beepboprobotsnot

[beepboprobotsnot]

cherish

what would you do if there was a frog

[beepboprobotsnot]

What a wonderful world to live in. I might just kidnap a small town and force them to live in it with me.

Maybe I will rewatch the first 7 episodes of Wandavision (and then pretend we live in a world where the ending of her story was treated with even a modicum of respect and care and consistency)

[beepboprobotsnot]

I have discovered that I do my best writing in the morning. And am livid to be robbed of that extra little bit of procrastination.

i do all my best writing at night. i feel so free between the hours of 10pm-4am… pls tell me yall feel like this too…

[beepboprobotsnot]

Going through my (unsorted) writing notes and found the sentence:

“The seasons turning out of time as Spring runs straight to Winter.”

Wut. What does that mean? Like it slaps, but why did I write that? What’s it about? Where’s it supposed to go?

[beepboprobotsnot]

So here's the thing. He's not wrong. Done haphazardly, or just once or twice in an entire massive story, it's bizzare. Like Brennan says, it's tragic, because it means that NO ONE else was loved that way.

But done well, done with intentionality and planning, then it can be incredible: to have love, or more specifically (and more quantifiably) sacrifice, be a source of great power.

In the climax of the novel Bone Gap, (which I highly recommend, so maybe skip this paragraph if you care about spoilers), there's a moment that demonstrates this idea perfectly. One of the main characters, Rosa, spends almost the entirety of the book kidnapped the the Faerie known as The Scarecrow, because he thinks she is the most beautiful woman in the world, and he wants her to be his. In the climax, she asks the question "So you wouldn't want me if I weren't beautiful?" to which he answers no, obviously. And, misunderstanding the motive behind the question, he begins monologuing about how women are so vain, only to be interrupted as Rosa takes a knife and dramatically scars her own face with it. The Scarecrow briefly panics, "why would you do that?" before quickly composing himself that "that was a good try, but unlimited magic power, remember? (these are all paraphrases, btw.) Let me just fix tha- let me just fix- let me just- WHY CAN'T I FIX IT?!" No one else in the room is knowledgable enough about magic to answer his question, but to someone familiar with magic and faeries, the answer is quiet clear. Rosa has made a sacrifice, and there is no magic on earth or in Faerie that can undo a sacrifice.

So that would be the general idea. A selfless sacrifice has power. One way this work is if someone willingly and knowingly sacrifices themselves for another, then every last drop of magic in their body becomes devoted to protecting that someone. And there are some caveats on this to keep it from being "apparently no-one else in this setting was loved." First off, in a world where magic is more rare, most people wouldn't have a ton of magic power to donate to their loved one. It makes sense that a mentor figure sacrificing themselves for the protagonist would have more noticable magical impact than the death of Side Character #3's consigned-to-backstory mother. And the exact details of what "devoted to protecting" means would be a little bit vague.

Plus, those words "willingly and knowingly" are doing a lot of heavy lifting. Even in fiction, most characters don't die doing something that they know will result in their death (maybe one or two tragic moments in a story). And since those are the only deaths that count, it makes sense that most people wouldn't have that sort of magic protection around them. It's not that no-one else is loved, it's that most people aren't put in positions where they have to sacrifice themselves for someone else (even if they would).

And this wouldn't really work in a hard-magic setting, something like Stormlight where the rules are very clear, or in Harry Potter, where the characters are supposed to know the ins-and-outs of the magic system (even if JK Rowling herself is clearly flying by the seat of her pants), because then it's exploitable. It needs a setting where magic remains mysterious, and is almost sentient, where it recognizes the weight of a sacrifice and chooses to honor it.

So yeah, Brennan's right. This trope is kinda weird and problematic. But we can fix it, and that makes it something incredible.

Question: What is the greatest magic of all? Answer: Friendship, right? [B]: The greatest magic of all is not friendship, it's chronomancy, the ability to control and warp time. If friendship were the greatest magic, look, it's a pet peeve of mine (...)

