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casscainmainly · 2 months

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An Analysis of Duke Thomas in Wayne Family Adventures

I've been seeing a lot of posts and comments recently concerning Duke Thomas in WFA. I know WFA discourse has been done to death, but these comments were about how they'd only read WFA, felt Duke lacked a personality, his powers weren't distinctive, etc. Out of the main WFA characters, I think Duke has the least-read comics and the least understood canon history. This post is going to dissect WFA!Duke, compare it with canon!Duke, and address whether WFA is a fair representation of Duke or not.

This is not a WFA hate post. A lot of comics readers love WFA and vice versa, and I'm not going to dictate what people should like or dislike. Check out this post I made yesterday about the origins of WFA, which really aren't ill-intentioned. However, judging by the comments/posts I've seen, a lot of people don't know the difference between WFA!Duke and canon!Duke. This post exists to clarify those discrepancies and hopefully encourage more people to read Duke's comics.

The Positives

Let's cover the pros of WFA!Duke first! The sheer fact that he's one of the main characters and present throughout is amazing, allowing more people to learn and get interested in Duke. Since he doesn't have his own ongoing, WFA is about the only place to get consistent Duke content.

Plus look at how cute he is:

His presence also means we get fun interactions with other characters that Duke doesn't get to interact with in canon, such as Steph and Dick. As a diehard Duke-is-Dick's-successor believer, I appreciate any page-time they get together, even if it's not substantial.

Also, WFA season 3 confirmed that Duke can turn invisible without his suit, which is just fun!

Framing

Duke is introduced in the very first episode, and in some ways is the framing device for the entire webtoon. He is "Gotham's Newest Vigilante," learning about the family and the manor.

Many episodes of WFA have Duke asking a question that the others respond to. You can see this in Episode 2 ("The Last Cookie," he asks about their tradition), Episode 7 ("Vigilante Bingo"), Episode 30 ("Driving Lessons"), Episode 39 ("Secret Identity"), all the way to one of the latest minisodes (Mini Episode 3 - Super Friends).

This framing is not completely incorrect, since Duke is the newest addition to the family. The problem with this framing, though, is that Duke's personality and problems are never the focus - in these episodes we learn a lot about the other Batfam, and nothing about Duke.

Take "Vigilante Bingo". We learn so much canon stuff about Dick, Jay, Tim, and Cass, including who's died/come back (Cass and Tim chime in here, which is not very well known in fanon). However, because Duke is the one asking the question, he doesn't get to participate in the answers. This framing makes WFA-only readers learn shockingly little about Duke's prior activities, and they only cover his backstory in episode 76.

Personality

Because of his perpetual outsider status, WFA!Duke's most prominent traits are confusion, timidity, and insecurity.

(I found all these by literally clicking on any thumbnail with Duke in it. He exhibits confusion/timidity/insecurity all the time).

The first two traits - confusion and timidity - is completely antithetical to Duke in canon. Just compare these panels from We Are Robin #6 to a panel from WFA:

Canon!Duke gets shot and thinks to himself: "how baller is that?!". WFA!Duke hears about a booby-trapped lawn and makes that face. This reaction is basically the opposite of the way WAR!Duke would react. I have legitimately no clue how anyone could read We Are Robin or The Cursed Wheel and come away with Duke being timid.

More examples of how canon!Duke acts when confronted with dangerous situations, just for fun:

From We Are Robin #2, we have Duke mouthing off to people he's just met; from Robin War, we have the iconic jumping-out-of-cop-car scene; from Robin War again, we have Duke standing up for one more battle against Damian with absolutely no hesitation.

Duke in canon is headstrong, stubborn to a fault, outspoken, and brave. These qualities just don't come through in WFA.

Insecurity

The third component of WFA!Duke's personality, insecurity, is the only one with some canon basis. Check out this panel from Batman & The Signal #1:

Here, he's struggling with his place in the family, something WFA!Duke also deals with in Episode 75 + 76 ("Worthy"). But I think WFA misconstrued where this insecurity comes from.

Duke's problem is not that he's a meta, it's that he's a meta with "powers no one understands yet". A "walking detective case," so to speak. His insecurity stems from his lack of understanding around his powers, because at this point he doesn't know about Gnomon. WFA somehow turns this into a problem with the powers itself:

This is simply not supported in canon. Duke has no problems using his powers; even in Batman & The Signal, the peak of his canon insecurities, he literally says "go, go ghost vision" (god I love him). Moreover, his powers come from his mom. Saying that Duke feels he needs to prove he's worthy "in spite of" his powers is a complete misreading of Duke's canon feelings. Which leads to my next point:

Family

"Worthy" positions Duke's powers in opposition to Bruce's approval, and though the episode ends with Duke accepting himself, it's clear throughout WFA that his biggest parental figure/source of approval is Bruce.

WFA!Duke talks and thinks about Bruce more than he does his mom and dad, which is genuinely mind-boggling. Canon!Duke talks about his parents basically every single page. It's one of the most consistent aspects of his character!

From We Are Robin #2, Batman & The Signal #1, The Cursed Wheel Part 1, and Batman: Urban Legends #19. Duke's parents are only mentioned in "Worthy" as part of his traumatic backstory, but Duke's parents aren't backstory - they're alive. By neglecting the importance of Duke's parents, WFA is ignoring a fundamental aspect of Duke's character and making him seem like just another orphan.

This panel from Episode 118 is hilarious in the context of canon!Duke waffling on about his parents 24/7. But the erasure of Duke's parents is symptomatic of another problem with WFA.

Supporting Cast

Duke's first multi-parter is Episodes 8/9/10, "Crush". In this episode, Duke asks a girl out, and then she breaks up with him.

First of all, compared to other two-parters (all of Cass', Dick's "Big Brother", Steph's "Belonging", hell even Tim's "Better and Brighter"), this two-parter is incredibly detached from Duke's character. All you learn is that he gets crushes and doesn't like break-ups, which isn't character-specific at all.

Secondly, using an OC as Duke's girlfriend is so bizarre given Duke has 1 canon love interest. Here, I googled it:

Imagine the story we could've gotten with Izzy instead; with them having canon history, this two-parter would've been a lot more impactful, and introduce We Are Robin characters to a WFA audience. I'd also like to point out the difference in how these relationships begin:

Another example of WFA introducing timidity into a scenario where canonically, Duke played it extremely cool (from We Are Robin #9).

WFA uses none of Duke's supporting cast. To be fair, Duke's supporting cast isn't well known, but isn't WFA a perfect low-stakes place to spotlight unknown characters? Harper gets appearances, and she's been neglected by canon for ages. Tim gets to have Bernard, Jason gets literally all of his Outlaws, and there's even a KonCass cameo!

There's a reason why the top comment on every single one of the Crushed eps doesn't even mention Duke.

Shouldn't Duke-centric episodes have comments about Duke? The story is so vague and widely applicable that there's nothing about Duke to comment on, so the spotlight is shifted onto the other Batfam members. If the story had included Duke's supporting cast, think about how much more we could've learned about Duke himself.

Side note: why on Earth is Luke Fox Duke's go-to mentor? They have next to no canon interactions, and while having a Black mentor is something Duke probably needs, he already has one. Batman and The Outsiders sets up the Duke and Black Lightning relationship really nicely. Not to mention in "Worthy," Duke's problem is about having powers, which makes Luke Fox's inclusion (as a non-meta) baffling. Black Lightning would've been perfect!

Conclusion + Wishlist

This is the top comment on Episode 76. I think I've demonstrated how untrue this is, because WFA!Duke doesn't even touch the worst of canon!Duke. WFA!Duke has next to no defining characteristics, which contributes to him being the 'boring' or 'sane' one. To any WFA-only readers, please don't think this is representative of Duke as a whole; reading even just the first issue of We Are Robin shows how interesting and full of personality he really is.

It's disappointing because WFA is a lot of people's only exposure to the Batfam, and portraying Duke like this has only caused them to misinterpret his character. However, there has been improvement - they're beginning to mention his backstory a lot more, which means they've read some of his comics. I still believe they can turn it around!

Here's some improvements they could make, along with some things I want expanded upon:

Stop using Duke as the outsider/newbie character. It's been over 100 eps, he doesn't need that anymore!

Mention his supporting cast, or at the very least mention his parents more

Expand on his canon relationships with Damian, Cass, and Jason, they deserve to be close!

Use his detective abilities/affinity for puzzles

Mention his dislike of heights

Involve him in more shenanigans

I don't have FastPass but please bring Duke back into the fold of S3!!

#duke thomas #batman #wayne family adventures #batman wfa #wfa-posting two days in a row but in opposite directions #i genuinely think they could do so much better #please don't hate on the creators though #just when i see people debate on who wfa did the worst like it's obviously duke #even himbo!dick doesn't touch how much personality they sucked out of duke #if your only exposure to duke is wfa i do NOT want to see you talking about him

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onelinemanytimes · 2 years

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The “Protagonist” of Underverse 0.7 (Part 1)

Now, this is an interesting one. This is also a hot take, potentially, and maybe a bad choice of words- “protagonist” typically suggests a main character and Underverse is a series where a true one main character is hard to pin down. I’d say Protagonist is definitely the wrong word actually, thinking about it- but I’m not sure how else to phrase this…

Maybe it’d make more sense to call them the battle perspective. That is, the person you’re meant to be rooting for in this battle, and the person who’s side is followed closest throughout the conflict once it gets rolling.

Let’s talk about why in the WORLD I would think the character in this role is FRESH, and not Ink.

LET ME ALSO MAKE IT CLEAR NOW. I’m not about to suggest Fresh is the next main big character in Underverse or that he’s going to be saving the day or anything of the sort. If anything, I think now, he’s basically going to disappear until maybe the very end to show up in a final shot of some kind exactly the same as he was. (I would love to be proven wrong about that but I doubt it.)

I’m talking exclusively about the second half of Underverse 0.7 Part 1 that takes place in the Antivoid/Doodlesphere, specifically the conflict that happens in the doodlesphere. So just the parts Fresh is there for. Everyone clear on that? Yeah? Alrighty.

So, how could I possibly think FRESH is the main perspective on this battle and not Ink!?? Ink is present for all the conflicts much more directly as the focus, is the one who has a character arc in the episode, and has been super important for basically the entirety of underverse what with his connection to X Gaster and everything else. Ink’s TOTALLY main character material while Fresh is super background!! Surely this is me actually being out of my mind right?

Maybe. But hear me out, because I’ve got some interesting evidence for this.

Point 1: How Fresh arrives

Fresh shows up to the scene as one part of a duo with someone who is undoubtedly a main character, Cross. This still signs him up as a sidekick more than anything, on its own, but there’s more to this than that. Specifically; The Gift. AKA, Fresh’s Payment for the favor he did Ink, something Cross doesn’t know about, but has been used in promotion and as a symbol of this episode for a while now.

That Gift has so little to do with Cross that he didn’t even get told what it was in vague terms by Core, all Core said was “Don’t worry about it, just go,” even though Core could have answered that Cross was going with Fresh of all people because ink gave him a promise, or a gift, or a favor, or something of the like.

Cross is also kicked off into what we find out to be Aftertale within the first few minutes of showing up- I think it’s safe to say that for this episode, Cross is not a focal point for the part of the video I’m focusing on here.

There’s also what Ink is doing when they show up. Besides, y’know, being thrown around like a wet sock by Error.

He’s holding the gift and looking for Fresh.

He’s PROTECTING that gift very very hard. To the point of when error was throwing him around, his focus was on making sure he did not lose that gift, even despite losing his vials in a blast soon after this. Ink didn’t remember what it was initially! But when he realized that was singularly his focus; Get this gift to Fresh.

Error is obviously an antagonist here who is preventing Ink from delivering that gift to Fresh. Also not consistently present- definitely showing up multiple times, but not there the entire time. You love to see him throwing a fit about the lack of spotlight only to hilariously still be losing the spotlight to, of all people, Fresh.

We can tell that everything here is centered around Fresh and ceases to function without him here, but there’s a much more compelling reason why I think Fresh is meant to be the focus here and the lens through which we view these battles.

Point 2: The Vials

These are Ink’s Vials! Yes, I can hear the confusion starting again. These Vials, however, are what keyed me into the fact that Fresh is the one we’re watching, not Ink. If this graphic hadn’t existed then I wouldn’t have realized it myself- but they work in a very peculiar way in this fight/chase sequence.

Fresh, currently, has all the vials. He’s playing a game of keep-away with Ink, skateboarding away with them to keep them out of his hands, meanwhile Ink is trying to attack him to get them back, and drink them.

This graphic is pretty unnecessary if it was solid. You can know the colours of the vials if you look at inks design, so it’s purpose isn’t apparent until a few moments later, when Fresh tosses out the Green and the Yellow, which are then caught by Ink…

Who drinks them. Regular Ink behavior- but now we see what the vials are there for! Ink drinking them emptied them, marking them as no longer a piece in play, completely greyed out.

…That doesn’t make a lot of sense, does it?

Ink is trying to get the vials back from Fresh. If the visual was trying to keep track of how many Ink had gotten back, then all of them should be unavailable until Ink has them. Especially given at this point, Ink is being actively taunted about a variety of things I’ll dig into more in other posts- but that needless to say are encouraging him to magically pursue Fresh.

