#random villain as a plot device

[stagefoureddiediaz]

You know what. I’ve realised a massive part of why I dislike tommy so much!

He’s a shape shifter.

Think about it for a moment. We know next to nothing about this dude because he just shifts into whatever role he needs to play for whomever he’s with. We know he was military but have zero context beyond that but it’s implied he was the ‘perfect’ soldier.

Under Gerrard he’s a bigoted misogynistic racist homophobe.

Gerrard leaves and he magically becomes someone who can fit in with the 118 under Bobby.

Leaves the 118 and we don’t know what he’s up to.

Reappears on the scene when the firefam show up at the hangar and becomes what they need him to be in that moment.

Is essentially actively pursuing Eddie but is quick to switch to buck when it’s clear he’s an easier target. Drops buck when bucks not ready with zero explanation but is happy to go along with what buck wants when he calls him.

Man doesn’t have a personality of his own because he just shifts into whatever he needs to be for whoever he needs to be it for.

[chainreh]

damn they just killed off mortimer like that? sucks man

[nagitosstolenhand]

i don't like the growing opinion that people are being 'too hard' on deku for his failing to save shigaraki.

i've seen quite a few people complaining that a lot of the bnha-critical crowd are being too mean to deku for getting tomura killed, arguing that it isn't really his fault, and that hes a 16 year old child soldier who's been failed by almost every adult in his life, why should we be putting all of this on his shoulders? hes just a kid after all?

and the truth is, they're right. deku IS a 16 year old boy whos had the fate of the world thrust on his shoulders. but the story itself just plainly refuses to acknowledge this.

the narrative doesn't acknowledge how fucked up having a school that trains literal children how to be combo cop-celebrities is. it only tentatively acknowledges the fact that a universe having combo cop-celebrities is fucked up, and even then the only people who ever point this out are antagonists, who are portrayed and treated in-universe as untrustworthy. the narrative doesn't care how fucked up dekus circumstances are. the narrative treats deku like hes a fucking messiah here to touch the hearts of the evil depressed villains with his magical empathetic heart of gold before they get blown up or just sent to fucking superhell for daring to challenge the status quote.

deku isn't a person. he's barely even a fucking character at this point. he's a plot device, and a mouth piece for the objectively shitty themes bnha is trying to spout. the themes that tell you that if you're mistreated by society and want to do something about it, you're a villain. that disrupting the status quote and refusing to repent to some random teenage boy spouting empty platitudes at you means you deserve to get sent to fucking superhell. the themes that portray people fighting for civil change as mass murdering supervillains. the themes that look the audience dead in the eye and can call deku the greatest hero to ever live.

deku, who barely spared a second thought to lady nagant telling him the truth about the hero commission. who spouts meaningless platitudes about heroism and morality at nagant, and aoyama, and toga and shigaraki, when even the thought that he should question the world around him comes up. who's constantly talked about as this truly kind, empathetic person, but hasn't spared an empathetic thought to literally anyone who is classified as a villain. who listened to every authority figure around him except the ones who asked him to question his worldview. who saw la bravas tears, shigarakis various breakdowns, himikos plead for understanding, chisakis catatonic state, lady nagants truth, and barley batted a fucking eye. deku, who killed tomura shigaraki.

people don't criticize deku for failing shigaraki because they just hate deku. people criticize deku because of what he represents. because hes a mouthpiece for the atrocious morals and themes of this ideologically rotten manga. because any character he had was chopped up to bits in favor of the incomplete husk we have now. people criticize deku because hes the main character of my hero academia. theres nothing more damning then that.

[theredcuyo]

Fellas picture this one with me

A random magical plot device wanna be villain is confronted by the bats, Tim tracked the guy down to crime alley, so Jason is complaining but relenting just fine as Dick has kept Damian from trying to stab him all night, that's a good run so far

But then, as he is interrogated by the Big batdad, in the middle of his desperation, the guy trhows a monologue about creating an ideal world, where his wishes can come trhu, and he can prove it by making one of them come to reality just now!

He could make it permanent if he just lets him, if he can just have some time everyones wishes will come real, of course, Bruce doesn't accept it, and in a last attempt, the plot device guy conjures a spell just as he gets his ass kicked by batman, because it didn't seem to do anything to him

Once he has the guy tied up and decides to call both Gordon and Zatanna tho, he realizes his kids haven't said a thing since the interrogation, and as any parent knows, silence means trouble

So, he looks around just to find four little figures staring at him

In the place of his sons are know children, and upon inspection, their faces are oldly familiar, and their hair, their eyes, it just becomes clear.

His wish was granted, well, one of many, but, that one probably came out after complaining to Alfred about "not having pictures of his sons as childs for the most part" that morning

Because Dick's didn't have nice quality, Jason's we're next to zero, Tim's all had the same soulless face and Talia didn't actually have any of Damian's because Ra's destroyed them for being a "safety hazard"

Is it bad of he wants to wait just a bit before calling someone to fix it?

