#this storyline makes me so profoundly depressed

[eorzeashan]

Thoughts about Echoes of Oblivion: I consider Eight to be cosmically insignificant. That he's just a blip in the giant lifeform that is the Force. It doesn't make him any less important than the next character, but he's not some grand savior or even anything next to say, the Hero of Tython. He doesn't even show up on Force radars half the time. This obviously clashes with a major portion of KOTFE/ET and after that keeps trying to make you somebody, but he is literally nobody. The fact that he matters so much to someone like Jadus who is a gigantic presence and galaxy-shaker delights the hell out of me, but it only makes him special to their relationship, not the rest of the world.

To that end, I think not even Arcann would remember him. Senya would still be angry; she deserves to be and they both made and accepted their choice with him as their murderer. He holds nothing against her if she wants him to suffer for the rest of his life. Given the tweaking of his role as Outlander however, I'm unsure of whether Arcann would hold the same grudge. He might, given this nobody killed his entire family-- but Eight barely spoke, and I think Arcann's vitriol is much more directed at an Outlander who... has a presence at all. Eight might have appeared as just an unknown soldier to him. But I suppose even he needed someone to hate, if he could never reach his father. It's hard for me to imagine him doing so for Eight however, as he did promise he'd defeat him in his stead.

Oddly enough, this time Vaylin had no objections compared to a LS playthrough which is very sad given she must have just wanted to be free of her life of pain and misery, so it made me sigh in relief a little. She deserved a bit of catharsis. It's ironic that the path most would assume would heal her made her more overcome with rage. As mentioned before, it's strange how she and Eight sometimes would silently see eye to eye like that. Maybe that's just how those mired in endless violence are.

I also don't think they needed him to be there for this one given a huge chunk of the vital Force-users there were like uh.... we hate this guy for killing us. Made it really awkward.

It's nice to think of Eight as one of those nameless phantoms in the back who show up just to get a good hit in for Valkorion though, and while I don't think he couldn't do such a thing, he's more of the whimsical surprise character who shows up mysteriously out of nowhere to wreak havoc while simultaneously being helpful and acting on his own agenda (Jadus sends his regards!).

It still got me though when Valkorion pulled him to the side alone and asked him if he really did kill his entire family without being controlled-- I was very curious about the point of lying about it, which I imagine would've been good for RP purposes, but Eight would never shirk the responsibility or the weight of his decisions-- his kills. Valkorion laughed and said he must have enjoyed it if he was so steadfast in his conviction, but Eight would never. Not that him or his family could understand, as they've only known emotions that lead to murder their entire lives. The curse of being empaths, I suppose.

Though I had to pick the apology button to Senya, he wouldn't do that either. He didn't do it then. He couldn't do it now, and she knew it was too late for feelings (it always is. at some point you give up on justifications. you accept this as who you are) and so she brushed past him saying his time would come, and Arcann saying he would suffer eventually.

Ironically, he'd never turn that on them had their situations been reversed. Not that the game had any neutral options for this expac, haha.

He probably wished he got to stay outside Satele's head with Theron. There's something symbolic about him finding the loneliest, coldest vistas of Valkorion's barren mind filled with darkness as comforting, like it's the only place in the galaxy where he could ever be. KOTFE/ET... really made it apparent how other people became his hell, when all they could see was a tool for their victory and a bloody knife to blame.

He was oddly happy when Valkorion didn't remember him. He was grateful. Thank the stars. I should wish to be forgotten.

Then the arc tied off with a cheeky nod waking up to the same Lana with a stim like the PC does first leaving carbonite, but it was more bittersweet than anything to once again jet off...somewhere with her knowing Eight's history with the one he deferred to this entire expac. He tiredly went "I don't care," when she asked him where to go next, just the two of them in a shuttle again. No further words were exchanged and we don't know where she picked, but that summarizes their relationship pretty well: being dragged off not even half-awake by Lana without asking lol. He's still her agent even now, huh?

...Though given the garbage fire and lots of dead people that resulted because of their disastrous power dynamic, I could very clearly hear the frantic holocall from Theron ringing 30 minutes later asking where the kriff she's taking him and to put him back right now.

[retrieve-the-kraken]

Okay, I just finished watching Sex Education, and I will be honest, I was very… underwhelmed.

I know this show means a lot to a lot of people, and I can see why, and I liked parts of it, but to me it started out very strong and ended so disappointingly.

I was captivated by the struggles of some of the characters, by how their stories were weaved into one another, but that’s easier to do when you have a handful of characters. By season 3, there were so many characters, and the creators seemingly insisted on developing each individual storyline as profoundly as possible, but that just resulted in stories being presented and resolved in a rush, sometimes inexplicably, and it all felt just very clunky. I tried to suspend my disbelief of how time passed in this universe, how one storyline seems to be moving slower than another in the span of the same day, but it became so glaringly obvious that it came down to shoddy editing, and too many loose ends to trie to tie up.

By season 4, I didn’t have enough time to connect with anyone new, didn’t feel like any of the new characters was actually given enough time and space to unfold properly. It was just jam-packed with tropes and themes and difficult topics that deserved much better development. Like Cal’s dysphoria, or Viv’s abusive relationship, or Isaac’s and Aisha’s disabilities, or O’s asexuality, or even Jean and Joanna’s difficult relationship and Jean’s postpartum depression (in fact, I feel like Jean really got done dirty this season, because she was an interesting character the whole way, and she went through a lot, she almost died, she’s going through massive heartbreak, and those things are never addressed again except that one little moment, and Otis is THE ABSOLUTE WORST to her in this season…)

And that did not happen, of course, to the characters from the first two seasons, they got to be fully developed and nuanced and you get to examine their whole stories and they make sense. You get to see Aimee deal and come to terms and put behind her the sexual assault, you get to see Maeve get out and then have massive doubts about her talent and see her dreams interrupted once more by her mother’s overdose and her brother going down the same path; you get to see Eric come fully into his own skin with his sexuality and struggle with the fact that he might have to choose between that and his community; you get to see Adam go from bully to realizing his sexuality to realizing what has made him into a bully to trying to change and be honest to himself and others; you get to see why Ruby is the way she is but also that it’s all just a front and why it’s hard for her to not put up walls.

It felt like, by season 3, the creators were just ticking boxes: non-binary character, check; trans characters, check; characters with disabilities, check; boy with two mums inexplicably wanting to find their biological father, check… It felt a little like (and I swear this comparison hurts me the most) watching Glee.

(Remember Glee? Most people would say ‘well Glee walked so that Sex Education and Heartstopper and Young Royals, etc could run’… No, unfortunately it feels more like Glee took two steps and then stumbled horrible so that these other shows could run. And sadly, in my opinion, Sex Education didn’t fair much better…).

It made me sad to learn about how LGBTQIA+ activist and ace representative Yasmin Benoit collaborated with the Sex Education creators to create a character that was a well-rounded representation of the asexual community, but in the end they turned her into the season’s villain and for no good reason. I understand people’s frustration with that, especially Yasmin’s, because it felt like it could have been handled much better. And as an acespec person myself I would have been more upset about this too, were it not for the fact that everything else was so bad in comparison that O being turned into a villain felt like the least of this season’s problems.

Something else that bothered me was that, whilst Sex Education is a satire and a lot of the characters are caricatures (like Ruby being the popular glamorous bitch with her two cronies who do everything she says, and Aimee is the bimbo with the heart of gold, and Mr Groff is the stuffy narrow-minded professor, and Lily is the unashamed weird girl, etc), there is a fine line between caricature and cartoon, and some of the characters went too far. Like Hope in season 3 was too much of a cartoon villain, and Molloy being the admirable but former literature sensation who is brutally harsh with his students; and Beau going from flirty to abusive in .5 seconds; and Joanna being the over-the-top disaster person. There is no further substance to these people, they are just there to fulfill a role as a foe to one of the main characters, but the lack of realism makes them very underwhelming, and all the plots associated with them become predictable and boring…

And this might be a very unpopular opinion but… at first the whole Otis and Maeve thing, although clichéd, seemed like a nice idea, but the more time passed, and especially with the way that Otis became in the last season, by the end of it I really didn’t like it at all. It felt like Maeve deserved a lot better.

