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dashiellqvverty · 11 months

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i am... so sick of y'all pretending that Jade not putting up with Nate's unsubtle power plays is racism because you think it makes you look progressive. misogyny doesn't become suddenly okay because it comes from an awkward brown man

bro i was asked why i don't like jade and i answered idk what to tell you. sounds like you don't like the nate/jade relationship either though so i guess we're in the same boat there!

you're clearly not interested in like actually thinking about the show on a deeper level BUT for the sake of anyone who is, i do think this topic warrants a little more discussion than i gave it the first time, because i was answering a question about my personal feelings and figured ppl would take that for what it was.

so to be absolutely clear about this: i do not believe jade was intentionally written as a racist character. i do not think the way she is rude to nate is MEANT to read as racist in any way. to be honest, i wasn't thinking about it that way when i first watched it. but these are not real people and everything they do is a choice made by writers, and the way it was written WAS racist. even if you don't want budge on your opinion of jade and how she specifically is written, if you don't see any behind the scenes racism in the way nate shelley and his storylines were written over the course of the show then i don't know what to tell you.

but lets get into it. (under the cut because i have quite a lot to say)

as i said, i didn't initially interpret jade's treatment of nate as racist. when i got to s3 and she showed up again, i remembered NATE being mean to HER and not liking her very much, so i was mainly thinking "why would he want to get with her, and why would she want to get with him?" but, after reading other people's (specifically fans of color) interpretation of the storyline, i went and revisited the episode, and realized that, yeah, she's shitty to him for no reason, in a way that can definitely come off as racist. WE as the audience know nate has been being a dick all season - she doesnt! so what she sees is, as you said, an awkward brown man coming into the restaurant and stumbling through asking for a reservation. now, maybe it's just my own difficulty with social cues, but i don't see anything in that first scene that i would call an "unsubtle power play" - maybe you're talking about the "sorry i was waiting for you to ask if i needed anything," which, imo, is a stretch. i understand where you might be coming from, but... how is this any different than how he might have behaved in season 1? like, i'll admit that i do read nate as autistic which can affect my interpretation of certain things but like... to me thats just him voicing like "ah, sorry i'm being awkward, here's an awkward over-explanation of why." and then the "i know roy kent" thing is DEFINITELY not a "power play", it's him being desperate for something that might work to get the table he wants. like the point of this scene is not to portray him as some kind of power-drunk asshole, it's to show that he's an awkward bumbling idiot who can't be assertive and hates himself for it. i honestly, genuinely, do not see anything in that scene that comes off as misogynistic.

honestly, i don't personally think jade is too awful in this scene, it seems like she's also a bit awkward and not really performing the expected social conventions as a hostess, and if it weren't for the larger context this might not have been so bad. but there's a couple things going on here, for one the look she gives him when he asks for the window table, like he's an idiot for even asking (and please don't argue that he technically doesn't "ask," he says he really wants to make sure he gets it then says its important to his parents. seems like a pretty fucking normal thing to do imo). and then to have her say "okay we can reserve a specific table - in the back corner - but we CANT reserve the window table. we could for someone else, but not for YOU" is like.

again, the point of this scene is to make nate feel bad about himself, and media doesn't exist in a vacuum. the ted lasso writers may like to pretend they're colorblind, and that misogyny is the only problem in the world and racism only exists when its the Topic Of The Day (and never affects nate, apparently) but we live in the real world and can see that nate is a brown man, and in fact the only one on the show. it would be naive, i think, to say that this has nothing to do with nate's arc in s2. given how horribly his arc is executed on almost every level, i doubt this was the writers' intention, but intention isn't everything. the handling of nate's storyline is a topic for its own post, but it makes a lot of sense that nate's race and experiences of racism play into his feelings of insecurity and emasculation (for lack of a better term) as he is being ignored and overshadowed by white men - in fact, it goes a long way to explain a lot of his underwritten motivation. so here he is, walking into a restaurant and being looked at and spoken to by white people as though he doesn't belong, in a scene that is DESIGNED to make him feel bad. even if jade herself isn't intended to be racist, this is part of a LARGER PATTERN of how nate is treated both by the narrative and by other characters.

but wait, i imagine you arguing back, this is only the first sequence, before he decides to go back and be more assertive! what about spitting on the mirror! what about when he makes DEMANDS? what about THOSE misogynistic power plays?

well, jade doesn't push back against those, does she? in fact, she seems to be impressed, as she sort of smirks and goes "okay" in a satisfied voice and gives him the table. the lesson of this episode is that nate being a dick WORKS for him. his problem, we are told, is not that he was a being misogynistic or something, it's that he was too awkward, and if only he stopped being awkward and "made himself big," he would be respected.

on that note, i don't want to gloss over the scenes with rebecca and keeley either. i won't pretend he DOESN'T say anything that is or could be construed as misogynistic (but, be honest with yourself, he's not the only character in the show who says misogynistic things, he's just the only one who's not allowed to be forgiven, apparently). there's the comment about, "oh maybe some of those groupies would be nice haha" (which he immediately feels awkward about and apologizes for), the "dithering kestrel" thing (which is him overcorrecting after being told to be assertive). this is a larger trend with nate, where he is definitely written as making these kinds of comments more often, but it always seems to be something he's trying to do in order to perform a certain kind of masculinity in order to be accepted or respected (not that that would justify these things in real life, but it's important context to keep in mind). and rebecca is like... such a jerk to him in this scene too?? like on top of talking down to him, there's the moment where he's like "well it's different for me" (and does not explain what he means by that, so we are left to assume that maybe he just means because he's small and awkward?) and rebecca is like "well things are hard for me as a woman so i just feel my power girlboss my way through :)" and its like. why can we explicitly acknowledge that she specifically has to earn space and respect as a woman but never acknowledge the situation nate is in as a brown man???

if this was the real world, and these were real interactions between real people, it might be fair to say that hey, we can't dismiss someone's misogyny just because they are also marginalized. but this is not the real world, it is a fiction created by writers, so perhaps you should be asking yourself WHY THEY ARE WRITING THE BROWN MAN LIKE THIS

(i'd be remiss not to link this post again as it definitely informed a lot of my initial thoughts on this subject)

#r.txt #ted lasso #ted lasso meta #nate shelley #nate shelley meta #its nice to flex my close reading muscles lmao can you tell i miss being in film classes?#i dont think this anon warrants this degree of a thought out response but i DO think its an important conversation to have about the show #so like. using it as a jumping off point you know.#i literally got the last ask and was like woof im not qualified to talk about this as well as i'd like to #but if youre going to come at me about it then. i'll put in the fucking work.#nathan shelley meta

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connie-rubirosa · 1 year

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Did you see the revival finale with McCoy (and Waterston's real) daughter as the guest star?!! I'm just like 😬😬 How they brought her in and dealt with their relationship was honestly just disappointing.

[l&o revival critical comments ahead]

oh boy DID i see the finale..... [facepalm]

i agree with @valenshawke that it was nice seeing sam waterston act with his real-life daughter, but the writing was sub-par, to say the least. once again, i don't think any of these writers have that much familiarity with the established canon (not that the l&o-verse has ever been much for continuity), but i find it hard to believe that jack and rebecca went from starting to patch things up with that season 17 cameo to jack visiting her semi-regularly when she moved to california (we hear snippets of this in seasons 18-20), to now another ten years and they're back to having this extremely distant, adversarial relationship? not to mention the fact that we've been hearing about rebecca in passing for years and not once does jack ever mention that his only daughter is a lawyer, just like dear old dad. knowing jack, he would have been bragging about it all the time. what greater honor could he have?

rebecca herself is also presented as being ready and willing to abuse her connections to help her client, which on the one had i understand that as a defense attorney, you do what you have to do to help a client. but on the other, do you expect me to believe that the only child of JACK McCOY genuinely thinks that pleading to him because "he's her dad" to cut her client a break is going to fly with him? and if their relationship is on such bad terms, why still would she think that an appeal to nepotism would help her? it's almost insulting that she would even try that with jack, more than once in the episode, and then barge into his office near the end almost in tears because he wouldn't grant her client a special favor because she was his daughter—it's almost like a tantrum. ugh.

the whole thing just doesn't make any sense and feels like the writers didn't even try—it's just like "how can we make this as dramatic and emotional as possible," but in a cheap, melodramatic way, not genuine or earned in the way the original l&o was known for.

and just the whole "oh no!!!! jack's daughter is working for the defense!!!!" is so contrived. like it literally wouldn't matter. she would just do her job. it's not like jack was the one personally prosecuting the case, so who cares? i would have much preferred to see the return of an old character who has left the DA's office for a different kind of law (serena southerlyn would make the most sense to me, considering as she was fired by branch for empathizing too much with defendants, but i'd take paul robinette as well who canonically became a defense attorney)—in other words a character whom the audience already has a history with and is emotionally invested in rather than essentially making up a character and conflict just for the sake of conflict.

i just want a normal, good episode of l&o that doesn't involve any soap-opera nonsense about the main characters' personal lives. is that too much to ask???? (apparently, it is!)