Perhaps they’re simply keeping track of how much material is in each vial..? But that would also be odd, wouldn’t it? Why would Ink need to keep track of which vials are full or empty? His magic isn’t tied to the colours he has access to, and the vials don’t change when magic is used by Ink, just when they’re drunk. Not to mention, Ink doesn’t have those vials yet- Fresh has them.

And you know who would profit from keeping track of their volume, and which ones have been consumed? Fresh would. It's VERY important that Fresh keeps track of which ones Ink’s drunk, for reasons that are made clear later. HE is the one that is making that visual matter- and it’s tied to HIS goal, not Ink’s. We’re seeing his side of this battle, the side where he has to know which vials are empty for the last part of this battle.

When the vials are no longer a checklist. They’re a timer.

These Vials, in the latter half of their fight, become a timer that goes down at a steady rate over the next few minutes. This timer is very very obviously for Fresh specifically, marking how much time he has to be in control of ink’s body. Anything he wants to do, he has to do it before he runs out of the material now in those vials- making this graphic undeniably one that applies to Fresh specifically, not Ink.

Why does this matter? What’s the point of knowing who’s perspective we have on this battle when we’re watching from the third person anyways? Well, for one it’s cool as heck to see this and ponder it, but for two; it’s so that the shift to Fresh!Ink isn’t that strange or jarring. Having Fresh take over the main character and perspective of the battle would be odd, and would mean forcing your main character to take a back seat. It’d mean Fresh was actively uprooting something planned and prepared before and causing a disruption.

That’s no good! But that problem goes away if Fresh was always the focus. No need to shift perspectives, no need to see how Ink feels while being possessed, none of that. Fresh is the one who’s in the spotlight- and this is further accentuated by how he acts while possessing Ink. He’s not talking to Error, that’s for sure, and he’s at best kind of talking to Ink, maybe.

That’s not actually it though. No, he’s talking to us, full on PSA mode, turned towards the camera and giving a guide on how he plans to win as he proceeds to. The spotlight on him makes overwhelming sense, with that- and it’s EXACTLY the kind of thing he would want, maybe even fitting payment that he decided to take for himself when Ink’s gift was so sub par.

He wants us to pay attention to him. He wants to be seen, to be remembered, to be adored and to exist without question. Because that’s what it means to be a character. That’s how you continue to be there, how you keep from fading away into irrelevancy- how you end up getting replaced, and written out of your own life.

And he is terrified of being replaced. He would do anything to keep himself important enough for us to care about.

Maybe the gift was the funniest thing in the multiverse after all. An opportunity for Fresh- ridiculous, overshadowed, often misunderstood and ignored Fresh- to temporarily take the biggest spotlight possible from one of the main characters of the series, asserting himself in legendary, radical fashion as an essential part of this otherwise very serious high stakes story that cannot be overlooked or replaced. Because you have to admit, THAT is hilarious.

#fresh #fresh underverse #underverse #underverse 0.7 #ink #error #cross sans #fresh!ink #truefreshinfo #This one is very speculative I'll admit #but it's cool to speculate on #and also I feel like I have something here #Surely it's not just me

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smolstarthief · 1 year

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Ok sooo I need to share this AU concept since I feel like it wouldn't make sense in the actual timeline and among other things but still it won't leave my head:

So remember how people came up with AUs where Joker and Maruki are related? Well... This was inspired by a part of me and Creepy's RP but what if Rumi had a surprise for Takuto and her parents on the day of their visit which obviously ended badly and put an end to that plan? That surprise ended up being Ren but unfortunately, Maruki already removed himself from her life so neither of them were aware of being related until present day and 3rd semester.

Poor Rumi would just be so confused on why she's carrying a baby after the (accidental) memory wipe but considering how her personality was described she would no doubt keep him despite the potential stigma she would be hit by. She starts living with her Grandparents and remaining family members after getting out of the hospital who were apprehensive about her having a child alone out of wedlock but take her in anyway. Also having probably met Maruki before at some point... They already assume that the father is him and believed that he abandoned her so therefore end up not mentioning him to avoid hurting her. Her grandparents at least cared more than them though and try to support her as she gets back on her feet.

Come the day Ren was born and Rumi absolutely dotes on him but does note something being a little familiar about him appearance-wise and she starts to feel off whenever she thinks more about it. Namely kinda like how, "Kasumi" ends up having random slumps/depressive episodes. This worsens as he gets older and starts showing similar quirks and behaviors as Takuto which her relatives (except for her grandparents) start to resent him for, especially when he starts asking questions.

At one point, Rumi ends up having a sudden breakdown due her own filter further weakening (curse the lack of power consistency with Maruki in canon) and an older Ren asking about his father which scares Ren and then herself when she almost hurts him in the process (probably not physically though since I don't see her doing that to her own child regardless of her mental state). This gets her sent to a mental health facility which Ren does visit more than her relatives (this would be part of why he was heading home late when he encountered Shido). Each visit can vary for him: One day she was her usual loving and energetic self that he knew as a child, the next she was hardly responsive despite his best efforts to talk to her. He also often brings a book or even a chess board since they both liked playing it ("Checkmate") to cheer her up.

He's still just as confused about his father and who he was but from what did learn and even overheard in the past about him, he starts to resent him. Even more so when his relatives start acting distant and cold towards him due to blaming him for Rumi's current situation.

And the lack of contact throughout the game? Blame the relatives as they wasted no time in sending Ren away for his probation which leaves her shattered but to them, it's better for her health in the long run. Being the stubborn woman she is, she still tries but is blocked and prevented from doing so each time which actually worsens things with her as opposed to helping her. It doesn't help that her Grandparents also passed away already by this point and they were actually her primary support system while everyone else in her family was just tolerant at best, uncaring at worst.

How Maruki would piece everything together I'm not entirely sure but maybe like this: He starts to notice Ren showing similar personality traits as Rumi and even himself but doesn't think much of it at first but then Ren decided to randomly bring a chess board to a session which surprises him but plays along as Ren states it cheers him up sometimes, his mom especially. Now I can see Maruki maybe playing it with Rumi when they were younger so when Ren starts showing more of Rumi's quirks as they play, Maruki starts to pale a bit. Again, kinda tying into that "Checkmate" line. Not sure how Maruki would finally figure it out since idk how he would get DNA test done while not seeming suspicious but maybe Shibusawa makes a comment about Rumi having a kid while they were catching up alone? Either way, he would probably also have access to medical files from Shujin and once he sees Rumi's name as his mother with the father not being listed...

"It can't be..."

Plus, I feel like once he gets the ability to warp reality then maybe he would have probed Ren's memories a bit for more confirmation. Needless to say, he's extremely guilt-ridden.

And poor Ren when he finally puts two and two together... Compared to canon, he's PISSED that the person he bonded with and confided to was also the person he resented the most and he just ends up making rash and impulsive decisions without thinking like Sumi before her reveal. Which is something that would startle even AKECHI of all people a little since he's so used to Joker showing more empathy. I would also utilize Raoul because fuck Atlus for making him a DLC Persona.

He would basically represent Ren's acceptance of everything and how he still wants to change Maruki's heart but not out of spite or revenge but to save everyone and HIM since he realized that Maruki is hurting too and needed help. He wants to reconcile with him. To summarize:

Also the departure for the "Leave" ending will be changed quite a bit with Maruki initially parting ways like in canon but then excuses himself with a break to catch up with Ren to give a proper goodbye (bumps into Sumi too). It leads to an emotional conversation until they see a familiar face that Ren immediately hugs. It was an astonished but slowly recovering Rumi. Her filter is gone too. Granted, it's a little bittersweet since Rumi would be kinda pissed that Maruki more or less up and left her alone (even giving him a good punch or smack) but she won't forbid Ren from seeing him either. She's just still a nice person at heart so she wouldn't be mad for long. Especially when Ren pleads his case and she trusts his judgement. That and she would acknowledge that she should've told him about her carrying Ren sooner before that visit to her parents.

The context behind her showing up would be sad initially... She came to Tokyo because she saw the news report of Ren's "suicide" from the facility and was heartbroken. But then she decided that she had enough of staying in that place and demands that she be released which the orderlies complied. She then decided to cut ties with her more toxic family members when they showed little to no care about that report and even insulting Ren to her face. She basically went to Tokyo to find Sojiro and a temporary place to stay as she decides what to do next. Obviously that changed when she sees him alive and hugging her. The filter would wear off after reality is back to normal too during her train ride hence her impulsive response to seeing Maruki.

It does get happy again though when she confirms that as soon as they come back to retrieve what's left of Ren's belongings, they're staying in Tokyo full time. She's also willing to talk with Maruki to catch up and try to give closure as well. Before they both depart, they each give him something to keep him company and remember them in the meantime: Ren gives him his favorite childhood plush toy that he carried around (which suspiciously looks like Mona) and Rumi... She gives him what she wanted to give him before that tragic day... An ultrasound photo showing a small silhouette of a baby. To say that Maruki cried quite a bit is an understatement as he hugs Ren tightly, apologizing repeatedly and promising to step and provide for them as much as he can.

Is TakuRumi gonna be endgame? Idk since a lot of time had passed and I honestly liked the aversion of expectations the game did by having him not get back together with her and deciding to start over on his own (I do wish that more closure was provided with her at least but oh well). Past TakuRumi is a definite but present day? Maybe not likely. But they would still get along since they both care about Ren greatly. Also just imagining Rumi going mama bear mode towards Zenkichi at the beginning of Strikers is too damn funny too.

#persona 5 #p5 #persona 5 strikers #p5s #persona 5 royal #p5r #p5r spoilers #starchild rambles #au idea #I guess ''Rumi Amamiya'' AU?? Idk yet #ren amamiya #takuto maruki #rumi #p5r rumi #rambles #ramblings

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variousqueerthings · 8 months

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We were going to see them all. But he was too busy burning them. I don’t think she ever saw anything // No stars. I hoped there’d be stars

OKAY IT'S HAPPENING IT'S FINALLY HAPPENING! WE HAVE WATCHED world enough and time/the doctor falls

alright, let's keep the yelling to down below (EDIT: yeah these rambles got looooooooooooong)

sexism rank objectification (female character is ogled/harassed/turned into a sex joke by the doctor and/or a lead we’re supposed to root for and/or the camera): 9/10

sexism rank plot-point (lead female character is only there to serve plot, not to have her emotional interiority explored, or given agency to her emotional interiority): 6/10

interesting complex or pointlessly complex (does the complexity serve the narrative or does it just serve to be confusing as a stand-in for smart, this includes visually): 7/10

furthers character and/or lore and/or plot development (broader question that ties into the previous ones, at least two of these, ideally three should be fulfilled): 9/10

companion matters (the companion doesn’t always have to be there, but if the companion is there, can they function without the doctor– and overall per season how often is the companion the focus or POV of the story): 4/10

the doctor is more than just “godlike” (examines the doctor’s flaws and limitations, doesn’t solve a plot by having it revolve entirely around the doctor’s existence): 6/10

doesn’t look down on previous doctor who (by erasing or mocking its importance, by redoing and “bettering” previous beloved plotpoints or characters, etc.): 8/10

isn’t trying to insert hamfisted sexiness (m*ffat famously talked a lot about how dw should be sexier multiple times, he sucks at writing it): 9/10

internal world has consistency (characters have backgrounds, feel rooted in a place with other people, generally feel like they have Lives): 7/10

Politics (how conservative is the story): 6/10

FULL RATING: 76/100 (if I can count….)

I'd have to check, but this might be M*ffat's highest-rated finale (of course there is the finale that comes after this one, but um... that one will definitely be rated lower). I genuinely like quite a lot of what's going on here. and then there's some things I'm going to poke with a stick...

also at this point we confirm: Gomez!Master is simply perfection, she is this era to me!

