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direquail · 4 months

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My specific read on John is not that he's a nice guy, either. It's that, like any good character (specifically a tragic character, which, TM has said that he is modeled on a mythical tragic hero, so) he has a flaw that dooms him. And what that means is, when he has the choice to change what he's doing, that flaw either prevents him from taking the option he's aware of, or prevents him from being aware that there is another option altogether.

And so as a writer, what I look for are moments where either:

something good about a character becomes an excess that harms themselves or others

we receive information that shows a persistent blind spot a character has

we look for times when a character gives their view of the world/a situation and it Does Not Match Up with reality, or is hinted that it doesn't

we look for evidence of something simmering under the surface that clashes with their outward, agreeable presentation

What fills that role for John?

Yep.

When this first pops up, it's pretty easily dismissed as yet another layer on the falsehood he's propped up. Admittedly, he's been doing it for ten thousand years, so it's probably got a few layers to it.

However:

This one, to me, gives us a hint about what John is blind to: That his friends see his vindictiveness and his failings and that they could still love him. This is where it crosses into tragedy, for me; where his own inability to forgive blinds him to the capacity that other people have for generosity--and so, to a world where "justice" means more than "vengeance for the dead".

And this illuminates the whole chain of events that leads him to that climactic scene in Harrow the Ninth, telling Mercy that she never would have forgiven him anyways:

John is, at heart, deeply angry--like most characters in the series, and like a lot of people who grew up in poverty, especially if they managed to escape it. He also has some deep sense of justice, and deep sense of judgment.

So we have this cycle of related emotions and ideas: Justice, judgment, outrage. And a human measure of selfishness, amorality, double standards, etc.

In one situation, this allows him to throw himself completely into the cryo project, something that (if it hadn't been sabotaged politically) could have made a difference to humanity. He brings in people who work to make it even better, who demonstrably want to make the outcome as just and humane as possible. It's also implied that this is part of why he received those powers; "I chose you to change."

(And, I'll be honest, one of the other things that I see that chafes me is the implication that there was nothing about John to recommend him to the Earth. I'm actually of the opinion that there was; she chose him, and I don't think she just rolled a d100 or drew a card off a tarot deck and called him up. John is also still a human, flawed person.)

Then, the situation changes. It's no longer an issue of dedicating expertise to solve a problem; this is a political issue, and specifically of rich people using their resources to shift outcomes towards the one they think will benefit them the most, that will secure their survival, explicitly at the expense of everyone else.

And their strategy is, profoundly: short-sighted and unnecessary (pooling resources would help create a better outcome for everyone, including the rich, by reducing global trauma and preserving more of the systems that already structure their world); bigoted and uninformed (many rich people think that the world has to be a certain way, generally that the world is violent, competitive, dog-eat-dog, etc., and someone has to be "on top", and there will always have to be a loser, or lots of losers); and utterly cruel, unjust, and pointless.

And John--John, who grew up poor, who grew up aware of the despair around him and the injustice of his position and more than likely made use of that anger to achieve what he had up to this point--John is so angry.

Because they're all the same. They're all the same. It's the same song, over and over again, no matter how stupid and pointless and unnecessary. He is certain, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it doesn't have to be this way. He passes judgment.

But John is losing to them, because he doesn't have the resources they do. He can hate them and fight them all he wants, and it doesn't matter, because he's nowhere near in the same league as they are politically.

And then, after the cryo project is cancelled, he gains his powers.

The thing about anger and judgment is that the deeper it runs, often, the more invested the person who holds that anger in themselves is in not seeing what they hate in themselves. E.g: John has conceptualized the people he's resisting as fundamentally unjust, cruel, amoral, and bigoted. There's a very good chance--to different degrees, depending on the person--that becoming aware of similar traits in himself might wake up those feelings he has towards those other people--aimed at himself (that is, cognitive dissonance). He can't see the things he's passed judgment on in himself and function. He's not like them; he's trying to fix things, to bring about justice.

Of course, there's justice as in "living in a just society", and justice as in "justice for the dead". But that's a later realization, because right now, everyone is still alive.

So John hides those parts of himself; from himself, from other people. So thoroughly he can exclude it from his consciousness and pretend it doesn't exist. He thinks no one sees the real depth of his own rage, his own cutthroat pursuit of a solution. And then, when he can't pretend it doesn't exist, he can still pretend to be the man he thinks they need him to be. He can "fool" them. He can say--he's trying. He screwed up. He doesn't know what he's doing.

And then, Casseiopeia says, No, actually, we know you, and we know you're horribly vindictive. And we're on your side--we're on the same side--our fight is your fight--and we love you. But your drive for revenge is seriously limiting your ability to imagine and create a living, just world, and that's what we're fighting for. Remember? That's what we set out to create.

And John's brain can't quite handle this; he can't imagine that they could actually see him and still be on his side. Because he couldn't see that and still be on his side. He can't forgive; he can't imagine forgiveness.

He can't see the things he's passed judgment on in himself and function.

And, by this stage, in some ways, it's already too late to change course. But this is one of several "come to Jesus" (no pun intended) moments where John could become aware of alternatives, or could change his behavior--and doesn't.

And I think this is where we get that self-awareness from, the thing that makes him creepy and tragic but also infuriating: He is aware, but apparently that's not enough to stop him from being his worst self--so is he just pretending to be moral? Capable of making different choices but choosing not to? And the weird statements he makes later:

This is, imo, not a power-hungry dictator who genuinely doesn't care about the cost of his throne, or a gleefully predatory abuser. This is a dude who's committed to a course of action and doesn't feel great about it. This is a guy who has violated his own sense of justice and has to live with it.

This is a guy who set out to save the world, killed it, and now the only thing that's left to him is to avenge it.

And like, from a mythology standpoint, that is exactly what the Erinyes are, like the Furies and Alecto. They are not the justice of Apollo or Athena. They are screaming for blood. They are hunting their quarry to the ends of the universe. They are chthonic.

Again: This isn't what Cassieopeia or Christabel said to him. This is what John has said to himself. This came from him. This is a reflection of what he believes.

And it encapsulates, exactly, why he erased their memories. Why he took away their agency.

The difference between him and many, many people is he had the power of a god and no one to check him when he was struggling with his own worst impulses. And then, he created a world where no one could, not just because then he could do what he wanted and pretend to be kind and loving and moral, but so that he would never have to lose the love of the people he needed.

Because, unfortunately, he still needed them.

It just took ten thousand years for the lie to unravel.

#the locked tomb #john gaius #tlt meta #i'm not a john gaius apologist. i just think about cognitive dissonance a lot #and frankly tumblr and twitter are the home of cognitive dissonance

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braininatankwithalaptop · 7 months

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I have torn thoughts on Red Robe's characterization in Mother of Learning.

On the surface, one can draw a parallel between his villainous motivations and those found in lazy action movies. "The bad guy is the radical extremist trying to destroy an unjust system instead of doing nothing like the good guys." But as I thought about the protagonists, Zach and Zorian, I found the parallel isn't the same. Zach and Zorian really aren't defenders of the monarchy, the noble houses, or the status quo. Zach ends the story fighting a legal battle to right a wrong done to him and Zorian ends up as the ambassador to the aranea to help them establish official diplomatic relations with Cyoria. Sure, neither character is specifically politically ambitious, but that seems to be from a sense of humility or desire for rest than actual satisfaction with the status quo. So, what is the actual foil between ZZ and Jornak?

We don't get a lot of specifics with Jornak's characterization, but two details stand out to me. 1) Jornak discovered the deepness of eldemar's/ikosian empire's corruption during a time loop that he had to cheat to retain awareness of. 2) Quatach-Ichl betrays Jornak partially by revealing his plan to hold Zorian's friends and family hostage because Jornak believes that the first ikosian emperor used the time loop to ascend to power and wants to use the same power to conquer the continent. Let's start with the first detail. Jornak discovers in his research that the injustice that happened to him was a result of systemic problems. He couldn't fix those in a month by himself in increments, which is the only time frame he had within the time loop. But he could support the invasion, he could leverage it to destroy *everything* standing in his way and be free to start over from scratch. The only way he could feel like he was making progress was by consolidating more personal power and perfecting the outcome of a horrific invasion. And he knew that the "boon" of the time loop was not designed with him in mind. It was made for Zach in mind and Jornak was terrified of being cut out of the picture and exploited like he exploited everyone else and was exploited. So he had to make a deal with Qautach-Ichl and Panaxeth, further committing him to the invasion as his only course of action. So, his actions are extreme but kind of understandable and sympathetic? But if we look at the second detail of Qautach-Ichl's worries of him we see he's making the same mistakes that he claims are the reason for the systemic injustices today. Jornak wants to "follow the cycle" as it were, and become emperor like Shutur Tanara with his boon of the time loop. He consolidated immense magical power, skill, and political/psychological insight of important actors in the world. All he had to do afterwards was become emperor and instead of being bad like him, be good. Easy, right? But for that to work he still has to conquer the continent which one can't and shouldn't do without committing so many atrocities and compromising so many morals. He may not establish the same systemic injustices but if he doesn't he will make different ones. Jornak sees the cycle of the time loop being an unfair advantage and allowing one madman to reshape the continent as they see fit and decides he's going to ensure he's the madman in hopes of making the world better. And here we see ZZ truly promising something different by not doing that. It is a repeated character motivation of Zorian's and Zach's that they wish to pay people back for the support they received in the timeloop. They consolidated power and then worked on ensuring others got the benefits of it too. The two of them aren't planning on being the singular most historically important people to culture and civilization, they want to give their own (partially) realistic contributions and help their friends do the same. Zorian isn't going to be the one that publishes revolutionary medicinal and alchemical techniques, but Kael might. Zach won't go down in history for single handedly hunting down and dismantling groups of necromancers and cultists, but Alanic and his sect of the church might. They are so committed to helping their friends, and Zorian especially seeks to achieve their goals not through dominance, but through diplomacy. Zorian and Zach's diplomacy and "political" intrigue are so integral to how they win in the end that I'm tempted to say the author read On the Origins of War: And the Preservation of Peace or something similar. Zorian secures an alliance with Spear of Resolve by proving his trust and alluding to helping a rival. Zorian gets important information out of Qautach-Ichl by making a cogent and good faith argument for him to not support the invasion. Zorian gets Oganji to flee the battle by giving up valuable artifacts in a bargain. And most importantly, the angels cut a deal with Zorian and Zach to not enforce certain clauses of the law if Zach and Zorian can skirt the letter of it.

I think if you really comb over how Zorian and Zach interact with antagonists, how others try to get what they want, and characterizations of conflicting people/organizations, politically speaking the story is about how important it is to compromise your goals in the name of results and your ethics as opposed to compromising your ethics in the name of your goals. ZZ break a cycle of exploitation by refusing to forget others and paying back debts. Jornak's bitterness and despair push him to make a deal with the "devil" (primordial) and fight for the short term, corrupt solution. I think this is the most good faith interpretation I can have about the character dynamics and themes of the book but who knows? I might be wrong due to projections.

