#I know what the trap is for thematically and plot-wise

[m34gs]

The way people scream "the door was big enough for two people" about The Titanic (1997) except it's "the glass coffin was big enough for two people if they really tried!!!"

I know that's not the issue with the trap or the reason why Strahm failed (it's to showcase his flaws and also show how being Jigsaw is about anticipating the moves of the victim and how even traps with a way out are more of an execution than anything - something we get a good look at with the eye trap in Saw X - to put it rather simply) but I just think it's funny to imagine people screaming that.

Also I like thinking about the two of them squished together in the box. Still enemies at that point. But undeniably attracted to one another. And pressed so, so close...

[cross-my-heartt]

Nitpicking episode four (affectionately so)

I know this may be controversial but sometimes we nitpick things out of love and that is very much the case for me here.

I love so much about episode four and much of it has already been talked about but I would still tweak some things to make it perfect because I'm an incorrigible Crosshair girlie and I'll both dissect and cherish every moment he's in the limelight while it still lasts.

Anyway without further ado

1.) Crosshair's recklessness. I love me a trigger happy sniper but my man would never come so close to decking that imperial officer.

By all means that should have been Omega. Crosshair's motto has always been playing it safe (the thematic manifestation of dispatching danger from a safe distance). The point of him staying with the Empire is that despite the drawbacks and the Empire's moral corruption, they would have been 'safer' there.

Crosshair is willing to tolerate a lot if it's in the name of safety and the only times he's downright reckless is when he's pushed to the brink (killing Nolan, escaping Tantiss). Omega on the other hand has already shown that she has a lower tolerance for injustice. Her standing up to Hemlock earlier in the season was a reminder of that and it would have been more consistent to make her the one nearly provoked into a confrontation here.

So I would have had him holding her back here seeing as assessing danger and realizing the benefit of laying low is something Crosshair should be better at between the two of them.

2.) Huge missed opportunity to make Crosshair and Omega cooperate during the gambling scene. It was fun to see them bump heads but I would have loved to see more of them cooperating in creative ways, like Crosshair using reflections to see the officer's hand and helping Omega cheat the game.

Otherwise I would have made it a game of Dejarik. Because we have context for her being good at that while we haven't seen her play much sabacc so far. It's kind of like saying that if you're good at chess you're automatically good at poker.

3.) This could just be me but that moment where it seemed like Crosshair was about to let Omega go after Batcher alone felt off for his character. Crosshair lives to fight for a cause and I'm pretty sure it's been established that Omega is that cause now.

The best explanation I can think of is that he was bluffing and I can completely see him doing that in an attempt to change her mind. If it were me I would have made it look more like a dropped bluff and less like a 'this could have gone either way situation'.

4.) Would have loved to see them resolve the escape situation a bit more creatively too. I'm not a fan of the all the creature moments (don't love them in the new Vader run either) and a cute little team up between these two, combining their shooting abilities and using stealth and the terrain in their favor would have been cool to see. And just imagine Crosshair caving in at the very end, agreeing to let the animals go anyway after Omega has puppy eyed him into doing it.

Ten out of ten would have lived for that.

5.) The tremor. Where is it?? Why aren't we seeing more of it??? This really should be a bigger deal, I really need it to be a bigger deal. Yes, we see him miss a lot of shots but I need more.

6.) Reunion. This is the hardest for me to criticize because it does make for some great drama and a great cliffhanger but I'm more for putting character before entertainment.

The only way I see them making dagger eyes at someone they were ride or die determined to rescue not too long ago is if they still suspect Crosshair of setting up some kind of trap. Which is a bit of a reach this far into the plot.

Character wise it just isn't a logical decision for me.

But yeah, I suppose it all depends on where they take this scene from here. Let me know what you think.

[nataliaphantomhivesblog]

Predictions for Soukoku’s fate (BSD CH 109 spoilers!!)

How I be looking after dedicating two posts on the possibility of Chuuya not being a vampire due to the fact he was faceless for absolutley no reason during some chapters, thinking it was important: 

alright people, i wish i could express my embarassment further but instead of kicking my feet, screaming and crying over my miscalculations, i will proceed to (hopefully) redeem myself with my following predictions.  

Guys, first of all I need to tell you something that I think is absolutely obvious: Dazai is not going to die. 

thematically, it makes absolutley no sense for Dazai to die considering how many characters still depend on him, EVEN HIMSELF.

We still haven’t learned his backstory, we still haven’t had a cathartic moment between Akutagwa and Dazai, Atsushi is yet to learn more from his mentor, and he’s overall a very key character to foil others and develop them while he’s at it.

Even Dazai himself dying right now feels extremely weightless, we haven’t even learned anything about Dazai’s past and he’s already killed? without growing as a person? without fullfilling Oda’s promise?  I don’t know, personally to me, direction wise, development wise and plot wise killing him off is absolutley nonsensical.

Asagiri does tend to take a very unique and unpredictable route with his writing and characters, but for plots sake, I highly doubt Dazai is gone forever.

Also, Fydoor and Dazai continue throwing uno reverse cards at each other, always catching one another unexpectedly. I am still going strong on the idea that Double Black will catch Fyodor off-guard.

Fyodor during these whole prision sections has been constantly belittling and teasing Dazai over how shallow his bond with Chuuya is.

When that’s beyond the truth. Dazai and Chuuya’s trust is literally undying. Stormbringer, the double black chapter and dead apple show us this in the most obvious way possible.

Asagiri himself has quoted that Soukoku knows each others motives, which has also been proven plenty of times when they are working together. 

Dazai himself admited there really was moments where their hearts reached out to one another.

and I think that’s enough to understand, Fyodor is wrong. THEY ARE DOUBLE BLACK FOR A REASON!!!

So far in this chapter, I got various things confirmed. Let’s walk through them together. 

1. Dazai’s nullifcation ability works on vampires, confirmed by Fyodor himself.

So what does this tell us? That Dazai had been planning all along to get in contact with Chuuya. He knew his partner’s abilities will break him out of the water trap, he’s not dumb.

So Dazaj totally meant to get in physical contact with Chuuya in order to nullify his vamparism. And no, it’s not only because Dazai cares for Chuuya (which is a true statement, but not the main reason.) It’s because out of everyone in this room, Chuuya is the only one able to physically overpower Fyodor. 

And even if Chuuya somehow can’t overpower Fyodor, atleast Chuuya can be Dazai’s bodyguard considering well...Dazai’s countless of injuries. Chuuya is Dazai’s ticket to get out of the prision.

Dazai needs Chuuya in his corner. He needs double black in action. He needs Chuuya. 

2. Dazai is genuienly frustrated that his plan to bring back Chuuya didn’t work.

I can’t be the only one who ADORED seeing Dazai panicking. (I sound so masochistic but seriously, it’s rare to see Dazai unmask this way).

Anyways, Dazai’s panic and frustrating during these pannels are unfortunately proof that things did not go at all how he planned.

3. Aya is attempting to take out the sword that stops Bram from having full atonomy on his vampire abilty. 

If by any luck, Aya is able to detach the swoard from Bram, Chuuya and literally every other vamp will return to normal. (which honestly, let’s do hope Aya removes the sword bc this is getting too agonizingly dragged out.)

4. Chuuya and Dazai are destined to....

 kiss?? marry?? make out under the moonlight??

Nono my friends, Chuuya and Dazai are destined to die together.

Chuuya and Dazai dying together has been hinted since Fifthteen, but my theory of these two dying together strenghtened during Stormbringer when Mori teased Dazai about a double suicide with Chuuya.

I’m not saying they will die right now but in order to solidify the need for Shin Soukoku in Yokahama.....

This old married couple gotta go and make room for the highschool sweethearts/hj

5. Dazai took the L

Honestly, I won’t lie to you and say that Dazai’s way out of this situation is going to be hard. But Dazai has attempted to kill himself plenty of times, I wouldn’t be surprised if he has shot a bullet through his head in his early 20s. (Im not joking when I say this i swear).

Anyways, Dazai seems somewhat imune to death and honestly, his character is too important to die, especially in such a meh, anticlimatic way. 

Dazai said it himself best, him and Chuuya are destined to die together.

6. Vampire Chuuya’s expression

I mean,,,, what is the need for the random three little pensive speach bubble ?? we have been proven by Akutagawa that vampires are capable of some sort of sentinence, especially when it’s tied to their deepest desieres/mental strenghts.

I don’t have anywhere grand to go with this but, I just wanted to point it out lol.

ALL IN ALL

I can’t say for sure what is going to happen, but with Aya’s attempts of removing the swoard the possibility for Chuuya to become concious and do something to get out of there and save Dazai still remain pausible in my books.

I am not too confident on where this section of the story will go exactly but I am certain that Soukoku won’t die yet. MARK MY WORDS!!!

[ljomi-silvanius]

My response to Dawntrail. Woof. When I started the expansion I actually posted reactively about how much fun it was feeling, and deleted that two days later. Spoilery through the end of MSQ below-

I went into Dawntrail really excited for a chill start-up to future story. Vacation vibe while running into events and characters that might set up big consequences and meaning to other events down the road. No expectations of big drama within the expansion itself just building blocks. We got one block with zero attached narrative. While everyone is yelling that this is supposed to be our new ARR so we should chill about the quality of it- ARR provided us with countless characters, villains, and background plots without conclusions that continued into the future expansions (I know 1.0 really did this but for the sake of the story we have now, it was ARR). It may have been slightly confused and heavy-handed with its traditional MMO gameplay, but it did have a huge engrossing world set up for us. Dawntrail played out like any other expansion except feeling like it has even less effect on the future of the game in-world. We saved the day, again, and everything is exactly the same as it was a couple days prior. After Endwalker, I was excited at the thought of the WoL picking up their belongings and heading off into the horizon on their own and fumbling their way into new exciting events and alliances; yet our place in both the Void arc and Dawntrail felt so reliant on the Scions' decisions it's like nothing has changed. The WoL has been through so much and would be quite capable at this point yet seems to have no agency. This feeling of being trapped by past characters they can't seem to shake off, along with the idea being pushed repeatedly that we are an "adventurer" who goes where the wind takes us, makes the absence of a new band of allies kind of depressing. This was even more annoying as the Scions throughout Dawntrail felt very empty character-wise and unnecessary for the plot. Their reactions to events felt like having a livestream chat on the side of MSQ with no development of their own. I admit that I can't read the future, and maybe patches will make some characters we encountered continue on journeys with us, but nothing pointed to that as they all had their roles in their homes. While not new, I am hopeful Erenville will continue with us elsewhere! I was actually morbidly hoping something would happen making Wuk Lamat not end up in the throne, to give both continuous conflict and a new ally for some period of time past this expansion.

And regarding Wuk Lamat- absolutely love her. That doesn't mean that the dialogue making her repeat herself constantly about peace and learning wasn't some of the most tedious stuff ever put in this game. This tendency along with constant flashbacks and Scion commentary of "this reminds me of past expansion event" made it feel like the game, which has put us through complex politics and Limsa Lominsa dialect, now thinks of us as babies who can't pick up on the most basic thematic threads. The flashback to the Shadowbringers trolley guys was so unnecessary- let the audience pick it up on their own! And if they miss it, the current event should be fun or interesting enough that it's ok. I was thinking by the end that it was all for new players who chose to skip everything before Dawntrail, but flashback pictures would give nothing to them. I entirely agree with the complaints that this expansion was overtly exposition-based. Learning about new cultures is a huge basis of what we've gotten over the years, yet we generally learn through story beats that aren't just "learn the cultures". I love how important the individual cultures are, their differing ideals and lives, and how much color it adds to FFXIV, but I don't want to feel like I'm being placed in a classroom about it.

