#narrative analysis

[santacoppelia]

Putting the Meta in "Metatron"

(couldn't resist the pun, sorry)

Ok, this has been tickling my brain for a while. I've been thinking about how The Metatron designed his role and discourse specifically to manipulate Aziraphale into the end result we saw in the last minutes of S2. I become obsessed with it because… well, I'm a bit obsessive, but also because there were many really smart writing decisions that I loved (even when I despise The Metatron exactly for the same reasons. Hate the character, love the writer). If you haven't watched Good Omens Season 2, this is the moment to stop reading. Come back later!

We already know that in Book Omens, the role of Gabriel in the ending was occupied by The Metatron. Of course, the series introduced us to Gabriel and we won a lot by that, but I feel that the origins of The Metatron should be considered for any of this. He is not a "sweet old man": he was the one in charge of seeing over the operation of Armageddon; not just a stickler of rules, but the main promoter for it.

However, when he appears in the series finale, we first are primed to almost pass him by. He is in the line for buying coffee, using clothes that are:

obviously not tailored (almost ill fitted)

in dark tones

looking worn and wrinkled

This seems so important to me! All the angels we have seen are so proud of their aspect, wear clear (white or off white) clothes, pressed, impeccable (even Muriel), even when they visit the Earth (which we have already seen on S1 with all the visits to the bookshop). The Metatron chose a worn, comfortable attire, instead. This is a humanized look, something that fools all the angels but which would warm up someone very specific, can you guess?

After making quite a complicated coffee order (with sort of an affable and nervous energy), he makes a question that Crowley had already primed for us when asking Nina about the name of the coffee: having a "predictable" alternative and an unpredictable one.

This creates an interesting parallel with the next scene: Michael is discussing the possibility of erasing Aziraphale from The Book of Life (a punishment even worse than Holy Water on demons, because not having existed at all, EVER is definitely worse than having existed and ceased to exist at some point) when The Metatron arrives, interrupts the moment and signals having brought coffee. Yup, an amicable gesture, but also a "not death" offering that he shows clearly to everyone (even when Michael or Uriel do not understand or care for it. It wasn't meant for them). He even dismisses what Michael was saying as "utter balderdash" and a "complete piffle", which are the kind of outdated terms we have heard Aziraphale use commonly. So, The Metatron has put up this show for a specific audience of one.

The next moment on the script has Metatron asking Crowley for the clarification of his identity. Up to this moment, every angel has been ignoring the sprawled demon in the corner while discussing how to punish Aziraphale… But The Metatron defers to the most unlikely person in the room, and the only one who will push any buttons on Aziraphale: Crowley. After that, Aziraphale can recognize him, and Metatron dismisses the "bad angels" (using Aziraphale's S1 epithet) with another "catchy old phrase", "spit spot", while keeping Muriel at the back and implying that there is a possibility to "check after" if those "bad angels" have done anything wrong.

Up to this moment, he has played it perfectly. The only moment when he loses it is when he calls Muriel "the dim one", which she ignores… probably because that's the usual way they get talked to in Heaven. I'm not sure if Aziraphale or Crowley cared for that small interaction, but it is there for us (the audience) to notice it: the sympathy the character might elicit is built and sought, but he is not that nice.

After that, comes "the chinwag" and the offer of the coffee: the unnecessarily complicated order. It is not Aziraphale's cup of tea (literally), but it is so specific that it creates some semblance of being thought with care, and has a "hefty jigger" of syrup (again with the funny old words). And, as Aziraphale recognizes, it is "very nice!" (as The Metatron "jolly hoped so"), and The Metatron approves of him drinking it by admitting he has "ingested things in my time, you know?". This interaction is absolutely designed to build a bridge of understanding. The Metatron probably knew that the first response he would get was a "no", so he tailored his connection specifically to "mirror" Aziraphale: love of tasty human treats he has also consumed, funny old words like the ones he loves, a very human, worn, well-loved look. That was the bait for "the stroll": the moment when Aziraphale and Crowley get separated, because The Metatron knew that being close to Crowley, Aziraphale would have an hypervigilant soundboard to check the sense of what he was going to get offered. That's what the nasty look The Metatron gives to Crowley while leaving the bookshop builds (and it gets pinpointed by the music, if you were about to miss it).

The next thing we listen from The Metatron is "You don't have to answer immediately, take all the time you need" in such a friendly manner… we can see Aziraphale doubting a little, and then comes the suggestion: "go and tell your friend the good news!". This sounds like encouragement, but is "the reel". He already knows how Crowley would react, and is expecting it (we can infer it by his final reaction after going back for Aziraphale after the break up, but let's not get ahead of ourselves shall we?). He even can work up Muriel to take care of the bookshop while waiting for the catch.

What did he planted in Aziraphale's mind? Well, let's listen to the story he has to tell:

"I don't think he's as bad a fellow… I might have misjudged him!" — not strange in Aziraphale to have such a generous spirit while judging people. He's in a… partnership? relationship? somethingship? with a demon! So maybe first impressions aren't that reliable anyway. The Metatron made an excellent job with this, too.

"Michael was not the obvious candidate, it was me!" — This idea is interesting. Michael has been the stickler, the rule follower, even the snitch. They have been rewarded and recognized by that. Putting Aziraphale before Michael in the line of succession is a way of recognizing not only him, but his system of values, which has always been at odds with the main archangels (even when it was never an open fight).

"Leader, honest, don't tell people what they want to hear" — All these are generic compliments. The Metatron hasn't been that aware of Aziraphale, but are in line with what would have been said of any "rebel leader". They come into context with the next phrase.

"That's why Gabriel came to you, I imagine…" — I'm pretty sure The Metatron didn't imagine this, ha. He is probably imagining that the "institutional problem" is coalescing behind his back, and trying to keep friends close, but enemies closer… while dividing and conquering. If Gabriel rebelled, and then went searching for Aziraphale (and Crowley, they are and item and he knows it), that might mean a true risk for his status quo and future plans.

Heaven has great plans and important projects for you — this is to sweeten the pot: the hefty jigger of almond syrup. You will be able to make changes! You can make a difference from the inside! Working for an old man who feels strangely familiar! And who recognizes your point of view! That sounds like the best job offer of the world, really.

Those, however, are not the main messages (they are still building good will with Aziraphale); they are thought out to build the last, and more important one:

Heaven is well aware of your "de facto partnership" with Crowley…

It would be considered irregular if you wanted to work with him again…

You, and you alone, can bring him to Heaven and restore his full angelic status, so you could keep working together (in very important projects).