#mother of learning #mol #red robe #zorian kazinski #zach noveda #mol spoilers #jornak dokochin #quatach-ichl #political intrigue #fantasy worldbuilding #literary analysis #I also had so many thoughts on how raynie's background and character arc parallel to this and zorian's story specifically #but that's a post for another day #I need to learn to be more succinct

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slocumjoe · 1 year

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Actually, I'll take a moment to describe what my image of Gage is, as someone who has never played Nuka World and can't (poor), and hasn't dug through all of his in-game lines (time consuming)

My 'fix' of Gage was exclusive nuka-world (I think that was their user) and another tumblr user who posted Gage specific reacts. Nuka-world was the Preston stan who had Tracy, pretty popular artist. You've definitely seens remnants of their work, but they deleted i believe. They portrayed Gage as, like, a weird, lemme teach you crime kind of uncle/older brother who liked lizards and simple mischievous pleasures.

The other tumblr who I do not remember the name of portrayed him as this...very nuanced individual, full of contradictions that he justified to himself? So, that Gage was closer to Canon Gage, from what I can tell, but he was written to very clearly not belong with raiders.

That Gage had good people in his life, growing up, that taught him strict morals; some of which he kept. He held doors open for women, he hated raiders as much as he thought that way of life was the only viable one, he was loyal to those who earned his respect and trust. He wasn't a good guy, but he could have been. If you scraped off the raider shit, underneath that jaded exterior was just a normal guy.

So, my interpretation of Gage is a somewhat weird, off-kilter, but no-bullshit man who didn't want to be doing what he was doing deep down, but was never shown a different way to survive, and even if it meant being the problem, he refused to sit and let himself be a victim. If he had a choice between problem, victim, and solution, he'd have picked solution. But he never saw that choice. And maybe if there was a choice like that, presented to him now, and that choice had some real spine to it, he very well would still choose different.

Now, that's almost certainly OOC. But that was still a character I liked; it reminds me of many people I know IRL. Not people I'd call good, because they've made questionable decisions and have odd views of the world. But they aren't bad either, because they have heart and try to do their best with what they have, which is little. This version of Gage isn't a good person, or a bad one. He's just a person.

More specifically, the way I always described him, mentally, is that he's "a wolf trying to become a sheep so the sheep stop headbutting him."

So, my Gage doesn't care for any raider shit. He's concerned about hygiene, he has tastes for the finer things in life that you can't brute force, he wants to do his own thing and be left alone, and doesn't necessarily want to bother anyone else. My Gage thinks economics are important, understands politics, supply and demand, the benefits of raider life VS the life of peaceful communities working together. He just sees that the raider way comes on top.

The way it would play out in my Sole's story, if she ever went to Nuka World, is she'd fuck with him, and force him to make that choice again.

Isadora would go in, kill Colter, talk to Gage, and realize: Oh. This guy doesn't belong here. This guy doesn't want to be here at all, really. He wants something this life cannot provide and couldn't sustain, because it opposes it on a fundamental level. But my Minutemen and my cities, they could. But he won't come willingly.

So she kills Colter, and tells Gage: I am going to come back with my army, and do whatever I have to do to save the people you are oppressing. I have the ability to do this as a weekend vacation; my men outnumber yours 20 to 1, and they don't share my compassion and understanding for your kind. But I can see that you are not like 'your kind.' I will give you the chance to unite and prepare for a siege, or to leave Nuka World and come back with me, as one of my personal unit.

And Isadora walks while Gage laughs her out of the room. He hates that he's left as Overboss, now, but that's his only worry. Farmers with guns? Pfft.

Then he starts hearing talk of the Minutemen, the first bit being "one of our guys spied on one of their bases and they have a lot of sentry bots."

"...how many?"

"He cant count past ten, since that's all the fingers he has."

Because Isadora is a robots expert. She makes robots. She did this for a living before the bombs. 1 sentry bot? Bad. 2? Fucking bad. Three? Nope, you're dead. 4? 5? 10? More? Overboss Gage is worried about the bots, but they can outsmart them, use mines, maybe get an EMP thing going...the farmers will drop like flies then.

"Farmers? No, we're hearing its a military."

"Pfft, a military."

"They have trucks and shit. Tanks. Vertibirds."

"...w-well, those sure do explode nicely...which they will..."

"They're all wearing combat armor and are armed with guns that make our pipe shit look like kids toys"

"...fine. We'll partner with local raiders and take them out as one unified force"

"They killed all local raiders. There are no raiders over there."

"Fucking what."

"There isn't even merc groups anymore because the Minutemen deal with everything"

"Fuck sake. Okay. Well their economy and whatever has to be shit"

"They have no poor people, no rich, no one goes hungry, everyone is clothed, and has access to Healthcare and education. They're having a lot of kids and people get old there. Some people are writing books and music and stuff. Making art again."

It takes maybe a few people reporting back with info before Gage realizes who has plot armor and who doesn't. And Gage, as much as he hates everything that is happening, wants to be an essential NPC. He gets the gangs together, tells them they're fucked if they don't do this right, and they kinda just blow raspberries at him.

Gage is at the Castle doorstep cussing out Isadora's name within a week, and he's the newest adopted adult within a few days.

He fucking hates Isadora and she just kinda treats him like an aggressive purse dog. "Oh, don't mind Gage, he doesn't bite!" (GAGE SNARLING AND FOAMING AT THE MOUTH IN THE BACKGROUND)

"Isa. Is that a fucking raider"

"yeah I found him on the front door I think someone left him :( and it's so cold lately and he looked hungry" (GAGE PISSING ON A MINUTEMAN FLAG AND MAKING BARF NOISES)

"isadora that is a grown man who is a fucking raider"

#meanwhile danse in the background; haha okay honey i guess we can take him in #(hates this but thats his wife. whats he gonna do? not support her???)#meanwhile preston; already throwing hands

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shcmook · 1 year

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Neverafter has been one of the craziest seasons of Dimension 20 on a lore level but there’s still a lot we don’t know about the true goals of the many villains or how they connect to each other. so I made this

LIST OF FORCES AND FACTIONS IN THE NEVERAFTER RANKED ON HOW LIKELY THEY ARE TO BE THE TRUE BIG BAD OF THE SEASON

(Updated through episode 8)

Mother Goose’s Book

While sucking people into the book at first appeared to be a thing that Timothy was unwittingly doing TO these people, I think it’s become clear that Tim is genuinely helping these people. Same with Scheherazade. I think the two of them are, pardon the pun, on the same page. And the rest of their two groups of adventurers are on the right trail to fixing the problems in their worlds. More or less.

The Big Bad Wolf

Listen I understand ranking him this early on the list may be controversial but like? If any of the villains of the original stories is as much a victim of the times of shadow as anyone else, it’s the Wolf. I do not think that a being representing Death and The End would be a true villain in this kind of world. That doesn’t make sense from what I understand of Brennan nor this world he seems to be building here. Plus like. We KEEP getting more and more hints of something bad happening to the wolf? And it’s not framed as a good thing? PLUS Ylfa’s storyline ending in her still rejecting, rather than accepting the part of herself that is the wolf doesn’t make much sense imo. All signs point to the Wolf being a positive, albeit hungry, force in this world.

The Spiders

Obviously they took up a combat episode but. Anything evil about Muffet has I think been dealt with at this point. Her and itsy bitsy are good guy creepy crawlies. No true evil here.

The Princesses

I’m pretty sure the princesses are also good guys. Cinderella definitely is. But they also seem to have their own goals and agenda that we don’t know much about? I’ll be MAD if they are all ultimately villains though.

Aesop

A little mean but he seems harmless. Mostly. Like the Fairies he seems to have a very specific way he thinks things SHOULD be, but his worldview seems very descriptive rather than prescriptive. He believes in morals very strongly because his world has informed that, not because he’s made it that way. But… enough of the similarities to some of the other villains are there that I felt I should rank him separate from the other storytellers. Like. Remember when his Lion just had blood dripping from his mouth as he said he didn’t know what he ate? Something’s fucked up with the realm of birds and beasts dude it’s not just me being wary of Lawful Good characters. Or maybe it is idk.

The Staff of Between the Lines

Its possible they may have unwittingly overseen some kind of revision to the narrative or held to some rules that have allowed corruption to take root. However I do believe that Key and Legend are good people doing their best to help, and the library itself seems to be a good thing in this world. (Or… outside of it?) At worst they’ve been somehow manipulated by darker forces to do evil in a way we do not yet understand.

Lord Bandlebridge

Member him? Imagine if plot twist he was the big bad the whole time lol. Shoeberg was always kind of a scummy place from what we’ve been told but seems ultimately unimportant to the big picture. Not a good guy. Probably not a villain we’ll see again.

The Fox and the Hare

Pib, while a little bastard, ultimately seems interested in upsetting established order in a way that benefits the small, poor, and kind people of the world. The other tricksters don’t seem to… get that? I think they play tricks for selfish reasons, and simply to cause chaos respectively. I think that’s why The Cat seems to be keeping the other two in check during the times of shadow. Because pure selfishness and chaos actually uplift the established order instead of subvert it now. They’re def not secretly the big bads or anything but I don’t think they’ll totally get what Pib is doing with Mother Goose. If they show up again there will be conflict I think.

Ogres, Witches, and Giants

We have yet to see any of these kinds of creatures but all three have been talked about and play roles in various characters’ backstories. I think, like Fairies and Princesses, they have their own goals for the world. But ultimately they’re probably also mostly victims of the narrative casting them as villains. Currently there’s no reason to think they’re anything more than symptoms of the Times of Shadow though. They’re not a real faction vying for control of the multiverse.

The Seven “good” Fairies and the one Wicked Fairy

We’ve only actually seen 3 fairies total. The Wicked one, the Godmother, and Turquina. We know there were 8 fairies at Rosamund’s birth (in the second timeline). Maybe there’s more fairies but if so, why are so many playing different roles in so many different stories? I don’t think this is a race of beings but rather a small group of incredibly powerful individuals who came together to bend the worlds of the Neverafter to their desires. And well. that’s bad, mmkay? They’re definitely not the good guys that most of them appear to be. But here’s the thing. They’re losing. They like the Happy Ever Afters. They like the smiles and the songs. They like the family friendly morals. And the times of shadow are fucking with all that. The fairies are definitely bad but I think they’re secondary antagonists to the rest of this list.

The Authors

I have three theories for the Authors.

they were meant to be implied lore, like The Bulb in ACOC. A thing that hangs over the story but ultimately exists outside of it. The implication that ACOC is inside a refrigerator is never directly acknowledged nor important to the plot. But in Neverafter, Ally rolled a nat 20 the one time that would result in us learning a fragment of this greater reality and Brennan went cosmic horror with it. If true, this theory means I’ve ranked these beings too far in this list, as they aren’t actually directly affecting the plot themselves. They write all stories and this is simply one of them.

The Authors are the true villains. Bad things happen to good people because that makes a good story and for good times to return, we must kill the Gods that wrought all suffering and create a new world on our own image, free of torment and pain. Or. Something. Idk killing beings that are essentially gods in this world seems a bit… JRPG? But maybe that’s where we’re going? If so I’ve not ranked these beings far enough in the list.

There is a near infinite number of these beings. But only seven have their eyes on this particular version of the Neverafter. Six have given their powers to our heroes. One has empowered all of their enemies. The fairies, tricksters, ganders and stepmothers alike. This one devil will never show his true face to the heroes, but instead, through these various factions, seeks to tear asunder the world of Stories the others have sewn together, and that the heroes seek to protect. The heroes won’t be able to fight a cosmic being, whose very words are gospel within this world. But empowered by these other Authors, they can defeat the parts of the narrative under his control. In this way these beings are not themselves the true villains, but rather like a force, without which no character has any agency. If this theory holds, then as a group they are ranked just right.

