#and then after that she’ll probably be going for the EGOT

[hopeofitalll]

I rly think we’re going to have Rep and debut by the end of this tour tbh. And if we don’t, I’m not going to be upset, this isn’t like a delusional fan theory begging for music kind of thing. I think she’s on top of the world, and financially and everything it makes sense to re-release her old music right now. And she’s probably ready to clear the way for her next project to totally shine on its own, especially considering how massive and successful this tour and the eras era has been

[cloysterbell]

Hghghghhhgohg listen I’ve said it before but I’ll said it again, Fringe 2x14 Jacksonville is literally the most episode of television of all time. It starts off fun and flirty with Olivia and Peter having a cute little back and forth before throwing you head first into oh shit there was an earthquake and the two universes are merging, that’s probably not good. Then Walter explains to Olivia that they can’t stop this from happening, but they can see it ahead of time and at least get people to safety and when Olivia asks how, Walter teases the idea of the glimmer that can isolate things from the other side and you’re like oh shit, Olivia’s the one who can see the glimmer! She’ll be able to see the buildings before they teleport to the other side! That’s going to be important! But in order to unlock that power, uh oh, they have to go back to her daycare center in Jacksonville (which doubles as a tease for the 5-20-10 thing) so she can experience some trauma and unlock her power which she can only do if she’s scared which might be hard because oops, Olivia turned all her fear into anger and doesn’t get scared anymore (or so we think)! She’s a hardened FBI agent now and we love her for it! So they return to New York where Olivia’s sulking because she failed to unlock her magic drug glimmer powers but turns out failure is actually her biggest fear and so she succeeds in unlocking the power after all with a little help from Peter, hooray! So she sees the building from the other side glimmer and manages to evacuate it in time and you the viewer are like oh cool, she did the thing and clearly that’s all we needed her power for! I guess that’s it for that! Time for her to go on her happy little date with Peter! Wait..... why is he..... oh my god???? OH MY GOD????? PETER IS FROM THE OTHER SIDE??????? That shit really catches you so off guard and the writers knew exactly what they were doing with this wham episode and I truly think both it and Anna Torv should have won an EGOT for it

[tibby]

who from st (kids and teens ig) do you think are gonna be the most and least successful after the show ends? (which will hopefully be soon lmao)

definitely millie, finn seems to get a lot of roles even though his acting is hit or miss, gaten has a broadway background so i imagine he’ll always be able to find some kind of work. i think caleb is very talented with the little work he is given so i’m hoping his movie with idris elba opens up a lot of doors for him. sadie like....will either make it big or unfortunately won’t ever get a larger role than max and i hope it’s the former. and i honest to god have no idea what is going on with noah so.

i think joe could have a pretty solid career but it would involve acknowledging steve and carrying that around with him and it doesn’t seem like he’s game for that so i imagine he’ll just continue to make bad music. i can’t ever see natalia becoming a household name but i feel like she’ll continue to have roles in low budget indie films, and given that she seems to prefer those and doesn’t really like the idea of fame, that’s probably what she wants anyway. i genuinely think charlie is one of the strongest actors on the show but it seems as if fate is working against him with the movies he picks (although he will egot for the souvenir part ii) so who knows. dacre is already in his never ending flop era. as for maya, if all else fails, she can just call up one of her parents so i wouldn’t worry too much.

[taylorswiftstylequestions]

Could you ever see Taylor getting an EGOT? She has an Emmy and Grammy already and been nominated at the Oscars. I think she would get one later in life, maybe writing for Broadway shows or helping write?

If she keeps contributing songs to major motion pictures, she for sure has a shot at an Oscar Best Original Song. 

And I can certainly see her pursuing or contributing songs or theatrical direction to a Broadway show. She used to do plays in her youth and probably when she’s older and wants to take a step back from making her own music and flex a different creative muscle she may work on musicals (see: Sara Bareilles). Whether that would bear fruit into an actual Tony win? I don’t know. If she did, it would likely be a behind-the-scenes (writing) or production-related award. I don’t anticipate her giving an award-winning acting performance in her career. 

As an aside, Gaga is 100% going to be halfway to an EGOT after Sunday. She’s 100% locked to win for “Shallow” at the Oscars. With her pipes and experience in musical theatre, an acting or singing Tony also feels very within her grasp. And I’m sure she’ll have another TV special someday up for Emmy consideration.

