#ke essays

[frontlinebicepsoftheninth]

I saw you tagged killing eve in the 'worst series finale' poll - how *does* it end? I watched the first two seasons and then lost interest. (also I hope you're having a good day!)

first of all thank you i am and i hope you are too!!

but alright here we go ⚠️⚠️ MAJOR SPOILER WARNING MAJOR SPOILER WARNING ⚠️⚠️ for anyone who does want to watch for themselves bc tbh the first few seasons are excellent but i honestly don't know if i can recommend them anymore in good faith after knowing where it all ends up

so okay. you know how the whole crux of the show is this intense psychosexual relationship between eve and villanelle. and how there's an obvious romantic tension between them. well from what i remember (cause it's been a while) they started actually working together in season 3, but then because they realized they make each other worse they had this whole dramatic moment where they walked away from each other on a bridge and weren't supposed to look back but of course they both did turn around at the last second and then the season ends.

flash forward to season 4 and you can tell time has passed and they aren't working together and it's implied there was some big falling out and we have no idea what it is. eve is just annoyed and done with villanelle and villanelle is like trying to prove she's not a bad person and goes to church and stuff and actually that plot was extremely hilarious and she imagined up a drag jesus version of herself for advice and they were acting like exes and it was playing into the whole comedic surrealism aspect of the show really well. but after the first few episodes it just kinda fell apart like i just remember feeling lost all season and not understanding where we were going and this is definitely due to the changing showrunners (they should have just kept pwb for the whole thing!!!!) but they kept adding new characters out of nowhere, some of which were really well done but then we were following plots that were thrown in randomly and it was just a bit of a mess.

but eventually by the LITERAL SERIES FINALE eve and villanelle have both given in to the fact that they enjoy being in each other's company as the worst versions of themselves (which is honestly such a fun direction to go that i really enjoyed especially for a sapphic pairing). and after they've been apart for a vast majority of the season finally they have this good banter going and it's all domestic and then there's a scene where they're walking down an empty road together and this romantic music comes in. and they finally literally actually have The Moment. like they had kissed before in the previous season but not in an explicitly romantic way, they were physically fighting each other on a public bus and eve kissed villanelle to throw her off before headbutting her (SO GRIDDLEHARK OF THEM THAT SCENE IS ACTUALLY SO GOOD) anyways. villanelle kisses eve on the cheek and then eve stares at her and grabs her and they make out for a solid FORTY-FIVE SECONDS. it was so intense and they're kissing as they're stumbling down the road and they run back to the camper van they were travelling in and it's for sure implied that they have sex in there. so everyone was like oh my fucking god they actually did it. like this is where the show was always going, it's a whole I Can Make You Worse thing where both people were like "fuck it i'll be worse then" and gave in to the tension that had been building for years not just within the plot but FOR VIEWERS SINCE 2018.

so i don't exactly remember what happens next but the whole season they've been trying to kill The Twelve which was the assassin group in charge of villanelle, and we find out carolyn was a founding member actually, and i will be honest that plot was always confusing to me but iirc she wasn't with them anymore. so eve and villanelle infiltrate this wedding party boat that's a cover for a meeting of The Twelve (this is like the last 10 minutes of the show now) and they kiss again and there's a scene where it's like they're indirectly talking to each other through the wedding speech that eve somehow ends up giving and that's so romantic too and then villanelle slinks off, finds the meeting, and murders everyone. so yay the protagonists are together finally and villanelle killed her abusers and they are finally in happy gay love. then out of fucking nowhere as they're standing outside on the boat villanelle starts to get shot at. (this is literally the last five minutes of the entire show now) and she falls into the river or maybe jumps in to get away i don't remember and she's still getting shot and eve is swimming to try to catch her. and it's all this dramatic slow-mo beautifully shot stuff that's like horrible in context cause the blood is blooming in the water and eve can't reach villanelle and they do a whole creation of adam hand reach before villanelle slips into the depths.

so literally eve had just thrown away any chance at a normal life to embrace the side of her that loves violence and loves villanelle so they could spend the rest of their life together and that was such a slay. and then she loses villanelle which like, if they wanted a tragic ending it would have been kinder to kill them both, it's so much fucking worse to leave eve spending the rest of her life mourning the one person who understood her and let her give in to her carnal desires. and it is directly after letting the two queer characters finally achieve happiness that one of them is killed off which is the DEFINITION of the bury your gays/dead lesbian syndrome tropes, there have been literal academic papers written on how the phenomenon is like a punishment for queer joy etc etc. this shit has been in the discourse for decades and they fell dead center into the trope which is just so disappointing because at the start ke was such a unique story and one of the first mainstream shows that embraced morally gray queer characters in a way that wasn't homophobic.

