#AND THEY ALL MAKE SENSE WITH THE CHARACTERS AND HAVE LAYERS AND ARE NEVER CHEAPENED

[uneducated-author]

... Okay time for my honest, unbiased view on the bsd s5 ending.

It wasn't amazing.

A lot of it was! The final circumstance, with Fukuzawa utilising the one order and being burdened with the responsibility, that's incredibly well done. So is the way Fydor died (I made a whole post on how it worked thematically and how it perfectly utilised the strengths and disparate worldviews between Dazai and Fyodor) and the ending with Aya and Bram, and how Bram is utilised by Ranpo makes sense in an interesting way. So, the ending, and the new situation we find ourselves in is amazing, but it just... feels a little shallow.

First of all, Fukuchi. 'The great and powerful unbeatable villain is secretly on the good side/let's himself be defeated' isn't inherently a bad trope, but it needs a bit more time and buildup than we got. I feel like, after some of the best fights in the series with Amenogozen, and how clever and tactical his techniques were, the final fight seemed a little like he'd been written into a corner. It's a good fight ideologically, but we've seen Fukuchi win without his sword before (Tachihara) and it just, falls a little flat that he just gives up that fast.

Same with Dostoyevsky! We never even figure out his ability, and he dies by being stabbed by a vampire and blown up? Thematically sound, but just so anticlimactic. And I can't help but wonder, why didn't Chuuya just manipulate a bullet into the back of his head? It would have been much easier.

In fact, the whole prison break arc is now a little less impressive on a rewatch. When you rewatch the Moby Dick arc, you're constantly struck with 'wow, if that hadn't happened, the whole plot would have fallen apart, the strategy was so intricate and layered'. Now, when you watch the prison arc, you're just like 'oh yeah, Chuuya's on Dazai's side. Dostoyevsky never stood a chance'. Chapter 101 or 109 don't have any long term narrative weight because it isn't a genuine emotional moment of vulnerability, it's a performance.

I still love the proof of the bond between Soukoku, and the fundamental truth, that they'll always rely on each other. But it just cheapens Dazai's moments of vulnerability in this arc.

Also! Sigma! Is completely irrelevant to the plot. Unless this kicks into gear in the new arc (which I think it will), Sigma tells Atsushi the page is with Kamui and that the detective agency is to be assassinated. This has no merit, because Fukuchi reveals he has the page of his own accord, and Ranpo negates the assassination plots. Then he's a valuable character during the prison break, proving Dazai's character growth, and his bond with the detective agency, but he doesn't have any plot weight. He's just there for Dazai to explain things to, an audience self insert. Then he gets stabbed by Fyodor, and trades information for a plot that's been wrapped up already, and he's literally forgotten about. (Unless the information he got was actually relevant to an arc that comes into play after Fyodor's death, in which case I shall eat my words happily.)

I think I was just kind of disappointed. A lot of the ending just had no gravity. Everyone is alive, the strategy implemented at the beginning worked, and the villains are defeated by theatre tricks, or because they wanted to die.

I just feel like the story lost scale a little bit. I made another post actually praising BSD's use of scale, how it keeps threats small, contained and personal, but the latest arc stretched too large, without any significant loss.

I really don't want to come across like I thought that the series was bad or anything. The character moments were great, and there were some masterfully wrapped up themes and morals, and I loved the ideological fight between Fukuzawa and Fukuchi and also Dostoyevsky and Dazai. I just... feel like the ending almost corrupts the greater story.

(Of course if anyone thinks otherwise, I'd love to hear from you! Healthy discourse is always a joy!)

[angeloncewas]

Okay so I keep thinking about how Tubbo called Jack Manifold "the worst kind of person" in reference to his life system. (For context, c!Jack Manifold lost his last life, but came back and has all 3 lives restored now.)

We always hate those kids on the playground. They're the ones who change the rules halfway through the game, the ones who never let you win because they always have a twist up their sleeve.

In that sense, I totally get why Tubbo would frown upon Jack Manifold's unwillingness to die. I see how restoring his life count would "cheapen" the experience.

In the context of the Dream SMP though, I actually disagree. So much so that I think Jack Manifold's life system makes complete sense and I have much more of a problem with Tubbo himself's.

Jack Manifold is a persistent character. He was a member of the original L'manberg revolution, but he's not in their history books, he's not remembered as a pioneer, he's not known for anything. He lived under Schlatt; in fact, he was the only one to be doing so at a certain point, the tyranny was just part of the background. He decided L'manberg wasn't for him and got up and made his own nation, just because.

There is not a single character more fitting to come back from the void with a shrug and a fresh set of canon lives. Jack Manifold will always do as he has done. You don't decide Jack Manifold's fate, Jack Manifold does.

Tubbo, meanwhile, is down to a single life. One canon death and he's gone. In theory, this would add a layer of tension.

It doesn't, because he's never in any real danger.

Tubbo is one of the main characters. He's a popular streamer. He can't die, he's a integral part of the story and he creates consistent SMP content. Every dramatic moment, every life-or-death, plot-related instance, is somewhat cheapened by the knowledge we as the viewers have. Tubbo is not gonna kill off his character.

The solution to the problem of the dead-end cycle of "just not dying" that Tubbo (and Tommy, notably) face is exactly what Jack Manifold did.

Why is your character still alive and how? What effects their life and the path their storyline has taken/will take?

There should be a consequence that goes hand in hand with keeping characters in play and even though the whole thing is handled comedically, Jack Manifold's character has managed to do precisely that.

[pjstafford]

Hollywood A.D. - Lesson in the importance of story

This is part of a blog series exploring the works of David Duchovny, the writer, through a deeper examination of the episodes of the X Files on which he had a story credit or wrote the script.

I know I must have seen Hollywood A.D. in the original run of the series. I watched television differently then, often while doing other things, and it's not an episode I remember. In my first rewatch in this century preparing for the revival, I remember thinking it was funny. It was very weird. The case was interesting, but I was disappointed in it being resolved off-screen. Mostly I thought it tried to do too much in a short period of time. Unlike other episodes, I would never consider skipping it in a rewatch, though, because it was so funny and because the “shipper” aspect is strong. Over time, I saw more details and points I missed. It is now one of my favorite episodes. It reminds me, more than the other David Duchovny episodes, of his novels. The subject matter is very serious. There is almost a fairy tale quality in the tone. The humor is hilarious. There is a lot of literary and pop-cultural references. When all that is combined, there are layers of depths and fluidity of emotions less like a novel/episode of television than like real life and it will always improve upon rereading or rewatching – no matter how much you love it – you will love it more.

This episode contains a lot and this will be a much too-long review without structure. I considered a scene by scene structure, but feel that the best way to approach this is:

1. The Big Themes

2. How two criticisms of the episode actually are its strengths

3. The fact that this episode was made to rewatch

BIG THEMES

Upon first viewing, it seems like there are two things going on in this episode. There is the case that Mulder and Scully are assigned and there is the movie that is being made with Mulder and Scully as inspiration. The teaser is the movie with Garry Shandling playing Mulder and Tea Leoni playing Scully. Then, we go back in time 18 months to the meeting in Skinner’s office where the agents are assigned a case and are introduced to Wayne Federman, a college friend of Skinner’s and a movie producer. Therefore, the true focus of this episode, no matter how interesting the case was, is the movie being made and how the material facts of this case will get interpreted, twisted, and changed for the movie. The climax will be the real Mulder leaving the theater and Scully finding him to tell him how the actual case has concluded. Mulder will say “they got it so wrong” and bemoan the fact that Hollywood oversimplifies the lives of complex characters. Scully and he will walk off holding hands and because a plastic bowl movie prop meant to represent the Lazarus bowl (able to raise the dead) is left near a tree branch the tree branch plays the bowl, raises the zombies and they dance.

Since this is the X-Files, all episodes should always be, on some level, about the TRUTH and, even upon first viewing, it is apparent that this episode is about storytelling and how Hollywood stories commercialize storytelling and misrepresents the truth. However, dig deeper. The Fourth wall is never broken here. Mulder and Scully and the X Files exist in this universe. One may argue that the movie is the metaphorical substitute for the series and that David Duchovny is poking fun at his own series as he leaves it and in a middle of a lawsuit, but no, that doesn’t seem quite right because the episode as a whole is so lovingly written. Does it make sense that Duchovny, the writer, or Duchovny, the actor, would write a Hollywood condemnation piece? Dig deeper. This is an episode of the stories we tell ourselves in all their complexities and how storytelling can cheapen the truth or elevate it.

When Mulder describes his childhood trilogy of Willie Mays, Frank Serpico, and a sixties radical named Micah Hoffman, can we not see how those three characters might have formed the qualities of the character we know as Mulder? They are a perfect choice. One of his trilogies will stop being a hero and start being a flawed man in this episode. That man Micah Hoffman goes from being a sixties counter-cultural hero, to a counterfeiter and bomb maker, but in forging documents in the hand of Christ he tried to become Christ (method acting) and actually in his mind did become Christ. The stories we tell ourselves! You may say he is mad, but Scully, the Christian, sees him rise from the dead and imagines him on a cross. Meanwhile, Cardinal O’Fallon who has devoted his life to the servitude of Christ believes the blasphemous documents forged by Hoffman and buys them to make sure the public doesn’t learn the truth but can’t bring himself to destroy them. Even Scully’s story of the Catholic sister telling the children about the vial of blood that are droplets of blood from John the Baptist is a storyteller making up things to inspire children. So much storytelling in this episode! Even in the bathtub scene Mulder and Scully lie about what they are doing.

The movie producer has many great lines during his time with Mulder and Scully on the case but two that registers the most for this point are his asking if the documents were the “real fakes or fake fakes?” and when discussing dancing bones as CGI or mechanical and being told by Mulder that it was real life, he said, “What’s the difference?”

This brings us to the scene in Mulder’s apartment watching Ed Wood movie (which we will talk about more in a later section). Scully and Mulder discuss the case. Mulder expresses the relationship of O’Fallon and Hoffman in stories he knows “Hoffman’s Jesus to O’Fallon’s Judas or Hoffman’s Jesus to O’Fallon’s Dostoyevsky the grand inquisitor or Hoffman’s Jesus to O’Fallon’s St. Paul” and Scully’s response is “How about Hoffman’s roadrunner to O’Fallon’s Wile E. Coyote?””

So, for me, the theme of this episode is the importance of story and how the story may change from profound to silly or sacred to profane depending on our perspective and what we know of the story, but we all tell ourselves stories, we all want to be like our heroes, we all have faith-based beliefs based on stories and that the quality of our stories matter. In the movie, they got it wrong. In Mulder and Scully walking out hand in hand, the series gets it right

There is another theme. That of the fact that Mulder believes that Zombies if they came back to life, would want to dance and the fact that Mulder and Scully are still young and are going out to have a night out in Hollywood. There is the fairy tale quality that Duchovny brings to his work and the fact that sometimes stories get it more right than reality could. There is the fact of the dancing zombies ending. You should end this episode with a desire to carpe diem. In this way, the fact that sometimes stories get to the “higher truth” better than a literal telling of a tale is emphasized.

Duchovny: When someone would say “This doesn’t make any sense. Why is this here?” I would say “because it makes poetic sense and I think that when you tell a story visually you’re telling it poetically. You’re not telling it like a literal narrative. I feel very comfortable creating an image that is poetic.”

HOW TWO CRITICISMS OF THE EPISODE ARE ACTUALLY ITS STRENGTHS

One criticism I had when I watched the show was that the X-Files case was abandoned and then resolved in tragedy off-screen. It seemed like there were too much in the episode to finish it in my version of “correctly.” David Duchovny said it was always what he intended. He wanted it to be a good case that would be thrown away. The original script had the resolution in the apartment when Scully comes to find Mulder watching the movie, but the producers felt it would be better to delay the resolution until the end. We never know who the corpse was that Scully autopsied and we never knew how she resolves the faith issues of having seen Hoffman rise from the dead. It is my belief that this is meant to portray reality over storytelling. Scully never told Mulder about seeing Hoffman come to life or about seeing him on the cross. Maybe the corpse was never identified. In real life, there are often parts of stories of which we never get to know the ending. We need to know the ending in most movies and television series.

A criticism I have seen about this episode is that Duchovny emphasized plot over character and many of the characters were “out of character.” David Duchovny has been quoted as saying that the character's reaction to a plot is the story. However, in the other episodes where Duchovny had a story credit, he was largely responsible for shaping the family dynamics that impacted Mulder’s character. So, in what way are the characters “Out of character?” The Skinner we know would not be lured to “go Hollywood.” Scully might not have told the sister spooky story and been so flirtatious with Mulder. When would Mulder ever give up a case because he was told to and go off to California instead?

For me, characters being “out of characters” is part of the point. Again, O’Fallon ends up murdering Hoffman and killing himself. Out of character for a Priest or for the character we saw briefly in two scenes? Hoffman ends up bombing the catacombs because he didn’t want the documents he created to be seen as real after he had his conversion. We only know the Skinner we see as FBI Director. He must have more to his life. He once had college friends. Does he never let his hair down? Scully was once a Catholic school girl and is, at this point in her relationship with Mulder, a little flirtatious because the story behind the story is they have been sleeping with each other for an episode or two now- since All Things. People act out of character now and then in real life. It all leads so perfectly to the speech by Mulder at the end “Hoffman and O’Fallon were these complicated, flawed, beautiful people and now they’ll just be remembered as jokes…” David Duchovny believed that characters could be written as three-dimensional, complex, and complicated and that sometimes they were not written as such. He showed another side of them in this episode.