#asks #l&o discourse #l&o revival critical #sonnet77

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cat-scarr · 3 years

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A Deconstruction of The Flame Keeper’s Circle & The Audience’s Common Complaints | Catgirl

As the title states, I’ve been reminded of a couple complaints made about this episode that stem from a large portion of the audience’s general disliking of the way both Ben and Julie were handled during the run of Ultimate Alien. In fact, I recently read a "review" of “The Flame Keeper's Circle,” or, more of a parody, actually, since a review would actually have some kind of substance to it and not just...a slew of insults thrown at a show you claim to like. It's almost like you're looking for something to be mad at, but anyway.

One of those was the OP actually asking someone to (probably joking, but anyway) explain "how Ben's mind works" to them.

And I was like, gladly!

According to the comments under the review, it seems like the general audience didn't really like this episode all that much when it first aired. Which, I bring up because, I on the other hand, actually did. And for a reason: because it proves my previous defence points right.

There's a lot of talk about Ben coming off as a “jerk” or a “douchebag”...but, in a situation such as the one presented within “The Flame Keeper’s Circle,” I would argue he did exactly what he should have done. So that's where I beg to differ.

This episode puts Ben in a position where he, once again, needs to deal with the overlap of a romantic relationship and his priorities as a superhero. The only reason there is conflict here is because they are both important to him.

A bad boyfriend would only care about himself, but Ben clearly cares about not only the safety of his (clearly, quite naive) girlfriend, but also the safety of the rest of the earth. Which, as I’m going to be stating several times, should be something expected of him considering everything else within the series that establishes who he is as a character.

So, on the topic of things that are important, ask yourselves, why would Ben prioritize going along with Julie's idea of joining a cult more than keeping her, and the rest of the world, safe when he realizes the trouble she could potentially be getting herself into?

Throughout the episode, and the fandom’s discussions from what I’ve seen, there is so much focus on "oh, he laughed at her idea so he's a douchebag and therefore a bad boyfriend" and not enough focus on the fact that he's not blindly following an alleged “good cause” because he isn't naive and that's in character based on everything we know about him as a character.

Context matters. And this kind of thing only further makes me question the people who want to cry "inconsistent" writing or characterization because he's acting the way he's been conditioned to.

Arguably from the age of ten, Ben's been dealing with situations where he needed to fight to survive and decide who to trust. Sometimes he trusted the wrong person, which wasn't done out of any other reason besides wanting to help and do the "right thing."

For example, Michael Morningstar in the episode “All That Glitters,” who fooled Ben and his team into thinking he was innocent all while abusing school girls for their life energy and almost killing Ben's cousin.

Or, Simian in “Birds of a Feather," who fooled Ben into thinking he was royalty and into helping him steal something that would aid the Highbreed in their mass murder plot.

In that way, Ben and Julie could have related in this situation because they were both trusting people in the interest of doing something “good.” Both Michael and Simian made Ben believe that they had something in common, or a common goal they could work together to reach. But, he trusted them blinded by his ambition and drive to save the world. Much like Julie is blinded by the promise of being a part of a group trying to make the world a better place.

As such, Ben has made the mistake before, so he's extra weary of how things could go very wrong. He's not against his girlfriend just to be a “jerk” - he's been through things like this before, and we’ve seen him go through those things.

Furthermore, the situation in which Julie is trusting The Flame Keeper’s Circle involves her indirectly agreeing to work with Vilgax. Who, as anyone familiar with Ben should know, is one of if not Ben’s biggest, and more importantly, most dangerous enemy.

Again, she, at the beginning didn’t know that he was involved, or what Ben had gone through already to make him act the way he does in this situation, but she does know what his job entails at this point in the series. She should probably infer that he’s suspicious for a good reason, as should the audience.

Not trusting people blindly is something he learned from being the leader of his team, while trying to protect the earth, namely from the Highbreed invasion back in Alien Force when he was putting together a stronger team. It would only make sense for him to then apply that to a situation in which his significant other gets roped into that which he fights against.

Speaking of fighting against, that brings me to another odd criticism of the writing of this episode. It’s no surprise that the flawed belief of Ben coming off as an alleged “sociopath” is brought up again, considering this episode takes place after The Ultimate Kevin arc. And yes, I realize the problematic connotations of using that term as a borderline insult as part of the issue here. But that aside, in this episode, the fact that he begins to fight Vilgax in his apparent “weakened” state is what is being attributed to that description.

Besides the fact that defending Vilgax is questionable in itself, he’s never needed water to survive for the many times he actually tried to kill Ben. I can’t find a solid answer from a writer that knows for certain if his need for water is genuine except for one who is only assuming that is the case when he’s in this state.

But regardless, (since he clearly survived long enough to morph with Dagon and become a bigger threat to the earth later on) we are still defending Vilgax the LITERAL INTERGALACTIC WARLORD.

Y’know, the guy who’s only in this position because of his own immoral actions? Who absolutely would not hesitate to take advantage of his opponent's weakened state in order to further get away with his immoral actions? Such as he is in this very episode, taking advantage of the people wrongfully worshiping him?

If we are trying to imply that Ben is “just as bad as Vilgax,” then I would assume you’d easily find the flaw in that being Ben’s motivation for incapacitating a dangerous offender who is, at the moment, manipulating naive humans to work for him and help him continue get away with his immoral actions. Which is, needless to say, not the same as Vilgax, at all.

Again, you’d think that’d be obvious.

The Flame Keeper’s Circle’s mission is to end human suffering and find a solution to certain issues happening across the globe with the help of alien technology that is much more advanced than what everyday people are used to. And, while the end goal seems like a good cause, even something Ben as a superhero would be all for, the means through which they attempt to get there aren’t a good idea, at all.

A lot of people find it hard to navigate the use of technology considered advanced by human standards in the real world, so you can only imagine the various things that could go wrong if those kinds of people were suddenly exposed to something much more powerful. In short, a lot could go wrong.

Again, Ben has been in that exact position as soon as he was armed with the Omnitrix. Which is exactly why he’d see the flaw in what these people are trying to do, and therefore not be convinced that it’s such a good idea to allow them to continue, much less endorse it.

This is why I love when the writers actually allow Ben to speak for himself instead of cutting him off for drama or plot. Once he actually gets a word in, or more accurately, has his moment of heroic monologue, he makes himself very clear and, I think, only further proves what I’m trying to say about him.

Here he is, explaining exactly what I’ve been trying to highlight throughout this body of work:

Ben: “Even if Dagon was real, using alien technology to accelerate a planet’s natural development won’t bring utopia, it’ll bring disaster. It’s happened before. Why do you think the Plumbers have those laws? But even that’s not the point, because that isn’t Dagon! His name is Vilgax. He’s not a hero, he’s a selfish, evil warlord who’s using you. And if you let him get in his ship, he’s going to fly off and start an interstellar civil war.”

It’s not that only he can use alien technology to save the world, it’s that his status as a hero proves that he knows what he’s doing, unlike these businessmen in fancy robes leading a cult for profit.

That is not what I would have assumed reasonable people would consider “douchebag behaviour.” That’s actually smart, and going back to my first point, exactly what he should be doing in a situation like this.

The actual episode does end off on a positive note for both Ben and Julie, which is omitted from the review and most of the comments I have read from others on the topic. And, I bring it up because it’s actually vital to wrap up everything brought up within this episode that I have just expanded on. Not only because they make up and seem to understand each other’s perspective after all is said and done, but because they both agree to be open to further discussion on the topic, as Ben offers to go out for dinner.

Which, needless to point out I hope, but once again, is not “douchebag behaviour.”

#new essay to make up for all the drama lately #enjoy ben 10 protection squad <3 #ben 10 #ben tennyson #ben 10 ultimate alien #the flame keeper's circle #benlie #julie yamamoto #ben 10 uaf #essay files #and yes new essay title format cuz reasons :P

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aspoonfuloffiction · 2 years

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I'm actually super relieved that the writers didn't have Anthony that explicitly sexually attracted to Edwina, thinks she's pretty totally agree, because him almost being 30 and her a very sheltered and naive 18 year old would be so icky. It was one of the reasons I couldn't get behind Daphne and simon in season 1 tbh. And why I was very relieved they aged Kate up in the show. I'm glad both the writers and Jonny steered clear from that quickly and as it's been pointed out liked Edwina because society expects him to pursue a pretty wife and nothing more.