The Gander

The Gander and the Times of Shadow are one and the same thing. We’ve known this for a few episodes now. The bad times. The destruction of the narrative structure that dictates the rules of this very reality are coming undone. That is itself The Gander as I understand it. That said. I refuse to accept that the final boss will be a mean goose guy that grants wishes but at a price. That can’t be… it. Not in the Horror season. So as much as the Gander is cosmologically at the root of what’s going on, I think it is just a part of a more sinister whole.

The Stepmother

I wasn’t originally going to put her at the highest spot bc this seems too obvious but. she is currently the only person that really makes sense as an actual villain that can be fought AND is cosmically large and scary enough that she seems above everything else. There’s a lot of mean and scary things in the Neverafter but nothing so far is as mean and scary as the stepmother and the more we learn about her the harder it gets to really imagine that there’s something meaner or scarier than her waiting.

Prove me wrong, Brennan.

#neverafter spoilers #dimension 20 #neverafter #dropout #d20 #d20 neverafter #SHcMOOK

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vulpiximisa · 6 months

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So uh, yeah, i dont know what the point of this show is lmfao

From the get go, Maeshima is so unlikable, there’s nothikng about him that makes me want to root for him at all. We see him lose to Shinozaki and the declaration but like, what about it? Why do I want to see Maeshima beat Shinozaki? The only reason is because Shinozaki says he is unbeatable so that’s the only reason but why would i want to see Maeshima specifically beat him? I don’t. Like, at all. I literally do not care about this guy.

Losing his ice skating parents and being forced to quit skating because of his own bet was an interesting start but personality wise he is soooo unlikeable. The only thing that I would have liked to see more is maybe him and Terauchi since he still reponds/calls him by his childhood name.

The “I want to win!!!” is so not endearing. I’m just thinking about other sports series protags, most of them want to win because they love the sport so much and they just want to keep doing it. Or they want to win because their team wants to win and they just want to be helpful to the team/be a part of it, carry the hopes and dreams, etc. Maeshima here just wants to win against Shinozaki for what? For pride? The rest of Ionodai also are mostly in it for pride but like, they were a whole ass team before Maeshima butt his ass into the club.

I don’t have a problem with Sasugai and Maeshima as a duo, theyre both kind of assholes so i can’t really tell if they like “care” about each other. Yeah they had that moment in the last episode but i feel like whoever made this show was like “the coach and MC HAVE to be AS UNGAY AND UNHOMOEROTIC AS POSSIBLE”. Yeah we have the “I need you” line, but I didn’t feel ANYTHING from it. It’s like they HAD to add that line but it kinda just feels so forced.

Seeing the different parts of Shinozaki and Sasugai so late in the series is such a fucking waste. Like I get that it’s supposed to be some “ultimate pay off”, but I had to sit through all of this training nonsense that I don’t even care anymore.

Literally I can’t remember what goes on in the show? There’s a lot of technical practice and training and sometimes we see the competition but it just feels like a waste of time because we never actually see a whole performance. The last two episodes felt like that was the most performance they had tried to animate but all the in betweens will be audience and viewer shots.

I feel like they never really flesh out the actual rules or guidelines of the sport, so when they talk all the technical jargon it just doesn’t make sense and its just there to make the character look like they know what theyre talking about but you don’t even see what they’re talking about. The sport itself is a mess, like yeah its ice skating performing but why do they need to do it as a team? They have all these positions but what do they actually do? We don’t know because they never go into it because the creators probably also don’t know and they just wanted to sell a team sport.

I never, ever, Ever felt any camaraderie in Ionodai. It felt like a cop out because they already knew eachother from when they were younger but Maeshima and Sasugai always feel like they’re doing their own thing so you never really see them interact with the rest of the team. Instead of spending time showing the technical stuff,I’d rather see character episodes, because yeah we know Of the Ionodai members but we don’t know Know them, like, at all.

I’ve felt more camaraderie from Kogahara than Ionodai, and that team is literally just Himekawa and 4 randos. Also their coach just seems more involved than Adachi. Yeah I get that Sasugai is supposedly the Main Coach and they just learned that Super Move from Adachi, but he literally just sits there on his phone.

Maybe I expect my sports anime to go a certain way. Maybe they would have benefitted from having 2 cours, where the first cour is to set up the team and the second to actually compete? With only 12 eps, getting Maeshima into the Skate Leading world just took up so much time. I don’t want to say the competition is boring, but the competitions are boring. We never get to see any actual performance so why do I care about watching them train all the time. Couldn’t even give me character bonds. What’s the point of this show.

Unfortunately the character designs are very nice, Maeshima is very cool to look at, his ygo protag shaped hair and his performing outfit is so cool. The OP showcased Jounouchi in slowmo and its a fucking waste because he did jack shit, and the rest of the OP was too low budget to even give the entire main team a cool skate shot.

I think the amount of character for the series is a fine number, maybe spend a little less time on Kuonji sometimes. The twins are actually pretty amusing but a waste of seiyuu (the fact that they got both nojima brothers is hilarious to me) because theyre mostly whispering to themselves. I think Himekawa was the most interesting character, not in terms of personality, but in terms of his situation. Him starting out at home team and then just up and leaving to go to another school, and he was their ace too.

I think SLS fails because it doesn’t really do anything too different as a sports anime. Like everything is pretty predictable, the characters are what you would expect, and they are trying to sell a sport that isn’t complete because we never know the rules or anything you just have to take their word for it, so its not exciting.

The animation isn’t awful but you know they are “cutting corners” because you never see a full performance. I’ve seen some ice skaters in the reviews, and I don’t really know much about ice skating besides the little I remember from YOI, but even I can tell there isn’t that much actual skating. They show the characters doing the jumps and spins but you never really see a full body on the ice. Sorry I'm going to compare it to Bakuten, because Bakuten is literally a performing team sport, and even though you dont see the same routine every time, you see it in full at least 2 times, and every time it’s a little different, whether in a different angle or a different POV.

#pixi watches anime #re skate leading stars #this is mostly rambling theres no thoughtout outline

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theophagie-remade · 2 years

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Spiritually succeeding this other post, I'm here once again to go on and on about some things I see outside my little protective bubble, and while the language barrier prevents me from knowing bnha's actual target audience's (i.e. young japanese men) thoughts on things, as always reading those of its western equivalent is... an experience

I always go back to this BUT the fact that Midoriya can (and will) bring himself to the extreme should he believe it to be necessary has always been a recurring theme, and his "recent" rogue arc is something that encapsulated this very well. And it was incredible [with negative connotations] to see readers rejoice for it, and complain when class 1A intervened to get him back on track again

Whenever Midoriya got like that, Horikoshi made it a point to highlight how irresponsible it was, how unfair to himself he was being, and up until that arc everyone had agreed. So why is it that him destroying his body made him a dumbass who needed to get his shit together, but then suddenly him isolating himself and shutting everyone out made him cool and badass?

And in general what I'd like to do is grab these guys by the shoulders, look them in the eye and just. I promise you that masculinity is not just red meat, muscles, and sweat. Midoriya is a Boy and he's Sensitive and Awkward And That's Okay, any other man who likes bnha and isn't as insecure as you are has no problem with this, you are making up a Flaw to be angry about

Then there's Bakugou, a character whose arc has been incredibly emotion-driven, which isn't as common for male characters in shounen, and what made it stand out even more is what kind of emotions it has involved and towards whom, which again is something that sets him apart from the usual "bad boy who eventually turns good" archetype

Many guys dislike Bakugou because his current relationship with Midoriya betrays any "bullied person never forgives and/or takes revenge on they bully" power fantasy, but I recently read a comment that brought up the similarities between these people's attitude towards him and the one that they have towards female characters from other shounen manga (calling him a bitch, commenting on the way his development has taken place for how unusual it has been, arguing whether he's actually important or useful to the story), which I know may sound absurd at first, but it did get me thinking

God knows I simply refuse to entertain any thoughts™ on what Horikoshi has in mind, but narratively speaking - especially lately so - his role has been one that's stereotypically associated with female characters more so than with male ones* (love interests specifically, but again: you will never have me, Hope) (always worrying for the protagonist more than anyone else, evoking protectiveness and possessiveness from the protagonist, the protagonist acting and reacting to what is said and done to them specifically, being individually targeted for their closeness to the protagonist, etc), and after having read that comment it has been interesting to notice a small but still very real subset of dudebros, not that it has been a good thing

[*: obviously it's very misogynistic that the things I listed are almost exclusively associated with female characters to begin with and that it's surprising for a male character to be put in that spot for once, No One Is Arguing Against This. If anything, this shines some light on the fact that the world of shounen manga (and not only that tbh) would benefit from novelties like this one since people are acting like clowns over it]

While most of them (dudebros) still refuse to acknowledge how close Bakugou is to Midoriya, there's a minority that... has a funny way of indirectly acknowledging this, because of a combination of see: above reasons and see: homophobia. I don't really think that it's a coincidence that whenever something bkdk flavoured becomes popular, among the various kinds of hate comments, a number of people always comment that Midoriya isn't gay. Midoriya, not necessarily Bakugou as well

Horikoshi managed to go beyond quite a few stereotypes with Bakugou's character arc (ironic when you compare it to someone else's but I digress, this conversation specifically isn't about her), so it is sad to see people turn it into a chance to be bigoted towards other fans, because obviously all the comments they make aren't merely in "defense" of the characters themselves, but they're meant to be read by and hurt the often queer fans who share their theories/headcanons/interpretations etc

#studying so many of the cishet men who allegedly read and enjoy bnha as if they were microbes in a lab #bnha #animanga #mytext #char tag #midoriya izuku #bakugou katsuki #bakudeku #long post #salty

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askamnesiamoonjumper · 2 years

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Any complaints or problems you have with Ahit game (plot/story wise)?