oh! and guess who shot villanelle? carolyn!!!! and it was still NEVER CLEAR WHY! she worked for MI6 now so it being in revenge of The Twelve didn't really add up, some people thought she wanted to kill villanelle as like a prize for MI6, it was kind of implied that konstantin told her in this note he spent his last breaths writing (yeah he also died which was the saddest tbh) that villanelle had killed carolyn's son kenny (this was a major plot point of season 3 and carolyn was trying to get revenge, he fell off a building under mysterious circumstances) but that made no sense because it was implied to be konstantin since he was on the roof with kenny and also villanelle was literally in fucking spain or something the episode when it happened.

like i get it. this is a tragic show. people die every episode. but from a writing standpoint it makes absolutely zero fucking sense to kill off one of the two main characters of your show, in the last five minutes of the show, after finally cashing in on your flagship queer romance between them, and leaving the motivation for killing her completely ambiguous.

anyways i'm so sorry that ended up this long jesus christ but tldr: killing eve ends in the worst bury your gays i have ever seen after a season that didn't even have good plot or pacing

[specialability]

Last night I couldn't fall asleep so I wrote an 800 word essay about TYK as a meta-narrative. Voilà.

"I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way." – Jessica Rabbit, Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)

One of the things I think many fans of Tian Ya Ke like about it is that, unlike the tv drama, it is something of a satire or deconstruction of the wuxia genre. If you are familiar with the usual wuxia tropes (of which I am by no means an expert) it becomes clear how Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu are merely side-characters in what normally would be Zhang Chengling's Hero's Journey. Wen Kexing should, as the mastermind of the plot that killed Zhang Chengling's family, be the manipulative and enigmatic final boss. Zhou Zishu should be the scruffy old retired martial arts master who reluctantly takes the young hero under his wing – and then conveniently dies in order to encourage the hero to come of age. Instead of following this usual track, we are shown the scandalous underbelly of the conventional wuxia narrative – which I think Priest really digs into with Tai Sui (so go read it!!!).

As a result, TYK often reads like really good fanfiction of a novel that doesn't exist. You know the type, some author's 150k magnum opus on two side-characters that in canon have barely any depth and the fanfic author goes on to add so much new characterization and world-building that it feels like an entirely different work. The kind of fanfic that makes the source material look lacking by comparison.

But it was reading lianzi's translated chapter 15 that made me look at the narrative from a different perspective as a post-modernist piece. If you've read Hamlet you're familiar with the idea of a play within a play. But then there is another play, Rozencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead, which is Hamlet from the perspective of two minor side-characters mostly taking place "off-stage". And that's really what TYK reminds me of. You know those two old muppets who sit in theatre box seats and always make snide remarks about whatever the other muppets are doing? That's where Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu are situated.

In this Chapter 15 scene they are quite literally seated on the balcony watching Cao Weining fail to pay his dinner bill while making commentary and bickering. Zhou Zishu inserts himself into the narrative by paying Cao Weining's bill, and when Cao Weining comes up to the balcony to introduce himself Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu intentionally start acting like heroic figures from fiction. As I imagine it: the camera was originally only on Cao Weining, but then the camera pans up to see the pair on the balcony and then the camera follows Cao Weining up to the balcony bringing the narrative with it. Once the camera arrives on the balcony Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu are effectively "on stage" now and have to act the part.

Thinking about this scene reminded me of many other scenes where Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu are simply standing to the side and watching the action. Two obvious examples are outside the Scorpion's brothel and Liu Qingqiao's death, but there are also other smaller scenes where Zhou Zishu alone intentionally removes himself from the frame, like when Wen Kexing and Ye Baiyi fight. I imagine the stage where the spotlight is on Liu Qingqiao as she struggles to fight for her life, while Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing are in the wings, covered by darkness, whispering to each other. They don't quite have the powers of breaking the fourth wall and become fully self- or genre-aware, but they definitely have a cynical insiders perspective on the wuxia story they have become a part of. The themes of acting and wearing masks is a common one in the whole novel, especially the differences between how people are in public vs in private. But all of this gives the novel a voyeuristic tone at times.

Zhou Zishu already chose to leave the stage of the capital city, and although he got sucked into Zhang Chengling's story he could disappear from this new stage at any moment. Wen Kexing more actively plays his role up until the bitter end. In the end, Wen Kexing is supposed to reveal his True Identity and be killed by Zhang Chengling, allowing both of them to fulfill revenge for their families. This is the ending that Wen Kexing imagined for himself, and that's the part he knew he was playing. That's why it's so touching when he asks Zhou Zishu if it's okay that he survives. If it's okay that he selfishly violates the rules of the narrative.

