#I don’t care if these fictional people deserve a redemption arc sometimes life is just people improving slightly

[macbethz]

The whole idea of the “redemption arc” has become such a charged and specific phrase in fandom spaces for no reason to the point that like it doesn’t even really mean anything as a concept anymore. like once you get into conversations about who “deserves” a “redemption arc” I’m automatically like oh we are entering a territory of internet discourse I don’t give a shit about and also you are probably talking about cartoons for 12 year olds

[w3bghost]

I think dazais character is truly morally gray, what ‘morally gray’ characters we often see in fiction are characters we conveniently label “morally gray” don’t even deserve the title they’re just good people who had done a few bad things, or bad people who had done a few good things but Dazai is truly in the middle, he has done to meany good things to be bad but to meany bad things to be good, I mean he’s abusive ruthless and won’t think twice to manipulate others and made a living hell for Akutagawa but he also saved atsushi from himself giving him a home when no one else could accept him, this isn’t enough to forgive him of course but it still proves he isn’t a fully bad person Most morally gray characters tend to switch back and forth between two sides, right? Lots of writers depict them doing kind things more often while on the “good side”, and doing cruel actions more often while on the “bad side”. But that's not the case with Dazai. Dark Era Dazai was terrifying - he shot innocent people, manipulated his subordinates, abused people, and many more. But he was still good, in his own way. He helped Chuuya cut ties with the Sheep, who were obviously using him for his powerful ability, despite having only met him for a day. He genuinely cared for Odasaku, willing to risk his own life to save his friend. In the ADA, he seemed more compassionate. He gave Atsushi a home and cared for all the members of the ADA. But although it’s subtle, he was still evil. It’s more obvious in the manga - since the anime tends to focus on his humor and suicidal tendencies more.

For example

Yes, Dazai didn’t directly abuse Aku anymore after being in the ADA. But if he was truly a good person, he wouldn’t have taken advantage of Aku’s emotions, thinking that he had every right to control him. He would have acknowledged Aku and sincerely apologized for abusing him. 

You can’t deny Dazai doesn’t have a trace of his PM tendencies left in him even after being in the ADA

That’s the depth about Dazai’s gray morality - no matter which side he’s on, he'd always do an equal amount of good and bad things. I’ve seen lots of people think that Dazai underwent his "redemption arc” in the Dark Era, when Oda died, just because Dark Era and ADA him are opposites. But now that I think of it, his moralities never even changed. He never had a redemption arc. His way of viewing people and the world are still more or less the same. The only reason Dark Era and ADA Dazai are different is because he changed his mannerisms, and obtained more will to live. “Oh, then why did he join the agency?” Because he wanted to honor his best friend’s dying wish. He still doesn’t care about “good” or “bad”. Even Oda knew this - that’s why he said this line to Dazai: “neither good nor evil means much to you, I know” I’d like to believe that a part of Dazai's kind actions are genuine, but you cannot tell me that this man, who didn’t give a fuck about shooting innocent people, is unconditionally kind all the time. We can never guess what’s going on in his head, but I’m sure that he sometimes puts up a facade of being kind, in hopes that one day, it’ll become real. Now, you’ll notice that most morally gray characters undergo a meaningful redemption arc before joining the good guys - which implies that the writers think only post-redemption them belonged in the good side - that pre-redemption them will never be able to become “good”. but Dazai? He joined the agency without undergoing a redemption arc and still passed the entrance exam. What does this mean? From the start, Dazai already had the potential of becoming both "good" and "evil". He would have fit in either organizations perfectly. Mori just happened to find him first. It’s just the matter of timing. 

[bluebxlle-writer]

Dazai’s morality and what makes him different from other “morally gray” characters

Everyone knows that Dazai is morally gray - but I only recently realized how he’s different from other “morally gray” characters we often see in fiction. 

Most of the time, those characters we conveniently label “morally gray” don’t even deserve the title - they’re just good people who had done a few bad things, or bad people who had done a few good things. But Dazai is truly in the middle - he has done too many bad things to be good, but too many good things to be bad.

He’s abusive, manipulative, ruthless, and made life a living hell for Akutagawa. And yet- 

He was Atsushi’s savior - giving him a home when nobody else would accept him. Although this still isn’t enough to forgive him for what he did to Akutagawa, it still proves that he isn’t fully a bad person. 

Now, here’s when things start to get more interesting. Most morally gray characters tend to switch back and forth between two sides, right? Lots of writers depict them doing kind things more often while on the “good side”, and doing cruel actions more often while on the “bad side”.

But that's not the case with Dazai.

Dark Era Dazai was terrifying - he shot innocent people, manipulated his subordinates, abused people, and many more. But he was still good, in his own way. He helped Chuuya cut ties with the Sheep, who were obviously using him for his powerful ability, despite having only met him for a day. He genuinely cared for Odasaku, willing to risk his own life to save his friend. 

In the ADA, he seemed more compassionate. He gave Atsushi a home and cared for all the members of the ADA. But although it’s subtle, he was still evil. It’s more obvious in the manga - since the anime tends to focus on his humor and suicidal tendencies more. Take a look at this manga panel : 

Although it’s implied, it’s clear what he did - he slept with the nurse only to obtain information. He manipulated an innocent woman without hesitation, as if it’s a daily habit. No other ADA member would have the heart to do this, even if it meant saving the world or whatsoever. And let’s not forget this anime moment that made all Aku stans’ blood boil : 

Yes, Dazai didn’t directly abuse Aku anymore after being in the ADA. But if he was truly a good person, he wouldn’t have taken advantage of Aku’s emotions, thinking that he had every right to control him. He would have acknowledged Aku and sincerely apologized for abusing him. 

No matter what your argument is, you can’t deny that Dazai doesn’t have a trace of his PM tendencies left in him even after transferring into the ADA. That’s the depth about Dazai’s gray morality - no matter which side he’s on, he'd always do an equal amount of good and bad things. 

Alright, last point, I promise. I’ve seen lots of people think that Dazai underwent his "redemption arc” in the Dark Era, when Oda died, just because Dark Era and ADA him are opposites. But now that I think of it, his moralities never even changed. He never had a redemption arc. His way of viewing people and the world are still more or less the same. The only reason Dark Era and ADA Dazai are different is because he changed his mannerisms, and obtained more will to live.

“Oh, then why did he join the agency?”  

Because he wanted to honor his best friend’s dying wish. He still doesn’t care about “good” or “bad”. Even Oda knew this - that’s why he said this line to Dazai: 

I’d like to believe that a part of Dazai's kind actions are genuine, but you cannot tell me that this man, who didn’t give a f*ck about shooting innocent people, is unconditionally kind all the time. We can never guess what’s going on in his head, but I’m sure that he sometimes puts up a facade of being kind, in hopes that one day, it’ll become real. 

Now, you’ll notice that most morally gray characters undergo a meaningful redemption arc before joining the good guys - which implies that the writers think only post-redemption them belonged in the good side - that pre-redemption them will never be able to become “good”. 

But Dazai?

He joined the agency without undergoing a redemption arc and still passed the entrance exam. 

You see what this means? 

From the start, Dazai already had the potential of becoming both "good" and "evil". He would have fit in either organizations perfectly. Mori just happened to find him first. It’s just the matter of timing. 

Dazai’s morality is truly in the middle. 

[myleftpinkytoe]

Part of what makes fiction and fandom so interesting is that it really shows how much people are willing to forgive once empathy is established, once a person becomes a PERSON.

There are lots of fan-favourite characters that are just SO relatable and SO kind but have ALSO done objectively terrible things. If, in the real world, someone told me the basic bones of what certain characters did, my first automatic thought would be "oh, so that person is like, bad." But when it's characters I feel like I KNOW, who's stories i have followed, who I have watched grow and change and regret their actions, when THEY do or have done those same terrible things, I... don't think that. It's a very similar feeling to when a close family member/ good friend does something bad in real life, where I KNOW that they aren't a bad person, because I KNOW them, and I KNOW that they just made a mistake and regret it and that they deserve forgiveness. But... more, in fiction, because I've never had a friend commit any war crimes (that I know of >.>).

The real world implications are interesting. I often see/ hear people make throwaway comments about how people in jail don't deserve basic human rights (covid saw a spike in these opinions being aired). And I think I see where those people are coming from, even though I disagree. It's easy to say that people who steal, for example, deserve to go to jail, when "stealing" is placed in abstract terms. But when you remove the abstract, and add in the person? When they may have had their reasons, or their situation may have been desperate, or maybe just made a mistake??? That "prisoners aren't people" reasoning falls away, even ignoring the possibility of innocent people being charged. And fiction really helps us practice feeling that empathy and helps us recognize that good people sometimes do bad things

Some people in fandom HATE fan-forgiveness. There is a not-insignificant part of fandom that decries such things, because x character doesn't "deserve" forgiveness, or because they think it perpetrates the idea of getting away with murder (sometimes literally) with no consequences. Often, it is pointed out that "sexy" characters get forgiven more frequently/ easily. That last argument especially is a fair criticism, but I think the issue there is that ugly characters should also get more forgiveness. The other two arguments are more... wiggly. Debatable. Subjective.

You can tell a lot about a person by how much they're willing to forgive, in a fictional character or otherwise, because it speaks to that person's morals and how they view redemption. It's very hard to quantify human suffering, but we do it every day. How much good must someone do to make up for the bad? When someone says "this character hasn't done enough to be redeemed", that is a statement of their view on moral balances, and how they've quantified that suffering. And that's not even mentioning the question of "who is to blame?" If I steal an artifact, and that action triggers a war that leads to thousands of deaths, am I responsible for those thousands? What if the political situation was such that a war was almost guaranteed to happen anyways? Am I to blame, or does responsibility rest on the politicians who declared the war? Did Gavrilo Princip kill 20 million people, or did he just kill one: Franz Ferdinand?

The thing is, there's no easy answer to those questions, but fiction provides a good place to practice our answers.

When I see people writing redemption arcs fanfics, or loving a good character redemption, what I see is a human belief in forgiveness. A real hope that people can change for the better, and move past what they have done to do good. There is still a sense of moral balance, a need for consequences and to right wrongs, but we WANT them to be better. We cheer for the villain who does the right thing. And I like that. I want more of that.

It's so easy to look at someone on the surface, see the bones of their story, and judge them. To put them in neatly labeled boxes of "good" and "bad". And maybe some people ARE irredeemable, but in my experience, the vast majority of people can do better. What's more, they want to do better. Want to BE better. I really believe that no one wants to be "evil": they just stop caring about being good. And if there is no forgiveness, then why would someone care about being good? If I'm put in a locked box labeled "bad" with no way to get out, then why should I try to be any different?

Forgiveness gives people the opportunity to be better. Fiction has long explored that, and the realm of fandom explores that as well.