Otis was a somewhat interesting character in the beginning, and I could sympathize with him for all his flaws and the way that he tried to help people but ultimately couldn’t deal with his own shit. But it was so frustrating to see him making the same mistakes over and over, to the point where it affected his relationship with everyone important, from his mum to his best friend to his girlfriend.

Not that the show had to be perfect. No show is perfect, but it truly felt like the creators had a really good idea but didn’t figure out how to wrap it up, and promptly cornered themselves and then were fighting their way out of that corner…

My favorite things about the show, though, were:

-Anything with Eric (except maybe that whole thing about him and his bully becoming a thing, because that was disturbing, but I really really liked when Otis brought this up, and I really really hated when Eric got defensive about it, and I also reaaaaally hated when Eric got mad at Adam for not wanting to have anal sex, like he didn’t even want to talk about it, you’re better than that, Eric Effiong).

-Despite this, Adam and Eric not having a happy ending together was a breath of fresh air, because as much as they were cute together (I just reaaaaally wish Adam hadn’t been the former bully) they weren’t right for each other.

-Aimee’s whole journey from being with Adam to being with Steve, to ditching the Untouchables for a meaningful friendship with Maeve, to exploring what she wanted to do, to coming to terms with her assault, to discovering art as a way to express herself. She really is one of my favorite characters.

-Colin and Ms Sands were my absolute favorites too, and them coming back for one episode, and Colin playing With Or Without You at the funeral. And Ms Sands always wanting Maeve to fulfill her potential, and trying to help Adam and even coming to see him in the dog show.

-Any moment when Eric is just fabulous, especially wearing that kilt at the queer night club. Ncuti Gatwa is truly one of the most beautiful men in this world, and he just can’t help but sparkle. He is the sparkly one.

-And as I said before, Adam’s poem to Eric, absolutely broke my heart.

-I loved the set design and costume design on the show, it was so unexpected for everything to feel so old-fashioned, and I wonder if there’s a meaning to that. Also, Jean and Otis’s house is my absolute dream house. I do wonder however what happened to all the penis and vagina decoration.

-I really liked the variety of characters and how we got a diversity of storylines and tackled a lot of important topics, but I just wished they had done a better job at it.

That’s about it. This turned out way longer than I expected. But I’d been putting off watching this show for so long, despite how relevant it became, and was really disappointed that I didn’t like it as much, so I had to vent.

[bourbon-ontherocks]

this is the depressing ask. beware. 😂 

first I want to thank the writers for so helpful reminding us of 305 with the line about naked suspects. clearly, morgane wasn’t there to witness adam’s frightful interrogation because she’d have eviscerated him then and there (that’s what I like to think, at least). 

bref. the ending. are we really doing this? I feel like this conversation’s been had a thousand times before yet the show doesn’t seem to have heard any of it. or doesn’t care. (I’ll let you list off the reasons why it’s an awful twist, if you feel up to it, because I’m frankly too tired for that) 

I hate the way they showed a sonogram as if to hammer home she’s carrying a child, not a fetus, when it's the other way round. I hate the mamma mia montage, as if figuring out whose genes are involved is the priority. I hate the 306 retcon, get this shit away from me, both their drinks were spiked. I hate that we’re supposed to believe none of these grown adults (the ones who weren’t drugged, at least) considered protection. especially morgane--she’s had DREAMS about this, ffs, there’s no way that wouldn’t cross her mind. I hate the ramifications of every single way this could go down (too long to expound but you get me). I hate that there’s even a shred of doubt about how this will go down. I hate that they served us some watered-down so-called feminist juice for a whole season and still decided to use morgane’s body as an open ground for drama. 

given the way they’ve addressed the question in the ep, I’m very pessimistic about s4. Idk about you but my only solace is knowing it’s out of our hands, anyway, so I don’t have to waste my energy trying to change anybody’s mind. 

thanks for sticking along on this ride. wouldn't have had it any other way. and good luck for the year ahead of us, everybody. the only way out is through! 🤞

Nodding along at everything you said because yeah, and also while I liked Adam's line about naked suspects, your point about Morgane finding out about it just gave me a fantastic idea to add to my WIP, so thank you for that!

Now for the ending.

I think there are two main points to distinguish here because obviously, my personal distaste for pregnancy and baby storylines makes the idea of Morgane bearing a fourth child everything I don't want to see. BUT, had the circumstances been wildly different, I could have come to terms with it and accepted it, as in "Yeah I don't like this turn of events but I can get over it because it makes sense narratively and serves an interesting purpose". What actually makes this finale awful are the circumstances of this pregnancy, and now we're getting to the essay-ish part of this post where I'll try to explain

Why HPI finale is lazy, infuriating, and profoundly anti-feminist

Just like you point out, this mamma mia scenario was already explored in… well… mamma mia, plus countless other stories, zero originality here, I expected better from HPI tbh. And I read just yesterday an interview with the producer saying "Season 4 be like, we're looking for a baby daddy instead of a murderer lolilol", yea guess what, I DON'T CARE. For a while after watching the episode, I dared to hope that the montage in the end was purposefully misleading, that soon Morgane would come to her senses and remember that she did use protection with at least Timothée and David, because I 100% agree with you, it's ridiculous to make us believe that none of these people ever had a thought about contraception. Timothée even said "We're not trying yet", which means he kinda knows how not to try, no? And also I can accept the idea that Morgane isn't on any kind of birth control because it happens (some women react badly to pills and IUDs, etc), but she was with Ludo for half a season so they must have used condoms, she has to know and think about it (and like you said, she's DREAMED of it, and explicitly said that SHE DIDN'T WANT A FOURTH KID - I'll get to that later because it makes me fume). Besides, she's had three kids already, she knows how this all works. So yeah, it's lazy and implausible.

What I find particularly infuriating in this 3-baby-daddies plotline is also the deeply misogynistic trope of seeing a female character unable to enjoy an unapologetic sex life with multiple partners without getting punished by the script with an unwanted pregnancy. This is the literal definition of slut-shaming by the way. I was going to say that I didn't see where you found feminist vibes in the show, but then I remembered how much I loved the way Morgane expresses her feminity, her desire, and her sexuality, and…. yea, this is exactly the point I'm trying to make (also I loved seeing childfree, 40+ characters who were thriving but that's another discussion I guess). Seeing that we're still there in 2023 legitimately makes me sick.

Speaking of misogynistic tropes… I guess the ONE detail that really makes me want to throw spears at the writers is the sixteen weeks' mention. By purposefully making her too far in her pregnancy for abortion, they robbed her of having a choice. I mean, they could have got her two months pregnant, and then for some bad (imo) reasons she'd have decided to keep the baby, it would have made no difference for what's coming next. I wouldn't have loved it, sure, but it would have been fine by me because at least it'd have been her decision. Here she's just subjected to the plot, and like you said, her body is used as a narrative tool, and it feels like a slap in the face. Not to mention that even here they fucked up the timeline, because she fucked Timothée, David, and Adam in the span of like 4 days, right? Literally the day after the LSD adventures she and Adam decide to wait for three months, and the montage insists on how on the schedule they are. And I'd say that 307-308 happen within a week maximum because Redbone's not one to wait three weeks for his money lol. So 3 months is 12, 13 weeks at most, which means that in the end, Morgane is 14 weeks pregnant AT BEST (which makes her still eligible for abortion, mhhhh, see where I'm going with this? 🤔), and not 16. The only valid explanation would be that it's Timothée's baby and that she was already pregnant when she had her other encounters, but since the show seems to go in another direction, then it means that they purposefully fucked up the numbers so that she CANNOT consider abortion, which is the most dehumanizing, disempowering thing you can do to a female character.

