#it’s such a brilliantly executed tragedy

[quinn-of-aebradore]

You ever just think about the tragedy of Lucien Tavelle and cry a little bit? He didn’t seek out the Somnovem intentionally; he found the book on accident and was more interested in the silly hat the original owner was wearing than it. It only became important when the girl he loved died trying to get it back for him. And by the time he knew there was something fucked up about it, it was too late.

And then he was dead. And there was no coming back from that, because the Lucien that Cree brought back was a wholly different one than the Lucien Tavelle of before. Hollowed out and cruel, with only wisps of memories of who he was before remaining.

[angelique-of-the-volturi-guard]

Binged the entire first season of Yellowjackets today and I have THOUGHTS. (Spoilers included so read below the cut)

1. For some reason I enjoy teen Shauna more than adult Shauna and I don’t know why bc both actresses consistently slay it but okay that’s my brain. I didn’t much care for her storyline with Adam but maybe that’s because I’m not into romance. The moment with the Rabbit in the Chili will live rent free in my head for a while.

2. Taissa really got on my nerves at first being so image conscious but I really loved her storyline as it picked up more steam. Especially when she went into the basement and saw the shrine. I was geeking out!

3. Christina Ricci, the actress you are. Misty Quigley as an adult creeped me the hell out with her pushiness to be liked and psychotic tendencies but she’s a fascinating character. I absolutely couldn’t stand the way she forced herself onto coach Scott tho. That’s just a huge boundary for me that made me uncomfortable with her character but she was so well done for who she is.

4. Jackie was a mixed bag for me. I really enjoyed her moments of leadership in the group but I got so frustrated by her refusal to accept the reality before her. That last episode took my breath away.

5. Nat, oh Nat. Not a person I would hang out with but such an incredibly nuanced and complex trauma history. Her grief for Travis was so painful to watch at times but it made me feel everything. Loved her being a safe space for coach Scott too and a great marksman

6. Lottie my queen, I adore her. As a spiritual girlie also diagnosed with schizophrenia who also got baptized around that age I saw so much of myself in her. I delighted in what she brought with her mysticism and I appreciated how she tried to be reassuring to everyone in tough situations.

7. Van’s humor and tragedy were simply *chef’s kiss*. I enjoyed her relationship with Taissa progressing as it did.

8. Travis… I didn’t know what I felt about him for a while. The way he treated Javi in the immediate aftermath of their dad’s death and making him spit out the gum rubbed me the wrong way but I loved the moment he gave Javi the ring and his relationship development with Nat.

9. Laura Lee… Oh I felt for her. She really clung to her faith and I respected her for that even though at times it got to be too much. I cried when she put her bear in the plane and it caught fire.

10. Javi… kind of wasn’t there much this season. Very soft spoken and seemingly sweet but I don’t have too many thoughts on him other than that.

11. Coach Scott trying to help the girls with one leg was heroic, period.

12. Jeff… I don’t know how I feel about him at all. I like that he was very supportive of Shauna but he was neutral for me. Callie kind of surprised me with her attitude which is typical for teenagers but she comes off as consistently angry about everything and I’m just waiting for her to explode on someone.

13. The entire Doomcoming episode was brilliantly executed. I held my breath for most of the second half. It was perfect.

14. I kind of expected the descent into cannibalism to be quick but the slow burn pleasantly surprised me.

15. I can’t wait to watch season two!!!

[suzannahnatters]

Having shared my RINGS OF POWER s2 eulogy, and while assuring you all that I am also mourning the loss of one of the best things about the show, I would also like to take a moment to defend the decisions being made by the showrunners and writers here.

Before I get started, I just want to acknowledge the members of my writers' group. This post owes much to our discussions. Anyway, when it comes to Adar's death, there are three reasons why I'm not calling his death pointless, or blaming the showrunners for bad writing. The overall reason is this: Adar represents the show's efforts to treat Orcs like people. In this sense, his character was a blazing success. Look at us all, with a hopeless crush on an Orc? Success.

But let's go a bit deeper.

SIMON TOLKIEN'S EXECUTIVE MEDDLING

The fact that Simon Tolkien made an EXCELLENT call in asking the showrunners to keep Adar around for an extra season...still doesn't stop what he did from being executive meddling, or from causing tricky ramifications in the second season. Adar was a first-season antagonist, brilliantly well-written, but ultimately only intended to be a supporting character. The decision to keep him on, suddenly made him more charismatic, more mysterious, and more sympathetic. Given how he'd been set up as a warm-up baddie...season 2 suddenly turned around and made us think he was here to stay. The writers had cornered themselves: on the Tolkien Estate's behest, they had a dark horse who was about to run away with the show. I'm not going to fault them for going ahead with their original plan, because they would have had to retool subsequent seasons massively in order to fit in an Adar redemption arc, and you can't necessarily do that when the whole arc of your story is already planned.

JRR TOLKIEN'S LEGACY

All of us have written things we're not proud of. JRR Tolkien wrote a story world with something problematic hard-baked into the foundations: an entire race of beings for whom genetics determined ethics. Can you even imagine what it must have taken for him to get to the end of a long life spent in the dedicated pursuit of this story world, and to have the courage to admit that he might have been wrong? That really isn't something most authors are capable of. When Peter Jackson went to make LOTR and HOBBIT into movies, he did nothing to scrutinise this issue. His Orcs are flat: monstrous, comic, but never people.

TROP challenged that, and exercised significant skill, care, and wisdom in doing so. But they are still attempting a faithful adaptation of Tolkien's source material. We know where this story is going. Galadriel will end up in Lorien with her elf wifeguy. The Orcs will fall under Sauron's dominion and become his tools, enslaved to his will with the Ring. I did fantasise about Adar being Celeborn, and possibly some of his "children" getting to nope out of Sauron's dominion or even be turned into Elves. But we now know that was never on the table. The Orcs were always meant to fall to the Enemy. But here's the point: for the first time in the history of Tolkien works and adaptations, TROP allowed them the dignity of a fall. Going forward in the show, the Orcs won't be monstrous cannon fodder: they'll be people we knew, people we were pulling for, people whose deaths matter. They are, not a waste, but a tragedy.

TOLKIENIAN TRAGEDY

Look...there's nothing more Tolkienian than a beautiful disaster of a man who dies far too early.

And yes, I know that it's something we've seen before and wish storytellers would move away from - the Moment of Grace that never becomes anything more than a Moment. The villain who has a five minute redemption, then dies conveniently so that the heroes never have to work through the messy business of forgiveness and accountability (although I always did wonder how it would play to see a redeemed Adar, possibly Celeborn, living the rest of his life as a redeemed Uruk among people who hold an undying enmity with his children). It's happened so often that when I, Suzannah Rowntree, sit down to write a six book series where the irredeemable villain has to live and build a new and more accountable life for himself, there's startlingly little template for it, at least in Western media. We live in times that are starved for happy endings and genuine redemption arcs. I wanted so badly for Adar and his "children" to be blessed, and not cursed, by this narrative. So I get the rage. I get the grief.

But tragedy is still a valid art form. Again, all this is a function of the show successfully making the Orcs matter. And the reason the Orcs needed to matter is because they are about to be enslaved to Sauron. They were so close. They genuinely could have been good. Adar could have led them into an alliance with the Elves against their enemy - but instead, just like Celebrimbor, just like Galadriel, they are deceived by him. They turn to him out of fear that their father figure is treating them like cannon fodder, and now they have no one to advocate for them. And that's the tragedy of their situation.

We might all be a little tired of tragedy, but it's still valid, especially insofar as it never, ever forgets to treat its characters like people. Did the writers have to choose tragedy? No. Adar might have lived and undergone a redemption arc.

But the writers didn't have to give Adar a redemption arc, either. Any more than they had to so deeply humanise the Orcs and their father. It's not perfect writing, but it's not bad writing, either. Indeed, for a Tolkien adaptation trying to both honour the author's work and scrutinise his failings, in my opinion it's doing brilliantly.

And...honestly, I'm kind of happy that they left me wanting more, and better, for Adar. Because now I get to write that story myself.