[sparxwrites]

aftermath: the director’s commentary

you can read aftermath here on tumblr and here on ao3.

as always, this is about the characters and not about the ccs.

cw for discussions of exile arc, and the canonical associated abuse, suicidality etc. also for mental health problems, specifically anhedonia, and a deep dive into abuser mentality, and hypothetical character death.

since i feel compelled to explain how this extremely convoluted and specific fic came about, without me having written any of the backstory required for it (which i may do at some point, but don’t hold your breath), here goes:

it started as a bunch of ramblings at a few people in discord about dream getting tortured in prison, because i enjoy writing about torture, and then it continuing as me rambling about a bunch of other things that were on my mind at the time:

1) that one tumblr post (that i can’t find and so will badly summarise) about how fiction sometimes uses suffering as a form of redemption, and how that interacts with people’s moral intuitions about what’s necessary for redemption. and how “suffering = redemption” doesn’t really make sense because “i did a bad thing” and “i got badly hurt” are unconnected, and the pain doesn’t fix the harm done and the harm done doesn’t make the pain deserved.

2) a lot of @scripttorture’s (a blog about torture, aimed at writers) discussions of how torture is actually extremely ineffective on a number of levels (generally a bad way of coercing people into giving up information; generally bad at making people change their opinions or perspectives on stuff), and mostly just fucks with people’s heads really badly in the short and long-term and makes them angry at/resentful of their torturer.

3) a bunch of discussions (and a number of zines, mainly feminist anarchist ones) about the various failure modes of community/restorative justice. namely its handling of rapists and other people who commit the kinds of crimes that are motivated by desire for power/control, and/or by the knowledge that they can, rather than by need or ignorance; and about what you do if you can’t just kick someone out of the community and make them “someone else’s problem”; and the harms that attempting to rehabilitate someone who isn’t sorry and doesn’t really care about being rehabilitated can do to the community trying to rehabilitate them.

4) how one goes about living in a body that has been made alien to themself, and/or how one deals with an abruptly acquired disability/disfigurement, and/or how one deals with a dissociation between mind and body. this wasn’t triggered by anything specific, this is just kind of a theme i periodically come back to in fiction because it interests me.

all of which are applicable to dream, who bounced from attempting to drive a teenager to suicide for what was apparently shits and giggles/a power trip/whatever weird compulsive obsession he has with “owning” tommy, to being put in inhumane solitary confinment, to beating the same teenager to death with his bare hands, to being brutally tortured on a daily basis. and who, in this universe, is removed from said prison cell because a lot of people on the server have strong moral intuitions re: you shouldn’t do that kind of shit to people even if they are fucking awful human beings.

but then, of course, you have to deal with the person you remove from the cell. the person who is physically and psychologically disabled by the torture he experienced, and therefore needs ongoing medical care for the foreseeable future, and probably social care and support for the rest of his life. and who is also an unrepentant abuser and murderer. and who, due to the specific nature of his acquired disabilities, is also now largely incapable of being a physical or psychological threat in the way he was before. and who has harmed, directly or indirectly, most of the people in the only community available to him so badly that the majority of the community can’t bring themselves to be around him.

like. how do you begin to reckon with that? as individuals; as a community; on an intellectual, emotional, moral/ethical, social level… how the fuck do you deal with that?

what does community justice look like for murderers and abusers? when is someone's punishment "over"? is it possible for someone to "suffer enough" that their sins are considered forgiven and/or small enough in comparison to what they've suffered that their sins can be overlooked? what do you do with someone who clearly would still be doing Bad Shit if they could but is just now physically incapable of it?

i have zero answers for these questions, really, but this fic is an extremely half-assed attempt at beginning to explore that.

and then there’s also dream’s side of things, where you’ve got a) the perspective of someone with an utterly alien mindset/moral system (i repeat! this guy psychologically destroyed a seventeen year old for fun! not even fun and profit, really just fun.), b) this awful twisty “regret but not remorse” thing, where he regrets that his plans didn’t work out, but feels pretty close to zero remorse for all the fucked up stuff he did, and c) the kind of self-reckoning that one has to do after prolonged torture and isolation that has caused severe, long-term, and permanent consequences.

i think… fundamentally, as a character, dream is very lonely, and very fucked up, and very… i don't think he even understands what motivates him to do the things he does. i think he does a lot of lying to himself, and i’m not convinced all of it is unconscious/accidental.

my impression is very much that he's driven by… not a compulsion exactly? but something adjacent. he doesn’t always seem in control of himself, certainly not in terms of when his temper breaks through of the rigid self-control and disinterest that he tries to project all the time. which i think is a huge motivator in needing to control everyone else! this need to reassert this lack of control he perceives towards his own behaviour (as in “god, it’s hard work making sure i behave ‘correctly’ the whole time”, even if his idea of what counts as correct behaviour is fucked).

there's a kind of desperation to him constantly, even when he's doing his Big Bad Villain mode, and this kind of blankness, this complete lack of joy or amusement or anything, even when he's gotten exactly what he wants. he sounds so vaguely, manically gleeful when he's doing his Big Bad Villain speeches, but when he actually gets what he wants - tommy under his thumb, the discs, whatever - he seems so disinterested in it. doesn't give him any pleasure. like, sure, he still does whatever it is he’s planned to do – but it's this weird, going-through-the-motions, "this didn't make me feel good like i thought it would so clearly i’ve got to escalate" kind of mania-and-anhedonia-and-self-delusion edge to it

i don’t think prison is, per se, helping him with any of that. i think prison is probably substantially making it worse. i think him realising that god has his face is also probably making it substantially worse.

and i think, crucially – despite all of this – there is still no excuse for what he’s done. yes, i think he’s fucked up and a bit tragic, in the “pathetic” sense of the word. but he leaned in! he leaned into that desperation, that compulsion, and used it to justify an escalation of his pre-existing bad habits (i.e. being controlling/possessive). and he leaned into the way his emotions are fucked to justify switching them off even further. and the logical conclusions of “i need everything under my control” and “i don’t really feel things any more, including empathy” is “all of these people are my possessions, and i’m entitled to do with them as i want”.

is there a bit of him beneath all that, a bit still capable of emotions, that misses his friends? that knows what he did might not be okay? that wishes he weren’t fucking driven by this compulsion in the centre of his chest? yes. yeah, i think there is. is he doing literally anything about any of that? no. because he’s too caught up in his own bullshit and his own justifications to want to do anything about it. and that’s the really big, fundamental issue here – not that people who do the stuff he’s done are incapable of changing, but that he doesn’t want to.

anyway. all that to say– i usually like “and then they Healed” as the ending to the stuff i write, but i do upon occasion also like kind of Weird stuff where sometimes where it's not… it's not not healing, it’s not a traditional tragedy, but it's not really healing either, because there's no going back to what you were before and probably that's not even a good idea, but also you can't just change. you can't just fundamentally undo a huge part of who you are (that clawing desperate need for control, the ease with which treating people like objects come to you) and you're not sure you want to, even if you could, and a part of you wants to stay the same just to spite the people who tried to change you– but you have changed, and now you're just this person, inside this body that's been made alien to you, this single person in a house reduced to rubble that's full of fucking ghosts. and that's just something you've got to live with.

[silvysartfulness]

I've gotten a whole bunch of new followers since I started making The Untamed content about a year ago, and I think it may be a good time to introduce myself and this blog to the newcomers.

Hi! ♥

I'm glad you find this chaotic mess entertaining enough to want to stick around!

That said, if you don't feel comfortable with who I am and/or what I post, just unfollow at any time, no explanations needed.

I'm Silvy, I'm a Fandom Old, 40+, and have been involved in online fandom since the late 90ies.

I'm neurodivergent, Aspie/ADHD and some spare change. I hyperfocus on things, and love to analyze fictional characters and tropes, especially things to do with the messiness and complexities of human nature and emotion. At the moment, as should be obvious, I live in the The Untamed universe, especially the Yi City corner. (You don't get emotions much messier and more complex than that!)

I have always been fascinated by ”villains” - the people who don't act like others do, who are different, and who hurt people, sometimes without meaning to. (Sometimes very much meaning to.)

I love redemption arcs. I've grown to realize there's a this recent phenomenon happening online where people claim certain fictional characters don't ”deserve” them. I think that's utter bullshit, and an extremely negative and destructive mindset to have. People should always have the chance to change and do better. Everyone makes mistakes. Some worse than others. But while no one ”deserves” forgiveness, unless it's freely given, everyone should have the chance to change, move on and be better.

I have always been fascinated by fiction as a medium to explore the messiness of humanity. Of how people hurt each other and heal each other and grow either way. The mess of who people end up loving, or hating, or - bittersweetly - both at once. In my opinion, that is the very purpose of fiction – the mirror held up to explore our own humanity, without suffering any of the negative consequences of reality. Yes, that includes the really problematic stuff. Yes, all the problematic stuff. Fiction is not reality.

I have 100% understanding for people who don't want to watch or read certain things – don't self-harm by engaging with content and creators that makes you angry and upset! I also have 0% patience with people demanding others conform to their particular standards of purity. It's everyone's responsibility to curate their own online experience. Haters will be blocked.

I'm queer (no, queer is not a slur.) Non-straight, asexual, married to another woman for 6 years now. I'd say a majority of my best friends are trans or otherwise non-cis. If you’re cis and find trans/non-binary/intersex/non-gender conforming etc people strange and frightening, by all means – stick around! I reblog quite a lot of trans-positive content. Maybe it'll offer insights! Any TERF-rhethoric will be blocked and shut down on sight, though. This is a safe space.

I'm Swedish. Socialism works. Just saying. 👍

These are simple facts – if any of the above is a dealbreaker, just click unfollow and everyone will probably be happier in the long run. :)

The less problematic stuff: I'm a professional illustrator, though currently on more or less permanent sick leave. Despite sometimes crippling social anxiety, I also ended up teaching art classes - Life Drawing and Concept Art - at the local university, and was often told I was one of their most popular and well-liked guest teachers. I'm self-taught as a writer, though I am a sponge when it comes to prose and language, so for any skills I have picked up over the years, I can only thank those whose works I have read throughout my life.

I like trying my hand at most creative crafts; painting, woodcarving, glasspainting, pewter pouring, looking to try out resins soon maybe..? I take tons upon tons of pictures. If you know me better, you have probably been exposed to my random ”Look at pretty thing X I saw today!” photo-assault. (It's a love language. ♥)

I used to study archaeology at university for years, before sidling over into a creative career as a museum-illustrator, and then onward to other projects from there. It's amazing what a 100.000+ year view on humanity will do for your sense of perspective! People are people. People have always been people. We are all one people - and diversity in culture, ethnicity and language is one of the most beautiful arts of our human race. Our differences and samenesses always to be equally celebrated. (Now if we could only get better at looking back and learn from previous civilizations' mistakes so we'd stop repeating them...)