A lot of my thoughts have already been said before but only main complaint is mu, some weird characterization, and cut content:

Not really a secret that mu was done dirty as a character but from a game standpoint her plot feels kinda clunky? You play the game and get so wrapped up in subcon and dbs and the alps that you kinda forget she’s there, I feel like the game would have benefited from the cutscene with mu and snatcher being added back in, as well as the cafe scene so the mu fight feels more natural that the characters like you and wanna be friends because in canon it doesn’t fully hold up with how they act to you in the fights

OH and I think hatties diary should be more prominent to show her POV more, like think of if after every chapter ends you get to read her respective entry about it! It’d be really cute plus add more insight to her thoughts, similarly to the cafe scene for the other characters youknow? also would have loved if giving mu the timepiece was at her fight when you beat her instead, like as an option to either take it back to your ship or give it to her like so SHE fixes things back to normal and it’s not hatkid having to fix her mess it’s mu learning her lesson, plus it would be more sweet, kinda reminds me of undertale when you get to choose to spare or kill flowey or when you hug asriel it’s like that sorta vibe I’m still mad that the ending doesn’t change, though this is a case where I wouldn’t use the cut cutscene bc hat adult doesn’t exactly fit with the canon game to me so this is the only cut cutscene I wouldn’t add back but yeah if I was a modder I would so try to do these ideas because I think it could definitely help with things being less clunky

I also think the third floor of the manor could have been reused/reworked to be more fun instead of just being scrapped, like imagine if it was made into more of a maze type idea where Vanessa chases you? It has a pretty good layout for a maze type thing already well, though it would need to be edited a bit to not have beta lore but I definitely think it would help, my friend was playing it and he said it was too short I definitely think the third floor could be perfect for a more scary final room with just walls to hide with you have no tables or rooms to use like the other floors it could add more suspense I think! Also I’d love for a few more diaries like more stuff with Vanessa as a kid or meeting prince I would have loved for more letters from him besides the one or maybe he gets his own diary just one page extra would be good like with all the papers on the walls theres good opportunity to show Vanessas decent or maybe diaries from prince where he’s worried about her or something I think it’s a cool idea if the second floor is showing her manipulative tendencies in life and the third gets to show the aftermath, it would add to the creepiness definitely

Also: grooves should have been on the cruise too and or whoever is on the cruise is dependent on who you fought, I also think conductors reasoning for wanting the timepiece should have been reworked because it works for grooves he's the one who is best for for being the one you fight, but I feel like conductors motives just are bad it makes him seem like way more of an asshole which yeah he is but he’s not like a straight up bad scummy guy especially compared to how he acts in the grooves fight, it just doesn’t fit to me like maybe there can be a backstory into the specific movie it was he lost, maybe it had a family member acting in it or maybe that family member wrote it so the movie meant a lot to him and had some sentimental value, but it lost because the writing ofc wasn’t up to par with HIS writing so grooves got the award, youknow just something small like that helps so much, plus to make his grandkids in the cruise feel more natural if we are told about them or his kid or youknow just SOMETHING to make his motive work besides “lol I hate grooves and I’m the best” like grooves at least had more substance in his motives for them to work, his was more justified idk it’s just bothered me ig?

like I said No real complaints complaints but mostly just stuff that could be added to make the characters motivations and personality more set in stone and make the story flow a bit nicer is all? I guarantee if the above mentioned stuff was in the game I think it would fix a lot of the fandom issues lol

#a!au #ahit #a hat in time #Grace post

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retrogradedreaming · 1 year

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okay so i went and read your pinned post on your oc blog and i wanna hear more about gingersnap book 👀 what are the characters like? what's the world like? i'm bad at coming up with questions so just share anything you want skjhgsk

sfksdjfld grace this made my morning <3 also don't worry about being bad at questions, I sent the ask about your OCs to you before 6am when my eyes had been open a grand total of five minutes, so you're good 😂

btw before i get into it, if anyone wants to see my wips, characters, thoughts about either, and other original work, i post more of that on my wip sideblog @slippersandsmoke

gingersnap book is the oldest project I have that I'm still (sort of) working on (since...2015? 2016? i can't remember when Liam and Elliott first showed up). it's a little complicated for me because very early on, the characters started as like side OCs in a collab fic sort of thing with my ex, and then these characters developed more completely into their own thing until I took them out of the fandom world where they started and just made them their own story.

the world is just our world and the story is set in the general area of where I live. that might change, though, because one of the characters supposedly lives in his family's vacation house and no one has a vacation house here. then again, maybe he can just move, idk, I've been taking a break from working on the main story this year, so I haven't worked out a lot of the details around the setting/reasons why one of the main characters lives there. which also means that anything I tell you now is subject to change later.

the story follows Liam and Elliott, who had a long-term relationship, broke up, and then come back together through a series of unfortunate coincidences and events. the characters are all in their mid-20s (y'know, to reflect that i was in my mid-20s when I made them), and the whole story is kind of like an exploration of the mid-20s experience of "what the fuck am I doing with my life?"

since this is getting long, I'm putting the specific character info for the four main characters I think about under the cut

Liam: He's a manager at an upscale restaurant in the area, he's from London (I think) and he's...hm. Not very nice? He tries to be, and he's reliable, practical, and gets shit done, but he doesn't do feelings. He moved to [the fictional version of where I live] for school, where he met Elliott. He's really into theatre, and he prefers directing to acting (though he's quite capable at both).

Elliott: Elliott lives in western MA, and he went to school for art. He loves to draw and paint, and he works at a bookstore and as an art teacher. He's very opposite Liam in that he enjoys his alone time, but he'd much rather enjoy time with other people and he has no problem being likable and fitting in with others.

Will: He works with Liam at the restaurant, and he bounces between jobs to pay for his apartment and help his mom support/care for his younger siblings. He has a German shepherd named Milo, and he's kind of a work hard play hard type of person, where he works a LOT but he knows how to have a good time. He's involved with Jasper, but they both have their own commitment issues, so they're mostly friends with benefits who are inextricably connected.

Jasper: He's a bartender, and he's had a rough life. He met Will in high school and spent most of his time at Will's house, so he essentially integrated into their family until Will's dad died when they were in college (Will dropped out after that because he needed to work). And that's when Jasper kind of left the picture for a while, since he thought his struggles would make it worse for them. But Jasper himself is really sweet, super outgoing, and he's the kind of person that people naturally look after because he's such a disaster that everyone's like "should probably watch that guy." But he means well, and he loves Will despite his commitment issues.

#grace thank you so much for asking seriously i could talk about my characters/wips all day long #i have so much useless info for all of these characters #this story is special to me even though i have complicated feelings about it now #will and jasper have been more the center of it lately where i just send my friend a bunch of thoughts about them #i'll hopefully go back to it someday with a new and better plot #gingersnap wip #oc liam #oc elliott #oc will #oc jasper #grace tag

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wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 2 years

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Character Origins: Amon

Amon’s origins are so unnecessarily complicated that it hurts.

Technically speaking, Amon has two separate starting points, and he is so far removed from the initial characterizations of both that it’s honestly kind of insane. The name and general appearance come from a character I designed for Six Shots; he didn’t have much in the way of personality, mainly just existing to be a goon for Marianna and to use his “raise the dead” powers to bring back Yuriko and Randall after they died. He was mostly just a plot device.

When he initially came to be in the rough draft of Rhine City, I actually planned for him to be the anti-villain big bad of the first trilogy. This is where the second inspiration comes in. His initial goal was going to get to betray and kill Eve for all the suffering she caused, and then spend book three working to genocide all angels. This was because he was pulling from an old OC from an untitled fantasy story named Asmodeus Angelslayer, whose main goal should be obvious.

However, over the course of writing the rough draft, as well as planning and writing out some stuff for him in the second book, he started moving away from that initial characterization and became firmly a good guy. Part of this was how Eve changed into being a more tragic anti-villain, part of it was Jack Fairchild shaping up to be a more logical choice for the big bad, and part of it was discomfort at having one of my most prominent POC become a genocidal madman (even if he would be redeemed and not go through with it). Even in the rough draft his charming and affable personality was there, so it wasn’t a huge 180 or anything.

Other aspects of him changed drastically over the course of the drafts as well, helping shape him into what he is now. The biggest thing, which I only dropped partway into writing the draft we’re publishing for your reading pleasure, was that Amon was Nadia’s biological father.

This was still in the story and being vaguely hinted at until a conversation gave me a horrible realization: If Eve is his adoptive mother, and Marianna is Eve’s adopted daughter, that means Marianna dated/had sex with her niece unknowingly. Incest in the books is relegated to fucked up villains and the Deerings only, so I decided that Amon was not her father, which has the added benefit of making a relationship later on less gross and convoluted. The foreshadowing, what little that was there, will still have some sort of payoff, just not a direct blood relation to Amon.

Then there was Amon’s powers. He actually had Tony Sugar’s power at first, creating honey zombies, and even was a famous confectioner in his spare time. This was eventually dropped and these elements created Tony, leaving Amon with no power. I debated for a long time on what he’d have, because it needed to be incredibly unique and powerful but not too busted. I finally settled on him being able to perform impossible feats with magic, but this also led into the above problem. You see, part of the lore of dhampyr is that their powers if they become a full vampire will always have some connection to their vampire parent’s power. In no iteration of Amon did he have any sort of connection to gravity in even the loosest definition, so that fed into his familial connection being removed.

The one thing I’ve always been sure of with him is his name, which comes from the villain from the first season of Legend of Korra. It’s a cool and mysterious name, which suits Amon well, though it’s not as meaningful as it was when he was triple-crossing everyone and had a hidden agenda.

Now there’s one other thing I’ve been sure of with him for a long while, and as long as you’re smarter than Gabby you already know it to a small extent. Amon was the prince in Eve’s origin story, and he was specifically the prince of Atlantis. This is why a lot of his friends like Rhapsody and Tony call him “Namor;” pretty much everyone Amon has told the story to knows he’s the prince. Gabby is, unfortunately, a bit naive. Disney’s Atlantis: The Lost Empire was a huge inspiration on how I described him as well as his tattoos; it’s also why Rasputin couldn’t place where he was from in the prologue.

Amon has been a very frustrating character to get down, but he’s definitely a rewarding one. I’m looking forward to show off more of his relationships with others going forward. Speaking of which, Amon is demisexual. Not sure where else to put this, so I’ll slip it in here at the end.

#the vampirino story #Rhine city

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kiss-my-freckle · 4 months

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Even though I love Elena and almost never get annoyed with her, I get the most annoyed with her with the way she treated people like Jenna and John. Even though I loved her in season 2, that was probably her most annoying season specifically because of the way she treated them. I feel bad for her though because she believed and said multiple times that whatever bad things happened wasn't because Stefan introduced vampirism into her life or because she was in a relationship with him, but it was only because she existed. During the times she said that Stefan didn't counter her because it was in his benefit for her to think that. She was more mad at Jenna for not immediately telling her about being adopted but keeps Stefan-related secrets like him being a vampire from her to the point where it leads to her death. Also John may have pretended to be her uncle at first, but that being worse to her than whatever Stefan did to her seemed odd to me. Even though John wasn't perfect I respected his character, especially during season 2. She was lucky to have someone like that who cared about her. She held onto anger for John far too long even though he cared for her without manipulating her forgiveness like Stefan did. Stefan stans glorify Stefan assaulting and threatening to kill John if he didn't immediately leave town as hot and say things like sTefUsSy. I was on Jeremy's side during those times where he told Elena that it was her fault that he found himself in chaos, though I understand her side too.

The comment Elena makes about Rebekah in 3x8... that's the Elena/Stelena and Damon/Datherine parallel to Rebekah. That's why Stefan's argument with Damon in 4x8 is laughable. Elena isn't at all blind to Damon and her relationship with him. That's why she spent an entire season being terrified. Not just of loving him, but admitting she loves him. It's because she loved Stefan blindly and recklessly that she wasn't afraid of him, that she believed he'd never hurt her only to have him nearly kill her. That blindness wasn't just in their relationship, but in aspects of the storylines surrounding their relationship. If not for Stefan coming into her life, she wouldn't be in danger. Katherine wouldn't have went after Elena because she wouldn't have known about Elena. No one would've known Elena existed if not for Stefan being in her life. Elijah believed Rose was lying to him when she said she found a human doppelganger. He didn't even know another doppelganger existed. It's all because Stefan entered Elena's life, which is why Cade blames Stefan alone.

I blame Stefan for Elena's problems with Jenna. Problems that began in the first season. It wasn't Stefan's place to tell Elena that she was adopted. That was a family matter he forced himself into and used for the sake of keeping Elena. Her anger with Stefan shifted to Jenna. That's how Stefan deals with his issues. He shifts his shortcomings onto others. Never mind what Stefan didn't tell her, and worry about what Jenna didn't tell her.