THIS EPISODE WAS MADE TO REWATCH

By this time in the series, Duchovny was aware that people were rewatching the show and that there were online forums discussing it. He was suing Fox over syndication rights. The scene in his apartment watching the Ed Wood movie for the 42nd time might have been making fun of the fans constant watching. (42 is also the number of his apartment. The reason his apartment is 42 is because of the trilogy novel series “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” and that the answer to the question of the meaning of life was 42).

However, the truth is, that there is so much in this episode that he layered in that he had to know it could not be comprehended in one viewing. The best example is the scene where Mulder and Scully meet Shandling and Leoni. Stage front is Mulder and Shandling talking about which side Mulder dresses on. It's hilarious and you want to pay attention to it, but, on the next viewing, you see that Scully is running in the background teaching Tea Leoni to run in heels – oh, that’s funny, wait, on next viewing Tea Leoni is on the phone the whole time, wait, it's not even Scully- you can see Scully walking off and a body double (obviously Tea Leoni’s body double since we are not breaking the fourth wall) is taking Scully’s place running wait, is that David Duchovny’s dog blue on set?

Is that all? Well, watch the bathtub scene again to see that Mulder’s hand not holding the phone is underwater whenever he talks to Scully and not when talking to Skinner. Just a detail.

I have no quote or information from David Duchovny that this type of layering in of detail was intentional, but it's why we have to keep watching this episode. I want to believe he created an episode about storytelling in such a way that we see new things even if we watched it 42 times.

SUMMARY

All of this was accomplished in an episode that has been ranked by many critics among the top ten funniest episodes of the series. It would make this blog too long to talk about the humor, the references, or the tie-in to Truly Like Lightning. My takeaway is not to underestimate this episode or the writer, David Duchovny. Watch it again!

[ectonurites]

i would love to see someone explore jason both as an adult who makes concious decisions about murder, who creates his own moral codex, and who doesn't hesitate to spill blood if he thinks it's right, and as someone who has ptsd from traumatic life in poverty, seeing his own parents die/rot away, and from being murdered slowly and painfully at the age of 15 and then coming back and mentally comprehending that still in his teens, and all the rage he feels, like angry and murderous jason in control vs angry and murderous jason out of control (also the fact that he came back as 18/19 year old and never had proper stationary/human support in his life afterwards, and how much also that fucked him up...)

ok im finally starting to go back and answer some old asks BUT YEAH!!! YAH YEAH YEAH!!! 

Jason has some of the most interesting potential as a character, there are so many complexities and layers to his actions and why he does things the way he does, but I just feel like DC has dropped the ball on him so bad because Jason basically exists as a challenge to Batman and even though everything Jason does isn’t right he does make points! And DC never wants Batman to look bad or wrong for more than maybe part of a story at a time, but it won’t be part of their status quo. So he gets watered down and shipped off to go do Outlaws stuff (2011 putting him on a team with two heroes who don’t really kill, and 2016 setting him in Gotham adopting a no-kill rule to fit in with the fam) or he’s there for all the big batfam group stuff but again not... doing the main thing he was reinvented as the Red Hood to do: Challenge the bats. 

Like, man, I absolutely understand a desire for the bats to be a big happy family but making Jason be part of that just with ‘oh ya know Jason our little black sheep’ rather than actually looking at the huge difference in morals he has from the rest of them... it just cheapens his character. Like for fan content go wild and do what makes you happy that’s what fan content is for, but in terms of the actual official comics Jason should not be included in group things nearly as often as he is. (Like, Joker War makes total sense for him to be part of because of his Joker trauma but like, man, even though I thought he was handled pretty well when there in the Batwoman Trial thing in Detective Comics 2016 him being included in a round table about the morality of another person in the batfam killing someone at all just feels so wrong to me. That’s just a completely different Jason than the guy I became interested in from before the reboot, ya know?) 

I really enjoyed the first part of Zdarsky’s new Jason story though in Urban Legends, and based on the new preview panels for the next part (which includes Jason talking about the difference between killing nameless faceless guys who were attacking him vs him impulsively killing someone, and how much the second thing was fucking him up, I think that’s definitely an interesting take that feels in line with Jason. Because when Jason knows someone is evil and bad and trying to hurt innocent people he will take them down, that’s what he does, but when it’s a heat of the moment thing and he knows the little kid who he’s gonna have to break the news to that his dad is dead, that’s so much harder) I think he’s taking a really cool route with him as a character. 

But yeah in general I just... want nuanced Jason takes, from fandom and official content. Not just ‘oh hes crazy from the pit sometimes but otherwise hes fine’ or chalking it up to just angst or whatever. I just... care the him, and am so glad Lobdell is hopefully never gonna touch him again 😌

[whateverafterhigh]

Worldbuilding Succession Systems: Goodfallow

Most of what we see or hear when it comes to the succession systems in the universe that Ever After High is set in relates to fairytales and the inheritance of specific character roles. Many of the fairytale royalty are born into their royal bloodlines or otherwise marry in. But there are some kingdoms where things aren’t as easy as that. One such kingdom is the Good King’s Kingdom – which I named Goodfallow in another post.

The Good King is a fairytale character, but his role in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is small. In fact, depending on the adaption of the story you read he might have already died by the time the story has officially begun. He’s not quite dead yet in the series, seeing as he’s still raising Raven Queen, but it is never acknowledged that Raven is in line for the throne. Not even as a “Hey, maybe Raven has her dad’s destiny…” kind of way, which you would expect given Raven is constantly fighting for any destiny other than her mother’s. Going that route might seem like too easy a fix to acknowledge in the series, especially early on, no matter how powerful a red herring that would be for the readers. It could have even been used to make Grimm start to worry on whether or not he actually guessed right when it comes to writing the fake book. Grimm doubting himself would have been great, even more so if it’s a big thing to have forgotten that the Good King needs an heir too.

The potential for drama aside, there must have been something else that made everyone think they were right so conclusively (and I’m not speaking of the gendered characters, there are too many female characters who have their father’s destinies for that to be the reason).

Then I had an idea.

The Goodfallow Crown

I wanted to create a succession system for Goodfallow that would be able to stand up to the Storybook of Legends on something akin to even ground. Obviously, I didn’t want it to have such a grand scale. But I knew I wanted something magical, and I knew I wanted it to be possible that the Storybook of Legends (the original) could guess wrong. (I mean what even is the point of having an antagonist as powerful and insufferable as Headmaster Grimm if he wasn’t able to grasp at some straws to save face and avoid even the harshest of punishments?). Still I wanted Grimm to be arrogant enough that he wouldn’t have worried about Raven’s position as the Evil Queen until she was throwing the book in his face on Legacy Day.

This meant I needed something with so many possibilities that something like the Storybook of Legends would have a hard time even coming up with the most likely outcome for the Next Good King. Something that could be affected up until the moment that the Good King has been crowned. And something that had the magical power to break the magical contract to the Storybook of Legends that signing it would create without extensive repercussions – something that would cause a page to fall out on its own if need be.

Also it needed to be something that played into what a Good King should be, it is what is choosing the reigning monarch after all.

In Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the Evil Queen is defined by her attitude and treatment of the kingdom’s people, so it only makes sense that the Good King be defined in the same way. So I played with the idea of the Good King being an elected position that passed down the bloodline out of convenience and all the things that real life kings and queens have to do to make sure that the people don’t start up a revolution. Something like the Sword in the Stone from King Arthur’s legends could do that, the same could be said for Thor’s Hammer (though I wasn’t actually thinking of Mjolnir when spider-mapping ideas).

I couldn’t see it being an actual sword, as cool as it would be for the Good King to actually have the kingdom’s blessing of sorts to raise his sword at those who wronged him. And after reading the fairytale Prince Darling, where there is a ring that pricks the young Prince on the finger every time he does something wrong in hopes that it will make him into a good person, I thought of using a crown.

The Goodfallow Crown, named such because it is the physical manifestation of the collective will of all the citizens of Goodfallow ticks a lot of the boxes for what I wanted.

It’s magic, powerful enough to break the bindings created by the Storybook of Legends because I’m the author and I say so. A lot of citizens in Goodfallow mean a lot of different possibilities for whether or not they think a candidate is the best for the Good King. It can still be meddled with before the inheritance ceremony, popularity and propaganda are going to be important – the same goes for whether or not a candidate knows what they’re doing. In turn this could be what makes Grimm so arrogant in his assertions that Raven will have her mother’s destiny.

The students at Ever After High are shown to be scared of Raven to the point they scream and run away from her. At the start of the books she assumes that this is just a side effect from her destiny as her mother had mentioned that something of the sort would happen when she reached a certain age. But it could be argued that this has more to do with how bullying of Raven (or any supposedly-evil-aligned character) was encouraged by Grimm or other members of the faculty, high tensions from how close Legacy Day is for her etc. Because Raven does get more popular as the books go on, and because the characters act a similar way in the beginning of the show’s canon it could be argued that she get’s popular enough to win Thronecoming.

But it’s not just Raven’s lack of popularity. Grimm makes all the final class decisions when it comes to what subject’s students can take, so he can ensure that Raven never takes classes that would prepare her for being the Good King (Kingdom Management, Throne Economics, etc…) and then there’s the low possibility that the people of Goodfallow would accept someone who willingly signs up to potentially marry the king of a neighbouring country, abuse their power, and even get arrested or die before having kids as their Ruler. This is one case where the Storybook of Legends doesn’t need to be real for the damage to be done. And Grimm has no reason to not be arrogant about his guesses until Legacy Day where Raven declares she wants to write her own destiny on the in-verse equivalent of international television he’s not going to worry too much.

The tangent into Grimm’s motives and assumptions show that having Goodfallow’s succession system be like this will only add another layer to some of the things going on in the series, and this can even be applied to other characters too. Raven would have grown up in a kingdom where your actions mean more then what you say, so even agreeing to sign the Storybook of Legends and live her own life after would have not been in the cards for her (not to mention it would cheapen Apple’s own story if she asked that of Raven), and Queen White would have also grown up in Goodfallow given the Good King is her father as well, and that could add a really interesting layer to her own character and her obsession with popularity. Especially in the context of the Class of Classics comic which shows that Snow was once a studious student like Apple was but has now seemingly forgone that in favour of focusing on popularity (which is the same in the books as well as Dragon Games). It certainly speaks of there being more to her character then what we’ve gotten.

Now it’s just a matter of figuring out how the Good Fallow Crown works.

It seems a bit much to have someone attempt to wear the crown for the first time on their coronation, and I’m also understanding of the fact that it’s technically headwear and therefore can’t get heavier if the kingdom seems to disagree with an idea or something else – also Goodfallow isn’t a hivemind? So there would need to be some kind of inheritance test. Perhaps for officially declaring a Crown Prince or Princess.

Historically, Crown Princes or Princesses seem to given the title when they are ready for it. With the announcement happening sometime between the ages of fourteen and eighteen, unless their parents were dead, and they were ruling through a Regent. Raven is fifteen when Legacy Day takes place so sixteen seems like a more reasonable time for the ceremony to happen. Though obviously some of the kingdoms would name their children the Crown Prince or Princess earlier (I’m thinking Briar and Hopper might have been given their titles when their Magic Touch developed, given its significance to their stories).

So the sixteen year old heir would try the crown on. It would be impractical for the circle of people who can hold or lift the crown to be small a la Thor’s Hammer, especially when it’s the literal Will of the People. So, magical girl transformation?

Very basic, plain clothes are to be worn with no jewellery – because you might lose it otherwise. If the people agree with the Prince or Princess being a good candidate for the throne then they’ll get decked out in finery when the magic is a match. If not then there’s no change. (Not that that prevents rumours from spreading to the contrary).

“Rumour has it the Evil Queen tried to wear the crown once and it set her on fire.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, that’s why her hair is like that now.”

Of course, the changes don’t stop at the Inheritance Ceremony. Just because the Goodfallow Crown doesn’t get infinitely heavier when the Good King does something the people don’t agree with that doesn’t mean that nothing happens. Raven’s dad is described as being bald in the books, and I like to think that the reason for that is the people of Goodfallow not agreeing with him marrying the Evil Queen, while still understanding why he did it. But there would likely be other affects as well. Such as increased stress, anxiety, paranoia, etc. Maybe a lack of motivation in his day to day life? I don’t know, but the Goodfallow Crown does take the phrase “Heavy is the head that wears the crown” to a whole new meaning.

I love the whole thought of this, as evidenced by the fact it takes up almost three whole pages in a Word Document. Definitely one of my favourite pieces of worldbuilding I’ve done for any fandom ever.

[the-evisceration-station]

What do you think book!addy’s feelings are towards beth? Even tho addy is the protagonist I still find her very hard to read. Which makes her interesting I guess Bc she’s very mysterious. I love and hate that a lot of the story is subtext haha

That’s a very interesting question and I’m sure everybody probably has a different answer for it, as Addy is such an ambiguous character and intentionally so, because she lies to readers as well as herself. Particularly book!Addy, who I do not believe is quite identical to TV!Addy, even if I do think the most important beats of her character remain the same. I’m going to answer this under the cut both because of potential spoilers and because this is probably going to get long.