I mostly agree just a little bit of a further point hang with me I promise it makes sense!

I’m also really glad they closed up the age difference between him and Kate as well. I know historically 21 and 29 is acceptable but Bridgerton is a show for modern audiences so things needed to be changed.

That said though when they announced the ages and then the initial in costume/characters press photos I didn’t understand why they didn’t just age up Edwina too to keep the original age gap. Or at least stop making Charithra look 6 years younger than she actually is. Because are clips from the promo where Edwina is between Kate and Anthony and Charithra in that compared to Jonny and Simone looks like she could play their daughter. I genuinely knowing who was who the whole time for a brief moment was like Charlotte?!

But then I watched the show and I’ve interpreted that choice to be on purpose. I think Edwina and Anthony is supposed to be uncomfortable for us the audience. Anthony’s decision to pursue her with the fervor that he does is supposed to feel weird. Anthony though accurate to the time period isn’t supposed to be very likable in the way he views and treats Edwina. Its calculated targeted and built on lies - he’s a decade older than her. I believe that we are supposed to feel an ick.

So yeah when I’m like Anthony found Edwina hot I’m not saying it out of some weird shipper-y thing (ship and let ship but they are not it for me) I’m saying it out of a Anthony was 100% in the wrong. He objectifies her and we as the audience are meant to call him out.

And if Anthony wasn’t a white man I think more people would. So yeah I think that the show tries to say that for Anthony Edwina represents responsibility but zooming out as the audience that sees everything we are supposed to clock how a decision that makes sense from Anthony’s POV is still very problematic.

#bridgerton #asks #anthony bridgerton

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spicy-raddish · 4 years

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So, in my last post I said that I literally hated Japan Sinks 2020, but that I was scared to voice my problems with it, from a writing standpoint, due to so many people genuinely liking the show. It seems I'm not alone at all. A lot of people encouraged me to make this post, so, here we go...

(This is going to be a long one)

Everything Wrong With: Japan Sinks 2020 (and it's a lot):

this post contains spoilers, obviously.

The music doesn't fit the mood of the show, like, at all. Don't get me wrong, the music is actually good, a lot of it is in my study playlist now, but it absolutely doesn't fit the scenes that accompany it. e.g. the dad gets literally blown up by a ww2 bomb leaving only his severed hand behind *happy music intensifies* this just cheapens the entire scene and removes any tiny fragment of emotional response to what you're being shown. And this happens all the time.

The animation... The backgrounds and general scenery look absolutely stunning, but the characters look genuinely awful. At times, I would be legitimately crying whilst watching a scene, not out of sadness, but out of laughter at just how bad the characters look. Extremely lazy drawing, and if the character isn't the one talking, they just freeze their animation for minutes at a time, not even making them blink or move slightly, just... frozen there.

Go and his constant use of cringy Engrish. I get it, he's half filipino and he looks up to an English-speaking YouTuber. But he goes into this broken English way too frequently, and again, it doesn't match the tone of what's happening.

How did Mari survive the first tsunami? Also, why didn't we get to see the first tsunami? Or the plane crash-landing in the bay and hitting the bridge? Why do we never actually get to see these large-scale events that are supposedly impacting our characters? Also, if Mari supposedly was in a plane crash, then ended up in the river where a tsunami hit, and she somehow managed to swim out of the river during a tsunami, how does she then have the energy and strength to walk all the way through the city to the shrine, and doesn't even seem out of breath? Also, if Ayumu was in that changing room which resulted in people being literally severed in half, how is her phone not even smashed? Cracked a lil? No?

THE POLAROIDS. I actually turned the show off the second time Mari pulled her camera out for a group photo, and I had to force myself to go back and finish it. Why on earth do the characters keep insisting on taking these chipper polaroids like the literal apocalypse isn't happening around them? Is Mari emotionally stunted? I don't understand. Is it supposed to be making some kind of point? I don't understand...

The characters seem to have zero reaction to awful events happening around them, or they comment on it and move on immediately.

Random magical cult city growing serious amounts of weed... Literally everything that happens there is just awful writing. So far, everything that has happened has been a natural disaster, and they explain them as being due to the tectonic plate movements. So we're supposed to be believing all of this as possible. Explainable natural events. You can't build a world around this and then suddenly introduce magic out of the blue. Not to mention, what even happened in the end? Did 'Mother' reincarnate herself? How? Why?

The weird nightclub scene and the pensioner sex scene are both two scenes I could do without.

The weird trickster guy who keeps pulling fake eyes/ears/noses out of nowhere. Again, he ruins the tone of the show. Not only that, continuity just doesn't exist with him. He says he's from England, but speaks English with an American accent. And then he says he grew up in Yugoslavia. Like, which one is it sweetie?

Why is this old man just randomly addicted to morphine?

You can't expect the audience to have a legitimate emotional response to character deaths if you introduce and kill off new characters so frequently, whilst simultaneously not really telling us anything about them that would cause us to care that they're gone.

Huh, what do you know, episode 8 was actually kind of good-ish, and the only reason it was good was because we were left with only two characters, the characters we've known right from the start, meaning we have at least some reason to care about them. And there's none of the random happy music. And Go keeps his Engrish to a minimum. And neither of them dies in a freak accident that gives the animators reason to show more body horror out of nowhere for shock value.

THE RAP BATTLE. At this point, I genuinely thought that this show had to be satirical. Like, there is just no way this is supposed to be a serious show. Again, the tone is non-existant now. For some reason this show likes to be really self-deprecating towards Japan at every available opportunity and they just went full speed with this rap battle. Like, I get that maybe the writers thought, oh, we've been showing a lot of bleak scenes, let's give some comedic relief. But that only works if you haven't had happy music blaring this entire time, combined with hilariously out-of-place English phrases and the weird Yugo-Brit-American guy with fake eyes, etc. That only works if this was a serious show to begin with.

I'm making a separate point just for the godawful animation during Kite's weather balloon scene. Jesus Christ.

The fact that they built a new mini-Japan/Tokyo for the surviving Japanese people, knowing full-well that Japan is going to re-emerge at some point, thus destroying this new island and killing its inhabitants in the process.

We're supposed to believe that nobody, not one nation, tried to claim the area that Japan was once in for themselves, supposedly as a good will to the Japanese people, even though it would be a prime location for fishing, etc. And there's definitely not enough Japanese people left to try and contest it.

I forgot to mention the fact that the intro doesn't match the show either.

There is a consistent issue with the show not understanding the tone it's supposed to be having. Combining the happy intro, happy music throughout, characters' lack of response to what's happening around them, laughable animation and random "comedy relief" aspects like the foreigner and the rap battle, you're left with a show that is unable to make you feel the way it wants you to feel. It seems like a joke, you want to see it as satirical, but the show continues to act like these events should be taken seriously. Now, I've seen anime that does this kind of thing before, having the tone of one genre whilst actually being another, but in a good way. An example would be Gakkou Gurashi (School Live). But Japan Sinks 2020 seems to do this unintentionally. It's just... Funny. I don't think I cared that a single character died. And that, in itself, is sadder than the entire show.

If you've made it through this post, congratulations. As someone who is both a writer and a fan of apocalyptic/natural disaster fiction, this show hit a nerve and I needed to speak out about it. Especially since I'm seeing it be praised so much online!

#japan sinks 2020 #japan sinks anime #netflix #anime #japan #natural disaster #apocalypse

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littlemisssquiggles · 5 years

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I have to say your post about Broken Machines ship has turned me to it, as if gives Whitley more positiveness, since Volume 4 I was always in the he isn't as bad as others made him out to be camp, in fact he didn't do much in Volume 4 that warrented the hate. So I am hopeing 7 gives him more character and some redemming quality if not the pairing somthing that shows he isn't a puppet of Jacque.

Hello Crystal. First off, thank you. I’m happy to hear you liked my little Broken Machines post to the point of even joining its shipping community. Nice.

Secondly, I’m in the same boat as you fam. I never honestly despised Whitley. I mean, yeah I saw him as potentially being a jerk under the influence of his father, but I more saw Whit as being misunderstood than downright rotten to the core.

Even now I’m more inclined to the idea of Whitley turning out to being a good person. I know most of the Schnee fans are more excited to see Winter and Weiss interact for this season, however personally I’m more interested in seeing Weiss reunite with Whitley. I couldn’t help but feel like there is more to Weiss’ history with her brother that fans haven’t seen yet. A backstory that could potentially show Whitley in a different light than when we first met him. I’m still hoping for the prospect of Whitley wanting nothing more than to have a genuine friendship with his sisters—or at least Weiss since she did remark that Whit doesn’t like Winter for whatever reason.