DUNGEON MASTER BRENNAN LEE MULLIGAN ANSWERS DnD QUESTIONS (TECH SUPPORT | WIRED)

[beepboprobotsnot]

Is this something from the Silmarillion? Because otherwise, the only moment I can think of is her big "Instead of a Dark Lord you would have Queen" speech. And the issue you've described isn't really what's happening there.

Her desire to preserve Lothlorien isn't the issue. Obviously, wanting to protect her kingdom is good, even if the fact that the world is changing means that she cannot achieve this. Her desire isn't necessarily "bad" or "something she needs to let go of", but it is an avenue for temptation. In her big speech about what she'd do with the Ring, it isn't her goals that are the issue, it is that she would need to use the Ring (pretty much analogous to Evil) to get there. And the text doesn't treat her like she needs to be humbled, because she is already humble enough to resist that temptation, to know that Evil cannot be used to create good.

Galadriel's desire to protect her kingdom being a source of Ring-based temptation does not mean the text frowns upon it, unless we are also to say that Gandalf's desire to do good and protect the weak is painted as a bad thing, because that's what he says the Ring would use to tempt him.

One problem I have with Tolkien’s approach toward Galadriel's characterization is that her desire for her own kingdom to rule is painted as a bad thing that she needs to let go of. She’s “proud” for wanting that kind of position and needs to be humbled enough to realize she shouldn’t. But the text never depicts Fingolfin or Fingon or Turgon or Finrod or Aragorn - or any of the male characters who become rulers - as wrong for having the same aspiration.

[beepboprobotsnot]

failure in fiction is really important to me, in almost all its forms: showing a failure that will, ultimately, lead to a victory, or a failure that characters have to live past and understand, or even a failure that can't be endured, but in which everyone did the right thing, will always get me emotionally.

but even past this personal, thematic resonance, i think it's important as the other half of the positive morality of, say, a fairy tale or a fable. I don't like to talk about fiction as self-improvement - i think it can do that, but it's not its primary function. but negative examples, especially if the failure is moral, ask the reader to examine the situation past "was it good or bad," and interrogate themselves and their society.

the fairy tale says "be nice to strangers" or "don't go out in the woods", but the social novel asks "did Becky Sharpe or Emma Bovary have other options than to behave as she did?" and "did we create these failures as a society?" a story about a moral failure asks "why did this failure happen, and what can you do to be better in this situation?"

the function of fictional failure, then, is sacrificial: these characters fail, and we watch them fail, so that we can be better.

[beepboprobotsnot]

Mystery fiction can't really exist without commenting on apparatuses of power. Seeing how authors square justice with the institutions enforcing it is very interesting.

You don't like cops, so you make the detective a private detective, or a superhero. But at the end, they still hand the murderer over to the same system of prosecutors and judges and prisons.

[beepboprobotsnot]

A little under a year ago, I stumbled across the anime "Frieren: Beyond Journey's End" and it very quickly became a contender for my favorite anime of all time. It is beautiful, and cozy, and packed with meaning in every episode, and I love it. So, since the depth of Frieren's story could use some more attention, I've decided to do a little something that I'm going to call "Frieren-bruary." Every day for the month of February, I'm going to talk about one episode of Frieren, of which there are exactly twenty-eight, so it works out quite well. So, without further ado:

Episode Twenty-Eight: It Would Be Embarrasing When We Met Again

Well, we made it. The final episode. And I want to scream, because there are so many different things I want to talk about about it. But, there's only one theme that is appropriate for being the final topic, and it's the one at the very end of the episode.

When Frieren's party is on their way out of Auberst, Kanne and Lawine just manage to catch them to say goodbye. And despite how much they've all just been through together for the Mage Exam, it's a rather short goodbye, with Frieren keeping it to a "See you later." Immediately afterwards, Fern and Stark point out that these short goodbyes seem to be a habit of Frieren's as she did the same with Kraft, and even Sein, with whom they traveled for months.