Here is the catch. He brought the coffee so he could "offer him coffee", but the implications are quite clear: if you want to continue having a partnership with Crowley, you two must come to Heaven. Anything else would be considered irregular, put them in a worst risk, and maybe, just maybe, make them "institutional enemies". Heaven is more efficient chasing enemies, and they have The Book of Life as a menace.

We already know how scared Aziraphale has always been about upsetting Heaven, but he has learned to "disconnect" from it through the usual "they don't notice". The Metatron came to tell him "I did notice, and it has come back to bite you". The implied counterpart to the offer is "you can always get death". Or even worse, nonexistence (we have already imagined the angst of having one of them condemned to that fate, haven't we?)

When The Metatron arrives, just after seeing Crowley leave the bookshop, distraught, he casually asks "How did he take it?", but he already knows. That was his plan all along: making them break up with an offer Aziraphale could not refuse, but Crowley could not accept. That's why he even takes the license to slightly badmouth Crowley: "Always did want to go his own way, always asking damn fool questions, too". He also arrive with the solution to the only objection Aziraphale would have: Muriel, the happy innocent angel that he received with so much warmth and kindness, is given the opportunity to stay on Earth, taking care of the bookshop. The only thing he would have liked to take with him is not a thing, and has become impossible.

If God is playing poker in a dark room and always smiling, The Metatron is playing chess, and he is quite good at it (that's why he loves everything to be predictable). He is menacing our pieces, and broke our hearts in the process… But I'm pretty sure he is underestimating his opponents. His awful remark of Muriel being "dim"; saying that Crowley "asks damn fool questions", and even believing that Aziraphale is just a softie that can be played like a pipe… That's why telling him the project is "The Second Coming" was an absolute gift for us as an audience, and it prefigures the downfall that is coming — the one Aziraphale, now with nothing to lose, started cooking in his head during that elevator ride (those couple of minutes that Michael Sheen gifted to all of us: the shock, the pain, the fury, and that grin in the end, with the eyes in a completely different emotion). Remember that Aziraphale is intelligent, but also fierce. Guildernstern commited a similar mistake in Hamlet, and it didn't go well:

"Why, look you now, how unworthy a thing you make of me! You would play upon me, you would seem to know my stops, you would pluck out the heart of my mystery, you would sound me from my lowest note to the top of my compass, and there is much music, excellent voice, in this little organ, yet cannot you make it speak. 'Sblood, do you think I am easier to be played on than a pipe? Call me what instrument you will, though you can fret me, you cannot play upon me."

I'm so excited to learn how this is going to unfold!! Because our heroes have always been very enthusiastic at creating plans together, failed miserably at executing them, and even then succeeding… But now they are apart, more frustrated and the stakes are even higher. Excellent scenario for a third act!

*exits, pursued by a bear*

[queerfandomtrifecta]

I am begging people to stop misconstruing “this plot point totally works because random, senseless, confusing, purely bad-luck things happen all the time in real life” with valid critiques of what does and does not constitute a well crafted narrative in media.

Media is not real life. Writer’s sat down, created these characters, and decided all the things they do and what happens to them. These characters inside a fictional narrative are not real life people subjected to uncontrollable real life events. Yes, art reflects life, and that’s totally valid up to a point in that creative choices made can and often are harmful outside the scope of the show/book/etc. But “It’s supposed to be confusing because some people act like this in real life. It’s supposed to not make sense because stuff like that happens in real life. How would you treat *real person*’s death if this happened to them in real life?” Well I sure as fuck wouldn’t be here on tumblr dot com writing meta about whether or not an actual real person’s death served a narrative structure in a way that was well crafted. Who the fuck would?? The death of fictional characters happens because the writers chose for it to and those ARE NOT THE SAME THING AS REAL PEOPLE REACTING TO A REAL PERSONS DEATH FROM A REAL LIFE EVENT.

Narrative critique of media cannot be applied to real people experiencing real life, and a faulty narrative is absolutely not immune from critique because “that’s how life is so it’s realistic whether or not it makes sense”.

[gayofthefae]

Reminder that Will has to be WRONG. Not just accepted, FULLY. WRONG.

People know this. I think they just think that he needs to be wrong and what he believes is that Mike won't accept him. But that's different.

He's scared Mike won't accept him. He BELIEVES with his whole CHEST that Mike does not have feelings for him.

Acceptance will relieve him. But it will not surprise him. He is just unsure enough to be cautious but no more. He BELIEVES that the best he could do is acceptance. But he still considers it an option. He does not even consider reciprocation an option. That's why it needs to be true.

[aybri]

So I talked a bit earlier about V2's nonexistence in the actual narrative, but what the fuck is up with the prime souls?

We learn a lot about them, we get secret hidden lore from them. If V1 isn't important to the wider narrative, and neither are the creatures it fights, then why do the prime souls seem so important?

Wait, I just figured it out. Narratively, Gabriel is the protagonist. The reason the prime souls seem so important is because they are important parts of Gabriel's past. Key elements of his character.

That's why they had such amazing fights and death speeches. That's why, compared to V2, they had dignified deaths. They are important to the wider narrative, but V2 wasn't.

And because V1 matters not to the true narrative, they aren't burdened by responsibility. All they know is violence. Gaining fuel is their only goal. And so, they kill Minos and Sisyphus without any repercussions, learning more about the history of Gabriel and not really giving all that much of a shit.

[xecutivecucumber]

An excellent analysis on CX-2 and how his identity affects the narrative. It helps that it's very funny.

[b3aches]

On "The Lost Cause" by Cory Doctorow

tl;dr - The Lost Cause is an worthwhile read that provides a feeling of hope for the future. As with many novels by Cory Doctorow, it takes place in the near future and showcases one possible future.

A future where humanity is taking the drastic actions needed to manage the fallout of the climate crisis. But also a future where humanity is dealing with the backlash from the older crowd that fears change and the plutocrats that fund them.

The story is told from the point of view of Brooks Palazzo, a young adult living in Burbank California thirty years from now. The Green New Deal has passed, and he is part of the "first generation that doesn’t fear the future". He wants to make a difference in the world by joining the Blue Helmets AmeriCorps and helping to rebuild the lower half of San Juan Capistrano a mile inland.

Not everything is all rainbows and roses, however. Brook's grandfather and his Maga pals aren't huge fans of the changing world though. Neither are the plutocrats that lost out due to the GND...

You can get a copy of the ebook or audiobook directly from the author here. You can also buy the audiobook from libro.fm or get a physical copy from bookshop.org as a hardcover now or pre-order the paperback. You can also check and see if your local library has a copy.