[ash-trash]

5, 15, 24, 28 for Sootwalker, 2, 14, 38(gold, of course), 44 for Kydra, 21, 36, 40, 50 for Sela.

Crusader Sootwalker:

5. What is your OC’s first memory?-The first time her Primus beat a Fahrar-mate for showing magical aptitude, warning the rest of them that magic was evil and dangerous and would only doom them all.

15. If your OC could have any pet, what would they choose? Why?-She’d want a big ol’ sow, or maybe a bear - something bulky and sturdy that can handle whatever’s thrown at it and would be a loyal companion.

24. What is their outlook on life? What is their philosophy / what do they think in general about living?-She’s got a pretty positive outlook, though it does tend towards hedonism. She joined the Vigil to protect others and help those that can’t help themselves… but also for the glory and rewards that come with it - while she will still fight for someone with nothing to give, she’ll be pretty grumpy about it! In general, she thinks living is a good deal and intends to make the most of it while she can.

28. What kind of nervous habits do they have? Do they stim? Do they have any kinds of addictions?-Does addicted to food count? ‘cause… she’s about as close as I could imagine. Sneaks food. Swipes food. A bit greedy. Thinks about food a lot. As far as nervous habits, she tends to adjust her armor, shifting plates and panels here and there.

Kyrdra Sparkdawn:

2. Does your OC collect anything? What do they collect?-She used to have a collection of shiny rocks. Having lost that when she was arrested, now she collects nothing except booze and grudges.

14. What foods does your OC like to eat? What are their least favorite foods?-Meeeeaaaaat. She wants as much meat as she can get, preferably the good cuts. Scrappers don’t tend to get much meat and when they do, it’s whatever they can catch, or scraps and gristle from a real warband’s leftovers. She doesn’t like vegetables, especially leafy greens.

38. What would your character do with a million dollars gold?-A lot of it would be spent on booze, for sure, but she’d probably pay some Ash or Core staff to alter her files and erase all of her past misdeeds. If possible, she’d bribe her way into a command position. Maybe fund an expedition to hunt down and kill the remaining members of her traitorous ‘band…

44. How does your character react/ accept criticism?-HAHAHAH she doesn’t accept criticism. Saying anything remotely negative about her, in front of her, will probably result in her attempting to sledge your knees backwards.

Sela Lunarstep:

21. What personal problems/issues do they have? Pet peeves?-Sela tends to have some anger issues, a few grudges, a little impulsiveness, a loooot of snark and impishness, and perhaps some egotism (though she’d never admit it). As far as pet peeves, I guess her biggest would be people abusing their power/command, or trying to use it as an excuse (”because I’m the legionnaire and I say so!”), but if she doesn’t like someone, she’ll find a lot of annoying things about them.

36. What does your character want most? What do they need really badly, compulsively? What are they willing to do, to sacrifice, to obtain?-I’d say that most of all, she wants her ‘band to be successful, happy, and safe (including herself as fearless leader, of course). She needs them to be safe, to protect them from death if nothing else, though she does often fret about their health, their wellness, nutrition, etc. She can be almost paranoid about that sometimes. I don’t think she’d be willing to sacrifice much of herself or her ‘band, but I doubt she’d have much restriction against losing other ‘bands (especially Blood) if it furthered her own goals. She’s willing to fudge the rules a bit, just not willing to get caught doing it.

40. Your character is getting ready for a night out. Where are they going? What do they wear? Who will they be with?-Probably for a rousing tour of the Citadel, with drinking (at several locales), watching whatever’s going on at the Bane, maybe a few races. She’d either wear her standard gear, leathers and knives, just to be prepared in case of…. whatever, or relax a little bit and wear something more casual, a dressier outfit with less blades and more fabric - snug to show off her sleek form, though still allowing her flexibility.

50. If your character was presented with imminent and unavoidable death/fatality, how would they react? Would they try to avoid death anyways? Would they try to make their last days count?-She’d be devastated, and although she would certainly be making plans for her succession, so that Lunar Warband would continue after her, she’d also be making plans to defeat it. I think her ego would lend itself to some sort of denial - that she would be able to defeat this death, that she would prevail and survive anyways, and that would motivate her to come up with strategies to address it. Overall, once she felt prepared, for either outcome, she’d probably continue life as normal, though a bit more tense.

