#he was fucked over IMMENSELY by the narrative

[tibli]

im my own personal post-canon for hs, hal gets a body bc he wasnt yeeted into a fucking sprite, so he gets to experience the world once again like he was able to when he was dirk. but he has also diverged from dirk in a way that he is a distinct entity, and decides to keep the name hal to signify this. and he gets to do whatever the fuck he wants

[sassy-cass-16]

look man. look

essek saying "bren" out loud, claiming a position on caleb's side as the mouthpiece of his regards to astrid, did something to me. i can't tell if it opened a wound or punched me or gave me a hug. all i know is that i am feeling so many emotions right now

more under the cut because i'm about to get rambly:

"bren aldric ermendrud" is a separate character from caleb widogast. he's a young boy learning how to make magic. he's a deeply traumatized and indoctrinated teenager. he's the boy who curled up with astrid and eadwulf in a freezing tower for warmth all night.

essek never met bren. he met caleb and he's never known him as anyone else. if i'm remembering correctly, caleb never even said the name "bren" to him during the campaign, and neither did any of the nein.

essek knows caleb widogast. he knows the man who held up the object of his worst crime and then kissed him in the bowels of a ship and made a floor of infinite stars for them to walk through together. he knows the person who healed over bren's wounds—thinly, but enough. he knows the man that the boy has become.

astrid knows bren. she barely knows who caleb is. she still calls him bren after hearing him referred to as caleb repeatedly. she can't know him as the man he is, she only knows the boy. there's some of bren in caleb, but there is no caleb in bren.

essek saying "bren sends his regards" is him gauging astrid's reaction, on one level—if she freaks out, which she did, she's in opposition to caleb's cause and thus a threat. on another level, it's essek delivering a very different subtextual message from caleb: "the boy who loved you is giving you one final warning."

because essek is a threat to astrid. their last meaningful interaction was slinging spells at each other in the blooming grove. and that's funny in a "current boyfriend vs ex girlfriend exclusively fight each other" kind of way, but it's also deeply tied to caleb's recurring theme of transformation. "bren sends his regards" also means "i have healed enough to love enough for someone else to know this name and use it with my consent. and this someone else is your enemy. what does that make you think i've become?"

it also does a fantastic job of communicating subtle offscreen discussions that have happened over the years since the end of c2. we don't have the details of when or how caleb told essek his birth name, but we know that he did, and we know from all of c2 that the name bren occupies a place of immense emotional weight for caleb. it functions similarly to a deadname in terms of who uses it and for what purpose. trent exclusively calls caleb bren to wound him and place himself in a position of power. astrid calls him bren to remind both him and herself of who they used to be—same with eadwulf, though obviously he's not here.

the first time we hear essek say "bren" is on caleb's behalf and confronting one of the narrative representations of caleb's trauma. it's four words that manage to communicate "i, your enemy on a hundred levels, can speak for both the man i love and the boy who loved you, because i know him in his entirety."

astrid knows bren and essek knows caleb, but only essek can speak for both. because at some point, caleb gave bren to essek. and we know this from four words. four IMPROVISED words.

god. this moment is just so fucking good

[tomlinfonda]

Inside me there are two wolves.

One who thinks that the writers are either stupid or cruel, and that the finale was so incomprehensibly bad that I shouldn't try to make sense of it. And that I should move on.

The other one is a subtext-and-metaphor-hungry beast that is manically obsessed with finding a reason, at least subtextually, for the incomprehensible mess they made out of these characters, especially Ted, in the finale.

Everyone is so right to point out that Ted in previous episodes would not have acted like this. I think the reason for the sudden regression in his character is Dottie.

That morning, full of smiles, in a good mood, Ted starts his walk to work.

He cheerfully strolls through the streets, saying hello to his neighbors, making chit-chat with them. He is (as Trent said it in 1x03) out there in the community. He is, more importantly, part of a community. Until suddenly-

"Mom?"

Dottie's arrival changes everything. Ted gets worse and worse throughout the episode. In the hotel room in Manchester, the football anthem "Blue Moon", with the haunting lyric "You saw me standing alone" plays over Ted's lonesome figure, in the shadows, depressed.

Juxtapose that with his first scene: the lively neighborhood and daylight.

At the end of the episode, his conversation with his (manipulative) mom hits him deep. He feels immense guilt over not being there for Henry. And he's been torn over this for the entire season.

His mom, and the way she acts, and the way she manipulates him, push him in the wrong direction: Kansas.

I think Ted has disassociated for most of the finale. But I also think that he is intentionally pushing people away. Maybe he thinks that this will make it easier for him to leave, maybe he thinks that this will make it easier for them to let him go. Maybe he just hates himself so much that he cannot accept their help. Maybe he feels guilty that they're showing him so much love, when he knows he will abandon them.

Either way, he quits. Something that he would not have done, even in season 1. So his regression goes farther than the first episode, deeper into his past. He goes from:

to having doubts on the plane about leaving without winning the whole fucking thing

but leaving anyway.

And this is one of the most curious things to me. Rebecca offers to bring Henry to him in England by helping relocate Michelle:

And yet, he refuses. So, sure, this is about being there for his son. But given the choice between his son with his beloved community, and his son without his beloved community, he chooses the latter.

I've heard the argument that we don't know for sure that Ted doesn't have a support system in Kansas. But from a narrative perspective, it's important that we haven't been shown that hypothetical support system at all. And given that he actually returns to Kansas without the one person who we know supported him before coming to England, it comes across as a terribly isolating situation.

So why would Ted choose to part from his found family, even though bringing his son into that family would be an option? My theory is that he just really fucking hates himself. I think he wants to punish himself, maybe for being away from Henry for so long, maybe for something else. I don't think he believes that he deserves love or even credit for how he helped the club.

I mean, Rebecca and Trent offer him exactly that this episode: credit for what the did for the club.

And he rejects them both, choosing instead to remove himself from their lives, to erase himself from the narrative.

I think he's lower mentally than we've seen him for a while.

I think he's in his dark forest.

So the plane departs and then lands. And Ted is back in Kansas, driven through the prosaic, picket-fenced, isolating, depressing American suburbs to the house where Henry and the ex-wife who doesn't love him are waiting for him.

And the light might be golden, and he might be reunited with his son. But as we close in on the last shot of the show, you can see his smile try to fight the sadness in his eyes and you know.

He's not happy.

[jennaimmortal]

Musings on OFMD Season 2

I’m feeling a bit sad today for the OFMD writers. After rewatching S1 & 2 a couple times, it’s become blatantly clear to me that Izzy’s arc this season was a very obvious love letter to both Izzy fans & the great Con O’Neil. Izzy was very clearly written to be an obstacle to Ed’s healing & personal growth, a snare that Ed needed to be freed from, albeit with plenty of nuance hiding under the surface. It would have been much easier for them to kill Izzy off while he was still the toxic, abusive, sadomasochistic terror of S1E10.

Instead of taking the easy route, though, the writers flipped the trope on its head! They utilized every bit of the potential buried beneath Izzy’s super fucked up shell. This season Izzy got

• a fully fleshed out redemption complete with terrible consequences of his 1x10 actions

• a realization of the possibility of another way of thinking & existing that he’d spent all of S1 running from & trying to destroy,

• genuine love & support from his crew mates which he was actually able to accept,

• exploration of the long abandoned softer side of his nature,

• an apology from Ed w/o first offering one of his own,

• a powerful, devastatingly poignant speech that mentally demolished a new nemesis, and finally

• a beautiful, meaningful death in the arms of the man he’d dedicated so much of his life to, known that he was truly loved by him & completely accepting of the fact that Ed’s love was not in the form he’d always hoped for.

It was so much more than we could have hoped for, and was very obviously done in service to the MANY fans that had fallen in love with Izzy even after S1, as well as to give Con a storyline worthy of his immense talent. Considering the face that Izzy was never going to end up becoming the show’s third protagonist, it was more than we could have hoped for!

OFMD has two protagonists, Stede & Ed. All the secondary character narratives that haven’t directly involved Ed and/or Stede have been icing on the cake, but the cake has always been the Gentlebeard love story. I feel like some people forget this, expecting them to treat the secondary characters as if it were an ensemble show instead of a show with leads.