They're literally forcing a pregnancy on her, and I want to throw up every time I think about it.

Speaking of which. Morgnane's already had three kids. Also, she told us in season 2 about her first-trimester symptoms. And she's supposed to be smart, hell that's the WHOLE point of the show. So there's no way she wouldn't have noticed that she was pregnant again, unless she denied her pregnancy (which would explain her total absence of symptoms, incredulity at the hospital, and possibly the fact that her brain erased her sexytimes with Adam). Now pregnancy denial is one of my greatest fears in life, so I can hear that this was particularly triggering for me specifically, but still, this is an incredibly traumatic experience to throw at her, and a source of huge emotional distress. SHE STATED SHE DIDN'T WANT A FOURTH KID FOR FUCK'S SAFE AND YOU ARE FORCING HER TO GET ONE WHEN SHE'S AT HER LOWEST, AND YOU'RE EXPECTING US TO FIND THIS FUNNY??????? I mean just go sell potatoes and stop writing shows because this is an insult to the art of writing.

😠🔪😭

Sorry I need a minute to have a good cry and yell at the abyss.

.

Okay, I'll just close the 16-week essay by saying that I entirely blame Audrey Fleurot for this, and this is what I base my theory on:

I mean, cool bro if it worked for you (except it didn't, do you want to talk again about your post-partum? Is that what you're planning for Morgane?) and I get that acting can be a therapy in some way, but this is getting way too close to the target, just get the fuck out of the writing room if that's what you're going to come up with, PLEASE.

I'm not sure where you see a 306 retcon though, for me it's pretty clear they were both under the influence, had sex, and blacked out about it (which as @earanie and @hemerae-ramblings pointed out, is highly unrealistic since memory losses are NOT a side-effect of LSD, but I can hear the argument of denial here). But speaking of 306, the finale completely doomed this episode for me, because in retrospect it feels like a giant set-up. The LSD scene is ONLY here to make it possible for Adam to have unprotected sex (side point here, I'm actually not mad they hooked up, even though it's kind of frustrating to see it happen this way, because I find the "offscreen banging reveal" a hilarious yet underused trope, and also I like the messiness), and while this last point is in a way funny, the worst part is the three months window at the end, which has in fact NOTHING to do with Adam sorting his feelings or whatever but is only here to forbid the possibility of abortion for Morgane, and this makes me want to stab people multiple times.

Also, one last thing that I find absolutely disgusting is the fact that Morgane and Adam (presumably) conceived a baby against their will (there's a whole other discussion to have about consent here but I won't go there for today) while solving a case about a BABY BORN FROM RAPE. I mean, can you make it more icky than that? Do the writers even acknowledge the irony of this? Do they even care? This baby is doomed by the narrative from the fertilization stage, and we're supposed to enjoy it as a comedy?

And now I assume we'll get to watch a forced coming together between Adam and Morgane due to the circumstances, which means that even if they end up together we'll never know if they actually wanted it? What a way to kill a ship, man, I've seen shows pretty efficient at ship-sinking but this has to be in the top three.

(somehow there's a wild irony in the fact that both the showrunners and the main cast have been saying on repeat from season 1 that they didn't want to make that disappointing season that ruins most shows, and yet they managed to spectacularly fuck-up and promise the worst season ever, and they're already paying for it audience-wise...)

See, all of this is the silver lining I'm holding onto for now, in the hope of a miscarriage (which would also be incredibly traumatic for Morgane, and still an objectified-by-the-plot scenario, but at this point our options are limited. Also for now the showrunners are only mentioning the pregnancy but not the baby so maybe there's a tiny chance she actually doesn't have it), because there's no way anyone could rejoice from this. And if she does have this baby, and if it's Adam's, then I'll officially change their shipname from Brosse Adam to Brosse & Rachel, and this will probably be my last contribution to this fandom. Hated this in Friends, will hate it in HPI.

I'm not pessimistic about season 4, anon, I just don't want to consider it at all. Obviously, I'm ready to withdraw everything I said here if they choose the only acceptable outcome (abortion) and actually make an extremely powerful narrative and political statement about it, but I know it's off the table. Having to endure such a plotline in 2023, at a time when women's right to dispose of their own bodies is threatened everywhere in the world, is a very painful punch in the face, and I sincerely hope they'll get a ton of backlash on social media for this. I just saw this morning that the airing of 308 had the lowest audience numbers ever in the show's history, and I can't say that it makes me unhappy.

(I was lowkey hoping for a cancellation at this point, even though I know the chances weren't great, but I found out today that the show was officially renewed so we won't even get the solace of knowing they can't do any further damage... Eh 🤷‍♀️)

Finally, the thing that saddens me the most isn't even what they did to Morgane and to the show, it's what they did to our community as a result. I have been alone in this fandom for almost a year, and it was incredibly frustrating. And then people joined, created content, interacted, had fun, and we had such an amazing time together, writing, giffing, vidding, sharing theories, jokes, and thoughts. I've met some incredible, witty people, some of them I dare to call friends. And now it feels like everything is falling apart. Friends are leaving, or considering to. Group chats have turned into support groups. The writers didn't only ruin the show, they took away the enjoyment we gathered from it, and it sickens me. Personally, I've had a very rough first semester of 2023, and this community is what has kept me afloat. It's made me smile and laugh in times of sadness, it's given me a shiny, quirky escape that I'll never be grateful enough for. And to witness it all collapsing really hurts. I do hope it's just a bump in the road, that we'll come back eventually, sticking together and collectively despising canon, ignoring it by ferociously writing AUs, and roasting the timeline, and making Daphné-centered vids, but I'm not even sure myself where I stand regarding my own involvement in this fandom. Nothing else to say, I just miss what we had, that's all 😢

Now that I'm thinking about it, "J'avais tellement envie que ça marche entre nous" is exactly how I feel about canon right now. You know when I said that getting into a new hyperfixation felt like falling in love? Well, this shitty ending feels like getting ugly dumped.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk, anon, and thank you for sticking with me too. It's too early to say if this is officially the end of Julia's adventures with the HPI anon or not, but please know that I've loved every second of the ride and that I will never forget it 🥲

😘🥃👻

[tevanbegins]

The following rant won't suffice to describe the sheer amount of HATRED I feel for 18x10 from the deepest, darkest dungeons of my badly broken heart, but I'll try anyway:

• Levi had the M&M conference and he was late for it, yet Helm doesn't give a flying f*ck about where her best friend / roommate who she knows is profoundly depressed is. And it was so frustrating to see Nico act so clueless about Levi's whereabouts and speechless during the M&M while Levi presented!

• That scene of Nico and Link — I was bewildered to find Nico act so casual about not having found Levi when he had tried to chase him immediately after he rushed out of the M&M...instead he was interested in knowing about how things are between Link and Amelia? What weed are these writers snorting???

• Instead of being there for her best friend who is suffering, Helm tried to gain sympathy from Bailey by making Levi's situation all about herself and playing a victim in it. Please, we all know that she has never been this shy and innocent! Especially with Levi her attitude has always been condescending, so how the f*ck did she say that she was scared to speak up in front of Levi? And Bailey was so sympathetic with her when she didn't show even an ounce of empathy for Levi! Helm is officially the WORST friend and there's no way she can redeem herself to me now. I have never liked her, but now I hate her with a greater passion!

