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soulventure91 · 1 year

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63, 65 (post tsenden especially), 15 (go by individuals for Extra Spice), and 46? for the crabmeister sometimes known as diric

get to know my children but most esp my (not always a crab) son ||

63. what fight has scared them the most? MM. I think deep down Diric was most scared during the elder brain battle. It was the closest he'd come to dying, Laszlo DID die because the party was down there to help Diric, and there was a high risk that nobody was going to get out of there alive. He would never have forgiven himself if anyone had perma-died while he survived and fully expected to die himself. To be honest despite having that ghost buried and Diric being out of that shadow, he still to the current in-game day can't comprehend not having that threat in the back of his head.

65. what is holding them back? Post-Tsenden, Diric's worst enemy still remains himself. He was in a pretty decent spot immediately leaving Tsenden, but part of how Diric was choosing to hope toward his future kinda got blown up with That Talk in Khazran (disgustingly co-dependent sometimes). That hurt has scarred him really badly and he's still trying to recover - but his promise to Bahamut to keep choosing to hope has gotten much harder and his hopes have gotten a lot smaller: a chance to smile, to laugh, is what little he lets himself hope right now. He has a hard time imagining a future for himself at all, which is why Diric focuses so much on drawing that city with all the designs for each party member: the city is for them, and not for himself.

15.do they trust their party? why or why not? [by request, per party member] Cai - Yes. Despite not really talking much or having a lot in common, Cai's regularly proven himself both with magical skill and weapon savvy. Also the fact he doesn't argue with Diric about his nickname endears him a little more; it's the only one that hasn't changed from their first meeting. Savita - Yes. She and Diric have tremendous overlap in their backgrounds and outlooks that allow him to confide certain outlooks that might grate on the other party members. He has tremendous respect for her abilities and loyalty to her family, and respects her comfort in speaking her mind no matter the person hearing it. Maahes - Despite everything, yes. Diric knows he's probably been entrusted with about as much information Mio has about Akhen as maybe Adolin and more recently Alar, and has no intention of betraying his long-ago promise to help Mio in returning to Akhen. However, his personal feelings are massively conflicted because he'd hoped for a very long time to be able to stay at Mio's side in some capacity, and despite their most recent conversation in re-establishing their friendship Diric still fears that there would be no room for him in Mio's life when all is said and done. Zinnan - Yes, though that's wavering slightly with some of the Weird Fey Things they've started doing. Don't get me wrong, Zin is still one of Dir's favorites in the party, but he's made some distance because of some of the Vibes they've started giving off. He's also become less likely to confide his feelings and concerns to them because of his own experience in the Feywild (feelings of inadequacy leading to being turned into a bird and then discovering his humanity had been taken so now he's a Drow) and concern at what their transformation is doing to their mindset and abilities. Alar - Yes, but with an asterisk. Again, it's the thing of they just haven't talked as much, and Alar's long wait for them seems to have given Alar a perspective that lets him understand Diric better. Diric trusts Alar in a fight and that Alar would have his back if he gets into trouble, and Diric would hope Alar trusts him in that way in return. However, he doesn't have as good of a gauge on where he stands with Alar as with the others, especially with Diric back from his therapy at Tsenden and Everything Else. He knows Alar and Mio are good friends and Diric has always had a regular discomfort that Alar befriended Mio about as easily as Diric did but in a less...normal-person way, if that makes sense? So yeah. Battle-trust is there but personal trust is a bit of a question mark. Laszlo - Yes, and more confidently than Diric might have said before. Their talk on Hilaze's ship and sharing that drink - not to mention their conversation in Faelon after Diric left Khazran - have helped Diric see that Laszlo is still...not normal, since none of them are, but is approachable in the boots-on-the-ground sort of way. Nate and I have reckoned Diric could be the Rhodey to Laz's Tony, which is a fun dynamic because Diric's never had a friend like that before.

46. what do they deprive themself of? Happiness, but not consciously so. Diric's life and mindset are such that he is almost always waiting for the other shoe to drop, fearing something he likes and vests time and effort in will be taken away - because that's what's always happened to him before. At Tsenden Diric got to experience a life without constant danger or the threat of disapproval - and despite the peace it gave him he didn't like it one bit. He needed to be pushed and challenged into putting himself into that life and the only times Diric actually felt accomplished were when he flew with Jiatso and putting Branyth down a few pegs - where he was doing things he was used to and familiar with. However, Diric fears returning to the merc life even though part of him suspects that's the future waiting for him - and it's the last thing he wants, to sink back into that mindless cycle. I think if Diric is going to have a truly fulfilling post-adventuring life he needs to be in a place that gives him structure, but the flexibility in that structure to pursue the interests he uncovered at Tsenden and relax his personal defenses to not fear losing the people, habits, and pastimes he enjoys.

#oc: diric vajon #dnd: faelethris the talisman #dungeons and dragons #this man finished his therapy and is STILL a hot mess #but less messy than he was #thenku for askiiiiiing <3 writing up 65 made me cry i'll have u know

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depressedacadamia · 3 years

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Book Review on The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

Overall, this book took my heart, smashed it into pieces and then proceeded to burn them. Suzanne Collins does an excellent job at portraying Coriolanus as a conflicted protagonist from the start; in doing so, she manages to make the reader feel sympathy for him. Thus when Snow starts acting up, the reader feels obliged to stand by his side and you yourself feel conflicted- similar to the protagonist.

This by far is one of the best books I've ever read due to the turning of the main character. He starts out as a guy who hates The Hunger Games and the war and over the course of the book, he starts to do small things that would be seen as immoral. By the end of the book, he's betrayed and gotten his best friend killed, killed the mayor's daughter, attempted to abandon and then kill his girlfriend. By the very end, we are met with the cruel and infamous President Snow that is featured in The Hunger Games trilogy. I think this turning of character is done well by Collins because by the end of the book the reader hates the acts that Coriolanus has performed but it's still hard to hate Coriolanus himself after getting such a beautifully written backstory.

I think another reason I loved this book was because it explained the background of the Hanging Tree song. I absolutely loved the song and the second I read the first 2 verses in this book and how it was written, I could just tell that Coriolanus was going to do something bad. I think the writing behind the character Lucy Gray was splendidly done and it reminded me of Luna Lovegood. I think the reason why Snow is pitied in this book is partly due to Lucy Gray. Lucy Gray is a character with morals- strong ones that she firmly believes in. Snow, as established by the end of the book, is an immoral character so the fact that these two characters have any sort of interest in each other, a love interest especially, really allows us to connect to Snow and sympathise for him- maybe even root for him. It's a complete juxtaposition of the characters as well. Lucy Gray and Coriolanus Snow are complete opposites and yet they are attracted to each other. It really displays how Corionlanus needed someone with a different perspective and for all his life that person was Sejanus. When he starts growing away from Sejanus, he turns to Lucy Gray. Snow is constantly selfish, as seen in the manner in which he uses people. Alas, in the end, Snow did try and kill Lucy Gray and then proceeded to run away. While his rebellious acts at the beginning seemed to be the right thing, we as readers witness how all along these acts were all for him, not Sejanus or Lucy Gray.

Oh my goodness, lets not forget the insight behind the white roses over here! Finally, we get the entire backstory to the roses and I think because of that, the symbolisation of them is emphasised. At first, the roses are seen (in the Hunger Games trilogy) as a malicious part of Snow’s personality- a sign of revenge. The white rose was a symbol of purity and innocence - something that President Snow clearly isn’t. To add on to my point, his name is Coriolanus Snow . The irony is unfathomable; his surname and symbol both suggest purity and yet he is the complete opposite. I’d also like to quickly talk about his first name, Coriolanus. For those who don’t know, Coriolanus was a Roman general who thought he was a bit too great and became an enemy of Rome. The fact that his name is the name of a traitor and his second name is Snow immediately foreshadows that he will become a traitor. Later on in the book, Snow disobeys many Capitol rules and is forced to become a peacekeeper where he breaks more rules and then tries to kill his own girlfriend. The inability to maintain loyalty to one side further suggests that Snow is indecisive and only does what is best for him in a certain situation. The white roses symbolise that he is deceiving due to the fact that white roses mean much more than just purity. The complete juxtaposition of character compared to his name and symbol further highlights the manipulative tendencies as well as his need to maintain a flawless public image. It really illustrates his desire to appear as a person of the people. However, White roses are also a symbol of death. This complete oxymoron of purity and death fits in well with Snow’s malicious behaviour. The white roses are alluring- something that one cannot help but be attracted to however once you pick the rose, you are more than likely to die. This perfectly sums up the characteristics of Snow. The roses are a trap, similar to his cunning and crafty behaviour. Snow’s white roses symbolize his obsession over maintaining a perfect public image all while manipulating those around him and destroying those he wants gone, in an elegant and discreet manner.

If I were to improve this book, I'd say there is a part in the middle where it just loses its mojo. I had to put down the book for a few days because I genuinely couldn't manage to continue paying attention to the book. While the mass majority of this book is very fast paced and full of plot twists- the middle just slows down- Of course, it's okay for book to do that and often times, the book itself often benefits from it but I felt that right here it didn't very well. Coriolanus is a peacekeeper and what else is new? I just felt like I was waiting for something that was never going to come. However, I kept reading and thank God for that. Sejanus's death was the saddest death scene I've ever read. I think the fact that we as reader don't know if Sejanus knows whether Snow betrayed him or not makes the death so meaningful. His last words is him calling out for his mother- who we know loves him very much. Lucy Gray is there mourning. Coriolanus is mourning and yet the whole time he is still thinking about himself. Does Sejanus know what he did? Does anyone else know? Worst of all, after Sejanus dies, one of Snow's first thoughts is that he is safe from the Capitol ever finding out what happens. This just goes to prove Coriolanus's selfish and immoral nature. But the ending of this book is what put the cherry on top for me. I think a specific part of the epilogue in particular got to me. It was went we find out that the Plinths and the Snows are kind of one big family now. In particular, Strabo treating Coriolanus like his own son. Earlier in the book it's mentioned that Strabo would much rather Coriolanus to be his son rather than his actual child, Sejanus. I think it is simply so heartbreaking to see Strabo treat Coriolanus like his son when he didn't treat Sejanus in the same way. At the end it is strongly hinted that Coriolanus poisoned Dean Highbottom which once and for all settles Snow's true nature. It reveals the truth that Coriolanus will kill for power and that he will stop at nothing to get what he wants. He just like his father Crassus- the person who stole Dean's idea of the Hunger Games and actually pitched it (despite Dean's subjections to it). Manipulative, deceiving and ruthless, Coriolanus Snow is the evil protagonist and Collins ends the book with a classic overarching loop. In the first Hunger Games book, Snow was evil, and now at the end of the last book ( well, that we know of), Snow has been portrayed in many different lights and has returned to the one that suited him most. Being a villain.

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sincerelytheintrovert · 3 years

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Tamlin’s Redemption Arc

Excuse me for the long post...

With the new TV show coming out, there are going to be more people joining the fandom from both sides: those who hate the sound of Tamlin’s name and those who don’t think he’s the worst thing. Which means there are going to be more people arguing for and against Tamlin’s redemption arc (which I’ve seen get really nasty and personal). I, personally, am completely torn.

****TRIGGER WARNING: DISCUSSION OF ABUSE AND PTSD BELOW****

On one hand, Tamlin as SJM has written him now IS an abuser and should not have any sort of redemption. On the other hand, I love when characters are on the morally grey line and have amazing growth potential. Because life isn’t two-dimensional so why should characters be?

In order for SJM (or a talented fanfiction writer) to redeem Tamlin without legitimizing his abusive tendency, a balance needs to be met. With that said, doing so is going to be VERY hard. Here are my thoughts on ways to help rebuild his character from the trash can that SJM made him:

****SPOILERS FOR ACOTAR, ACOMAF, ACOWAR AND ACOSF BELOW******

Explore his PTSD

One of my biggest criticism of SJM, it is that she does NOT know how to write healthy ways for characters to deal with PTSD. “ Feyre and Rhys pulled each other out of their trauma”. “True love” and sexy time does NOT fix PTSD. This is such a damaging belief that is perpetuated by YA books. You know what else doesn’t fix PTSD? Locking someone up in a tower with their only option being to climb down 10,000 steps that could potentially lead to their death (poor Nesta). For more information on how to help someone recover from PTSD see this link: https://www.helpguide.org/articles/ptsd-trauma/helping-someone-with-ptsd.htm.

People forget that in the series Tamlin is ALSO suffering from PTSD. Note how in the link above Feyre received the help she needed from the Inner Circle whereas Tamlin arguably did not receive any and continuously suffers even throughout ACOSF. This is one of the main reasons why I would be fine with a Tamlin redemption arc. Let’s explore the source of his PTSD a little, shall we?

1) His whole court is held CAPTIVE for 50 years and HE is the only hope- Even beyond his own court, all of Prythian was plunged into a half-century long war with an enemy who is powerful enough to capture all their most powerful High Lords. That’s 50 years of fear and hopelessness which is enough to power PTSD for at least a decade untreated.

2) He has to send out his friends to be sacrificed constantly- I’m reminded of how at the beginning of COVID-19, doctors were begging for people to stay home because the ICUs were so full that they had to pick who got ventilators and who didn’t, essentially picking who survived and who died. Now imagine doing that for 49 years. To your friends. That is some TRAUUUMMAAA.

3) Per Feyre’s own admission, Tamlin also has nightmares- For all the people who say “he didn’t stop her when she was starving herself”, my response is, “what if he never noticed?” because when you’re dealing with your own inner demons, it’s almost impossible to see others’ problems.

In summary, SJM created a character that has a bunch of trauma and labeled him a bad guy (she does the same with Nesta except that Nesta gets to be forgiven because...plot?). One of the ways that a writer can redeem Tamlin is have him NATURALLY and HEALTHILY recover (no, Elain’s love cannot help him).