With John, her problems with him are similar to her problems with Damon. John and Damon have a great deal of parallels. I don't know if you know of the old saying, but... a parent is a child's first love. That's why guys have mommy issues and girls have daddy issues. Girls are prone to date guys that are much like their father. You can see what's gonna happen to Delena just by watching John and Isobel because they're written opposite. The cheerleader who is no longer a cheerleader, but a vampire. Delena's daughter comes later - after the two become human again.

I feel bad for Elena because if not for her relationship with Stefan, she wouldn't have lost so much. As her boyfriend, Damon would've pushed Elena to live an honest life. She still would've lost John because he would've fought to keep her human, but they would've had more time together because of Damon. Jenna would've lived because Damon would've pulled her into the fold much earlier for the sake of keeping her safe. Jenna's death basically shows why Damon entered Elena's life. He cared enough for her to know of the vampire she was choosing to date and the danger it presented her. For the same reason John told Jenna and Alaric got pissed about it. As upset as Alaric was, he was wrong for keeping Jenna in the dark and he knows it. Damon was different than John in the fact that he didn't outwardly tell Elena that Stefan was lying and keeping secrets. He pushed Elena to question Stefan and pushed Stefan to admit things to Elena. He didn't make it his place to say it, but made it his place for her to know it.

John is one of my favorite characters because he's very much like Damon. He does what he does for Elena's sake and never mind the hate she feels for him. With Damon as her boyfriend in season 2, things would've turned out differently because Damon would've teamed up with John sooner and they would've saved Jenna in the process.

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kitkatt0430 · 8 months

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I'm sorry if you dislike the character but. . . Cynthia (arrowverse) for the blorbo bingo card, please? I'm here to gather tea. *pours a cup*

So I definitely disliked her initially. She was there to either kill HR or drag him back to E19 for execution and had zero problems with any of this. After Lisa, it didn't surprise me that Cisco was flirting with her - Cisco has a thing for the dangerous ladies, annoying though it can be at times - but I liked the episode itself for forcing Cisco to step up his game with his powers and giving us a glimpse - through Cynthia - of how powerful Cisco could become in the future. (A failed promise right there...)

But Cynthia kept showing back up and she did get some interesting character growth. I wasn't thrilled that Cisco jumped into a relationship with her between the end of S3 and the start of S4 because I didn't think she was in a place where she was ready to actually be who Cisco needed. But by then I had started warming up to her. And I did like that she and Cisco were very cute together. Yet none of that shook my certainty throughout S4 that they were not right for each other. So it was a little validating when they broke up at the end of the season because love wasn't enough to keep them together when their needs were too conflicting.

So the problem of Cynthia mainly stemmed from her job. So long as she worked for the Collectors, an organization of dubious morality at best, she just was not going to be right for Cisco. And I think to some degree the show runners realized this because while in S3 the Collectors are poised as antagonists through Cynthia - who's growing sympathy for Team Flash was shown to be something that could put her at odds with and in danger from the Collectors were it known - S4 gave us a very different view of them. Cynthia's character arc at the end of S3 seemed like maybe she was headed towards eventually clashing with her workplace which, as the Collectors were shown to be a shady, unethical, and hypocritical organization, seemed like a good direction to go in for developing the flirtation between her and Cisco into an actual relationship over the course of S4.

However, S4 opened with Cisco and Cynthia already dating. And, not entirely surprising given so much of S3 was retconned in some form or fashion, Cynthia's relationship with her place of work was completely changed. She was no longer poised to have growing ethical concerns about her work. Her backstory questions with E19's artificial speedster were largely dropped. The Collectors was suddenly being run by her father, making her position there benefiting from nepotism that would insulate her from the consequences of her S3 actions. And when she wants to collect another person from E1 to bring back to E19 for judgement, she's in the right. The Collectors are, overall, still the shady organization of S3, but S4 tries very hard to pretend otherwise and make Cynthia's place of work a place of 'good guys' so that it would be an enticing place for Cisco to consider leaving Team Flash for.

Cynthia's characterization definitely suffers for these choices. While S4 undeniably fills her out as a character, it does so at the expense of her S3 characterization and the story arc she seemed to be on in S3. S3 was definitely the worst season of the Flash at the time, but the heavy retconning of that season's events going into S4 had a lot of 'throwing out the baby with the bathwater' vibes going for it. Cynthia was a popular love interest for Cisco at that point and I have no doubt that she was brought in specifically to fill that niche in time, but by rushing her into being Cisco's girlfriend, they cut her character development off at the knees. Cisco could not be dating a morally ambiguous character, after all. As Barry's best friend and a growing hero in his own right, Cisco needed to be dating a character who encouraged him as a hero and pushed him to better himself. (Kamilla does fit this niche really well, though I know she got a lot of dislike for not being Cynthia. Which is unfortunate.)

To some degree, Cynthia did this. She helped him really embrace his powers and the many ways he could use those powers to help people. But she and the Collectors could not be fully divorced from their S3 characterizations. Instead of S4 being about Cynthia taking inspiration from Cisco to leave behind an ethically dubious organization and truly finding herself as a hero in her own right, it became an arc about Cisco being tempted into abandoning his home for a bad path (Cynthia, Josh, and the Collectors) and ultimately resisting it. Which isn't exactly a bad story to tell, but I'm not sure the show runners realized that was the story they were telling because Josh is positioned as being a super cool guy (when he isn't trying to kill his daughter's boyfriend) and the Collectors as being morally correct this time around (even when they really weren't).

Of course, to really screw Cynthia over one last time, when she shows back up in S6, it's so that she can die in service of furthering Cisco's relationship with Kamilla, repairing Cisco's relationship with Josh, and earning Josh's approval of the girl who has taken his daughter's place as Cisco's girlfriend. Cynthia truly deserved better than that as her final appearance on the show.

#kitkatt0430 answers #kitkatt0430 rambles #blorbo bingo #the flash #fandom meta #the flash meta #cynthia reynolds

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writingwithcolor · 3 years

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What Does Our "Motivations” PSA Mean?

@luminalalumini said:

I've been on your blog a lot and it has a lot of really insightful information, but I notice a theme with some of your answers where you ask the writer reaching out what their 'motivation for making a character a certain [race/religion/ethnicity/nationality] is' and it's discouraging to see, because it seems like you're automatically assigning the writer some sort of ulterior motive that must be sniffed out and identified before the writer can get any tips or guidance for their question. Can't the 'motive' simply be having/wanting to have diversity in one's work? Must there be an 'ulterior motive'? I can understand that there's a lot of stigma and stereotypes and bad influence that might lead to someone trynna add marginalized groups into their stories for wrong reasons, but people that have those bad intentions certainly won't be asking for advice on how to write good representation in the first place. Idk its just been something that seemed really discouraging to me to reach out myself, knowing i'll automatically be assigned ulterior motives that i don't have and will probably have to justify why i want to add diversity to my story as if i'm comitting some sort of crime. I don't expect you guys to change your blog or respond to this or even care all that much, I'm probably just ranting into a void. I'm just curious if theres any reason to this that I haven't realized exists I suppose. I don't want y'all to take this the wrong way because I do actually love and enjoy your blog's advice in spite of my dumb griping. Cheers :))

We assume this is in reference to the following PSA:

PSA to all of our users - Motivation Matters: This lack of clarity w/r to intent has been a general issue with many recent questions. Please remember that if you don’t explain your motivations and what you intend to communicate to your audience with your plot choices, character attributes, world-building etc., we cannot effectively advise you beyond the information you provide. We Are Not Mind Readers. If, when drafting these questions, you realize you can’t explain your motivations, that is likely a hint that you need to think more on the rationales for your narrative decisions. My recommendation is to read our archives and articles on similar topics for inspiration while you think. I will be attaching this PSA to all asks with similar issues until the volume of such questions declines.

We have answered this in three parts.

1. Of Paved Roads and Good Intentions

Allow me to give you a personal story, in solidarity towards your feelings:

When I began writing in South Asia as an outsider, specifically in the Kashmir and Lahore areas, I was doing it out of respect for the cultures I had grown up around. I did kathak dance, I grew up on immigrant-cooked North Indian food, my babysitters were Indian. I loved Mughal society, and every detail of learning about it just made me want more. The minute you told me fantasy could be outside of Europe, I hopped into the Mughal world with two feet. I was 13. I am now 28.

And had you asked me, as a teenager, what my motives were in giving my characters’ love interests blue or green eyes, one of them blond hair, my MC having red-tinted brown hair that was very emphasized, and a whole bunch of paler skinned people, I would have told you my motives were “to represent the diversity of the region.”

I’m sure readers of the blog will spot the really, really toxic and colourist tropes present in my choices. If you’re new here, then the summary is: giving brown people “unique” coloured eyes and hair that lines up with Eurocentric beauty standards is an orientalist trope that needs to be interrogated in your writing. And favouring pale skinned people is colourist, full stop.

Did that make me a bad person with super sneaky ulterior motives who wanted to write bad representation? No.

It made me an ignorant kid from the mostly-white suburbs who grew up with media that said brown people had to “look unique” (read: look as European as possible) to be considered valuable.

And this is where it is important to remember that motives can be pure as you want, but you were still taught all of the terrible stuff that is present in society. Which means you’re going to perpetuate it unless you stop and actually question what is under your conscious motive, and work to unlearn it. Work that will never be complete.

I know it sounds scary and judgemental (and it’s one of the reasons we allow people to ask to be anonymous, for people who are afraid). Honestly, I would’ve reacted much the same as a younger writer, had you told me I was perpetuating bad things. I was trying to do good and my motives were pure, after all! But after a few years, I realized that I had fallen short, and I had a lot more to learn in order for my motives to match my impact. Part of our job at WWC is to attempt to close that gap.

We aren’t giving judgement, when we ask questions about why you want to do certain things. We are asking you to look at the structural underpinnings of your mind and question why those traits felt natural together, and, more specifically, why those traits felt natural to give to a protagonist or other major character.

I still have blond, blue-eyed characters with sandy coloured skin. I still have green-eyed characters. Because teenage me was right, that is part of the region. But by interrogating my motive, I was able to devalue those traits within the narrative, and I stopped making those traits shorthand for “this is the person you should root for.”

It opened up room for me to be messier with my characters of colour, even the ones who my teenage self would have deemed “extra special.” Because the European-associated traits (pale hair, not-brown-eyes) stopped being special. After years of questioning, they started lining up with my motive of just being part of the diversity of the region.

Motive is important, both in the conscious and the subconscious. It’s not a judgement and it’s not assumed to be evil. It’s simply assumed to be unquestioned, so we ask that you question it and really examine your own biases.

~Mod Lesya

2. Motivations Aren't Always "Ulterior"

You can have a positive motivation or a neutral one or a negative one. Just wanting to have diversity only means your characters aren't all white and straight and cis and able-bodied -- it doesn't explain why you decided to make this specific character specifically bi and specifically Jewish (it me). Yes, sometimes it might be completely random! But it also might be "well, my crush is Costa Rican, so I gave the love interest the same background", or "I set it in X City where the predominant marginalized ethnicity is Y, so they are Y". Neither of these count as ulterior motives. But let's say for a second that you did accidentally catch yourself doing an "ulterior." Isn't that the point of the blog, to help you find those spots and clean them up?