[scatter-brain-at-work]

Just finished paradise of thorns. What a brilliantly executed tragedy. I was tbh into because of Jeff Satur but also because of the setting of disputed ownership over the Durian Orchard and the complexities arising due to non recognition of gay marriage.

The basic premise is that Jeff Satur's character Thongkam and his partner Sek have spent five years developing a Durian Orchard together. The land is in Sek's name but the mortgage is mostly paid by Thongkam over the years. They get married and soon after Sek meets an accident and dies in hospital.

The land deed transfers to Sek's wheelchair bound mother who lives some distance away with her adopted daughter who takes care of the mom. They shift to Thongkam and Sek's house and claim ownership and Thongkam now has to fight for his right.

The film starts with premise of tragedy arising from non recognition of legal rights of a gay partner. But it also weaves in the tragedies of poverty and the way it forces people's hands to turn against each other. It speaks about the tragedy of invalid mother depending on others despite her legal power and it speaks about the tragedy of Mo, the adopted sister who is constantly living in fear of being left behind without anyone needing her or loving her. It speaks about the tragedy of loving and being betrayed by the love, which almost every character faces.

It turns psychological, horrifying, and towards the end, violent to an uncomfortable degree. The people have been blinded by greed and hate. Nobody truly gets what they deserve. I have seen land conflicts. They can truly get that horrifying. I was reading reviews and some people thought less of the movie for its ending part. I can't fault them but I'm not of the same opinion.

I can't speak too much to the technicality of it. It's beautifully shot, well acted, and greatly scored in my opinion. The end credit song is beautiful. There are questions left properly unanswered at the end but I got the sense that those answers don't particularly matter.

This is not a happy film. But it's a great film to dive into. Content warnings for mild homophobia, bloody violence, and attempted rape towards the end.

[saltywinteradult]

How would you have written 2x08 to be both pro Rhaenicent and pro Alicent/Team Green?

Gonna focus on the writing of Alicent here, as the show's treatment of the greens is such a big issue that I don't really have the spoons for right now. For the record, my issues with s2 in general and how Alicent and Rhaenicent were handled would unfortunately not be entirely solved by only rewriting 2x08. I'd need to rewrite every episode starting with 1x08.

If I were to only rewrite 2x08, well, first of all I would not make Alicent say she was "very fond" of her rapist husband. That line alone is... well, it's up there with Sansa crediting her abusers for making her strong 🤢 Removing that line alone would do a lot to make Alicent retain some agency and dignity.

I also just... would not have Alicent defect from the greens at all. I'd have her decide that the misunderstanding over the prophecy (which was a stupid and unnecessary plot point to begin with) doesn't matter. Even if this was all a misunderstanding it's too late to turn back and her family’s in danger, so she decides she's gonna do everything she can to protect her family instead of sacrificing one of her kids to save the others. Seriously, the real Alicent, the Alicent who violently attacked the love of her life on Driftmark in anger over her son's maiming would die before betraying her family like that. I will die mad about this character assassination. (Please do not try to convince me that this was not a character assassination - I've had it up to here with people trying to convince me that making Alicent betray her family was A Brilliant And Feminist Storytelling Choice, Actually.)

At this point in the story Alicent and Rhaenyra should be sworn enemies - sworn enemies who still miss each other deep down to be sure, but sworn enemies all the same. So I wouldn't make Alicent go meet Rhaenyra at all. I love seeing Emma and Olivia on screen together as much as anyone, but I don’t think the show is in danger of being cancelled anytime soon, so I don’t see anything wrong with putting that off until next season. Here's how I'd like that to go - book spoilers ahead.

Having Rhaenyra and Alicent remain enemies by the end of s2 would make their reunion when Rhaenyra takes King’s Landing hit all the harder, even moreso if we also remove the sept scene from episode 3. Like, they haven’t seen each other in a long time and they thought they hated each other, only to come face to face again and have a total ”oh fuck” moment in which they both realise that to some extent they do hate each other, and yet they still miss each other. They still love each other, but with so many war crimes and murdered children in the baggage, neither of them can forgive the other. Isn't that just so deliciously tragic?

Much like in the book I'd like for Rhaenyra to execute the rest of the greens but spare Alicent. In the book she said that was for the sake of Viserys's love for Alicent; she could say that in the show too, only it's really because she can't bear to execute Alicent. (It's hardly the first time one of these two used Viserys as a shield: "Your husband? Or you, his daughter's childhood companion?") But Rhaenyra also can’t set her enemy free, so she takes Alicent prisoner and hates every minute of it. Like @standbehindhousestark put it so brilliantly here, "imagine the queen in chains arc with the canon hostility mixed with their queer past." Can you imagine what incredible toxic homoerotic interactions we could get out of that? Maybe even have them on the brink of actually getting together, only for Helaena's death to drive them apart once and for all as Alicent blames Rhaenyra for it? I don't know exactly how I'd want it to play out, but as I have repeated ad nauseam, due to the story itself being a tragedy I think a tragic ending to their relationship would be more satisfying than a happy one. What can I say, I'm a tragedy enjoyer first and a human being second.

[aspoonofsugar]

do you have a favourite RWBY arc?

Hello anon!

Do you mean story-arc or character arc? I am just gonna go with character arcs because I feel like it :) Here is my list. It combines my personal taste with those I think are best written.

1- Penny Polendina

Penny's arc is the best complete one in the series so far. It is thightly written and very powerful. Her final choice does what every character arc's climax should do: it ties togetyher all the thematic threads explored by Penny's arc in one incredibly meaningful moment. In the end, Penny chooses to be a friend, shows she is an adult and affirms her own humanity. Her choice is meant to be tragic and bittersweet because humanity can be both. Still, it is definately worth it.

1 - Cinder Fall

Cinder's arc isn't complete, but there is already enough for her to get first place together with Penny. Midnight is the best written episode of the series in my opinion and it manages to tie together all the pieces of foreshadowing and subtext present in Cinder's story up until that point. It is also a pivotal point in Cinder's story, where she has to make a choice. Will she recognize she is still a prisoner of abuse or will she ignore this truth? She chooses to repress and fails to develop positively. As a result, she has prepared her own tragedy.

Cinder's story is key to the whole series and it has the potential to end up above all the other arcs, if well executed.

3 - Weiss Schnee and Yang Xiaolong

Ice Girl and Fire Girl are tied for third place! (together with Jaune)

Weiss's arc has a very strong set-up and beginning. She gets a lot of focus at Beacon and quickly develops. After such a solid start her development can take the time to happen slowly, so that we can see how she has silently and beautifully evolved throughout the volumes. She is now warmer, kinder and happier than ever. Points for her having some of my favourite motifs.

Yang's arc is kind of the opposite, in my opinion. She gets the least focus among the 4 main girls in Vale. Still, the moment her arc decides to roll, it gets central stage. Her focus in Mistral is wonderful and her development is beautifully conveyed in volume 5 and volume 6 climaxes. Her confrontation with Raven is especially one of the best scenes of the series.

3 - Jaune D'Arc

Jaune's arc is one of the best executed both in terms of pacing and evolution of the character. If he keeps going this way, he might climb to first place tbh.

6 - Ruby Rose

I am expecting her to climb higher. Her focus in volume 9 was great and a beautiful first step in her development. The choice to mask her LRRH's story behind Alice in Wonderland references was wonderful and brilliantly executed. I think the ending could have been conveyed more powerfully, but the final result is still great. I am looking forward to how her arc will continue!

7 - Blake Belladonna and Oscar Pine

Blake's arc is beautiful and it ties together many thematic threads. Maybe a little bit too much, which is why it is below the other main characters. She is still wonderful though! And the more one analyzes her story, the more gems are found!

Oscar is one of the best written characters in my opinion, as his story is thight and perfectly intertwined with the main plot. Still, I think it has still to enter its climax, hence why he is only 7th place. Totally expecting him to climb higher, though.

9 - Emerald Sustrai

Emerald's arc has still to climax, but I like her set-up a lot and she is slowly going through a beautiful inner growth. There is already enough meet and actual development for her to just make the top 10 :P

9 - Pyrrha Nikos and James Ironwood

Both have masterfully written arcs and in terms of writing they could be higher. Still, I am less involved in their stories compared to others. In any case, they are two perfectly executed examples of tragedies. And different kinds of tragedies, as well.

