Can we talk about The Dying Swan moment in Coda? As someone who was once a very serious ballerina, I need to talk about the Dying Swan. Here's your context --
CHAKOTAY: Harry's clarinet solo was okay. I could have done without Tuvok's reading of Vulcan poetry. But the highlight of the evening was definitely Kathryn Janeway portraying the Dying Swan.
JANEWAY: I learned that dance when I was six years old. I assure you, it was the hit of the Beginning Ballet class.
Have you seen The Dying Swan? It is dramatic.
Here, take a minute:
First of all, this dance is much too advanced for a six-year-old, even if they’re doing it in demi pointe. (Six-year-olds emphatically should not be in pointe shoes btw.) The dance is almost entirely bourees and arm movements done to very subtle musical cues, not the foundational ballet moves typically taught in Beginning Ballet.
This is a very vulnerable, dramatic dance that is effective because of its subtleties. The performer would need to embody that vulnerability in some way for a convincing performance. It's short, but it's a solo piece -- all eyes on you. I mean, it was choreographed for a prima ballerina, BUT THAT'S NOT MY POINT
Can you imagine our unflappable Captain Janeway willingly getting in front of her crew to do this ballet? I get that it’s thematically relevant to the plot of Coda, but since Janeway is only vulnerable in front of her crew when it means putting herself in harm’s way, it seems like a wild decision. She tends to hold herself apart from her crew, maintaining the professional distance of the captain. Further, when she does any creative pursuit, it is almost always in private, since her sister was the artist in the family and she was the scientist. As a captain, she commands Voyager in a much different way than she would as a dancer with this piece. I'm not saying she never shows vulnerability because she definitely does, but not necessarily in this way. Then when she talks about it with Chakotay, she just casually brushes it off with a laugh like no big deal.
There’s also the question of costume – would she have gone full tutu? Done it in her Starfleet uniform? An impeccable yet flow-y white suit? She does get into costume and command a performance in Bride of Chaotica!, but Coda is still kind of early days for our captain. Arachnia aligns more with what we know about Janeway's character.
Granted, it is Chakotay laying down these complements about her dancing ability and he is clearly biased. To be fair, Neelix does too before they leave in the shuttle. If she did this dance and performed it poorly or amazingly, I feel like the crew would look at her a bit differently afterwards.
Canonically she did The Dying Swan, but I certainly have trouble picturing it happening.
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I liked that we only got to see Trent look at Colin this episode. Having him observe Colin and then deciding what to do feels like a very Trent thing to do. Yes, Colin kissing Michael where anyone could see is bad if he wants to keep it a secret. And that's a conversation that I'm not getting into now. BUT, what does Trent actually know about Colin in terms of being out or not. He knows that Colin isn't out to the public, obviously, because it would have made headlines. But he doesn't know if Colin is out to his teammates and leaders. We know he isn't but Trent doesn't. He saw Colin and Michael kiss and he heard what Colin said in the latest episode. Yes, Colin brought Michael to Sam's restaurant and introduced him as his pal, his wingman. Trent could have heard that, he was sitting close by, but did he? I mean every shot we got of him he was clearly deep into his own conversation with various people at his table. Would he have picked up what Colin said, and remembered it? I don't think so.
So he observes Colin, because now he knows something new but not enough. And I know that a lot of you feel like Trent should warn him, tell him that he saw them kissing. But honestly, Colin is an adult who knows that there are no out players. He knows that it would make headlines, he knows he's not out to the team, and he still chose to kiss his boyfriend in an alley. Sure he could have been drunk or just wanted to kiss his boyfriend, consequences be damned. But he still chose to do it. So Trent has two choices, act like Colin doesn't have a clue what it's like being gay, telling him he needs to be careful because people can see him if he's kissing his boyfriend in public (which would honestly be condescending) or he doesn't say anything, he waits and sees how Colin acts, to see if he should mention anything to him. Trent has clearly chosen the latter option for now and we'll see where this goes.
There's also the "is Trent gay or not" aspect, I say he is. And if we're going with that assumption we also have to think about, is Trent himself out? Or rather, is he out to people at work. Because coming out isn't a singular event, you'll always come out. Every time you meet someone who doesn't know who you are, you'll have to decide if you're going to come out to them or not. I'm leaning towards him, not being in the closet, but rather him keeping his private life to himself and being open with friends and family. He's not hiding it and he's not ashamed, he just doesn't tell anyone, because it's not relevant when he's at work. And I say that as someone who loves reading fanfics where he is an openly gay sports journalist.
Where am I going with this? I don't know, I never know what my point is. BUT, I do think that we'll see similar scenes of Trent just observing Colin until perhaps the Amsterdam episode. And that's where he tells Colin that he knows and/or that he's gay himself. And then we might see Colin confiding in him and Trent might help him with a statement for when he's ready to tell the world. Because I do believe that he will tell the public. I don't know if it will be because he's been outed or he's doing it of his own free will. I don't really mind, I think they'll give us something that will rip our hearts out either way. But I am a believer in "gay mentor" Trent Crimm, giving Colin someone "in the business" to confide in.
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8, 12, 16, 18, 22, 23 for the last ask game!
(Asks from this ( x ) meme)
8) common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about
I am not sure whether this qualifies as "everyone", the takes I've seen might not reflect larger fandom, but I'd say thoughts that beasts are innocent? Beasthood in Bloodborne is revealed, not created! Dark Souls trilogy AND Bloodborne both depict humans in their lore as inherently evil and dangerous by nature, but the gut punch is that the attempts to deal with it make things even worse.