[roxilalonde]

Vriska Serket and the Antihero’s Archetype

In other news, I am endlessly fascinated with the Spidertroll. So I wrote an essay about gender, social perspective, literary archetypes, stages of morality, and Vriska Serket. 

First off: I’m not here to argue that Vriska is perfect. She fucks up. In some cases, she fucks up to the point where she seriously hurts others, mentally and physically, and becomes seriously toxic company. I’m not here to excuse her behavior wrt Tavros, or to justify her treatment of others’ emotional needs, because neither is healthy or defensible. But what I am interested in is how she ended up being the Fandom Recognized “worst troll ever” in a group with (a) a murderous bigot, (b) an abusive murderclown, and (c) a racist with a penchant for bestiality and a characteristic lack of regard for consent. 

The answer: It’s a long story.

Let’s talk about Vriska.

Absolutely necessary in any constructive discussion of Vriska’s character is an examination of her upbringing. Her lusus, a.k.a “Spidermom,” is demonstrably the worst parent of any of the trolls. Keeping her alive requires Vriska to routinely kill or be killed, and it obviously strains her; the psychological effects of having such a huge burden placed on her at a young age are demonstrated here; she voices a strong dislike for her lusus here. Further, Spidermom fails to care for Vriska to any extent you would expect from a parent, and Vriska seems delighted to be rid of her once the game starts. When confronted with the task of killing her parent, she is neither frightened nor even unhappy about it - her only concern is whether she’ll be able to do the job.

Your surroundings as a child define how you view the world and relate to it. Changing that perspective is difficult, and takes years of work and support. People in fandom like to characterize Vriska as a suave manipulator, cruel and unfeeling to the plight of others unless it benefits her to be concerned. But reading her pesterlogs, you would only believe that if you took everything she said at face value, which is a thin reading. A face-value reading implies that Dave likes puppets, Rose hates her mother, and Caliborn is a tactical genius. The impression Vriska gives is that of a person with a fundamental inability to connect with other people, who struggles with empathy in particular. She experiences sympathy - feeling bad that others are suffering - just fine. (Terezi and Kanaya, for example, are both recipients of her sympathy, after she does them harm.) But empathy, or the emotional understanding of others’ emotions as they experience them, she lacks, which evidences that her emotional intelligence never developed as a child (or she can’t do empathy, generally; neither is a character deficit so much as a product of circumstances outside of her control). Passages I think are useful reading here: these pesterlogs with Aradia and John, and the famous pirate cave monologue.

Now, let’s throw in Mindfang. From the onset, Vriska has two clearly established models in her life: a neglectful (arguably abusive) lusus, and an inaccessible, deified ancestor who glorifies violence and unlawfulness. Her value of Mindfang seems to come from Mindfang’s “coolness,” i.e., the fact that Mindfang is never awkward or incompetent. Of course a socially inept child is going to deify someone who’s always in control of their self-presentation. Especially since the Mindfang narrative that Vriska reads is entirely written by Mindfang, so there’s probably some severe manipulation of the facts going down to make her seem cooler than she is. 

And then Doc Scratch. An omniscient deity meddling in the affairs of a prepubescent girl from a young age, informing her that she has no choice in most of her critical decisions, and pushing her towards the decisions that will make possible the Alpha Timeline. He humors her desire for attention and importance by predicating his attention to her on her obedience; when she rebels, tries to develop an independent conscience, he criticizes her. From a young age, Vriska is being told that morality is impossible because everything in the universe is predetermined. That her choice doesn’t matter. Her life is a series of desperate grasps at free will, which has been denied her since birth. So she exerts her control over others to mimic the ways of her role models, Mindfang and Scratch. This is where Tavros comes in. 