I’m still hoping that Whitley will be the Huntsman to Weiss’ Snow White story. The huntsman who was tasked with murdering Snow White by the Wicked Queen only for the huntsman to later spare Snow White out of sympathy and allow her to flee into the forest where she ultimately met the Seven Dwarves.

I have a feeling there will come a time where Whitley will actually help Weiss out of the kindness of his own heart. Despite showing moments of him being a snarky little turd to his sister back in V4 (only AFTER the moment where Weiss lost her title of heiress and it was given to Whitley instead), Whitley was also highlighted to show a genuine care for his big sister when he offered to bring her anything she would like after Jacques imprisoned her.

I feel as if Whitley does care a lot for Weiss but since she’s left home, the only person he’s has had to influence him was his father Jacques since…technically, all the women in his life have walked out on him (both of his sisters have left home to pursue their own life paths while his own mother is off who knows where getting wasted).

The audience wasn’t even aware of Weiss having a brother until V4. At least we knew about Winter from as early on as V2. But Whitley—a complete nobody left alone in the shadows of his sisters’ unbreakable bond. It actually kind of bothers me how Weiss and Winter always stuck together and looked out for one another as sisters but were perfectly complacent with leaving Whitley on his own. Where was that sisterly love and support for him, huh?

While I understand that Jacques probably got his grips on Whit from the moment he was born (as his only son); nevertheless, I would’ve appreciated the Schnee Sisters showing a little bit of sympathy and an attempt to be there for their little brother.

All the Schneesister moments are cute and all that but…again, where was that care and comfort for Whitley? This actually makes me a little annoyed at Weiss and Winter a little bit.

Did either of them even try to extend that same family support to their brother or was it just them against the world while the only person Whitley had to give two shits about him was Jacques.

Klein is actually my only hope to get some proper insight into how Whitley has been since his sisters left home.

I’m actually expecting Klein to no longer be in the picture. Unlike last time for V4 opening, Klein was nowhere in the shot with Jacques and Whitley for the V7 opening.

So was Klein relieved of his services to the Schnee Family after Jacques learnt he had helped Weiss escape home? Who knows? Will Weiss eventually find this out and go to visit Klein whereever he is? Will Klein finally tell Weiss the truth about Whitley? I’m really not sure.

Instead I’m left assuming that Winter and Weiss only perceive Whitley as being nothing more than a younger copy of their father. Hence why I think Whitley is more misunderstood than anything else. Just as how Weiss has had to deal with others misjudging her as a result of her esteemed Atlesian privilege as a Schnee, Whitley has possibly had to deal with both the oversight from outsiders and even members of his own family with the way his sisters have probably perceived him and treated him.

This makes Whit seem like a more sympathetic character in my eyes. I’m just really hoping my assumptions about him aren’t wrong. I hope the Writers do justice by his characterization and story for V7. Like you, I agree that Whitley literally did nothing wrong during the events of V4.

And yet Weiss still blamed him for manipulating her. And his reaction was what made it even more…ridiculous but interesting to note in my eyes.

Whitley didn’t even deny Weiss’ allegations. He more so…accepted it. But not because the accusations were true but more so in a manner like, it didn’t matter whether Whitley defended himself or not. Like Weiss would’ve have deemed him ‘no different than their father’ regardless of what he said. That’s the impression I got from that scene, but that’s just me.

Either way, I’m curious to see how Whitley is handled for V7. Hope it’s satisfactory; especially for us Whits in the FNDM.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)

#crystalandbrass #squiggles answers: rwby #whitley schnee #weiss schnee #rwby volume 7 theories #rwby volume 7

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kali-tmblr · 5 years

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The Narcissistic Parents: Parallels in the Lives of Jacques and Raven

(Sorry to take so long. I forgot how unpleasant it is to write about narcissists.)

Jacques and Raven are both narcissists who are also the parents of grown children. There's a lot we don't know about their pasts, but what we do know fits the narcissism pattern perfectly.

Narcissism is a combination of great egotism, inflexibility, and a complete lack of empathy and compassion. It seems to be caused by a lack of consistent attention growing up, leaving the person to believe that attention is a resource that can be fought for and won, and that other people are just obstacles in the way of that goal. We don't know anything about Jacques' past, but it's easy to believe that Raven encountered such conditions growing up in a bandit camp.

This next fact is something that people who haven't met a narcissist find hard to believe, and people who have one in their life that they want to have a relationship with find very, very hard to accept: narcissists see people as things, and they always will. It's not just that they "don't get it", they lack the ability to ever "get it". The connection can't be made because the connector isn't there. It just doesn't make sense to them. As far as the narcissist is concerned, being asked to not treat people as exploitable resources is like sitting a starving child in front of a plate of food and asking them not to eat. It's obvious the food is there to be eaten, and the resources (the people) are there to be exploited. To assume otherwise is stupid and actually offensive as far as the narcissist is concerned.

This condition is permanent. There is no "growing out of it". There is no deathbed conversion, unless it's a final performance for status points from a sympathetic audience. From personal experience I can say that while they're very likely to be bitter and angry at how ineffective their coping strategy has been on their deathbed, they still won't change it.

In recent years our culture has slowly come to comprehend that there are certain concepts that people with severe autism will never understand. We need to comprehend that narcissists have the same inability to understand empathy and compassion.

Narcissists can be very flamboyant in early adulthood, cutting quite a social swath with their combination of charismatic egomania and a willingness to buck convention out of a genuine lack of concern for the consequences of their actions on other people. This matches both what we know of Raven at Beacon and Jacques at the time of his marriage to Willow Schnee. Over time the people they knew in their youth usually come to see through them and distance themselves, which will leave the narcissist isolated and alone. The only solution for this is if they have reached a high enough social status that there will always be a fresh supply of willing syncophants to replace those they lose. Both Raven and Jacques have reached such a position, but the difference is that the later syncophants rarely form as strong a bond as the earlier ones did, before the narcissist developed a reputation as a user. This could prove especially damaging for Raven, as her ability to use people as teleportation anchors depends on her ability to form a close bond with them, which in a narcissist tends to diminish over time.

Narcissists can be socially useful. I once knew a narcissist who worked for the UN, using her overly aggressive personality to bully third-world leaders into complying with UNICEF, saving children's lives in the process. The high social status points she got from the work were enough to keep her at the task, although her husband had a full-time job managing other people's expectations that she be anything other than a bully. Their kids didn't come around anymore.

I think Ozpin had something similar in mind for Raven, hoping the high social status of being a Huntress would be enough to keep her at the job. It worked for a while, and might have worked longer if she hadn't found out that he had lied to her. Then again, there probably came a time when the allure of being a bandit queen simply won out over the drudgery of being a new mother. A bandit queen is always the center of attention, whereas a new mother must cede the spotlight to her baby.

But Jacques and Raven aren't simply narcissists, they are narcissistic parents, and that's a special kind of awful. There are distinct differences in healthy families and families of narcissists,and distinctive ways they damage those around them, especially children.

To the narcissistic parent, children, like all people, are things, either tools or obstacles/enemies. Tools fall into two categories, syncophants or scapegoats. In contrast, healthy families with children are designed to guide them on their path to becoming independent adults, with deference given to their personal wishes when doing so is realistic and appropriate. These different approaches cause some very distinctive differences in how healthy families and families of narcissists organize themselves.

A healthy family with children consists of a series of stepped barriers designed to protect the children from harm. The highest barrier is around the youngest children, keeping out much of the outside world and even protecting them from harm from older siblings. As the children age and become more competent, the barriers gradually lower.

There is also a barrier between the children and the parents/caregivers. For the safety of the children certain topics are not discussed in their presence and certain pieces of information are withheld from them.

We see an example of a family with healthy boundaries in the Xiao Long household. Ruby mentions in the third episode that the girls were sheltered from boys at a younger age. We find out in the third season that Tai and honorary caregiver Qrow have conspired to hide information about her mother from Yang, fearing another incident like the one that nearly killed the girls early on. Even when Yang is considered old enough to be told the truth, Qrow still holds back telling her so as not to distract her from her normal life, only revealing it when she needs a distraction after being disqualified from the Vytal Festival Tournament. Qrow also mentions having "a number of inappropriate stories" he could tell about their parents now that the girls are grown or nearly grown, but lets the subject drop when they express disinterest.

