#Listen I love a good side character but they tend to serve a narrative purpose and leave

[sylvies-kablooie]

Forever wondering what happened to Brad. He should still be alive somewhere in that TVA building

the interviews conducted on s2 have largely implied that the story of the TVA is over. so like, that would indicate that brad’s story is over, unless they bring him back to live out the zaniac role. which i don’t really see happening? i’m not keeping up with the MCU like i used to- loki was really it for me, and how much i pay attention to in the future will be based on what they do with loki and sylvie (not that i am particularly interested in their offerings if they continue to be the quality of s2) BUT the point i’m trying to get at is: even within their future projects i’m not seeing a space where brad fits beyond a quick cameo or punchline and decidedly not a full-fledged story.

we can put him in the “characters marvel abandoned too soon” shelter with dox so he can go about and continue whatever it is they do together- we shall never know. feel free to send in others that have been orphaned by the narrative over the last decade so we can collect spare change on their behalf.

[devourer--of--books]

Something obvious I noticed about Agatha

Context:

I’m doing a small side-collection of my favorite scenes from WSF that I had to cut off, because just editing them out was making me sad. The first one of those (which should be up soon on AO3, under the name of ‘every memory of the sweet sunshine’) is a scene in which I have Sophie doing a bit of introspection on Agatha’s so-called ‘goodness’.

I cut off the scene for the sake of length (why, why do I always write stuff no asked for, no cares why Agatha has no car in WSF, literally no one asked) and because I didn’t want to mess with Sophie and Agatha’s arc in the fic by making her too self-aware or highlight her opinion on Agatha’s compulsive need to help other people too explicitly just yet.

But then, it occurs to me that Agatha’s behavior is not something exclusive from my fic. In fact, is something that is classical Agatha, noticeble during the entire book 1, TLEA, and even a during QFG (I’m sure it comes up during AWWP too, but I haven't picked that one up in years so I can’t speak for it). It’s a vital part of her character and I think we all know this, but it still made me kinda sad once I started to think about it. 

Agatha has low-key (high-key) savior complex

So, I am not a phycologist. I don’t claim to be one either. But I’ve been doing some reading and my google skills pointed towards white knight syndrome? I’m linking the main sources I used bellow).

Hear me out,

- Let’s start with book 1 and Sophie, because I feel like that is the basis of this analysis.

- During most of book 1, we get many reasons as to why Agatha feels the need to go home. She has good reasons, Agatha knows the school is dangerous. Naturally you’d wanna go home, back to safety and bring your only friend (we’ll talk about this in a minute) with you, so they’d be safe too, right? Nothing wrong here.

- But one of the most frequent criticisms of book1!Agatha is that she is very persistent in getting Sophie to go back home with her. Very, with like, major V. Numerous times we see Sophie brush off Agatha’s attempts to help her (in Agatha’s point of view, helping her is getting her home), and it just frustrates her and makes her try harder, despite Sophie’s clear wishes for her to just leave it alone.

- When you read this, didn’t it make you feel tired for Agatha? Burnout and angry at Sophie for not listening to her friend who clearly has her best interests in mind?

- I don’t think we need to highlight every instance in which Sophie was an absolutely horrible friend and trash person to Agatha in book 1, and she just… Took that shit, because ‘they were friends’ and continued to help her (including helping her get with Tedros in service of saving her) because she’s good and the good forgive everything?

- Because good believes no one, not even Sophie, 100% evil, is beyond redemption? Because that’s how normal friendship works? I mean, sounds fake, but okay.

- Agatha literally almost dies a couple of times when Sophie goes psycho-witch on her, but we still see her feel like she needs to save Sophie. Notice that I say needs, and not only wants. 

- If you don’t think Agatha and Sophie had a toxic codependent friendship during most of TSY, I don’t think we read the same books?? Their codepency tends to be a major plot point in all books??

- Very rarely do we see dynamics in which one person is 100% toxic by herself. This one is no exception. It’s easy to point out Sophie’s selfish narcissistic (borderline sociopathic) behavior as toxic, because it’s so loud and in our faces, but I don’t think we talk about how Agatha contributes to this dynamic as often as we should.

- We joke about how Agatha lets Sophie get away with everything. How annoying it can be. But why does she let Sophie get away with everything? Why does she enable Sophie’s behavior (through positive reinforcement)? Especially if the goal is to help Sophie, shouldn’t she be more incisive in ‘teaching’ Sophie that her actions have consequences?

- I mostly attributed this to Agatha’s cripplingly low self-esteem. But now that I thought a bit more, I think it’s a bit more than that. Agatha’s endless empathy for Sophie is part of why their friendship ‘works’. But for something to ‘work’, it goes both ways. We know what Sophie gets out of their dynamic: she gets to be chaotic, have Agatha clean up after her and access to bottom-less empathy and love from her. What does Agatha get?