In this essay, I will…

Well, I think much of the way Addy describes Beth is some of the way Addy genuinely sees her, rather than an entire farce. Beth being something almost goddess like, someone who knows all and always has some kind of agenda. I don’t think Addy’s actually lying to us when she describes viewing Beth in those ways, I think there is a major part of her that does see Beth as some kind of nearly divine entity.

I think she feels this way partially because Beth is something of a spooky kid, she’s violently protective of Addy to the point where “protective” crosses over into “possessive” territory. I also think Beth projects a powerful persona on purpose. Beth very carefully guards her vulnerabilities and she is, after all, Top Girl, the thing that Addy secretly wants to be. And that’s where I think Addy kind of confuses Beth with what Beth has, and what she thinks it means to have that. She thinks Beth is more powerful than she actually is, because Beth has the thing Addy wants and she believes she’d be more powerful herself, if she had it.

However, do I think Addy sometimes exaggerates about how powerful she sees Beth as?

Absolutely. Because Addy also reveals she knows Beth has vulnerabilities. She knows that laughing is Beth’s way of crying. She is fully aware of how detrimental and unhappy Beth’s home life is, another vulnerability. When she wants Beth to give her one more day before going to the cops, and asks her for it, she pleads, “for me,” because Addy knows that she, herself, is one of Beth’s weaknesses. So if Addy knows where the chinks in the armor are, chances are she doesn’t always see Beth as infallible as she acts like she does.

The fact that Addy knows she can get Beth to do what she wants with a “for me,” also implies that she’s aware that she’s the one who actually has more control in the relationship, which diminishes how godlike she constantly describes Beth as.

Look, I have seen some takes that describe the Addy/Beth relationship as “Addy has All The Power behind the scenes and Beth is just her pawn,” as well as “Beth has All The Power outright until Addy stands up for herself” and personally I don’t agree with either. I understand why people would come away with such interpretations, but I personally don’t think it’s either. I think Beth and Addy both have power in that relationship, and that there is push and pull between them. I actually feel that to insist one has all and one has none is to cheapen the complexity between them, the depths of the layers of this twisted relationship they’ve woven together like a tapestry.

However, I DO believe Addy has the lion’s share of the power. Not that Beth has none. I certainly think she has some, and she’s too aware of what Addy is like under the surface to ever be described as her pawn. But that I do feel that Addy has MOST of the power. Because Beth has more exploitable vulnerabilities in places Addy doesn’t. Because Beth will do anything for Addy, and Addy knows it, and Addy knows she can use it when she has to. Because when Beth goes too far, Addy can assert her quiet control and reel her back in line. Some of the other girls notice this much. They point it out more frequently in the show, but it’s book!Tacy who point-blank tells Addy that she’s more afraid of Addy than she is of Beth.

Hence, given that Addy has the lion’s share of the power, I think she has a tenancy to exaggerate how all-powerful she sees Beth as, because if she has to, she can control Beth’s power by proxy. Beth’s power isn’t an inevitability for her. Quite often, it’s even her asset.

What I do think almost feels like an inevitability for her, is her and Beth’s relationship. I actually think Addy has more internal conflict about this than she lets on. She is an unreliable narrator. She doesn’t tell us everything. What she does tell us, is what she wants us to know, and it’s dyed by how she wants us to see it. But I think it’s very interesting that after the fight at cheer camp, and the other girls think they’ll never be friends again, Addy’s just…of the mindset that well, of course they would. Because coming back together, being together is just what they are. Like it’s some force of nature, not a conscious choice. Like it is what it is, the same way gravity exists because it exists and when something is dropped, you can count on it to fall to the ground. Because gravity exists and things do not simply float away, it is not good, it is not bad, it is not fair nor unfair, it just fucking is. And Addy dismisses the other girls’ thoughts, because she thinks they could never understand. Well, I don’t think Addy really understands it either!

I think at this point in the book, Addy truly felt like what she and Beth had was an inevitability of a sort. I don’t think she wanted it to be. I think she genuinely wanted to move away from Beth already, but on this point, I don’t think she was lying to us. Relationships are complicated, codependent relationships specifically can feel very contradictory and confusing. And I think she failed to elaborate more on it, specifically because such feelings were confusing and contradictory, and she didn’t want to think about it any more than she had to. She didn’t want to look at it. There are many things Addy doesn’t like to look at.

Major YMMV on this one because it’s left incredibly ambiguous, but I personally do believe there was a point in time when Addy was in love with Beth. Addy is the one who kissed Beth. Addy is the one who initiated their borderline (or even, some people think it went that far, I personally don’t) sexual encounter.

“I started it, but I don’t even remember why or how,” is her input on her motivation. But when is Addy ever honest about her motives? Almost never, not even to herself.

Also, the hamsa bracelet. The story behind the little charm is that it’s the Hand of Fatima. Fatima was stirring a pot when her husband came home with a new wife, let the ladel slip from her fingers, stirred with her own hand, and didn’t even notice the pain because of how brokenhearted she was. Or, at least, that’s the version of the story presented in the book. The one I know of IRL is different, but for the purpose of discussing Dare Me book canon, I am using the symbolism of the version of the Hand of Fatima lore presented to us in the book.

Beth is Fatima in this story. Addy is the husband. The new wife is Colette. Fatima was the first wife. The husband married his first wife, chances are, he loved her at some point.

I think three things play into Addy no longer being in love with Beth.

1) Beth’s possessive behavior began to feel suffocating and drive Addy away.

2) Addy prioritizes ambition over love and accomplishing her goals wins out over any romance, at the end of the day.

3) Addy represses her sexuality and probably even holds some (unfair) resentment toward Beth for feeling attracted to Beth.

My gray faced friendo, I am going to repeat that: this is all just my take. I think in a subtext loaded book like Dare Me, people are bound to come away with over a hundred different interpretations. I am not the authority on Dare Me. That’s Megan Abbott. I’m not here to crap on anyone else’s interpretation if they feel different.

All of this is what I personally took away from the book and since you asked, that’s what I’m describing. I’ve been giving my own personal take throughout the entirety of this answer, of course, but what I’m going to describe going forward is a lot of me reading in between the lines with my magnifying glass, and may seem less coherent than the above. Okay, here we go.

Point #1: I feel like Beth’s possessive behavior began to drive Addy away, because it’s a lot to deal with. Beth gets dog leashes for all the girls on the squad at one point, but goes as far as to have Addy’s name embroidered on hers. Addy goes to another girl’s birthday party and when she gets home, low and behold, Beth is waiting at her house. RiRi outright refers to Addy as “Beth’s girl,” as if Addy belongs to Beth.

I think Addy even begins to feel like she does belong to Beth, in some ways, and becomes comfortable feeling that way. But eventually, she doesn’t want to feel that way anymore. Their relationship is extremely codependent, okay. I think in both the book and the show, it’s more obvious from Beth’s side, because we’ve reached the point in that relationship where Addy is beginning to pull away. Beth reflexively seems to cling on even tighter, because she feels it happening. But it’s absolutely codependent from Addy’s side too.

Throughout the book, there are many moments (I’m not going to comb for all of them, sorry dude, it’s almost 300 pages) where Addy behaves like she and Beth are an entity unto their own. Even as she’s moving away from her as she develops her bond with Colette, there are instances where Addy will describe sensing things inside Beth. There is even a moment where Addy thinks Beth is touching her ear (the ear Addy scarred, mind you) only to discover, no, she’s touching her own ear!

Plus, Addy feels like she needs others to verbalize her thoughts/feelings for her and for a long time, this person is Beth. Implying that not only does Addy rely on Beth to do such a thing for her, but she believes that Beth can know her thoughts accurately enough to do so.

Point #2: I think ambition outranks love for Addy, because her goals are her endgame. Addy is patient, Addy is deceptive. Addy likes the way power feels and I think it’s one of the reasons she gets so high on her relationship with Colette (even if it is an inappropriate and eventually damaging one). Colette makes Addy feel powerful, probably more powerful than she actually is. I’m going to repeat myself a bit here and even copy/paste some of my thoughts about this from a reply I left to a comment on Ao3 (that poor person, I went into a full on Addy rant) because I feel like what I said previously is relevant here.

*deep breath* When we begin the book/series, I personally believe like on some level, Addy does still have feelings for Beth. However, I do NOT think those feelings are as strong as they once were, and I don’t think they are feelings Addy wants to have. I think the remaining feelings Addy does have for Beth are mostly there because they’ve been in a codependent relationship for so long, one that consumes her identity, and in a relationship like that, even if you don’t want those feelings anymore, they’re difficult to move away from. Because at some point, you don’t really know who you are not just without that person, but without those feelings, even if you want to, even if wanting to is part of the reason you want to get rid of those feelings. Codependency is a strange animal, my friend.

Although Addy’s relationship with Colette was never mutually romantic nor canonically sexual, I do believe there was a part of Addy that was ‘killing’ her remaining feelings for Beth through that relationship. “Love is a kind of killing,” is one of the oft repeated lines of the book, and I’d even say it’s one of the themes. It is Beth who says it, and we see that she feels it too, her love for Addy is killing her. She nearly kills herself out of it (though I’d say other things impacted Beth enough to put her in such a state that suicide felt worth it, even if her feelings for Addy were the primary motive, again YMMV).

The Matt/Colette/Will dynamic is another example of love becoming a kind of killing. Matt kills Will for Colette. If we believe what she tells Addy, then he acted on his own in doing so and it was an accident. If we don’t believe her, she might’ve even been the little worm in Matt’s ear who told him to do it. Either way, he killed for love. None of the audience really cares for their hetero nonsense, because Matt is sexist and both Colette and Will are predatory people, but nonetheless, their debacle largely impacts the story. And it supports the idea that “love is a kind of killing.”

I believe love as a kind of killing is something Addy weaponizes for her own development. To her own detriment as well, because it ends up taking her to dangerous places.  Even so, I think Addy had/has some lingering feelings for Beth she uses forming a bond with Colette to metaphorically ‘kill’ inside herself. Like finishing off an already mortally wounded animal, if you will. This would also support “love is a kind of killing” as a recurring theme.

Addy’s relationship with Colette gave her a crutch and a new outlet, and Colette’s encouragement (while the audience knows its manipulation) also gave Addy affirmation for the way she was already feeling about Beth— that she wanted to distance herself from her and come into her own. In addition, Colette seemed to be ‘safer’ because Addy doesn’t have to compete with Colette.

The presence of specifically female socialization is very palatable in the book. The way the girls slut-shame each other. The way other people see them, the feminine appeal of cheerleading. Others take the glitz and the glam of it at face value without understanding the more masculinely-coded things that go into it, like dedication and athleticism. Colette is a villain, no doubt, but you have to give the devil her due, and her circumstances are as miserable and empty as they are because she finds herself boxed into traditional feminine roles she isn’t suited for. Although the show is not the book, and I will maintain that I don’t feel they are identical entities, I do think Willa had a lot of interesting input on this in her Build interview, alongside Taveeta and Abbott. Check it out if you have the time—

Wait, where was I?

Right, right, female socialization in Dare Me. Okay, continuing on.

I feel that female socialization also plays an important role in the relationships between the characters, namely the Beth/Addy/Colette dynamic. We live in a culture where women are socialized to tear each other down and compete with each other even outside of the athletic arena. Combine that with the athletic, cutthroat world of cheerleading and you’ve got yourself a powder keg of an environment where those competitive feelings are going to come out full force. Addy, wanting what she wants, is inevitably going to have to view Beth as a rival, romantic feelings or otherwise aside.  

Colette feels like a ‘safer’ object of attraction because her cheerleading days are over.

Colette does not pose a threat to Addy’s thirst for power, she can only help her achieve it. I definitely think the lack of Colette posing a threat to Addy’s goals plays into how comfortable she feels with her. I also think, to a teenager with dreams of grandeur already feeling suffocated in a relationship with her peer, this is where the age gap appeals to Addy even as it disturbs us readers.

Again, Addy doesn’t have to compete with Colette, because Colette has aged out of ‘cheerleader’ and into ‘coach.’ Colette is a seemingly self-sufficient adult (initially) who doesn’t spin out the way Beth does, and depend on Addy as heavily as Beth does. Colette represents the agency Addy covets, and feels nearer to when with her.

I mean, we all know things change once a dead body is brought into that dynamic and we all know that Colette is emotionally manipulating Addy for her own purposes. But I’m not talking about Colette’s perspective, I’m talking about Addy’s before all the crime scene hullabaloo. What happens after the night with Will changes things, but up until that point, I think this is much of what Addy got out of her bond with Colette, no matter how inappropriate a bond it was. No matter how much it shouldn’t have been happening.

I will say, I don’t believe Addy ever fully realizes the extent to which Colette was manipulating her, although it’s clear as the book goes on, she realizes some of it. She picks up on things that don’t add up, acknowledges some red flags she initially ignored, and refers to her as a liar at one point.

Wait JJ, why are you talking about Addy and Colette? The question was about Addy and Beth!

Yes, but I think you cannot always separate the two. Because I think many of the developments that occur in the book between Addy and Beth, and the way in which they occur, play out as they do because of Colette’s entry into the story. Abbott said herself that Dare Me is a love triangle. A triangle is connected by all three sides, okay, continuing on…

I think there are things Addy deliberately sought out in her relationship with Colette— I will repeat this because again, I personally view this as part of the theme and part of the answer to your question— including ‘killing’ what remained of her feelings for Beth. I think it’s also very clear that she thinks Colette is the key to getting what she wants and accomplishing her own goals.