Explore his past

There are so many things about Tamlin that would make him a much more interesting character in ACOTAR but SJM never goes into it because the story is told from Feyre’s perspective. Here are some examples of his background that could be explored:

1) Explore his family issues- His brothers hate him because he is so powerful; his dad is a meglomaniac who is fine with torturing humans but beyond that we do not know more about his family or upbringing. Despite this, in ACOTAR, Tamlin refuses to become his father and opposes torture of humans. Where does this sense of morality come from (his mother? a mentor?) I believe SJM made a conscious decision to not go into this because then it would almost be identical to Lucien’s family problems. BUT if his background was fleshed out and we found that his abusive tendencies stemmed from an abusive family then THAT would add more character depth. For example, if Tamlin’s father is overbearing to his mother, a young Tamlin could equate love with “being protective”. This wouldn’t JUSTIFY his actions towards Feyre at all but it would help add more to Tamlin’s character beyond textbook abuse.

2) Why the hell does he have a stone heart? Sorry, did I miss something or was this never explained? Can someone explain? Does he still have the stone heart AFTER Amarantha?

3)His friendship with Lucien- Their friendship is so strong pre-Feyre, it would be interesting to read about how they build their friendship pre-murdering Lucien’s brothers as well as how they support each other during Amarantha’s era. It would also be interesting to read a story where they both struggle to rebuild their friendship and find that they have grown apart. This would also give the added benefit of giving closure to Lucien.

Explore his point of view

The final way I can think of writing a redemption arc for Tamlin is to explore his point of view. This is by far the hardest task as it could easily be turned into an “I thought what I was doing was okay so I am not at fault” (aka abusers’ favorite excuse). But by exploring the guilt and struggle that he must be going through after the war with Hybern, Tamlin could experience more growth. This would need to be done painfully slowly so he sees the full impact of his bad choices.

For example, I think it would be impactful to read how he helps rebuild his villages and how he has to deal with his subjects’ negative opinions of him. In the process of rebuilding his Court, he could forge new relationships (hopefully, healthy ones) and begin the process of not just becoming a less terrible person but potentially a good person. This also could serve as a great way to improve the world building in the series (which IMO needs work).

In case you’re still reading, I’ve also decided to include a short list of how I think Tamlin’s redemption arc should NOT be done:

1) Romantic redemption with Elain- No.

2) Quick, meaningless death via self sacrifice/ becoming a martyr- personally, this would feel so cheap and a waste of potential and since he is already at the bottom, NO ONE would care. It would be better to keep him alive.

3) Redemption through trauma- As explained above, I think he’s gone through a lot of trauma. It would be really unreasonable to expect that additional trauma could some how “fix” his problems”.

Sincerely,

The Introvert

#acotar #acomaf #acowar #acosf #sarah j maas #anti tamlin #tamlin #why did i write this #if my english teacher could see me now

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kinetic-elaboration · 3 years

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August 21: 3x04 And the Children Shall Lead

Okay, I’m finally going to write up my thoughts on And the Children Shall Lead. I think I’m (mostly) over all of my excessively-strong emotions about this ep lol. Maybe going through my notes will bring them back. Or maybe not. I’ve felt very tired and uninterested in everything today so it’s hard to tell. So far the process is not going well: tumblr ate my first attempt at a post, like literally I wrote a few lines, clicked to a new tab, and when I clicked back the post was empty so thanks for that, and I keep on just generally not being interested in the task. So, we’ll see.

The tl;dr is that I don’t see why this ep is considered one of the worst. I actually really liked it!

Single-color jumpsuits: the fashion of the future.

Another old Kirk friend! (This isn’t even important lol; it never comes up again or matters that Kirk knew this guy, but we must always be reminded that he is the best networker in Starfleet.)

“He’s dead, Captain.” Not “he’s dead, Jim”?? Sounds wrong.

“The enemy within.” I thought that was a S1 ep?

Ah, another bunch of creepy kids. In pajamas this time, apparently.

Kirk is not having fun being the center of their creepy little rhyme.

RIP to McCoy but my diagnosis is “alien shenanigans.”

“I’m sorry, Captain Kirk.” Such a polite little alien.

McCoy corralling the kids

This sounds a lot like Miri, except purposeful—something targeted all the adults but left the kids, just like the virus in Miri affected all the adults, but not the kids.

…A disturbance in the cave!

Lol at Kirk’s anxiety face. I feel you, man.

Spock’s never experienced anxiety? My first thought is ‘sounds fake’ but actually… maybe he really hasn’t.

“There has to be an explanation.” This is the MOST Jim line.

I like these kids. They’re actually pretty cute. Also love Kirk trying to relate to the kids.

Where are they? Is this Sulu’s greenhouse lol? I love it. They should have used this set more.

“That place is for adults.” Gotta say, I wrote this down but now have no recollection what it actually refers to. The bridge? I think it’s the bridge.

Are they performing witchcraft? Intriguing.

“Friendly angel”—nothing creepy about that at all.

Got a little alien cult going on here. Every time I feel anxiety from now on I’m going to assume it’s an alien cultist nearby.

“We’ll pursue this in my quarters.” Wink wink.

Can’t fool Uhura.

Never mind. Yes you can.

For someone who wanted the kids guarded all the time, Kirk sure was ok with them just traipsing around the bridge. I mean the guards are at the door but like…they’re only at the door.

Never really thought about how there’s apparently an…engineering component... to flying the ship? I don’t know, I don’t really get it but it’s cool.

"Evil does seek to maintain power by suppressing the truth." Damn. Great line.

BAND OF MARAUDES. That’s a cool backstory for the dead alien society. Basically, they’re ghosts. Greedy ghosts. Alien ghost pirates.

Great triumvirate scene. McCoy want to protect the kids and Kirk’s like “…but the ship, though?” Which is fair!!

What does the ghost want? Um, a ship to maraud in, were you not listening to Spock’s exposition of the back story?

No don’t beam anyone down!!

Love any time Spock pushes someone else out of the way so he can man the transporter. He’s somehow the second-best expert on it on the entire ship.

Eeek, low-key gruesome death there. Look, I know that this is one of the scenes that haters love to point out as a reason to despise the episode but I personally don’t think deeply enough into the transporter situation to wonder how much information they have or assume before they beam people anywhere. Also…weird alien stuff is happening, guys. Just attribute it to that. Also also, if you’re gonna nitpick like that, be prepared to hate all of TOS.

THE KIDS STOLE THE CAR.

“Sulu, what did you to do my ship?”

Uhura’s watching this little witchcraft scene from the background like ‘aw, so cute.’

“Call upon their beasts.” Metal.

“Go to your stations.” This little kid is a future Captain in the making.

SPACE KNIVES

Kirk's like "Oh no, my crew is deserting me, I'm gonna have to fly the whole ship by myself AGAIN.”

“Captain, why are we bothering Starfleet?” Et tu, Spock?s

How did they get to Spock? He doesn’t seem scared of anything…more like he’s under the influence of a general hallucination, like the others seeing the planet on the screen even after they left orbit.

I remember this part, with Kirk freaking out. Spock doesn’t like it one bit.

He’s just being a littttle Dramatique.

Cannot believe that all Spock has to do is say “Jim” in a quiet, intimate voice and Kirk is immediately okay. Just let it out of his system, grabbed onto his friend, heard his own name, and the beast is defeated.

“My Vulcan friend”? Lol.

Kirk’s face when he realizes they’ve got Scotty too…

“Go away or we’ll kill you.” That was legitimately creepy. Scotty gone rogue.

Aw, Spock was worried about him again.

“Without followers, evil cannot spread.”

“Where did you hear this order, Chekov?” / “The voices in my head.”

It’s interesting that Kirk and Spock can’t be manipulated—perhaps because they have each other?

Enough of this—fight time!

That guard sounded like he really liked that nerve pinch; he was kinda moaning as he went down.

“Spock, corral them to their rooms.”

Outta the chair, brat.

Is Kirk going to defeat the alien evil using logic?

Summoning the “angel” by using the old recording is very clever.

When did they decide to start calling him the Gorgon?

“It lost its power in the light of reality” = “I looked into Spock’s eyes and knew myself again.”

HE IS GENTLE. It’s true and you should say it.

And he doesn’t even dispute it. “AND we are ALSO very strong.”

"You are full of goodness. Such as you cannot be changed."

So the girl is Jankowski.

This is very Candyman. The alien needs their belief to live. When they cease to follow him, he literally disappears.

Honestly, this whole alien scheme starts to look equal parts silly and sad, trying to call the crying children "generals.” They’re babies!

McCoy loves to see children in tears lol.

Kirk just hands them all off to McCoy, like ‘well, my work here is done.’

Okay, now we reverse course to pick up those stranded security guards still on the planet, right? Right? No? Okay, guess not.

Uhura, immediately ready with the paperwork lol. Now IS the time.

The end!

Now to try to interpret all of my other, more general notes.

The way I interpreted Spock being able to defy the mind control was that he was affected by Kirk. Because he clearly was affected, but then when he saw Kirk starting to freak out, he looked concerned, and then got them both off the bridge—he had a breakthrough of clarity long enough to understand he needed to get off the bridge. Then he’d be away from the kids, and they wouldn’t have as much control, and he could snap Jim out of it, too.

Like I’m sure his Vulcan resilience could easily have been part of it, too, but that resilience wasn’t enough to keep him from being affected at all—and of course they could have easily written it that way—and it seems obvious that his moment of clarity was caused specifically by watching Kirk starting to lose it. There are so many shots of him specifically watching Kirk and the guard.

The K/S vibes were so strong. Spock was so protective, then they get in the lift and Kirk basically clings to him. All he has to do is say Kirk’s name and Kirk is fine, which is basically the power of true love. And then even outside of that scene… for the whole rest of the ep, they’re a duo. It’s not just Kirk against the Evil of the Week, it’s Kirk and Spock, working together at every turn. Neither of them could have done it alone.

it's a pretty classic trope, in fact, especially in s1, to have Kirk all alone, abandoned by all...where he's the last man standing, the one who has to run the whole ship and save the whole day. Naked Time, This Side of Paradise, and Trouble with Tribbles (kinda) all come to mind. But this time he has Spock! You see the progression of their relationship in that.

I really enjoyed this episode in general. Lots of classic tropes: creepy children; surprise alien; old alien society not as dead as we thought; Kirk has to run the whole ship by himself (with Spock); heroic!Kirk saving the day… It has it all. It’s clearly revisiting some older themes and ideas, but in a sufficiently unique way that it doesn’t just seem like a rehash of an older plot. In some ways, it felt like a Classic S1 episode to me. It has some Miri elements, some Charlie X elements, some Naked Time elements…

I literally don’t understand why it’s so disliked.

Skimmed the wiki and the only specific criticism in there is that Kirk shows an “unmistakable hostility to the children.” Well first of all, he doesn’t. He might not have the best manner with them, but why should he? He’s certainly not mean or cruel to them. He recognizes they’re a danger to his ship, and to the whole planet of Marcos-12, which by the way is objectively true, but that’s not being hostile. McCoy is the one who represents ‘exclusive care for the children’s welfare’ in this ep, but he CAN do that, because he’s not the Captain. He represents that perspective, he gives his opinion, which is both his job on the ship and his role on the show, and then Kirk takes that into account while doing HIS job, which is running the ship. McCoy would have literally let the kids take over their ship and conquer the galaxy as part of their grieving process lol. Kirk was right and I should say it. (Also btw he understands that killing the kids might be an option—but he obviously doesn’t actually do it.)

I actually think this ep is a great example of the triumvirate functioning--McCoy reminds Kirk that the children are just traumatized children, and Spock reminds him that he's responsible for 400+ people on the ship, and Kirk makes the decisions that vanquish the evil, save the ship, and free the kids.

And look, even if you don’t like this episode, you’d have to argue very hard to convince me it’s the WORST, as in worse than Spock’s Brain, worse than The Alternative Factor, worse than Assignment Earth (not even a real TOS ep!), worse than The Omega Glory.

Some stuff I actively liked: the concept of the alien taking over the children specifically (both creepy and…kinda makes sense? That they’d be vulnerable); the message that the followers of demagogues can be both truly dangerous and objects of sympathy; the backstory of the evil empire of pirate aliens—and how greed doesn’t die; the witchcraft aesthetic, ESPECIALLY when paired with the kid antagonists, since kids are so into that like chanting, incantations, rituals thing; that the ep used every single main character (when was the last time a TOS ep did that?). Also I thought the kid actors did a good job!

The theme about the authoritarian and the cult followers was actually quite resonant, I thought; inevitably made me think of Tr/ump and his Tr/umpies. Just like in this episode, you must have some kind of… if not sympathy, at least willingness to do the hard work of deprograming and then bringing them back to the fold, or else the country is never going to heal and it’s never going to be able to go forward in a positive way. It might not go forward at all! But fuck it’s hard to have that sympathy; they’re so abhorrent. Here, you see the terrible things the kids do, and yet sympathy isn’t so hard, because they’re kids. You see how much they are victims/pawns also. And so in that sense, Kirk’s ability to deprogram them is comfortingly optimistic—a little bittersweet, as TOS often is, because the kids have done horrible things and seen horrible things and now they’ll have to live with it, but comforting nonetheless.

I can’t even think of that many things I didn’t like in the ep. Mostly just nitpicky things. Like, was McCoy a little inconsistent in what he thought should be done with the kids? Yeah, but we get the general idea. Did Kirk drop the ball when he let them hang out on the bridge? Yes, especially as he knew how dangerous they were at that point, but I actually don’t mind it so much because they’re kids—it’s understandable that their true dangerousness didn’t fully compute to him. I don’t see that as a mistake or sloppy writing tbh. And was it an amateur hour mistake to beam two people into space? Yes, but it made up for it in being creepy and upping the stakes of the ep.

I guess I could see how the fist gesture could be seen as a little silly. But the other option, having them speak rhymes each time, would have been distracting—and probably also looked silly! Also, as my mom pointed out, it looks like a kid’s game (sorta like the start of rock paper scissors) so it fits appropriately with the theme.

I really liked how they wove in the aesthetic of kids’ games, kids’ manners of playing, into the narrative. Kids can be really creepy! They like creepy things! So the ring around the rosy rhyme at the beginning—a quite disturbing chant, of course, about the Plague, that is also very commonly sung by actual kids—foreshadows the summoning chant that brings the alien to them. It’s all of a piece. And just like the rhyme is just a rhyme, and they don’t know the real meaning behind it, they probably also don’t fully understand the meaning of the summoning chant or the alien that comes with it. It’s all one big game to them.