OBJECTIFICATION: I note that Simm!Master is pretty darn sexist throughout this episode and yes, Simm!Master was definitely a misogynist in his original tenure too, it's just taken to an extreme degree in this one I think, specifically in a strange sort of "see how far we've come now" way, that feels echoed in the next episode with the first Doctor

I'm not sure if this is just me, but it felt jarring and a little out of character, but perhaps he's just reverted to the most extreme type after being a dictator on this spaceship for x amount of years idk. he was generally a little flat for me, but that's something we'll talk about further down

I wish Bill had been allowed to smack him or something at least, because oh boy was there a lack of satisfaction in that part of the narrative in my opinion

PLOT-POINT: okay I was writing this down in "politics" and maybe it is, but the blur is very big in this episode in many ways, so I've decided to put this up here instead -- ALSO THIS IS A RAMBLE TO TRY AND ORGANISE THOUGHTS BE PREPAAARED

if I had a nickle for every time steven m*ffat turned a Black character into a cyberman after being basically killed by a random happenstance that's never addressed again and then they decide to essentially commit suicide rather than keep living as a way to end their stories I'd have two nickles, which... I mean I don't know. it's weird that that's been his go-to twice, possibly not as a conscious choice, and maybe this doesn't even belong under politics, so much as a bit lazy in the absence of signs of it being an intentional callback or recurring thematic event (I mean this may be more about the fact that Danny Pink is a hard done by character as well)

I do think this is one of the worst things to happen to a companion in nu!who (the worst? hard to say, that's subjective, but in the sheer detail of its depiction it's certainly brutal), and I can't say Bill is offered much in the way of agency in the narrative, and listen, I like a tragedy, I like "you missed her by two hours," I like characters feeling so so sad, but I do feel like these episodes dropped the ball on being about Bill, rather than Bill being a cog in Simm!Master's ongoing game with the Doctor (and I'm not even entirely onboard with Simm!Master's characterisation in this episode as being much more than a prop to make Gomez!Master seem better or something by comparison? or maybe John Simm was just up for coming back and they were trying to make him fit in there), and I think that's a shame. I can't place it very easily, but it's kind of a letdown for a character that did feel very go-gettem throughout the season

in these episodes things happen to Bill and around Bill, but not really because of Bill or with Bill driving anything, with the exception of one moment (which we'll get to over in companions matter), and while we do have Bill reacting to those things toooo some extent, I personally don't feel like her emotional interiority is given much focus

in the first one she's more central and there's promise in the second episode when she wakes up and discovers she's a cyberman, but after that she fades into the background for me, which is wild, because she's gone through something so violent and has been betrayed so badly by the Doctor in favour of the Doctor's fucked up little dance with the Master, but she spends her time waiting around and being spoken to with incredible cruelty by Simm!Master and treated with suspicion by everyone else and it's just not even about any of that, except for how it convinces her to die

it's an interesting comparison to, say, Clara whom the Doctor fucked up the universe to save (and Bill's not even dead), but perhaps it's because the Doctor also wants to die/give up and Bill at this point was the big factor stopping that from happening. a lot of her saving him was specifically related to his being self-sacrificial and now she just accepts that death -- but then at the end she begs him to not be dead, but also we don't really see her during the proper battle scenes, which was an odd choice

if she's the Doctor's protector, as she has been often, including at the beginning of this episode, I think she should have been very visibly so

this is very rambly, but I think what I'm getting at is simply that Bill fades into the background of part two of this, in a way that feels particularly sad for the fact that it's such a violent fate

BUT WAHAIT! we do have Heather then coming in to save the day, and I personally like that. Bill was going to head out with her eventually, so I'm pleased. I think one thing about this season as a whole is that I think Bill deserved two and/or more episodes off the back like Martha for example had, but I know this was the final season. this is probably another post, but there's so many interesting underlying things to Bill's story that deserved more space (as it were), but also do I think m*ffat could have done all of that justice? (no)

so with all that in mind, I'm glad she went with Heather (let's hope next episode doesn't undermine tharthjgdksjdflkfjhöjsdlkfjgshjdf)

(my other note, which may also be politics, is that both of the Black female protagonists had the essential function of saving the Doctor from himself, and while Bill also got to be held somewhat by the Doctor in return, ultimately she wasn't the focus of this story as much as the Master was -- which I do think s3 balanced the Master/Doctor madness while also allowing Martha some development, but we may be coming down to subjectivity)

COMPLEXITY: the first part of these episodes is a rare example of a bit complex on M*ffat's side without being too stupid and indulgent -- there's a mystery (in the sense that you might recognise the Mondasians but Bill doesn't know them and the Doctor doesn't know), there's the slow creeping dread, there's the Master. I wish there had been more scenes of Bill trying to escape or figure out what's going on, because ten years and she just hung out there??? and accepted that this was what everything looked like??? no exploring??? really????? (this is companion matters actually, but it does stretch suspension of disbelief on my part)

second half is then a simple "getting attacked trying to stop it" story in which the cybermen are hyper-developing while this little farming community has to be prepared in a very short space of time, which is all fair enough. I think the second half overall is weaker than the first, and I couldn't tell you exactly why. I think a lot of it is quite good, but ultimately some of the character-work gets lost for me, even though it does nail it at the very very end

and I think a reason I'm overthinking a lot this season is because it's the final season -- it's m*ffat's last companion writing, Twelve's (second) last hurrah, Gomez!Master's last outing (and Simm's) and so it feels like I'm not just looking at this episode but how well everything built to this episode, which may not be quite fair, but also... such is the fate of a final-ish episode

it's a good episode. it's also a bit of a microcosm of some of the core Stuff in m*ffat era (although not as much as the next episode will be) -- it ends on a lot of very fun, interesting points, but it's a bit of a rocky road to get there that struggles to give the companion much to do. it feels like this season as a whole was getting to a pretty good place on a lot of these points (if one looks at this rating's system it jumps this season) and it feels like this development was cut short

I can't believe this me making the case for more of the M*ffat era, disgusting. hateful. this isn't who I am I promise!!!

CHARACTERS/LORE/PLOT: I mean yeah! boy ohhhhkay let's list!

Simm!Master returns, reveals he was killed by Gomez!Master and that she in turn was killed by him, but if she remembers that then I'd hazard that's how she survived that, but I don't think we've ever been told how. I love how many blank spots there are in the Master's history, this isn't a complaint. the master just comes back, that's what the Master does

Bill is turned into a cyberman, then Heather pulls her out of the cyberman and they go travelling together

the Mondasian cybermen origin story

the Doctor is going to regenerate but maybe refuses to!

Gomez!Master calls someone a bitch, which I had no idea where to place, but this was my note when it happened: CALLS HIM A BITCH!!!!???!!

(which on that note, that blue guy never returns, he just shoots Bill, gets flipped on his back and disappears from the narrative entirely, feels like a bit of a miss, considering how all of this happened because of something essentially pointless... shot by some random dude... the other main link between Bill and Danny, both seem to be random events, and I'm not sure M*ffat is a deep enough writer to be doing this intentionally for any thematic reason, because Danny isn't that important in the end RIP)

COMPANIONS MATTER: there's a lot I covered in the earlier point about Bill, but she does do soooome stuff, specifically she saves the Doctor's life in the beginning of episode 2, and also pulls him out of the debris at the end and into the Tardis somehow (sidenote, I really feel like the Tardis is so fond of Bill, in a very particular way. the Tardis has favourites and Bill is one of them I believe!)

I think. those are the two main things? otherwise she acts as bait, and then as... I suppose plaything to the Master in a way? summed up like that it's a bit bleak

“GODLIKE” DOCTOR: okay I wasn't sure where to write about this, but let's talk the Doctor and the Master! because this episode is attempting to do three stories, fundamentally

the origin of the Mondasian cybermen

Bill's final story (sort of)

wrapping up this era's exploration of the Doctor and the Master

and of these, I feel like the third is, funnily enough, the least compelling to me in the second half of the story (the first half, where the Doctor is convincing Bill to travel with Gomez!Master, I liked that!)

I actually wasn't a big fan of Simm!Master in this episode for the most part (not the whole part, I liked some of it too -- Gomez and Simm kind of wanting to get it on but also wanting to kill each other feels good, feels right), I felt like a fair amount of the writing wasn't quite... right for his character or went for his most exaggerated traits without any nuance. which, Simm!Master was absolutely a misogynist in his original s3 run (and then just mostly unhinged in the specials), so it's not out of the way that he'd be casually cruel to Bill especially, but Idk. I felt like the dynamic between Simm!Master and the Doctor was minimised to make Gomez!Master seem like her desire to try to get on the Doctor's side is somehow shocking (which I may be reaching but that tying into the continuous derogatory comments at WoMEn didn't sit right with me, like she was "more" emotional or less rational or more prone to Empathy/Feelings than before because of the regeneration, one episode after we've had the line about being past gender concerns), whilst in the same breath stripping Simm!Master of some of the stuff that made him fun to watch and the nuance specifically of his relationship with the Doctor back in the day, because now Simm!Master seems to just not care for the Doctor at all

it's not just cackling and evil-doing that made Simm!Master fun, in a similar way to how the first Doctor wasn't enjoyed despite apparently constantly talking about how women needed to be dusting in the Tardis (did he ever do that, I don't remember that ever... next episode questions, don't jump ahead)

now why do I talk about this in this section -- it's because of how it feels like there's a lot of heaaavy lifting- straaainingly heavy lifting to get the Doctor to make some philosophical points and have some growth and for Gomez!Master to figure out her moral stance that meant that potentially compelling ideas around the Master and Bill (Bill saying she's afraid of the Master in the first episode, Simm!Master pretending to be her friend before selling her out, the cruelty at her after she's turned) weren't realised

and it didn't have to be Simm!Master and Bill as such, but I noticed how excessively cruel the Master is to her without any sort of impact on the plot or the Doctor's relationship with the Master or Bill herself

this episode suffers from trying to get to this point with the Doctor, and with the (as anyone who's been reading these rambles of mine) compelling relationship between Gomez!Master and the Doctor, in a way that flattens Simm!Master into purely villainous and has Bill's emotional journey fade into the background

It's not entirely all the time, but when the Doctor makes a big speech about kindness at both Masters and Simm!Master reacts by saying he wasn't paying attention, it was kind of a letdown. it didn't feel like the big moment I think it wanted to be, and it also felt like everything was building towards giving us this era's Doctor and the Master relationship conclusion and it didn't quite land for me on the Doctor's side (Gomez!Master was great though), because of how lazily Simm!Master was written and a few quite big threads being dropped

I also feel like there was a bit of lack of continuation of the Doctor and Master relationship showing the Doctor's flaws, going waaay back to the 70s when the Master offered to rule the Universe together -- and in nu!who the Doctor's mourning the Master in s3 while the Jones family and Jack and Lucy grieved for themselves, the Doctor promising Bill it'd be fine, despite the Doctor knowing what the Master is capable of, and then Simm!Master doing all of that to her. there's just some... missing puzzle pieces where they're trying to make the Doctor look good, but it doesn't all work for me and as consequence the Doctor's emotional and philosophical journey doesn't land

PREVIOUS DOCTOR WHO: on the one hand super into the Mondasian cyberman origin story, on the other hand the disrespect towards unhinged Doctor/Simm!Master of yore!

on the third hand this line from Gomez!Master at Simm!Master that did feel like the vibe: "I loved being you. Every second of it. Oh the way you burned like a sun. like a whole screaming world on fire" self-destructively destructive is exactly it!

“SEXINESS”: okay so Simm!Master and Gomez!Master being horny is allowed. I actually wish they'd been more horny, specifically about the Doctor. can't believe you dropped the ball here m*ffat I was gonna be okay with it this time! I was giving you a pass! let them be even fuckin weirder!

I also want to note here because of bathos that Nardole is still there mostly doing comedy in a way that annoys me, and I now stand firm on the opinion that this whole season could've functioned without him. I put in my notes that I didn't mind him as much in the second half, but he's just not a character I enjoy

INTERNAL WORLD: I think the concept of the ship is very cool, with down below goes very fast versus up above going very slooow. it does fall a teensy bit apart with some of the journeying, I'm confused about the lifts, especially in the "we can't make it to the Tardis" part where I feel like some of the scifi ideas were streeetching to let the plot happen in the way the writers wanted it to happen, and this also a bit in the development of cybermen and what the timeline was there, but hey, maybe someone has done a rundown of parallel timelines and it all fits perfectly and I'm wrong

do like the idea that Simm!Master went into the downstairs world and completely fucked it up, sowed the seeds for the cybermen there and convinced them that up above was dangerous to the extent that no one did another mission to the up above since the first one. I almost wish that these two episodes had been supplemented by a third one (cut some of the dead wood from the middle-season 3-parter and make that a two-parter) to explore these societies more, give Bill more to do in this world than wait around for... ten years

ten years!????!!!!

but that says something to the fact that I thought these ideas were pretty cool and they made the famously silly-seeming Mondasian cybermen into something quite creepy

POLITICS: so is there anything I could add here that wasn't covered before? Unclear about the choice of sexism in this episode, think it was ill-conceived doing the "character becomes a cyberman" plot with Black characters twice, like that lesbians came into the fore at the end (there's a separate post where I'd like to ask how people feel about Heather in general, but in principle at least I do like it, and I think it's very much a "if only more time had been given to the plot and to Bill!" for me on the whole but I do like it)

*deep breath*

what about the rest of the episodes? technically not that political in feel? there's a dystopian choking society down below that's being tricked into being converted into cybermen, which is deeeply fucked up, there's a farming community up above that's not really explored much as a structure... I think that's it?

there's sort of an ethos about "helping people out of kindness" but I think that part is a bit rushed, but that's Doctor Who-ish. I would love some discussion on the ethics of the Doctor being like "Bill I respect your choice to self-sacrifice, because I will do the exact same"

a few little questionmarks is what I'm saying

FULL RATING: 76/100 (if I can count….)

AGAIN CLAP FOR MICHELLE GOMEZ! TRULY THE MOMENT!

AND ANOTHER CLAP FOR PEARL MACKIE WHO DID SO MUCH IN SUCH A SHORT SPACE OF TIME!

highlights: those two doing Acting, especially in their respective final sequences, spooky origin story and a few Neat scifi concepts, does feel like it emotionally wrapped up this era of DW, some beautiful speeches and lines, gomez!master and the doctor were beautiful

low points: didn't feel the Simm!Master inclusion on the whole, didn't feel like the Doctor entirely worked throughout in terms of feeling his development, Bill didn't get enough to do in the stories themselves

AND NOW! WE'RE DOWN TO ONE! WILL WE END ON A HIGH???