Pyrrha's tragedy lies in the world around her. Ironwood's tragedy lies within himself.

11 - Lie Ren and Qrow Branwen

Both Ren and Qrow have beautiful arcs, but I am less involved with them when compared to others. So, here they are.

I would highlight this list doesn't consider characters like Salem, Nora, Raven, Summer or Mercury because even if set-up, their arcs still need to properly happen on-screen. Among them, though, I would say that Raven and Mercury especially have wonderful set-ups.

Raven's characterization and focus in volume 5 makes her one of the best written characters tbh. She is despicable, flawed, a coward and a hypocrite. And this is precisely why she is so great. She is very human and layered. It is clear she cares about Yang. Still, it is also clear she is too selfish and scared to act on her feelings. The way the narrative peels away her powerful mask to reveal a weak soul behind it is great. As it is the challenge for her to overcome her fear and make amends.

Mercury has so far one of the best set-up arc. His writing has been extremely thight and almost every scene he is in gives additioinal information on him, his background, his bonds with others and his feelings. All in a very subtle way. Basically, his writing is very rich and we can infer a lot, despite his arc having yet to start. He is the embodyment of the cycle of abuse and I am curious to see how this concept gets explored.

Finally, shout outs to Neo and Ilia. Their arcs aren't as complex or long and have less bits than the main characters'. Still, they are thight and perfectly executed.

Thank you for the ask!

[sculptorofcrimson]