It’s interesting that the alien seemed to play off their desire both to punish their parents for working too much ("they like the planet, they're always busy") and to have freedom from parental rules (how they react to any instructions from adults, the alien's promise that the whole universe will be their playground, etc.). He really picks their sore spots as kids specifically and turns them into his “generals” accordingly. Like all kids, they don’t think too much about the larger consequences of their game because in some ways, it really is all just a game to them.

I liked how the episode characterized Kirk’s ability to interact with kids. He’s not bad with them at all, but he’s not like McCoy or Chapel either. He “wants to communicate with the future adult in the kid,” as my mom put it, which is perfect. He doesn’t exactly treat them as mini-adults—he doesn’t say inappropriate things to them, and he does simplify his language and his ideas for them—but he does treat them very seriously. And he’s probably best at one-on-one interactions like with Tommy. I think this makes total sense for his character: he doesn’t have kids (David aside lol), he doesn’t have younger siblings, he doesn’t work in a place where he’d see other people’s kids, he doesn’t get to see his nephew much, etc.

…Okay those were all my notes. I know I had other thoughts that were a little less scattered later, but… I’m tired. And most of it is probably in here in some form or another. I also found a list of, like, actual critiques of the episode, and I was considering going through them and addressing them all, and I might still do that. But I think that’s for another day.

#the year 2021 #2021: star trek #2021: fandom thoughts #star trek tos

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kendrixtermina · 4 years

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Sigh. Chibnall.

Jodie Whittaker and demographic realism

So I want to make clear that I have no problems whatsoever with Jodie Whittaker’s performance - the character seamlessly kept walking across the screen, she has great energy, love the steampunk goggles.

Honestly I’ve always believed that giving existing characters a demographic change is not really as revolutionary or helpful as ppl think; New characters and stories (esp. told by writers of those samedemographics) solve the problem much better. Keeping specificity is often better than losing it, and the character still has a background (from an “advanced” civilization that used to do dirty deeds and is still kind of uppity attitudes, a character who’s decided to be against that attitude but still needs to be knocked own from the occasional uppity moment; It makes sense for them to look like a british dude, and they have the freedom to go wherever problems like sexism and racism don’t exist so... ), and will be linked to its origin. But at worst something that will look dated in a few years like the 80s outfits, the show’s done dated and crowdpleasing before; There’s no hard reason not to do it and I expected no quality dip.

It certainly worked as as attention grab, the premiere drew a lot of attention but that only lasted as long as it took for the reviews to go sour. But one of the main good things its proponents said could come of it was to help the lack of female anti heroes. So far she really didn’t get to anti hero much; It’s not Whittaker, it’s the scripts.

I want to make this clear: Varied demograpics are good;

This is why I kind of hate the term “diversity” is one of those vague euphemisms if you mean “demographic representation”, “social equity” or “demographic realism” just say that.

In a way this is a good thing, it used to be only the best boldest writers who could get away, noadays it has become acceptable to have varied casts. And that’s how it should be artshouldn’t have to have to pass some arbitrary quality standard to simply reflect reality. But as the rebootverse and star trek discovery should’ve proved realistic demographics can’t replace good writing. Sometimes lack of realistic demographis is associated with bad writing because both come from play-it-safe more-of-the-same consummerism focussed sameyness, often someone who goes against the formulas has a solid vision which makes them good, and focussing on ignored topics and perspectives can yield new ideas (consider stuff like Wonder Woman, Get Out, Black Panther... which were just good, novel movies) but you could have a super interesting memorable story where everyone is a medieval european monk, but the characters are differentiated by personality, attitude, beliefs, or something where the cast ticks all sort of all demographic boxes but the characters are 1D and the story trite and predictable

On the one hand you get those gamergate adjacent fanboys who make “diversity” and “good writing” out to be enimical opposites and then you have the purists/antis who treat any critique of writing to be founded in having something against realistic demographics. You need both!

Series 11

There were good things about it: An attempt at leastto do more of your classic thought provoking space operas or going back to the shows’ pulp fiction roots, covering some historic periods/topics other than the classic historical fiction tropes (they got a pakistani writer, had Yaz and Ryan discuss social topics among themselves etc.), the emotional story centered around this family coping with a loss, having Ryan sort of be the “main” companion and the one the rest of the team is protective of

But overall the reason I didn’t rush to watch s12 as soon as it came out is that it was a bit... bland. The team interacted mostly with each other; The Doctor had more charge with one shot characters like King James or the Solitract than she really did with the companions. Graham was such a missed opportunity. Remember how everyone loved the dynamic with Wilfred? No attempt to strike a bond over how they’re the older party members, or the professional xenophile trying to nudge the bilbo baggins like reluctant hero? We’re told the Doctor really likes Yaz, and I believe it cause she always liked people like that, but are we shown?

For all that Moffat and RTD were very different writers with different strenghts and weaknesses, both were very character-driven writers, and that was really missing here a bit.

Some ppl said they didn’t give Yaz enough screentime or personality - but the thing is, they did try. They just failed. They let her make little remarks here and there about her homelife, they just never really assembled into a whole beyond buzzwords and inspirational platitudes and the Standard Companion Traits. I didn’t get a read on what she’s about or who she’s like until the pakisan episode where she unlike Barbara, Donna etc. immediately accepted that the past can’t be changed. Ah, I finally thought, she’s a very responsible dutiful person.

Everything lacks edges and defining moments.

So far, I didn’t sweat it. I though, ok, not everything can be the high-concept character driven spec fic epic type of story that is my personal favorite. Every time there was some addition to the mythos in any way someone cried ruined forever. When the time lords first appeared. When the time war was introduced.

The classics too were lower on the character driven ness; Still good pulp fiction content. (imho the character concepts themselves were often pretty good, just not used to the fullest and some of the actresses were treated crappy backstage)

I thought “okey, it wouldn’t be good to break with the tradition of making the sussequent incarnations contrasting”

I did think that there was much liberty with the additions which the others did do only towards the end when it feltmore earned, but, the addition of say, sisters, isn’t too disruptive

Series 12 and the Timeless Child Nonsense

The frustrating thing about this is that it COULD have been good.

The Master teaming up with the cybermen to try and take over Gallifrey is precisely the sort of story the classics would’ve done.

“Your society is founded on a shady secret and exploitation of the innocent” is a good plot twist especially in these times. The Master finding that secret and using it to his advantage - also very him.

Imagine what it could have been like if it had been approached from the perspective of someone who, for all that they were a rebel, still sort of profited from being part of that society, someone who wants to take responsibility for that past and would maybe have to make some tough choice to let the exploitation victim go because it’s right even if it has cosequences for themselves and their civilization.

but then you ruin that by immediately taking the protagonist out of that society. They and they alone are the victim.

like this plot could have been good except for the twist that the Doctor and the timeless child are the same.

Not connecting it to existing lore about the earlier war game days, everything with Omega and Rassilon, that bit about the Time Lord becoming what they were through exposure to the untempered schism... that might be forgiven. Even if it does stretch the suspension of disbelief that every single piece of sci fi scanning equipment in the show didn’t pick anything up; Not to mention that it destroys the stake on every heroic sacrifice or death prophecy plot, every time a companion or oneshot character took the bullet, the whole “out of regens” plot...

This is not me being mad about things being added or changed, but this being done in such a way that undermines the philosophy, the whole flavor...

Yes, the MC is mysterious, the 7th Doctor arcs did a lot with this etc. but doesn’t spelling something out this clear not deplete rather than add to that? It#s a definite answer even if the final origin isn’t clear.

But they’re so much else.

The trickster hero accomplishing great deeds with planning, guile, improvisation and duct tape, the implicit value that ressourcefulness trumps raw power.

The rebel, different because they chose to be or made themselves to be such through their adventures, sticking to their own values in a close-minded society - who embodies & encourages thinking for yourself in every situation and universal plot, who battles enemies like the Daleks and Cybermen that represent comformity

Yeah they have many names yeah they take out gods... but all this was the result of their actions & path in pursuit of knowledge, and also, as Moffat once stated, the funny part is that behind all the fearsome reputation is wit and duct tape.

The fish in a small pond who started out a misfit, failed their tardis driving exam... etc. and often made a point that they didn’t want immortality or endless godlike power. That’s meaningless if they had it to begin with.

The explorer who wanted to see more than their corner of the world.

The ANTI HERO that’s made alltogether too tragic here, too absolved from their uppity civilization

All that is wiped away if they were this special creature to begin with.

Where WAS the philosophy, rly? The big humanist speeches that made me love the show.

Going Forward

So I think - I HOPE - that this in particular will be treated like the “half human” thing from the TV movie or the now josses additional origin stories from the audios, or be handwaved under the “you cant get it wrong cause everything is in flux” carpet

It’s the Master effing with her to pay her back for the half broken chameleon arch thing.

It’s possible the Child actually existed, long dead or trapped somewhere - again, dirty mystery at the bottom of a stck-up society is a good twist. but this shouldn’t be more than another maybe in the multiple choice past not a definite answer.

Also, i hate this line of thought but I can’t stave it off: Why is is now that the MC looks female that we get this vulnerable, passively victimized tomato surprise rather than something with an ugly but definite choice in it.

I will probably ignore it - parts of me resents this cause “your civilization is based on a lie” could be such a good plot twist (then again the existing twists to that end from the classics and End of Time do enough rly) but if i have to choose between that and the basic meaning of the character....

#Doctor Who #timeless child #chris chibnall

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monkeydluffy19920 · 5 years

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Respond: Is Sanji a pervert?

In reference to/inspired by [x] @cruising-on-pirate-dreams

It’s always been an interesting topic to see how people interpret Sanji’s character, in general. Usually, if he is not liked in fandom, he is seen as a hardcore pervert who thinks nothing more than that and all the arguments are based on his will to peep women and his nose bleedings. Then, there are other thoughts, that consider that his ero- kappa side is partly an exaggerated gag made by Oda-sensei.

Ever since the beginning, it's been fun to ponder the reasons behind the characters’ behavior and Sanji is not an exception. Actually, he was one of the characters I didn’t completely like in the beginning, because back then, during the elementary school, it was hard to understand why would someone fall in love with (almost) every lady they meet. Then slowly his characteristic started to open more to my blind eyes and the more I saw the soft side of Sanji and how much he puts effort on his friends, the more reasonable it was to see why he is so popular among fans. It seems like the hate he gets is mostly because people pay attention to his lust-side and examine it only from one point of view.

There was a very interesting analyze written by @cruising-on-pirate-dreams about Sanji’s personality and tendency to be called pervert. In comparison, the fellow fan used Absalom and there were good points to be lifted up:

Absalom without a shame used his devil fruit skills to lurk on both Nami and Robin and never gave a rat’s eye whether Nami or Robin liked his forceful style to approach them. Both of them were clear objects to him that he licked and touched without permission, he even said openly that he likes Nami more because she is weaker in his eyes and later he kidnapped her and made her unconscious so he could marry her by force.

Sanji has a tendency to put himself into the submissive position, especially when it comes down to interacting with women. Yes, of course, he has this “I need lady~!”-kind of side but it’s remarkable how the more familiar/closer the woman is, the more submissive he actually is, in other words, he never puts himself above the ladies, especially when it comes down to interacting with Nami and Robin.

Before the Whole Cake Island arc was published, I’ve written in Reasons to love Mugiwaras - Sanji - post that I actually do believe that despite the reputation and what he gives out of himself in public (being tough and ladies man), deep inside he is actually very broken and vulnerable and once more of his past was revealed after the time skip, the more sense all the headcanons and speculations started to become logical.

The flashbacks in the Baratie arc showed that he was on edge of dying after the shipwreck which gave a little pieces of information about him but after the Germa66 and Sanji’s links into it were revealed, it was even more clear that he indeed had a terrible and traumatic childhood and suffered from great amounts neglection and abuse by his biological family until he escaped. The new supplement/update of the background story finally gave a further and more detailed explanation of why Sanji doesn’t see self-worth in himself and always puts others in front of him. He has put himself under the target line for his nakamas many times without caring how his own life and his dreams of finding All Blue would be thrown into waste if the worst-case scenario happened.

Thankfully, there was someone from the family standing by his side and therefore Sanji grew very close to his mother. Unfortunately, she passed away early due to the illness (that actually protected Sanji to become an emotionless killing machine like his brothers) and then he was again left all alone in his personal hell. Sora’s death might’ve left a certain gap in his heart. Perhaps the reason he treats women kindly (especially the ones he really adores) has roots in Sora’s way to support Sanji and maybe inside his core, he decided to continue sharing her mother’s legacy of kindness. He might appear like a tough guy who swears like a sailor but only the fact that he has saved an enemy from starvation tells that Sanji truly has a heart of gold, just like Sora.

It’s highly likely that behind the scenes and below the surface, Sanji could be actually looking for similar acceptance and unconditional love he got from his mother. But why then do all that ero-kappa stuff and womanizing when being around women? Mainly I still believe that it’s a continuous character gag just like Zoro’s poor sense of direction or Nami’s greediness but somehow it feels that there might be logical reasons behind this behavior.

Of course, it’s easy to interpret and only think that he is just a lustful pervert from the fact that his locker is full of girl magazines and that especially during the crew’s reunion after the time skip when it felt like Sanji couldn’t control himself with his nose bleedings.

However, if one takes a look to past 20 years One Piece has existed, it’s remarkable to see how much Sanji actually does pay respect to women, especially towards his crewmates. He doesn’t only give compliments on their appearance (i.e how cute they look) or use polite suffixes (”chan” and “san”) while communicating with them, he also praises openly and sincerely their skills and how strong they are. So, it’s obvious that Sanji definitely sees more than just their bodies.

Then to body swap, what @cruising-on-pirate-dreams wrote as well in another post. It’s easy to be seen that Sanji was happy that Law happened to swap his and Nami’s bodies and yes, he took peeks and adored the body features. However, because of this ero kappa-gag, one perspective is easily being left out of the spotlights (if readers didn’t pay enough attention): He did take good care of Nami’s body and he was aware how his actions can affect on her body and reflected on them many times. He smoked in her body but felt bad for doing that. Now it could be easily argued: “If he cares about Nami, why did he smoke in the first place?” but the answer is simple, he is a chain smoker and besides, Nami herself did give him the permission and the cigarettes in Punk Hazard.

