#really emotionally compelling and powerful

[txttletale]

what's serious weakness? I've never heard of it

found family enemies to lovers :)

[edettethegreat]

10/10 manga for pulling a “we’ll defeat you with the power of friendship!!” “That’s… incredibly ignorant of you. I’m significantly more powerful, whether or not you have friends won’t impact this fight”

[ripplesinthesand]

really is a shame that the star wars fandom at large is so obnoxious about obi-wan because there is a really compelling character in there. insanely emotionally repressed constantly burying his head in the sand about everything and everyone around him tool of a corrupt government who is well-intentioned but nonetheless woefully unprepared to mentor the most powerful force user in the history of the universe. and everyone looks at all of that and goes ACTUALLY. what if he was boring instead.

[meanbossart]

A personal headcanon of mine is that Cazador had a special interest in Astarion before turning him into a vampire possibly a romantic obsession.

I was curious about what your personal thoughts were on the relationship between Cazador and Astarion?

Let me stop you right there - Yes.

Now, I'm a little reluctant to elaborate on this one, because I think it can be seen as a little reductive of the characters and their stories to condense what could be a political plot into something as superficial as another "if I can't have you, no one will" storyline - not only would that be less interesting to some people, but it once again reduces Astarion's character to his attractiveness - while the former, for once, actually made him "desirable" for his achievements and influence - even if it doomed him after all.

But at the same time, this theory compels me for that reason exactly. It sets the origins of the whole issue and what would, overtime, erupt into this complex he has of himself and how others perceive him.

I'm not a stickler for details as long as you can tell me a good story, but it's notable to me that the reasons why Cazador set his eyes on Astarion so early in his reign are never really elaborated on further. How much influence did he really have as a young magistrate, and what kind of rulings could he be passing that would affect Cazador so much for him to take such a risk in abducting someone of his standing right as he had himself come into power? Cazador is an idiot, but he's an idiot who managed to say alive and hidden for two centuries - this move was either exceptionally well thought-out, or Astarion wasn't that liked as a magistrate, or Cazador had far pettier motives to take such a risk.

Not to mention, Astarion is awfully elusive whenever you inquire about the hows and whys of his abduction. Dismissive, even. Like it's something he doesn't want to talk about. I could take that down the boring route and say "oh, the writers just didn't care to develop this part of his story", or I could do the far more fun thing and read into it.

Then, of course, there's the vague suggestions that Astarion stood out among the spawn for one reason or another - he's referred to as the runt of the litter, and yet as Cazador's favorite as well. Going through Cazador's journal following Astarion's disappearance, there seems to be something besides frustration about him leaving just as he's about to ascend - there's resentment, there's desperation. Why the fuck does Petras act as if Cazador would ever do anything good for them if they were treated as Astarion describes? How the fuck were any of them under the impression that this ritual would benefit them whatsoever, while Astarion seems to have always known better? While I have no doubt that they all suffered under Cazador's control, there seems to be indication that Astarion suffered specially badly. The question left is why.

I don't think they were ever lovers or anything like that, I don't think Astarion ever even knew Cazador well enough to give him a passing thought, but I think it would be absolutely rich for a newly born, still spite-fuelled vampire lord to make very emotionally-driven decisions. The type of decisions that he looks back on and curses himself for. For having ever had such a weak mind.

Think of it, you come into all this power after years of pain, sorrow and suffering. You set your hungry, lonely little eyes on the prettiest girl at the ball - she turns you down spectacularly. She laughs you off under thinly veiled pleasantries. You are beside yourself - you were supposed to have everything you ever wanted, to be untouchable, to be desirable, to have some sort of supernatural allure about yourself - you were under the impression that now, all of your problems had been solved and everything that life has to offer would be thrown at your feet, like you perceived it to be like to your own, deceased masted; then the rug gets ripped from under your feet. But, a moment after, you realize: when you want something very badly, you can now just take it.

So you do. You get a shiny new toy. Fresh off your dull, painful past-experiences it seems like this toy is all you need to bring the long-lost zest back into your life, it is your first taste of true power and control, your dear beloved, your reluctant companion, and you paint a picture of what life will be alongside it (though slightly stooped beneath you - you can't be equals, of course) decades, no, centuries into the future.

But the toy doesn't ever grow to like you. In fact, it hates you for what you are, what you chose to become and what you chose to make of, and to it. For a few years, you try. Then eventually you get bored of it.

In a few more, you begin to not be able to stand the sight of it. It reminds you of a time when you were naive, when you were stupid. Worse yet, it is now your ball and chain as you made it. The only use you see remaining for it is to tear it apart again and again and again until you've forgotten why you're even doing it. You don't even want to touch it yourself, you get others to do it for you.

I don't think Cazador harbored anything but that indifferent resentment towards Astarion through the vast majority of those two centuries, and, horrifically enough, I don't think Astarion even knew why for a good deal of it himself. I can picture him going over and over any passing interactions they ever had (if they even had any) desperately trying to piece together why me, what could I have done differently, how could I have avoided this hell.

Then, at some point, in the brief moments when his mind is somewhat cleared and after he has heard enough vague, cryptic remarks out of Cazador's mouth about his looks, about his attitude, about how he must think he's too good to do what he does, it hits him: If I had just said yes, none of this would have happened. It would have been a brief moment of disgust, but then it would have been over.

And you beat yourself over it almost much as you feel shame. You're embarrassed. Because you've now had to endure all this torment just because you said no to the wrong man - a matter of picking the bad choice at 50/50 odds. Not only that - but you were apparently so worthless to the world that this small mistake was enough to doom you for all eternity: It was, apparently, all you were worth. And he has made that abundantly clear by what he puts you up to now.

So, when someone asks you why it happened, you give them a better reason. One that at least highlights other things you were good at. They probably wouldn't believe you if you told them the truth, anyways.

[mswyrr]

Rhaenyra has a type when it comes to women

The common thread for me between Rhaenyra's desire for Alicent and Mysaria is that both women play the role of "lady wife" (or we could call it the role of "the beloved" to a lover) to her. I went into this as it relates to her loving Alicent in a prior meta. But here I want to focus on what they have in common that seems to compel Rhaenyra.

Between the two of them, we have a portrait now of what her "type" is in women. She likes a femme woman who is intelligent and capable of advising her, who cares about her goals and standing in the realm and who she can trust to act on her behalf, a woman who recognizes and basks in the love of Rhaenyra's desire to be knightly and noble and act as a monarch - to hold power and use it to act and protect and cherish. A woman who wishes to be caring and affectionate with her, who shares her body in acts of erotic intimacy as well as comfort and tenderness - young Rhaenyra really meant it when she told Alicent that she loved lying with her head on Alicent's lap as Alicent read to her in shared moments of peace and tranquility. She leaned into to Alicent's touch; she casually held her hand or touched her or stared at Alicent like she was the whole world; she grounded herself with her girl's love.

Mature Rhaenyra awakens at the way Mysaria appreciates her; tells her she's noble and worthy. Tells her she looks good with a sword, expressing those knightly/butch or masc leanings Rhaenyra had in her youth and never got the chance to explore. When Mysaria tells her that, in a lifetime of learning not to trust the world because it has been so cruel to her, Rhaenyra is a rare person she trusts and believes in - a safe haven, a heroic figure, Rhaenyra moves quickly to hug her and keeps hugging her, her urgency to connect growing more intense, fingers digging into her flesh in need, and strokes her cheek across Mysaria's skin like she's found an oasis in the desert.

