#the revival trope is SO cheap

[wyclair]

Sitting here and realizing how badly Teen Wolf sucked.

[writingwithfolklore]

Surviving Death

                I am a sucker for revival after character death—as long as it’s done well. Maybe in the future we’ll do a separate post on killing characters, but what I’ll say about it now is that revival can be a fantastic plot twist or narrative turn as long as both it and the death has proper meaning.

                While you may want to revive a character for a happy ending--they wake up and not only is the world saved but everyone made it out alive! This can also sometimes feel a bit cheap. What was the point of suffering the death if they were just to get to come back easy-peasy? Consider, would End Game have been as revered if Tony got to survive his sacrifice?

                So here’s some ways to bring a character back to life without losing the meaning of their death:

They are forever changed from the experience

A classic “came back wrong”, one of my favourite things in fiction. You get to choose to the extent they are wrong. Maybe the ‘wrong’ isn’t some supernatural influence, but rather just a result of the experience of dying.

                They saw something about the afterlife, they’ve lost memories, they’ve gained new memories about a past or a future or alternate timeline, they realize how much they mean to certain people, they discover just how little they meant to others, etc. etc.

                Their death (and subsequent revival) should quite literally change the course of their life. That’s not something one could go through lightly. Whether it gives them trauma, new perspectives, or a complete shift in personality/morals, they definitely didn’t come back how they left.

2. Sacrifice for a Sacrifice

Also a pretty common trope—you don’t get to gain something unless you lose something. To bring them back, someone else has to take their place, or something important is lost. Maybe to trade for their companion back, the main character loses the greatest asset to their quest. Maybe they have to choose between two people, and the two who live have to live with that fact.

                I read a book once where the main character had to choose between his love interest and his brother in a Saw-like trap. He chooses his brother, and the villain kills him anyway. Now he must continue his quest with his love interest, who knows he didn’t choose her. It was tragic, and completely changed their dynamic.

3. They’re only half back

They come back, but only some of the way. Maybe they are cursed to die again in a year. They’re tied to one place and will disappear if they leave it. They’re a ghost, or otherwise not fully present. They exist only in relation to certain objects or people. Their communication is lost, or certain other abilities they used to have.

                They came back, but only some of them—the rest is lost to the beyond.

Most importantly to reviving characters is the permanent consequences. Death is no easy thing to overcome, and whatever the circumstances are--it should remain with them forever.

                What are some other ways to revive characters?

[tremorsmackenzie]

one of the best things about agents of shield is that it does all of the tropes, way over the top trauma, character revivals, alternate reality plots, evil versions of characters, betrayals, mind control, time travel plots, etc., things which are usually done either way too seriously or as a cheap joke/low effort filler content that sometimes doesnt fit the tone or show it happens in at all.

but it does them properly the way theyre supposed to be, integrating them into its world, and it shows why they are actually popular and that they work if you spend any real effort on them and try to do them justice instead of always playing them as a cliché trope.

yeah, its an interesting storyline to see the goodhearted main character be turned evil against their will and then deal with the fallout. whod have thunk.

and at the same time it manages to not lose the kind of campy feel associated with them, in a really charming way. i dont know if im making sense, i just waited for a really long time for someone to actually do these things right cause they have so much potential, and they usually dont get to explore it beyond very superficial levels.

agents of shield is awesome. fin.

[findafight]

i don't get why robin and eddie clocking each other is so popular. firstly i find it kind of cheap esp since it's usually a set-up for robin and/or eddie being all-knowing arbiters of lgbt knowledge while steve is clueless and dumb and not lgbt enough (despite usually being bi) to partake in this exchange as well. then it's otherwise used to establish an immediate connection between robin and eddie since they are both gay which automatically makes them besties. secondly it doesn't make much sense w what we see of either robin or eddie. like we know robin struggles w social cues and we see that that extends to sexual orientation through her interactions w vickie. also i think she is just not paying that much attention to eddie i must be honest. then w eddie he spends his time campaigning for the stancy revival while steve blatantly stares at his mouth so. i don't think he'd be good at that either. like the irony in this being so common is that steve is the person that does clock someone else on top of being consistently socially and emotionally intelligent and perceptive. idk sometimes i feel like ppl take him not clocking robin as proof he's incapable of it despite him then clocking someone later and being right, and that s3 scene fitting into the broader context of steve being lonely, insecure, and off his game for most of s3 as well as between s2 and s3. tbh missed comedy potential w steve being the one person in that trio that actually knows what's happening.

oooohg yeah i feel you anon. Not to say that all the fics that have these tropes in them are bad! it just. sometimes gets annoying? I don't want people to feel too bad about it but yes agree.

I think it really is used as a way to fast track their friendship. Truly unfortunate that it's often used to make them all knowing queer guides instead of the disaster teenage gays they are.

Robin is a small town lesbian who is only out to one singular person, she does not know anything, let alone vague little queer codes that might be happening. She wouldn't know Eddie was queer for a variety of reasons. She says herself she's not good at reading people! She's also busy worrying about if she's doing something that might out her or make people suspicious of her, so she's not analyzing other people's actions. She does not care about men that aren't Steve enough to pay enough attention to figure out if Eddie is queer or not lol. She can't even figure out if the girl she likes who likes her back is queer when her best friend is telling her. Oblivious icon! open your eyes, queen!!

Eddie had a man he deliberately broke a moment of romantic tension between his love interest by throwing a vest at his face staring at his lips and still pushed him towards said love interest. Sir. what are you doing. and once it's clear stncy isn't happening you know eddie would be like okay. why aren't you dating Robin? hmm? she's cool! and causes Steve to Suffer. (Steve was flirting with Eddie .5 seconds before he started on this please get with the program Eddie!!)

Also think it's silly that people would stereotype Eddie as Queer from how he dresses as though that's not just how a lot of people dressed? long hair was In in the 80s. Metal fashion was there. It also likely had some/a lot of ingrained homophobia in the subculture (as many things did). Sorry Eddie, but I'm pretty sure our boy Brucie did more for the gays than metallica. (Kissing Clarence Clemens Right On The Mouth Many Times On Stage thank you mr. springsteen and mr. clemens sirs.)

Steve's the only one of these three that 1) knows how to flirt 2) knows when someone is flirting with him 3) has consistently demonstrated being emotionally and socially intelligent to observe people (more than arguably anyone else in the series) and 4) has any kind of functioning gaydar. Totally agree that Steve not clocking Robin despite his gaydar is that he was way off his game, insecure, in a funk, pathetic sad meow meow era, and in a weird state of squish-or-crush on Robin, that was pushed towards crush by Dustin but slam dunked into squish by Robin coming out (does that make any sense?)

I truly, truly believe Vickie returned Fast Times paused on 53 minutes and five seconds specifically when she knew Robin and/or Steve would be the ones to rewind it. Why else would she not rewind it? when clearly they knew who had rented it and could potentially out her if they read into it? She was getting vibes from robin and knew that Steve would at least report Back to Robin (I refuse to believe the championship game was the only time stobin gossiped like they did. Vickie knows their shenanigans.) so she decided to be indirect but kinda obvious about it!! And while Robin is denying this Steve has seen the truth, he knows exactly what Vickie is doing. (would be very funny if Steve and Vickie clock each other, and then make eye contact like I know what you are. They deserve to become funky little friends while Steve is trying to get her and Robin together.)

[biblioflyer]

How Picard should end.

The very probable end of The Next Generation is coming and with it the beginning of the end of the first phase of the revival of Star Trek that began with Discovery. Here's what I'm thinking about.

As I write this, the final episodes of Season Three, the series, and perhaps even this sub-franchise are coming into view. I refer to it as a sub-franchise because I think that Picard as a series has a storytelling approach and a set of themes that it has explored that overlap with Discovery but also has its own identity.

Because of the age of many of the principal characters, there has been a strong theme of having to adjust with grace and empathy to a world radically changed from what was normal and comfortable to you, having to acknowledge your complicity in the faults you find in this world, and of repairing relationships that have been harmed. 

Immersing myself in where Picard has been as a series, even just the first four episodes to date, has given me a strong sense of what it is that Picard is about and thus some strong, but not pugnaciously held opinions on how it should end. The failure to do any of the following will not “ruin” the series for me, although the alternatives better be really well done.

For the first time of the CBS era, I actually really feel strongly that my own aesthetics could be defied and I will still really enjoy the outcome. For example I despise the trope that Jack Crusher represents but the trope has been so superbly executed that I’m almost annoyed at how completely I’m in his corner.

Speaking of Jack Crusher….

I would strongly prefer he not be written off as a space god or killed. For one, this is just Wesley’s arc duplicated. For two, while “NuTrek” is doing a great job at moderating the setting’s default posture that transhumanism is bad, it feels too cliche and even cheap in a way for him to vanish into the aether. Let him live, as a mortal, trying to do right by all of the people who fought and died for him not because he was a space god, but because it was right. 

We’ve had three seasons of intense focus on the deeds of mortal and fallible individuals struggling to know what is right in a morally complicated universe, taking huge risks, and even sacrificing stability, family, love, peace, sobriety, and even their own lives: don’t end this with space magic. Don’t do another “space magic makes it all better so nobody really ever had skin in the game” ending.

Speaking of Wesley, having the two meet would provide a nice bit of closure for Beverly. It would bookend nicely with her line about already having lost one son to the same stars that call Jean luc.

Seven of Nine & Raffi

On again or off again, just pick a lane and make them handle it like adults.

As I’ve said before, I see two equally valid paths for Seven assuming it's handled properly. Seven can remain in Starfleet, her acceptance earned and her merits recognized by all but especially by Shaw. Ideally were this to be the case, I think I would like to see her take up Picard’s mantle of mentor to misfits.