Well, despite Nami’s warnings, he did take her jacket away when she wasn’t looking but he had a good reason (Kinemon’s torso was underwater and he happened to be the best swimmer out of the options) and besides, he apologized, just like he apologized for harming her lungs with his cigarettes. He also kept constantly worrying whether the diving would be too much for Nami’s body under the circumstances.

So, if Sanji really does only see Nami as a sexual object he wouldn't have feel an urge to apologize for things he did when their bodies were swapped. If she’d only matter to him for lustful reasons and for good looks, he could have taken the advantange on her by taking everything away and do more exploring (if he was alone) but he didn’t because obviously, they were busy solving the mess Caesar made but mostly, (putting aside the comedy-reasons) he knows that going further would have been way too disrespectful and would have violated their nakamaship (and would be against the fact that he has protected her purity back in Thriller Bark and tried to avoid to stain her) especially if he later got caught somehow and it would anyway make no sense if he wanted to hurt her in any way intentionally.

So, at least for me especially Punk Hazard was an arc that proved that despite the comedy, Robin and Nami are clearly not objects for Sanji and although he surely has felt some lust towards them, he respects the boundaries treats them well and speaks with much softer tones to them and even uses certain suffixes while addressing them.

Someone asked the reasons behind the suffixes and whether there are any deeper meanings Oda’s response was that he was basically inspired by his older staff members who wanted to be treated as they were younger. Zeff taught Sanji chivalry and perhaps this detail of the story was really based on Oda’s real life.

Back to the previous topic, why is Sanji portrayed as a pervert? Well, mainly for sure to make balance with comics on heavy storylines and because being interest in opposite-sex openly seems to be part of who he is but then thinking below the surface, what if those wild nosebleeds and dreams about peeping women are all actually just a mask of him? Yes, he does have a crush easily on women he meets and flirts with them but what if there is more than that?

Actually, one of the headcanons I’ve had for years is that Sanji has experienced a traumatic loss that has given him the deep fear of losing the others he holds dear (and that’s why he'd be so sacrificial) and Whole Cake Island sort of supported that thought. It can be possible that because he was strongly bullied by his siblings and despised by his own father (being called a weakling and so on), this all has stained his self-confidence below zero for good and it still will take time to see that he is worthy. Hopefully, Luffy’s words back in Baratie and the retrieval team’s efforts and experiencing his lowest point before the tea party opened his eyes for good and gave his character the chance to grow.

Like many fans agree, the only place where Sanji has complete confidence is anywhere that is related on his profession, cooking because Zeff convinced that the “chibi-Nasu” really does have potential in becoming a chef, otherwise, he can be surprisingly insecure although he doesn’t show it up openly, perhaps he hides it with this kind of actions. On top of that, Zeff raised Sanji to respect women so if he really was a pervert and didn’t care about what his foster father taught, then perhaps he would act more like Absalom. However, (again setting the comical aspects aside), I think Sanji himself knows where to cross the line when it really comes down to women. Most likely Zeff wouldn’t approve if Sanji really thought that women are just objects of lust and Sanji probably doesn’t want to disappoint (even unconsciously) someone who saved him from certain death and raised him as his own child.

Only Oda-sensei knows completely his character and knows the answers but Sanji’s behavior makes me wonder that what if actually at some point he has created kind of an “alter ego” to protect himself? What if he built himself a personality full of confidence so no one would see that deep inside, there is a fragile boy and a wounded man? Well, this is all just speculation so it’s hard to say whether there is any truth behind these thoughts or not but shortly said, Sanji is a great character and there are definitely reasonable reasons for his behavior, in general. However, he indeed is stuck in these ero kappa- gag and it’s sometimes a shame indeed that some (potentially shippy) moments are ruined by those weird faces or when he goes too lustful but on the other hand, it might be just Oda’s way to keep the series’ focus on the main points instead of romance

It’s really hard to believe that Sanji would actually be a pervert as in the term is officially described but once again, it’s all about interpretation. However, if one takes a closer look to the comparison between Sanji’s and Absalom’s interest in Nami (and other women) and comparing it to the facts of what perversion is in terms of human behavior, it can be easy to tell that out of these two, Absalom is the true pervert.

#one piece #analyze #sanji #nami #robin #luffy #Red Leg Zeff #absalom #judge vinsmoke #sora vinsmoke #charlotte pudding #chopper #usopp #zoro #vivi #long post #//got carried away sorry xD #and just realized this bounces around and is a bit repetive so sorry for that too :p

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marithlizard · 4 years

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Thoughts on RWBY v7 finale, “The Enemy of Trust”

Okay, finale, it's you and me. I've heard some eyebrow-raising things. Let's see what you've got.

Neo vs JNRO! My money's on umbrella girl, even at four to one.

Oscar's really getting along with this team. I won't be surprised if sometime next volume they officially invite him to be the P(ine) in the reborn JNPR.

Yep, short and sweet. She had a bit of fun there, and she was never in any danger.

I'm really appreciating the option to watch the fights at half-speed on the RT site and actually catch some of the clever moves.

Cinder's fighting style is quite different here than it was in all previous volumes. Remember the bow, the telekinetically controlled black glass shards, the Maiden fire and the giant sword? Right now she's leaping about acrobatically in melee with two short swords. If the face was different everyone would take this as an entirely new character. I get that it's cool to try new things, writers, but I miss the consistency.

So she specifically despises the privileged elite of Atlas. Can't blame her for that.

Okay, consistency or not I have to admit the aerial combat is visually fantastic. Winter's gryphon and Penny charging Cinder from opposite sides, followed by fire and ice colliding, wow.

Background music also doing its usual stellar job.

Penny says "I...disagree" in exactly the same tone of voice Adam used, and for exactly the opposite reason. That's a cool parallel and I'm sure it was intentional.

Oscar lagging behind out of breath. He's smaller and younger and is years behind everyone except Jaune on training, it makes sense. Also probably not using Aura to recharge stamina like the others.

Oooh, I knew it wasn't Nora instantly by the body language. Neo moves very distinctively, it's great.

And she's had lots of practice in imitating the person you love at the right instant to make you hesitate. Poor Ren.

You don't normally yell "Drop your weapons!" and simultaneously open fire unless you are intending to kill rather than capture. I guess the soldiers are assuming that Huntsmen will survive any kind of damage a normal person can dish out. Which is...not a safe assumption for Oscar I don't think. Ugh Ironwood your stormtroopers are dumb.

Ren is crying oh no

Annnnd Neo just toddles off with the lamp. I love that short officer with short ponytail look on her.

FRIA WAKES

and she is AWESOME

(Her eyes are the same blue as Ironwood's, it does make you wonder. We never learned her last name. )

Ren with an understandable lack of perspective. He's thought of Huntsmen as the pinnacle of combat badassery all his life, when really it's just a benchmark of competence along the path. I suspect there aren't many people alive who could defeat Neo, outnumbered or not, and most of the people who can are god-tier.

Maria's kept a low profile all volume because she has no patience for the high-level strategy and arguments and politics, she sure as hell isn't going to run grunt missions, and she'd last ten minutes in a room with the General before smacking him in the knees or possibly the nuts. But she was ready to charge in with the logistical support the instant that arrest order went out on the net. I just...love her. She is the best.

"I was supposed to protect the power of the Maiden until I was ready. I worry I may have lost track of time...but you can tell James that I'm ready, now." People were worried that Ironwood was holding Fria prisoner, forcing her into a sacrificial death. But the way she says that makes it very clear that she wasn't pressured. He specifically told her when you're ready. And he waited as long as he could.

Ironwood apologizing to Winter with so much regret in his voice. Look, you may hate him, but the writers don't, that's abundantly clear. And I don't either. This is a classical Greek-style tragedy unfolding before us, a good person being destroyed as their inherent fatal flaw meets the worst possible circumstances for it.

Oscar descending in the elevator, standing just like Ozpin. That is an eerie sight. He's going to imitate Oz as much as he can because Ironwood has been asking for Oz all along. ...and it's going to backfire as a strategy, isn't it.

"And....whom do I have the pleasure of speaking with?" "Still just me." But you're leaning on your cane as you walk just like Ozpin did.

Someone suggested applying Blake's "embodiment of a word" idea to all the characters, and the word I thought of at first for Oscar was innocence....but it's not, is it. Oscar is the embodiment of sincerity. He means every word of his offer to reconcile. How could anyone resist?

...Apparently Ironwood can. And I see it, I do. If this is a chess game, then protecting the king - the relics - is ultimately the only thing that matters. All the other pieces are expendable. Oz and Oscar and Ruby represent the opposite approach: every piece matters, and what's most important is not to win the game but to preserve the board, to keep it all going.

(If they'd told Ironwood all the way back in ch2 that as far as they know Salem can't be killed, would he have adjusted his perspective? I believe he would have, but not all the way. There's a fundamental difference in mindset. Lois Bujold talked in one of her books (Brothers in Arms I think) about how people are drawn to the romance of the hard choices. If you've believed all your life that hardship and painful sacrifice are necessary and inevitable, you get proudly attached to them in a way, and you tend to be skeptical, at best, of anyone who claims they can be avoided. I've been thinking about that a lot this volume.)

Uh.

WHAT.

You were having an argument, a heated but peaceful one. Why would you suddenly draw your weapon and shoot a teenager off the edge of a cliff? One who was offering no physical threat to you at all and who you could certainly have overpowered and arrested? You arrested Watts, who was trying to kill you, nearly destroyed your kingdom, and made you nearly tear your own arm off. Why would you murder Oscar?

You wouldn't. This makes no sense, just like Clover and Qrow fighting each other instead of teaming up against Tyrian makes no sense. I was hoping there'd be context in this case but there just isn't. The RWBY writers wanted dramatic scenes here and they didn't think the fans would care about anything else as long as it looked cool.

And this is new in v7, IMO. While I've certainly had some quibbles with the writing in past volumes, I don't remember anything remotely like this. Nothing so huge that I can't handwave or rationalize or say that it's a minor story element. I'm a Watsonian, not a Doylist; I hate having to say that something is just plain bad writing.

Ugh. Okay. Moving on.

That's a fast-regrowing Grimm arm.

I was expecting Penny to say "No, it's not me, it's supposed to be Winter," but she's really hesitating. After the conversations they've had she's not sure the power should go to Winter. There's nothing personal about it, no ambition. Penny has been acting exactly as a Maiden should from the moment Fria first saw her, her every instinct to protect and help.

Uh, y'know, Winter, you could SHOOT CINDER during the many seconds she's writhing in helpless agony there. You don't have to stand there and wait till she's ready to fight again. Sigh.

That said, the sequence of Oscar falling, power building in him and Penny, the silver eyes etc is stunning.

(that little twirl Oscar does, like a shoujo magical girl. cute)

holy carp there are still ten minutes left.

I don't think you're correct about fear being the common denominator, Oz, but I'll shut up and enjoy your very fine speech.

Winter makes her choice...and she's not surprised that Penny chooses differently. Opposed to the heroes or not, I do think it's a good thing for her to stay at Ironwood's side. Somebody sane needs to be ready to take over there sooner or later.

Penny getting support from Ruby and Weiss, yay.

This can't be easy for Pietro. He's loyally helped Ironwood for decades, and he's not exactly in good shape to live the outlaw life.

Cinder, continuing to piss off her only ally. Despite being the antagonist in a boss fight she felt...weirdly irrelevant at the end of it. So much so that she just quietly left when no one was looking.

"It's gone." Well, now that's an interestingly vague way to put things, Winter. Are you protecting Penny? Withholding information from your boss is, as we've seen, not something he reacts well to.

Watts has an implausibly nice cell with a beautiful view.

I think that's a quarry Oscar has fallen into, or perhaps the outskirts of a mine. He and Oz have a LOT to talk about and I would really love to actually see the conversation next volume, writers. For a change.

ooooookay yep that's a flying murder behemoth whale. I was expecting to be reminded of FFX's Sin, but it's got a vibe more like the whale from Pinocchio. My vote for a name is therefore Monstro.

Someone's dressed to impress her ex.

....Hmmmmm. You know, I didn't see an actual army of flying monkeys. Is there one? Is it inside the whale, or in that black cloud? Or does Salem have something else in mind?

"Fear" does seem like a song from Oz's point of view, but I don't feel it expresses his - or their - personality. It's not the image song I'm still waiting for. But then, quite a few characters still haven't gotten theirs.

Well. I'm on board for volume 8, hopeful the writers will make better choices, and curious to see how we're going to START a volume with an ultimate boss encounter. That's not a thing I've seen a story do before.

#rwby #spoilers #v7 spoilers

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addictedforbooksquad · 5 years

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P I C K (S) O F T H E M O N T H: M A Y

The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite

Passion on Park Avenue by Lauren Layne

Mistborn: The Alloy Era Series by Brandon Sanderson

Mistborn: Secret History by Brandon Sanderson

Marriage for One by Ella Maise

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite

Genres: Historical Romance, LGBT, F/F romance

Synopsis:

As Lucy Muchelney watches her ex-lover’s sham of a wedding, she wishes herself anywhere else. It isn’t until she finds a letter from the Countess of Moth, looking for someone to translate a groundbreaking French astronomy text, that she knows where to go. Showing up at the Countess’ London home, she hoped to find a challenge, not a woman who takes her breath away. Catherine St Day looks forward to a quiet widowhood once her late husband’s scientific legacy is fulfilled. She expected to hand off the translation and wash her hands of the project—instead, she is intrigued by the young woman who turns up at her door, begging to be allowed to do the work, and she agrees to let Lucy stay. But as Catherine finds herself longing for Lucy, everything she believes about herself and her life is tested. While Lucy spends her days interpreting the complicated French text, she spends her nights falling in love with the alluring Catherine. But sabotage and old wounds threaten to sever the threads that bind them. Can Lucy and Catherine find the strength to stay together or are they doomed to be star-crossed lovers?