Then they choose to leave the stage completely. Once off the stage (in the Extras) they can act like whoever they want. The only way to live freely is to quit the main story. And acting like a good person is pretty much as close as you can get to being a good person, regardless of how your character was written.

[spiribia]

stop saying insect shame metaphor has to go. i see the wasp on the length of my arm.

[jemsbitch]

Tennyson and Hallum is so heronstairs coded and In Memoriam by Tennyson is the proof

[sirenofthegreenbanks]

n, o, t, z for the fandom ask game 😁

n: Name three things you wish you saw more of in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).

this question had me think for a bit, im mostly content with whats going on in the fandoms i participate in, buuuuuuuuuuut then i recalled:

1) i once watched a video essay on ning yi that really impressed me. (i just searched the internet up and down to link it but i cant!!! find it!!!! whatt iisss thissss) anyway, i want more of that!!! for rise of pheonixes fandom, but also for WOH and for TYK!!! i neeeeeeeeEEEed it

2) generally more academic-approached textanalysis for tian ya ke. im dYING to read something like that!

3) for the fics i would like to request MESSINESS in regards to zhou zishu and wen kexing respectfully, thank u (BONUS IF THEY HAVE AFFAIRS ON THE SIDE OR SLEEP AROUND)

o: Choose a song at random. Which ship or character does it remind you of?

i threw a dart and it landed on this which reminds me of wen kexing in that moment in the novel when hes gearing up to slaughter mo huaiyang and hes all exhausted and bleeding but he needs to avenge his a-xiang‘s silly little husband. (i lied i dont have darts. i clicked next in my epic orchestral music playlist and this is what showed up.)

(while im typing this this started playing and now im thinking about elizabeth swan ,, ,,,, im so gay)

t: Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending? 

the headcanon i told u last night, about zzs and ljx! i dare u to reread qiye!!! come fight meeeeeeee!!!!!

z: Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go! (Prompts optional but encouraged.)

UM. ive always been very passionate about fictional characters and fictional worlds. when we were kids i would share comics with my brother and we would read them together, when i grew out of my childhood books my sister inherited them and grew to love them just as much as i do. my mom is not a tokio hotel fan per se, and she doesnt watch the same shows or read the same books as me, but we tell each other what we are currently invested in and she loves seeing what i create. fandom can looks like anything, it can be small and offline and familiar and private like what i just described, or it can be subscribing to magazines and read the fan theories and fan letters that are published in it. it can be organizing big events like conventions and forge a bridge between fans and the source material. it can be a community on social media like here on tumblr. but its in its essence all the same, people—sometimes literal strangers— forming connections to eachother simply because they are all in some way moved by the same thing, generating new thought and creativity everyday and cultivating a culture of communication and cultural exchange, entirely seperate from our capitalist society, and i think thats really beautiful

fandom ask game

[today-threat]

[the-official-account]

TRUE TTRPG FACT: stars and wishes is a crucial step to finding out if you won the game :3

[jade-curtiss]

Voir le band local sur les app, voir les memes dans le top 5. Good job 👀

[thenerdsofcolor]

When Something is Nearly 'Everything'

In light of its #Oscars wins, poet and O.G. #NOC Bao Phi addresses some of the #EEAAO backlash and what some of those critiques miss about the film more broadly

There’s no fucking way they’re gonna be able to land this, I thought to myself. I’m in a movie theater seeing Everything Everywhere All at Once for the first time. I had heard about it long ago, and was cautiously optimistic. (more…) “”

[catboyebooks]

re: chapter 3 closing thoughts.

i actually want to start by backing up and talking about the overall Mood that this chapter establishes, before talking about anything relating to the trial. right out of the gate, the third island looks and feels very different than the previous two. islands one and two are geared towards tourists; they're picturesque tropical islands with plenty of unspoiled scenery, buildings are clean and upscale and well-maintained, stores are fully stocked, and while it's eerie in a "did everyone just vanish overnight?" way it certainly fits the picture of a tropical beach getaway. the third island is grimier, seedier, and much more clearly abandoned. the buildings are run-down and creepy and the whole island is in a general state of disrepair that suggests no one has been here for a long time, even though this is also where we first see proof of the full-time residents that would logically have to be here to keep the tourist stuff operational. this isn't a mystery exactly, anyone who played the first game already knows that there's been an apocalypse and that's the easy explanation as to why no one else is here, but it's still a big shift from the "beautiful island vacation" vibe of the first two islands.