I relate to that; I feel that way about women too. While watching the way Rhaenyra just *blossoms* under Mysaria's admiration and appreciation I felt teary eyed - Rhaenyra has been starved of recognition and love of whole parts of herself since she lost Alicent. It's terribly sad. It's also why she seems so painfully young in the Sept scene and so thirsty but also vulnerable and emotionally naked with Mysaria - the parts of her that are open to women have never gotten to be satisfied, to grow and come of age.

I consider the feelings in myself Rhaenyra's behavior speaks to toppy and gnc, because I am a gnc female top, but Rhaenyra is a switch and hasn't had a chance to explore gender/sexuality much at all and doesn't have language for it so I'm not sure what labels she'd decide upon if she had the opportunity to relax and enjoy herself and her partner(s). From the text we have, there's many different potential readings of Rhaenyra's complex gender AND sexuality feelings. Is Rhaenyra masc and if so in what way? Bi with a split attraction that actually leans to women or 50/50? 50/50 switch or leaning top or bottom or differently with different genders of partner or different partners? Monogamous or polyamorous?

None of these possibilities have been foreclosed, all have been rather more opened up. Much to the consternation of the bigots who are review bombing the episode!! And the antis in fandom who have harassed artists for drawing masc Rhaenyra and shamed and degraded Rhaenicent for years now.

I think that's a good thing, since LGBTQ lead character representation on a big show like this is so rare. It also is in character for the setting and world Rhaenyra lives in: there's simply little opportunity to explore, sadly. But, at the same time, it's great that so many people can connect to Rhaenyra - can feel that sense of kinship I got to feel watching on Sunday. It's great that Emma and Sonoya had the courage and love to come together to make this happen - so this part of Rhaenyra can have a little more time to live and breathe and we can appreciate it.

I am not certain of one gender/sexuality reading of the character, though of course I have my preferences. The one thing I am certain of now, though, is Rhaenyra's (main or possibly only?) type in women. And I think it's pretty gorgeous. I think the way she loves women is breathtaking and achingly beautiful. I relate to it and it makes the tragedy even more poignant to me that her society denies her the opportunity to have a lifetime with the kind of woman who draws on her heart so powerfully.

[lakesbian]

i have had like 10 friends rec worm to me but nobody’s given me a good like, gist of its vibe and what its abt because ‘its best blind’, could u please give a like brief summary and vibe check of it 😭 it’s so long i dont wanna try and invest that much time without knowing much abt it

so, worm is a 1.7 million word long webserial written in 2010. 1.7 million words seems like a lot, but it was also written over a relatively short period of time, which means the writing style is very easy to parse--the ideas aren't without complexity, but the language itself isn't intimidatingly dense. you can get through it at a very decent pace. i agree with your friends that there are vast portions of worm that hit best when you're unspoiled, but the thing is that worm is long enough that giving you the basic plot pitch is in no way spoilers for any of the things that i wouldn't want to see spoiled for someone. i'm actually kind of baffled they're not telling you Any Thing, because it is in my estimation one of the best books i've ever read, but it also Needs a briefing before you get into it for like five different reasons. which i will now provide. i swear to god this is brief by my standards it's just that i am very thorough

worm is a story about superheroes and supervillains, set in a world where superpowers are traumagenic--rather than appearing randomly or innately, some people gain powers after a traumatizing event happens to them. the protagonist is taylor hebert, a 15yo girl who has the power to control insects and desperately wants to be a superhero. and then accidentally finds herself scouted by a team of teenage villains instead. who's to say how she's going to react to all that!

one of the most compelling things about worm is that the superpowers in it serve as visceral, hyper-literal metaphors for the trauma and traumatized coping mechanisms of the characters with those powers. each power is incredibly specific and thematically relevant to the person who has it, and it's incredibly interesting and evocative. it feels so natural and well-done that it comes off like how superpowers are just meant to be written.

the fact that superpowers stem from trauma also means that worm is fundamentally a narrative about trauma. specifically, about traumatized teenagers and the relationships they form as they cling together while struggling through growing up traumatized & mutually coping with an increasingly intriguing, intense, and far-reaching escalating plot. worm's depictions of trauma + mental illness--including unpalatable trauma responses, including traumatized characters who are allowed to be complicated and nuanced and messy while still receiving narrative respect--are deeply real-feeling and impactful, and they're placed in the context of a well-spun + engaging story.

i really do have to stress how excellent the character writing is. worm is fully deserving of being as long as it is. over the course of 1.7 million words of character development, the average reader's reaction to the main characters goes from "sorta interesting" to "okay, i want to see where this goes" to "augh...really likable" to "i am now on hands and knees crying and these characters are going to stick around in my brain forever." wildbow has incredible talent for efficiently conveying complicated, real-feeling, and viscerally evocative characterization. many of the interlude chapters (chapters written from the perspective of different characters other than taylor) are so interesting, fleshed-out, and emotionally affecting that they make you wish you could read an entire novel about just the side character being featured. with that level of characterization for just the side cast, it's not surprising that taylor (& co) are genuinely just downright iconic. and i do not say that lightly--taylor is truly one of the best-written protagonists i've seen in anything. ever.

the other main pitch-point for worm is that it's a fascinating deconstruction/reconstruction/examination of the conceits of the superhero genre. it answers the question of--what would the world have to be like, for people with superpowers to act the way they do in classic cape media? and it does this well enough that it's interesting even if you have only a passing familiarity with cape media. i am not a big superhero media fan, but worm addresses virtually every aspect of cape media that was under the sun around 2010 in a way that's so interesting i still find it incredibly engaging. the approach it takes makes the narrative very accessible even to people who aren't usually cape media fans.

and speaking of the narrative: the end of the story is coherent and satisfying and deeply thematically resonant*. the way worm follows through on all of its main mysteries & plot threads is excellent. you don't have to worry about getting thru 1.7 million words and being dissatisfied by the author shitting the bed at the end, or anything like that. he does an amazing job of weaving together plot events in a way that makes each successive one feel rationally, thematically, and emotionally connected to what came before. there's really only one part where i feel the story stumbles a bit, but i think it was the best option he had for the narrative, and it's by no means a dealbreaker. it's in fact really impressive how cohesive and satisfying worm is for such a long webserial released over such a brief period of time.

*this is subjective ive seen some people who didnt love it but ive never seen anyone who downright Hated it who didnt also demonstrate egregious misunderstanding of literally everything worm is about. so thats a good sign

as for the downsides of worm/things that might put you off:

there is a very long list of trigger warnings for it. if you have any trigger warnings you want you should ask your friends to let you know about the relevant parts, because the fact that it's About Trauma (& about typical cape media circumstances presented very seriously) means that traumatic and violent things & their realistic aftermath are constantly happening and/or being discussed. i would not classify worm as needlessly dark or spiteful to the audience by any means, but it is intense and covers a lot of heavy topics. i do assume if your friends are all recommending it to you, they think none of the material would be too much for you, though!

worm was written in 2010 by a white cishet guy from canada. it's typical levels of 2010-era bigoted, it has a deeply lesbophobic stereotype character, it has some atrociously racist stereotype characters, the author really hates addicts, It's Got Blind Spots. i think worm is generally fully worth reading despite these, but very fair warning that it can get bad. i think what exacerbates this is that worm is generally extremely nuanced & sympathetic regarding ideas such as "crime is a result of systematic circumstance vs people just being inherently evil" and "mentally ill people who are traumatized in unpalatable ways are still deserving of fundamental respect as human beings" and so on and so forth, so it's extra noticeable and insufferable when you get to a topic the author has unexamined biases on and all that nuance drops out. the worst part is that a lot of this is most concentrated in the early arcs, so you have to get through them without being super attached to any of the characters yet. it is worth it though.

