#I could write a 20 more analysis on this scene alone. | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

sheridansunrise · 1 month ago

Text

I am back for part two of my chaotic notes about Sheridan that I made with the intention of trying to understand what it is that makes him my favourite character of all time! I wrote a similar amount of words about him in season two and season three, but season three contained far less in-depth analysis because I had covered a lot of things already and so it spiralled more into talking about specific instances in a bit of a different, less in-depth way. And out of those instances, I have picked out, hopefully, the most entertaining of my notes.

I didn’t write these with the intention of sharing them, I just thought it would be fun to do, but now I am sharing some of them so please do forgive any accidental paraphrasing of quotes (I’m not sure if there is any or not, but just in case). Also, there are a few words that I use in both their positive and negative meaning so I can only hope that the context makes it clear enough XD

Right, enough of me rambling, here are the season three notes <3

———————————————————————

Okay don’t say shadows and zoom in on Sheridan’s face, that is a personal attack 🥲

Appears coolly out of a lift

*angrily unbuttons shirt* “you satisfied?” 🤌

Imagine calling THE John J. Sheridan a coward 🤡

Saying that Sheridan basically is nothing without his guards/a gun may be the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life. John Sheridan has been in more life and death situations than this man has had hot dinners

ASSASSIN STYLE SMILE. OH HE’S NOT GOING TO SIT THERE AND BE CALLED A COWARD - THOUGH HE IS ALSO SECURE ENOUGH IN HIS MASCULINITY THAT IT HASN’T AFFECTED HIM (🤌). HE IS JUST GOING TO SHOW THEM WHO THE HELL IS IN CHARGE. FUCK YES.

Literally looks down on him somehow even though this guy is slightly taller?????? Like the power Captain Sheridan holds I—

oh to play chess with John Sheridan

*Shocked pikachu face* — it’s okay honey bun, you’re still good at chess!!!

I can’t describe that smile but it says a thousand words and most of them are expletives

You can literally see his angry breathing via a shot of his back 🤌

Also lol as if Sheridan would put his career over standing up for what’s right smh, you will never know what he’s really like 😌

he is. So. Cool.

The fact this woman is like “I think I could come to like you… quite a lot” as if John Sheridan has any interest in bigoted arseholes 🥱

Okay wait he’s actually got the perfect ASMR voice

AY- NO- YOU ARE NOT ON FIRST NAME TERMS WITH CAPTAIN SHERIDAN, YOU LITTLE BIGOT.

He is, let’s say it again for the people in the back, SMART.

“It’s sedition, disloyalty—“ “It’s an opinion.” 🤌🤌🤌🤌 fuck yes

“There is a difference between the position and the person who is currently occupying it at the moment” King shit right there

“If this happens again, you call me” everyone, I give you Captain Sheridan. Literally always working because he is in command of the 5-mile-long space station Babylon 5, which houses, may I remind you, a quarter of a million people… and yet he will come running if random store owner #324 is spoken down to.

“are you sure of that, Mr Bester?” If Sheridan looked at me like that I think I would 1). Burst into tears 2). Vomit 3). Beg for forgiveness for no less than 200 years

3 scenes. That’s all we got 🥴 like come on guys, Sheridan is so close to Z’ha’dum now, give me more scenes before his life changes forever 😫

No because Delenn looks sad/worried and Sheridan NOTICES. Like he fully mentally notes that, as if he wants to comfort her right then and there. Their love is beautiful 🤧

“I need to think about this for a while… alone. I’ll let you know when I have something to say.” *everyone stands up* “Delenn, stay.” *the softest smile ever* “I’m gonna need you for this” I PHYSICALLY CANNOT COPE. Essentially: everyone leave… but not you, never you. DECEASED.

He keeps looking at Delenn as if he is a mere mortal in the presence of a literal god, as he should 🤌

Poor boy has not slept for 20 hours

“I will watch and catch you if you should fall” “okay 😊” they are so cute I’m going to vomit

Sheridan trying to find a logical way to solve everything, duh 👑

“It’s funny I… I wish Delenn were here” someone call the police, I think my ship is trying to kill me by being TOO DAMN CUTE 😭

You doubted him? This is John Sheridan we’re talking about, of course he found a loophole 😘

Another sleepless night for Sheridan, let my boy REST for the love of god

“As much as our humanity got us into it, our humanity is the only thing that is going to get us out of it again” SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK 👏

“John, I can’t imagine the kind of decisions that are going through your mind right now, I’m sure they’re not easy. The important ones never are. But when push comes to shove you’ve always done the right thing” Thank you, David Sheridan, I think you just summed up why your son is my favourite character 🤝

“Only one human captain has ever survived battle with a Minbari fleet… he is behind me.” Delenn applauding Sheridan’s strength while simultaneously saving him from his own people? My serotonin is now at peak levels 🤌

“Seeing your face at that moment was probably the single finest moment of my life” when ur ship is so cute you have no choice but to give them a standing ovation

Okay hun, listen, I understand you are doing the right thing and doing the rounds, reassuring people and all that, but if you keep going out on your own without protection you may give me a heart attack 🤓

Everybody, I give you the most Sheridan-coded Sheridan moment of all time: Sheridan smiling as he picks up and smells an orange whilst he’s reassuring people and being a good leader, at the same time as someone is aiming to shoot him in the head

and also his arc is to die for (literally) (okay ouch, me… that was uncalled for)

John Sheridan punching the man who just injured Delenn with pure rage is finer art than the Mona Lisa

Oh my god the mess. Honeybun I need to teach you how to cook without destroying your quarters

the fact he spent so much time and effort cooking her food for her is the softest thing I think he’s ever done

“I’ll be right back” okay Sheridan, seriously, for once, LET SECURITY DEAL WITH IT. But also at the same time this is so Sheridan and I love it

Centauri!Sheridan isn’t real, he can’t hurt you

No because Marcus headcanoning Sheridan as Arthur Pendragon is calling me out so hard

“A simple yes or no would’ve sufficed, Mr Lennier” oh no… he wouldn’t like me. Sorry, Sheridan, I always over-explain 🥲

Seeing him for a split second is enough to bring me joy for an entire week???????????? Am I okay??????

Oh the hand movements of John Sheridan thinking - a brilliant art form

“Angry enough to kill me? ‘Cause that’s the only way I’m leaving” hun I’m going to need you to stop tempting death for the sake of my own well-being (and yours) 🥲

“I’ve got nothing to lose. Hell, my own government wants to kill me! And if we lose this war I’m just as dead” I think that this line, along with the pure anguish in his voice when he’s saying it, was put in here to torture me 🤠✌️

Sheridan has had too many nasty shocks over the last 24 hours. I would say pls give him a break but I know what’s coming next and I really don’t think it is a break

His first kiss with Delenn not being her first kiss with him is a very interesting concept for a ship and I’m slightly obsessed with the idea???? Like it comes so naturally to her (obviously) and so the kiss is perfect because she knows what his actions will be like I—

“I look in your eyes now and I see the innocence that went away so many years ago.” *cue Bart Simpson saying that he can pinpoint the exact moment that my heart ripped in half*

“I’m going to have to think about this for a while” me too, me too. Lots of processing required 🤓 I actually don’t know how he’s still functioning like a normal human. I was so silent after this episode that my dad actually asked if I was alright (oops)

*fist clench* *holds hands behind back* *paces* guys I’ve found it, a moment of perfect cinema

Seeing John Sheridan’s eyes darkened from pure fatigue is what true pain feels like

You’re telling me that on top of everything else, my boy is having nightmares? Do I have to march my butt all the way to Babylon 5 and stop everyone and everything hurting him?????

Um idk he’s just??? Everything??? To me????

“It’s my responsibility, I can’t put it on anyone else” this line right here, this is the epitome of Sheridan, and oh how it breaks my heart </3

“Delenn’s been through a lot lately” “she’s got enough problems on her hands without giving her mine as well” that’s so soft but so heartbreaking how do I react 😩

Deleridan figuring out the shadows’ plans? But of course 💅

She is holding his arm and showing him the army she has built for him. This is some power couple shit 🤟

“I don’t know what to say” *strokes his face in the most unbelievably tender way* “say nothing” *THE cutest, MOST perfect embrace and first kiss THE WORLD HAS EVER KNOWN* send me a coroner, I’m deceased

It’s actually not funny how sick I felt before sitting down to watch this episode and the next one. I cannot enjoy shows casually 🤟

This episode is undiluted stress 🤓

“I do love you. If you believe nothing else, please… please believe that” and he WALKS AWAY. FUCKING HELL. JUST TORTURE ME, IT WOULD BE MORE PLEASANT

“Son of a bitch” “It’s against regulations to address a senior officer in those terms, Mister Garibaldi” even when faced with certain death, he can crack a good joke

Oh fuck, it’s the balcony

John Sheridan 🤝 breaking my heart with facial expressions

That shot is burned into my brain, I don’t think I will ever be able to move on 😃

#i know the notes i share don’t really go into traits of his that i love #but that’s because the notes about traits or arcs are LONG #and also a bit too stream-of-consciousness #eventually i will put the more analytical thoughts into eloquent posts #anyway #i wrote 8355 words about sheridan in season three #you guys are not ready for how many words i wrote about him in season four #it will take me a bit longer to compile #babylon 5 #john sheridan #the john sheridan notes #also can you guys tell that sheridan x delenn is my favourite relationship #like I can’t #they’re too GOOD

15 notes · View notes

destinysbounty · 1 year ago

Note

Yo what if you went off about s3, it'd be cool

The love triangle, the quick tech development, whatever you want, I wanna know what you think

(I saw you in the tags of that post, please gimme the analysies. pretty please)

The entirety of my thoughts on Ninjago's technology are long and vast and complicated, and I could probably make a full video essay on just that topic alone. But for the sake of simplicity, and also because I'm too lazy to write a 10k-word essay with screenshot evidence on why Ninjago tech isn't actually anachronistic, I'm going to just focus on the season 3 issue for now.

Now, one criticism that often gets lobbed at Rebooted is the matter of the technology. How did Ninjago suddenly become a hyper-futuristic technoscape in the span of what couldn't be more than a year? At first glance, I can understand how that might feel unrealistic. I used to feel the same way! But it actually makes total sense when you realize that this technology probably already existed, if only in a beta form, for years before s3 started.

But wait! If the technology already existed in some form, then why wasn't it used? Why did Ninjago only become a cyberpunk dystopia during s3??

The answer to that question is something that sounds like a no-brainer, but should probably be said anyway: just because a technology exists, doesn't mean it is democratized. That is to say, just because a society has made certain technological advancements, doesn't mean everyone in that society can actually access those advancements. Look at any country in our contemporary world - richer and more industrialized communities typically have better access to cutting edge developments, whereas more rural communities may not even have reliable internet access. Even Ignacia, which is one of the most rural communities we've seen in the entire show, was depicted as having landlines and telephone poles in the very first scene.

Moreover, it's reasonable to assume that robotics and digital technology has existed - and fairly advanced - for decades in-universe.

My evidence? The creation of characters such as Zane and Unagami. Both were invented roughly 40 and 20 years pre-canon respectively. Coding, and especially programming an AI like both characters are classified as, requires the existence of a computer. Which means that computers existed as early as the Serpentine War. (Unless Zane is the product of magi-tech, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Especially since Zane's original body also has other functions that, to my knowledge, wouldn't be possible without programming. For now, I'm proceeding under the assumption that Zane was created purely with technology.)

For these reasons I would argue that certain technologies, and in particular digital technology, have existed in-universe for a lot longer than we might think at first glance - but due to what appears to be some very extreme wealth disparity, technology has only recently become more widely accessible within the last few decades.

Think about it. Most human settlements we see are fairly small and rural, except for Ninjago City. Ninjago City is the only city we've seen on-screen in the entire series (with a few small towns here and there, but it's mostly just villages). And even then, the cost of living in Ninjago City itself is astronomically high. There's clearly something funky going on with this country's distribution of wealth.

With that in mind, it makes total sense that the tech we see in s3 was at least in development a lot earlier than anyone might realize. It's just that it was too expensive and exclusive for anyone in the general public to actually use it.

Now, let's look at this in the context of Rebooted.

Imagine you're a multi-millionaire tech mogul and the CEO of a very powerful tech company. The city is in shambles in the wake of an apocalyptic battle against Lego Satan. You take this opportunity to spearhead the reconstruction efforts. On top of being an impressive PR stunt, this is also great for business as it presents you with the perfect opportunity to populate the city wholesale with your own products: flying cars, holographic floating streets, AI vending machines, elaborate VR and AR setups, mechanical spider wheelchairs, the whole nine yards. The government probably even writes you a big check to make this process more accessible to your consumers - I mean, to the citizens of your the shiny new corporatocracy you may or may not have stumbled into creating. Whether or not you employed lobbyism to get this check is neither here nor there. After all, this is for the greater good! And to finally seal the deal that this city has become a Borg Industries outpost, you rebrand Ninjago City to New Ninjago City. This isn't just a city anymore, it's a corporate asset. It's an ad campaign. It's a way of life.

This also explains why all the tech mysteriously vanishes after s3 ends: supply and demand. A robot apocalypse is, among other things, bad for PR. I don't wanna think about the existence of a Lego Stock Market because that will hurt my brain, but a robot apocalypse is definitely what I would classify as a "black swan event" (an unpredictable crisis that severely disrupts the stock market). The company starts faltering financially because of all the public backlash, people stop buying and investing in their tech, their stocks start to crash, and Borg Industries has to roll back on their infrastructural monopoly. And so the technological status quo is (mostly) restored.