Like many things, it's a habit that Frieren picked up from Himmel, but as Eisen tells him, "it's like a break in character." So much of Frieren's character, and the show as a whole, is about valuing the time you have with others, so a quick, short goodbye seems to go against that. Better to have the fullest goodbye you can, just in case it's the final one.

But, Himmel would counter, if you don't know if a farewell is final, why assume? Why not hope that "we'll run into each other again if we continue traveling." Himmel's being a bit superstitious, practically willing it to not be a final parting through not giving a goodbye worthy of a final parting. But still, the goal of this superstition is an admirable one: hope. And it's a hope that Frieren absolutely needs to hold onto, because the entire point of her journey is the hope that her last goodbye with Himmel was not final.

And that's the final episode. Thank you so much to everyone who has liked, reblogged, or even commented, the little tumblr notifications absolutely gave me dopamine. I've loved doing this little project, diving even deeper into my love and appreciation for this show. The only thing is that I expected this series to sate my desire to talk about Frieren, it has instead only whet my appetite, so expect more Frieren content from me in the future. On that note, I suppose I should keep this goodbye brief, because it would be embarrasing when we meet again.

Until next time,

BBRS

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[beepboprobotsnot]

A little under a year ago, I stumbled across the anime "Frieren: Beyond Journey's End" and it very quickly became a contender for my favorite anime of all time. It is beautiful, and cozy, and packed with meaning in every episode, and I love it. So, since the depth of Frieren's story could use some more attention, I've decided to do a little something that I'm going to call "Frieren-bruary." Every day for the month of February, I'm going to talk about one episode of Frieren, of which there are exactly twenty-eight, so it works out quite well. So, without further ado:

Episode Twenty-Seven: An Era of Humans

Today's episode features the culmination of one of the longest themes/motifs in the entire season: the spell that makes a field of flowers. From the very beginning of the show, this spell has represented a love of magic for its own sake, not as a means to any particular end. In episode two, it is this spell that Frieren uses to convince Fern that she does in fact love magic, and to cultivate that love. It's also the first spell that we see Himmel praise Frieren for (Despite the fact that they are on a quest to defeat the Demon King, none of the spells that Himmel praises Frieren for would be helpful for that quest). Flamme also says that it is her favorite spell, and the one that made her fall in love with magic in the first place.

I've talked before about how refreshing it is to see a magic system where the focus doesn't seem to be entirely around combat, where the main characters all focus on loving magic outside of its capacity for violence. But, as she does for so many other things, Serie stands against this theme. When Frieren tells Serie that her favorite spell is the flower one, Serie responds "How truly useless." Magic is a tool to her, a means to an end (that end typically being power) and so she dismisses any spell that doesn't serve that end as being useless, refusing to acknowledge that it has any merit in itself (though in this, as in so many other things, she is a hypocrite).

Frieren, as usual, doesn't feel the need to defend her favorite spell, but the story vindicates her choice regardless. Because as it turns out, the day Himmel recruited Frieren to his party was not the first day they met. When Himmel was a child, he got lost in the woods, until Frieren stumbled across him and pointed him in the right direction. She was her usual cold self at first, until she realized that he was a scared child and did the only thing she could think of to comfort him: create a field of flowers. Though Frieren didn't remember the interaction, Himmel never forgot. "For the first time in my life, I thought magic was beautiful." And that interaction is why Himmel sought out Frieren to have her join his party, choosing "that kind elf lady with the flowers" over the strongest mages the capital had to offer. So in a way, that silly, useless spell (accompanied by a small, insignificant act of kindness), ended up saving the world.

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[beepboprobotsnot]

A little under a year ago, I stumbled across the anime "Frieren: Beyond Journey's End" and it very quickly became a contender for my favorite anime of all time. It is beautiful, and cozy, and packed with meaning in every episode, and I love it. So, since the depth of Frieren's story could use some more attention, I've decided to do a little something that I'm going to call "Frieren-bruary." Every day for the month of February, I'm going to talk about one episode of Frieren, of which there are exactly twenty-eight, so it works out quite well. So, without further ado:

Episode Twenty-Six: The Height of Magic

I'm going to cheat a bit today, and talk about a theme that's between these two episodes, namely Frieren's absolute faith, trust and pride in her apprentice.