this wouldn't be such a dramatic shift except that once the despair fever stuff happens, hinata winds up stuck inside a creepy abandoned hospital all day every day while everyone who isn't sick or taking care of the sick is quarantining at a creepy abandoned motel nearby. it's claustrophobic, especially so because they're still technically at the beach, where (as pointed out this chapter) the weather is gorgeous every day. maybe it's just me but i think the fact that they are technically free to leave and go hang out at the beach but have collectively decided that they can't/shouldn't heightens the claustrophobic feeling, as does the contrast between their dismal surroundings and the tropical paradise waiting just outside. dr1 was claustrophobic throughout but for a straightforward and obvious reason — they were all physically trapped inside their old high school building — but the sdr2 crowd is just as trapped, even though a tropical island doesn't tend to invoke that same feeling of claustrophobia. this chapter is where i really started to think about that, because the quarantining really highlights it. whether they go out and enjoy the beach or spend all day cooped up in a hospital, they're still ultimately (hehe) trapped here, and once again they find nothing that would enable them to escape the island.

the other thing i wanted to say related to the overall tone this chapter is that this one is a rollercoaster before the motive is even introduced. there's a recurring pattern this chapter where 1) something bad happens, but 2) the group manages to work through the issue maturely and seemingly come out on top of it only for 3) something else bad to immediately knock them back down from that high. to show you what i mean i've picked 3 examples, but there are more that one could pick out:

saionji tries to create a memorial for koizumi but it's creepy and everyone hates it (Something Bad Happens), but once they realize it was made with good intentions and just wound up looking janky the group opinion shifts and saionji is recognized as having done something sweet for a dead friend (good and surprisingly mature), but then two people who missed that whole conversation show up and say it's awful and they hate it, making saionji cry again (bad)

despite having suffered a serious injury (bad), kuzuryuu makes a speedy recovery and is clearly a changed man now, intending on making things right between him and the others (good & mature), but saionji refuses to forgive him and continues berating him for what he's done until the guilt causes him to attempt to disembowel himself in front of them (Bad)

ibuki performs a disturbing song which distresses everyone (bad, though i liked it), but this leads into a conversation between saionji and kuzuryuu where she's clearly moving towards forgiving him for his role in previous deaths (good, surprisingly mature), but immediately after that everyone has to intervene in the fight between owari and monokuma and nidai is almost killed (bad)

i think this all serves to illustrate a couple points about this group, and again i want to contrast them with the dr1 cast here. part of it i've said before: this group comes together as a more cohesive team early on. they have their differences with each other, some of them pretty major, but they're committed to working together as a group to prevent any deaths from occurring and figure out a way to escape the island. the teamwork may not always go all that smoothly, but it can't be denied that they're trying, and it shows. they've grown a lot closer to each other. there's clearly some base level of trust that's being established. talking it out with each other usually works. they don't squabble over petty teenager shit nearly as much as the dr1 cast did, and even when they do these are low-level conflicts that seldom escalate. instead, this group is dealing with some much more serious interpersonal problems, and those problems keep driving them to violence. even before the motive is introduced, kuzuryuu tries to disembowel himself after saionji berates him and nidai nearly gets killed trying to protect owari from monokuma, whom she would never have attempted to fight if not for the conflict between her and nidai this chapter.

what i'm trying to say here is that even though this group is trying their best to work together to prevent deaths and to escape (and, yeah, i guess also to make friends and deepen their bonds with each other like monomi wants), it feels as though their best might not be enough. the issues they're facing are too big and too many, and go way beyond simply "they're trapped in a killing game together" as was the case in dr1. the first game ended with us learning that that entire class had actually become friends and lived together in relative peace for two years, including a year of being in lockdown; the tragedy was that they would have all been friends if not for the killing game. i think most people would agree that the idea of being locked inside a high school indefinitely while the apocalypse rages on outside is highly stressful and would make for a tough environment in which to befriend others and coexist peacefully with them, especially if you're all teenagers. certainly more stressful than being at a tropical beach resort indefinitely with a bunch of other young adults. yet here it seems the opposite point is being illustrated — conflict would have arisen within this group even if there wasn't a killing game. the original concept for this trip where everyone was just supposed to hang out and make friends and this would cure them of despair brain would not have worked. in fact, the reason they all try so hard to work together, why they're able to unite under a shared goal, is that they are in a killing game. like sorry if this sounds like komaeda apologism again (also, not actually sorry) but he's right that the killing game needed to happen, though not really for the reasons he thinks. it's VR, the deaths aren't real, but the things they learn about each other and themselves from this experience are real, and the bonds they form with each other are real. or i guess you could say they need to overcome despair to achieve an even greater hope, whatever

[pplydm]

ePUB#99

Title: You

Author: Caroline Kepnes

Caroline Kepnes’ book “You” is the type of book that had me ignoring its own writing and editing technicalities by reason of its sinister plot and its infamous sadistic narrator Joe Goldberg. It scores 0 out of 5 (5 being the highest) in terms of decency. Every sentence that comes out of Joe's mouth is corrupt. Trembling fingers accompany my every page turning of this book. All chapters were Joe's gruesome thoughts alike a mental diary with entries regarding Beck, his fantasies and diabolical plans for the future. He was unlikable thus making the entire text repellent too. Chapters 51 and 52 would've been a meaningful eulogy delivered by Joe for Beck's funeral.