Why we love it:

a beautiful love story between two women

female friendships and women supporting women

characters who find out about Lucy and Catherine are not homophobic but rather supportive

focus on both romance AND personal journeys of the characters

sexism and misogyny are challenged, by both female and male characters (some of them at least)

beautiful, poetic passages

Trigger warnings: mentions of emotional abuse, sexism, misogyny

≡≡≡≡≡ ≡≡≡≡≡ ≡≡≡≡≡ ≡≡≡≡≡ ≡≡≡≡≡ ≡≡≡≡≡ ≡≡≡≡≡ ≡≡≡≡≡ ≡≡≡≡≡ ≡≡≡≡≡ ≡≡≡≡≡ ≡≡≡≡≡ ≡≡≡≡≡

Passion on Park Avenue by Lauren Layne

Genres: Romance, Contemporary, New Adult

Synopsis:

For as long as she can remember, Bronx-born Naomi Powell has had one goal: to prove her worth among the Upper East Side elite—the same people for which her mom worked as a housekeeper. Now, as the strongminded, sassy CEO of one of the biggest jewelry empires in the country, Naomi finally has exactly what she wants—but it’s going to take more than just the right address to make Manhattan’s upper class stop treating her like an outsider. The worst offender is her new neighbor, Oliver Cunningham—the grown son of the very family Naomi’s mother used to work for. Oliver used to torment Naomi when they were children, and as a ridiculously attractive adult, he’s tormenting her in entirely different ways. Now they find themselves engaged in a battle-of-wills that will either consume or destroy them… Filled with charm and heart and plenty of sex and snark, this entertaining series will hook you from the very first page.

Why we love it:

ambitious millionaire female character whose story is basically about rags to riches

soft male character

female friendships and dynamics are amazing

cute love story

Lauren Layne’s style has improved so much and it’s time to start reading her books

Trigger warnings: n/a

Mistborn: The Alloy Era series by Brandon Sanderson

Genres: Fantasy, High Fantasy, Adult

Synopsis:

Three hundred years after the events of the Mistborn trilogy, Scadrial is now on the verge of modernity, with railroads to supplement the canals, electric lighting in the streets and the homes of the wealthy, and the first steel-framed skyscrapers racing for the clouds. Kelsier, Vin, Elend, Sazed, Spook, and the rest are now part of history—or religion. Yet even as science and technology are reaching new heights, the old magics of Allomancy and Feruchemy continue to play a role in this reborn world. Out in the frontier lands known as the Roughs, they are crucial tools for the brave men and women attempting to establish order and justice. One such is Waxillium Ladrian, a rare Twinborn who can Push on metals with his Allomancy and use Feruchemy to become lighter or heavier at will. After twenty years in the Roughs, Wax has been forced by family tragedy to return to the metropolis of Elendel. Now he must reluctantly put away his guns and assume the duties and dignity incumbent upon the head of a noble house. Or so he thinks, until he learns the hard way that the mansions and elegant tree-lined streets of the city can be even more dangerous than the dusty plains of the Roughs.

Why we love it:

amazing writing

plots and twists all around

we see familiar faces from the first trilogy *wink wink*

SO. MUCH. FUN.

western-sherlock-fantasy

most adorable character ever, that's on the spectrum

Trigger warnings: violence

Mistborn: Secret History by Brandon Sanderson

Genres: Fantasy, High Fantasy, Adult

Synopsis:

Mistborn: Secret History is a companion story to the original Mistborn trilogy. As such, it contains HUGE SPOILERS for the books Mistborn (The Final Empire), The Well of Ascension, and The Hero of Ages. It also contains very minor spoilers for the book The Bands of Mourning. Mistborn: Secret History builds upon the characterization, events, and worldbuilding of the original trilogy. Reading it without that background will be a confusing process at best. In short, this isn’t the place to start your journey into Mistborn. (Though if you have read the trilogy—but it has been a while—you should be just fine, so long as you remember the characters and the general plot of the books.) Saying anything more here risks revealing too much. Even knowledge of this story’s existence is, in a way, a spoiler. There’s always another secret.

Why we love it:

view on Mistborn Era 1 events from different perspective

reunions that will make you cry

we get SOME answers as well from Mistborn Era 1 and 2

Trigger warnings: violence

Marriage for One by Ella Maise

Genres: Romance, Contemporary, New Adult

Synopsis:

Jack and I, we did everything backward. The day he lured me into his office-which was also the first day we met-he proposed. You'd think a guy who looked like him-a bit cold maybe, but still striking and very unattainable-would only ask the love of his life to marry him, right? You'd think he must be madly in love. Nope. It was me he asked. A complete stranger who had never even heard of him. A stranger who had been dumped by her fiancé only weeks before. You'd think I'd laugh in his face, call him insane-and a few other names-then walk away as quickly as possible. Well…I did all those things except the walking away part. It took him only minutes to talk me into a business deal…erm, I mean marriage, and only days for us to officially tie the knot. Happiest day of my life. Magical. Pop the champagne… Not. It was the worst day. Jack Hawthorne was nothing like what I'd imagined for myself. I blamed him for my lapse in judgment. I blamed his eyes, the ocean blue eyes that looked straight into mine unapologetically, and that frown on his face I had no idea I would become so fascinated with in time. It wasn't long after he said I was the biggest mistake of his life that things started to change. No, he still didn't talk much, but anyone can string a few words together. His actions spoke the loudest to me. And day after day my heart started to get a mind of its own. One second he was no one. The next he became everything. One second he was unattainable. The next he seemed to be completely mine. One second I thought we were in love. The next it was still nothing but a lie. After all, I was Rose and he was Jack. We were doomed from the very beginning with those names. Did you expect anything else?

Why we love it:

soft and bubbly female character

broody male character

fake marriage trope

slowburn + cutest romance with a lil’ bit of angst

development is A+++

Trigger warnings: n/a

A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

Genres: Fantasy, High Fantasy, Adult

Synopsis:

Long ago, in a time forgotten, a preternatural event threw the seasons out of balance. In a land where summers can last decades and winters a lifetime, trouble is brewing. The cold is returning, and in the frozen wastes to the north of Winterfell, sinister and supernatural forces are massing beyond the kingdom’s protective Wall. At the center of the conflict lie the Starks of Winterfell, a family as harsh and unyielding as the land they were born to. Sweeping from a land of brutal cold to a distant summertime kingdom of epicurean plenty, here is a tale of lords and ladies, soldiers and sorcerers, assassins and bastards, who come together in a time of grim omens. Here an enigmatic band of warriors bear swords of no human metal; a tribe of fierce wildlings carry men off into madness; a cruel young dragon prince barters his sister to win back his throne; and a determined woman undertakes the most treacherous of journeys. Amid plots and counterplots, tragedy and betrayal, victory and terror, the fate of the Starks, their allies, and their enemies hangs perilously in the balance, as each endeavors to win that deadliest of conflicts: the game of thrones.

Why we love it:

high fantasy political drama

well-written dialogue

if you’re already a fan of the TV show, the book gives you an even more detailed account of events with characters POVs while these key moments play out

amazing world building and backstory with so much thought and detail

GRRM has successfully achieved a whole new universe

full of backstabbing, bloody battles and political intrigue

multiple POVs

Trigger warnings: rape, sexual abuse of a minor, graphic violence, sexual violence, incest, misogyny

#book recs #dailylit #nadaily #bookworm #bibliophile #lgbtqa literature #books #the lady's guide to celestial mechanics #central park pact series #asoiaf #mistborn #marriage for one #pick of the month

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fountainpenguin · 5 years

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What do you think of TUFF Puppy? I see a lot of people give it flack for one reason or another, but do YOU think that’s warranted? Would you recommend the show at all? Hopefully that’s not a loaded questions. Thanks!

I was able to watch the show with my free 1-month trial on Hulu (as opposed to buying the episodes on Amazon or something), so that’s always nice, and it was a good way to keep entertained during my study breaks this semester.

I previously wrote out my general thoughts about “T.U.F.F.” in THIS post just after I finished my binge-watchif you’d like to read that too. I can expand on some thoughts in more detail more below the cut.

“T.U.F.F. Puppy” isn’t the first show that pops into my head as a recommendation for its genre (“WordGirl” is the superior crime-fighting cartoon in my mind). When it comes to secret agents, I do enjoy a good “Bruno the Kid” for its wit, slow burn character development, and the fact that some of its villains legitimately die. And when it comes to cartoons that really explore animal behavior and what it would be like to live in an anthro animal world, I’d point first to “My Gym Partner’s a Monkey.”

But for what it’s worth, “T.U.F.F. Puppy” was enjoyable. It didn’t feel like a repetitive Monster of the Week show and it had its share of fun and engaging plots. There were some worldbuilding elements I really enjoyed (such as laws protecting endangered species - including villains - and the aquarium doubling as prison for aquatic criminals). There were some fun animal behaviors that I enjoyed seeing anthropormorphized, such as Kitty bringing people dead mice to express affection and the Chief (who is a flea) sneaking drinks of Keswick’s blood when he gets hungry. Many of the jokes were creative and worked for me- for example, a background character ended up committing crimes solo for a day because his usual partners in crime were on jury duty.

It is a show aimed at 7-year-olds, so it has its share of simplistic characterizations, crude humor, and a preference for action over long-term character development. And blood. There will be blood.There are a few continuity issues as well, but they’re pretty minor details. If you’ve enjoyed the other Hartman shows and are itching for something to watch this summer, it’s a fun choice if you can find it for free. I will say that now that I’ve watched it, it’s fair game for headcanons and ‘fic allusions.

I’ve been re-watching the series with my little brother (skipping around to see my favorites instead of going chronologically this time) and it’s been enjoyable. He’s gotten really into it and we like quoting random lines at each other (There’s an entire song about how to defuse a nuclear bomb that we’re particularly fond of).

The way I see it, if you go into it with an open mind, you’ll enjoy it, and if you go into it looking for reasons to dislike it, you’ll find them. I’ve been thinking about it for a few weeks now and I think that “T.U.F.F.” might actually be my second favorite of the Hartman shows. I’m more biology-minded than tech-minded and worldbuilding-oriented than action-oriented. I could never get interested in much about “Danny Phantom” except Youngblood psychology, and as much as I adore Mikey being a manipulative narcissist, the rest of “Bunsen Is a Beast” is a little hit or miss for me.

I enjoyed how “T.U.F.F.” really drew me into the world. If you watch the show starting from Episode 1, you learn everyone’s names extremely quickly. That means every major character at T.U.F.F., every single villain, and every henchman every villain has. I believe the exteriors (and some interior rooms) of every major character’s home were seen within the first half of Season 1, except Keswick’s which was seen in Season 2. We even learned the streets of several major locations. Details like that helped strengthen my belief in the world and follow along without getting lost. Villains were often defeated through clever plots rather than just punching them into submission, which was nice too, and they were a nice blend of being goofy and legitimately threatening.

Feel free to skip anything containing the Caped Cod, though, because he’s a piece of work and you’re not missing much.

Character-wise, I would have liked to see more female characters, and more villains too. One of the awesome things about “WordGirl” is that is has a truly massive pool of villains to draw from, and they’re all fleshed out in lovely shades of moral gray. In “T.U.F.F.” you will get the same few villains over and over again, so you’d better learn to like them. Some of the villains didn’t appeal to me, while others are fascinating from a psychology / writing perspective.

I wasn’t very interested in Snaptrap (the show’s main antagonist) during my first watch. He’s your typical evil megalomaniac, but he’s also dumber than bricks and doesn’t have a lot of redeeming qualities to choose from. During my second watch, however, he’s grown on me. I’ve realized that I like him more when I listen to what he says instead of overthinking what he does. He’s probably the funniest character in the entire show, and has a whole slew of quirky lines like “If I’m so dumb, why have I been getting away with slowly poisoning you?” and “I love our new crib! It was an impulse buy. (Gasp!) We should steal a baby to put in it!” One of his quirks is that ambiguity trips him up, so he’s easily confused and has a lot of quasi-insightful thoughts about mundane things… it’s hilarious.

Snaptrap’s not that bright, but he’s incredibly impulsive with a knack for building destructive weapons and promptly losing them. He also has a streak of affection for kids and is a surprisingly good parent when put in that position (He’s absolutely the type who would encourage his kids to follow their dreams and would support them every step of the way, which is an interesting quality for a villain). Literally the first thing he did when he realized he’d accidentally cloned himself was send his clone into the world to live the happy life he didn’t get to have. He grows on me more and more each day. He’s fun.

I like the Chameleon (the second main antagonist of the show) a lot. I favor neutral characters, and the Chameleon tends to base his loyalties on the kindness others show him. Sadly for him, both the good guys and the bad guys find him clingy and annoying, so he ends up ping-ponging back and forth between whichever side he believes will cause him the least amount of pain (When he knows he’s upset powerful enemies, he’ll try to hide in either jail or witness protection to avoid facing consequences).

His motives for most crimes are hilariously petty. He’ll target vacation spots where he had a bad experience or attempt to burn the whole city because he thinks the heating company takes advantage of him for being cold-blooded. He’s the type of villain who commits international crimes purely to earn the “international criminal” bragging rights, but he’s also the type of villain who will drive random strangers to the airport mid-crime attempt despite it being out of his way. He’s described himself as someone who “doesn’t always make the best choices, but you just can’t help rooting for anyway.”

The Chameleon is arguably the smartest of the main villain trio, but his weakness is that he’ll let his “friends” walk all over him in a desperate attempt to maintain one-sided friendships. In Season 2 he got himself tangled in a terribly abusive relationship with his girlfriend and is completely in denial that she’s only interested in him for his money. He’s exactly the type of quirky villain I’m interested in. I’d love to tap inside his head for a ‘fic or two.

The third main villain, Bird Brain, isn’t one of my favorites. I did enjoy a lot of the minor villains, such as the members of F.L.O.P.P. (the Fiendish League of Potential Perpetrators) who think they’re way more evil than they really are. Meerkat is particularly interesting. He’s obviously in the criminal business for fame rather than fortune, but planning isn’t his strong suit. He can organize a get-together, put together an evil lair, scout for useful weapons, he’s great at pep talks, he has connections- he can do EVERYTHING on the spectrum to put a criminal organization in motion, except actually think up ambitious plans. He works so hard, but he’s his own worst enemy.

He’s like an evil secretary.He really needs a boss to design plans for him and keep him on track and pat him on the head and tell him he’s doing a good job. If Snaptrap ever took him into D.O.O.M. (and listened to him), he’d have organization and Meerkat would have muscle. Seeing ‘kat run with the big kids for a day would be interesting, I think.

