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sevenkittensinatrenchcoat · 4 years

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1998 Film Mungojerrie Rewatch Part 3

I’ve had the pictures saved for this for almost a week now, but if you’ve followed the other recent posts on this blog, you can see that I’ve gotten very sidetracked. I’ll probably continue to get sidetracked a lot, but the rewatches will continue.

Now, it’s time once again for The Awful Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles and The Rest of the Absurdly Long Full Title Rumpus Cat!

But, the twins skipped rehearsals and Jerrie is about to reach peak Doesn’t Know What’s Going On. While Rumpleteazer seems to be able to awkwardly improvise through it with cues from Munkustrap, her brother, with the smaller half of the braincell, is hopelessly lost the entire time.

As everyone gets into place, Jerrie talks to Jemima, asking what’s going on now. She can’t help him now, since there’s no time to explain. He’ll just have to go to stage right and try his best.

And that’s who Mungojerrie ended up with a shoe on his head, boxes on his paws, an no time to change out of his crop top before it got covered in even more garbage, with absolutely no idea why any of this is happening. Jerrie’s probably had weirder nights out than this, but at least he thought he did something cool in all those stories.

We’ve already gone over the routine of Jerrie messing up his barks, but, not only did Munkustrap point to each twin when it was their turn, not only did Teazer also start pointing to help Jerrie out when he messed up, Jerrie points to Teazer on her first turn, demonstrating some comprehension of how this is supposed to work. And he still doesn’t get it.

He barks twice again, despite everyone, himself included, being aware that this wasn’t right.

Munkustrap can’t figure out if Jerrie’s doing it on purpose or if he’s just that stupid. Really, it could be either one. If he is doing this to troll, Teazer wasn’t in on it and is ashamed to have been involved at all.

Munkustrap suggests that Jerrie should just forget it and go get in line with the other toms. There’s no line forming at the moment, so Jerrie still doesn’t get it and conditions are not about to improve. Teazer laments her existence.

While Munkustrap prays to every possible feline deity for strength, Jerrie decides to let Pouncival go ahead of him in the line. He assumes that Pouncival was at the rehearsals and knows what they’re supposed to do, so he’ll just follow him. As a kitten, with parents that would care if he skipped rehearsals, Pouncival probably did attend them. He just really wasn’t paying attention. He also never realized that his costume didn’t quite fit and he couldn’t see out of his shoebox. But, Pouncival always likes to be the first to show up to everything, so he’s the one who volunteered to take the lead. You can see Responsible Adults in the line. Asparagus knows what he’s doing. Even Alonzo or Coricopat probably know, but Pouncival went first in rehearsals because Mungojerrie wasn’t there, so they’re used to it by now.

After a lot of nearly crashing into things and going the wrong way, Munkustrap decides that Pouncival needs to be stopped. Jerrie Doesn’t Know What’s Going On. Why are they stopping? How was he supposed to know that Pouncival was leading them the wrong way? Why can’t they just keep going?

After that fiasco, Asparagus gives Jerrie a talking-to. Jerrie wonders why he’s in more trouble than Pouncival is. All of this is very hard to see because the Scottish Pollicles are hard to ignore. Skimble’s a cat who cannot be ignored by his admission and the camera thinks Misto’s the main character.

Enter Tugger on the bagpipes. Jerrie Doesn’t Know What’s Going On. But, this time, nobody does, except for Tugger himself and Pouncival who was in on it. It’s why he didn’t pay attention during rehearsals. He was starstruck that Tugger wanted to conspire with him of all people.

When everyone gets caught up barking, Jerrie Doesn’t Know What’s Going On, so he’s the only one who’s actually behaving himself. That literally never happens, so the idea that he’s become the well-behaved one probably sends him spiraling into an existential crisis.

Coricopat and Jerrie, apparently independently of one another, because they’re looking opposite directions, both decide that since Doggo Go Pant they should have their tonbues out like panting dogs.

And as everyone cowers in fear of the Great Rumpus Cat, Jerrie Doesn’t Know What’s Going On and just points.

Everything I have to say about Jerrie during the Song of the Jellicles basically applies to Teazer as well. But, the two eventually separate and while Teazer stays up front with the her queen friends, Jerrie wanders off and ends up hanging out with Tantomile. It’s really hard to tell Coricopat and Tantomile appear from a distance, but I’m pretty sure it’s her, because throughout the first part of the Jellicle Ball, Jerrie and Tantomile are consistently right next to each other.

You can see that when everyone gathers together to watch a plane go by and then hiss at the camera, Mungojerrie is between Teazer and Tantomile, because she was who he was standing closest to when they flocked together.

You might be wondering why I keep pointing this out, because two character happening to be standing next to one another for a while doesn’t really mean anything, but I think that this might’ve been supposed to mean something and I’ll explain why.

So, we have this Big Sexy Dance where the younger adult queens (and Etcetera) dance and Tugger leads a group of toms to join them. Jerrie is not one of those toms. He spends the scene sitting on the car, watching from a distance. Jenny’s there too, so I guess he’s taking time to say hi to his mom. What a nice young man!

Skimbledad comes along to join the family as the toms and queens pair off. Alonzo dances with Etcetera and George with Cassandra, though they switch partners for the Can’t Believe It’s a Mating Dance. Since Alonzo and Cassandra already appear to be a thing, I don’t know why they didn’t do this before. Etcetera isn’t supposed to be here and Alonzo just decides that since this dance is already becoming an inappropriate disaster, he might as well make a contribution.

Tugger is with Bomba, which is to be expected. They’re basically Friends With Benefits. Plato and Demeter is a bit random, but since Victoria’s not an option Plato has to go with someone else. Why her and not Tantomile? I mean, that’s left poor Coricopat dancing with his sister while most of the other guys are getting to sexy dance with women they’re not related to.

Well, I think this is because, for whatever reason, whether in-universe or out, Coricopat wasn’t actually supposed to be part of this dance at all. Mungojerrie was. If he’d been cozying up to Tantomile before, he’d obviously pair off with her, leaving Plato and Demeter as the only two left.

Tugger leads a group of toms in another dance later, and it’s all the same toms that he leads here: George, Plato, and Alonzo. But, Coricopat is swapped out for Mungojerrie. What if Mungojerrie was supposed to be one of Tugger’s Boys in both dances? Putting him close to Tantomile earlier in the ball would build up to that and since this particular dance is a bit more sexualized than some of the other dances, having two siblings together wouldn’t have fit the pattern.

During the whole Jellicle Ball, Mungojerrie ends up in the back of the crowd quite a bit with Rumpleteazer is usually right up front, on of the more featured dancers. Since we’ve already seen Jerrie and Teazer’s number, they’re equally skilled dancers, so it’s not like they were trying to hide Drew Varley because he wasn’t good enough. But, combined with his absence from Tugger’s number, I think something was going on there. Varley was playing Mungojerrie on stage during this time, so maybe he was getting tired out from doing the show at night and they decided to lighten the load for him during the filming, but he wasn’t the only one in this situation. Jo Gibb, who played Rumpleteazer was in the exact same situation. This whole thing might just be a bunch of really weird coincidences, for all I know. I don’t doubt the qualifications of anyone involved, but this is odd.

So, pretty that Jerrie dances with Tantomile instead of Coricopat. It makes more sense that way.

Mungojerrie’s back for the ballet, but ballet’s not his style, so He Doesn’t Know What’s Going On. Teazer, on the other hand, appears to be hard at work to impress Victoria, the Ballet Queen of the Jellicles.

Okay, Not Mating Dance Time. All pairs of twin siblings end up together for this bit. Coricopat and Tantomile sit next to each other and stare out into space. Meanwhile, Rumpleteazer is really into watching the Platoria action while Mungojerrie is pretty much already asleep, only looking up occasionally. Both Plato and Jerrie are in the club of Tugger’s Boys and both Victoria and Teazer are part of the Hormonal Trio, so they’re both watching their friends hook up here, which has to an interesting experience.

This bit should’ve been in the Teazer rewatch, but I didn’t catch it until later. When everyone falls asleep in the Cuddle Pile, Tugger wraps his arm around a nearby leg. The lighting at this angle made it hard to see whose leg it was, so I, because I have no life, went frame by frame through this portion of the Jellicle Ball and watched the Cuddle Pile form to see where limbs were ending up. I took a bunch of screenshots of everyone’s journey from pairing off to the Cuddle Pile, because why not do that while I was there. But, I eventually figured out that The Leg is Rumpleteazer’s. She tried to cozy up to Tugger when everyone was pairing off and he appeared to turn her down, but I guess he’s humoring her a bit by cuddling with her in the Cuddle Pile.

Jerrie doesn’t acknowledge Grizabella at all, so I’ll just end on this picture of Tugger’s Boys because of my previous claims. George is hiding, but Coricopat and Jerrie definitely swapped out.

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skybird13 · 5 years

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What Went Wrong With Clover and Qrow: The Writing Pt. 1

And What CRWBY Could Have Done Better

[Spoilers for all of RWBY Vol. 7]

Now that the final episode for RWBY volume 7 has aired (for first members, at least) and I’ve had over a week to throw my tantrum and air my more emotional grievances, I think now is the perfect time to delve into the mechanics of what I believe went wrong when it came to episode 12, particularly in regards to the writing itself. For those of you who have been following my blog for any length of time, it should come as no surprise to you that in order to do this, we have to go all the way back to the beginning of the volume and break things down. For the rest of you... this is going to be a long post. In fact, it ended up being so long, I’m going to break it down into four parts, focusing on three episodes each up to episode 12.

There are a lot of layers to the anger and hurt surrounding Clover’s death. And while my emotional reaction is still very much there, I really do want to take the time to do this so that people can better understand at least one of those layers. I won’t be getting too much into the shipping aspect in this post or even the queer coding that I personally perceived in Clover’s character. Rather, I’m going to be analyzing the writing decisions and offering my personal suggestions for how CRWBY could have tweaked things to make the events in episode 12, as they happened, far more feasible (i.e. foreshadow Clover’s behavior and remove the flirting, primarily).

Note: This is a critique. I’m not going for negativity here but rather for constructive criticism, where I’ll be acknowledging what CRWBY did well alongside what they could have done better. If you read to the end of part 4 of this series, you’ll find that even after everything, a part of me still very much wants to give CRWBY the benefit of the doubt.

So, without further ado, here we go.

Episode 1 - Clover’s Introduction

I made a whole post breaking down and analyzing Clover’s introductory scenes in episode 1 where I focused pretty heavily on the animation and the framing. You can read it here if you’d like, but to summarize, the way these scenes play out makes it very clear that Qrow and Clover are going to be linked somehow. These scenes worked, and even in light of the events in episode 12, they still work because things are left pretty open. We have no idea if Qrow and Clover are going to like one another, much less get along to any degree. We just know that we, the audience, are meant to connect them. These scenes, in fact, were done incredibly well.

As far as writing goes, they don’t say a whole lot to one another. In fact, Clover doesn’t speak to Qrow directly at all and the only thing Qrow says is:

“Hey, pal, I’m a licensed Huntsman. Just helped save everyone?”

So... pretty par for the course there. Nothing that really needs to be addressed. This is totally something we expect Qrow to say.

So let’s take a look at Clover’s dialogue. I don’t want to quote every single line, at least not in this particular scene, so I’ll just pull out a few that I think do a great job of setting up his character.

In response to Dr. Polendina asking what the Ace Ops are doing in Mantle:

“Well, we heard a report of an unauthorized ship making an unauthorized landing, followed by an unauthorized use of weapons by non-licensed Huntsmen.”

In response to Dr. Polendina wanting to talk it out:

“They’ll be able to talk this out once they get up to Atlas.”

This is a fantastic bit of writing because it establishes several things at once.

1) Clover is lawful good. The reasons he lists for being there, and the way he emphasizes the “unauthorized” nature of it all, makes it pretty clear that he’s there to do his job. He doesn’t respond to Qrow or even check him for a license, and he rebuffs Dr. Polendina’s desire to talk things out right there. Clover arrests the teams because in his eyes they were breaking the law, and that’s all he really needs to know.

2) It sets him up as Qrow’s opposite in ideology, which is a great way to mirror the opposite Semblance reveal later.

3) It also introduces the possibility of negative tension between him and Qrow. The problem with this is that this tension is never once realized throughout the rest of the volume. In fact, the complete opposite happens and they get along very well. My biggest critique here is that CRWBY absolutely put themselves in a position where episode 12 could have made more sense but then never took it anywhere. Instead, they focused on building up their relationship as a positive thing.

Problem Tally For This Episode: 0.5. There’s really nothing I would have changed about this particular scene because I think it was very nicely done. Things are introduced and set up but left ambiguous enough that we have no idea how things between Qrow and Clover are going to go. The 0.5 is an acknowledgment of the potential set up for the episode 12 conflict that went unused.

Suggested Changes Tally For This Episode: 0

Episode 2 - Making Amends

(^^ I had to go with this screenshot, Clover’s expression is way too good XD)

The end of episode 2 is the first time we see Clover and the other Ace Ops since they arrested the main cast down in Mantle. And... this is where things start to go wrong. Or, perhaps it would be better to say, this is where things could have gone differently. While Clover and Qrow don’t interact in this episode, there are still some key decisions made in regards to Clover’s character.

I’ll pull out the relevant lines and analyze them as we go, then offer up my suggestions for changes.