To soothe the disgust I gathered whilst reading this, I imagine that there are novels far more brutal and heinous than this. To be fair, it took me years before adding this to books I want to read and to convince myself that there may be a tad bit to desire from its vile themes. Caroline Kepnes holds a brilliant brain, to conjure the darkest level of human nature and the worst case of obsession joined with unstable psychological state. This book aced the mystery and thriller genre; high effectiveness is an understatement. After consuming this though I may take a break from anything Caroline Kepnes.

[westviewtroubles]

Across The Room

Pairing: Eddie Munson x Female Reader

Synopsis: Eddie finally gets to talk to the girl that he can't stop looking at.

Word count: 1.9k

Warnings: fluff!

A/N: I might already have a second part planned for this... Let's take this great amount of activity as my belated one-year anniversary present for this account!

Part 2 is out now Part 3 is also out!

There was something about the girl sitting on the other side of the cafeteria that seemed to pull Eddie's gaze to her, like an opposite pole of a magnet would do. Her shoulders were usually slightly slouched, her eyes too occupied by the notebook he never saw her without. He'd never actually heard her talk, but from the way her lips moved, he'd bet his life on it being the most gorgeous sound one could be blessed to hear.

One time he had passed her in the hall, her head buried in a textbook. Dustin had been talking about their D&D campaign, but one word went in one ear and out the other, the boy too occupied with the smell of daisies that lingered when she passed by. He'd never really liked flowery scents, but after that, whenever he saw daisies, he couldn't help but smile.

He'd never admit it, but her smile was his favorite thing in the world. Whenever he saw her smile, he'd keep wondering what she was smiling over, wishing that he could be the one who made her smile.

Of course, she never saw him. But he desperately wished she did.

You were surrounded by your friends, half-heartedly listening to them talk about a movie that had just come out that they were excited to go see. Your neck had started to hurt from straining it, holding up the sketchbook in your lap, prepared to hide it from anyone that passed by.

There he was, sitting in the same spot he always sat at, on the other side of the cafeteria, talking to his friends. When he threw a cashew at one of his friends with a playful grin on his face, you chuckled to yourself quietly, trying to commit the image to your memory.

Looking down at your sketchbook, you smiled at the unfinished drawing of him, still in the middle of sketching his curly hair, and when he stood up, the light coming from the windows behind him made him look... ethereal.

Of course, he never saw you. But you desperately wished he did.

History was one of your strongest subjects, and when Mrs. Click had asked for volunteers to tutor other students, you'd been the first to sign up, but it had been so long, that you had already forgotten all about it until your teacher had asked you to stay after class.

"I saw that you'd signed up to tutor some other students." Mrs. Click said, not looking up from the tests that she was marking. "Are you still free?"

The thought of tutoring students wasn't exactly appealing to you, already dealing with piles of homework and starting essays to apply for colleges, but when she looked up at you with a demanding look, you couldn't help but nod. "Yes, of course."

"Great." She said, looking back down at her desk, "Your first lesson is with a repeating student, at three. I've reserved the library for your lesson, and you can agree with him on later lessons. That'll be all."

"Great." You muttered under your breath as soon as you got out of her classroom, internally cursing yourself for ever signing up.

"Look, Dustin, I have to do it or Click's gonna fail me again."

"Can't you do it any other day?" Dustin groaned, looking up at Eddie as he tried to keep up with his long strides. "I mean, we've been planning this campaign for weeks and we're supposed to start it today."

"I know, and we're going to. I just need to do this stupid tutoring thing, and as soon as it's over we'll start. It's probably like two hours, max. Tell the rest of Hellfire that I'll be there as soon as I can."

"We can just start without you."

"Don't you dare, Henderson." Eddie said, turning to Dustin with a pointed finger and raised brows. "I'll be there."

Eddie could hear the boy groan behind him, yet he walked away with determination, leaving Dustin behind.

Your gaze kept shifting between your wristwatch and the giant clock on the wall as you kept scribbling on your sketchbook, your foot tapping almost in rhythm to the ticking on your wrist.