Narcissistic families are organized for the benefit of the narcissist. Other family members orbit the narcissist like planets orbit a star. They occupy roles assigned to them by the narcissist, in different variations of syncophant and scapegoat, with the syncophants usually, but not always, kept closer. They are controlled through manipulation, which may take the form of either flattery or threats, but always contains an element of coercion. The children are used as tools to accomplish the goals of the narcissist, and information is withheld from them or provided to them in the service of these goals, without any consideration for whether or not it is age-appropriate,or whether they express actual interest. Internal barriers are minimal or non-existent. External barriers exist to protect the narcissist, not the children.

Growing up with narcissist parents/caregivers leaves marks on a child's psyche. The biggest one is a lack of self worth and self-confidence. In extreme forms this deficit can lead to an individual who lacks an internal compass and who must rely on others to tell them right from wrong. It also leads to an individual who has difficulty connecting to other people. These tendencies can take various forms, including but not limited to the Perfectionist, the People-Pleaser, the Rebel, the Observer, and the Manipulator.

Jacques has three biological children, Winter, Weiss, and Whitley. Raven has one biological child, Yang; and two defacto foster children, Vernal and the previous Spring Maiden.

When speaking of and to their children, both Raven and Jacques are bored and disinterested in them as people. They show no interest in them unless their children can be used to their benefit. The emotion they express the most in regard to them is annoyance. No matter how much their children accomplish, they never once express pride in them. Nor do they ever show love or tenderness towards them. This is in marked contrast to the concern, pride, and love that the Belladonnas show Blake, and that Tai and Qrow show Yang and Ruby.

Yang is more affected by Raven's abandonment than by her direct narcissism, so the damage done to her was indirect, but still substantial. The writers have said they will address that issue in V7.

We don't know much about Raven's relationship with the last Spring Maiden. Raven took her in, trained her, and murdered her for reasons which Raven is vague about, but probably had to do with Raven nearing the upper age limit for inheriting the power. I used to say that Raven was a better parent than Jacques because she removed her toxic presence from Yang's vicinity, but Jacques hasn't committed filicide -- yet.

Vernal is a perfect syncophant to Raven, loyal until death and only concerned with "family", i.e. what Raven wants. Cinder even compliments Raven in front of Vernal on how well Raven has "conditioned" Vernal.

All of the Schnee children appear to have self-esteem issues. All of them seem to have been syncophants at one point in time, although the girls may now be scapegoats. Certainly Ironwood is the scapegoat blamed for "stealing" Winter away from Jacques (because of course she would not have left him of her own free will!)

From what we have seen of her Winter has Perfectionist tendencies. When she arrived at Beacon Weiss had both Perfectionist and some Manipulator tendencies, although those have lessoned since Volume 1. Whitley seems to be manifesting Manipulator tendencies. He appears to be the most damaged of the siblings and also the most terrified, judging by the look on his face immediately after Jacques struck Weiss. Unlike the girls, he would have been subjected to Jacques' undivided attention after they left, and as I blogged earlier, I suspect Jacques may be planning to use the Aura transfer technology to take over Whitley's body at some point in the future.

A lot of people want Jacques to acknowledge what he's done, break down, and beg for forgiveness. This is unrealistic. A narcissist never does that unless they are backed into a corner and performing for an audience, and even then it's just a performance.

What I would like to see is the Schnees get out from under Jacques' thumb -- physically, mentally, emotionally, and financially. This won't happen without a fight. He already set the Armor Gigas on Weiss to stop her from leaving the first time. He'll no doubt employ more and dirtier tricks next time.

(I'm leaving Salem and Cinder out of this discussion because I'm not entirely convinced they are narcissists as opposed to some other malignancy. Salem isn't an egomaniac. Cinder is certainly an egomaniac and probably a narcissist, but the jury's still out.)

Next up in the Parallels series will be Sisters or Heirs, followed by Drunkards and Scapegoats. They should all be much shorter.

(Art not mine.)

#rwby #rwby thoughts #rwby theory #jacques schnee #raven branwen #ruby rose #yang xiao long #weiss schnee #rwby winter #winter schnee #whitley schnee #taiyang xiao long #qrow bronwyn #qrow branwen #rwby qrow

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medschoolash · 7 years

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Let’s talk about TO’s increasingly Racist Narrative with the Mikaelsons and Marcel Gerard.

Disclaimer: This is VERY long. I’m putting most of it under the cut because of length. I thought about cutting it short but this is a topic that’s very important to me so I decided to not cut words.

So after Friday’s episode many viewers, especially black viewers were left with a very real feeling of discomfort following Elijah’s speech to Marcel. Because of that discomfort many of us have expressed how the narrative, and Elijah, has skewed into racism, an accusation that makes some viewers feel uncomfortable.

Here’s the truth though, in a way it should make some people uncomfortable. If you didn’t feel uneasy about the idea of racism in a narrative that you like then I would have to question some things about you. With that said, I’ve seen a lot more efforts to shut down discourse about the accusation or explain away the behavior many people find problematic than I’ve seen to actually understand it and why we might feel that way. That’s a problem, it’s a big problem when this discussion is something that’s actually very necessary for this show, and many TV shows. When writers take on the task of crafting a narrative that includes minority characters, there is a certain level of awareness and delicacy that many are going to expect then to have when it comes to these characters. When they offend their audience and mishandle the characters they have been entrusted with then they deserve to be taken to task for that. It doesn’t matter if the offense was intentional or unintentional. This is especially the case when you have a writing staff who pats themselves on the back for trying to be aware of social and racial issues that are currently at play in our society.

I personally don’t think that writers are obligated to treat every black character or every character from a marginalized group like a delicate flower that can’t be harmed in any way shape or form. That’s not what I’m talking about here. What I’m talking about is when you take characters from marginalized groups and carelessly handle them in a way that ends up pushing a racist narrative.To give an example, killing a black character doesn’t automatically make a narrative racist but pushing an idea where a black character is consistently targeted by white characters, denied humanity and is treated as disposable flesh then that is indeed a racist narrative. That kind of dynamic has historically been an issue in this world and it is still an issue. We can discuss whether the racism that seeps into our fiction a little too often is intentional, and I don’t personally believe it always is, but we have to acknowledge that it’s actually there first.

That’s why we need to talk about The Originals and Marcel.

What they did to Marcel in Friday’s episode, what they had Elijah say to him, and the narrative that built up to that moment was racist.

From the very beginning of this show there was a very troublesome aspect of the narrative around Marcel and the Mikaelsons. Marcel was a former slave who was rescued from slavery by Klaus and adopted as his son. They used a white savior idea to explain how this black man became the son of this powerful white man and got integrated into this all white original family. Instead of tackling this dynamic on screen the completely glossed over it. They never tackled how Marcel felt about that, if it had any effect on his mentally, how the mikaelsons adjusted to his presence in their life given his different racial background. It’s convenient to just pretend that the Mikaelsons and Marcel never even blinked at the racial difference because the Mikaelsons have been around for so long that race doesn’t register to them at all. Just like it’s convenient to pretend that Marcel never cared that the people that he now lived with were just sharing a table with and share the same skin color with the very people who have abused him and people who look like him. They basically painted a narrative where Klaus was an empathetic white savior for marcel...even went as far as to have marcel actually call him his savior more than once in canon, and Marcel was just incredibly grateful to have been saved. That’s as far as the discussion went.

They never addressed this aspect of the dynamic on the show and I suspect that it’s because they never sat down and thought about the racial implications of having a black former slave be adopted into an all white family that saved him from slavery. The choice was careless and problematic from it conception.

The only reason this aspect hasn’t been super unsettling for 4 seasons now is because that little bit of history has been pretty much background noise in the narrative and they’ve avoided addressing anything about race explicitly. We all know that the way it was set up is troublesome but we don’t actively think about it during every interaction because we believe in Klaus’s genuine love for Marcel and their father and son dynamic. They basically took the easy way and lazy way out and said “let’s pretend that a racial difference doesn’t exist here” and they’ve gotten away with doing this for 4 seasons now.

This actually reminds me of Julie Plec’s comment about her practice of “colorblind” casting for her TV shows. Colorblind casting in theory is good for diversity since it would theoretically increase the likelihood of a minority being selected for a role. Colorblind casting is how Kat Graham was selected to play Bonnie Bennett despite the fact that in the books that inspired TVD Bonnie was white. Like I said,in theory this is great...however that doesn’t absolve you of responsibility for how you handle these characters that you have made a minority in your narrative. Making Marcel a black man instead of a white man and having him considered a part of this family could be seen as a plus for diversity, but that doesn’t absolve them of their responsibility to handle the racial difference that are at play in a manner that doesn’t offend or push racist ideas. They don’t get to skate responsibility here by having the characters not openly acknowledge the racial difference, the racial difference is still there at the end of the day even if the writers are too lazy to tackle it.