- Mostly, Agatha gets a semi-good-ish friend. Which she thinks is the type of friendship she deserves. But she also gets to serve a purpose. Her life’s work is to save Sophie, solve Sophie’s problems. In fact we don’t see Agatha try to solve any of her own problems until Sophie pushes her away. I think Agatha needs to help Sophie because she envisions Sophie as her one redeeming quality, and linked her own self-worth to how well she can take care of her friend.

- Which is why she always feels so anxious and exhausted all the time. Agatha sacrifices her own well-being in favor of saving Sophie from the consequences of her own actions, even after Sophie tells her not to, because she believes it’s her job. If she’s not saving Sophie, than why is she here at all? 

- What Agatha gets out of their dynamic is the emotional high of playing savior. She gets to be in control of something. She feels powerless and frustrated at her own issues, so she has the compulsive need to ‘fix’ others (in this case, Sophie, because Sophie is her only friend).

- Think of how Agatha tells Sophie the reason why she always let her in is because Sophie looks lonely. I don’t think this is entirely true, but there’s some truth to it. Sophie is the ‘perfect fit’ for Agatha because they’re both lonely and vulnerable. Sophie needs a getaway car from her own chaos (instead of facing it head on) and Agatha needs a purpose bigger than herself so she can feel complete.

- This is also partly why I believe she got so defensive and furious when Tedros accuses her of ‘not being able to make Sophie feel loved like he does’. Saving Sophie is a fundamental part of how Agatha defines herself so when he says this, it cuts her deeply. 

- Because being Sophie’s friend and savior is directly tied to her own sense of who she is.

- Now, lets move on to how Tedros fits in this, by observing exemples during TLEA and QFG, as well as the end of book 1.

- As soon as Tedros  becomes important to Agatha, we see a shift in her behavior. She now needs to protect him. But their dynamic differs from the one between Sophie and Agatha because Tedros not only rejects her help; instead, he wants to be her white knight. 

- It confuses Agatha, because so far, being a savior was just her modus operandi and not at all mutual. I think there’s a line in AWWP (I know there’s a comic, so I’m not sure if it’s from that book, but I think it is, if it isn’t ignore this point) where Tedros asks Agatha what she saw in him, and she says something along the lines of him needing someone to protect him the way he protected the people he cared about. 

- Tedros’ unconcious wish for someone to take care of him is what draws Agatha in, much like Sophie’s. But Tedros wants a mutual relationship, where Sophie was pretty much one-sided most the time.

- Which is why I think Agatha and Tedros clash so much, but at the same time, why they make a good pair. They’re two idiots trying to save each other. And their relationship’s life work is to figure out how to listen to what the other actually needs, not what they think the other needs. Communication is key, as usual.

- Numerous times in TLEA we hear Tedros complaining that Agatha doesn’t know how to play ‘the princess’, how she bosses him around and treats him like he’s an idiot. That, I believe, is because that is the only way she knows how to express her love: she tries to fix as many of his problems as she can, ignoring what he wants.

- She tells him she has no idea how to be anything else. Because this is all she has ever known. She saves people, they don’t save her. But Tedros wants to save her anyway. So, conflict is created.

- During part two of TLEA, we see perhaps the best example of how Agatha applies this savior narrative to benefit herself. 

- When we fall back into an old habit, we don’t usually do it because it feels good. We do it because it feels familiar. And there is comfort in familiarity, especially in familiar pain.

- Agatha is having problems with communicating with Tedros, with sorting out their dynamic and with who she thinks she’s supposed to be without Sophie. So when Sophie crashes in and asks Agatha to give him up in order to fix her problems as well as the entire Woods, Agatha jumps at the chance to play the martyr, because that way she doesn’t have to fix her own problems. Like a get-out-of-jail-free card. 

- Pretty sure there’s even a quote from Sophie in TLEA where she points out she could never play Good’s savior. It’s implicit that she thinks this role has always been Agatha’s. It’s what Agatha herself thinks.

- As soon as Tedros is out of the picture, we see Sophie and Agatha’s friendship restored to their codepency glory (that scene where they’re riding and the frog and scorpion analogy, was it a frog, I can’t remember, but you know the one I’m talking about). But somewhere in her mind, Agatha knows this isn’t how it’s supposed to be, because of what Tedros has showed her, and not only Tedros, but also Hester.

- I’ll save Agatha and Hester’s relationship for another dive, as this is already very long, but yeah, not toxic at all, just friends being actual good friends. In fact, most of the time Hester is the one saving Agatha. We’ll see to this later. Anyway, back to my ranting.

- Then we have the wish-fish scene, in my opinion the best Hort-scene in all the books. Hort goes ahead and calls Agatha out on her shit. Shit that she wasn’t even completely conscious she was doing (someone get these kids a therapist omg).

- We get to see tagatha make up, working out their communication issues (!!!!). “You catch me and I catch you” it’s literally the realization that Agatha finally can trust someone enough to ask for help when she needs it and that she can trust him to come to her if he needs her help. That she has finally understood that it’s not her job to save everyone and only Sophie can save herself.