When the Teams come down the stairs after their meeting with James, Clover approaches them and says:

“I’d like to sincerely apologize for the miscommunication down in Mantle. We didn’t intend to-”

We never learn what it was they “didn’t intend” to do because Elm cuts him off when she practically body-checks him out of the way 😆 But the wording of this line immediately shifts our perspective on Clover a little. He’s no longer behaving like the stringent, unapologetic law enforcer, but is instead acknowledging that he and his team probably messed up a little by not listening/talking to the Teams. It’s a small thing, but it’s our first hint that while he is lawful good, he is by no means unreasonable or unreachable. Contrast him with Cordovin in volume 6 who listens to absolutely nothing, doesn’t apologize, and never budges in her determination to stop the Teams until she has no other choice.

Now, because writing often relies on the tension between various characters’ lines, and because characters are often defined by those around them as much as by what they themselves say, I think it’s important to have a transcript of the following exchange between Ruby, Weiss, Elm, Marrow, and Clover:

Elm: I feel so bad, honestly! If we had known who you were, we’d be laughing over a hot meal right now and--

Ruby: I understand. You were just following orders.

Weiss: I mean, you could have asked us some questions first.

Marrow: Questions are for the weak, but we’re all on the same team now. Not that I’m happy about it.

Clover: We just wanted to say we’re sorry, and that we’re looking forward to working with you on our next mission. You might be students, but you’ve been fighting just as hard as we have, if not harder.

There’s quite a bit to tease out here. Some of it good, some of it not so great in terms of the larger picture and the events in episode 12.

First of all, Elm apologizes. This functions as a reflection on Clover. Good writers find ways to define and build character through the people around them as much as from the character’s own actions and behavior. As the team leader, you expect Clover’s teammates to have picked up on some of his more prominent characteristics and ways of thinking. The fact that Elm not only apologizes but insinuates that knowing who the Teams were would have changed the decisions made in Mantle, suggests a certain level of flexibility. It can also be argued that this foreshadows the fact that at least one of them will go through a change thanks to their association with the Teams. On a deep writing level, that foreshadowing is there, and I’ll make an argument in just a second for why Clover is set up to be that changed character.

But first, let’s look at Ruby and Weiss’s lines, which both serve well to introduce the fundamental difference between themselves and the Ace Ops: “make it up as we go” RWBY, JNOR, and Qrow as opposed to “arrest now ask questions later” Ace Ops. This is good. This works well as the first hint that conflict between them is possible. I have no complaints here.

And then we get to Marrow’s line. This is where things get a little murky but maybe that was the intent. He’s definitely posturing for his team, which is behavior that he exhibits throughout the volume. As the youngest member and the only Faunus on the Ace Ops, this line does a good job of exhibiting that he really wants to fit in with the others, and as such it also doubles as a second peek into the “ask questions later” ideology that the Ace Ops hold as a group. Which is probably something that trickles down from Clover himself, considering he’s the leader. This, also, is fine and works well.

But then....

Clover apologizes again. He doesn’t correct Marrow but doesn’t agree with him either. He doesn’t acknowledge Marrow’s assertions at all. He apologizes to the Teams and this simple act works to reinforce the shift in our perception that he’s possibly more flexible and open to admitting his own mistakes than we might have thought in his episode 1 introduction. And this is the very beginning of the dissonance so many of us felt in his behavior in episode 12.

Suggested Change #1:

My first suggested fix is to change the way that Clover’s second apology is framed by changing his initial apology. Even though he gets cut off by Elm, his first instinct is to apologize for the miscommunication in Mantle. Not only does this tie in so well with one of the primary themes of the volume (miscommunication in all its manifestations), it also indicates that Clover’s character itself is tied to that theme. But his acknowledgment that they probably should have asked some questions immediately frames him as a character who is going to change in terms of that theme. The “we didn’t intend to--” part only adds weight to this hint.

So how could they have fixed this? There are a multitude of possibilities but here is the best I came up with:

>>“I’d like to sincerely apologize for what happened earlier. We were only--”

Do you see the big differences here? Two major things change by altering only a few words. First, in this line, Clover does not acknowledge that he and the Ace Ops made a mistake by not asking questions. He’s still be apologizing for what happened but he's not admitting any fault on his or his team’s part. This would have reaffirmed our initial impression of him as a rigid rule follower, rather than dismantling it a little. Second, the “we were only” would have indicated that, despite his apology, he planned to justify their actions. Again, this would have worked very well to maintain the strict lawful good vibe we get from him initially. These minor alterations would have been subtle enough but strong enough to continue building up to the conflict between him and Qrow in episode 12.

Suggested Change #2:

If you don’t want to change that initial apology, change what he says after Marrow speaks. Have him acknowledge Marrow’s assertions that questions aren’t their thing. You could even have done this through animation with a slight nod or a laugh, but since we’re talking about writing, here is one suggestion:

>>“In our line of work, taking the time to ask questions can sometimes be dangerous. I’m sure you can relate. Regardless, we just wanted to say we’re sorry.”

Again, do you see the difference between this and what we got? What we got brings out the possibility that Clover is somewhat malleable. This, on the other hand, effectively but subtly reinforces his “by the books” mentality, which is exactly what CRWBY needed in order to justify his behavior towards Qrow in episode 12.

I have no suggestions for changes to the lines of the other characters. I think those lines function well in pushing against each other and maintaining a level of tension all around, and they’re necessary for building up to the RWBY vs. Ace Ops conflict. But two very minor and simple changes to Clover’s lines would have continued that initial setup for the episode 12 conflict that was established in episode 1. Instead, CRWBY starts to dissolve it from the get-go.

Problem Tally for this Episode: 1 The biggest problem in this episode is really that Clover’s character immediately starts to shift from “strict inflexible rule follower” to someone who can admit he made a mistake and should probably behave a little differently in the future.

Suggested Changes Tally for this Episode: 2

Episode 3 - Aaaaaand Here We Go

This section is going to be loooong. Not only do we get a lot of Clover in this episode, but we get a ton of him and Qrow together. In other words, we get the first beats of their relationship (again, I won’t be arguing for the shipping aspects, because I’ve done that in other posts and you all know where I stand on that, but their relationship, regardless of its nature, is vital to this analysis).

The first scenes we get in this episode are of Clover briefing Qrow, Jaune, and Ruby about the mission. A lot of it is pretty basic and does a good job of establishing him as an organized, efficient military leader. He’s clearly smart and knowledgable with his strategy.

The first line that really stood out to me in this sequence is the one where he is talking about the Geist:

“But recon has identified a powerful Geist that’s managed to evade destruction and take several lives.”

And this pretty much just serves to establish that lost life is a concern for him. A very good thing to know. It adds a little depth to his character.

After this, we get:

“General Ironwood says you’ve seen your fair share of combat. I trust that man with my life, so tomorrow, I’ll be trusting you all too.”

This is actually a great line for a lot of reasons. First and foremost, it establishes his trust in and bond with Ironwood. It’s a line that gets a lot of emphasis both in delivery and in terms of placement (it comes at the end of his monologue), and it’s one that returns in episode 12 as a sort-of justification for Clover’s actions. This particular line also suggests that his trust in the Teams and Qrow, as of this moment, is dependent upon Ironwood’s opinion of them. He trusts them because Ironwood has vouched for them and not because he has any reasons of his own to do so. This actually works really well and I wouldn’t suggest a change.

The problem in the narrative again comes from what happens outside of this line. The tension suggested here is never carried forward or built upon. In light of this, and because of the direction his relationship with Qrow takes, this line doesn’t work well as a foreshadowing of his actions in episode 12. Rather, its narrative function falls more in line with hinting at the potential for change that was introduced in episode 2. It does do a good job of setting up Clover as the one who is going to have to make a choice between his absolute trust in Ironwood and something else (whether that’s his own judgment or his trust in Qrow or whatever), but because of the writing outside of this line, it completely fails to build up to the events in episode 12 in a way that is convincing. In fact, it does the complete opposite. Because of this line and the way Clover is written in the rest of the volume, we are set up to expect an internal struggle from him in episode 12, not blind obedience.

Moving on to the scene where he and Qrow have their first one-on-one interactions. As you can probably predict, here is where things start to go to absolute shit. Up to this point, CRWBY still had what they needed to pull off episode 12 without it feeling ridiculously contrived. Sure, they played around with Clover’s character a little, gave us enough nuance in his narrative to potentially pique our curiosity, but they hadn’t passed the point of no return yet. Here, however, is where they start to.

Because of that, I’m going to quote large chunks of the script between Qrow and Clover, and pull it apart as best I can. Here is their very first conversation of the entire volume:

Qrow: Gotta say, I’m still not really used to working with other Huntsmen in the field.

Clover: But you were on a team before, weren’t you?

Qrow: (sighs) Long time ago. I just found working alone tends to be for the best.

Clover: Well, I think that’s a shame.

[Qrow slips and nearly falls before Clover catches him.]

So there are actually quite a few things going on here and they all contribute to the overall problem with the writing in this volume.

First of all, despite Qrow’s previously established dislike for the Atlas military in earlier volumes, and despite being arrested by Clover in episode 1, there is zero animosity or negative tension here. He seems more than willing to work with Clover and is even comfortable enough to initiate conversation and open up a bit. There is nothing of plot relevance in this scene. It is solely and specifically meant to give us the first hint of what their relationship is going to be like.

The major problem I have with this, in terms of the overall story that pans out between these two, is that CRWBY already had an inbuilt way to introduce a little negative tension. They could have easily called back to Qrow’s not-so-great opinions about Atlas military huntsmen, even if not overtly, and that would have worked really well as a stepping stone to the episode 12 conflict. But that’s not what we get.

Instead, Qrow opens up about something personal (being alone) and Clover is shown to be sympathetic. Clover’s sympathy here is another major mistake made by CRWBY when we take into account one of Clover’s lines in episode 12. I’m not going to watch it right now to get the exact wording, but it’s something along the lines of “There’s that cynicism of yours”. It’s a line that comes across as cruel and impatient, and it comes out of absolutely nowhere thanks in particular to the exchange above, their interactions later in this episode, and the episode 5 truck scene.

Right here is where CRWBY had the opportunity to at least partially rectify that very specific problem, but it doesn’t happen. We are given no indication that Clover thinks any less of Qrow for this reveal, and are instead given a glimpse at the patience and kindness that he is capable of.

Suggested Change #3:

The easiest way to fix this would have been to remove Clover’s sympathy, or at least insert a little condescension into it. This could have been done without making him an outright ass, and therefore CRWBY would have been able to keep us invested in at least wondering where this is going to go between them while simultaneously giving us one of the hints needed to make episode 12 believable. All it would have taken was altering Clover’s final line in that exchange.

Here are a few possibilities:

>> “Hmm” - delivered in a way that communicates his judgment or at least something noncommital

>> “That doesn’t seem like a good idea.” - critical

>> “That’s a bit much, isn’t it?” - dismissive, condescending

>> “I have a hard time believing that.” - dismissive

>> “Is that right.” - dismissive, condescending

>> He says nothing and it’s up to the animators to communicate his judgment.

Suggested Change #4:

The slightly more difficult change they could have made here would have been utilizing Qrow’s established distaste for authority and the Atlas military in general. Here is one potential way that could have gone:

>> Qrow: Gotta say, I’m still not really used to working with other Huntsmen in the field.

Clover: But you were on a team before, weren’t you?

Qrow: Long time ago. Playing with others isn’t really my thing. I found working alone tends to be for the best.

Clover: Well, I think that’s a shame.

In this case, you could keep Clover’s last line because instead of Qrow opening up and being vulnerable, he’s actually being a bit more antagonistic, which would have been plausible given his behavior towards Winter and James in volume 3. Clover’s line, in this context, becomes much more ambiguous and open to interpretation, which would have fed well into the episode 12 build-up.

Moving on again to their next interaction in the mines right after the Geist escapes:

Clover: Thaks for the call-out. That could have been bad.

Qrow: (sighs) I wouldn’t thank me. My Semblance brings misfortune. Sometimes I can’t keep it under control.

Clover: That so? Well, hey, don’t beat yourself up about it. My Semblance is good fortune. Lucky you, huh?

Again, there is quite a bit going on, not only in these lines but in the lead-up as well, so in order to maintain perspective, I’m going to backtrack just a bit to when Clover caught Qrow after he slipped on the ice. The next major beat in their relationship after that event is Qrow warning Clover to prevent him from getting crushed by a falling beam.

These two things paired so closely together suggest that real trust is starting to develop between them. It’s not trust vouched for by someone else, but the trust that comes from being in a dangerous situation together and coming through for one another. At the bare minimum, the foundation for trust is laid here and with nothing to undermine it (because of the writing thus far), there is no reason for the audience to doubt that it will continue to develop and strengthen.

Then we have the lines above.

Again, Qrow opens up about something deeply personal here. He is showing unusual levels of vulnerability for him, which suggests that even if the audience doesn’t quite understand it, Qrow has found a reason to want to open up to Clover. It points towards an immediate level of comfort that we have never seen from Qrow before and that is something that can’t be ignored.

As for Clover, I suppose we could argue about the nature of his response to Qrow’s vulnerability. I know some saw it as Clover being dismissive of Qrow’s pain, and if that had been how the lines were delivered, this might have worked very well in building up to a conflict between them. This is one instance where we need to step outside the words themselves and take into consideration the aspects surrounding the words: the animation and Chris Wehkamp’s line delivery in particular (which I assume were directions written into the script).

One of the biggest problems here is that this was yet another opportunity for Clover’s impatience with Qrow’s cynicism to be established. And yet again, that’s not what we get. Instead, Clover takes Qrow’s Semblance in stride, reassures him that it’s not something he needs to worry about, and then offers up a comparable piece of information about himself: his Semblance is good fortune. There is no indication in the writing, line delivery, or animation that he finds Qrow’s attitude distasteful or annoying, and there could have been.