Anyway, there’s a nice handful of engaging characters in the show and some fun episode plots as well. The worldbuilding is decent, though there’s still room for headcanons to expound upon. I’d recommend it to anyone who thinks they might like it, because if you have a good attitude, you’ll see it as a good show. It has its ups and downs, but it’s cute and clever overall. There are three seasons worth of episodes (Seasons 1 and 2 have 50 individual episodes each) so if you watch it, you’re sure to find something in there you enjoy!

#asks #Anon #Eyyy Hartman gang!#Spy dog show #Vile Verminious #Lonely lizard #No mere cat #The tag I should check later

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icharchivist · 5 years

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I think Link and Lavi are excellent foils who's stories can parallel each other. Both are watchers. Both are suppose to remain neutral over certain areas. Both got attached when they shouldn't. Both were willing to sacrifice themselves for Allen. Allen thinks they're both dead. But Link is too weak willed right now to truly stand for his own beliefs. He's willing to let Allen fade away while desperately hoping he won't. Lavi has made a lot of strides to become more aware of himself and what-

2 life means to him. He probably still has ways to go but he’s far enough to know what to die and not to die for. It’s too bad Link didn’t meet Allen sooner. Maybe his friends wouldn’t have become Thirds/Noah slaves thanks to him handing over the akuma egg shard w/o question.

yESS my thoughts kinda??

For now Link is still “in progress” tbh, where Lavi went perhaps a little further already in how he pictured Allen.

I mean, Lavi experienced a time where he thought Allen was dead, had to face his murderer and at that time, was lectured like hell by his grandfather/his duty for letting this emotion get to him: to the point of having confronted his duty about it in Road’s dreamland and, while not yet to have a full solution, still had made progress in the acceptance of this part of himself.

Link didn’t experience any of Allen’s close call before Apocryphos and there was no grief from it since he jumped into it to protect him (and died) , there can also be guilt on realizing that he stopped Allen from saving Tokusa as well that might hold Link back for different reasons, and while he reminds himself to not be conflicted, Lveille didn’t even NOTICE this conflict, believes in Link’s loyauty, and for now is adamant in “protecting Allen” (until the 14th can take all control) so this loyauty doesn’t have to be put back in question about it right now, or at least it’s not an emergency.

I think that’s also a key of the problem right? Lavi had Bookman lecturing him, because well, as much as Bookman treats him, he treats him like a peer, a grandson figure, an apprentice who will be just as important as him later. Lveille meanwhile treat Link more like a tool. (The worst is that both party “cares” about Lavi and Link in their own way but it kinda makes me despair to have to call Lveille going to multiple length to save Link because his loyauty left an impact on Lveille and it makes him a good tool “caring”.) Lveille isn’t even doubting in Link, he probably doesn’t even think Link could let his feelings change his path, while Bookman considers Lavi with enough humanity to consider it.

The thing is that Link’s conflict is mostly internal at this point, he’s the one who’s raising his own questions, who noticed the conflict in his soul, and so far he’s allowed to carry on his duty and still keep an eye on Allen. He still hadn’t figured an answer either but as he’s also caught in the crossfire of “Wanting to Protect Allen” and His duty to protect Nea, he is forced to watch the situation and intervene to protect Nea. Which he did, and when he discussed with Nea he did no attempt to save Allen (not that he could have done anything anyway), just showed his major dislike to the event, and left as soon as Allen took control back. He’s still held back by his duty.

Which is not something I’m holding against Link btw, this is just an ellaboration of what i’m saying about Link still starting on this path of self doubt and tbh I think it is more normal when you were raised to be a weapon with unquestioning loyauty, than with Lavi who as a Bookman can afford to at least be social with people so he can get more information out of them, therefore still managing to access some sort of feelings by procuration.In comparaison, Lavi’s duty is not linked at all to Allen’s internal conflict, so Lavi could express his care of Allen’s situation without jeoparding his duty. Which Link cannot.

The moment Lavi’s conflict was voiced externally with Bookman putting spotlight to it, Lavi had no choice but to pounder it, to question it, to put it into perspective. And Road furthered that as well, pushing Lavi to find answers to questions, even if it was only acknowledging those questions existed: In comparaison to Link, Lavi questions the details of his loyauty to the Bookmen in a way Link hadn’t started to process with the Order.

and ye i’d go as far as to say that it’s the two things: the meddling or therefore, lack of, from Bookman/Road and Lveille, and how long they had been staying at Allen’s side.

Besides, Lavi discovered Allen as “the young naive recruit”, if he knew of the prophecy, he probably just raised an eyebrow like “seriously? that punk?”, and had to be a silent watcher, not having any involvement in this destiny. and then he went on a journey to discover what kind of person Allen was, and the tragedies that befell Allen where just as new for Allen as they were for Lavi at the time.

Link was asked to watch over Allen the moment it was known Allen had connection with the 14th, when Central started to meddle. He discovered Allen as “that fishy guy with links to the Noah and that shady Mareshall who is already suspected for his bad behavior”. There is a whole other journey in discovering Allen’s softer sides if only because Link was introduced to him as a potential enemy, someone who could become one, and had to be watched over for signs of said takeover.

And that’s also why it’s not innocent that Link opened to Allen right after Link wrongfully judged Allen’s attempt to save Tokusa and thinking “Allen joined the bad side”. The fact Link jumped into that conclusion is because it was the starting thought of the reasons he had to investigate Allen to start with. If Allen had challenged him so far, this moment was so shady to him that he jumped back on his duty and stopped Allen completely- leading to everything that went wrong afterward. With Link also realizing that he was too quick to jump on conclusion when he realized how all of this unfolded.

If Lavi’s major moments with Allen were linked to how much he shouldn’t get attached, with a battle in his own heart, and dealing with the grief of losing Allen, therefore challenging the very feelings Lavi had when he met Allen, Link’s major turning point was the moment he realized that by jumping right back on his duty at the first suspicion actually doomed Allen AND his found family. Link directly fucked up BECAUSE of his duty, not just “because his duty is there in the background”

The fact Link was wrong in his judgement and that his duty actually had Allen and the Crows suffer was the turning point for Link’s development. Before that, it was say like Lavi from the Vampire Arc to Allen’s death: sure, Link was softening up to Allen, especially in Paris after what happened with Cross, but he stayed focused on his duty and had no reasons to Challenge it. But wrongfully thinking Allen was hurting the Order was what caused Link to have to face his bias. Just like Lavi, it’s the wrongfull assumptions on Allen’s situation that challenged their views on their duties and had them conflicted ever since.

So in a way it’s fascinating because Link and Lavi has a similar journey for vastly different reasons due to their different background and the different people watching over their duties.

And in term of where they are now…. Lavi spent some time with Allen after Allen’s death. He had to process some of his feelings, dazzling light yada yada, Road’s dreamworld, the fight against Joyd, discovering the 14th ect….Sicne “Link’s turning point” Allen had been in jail, Link almost died protecting him, he was resurected at the last minute to watch over Nea and protect Nea. For now, Link didn’t have enough confrontation to anything else to challenge those feelings back, except for that one conversation with Kanda. And that’s also another thing: Lavi had to think about it and talk about it with Bookman and Road, and well, since his turning point, he had also others interreactions with people. (we can even count his outbrust toward Lenalee as a way to proceed that information). Ever since Link’s turning point, he only talked with Lveille who imposed him his new goal, Kanda who did further the questioning, and Nea, his duty. In opposition, Link is still far from being able to question it fully.(now my wishfull thinking would be the return of the Thirds if only to fuel Link’s views on that. If anyone can actually help Link emotionally proceed something, aside Allen, it would be them).

Had Link known Allen before the 14th mess.. it’s hard to say. His characterization was so much linked to his ties to Central that it’s hard for me to picture him trying to see something in Allen was he not asked to do so. It could have helped but i admit i don’t have the necessary projection for that.as for “Allen preventing the Thirds” i think i remember Link being mad at the Third because he didn’t know they partaken that experiment? It’s blurry for me.. but i seem to recall Link not being found of it to start with and i doubt Allen could have changed much to that situation. Although, had Link known Allen before, he perhaps wouldn’t have jumped to the conclusions with the Tokusa’s scene, so perhaps we would be in a totally different manga right now.

Take care!

#I don't think i've ever talked about Link for this long wow #I don't even think i've thought about Link this much in length before #try to get me on there though: I was in the fandom back when BEFORE the Alma's arc was released #we didn't know what to do with Link back then we had no clue what sort of character he would be #when the Tokusa stuff happened we were quick to jump on conclusions #and we DID believe him dead #his survival was revealed so close to the hiatus too (and personally it's when I stopped reading ) that I didn't take the time to process it #and him actually voicing how conflicted he is is pretty recent i think???#so ye Me overthinking Lavi for ten years VS me only thinking about Link for about 4 years: fight.#ichafantalks dgm #ichameta dgm #Anonymous #ichareply

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marieclune · 6 years

Text

November Health Update

Friends and Family,

I have been thinking about whether I would share a recent health update on Facebook/social media and I have decided I would because I feel it is so important to educate and spread awareness. I have always shared updates about my chronic illnesses here to keep my family posted, but also to educate as many people as possible since so many people don’t understand anything about chronic illness and how it impacts someone’s life. I’ve always known people may pass judgement as a result of these posts, but I feel a deep responsibility to speak out since I am one of the lucky ones.

There was a time, about five years ago or so, when the doctors were telling me I would never lead a normal life and I should apply for disability. They were prescribing invasive medication and recommending surgeries left and right, making it obvious they really had no idea what was going on or how to “fix” me. I was 19 years old. I had big goals for my life and I wasn’t willing to give up. Thankfully, I had great medical insurance and support from my family and I was able to look into alternate, more natural methods to cope with these illnesses. These natural methods are why I am able to function so well today and live life fully. Again, I am one of the lucky ones. Most people dealing with chronic illnesses don’t have access to the resources I did and I am grateful every day.

As most of you know, today I live in Jersey City and I work in Manhattan. I found a job with a company I really love this year and a role that makes me excited to go to work. I do life with the love of my life and the best person I know, Devin, and I have the cutest cat in the world. I have met amazing people since I moved to this area and I am sure many will be lifetime friends. I truly have a blessed life and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

This year, however, I was also diagnosed with a new condition, Intracranial Hypertension. I had been having the symptoms for years and yet again, doctors could not figure it out and were throwing pills at me. My pain levels became excruciating daily at the end of 2017 and through most of 2018 and I became determined to get answers. All of this led to a weekend in the ICU with a fantastic neurologist who was also determined to find the answer, and he did.

I am getting to my point...

Following this diagnosis, I have had to make several adjustments. I have to take medicine every 12 hours, almost exactly, to manage the pressure and pain. This medicine is hard on my stomach, so I have had to go back to a more limited diet. The medicine also makes me even more tired than I was before, so I prioritize eight hours of sleep a night and rarely make exceptions. I have good days and bad days, but there are more good than bad days now. Finally, and most importantly to this post, I am unable to take birth control pills because they exacerbate my condition.

Most people who are close to me know that I was diagnosed with a genetic condition, Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, at 12 years old and very soon after that decided I would not be having biological kids. When I was this young, my thought process was simple. If the condition is genetic, I don’t want to pass it along. I hadn’t even gone through the worst of my health issues at this time, but I still didn’t think it would be fair to pass it down to a child.

Fast forward 5-10 years later, and I had never had the desire to have biological children, and my health was always a major concern. Looking back, I made the decision not to have children very early on and was at peace with it, but when I was 19, the decision was really cemented. I was a freshman in college and I had to drop out because I was so ill. I was in and out of the hospital for a year or so and had a few near-death experiences. I knew that I would never, in a million years, wish this on my worst enemy, let alone an innocent child. If there was any chance my child would be sick like I was, I wasn’t taking the risk. Not to mention, my life would be in danger during a pregnancy because of my health issues. Intracranial hypertension was just one more diagnosis, one more reason I knew I had made the right decision early on.

On November 29th, 2018, I will be having my Fallopian tubes removed (permanent sterilization) in Richmond, VA. It has been a challenging journey over the years to explain my reasoning for this surgery to doctors and friends and family and receive reactions like, “You are too young to make that decision”. I kept asking every year at the gynecologist, but I knew this surgery likely wouldn’t happen until I was closer to 30 and I was okay with that because I could take birth control. In light of my new diagnosis and the fact I could no longer use birth control, I knew I had to find a doctor who would listen to me, listen to my story, and trust that I knew what was best for myself and my body, even if I am young. I am so grateful to have found this doctor at Virginia Women’s Center.

There are a few people who have been instrumental in this process and I could not have done it without their support. Fighting health battles is exhausting and these people kept me going. My mother has been my biggest advocate since Day 1, and she fought to find answers when I was young which led to my Ehlers Danlos diagnosis. My mom has been by my side through every sick day, new diagnosis, everything, whether she is right next to me or we are hours away from each other. My mom came to the doctor’s appointment in Richmond this fall to support me and provide background information that supported the fact I was 100% sure I wanted this surgery. I will also be staying with her after the surgery and through December as I have follow ups. My Papa, mom’s dad, has also been extremely supportive over the years and with this situation.

Devin is the most amazing man and has loved me so well and unconditionally over the past few years that we have known each other and dated. This situation has been no different. I told him about this when we first started dating and he has always been on board and in agreement. He has taken care of me almost as much as my mother at this point during flare ups at home or when I need to go to the hospital. Devin’s mom has also been one of my biggest supporters with this situation and in general as she understands chronic illness on a personal level.

I am posting this knowing that this is a controversial topic and there will be varying reactions. These reactions will range from full support to thinking that this is absolutely wrong and I shouldn’t be doing it. You probably have questions, like:

What does Devin really think?

What if you change your mind?

Why are you having your Fallopian tubes removed and not “tied”?

What are the side effects of the surgery?

I invite you to ask me these questions in a private message if you have them as I truly aim to educate. For the past few years, I have felt I am not in control of my body, future, or health because I am young and female. Doctors and people I don’t know very well have told me countless times that I will change my mind. It has been frustrating and depressing, but I continued to advocate for myself and my health and happiness anyway.