The theme of s3 isn't "technology bad" - at least, it shouldn't be. If you're as brainrotted as I am then the theme of s3 instead becomes, "maybe you shouldn't let one sole company have a total monopoly on your society's infrastructure because they might accidentally start a cyberpunk dystopia". And that is a...disturbingly apt moral for our current day and age (cough cough Amazon).

...can you tell I've been listening to The Fine Print by Stupendium on loop for too long?

#sorry this took so long to respond to!#i have a lot of thoughts about ninjagian technology but most of them are haphazard and unorganized #so it took me a while to properly sort my thoughts in a way that was comprehensible to anyone other than myself #ninjago #ns3 #ninjago rebooted #ask #destiny post

34 notes · View notes

tenebriskris · 9 months ago

Text

Oshi No Ko Chapter 164 - My Thoughts/Analysis

It seems the authors have somehow managed to pull off a chapter that was worse than I could have intentionally come up with myself. Spoilers for Oshi No Ko Chapter 164 below.

This chapter starts off with a montage of events that have absolutely no relevance to the Aqua’s life hanging in the balance. How many pages was it? Three pages that could’ve been dedicated to the actual plot rather than a Windows Powerpoint Slideshow. I’d be more lenient with things if there weren’t two bloody chapters left.

And now, back to Oshi No Powerpoint, we see Aqua’s probable death. Nine panels of a slideshow that could’ve easily been folded into the past three or chapters. More than half of the chapter at this point has just been close to, if not completely superfluous. This “death” scene might as well have been thrown out because last chapter’s ending could’ve been enough to put the nail in the coffin for any hope of survival for Aqua and this series’ ending being somewhere even remotely close to decent.

I don’t even care that Akane is basically infodumping everyone’s reactions to this travesty and her thoughts on Aqua’s death. If the police found his body, that means it’s over. They’re not going to mistake Aqua’s body for Hikaru’s especially since Akane mentions that the damage to the corpse was minor. I guess that confirms that Aqua’s dead, huh. As sad as Akane’s reactions are, I just can’t bring myself to care about the writing equivalent of someone’s shit being smeared onto a plate and having it actually being published. It’s an insult to all the well written manga that only have a fraction of success this godawful manga has garnered thanks to one lucky anime adaptation.

I’d heard off the grapevine that one of the author’s other mangas that wasn’t Kaguya-sama was axed and if This is the kind of output that the author has been churning out, then that cancellation is more than deserved. These last ten chapters might as well have torched the series. I wouldn’t trust the authors to teach a fucking high school writing class, let alone go anywhere close to writing a popular manga again.

Alright. Fine. Final thoughts on the chapter. I’d like the time investment that this manga stole from me back. I don’t even feel the need to rub my braincells together to type out a competent analysis of a chapter that was just so objectively garbage from almost every angle that you’d think that they were trying to completely trying to nuke the manga’s quality. With how these past chapters have been going, it’s not the worst media ending I’ve ever seen, but it’s certainly up there. At least in the top 20 at best, and we’re not even fully over.

On a more serious note, it’s hard to meet this chapter where it is mostly because I don’t want to get my boots dirty in the filth that it’s swimming in. It’s difficult to meet the manga halfway and actually putting effort into analyzing something that the authors obviously didn’t even put a smidgen of effort into in terms of anything but the art. It’s almost the inverse of trying to analyze that one piece of installation art that is literally a urinal. If the creator of said piece of art wasn’t an actual good artist and didn’t put thought into Why the bloody thing was a urinal, then people wouldn’t be debating endlessly over it even to this day. Unfortunately, this manga isn’t a urinal, though with the quality of it being so piss poor, it might as well deserve that title. There are children’s television shows that can handle themselves better than the ending of this series even on a bad day.

So. Aqua’s dead. Probably. They found his body so he’s probably dead. Doesn’t mean that Crow Girl can’t deus ex machina him back and reincarnate him again. Would not even be surprised at this point. Maybe he’ll reincarnate as Ruby’s child. That feels about on the level of garbage writing that this series has been doing. I went on a whole tirade on Why this was a bad decision in my last analysis, and oh boy the authors proved me right again. This chapter was executed so badly that I think there are some people who have zero writing experience who could end it better. It’s actually impressive.

With this chapter out, it almost invalidates the last one. Which is certainly Not what you want to do when you only have a handful of chapters left. Hell, you could probably just read 162 and 164 and skip 163 and you would lose absolutely nothing but Aqua pitying himself for making some objectively bad decisions, because somehow Nino trying to stab Ruby was forgotten by the narrative at large. So was Akane, by the way. If Aqua really wanted to get rid of Hikaru in a more subtle manner he could’ve very easily just asked for her help for an alibi after getting rid of Hikaru. It’s all just so idiotic.

It’s a fucking crime that we don’t get to see Ruby in this chapter. All these side characters get a turn on the react couch to Aqua’s death and Ruby is just a footnote in this entire thing when she was the reason that Aqua went to these extremes in the first place. I’d say that the authors don’t know how to handle their characters, but that implies that they knew how to handle them in the first place, which is very debatable. The cracks in the series may have become more evident as it leapt toward the finish line, but they were still there at the start. They were just hidden because there was still decent writing that distracted from the rot hiding beneath the surface.

From what I gather, this arc’s title was Toward The Stars and Dreams. I have a better title for it. Toward Burning The Manga Tankobons Down. The funny thing is that all the emotions I have for this manga have crystallized into apathy with all the horrible decisions the manga is taking. I didn’t feel sad at the end of the chapter when everyone was reacting to Aqua’s death. It felt too much like a slideshow of things that should’ve been given more time in the spotlight. It’s just a feeling of “oh, that’s how they’re going with this? huh. that’s garbage!” and then go on my merry way. If you’re losing the emotional investment that your readers have with the work as as you sprint toward the finish line, then you’ve done something really wrong.

Two chapters left. Let’s just get on with it. I’m not going to be getting my time investment back with this godawful series, but at least I can put a little bow on it and rip it to shreds when its over.

#oshi no ko #onk #oshi no ko analysis #onk analysis #onk 164 #oshi no ko 165 #onk meta #oshi no ko meta #oshi no ko spoilers #onk spoilers #i feel like i didn't analyze this chapter very much #but it's hard to analyze the equivalent of a windows powerpoint presentation that is basically air

17 notes · View notes

sofyachy · 2 years ago

Text

Watching the end of Good Omens Season 2 felt like watching the moon landing, and I think I've finally figured out why. It's not the first time there have been outed queer characters on TV shows. It's not the first time there's been a queer love scene / kiss on TV. That alone isn't ground-breaking.

But for my entire life, I've consumed media that put the hetero couple into the main spotlight with token queer background characters, a lot of them killed off in a "bury your gays" trope. Or I've watched an ongoing series and developed queer ships that always left me a little disappointed when the romantic tension I perceived on screen was quashed with the introduction of a chemistry-lacking hetero love interest, or even simply brushing off the characters as "they're just good friends, because No Homo."

I've gotten used to this. I've come to expect it -- to always look deeply into the subtext, analyzing what's going on underneath the dialog and actions. Are these characters gay? Here is my 20-page literary analysis paper in which I go over every line, every detail, to argue that there's justifiable reason to believe something there that's not blatantly spelled out in words. (I literally did this with Hotspur in my graduate-level Shakespeare class because I absolutely needed someone to agree with me that this married character was so very, very gay, despite a surface-level "no homo" reading.) And it's still never "proof" -- just my opinion, which I can shout into the void until I'm hoarse.

And isn't that just what we do in slash fandom? We write our own endings. We refashion the stories we love to override that little disappointment that the original work gives us, as much as we still love it.

With Good Omens, there was already a strong fandom pairing Aziraphale and Crowley. I read the book after watching both seasons, so I can't say how strong that fandom was before those came out. But one of the things that struck me about the book was that there wasn't nearly the same vibe between the characters as there was in the first season. Hell, they weren't even the central characters of the book. And while the book says that people assume Aziraphale is gay, it's quick to say "but he's not; angels aren't sexual." No homo.

He and Crowley are...maybe friends? Associates? But there's certainly no scene with Crowley crying into a bottle of whiskey after Aziraphale disappears in the way he does in S1. It's like Book Crowley isn't allowed to have queer feelings because No Homo, especially not when he's maybe-friends with a maybe-homo. And it's not really surprising, considering the book was written in the '80s -- when gay rights was pushed back 20 years due to the AIDS epidemic.

And even with S1, it wasn't blatantly spelled out that either of them were queer. The aforementioned line about a gay Aziraphale didn't make it into the script (though he does refer to himself as "the Southern pansy"). We got some excellent scenes to rile up the fandom with somewhat-romantic dialog and actions. Still, on the surface, the reaction could still easily be "Hey, that looks maybe-possibly kind of gay? If you look at it just right. Here's my 20-page essay explaining why they're gay." And at the end of the season, Aziraphale and Crowley simply dine at the Ritz. Nothing explicitly gay there, unless you dig for it.

And then Season 2 said, "Hold my beer." And we got a full season of slow-burn romance at the forefront. The business with Gabriel was a ruse; the whole thing was about Aziracrow and their relationship from start to finish. We started out with the expected subtext, suggestive dialog, surreptitious glances. I remember thinking, "this is nice; I'm glad we're getting more time to just enjoy these two on the screen together." And then it kept building, and building, and building.

And finally, Episode 6 gave us "YES, HOMO." And after a lifetime of never seeing one of my ships amount to anything on screen, there it was, in all its devastating glory. They went there. That's what felt like the moon landing to me. It's something that seemed so far off to be impossible until it wasn't.

#good omens #slash #no homo #yes homo #yes really Hotspur is gay and I will die on this Shakespearean field of battle with him.

11 notes · View notes

a-deadly-serenade · 1 year ago

Text

so, the newest trailer for the reboot of Twister, "Twisters" dropped yesterday.

youtube

on the surface, it's not really something to write home about. classic disaster porn of a movie.

the plot definitely is where i took my first issue. sure, the original 1996 Twister was campy and some of the scenes involving tornadoes were silly, but the main goal of the characters is that they became chasers and scientists to obtain data on the formation of tornadoes to increase the amount of warning time we can give the general public. a noble one, especially since it is still the main goal of meteorologists today nearly 20 years later.

in "Twisters", our main protagonist wants to discover a way to "disrupt" tornadoes. so, my guess is that she and her handsome co-star are going to find a way to stop the Super Mega Crazy tornado that's for sure going to be at the end of the movie. very dumb. and she has a phd? ok.

however, that silliness all but pales in comparison to what i'm actually upset and outright angry about.

during the last 30 seconds or so of the trailer, a tornado is currently hitting and destroying a town. our main characters are fleeing from debris as the storm closes in. the last shot of this scene, focuses on the water tower's supports collapsing under the force of the winds, and for a few seconds, we can read the name of said town being destroyed: El Reno.

El Reno is a relatively small city in Oklahoma, USA. In 2013, the widest tornado ever recorded formed on the outskirts of El Reno. it clocked in at over 2.6 miles wide (~4.2 km) and had the 2nd highest wind speeds measured on Earth at over 291mph (~468km/h).

video: The Storm Chasing Channel

for reference, from the video above, this is the scale of the entire circulation:

the storm thankfully stayed over a fairly rural portion of Oklahoma and therefore, didn't cause nearly as much catastrophic damage it could have. however, this being an impressive storm is not the only reason why this day lives in infamy amongst the weather community.

El Reno's tornado was unique on top of its incredible storm structure. the tornado was rain wrapped, which means that the classic condensation funnel most people associate with tornadoes,

was completely obscured by a dense layer of wind and rain.

photo: Jason Weingart

these types of tornadoes are especially dangerous because you can't see them. in El Reno's case, the storm was such a rain-wrapped mess that no one in the vicinity could really tell just how large it really became. add to that, it took a path that most tornadoes usually do not and did a nearly 360 degree change in direction as it scoured the ground. for a more comprehensive breakdown of that days events, i'd highly recommend watching this Weather Channel's analysis video.

tornadoes this large usually contain multiple vortices, which are the funnels of wind that do most of the catastrophic damage associated with ones like this. these vortices are what led to the death of 3 experienced storm chasers: Tim Samaras, his son, Paul Samaras, and Carl Young.

in total, 8 people died as a result of the El Reno tornado.

now, what puzzles me most about this being a detail in this trailer, let alone in the movie, is why. the original Twister is what got many people my age and older into storm chasing and weather in general. and if you're at all familiar with the history of tornadoes, which i'm more than certain a fair majority of their intended audience is, then they are going to 100% recognize the town on that water tower and what it means to the community.

if this had simply been a crazy, unique storm that went through the open plains, i would have no issue with them putting this little nod to El Reno in. but the fact of the matter is, this tornado took 3 experienced chasers from us and killed 5 other civilians.

i just find it incredibly distasteful and disrespectful. it would be like having them try to stop a tornado from destroying Moore--a town that was impacted by the last rated EF5 in the same year, 2013. people died. you couldn't have made up a town name?

this whole thing has had me in a tizzy since i saw the trailer yesterday and it compelled me to make this thread that is v specific and probably no one will care about... but I CARE!!! what the hell!!! FUCK YOU "TWISTERS"!!!!! BOOOO!!!