worm like. Does have a central straight relationship in it. and it's a very well written straight relationship for the most part and i like it quite a lot. but worm also passes the bechdel test with such flying colors that it enters 'unintentionally homoerotic' territory. which means a lot of people were shipping the main character ms taylor hebert with her female friends while the story was being released. which caused the author to get so mad he 1. posted a word of god to a forum loudly insisting that all of the girls are straight and 2. inserted a few deeply awkward and obvious and out of character scenes where he finds an excuse for the girls to more or less turn to the camera and go "i'm not gay, btw. this is platonic." This is fucking insufferable, and will piss you off immensely, but then you will get to any of the number of deeply emotionally affecting scenes between them, and at that point you will be too busy sniffling piteously and perhaps crytyping an analysis post on tumblr to be mad about all that other shit. also they're only a couple tiny portions out of an entire overall fantastic novel

overall: if those points don't sound like dealbreakers (i hope they aren't they're really massively outstripped by the amount of devastatingly good moments in worm, worm still has a thriving fandom over a decade later for a reason), you should absolutely give it a shot and see what you think. my final note is that you have to read up until the end of arc 8 to really see where what makes worm Worm kicks in, so aim for at least there to see how you feel about it if you're just thinking about dipping your toes in vs fully committing. i hope that was helpful and not too long :)

oh and don't go in the comments section on wordpress if you don't want spoilers. or anywhere else in the fandom at all. you will be spoiled. quite possibly for things you could not even have imagined were topics to be spoiled on.

[hmslusitania]

Ted Lasso is a portal fantasy

I know, I know it's not in any way a speculative fiction show. I know. Bear with me for a second. Ted Lasso is a portal fantasy, but the real question is whether this is the story we know from the Wizard of Oz, or Mary Poppins. Ted himself is at once Dorothy and Mary, and I think my reaction to the end of Ted's story, specifically, depends on whether you take the show at it’s title, that it’s about Ted Lasso (Dorothy) or take the show at Ted’s word that it was never about him (Mary Poppins).

To Ted, he is very literally Dorothy.

He’s away from Kansas, he’s surrounded by the reminder that “there’s no place like home”, and he spent the finale wearing honest to god ruby red sneakers. The evil wizard stalked down from his curtained owners box and was removed from power. The lion got her courage, the tin man for his heart, and the scarecrow got his brain, and Dorothy went back to Kansas (leaving Toto behind). But unlike Dorothy, we didn't really get the build up that Ted had to go back to Kansas to get what he wanted -- Henry back in his life. Rebecca even offered him the choice to stay, and the means to bring Henry and even Michelle back to London with him. Exactly zero compelling reason was offered to explain why Ted wouldn't take that offer. But he's Dorothy, in a portal fantasy, and that's what Dorothy does -- she goes home. It is the ending of the vast majority of portal fantasies, no matter how much it will fuck up the protagonist (there's a whole series detailing that damage and undoing it by tumblr's own Seanan McGuire which I highly recommend btw). To me, this is an unsatisfying ending for Ted himself, since no reason was given for him to turn down Rebecca's offer.

However.

To the Richmond family, Ted is Mary Poppins.

One of the complaints I’ve seen about this season is that we don’t know where Ted is, emotionally. Much like Mary Poppins, whose internality as a character is, at best, an afterthought. Mary Poppins is not the point of Mary Poppins. The children she helps are the point of Mary Poppins, and when she leaves at the end, although you’re sad to see her go, you know the kids she left there have grown as people and will continue to grow by her example and her benevolent Julie Andrews ways. And by and large, you don’t really worry about the place Mary Poppins goes to. She’s Mary Poppins and she’ll do what she does and ours is not to question etc. ("Mary Poppins isn't a portal fantasy" yeah, I know, technically, but it's kind of an inside out portal fantasy since there's a character who came from another kind of realm, who swept in to be the answer to some problem, and then went home {or, wherever}; it's just we're seeing it from the pov of the locals rather than the person from the other realm.)

The Richmond Team have all grown as people under Ted's stewardship. As we’ve seen in the character progressions particularly of Roy, of Nate, of Rebecca, they will continue in the Richmond way that they’ve developed. Forever changed by Ted sailing in on his parasol, missing him certainly, but able to continue. More narrative weight is given to the Mary Poppins side of the story, and in this scenario, I take much, much less issue with Ted's the character's ending.

In conclusion, Ted Lasso is the story of Mary Poppins staring Dorothy Gale in the titular role.

[seeminglyseph]

I really appreciate that Eurylochus in Epic I am pretty sure is adapted from a character in the original who is at the very least somewhat antagonistic and cowardly in characterization and has spun him into a compelling and interesting character who has genuinely caused the fandom to basically to be like “but was he wrong though?”

Because like, the fact that at multiple points both Odysseus and Eurylochus have been right at different points of their adventure and just too fucked up emotionally or too “we can’t talk about things” to like. Clear up the issues they were having, means that they just. Became a tragedy.

And it is especially beautiful because Eurylochus and Polites bring this weight of friendship and loss to Odysseus in Epic, despite their existence in the Odyssey fully lacking that characterization. Though I think it is part of the miscommunication at times because like. Perspective. And if you try to look up extra information from the source text to give more context, Eurylochus is so different in that source text that like… it will back up arguments in favour of Odysseus more easily. But modern sensibilities side with Eurylochus more easily due to monarchs and tyrants like… heavily falling out of favour. So things like kings, gods, princes, captains, status, and rank are like… they exist but they aren’t seen the same.

Like the Odyssey is set in the Mycenaean age, late Bronze Age. This was a tale of ancient times when Homer was telling it. So by modern standards things can’t help but be archaic in ways. Especially given that The Iliad and Odyssey have so much to do with colonization and war and just like. Contemplating it. Existing in it and the aftermaths of it, and being conscious that it is being told to a world of people who are still acting and living in a unifying country due to colonization, that is expanding and growing its power with war and language and colonization. And the stories of the past wars are both glorious and tragic because of the necessity for glory to the heroes of the past but caution and understanding that…

Like Troy was once favoured by Zeus, that favour can be lost or swayed. Only the gods can count on their power lasting for eternity, men must know that a grudge can bloom anywhere and topple the mightiest kingdom if he does not mind his actions carefully.

The Aeneid, by Virgil which is written much later and I admit I have only read a summary, refers to Odysseus (through his Roman name Ulysses) really negatively, but that’s partially because the Romans kinda saw themselves as refugees and survivors of Troy. So like. By the time the Aeneid was being written, it was kinda the story of “those bastards who burnt our home down” from what I understand.

“Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?” For realsies. Looking things up apparently the Aeneid was the most popular version of both the Odyssey and the Iliad for a while and it wasn’t until the World Wars that Homer’s versions came back into fashion. Part of that was translation issues but still, damn.

This has become the most unhinged ramble, I’m sorry. I don’t know what any of this is even about. Translation? Perspective? Adaptation? The power of storytelling? All of it? Honestly the fact of the matter is that Eurylochus has been adapted to a new character for Epic, but he fits the narrative of the Odyssey especially as far as we need it to be told today because of how power structures work, but it’s been executed extremely well.