It’s actually their reluctance to address the racial aspect from the very beginning that makes what happened in the episode last night so impossible to divorce race from the narrative that they have set up concerning marcel. (I have to give credit to my friend Amy being the one who originally raised this point during a discussion)

Let’s take a look at the build up to last night:

Marcel started the series as the King of New Orleans. Klaus comes to town and is envious of what Marcel has built and wants to take it back for himself. We learn that Marcel was actually Klaus’s son, he adopted him when he was a boy and raised him up until adulthood. Klaus was the one who even gave Marcel his name since he didn't’ have one previously due to being a slave. Klaus and Marcel have their share of clashes but in season 1 in particular we learn that Marcel has scars that Klaus couldn’t heal, but that there is still genuine love and a father son bond between the two of them.

This carries over into the rest of the seasons where Klaus and Elijah have an up and down relationship but from Klaus’s eyes that’s still his son. Along the way they introduce a past close relationship between Elijah and Marcel. Marcel was very close to Marcel until Klaus became jealous. Elijah, in an effort to appease Klaus and because he saw Marcel as Klaus’s path to redemption, very harshly distances himself from Marcel without explanation to Marcel. In their present day dynamic Elijah shows an open annoyance and hostility towards marcel. The audience gets no real explanation to the root of Elijah's present day behavior towards marcel and we see the two of them co-exist but it never goes beyond that.

One other wrinkle to the Mikaelsons and Marcel dynamic that was introduced was that when Marcel was a boy, Kol was jealous of how accepted in the family Marcel was while he still felt like an outsider. Kol was the first to truly express the opinion that Marcel was almost unworthy of his position in the family and to show resentment. There is an uneasy idea being perpetrated by Kol’s resentment, a white man resents a black boy for taking his place in the family. A white man can’t comprehend how this black child can be embraced by his brothers but he feels like an outsider looking in and resents the child and his family for it.

Once again the racial dynamics are never factored into this narrative, we are just to assume that Kol doesn’t see Marcel as a black child but just a child. We are to assume that he doesn’t see a former slave as unworthy of a position in his family over him, he just sees this colorless person who’s soaking up attention that he wants for himself. Once again the racial difference and how an idea like that might affect a black child who was born into oppression at the hands of people who look and at times act like Kol is never addressed.

Like with Elijah, Marcel is aware of the hostility Kol feels towards him, but the narrative never addresses how he felt about that beyond a simple “it hurt his feelings”. The narrative wants us to ignore the racial factors and go along with the idea that Marcel doesn’t question if these two white men show hostility towards him because of his blackness even though any child in that predicament would in fact wonder if his blackness is a factor in the behavior of the people he now sees as family. We are to never question if the racial difference is a factor in the dynamic. We are supposed to pretend that it would be exactly the same way if Marcel was white, even though there is no way of knowing that (and it’s highly unlikely) and even though Marcel would have never been a slave if he was a white character. His blackness is just supposed to be ignored for the sake of their narrative that lacks the sophistication required to address it properly.

They were already dangerously close to being blatantly racist at this point, it was mostly subtextual and they didn’t cross any big lines with the problematic things they did have in play so as a viewer it was easy to let it slide. It wasn’t perfect, but I, and I suspect many other viewers, give their narrative the benefit of the doubt.

That changed in season 3. In season 3 we saw Elijah take his disdain for marcel up several notches. His previous annoyance and condescension turned into disdain and open hostility. He constantly talked to marcel like a child, used him as a flunky, and constantly went out of his way to make marcel feel less than. In season 2 they provided some basic explanation for his behavior, even if it wasn’t at all satisfactory, there was something there to explain why there was tension on both ends. However, in season 3 there was no exploration into why Elijah behaved the way he did with Marcel. His behavior got progressively more hostile with Marcel at a time when Marcel wasn’t an enemy. Marcel had aligned himself with their family. He protected Hayley, he protected Klaus even when he was no longer linked to him. He went along with all of Elijah’s plans and yet as the season went on Elijah started to treat Marcel worse and worse.

The way he spoke to Marcel all of last season and at times before has always made me particularly uncomfortable and the longer it went on without explanation the more it became harder and harder to divorce Marcel’s race from the equation. There have been times where Elijah has spoke to Marcel with such disdain and condescension he seemed one step away from calling him “boy”.

If you look at it at its most basic level you have a white man, an elitist white man, who speaks to a black man who was supposed to be a part of his family with open disdain that’s unexplained. None of this is addressed in depth. Marcel is allowed to talk back at times and argue with Elijah but Elijah’s behavior never shifts in a positive way, instead it gets increasingly hostile. Watching a white character speak to a black one with such open hostility consistently was unsettling a lot of times. This behavior was also never checked by any of the other characters. Everyone let it fly, including Klaus. The narrative never treated Elijah as if how he was behaving towards Marcel was wrong, it was just brushed off as just Elijah being Elijah. When you’re dealing with a black character who’s been thrust into a racial dynamic like the one Marcel was placed in with the Mikaelsons, Elijah being Elijah has different implications, especially when you add that to the already troublesome behaviors towards Marcel I mentioned before.

Elijah’s disdain towards Marcel often felt very targeted and unnecessarily harsh compared to his behavior with other characters and at some point it becomes hard to see Marcel as a colorless person who just so happens to be on the receiving end of elijah’s elitist condescension at that moment. When the abuse becomes that targeted and consistent it’s almost impossible to unsee Marcel’s blackness and how that blackness is at the receiving end of behavior that’s often perpetrated against black people in this inherently racist society. It’s also almost impossible to do when the narrative, in an effort to draw the least amount of attention to the racial dynamics on the show as possible, has never actually ruled out his race as a motivator for the behavior against him.

They’ve never had the characters explicitly or implicitly say “marcel what I’m doing right now has nothing to do with your race, your race doesn’t matter to me, your race is not relevant to my current feelings or how I view you”. They’ve never had the mikaelsons express any views on race at all, not even in a context outside of Marcel. Just like they’ve never had marcel himself actually question if his race plays a part in his treatment, not even as a way to rule it out within the narrative. There is only so far you can take a narrative like this, the audience won’t be able to keep pretending that my some miracle all of these characters are the super special exceptions who have nothing race related register to them in a society where race is a huge factor. We can’t just pretend that they are all the most open minded color blind people to ever exist forever. The audience definitely won’t be able to keep pretending that race isn’t a factor when the narrative starts to blatantly push racist tropes and ideas and when Marcel is consistently ostracized by the mikaelsons. That’s where I am with with originals at the moment.

Elijah’s disregard for Marcel in season 3 goes as far as having him take his life. When he killed Marcel I didn’t automatically think “wow this is racist”, but the way he handled killing marcel and the aftermath did leave me feeling uneasy. Marcel was a grieving man who had just lost his surrogate daughter because of a decision by elijah and freya. After initially trying to smooth things over with marcel Elijah reverts back to his usual uncaring and condescending attitude towards him. Marcel is placed in a scenario where Klaus, his father, is trying to convince him of his love for him to prevent him from making a rash decision that could harm them all. Klaus had spent almost an entire day with Marcel, trying to make him see that he’s still his family, that he’s still his son and that he doesn’t have to take this path that he is close to taking. Klaus proclaims that Marcel will always be his family. From Klaus’s POV there is still something redeemable in Marcel, still something valuable even if he’s currently a threat to his well being. That was important to establish in the narrative and Marcel is this close to accepting that and possibly reigning in his rage when Elijah shows up. Elijah comes and immediately contradicts everything Klaus had worked so hard to establish.

Elijah has no such empathy or care for Marcel. He immediately starts to hurl his vitriol towards him. Marcel even goes as far as commenting that Elijah is eying him like he’s a rabid dog. They actually made a black man compare himself to a rabid animal in the eyes of his white family member and they do nothing to suggest that Elijah doesn’t in fact see him as a rabid animal. It’s very hard to hear that and not be reminded of how black people, particularly black men have historically been viewed through a lens of suspicion and seen as uncontrollable animals that need to be brought to heel. The racism is bleeding through the seams of the narrative at this point.

Marcel is also in a position where a white man who has actually wronged him now gets to use the privilege of his inherent superiority to cast suspicion on to him as if he’s the bad guy, and he has to prove himself to this white man despite the fact that, as I said before, he’s the wronged party in this dynamic. This pushed the racist idea that no matter what, blackness is always the offending party. White people can abuse, kill, hurt people of color as much as they want, but the suspicion of malice will still fall on the shoulders of the person of color and the person of color will always be in a position of having to prove themselves. Whiteness is always given the benefit of the doubt. Elijah is absolved of his wrong doing towards Davina and Marcel because “it had to be done”, but blackness is always seen as inherently malicious, wrong, and intending to do harm no matter what. Marcel’s pain doesn’t matter, his hurt doesn’t matter, him being the victim doesn’t matter, the nuance to his behavior is irrelevant and never considered. He must prove that he’s not the monster in this dynamic despite being the party who has just been wronged and the true monster now gets to use his inherent privilege and serve as his judge,jury, and executioner.