The other major problem with this is, again, the nature of Clover’s final line. I promised that I wouldn’t get into the shipping aspect and I won’t, but at the very least I think everyone can agree that the “Lucky you, huh?” quip at the end is intended to be friendly. This is the first time we learn something personal about Clover and it’s also the first time that his behavior towards Qrow shifts from being purely professional to something else. This shift is maintained and built upon throughout the volume and I’ll comment more about it in just a bit.

None of this builds up to what happens in episode 12. CRWBY lays the foundation for a healthy and functional relationship between these two, hints at the beginnings of real trust between them, and completely foregoes all opportunities to insert some of the negative tension that was sorely needed for episode 12 to make sense.

Before making some suggestions for changes, I’d like to take a second to really emphasize this point: prior to these two scenes, the audience has little to no reason to believe that these two are going to get along. Clover is elite Atlas military and Qrow is... well, Qrow. We already knew everything we needed to know about them to make the inclusion of that necessary negative tension ridiculously easy. All CRWBY had to do was play them off one another in a way that leaned on this prior knowledge. This is not only sloppy writing in light of episode 12, but this is also the active and intentional subversion of our expectations where these two characters are concerned. This puts us into a bit of a quandary, really, because how can something be both careless and yet so intentionally done? It’s not a question I’m going to try to answer here but I think it’s one worth keeping in mind as we move forward.

Suggested Change #5:

Remove the friendly/flirty nature of Clover’s final lines and instead write them in such a way that he seems a little more callous and irritated with Qrow’s attitude. Again, he doesn’t need to be such a jerk that we hate him off the bat, but including a little hint of negative emotion would not have been difficult here.

For instance:

>> Clover: That so? Well, don’t worry about it. Luckily, my Semblance is good fortune.

See how different that is? Dismissive, potentially irritated, and it brings the focus on to Clover and his Semblance rather than putting the focus on Qrow and what a good fortune Semblance might mean to him, which is how the original script functions. The very last line that I suggest also serves to put Qrow down a bit in a very subtle way rather than having Clover flirt with/be friendly towards him. It’s basically a “whatever, things will be fine despite the fact you’re here”.

Moving on from this, we get the following:

Clover: Charlie, Bravo, you should be able to cut off the target at the heart of the mine. Qrow and I won’t be far behind.

Again, this line is a relatively small thing all on its own, but in context with the scenes that precede it, there is actually a lot more going on here than might appear at first.

I didn’t quote it, but when Qrow and Clover first land at their assigned mine entrance, Clover refers to himself and Qrow as “Alpha Squad”. Here, that changes to “Qrow and I”.

Not only does this support and reinforce the change in Clover’s attitude toward Qrow with the “Lucky you, huh?” line (going from professional to something else), but Qrow is specifically named. There is not only an inherent intimacy that comes with using a person’s first name, but it’s a very subtle and effective way of framing Clover and Qrow together as a pair. This further feeds into that set-up I was talking about in episode 2 where Clover is presented as the most likely character to change as a result of his association with the Teams/Qrow, particularly in the absence of negative tension and the efforts by the writers to subvert our expectations in that regard.

Do you see where things are starting to stack up in the completely wrong direction? It gets worse in just a minute but first...

How do you fix this? Again, it’s easy. Considering Clover is military and codenames are a thing heavily used, it would have made more sense for him to at least refer to the two of them as “we” or even revert to “alpha squad”.

Suggested Change #6:

Make a slight alteration to Clover’s line so that he reverts to pure military professionalism.

>> Clover: We won’t be far behind.

>> Clover: Alpha squad won’t be far behind.

Pretty simple. Either change works. Even though the shift that comes with “Lucky you, huh” would still have thrown us off a bit, Clover’s return to his norm would have signaled to the audience that the perceived change was fragile at best, and possibly even a complete fluke of Clover’s personality. It also maintains a level of emotional distance between Clover and Qrow that we really did need for episode 12 to work. Instead, CRWBY made the choice to close that distance. Significantly.

Now it gets worse. We go into the scene in the main chamber where Clover and the Ace Ops take down the Geist. The obvious bit of dialogue here that merits attention is Clover’s following line after catching the piece of Dust in reference to the other Ace Ops:

Clover: What would you guys do without me?

I think this line might be one of the most disappointing because it could so easily have foreshadowed Clover’s death. But instead, due to what came just before and what comes after, this line sets up an entirely different conflict. In fact, it does a beautiful job of pretty much cementing Clover as the character who will change the most because of Qrow and the Teams, and who will have to choose between Ironwood and his own moral code. Do I suggest that from here on out, him choosing Qrow over Ironwood was absolutely set in stone? Not at all. In fact, that wouldn’t have made sense for the narrative or Clover’s character. However, Clover’s unflinching blind obedience and immediate willingness to arrest Qrow in episode 12 are completely undermined by this set-up. We expect to see him struggle with that decision, regardless of the ultimate outcome, not turn into a drone who does exactly what he’s told.

Additionally, thanks to the set-up we get throughout the volume for the RWBY vs Ace Ops fight, this line feeds into that tension in particular. The problem here is that the second we see the Ace Ops act to arrest RWBY without hesitation, this tension is resolved and we have our answer. We know exactly what they do without him and all that’s left to see is the unspoken second half of this question: What would Clover do without them?

If I could include an illustration of how far CRWBY was leaning away from foreshadowing Clover’s death and callousness in episode 12 up to this point, we’d have ourselves a goddamn Tower of Pisa.

There is no specific fix here because the problem isn’t with this line itself. It certainly could have functioned to foreshadow Clover’s death, but again, because of the rest of the narrative, that’s not what it ends up doing.

I want to step away from the dialogue for just a moment. I know I said I wouldn’t be focusing on animation, but considering animators take their directions from the script and storyboards, it does technically qualify as writing even if I can’t give you word-for-word what those directions were. There is something in the animation in this particular scene that we can’t ignore.

Clover’s behavior directly following the line above (he tosses the Dust to Qrow, gives him a loose and playful salute, and backward swan dives off the cliff into the pit where the Geist is) is a massive, screaming augmentation of Clover’s shift towards Qrow specifically (i.e. away from strictly professional and towards something else). The “lucky you, huh” line and the use of Qrow’s name right before this pulls us very nicely into this new dynamic.... But this dynamic is exactly the thing that makes episode 12 so outlandishly out of place.

Moving on to the final Qrow/Clover interaction for this episode. After the Geist has been defeated and Ruby makes the day-saving catch, we get this:

Qrow: Lucky catch, huh?

Clover: Hm, no. I’d chalk that one up to talent.

One of my issues with these lines is that they serve to once more highlight the shift that has occurred between Qrow and Clover, particularly because it gives us some invaluable insight on Qrow’s feelings towards Clover’s Semblance. Here is another area where the light-hearted delivery Jason Liebrecht (Qrow’s VA) gave factors in a bit. A lot of us had no idea how Qrow was going to react to learning that someone else had a Semblance opposite to his own. He could very easily have been upset or resentful or even self-effacing, but instead, he absorbs the information, takes it in stride, and proceeds to joke about it in a way that I just realized mirrors Clover’s “Lucky you, huh?” line. This is basically Qrow shifting seamlessly into their new dynamic and accepting it.

The other major problem here is, once again, Clover’s characterization. This has all been building up pretty badly to episode 12, as I hope I’ve illustrated, but this final exchange is really the last good chance CRWBY had to pull things back on track a bit. Only they don’t take it. They could have had Clover display a bit of arrogance or dismissiveness in this scene. It would have worked well to at least let us know that the personality he has displayed so far might be more of a front than anything, and if done right, his coldness toward Qrow in episode 12 wouldn’t have been totally unexpected. Instead, we get to see a man who gives credit where it’s due and absolutely believes that his Semblance is not everything. In other words, we get a Clover who is drastically different from the person depicted in episode 12.

Suggested Change #7:

Change Clover’s final line to clue the audience into the fact that he is not what he seems and hint at a darker personality lurking under the surface. Here are a couple of options

>> Clover: It was.

>> Clover: That’s one way to put it.

Problem Tally for this Episode: 14

Further set-up (at least 2 major instances) for Clover to be the one who changes or at least struggles with having to choose between Ironwood and Qrow/disobeying orders. Multiple instances (3 significant by my count) where Clover’s characterization fails to match what we get in episode 12. A failure to lean into the pre-established negative tension between Clover and Qrow by virtue of who they are. An active subversion of the expectations that could have easily supported that negative tension. The shift in Qrow and Clover’s relationship which is never recanted in any way, followed by no less than 4 instances of reinforcement. The beginning of the closing emotional distance between Clover and Qrow. A line that could potentially have acted as foreshadowing undermined by what comes before and after it.

Suggested Changes Tally for this Episode: 5

Total Problems so Far: 15.5

Total Suggested Changes: 7

Do you see where all the little, tiny things are starting to add up? And do you also see where only a few small changes could have been implemented to make episode 12 something that didn’t hit the audience like a freight train? The thing is, not all of these changes would have been necessary. A few of them would have sufficed.

I hope this has been helpful in shedding some light on a portion of the reason why people are so upset by what happened in episode 12. I’m going to continue this analysis as soon as I can, with the next part covering episodes 4-6. With school and everything I’m not certain how soon it will be out, but look for it sometime over the weekend or at the beginning of next week.

#clover deserved better #fair game #clover ebi #qrow branwen #rwby #rwby7 #rwby critique #what went wrong in the writing #blog series

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abybweisse · 5 years

Text

@gkrosental Oh, I’ve blogged about this before, but it’s split between various posts. So, it might be hard to find. You can check my blog, though, for #advanced technology, #medical technology, #technological advances, #medical advances, #reaper technology, etc. Oh... and stuff like #george and #giygas....

For one thing, that’s not Sebastian’s mobile; it’s the one Vanel’s thugs have. He just takes it from one of them to talk to Vanel.

The other thing is that modern technology shows up in the manga quite frequently, and Yana-san explained once that it’s an alternate universe to begin with, and these things are, therefore, only... slightly anachronistic. Let’s not forget that our earl has some kind of television; it’s been vaguely mentioned by our earl and Finny, and much more directly mentioned by Soma. Funny thing about the TV is that our earl must not be the only one to have one, since John Brown mentions the same TV program to the crowd at the Crystal Palace; he promotes the rumor that the show is based on Queen Victoria! But yeah... some of them are definitely still anachronistic, even for the Kuroverse.

The reapers (and their superiors) have advanced technology. We know this for a fact; even ages ago, when Othello was newer to the reaper organization, he’s seen carrying around a box of computer parts, like a keyboard. Othello says that humans can get ahold of such knowledge through demon contracts, etc. Even though Sebastian hasn’t been told (that we know of) to “invent stuff for me” by our earl, we can pretty well assume that Funtom’s innovative toys come from a combination of our earl’s imagination and Sebastian’s demonic abilities. Funtom is best known for its Bitter Rabbits and candies, but they also sell video game consoles... with game controllers connected by wires. Indeed, Funtom sells a few things that you’d only expect the reapers to have. But it doesn’t end with Funtom, not even regarding video games. How else would Chlaus show up in ch1 with that game cartridge packaging for “Mouse3”? It was actually full of the drug evidence he’d brought back from Italy... but the packaging is probably legit.

I suspect that reapers, like Undertaker, also have an effect on the advancements that humans make... accelerating the process of innovation. Those dialysis machines are a perfect example. I’m not sure yet who actually built them. Perhaps Druitt, since he has a medical license? And because Undertaker saved him on the Campania for REASONS...?

At one point, during the murders arc, Charles Grey makes a comment that Germany’s about ten years ahead of where it should be; I’m not sure how he learned that (perhaps from John Brown?!?), but this means that the Kuroverse is dealing with an accelerated timeline for its technological advances. Characters like Grey and Othello acknowledge something is amiss. But, it’s complicated why it’s happening. Germany might have some reaper or demon/angel intervention, too, but they also have/had prodigies, like Sieglinde Sullivan. She managed something her parents, with all their learning and training, had failed to do. SuLin was the result. Idk how they got the rest of the advanced technology they are using, like radar and tanks. Divine intervention? Other geniuses? Since coming to Great Britain, Sieglinde has continued to shock and amaze with her latest inventions... which seem to be financially backed by the queen....

The reason I mentioned #george and #giygas is because of my main theory regarding Black Butler... that’s it’s largely based on a Nintendo game called Mother3. I mean, that’s what “Mouse3” by “Ninkyodo” refers to, after all. But, as I’ve said in many of my posts about this, it’s not just Mother3 being used for the manga series; it’s the entire game series. And this topic is one of those situations that requires going all the way back to the first installment: Mother. In the US, it was titled EarthBound: Beginnings.

In Mother, a young alien, named Giygas (the translation varies, but this is one of the common ones), is traveling from their home planet, populated by this technologically advanced civilization. Their spacecraft crash lands on Earth and they are taken in by a couple, named George and Maria. They raise them as their own, and they later manage to travel with Giygas back towards their home planet, and Maria stays there... but George returns to Earth... with stolen technology, which he continues to research... and spreads around to other humans. Giygas is sent by their superiors to stop George, because the alien race is worried that humans will eventually use their own technology against them. However, George has died by the time Giygas returns to Earth, so they decide to target George’s descendants. Humans have started to incorporate the knowledge that George brought back; it’s even showing up in some humans’ natural abilities, as if it’s being genetically inherited. We meet one of those descendants, Ninten. He, with the help of friends, has to collect melodies from a song and sing it to Queen Mary, who is... kind of like Maria... but on another plane of existence, called Magicant.