It keeps the technicalities of the traits of the poem “cowardice” and “mutiny” and creates a character with insecurity and missing sense of self who is afraid in a reasonable way and in order to overcome that fear reacts with aggression or violence. But in a way that is encouraged, acceptable or rewarded for a soldier. However, as a second in command, he is accustomed to having a role where he checks Odysseus’ plans for flaws. This is a good position to have him in when you’re plotting a battle action, it’s a bad position to have him in when you need him to provide a united front to keep the crew from panicking.

His position as both one of the crew and Odysseus’ Right Hand Man puts him in a position where he gets part of Odysseus’ picture, and is used to a relationship where he can be comfortable and doubtful and easy with Odysseus, however Odysseus as the Captain and the King cannot be fallible in the eyes of his men, because his men need to be able to follow his orders without question in the case of a crisis or it will be a serious issue.

Honestly the whole “I need you to be able to trust me and follow my orders in a crisis” is… part of general insubordination going on into modern day practice in crisis response and military as far as I understand it so like. I do get that. Though like. They are… two deeply damaged and traumatized men who just… cannot have a proper conversation with each other.

And also I am of the opinion that Odysseus in Puppeteer, when he brushes off Eurylochys’ attempted confession with his

“There's only so much left we can endure”

I am pretty sure that is not just brushing off, that is fully Odysseus admitting to Eurylochus like “I can’t handle anything else, please.” Like. My brain is making parallels to FMA “terrible day for rain” and Eurylochus drops it because he’s looking at a man on the verge of breaking down, and grants him some dignity or peace.

I mean Mutiny calls back to Puppeteer when Odysseus calls Eurylochus out, he would have done the same. Eurylochus wanted to cut and run on Circe’s island, leaving the men she had to their fate. But since Odysseus has all the power he carries all the blame, which makes it easier when any of the others make a mistake or something goes wrong. And it’s part of the reason Ody goes back to being Captain as soon as the crew is in trouble again. If they’ve angered a god, it’s better and easier to have Odysseus deal with it.

Unfortunately for everyone Odysseus has now crossed the Despair Event Horizon and all that matters is Penelope, Telemachus, and Ithaca. Everyone else can go fuck themselves.

Which, you know. Bodes well for all the fucked up dweebs who’ve been harassing his family for years. That’s probably gonna go great for them considering all the last shreds of his humanity he sacrificed to get home and see them safe.

[bumblingest-bee]

just saw assassins at my local community theatre!!! and i thought my fellow assassins fans would like to hear about it bc it was genuinely wonderful.

before the show started there was a medley of classic american showtunes about optimism and dreams playing somewhat creepily as everyone came in

the set used strips of draped fabric that looked like they came from a huge american flag to create a simple but effective circus-tent vibe. there were sideshow style posters up for things like "DEAD PRESIDENT FROM THE GRAVE" and "THE ELECTRIC CHAIR LADY!"

the proprietor was impeccably cast. handsome as hell with a big all-american tv show host smile and nothing behind the eyes.

the presidents were represented by the ensemble holding up photos of said presidents, which led to a hilarious moment after unworthy of your love where hinckley is converged upon by a multitude of ronald reagans chanting "there you go again! there you go again!" which incidentally is a scene from my nightmares

some of the standouts in the cast were czolgosz, who delivered the single best version of the bottle monologue i've ever heard, and byck, who was frighteningly believable and intense. guiteau was also very funny with impeccable comic timing and delivery

the balladeer can only be described as an elderly butch lesbian dressed as a cowboy. she was delightful and had a gorgeous powerful voice, however they only changed the keys of some of the songs for her! half the time she was singing so low it was hardly audible. nonetheless she was great and i want to shake the hand of whoever cast her. and she played her own guitar!!

fromme and moore were hilarious together. i loved them both but i thought the angle that the actress playing squeaky went for resulted in losing some of the vulnerability that makes her character compelling. otherwise they were just a brilliant duo and got the comedic nuances that a lot of other actors miss

the only gripe i really had was with booth, who (although he had the PERFECT voice, genuinely really really impressive) i thought at first was playing it too foppish and goofy to really pull off the gravitas that sells the show in the final sequence. and yet he came through in the end! i was so relieved when he pulled off the book depository scene.

which leads me to their oswald. he brought something i think a lot of actors don't, which is the fact that oswald's a little bit unhinged already. like this guy walked onstage, scrawny and shifty-eyed and nervous, with his ribs literally showing through his t-shirt, and i immediately was able to believe that this is someone so miserable and down on his luck that he's willing to kill for a scrap of attention or admiration. he was so intense and unnervingly hyperactive that it got uncomfortable to watch (which is a good thing in assassins).

i don't know if it was the small space of the theatre or just the fact that i was experiencing it live for the first time, but everything from another national anthem to the end was so emotionally raw and intense that it was overwhelming. i thought that since i know the show so well it would lose the ability to chill me. it didn't. i felt every single moment of that show and it was wonderful.

[grassoftunnel]

Natsuhi/Kumasawa Manifesto

Yes shipping. No not even straight crack, I’m like actually serious! Though I’ll be frank this is mostly going off the wall insane and just doing what I like for fun and profit rather than serious analysis! But if you’re interested…walk with me!

I wish there had been more Natsuhi and Kumasawa interactions. Lesbionically charged ones even. I was thinking about how Kumasawa really stands apart from the rest of the servants as the lone person in Japanese clothes and who also doesn’t really gaf about the Ushiromiya’s like that (and the Ushiromiyas likewise are either really rude to her and/or dgaf). She also is always talking about the original Rokkenjima mythology. It got me thinking about what Natsuhi thinks about her, and if she took special notice of her in the sea of Western things associated with the Ushiromiya’s. Kumasawa is also a seriously minor and under-utilised character considering everything, and I think that’s a shame.

I constantly think about how Natsuhi was supposed to have an affair with Gohda, and I assume it would have gone more into her own desires as an individual outside of her really pitiful life on Rokkenjima. Since here is a guy who is her social lesser, who adores her, and has a distinctly servile nature around her. Like this is a dynamic that is going to appeal to her. I really want to push back against the whole Natsuhi as a tradwife characterisation because I think it ignores that it’s literally a mask that she’s constantly trying to convince herself she’s okay with. She’s a deeply conservative woman, but she clearly yearns for power and respect of her own. Which I think plays well into her conservatism with gender, like how she’s takes such pride in calling herself the representative to the head, and in her fantasies of a supportive Kinzo, he talks about how she would have made a wonderful son-in-law. Like she WANTS to be the one with power, the “man”, even if she’s still an extremely traditionally feminine woman. Like she wants to be of course seen as steady and reliable but also to be supported and doted on (by people beneath her i.e what I think an affair dynamic with Gohda would have been). For her knowledge and contributions to be admired and recognised and seen as valuable. It’s also interesting to contrast her to Eva who is like, outside of family conferences, living as close to her best life as is possible with a husband who respects and defers to her, even if she’s nominally taking the position of his supportive wife. Like everyone recognises her place as the matriarch of her own family. Which is NOT the case with Natsuhi. Who is taking Ls left right and center every single day of her life, emotionally and literally. However I feel like Gohda is too much of an incompetent clown to make her feel like that in an actually successfully or especially compelling manner. I also think he perhaps appeals TOO MUCH to Natsuhi on the surface level, like she’s not exactly questioning that deeply if she likes this refined and servile guy who is around her own age.