As we're tagging along with Lamat, it feels weird to me that we were asked to come at all. While I don't have qualms with being a side character to her, she's capable in combat and we're not given the chance to prove ourselves in much other than it, and we don't even mentor her in any way. We could have been the big sister/brother teaching her the ropes! Being given the mezcal jar to hold feels like an encapsulation of the entire ride. It feels like with how much new non-instanced dungeon/raid content we've started to get in MSQ, it was jarring how little there was in the entire expansion. We start out early with the look and zoom mode on Galool Jaja's tablets (which makes no sense why aren't we just walking up to them) and then they just forget we can do anything like that again other than sneaky stalk mode.

After the Rite of Succession and the brief moment in Texas, stuff starts getting better in plot and pace. There's some actual mystery, new characters who are more than an example of a culture, and it doesn't feel like you're doing things for a checklist. I'm obsessed with Otis and Galool Ja. At this point, the predictability seems to wane.

And then it comes back hard two levels later. The final area is again, a complete rehash of Shadowbringers and Endwalker. The Final dungeon is a complete rehash of Shadowbringers and Endwalker. The final zone is incredibly ugly, and I assumed with how jarring the colors were it would be glitchy and haunting. No, it's just a tasteless theme park that is keeping people happy for hundreds of years by having water fountains? Not much in this area points to people having anything but happy lives in a pointless and plasticky town, and yet as recalled by Alisae, their situation mirrors other civilizations we were shown to end up very unhappy. But they all like their salty popcorn and spending eternity serving it to others. I cannot understand the vibe they went for here and the task was again a tedious checklist. I also didn't understand the scale of this location- they made it Amaurot-esque extending to the horizon, yet we are able to turn off all memory sticks in a five malm radius- there could have been mention of other scions making their way to power down areas we weren't involved with, or a montage? Something? There's no way that would be everything.

I really wanted to enjoy Sphene, yet she has nothing to her but one side of Emet-Selch wrapped up in faux-innocence. They tried hard to place her as a foil to Wuk Lamat in the same way Emet and Exarch are foils, yet they had Lamat mention it directly ten times and at that point, how can you care about it anymore? There are threads they placed for her that I can't parse and was hoping to lead to a deeper character- how is the levin sickness her fault? In the end they painted her as nothing more than an overly caring helicopter mom. (Sphene WOULD beat you up at a child's soccer game.)

And that one building block I mentioned at the beginning- having an overpowered Azem-based stone that just hands Y'shtola exactly what she was looking for feels cheap and demeaning. I know she could have figured it out herself. In the same way I know Wuk Lamat could have figured out her trials without the perfect NPC walking up to her by chance every time.

In the end everything was entirely predictable. You get told x, you know that x is coming. We were told about Solution Nine before the drop- can you imagine if Amaurot was spoiled? We don't need plot twists, we don't need insane curves in characterization (Bakool Jaja I'm looking at you and your 90 degree angle), but some detail would really help, something that doesn't feel like it was a fan's recreation of tribe quests and the last two expansions, something I can continue to look forward to. I would have loved for Tural to have more stake and power in what goes on with Alexandria's presence. I would love for Tural to be more important in the future of the story, because I love everything there, and I'm just sad as hell about the package it came in. A package that came with Donkey Kong music using the same part of the leitmotif in every song, instead of Latino tinged songs that fit the region (if Kugane deserves that masterpiece, Tuliyollal deserves a sweeping and nostalgic piece that ties into the heart of Tural). Hell I would be happy with a minigame of making a piña colada if it was something new, but if feels like we're hanging onto loose threads now.

[felikatze]

WGAT FAN EMBLEMS DO YOU HAVE. ARE THEY MAIN VERSE OR XENOLOGUE

I HAVE A LIST. I explained in the other ask i answered uhhh just now (link here) these are technically xenologue by virtue of being AU. Veyle-Alear roleswap that I have insane thoughts about thank you Salem. Once again Berkut & Rinea are the most well baked from a gameplay standpoint but I have other ones....

Quick n dirty AU rundown: Veyle-Alear roleswap! Alear is with Sombron and an alternate set of Four Hounds (Lapis, Kagetsu, Pandreo, Zephia. Salem's blorbos), and Veyle was taken in by Lumera. I also took the liberty of making the younger royals the plot important ones.... teehee

My fan emblems trend antagonist and/or possessed for thematic reasons and because it's fun. HOWEVER I excluded most main antags from the pool because I don't think Emblem Medeus would be very interesting from a character standpoint.

I actually made a list!! So I'd have one from every game (this was also brainstormed with Salem lol). I don't have full knowledge of every FE ever and a lot of FEs I am significantly less insane about than The Usual Suspects (Binding Blade, Awakening, now Engage), so you do notice a lot of bias in what has the most detail, lmao.

Anyway. You get the list.

Archanea: Maria. (100% inspired by fell Maria in heroes, lol. LISTEN IT'D BE SO THEMATIC FOR VEYLE THO. Little girl who just wants her big siblings back. Maria would be Veyle's Marth - her first Emblem, and the one closest to her. I still gotta play the Archanea games but... the potential.)

Valentia: Berkut & Rinea (Firene Emblem. Elaborated on in the other post!!)

Jugdral (Fe4): I am not wise enough just yet.... probably Julius.

Jugdral (Fe5): I don't know <3 Ishtar? Reinhardt? Mareeta? I like the thought of Mareeta from what I know abt her actually.

Elibe (Fe6): IDUNN MY GIRL IDUNN. (She'd be Lumera's Emblem as Sigurd equivalent. Sleeping dragon guided by Sleeping Dragon... I love Idunn... I have Thoughts about her.... okay....)

Elibe (Fe7): Ninian (She's Elusia's Emblem!! I have thoughts about her & Hortensia...)

Magvel: Lyon (this was the one and only pick, really.)

Tellius (Fe9): Black Knight (Salem's suggestion, but it works! God I need to beat Radiant Dawn...)

Tellius (Fe10): My initial suggestion was Pelleas but Sothe is also tempting (god I need to beat Radiant Dawn.... 2!!!)

Ylisse: GRIMA. WHO ELSE. (i'd put him down where Corrin is, as the second Solm emblem. Haha Grima you got trapped in a desert temple again.) (Either that or I swap him with Lucina for funny points)

Fates: Takumi (conquest flavored! he is not doing too hot! He's Brodia's Emblem same reason as Berkut: it would remind him of Nohr and he hates being here. Has a soft spot for Alcryst, though. OF COURSE I gave him to Alcryst.)

Fodlan: Shez. For the funnies. (shez's super form is obviously the engaged look. I'd make them Solm's primary Emblem, because I feel like they and Fogado would be friends. But then Shez goes Revenge Mode and Fogado is like. dude. chill. you're scaring the hoes.)

And that's my full list!! The only ones who have gameplay ideas attached to them so far are Berkut & Rinea, Idunn, Takumi, and Shez, for a perfect gender ratio as I've non-biney'd Shez. Because of course I have.

[vaguely-concerned]

I have seen people question whether dios apate minor really needed to happen the way it did. it's the 'this could have been an email' of htn. 'augustine this did not have to be a threesome', I hear people saying. and boy do I have an obnoxious amount of things to say to protest this perfectly sensible assertion so here we go haha

1) yes it absolutely had to be like that. It says so on this piece of paper *hands you a piece of paper that says "because I said so and also it's narratively and thematically Sexy"* in my half-legible handwriting. seeing tamsyn muir describe harrow the ninth as a book about being a kid and realizing your parents probably had sex has given me such validation, I am unstoppable now. (to be serious for a moment, harrow the ninth is essentially a bildungsroman, and the threesome scene does a whole lot of thematic heavy lifting around harrow glimpsing elements of adulthood, relationships, and sexuality she clearly finds at the same time repulsive, bewildering and fascinating, and around opening her and especially our eyes to how much john is just a man with human longings still, under the god stuff. dios apate is crucial plot- and character-wise too -- it's a loadbearing threesome in terms of delivering the clues you need to piece together the mystery plot of the book, which is simply delightful -- but even more so thematically. and then the scene at the end where they confront john gives gideon some of that same opportunity to peek into adulthood and go '...well shit I guess', as a sort of mirror, just without the french kissing that time and more murder. the things magnus and abigail model for the girls about love and adulthood? mercy and augustine are providing the opposite-day batshit insane version of that fhdskjfa, you know, for contrast and spice)

2) listen... it gets lonely out there in deep space with your 'legendary unamorous' brother, two infant pathetic baby kitten sisters who you'll probably have to kill one day when you take another stab at god if they don't manage to get themselves killed along the way on their own, and the two people you've spent the last ten thousand years having separate yet connected married & divorced arcs with and also btw one of them is god... honestly a threesome over the dinner table is probably The most well-adjusted reaction one might hope for under those circumstances

3) on a characterization level I think Augustine is actually doing something incredibly deliberate with it: he's presenting John with yet another chance to admit what he did. which is notable especially since the deal he and mercy agree on as a condition for the threesome to happen at all seems to be that they're going to give the ol' godslaying another game try sooner rather than later. (I get the sense that it's not so much that he disagrees with her ultimate goal so much as that he thinks she's being dangerously indiscreet and hasty going about it, before. “though I think it will be the death of us,” huh.)

notice how he's structuring the whole thing: he's invoking the intimacy and love in their strange little threeway relationship and how long it's been by truly playing along with john's 'we're a happy family really when we're at home! :)' delusion (helped along by lowered inhibitions via enormous amounts of alcohol and what I've previously described as a joint mercy/augustine leyendecker themed thirst trap. ah, a classic). he brings up alecto and what happened to her -- or rather, he is clever enough to make john bring up alecto and how she is totally dead, right?? by seeming to make a careless statement that leads there and then acting contrite about it after. he (helped along by mercy, who I think realizes exactly what he's doing -- this is very much a two-man con) brings up how much they all loved their cavaliers, and wow funny how that's been haunting us for ten thousand years now huh :) wow, a lot of our other lyctor friends slash family sure are super dead in the name of some unknowable greater reason neither of us quite grasp and that you won't fucking tell us, aren't they. these are all the main grievances he and mercy confront john about at the end of the book, but put forth much more subtly and not phrased as an accusation -- he's baring his and mercy's vulnerabilities as bait, essentially. if john had, say, a conscience where his conscience should be instead of a black hole, it probably should have stirred something in him.