[gold-rhine]

so. the new volcano world quest, the culmination of our pet suarian world quests in natlan. and why its fucking bad. spoilers, of course.

first of all, nothing fucking happens in this quest line. it starts with intriguing premise, but there is no actual story by the end of it. like first world quest in a chain is just to go to a temple bc not sus at all guy tells you to, do the puzzles, get some lore descriptions from the murals, thats it. then in the next world quest, you go to ruins, do some puzzles with random girl you just met, get long walls of text of lore descriptions for the victim of dragon eugenicist experiments, then you have to fight him to put him to peace or whatever, and he dies. thats it.

wait no, random girl is actually a ghost? and she disappears? it doesnt matter bc in the end turns out shes actually dragon eugenicist in disguise, but even before that reveal, i have no idea why was i supposed to care about her. she's just there to plot device you thru puzzles, you don't know who she is or whats her deal.

i know that there's lore about her in cinder city description and some weapons and whatever, which leads me to my first point. hidden lore given in random parts is not a story. its one of the possible ways to introduce worldbuilding to the player, and it should SERVICE the story. i think too many games trying to copy dark souls with this shit, and even dark souls rarely gets it good. in this natlan quest, there is no story to service with lore. its just random bits of info. compare and contrast to remuria, which also has a lot of associated lore in golden troupe and item descriptions, but when you get there, all characters and story stand on their own. you don't need to read these descriptions to know whats going on and care. reading additional lore gives more depth, but it does not try to pretend to be the main narrative.

next, the eugenics victim, och-kan, who we have to kill in the end. like. sad and bad for him, still not a story. nothing we do in that quest have anything to do with him, we just get lore descriptions outside of our current narrative (solving puzzles bc we think it will help our baby pokemon) and then we are told to kill him. again, compare and contrast with elynas' world quest. he also has a tragic backstory that we learn during the quest as lore drops, but we also have a primary story about melusine connecting with him as her father, about elynas choosing to protect melusines even if it costs his own chance at new life, we get to see that conflict of self-sacrifice and loneliness and interact with him in the context of that larger narrative. if instead we just learned his tragic backstory from walls of text, did some puzzles, and killed him, it would literally mean nothing. lore has to exist in the context of current narrative to have meaning.

now, to the last part. can you guess the plot? you do the puzzles with nothing else going on. and then you get to the ending "choice". yes, there are walls of text lore drops too, but like these transcripts of zoom meetings of dragon bureaucrats telling each other to get good do not actually contribute much, and i actually want to make another post on worldbuilding and exploration and have this one focused on a story.

so the ending is "plot twist" that the dragon eugenicist was actually like every single npc we met in this quest chain. which like. who cares, these npcs were plot devices players wasn't attached to anyway. i really doubt anyone's mind will be blown be the reveal. but thats small beans, the main part is that eugenicist evil plan.

which is too use the prev pyro sovereign's created mcguffin to turn everything in natlan into phlogiston. like. BEGGING hoyo to come up with the villain plan that is not merging everything into evangelion mush. like at least in previous quest chains there were a lot more going on on top of the merging into mush. in sumeru it was a story of my girl Jeht and her father, there was akademiya researcher learning to respect desert history, there was jebrael's history with other mercs, there was jeht's struggle to fit in and desert politics. in fontaine, each word quest had a complete narrative able to stand on its own, but all of them were interconnected and coiled together. in this natlan world quest, there is not even one story able to stand on its own!

and like lets look at why our villain wants to do the phlogiston mush. he thinks dragons are evolutionary dead end, so initially, he was into eugenics and wanted to create a human dragon hybrid. that shit failed, then he says he decided to wait and give humans time to prove themselves. but now he thinks they failed too and they will not be able to stop the abyss, and so to make sure abyss doesn't consume teyvat, he wants to turn teyvat into phlogiston mush.

which like. grandpa, what the fuck are you talking about. natlan JUST defeated the abyss and threw it out. hes like ugh i hoped humans would become ubermensch, but they still worships ~the archons~ like weaklings. like bro, our mary sue queen mavuika literally took no Ls. name one problem she didn't steamroll. she won the war, she threw abyss out, she actually beat up the heart of the abyss, she got out of ronova's death deal, she had capitano merge with night kingdom, making it immortal. if this is not a proof that humans can defeat abyss, i dont know what the fuck do you want.

so this creates a clear dissonance, bc this world quest has pre-existing end with the mush, but writers don't know how they can come up with any plausibly non-evil explanation for it. so they ignore actual state of the world - which is that natlan just kicked abyss out, - and use abyss as just an excuse for the mush even it it makes no sense.

now to the mush "choice." you, as a pokemon we've traveled with, need to choose to mush everything into phlogiston or not. and we get a hsr fake choice where if you pick to do the mush, game just resets you on the dialogue before it. so you HAVE to pick to not mush it to progress. and like who is this fucking for??? players who do want the choices in video games like myself will only get infuriated bc this is obviously bullshit and fake choice. ppl who do not want the choices will not even notice and click thru. so why is this here.

like fucking OBVIOUSLY they will not actually let you turn the world into evangelion mush. not even 5 years old will buy this as a real option. so if they really wanted to center this stupid quest around this fake pokemon choice, they could have at least faked it better. like. we have all these mini quests with our pokemon we get during exploration. they could have added little choices here. like. support your pokemon or not? help him make friends or not? obviously absolute majority of players would choose to be nice to a baby pokemon. but even so, if in the end the pokemon listed these actual choices the players made, players would feel like they actually did sometjing that mattered. and for the assholes who were mean to pokemon on purpose, they could have a boss battle with the pokemon. it doesnt show up outside of its own world quests, so it would affect literally nothing in global. and like it would still be bad quest line, don't get me wrong! but it would at least not be so egregious.

so what we have is a quest line with no plot and with a cliche fake choice at the end. this is rock bottom of quest design. also, someone please tell natlan team that character walking forward while repeating phrases about how they should give up show up in the air is not a groundbreaking character conflict they think it is, bc it was already bad for mavuika.

[st-just]

the asshole nerd trio are by far one of the weirdest and weakest parts of Buffy’s writing.

the narrative largely treats them like comic relief antagonists, and [redacted because idk if you’ve watched the whole show already and are re-watching, or simply watching it for the first time]. The problem is, however, that they’re actually scary. Sure, all the plotting villains scheming to destroy the entire dimension are “scary” in a fictional sense, and our heroes are often in peril, but “nominally physically non-threatening but predatory wolf in sheep’s clothing” is just a real threat that exists in real life. It’s a weirdly dark subject to be treated so flippantly. Like if there was just a random multi-episode subplot about one of the teachers Sunnyvale High being a pedophile.