This is going to be less of a review and more of an admiration for a specific trope that is masterfully used. Due to the nature of the trope, there will be spoilers, including major plot points near the climax of the novel. If you want to go in blind, stop reading now.

"If you say in the first chapter that there is a rifle hanging on the wall, in the second or third chapter it absolutely must go off. If it's not going to be fired, it shouldn't be hanging there." — Anton Chekhov (From S. Shchukin, Memoirs. 1911.)

So, Chekhov's Gun. It's a guideline when writing narrative fiction that is commonly interpreted as: every element in a story should be needed, and anything that isn't needed should be removed. You could probably also think of it as a form of foreshadowing, but I'm not an author nor an authority on narrative fiction.

Anyway, spoiler alert - Brooks' grandfather dies during chapter one of the novel. As is common when a family member dies, the living have the chore of sorting through a lifetime's worth of items. As Brooks is the sole remaining person in his family, that task falls to him.

This leads to the below setup for the trope:

I felt around the edge and found a length of floorboard that wasn’t stuck down, and beneath it, a heavy nylon loop. I hauled on it and a square of floor lifted straight up, revealing Gramps’s secret. He’d jackhammered away a neat square of foundation slab, dug down about four feet, and poured a concrete vault, which he’d filled with: three AR-15s; forty boxes of ammo; a bag of expired high-strength antibiotics; a wilderness survival kit identical to the one he’d given me for my first Scout sleepout, including the hatchet my Scoutmaster had confiscated before we got on the bus; topographical maps of LA County; and, wrapped in oilcloth, a wooden box like you’d keep poker chips in, but this was full of krugerrands, heavy and glinting dully, dated mostly from the first and second decades of this century.

As guns are now illegal, this leads to Brooks stashing the guns, ammo, and gold in the hills of California by page 80. They get mentioned a few times throughout the novel, reminding you of their existence, but don't become really relevant to the plot until right before the climax.

A part of the story that almost feels like it could be the climax.

A group of Maga terrorists have taken Brooks' friends hostage. Brooks decides that in order to save his friends he has to go into the California hills and get the guns.

This, turns out, was not necessary. In fact, it's revealed later that the likeliest outcome of trying to perform an armed rescue would have been his death.

So, it comes to pass that the guns were introduced in the first act, and were subsequently not fired in the third.

The scene that completes the arc of trope:

That was what my grandfather had raised me to expect: a final confrontation, an all-out war, a battle for the future of the human race and its planet. That was what he was planning for, and right up until that moment, as I cleaned off his guns and hid them in the construction waste, I had never really considered the possibility that he’d been wrong. I’d thought there’d be a war with two sides: Gramps’s side and mine. I’d never thought that the real war would be between the people who refused to go to war and the fools who thought they could shoot climate change in the face.

So we have the setup, the implication that the guns will be used later in the novel. Only, they don't get used. They're practically useless, and almost actively harmful. But, given the themes and messaging of the book, the guns being useless is the only possible outcome. The subversion of this trope[0] drives the point home. Having some kind of final showdown isn't the message. Individuals storming the building with guns to to save the day would fly counter to the message of collective action being the way we move forward.

The message I took from the book was that building shelter for refugees is the way forward, even if doing that gets you arrested.

That feeding the hungry is the way forward, even if you get fined for it.

That taking care of people, even if those people were previously pointing a gun at you, is the way forward. (note: ensuring that they don't have access to their guns anymore is wise.)

The only way forward is to build the systems of mutual aid now, even if building those systems will be fraught with adversity and challenges.

No matter what happens, we will always be building the future in the shadow of the present. Only with collective action can we move forward, and only if we take care of each other.

[0] so, I'm not entirely convinced that this is really a subversion of the trope. While the guns aren't fired, they are necessary to the plot in the latter part of the book. But again, I am not an author nor an authority on narrative fiction.

[lordelmelloi2]

On Hephaestion in Fate

Iskandar’s closest friend…though he didn’t think so himself. While his sister spread such information around, Hephaestion was aware that was simply counter-intelligence. Hephaestion was inserted at Iskandar’s side so as, even if only a little, to reduce the chance of him being attacked. [...]  If alive today, he would no doubt be accused of having a siscon streak in him. In a way, one could say that fear became accurate after his death.

From Hephaestion (person)'s entry in the materials of Lord El-Melloi II Case Files. Very frustrating to read.

I hate what Fate series is trying to do with Hephaestion and Iskandar's relationship, I Know explicitly they're trying to make room for fujo shipbrainrot here by saying essentially that they don't have to worry about it; but there's problems.

Urobuchi and Nasu and etc. have all stated Iskandar is bisexual, there is no way they could've made that judgment unless they explicitly acknowledged the nature of Iskandar and Hephaestion's relationship. The fact is also that the parallels between Iskandar and Gilgamesh and their respective "closest friends" are very blatantly apparent through F/Z and other incarnations that like to put them together and Case Files as a novel itself also hasn't really made any attempt to discredit Hephaestion's importance to Iskandar, either.

It's weird also that they even use the word 'siscon' here because it almost implies that Hephaestion didn't feel anything for Iskandar as much -- which is so fucking bizarre, because Iskandar's love of Achilles and the Iliad has been present during the entirety of F/Z and through FGO and other incarnations, who do you think was Patroclus? Like there is no actual fucking way they could strip that Hephaestion was the Patroclus out. Of course though they have basically all-but erased Patroclus from Achilles' story as well.

The thing though is that this does also imply a lot more Olympias machinations. Because we know Faker was also something that was Olympias' doing, taking Hephaestion's twin sister and molding her into a nameless body-double for curses to be redirected towards in order to protect Iskandar. If that setting is true then yes of course Hephaestion is going to be fiercely protective of her because he's acutely aware that his sister is being used for something so dehumanizing on purpose and she doesn't even care about it; she's also thoroughly stripped of her own mental self-agency in that she's truly devoted to Iskandar and her brother and that's it.

So it can almost be inferred that in the Fateverse that Olympias essentially set up Hephaestion and Iskandar to be best friends rather than it being their choice in Aristotle's classroom -- or perhaps that Hephaestion fit the bill for what Olympias was looking for and so she began manipulating the situation accordingly. Hephaestion has always historically been remarked upon as being the smarter one so I don't doubt he would see Olympias' nonsense with his sister and be upset about it right away. Though, I mean, it's hard NOT to be upset with what Olympias was doing through Alexander's childhood; she poisoned all his siblings, including one that he did care for, she pushed him constantly into the spotlight for the sake of power, she even at one point bought a prostitute for him and begged him to have sex with her because his disinterest in women and sex at that age was something she felt personally concerned with (again, powergrabs, but also, definitely covert incest shit in noble families). The last anecdote I've listed is one that's not stated in Fate series but is something that happened historically.