• The extreme lack of screen time Levi/Nico/Schmico gets. What the f*ck was that sh*t? I'm not even expecting anything for Nico because I've given up on that a long time ago, but what about Levi? Being a series regular character, he deserves a lot more screen-time especially now given his current crucial storyline. BUT NO! He was nowhere to be seen after he stormed out of the M&M, and showed up only in the last few minutes, and I'm still reeling under the shock of what he did in that...

• ...And, Schmico is BROKEN up, ONCE AGAIN. 💔💔💔 Why did they even get back together, I ask? The reconciliation happened only at the end of last season, and we barely got to see two happy crumbs of them together before having to endure another break-up just halfway through the new season? I understand that Levi has gone really dark right now, but to say, "Go away. Please don't come back. We're done" to Nico, whom he was GRATEFUL for and he also doodled the sunsword next to his name on paper during Thanksgiving just 4 episodes prior? I was obviously expecting Levi to shut Nico out but to just end things with him out of the blue was something I wasn't remotely expecting at this point! This was devastating beyond words! This show and it's showrunner and writers are all SICK, SICK, SICK. It is traumatising as hell to watch this show and get attached to characters and ships who'll never get to be happy and peaceful as long as they are a part of this f*cking, twisted joke of a show!

I guess I'm done ranting for now. But this sh*t is gonna get worse. Now that they are broken up, I think they won't show Nico again unless absolutely required, so I don't think we'll get to see Nico being there for Levi through his spell of depression like we wished. Instead they'll probably date other people, get back together eventually, only to break up again, and again, and again. Schmico is kinda following in the footsteps of Slexie — where they are more often apart than together with the constant on-again and off-again relationship. Hopefully, Levi and Nico won't die on me like those two did, but with this horrid show, who knows? I am not looking forward to any of this bullsh*t. I'm exhausted. It's hopeless in every possible way, and not something any sane person should watch. My real life is less sad than the sorry, f*cked up fiction that this sh*tshow depicts.

By the way, I hope my dearest Schmico fam is coping better than me. Sending love to you'll, I know everyone of us needs it more than ever right now! xoxo

[babymetaldoll]

Character development (Matthew Gray Gubler / Reader)

Not my gif

A/N: I don't know if any of you haven't seen or doesn't know what happens with Spencer in Season 8, but anyway: HUGE SPOILERS ALERT OF SEASON 8 of CRIMINAL MINDS.

Requested: Yes. "Hi! I was wondering if you could do a Matthew/reader one where the reader is watching criminal minds, and Maeve just died, and the reader is sad and finds out Matthew suggested that Maeve's character got killed off, and Matthew makes it up to her."

Summary: Gubler reaches home and finds a very depressed girlfriend waiting for him to talk about the bad things that had just happened to Spencer in that week's episode of Criminal Minds.

Category: Fluff

Warnings: Well, spoilers of season 8 of CM, I think a curse or two, and that's it.

Wordcount: 1,6 K

Masterlist

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The whole house was in silence when Matthew walked in. That was weird. Since he and his girlfriend (Y/N) moved in together, he was greeted with laughter, music, hugs, and kisses every time he got home.

But not that day. Silence and darkness in the whole house were all that welcomed Matthew.

- "Bunny?"- he asked, frowning confused- "Are you home?"

But nothing. Only silence.

Matthew walked around the house. It was so quiet it was creepy.

- "(Y/N)?"

- "In here"- her voice was small, and it took Matthew a minute to find her, curled up on a couch. The tv screen was the only light in the whole room.

- "Hey, Bunny"- Gubler sat next to her and kissed her lips sweetly- "Are you ok?"

- "Yeah,"- she whispered and cut him the worst smile ever- "Did you have fun with your friends today?"

- "Yeah, we had dinner, watched a movie. It was fun. What did you do?"- Gubler knew there was something wrong with his girlfriend, and he wasn't going to let it pass.

- "Nothing. I just watched tv."

- "And did something happen today at work?"- but (Y/N) shook her head- "Then why are you so sad? Your eyes are puffy, Bunny. What is it?"

- "It's honestly nothing. I just..."- (Y/N) turned off the tv and sighed- "I watched today's episode of Criminal Minds."

- "Oh..."- Matthew thought about it for a second until it finally hit him.

That week's episode was "Zugzwang," and he knew it would be a rough one for everybody. It had actually been hard to film. Reid's girlfriend would die right in front of him, and Matthew knew (Y/N) wasn't going to take that episode very well. Ok, no one would, but she really wanted Spencer to have a girlfriend, finally.

- "Oh... so, what did you think?"- (Y/N) looked at him and almost rolled her eyes.

- "Look at me, I've been crying for an hour,"- Gubler chuckled and wrapped his arms around his girlfriend, cuddling her.

- "Come on, Bunny. It's just a tv show."

- "I know, but can you explain why Maeve had to die? why can't Spencie be happy?"

- "Why do you call him Spencie?"- Gubler frowned and looked at her confused, but she dismissed his question and pouted instead.

- "Honey, why did they decide to kill Maeve? Why didn't you argue against that stupid decision? Reid needs a girlfriend."

Matthew opened his mouth and was about to answer when he thought that might not be a real good idea. You see, it had been Matthew who suggested Maeve had to die in the most tragic way possible to make the storyline work.

At the time, it made sense for Gubler, but now, watching how his girlfriend had cried watching the episode, he wondered if they had maybe done it a little too sad.

- "Bunny, it's just a tv show. You know that right?"- he whispered and kissed her hands. (Y/N) nodded in silence and just stared at the empty space for a moment.

She knew it was just a tv show, and she understood it was stupid to be so profoundly affected by it. Still, at the same time, it was impossible not to feel moved by it, especially after watching Matthew impersonating Spencer crying with such sadness. It broke her soul. Literally, she felt something inside of her shattering as she watched him on the screen, sobbing. That was when she started crying along with Spencer.

- "I know it's silly but, though I know it's a tv show, and I know none of that is real, it still kind of hurt"- (Y/N) tried to explain- "Imagine any of that happened to us..."

- "Bunny, that won't happen to us. No one is going to kidnap us or hurt us, ok?"- Matthew smiled and kissed her hands one more time. (Y/N) nodded and sighed.

- "I'm sorry, I know it's silly being this upset over something that ain't even real."

- "No, Bunny. I think it's cute"- Matthew was sincere, but (Y/N) felt pretty silly. She had spent the last hour and a half of her life crying over the death of a fictional character.

- "Just let's make sure I get over this impasse before I visit you on the set, 'cos I don't think I will be able to be cool around the writers of the show after this episode."

- "About that,"- Matthew bit his lips and decided to face the truth once for all- "Maeve's death might have been..."- but (Y/N)'s wide-opened eyes didn't let him finish talking. He just stared at her and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear carefully.

- "Might have been what?"

- "My... idea."- Gubler murmured and looked at her, trying to read her reaction.

- "I'm sorry, what?!"- (Y/N) didn't move. She just stayed still, staring at Gubler, trying to understand what he had just said.

- "Ok, so don't get mad at me, but I only agreed to get on board on Spencer having a girlfriend if she died the most tragic way possible."

There was a deep and long silence between them after Gubler said those words. It was like (Y/N) couldn't believe what she had just heard, and Matthew tried to smile in a useless effort to ease the mood.

- "Why did you do that?"- (Y/N) finally whispered and tried to understand what her boyfriend was talking about.

- "Well, it was for character development. Reid's story is overall tragic, and his relationship with his girlfriend wasn't what we could call normal, right?"

(Y/N) stared at him, speechless. Reid was a fictional character portrayed by her boyfriend, but somehow he had become a beloved imaginary being they actually talked about.

- "What did Reid ever do to you? Why did he deserve this?"- (Y/N)'s voice was a whisper, and Gubler just stared at her. He wanted to kiss her cheeks and tickle her, to make her smile, 'cos he thought it was adorable how she reacted to the episode.