#the measurement #im watching nu!who #im watching capaldi who #episode world enough and time #episode the doctor falls

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elena-stole-my-prom-dress · 1 year

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Tonight I'm thinking about how clever Caroline's first scenes in s1e1 were.

There are 4 major Caroline scenes in that episode, and they're all so perfectly setting it up so we, as viewers, see Caroline in the same way the other characters do.

Her very first scene is in the hallway, when she comes up and is asking how Elena is doing. While we hear Elena talk a lot about people's expectations of her a lot, Caroline is one the first person we actually hear ask about her (Bonnie checks in with her in general during the drive). Once she gets to the school, people whisper and stare and talk around it, but Caroline comes directly up to her and asks about it. She also turns to Bonnie and asks about Elena, establishing her as not very self-aware. Right off the bat, she's set up as a nice, if a little ditzy, stereotypical teen girl.

Her second major scene is the super famous "we're planning a June wedding" scene. It shows her having connections, knowing everything about everyone, and instantly having a crush on the new guy, furthering the popular teen girl stereotype. But it also sets up one of Caroline's most consistent character arcs: romance. Additionally, she says a few key things to set her apart from Elena. Elena's attraction to Stefan is treated as being both normal and expected within the narrative, whereas Caroline gets the clueless teen boy obsessed label for the same reason. I think that iconic June wedding line does the most heavy lifting here. Elena keeps within the "will he ever notice me" club of teen girl MCs, whereas with that line, we can add one more trait under Caroline's character: self-obsessed. The line is confident, and it's treated exactly as it usually is for teen girls. We side with Bonnie and roll our eyes.

Then there's the party, and we see Caroline following through on that confidence. She initiates conversation, she flirts, she's all around portrayed as being sure that this is going her way. And when it ends with Stefan going to Elena, she frowns after them. It's glaringly clear she's being set up as the jealous jilted new girl, because so far, she's fitting exactly into those stereotypes.

And then finally there's the "why is it never me" scene. This puts her final label on: insecure. She's blonde and pretty, but no one goes for her! She's flirty and sweet, but all the guys go for the calm, effortlessly put-together Elena (solidifying her role as being self-obsessed when she doesn't notice how much Elena's struggling). But most importantly, when she's listing all the reasons boys don't go for her, she's showing that she has a fairly decent understanding of who she is as a person, even if it's skewed negatively. What's more, this burst of self-awareness is framed as being a bit weird and out of place. Bonnie looks a little confused and shocked that Caroline is that self-aware, and so are we.

In 42 minutes and four scenes, we have Caroline's character traits. Sweet, self-obsessed, clueless, and insecure. We don't know what's at the core of Bonnie's character, we don't know what drives Stefan, the only thing we know about Elena is her grief. But Caroline fits into that stereotype perfectly, and so not only do other characters treat her as if she lacks further emotional depth, but she treats herself like that, and we also expect the same.

And that sets up 8 seasons of the show. From what I've seen, it takes viewers well into season 2 to start enjoying her as a character, even when they enjoyed everyone else from the very beginning. It's even in her first major character arc, becoming a vampire. "So you're basically saying I'm an insecure, neurotic control freak on crack."

What's more, 99% of the scenes we see her in are romance-focused, and that continues. Throughout s1, over 90% of her scenes are romance-focused. It drops to about 85% in s2, then about 70% in s3, etc, but it never drops to 0%. We never see her without a romantic interest, jumping directly from Stefan to Damon to Matt to Tyler to Klaus to Jesse to Liam to Alaric to Stefan.

Basically, everything that happens in s1, and even a good part of the rest of the show, sets us up so we think of Caroline exactly like the ditzy blonde she's supposed to be.

In fact, we only see 3 main people put Caroline's emotional well-being over their own personal plot or morals, and all 3 are villains.

Right after Liz finds out Caroline is a vampire, Damon defends her knowing Caroline is listening, even though it's not what he's supposed to be focusing on, and it serves no greater purpose for him.

Multiple times we see Klaus put her above anything else, but primarily when it comes to his vendetta against Tyler. He allows Tyler to visit her, and he allows Tyler to come back to Mystic Falls permanently.

And then (one of my fave scenes ever!) when they need to get Stefan back involved in the vampire world, Enzo kills Ivy because Stefan made Caroline cry, even when it definitely harms their chances.

For a girl who's one of the characters with the most love interests in the show and the most friends, it's pretty shocking to have such low emotional priority for others, but it makes sense for these all to be brought about by villains. There's almost always someone else in more trouble, so it would take someone villainous to put Caroline's emotional needs over the life or death situations of other characters.

The scenes we see her actual character begin to shine through are situations where others have higher priority and she steps up. Most of the time these are things that are more "human" (planning events, weddings, dances, funerals, etc), and are therefore treated by the characters to be less important, but it's definitely true that almost all of those moments are times when most everyone else is being treated with plot or character arc related importance. In s1e1, we know vampires exist and we know Elena's parents died. Caroline's desire to live out a cliche teen romance is treated within the narrative as being fairly unimportant and immature. Skip ahead four seasons to the line, "Elena stole my prom dress". Something she goes to Klaus about, not only because he has gowns on hand, but also because there's no one else to go to. Everyone is involved in turning Elena's humanity back on; this is too frivolous. But it's a plan that Klaus doesn't care about, so he finds her a dress, just like he delivers her a dress for the Mikaelson ball when everyone was too focused on important things.

Enzo doesn't just prioritize her, he crosses a moral line for her, and he purposely hurts a main character for her. He sees her crying and doesn't accept it as her being overemotional, as we see multiple other characters do throughout the series. He genuinely notices and punishes the person who hurt her.

Damon goes out of his way to spend additional time with Liz, beyond what was necessary to ensure their secret would be kept, trying to use his relationship with her to convince her that Caroline was still good.

In short, the villains treat Caroline like everyone else treats Elena (no Elena hate, she deserves to have the whole world care about her and she's probably getting a whole separate post soon). But more importantly, the 3 villains we see care for her are ones who don't meet her before one of those four initial key scenes. Damon meets her just after the fourth (incoming post on that), and Klaus and Enzo don't meet her for years. What's more, they don't meet her in a school setting. They have no context for her as the cliche ditzy blonde, all they have are her current actions. And that starts to make us realize that there's an imbalance when it comes to emotional priority.

Basically, Julie Plec and all the writers are geniuses for having those scenes be Caroline's introduction because not only does it set the tone for the next 8 seasons, it makes us treat her exactly like the characters do.

#caroline forbes #the vampire diaries #sorry if this was all over the place #ive had this post in my head for days and getting it all down was a little hard #kate's thoughts #feel free to reblog and add more thoughts!

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live-love-boruto · 22 days

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Hello and welcome to my Boruto Rewatch Blog! This is just a fun side project of mine where I can go through one of my favorite series again after many years (and during this long hiatus from new episodes) and see how much I enjoy it on a rewatch. I won’t be summarizing each episode in my reviews, but I will be giving my overall thoughts on them as well as rating them on a 25-point scale with each category rated from 1 to 5

Rating System

Plot: The story of the episode (or lack thereof.) Cliches and uniqueness are taken into account, but even an overdone plot can earn points if it’s done with good pacing and polish. Loss of points comes from plotholes, clunky storytelling, or lack of consistent tone.

Characterization: How well are the characters written. After almost 300 episodes, these characters are pretty well-established and therefore, each episode will be rated based on the main characters’ of the episodes overall characterization throughout the franchise and if their motivations in the episode itself make sense. It also is based on the one-off or supporting cast showing their purpose in the story versus strictly being plot devices.

Visuals: What happens on the screen. Leeway is provided in this department, as it is a weekly anime. Things like character designs, animation, and creative use of CGI will get points, while excessive use of recycled animation, off-model shots and flashbacks can lose points.

Importance: How vital is this episode to the overall plot of the arc. As most of the anime doesn’t follow the manga, I’ll be basing this on how important they are to the anime arc itself. Manga-canon episodes will be judged more heavily based on their importance to the manga. Essentially, this asks the question “if I skip this, will I be confused going forward?”

Entertainment: Is the episode fun to watch! Likely the most important factor in whether or not an episode works, as it’s better for me for an episode to be ugly and full of plotholes than an episode being boring!

In addition to the 5 points above, I’ll be providing a Watch vs Skip opinion. This is just whether or not I feel the episode is worth watching on a rewatch or if you have limited time to get through the anime. I’ll also be providing an overall opinion on each arc after its completion, with an average score based on the scores of each episode in the arc.

Tags: The main characters of the episode | Watch or Skip | Final Rating | Arc Name

Please enjoy this rewatch session with me! If you have any suggestions, want to discuss or want screenshots for an episode, please feel free to drop me an ask or a comment!

#Boruto #Boruto Anime

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thestingerblog · 9 months

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Does OFMD Need a Season Three?

Read on Our Site!

A year and a half after Our Flag Means Death’s cliffhanger ending left fans yearning for more, Season 2 has finally arrived. While it was highly anticipated, its reception wasn’t met with as much praise and attention as its debut season – this could partially be blamed on the then-ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike that prevented the cast from promoting the show, but there’s another explanation for the lack of cultural impact: the season just wasn’t very good. We at The Stinger are massive fans of the first season of OFMD, and we do think that the show has helped push boundaries of diversity and representation in television, but that doesn’t mean we can’t see the glaring flaws scattered throughout this show’s second season. Furthermore, our opinions on individual personnel involved in the show don’t inform our opinions on the show expressed in this article.

One thing the show so great in its first season but has since abandoned for its second, is good and consistent pacing. The second season’s stories move at hyperspeed, leaving audiences little time to take any of it in before jumping to the next one. This is made even worse by the aforementioned rollout schedule. Two episodes that move at breakneck speeds every week is just not a sustainable way to maintain an engaged audience. To make things even worse, the characterizations of everyone on this show also fall victim to the atrocious pacing; no one had any actual room to grow and develop further, leaving the crew less like an ensemble of characters and more like cardboard cutouts of the characters that they used to be, often giving these ensemble characters lines that could easily be interchangeable between all of them.

In addition to the pacing, the individual character development was confusing and inconsistent. For example, what the hell was going on with Oluwande and Jim? Jim’s new love interest, Archie, is underdeveloped and barely introduced, and the dynamic between these two characters that drew audiences in during the first season just somehow disappeared. To make matters worse, fan favorites such as Roach and Frenchie are nowhere as fleshed out as they were in the first season. For a show that claims to be ensemble-led, it sure seems like most of the crew members are mere cardboard cutouts of themselves – they feel like stand-ins for the characters that viewers had come to know and love in the first season, and not much development occurs with them. Sure, Frenchie becomes Ed’s second in command, but even that wasn’t treated with much fanfare. The only character that seems to get a full character development throughout the season is, surprisingly, Izzy, and even he dies in the end. So much of the experience of watching television is watching beloved characters adapt to situations and grow from them, and it was so frustrating not to have any of that this season.

Here’s the point in the piece where everyone’s going to boo and throw tomatoes: we don’t think there needs to be a season 3. Season 2 left off on a pretty solid note, with all the storylines wrapped up, and getting the pirate crew back together for nostalgia and another season would feel superficial. Famously, shows that involve the central crew breaking apart and then deciding to make more seasons and thus scrambling to reconnect all these characters never perform well. Think about the last season of Parks and Recreation or season 3 of Mythic Quest.

Also, we would be amiss if we didn’t address the Izzy Hands situation. Personally, we’re not the biggest fans of Izzy Hands as we see the centering of his storyline in attempts to appease fans as a pandering to white favoritism in a show that supposedly centers around queer and trans characters of color. His death in season 2 marks an important end to a storyline in the show, one that includes a resolution for Ed’s conflicts with his identity, and considering how intense fans can be about Izzy Hands, making a season 3 without him would piss a certain demographic of fans off. However, even if Izzy returns in flashbacks or visions or whatnot, it’d mostly be nostalgia-bait and feel inauthentic.

All this is to say that if there will be season 3, David Jenkins better knock it out of the park after fumbling season 2 to the point of us writing this article about a show we used to like.

#our flag means death #ofmd #ofmd s2

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upalldown · 11 months

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Sampha - Lahai

Second album of electronic soul from the London-born producer who’s worked with Beyoncé, Drake and Kanye West

7/13

Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a 1970 allegorical novella by Richard Bach in which the titular bird looks to break away from his flock and their closeted thinking. He wants to prove that it is possible to fly higher, fly faster and stretch the boundary of what it means to be a seagull. While the story’s simplistic message of individualism and self-belief might seem a little basic these days (the dreadful 1973 film adaptation was deservedly the subject of much piss taking on a recent episode of the How Did This Get Made? podcast), it is a message that has resonated with Sampha since his brother read it to him as a child. On his second album LAHAI, it’s referenced directly in lead single “Spirit 2.0”, a central track shares its name, and there is a motif of flight and ornithological references throughout.

For Sampha, there is a purity to the idea of flying free, above and away from daily weights and worries; of connection with greater power somewhere beyond the earthly realm. LAHAI begins with Sampha waking from a dream and the rest of the album he coasts on breezes, buffeted by time, memory and grief – but pulled on by belief instilled by friends and family, both living and passed.