An immortality without life

I have decided to go on a lost little ramble.

~~~~~~~

Stitch one together from blasphemy and bone. Sew his soul from stone and frost. Build a monster from plunder and enemies, rob a child from a sobbing mother’s breast and turn him into a weapon, a dog to be beaten into your will. Turn your back on the rites on Nature, build a hunter for sin, write your obsession in bone and ink. 

Make him the finest he shall ever be. 

He shall soon be another conquest. Another perfect, effortless victory. Perfection has been attained, in every ink-laden, frost-eaten, perfect way beneath a heartless storm. 

He had killed the last of the Thunder Warriors upon a snow bitten ridge, the storm’s fury on his spear, the air tasting of ash upon his tongue, the blood of a friend on his armor, the victory as sweet and as bitter as the memories his lord had beaten from him. 

They burned, they fought, and they died like candles in the night. But before they snuffed out they burned as brilliantly as a final, vengeful funeral pyre in the night, raging against the dying light one last time, for one last spite, one last stone cast. This is the day, this is the day they died.

Heft your blade, spear a friend, watch the life fade from his eyes, listen to the way he laughed, one last time, that easy, obstreperous glint passing away in one final ragged gasp. Bury a corpse betrayed, drown his memory beneath stone and cement and iron, forget he was at all, forget he fought at your side once upon a time. 

They are not the future. They are simply a rehash of the past, the new picking up the torch that had scalded the old, the newest of warriors thrown to the lines to die as shields and swords. And it shall be the same, for tragedy never ends, and treachery never dies. 

Sink the blade, end him here, blood upon the snow, blood upon your cloak, blood upon your blade. 

The execution was flawless. The combat was effortless. And therein lies the true blasphemy of it all, in its sheer ease, in the way he died without a funeral dirge, without a warcry, with only the cold gauntlets of a traitor around him.

I obeyed. And paid the price. 

Perhaps Valdor had a heart underneath all that gold, all that frost. But if he truly had a heart, he killed it long ago, and buried it beneath the snows of Maulland Sen. That heart is dead, crushed to ashes, ground to dust beneath auramite boots and thundering screams. 

Ten thousand years. Ten thousand years passed, he never quite did find a suitable reply that could have made Ushotan laugh one last time, laugh as wryly as comrades upon the field should have laughed. One last time, one last fight, one last blade in the heart, to know he had been at least admired, if not beloved, by the Captain-General. 

Even if he had a heart, Valdor drowned it long ago, crushed beneath the weight of his duties and the ink of his sins. But what if he didn’t kill him? What if he had spared that one, final Thunder Warrior, the same way he spared Kandawire?

[cosmicjoke]

Ooookay, chapter 207 of "Vinland Saga"!

Ohh man, another amazing chapter. All of Thorfinn's worst fears realized.

But I think what stands out to me most here, and what I appreciate most, is the realism of how this situation with the Lnu is unfolding. Thorfinn's pacifism is an ideal worth striving for, always, but it's an ideal nonetheless, and we see once again how reality has an ugly way of intruding on that ideal. That pacifist ideal can't always, and often doesn't, account for other people and their warring nature.

We finally see Thorfinn forced to fight, for the first time in I don't even know how many chapters. Since well before the current arc, since before leaving for Vinland, since before returning to Iceland, even.

What I like about this is that the story once again isn't hiding from the complicated reality of war, and violence, and how sometimes, no matter how much we might wish it, or strive for it, peace and passivity isn't always an option. Sometimes we really are backed into a corner and violence is the only way out, and it isn't really a failing on our part, but just a reality of the world we live in.

Still, given Thorfinn's recent vow's never to resort to violence again, seeing how easily that vow was put to an impassable test, I wonder how that will affect his philosophy and world view from here on out. He selflessly sacrifices himself by jumping in front of Einar and Bug-Eyes to take the arrow the Lnu shot at them, and it's interesting to see how quickly his own instincts kicked in afterward, the way he so quickly took down the three pursuers with Hild's assistance. He hasn't had to kill anyone, yet, but I wonder if he'll really be able to hold to that pledge, given what's going on back at Arnheid's village.

Before I get to that though, I want to talk a little about what's happening to Thorfinn's relationship with Einar.

It seems like there's serious and potentially permanent erosion being done to their once unbreakable bond, and the tragedy of that erosion being instigated by war and violence isn't lost on me. There's the possibility that their friendship will be forever altered, and maybe even destroyed, depending on how things play out here, which is a devastating thought, given Einar is Thorfinn's first and truly best friend.

But we see something like resentment starting to bleed into Einar's regard for Thorfinn. Where before, he had understandable and reasonable disagreements with Thorfinn's approach, it being logical why he wouldn't want to just give up the land they'd cultivated and go back to Iceland, giving up on their dream on Throfinn's say-so, here, we see him start to accuse Thorfinn of acting as their master, with everyone else being his underlings. He's beginning to mistake Thorfinn's desire to protect everyone for Throfinn acting as some kind of dictator. When Thorfinn calls out to Einar, just before he and Bug-Eyes finally leave the scene, trying one last time to explain that he only wants to withdraw from Vinland to avoid war, we see Einar look back at him with what I can only describe as real anger and, yes, again, resentment. I can see this suddenly and rapidly widening rift between them spinning out of control, and it may lead somewhere truly ugly. I think that's especially a possibility when Einar and Bug-Eyes make it back to the village, and see what's going on there, that the Natives are already attacking the villagers. I wouldn't be surprised if some sort of scenario unfolds in which Einar takes up sides with the men like Ivar that want to go to war with the Natives to fight for the land, etc... If that happens, then it could mean an end to his and Thorfinn's friendship.

Again, this is really brilliantly executed, for the ways in which it demonstrates the tragedy of war and the things lost to war. Throfinn's and Einar's friendship would be a heavy loss, if it were to dissolve because of what's happening now.

So, back to what's going on in the village. This is bad. Really, REALLY bad.

First of all, poor Cordelia. I feel so bad for her. She tried to take up arms against the attacking Natives, and I'm sure some people wanted to see her open up a can of whoop-ass on them. But what actually happens is much more realistic. Cordelia might have Thorkill's size and strength, but she doesn't have any of his fighting skill. To expect her to actually put up a real fight against a bunch of experienced warriors wasn't fair. But it was absolutely horrifying to see Cordelia get shot full of arrows, and to see her start crying out for Thorfinn to save her.

I wonder if Cordelia is going to be the first real casualty of this war, meaning if she's the first character we've grown attached to who's going to actually die. And if that does happen, I wonder further still what that's going to do to Throfinn, and how he'll react.

He's determined right now not to kill anybody, still grasping to the hope that he can get away with simply injuring their attackers. But if he makes it back to the village and sees his own people have been slaughtered, will he be able to maintain that stance? Especially if anyone he's close to ends up dying?

It would only be natural for Thorfinn to relinquish his vow to not kill in that scenario. But no doubt it would come at a great, personal cost to him too.

"Vinland Saga" has definitely found its mojo again, and I think this entire arc has been the best since probably before Thorfinn and co. returned to Iceland the second time. I'm both extremely excited and extremely nervous about how things are going to go from here. Things aren't good. War's already broken out, so there's no avoiding the violence and loss that comes with it, only stemming the tide of it, if possible.

Bravo all around. I just adore this series.

[cto10121]

R&J Clown Takes Round ♾️ Part 14

Featuring a lot of recycled clownery, some comments on the recent Jamie Lloyd production, which looks to be a mess of clownery as well, and R&J being such a ~~light-hearted comedy. On nom nom

Tag yourself, I’m “a critic second.”

I like how Clown OP had to act like the Chorus’ very flattering and romantic description of R&J was a literal prophecy. 🤣 Like R&J were some Lord of the Rings-esque fantasy novel.

So “star-crossed lovers” have nothing to do with R&J being destined to fall in love. It literally means “crossed by the stars.” As in, the forces of the universe hate their guts and fucked them over. This idea is repeated with the Friar saying that Death is “enamored” with Romeo’s parts (the French musical as always picked up on that brilliantly) and that he and Juliet are “wedded to calamity.”

You said it, Clown OP! Fuck *checks list* Titanic, Casablanca, Pyramus and Thisbe, The Fault in Our Stars, Brokeback Mountain, Moulin Rouge, The Bridges of Madison County, The Notebook, The English Patient, and all of dem cats. No one on this earth has ever or will ever think of these as love stories!!!!

“The families weren’t paying attention—” The Capulets tried to marry Juliet off because she “wept immoderately” for Tybalt’s death. Because she felt sad for the death of her own cousin. Before that they kept Juliet under almost constant supervision, and Juliet herself is called for at least three times.

The only accusation of neglect that may ring true is the Montagues, who are so hands-off they have to get freakin’ Benvolio, their own nephew, to find out about their own son. Even so, they seem much nicer than the Capulets. Lady M died of heartbreak over Romeo’s banishment and even in his madness Romeo made sure to let his parents know via letter of his intentions.

“R&J Is A Comedy!!1!!1” Round ♾️

So this is what happens in the “light-hearted” first half of the play before Mercutio’s and Tybalt’s deaths that these clowns insist is a comedy:

Sampson and Gregory joke about killing and raping Montague women

Tybalt threatens to murder Benvolio and attacks him

The Prince threatens to execute anyone who disturbs the peace again

Romeo talks about how Rosaline has sworn never to have sex and what an awful waste it is that she won’t open her legs to that sweet golden cum 😔

Capulet thinks Juliet is too young for marriage, but Paris cheerfully says that younger girls than she is (13-14) are already “happy mothers” 🤢