- Why, why did it not end here.

- I’m gonna spare you the QFG bashing (see my other post for that content, lol), but that book did Agatha dirty. I liked that they didn’t erase her progress with Sophie, how they learned to be better friends for each other, but wtf tagatha

- This is an entire book of Agatha feeling like she needs to save Tedros all over again. There’s even an introspective moment in which she explicitly says that in the end of the day, she trusts no one but herself (why, why did you undo the ending of TLEA, why) that breaks my heart.

- Tedros pushing her away, her going behind his back, the internal dialogue Agatha has with herself… Look, I love chapter 6. Chapter 6? Great content. Tedros belatedly noticing he needs to let Agatha in (six months bitch I just-) and asking for her help. Agatha’s savior complex comes full force and she convinces Tedros to let her fix everything. Tedros ends up allowing her to do so because he is desperate. Lots of kissing and touching. My favorite chapter of QFG.

- But since the follow-up is basically Agatha noticing what she’s doing and doing it anyway (contrary to TLEA, in which as soon as she could no longer deny what she was doing she gets her shit together) it just feels like she’s regressing? Her self-worth is no longer tied to saving Sophie from herself after 3 books, only for it to be tied to saving Tedros?

- Anyway, thank you for attending my TEDtalk.

Sources: 

https://amenteemaravilhosa.com.br/complexo-de-salvador/

https://www.healthline.com/health/savior-complex#how-it-affects-you

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/complexo-de-salvador-como-ele-pode-impactar-sua-vida-pessoal

https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/sociopath

https://www.healthline.com/health/how-to-stop-being-codependent

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on Owarimonogatari Season 2 [Ougi Dark]

Yet again, this took longer than expected, lol. For some reason I’ve been a bit intimidated by how long this might take to watch and write about, even though it’s only three episodes long. But I’m still genuinely excited to see how it goes.

It’ll probably be another few weeks or so before I have time to get back into rewatching the earlier parts of the franchise, but I’ll try and get back into that sooner rather than later.

Thoughts under the cut

PART ONE:

Ooh boy that was a whole lot of talking. Not that that’s anything rare for this series, but it’s almost draining to get through a lot of plot-important exposition all at once. I’m not entirely sure I got all of it, but I think I did.

Starting from the beginning, I thought there was meant to be a recap of sorts called Araragi’s Story, but I guess whoever subbed this didn’t bother with it and cut it out? That sucks. But it probably wasn’t anything super important.

The beginning narration scene by Araragi was really nice, and helped set the mood for this being the final part of the story. Well, final part of the main story, at least. After this we still have Zoku-Owari, Off Season, and Monster Season to adapt, not to mention anything that comes out after that. But you get what I mean.

The OP was nice, but not quite as good as I was hoping for. I think I prefer the Ougi Formula OP over it. I might like it more once the arc’s done, though, since there’s a whole lot of symbolism that’d probably feel more effective with the full context of this arc. Also, it’s still kinda interesting to me how Ougi’s VA’s singing voice sounds really different to her Ougi voice. I’d be hard-pressed to realize that it was the same VA if I didn’t know it was.

I knew that this arc would start with a whole lot of talking as everyone basically recaps the current situation and their motives and plans, but damn that was still a whole lot of talking in not a long period of time. Wow.

A lot of people seem to dislike Gaen, probably because she tends to exist for the sake of giving lengthy exposition like this, but I like her. Something about her whole character just appeals to me, and I like listening to her talk. Her whole casual punk outfit and her smartphone obsession and whatnot are a really interesting contrast with what sort of a character she is, and what purpose she serves in the story. I also love how half the time when she talks, the sky turns rainbow-coloured. In general I love her rainbow theme.

It’s really cool seeing Shinobu in her complete form. You don’t exactly see it often. I kinda forgot that she’s actually really tall. Her playing around with Yotsugi to ‘get back at her’ for all the insults was surprisingly cute.

I should have figured that we’d get more talks about the shrine and the lake and whatnot since that’s been built up for the last two arcs pretty heavily. And, well, a large part of the entire story, really. It’s nice to get one big recap about the main points on it, even if it was kinda hard to keep track of. But I get it. I’m pretty sure it had already been said before, but I kinda forgot that it was Shinobu who destroyed the shrine at the lake originally, so that actually helps make things click more in my head.

It makes sense that they’re deciding to enshrine Hachikuji as the new shrine god to keep her around in the real world, and to help restore balance more. I probably should have seen that as a possibility. Although I can’t exactly blame myself for not getting all of the stuff to do with slugs and snails. That came a bit out of left field.

I knew that Ougi wasn’t exactly the Darkness, but it’s interesting to hear that she’s still trying to ‘perform the same role as the Darkness’. Well, that’s exactly what she’s been doing this whole time, but still.