Izzy’s arc really was an amazing gift! The writers gave us this incredible journey for Izzy this season, and what did a disgraceful number of people do? They attacked David directly, insulted the entire show, the writers, & other characters, even wishing actual harm & misery to other characters or even to David himself!

While I know that comparatively speaking, the percentage of show fans who reacted this way was relatively small, it was still an astounding amount of hatred & vitriol thrown at the people who had obviously worked very hard to give Izzy fans something beautiful to hold on to after his inevitable death. Much of the discourse honestly shocked me, considering the fact that OFMD isn’t even an adaptation of another work.

When fans get angry at shows written as adaptations of books, it’s a bit more understandable for them to have extreme reactions. They’ve had certain ideas and headcanons about characters they’ve felt very strongly about for a long time. It can be really jarring & painful when expectations like that aren’t met, the characters or plots are taken in totally different directions, or even excluded entirely.

OFMD, however, is an original creation. This is David Jenkins’s story. These are David Jenkins’s characters. He knows his story, his plotlines, his characters far better than anyone else does because they came from HIS brain! So while we as fans can have our own interpretations & head canons, they are always going to be at risk of being proven totally wrong by the ACTUAL canon.

One of the worst aspects of fandoms, in my opinion, is the way people become so proprietary over the story & characters, insisting that their own interpretations & theories are the only correct ones, which is exactly what happened with Izzy. Fans’ individual & collective interpretations, theories, hopes, & other head canons became concrete & true in their minds. So much so that when the actual story didn’t meet those expectations, so many of them lashed out in some truly unpleasant, sometimes hateful ways.

My only hope is that the rest of the fandom’s love, appreciation, constructive criticism, heartbreak, pain, joy, & excitement has been enough to drown out the deluge of vitriolic comments directed at David & the other writers.

If you stuck with me through this unintentionally long diatribe, thank you! Maybe take a moment to give the writers some comments or replies on social media, showing your love! I know I will!

[raisedbythetv89]

I genuinely don’t understand how people can watch the body swap episode and enjoy seeing Faith inhabit Buffy’s body and WORSE objectifying (Faith)Buffy being like “omg she’s so hot she slayed so hard I love Buffy in black leather”

Not only is SMG’s FRIGHTENING thinness even more apparent in Faith’s traditional wardrobe showcasing just how much she is practically skin and bone due to her being under immense stress and being so overworked which always just tears at my heart in so many ways but we are witnessing the WORST violation of Buffy’s body and autonomy!!!! I’m genuinely just sick the entire episode.

Bad enough she almost gets Buffy killed and finally gets her wish of (temporarily) stealing Buffy’s life which she has wanted to do since her arrival in season 3 (only to STILL not understand Buffy’s perspective until she does it again in a far less invasive way in season 7 after Buffy allowed her back into her home and she still never properly apologizes she’s like hehe turns our your life is actually pretty miserable and I don’t want it because I can’t handle the stress and constant pressure you’re under…. Oops!🙃) but unlike when Willow takes Buffy’s free will and autonomy away (where she at least still retains all the memories after the fact of everything that happened so she doesn’t have to wonder and can process them when she’s ready) Buffy has ZERO CLUE what all Faith allows to happen to her body while she’s not in it. And Faith isn’t unaware or passive about the power she holds and the things she can do to Buffy’s body in the position she’s in - she literally tells Riley, BEGS HIM - to do all of the nastiest things he’s ever wanted to do “to this body” she WANTS Riley to do things to Buffy’s body Buffy herself WOULD. NOT. ALLOW. it is one of THE MOST insidious lines in the entire series to me because not only is that an absolutely stomach churning, bone-chilling thing to say but then after the fact when angel asks what Faith did to upset Buffy so much she’s like “I slept with her boyfriend” like UMMMM WHAT??? EXCUSE ME???? That is literally the absolute LEAST of your crimes bitch be so fucking for real. This horrific violation is minimized down to oh well Buffy is just insecure about sex and especially sex in comparison to Faith like GROSS GROSSSSSSS. The entire thing is SO DISGUSTING and misogynistic AND it is part of why I genuinely do not give A FUCK about the events of seeing red as far as my love of spuffy goes because while that was absolutely the most traumatizing to watch not only was it so completely out of left field and out of character that it just doesn’t make sense in the narrative and is so obviously joss whedon coming over the loud speaker and going “women who enjoy sex with men I don’t approve of should and always will be punished” but it is the ONLY time someone hurts her in this way and PROPERLY APOLOGIZES AND MAKES THE PROPER AMENDS!!!!

So until EVERY. SINGLE. violation of Buffy’s body is treated with the same level of outcry seeing red is by all the anti-spuffys I genuinely DO NOT CARE. I DONT CARE because I’m just so done with spuffy girlies having that thrown in our faces by the morality police who are listening to the tiny white male puritanical cop in their head.

ALSO the fact that Riley not only doesn’t think ANYTHING is off about Buffy (when Faith is doing an absolutely HORRIFIC JOB of acting like Buffy) so he not only sleeps with her BUT TELLS HER HE LOVES HER FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER!??!?!?!? WHILE SHE IS LITERALLY PINNED BENEATH HIM?!?!?!?!? AAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!! RILEY FINN I WILL KILL YOU IF IT IS THE LAST THING THAT I DO.

[otogariado]

mentioning LOST's church ending got me riled up about the racism in LOST again lol. i obviously am aware that some actors just did not return to production for possibly other reasons, but also especially in the case of harrold perrineau (michael dawson) he felt like his character (and walt, his son) was treated like shit by the writing. and he was absolutely right. i've already made posts about this (will try to dig them up later), but michael was treated absolutely bullshit and unfairly wrt the story. michael betrayed them and killed two people, yes, but what did he do it for but to protect his son? he felt like nobody gave enough fucks about walt and there was some truth to that claim. his whole character arc is about being a dad to walt and their improving relationship over the course of being stuck on the island, so of course he would do that. it just makes sense.

which is why i don't think it's all that fair to punish him for it immensely in the narrative. harrold perrineau said it himself that he didn't want michael and walt to be another case of the absent black father stereotype [citation needed, i'll look for it but he said it in an interview] yet that's what he ended up being anyway. after his and walt's escape from the island, apparently walt cast him away because he doesn't agree with what his father did—which i actually think its interesting to explore: walt disagreeing with michael's actions and trying to grapple with it, but i don't think separating him from his dad was the best writing choice to make. walt is being punished for caring about his son by making his son be the one to cast him away. you can argue it's supposed to be tragic, michael is supposed to be a tragic character, but with the context surrounding michael's character? there's better ways to make his character be tragic than this.

which brings me to his next punishment. i was happy to see michael again on the kahana (just happy to see him in general), but it didn't last long when he gets killed, sacrificing himself to prevent/prolong the kahana's explosion from happening. (put a 📌 on this bc it's similar to how sayid dies and we'll come back to that later.) michael dies here and walt doesn't know about this. and then michael joins as part of the whispers, his soul trapped on the island (presumably forever) and that's why he's not in the church ending.

i'm gonna be frank. michael being trapped on the island because of his guilt or remorse or perhaps repenting for his sins is just bullshit to me. a lot of characters seen in the flash sideways and in the church ending are characters who've done "bad things". it's bullshit to have michael be the only one doomed to pay for his misdeeds forever. his misdeeds for... killing two people. not that killing two people is Nothing, but moreso if you examine the circumstances it's hardly anything to be damned eternally for.

remember the 📌 we had wrt sayid and michael? both of them died trying to prevent an explosion from reaching everybody else. which makes this more egregious imo. i can say 1000 things about sayid's arc (points to url), but this is about michael and not him, so i'll just focus on this: sayid was grappling with "being a bad person" for torturing and killing so many people. he worked as an assassin for ben. and yet, somehow, you're telling me sayid is not being damned eternally for his misdeeds but michael is? if you don't see the BS in that i don't know what to tell you.

i'm also aware why some characters don't appear any more re:conflicts with their actors (or just availabilities or other reasons for declining to come back), but even then arguably any conflicts with harrold perrineau stemmed from a justified place because of how michael was treated.