But I would go the extra mile and say she projects some of her feelings for Beth onto Colette. I’ve brought this up before, but I will elaborate more about that now.

I think Addy is earnestly attracted to Colette, just as Colette. Yes, even book!Addy. It’s more subtle in the book, but contrast the way she describes Jordy to the way she describes Colette. Her fascination with the way Colette looks when Will is fucking her. It speaks of attraction and that’s perfectly fine. It’s normal when teens have crushes on adults, what isn’t normal is when adults indulge those crushes. When adults pick up on the cues Colette does, and choose to fan the flames instead of snuffing them out. That’s the part that’s fucking scary.

But I also think she projects her feelings for Beth onto Colette and I think that helps explain why Addy latched onto Colette so quickly. When Addy messes around with Jordy, she does it because Colette points him out. And when she tells Colette about it later and Colette doesn’t even seem to remember him, Addy is taken aback, almost offended… and yet, just a couple of pages later, she’s disparaging the girls who do similar things for Beth.

“…hitching jeans low and flashing thongs at security guards. Beth likes to make these girls run.”

Colette and Beth also share some notable similarities. Both can be cold, cutthroat, have calculating thought processes. Colette even looks like Beth in the book. Addy also sort of tries to recreate a ‘better’ version of the bond she had with Beth, with Colette and this is where I stop and I’m like, man, what a weird freakin’ kid. Addy, smh. But you see it, right?

Addy flips for her coach like she flips for her captain. Ties the same bracelet Beth once tied on her wrist onto Colette’s wrist. Does the thing with Jordy very comparable to the things other girls do when they’re trying to impress Beth. Uses Colette specifically when she wants to become her own person, but can’t quite do so yet, because she’s so used to her lifelong codependence with Beth.

And you know how earlier I mentioned that Addy can control Beth when she has to? How the control Addy has over Beth is a quiet, deceptive thing?

Well I think that’s something that Addy projects onto Colette too. Addy is so used to being able to assert that quiet control and maintain the relational power (which is not the same kind of power Addy is seeking endgame) with Beth, that when she begins using Colette as Beth’s substitute, she doesn’t realize she doesn’t have it anymore. I think that’s one of the things that gets her into hot water later, because she absently assumes she’s going to be ‘safe’ with Colette the way she is with Beth, have that ability that she does with Beth to reel things back before they go too far…but she doesn’t.

Addy uses Colette as Beth substitute. But Colette is not Beth. Beth is spooky. Addy is scary. Colette is terrifying. Addy can’t take control of Colette the way she can of Beth. Colette is an adept master manipulator, an adult who has years of experience that Addy lacks. Colette is better at her game than Addy is at hers, and Addy gets in deep shit partly because she doesn’t recognize that.

I would actually compare the Colette/Addy situation a bit to the Kurtz/Beth situation in the show. There are things Beth wants out of Kurtz, she talks to him because she plans to use him, and it inevitably has devastating consequences for her. Kurtz is a predator. And he’s better at his game than Beth is at hers.

The situations are not identical. The consequences are not the same. But both are exemplary of teens being naive fools and thinking they have some control in situations they definitely do not, with people they couldn’t hope to.

Addy gets what she thinks she wants in the end. I’ve addressed why I think this isn’t as cracked up to be as she thinks it is in another post, but that’s not really relevant here. Addy chooses to pursue having her own power above all, and it’s Beth who winds up giving it to her, not Colette. But I think Addy needed to eliminate her feelings for Beth to actually get there, or even if she didn’t actually, it’s what she felt she had to do and most of those feelings were deteriorating already because of Beth’s possessive behavior.

Point #3: I personally believe Addy represses her sexuality. And I do think that plays into how she views Beth, both when she had feelings for her, and when those feelings began to die. I feel Addy harbors some subconscious resentment toward Beth along the lines of a “I don’t want to be like this, but you make me feel this way, and I hold it against you” type deal. However, again, I think that’s a subconscious feeling rather than something Addy is cognitively aware of, and actually, I don’t think it’s separate from how she’s fed up of Beth suffocating her. I believe it only feeds into that feeling and makes it stronger, enhancing her frustration.

Addy is often very cruel when she describes Beth. I think there’s a bit more to it than the inevitability of viewing Beth as a rival outside her control and somewhat within it, the possessive behavior Beth suffocates her with.

I think forgetting that she and Beth had a borderline sexual encounter was repression on her part. I also think this line;

“…and who need to talk of such wonders? We nestle them away, deep in the fury at the center of us, where things can be held tightly, protected, and secretly cherished as a special notion we once held, and then had to stow away,”

wasn’t just about Beth. I think it was about Beth and just like, pursuing girls in general. At least openly. I’d go out on a limb and say another one of the things that drew Addy to Colette was because Colette was a ‘safer’ objection of attraction in the sense that the likelihood of something happening between them was very low. Fantasize safely from the closet, kinda deal. But maybe Addy’s less aware of her sexuality, or at least confronting it than I’m giving her credit for. I mean, she looked up RiRi’s skirt and was all like, “why are other girl’s panties more interesting than your own?”

Addy. Addy, baby. Why do you think.

Oh, and I think Addy kissed RiRi without telling us! At the marines’ party, Addy and RiRi are hanging and then this scene happens.

“She’s fumbling with her phone, trying to send a text. Because it’s all okay because these are Will’s men and nothing bad could ever happen, one of them is pressing our heads together, wanting us to kiss.

“Always ready,” he says. “Always there.””

Then RiRi hugs Addy and starts in about how she couldn’t be close to Addy before, because of Beth. But that’s the thing. It just has that creepy ass adult man trying to make these teen girls kiss, then goes into some dialogue, Addy never actually explains what happens in that moment. If the guy made them kiss or if he let go of them. If either of them protested or just went along with it.

I personally believe they did kiss and I believe Addy doesn’t mention it for two reasons.

1) She’s trying to convince herself and us readers that Will is safe to be around, ergo his men must be too. But some grown ass dude physically trying to force teen girls to kiss each other is obviously a fucking creeper. Will is also a fucking creeper.

2) She enjoyed kissing RiRi and doesn’t care to elaborate on what enjoying that was like, because doing so would mean confronting her sexuality. Her sexuality being one of the many things Addy doesn’t really confront.

Wow, that was a long ass essay. In this essay, I done did. So that is my interpretation of Addy’s feelings for Beth. Feel free to take ‘em or leave ‘em, maybe we don’t feel the same way and that’s totally cool. But you asked, so I answered. That is what I feel is going on with all that mess there.

This essay probably has a shit ton of typos and for that I apologize, but I can’t comb through all this now. This long as hell and I’m hungry, I need to go eat. 

[myaekingheart]

Thoughts on Writing Trauma in [Fan]Fiction

For some reason, I’ve been thinking a lot about the inclusion of trauma in fiction, namely fanfiction. It’s one of those things that so often pops up in fic but just because it’s done often doesn’t necessarily mean it’s done well. I feel like this is especially true for writing original characters.

Precursory trigger warning for speaking about, you know, trauma (suicide, self harm, eating disorders, death, etc.) in depth. As you can probably already predict from the title. Full text under the cut for brevity’s sake. 

Traumatic experiences and backstories are like this rite of passage in fanfiction. Most everyone’s earliest original characters are always given the most heartbreaking, terrible backstories possible because we, as authors, think that that will make our readers more sympathetic to them. I say this as someone who is definitely guilty of this myself. And this is all well and good--some of the most popular mainstream characters come from terrible backstories. It can help explain why characters do what they do and act the way that they act when they are first introduced in a story, and provide space to allow them to grow and evolve throughout the plot (for better or for worse). 

I think the issue in giving a character a traumatic backstory, however, lies in the way that this is presented. So often I feel like tragic backstories are used to try and force readers to empathize with and love a character. It’s the almost overbearing sense of “please love me” that I think can cheapen the effect of this developmental tactic. You can’t force an audience to love a character and laying it on thick with why the audience should love your character often seems to do the exact opposite. Readers don’t like to be told what to do or what to think or who to root for. Your character has to prove that they are worth rooting for, or not, based on the way that their past influences their present and the fate of their future. A character who was neglected by their parents as a child is obviously going to be desperate for affection, but think about how it makes them desperate. Do they find themselves constantly in abusive relationships because they are willing to take whatever they can get from whoever will dish out “love” to them, regardless of whether it’s healthy or not? Or because they find comfort in a sense of abuse based on past experiences? Or in contrast, do they push everyone away because they are terrified of letting themselves be loved and opening themselves up to getting hurt again? I know every writing class ever always harps on the “show, don’t tell” but this is one case where I feel like it’s really important. Readers are not stupid. We don’t need to be told straightforward why a character is doing what they’re doing, and sometimes laying everything about a characters past out from the get-go can even dampen the allure of your character. Let the readers learn about the character at the same pace that they would let someone else learn about them. Human beings don’t give away their entire life story in one sitting, and your character shouldn’t, either. 

Not only are traumatic backstories so common in fiction, but so are traumatic plotlines. It’s fun to put your characters through hell! It’s fun to break them down and see them at their lowest, when they are left with nothing. After all, conflict is the gasoline which fuels the car of your story and sometimes you never really know what a character is capable of until you break them. I feel like the most symbolic and succinct way to describe this is through that quote “Your characters are like geodes. If you want to see what they're really made of, you have to break them.” However, trauma is a tricky subject. There is a fine line between being authentic and meaningful in dissecting traumatic experiences and laying it on too heavy for the sake of being edgy. I feel like that’s another mistake so many early writers make: feeling as if you have to put your character through ten layers of hell in order for the audience to care about them, too. But this is a dangerous game and trauma is a very personal thing. You don’t want to write insensitively about something very significant at the risk of alienating or even maddening the communities that have personal experience with whatever trauma you’re exploring--if you haven’t experienced it yourself, too, that is. I am a huge supporter of using fiction as catharsis for coping with and processing trauma and anything else troubling that you as a writer may be dealing with, and every situation is different so of course your specific experience will not fit everyone’s narrative of how that trauma may transpire. And if you have been through this sort of thing personally, of course you can be trusted with writing candidly and authentically about it because those are your experiences and no one can steal those from you! You deserve to approach the subject in whatever manner you feel is best for both the story and your own mental wellbeing. For those aiming to write about trauma that they don’t have personal experience with, however, it is so important to write these scenarios with respect. Please do your research, read personal accounts and familiarize yourself with all the ins and outs of what you’re aiming to write. Read up on what it’s like to attempt suicide, what happens after a failed suicide attempt or self harm gone wrong, what to do when you suffer a miscarriage, what grief feels like, what a panic attack feels like, the challenges that chronically ill people face every day and the things that can go wrong when we have flare-ups or are not given the accessibility we need. Don’t trigger yourself, of course, but make sure you are well informed so that you can write trauma in a way that is respectful and authentic. 

I am also not going to sit here and tell you not to stack trauma onto a character in a story. I know that life happens and sometimes multiple bad things pile up all at once. Fiction is no different and it’s certainly not uncommon to see a string of bad things befall a character in a story, either. The thing that is important to consider with this, however, is not only respect and authenticity but the way in which these sorts of things would realistically affect someone. The domino effect should feel believable.

For example: character A gets a phone call that character B, their best friend and love of their life, has unexpectedly been killed. This is a traumatic experience enough on it’s own, and the story deserves to explore this character’s consequent grief as they try to navigate their life with this massive hole in their heart now. Perhaps the last thing that character B told character A was something about unwavering support for A in the pursuit of their lifelong dream, something that holds weight and that the grief of losing B can serve as both an obstacle and a motivator for achieving. Familiarize yourself with the after effects and symptoms of mourning in order to write character A’s grief as authentic. Say, for example, they are having trouble sleeping. They are constantly tired but can never fall asleep when they want. They are driving somewhere a few days later and begin dozing off at the wheel. They subsequently get into a nasty car accident. Character A ends up in the hospital with severe but not life-threatening injuries--injuries that completely erase any and all hope of character A ever achieving their dream. What does this loss feel like? How heavy is the betrayal in their chest after having felt so determined to fight against the grief weighing them down in order to accomplish their goals for the sake of character B’s memory? Consider the emotions. Consider the anger and the hopelessness and the depression. Consider what your character decides to do about this. Consider how your character attempts to cope. Perhaps they turn to self harm. Perhaps they feel that the only way that they can manage the pain that they feel is by cutting. Maybe they even think that if they make themselves bleed, it will give an outlet for all of the pain that’s stirred up inside of them. Maybe they even feel as if that pain is deserved, as if everything is their fault (whether it realistically is or not). Maybe they revel in the pain, maybe it becomes the only thing that keeps them sane even if they logically understand that this is unhealthy and dangerous. And maybe their emotions get the better of them and they accidentally take things too far. They accidentally attempt suicide and wake up in the very same hospital they were in when they got into the car accident. The very same hospital where character B was also pronounced dead. Focus on what this means for the character and the story. We as the audience should be able to understand why this character felt like it was necessary to do what they did and what they were feeling in the moment of having made that decision, as well as how having failed will influence and effect them moving forward. That progression should be clear and visible, it should be easy for the audience to track and follow the plot of. 