#needed to get this off my chest #this whole thing just reminds me when i watched Into the Storm #and they used actual audio from the t.v. broadcast of the moore 2013 tornado #tasteless #the audacity to put these references into your dumpster fire of a movie #Youtube

1 note · View note

roxtron · 2 years ago

Text

I know this was probably a bit of an out of context rant but I gotta say that's one of the most annoying things about this fandom in my opinion. People will go so far to claim that if you don't think Sora and Kairi are the canon couple, you're just insane. It's honestly just wild. Like I get it, at first when I got into the series I was like "oh, I think Sora and Riku would be a good pairing but unfortunately heteronormative narrative says he has to be with the girl that has less development instead." Then the more I got into the fandom itself and saw people's analysis I realized those little moments I joked about weren't just unintentional or out of context, most likely they were actually hinting towards the pairing all along. But some people are so caught up in the heteronormativity they can't see that as a possibility. And I get it, we're so used to it in most media, especially considering this series is over 20 years old now and is owned by disney, but I think when you look at the evidence it has to be intentional. Just as hidden as possible so that during those times it was more risky, they could brush it off with those excuses. "Out of context" or "We didn't mean it like that." While this is obviously speculation I think the strategy they wanted to use on the business end is fooling the general public too, and I have to wonder if that was intentional either. If they meant for it to seem like he would end up with Kairi so this is seen as a plot twist, or if they simply expected their audience to look into it and realize what I think is the truth. But speaking onto the fandom itself, I gotta say the worst part about this shipping problem is that the sokai shippers seem to be so.. horny, for one, a lot of the content I see from that side of the fandom is either just directly intended to be viewed that way or is just constant jokes about "haha they wanna fuck each other" which is so, so weird. Especially considering all the messes with Sora's memories and shit, and most of the main characters still being minors. It gets to a point where I actively avoid certain people's content because even if they can write one good scene with a good concept, the next scene inevitably inserts "REMEMBER, SORA LIKES KAIRI." Like, we get it. If that content was canon it'd almost give Kairi more of a personality/character development than Sora, they make him so motivated by Kairi and Kairi alone. Which just feels so ironic given the complaints about Kairi's character being "just a love interest" when she may not be a love interest for Sora at all.

And no, I'm not saying any criticism of Kairi's writing is undeserved, I agree she's an underutilized character and I understand why people project headcanons onto her. I just think sometimes those projections can be almost worse than the blank slate we have.

I think unlike some others I just have more sympathy for her not being as well written, I've definitely seen it a lot that the creator admitted he "didn't know what to do with her." And honestly if you've ever tried writing your own story, can't you relate to that? I doubt there's anyone out there that can genuinely say they've always known exactly what to do with every single character in a complicated plot. If every other character fits perfectly into place in a natural way, what are you going to do with the other one? Do you keep her on the sidelines so the characters that fit into the arc can serve it well, or do you just shove her into the plot in a way that's blatantly forced and only serves to make the audience more annoyed by her unnecessary presence? It's a difficult position to be in, I wish more people understood that.

so it's apparently delusional to like Soriku

and think they have moments together

but i once saw someone who said Sora and Kairi kissed at the end of kh3

double standards

and not one ship is considered canon either

the most we have is Nomura saying that Riku doesn't like Naminé so he changes the scene so he is not smiling

that is still one of the most hilarious things

#whoops i went off the rails with that one #hope i wasn't too incoherent but yeah idk #it's just been bugging me a lot #i hate how people who support soriku are expected to just 'respect each others ship'#when sokai shippers are more often than not hostile and will literally call you delusional or insane over a ship they disagree with #but I just don't know how you make no active effort to get out of that mindset #a lot of them just come across really hypocritical on all possible ends.#like sorry #I'm not exactly thrilled to antagonize an entire part of a fandom I mostly enjoy #but I feel like some people just take things too far. in many ways.#anyway ig if anyone gives a shit about this little ramble..#kh #kingdom hearts #rather not tag the ship names so i don't start a fight tbh

43 notes · View notes

jj-lives · 2 years ago

Note

I've mostly seen a bunch of analysis from everyone about Blake's part of the confession, but I think I'm more enamored with yang' part because we rarely see her so open about her own raw ROMANTIC feelings about blake to Blake's face, every other time its mostly been her trying to give words of encouragement, reassuring her things will be okay between them. But she was always so scared to scare blake away if she were ever honest about how she actually about her, partly bc abandonedment issues partly she didnt want to remind blake of adam. And the way Blake looks softly at her as yang gives these compliments and confession just speaks to the volumes screentime we've seen where Blake just feels utterly safe with Yang, "kinda scary but isn't" and you can see that here. Yang, the big bad beast who will tear you a part if you touch the people she loves (get fucked adam), but every single time she's with blake she's always so gentle with her, with her words with her hands, the way she still silently asks blake for permission to kiss her when looking at her lips and then back at her eyes, or how she continously gently pulls her in closer by the waist. You can tell Yang has been wanting to do that for ages, to hold and kiss Blake in the safety of her arms for 2 years now.

Oh for sure. I have seen some analysis on Yang's side of it. I'm pretty sure I mentioned a small blurb on it after the episode aired. I think a lot of people gravitated to what Blake said because of Yang's reaction to it. the surprise that was so evident on Yang's face at her words, and the fact that Blake was the quiet one that didn't really talk about anything. She doesn't give up her secrets so easily, so when she could have taken a cop out and said "I think your hair/eyes is/are beautiful," to slightly mirror Yang's "I think your cat ears are cute," comment and she doesn't, it was a big deal. She took the initiative, she was the one running headfirst into this where that's usually Yang's MO. (I'm not saying Yang's comment is a cop out, it had more weight to it than a simple physical compliment, and could write a whole thing on this as well, just that Blake making a comment on Yang's physical beauty wouldn't have had the same impact)

As for Yang's part of it... yes, I agree with you there anon. There is so much to unpack in this one episode, I could write 5 full on essays about it. The points Yang mentioned are so, so important.

The first thing she says is she likes how Blake has never been intimidated by her. When Blake had every right to be. When Yang did in some ways remind her of Adam. And I think Yang only came to appreciate Blake's trust in her after meeting Adam and standing with Blake against him. She realized how intimidating Adam was, how strong Blake had to be to run from him, stand up to him, and trust anyone after what he put her through, especially humans who she innately mistrusted, especially a human who's charisma and power/semblance reminded her of Adam. But Blake isn't intimidated by Yang, even in the ways others tend to be.

Then the "you never give up on them, even when they hurt you. You never give up. You know what matters to you." This is a whole pile of emotions to unpack.

Where the first confession was a comment on Blake's ability to trust Yang, this has more depth emotionally for Yang. "You never give up on them." It's both a reassurance that even though others have left and given up on Yang, Blake hasn't. She might have left after Beacon... but she came back and even though things were awkward and rocky between them, she stayed. She worked on it. She didn't give up. Because Blake knows what things matter to her enough to not give up on, and Yang is one of those things. And it means the world to Yang to understand that.

But it's also a reflection of who Yang is as well. It's a similarity they both share. Being there for those that matter to you. Not giving up just because things are difficult. Those are some of Yang's own core beliefs. They may have developed them in differing world views, but at their core, they are the same. And for someone like Yang, who gives her all, gives up everything for everyone else, finding someone that would do the same for the ones they both love, and for her...

Blake is someone she can share that burden with now, and Yang's never felt she could trust anyone else with that before.

So yeah, definitely there is so much to unpack in their confessions and I literally could write so much more on this because these characters are so complex at this point that I don't think any of us could fully do them justice at this point. I could expand on what you said about Yang being so gentle with Blake or how she always gives Blake a voice where Adam never allowed that from her... but I think you said it well. :)

#bumbleby #rwby analysis #rwby #rwby9 #I could write a 20 more analysis on this scene alone.#i love my bee babies so much #anon asks #anons that tells it like it is

47 notes · View notes

fangerine · 2 years ago

Text

spoilers ahead for the last of us ep. 6!

i’m gonna be honest. not a huge fan of this departure from the game. i get it but it also felt like a forced set-up to tlou p2/tlou s2. don’t get me wrong, the set design in this episode is fucking magnificent, and the acting is great but it just felt a little out of place. mind you, i’m not a huge fan of tlou p2 so that could also be why i’m not completely in love with tonight’s episode.

anywayssss, let’s get into a quick analysis or whatever these things are that i’ve been writing for the past month or so.

i think it was an interesting but important choice to open the episode up with henry’s death. it felt a little like a nightmare sequence and it gave me a little bit of a jolt, not gonna lie. i felt like joel, a bit, when he gets those nightmares of sarah. something i don’t want to see but i’m forced to.

this episode deals with a lot of things: guilt, family tension, community (or communism as joel puts it), trust but most importantly, what life can be like away from the horrors of the world.

i absolutely loved the couple in the beginning. i hadn’t laughed that hard in the series until that scene. i just adored the juxtaposition of all this horrible, traumatizing shit we’ve witnessed in the series thus far and this couple who are extremely calm for being held at gunpoint in their home. they trust each other and make soup for people who intrude their home. i love it.

during a conversation before arriving at jackson, ellie asks what joel is going to do once this cure is made. it’s a cute moment. one of the more wholesome moments from joel. he just wants a farmhouse away from all the shit, and have his sheep. simple life.

a simple life that he can’t even have in his dreams because they’re replaced by nightmares of his past.

and this is kind of the core to joel. he is a man who is constantly connected to the past despite trying to ignore it and push it down at every turn. he seems to want to let go of it but when you try and push down pain like that, it ends up sticking even further. i mean, even his watch is stuck on the time of the most traumatic point of his life: losing sarah.

she is a ghost that haunts him instead of being a guardian angel that could bring him comfort. it’s heartbreaking to watch.

as we progress through his and ellie’s time in jackson, we see a reversal of attitudes from them both. joel is initially just happy to see his brother but as time goes on, he starts to reject this way of living because it simply doesn’t fit with his worldview that he’s carried for the past 20 years. ellie on the other hand is incredibly hostile at the beginning, more or less because she’s an annoying (lovingly) 14-year-old but also because i think she’s trying to emulate joel. but as she spends more time there, she sees the all the good things this world can have. things she’s never had.

the two are both seeing this reality that not everything is complete shit and they’re reacting to it in very different ways.

and then we see this small collapse of joel. he becomes vulnerable in front of the only person he can afford to be. he shares his fears. his guilt. and if you listen between the pauses of his heart wrenching confessions to tommy, the love he still has in his heart for his daughter, and now, that is spreading to ellie.

but then he closes back up because he is “the contractor”. he builds things. he fixes things. and he thinks that his vulnerability is something that needs to be fixed and nipped in the bud.

this life that he could have is something he thinks he’s not even close to deserving of. and maybe he isn’t. maybe joel miller is a shitty person who brutally kills people because he believes that is the only form of protection. maybe he is truly an old grump who is meant to be alone with sheep that he can “control”.

but he still cares. he gives a shit. and i think that’s why he starts to lighten up a little more when he and ellie leave jackson.

but now he’s on the brink of death. he will only survive if someone else cares. if someone else gives a shit about him and thinks he deserves to live. and that someone is ellie; a 14-year-old girl who he is scared to death of caring about. he might not be able to afford being vulnerable to her, like he is with tommy, because that could cost him his heart all over again.

and that’s something he won’t be able to survive through again.

#the last of us #the last of us spoilers #tlou #tlou spoilers #the last of us show #the last of us hbo #tlou show #tlou hbo #joel miller #tommy miller #ellie williams #pedro pascal #gabriel luna #bella ramsey

17 notes · View notes

galacticlamps · 2 years ago

Note

fic writer asks 😈🎶🤩? o:

😈 Has there been a point in a story where you did something just to be playfully mean to your readers?

You mean aside from taking a handful of unrelated wips and turning them into a 42k "Almost Kiss" 5+1 series that started in season 4 & didn't resolve until 6b, and had the audacity to call any of that "almost"?

But honestly, unless that counts then probably not really, I'm much more likely to be playfully mean to the characters. Actually, tell you what, to take this in the complete opposite direction, I once did something very nice for my readers (and admittedly for the fic's readability too) and took a wip that was originally conceived of as being set after/in response to the PDA The Indestructible Man, kept the scene itself & just wrote a new less traumatic context for it so it could stand alone for people unfamiliar with and/or understandably quite upset by the novel. That's kinda like being nice, right?

🎶 Do you listen to music while you write? What song have you been playing on loop lately?

I have a Two/Jamie playlist, and it's horrifyingly long, and it's not at all uncommon for songs on it to inspire ideas - but it's actually kinda rare for me to listen to anything while writing, I'm just too easily distracted. Some exceptions would be a playlist made of specific pieces from the Series 5 soundtrack while I was editing Small Hours In a Wide Universe, because that just felt appropriate. I also have wips directly inspired by Pink Floyd's Us & Them and David Bowie's Moss Garden, as well as the general concept of the story album Etain - and all of those are relevant enough & instrumental enough that I'll put them on while I'm working on the stories in question. Of those, Etain's been seeing the most action lately, as that's a semi-recent idea & a longer fic with more plotting/world building to flesh out before I can actually return to writing more of the scenes.