There isn’t a character who is better positioned narratively in this series to become the person who sees something in people that others don’t and can find ways to take the round hole that is Starfleet and make it a square hole for the people who need it.

Or she can walk away and reclaim her full autonomy. Go back to the Fenris Rangers or go into Starfleet Intelligence.

As for Raffi, the past two seasons have intensely focused on the work the character was doing to first recover from addiction and then reclaim her mental health and with that the ability to have relationships without either her need to chase mysteries or the desire for control alienating those around her. It's time for Raffi’s work to be seen by others and to be supported. 

In the first season it was entirely fair for her son to refuse contact: she was too much a creature of her substance abuse and her obsessiveness. Now? Cut her some slack and let her show that she’s mastered the thing that makes her the hero no one is prepared to recognize that they need until it's too late but also makes her the villain in her own life.

I would merrily support a Worf & Raffi spy action buddy cop series. Seven, Jack, Laris, and anyone else unaccounted for who is not really a good fit for traditional ship service can come too if they want. A Star Trek answer to Firefly or The Expanse would be incredibly fascinating with good writing. Given the way Star Trek Picard has been critiquing the limits of institutional power in dealing with the unknown or morally complicated situations, I think the time is right. 

Perhaps this could be the Section 31 series instead of a 23rd century era one. Just have the Guardian of Forever send Georgiou to where she’s needed rather than where she belongs. She’d be a great foil for Zen Worf and the morally flexible but not that morally flexible Raffi.

Section 31 are bad guys, full stop.

Speaking of Section 31, either confirm that Section 31 has been disbanded and formally disavowed or that it had its Church Committee hearings and been folded back into Starfleet Intelligence with strong oversight and strong guard rails. Putting Worf and Raffi front and center in it would afford an opportunity to show that it is possible to address existential threats to the Federation without genocide or the intervention of space gods. 

It's really only been after seeing Discovery recycle the same deus ex ending, only worse, that I have come to realize that the way Deep Space Nine finished the Dominion War arc really, really rubs me the wrong way. My list of things that I think are completely antithetical to the core assumptions of Star Trek is not long, but the Federation being saved not once, but twice by attempted genocide is definitely on that list. 

Don’t get me wrong, Deep Space Nine is probably the most overall well executed series from the point of view of nearly every aspect of the show being consistently competent, but falling back on Section 31 to save the Federation? Not a fan of that.

Romance

I am not on the Bev/JL train. It had its time. For all the ways that Star Trek Picard has been in conversation with critiques of TNG’s very 1990s “end of history” worldview, one thing that was superbly managed was the idea that Beverly and Jean luc could try out a romance, realize it doesn’t work, and then be content with a strong bond that doesn’t need to express itself romantically. It was incredibly, shockingly mature for a 1990s drama.

This show did not kill off Zhabon and an ancestor of Laris for Laris to be killed off or to politely step aside.

Maybe Bev is happy being unpartnered. How about them apples? Maybe a senior woman is perfectly self actualized on her own and can take or leave romance.

This is probably one of the looming plot resolutions I am the most likely to be actually angered by if it doesn’t go the way I would prefer and it isn’t handled extremely well.

Once again, do not fridge Laris to make room for Beverly. 

That would easily make my list of the top five most appalling creative decisions of this show and this is coming from someone who has invested quite a bit of effort into defending and rationalizing its other controversial decisions. Having her step aside with her life and dignity is less distasteful but still frustrating.

The Federation and Shaw

Follow through with the overall theme from season one that institutions solve big problems but rules are not there to follow mindlessly. Conscience matters as does doing the right thing even when you are fearful. 

It may not be fair to ask 500 people to risk their lives for four people who have deliberately chosen to put themselves in harm’s way on a fool’s errand, but then when does it become fair? Does it have to be 501 lives on the line to be worth 500? How morally virtuous do the victims need to be? 

Smaller, more nimble actors don’t have to make these trades. The Mugato in the room is the Maquis. They could easily have provoked war but they did also provide a means by which Federation citizens who wanted their autonomy could contest Cardassian oppression without exposing the Federation to the specter of war  if the Federation failed to ensure their well being.

Also when and if a bad call is made out of anger, fear, or incomplete knowledge of the situation, how the consequences of that decision are addressed matter.

The Federation abandoned the Romulans. As did Picard himself. Picard accepted responsibility in Season One. The Federation extended its protection over Maddox & Soong’s Synth colony but there’s no mention of any peacekeeping or humanitarian efforts for Romulans who have rejected “the old ways.”

Finally, Shaw has his reasons and this series has been nothing if not incredibly nuanced in how it invokes trauma and uses it in a way to explain but not justify the behavior of characters. A theme I have thought about a lot in the context of Captain Marvel is the way that coping mechanisms for trauma often encourage self reliance and aloofness to the extreme. In Shaw’s own words “at some point asshole became a substitute for charm.” I would argue that the final stage of healing would be to become a team player who is capable of forging authentic relationships built on mutual trust and respect.

Now I do think this is coming in the form of a sincere working relationship with Seven but I would prefer it be extended beyond Seven. For Shaw to accept Seven as Seven is a good start but everyone is capable of accepting “one of the good ones.” Some sort of broader recognition that it's on him to swallow his terror and rage, it's not on every single XB to prove they’re not going to assimilate him.

Other characters / elements

BBEG: (Big Bad Evil Guy) I don’t know that I’m necessarily hoping for anything or anyone in particular. Armus would be cool. He’s one of the last entities on the board with an axe to grind who could conceivably be a credible menace to Changelings and shares some of their mercurial nature. 

The alien parasites would be neat as well. That that has long gone unresolved is a longstanding gripe but I feel like the time may have passed. Thematically the Changelings have more or less eaten their lunch when it comes to replacing people and intricate conspiracies. At this point, I think it would be just as well to retcon the infiltrators as having been an early effort by the Changelings to infiltrate other societies without exposing themselves to danger. The Founders certainly have the genetic engineering acumen to design a parasite species.

Elnor: at least mention him as existing, if not give the character some proper closure. Show him thriving in Starfleet and having a good relationship with Picard and Raffi as mentors and surrogate parents, explicitly connect Picard’s experiences with Elnor as a child and his effort to repair his relationship with Elnor as having been a practice run for Jack and the recognition that Jean luc would not have been his father as a parent.

Or show him choosing to leave Starfleet for the Rangers or even just to lead a quiet life of study and meditation. That’s cool too.

Jiurati: if the big bad is the Borg or related to them somehow, it would be cool to see Jiurati’s faction sweep in to help defeat them. Otherwise maybe one more reference would be nice.

The Admiral Janeway cameo is long overdue.

It would be nice for Worf to mention Alexander and Jadzia. Perhaps in the context of giving advice to Raffi on love, life, pursuing rapprochement after being an absentee parent, and living with the knowledge that your life choices place partners in existential danger. It would be a great way to cement their dualistic role this season rather than having Raffi be Worf’s sidekick.

Don’t fridge Tuvok. Find him safely.

Oh yeah, there's also JL himself.

We don't need to have Picard die on screen (again.) As far as I'm concerned Logan is all I'll ever need for Patrick Stewart death scenes. Its just too hard to contemplate. I consider the character of Picard to be a father figure and I'd kind of just prefer that he gets to be happy. I'd like for him to get good with Elnor and Jack.

"I tried so very hard to belong to this place."

Maybe pass the vineyard on as a national park that is Picard in name only. We all know his real home is in the stars. Putting him to work leading a Romulan humanitarian NGO that relies on his Starfleet contacts and credibility is I think the perfect bookend to how the series began with his despair over the Federation's failure and the ongoing interrogation of whether Starfleet is the only legitimate or appropriate entity for solving problems in the universe.

[a-particular-quetzalcoatl]

DRV3 ENDGAME SPOILERS

Something I deeply love is the thematic degradation that you see hammered in all throughout the game.

The idea that this is the Danganronpa we loved, that we spent hours dedicated to... corrupted beyond recognition.

The excessive violence, the vulgarity, the cheap shock value, the played-up drama, the tropes that have been endlessly rotating their wheels to the point of rust.

The bright lights, the casino, the love hotel...

This, DRV3 says, is what happens when you attempt to revive something again and again and again. The original spirit is inevitably lost, the concept stale. Wheels spinning until there is nothing left to cling to, where it is mercy to stop rather than continue.

The wail of “hope against despair” said so many times the speaker no longer can see their value, no longer can see the hypocrisy of their actions. Drowned out by the shock, the vulgarity, and the violence, the empathy that comes with the suffering is reduced to an ember.

The wail of a person losing their closest friend lost to the parade.

[hell-heron]

This is a post or rather a list of disconnected thoughts about Sansa discourse. As such, it's probably unpleasant and annoying, dead dove not don't eat. As such it mentions a lot of people's opinions which I don't know when and who I heard from, it's meant to be about trend in the fandoms and not about vaguing anyone specific. It's really a vent and I'm open to discussion but please not to attacks, I'm also deliberately not tagging this and making this unrebloggable

It seems that a "discourse" that had a recent revival is whether Ned did anything amiss regarding Sansa in AGOT, whether that possibly has anything to do with her choice to go to Cersei with his plan, whether it's intellectually honest to make such a connection at all, or rather a reach for cheap justification of one's fave. It seems to pop up periodically, bring up more or less the same few talking points both in favor and against, and certainly it isn't the most offensive and virulent of discourses on either side, yet it makes me very sad.

I think it's because searching for more psychological nuance in character's motivation is such a joyous, common activity and arguably all that transformative fandom is really about, and would be so in any other fandom or even part of the fandom (to make an example, as a Theon fan I've never seen any backlash to the idea him kicking Gared's head is tied to his fear of having to witness executions as a possible future victim, even though that also can be construed as justification for a misdeed and woobification, and it could potentially be construed as criticism of Ned too, even though I've never meant it as one personally).