(also let me just say... the way augustine just takes a pneumatic drill to the TWO tender spots g1deon seems to have and then has the audacity to be like 'oh dear. did that upset him. ooof my bad *loooong dead-eyed slurp of his wine*' is just sooo... he's such a bitch!!! he's the only person who could ever have held their own in a ten-thousand-year bitch-off with mercy and I love him so much. well even if it wasn't all to get g1deon into murder range for harrow I think he wouldn't enjoy sticking around for the 'getting our tongues on god' part of the evening so maybe it's a kindness, really, and totally not pent-up aggression from the last twenty years or so breaking through)

he is all but shaking john by the lapels begging him to just... come clean about it already, to stop thinking he's still kidding everyone else along with himself. it's clear throughout the book that augustine knows exactly what john is at this point -- and all of the most cynical things he does say about it turn out to be distressingly right. john is always less sentimental than you'd think. john wouldn't forgive mercy, he will abandon in a heartbeat anything that isn’t necessary to him anymore, whether emotionally or in some other way. and still he seems to hold out some desperate absurd hope that the man he wants, the man he thought was there, is in there, somewhere deep deep down, if he just gives him the chance to show himself.

(mercy definitely has her own side of this whole thing, I'm just focusing more on augustine because this evening was like. his idea in the first place and I feel like we can Read Some Things into that fact lol. now that we have both ntn and htn to go from I sort of have this sense that the things augustine wants from john are more... personal? more interpersonal? they both love him equally, but mercy's love seems tinged slightly more towards the religious (augustine accuses her of knowing 'only worship without adoration', which like... also the eight house's entire Vibe lol) -- mercy at the end of that book is totally a person breaking up with GOD, not just with john -- while augustine's vibe is more like a man in the last not-with-a-bang-but-a-whimper days of a marriage that sort of felt like it could have been something real and good once but all your illusions about it have since been taken from you and trampled underfoot into the mud and you've had the divorce papers signed and ready in a drawer for over a year now, hell, as it turns out, is other people etc. lmao)

having a threesome over the dinner table with god is one thing, having a threesome over the dinner table centered on the one man and god who has yet again let you down in a way so fundamental it can barely fit into words and who you both still love in a way anyway, miserably, and also just reaffirmed your joint resolution to murder (all under the pretense that it gives your baby sisters the chance to murder your brother of ten thousand years yeah that's why this is happening no other underlying aching emotional motivations here haha)... listen mercy and augustine are simply on a different level, theologically. they've added horny shrimp colours to the religious spectrum. who else does it like them

[desos-records]

Everything Mythologically Inaccurate About O Brother Where Art Thou (2000)

For the record. I adore this movie with all my soul and I know it’s loosely based on the Odyssey and this will basically be me pointing out references to the epic, but it’s the only film adaption I’ve ever seen of the Odyssey and that’s what I’m currently reading, so here we go.

Nice beginning quote, also the beginning of the Odyssey, although specific wording varies between translations

I have two copies of the Odyssey, one by Stanley Lombardo and the other by Emily Wilson (highly recommend her translation)

This seems to be from a translation done in 1961 by Robert Fitzgerald

The trouble with the Odyssey, plot wise, is that the majority of the actual monster-fighting, ship-wrecking Odyssey part is told entirely through flashback and it’s only about a third of the whole epic. It’s not a linear story and this movie is, so we’re going to have to accept that everything is out of order

The Odyssey actually starts with Telemachus, Odysseus’ son, and his own journey to learn whether his father is still alive or not

He visits Menelaus and Nestor, both characters from the Iliad and friends of Odysseus. They both make long speeches and there’s lots of ceremonial hospitality and I can understand why they skipped it

But in Book 5, we finally get to Odysseus, who is trapped on Calypso’s island

Odysseus is then freed from Calypso’s island by order of Zeus, so starting with a jailbreak makes sense

Fun Fact: the song here, “Po’ Lazarus,” wasn’t recorded for the film. It’s a recording of real Mississippi prisoners in 1959 made by the Ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax

After sailing away from Calypso’s island, Odysseus is immediately shipwrecked by Poseidon and he washes up on the shores of the Phaeacians and there’s a long, long period of time spent getting him food and clothes and some damn sleep, which again—I understand why they simplified it

I cannot stress enough how amazingly in character Everett is as Odysseus, literally the man never stops talking

Delmar and Pete are also fantastically in line with Odysseus’ men, who are mostly unnamed, but are frequently characterized as stupid, insubordinate, and lacking in self-control

They could also be analogous with Odysseus’ two slaves, Eumaeus and Philoetius, who help him kill the suitors and take back his house

*a reminder that slavery in Ancient Greece wasn’t racially based. It was still terrible, but it could technically happen to anyone*

I have to assume the push-cart is the equivalent of Odysseus’ raft after he leaves Calypso’s island and the old blind man is Tiresias, the blind prophet that Odysseus meets later when he travels the Underworld

Also the blind man’s line “I have no name” might be a reference to Odysseus telling the cyclops Polyphemus that “He is no one”

Odysseus is told a number of times by several different people that he’s fated to return home, but only after great suffering so this prophecy is a good summary thematically speaking

Tiresias also tells Odysseus that after he returns home, in order to appease Poseidon, he will have to travel again until he meets people who have never seen the ocean and then make sacrifices. This is Odysseus’ Lost Adventure, so to speak, because we have no record of it

The ‘cow on top of a cotton house’ is sort of in line with that part of Tiresias’ prophecy, in terms of ‘you’ll know it’s over when you see something weird’

Is Wash’s house supposed to be Circe’s island? Bit of a stretch

There’s a pig. I think that makes it Circe’s island

There’s no police force after them or deadline in the Odyssey, but there is Poseidon actively working against them and, more or less, a desire to get home as soon as possible

Are the baptists supposed to be the Lotus Eaters? Because Odysseus’ men do join up with them and he has to basically drag them by their ears back to the ship

I think it’s interesting that they characterize Everett as a non-believer since Odysseus is, actually, a favorite of gods like Athena and is super devout and careful about making proper sacrifices and such

The “you might be square with the Lord, but the state of Mississippi is more hard-nosed” point is funny because that’s honestly how the Odyssey ends. Odysseus has killed all the suitors and fulfilled his fate as decreed by Athena and Zeus, but the families of the murdered young men still chase after him demanding retribution. Athena intervenes at the end

Don’t think Tommy is supposed to be anyone in the Odyssey, maybe the multiple bards who sing stories throughout the epic, but he is based on the legends of Tommy Johnson or Robert Johnson, both black blues musicians who were said to have learned guitar from the Devil

Musicians in the Odyssey are said to be given their gifts by the gods, so that tracks

Okay, is THIS blind guy at the radio station supposed to be Tiresias or are they messing with me

“I am a man of sorrow” is a DIRECT line from the Odyssey (B.19, L.119, Wilson) and I’m SO GLAD they made a song out of it

Wait wait wait governor MENELAUS “pappy” O’Daniel?? Hilarious

“Thank god your mammy died giving birth. If she’da seen ya, she’da died of shame” amazing line. But wait, if you’re King Menelaus, are we talking about HELEN here

*Helen and Menelaus only had one child btw, her name is Hermione, which is the feminine version of Hermes*

There’s just something about the Great Depression Era that tugs on my heart and makes me cry, I love it

Odysseus is firstly a PIRATE and a SACKER OF CITIES which means him stealing treasure and what not is in character

Although the particular treasure he ends up with at the end does not come from The Trojan War, but was gifted to him by the Phaeacians, so

Wait a second. Everett’s name is Ulysses Everett McGill, right? Ulysses is the Latin form of Odysseus

Is all that money in the bag TWO dollar bills?? Fucking fantastic

George “Baby Face” Nelson is also a real person, famous gangster and bank robber. Not sure he lines up with anybody in the Odyssey, but my god did they do an excellent job casting. He killed more FBI agents than any person in history. He also was not executed by electric chair, but was shot to death by the FBI

Ohhh the “not the livestock” thing is a reference to Odysseus’ men eating the Sun Cows when they were specifically told not to and all of them dying as consequence

Hey they’re sitting on old busted Greek columns, that’s cool

HOMER stokes. Nice

I KNEW those little boys carrying ice had to be a reference to something. Eudora Welty’s photograph for WPA of two boys carrying ice

Odysseus IS an excellent storyteller

Alright, alright. A note about Sirens. They are not sexy ladies sitting up on rocks. The Odyssey doesn’t even give a physical description, just that they’re monsters who sing at passing sailors, promising their greatest desire. In Odysseus’ case, that is KNOWLEDGE, specifically about his family and friends

Although, funnily enough, Odysseus does come across young girls doing their laundry in a river after shipwrecking. And he is naked at the time. But there is NO seduction happening. He just politely asks if maybe he can borrow some clothes and also could someone point him in the direction of the nearest town, please and thank you

Obsessed with the idea that you have to get Odysseus black out drunk in order to shut him up

Okay, maybe those ladies were supposed to be Circe too—she turns people into pigs (or frogs, in this case) AND sleeps with Odysseus

I spy a Cyclops. Polyphemus, the bible salesman

Which is funny, btw, because Odysseus basically calls Polyphemus godless for breaking hospitality rules and eating several of his men, which does happen here in a way

There is crying in damn near every single book of the Odyssey and it’s a shame there’s so little of it here

*reference to the Carter family, legends of American Folk music*

Odysseus just has a son, Telemachus, but I think the little girls are supposed to be the Graces? The Muses? idk trios of women are really common

I love this because at first Telemachus doesn’t recognize his father either (partly because he’s never actually met him and partly because Athena’s put him in disguise)

Neither does Penelope until Odysseus proves himself by a) winning the archery contest and b) knowing the secret of their marriage bed 

“Not since you got hit by that train!” perfect

“Odysseus died in the war!” Penelope says. *Odysseus, sitting right in front of his family, looking at Athena like she’s a camera on the Office*

Penelope has, like, thirty suitors who showed up to the house one day and just refused to leave until she picked one of them to marry and she can’t get them to leave until Odysseus returns and kills them all

Oh wait, there’s seven little girls. Right, probably the Muses then. Especially since they sing. That’s cute, I love that

If anyone is as big a liar as Odysseus, it’s definitely Penelope. That’s why he loves her. Totally in character

Penny. Penelope. Close enough.

I think it’s hilarious that Everett can’t fight. Especially since Odysseus just. murders all the suitors without much fuss since he’s so great at everything all the time

“Just a drifter, I guess” she says about Everett, which is great because Odysseus shows up disguised as a beggar at first and it’s unclear if Penelope genuinely can’t recognize him or if she’s playing along with his scheme to get the suitors out of the house

“Don’t trust women” is a BIG thing in the Odyssey, unfortunately, which is a little hypocritical of it since it’s main character is a lying, scheming, murdering, pirate and war criminal who cheats on his wife repeatedly

I don’t CARE if Hermes told you to, Odysseus, it’s still a double standard

The movie theater scene reminds me of the bit in the Odyssey where they travel to the Underworld and talk to some of Odysseus’ friends. Agamemnon tells him not to go home lest he be betrayed by his wife and murdered like he was

THERE’S the crying

I… I can’t explain the Klan scene except for, well, Polyphemus gets blinded by a stick that’s on fire, so. There’s that. Maybe they’re Polyphemus’ sheep? The suitors trying to kill Telemachus?? idk

The whole world is not against Odysseus, he’s just a liar who’s too smart for his own good and occasionally his selfishness makes him a little stupid, that’s all

More disguises! I love it

More Penelope not recognizing Odysseus until he proves himself! Excellent!

See, at least Everett doesn’t have to kill a room full of people in order to solve his problems

Oh oh oh, wait, is them having to go get the ring like Odysseus’ Lost Adventure to the people who’ve never seen the sea in order to lift Poseidon’s curse?? Or is it like Odysseus proving he knows that his and Penelope’s marriage bed was made out of a living tree and can’t be moved without cutting it??