🤩 Who is your favorite character to write?

That's a tough one, honestly. Of the fics I've finished & posted, there are 2 without Two in them, but zero without Jamie, but then again, Two has so many doctorish turns of phrase he's also a lot of fun in his own right. The one time I did a bit with Six he was also pretty great to write for, in spite of how brief it was. But that's all mostly talking about dialogue, and lord knows there's more to characters than that. In terms of perspective, of the 20 fics I currently have posted the pov characters actually seem shockingly evenly distributed... Ok, look, this is going to sound like a very strange distinction, but I think I enjoy writing Jamie's actions/decisions/behavior and the Doctor's thought process/analysis of things the most. How the Doctor sees things and how Jamie responds to them, perhaps, is the best way of describing what I'm most enjoying writing right now, even if that's not the greatest answer

#re the indestructible man thing bc i feel like that probably demands some explaining-#i know it's a huge outlier among 2-era adventures & it really doesn't sound like the kind of thing you can just recontextualize very easily #but my original fic was set WELL after it with Jamie & the Doctor looking back & reflecting on some of its events #as part of a longer process of the characters recovering from the intense trauma of it all #so in the new version - well the one on ao3 anyway it's not very recent -#i changed it from being set long after something extremely traumatic to right after something significantly less traumatic #and personally i think the emotions translated over cleanly enough #asks!#wip stuff #kinda

3 notes · View notes

everythingblreview · 4 years ago

Text

Slow Damage review 2.0 Part 1

It’s 16 pages actually

Hello I’m back and instead of actually writing a new review of a game, or playing a new game that’s a lie I’m playing more than one VN at the same time right now. I’ve been thinking a lot about slow damage lately and wanted to write my full thoughts/analysis on it. For this occasion, I replayed the game. This will be full of spoiler of everything in the game as well as the spoiler of the short story.

Disclaimer: This is MY opinion, I’m not wanting to start a discussion, this is just how I experienced the game. Not everything here will be in a positive light and I don’t hold back from criticize what I didn’t like. This is a fictional game so please don’t attack me. But if you are fine with me babbling 16 pages about the game, you can go ahead. Important to note: Towa is my favourite character, so my thought on the routes are all Towa centered

(I probaly forgot some stuff but please excuse the game is really long)

I will start from the unlocked route and work toward the true route. Starting with Taku~

Taku

After replaying Taku’s route I noticed some differences to my first time playing.

First his route was my second favourite in the game the first time I played it, but replaying it, it was not really interesting anymore. His story is all about him developing drugs for Toono because of his deb he made so he could study to become a doctor, but if you know already about this part there is nothing else to really investigate. His backstory with his mother is ok, he feels guilty for stuff he done in his route but that’s all there is, when you already know the secret Taku is hiding, there is not much left, that’s why is lacks something if you replay it.

The second thing is his relationship with Towa, before I talk about the problem, I personally have with it I will talk about the things I did like: Taku already was protective of Towa since he was a child, and his feeling developed into more later on, from what Taku said we can assume his feelings turned into “like” after the incident with Asakura. Towa feeling to Taku developed during the time they spent together when they were both locked in the building. Taku was someone he always felt save with, back in his horrible childhood when no one was there for him, only Taku(it was probably the only time he could get away from his crazy mother), and after the fear of losing Taku he noticed he has deeper feelings for him (at this point we can’t say that is romantic love because Towa doesn’t understand this feeling, but Taku is special for him it’s canon don’t attack me). The development part of their feelings was nice and felt pretty realistic. Secondly, I like how they dealt with Taku falling for a guy. Taku said he wasn’t interested in the same gender from the beginning, but he didn’t say stuff like “I’m not gay, I’m straight” or something like that. He just said he is not experienced with it, and he didn’t just go for it after Towa “attacked” him and was still unsure at this point, and only later when he was sure he had romantic felling he went for it, which was quite nice. Now to for the things that I can’t get over and ruin the relationship for me. First, from the true route we learn that Taku has been lying about Towa past the whole time, (telling him his mother was a great woman) so this relationship is already based on a lie. Towa mother was not a great woman like Taku tells, she is the whole reason Towa has suffered his whole life, and while Taku may not know the everything, he knows what Towa went through but still he keeps his mouth close. There is a scene after the confession scene, where Taku wanted to say something (probably about his past) after they talked about his mother, but decides not to even after Towa asked him about it. In the end after he gets released from prison Towa asked him again and he acts like he has no idea what he is talking about and just says something else. And this brings me to the thing that annoys me the most: How Taku deals with Towa’s mental health problems, or to say it simple, he just doesn’t. The first thing I noticed when I replayed it, Taku is acting like he doesn’t know about it, even though he does. Always saying how Towa behaviour (about him drinking, smoking and sleeping with guys) “was always like this” and saying that “your heart is still dead”. Taku you know exactly how horrible his past is how can you say such stuff??? He always tells Towa how he should stop doing it, but he doesn’t think about doing something to prevent it. I know that he is worried about him but the only thing he deals with are Towas wounds. His wounds may heal but his heart doesn’t if you keep putting only bandages on him Taku. He is really bad at dealing with mental problems, his way to get over it is just not to talk about, in the hope it will go away at some point but in Towa’s case it won’t ever go away, it is destroying him slowly from the inside.

He is also overprotective of Towa in a bad way, putting a chip in Towa after getting rid of Asakuras shitty DIY wings and even going as far as TRYING TO KILL Towa and I though Rei will be the yandere after Tonno tells him he won’t let Towa go after both of the get kidnapped by Toono. I understand that he wants to protect Towa and it is indeed dangerous to let Towa do what he wants because he doesn’t care for himself, but Towa need some kind of freedom, he is not stupid. He acts like Towa is his thing and I didn’t like this part. And the last thing, that left me in a uncomfortable feeling is in the very end he says Towa causes to many problem that why you should not leave him alone, but the goal would actually be to heal Towa to a point, where he does not need help anymore but we never get to it here sadly. (and please stop with the housewife Towa look in the end it hurts my eyes)

I also don’t like the age gap of 20 years in the relationship, because I cant deal with the thought of one person dying way before and leaving the other person behind but that’s a me problem.

The first time I was not sure what to think about Taku’s route but after knowing all this stuff and replaying the route, I just can’t like this pairing sorry.

All the things above are only about Taku and Towa’s relationship, I do like Taku as a person and I enjoyed that he is like a father figure toward Towa and like a family for him. It’s really cute that he really cares for Rei too and treats him like a son better than Rei’s trash father ever could like they are a small family.

Rei

From beginning we get to know Rei as Towa’s and Taku’s best friend, who speaks like a woman and acts a little like it, we also learn that he enjoys fighting and participate in deathmatches. His route is about his struggle with the deb his father (who is a piece of trash) has and his own gender. From the second chapter we learn that Rei is a pure soul, he is a good boy that does not see the bad in human. (Compared to Towa who had a bad feeling from the start) and Rei tells us that in his past he was always mistaken for a girl.

The first time playing his route, the whole thing about his gender felt really sudden but after replaying his route, they were some hints that Rei does struggle with it. Like him telling about his past and him asking Towa what is “manly”. Rei doesn’t want his friends to get involved with his problems that’s why he tries to keep his distance, but Towa is someone he can feel at peace with. Rei’s gender struggle comes from the fact that his parents treat him as a girl when he was a child, it really messed him up because he starts thinking that he was a girl, but still got kicked out by his father after telling him he is gay. Rei hated his own gender even going as far as trying to cut off his… in front of Towa. But through his love for fighting, he realized that he wants to be a man, and after talking (and fighting for fun) with Towa he decides he will now live and act as a man.

Not gonna lie, I really like Rei for his feminine side, though I never thought of him as a woman and while it makes me a little sad that he doesn’t want to be like it, I can accept that he wants to be a man, because in the end the “fem Rei” was never real. He was forced into this feminine roll and that was not the real Rei. What I like about his character is that, while he has his love for violence, he is still a innocent and pure soul. He really cares for others and only wants his best for his friends. (He is also the person, who is looking for true love and doesn’t sleep with others for fun) Even though his father is a big shit he still wants to help his father so he doesn’t start working with child trafficking again. He knows Towa since middle school and was always interested in him, but romantically only after the whole thing with Mizuno, when Towa protected him.

What I really didn’t like the first time I played it is that, while you can really feel that Rei likes Towa, Towa doesn’t share the same strong attraction. It felt more like Towa just agreed to this relationship in the end, but replaying it, I noticed that Towa does care for him in his own way, the first time it’s difficult to say because you don’t understand Towa’s personality. Towa always agrees do help Rei if he asked him for something and he worries about him. The relationship of all the pairings starts at the end of the game so it’s always difficult to say how it works out, but Towa did have a pleasant feeling after Rei’s confession and after they slept together. I want to see more development on Towa’s side because compared to his feeling for Taku in his route it felt weaker with Rei (for me), hopefully they explore it in the drama cd.

While Rei does say some things like Taku to Towa (that I didn’t like) I can’t blame him for it because he doesn’t know Towa’s past.

Regarding Rei’s personality, I hope they don’t change to much about him, because it would be stupid to make a character and then change him after everyone already start liking him like the way he was. They changed his way of speaking (what you probably won’t notice if you don’t understand Japanese) which if fine, doesn’t bother me but if he will start saying stuff like “I can’t eat cake anymore because only woman do” …. Yeah please no. and he cut his beautiful long hair short noooo and it looks so bad please change it We have to wait and see how Rei’s change will affect him in the end, and I want to see how their relationship will develops especially on Towa’s side

Madarame

I wanted to replay everything, just to make sure I didn’t forget anything, but with Madarame’s route I just had to give um in the middle. The first time I played it I went through it without problems because I was expecting something from it, sadly it never happened, but this time it was just like playing a never-ending bad end, and I just felt so sad that I had to stop playing. And now I can confidently say, I hate everything about this route. And I did give this route a chance because I don’t like to go into a game thinking I won’t like character, I try my best to understand the story and characters, but it was no use here. I just don’t understand why such a route was needed to for a character like Towa. Knowing how much Towa was abused in the past and that he suffers from extreme mental trauma because of this makes everything worse, this route really brings out the worst of Towa’s mental health issues.

Starting from the beginning we learn that Towa and Madarame used to hang out together and Towa did feel good hanging out with him (they were not in a relationship and there were no romantic feelings which is confirmed). Towa tells us that this was in the past and that he is not this person anymore, also he tells us that he doesn’t like following orders and doesn’t like treatment from Madarame, that’s why dealing with him is hard and after understanding this himself, he wanted to keep his distance. Of course this is not in Madarame’s favour, he want his “pet” all to himself (He even said Towa need an “owner”).So he kidnaps him and tries to break Towa, to let him remember how he used to be. For this he uses violence and treats Towa like shit. We know that he knows about Towa’s abuse in his childhood and still he uses the same horrible methods as Towa’s mother did, taking away his freedom and chaining him to a place, keeping him in silence which he hates. Raping him (of course Towa let it happen because he is used to it) and slowly breaking his mind so Towa starts thinking he needs Madarame. When Towa says something against him, he got angry or just straight up beats him. Towa has no freedom in this “relationship” it only goes the way Mada want it. There is no communication it’s just a typical “alpha male” top and controlled bottom dynamic between them. It was so sad seeing how Towa went against his friends after he spent some time under Madarame’s influence.

In the beginning Towa is so desperate that he would rather die than to be with Madarame, and I don’t know why we have to think this is “romantic” or some shit like that? Its funny how they tried to include them acting like a couple in the second half of the route. Like Madarame said Towa doesn’t need a collar anymore, sure because he is now manipulated into thinking he need Madarame. I will never forgive him for the emotional and physical abuse he let Towa go through in the beginning.

Madarame himself just feels like he is not even human, this guy has no feeling and his feeling for Towa are like a feeling you have for your pet (or better to say animal? Because you would treat your pet better) and he treats him like a pet. (I’m really not a fan of the whole “your mine” “you belong to me” thinking, human are not objects, just because you decide to be with someone doesn’t mean you are their property) I understand they wanted to go for the “he lives in the present not the past and he is honest and doesn’t lie” thing but it made him feel like he has no feeling at all. Showing that he likes cats made no sense to me, because what’s the point if he treats a cat better than Towa? Did they try to make him look like he has a loveable side? Because it sure didn’t feel like it for me. Trying to make abuse ok by showing that this guy likes animals in that case it’s totally ok …yeah sure not.

He really did everything to manipulate Towa into thinking that he needs to be on “this side”, the side that always abused him, by slowly breaking Towa. Towa himself has no understanding for right or wrong, he just does what he thinks is right for him in this moment, that’s how his brain works.

Madarame says he and Towa are the same because both want violence, but I can only disagree, they couldn’t be any different Towa’s love for violence is a reflection of his abuse as a child, something that was done to him and he now thinks he needs, it’s something he does to try to cope with his trauma, his love for it is not real. While Mada on the other hand, likes it because who knows why it’s not like we ever get to learn anything about this guy because he never says anything. This guy wants nothing and is not interested in anything, I don’t get what I’m supposed to like here. The route ends with Towa and Madarame running away, leaving Towa life, his home and his friends that tried to protect him, to live their life on the streets fighting and enjoying violence, and for me this is the opposite of a good end, it’s just hurt knowing Towa is forever stuck in the circle of violence. (and blond hair really looks bad on him)

I played a lot of bl games and there is always abuse, rape and manipulation involved in almost every bl game, but this has to be the worst case of abuse I ever had to go through and this is coming from a person who likes Mink.