These duelling forces are wonderfully rendered in the sound palette that Sampha has pulled together here, with production assistance from El Guincho on a number of tracks. The presence of myriad other talents including Yussef Dayes, Yaeji, Laura Groves, black midi’s Morgan Simpson – to name just a few – emphasises the album’s underlying theme of communality.

On his 2017 debut album Process he told us how no one knows him like the piano in his mother’s home, but the instrument was then sidelined for much of the remainder of the album. LAHAI corrects that by including piano on every track – though not in such a stately manner, but instead chopped up or interwoven with technical African rhythms, dextrous synth use, subtle strings and carefully deployed vocal layers. Bass is a minor factor here, and that leaves plenty of space to appreciate the richness of Sampha’s gorgeous voice as it swoops to those lower tones or soars high in moments of release or anguish.

Lyrically, Sampha is consistently trapped in a cage of his own remorse and regret, lamenting the lack of a time machine. However, as he expresses in “Spirit 2.0”, there is plenty around to support him; “light will catch you / love will catch you / spirit gon’ catch you” he summarises, before developing the thoughts further in later tracks.

Romantic love is a constant, explicitly so on standout “Suspended” with its memories of walking around Florence and his significant other’s ability to ease his troubled mind. “Inclination Compass” uses the bird metaphor to simple but great effect as he pleads for reconciliation with his lover by suggesting “how about we fly towards the source again / let’s switch from cold to warm again”, his all-encompassing voice resonating the warmth he desires. The neo-soul of “Jonathan L. Seagull” finds him coasting on drizzles of violin away from the confusion of the world to “puzzle into your embrace” where other concerns seem miles away.

It is the twin powers of time and spirituality that are Sampha’s poles for the most part, though. Where Process was rich with his grief at his recently-departed mother, LAHAI continues that feeling but with greater distance – and at times, despair. The clipped-cadence rap of “Satellite Business” finds him stressing over the seconds ticking by and the memories fading. The interlude “Time Piece” features spoken French from Ibeyi insisting that time doesn’t exist before the following track “Can’t Go Back” finds Sampha continually bumping up against the title’s empirical truth despite his heart and mind’s desire. Regret comes hand in hand with this frustration at time’s unrelenting march; “What If You Hypnotise Me?” finds him wishing he could make the ‘what ifs’ fly away. On “Only” he’s sticking his fingers in his ears to block out the stresses and strains that come with mortal life; “I’m moving on faith / and faith only” he determines.

And it is his belief that consistently pulls him through these moments; the concepts of faith and spirit crop up consistently as lights among the confusion. This most breathtaking examination of this is “Evidence”, a sprightly choral pop number where he finds clarity in the faces of his loved ones: “without the evidence / you’re evidence enough for me” he states, simply, honestly and powerfully.

Communal connection and love are the framework on which all of LAHAI’s doubts, dreams and wishes hang. It comes to the fore in the closing “Rose Tint”, where the production reaches its spaciest, the piano a delicate twinkle in the background while Sampha’s thoughts disassociate. He admits he’s been “lost in my own world / preoccupied with my own hurt”, but he wants to spend more time drinking and dancing with his friends and family. “I found this stretch of coast” he sings, fluttering above the perfect setting he’s dreamed up with his community around him; “Everybody gather round / Gonna take this picture now” he commands. This is LAHAI’s ultimate message: life and living may be far from perfect, but when Sampha connects with his loved ones – no matter how ephemerally – it feels like the clouds have cleared and the sky is open to soar high and free. It’s a moment worth savouring forever.

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#sampha #lahai #music #Youtube

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thewellnessfolio · 1 year

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Your Ultimate Guide to Successful Weight Loss: Tips and Strategies

Introduction: Losing weight is a common goal for many individuals seeking to improve their health and well-being. However, embarking on a weight loss journey can sometimes feel overwhelming and confusing. In this blog post, we will provide you with practical tips and effective strategies to help you achieve your weight loss goals and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Set Realistic Goals: Before starting your weight loss journey, it's important to set realistic and achievable goals. Aim for gradual and sustainable weight loss, typically 1-2 pounds per week. Setting smaller milestones along the way will keep you motivated and focused on your progress.

Adopt a Balanced Diet: A healthy and balanced diet is essential for weight loss. Focus on incorporating whole, nutrient-dense foods into your meals. Fill your plate with lean proteins, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and healthy fats. Avoid processed foods, sugary drinks, and excessive snacking. Portion control is key – listen to your body's hunger and fullness cues.

Stay Hydrated: Water plays a vital role in weight loss. Drinking an adequate amount of water helps boost metabolism, curb hunger, and flush out toxins. Aim for at least eight glasses of water per day. If you find plain water boring, infuse it with fresh fruits or herbs for a refreshing twist.

Regular Exercise Routine: Incorporate regular physical activity into your routine. Choose activities that you enjoy, such as brisk walking, jogging, cycling, swimming, or dancing. Aim for a combination of cardiovascular exercises and strength training to build muscle and burn calories. Start with manageable workouts and gradually increase intensity and duration.

Practice Mindful Eating: Mindful eating involves being present and aware of your eating habits. Slow down, savor each bite, and pay attention to your body's hunger and fullness cues. Avoid distractions like screens while eating, as they can lead to mindless overeating. This practice promotes a healthier relationship with food and can prevent unnecessary snacking.

Manage Stress: Stress can often lead to emotional eating and hinder weight loss progress. Incorporate stress-management techniques such as meditation, deep breathing exercises, yoga, or engaging in hobbies you enjoy. Find healthy ways to cope with stress to prevent emotional eating episodes.

Get Adequate Sleep: Adequate sleep is crucial for weight management. Lack of sleep disrupts hormones that regulate appetite, leading to increased cravings and overeating. Aim for 7-9 hours of quality sleep each night to support your weight loss efforts.

Seek Support and Accountability: Consider joining a weight loss support group, enlisting a workout buddy, or working with a registered dietitian or healthcare professional. Having a support system can provide motivation, guidance, and accountability throughout your journey.

Track Your Progress: Keep track of your food intake, exercise routine, and progress. Use a food diary or a mobile app to monitor your meals, snacks, and workouts. This can help identify patterns, track your calorie intake, and make necessary adjustments to your plan.

Be Kind to Yourself: Remember that weight loss is a journey, and there may be ups and downs along the way. Celebrate your achievements, no matter how small, and practice self-compassion. Focus on overall health and well-being rather than solely on the number on the scale.

Conclusion: Losing weight requires commitment, patience, and a sustainable approach. By setting realistic goals, adopting a balanced diet, staying active, and practice mindful eating, you can achieve long-term weight loss success. Remember, small changes over time can lead to significant results. Stay motivated, stay consistent, and embrace a healthy lifestyle that will benefit you for years to come.

What if I tell you that there is a supplement that is effective for weight loss? Click the link below to start your weight loss journey today!

#weightlossjourney #i wanna lose weight #wellness #weight loss #fitnessgoals #fitmotivation #fit woman #fitness #goals #nutrition #summer #healthy #health #tw ana shit #tw ana diary #ana meal

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westgrass · 4 years

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welp, that was a little rough,,,

#the lack of consistency throughout the episode was like ??? confusing #south park

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fruitydemogorgon · 2 years

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Mike Wheeler; One Dimensional?

I've been confused about Mike for a long, long time. And, after watching the season with my Mom, I realised most people are. He's an interesting character. Shy yet witty, humble yet dramatic, caring yet stubborn. These traits contradict each other, but Mike Wheeler presents them all.

So, what is the Duffer's intention with this character? A boyfriend for El? A protagonist? Comic relief? The show tells us that he's more than this with his variety of scenes and moods, emotions and actions.

Compare him to, for example, Lucas or Dustin. Lucas, the strong-willed, thoughtful, courageous companion. Dustin, the intelligent, level-headed, empathetic guide. These characters are consistent throughout the show.

They present both positive and negative qualities that impact their lives, that cause complications and lead to timely resolutions. We are shown from start to finish the troubles that they go through, their thoughts, emotions, all demonstrated for the audience to easily see.

But it's not like that with Mike. And that's why he's so complicated.

In season 1, we see him faltering at moments where he misses Will, but we also see him striving when he gets the chance to help El. In season 2, he's miserable, calling for El, unable to save her, until Will gets possessed. Then, he has someone else to rescue. He devotes three days to saving Will and stopping the Upside Down. In season 3, El has harnessed her powers. He dislikes her strength because it means she doesn't need his saving. We also notice that whenever Will senses the Upside Down, Mike is immediately there to check on him.

I dive into a little more detail on season 1 here.

So, why is he wrote like this? Why is he written to be confusing and contradictory to himself?

When I was talking to my Mom about the characters, she told be she 'didn't like Mike and Will'.

And upon asking her why, she said, "It seems like the actors have many layers, their acting is very multi-dimensional"

She spoke about Will's boring character arc in season 3 and we laughed about that a little bit.

A bit later, I asked her why she didn't like Mike, and she explained that his character is:

"His character is very one-dimensional in season 3. He's kind of just swooning over El"

It's not just me, someone who has delved into analyses and theories about Mike and Will, but a casual viewer.

But, what shocked me the most is that she was right. She had a point. An extremely good point. The acting is multi-dimensional. Proving that there is more to Mike than what we see.

With the recent Premiere interviews, we can conclude, I think, that Mike's ultimate goal is to save the people he loves, and when they don't need saving, he's unsure of himself. It's like a reflex, his mind tells him how to protect and care in scary situations, but not how to 'be normal' in 'normal' situations. I think it's safe to say he's become comfortable with his friends, but when, for example, Max is introduced, he's awkward, resentful, shy, until Will has an episode and he gains confidence again.

In season 3, its been a long time since he's had anyone to 'save'. El has been living safely with Hopper, Will has returned to almost-normal. He loses himself, I think, when he can't ground himself in saving the people he loves. I believe a contributing factor is also his desperation to impress people (mainly El, the first girl whose shown any signs of wanting to be with him). He proceeds to adapt Lucas's 'maturity' and enhance his own dramatics, straying from who he was in the past seasons because he thinks that's what made him 'unlikeable'.

And I think El's unbreakable admiration for him didn't help, either. He could act however he desired, and she would still want to be with him. She mistook appreciation and gratitude for something in the lines of love (likely from watching all the soap operas). Not El's fault, not Mike's fault, but simply a lack of proper understanding and communication.

When Will was alone on the swings, Mike went up to him, despite not knowing him at all. He chose to save someone he didn't even know. Mike is not one-dimensional jerk he seems to be, he's just unsure. Unsure of himself, unsure of the people around him, unsure of his relationships. You could even say he's....

"trying to figure himself out...whether that's with El or not..."

"learns a lot about himself...how he sees his relationships with other people...a lot of understand-ment and growth"

#byler #mike wheeler #stranger things 4 #stranger things #stranger things analysis #byler analysis #byler proof #mike wheeler is gay #st theory #st analysis #willxmike #byeler #mike wheeler analysis #mike wheeler is in love

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rainbowsky · 3 years

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Review: Luoyang

I enjoyed this one enormously. A few people told me they thought the story was too complicated and confusing and that they lost interest in it, but my experience wasn't anything like that. I found the story exciting and engaging, and I was very invested in the characters and what was happening to them. It was fun to watch the mystery unfold and to see what became of everyone.

Although I found one or two things disappointing (which I will discuss in more detail in the spoiler section), overall I loved this series. The actors really brought this story to life, and DD gave an excellent performance. Highly recommended.

[ Spoilers under the cut. ]

The Characters

In a 39 episode series there are bound to be dozens of characters. I won't go into detail on all of them, but I'll talk about some of my favorites.

Baili Hongyi

I loved this character so much, perhaps in part because he came across as autisitic-coded and had a lot of traits I can relate to. As I said in a previous post, there are many autism traits that he seemed to present:

Hates being touched

Much more interested in ideas and tasks than in people

Can get overwhelmed when faced with too much sensory or social stimulation

Focused on his specific interests (food, puzzles, engineering, systems), which he is a comprehensive expert on, and ignores everything/one else, including eating and sleeping

Fixated on justice, right/wrong

Creative and intelligent

Constantly underestimated

Blunt/honest in his speech; doesn’t understand or participate in social niceties

Fiercely independent; wants to do things according to his vision of what's appropriate, regardless of what other people think

Complete lack of interest in money, status, or social expectations

Doesn't use his face expressively in the way others do (this pays off as one ages, I can recommend! 😅)

I strongly identified with this character. His tendency to be somewhat solitary and very task-focused, to the point of completely tuning other people out. His immersion in the mystery and fixation on the goal. His lack of interest in status or money or social expectations. His tendency to accidentally offend people via his honesty and/or unconventional approaches to things. His quiet affection and steadfast care for those he loved.

His whole 'ancient gourmet' thing was so up my alley, too. Anyone who has been following me for a while knows I love watching DD eat, and it was especially funny watching everyone hold their breath waiting for his verdict. There was also something very humorous about watching ancient DD be surrounded by fans. 😅

This character is so similar to DD in many ways, it was a role that suited him well. He gave an excellent performance. I was so proud of our Bobo. His voicing of the character, his physical performance - the whole package. It was so satisfying to watch.

As we already know from CQL, DD is the master of subtlety. He really brought this character to life, but in a very calm, understated way that was so refreshing to see. The deeply emotional moments were performed with so much restraint - he stayed true to the character throughout every range of emotion and experience.