And so…enter Kumasawa. Her senior by like 30+ years, lowborn, boorish, vulgar and insubordinate, and with no (visible) special standing (unlike eg. Genji) outside of her long service. But also…BECAUSE of these things Natsuhi would feel very comfortable being, ugly, raw, needy, unreliable around her. Because why should she be ashamed to be those things around someone like Kumasawa! Natsuhi is so far above her it’s inconceivable that she would ever feel unworthy in front of her! It’s just a given! She should be happy to even be spoken to by someone so far above! But the thing is…I think Kumasawa would run rings around her. And has every reason to dislike and look down on Natsuhi, for her cruelty to the servants, her posturing, and clear failure to command the respect of the true master of the house, or even her own husband and daughter. Kumasawa is a very minor character but I like the small insubordinations that peek out, and while she’s generally sympathetic to the suffering of women, Natsuhi can be a real piece of work to the servants eg. Shannon. This can create a fun dynamic where Natsuhi can be needy and unreliable, and be outwardly cruel to Kumasawa but also have a condescending affection to her. And she’s too shortsighted and up herself to even realise Kumasawa feels the same. Or if she does it’s in a I can see you hate me, but that’s okay, because you have no choice anyway. Like a dark reflection of her own entry into the Ushiromiya family. And Kumasawa could see her as this pathetic young (hilarious to write about a 47 year old) thing who is fun to toy with, especially since Natsuhi is always throwing her weight around with the servants. The way that class and gendered dynamics intertwine would be so delicious with these two as well. Natsuhi is the social better, and the Man. Kumasawa is the woman, but not in any way to actually threaten Natsuhi in regards to conventional femininity (she’s an unrefined old biddy after all). Like it’s okay and not conflicting with her conservative values for Natsuhi to act like this because Kumasawa is so beneath her. But also…Kumasawa has 30 years on her and those 30 years are not nothing…I kind of want to see her indulge Natsuhi a bit and spoil her even if (maybe especially if…) condescendingly🙈 especially since Natsuhi’s had to grow up so fast and been forced into this wet blanket wife role. I want to see her be annoying to Kumasawa like Krauss is to her.

Also would be funny since Kumasawa’s personality and habits probably irritate her so much lmfao. Like imagine the phantom thread scene where Alma is chewing really loudly and Woodcock is going insane. Also Kumasawa is the one with real control over the servants, like it’s all Natsuhi has but it’s not even real. I want to see Natsuhi take out her pain but also try to assuage her guilt about The Child Who Would Be Sayo via her. Which is so yummy because Kumasawa’s sins are so much worse! Lol and this affair might be like literally the main outlet for Natsuhi to escape her life, but for Kumasawa who has a whole ass life and family and kids, it’s nothing. This is all not to be uncharitable to Natsuhi but I personally like to see women behaving badly and being flops in their romantic liaisons. I think there’s a fun dark version of Natsuhi where she give into her selfish desires more and kind of channels Kinzo. Like making the choice to position herself with him as a way to escape the miserable pitiful life of a housewife of an unworthy man. Usurp Krauss as Kinzo’s heir instead of trudging along the path to becoming the pitiful perpetually disrespected figure of the person who was Kinzo’s wife/ Krauss’ mother. Anyway now this is making me think a lot of a NATSUHI-Beatrice Forgery where she gets masc’d up and Kinzo-like HAHAHAHA.

[blackautmedia]

Sonic Prime, Nine, Pain and Protection

Sonic Prime Season 3 Spoilers

After watching Sonic prime season 3 it was a real joy to watch. It's certainly not without flaws, but I wanna talk about Nine and how people were reacting to him.

One of Prime's biggest strengths is the sheer amount of expressive faces it uses to indirectly communicate to the viewer. The unspoken storytelling goes a long way.

They emphasize how Nine is laser focused on his ambitions, but his path of trying to convince himself that he can't trust anyone is self-destructive.

He tries his best to hide his pain and assert himself as evil or powerful because Nine is desperate to maintain a sense of control, something that's important to him because his whole life he's only known pain, bullying, physical abuse, and isolation.

The prism itself really takes his toll on him and the show's expressions do not let you forget how much it's hurting him and he can barely hold together. He collapses several time, he grasps his body in pain--this kid was already hurting and he's self-harming in his pursuits.

Sonic even points out how it's destructive to him and throughout the entire fight Sonic genuinely sees Nine for what he is--a scared and deeply hurt boy in a panic and feeling threatened by everyone around him.

I'm pretty sure Sonic was going to point out how the prism power is harming Nine, especially because he points out how much the energy is hurting him shortly after this scene too.

Keep in mind it's not just the strain of using the prism energy.

By this point in the series, Nine was already held prisoner most of season 2. He likely wasn't fed well if at all.

After that, he spends a bunch of time and energy fighting alongside Sonic to escape with the shards. After that, he's having to do more fighting at ghost hill in addition to reassembling the prism.

And then he's doing all of this.

There's a great visual metaphor in Nine's barrier gradually closing in closer and closer until he can't escape having to confront his fears. Toward the end of their big fight, one of the last things Nine does is just form a barrier. Nine is terrified here.

Everyone else sees a traitor they want to get back at, but Sonic is the only one who has seen his vulnerabilities, seen his kinder moments, and sees the humanity in Nine worth saving and fighting for, especially when he's a large part of the cause.

What breaks Nine is that a big part of him is clearly hurt and wants so badly have companionship in his life, something Sonic is still offering him and something that continually breaks Nine's masking:

Notice how dejected and exhausted he is and how his metal tails drop down because he's tired of fighting before steeling his focus again. He's not saying how he can't give up with a look of confidence. He's trying to convince himself there's no other option.

He doesn't want to keep fighting but almost feels compelled to and shifts blame to Sonic because of refusing to process his grief or self-reflecting.

Nine yells at Sonic or cuts him off because he knows how much Sonic's words are cutting through his mask and how he knows that it's getting through to him emotionally. He needs Sonic to shut up so it's emotionally easier to keep fighting. Sonic knows Nine too well for him to be able to maintain a facade.

Nine feels violated that the only love he's ever felt after years of abuse was always seemingly for someone else. He feels that he has no other option than to pursue his ambitions and live a life of painful isolation even if his body and heart are screaming otherwise.

He's desperately trying to convince himself that he can't trust anyone so that it hurts less, he tries to make himself seem powerful and invulnerable, he tries to convince himself that he can only have voiceless machines for companions all to avoid feeling vulnerable and hurt.

He very much does not want to fight and can't keep it up, but he's also overwhelmed with feelings of fear and mistrust.

There's a very cool role reversal in how Sonic and Nine fight each other that becomes apparent throughout the big battle.

Nine is trying desperately to maintain some kind of control and when he's not hurting, he's continually frustrated. Look at how he reacts when things don't go as he predicts and despite his belief that Sonic would rush in, Sonic learns and adapts by relying on someone more experienced than him.

Nine gradually fights more like Sonic--reliant on just his own individual power (or rather the prism's) without slowing down to reflect on his actions--just keep going, just keep pushing. Protect your home. Rush the decay to force Sonic's hand. Gotta go fast.

He targets Sails and Mangey first because the thought of them reminds him of the projection Sonic was doing and he doesn't want to think about it. It also doubles as a way to goad Sonic into acting impulsively, something Sonic wants to do but ends up not going through with.

Meanwhile, Sonic is listening to reason, biding his time, making observations (like the dome shrinking, forming a plan that gives him the upper hand, using the pit to his advantage, etc) and capitalizing on the knowledge he's taking in.

He delegates tasks to other people instead of reacting. He's fighting and thinking like Tails and Nine would, while Nine is acting and fighting more like Sonic would.