But it's not so here, not because the critics arbitrarily decided to be mean but because indeed everywhere in the subfandom such "theories" or "metas" are indeed used in this futile exercise of tallying up everything your fave did wrong with the wrong that was done against them and with what other characters they are pitted against did wrong and with what they did right. It's very much a process that its happening and it makes sense that people want to criticize the metas and theories to defend against it. I'm not under the delusion the Sansa fandom is practicing joyous analysis and speculation while the cruel outside world only thinking in terms of us against them and black and white morality criticizes them baselessly. But it's still very sad to me that there's no place for that speculation.

Part of what is causing the backlash is imho that people are making it about favoritism with Arya way, way more than it should be. I think maybe a smidge of jealousy might be present on Sansa's part, the very bratty and unjustified well why do I even behave if other kids don't and don't really get consequences :(( kind of jealousy, but I don't think it's even in the top 10 of Sansa's emotional issues in AGOT. Also Ned is not being a better father to Arya than to Sansa, that's very obvious to me even as someone who absolutely is not lovingly rereading in detail Arya's chapters. Their interactions are sooo frustrating, he so doesn't have any more time for her than for Sansa and doesn't take her more seriously than he does Sansa. It's all very deconstructive of typical child heroine narratives - we see the Adults Are Useless trope play in the story of the bratty teen daughter and the plucky kid daughter and at the same time we read the father's pov and we know and understand why he feels he has to keep them at a distance, to impose certain arbitrary rules on them, to keep them from the amount of involvement they desire, but it doesn't make it less infuriating. Or at least that's how I think people would perceive it.

But overall I think the most significant point is that Sansa's problems wouldn't really change if she was in King's Landing alone, or with a ladylike little sister, or with Bran. The problem is ultimately that Ned is forced to bring her somewhere where she must approach her adult role but he still heroically refuses to make her into an adult before her time by letting her have information on what she's going into. The problem is Ned is forced to hatch a plan that relies on Sansa's betrothal to Joffrey, which in turn relies on Sansa's little irrational 12-year-old feelings to keep him from feeling like a monster, bc no way Ned would continue this if Sansa was unhappy with her lot - so how can he expect those little irrational 12-year-old feelings to stop being relevant when they suddenly run counter to his plans? How can he expect to revert everything to before he gave Sansa a bethrothal and a glimpse of court and her first taste of heartbreak without consequences? How can we expect the conflation of the personal and the political in feudal society won't fuck with him in every possible way lol. None of that is tied to Arya, and arguably none of that is something he necessarily could have done better.

But besides all this, honestly, AGOT Sansa if we take her completely at face value is such a meh, thinly written character that it's obvious we're not meant to take everything at face value, even if what I see there is not precisely what we're meant to be reading. But if it's not so, and she really is meh and thinly written... It's such a fandom tradition to look at the text and be like yea i can fix that. I can enrich that -which Is still, after all, a fantasy novel and not like, a Crime and Punishment to be taken in with acedemic rigor - with my transformative understanding. It's so perverse that we're in a situation where doing so will instead rouse the legitimate suspicion that you're claiming for your fave a place in the morality hyerarchy and protagonist hyerarchy that they haven't ~earned~.

It's a common criticism of fandom that loving speculation and headcanoning and analysis will be lavished on mediocre/secondary male characters in a way it isn't in female ones, and that people will then turn around and say they don't focus on female characters because they're not as well written. We've all seen that meme. Well, Sansa has always traditionally been a break in that pattern, ever since ~2014 when I started going on aso/iaf Tumblr it was so, both for the books and the show - people were always going beyond the text, were so fixated on her potential and her subtext and the way small details, small lines could be spun in meaningful ways. It is true that sometimes the Sansa you read metas about seems to be a wildly different one than the one on page, or at least a version of her taken to the next level in a way that she hadn't in the books yet. I remember reading a lot of meta that listed every small offhand deduction and correct reasoning she made in attempts to prove she had some growth or potential for intelligence and feeling happy and validated in my like for her, but also kinda wondering 'wow, think what would turn up if someone tried this kind of obsessive close reading with a character who actually does things'.

I think part of it was that the time was just ripe for the character people wanted Sansa to be at the time, that there was a desire for conversation on a bit more complex relationship with gender roles and social conformance than we were getting - I often wondered what the fandom would have been like if Margaery had been the POV and Sansa the intriguing supporting character, if people would have been repulsed by having a more active and openly grey character or if rather that would have been a beloved, effective exploration of courtly female power that didn't leave the fandom to do so much wank to fill the gaps. But part of it is also that there's a hole in asoiaf and in mainstream media in general for the female Theons and Sandors and Jaimes (and Tyrions, if people did that with Tyrion, which they don't more bc ableism/show baggage than because he doesn't Land himself to that), for characters that are completely gray and changeable and full of subtext and potential which invites you to analyse it and overthink it and make explanations if not excuses, offering a opportunity for an excercise of seeing things from the opposite point of view, characters that physically can't be analysed in a framework of who-is-more-virtuous-and-competent-than-whom. Sansa is obviously a pretty shitty substitute for that kind of antihero category, but she's the one most obviously offering herself to fill that gap - Arianne came too late and Asha started out well but didn't retain that quality in her actual POVs and Melisandre only has one chapter. Idk, I'm not sure this last part makes sense. Just the main thought that this trend of discourse always gives to me is "I wish I could enjoy Sansa the way I enjoy Theon instead of like this".

[foxounderscorecube]

A Court of Wings and Ruin - Sarah J. Maas

4¼ ⭐

Ah, I hate that this series has managed to get such a chokehold on me…

The politics in this one were particularly fun. Tamlin, god, it was so hard to know what side he was going to end up on. I'm glad that he finally wished Feyre well - begrudgingly, for sure, but he seems sincere. He's healing slowly. At least he's hopefully going to stop making his bitterness everyone else's problem now. There are so many unexpected alliances and the battles are great fun to read. The eldritch abomination gang coming to fight the battle was particularly cool. Bryaxis is such a fella. He just wants friendship and a window to look out of and I love him so much, even if he is Fear Itself.

It was lovely to see the character arcs of Nesta and Elain. I adore that Nesta gaslit gatekept girlbossed so fucking hard that she took a part of the Cauldron for herself. What a queen. Elain really grows into herself over the course of the story, too, and it's really great to watch her go from a total wet blanket to someone who, when push comes to shove, is as brave as you could ask for. And when their dad turns up, ah, the feels.

One thing I think really detracts from the ending was that I think there should have been more deaths of importance. Not because I hate happiness and love, I mean. I think the emotional impact of the end would have been WAY more effective had Amren actually been freed. Like, it was cool as hell when she left the High Fae body she was trapped in and died a hero. The fact that, when the Cauldron is fixed, and Rhysand is revived (which also felt like a cop-out, but I get why he had to stay alive), everyone's like "oh no poor Amren :(" and then Rhysand's like "take a little look in the Cauldron :)" and Amren-but-not-monstrous is in there. I love Amren and I was devastated that she seemed to be gone, but then she's back and it's like… well, good? but nothing was sacrificed, was it? It seems a bit cheap. I teared up at the Suriel's death at the start of the war, let alone an important supporting character, so believe me when I say I don't take character deaths lightly - but that would have been warranted, in my opinion. Still, it's a nice conclusion to the events of the series thus far, and it's an intense road to get there, too.

I felt that the series so far had been incredibly heterosexual, and I guess Maas thought so, too, because we got some queer characters in this one and I'm always happy to see that. Mor being bi and preferring women tracks. That is a woman who prefers women right there.

I'm still not sold on Feyre and Rhysand as a couple. I'm just not. I think Rhysand really loves Feyre and his whole family, too, but I think they all deserve better, honestly. And I know, I know, I'm bringing up the Pontiff Sulyvahn-ing* of Feyre again, but I rolled my eyes SO fucking hard when she gets her heirloom crown as was like "wow, even when I was being used as a sexy dancer against my will, he'd dress me in tiaras and diadems because he saw me as his equal the entire time <3". That is… not the conclusion most people would come to, but okay. Maas seems pretty based overall - the miscommunications-for-drama trope isn't really used in this series and the relationship is generally communicative and not too bad (although Rhysand could bear to tell the people he cares about more information to allow them to come to more informed decisions when "it's your choice!" is his whole Thing) - so it's disappointing that she digs herself an ever-deepening hole trying to justify Rhysand enslaving Feyre Under The Mountain.

*"to Pontiff Sulyvahn", as I use it here, is to force someone against their will to become a dancer, especially if it's done both for gratification and as a political power move. Sulyvahn is a character/boss in Dark Souls III and a complete bastard.