Lady Capulet tells Juliet that she was around her age (13-14) when she had Juliet—so that makes it a-OK to get her married!

The Nurse reminisces fondly about the time her husband joked about two-year-old Juliet having sex eventually when she gets smarter. Not older. Smarter. 🤮Oh, and she also casually drops the fact that the Capulets left Juliet with the Nurse and said husband while they were in Mantua doing fuck knows what

Mercutio’s fantastical Queen Mab speech becomes dark really quickly as he talks about raping virgins

Romeo has a presentiment of his untimely demise…which eventually comes true

Juliet worries that their love will be “like lightning”—here and gone before you know it

The Nurse believes Paris is hotter/better than Romeo for Juliet, which makes Juliet mad, foreshadowing their rupture

The Friar gives a dark warning in his famous “These violent delights” speech about the longevity of too-swift love

I think it’s obvious that there are attempts by Shakespeare to 1) satirize the feud and violent Veronian society and its gender roles and 2) foreshadow Romeo and Juliet’s death and set up the tragedy re: the Nurse’s betrayal of Juliet.

Just because a tragedy isn’t all doom and woe for 2 hours doesn’t mean it isn’t a tragedy. There is the danger, yes, of a production being 100% intense 100% of time; the dark comedy/satire is very much necessary from a thematic standpoint. I reckon that was the fault of this Jamie Lloyd one. But I read this shit when I was 10 and Mercutio’s and Tybalt’s deaths didn’t surprise me at ALL. It was an “oh shit” moment, sure. But I definitely understood why it occurred and I was not surprised. A good R&J production should have that same feeling.

[lesbianlucysnowe]

People in the comments are getting very up in arms about me pitting Black Sails and OFMD against each other when they are very different genres, and to some extent I kind of agree with that sentiment.

That said, I do want to clarify that I made this poll because, fair or not, the BS/OFMD comparisons already exist, and I was genuinely curious to get a sense of how many OFMD fans have watched Black Sails. Could I have gone about wording the poll in a way that better reflected that? Probably. But I dashed off this poll very quickly and very late at night. This isn’t a scientific study, I’m just having a laugh on tumblr dot com.

However, I do also want to push back a little on the idea that it’s inherently unfair to compare two shows of different genres. That line of thinking can sometimes veer into the territory of assuming by that certain genres are inherently always “better” than others, which is something I vehemently disagree with. There are comedies that are extremely well-written and use humor to explore complex themes, and there are tragedies that are poorly executed and thematically vapid.

Specifically in regards to the comparison of Black Sails and OFMD, I think it’s a little disingenuous to say you can’t compare the two just because they both are about pirates when so much of the discourse around OFMD is about how it’s such a ~groundbreaking~ show in its depiction of queerness through the lens of piracy. There are OFMD fans who take the show seriously in terms of its themes and it’s influence on the queer television landscape. So, if OFMD is really deserving of all of that praise, comedy or not, then it should be able to hold its own against a brilliantly crafted drama like Black Sails.

I fully acknowledge that the people who are saying “you can’t compare Black Sails and the silly pirate comedy” probably aren’t the same people who think OFMD is brilliant and groundbreaking. That said, as long as that discourse is surrounding OFMD, then I think it’s fair game to make those Black Sails comparisons.

*watched does not necessarily mean that you have seen every single episode, but that you’ve watched enough that you feel you can reasonably make a judgment about the quality of the show’s storytelling

**Which pirate show IS better (tumblr won't let me edit the question 😭)

[mansplainmanipulatemalewife]

Edgar Wright my beloved 💚

[delimeful]

nothing in this world (i wouldn’t do) (2)

warnings: mild blood/violence/injury, demon slaying, miscommunication, impromptu first aid, mentions of spiders, virgil tempting fate with his internal dialogue again

-

Whenever Virgil wasn’t sleeping, he was on the move.

At first, it had been because he didn’t trust himself around towns for too long, and there was always the chance of a real demon slayer getting wind of that ridiculous rumor and trying to track him down and kill him for it, even though it totally wasn’t his fault.

But then, as time went on, his bizarre pseudo-popularity seemed to have a different side effect.

Namely, every time he managed to save another human and hauled them back to the nearest town, he’d be practically swarmed. Antsy townsfolk would hurriedly inform him of the horrible tragedy they’d heard about up north, or the mysterious disappearances by the woods between this town and the neighboring one, or any sort of rumor that they thought a “demon slayer” should know about.

Where exactly were all the real demon slayers when people needed them? Why was he, an actual demon, seemingly more accessible for seeking help?!

Still, he wasn’t exactly doing anything else with his life (his unlife?), and if there were less demons, that meant the world would be safer for Thomas, didn’t it? So off he went, taking the less-traveled paths and following vague leads right into more danger.

His latest case had been a requested one, from a weaver in the last town. She had received a letter from her brother saying that he planned to come visit, and weeks later, he still hadn’t appeared or replied to her many return messages. The worry seemed to weigh her down like a physical burden, and he’d agreed perhaps more easily than normal.

Now, he was wedged into a shallow crevice in the mountainside and sorely regretting that decision.

The issue wasn’t the demon, no. He’d actually been making good progress on getting deeper and deeper into its territory in the past few days.

The issue was that he wasn’t the only one hunting it.

First, it had been a gaggle of young teens, and he’d been so alarmed that he’d almost dropped right out of the trees and ushered them back out of the woods. The less humans traipsing around this deep in demon territory, the better.

Of course, that was when he’d managed to spot the swords strapped to their sides, and suddenly, never appearing before a human again was looking more and more appealing. He’d immediately switched gears from tracking to stealth, and honestly, should have just turned tail and left then.

Instead, because those kids were around Thomas’s age and he still needed to find that weaver’s brother and also he was a sentimental idiot, he trailed them at a distance, always staying downwind and poised to bolt.

They handled themselves well at the beginning, and then the environment began to warp around them, and then it turned out there was more than one demon nesting here, and Virgil had been on the brink of jumping down and interfering, swords or no swords, when--

Between one blink and the next, one of the demons was cleanly beheaded.

The demon slayer-- for what else could he be-- smiled brilliantly as the body disintegrated to ash, holding a hand out to help one of the teens to their feet.

“It seemed like you all could use a little assistance,” he’d said, turning to face one of the other demons with a confidence that visibly unsettled it. Above, a circling crow cried out raspily. “My dear Missus informed me of your call for backup.”

If the stranger’s swift execution hadn’t tipped Virgil off, the way the baby slayers looked up at him with blatant awe was clue enough. This slayer was powerful and charismatic, whereas Virgil was neither of those things, so he was going to stay right here in his crevice until the whole situation had sorted itself out.

The three other demons seemed to have no such qualms, lunging at him in a semi-coordinated attack. The slayer handled them with terrifying ease, and for a moment it seemed that the battle had been settled, as simple as that.

Of course, that was when the landscape twisted further in on itself, buzzing like a disturbed wasps nest, and Virgil realized abruptly that this was the first time he’d seen so many feral, newly-created demons in one territory.

A stronger demon was keeping them all in line, like the queen of a hive. And it wasn’t at all pleased about the intrusion.

The slayer seemed to have caught on as well, his sword held aloft in threat. “Looks like the real fight starts now,” he said with a sharp, cocky grin.

Mere minutes later, the smile had grown considerably more strained.

Coincidentally, he’d taken considerably more damage in that time as well.

The slayer had given as good as he got, but against a demon’s healing factor, it wasn’t good enough. He was losing.

“Get out of here!” he instructed, and the baby slayers hesitated, clearly torn. He shot them a dazzling grin, hiding all signs of fatigue even as another blow rattled his sword. “Come now, don’t you know an order when you hear one? I don’t want any distractions while I handle this gruesome ghoul, so back to town with you!”

He cut off any further arguments by pointedly leading his attacker astray, giving them ample time to flee. Virgil felt some of the tension fade from him as the baby slayers got away cleanly, leaving just the slayer and the queen.

Really, he shouldn’t want the slayer to survive. Not when having a slayer that strong anywhere near him, or even in the same country as him, could easily be a death sentence. That didn’t change the jolt of panic that went through him when the queen finally gained the upper hand, knocking the slayer back into sheer cliff face hard enough to snap something.

… A slayer that protected others from demons so wholeheartedly was one that would protect Thomas.

The queen advanced towards the slayer, wounded and weakened but already gloating about how his flesh would be more than enough to completely rejuvenate her. Her entire focus was on the human’s fallen form.

Virgil dropped down on top of her soundlessly, claws piercing through muscle and fat until he’d torn her nearly clear in half. She shrieked in outrage, but a skull-crushing stomp was enough to knock her unconscious for at least a few moments.

The slayer, exhausted, half-crumpled against a tree, and his shoulder very clearly dislocated, looked up at him for a moment with something like hope.

When they met eyes, however, that was swiftly extinguished in favor of wary frustration.

“Another demon?” he complained, trying rather unsubtly to grasp for the sword that the queen had knocked free of him. “Exactly how many monsters can one fit on a single mountain?”

The sword was entirely out of reach, but Virgil kicked it a little further away for good measure. The slayer shot him a petulant glare.

Virgil pointed at a scrap of bloodied cloth left behind from one of the baby slayers, trying out a questioning rumble. Backup coming for you?

“I’m offended that you think I would answer that,” the slayer responded, nose upturned, “or any other monosyllabic interrogative questions, for that matter.”