The question then is whether or not Fate wants to legitimize Hephaestion's feelings towards Iskandar as mutual. It's possible that the phrasing here would imply that Hephaestion merely believed he could not be as close to Iskandar's heart as he truly was; something that, given the amount of personal relationships Iskandar had, isn't a hard thought of self-doubt to keep. Iskandar had many relationships and all were very important to him for many reasons (Ionioi Hetairoi existing makes this obvious). It's just that truly, his relationship with Hephaestion was the Most important, and for Hephaestion to even be relevant in this manner or even discussable in this manner also adds to that.

If Hephaestion was (presumably) opposed to Olympias and protective of his sister, why would he follow Iskandar in the Fate verse, then? The benefit of course being power, which isn't something one would scoff at in this setting, but I truly doubt that Hephaestion would simply go for powergrabs if the whole point is that the people who followed Iskandar did so because they admired him and loved him. But that brings up another point.

Hephaestion has been absent from Ionioi Hetairoi and from character designs or materials despite his significance until the Case Files manga. There has been no depiction of Hephaestion himself in any material featuring Ionioi Hetairoi, the 10,000 strong army of Iskandar, of which features his most important relationships. Faker was also absent. What does this imply?

Faker's absence was due to protest. We know this from information from Case Files. Faker also has the ability as we know from Lady Reines' Case Files to be able to summon Ionioi Hetairoi herself, featuring Iskandar within it. One would presume Hephaestion also has this ability. But why is Hephaestion not there at all?

A few options -

Hephaestion IS there, Waver just doesn't want to talk about him because he's insane in the head or whatever

Hephaestion is there, but in the back or something -- his role being not forefront is the reason why he's in the shadows; something that is remarked upon in historical analysis as to why we know so little about Hephaestion even now. Hephaestion's role traditionally was to do a lot of the "dirty work", and so his position was less favorable to put the spotlight on in comparison to the sun-shining glory of Iskandar.

Hephaestion is not there because of protest, much like his sister.

Hephaestion is not there because he is not that important of a relationship to Iskandar...

Hephaestion is not there because he doesn't truly exist.

I generally feel like I trust Makoto Sanda to not go this route, but there has been (somewhat baseless) speculation that Hephaestion was actually Iskandar's split personality. I Highly Doubt That This Was The Case in Fate series given the way it has treated Hephaestion thus far as a figure, but it would explain why Hephaestion has been a complete phantom in the series and in Iskandar's recollection.

Though I think personally it's more likely that it's 2 or 3, I don't think that it's out of the question for it to be the simply negligent option 1 or the outright ahistorical option 4.

The other question is: why is Fate series so negligent of Hephaestion?

That's easy to answer from certain standpoints -- one is because it gives them more room to make money off of fans that are there from the sheer yaoi market that Isuwei as a pairing as brought in. Like from a marketing standpoint it is blatantly obviously advantageous to simply ignore Hephaestion until the end of time.

The other reason adding on to that is because in terms of representing gay content, Fate series really considers itself to have no liability to do so, especially when there's such a massive fan following for a male/male pairing. The fans make the majority of the content, so TM's work is done, and they can hand off crumbs to people hungry for them and keep fans of the actual historical figures begging for scraps with little things while rewriting it to suit their needs. It's the reason why Achilles doesn't have Patroclus despite the significance. It's also why the genderbends are so predominant; it's what's keeping the money going. In the recent GudaGuda event Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin's historical homoerotic relationship is explored but the weight of it lessened as Uesugi is not just a genderbend but also one of Takeuchi's designs. So the risk of straight male fan complaints about yucky gay stuff is lessened because Uesugi isn't "really a guy" in Fate here.

Type Moon hasn't really been one to look up to in terms of whether or not they will give realistic male/male representation in pairings; either one side of the pairing or both have to be in a female body, thus leaving what would normally be a m/m pairing as a "safer" yuri f/f pairing (which then benefits their marketing as well as the majoritively male fanbase is easier to sell to).

The problem though is whether or not it is going to mesh with the rest of the story.

As I said from a marketing standpoint it is obvious that ignoring Hephaestion is beneficial. But from a narrative standpoint -- and this is Sanda's challenge -- ignoring Hephaestion forever just doesn't make sense.

There is no Iskandar without Hephaestion. It is impossible to write a story about Iskandar that involves ANY aspect of the historical portion of him without mentioning Hephaestion. And the fact that Hephaestion was mentioned at all was Fate series' first mistake.

Iskandar's materials have him listed as Dhul Qarnayn, aka the Great King mentioned in the Quran as one of the ideal ways a King should exist. The reason for THIS is because of the Persian Alexander Romance. The Alexander Romance is basically a legend-version of Alexander the Great's story in which Hephaestion's presence is very little or just outright absent. It is a fantastical version of Alexander the Great's kinghood in which he performs many great deeds. There are Greek, Persian, Syrian, Hebrew, Ethiopian, Nigerian, Indian, Malaysian, Byzantine and even more chrono-regional versions of this story, and each one features that mysticism that made Alexander the Great into such a worldwide figure today.

It is pretty apparent that a lot of Iskandar's characterization comes also from the version presented in the Alexander Romance. His being Dhul Qarnayn solidifies this. It would have been easy to continue to ignore Hephaestion if they simply continued to go down this route -- the Alexander Romance features little stories featuring him, and glorifies Iskandar into this God-chosen figure, and in some versions, even as a prophet of God.

But in Case Files Faker is introduced and so is Hephaestion as a figure that did exist. Hephaestion is given some material, but never appears, except as a version spoken of by his newly-conceptualized twin sister. (Hephaestion did not have a twin sister in history, but that much should be common knowledge).

Hephaestion's absence then becomes this bleeding, gaping wound in the story, where the writing fails to stick to just one version of Iskandar -- and chooses to also associate with Alexander the Great the Historical version. Hephaestion's absence leaves this hole at the core of a lot of Iskandar's lacking characterization, where we see this vibrant, energetic character full of appreciation and care and love for those around him, except the man he was told to have loved and been close to the most.