Later, Ness (in Mother2, aka EarthBound) and his pals have to fight people who are under Giygas’ power, including a rather bothersome and wholly self-centered boy named Pokey Minch. By now, Giygas has been driven mad by his futile attempts to stop the spread of this stolen technology and knowledge. Then they have to fight Pokey Minch again, but Pokey has been drastically changed by time-traveling equipment he stole from a human inventor (Dr. Andonuts). Ness and his friends have to fight not just this futuristic version of Pokey but also an unhinged and unleashed version of Giygas; the alien has lost their physical form and now exists as an evil force of immense power. Through prayer (mostly), Ness and his friends are able to banish ... perhaps truly destroy... Giygas, but Pokey escapes to cause problems yet another time.

With Mother3, which never got a worldwide release (which is why Chlaus says in Black Butler that “Mouse3” [and the drugs] were hard to get ahold of in Italy), mirror twin brothers Claus and Lucas get separated after their mother is killed (and their father is too full of grief to help them). Claus ends up missing (he’s dead at the bottom of a cliff), and Lucas and the family dog, Boney, go on a quest to avenge his family. Lucas, Boney, and friends they make have to defeat King Porky; King Porky is what the time-traveling Pokey Minch decides to call himself when he travels to this future setting and settles down to become a tyrant. Giygas seems to be gone, but King Porky still follows Giygas’ destructive life path. King Porky is obsessed with popularity and technological advances. And, at some point, the lifeless body of Claus gets turned into a Fascinating Chimera, and the mirror twin brothers have to compete to fulfill a prophecy... of waking the Dark Dragon. Dr. Andonuts was previously forced to help King Porky, but even he eventually gets revenge.

I have a lot of posts about Mother3 theory, and I’m trying to focus here on a particular aspect, so here are some parallels, particularly regarding technology:

Our earl — Lucas

Real Ciel — Claus

Sebastian, under contract — Boney, the loyal family dog

Sebastian, aka the “Black Butler”, once the contract is fulfilled — Dark Dragon, particularly once the prophecy is fulfilled

Undertaker, bringing otherworldly technology to humans — George

Reaper superiors and/or John Brown — the original manifestation of Giygas and that alien race

Reapers, in general — Magypsies, in general

Prince Soma — Pokey Minch

Prince Soma with the Right Hand of Kali — Pokey Minch with the unhinged Giygas (This parallel would be further strengthened if Prince Soma ends up stealing anything out of Sieglinde’s lab or convinces her to make any sort of contraption for him.)

Queen Victoria, who demands unwavering loyalty and is trying to increase Great Britain’s power through technology and new infrastructure — King Porky, who demands the same and is also focused on infrustrucfure, technology, innovation, etc.

Queen Victoria with John Brown — King Porky drunk on unbridled power, basing his actions on what he thinks Giygas would want of him.

Undertaker, inventor of Bizarre Dolls — Dr. Andonuts, inventor of Fascinating Chimera

Sieglinde, chemist and inventor of various contraptions — Dr. Andonuts (also his younger version, Lloyd), inventor of various contraptions

There are so many other parallels, not just in characters and plots, but also in their timelines. However, like I said... I’m trying to focus on your ask regarding technological anachronisms.

TL/DR: It’s definitely supposed to be the Victorian era, but it’s an alternative universe to our own, so it took some different paths along the historical timeline. Add to that the fact that reapers and demons/angels (or other supernatural beings, like gods) have been intervening in human lives, and advanced technologies and innovations have been introduced along the way because of it.

There are lots of examples of this throughout the series, including the mobile phone used by Vanel’s thugs (Sebastian grabbed theirs; he doesn’t have one of his own). Other examples include TVs, video game consoles, war tanks, radar, and all the contraptions Sieglinde makes for herself and for others, like the Phantom Five.

This all works just dandy with my theory that the manga series is largely based on Nintendo’s Mother game series, since both deal quite a bit with “stolen” technology and runaway technology/innovation.

Thanks for the ask and for letting me screenshot the message to answer in a post. 😊

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shimakaze-revivalism · 4 years

Text

alright.

i made dawn's acquaintance shortly before leaving on a trip to visit my longtime girlfriend sybil and my girlfriend jackie, who at the time i'd known for less than two months. i had been very isolated, both before this time and during it. at sybil’s prompting, i had recently joined a server run by bryn, the first community i had been a part of in a very long time. i met jackie there, and she had been the first person i'd talked to at length besides sybil for about two years. i first messaged dawn to clarify something i'd seen her say:

"Which deaths matter: Those killed by their partners, or those dying alone in garages full of carbon monoxide, with nooses around their necks, with excess drugs in their systems?

Of course all kinds of transfeminine people are at risk of both kinds of death, but we know that the proportions between demographics differ. We also know who makes the news and who dies alone."

this was a patently ridiculous thing to say. i knew that at the time, and her noncommittal yet revealing explanations further confirmed it. she went on to map out her trans-lesbianism-moralizing stance, implicitly, evasively equating nonwhite death by transmisogynistic violence with white transmisogyny-fuelled suicide, blah blah. i let it pass, valuing interpersonal civility as i did at the time, and hoping to make friends by default.

i mention this because it would set the tone for our dealings from then on.

we developed a fairly active friendship. beginning from early on in our relationship, dawn took great care to emphasize the existential gulf between our embodiments, never quite laying it bare, but making it clear that she was uniquely disadvantaged as compared to myself, who was, in turn, uniquely privileged over her. i should state plainly and crudely for clarity's sake that i am a mentally ill chinese trans woman dropout, who was, at the time, underweight and extremely isolated. i would continue to be those things, sometimes increasingly, throughout the course of our relationship. dawn is white and transfeminine.

also beginning from early on in our relationship was her insistence that i never make reference to jackie's and my relationship, which she also applied to jackie. this was enforced through negative reaction (harshly scolding me, blocking me for days, then acting as if nothing had happened). this was, ostensibly, due to her unreciprocated desire for jackie to be her girlfriend. i would say that it is a very irresponsible rule to impose upon someone who spoke regularly to 3 people in the world. it's worth noting that dawn did not impose this same rule upon bryn regarding her relationship with jackie, for reasons unclear to me.

dawn would often voice her grievances with jackie; her erratic availability for commitments, irregular response times to messages, refusal to enter into a codified romantic relationship; once, the fact that jackie had failed to do something sexual when dawn wanted her to. my girlfriend became an entity i couldn't fawn over, save for platonically, but one who i must always be ready to accept criticism of. you can imagine that this was not conducive to the honeymoon period of a young relationship, not that i would fault dawn for this particular action, in isolation.

along the way, i started wanting a codified romantic relationship with dawn. this made it difficult for me when dawn would constantly talk about how attractive various people in her life were and how virtuously they conducted themselves interpersonally and sexually. of course these are natural and normally innocuous things to talk about, but the frequency was very high, often coincided with vulnerable periods for me, and often felt pointed. once i said something to dawn about how i cared about her and was worried that i was a diversion to her. she chose to tell me that she had just got done having the same conversation with someone else.

dawn bemoaned her lack of partner(s). the fact that i was partnered, as most of her friends were, was something i was made to feel a lot of guilt over. my relationship status was one of the things that she made clear set us apart, made us unequal. i heavily internalised the message: dawn was a traumatized, mentally ill, isolated, alienated, pitiable girl (and i wasn't).

in july of 2019, i had been flippant about the difficulty for the game master in balancing the mechanics of the tabletop rpg monster of the week, and responded excessively flippantly to her explanations. (consulting the logs to write this post filled me with anger on behalf of the girl that i was at the time; an anger she didn’t know she was entitled to). i won’t claim that it wasn’t wrong for me to behave that way, i will just say that i apologised as soon as she expressed that i had upset her. she took the chance to re-emphasize how i was a hurtful, maladjusted person, and responded to my apology by once again defining me into the category that her abusers and oppressors occupied.

two weeks after that, i was in the middle of an involved babysitting session which i couldn't feasibly take a break from when dawn told me that she had decided to sever ties. we had a short, nominally-civil discussion. i swallowed everything, apologized to the end for whatever infinite wrongdoing i was guilty of. i couldn't process what was happening quickly enough. before i could absorb it, we'd said goodbye and i had been rather unceremoniously blocked on discord. i needed so badly to cry, to scream and clutch myself. but, like i said, babysitting. less than 3 hours after this happened, after I'd had some time to myself to absorb it, i sent her a single tumblr ask; a parting shot that i’d been denied. a desperate, manic attempt to feel real, to feel like i was my own person, she would smugly make her smoking gun of my boundary violating behaviour. that was the last i ever contacted her.

after her severing ties, my isolation was heightened, particularly within the shared space of bryn’s server. i stopped participating, and soon left. how could i act normally and joke about video games when i shared a space with someone i wasn’t supposed to be around? would it be a violation of boundaries to riff off something she said? to express affection for my girlfriend who she still talked to? and what was the point? i didn’t know anyone else particularly well, and these were some of the women who i was so much less interesting and virtuous than.

i never talked about dawn to anyone besides sybil or jackie until now, when she made a post featuring screenshots of my blog and then publicizing my 8 month old tumblr ask. such was the extent of my poisoning her friends against her. bryn and her girlfriend took issue with dawn’s mistreatment of them for reasons entirely separate from myself, and certainly not at my prompting.

for my part, seeing friends of jackie’s reblog from dawn and seeing them in the notes of her posts about me has been intensely paranoia-inducing, primarily due to the escalating severity and danger of the charges that she began to lay against me in these posts.

that’s about it. thanks.

tldr, dawn is a white transfem and i’m a chinese transfem. we were both very isolated and new to bryn’s server, began a friendship during which she positioned me as being essentially different and more privileged than her, grouped me with her oppressors and abusers, and undermined my relationships, including with my girlfriend who i’d only recently met. after the relationship ended, she effectively barred me from the only community i had, and later started alluding to me being a predator.

also check out these excerpts, both from the same post she made:

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mitaesoroo · 5 years

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pleaseeeeeeee all of them? maybe? yes? 30?

NAJSJZJZ YOU BITCH ok let's do this 🥴

ALSO SORRY IF ITS LATE MY INTERNET IS WACK

1: (truth) Who was your first major celebrity crush? (dare) Put your music player on shuffle and post the first five songs.

Dare :

• monsta truck - monsta x

• 3rd eye - stray kids

• til i die - ph1 ft jay park

• new rules - txt

• malamente - rosalía

2: (truth) What’s the most embarrassing thing that’s happened to you in the past week? (dare) Refresh your dashboard and send an anonymous compliment to the person who posted whatever’s at the top of your dash.

Dare : done 👀

3: (truth) What are your three favorite things about your appearance? (dare) List all nine of your tumblr crushes, and describe each blog/blogger in one word.

Truth : uhh my barely noticeable freckles, my moles, and my lip shape

4: (truth) What is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for you? (dare) Post the oldest selfie on your camera roll.

Truth : when i receive something from friends because they thought of me 🥺

5: (truth) If your parents knew everything you’ve ever done, what would they think is the worst thing? (dare) Tag the three nonmutuals you admire most.

Dare : @soooldout @withyook @emotiadouche i reallyyy love their blogs and i always wish them the best in their life! wonderful beings they are 🥺💛

6: (truth) What is the last thing you purchased? (dare) Tag three people you’ve thirst followed.

Truth : food lol

7: (truth) How many hours did you sleep last night? (dare) Send an anonymous compliment to the last person who followed you.

Truth : uh 4?? i think lol

8: (truth) If you could go on a date with any of your mutuals, who would it be and what would you do? (dare) Send an anonymous compliment to one of your four “Biggest Fans” on tumblr.

Dare : ;0; done!!

9: (truth) How did you meet your best friend? (dare) Refresh your dashboard. Open the blog of the person who posted whatever’s at the top of your dash. Reblog their most recent selfie.

Truth : church 🥴

10: (truth) What was your favorite band five years ago? (dare) Tag a blog that posts very different content from yours, but that you couldn’t imagine not following.

Truth : Linkin Park (still is *^*)

11: (truth) Where did you get each article of clothing you’re wearing right now? (dare) Pick up the closest book to you. Turn to page 39 and copy down line 7.

Truth : shirt - thrift store, pants - target, and shoes - marshalls

12: (truth) What are your five favorite girls’ names and five favorite boys’ names? (dare) Copy and paste the 14th line of text from the last document you worked on in Word or Google Drive.

Truth : random but ima just go with 10 names i guess ;-;

• Xochitl

• Zera

• Zinny

• Briseyda

• Yaritza

• Dakota

• Ellis

• Elias

• Daniel

• Nayeli

13: (truth) What’s your most irrational fear? (dare) Tag five mutuals who take amazing selfies.

Dare : most moots don't really show faces but ill tag @kuromatoki @honey-piggy (😤 mei dont fite me on this) @kiseokris @ncttrashnoodle @dino-yeol 💛💙💜💛💙💜

14: (truth) If you could only wear one outfit for the rest of your life (consisting of clothes you already own), what would it be? (dare) Tag someone you follow who has amazing fashion sense.

Truth : black shirt or hoodie, jeans or dark green pants, and my black nikes :P

15: (truth) If you could rock any unusual article of clothing/makeup technique/hairstyle, what would it be? (dare) Go to the blog of the last person you reblogged a text post from. Reblog your favorite of their selfies.