I feel the pacing was a lot more tolerable this time compared to prior seasons because while it's one big fight, so much of it represents a gradual change in psyche between Sonic and Nine on top of the other side character moments.

But then Sonic sees the palm tree and finally recognizes Nine's intentions. What makes this scene so great is that Nine makes one last desperate attempt to hold up that same mask he always does. Scare off threats through intimidation. But he's too exhausted.

But then Sonic protects him. People are angry and threatening and attacking Nine (and while the CC isn't justified, everyone else has valid reason to dislike and distrust him) with no recourse. But for the first time in his life, someone stands up for him and protects him.

His brother still is showing him so much love and trust.

and Nine is moved by it. Moved by the endless compassion and brotherly love Sonic still is giving him. Compassion Nine doesn't even feel he deserves after what he's done.

The pained, panicked look as his friend sacrifices him for his mistakes is one of the best shots in the entire season. It's a knife through his heart knowing moments ago he would have willingly sacrificed the only one who showed him so much love.

I'm seeing reactions that people were upset that this was "obvious" when Nine was never trying to be deceitful about his intentions.

The whole reason Sonic and Nine communicate so poorly is made clear in watching the first two seasons. They spend very little time together where they can actually slow down and breathe. They spend almost all of season 2 apart with Nine a prisoner, then they're attacked for two whole episodes before the end when they fall out.

In season 1, they meet, get captured, seize the crystal, get separated, then reunite when Nine makes his offer for the Grim.

There's also this sentiment that Shadow was right about everything and Sonic messed it up--but really, Sonic, Nine, and Shadow were all partially right and wrong.

Sonic genuinely wanted to give Nine a better life, but he also failed to properly listen or communicate with him because he was preoccupied with his own hurt from having destroyed his own home and friends.

Nine does the same thing in how he just assumes Sonic wants what he wants and doesn't contend with how Sonic is hurting too. Both of them are hurting a lot for different reasons. But while they project on each other, they do genuinely love each other too and Sonic specifically argues with Shadow that Nine is real and should be treated as an equal with a stake in their situation.

If they had time where they didn't have a constant threat looming over their heads, their conflicting wants would have gone a lot more smoothly. Sonic could make his case properly and Nine would be a lot more open to see that Sonic not only cares about him, but wants to give him a paradise too.

Shadow is only partially right in that Nine doesn't want the same thing as them, but he believes Nine to be inherently untrustworthy or dismisses the other shatter beings as just fakes or obstacles which fails to get at why Nine is fighting so hard to begin with.

Shadow accuses him of wanting power and Nine agrees, but only in the sense that he's still trying to maintain that control. What he wants is a home, love, and safety.

Shadow routinely dismisses the others as Sonic just being mindlessly sentimental even though they're are a large part of how Sonic even got the shards at all and triumphed.

Sonic could not have succeeded without the others and especially not without Nine. He would have needed a way to extract his own energy and couldn't handle the other shards without Nine's help, Nine's regulators or some kind of cover.

He also would have had his running abilities impaired and that alone would have made things difficult if not impossible. How would he get around the ocean world or search for the shards without Nine's upgrade as a regulator and compass?

How was Sonic supposed to steal the shared from the Chaos Council by himself when his running was affected by the shard energy and he would have had to face that entire army alone? It was difficult to pull off even with the combined strength of five people.

Imagine how heartbreaking it would have been if Sonic agreed to Nine's plan, they try to build the Grim, and Nine learns he needs to sacrifice the brother he fought so hard for.

So not only was it ultimately necessary to work together, Shadow doesn't have the same knowledge Sonic does.

He hasn't seen Nine share his vulnerabilities like he did with Sonic.

He didn't see Nine manipulate the chaos council to protect his friend.

He hasn't seen the joyful Nine who's grown so close to Sonic that he's willing to move heaven and earth to build a paradise for his friend.

He's flat out wrong in the assumptions he makes even if he was right that Nine didn't have the same goals as them.

He didn't see Nine feel he failed his friend by inadvertently unleashing Chaos Sonic. He didn't see Nine stick his neck out so much for his brother.

That's not to say the others were obligated to listen to Nine--they had valid reasons to distrust him--but it doesn't change the fact that Nine is still ultimately an abused kid desperate for a home and has grown up in such isolation that he has no regard for others.

He's not trying to destroy the world--he wants to fix it and isn't against leaving others in isolation.

When Nine hugs Sonic, his mouth trembles. It's like he's struggling to find words to say but can't get them out.

(EDIT: I've updated some portions with new knowledge about the series when before I had speculations)

Now the bigger issue I have with the show is that only ending at episode seven leaves without a lot of closure for Nine.

Nine is the deuteragonist of Sonic Prime. Part of what made Sonic's plan to take Nine with him to Green Hill so moving was that he wanted to give Nine more than just one friend--he wanted a new environment and life for him and wanted him to be surrounded with people who love him.

It would have gone a long way to have even one scene maybe indicating they can travel to other worlds or have Nine meet the others in Green Hill, showing he has that now.

The moment where he hugs Sonic is very great especially because it's Nine himself initiating it. But as it stands it only leaves it at Sonic and Nine reconciling but not indicating what Nine's fate is after this. The other shatterverse people don't have any reason to trust him so it reads like he's just left alone again.

Even one scene of Nine getting to see a lush, green place for him to live, getting to just have fun with a whole group of friends, sticking him in a safe environment where he'll be loved and respected would have gone a long way.

Having said that, I've watched a few reviews now and find it frustrating none of them are framing this criticism in a way that addresses the fact that more people in the production industry than ever now are striking, we're in a pandemic, and exploitation of employees is a major issue with the advent of AI, among other things.

I can't say for sure, but I wish more of these criticisms were framed less as "man this show is lazy, even fan works are better than this" like I'm seeing on YouTube and Twitter and acknowledging the very real conditions that we're seeing play out in real time.

I'd have ended with the last episode being an entire epilogue or the picnic Scene with Sonic saying "hey guys there's someone I want you to meet" and it's Nine. Sonic would be showing Nine all the little joys in life he could never experience until now.

The final season went to great lengths to use its animation and writing to portray how taxing this all was for Nine, so easily one of the most important plot threads to resolve is him getting the safe home he wanted so badly and giving him some way of being safe and getting to heal emotionally.

The series did pack in quite a few character moments for the rest of the cast and I don't want to take away from that, but I feel a large part of the current mixed feeling or dissatisfaction comes from how it leaves a large portion hanging for Nine. The hug was huge. But it still doesn't really resolve the larger narrative built up with Nine.

That said, a lot of what we have seen was great and a lot of fun. Sonic chose to see what he always knew was in Nine.

[coffeenonsense]

I usually try to stay in my lane most of the time (mostly bc I am far too old for fandom drama) but what the hell, it's friday, let's put that lit degree to use:

the way people are playing morality politics with fiction is really starting to genuinely irk me and I think some of the responses to ascended astarion are a perfect example of why this type of thinking is actually hugely detrimental to one's ability to meaningfully engage with fiction and also to the future of art.

astarion is one of the most well-written complex characters I've seen in recent years bar none (and I'm clearly not alone given the explosion of his personal fandom lol) and he has a truly compelling, emotionally resonant character arc whether you ascend him or not

If you keep him a spawn, you get a deeply touching, realistic character's journey to healing and personal growth where he learns who he is after the experience of his trauma and depending on the player's choice, explores his relationship to sex, romance and intimacy

If you ascend astarion, you get an equally emotional and well-rounded character arc where he chooses the power that allows him to have the desperate freedom and safety he's wanted, but in the process eschews any hope of real healing or personal development, and again, depending on the player's choices, restarts the cycle of abuse by taking cazador's place.