There were a couple of disappointments with the character that had nothing to do with DD, but I'll get to those later.

Gao Bingzhu

I absolutely loved this character. He was so relatable and so well-written and performed. I have to say, there were a couple of moments where I was completely blown away by Huang Xuan's acting. The graveside scene where he was grieving his friends, for example, ripped my heart out.

Through the course of the series I felt like I got to know and feel a deep connection with this character. He had an interesting, believable trajectory in terms of character development, and he felt consistent throughout the series. There was never a time where I felt confused about where they were going with him, or where I felt that he was drifting out of character (with one tiny exception I'll talk about later).

I've seen some reviews where people said they didn't feel there was any chemistry between Siyue and Bingzhu, and I can't help but wonder if we were watching a different series. I know a lot of people seek overt romantic sparks flying in order to feel sexual/romantic tension between characters, but I prefer deeper emotional moments such as the many these two shared - including that graveside scene - in order to feel a believable chemistry.

Wu Siyue

She was such a badass character, and I found her inner conflict between career and family duty convincing and compelling. I was very invested in her winning the battles she was fighting both internally and with the people around her.

I liked that she was a solid equal with Gao Bingzhu, and I liked the way their relationship unfolded; with a tone of depth, shared experience and mutual respect. I don't enjoy romances that feel superficial or power imbalanced.

There were a couple of moments in her character arc that annoyed me - times where she felt 'cutesy' and/or tragic in a very out-of-character way - and I felt in those moments that it was a foreshadowing that the writers were going to murder her. Unfortunately I was correct in my assumption. More on that later.

Yao Niang

I was captivated by this character, even if I could see her betrayal coming from a mile away. She just had so much intensity, complexity and contrast. I love characters that have a mixture of bad and good qualities, and her story was so compelling. She also had such a strong presence. Zhang Li really knocked it out of the park with this role. She brought this character to life and made every aspect of her personality engaging and believable.

The scene between her and Gao Bingzhu, where her identity was revealed, was one of my favorites of the entire series. Both actors gave incredible performances and really drew me into the emotional experience of the characters. Brilliant.

Bai Lang

I am always a sucker for a good sidekick, and Bai Lang didn't disappoint. He quickly became one of my favorite characters. He was always up for anything, and his endless adaptability and ability to be at the right place, at the right time, often saved the day. He was a good foil for Gao Bingzhu, and their relationship was so heartwarming and brotherly.

I get easily attached to these types of resourceful 'grey morality' characters. They end up carrying a HUGE part of the story and rarely get the appreciation they deserve. Jiang Long handled this task exceptionally well, giving us a good mixture of devotion, mischief and goofy humor.

Prince Chuan

I practically fell in love with this character. He was so beautiful, debaucherous, noble and long-suffering.

I was so relieved when he didn't die from getting stabbed by Peipei. When he returned to the Intelligence Services and made his little speech about no longer hiding his identity, my heart swelled for him.

Liu Duan Duan was so magnetic and pretty in this role, and really looked the part of the privileged princeling navigating court intrigue and weighty responsibilities.

Gong Yan

This character represents the 5% of bisexuality I possess. Maybe because she looks like the love child of Xue Yang and Xie Yun. I felt so drawn to her smirking, conflicted Xue Yang style of villainy, and she had so much screen presence, wow. Zhao Qian has charisma to spare.

The Empress

Even though this character was somewhat ambiguous and enigmatic throughout the series, I really enjoyed her. I think it was mostly because of the brilliant performance given by Yong Mei. She oozed so much nobility and power and gave us such an imposing presence.

Her world-weary frustration and almost boredom-level detachment were palpable. She was so convincingly powerful and yet totally helpless and dependent upon everyone around her. I could relate to her sort of smouldering irritation with having to rely on others whose competence she could never be certain of.

In the moments where she appeared before the people of Luoyang, she had such a convincing regal air, it was easy to get swept up in her star power.

An Bai Tan

This character was even more enigmatic than the Empress. There were several times throughout the series when I felt suspicious of her, but never enough to be convinced of her betrayal. She walked that thin tight rope of suspense throughout the series, and I found it very enjoyable. Zhang Zhi Lin gave such an understated, intense performance. Really loved this character. I have an appreciation for characters who stay in the background a bit, but who are indispensable to those they serve.

Yang Huan

Another background character who brought a strong, understated role. As secretary to the Empress, she gave off such an aura of competence, humility and respect. I found myself drawn to her in every scene she appeared in. Liu Menke gave a powerful, subtle performance that was surprisingly memorable considering the role she played.

Liu Ran

I started out hating her, but she really grew on me. She went from desperate, whiny, clingy girl to supportive, steadfast partner somewhere along the way, and it was a welcome change. Even when she was grating on my nerves, I felt Song Yi gave a good performance. She had that perpetually troubled look on her face that was so endearing, and I just wanted to give her a hug.

Wu Youjue

I began to suspect him as the main villain within the first few episodes. There were quite a few tells:

His sickliness. In dramas sickness is often presented as a sign of hidden moral weakness (something that's always bothered me, actually).

His placement within the court. He had so much access, and so little prestige. This is often a means of introducing bitterness and resentment into a character, or else a signal that they want to stay in the shadows.

As hinted at in the previous point, he kept too low of a profile for someone in his position and with his level of access. He seemed to have something to hide.

He was very controlling and overprotective, and the only emotions he ever showed were anger and dismay. He came across to me as villain-coded from the start. There was never any real warmth from him. We were supposed to trust him because everyone else did, but that only made me more suspicious.

He was the central repository for a lot of information, and 'coincidentally' the moves the team was making and the information they were discovering were constantly getting leaked. He seemed the most likely source of those leaks.

Having said all that, it was still fun to watch the story unfold.

Zhang Duo gave us a consistently good performance. There were a few moments where the coughing fits sounded a bit forced, but other than that, he really brought this character to life.

Although from a writing perspective I think they should have made him a bit more sympathetic. It would have made his trajectory more believable and his secret a more dramatic discovery for me. I was also a bit irritated that he seemed to be yet another queer-coded villain (his devotion to Baili Kuanren came across as very bromancey), but I doubt it was intentional.

The Story

I enjoyed the mystery and intrigue of this story, and I loved the romance between Wu Siyue and Gao Bingzhu. In terms of pure enjoyment, I found the first half of the series more entertaining than the last half. That's never a 'good thing' - a story should get more exciting and more suspenseful over time - but it was nowhere near enough of an issue to make me lose interest. I remained invested in the story throughout the series.

I think the primary problem I had wasn't even with the main plot, it was with the side plots and some of the character development issues. I'll talk about that more in a bit, but this series was a good reminder for me as a writer, about the importance of ensuring that every element of a story has its own strength as a stand-alone.

I feel like a lot of the side stories were just superficial narrative devices used to move the main story forward, rather than the rich, engaging side plots they could have been. This had a somewhat disastrous effect on the overall impact of the story as a whole.

If they changed nothing else, but they strengthened those side stories, it could have made all the difference to the series.

The mystery itself, the places the story took us to, etc. were exciting and overall pretty satisfying. It was everything around it that didn't hold up as well, and that brought the story down a bit for me. That and some of the character development issues I will discuss later.

The Soundtrack

Overall I enjoyed the music in this series. There were a few times when its use felt overbearing, but for the most part it wasn't too bad. There were a couple of songs I particularly enjoyed.

Longing of the Heart - Huang Shi Fu - I'm always a sucker for the sad love songs on soundtracks. Chinese dramas really excel at this genre, I have to say. This one is among my favorites so far. The fragility of the vocals is heartbreaking. The melody she sings is so packed full of grief and longing. She has such a beautiful, expressive voice.

The Wind Rises in Luoyang -Zhao Jingxu - I enjoy the smooth, sweet purity and clarity of the vocals. It reminded me of GG's voice (although of course I prefer GG). The song also has such an epic, dramatic atmosphere, it was well suited.

The Disappointments

Character and Story Development

There were a few things with this drama that I felt were missed opportunities. One of these disappointments was the trajectory of the overall story. It started out so exciting and so engaging and gradually seemed to run out of steam.

At the beginning of the story I felt so intrigued by the investigation, and by the way in which the three main characters approached this task. Gao Bingzhu's single-minded obsession, Baili Hongyi's focused inquisitiveness, Wu Siyue's charging forward on several fronts.

Over time as their paths converged, some of that excitement and intrigue died. As the tension between the three of them died, so too did some of the overall suspense and tension. It felt almost like the writers had difficulty communicating the distinctive qualities and motives of each character once they began working together.

This came through not just in the decline of energy and suspense, but it also came through in the gradual blurring of the characters.

Baili Hongyi started out as quite a sleuth, someone who seemed utterly absorbed in the mystery and trying to figure it out. This created a lot of interest and a lot of dramatic tension. But over time, the focus on his character shifted more onto his relationships, his constant danger and his role on the security team, and as a viewer I was left feeling less of a sense of who he was as a person, and less of that excitement of the mystery he brought with him in previous episodes.

And some of the interesting traits that were built up in the earlier episodes all but disappeared toward the end. The gourmet thing disappeared, the engineering genius was de-emphasized, the inquisitive mastermind thing took a back seat, the social friction all but vanished...

Some of that was positive character development. His subtle but steady connection with Lui Ran, for example, and his bonds of trust with Siyue and Bingzhu, but some of it felt like a loss of the essence of who he was and what made me invested in him as a character.

The same was true, but to a slightly lesser degree, with Gao Bingzhu and Wu Siyue. As their bond grew there were some romantic elements introduced in ways that felt awkward and unnatural for them as characters.

For example, the scene in the Unwelcome Well about a third of the way through Ep. 37 where they were acting flirty and romantic, it felt unnatural, and put there as a foreshadowing of Siyue's death. They were both being too cutesy, and it didn't feel in character for how they would live out a moment like that. I could tell they were setting up for a tragedy.

I had long suspected they were going to kill her off, but that scene only confirmed it for me.

Side Plots

There were a few side stories that had a lot of potential, but really fell flat for me. If they'd made a few minor modifications to these stories they could have been very fulfilling, and could have lent more depth to the series. As it stands, each of these elements ended up feeling a bit shallow - which only lent a bit of unnecessary shallowness to the overall series.

The whole Peipei side romance had so much potential, but it ended up just feeling deflated and disappointing. My main problem with it was that Lui Feng was a completely unsympathetic character from the very beginning, so it was difficult to get invested in his quest to reunite with his long lost love. He was awful.

She was also a pretty one-dimensional character. Her glamorous boat trip down the river was about the most exciting part of her story. We didn't get any truly character-building scenes with her, and yet we were meant to be invested in what happened to her. It didn't work for me.

This storyline had so much potential, and if they'd just made a few minor adjustments it could have lent a lot more excitement and depth to the story overall, but ultimately it all fell flat. Very disappointing.

I felt somewhat similarly about the Unwelcome Well. It started out as an exciting underworld full of struggling, hapless people and ended up just feeling like a plot device.

One of the biggest mistakes they made with the Unwelcome Well, is that they killed off almost every character that connected us to the Well. If they'd given us even one young resident who wanted a chance at life and a future for themself, we would have had an emotional investment in their finally being free at the end. Instead the liberation of the Well felt like a bit of an afterthought.

Huge missed opportunity.

The whole Li Beiqi situation was another example of this. We were supposed to feel invested in what happened to him, but we were never given any real meat in terms of his relationship with the Wu siblings until after he'd died. By then it was too late.

Such a shame, when all it would have taken to give us more emotional investment in his story would have been for them to give us a brief scene or two where we caught a glimpse of his experience or feelings.

I mentioned the issues with Wu Youjue earlier as well. He was a bit too one-dimensional as a character, and his side story with Baili Kaunren and the hatred he felt for the Empress wasn't robust enough for us to feel anything strong about him. If they'd just changed the way some of his scenes played out, they could have had a really powerful emotional struggle, but instead we got a bit of a cardboard character.

The 'long lost sister' saga was also disappointing. We were led, along with Gao Bingzhu, to wonder if it could be one of the clan members, but it was always just a one-sided curiosity on his part. We didn't get anything from the other side - nothing to kindle that suspense - and ultimately, no payoff.

Set Design

The set design in this series was a bit hit and miss. There were moments when it was simply breathtaking, and moments where I was left confused and a bit removed from the story.

For example, the overhead shots of the canal at night, with festival atmosphere, were stunning. However, the intelligence services area with all the message tubes and sliding gold boxes was overwrought, lacking any grounding in logic or reality, and ultimately felt very chaotic and meaningless. I just didn't get the sense of how any of it functioned within the technology of the time, and for that reason it didn't feel real.

If they'd simplified the whole thing and made it feel more rational, organized and realistic, it would have lent so much more dramatic weight to everything that happened there.

I felt the same way about what felt like an over-use of water features. For example, Baili Hongyi's space. It felt impractical. I ended up spending a lot of time pondering the mold on his papers and bedding, and wondering how many times a guest accidentally slipped on the floor or dragged their sleeve in the water while dining.

I think water features are beautiful, and I'm led to understand that there is a historical basis for water features in houses, but this felt like a bit too much. Especially given how practical Baili Hongyi was as a person. It felt a bit out of character for him to spend most of his time in such an impractical, visually cluttered space.