The moment that I first noticed this (at least in regards to the Clone Frieren fight), is at the very beginning of last episode, when everyone is strategizing ways to beat the Clone Frieren, and Fern says that she may be able to kill Frieren, to which her master's response is "Oh? Splendid." There isn't a hint of concern that her apprentice has grown powerful enough to challenge her, just pride and excitement over how far she's come.

Throughout the show, Frieren's always had a high view of Fern's skills, higher than Fern herself. It's why she didn't want to take the First-Class Mage Exam in the first place, because she knew that Fern could pass without her help. (And had there been no Clone Frieren to deal with, she could have). But one moment in the strategy meeting that really highlights her belief in Fern's skills is when she tells everyone "If we all entered the battle at once, our victory would be nearly guaranteed, but most of us would die in the process." In other words, she doesn't want everyone to join the fight with her, because she doesn't trust them not to die. She does, however, trust Fern.

And that trust isn't just directed toward Fern's survival, she also trusts Fern to finish the job, to the point that she's willing to risk her own life to give Fern the opening she needs to attack. "If you're sure you can win, I will create the opening." As long as Fern believes she can do it, Frieren believes in her too.

Finally, there's the final reason that Frieren gives for her confidence in Fern. "Because I underestimate you." It's a bit of a paradoxical statement, but it's one that actually makes sense if you think about it long enough. Frieren mentioned in a previous episode that she has a hard time not thinking of Fern as a child, because it was just yesterday in Frieren's eyes that she was. Frieren sometimes forgets just how powerful Fern has become, but she's aware of that, so she's willing to trust Fern's own claims of her power.

I don't super have a central point in all these observations, except to say that the dynamic between Fern and Frieren, especially in the lead-up to the Clone Frieren fight, has been perfectly sweet and wholesome.

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[beepboprobotsnot]

A little under a year ago, I stumbled across the anime "Frieren: Beyond Journey's End" and it very quickly became a contender for my favorite anime of all time. It is beautiful, and cozy, and packed with meaning in every episode, and I love it. So, since the depth of Frieren's story could use some more attention, I've decided to do a little something that I'm going to call "Frieren-bruary." Every day for the month of February, I'm going to talk about one episode of Frieren, of which there are exactly twenty-eight, so it works out quite well. So, without further ado:

Twenty-Five: A Fatal Vulnerability

When it rains, it pours. Despite this episode being 40% strategy meeting and 40% flashback, I have so much to talk about, and having to just pick one is rough (especially since I have so few episodes left).

So, since today was one of the most important Serie conversations (and I anticipate the other one being upstaged), I'll talk about that.

The flahsback starts with Frieren delivering the news of Flamme's death to Serie, who seems largely untroubled, seemingly just realizing that, since fifty years has passed since they last met, it makes sense that the human girl has died of old age. Then Frieren explains her master's last wish to Serie, that Serie help spread magic to the masses, and Serie tears Flamme's will to pieces, saying that that isn't the future she wants.

Immediately, this sets up a contrast between our two elves. Serie believes that "Magic should be revered and respected." It should be powerful, useful, and reserved for those who have a talent for it. Frieren, on the other hand, is obsessed with folk magic, which is used by common people for simple and often incredibly niche tasks, essentially the opposite of everything Serie stands for.

This isn't the only parallel between the two, of course. Both are immortal elves living in a world of mortal humans, forced to deal with those around them dying in the blink of an eye. But while Frieren losing Himmel was a life-changing moment, prompting her to care more deeply and intentionally about the humans around her, Serie does everything in her power to close herself off from humanity, even Flamme, who she almost exclusively refers to as "the apprentice I took on a whim." Even upon hearing the news of Flamme's death, she does everything in her power to deny the fact that she cared about her.