I’m not sure if Whedon was going somewhere with this as a concept and it simply didn’t land right for me, or if he just wildly misread how upsetting people would find the concept “nerdy predators” compared to “zillion year old scenery-chewing demon who wants to open a portal to hell”

it’s also possible that I just found the trio uniquely upsetting thanks to my own past. In college, several female friends of mine were beset with nerdy horny predatory men, and one of them was actually assaulted. That part of the season hit really close to home and was deeply distressing.

(Watching for the first time, yes - last episode I watched was the one where one of them tried to use the magic mind control device to make his ex-girlfriend a sex slave)

Oh yeah it's the Dolores Umbridge problem, right? The show's audience is several orders of magnitude more likely to have actually met someone like the three stooges than they are a blood-drinking cult leader or murderous wannabe-goddess or whatever, so the narrative treating them so flippantly and bathetically just feels very off.

But it's also the narrative seems a bit confused about how many layers of narrative abstraction and subtext it wants to go for? Like, Buffy and Spike's relationship is clearly supposed to be toxic and unhealthy, but we're also not supposed to take Buffy beating Spike into the pavement until his face is one bloody mess during an argument that literally when judging her as a person? Whereas with the stooges Buffy basically stops to look at the camera and clearly announces 'this would have been rape. You're all rapists'.

Which like, makes it come off as weird how much they're framed as pathetic comic relief before and after.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

i have the same issue with zoe as i do with lila and it's that you can take out both of them and have the roles filled with other people. zoe just adds to the cast bloating and lila may have been here since season 1 but they never did anything with her unless they needed a plot device. she's not really a character. you could have had multiple characters fill in the roles that they have now. chloe or nathalie could have been the new butterfly villain if they insist on keeping the butterfly in a villain role. chloe could have stayed the bee or they could have given it to literally any named character. they could have given it to felix instead of giving him the peacock since him having the peacock kind of makes him look like a hypocrite with the whole senti plot and how creating one-off creatures for battle seems to be the peacock's only ability and he was all for senti rights. no matter how many disguises, aliases, and fake moms they give lila to make her look 'evil' and no matter how many miraculouses and praise they dump on zoe to make her seem like the best person ever, they couldn't get me to care about either.

That's a nice way of summing up the concept of character bloat. If you can remove the character and fill their role with existing characters without major changes, then you need to ask if that character is actually needed. The answer may be yes! Some bloat is fine, but it should be strategic.

For example, you might only need to give your lead one friend for the story to work, but you go with two or three or even four instead because your lead isn't supposed to come across as an outcast. They're supposed to be popular! This might mean that the friends are all a little generic and don't get as much screen time as you want, but if you're willing to make those sacrifices and think it's better for the lead's image, then add the bloat!

However, it is almost always going to be a bad idea to give your lead a never-ending army of generic girl friends when she already has a best friend with an active role in the story. Mylene, Alix, Rose, and Juleka were more than enough. We don't need Zoe, Fei, Aeon, Jess, and Socqueline added to the mix! I personally hate the fact that the first two specials focused on random side characters that really don't matter. Basically the Zoe issue on a mini scale. The. Paris special wasn't perfect, but was the kind of thing I want to see in a special. Heck, Chat Blanc could have been a special then they'd have time to flesh it out properly.

[tower-of-hana]

The Magic System in Harry Potter Is Kinda Dumb an Essay

The Killing Curse Was a Bad Idea

I took this one from a youtube video but it's true and I don't see it talked about a lot. The killing curse was a bad idea because it disincentivises the villains from ever attacking the heroes in an interesting way. Instead of using any type of dark magic that is interesting and cool they'll just reach for the instant death spell because it's easier.

It Doesn't Have Any Meaningful Rules:

Rules in a magic system are important because they allow the characters to establish strategies and for the audience to understand what those strategies are. Harry Potter doesn't do this which is why almost all of the magic fights are dumb and boring (it doesn't help that the main character knows like three spells but that isn't really a problem with the worldbuilding). Pretty much all the limits on the magic system in Harry Potter are used to stop the author from having to worldbuild.

It Also Doesn't Do Anything with the Lack of Rules:

That being said, anime fights where characters throw the sun at each other are dumb fun but Harry Potter doesn't do that either. Harry Potter doesn't really have any spells that are overpowered in an interesting way. As a result all fights are just characters throwing the same three spells at each other and older characters using undefined, more interesting spells to create the illusion of a better magic system.

Transfiguration Is Implemented Badly:

Transfiguration isn't a bad idea but the way it works in the books makes it completely useless. Why the fuck would anyone use a spell to turn a hyper specific thing into another hyper specific thing. That's just not all that helpful.

We Don't Know What Magic IS:

In Harry Potter pretty much everything about how magic works is badly defined. But I think most of this problem stems from the more fundamental problem that Harry Potter never establishes what magic is. In a lot of stories the author mentions at some point what their magic system fundamentally is: the force is some type of magic force that exists throughout the universe, chakra is magic energy that flows through your body etc. This is not necessary but it helps both you and the audience know what the rules and limits to magic are. Harry Potter doesn't do this so magic can just do random bullshit.