And again. Hephaestion's importance to Alexander within history itself cannot be understated. I've mentioned before the sheer amount of money that went into Hephaestion's funeral, the fact that Alexander started executing people who had beefed with Hephaestion before (Eumenes was one such person who narrowly escaped the threat of execution because of his poor relationship with Hephaestion), Alexander executed the doctor who was in charge of Hephaestion and otherwise went on a complete megalomaniacal spree in the 8 months between Hephaestion's death and his own. There was no Alexander without Hephaestion. For Fate to come in and say that Hephaestion did not think he was the closest person to Alexander is to understate the megalomaniacism of the later Alexander's historical life, which strips from the character we are also inferred of through Faker's recollections in Case Files.

Faker often warns about getting too close to Iskandar, stating to Gray "The King is like the sun. Its heat burns away anything that gets too close." For the man who was considered equal to this sun, his absence is like that of a black hole where the rest of Iskandar's character is held. I also accept scraps of Iskandar's characterization here and there from various authors and depictions; I'm not saying I'm better than anyone on that note. But the frustration as an Iskandar fan I have at the sheer lack of consistency is what compels me to write on my own.

I generally have been very trusting of Makoto Sanda as an author to wrap up fine details, and he's generally been very consistent -- the inclusion of Ergo as Alexander IV's repo'd body in Adventures is still messy but the conclusion of Case Files was overall pretty decent. But it would still behoove him to write more on Hephaestion as a character or for the developers to genuinely consider adding in Hephaestion and fleshing him out; otherwise we miss so much of Iskandar and so much of what we think is going on in the Fate version of the Hellenic Empire history because that one piece is missing.

[absolutebl]

Takara-kun and Amagi-kun

series review 

Japanese BL: Takara & Amagi

2022 Gaga & Viki

Tropes: high school crush, chaos muffin, high angst, classic seme/uke, secret relationship

Don’t expect modern BL but do expect classic live action yaoi, it’s absolutely lovely. Japan played with narrative beats with this BL so it actually launches with a confession scene and moves instantly into a secret relationship. The initial meat cutes are told from each boy’s perspective as flashbacks. That can feel a bit jarring at first but if you roll with it you’ll find that it’s really flipping good, with both of them liking each other, and already in a relationship, yet so nervous about what to do it’s actually quite tense. It’s completely and totally high school first love, flip-flopping agony and joy. It made me so happy but it’s also so teenage crisis management it’s traumatic to live through. But this is my favorite kind of Japanese BL, I kept getting a hint of Seven Days and I don’t mention that show lightly. 

Amagi, our uke, is an ADORABLE sunshine bean nugget with wildly uncontrollable elbows, one of the weird outsider kids. He’s frantically jerky and clumsy but in a way that doesn’t seem as overblown as Aoki did in Kieta Hatsukoi.

Takara is elegant to the point of deadpan, too cool, one of the popular clique, reserved and inaccessible at first (to us and Amagi). But turns out Japan is doing their version of pining with him. And when Japan does pining it skips right over yearning and into THIRST. 

Takara, it turns out, is the one who liked Amagi first, and it’s Takara who will latch on to Amagi’s confession as an excuse to hold on as tightly as possible to his sunshine. 

Takara’s reason for keeping their relationship secret is that he doesn’t wanna share Amagi, ‘cause he thinks his friends will like Amagi too much and steal Amagi’s attention - such a seme reason. I find Takara such a likable and relatable character. 

Takara will (as we learn, as we watch him learn, and as eventually we see Amagi learn) do absolutely anything to keep Amagi. He’ll risk his friendships, his popularity, his status, even go against his own nature and learn to communicate (which includes going against his personality as a sullen teen).

“I like him so much that it feels stupid.” 

The show depicts depth of personality and relationship balance by switching perspectives and voice overs from Amagi to Takara relatively quickly. We need this, especially at the beginning, since Amagi shows too much emotion and Takara too little. 

Takara is a classic seme, voicing many of the conceits of the archetype while at the same time being a seme who is scared of his own semeness and therefore forced to learn to communicate. 

Amagi’s fears are all the fears of first love (and not really queer love, just first time jitters). Takara’s attempts to mitigate that fear mean trying to understand Amagi better through conversation. 

I adore this because part of first love should be learning how to talk to each other! The way Takara evolves in this matter is so good and so important to the BL genre I did a whole post about it.

I genuinely think this is a BL suitable to show to youngsters and teens, a genuine YA coming of age narrative. It might even be good for them to see. 

It is Takara’s voiceover that really blew this show away for me. 

All too often in BL we only get the uke’s perspective and that means, with a unlikable uke, it can be hard to understand why the seme loves him in the first place (see SCOY). With these two we are never left in any doubt that Takara thinks Amagi is beyond adorable, wants to have him (in all ways) and keep him (probably in all ways too). 

Takara is also a corny, awkward dork, because coolness and passion are incompatible, and I love him for this. He keeps stepping on land mines with Amagi and not knowing what to do about it. Good thing his default it to actually ask what’s going on. 

GOOD SEME, have a cutie as a treat. 

And Takara does win, there were more kisses in this high school JBL than I have seen since Seven Days. Sure they are awkward, teenager, dead fish kisses, but for this narrative that totally worked for me.

“He said something cute and I couldn’t help myself“ is so traditional Japanese seme in one sentence I can’t even.

As a couple, and we see them in a relationship for the entire show, these two are sweetly shy, and so painfully awkward it’s almost unbearable. The hand holding! The torture of decision making when you can’t read his mind! 

The. 

Agony. 

Of. 

It. 

All. 

But I happen to enjoy the way burgeoning desire works with high school characters better than in any of the other settings Japan explores. What I’d find annoying in an office drama (like Senpai) is fine in this BL. 

Warning though, these two pretty much define cringe. Takara because he is trying desperately to maintain his cool (and perform perfect seme) while simultaneously being so in love/lust with Amagi in high school where desire is, by definition and practice, uncool. While Amagi is just a tiny basket case with more than a hint of blushing maiden about him. He is all frenetic movements and angles, like he cannot control his limbs or his emotions, both are deeply confusing to him. 

Watching them stumble around each other and reflectively agonize over every little movement and conversation is an exercise in joy, patience, and terror. It’s all so “teenager” I can hardly stand it.

I gnawed on my knuckles and squealed a lot with this show. Stoic cool kid who must lean to communicate to keep the tiny disaster nugget he’s madly in love with. It is beyond charming: soft and gentle, packed with cuteness and high school angst. Did anything actually happen? No. Was it emotionally tense and paced well enough for me not to notice? Absolutely. Was there plot? Not really. Did I enjoy the hell out of it, anyway? Oh yes. 

9/10 

TOTALLY RECOMMENDED

GaGa’s subs are more poetic but Viki’s are more comprehensible, so I did (and recommend) both. But if you must pick? Viki.