I like cats. And betta fish. And purple roses (I used to collect purple rose cultivars, before I got too fatigued to be able to take care of my garden properly. Some still live! Rhapsody In Blue is a trooper, if you want a really hardy purple rose! They can even live in pots, if you don't have a garden.)

(See, I told you I could never resist a chance to share a photo...)

I am very, very forgetful. I got my neurodivergence diagnoses very late in life, and by then my brain was so burned out, it's permanently damaged. Fatigue, memory problems and concentration issues are things I always struggle with. If I ghost you, it's not because I'm upset or dislike you – I either missed your message, or forgot about it, or just didn’t know what to say. I'm sorry. I'm trying my best. ♥

I believe in kindness.

I try to be kind and understanding, and meet others with patience. It's taken me a lifetime fraught with generous amounts of trauma to learn to feel strong, comfortable and mostly at peace with myself, and I have very little interest in conflict or drama.

That's about it, Silvy all summed up.

Wishing all you a happy weekend!

[carpisuns]

am i the only one who thinks that the twitter thread (astruck's newest one) was more of him talking of the stans than the character nd her arc? because i dont think it was a statement of chloe's arc (it will just spoil stuff so and he wouldnt want to spoil so-) sorry i dont want to rant in your inbox i was just wondering if am i wrong and what you might think about it?

(twitter thread here)

That’s what I’m hoping tbh. Thomas of course wouldn’t give away big spoilers and I know he likes to troll a little sometimes lol (although that’s not what this was). When he called chloe irredeemable at the time of miracle queen I didn’t want to believe him either and I assumed he was just protecting spoilers. But...the fact that he went on such a huge rant about Chloé seems telling. From everything I’ve seen, it seems like he genuinely dislikes Chloé as a character and simply doesn’t want to redeem her because she represents a stereotypical selfish, rich brat who will never change—a type of person that Thomas appears to have a personal animosity toward (maybe because as a creator he gets too pushed around by the people with the money, like Jeremy Zag?)

I kind of get the feeling that if a Chloé redemption is planned, it’s against Thomas’s wishes lol. Or, more likely that his inclusion of an arc is reluctant because he would prefer to keep her as an antagonist as a symbol of that type of person he dislikes. He really seems to resent the fan support Chloé has gotten. Like, “I created this rich, bratty monster—you’re not supposed to like her! Why do you like her? I’ve done everything I could to make her terrible! She’s a villain!!” Haha. And I totally get the frustration about Chloé stans who say, “She’s never done anything wrong, she’s just misunderstood uwu she deserves so much better and Marinette SUCKS for not just giving her what she wants constantly”...that attitude is really frustrating/exhausting for me too lol. Yes, Chloé’s relationship with her mom is sad, but that does not excuse her terrible behavior, and when it comes to Marinette and Chloé’s relationship, Marinette is the victim, not Chloé. Redemption has to come from Chloé herself. It’s not something that can or should be granted to her by Marinette or anyone else. She has to take a good, hard look at what she’s become and consciously choose to be a better person. She has to earn her redemption on her own through consistent effort to do the right thing (not just a one-time show).

That being said, Chloé is a fictional character and has no agency, lol. If she’s going to be redeemed, the writers have to write her that way. Maybe Thomas’s comments about Chloé aren’t a reflection of his plans for her in the show, but the way he is seeming to dismiss the growth she has displayed does concern me. He also said the other day that Chloé does not genuinely care about Adrien at all—that for her, it’s all about social status (X). I keep feeling like any redemptive potential I see in Chloé is at odds with Thomas’s vision of her, so...yeah, I just don’t know anymore lol. Like, I totally get that Chloé is terrible bully who has caused sooo many problems (and the few she solves are usually ones she started) and that despite many chances given to her, she still keeps falling short. And that’s what Thomas seems to want to focus on. But like I said in my post, the handful of moments where she actually does do the right thing hold more narrative weight, because they’re different from the usual (the same way it is more significant to a story when a good character screws up). In real life, Chloé’s small moments of remorse and do-gooding would probably not amount to much, but this is a story, and their intentional inclusion means something. I’d like to believe that self-redemption is still in Chloé’s future, but I’m trusting the writers on this and keeping an open mind, and I’ll try not to be too bitter about it if it doesn’t end up happening haha.

[iheartbookbran]

Anthony, Penelope, Marina and Colin deserved better...

Beware, rant ahead

Ok I wish I didn’t feel such strong need to continue beating this dead horse but oopsie, I will very much be beating it some more.

Like, my fave books of the Bridgerton series are Anthony’s and Colin’s books, so I’m seething about what they did with their characterizations, Anthony and Penelope in particular, because Colin’s only real sin was being boring, and if you remember how funny he’s in the books it makes me wanna fall on my knees and ask Chris Van Dusen whyyyy omg why would you do something like that to such a dynamic character. So yeah, Colin is boring af and a moron but at least he isn’t an asshole the way show Anthony and Penelope are, and I’ve seen people say that they can always be redeemed in future seasons, if we get them, but that’s exactly my problem, because they never had to be redeemed in the books, to begin with. Penelope more so than Anthony but let me begin by defending my boy.

Is he a jerk sometimes? Sure. Is he actively awful and uncaring towards those close to him, especially his family? Hell no, quite the opposite, in fact. Not to be controversial on main but in the books... he was right in not wanting Daphne to be courted by a man who he knew damn right had no intention of marrying her and as far as he was aware was only making her waste her time, and he was right in demanding Simon pay for compromising her honor. Could he have been more mindful of what Daphne had to say and listened to her wishes? Of course, but considering Simon and Daphne (both in the show and in the books) aren’t exactly masters in communication themselves, Anthony doesn’t come off as the biggest offender in that situation.

What he never did was force Daphne, or any of his sisters really, to do anything; if they didn’t like a guy then that guy was out of their lives no question asked, and he loved them enough to always have their best interests at heart, for his sisters and his brothers, to the point that even though he’s traumatized and thinks he’s gonna die young he’s still willing to get past that to do his duty and marry, because he doesn’t want to pass that burden on to his little brothers (so him deciding to leave all his responsibilities to Benedict so he can fck off with his mistress is... like, a choice lmao). In fact all the subplot with Siena felt like a choice on the writers part, like they truly liked Benedict and Sophie’s story so they just slapped it on Anthony so he could act all sad and sexy while they gave us foreshadowing with the subtlety of a warharmer that he’s ending up with Kate anyways (and that Benedict is ending with Sophie anyways too, so they would be using that storyline twice, unless they do make him bi and fall in love with a man, but maybe that’s too much of ask for this show), so what was Siena’s purpose in the story? Who tf knows not me.

Now Penelope, my god. Yes I know I joke Penny has never done anything wrong in her life, and I still love her, but she was wrong. Very much so. What she did was significantly worse than what Marina did, which I still don’t condone at all. Like yes, I still maintain that Marina tricking Colin into marriage was wrong (and I’ll go later on why that whole subplot was racist af), but what Penelope did could have not only ruined Marina and herself and her sisters reputations, but it was basically condemning an innocent unborn child to a life in the streets, that’s messed up. Even if Marina was rose-coloring her potential life with Colin and he might have grown to resent her, at least the baby would’ve been alright. And my problem with that whole subplot is that all of it was resolved so neatly, with Sir Phillip sweeping in to save the day so we don’t have to actually see what Penelope’s actions could have caused, but the implications are still very much there.

And I’m cracking my mind trying to figure out whether the showrunners just... really hate Colin’s book and Penelope as a character so they’re trying to inflict some kind of character assassination on her so they can get away with writing him off with another person without causing much outrage, or if they just thought there wasn’t enough ~drama~ or stakes on their book so they have to add them, and give him some kind of bullshit tragic romantic past to explain why he doesn’t want to marry, whereas in the books, the reason he doesn’t marry anyone is because he doesn’t feel like it, and that’s ok, there’s no need for every character to have a tragic backstory and to be riddled with angst; Colin is that character, he’s an easy going guy who’s just not interested in marriage until he falls in love with Penny AND THAT’S VALID, just because he doesn’t have the most complex motivations out there doesn’t mean he isn’t a compelling character. The stakes in his story after he discovers Penny is Whistledown are, as he points out, that she has insulted so many people there’s no way some of them wouldn’t want to retaliate if word came out, and he cares for her and doesn’t want her to get hurt (there’s also a dumb part about him being secretly jealous of her accomplishments as Whistledown, but thankfully he gets over that pretty quickly).

But while I am on that, it is true that Penelope wrote some uncharitable things about the mean people around her, but she never ever ruined someone’s reputation, let alone endanger the future of a child. Was she a bitch sometimes? Yeah, but she was also kind to a lot of people and her criticism was never unwarranted and never did more damage than maybe annoy a couple of girls like Cressida. I just hate the idea of this needing to turn into some sort of ~redemption arc~ for Penelope because, again, in the books she really didn’t have to make up for anything, definitely not to Colin, who was actually the one who had to do much of the heavy lifting in their relationship when he realized that he literally slept on her for years.

And now regarding Marina, like yes, she was wrong and I stand by that statement (but not as wrong as Penelope), but tbh I find it hard to be mad at her when they gave her such a racist storyline, as the scheming woc who gets pregnant out of wedlock and then tries to seduce the innocent white man, until the virtuous white girl needs to step up to save him. At least that’s what I thought initially as the writers intention, but honestly I’m not so sure anymore, I doubt they will continue to write her and Colin as a couple otherwise they would’ve bothered to show them interacting outside of her manipulating him and him acting like a bumbling idiot, the most sincere moment they had together was when he comforted her about the lie, but by that time this bitch (me) was empty and didn’t give a shit anymore. Literally all their other interactions where shown through Penelope’s POV to let us know she was sad, and Colin’s most significant scenes where again... with Penelope (because it isn’t as if he has a family and his own moments in the books outside of being an object for Penelope to pine after).

And as I said before, Marina had a—relatively—happy ending: married to a man she doesn’t love (just as she didn’t love Colin) but who will treat her right and care for her and her child in comfort. Is arguably a better ending than if she’d married Colin because now she doesn’t have to go through the trouble of explaining things to her new husband and run the risk of him resenting her forever. Phillip may not love her but he knows who he’s marrying and why he’s marrying her. That’s literally the same fate Marina had in the books, and it makes me wonder why, oh why would the writers do that.

Why create such a contrived plot to give a character who appears in one(1) chapter of an 8 books series then promptly dies, all at the expense of the characterization of one of the most beloved heroines of said books series? Why would you write this racist storyline for a character whose fate is dying? And now I’m horrified at the repercussions that can come with Marina committing su*cide like in canon, because the implications would be that Penelope would be responsible for it (and I hate the idea of blaming one person for the su*cide of another, fictional or otherwise, is harmful and we need to be careful with making such implications), which would make her even less redeemable or like, likable in general. Not to mention that would be like putting the final racist nail in Marina’s coffin by giving her that ending.