- "It just makes sense for the story"- Matthew leaned in and gave her a peck on the tip of the nose- "I'm sorry you got so sad. Was it my incredible acting that made it all so believable?"- he joked and kissed her cheek several times.

- "You looked miserable, Gub"- she whispered, still upset- "You were so convincing I cried along with you at the end."

- "I'm glad"- he stopped kissing her and looked t her, narrowing his eyes- "Not glad that you cried, I'm just glad you were convinced... I think"

- "It was a good episode, Gubler."

(Y/N) sighed and looked at him, still pouting. Matthew kissed her slowly, rubbing his lips against her and moving his tongue carefully, tasting her. He felt how her body relaxed at his touch and held her closer to him. When the kiss was over, and she had sighed, resting her forehead against his, Matthew whispered.

- "It's only a good episode for me if you like it, Bunny."

- "Yeah, well, I have the feeling you are gonna have to make it up to me for making me cry"- the way (Y/N) spoke made her sound like a spoiled kid, which she actually was around Gubler. He would always coddle her in every way possible.

- "Make it up to you how, Bunny?"- Matthew murmured in a lower voice, still holding her so close in his arms, she was now sitting on his lap.

- "I don't know... you can do stuff."

- "Stuff?"- Gubler repeated and kissed her again- "Stuff like what? I need more info"- (Y/N) giggled and hid her face on the crook of Matthew's neck, inhaling deeply.

- "I haven't had dinner yet."

- "What does my Bunny want to eat?"- Gubler replied in a second, running his hand up and down her back- "Pizza? Chinese? Thai? you love Thai food."

- "Gubler. I wanna eat Gubler,"- she whispered, biting his shoulder playfully, making him laugh.

- "You can't eat Gubler!"

- "Why not?! He's delicious!"- (Y/N) kissed Matthew's neck and licked it until a soft groan left his lips.

- "Don't start things you won't finish, Bunny"- she heard him saying, as his lips crushed against hers with lust.

Sometimes Matthew could manage to step from sweet, cute boyfriend to hungry, dominant animal in a second. (Y/N) never told him, but it was one of the many things she loved about him.

Matthew's hand roamed from her back to underneath her shirt in a second, unclasping her bra in a blink. (Y/N) could feel how he was getting hard underneath her legs and the urge in his lips. And it was just what she wanted.

- "Maybe you are right"- she whispered and ended their kiss- "Pizza would be better."

- "Really?"- Matthew looked at her with widened eyes, and (Y/N) couldn't help but giggle- "Why are you teasing me like this?"

- "It just makes sense for the story. It's for character development"- she answered, mocking his earlier answer about Criminal Minds. Gubler groaned, letting her go, just to look at her pleased smile.

- "You are really gonna make me pay for what happened to Maeve and Spencer, aren't you?"- and (Y/N) just nodded- "If it makes you feel better, I really felt miserable the day we shoot that scene."

- "I'm sure you did. And I felt miserable watching you being miserable."

- "It's the circle of life, Bunny"- Matthew leaned in and kissed her- "We should do something to feel better now."

Gubler winked at (Y/N), and she giggled. His hands reached for her hips and moved underneath her shirt again, playing with her skin.

- "You may be right about that, but dinner first."

- "Are you gonna eat Gubler?"- he asked her, biting his lips, looking incredibly hot.

- "Pizza for dinner"- she teased and kissed him for a second- "Gubler for dessert."

****

Taglist: 

@all-tings-diego​

[lovely-v]

LOTR (films) Review

So I finally watched the LOTR films (20 years later). I’m super excited to review these because I read the books very recently so I feel at least a little prepared to voice some opinions. Overall I loved the films, here’s a very long (but by no means exhaustive) compilation of my thoughts, which are of course, totally subjective:

(Warning: a lot of me saying “well, actually, in the book...”)

THINGS I LIKED

- Casting! not much to say here, I thought the casting was great. One of my favorite actors that I didn’t think i’d have a huge opinion on was David Wenham as Faramir. I was kinda ambivalent on him when I saw pictures but i thought he did a great job. he showed his quality.

- Music. so much has been said about the films on the music front. I can’t offer too much original insight but when a bit of the Shire theme started to play as Frodo tries to make his way up Mount Doom I cried a little.

- Boromir and Aragorn. I liked the scene where they interact a little in Rivendell. I also like how Aragorn saves Boromir in the Moria battle and gives him this little nod of friendship. I think the films did a great job portraying the dynamic they have where Aragorn is clearly suspicious of Boromir’s motivations but grows to respect him to the point where he doesn’t even blame Boromir for being corrupted by the ring because he understands that, at heart, Boromir is a good person. 

- Sam and Frodo in Osgiliath. I expected to be kind of annoyed with the way this plot point played out (I knew ahead of time that it strayed from the book), but I actually liked it a lot. As I’ll say later, there’s some gripes I have with the way the films extremely play up the disagreements between Frodo and Sam, but I loved the scene where Frodo pulls the sword on Sam and then seems so defeated when he realizes what he’s done. I was pleasantly surprised by how emotional this scene made me. It’s admittedly A Lot, but it was done nicely, especially in conjunction with Sam’s “there’s good in this world” speech.

- Treatment of the ending. I almost think I should dislike the ending as it is in the movies, but my heart is soft and I like that they sugarcoated it a bit. I know the whole point of the Scouring of the Shire and Frodo’s depression conveys a lot about war and trauma and I think that is important, but after watching these things for twelve hours I just wanted Frodo & co. to be happy and I was kinda relieved that they cut the Scouring. Does that make me weak and perhaps bad at film analysis? yes. do I care? no. I was also very glad that the movies didn’t portray how depressed Sam was about losing Frodo in the end. Yes, he cries, but when he walks home to his family he seems happy and in the books that scene came off so much bleaker. I definitely liked the lighter tone.

THINGS I WAS NEUTRAL ON/DIDN’T LIKE

- Arwen. (Neutral) I don’t hate her, I don’t love her. I think the story she and Aragorn have is compelling and I 100% get why the filmmakers decided to add it to give her character more depth, but it felt misplaced at times. maybe it’s just because it was the only storyline I didn’t know in depth, but the scenes with the Arwen/Aragorn flashbacks felt a bit confusing and disorienting. Don’t have anything against Arwen as a character though, I think she’s pretty alright.

- Gimli. (Complicated thoughts) I want to start off by saying I don’t dislike Gimli. I like him a lot! I just think the movies did him a bit dirty. He had some good movie-exclusive moments, but I think his character really fell into this place of being the butt of too many jokes. Would have liked to see some more serious Gimli development, especially with his relationship to Legolas. Their friendship felt too much like subtext here, whereas it’s explored far more in the books.

- Two Towers Pacing. (Didn’t really like). The pacing of TTT was...weird. maybe I’m going into this with a closed mind because of the books, but it was odd to have the movie begin with Frodo and Sam and then have them only appear for a few rapid scenes after that. I think the fact that a WHOLE LOT of what happens to Frodo and Sam in TTT is moved to RotK is what makes it feel that way? In the books, Two Towers ends with Sam discovering that Frodo isn’t dead from Shelob’s sting, and I was surprised by how long it took the movies to get to that part. However, I will give the films a little leeway because I think they needed Frodo & Sam content for RotK, since most of what happens in that book is them walking through Mordor basically starving and dying. Doesn’t make for great cinema I guess, so they had to put the whole Shelob/Cirith Ungol saga into the final film. Still, I think there’s a weird lack of Frodo and Sam’s presence in TTT.

