#even tho asking people to read my shit now has Emotional Baggage

[asterdeer]

substack but for your beta readers, one chapter a week, easy to get feedback, you get to feel like charles dickens doing serial fiction, is this anything

[joneswuzhere]

hello join me in thinking about some books and authors that are, or might be, part of s5′s intertextuality

5.10 in particular offered specific shout outs, and also u know i’m always wondering what might be ahead so i have some ideas on that:

- first, as mentioned in a previous ask post, i know i wasn’t alone in keeping an eye out for 5.10 parallels to the lost weekend (1945) the film that gave episode 1.10 its name and several themes - or to the 1944 book by charles r jackson which the film is based on

- s5 has not been shy about revisiting earlier seasons, especially s1. altho i feel that 1.10′s parallels to the lost weekend centered characters other than jughead (mostly betty), a 1.10-5.10 connection involving jughead and themes from jackson’s story (addiction, writers block, self reflection) seemed v possible if not inevitable

- but like,, , for a hot minute after the ep, i was really stumped on understanding how anything from the book or film could apply, even tho the pieces were almost all there

- jackson’s protagonist don birnam goes thru and comes out the other side of a harrowing days-long drinking binge that could be compared to jughead’s one-night hallucinogenic writing retreat

- but jughead is struggling primarily with traumatic memories, not addiction and self control like birnam. and tho drinking activates birnam’s creativity, it paralyzes his writing as he gets lost in fantasies; he’s never published anything. jughead’s drug trip recreates circumstances that already helped him write one successful book. even the rat that startles him mid-high doesn’t line up with birnam’s withdrawal vision of a dying mouse, symbolic of his horror at his own self-destruction thru alcohol

- and maybe the most visible discordance: in the film there’s a romantic motif around a typewriter. first it’s an object of shame; birnam’s failure to write, tied up with his drinking, makes him flee his relationship. he tries to pawn the typewriter for booze money and finally a gun when shooting himself feels easier than getting sober. but with the help of relentless encouragement from girlfriend helen, he quits drinking, commits to her, and focuses on typing out the story he’s dreamt of writing. rd goes so far to avoid setting any comparable scenario that jughead has brought a wholeass printer into the bunker so there can still be a physical manuscript to cover in blood by the end, even without his own typewriter. the subtle detail of his laptop bg image is a little less noticeable than his avoidance of betty’s gift

- tabitha might be closer to a parallel than jughead is, but she’s still no helen. both refuse to take advantage of the inebriated men in their care, but birnam takes advantage of helen, financially and emotionally. jughead refused a loan from the tate family and now has resolved to deal with his shit before he considers a relationship with tabitha. instead of helen’s relentless and unwelcomed attempts to get birnam sober, tabitha reluctantly agrees to help jughead trip safely bondage escape notwithstanding. she even helps him get the drugs.

- whatever potentials exist for parallels to jackson’s story, they were not explored for this episode. ok so why tf am i even talking about this? what was there instead?

-  i have arrived at the point

- s5 has been revisiting s1, not directly but with a twist. and jughead’s agent samm pansky is back. u may recall, pansky is named for sam lansky

- jughead’s trip-thru-trauma is a story device tapped straight from lansky’s book ‘broken people’

- lansky is like if a millenial john rechy wrote extremely LA-flavored meta but just about himself no jk very like a modern successor to charles r jackson. both play with the boundary between memoir and fiction. lansky is gay; jackson wrote his lost weekend counterpart as closeted and remained closeted himself until only a few years before his death. both write with emotional clarity and self-scrutiny on the experiences of addiction, sobriety, and the surrounding issues of shame and self worth

- i feel like a fool bc after this ep i had been thinking about de quincey and his early writings on addiction (c.1800s), but i failed to carry the thought in the other direction, to contemporary writers in the genre, to make this connection sooner

- lansky’s second book, broken people, follows narrator ‘sam’, mid-20s, super depressed, hastled by his agent to write a decent follow-up to his first book, but too busy struggling with his self-worth and baggage from several past relationships. desperate, he takes up an offer to visit a new age shaman who promises to fix everything wrong with him in a matter of days. not to over simplify it but he literally spends a weekend doing psychedelics and hallucinating about his exes. jughead took note

- unless u want me to hurl myself into yet another dissertation about queer jughead, i think his parallel to sam - who, unlike jughead, has considerable financial privilege and whose anxieties center on body dysmorphia, hiv scares, and his own self-centeredness - pretty much ends there

- But,, the gist of the book could not be more harmonius with a major theme shared by the 2 films that inform the actual hallucination part of jughead’s bunker scene: mentally reframing past relationships to get closure + confronting trauma head-on in order to move forward

- so that’s neat. what other book and author stuff was in 5.10?