I may said a lot of negative stuff about Taku, but compared to Mada, Taku is an angel send from heaven Funny because Madarame says Taku is trash. The theme was to throw your past away and living in the present, but it felt more like let’s embrace the mental illness and violence.

(the only thing worth going through this hell one time is seeing Mayu, Kotarou and Towa in a suit, especially Towa looks very hot, boi)

The route had an interesting start, and they had a good backstory to write something good with all the stuff with Kaga and so one, but they did absolutely nothing with it and chose to make it about abuse, rape and manipulation, the easy way to force a “romance”(because there is no) into it, and in the year 2021 I expect just something better from it, consider how well the rest of the game is written. N+C really had to bring this rape abuse combination back, didn’t they? They got rid of some bl clichés and I’m thankful for it but we are only half through it, they still need time.

The route just felt extremely disappointing and made me feel horrible.

33 notes · View notes

lilmissbacon · 4 years ago

Note

Hey could do a death battle between Elsa and Shoto Todoroki (from My Hero Academia)? If Elsa ends up winning this death battle, then can you put her up against Todoroki's father, Endeavor?

Elsa vs Shoto Todoroki Death Battle

As much as I know about MHA and it's characters, I've only ever watched the first 6 episodes 😅 But I do have a friend who watches it, so he's linking me to videos that best showcase Todoroki's abilities. Just to help me narrow it down.

This is the third Death Battle I'm making and Elsa has still yet to win. Maybe third time's the charm.

Once again, I'm figuring this out as I write and I'm using Marvel's Power Grid to rank their abilities. If you want a more in depth analysis on Elsa's side (because I'm only summing up here) click this link.

1) Intelligence

Elsa

She's rated a 4; gifted for how intricately she made her ice castle in the spar of the moment.

Shoto

I am also giving him a 4 on the fact that he is one of the smartest in his class. He is also apparently so observant that he notices things that even the pro heroes don't.

Also, just to add, he's very quick to making walls of ice to avoid being blown back in battle. Especially in the sports festival.

2) Physical Strength

Elsa

She is a 2 because she was able to lift herself into Nok when she was taming him.

Shoto

Since he's able to pull people out of danger, not to mention just how toned he is and as much exercise he gets, no doubt he can lift more than his own weight. So he gets a 2.5.

3) Speed

Elsa

She's a 1 because she's a beauty runner and slower than me.

Shoto

He's pretty average. He runs many times throughout the anime and while he's not slow, he's not extremely fast either. So he's a 2; normal.

(Note: I do not know how fast he is going when he slides on his ice, nor do I have to energy to search around or do the math so I'm leaving it as is.)

4) Durability

Elsa

She knocks herself out when she's running in her ice castle. She's only a 2 because she manages not to do it again when fighting Nok.

Shoto

This boy gets punched, kicked and knocked into various things all the time and as far as I can tell, he barely bruises. I doubt he has any form of super health but he's definitely tougher than normal, so he gets another 2.5.

5) Energy Projection

Elsa

The amount of land she can cover (where she stands) with her magic is Arendelle's castle + fjord. Long range and duration is a 5.

Shoto

I would say he can cover just as much ground, if not more. Because I believe there is another scene where he does make more ice than the gif above. I can't recall what fight it was or find a gif on it, but still.

Not to mention it seems to be the same for his fire as well. Again, I don't know how far he is with his training or how good he's gotten with his fire side yet but just from the sports festival alone, the amount he can give off seems pretty even with both of his sides.

So Todoroki has long range and duration on more than one energy type, he gets a 6.

6) Fighting Skills

Elsa

She doesn't even know how to punch and relies too much on her powers, 1.

Shoto

He doesn't really physically fight much and is often having to be dragged away to safety. There are many instances of this and much like Elsa, he relies too much on his powers to save himself.

That being said though, he still has had training if Endeavor had any say in that. Shoto just tends to stand in place way too much out of habit rather than his ability. So he gets a 3.

Overall Score

Elsa = 15 / Shoto Todoroki = 20

Yo, Elsa really be getting nothing 😂 This is her third loss!

Kinda surprised he only beat Frozone by 0.5 though.

Could Elsa get Shoto with the frozen heart? I would argue probably not, since he's super quick in making walls of ice to block attacks. And even if he was hit by it, his heart is on his fire side. I feel like his quirk within body would just melt it on it's own.

🎉The Winner🎉

Any more recommendations are welcomed. As long as I know the characters, I'd love to take a crack at your requests. Elsa doesn't need to be in it 😆

#elsa #todoroki #shoto torodoki #my hero academia #mha #bnha #boku no hero academia #frozen #disney #death battle #elsa got no luck

19 notes · View notes

sailorbadger · 4 years ago

Text

The Fandom’s Least Favorite Character - an analysis on Kate

Kate is probably the most hated character in the Robin Hood fandom. Not even probably, she is the one who consistently gets the most hate. So, what has she done? Did she commit several murders? Did she kill off a beloved character? Did she do something so problematic that she deserves to burn in hell? Did she do war crimes? No, her biggest sin is existing among unfair circumstances.

The title of this post is kind of a lie. This analysis is not really about Kate as a character, but about how she is written, how the narrative presents her and how this all affects the fandom’s treatment of her. I started writing this because I am sick of seeing so much unnecessary hate for Kate. This is just me commenting on larger trends I have witnessed and a decade’s worth of frustrations finally being written out. If you do recognize yourself from some of my descriptions, I hope that this post will give you something to think about, but just know that this is not meant for any one person in particular.

I’m not going to try to convince anyone to think of Kate as their favorite character. I’m not even trying to make anyone like her. I’m just trying to see why she is so hated within the fandom. So, let’s start off with how it all began. Grab some snacks, you’re going to need them; this is a long one.

Introduction: Is it all Merlin’s fault?

To understand the context in which Kate was introduced to the show, let’s first look at where we left off at the end of season 2. I’ll start with the in-universe changes first. The biggest change obviously is that Gisborne murdered Marian. This altered the whole course of the show. Marian was such a central part of not only the show but also the Robin Hood legends, that at that point it was obvious that things were going to change. Will and Djaq left the show as well. Them leaving is not as dramatic of a change for the show’s narrative since they were not as central as Marian, but they did make up one third of the gang. This meant that there was a need for new characters to be introduced in season 3.

In our world, things changed between seasons 2 and 3 as well. There was a larger gap in production than before (with seasons 1 and 2 coming out in consecutive years and there being a gap year between seasons 2 and 3), and some of the people working on the show left or were replaced. Robin Hood’s spot on the BBC schedule was taken over by Merlin for 2008 so I guess we could blame that show for everything that went wrong in season 3. (I’m obviously joking here but conspiracy theories are welcome.)

The most important change in my opinion – and I think this is even more important to how season 3 turned out than anything that happened in-universe in season 2 – is the fact that Dominic Minghella was no longer writing or producing the show. It’s surprising to me that the fandom as a whole doesn’t ever really talk about this, when in many other fandoms creators or showrunners leaving the show are usually a big deal and mark the end of an era. I myself only found out about Minghella’s departure from the show before season 3 this year, but it seems to explain a lot on why season 3 felt so different from seasons 1 and 2.

With all that out of the way, the stage is set, and it is time to look at how exactly Kate came into the show.

Six boots, two feet

Season 3 starts off with my least favorite episode of the whole show (see my episode ranking for more details). It tries its best to address the events of the season 2 finale, but in a way that will let it quickly get to the season 3 storylines. Unfortunately, the things that happened at the end of the previous season were so important that they would have needed several episodes to cover the full impact of the events.

Kate herself is introduced in episode 2. She is immediately given a reason to hate the villains and join the fight when her brother dies. She doesn’t join the outlaws right away, but when she does, she essentially has to take over three roles at once. I do not think it’s a coincidence that I think episode 4 is Kate’s best episode and that she’s at her best before she actually joins the gang. That is the point in the show when she is allowed to be her own character rather than someone who is trying to fill a void.

Like I said, Kate has three roles to take over; she gets Djaq’s spot in the gang as “the girl one”, Will’s role as “the peasant with personal connections to the people’s suffering” (and interestingly, since Kate’s family is around, her connection could have been even stronger than Will’s) and Marian’s as “the love interest”. Since the season 2 finale got rid of both of the only female characters in the show, it was inevitable that they would eventually be replaced if the show wanted to include any romantic storylines (it was, after all, 2009, so queer representation was out of the question). With three pairs of boots to fill, and only two feet, it should not come as a surprise to anyone that Kate can’t possibly do it all alone. The show does introduce Tuck and Isabella as well to help fill the gaps, but I think Kate gets labeled as “the replacement” far more often than the other two.

A triangle without a base is just an angle

Kate had all the potential for a good plotline. Her brother died, making her hungry for revenge, yet this part of her is only sprinkled in every now and then instead of being a part of her character arc. Instead, she is made a part of not one, not two, but three love triangles.

I’ll start with the Much/Kate/Allan one. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t actually exist. All sides of this “triangle” are… weird. The writers try to frame it as a legitimate love triangle, when only one person in it seems to have any real feelings for another character. Much is shown to be interested in Kate, but we as the audience are never given a reason for why he likes her or even how he fell for her. I guess we’ll just have to take his “I fall in love very easily” (from 2x4) quite literally. Kate does not seem to have any romantic feelings for Much, and she seems oblivious to his feelings as well.

To be honest, I don’t think Kate ever really saw Allan as an option either. At best I could admit that maybe she had a slight attraction to him, but I never got the impression that it was something she would seriously pursue. I don’t think Allan was seriously interested in Kate either. His flirting with her is quite similar to his joke-y flirting with Marian and Djaq. My friend and I talked at length about this, but Allan doesn’t seem like the type of person to flirt for real. This could be a whole analysis on its own, so I won’t go too deep into it here. But I don’t think Allan considers Kate a legitimate romantic option.

So, this “love triangle” only exists in Much’s head and in the narrative the writers try to force on the audience. The Kate/Allan side of it is practically dropped the minute Kate/Robin becomes a thing.

Then there is the Much/Kate/Robin/Isabella triangle that is not a triangle either. I already covered Much/Kate for the most part, so I won’t go into it. Since the Robin/Isabella relationship is not that central to Kate’s character, I won’t bore you and myself by going through it that deeply. The buildup for that relationship is practically nonexistent, and so is the end of it. The whole Robin/Isabella relationship feels forced, because the writers didn’t know how to properly replace Marian while coming up with something new.

Kate’s crush on Robin seems to develop out of nowhere as well. It looks like a pattern when it comes to romances this season. Robin himself doesn’t appear to have any romantic interest towards Kate until he and Isabella “break up”. After that point, their relationship progresses way too fast. It doesn’t help that they seem to have no chemistry between them, and Robin treats Kate like a child and then five seconds later proceeds to make out with her.

Honestly, if Kate had to have a romance with a character on the show (and with it being 2009 obviously they could not fulfil my dreams of Kate being bi but that’s beside the point), it should have been with Archer. The two of them had more chemistry in the 30 seconds they worked together in 3x12 than Robin and Kate had the entire season. It would have also made me far less uncomfortable, since the characters would have been closer in age. Which brings me to my next point.

“There is only one thing worse than a rapist – a child”

How old is Kate supposed to be? Seriously, this show can’t seem to make its mind about her. In general, I do not trust anyone’s age on this show unless it’s been stated somewhere. I know some people try to base the characters’ ages on the actors’ real ages, but to that I say, “fuck that”. Archer is the best example of the fact that this show did not even try to cast people who are the right age, or even look the part. (Seriously, he does not look even close to being 20.)

That being said, Kate is written like she is both 15 and 25 at the same time. I don’t know if the writers had a specific age in mind when they were writing her, but there is a huge difference between those ages. I think it’s the most reasonable thing to assume that she’s in her late teens, maybe at most in her very early twenties. She is still living with her family (I know that most women at the time married in their 20s but it’s not like this show is concerned with historical accuracy) and her behavior is a little immature at times. With all that said, I hope it doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone that I find it incredibly uncomfortable that all the men that are presented as possible love interests to her are fully grown men.

It is the most obvious in Robin and Kate’s scenes. Like I said earlier, Robin treats Kate like a child and speaks to her in a condescending way, only to then make out with her in the same scene. I must wonder why the writers didn’t just age up Kate. I think it would have been more interesting to make her someone who is already married, and instead of losing her brother, it would be her husband that dies. Of course, I would prefer it if Kate didn’t have to be a part of any of these love triangles to begin with but aging her up would have made the dynamics far less uncomfortable. (I do have to also point out the fact that Meg is also written like she is a teen girl. The show then tries to pair her off with Gisborne, who is even older than the men Kate is being forced into love triangles with. So… yikes.)

Let’s take a break, drink some water

Let’s take a moment to recap what we’ve learned here. First of all, Kate entered the show in unfair circumstances and with only two feet to fill three pairs of boots. She was only ever allowed to be a part romance plots, and she didn’t get a proper character arc of her own. In general, the women in this season were not written well (not that seasons 1 and 2 were the height of feminist television either), and they were reduced to being love interests or tools to further the male character’s plotlines. Without Dominic Minghella involved and with a full year between seasons 2 and 3, the show lost some of its charm. Unfortunately, this meant that Kate was not the best written character. But I do not think she deserves all the hate the fandom has given her over the years.