It makes me wonder, seriously, if Chris Van Dusen hated Romancing Mister Bridgerton that much, if he loathed the idea of writing a fat character finding love and getting sex that much. I just wanna know why lmfao.

[acourtofglass]

some of my (probably unpopular) acotar opinions

because I can like and enjoy a book series, but still be able to critique it :)

- acomaf is better than acowar, but they’re both better than acotar.

- i love Feyre, but she is too perfect. i feel like when she became fae, she lost any character flaws she had. it’s not as noticeable in acomaf because she’s recovering from so much trauma, but in acowar and acofas she is just too perfect and everyone treats her as such. 

- i did not like acofas (sorry!) i would give it 2.5 stars out of 5, maybe 3 if i’m being generous. the way the inner circle treated nesta was horrible and feysand was just too much sometimes, ya know?

- i don’t ship elain and lucien or elain and azriel. i just don’t really care about elain lol.

- i just want mor to be happy :( (and i don’t care what anyone says, i don’t want eris to get a redemption arc)

- i saw a post that said if nesta was a male character, everyone would be swooning over her and i couldn’t agree more. the way the inner circle treated her in acofas was terrible and she deserves to have some space and heal. (and can we please stop slut-shaming her for sleeping with other people than cassian? she obviously isn’t ready for a relationship yet).

- i hope that in the next book (acosf), nesta gets to heal on her own before she and cassian get together, like feyre and rhys in acomaf. and i hope that when she heals, she doesn’t all of sudden worship feyre and rhys like many other characters. that doesn’t mean that i don’t want them to get along, i just don’t nesta to be like “feyre and rhys were right all along and i was a horrible person” because she has a right to be upset with some of their actions, just like feyre has a right to be upset with some of nesta’s past actions.

- on a similar note, i want nesta to be able to find her own group of friends in acosf. it doesn’t mean she can’t get along with the inner circle, it’s just that i think she deserves to have some space from them too. 

- tamlin the tool is horrible and i don’t like him, but feyre and rhys were too over the top in acofas. just leave the dude alone. however, i still don’t want a redemption arc for him. 

- i’m not really excited for the feysand baby. i really liked when feyre said she just wanted to experience life with rhys for a while before starting a family, because i’ve never really wanted kids and i don’t like when books end with the main couple having kids. it just felt a bit rushed including it in acofas.

- sjm needs to be better about writing diverse characters. i’ve always pictured the illyrians as non-white, but her description of them just as “tanned” is way too ambiguous and i can definitely see how it’s confusing for people. 

- rhysand’s actions in acotar with feyre under the mountain are horrible and shouldn’t be excused. if they happened in this modern world, i would never support the romance between him and feyre. however, in the deadly world of the fae, it kind of makes sense since their morals and ethics are so different from our world. especially since “the greater good” is a pretty common ethical dilemma in many fictional novels. also i think we tend to forget that rhys went through a lot of trauma and abuse with amarantha to survive? once again, not excusing his actions, but it explains them.

however, it’s completely valid that some people don’t feel comfortable with feysand because of acotar. not everyone will like the same books as i do.

- i want to see more of viviane and kallias and the winter court. (and the court messenger foxes!!!)

- people whitewash lucien wayyyy too much.

- this is probably a popular opinion but it should be a court of silver AND flames. no. just no. there has to be the “and” or it isn’t right.

let me know what your unpopular opinions are or feel free to discuss mine! 

[takerfoxx]

She Ra and the Power of Redemption!

A’ight, so, She-Ra’s coming back in a few days for their final season. Obviously I am SUPER excited about it, but before it drops, I need to get something I’m kind of worried about off my chest.

See, I’ve talked before about my big pet peeve in fiction, in which good or at least sympathetic characters do really bad things and don’t suffer appropriate consequences, sometimes because the writer just doesn’t understand the weight of what happened and wanted to rush a redemption arc or maybe get a little dirt on their heroes without really considering the implications or wanted to do something shocking and was clumsy and/or lazy about or even felt that they were justified even when they clearly weren’t. It’s even killed a few onetime favorite series of mine.

And I see the potential for She-Ra to make that same mistake here. And I think anyone who’s seen the show and has interacted with the fandom knows what I’m talking about.

I’m talking of course about Catra and Hordak’s potential redemption arcs.

Catra’s redemption is topic number one with the fans, because everyone wants to see it, but most people want to see it done right. The Catradora thing is the fuel on which the fandom runs, and I know quite a few people that would pop dem bottles if it were to become canon. And I totally get it: Catra is a magnificently written character, one who is super compelling, complex, and sympathetic, and her dynamic with Adora is just dripping with all sorts of tension. It’s the best friends to lovers AND enemies to lovers in the same package. Who wouldn’t want to see it?

Except, there is a problem...

See, one thing I have highly praised this show for is how, despite being a show targeted toward little girls, it paints a very realistic picture of abusive relationships and handles the subject with all the seriousness it deserves, from how they’re formed to how they continue to how the cycle goes from abuser to victim to next victim to so on. Horde Prime abused Hordak, Hordak abused Shadow Weaver, Shadow Weaver abused Catra and Adora, Adora broke free while Catra did not, Catra then abused Scorpia, Entrapta, Lonnie, Kyle, Rogelio, you get the picture. And they show it so wonderfully, in all of its forms.

But that leads us to that problem, and that is despite definitely being a victim of abuse, and despite all of her sympathetic qualities, Catra is still a terrible person! She became as much an abuser as Shadow Weaver, with how awfully she treated Scorpia, with backstabbing Entrapta and manipulating Hordak, with bullying her subordinates, to everything she’s done to Adora and all the lives she ruined from her exploits as Hordak’s second in command. She masterminded the destruction of Salineas, sent Entrapta off to die, treated the only person who has given her unconditional love like shit. Her damage and insecurities have driven her to worse and worse behavior, up and to including almost destroying the fucking world just so Adora couldn’t win again! TWICE!

Basically, after handling the abuse themes so well, it would really, really suck for her to just be taken back and forgiven like nothing had happened or only minor consequences after she inevitably switched sides, because that carries the message, however unintentional, that abuse victims should forgive and take back their abusers, that it’s up to them to be the bigger person and invite those who hurt them back into their lives, which history has only shown will just restart the cycle all over again.

However, all of that does not mean I don’t think Catra is beyond hope, or that she shouldn’t be redeemed at all. She is absolutely a victim of all the terrible treatment Shadow Weaver and Hordak put her through since childhood, be it physical, mental, or emotional, and I am NOT about to hold an emotionally traumatized teenager to the same standards I would hold those more fortunate. Plus, we’ve seen how much her actions haunt her, from her nightmares about Entrapta to her psychological breakdowns to everything Double Trouble exposed about her. And I do truly want what’s best for her.

So how should the show go about it? Well, I think my half-joking wishlist from earlier just about covered it: after switching sides and helping the Alliance ward off the Horde, Catra should leave. Whether or not she makes amends with Adora, whether or not she’s forgiven, Catra needs to leave those she’s hurt and go somewhere else to start over, to separate herself from those she has so many insecurities about and work on bettering herself. Because after everything she’s done, she really does need to put in a lot of work in order to properly fix herself before she can even think of reforging relationships with Adora or Scorpia or Entrapta. 

And honestly, I still think the Crimson Waste is perfect for her. She thrived while down there. And it does seem like it’s been set up specifically for her. And then...maybe a few years down the line, after she’s come to grips with herself...well, we’ll see.

Now, as for Hordak...

Look, I like the guy, I honestly do. His relationship with Entrapta gave me life, seeing how he was literally grown in a vat to be Space Hitler Jr., it’s no wonder that he turned out like he did. 

Buuuuut...he’s still a murderous despot with buckets of blood on his hands. I’m sorry, but he can’t have a switch sides, now it’s all good happy ending. He just can’t. 

Fortunately, even though he was far worse, his possible redemption has an easier solution. You know how Horde Prime restored him to factory settings, wiping his mind and sending him off to be processed or whatever?

What if he stays that way? What if he never gets his memories back? What if Hordak, the evil conquering dictator that ruined so many lives, just stays gone? But the newly wiped Hordak, upon encountering Entrapta, is able to recall just enough to know that he cares for her, prompting him to break free from Horde Prime’s control for her sake? Call it the Kubo and the Two Strings solution.

As for Shadow Weaver...no. Just no. She has no redeeming qualities at all. Everything bad that ever happened to her are a direct result of her own actions, she doesn’t have the brainwashed/designed that way excuse that Catra and Hordak have, she’s never done a single decent thing since becoming Shadow Weaver, and even after switching sides has continued to manipulate Glimmer and gaslight Adora. No redemption for her. And since Noelle has said that she hates killing off characters, I don’t see her getting killed either.

So just swap her for Angella. Send her to the other dimension and get our girl back.

And as for Entrapta and Double Trouble...dude, I don’t even know. Like, they also did bad things, but they’re kind of in their own weird moral worlds, and I don’t want to let them off the hook but also can’t fathom how that would even work...

You know what? They’re the weird exceptions that prove the rule, I guess.

(also note that even if they botch this, it probably won’t kill the show for me, as it’s still a kid’s show and it has built up a ton of good will, so my overall feelings will still be very positive, I’d just be bummed that they dropped the ball in this one, albeit very important, area)

[valhalla-awaitsfor-us]

My bad opinion: Monoma doesn't deserve the treatment he gets from the rest of UA. Aizawa legit choked him out and he doesn't even know the kid. Mirio calling him the dark side of UA is bad as well. Also why does everyone resort to hitting him when he's in a manic mood. I understand it's funny but I wish they showed class B being nice to him during his manic mood once. Also Kaminari calls him mentally ill everytime they meet and it pisses me off that people ignore that. 1/2

Heeey there, whats up, Anon? Nice to see meet you

SO. Let me talk a little bit about this whole Monoma situation (And yeah, I already done this in other post, but I love writing rants, and you give me a perfect excuse. Thanks)

Bakugou 

Im gonna start poiting out something that may seem out of the blue for some people who know me. I do NOT dislike Bakugou at all, hell, Im even a bakudeku shipper and their relationship, I think, is one of the few reasons I still feel draw to the story. 

I feel like is natural that people cares more for Bakugou than for Monoma. For starters he is a main character, and for that reason he gets a lot more of screen time. Also he is good looking, and people tends to overlook bad characters developments when the characters in question are"hot"

NOW, HAVING ESTABLISHED THAT.