I’m PRETTY sure I’ve been told what her true identity is, but I won’t bring it up until it’s explicitly stated. Though with the ‘reveal’ at the end of this part, of Ougi being an apparition, I feel like it’s pretty obvious. But even from before this arc it was fairly obvious. I mean, it was always clear that she wasn’t human. She was always too immediately alien, too inhuman, too strange to not be an apparition of some kind. And the fact that she clearly has some ability to mess with people’s thoughts and memories. And that one time in Ougi Formula where she, like, slithered through the air around Araragi’s head. You get what I mean. And at that point it’s not TOO difficult to guess at her ‘origin’. But the whole Darkness thing does kinda throw things off and make it more unclear. At least before it gets shot down.

The weird thing about this arc is that we know in advance that Ougi’s not going to die. Since she shows up in Hana, which obviously takes place after this arc. So that kinda spoils the fact that things aren’t going to go Gaen’s way. But obviously if Nisioisin allowed us to know that in advance, then it’s not going to be much of a big deal in the end. It does make me pretty curious to see how this arc will actually end, though.

PART TWO:

And so the truth comes out! As I suspected. Or, well, as I was spoiled. But even without being spoiled on it, the truth is pretty to guess.

Before I get into talking about all that, I first want to say that I’m so, so happy we got a section with Nadeko. Seeing her again like this is so great. I’m so proud of her. I love that she’s pursuing what she wants to do. She’s obviously grown a lot as a person, which is immediately visible through the fact that she cut her fringe short, since that was always the shield she used to avoid confrontation. I also kinda like how ‘not cute’ she looks in her outfit there. It feels like she’s accepted that she doesn’t have to stick rigidly to ‘being cute’ at all times, and can just be herself. 

The whole section with Ougi and Tsukihi was pretty interesting, and kinda melancholic. I wasn’t really expecting Ougi to be thrown off by Tsukihi’s attitude that much. I’m still not fully sure what to make of Tsukihi as a character. She and Karen just sorta feel  . . . not super fleshed out. Maybe it’s just been too long since I watched Nise. But I still liked their conversation. And it also makes more sense when you get to the end of this episode and get told that she was seeking out Tsukihi because of Araragi’s feelings of guilt and uncertainty about if it’s right for Tsukihi to keep living the way she is.

Getting back more to the start of the episode, I liked the whole explanation about how since Ougi’s entire existence is ‘a lie’, since she’s specifically an ‘impersonation’ of the Darkness, then she herself would become a target of the Darkness once her true identity is revealed, and her identity as ‘a lie’ is upturned. It fits the internal logic of the series. I also really liked the visuals and direction of that specific scene. Especially the part that looked a little like that part in Shinobu Time where it has the side-scrolling painting.

Also I kinda had to laugh at the goddamn ‘fan’ pun. Wow. That was kinda . . . on the nose. I forget if it had actually been established that Ougi was introduced to Araragi as a fan of Kanbaru’s, but it makes a lot of sense now that we know her existence is heavily tied with the Rainy Devil and that whole scenario. So I guess this also helps contextualize the fact that we saw Ougi talk with Kanbaru in Hana.

The fact that Ougi was an apparition created by Araragi was something I knew in advance, maybe since before I even saw Owari S1, but I didn’t know the exact specifics of it, so the fact that she’s literally the representation of how harsh Araragi is on himself was a bit of a surprise. It makes sense, though. I kinda want to get the timeline straight on this one, to remember when exactly Ougi entered the scene. I know that we more or less first saw her in Nadeko Medusa, but we know now that the entire first half of Owari S1 happened directly before that, and I think that’s when Ougi was first introduced, chronologically. I’m not sure, though.

I really like this reveal. At least since it really ties the whole story together, and contextualizes the place Araragi himself has in the story, on both a practical and thematic level. Considering how big of a narrative point his self-loathing and indecision has been, it works really well that Ougi is literally the living representation of that. And the fact that she exists for that purpose helps explain her motives for doing what she does. That is, since Araragi deep down thinks that he’s continually doing the wrong thing, that he’s over-stepping his bounds, that he’s upsetting the natural order of things. I wonder if this also implies that he knew subconsciously that the help he tried to provide for Nadeko in the Snake arc wasn’t really fully beneficial in the end, and that he never really understood her to begin with, and was leaving some serious issues unchecked. Considering how Nadeko Medusa as a story arc is basically one giant consequence for Araragi’s poor handling of Nadeko as a person and her issues, it’d be really neat if that arc only existed because of his subconscious doubts about how he acted. It really puts a spin on how self-defeating he is, if something like that literally only happened because he was afraid that he hadn’t truly helped her. For the record, the thing with Hachikuji was related to the actual, real Darkness, right? Even though the story pointed out how he had his own doubts about her general existence.

The fact that the ‘battle’ between Ougi and Araragi is now framed as an act of suicide is pretty morbid, but as I said, this wasn’t going to be a conventional battle. Seeing Ougi openly begging for her life was pretty depressing. It makes sense that she wouldn’t want to simply be killed, especially not by her own creator. Though, as said, we still know that she doesn’t die, so . . . yeah. This also makes Gaen seem even more creepy, with how casually she’s talking about Araragi needing to kill someone that’s for all intents and purposes a part of himself.