Truth : alot of people like my short hair alot so i guess my short hair LOL :>

16: (truth) What is your dream job? (dare) Post the four most recent pictures in your camera roll.

Truth : getting one 😀

17: (truth) Where is the last place you went that took over two hours to get to? (dare) Post screenshots of your phone’s lock screen and home screen.

Truth : San Antonio 🤠

18: (truth) How old were you when you had your first kiss? If you haven’t had it yet, how old do you want to be? (dare) Go to the last app/tab you opened. Post a screenshot.

Dare : devastated.

19: (truth) What is the first thing you remember having to keep secret? (dare) Tag five bloggers who you associate with being obsessed with something particular, and list what each of them is obsessed with.

Truth : hmmm ;-; my birthright i guess

20: (truth) What does your bedroom look like? (dare) Take one selfie and post it. You only get one shot! (No old selfies or retrying, even if you think you look bad)

Truth : oof kinda messy rn

21: (truth) What three fictional characters would you most like to meet? (dare) Write your name down on a piece of paper and draw a quick picture of yourself. Take a photo of it and post it.

Dare : a mess is what you get ♥︎

22: (truth) What are three things you’re looking forward to? (dare) Tag the last three people you reblogged posts from, and estimate how many followers they have.

Truth : hoping to land a job, saving, and moving out 😔

23: (truth) What are your three biggest turn ons, and your three biggest turn offs? (dare) Put your music player on shuffle. Without actually listening to it, write the lyrics to the chorus of the first song.

Dare : "Pienso en tu mirá, tu mira clavá' es una bala en el pecho" (x3) "Pienso tu mirá" (x2) - rosalía

24: (truth) If you could only own five material objects (not counting life necessities like food/water/a house/etc) what would they be? (dare) Put your music player on shuffle. Post what the first three songs are, and for each one, tag a blog that the song reminds you of.

Dare :

• these nights by rich brian & chungha - @kiseokris

• win by ateez - @sagittariustigerfish

• juicy by doja cat - @honey-piggy

25: (truth) What is the last thing you lied about? (dare) Tag three people you want to know better and ask them each three questions about themselves.

Truth : where i was i going lol 🙂

26: (truth) What’s the last movie you watched? (dare) Reblog the most recent of your own selfies posted on tumblr, and in the tags say two things you like about your appearance in it?

Truth : the little mermaid

27: (truth) What are three things you like about yourself unrelated to your appearance? (dare) Post a picture from your camera roll that you’ve been meaning to post on tumblr.

Truth : music taste, open minded, and my patience

28: (truth) How do you take your coffee? (dare) Post the last picture you posted on a social media platform other than tumblr.

Dare : those last four pics on twitter (also tumblr is being wack rn)

29: (truth) What are your worst habits? (dare) Put your Top 25 Most Played songs on shuffle and list the first five.

Truth : overthinking aLOT

30: (truth) What is the last thing you did that you have to keep secret from someone? Who do you have to keep it secret from? (dare) Tag five blogs with great URLs.

Dare :

• @kuromatoki

• @yungluchini

• @kiseokris

• @jiminscaramel

• @dorkeyama

-honestly tho!! all my moots have wonderful urls 🥺💞-

#i got so distracted and busy while doing this shsjxj #im dead BUT THANKS BB #also i love you all 💕#answered ask #mooties #tata 👿💛

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tribes09-blog · 5 years

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UPCAT Personal Experience

I have first tip to spill: BELIEVE IN YOURSELF.

—2019 UPCAT taker

A lot of students think that this test is not suitable for no- brainer or plain average students, but nope.

You first have to believe in yourself that you can get it.No matter how many people out there are smarter than you and have better educational background than you, it doesn’t matter. In this game, you need to play wise.

Determination is the key to success. Me, personally, I dreamt of getting into this school even when I was only little. I told myself that maybe I didn’t go to prestigious elementary or secondary schools, but when I get to college, I will enter UP.

Preparations

Inspiring notebook. I hate writing in an ugly pad and I only use GTECT 0.4 because it inspired me to write my notes (and it looks neat).

Highlighters. You know the use. But to me, I had different colors for a main heading, sub heading, the definition of the subheading ( I know right, I really am particular to this.)

Sticky Notes. I often list formulas and attach it on my reviewer for easy lookup. And when I still didn’t understand certain lesson enough and decided to skip on it, I write it on my small sticky notes and I pasted it on the wall adjacent to my desk.

Index cards. I carried my index cards to school so I wouldn’t have to bring the whole reviewer (It was thick and heavy). These cards contained summary of formulas, topics, important person I needed to remember, sample math problems I tried to practice and etc. I punched hole on the upper left part of the index card and put them together with yarn or you can use metal ring.

UPCAT Apps.Available on Google Play Store!

Water. I always bring my tumbler to my desk because it helps me to refresh myself, like my head is lightheaded and everything; water keeps me cool and less sleepy.

Prayers.I pray before starting to review, god knows how much I prayed to him those times. I am so thankful up until now.

My Review Materials

I signed up to an online review. It was a premium membership from Review Master and got the soft copy editions of the reviewers in their portal which I downloaded and printed out. Together with those reviewers were Youtube videos on each topic. Like Subject: Math > Lesson 1: Basic Arithmetic ( they have like a maximum of 10 lesson on each subject) > Chapter 1 (up to 10).

I don’t know if you clearly understand me but each chapter had a Youtube video which was helpful and easy to understans. I used to download the playlist and watched them in the classroom (but I barely reviewed at school, it didn’t work for me, I always liked the home- feeling- review).

And I had this reviewer from well-known review center (I can’t tell you where it came from, my cousin might get sued for unauthorized distribution.) It was really a lot of help. I suggest you enter these kinds of review centers if you think your reviewer or your self- review process isn’t working.

My Reviewing Process (not so productive self- review)

I started reviewing in June, which was a hassle because I had classes to attend to. It was a lot harder when you had Accounting on your back. Not to mention Research!

Time Management of course, no surprise there, but if you have full classes and so much projects to do, it is a dead end. But I tried to trick my brain, my phone wallpaper that time was a screenshot of vocabulary words that each time I open my phone there were words I learned or somewhat, unconsciously learned. I even read books or novels (it was in .epub form so I could always read anywhere-- this was the thing I usually do at school during vacant time) that was so hard to read, I could cry! like the giant man who floated into an island with tiny people-- I forgot it's title.

So every Wednesday, we only had one subject, I didn’t go to school for this one subject (Accounting, I had low grade here ha! I am a bad student, I really don’t give so much f*ck about my acads, I only needed to pass UPCAT— that was right there a very clear determination, but I won’t suggest it).

Or if I had full day of class, when I got home I changed my clothes (always the comfortable ones) and headed directly on my study. I only stop when dinner is served, then got back again, I always finished at ten pm. I valued every sleep I could get but sometimes I couldn’t stop surfing the internet till like 12 am (not really recommended). And on Saturdays and Sundays, it was all review time!

You might find this process really hard, but I was anxious to finish all the chapters and I was always behind my schedule. Like this math part should only take three days so I would have enough time for other subjects, but it didn’t happen!

Now I am not suggesting you should review like I did, but you should find out what time suits you best on studying. I read it all over the net (when I was reviewing, I read a lot of reviewing hacks; I was a big google searcher!).

Examination Day

Pray

Breakfast

You better had nice long sleep before this day

Bring the prescribed pencil (Monggol 2)

Eraser (the rubber on the tip of the pencil is better, its way faster to erase)

Water (important)

Candy (I didn’t know why, but I became self conscious in that testing room, I couldn’t move or what I just ate candy during exam then the skyflakes after the exam).

Dry snack (You won’t like to wet your test paper or answer sheet).

During the exam I found the math the hardest, reading comprehension the easiest (I had a lot of spare time here).

So, should you skip questions that you don’t know or do eenie-meenie?

I never left anything unanswered even in math which like three fourth of that exam, I was answering blindingly.

Reason: Don’t answer then you are automatic 0, I know you are being wise 25% of mistakes will be deducted in your whole score. But consider this sample:

You have ten items you don’t know. If you try to just shade it and make three guesses right at the very least, you made have seven mistakes (7 mistakes multiplied to .025 is equal to 1.75. Three right guesses minus 1.75 (0.25 part of your mistake) = 1.25 which is better than getting 0 out of 10 items.

If you aren’t confident on math, don’t fall asleep at reading comprehension and try to answer it at your best. I think this part saved me.

After Exam

I could breathe again. No reviewwwwwwww. I just pray and pray even if I was hell anxious. I tried to apply for other campus in our local area, but I wasn’t sp hyped about it and I didn’t really want to. I let the days passed by until the application days were gone and my sister won’t be able to scold me for not applying anywhere. And I keep my faith on UPCAT. I was crazy technically; I just took only one exam. I chanted to myself “God is good” every time I doubt I could get in.

When the results were proclaimed to be out, posted in UP Diliman Campus, there were people who took pictures of the list on the campus and shared it in Facebook, I kept trying to read the posted pictures (all blurred and hard to read because that time, the online results weren’t posted yet. But I couldn’t wait anymore. My eyes were squinting on the screen of laptop, and then I saw my name, I cried. And was so frustrated to myself, I mean I was aiming for UP Diliman, but got in UP Baguio, then I thought (why the f am I crying, I still got it in out of nearly one hundred thousand participants, I had no right to cry. So I just thank God!).

I’ll tell you my motivation: I watched sport news about Philippine Campuses including UP of course, there was Robi Domingo and Gretchen IDK talking and talking about how great that school was. I even saved it in my YT playlist. After watching it and pep talking myself why I should review, why I shouldn’t let my lazy self win, I started grabbing my pen again.

Note:

I only put UP Baguio in my second choice of campus to save my ass if I couldn’t pass to main campus. The different campuses have different grade requirement. UPD I think is around 2.2 while UPB is 2.5 (I am not sure, you should check this out in main UP website to learn the ropes).

P.S.

I think this blog is badly written. But I thought I should try to help out. I know what you need, real time confessions of this very mean college exam haha.

Comment down if you have more questions. I will be very much happy to help.

#up #university of the philipine #upcat #up diliman #hack #tips #reviewers

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otp-armada · 5 years

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A Time Capsule

I’ve been lurking across several fandoms spanning a decade now, since my days of reading “Bones” fanfics on fanfiction.net. Before any inkling of Ao3’s existence. Maybe longer, my memory is murky at times.

I’ve never made a splash in any fandom, so to speak. I’ve always been content to stand shrouded in anonymity, residing on the edges of fandom, never an active participant. Perfectly at peace to never have a voice. Never brave enough to want to be heard. It has only been in the last few years that I discovered Tumblr and felt comfortable enough in taking advantage of its anon feature to interact mostly with The 100/Bellarke crowd, “conversing” with one user in particular. In the instances I chose to speak, there was safety in knowing my words never had an identity attached. A safety that lent itself to sending anon asks a fairly common activity until I wrote one recently sharing a remnant of my “The 100” viewing experience. The warm response from the users who read it left me smiling for the rest of the day. Their reply took a direction I didn’t expect. They encouraged me to take credit for my words under my username, which of course, I didn’t have, not being a Tumblr user.

I was flattered by the response, bolstering me to continue the line of conversation with another ask and was met with reiterated sentiments.

In the wise words of one of those awesome people,

“I was the ultimate lurker for a long, long time. I had a Tumblr account for four years before I ever made a single post, and even then I had to be talked into it. And you know what? When I finally starting “talking,” it was so freeing! Even if no one else was listening, even if I was speaking into the void, I was no longer dependent on anyone else to share my thoughts and opinions. I could do that myself.”

I took the compliment but waived the advice. Tumblr is made of communities built upon sharing and I have always been unto myself an island. It goes against my shy, introverted nature to take part in a community. I have no business pretending I have a place there. None at all.

And yet, despite my misgivings, the idea wouldn’t leave me as I believed it would. I started to genuinely ponder the merits of creating a blog.

There are strong reasons to support the affirmative.

First, the utilitarian benefits. In the absence of a blog, I turned to alternative methods of archiving appealing posts. If by some miracle, the item count of my browser reading list hasn’t yet ascended to the thousands mark, it most assuredly rests in the hundreds. My camera roll queue has indubitably reached the thousands count, currently sitting pretty at 3,300. I shudder to think of the sheer number of my bookmarks. One hundred and eighty notes on my phone. The final frontier has been broken, at last, habitually inundating my laptop with screenshots. Long has it been overdue to clean house.

Second, I find writing to be a herculean undertaking I enjoy in the moments it doesn’t drive me to the brink. A slow-going process, but when I’m able to appreciate the fruits of my labor, marvel at the polished product, I often feel quite proud. Writing is a skill I’ve lost touch with over years of disuse but found incrementally returning while expressing my opinions via Tumblr asks. Like any skill, it can be honed with time and practice. Transferring my streams of consciousness onto written medium challenges me to think critically, ask myself if my POV genuinely holds true or falls apart, requiring further reflection. If nothing else, it’s a good way to process thoughts and emotions. I find it easier than and therefore preferable to oral communication. I am a perpetual editor, always amending my statements which can’t really be done as effectively in speech.

Third, if there was ever a time to join the Tumblr fandom I’ve found a home in for the last three years, why not in time for the show’s last ride? The night I signed up for Tumblr coincided the first day of “The 100” cast and crew filming their 100th and poetically final episode. Around the same space of time, we got a release date and the nostalgic goodbyes of a few cast members rolled in. I know when Bellarke crosses the last threshold, I’d want it plastered all over my dash and I’d be able to make it happen.

But where there are pros, the cons inevitably follow.