Good Guy Magic and Bad Guy Magic Operates on Twisted Morality:

Some pieces of media give the bad guys evil magic so you know that they are evil. Harry Potter tries to do this but utterly fails. Take the unforgivable curses for instance. The first is the cruciatus curse, it causes pain. This is fine, most people agree that pain is bad. The second one is the imperious curse, it allows you to control people. This would be fine because mental manipulation is generally considered to be bad. Or it would be, if the story hadn't already established that the "good guys" go around erasing people's memories all the time. In fact they constantly invade and manipulate the minds of muggles to the point where they genuinely do it more than the racist bad guys. In fact the wizarding world is basically an apartheid state enforced by the literal thought police and the main characters we're supposed to sympathize get positions of power in it (mostly) but I digress. The third is the killing curse and this one makes sense on the surface but when you think about it it's really baffling. Sure killing people with no other side effects or other purpose sounds evil until you realize that the good guys in Harry Potter try to kill people by: blowing them up, setting them on fire, crushing them with shelves of shitty plot devices, disintegrating them, defenestrating them (movie), freeing a dragon in a crowded area, setting unquestionably evil beings loose around children, suffocating them with magic plants, magic plant Havana Syndrome, crushing them with giants, burning them with the power of love, supposedly slicing them to pieces with transfigured knight statues, being eaten by magic bushes, poison murder trees, trampling them, and fucking yeeting them across the room. I dunno mate I would rather painlessly die tbh.

✨The Powa of Wuv✨

You know how the power of love is a thing we all joke about because it's such a trite and overplayed stand-in for an actual solution to a problem? Well the author decided to make it a part of the magic system. Now for the low low price of your mom you, yes you, can be immune to the plot. I would praise this as great satire if it wasn't taken 100% seriously the entire series.

[mochiajclayne]

Hi there,

I hope you're doing well.

i read your post regarding SasuSaku and Sarada as a family and you stole the words right off my mouth.

I'd like to know your thoughts and opinions on Sasuke Retsiden because from what I can see, its only Jun Esaka (a mere light novel writer that writes non canon stuff) all over the internet being equally all over about her Sasuke Retsuden. I haven't seen any other light novel writer being more active about something non canon. Even kishimoto himself doesnt behave like this regarding his own work.

I'd like to also know about your opinions regarding Jun Esaka ATTEMPTING to remove or metaphorically kill Karin Uzumaki by making the main villain a Karin look alike and giving her sensory abilities to Sakura, which again, makes no sense. Does that woman hate Karin and SK so much? Is that woman so threatened by the very thought of SK as a couple that she had to incorporate a villain that looks like Karin Uzumaki down to a tee?

These are just my thoughts and speculations but I'm also really interested in knowing your side of the story.

Thanks for reading my long comment and i wish you a wonder day/afternoon/evening/night

Hi, @theuntamedangel! I appreciate the long comment! I hope you have a wonderful day/afternoon/evening/night, too!

Before I share my thoughts about Sasuke Retsuden, let me share that I did, unfortunately, have a sasusaku phase. I know. Shocker. The entire lore is here in case you're interested (promise it's relevant to my explanation).

I did hear about Sasuke Retsuden when I was still in college. Bits of information, specifically, about the chakra ring and from a perspective of someone who used to ship sasusaku casually, my initial reaction was okay good for them and I went on with my day. Note that I wasn't as heavily engaged in the Naruto fandom like I do now so for me to isn't active back then, hearing about Sasuke Retsuden, speaks volume on how it is over the internet that it even reached me.

I hate Sasuke Retsuden. It's badly written, it's OOC especially for OG Naruto characters, and the canon inaccuracies are more than enough to drive me into aneurysm.

Below this cut is my detailed thoughts about Sasuke Retsuden.

The villain looking like the male version of Karin caught me off guard. I don't know what the intentions behind the character design but I think they aimed for association as Jiji, one of the characters from this godforsaken novel, reminded me of Juugo.

I am not a sasukarin shipper but I do understand where the shippers are speaking from. I think they'll make a cool couple because Karin actually freaking cares about Sasuke when shit gets serious and outside of her "gag", she respects Sasuke's boundaries. Might be speaking out of the box but this novel in its existence was meant to be sasusaku-centric so the possibility of being threatened by all Sasuke-related ships, especially those making far more sense than SS, is high. I don't think Jun Esaka hates Karin. I would dare say that she picked a random character that could work as a direct contender to Sakura and unfortunately, she decided to scapegoat Karin. Moreover, the entire sensory ability shtick added to Sakura was uncalled for. I would go even further and say that Esaka's version of Sakura is what her stans hailed her to be--a superior version of [insert any Naruto's female character]. Even their pink haired kunoichi is incredibly OOC here and you expect me to take her seriously?

The funniest thing about Sasuke Retsuden is the way that they had to use SNS at first, specifically, Sasuke's mission is to find a cure for that chakra illness that Naruto alone suffers. Sure, this is SS centric but it all comes down to Sasuke and Sakura working together to find a cure for Naruto. Now, she could just write a novel about SS without using Naruto's "sickness" as some kind of a plot device, right? But no, she had to convince us somehow and an effective way to do that is literally Naruto and Sasuke.

The dinosaur. Don't even get me started. Even tailed beasts cannot fight against Sharingan to the point that canon graciously provided us evidence of both Madara and Obito controlling the Nine Tailed Beast. The very same Sharingan that made the higher ups of Konoha suspect the Uchiha clan as mastermind for that same incident. We're talking about the same dojutsu that manipulated the Fourth Mizukage. The canon inaccuracy throws me off the loop.

More inaccuracies. Suddenly Sasuke is an Earth and Ice Style user. Wow. Conveniently forgetting about Kakashi mentioning in Part 1 how Ice Style is a Kekkei Genkai that even Sharingan can't copy. As far as Naruto canon goes, Sasuke is a Fire and Lightning Style user. I don't consider Boruto as canon but even that animanga doesn't show any moment of Sasuke using Earth Style. It's insane that people claimed this as canon.

THIS DISTURBING INTERACTION. I did say that the OG Naruto characters are OOC in this shitshow novel and yes, unfortunately that includes Sakura. We've seen the way she react around Naruto's sexy ninjutsu antics. Unless objectification of women or the mere implication of it doesn't perturb her, then it says more about how Esaka portrayed her. I'd personally file a restraining order when a guy says he'd settle for my old, half smoked cigarette butts. I'm surprised that she didn't throw any snide remarks here.

