I'm the last anon. I forgot to point something.

Do you think Henry stating that Brenner wasn't a monster but just an ordinary man seeking for special things in other people can make El realize Mike isn't her savior but just an ordinary boy who admire others for what make them different?

Not trying to say Mike and Brenner are the same, but they do have been paralleling/contrasting each other. Mike is a good person and has good intentions, but his insistence in seeing El as superior is not good for her nor to their relationship.

!!! okay I finally got a chance to answer this—and yes, I absolutely think those two ideas are meant to be connected for her (though I'm not sure she's parsed them out yet). Its one of the first thoughts I had watching part ii as a little-deeper than GA way back in July of 2022, so...its not even my ongoing analysis brain that brought it up (though its definitely expanded since then lol). Let me see if I can explain.

forewarning: this is really long and probably the most brutal anti-mlvn post I've ever written. It is not intended to be cruel to Mike in the slightest, but. In order to talk through the narrative, I must address what is going on in El's mind, and tbh...it's not all that pleasant in anyone's direction but Max's & maybe Hopper's at this point.

The entirety of S4, El is repeatedly presented with people attempting to challenge her oversimplified and depressed sense of self and others, given that, in the time since she's lost Hopper, her first home, her friends and her powers, she's been desperately trying (and failing) to sort through her place in the world.

Please note that the depression part is absolutely critical...because it's how Vecna can so easily influence her thinking, both via what she sees in NINA memories and during his monologue to her in Piggyback scenes.

We see her do it with Mike:

We see her do it with Brenner:

And we see her do with with Henry/Vecna:

—and as she goes along learning from each, we watch her come in contact with more nuanced (potential) self-concepts each time.

With Mike, she gets a fellow 14 year old with no framework for powers trying to navigate El's complex existential crisis he's spent several months unaware of and has no equivalent context for—which is why he pulls on her being a "superhero" so much. Its how he understands her, and what has been most obvious to him over the years; she's saved him, saved Will, and saved Hawkins in just the few years he's known her, and that (in his very nerd-oriented mind) is something worth celebrating and being excited about, even in people who don't have superpowers.

For him, El is not a "tool" necessarily...but the oversimple "superhero" side of her certainly overshadows the rest for him. Its why they struggle so hard in a "normal" romantic relationship—interpersonal closeness and emotional intimacy isn't what their bond is built on, though they do care for and want to protect one another.

With Brenner, she gets a more mature (and yet still power-focused) person who is familiar with her powers and past enough to give more nuanced insight, but who is also 1) abusive, manipulative and selfish and 2) has never looked at El, Henry or the other numbers as human beings, but rather tools to accomplish goals. Even so, Brenner is an adult, and therefore understands that El cannot move forward understanding herself so simply because his own actions require complex jumps and justification to make sense to himself—

—and also because, as anyone who has see themselves change over time knows, we do not keep the same oversimple self-concept of ourselves as we age, make mistakes, and grow. Brenner sees the girl with powers, and knows what she's capable of...just like he (and Owens, honestly) knows that she is not truly evil or monstrous despite having great destructive capability. The "monster" in him though is very human-oriented...which is why El so often finds herself associating Mike's insecurities within Brenner's manipulation.

Disclaimer: that last sounded bad for Mike, but: he is literally 14, and not trying to manipulate or abuse El in any way, shape, or form. Mike Wheeler is really just insecure kid who makes mistakes thrust into an extremely unusual situation, trying to do his best with the knowledge he has. Even so...immature and under-informed people often do things that mirror mature people with legitimately cruel intentions—one is just an adult aware & intentional about the tactic, where the other is a boy who isn't.

With Henry/Vecna though, El finds an true equal, but as a foil—the actual "monster" to her "superhero," though we spend the entire season realizing that even Henry cannot be parsed down to something so remedial or one-note as "monster" either.

Henry is someone who is almost exactly like El, down her powers and being abused/manipulated by Brenner—though she's made different choices, which is the radical difference between the two of them (and one I think will be core for her to learn as we move into S5).

While Henry and El are in fact quite identical in many ways, its the choice El made to say "no" to Henry when he asked her to join her + her resistance of his desire to overpower others (which he himself notes)—on top of her desire to protect others' lives and autonomy in a way he does not that makes her good!different, rather than the bad!different Henry is.