This also puts a kinda morbid spin on the fact that this is ‘the end of Araragi’s adolescence’. One way or another, he has to confront this part of him that represents his adolescence, which is also how he described Ougi at the start of the arc. It’s also worth noting how this ties into the ideas this entire season has been setting up. Like how a fair bit of Mayoi Hell was about Araragi having a walk down memory lane and being able to confidently say ‘yes, I would do all of those things again if I had the chance, even if they might have been mistakes’. As time’s gone on, he’s become more and more able to accept his choices and his decisions, and come to terms with himself as an individual. So in a way, he’s already begun moving past the point in his life that Ougi represents. Which is, I think, part of why she’s become more pitiful lately, more vulnerable. I’ll still wait and see how it actually plays out, but I imagine that, since she doesn’t die, Araragi is going to simply end up accepting Ougi as a part of himself that he doesn’t need to kill. I’m not exactly sure how that’d work, and how she’ll be kept safe from the Darkness, but we’ll see.

The way that this whole scenario is being framed as the end of Araragi’s adolescence reminds me a lot of Utena, and how the movie version of that is called The Adolescence of Utena. Though the thing that reminds me more of Utena was that scene of everyone at the park, completely silhouetted as they lean against pillars while talking. That whole scene was 100% Pure Utena, and I loved it.

Also, I forgot to mention it, so I’ll just say here that even though we knew in advance via Hana that Araragi and Shinobu ended up in their pact together, it was still kinda . . . emotional, almost, to see him spell out that he plans to go back to how they were. And of course, Shinobu herself also said that she wants to go back to being a young girl again. There’s something kinda tragic about the way that they got given the perfect chance to end their already tragic relationship, but they both decided to go back to it in the end. In general, the entire dynamic between Araragi and Shinobu is kinda fascinating. It makes me excited to finally watch the Kizu films.

I’m also intrigued by the implication that if Ougi dies, Araragi will easily find Kagenui and Oshino [I think] again, since she was the one tied to their disappearances. I wonder if we’ll see them again by the end of this arc.

Either way, I still kinda feel like the resolution to this arc has been spelled out in advance by Hana, but that’s OK. This might be the end of Araragi’s adolescence, but it’s not the end of the entire story.

I still also kinda wish they could have aired this as a proper TV anime and stuck Zoku-Owari on the end, but in the end I enjoyed being able to binge watch each arc of this, and it would have been slightly weird to get to a big emotional climax and then have 4-5 episodes of what I think is meant to be a silly epilogue story. But still. I hope it doesn’t take Shaft too long to get it out, even though they’ll have their hands full soon.

PART THREE:

OK I gotta admit that even if this ending played out pretty much exactly as I expected, it still hit me really hard and now I’m kinda tearing up. Ugh. This series really knows how to push my buttons at times.

I figured that the ‘battle’ between Ougi and Araragi would end with him accepting her, but I really liked how it played out. The whole scenario of it, with them talking to each other while the Darkness appears as a black hole behind Ougi was pretty intense and emotional. For some reason, something about the focus on the idea of right vs wrong in this entire season sorta confused me on some level, but it kinda clicked at some point as I realized the pretty obvious point that Araragi’s entire deal is that he hates himself, and constantly feels that what he does is wrong, and tries to figure out what’s right. So it makes sense that this is the culmination of this entire arc of his. That he accepts that he, as a person, is right, and that Ougi, as a person, is also right. What he said about how he wasn’t simply ‘saving Ougi’ by pushing her away from the Darkness, but ‘saving himself’, kinda got to me. As he said, this whole time he’s simply spent his time being saved by others, but this was his time to save himself, and in that way he was able to make an ending for his adolescence.

And then Oshino showed up and I kinda had to fanboy for a moment because seriously I’ve been waiting YEARS for this to happen, I’m so happy about it. Seeing him finally say he respects Araragi, and seeing him say that he won’t criticize him because he’s simply saving himself, was pretty fucking great. And of course we got that little moment to show off that Hanekawa is a complete badass who traveled to the fucking South Pole to drag this dude back just in time. It’s still hilarious seeing her get completely surprise Ougi like this.

I really was not expecting this to end with Oshino acknowledging Ougi as being his niece, but it explains why she’s still around. On one level you could call it kinda cheap, but it makes sense that the solution to the problem of ‘the identity Ougi made for herself is a lie’ is to make it so that ‘the identity Ougi made for herself is the truth’. And since the lie was thus cleared up, the Darkness went away. I really like that her own, individual identity as Ougi Oshino was acknowledged in the end. She deserved it.

I also really liked the narration part where Araragi talked about how he had thought that loving others meant not taking care of himself. It pretty much sums up most of how he’s acted in the story thus far, but it also shows how he’s grown, and realized that he has to be able to love himself as a person.