It was almost three, and there was no one in sight. You'd already spent an hour in the library, catching up on your own homework, and now you were waiting for the person you were supposed to be tutoring without even knowing their name. You kept telling yourself that if they weren't there five minutes past three, you'd go home, and make up an excuse if Mrs. Click cared enough to ask.

But as if on cue, you heard the library door open, turning your head to see who it was.

He was standing there, his ring-clad hands gripping a history textbook, his eyes slightly widening when he saw you, the smile that slowly twisted on his lips causing you to react in a similar way.

The spell was broken when you heard a sudden clacking, only then realizing that he had dropped his book to the ground, and the boy quickly picked it up. You chuckled, turning back to your table and closing your sketchbook with a smile on your face.

He made his way to you briskly, looking at you up and down before settling to look at your face. "Are you my tutor?" He asked, and his voice was just as you'd imagined it to be, but better.

"Yeah, my name-"

"I know." He said, clearing his throat when he realized he had interrupted you. "I'm Ed-"

"I know, Eddie." You chuckled, quickly looking down at your feet before smiling up at him, "Do you wanna get started?"

"Sure."

"You can sit next to me or on the other side of the table, but it might be easier if you sit next to me so I can-"

He didn't even have to say anything to interrupt you, the boy already having pulled back the chair next to yours as you nodded, sitting down with him.

You started to go through the basics with him, telling Eddie about what would likely be on the test, the boy's eyes almost trained on you, the thought of it making blood rush to your cheeks. He kept nodding when you spoke, and you weren't sure if he was actually listening or doing it as a courtesy, but you hoped it was the former.

"So, Joan of Arc was..."

"She led the French army to victory over the English during the Hundreds' Year war. She was executed in 1431 for heresy at 19, and in 1920 canonized as a saint." He said, repeating what you said almost word-for-word, and when he looked to you for confirmation, you couldn't help the smile taking over your lips. "Did I get it right?"

"Yeah. Good job."

When you looked into each other's eyes with similar smiles on both your lips, no words were exchanged, but you knew. You finally saw one another.

[heartbreakprincewille]

Masculinity In Young Royals

So, in honour of Ke Huy Quan and the team of Everything Everywhere All At Once sweeping the Oscars(been crying about it since morning), I was watching this BRILLIANT video essay(check it out it's so well thought out!) about Waymond(Ke's character) and this gave me thoughts about Young Royals as well, because hyperfixations go hand-in-hand, right? :)

Masculinity, and especially different portrayals and aspects of its prevalent notions is a theme brilliantly explored in the two seasons of Young Royals. I wanted to talk about some characters, and this list will progress from worse to better(not using the word perfect because nuance > perfection).

Note: The traits I will discuss further are not restricted to just a cis or male perspective, anyone can exhibit these traits, but since assertion of masculinity is a constant spectacle in Young Royals, I will associate some traits with it.

1. Vincent

Vincent, especially in S2, embodies the worst traits on the masculinity spectrum, and since his character is understandably not offered the privilege of nuance, he comes off as this typical, toxic, sort of "alpha-male" character, especially after he's elected as the prefect and Rowing Captain. He constantly bullies others, especially Simon, tries to enforce the hierarchy of privilege and class firstly through August and then by himself. As soon as he sees an opportunity shown by Wilhelm to take control in his hands, he doesn't take much time to betray his "friend", August(although August of all people getting betrayed is certainly irony at its best). He kinda reminds me of the Royal Court in some ways- their presence furthering the divide of tradition and social systems in their respective environments.

2. August

The only reason August is not placed higher than Vincent in this list is the privilege of nuance August is provided with throughout the story. This nuance is what sets him apart in the narrative, but is also the thing which dooms him as a character.

August is misogynistic, sexist, classist, obsessed with power and privilege and feels entitled to both of them, set to further the class divide just like Vincent. He stokes his ego like fire, and if someone tries to cross him, he does not hesitate to burn them with the flames, like Wilhelm exposing his money issues and August violating Wilhelm and Simon's privacy in return. He's manipulative, he's calculative, he knows how to scheme things in his favour(failed attempts, though) and he's just a walking red flag of a person. He also falls around the worse side of the spectrum of masculinity.

But, he is offered nuance by the narrative. In S1, it's in the form of familial and personal issues: his dad killing himself, financial problems, addiction issues and possible issues of body dysmorphia. In S2, through his relationship with Sara, we are shown a different side of him- a side that is capable of being vulnerable, capable of being soft, and this almost sparks this hope within the audience that maybe August can change a little, for the better.