Even so...the similarities of experience and struggle they've had at Brenner's hands make what he says resonate with Eleven—because, as we all know, some of the best villains are the ones whose concept has clear mirroring within the protagonist, only a shade off (think Killmonger and Black Panther).

Its pretty clear then, why this long lead up through Mike, Brenner and Henry presenting her with increasingly complex concepts of self & humanity would make her reflect on Mike (+ their relationship).

From the beginning, Mike' finding El and taking her in first fits him (for better or worse) squarely into the "males whose presence in my life has been formative" corner—which is why we get Mike/Hopper, Hopper/Brenner and Mike/Brenner comparisons/parallels throughout course of the show this paragraph deserves a whole post on its own, but I'm trying to stay on track here lmfao.

Its also why this line in particular (and, finally, to your point) serves as a brutal reminder that El and Mike are incompatible—not because Mike himself is doing anything to harm El, but because Mike, like Brenner for her and Henry, 1) focuses on her powers and 2) has no framework for understanding her feeling different the way she wants (and needs) to be understood.

Given that El has already confronted Papa (and left him to die for what he's done to her) and she believes Hopper is already dead—

the only person left (truly guilty or not) in the line of people who 1) were integral to forming El's understanding the world; 2) tried to tell her how she should use her powers; 3) put up resistance to her autonomy; 4) lied to her and 5) could not understand her in her difference...is Mike Wheeler—

—who she already disappointed with, who is entirely unaware any of this shit is happening within her, and who is also being encouraged by an only slightly less unaware (and in love) Will Byers to "be the heart" and lead the party like he would a campaign.

...these are also the circumstances we get this supposedly "romantic monologue" in...and where we see him reference (and remind El) not only the moment he took her in (aka ended up in one of the inadvertent authority positions she's currently rebelling against), but also the fact that he thinks she's a "superhero," (which she doesn't believe about herself after Henry's monologue).

It's no wonder then, why she seemed uncomfortable af with all he said during the entire monologue...or why she ignored him the rest of the season (except, we learn, to say to Mike that Brenner—someone she can't stand, and who she's now spent a solid chunk of this season internally associating him with—was right).

Basically: the fact that a deeply conflicted and depressed El found kinship with a manipulative Henry (while simultaneously feeling rage at Brenner...and Mike by PTSD association) means that the displeasure she feels at Brenner and everything is gonna come out at another figure who has mirrored the things she is rebelling against—her very unaware boyfriend, Mike.

Hopper isn't there to balance as a "positive" adult male perception for her either...which leaves Mike in the wildly unfair position of being the "last man standing" for the parallel sadness & rage El feels about being different, much like Henry.

That is why Vecna saying that Brenner was an "ordinary, mediocre man" now has an immediate association with Mike in El's mind...one that is just another nail in the coffin of their romance, and that she will have to pull out of her perception if they're going to heal even on a friend level from the disaster this season has created in S5.

—I will say that the presence of Max as contrast through all of these moments is critical, as Max is the one person who has asked her who she is and what she wants, as well as who parallels El signs of internal conundrum about how she sees herself (that El overhears when she enters the void). Max is also the one who reminds El of the autonomy and positive human identity that El so wants for herself.

Hopper coming back and reclaiming the spot as a positive (actual) father figure that El has been projecting onto Mike in his absence is critical as well, considering his presence (and knowledge of Mike) will likely temper the brutality El is directs at Mike in her weakest moments of the season too). But...that is a whole other post, and I've already written (another) novel.

#this got so long but I NEEDED to give the whole framework to be fair to how we got there. at leastin my mind lmao #also...yeah this is a much more thematically dense post than my usual ones just fyi #anti mlvn #el hopper #mike wheeler #martin brenner #henry creel #vecna #my st commentary #my s4 rewatch #because that's what got me to this point haha #stranger things #parentified mike

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mdhwrites · 11 months

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I can’t shake the dissatisfaction I feel about the way Luz’s experience in the boiling isles was handled. I know it’s mostly because it was shameless escapism and her running away from her life in the human realm, but like I found it hard to actually buy that she was completely miserable there.