WHO IS THIS SASUKE AND WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM. This panel made me laugh so hard because I feel like Esaka straight up ignored that Sasuke canonically spent years with his family before the Uchiha downfall happened. I don't think he'd be this clueless about how a married couple acts. Even in flashbacks, Sasuke was shown around his parents or Itachi, literally with his family. I think he knows well enough about married couples.

The ring part as well makes me cackle because Kurenai literally wears a ring in Shippuden. Trust me, Juugo-look-a-like, rings are used in Konoha by couples.

The Uchiha clan symbol takes me out because AREN'T YOU GOING UNDERCOVER IN THIS PRISON? WHY ARE YOU SHOWING THAT OFF?

The Chakra ring in question. Finding out the lore behind this further upset me and I am thankful that I no longer ship sasusaku. Show these panels out of context to someone with little to no exposure to canon and it would be romantic but if you know Narutoverse like the back of your hand, this novel served nothing. Seriously, the fact that Sasuke is incredibly OOC on this novel speak volumes. Imagine annihilating Sasuke's character to make SS work? Insanity.

Writing Edo Tensei with rose tinted glasses disgust me. That jutsu is straight up manipulating a dead body at your bidding. Tobirama shouldn't have invented that jutsu. Hinting that jutsu to be used to revive a loved one that passed away is vile and disgusting. The lack of attention to canon isn't a new thing for Esaka at this point.

Even this novel can't cover up the fact that Sakura doesn't know Sasuke well. If there's one thing that's consistent in the prequel, it was Naruto that gets into trouble. Sasuke doesn't use honorifics and he got away with it. His bluntness doesn't get him and everyone around him in trouble. Sasuke only began resorted to extremes when he was batshit blind and sinking into the unhinged depths of his hatred. Probably the only things that Sakura got correctly was Sasuke's kindness and his nonchalance about his looks but that's it. So the claim of knowing Sasuke inside and out is preposterous. The one who can say that is, guess who? Naruto.

Ending this long analysis with this panel because honestly, Ino is asking the questions for me. Unfortunately, despite being "married", their dynamic stayed the same. Sakura is still that same girl that has a crush on Sasuke, except she's in her 30s and Sasuke is still the same boy that rejected her date offers and the idea of being together with her, even reaching the point that he's away from her a lot.

I do apologize for going off to the point that I decided to pull a meta post about this. I do hope you're doing well and I appreciate the ask!

[gunkreads]

I haven't had a chance to read Absolution yet, but I did just finish Acceptance, the third book of the Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer, the other day.

Here's my review: Whew! Wow! Yowza! Holy fucking shit! Gosh golly!

Southern Reach is something special, that's for sure. I understand why it's been often placed in a genre called "The New Weird", though I can't claim to have had any experience with the Old Weird. It's fuckin' weird. I don't mean that in the sense that the events, settings, or characters in the story are weird (though they are); no, the technique is Weird.

I wrote a bit of my thoughts on Annihilation when I finished that book, and one thing I said there rang true for the next two books just as strongly: Vandermeer is fucking with you, the reader. Much of the story's plot hinges on subjective experiences of reality based on varying assemblages of information; a person with facts #1-#55 sees an entirely different world than someone with facts #2-#56. This is the general nature of Area X, the focal setting of the story, and informs every character relationship on the page.

There's too much to say about this story and too little of it can be explained without heavy spoilers, so I'm going to keep this short and just discuss the part of Southern Reach that made me rethink what a story is.

I've never seen another author write a book that seems so completely bulletproof in its execution. Where many authors will allow events to follow a path, complete it, and turn around to go back the way they came, Vandermeer always loops them back to the core on a brand-new path. Every new avenue he explores is linked to the ever-growing whole of the story, which ends up defined more by the connections between things than the things themselves.

This is evidenced most clearly by the fact that, a few dozen pages from the end of Acceptance, Vandermeer explains--explicitly and in full--exactly what has been happening the entire time. He does this in the space of a single paragraph, and it offers no closure, progress, or revelations to any characters. In fact, none of them even care. Their own stories and lives are too dense to have any single element at their core, so the realization of what Area X truly is means literally nothing to them. Vandermeer is fucking with you.

One other thing Vandermeer does that flies head and shoulders above other things I've read is set characters on differing levels of narrative "realness". Some of you might remember my deranged posts about Gawyn from Wheel of Time several years ago; Vandermeer does the thing I was joking about there, but he pulls it off while playing it straight.

Control, the perspective character of Authority, is a great example of this. If you picked a random page from Authority or Acceptance that mentions his name, you might find that he's being presented as a protagonist, a hero, an antihero, a villain, a reader self-insert, an author self-insert, a simplified archetype, a literary device, or even being reduced to just a word. His nickname, Control, sounds silly. Because Vandermeer is fucking with you.

Because of all this, I can confidently say that if it's possible to read Southern Reach too closely, I'm not capable of it. With the conflicting perspectives and web of misunderstandings, the coherence of every element into an interwoven whole, and the constantly-shifting levels of "realness" each of the story's elements exhibit, I think the story approaches or reaches a critical mass of informational density. Vandermeer amplifies the significance of all his facts by using the links between the facts as a megaphone; he demands that you interrogate the relationship between every pair of ideas and rewards your effort every single time.

I'm going to be realizing shit about these books for the rest of my fucking life, mark my words. If you like Thinkin' Books, I cannot recommend these enough. If you like Craft Books--ones that explore the potential of the medium of the written word--I cannot recommend these enough. Let Jeff Vandermeer fuck with you.