Yes, Bakugou has more screentime than Monoma. Is reasonable that Monoma is not the favorite. Now, why is that a issue?Because there are significant flaws on the story and in the development of characters.Yes, Bakugou is a main character that has more screentime, and yes, he does have emotional moments in the sotry that make you feel or him.  And yet is not enough. And plase keep in mind that Im not here saying he deserves the worst of fates because he was a bully. I suffered from depression and anxiety all my life, and people on school bullyed me in horrible ways for that same reasons. And yet, I can tell that BNHA is a fictional piece of media. I can discern between reality and fiction.Probably because I’m a filmmaker who studied about this,  but I learned that a review of a piece of art cant be done focusing in only one specific point, because if you do, you lose sight of the biggest picture. Yes he was bad, but what is the author trying to say here? How is the author writing the character development?  I think Horikoshi does knows what future he wants for Bakugou, i do truly think that he wants this to be a big redemption arc, and put Bakugou and Deku side to side as the greatest heroes ever for the end of the story…. But…. Horikoshi struggles a lot with character development. A lot of people who likes Bakugou, excluding those who just like him for his looks, do it because they can see the potential and get the general idea.Which is great. but the character development, at this point of the story, is just not enough.Not enough to justify a lot of Bakugo current actions. Hell, even my bakudeku heart was disappointed with the movie because the structure of the story was weak and Bakugou arc went to nowhere. Instead of meaningful conversations or actions between characters (Wich there a few are ofc, I almost cried watching Deku vs Kacchan) , we have to assume the Bakugou aggressiveness is just endearing now. And that’s just not how this work. 

I realy hope Horikoshi gets better at writng Bakugou develoment because I truly think he could be such a good character. Im rooting for him.

Now, how I connect this with Monoma?

Monoma

Monoma, just like Bakugou, can be a “problematic” character. (God hate to use that word) but the differences between the both of them are crystal clear.

1) Monoma is not a main character, so even if Bakugou is this aggressive and short tempered character, we still see the other side of him because, again, he has more screentime.  With Monoma we cannot see the other side of him that often, which can be a problem when the only side you show of a character is such a pathetic and unfair side. In comparison, you would think Monoma is worse than Bakugou, but thats only because they are showing us only the worst side of Monoma. Wich bring me to the second point.

2) Monomas mental state is treated as joke.  Just as I said that I don’t care about Bakugou being a debetable ex bully,  I should say the same here and affirm that just because they make fun of his mental issues it shouldn’t affect me, even if I deal with depression and anxiety. Well kids, let me tell you something: You are wrong. Why you may ask? For a little concept called: Character development.With Bakugou, even if is FAR from perfect, does have more little moments here and there, where you can see the other side of him. Monoma isn’t that lucky. So you are showing just his crazy side and making fun of that. Which just simply bad and a little sad that you think that is a good character design. When you have a piece of media with this kind of success, you cant ignore this. You just can not. You need to take responsibility of what you put out there.And we are talking about Monoma, but we could also be talking about how they treated their token characters, how they treat those characters who are mentally unstable (cofcofTwiceforexamplecofcof). That is just another rant, but is bad. Realy bad. 

BNHA has a really problem in justifying villainous actions just because class A or a Pros do them.  And yes I’m talking about Mineta and Endeavor, but Im also talking about a lot of your Favs like Aizawa, or class A students.I understand that in japanese culture Monoma being loud and weird and just being legitimately crazy is funny.  But some things you can’t justify. Just like you cant justify a lot of what happened in this story and how some characters are treated.

3) Monoma was supposed to be different.We all know about this, he was meant to be this cunning strategic individual who could actually be more interesting that the freaking main character,  but because he dared to do look at Bakugou in the wrong way, the fans started hating him,so Horikoshi changed him… I just can’t . How could an author change his characters because of that reason? Sometimes you have to stand with your ideas man.

Anyway, I liked the JTs Monoma. And I hope Shinsou ends up in class 1B with him. THAT would be an interesting writing. But I learned to never expect anything. So… We’ll see

[ohmystarsy]

all the tag games I’ve been tagged in in the last few months

as the title says - I’ve finally found some quiet time to do all of them, thank you all for tagging me!!! it is always a pleasure and I LOVE those tag games, just life has been really busy recently, even more so during that whole pandemic thing.

I put all of them under read more, bc there’s  A LOT of text. the tag games include:

name ten favourite characters from ten different things, tagged by @majoris

name your seven comfort movies, tagged by @majoris and @natowe

quarantine Q&A, tagged by @ithilnarmo

20 questions about yourself, tagged by @jennyyfishh

I was tagged by @majoris​ for name ten favorite characters from ten different things (tv, movies, books, etc.), then tag ten people.

favourites are the worst! but I will try my best neverthless.

Eames from “Inception” (idk, he is flirty af but also has rly bad taste in clothes and I love that; it might be also Tom Hardy thing tho)

Thor from MCU (just. the kindest of Avengers? says women rights? struggles with what it means to be “worthy”? pls)

Cahir Mawr Dyffryn aep Ceallach from “The Witcher” (I just love evil blonds with redemptions arcs who suffer throughout the whole series bc they made some bad mistakes in the past; also yes I have always headcanoned him as blond, idk why)

Leia Organa from “Star Wars” (an Icon, what else should I add?)

James Flint from “Black Sails” (gay pirate disaster that we all deserved and it was given)

Clara Oswald from “Doctor Who” (idk I just always related to het the most from all companions that I’ve seen. I love her fearlessness, her bossy side and that she takes no bullshit from the Doctor)

Sansa Stark from “Game of Thrones” (I hate what the show did to her, but I always loved her in books; how she starts as this silly, annoying girl and then grows and grows and outgrows everyone else)

Phryne Fisher from “Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries” (I just love this show and this woman; I’ve never seen a characterisation as this one; at one side she is never serious and she often plays silly woman, but that is only a facade for the world??? and she never cares about what others think of her, I’d love to be like her when I grow up, if I wasn’t already a grown-up)

Roy Mustang from “Fullmetal Alchemist” (I mean. I’ve never knew a manga character could be so hot. Also he’s a snarky bastard, but that’s what we love about him don’t we.)

(Purple) Hawke from “Dragon Age” (idk I just like this sarcastic little shit)

I was tagged by @majoris and @natowe​ to name my seven comfort movies (and god it’s gonna be difficult bc I rarely watch movies but here we go)

Inception

King Arthur: A Legend of the Sword

Lord of The Rings: Two Towers

Brooklyn 99 (I know, not a movie, but this is actually what I usually watch for comfort - I think I’ve seen season one like 10 times at this point)

Thor Ragnarok

Mamma Mia!

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

(generally when I’m in need of comfort movie I just look for some action movie this is how I roll, fighting on the screen makes me calm *shrug emoji*)

I was tagged by @ithilnarmo​ for quarantine Q&A

1.  Are you staying home from work/school? Yes, I am, although there was some battle with this (long story). Luckily the project I work on is on the final stage (it’s already being built), so it’s actually possible to do everything from home and also a team I’m on is super communicative and it all goes rather smoothly.

2.  If you are staying home, who is there with you? I live with my sister, who is now finishing her Master’s Degree, so we are in this together! (There is also occasionally a dog on our neighbours’ balcony just next to us and it’s always a highlight of a day.)

3.  Are you a homebody? Before this pandemic I thought I am, but now I think I just don’t like clubbing and partying lmao, bc I just ITCH to travel or just go outside and walk in the city and I CAN’T.

4. An event that you looked forward to that got cancelled? Well, not an event, but several of my plans for spring and holidays got cancelled. I was supposed to go the Baltic Sea and Gdańsk in spring (on seperate occassions) and then I and my friend had to cancel our holidays to Faroe Islands in May/June, because it will probably be still too early to travel.

5. What movie have you watched recently? I think it was “Escape from the ‘Liberty’ Cinema”, which is hella weird Polish movie from 1990, just after end of communism. It tells a story about a censor who starts to question his job bc suddenly the actors in the movie that is being shown in one of the cinemas rebel (inside a movie) and don’t want to play it anymore. Really weird. Really.

6. What shows are you watching? Brooklyn 99 for like tenth time.

7. What music are you listening to? Same as usual.

8. What are you reading? I’m reading “The Waves” by Virginia Woolf (my fav book ever), for a month now, bc 1) I don’t have much time now I just work all the time, 2) I read it in English and can only read like 10 pages at once. but it’s SO GOOD, guys. so good.

9. What are you doing for self care? lmao don’t have time for that. I try to take breaks from work, sometimes go outside or at least step outside to balcony (and stare at the neighbours’ dog), I cook dinner every two days and a NICE stuff, so at least food brings me joy, and I try to sleep regularly, although I do a poor job on that.

aaaaand I was tagged by @jennyyfishh for 20 questions about myself

1. Nickname: I actually don’t have any, it doesn’t work like that in Polish (Kasia is already what you’d call a nickname from my full name Katarzyna, but this is just how we call all Katarzynas) (sometimes I wonder what is the point of the full names if we never use it in speech lmao)

2. Zodiac Sign: Scorpio!

3. Height: around 170cm

4. Languages: Polish and English; I was kinda conversational in German some years ago but now forgot all of it, I’d probably understand some of Ukrainian and Russian if I really tried (was learning Russian for three years and Ukrainian is just similar enough to Polish) and learnt some Swedish too, but again, don’t remember anything rn

5. Nationality: Polish

6. Favourite season: spring

7. Favourite flower: daffodil and tulip

8. Favourite scent: verbena, petrichor, sea

9. Favourite color: yellow

10. Favourite animal: dog probably

11. Favourite fictional character: look at tag game number one on this long list : )

12. Coffee, tea or hot chocolate: coffee!

13. Average hours of sleep: 6-7, but my body wants 10

14. Dog or cat: both, actually; now I’d rather take cat than dog, but that’s only bc I live in small apartment and am out of it for too long

15. Number of blankets you sleep with: one??? second blanket is for really freezing winters only (like -10/-20 celcius degrees)

16. Dream tip: what does it mean even? idk man, sometimes if you wake up from rly good dream, if you think about it hard and fall asleep quickly you can still return to it

17. Blog established: probably somewhen in 2011? idk what is time anyway

18. Followers: 2051

19. Random fact: oh god idk, ok I will maybe say sth I’m rly proud of, which is that my short story was published in an anthology in year 2017. I still can’t believe my name is printed there.

(where is 20th question tho???)

ok, I am tagging for all of those above: @shirewalker @sorrydearie @natowe @cptnjaneway @iaskier @spectralarchers @majoris @jennyyfishh @ithilnarmo @ohhelga @marsza @stupidape just choose whichever of those above you’d like to do or just ignore it completely : )

[chamerionwrites]

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 hmm. Star Wars. Current fandom discussion tendencies. General life. Current politics (locations your choice) and FREE SPACE.

If an opinion is unpopular it feels sort of overly bold to just drop it out there without explaining myself, so this is going to get long.