- stephen king and raymond carver get name dropped. i’m passingly familiar with them both but u bet i just skimmed their wiki bios in case anything relevant jumped out

- like jughead, carver was a student (later a lecturer) at the iowa writers workshop. also the son of an alcoholic and one himself

- i recall carver’s ‘what we talk about when we talk about love’ is what jughead was reading in 2.14 ‘the hills have eyes’ after he finds out about the first time betty kissed archie (at that time he does not respond as would any of carver’s characters)

- this collection of carver stories deals especially with infidelity, failings of communication, and the complexities and destructiveness of love. to unashamedly quote the resource that is course hero, ‘carver renders love as an experience that is inherently violent bc it produces psychic and emotional wounds.’ very fun to wonder about the significance of this collection within the s2 episode and in jughead’s thoughts. and maybe now in the context of the s5 state of relationships. or, at least, the state of jughead’s writing as seen by his agent

- anyway pansky doesn’t want carver, he wants stephen king

- i have too much to say about gerald’s game in 5.10, that’s getting its own post someday soon

- lol wait king’s wife is named tabitha uhhh king’s wiki reminded me of his childhood experience that possibly inspired his short story ‘the body’ (+1986 movie ‘stand by me’) when he ‘apparently witnessed one of his friends being struck and killed by a train tho he has no memory of the event’

- no mention of that in this rd episode but memories of a train could be interesting to consider with the imagery that intrudes on jughead’s hallucination. i still feel like it was a truck but the lights and sounds he experiences may be a train

- ok now we’re in the speculation part of today’s segment

- if jughead’s traumatic memory involves trains, then it’s possible this plot will take influence from la bête humaine <- this 1938 movie is based on the 1890 novel by french writer émile zola. this story deals with alcoholism and possessive jealousy in relationships, sometimes leading to murder. huh, kind of like carver. zola def comes down on the nature side of the nature-vs-nuture bad seed question (tho i should say he approaches this with great or maybe just v french compassion). also i can’t tell if this is me reaching but, something about la bête humaine reminds me of king’s ‘secret window’ which we’ve observed to be at least a style influence on jughead post time jump

- but wow a late-19th century french writer would be a random thing to drop into this season, right? then again zola also wrote about miners, which we’ve learned are an important part of this town’s history + whatever hiram is up to this time.  and most notably, zola wrote ‘j’accuse...!’ an open letter in defense of a soldier falsely accused and unlawfully jailed for treason: alfred dreyfus. archie’s recent army trouble comes to mind.

- since the introduction of old man dreyfuss (plausibly Just a nod to close encounters actor richard dreyfuss, but also when is anything in this show Just one thing) i’ve been wondering if these little things could add up to a season-long reference to zola’s writings. but i had doubts and didn’t want to speak on it too soon bc, u know, it’s weird but is it weird enough for riverdale??

- however,,,

- (come on, u knew where i was going with this)

- a24′s film zola just came out. absolutely no relation to the french writer, it’s not based on a book but an insane and explicit twitter thread by aziah ‘zola’ wells about stripping and? human trafficking?? this feels ripe for rd even outside the potentials here for the lonely highway/missing girls plot.

- that would add up to a combination of homage that feels natural to this show

- anyway pls understand i’m just having fun speculating, most of this is based on nothing more concrete than the torturous mental tendril ras has hooked into my skull pls let go ras pls let go

[thatcharmingjerk]

Top 5 fictional animal characters :3c

Oh this was HARD!!!! And even I obsessed over this for few hours I still feel like I’m forgetting someone actually important but !!!!! Let’s try!!!!!!!