That said: Vriska’s treatment of Tavros is inexcusable. It’s degrading, physically harmful, and toxic. Again, I’m not trying to defend it. But I want to point out that it comes from her trying to “improve” him, to change what she perceives as a flaw - his cowardice and indecisiveness. Already, Vriska is an improvement on her predecessors in that when she exerts control over others, she does it out of a misguided belief that she’s improving society - not solely for selfish reasons. And she points what she perceives as flaws with Tavros’ character. (Her comments about his disability, notably, which are ableist and inexcusable, do not fall under this category.) In trying to play Mindfang, and make him into her Summoner, the inept Vriska ends up hurting him. It doesn’t stem from malignancy; it stems from instability, and a lack of emotional intelligence. That’s where virtually all of her problems come from.

Additionally, her egotism in thinking she can “fix” Tavros can be traced to Spidermom and Mindfang, too. Her need to step out of her idols’ shadow leads to a desperate search for recognition, first and foremost a positive one. She’s a neglected child who desperately wants attention. What she does to get that attention is coached in the norms of a brutally violent society, but is a cry for help nonetheless.

Let’s talk about antiheroes.

Contrary to popular belief, an antihero is not just “an imperfect hero” or “a hero who doesn’t always do the right thing.” The antihero, specifically, is a person with ethical principles designed to contrast the protagonist - whom you root for even if they make the wrong choices. The AH has the same goals as the Protag, but a different set of ethics from whence they derive those goals. From TV Tropes:

“An Archetypal Character who is almost as common in modern fiction as the Ideal Hero, an antihero is a protagonist who has the opposite of most of the traditional attributes of a hero . . . often an antihero is just an amoral misfit. While heroes are typically conventional, anti-heroes, depending on the circumstances, may be preconventional (in a "good" society), postconventional (if the government is "evil") or even unconventional. Not to be confused with the Villain or the Big Bad, who is the opponent of Heroes (and Anti-Heroes, for that matter).”

Aranea is a villain. She directly opposes the goals of our protagonists (winning the session, and/or bodily autonomy). Gamzee is a villain: he directly opposes the goals of our protagonists (staying alive, not dying). The Condesce is a villain: she directly opposes the goals of our protagonists (staying alive, winning the session). Vriska is not a villain, archetypally: she does not oppose the goals of our protagonists, most of the time, and in fact helps in achieving them. Putting aside the question of whether she’s a bad person, she’s not a Bad Guy.

Her code of ethics most closely aligns with an Antihero - in this case, a preconventional one. There’s a neat article to be written about Vriska’s advancement along the Kohlberg stages of moral development, but for our purposes, “preconventional” just means “I do things for me, and to the extent that doing things for others will do things for me.” Her main goal: fame and glory. Subsidiary goals: help her teammates to win the game, and create a new universe. Unlike traditional preconventional actors, she doesn’t care about her own life and wellbeing, or if she does, only insofar as they can aid her ultimate goal, which is attention and acclaim.

AG: I only ever wanted to do the right thing no matter how it made people judge me, and I don't need a magic ring to do that.

Let’s talk about gender.

Take a moment and tally up all the male antiheroes in popular media you can remember. (Count them twice if they get a redemption arc.) Off the top of my head: Zuko, Lestat, Derek Hale, Nico di Angelo, Severus Snape, Jason Todd, Captain Jack Sparrow, Han Solo, Spike, Tyrion Lannister. That’s without a single glance at the TV Tropes page, either. Those are all from some of the most popular media of the past twenty years: ATLA, IWAV, Teen Wolf, Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, Batman, PoTC, Star Wars, Buffy, Game of Thrones. 

Now count the women. (Count them as half if their “alternative code of ethics” is “I sleep with and lie to men to get what I want, which is almost exclusively money, until I met Protagonist, who changed my evil ways.”) Personally, I’ve got a decently sized list, but at least half are from Homestuck, with others being characters I go out of my way to explore: Arya Stark, Princess Bubblegum, Marcelline, most women from House. I’d give it to Furiosa, too, although that’s arguable. Maybe you have a long list; if so, please tell me what you’ve been reading/watching lately, because these women are either sidelined in the popular media they appear in, or aren’t depicted in popular media to the same level that their male counterparts are at all. (Note: the one-off female antihero, on the other hand, is incredibly popular, perhaps because the writer doesn’t need to develop her character or give her a substantive arc: see Jyn from ATLA, Calypso from PoTC, Narcissa Malfoy from HP.) 

