ah yes I've been reminded about how much I dislike wash's arc with locus on chorus because it makes no fucking sense!
like that scene in s12 where wash has that dream about shooting donut? while perhaps understandable when looked at in a vacuum, it makes absolutely no sense in the context of wash's arc from s6-s10.
wash repaid his debt to donut by protecting him from one of the tex bots in the 100 tex battle (which is what that seemingly random line in that fight where wash says "okay, we're done here" is referencing), and wash mentally justifying shooting donut in the dream with a "I was just following orders" also makes no sense because that's not what happened!
pretty much everything wash did from mid s7 through s8 were all things that he chose to do. wash chose to go to the chairman and make a deal after he found out that caboose still had epsilon, wash chose to shoot donut and lopez (because he didn't know them and had no attachment to them), wash chose to take doc prisoner, etc etc.
yet despite all of those awful choices he made, the reds and blues still refused to let him die. they chose to save wash when they had every reason to not save him, and they did it because that's what friends do—they protect their own.
this is why wash pulling his gun on lina in s10, and the words that followed him doing so were so important. wash knew what she was feeling, he understood her on an intimate level because lina was mentally in the same place that he himself had been in not too long ago—but he was not going to stand by and watch her hurt his friends, and he was not going to let her force the reds and blues into a battle that wasn't theirs (like he himself had done in s6 on his quest to defeat the meta).
tldr; wash's arc on chorus with locus doesn't make sense because the whole point of his arc (and kind of lina's arc too) prior to chorus was unironically about rediscovering the power of friendship thanks to a group of dumb guys in colorful armor.
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Just watched Fu Xuan’s trailer and my love for her keeps growing day by day, saving for Kafka’s rerun is the hardest thing I want to pull for Fu Xuan so badly-
Her trailer was a lot of fun, I will say with a lot of dialogue there was less ability to focus on the music and it seemed like that might be intentional because the music certainly didn’t have the same mood setting intensity of say Blade’s, Kafka’s or even Jing Yuan’s imo. However, the music from her trailer was still really good and fitting her character. I liked it a lot
Qingque’s entrance and her involvement in the trailer was such a joy, Qingque is one of my favorite characters and seeing the continued emphasis of her and Fu Xuan and their dynamic given how they contrast each other is such fun.
Fu Xuan’s visuals were beautiful, I’ve been a big fan of how her ultimate looks and the animation of her move sets and just all of the animation within her trailer was spectacular. Going back to Qingque’s entrance, Hoyoverse seriously has been improving so much with their ability to animate such clear, strong, and borderline comical expressions over the course of their games and seeing so much detail like that was a joy.
However, I will say it feels like there’s something lacking, or perhaps I wanted more out of her trailer. There’s a gap in it that I can’t explain or pinpoint. Other trailers have felt like they last for longer for me, but hers felt oddly short. And just, maybe it’s because my standard was set high with the masterpieces that were Blade and Kafka’s, but I wish there had been a bit more especially with how important Fu Xuan is and how amazing her design and ultimate animation is. Like I wish they had set a stronger mood throughout the trailer because those kinds of trailers are what catches me most
That being said, I still loved Fu Xuan’s trailer, I love Fu Xuan herself, her banner is going to be so hard resisting to pull on and I’m gonna need some serious self control. Overall, her trailer is still super solid, super fun, and very visually impressive to me. It’s such a nice thing to see after I was admittedly… rather disappointed with that last trailer before hers.
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I was thinking about character flaws and their interrelationship with character growth—like, yes, these can make characters more realistic, dynamic, and sometimes (where relevant) more relatable. For me, flawed characters with actual character growth are almost always improvements from idealized characters who are never allowed to make misjudgments or mistakes.
But that's pretty obvious, and I was thinking some more about why I'm drawn by significantly flawed characters who are still clearly good people and who do remarkably heroic things when push comes to shove. They don't just feel more interesting to me because of this mix of real flaws with a strong and admirable ethical core. To me, they actually feel like better people, even though they are clearly more flawed than the idealized type.
Sometimes it's because their virtues lead them to more drastic heroic actions—often some kind of reversal/amendment of a previous mistake—so there can be a stronger impression of goodness on some audiences even if they aren't literally more virtuous. But I think that's something else going on, too.
I said above that flawed but essentially noble characters can feel like better people even though they are definitely more flawed than idealized ones. But I'd correct that to: because they are more flawed than the idealized ones.
The thing is, I don't quite believe idealized characters unless there's some kind of edge. Fandom sometimes refers to this as "chaotic energy," though I don't think it's necessarily chaotic in a literal sense, just sharp and often unexpected. Usually, these are among my favorite moments for a noble character—like Luke Skywalker losing his shit on the second Death Star or Faramir blaming Denethor for Boromir's death.
I especially don't believe idealized characters as main characters. Their virtues and trivial flaws (when they have them) are just kind of meh to me. A flawed character whose flaws are significant but still considerably outweighed by their virtues, especially if they actually grow over time, feels like a better person to me, because in this odd way, their clear flaws let me believe the virtues are real.
I understand why the uniform everyday niceness of more idealized characters can be very appealing for some people, and the strongest evidence of good character—not how someone acts in flashy extreme situations, but how they act in day-to-day life when they don't have to be nice to everyone, but just are.
I am not one of those people, in part because I grew up in a conservative community that puts an extremely high premium on day-to-day niceness. You should be courteous to everyone! You should take compassion on the unfortunate, and be helpful to your neighbors, and blahblahblah. They're super nice! And part of growing up as a lesbian in that community was discovering how little that niceness ultimately meant.
It's not that all nice people turn out to be bigots supporting horrific policies (though mostly they are in that community). But day-to-day niceness does not in any way prevent that. So when I see characters who are really nice and idealized for the persistent niceness rather than any more pronounced action, my instinctive response is "maybe." OTOH, if someone screws up here and there or has to overcome an inclination towards some major flaw, but can be depended upon to come through when it's super important—that's what good people in my life look like. So I suspect that's part of why it tends to be the heroic type I'm most drawn to and find most convincing and moral.
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honestly fine with gale as far as how he responds and feels about counter violence to the capitol like i get why katniss is like i hate how he treats innocent human beings like they’ve personally responsible for his suffering and doesn’t know about taking a life up close like she’s right but also he’s thinking big picture during a war and doesn’t help most of his thoughts about the capitol or said war are proven right - like when he’s like is it safe to have everyone gathered here at the hospital and katniss is thinking yeah this can’t be healthy or encourage healing and he’s thinking no they’re gonna be targeted bc they can’t run and are useless for capitol use and bam what happens. he’s right in his own way half the time but what annoys the fuck me about him is him being like so pushy about his feelings even when he KNOWS katniss is completely oblivious to that kind of stuff and keeps blindsiding her with it and getting mad at her for not knowing what to do with that info even with the fact that she found out at like. the worst time of her life when she was stuck in a situation she would have a very hard time getting out of safely with everyone she loves and holds it against her she cares about peeta at all and the whole you only care about me in pain and all i could think is i’ll never compete with how much pain peeta is in so i lost it’s like so you understand how katniss operates is mostly out of concern and worry romantically wise bc she hasn’t had a chance to care about this shit outside of like oh who i am hurting/killing with my choices and then are STILL like im gonna kiss her then stop bc she’s obviously not into it at the moment for the right reasons and it’s like kissing drunk i get he’s like a teenager and is a dumb shit but also leave that girl alone for the love of GOD
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