Virgil growled low in his throat, frustration bubbling up. If he ditched the slayer here without backup, there was no guarantee that someone would find him before the morning came, and Virgil was relatively sure that the demon he’d just stabbed through wasn’t the only threat up here.

Not to mention the cold. He hadn’t thought the nights were cold enough to harm people yet, but demons seemed a lot more durable, and the slayer was shaking just slightly. He remembered the few times he’d had to sit out snowstorms while traveling back home up the mountain, and couldn’t help but feel sympathetic.

So, leaving the slayer behind to fend for himself wasn’t an option. That meant doing something insanely, dangerously stupid: taking the guy with him.

Precautions first, then. He was pretty good at hiding himself from other demons by now, but human scents were a lot more trackable.

Virgil scooped the slayer sword up off the ground by the hilt, grimacing at the burning sensation it emitted. The slayer’s jaw dropped.

“Hey! You can’t just take that!” he cried indignantly, starting off on a tirade about craftsmanship and integrity. His rant cut off sharply as Virgil raised the sword and brought it down on the queen’s neck.

His motions were stilted compared to anyone who actually knew how to use a sword, but it hardly mattered. The sun-blade cut through easily, decapitating her in one motion and leaving only ash behind. He took a moment to hope for the soul of whoever she’d been before being turned, and a longer moment for the weaver’s brother, who was surely dead. Exhaling lowly, he planted the sword blade-first in the dirt.

It was tempting to keep it; he’d certainly wished more than once for an easier way to deal with his adversaries than the bloody scraps he normally got in, but there was no way he was bringing a demon slayer and a demon killing sword with him. That was just asking for trouble.

“That demon did all the work in an honest fight against me, and yet it’s the backstabber turning against his own kind who actually gets to eat me? That’s sad, even for a demon,” the slayer bit out, still trying to inch his way back up into a standing position.

Virgil ignored his muttering and took a testing breath in through his mouth. The slayer was definitely bloodied, but most of the major injuries mustn’t have broken skin, because the smell wasn’t too bad. It probably helped that he’d managed to avoid being injured in this fight, and so didn’t have a desperate need to heal like normal. If he was lucky, he wouldn’t even need a nap to make up for it.

He reached out for the slayer’s collar, already mentally plotting out the most efficient way to a distant abandoned bear den when a piercing shriek sounded, and his vision was suddenly full of flapping feathers. He staggered a few steps back with a surprised yelp.

“No! Missus Fluffybottom, you beautiful fool!” the slayer cried out, sounding incredibly distraught.

Virgil swatted outwards and managed to catch his furious assailant on the second try, his hand easily big enough to grasp it. He drew it away from his face for inspection, and realized that the screaming and wriggling bundle of fluff was actually a young crow.

“Scourge! Fiend!” the crow yelled at him in a belligerent tone that was uncannily similar to the slayer’s. He blinked down at it, befuddled.

“Wait! Don’t hurt her,” the slayer said in the most subdued voice Virgil had heard from him all evening. He looked up and found that the slayer had managed to climb to his knees, but wasn’t struggling to move further. “She’s a simple bird, no threat to you. You’ve already got your prize, haven’t you?”

There was something uncomfortably desperate in his gaze, and Virgil realized with a start that the slayer absolutely believed he was about to kill his bird in cold blood. He opened his hand, bracing for another assault, but the crow kicked off and flew right to the slayer instead, nestling against his collarbone. “Roman, Roman, Ro-man!” it crooned.

“Get out of here, you finicky little fowl, go! Shoo!” the slayer-- Roman?-- commanded, to no avail. He glanced up at Virgil, lifting his good hand and turning his bad shoulder slightly as though to shield the little creature.

Virgil averted his eyes from the bird, hopefully conveying how much he didn’t care about her. If he had enough self control to not murder-kill people despite it being all monsters like him wanted to do, he wasn’t going to snap because a bird the size of his palm repeated some swears in his direction.

Back to business. He grabbed the back of the slayer’s outfit and pulled, hauling him up onto one shoulder like a sack of potatoes. … Or like a sack of other, non-food items. Virgil sighed through his nose. Whatever.

Roman sucked a breath in through his teeth as his injuries were jostled, and then immediately started squawking in protest upon realizing the indignity of his position. The crow-- apparently dubbed Fluffybottom-- repositioned herself to a perch on Roman’s calf and joined in on the complaints with her own raspy calls.

Virgil ignored them, already focusing on the trek ahead.

---

By the time they reached the cave, Roman had long stopped muttering creative obscenities under his breath.

The slayer might have actually fallen unconscious, but Virgil wasn’t going to jostle him around just to check. If he stopped focusing on their surroundings, he could easily hear Roman’s heart beating, the blood pumping beneath his skin, tantalizingly out of reach--

… He had mostly focused very hard on their surroundings. The point was, the slayer was definitely still alive, which meant him passing out during their travel was fine. Convenient, even.

It certainly made it easier to squat and carefully lower his body onto the cave floor without worrying about any sudden thrashing on Roman’s part. Laying flat on his back with only the slightest crumple to his brow, the guy looked a lot less intimidating. He was probably Virgil’s age, honestly.

He also looked unsettlingly corpse-like at the moment. Virgil considered for a moment, and then sidled over to Roman’s side, tugging his injured arm out of the curled up position it had taken. He carefully maneuvered it until it was straight out, forming a right angle with Roman’s side.

Then, he pulled, applying a slow, steady pressure. The misaligned bone shifted back into place with a sickening clunk, and Roman cried out as he regained consciousness. Virgil released him, and he instantly cradled the limb to his chest.

“What in the name of--,” he started, and then seemed to remember it all at once. Or the wave of pain from all those other injuries hit him all at once. One of the two.

Either way, he sagged back against the ground, squinting at Virgil suspiciously as he bustled around the small space. Missus Fluffybottom landed on his forehead, making him look even more ridiculous.

“I notice I am not devoured,” he finally spoke, almost conversational.

Virgil ignored him in favor of moving to arrange some firewood near the mouth of the cave.

“Not even a teensy bit,” Roman continued, making a show of inspecting himself for missing flesh.

Virgil continued to stack rocks around the wood. He was beginning to regret waking the slayer up, dislocated shoulder or not.

“Now, my silent saboteur, I want you to be honest. Are you planning to turn me into some sort of spider?” the slayer asked, and that was enough to finally make Virgil turn with an incredulous raised eyebrow.

“What?” Roman defended, pinkening. “That’s a real thing that a demon did to some people! And you seem... spider-y.”

Virgil scowled at the insulting way the comment was phrased. Spiders were cool and helpful and oh yeah, they didn’t annoyingly needle him while he was busy keeping them alive. He abandoned the fire to stalk closer and drop to a squat by Roman’s legs, dodging a wild kick easily. He pointedly tore a long swath of white fabric from the slayer’s overlayer.

“Hey! Do you even know how long embroidery like that takes--,” Roman cried, and Virgil smacked a hand over his mouth, drawing close and hissing quietly. The sound was close enough to a shush to get his point across, going by the way the slayer huffed indignantly but didn’t speak when Virgil pulled his hand away.

He did whine in protest when Virgil grabbed his injured arm, but then he went still and silent, like he thought any sudden movements would end with the whole limb removed. Virgil wrapped his forearm in the fabric, and then looped the extra around his shoulder, maneuvering him as painlessly as possible, and tied it off.

Roman’s silence suddenly felt distinctly different.

Virgil pulled him up into a sitting position by the front of his shirt, and tightened the knot slightly. The sling looked just about as good as could be expected, given the circumstances.

“You are actually a demon, aren’t you?”

Speech was one of those human things that Virgil still hadn’t recovered, but he thought that the sarcastic fang-bearing smile he directed at Roman spoke volumes all on its own.

“Then why are you tenderly nursing a demon slayer back to health?” he retorted, sounding bewildered and incredulous in equal measures.

Why are you pushing your luck? Virgil thought back, clicking his teeth in irritation and shoving the slayer back into a prone position.

Roman let out a high pitched wheeze, his good arm coming to cradle his ribs defensively. “Or not-so-tenderly, I suppose. The question stands!”

Virgil rolled his eyes and returned to the half-built fire. He’d pestered the only doctor in town for first aid lessons for months, he wasn’t going to stop practicing medicine just because of a little thing like being turned into a demon that craved human flesh.

To his surprise, the silence lingered as he worked, long enough that he turned and cast a suspicious glare over his shoulder at the slayer, who jolted nervously at his attention.

“Wh-what?” he asked, fiddling with the torn edges of his sling. “No escape attempts here, haha!”

“...” Virgil squinted at him and his blatant fake laugh for a long moment, trying to figure out just what was wrong with the scene.

Wait. Where was the bird?

A chill ran down his spine, and he twisted to stare at the mountainside beyond the cave entrance. No raspy-voiced baby crows in sight.

It had to have gone for help, knowing exactly where Virgil and its slayer had holed up. Roman knew he’d realized it, was watching him with the wary expectancy of a cornered hare in front of a trapper.

A surge of furious panic did bubble up in the back of Virgil’s mind, but he quelled it with relative ease.

If backup was coming, then the human was no longer his problem.

Pleased at the neat way the situation had resolved itself, Virgil tapped two fingers to his temple in a gesture of farewell and scrambled out the cave, scaling the cliff face and resolving to put as much distance between himself and this region as possible.

With any luck, he’d never run into that particular slayer again.

[dishearteningmediocrity]

In this festive season, enjoy this review of the Hull Little Theatre’s 1927 Christmas play, featuring Colin Clive in several roles quite different from those he would become famous for playing. From the Hull Daily Mail, published December 27, 1927. Transcript follows; apologies for the long text post but the article is very difficult to read in the clipping.

Feast of Fun and Fancy