- The go home/missing bread arc. (Full of rage abt this one) yeah. so. my criticism of this is gonna sound pretty tired because people complain and complain about this part of RotK. but I’m gonna complain some more!! I don’t think the split between Frodo and Sam does anything for the plot. I really don’t. I guess it emphasizes the fact that Sam doesn’t understand how much Frodo is projecting onto Gollum, but it’s just. unnecessary angst? They had enough angst in the Osgiliath scene! Which I actually liked! And it simply doesn’t make a lot of sense for Frodo to suspect Sam of eating the bread when Sam had already offered Frodo his own food and made it clear that he would very much starve if it meant making sure Frodo could eat. But what I hate most about this scene is not that Frodo gets mad and tells Sam to go home. No. It’s that Sam actually... thinks about doing that? he actually? goes down the staircase? emotionally this is bad because Sam clearly cared enough about Frodo to follow him this far, to nearly drown for him, so why would he leave now. Practically this is bad because 1. how would Sam get out of Mordor alone and 2. where would he go. He turns around almost immediately, yes, but what was his plan. where was he going. why.

THINGS I LOVED

- For Frodo! This line, and every other shoutout to Frodo. In the books, they didn’t really actively talk about/worry about Frodo (and Sam) as much as they do in the movies. I like that they talk about Frodo more in the movies! I like that they’re thinking about him! I know it was implied that they were in the books, but I really like how it’s shown here. I think it gave a more complete picture of how much they all care about him on a personal level in addition to just needing him to succeed from a pragmatic standpoint. 

- Merry and Pippin! I feel like Merry and Pippin were so well rounded in the films. I’ve heard criticism about them being turned into comic relief characters (which they always were a little bit) but it honestly didn’t feel that way to me. They had a bit of a rough start because the films didn’t make their motives for going with Frodo as deep as the books did, but I think that by TTT they were absolutely amazing characters in every scene. In RotK their respective arcs hit really well and the scene where Pippin is singing to Denethor? *chef’s kiss* poetic. beautiful. sad. idk man I just feel like I have such a newfound appreciation for Merry and Pippin.

- Parallels! people have pointed out the parallel of Frodo and Sam’s hands before (drowning scene/mount doom scene) and I love how the movie did that. Just stunning. Also! The moving of the Smeagol & Deagol scene to RotK surprised me because in the books it was like,,,at the beginning of Fellowship, but I think the placement of it in the movies really helped emphasize the similarities between Smeagol & Deagol and Frodo & Sam (and how much Frodo fears this similarity.) There were a lot of other well done parallels between storylines and a few bits of dialogue that were repeated with great timing, but I can’t remember all of them at the moment.  

Edit: here’s one I remembered! when Frodo wakes up after being rescued and sees Gandalf, he says Gandalf’s name in a very similar tone to the one he used at the very beginning of Fellowship. It was a nice little subtle connection.

- I can’t carry it for you...alright this is self-indulgent. everyone knows I love this line. I’m just so glad it made it into the movie intact. Sean Astin’s delivery was amazing. I cheered. My mom cheered. It’s a raw line and it makes me feel secret emotions...like if shrimp colors were feelings. that line makes me feel shrimp feelings. idk i’m so tired i just watched twelve hours of movies this review is decreasing in quality by the minute but i’m about done for now anyway

Various silly afterthoughts

- I would have liked to see Sam kiss Frodo’s hands at least once. This happens 50 thousand times in the books, they could have given me one scene. one little extended edition scene. Please Peter Jackson I’m dyin’ out here

- They literally made Gollum so hateable. kinda the point yes, but I was so on board with Sam’s murderous rage. I know why Gollum’s a profoundly complex character, I know why Frodo pities him, I know why murder is bad, but I too would throw hands with that creature. also he literally body shamed Sam so much what was that skdjksdjksd. Sam is lovely. let him commit a small homicide. 

- the scene where merry and pippin drink the tall boy juice (as someone once referred to it in the tags of one of my posts)... not accurate to the books (since they don’t ever drink it with the end goal of getting tall) but so accurate to life. if I found some water that made me taller than my friends? let me at it

- Frodo panicking when he falls into the spider webs. so real bestie. i felt just as panicked watching that. i am terrified of spiders and Elijah Wood did an amazing job doing exactly what i’d do in the situation. yelping a lot and falling down.

- I feel like it’s never stated that Sam’s a gardener (or at least that he’s specifically Frodo’s gardener) until he tells Faramir he is. Did I miss this. Or do they really never say.  are you just meant to know. are you just meant to pick up gardener vibes from him.

*

This has been a very chaotic lotr movie review. Thanks for reading.

[agusvedder]

I DON’T CARE if this doesn’t get any notes. I need to vent.

My name is Agustina, I’m 27 years old. I’m a nonbinary, queer, latinx person, parent of a 4 year old, non-verbal authistic child. I suffer from depression and anxiety.

I’m 9 thousand kilometers away from the woman I love.

I’m not a victim. I am a minority. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

I started watching Supernatural in 2015, you know, being a stay-at-home parent, who dropped her career and her job to live the first years of their child, there wasn’t much I could do in my free time but to watch a show. I caught a few episodes of season 11 on tv and then I decided to start from zero. I always acknowledged how problematic it was in terms of representation, but always saw small threads of light filtering in the message it sent, recognizing how its writers were trying to shed a little light, creating a jenga tower of storylines and new characters, only to be thrown away by poor, useless deaths and the erasure of said characters.

Since my first run on season 1 I related to Dean. I saw myself on him. (I will never be as brave and cool as him tho, never ever, but his personality traits, some of his family issues, his self worth issues, his loneliness, his unaddressed childhood trauma, his growth in a circle of violence, his reticence to address his feelings until he explodes?... Yeah. There are days where my girlfriend makes fun of me saying “Ok Dean”). I kept looking up to Dean in his geekiness, in his way he always put his life on the line to protect the people he loves and put them always first… even in the supernatural side of the storyline, he still was profoundly human and abnegated to the people in his life. Also because I’m deeply in love with Castiel but that’s another subject. Thanks to this show, I’ve found people in my own country who now I recognize as my family beyond SPN, who helped me accept myself the way I am, who are always there for me. My found family, my chosen family. Because family don’t end in blood, because family cares about you, not only for what you can do for them, because that’s what all of us have in common, and why this show resonated as strongly as it did for us. That’s why we found each other and ourselves in the process, in a circle of love, support, non-judgement and willingness to find a family in ourselves when our own blood relatives ignored us, abused us, refused to recognize us. We’ve found love and family. I’ve found the woman with whom I wanna spend the rest of my life with because of this show.

That’s the power of this story. I know my small circle is not the only one who lived this, who continues to live it.

I can talk about this forever, but there’s something I wanna talk about specifically here. When the ending aired.. what I felt was… like a bucket of cold water was thrown over my head. You know when your parents come home, or call you and give you the devastating news that someone you love died? that exact feeling. The adrenaline, the heartbreak, the feeling of loss. 

The whole season 15 and 15 years of storyline were completely overturned. The misogyny the writers tried so hard to erase, it was there again, in a faceless woman who was supposed to represent the person a lead chose to spend the rest of his life with, reduced to a lilac dress, a blurry face and a uterus. We never seen acknowledged the existence of Eileen Leahy, Sam Winchester’s romantic interest since season 11, his perfect partner whose disability wasn’t an obstacle for her to be a badass hunter. (BUT COVID!! <- No. Eileen Leahy appeared in two episodes this season without Shoshannah being on set: Last Holiday and Despair. If they wanted to include her, they would have. They didn’t because they don’t give a FUCK). Sam Winchester is an academic, a witch, a leader, a powerful hunter, a kind human being, and the ending that was given to him was living an unfulfilled life, dying at a ridiculous young age, having a son only to replace his dead brother? It was sad. Sammy deserved better. He always did.