Try thinking of it as “finding things that need adjusting” rather than “things that are bad” and it might get less scary to realize that we all do them, subconsciously. Representation that could use some work is often the product of subconscious bias, not deliberate misrepresentation, so there's every possibility that someone who wants to improve and do better didn't do it perfectly the first time.

--Shira

3. Dress-Making as a Metaphor

I want to echo Lesya’s sentiments here but also provide a more logistical perspective. If you check the rubber stamp guide here and the “Motivation matters” PSA above, you’ll notice that concerns with respect to asker motivation are for the purposes of providing the most relevant answer possible.

It is a lot like if someone walks into a dressmaker’s shop and asks for a blue dress/ suit (Back when getting custom-made clothes was more of a thing) . The seamstress/ tailor is likely to ask a wide variety of questions:

What material do you want the outfit to be made of?

Where do you plan to wear it?

What do you want to highlight?

How do you want to feel when you wear it?

Let’s say our theoretical customer is in England during the 1920s. A tartan walking dress/ flannel suit for the winter is not the same as a periwinkle, beaded, organza ensemble/ navy pinstripe for formal dress in the summer. When we ask for motivations, we are often asking for exactly that: the specific reasons for your inquiry so we may pinpoint the most pertinent information.

The consistent problem for many of the askers who receive the PSA is they haven’t even done the level of research necessary to know what they want to ask of us. It would be like if our English customer in the 1920s responded, “IDK, some kind of blue thing.” Even worse, WWC doesn’t have the luxury of the back-and-forth between a dressmaker and their clientele. If our asker doesn’t communicate all the information they need in mind at the time of submission, we can only say, “Well, I’m not sure if this is right, but here’s something. I hope it works, but if you had told us more, we could have done a more thorough job.”

Answering questions without context is hard, and asking for motivations, by which I mean the narratives, themes, character arcs and other literary devices that you are looking to incorporate, is the best way for us to help you, while also helping you to determine if your understanding of the problem will benefit from outside input. Because these asks are published with the goal of helping individuals with similar questions, the PSA also serves to prompt other users.

I note that asking questions is a skill, and we all start by asking the most basic questions (Not stupid questions, because to quote a dear professor, “There are no stupid questions.”). Unfortunately, WWC is not suited for the most basic questions. To this effect, we have a very helpful FAQ and archive as a starting point. Once you have used our website to answer the more basic questions, you are more ready to approach writing with diversity and decide when we can actually be of service. This is why we are so adamant that people read the FAQ. Yes, it helps us, but it also is there to save you time and spare you the ambiguity of not even knowing where to start.

The anxiety in your ask conveys to me a fear of being judged for asking questions. That fear is not something we can help you with, other than to wholeheartedly reassure you that we do not spend our unpaid, free time answering these questions in order to assume motives we can’t confirm or sit in judgment of our users who, as you say, are just trying to do better.

Yes, I am often frustrated when an asker’s question makes it clear they haven’t read the FAQ or archives. I’ve also been upset when uncivil commenters have indicated that my efforts and contributions are not worth their consideration. However, even the most tactless question has never made me think, “Ooh this person is such a naughty racist. Let me laugh at them for being a naughty racist. Let me shame them for being a naughty racist. Mwahaha.”

What kind of sad person has time for that?*

Racism is structural. It takes time to unlearn, especially if you’re in an environment that doesn’t facilitate that process to begin with. Our first priority is to help while also preserving our own boundaries and well-being. Though I am well aware of the levels of toxic gas-lighting and virtue signaling that can be found in various corners of online writing communities in the name of “progressivism*”, WWC is not that kind of space. This space is for discussions held in good faith: for us to understand each other better, rather than for one of us to “win” and another to “lose.”

Just as we have good faith that you are doing your best, we ask that you have faith that we are trying to do our best by you and the BIPOC communities we represent.

- Marika.

*If you are in any writing or social media circles that feed these anxieties or demonstrate these behaviors, I advise you to curtail your time with them and focus on your own growth. You will find, over time, that it is easier to think clearly when you are worrying less about trying to appease people who set the bar of approval so high just for the enjoyment of watching you jump. “Internet hygiene”, as I like to call it, begins with you and the boundaries you set with those you interact with online.

#PSAs #asker concerns #diversity #motivations in writing #writing with diversity #blog housekeeping #internet hygeine #asks #WWC

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the-ghost-king · 3 years

Note

About the cupid scene, Nico was forced to come out, but its also made very clear that Cupid is the bad guy. So is Aphrodite to an extent. They have a twisted and fundamental misunderstanding of love and how it works for mortals. I get that people could be mad about how Nico was forced to come out and putting him through more emotional trauma, but I also think its very realistic in showing how callous and cruel the gods understanding of love is.

I am reminded of the quote by Madeline Miller, "There is no law that gods must be fair..."

I also understand why the scene might be traumatic for other young LGBTQ+ readers, I've seen a lot of people talk about the fear of being outed in regards to them reading that scene as a kid. I completely respect their feelings on that, and I understand that as well. However, as someone who had been forcibly outed once before reading that scene, that scene really helped heal me. I don't think the Cupid scene is inherently homophobic, and I'm often bothered by the lack of nuance regarding around how it's handled.

I recognize it's a very emotional scene, and that people may have a hard time fully separating their emotions from that scene, but at the same time if there's a group of people saying "hey I understand why you disliked this scene but it was really helpful to me as a child because of the different experiences I had" maybe slow the breaks and hear what others also in the community have to say before determining if the scene is homophobic. You don't have to like the scene, and yeah maybe the scene did hurt you but that doesn't make it homophobic.

I want to specify on my word choice there a little closer, because of course outing someone is an act of homophobia, and the scene is homophobic in that sense. However often times the conversation about homophobia in this scene goes to "Rick was homophobic for writing this" where personally I would say this scene toes the line at being too far without ever crossing it. Some people may think this depiction crosses the line into "Rick was homophobic for writing this" which is fine, but just because something depicted homophobia and hurt you doesn't mean it was homophobic. Something doesn't have to out rightly be stated to be bad, in order to be read as bad*, and the Cupid scene does a wonderful job of depicting this.

I talk here about how Nico is shown what love is, and how love is treated by Nico, and how it affects his character. I think it's important to note that Nico's entire storyline can essentially be encompassed in an Orpheus-like or Odyssey-like tale. Nico's undergone this huge emotional and physical labor all in the name of having some form of unconditional love. I think that post is a really important read in the context of this one because I very carefully outline how love shapes Nico and how Nico shape and chooses his own definition of love, but I want to specifically dig into the Cupid scene on this post.

The big criticism often seen is "it's homophobic" which I covered above, and I want to clarify I'm not upset with or mad at or trying to tell anyone they can't dislike it or even say you can't say it's homophobic (my words on my one post are a bit off I'll admit) but the problem I have is when people believe they hold a moral high ground for thinking it's homophobic, or they remove all nuance from the discussion with "it's homophobic". Which is frustrating and annoying because it's a very complex scene, and it really changes Nico's arc and personality and it does help characterize him.

The big reason it shapes him so much is because of the other largest reason the scene is criticized, Cupid's behavior. What often fails to be recognized in those scenes is that Cupid is intentionally painted as the villain, this is very important to the scene.

In the context of this scene Nico makes an unspoken choice, a choice of "what is love to me?". I talk about how Nico claims his narrative in BoTL when he overcomes Minos, and he partially peaks that arc by convincing Gods to join the final battle of TLO. Following that arc however, Nico falls into his second arc, his crush on Percy was important in PJO, but not as important as it is in HoO.

By HoO Nico's entire character revolves around Percy, how to help Percy, how to aid Percy, etc. All of this has to do with Nico's crush on Percy, but also as an act of repayment because Nico hurt Percy- Nico lied to him about knowing him at New Rome in SoN, and he goes to Tartarus shortly after... This mirrors what Percy did after Hades tricked Nico... Percy choked Nico because he was upset with him, so Nico tried to win back Percy's affection by bathing him in the river.

The Cupid Scene is the resolution of Nico's arc, he is essentially given a choice- Cupid or Jason?

For this reason, we do see Nico recognize love for what it has been vs how it could be.

Cupid is there to represent what love is, to Nico love is brutal, and painful, and a lot of hard work... Nico has made himself utilitarian in love simply because it is the only way he can find any affection. Love to Nico is about flaying yourself for the benefit of others, to trample any and all parts of yourself simply to appease those you care for, because you want them to love you so much as you love them. The parallels I could draw between Nico and Orpheus, or Nico and Odysseus... I'd be here a long while...

In that scene Jason represents the alternative form of love which Nico chooses after his interaction with Cupid.

Jason says during the scene that he "preferred Piper's idea of love" which has to do with kindness and caring, etc, and then Jason becomes the embodiment of that idea during the scene- which showcases the alternative of what love can be, thus making Jason a personification of love in the context of that scene.

Jason looks to Nico, he doesn't ask for more, he simply looks to Nico with understanding and acknowledges him for who he is, and he does the exact opposite of what Nico expects:

Jason loves Nico where he is, without conditions, without forcing Nico to become something more. Jason didn’t force Nico to say more than what was necessary for him to understand, Jason looked at Nico and he called Nico brave.

Cupid is a more volatile form of love than Aphrodite, Cupid shoots arrows that makes people animals, that can make a god grow insane, but Aphrodite's form of love is about acceptance and humanity (think to how she picked Ares over Hephaestus even if it was perhaps "wrong")- both are about truth but one is about force and the other about acceptance.

When Nico walks out of there, he makes his choice- he is forced to come out yes, Cupid is wrong for doing this, but Jason again stays a figure of love in Nico's life. Jason basically says, "Good job, I know that was hard, thank you for sharing and let me know if you need anything, people will care about you and understand you," again and again and again to Nico, he doesn't tell Nico he has to come out, and he agrees to keep it between them for now. Jason is love as acceptance, Jason is the first person who unconditionally loves Nico, and that's the choice.

Will Nico accept unconditional love? If the answer is no, then Cupid wins and Nico is denying himself. If the answer is yes, then Jason and Nico win, and Nico no longer needs to make himself utilitarian in love in order to be loved.

The choice is made with Reyna and Hedge, most specifically Reyna.

When he accidentally comes out to them, and they accept him without making a big deal of it, without show, just that acknowledgement and "thank you for sharing" and Nico accepts their words and friendship still- Nico made his choice then to accept the love he was being freely given.

“He carried so much sadness and loneliness, so much heartache. Yet he put his mission first. He persevered. Reyna respected that. She understood that. She'd never been a touchy-feely person, but she had the strangest desire to drape her cloak over Nico's shoulders and tuck him in. She mentally chided herself. He was a comrade, not her little brother. He wouldn't appreciate the gesture.”

This is where we see the slow and steady, and healthy, end to Nico's arc in regards to love really grow into itself, and he begins to heal. He no longer sees such an intense need to make himself utilitarian for love, and he begins to heal from his internalized homophobia too.