[lostboiking30]

Random thought about Korra’s responsibility ending the Avatar cycle.

IT WASN’T HER FAULT. She was a teenager that was manipulated by a family member who was also a world leader and was also apart of a secret terrorist group that she trusted not to lead her astray. He used her to start a civil war and open the spirit portals so HE could release 10,000 years of darkness on the world. Once Korra realized her role in the plan she tried to correct the actions that led to the conflict that Unalaq had planned probably for years. We saw how conniving he was when he convinced his father-The Chief of the Northern Water Tribe- to exile Tonraq for treason.

Let’s also not forget that Unalaq and Vaatu tried to kill Korra by crushing her in the ground and that they literally ripped Raava from Korra’s body THROUGH HER MOUTH (which was probably excruciatingly painful) and beat Raava within an inch of her life while Korra could do nothing except watch because the avatar spirit was forcibly removed from her.

Korra didn’t end the Avatar cycle. Unavaatu did. And even though when I first watched Book 2 I disliked it as much as everyone else, I guess I just realized today why it grinds my gears. (Also I appreciate book 2 more than I did when it first aired)

Saying it’s Korra’s fault that the avatar cycle ended is vicious victim blaming especially when you consider that only months before this fight she tried to end her life because Amon took her bending.

All of Korra’s villains stole pieces of her identity and essence which is why no matter how cool conceptually her villains are, I will never say I like them or support them. The emotional scars they all left Korra broke her. So for anyone to say that it was her fault is not only wrong, it’s cruel.

Especially since Korra *DID* blame herself for every perceived failure she had including the ending of the avatar cycle.

Losing the Avatar cycle wasn’t shown in a positive light. It was grieved and situated as a plot device to start over because just like in real life, sometimes we lose everything and have to move forward with whatever pieces we have and forge our own way.

The fandom is so ridiculous about Korra and the reasons they don’t like her. Especially since the main reason people don’t like her is because she isn’t Aang.

[astrologysaysno]

Brighter Days Ahead: SVSSS Edition

I'm annoyed that SVSSS doesn't have more songfics. I know the audience isn't really inclined to it, but I want one. It's a personal greed.

So I propose the idea of Eternal Sunshine Deluxe: Brighter Days Ahead (Scum Villain Edition)

I want an Airplane level Plot Device to inflict a random affliction that forces six random SVSSS characters to sing the deluxe tracks of Eternal Sunshine.

Now, for those who aren't into the pop scene, Eternal Sunshine has six tracks in the deluxe album:

▪︎Intro (End of the World) - Extended

▪︎Twilight Zone

▪︎Warm

▪︎Dandelion

▪︎Past Life

▪︎Hampstead

All of which are very good, very fun, but also very devastating to me.

The plot follows each of these characters singing their hearts out on a stage for the people to witness. (Random requirements that Airplane added for seduction or something. There's something attractive about talent I guess.)

Here are my proposed singers:

Track 1 - Intro (End of the World) Extended

Sung by Shen Qingqiu (Shen Yuan & Shen Jiu)

"And me I am the bad guy cause I already grieved you when you started to realize,

I do need you, I did. I wish I could unneed you, So I did."

Intro (End of the World) is a song that was on the original version of Eternal Sunshine before receiving an extended version with the addition of the deluxe tracks. I would like to envision it as a two-part song.

The first part is the original half of Intro, sung by Shen Yuan. It's hopeful, pondering, and tentative. The second part of Intro, the new addition, would be sung by Shen Jiu. It's realizing and painful, a reflection of the past.

I wanted it to be both of them cause I feel like they both embody this song in different ways.

I don't know how it will occur, but my vision is that Shen Jiu's ghost appears after Shen Qingqiu does the original intro like an apparition of musical desolation.

Track 2: Twilight Zone

Sung by Tianlang-Jun

"Not that I miss you, I don't. Sometimes, I just can't believe you happened."

Truly, a curveball. It's a strange choice I concede, but I feel like it is fitting.

I'm not sure if Tianlang-Jun ever got closure about Su Xiyan. Whenever I learned the lore about him, nothing seemed to come up about what happened that day, the day he was sealed and when Su Xiyan died.

I feel like there's still this lingering sense about Su Xiyan with him, one that ponders what was that?

The feeling of having this person in your life, losing them, and dealing with the wreckage. I can see Tianlang-jun in that.

Track 3: Warm

Sung by Luo Binghe

"Cause I'm cool on my own, but it's warmer in your arms."

To be honest, Warm is a hard track to pair, but I feel like Luo Binghe would do well with it.

Luo Binghe has dealt a life of loneliness for most of his childhood. There weren't a lot of people who he could call close, and so I imagine he had to learn to get used to that loneliness.

But after Shen Qingqiu (SY), he wants to choose that warmth. He wants to be held within Shen Qingqiu's arms and feel the cozy warmth of love.

Track 4: Dandelion

Sung by Liu Qingge

"You can get anything you'd like. I'll be your dandelion"

I find this pick for this track an absolute disaster and yet perfectly sensible.

It has that energy of Liu Qingge, of unsubtle devotion and willingness to do whatever they need to bring joy to the people they love most. He'll be your wishmaker, the man who will give you the world if you've captured his heart.

I also call this a disaster pick cause if you've heard the song, it's overtly very horny, very intimate. With all of the information I absorbed about Liu Qingge being a prude, it would be so funny to see him sing about something so risqué.

Track 5: Past Life

Sung by Shang Qinghua

"Always wondered what would happen if I let you lose me.

Always wondered what would happen if I let myself be more."

Past Life is such a Shang Qinghua song to me.

I feel like these would be thoughts that Shang Qinghua might have had. About the day he nearly took that rock and smashed Mobei-jun's head in and freed himself from his death sentence through that method.