And while writing trauma can be fun and interesting, on the same note of authenticity it is also important to ensure that we are not glorifying trauma, either. We should not be presenting these situations as fabulous deaths and drama. Trauma is a very real and very heavy thing that should be handled with care for the sake of respecting both the characters and the readers. Readers who have gone through similar trauma should not feel as if their struggles are being written as a joke or not taken seriously. They should be able to empathize with the character even if the struggles presented in the story do not exactly mirror their own. Like I said before, the trauma should be believable. And readers who do not have experience with these subjects should not feel inspired by the trauma itself. It is one thing to present a character who is perseverant despite their setbacks, who pushes forward even when it would be easier to quit, and even when they want to quit, but it is another thing entirely to present a character who glamourizes these struggles. A character with an eating disorder should not be seen as an aspiration for thinness and a character who self harms should not be seen as “edgy” and “cool” for hurting themselves. If we are going to write about trauma, we should accept the responsibility that comes with writing subjects in a way that is respectful and authentic rather than glamourizing trauma.

We as writers, however, should not accept the responsibility of censoring ourselves for the sake of a reader’s preference, by the way. We can include trigger warnings and tags all we want, and I think we ought to for the sake of being responsible and letting our readers know exactly what kind of story they are getting into, but that’s just the thing. The reader should know what kind of story they are getting into, but if they click on something with explicit warnings/tags that they know are going to trigger them and continue reading anyway then that is on them and not us. We should not have to completely omit trauma and other taboo/sensitive subjects from our writing for the sake of purity culture. 

And on one more note in terms of the inclusion of trauma in fiction itself, also consider how a character’s trauma affects the people around them. How does a character’s suicide attempt affect their best friend? Does their mother recognize their disordered eating behavior? Is their mother the reason behind their disordered eating behavior? Does the character’s love interest cock a brow at them wearing a hoodie in summer and grow curious as to what they’re hiding? And even more: how do the people around your character influence or inspire or motivate them to get better? Or not? Are they steadfastly loyal and determined to help your character through their pain? Or do they feel as if it is not their responsibility to shoulder your character’s burdens and they would rather exit from their life completely? Your character does not exist in a vacuum, so it is important to consider not just the way in which they respond to the world around them because of their trauma, but also the way in which the world responds to them because of their trauma. Let your character exist in conversation with their universe and their social circle. Let your character’s trauma barge in and create a big, looming, unwelcome presence. Let your character work through their trauma in a way that feels believable, and let the people in your character’s life respond to that in a way that feels believable, too. 

Overall, just approach trauma with respect and authenticity. Create characters that feel real and believable. Don’t try to force your audience to love your character but rather work to create a character that is dimensional and messy like real people. Let your audience learn your character in the same way that we learn about other people in real life. Let their past trauma influence the way they act in the present and the way they exist within their world and among the people in their life. Do your research, be candid and honest, and above all handle with care. 

*Note that I am of course not the end all be all and I do not consider myself some sort of wealth of writing knowledge. I am only writing based on my own personal experiences and things I’ve gleaned from both college-level creative writing courses as well as both reading and writing fiction, specifically fanfiction, for years. 

[redspiderling]

MCU Breakdown: That b-roll called Endgame, part 2

This mess has been swirling around my mind all day and I can safely say that once I managed to block individual offences and look at the greater picture, I was able to reach a conclusion that might bring some peace to my mind and, hopefully, yours too.

We’re not here to once again simply exhibit how this movie failed to express itself in a visual way, we’ll go a step further because I’m an asshole like that.

We’re here to explain why the failure of visual expression cheapens the story-telling process and leads to an unfulfilling cinematic experience.

I’m adding a “read more” this time because I actually remembered to do it.

Let’s ease ourselves into this.

Exhibit 1: Not using any visual storytelling elements.

This is the moment Pepper realises Tony has figured out time travel. That they can -potentially- travel back in time and save trillions of lives. And it’s shot, like this

Like a picture from a furniture catalogue. I’m saying furniture catalogue not only because the shot is 80% furniture and 20% character. Not just because it is quite dark, and the pieces that are drawing the attention of our eyes are the various lamps and candles, bright and shiny in an otherwise brownish, muddy frame. 

This moment hasn’t earned its existence in our minds as an emotionally charged one. 

It’s not just that Tony was never the character who envisioned himself as someone capable of “settling down”. It’s that our brains have been trained for centuries to look for visual clues. The wringing of hands, the beads of sweat on a forehead, nervous gestures, restlessness. The symbolism of a storm in the horizon that trouble is coming. They’re all simple things but they’re layers upon layers of meaning.

The trouble isn’t just that the Tony we know is not the Tony we’re looking at. It’s that the way the story unfolds, visually, doesn’t fill us with dread. Instead we are left looking at an image of a somewhat peaceful existence void of any emotional charge. 

How this scene represents the “enormous scientific revelation will restore balance to the universe but will potentially ruin our family” sentiment, is an enquiry for me to make and for the Endgame show runners to never explain.

Exhibit 2: Using visual storytelling elements wrongly

To move forward from that significant for all its insignificance moment, it’s old news in the fandom that Endgame took the concept of found family and kicked it to an alternate dimension. 

What we are looking at here, is the New “But Actually Really Damn Old” Dream of the MCU: Typical affluent white heteronormative Heaven. 

And yet that’s not the problem. It is a problem, in the general “this is the 21st century and it takes a bit more to impress us” sense, but it’s not a problem from the perspective of a story. You can tell good stories for us all to enjoy that begin and end with this narrative, as long as you do it well. 

It is quite obvious that the basic concepts of visual storytelling are known to these people. And they do attempt to use them on occasion. We’re talking about visual clues that will help nudge the viewer in the right direction, so that when the moment comes, the viewer will have seen it coming and won’t get annoyed. 

Thus one could easily assume any form of foreshadowing is better than no foreshadowing, right?

Perhaps. But from my experience, certainly not in this instance. This is one of the big problems with this film, it is not certain where to draw the line on just how much does the viewer know? Is this their first MCU film? Second? Did they see Cap 1 and skip the rest?

Our story tellers don’t use all the information they have provided us with, and that creates traps for them. Even when they do attempt to warn us for what is coming they create more trouble for themselves. Because foreshadowing needs to be consistent. And dead ex girlfriends who got married more than 50 years ago, are not a likely candidate for a love story in the mind of the viewers.

Visual story telling is crucial and it needs to be consistent. You can show me hints that I will pick up on. 

Here's Steve in the Avengers. He's certainly a man out of time, with his old man clothes.   

Thankfully, by the time the Winter Soldier appeared, he was fitting in quite well in the world. A modern man now, with a modern attire.

So I'm left to watch in bewilderment and wonder, why is Steve back in his old man clothes in Endgame? 

When did this regression occur? Viewers are not idiots. Like I said, we are trained to pick up on visual clues, it's crucial to our survival in the world. If I see a monkey eat seeds from a tree and then die, I'll remember not to eat from that tree.

I see the attempt here. The lack of colour and hope in the frame where Steve gazes longingly at the old compass, the soft, dream-like orange of his perfect life with his little wife. I can take a hint. Do I want it though? Have you prepared me for it? Does it make sense in terms of the other visual clues you've provided me with over the years?

Exhibit 3: Shifting the responsibility

Did I mention how much Marvel lucked out with the casting?

There’s 0 visual language employed. There’s no symbolism, no light, colour or perspective of happiness, or hope, or hopelessness. The only thing between those two pictures that says Tony and Natasha are not having some really strange conversation with each other right now, is the expression on their faces.

The fulfilment Tony found in parenthood and Natasha’s heartbreak over Clint’s crimes is visible only through the talent of the performers, not through any visual clues the show runners left behind for us. 

Natasha stressing

Professor Hulk and Dr Strange paying their respects

Clint’s guilt

Wanda remembering her dead loved ones

Complex emotional moments laid entirely on the shoulders of the actors. Which isn’t entirely a condemnable thing, talented actors can pull strong emotions from their audiences, but they can only do so much. 

Lets reference a pop culture legend most of you will understand

We don’t remember Luke finding out the truth about his father just because  Mark Hamill is a really good actor. We remember it because in that moment, Luke had been brought to his lowest point. He was worn from battle, his life was hanging from a thread. Darth Vader was looming over him, the personification of everything he hated and in that moment he found out that a part of him came from that evil. 

That build up was the result of a well written script, of a masterful piece of music, a visual tone that brought us to the brink of a revelation. The performance was part of the tale that will be retold for generations. 

In conclusion 

While there have been literally dozens upon dozens of articles about fans and viewers and critics having “issues” with this or that in Endgame, the truth is that our real problem, is this mixed bag of hardly ever used, or wrongly used storytelling elements. One that has been building up to a disastrous result for years.

And while all that is the least of Endgame’s crimes in the eyes of a Natasha fan (I have a personal vendetta against the film at this point) I still can’t help but bemoan the loss of a singular opportunity for creating a milestone in cinematic history. 

Because if we can’t revisit Endgame for its story due to a complete lack in originality, and we can’t revisit it for its visuals, we won’t revisit it at all. And with it most of the MCU will go down as a piece of popular media that took the world by storm, but won’t have much to recommend it 10, 20 years from now. And isn’t that a shame. Edit: If you’re wondering why they messed up this badly, there’s a long list of reasons:

This wasn’t actually planned ahead. They didn’t write all the films from the beginning, they were making things up as they went along, so they created pitfalls for themselves.

They ignored the visual language.

They went along with weak scripts.

For Endgame specifically, they did ridiculously extensive re-shoots, which resulted in messy set ups (misplaced items on set, badly lit scenes, bad special effects) and bad editing.

They bit off more than they could chew with the amount of characters presented on screen, and never managed to create complete and fulfilling storylines for them.

Finally, they allowed bigotry and sexism to affect their judgement, thus placing the viewer against their narrative.

[gaychins]

i’ve been meaning to write about phoenix&apollo rs in aa5/6

but i guess first .. i need to go in what they did to phoenix in aa5-6 and what it meant lol - they frame him as this legendary attorney which like ok he IS but with that you have the judge acting as if he were still a rookie And his character acting as if it were still in aa1, his speech in aa5 against apollo abt trusting in your clients no matter that is Ridiculous considering everything that has happened to him like do we need a reminder of matt engarde? of dahlia? OF ZAK GRAMARYE? of everything that made him lose his badge? using ot is enough honestly because part of his development WAS realizing that believing in your client is just a mean to find out the truth and the TRUTH is the main thing but then in aa5 you have him… giving advice to athena&apollo abt believing in the clients & even belittling apollo for being suspicious when he has reasons for it lmao this retcon of phoenix that makes no sense also throws the entire premise of ace attorney in the trashcan you have phoenix acting oblivious, naive, w a saviour complex and completely selfabsorved (aasking apollo why is he making the case more difficult as if apollo’s best friend hasn’t died? lol)

in aa6 they keep this up with the selfabsoverment (phoenix asking a dude that has KILLED HIMSELF bc of the harsh law Why didn’t he simply go to phoenix like ? ?? ? ?? ?ok) and w phoenix emphasizing on the Believe in Your Clients until his aa2 ‘development’ happens in their last case which is EXACTLY like 2-4 case with maya being kidnapped and being used as hostage by his own client…. there’s no NEED to do any of that since we have ALREADY seen it happen before this is all what he has gone through before and it’s just RIDICULOUS - 

but ANYWAY the point is: they wrote him forgetting everything that has happened to him beforehand and completely nulled his flaws as if he could do no wrong since he is a 1) legendary attorney 2) saviour. now. we add that up with his relationship/dynamic with apollo. in 4-1, when they first met we have apollo idolizing phoenix. we find out he has looked up to phoenix and it’s prob not farfetched to say he was part of the reason apollo became a lawyer as well. so. we have that and then his conceptions/the image he had of phoenix being destroyed one by one as the trial goes - the first time he crossexamines phoenix, he keeps talking about how it’s impossible for phoenix to lie (especially UNDER OATH) it’s not possible for the Grand Phoenix Wright to do something wrong and then, well, you press him and you see phoenix being secretive and more cryptic not wanting to give information at the moment and saying he has not touched the bottle when they, actually, have his prints on it (it does not come to play the reason behind all that it was v wellplanned by phoenix+kristoph was the one to exchange the bottles) because its MAINPOINT is to deconstruct this image of phoenix we have and it ends with phoenix giving apollo the forged evidence as the breakpoint - and then apollo punches him.

so in aa4, their entire dynamic is not the best. we have apollo not trusting him+phoenix being cryptic and using him for his schemes - and even though he is called apollo’s mentor that is not…. what he is exactly? we barely see him until 4-4 where you learn everything abt what happened to him but that’s for the JURORS so apollo is still….. not involved really so, by the end, we have the acknowledge of phoenix knowing since the beginning that apollo is related to trucy and keeping it secret from both of them and using the kid to go against his ex-boss who killed his halfsibling’s dad (and gets his prosecutor friend to go against his own brother as well). tldr: their dynamic is MESSY, they don’t trust each other that much (by the end it has gotten better &even tho apollo has his issues w phoenix he still…… goes after him for validation the scene of ‘did you trust/believe me?’ w phoenix answering ‘not really’ is Smth) &it’s estranged w so many layers on it BUT, as a counterpoint, and like i mentioned earlier it does feel better by the end? and hopeful? with the postcreds we get w phoenix where he says it’s apollo time now so it feels like there’s room for growth between them AND phoenix to learn how to be a good mentor & a reconciliation between the two as bad as the reaction that apollo will have once he finds out that phoenix knew from the beginning about him&trucy lol 

HAVING SAID ALL THAT, we get to the Point of this post: phoenix & apollo in aa5/6. so. we have all that that happened in aa4 and what do they do? just like what they did to phoenix’s entire personality&flaws? it’s forgotten. apollo goes back to idolizing phoenix as if 4-1 had never happened before, with him going after phoenix for validation & simply looking up to him the Most when their dynamic&relationship were SO complex before and this ends up not becoming only a disservice to both but also uncomfortable. 

phoenix acting like he did nothing bad & apollo going after him as a Novice Attorney should just feels wrong & cheapens it down & it makes whatever phoenix say not feel GENUINE. they try to make you think phoenix cares about apollo but for example, in aa5, this is only related to himself - how could apollo leave their agency? how could he accuse athena & do this to both of us? and forgets things such as: trucy being taken hostage in the space place being because SHE WENT THERE TO FIND APOLLO so y’know? why is apollo never mentioned as someone they’re worrying about? isn’t he supposed to be there? and added up with the ‘oh i forgot about apollo’ jokes they kept and how that’s literally the only thing they keep from aa4 phoenix (apollo being the butt of his jokes), it doesn’t look good. 

and in aa6, especially HERE, where phoenix caring abt apollo and being Proud of him is the biggest thing & a supposed ‘closure’ to apollo’s arc(lol) it doesn’t feel good at all bc there’s no proper buildup !! it actually feels even more uncomfortable. with phoenix trying to act like a Good Guy & Good Boss & talking abt how he ‘saw’ apollo grow & how he is ‘proud’ of him while putting all the shit he did in aa4 under the rug AND w apollo not being allowed to be mad at him and only allowed to idolize him as a bonus. 