(Internalized homophobia discussions with Nico also bother me too often times, people too often assume you can't date while struggling with internalized homophobia or at least very heavy handedly imply that which is just not true... You may have some issues in your relationship, but you can work through the internalized homophobia while building a new relationship and be just fine. Also to assume someone has an unhealthy relationship because of internalized homophobia is weird and lowkey reinforces the idea that "broken" people don't need love, but also does a huge disservice to so many LGBTQ+ people who are happily married/themselves but still struggle with these feelings, and to see a healthy relationship depiction despite someone in that relationship struggling with internalized homophobia is fine and good actually. As long as the individual can recognize what they're dealing with, and work through it in a healthy and constructive manner, then there's nothing wrong there...)

When I started this post to be honest I thought I would have a lot more to say, it's a scene that touched and changed me so deeply as a person, and beyond that in a more objective experience it completely changes Nico's character, by turning his arc around and beginning his healing process. To be honest, there probably is more to be said on it, I just haven't found the words yet... I know parts of this post are clunky and in a year I'm going to read this and see all the places it could be better but for now I'm content with it.

Whether or not someone considers the scene homophobic is a subjective experience, but I think this is a very well written scene purely for the characterization and symbolism, intentional or otherwise. I don't really care that much to debate if it's truly a homophobic scene or not, I can see both why people say it is and why people say it isn't and that can be culminated into "people have different needs" and "minorities aren't a monolith". Personally my much larger complaint is the complete lack of nuance and insight scenes like this are handled with, not the matter of personal opinion an individual reaches on the scene.

*the post uses the word "adult audience" and yes, fair point, children should not be able to decipher symbolism to the extent adults can. But older children and young teens, which the RRverse series are sold for, is when critical thinking skills and media analysis do begin to become parts of classroom curriculum. The scene does an excellent job of not outright stating Cupid is evil, but of depicting that in a very clear cut way.

#nevermind i lied here you go #nico di angelo #meta #long post #anon #ask #internalized homophobia #fandom homophobia

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itsclydebitches · 3 years

Text

The Bad Batch: A Crosshair Analysis

Hello, Star Wars fandom! I have just completed watching—and loving—The Bad Batch, which you know means I now need to dump all my thoughts about the first season into the tumblr void. Specifically, thoughts on the complicated drama that is Crosshair. I have no doubt that the majority of what I’m about to say will be old news to anyone who watched the show when it came out (I’m slow...), but I’m writing it all out anyway. Largely for my own sanity enjoyment :D

I want to preface all of this by saying that the above is not an exaggeration. I love the show and I love the entire cast. My enjoyment in each of the characters is directly connected to my enjoyment of the season as a whole, which I say because I’m about to get pretty critical towards some of the characters’ choices and, to a lesser extent, the writing choices that surround those. Does this mean I secretly hate The Bad Batch? Quite the opposite. I’m invested, which is presumably just what Filoni wants. I’m just hoping that investment pays off.

But enough of the disclaimers. Let’s start with the matter of the inhibitor chip. I’ve seen fans take some pretty hard stances on both sides: Crosshair is completely innocent because he’s definitely been under the chip’s control this whole time, no matter what he might say. Crosshair is completely guilty because he said the chip was removed a long time ago and he chose to do all this, no moral wiggle room allowed. However, the reality is that we don’t know enough to make a clear call either way. The audience, simply put, does not have all the necessary information. What we have instead is a couple of facts combined with claims that may or may not be reliable. Let’s lay them out:

Crosshair was definitely under the chip’s control at the start of the series.

He was able to resist it to a certain extent, resulting in a pressure to obey orders coupled with a primary loyalty to his squad. See: telling Hunter to follow the Empire’s commands—which includes killing kid Padawans—but not turning his team in as traitors when they did not. It’s an in-between space.

Crosshair’s chip was then amplified to an unknown extent. I’m never going to claim I’m a Star Wars aficionado—I’m a casual fan, friends. Please don’t yell at me over obscure lore lol—but within TBB’s canon, no one else is undergoing that experimentation. The effects of this are entirely unknown, which includes Crosshair’s free will, or lack thereof.

Crosshair then becomes a clear tool of the Empire, hunting down innocents, killing on a whim, the whole, evil shebang.

In “Reunion” he’s caught by the engine and suffers severe burns to his face. One leaves a scar that covers precisely the place where the chip would have been extracted.

Removing the chip leaves its own scar behind. If Crosshair’s was removed, we can’t see that scar due to the burn.

After these events Crosshair seems to mellow a bit. He does horrible things under the Empire’s orders—like shooting the senator—but is still loyal to his squad—killing his non-clone teammates to give TBB a chance, saving AZ and Omega, etc.

Crosshair claims that his chip has already been removed. However, Crosshair is arguably an unreliable source if he’s been lied to or if the chip is still there, encouraging him to manipulate the team.

Crosshair claims it was removed a long time ago, which is incredibly imprecise. As we can see from just some of the events listed above, precisely when the chip came out—if it came out—makes a huge difference.

Hunter realizes this and presses for clarification, but Crosshair dodges giving it. Again, a legitimate belief that it doesn’t matter, or evidence that he can’t say because something else is going on? We don’t know.

Hunter checks Crosshair’s head and finds the burn scar which proves… nothing. As stated above, they wouldn’t be able to see the surgery scar one way or another: its existence or its absence. It’s useless data, as Tech might say. I’ve seen a few fans claim that Hunter was also feeling for the chip with his enhanced senses, but 1. I didn’t catch any evidence of that in the scene and 2. Even if we assume Hunter did that anyway, the chips are notoriously hard to spot. Fives and AZ couldn’t find the chip at first when examining Tup. Ahsoka had to use the force to find it in Rex. TBB themselves couldn’t find it at first in Wrecker. If machinery consistently fails to find the chip on the first couple of tries—it’s meant to be a hidden implant, after all—why would we believe Hunter’s senses could pick it up instantly? Maybe he missed it, or maybe it wasn’t there at all.

Crosshair appears to be struggling with a headache in the finale, just as he was at the beginning of the season and just like Wrecker was for the first half.

The point of listing all this out is to emphasize how ambiguous this whole situation is. I don’t want to use this post to argue one way or another about whether Crosshair’s chip is really out. I have my preferred theory (the chip’s still in, but only partially functional), but at the end of the day none of this is conclusive. The writing takes us in what I hope is deliberate circles. Crosshair says the chip is out? Crosshair is not a reliable source of information until we know if the chip is out. What other evidence is there that the chip is gone? A scar? We can’t see if there’s a scar. Hunter’s abilities? He only checked once for a canonically hard to find implant—if he actually checked at all. And why would the Empire want the chip out? Well, maybe it has to do with that push towards willing soldiers, but if that were the case, why leave Crosshair behind and have the “clones die together”? By that point he was one of the most willing, chip or not. Did they have to take it out because of the engine accident? Pure speculation. We just don’t know and THAT is the point I want to make.

Because it means the rest of the Bad Batch didn’t know either.

The core issue I have here is not whether the chip is in or out, or even how long it may have been in if it is out now. The issue is that TBB spent 99% of the first season believing that Crosshair was under the chip’s influence… and they didn’t try to do anything about that. They abandoned him. They left a man behind. Does this make them all horrible monsters? Of course not! This shit is complicated as hell, but I do think they made a very large mistake and that Crosshair has every right to be furious about it.

“But, Clyde, they couldn’t have gone back. It was too dangerous! Hunter had a duty to his whole team, not just Crosshair.” True enough and I’d buy this argument 100% if Hunter hadn’t spent the entire season throwing his team into dangerous, seemingly impossible situations to save other people. Crosshair became the exception, not a hard rule of something they had to avoid. They went back to Kamino for Omega, a kid they’d only had one lunch with, despite knowing how dangerous the Empire was. They went into the heart of an occupied planet to rescue not just a stranger, but one belonging to the Separatist government. They helped Sid when she asked and there was plenty of compassion for the criminal trying to take her place. Most significantly, there wasn’t the slightest hesitation to go rescue Hunter when he was under the Empire’s control, in precisely the same place. Every explanation I’ve seen fans come up with—Kamino is too fortified, they don’t know where Crosshair is, they can’t risk Omega being captured, etc.—also holds true for Hunter, yet there wasn’t a second of doubt about needing to at least try to help him. And his rescue was arguably far more dangerous given that TBB knew they were walking into a trap. Going after Crosshair would have at least had some element of surprise.

I think the problem with these justifications is most easily seen in “Rescue on Ryloth” and, later, “War-Mantle.” In the former, we do watch Hunter decide that going on a rescue mission is too much of a risk, only for Omega to talk him into considering it.

Hunter: “It’s a big galaxy. We can’t put ourselves on the line every time someone’s in trouble.”

Omega: “Why not? Isn’t that what soldiers do?”

Hunter: “It’s not worth the risk.”

Omega: “She’s trying to save her family, Hunter. I’d do the same for you.”

The arguments that sway him are ‘Soldiers should help people’ and ‘Soldiers should specifically help their family.’ So… what does that say about their feelings for Crosshair? They’re willing to put themselves on the line for the parents of a girl they met once at a drop site, but not their own brother? That’s the message the writing sends. “But, Clyde, the difference is that they had an advantage here. Hera’s knowledge of her home planet tipped the odds in their favor.” Yeah… and Crosshair is stationed on TBB’s home planet. Even more than them collectively having the same knowledge that Hera does, “Return to Kamino” reveals that Omega always had additional, insider knowledge of the base: she has access to a secret landing pad and the tunnels leading up into the city. That knowledge was given and used the second Hunter’s freedom was on the line, but it never once came up to use for Crosshair’s benefit.

“War-Mantle’s” mission puts this problem in even sharper relief. Another claim I’ve seen a lot is that TBB only took risky rescue missions because they needed to be paid. The guys have got to eat after all. Yet Tech makes it clear that going after Gregor will lose them money. They’re meant to be on a mission for Sid and deviating for that won’t result in a payment. He explicitly says that if they decide to do this, they won’t eat. They do it anyway. No money, no intel, a huge risk “on a clone we don’t even know.” But that’s not what’s important, the show says. All that matters is that a brother is in trouble. This time it’s Echo pushing that message instead of Omega. When Hunter realizes that they’re about to try and infiltrate an entire facility and they don’t even know if this clone is still alive, Echo points out that they took that risk once before: for him. “If there’s a chance that trooper is being held against his will, we have to try and get him out.”

Yes! Exactly right! So why doesn’t that apply to Crosshair?

“Because he tried to kill them, Clyde!” No, that’s the easy, dismissive answer. A chipped Crosshair tried to kill them. AKA, a Crosshair entirely under the Empire’s control. The only difference between his enslavement and Gregor’s is that Gregor’s chains were physical while Crosshair’s were mental. And again, the point of everything at the start of this post is to show that no one knows when or even if that chip was removed. TBB definitely didn’t have any reason to suspect that Crosshair was working under his own power until Crosshair himself said as much. We might have been able to make that case at the start of the season, but “Battle Scars” removes any possible confusion. The entire team watched Rex reach for his blaster when he learned their chips were still in. The entire team watched Wrecker become a totally different person and attack them, just like Crosshair did. The entire team forgave him instantly and had their own chips removed. So why in the world didn’t anyone go, “Wow, Crosshair has a chip too. He was no more responsible for attacking us than Wrecker was. We need to try to get him out, no matter how hard that might be, just like we had to try for all these other people we’ve helped.”

But they didn’t. No one even considered rescuing Crosshair. They only went back for Hunter and, when they realized Crosshair was there too, they didn’t change their plans to try and rescue him as well. He’s treated as a particularly threatening inconvenience, not another team member in need of their help.