Not gonna lie, I got kinda teary at the scene between him and Shinobu as they talk about how they feel about each other, and their choice to remain together, even if it means going back to that situation of Shinobu being the dregs of a vampire trapped in a shadow, and Araragi not being human and not being vampire. Something about their entire relationship makes me kinda emotional. The way it ended with Shinobu covering them with her bat wings while she presumably bit his neck was really nice, and kinda bittersweet.

I’m kinda surprised we got half of the last episode devoted to the epilogue, but I liked it. It was a nice way to come down from the pretty intense emotions of the first half.

I’m not really gonna comment much on the scene with Karen because uuuuuugh why, but it was nice seeing him tell her that, even though her idea of what’s right is ‘helping others’, she should also figure out how to help herself.

So I guess we now know what the deal with Kagenui is. I’m glad she’s not dead. So it looks like Hanekawa’s going to look for her now. She really has become an adult. Which, in itself, is a really nice thing to see. She hasn’t been a huge part of Owari in general, but I’ve loved seeing Hanekawa grow up and become a confident, independent adult who can accept all of her imperfections.

I liked seeing Hachikuji being the new shrine god. That was a cute scene. Though it kinda ended in an unexpectedly emotional way, with the point about how the shrine is her new home, which I hadn’t really considered, but it’s a really nice way to end her story, since for the entire story thus far she’s basically been homeless.

The part where Hanekawa realizes that Araragi and Senjougahara are on first-name basis, and teases the two about it, was really great. Seeing Senjougahara get flustered about it was cute. As I’ve said, it’s always nice to see her being an awkward, regular person who’s bad at expressing her feelings and gets flustered fairly easily. And then of course they all got on first-name basis with each other, which was really nice.

It was also nice to get that little cameo from Kanbaru delivering flowers. That was nice. I presume it was more or less a reference to the whole meaning of ‘Hana’. Either way, it was heart-warming to see her get a genuine graduation present for him.

I really, really like the fact that the main story ends with Araragi seeing a random girl who’s presumably about to fall down some stairs, and running off to save her, with Senjougahara and Hanekawa happily waving him off. It’s a really nice book-end to the story, and it helps reiterate the point that Araragi would save anyone, and that he doesn’t regret having saved Senjougahara when he did. And now he has people he’s close to who understand and love him for who he is, and know that this is simply the sort of person he is. And of course we got to see Ougi at the end, which was nice. It was a pretty simple line, but I liked the point Araragi made, that he’s changed as a person, but he’ll always be himself. It’s a fitting way to end a story of someone’s adolescence.

And then we got the scene at the end with Shinobu giving a fairy-tale like description of Araragi’s story, saying that in the end they all lived happily ever after, with Araragi thinking to himself that he can hear her telling that story from inside his shadow, and he’s curious to see where the story goes next. That was just a really nice way to end things.

The ED wasn’t anything super special, but it was a nice image to ends things on. It’s kinda cheesy, but it’s always nice to have these sorts of stories end on the note of the characters graduating.

All in all, this was basically the best way the main story could have ended. It wrapped things up really nicely. Seeing Araragi’s whole character arc reach a conclusion like this as he learns to love himself is really great. As I’ve said before, I’ve technically been watching this series for over three years now, so seeing it come to a close, even if it’s just the end of this chapter, is really emotional. Seeing these characters all grow so much as people has been wonderful, even if there’s some really bittersweet elements like Araragi and Shinobu reentering their tragic, dependent relationship.

As much as this series has some serious faults, I still genuinely love it at the end of the day. I hope it doesn’t take me too long to get back into rewatching it, since I still want to slowly get through that.

[doublehex]

Impressions of 7x02 “Stormborn”

So we got the second episode. Let’s have a chat.

Dragonstone:

We open up with a fierce storm raging outside Dragonstone, and I love this for several reasons. First off, the obvious allusions to the night that Daenerys was born, but most importantly I love the imagery of it. It is nearly black, save for the outlines of thunder strikes and the fire from within the Targaryen keep.

The scene opens with strife amongst Daenerys’ advisors. Elaria Martell has no shame over killing Tyrion’s niece Myrcella back in the final episode of Season 5, and I have to say I was disappointed by how it was played out. Tyrion seems to just casually accept what Elaria has done, a shrug off his shoulder. He should be pissed, and demanding from Daenerys some kind of retribution. I really do hope that something comes out from this, because otherwise it would just seem the showrunners are just waving off a critical relationship between characters.

Daenerys questions Varys about his loyalty, and I really do need to ask…why now? This is a conversation that needed to happen, but not after months of sailing together across the Narrow Sea. Why did Dany not speak with Varys in the final episode of season 6? It just seems awkwardly placed, although it is decently written.

Varys’ character suffers from cutting out the Golden Company plot from the books. Without Varys’ “perfect prince”, it doesn’t make much sense for him to have backed Viserys in the first season. He should have known that Viserys was the same kind of man that Aerys was, so why would he go for that? It feels like the writers are trying to salvage a ship that is made out of seaweed and is on fire.