See? Don’t go after livestock that ain’t yours

I guess this makes Poseidon the Devil here

Orrr this is when the families of the dead suitors try and kill Odysseus?

The flood at the end is definitely Athena’s deus ex machina though

Couldn’t tell an Odyssey story without a little bit a water, could you?

Ending with the little Muse girls singing with the blind prophet?? Amazing, I love it

Hercules (1997)

Clash of the Titans (2010)

[dotthings]

Let’s talk about why Dean dancing with a lamp is subtext, but it’s subtext that supports textual arcs. Dean dancing with a lamp is not random. Meta on why Dean dancing with a lamp is part of the build of a textual arc for Dean, thematically, which also connects to his relationship with Cas. This symbolic moment being tacitly about Destiel will only feel like reaching if you ignore context, ignore canon, ignore long arcing, ignore textual material surrounding it. This isn’t just me talking about a ship, this is an important arc for Dean himself emotionally and the way canon’s working, Cas has become the star player in this specific emotional Dean arc about yearning. 

Here are some canon quotes. I could just leave these here and not write another word of meta because the canon wrote it for me. But I’ve added some further commentary to spell out clearly what I’m getting at.

Dean in 8.14 “Trial and Error” by Andrew Dabb:

“You see a light at the end of this ugly-ass tunnel. I don't. But I tell you what I do know – it's that I'm gonna die with a gun in my hand. 'Cause that's what I have waiting for me – that's all I have waiting for me. I want you to get out. I want you to have a life – become a man of Letters, whatever. You, with a wife and kids and – and – and grandkids, living till you're fat and bald and chugging Viagra – that is my perfect ending, and it's the only one that I'm gonna get.”

Dean in 10.16 “Paint it Black” by Eugenie Ross-Lemming and Brad Buckner:

“You know, the life I live, the work I do…I pretty much just figured that that was all there was to me, you know? Tear around and jam the key in the ignition and haul ass until I ran out of gas. I guess I just thought sooner or later, I’d go out the same way that I live – pedal to the metal, and that would be it....Now, um… recent events, uh… make me think I might be closer to that than I really thought. And…I don’t know. I mean, you know, there’s – there’s things, there’s…people, feelings that I-I-I want to experience differently than I have before, or maybe even for the first time.”

Sam and Dean in 11.04 “Baby” by Robbie Thompson:

SAM: Really? You don't . . . Ever want something more? DEAN: I'm sorry, have you met us? We're batting a whopping zero in domestic life, man. Goose eggs. SAM: You don't ever think about something? Not marriage or whatever. But . . . Something? You know, with a hunter? Somebody who understands the life?

Sam and Dean in 13.23 “Let the Good Times Roll” by Andrew Dabb:

DEAN: But on a beach somewhere, you know? Can you imagine? You, me, Cas, toes in the sand, couple of them little umbrella drinks. Matching Hawaiian shirts, obviously. Some hula girls. SAM: You talking about retiring? You? DEAN: If I knew the world was safe? Hell, yeah. And you know why? 'Cause we freaking earned it, man.

Sam and Dean in 15.08 “Our Father, Who Aren’t in Heaven” by Eugenie Ross-Lemming and Brad Buckner:

DEAN: Look, man, I didn't want to say anything, okay, 'cause I was kind of in in a bad place, and, uh, yeah, I didn't want to jinx it or whatever, but, you know, I tried the family thing, right? SAM: Yeah, me too. And that's not for us. DEAN: No, not really. But I'm just saying if it was to work, Eileen, you know, she gets it. She gets us. She gets the life. She's hot. SAM: Dean. I mean, I'm not even- DEAN: Look, all I'm saying is you- you could do worse, okay? And she could certainly do better. Like, so much better. I'm happy for you, Sammy.

Dean and Garth in 15.10 “The  Heroes’ Journey” written by Andrew Dabb:

DEAN: You know, I gotta say, aside from pincushion in there… this is pretty nice. GARTH: Yeah, better than I ever thought I'd get. I mean, hunting -- I figured I'd be dead before I'm 40. You know, go out young and pretty. But now I've got a great wife, great kids. I guess...sometimes things work out.

Dean in 15.10 “The Heroes’ Journey” by Andrew Dabb:

Dean, wistful, watching through the window as Garth and Bess dance: You know, I always thought I could be a good dancer if I wanted to be.

Ok, let those roll around in your brain for moment. 

Now: CONTEXT. CONTEXT. CONTEXT.

There’s this long running arc about maybe Sam and Dean could each find a significant other, not white picket fence, but...something, with someone already in the life, who gets their life. There’s Dean’s move from despairing and believing the only ending he could have, the only ending any hunter could have, is dying with a gun in hand, to Dean’s enthusiasm for the concept of retirement, Dean’s wistfulness about finding a significant other, for what he thinks he can’t have, and he starts the cycle all over again, if he can’t have it, then he wants Sam to have it, so Dean encourages Sam with Eileen. Saileen, the Dean-blessed, Dean-approved Sam ship. Dean ships it. And that is how the canon is trending, complete with Sam and Eileen kissing goodbye and saying “this is real” and even God himself saying their feelings were real, “that was all you,” even if God manipulated events around them. Which is an overt mirror to Dean and Cas and Dean’s expressly stated doubts about what’s real and what isn’t, and Cas telling Dean “we are.” 

Much the way Sam has been witness to Destiel, and has often pointed out Dean’s Cas feelings. Dean’s got a front row seat to Saileen and approves; Sam’s had a front row seat to Destiel and approves. 

Let’s throw in Robert Berens’ work in The Trap here, since that’s relevant to this specific topic as well, because why did Sam and Dean in the potential future timeline where they’d killed Chuck give up and cave in to their vampire instincts? The world being overwhelmed with monsters...and losing Eileen and losing Cas. It’s right there in the dialogue. I’ll give you the quote and everything:

Sam and Dean in 15.09 “The Trap” by Robert Berens:

SAM: You want to quit? What's happened to you, Dean? Ever since -- DEAN: Ever since what? We lost pretty much everyone we've ever cared about? Ever since the Mark made Cas go crazy? Ever since I had to bury him in a Ma'lak box? Ever since then? Yeah. You know why? 'Cause the monsters -- they're everywhere. Everywhere! What we do -- it's not even Hunting anymore. It's whack-a-mole. We don't even save people. Every friend we've ever had is either dead, or they got wise and they packed it in. SAM: Jody's still fighting, and Bobby -- DEAN: Bobby has a death wish, and you know it. And Jody -- ever since what happened to Donna and the girls, she does, too. And after Eileen... so do you.

“Ever since” Dean had to bury Cas in a Ma’lak box. “After Eileen...so do you.” 

So there’s this canonical long, long thread across multiple authors (and those weren’t even all the quotes, I’m sure people could dig up more) about Dean in particular yearning towards finding a significant other, some contentment, with someone who already is in the hunting life, who gets it, who understands.  

An episode that flat out shows how losing their significant others is the final straw that rips out Sam and Dean’s last will to fight, and they lose themselves, and after they’re turned into vampires, they just...give into the darkness. Where Sam gives up their shot at destroying the big bad because losing everyone they love is too high a cost. Where losing Cas makes Dean lose hope, where losing Eileen sends Sam into a death wish mindset. Sam and Dean don’t just need each other. That’s not canon, it never has been.

And then right after that, along comes meta episode The Heroes’ Journey. Sorry if you don’t like The Heroes’ Journey, but it’s what the canon did, it’s textual, along with everything else I’ve pointed out here, and in among the crackish humor are some real emotional narrative points. 

In The Heroes’ Journey, Dean gets to see Garth’s life. Garth found his significant other, Bess, and she’s another werewolf. Now, Garth’s life resembles the traditional white picket fence idea a lot more than what Team Free Will are headed for. Garth has a big house with a porch, and he’s a dentist. He’s also a werewolf and his wife is a werewolf and his kids are werewolves because Bess is a pureblood werewolf, Garth didn’t exactly leave the life, and he helps Sam and Dean on a case. But nothing’s been indicating to me that anyone in Team Free Will is headed for that kind of settling down, with a house, becoming a dentist. However, the canon has been practically shouting now, as we near final episodes of SPN, to make the point about a desirable outcome--some kind of stability, contentment, and a significant other. Dean gets a front row seat to seeing a hunter can have that. Garth’s a hunter who turned into a werewolf and he can have that. 

When EP’s talk about how they aren’t headed for a white picket fence or driving off into the sunset or settling down, none of that rules out them finding...something...with someone, and some form of stability and contentment.  Nope, I can’t really imagine them in the suburbs becoming dentists. But canon sure is putting up big neon arrows to...something. Think outside the box. This isn’t about the white picket fence. 

And in The Heroes’ Journey, Dean, conked out on the good gas so Garth can fix his teeth, has a trippy dream where he dances with a lamp.

Rewatch the ep. Look at how the dance is choreographed not just the use of light, because that’s a clue too. The whole dance could have been Dean and Garth being dancing bros, but Garth fades off the stage, and Dean dances alone...until he grabs the standing lamp. In a season where Dean and Cas’s relationship is an A-plot, define it how you like, it’s A-plot. Their breakup and their reconciliation, which played like a marital breakup and reconciliation, are tied to major mytharc beats. In a season where a long-running textual theme about Dean’s developing hope for retirement and his wistfulness about “things...people...feelings...” is getting further play. Where Dean and Cas’s relationship continues to be one of the show’s most central ones.

Dean dances with a lamp. While his emotionally fraught, intense close relationship with Cas--A BEING MADE OF LIGHT--has a long-running arc and recently more and more textual level content spelling out the sublimated romantic interest in small words, while there’s an arc about Dean’s yearning for that stability, contentment, a significant other.

CONTEXT. 

We don’t think Destiel’s “going canon” because Dean dances with a lamp, it’s that Dean dancing with a lamp is kinda loud serving as reflection of canon textual arcing. Sometimes subtext adds a layer. Sometimes subtext is directly tied to the surface layers, an echo, a highlighter.

I’ll just be over here, crying because Dean danced with a lamp.

[writing-from-cloud-recesses]

Look look look… I know this would make no sense plot, thematic, or character wise but this would be funny and cute, so hear me out… Also, this went from just some random ideas to some accidental plotting?

I’ve seen a couple of posts on Jin Zixuan joining Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji in the cave with the Tortoise of Slaughter. I think this is the best idea ever, and if there are any fics with this concept, I want the recs. Just think of all the comedic potential:

Jin Zixuan stays behind because he noticed that Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji didn’t leave. He’s not gonna ditch them – Lan Wangji was injured previously, and Wei Wuxian got injured trying to save them.

Wei Wuxian is already done with this. He’s injured, tired, there is an angry turtle trying to eat them, and he doesn’t want to spend this time with a guy he doesn’t like.

Lan Wangji is done, because he’s trapped in a cave with his crush and the guy his crush beat up, all because of a murder turtle.

Since Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji is injured, Jin Zixuan takes it upon himself to scout the area for anything useful. He also tries to help them take care of his injuries, despite Wei Wuxian’s attempts to make things difficult for him.