[headinabox]

i love death is cheap tropes. like obviously at a point it can be lazy writing or feel unsatisfying but when it’s stuff like I became God and Still can’t revive my Dead Loved One then like what’s the point... why not... you’re god and all you got was this lousy t shirt? wouldnt you be so happy if your dead loved one came back okay? come on

[sanstropfremir]

episode 9 baby!!! dear lord that was a lot!!

frankly, i'm still in shock that i full on manifested an opera stage, AND it was a rock opera stage at that! plus i got a jazz stage AND a taemin stage??? if they’re pulling out all my favourites now then what on earth are they gonna do in the finale??? this was a very overwhelming crop of stages, i thought i was going to be prepared, but oh no i was not prepared. i'm just going to get right into it because this one is gonna be long and i have many words. i'll discuss in airing order first, and then put my personal rankings for this round at the end.

btob

costume

changsub, you absolute king. spectacular. stunning. incredible. zoot suit riot playing in my brain on repeat. will i finally get the zoot suit revival of my fucking dreams instead of this current drab ill-fitting suit trend? for those who are wondering why in the fuck changsub is dressed like that and what on earth i’m talking about, the specific cut of suit that he’s wearing is called a zoot suit, which were popular in mexican, black and italian american communities in the 30s and 40s, until they were outlawed by the united states war production board as a fabric rationing method as part of the war effort in 1942. there was a huge amount of mob violence surrrounding the wearing of them (there were actual zoot suit riots) as they were direct counter culture fashion to the predominant drab trends of white americans at the time. i'm actually very impressed they got a proper (modernized) cut of zoot suit instead of just putting him in an oversized one; there are actually specific structural differences. the pegged trouser legs, large should pads, and knee length single breasted jacket are key features, and they were often in much more flashy fabrics than a pinstripe, but they get points for effort. i wish they had put all of them in zoot suits but he’s playing the ‘lead’ actor so i will begrudgingly forgive them.

eunkwang those are the stupidest sleeve garters ive ever seen i love them never take them off. they’re like someone decided to repurpose a suspender in the worst way. excellent. i do love that they’ve got three of them in oxford saddle shoes, another great touch.

love the three piece and the fedora* on peniel. it's also in a relatively close period cut; waistcoasts (vests) were generally cut much higher in the neck pre-war, we only start seeing the neckline slide down in the 60s (i think? i don’t remember when exactly). also love to see a proper sleeve and jacket length, it's good practice to have at least a finger’s width of sleeve cuff visible ahead of the jacket sleeve when hanging at rest. also looks like there’s french cuffs on everyone, which is also great.

minhyuk in his slutty lowneck shirt....thank you. in addition to the zoot suit revival i would also like a revival of those ultra low necklines on mens’ shirts from like 2010-2011. i don’t think those are the same boots from the backdoor stage but those are some beautifully cut boots. i also loved the little details of his crewmember look, especially the chunky watch and the string bracelets; those are super realistic, i know so many crew with them and i had several for many years. and who doesn’t love a visible button fly?

none of any of the other costumes are period in any way shape or form but i’m forgiving it because there’s several layers of meta in this stage, and they explicitly based it on la la land, even though we don’t respect la la land in this house. do i wish they had gone more strictly period with at least the jazz club ‘actors’ a little more? absolutely, but i'm not mad about it.

set

again we’ve got a good delineation of the two different ‘stages,’ there’s the club itself in the smaller stage and the soundstage set in the larger space. you can pretty clearly see all the ‘pieces’ of the set on the soundstage, especially the obvious set painting techniques on false prosc frame and the window facade from that first little scene. also the you can see the castors (wheels) on all the setpieces too, which is another nice little versimilitudinous** (triple word score!) touch, as old hollywood movies were made still using theatre stagecraft techniques.

i love how the visual shorthand for ‘this is a set wink wonk’ is just...leaving a ladder on stage. i see it all the time and it's so funny. it doesn’t always make sense because as soon as there’s actors on set the ladders are the first thing cleared because actors cannot be trusted, but yes there are always ladders, so. also psa ladder safety is no joke, please be careful on ladders.

nice streamline of the mnet deco into the club. i’m consistently surprised at how well the designers have been able to mask it or use it to their advantage, because in the normal kingdom stage lighting it is SO obvious and stylistic that it always sticks out.

i'm going to ignore the fact that they implied changsub and miyeon were drinking wine out of martini glasses.

lighting

no complaints, it does its job. everything is visible and super clear. love that the ‘scene’ changes are made through the lighting, it's a really simple and effective device to change atmosphere. purple/blue/amber are the most flattering colours on human skin and that’s why you see it so commonly in stage lighting. also blue/lavendar is the best way to show nighttime/moonlight.

really nice and subtle projection work, especially with the billboard bit and the blue moon sign in the club. despite being obviously meta/’world breaking’ it’s actually very seamless and fits well into the flow of the stage.

sound

i love love love the big band feel in the intro, combined with the piano lead. very duke ellington, as all things should be.

no complaints. i love big band. i love eunkwang’s voice. i have nothing else to say.

staging

i LOVE this movie within a movie within a performance meta nonsense! it's such a fun concept and it is exactly what i wanted ikon’s first round stage to be! i also love to see btob consistently coming up with concepts that are inventive and fun and allow them to showcase their technical performance skills without the aerobics the younger groups are putting themselves through. it provides a really lovely variety and it just goes to show that you can make impressive, dramatic stages without having to be serious or ‘dark.’

i do wish they had leaned into the band director/lead singer with eunkwang a bit more; this could have been a really excellent place for a tap number a la the nicholas brothers or an homage to cab calloway. i know i know this was meant to be la la land themed but la la land is a cheap and whitewashed version of jazz and look me right in the eyes and tell me this isn’t the greatest tap routine of all time. i know i’ve typed this out somewhere before but la la land is just a conglomeration of old hollywood tropes and so stylistically cheap that this would have such a better visual core if they had actually looked back at the real old hollywood musicals like stormy weather. even singing in the rain and an american in paris have such phenomenal visuals and are really beautiful examples of the scope you can pull off with a limited technical capacity and sticking to these old techniques.

now that i'm thinking about it, oh my GOD i would DIE for a lindy hop routine in kpop PLEASE. i know it would never happen because kpop doesn’t like partner dancing and not a single kpop boy has the chops but oh you think fourth gen has too many acrobatics?

this got off track but i think you see my point.

---

ateez

costume

these are really sharply cut suits. and the detail work on the beading??? so beautiful. i'm disappointed that they gave me a rock opera stage without the true ridiculousness of rock opera costuming, because they could have pushed this a lot farther if they really wanted. a tragic lack of gay little outfits, seonghwa’s lace choker is just not enough! two favourite suits: hongjoong’s and yunho’s.

that being said i do actually really like these. this stage is actually very modern opera with a kpop twist and i'm a little surprised by that? i continue to be impressed by the ateez team who are clearly doing their research.

i'm absolutely not going back through their stages to check all the choreography but i wonder if you can track all the ‘wound’ placements to places they’ve been ‘hit.’ i wouldn’t put it past them to have put that thought in but also i’m not expecting that much either.

who is this white grim reaper bdsm executioner chain arm man. where did he come from. i have no idea and i love it.

why is honjoong blindfolded. it was such a fast beat, if youre gonna blindfold someone give it a little longer and some more obvious narrative weight!

seonghwa does that quickchange, runs across that massive stage to the smaller set, and gets into places in like 45 seconds. it's not the hardest quickchange in the world but still, under a minute is fast for any quickchange, especially when there’s travel time involved. i think the fastest, most complex quickchange i ever did was in university which was a 50s cocktail dress into a flannel and culottes with a shoe, hair, and jewelry change in 35 seconds. and that took three dressers. quickchanges are always impressive. the added bonus of this review being later is that i can specifically reference that you can see him book it the fuck off stage in the full cam!

cute moment with the backup dancers dressed in costumes from the previous stages. i'm assuming this is a time travel reference? i'll get more into my thoughts on this in the staging section. regardless, love to see that iconic seonghwa moment again.

set

this is such a restricted space! they really pared down their dancing space with those staircases and ....arms? honestly i have NO clue what these are supposed to be. the only thing i can maybe think of is flying buttresses??? but why?? i mean, i'm 90% sure theyre just there for drama and i agree but i do still have questions.

there’s a lot of moving parts in this set? the buttresses, and the upstage centre staircase. i don’t think the staircase is totally automated because i spotted some dancers securing it in place, but it’s still a moving part. i do really like that we get that expanding upwards energy, because it's really tough to get functional level movement in this kind of a performance, mostly because of its length and because it moves so quickly. so seeing the downward vertical movement and then the upward movement was actually a really nice visual contrast that made use of how tall those fucking ceilings are, and the fact that they had less horizontal space. in sort of similar way to sf9’s jealousy stage, using long, narrow vertical lines really makes it feel like a castle space. the interiors of castles, especially the really old ones, are a lot smaller than you think they would be.

i’ve actually seen that type of small house/tent/thing several times in various types of performances before, but i think this is the first time i’ve seen it used as a time travel device (other than in the say my name mv). aesthetically it's a bit incongruent but i dont really mind because i'm used to watching rock operas that look a lot weirder than this.

lighting

there is so much happening. i have NO clue what the projections are doing. i dont hate it though, so that’s a plus? there’s a clear-ish colour arc even if it does get a bit funky in the middle, which is why the projections dont feel as insanely distracting as some of the other stages we’ve seen.

the climax is a perfect example of how to light a busy stage with primarily red but still maintain clarity on the performers. a little bit of red goes a long way; the spark stage from last week would have looked so much better if they had done what the ateez designers did here.

sound

i know it's only ode to joy, but answer already gets my motor running and then i get so gassed by the guitars and then by the time those vocals come in i'm inconsolable. i don’t know why i wasn’t expecting a rock opera stage but i'm so glad i got that surprise because i genuinely love rock operas so much. it's two of the most dramatic genres in music, what more could you possibly want?

staging

the choreo for answer is so goofy that I'm kinda glad this was mostly terrible mnet boom shots. i love it, but you can't deny that it's goofy. i spotted a couple of moves from their other choreos as well?

choreographing dance fights is just as difficult as choreographing real fights and i think they did a fairly good job here. i think it was a solid mix of dance and conflict that erred on the side of dramatic rather than accurate and i prefer that over trying to be ‘realistic.’ i’ve only ever seen one truly realistic fight scene on stage and that was for a deeply naturalist play (boring and a waste of the medium), but the best fight scene i’ve ever seen was in the prague national ballet’s adaptation of kafka’s the trial where three ballet dancers beat the absolute snot out of the main character with the most beautiful leg extensions. that whole show was probably one of the best pieces of dance i’ve ever seen, holy fuck it was so good.