i think mr eko had a more dignified arc (he's one of my fav characters, thematically speaking) and honestly he had some of the rawest shit i've ever heard:

I ask for no forgiveness father for I have not sinned, I have only done what I needed to do to survive. A small boy once asked me if I was a bad man, if I could answer him now I would tell him, that when I was a young boy I killed a man to save my brothers life. I am not sorry for this, I am proud of this. I did not ask for the life that I was given but it was given none the less, and with it I did my best.

but despite this it doesn't change the fact that his absence in the church ending is very noticeable. he had meaningful connections with charlie, with locke, and interestingly like michael he kind of parallels sayid but this time thematically through their arcs. sayid is constantly burdened with feeling like he's a bad person and resigning to it as some sort of self-fulfilled prophecy, but mr eko is very firm about how he sees himself as not necessarily a bad man, just a man whose hands were forced because of the cards he was dealt. i wish we could have seen a more direct parallel between them, because it would've been interesting. back to the main point: i think it's such a missed opportunity for mr eko to not be here. especially since even after his death, hurley was able to communicate with his ghost, showing that he still had connections with his fellow losties even long after his death.

ana lucia being "not ready to move on" is interesting. but ultimately you can't help but raise a few eyebrows at it anyway. you can argue that, unlike mr eko she died an unresolved death, but most of the LOST characters died with an unresolved death. (she was killed early.) that's the whole point of the sideways segments. so what makes ana lucia so different from the others? yeah she killed shannon, but that was completely a freak accident. her people (the tailies) were being picked off one by one by the other so she was understandably on edge. she was kind of a hated character but i think a lot of it is just racism and misogyny combined tbh. (LOST is...notorious for a lot of misogynistic character writing decisions.) ana lucia was just as complex and morally "ambiguous" as the rest of them. i find the decision to make her corrupt in the sideways segments interesting (negative). cz like, there was never any indication she was like this in real life. what does that corruption symbolize? because obviously that corruption is a key to why she "can't move on yet". what exactly is she supposed to be repenting for? they hinted at a possible direction her arc is going towards before killing her off, ie. her ultimately choosing not to kill "henry gale" because she no longer wants blood on her hands. again, in a way, she's just like sayid! someone who decided they'd turn away from ceaseless violence. only right afterwards she got killed. so what does she need repenting for so much that she's left out of the church ending? much to think about.

i don't really know how to conclude this post. but my main point is that the lack of these characters during the church ending is and has racist implications. (again, i understand the casting issues, but it's still a writing decision you can critique as a viewer at the end of the day). i'll try to find the old posts i made last year abt michael and mr eko and their parallels to sayid and link them here (and self reblog).

edit: go read/look up "burn it down". it details a lot of the behind the scenes mistreatment of the staff (including racism and sexism), including actors and writers. the quote from an interview from harold perrineau that i mentioned was also linked in a reblog. (post link)

[smytherines]

Not to get too serious about something that was super fun and we all enjoyed immensely, but I keep thinking about the Mega Bastards headcanon video because the thing is...

in A1P1 Agent Mega is already shown to be drinking alcohol at inappropriate times (i.e. trying to escape a Russian weapons facility with his boyfriend). We tend to focus on Curt's drinking post-banana because of course we do. It's a traumatic event (even if it's his fault, ugh agent Mega) and definitely accelerates his drinking to the degree that he can't do his job for four years.

BUT he clearly already has a drinking problem at the beginning of the show. Owen reacts to him drinking out of the flask like this is a thing Curt regularly does, a thing Owen is at least somewhat concerned about. Curt even (very defensively) teases Owen into taking a swig himself.

So thinking about what Actor Curt Mega believes about Agent Curt Mega, that he regularly used to have to seduce women despite having no interest in women, it just makes the Mega bastards lore (as much fun as I've had with that) incredibly fucking sad. Like most things with SAF, first it's a farce, then it's a tragedy.

Curt Mega even uses the term "masking" (which definitely shot me in the heart as an AuDHD person), and while I personally headcanon Agent Mega as ADHD, there are still plenty of things that ADHDers have to conceal about themselves. A gay neurodivergent man in the 1950s-1960s would have to conceal so much about themselves that it absolutely could lead to substance use as a way to deal with it. Substance use is a pretty serious problem for ADHD & autistic (and queer!!) people precisely because we live in a society that is not built for us, that is often actively hostile to us, and we have to find ways to survive that.

Maybe this is too personal but I'm a chronic oversharer- my dad had alcohol use disorder. It destroyed his life. He passed away several years ago, and one of the hardest parts of my getting diagnosed with ADHD & autism as an adult was having to really reckon with the fact that he wasn't drinking because he was a bad person or because he didn't love me- he was drinking because he was born in the 50s and things like ADHD & autism weren't as well-understood, and as someone who was certainly autistic and possibly ADHD (there's a heavy genetic component there) he had to hide so much of himself. All the time. He was masking 24 hours a day. And I think he coped with that incredible pressure and physical and emotional distress by drinking. That drinking often made him defensive and petty and irresponsible.

Anyways, the more I think about the Mega bastards lore, the more heartbreaking it becomes. Agent Curt Mega's job requires him to have sex he doesn't want to have with people he is not attracted to. His life, safety, reputation, freedom all depend on nobody knowing he is in love with a man.

Actor Curt Mega kinda nailed it when he used the term "masking." There is really no part of Agent Mega's life where he is allowed to be himself, except for **maybe** when he and Owen are alone together, so when Owen "dies" and Agent Mega loses that one tiny place where he gets to be his authentic self, his drinking just goes over the edge.

As an Owen Carvour apologist I sometimes feel like the narrative doesn't really punish Agent Mega for being kind of an asshole in A1P1, but I'm sort of reframing it after the headcanon video, because it does make me wonder how much of that asshole behavior stems from his persistent alcohol use, his defensiveness when people point out issues arising from his alcohol use (Owen, Cynthia criticising his job performance), and the general macho tough guy affect Agent Mega has adopted to just survive living as a neurodivergent gay man in the 1950s.

I know it was just a fun unofficial kickstarter goal (and I got to make like six tinlightenment promo posts out of it so thank you for the promo content, sir), but it has legitimately kinda forced me to extend empathy to Agent Mega in a way that I didn't really do before.

Goddamn, this show has l a y e r s

[mossy-rainfrog]

[ID in Alt Text]

strolling in fashionably late to the two year anniversary of the greatest musical adaptation of Moby Dick of all time, Caleb Hayashida's 'Moby Dick or the Whale'. I've been thoroughly enamored with this album for over a year now and it only felt right to do a tribute for its birthday :)

now, go do yourself a favor and listen to Sea Fever 💙💙

some notes about the details I added under the cut!

Some notes on this as a tribute!

Firstly, as always, my Ishmael design is stolen from the beloved @pocketsizedquasar :3

Secondly, the primary songs captured by this piece are meant to be 'Interpretation', 'Whiteness of the Whale', and 'Whaleman's Hymn'. Interpretation is primary, since that song refers directly to the painting at Spouter Inn, and Ishmael's attempts to interpret it. (Aside: it's a brilliant song that foreshadows chords repeated during the chase, it confuses and delights the listener much like book Ishmael's ramblings do, and it odes to the album itself being an interpretation of a novel. also it's a bop. I fucking love it.) The whale in the picture is, you guessed it, the whale song. That one I felt was important to center as Hayashida himself intentionally put that song at the center of the album as a focal point for the rest to follow around (and for the narrative to break inside - give it a listen, the end is incredible). It's literally the centerpiece. And finally, the lyrics are from Whaleman's Hymn, the gorgeous ode at the end of the album.

Ishmael is also posed as both moving and stagnant in the center as a reference to the cyclical nature of Hayashida's album. It ends with the same lyrics it begins with ("I must be out to sea"), and so here, Ishmael meant to be caught in the space between both of those songs. Moving and yet unable to move from where he is.