The problem I have with how this all went down is that the team treated Crosshair like an enemy despite all evidence to the contrary. Despite Omega outright saying that this isn’t his fault, it’s the chip, the group seems to decide that he’s gone crazy or something and that there’s nothing they can do. “It’s fine,” I thought. “They don’t really get what the chip is like yet. They don’t understand how thoroughly it controls someone.” But then “Battle Scars” arrives and Wrecker is treated with such compassion (which he deserves!) only for the group to continue acting like Crosshair is somehow different. It’s easy to say, “But Crosshair shot Wrecker” and ignore the easy pushback of, “and Wrecker nearly shot Omega.” Up until Crosshair’s own accusations and Omega’s ignored comments, TBB’s understanding of the chip’s influence and the lack of responsibility that accompanies mysteriously disappears when the show’s antagonist becomes the subject of conversation. This is seen most clearly in how Hunter tries to frame things during his talk with Crosshair:

“You tried to kill us. We didn’t have a choice.”

“Can’t you see that they’re using you? It’s that inhibitor chip in your head.”

“You really don’t get who we are, do you?”

Hunter mentions the chip, but he acts as if it’s Crosshair’s responsibility to overcome it: “Can’t you see…” Of course he can’t see, that’s the entire point of the chip, the thing he currently believes Crosshair still has stuck in his head. But Hunter and the others—with Omega as a wonderful exception—never seem to have accepted this like they did for Wrecker. When Crosshair “tried to kill us” it’s seen as a deliberate act that he chose, not something forced on him like with Wrecker. When Hunter talks about their ethics, he subconsciously separates the team from Crosshair: “You really don’t get who we are, do you?”, revealing a pretty ingrained divide between them. Even Wrecker gets in on the action, the one brother who truly understands how much the chip controls someone: “All that time, you didn’t even try to come back.” What part of he couldn’t try is not hitting home here? Again, for the purposes of this conversation it doesn’t matter whether Crosshair was chipped this whole time or not. The point is that TBB believed he was chipped… and yet still expected him to somehow, magically overcome that programming, writing him off when he failed to do that. He’s consistently held responsible for actions that they were told (and, through Wrecker, saw) were completely outside of his control. Even when we factor in his claim that the chip was removed, TBB has ignored all the evidence I listed at the start. No one, not even Omega, challenges this super vague and strange claim, or seeks out proof because they don’t want to believe that their brother could willingly do this. There’s just this... acceptance that of course Crosshair went bad. Why? Because he was an asshole sometimes? Taking it all as written, it doesn’t feel like the batch considered him a true part of the team. Certainly not like Wrecker or Hunter. As shown, the batch will go out of their way, risk anything, forgive anything, for them. They have a level of faith that was never shown to Crosshair.

“Severe and unyielding,” Tech says and he’s absolutely right, but I’d seriously challenge this idea that any of the others would have automatically done better if the situations were reversed. It stood out to me that each batch member has a moment of doubt throughout the series, a brief glimpse into how they think the Empire isn’t that bad, at least when it comes to this particular thing. Basically, a moment that could lead to a very dangerous line of thinking without others to stomp it down. Wrecker announces that he’s happy working for whoever, provided they give him food and let him blow things up. Tech finds the chain codes to be an ingenious strategy and is clearly fascinated with their development. Hunter initially wants Omega to stay on Kamino, despite knowing that this Empire has already, systematically killed an entire group of people: the Jedi. Doesn’t matter. She’s still (supposedly) safer there than she would be running with the likes of them.

There’s absolutely no doubt that those three made the correct choice in defying the Empire, but I believe that their ability to make that choice is largely dependent on them having each other. They survive together, not apart, and it’s their unity that allows them to make the really hard calls, like setting out on their own and opposing such a formidable force. But if Tech’s chip had activated and he’d been left behind, would he have muscled through to escape somehow...or would he have gotten caught up in all the new technology the Empire offered him, succumbing to both his chip and the inevitability that if his squad no longer wanted him, why not stay? Would Wrecker have escaped, or been easily manipulated into a new life of exploding things? Would Hunter have been able to push through without his brothers, or would he have become devoted to a new team to lead? Obviously there’s no way to ever know, but it’s always easier to make the right decisions when you have support in doing so. Crosshair had no support. His team left him and yes, they had to in that specific moment, but the point is that they never came back. As far as we saw throughout the season, they never planned to come back. They all talk about loving the Crosshair who existed when life was easier, but they weren’t willing to fight for the Crosshair that most needed their help. When he says “You weren’t loyal to me,” he’s absolutely right. The same episode, “Return to Kamino,” gives Omega two powerful lines that the group rallies behind:

Omega: “[The danger] doesn’t matter. Saving Hunter is what matters.”

AZ: “You must leave.”

Omega: “Not without Hunter.”

The key word there is “Hunter.” Danger, stakes, risk, probability… none of that matters when Hunter needs help. Crosshair did not receive that same level of devotion.

Which creates a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. The group is upset that Crosshair isn’t rejoining them, but they fail to realize that he has no reason to trust them anymore. He’s not joining the Empire because he’s inherently evil and that’s that, end of discussion. He’s joining it because above all Crosshair wants a place to belong… and TBB has made it clear—unintentionally—that he does not belong with them. The horrible actions that Crosshair took under his own free will (theoretically) came after he realized that doing bad things while under the Empire’s control was, apparently, unforgivable. If it wasn’t, his team would have come back to rescue him. They could have at least tried. But they didn’t, so Crosshair is left with the conclusion that either what he did under the Empire’s control is something the group can’t forgive him for, or they can forgive that (like with Wrecker) and he’s the problem here. He’s the one not worth that effort.

“The Empire will be fazing out clones next,” Hunter says. To which Crosshair responds, “Not the ones that matter.”

He wants to matter to someone and events show he no longer matters to his brothers. So why not stay with the Empire? I mean, we as the audience ABSOLUTELY know why not. Self-doubt and feelings of isolation aren’t excuses for joining the Super Evil Organization. Crosshair, if he is under his own control, is still 100% in the wrong for supporting them, no matter his reasons. So it’s not an excuse, but rather an explanation of that very human, flawed, fallible thinking. He needs to be useful. He needs to be wanted. Crosshair is an absolute dick to the regs and I have no doubt that a lot of that stems from the harassment TBB has experienced from them (with a side of his inflated ego), but I’d bet it’s also due to Crosshair’s intense desire to be valuable to someone. He keeps pointing out the regs’ supposed deficiencies because it highlights his own usefulness. When Crosshair fails to find Hera, the Admiral says that soon he’ll get someone who can, looking straight at Howzer at the door. It makes Crosshair seethe because his entire identity is based on being useful, yet no one seems to need him anymore. TBB seems to no longer want him. The Empire no longer wants clones. Now even regs are considered a better option than him, the “superior” soldier. Everywhere Crosshair turns he’s getting the message that he’s not wanted, but he’ll keep fighting to at least be needed in some capacity, no matter how small. Even if that means overlooking all the horrors the Empire commits.

“All you’ll ever be to [the Empire] is a number,” Hunter says and he’s absolutely right. But to TBB recently, Crosshair hasn’t even been that. He’s been nothing. Nobody worth coming back for. To his mind, at least being a number is something.

I hope that all of this resolves itself into a conclusion that is kind to each side (preferably without a Vader-style death redemption), especially given the still ambiguous state of the chip, but from a writing standpoint I’m admittedly a bit wary. We’re obviously meant to believe that the batch all love each other, but as established throughout this entirely too long post, this season did a terrible job imo of proving that they love Crosshair. Or, at least, proving that they love him as much as the others. If this was really meant to be just a matter of miscommunication, with Crosshair making terrible life choices because he only thinks he was abandoned, then we as the audience would have seen the batch trying and failing to get him out. Or at least establishing a very good reason why they couldn’t take that risk, hopefully with entirely different side-missions so the audience isn’t constantly going, “So you can risk everything for Gregor... but not Crosshair?” I’m VERY glad that Crosshair was allowed to air his grievances to the extent he did, but the end result of that—Hunter continually denying this, Omega walking away from him in their rooms, neither Tech nor Wrecker actually sticking up for him and acknowledging the chip’s influence during at least some of all this—is making things feel rather one-sided. It’s like we’re meant to take Crosshair at his word and accept that he’s this garden-variety antagonist who joins the Empire because yay being on the winning side… despite all these complications that clearly have a huge impact on how we read the situation. It doesn’t help that the show has already embraced an inconsistent manner of portraying chipped-clones. We know every clone has one, we know only a couple clones are aware of the chip’s existence (and can thus try to get it out), we know they enter a “Good soldiers follow orders” mindlessness once activated… yet towards the end we see a lot of side character clones thinking for themselves. Howzer decides that he’s no longer loyal to the Empire, giving a speech where a couple other clones throw down their weapons too. Gregor was arrested because he likewise realized how wrong this all was. But how is that possible? Do the chips completely control the clones, or not? Are these clones somehow exceptions? Are the chips beginning to fail? All of that has a bearing on how we read Crosshair—what were his own decisions, how much he was capable of overcoming the chip, whether that changed at all during certain points—but right now that remains really unclear.

It’s details like that which make me wonder if all these other questions will be answered. Will the story resolve all those ambiguous moments surrounding the chip, or brush them off with the belief that we should have just taken Crosshair at his equally ambiguous word? Will the story acknowledge Crosshair’s points through someone other than Crosshair, allowing it to exist as a legitimate criticism, rather than the presumed excuses of an antagonist? I’m… not sure. On the whole I’m very happy with TBB’s writing—despite what all this might imply lol. Until my brain picks over the season and discovers something else, my only other gripe is not allowing Omega to form a solid bond with Tech and Echo, instead putting all the focus on big brother!Wrecker and dad!Hunter. I think it’s a solid show that does a lot right, but I’m worried that, unless there’s a brilliant answer to all these questions and an intent to unpack both sides of the Hunter vs. Crosshair debate with respect—not just falling back on, “Well, Crosshair is with the Empire so everything he says is automatically bad and wrong” take—we’ve just gotten the setup for a somewhat messy, ethical story. For anyone here who also reads my RWBY metas, I’m pretty sure you’re not at all surprised that I’m invested in going, “Hey, you had one of the heroes suddenly become/join a dictatorship and do a lot of horrific things, but within a pretty complicated context. Can we please work through that carefully and with an acknowledgement of the nuance here, rather than throwing the ‘evil’ character to the proverbial wolves?”

God knows TBB is leagues ahead of RWBY, but I hope things continue on in not just a good direction, but one that tackles the aspects of this situation that many fans—and Crosshair—have already pointed out. As much as I adore the cast—and I really, really do—it was discomforting to watch a found family show where 4/5th of that family so completely wrote off one of the members and crucially have, at least so far, refused to acknowledge that. I want complicated, flawed characters, but that’s only compelling when the storytelling admits to and grapples with those flaws. We have quite firmly established Crosshair’s flaws in Season One. I hope Season Two delves into the rest of the team’s too.

Aaaand with that meta-dump out of my system, I’m off to write TBB fic. Thanks for reading! :D

#The Bad Batch #TBB #Crosshair #Star Wars #SW #mymetas #do I take my life in my hands #by posting SW meta?#probably lol

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