Like I left the show feeling like she really didn’t have a terrible life and was just living in a fantasy. And that’s…not fun to me. Also, is it just me or does it feel like Camila got the short end of the stick? Either they left out some details about their relationship (which would shine light on Luz’s unhappiness) or she was a great mom and luz was ungrateful and wrong for lying.

Either way, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth about Luz as a main character, and I guess I just really really wanted more out of her character as a woc who’s also neurodivergent. :/ does this make any sense? Or is it just that she wasn’t the character for me?

So I could do multiple posts about this, ranging from how she represents nuerodivergents, her relationship with her mom, how she's represented as someone who doesn't fit in, etc. like that so please feel free to ask those things. However, for this I want to go in hard on the fact that I've been lukewarm to Luz in the past on her archtype as a main character but your last part makes me really want to talk about the role of a main character and how Luz... Fails. Entirely. Like I've said Luz is a fine protagonist but that's only on paper. In execution, for the narrative role of a protagonist... Well, a main character can be divided into having three main roles. Depending on the style of story, the type of protagonist they are, etc. like that there will be different levels of each of these three pillars. They are, in my eyes: Catalyst: How good is the character at making a story happen? A main character after all is going to be around for most of the story so they need to be capable of facilitating the amount of stories that happen with them. A shounen protagonist needs to be both strong enough to go on a grand adventure after all but not so strong as to not be able to have arcs and what not of him gaining new powers.

Guide: This is the main character's ability to show us the world and the stories within it. If the catalyst is the amount they could tell stories by themselves, this is how good they are at being a part of stories around them. This is actually why harem protagonists are such wet rags usually so they're willing to go to the beach, gym, graveyard, sci-fi workshop and class all in the same day so long as a girl is telling them to because they have so little character as to be able to do ANYTHING.

Core: How well do they represent and embody the themes of a piece? How much can people reflect off of them in order to show different facets of the main concept? This one is a lot trickier to pin down because what works for a specific theme is going to shift depending on a writer's goals but for some one you have how Light from Death Note has a god complex because that story theoretically deals with abuse of power and what one would do for it, what they would do once they had it and the lengths they would go to to keep it. Light being willing to go so far and be so entirely obsessed with power and what he sees as 'right' allows others to show their own ideologies of right and wrong use of power simply by challenging or supporting him.

And mind you that the quality of the writer does matter with these three pillars. A character can be incredibly strong in one of these by their concept but if the execution is flawed, how strong the base was doesn't matter. I bring this up because Luz... Is theoretically pretty good for these but in execution is awful in all three pillars.

The first one is the most tragic. She is a nuerodivergent, WoC who is even a part of the LGBTQIA+. Just by those three alone, she has a lot of stories that are only now starting to be told properly in media, such as Molly McGee tackling a basic woman's story of periods. There's a reason why a lot of people stand by Luz just for what she is.

Unfortunately, the writers did not. Frankly, swap her for a nerdy, white dude and I don't think much changes. Her heritage has nothing to do with the story, her being female only affects the representation in that it's two girls getting together in a romance that is frankly very normal for 'energetic boy and serious girl' and her nuerodivergence is officially non-canon now. It was only confirmed in interviews after all and Dana has said that anything outside of the show is just her own headcanons and are as valid as anyone else's. Even then, much of what makes her theoretically ADHD is also just pretty normal for main characters, let alone her archtype and never shows any of the non narratively useful elements of it.

This is all without getting into how her excitement for fantasy, magic and community should have made her both a great catalyst and guide. However, her journey with magic has no bearing on her, it's barely explored and... So is the Isles. Admittedly, the Isles has very little to show. It's a world where most of the stories are pretty rote and played out because it's just not a creative setting so even if Luz is eager, there's nothing to show.

Worse yet, the supporting cast of the show doesn't give her a lot to work with either. A lot of their stories are either abandoned or put on hold for so long that there's no longer interest in them. Worse yet, Luz has no interest in those stories, making it so that for a lot of characters, including Eda actually because the two spend a SHOCKINGLY low amount of time together, she just isn't around. She literally only ever seeks out Gus for a library card and NEVER seeks out Willow of her own volition. That's pretty shitty to put it mildly.