despite how insane the music and the visuals were going, i actually really liked how sedate this was, on the part of ateez’s performance. there was a really sophisticated and resigned energy from them that is very different from what we’ve previously seen and i think that was a pretty admirable risk to take. reaching the top and then throwing away the crown? especially in a competition where every other stage has involved stealing crowns or royalty and there’s a group competing that got here through that very concept? that shows a real maturity, peace of mind, and foresight that i did not at all expect from a bunch of 22 year olds.

here we come to a very interesting comparison. both ateez and tbz are very heavily leaning on previously established group lore. we all know my thoughts on why it isn’t working for tbz, but here’s why i think it is working for ateez: it's because it doesn’t matter to the audience’s understanding of the stage. i had absolutely no fucking clue what was going on the first time i watched this, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the music and all the weird shit they were doing. i totally believed that they understood what was going on. there’s a loose enough established conflict right at the beginning that draws us in, and really it doesn’t matter who they're fighting because they win in the end. the key here is that they’re so earnest. they believe 100% in every move they make on that stage. there’s no winks to camera, there’s not a drop of irony. they really deeply care about the ridiculousness of it all and that’s what makes it work. i sure as fuck dont know what’s going on, but i can see that they do, and i trust that. this is what i meant when i talked about convincing the audience you belong on stage in my stage presence post. i’ve never once believed that juyeon was anything other than an idol. he’s talented and very beautiful and he may occasionally stand on that stage like he owns it but it's always as juyeon. as an idol. but when hongjoong flaps around in that gigantic fur coat i 100% believe he’s a pirate captain. I believe he’s a punk rebel leader. i believe him a resigned king. there’s always a level of irony you have to fight as a performer because we all start from a place of disbelief. acting is not just lying to the audience, it's lying to yourself too. and if you succeed in convincing yourself? well, you’re already halfway to convincing us.

i checked it out because i wanted to see if they did the blindfold how i expected them to and was genuinely surprised by hongjoong’s fancam. the boy is EMOTING even when he knew the camera wasn’t on him; that’s a real dedication to craft.

ok i'm finished talking about this stage, this is over two pages in my document, there’s so many things i have not covered here but that’s fine, i'm quite sure any further thoughts will end up out there at some point.

---

sf9

costume

let’s get it out of the way......crop top. crop top? crop top. crop top.

ok, besides the crop top, i think i might actually like the backup dancer outfits more...? i find mannequin adjacent looks really fascinating and i thought there was a lot more they could have done here in connecting the two thematically. i actually think a change of costume on the boys would have been very interesting, especially because there was a lot of inference and direct reference to changes of colour.

ALL the backup dancers are wearing the same wig and i LOVE that.

special mention zuho’s.....jacket? the right idea but it absolutely should have been one of those extreme french cut bodysuits, you COWARDS. don’t come at me with this ‘male version of venus’ if you don’t have your whole torso out! come on!

set

not sure if this is meant to be a department store, a factory, or a white cube gallery. honestly you could make the case that they’re all the same place anyways. more on this later.

i loved the movator and wish they had used it more! that sequence was so good and they could have done some more interesting repetition sequences to further highlight the ‘sameness’/the breaking of that sameness.

i feel like the set could have been used more as a whole? i would have loved to see some mannequin interactions with those boxes, because all they did was dump colour everywhere.

....why did they feel the need to include the rain bit? i know it's likely because it's in the mv and at the 2018 dream concert taemin does perform move in the rain, but with the standing still and the box walls with the words it just looks like a department store ad. which i...dont think is what they were intending?

lighting

nothing really to say here. it has a similar feel to the mayfly rap stage, which is fine because the lighting for that was good. i could tell what was going on all the time and that’s the most important part. notable standouts are the lips sequence, that's fun use of pop iconography and very effective, and the scanning lasers at the beginning.

the repeating sequence in the edm dance break is actually done pretty simply, it's just what happens when you point a camera that’s livestreaming to a monitor directly at that monitor. it's a very cool effect and it was neat to see it used intentionally, especially with the handheld leds.

actually i also really liked the lightbox tables, those were cool.

sound

the remix was fine for the most part, it was about what i expected it to sound like. i did however greatly dislike that unnecessary edm break in the middle. what was the point of that? it didn’t add anything to the overall sound or arc of the stage because it was SO out of place. there was no connective tissue around it.

oh i was also not a fan of the effect on zuho’s mic. no one else had a discernible vocal effect so it felt a little out of place. also for some reason his cadence and tone right at the end made me think of some of the voices that bo burnam uses for his vocal masque sketches/songs, especially repeat stuff, weirdly? took me right the fuck out of it. i listened to it again after i slept and i’m still getting it, so maybe i’m just going insane so best ignore this part.

staging

loved the mannequin tree, not a clue why it was there.

do actually think this is a successful cover because it does what i was hoping it would, which is take move completely out of the taemin context and put it into an entirely new one. however, i’m really struggling to figure out what exactly that new context is? and what theyre trying to say with it?

obviously they went for a ‘show your own colours/individuality’ vibe, like i said in the set section, where exactly is this supposed to be? from the start i get factory/mechanized environment, which is fine and grand because mannequins and making repetitive motions and products and all that, makes sense. but then there’s stacked shelving type units happening and curtains and that combined with the mannequins give me pretty big department store vibes, which is also fine, because that’s still a comment on commercialization and the mass production of product. but then we get to the movator and the repetitive movements of the dancers say pretty clearly factory, but the lighting and projections are very pop art referential, plus combining that with the white set, just makes me think of an art gallery. so now is this a comment on the commercialization and commidification of contemporary art? are they making a statement about being ‘real’ artists among the others who have lost the critical understanding of why pop art was even a thing in the first place? and then the rain bit at the end literally looks like a department store ad, so are they then making another statement that they still are that packaged product? maybe the episode has more clarity in it but i’m genuinely a bit baffled by what the underlying statement is here.

i suspect it is not as deep as i'm making it, but i did say that i was likely to be hyper critical of this stage AND i am a grad student, so here we are.

---

tbz

costume

ok of all the ‘fourth gen’ style costumes we’ve seen, i actually like these ones more than most. i'm not entirely clear on the theme but i'm assuming it's meant to be post apocalyptic, and i'll take that.

backup dancers in black!!! we’re beyond this!!!

this will be a running theme with this stage, but i’m disappointed these don’t have more depth.

set

compared to every other stage, the set here seems especially plain. there’s so little set dec that it's disappointing. i do like the movement of the pieces themselves combined with the blocking; that first slide underneath the arches was slick and i would have liked to have seen more of that.

yea ok the big snake was cool and also a fairly complex build, but the transitions around it were a bit awkward for my tastes. especially the turn around, why did they even show that at all? you have control over what the audience sees, you can totally not show scenic transitions. skz were super smart about hiding theirs in last week’s episode.

also if you have a bigass puppet like that, i wanna see some more movement from it! it doesn’t have to be complex, we literally just saw a kraken balloon arm wave around aimlessly, but at least there was movement! that snake had a long ass body, why didn’t they at least take a pseudo dragon dance movement with it, that would have been such fun to watch with the iridescent scales. there was a lot of opportunity here!

lighting

i don’t hate it but also.... not a lot to say about it on the whole.

there were two really smart ideas here, the first being the front projection section, which i was SO glad to see! i explained in a previous review, but the projections in kingdom are not actually projections per se, because they’re actually massive led screens. there are two common types of projections in performance, rear projection and front projection. rear projection is when the projector is behind the screen, and front projection is ‘normal’ projection. rear projection can produce a crisper image because you have full control of the light values, because the projector is in a separate room from the performance space. but the downsides are that the projector has to be in a separate room from the performance space. so if you’re short on real estate, it's not ideal. front projection is much more common, because the tech is a lot cheaper and easier to access, especially now, and it requires less real estate because you can ceiling mount about the audience (you can move a projector wherever, this is just the most common spot in commercial theatres). but! in order to get an actually crisp image, you have to be really careful with your light bounce. it’s exactly the same principle as how you kinda can't see a projected screen when you have all the lights turned on, but when you turn them off it's a lot clearer. front projection works best in pitch dark, so when you use it in a theatre you gotta be smart about it. i use front projection a lot in my personal art practice as a singular light source, and that’s what tbz did here in that traveling/snake intro sequence. it’s a really fun technique that they used as a good gimmick because it’s not something we’ve seen before, and you get some great shadow effects because the projector is throwing light directionally at the performers (they have it set up close to the floor, it’s probably on a wheeled cart of some kind). however i did not like the snake intro. a bit too cheesy and out of place, especially because the asset quality didn’t match the rest of landscapes that we have been seeing.

the second smart idea, which is partially also a set and blocking thing but whatever, was that final image of the eclipse within the circle architecture with all the members standing in front of it. it was a great shot and a great ending pose, but it felt like a concept photo. like someone had that image as the idea that they then built the stage around, instead of a narrative first and then imagery after.

sound

this remix had SO much promise! those first two minutes were SO GOOD. i love that dirty discordant strings bit, it's gross and right up my alley. but it really fell off in the back half and i'm sad about that.

staging

i'm sorry tbz but.....what did you actually do differently than exo here? with the exception of the continual game of thrones references? nothing here felt transcendentally different from the original monster. and especially coming RIGHT after sf9’s move, which did go beyond its original context. this feels more like an awards show stage cover than a stage at the level of the others we’ve seen just this episode.

again like with the skz stage, there’s no conflict here. no tension. yes they do a great job covering the dance but it just isn’t enough! this is obviously personal preference and i'm sure lots of people liked the fact that it was uncomplicated, but even just a hint of narrative tension could have pushed this into more engaging territory. and if they didn’t want to do that, i would have loved to see them make up for that with extra visual spectacle. this is the no limits round! ikon is putting a full jungle on stage and these are grey cubes!

i think this is a perfect example of what i talked about at the end of my tbz section in my episode four review; this is a good performance, there are good elements at play and good ideas at their genesis, but the core of the issue is that nothing about this is transformative. all of the ideas here are just exaggerations of the original song. fuck, the snake was even IN the mv! and they didn’t even include the best part which is the lip chains! ive said before and i'll say it again; being a good artist has two steps, the first is understanding the material and its context, and the second is elevating the material from that context and synthesizing something new. tbz are really good at the first step, but terrible at the second.