I would imagine he would ponder about what would happen if he just left. Mobei-jun probably wouldn't find him, Shang Qinghua is capable of that. He could just disappear off the face of the earth. If he was more selfish, maybe he wouldn't have been forced to suffer like that.

Track 6: Hampstead

Sung by Yue Qingyuan

"I lost my heart at a pub in Hampstead, and I misplaced my mind in a good way.

Threw away my reputation but saved us more heartache, yes I know that seems fucked up and you're right."

As we come to the conclusion, I decide to pair this last song with Yue Qingyuan, yearner extraordinaire.

This entire sing feels like a reflection of the doomed yaoi that was QiJiu. Of posturing, of a past that haunts them both, but both refuse to open up first. It's devastating to think of them as this song. with the last line specifically, of a desire to just be with Shen Jiu, to a point where he might give up everything if he could go back to those days where they were still Xiao-Jiu and Qi-ge.

[Thank you for coming to my TedTalk, I will see you all whenever.]

[5-7-9]

I think I remember what my analysis was going to say before I forgot about it. This. This and the new characterization of Duke Thomas that wants to reinvent Duke by ignoring his past comic runs. It’s egregious in the comic leading up to the Outsiders with the Karma villain. The rest is fine but it’s really pushing this new insecurity the Signal has.

The conflict that Duke has with Karma is actually a repeat of what We Are Robin and Robin War already accomplished with vigilantism as symbols.

But with the twist of Duke being only known as “The new Batkid that still hasn’t been figured out yet” which is more of a meta textual writing statement to make considering the real life DC comic writers and executives seriously don’t know what to do with Duke’s character. I find it annoying every time Karma repeats themself over how they find Cass “beautiful violence” and Duke is “confused and a batkid” because it just sounds like the writer genuinely has no idea what else Duke and Cass are beyond that. Karma is supposed to be able to read minds and yet that’s it? I feel disappointed there wasn’t more. How does a telepath read a mind like Cass’s who doesn’t think in words often? Why didn’t it manipulate Duke’s feelings of idolization and inspiration way more?

It also doesn’t help that Cass and Duke are the only batkids well known enough as non-white characters. That is never addressed even though I think it seemed to be metaphorically represent a conversation about diversity and inclusion. Whether or not it was meant to be intentional (it seems unintentional), they essentially wrote Karma as an ignorant or racist sexist metaphor? Rhetoric such as “these woke SJWs keep trying to include minorities for diversity and I hate that!” is a thing that is talked about mainly in the political landscape of America. There’s a big conservative fanbase within the American Superhero community for some reason, so I don’t doubt that Karma is unintentionally representing that as a personification of those thoughts.

I guess it’s more of a Black Lightning story in the end, but I know that if the writer never wanted to add to Duke then they wouldn’t have done anything. Unless it was executive choice, then it’s more about how sad it is that even with good/okay additions to Duke, no one technically cares to follow through with Duke. Even if Duke is relegated to a forever side character, writers can still write memorable side characters. Duke would have more of an impact if writers included him as an active participant of a story that couldn’t be changed without him.

It’s harder for me to talk about Karma himself, such as being Markovian because I only know about Markovia from Young Justice’s show, but I realize it is Terra’s canon consistent origin/backstory which might’ve explained her lack of one in the Teen Titans show. Karma being related to Ras Al Ghul’s organization also makes me believe this is a mix of comics fan knowledge that I personally just do not understand. Plus the Blacklightning and K thing. Karma himself is just a plot device for everything else to happen. So i won’t talk about it beyond that. I just want Duke to have a good villain.

Duke gets a temporary fear of Karma which gives reason for Cass to bond with Duke by teaching him to not fear. Then Duke meets Shiva which gives Duke a reason to bond with Cass. All great basis to work from i think. I just question why Duke fears Karma so much. It kinda felt random? I wish Duke’s insecurities were better built up, it doesn’t feel fleshed out or resolved despite everything. I especially find it a waste to not talk of idolization after establishing it. Actually, never-mind, I think Duke’s insecurities and resolution was properly set up, i think the problem was 1 part that was supposed to feel like a resolution. What exactly does Bruce say that relates/contributes back to Duke’s struggles????

I honestly don’t believe this scene helps Duke. This was a problem established for BATMAN. It was BATMAN that needed to believe his batfam didn’t make him weaker. The Batfam never had that mindset. They actively challenged that notion. This scene doesn’t further Duke’s character. This scene is for Bruce to confirm that he is proud of his batkids.

It’s especially damming because Duke’s character progression doesn’t happen because of Batman, but because of Cass. Like i said before, Cass teaches Duke fearlessness. That’s Duke’s arc. That is the scene for Duke. Duke eventually beats Karma in an underwhelming way, because Karma is really weak. Karma is so weak, the conflict should’ve went back to being outsmarted like it originally was, but whatever. Just another wasted potential plot that didn’t follow through. Still, happy for Duke and Cass progression.

Of course, I should mention how Duke manages to be better than Babs at getting Cassandra to think about separating from Batman and owning autonomy. The way Duke is so certain he knows Cass. The way Duke is so certain that the Cass he knows shouldn’t follow Batman. The way Cass can understand him why it’s better to go against Batman. It’s so different from Cass with Steph, who agrees with Batman that Steph’s way isn’t the best, and Cass with Babs who tried forcing Cass into another persona. Duke sees Cass as better than Batman, not equal to.

Not as important, but the metatext about choosing Duke’s theme colour to be yellow for daylight- very Doylist. That writer that reinvented Duke to be yellow for daylight, really? Just, really? Why?????????? The logic ain’t mathing. I’m so judgmental about when colourists make yellow look so ugly. You can’t tarnish my favorite colour just because you don’t know how to not flash people. I wouldn’t be surprised if behind the scenes artists also think Duke’s design is strange. It does remind me of power rangers tho.