I want anyone who reads this far to come away with a few thoughts:

- Chronic illness is a daily fight and you do not understand unless you go through it or are around it constantly.

- Women have the right to decide what to do with our bodies and reproductive systems. Period.

- Don’t write someone off because they are young. Listen to them and their story, listen to their view of the world, and gain a new perspective.

- Be your own advocate with EVERYTHING- health, career, happiness. You know yourself better than any other human in the world. Trust yourself and find your happiness. It can be exhausting, and it usually seems so much easier to just give up and take no for an answer. Don’t give up. Keep fighting another day, then another, then another. Stand up for yourself even if others won’t. You will be amazed what can happen.

I hope this helps open minds and educate. I am always happy to chat about any questions you have regarding chronic illness or this specific surgery/decision. Thank you for reading.

Xoxo,

Marie

#chronicilllness #chronically ill #ehlers danlos syndrome #intracranial hypertension #gastroparesis #permanent sterilization #health

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redorblue · 7 years

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The Casual Vacancy, by JK Rowling

It might seem like it once I’ve started to get into it, but I don’t think this is a bad book. It’s not a waste of time, it had some interesting insights, and the writing style is fluent and at times really beautiful. I’ve only ever read the Harry Potter series in German, so this was the first time I read anything by JKR in English, and while the German translation of Harry Potter is mostly really good, it’s obviously not the original. Therefore this was my first encounter with her writing in its original language, and it proved to me that she knows how to use words. What bugged me about this book though is that I feel like story-wise and character-wise she overreached, that there’s a lot of unused potential in there that could have turned this book into a great read instead of an okay one, and that frustrated me at times.

It starts right in the beginning. The first portion of the book introduces the reader to the characters and their relationships with one another, and believe me, there’s a ton of them. If you get through that (and don’t put it down for long because then you’ll have to start all over again), you’ll learn the names with time, but the first few chapters are one relentless onslaught of names, jobs, husbands, wives, parents, kids, friends, enemies, colleagues etc. The whole town where the novel is set is at least acquainted, if not related by blood, with one another, and those ties are important, so I seriously considered setting up one of those walls you see in crime shows where bit of thread connect people and evidence and questions because everything is just so confusing. Don’t get me wrong, I like complex worlds with loads of characters, but if you have many characters that all get POV chapters, you have to introduce them right. Slowly, to give the reader time to process this new person and understand how they fit into the web of characters you’ve already laid out. Otherwise readers will miss half of what’s going on between characters and the reasons for their behaviour because the audience will simply be too preoccupied with trying to remember from whose perspective this section is told, or get the names mixed up altogether. But that’s exactly what happens in the first few chapters, it feels like an avalance of information that you try to dig yourself out of, with no chance to appreciate the nuances.

As I said, it gets better after a while, but the structure doesn’t really help. The book has chapters that are further divided into sections, and with each break you can expect a change of POV (meaning that they’re mostly just a few pages long - not enough to really get into the character’s head), but sometimes the perspective changes within one section, and that confuses things even further - when you have to figure out anew who the pronouns belong to, who’s talking, why the person in whose head you’re sitting suddenly turns so hostile... Admittedly it’s been a long time since I’ve written anything creative myself, and I don’t wanna seem all stuck-up here since I certainly couldn’t do it any better, but wouldn’t it have been possible to stick to one POV in one section and still convey the same amount of information? All this jumping around did was to confuse me and prevent me from immersing myself into the story and the characters, and since I think this book is supposed to be rather character-driven, that’s really bad. There’s this ball game that kids play in Germany called piggy in the middle, where several people pass a ball to each other and one person in the middle has to run after it and try to catch it, and this book reminded me a lot of this game. I felt like the narrative was the ball and I the player in the middle, always rushing after it and getting close to one character, only to turn away and follow the ball to another. I never liked the game, and I definitely don’t like this feeling in books, especially when their main asset is their characters.

And that’s another thing, the characters. I haven’t counted them, but I’d estimate that there’s around 20 POV characters in a book of 500 pages, plus loads of supporting characters that are seldom more than colourless extras populating the background. Am I the only one who thinks that 20 POVs is a bit much? You can have that amount in a series like A Song of Ice and Fire with five books so far that each have a thousand pages, give or take. And you can have that amount of fleshed-out characters in a series like Harry Potter with seven books. But if you only have 500 pages to create a main cast of 20 credible, breathing main characters, and tell a consistent story on top of that, even the best of writers would be hard-pressed to make it work. As it is, the characters are little more than cliches that I could summarize in one sentence each. Sam, for example, is the unhappy small town wife who became pregnant too early, sacrificed her dreams of the future and now resents everyone and everything around her. Gavin is the typical unreliable bachelor who’ll never settle for anyone. Parminder is the lifelong overachiever who’s so repressed internally that she bullies her daughter and snaps at the worst possible moment. See what I mean?

This is how they start, and this is also how the story leaves them 500 pages later (except for two characters, but they die, and that’s really not how character development works). The only character who develops a bit over the course of the story, a teenager calles Fats who’s obsessed with authenticity, started out as kinda implausible, because honestly, show me a teenage boy who goes through life asking himself whether his actions are authentic or not. I’m not implying that teenagers have to be shallow in order to be credible, but authenticity as the only guiding principle, the sole obsession of any person seems rather fabricated to me. As was the case with some other characters who seemed to be constructed around one single, equally weird concept, which is exactly what made them feel so one-sided and shallow.

The problem with this, apart from being boring, is that if a character’s trait annoys you, the whole character will annoy you because there will be little to no background or differentiating features that would help you to like or at least find that character interesting. I did develop an interest in a few characters, but the majority of them is not made to be likeable, or relatable, and due to lack of space also not really intriguing, so most of the sections I felt the temptation to skip. I don’t do that on principle, so I didn’t, but there’s only so much time you can spend in the head of Shirley the Self-Absorbed Housewife. And also... It’s just a feeling, but it seemed to me that JK Rowling went too far in making this story gritty and real and staring-into-the-abyss-like, that she tried too hard. There’s rape (quite graphic), and self-harm in combination with suicidal thoughts, and actual suicide, and probably pedophilia, although I’m not sure if the guy is an actual pedophile or if that’s his anxiety altering his perception, and how the hell am I still not sure about that?? My point is, there’s an exceptionally high concentration of issues and weird people that just seems too much to be plausible for me.

Anyway. In my opinion the main problem with this book is that it doesn’t have enough space to properly develop its ambitiously outsized cast of characters and their respective side plots. This leads to the majority of the characters seeming one-dimensional and annoying, many of the potentially interesting side plots just barely outlined, and the main plot drowning somewhere in between (you may have noticed that I didn’t say anything about what the book is actually about, but bombarded you with details. Well. Point made). That’s what I mean with unused potential: This book could have been great, it could have tackled social issues, it could have been an in-depth character study, it could have painted a realistic picture of small British towns, and I’m quite sure JKR would have been able to pull it off if it had more space. But it didn’t, and all these missed chances ate away at my ability to truly enjoy this book, and this is how we got to me complaining about a book by JK Rowling for the very first time.

#the casual vacancy #jk rowling #book review #books #2017

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reeses-picks · 5 years

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Billie Eilish is pop’s newest wunderkind: WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? review

Billie Eilish is shaping up to be pop’s newest wunderkind, signed off on by the former titleholder herself. On a surprisingly well-crafted album, she makes a convincing case for herself as the voice of her generation. At its best, the album fine-tunes Eilish’s aesthetic and dismantles pop tropes, but the throughline of the LP is the often melodramatic teenage mind, which she approaches with consummate care.

★★★★★★★★☆☆

In a way, teen pop stars reflect the state of pop music of their time. The (largely female) teen music sensations of the aughts came from the likes of Disney Channel and Nickelodeon, and so they (or rather, their image) reflected the whims of corporations and industry big-leagues at the time: clean, unproblematic, uncomplicated role models. It explains why the narratives of these artists now, who have come to dominate the cultural zeitgeist, seem so incongruent with those from their past. Recent career-defining projects from Ariana Grande (Sweetener, thank u, next) and Demi Lovato (Tell Me You Love Me) render them unrecognizable from their earlier spotless identities; sexual liberation is a common theme, of course, but more interesting is their acknowledgement of cracks underneath the surface. The Jonas Brothers’ smashing comeback earlier this year is only made possible by the braggadocio that only sex can bring.

The pop machine remains entrenched to this day, but there are signs of a new force taking hold. Today’s rising stars come from YouTube and SoundCloud, predicated on actualizing the idea of freedom of expression, and altogether they reflect the democratization of pop music, if not of society as a whole, and the liberation that follows; without the presence of gatekeepers, they are forming their own image, completely unfazed by notions of commercial viability. Thus, Billie Eilish, the most recent SoundCloud find, mercifully relatively untouched by the machine, is nothing like the teen sensations of yore. For the past three years, she has carved out her own peculiar space, a space only those at the fringe would dare come close, and on her debut full-length LP, WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?, she fine-tunes that aesthetic with almost surgeon-like accuracy, but not by way of repackaging it more tastefully for the mainstream. It certainly sounds so at the beginning: most of “bad guy” sounds like a complete about-face, riffing on a melody that smacks of commercialized Halloween, almost like caricaturing her own aesthetic. But the album only properly begins in the song’s third act: a heavily slowed-down, bass-heavy, spoken-word section that is closer to her modus operandi. But it also works like a full-throated cackle -- “bitch, you thought” -- in the face of detractors, as if she can sense their sigh of relief (maybe she actually can). That stubborn self-assuredness and humorous self-awareness are just some of the things that make this album so enjoyable.

And so we enter the Billie Eilish Experience. The third act of “bad guy” acts as a lead-in but also a predictor of the album’s overarching style -- bass-heavy, largely guided by rhythm, otherwise sparse instrumentation -- and many of the album’s highlights follow this formula. The formula finds its most undiluted expression in “xanny”: the song never achieves anything close to a melody except the bridge, and its drop entails the most aggressive use of bass in recent pop history, probably blowing out most earphones in the mass-market range and rendering Eilish’s vocals totally unintelligible. But parts of the formula are scattered everywhere: bouts of very pronounced bass pop up in the middle of songs; sometimes there is a sole piano or guitar or ukulele, whatever seems to be her preference at the time; other times she hums out her own backing melody. There are also occasions where the tempo slows down way into ballad territory, especially towards the end of the album, and those moments are relatively less successful, particularly the closer “i love you,” which comes dangerously close to becoming a sobfest.

It has become pretty clear that most pop artists who claim to be anti-pop are bullshit, but judging by the way Eilish pushes back against pop tropes here, she may be one of the first true anti-pop pop figures (which is totally a category that exists), even if the musical structures she employs here are purely pop. On “xanny,” she refuses to succumb to the appeal of recreational drug use, while “bad guy” is a wholehearted embrace of villainy à la Taylor Swift, though Eilish’s attempt definitely carries more bite. Elsewhere, “wish you were gay” begins with an acoustic guitar, the epitome of pop authenticity, but subverts that with sounds of an audience -- the pitiful aww’s, the slight chuckles, and of course, the applause; she knows all of this is fake, and the broken fourth wall is a delightful sight (the subject matter is quite a misstep, however). But she is not always so proficient. The “good girl vs. bad girl” trope makes an appearance on “all the good girls go to hell” -- needless to say, she’s an advocate for the latter -- but it keeps the false dichotomy in place, instead of doing away with it entirely. Perhaps the biggest misfire here is “my strange addiction,” a mindless perpetuation of the equation between intense romantic attraction and a drug-induced high, entirely antithetical to Eilish's adamant rejection of the latter. (It is rather telling that the album’s biggest misfire is one of only two tracks Eilish did not take part in writing, but it is also surprising that she did not scrap it the moment she saw it.)

The common thread throughout the LP is the often melodramatic teenage mind, which Eilish approaches with consummate care. There is the inflated ego in “you should see me in a crown,” the quiet fury in “xanny,” the hopeless romantic in “wish you were gay,” the emotional confusion of “i love you,” or even the paranoia in “ilomilo.” But what Eilish arguably captures the best is teens’ often misguided self-loathing, particularly in the aftermath of a romantic break-up: “8” is Eilish’s “Liability,” a masterful treatise on low self-esteem, written by the perpetrator in the perspective of the sufferer. There are countless other brilliant songwriting moments like this on the album; thus, it is quite a feat that the entirety of the record’s writing is done by a grand total of two people. But “8” may count as some of Eilish’s and FINNEAS’s (brother and co-writer) career-best writing: melodramatic, yes, but tentative enough that the drama flies just under the radar (though that is also partly the credit of Eilish’s vocal performance). Most of the experiences on WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP might be universal, but some moments feel specifically informed by this day and age. “all the good girls go to hell” reflects generational anxieties about climate change, while “listen before i go” prompts hard questions about how we talk about suicide and depression (my own contribution: is there an acceptable way to talk about it in a public domain?); on a lighter note, “my strange addiction” faintly projects the millennial obsession with The Office.

It all culminates in “bury a friend,” the crown jewel of WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP and the musical apex of Eilish’s young career, where the best attributes of the album all converge. Its music video looks like a miniature horror movie, but the song itself sounds like it, too. The track’s staccato beat evokes horror’s signature flickering lights. Eilish’s hushed tone, whether alone or accompanied with backing vocals, makes the eerie atmosphere of the song, the background voice sounding like it is lurking directly behind her, waiting for a jump scare when she least expects it; her distorted screams would also make for a great jump scare. The errant sounds on the track -- the dental drill, the staple gun, the broken glass, the Easy-Bake Oven -- resemble things that go bump in the night. The song is written in the perspective of the monster under your bed, but not so much in the sense of the bogeymen of childhood as in the sense of one’s personal “monsters” and how we can all become paralyzed by them. The line between the person and the “monster” is never made clear, and by the end of the song, there really is no telling between the two; we are our own worst enemy, Eilish seems to point out.

What does this all mean, in the context of this new era of pop music? There are certainly many sweeping observations to be made: that Eilish signals a major shift in how pop stars are made, that she is reinventing teen-pop stardom, that her success represents an era where adolescents are finally taken seriously. But perhaps the most apparent conclusion is that Billie Eilish is shaping up to be pop's newest wunderkind, signed off on by the former titleholder herself, evidenced by a body of work uncompromising in its premise and surprisingly well-crafted in its substance. Perhaps our first taste of the album, the audacious yet clairvoyant “you should see me in a crown,” put it best: watch her make us bow, one by one by one.