These options offer vastly different paths for the character and experiences for the player, but while yes, ascended astarion is the evil ending, and yes, ascending astarion is a tragedy, and a fucking incredible one (not only do you have astarion reigniting a circle of abuse but you have the narrative weight of KNOWING he could have actually overcome his trauma...hats off to the bg3 team tbh) but that does not mean ascending astarion MAKES YOU AS THE PLAYER EVIL

Ascend astarion because you love tragic story arcs, ascend him because you want to indulge in a master/slave vampire fantasy, don't ascend him because you want a healing character journey, don't ascend him because you want a sweet romance; all of these choices carry the same moral weight for the player, which is to say, none, because they are an exploration of fiction.

I know I'm saying this to the villain fucker website but it bears repeating; just because someone wants to engage with evil, fucked up characters or content does not mean they support evil acts in their real life, and furthermore, exploring dark, taboo or tragic concepts safely is part of what fiction is for. It enables us to look at those things from a distance, work through difficult feelings and develop greater understanding of what makes our fellow humans tick — and before you get it twisted there's also no moral issue with exploring fucked up media bc you're horny or just, because. You can take it as seriously (or as sexily) as you want.

It's starting to really concern me how many people not only do not get, but are violently opposed to this concept, because equating what someone likes in fiction with their real life moral code and actions is an incredibly dangerous and let's be honest, immature way of thinking that not only stunts your ability to engage with fiction but ironically, hampers your ability to deal with complicated issues and emotions in real life.

I don't know what's driving this trend (though purity culture is certainly playing a role) but it's definitely something that's not just impacting individuals but contributing to the commercialization of art, where we get games and stories and tv shows and books that regurgitate the same safe, mass marketable plotlines and character archetypes over and over and over again so corporations can squeeze out as much profit as possible.

Anyway, remember kids: There's no such thing as thought crime, reaching for morally pure unproblematic media is directly contributing to the death of art, and this is why funding the humanities is important.

[lakesbian]

it's the moment like 4 of you have been waiting for:

i finally rotated pact creature design in my brain enough to post about it. to all the people who sent me asks wanting to hear my thoughts explaining Why Pact Creatures Are So Good this ones for you.

the core of pact's monster design boils down to one very good fact about pact's worldbuilding: in the world of pact, the universe canonically loves a good story. magic literally runs on themes and ideas. subsequently, strong themes aren't the end result of pact's monster design so much as they are the most fundamental aspect of it--meaningful themes and narratives are such a textually important part of how pact monsters work that one bogeyman outright tries to start a conversation with blake by, upon noticing the birdhouse in his soul (tm), asking if birds are important to him.

what really seals the deal on this being fascinating is that pact monsters aren't invented wholesale--a lot of the book hinges on offering its own explanations for preexisting folklore or urban legend. pact takes a variety of common threads in the way cultural myths & monsters are presented, picks out the conceptions with compelling implications, and distills them into one design so thematically coherent and clarifying that it makes you go "ohhh, why aren't All ghosts/dragons/fae like this? this is Exactly What They're Supposed To Be."

like, we all know that ghosts are dead people, and oftentimes the appearance and/or behavior they're written as having is either implicitly or explicitly based on reenactments of their past life/how they died, and sometimes they're depicted as lucid but more often than not they're depicted more like broken or warped remnants of a person, and sometimes they make things colder/give off Bad Emotional Vibes/etc. those are generally true assertions about how ghosts are often culturally presented.

pact takes that and explicitly declares that ghosts are what happens when something so bad happens that an imprint of the resultant misery is left on the fabric of the universe. some ghosts appear horrifying because their appearance is warped and exaggerated beyond what's realistically possible to match how awful whatever happened to them felt. some ghosts are more lucid because their imprint is more recent, or has been strengthened and fed by human attention instead of left to decay. some ghosts are less lucid because they were forgotten. when ghosts make the atmosphere feel awful to be in, that's because the ghost isn't just the imprint of the person, it's an imprint of the awful thing itself. incredibly interesting! it feels so very much like the absolute heart of what ghost stories are about--about the grief and horror of being impacted by the ever-present echo of something terrible, about something so viscerally wretched happening that reality itself cannot forget it, about the emotionally powerful interactions between someone still-living and the memory of someone already long gone.

(pact also gives an aside that, in very rare scenarios, neutral or arguably even positive occasions which leave a sufficiently strong enough impression can also become ghosts. genuinely fascinating expansion.)

& the thing here is that pact does this for creatures like ghosts that are already richly thematic and iconic, but it Also does it for creatures with less obvious theming. how do dragons work? what's pact's underlying explanation for their position as immortal, powerful, regal, fire-breathing* fantasy monsters?

*&, depending on the media, sometimes ice-breathing or poisonous or whatever else

well, you see, dragons are recursive loops. "dragons are recursive loops" is perhaps one of the Top All Time sentences in the entire book, and the delightful thing is that, in addition to sounding excellent, it makes sense.

that's how they generate and spit out so much of whatever their element is. they're snarls. they're ouroboroses. they're something feeding into itself, self-sustaining for thousands of years, drowning anything which threatens it in torrents of whatever the self-feeding element is--fire, sometimes, but it could be poison, or ice, or whatever else, and that's why you've probably heard of ice dragons in addition to classic fire dragons. Dragons Are Recursive Loops. recursiveness is, after all, a form of immortality.

or, like, fae? we all know that faeries are incomprehensibly old/outright immortal Tricky Little Bitches who like to manipulate people while posing in an inhumanly/horrifically beautiful fashion and going "teehee." pact takes that to a fantastically surreal level of extreme artifice, one that's almost grotesque in its dreamlike nature--they have all lived for so very long that, to them, boredom is worse than death, and so they have complicated social games spanning centuries, and speak in the most practiced of misleading wordplay, and perfectly curate their forests so that even the smallest pebble is an intentionally-chosen setpiece for their play. they graduated from handjobs a couple dozens of millennia ago--now they're more into erotic-poetic descriptions of full-body degloving. you will not notice when a faerie steals and replaces your child, because you are very young and stupid compared to them, and playing-pretend at being your child is only the briefest of trifles in their unfathomably long lifespan.

the other good bit is that pact explicitly acknowledges that faeries run on what is colloquially deemed Bullshit--the universe likes a good story, and faeries have gotten very good at telling it a moving story. if a faerie tells a good enough story about having a sword that breaks the laws of physics, then that is what their sword will do. and so the way to combat faeries is not to out-bullshit them--because no one is out-bullshitting a being with thousands of years of bullshitting practice--but to say "no, that's fucking stupid and made up" until their implausibly long sword acts like a sword of that size actually should and shatters on the spot.

& all of these writing decisions feel so naturally truthful to what these creatures are Supposed to be--they're really not wholly new takes, they're a presentation of preexisting ideas in a way that gets why those ideas appeal to people and goes full-throttle on all the most thematically rich or otherwise narratively interesting parts. It's Good Writing. I Like It. you could spend an entire essay breaking down the presentation of literally any single one of pact's creatures, it's that compelling in its reflection and organization of Ideas About Creatures.