Humanity did not need to consume the holy blood to start being violent, cruel, destructive, stupid, unhinged and to eat their own; we've always been this way. Does it matter if what we're consistently doing is in human form or furry form, in the end? Holy blood removed the restraints that already were not super functional should you analyse history and society in general! At the same time, attempts to 'remove' that side of humanity with Eyes Inside and Kin ascension are whole another can of worms, and likewise a bad thing no one asked for. But yeah.. Beasts, indeed, ARE men! This is just Fromsoft's brand of despair!
12) the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them
I answered this question like 3 times already, because in 'choose peace' variant of the ask meme it was unaltered! XD ( x ) ( x ) ( x ) These replies are for Gratia, Forgotten Madman and Dores and they still work! This time I will offer not a set character, but a mentioned character that does have backstory potential!
Logarius killed the king, but who was he? Was he Annalise's husband, since she is a Queen and not a princess? Or maybe he was her father, and she is the Queen on the account of no other ruler left?
^ The King is unused content and there are two kinds of models used for him; the first collage is for 'ghost king' that comes in three variants, and the second one seems to be 'actual' king. Again, are these spirits relevant? Or they're his servants? Or you can use these references to make TWO characters - the father and Annalise's husband?
I think this is some really good material to use for Cainhurst backstory! Maria's past in general is never developed aside of her Hunter era and all that happened afterwards, but I think he'd be a presence in her past in some way! As well as characters like Annalise, and maybe Bloody Crow depending on your timeline headcanons! + My take on it is to use both variants; former was how King used to be and three ghost variants currently function same as Brador's phantoms, latter is what he turned into (just less skeletial xd) since apparently for the ritual featuring Ring of Betrothal to conceive a child of blood it doesn't matter if you propose to Annalise as male or female hunter 🤔 And what are your thoughts VOTE NOW FROM YOUR PHONES
16) you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)
"Laurence is Choir and Micolash is Mensis" headcanon. Okay, this is instant lie, right off the bat, because I DO understand why so many people like this! It creates the parallel/opposition that is fun to utilise in Micolaurence ship. Rivalry and all. But, honestly though.. Laurence is the head of the Healing Church! The bit about "creation of the Choir divided Healing Church in two" could be read as either 1) the staff now had a proper distinction between blood ministration and Insight research, in which case Laurence still governs BOTH 2) Choir lowkey turned on Laurence by pursuing more Willem-esque research but wasn't defunded for one reason or another or 3) Choir formed after Laurence's death where Healing Church was no longer organised properly. And in all of these cases, he is not Choir's 'face'!
If anything, School of Mensis is closer to how Laurence researches with Moon rituals and removed Great One cords. He is not Choir, he is either above Choir or against Choir! And more than anything, I don't understand the appeal of drawing Laurence in unaltered Choir garb. Regardless of headcanons, it makes no sense for the leader to dress the exact same as his subordinates! He should create the impression of the most important person, not a Choir boy that forgot his hat! ......what?
Siiiiiigh FINE, I'll downvote my own uploads here and say that it IS possible that Laurence was wearing this clothing and Choir copied him afterwards, when he either died or shifted into different direction (with new drip). It can work! But I still do not understand the appeal personally!
18) it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on...
The historical background within Bloodborne's universe! What happened with Pthumerians, how all of this started, how Pthumerians and humans divided exactly, what happened in Loran, the reasoning between civil war within Pthumerians, what happened with the Great Ones, who was the guy that created Holy Moonlight Sword, what the heck was with beta!version of the Hunter's Dream since you can see Hunter's mark and Messenger statues back in Dungeons- argh if only they've made Bloodborne PREQUEL, because all this information is so worth it! I want to create a Pthumerian warrior character xD
Also no, not the "then do it yourself if you're so damn smart" moment: I do have all of this and more mapped in my head! You can read the summary in this ( x ) post if you want to, but warning, it is fanfic-sized, not even an essay!
22) your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores
Everything in canon is my favourite part lol x) I don't even know which bit to single out! I think maybe Logarius' relation to the core Healing Church? With ignoring Brador, you could cope saying he was just 'another' assassin, or that the Cleric Beast he killed was not Laurence, or something.. But how can you erase Logarius and his Executioners, that went to destroy Cainhurst on Laurence's behalf? It is always just "oh look, Laurence and his TWO most important associates Ludwig and Gehrman! :3" meanwhile Logarius is just here like:
23) ship you've unwillingly come around to
I used to dislike Gascoryk, believe it or not! I started right out with the 'the grandpa little girl mentioned IS Henryk, so he is Viola's father!' so it constantly felt strange for me. And I also had bad taste after previous fandoms where people would take a male character who canonically had girlfriend/wife established and either ignored her to not let her "get in the way" or paired her with female character to "get rid" of her (you just know what I mean). It just felt so weird for me that people liked this ship when I just started in the fandom?
But yeah, I could only see this ship enjoyed and treated normally so often before I started to question my own perception of it. Like maybe I was reading it the wrong way, or projected former cringe experiences with shippers on this new fandom that is more mature? This is why I say that I came around it 'unwillingly': everyone enjoyed it and no one thought it was strange, so I ended up being chill about it over thinking that maybe I was the strange one about it. Granted, it was to the BETTER, since I figured that timeline is flexible and they still had a story before Gasc's marriage, also open relationship is a thing, also maybe 'grandpa' was not to be taken literally but just a sign of how present he was in the family or something they told to the girl xd Not to mention that the most active shipper of Gascoryk that I know of absolutely DOES care about Viola and Eileen too, so I've had a lot of positive exposure that completely overrode the negative impression from previous fandoms that I carried here!
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