Here’s why: people are much more inclined to forgive a man for doing bad things than they are to forgive a woman. You can chalk this up to any number of stereotypes about women in media: that they have to be nurturers, or that their “purity” is an important aspect of their being. Regardless, if you look over the TV Tropes page for the antihero (even with the obvious miscategorizations), and you’ll find the vast majority are men. Writers have realized that audiences are far more interested in a morally grey, badass, complex, tragic-backstoried man of action than a woman of the same persuasion. 

Let’s go back to talking about Vriska.

Contrast the fandom’s reception of Vriska with its reception of Eridan. To clarify: Eridan, ultimately, isn’t an antihero. He’s a villain. He murders people. He wants to commit genocide. Furthermore, he has no discernible motivation for this except being a bigoted asshat. But you don’t see 2,000-word callouts for Eridan, despite there being a large portion of fandom that wholeheartedly stans him. This doesn’t mean you can’t be interested in Eridan as a character, or even that you can’t like him, although I don’t understand the appeal, personally. But it means that condemning Vriska, all of whose mistakes are clearly motivated and regretted, probably isn’t the hill you want to die on.

I envision a hypothetical world where Vriska is written a boy. And I guarantee you, in that world, there’s a dedicated group of fans who - unironically - call him “a perfect sinnamon roll” and “my innocent son.” His trauma is openly discussed and sympathized with in fandom. Vrisrezi is in the top 5 most popular Homestuck ships on AO3. The Scourge Bros are the most popular troll ship, period. 

We forgive Terezi for manipulating Dave. We forgive Terezi for manipulating and murdering John. Because hey, narratively speaking, they end up fine, right? (Just like Tavros does.) But Vriska is where we draw the line in the sand. Because she’s an antihero, whereas Terezi has always been a nice, comfortable female protagonist. She doesn’t conflict with John & Co. She is clearly motivated by the Greater Good. Vriska is not.

Conclusion

Vriska isn’t simple. Female characters who aren’t simple inevitably cause controversy, to a much lesser degree than male characters of the same nature. Furthermore, the fact that she isn’t a protagonist in the classical sense - whereas most of her group, in contrast, are clearly written as protagonists - makes her appear “worse” than the others, or even, at an extreme “the worst.” Disliking her is perfectly understandable. Thinking she’s a bad person is reasonable. But please don’t do either without considering why she does what she does, and evaluating for yourself whether she deserves the reputation she has. 

[cloysterbell]

Discuss your fave Fringe episode. JUST ONE. :)

2x14 Jacksonville is not just the best episode of Fringe but one of the best episodes of television of all time period. It starts off fun and flirty with Olivia and Peter having a cute little back and forth before throwing you head first into oh shit there was an earthquake and the two universes are merging, that’s probably not good. Then Walter explains to Olivia that they can’t stop this from happening (using red and blue beakers, of course), but they can see it ahead of time and at least get people to safety and when Olivia asks how, Walter teases the idea of the glimmer that can isolate things from the other side and you’re like oh shit, guess they gotta go find whoever can see the glimmer but nope, just kidding, turns out Olivia’s the one who can see the glimmer! She’ll be able to see the buildings before they teleport to the other side! That’s going to be important! But in order to unlock that power, uh oh, they have to go back to her daycare center in Jacksonville (which doubles as a tease for the 5-20-10 thing) so she can experience some trauma and call Walter out and unlock her power which she can only do if she’s scared which might be hard because oops, Olivia turned all her fear into anger and doesn’t get scared anymore (or so we think)! She’s a hardened FBI agent now and we love her for it! So they return to New York where Olivia’s sulking because she failed to unlock her magic drug glimmer powers but turns out failure is actually her biggest fear and so she succeeds in unlocking the power after all with a little help from Peter, hooray! So she sees the building from the other side glimmer and manages to evacuate it in time and you the viewer are like oh cool, she did the thing and clearly that’s all we needed her power for! I guess that’s it for that! What a neat little story that we can tie a bow on! Time for her to go on her happy little date with Peter! Wait….. why is he….. oh my god???? OH MY GOD????? PETER IS FROM THE OTHER SIDE??????? That shit really catches you so off guard and the writers knew exactly what they were doing with this wham episode and I truly think both it and Anna Torv should have won an EGOT