Lan Wangji is not please when Wei Wuxian’s attempts to just piss off Jin Zixuan had resulted in Jin Zixuan pinning him down. Jin Zixuan is confused – he wasn’t that mad when Wei Wuxian did the same thing to him, why was he glaring at him the same way husbands glare at his father around their wives?

Wei Wuxian is happy that Lan Wangji is on his side and doesn’t seem to like Jin Zixuan that much. But he is also trying to think of how to deal with the issues – they had limited healing supplies, no food, and no way to escape without defeating the Tortoise of Slaughter.

They agree to wait it out for a bit, just to see if any rescue will come/give them time to heal and plan.

Jun Zixuan really isn’t liking what spending so much time with Wei Wuxian is doing to him. It doesn’t mean anything for him to think Wei Wuxian is attractive, brave, smart and kind right? He could say the same things about anyone, it’s totally nothing special…

Lan Wangji is not enjoying watching someone else fall for Wei Wuxian. He doesn’t want to acknowledge is own feelings, now he has to watch someone else have their own sexuality crisis?

Wei Wuxian is completely missing all of this, because he has his priorities straight… and he’s already decided he’s gonna try and ignore Jin Zixuan because fighting would be counterproductive.

Anyway, after the whole battle with the fake Xuanwu, Jin Zixuan realized his feelings and is fussing over Wei Wuxian, which prompts Lan Wangji to fuss, which causes a whole cycle of them trying to one-up each other in taking care of Wei Wuxian. Wei Wuxian is pretty certain he’s delusional but he’s not complaining.

Lan Wangji just gives Jin Zixuan death glares the entire time, which is not helping because the last guy who glared at him was his sexual awakening. So, Jin Zixuan is wondering if he has a type, and why his type is his type.

When the Jiang Sect finally comes to save them, Lan Wangji goes back to Gusu, but Jin Zixuan decides to go to Yunmeng with Wei Wuxian – the Jiangs know his parents and can tell them he’s fine, and he really wants to improve Wei Wuxian’s opinion on him.

Jin Zixuan helps an unconscious Wei Wuxian and basically refuses to leave his side, despite the generous offers from the Jiangs. Yu Ziyuan is annoyed, but hopeful that this might rekindle the betrothal.

Jiang Yanli is a bit weird. On one hand, she’s kind of hurt that she was so unappealing to him that he is fiercely overprotective of the guy who punched him in the face. On the other hand, her mother is actually encouraging her to take care Wei Wuxian to get close to him.

Jin Zixuan is kind of awkward is his care for Wei Wuxian, so he’s glad Jiang Yanli is around to take the lead. He is completely worried everyone is going to see right through him.

Wei Wuxian wakes up. He’s happy that Jiang Yanli is the first person he sees. Then he’s very confused when Jin Zixuan is the second. At first he accuses Jin Zixuan of trying to win back Jiang Yanli, which Jin Zixuan vehemently denies… and then backtracks to add that only because she deserves the very best and he isn’t good enough for her. 

Wei Wuxian just gets confused then and asks if Lan Wangji is around. Mostly because he’s concerned, but he jokes about preferring his company. Which is not helping Jin Zixuan.

At this point, Jiang Yanli has gotten enough evidence to support her suspicions. She isn’t hurt anymore, just very amused. She doesn’t want to get in the way of this relationship. Jin Zixuan and Jiang Yanli bond, and Jin Zixuan confides in her about his worries concerning Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji’s feelings for each other, especially concerning his feelings for them.

Yu Ziyuan tries to start shit, but Jin Zixuan shuts it down real fast when he makes it clear if he feels the need, he will drag Wei Wuxian to Koi Tower to heal instead. She’s not very happy.

Obviously this small idea has completely derailed the entire plot now that I think about it. This isn’t even small, sorry for the ridiculously long post of random ideas jumbled together.

[icharchivist]

I have finished winter troupe debut episode! It was very dramatic lmao. Was enjoyable though. Winter troupe all had very interesting characters and It's nice to see a troupe that is all adults.

Since I complained about spring troupe issues being solved by not talking about it. I have to talk about how winter troupes issues were solved by literal outside forces trapping them or letting them read peoples minds.

I'm guessing they did this because unlike the teens who are more willing to be open about themselves and pester others,,,, adults are a lot less likely. (Before winter the adults were, sakyo, and itaru? cause the uni students aren't really adults yet. sakyo opens up to Izumi because he knows and trusts her. Itaru. Hasn't really opened up yet but he's getting there.) Whereas winter troupe is a group of strangers and the two who know each other literally are in the middle of massive misunderstanding/fight?/idk mutual disappointment.

(Also misumi just getting trapped in random time loops???? Holy shit is he ok???? Like he was able to figure it was tsumugi and tasuku this time but what if he doesn't know the people? I have so many questions)

Ok rant over. I have accepted that magic exists in a3 and all it wants is for people to get along and understand each other. But yeah once I crawl through the events and next act I have to rewatch spring hahaha. I definitely wasn't fair to them.

Homare oh my god. Just. Holds gently. I want to protect him. No one deserves to be called a broken cyborg :(

Gahhh all of winter troupe I just want to protect.

Also I saw fuyupoly is a thing? Because I'm excited to see the troupe develop more.

(you said you had a Google drive of the inbetween acts events :eyes: should I message you or something?)

tHEY’RE SO DRAMATIC I LOVE THEM SO MUCH.....

And yeah tbh when you talked about Spring having communication problems my first thought was “oh BOY you haven’t seen Winter yet” DLKFJDLFKJDFLKJDFLK

I. think about Winter much more than i should but yeah, pretty much it’s the fact they’re adults and strangers and just. are extremely conflict avoidant, all of them, for various reasons. Tsumugi because of his crushed confidence, Tasuku because he struggles to convey his feelings and he lost Tsumugi in the past, Hisoka because he litterally has no past and it freaks him out (Homare was spot on when he said Hisoka knew he couldn’t defend himself), Homare because he’s scared he’ll mess up again, and Azuma because he spent his life keeping people at armlength.  They’re all adult and agreeable people, and they are also all pretty understanding in some way, so they let some conflict pass by hoping it will be over soon. Some of them like Tsumugi, Azuma and Homare are also pretty analytic of people on a psychological way so they can try to navigate with what they know. 

But in the end without communication it’s not going very far, but they don’t really know how to do it when all of them are adults who have got used to it. 

so yeah, like you said it’s really that they’re adults and that unlike the youngest ones i think it’s just. they’re all used to compromise and compromise a part of themselves as well. 

but yeah the magic being the thing solving it cracks me up all the time i’m just. Like. okay. Okay cool okay. Normal. Like. Thematically wise i think it’s because Winter is a season that’s so cold and sad but there’s a bit of magic in it (like the magic of christmas) and i think that’s what it is meant to echo but that’s. so out of the blue DLKFJDKLFJDLKFJLDF that said once that just accepted i really love the way the three magical events reflects the characters (Tasuku and Tsumugi needed to reconnect and find back the comfort they had with one another and plushies are considered comfort items that helps transition into a safer place, it’s also linked to childhood and those two are childhood friends. Homare and the loupe are pretty straight forward, he needed to see closer, deeper. Azuma and Hisoka both were locked into a room, isolated, just like their past (or in Hisoka’s case what his flashbacks implies) make them feel isolated, having experienced loss).). I am FASCINATED with Winter. i just. akjhfkdhfkdjfmldjfmd?? sljhfjldk.

but aah i’m glad you enjoyed the ride so much i’m so happy!!

and god yeah please someone check on Misumi i worry for him wtf

and Homare’s arc yeah!! yeah!!! his arc is one of my fav arc i just. really love how it all plays out. It’s really rare to see a story goes “here’s a character with low empathy: and he’s the most loving and kind character you can imagine”. The way he struggles from it, how sad it makes him, this way to see himself, everything makes me want to cry for hours. I want to hold him so bad.

Fuyupoly is definitly a thing yeah. Fuyupoly my beloved. I adore Fuyupoly so much 😭 but Winter is honestly a slow burn, especially in comparaison to the rest of the teams. 

I actually didn’t think much of them at first read (Azuma and Hisoka were already my favs though, i’m so soft for them)(also i say that but i know i found back screenshot of me crying about fuyu on first read so i did feel a lot but it didn’t hit me until late, how much i actually cared), and now i legit can’t stop thinking about all of them. I don’t know how much it says about their slowburn or what it says about me but; Winter.

ANYWAY congratz on finishing the main story of act 1 :3c and yeah, i’d prefer if i could share it in private (bc it’s, a lot of content and if i provide it in public this is clearly piracy and DLKFJDF i know a3 tends to take down some of this content and i’m trying to be stealthy).

Though if you don’t want to come off anon, you can tell me in another anon’s ask, i’ll link you my drive, then you’ll need to send me an ask to tell me you got it so i can delete the post, if you prefer?

anyway the drive is up and ready anytime. i just didn’t update some of the latest act 2′s events but act 1 is filled and that’s the priority. so you know also this drive includes 1) Story events, 2) the songs linked to each plays (which tells the story of the plays, def recommand it), 3) All the backstages from limited time cards i could get. Backstages linked to specific events are inside their specific event files, else the cards which didn’t come in an event are in the “Scouting file”.  What’s important to read plotwise is the Event stories. The backstages are very good and i def recommand it but it may be overwhelming so you can skip them and come back later for them DLKJFLDKFJFD it’s really just the main plot of each event that you should watch.

(also i should mention only the first two events are fully voiced, the rest are just with some voicelines here and there, but i still recommand watching it bc of the mood with the music and the sprites and all)

so yeah ready to send it anytime you want  !! :3c

[iamnotawomanimagod]

The 100 for the indepth ask thing!

Thank you, my friend!! Always happy to hear from you 🥰

Top 5 favourite characters:

1. Octavia

2. Murphy

3. Emori

4. Echo

5. Jasper

Other characters you like:

I will always have a lot of love in my heart for Monty, Raven, Lincoln, and Lexa. 

Least favourite characters:

Clarke, Bellamy, Kane, and Abby.  

OTPs: 

Linctavia and Memori 

NoTPs: 

Bellarke, Kabby, a handful of others that are more “meh” than outright “no.” 

Favourite friendships:

Jasper and Monty; Raven and Emori; Monty and Bellamy; Octavia, Jasper, and Monty; Indra and Octavia; Clarke and Roan; Raven and Echo. 

Favourite family: 

Spacekru! Forever! Although the Diyoza-Blakes give them a run for their money.

Favourite episodes: 

I’m a sucker for good standalones, even when the rest of the season sucks, or the episodes don’t make much thematic sense in context of the season/show. Fair warning. That being said: 

1x05, 1x08, 2x08, 2x12, 3x04, 4x07, 4x08, 4x10, 4x13*, 5x02, 5x11, and uhhh that’s when the show ended right**??

*For someone who hates s4, I sure do like a lot of individual episodes from it.

**There were storylines and moments I liked in s6 and s7, but no one episode stands out for me in either season.

Favourite season/book/movie:

Probably s2 or s5.

Favourite quotes:

Pretty much all the Trigedasleng lol.

“Yu gonplei ste odon.”

“Gomon gon oson.”

“Jus drein, jus daun.”

What a fun and silly conlang. 