Interlude: Doctor Death

Before I get too much into how the fandom has reacted to Kate over the years, I feel like I should explain my own history with this show and the fandom surrounding it.

I started watching the show when it was first airing here on TV. It was some time during season 2, and once I had seen my very first episode, I watched all the following ones as well. With the finale, there was a problem. I had seen 2x12 and knew that the final episode of the season would air the next week. I was so excited for it, but then my mother decided that we would all go out and have dinner. I kept looking at the clock all day, hoping I would make it home in time. I got home just to see the credits rolling. I’m still a little bitter about it.

After this, I was desperate to see how the season ended. I’ll remind you that this was before it was common for shows to be put online officially. Streaming wasn’t really a thing yet. I did the only thing I knew what to do; I went to YouTube. The thing is, I did not know that what I had been watching was the second season of the show. So, you can imagine my confusion, when I find the very grainy version of 1x13 on YouTube and start watching it. Eventually I figured out my mistake and watched 2x13. At some point I watched season 1 as well, but I honestly don’t have that many memories of when I first watched this show. My clearest memory is being betrayed by my own mother when she forced me to go out for dinner.

Since I do not remember what year this all happened in, I did some googling and if I’m correct, season 2 aired here for the first time in the summer of 2009, with reruns in the summer of 2010. Because I have no other memories for context, I can’t say whether or not season 3 was even out in the UK at the time. Anyway, I did not watch season 3 for a few years. I also didn’t engage with the fandom until 2012, when I joined Tumblr. (A side note: while trying to find out when season 2 aired, I found the episode titles and descriptions. Apparently 2x4’s Finnish title was Doctor Death. There were some real gems on that list but this one was my favorite.)

Over the years, I had read bits and pieces about season 3 on the internet. I was still upset about the end of season 2, and the things I read did not make me want to watch season 3. Sometime in 2012-2013 I finally gave in and watched season 3. I was mostly disappointed by the season as a whole, and as for Kate specifically, I found her annoying. In the fandom, I went along with the Kate-hate that was popular in the fandom at the time.

I did a full rewatch of the show with my friend in 2016–2017. During that time, I didn’t hate Kate as much as I did before. Maybe it was that I had a fresh perspective, maybe it was that I had matured in those few years. Who knows? I was mostly disappointed by the bad writing. Even back then, I wished that Kate had been given a proper chance.

The next proper rewatch of the whole series I did was this past winter. I watched the show in a non-chronological order with someone who had never seen it before. This time, I was angry at the writers and found myself half-ironically becoming a Kate-stan. I also began to really pay attention to how the fandom has talked about her over the years and was unnerved by the hate has she gotten.

So, here we are. Time to take a look at how the fandom has treated Kate. Most of this will be based on my own experiences and memories, so if someone else has a different point of view to offer (especially from the early days of the fandom while the show was still ongoing), feel free to comment! I just wanted to give you my own history with the fandom to show that I have indeed been around for most of the fandom’s history.

The hate-train for Kate-town leaves from platform 4

It seems that from the very beginning, Kate was disliked. I remember reading negative comments about her way back in the early 2010s (I would try to look for examples, but I just spent 30 minutes trying to find out when season 2 first aired here and it’s currently 1am so I am not spending any more time googling right now). There are fics that make fun of her and how badly she was written, and most of the jokes and dislike about season 3 seem to always come back to her. This attitude has been present in the fandom in other contexts as well. Over the years, the hate towards Kate has come and gone along with the popularity of the fandom.

Every once in a while, someone has tried to either write Kate better or even see her as a character that was let down by the writers. Mostly this has not led to any significant change in the fandom’s attitudes. I feel like whenever some of the older fans outgrow their Kate-hate by either just maturing and realizing it’s pointless or just not wanting to waste their time making fun of her, new fans come in and start the whole thing all over again.

I am grateful, however, that the general consensus in the fandom seems to be (at least in the year 2021) that the actress is not to blame for Kate’s faults. It still does make me uncomfortable that people go so far as to cross out her face on pictured etc. just to show how much they hate the character. This hate that Kate gets feels very misogynistic at times and is at least partially the result of the show’s misogynistic writing, but the actress deserves no negativity for playing Kate.

What about Isabella?

One thing that is very interesting to note is that while both Kate and Isabella were newcomers in season 3 and were both replacements for Marian in the sense that they were love interests for Robin, only Kate has received a significant amount of hate over the years. So why does the fandom not hate Isabella?

I think that a big reason for why Isabella is tolerated – not necessarily liked, I haven’t seen too many people genuinely enjoying her character – better than Kate is the way the narrative treats them. Kate is essentially forced down our throats. The show is so desperate for us to like her that they end up making her unlikeable. Isabella, on the other hand, is eventually made into a villain, and thus we’re not meant to sympathize with her in the end anyway. (I could write a whole rant about how Isabella’s treatment in the narrative is bad but let’s not do it here.) Isabella also has the advantage of being Gisborne’s sister, so her backstory ties better into already existing characters. I think it’s reasonable to say that Gisborne being a fan-favorite in certain parts of the fandom doesn’t hurt Isabella’s case either.

Isabella is also only involved with Robin, while the show keeps pairing Kate off (unsuccessfully) with almost half the cast. I think she was written in a way that reminds people of Mary Sues, and considering how fandoms tend to not like characters like that, it’s no surprise that Kate got all the hate she did.

Murder and being annoying – they’re the same thing, right?

So why exactly does the fandom hate Kate so much? Obviously, the writing is a big reason. Season 3 is not written well, which means that Kate is not written well either. She doesn’t really get a storyline of her own, and instead her main purpose is to be someone else’s love interest. I would also add that Kate doesn’t really get hate for her personality. Most of the hate that she gets in terms of character traits revolves around her being annoying, but that’s not really a personality trait. So I think the issue is not her personality, but her role.

The next reason won’t surprise anyone who has spent as much time in fandoms as I have: Fandoms do not like female characters. Well, I should probably rephrase that. Fandoms tend to hate female characters more easily than male characters. I’m not going to analyze too deeply on why this is, as I’m sure someone has already done research on this with references to actual feminist theory. There is a lot of internalized misogyny in fandoms, and female characters get hate for even the slightest wrongdoing, while male characters who commit far worse crimes often have a strong fanbase that will defend them despite these flaws, especially if said male character is played by a conventionally attractive man.

Kate is also blamed for things such as breaking Much’s heart, even though she was never really aware of Much’s feelings in the first place, so it was definitely not intentional. She’s blamed for every small wrongdoing in a way other characters in the show are not. I’ve seen people criticize Kate for small things that she has not even done on purpose. Some of these people then also go on to ignore the fact that Gisborne has committed several murders, taken part in the oppression of the poor and done many many more atrocious things, and paint him as a more sympathetic character than Kate. I understand if you do not like Kate, but it feels misogynistic that the female characters are held to different standards than the male characters. I can already hear some of the Gisborne-fans saying “but I acknowledge his actions and think what he did was wrong! I just find him to be a misunderstood and/or interesting character”. To those people I will just say: Why are you not applying this same logic for Kate? Why are you making outright hateful comments about her? If you don’t like her, why not just ignore her? If you are a Gisborne-fan and have never made these comments about Kate, this obviously doesn’t apply to you. And even if you aren’t a Gisborne-fan, but you do recognize this way of thinking in yourself in regard to some other character, I encourage you to think about it critically. I just used Gisborne as an example since I know he’s perhaps the most popular male character in the fandom (at least if Ao3’s numbers are anything to go by). I’ve also seen a similar attitude from a lot of Allan-fans, though in their case the hypocrisy is often not as obvious, but I’ll return to Allan in a moment.

Many female characters end up getting hate because they get in the way of a popular (often m/m) ship. In this regard, Kate is kind of an outlier since she doesn’t exactly do that, since there isn’t really a ship to get in the way of. Sure, she’s eventually paired off with Robin, but Marian is already dead by the time she shows up, and if people were truly bothered by someone other than Marian trying to get Robin’s attention, they would also hate Isabella with the same intensity. I do think there is one “ship” Kate does come in the middle of, and here’s where we get back to Allan.

Now, the ship Kate does get in the middle of is not in fact canonical. I am of course talking about the popular Allan/OC trope. If you go on Ao3 or Fanfiction.net, you won’t have a hard time finding fics where Allan is paired with an OC. This is understandable, seeing that the show only has four main female characters to begin with, one of whom is already in a love triangle with other people, one of whom canonically ends up with someone else, one of whom is actively hated by the fandom and one of whom just does not interact with Allan.

I want to make it clear that I think it’s fine if people want to come up with their own OCs for the purpose of shipping them with existing characters, it’s just not my thing, especially when those OCs are any level of self-inserts. (I personally don’t feel the need to ship Allan romantically with anyone. I just tend to not like OCs in any fandom.) Since Kate is presented as a potential love-interest for Allan, I think many fans who would rather see Allan with their own character or even themselves view Kate as an obstacle or a threat.

As you may see, this fandom, like many others, unfortunately treats the women in the show differently from the men. Male characters like Gisborne are viewed as redeemable so long as they are attractive, but Kate is irredeemable for… breaking Much’s heart and/or getting in the way of Robin/Marian or Allan/OC? This is something that really bothers me. I don’t mind the fact that people don’t like Kate, it’s the extensive hate she gets that makes me uncomfortable.

Conclusion: Where do we go from here?

Like I said in the beginning, I am not asking anyone to say Kate is their favorite character or to even like her. I just wanted to provide some things for people to think about regarding how they treat female characters. I think it’s about time the fandom took a proper look at itself and critically thought about how it speaks about female characters. It’s 2021, let’s not hate on female characters just for being a little annoying or getting in the way of shipping.

I haven’t seen the fandom analyze that much why season 3 is the way it is. I would love to see some meta about how Dominic Minghella’s departure and other behind the scenes factors contributed to the story and aesthetics of season 3. I would also love to see some actual analysis on the season 3 characters that isn’t focused on tearing them down. If the fandom never made another post about how terrible Kate is without providing any actual reasons, I would be happy. I can sort of understand this immature hatred coming from 15-year-olds, but I’m disappointed to say that I have seen fully grown adults tearing down Kate in this quite misogynistic way. I know that many people do not intend for their dislike of Kate to come across as misogynistic, but it does not erase the fact that that is how many of those hateful comments appear.

I think Kate had a lot of potential. Season 3 had a lot of potential. It is quite a move to kill Marian in the middle of a Robin Hood story, so they had the chance to take the story to all kinds of places. Unfortunately, the season 3 we ended up with was not of the same quality as the previous seasons. Instead of just hating on the characters or story in general, I think we should focus on really analyzing the season, and even coming up with our own ways of improving it. Many people have already done this (though unfortunately many of these attempts also include thinly veiled hatred towards Kate. It’s your story, why are you not treating her any better than the actual writers of the show?), but there’s always room for more takes.

At this point I will shamelessly advertise my own “Kate should have been the new Nightwatchman” theory and my Nightwatchman-fic. I wrote the latter in a way that would let it be a part of canon if necessary. I think that by refocusing the story and shifting the way we read the text, we can find new aspects of season 3, and perhaps even enjoy it more. That is what happened to me during my latest rewatch, and all it took was watching it in a non-chronological order and talking about it with someone who had never seen the show.

I’m not trying to gatekeep the fandom and say that only thought-provoking analysis or fix-it fanfiction is allowed. I just feel like people should be more conscious of the message they are sending out when they write hateful comments about Kate, censor her name or even cross out her face from pictures. Is it actually funny? Are you contributing something to the conversation? Is it actual criticism or just hate for the sake of hate? You don’t have to start writing posts in the defense of Kate, but you can just start ignoring her. It’s not that difficult. It’s fine to make jokes, but let’s start thinking about what our jokes say about us.

I once more want to emphasize that this is not a callout post I wrote with any one person in mind. So, if you felt offended when I was talking about Gisborne-fans, Allan/OC-shippers or Kate-haters in general, I can assure you that this post was not about you personally. This is not about any individual person. I’m just commenting on trends in the fandom I have noticed over the years. I don’t think any of you have committed any sins or that you need to be cancelled. I just hope that if you did feel guilty reading this, you’ll realize that maybe this post was something you definitely needed to read. As a woman, I would love it if this fandom worked on getting rid of its internalized misogyny.

I’m not claiming to be right on all of this, in fact I have a lot of bad opinions as well. I hope this post has provided people with things to think about. Feel free to use this as a starting point for your own meta or analysis. I’ll end my rant here, and leave you with this thought:

Kate had a lot of potential to be a good character. She did not let us down. The writers did.

#robin hood bbc #bbc robin hood #I'm not gonna tag any characters just to be polite #this is less of an analysis and more like a rant #the second half really is something #90% of this was written at night so it shows #anyway I hope every kate-hater reads this

52 notes · View notes

unkwn0s · 4 years ago

Text

Vincenzo Ep. 20 (Finale) Ranting.

What a rollercoaster that was you guys! (SPOILERS AND LONG POST AHEAD).

I'm writing this right as i finish watching the drama bc the feelings and thoughts are still very fresh and this is a ranting + some analysis too.