Ok first one is character that I do not like at all, I dont think I even sympathize with him but I think he’s fantastically written and I feel like I understand the point and motives of this bitch but I know some of yall will cringe at me for picking him but still! my first pick is:

-Walter White. I think he’s just so good depiction of how dangerous it can be when you have unresolved issues and you’re in a tight spot, like the cunt started as good ™ man who worked hard and did his best to provide for his family, but the cancer and the bitterness most people seem to overlook made him to spiral into such monster..! 

I just seriously think that he’s so good example what might happen when someone who has mental baggage and toxic and unprocessed bitterness is pushed too far 

......Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand I only now noticed the animal part of the ask asdfghjhkg anyway my other picks for top 5 characters would’ve been Edward Elric, Dean Winchester, Ragnar Lodbrok and Nuuskamuikkunen (aka Snufkin) who I also thought to write little essays of!!! 

But!!!!!!!! Animals!!!!!! Ok ok ok lets seeeeeeee 

(I had to get my thoughts out of my system so dude rambling is under cut too!!) 

1. Moro from Mononoke Hime, the wolf mother, I just love her she’s fierce and dangerous but also nurturing and kind enough to raise a human among her pups, I think Moro is just one of the good wolves in media, like good as in pretty correct, not a pet but also not a mindless killing machine either!! 

2. Black Beauty, the main character from the movie with same name, idk he just is so horse, he just keeps being kind and nice and working even after all the shit he has to put up with because he trusts that some people are good too. Yes that movie makes me cry, yes I’m emotional of horses!!!!! 

3. Scar from Lion King, he’s queer coded!!! He’s got this greasy style!!! His moral compass is set on whatever!!! He just lies and cheats and don’t give a shit of anyone! Gotta love a good villain! 

4. Akame from Hopeanuoli/Ginga, idk he’s got style, plus also gotta love a bitch who decides just not to give a shit of old tradition he notices are just empty, like ‘’hey I just now noticed there’s actual problems in world and us guarding some old scrolls ain’t one, bye boys i’mma burn this place!’’ 

Ok last one shall beeeee...! 

5. Balto!!! As a weirdo myself the whole conflict of not feeling like belonging with either dogs nor wolves, might I say, mood. 

Really tho I think Balto is one of the rare cases where main character dude being an underdog (hehe) don’t come with the scott pilgrim -syndrome so thats neat, 

and I just really liked and i still like to see an outsider find self worth in their true self and, AND!! becoming cherished part of community!!! 

So there we go!! Did I overthink this? Absolutely!!! Did I ramble too much? Mayhaps!!! But yeah, here we goooo! And yes theres what I originally thought for this ask before properly reading it under the cut!!! XD 

Thank u for the ask anyhoo <3 

Yes!!!!! My semi-planned rambling of my boys went here before I could think if best animals!!! so yeah!!! walter is a cunt but the rest of these choices i actually do love so! 

Edward Elric, a bastard!!! I love that in any character!!! He’s just so well written too, like he’s the big brother, he has responsibilty, he knows he needs to do stuff no one else can, he’s smart but in believable way so it doesn’t feel too god-like etc, the trauma!!! the tenacity!!! and at the end of the day behind all of he’s just a teenage who lost almost everything and just..... *clenches fist* yeah......

Dean Winchester, yes another big brother but this dude is whole different story, yes he had to look after himself and his little brother but there was also terrifying father figure present to beat him up (mentally, possibly physically too?) for any mistake like its telling he gives Dean shit about car maintenance even when he’s over twenty so....... and yes big part of Dean character isn’t probably what writers intended but I don’t care, i just like what i see in him and his macho-mask and what else!!! 

Ragnar Lodbrok, yes also a historical figure but we’re talking about the dude from vikings show obviously!! I just LOVE how he’s a very manly man and etc blah blah but also soft..! He’s a family man!! he loves his wife!!! plays with his kids!!! he’s a leader sure but his real interest isn’t power or gold he just wants better life for his family and people!!! He loves good soil over gold!!!! but he’s also not a perfect ™, he has his weaknesses and his morals can be interesting to say at least, I just adore his vibe and the self confidence!!!!!

and then, Nuuskamuikkunen, he’s perfect being, this bitch has it all figured out, acab, fuck the stupid rules and just yes!!! if I didn’t love my trinkets and place for creating art so much I would absolutely live in a tent too, or at least with life that fits in single backpack!!!