The watery effect was particularly inspired by Drifting, as that song fills me with an immense sense of peace and gives me the feeling of laying down at an aquarium watching the light of the water dance around. It also helps make the mood of the piece a bit more dynamic, as the looming painting, dissonant colors, and heavy shading all feel a bit foreboding, and the water effect both enhances that by giving an unnatural feel, and subdues that by communicating a semblance of peace and muting the colors.

The oil effect and jagged colors of the piece itself are references to the official album cover art! The flaming harpoon's colors are mimicked in the red light at the top of the painting, and the bright teal/white is mimicked in the whale at the bottom. They're also positioned over each other, just like on the album cover.

The painting itself is also supposed to be reminiscent of The Chase, in all its chaotic glory. Hayashida has an INSANE stroke of genius with that song where, at a certain point, two different time signatures overlap to show the whale opposing the crew/Ahab. The blend is so smooth that it's easy to miss if you aren't looking for it, and yet so brilliant that it makes you anxious for the buildup and final clash. The saturated opposing colors are supposed to be something of a nod to that, as well as the nature of the painting being a sinking ship and a white whale lol

So, yeah those are my notes! :D thank you for reading and definitely give this masterpiece a listen!! 💙💙

[voxofthevoid]

Alright, I was not prepared for Yuuji fisting Sukuna's chest wound right there in full view of me and god and then for it to be followed by a Gojou jumpscare, but I had to go work soon after the leaks ended, so there wasn't any time to process shit.

I'm free and calm now though, so let's comb through this slowly:

Tōdō

I'm delighted in every possible sense by his return, from the reworked technique to his general Tōdōness. I definitely need the proper translations to make better sense of Vibraslap (not over the name), specifically the binding vows, but overall, I love the energy he's brought to this fight. It's also great to see how in sync he and Yuuji are despite minimal communication and no planning. It's reminiscent of their fight against Mahito in a good way, both in terms of the general vibe and how it showcases the greater strength of the combatants.

Yuuji and Sukuna

I am fed. I am feasting. I am kissing Gege on the mouth (only for this, however). The initial rush itself was delicious, but then it got so much better. The Black Flash and the actual fucking claws in Sukuna's chest. That entire scene with Sukuna spitting out blood, Yuuji looking like a goddamn demon, and the close-up of the fist in Sukuna's chest—it's porn to me. I've been saying for ages that Yuuji tearing Sukuna apart with his bare hands is my ideal for these two, but I didn't think we'd get so close to it. The violence between them has been great from the start of this fight, but this is visceral and beautiful.

Gojou

I am...unsure of what's happening. The logistics aren't the issue. Whether Gojou could survive his injuries was never in question; it's the narrative around it that made his death feel very permanent. And as much as I hate how that was executed, I also can't see why or how his return now would serve the plot. Maki is still alive, and Yuuta will also likely return. Tōdō is there, and Yuuji's dishing out Black Flashes left and right. Sukuna himself has been worn down an immense amount, and while I'm sure he's not yet done, he's also not the insurmountable obstacle he was. The logical course would be to pair Sukuna's last stand with the protagonists, especially Yuuji, countering him . So if that spectre is actually Gojou resurrected—why now? And what can he contribute to the plot in a way that doesn't cheapen the plot progression after his death?

What we just saw not being Gojou is an even worse scenario for me. If it's a hallucination, alright—dubious decision but nothing unforgivable. But if it's someone else in his body—not Kenjaku like people are theorizing, just something to do with the now canonical body swap going around—I will be right pissed.

I'm reserving judgement until there's clarity in the next chapter, but I'm more wary than excited. The ways this could go wrong, regardless of whether Gojou's back or it's something else, outnumber the alternative.

I love this guy, and his death was extremely disappointing—not because he died but because of how it was handled. A disappointing resurrection or a puppet body would be salt on the wound.

[soullessjack]

listen i get your frustration about how people treat jack, i hate when people reducd him down to just a destiel baby too. but as an autistic person myself, i really disagree with you calling people that like baby jack ableist. he's canonically 4 years old and had to have his childhood basically stripped away from him due to how dangerous it was. i don't think people enjoying the thought of him getting to have that chance at a happy childhood is as cruel and evil as you seem to think.

hi, I’m actually going to answer this differently than I did at first, because I feel like I missed the point and spent way too much time on the canon logistics of “giving Jack a childhood that he chose to skip and is never shown to want,” or that he’s actually pretty obviously portrayed as a teenager in the show, or that his character fundamentally revolves around autonomy & the struggle to have it, and not enough on the actual ableism. I’m also going to be a lot meaner this time, sorry.

honestly, you don’t get my frustrations. you don’t get that this isn’t some petty fandom drama about “muh fav being misunderstood” or “grr this content bad.” you don’t get my frustration if you think that’s all there is to any of this. this is something with an actual bearing on reality and the entire topic of representation in general, which you’d get if you took your head out of your ass and looked around for once. autistic people are still immensely underrepresented and misrepresented in most mainstream media. we are still seen and treated as circus animals, as punchlines, as lesser humans if not subhumans, and we have to face that alongside navigating a world that is wholly and systemically unnavigable to us. fiction and fandoms are an escape for many people, but especially marginalized people who long for community and representation.

the autistic community has a pretty long history of resonating with nonhuman characters in fiction over time, from robots to aliens to monsters in horror movies. because whether it’s their mannerisms or specific struggles or even narrative experiences, they resonate with us. jack resonates with us. he’s important to us as autistic people—and namely, as autistic adults who very rarely see ourselves represented in ways that don’t depict us as gross man-children, infantilized precious beans or emotionless geniuses. in fact, the very notion that autistic people are inherently childlike or mentally children directly leads into our sole representation being children, and even more into the treatment of us as “precious small beans.” does that ring any fucking bells to you yet?

jack might not have been intentionally written with autism or representation on mind, but this fandom literally builds itself up on coding and unintentional implications. he was also confirmed to be autistic anyways, so anyone still whining should just grow the fuck up about it. also, ironically, most accidentally autistic characters end up being the best kind lmao. but these discussions? these analyses by autistic fans —and even just fans who actually care about his complexities — only exist within our own little circles, and the idea of baby!jack is very much the fandom’s steadfastly going mainstream version of him—so much so that people are convinced it’s actually canon, they die on that hill like it’s some obligation to uphold. and any viewing of his canon character with nuance or complexity, or even his basic personality, is left to gather dust. it stops becoming people having fun when it’s over-saturating and supersedes actual canon. it stops becoming people having fun when it’s actually fucking harmful.

it’s frustrating as a general fan, but downright upsetting as an autistic fan who sees themself in him and has to witness every fucking day — in a community that prides itself on being a big found family no less — the infantilization of traits I and other autistic people express, and the stubborn justification of him being “actually a toddler” with even more autistic traits. There are literal scraps of canon adult Jack content to engage with; of any semi-intelligent thoughts on him to indulge in.

what you don’t get (or you refuse to get) that there is a direct correlation between all of this, the way jack is treated (ie ‘reduced to a destiel baby’) and the ableist infantilization surrounding his character. as in, this content directly feeds into his treatment, which then feeds back into the content made of him, which then feeds back again into his treatment in a horrible and exhausting cycle.

what you don’t get is that constantly regurgitating content where the baseline is jack being actively stripped of his identity and autonomy for the sake of becoming an accessory to Destiel/Sastiel/the Domestic Winchester Family is inherently rooted in layers of deep ableist rhetoric, and you can perpetuate all of that even without any intent for it. I’m not a fucking moron, and I’m not the big bad guy you’re talking to me like. I don’t think anyone who enjoys baby!jack is inherently “cruel” or “evil,” or turning jack into a baby while thinking “this’ll stick one to those retards,” and twirling their moustache, okay? and it’s really so funny to me that you’re trying to point the finger back at me. at least you tried.

what you don’t get is that whenever autistic fans voice our perspective on baby!jack, we’re fucking ignored. we’re fed the same rotten slop over and over and over again. “But we want him to be happy!” “But it’s an AU, it’s not canon!” “But he actually is a baby because XYZ!” “But, but!” Buts are not an argument, they’re the thing you still haven’t found a way to pull your heads out of. maybe the lack of oxygen from so many people in one small dark space is why you’re so fucking stubborn to understand this.