My beloved Dean Winchester, who I love so deeply, who taught me a lot about myself, about life, love, family, about *ejem* VICIOUS CIRCLES and the power of breaking free from them, of learning to embrace one’s self, our real tastes, our real identity, to come out of a shadow of being reduced to someone’s caretaker instead of having an identity of our own, to spend life loving family the healthy amount.. well, he was killed in a ridiculous way, on a milk run of a hunt.  After being eager and ready to kill himself so many times. After all he’s been through, after saying he’s good with who he is, after considering retirement, after standing up to his dad, saying he already has a family, ready to cut the “I’m Okay” bullshit, address his feelings, his trauma, don’t letting those define him. He deserved better. He always wanted a family, he always wanted to break free from the version of himself he was created to be, “daddy’s blunt little instrument” (For fuck’s sake, he even said it in the same show 10’ before dying, man. If we don’t keep living, the sacrifice the people who died for us did, was for nothing). Are you telling me this man really would refuse his brother to call an ambulance? Refused his brother to get the first aid kit even knowing it was more serious than his brother thought? He was ready to live. He CHOSE life, and at the end his choice was stripped away from him. He clearly was a bisexual man and they never explored it.

Cas. The misfit. The fish outside of the water. Ambiguous gender and sexuality. Finally makes a homosexual declaration of love after all he’s been through. After being brainwashed, used, suicidal, isolated. After telling Sam and Dean he loved them more than once, that they meant everything for him. After confessing he’s been in love with Dean since he pulled him out of hell…. Was erased from the story. Erased, literally. Two emotionless mentions aren’t enough for a 12 year old family member who pulled both brothers out of hell, who died for them more than once, who until 2 seasons ago he didn’t even feel like he belonged there ‘cause he was never told he was loved. No one ever told him “I love you” back. Not Jack, not Sam, not Dean, not Mary. No one. Ever. And still, he died for love. And with his death, he was erased from the finale, being that the first finale Castiel wasn’t in since his appearance on the show. He deserved better. 

All roads lead to Rome and you know what we got at the end of that road? a bottomless pit of NOTHING. The building up towards a different end isn’t just in s15. It’s been there for years and years. And if you watch the show, you see it at plain sight.

 

Sam Winchester hurried to die to reunite with his brother in heaven EVEN WHEN HE SPENT 30 MORE YEARS WITH A WIFE AND A KID he only wanted to die to go back to his brother? it’s insane, it’s ridiculous. That’s not what the show has been about for seasons now. SEASONS. The road was paved towards a healthy brotherly bond, each brother living their future the way they wanted, finally breaking free from the curse John dropped on Dean that Sam’s destiny was in his hands. No no. What was that? Did it ever happen? Was it a fever dream? They really destroyed everything in 38 minutes of the finale? 

Stupid. 

Representation is important, stories are important. They change lives. You know how it changed mine? After I saw Jonathan Van Ness coming out as non-binary, I started to realize how I never called myself "a woman, a girl" or anything like that, how my "female presenting" aesthetic changes drastically depending on how I feel when I wake up  how I always called myself a "person", no gender involved. I realized I was a non-binary person even after becoming a parent. Thanks to Jonathan Van Ness. Thanks to seeing a person like her being unapologetically herself. 

Representation matters. 

It matters. 

It helped my mom understand me when I was 13 and had a girlfriend. It helped my dad educate himself about trans identities. It helped my sister understand about her demisexuality. It helps break circles of ignorance and stereotypes. It helps people process what these characters wanna tell, and realize they're human beings above it all. We suffer, we laugh, we grieve. We love. We exist. 

Supernatural missed a chance to be a historical show in terms of representation. And it breaks my heart.  I cant believe they decided to erase Dean's sexuality, to erase Castiel after saying loud and proud he's in love with a man, to erase Eileen whose disability only was a disadvantage when they KILLED HER in the most ableistic way in s11, to never show Charlie and her girlfriend again, that they decided to make God bisexual AND a villain, thay they decided to turn the only regular non-binary character of color into the villain too (Billie).

I'm still grieving.

This is why "a stupid show" is so important for me, and for lot of people like me. Cause representation can change lives. Stories can change lives. It certainly changed mine, and I'm not the only one. 

Don't let anyone tell you you're just a butthurt fan because you're suffering this ending. Every one of us have a story and this is mine. All of us are valid, our feelings are valid. And we'll get through this eventually

[thanksjro]

Eugenesis, an Overview: Let Me Get Weirdly Serious About This Book For A Sec

HOLY SHIT WHAT A RIDE.

So, let’s recap what we’ve learned over the last 282 pages.

In 2001, James Roberts published nearly 300 pages of fictional prose, based in the established franchise of Transformers, specifically the Marvel UK comic continuity. This novel tells the story of the Transformers, in their dwindling numbers, being attacked, not by their opposing factions, but by an outside force hellbent on revenge. Those who are captured by this force- the Quintessons- are stripped of their very individuality, forced into servitude until the moment they die of exhaustion. Everyone is pushed to- and in some cases beyond- their limits, the horrors of a literal genocide beating down on them like a tidal wave. Only by casting aside their differences and banding together can they hope to survive the nightmare that is the Eugenesis Wars.

But people don’t really talk about all that, even though it’s a majority of what the book’s about. No, people only talk about what happens after the Quintessons are defeated. People only talk about the robots getting pregnant, because honestly it is the most bizarre thing.

Not because the idea itself is terribly odd- I mean, at least it’s in line with the lore the comics set up. It’s bizarre in how we get to that point. All the torture, all the suicide and death and depression and destruction of entire belief systems, leads up to these robots getting pregnant. Almost like that was the whole point. And considering that this story is presenting to us a bridge for the gap between the classic Transformers and the Beast-Era ones, it could have very well been.

I won’t say fetish, because that doesn’t feel quite right, but our dear author seems to have a sort of… obscene fascination with the concept of mechpreg. A fascination that will carry on well into his career as a professional comic scriptwriter, setting readers on edge for the duration of his run with IDW.

Comparing Eugenesis to More Than Meets The Eye and Lost Light, you get an interesting view of Roberts’ growth, as both a writer and a human being. Eugenesis is the work of what Billy Joel might call an "angry young man”, focusing on the despair of wartime and the futility of one’s struggle against the flow of time and mortality. The theme of time only being perceived as linear, and being in actuality an unending plane where all moments are equal and eternal might seem oddly specific, but it’s reflected upon by multiple characters within the story of Eugenesis. Perhaps this is why he has Brainstorm and Perceptor collectively and completely jack up time itself in the Elegant Chaos storyline.

Character moments sprinkled throughout the narrative give us a glimpse of the relationships that would be written later on- some of the most compelling scene writing happens between Quark and Rev-Tone, two original characters who have such a delightful dynamic between them, they very quickly became some of my favorites. You truly believe that they care so strongly for one another, they would do just about anything to keep the other safe. And they do, in a couple cases.

Then there’s all the death. There’s a lot of death in Eugenesis, and none of it is by way of natural causes- you’ve either got suicide, murder, or suicide-by-way-of-murder. You really see Roberts shine in these death scenes, both then and now, as he captures the utter, raw tranquility as one stares down their own demise, and on the other side of the coin, the complete annihilation of one’s very heart as someone they love is destroyed. It’s downright poetic how he handles these scenes.

Still, there is a difference in how the aftermath is handled. When someone dies in the MTMTE/LL run, there’s always meaning and purpose to it- nobody dies just to die, and those who are left behind are left at least something to comfort them.

A message of love.

The return of a friend.

A chance to keep living.

A chance to be a better person.

You don’t get that in Eugenesis. In most cases, there’s no salve for the wound, only more hurting. There’s no time to even mourn, as the fight rages on and on and on. Any happiness pulled from the narrative for the characters is laced with a bittersweet understanding that these folks probably aren’t going to make it, and they’re just as aware of that fact as the reader is.