Let's start w the death of Jang Han Seo: I'm truly sorry to everyone but me and everyone else saw it coming, even if you denied and hoped it to be a trick. His development was amazing and well written but if there's one thing i've learned watching kdramas is that not just bc you had a redemption arc you'll have a happy ending alive (Hi TOTNT lee rang), i do not think it was necessary to kill him, having chayoung and vincenzo lose their parents and people dear to them but i guess the writers really wanted that shocking factor to contribute on making Jang Han Seok into a monster that no one would feel guilty getting rid of (which honestly worked for me).

The parallel of the hospital scene. I confess i would have been pissed off if we didn't get that one (partly bc i love mirror scenes so much it's such a pleasure to me). But what got me the most is that from the moment Chayoung took the bullet she knew Vincenzo would feel guilty and first thing she did when she opened her eyes was to tell him it wasn't his fault and on god for a non romance drama their feelings for each other were so strong that i felt it slapping me across the monitor even without a proper dolled up typical confession scene.

Choi Myunghee ending. RIGHTFULL, one of the best things i've ever watched in my whole entire life. I don't know if the actress was that good or is it the hate i have for people who quietly evil things and think they are so right about it but there were times i felt more anger towards her than Han Seok, maybe bc his character was (as said on that trial) a lost psycho case since always but not her, she was cold headed and hearted, she was very rational and even tho she kept getting owned up by Vincenzo she never showed signs of slowing down so her ending was predictable but deserved.

Jang Han Seok: for the same reasoning of Choi Myunghee it was satisfying and deserved. I don't know how it might sound but particularly i agree w the line of thought Vincenzo had "Justice doesn't help you solve ALL the problems, sometimes you need to think like a villain to take down a bigger evil". i saw a tiktok a few days ago that talked about how South Korea has been exploring dramas that deal with corruption lately and for that i think Vincenzo was brilliant on approaching the topic in such a different way. The other options rather letting people like the prosecutor and the biggest enemy to either run away or spend jailtime (when they either could get out easily or live comfortably w no heavy conscience of what they have done, just by using some bribes). So giving them that dramatic ending reinforces the thought that dialogue and conventional justice are not always a solution that brings satisfaction. I love revenge plots so you'll never see me complaining about "an eye for and eye" stories.

The Geumga tenants: amazing, brilliant, never done before. The definition of family is not always a blood thing. So nicely written the way some random people who would be easy for Vincenzo to wipe out to get to his point became so reliable. "Alone we go quicker but together we can go further away". Love the cast so much.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST. MY CHAENZO BABIES. Now as i said in the other post i wish people would understand that Vincenzo was neither a Romance drama or made to be based on his relationship with Chayoung, their story was something that grew in the middle of chaos (i'd like to say like those little plants that you see on concrete, they might seem weak but even tho you try to tear it apart it grows stronger again). From strangers, to partners, to friends and WHEW to lovers. I can't find english words that describe how much i love their construction over the episodes as i've said in the previous post they don't have the typical storyline of love interests other dramas have and they speak w actions louder than words. Chayoung accepted Vincenzo and his ways and still held onto her morals (who seemed grey by the start of the drama and honestly could still be but she still had boundaries) and Vincenzo knew that the moment he became aware of his feelings for her AND respected it. Now i know there will be people upset over the ending but i honestly had this in mind and considering the circumstances of their relationship i think it was decent and fair, as his last lines said he won't change his ways but chayoung was welcomed to his life. I think it was a mature view on relationships and perfect for those, like me, who love a dramatic story.

#vincenzo #probably not the last words i write about them but this is all my tired eyes can do rn #to me it was a very solid drama and different too #i know some people don't like clichés but i honestly didnt see it like that and even if it was then i don't mind #will be back later for the pretty gifsets yall make lmao

20 notes · View notes

thegrandkinghimself · 5 years ago

Text

who is oikawa tooru?

i guess that’s a weird way to start off a post, considering just how popular oikawa is in this fandom. i’m absolutely certain that he’s still one of the most popular characters if i can take the #oikawasear trend on twitter a couple of weeks ago seriously. (i will be mourning that iwaoi is no longer the top ship in this fandom. it’s devastating to me on a personal level). and i can’t say that i’m any different, either, otherwise i wouldn’t have made this blog or this post. but i guess the reason i’ve been itching to write this is because i’ve been in this fandom--and more specifically, a fan of oikawa--for about four or five years now. i devour the content available, and i can assure you that i’ve read too many of the fanfictions on ao3 to be healthy, and never before have i seen a character whose characterization is so hotly disputed.

and i get it. he’s a complex person. he’s kind of awkward in that there is a very clear disconnect between his outward personality and who he is alone. it’s a very hard balance to strike, especially when you consider just how much conjecture goes on in his characterization among fans and in discourse. he’s really easy to project and certain traits, correct or otherwise, are amplified based off how authors perceive him. there’s plenty of presumptions that can be made based on his on-screen actions/thoughts/beliefs that can be taken to some very logical conclusions.

but i’ve also seen people write him in ways that don’t strike me as particularly truthful. he’s type casted into stereotypes that don’t do him justice, or made into something that is vaguely like oikawa, but not quite. in the following post, i’ll be trying to dispel misunderstandings of his character, if only for my own sanity.

tl;dr i think that oikawa is chronically one of the most misrepresented characters in fandom and i want to fix that

exclaimer: i am solely an anime-watcher; i have seen snippets of the manga and therefore have a general idea of what is going on.

let’s establish some very very basic stuff. just to keep it simple, i’m not going to talk about anything beyond what has been published via the anime (as of season four).

Oikawa Tooru | 及川徹

gender: male

d.o.b.: 1994.7.20. or 20 July, 1994

height: 184.3 cm

weight: 72.2 kg

occupation: high school 3rd year, class 6

position/number: setter, 1 (captain)

here’s something that’s never pointed out: oikawa is in class 6 which, if we go off the trend of every other school in haikyuu!!, means that he is in a college preparatory class aka he’s pretty dang smart. it’s not confirmed or anything, but it a. follows the trend of every other class 6 student and b. is the highest class available among seijoh 3rd years (classes 5, 3, and 1). don’t get the idea that he’s dumb or unintelligent, or even that his strengths only lie in the classroom because that would be a gross understatement of his skills.

anywho.

generally speaking, i like to start with the building blocks of his personality because there’s so much room for assumptions. here are the things that i think make up his core personality:

intelligence/knowledgeable: not only academically speaking, but he’s also well-versed in people. he knows how to play them--what will make someone more confident, more doubtful, what will help his teammates succeed. clearly, oikawa is very knowledgeable in human thought patterns. or he’s dedicated a lot of time to knowing them.

loyalty: of all of oikawa’s traits, i think this one gets talked about the least, but we know it to be true. we make jokes about “you should have come to shiratorizawa” but it really shows you exactly how loyal, how much trust, oikawa has in this team that he has spent three years shaping. he never stops believing in the work that he has put in, and especially the hard work that his teammates have put into their volleyball.

hardworking: one of the most well-known things about oikawa. most fans already know that his white knee pad is actually a knee brace. ‘nuff said. i salute you, good sir.

insecurity: oikawa’s insecurities are perhaps his most notable trait. in a sense, he’s sort of the underdog--so good, but never quite good enough to accomplish what he’s set out to do. and we know that he’s struggled with his doubts since junior high, literally since he was 12 or 13, and that’s informed all of his character from the moment he ran into ushijima. oikawa is someone who is defined by his insecurities.

oikawa is a lot of things. he’s introduced as someone who is very flamboyant--he’s built up by kageyama as the best setter, his senpai literally and figuratively, his initial shots are all of smug smiles and easy, unfaltering swagger in the face of this new team. even his theme, all rambunctious brass and jazzy, is meant to be all in your face, here’s the big boss! he’s someone who is petty and silly and seems to favor shallow conversation. but he’s oikawa, so there’s a surprising amount of depth in the little time that we have with him. there’s a reason that, in any other franchise, he’d probably be the protagonist.

he is someone full of contradictions. he’s childish and he spends time with a bunch of girls and is very clearly someone who likes to project a certain image of himself to the public (see: his cute lil’ humming run after his yell in s4e23 to make him seem kind of normal). but he’s also spent a lot of time with himself. in fact, if we take the few scenes we have of him alone and his bedroom (bare, spartan, meticulous) into account, oikawa actually is much more solemn and/or serious than the image he projects. he’s comfortable in the silences between all the white noise. he’s alright just being with iwaizumi. he allows himself to dwell on the past and his shortcomings, while also looking forward to the future. his ambition and passion to improve drive him, but his past failures weigh him down. they haunt him.

personally, i think that he’s naturally a pretty silly guy when given the chance. it’s not just for show. iwaizumi would even corroborate this à la oikawa’s introduction speech in s1. he likes having fun when he can with his friends. if we assume that oikawa is most himself with iwaizumi, then we definitely know that’s the case (see: “are you my mom, iwa-chan?”), and there’s nothing wrong with that. but i think that the most basic traits of his character, combined with his experiences in volleyball, have pushed him to be this person who is mired in doubt. it’s forced him to go down a path where something that he once loved for the fun of it has now become the source of his ire. it’s really just that simple. maybe in another life, things would be different and oikawa wouldn’t have to struggle as much. but that’s really just a part of the human experience, isn’t it? and, in all honesty, would we really love oikawa as much without all his vices?

and maybe this is getting into speculation, but i don’t think it’s a difficult argument to make that oikawa is really mature. he’s introspective. i say introspective because the revelations that he’s had in regards to his own strengths and weaknesses--those are things he’s had to confront and deal with since he was in junior high (starts at 12 years of age). it takes someone with a lot of maturity and self-awareness to realize those kinds of things about himself.

and he’s stronger than he gets credit for. most people depict him as a crybaby, but he’s really not. he doesn’t cry or give up in the face of ushijima or kageyama’s unfettered growth and successes, he doesn’t cry when faced with defeat. oikawa is there to support iwaizumi in his own doubt as ace, and lend support to his teammates. and oikawa doesn’t get stuck on the what-ifs or has-beens. driven by his infamous ambition, he looks forward to the future.

it’s kind of a double-edged sword. it’s pushed him this far--he’s put in this much effort to be one of the best in the prefecture--because of his competitive spirit, but it’s also something that has caused him serious injury. oikawa’s motto (”if you’re gonna to hit it, hit it until it breaks!”) is the very epitome of this mentality. it’s a message to work hard to finish what you started, but i also think that you could interpret that hard work breaking you, too. he’s steadfast—obsessive, really—to the point that oikawa will let his passions break him before he would ever give up. it’s the point of all the strife in his life, because he would never have the problems he does if he were even a little less enamored by this sport.

and you really have to wonder where he would be without ushijima and kageyama as his obstacles. his drive will always be there, that is an intrinsic part of him, as are the standards to which he holds himself, but you really have to wonder just how good oikawa would be if he didn’t have such direct competitors. this is an incredibly important question to ask about kageyama and oikawa in particular. yes, oikawa does loathe ushijima: for his disregard for oikawa’s decisions, for his disregard of oikawa’s loyalty, for his flippant attitude of seijoh, who oikawa has poured his blood and sweat into creating. but ushijima is an opposite hitter. oikawa is a setter. those are two very different positions with little crossover. but with kageyama--that is a clear rivalry. they push each other to be better, made all the more potent by their differences as players; one setter’s growth as a player directly impacts how the other performs in each subsequent game. seijoh’s defeat by karasuno in season 2 just feeds into oikawa’s drive for the future. he has not intention of giving up. a light was lit under him, pushing him forward, to do better, to be better.

this is something that has been pointed out in a different analysis (linked below) but, narratively speaking, oikawa is kageyama’s foil. their interactions inform their characters and are a major cause of tension in their development. their relationship is really the most complex in the story that i have noticed, and is something that has not been appreciated enough. the iwaizumi-oikawa thing has been expounded and studied in every facet possible (i love the alexander the great/hephaestion allusions), but it’s true that kageyama has impacted oikawa the most. they begrudgingly respect each other’s talents, what it is that they bring to the court, while also envying what the other has in spades that they do not. in oikawa’s case, his strength clearly lies in his interpersonal relationships--his ability to intuit exactly what his teammates need to be at their best. kags is just a fount of overwhelming technical skill who has a really hard time getting to know those around him. living up to the standards that oikawa places on himself, in tandem with kageyama threatening his position as setter, leave oikawa floundering, fearing his own incompetence against opponents who are naturally much better than he. so he’s left with the knowledge that maybe his best isn’t good enough, but he still continues on anyway. he pushes himself past a seemingly unreachable threshold just to go toe-to-toe with this monster. it’s the purpose of his character--to tell this story of the ordinary v. the extraordinary--and it is perhaps the most relatable arc that a story like haikyuu!! can tell.

their connection naturally causes oikawa to seek out help, seen in the flashback scenes where he is talking to an unspecified coach/adult. that coach’s words then become the creed upon which oikawa plays, maybe even more than what iwaizumi has taught him, and is the final push that completes oikawa’s character arc in s2ep24. that change in mindset allows oikawa to see kageyama’s unbridled talent not as an obstacle but as a challenge. it’s very nuanced, but it makes all the difference. it’s why, following seijoh’s defeat, oikawa has the audacity to declare to kageyama and ushijima his plans for the future. in a sense, karasuno and kageyama and ushijima have won the battle but not the war. it’s the tipping point in his story and, more than anything, what makes oikawa so compelling. we have seen what has led up to the change, but now we want to know what he’s going to do to meet that challenge. what will he be doing beyond the story when he is no longer relevant to the narrative? we don’t know the details at this point, but we know that oikawa’s love and ambition for volleyball have been reaffirmed in this moment.