you wanna know what is cruel? being told that you are doing something hurtful, something harmful and something that painfully reflects real life struggles a real community goes through, and shrugging it off. being aware of the value something brings to someone else, and stripping it away simply because it doesn’t matter to you personally. finding another But or a corner-cut to excuse yourself from blame. you didn’t have the decency to listen when general fans said “hey this is kind of annoying can we treat him like an actual person,” and you don’t even have the decency to concede when autistic people are saying this is a deeply wrong thing to do.

if you have to ignore an entire community’s voice to feel better about the content you’re making that directly hurts them, if you don’t personally think it’s harmful or even real because autistic struggles are never real, then I am well within reason to assume you’re not a good person. it’s one thing to do something wrong because you’re uninformed, and it’s another thing entirely to continue to do that when you’ve been informed, and simply decided that it wasn’t worth changing or stopping.

believe me, as an autistic person I am well used to being isolated, to not being anyone’s priority in this capitalistic circle of hell. I am ready to expect my struggles and existence to be tokenized for somebody else to feel good, or squeeze money from. Im used to seeing movies portray my experience as some Manic Pixie Star-seed or creepy overgrown child. I know the world doesn’t care about me. But I don’t think I’m asking too much for this, the big found family fandom that’s been shown to care so much about every other problem, to care about me. To listen when it’s hurting me, or uplift something I care about.

I don’t think I’m asking for anything less than this family to actually treat me like I am part of it. But can you even do that?

[the-grand-gemini]

Big obsessed with all of the BG3 villains. The themes of the cycle of abuse/trauma in all of the main cast makes me feral over how the villains unfortunately do not/did not get the opportunity to be "saved" by Tav (if doing a good playthrough) and by experiencing the heros journey.

I could talk about Ketheric and Orin, but after reading @bearhugsandshrugs fic it got me deep diving into Gortash's character. It's amazing and everyone should read it especially if you're weak for Tav/Gortash like I am 👀💦

Trigger warning for abuse mentions below the cut.

Let me start with stating this is NOT an Enver Gortash apologist post, he's evil and he's done terrible things. This is just me yelling into the void about character foils.

Childhood abuse:

In game we really only get to know his history through background information that we can scrape together if you search through the city and the House of Hope.

We don't get any details on what exactly Enver went through as a child. We can assume neglect/possible violence from his parents given his mother's words and the fact they sold him. We get to know that he was beaten when living in the House of Hope, but not what other possible horrors he could have experienced there (not including just the trauma of witnessing the other debtors and Hope), what age he was, or for how long (if anyone knows more timeline wise I'd love to know) he lived there before he escaped. We don't know how he escaped either, if he had help or did so on his own.

I'm no child psychologist, but abuse has lasting effects as we can see through all of the main party. Victims of abuse tend to have difficulty moving past certain emotional stages in their life. Aka a person abused in their childhood may have issues maturing emotionally without therapy, etc (again I'm not a psychologist). There is a strong possibility that "Child" Enver is still probably holding the reins emotionally while adult Enver isn't even aware of how his past affects every action and reaction he has at all times.

I can't imagine how living with Raphael during ones formative years being healthy in anyway, but we can definitely see some of the learned behaviours he's picked up from the Cambion. A focus on possing/presentation, a suave persona, torturing/using people for his own gain, a general lack of empathy, deal making, similar attire with devil motifs...

Unhealthy coping mechanisms:

Speaking of attire, Enver's coat not allowing Fear to be cast on him speaks volumes to me. Imagine the absolute horror of moving from one situation of abuse to another much worse one in the hells as a child/teen and probably being in a state of fear/anxiety at all times. Enver wearing a coat that doesn't allow him to feel fear gives me three main thoughts:

1. He is doing everything in his power to avoid that specific emotion and therefore prevents himself from thinking about that period of his life. Meaning he is not confronting his trauma the same way the main party is forced to throughout the game.

2. Narratively does the coat prevent him from feeling any fear at all? Or do we just go with the game mechanic that ensures he cannot be made afraid by the fear spell? If it prevents him from feeling fear at all (which I think is narratively more interesting and you can take this headcanon out of my cold dead hands) how does this effect his every day decisions? Fear prevents risky decisions all the time, it's one of the emotions that actively keeps people alive. Psychopaths usually don't experience fear the same way an average person would. Given his many horrific actions (the Iron Throne being a key example) I wonder how much his forceful removal of fear has done to his perception of rational thought. If you aren't afraid of consequences what's to stop you from doing anything at all? Selling a loyal body guard to the hells, torturing an entire faction of people in order to manufacturer your own personal army, stealing from an immensely powerful devil aka mother fucking MEPHISTOPHELES??? He presents himself as calm and collected in conversation. He appears as if he's the most rational of all three villains when he's really just as awful when we look into what he's actually been up to vs seeing Orin and Ketheric kill people on screen.

3. Where did he get the coat? Did he make it himself or was it a boon from Bane? A promise to a devout worshiper that he would never be made to feel afraid or beneath anyone again?

Another abuser - Bane:

Speaking of Bane... Another user (please tag if anyone can find the original post!) mentioned a line Astarion says where he states that he prayed to all the gods, but none answered. OP wondered if Enver, trapped in the hells and desperate for salvation, called out the same way... only for Bane to be the only god to answer. I'd die to know specifically when he was introduced to Bane and made to be his chosen.

We know Bane is considered an evil god and we even find that if we kill Enver and then use speak with dead that Bane is torturing him in the afterlife for failing him.

Given this abusive relationship is Enver a foil for Gale, a man groomed from a young age by a goddess and left with the consequences when his actions did not meet her expectations?

Is he like Shadowheart, someone who was given no alternative and made to believe they willingly chose their god only to learn they were deceived and never had any other options?

Like Wyll he's cast out by his father (or in his case both parents).

Like Lae'zel he's worshipping a deity with false promises, how can he believe he'll rule the entire world like a god himself when Bane the god of TYRANNY would see no other at the top but himself (Was he secretly planning to use the crown like Gale to usurp Bane or just pandering to us)?

We know he and Karlach are absolutely foils for each other given that he is her abuser and like himself Karlach was forged by her times in the hells only to survive on her own merits.

Those are my thoughts! Would love to know anyone else's on the walking red flag that is Lord Enver Gortash.

If Enver lost his memories like the Dark Urge would he be given a chance to redeem himself through his actions? Could he with his knowledge of infernal engines fix Karlach's heart

Would Enver have ever become Lord Gortash if not for Bane...?

Anyways if anyone wants to yell at me about Enver, Orin, or Ketheric please feel free to do so! I love characters who fell through the cracks because they had no one there to help them only to crawl out themselves and burn the world.

[allbuthuman]

Chuuya changed his own narrative by sheer force of will

He had every requirement to be a tragic character. He was pushed towards it for his entire life. The fact that he exists as he is is an anomaly, and not only did he not have any control over that, but he also didn't remember most of it. His "birth" brought about immense destruction. Everyone he cared about died in circumstances he believed were his fault. He was treated and often required to act as something beyond humanity by almost everyone around him, dare I say even more so than Verlaine, who at least had Rimbaud caring about him as a person, and for whom that still wasn't enough to break him out of his fate that he was inescapably aware of.

Chuuya too became aware of what he could be like: If he let himself accept that his suffering is for nothing, he would become, at least according to his view, like Dazai. If he turned all the anger inside of him into hatred for the world, he would become like Verlaine. The events of Stormbringer alone could be more than enough for him to just accept that being born was a mistake. It would be perfectly understandable for him to not deny his fate. It would have made sense. It might have even be easier. For someone else, that is.

Chuuya understood this, and said Fuck that.

And by "understood", I don't mean philosophising and lining everything up in his mind until he reached a conclusion, but through action. Actions that, even though he thought that "something as sophisticated as a heart wouldn't fit him", he jumped into without sitting down and thinking about them.

He did understand where Verlaine was coming from, and even admitted so, yet he said No, I won't be what you are. He refused to make the world his enemy, even while being inhabited by a being of hatred. He fought against letting the absurdity of his existence make him see life (his own, as well as others') as meaningless. He took all of that in and turned it around, being so stubbornly human that he willed himself out of it. And he stood by it while being a sixteen year old who was also being brutally tortured. All with the strength of his own character, and (as is usually true for humans) with the strength that he got from those around him, even those who treated him as less or more than human.