Outdoor spaces felt immersive, while some of the indoor ones felt distracting

Form over function has always been one of my pet peeves. Yes, there is undeniable beauty in it, but when the sets felt overwrought it ended up giving the production more of a stage/theater play atmosphere and less like something real, gritty and tangible - grounded in reality. Especially since these were locations where we spent so much time in the series.

By contrast, if you look at some of the scenes that happened outside of those locations - for example whenever they met at the street cafe for a bowl of lamb soup, or even the granary, or almost anywhere in the street - it just felt more 'real' and immersive.

I recognize I'm coming at this from the perspective of someone who is easily overwhelmed by visual clutter, chaos and complexity, so this might have been 'just me'. I'm sure there are a lot of people who were captivated by the impractical beauty of the sets. But to me, when something tries too hard to be visually stunning, it often also becomes visually distracting.

One of the important principles of set design is that they are meant to be in the background. Some of the sets were so 'up front' that they might as well have been given a few lines in the script.

Unintentional Comedy

The whole extra finger thing killed me. It was so comedic, especially the way the brother would always be holding it up like Dr Evil in Austin Powers films. I was LOLing every time the extra finger made an appearance. It was so cute, and hard to take seriously.

Separated at birth?

I couldn't help but think that all it would have taken was for his mother to do like Douzi's mother in Farewell My Concubine, and all of this unpleasantness could have been entirely avoided...

Outrage

As I already mentioned, I began to expect early on that the writers were going to murder Siyue, and I was so angry!

This happened with the Wolf as well. I feel like it's a 'thing' to kill off strong female characters in order to help develop the emotional experience of male characters, and it offends me.

I get that some people enjoy a tragic love story, but to me it just feels like pointless, gratuitous pain. Who are these people whose lives are so cheerful that they want tragedy in their escapism?

The scene where she died was so annoying, too. The deadbeat brother-in-law with a crossbow? To quote a certain cultivator, "Ridiculous." And she dies protecting her villainous brother and they keep him alive so her sacrifice 'won't have been in vain'? And then we get treated to a scene of Gao Bingzhu on the bridge, alone?

To say I hated the ending would be an understatement. I am not built for this kind of tragic romance BS. 😅

Final Thoughts

I feel like I spent a lot of time tearing things apart, here, but ultimately I did enjoy this drama a lot. As is evidenced by the fact that I finished it pretty quickly. I normally take a long time to watch a drama, because I tend to nibble away at these sorts of things. Not so with this drama. I made time to watch it because I was drawn into the story and invested in the characters.

I just felt a bit let down by a few aspects of it.

I am very proud of DD. He showed himself to be a solid actor in this series, and I think no one who watched it could fail to see he has what it takes. It stands as powerful proof of his talent and ability. 🥺

#wang yibo #luoyang #fengqi luoyang #baili hongyi #luoyang spoilers #autism is my botox #reviews #this took me FOREVER to write!#actor dd

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oak1985 · 2 years

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Storytelling, privilege, and community in OFMD

OFMD fandom loves the tradition of Stede reading books aloud to the crew. Lots of fic use reading aloud scenes as a way to foster re-connection between Ed and Stede and/or Ed and the crew. It’s also often used as an indicator of Stede’s kindness and generosity. The assumption is that the tradition of Stede reading aloud which is referenced in episode 1 continued throughout the events of season 1 and will continue after the reunion. And I get it. Fandom in general, particularly fic and meta writers, tend to be readers--it’s one of the main ways we relate to others and show our love. What else is fic writing and podficcing but an act of love and generosity, born of the impulse to share these stories with others?

But. I’m not convinced this is what we should take away from season 1. I actually think something much more interesting with regards to story-telling literacy, authority, and privilege is going on in canon. For all that the reading aloud scenes loom large in our collective imagination, we actually only see one scene of this. It’s never even mentioned again after the first episode. In episode 1, it’s clearly established that Stede reading books to the crew is already a well-established and well-liked tradition. Stede is reading them Pinocchio and the crew like it so much that the reminder that if they kill Stede, no one else can “do the voices” and they’ll never know the end of the story is enough to make several of them rethink their willingness to mutiny against him. It’s clear from Wee John’s request for another chapter that this is something the crew enjoy, not something Stede is imposing on them (unlike consistent wages or vacations, other Stede innovations that are objectively “good” but that Stede uses to impose his values on the crew without listening to their preferences).

At the same time, the same episode shows us that Stede’s literacy is not just a privilege, but a privilege whose power he is completely unaware of. He complains to Lucius that no one else has taken advantage of his library and when Lucius points out that no one else on the ship can read, Stede is initially shocked, confused, and then dismissive (“What? That can’t be right....No.”). Stede’s ignorance shows the extent to which his privilege has insulated him from the reality of the world in which he lives, given that literacy rates in England in 1700 were about 30% and were presumably lower in the Caribbean with its higher rate of enslaved people. Immediately before going to read Pinocchio to the crew, Stede is grieving having left his family behind and tells himself, “Your family is here now.” While the bedtime story routine thus helps to contribute to fandom, especially queer fans’, beloved found family trope, the implication that the crew are Stede’s children carries troubling overtones. Historically, not only poc but also the poor/working class have been depicted as children in order to deprive them of rights. Lack of education was often used as a justification for denying these groups the vote and for explaining why they would “always” be in a childlike condition. As a white, landowning male in the 18th century, Stede would have been raised with a belief that it was his responsibility to protect (and direct) those within his purview, even if that meant protecting them from themselves (i.e., keeping them from striking, rebelling, or doing other things contrary to the vested interests). One can see this play out in the role that Stede’s stories plays in the aborted mutiny. At one level, Stede’s bedtime storytelling come from a beautiful and generous impulse to share something he loves with them. At another level, it carries the taint of paternalism, the belief evinced by Stede again and again in the early episodes that he knows better than the crew what they need (wages, vacation, to learn to process their emotions (boy, he’s one to talk!), to learn to share). The kindergarten teacher language of talking it through as a crew, sharing the fabric in the flag scene, and refusing to read more chapters because the crew has “a big day tomorrow” shows the extent to which Stede is enforcing his authority over the crew even as he is trying to care for them. The reading specifically makes the crew dependent on him, as shown by Wee John’s reluctance to continue with the mutiny when he realizes that they won’t get to hear the end of the story if they throw Stede overboard. Reading to the crew allows Stede to use his privilege to reinforce his authority, ironically differentiating and distancing himself from the crew by the very mechanism with which he is trying to bond with them. By recasting the crew as his children, Stede is reproducing the very role of paterfamilias from which he wanted to escape. It’s clear that Stede himself doesn’t really want that role (“I was just uncomfortable in a married state”) but he doesn’t yet know how to escape it. He’s run away to sea, but in dragging the trappings of his wealth with him, he’s entangled himself in the expectations and limitations of his landed role.

Given the story that the show seems to be telling about Stede’s growth, about privilege, and about subtle forms of violence, it probably shouldn’t be a surprise (though I was still shocked) that we not only don’t see Stede reading to the crew, we don’t hear any references to bedtime stories in the rest of the season. What we see instead is a trend towards a more collaborative, communal oral storytelling tradition.

Where episode 1 ended with Stede reading Pinocchio, episode 2 begins with Black Pete’s tall tales of sailing with Blackbeard. This scene represents a clear reversal from the power dynamics of the previous episode. Here, Stede is the one entranced by the story, whereas the other crew members are canny enough to know that Black Pete is lying through his teeth. Not only is a crew member the one telling the story, rather than the captain, but the captain is the only one of the crew members not knowledgeable enough to be taken in by it. Whereas Stede has the authority of literacy, he doesn’t have the knowledge of people (or traditions of oral culture that rely on exaggeration as art) that the rest of the crew has. This scene, coming immediately after Stede’s story scene, shows that the ship’s storytelling traditions are already moving away from Stede’s sole, literary authority (notice how authority has “author” in it; European notions of power are completely embedded in literacy). And yet, the transformation is not yet complete. Storytelling power still rests in one individual, even though that individual between crew members and even though Black Pete’s storytelling prowess is clearly questioned by the rest of the crew.

By episode 6, there’s a much more communal storytelling model in place. Although again this scene starts with Stede telling a story, it is an oral, improvised piece rather than a written work and he’s clearly not very good at it. How do we know this? Because the crew tells both us and him. All throughout Stede’s story of the scary man with a hook for a head, the crew participate by questioning, critiquing, and commenting. This is a much more cooperative oral tradition, less centered on one source of knowledge/authority and allowing for a mutual construction of stories. The crew are also now empowered to mutiny against Stede’s storytelling, eventually cutting him off by exclaiming that Blackbeard must know real scary stories. Everyone, including Stede, joins in asking Blackbeard to tell them a scary story, at which point Ed tells them about the Kraken and the art of fuckery. Even though Stede is still shown at a disadvantage here, it’s noticeable that he’s not uncomfortable, feeling belittled, or wanting to return to a book reading, where he could hold power again. While reading to the crew gave Stede his initial connection to them, it was at a distance - they were the passive recipients of his knowledge and he the (physically) distant purveyor of literature. By contrast, in this scene, he’s actively engaging with the crew in a back-and-forth. This mode of storytelling gives him a chance to get close to them in a way that reading did not, because here they are shared a communally constructed knowledge. There’s no one undisputed author/authority here; although Ed still commandeers everyone’s attention and respect with his tale, in a way that Stede could not. This makes sense, since Ed, coming from a working class and specifically seafaring background, would be more familiar with the art of oral storytelling than Stede.

The idea of Stede continuing to read books to the crew, like the fantasy of Stede teaching Ed to read, is an entrancing one. But it comes with layers of privilege, power, and the assumption that a literate tradition is the best. The Revenge, and OFMD, can tell more complex, collaborative stories than this.

TL;DR: if season 2 doesn’t have the Revenge crew playing a game of Telephone or Finish the Story, I will eat Jim’s hat.

#my meta #ofmd: literacy #i thought i had reblogged a lot on the question of literacy in ofmd especially as regards ed but tumblr says not #typical #stories matter #ofmd #ofmd meta #our flag means death #stede bonnet #ed teach #edward teach #black pete #blackbeard #oral storytelling #literacy #privilege #racism #classism

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primrose-path-of-dalliance · 3 years

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jester began falling in love with caleb in episode 103.

not any earlier in my opinion, and not later, either.

there's two elements to why i believe e103 is the turning point.

(1) the first is caleb's actions and jester's responses to them during the night they all sleep by the waterfall—his support of her idea to sleep underwater, his conversation with her after her commune with artagan, and his casting of programmed illusion in the dome.

(2) the second is the way her behavior toward caleb pivots around e103. before e103 is a noticeably different beast to how she begins to treat him after e103—the attention she pays him, her efforts to hold more standout interactions with him, and a dramatic swell of emotion and thematic meaning in these scenes’ respective subtext.

the rumblecusp arc is the point in which jester’s character growth, and caleb’s efforts to unconditionally support her, really begin to shine. throughout the complex growing pains that jester and artagan's relationship was experiencing, the one person who truly takes a moment to offer her support without any agenda or judgment is caleb.

(e103, 1:22:55, bold mine)

CALEB: You okay over there?

JESTER: (tearful) Yeah, I'm fine. Just—I'm just drawing.

CALEB: Maybe didn't go as well as you were hoping?

JESTER: Um... In some ways it went better. But no.

CALEB: I can't speak for him. But you do have us.

JESTER: I know.

CALEB: So whatever you land on, Jester, we'll make it happen.

JESTER: (shaky laugh) I have to figure out what I want to land on.

CALEB: That is the, uh—sticky wicket, isn't it?

JESTER: Yeah. Everything's confusing.

CALEB: Maybe... Maybe we sleep on it, it'll make more sense in the morning.

JESTER: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Caleb.

CALEB: I didn't do anything.

jester confesses that her commune with artagan didn’t provide the answers she was hoping for—that he knew about the curse on the island—and caleb doesn’t remark on what that seems like. he deliberately avoids speculating on why artagan is doing these things because “he can’t speak for him.” he doesn’t assume anything about what she might choose to do and explicitly leaves that choice up to her. jester vents briefly about how difficult the choice is, and caleb offers her reassurance, a reminder that some time will make things clearer. he doesn’t suggest solutions.

unlike fjord or beau, caleb doesn’t ask her to voice outright whether artagan is being a good friend. he doesn’t continually question his character and imply any personal opinions to her or what he thinks she should do. instead, he asks whether she’s okay. he listens. and he offers unconditional support.

this is consistently the stance caleb takes in the rumblecusp arc. and it’s not discussed much, i think, exactly how monumental that was to jester.