Elijah ends up killing Marcel on the bridge. The funniest thing about this action is that it was allegedly done in the name of protecting the family, the family that Marcel no longer feels he is a part of, but it ends up being the very thing that leads to their downfall. When fandom talks about Elijah killing Marcel it’s always said that “he had to kill him he threatened Klaus” but there was a choice on that bridge. Marcel’s death was avoidable. Marcel could have changed his mind, he could have changed his path, he could have been given the benefit of the doubt. He took the Serum but he could have decided to never make the transition and even if he made the transition his relationship with Klaus could have been repaired. If any of that was considered the outcome of season 3 could have been completely different. Elijah didn’t care to consider any of those things though. He saw inherent evil in marcel, irredeemable evil and therefore he was disposed of as if he never mattered to begin with. It’s very difficult to take the fact that Marcel is a black male out of the equation here, but I tried to, I know many other people tried to, and were successful for a while but I can no longer view these events from a colorless lens.

I personally do not think that if that had been Hope on that bridge Elijah would have done the same thing. I think that the narrative would have shifted towards their being possible redemption for Hope, that some part of Elijah would have wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt even if it was proven to be a mistake later down the line. I do not think that Hope would have been regarded as having pure malice in her heart and as disposable in the way that Marcel was. Whiteness, especially white femininity, is seen as having innate purity and innocence. Even in the worse of situations white women are hardly ever viewed as pure evil completely devoid of any innocence. Black women and black males don’t have the luxury of getting that sort of treatment, not even when we are pure and innocent. If Hope was put in the same position as Marcel I don’t think the writers would have been able to stop that idea from bleeding into how they crafted the narrative. There would have been some sort of innocence still there for her, none of them would have seen her as truly being disposable the way marcel was viewed, they also would have more than likely allowed Hope the room in the narrative to actually be the victim and would have used her victimhood to excuse her threats and justify why she inevitably doesn’t meet a deadly end.

This whole thing is made worse by how they proceed to handle the aftermath of Marcel’s death. Klaus is gutted, and he questions if Elijah’s actions were truly necessary. Later Hayley is sent to Klaus to try to compel him to forgive him for his actions. Klaus makes a very good parallel by asking Hayley is she would be saying this if it had been Hope and Hayley immediately shuts down the comparison. She wasn’t the first character to shut down a comparison between Marcel and Hope, but the question was an extremely valid question. Everyone else was treating Marcel as if he wasn’t truly Klaus son, therefore it should be recoverable.

Their callous attitude towards the authenticity of Klaus and Marcel’s father son relationship is never addressed. It’s never explained why they might feel that way, they just do. By doing that they pushed a very problematic narrative about Marcel vs Hope because in Klaus’s eyes they are indeed the same. Marcel is his son, he looked him in his eyes and told him that he was just as if he was his blood. Hope is also Klaus’s child, so would everyone be telling him to let it go if it had been Hope? This question is never answered explicitly in the narrative but it’s clear that the implied answer is no.I also personally believe that the answer is no because If they truly believed that Marcel was his son they would have been more empathetic towards his grief. Hayley, who grieved the temporary loss of her own child in season 2, would have been able to understand klaus’s grief and would have probably never asked him to forgive elijah mere hours after Marcel had died.Hayley would not be okay with it if it had been Hope, no one would have been okay with Elijah doing that to Hope. So what’s the difference between the two of them?

Any answer you come up with is troublesome because the most basic answer is that Marcel is not Klaus’s biological son, which pushes a very harmful narrative concerning biological vs adoptive children. If the difference isn’t biological vs adoptive then we have to look at race next which makes it even more troublesome. Can we really definitively say that if Marcel was a white girl like Hope, or even a white male he would have been rejected so fervently as an equal to Hope? Honestly we can’t and I personally don’t believe he would have been. So we have this narrative crafted where the black male adoptive son of a white man is not regarded as an equal to his white female biological daughter. It’s a very ugly and racist narrative to have in place, and it’s never addressed or corrected, instead this idea is actually allowed to proliferate further into the narrative later on in the series and it becomes even more offensive.

When the current season picks up Marcel comes face to face with Elijah again, he expresses his rage and hurt to both Elijah and Hayley about how Elijah, who was supposed to be his family killed him while klaus stood back and did nothing. Later Marcel expresses bitterness about how his family, the mikaelsons didn’t stick together with him and Kol completely dismisses Marcel’s feelings and tells him that he was never a Mikaelson so he needs to just get over it. Not one of the Mikaelson siblings correct Kol or show any open feelings of unease towards this statement, not even Klaus.

You have this black man who is very clearly hurt that the family he loved turned their backs on him and the response to that pain and bitterness is that he was never one of them. As usual there is never an explanation for why they may feel he was never one of them. The imagery alone is uncomfortable because you have this herd of white people who have pledged allegiance to each other collectively rejecting the sole black member of their family. It’s all of these white people against a black man. To add even more insult you have Hayley included as a part of the Mikaelson fold, a woman whose sole claim to family relation is through a child she birthed. Hayley, a white woman is eagerly accepted as a part of the family, yet the black adoptive son who they have all played some part in rearing since he was a child is the sole person on the outside looking in for no real explainable reason. It was established that it was only his recent actions making him an outsider it would be different, but that’s not the narrative, the narrative is that he’s always been an outside. It’s hard to look at the scene and not see the racial divide. It sticks out like a sore thumb and yet were are expected to ignore it. It’s hard to look at their rejection of Marcel and not see a rejection of blackness in a dynamic that is exclusive to white people. It’s hard to look at that scene and not see a message that says to a black person that regardless of your proximity to whiteness, ultimately you are not good enough to actually be seen as an equal among them. They might even pretend that you are for a while, but eventually you will get your rude awakening that you aren’t. Black people deal with that harsh reality all too often in white spaces in real life.

I think in the writers minds this entire exchange is okay because Marcel is seemingly the one with the power here. He’s the one who can chose whether they live or die, can stay or leave but that power they give him is superficial at best. Where it truly counts in the narrative he is powerless. They hold all of the power in the family dynamic with is the true core of the dynamic. They hold the power to accept or reject him as an equal and given the racial differences, placing that power solely in the hands of whiteness perpetuates the racist idea that for a person of color equality is not inherent to your identity, it is completely at the mercy of whiteness. Regardless of how powerful you are, their privilege and power always reigns supreme.

They think that they allow Marcel to regain his power here by proclaiming that he’s proud he’s not a mikaelson, but when you look at the character you can’t erase the hurt and pain the he just expressed and the nuance to his behavior. He proclaims that he’s proud he’s not a Mikaelson but it is a shallow show of power, we are all still very aware of who holds the true power in the dynamic because narratively he is indeed still very hurt and bitter about his rejection. His entire speech was given out of a need to cope with his rejection in the first place. So this facade they make Marcel put on is just that, a facade, which does nothing to erase the racism embedded in the narrative. The fact that he even has to feel the need to prove himself better or that he’s perfectly okay without their validation is bothersome because it’s something many black people have to do to cope with a lack of validation we often experience in white spaces.

They could have used that opportunity to assert that Marcel was family, they could have at the very least made Klaus correct Kol, but they did nothing. Instead they just let the idea that Marcel is not an equal just continue sit unchecked in the narrative like they had been doing before.

While we have this ugly family narrative going on the writing also manages to find itself in more hot water by unnecessarily vilifying Marcel. Granted this offense is smaller than some of the others but it’s still an offense.

Hope Mikaelson is affected by a deadly curse. Marcel allows the mikaelson family to return to Nola to help her. It’s finally explicitly said in the narrative that Hope is Marcel’s little sister and he’s empathetic towards her plight and the plight of children so he temporarily ends their exile.

All of the characters are aware that they are only back because Marcel has shown some come compassion. He’s doesn’t even interact with them again once they return….and yet when Hayley decides to go to try to talk to him Elijah feels the need to stop her and warn her to be fearful of him. Marcel has never ever tried to harm Hayley in any way. He’s actually protected her several times. The entire time the original family was put down Marcel never tried to harm Hayley and he actually tried to protect her and Hope from the henchmen of Klaus’s enemies. Elijah has even seen Marcel’s unwillingness to harm Hayley with his own eyes. So you have to ask the question why did Elijah feel the need to instill a sense of fear or weariness towards Marcel in Hayley? Why was he vilified when he was the one currently allowing them back and had done nothing towards Hayley to deserve it? Why did Hayley have to be careful? It was unnecessary and unwarranted, and yet this vilification was still there.