Despite all of this, what saves Serie as a character is, ironically, that she is also a hypocrite. Because despite her insistence that Flamme didn't matter to her, she asks Frieren to stay with her a moment, because she needs a moment to reminesce about the girl she raised, and Frieren is the only one who might understand her pain. And Serie's memories of Flamme are just as crystal clear as Frieren's memories of Himmel, showing just how important that time was to her, even if she denies it. And even if she was a thousand years late, she did eventually comply with her apprentice's final request, forming the Continental Magic Association to spread magic throughout the continent.

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[beepboprobotsnot]

A little under a year ago, I stumbled across the anime "Frieren: Beyond Journey's End" and it very quickly became a contender for my favorite anime of all time. It is beautiful, and cozy, and packed with meaning in every episode, and I love it. So, since the depth of Frieren's story could use some more attention, I've decided to do a little something that I'm going to call "Frieren-bruary." Every day for the month of February, I'm going to talk about one episode of Frieren, of which there are exactly twenty-eight, so it works out quite well. So, without further ado:

Episode Twenty-Four: Perfect Replicas

Today was something of a transitional episode, raising the stakes and planting strategy rather than delivering on any particular themes. So, this is as good a chance as I'm going to get to talk a bit about Ubel.

First things first, her name. Like many characters in Frieren, Ubel's name is just a German word. In her case, it means "Evil". And given that our first introduction to the character is her trying to lure some bandits into a fight so that she has an excuse to eviserate them, the name fits.

But with Ubel being set up as "Evil", I started to wonder what made her different from the other Evils of Frieren. Namely, the demons. Fortunately, it wasn't hard to figure out, because the key difference is at the heart of Ubel's character: empathy. She explains that if she empathizes with someone, she can use their spells. And while this is a rather twisted definition of empathy, we are told time and time again that empathy and understanding between people and demons is impossible, so even this little bit is a massive difference.

The reason I bring all this up for today's episode, is because we get to see that she has, in fact, been successful in her empathizing. The first way, of course, is that she's able to use Wirbel's Sorganiel, proving that some sort of connection has been made between the two of them. But the second, and more interesting, way is that she's able to understand Land and plan around his character even as he refuses to communicate. When she goes off to fight her clone, despite framing it like a heroic sacrifice, she knows she isn't really in much danger, Land will reveal himself to sve up, because "you don't want to be the reason anyone dies, correct?"

There's a trope that I love where Evil and evil characters are incapable of understanding good, or that any actions can truly come from a place of selflessness. Ubel doesn't do that. And while her name may be Evil, and she clearly has no real regard for human life, that little spark of understanding is what keeps her from joining the Pure Evil of Frieren's world.

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[beepboprobotsnot]

A little under a year ago, I stumbled across the anime "Frieren: Beyond Journey's End" and it very quickly became a contender for my favorite anime of all time. It is beautiful, and cozy, and packed with meaning in every episode, and I love it. So, since the depth of Frieren's story could use some more attention, I've decided to do a little something that I'm going to call "Frieren-bruary." Every day for the month of February, I'm going to talk about one episode of Frieren, of which there are exactly twenty-eight, so it works out quite well. So, without further ado:

Episode Twenty-Three: Conquering the Labyrinth

Two days ago, I mentioned off-handedly that Fern doesn't seem to have any sort of motivation or goal in travelling with Frieren, and sure enough, in today's episode, there's a whole conversation about just that.

Because the thing is, Fern is a prodigy of magic, a fact that will only become more clear in the coming episodes. But of course, she isn't just naturally gifted, she also worked incredibly hard, training non-stop for a majority of her childhood to become a "proper mage."

Sense recognizes all of this, but it doesn't make sense to her, because Fern doesn't seem to have a spark of ambition inside of her, and, like Serie before her, she assumes that that would be necessary to give her the determination to reach the heights that she has.

In response to that, Fern mostly agrees. She says that her determination to become a mage was to repay a debt, and that now that she's achieved that, "I must've used up all my passion and determination then." Except, then Sense asks what motivates Fern to collect magic alongside Frieren, to which she answers "I think I continue searching for magic because I like seeing her happy."