CONCLUSION: a mentor & apprentice dynamic that could’ve been interesting, a charac dev to phoenix that could’ve made sense&would’ve been good, were all thrown in the trash for an idolized & no wrong version of it that doesn’t feel fulfilling at all.

[crmediagal]

I Have A Lot of Thoughts...

Okay. I just got back from seeing TROS. Bearing in mind that I already knew the main spoilers involving my precious boy, Ben Solo, and my beloved ship Reylo, I still have So. Many. Questions. And a flippin’ series of disappointments to whinge about, so get ready.

!!! WARNING: #TROS SPOILERS AHEAD !!!

Lets start with the main and, for me, most important factors: Reylo and Ben Solo

At the end of the day, if Reylo wasn’t ever intended to be end game, I could have lived with that. I’ve shipped whatever the heck I wanna ship and written those ships in fandoms I’ve loved for years, regardless of their basis (or more often, not) in the canonverse. I’d have survived if there was no kiss at the end.

Back in early 2016, when people were still speculating that Ben and Rey were related, I was writing them as lovers and doting parents, so, erm, again, for me, the ship wasn’t contingent upon them becoming canon in order to hold legitimacy/meaning. It shouldn’t for anyone, really. Ship whatever you wanna ship, guys! Love them regardless of screen time or lack thereof!

That being said, I will cherish That Moment™ forever when the Reylo shippers got a glimpse of what this incredible coupling could have been. And in the actual canon material, no less. That’s more than I'd have ever expected to receive and, frankly, was enough for me to be satisfied.

HOWEVER.

I was fully invested in this trilogy from start to finish for Ben Solo.  And that is where I've been most letdown, disheartened, and pained.

At the off, sure, Kylo Ren made for an interesting archetype “villain” in TFA, but the moment we learned of his true identity, the Bad Boy™ appeal, for me, melted away. I fell in love with the tortured young man who had never really had the freedom of choice; who had the burden of war heroes for parents and a royal bloodline that traced back to Vader; who was abandoned by his family and left to navigate the enormity of his powers and abilities on his own. I was taken with Ben Solo’s troubled, many-layered complexity and this character took on a whole new meaning for me after TFA.

Like so many other Ben Redemptionists, I desperately wanted to see Ben Solo free of the torture he’d suffered all his life. And that life wasn’t long in years, unlike Anakin’s. By the end of Anakin’s life, he was more machine than man and middle-aged.

All the more reason that I needed to see Ben redeemed in this story...and allowed to walk freely in the sun. 

SW is built on forgiveness and redemption, after all, so why would they not bring Ben Solo back to the Light and take him where Anakin’s story never could go? The groundwork was laid in two films and reiterated in countless interview quotes the creators dropped on us for four effin’ years. Disney and the creators seemed as invested in Ben Solo’s redemption arc as the fans were, so I wasn’t too worried about seeing it come full circle. 

Hooooo boy. #MyBigFatMistakeThatIWillNeverMakeAgain

Ben Solo’s redemption, while earned in the last few minutes of TROS, was horribly cheapened when the creators decided to ‘play it safe’ by making him sacrifice himself. It wasn’t romantic and tragic, as I’m sure JJ and the creators were aiming for, but, rather, a Grade F example of very poor, very subpar writing. We got to see Ben for a few moments as himself whilst much of his storyline and importance in TROS was cruelly (and, it would seem, very purposely) reduced in the last film, too, when such plot for his character was supposed to be centre stage.

Less time devoted to Ben’s arc and then killing him off sends so many terrible messages, particularly for kids. You’d think Disney would understand that better than most.

Death is not hopeful. Redemption in the form of a young man, who was barely given the chance to live in Light and Love, dying as soon as his true self was realised isn’t hope. It’s been done before in this saga, as it has in many others, so it just makes the whole play-by-play defeatist and devastating. And after 40+ years of Skywalkers and Solos suffering in this universe, haven’t we ALL had enough of that, JJ? Disney?

They made Rey a Palpatine--a ‘surprise’ that had me actually laughing in the cinema and asking myself nervously, ‘Is this a joke?’--who takes the name of Skywalker to renounce her own bloodline but in the end, JJ, Disney, and the creators still sent us the same damnable, harrowing message: that Palpatine won.

#YIKES. That isn’t hope either, JJ! Disney! ABORT ABORT ABORT!

I thought JJ and the creators would be bolder than this PG-level crap. I thought Ben’s journey would be a true reversal of Vader’s, just as the director himself quoted not too long ago, and what did we get instead? Dusty old tropes and the sour takeaway that redemption will always come at a price rather than at its simplest, most exceptional form: the beauty of a second chance. 

In the end, Ben Solo’s never to know freedom from Darkness? He's never to have the opportunity to make right of his wrongs by living in the Light? He's never to grow old? Instead, he’s to die a too-young death in the hands of a woman who actually loves and cares about the role he has to play in this whole saga; perhaps, the only one who cares at that point?

That’s cruel, JJ. Disney. And, again, utterly hopeless.

Hell, Ben’s not even one of the Force Ghosts Rey sees in the last scene of the movie! (A convenient loophole, yes, and the flicker of an opportunity to, perhaps, bring him back but it’s a wildly overlooked mistake if that wasn’t intended by the creators...and I don’t think it was intentional to make him Not There™.)

I don’t get this saga anymore. I failed to grasp the overall message of Hope in TROS. At all. I’m beyond disappointed at the assassination of Ben’s character to give others, who shall remain nameless, more screen time and a beefier storyline which was, frankly, always quite thin to begin with. I feel like I’ve been cheated on...and it hurts so badly to be so letdown by something you’ve loved and supported for so long.

And some other ridiculous absurdities in TROS while we’re still here:

Why was this film ALL about Rey’s lineage, a direction that seemed to come out of nowhere when it was already established in TLJ that her background wasn’t important or crucial to her part in the story? She came from nowhere, so why did this become a central thing?

I’ll admit that I never really cared whether Rey was a Skywalker or a Kenobi or had any given name. I rather enjoyed the idea that she had built herself up from nothing. That was an empowering message, in fact, and a strong one, I think. It was certainly leaps and bounds better than the, ‘HA! GOTCHA! SHE’S PALPATINE’S GRANDDAUGHTER!’ reveal that was laid onto us way too thick in the Final Act.

Ew. Gross. No thanks. I hate it. Take it back. It’s a passe trick to try and pull on the audience at the last minute.

One of many more examples of poor writing by the creators, I suppose. 

Also, since when is Finn a Force sensitive? Did I miss something in TFA or TLJ that suggested he possessed that gift? No? Ah. More lousy writing.

Additionally, why does Finn spend the entire movie running after Rey? Why was his romantic storyline with Rose completely dropped and nonexistent in TROS?

It’s almost as if JJ and the creators were giving TLJ director, Rian Johnson, the middle finger throughout the entire finale that was this garbage of a movie. Nice work in undoing all the innovative things Rian brought to the saga, JJ. TROS is even worse™ than the Prequels...and THAT’s saying something.

Why did all the voices of Jedis past speak to Rey but never the helpless Ben Solo who had Palpatine raping his ear from the time he was a baby? It seems sketchy and unfair?

Again, lots of TROS makes little sense. It felt like an entirely separate movie to me--separate from the rest of the saga--and doesn’t wrap 40+ years of this series up all too nicely. It’s anything but. It’s confusing, heartbreaking, and leaves one without much hope.

So...we come to the end of my ramblings and wailings:

Ben Solo was the most interesting, convoluted, and beautifully crafted character from this new trilogy and a true redemption would have served the legacy upon which the SW saga is built--Hope™--so much better, including but not limited to its utilisation in making Han’s death carry meaning. Because his son would have not only returned to the Light but gotten to Live™ and experience it fully.

What a remarkably hopeful ending that would have been...

Instead, we got garbage writing and the redundant SW tropes.

Ben Solo deserved better. JJ and the creators absolutely wasted his potential in this story and I’ll be forever crestfallen..and retreating more and more into my own Ben Redemption fics because to hell with this elementary-level bullsh*t.

Han Solo deserved for his son’s part in his demise to not be utterly pointless at the end because, hey ho, guess what? YOUR SON DIED ANYWAY?!

Leia Organa deserved to not only see her son redeemed but to have that emotional reunion many of us were craving. She had already lost so much, but I guess JJ and the creators decided to just...serve the general more pain in the end. Wow. Rude. Such disrespect. Carrie Fisher wouldn’t have stood for it.

And Rey... My gawd, she deserved better, too. She should never been tied to Palpatine in order to make her seem more important. That grossly underserved her character.

She also should have had her other half. The yang to her yin. The only other person in the entire ruddy galaxy who understood her: Ben. She deserved to not be left alone at the end of TROS, just as she had started in TFA.

I’m going to go work on my WIP Reylo fic now and try to forget TROS entirely.

[addictedforbooksquad]

B O O K  R E V I E W

╙ T E M P T  B Y  N A T A L I A  J A S T E R

genre: fantasy, new adult, retellings

publication date: 17th October, 2019

rating (1-5 scale):

writing:   ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

characters & character development: ★ ★ ★ ★

could-not-put-it-down factor: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

general rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

*ARC received from the author in exchange for an honest review*

WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS!

 "...because if anything should be immortal, it’s books." 

4.5 wayward stars!

After "Torn", I was equally excited and wary for Wonder and Malice's story. Still, I could never resist the pull of those magical words - Hades and Persephone retelling.

While "Tempt" is at best only loosely based on that myth, it's definitely an unique take on it, subverting tropes and twisting tales until one cannot tell who is tempting whom, who is the darkness and who is the light as Malice and Wonder turn the pages and unravel the story of them together, with library as their underworld and their kingdom.

This is enemies to lovers romance at its best, where opposites attract only to discover they are not so different after all and that their interests align more than they could've ever suspected. Malice is deliciously blunt and evil at first sight, with multiple layers to peel off and discover he's more than that. Wonder gives as good as she gets and doesn't fail to be one step ahead of him in their battle of wills.

"What do you want more than anything?” he asks. “Don’t hold back, or I’ll know.” “To forgive myself.” There’s no response as they let the answer simply exist. And then she whispers, “You?” “To know myself.” “And what are you most afraid of?” Malice’s smooth chest rises and falls. “Same thing.” Wonder nods. “Yes.” The very same thing.

Aside from what is probably my favourite trope, this story also contains one that I'm usually most wary of - reincarnation. I'm not particularly fond of that theme in romance as it tends to get messy and somewhat...cheapens the romance for me? At least when handled poorly, that is.

However, I was satisfied with how it was handled here. Both Malice and Wonder take on a journey to untangle the restraints of their messy past and as they do it together, they also embark on individual journeys of self-discovery. They argue and bicker and talk until they get underneath each other's skin, below the pretty exterior and onto the rough and the difficult and the broken that lingers on the inside. Until they can recover from the past and release the guilt. Until they can let go. Until there's no doubt that when they speak of love, they speak of each other.

I would not hesitate to give this book 5 stars if not for one plot twist that I wasn't fond of at all - Malice's death and subsequent comeback (again!) to life. Don't get me wrong, as far as mythology of this series goes, the explanation for this happening makes sense. And don't get me wrong, it was beautifully-written and so heart-wrenching that I was a sobbing mess when I read it. But personally, I'm just not a fan of such a solution when it comes to climax of the story.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed this book immensely, to the point where I can safely say it's been my favourite from Selfish Myths so far. I loved reading about Wonder and Malice and their joint love for books and knowledge. I loved that what Malice loved most about Wonder was her mind and intelligence. I loved that they wanted to devour facts about the other with the same hunger they devoured books and mysteries of the library where they had fallen in love.

To sum up - "Tempt" is a beautiful tale where destiny and free will, fate and choice intertwine together in an angsty, painful and yet...wonderful love story, one that makes you go "I wish I had a love like this", one where "you're the smartest person I've ever met" equals a loud, screaming "I love you".