“A Christmas Party” at the Little Theatre

All that a child could dream about the festive season is incorporated into “A Christmas Party,” which was produced at the Little Theatre, Hull, on Christmas Eve for a fortnight’s run. It is a charming show, brilliantly produced, and the work attached to the preparation of its innumerable delights must have been enormous. From the kiddies’ point of view the whole conception of the piece gives unalloyed delight, while the adult spectators will derive interested pleasure in watching the versatile efforts of artists usually associated with dark tragedy or subtle comedy. Personally, I found the show a thoroughly delightful entertainment, and the revival of the old Harlequinade (played by Colin Clive as Joey and Frederick Piper as Pantaloon) was a particular cause for enjoyment. The two actors, who emerged from a giant Christmas cracker, clowned their way through the second half of the programme with rare style, and their patter song about the Little Theater personalities was remarkably clever.

Contrary to custom this Christman party is not a pre-arranged one. It is the sudden thought of two children--Christopher and Evangeline--who are confined to their room with an attack of measles. Unable to join in the round of festivities themselves, they invite Santa Claus and the inhabitants of the toy cupboard to an impromptu party, and the result is absolutely amazing. Father Christmas makes a dramatic entry, in traditional fashion, and then the fun begins, waxing “furioser and furioser,” until it is time for everyone to go home. Patricia Bradfield, the clever young actress who was such a “hit” last season, makes a welcome return to play the part of Evangeline, while Merle Tottenham, another capable artist, acts skilfuly as the little boy. They sing and dance with charm, and their work has the requisite ingenuousness. As the host and hostess, they have a lot to do, particularly at the brilliantly arranged supper table, when the dolls become somewhat peevish and the Golliwog finds the lemonade going to his head. Father Christmas, splendidly played by Richard Fisher, also has to help to keep matters smooth.

Many of the people appeared in several characters. Edith Sharpe was a good-humoured, but garrulous Irish nurse, and a bold Robin Hood, and her songs were warmly applauded. As Anthony Rowley, the frog who would a-wooing go, Colin Clive was most engaging, and his energy as a Jack-in-a-Box was a source of wonder. Frederick Piper made a fine King Cole, and also a splendid toy soldier. In the latter character, Mr. Piper, in conjunction with Peggy Smith, who made an attractive doll, gave us an amusing dance, which was heartily encored. When the Three Blind Mice came in it took Colin Clive all his time to hold back the Cat, which Peter Taylor Smith played most convincingly. This actor took also the part of Mr. Noah and had a good partner in Millicent Jones, who sang in a pleasing fashion. The importation of a conjurer from China caused great excitement, and James Hudson executed some clever illusions which were greatly appreciated. The following also had interesting and amusing parts: Eva Jeafferson, Hilda Whatmore, Gwen Sibley, Ursula Granville, and Barry Barnes, while the following pupils of the Hull School of Music had small parts, and presented some skilful dances: Jessie Selle, Nancy Shores, Marjorie Simpson, Enid Grantham, Audrey Appleton, and Arthur Burrell.

The musical accompaniments were played by Mr. Dennis Boocock with rare sympathy and skill. --C.E.R.

[hamliet]

Hi! What are in your opinion the 5/10 best written characters in RWBY so far? And why? Also, is there a character that you think is underrated?

Okay. So, it is hard for me to rank character arcs that are not finished yet, so I'm biased to give arcs I see as complete or mostly complete higher opinions (or lower!) based on the fact that there will be little if anything new added.

(The underrated character? Oh hell yeah. They’re on here. See #5)

1) Penny Polendina

I feel like I've said a lot of what I feel about Penny already, and @aspoonofsugar has posted excellent analyses of our girl too. Her arc is brilliantly written and so it pains me to see fandom thinking it's badly done. It was cathartic for me, shocking but sensical, and ultimately beautiful and hopeful despite its immense tragedy and unfairness. Kind of all you can ask from a tragic arc.

2) Cinder Fall

I think Cinder will end up as #1, honestly, because her arc is longer and more complex than Penny's, but it's not done yet. Her backstory, though? It was excellently woven into the story and thus far is my favorite use of the fairy tale allusion. I find her development realistic, her psyche fascinating, and am convinced the seeds of redemption will flourish because of how tightly written her arc has been so far. See more here for my thoughts on Cinder's arc.

3) Pyrrha Nikos

Tragedy, tragedy. Pyrrha's arc in volume 3 was what ultimately gripped me onto the RWBY train--I liked the first two seasons and was intrigued, but Pyrrha's tragedy was just so perfectly executed, a huge shift in tone, and a stunningly cathartic finale that made me feel things.

4) James Ironwood

I am sorry, but I strongly disagree with people thinking Ironwood was poorly written. He was not. He was exemplary of RWBY's take on humanity: complex. He was a good man at heart who turned into a genocidal tyrant. Do you really think that the genocidal tyrants in real life are not also motivated in part by goodness, even if tempered by fear? His arc was sobering and his ending fitting. He reminds me of SnK's Eren Jaeger, in that these arcs aren't popular nowadays in fiction, but are perhaps needed more than ever.

5) Mercury Black

Okay, here he is, the character I think is most underrated. The fandom is sleeping on him, I tell you! Almost every. single. scene. Mercury appears in develops him and sheds new light on his character. He's had major save-the-cat moments from his first appearance with Emerald, and his backstory is the most dark and traumatic of anyone we've heard--even more so than Cinder's, like, objectively speaking.

A child whose father abused him and stole his soul so he killed him--while still a kid! The subtext of Mercury's father stealing his soul isn't subtle and it's devastating, and to see that same subtext carried over in Mercury's relationship with Tyrian is agonizing to watch. Mercury's own internalization of his abuse--telling himself that he doesn't need family while very much regarding Cinder as exactly his family (the same way he thought of his father--yet his desire to protect Emerald from the same pain, his contradictory expectation/excusing of abuse and his realization that it isn't right in how he talks to Emerald--he's got the potential to be one of the top 3, honestly.

The heart of what RWBY has to say about abused and unwanted children lies with Mercury Black. He can't break out of the cycle of abuse, and he's an unreliable narrator, but he does truly care about Emerald, which will be his saving grace.

Anyways, obviously the meat of Merc’s arc isn’t here yet. But the set up is so well done that he’s fairly high up. 

6) Weiss Schnee

Weiss is my girl. I love her development and how it's been integrated through all the volumes thus far: her slowly learning to become her own person, to become her own special snowflake (heh) instead of relying on the Schnee name. I also think Weiss's arc isn't finished and there's still a decent substance of it ahead, but so far there's enough for me to put her here.

7) Winter Schnee

Again, as with Weiss, I think Winter will have some development in coming volumes, but I do think the majority of her focus was in volume 8. I love her relationships with Penny and her siblings, her relationship with Jacques, the Ace-Ops, and the way she became the maiden was bittersweet, agonizing, and hopeful at the same time. She would have died there at Ironwood's hands if not for Penny, but it's unfair, because of Penny's then death. But it's perfectly compliments and foils both Penny's and Cinder's arcs, because Winter had been in line to receive the maiden power. But she couldn't receive it because she was supposed to. Instead, it was the choice of her genuine friend that gave her the powers.

8) Yang Xiao Long

I love Yang's confrontation with her mother in volume 5; it's one of my favorite dialogues in the entire show. Her struggle with abandonment fears are realistic and painful, as is her struggle with PTSD. I love that instead of learning to abandon abandoners, Yang instead is challenged through falling for Blake (whose flaw is to run and abandon). This both compliments and challenges Yang's own flaw (rushing in and hurting herself).

9) Emerald Sustrai

Emerald is also ranked lower because I feel like the crux of her arc is looming but we are just not quuuuuite there yet. I still think Maiden!Emerald is a genuine possibility, and a confrontation with Cinder lies ahead. But the heart of her arc isn't any power or even redemption: it's about her desire for family. RWBY deals in complexity, remember. Cinder might not have truly cared for Em the way Em did for her, but Mercury does. Emerald should be instrumental to saving Mercury.

10) Oscar Pine

Again I think the crux of his arc lies ahead, but he's incredibly compelling to me, and his struggle to not want to be Ozpin's latest bodily host and to remain himself is at the heart of RWBY's themes: what makes us who we are?

11) Ruby Rose

I fully expect Ruby to work her way to the top 5 in the next few seasons, though. I just feel like we haven't gotten to the meat of her arc yet, even though she's one of my favorite characters in the story. So she's like simmering in the background.

12) Jaune Arc

I also think Jaune will work his way up. I think his arc has been excellently conducted so far, going from a coward to a hero. However, I think a major part of his arc will be in the fallout from killing Penny, so I'm excited to see it but it leaves him down the list... for now.

Special shout-outs to Ilia Amitola and Qrow.

[asturlavi]

oh boy, do i have wonderful beast oda/odazai info for you all since this may just be my favorite chapter in all of beast. it clarified a lot about oda's state in this au, and how sad it truly is, especially with all that dazai has done to ensure that oda's safety is certain

before i start, this was initially intended to be a quirky little twitter thread that’s supposed to be kicked off with a badly drawn doodle of something meme. the thread was supposed to be about how wonderfully dumb odasaku can be and how annoyingly frustrating dazai is in the latest beast chapter... and then it slowly devolved into a crudely written essay about small discoveries i’ve made that most likely haven’t been pointed out before, so i recommend that anyone interested in either oda or odazai to check this out 

so i finally got around to reading the new beast chapter and seeing how odasaku constantly devalues himself and finds that he's lesser than the average person is… sad. its been said that him and ranpo are the stars of the ada, every mission trivial with their cooperation, and yet he doesn't see any of that. thinks he struck luck when it came to his entrance exam, which he specifies that it wasn't as a result of his own skills. his inferiority complex is embedded so deep that despite his achievements, he doesn't at all believe he has any worth as a human.