Do I really need a further distraction from my responsibilities, spending additional hours and expending more energy I should not spare online? The too easy potential for more hours behind a screen when prone to headaches and horrid habits of not regulating my eating and sleeping schedules? The answer is a clear and resounding “No.” Would maintaining a blog be harmful to my mental and emotional health? Remaining anonymous has historically done a fine job of insulating me from general rebuke, which has mitigated the risk of reproach at least. No corner of the internet can be designated as a safe space. I knew I would in all likelihood have to work diligently to curate and be responsible for my experience, leading me to doubt how the effort could possibly be worth it. How could it be worth feeling exposed, self-conscious? Constantly second-guessing myself, debating whether or not my thoughts are best kept within the privacy of my mind to avoid stepping on anyone’s toes? Combating the periodic skepticism that my thoughts possess value worth writing?

There was always the lingering possibility I was overthinking the decision to my detriment, as is my norm. After all, it seemed silly and dramatic to regard one obscure little blog in a sea of hundreds of millions of social media users as momentous. But I know myself better than that. It is a really fucking big deal for me.

I vacillated between both sides of the argument for days before deciding not to follow through with the venture.

And then one night, a single stray observation ran through my mind. One observation became another, became another and before I knew it, I had formed the grounds for an entire meta post. It didn’t end there. More ideas filtered through. I expanded on those ideas. More traction gained. Another meta formed. More jumping off previous points. Before long, I had mentally written the foundations for four metas. And I was so excited and proud of forming these connections to this puzzle without even trying that I wanted to share it. I sat down to write them in my trusty Notes, outlining, trying to jot the main points down before they fizzled away from memory. I saw how long-winded these spiels had gotten sans the full writeup, subsequently rationalizing…well, not blowing up someone’s inbox is just good manners, isn’t it? And terribly inefficient to boot. More to the point, it seemed a disservice to myself to censor my rumination to fit the small confines of a Tumblr ask box.

The part of me that wanted to push forward envisioned what the future of my blogging efforts may look like. That part knows that this blog is for me and only me. What makes me laugh, what makes me cry. Smile. Rage. Flail. Think. Whatever the hell I want. I get to say what I want, however, I want. It’s incredibly nerve-wracking. It’s also exciting, thrilling, and yes, freeing. The notion of carving out a tiny space for me to fill to the endless brim with whatever brings me joy makes me…really damn happy. It’s not an easy feat to accept and harder to retain. I should be ok, so long as I never forget that I get to be in control of what happens here. It’s within my right to block anyone I don’t want to engage or associate with. It’s my full right to not care what anyone else has to say if I don’t want to. Block out anything negative I don’t want to endure with only a few clicks. If I decide I want to walk away, permanently or otherwise, for any reason, it’s within my right to do that too. It’s comforting.

There was a time when I “knew” I would never sign up for an Ao3 account until one of my favorite authors withdrew the majority of her stories from public consumption. I “knew” I was never going to post commentary until I did. I “knew” my username would never be seen by anyone aside from me, never to be affiliated with my commentary until it was.

I did. Each and every time I thought I would never, I did. I broke my own barriers with patience and some courage. Maybe the most intimidating aspect of something new is simply the beginning. I said earlier that I’ve been an island for nearly as long as I can remember. It’s still true, I don’t expect overnight results. It’s probably going to be true for a long time. Perhaps forever. But maybe it’s all the more reason why I should take this step toward peeking out of my self-imposed shell. Do what scares you, or whatever it is they say.

I wish I could say it was enough to reverse my earlier verdict.

Nope, I had to agonize some more.

What can I say? Fear is a damn powerful inhibitor.

Lo and behold, as if the universe took pity on me, I got the chance to communicate directly with the same awesome lady whom I quoted above and she kindly offered some more merciful wisdom to a truly maddeningly indecisive individual:

“When you create a blog, you are STILL anonymous. You have a username, yes, but it doesn’t lead back to you unless you want it to. You still have your personal privacy. Tumblr isn’t Facebook. If you want to disclose personal information, you can, but you certainly don’t have to.

And second, your blog is for you, not for anyone else. It’s for you to express your own opinions. Or create gifs or other visuals. Or just repost what other people create. You can be on every day, or just once a week. It’s also a great way to save stuff you might want to look at again. And then… and then… when brilliance suddenly hits you, you have somewhere to let it hang out! 😁”

It was much I had already considered, but it helped immeasurably to have my reasoning reaffirmed from an external source I respect. I logged into Tumblr for the first time the very same night.

After much deliberation, an uncharacteristic burst of bravery and a grueling four hours I owe to technological ineptitude, I have, tentatively and cautiously, opted to give this Tumblr thing a go.

With luck, a day will never arrive when I dust this preamble off for a much-needed pep talk. Instead, it is my hope that one day, this memo-to-me will stand as proof that I don’t always need to be afraid of the unknown. Not all endeavors have to be as frightening as they may appear. And if I can apply this attitude to all else suppressing my personal growth, I might just be peachy someday.

Bearing this in mind…

…here we go.

#about me #personal

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tinkdw · 6 years

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hi tink ^_^ was wondering if you think both endgame human!cas and endgame angel!cas are both valid interpretations? im genuinely interested as I can't see the whole human!cas being a thing, and I'm open to learn more if you think that's what is actually going to happen. idk his experience as a human was miserable, i feel like maybe im missing something?? :0 u dont have to answer this if u dont want, as it may cause wank. ty

Hi!

Here’s my “overall” Cas meta from a while ago, nothing’s changed and a few other meta writers added to it so it’s a good view I think as to the whole concept:

https://tinkdw.tumblr.com/post/165781313412/why-do-you-think-cas-should-becomechoose-to-be

It’s a really crappy topic for divisiveness, in my experience the people who have, relatively, as much as possible, objectively analysed the author intent in the show have come to a pretty solid conclusion within the meta community that Human!Cas appears to be endgame based not on his experience as a human but the outcome, his overall arc since season 4 and the Chekhovs gun style flamingly blatant reminders throughout the show such as the repeated asking him if he wouldn’t rather be human, his choosing to be an Angel to go into battle powerful enough to save the people he loves and putting what he wants to one side and his clearly not wanting to be a soldier anymore.

It’s kind of like saying endgame Dean is for him to be emancipated and being able to openly watch Oprah and Disney etc even though on the surface he says he doesn’t like that stuff. Because the pretty obvious sublimation is there.

With Cas the sublimation isn’t quite as clear but it’s really all there. Yes he suffered as a human but he literally came out of it and said he missed it, while previous to being human he was curious and wanted to try human things (eg kissing meg) and afterwards we’ve seen him actively choosing to act more human, smiting less and fist fighting instead, acting more human, I mean the big one for me was when Dean asked him “and you’re okay with that?!” When he told him he got grace back to be able to fight and he just totally brushed it off saying he needed it to fight:

https://tinkdw.tumblr.com/post/171244776157/kanayaks-tinkdw-cas-i-got-my-grace-back-i

He later takes more grace which he had been previously rejecting but only to save Dean and then took his own grace back when again it’s needed for a fight whilst telling us the quote that the craziest thing a man can do is die.

He’s literally saying he’s killing himself / his wants for the greater good.

He needs grace for the fight and to be a good useful soldier and to save his family but does he want it?

Want v Need.

One of the biggest themes of the show.

Cas needs his grace to be useful when times are hard but is that what he wants?

In my opinion the show has repeatedly emphasised that it isn’t. I also think it’s clear he doesn’t want to be a soldier anymore and these things go hand in hand.

Others may use canon to say they think it is. Both interpretations are totally valid as long as they are based on canon and actually analysing the canon in a consistent manner.

The issue I have is certain people cherry picking and projecting their stories into it and claiming it’s an overall Cas’ arc since inception meta. That’s just not how meta writing works.

You can absolutely write that stuff but you can’t claim it’s objective and fully inclusive of canon and logical when it is just picking parts that fit your own desire for the character. Like, I didn’t want Lucifer to be centre stage in s13 but I didn’t just ignore it when it was.

Cherry picking things ie the one time Cas said “I just wanna be an Angel” when he was depressed, distraught at Dean’s death and wanted to stop feeling things as proof it’s what he really wants isn’t what I’d call meta writing of the whole story. That’s like saying Sam really wants to be a hunter and tag along beside his brother in the impala on the road for the rest of his life because he was a depressed, vengeful mess after Jess’ death and said ok let’s go. Is it really what Sam wants for himself and the rest of his life though? No way! That’s been clear too.

Even worse when some people claim to be bullied or triggered by other view points. Someone even screenshotted a few sentences I wrote that if you took away the top and bottom sentence looked like I was making no sense and anti Cas (me anti Cas. Lmao) but in the context obviously made sense and decided to create a wank storm about it because they didn’t like human cas meta and wanted to make me look bad. People need to grow up. This isn’t a meta discussion about interpretation it’s being a dick and being unable to contemplate another interpretation.

It makes a discussion totally impossible which moots the entire point of blogging on tumblr in the first place.

Absolutely all interpretations are valid, it’s just a case of how you pitch your interpretation. If you want to state your interpretation of a character absolutely go for it! I used to be all up for Angel!Cas meta until a few utter assholes decided to be personal and ridiculous about it. Now I don’t touch it with a barge pole. Same as M*gstiel.

But that doesn’t invalidate anyone’s good, thought out, canon analysing endgame Angel!Cas meta.

For example my own interpretation of the siren episode is different to many other meta writers, we can discuss it and have polite and great conversations without getting triggered / defensive because we aim to discuss author intent, our own interpretations and do so in a civil manner. There’s one meta writer in particular I’ve had altercations with in the past over some differences of opinion on speculative things and ways of writing meta but who I get on well with, admire and like talking to because we are adults and literally get over it.

There’s also a few people who unfortunately though I agree meta wise about things on the show have been so nasty irl to myself and others that I’ve cut them off completely.

Interpretations are interpretations until they are canon, I’m lucky that most of mine have become so or are clearly on their way but I can also be wrong ie I thought Asmodeus would be more important to character exposition than he was, life moves on. I also didn’t realise quite what it would mean that he would be a Bucklemming own concept and not really used by anyone else, I thought perhaps he’d be used by others by the wasn’t, now I have that knowledge in my pocket meta on anything that sets up for Bucklemming use is kinda meh don’t bother analysing it much it’s probably not hugely important to the overall story being told by the showrunner, ie Nick.

All interpretations are valid is very true. Eg. I can interpret Cas’ story as a metaphor for a queer kid (and in particular trans) coming from a conservative family and emancipating themselves and someone else can interpret it as an immigrants story.

If the show starts changing this then I will change my meta, because my meta is an analysis of what the show is doing, not what I want. For example I never wanted Dean to be queer representation, I was totally heteronormative and would have been totally cool with him ending up alone or with a woman, it’s the show that made me want something different for him through consistent and repeated canon blatant hints at something else. Same as Cas, I was totally ready in season 4 to just like him as a cool character and for him to bog off back to Heaven after being useful but he was captivating as an ally and it grew from there. For ages I would totally have put to one side the hints at a romantic part of his story and loved for him to become the third brother, it’s the show that made me see more between him and Dean, I never would have imagined that myself, I was a boring heterormative adult more interested in the individual characters’ stories than shipping, I thought shipping was just maritime transferral of goods before I was like wtf and googled Destiel after 10x05 cos I’d finally found a name for what I’d been seeing evolve for 6 years.

Sam goes for Cas’ own individual arc and what he wants. I never had a clue what I wanted from him until the show told me what I should want by repeating something clearly over 10 years. If they suddenly change any part of the story then they change it (and I’ll be annoyed they changed something so entrenched but I’m not going to bitch @ tptb for it or whatever, it’s their choice, they’re the creator and once it’s changed I’ll meta that) but so far it’s been the same, clear story to me for 10 years.

An interpretation is an interpretation but it’s when you start, as I do and some others do, saying you believe this one is the authors intention that you have to be more careful about backing it up with canon and logic and not getting #triggered when someone disagrees.

If you’re going to pitch it as what you believe the author intent is then you have to leave your personal projections at the door and work solely based on the canon, the production, what the author may have said outside of canon etc. It has nothing to do with your own wants for the character or show.

It also means when someone has valid canon supported arguments to the contrary you can have a really interesting discussion and I love that.

#meta writing #meta discussions #meta #what gets problematic is when ppl cant see past their interpretation or attribute it to the author based on nothing concrete and wildly #speculate or bash other interpretations based on actual analysis of canon #i know i look like im aggressive but 99.99% of the time im hitting back at #ppl being dicks #because no #ill scroll by to a point but start tagging tptb on twitter or using main tags here for unfounded wank #or screenshotting my meta to take it out of context to start your own wank #is just bullshit behaviour and i have zero tolerance for it #human!cas

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noescapevg · 6 years

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“Politics? In MY Video Games? It’s more likely than you think.”

Welcome to No Escape, a video game writing blog by me, Trevor Hultner. I’m a 27-year-old human person on the internet who thinks writing about video games will somehow bring me joy still, in 2019. I should definitely know better, but here I am!

Earlier this week, video game media Twitter started buzzing about an op-ed by Russ Pitts, the Editor-in-Chief over at the “New” Escapist Magazine, which was relaunched late last year. In this op-ed, Pitts took the “branching paths” approach to essay-writing, going down many different avenues of conversation regarding “ethics in games journalism” toward an overall point of... and I quote:

“To be honest, I don’t know [where this leaves us]. The last time we all tried to have this conversation it … didn’t go well. But the industry, the media, and you all deserve more, and the only way we’ll get there is if we can try again.”