[magicaldragons]

'in the name of pain and outrage'

an analysis of the ending

I say this with utmost love, but episode 16 was a shitshow.

i walked into this show accepting it at face value – a show that would take itself lightly, with a compelling subplot marinated in humor, and a dose of sweet romance.

this show tried to include very mature, sobering themes with slapstick humor, which is definitely possible if balanced properly, but i feel this show was not able to achieve this the way do bong soon or others could.

to get some of the discrepancies out of the way:

they never told us that the women's senses were connected, geum joo should not have been able to feel namsoon's thirst – that's something they abruptly added to fuel the tension of the situation.

there is absolutely no reason nam soon would react like that to the drug, when you compare it to how every other user was affected by it.

the strength exerted by gil-joongan did not feel like enough to knock her out like that

and with how easy it would've been to leave the situation, it's very obvious that nam soon taking the drug was an ill-planned way to raise the stakes and increase suspense

the homeless couple truly had nothing of value to add to the show or it's message

none of the show's themes or messages were delivered properly towards the end, and it went against everything it preached.

the immediate tone change after ryu si-o's death did not do any justice to the effort put into his characterization

i do not understand how nam soon became a cop, all technicalities considered

why was she throwing humans out a window from the second floor, even if they're criminals??

they REALLY cheapened the whole marriage conversation by bringing money, property, and heirs into it. that was NOT romantic or wholesome. hee-sik deserves better parents, tf.

side note: i'm pretty disappointed with namsoon's character arc, but lee yoo mi worked within the purview of the script to give us honestly wonderful acting, especially in episode 15.

now, to get into the ending, i'll start with this:

what we got, felt like an empty victory. hollow and out of place.

i've always been an advocate for all parts of a show coming together to create an experience – there's usually no single keystone.

but as soon as si-o died, the rest of the episode felt like a blur, with all loose ends being succinctly wrapped up and prepared for season three. byeon woo seok, and his characterization really carried the show as a unit, and added to its cohesiveness. i did not find myself rooting for geum joo and nam soon's successes afterwards

because they had failed the ONE thing most of us had been hoping for them to do:

to save people who were victims of oppression from those with the power of money, and empower them, including to save si-o from his oppressors, and help him take down pavel.

there is no satisfaction in geum joo doing it by herself, because she has no emotional investment in destroying pavel.

losing hwaja and si-o, watching namsoon & heesik become one dimensional all of a sudden, and seeing tertiary unrelated characters having their loose ends tied, is extremely unsatisfactory – for a show that had an incredible cast and so much potential.

at the same time: i loved the portreyal of gil joongan's mission to help the elderly and her enthusiasm for her future, and the addition of binbin + looking into their past from an additional angle also really elevated the emotional context of si-o's character arc.

i loved each character, truly, and to not see the plot and writers give them the detail and care they deserve, is wholly disappointing.

the show took me on a whole journey, emotionally,,,but to know exactly what would make it better, and be aware of its discrepancies makes me grieve the potential it had to truly leave an impact on its viewers, with a solid takeaway message.

[giallos]

there's something really compelling to me about how 911 tells its stories of grief and grieving. it's like, the stories and the characters aren't sanitized or made palatable for the audience. grieving people can be messy and do reckless, unhealthy, even cruel things. a grieving widower who is generally a good and upstanding person might lie to those closest to him in order to pursue a relationship with a woman who resembles his deceased wife. grieving parents might shut down emotionally and neglect their two surviving children after the death of their sick child. a grieving man who is directly responsible for a massive loss of lives might make a deal with god that can only be paid with his own life. a grieving mother might lash out and unfairly use her position of power to punish the people she wants to blame for her loss. grief makes people do things they might not otherwise do if they were thinking clearheadedly. it might turn them into worse versions of themselves, or at least different, unrecognizable versions of themselves. it's so interesting to me that 911 lets grief and those who grieve be as messy and imperfect as it has, without casting judgment on them.

[pennamenotfound]

I feel like one of the reasons that the Bells Hells are so interesting and compelling to me is that they’re all so angry. Anger is so interesting to me because of its volatility. The way it can, more than any other emotion, be twisted. Think of how much more volatile Percy was in campaign one because of his revenge boner than Caleb in campaign two with his deepset guilt and grief.  

And like, sure, we had anger before in the other campaigns.

Like Percy was super angry obviously, and Vex had her rage, and Scanlan had his moment (what’s my mother’s name) in Campaign one, and you could probably pull moments for the rest of Vox Machina. Grog’s a barbarian, he rages all the time. Plus with his herd. Okay, sure. Vax certainly had his moments. Keyleth at Raishan. (I don’t think Pike realy had any real anger moments in her arc.) But their stories don’t rely on their anger as much as Percy and Vex, and not nearly as much as Bells Hells. 

In the Mighty Nein, there’s Beau who is super angry at the world, justifiably so, but the rest of the party not so much. Caleb and Yasha are guilt and grief. Cad’s faith. Jester definitely had her problems with emotion, but anger wasn’t really part of it so much as learning to let herself feel something other than happy. Fjord’s journey to Melora was much more about introspection, Veth’s journey back to herself was certainly emotionally taxing for her, but it’s back to greif and loss for her. Kingsley is all about discovery, and Essek was about finding friendship. 

But Bells Hells. They’re all so angry. With maybe the exception of Chetney, but he’s also a werewolf which is its own sort of instability. 

Ashton’s a given---Tal’s so good at anger in his characters. Perfect punk, angry at the world, angry at their situation. *chef’s kiss* perfect barbarian

Imogen has such rage bubbling. “We’re gonna sunder you, Delilah Briarwood” for one, but also, with her mother. With her powers. 

Fearne with her parents. The way she was discovering her anger had so much potential, and I really wanted to see her actually throw some fireballs or something.

Orym. I saw the look on Liam’s face when he had that insight check whisper from Tuldus. Dude, Otohan and the Ruby Vanguard killed his husband and his dad (I know, father in law, but Orym says dad.) He’s the nice one, he’s said it before himself, but... under the surface, i think he’s got some rage in him. 

FCG. Oh, FCG, with their unpredictable rage mode. Trying so desperately to be the caretaker when they don’t even know what they are. The professor in Yios gave him a lot of good information, but there’s a lot they don’t know. 

For me, with FCG and Orym both, it’s a lot of aren’t you tired of being nice? Don’t you want to go apeshit?

And then Laudna. Laudna, with the most to be angry about. She was murdered by the Briarwoods, and spent the next thirty years with her murderer in her head. Looking like a corpse. Not knowing if she was dead or alive. Being chased out of towns all over Tal’Dorei until she ran all the way to Marquet. No friends, even before she died, before Imogen. And she’s really the most interesting to me. Because we don’t see a lot of rage with her. Even with Percy in Whitestone, it’s forgiveness. It’s understanding. The only time I remember in the campaign her really being angry was when FCG turned on the party that time, and that was related to Delilah’s manipulations. 

Orym said once something like she had the worst thing out of all of them happen, and yet she’s the happiest, and how is that? And she goes, well, because the worst thing that’s happened to me already happened. 

And it’s so interesting to me because we could, in another universe, have another Ashton in Laudna. Because, really, very similar things happened to them. Both died. Both put back together not quite right, not quite in control of their situation. Feared, even. 

But she’s so loving, caring, and not wrathful, and honestly, I’d kind of love to see some anger from her. And I think we might see it if Imogen gets hurt.

Anyway i’m unhinged about bells hells. I love vox machina and mighty nein but I’ve connected most to bells hells because I’ve been watching CR since CR3 started, and I love my angy bois.