---

ranking

btob - the cleanest and the most fun of the round. everything i wanted.

sf9 - fun and a good cover, despite being conceptually baffling.

ateez - very extra dramatic nonsense with an unexpected dose of sincerity. and it’s rock opera, of course i love it.

skz - fun, with some good thematic devices but generally lacking in arc. also australian accents, that’s an automatic ding.

tbz - honestly the first two minutes of the remix and the costume are holding this above 6th. it just wasn’t fully formed.

ikon - aesthetically this is a great set design and although i do love the opening and closing moments, everything else scrapes me the wrong way. super personal preference here, i’m not expecting anyone else to agree with me.

i feel like my rankings were probably pretty easy to guess if you’ve been around reading the reviews for long enough. i do have very specific tastes after all. i know sf9 ranked first in the episode but i have no idea what the other slots are. i’ll find out when i watch the episode in a couple of days, but i think yea a first for sf9 is fair. i do think its mostly because it’s a taemin song and you have to do something horrendous in order to fuck up a taemin song, but there is a lot of thought and work that went into that stage.

ok i'm done now, sorry this was later than usual, but i was busier and there were four stages that i had to review. also technical difficulties because tumblr is a garbage platform and nothing works properly. comments/questions/opinions always welcome, i know i didn't expand on a couple of points that i could have so hopefully y'all have some thoughts too!

* the type of hat that ~society~ has told you is a fedora is actually a trilby. what peniel is wearing is a real fedora, i felt the need to correct this unjust hat malignment.

** meaning ‘the appearance of being true or real.’ you do sometimes hear it used by normal people, but it’s more commonly used as a descriptor in film and theatre. it’s also one of the five rules of neoclassical theatre, which are: versimilitude, purity of form, five act structure, decorum, and purpose. the most prominent playwrights from that era are moliere and racine if youre interested in what those look like in an actual text.

[cinenthusiast]

dynamite thoughts: 2/9/22

just going to post aew thoughts here as a kind of livejournal-esque revival. this is really just for myself, but i wanted some way of keeping track of reactions as a fun kind of record!

- this was maybe my favorite episode of dynamite that i’ve seen. genuinely thrilling top to bottom. khan is, for better and worse, very good at bringing hype to the table. when it delivers it’s magic. this had such an event feel to it. is this how people feel about their superhero shit? it must be. keith lee coming in was very much predicted, but no less fire. he got a great pop, and the match was an excellent showcase for him. dude just oozes charisma and is so agile for his size. this was my first time seeing him and i was grinning ear-to-ear the entire time. isiah kassidy was great here too. jeff hardy will definitely be coming in once that clause is up and i assume the hardy boyz will have one last run together on aew, which could and would be beautiful

- the punk/mjf feud has been so hit-or-miss for me. the match was really excellent and such a journey, but the promos have often been way too drawn out and repetitive. but i really liked this week’s for a few reasons: it actually moved the story forward by having punk put it out in the open to wardlow that he should break from them. mjf got to have his coronation bit which was entertaining in the cheap heat way it ate up screentime. “*twice*...in chicago” was genuinely funny, and then finally, aew did something they never ever do in their promotion which was to have a match materialize in the course of the show. there are a lot of tropes they overuse (interference, backstage interviews get interrupted and turn into a brawl, roll-up finishes in the women’s matches, etc etc etc) but they never do this one, and so it was really really exciting to not only have punk need to find a tag partner as the show went on, but to then have it culminate in a barn burner with punk/mox teaming against ftr. all of that made this segment work for me more uniformly than some of their others (although punk had a really lame line at one point, i can’t even remember it, i blocked it out).

- wardlow rules, total star

- inner circle team meeting (lol). i’ve hated this lame faction since i started watching, but this turmoil within the group has been really compelling and i’m hoping hoping hoping it leads to them actually breaking up. everything santana & ortiz lay out in the promo is shoot true, and they deserve a real push and not to just continue to be folded into inner circle antics. sammy has risen to a real standing place in the company but S&O haven’t gotten their proper time to shine. Santana in particular is a star who cuts a great promo. everyone did a good job here (except, as always, jake, who has no idea where he is). it will be such a damn shame if jericho doesn’t use this tag match to put santana and ortiz over. i don’t get what jericho gets from this if he wins, and all it would do for S&O is prove to the audience that, see, you really do need the inner circle, which would be such a shitty thing for their careers. so i hope they book this smart and have S&O get to really shine and be put over in a big way.

- so excited to get to know jay white, and i love that bringing him in is story development for kenny even in his absence

- matt leaving a la jeff and the “erratic behavior” comment

- they seem to be building to rosa and britt for revolution which i can’t wait for

- i’ve gone from being lukewarm on FTR to absolutely loving what they are all about. they are the most reliable workers out there, and their moveset is so much more filled out and fluid than, like, most others on the roster. i feel like i’m always guaranteed, worst-case scenario, a good match from them. and their new theme is the best. they have so much chemistry together and i just love those guys. this match built up into something genuinely exciting and desperate feeling. off the rails but not chaotic, just very ALIVE. some great false finishes there too to get all of us even more worked up

- really hope we see more of AQA, she was great. really enjoyed this Jade match. her gimmick act is so well-polished but she’s also making improvement as a wrestler as well. i’ve genuinely enjoyed her last several matches for the most part instead of being let down by the way they go about getting her reps.

- main event was tremendous, another bloody match for page. the blood was so THICK wtf. lance is such a fabulous heel. i still think having lambert involved made no sense and was weak, but having jake the snake in there was perfect. i also loved the spot they gave him and that his whole thing was he just kept wanting to be let in for a taste while lance is like pls get out of my fight lol. and his disappointment lmao. expected lance to get in offense first and then page to come back but they really switched it up in the best way here. having it already starting before they can even do entrances, having it feel like we’re coming in in the middle, and then having page get in some sick shit first. they both put on such a show, seriously gnarly stuff. that steel stairs spot hurt ME just watching it (seriously, wtf, how is he alive) and then the final buckshot off the ref into the table was INSANE. this just ruled.

- then having adam cole come out right at the end was the cherry on top. i’ve been waiting to see cole get serious. he has such a natural comic presence but he’s been beefing with the best friends for so long (combined with certain recurring bits like the kiss, cutler, etc) hat it has come to feel like the goofy portion of the show when they have a match. which i enjoy a lot and has its place, but i’ve wanted cole to switch gears for a couple of months now. so i’m excited to see him get down to more business. i’m also waiting to get some sense of fish & o’ reilly as a tag team. i know other people know them from nxt etc but i feel like they just brought kyle in and have done zilch with him yet. i’m not into bobby fish but i’d like to get a sense of what kyle can do and of them as an active tag team presence instead of them just hanging around cole and the young bucks with all the untapped tension that comes with that. but yeah, great moment to leave off on

[catcze]

ooo more lore !! i don't usually use the wiki, i just look through items myself & i don't have those so i wasn't aware :0 wait watch me go on a wiki dive all night now adkhskdhfk. i do have a bit of a theory tho!

2.1 archon quest spoilers //

ok i'm probably gonna look like a clown when i'm proven wrong, but part of me kinda doubts signora's actually dead?? like, she seemed like a pretty major character, and it was so sudden. i know keeping her alive would undercut ei's power, but to be fair she hasn't had the gnosis for awhile, so the musou no hitotachi might not be as strong as it was when she slew orobashi, for example.

at the end, signora didn't use her vision(?) or delusion, opting to reach for ei's gnosis (that's what it looked like to me idk). which makes me think - if she wasn't using her pyro, why did she disintegrate to embers & ash instead of something more indicative of the lightning that killed her? i suppose it could just be a visual reference to how her body is made of liquid flame, but mayyyybe she did activate her pyro abilities at the last second to escape, and that's why her 'death' looked the way it did.

during the battle she seemed to be able to move pretty quickly in a pyro form of sorts, so what if she kinda.. dissolved into embers and disappeared of her own will? maybe she timed it right, or maybe she was hit by the musou no hitotachi - she is based on moths i think which have a sort of cycle of rebirth, and she did enter an ice chrysalis(?) mid-fight. so what if she's recuperating elsewhere in stasis like that, only to be 'reborn' later on in the game? many thoughts rn,,

idk, i'm sure i'm missing some points here, and i'm not rly convinced one way or another myself - i just think it would be cool if we saw more of her somehow hehe. as much as i love the whole 'mc befriends former bad guys they defeat' trope, it was refreshing to see a villain like her imo!

and yess, i've loved watching traveler grow more impatient & testy as the story progresses. altho the scene after signora's fight was.. a bit anticlimactic with my seelie dancing behind me lmao?? everything was dark & glitchy, traveler's silent, paimon's recounting the gruesome tale, and there's mr. bubblegum- "ubwbelbebrbeweb <3" doing flips in the background kdhfkhfsdkf - 🐺

GENSHIN SPOILERS

I mean, it's a possibility ! After all, genshin is supposed to go on for 7+ (10?) years, so any sorts of twists and turns are definitely probably down the line. There were also some leaks a few months ago that,,, kind of ? support this theory, if you squint.