but to bring it back, the kags-oiks connection also makes us question what it is we are watching, makes us as the audience think: what qualifies someone as a genius? are there any limitations to what that genius can do? what can ordinary people do in the face of those geniuses?

these are questions that exist beyond the reality of sports and transverse into other disciplines. for me, those are very real questions that i have had to ask myself as a musician. i have dedicated nine, almost 10, years to my practice but there are still 10-year-olds who are just better at it than i ever will be. part of it is time and practice to be sure, but some of it is just innate. and i think the more appropriate version of those questions would be this: what qualifies someone as a prodigy? are there limitations for prodigies? what can we do in the face of prodigies?

oikawa is a genius player--he knows the ins-and-outs of his sport better than anyone, and he can accomplish great feats that others in his same position can’t. but even with all that veritable experience and skill, he is ultimately still overtaken by a prodigy whose talents seem endless. it’s why he can hate ushijima but fear kageyama. one is something he can actively fight against, the other is inevitable.

and really, i think that’s the beauty of oikawa tooru, why he’s so beloved by the fandom, even years after he has stopped being relevant to the narrative. beyond the fluff and goofiness and hijinks, there’s someone there who is really, truly, human.

an aside with much less significance/why do people think this??

so here’s one thing: even though oikawa has fangirls, i wonder what he actually thinks of them. for one, it’s only natural for anyone to be super flattered if people think you’re hot stuff. that’s just... i don’t think he’s weird if he pays attention to them. but i think that people are conflating his being kind to them to being genuinely egotistical due to the attention. actually, i think these are opposing ideas and a contradiction of who oikawa is. when you’re an arrogant person, you think that you deserve all the attention you’re getting and you’re not going to bother with the people who worship you.

but that’s not at all what oikawa does. he’s rather kind to his fans. i would never say that he’s self-effacing, but knowing what you’re worth is different from being pompous. and think about it. it’d be a real jerk move for oikawa to not say nice things to them and thank his fangirls when they spend time, energy, and effort to make him food and see his games. he would just be a genuinely awful person if he didn’t at least give them thanks. it’d be more alarming if he didn’t talk to them, at least in my opinion. more than anything, we should consider this: why is it that oikawa has the fan club and not anyone else on the seijoh team? i’m sure a part of it is because he’s attractive and the captain of a team, but i think it’s more than that, too. we see these interactions from other perspectives, but i think that reflects more on those around oikawa than oikawa himself if they don’t understand why he acts the way he does with those girls.

another thing: i don’t think that anyone can question that oikawa is very pretty, or handsome, or whatever descriptor you would like. it’s prevalent in fandom (see: pretty setters squad), but he is also the only person in canon to be acknowledged by other characters as being particularly good-looking. maybe the miyas count at this point? i’m not sure. but i don’t really understand where people get the idea that he is particularly focused on his appearance, though. there is literally no indication of that from the material that i have seen. and maybe he uses that to his advantage with his fangirls, but i highly doubt that, in all honesty. i think that it’s fun to imagine him being into these things as a hobby, but it irks me greatly when i see that people spend time saying that oikawa wakes up extra early just to fix his hair or slather on foundation/concealer just to look presentable.

he’s a teenaged boy who clearly has other things that worry him, he’s a full-time student, and volunteers to coach at lil tykes volleyball classroom in his free time. he wouldn’t have time to spend on his hair or makeup. and we even seen in the hanger tooru special that he even wakes up looking like that.

he is au naturale, my friends. and we even know how little he gives thought to his own body, if you take into account his knee brace. for oikawa, his body is merely the medium through which he can accomplish his goals. we even have evidence of this when we see oikawa up all night studying karasuno game play or via his knee brace. he doesn’t know how to stop or understand when enough is enough. he breaks himself if there’s no one to watch him.

also, just... how would makeup work, logistically speaking? i don’t wear makeup, but i’m thinking that foundation and concealer and hair product would be, um, really bad. like, it’d run down his face and stuff. also, it’d probably get into his eyes, too? seriously. i’m not against oikawa wearing makeup in the slightest cause he’d be even prettier, but we know that oikawa would absolutely not jeopardize his chances in any way.

thank you for reading this long-winded, probably awful look into my favorite character of all time. and i do mean that. he is my favorite character in all of media. which, like, says a lot when he’s competing against the casts of a:tla, call me by your name, and my actual favorite book, the song of achilles. after all of that, if you would like another (better) analysis of oikawa’s character, i suggest this reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/haikyuu/comments/94irsi/character_analysis_16_oikawa_tooru_discussion/

#oikawa tooru #haikyuu #character analysis #i'm so sorry about this #i just had to get this off of my chest #thanks for coming to my ted talk

48 notes · View notes

justalitlecreacher · 4 years ago

Text

Ok as much as I hate the events of the Rako Hardeen arc in Clone Wars and deeply wish that the council/Obi-Wan had at the very least told Anakin and Ahsoka what they were planning, I feel like the arc represents a very important turning point in Anakin’s fall and actually shows an important bit of character growth from Attack of the Clones.

Tl;Dr: The Rako Hardeen arc is my favorite and least favorite arc in all of Clone Wars because while it puts Anakin through unnecessary pain it also gives a lot of insight into why he may have fallen in Revenge of the Sith and shows some important character growth

Ok; the most important part of this post/analysis (I think) is to remember how close Anakin and Obi-Wan are. Anakin was placed in Obi-Wan’s care at the age of 9 and from then on Obi-Wan practically raised him. In Attack of the Clones we see Anakin refer to Obi-Wan as the closest thing he has to a father not once, but twice, and one of those two times was directly to Obi-Wan.”OBI-WAN: Why do I think you are going to be the death of me?! ANAKIN: Don't say that Master... You're the closest thing I have to a father... I love you. I don't want to cause you pain.”(Attack of the Clones) and later to Padmé “...He's [Obi-Wan] like my father,...”. This is especially important because when Anakin leaves his mother to become a Jedi in The Phantom Menace, Obi-Wan is literally the only friendly/familiar face in the Temple. Plus in the comics (disclaimer: I have not read all the comics just bits and pieces) we get a glimpse of Anakin training with the other padawans and it’s made clear that at least some of them don’t like Anakin at all. One padawan even refers to him as “just a slave” when shit talking him during training.(which like super fucked up; they def should’ve gotten in trouble cause that don’t seem very Jedi of them ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)

Anyway; we’ve established Anakin and Obi-Wan’s bond. So let’s turn our attention towards someone who deserved so much better; Shmi Skywalker. Her death in Attack of the Clones was the first major turning point in Anakin’s fall to the Dark Side. There is really no excuse for Anakin’s actions after Shmi’s death; he goes to a very dark place, and likely taps into the dark side of the force during the massacre of the Tusken Raiders. But that’s not what we’re talking about rn so back on track.

I bring Shmi’s death up to say that while Anakin was tracking down Obi-Wan’s “murderer” I didn’t fully realize that Obi-Wan had disguised himself as Hardeen and I was genuinely worried that Anakin was about to unalive an innocent man. I really believe that the only thing that stopped Anakin from trying (and maybe succeeding) to kill Obi/Rako was like he said: he knew that Obi-Wan wouldn’t have wanted him to. This is important because the last time Anakin lost a family member he brutally murdered an entire village of Tusken Raiders, children included, and I think it’s safe to say that Shmi “the biggest problem in the universe is nobody helps each other” Skywalker would not have wanted that. I’ve finally arrived at one of my main points; this arc shows a crucial bit of character growth by showing an Anakin that is capable of thinking his actions through and not just reacting out of anger even after the loss of one of the most important people in his life; something he was previously shown incapable of when his anger and grief blind him. This turns this arc into an sort of midway point on Anakin’s fall; he’s clearly tempted to give into his anger and pain again, but he is able to resist this time. A younger Anakin may have killed “Hardeen” then and there.

This scene really contrasts with Anakin’s actions in Revenge of the Sith in a way im not sure how i feel about yet. On one hand it has potential to make Anakin’s actions in Revenge of the Sith feel too out of character. We just saw Anakin able to see past his own emotions in the wake of the death of a loved one so what makes this different? On the other hand this arc can be used to show just how desperate Anakin is to not have to feel that way ever again. It’s also good for showing how much influence Palpatine has had on Anakin in the space between this arc and Revenge of the Sith. As for why Anakin may be unable to think past his own feelings in Revenge of the Sith when he appeared perfectly capable in the arc, a likely reason is that there really wasn't anything Anakin thought he could do for Obi-Wan anymore because he believed him to be dead, but with Padmé, Anakin knew she could be saved if he could just get her the proper care. But his fear of being exiled from the Jedi Order, and his increasing lack of faith in the council led him to believe that he had no choice other than to trust in Palpatine. And no hate to Yoda but im sure when Anakin did try to reach out (even as vaguely as he did) Yoda’s response of “Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.” didn't appear to be very helpful (especially considering that he is well aware that listening to Ahsoka’s visions and responding appropriately saved Padmé’s life (not sure if Anakin knows about that though)). These three episodes show pretty well how/why Anakin may have felt that he had nowhere to turn but Palpatine.

These groups of episodes actually show negative character growth (is that the right term?) in Anakin. He goes from commiting mass murder rated E for everyone to understanding that his loved ones would not want him to seek revenge in this way, but then he backslides into this lightsaber is rated E for everyone by Revenge of the Sith. Logically he should know that Padmé would never have wanted him to do what he did; he has to know what he’s doing is wrong, but he’s incapable of seeing another way out because he cannot handle even the thought of losing Padmé. He’s too desperate to not lose her, and so sure that there’s no other option that he manages to convince himself that he needs to do this for her. I find this entire arc really interesting but unless i want to be here all day the most i can do here is point out that it exists and that it peaks in the Rako Hardeen arc. Surprisingly i do have a life outside of writing long posts, and i lack the time and energy to analyze all of Clone Wars and write about every event that led to Darth Vader (there are so many). On top of that i actually haven’t seen all of Clone Wars; just the episodes most important to understanding Anakin’s fall.

Onto my next point, we just talked about the growth Anakin showed in this episode; now onto why i believe that this arc was instrumental in Anakin’s fall. (Disclaimer: I do not think that removing this arc alone could have saved Anakin, but i do believe it would have helped a good bit). I’ve already touched on Anakin and Obi-Wan’s bond so im not gonna do that again.

Ive said it before and i will say it again; it was super fucked up of Obi-Wan and everyone else on the Council to use Anakin’s (and Ahsoka’s) reactions Obi-Wan’s “death” for their own gain. It was super manipulative and they absolutely knew what they were doing. Obi-Wan even explicitly says, “Keeping Anakin on the outside was critical. Everyone knows how close we are. It was his reaction that sold the sniper. I'm sure of it.”(Deception season 2 episode 15). He knows just how devastated Anakin would be by his death, and he uses like Anakin and his mental and emotional well-being mean nothing to him (I know this isn’t true but its probably not hard to believe that someone doesn't care about your feelings when they’ve just tricked you into thinking they’ve died for their own gain). The Council really proves time and time again that they do not care about Anakin’s (or maybe anyone’s; Anakin was far from the only one close to Obi-Wan left unaware of his deception) mental or emotional wellbeing, but tbh i think this is the worst example of how callous the Council can be. And on top of all of that it was Obi-Wan who decided to keep Anakin in the dark Obi-Wan who should have known better; if we assume that Anakin is at least 20 in Clone Wars; Obi-Wan has known Anakin for at least 10 years, and has practically raised him from the age of 9, and yet somehow, somehow he had this idea and didn't see a single thing wrong with it. (And they really picked the worst possible person for this; like yea let’s trick the most unstable Jedi we have into thinking his closest friend/ father figure was murdered)

This arc’s main purpose (IMO) is to really show the beginnings of Anakin losing faith in the Jedi and putting more and more faith in Palpatine. Anakin trusted Obi-Wan, and Obi-Wan betrayed that trust. Beyond that Palpatine is able to make Anakin begin to doubt how much the Council is telling him if they didnt tell him something as crucial as this. We even see Anakin parroting Palpatine’s “concerns” of the council not telling Anakin the full truth the Obi-Wan and the end of the arc. This arc is instrumental is establishing Anakin’s loss of faith in the council and shows how much he trusts Palpatine and sees him as a real friend.

Anyway I’m sure I had more I wanted to touch onand if I remember I will definitely edit this post but for the now I just wanna say. A) I love Obi-Wan a lot; this arc just really was not it. I do not understand how he thought this was in any way acceptable but I do still really like him. B) i fully understand that Anakin’s actions are his own and he does take a share of the blame for his own fall.

#what am i doing?#anakin skywalker #obi wan kenobi #rako hardeen #star wars #clone wars #deception arc #clone wars deception #long post #ramble #im so sorry except im not #i hesitate to use the word hyperfixation but not a day has gone by that i havent thougt of Anakin Skywalker at least once #in so long #i have a problem

24 notes · View notes