I you liked this show you should watch Seven Days and even Old Fashion Cupcake. Also something like Cherry Magic, My Love Mix Up, and Mr Unlucky might also be enjoyable. For something a little less cringe but with a similar dynamic there’s Korean BLs Cherry Blossoms After Winter and Light on Me. (Speaking og, T&A features one of the best wingman since Namgong.) 

More? 

Takara, Amagi, Communication Used to Subvert Seme/Uke plus some stuff about Ask v Guess cultures 

(source) 

[lightlessentwine]

[ELDEN RING GRAND THEORY REVISION 2.1- SUBJECT TO INQUIRIES AND FURTHER REVISION]

*Ever since i started putting the narrative of the game through the lens of Alchemy, it's started to make a lot of sense to me. this will be my personal grand theory for the DLC. Basically, the world of Elden Ring is affected in every aspect by Messmer and he is talked about in a way through the game and in interviews that doesnt really allow someone to actually throw a wrench into it, thus far*-------

The Narrator in the newest trailer opens with the line, "Pure and Radiant, he wields love to shrive clean the hearts of men.. There is nothing more terrifying." and frankly every aspect of Miquella's role in the Golden Order is terrifying from his perspective. He had to pass judgement in blessing others, which alone can be enough to break someone. It is from here that we may see part of Miquella's original reason in creating the Haligtree. At some point, Miquella became St. Trina to guide followers to the Haligtree. Knowing Miquella is St. Trina, it is possible to extrapolate on Messmer's identity when applying the concepts of Alchemy and how it translates to a classical understanding of Analytical Psychology. a lot of this speculation also ties back to extensively studying the world of the game, as well as a bit of real world religion, history, and even learning to cross-reference in-game crests and murals:--

We must first establish that literally anything not understood in a binary in Elden Ring actually confounds and terrifies followers of the Golden Order. It in fact worries Corhyn so deeply that he refuses to believe Goldmask as he grovels in the ashes of the Erdtree-- One of the biggest revelations in the entire game is premised around breaking a binary that was never proven to be a binary at all. In other words, the entire Golden Order is based in dichotomies and binaries and there is a fundamental flaw in that regard; it disregards the individual and non-binary aspects of the World to force them into a simpler mold that was going to fall with time, regardless.- Much like with Gwyn's plight in Dark Souls; it was never about the people of the land with him, it was about preventing a coming age and clinging onto whatever control found in preserving the current one forever.

At the basis, St. Trina and Miquella may have shared one body but two identities because of having been born of a single-bodied Rebis, or at least as the Golden Order sees Marika/Radagon, a God. this is an ability only demonstrated by Marika that Malenia seems incapable of. I believe her bestowment from the outer god of Rot is the reason for her lack of other personal identities; she does not have any others to project other than what she is, due to societal perception of her bestowment/affliction and her choice to let miquella ascend to the role she could also be in. In the current age, all she has been doing is dreaming (note: st. trina) and awakens promptly when we arrive; likely to the only movement of air she's felt in ages

I think Miquella is the entity of purity while St. Trina is a Lunar Reflection; the Albedo, or an Animus in Jungian Psychology, which has heavy ties to alchemy. She's the hero and protector of the people thar Miquella often envisions within. Messmer, residing in the shadow realm, represents a deep seated truth within Miquella- a sort of "Cognitive Rubedo" if you will, or a "Truth in the Mind" that he hates as much as others fear, and that nobody wants to be found. part of this truth must be Marika's fault, and it has left Miquella with a personal guilt that has torn at him so badly that eventually, a Shadow of himself tore away and became its own monster from Within.

Imagine it like this; if St. Trina is Miquella's image of theirself as a blessed, pure caretaker and a sort of christ-like figure, then Messmer is the part of him that represents "The Sins of The Father." Marika's own rise to power and established order themselves are what shaped a young Miquella. It was with time and between his noted brilliance and ability to "compel affection," that he found a way to break free of his fated identity which meant breaking free of the Order itself.

Applying the Realm of Shadows to this "Within," having been physically separated from the lands between by Marika's own mischievous deeds, it is likely that the shadow realm now acts as a cognitive realm of Marika's, of sorts, which could absolutely contain the perception or persona of another person within it. (think Mementos from Persona 5, lol)

So.. Without the current Elden Ring there would be no Order, but the current Order hides a serpent at the central intersection, which seems to represent Messmer. this is the same concept as how a pentagram represents a human, and humanity, while being inverted it represents a goat, or in many cases, Baphomet. Baphomet is labeled as half-human, half-animal, male and female, good and evil.. he is referred to as a man but is essentially every binary and every dichotomy that arises from them. He is even seen as both a deity and a demon. I believe Miquella and Radagon's work on discovering the Law of Causality is the main hint toward Messmer's presence, which ties into the rest of the alchemy involved. He is a pagan cult deity who represents balance and neutrality, and is almost always depicted doing a gesture signifying "as above; so below" which is a condensed version of the Law of Causality, already known to be associated with Miquella and Radagon, well before the Shattering; "Causality is an influence by which one event, process, state, or object contributes to the production of another event, process, state, or object where the cause is partly responsible for the effect, and the effect is partly dependent on the cause."

For clarity's sake, because i figure i'll be asked if not addressed: It's not impossible for Messmer and Miquella+Malenia to have all been the first child of Radagon/Marika with this Theory. Malenia was a twin born at the same time as Miquella, so she would be a first child with Miquella. If Messmer is a diety representing neutrality or, as I expect, a product of the Law of Causality, then he would be a product of Miquella as much as Miquella is of him. this idea lends to the possibility of Miquella actually being the remainder that was left over from a splitting where Messmer's counterparts (possibly both Miquella and Malenia, given their twin nature) are representative of his own aspects.. it does is beg a sort of "chicken or egg" paradox, but before we had a realistic answer to that, many would reply- and almost sarcastically, if not for the fact that it was the best answer we had- that the first thing to appear was "the Universe." The modern answer is, in fact, that the egg came first. (whether any of this analogy alludes to the actual lore or not is something i think we'd just have to wait for the expansion to know)

Marika herself had this Shadow hidden away, and this presents rather well because we know that there was a long period of time after the Night of Black Knives that Marika was still active but becoming more distraught, preceding the Shattering. on top of this, more proof resides in that, within Jungian psychology, it is that one's Anima/Animus comes to them in dreams, much like St. Trina came to people in theirs (who, as an Animus herself, was probably motivated by helping malenia look for her Anima, which perhaps never existed). It is also true that a Shadow Persona is borne of conflict tearing at one's conscious until it becomes its own entity, which i've already presumed of Messmer above.