Thinking, through the lens of his own (arguably quite human) despair, that it would lead him to the same conclusions, Verlaine tells him: "Be angry. Be mad at the unfair hand you were dealt. That rage will help you take back your life. It belongs to you". And so he did - changing his predetermined fate by sheer force of being Chuuya.

When the time came for him to abandon the hope of being sure of his nature for the sake of Yokohama, he didn't even need two minutes to decide. The decision had already been made. It only makes sense that he doesn't choose catharsis for himself - not because he thought of it in these terms, but because that's the decision the person Chuuya would make.

[jaskierx]

people fundamentally misunderstanding what abuse even is all for the sake of arguing about fictional characters and being an abuse apologiser kind of actually drives me crazy like. real people get abused. and these idiots who do this are going to end up repeating violent rhetoric that will be harmful and actively put people in danger by normalising something like "you can't be abused if you fight back against your abuser because that's also abuse" or "abuse is when someone physically larger physically hurts someone who is smaller" or something. ("abuse is when the scary brown man hurts the defenseless small white man")

like 😭? ed holds a certain degree of authority over izzy as his captain and someone izzy projects his own fantasies onto, but izzy holds an IMMENSE amount of power over ed, and has for a while and maybe even ALWAYS has been building it up, and that fantasy plays into it. abuse occurs when someone holds power over another person and misuses that power and causes them harm, even if that person is "unaware" they're doing it... it's not complex and it's nothing to do with what's "typical", a parent can abuse their offspring, an adult child can abuse their parent. it's about the power dynamic. their relationship is incredibly imbalanced and it's always been in IZZY'S favour, his role is LITERALLY meant to liken to like an evil advisor whispering in ed's ear – an imbalanced, toxic dynamic where ed is the victim with false control over the situation, because the entire point is izzy wants him to be The Best He Can Be (a ruthless pirate).

izzy eventually getting hurt physically in retaliation isn't ABUSE because ed isn't enacting what little authority he does have over izzy (who allows him to have it as izzy finds perverse joy in SEEING ed use that authority against him and Be the fantasy he wants ed to be), he's just fucking retaliating to being taunted by someone who hates him. izzy got physically hurt, sure, but he was not ever scared of or threatened by ed, ed did not hold any further power over him other than the fear in any man's mind who knew they fucked around and found out and got fucking shot for it.

when ed severed their connection with that bullet he severed izzy's hold over him to a vast degree, but that still doesn't mean he then held an equal amount of power over izzy in his place. and ed even had the insane heart to actually feel bad about hurting him and forgive him for everything else 😭. izzy literally acknowledges this IN THE SHOW. it's actually concerning the lengths people will go to defend an aspect of a character that is written in the damn script (izzy is a toxic manipulative cunt who wants to control everything ed does who eventually stops doing that because he knows he went too far).

anyway. sorry for that. good morning ^_^

good morning anon you are correct and you should say it

it absolutely baffles me like how the fuck are you going to be so committed to banging a drum for your shitty fave that you end up posting stuff with real world implications about who can and cannot be a victim of abuse

like even without the nonsense the take was full of headcanon and weird analogies anyway (like it's useless to compare being a pirate captain to owning a house. those are fundamentally different things. turns out piracy doesn't neatly map onto 'normal' life today. who knew!)

but the lengths that people will go to to declare that izzy did nothing wrong after the show has looked them in the eyes and said 'the narrative is telling you that izzy was wrong'??

i'm so glad they killed him off bc i cannot cope with another season of shit like this. i patiently await their exit from the fandom tbh

[gojuo]

https://www.tumblr.com/gojuo/717780379148386305?source=share

What about Aemond? Isn't he male and one of Rhaenyra's enemies why he is receiving a SPA treatment of his character, a treatment that not even the male characters of team black have lmao

Aemond may be on the Green side which means being an antagonist to Rhaenyra, but he is not her narrative foil. Aegon is Rhaenyra's foil and Aemond is Daemon's. And Daeron is the narrative foil to Aemond.

The Targtower siblings come in a package. It's Aegon and Helaena on one side being contrasted to each other: Aegon is a party animal vs. Helaena is a gentle and chaste lady; when B&C happens, Aegon turns his anger outwards towards the world and uses that anger to lash out vs. Helaena breaks into pieces, loses her mind and all of the trauma turns her into a hollow shell of her former joyful and outgoing self; Helaena commits suicide vs. Aegon lives on in spite of it all, etc.

For the other two, you aren't going to understand why Daeron is juxtaposed to Aemond if you don't know their book characters. Anyone who knows anything about F&B knows that Daeron was the single most likeable character in the entire Dance. And Aemond was a psychopath.

If I were to list book!Aemond's personality traits, I would say that he was a loud, brash, arrogant, cruel, impulsive, angry, contemptuous and scornful person. He's also ruthless, psychotic, blood-thirsty and more than a little unhinged. The Greens nearly break through Rhaenyra's forces and win the war but Aemond's recklessness and impatience fucks it all up. He murders every single member of House Strong because he had an issue with only one of them as well as doing it just because he felt like doing it. He takes Alys to bed as a spoil of war and he genocides the people of the Riverlands for funsies. He was a badass and unapologetically himself who was unafraid to speak his mind, no matter how harsh, but Aemond was no brooding, quiet and reserved type who held himself back like in the show. That's Daeron.

I call Daeron Aemond's narrative foil because he was the counterbalance to Aemond's intense personality. It is Daeron who is the quiet, reserved, pensive, and reputable man who is selflessly and completely devoted to the family. He commits/allows for heinous acts of war in Bitterbridge as retribution for what the people did to his nephew (which he regrets immensely), he fights to the bitter end to reunite with his mother and sister in King's Landing, he throws wine in Hugh's face when the man insinuates Aegon is dead, he is the favorite and most loved child of the four, etc.

In F&B, Aemond isn't particularly characterized as caring for his family much. He metaphorically rubs salt in Aegon’s wounds with his comment about how the Conqueror's Crown fits him better than it ever did Aegon, and his refusal to stick to Criston's orders and choose Alys over him and his family is what leads to the Fall of King's Landing and then snowballs into Butcher's Ball, Tumbleton, Bitterbridge, etc. If anything, book!Aemond seems to care about no one but himself — sans Alys when the time comes.

Daeron is courteous, honorable and the valiant and heroic knight of the story. He was The King Who Should Have Been (over Rhaenyra and Aegon). Near the end of the Dance, when Rhaenyra turns full psycho, it is Daeron who is still fighting the honorable fight and becomes the clear cut good guy protagonist of the narrative, trying to put an end to Queen Maegor With Teats who has turned full-on villain at this point in time.

And what happened in the show is that Daeron — the clear cut good guy of the story — has been merged together with the character of Aemond — the clear cut bad guy on the Greens' side.

The truth is that the hack known as Miguel Sapochnik was not going to include Daeron in the show. This is all but confirmed by his Season 2 outlines that were leaked a while back in which there was not a single mention of Daeron + Viserys saying "All of my family here," during the dinner scene in which there was no Daeron + Daemon saying "[The Greens'] three dragons," meaning no Daeron and Tessarion.

The fact that Sapochnik walked away (read: threw a hissy fit and basically got fired for his shitty S02 outlines) and then the second after that happened GRRM went on his blog to assure us fans that Daeron was in the show, they just didn't have the time to mention his existence at all in this entire season with not even 1 fucking line (bullshit) is the cherry on top. GRRM posted that blog entry on October 11th, and episode 9 — which is the very first episode which showed us Alicent's bloodline split and her four children and three grandchildren with a hastily thrown-in VFX at the obvious last minute — aired on October 16th. I suppose October was when Sapochnik got the boot lol.

So what happened was that Daeron's character was combined with Aemond's. What happens when two characters who are each other’s foils are being merged into one? Especially when one of them is a cartoon villain with little to no depth and the other is the classical hero archetype? You get the belief that the Aemond of the show has been whitewashed.