Best musical moment:

I really love this moment, where Raven takes The Chip, and “Thousand Eyes” by Of Mouse and Men plays. Lindsey does such an incredible job portraying Raven’s sorrow, pain, and desperation. It’s so chilling when the music picks up and gets louder, and Raven slowly realizes that her pain is gone, and she looks up and sees ALIE for the first time. We as an audience realize how dangerous Raven will be, on ALIE’s side, but all Raven feels is wonder and relief. I think the song really captures that feeling so well, and the lyrics reflect Raven’s motivation: “I lie awake, and watch it all/it feels like a thousand eyes.” She’s under so much pressure, mostly internal, but also external, to help her friends and make sure people she cares about survives. I love this song and I’ll always associate it with this moment.

Moment that made you fangirl/boy the hardest:

 “You are wonkru, or you are the enemy of wonkru. Choose.”

Roan versus Lexa

Royal Memori Saving Everyone

When it really disappointed you:

Season 6. With the exceptions of Memori and my affection for Josephine, the season was a total flop for me. Season 7 just continued the downward spiral at an even faster rate. A few bright spots, but overall, just garbage. 

Saddest moment:

Woof. There’s several.

1. Lexa’s death, obvi

2. Jasper’s death

3. Lincoln’s death

4. Monty and Harper’s farewell videos

5. Emori’s death (only so low on the list because she came back) 

Most well done character death:

I got a lot of satisfaction out of Cage Wallace’s death. Lincoln deserved that vengeance.

In terms of emotional impact, I do think Jasper and Lexa’s death scenes were very well-done.

I know it’s messed up and I’m probably wrong, but god if I don’t love seeing Pike get run through with that sword.

Favourite guest star:

Alycia Debnam Carey put this show on the fucking map, and no one can truly argue otherwise. Without her, I doubt this show would’ve gone on for as long as it did. The show was carried by appearances and mentions of her right up until the very end. She even got the last word. Tell me of a more iconic guest star?? 

Favourite cast member:

I definitely really like Richard Harmon and Luisa d’Oliveria. I think they have the greatest chances of having truly successful careers out of everyone. 

Character you wish was still alive:

Jasper. :( 

One thing you hope really happens:

Well, it’s over. So nothing is going to happen again. I like the idea of some other pocket of humanity that decided not to transcend stumbling upon the Beachkru several years post-canon. And the aliens conveniently forget to actually make that sterile thing real. Humanity lives in, cultures continue to develop and grow, and there are lots of new generations to come! AKA the thing I wanted all along and really hoped they’d do, but they just kept destroying every society they met!!

Most shocking twist:

Finn’s death was really, truly so shocking to me. For one, Lexa’s death so greatly overshadowed it in fandom (at the time) that I managed to see it completely unspoiled. I also wasn’t into the BTS stuff at the time, so I didn’t know about any drama. It took me fully by surprise - I never expected the show to really kill another lead like that. 

When did you start watching/reading?:

It took me several tries to start this show. Getting through those first four episodes was a tough ask for me. By the time I finished what was available, s3 was over. So I technically joined fandom during the hiatus between s3 and s4.  

Best animal/creature:

God the animals in this show were silly. I liked those weird panther things.

Favourite location:

The dropship, Memori’s palace, Becca’s lab. 

Trope you wish they would stop using:

Listen. I loved the callbacks at first. I fucking ate them up. But at some point, this show became so self-referential that new plotlines ceased to exist. It became almost comical. How many times did these characters need to learn these lessons??

One thing this show/book/film does better than others:

The early camaraderie of The Hundred, and the way they worked sort of against the Establishment/Adults, was a lot of fun. Other shows have done it, but I think The 100 does it very well.

Funniest moments:

Unintentionally or intentionally, lmao?? Idk, there were a lot of quippy moments. Most of what Murphy said was hilarious.

Couple you would like to see:

I always wanted them to give Niytavia a shot, but they were cowards. 

Actor/Actress you want to join the cast:

I’m not super attached to any actors or actresses that would fit on this show. 

Favourite outfit:

Blodreina’s red cape, Emori’s royal Naming Day ‘fit, Murphy’s sleek black formal looks, Clarke’s soda can tab jacket, Raven’s red bomber jacket.

Favourite item:

When Clarke picks up a piece of Lexa’s throne and uses it as a walking stick when she’s alone post Praimfaya 2.0

Do you own anything related to this show/book/film?:

Nah.

What house/team/group/friendship group/family/race etc would you be in?:

I mean, I feel like Spacekru is the most obvious choice.

Most boring plotline:

When they spent several episodes rescuing Clarke from Josephine. Most of s4. The back half of s3. Most of s7.

Most laughably bad moment:

When Bellamy brought Clarke back to life by repeatedly punching her in the chest, and inside of her mind, Clarke threw an axe at Josephine’s face and Josie exploded into a bunch of shards of light.

When Clarke shot Bellamy over Madi’s sketchbook and left the sketchbook behind.

When Clarke and Bellamy took turns tying each other up and putting the people most important to one another in horrible situations and it was treated like a cute little bump in their timeless friendship. 

Best flashback/flashfoward if any:

I really love the Spacewalker reveal.

Most layered character:

Murphy came so far, and had so much development. I think Richard did a great job giving him a lot of depth and dimension. 

Most one dimensional character:

Clarke’s entire personality and arc didn’t change at all after the s2 finale. She was a loose cannon hell-bent on saving the people she loved, no matter what the cost. The most interesting things that happened to her were almost dying and actually dying, and the main reason for that is because it gave other characters and storylines more time to shine.

Scariest moment:

That fucking creepy cage creature on Nakara that attacked Raven’s face. Seeing it through the helmet was so terrifying. Another one is that scene in s2 when Lincoln is a reaper, and Octavia and Bellamy are trying to lure him into a trap in an old parking garage.

Grossest moment:

This show was remarkably gory for its network and time slot. I can think of several. I’d rather not dwell on them. 

Best looking male:

Lincoln is a babe.

Best looking female:

Gotta hand this one to Lexa

Who you’re crushing on (if any):

I mean, most of them. Half of why I watched was pure thirst. Emori, Murphy, Lexa, and Octavia all come to mind. Diyoza, too.

Favourite cast moment:

Idk I’m always partial to blooper reels.

Favourite transportation:

HELIOS. The most beautiful badass horse in the world. 

Most beautiful scene (scenery/shot wise):

I mean, most of the overhead shots are really pretty, but it’s also the same five locations in Vancouver, and that really starts to show at some point.

Unanswered question/continuity issue/plot error that bugs you:

I genuinely think we don’t have time for this. I have way too many to count. 

Best promo:

Nothing really comes to mind.

At what point did you fall in love with this show/book:

I was convinced to stick it out and see it through by 1x05. I truly thought it was something special by 2x08. I’ve gone up and down about it ever since.

Thanks again, Meghan!

Send Me a Fandom and I’ll Answer Some In-Depth Questions!

[raayllum]

as for later season predictions, what do you you think thematically or plot likelihoodwise of a rayllum reunion with accompanying angst/rebuilding trust arc that resolves things and they're in a good place again...only to have callum forcibly separated from rayla? via being trapped in the mirror (where he would potentially learn lots of magic in the mirror world). It would be a reverse parallel where he chooses not to leave her but rayla is the one left behind to deal with their separation.

i don’t think anyone would be trapped in the mirror again, especially because it must be very difficult to imprison someone there and get them out given it was a punishment reserved for aaravos and he can’t undo it on his own (or even really knows where he is).

i figured rayllum would have a separate arc for at least a period of season four and this sort of conflict (ttm’s) in season five, so having the two events combined is honestly perfect. and while there might be brief separations on the horizon, i think it’ll be them working as a team just in different places, and never longer than an episode or two. i don’t think another big separation arc is likely for them (at least not from each other). part of rayllum becoming an established couple so early on surely, motivational wise, was to also see them be a steady couple, so i’m sure we’ll see plenty of that. it just doesn’t seem to be in the narrative vibes?? but that’s just my own gut, so take it with a grain of salt. 

[beatriceeagle]

I think my TV meta ask reported an error so I'm going to repeat my questions, feel free to ignore any of them! 1) I love Looking for Alaska the book, and whilst I'm not worried about the TV show as an adaptation, I am worried about it being good... should I watch it? 2) Are you excited for Bojack Season 6? 3) How do you feel about Agents of Shield as a TV show that's constantly changing? I'll never forget their pivot in season 1! 4) SPORTS NIGHT! Why do I love Dan Rydell so much?

I don’t think I could love a meta ask more unless it included Farscape. This is phenomenal.

1

The highlight is that the Looking for Alaska adaptation is good and you should watch it. To get deeper, without getting spoilery, I’ve heard a lot of people say that it improves upon the book, which I don’t exactly agree with. What Looking for Alaska is is a very smart adaptation.

Basically, Looking for Alaska, the book, pulls off a thematic trick using its limited point of view. Miles spends the first two-thirds of the book wildly idealizing Alaska, and often very much in the dark about the exact specifics of her relationship with Jake, but also with Takumi and even the Colonel. Then when the turn comes, that becomes the point: Miles might have loved Alaska, but the Alaska in his head was never the real Alaska, and that means that he can never really understand what happened.

We spend a lot of time hearing Miles’ very precocious, pretentious narration, and also Alaska’s precocious, pretentious dialogue, and a lot of that has seeped into the culture as being the book, as if there’s no deconstruction happening. But there is! Miles is a little bit self-deluding, and Alaska is almost always putting on a front, and neither of their words can ever be fully trusted. This is a book about a guy who never really knew a girl.

The writers of the series, I think, wisely realized that that dynamic was going to be incredibly difficult to replicate on-screen. No matter what they did, viewers were going to get an objective look at Alaska, and the time constraints of television (ironically, the fact that they had to fill out more time) meant that they would have to go outside of Miles’ perspective. So they ditched that idea entirely, and instead dedicated themselves to expanding wherever they possibly could. We get so much more Alaska than the book gives us. She is more real than she possibly could have been in the pages, because we get to see her, not Miles’ view of her. But we also get much, much more of the Colonel, more of Sara, more of Takumi and Lara, more of the Eagle and the Old Man. And it’s wonderful! Some of the show’s most incredible scenes are between characters who are neither Miles nor Alaska.

But it does undercut the theme, somewhat. (Especially when combined with some other adaptation decisions that I won’t get into, because they are spoilery.) Looking for Alaska, the series, gives up some thematic impact in favor of a great deal of character richness, and it’s absolutely the right call for the series, given its format, and given the context in which it was released. But it was a trade, and I think it should be acknowledged.

(The other thing the show does that I think is necessary from an adaptation standpoint, but makes for a kind of weird viewing experience, is that it adds a whole plotline to the middle of the series that doesn’t exist in the book. I do think that this was necessary, because there’s not a lot of structure to the middle of Looking for Alaska, and while that’s fine for a book, a series needs a plot with some kind of forward momentum to hang itself on. But the problem is that the inevitable arc of the book means that this new plotline has nowhere to go, and it ends up just sort of fizzling out, once the book plot takes over.)

Anyway: Looking for Alaska. Very good show, very good music, exceptional performance from Denny Love. Definitely check it out if you loved the book.

2

I am very excited for BoJack season 6! I’m just waiting to watch it with my sister. I have hope that, since this is a planned final season, it’ll give the writers space to move the characters forward, and actually give people like Diane some measure of peace, and people like BoJack some measure of atonement.