[santacoppelia]

The HUGE analysis - This season starts and ends with a discussion, doesn't it?

Ok, my loves. This was one of the really long metas I've been working with, and probably the one that has taken me the longest (because it depended a lot on rewatching the season time and again).

I couldn't help to notice that the fist interaction Aziraphale and Crowley have in season 2 is a fight, really. Yeah, we have the beautiful “in the beginning” sequence, with both of them being angels and happy and all the such (oh, how lovely, Neil Gaiman planting the seeds of why it will matter to us that Aziraphale will not be fighting the idea of inviting Crowley to Heaven, because he remembers that happy, careless guy). But after the intro, we see them having a big disagreement… And we end the season in the biggest disagreement they have had, probably, in 6,000 years.

I love over-analyzing and dissecting narratives and characters, and more so if I can use only what we’ve been shown in the screen. Therefore, I believe that the first fight of the season tells us a lot of the things we will need to know to understand the final fight of the season between them. Let’s take a look, shall we?

The first fight is motivated by having an amnesiac Gabriel in the bookshop.

They see the same circumstance: Gabriel in the bookshop means trouble with Heaven. He is also an individual risk, because he has menaced Aziraphale directly (well, Crowley under the visage of Aziraphale).

It affects each of them differently: even when they both panic, Aziraphale feels compelled to be kind to Gabriel (gives him a blanket and hot cocoa) while Crowley has a full-on panic induced reaction and gets defensive.

They propose opposite solutions: Azi wants to do the Good thing, taking the “higher road” (help Gabriel), while Crowley wants to do His Own thing: “Protect the precious, peaceful, fragile existence I have carved for myself”

At that moment, Aziraphale corrects him and marks a “we”, which is very interesting. But immediately after that, Aziraphale gets all "my way or the highway".

Crowley asks for clarification, with a well-leveled tone of voice: “Is this how it is going to go?”

Azi clarifies "no, I want you to help me!" But then he does the passive-aggressive thing: "if you won't, you won't". (oh, Aziraphale, how you triggered me here, my dear chap. I was angry at the character the first 6 times I saw this)

Therefore, Crowley is out. He marks a clear limit: “I won't. You are on your own”, and then storms out. No Eccles cakes would help him: he needs a breather and counting to 10. That doesn't help either.

Crowley only comes back after gaining an extra perspective: the "extreme sanctions" talk with Beelzebub.

When he comes back, Aziraphale will stand his ground: he feels he deserves an apology, which is delivered via a “I was wrong, you were right” literal admission (even when he probably wasn't "right", but that's their way... And they've been doing it since 1650, or so they say). Then they are able to work together again.

Now, let’s see how this dynamic plays out in their last discussion of the season:

They come from different sides of the same experience: Crowley went to Heaven to investigate and learned about the plans to continue with the end of the world, while Aziraphale stayed defending the bookshop. Then Crowley saves the humans, while Aziraphale solved the Beelzebub + Gabriel affair.

They haven’t had time to talk, as they get interrupted by The Metatron. While he takes Aziraphale, Crowley receives a visit from Maggie and Nina.

Each one of them gained an extra different perspective: Azi, the Metatron proposal (and veiled menace); Crowley, the pep talk/scolding from the couple they were trying to get together.

This makes them develop different solutions:

Crowley wants to finally admit what Azi has been saying all the season: they are a "we" (Azi said so when Crowley talked about his “precious, peaceful, fragile existence”; he said it again when talking about “our car” and reinforced it with the bookshop)

Azi wants to take the "higher road": go to Heaven, reinstate Crowley as an angel, so they can still work together.

Crowley sees the “usual dynamic” of their disagreements coming: it will be Azi’s way (or the highway). That has happened before, in front of our eyes, and not only in this season: it happened also in season 1, but we have already attested that it is still happening, and it is even “worse” (Aziraphale being a little “petty” with the “if you do, it is fine, but if you won’t, you are on your own” in the Gabriel discussion).

Crowley gets indignant. He asks, tentatively, if he told him where to stick it… And then he reinforces his belief. We are better than that, YOU are better than that, you don’t need them, I don’t need them; then he makes the first mention of the offer of getting back to Hell (which he hadn’t shared with Aziraphale), and makes a new point: I said no, neither should you!

Aziraphale goes back to the “you are the bad guys!” thing. Heaven being the side of Truth, of Light, of Good… It is not the propaganda Crowley needed for this move.

Crowley then clarifies the fallacy in his logic: when Heaven ends life on Earth, it’ll be just as dead as if Hell ended it.

Aziraphale then sees the "undesirable result" coming: Crowley is not going to accept, not with that argument.

Crowley makes his plead grow in urgency: Tell me you said no.

Aziraphale’s pitch of voice goes high (usually used as a sign of distress): “If I’m in charge, I can make a difference.”

Crowley understands. This is his “my way or the highway” moment. That’s why he comes up with the courage to make his half-proposal-half admission.

Crowley never gets to state out loud the “I want us to be together in a formal way” part. His voice breaks before he does so. He mentions all of the reasons they have to stay together, which Aziraphale already knows: we have been together for a long time, we’ve been a group (“our own side” was the way he always said it before) and we’ve spent our existence pretending that we aren’t (Azi also knows that! He has been working hard into making Crowley notice it!)

You can see, when they shoot Aziraphale’s face, he squints a little during that moment: maybe questioning, a little disbelief? As usual with Michael Sheen, it is a blink it and you’ll miss it moment.

After the grunt, Crowley proposes his alternative solution: going off together, using Beelzebub & Gabriel as an example that they could.

Therefore, what Aziraphale has just listened is what he already knew: yes, they are a “we”. Crowley wants to run away (he had proposed it twice during the Armageddidn’t, another pattern they have already established).

The next step is the usual way for Aziraphale: he reinforces his proposal: come with me, to Heaven. Ill’ run it, you can be my second in command. This idea has rubbed me wrong since the first time I watched this scene. Why remark the hierarchy? (not to say that I’m in Crowley’s side in here, but… It was weird and uncomfortable to think of them in a vertical power structure; they have always been equals).

Then, he goes back to making a difference, only it is “we” this time. Crowley is noticing he won’t back down… But Aziraphale usually doesn’t.

“You can’t leave this bookshop” works as a representation, a figure of speech. “This Bookshop” is “This life we have been building”, and they both understand it as such.

“Oh, Crowley… Nothing lasts forever…” For Aziraphale, it means he can leave this for something greater. For Crowley, it means… Actually, the same. But without him. Because he knows the “my way or the highway” side of Aziraphale, and none of them will budge. Aaaaand… that’s Crowley heart breaking. The rest of the scene happens with Crowley in “breakup mode”.