i'm just a tired, ordinary man like you could find anywhere. a third-rate detective, as unexceptional as a fallen cigarette butt on the road.

and his entrance exam was just like dazai's: the azure messenger case, which we all know wasn't at all a walk in the park. one mistake, and it would spell disaster for the city that the ada was trying to protect. no--not just the city, it would also mean the end of the ada as we know it. despite it all, he resolved it much to his own surprise, and it was all thanks to an "unexpected" gift. and that gift? who would it be other than from dazai himself? 

beast light novel ch. 3

(also, this is a shaky claim at best but I feel as if oda fully holds the capabilities to solve the case alone, but dazai knew that with odasaku's persistent feelings of self-doubt, along with his lack of some of the vivacity that dazai held to weasel his way through to information, the outcome of success wouldn’t be guaranteed. and so, dazai lent him something to ensure his success)

and yet, oda is blind to see truly how much intellect and skill he possesses. he doesn't realize how integral he was to the quest of the azure messenger, doesn't acknowledge that without him these orphans would have either slipped into a life of crime, gone to a downtrodden orphanage, or simply passed away, and he doesn't know that despite it all, he's one of the purest characters in the story, even with the darkness that will forever cling to him, a reminder of the violence that marred his past.

not to mention that oda, in one way or another, effectively analyzed the current situation that they're stuck in. he noted that if things currently go the way they're going, no matter what akutagawa achieves, him and his sister are doomed. so, oda brilliantly decided to go after the port mafia itself to prepare for this possibility, and it's nothing short of genius. and dazai plays along with this… because it is oda, after all. 

and everything dazai did, everything he sacrificed, it was all for oda.

now to the underlying tragedy of this chapter. take a look at this panel: 

ever since then, i've been making a living by solving requests that come to the detective agency.

i provide for the orphans

i drink coffee.

i gamble a bit on days off.

at night, i write a novel in the kitchen. 

that's my life.

nothing unusual, right? you'd think that odasaku was satisfied with life, since he has everything he had ever wished for. but in all actuality, he still lacks one important thing.

and that's friendship.

his words sounded so… empty. achieving ones dreams is but one aspect of life that brings one gratification, but doesn't necessarily mean it would guarantee lasting happiness. (think of famous actors or celebrities that spiral into depression even after they've achieved their dreams).

in that panel, he says he cares for the orphans, gambles, and writes alone in his spare time, but not a word of spending time with friends… something he had in the root universe, something that was lost to him in this one.

and he says this all with his face blacked out, as if he's somewhat implicitly dissatisfied (while the kid's faces are present, not at all concealed).

with dazai, he found peace in a place where peace is rare to find. They both completely put their guard down with each other around, and dazai can relax his overly speculative mind with oda. and they understood each other, a level of understanding rare to come by. dazai with his dark jokes easily flies past oda's ears because that's what they are, harmless jokes. and oda with his blunt honesty, which dazai cherishes and never prods him for it.

dazai also saw things in oda that oda was blind to. dazai saw a world of beauty in oda, the ray of light beneath a cloudy sky. he saw both intelligence and wisdom, kindness and generosity. and most of all, he trusted oda, despite dazai’s natural inclination to distrust.

and what oda saw in dazai was vulnerability. despite the front that dazai puts, he can be kind, even empathetic, when the situation calls for it. dazai once gave akutagawa a decision to turn his back against dazai’s offer to join the port mafia, when logic points to the fact that he didn't have to, but wanted to.

dazai also consistently gives atsushi words of advice and shows understanding when dazai was under no obligation to, such as atsushi facing the loss of his previous caretaker. dazai gave atsushi genuine advice, not laced with any malice or ill intent. dazai had even left atsushi to grieve alone, fully understanding that atsushi needed to pour his emotions out in private. there’s more than enough instances of dazai showing this side of himself in both the light novels and manga, but it seems to sometimes be brushed aside. even though the main cast of characters always dismissed this side of dazai, oda has always known that this side of dazai was his truest self.

oda and dazai also talked endlessly about trivial things, calling each other daily for two hours for no reason other than that they each enjoy one another's company. it's pure, wholesome love. they had a mutual trust and understanding between one another, which ango, another friend of theirs, severely lacked in his friendship with them.

oda's dream was to write, gone unfulfilled in the root universe, but he died happily knowing that the one he cares for is living in the path of light. dazai's was to find a reason to live, which he found in oda, and continues to use this as motivation long after oda passed.

in beast, dazai's dream was cut short, ultimately leading to his demise at the end. after all, his one reason to live is now robbed from him. however, oda's dreams have become a reality, but can one really say he achieved happiness? he has the orphans, his children, but they will never understand him like dazai had. he has peace, but is it the form of peace he wanted? spending time alone, on things like gambling, while endlessly mulling how he has no one to spend this time with?

and writing, his one true wish that dazai made absolutely sure to make a reality. but was it worth it, at the cost of a friend who brought happiness and reprieve when everyone else failed to?

i thought of this tale as a matter of equivalent exchange, you lose one life in exchange for another. the scales do remain somewhat balanced, but not over a matter of lives. it's over a matter of personal sacrifices, ones only known to us readers.

and i say "somewhat" because in the root universe, dazai remembered oda when he was alive, so well that dazai can recall memories to near perfection. but oda had completely forgotten dazai in beast, chasing after absent memories and deluding himself into thinking his life is perfect, while numbing himself from the aching hole of loneliness that consumes him inside.

also, oda is surely happy spending time with the children, but what about his lonesome hours? who is he going to spend that time with, in a world without dazai, the only person who understood him and his oddities?

ah, and remember this moment in the root universe? 

now, take a look at this again. no, look closer 

odasaku wasn’t merely gambling for the sake of it, he was gambling on a horse race. and before dazai was arrested in the root universe, he was seen doing just that. 

now, why would odasaku do this? he surely doesn’t seem the type to gamble away his money on something as silly as horse races, because what does someone gain while they pour their money into something so senseless? 

and the only reason i could arrive to is that dazai must have dragged him along to one. dazai is a port mafia executive, with more money than he knows what to do with and a boatload of depression. money probably disinterests him as much as life does, and he used gambling to kill two birds with one stone: ridding of money he doesn’t need, and distracting him from his boredom (and depression). 

and it doesn’t end there. remember when dazai in dead apple had visited bar lupin to pay his regards to odasaku, while reliving a pleasant memory dazai had with him? and he did this because he was preparing for a quest that may result in with the loss of his life, psyching himself up for what’s to come. this is probably bordering on speculation, but i believe that that’s precisely what he did once again in the horse races. dazai paid a visit to a place that oda and him had frequented, to prepare for another dangerous quest. 

also, note that immediately after exiting bar lupin in dead apple, dazai was confronted by ango, which kicked off the start of dazai’s plans. a similar thing happens in the manga, dazai spending time in a place that he and oda had gone to, this time the horse races, and his plan whirls into motion as jono arrests him. i think these similarities are deliberate, in order to establish their significance to dazai and oda. 

this long winded explanation’s purpose was only for me to go back to this panel once again, and say that everything oda spoke about doing, from spending time with his kids, to brewing coffee, to betting on horse races, and to writing in the kitchen, were all moments he had with dazai. 

and see that he has an extra chair that sits unused in the kitchen? at first, i thought it was there for the sake of being there. then, it slowly dawned on me that odasaku and dazai had noted in the dark era light novel that they made a habit of visiting each other, so it wouldn’t be illogical to conclude that it was a chair meant for dazai. a place where he can spend some private moments together with oda underneath the dimly lit kitchen, drinking in the scent of odasaku’s coffee and talking about things that distracts them from their troubles while odasaku whittles away at his manuscript. 

and one last thing before i end this out of sheer laziness, take a look at this photograph of oda from the final moments of the beast light novel.

as oda stated in the manga and light novel, he worked on his manuscript alone in the kitchen... but in the photograph, he wasn’t alone. he’s posing for a picture. relaxed, poised, as if entertaining the one taking the photo. and besides, wasn’t it dazai who insisted on taking photographs in bar lupin with ango and oda in dark era? he must have done the same in that very moment in the beast universe, but this time in anticipation of oda forgetting him. 

in the end, it seems oda and dazai left each other in similar ways, foolishly believing they've sacrificed their lives for each other to better the other's life, but all they did was create worlds where the feeling of happiness will be lost to both respective parties, while also resigning each other to a life of loneliness.

they've forgotten about their one happiness that stems from just being around one another, listening to the soothing tune of jazz playing softly as they talk into the night, the world lost to them as they're absorbed in one another's presence.

it seems like their story is a tragedy of what happens when you love someone too much, to the point that you delude yourself into thinking you're but a tool for their happiness, and with you gone, nothing will change.

but things did change, didn't they?