But! Regarding what you said about her reaching for the gnosis, I'm afraid that's not quite possible, since it later gets revealed that it was with Yae, and then later traded to Scaramouche.

But yes!! I deffo do think it's plausible (maybe even possible, if more evidence surfaces over time and with more lore reveals) that she could have dodged a hit. It would be interesting to have that kind of twist to the story, but I do kind of agree that it,,, does put a damper on the Shogun's strong image ? Idk and I feel like some people might consider it a 'cheap' twist, espescially considering the heaviness that befell the traveller (maybe guilt ?? idk, that's how i personally interpret it) during that sort of slow, dark walk out of Tenshukaku. Not to mention how I think that seeing Signora die directly or indirectly because of the traveller's actions is something that I'm interested to see in the future, regarding on how this knowledge might change the travellers attitude towards others, if it'll push them to be more ruthless, or if it would make them a bit more hesitant to fight after they've seen a strong foe like Signora die because of losing the duel to them.

And in a way,,, i don't know, and this is kind of opinionated, but I feel like killing Signora then reviving her would,,, be somewhat unsatisfying ? Because,,, it kinda feels like Genshin is going down a slightly different path now. It's grown a bit heavier and darker with the occurrence of its first on-screen death (and major off-screen death w/ Teppei) and i feel like turning around in the future and saying 'oh! actually this character isn't dead' feels too much like a 'take-back' or like they're backing out of that darker theme, which feels a bit unsatisfactory given that he archon quest has begun to push that sort of narrative, and it's an interesting route to go, considering we've seen the heaviness that meeting their sibling that has (presumably) pushed the sibling into being more direct in wanting to complete their mission (in how, at first, they just wanted to see the shogun, and not get wrapped up in the whole resistance thing) and how angry they got when Teppei died. Personally, 'taking back' something as big as the first character who the traveller is indirectly/directly responsible for killing feels,,, very much like they're just pandering to younger audiences, and i feel like it would be a cheap twist or a disservice to the heaviness that befell the traveller after the fight itself.

but idk thats just my opinion lmao,, wanting her to revive is valid too!! And i deffo agree that is was sooo refreshing to see a villain that was,,, wel, a villain. One without any highlighted redeeming qualities. One that's just bad. It was nice hahha

ALSO PLS THE SEELIE ASKJDN I love the name you've given him HAHAHA <33 also !! hope u enjoyed the lore dive, if you've done it. I mostly stick to the wiki instead of the game, since like you can open links in the paragraph instead of having to rifle through all the stuff in the game HAHHA

[cosmic-chelonian]

Can I just have a moment to say how much I love the final episode of series 5 of All Creatures, Two of a Kind. Forget high-stakes drama, the touching and well-executed character work of this episode had me enraptured. I admit I said 'awwwww' several times during the course of the episode.

More under the cut, because this became quite a long outpouring of emotion!

First of all, this is such a brilliant Calum episode. I was afraid when he was first introduced that he'd just be a cheap Tristan substitute, but gosh was I wrong! Two of a Kind shows off the less-than-pleasant sides of his character (his jealousy over Deirdre, his snappiness towards James) but balances that out with such heart-warming scenes that make him a well-rounded personality. His genuine love for wild animals, one of his most endearing characteristics, is genuinely charming here as he sits up all night cradling the fox in his arms. When it's released into the wild, his investment in its safety made me more genuinely involved in the plot that a gritty drama ever could. While the hunting pack seen earlier in the episode doesn't actually kill the fox, its presence hangs over the rest of the episode, reminding us of the gut-wrenching possibility that the fox will be shot dead any moment in spite of Calum's doting attentions. To have killed it on screen would perhaps have been too depressing for a feel-good show and would detract from the drama of the other plot threads, but the decision to leave the fox's fate as uncertain is still effective.

This episode packs a double punch with another harrowing plot thread, that of the ailing Mr Fawcett and his cat, Frisk. It's a return to the classic early-season plot thread of 'old guy has nothing to live for but pet, pet is on the brink of death, pet dies/ old guy dies', but it's a trope I love. Season 4 and 5 seem to focus more on the drama at Skeldale and the practice's more comical clients, and I didn't realise how much I missed the episodes focusing on the lives and troubles of other Darrowby folk, the source of some really touching character drama. Though the deathbed scene is a difficult thing to pull off without becoming overdone, I think Two of a Kind manages it, with Fawcett's selfless attitude holding out until the end. I think this story has to be up there with the best 'pet gets sick, man dies' plots in acgas, along with the very harrowing suicide of Paul Cotterell (the fabulous Nicholas Courtney) in 1980's Matters of Life and Death.

The 'C' plot of Two of a Kind is equally as interesting, if not as emotionally charged. I've always enjoyed episodes which see the vets confronting change, the passing of time and new technology, the joy and the sorrow which comes with this. The onset of war at the end of season 3 and the characters' reactions were absolutely fascinating to watch (the interaction between Siegfried and Tristan as they sit looking out over the Dales after the outbreak of war is one of the best scenes in the show). Equally, Siegfried's wonder at the marvels of radio sets, new cars and modern medicine is a joy to watch and explores the period setting beautifully. Putting the historic first television broadcast to Yorkshire in the context of the show really brings the excitement of the event alive, from Hardy's endearingly enthusiastic reactions to the television set to the look of pure fascination on the face of Mr Chandler as he watches Muffin the Mule, of all things. Witnessing real events through their eyes truly slots the show into history instead of the kind of disconnected fantasy world it otherwise occupies. Part of the joy of the Herriot books is the fact they serve up a little slice of a time and a place in such vivid detail. The show lost this vibrancy a bit when it stopped basing the episodes off the books, and so Two of a Kind was a very welcome return to the feel of the early seasons. All in all, a brilliant episode, and definitely my favourite since the series' revival.

Also, the episode's IMDb page had this gem:

[clanwarrior-tumbly]

Ok so dan vs is probably getting a revival geared more towards adults and I only hope that they stick with the clever shit and not resort to cheap adult humor. I wouldn't mind a few more adult themes, but I don't want the writing to devolve if that makes sense. I like when a show has dark humor without trying so hard to make it "adult" and "edgy."

Also yeah this is the new hyperfixation I'm memorizing the TV tropes page as we speak.

-ENON

Oh fr??? Nice

I thought it was already geared to adults gjshg

[panharmonium]

next round of in-progress naruto thoughts under the cut

[i actually haven’t progressed that far from where i was last time, honestly, but i could feel myself getting to a stage where i had some things i needed to write up.]

fyi, this one is a little more gripe-y than usual - still enjoying myself, but there are some things in the current arc that are bugging me.

[spoiler policy disclaimer first, as always: I am watching naruto for the first time and have only gotten to the point where naruto and bee break out of the island barrier and leave to join the war.  i am trying to avoid spoilers, so please don’t interact with this (tags included, because the notifications now show them to me automatically) with any spoilery commentary, including even general things like “oh i love this show but it gets less good after X point” or “X season is better than Y season” or any general assessments of quality/likability/etc re: future seasons.  Thank you! <3 ]

anyway, to go ahead with my grousing -

there are a couple things about this current arc that have me feeling "ehhh.”

1) too many dead people

i’ve personally always been lukewarm on the “revive/reanimate dead characters for the Confrontation Value” trope, which is probably due to me having been a comics fan for so long (i was pretty deep into DC-land during Blackest Night, and that’s not even the first/last time this sort of thing has been done there, so).  i’m not saying it CAN’T be done in an interesting way, but most of the time my experience with it has been that it’s kind of cheap/redundant storytelling.  it usually doesn’t add much to an emotional arc, for me, and when it retreads an emotional arc that did have a strong conclusion, i feel like all it does is weaken the original story.  

so like - places where i feel like shippuden does this well are with minato and kushina.  i found both of those scenes with naruto to be powerful moments that added something new to the story/to naruto’s development.  (but they’re not even part of the whole reanimation jutsu plotline, which is what i’m mostly feeling “eh” on, so it’s not even the greatest example.)

a place where i’m kind of in the middle is with asuma.  on the one hand, i really don’t think that this needed to happen, because the original story arc with him was SO strong.  however, they did kind of redeem themselves in a way by focusing the redux on choji instead of shikamaru, so at least they were still saying/exploring something something new.

places where i’m still pretty dubious are pretty much...everyone else.  i’m just not sure...well, i don’t know.  i can’t really say definitively how i feel about it until i get to the end of the arc and see how it ends, but at the current moment, i’m just not sure what we get out of seeing people like zabuza+haku, lady chio, itachi, nagato, etc....ALL of those stories had such powerful endings; it just makes me leery of these “resurrections” invalidating everything we saw previously/weakening the impact of what came before.