Aziraphale is used to “the discussion dance”. He Insists, “Crowley! Come back, to Heaven, work with me! We can be together, Angels! Doing good!”. He promises all he can: “come back, work with me, we can be together”, which have always been Crowley’s triggers to change his mind. However, the problem lies within the “angels doing good”. That’s the part that Aziraphale would need to let go before getting back to Crowley.

And then, he breaks down: “I need you!!” That has always worked! Aziraphale knows that Crowley loves being needed, he won’t leave his angel when in need, right?

And then, he gets angry. And he questions if Crowley has understood what he is offering, which transforms in an “I don’t think your exactly and my exactly are the same exactly” all over again.

Crowley is already brokenhearted, so he answers truthfully, as far as he knows. He understands how terrible the offer of going back to heaven is for both of them, and is not aware of the veiled threat in Metatron’s offer. He knows that going back to Heaven is a non-negotiable boundary, and Aziraphale is absolutely determined to cross it.

Aziraphale, then, does his passive-aggressive shit again: “I guess there is nothing more to say”. My guy, my love, you need to become better at negotiating with your loved one.

This is where Crowley decides to show, don’t tell, the hurt: no nightingales. And then… The “You idiot. We could have been… us” (no, you couldn’t, it was always too late!!! First the pandemic, which I’ve decided to treat as canon, then Gabriel. They never stood a chance).

In this context, Crowley’s kiss is a desperate way to say good-bye to the person he cared most for the last 6,000 years; also an angry way to regain some semblance of control and affect Aziraphale; and a final way to get some “closure”. Is there desire? Is there love? Maybe. But they are lost in a cocktail of emotions that have been stated during the rest of the discussion.

The angry “I forgive you”, which is also a usual dynamic for Aziraphale when he is angry with Crowley, gets there too late for Crowley to react to. He has already “checked out”. That’s why the “don’t bother” feels almost like an afterthought and comes after a small sigh.

After watching this 16 times, I’m pretty confident that the first thing Aziraphale mouths is a “no…” and then… he sobs a little. Michael Sheen, you’re a beautiful actor. The rest of it is a masterclass in using microexpressions to convey a whirlwind of emotions in under 2 minutes.

Sooooo... Did I hurt my own emotions while writing this? Yes. Did I absolutely need to do so? Also yes. Even when I like doing intertextual readings (and that's why I like bringing some theology to some of my musings), reading what is in "the text" (in the scenes we have watched, in the dialogues we've been shown) gives me an enormous amount of pleasure, and I find a lot of comfort in believing that most of the things that I'll need to understand and enjoy a great piece of media are being given to me inside it. And I believe Good Omens is a great piece of media!!

I have no Shakespeare to offer you this time. Let me know what you think!!

[incorrectsmashbrosquotes]

Link: I love the eminent simplicity of the character of Denji in Chainsaw Man. Like, it’s beautiful, you know. He’s a man... who is also a chainsaw. But at the same time it’s a deeply heartfelt and complex narrative wrapped up in the skin of your typical puerile teenage anime power fantasy, but it’s also just... man who is also a Chainsaw. It’s like an adult took one of his stupid childhood ideas and remade it into a work of art.

Tired Wendy’s Cashier: That’s nice sir.

[princessinyellow]

Is it just me or does everything Bayonetta 3 added to the setting either mean nothing, or actually take away from the thematic depth? Like, what do Singularity and the Homunculi represent? A thing that wants to kill Bayonetta a lot. What do fairies represent? They represent that Luka and his kid have superpowers that make them almost as powerful as Bayonetta without needing training, knowledge, or any kind of impetus.

What does Arch Eve and Arch Adam mean? It means that Singularity wants to kill Bayonetta a lot, and also that Luka is elevated to the same narrative importance as her (unironic male pandering). It also means that BayoLuka is canon in the entire Multiverse no matter what. It only gets worse the more I think about it.

[gayofthefae]

As an actor, one of the most fascinating things about Mike Wheeler is why I started thinking he was queer. It’s because his actions have NO MOTIVES. No visible ones at least. He’s easy to hate right now because he doesn’t feel like a person. We don’t know what’s going through his head!! But we knew that. It’s actually smaller scale than that, though. You don’t need to be an actor to see it, obviously, I’m just extra fascinated because of how being an actor affects my perception of storytelling.

But Mike’s motives are just- unplaceable. They’re actively being kept from us. Which could only mean we will be RADICALLY sympathized to him later in retrospect. Trust me, people suddenly and seemingly randomly with non-visible motives are always the victims of their circumstance- even if there is still some responsibility. They WANT you to blame him right now, at least “you” referring to the general audience. They WANT people to hate them so they can be WRONG. The Duffers LOVE a good twist that makes sense and prompts rewatches. They love it when things don’t click into place yet. They’re just now doing it more clearly with their characters too, not just their monsters.

They also did very well at sort of describing his motives. In the big picture, at least. Why didn’t he call? He was scared of losing him. Logical. Why couldn’t he say I love you? Same thing. Also understandable.

But that only explains the stuff when they WEREN’T seeing each other. He said “this is why I signed my letters with From and this is why I didn’t write letters”. A temporary answer, to hold the place of the future one. It’s a stand-in. But we know it’s not real because

Why did he act weird at the airport? Why did he get defensive during their fight? Why couldn’t he say ily when El was crying and begging him too and the stakes of losing her were clearly in his favor to say it?

It’s not just that I think he’s queer. It’s that I think his behavior is inexplainable. I didn’t look up “is Mike gay?”, I looked up “why is Mike being weird?” and it came back with the same answer El gave: he like somebody...

[starrymoon52]

atsv analysis

originally yelled at @moonbeam-mountain in discord, so ur getting screenshots (broken up bc my friend is amazing and encouraging and kept messaging me back)

[stayedfortheplot]

I'm admiring how this dream arc in Till the End of the Moon has the same vibe as a Greek tragedy. Like would communication solve everything? Yes. Are we surprised that they're not communicating? No. The characters' actions perfectly suit this narrative and we're just enjoying the painful ride.

[exilley]

if i got a shoe for every time i watched a show written by an eccentric genius who had a reputation for his interest in lgbtq+ themes and explored in a nuanced manner the cycle of trauma, its impact on a person, and the idea that others can only help us break out of that cycle ourselves not save us from it, with the development of the character in question being extrinsically linked to queer theory and sexuality, i’d have two shoes. all is right in the world.