Pitts has taken the old post down (a copy of which you better believe I’ve saved) and put an apology up in its place. He apologizes for potentially instigating remnants of GamerGate to go after their old targets yet again, but...

I think I’m getting too far ahead of myself. There’s a time and place to critique Pitts’ post and his apology, and that time is coming soon, but why are we here to start with?

Entertainment is not exempt from politics

There seems to be a widespread belief among people who are not outwardly far-right ideologues that the things we enjoy - music, movies, books, video games - are not inherently political. A book is just a book, a game is just a game, and so on. And these things we enjoy should be convergence points: places where people from everywhere on the socio-cultural-political spectrum can come together and share in the enjoyment.

The thing is, games - as well as books, movies, music, etc. - are made by people, and people can’t help but be shaped by the world around them. Our influences are most of the time very expressly political, even if we’re not picking up on the messages right away.

Here’s an example. Destiny and Destiny 2 are two highly popular post-Halo FPS games from Bungie. The franchise’s overarching story is exceedingly simple: You play a reborn and functionally immortal “Guardian” of the remnants of humanity. Your franchise-long mission, given to you by your Ghost, is to defend humanity and something called the Traveler, which is also the source of your new supernatural powers, from the forces of the Darkness. The easiest way to carry out your mission is to defeat hordes of enemies by shooting, punching and superpowering your way to victory. Easy-peasy lemon squeezy. No politics at all, right?

Well.

As you play the games, and especially the campaign for Destiny 2, you catch glimpses of a heavily-stratified class society, with the essentially-divinely-chosen Guardians on top and mortal humanity below them. The Guardians have built a massive wall around the Last Safe City on Earth with the functional purpose of keeping humanity’s enemies at bay, but we hear from one character how the walls also serve to keep humanity in, essentially forming a prison state.

Then there’s the moral quandary of your stated mission: kill everything that wants to kill the Light. While there are at least two very evil alien factions in the game (the Vex and the Hive/Taken), two more exist with more ambiguous motives, or at the very least, a much less well-defined alignment with the Darkness. The Fallen (whose actual species is called the Eliksni) and the Cabal are two alien armies the Guardians face off against where our acts of killing them seem more... genocidal than with the former, more markedly “evil” enemies.

The Eliksni in particular sits in a tragic position: their mission is to simply reclaim the techno- and morphological blessings the Traveler bestowed upon them, and to rebuild their society after their own collapse (known in the lore as The Whirlwind). The Cabal don’t seem super interested in the Traveler, at least not at first, and their incursion on Earth doesn’t actually take place until Dominus Ghaul brings the Red Legion planetside. Why couldn’t we negotiate with them instead of fighting? It’s questionable.

“Okay, fine, Destiny is political. But not every game has to be!” You might be muttering to yourself. And that’s true! Not every game has to be political. But that doesn’t stop many games from being expressly political, and that doesn’t stop developers from having political views that shape the way they do business, at the very least.

And for that matter, that doesn’t stop the game’s audience from being political, even if they think they’re not. Misogyny, transphobia and homophobia, racism, ableism and other bigotries have expressly political and ideological roots. And I hate to break it to you, but when people who share ideologies group together to collectively organize around those ideologies, a la GamerGate, that’s a definitively political act. When “gamers” decried the gleeful Nazi-punching in the latest Wolfenstein edition, that was a political act.

There is No Escape

I always find myself at a disadvantage when I decide to start talking about politics, because of the deep ideological gap between myself and my interlocutors most of the time. I’m an anarchist with roots in punk rock music, which has deeply effected the lens in which I view the entire world. I’m used to the idea that everything is political. You might not be. That’s okay. Be open to new possibilities. Just realize that there is no escape.

I’m starting this blog partly out of spite for folks like Pitts at the Escapist, but also because I think it actually is possible to spark conversations about the nature of ethics in video games as a whole, and that these conversations don’t need to be led by the same tired media voices. By embracing politics the way politics has embraced us, there might actually come a day where people don’t have to rehash the same six tired discussions over and over again.

The image at the top of this post is a screenshot from HBomberguy’s massive Donkey Kong 64 marathon livestream. He raised $340,000 out of spite for transphobic washed up comedy writers, and in the process, got Chelsea Manning and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the same chatroom for a little bit. He got John Romero to say “Trans Rights” on stream. That’s some wild stuff, and it was absolutely expressly political.

There is no other kind of situation where something like that could happen.

So what is there to do?

Well, that’s a broad question. This blog will examine video games through a political lens, that much is for sure. Ideally, like really “pie in the sky” stuff here, this blog would be a resource for people wanting to know more about issues in the video game industry as a whole and wanting something to “do” about those issues. But as for you?

Get used to the idea of politics in your games, and get acclimated with the problems facing the people in the industry who aren’t collecting fat checks from their labor. Support efforts to unionize games workers, and support indie devs when you can. Hopefully, over time, we can all be organized for a better games future.

Thanks for reading!

#politics #video games #ideology

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blueberry-sim · 6 years

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Rowan and Ben’s Story Introduction

This is the introduction to my sim series called Rowan and Ben’s story. its a two character series that will later turn into a legacy series. warning: this series will talk about more mature content. Such as abuse, death, drugs and heavy uses of drinking. This is for a more mature audience, but i still say its on the more tamer side. If you are triggered by any of these events do not read or at the very least read at your own risk.

This is an original sim story created by me. blueberry-sim aka maybluebird since this is my sim side blog. do not steal/claim any of my sims or edits of them as your own. I do not want to water mark them but I will if I feel I have too.

this story will be told through screenshots and short captions. Updates will be Monday through Thursday for now. Rowan’s story every Monday and Wednesday and Ben’s story every Tuesday and Thursday.

Rowan Morgan introduction.

Rowan Morgan is an Irish sim who moved to Del Sol Valley, But this is not where her story begins.

Rowan grew up with an average childhood, full of love. She had a mom, dad, older sister and many friends who adored her. As a child she was very much a tomboy, constantly getting scrapes and bruises from playing in the fields and exploring abandoned castles across her homeland.

When she went into highschool her older sister Anna Morgan moved away to Del Sol Valley where she would become a vice-president of a major tech company. Rowan didn’t miss her sister much, because she had many other people who loved her. During a talent show when she was up on stage playing her guitar and singing one of her favorite songs. She caught the eye of one particular boy. His name was Peter. The two fell in love and were hardly ever seen apart.

They were together so much that Peter even worked in Rowan’s parents pub when they graduated highschool. It was in that very same Pub that he got down on one knee and asked her to marry him. She said yes of course even though they were only 22 years of age and rather young. No one had an objections to the two getting engaged since they always seemed like the perfect couple. They even saved up money to buy a house together.

2 years later had gone by. on one hot day in summer, Rowan’s parents received a phone call. it was from the local police informing them that Rowan had been a victim of domestic violence, she was on her way to the hospital after suffering a stab wound to the side of her stomach and that Peter had been arrested. When they got to the hospital they were informed that the stab wound was not deep and she would only need a few stitches, but she was extremely in shock not letting anyone aside from doctors touch her. The police officer who was also there informed them on the rest of what had happened. Rowan had told them that Peter had been abusing her ever since they had moved in together around the time he started getting into drugs. It started out small and got worse over time. She didn’t tell anyone cause she wanted to believe that Peter wasn’t the kind of person who would hurt her. This time an argument had gotten out of hand and he pulled the kitchen knife on her stabbing her. Rowan had been lucky enough that the older couple in their 30′s who lived nextdoor to them had come over to return an item they had burrowed when they heard Rowan screaming. They busted the door down and were able to separate Peter from Rowan and called police.

over course of 6 months Rowan suffered extreme trauma. Nightmares, panic attacks and flinching anytime someone touched her. She would break down if someone so much as raised their voice at her. She got to the point that she was scared to leave her parents house. locked up in her room playing her guitar and talking to her pet rat Tilly who she had rescued from a cat that was going to make a meal out of him. Her parents became increasingly worried and decided the best course of action was to move her far away from her hometown to live with her sister Anna in del sol. Rowan agreed she no longer felt at home where she was. She wanted a chance at a new start. So she packed up her things and left to del sol. She was happy to see her sister again, but didnt realize that she would be living with her sisters boyfriend Ricky Martinez a good for nothing with no job trying to make it big in comedy and her pet cat Sophie who was already making shifty eyes at the cage that had Tilly in it. Rowan wasn’t so sure she had made the right choice anymore.

Ben Callaway Introduction

Ben’s life from the beginning was full of hardships. His parents were overjoyed when they found out they were pregnant happy to give their oldest child Todd a sibling, however when Ben’s mother went into labor there were complications and she ended up dying shortly after giving birth to Ben. That left his police officer father to raise his two sons on his own. Because of his job Ben’s father was not around much working pay check to pay check, often leaving the boys with their grandmother. Ben didn't have a good relationship with his father because of this. They would often get into fights whenever the two were around each other.

When Ben turned 18 his father was shot and killed on the job. This left Ben heart broken he turned to drinking and found himself many a night waking up drunk next to his parents graves. On one of these drunk nights Ben woke up just as the sun started to raise mixing the stars with the morning light of the new day. the sight reminded Ben of the happiest times in his life. Those rare summer days when Ben’s father took a whole weekend off to take them camping. Ben never admitted it to his father, but he felt like he knew how much those days meant to him. Hiking, Fishing and telling stories around the camp fires. Some of those stories were about space and the stars. Ben had always loved space even as a kid he wanted to build a rocket to fly to the moon, but his love for space grew more on those summer nights sitting next to his dad gazing at the night sky and naming the stars. If only he could build a rocket right now and be among the stars.Thats when Ben found a dream he wanted to achieve.

For the next several years, Ben went to college to study rocket science. In his third year he meet a girl named Ava at a college party. The two were drawn to each other both having big dreams they wanted to achieve. Ben wanting to go to space and Ava wanting to be an actress. The two stared dating. Now 25 Ben works at the sim space program as a computer tech helping to build the rockets he dreamed about one day flying off into the stars, but now that he’s older he’s much happier just building them. He was still dating Ava and lived in a isolated house in Windenburg were he could garden, fish, hike and most importantly watch the stars. He lived there for the most part by himself except for the occasional few months his brother Todd a historian journalist would stop by in-between jobs to stay at Ben’s house and also Ben’s german shepherd Hercules. Ben felt like he had everything he wanted in life, but he still felt empty like void in space. Something was still missing in his heart. He wanted a family of his own.

I hope you enjoyed getting to know Rowan and Ben. From now on the story will be told in screenshots. There will be a update on each of their stories today as well as character introductions. I hope you keep reading their story.

#sims 4 #the sims #the sims 4 #sims #sims 4 legacy #the sims 4 legacy #s4 #EA #sims story #rbstory #rowanstory #benstory #rbseason1

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walkingshcdow-a · 6 years

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OI. Your FCs are really effin good gorl, I'm trying to make an RP blog for Lambchops from Fame but I'm having a lot of trouble finding the punk FC that would work for her. Got any tips?

((You’re sweet! TBH, not all of them were my choice - Diaval, Maleficent, Victor, Lorelei, and Cora are all their canon FCs. Those that were my choice took a LOT of hunting for!

Unfortunately, I am the wrong person to give you advice on this particular muse - I think I saw “Fame” when I was in high school… and as point of reference… I now teach high school.#SoOld.

But I can give you tips on how I choose FCs, if that’ll help!

If your muse’s original FC is white or no race is specified by your canon (ex. it’s a book/play/audio drama), feel free to “race bend” your character as long as you aren’t bending based on negative stereotypes (i.e. Do not decide, “He is thuggish so I made this previously white character black!” Ew, that’s disgusting, get away from me. Or, as we say in my profession: that’s a lot to unpack. Would you like me to send you to speak with an administrator?). This actually allows for more inclusivity and diversity in the RPC. Just… be willing to research your character’s background and if you aren’t that race, don’t make it a story about being that race. Also, if your character is a POC, do not make them white. I feel like that goes without saying, but you’d be surprised how awful some people are.

Go with your gut, not necessarily what canon says is “right”. Similarly to rule 1, though not as importantly as rule 1*, feel free to change your muse’s appearance unless their appearance is critical to the story. Is your muse a blonde in canon, but you kinda wished she was a ginger? Go for it! Does your muse have straight hair, but the face you love is attached to a mass of curls? My dude, go for it. Is your muse skinny/abled/conventionally attractive and you think it’d be cool or important to make them something else? DUDE DO IT. (*This is the exception to where it’s “less important” than racebending. Making a character represent a different body type can be very important and empowering). If you want to retain their canon features, but found a FC that matches everything except ONE THING, make a note about it somewhere on your bio/rules page. Now… If that ONE THING is that you’re making your disabled or fat FC able-bodied or skinny, go pick a different FC and reexamine your life choices. But, back on topic - you know your character and you know the version you want to portray better than anyone. Chances are, you have a mental picture of her right now. Don’t let canon tell you she “has” to be blonde and blue eyed, when you know in your heart-of-hearts, she’s a dark haired, dark eyed beauty. And don’t let a FC’s green eyes stop you, even though their perfect in every other way. JUST DO IT.