(hold on, this is a long one.)

jester is a young woman who grew up sheltered and wants to define herself outside of that shelter. for her, this campaign has essentially been a coming-of-age journey (talks for e76-77, 14:12). she is deeply sensitive to whether or not she’s respected because she’s aware of how her personality and general lack of experience makes others think she’s naive, immature, or incapable (talks for e79, 31:51).

it’s also incredibly evident that her relationship with artagan is unique. in e105 (1:15:01), jester tells the m9, “he really got me through a lot when i was younger, you know? and he was all i had, really.” he was her best friend from childhood in a home where she spent most of her time hidden in a single room. when she was younger, the few times she left the chateau, she was bullied by other girls (e110, 3:34:59). her best friend, though? her best friend was a god. a god with an incredible sense of humor, an aggrandizing attitude, and adoring respect for a young girl in a difficult situation who had as wonderful a personality as him. in every way that matters, artagan’s friendship undoubtedly saved jester’s life.

and she is so, so aware of this. she cares for him deeply, trusts him unconditionally, and is determined to be there for the one person who had been there for her when no one else was, not even her mother.

the renegotiation of this friendship after artagan revealed his full identity was clearly extraordinarily difficult for jester. she was having to reevaluate her entire relationship with the being that pulled her through a childhood of isolation and misery, question his intentions with her and whether they could even remain friends at all. and this was amidst her arrival at a dangerous island with her other friends to help him clean up his mistakes.

asking her to make a judgment on artagan before she’s ready to do it on her own, while managing some high expectations at the same time—not only is it a lot of pressure, it’s frustrating and painful. jester did not want to judge artagan without giving him his fair due and a proper conversation. knowing that her new friends dislike her old friend, besides being hurt by it, distracted her. she had to both defend him outwardly and interrogate him internally. and if she tried to explain how important artagan is to her, a lot of vulnerability would’ve been necessary when she was trying to be a leader and seem competent and capable, instead of a child who needs patronizing guidance.

this latter point is exceptional. because jester lavorre is so vulnerable when it comes to how much she thinks her loved ones respect her and consider her a valuable, equal, and trustworthy individual. and it’s difficult to feel like you’re being valued and trusted when people are repeatedly questioning you about a person and a relationship that they don’t understand in a way that, despite genuine concern, comes across as them doubting your own judgment of one of the most intimate parts of your life.

in this precise moment in e103, caleb is the only person who acknowledges—to her in person, even—that he doesn't have any place in judging her relationship with artagan. that it’s not what she needs from him or anyone else. that he’s content waiting for her to reach a decision. that he will respect that decision.

and jester can believe him. caleb’s done nothing but remain consistent on this stance. he repeatedly supports her choices to run travelercon, trust artagan, and come to his aid.

when other party members question artagan's legitimacy, caleb is the one who almost always speaks up to support jester (some examples: e61, 30:43 / e77, 49:17 / e95, 1:09:17 and 1:15:24).

he actively and enthusiastically offers his magical talents to her to provide for the event preparations. he has a whole conversation with her in e91 (beginning 1:53:41) where he expresses his immense respect for her and her personality, explicitly validates her faith in artagan, and shows her a tangible example of how he wants to help her during the upcoming travelercon. when she suggests some ideas, despite their arguable silliness, caleb takes them at face value and openly admits his lack of expertise in this area (e91, 1:58:35).

when they first arrive at rumblecusp, he directly reassures jester about the ‘travelercon 3000’ banner she leaves on the wrong beach by mentioning that he can make her a new banner (e101, 48:18). once preparations begin in earnest, caleb expends spells very freely, including ones of higher-level, to produce whatever jester requests.

in e103, he hears out her idea of sleeping underwater and gives it equal consideration in spite of other party members trying to shoot it down. the first time she suggests it (36:23), caduceus comments against it and no other party member acknowledges her except for caleb, who agrees with her quietly while the others move on. the second time jester suggests it (46:08), veth comments against it and caleb steps in to openly agree that it’s a good idea, even after fjord and beau join veth in being dubious.

compare these active, consistent moments of support and validation from caleb to similarly active and consistent examples of the other attitudes that manifest during the rumblecusp arc, in contradiction to people’s apparent claims of trust (one such claim of trust: e95, 1:00:21).

plainly insulting artagan to jester as if it’s a given, such as fjord’s “he’s generally full of shit, right?” (e107, 49:42);

fjord, beau, and caduceus’s conversation about “not ruining jester’s big day,” yet distrusting artagan to the extent of planning to keep her from being alone with him, preparing to attack him should he try to sacrifice 200 people for some speculated unknown ritual and/or hurt jester, and discussing all of this behind jester’s back (e108, beginning 15:41);

caduceus’s said shift to distrust of artagan because of a semi-disturbing conversation that jester was equally a part of (e107, beginning 20:40);

and the discussion right before jester’s commune with artagan where beau questions if artagan sent them to rumblecusp knowing of the memory problems, without regard for their well-being (e103, 29:40).

the unfortunate assumption being made by these party members’ repeated questioning and protectiveness of jester is that she cannot be trusted to have good judgment. despite their familiarity with some of the context of her relationship with artagan (especially after e105), they disregard her repeatedly-expressed support of him. they indirectly disrespect her ability to judge for herself whether someone is dangerous to her or her friends. they don’t acknowledge jester’s own role in creating dubious situations and instead direct all their negative feelings and sense of fault to artagan, minimizing her agency.

the e108 conversation is a dense microcosm of how the party perpetrates these assumptions throughout the rumblecusp arc as a whole. without qualm, they discuss deliberately controlling jester’s time with artagan to ‘protect’ her and their willingness to kill the evil image they’ve constructed of him, and dodge jester directly asking them what they’re talking about—even though it is a known given that the m9 would defend her with their lives with or without any prior discussion. the purpose of holding this conversation isn’t to make sure that jester is safe. like caduceus near-explicitly says, it’s to “feel better knowing” that “anybody else was on board with this” (20:26 and 18:57)—to validate their unacknowledged distrust of jester’s judgment with each other, behind her back.

and as laura has said: jester, with her very high wisdom, tends to know what’s going on even if she acts like she doesn’t (talks for e79, 32:39).

in e103, when jester is crying because she’s found out that artagan did know about the island’s memory problems, caleb doesn’t show any sign of taking this as proof of artagan's ill intent. what he does instead: he offers compassion for her pain with zero judgment. he promises to support her, no matter what she ultimately decides to make of this information. these are offers of safety and trust, ones that jester desperately needed.

then—caleb creates a programmed illusion of the m9’s lives. and it’s beautiful.

in comparison to all the analysis prior, this moment is straightforward. jester is an artist. she paints, draws, and creates, and she loves doing it. moreover, she loves making art for other people. though she doesn’t get many chances to do so, the mural of a flowery meadow that she paints for yasha’s room in the xhorhaus is a perfect example. similarly, she enjoys the art she makes when defacing other people’s property—altered signage or statue of the platinum dragon painted in rainbow—in part because they’re gifts to the traveler. she loves making those she loves happy.

happiness and love to jester is overwhelmingly about emotional intimacy. i’ve talked about this to some degree in a previous post about jester’s jealousy. please refer there for in-depth explanation. in brief, though, she puts value on how deeply she knows a person; how often she’s been able to be there for them. this is the love she learned from her mother and from artagan, and how she continues to love once she’s older.

caleb’s arcane rendition of the m9′s lives floating around the inside of the dome is a display of exactly this kind of love. not only is it art crafted from his magic and imagination and love—it’s blatant evidence of how much he cares for every member of the party and where they’ve come from. he remembers their stories and hangs them in the air in hopes that it’ll help them resist the memory erasing. he moves the memory of yasha and zuala in a meadow over to yasha’s pillow-side so she can watch it until she falls asleep. he creates a memory for vilya of her, her husband, and her daughter, listening to and respecting the emotional gravity of what she’s confiding in them.

only a few minutes after jester’s disappointing commune with artagan and her conversation with caleb, she walks into the dome and sees this art. she laughs and stares in wonder at all the memories (e103, 1:46:08). when beau points out the humorous memories of fjord being attacked by turtles so they can all laugh, she tells caleb with equal awe and joy, “wow. this is amazing, caleb” (e103, 1:47:04).

...of course, as lovely and meaningful as these back-to-back moments were for jester, it's not quite evidence of her starting to fall in love with caleb around this time.

that’s where the following episodes come in.

[id: three screenshots of messages sent in a discord channel by the user “prim” (the op). all are timestamped to friday, august 28, 2020, the day after the live premiere of e107. the first has an additional timestamp of 12:53 PM, the second 1:03 PM, and the third 1:30 PM. they read:

honest to god though i don't know if it's just the shipper brain that is making me think laura is trying to roleplay jester beginning to reciprocate caleb's feelings [...]

like........ the golden dick hunt teasing is definitely on par with jester's past shenanigans, but the compliments have been Catching My Attention bc it's honestly not normal for jester to compliment caleb of her own volition like that, just as a one-on-one "i appreciate you" reassurance

and i'm thinking less about the spells from last night's episode (although how much jester was emphasizing the compliments made me go "awwwww") and more of the moments like jester telling caleb "that was impressive" after getting cad out of the tunnel with beau's help

but laura is absolutely a shipping troll with jester this campaign so i'm here like "I'M MAYBE 80% SURE I'M BEING FUCKED WITH BUT IT MAYBE HOLDS UP????" [...]

basically laura keeps doing things that make the alarm in my brain go off and i don't know if i'm picking up something legit or if i'm projecting my hopes, like the recent pattern of compliments from jester LOL

/end id.]

i’m not going to lie, if i try to list every single receipt like i otherwise prefer to do in these metas, i think we (and especially i) would all lose our minds. so while i’m about to provide a lot of citations, they genuinely are just a few possible examples that will mostly be within the dozen episodes after e103.

the more important detail that can be observed from this is that e103 is a turning point.

prior to e103, jester does not particularly go out of her way to interact with caleb. by and large, most of their direct interactions are either initiated by caleb or prompted by the context of a general party conversation. the majority of other moments that could be referred to as ‘widojest’ are of caleb’s evident feelings. beyond early campaign days, jester rarely teases caleb about sexual topics while insinuating things about her own sexual life at the same time.

after e103, laura and jester begin to go out of their way to interact with and intertwine jester’s time with caleb.

the rate of jester’s compliments and enthusiastic gratitude to caleb skyrocket (some examples: e104, 30:36 / e107, 16:49 and 1:11:28 and 1:12:15 and 3:10:39 / e110, 15:58 and 3:37:24 / e111, 36:15 and 38:41 and 50:58);

several mature jokes/flirtations she makes involve both caleb and herself (examples: e107, 1:16:17 / e110, 1:18:07 / e115, 1:52:53);

she deliberately and specifically engages caleb in full-blown interactions, such as the conversations during the tour of her childhood bedroom (e110, beginning 1:11:38), hanging out with him on the icebreaker ship (e112, beginning 3:45:29), and the reading of der katzenprinz (e115, beginning 1:52:43);

as well as the expansion of more extended ‘conversations’ like their motif of dancing (e108, 13:39 / e109, 2:54:14), their parental relationships (e110, 20:44 and 3:38:41 / e115′s der katzenprinz / e121, beginning 1:52:12), and polymorph shenanigans (examples: e107, beginning 2:58:41 / e117, beginning 1:13:55 / e118, 43:57).

thrown in are additional background details that further tie jester to caleb, such as her determination to recover caleb’s amulet after their defeat of vokodo (e106, 25:33), the knowing comments on his purchasing of paper (e109, 22:32 / e111, 1:25:49), her deliberate choice to ride whaleb during the avantika chase (e113, 2:32:28), her retrieval of caleb’s coat when he’s attempting to remove the necromantic emerald (e115, 1:30:56), and her deliberate reference to der katzenprinz to iver (e120, 3:05:14);

and simply everything about the tower. it’s another example of the art and creativity caleb produces with his magic to make his loved ones happy, which jester acknowledges at least twice (refer to the e111 compliments). contrarily, jester also makes note of the signs that this tower shows less love to caleb than she thinks he deserves, in keeping with her value of emotional intimacy (e115’s der katzenprinz / e122’s floor 8, room 1).

the reading of der katzenprinz in e115 is arguably the pinnacle of these examples. it’s intentionally initiated by jester. she both takes the step to visit caleb's room and indirectly requests him to read the story to her. laura’s implication that she remembered this subplot because of beau’s reading of a very romantic letter from yasha is particularly suggestive. the story itself incorporates many similar characters and themes that are present in jester’s backstory: the lonely, sheltered boy and his single working mom as jester and marion; the dubious cat prince who ultimately gives the boy freedom and confidence as artagan; and the deep love between the boy and his mother because of how they only have each other, which compels a powerful being to have compassion and thus set the boy free so that they can be together. very similar to both jester’s depth of relationship with her mother and her pleas on artagan’s behalf to the moonweaver’s celestial servant.

and the post-story conversation—caleb’s confiding of its importance to him because of his mother. jester’s open willingness to compare the cat prince to artagan, knowing that caleb respects their friendship and has treated artagan fairly. jester’s lingering, repeated looks toward caleb while smiling and holding her copy of der katzenprinz to her heart.

with all this dramatic expansion of the emotional and thematic intimacy between jester and caleb beginning to roll down the hill after e103—in brilliant contrast to their more muted, less reciprocal dynamic before this episode—e103 is more than likely the turning point of jester’s feelings. and based on the events and context, it was caused by the combined emotional appeal of caleb’s offer of unconditional support and his display of love for his family in the programmed illusion of memories.

#cr #critical role #cr meta #widojest #jester lavorre #caleb widogast #by popular demand #inb4 the wrap-up #prim post #prim says some things #readmore #long post

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