3

I think that being the kind of show that was a different show every season was the smartest choice that Agents of SHIELD ever made. (The least smartest choice that Agents of SHIELD ever made was “Fitz and Simmons can never be together for more than six episodes at a time,” even if it has led to several individually successful story arcs.) It makes the show infinitely adaptable, so for instance, if they kill off their lead character thinking that the show is ending, and then suddenly get renewed for two (!!!) more seasons, it’s very easy for them to bring the actor back without walking back the story they’ve told; the show is capable of going to almost any place or time, and pulling on almost any trope of sci-fi or fantasy.

It also makes the show really interesting. One of the problems with season one of Agents of SHIELD was that the MCU is this giant world, full of lots of different settings and genres, and in comparison, AoS felt bland. The genre it was taking on (sci-fi procedural) isn’t inherently boring, but it wasn’t a particularly fresh take on the idea, and the visual trappings of the setting were incredibly sterile. But post-Hydra reveal—and especially post-season four—AoS is like the MCU in a microcosm. It can be anything! It can do a season in the future, a season in space, a season in a computer simulation. It can do pulpy action and messy comedy and gorgeous, lyrical sci-fi.

And also, it manages to do something that’s incredibly difficult (even The Good Place didn’t quite manage to get the hang of it until literally just this last episode) which is to rewrite the characters’ realities over and over without losing track of their character progressions. So, for instance, Fitz has been regular Fitz, and then he’s had his entire reality rewritten by the Framework and become the Doctor, and then he married Jemma and died, and then we reset to cryo!Fitz. And throughout all of that, the show has always been very clear about where the current Fitz is emotionally, and how all of the past and alternate versions of him affect his mental state—but also how he is distinct from any past or alternate versions of himself. And they do this while carrying on actual physical trauma from season 2; if you pay attention, Fitz still briefly loses words when he gets stressed. (As someone who takes a medication that makes me forget words easily, this is my ACTUAL FAVORITE THING on television.) The end result is that you actually know more about Fitz from seeing his reality rewritten so many times—and he still has a coherent character arc.

Of course the downside of this constant shifting is that sometimes AoS will find something that really works for it, and then leave it behind. Like, over the course of seasons three to six, they built up a lot of texture and a deep bench of characters to the space setting, and I would probably say, at this point, that Space AoS is my favorite version of AoS. But the latter half of season six ditched that setting almost entirely, and it’s not clear to what extent we’ll be going back there at all for season seven. Similarly, Fitz’s character arc remains coherent, but I’m not sure the current version of it is my favorite version of it.

But at the end of the day, I think that’s a fair trade for a show that’ll change Daisy’s name halfway through and stick with it, you know?

4

Well, I don’t know why you love Dan Rydell, but after putting a great deal of thought into this over many years, I can tell you why I love Dan Rydell: He is, setting aside some baseline Sorkin patronization, a legitimately great guy, going through a legitimately tough time.

Like, in the grand scheme of things, there are a lot of people who have it a lot worse than Dan Rydell, but one of the cool things about Sports Night is that the narrative is genuinely engaged with that fact: It’s aware of Dan’s privilege, and it makes Dan aware of his privilege, in a way that future Sorkin properties never really manage to do. Think of “The Apology”: “No rich white guy ever got anywhere with me comparing himself to Rosa Parks.” Think of Bobbi Bernstein, a woman who Dan calls crazy until she proves that she was right. Think of “The Quality of Mercy at 29K,” an episode that’s basically all about turning Dan’s privilege inside out.

What makes Dan likeable is that the show is aware of his privilege, it points his privilege out to him, and he learns. When Isaac calls him out, he’s immediately contrite. When he sees someone in need in his office, he overcomes his immediate reaction and tries to help. And when he realizes his error with Bobbi, he grants her an immediate, complete, and sincere apology.

The thing is, Dan wants so desperately to be a good guy, and it’s just really hard not to like someone who is trying so hard. He’s incredibly good to his friends, and honestly, I think the turning point is “Mary Pat Shelby.” You give Dan and Natalie’s scene in “Mary Pat Shelby” to a halfway decent actor, and how do you not come out of that scene loving Dan? This incredibly unselfish, incredibly well-pitched moment where, while everyone else is freaking out and trying to get something out of Natalie, Dan just says, “No, I’m not going to tell you what to do, I’m just going to tell you that I am behind you a million percent.” How do you not love that person?

But the other thing is that Josh Charles is not a halfway decent actor, Josh Charles is a phenomenal actor, so actually the turning point isn’t “Mary Pat Shelby.” It’s the speech in “The Apology.” The speech in “The Apology” isn’t  Sorkin’s best writing—“high as a paper kite” is a choice—and honestly, that scene is a lot to ask any actor to take on. Performed competently, it would be kind of embarrassing.

Charles fucking impales himself on that monologue. He leaves blood and guts on the anchor desk. And he somehow does it without overacting? It is a very subtle, precisely-balanced act of self-dismemberment.

What I’m saying is that right from the very beginning, Dan opens himself up to the viewer, and we see all his vulnerabilities, all the ugly, painful pieces of him that make him. And because Charles is a really, really good actor, it’s all very believable, and it’s all very magnetic—you’re drawn to it. And he does it all while being so likeable, and so good.

So of course people love Dan Rydell. He’s generous, he learns and apologizes, he tries incredibly hard, he’s got level 25 charisma, and he’s an open book of emotion—not to the people in his life, but to the viewer.

(Hey, while you’re here, have a link to an amazing Dan Rydell vid!)

Send me meta prompts to distract me from my migraine! (Yes, I still have a migraine.)

[sometipsygnostalgic]

Assessing writing in homestuck: The difference between appealing characters and well-written character stories.

i was rambling about this to /u/cookiefonster in the discord earlier

theres a big difference between what qualifies as "good narrative" and "good character", even when the narrative youre discussing is focusing entirely on that character.

lets give you a couple of examples:

Terezi:

Terezi's a character who has a kind of fucked up storyline that just constantly loops back in on itself; she spends all of act 5 deciding whether to deal with Vriska or not, then gets in abusive relationships in act 6 after not being able to cope with her death. Terezi ends up with massive self esteem issues. Following from THIS, she dies, and retcons the story to undo her mistake and try to prevent the collapse of her self esteem. Sounds like an epic resolution to an arc, right?

Nope - post retcon, they brought Terezi's self esteem issues back but didn't give her the time of day to properly interact with other characters about it. She was unconfident around Vriska and insecure about her altself. Then she has a bit of a breakdown, unlocking some of the potential of her seer of mind abilities, and having a realisation of who truly is. You'd think, wow, Terezi after Remem8er is going to be interacting so much more with the other kids and FINALLY overcome her battle with depression, RIGHT?!?!

uhhh..... she doesnt say anything again until after the comic is over. then shes seen travelling through space.

When the epilogues drop she's interacting with John, they're building on top of their already amazing chemistry, they seem to understand each other like nobody else does in the entire fucking saga. Then Terezi nearly "dies" but another John finds her and they have a heart to heart before Terezi decides it's time go home.

WOOOOOW, you think, Terezi is FINALLY LEARNING TO LOVE HERSELF?!¬?!?!?! an interaction with a HEALTHY PERSON?!?!?!

Then John dies. Then Terezi hates Earth C so much and is so isolated from everybody she knows that she doesn't hesitate to join the villain in space. And it's implied Vriska texts her but she never reads those messages insofar as the canon material ends.

Overall, a rather anticlimactic story about a character whose arc is constantly recycled, not allowed to be given closure at any stage, falling into the same tragedy pit. It's like an art form of cockblocking.

So, why is Terezi as cherished as she is? How come even in the face of the ending, the epilogue, where it feels like Terezi has just been going round in circles, she is probably one of the most loved characters in homestuck?

There's a few factors:

Humor - Being able to make your audience laugh in a genuine way will put you in their favour. Terezi's dark humor, which works in tandem with her general naivete, has always been delightful.

Relevance - The part where Terezi's popularity might have actually struggled would be during Meteorstuck where she was pushed on the sidelines. Every moment she's been around after GAME OVER, however, she's been one of the most active character pushing the plot and generating excitement for whatever thing she's going to do next, even if it does become a loop. Killing John>Killing Vriska>Killing Gamzee>Retconquest>Remem8er>Finding Vriska>Finding John>Leaving with Dirk to save John>??? - she's always on some sort of mission which means if you're thinking about the plot then you might be thinking about something that ties into her storyline.

But most importantly, Authenticity - Terezi's dialogue is actually very well-written, in that she's one of the least wordy characters, but she gets exactly what she's feeling across whenever she talks about it. If you look at all the conversations she's had with Vriska or John or even Dave then you can tell Terezi feels very strongly about whatever she's feeling, and is either trying to disguise that feeling or is trying to put it to words she's struggling to find. Yet even when Terezi can't describe what she's feeling, the audience knows, because her condensed dialogue is expressive enough for us to be able to tell. It also helps that Terezi is one of the most invested in the other cast members, being - if not more righteous - then more analytical of her friends, taking in why they behave the way they do. It doesn't matter that arc-wise she goes in circles, because you can tell exactly how it keeps happening.

I feel like if Terezi didn't have that factor, if there wasn't so much weight to her emotional presentation and if the audience wasn't able to "feel" for her, then she would probably be significantly less popular. I guess that’s why many people feel it’s better for her to still be stuck in the “plot” of homestuck, to lack closure, because maybe closure would feel forced in this universe that’s taken so much from its kids? How can you “forget” what happened and just act like you never entered the game to begin with? Some of the other characters have this issue and it harms them deeply.

Let’s get into that!!!!!

Lord English and Calliope :

I feel so bad for Hussie. He clearly put a lot of thought into the relationship between Calliope and Caliborn, how their characters intertwine throughout this epic story. Yet despite them being the narrative fuel for the entirety of homestuck, and having an awesome thematic ending to their tales, it feels like the "cherub wars" part of homestuck never stuck its foot too deeply in the public consciousness.

Like, let's describe their narration: Two people born in the same body, one good, one evil. One is predestined to rule over the other.

In one universe the cherubs are left in their natural state. The Just cherub, Calliope, predominates... but because the universe is rigged, she is forced to be put into obscurity, residing for billions of years in a hidden dream bubble until the time is right. In another universe, there is intervention - Gamzee introduces the cherubs to humans, and they start to imitate their concepts and feelings. Because of this, Calliope becomes a softer being, engaging happily with the humans. She even wants to take mercy on her brother! But Caliborn takes on human ambition and grows determined to stop his sister from predominating, taking advantage of the human concept of “cheating” in order to beat her at their own game.

Caliborn defeats his sister, and is thrown into a session where he’s forced to overcome seemingly impossible challenges. He succeeds, and is given the ultimate power. Caliborn can will the universe to how he sees fit.

Caliborn’s given just desserts by getting trapped in the juju by the alpha kids but not before the monkey’s paw of trapping all the (alternate) beta kids for millenia, and in becoming trapped, he ends up becoming Lil Cal and Doc Scratch, who manipulate events so that he will rise again as an adult.

But the one thing that drives Caliborn more than anything is the desire to destroy his perfect sister - Calliope. A never ending thirst for her death. For predomination Caliborn never predominated normally so he never gets over it. This is part of why he’s so obsessed with showmanship and art too, to one-up her character. He circles the universe destroying all that is irrelevant, all that is obscure, in the hopes of demolishing all versions of his sister, having the primal fear that she will one day catch him out.