Locate resources, be willing to make them yourself, be willing to pay for a commission, or be willing to go without graphics. Look, I get it. Not all of us are handy with Photoshop. I made my Victor Frankenstein icons and those took me three months to do and they’re still terrible. This is why for my other muses, I either commissioned someone else to make graphics, found icons to use from Hollow Art or icon resource blogs (not other RPers!!), or simply went without icons. I’ll explain the last one at the end. But to this point, I’ll say this - if graphics are important to you, decide how much time you can dedicate to making them, how much money you’re willing to spend on them, and use what available free resources there are! Decide whether or not you want to make resources yourself or if you are willing to pay (and if so, how much) first. Then, before you do either thing, check out what resources are available and snag all the freebies you can get. If you’re using free resources (i.e. icon maker blogs, Hollow Art) or making your own using a screenshot resource/fansite, download Falkun Batch Downloader. It’ll save you time. Like. Lots of time.

Think about how personality and appearance correlate (and how they don’t!). In your instance, Grace is a rocker. It’ll probably be better for you to use a FC who is in a lot of contemporary pieces, rather than someone known for their period pieces. You’ll probably want a FC who looks “edgy” or “bad ass”, since your character dresses that way. DO NOT LET CLOTHING BE YOUR ONLY DETERMINING FACTOR. Actors are a versatile bunch. Hell, for a while Ksenia Solo was the IT GIRL for RPing smart-ass, edgy rocker chicks because of “Lost Girl”. Look at her in “Turn”. BIG CHANGE, right? What you’re looking for is facial expression, demeanor, and body language. Remember: Grace doesn’t need to be played as specific type of edgy or bad ass. She can be tall, short, big, small… Doesn’t matter. When I said do what your gut tells you, this is what I’m talking about. You subconsciously associate FCs with roles they’ve played and your subconscious remembers if they’re good at mean mugging at the camera. Attitude is much more important than surface features (like hair color, eye color, etc.). I feel like a lot of RPers waste time, trying to be canonically accurate to things like bone structure than to things that your partners are actually getting out of an icon like facial expression.

Be willing to go without graphics. Look. Your character is your character. If you have a muse for them, you shouldn’t let a lack of resources stop you from writing them. I know a lot of people have a preference for using icons, but they are unnecessary. If you haven’t found your FC yet, that’s perfectly all right! Write in a way so even if you never do, your muse pops off the screen. I can’t use a FC for one of my characters - Erik - because no Leroux-accurate film has been made and until I become a billionaire, no one is making a Kay film. So I have to rely instead on vivid description. It seems to work; people like my writing. Anyone who specifically dislikes my Erik because I don’t use icons can piss off. I’m having fun playing him. As long as you enjoy playing Grace, a FC isn’t necessary.

I’m not sure if this was what you were asking - i feel like you probably wanted more concrete suggestions than I can offer. Best of luck!))

#asks #anon #;;told by an idiot | {out of character}#Anonymous

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classyfoxdestiny · 3 years

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Meet Delivery Bhoy: The man shaking up India’s booming gig economy

He was born in Punjab, educated in Europe and worked in Mumbai for almost a decade. But the Covid-induced lockdown squeezed him out of a job last year, forcing the former UX design professional to look for ways to make a quick buck.

He worked with Swiggy for two weeks, then switched to Zomato for better pay. Months later, he had an accident while riding to deliver a birthday cake at night when a scooter rammed into him. He quit delivering food the next day.

Then, in May, he read about a person dying in an accident in Ahmedabad while on delivery duty. “Some switch flipped in me that day,” he said. He tweeted about it at night.

By the morning, his message had been retweeted hundreds of times and his followers had swelled from 20 to 1,000. Using notes and screenshots gathered during his months as a delivery agent, he began tweeting about the condition of his colleagues. “Suddenly, people were listening,” he said.

Meet Delivery Bhoy, a 40-something unmarried man who’s driving conversation about gig workers in India with his twitter handle, forcing food delivery giants to respond to his allegations of poor pay and hostile working conditions.

Bhoy — who refused to identify himself for this article — takes great pains to protect his identity. He uses VPN while tweeting, limits his chats with other riders to Telegram, connects with journalists using a fake email address and voice chat on Zoom. When he tweets screenshots of his interactions with apps, he masks details that could help trace him.

He now works as a telecaller, with better hours and pay, but continues to be listed as a delivery partner with both Zomato and Swiggy. “If I am identified, a person in my financial and social position could be in for a major blowback and retaliation. Once my name is out there, my battle gets really tough,” Bhoy said.

Like him, there are now several handles that chronicle the experiences of delivery workers. There’s Surat-based rider Nitin Singh, who uses his name and photo on Twitter, @dliverypartner, @smokey33461095 and AK, a 37-year-old Hyderabad-based Zomato delivery partner. And the first one, anonymous account @SwiggyDEHyd, which got deactivated earlier this year after its user was identified and wanted to keep his job.

Together, they spotlight questions of adequate compensation, long hours, and lack of benefits and formal protections in the gig economy.

The structural and financial challenges

Delivery Bhoy’s tweets cover a vast swathe of the gig economy. These include the punishing hours agents have to put in to meet target-based incentives, humiliation at the hands of customers, the threat of getting reported for poor service, delivering through heavy rainfall, and the constant pressure to deliver orders with almost no rest.

But a common theme running through his advocacy is the demands made by the complex payment system of the delivery apps.

Typically, the payment for delivery partners has two components: A fixed base pay and target-based incentives that could include extra orders, better ratings or no cancellations. A typical order can earn a delivery agent around ₹25 while incentives can range between ₹200 and ₹400 for high volume of orders. A five-star rating can fetch the rider between ₹5 and ₹8, the accounts say. Working during certain peaks hours and difficult phases (such as rain) means extra income.

But these vary from city to city. In Surat, for example, Singh says he is paid ₹4/kilometre for delivery and an additional 50 paise for fuel. The base wage is ₹20 for the first two kilometres. “So, if I make a delivery one or two kilometres away, I am paid ₹20. But if I travel six kilometres, I am paid ₹24. This is apart from the 50 paise per kilometre for fuel,” said Singh.

When he waits at a restaurant to pick up an order, he is to be paid ₹1 per minute. If he makes ₹300 in a day, he is paid an additional ₹190. If he makes ₹400, he is paid ₹250.

“If I am logged in for at least eight hours, including for three hours between 7pm and midnight, I take home ₹500, irrespective of how many deliveries I made and how much I earned,” said Singh.

In reality, though, the app often calculates lower distances, doesn’t pay out waiting times and penalises him for refusing to make a delivery, he alleged. Moreover, high fuel costs mean that riders spend as much as four times higher than 50p per kilometer, apart from servicing, phone, internet and other expenses.

A Zomato delivery partner operating in Delhi, who did not want to be identified, alleged that his complaints have ranged from tiny pay outs for deliveries that took a long time, low estimation of delivery distances, and wages that left little profit after expenses.

“Petrol cost is continuously rising, my motorcycle needs frequent servicing and repair, and smartphone and internet data costs money. I barely save ₹12,000 in a month after riding 12 hours a day,” he said.

Zomato said riders had flexibility and could log off when convenient but many riders said that such decisions are followed by phone calls and messages from their team leads warning them.

Bhoy agreed, saying the app pushes delivery agents to deliver as fast as they can – jeopardising their safety – because it is linked with internal rankings, benefits and incentives. Delivery partners receive automated phone calls in the middle of a ride if their order is delayed. “If a fatal accident occurs during a delivery, the pay out to the rider’s family is just ₹5 lakh,” he said.

He also pointed towards the desperation of some delivery agents. “While these platforms boast four-day work weeks with full salary for their employees, the choice we have is turn up for work, work 12 hours straight and ride at lightening speeds. Laws exist for some of the workforce and not the other. That’s the core issue,” he said.

Zomato countered this allegation, saying riders could reject an order for “a genuine reason” without penalties, but at all other times, need to fulfil a customer’s order with the “responsibility and predictability that’s very routine for any job”. Swiggy didn’t respond to this particular question.

The fate of the rider also depends on the customer’s mood, the riders alleged. “If a customer is in a bad mood, or if the delivery is delayed for any reason, they simply rate us one on a scale of five. That badly impacts our ratings,” said AK, who made ₹400 after a 10-hour duty that involved riding for 50 kilometres on an average.

The battle against misrepresentation

Bhoy’s campaign tasted some success last month when comedian Danish Sait apologised after a video featuring him was criticised for insensitivity. Bhoy led the campaign against the promotional campaign, where Sait plays a delivery agent for a day, and said it misrepresented reality and erased many of the hardships faced by delivery agents.

“I respect the work that you do, & it wouldn’t be right for me to contest any of the points you’ve raised,” the comedian wrote, agreeing to take the video down.

Last week, another set of commercials by Zomato stirred a row. These commercials, involving actor Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif, prompted Bhoy and others to say that the ads were tone deaf and showed that delivery agents had to rush from one order to the next with no rest. Their criticism forced Zomato to issue a response denying the charges.

“We believe that our ads are well-intentioned, but were unfortunately misinterpreted by some people. Having said that, we have been intently listening to all the chatter about gig workers and all the problems associated with this part of the economy. As a company, we have always acknowledged whenever we’ve come short, and we understand that you expect more and better from us,” Zomato said in a statement.

Some say that Bhoy and his supporters are well intentioned but don’t take into account the realities of the economy – and that gig workers would be far worse in the more exploitative informal economy. Others question whether Bhoy is even a real delivery agent – a charge he dismisses.

One of them is Safwan Rasheed, a 41-year-old rider with Zomato in Cochin. While he acknowledges a host of problems with the wages paid to riders, he thinks the pay is not bad in a Covid-battered economy. “I deliver food just four hours every day and make ₹350-400 easily. I know riders who earn up to ₹30,000 every month,” he said.

The mechanics of grievance redressal

But complaints by delivery partners are multiple and wide-ranging. Partners allege that the apps have a “penalty” system in place for refusal to carry out a delivery, or if a delivery was delayed. “If we refuse a delivery, we are fined ₹50. Delayed deliveries are also penalised. All this finally culminates into fewer orders for us,” said Singh. Like many riders, Singh complained he struggled to contact the companies to raise an issue.

A Zomato spokesperson countered this and said that they have 1,200 people to address the riders’ queries, “We resolve all queries well within the day itself,” the spokesperson added.

Swiggy refused to comment on the article or specific questions posed to the company but pointed to two blogs, uploaded on June 9 and July 27, that talk about the company’s Covid-19 support for delivery partners, including medical care, loss of pay, life insurance and emergency care, and a dedicated hotline SOS service that helps in compensating for pay during health crises or accidents.

“Partners who are unable to work due to on-duty medical emergencies are also granted loss of pay support, in addition to hospitalization and insurance support,” the company said in its blog.

Zomato and Swiggy are the dominant players India’s growing food delivery business and sit atop the gig economy mountain. After making its market debut in July, Zomato is valued at around $12 billion and after a new round of fundraising, Swiggy is worth around $5.5 billion.

Their success has fuelled and benefited from a burgeoning gig economy, which is set to triple over the next 3-4 years to 24 million jobs from the existing 8 million, according to a report by consulting firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and Michael & Susan Dell Foundation earlier this year.

At the core of this success are the 310,000 delivery partners who work with Zomato and 170,000-odd with Swiggy. But they are not formal employees and are accordingly called partners, agents, executives or associates. Experts say this nomenclature that they are ineligible for several benefits, be it a monthly salary or a provident fund account.

Kaveri Medappa, a PhD researcher at University of Sussex studying platform-based work, said issues raised by Bhoy and other accounts reflected ground realities. Similar unrest has been seen in the platform cab industry over the last three years with drivers linked to Uber and Ola going to strike in several cities over falling commissions, rising fuel prices and low earnings.

A Zomato spokesperson said that their pay-out was fair “for the work that they put in”.

“We are proud to create hundreds of thousands of gigs for a strata of society which otherwise didn’t have a better source of income. For example, in a city like Bengaluru, the top 20% of our delivery partners who deliver on bikes and put in more than 40 hours a week receive a pay of more than ₹27,000 per month,” the spokesperson said.

But Medappa said that the pay was good only for the early birds. “With more riders joining in, the income is dipping as the pay rates and incentives are decreasing,” she said.

A Zomato spokesperson said the firm believed that “all the allegations are biased (or maybe even vested) misunderstandings”.

“According to our point of view, if these allegations were even remotely true, our business would not sustain. Why? Because our delivery partners are the face of our brand – unhappy delivery partners would lead to unhappy customers, which would be terrible for our business. It’s in our interest to ensure they are cared for and that the platform works for them,” the company said, claiming over 60% of delivery partners rated them 9 or a 10 (out of 10) in happiness surveys.

Medappa said that if these firms began caring about the riders, their promises such as time deadlines and customer satisfaction would collapse. “Their system is pretty much in favour of the customers and stacked against the riders,” she added.

The online and offline battle

Many of these accounts took to Twitter under very different circumstances. Bhoy was reeling from the death of a fellow worker. Singh wanted to vent about not getting his dues, disputed pending payments and penalties. AK was angry after he discovered the delivery fee charged to a customer was double of what he was paid.

But now their battles have coalesced into a single goal of “putting pressure” on the companies.

“Every week, I make two or three accusations. If Zomato counters them in any way, I produce the evidence. I will continue doing this till they bring real changes on the ground,” Bhoy said.

AK, Singh and others regularly provide him with material. “These riders are not employees and cannot form a union. But they can keep taking up the issues with the public until the companies feel their image is getting dented,” said AK.

They understand the power of social media. Their campaign prompted Zomato to ask Bhoy to work with them – a development confirmed by Zomato – but he refused. “Their only intention of entertaining me was that they viewed me as a PR nightmare,” he said. But he isn’t worried about repercussions. “Such a big firm will look bad if they take a delivery boy to court,” he said.