#billie eilish #when we all fall asleep where do we go #bad guy #wish you were gay #you should see me in a crown #bury a friend #when the party's over #music review #music reccs #album review

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salarta · 7 years

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Gonna write some stuff. Don’t know if it’ll even amount to anything. We’ll see what happens.

Someone on Twitter, after talking with Nick Spencer, pointed out there’s a vast difference between Nick Spencer’s attitude of how Captain America “should be” versus Chris Evans’ behavior and attitude about current events. Nick Spencer basically says there’s no scenario where violence of any sort is permissible, whereas Chris Evans reacted to finding out about Damigo punching a protester in the face by more or less implying he’d punch Damigo if they met.

This is leading into something I’m starting to realize lately: a writer writing a character is quite different from an actor playing the role of a character.

In my personal background, I put a lot of weight into writers. Because of my own fic writing experience. By writing characters, I often saw sides of them that I never saw before. I got to expand my mental perception of both their fictional world and the real world as a result.

However, there’s a downside with writers that I’m starting to see, and frankly, that I’ve taken way too long to finally notice after a decade. Perhaps not writing for nearly a year myself helped me to finally see it.

Writers can see new sides to a character, but they’re also writing multiple characters simultaneously. This can turn out very bad for one or more characters. If the writer has a favorite, they’ll end up optimizing their favorite to the detriment of all the other characters around them. The writer will end up losing sight of what other characters have to offer in their own right, and only see them in terms of what other characters can do for their favorite. Other characters end up defined exclusively by their relationship to the favorite. In the worst cases, the writer might deliberately ruin one character cause they think doing so will really help put their favorite on a pedestal.

Being a truly good writer is hard, is what I’m saying. It’s hard to maintain an understanding of each individual character as distinct, and have each distinct character bring their distinct qualities to the table for relationship dynamics (romantic, rival, enemy, teammate, etc).

Actors are different.

An actor dedicates him or herself to one very specific role. They usually aren’t playing multiple characters simultaneously. This means that when the actor has to understand the character they’re playing, they do a deep dive. They try to get into that character’s headspace. They try to understand the character’s strengths, weaknesses, history, everything. But they don’t have jurisdiction over how another actor plays a different character. It’s collaborative in that sense.

This is why, I think, TV shows and movies seem to handle these sort of matters better in general. Each actor is bringing a full perspective with each character, as opposed to how a writer typically brings only one perspective to all the characters.

I should’ve realized this a long time ago, really. The road to understanding this really started with Final Fantasy X-2. The writer, Motomu Toriyama, had a specific idea in mind... and he didn’t care how he had to screw over the canon and its characters to make it happen. Actors wouldn’t do that.

I think what finally got me to pick up on this was Emma Dumont getting the role of Polaris for Fox’s new show. She’s so enthusiastic. She’s so delighted to portray Lorna, and so far, all the little teases and fun hints she’s given out has made me more excited for something tied to Polaris than literally anything I’ve seen out of Marvel since 2009 - when I discovered Lorna existed. There’s a purity to Emma’s interest, regardless of any direction for the character set down by Fox. This is only possible because Emma’s an actor, and as an actor, she’s dedicated to the character she’s playing. She’s not juggling 5-10 characters at the same time.

Which brings me back to Nick Spencer. His remarks go a long way to highlighting that a writer “dedicated” to a character can still not really understand the character. They don’t have to be the character, they don’t have to be a fan of character, they just have to come up with a storyline of their personal liking that they can put the character inside.

I’ve seen Zack Snyder decide Superman should be depressing, dark and traumatized in a world that’s basically Batman’s fitting Batman’s outlook because of this. I’ve seen Motomu Toriyama make Aya Brea look like a submissive coward that likes to run around in fetish outfits that tear off because of this. I’ve seen Nintendo permit a Samus Aran that acts weak and requires a man’s permission to not die because of this. I’ve seen Crystal Dynamics create a version of Lara Croft that throws away her heroic icon badassery in favor of a horror film final girl trope that has to be forced traumatized and nearly killed into going through the motions of what actual Lara once did with enthusiasm and flair.

Those are all things writers did. They had agendas, a limited perspectives that tainted what they saw in characters and possibilities. Actors are less likely to have that.

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viralhottopics · 7 years

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‘Ghost Recon: Wildlands’ review: Ambitious but poorly executed

Ghost Recon: Wildlands isnt just an open world game its a daunting expanse of unrealized potential.

SEE ALSO: 5 tips you’ll want to know before you start ‘Ghost Recon: Wildlands’

At first blush, Ghost Recon: Wildlands is a mesmerizing experience. The rocky hills in Itacua, the first province in the game, create a beautiful, treacherous landscape that is glorious to behold. But Wildlands quickly reveals itself as a husk, devoid of any life or meaningful story, with more veneer than actual substance.

A good start to the story breaks bad quickly

Wildlands narrative starts off compellingly enough. You play as a Ghost Recon operator, call-sign Nomad, in the wild lands of Bolivia, under the CIAs Operation Kingslayer. Your mission is to clear out the Santa Blanca cartel and rid Bolivia of its narco-state ties. But it isnt long before you discover the myriad flaws and plotholes that run rampant throughout the games latter half.

Yuri and Polito, the first provinces buchones (minibosses), were a fascinating pair to track down. Their cringe-inducing talk of necrophilia was enough to motivate me along the missions that would lead to their inevitable execution. Unfortunately, Yuri and Politos end was one of the only satisfying story conclusions in the game.

Everything in Wildlands takes place in an open world, which means that the buchones can be taken down in any particular order. Which sounds great until youre stuck in choice paralysis. I got so overwhelmed by the sheer volume of provinces to explore and buchones to execute that I began to resent the cartel map and its execution targets. Ten hours after starting the game, its repetitive nature and tone deaf narrative caught up with me.

The deeper Wildlands thready narrative gets, the more stale the ideas feel. Its flaws start with inconsistencies in the story but completely unravels when yet another cinematic rewrites a major plot point. But it was the ending both of them that was the worst offense. Not only is Wildlands narrative conclusion a massive letdown in terms of tension and story resolution, its treatment of drug trafficking and cartels is appallingly ignorant and still somehow heavy-handed.

Theres a way to handle those themes that doesnt rely on stereotypes or tired tropes. The Mafia games, especially the most recent installment in the series, provides a far more nuanced perspective of what it means to run a large drug operation. Lincoln Clay, Mafia 3s protagonist, and his gang leaders feel tangible, believable. Wildlands couldnt decide whether to be serious or satirical, evident by its bombastic characters that felt too ridiculous to be taken seriously, even if that was the purpose. Wildlands is a poignant reminder that painting broad strokes on top of existing real world issues is not the way to tell a compelling story.

Sniping is everything and your drone is your only friend

Story isnt always necessary to enjoying a game but, sadly in this case, Wildlands misses the mark almostall the way across the board. Thankfully, between decent gunplay, enjoyable long-range combat, and a drone that has more personality than anyone else on your squad, it manages to claw its way back to mediocrity.

The gunplay is mediocre in comparison to any number of third person shooters, including Ubisofts own The Division, mostly because the contextual cover system is twelve ways to ridiculous. The cover system is unreliable, accounting for at least a third of my deaths it was hard to stay fully protected because there was little indication as to what was considered true cover and what was only a cosmetic hiding spot. The latter obscured my line of sight but didnt give me any protection from enemy fire. But in spite of the unintuitive cover system and the shrug-worthy gunplay, there were a handful of moments that made the game worth playing.

The long-range snipe is where Wildlands really shines. There isnt much to shooting from the hip, even after youve put points into that particular skill. But the shots I made with my eye down the barrel or through a high-powered rifle scope were often the most exhilarating they challenged me to think tactically, rather than just react to the environment. The quick audible feedback, followed by the target dropping out of his sniper tower when the shot struck true from 300 meters away (regardless of whether or not it alerted the enemy to my position) was often the best part of beginning an encounter.

The majority of the game is played at long range, so moments like this are fairly frequent, which means theres a lot of fist-pumping along the way.

Sadly, the only things that your AI squad is good for are fist-bumping one another in background chatter and soaking up sicario bullets. The background information on Holt, Midas, and Weaver indicates that they have special roles within the team. Unfortunately, those roles arent realized within gameplay. Youre still the one laying C4 charges and blowing up trucks full of coke, even though you have a demolitions expert in the squad. So, while its easier to play stealth-heavy missions with the AI (as their presence doesnt alert enemies), theyre little more than meat shields in the heat of battle.

Your drone, however, is your constant companion. In most altercations with either UNIDAD, the military police, or the cartel, the drone was the only way I stayed alive. Flying it (while safely in cover, of course) allowed me to mark targets, blow up a group of enemies, distract another group, and even revive a teammate remotely. My drone was my in-game bestie the only thing that kept us apart was a drone jammer and I always, always dealt with those first.

Vast spaces too empty for their own good

From breathtaking vistas to lush jungle rivers all the way to desolate salt flats, Wildlands has constructed a collection of incredible landscapes to explore. While Bolivias existence as a narco-state is a work of fiction, the environment is as close to real life as you can get without hopping on a plane (or three). Its a joy to ride a dirt bike around the early provinces, capturing shots of sunrises and twinkling stars, but the world is otherwise empty.

Strangely, the more you explore, the more overwhelming the world feels, in spite of the desolation in the environment. It takes a long time to travel from mission to mission the roads and mountains are unforgiving and expansive. As you uncover more intelligence within each province, the TACMAP becomes the most unsavory place in the game. Without a way to filter, it devolves into a lumbering beast with a plethora of icons obscuring the map and making navigation a chore.

Open world games shouldnt be daunting. Rockstar and 2K Games both managed to create open worlds that dont feel like youre drowning in them. So why didnt Ubisofts land?

Outside of the cartel hit list, Wildlands does very little to acknowledge progression. Theres the odd soundbite from DJ Perico, Santa Blancas propaganda-spouting mouthpiece, but there is nothing in the cinematics or the gameplay that recognizes the cartels destabilization. The videos from El Suenos perspective feel disjointed enough that its hard to believe that any part of the cartels operations are aware of one another. Story progression felt like a checklist of requirements rather than the interwoven narrative that it could have been.

Crackdown tackled a similar structure to Wildlands, but integrated the gang leaders executions into both the story and the gameplay. Each gang leader that you took out led to the decreased effectiveness of the gang itself. Taking out a particular leader could mean that enemies began to carry pistols instead of assault rifles; or typically well-defended hideouts would see their numbers drastically decreased. Sometimes, you had to fight certain leaders first before you could even think about tackling some of the games bigger fights.

Wildlands gives the player full reign of what to do and where to go next a true open world experience. But as I progressed through the game, it didnt feel like my actions impacted the game. It was a matter of finishing out a set of missions in order to get to the next set of missions, in order to maybe get the hint of a story. Crackdown, on the other hand, demonstrated through both gameplay and narrative how important it was to be tactical and strategic about the order of execution.

Huge, open world games need diverse soundscapes

Wildlands requires a lot of point A to point B travel but doesnt offer much in the way of companionship. Your options are either to listen to your squad mates drone on, or to endure the same two songs that play on the radio over and over again until youre fairly certain that you are, in fact, in hell. The combination of the two work to create an aggravating experience in between the major story beats.

Theres some satisfaction in looping through the terrain in order to pick up the plethora of meaningful collectibles, but even that wears thin.

Theres a hollowness to how your Ghost, call-sign Nomad, interacts with their squad mates. While Nomad perks up with comments about the mission every once in awhile, Midas, Weaver, and Holt are usually silent. The intermittent broisms including various musings about sex with twenty-two-year-olds and snorting coke to cope with altitude sickness cement how vacuous the game presents its operators. Granted, its a Tom Clancy game and exaggeration is usually the order of the day, but the dialogue writing feels downright lazy after more than a couple of hours with the squad.

There are only so many times a person can hear this medal has a coca leaf on it, thats kinda cool before they are driven to summoning an Elder God in order to end all existence.

Despite its best efforts, Wildlands can still be fun (with friends)

Somehow, out of the cocktail of mediocrity that the game serves up, Wildlands still manages to be kind of fun in partnered co-op. Hopping into a party, bantering with friends and taking down sicarios is pretty much the only way to enjoy playing the game.

With the exception of the day/night cycle, the entire multiplayer experience was disjointed. Weather conditions, radio audio, and incidental chatter was delivered locally, rather than synced across all players in a session. It could be a torrential downpour in my instance of the game while the sun was shining brightly in yours. But in spite of that, the multiplayer experience is what initially sold me on the game.

Cooperative play set a tactical atmosphere that solo play missed. While AI squad mates wandered around of their own accord, getting in the way of my tactical plans, real-life companions and I were able to coordinate our efforts more explicitly.

Everything except stealth missions were easier with human players because we had specialized our Ghosts skill trees. My co-op partners skillset was best suited for vehicle combat, so he often drove. My Ghost was far better at reconnaissance, so I would scout ahead with my drone, marking targets and blowing up small groups of sicarios along the way.

Were not booking a return trip to Bolivia anytime soon

Ghost Recon: Wildlands is an enormous departure from what makes Ghost Recon a reputable tactical squad-based shooter franchise. Beyond narrative fluff, the three AI Ghosts are indistinguishable from one another. Gone are the series staple of individual commands for squad members and the teams specialized skills in favor of a trite story with an empty, repetitive world. The mish-mash of ambitious, poorly executed ideas detract from what could have made the game truly great.

Sniping is a lot of fun. And roaming the gorgeous Bolivian landscape is absolutely breathtaking, no matter which province you find yourself in. But Wildlands myriad missteps are experiential landmines that blow up in your face in almost every province, with immersion and enjoyment suffering as collateral damage.

Amanda Farough has been writing about video and tabletop games for a number of years. Her tastes are eclectic and varied, with a love for strategy and action. You can find her on Twitter at @amandafarough, where she is likely shipping her Overwatch main, D. Va, and Lucio. You can also find her previous work at her personal site.