But then he's offered a chance of power and his hamartia is revealed to the audience: his inability to change. The greatest tragedy (which is also its brilliance) with August's character is he cannot change for the better. Even if he tries to. He can have opprtunities to grow, but it will be a Herculean labour for him to take advantage of those opportunities and actually change. He is so deeply entrenched in his perceptions of toxic masculinity and power and lost in his conceited, privileged worldview that it's quite hard for him to see the light at the end of the tunnel. And it's what sets him apart in the narrative- despite all his nuance, he is still a terrible person at his core. The nuance is just what separates him from all his shallow and one-dimensional preceding antagonists of the past.

3. Nils

Nils brings a neutral perspective to the extreme hyper-masculine and cishet dynamics upheld by August and Vincent. He's revealed to be queer in S2, but chooses to be discreet about it- which gives him a chance to build solidarity with both his cishet peers(Vincent and August) as well as a fellow queer person (Wille). He's not dismissive of Wilhelm's queerness, but he believes it to be something "better behind close doors". He's one of the few people who actually acknowledges Wilhelm and Simon's relationship, but is also dismissive of it, mainly because of the difference in their social standings. He's devoid of the typical "heteronormative" traits associated with masculinity, especially in S2, but he still uphelds the toxic class hierarchy and privilege.

4. Simon

Simon is a quite interesting character to me on this list because he subverts these traits in a very unique way.

Usually canonically gay characters in media are often stereotyped to possess "feminine" traits, which is NOT a bad thing at all, BUT mostly the portrayal of such characters usually leans more towards the mockery of the "feminine" traits, rather than something which strengthens the queerness of that character.

Simon is actually very different from this famous rendition of gay characters- he's actually very masculine in his behaviour. He exhibits two typical masculine behaviours in general:

1. "Man Of The House", or taking the mantle of emotional(and sometimes financial) stability in a house in one's own hands. He often takes matters in his own hand, especially when Sara says or does something that disrupts the peace of their little family. It's interesting because despite being the youngest person in the family, Linda subconsciously lets him take the mantle on his shoulders, without realizing how heavy it can be. And consequenty, it brings us down to the second trait:

2. "Suppressing emotions", or avoiding being vulnerable in public spaces or with people one loves and trusts. Simon constantly shoves what he's feeling deep in his heart, he refuses to break open in front of people, in front of Wille(S2 E6 gun scene) and would go to lengths to maintain a facade of "everything's fine!" even if he's breaking inside. It makes sense because his backstory alludes to hesitation to open up to people and it can be possibly related to his familial trauma, but it's still interesting nevertheless because he shows incredible emotional maturity throughout the story, much more than his predecessors on this list. He's devoid of both the toxic traits of heteronormativity and elitist behaviour associated with "masculinity" in Young Royals, but he still possesses a different set of problems associated with orthodox masculinity.

5. Wilhelm

Wilhelm is, in my opinion, the closest example to what is emerging as the new definition of "masculinity" in the current media. Wilhelm, through his immense emotional journey and growth in the two seasons, subverts all the traits of masculinity displayed by his predecessors in the list with grace and humility.

He's not obsessed with upholding traditions and asserting heteronormativity like Vincent and August, he is quite indifferent to it in S1, the only "compulsion" he feels to do so is immediately after Erik's death in S1, which he quickly overcomes as well. His "revenge" attempts on August by pulling rank and exercising his privilege stems from a feeling of injustice and anger rather than something he enjoys or feels the need to practice at all.

August's hamartia is Wilhelm's strength. Wilhelm, unlike August, displays great capacity to change for the better, which he constantly does throughout the story. Love knocks on both of their doors as an opportunity to grow, to change for the better, and while Wilhelm embraces it, August slaps the door shut on its face.

Unlike Nils, neither Wilhelm's queerness was never given a chance to be discreet in the first place, nor he ever felt the need to do so. The idea of keeping his and Simon's relationship a secret was more of an idea subconsciously conceived by Kristina in Wilhelm's head rather than his own desire to be secretive.

Wilhelm even subverts the traits displayed by Simon in this regard- the position of the "Man Of The House" falls on him in the form of "Crown Prince of Sweden", and although he understandably struggles with the role initially, by the end of S2, he consciously embraces the role with grace and humility. Compared to Simon, Wilhelm wears his heart on his sleeve, he is not afraid to express his true emotions to the people he love and trusts, and even to strangers.

[yehsahihai]

Things I’ve said while editing my friend’s essay:

I TOLD YOU TO GET MORE SLEEP. NOW LOOK AT THIS BRAINFUCK

Sometimes, just sometimes, a semi colon goes a long way

WHY ARE YOU SHOVING HOWEVER EVERYWHERE?????