Star Wars: The most inherently and unequivocally evil use of the Force we ever see onscreen isn’t the Standard Dark Side Aesthetic of lightning and breathplay but the one power most closely associated with the good guys: the Jedi mind trick. Forcibly overriding somebody else’s free will? Is a dehumanizing autonomy and consent violation, full stop. What’s more, it only works on the weak-minded is barely half a breath away from they were asking for it (in other words, it only happens to bad and stupid people who deserve it; you never have to worry that this power might be abused or turned against characters you care about because the very fact that it succeeds serves as justification, which is circular systemic-abuse-of-power logic if I’ve EVER heard it).

And I get that when a thing is so woven into the setting, and so firmly supported by the story’s framing, trying to challenge that thing is narrative-breaking. You can’t point out that Jedi mind tricks are innately evil without upending the internal coherence of canon’s moral universe. Sometimes people don’t have the energy to do that, and that’s okay. Sometimes you just want to play in a fictional sandbox without stripping it down to foundations and questioning every assumption it’s built on! (If you’re anything like me you might actually find that cathartic, but I am self-aware enough to recognize that there are very specific reasons I’m Like That, and not everybody shares them.) Sometimes you simply acknowledge that a story is flawed in ways that can’t be easily fixed, and avoid putting too much weight on the flawed parts of the structure while salvaging the good parts, and get on with fandom life. That’s a perfectly valid way of interacting with fiction. Where my hackles rise is when people twist themselves into logical and ethical pretzels trying to defend it. Both the concept and the execution are skeevy as fuck, and even as a story the idea of people who can (and do!!!) use mind control serving as “peacekeepers” and diplomats makes me genuinely a little angry. 

The sequel trilogy actually had an opportunity to introduce some interesting intertextual conversation and self-awareness here - the difference between a mind trick and Kylo Ren’s mind probes in TFA (which are clearly framed as bad) is one of degree, not type. Unfortunately JJ Abrams is a bad writer and Disney’s entire business model is Cashing In On Nostalgia While Taking Minimal Risks, so any kind of meaningful subversion was doomed from the start. 

Current Fandom Discussion Tendencies: I’m not sure this is unpopular so much as just under-discussed, but most conversations about fandom purity policing are hyperfocused on shipping. The hysteria there tends to be loudest, so I get why. But imo it’s actually pretty detrimental to understanding the issue, which I would roughly describe as a conflict between people who think that fiction is a tool that we use to examine and reflect on life - where desire is sometimes messy, where tragedy sometimes just happens, where good sometimes goes unrewarded and wrong sometimes goes unpunished, where people can have complicated feelings about their abusers, where it’s possible for someone to be both a villain and a victim (and for neither of those things to mean that the other doesn’t matter!), where infinite beautiful ugly depressing uplifting complicated things happen every day - and people who believe that fiction should serve as moral instruction, which means that writing about some of those things in all but the most intensely didactic of ways encourages moral corruption.

This bothers me for a couple of reasons. One, the purity wank is a many-headed monster lashing out at sad endings, redemption arcs, “humanized” villains, character death, realistic depictions of trauma, and anything else that might be dark or discomfiting or ambiguous or morally complex in addition to less-than-wholesome porn, and while I think it’s important to address that part of it imo we don’t do our understanding of the issue any favors by conceiving of it simply as moral panic over depictions of sex. 

And two, because in my experience it’s not that uncommon - not necessarily frequent, but not uncommon - to encounter someone who gets reeeeeeally worked up about people legislating how they can and can’t read or write about fictional sex, but then turns around without a single trace of irony and opines (often with an extremely out of context Ursula Le Guin quote attached) that, for example, Sad Endings Are Unwoke Because We Need Hope In This Era Of Trump, and if you write depressing stories you are giving aid and comfort to the enemy. Which I’m sorry to say is the point where I personally lose my patience and also my temper and have to log off Tumblr to avoid the temptation of asking in my most withering tone (1) whether they have ever read anything that is not Harry Potter, (2) whether they have ever read any adult literature, at all, (3) whether they have ever read anything by any author from someplace that has actually experienced war/imperialism/dictatorship/etc, because you’ll notice that many such books contain dark themes and black humor and tragedy and wrenching moral ambiguity. BECAUSE FICTION IS A TOOL FOR REFLECTING ON THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE AND HUMANS WHO HAVE EXPERIENCED TRAGEDY SOMETIMES WRITE ABOUT IT, YOU EMPATHY-CHALLENGED NITWITS.

General Life: No shade at all for anyone who enjoys them but while I never say never (absolutely top-notch writing can sell me on almost anything), as a general rule I cordially loathe coffeeshop AUs and much of the rest of their AU kindred.

I think part of this is that I’m consistently drawn to writing with a strong sense of place; setting IS story, in so many of the stories that I love best. But it’s also because I’m drawn to stories with ethical and/or political conflict and, while there’s no particular reason that you can’t have that in a coffeeshop AU, in my experience they tend to strip out most or all of that context and serve mainly as a vehicle for exploring character relationships. 

I love a good character study so you would think I might be into this, but I just…care about a lot of my favorite characters specifically as people who have been shaped by a particular environment, I guess. 

Politics: First-world privilege is a thing even if you’re marginalized, in much the same way that white privilege is a thing even if you’re poor or disabled or gay etc etc. Obviously this gets complex, but a lot of people (USAmericans, particularly) insert their feet very deeply into their mouths whenever they’re asked to discuss politics outside their own immediate cultural context and I wish everybody would just. Develop much better listening skills. 

Free Space: Hamlet isn’t a bad play, but I wouldn’t put in in Shakespeare’s top five and tbh I think it might barely crack the top ten. 

The language is stunning for sure, but that’s also the case in a lot of Shakespeare’s other works and meanwhile in this one the plot is awfully thin (especially for the length) and imo Hamlet himself frankly just isn’t interesting enough to justify the kind of deep-dive character study where the plot is mostly incidental.

The whole thing gives me very strong vibes of one of those movies written specifically for a particular actor to showcase their talent, and while a very good actor can definitely bring some layers to it in the hands of anyone else it’s like the theatrical equivalent of an unnecessarily long guitar solo by a mediocre musician.

[arigatouiris]

out of my league // tom holland

Pairing: Tom Holland x Critic! Reader [I use female pronouns]

Warnings: swearing; eventual fluff; angst; hurt/comfort; a little bit of cliche because come on.

A/N: Hi, everyone! With how disappointed I am with Game of Thrones ending, and for my love for Tom Holland, I thought why not mix the two? So I wrote this is a sort of spur of the moment thing, where the reader is a critic and Tom Holland is well... Tom Holland. Hope ya’ll like this! 

Word count: 1389

Series Masterlist

00 | 01 | 02 |

With eyes glued to the screen, her mind had already made up the words. Being a critic sometimes, was not such an easy job, but there were perks to being a critic—the fact that she could watch movies or shows a day or two prior to their official release, (this was the case, sometimes, however, she was not complaining), and also for the fact that she liked criticizing writers’ for things that they’ve gotten wrong about their own characters, or even addressing the things that she did like. 

[y/n] believed she was the voice of the people, and that was the way things were. She would not change a thing about her life.

As meticulous as it would seem, [y/n] got a lot of preparation done beforehand; before she wrote a critique for a show or a movie, she’d always research and understand the writers’ ideas, the thoughts that went into making the scene, the actors’ understanding of the scene, and what she needed to focus on—even the smallest aspects such as lighting or sound or even the cinematography. Being a journalist was hard, but she understood that being a journalist that specialized in movies and anything related to the big screen, was harder.

As soon as the finale of the most acclaimed show “Birds of a Feather” was done, her phone buzzed. She knew who it was before she even saw the name on the caller ID. Birds of a Feather starred some of the biggest stars in Hollywood; it was a show about a man chasing redemption, and several other characters’ lives intertwined with his, and every choice he made echoed like a butterfly effect. What she used to love about the show was how it was never centered around one person, of how every single character was important. She loved how the show had some of the best character developments in the history of making fictional characters. However, with the final season, [y/n] was forced to change her mind.

The main character, Lionel, played by Tom Holland—loved and revered by everyone as the best Spiderman, turned out to have the best character development, only to fall short to succeeding in his character arc. The show writers’ did his character injustice by taking his life—since Lionel’s life was that of torment. With seven seasons of repeated mental massacre, Lionel deserved at least a bittersweet ending. This is like Dexter all over again, [y/n] thought rolling her eyes.

Begrudgingly, she picked the call. It was her manager, of course.

    “Don’t you dare!” Her manager screeched over the phone, forcing [y/n] to pull the device away from her ears.

    “Come on, you saw it. You can’t expect me to go nice on them because of Tom fucking Holland. Please. He did a great job, but the script was poor.” [y/n] scoffed as she rebutted her manager’s so called request.

    “Listen, [l/n], Tom’s a nice one and we’ve not ever published anything bad about him. Remember the review you wrote for Spiderman? People adored you for it because it made them fall for Tom more! They see the truth in your words! So you’ve got to make them—”

    “Got to make them what, Susannah? Got to make them like the show that the writers’ themselves couldn’t do? I cannot! I chose to become a critic because I liked giving people exactly what they wanted to hear. And for all I know, Tom Holland deserves to know what his fans think of his acting and what the fans think of the idiots who wrote his role into the dirt!” [y/n] screamed back before cutting the call.

She had decided. One more day and her review would go live.

*

Unlike what most people thought, Tom didn’t care much for what people thought of the show. However, when he saw the review posted by the London Daily that evening, his heart skyrocketed. He didn’t remember the name of the critic who wrote it, but he remembered that this particular place had never said anything negative about the show before. The show writer was a good friend of his, and him being called an ‘incompetent writer’ and having been accused of ‘lazy writing’ turned his mind around.

He immediately pinged his mate, Harrisson, asking him if he’d read this particular piece. A moment later, a phone call startled him. It was the show writer.

    “Hey,” Tom said, not ready to talk at the moment. Tessa was on his lap and Tom had just woken up from a nap fifteen minutes prior. “What’s up?”

    “Tom, this is a nightmare,” You’re telling me, he thought before holding back the smile. “You’ve got to go on Instagram and tell your fans that you support me!”

    “But, Jean, this is fine, innit? It’s just a bad review. We get bad reviews for everything along with good ones—”

    “No, no, no, Tom, you don’t understand. This is [y/n] [l/n]! Her words are the truth!” Tom wanted to scoff, but didn’t. “Whatever she says, the fans agree with. It’s not as if the fans don’t have a brain of their own, it’s just that she’s very good with words. So far, she’s been a great fan of our show but with the finale and everything, she’s seen and taken note of a few things that I might not agree with and I—”

    “Jean, you’re ranting again, I can’t really follow.” Tom spoke, apologetically.