[asillydreamer-on-a-crazyworld]

I think people are taking what Jenna said to literally. Run the gamut doesn’t necessarily have to mean run its course. She states that the season starts with the attraction they have for each other and continues to move forward. So in other words they have gone through all the levels of emotions. That doesn’t mean it’s over. Hell that whole phone convo screams more. It’s going to be a long 10 months. I really wish people would grow up. You’re mad we know, but why all that negativity in the tag

Agreed anon. And thank u for coming to my ask box as well. I think that it’s far from over between these two. People were hurt with this finale and I understand, but some are reading her words and taking it too literally like u said. I will repeat myself here, but I don’t care. In the end, Beth only did what Rio asked her to in S1.

I wonder what would have happened if she’d shot him that first time. How ppl would react? Well, probably not how they are doing it right now bc Beth and Rio were intimate with each other, they became closer, worked together, they did things for the other, Beth even defended Rio, for God’s sake. People connected even more deeply with them and their relationship and things progressed between them.

I know it’s not gonna be the same when Rio comes back tho. I agree with some ppl that he is gonna respect her more,in his weird way bc like some folks said, she finally became the person he knew she would be. However, this means he will have to approach whatever new thing he’ll have in mind with her with more caution bc now she proved herself to him in a way.

This woman showed her claws, even if it happened in a very disturbing situation that led her to do it anyway.

Again the emotional baggage between them just got heavier and bigger and they will keep their guards up and higher than ever. Somehow I think this will lead them to talk more about what is going in their minds now that they crossed this particular line between them. Bill said Beth felt used in that interview and, really, I agree with the way things happened, with Rio leaving her ( or so that was what looked to Beth when she saw all of his things gone) and him making all that game of making her kill someone else…And not to mention that woman she saw him hugging way back… the fact they never talked to the other about what was going on between them, just made it worse and helped Beth thinking just like that.

Now she shot him and left him to bleed and walked in a daze back home… Then I think she tried to bury all that deep down in her mind like she usually does with every other bad stuff that happens in her life?

 People are saying Beth acted cold and was a bitch bc she shot Rio a guy with a kid, someone she had feelings for… But really, and Rio? Shooting her husband.. Not thinking about her kids being left without a father no matter how awful he was as a hubby? Sending body parts to her home with four little kids who could have opened one of those letters? 

And again, I think it was something she did without thinking it… It was not as if she planned to shoot him. Just look at her face when she does it.

but going back at how she doesn’t face the real problems she has and tries to pretend everything is good is actually what she did with the fact she shot Rio.

C’mon she is not a robot. Or that cold of a bitch. I still believe she had feelings for him and that is why she shot him and not Turner. It’s the people we feel the most about that bring out the worst in us, the most violent feelings, in the end.

It’s fucked up but it’s like that.

And I agree with some people in the fandom that Jenna talked more like how Beth felt not like SHE felt about Beth and Rio.

I actually give kudos to her for her decision about giving ppl Brio when it was not in the original plan and when she knows how deeply ppl felt about it, and how dealing with such passionate audience can backfire on a show when u don’t give ppl what they want and HOW they want it.

yeah, the show has some problems- some concerning problems about race, yeah and I know having a black healthy couple don’t excuse how the show dealt with other things - and the way they chose to keep Dean’s character around and the decision to make Rio kidnap  Beth was a big WTF moment for me.

Like I said, it’s hard to have something perfect and yet I know u can find some out there but it’s not that easy.

But this show still has a chance to grow with its mistakes and I don’t think they are done with Brio yet. They listened to this fandom by embracing Brio in giving it to us and like u said, with that call? Rio showed us that yeah, it was a game but one he enjoyed it and if he did, there are feelings involved no matter how twisted they are.

I hope they will hear people’s words about the finale and since they gave the fandom what they wanted most, even if not in the way ppl wished ( but come on, the story is not over yet), I’m sure they will give the fandom more but just remember: they are telling their own story here. This is not some Bandersnatch shit. It’s not an interactive show where writers will ask u all what do u want to happen next so they can write down. lol