*sniffles loudly*

Do you know that feeling you sometimes get after finishing a really good story? How you're kind of restless to the point of it being unbearable but it's also the blissful satisfaction of discovering something that touched you deeply? And all you want to do after is scream "I HAVE FEELS" and for the world to hear you and read and weep with you.

I'm experiencing this feeling now. So please. GO. READ. THIS. And weep with me.

[rawliverandcigarettes]

Writing Questionnaire

Hello people, it’s been a while. I was tagged by the delightful @natsora in this one ! I tag @stories-of-arani, @kiranwearsscienceblues, @autodiscothings and @bronzeagelove if you haven’t done it and feel like doing this.

Short stories, novels, or poems?

I like all three, I have slowly warmed up to short stories over the years, and now I really appreciate this form as well.

What genre do you prefer reading?

I kinda prefer nonfiction like essays or autobiographies, and literary fiction. It’s been a while since I read a scifi or fantasy book that really managed to caught my attention, mind and heart (which is a shame).

What genre do you prefer writing?

I recently discovered I had a crack for realism, as in the french literary movement, of bringing out the mundane out of the extraordinary. It might seem super counter-intuitive, but I really feel like we get to touch the absurd and the heartfelt out of the human experience when we bring it down to just... living, and what it costs, and what it does to us. But that’s more for the general feeling; in terms of genre, I really like to write scifi, literary and horror/thriller.

Are you a planner or a write-as-I-go kind of person?

I do both, and it totally depends. I write short stories with very few preparation and I mostly pants them, but novels require more planning to remain coherent.

What music do you listen to while writing?

What goes with the scene. It can be indie rock, it can be soundtracks, it can be dark electro. Or, when I’m very very tired and need to hold the night writing, I can even turn to the unglory of eurodance and hardbass so I can bounce around as I write in absolute shame and agony.

Fave books/movies?

For the movies, I think my heart will forever go to the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which amazed me with new things to discover in storytelling, sound design, cinematography and much more every time I’ve seen it again since my first viewing at age 8.

For books, I’m not sure I could pick a favorite one, because let’s be real folks -I skipped reading a lot those past few years. So I’m going to go with Drawing Blood by Molly Crabapple, which is a fantastic autobiography that talks about politics from the 2000′s and later (the Occupy Wall Street movement, Greece, etc), the burlesque stage of New York, her life and self discovery as an artist and an activist, and fueled me with a fire to do things that matter. It’s maybe not my favorite book, but it’s the one that shook me the most those past few years.

Any current WIPs?

I have 3-ish at the moment.

Halfway Home is obviously the big one. I haven’t posted an update on this for the longest time, but I’ve been very busy doing anything but working on it, but I’m slowly carving the final outline. So much has changed you guys. I’m finally embracing structure a little bit more, and I think it does good to the story. 4 years on this bitch, still a mess. I really love it, but I’m starting to tire, not gonna lie. Still, I really need to get it out in 2019, because after I’ll be too much of a boring adult with regular income to do it justice.

I also have another project, for an original novel. I have the global outline already, and even though I need to research and polish a few details, I’m amazed at how fast it came together and how crisp the story is. It’s a major departure from the messy slug that is Halfway Home, and I even have good hopes to get it published someday. But I’m not getting to it before finishing Halfway Home, otherwise I’m afraid I will never find it in me to get back to the pain of it.

Then I have a short novel horror collection, in french. I have three quarters of the first novel, which might be the weirdest thing I ever wrote, about parasites and showers and green beans. It’s called “Gant de Toilette” (washcloth? I think it’s the correct translation), and I don’t even know.

If someone were to make a cartoon out of you, what would your standard outfit be?

Black top with long sleeves, black shorts, stockings and high heels, which is my standard everyday thing when I go out. Maybe my chainsaw necklace, even though I lost it recently :(

Create a character description for yourself:

She becomes colder the closer you get. Not much, but there is a flicker in the soul, the muscle tension -what was warmth and rageful empathy now comes with an afterthought, a plastic film maybe. You wonder if it’s egotic, if it’s dissociation, if anything before was ever true or meaningful, but you don’t ask, because if you ask, you suspect she wouldn’t know what to reply. After all, she lives within, so what does she know of herself.

(agreed, this is maybe not the most flattering portrait I could have made))

Do you like incorporating people you actually know into your writing?

I’m inspired by people I know, and I do incorporate parts of how I perceive them in my writing, but I don’t think I would straight-up pluck out someone I know from real life and put them in my story. It would feel wrong to me, and kind of uninteresting too.

Are you kill-happy with characters?

Hmmm good question. I think I am, like I enjoy killing off characters in meaningul ways and crafting the situation around, but it really depends on the WIP and whether it calls for it or not.

Coffee or tea while writing?

Both. Not at the same time, obviously, but I alternate. Cappuccino is also awesome.

Slow or fast writer?

Fast when I do write, which has not been extremely often lately.

Where/who/what do you find inspiration from?

.Everywhere really, since inspiration is but a patchwork of stuff we get to experience. Dreams are a big one; some of my most vibrants ideas come from dreams. Otherwise, reflexions on poeple, anxieties about the world and personal experiences are what drives me most of the time.

If you were put into a fantasy world, what would you be?

A low nobility in that subplot that isn’t going anywhere but still seems desperate to make a point.

Most fave book cliche? Least fave book cliche?

I think I just love the weird family of outcasts trope way too much for it to be reasonable, and I hate unnecessary romance or family links revealed to actualize characters’ relationships, because I feel like it often cheapen things or flatten them.

Fave scenes to write?

Two characters bonding bittersweetly. I can’t find any other way to describe that sort of scenes and I apologize.

Most productive time of day for writing?

Night. No question asked.

Reason for writing?

Self discovery, a way to make sense of the world, a way to speak to others with deeper layers than speech alone, and for the made up character my mind feels obliged to.

[oosteven-universe]

Eternals #1

Eternals #1 Marvel Comics 2021 Written by Kieron Gillen Illustrated by Esad Ribić Coloured by Matthew Wilson Lettered by VC’s Clayton Cowles     NEVER DIE. NEVER WIN. ETERNALS.     What's the point of an eternal battle? For millions of years, one hundred Eternals have roamed the Earth, secret protectors of humanity. Without them, we'd be smears between the teeth of the demon-like Deviants. Their war has waged for all time, echoing in our myths and nightmares. But today, Eternals face something new: change. Can they – or anyone on Earth – survive their discovery?    I do enjoy giving first issues a try and or chance depending on where it comes from.  Now I know little about the Eternals, even though Sersi was a member of the Avengers and she and the Black Knight had their torrid romance.  To me they sounded like the Inhumans and now it seems that the X-Men have the same means in becoming Eternals which kind of cheapens that which makes the Eternals so special in my humble opinion.  I am a big fan of Kieron’s writing and Esad’s artistic talent so it was an automatic decision that I was going to read this issue.  I am glad that I did too because Kieron doesn’t disappoint in the slightest as he utilises one character to draw me into the story and then solidifies my interest and intrigue factors with how he utilises the narration.    I adore the way that this is being told.  The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented is this amazing fashion.  The character development we see is phenomenal and how it’s being presented to the reader just exemplifies why I am such a fan of Kieron’s writing.  Between the dialogue, narration and how they act and react to the situations and circumstances they encounter work together to create these characters and turn them into relatable people.  The pacing is superb and as it takes us through the pages revealing the story and where they are at since their last encounter is incredibly well done.    How the book is structured and how the layers within the story emerge keeps us guessing as to what’s to come next.  The way everything works together to create the story’s ebb & flow is beautifully done.  I also greatly appreciate that this is new reader friendly and that anyone can pick this up and enjoy the story for what it is.    Oh goodness the interiors here are so utterly gorgeous.  The linework is the definition of exquisite and how the varying weights and techniques we see are being utilised to bring focus to the details that we see is stunning.  Esad does a really nice job in incorporating backgrounds into the composition of the panels.  They not only enhance the moments but bring this great depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story.  The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels shows a brilliant eye for storytelling.  The colour work here is utterly stupendous!  The techniques utilised to lay the colour down is simply brilliant to say the least.  How we see the various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work is sensationally rendered.  Two things, one Sigh really no full frontal and two those geometric shapes we see is a mic drop moment. ​    This is the kind of story that I live for.  It is also the kind of series that Marvel doesn’t tend to let cultivate into one of the most long lived series either.  This is very intelligently written and there is this complexity and substance to what we see and read that sets this apart from the rest.  This is the kind of book I want to see, need to see and will defend to the end because this how I envision Marvel Comics.  So don’t put them into the giant crossovers and let them develop the way they should, organically without being forced into some ideal that doesn’t work for them.

[magicofthepen]

Gallifrey Relisten: A Blind Eye

The end of Series 1! (I will admit I had to stop myself from immediately jumping into Lies because that’s when things really get going for me.) Some thoughts:

Mentions of/spoilers for: Neverland, Zagreus, Spirit, Insurgency, Enemy Lines, the Time War audios (but in a vague way).

Romana announces her name and title and then immediately follows that up with “I want no record of my being here” lol.

This episode is the closest we get to “everyone has to dress up fancy for an event” and it’s a shame we don’t get more of this! I would love more off-world and/or dress up episodes that are less......dire probably isn’t the right word because there’s some heavy things going on in this episode...maybe frantic? There is definitely a difference between the degree of tension in A Blind Eye and the degree of tension in the off-world episodes in Time War, for instance. (Also A Blind Eye has more banter.) I’m pretty sure it’s just A Blind Eye and Spirit that capture this sense of “we’re going to do something different for an episode” and I like it! (I feel like this is part of my ongoing push for a post-Enemy Lines, pre-Time War series of misc. CIA missions and shenanigans. Please someone just shove more side adventures into gaps in the timeline.)

The banter! The banter. (“You have your business face on. / You’re a transtemporal crook Arkadian, meeting you could never be a pleasure.”) 1. Arkadian is a supremely entertaining villain, and 2. he’s a tremendously good villain opposite Romana specifically, purely for snark and banter reasons.

I was never a big fan of the Sissy Pollard portrayal — the character’s personality feels too....exaggerated? Over the top? And not in an effective or interesting way.

Romana’s defense of Charley is actually quite sweet, given that they weren’t super friendly in Neverland/Zagreus.

Romana chastises Leela for careless talk, but uhhh if you wanted to keep things subtle and not reveal anything, maybe don’t have Leela suddenly grab Sissy?

“Madam, the Alps are in the other direction.” “Are they? Damn.” / “Be careful, you’ll break it!” “I’ll break you in a minute.” Truly, maximum levels of scathing Romana snark in this episode. 

I have never seen anyone mention this, so I always assumed I’m not hearing it right, but....when the original!timeline train is about to crash into them....does Romana tell Narvin to fuck off?

Andred has a whole scene with no other Time Lord witnesses in which he could have told Leela the truth and yet.

“I am a Guard Commander of Gallifrey” apparently I never paid enough attention to what he actually said here because I think that was the first time I noticed that Andred gave his Chancellery Guard title, not his CIA title.

“Arkadian! You’ve met with that crook!?” Shoutout to Narvin for some A+ false indignation here.

I’m not sure there was a way to write a parallel between between real world Naziism and Leela’s fictional past without having it come off a bit as oversimplifying/cheapening the horrors of Nazi Germany. (But I’m white and raised Christian, so I’m also really not the person to be speaking in depth about the portrayal of Nazis in this episode.)

Does Arkadian know about Andred? I assume that he would just because he generally knows most things, but hmm it adds another layer.

Narvin is genuinely surprised when Romana gives in and agrees to leave lol.

Ms. Joy — it’s funny because we the listeners know that the one random character must be there for a reason, so it feels like the only reason the characters don’t know she’s suspicious is that they don’t know they’re in an audio drama episode and so she must be important to the plot.

Did Narvin really intend for Romana to go with “Torvald”? “At least he’s have been exposed?” Way to throw your President under the bus sir (although possibly he assumed that Torvald wouldn’t actually assassinate the President?)

“See, it is always a monster.” Wait, I take it back, Leela knows she’s in a Doctor Who (adjacent) episode.

“The only name in town where there’s temporal naughtiness to be done” — the Arkadian = Brax crack(?) theory is the most “I can’t unhear this” thing that’s happened to me since Narvin/Torvald. What is it with y’all and Series 1, I’m losing it. 

...does Andred have a plan when he lowkey kidnaps Romana or is he just panicking? He is quite genuinely pleading with Romana to go along with him into the TARDIS and sounds genuinely desperate. But then he seems to regain control and starts more tactically trying to persuade Romana to work along side him without giving her any real answers. Although really, he must know that he’s very close to discovery — maybe he wants to resolve the past!Torvald situation first? Or maybe he’s not thinking that far ahead?

“I have no paws.” Awww K9.

“I think you’re a bad President. I think you’ve willfully sacrificed Gallifreyan influence upon the altar of your own increasingly cranky liberal agenda.” 1. “increasingly cranky liberal agenda” is such a specific insult wow, 2. I can’t tell how much of this is Andred still trying to be Torvald and how much he actually means this? The politics of this incarnation of Andred were always a bit fuzzy to me, even in series 2.

Also. Any conversation between Romana and Andred has a whole weird vibe on relisten when you know about the uhhh future murdering that’s going to happen.