Our predominated calliope meets with the ghost of her alternate self, who tells her that her purpose as a softer human version is to just live her life. To be free. To appreciate all that humanity offers her. Whereas the Alternate Calliope’s role is to commit the ultimate sacrifice, to put an end to her brother’s ego. She absorbs the Green Itself into a catastrophic black hole that erases what is left of the universe.

You think that is the end, but Calliope is reborn in a new form, rewarded for her hard efforts, and becomes a full narrator for the story itself, protecting it from the evil of the Prince. She’s an active guide for the characters of Homestuck, wastching over them. She destroys her brother once and for all, absorping him inside herself.

Wasn’t all of that FUCKING AWESOME?!?!?!??! “Wow”, you think, “Calliope sounds so hardcore!!! I’m sure she’s an amazing character to have such a conclusive storyline like this!!”

Wrong, wrong, wrong. Literally nobody on the internet sees Calliope as their favourite character, except for maybe Past!Shelby Cragg who was her artist. And while Caliborn has his fans, nobody is a big fan of Lord English either. In fact most people tend to forget about the Lord English part of him because it’s just not that engaging!

Basing this on the above analysis about Terezi, what is lacking in terms of these characters?

Humor - Caliborn is a hilarious character, absolutetly no doubt about that. He’s so stupid and the way he sees the world is hilarious. It’s almost Terezi-ish even, except far more exaggerated in terms of his vulgarity and naivete, since he was locked in a fucking cage all his life. Caliborn makes us laugh pretty much every time we see him... but this character is lost entirely in Lord English, who does not wish to engage with the audience at all. Lord English is entirely a machine at this stage, just acting to destroy. As for CALLIOPE, she was never that great in the humor department. I’d be surprised if the original Callie knows what “jokes” are. Alt Calliope was also a stooge until the Epilogue where she trolls Dirk, and yes those parts are delightful and boost her in my eyes significantly, but in the core part of homestuck she is incredibly serious all the time.

Relevance - After reading me narrate the entire Cherub plot and how impactful it was on the entirety of homestuck you’d think I’m a fucking idiot for trying to argue that Calliope and Lord English are irrelevant, right? Well Too Bad!!! That’s exactly what I think. Doc Scratch was relevant to what was happening to our core cast of characters, manipulating them behind the scenes, taking advantage of them and fuelling their personal drama for his greater gain. This is why we love Doc Scratch so much and can even enjoy Ultimate Dirk for doing the same thing. Caliborn had a reduced impact on our main cast, but Lord English’s impact is pretty much nonexistent outside of the first time we see him in Caliborn: Enter. Once again, he’s literally only there to destroy the fucking universe, but when our main characters are either enjoying themselves in the new Alpha session or in Earth C, you have to ask why you or they should be interested in what LE is doing? Dave says so himself, that LE has not done anything wrong to him so he’s not hyped to go kill him. Calliope, meanwhile.... Her relevance is split in two, and neither is too substantial to what our main guys are doing.It “makes sense” as she’s such a passive character, but Calliope’s struggle with relevance doesn’t take me as impacting her too much, and I’ll get onto that in a second. Only one alpha kid ever thinks about her, she doesn’t think about anyone except herself, and while Jade has some kind of relationship with Alt!Callie, it isn’t a personal one by any means. Calliope’s impact on the emotional arcs of homestuck is so minimal that she was erased from the epilogues which she wrote herself. Even Calliope can’t think of anything to do with Calliope!!! How about that!!!

Oh, and of course, Authenticity - Caliborn feels like an authentic character because he deals with actual struggles. Caliborn finds it tremendously difficult to do things other characters might have an easy time with, like drawing, thinking in anything OTHER than straight lines... but he perseveres. Caliborn faces his impossible and brutal tasks head on to claim the Ultimate Reward. He’s fucking EARNED that ability to destroy everything in reality, and by god he’s let us know!!! This is why Caliborn is such a cherished character. Even though he’s evil as fuck, he feels like a real kid somehow. It goes without saying that although Doc Scratch has a different kind of authentic creepiness, Lord English has nothing on him that makes him feel real. He’s just a machine, as said before. CALLIOPE’s authenticity.... The alpha Calliope is a character who became “so nice” and so “perfect” that she ended up losing her fight against her evil brother just because she was that good a person as to let him get the better of her. Nothing that ever happens to her is her fault. She never gets in any conflicts with any character ever, except for that one time she yelled too loud in Candy but nobody told her off for it. Calliope is perfect at art, a fair enough writer. The closest thing to a “flaw” she’s ever had is getting so excited about her friends that she writes creepy fanfic about them, something that is parodied in Candy, which has been implied to be narrated (or at least retold) by Calliope herself in Meat. Simply put, Calliope is... a mary sue. A flawless character. There is absolutely no authenticity and no way to relate to her. Alt Calliope.... she’s a martyr? But why does she want to be a martyr? What does she care about the human characters? She’s even less authentic. It is badass to watch her tear down Dirk, and the story takes advantage of how unreadable she is by making her intimidating as fuck, an all knowing force to contest - no, overpower - that of Dirk or even Hussie himself. Alt Callie is more knowing in her fakeness, she has a better struggle as well what with having to escape from obscurity and overcome her brother, and therefore is a better character, at the end of the epilogues, than the original.

TL;DR: It’s not just about making interesting things happen to your characters. It’s making sure they have interesting reactions to what is going on. If your character becomes someone who things just “happen” to, and who does not respond to those things in an authentic way, then nobody is going to care for them no matter how important or existentially poetic their arc is.

[emperorren]

Thoughts on the mask and what could be possible uses for it, story-wise? Just to speculate for the hell of it

I don’t know why I’m upset that he’s wearing a mask but for some reason this leak affected me more than any other one so far

There’s no reason to be upset over this. First, it’s an unverified spoiler, and the fact that MSW reported it doesn’t mean it’s 100% legit (remember cliffgate? That came from MSW too and it was complete bs).

Second, I’ve said it before in relation to the white-dressed Rey leak and got a bit of flack for it, but let me reiterate: this might be just a case of JJ being in love with his own visual concepts (masked, grim reaper-looking Kylo, post apocalyptic desert pixie dream girl Rey) and wanting to bring them back, with some alterations. This has nothing to do with retconning, btw. While there’s clearly a pre-established overarching plot, we’ve been told repeatedly that the individual directors have complete creative freedom, if not on the “what”, at least on the “how”, and certainly on visuals.(*) I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw a comeback of the long robes for Kylo either (which I would LOVE, tbh). These character designs are JJ’s babies and he loves them and there’s nothing wrong if he wants to bring them back. 

(*) this is also why I think the force bond, if still there, will be conveyed in a different way than it was in TLJ. Directors love to put their own spin and trademarks on stuff.

Third: narrative-wise, it’s not unusual for the protagonists to have a sort of regression (even in the way they look) to a pre-falling in love status quo after the second act break up. This is temporary and has the purpose of maximize the angst. 

Fourth: character-wise, bringing the mask back is a very interesting and telling behavior for Kylo. The mask is thematically linked to his hopeless struggle to become a villain it’s not in his nature to be, and to hide his emotions and vulnerability behind a cold, scary surface. It’s the opposite of liberating. It tells us that even in his Supreme Leader role, Ben is still trying to impersonate someone he isn’t; that he still feels the need to hide behind an artificial persona; that he hasn’t so much ascended as he’s trapped in another role in which he can’t show his true face. (all those /benevolent renperor/ theories? yeah, they’re probably not going to happen. Being Supreme Leader isn’t Ben’s chance to do some good for the galaxy. It’s his Peak Villain moment, when he has full agency but not real freedom, and the bad stuff he’ll do under that guise will be his responsibility only—and acknowledging responsibility is a necessary step for redemption). 

It also (probably) means he’s ashamed of himself. Ashamed of how his emotions spiraled out of control on Crait, after Rey’s rejection and when he confronted Luke. He might be ashamed specifically of his feelings for Rey in this phase, and trying to suppress them behind a mask, as they’re his greatest weakness, or so he thinks. He might not want her to see how desperate he still is for her, and try to deny he ever let her see his face, his true self. So that when they meet again, she’ll see Kylo Ren, not Ben Solo—and she won’t be aware of how miserable and wounded she left him, how deeply she hurt him. In short, it’s an attempt to regain control, to re-establish boundaries, to hide again behind that persona that helped him keep the broken pieces of his soul together for years. After Luke’s betrayal, Ben created Kylo Ren; after Rey’s perceived betrayal, it makes sense that he falls back to that coping mechanism. But he’s changed irrevocably and irreparably, and—if the spoiler tells the truth—even the mask will bear the traces of that: visibly damaged and awkwardly stitched back together, blood-red veins streaking the blackness of its surface, life and love (symbolically) seeping through the death he tries to impersonate.

Last but not least: whatever the context, he’s not going to wear the mask for a significant amount of screentime. JJ isn’t going to waste Adam’s phenomenal acting under a mask, no matter how much he likes the concept visually. He didn’t in TFA, and like hell he will in the final act. The mask will be gone soon, again.

[mmmmalo]

how can homestuck be both meaningful and empty

That’s a lovely question.

First off, the ending feels “empty” because you know their victory didn’t actually achieve freedom – Earth C will eventually become the planet hosting the cherubs, the Beta kids will get trapped in the Juju, the Alpha kids will get stranded in what I presume is Caliborn’s session – even as numerous problems are resolved, John seems to end with the same sense of emptiness that he started with, and this emptiness leads him to accept Caliborn’s jeering.

So I guess it feels “empty” because the ending because I get the sense that everyone is kind of getting sucked into a narrative black hole.

Though who knows, that might be resolved if I gained a firm sense of what Vriska’s attack actually did -- I’ve read a couple interpretations of what the confrontation meant but none of them really stuck with me. If the kids did burst out to fight LE, I don’t know what that would accomplish. The final puzzle is still out of my reach maybe.

Since white cue balls are supposed to contain total knowledge, a white Sburb logo seems like it would represent Homestuck in its totality? Way way back I used to read Lord English as representing the End of the Story (x) but I’m not as sure if I stand by that now. Though there’d be something funny about Vriska essentially telling the End of the Story to reread Homestuck, but I don’t think that’s what happened either.

But to answer your question more generally, you can find meaning anywhere in the comic, since reading and interpreting creates meaning within the reader’s mind. But in order for the comic to feel whole to me... in order to feel satisfied... I guess I really just want the ending to make sense when connected with everything else in the comic? And not just ‘make sense’ in that it’s a plausible event plot-wise, but something that RESONATES you know? Like I might be able to go back to Acts 1 - 6 and see things humming on the same thematic wavelength as Act 7?

There’s some comedy in the denial of catharsis: we get a flash about bodies colliding, then a flash about the sperm frog reaching the world egg, and then a happy ending on Earth C and then... emptiness? Like if the intention was to convey that Sburb’s reproductive narrative is emotionally unfulfilling, well that’s certainly a meaning. Or maybe the message is that you will be disappointed if you expect meaning to be handed to you, and you will have search long and hard for any lasting sense of catharsis. Idk! But I’m defaulting to the second one