    “Tom. [y/n] cannot be ignored. You’ve got to make a statement saying that this isn’t lazy writing and that a lot of thought went into this ending.”

But, did it though? Tom thought, before agreeing. It’d be blatant betrayal if he disagreed with the writer. Even if he didn’t see the ending coming, even if Tom himself was a tad bit displeased with the ending Lionel received, there was no way he’d admit it. Signing, he took his phone out in his hands and opened Instagram. Oh, well. Tom thought before getting into the act.

    “Hey guys! Thank you so much for all the love and appreciation that you guys have shown throughout these seven seasons, it’s been great and I couldn’t do it without any of your support! And I understand if some of you might be displeased with the ending that Lionel’s got, but let me tell you this that a lot of thought has gone behind making this show and there’s no sign of lazy writing or incompetence from anyone’s side. It hurts my feelings to see words being spewed everywhere about the same by a critic who specializes in finding out what’s wrong in movies or shows. I’d really appreciate it if you guys don’t take into account bad reviews that can sway your mind. I love you all and I thank you again! Bye!”

God, that took the life out of me, he thought before sighing. His phone buzzed and Tom noticed Harrison’s name on the ID.

    “Hey,” Tom said, laying back on his couch. “What’s—”

    “I can’t help but agree with her, man.” Harrison’s voice alerted him.

    “What?” Tom frowned. He hadn’t read the entire review, but he understands a bad review when he sees the title itself.

    “Hm, you see, bud. Her points make sense. Some of the moments that led to Lionel’s ending don’t even add up. If you go through what she says—”

    “It doesn’t matter now, Haz. Whatever the review says, I’ve gotta stay true to what I’ve acted as—”

    “What did you do?”

Sometimes, it irked him with how well Harrison knew Tom.

    “What do you mean?” Tom asked, patting Tessa on her head.

    “I know when you’ve read a review and disagree. You’re not disagreeing here. What did you do?”

    “I might have listened to Jean and said on my Instagram that the review is bullshit.”

    “Tom, you did not.”

    “I sort of—”

    “Do you even know who [y/n] [l/n] is?”

    “Uh, yeah. She’s the critic who wrote the bad review—”

    “No, you twat. She’s the best critic for TV shows and movies in all of England. And most of her work is online, too. Seeing how you’ve tarnished her name on the internet might not go so well for her.”

    “Uh…” Tom didn’t understand.

    “Tom, you might as well have kissed her online career goodbye.”

[easilydistractedbyfanfic]

What do you think of the critics of murven being ableist (coming from a chronically ill person who considers it such)?

First of all, I think that we all bring a different perspective to fiction - and ships - based on our own experiences. So we have biases and preferences that sometimes we’re not even cognizant of with regard to what we are drawn to or what we are repulsed by. But I also think it’s important to listen to other perspectives, especially minority voices, and yes I do know that there are those who are strongly against the Murphy/Raven ship because they feel it discriminates or does carry an ableist attitude. And yes, I have read some of those takes out of a desire to understand it. 

Before I add my own opinion, let me start with two caveats. First, I am not disabled and I do get that because of that, my understanding (or lack thereof) of this topic is going to be influenced by my own dearth of personal experience/only having an outside view. Second, whether it matters or not, I did start shipping these two characters in 1x10, which is before Murphy shot Raven and she received her permanent injury from it. I don’t suggest this lets me off the hook for my opinions, and in fact I still clearly ship them even knowing Murphy DID cause this injury - I’m just pointing this out because I do happen to know the exact moment I got into this relationship and I am quite aware of why I like their dynamic and what draws me to them.

So that said - it happens to be my personal opinion that this relationship is not ableist from the way that it is portrayed in the show. And yes, I understand that what is ableist/not ableist to me, a non-disabled person, may certainly be different than what an actual disabled person may see. But this question seems to be seeking my justification for shipping this ship, so I am going to offer it under the cut. 

I think that t100 has done a great job with this particular storyline - portraying Raven as very adversarial and angry towards Murphy, both because of him shooting her, of course, but also because of her anger over the whole Finn/Trikru Village mess. Not long after he shoots her, Raven lures Murphy into a sort of trap with the intent to give Murphy to Trikru instead of Finn, and while I can’t say it’s fully revenge for her leg, nor is it fully just to save Finn either, IMHO. Both of these things influence her. Ultimately her plan doesn’t work, and it happens to be my opinion based on the scene that Raven is aware that she is doing wrong, but regardless of personal interpretation of this storyline, it is canon that Raven is angry at Murphy and this is ongoing from after he shoots her and well into S4. No one suggests that her anger is misplaced, no one pushes for her to “get over” him shooting her, and for the most part when they do interact (they had no scenes together in S3), Murphy mostly just takes her ire like it’s his due - he does not resist it or push back as he does with others, which to me always suggested that he felt like he deserved her anger - which he does. 

At the time that I was watching live, I was aware my interest in Raven/Murphy as a ship was far-fetched in 1x10 (when I first liked the idea of them), and I absolutely admit Murphy was still a jerk then, even before he shot her. I just liked the possibility of what I thought they could be, and I found Murphy far more interesting for Raven than Finn. After the shooting happened, I figured there was absolutely no chance of them ever getting together or being friends after that, especially with no interaction between them in S3. But then S4 happened and for me, possibilities were renewed. I could go rather in depth about it, but I think things started to change for RAVEN after Murphy stole that medicine for Adria. She was angry with him over it, even though in a way he took that burden off of her shoulders. She made the choice to say no medicine for Adria, with the odds being likely that it wouldn’t save the child but without 100% certainty. Murphy stealing it meant that the death of the child was no longer on Raven’s conscience. I don’t think Raven grasped this initially, but when they get to Becca’s Island in S4 and she is shown to still be angry with Murphy - calling him a dick, saying he shouldn’t have come - but then he helps her run from the drones when she can’t keep up, and canon portrays her as being perhaps surprised/shocked/perplexed by this because she didn’t expect it of him, but then she CHOOSES to thank him for it of her own volition. And when she is talking to Luna and trying to convince her to stay, Raven says that Adria was worth taking a chance for - which is a change in Raven’s initial perspective of not allowing the medicine for Adria. 

It was and is my interpretation of the show’s canon that this was something of a turning point in Raven’s head, a softening towards other people as more than just numbers or statistics. Raven has never been a cruel character but at the same time, often she previously showed empathy more towards someone she loved or knew, and tried to react with logic or without emotion when it came to others - understandable in order to make life or death decisions, sure, but often making her seem cold, like what Abby accused her of when Raven wouldn’t give the medicine. During their time on Becca’s Island in S4, Raven works together quite a bit with Murphy. They can be antagonistic, which is no surprise, but we also know that Raven is also being affected by Becca’s code still in her head. We see them working together - sometimes quite well or even joking - and we see Raven thank Murphy again for his help. We see Murphy taking steps to be the bigger person where Raven is concerned (ie after their big fight he’s actually trying to learn Luna’s words to calm Raven down and it’s Murphy that sucks it up and comes back to the lab after the fight). We are shown that Murphy does not fight back against Raven physically (just tries to protect/defend himself), shows concern for her well-being, and in his own way, tries to help. (I can cite examples here but this is already wordy). When Raven decides to die on her own terms, she shows this change of attitude again when she offers Murphy forgiveness when she tells him it’s not his fault. There was no pressure on Raven to do this, no outside influence other than her own CHOICE. Murphy did not beg or seem to expect forgiveness from her at any time in S4 (or prior), and is in fact really shell-shocked when she offers it. 

To me, THIS is why I don’t view the Murven ship as ableist. There is no subtext that suggests that Raven needs to or should forgive Murphy. There is no scenario where Murphy refutes or tries to justify what he did to her. Murphy is not put on some kind of redemption arc with regard to Raven or what he did to her, she’s not in a storyline where she is seeking to be “fixed” so much as she’s seeking to escape the pain, and we see her have an ongoing struggle with it so it’s not like it’s all just forgotten or water under the bridge for her. While Raven does seem to think the injury is something to overcome at first, we are told and shown that it won’t ever go away, and we do see her struggles as she comes to terms with this. The show doesn’t portray her as inferior because of her injury, though. Raven is always seen as a valuable member of the group by others even when she herself doubts her worth. In fact, people regularly try to save her at the risk of themselves. Raven as a character makes a personal choice - and we could certainly dive into the reasons for it; I love characterization stuff! - but she chooses to forgive Murphy and move forward and whatever Murphy does or does not do isn’t specifically what brings this about, I don’t think - to me it’s much more about what Raven wants for herself before she thinks she’s going to die. This is key for me because Raven never loses autonomy where Murphy is concerned - something in her wants to forgive him and for me, I can only respect this choice as something the character actively seeks. 

And if I dig a little further into it, I can add that after Raven forgives Murphy and then he is part of the group that comes back to rescue her/they go into space for 6 years together, at no time are we shown anything to suggest that they are anything other than friends. In fact we can infer that they’ve only gotten to be better friends, especially because Murphy not only decides to stay behind for her (and it’s made clear that it IS for her, because why should she always be the one to sacrifice), but he also isn’t shown raging and angry or blaming her when he finds out there’s no escape pod. He puts himself at risk multiple times in S5 & S6 for Raven and/or for Raven as part of his friend group, and she does the same for him. If there was still resentment here, we as an audience would know it and this isn’t what has been happening. In fact, in S6 I’d venture that Raven shows Murphy MORE understanding than she shows other people, which stems from not only the two of them being alike in some ways but also is evidence that she cares for him (you can read as romantic or as friends, either way they both care). 

Now all of the above isn’t to say that I can’t see how someone else could be turned off by this ship, and I can certainly agree that in real life, if someone shot me or someone I care about, it’s probably going to be impossible for me to get close to that person or want to spend time with them. However, the fictional world of The 100 is a very different sort of place. All of the characters have basically tried to kill each other or cause harm to each other at some point - even the ones who love each other (romantically and otherwise). I can think of tons of examples! Raven and Murphy got stuck on a spaceship for 6 years together - if they didn’t find a way to get along, think how horrible that would have been not only for themselves but for the other five people there. 