I do however like Daenerys’ response – that if Varys felt she is doing a poor job as queen, he will say so to his face. And her threat of killing him if he should conspire against her shows she is not going to just accept his loyalty. Varys has jumped from monarch to monarch several times over now. He was essential for bringing Dorne and the Reach into the fold, and Daenerys is in need of a spymaster. But she does not trust him one bit, nor should see.

Then we get a Melisandre scene, where she reveals that perhaps Daenerys is the Prince(ss) That Was Promised. In the books, the revelation that the prophecy may have suffered a grammatical mistranslation came about as a sort of bitter moment…Aegon had been mistaken all along, and perhaps his error resulted in Rhaegar’s rash decision. Here it’s played as a mediocre female power moment.

Also, why is Melissandre in the throne room? Dany should be there on the stone throne, and Melissandre should be escorted in. Dany sees herself as queen – she should be showcasing that as much as possible.

When they plan for how Daenerys will retake the Seven Kingdoms, it is only her and Tyrion that vouches for the least amount of blood shed as possible. They realize that the Dothraki and Unsullied will only fan the xenophobic flames of the Westerosi. In order to establish Daenerys as a rightful ruler, it can’t be the Essosi that take King’s Landing. The Reachmen and Dornish will lay siege to King’s Landing.

This scene does a good job of showcasing what everyone wants out of Daenerys. Yara just wants the Iron Islands to be independent, she wants a quick end to the war. Ellaria and Olenna want Cersei to suffer, damn the consequences. Daenerys’ alliance is a fragile on at best. Besides the racial tensions between Dorne and the Reach, which have always been high, the alliance is split on how to proceed. It seems only the fact that Daenerys has dragons and a formidable army is what keeps the others from abandoning the cause.

At the end, Olenna tries to remind Dany that she is a dragon, so she must “be a dragon”. Olenna is trying to push Daenerys towards fire and blood, highest amount of casualties, giving the Lannisters as much misery as possible, and one can’t help but worry that this will be the show’s version of the “dragons plant no trees” from the books.

The Missandei and Grey Worm romance has finally come to it’s…blunt conclusion. Although it was good to hear Grey Worm speak of what the training of the Unsullied was like, the romance between these two characters have felt very contrived and forced. The sex scene is rather mild by the standards of the show, which comes as a relief, because the dialogue leading up to it was as awkward as one could get. One really has to ask just what this side plot added to the series, that couldn’t be better spent somewhere else.

Kings Landing:

Cersei seems to have taken Jaime’s advice to heart. She is doing her best to rallying the support of the Southern lords…and that seems to means just the Reach, if Randyll Tarly’s presence is anything to go by. The language she uses in her speech reminds me a great deal of Trump, where she is relying on an appeal of the Other and objectively false claims to secure a base.

It may have been unintentional or not, but I got several ISIS vibes when we had Qyburn defame Balerion’s skull with the ballista. They start off that scene with a bit of a history lesson, showcasing that Balerion is a big part of how the Seven Kingdoms were forged. It’s a priceless relic for all intents and purposes. Then we have Cersei deface it, and look pleased about it.

It seems to me that D&D are trying to create parallels between modern day and with Cersei. She has overturn the political system, going against the will of the people, to secure power. Now Trump did not perform a coup d’état like Cersei has. As far as we know, his election was legal. Influenced by outside forces, beyond a doubt, but legal. Most people did not want Trump as president, and almost nobody in Westeros wants Cersei to be their queen.

Another comparison between Team Lannister and the Alt-Right is the racist language Jaime has employed in recruiting Randyll Tarly to their side. Othering the Unsullied and the Dothraki in an appeal for Westerosi Nationalism (and luring the prospect of a new Paramount Lord of the Reach) seems to have worked on Lord Tarly.

One very keen thing to take away is that Jaime states that he no longer likes his sister. A rift is growing between the Lannister twins, and it will surely culminate in Jaime having to make a choice.

Winterfell:

Jon is finally starting to listen to Sansa. He speaks to her about the summon to Dragonstone, and she is wary. Despite her insistence that Tyrion is a good man, it is too risky. Sansa is still very much in bunker mode – after years of witnessing her family come under siege, she views anyone else but a Northman as a threat. She is not entirely wrong, but Sansa is also focused on the Southern threat, while Jon is focused on the Northern one.

In the end, Jon goes against the pleas of all his lords (including Lyanna Mormong) and accepts the invitation. Jon is getting flashbacks to his time as Lord Commander, when he is the sole voice for an unpopular action that must be taken. Even if it weren’t for Daenerys’ dragons, the North has been under siege for years. Food supplies are low, men are short. There’s a reason that boys and girls are being taught to fight. They need more manpower against the White Walkers, and Daenerys’ army is precisely what they need.