How about her being the core of the story? She's in plenty of it... But the show has little to no core. If it's fantasy versus reality, Luz is the one that pushes the hardest to play into tropes and to over exaggerate everything because she sees herself as the hero of the story and it isn't long until everyone just agrees with this fact. Worse yet, there's little exploration of it and the ending leans entirely on fantasy being the correct choice. Period.

If it's about finding a place and community where you belong, Luz doesn't show enough care about her community and EVERYTHING we're shown about her history doesn't make her appear like she didn't belong but that she was a genuine menace who honestly was pretty callous about other people. You have to be a special sort of messed up to get a classroom cleared by releasing spiders and then turn around and go "You know, I bet they'll love snakes." If Luz is not accepted, it is because Luz does not try and we have proof of that in the show because Vee exists and that's the whole point of Yesterday's Lie.

This all makes for a main character who on paper is great and who's only real flaw as a main character is that nerdy, teenage idiot has been done before but never as a bisexual, afro-latino girl. For a lot of people, that's not a problem but a feature because the archtype is so ubiquitous for a reason. Amphibia used it to GREAT effect and it is a solid base for a coming of age story.

In execution, the show is never willing to let Luz be... anything. She vaguely gestures at a lot of things but never commits enough to feel like any of them are her cores. She's too selfish and too self isolating to be a normal good girl. Her interests come up too sporadically and inform her actions, especially positively, too rarely for her being a nerd to feel like anything but fanservice. She's not allowed to make major mistakes, not in the writer's eyes as many of her mistakes and fuck ups are not supposed to be seen that way or excused *gestures at Reaching Out* so she can't be an idiot who needs to grow. And as I said before, her being an afro-latino, bisexual girl with ADHD never comes up beyond getting with a girl and they don't really do much with that because TOH isn't a romance story.

It makes Luz in general feel like a complete waste of a character which is fitting. She's the main character to a complete waste of a show that never managed to choose a firm identity for itself and so never gained one. And something lacking that much personality simply isn't going to be interesting.

=======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

#the owl house criticism #toh critical #luz noceda

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ninja-muse · 9 months

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As you can maybe tell by the three reviews I posted in July, it was a good reading month! Overall, at least. I still had a couple “this was fine” and one DNF, but there were a lot of hits and I read more books than I have the last few months.

So, highlights: The Hollow Places was fantastic, as was Bookshops and Bonedust but for very different reasons. If you’re worried that Baldree won’t be able to repeat the magic of Legends and Lattes, stop now. It was pure cozy delight. March’s End didn’t get a review simply because I already had three coming, but it was also very good. It examines family dynamics and the realities of a portal fantasy world in a very complex, adult way. The characters are believable if not necessarily likeable, the world-building is great, the writing is strong… all the things.

But between March’s End, The Hexologists, and The Hollow Places, I needed a lot of lighter books to balance, as you can probably tell by the rest of my list. I enjoyed pretty much everything! I’m just sorry I didn’t like the Sanderson more but I guess that’s a sign he isn’t an author for me since I didn’t like the last book of his I read either. I’m also a bit sorry I couldn’t get into The Atlas Six because so many people love it, but I dropped it in a Little Free Library and it got snapped up almost instantly so hopefully it’s found a better home.

So that was my unhaul of the month! I … did not do well with my book haul, or perhaps I did too well with it. The Odyssey and Thud were both damaged books that came in at work and I couldn’t say no. Thud has some wear to the cover; the Odyssey has some uncut and weirdly bound pages I’ll need to slice open. (Have I read and do I own other editions of both? Absolutely.) Love in the Time of Serial Killers was an unexpected rebound—I originally got it as a reading copy and passed it on to a coworker, who sent it back when she’d finished.

And then, well. There’s a new bookshop opening in my metro area. They’ve taken over from a used bookstore and have to sell off its stock before they can properly move in their own. I had to go help out, right? I couldn’t find anything in their SFF section I wanted but still left with three books: Gaudy Night, Evelina, and a collection of Molière. I went with friends, the same day we saw Barbie. ’Twas a very good day, all around.