2) mixed messaging

this is my bigger gripe, and it’s something i’ve kind of had floating on the edges of my mind for a long time, but this season especially is highlighting it.

the one thing that is guaranteed to make me frustrated about this show (besides its obvious disinterest in female characters) is when it starts to lean super hard into the “Naruto Is The Only One Who Can Do It!” for every single task that needs to be completed.  and i know this is a stupid thing to complain about when the show is literally titled “Naruto,” but the reason it gets frustrating is because the initial message of this show was never “one super special person must do everything on their own and save everyone else.”  the original message of this show was teamwork.  

the very first lesson kakashi teaches the kids (and the foundation upon which the rest of the story has been built) is “you are stronger together.”  if you had all come at me together, you might have been able to take [the bells]!  he specifically criticizes naruto for working alone: “naruto - you do EVERYTHING on your own.  EVERYTHING.”  and that’s understood to be the Wrong Thing; it’s the reason naruto ends up tied to the stump.  but in the last few seasons especially (though there have definitely been previous moments where this has shown up before) the ONLY thing we keep hearing is how naruto has to accomplish everything by himself.  

it didn’t bother me in the Pain arc; i actually thought that confrontation was appropriate and necessary for naruto’s development.  but ever since then, it’s escalated to a point where now it’s like - “naruto is the only one who can fight sasuke!  naruto is the only one who can defeat madara!  naruto is the only one who can stop the war!  naruto is the only one who can erase everybody’s hatred!”  

and that’s the point at which i start to get frustrated, because my mind is like “okay, and the other characters are going to be doing...what, exactly?”

again, maybe it’s stupid to complain about that when the show is literally titled “Naruto.”  but i don’t think so.  title notwithstanding, this story at its heart was, in the beginning, an ensemble show with four main characters, whereas nowadays, the messaging is that only one of those characters can actually accomplish anything.  so i get kind of resentful, when i’m told that the other members of the team can’t do anything but step back and hold naruto up, because the essential message of this story has ALWAYS been “teamwork is more important than anything.  you are NEVER stronger by yourself.  we ALL have something to contribute.”

right now, the other characters feel like they’ve just been shunted off to do busywork.  none of them have grown or changed at all since the end of season 10 (and even the end of season 10 was starting to slide into the “only naruto can do anything about sasuke in the end blah blah” - yes it’s a huge pet peeve of mine but it is what it is; whatever; moving on).  we haven’t even SEEN sasuke since the end of season 10.  there’s been no consideration given to how kakashi is handling being drafted into a second war and being put in charge of 20,000 lives (and his clash with zabuza was just a vehicle for all the characters to reflect once again on how great naruto is).  there’s been virtually ZERO attention given to how sakura is handling things, minus that one scene where she’s looking at gory pictures from the previous great ninja war.  everybody is just marking time, punching a bunch of identical white zetsus until naruto can come solve the problem and wow everyone with his new abilities.

part of my annoyance might just be due to the fact that the timeline is so wonky due to filler arcs - it feels like ages have passed for me, but in-universe it really hasn’t been all that long.  but i also think there are legitimate reasons for me to be frustrated, when the show introduces things and then just unceremoniously drops them without any indicator of when they might be picked up again.  like - the uchiha genocide reveal was (i thought) a Huge Fucking Deal that should have Major Repercussions - but it’s just kind of.....disappeared as an issue???  and yamato - he’s been CAPTURED!!!!!!  but the show has not shown a single character reacting to this, or even being informed that it happened, and i think that’s shitty, actually.  yamato isn’t a minor character.  he’s been naruto’s personal guardian since season 2.  he has done SO MUCH for the kids, and he is kakashi’s friend, and i think it is shitty to have him get captured by the same people who experimented on him as a child and then not spend a second or two making it clear that other characters CARE about this.  

anyway.  this is just something that’s been creeping up on me as time goes on, and the last few episodes of “Naruto is the Savior of the Entire World” talk just made it feel more immediate, i guess.  plus the new intro (which i know may not be reliable; sometimes they show things that never happen) had a shot of naruto fighting itachi, and i think that tipped me over the edge, lmao, because you know what?  enough!!!!!  naruto can’t be the one who gets to do EVERYTHING!  some stories are not about him!  there are other characters who have relationships that are not about naruto.  there are places where other characters should be able to accomplish things naruto can’t do.  the other main characters should be allowed to complete their personal arcs, separate from (not just secondary to) naruto’s journey.

like - just - this is how i feel: this show started out as a story about a group of four people, and the root theme was “teamwork is everything.”  i don’t like how the show has slowly started to mutate into a story about naruto’s “solitary” quest to save sasuke, when we have seen MANY TIMES that: 

a) sakura was the first of the kids who even knew that something was wrong with sasuke, while naruto remained utterly oblivious all the way through shonen jump (and partway into shippuden, tbh)

b) kakashi in the past has connected with sasuke in ways that NEITHER of the two kids have been able to achieve

i just don’t like it.  i don’t like how S10 had sakura say the line “naruto...you were the first one to ever see the darkness in sasuke...” when she’s reflecting on their fight on top of the hospital, because that is a LIE.  it’s a blatant retcon.  of the kids, sakura was the one who knew from the very beginning that something was wrong with sasuke.  she was the one who was with him when he had that semi-dissociative episode during the bells test.  she was the one who was with him during all the curse mark stuff in the forest of death.  she was the one who knew something was off when he challenged naruto to a fight - naruto was just psyched that sasuke wanted to “spar” with him!  and SHE was the one who suspected that sasuke might do something as drastic as leave the village - naruto explicitly told her not to worry; that sasuke was totally fine; he would never ever do something like that!

like - the show already barely gives sakura anything for herself; now they try to take this away from her, too?  and give it to naruto?  to hammer in a kind of connection between naruto and sasuke that demonstrably did not exist??  (i’m not saying that naruto and sasuke don’t have their own important relationship!  but it is just provably untrue that naruto was the person who understood sasuke best.  shonen jump goes out of its way to demonstrate how clueless naruto is about what sasuke is really like and what he’s going through.  naruto is SHOCKED that sasuke would go to orochimaru.  he doesn’t realize that their fight on top of the hospital is anything more than their usual rivalry business.  when sasuke pops out of the coffin behind kimimaro, naruto waves and starts laughing, because he thinks sasuke is still on their side and is going to run right home!  and even in shippuden, when naruto hears that orochimaru is dead, he gets all excited and goes “so sasuke must be on his way back to the leaf village!!! :D”  like.  he just doesn’t get it.)

and i won’t really get into kakashi’s side of things here, because i would end up writing too much, but suffice to say that i am just...wary of the way it feels like recent parts of the show are trying to minimize or...push aside the real, textually-documented connections that kakashi and sakura had with sasuke in favor of “Only Naruto Can Help!”  it frustrates me.  kakashi made inroads with sasuke that neither of the kids ever achieved.  sasuke talks to kakashi in a more honest way than he ever does with either of his peers, even when he’s out of his head with rage.  and i would prefer to see this show taking the angle that all three of sasuke’s team members are going to be indispensable for saving him.  

you know.  like teamwork.

[garbagewhump]

No Coffin Can Contain My Love for this trope

AKA I am a huge sucker for resurrection and immortality. Like, all the fun of grieving and mourning and I get to bring them back for more misery? Please. Pretty please with a bloody bow on top. 

I would check my posts and see if I’ve already done one like this, but I am far too lazy to bother and too self-indulgent to stop myself from going on another tangent.

So just gonna ramble a bit. Warning for gore, death, medical torture and starvation.

Whumpee is dead. D-E-A-D. Pushing up daisies. Then they get resurrected by a well-meaning loved one. As happy as their lover is to have them back, Whumpee saw things while dead. Things that terrify them and leave them breathless, sweaty and screaming at night. 

Alternatively Whumpee experienced the afterlife and it was glorious and now they’ve been taken away from it. Maybe they can never go back now, to add insult to injury. They begin to resent their lover. They are desperate to return to the afterlife, through whatever means necessary. 

Whumpee has been revived. Trouble is, their soul is back in their same body. Their damaged, broken, possibly in pieces, body. This pleases nobody.

Whumpee is tortured to death and revived for more torture. *chef’s kiss* It’s so simple yet effective and it never fails to make me deliriously happy to read or watch. 

Looking at you @redwingedwhump. 

The Whumpee is immortal and cannot stay dead. Notice the phrasing here. They can die, repeatedly, they’ll just keep coming back, regenerating and healing as required. Obviously this makes them the perfect whumpee. Want to force them to breathe around the literal metal pole through their chest? Go for it. Want them to be vivisected? Go for it. 

Related to the above, when the possibility of their death becomes a cheap idea in anyone’s head. 

The whumpee themselves considers their life expendable? Great, now you got the ultimate self-sacrificing whumpee that will go through hell and come back ready for more.

The whumper? During conditioning, they use fatal methods of enforcing their rules.The sky’s the limit when you can break your toy into a million pieces and still be able to play with it at the end of it all.

The whumpee’s friends, family, team? “So you died again, big deal.” It becomes an inconvenience at most for them. The sky’s blue, water is wet, and whumpee might die a few times a day depending on the day. Also, no sympathy points. The first couple deaths you get the comfort, the rest? Get over it. It’s old news at this point.

The leader always sending whumpee for the dangerous missions. Whumpee is happy that their friends aren’t in danger-- but it hits even better if the team is just using them and feigning companionship.

I actually really adore this one because I am a simple man with simple tastes but: the villain/antagonist whumpee is slated for execution for their crimes.

Only they managed to make themselves immortal before capture. And you can’t kill the unkillable. 

So first, the Good Guys try all sorts of methods of killing them, just to be thorough. 

Firing squad, hanging, lethal injection, ritual sacrifice. They have to get creative, just to be thorough. And maybe do a few of them in public, just so the people can watch and be satisfied that justice is being served.  

But eventually it’s little more than a waste of time and effort to kill them actively. That’s better spent on more important things. 

Let them rot, the good guys say. And so Whumpee is thrown into a dark, dank cell deep underground. 

For a while, they are given food and drink. It’s hard bread and dirty water, but it’s almost enough. Then it stops coming. 

They can’t die. They can’t die but oh they can thirst and they can waste away. 

And they can be forgotten. 

The Whumpee died and was brought back to life Wrong. 

Maybe they didn’t come back at all, it’s someone else in their skin. 

Maybe they came back 100 years too late.

Maybe they came back without their memories, or the wrong memories, and maybe they come back in the company of someone who manipulates this tabula rasa in their mind.

Maybe they came back and brought back a hitchhiker or two and have to share now.

Maybe they came back and have an irresistible hunger for something horrific. Maybe they’re disgusted and tormented by these new desires.... and maybe they aren’t.