(Off topic, but personally, I don’t like calling what happened to show!Aemond “whitewashing”, because that insinuates there was a deliberate attempt to cover up Aemond’s more than unpleasant book personality by sugarcoating his canon actions — like how the show did with Rhaenyra — but that’s not what the show did. Showrunners and writers just gave Aemond Daeron’s book personality, and there is nothing sugarcoated or whitewashed about Daeron. He just is, objectively, the good guy.)

Now back to the topic: what happens when two narrative foils get merged into one? The character needs to become a foil to someone else. And this new Frankenstein-ish Aemond/Daeron mishmash became the foil to Aegon. Of course, Aemond will always be, no matter what changes about the show, the narrative foil to Daemon: they are second sons, they die to each other in an epic dragon battle, they are both the villains of their respective sides, their names are anagrams of each other, etc. However, in Season 1, it is not quite Daemon Aemond is being juxtaposed to. Not yet anyways, no. In Season 1, Aemond is being juxtaposed to Aegon.

That is why we got the cringe scene of “‘Tis I who studies the sword, ‘tis I who studies history, ‘tis I who studies philosophy,” or whatever the fuck he said. That is why we had Aemond join Criston in searching for Aegon when in F&B that didn’t happen (and stole Kingmaker Cole’s role in convincing Aegon of the crown but that’s a topic for another day). That’s why we got Aegon begging Aemond to just let him go and sail away, insinuating that Aemond was the better option to take the crown (when in F&B that was 1. literally not what happened during that scene at all and 2. one of Aegon’s biggest and most important character defining moments. And they ruined it all in favor of Aemond AAGGRGRHHHHHGG). Remember how I said Daeron was The King Who Should Have Been over both Rhaenyra and Aegon? They gave this trait to Aemond in order to contrast him to Aegon who never wanted to be king at all.

This Daeron-ification of Aemond now makes him “the better man” between him and his brother in the show, and that was done all to the detriment of Aegon's character. It’s also what led to the application of the Aegon IV/Naerys/Aemon-love triangle to the Aegon II/Helaena/Aemond-show dynamic. In the book, this never would've passed because Aemond is the worst of all four siblings, and Daeron was simply too young.

There is not a single character on House of the Dragon who has gone through the same amount of character assassination as Aegon has.

Now, all this doesn't mean that Aemond = Daeron in the show, it means that most of Daeron's characterization has been merged together with the character of Aemond. Because it was abundantly clear that Sapochnik was not going to include Daeron in the show. This is what might lead you to believe that Aemond has been whitewashed, when in fact the character is just a Frankenstein fusion of Daeron the Daring and Aemond One-Eye. Just like the Young Griff-Jon Snow/Daenerys/Cersei fiasco of GOT.

[jelzorz]

Some thoughts about s4

First I'm gonna preface this with the disclaimer that I enjoyed season 4 immensely. It was a lot of set up, a lot of fun, and I'm here for the long haul no matter what happens because I love and support this show. HOWEVER, I have. Many questions about some decisions that were made, in many cases because it directly contradicts with what seasons 1-3 and TTM set up, and I have some thoughts about it and they're not the nicest thoughts I've had about TDP. Other people have already voiced their opinions and their critiques but these specifically are my own that I hope S5 onwards will address.

Strap in kids. This is long.

1. Tone, Pacing, Structure

S1-3 were tight, and not in the slang way. Everything that appeared onscreen was relevant in some way, parallels could be made everywhere, everyone was a foil for everyone else.

S4 was. Not that. S4 was, comparatively, all over the hecking shop. I am of the opinion that if you need an entire season or movie just to set up future movies, you're not doing the movie right, and that's what S4 felt like instead. Instead of capitalising on the set up s1-3 did, it varied wildly from entire scenes of exposition, to entire scenes about fart jokes, to entire scenes that just didn't do anything for anyone other than present awkward clunky dialogue that wasn't even necessary.

One of the biggest offenders? The Guardians of the Great Gates. Literally what were they for? They didn't do anything. The were there to be Difficult and to be Unfunny, and they don't even have the excuse of being an obstacle that Zubeia couldn't get past so she couldn't accompany the kids because a fucking rockslide did that. That entire scene could have been snappier if they weren't fucking there, and instead the show chose to spend time on characters that weren't relevant to anything to deliver bad banter, which leads me to

Tone and the way the season couldn't decide if it was darker and edgier or if it was still for kids ages 8-12. This probably wouldn't have been so bad if they didn't spend SDCC and NYCC hyping up the fact that it was darker and that they wanted it to grow with their audience, except it hadn't and it was purely because they kept bailing on scenes that should have been awe-inspiring or emotional and replacing it with dumb jokes.

There were, of course, some exceptional scenes: Ez's speech? Corvus playing cello? Beautiful. Raw. Important narratively and delivered flawlessly. Aaravos possessing Callum? Terrifying. Loved every minute of it. Ibis' death? Chilling. But those scenes are far outnumbered by things that didn't feel necessary and went on for far too long: Soren's stand up comedy act, Callum's failed magic presentation, fart jokes, the unfunny guardians, etc. It's like everytime they came close to doing something emotional and heartfelt, they copped out, and that is especially clear in the relationships between characters (and not just rayllum! But we'll come to that later).

And that. Doesn't track??? TDP has never shied away from emotional depth before and now it's like they're pulling a Marvel and removing the gravity of every situation with bad humour. The pacing and structure suffer for it. The spend to long on the jokes resulting in weird pacing, and there are references and characters put in there to be funny that are completely unnecessary to the plot and interfere with the flow. There were times I literally went "GET TO THE POINT" because it waffled for too long on something stupid.

It's as if they couldn't settle on the tone they wanted to set and hoped the fart jokes would balance out the murder.

2. Agency, Characterisation, Big Feelings

For a show that emphasizes being able to write your own destiny, they took a lot of that ability away. So much information comes to our heroes in the form of exposition. So many answers appear in the form of a character willing to just give them what they need.

Why, for example, couldn't Callum discover Aaravos on his own? He's been obsessive about magic for two years, why didn't he make more progress in Rayla's absence? Why have Zubeia deliver that information to him when it would have made more sense to just have him obsessive over the mirror, where Aaravos might have tempted him with more knowledge, more secrets, and then his possession of him would have hit like 10 times harder?

Why did Opeli, of all people, have to suggest that Ez et al go on their adventure, instead of Ez deciding it for himself? He's never had problems leaving her in charge in the past. He's the king, it should be his decision!

What the fuck was N'than for other than an Uncharted reference? Why couldn't the kids have figured things out together the way they always have? Why not use the opportunity for Callum and Rayla to hash out their MANY issues a la S1?

And this, obviously, isn't the only issue with the way the characters were presented this season. Characterisation itself was iffy af, and our first red flag was should have been the fact that everyone thought Rayla was fake.

Rayla, in particular, bothered me. TTM and Dear Callum made it abundantly clear that she was deeply troubled and that she knew leaving would tear Callum's heart out, and she comes back unapologetic? Flirty? Otherwise fine?? What the fuck happened to her many obvious mental health problems? What's happening in her head? Why did she come back empty handed?

The only way I can understand her logic is to assume that she came back because she realised her friends and family were more important to her than Viren. Which is fine! Okay! I'd buy that! BUT THEN SHE GOES AFTER VIREN AGAIN THE SECOND SHE REALIZES HE'S ALIVE?

WHY COME BACK AT ALL THEN? WHAT WAS THE POINT? APPARENTLY JUST TO CAUSE ANGST INSTEAD OF EXPLORING HER MENTAL STATE AND CHARACTER.

And then there's CALLUM, whose reaction to her return isn't cold, isn't angry, it's just. Kind of confused? I can excuse Rayla appearing in his office and then him writing it off in the morning—maybe he thought it was a dream, bc he's had to have dreams like that before—but then she reappears, and she's real, and... That's it? He should be furious at her! He would be right to be! He's, at the very most, confused! And I know what you're gonna say: of course, he's confused! He's happy to see her but he's still mad at her for leaving!