I can’t help but think of the historical context of what was demonstrated. There is a history of portraying black men as evil waiting in the wings to harm fragile white women. White men have seen it as their duty to protect their women from these savage men, you can’t trust them, it doesn’t matter how they behave, they are inherently unhinged and unpredictable. They were seen as rabid dogs just waiting to take a bite out of fragile and pure white woman. White women must always stay on alert when they’re around these black men, they can never be too careful.

If felt like that same idea was being pushed here with Elijah and Hayley. There was no reason to have that scene with elijah and hayley in the narrative it did absolutely nothing for the plot or the characters so I can’t help but wonder if it’s there because once again their racism is seeping through the seams of their writing. It felt completely unwarranted and inappropriate given the racial differences and yet no one in the writers room stopped and said “you know what this isn’t even needed and it has some uncomfortable racial undertones so maybe we should cut it”. If they would have had that conversation they maybe they would have seen some of the ugly undertones, but that never happened.

I honestly wish it had because maybe if they talked about these things we would have never gotten the blatantly racist scene between Elijah and Marcel in the most recent episode. The scene at the end of 305 is was the last straw for many of us minority viewers. There is no way around how uncomfortable it made many of us feel and there is just no way it can be glossed over like many of their past offenses have been.

They made Elijah come to Marcel as he’s imprisoned in a dungeon and taunt him with the idea that he is pretty much worthless because he can no longer serve as a conduit for Klaus’s redemption. He mocks him with the idea that he maybe saw him as a son in the past, further pushing the idea that marcel really wasn’t family at all to him. He throws the fact that Klaus’s daughter, not marcel, had changed Klaus in his face and then harshly tells him that he is not needed, welcomed or wanted. Then he tells him that he’s only still breathing because his brother is weak but then pledges to do to Marcel what Klaus was too weak to do. He’s

appalled that Klaus, when faced with the same decision he had in season 3, would choose to risk it all for Marcel instead of kill him like he did and pledges to show no such mercy to him.

It honestly made my skin crawl watching it. Elijah’s behavior was unnecessarily cruel and the level of disdain he displayed towards Marcel, combined with his words made it all feel blatantly racist.

Here you have a white man admit that the only reason he saw any worth in this black man was because he thought he could be used as a conduit for redemption for his white brother. You have to remember that Marcel was a slave, so the only reason he ever saw any value in his household for this little black boy his brother rescued from oppression was because he made his brother a good man and could be used to further his development into the person he wanted him to be. Now that he sees that he is no longer useful for this goal, and might work against his progress he sees him as nothing more than a pile of flesh just sucking up air and getting in the way. He rejects Marcel in every way possible, completely taking away all of his value. Now that Klaus has his pure white biological daughter Marcel is as useful as a stranger off the street to him. He’s nobody, he’s nothing. All of Marcel’s worth was tied to how he could serve a white character. Having a white man cruelly degrade a black man in that manner to prop up a white character is so blatantly racist I’m honestly flabbergasted that no one stopped it from happening.

How could they see that and not see how horrid it was? Or maybe they did see it but they felt like the blatant racism was just an unfortunate consequence of their writing and the payoff from the scene was worth putting it out there despite the racism. Either way it was such a terrible thing to do. As I mentioned when I first started this meta analysis, they had a responsibility to handle Marcel’s character with care and they grossly failed at doing that. You don’t have to treat Marcel like a special snowflake because he’s black, but because he’s black you absolutely can not push a narrative where his entire value as a living being is tied to a white character and where once that value has been maxed out treat him as disposable flesh. It’s careless and offensive.

It is almost impossible to divorce Marcel’s blackness from that scene and from the dynamic they set up. Elijah sounded like a slave master taunting his property with the idea that they are running out of value so they are probably gonna be dead soon. He lorded over Marcel, cruelly taking blow after blow to his worth as a person before threatening to basically kill him. This is why I had such a problem with the scene where Marcel tells the Mikaelsons that he is glad he wasn’t one of them and called it shallow, because in 3x05 it’s confirmed that the person with the real power is Elijah. Marcel is physically stronger than the Mikaelsons, in every way possible he is their better, and yet at the end of the day this black man is still completely and utterly powerless and this white man is the one with the true power. Marcel lives and breaths according to his will only and apparently it’s been that ways from Elijah’s eyes since the day Klaus took Marcel in.

It was honestly so ugly that I almost couldn’t even watch it all the way through. There is no way you can expect a black viewer to just ignore the historical context of Elijah’s words and actions and Marcel’s blackness to make it all just okay and not be offensive.

Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad if we had some indication that Elijah isn’t a racist and none of his behavior towards Marcel are racist microaggressions, but we don’t know that and honestly often times that’s exactly how his behavior comes off towards Marcel. Maybe this wasn’t intentional on their part, but at some point a certain level of awareness has to come if you are going to have any real integrity as a writer. There should have been more awareness here but there wasn’t and as a result many of us were left offended and frustrated.

I don’t believe for a second that Elijah would have treated Hope the same way or told her the same cruel words that he told Marcel. I’m sure many people will try to argue that he totally would, but I honestly just do not see it if not for the basic reason that I don’t think his disdain towards hope would ever be allowed to be as strong as it is towards Marcel.Just like I don’t think they would have ever insinuated that Hope’s only value to the world is as a conduit for Klaus’s redemption. Elijah wouldn’t tell Hope that she’s unwanted, unwelcome, and unneeded and then pledging to kill her. What Elijah told Marcel was basically the equivalent of telling him he could have stayed a slave, I don’t think they would ever tell Hope she would have been aborted by Hayley that day she considered it in season 1. They have built her up as this super special child who comes before them all, while Marcel has been the habitual afterthought and torn in their side so to my it would have been different.

Since the episode aired I’ve seen several justifications for Elijah’s behavior. The main one being that Elijah wasn’t being racist, he was just being elitist which is typical for his character. I feel like this is probably how the writers saw it in their heads, but honestly the elitist justification doesn’t fly with me because in most white dominated spaces where Elitism persists racism also co exists. You would be hard pressed to find a real life hyper-elitist like Elijah who is not also racist. White dominated spaces like Academia have always been accused of being incredibly elitist, and one big problem with this elitism is the rejection of blackness in these spaces that often goes hand in hand with this elitism. Many of the people who inhabit these elitist spaces are guilty of stereotyping and having a racial bias that leads to discrimination and racism. Now I know this isn’t a perfect parallel for Elijah, but I think the principle still basically applies. Among white people where an elitist mindset persists usually so does a racist mindset as well. An Elitist enacting their beliefs against a person of color is usually enacting racist behavior.

It’s for these reasons that I don’t think that Elijah can be absolved of his racism in this racist narrative, he’s the tool they used to push all of the ideas they set forth. If this was indeed not out of character for him then Elijah Mikaelson just might have some race issues that the writers need to check or think about when they decide to write for him in his dynamic with Marcel. If they don’t then we will continue to see the racist narrative they’ve set up in the future.

Maybe if they had actually spent time thinking about Elijah as a character and finding ways to flesh him out they could have avoided the blatant racism they showed in that last episode and some of the racist undertones that have been present in the past. They failed to do this, which did a major disservice to their story and If they don't’ check themselves and the messages they are sending they will continue to do a disservice to their show and in the process alienate viewers who at one point genuinely enjoyed the writing.

I used to love this show, I used to see such great depth to the writing, but I’m at a frustrating crossroads now. There is only so many times you can watch a TV show and have the narrative offend you or blatantly insult your intelligence before you completely give up. Based on the responses of several fellow black viewers after the episode I’m not the only one who is at this crossroads. The Originals needs to do better. They have to do better if they are going to keep this show going and keep expecting us to trust them with minority character that are important for representation. How they handle characters like Marcel matters, the messages they send with these characters matters. That’s why despite my initial reluctance I decided to write this long winded take down of their racism. These things might seem small or overblown to some of you, but as a black viewer these things are important, they register to us even when they might not register to a non-black person. As a black woman I don’t have the privilege of being able to escape my race and how my blackness is handled and perceived on the day to day basis, not even when it comes to fiction. This is why more thought needs to be put into narratives that involve people from marginalized groups.

Ultimately as a character, Marcel Gerard deserved better and as every black viewer who has dedicated their time to this show deserved better and considering how several of the writers like to sit on twitter and give social commentary I expected better. They won’t be getting anymore passes for the racism that bleeds into their writing and their hypocrisy.

#the originals #Marcel Gerard #To commentary #anti the originals

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