But once again, Sansa openly objects to Jon’s proposal in front of their lords. D&D continue to strike the same source of conflict between these two characters, in a way that seems artificial and forced. Especially when Jon rewards her with ruling the North in his absence. We just saw Jon seeking her counsel a scene earlier – why doesn’t he tell her his plans in private? The Starks look divided, and that won’t look good in front of the Northern nobility.

Petyr Balish also seems to be out of place this season. There is no clear understanding of just why, precisely, he is in the North, or what he is trying to accomplish. He may view chaos as a ladder, but the ladder doesn’t seem to be leading him anywhere. And the creep vibes he gives off does not seem to serve a purpose. In the earlier seasons, Petyr was very good at being everyone’s friend. That skill seemed to have evaporated by season 7 has rolled around.

Just what is Balish’s endgame plan? We are not getting much of a sense that he has one. Just like Varys, the changes to the narrative post season four has left Balish hanging.

Oldtown:

Sam’s arc is quickly becoming one of the best parts of the season. With an emphasis on being “hard rock Hogwarts”, the pacing of these scenes is stellar. They are glorified info dumps, but they are info dumps with style, and I am along for the ride. Maester Slughorn…err, Marwyn…no, Ebrose, sorry, is a darkly charming mentor for Sam.

The Grandmaesters actually had a good reason for hiding the greyscale cure – it tends to get the treater killed. But Samwell doesn’t have a say no attitude, and by golly he is going to save Ser Jorah. No matter what.

The cure for greyscale being entirely mundane instead of magical was a sigh of relief. And with the cure being to actually carve out the corrupted skin, one could not think of a better face for a character with morals are corrupted and dubious as Jorah Mormont. Next time, Ser Jorah, do not enslave people just to fulfill the debts of your wife. Also, don’t abuse the trust of a young woman and violate her privacy by kissing her without permission. No matter how sexily Ian Glen can growl “Khaleesi”, that is unforgivable.

And he does nothing for the narrative anyways, except slows it to a crawl.

Arya:

And the best scene transition goes to…pus soaked flesh into chicken pot pie! Mark Mylod had to be crackling as he directed that, and I wouldn’t blame him one bit. Grossing people out is a wonderful hobby to have.

Say one thing for season seven, and say that Arya’s arc has been on point, and her time in the inn is no exception. Watching her eat the pie surely made the entire audience hungering for something to stuff down their gut. You could hear every crunch, see the crumbs get stuck on Maisie Williams’ cheeks, and just get the sense that the pie was really damn good.

We also got a sense that the Hound had a profound impact on Arya. Her statement to having baked some pies is the kind of casual appeal to murder that sounds like it would come from Sandor Clegane’s mouth.

Arya also seems to have not realized that any of the Starks were alive, up until Hot Pie drops the fact that Jon took back Winterfell and was the King in the North. That changes her trajectory completely, from killing Cersei to reuniting with her family. Although that warms the heart, one has to wonder just what her last line to Jaqen H’ghar was supposed to mean. If she was “going home”, why was she not in Winterfell already?

The scene with Nymeria was, of course, wonderful, and D&D avoided the expected trap of having Nymeria rejoin with Arya. They haven’t been with each other for years, and Nymeria has long since found her own path in life. Nymeria has a pack, and Arya is on her way to reunite with hers.

Oh, of course this happens the moment Jon heads south for Dragonstone, but that’s plot convenience for you.

The Battle in the Narrow Sea:

So, we got one good scene and one bad one. The interaction between the Sand Snakes is almost…endearing. I actually found it a bit heart warming to see these three half-sisters are toying with each other. It almost makes one forget that they went and killed their nephew and joked about it.

But then we get the most awkward flirting with Yara and Elaria. “A foreign invasion is in progress”. Good god. They improvised most of those lines, and it really shows.

Once that nastiness is out of the way, we get a real sense of just what type of villain Euron Greyjoy is meant to be. The book version was an sorcerous pirate captain with delusions of eldritch power. Show Euron is the Mountain on the Sea. An absurd murderer with no desires to hold back his bloodlust. From the moment the Silence rams into the flagship of the Greyjoy fleet, Euron is an absurd villain.

And he rocks that role. Euron is utterly bloodthirsty that reflects the raised stakes of the series. Daenerys has brought dragons to Westeros, but Euron is showing us the true meaning “fire and blood”. Between the flaming ballista bolts and the Iron Islanders carving through each other, we get plenty of both.

The show does allude to how Euron from the novels would cut the tongue out of his crewmates. They are all silent, not speaking a single word, and one of the final shots is them cutting out the tongue out of the survivors.

The scene ends with Theon facing a new Ramsay. Seeing the way the Greyjoy loyalists are butchered by the crew of the Silence reminds Theon all too much of his abuser, and he can’t take it. Alfie Williams deserve an award for this scene alone. He utterly sells just the shame and fear in Theon.

When the episode draws to a close, Theon is left behind, just another bit of wreckage in Euron’s wake.

The episode opened with a storm of water, and it ended with one of blood.