I don’t ship these two because I think it’s admirable that Raven forgave Murphy, or because I think some weird karma tie formed between them where he owes her some kind of life-debt or something. To me their dynamic (romantic or friendship) has grown far past him shooting her and that’s now a part of their past that is outweighed by what positive things they’ve built between them. Yes, part of why I think I can move past the shooting is because at the time, Murphy did not know he was shooting RAVEN - he thought it was Octavia. If he had wanted Raven specifically to die, maybe my shippy thoughts of them would have evaporated, I don’t know. But that’s not the story. The story is that Raven was an innocent bystander to Murphy’s rage, and they’ve both grown a lot since that happened. The overall story of The 100 spends a lot of time debating whether people can “do better”, whether we’re destined to repeat the same mistakes all the time, who is ‘worthy’ and who isn’t, and who matters to you and who doesn’t. I do have an understanding of forgiveness outside of this show, and why people choose to forgive to begin with. Often it’s for themselves - not for the person that caused them harm. I’m sure that perspective comes into play for me as well, with regards to why I don’t see this relationship as ableist - whether viewed as romantic or as a friendship. To me, this ship isn’t centered on the shooting. Maybe that in itself is where I’m going wrong from the perspective of those that disagree with me - because I don’t hold the shooting up as the sole important thing between them. It’s a part of their history, yes, and it’s not ever going to be forgotten, and I don’t suggest it should be. 

But to ME, intent comes into play, their history and present beyond the shooting matter too. And they’ve each learned a lot of lessons since then about love, loss, friendship and who they want to be - and who they don’t. And I’m super intrigued by all of that and lots, lots more. 

So per usual, this is lengthy even though I didn’t really touch on the parts of their dynamic that really got me into them. But I made an attempt to explain my own thoughts on the question and I hope that provided some insight, whether or not you or anyone else agree with my perspective. I am and always will be a proponent of “ship and let ship”, and I fully understand there are a lot of complexities to what we like and what we don’t. At this point, “I Am Become Death” 1x10 aired in May 2014. I’ve been shipping them ever since and I don’t expect that to change any time soon. Raven & Murphy as a romantic ship isn’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea and I get that. It just so happens that they are definitely mine. 

[charmingturkeysandwich]

On Series Finales

(I need to get this out of my head)

(I have so much to say about narrative structure vs. audience opinion)

People always have very strong opinions on series finales. Obviously. It’s the culmination of years of investment in something. Because of this you’re never going to make 100% of people happy. Each of us is invested for different reasons; we connect with different characters. What we “like” is always going to differ. 

That doesn’t mean that calling something a “bad” finale is all about taste or who you ship or stan or what have you. Sometimes the episode simply fails the narrative it built. Being disappointed in something because of a narrative failure can’t be written off as “you just wanted a happy ending and that was never going to happen.” Especially with modern dramas, bittersweet is the happiest we can really hope for. Even comedies usually have some painful episodes leading to the end. I don’t think anyone is expecting TV shows these days to end like Disney movies. Hell, Disney movies sometimes don’t end like Disney movies anymore.

Anyway, enough babbling. Here’s the thing: in fiction - as in life - expectations are everything. Many writing choices the writers, directors, and producers make will set up these expectations. When they’re not met, people are cranky. And for valid reasons.

1. Where you start a story is important. 

An often ridiculed series finale is How I Met Your Mother. The pilot focuses on Ted falling immediately in love with Robin. And the “twist” is all “oh, that’s not your mom; that’s Aunt Robin!” But there’s a reason it started there. Yes, technically, you can argue the reason is because Ted ran into the mother at Robin’s wedding, so meeting Robin was important. But they chose to continue to focus on Robin/Ted the whole fucking series. So technically it made sense narratively for him to come back to her in the end. Somewhere along the way I tweeted the show and said it should be called How I Met Your Aunt Robin, because it truly was more about her than the mother. So, yes, people were pissed when she died and it was “all for nothing.” But despite the title... it was never really her story. So in this way, I defend the ending. It fit the story that they told. They began with Robin. They continued to focus on Robin. Why wouldn’t he “end up with” Robin?

2. Pacing matters - and heavily influences expectations

In How I Met Your Mother, you have a day-to-day, usual kind of sitcom for 7 seasons. Then all of a sudden, a 48-hour span of time is spread out for an entire season! This was jarring and I found it to be tedious. Jack Bauer is not here; the world is not at risk. We do not need a minute by minute account of these two days. In this way, I think the whole last season is a disappointment. 

It also served to adjust our expectations. OK I just watched 20 episodes of how much Barney loves Robin - this must mean something. NOPE! Divorced in one episode. An episode, mind you, where they flew through years of their lives. After drawing out two days. For a whole season. They put a couple decades in, like, a half hour. In this way, How I Met Your Mother failed narratively. The pacing sucked and it made us expect something different from the finale. In this regard, I fucking hated that show and want my time back.

Pacing is super important to Game of Thrones, AKA the reason I can’t get series finale essays from running through my head. You’re set up in a world that is medieval-esque. There are no airplanes and Ubers and the magic doesn’t seem to have evolved into teleportation or the like. Everything was slow in the beginning, for many seasons. Conversations were at the forefront. It was  a social game. It was about the people, first and foremost, even though the stupid sword-y chair was important, too. That was the plot. Likewise, in the beginning, people weren’t protected by plot armor. Remember, GoT so fantastically shattered our collective expectations for a show, but in the most organic, realistic way. We were carrying the expectations of other dramas with us and projecting them on this show, assuming Ned was “safe” because he was our lens - at least, more so than anyone else. He was the protagonist! He might be tortured, but he surely wasn’t going to be beheaded. Wrong! He was. That and its fallout allowed us as viewers to fully commit to a whole new set of expectations.

But then as time went on, travel just kind of... happened. Things that should have taken a whole season happened in a scene! And with no kind of acknowledgement. Additionally, that initial slowness built us up to have HUGE payoffs. Think of all the tiny things that led to the disaster/amazing episode that included the Red Wedding. They built us up and they met that slow burn hype. In later seasons, they have ridiculous outward hype over the white walkers and Night King, over confrontations between Cercei and her potential killers (Jamie, Arya, etc.) The pacing led us to believe that these things would conclude in a deep and meaningful way that justifies the time we spend watching and theorizing on our own. When you suddenly hit fast forward through the good stuff, it’s jarring! And you lose character development.

And, oh, the plot armor thing. We were led to believe this show wasn’t like other shows. No one was safe. So someone please explain to me how exactly half (or more) of the named characters survived the battle with the undead?! Sam was basically crying in a pile of bodies. Jon was hiding behind a rock from the Ice Dragon who had just blue-flamed down a giant fucking wall. Brienne and Jamie had been on the front lines of that second wave. But their (and others’) plot armor was simply too strong. We were betrayed by the “new” expectations that I, for one, deeply respected. Gore is not my thing - I often had to look away and hum through certain scenes over the seasons - but to know that there were always consequences and that the stakes were always high and unpredictable... that’s what made this titty-fest bloodbath worth it! Take away its uniqueness from all other shows, and you’re just left with some really violent almost-porn. 

3. We watch your show for characters, not shock value

OK, yes, some people enjoy the big reveals and that’s kind of why they signed up to begin with. My brother cannot get over some of the CGI scenes and battles, so I get it. But for the most part, every story is rooted in the characters. You could take the most exciting story on the planet, in the most intricate world, but if you put boring ass people in it, no one will care. We’re invested in the characters and we want them to be consistent. And if they change... well they better change slowly, the way that actual people usually do. Redemption arcs are common in fiction - more common than in real life, sadly - and they can really pay off. As can whatever you call the opposite of that. Falls from grace? I’m not sure. Either way - slow is key here. Drop hints. Build it into their character. It’s a gruesome comparison, but if a frog jumps into boiling water, he jumps back out; if he’s in cool water and you gradually heat it up he will eventually boil to death. This is how falls from grace should occur. The character doesn’t just jump into boiling water. It doesn’t hold up.

Dany is obviously the big one here. I’m not arguing that it would be possible for her to become the Mad Queen and torch King’s Landing. But I’m saying that maybe at least a time or two before her little tolling bells meltdown we should see her saying “fuck the innocent people.” We should have seen her violence spreading beyond people who deserved it. The writers should have presented us with more moments that signaled she cared more about power than actually breaking the wheel. Her character was too consistent for too long (go back to pacing and expectations and where the story began) for her to have a turn like that and for it to be satisfying and accepted.

Similarly, Jamie’s abandoned redemption arc didn’t make sense to me. Drop us some hints that he’s still hateful above all else, maybe, before you have him just up and revert at the mention of Cercei dying... a thing he clearly had to realize was coming well before that moment.

There were complaints about this same thing with Barney from HIMYM, along the lines of “seriously we sat through a season of him redeeming himself (and truly, he started before that) just to watch him go back to banging any under 30 with daddy issues an episode later?” Honestly, that one makes a little more sense. He was problematic even at his best! And they did show that he tried to not be that guy - he and Robin were married for a year or two (offscreen, of course) before the divorce. The biggest problem with HIMYM wasn’t the characters - it was the pacing! It changed our expectations and left many disappointed. 

And finally, For God’s sake you don’t always need a crazy twist.

And maybe this falls to the producers and not the writers. They want viewers. They want coverage. They want listicles on Buzzfeed. And both HIMYM and GoT got them! But at what cost? The reason we didn’t get any lead up to Dany turning is because they wanted to shock us. The reason that they didn’t have some of the strongest theories come true is because they wanted to shock us. Shock has been used well in this series to this point. Masterfully, even! But this wasn’t masterful. This was the showrunners playing God instead of letting things happen organically. Some twists make sense after you look back and notice the buried hints. Some twists make sense because there were things that you as the audience didn’t know yet. But other twists are only shocking because they’re out of character, unrealistic, or just plain dumb. We didn’t get much after the twists except some speeches that honestly sounded like the showrunners themselves speaking to defend their choices. Awkward.

Another series finale that disappointed many fans with its twist was Lost. I never watched, but, I mean, if I watched a whole series just to have it never have been real, I would have been pissed. I was terrified that OUaT was going to do that - that in the finale we’d find out it had all been a dream little Emma was having at a group home or some shit. Fans are invested in long-running series - especially those with supernatural/sci-fi words - and to pull the rug out from under them like that is just... rude. And massively disappointing. You mean we speculated ourselves to death for nothing?! 

What people want from a series finale is an ending of this chapter of the characters’ lives that honors the past and acknowledges the future. There’s a reason that series finales often do something to bring it “back to the beginning.” It’s satisfying! I love that the last thing that we saw the Friends do is go get coffee together. That’s how it started! But after that coffee, they were off to the next part of their lives. I love when they get a little self-aware/meta in the last episode, like when Cory says, “Boy Meets World, now I get it.” And then he and Topanga were moving to New York City. Back to the beginning/the roots... but also going somewhere new.

My point in all this is simple: usually when there’s a massive uproar over a series finale, it’s not just petty people being mad their fave didn’t get the ending they wanted. It’s usually a sign of a problem in the writing, whether it be the writing of that last episode or of the series in general. 

Everyone’s opinions are valid and their feelings are real. But when the writing is bad/lazy/shoddy/too focused on a few scenes they’d clearly imagined before writing the finale/clearly leaving certain plot holes or opportunities for spinoffs even when it doesn’t necessarily make sense... people notice.

(And, oh, do they let you know it.)