Then SHOW ME. LET HIM BE MAD. LET HIM HAVE MOMENTS OF WEAKNESS WHEN THAT FACADE BREAKS. LET THEM AIR THEIR FUCKING ISSUES.

But they never get to! Every time they get close, they're interrupted by more pointless humour, and this the thing that bothers me right: fine. They don't talk. I can understand that. But those issues can and should present in other ways: emotionally charged magic, tension in every interaction, Callum getting snappy, not just at Rayla but at everyone. Some people have been calling the way he handled that conflict "mature" but maturity involves addressing the problem and managing the resulting emotions, NOT AVOIDING IT COMPLETELY.

And then Rayla sees Viren and tries to leave a second time, and he lets her? This boy? The one who turned against his own morals and used dark magic to help her save a dragon? The one who jumped off a mountain to save her or die trying? The one who was ready to leave at dawn to go on her crazy mission too? He doesn't even offer to go with her?????

That scene was, again, an opportunity to start talking about it and they don't! He just lets her go! And that is so violently against the character traits they established for Callum, who is fiercely loyal to his friends and family, who would has followed Rayla against all odds just to help her and it's just??????

And listen, the problem isn't just with rayllum. Soren comes face to face with his newly revived father and he doesn't get to talk to him? He doesn't get to talk about it at all? Callum is possessed by Aaravos and nobody finds that Concerning enough to talk about? Rayla can't remember Ibis' name one second and then is suddenly SUPER cut up about discovering his body? Claudia tries to convince Soren he's on the wrong side by saying elves will only ever see him as Just Human while she's dating an elf?

There are other things, too, that don't make sense. The conflict between the Sunfire Elves and humans worked really well actually, and was one of the best parts of the season, but Karim presents Miyana with the possibility of a blood duel but then has to tell Miyana what it means, and Miyana is supposed to be one of their best generals. If she doesn't know what a blood duel would mean, neither would anyone else, and if no one understands it's significance, then it's not significant.

It's all so inconsistent, so against everything already established, and I can't understand why they chose to write it like this.

3. Alternatives

It's not even that hard to fix. There were fan theories and metas that were tighter than whatever happened this season, that built on what was already established and extrapolated from it instead of... Whatever happened here. They could even keep some of the decisions they did make just by addressing some of it. If I had to rewrite it, then:

Callum discovers something weird about the mirror, on his own merit, using his own research and knowledge. He takes the information to Zubeia who confirms and provides more information about Aaravos, and the pieces together, along with Ibis' death, provides the impetus for our gang to head into Xadia. Rayla doesn't return.

The kids arrive at the Storm Spire to find Ibis has been murdered and rendezvous with Rayla who has been tracking Claudia, so she at least hasn't spent two years away for nothing. Tensions arise. Callum and Rayla Don't Talk and Callum is noticeably cold to her. Aaravos possesses Callum, spurring Zubeia to send them to Umber Tor to seek help from Rex Igneous. Rayla and Callum agree, grudgingly, to co-operate, their concern for each other obvious in spite of the tension.

The kids arrive at the Great Gates only to find that they have collapsed and there's no way through. They receive guidance from a guardian perhaps in riddle form, and not in shitty banter form, to find the alternative entrance in the Uncharted Forest.

Frustrated, and with tensions rising, the kids (read: rayllum) bicker their way through to forest until their position is given away and they run into the Riders of the Drakewood. Fighting ensues. Callum and Rayla fall back into their old patterns and find that working together isn't so hard after all. You Fight Good scene, resulting in the first tension break since their reunion, however is short lived as Soren is captured. They go after him into the Pit of Despair.

The only way out of the Pit of Despair is through it. Rayllum continue to fight and argue a la 1x07. Their fighting inadvertently shows them the way forward, and they spend the episode relearning how to work together.

They take a break. Callum and Rayla have the beginnings of a talk regarding Aaravos' posession. Rayla shows her concern for him and Callum, angry, brushes her off: if she was so concerned, she never should have left. More arguing. Ezran, frustrated, steps in. Their arguing brings the next set of challenges. They push forward.

They find Soren at the mercy of Rex Igneous, but the scene proceeds as per the show. Rayla, having dealt with Claudia's sleep spell before, has the foresight to find something to keep her awake. She wakes the others and Rex Igneous as per the show before they see Viren. Soren freezes up on the spot but chooses his duty to Ezran. He will deal with his Big Feelings later. Rayla tries to go after him again, only for Callum to stop her. She can't go again, not after all of this. BIG FEELINGS TIME. Rayla chooses, in the end, that her friends and family are more important. She escapes with them. A promise to talk is made.

Anyway. Fix it tdp. Give me back my show.

[stagred]

MEDIA THAT INSPIRES MY VERSION OF ALASTOR!

Shawshank Redemption: Andy Dufresne. The themes of accepting your fate. Man imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit becomes a criminal to survive in prison, but still suffers immensely and makes close and passionate friends. Realizes that prison is where he thrives, yet craves freedom and spends nearly 20 years fighting for it

Candyman: Tony Todd's portrayal. Powerful, terrifying eldritch being. Tall, handsome, well dressed, eloquent. In a moment where bees are swarming in his mouth, he kisses the heroine with such divine passion that you almost forget the horror. But also themes of Black suffering, exacting revenge because you need to, not because you want to. Romance as a detriment, a disadvantage, not something to fight for.

SE7EN: Violent and creative crimes committed to force attrition. Embodying sin and punishing it. "People these days, you cant just tap them on the shoulder anymore. You have to hit them over the head with a sledgehammer. And then you'll find… you have their strict attention." Neon crosses, sex and debauchery, the underbelly of a city. The unnamed city that doesn't exist, but everyone can identify. "Mankind is good, and worth fighting for. I agree with the second part."

We Happy Few: Using happiness and suppression to hide your trauma. Attacking those who don't conform. The sinister fear behind every over-stretched smile. 60s vibes, but forever tainted by 30s and 40s events because the people never moved onward. Muttering to oneself in mourning of the memories you cant remember forgetting.

Bioshock: "No gods or kings, only man." Freedom of expression, but a violent hatred of the beings who control it regardless of the context they're in, like religion and education. Sander Cohen. Art at any cost. Transformation, puppets on strings, playing your part on a stage and diverting from the script. The neon glow of the 60s nightlife, but waterlogged and destroyed by time.

It Follows: A creeping monster that can only walk, but will never stop. Pass it on through acts of sex and debauchery. Vibrant red blood in a glowing blue pool from an entity you can't even see that you injured.

Matilda The Musical: Agatha Trunchbull. "The Smell Of Rebellion." Hatred of those weaker than you to an almost comical degree. Cleverness and loopholes in rules. Hurting people back, because why should you be the bigger person? "A contract is a contract is a contract!"

Carrie The Musical: Voice breaking during emotional numbers. "Eve Was Weak." Religious trauma manifesting physically. Covered in blood and surrounded by fire. "Mother was right."

The Shining: All work and no play makes Alastor a dull boy. Being held hostage by the narrative, regardless of if you're doomed by it. Blood cascading through the halls. "I'm not gonna hurt you… I'm just gonna bash your fucking brains in!" The empty ballroom, the bartender who isn't there.

The Green Mile: Killing a miracle. Percy Wetmore. Burning people alive just to see what might happen. Weeping as you sing "Cheek To Cheek" and face the reaper. Clutching the bodies of two little girls and crying to the heavens because it isn't fucking fair.

The Black Phone: The masks. "It's his favorite game: good boy, bad boy." The phone that doesn't work, and the calls that keep coming in. Little boys floating in the air, throats slit, begging for help. Jesus as a deity to worship for divination. The entire kitchen scene. (CW for child abuse)

Coraline: Forced smiles. Eating bugs like candy. "He pulled a looooong face, and Mother didn't like that." The Other Mother. "She'd love something to eat. / Mothers don't eat… daughters. / I dunno. how do you taste?" Watching victims through the dolls.

Welcome To Night Vale: The specific sense of melancholy and nostalgia that just listening to the podcast inflicts upon the listener. The radio host as the protector of the city.

The Princess and the Frog: Facilier. Friends on the other side. Voodoo in all its forms. "Fun thing about voodoo, Larry. Can't conjure a thing for myself."