[onlyforosblaine]

Aunt Phoebe who?

I thought it was a basic caveat when making a multi season TV show that the last season is for tying loose ends. That's when the characters you've spent five seasons and 7 years fleshing out get the ending they deserve.

Instead what the writers chose to give us this season is a completely new Mayday/revolution ready aunt that had me scratching my head wondering if i missed her in my million re-watches. No backstory, nothing. Literally a useless plot device.

I'm supposed to believe we had a secret aunt in hiding all this time who's just lying in wait for what? A shotgun commander wedding?!

You could have made the effort to flesh out roles for allies you've built up over five seasons (hint hint- it's Nick). People we care about. People who's stories we know. Clearly sneaking June and Moira across the border did not require an aunt to open car doors. They've been in and out of Gilead the past few episodes like it's cake walk.

Why introduce new characters now at the tail end? You could easily have had Nick confide in June that he doesn't want to do this anymore and have her convince him to join the revolution more actively. Then go for wedding massacre. Or maybe have Rita call him out for not being able to get her family out making him question his actions as they pertain only to June. Or even Janine could have been made a pressure point to get him to turn. Instead Janine is brutalised, Nick is made a villain and some random aunt is telling us - LET THE REVOLUTION BEGIN. Come on.

🤡🤡

[kingwuko]

okay i have to know how you feel about the “reveal” in the comic that naoki was targeted by the sheriff. personally i’m not a huge fan of how that recontextualizes mako and bolin’s story, but at the end of the day it doesn’t actually CHANGE anything so i can live with it

also what are your opinions on hisa? i liked her a lot, and i was honestly wondering if she and mako were going to have something between them just because of the comic hinting at mako getting a date. but i was pleasantly surprised they didn’t go that route!

Okay so on the one hand, I love how ordinary the boys are-they're just a couple of second generation republic city boys who grew up poor. The random nature of it makes everything about the boys seem more 'normal', as opposed to the big grand destiny driven back stories and plot devices that push most of the other characters' stories forward.

On the other hand, the way in which Naoki was targeted doesn't feel big or grand or destiny driven. It's not wrapped up in world politics. It's part of a repressive government story, but on a significantly smaller scale than most of the other political story lines we see. Her being targeted is more about a grudge than it is about political machinations with wider reaching implications.

I liked Hisa just fine! One of my biggest fears with this comic is that they would shoehorn in a romance for Mako. But aside from Bolin's comment about it, there really was nothing between them!

We did briefly discuss this in my discord server, (which, if anyone wants to join in please do so!) that Hisa actually seemed to have more chemistry with Bolin than Mako! I'm generally a Bopal shipper because they're canon but Bolin can date Hisa and they can raise the three kids together that's fine with me.

One thing that would have been cool to explore further is Mako's identity as a police officer against Hisa's obvious mistrust of law enforcement given that law enforcement on her island abused their power and oppressed the people. Lok is full of copaganda but I definitely thought having a sheriff as the villain and a character who dislikes the police was an interesting choice that could have been explored more. But it was a pretty short comic and they crammed a lot in there so maybe I'm asking too much

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

I wholeheartedly agree with you that all signs point toward season 6 a soft reboot of the show. there’s this general consensus that “of course they’re going to deal with everything that happened in the season 5 finale” but i can’t help but get the terrible underlying feeling that a lot of the original plot of the show is going to be considered collateral damage to the writers rather than a plot device by the end of the season.

Fandom is expecting this to turn into an angst fanfiction… but ultimately, it’s a show for 8 year olds.

I’m also entirely disinterested in Lila being the main villain, because the “all 14 year old girls hate each other and come up with schemes to rip each other down” is now taking center stage instead of being reserved for a B-Plot. It’s just a big bucket of “cool, I don’t care.”

(Post this ask was in response to)

Never say never, but I will be genuinely shocked if we get something even remotely close to a satisfying resolution to anything that has happened in the show so far. The writers spent seasons four and five establishing a clear pattern of ignoring big plot points or resolving them in the least satisfying way possible. I don't know why that would change now. The last "satisfying" thing the show gave us was Chloe's "damnation arc." While I will always disagree with calling it that, at least we got to see her setup to fall and then fall. Everything after that has been a lackluster nothing burger.

The temp hero identity reveals at the end of season three might as well have not happened

Chat Blanc apparently has no impact on Marinette (but somehow does on Adrien?)

Alya getting her Miraculous full time led to nothing

Marinette being the guardian didn't change anything

Lila's lying disease confession meant nothing and she still had all her power

Season four could have been cut and season three could have just ended with Gabriel escaping with the miracle box since he already had it and only lost it because of a random power we'd ever seen before (naming a new guardian)

The list goes on and on. I don't expect perfection from any fictional work. Everyone has a bad book or a bad episode or even a bad season, but this goes beyond a minor blip in the road. Seasons four and five retroactively ruined many elements of the earlier seasons by making it clear that there was no master plan for those moments. Or if there was, it's an impressively bad one.

I also fully agree on the Lila point. I cannot stand her or the way her character influences the rest of the cast. Her episodes feel tailor-made to drive me up a wall and I have no interest in watching a show where that writing is the new standard. I'm fascinated that people expect her writing to somehow improve now that she's the big bad after multiple seasons where she consistently drags the show to new lows.

This is a formula show for little kids. Every plot and plan will have to be established, carried out, and resolved in 20 minutes. That makes it impossible to write her as anything more than a petty brat. Just look at how poorly Gabriel came across! He had the power of being a highly-influential adult and still ended up looking completely incompetent most of the time. How is Lila supposed to be better? My plan is still to not watch, but please let me know if the show somehow surprises us all and gets good.