Despite Fern drawing a contrast between these two motivations, they are actually quite similar. Her early determination was for Heiter's sake, and her current motivation is for Frieren's. And the show is quite fond of small personal motivations like these, rather than grand ambitions. Because while they might seem small and petty, and like they will never amount to much, Fern's results speak for themselves. And they are also far more healthy, far less likely to become all-consuming than grand ambitions, to the point that, to a casual observer, they can be missed entirely.

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[beepboprobotsnot]

can’t explain why but good children’s fantasy is usually closer in essence to good adult fantasy than good YA fantasy is to good adult fantasy. the best children’s fantasy reads like the best adult fantasy, and vice versa.

[beepboprobotsnot]

A little under a year ago, I stumbled across the anime "Frieren: Beyond Journey's End" and it very quickly became a contender for my favorite anime of all time. It is beautiful, and cozy, and packed with meaning in every episode, and I love it. So, since the depth of Frieren's story could use some more attention, I've decided to do a little something that I'm going to call "Frieren-bruary." Every day for the month of February, I'm going to talk about one episode of Frieren, of which there are exactly twenty-eight, so it works out quite well. So, without further ado:

Episode Twenty-Two: Future Enemies

This episode was adorable, full of a bunch of sweet and meaningful moments (like Himmel adding himself to the "I'm actually being heroic for me" gang), but the moment that I want to talk about is when Frieren's party goes to the restaurant Bell, because, while short, it ties into some pretty big themes.

Frieren visits this restaurant twice, once in the present, and once eighty years ago with the Hero's Party. In the past, Frieren explains her massive portion by saying that, when faced with good food, she needs to eat up, because "there are many flavors I've never been able to experience again." The chef brags that his flavors will never disappear, to which Frieren replies that "All chefs say that. Then they try to leave their mark by changes past dishes." One of Frieren's biggest struggles is that she truly desires permanence, and it frustrates her a great deal that, despite how much people try to boast and claim otherwise, nothing actually lasts forever.

Recognizing Frieren's point, Himmel tries to propose an alternative. "If that happens, we can simply find more delicious flavors." He tells Frieren to look forward, that even though some of the best flavors she tasted may be gone, there may yet be even better flavors yet to find.

The chef, of course, is having none of this, and insists that his flavors are "the best" and that for the sake of the Hero's Party, "I will do what no chef has done before and take on time itself."

So Frieren is genuinely disappointed when she bites into her food and discovers that "despite all his talk, the flavors have changed." Permanence has once again eluded her. But her disappointment doesn't last long, as she adds "now I don't have to look for tastier flavors," because it turns out that the chef was also wrong about his flavors being the best, so they've gotten even better.

And while this is a small moment, it gets at the heart of what Frieren: Beyond Journey's End is about. Time moves on, everything changes, and nothing lasts forever, but that doesn't have to be a bad thing. It doesn't have to be a depressing truth, it can be a hopeful one instead. Because sometimes, when flavors (or more important things) change, they change for the better.

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[beepboprobotsnot]

Also, please remember that the war that Tolkien insisted that he was not inspired by, the "real war" mentioned in the quote above, was not World War One, it was World War TWO. Given when LotR came out, and given that it featured a war, people were quick to call it a World War TWO allegory, and Tolkien hated that in part because (especially after Hiroshima) there's no way to argue that we didn't use the Ring.

To be even more pedantic, I wouldn't even say that LotR was "About wwi". I would say it's about WAR. In general. And while Tolkien's experience in wwi shaped what war looked like to him, the reason its been such an enduring text is because the themes go beyond a specific war that occured in Europe in the 1910s

the way jrrt made lotr so much Not about wwi that it circled around to being about wwi again. what if just a regular guy mattered in the grand scale of things. what if the heroes didn't have to be warriors to vanquish evil. what if you could live in a hole in the ground but everything was warm and cozy. what if the boys returned home.