And last but not least, I have started on one of those long, dense reads that will last ages. I’ve had Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century on my shelf for years and made it a goal to finally start it this year, since it’s totally up my alley but also huge and academic. There was a point in July where I didn’t want epic stories, light stories, or narrative non-fiction, so I figured that was as good a time to start it as any. I’ll probably read a section or two a month, whenever a similar mood hits.

And now without further ado, in order of enjoyment…

The Hollow Places - T. Kingfisher

Kara moves into her uncle’s museum of weird after her divorce, only to discover another universe behind a wall.

9/10

🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (gay), disabled secondary character

warning: body horror

Bookshops and Bonedust - Travis Baldree

Viv is recuperating from an injury in a sleepy town, where she finds a struggling bookshop, new friends, and a mystery. Out in November.

9/10

🏳️‍🌈 main character (sapphic), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (sapphic)

March’s End - Daniel Polansky

The Harrows have been tasked for generations with protecting a fantastical other world, but now the family is fracturing and that could endanger everything.

8/10

major 🏳️‍🌈 character (lesbian), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (sapphic), African-American secondary character

warning: toxic family dynamics, commentary on colonialism

Imogen, Obviously - Becky Albertalli

Imogen puts the A in Ally and that’s fine. Then she visits her best friend in college and meets a girl….

8/10

🏳️‍🌈 main character (bisexual), main character with anxiety, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (nonbinary, pan, lesbian, bisexual), Jewish secondary character, Brazilian-American secondary characters, secondary character with ADHD, Japanese secondary character, Black secondary character, 🏳️‍🌈 author, #ownvoices

warning: biphobia, discourse

The Hexologists - Josiah Bancroft

The Wilbys get more than they bargained for when they’re hired to find a lost royal heir and stop the king from baking himself into a cake. Out in September.

7.5/10

possibly biracial main character

The Bookbinder - Pip Williams

When World War I pushes Peggy out of her routine, she’s forced to choose: a life binding the books of the Oxford Press or a life studying them?

8/10

major autistic secondary character, disabled secondary character

warning: war, injuries

The Nobleman’s Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel - KJ Charles

Rufus is the new Earl of Oxney, saddled with a crumbling estate and a bitter family. Desperate for a good secretary, he hires Luke—who has a hidden agenda which doesn’t involve tupping the boss. And yet. Out in September.

7/10

🏳️‍🌈 main characters (demisexual-gay, gay), main character with dyslexia, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (gay), minor Black British character

warning: toxic family dynamics, abuse

Weird Rules to Follow - Kim Spencer

Mia starts to notice that she and her best friend are living very different lives, with very different expectations from the adults around them.

7/10

Ts’msyen protagonist, Mexican-Canadian secondary characters, Ts’msyen secondary characters, Gitxsan secondary character, Ts’msyen author, #ownvoices, 🇨🇦

warning: racism, alcohol abuse

A Man and His Cat, Vol. 3 - Umi Sakurai with Taylor Engel (translator)

Kanda begins to deal with his emotional baggage, with the help of his cat and a fellow teacher.

7/10

Japanese cast, Japanese author, #ownvoices

Bookshop Cinderella - Laura Lee Guhrke

Evie is quite content as a spinster with a bookshop. Duke Maximilian has wagered he can make her the diamond of the season. This is a strictly platonic alliance, of course.

6/10

The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England - Brandon Sanderson

An amnesiac man wakes up in a country that may or may not be Anglo-Saxon England with an exploded guidebook. Good thing he has ~*~Mystical~*~ ~*~Powers~*~™.

6.5/10

Persian secondary character, Chinese-American secondary character

Picture Books

The Skull - Jon Klassen

Otilla finds a large house in the woods inhabited by a talking skull, so she helps him in return for shelter.

🇨🇦

DNF

The Atlas Six - Olivie Blake

Six ambitious magicians compete for a coveted place at the Library of Alexandria.

🏳️‍🌈 main characters (multisexual); Black-British, Cuban, Japanese, and Persian main characters; Filipino-American author

Currently reading:

Kill Show - Daniel Sweren-Becker

A teen goes missing after running back to her school bus for a bag. Forget podcasts: time for the reality show! Out in October.

warning: missing child, murder

The Wager - David Grann

A secret mission in the Age of Sail. A shipwreck and a mutiny. The perils of the sea—and your fellow man.

Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century - Richard Taruskin A history of early written European music, in its social and political contexts.

Stats

Monthly total: 11+1 Yearly total: 75/140 Queer books: 4 Authors of colour: 2 Books by women: 7 Authors outside the binary: 0 Canadian authors: 1 Off the TBR shelves: 1 Books hauled: 6 ARCs acquired: 4 ARCs unhauled: 6 DNFs: 1

January February March April May June

#books #booklr #book reviews #book recommendations #rec lists #reading wrap-ups #read in 2023 #my photos

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thelordofgifs · 1 year

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One characterisation choice in the fairest stars that I feel compelled to defend a little is that of Maedhros – and specifically, the way he grieves. Honestly Maedhros being both such a fandom favourite and also SO messy and complex makes him an intimidating character for little me to try to write, so I do hope he comes across in tfs as recognisably himself!

Anyway, I think after the posting of Part 10 (which ended with Curufin’s dramatic lie that Fingon and Maglor were both dead), a lot of people were expecting Maedhros to go absolutely feral and furious with grief; and the direction I chose, of grief that absolutely froze him, grief that broke him, grief that was completely disabling even before the unreality attack started, might be a little unexpected? After all, Maedhros in canon is defined by his resilience: within a few years of being rescued from Thangorodrim, he’s done some impressive political wrangling, learned to fight left-handed, and headed off to the eastern front of the war against Morgoth.

Counterpoint: Maedhros canonically responds to the loss of a loved one by freezing, messing up, or otherwise removing himself from the narrative.

A chronological list of examples:

Finwë. Okay, admittedly Maedhros keeps his head quite well on his grandfather’s death: in some drafts he’s the one who delivers the news to the Valar and (though he doesn’t realise it) his father. What he notably doesn’t do, however, is rush after Morgoth and Ungoliant in a blind quest for vengeance. That’s his father’s job! And despite some superficial similarities, I don’t think Maedhros is much like Fëanor; or, rather, I think he deliberately makes an effort to be different to Fëanor.

Amrod. Not really published silm canon, but it’s worth noting that in the Shibboleth of Fëanor version, after Fëanor realises that he accidentally killed his youngest son, “nobody dared speak of this matter to Fëanor again” (might have slightly butchered that quotation bc I’m not looking it up). This is in a version of the story where Curufin was the only son involved in the ship-burning, so Maedhros doesn’t even have any particular culpability or guilt complex around Amrod’s death, but still – no significant reaction.

Fëanor. One of the obvious examples! Immediately after his father’s death, Maedhros makes the stupidest decision of his life and agrees to parley with Morgoth – despite having just sworn to avenge Fëanor! My own reading of this situation is that Maedhros simply wasn’t thinking clearly; stunned and grieving, he went along with what felt like the easiest course of action, and paid a terrible price for it.

Fingon. Another classic example. Maedhros after Fingon’s death is absolutely defined by his inaction – he spends some thirty years post-Nirnaeth simply wandering in the wilds, and, when time comes for the Second Kinslaying, it’s Celegorm who spearheads that. We aren’t told anything about Maedhros’ reaction to Fingon’s death (because ouch), but it doesn’t feel like a huge leap to say that it devastated Maedhros, so much so that he just. shut down.

Post-Second Kinslaying things get murkier because Maedhros has imo more upsetting things to deal with than his brothers’ deaths, namely his own terrible fall from grace. But I would like to point out that after the Third Kinslaying and one or both twins’ deaths (depending on your preferred Amrod crispiness), it’s Maglor who cares for Elrond and Elros; Maedhros, you could argue, is not in the mental state necessary to do so.

God this got long. Anyway, with regards to tfs specifically, Maedhros is dealing with a loss that’s actually worse than anything he experiences in canon – he thinks BOTH Fingon and Maglor are dead, at the same time! So I hope his reaction doesn’t feel too out-of-character; I was worried, in writing it, that I was woobifying him too much, but I do think there’s some canonical justification for this interpretation of him. Hopefully. And thank you to everyone who’s indulging this silly little story and all my unasked-for babbling about it ❤️❤️

#silmarillion #meta #my meta #maedhros #the fairest stars #someone tell me to shut up I think I talk about this fic way too much

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