Reyyy ni….

Some brain also you have or you donated it?

Hein???

Why is there such a disconnect between your thoughts and what’s on the doc?????

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING IN ENGLISH HL FOR TWO YEARS?

*incomprehensible noises of wanting to strangle someone and still trying to be nice*

Have you even read your essay again???

“the opposition towards the approach to enforce the veil upon those who don’t abide by it has clear opposition” Girl……are you high? 

What even is mediatory bey?

You have bullshitted so much, my god

“Holistic approach” what is this? A school?

Shhhh. Let me think because clearly………..you didn’t

What even is grammar, amirite?

I think, I need a new brain. 

How many times will you repeat the same idea in updated words?

WHAT IS YOUR OBSESSION WITH HOWEVER?

Confide to the law? The law is your friend that you confide to it? 

*indeterminable levels of confusion* Hein????????

People of god? PeOpLe Of GoD?? Did you just directly translate Allah ke bande or what?

You're footing my therapy bill

[meraki-yao]

Some people say Nick posts about mary & george when there is something about Taylor because he wants to show that he has real jobs and shift the focus to real projects god, they're so evil

Jesus Christ, fuck them. They're stirring drama for drama's sake. That's their FUCKING JOB. M&G is literally 2 weeks, 14 days away, why wouldn't Nick post about M&G? Like they didn't choose for these dates to collide, it just did.

So yeah you're right, those people are fucking evil who can't leave a good thing alone.

But honestly, I'm amused by this "argument"/"criticism", and I'll tell you why (warning: discussion of real-person shipping under the cut, please don't read if you're uncomfortable with the subject)

Also warning, I ended up with a short-essay, because I'm me lmao

As I mentioned before, for rwrb I'm mostly active here; but I also look at the posts and opinions of the Chinese rwrb fandom (i don't post there though, I don't have nor want to have Chinese social media accounts)

and the thing about shipping culture in China is that RP shipping is almost DEFAULT (and I can write a whole dissertation on this phenomenon if anyone wants to read it) like, if you ship a pair in a show/movie unless the actor/actress is publicly in a long term MARRIAGE, not just relationship, MARRIAGE FOR LIKE AT LEAST FIVE YEARS, the audience will automatically ship the actors too. So much so that this is part of THE MARKETING STRATEGY of all locally-produced streaming shows

Also, when I say ship, I don't mean "aww that's cute they're cute together", I mean tin hatters. I mean they genuinely try to find snips and bits in photos that might serve as proof that they're together. We call it 嗑（磕）糖 ke tang (Eating/Drugged by Candy), because in Chinese weddings candy (called 喜糖 Xi Tang "happiness"-"candy") is given to guests, and because it's sweet. The "evidence" is called "candy", and the act of looking and finding "candies" is called "eating candies".

all this to say, nearly all rwrb fans in China ship Taylor and Nick together, and they're genuinely convinced that they're together. I've seen my fair share of "candy"/"evidence" and they keep coming. (some of those i genuinely think they're trying too hard but there are really some that I see and go "...damn.")

now finally back to this ask. Nick posting when Taylor has an event, what the people mentioned in the ask is bitching about, IS CONSIDERED A CANDY. EVERYBODY IS GIGGLING AND GRINNING OVER THE FACT THAT NICK AND TAYLOR POPPED OUT TOGETHER IN THE PAST COUPLE OF EVENTS LIKE THE GQ, THE ACADEMY GALA, MILAN AND TODAY. IT'S LITERALLY THE OPPOSITE END OF THE SPECTRUM.

a last little tidbit from me and my opinion on the whole shipping thing for now: personally I don't entirely agree with the default real-person shipping, it has proven to be problematic in the past and honestly I hate how monetized it is, but 1, it's such an "everybody in the country does it" thing that I... would be lying if I said I'm not influenced by that mindset at all, 2, I know where this mindset came from and it has stuff to do with the societal pressure of young adults in the country and rebellion against traditional concepts of marriage and stuff. It's a sociology phenomenon, and when I look at it as an outsider, I find it kind of fascinating.

As for my opinion on the boy's relationship, I don't...care? I know they have a good relationship and that's all I want for them. As for what type of relationship they have, I don't really mind/care, and I don't think we should look too much into that. That's their relationship for them to define and them to publicize if they want to. I know for a fact, that they are great friends. Are they more than friends? That's unfalsifiable, and that's no one's business but their own. So that's my stance.

But I had to choose one extreme fan's reaction, rps is a much less harmful thing than the sheer amount of hate and deliberate drama-stirring I've seen. So there.