I do love a Dramatic Reveal, and this one is incredibly dramatic.

....does the train crash? Does the train not crash? I’ve always been a bit confused about what happens in that moment — I assume Romana doesn’t actually plan on the train hitting the TARDIS, and we hear the TARDIS dematerialize so I think the train is fine? But it’s a weirdly ambiguous sound/end of scene.

“I can tell you are lying. It’s when your lips move.” Okay Leela snarking at Arkadian is also very good.

It is genuinely so interesting how connected this plot is to Neverland/Zagreus — if I had to pick one “you should listen to this audio before Gallifrey” I'd go for the Apocalypse Element because of the enormous ripples it casts in terms of Romana’s characterization (and also it’s more stand alone), but I imagine this episode would be particularly confusing without Neverland/Zagreus? (Would be curious to hear people’s experiences.)

“I never lie!” Romana, that’s the biggest lie you’ve ever told. 

The narration of what happened to Andred by Andred and Romana is um. It’s a little bit obviously an info dump for the listener, but I’m not sure it’s the best way for Leela to find out? I mean, hearing the context and explanation probably was a better idea than just “oh btw I’m Andred”.....possibly this felt weird to me because of the acting? It’s very emotionally detached, very “so this is what happened” — Andred manages some emotion afterwards when he’s pleading with Leela but uh. He could have sounded more apologetic here.

Leela. Leela. “You have watched me suffer and worn my enemy’s clothes?” / “The man that I loved is dead.” Goddddd I want to give her a hug so much ughhhhh. Leela just goes through so many awful things throughout....all of Gallifrey actually, and she still remains such a good person with such a genuinely caring heart......give her a break please.

“I think the only person who’d actually benefit from a temporal war would be a...dealer in arms? A trader in secrets? A fixer and a fiddler. A dishonest broker with no scruples and no shame.” / “An interesting theory Madam. Prove it.” I just really like the delivery of this bit. Although: I realize there were several things going on at this point, but really, they just let Arkadian walk away at the end?

And thus ends Series 1. It has some highs and lows but it honestly ranks near the bottom on my constantly-in-flux list of favorite-to-least favorite Gallifrey series. (Weapon of Choice is probably the only episode I actively look forward to relistening to?) I said in my Weapon of Choice post that Series 1 was a nice “palate cleanser” after Apocalypse Element and the Charley arc through Zagreus, and that was true for the first time listening, but I think some of those same attributes mean I’m kinda meh about relistening to it. It just doesn’t hold my interest quite as much as many of the other series. (Series 2 though....👀)

EDIT: I realized I forgot to tell my personal story of my first time listening to the Andred reveal, and I wanted to have some record of that, even if I don’t quite remember the specifics of my reaction. In general, my first listen of Gallifrey was shaped by knowing a lot of major spoilers, which is what happens when you spent a lot of time lurking on Tumblr blogs in advance of listening to the series. (It actually led to a lot of super fascinating experiences of “well I know X happens, but I don’t know how or why” and being really curious to find out how X played out.)

So I knew something about Andred and Torvald going in, and I think I should have known that it was simply Torvald = Andred, but somehow I got it in my head that oh no, no it’s weirder and more complicated than that. But of course there are a lot of hints throughout series 1 that Torvald is Andred, so the first listen was this cycle of me going “I think maybe Torvald is just Andred? Nah, it’s going to be more convoluted than that. But no really, it makes sense that Torvald is Andred...” etc. etc. So it was a weird experience of knowing pretty early on that Torvald might be Andred, but still not being quite sure until the end of series one. The other bit of this is that I can’t remember at what point I knew that Andred died (and how) — I think I may have known he died before I listening to Gallifrey (or at the very least I knew that he was written out in some way or another earlier on), so that may have also confused me further re: the series one question of: what actually happened to Andred? All around, an odd experience of “I was spoiled...but somehow I still wasn’t sure what was going on” and I wasn’t surprised per se but it was still a reveal. 

Next Episode Reaction: Lies

Previous Episode Reaction: The Inquiry

[dustydreamsanddirtyscars]

Beautiful pictures of Paris! Including the ones with you, silly! Regarding your quick thoughts on the Wayward episode-I’m right there with you. It did indeed feel forced and in particular Brianna’s portrayal of Donna. Claire being sold as this bad ass hunter who’s been on her own all this time? No, just, no. Kathryn’s acting is flat and boring. Dull? One layered? Pick one. Hell, pick three. (To quote Dean). Where is this superb acting ability I keep 1 of 3?

reading about, cause I sure ain’t seeing it. The best part of the episode was the campfire scene. The worst (how do I choose?) was the quickie rescue. Talk about premature evacuation. I was looking for to relaxing and having a cigarette afterwards and wham, bam, thank you ma’am it was over. Please. Two famed hunters couldn’t find a glowing rift between dimensions. Wandering around for two days... So unsatisfactory. Lazy and ruined any suspense earned up to that point. And please explain to me why Sam and Dean would be Hill enough to drive off leaving Jodeo and crew to handle the rift and all who came thru.Monsters never seen before. Not to mention the robed figure that they encountered much less the possibility that GIGANTOR might as well. Two LEO’s/a part time hunter/former Vamp, a novice hunter who is a legend in her own mind and two newbies. Dean especially. Ok with that? Uh, no. The Sam and Dean I know wouldn’t just leave them like that.

Hello dear anon!

Thank you! xx *blushes* Paris was cold and a bit rainy, but definitely very beautiful. :)

As for the rest of your messages: It is good to know that I was not the only one feeling kind of “underwhelmed” by the episode and especially in departments that could have easily been executed and handled better. It is kind of sad that that didn’t happen when the potential was there...

I actually usually always really like and enjoy Kathryn Newton as Claire on Supernatural, but I feel the way Claire was written for this episode just didn’t connect. And I mean, the girl is really busy shooting quite a few different projects, so she has shown on multiple occasions that she can act imo (like I said I like her portrayal of Claire a lot in episodes prior), so maybe it was really that the direction/writing wasn’t the best that lead to this end product.

I LOVE Donna most of all the characters tbh, but yes I have to agree that a lot of the scenes with her felt ott, which pains me, because like I said Brianna is such a sunshine and Donna is so lovely, but in tone this episode/backdoor pilot just a had a handful of issues imo.

LOL, you are right the rescue in itself was a bit anticlimatic to say the least. Especially the fact that they supposedly were incapable to find the rift when Kaia and Claire found them like... immediatley when one would expect that of Sam and Dean were there for two days, they should have been quite a few miles away at least ;P That is what I mean with “bumps in the road” and lazy writing. *hides* Sam and Dean leaving like that is also part of the “plot demands” it, but really in character it doesn’t make any sense, which is an approach we have seen way too often under Dabb’s showrunning. Sam and Dean needed to be gone because they can’t be part of the WS and the other way around, but yeah... mehhhh in execution. Though I have to say I had thought the rift had closed, so I’d assume Gigantor as you called it :) will not have come through (and I think with these smaller crawler thingies they would be able to fight, but again it is “plot demands”), it was Dark!Kaia that deliberately was able to travel worlds and opened it up again. And that of course seems to be framed to become the myth arc, whereas Claire’s homecoming as mix of Sam’s college days but with Claire as Dean in spirit will build the emotional backbone of the show. But like I said, for me it is too much relient on SPN in how it features lines and themes from SPN - it cheapens it instead of giving it gravitas imo, but anywayyyyy....

The hooded figure/traveler reveal to me seemed very much foreseeable to begin with right from the start LOL. Meaning that it was Kaia herself. I do like the aspect though because I felt it did cleverly parallel with Dean and the MoC arc and how Kaia may have lost a part of herself when subconsciously dreamwalking and needed to become whole again - it seems like a very direct Charlie and Oz parallel. But of course one could also see all this as “Unoriginal” since we saw it on SPN before, but since this arc was one of my absolute faves I don’t mind in this regard too much. :)

[flightybuttlass]

okay, who wants some Ragna-thoughts:

starting with the very end, THEY’RE DOING ASGARD TO EARTH, I DID NOT EVEN CONSIDER THAT POSSIBILITY!!! That was my second favorite Thor run of all time and to see it play out on the big screen was so neat, I just wish we could see Thor summoning the entire kingdom to Oklahoma!

Okay now back to the beginning, I literally wept during that first fight scene bc a) I missed my baby boy so much!!! and b) that shot that followed the hammer in a circle was the sickest shit I’ve ever seen

Thor in his midgard outfit was so fucking precious. He looks so comfy in his jeans and like 4 layers of shirts and jackets

I did not see Doctor Strange, but like... where does his bitch ass get off being the #1 earth defender now, when I’m pretty sure he got his magician gig like... 6 months ago? Wadn’t he a selfish prick up until then? and implying that he could school Loki in magic? I don’t fucking think so. A+ for Thor destroying his house, 10/10, would watch again.

the beginning really did a good job of just how important the hammer is to Thor and all the cool ways he can use it, like in a way better way than all the other movies did. Him just casually throwing it around was really neat, and totally what I would do if I had such a thing.

and another thing this one did better (aside from, like, EVERYTHING, but I digress) is emphasizing Thor and Loki’s brotherhood. Loki wasn’t there to be a villain, he was just a terrible little shit brother, and Thor actually knew all of his tricks, which makes waaay more sense than “Are you ever not going to fall for that one?” bc they are brothers! Thor would know him better than that, and in this one he fucking did.

On that note, I could tell going in that Thor would be goofy and a little immature, but still observant, and they delivered on that. He was so sincere, and sharp, and emotionally mature when they moment required him to be. He just felt like such a well-rounded character and I am eternally grateful for that!

anyway I LOVE MY BEAUTIFUL DRUNK GF

Valkyrie was so cool and relatable! The whole “drinking to forget” angle totally worked, and I’m glad they took the time in the beginning to show she wasn’t such a serious character, which is a trap that so many of these action movies get into with their female leads. She fell off that ship and into my heart!

And her chugging that drink in Hulk’s room was the biggest mood

AND HER BEING BESTIES WITH HULK MADE MY ENTIRE GODDAMN LIFE

like the two of them play fighting and being all chummy?! A fucking delight! A++++!!! And the fact that she and Bruce couldn’t figure out how they knew each other? So cute! That relationship was the big winner in my book

That part with Thor admitting he wanted to be a Valkyrie as a kid? It got so awkward, but I was still totally like “LET HIM BE A VALKYRIE THO”

Speaking of Hulk, when they showed his ass, all I could remember is that post that said “I’m afraid this movie is gunna make me want to fuck the Hulk” and how that is about to be true for.... a handful of you fine folks

humanizing the Hulk is another thing that this movie actually went out of it’s way to do, best hulk appearance by far, AoU and Avengers can suck it

That being said, but did anyone find Bruce kind of... Annoying in this one? I get that he was freaked out for a grip but like, 0/10 for charm, snark, and cuteness, wasn’t generally very useful to the plot either

I was like 10000% sure they were mocking the whole AoU de-Hulking process when Thor gave it a try during their fight, but then the video of Nat was the catylist for his return to Bruce, so like... that ball was dropped after all. I cannot for a second pretend that my heart didn’t skip a beat when Thor tried that tho, like “YES ITS THUNDERHULK TIME!!!”

On that note, I’ve called you all here today to make a very important announcement. I’ve done some soul searching and have come to the conclusion that BruceNat was never good and I am ready to denounce my time stanning for it. I will not be taking questions on the matter.

like seriously, to borrow a phrase from the McElroys, every time they brought it up, my skeleton completely left my body and ran off. This movie in general gets a 5/10 for skeleton evacuations, 6/10 for watching it through your fingers, and a 3/10 for taking your glasses off so you don’t have to see the humiliating jokes

 the joke I laughed the hardest at was Korg mentioning his mother’s boyfriend, who he hates. Describing Korg as “scene stealing” is an understatement, he was the fucking treasure of the movie.

The Grandmaster was flawless as well tho, just fucking delightful.

I’m seeing it again on Saturday with a date and I can’t wait to catch all the jokes I missed, bc the crowd tonight was cracking up so dang much that I missed a few punchlines.

Second funniest moment tho was Thor describing how Loki would turn into a snake when they were kids, and then stab him. Just some boyish fun :)

I didn’t miss the Ares and Beta Rey Bill easter eggs on the grandmaster’s tower

Thor loosing an eye? Heart wrenching, and totally surprising too! If he doesn’t still have the eye patch in Infinity War I will be very upset. I also wept during the second fight scene with Immigrant Song bc it was just so rad and my lighting prince is just so strong and stalwart! 

Just in general, Thor’s lightning powers were so much cooler here than any other appearance bc it actually seemed like something he had to work to access, not just blast out at will. I guess that was because he didn’t have the hammer to channel it? but at any rate his powers felt both more personal and more fierce, not just like something he has. This one just added so much more depth to Thor in general 

Hemsworth was just fucking hilarious and cheeky and really kept the balance in the movie. All of the slapstick (and there was A LOT) didn’t cheapen any of the character’s roles, maybe save for Bruce’s, who was generally the weakest character there by far.

I can’t wrap up without mentioning how they really made an effort to make the people of asgard seem more racially diverse, and while not perfect, it was a noticeable effort that needed to happen

anyway 10/10, exactly what I was hoping for, I owe Taika my life.

Its still second to Winter Soldier in my book, but a fucking close second for sure

feel free to talk to me about the whole thing I am so ready ^^