And yet there’s something kind of beautiful about that, in a twisted sort of way.

Eugenesis is a sort of love letter to those dark thoughts hiding in our heads, those deeply scary intrusive visions of everything we care about being ripped away from us. It’s a book make up of catharsis, of hurting that begs for some sort of outlet. The characters in this story are lost, and scared, and hollowed out before the mass extinction even arrives, and are put through wringer after wringer, like some sort of distanced facsimile of self-harm.

Perhaps I’m reading a bit too into this, but with how intense things get, with self-insert characters no less, I can’t help but wonder if the James Roberts who was writing Eugenesis truly needed this outlet in more than just a creative sense.

Which isn’t to say that there aren’t issues with this novel just because it was a vessel for catharsis. Pacing can end up going so rapidly it feels as if you’re being pushed towards the edge of a cliff, then stutter to a halt to the point where continuing on feels like an absolute slog. But it always seems just as you’re about to put the thing down and give up, something completely thrilling, completely insane and powerful and profoundly attention-grabbing happens, pulling you right back in. If nothing else, this book demands one’s attention.

There are also some other, more interesting issues with Eugenesis. Issues I wasn’t really expecting to run into. To highlight one such issue, we’re going to play a game.

The game is called Guess That Character Design!

Hey Transformers fandom, got a new quandary for y’all to fight over. Forget the Frenzy/Rumble color debate, forget the Bombshell/Skywarp is Cyclonus debate, it’s time for the What The Actual Everloving Fuck Is Quark Supposed To Look Like debate! Do we follow the comic and its script, which show him as being either about on par with Rev-Tone and Mirage or taller, but fails to note any sort of color because it’s in black-and-white? Or do we follow the novel, which states he’s short exactly once, and crimson? And if he’s red, where did the blue paint chips come from in Part Five? They sure didn’t come from Rev-Tone, who I know is mostly red- not because the novel told me, but because I’ve seen art of him outside of this. Honestly, other than him having big honkin’ shoulders and a bust to match, nothing about Quark’s visual aesthetic is concrete.

Now, I could tell you all about his quirks and mannerisms, how he holds himself, how he talks, how he interacts with others, all sorts of stuff. Nothing wrong with the writing there, characterization’s great! I just couldn’t tell you for the life of me how his body is supposed to look. Rev-Tone’s in the same boat, except it’d be even worse without the helpful input of some friends. Did you know he has a visor? Because I sure as shit didn’t until someone showed me. It’s never mentioned in the book. You can barely see it in the prequel comic art if you’re looking for it, and the script is less than helpful to me because I’m not Matt friggin’ Dallas, nor have I had the pleasure of reading Transtrip. All the information presented in the novel about his looks involves his mouth.

Hell, some of the writing in Eugenesis seems to imply that he actually just has normal eyeballs.

What I’m getting at here is that Roberts leans a bit too much on the reader knowing exactly as much as he does about the characters, the plot points, the lore. And he knows A LOT about Transformers.

This book essentially requires the reader to have the wiki open with multiple tabs at all times. Roberts put his heart and soul into the prose, but the world-building had his nerdy little brains smeared all over it, because there are some obscure references in here, not to mention the sci-fi jargon. You basically NEED an internet connection to get through this- I’ve never read a novel that pretty much forbid an acoustic reading, but here it is, in all its glory.

Eugenesis is a dark, morbid, conflicted story with the oddest little bright spots in it. Within five pages, you’ll go from some of the most horridly bleak death scenes to someone accidentally burning a hole in their hand like a cartoon character. But never once, in nearly 300 pages, does it ever stop trying. It may not succeed in what it’s attempting 100% of the time, but goddamn does it go as hard as it can. This isn’t something that was done for money, or fame, or anything like that. Eugenesis is a passion project in the purest sense, and you can really feel it in the way it’s been crafted. For all the frustration it put me through, never once did I think “man, this guy just doesn’t care.” The ambition Roberts shows in the prose, in the world-building, in all the funny little moments that show just so much personality within the story, truly were harbingers for what was to come just a decade later.

Ambitious. Bleak. Brutal. Weird. Ultimately unforgettable. That’s James Roberts’ Eugenesis.

But let’s get to the heart of the matter, shall we? The one question that truly matters for any novel: is it worth reading?

Well, that depends.

If you had a hard time with the darker parts of MTMTE/LL, I really couldn’t recommend that you read Eugenesis. You will have an awful time, because most of it is Grindcore x100 levels of depressing and brutal. There were a couple points where I had to take a break because things got so intense- and I’m not exactly squeamish. Maybe stick to a breakdown- like this one!- or try a group read-along. Friends make everything better, after all.

If you like Roberts work and want to see where he came from, like I did, I highly recommend you find a copy- digital of course, there are only a few hundred physical copies in existence. I recommend you find the 2nd edition, which includes Telefunken and fixes some of the more glaring continuity mistakes and typos.

It’s a good read. Just... it’s a lot at times.

Like, a lot.

Up next-

Oh, what? You didn’t think that was it, did you? This url is way too sweet to just be done with so soon.

Next, I’ll be taking a gander at Children of a Lesser Matrix, which is something that was never finished by Roberts, but is still floating around the internet because hey! It’s the internet.

If anyone has any other somewhat obscure writings from JRo, feel free to send them my way. Especially if you have any of the TMUK zines from back in the day. I wish to consume all the works.

[dynamic-duo-deposit]

Do you think Dick is a BatCat shipper? I loved him in Hush he looked so innocent and cute telling Bruce that Selina is good for him!

Before I answer this, some disclaimers- 

1- I haven’t read Tom King’s Batman Rebirth run with the BatCat not-wedding yet, so I can’t speak to that nor Dick’s reaction to it.  (Though I am aware of the general plot points.)

2- As with all things Batman, we are talking about 80 years of comics here.  Also, while I generally enjoy and appreciate BatCat, I’m a casual shipper at best, so it’s not really my focus and I’m sure some more knowledgeable Selina fans would have more to say on the subject.

3- Oh boy, this is longer than I meant it to be.

With that out of the way- Yes, Dick Grayson is generally pretty fond of Catwoman (perhaps a bit too fond at times) and subsequently, her relationship with Bruce.

Regarding Hush, Dick being pro-BatCat is straight from the comic-

(Batman #615)

But going back in time, I think this question was prompted by these panels from Batman #3, and that is pretty typical of their early interactions.  Basically, Golden Age Robin spends most of Catwoman’s first appearances being profoundly unimpressed by Bruce’s Thirst.  (Likewise to modern reinterpretations.)

However by 1947 in Detective Comics #122, Dick has reached the point where he seems amused by it and teases Catwoman about Batman, even if she denies any feelings.  

(Spoilers: She’s lying.  She’s had a crush on Batman since issue #3)

Most of the time though, while they did interact, they didn’t have much one-on-one time, and any connection between Selina and Dick took the backseat to each of their relationships with Bruce.  Catwoman was also reformed for a while, and went through extended periods where she wasn’t even showing up in the comics.

Here’s where I say that I’m really rusty on the Silver Age, so someone else might have a better memory of good Dick and Selina scenes from that period.  

(I’m also curious about their relationship in the original Earth-2 comics where Bruce and Selina were married, since I haven’t read much of that. Though I know Selina dies and I don’t get the sense they had much of a connection.)

However, I have been reading a lot of Bronze Age comics lately and The Lazarus Affair storyline does have some really great Dick and Selina (And Dick shipping BatCat) moments worth sharing. 

Dick goes to Selina for assistance with Talia, because no one else could “help [him] in the same way [Selina] can.”

(Batman #332)

This leads to Robin and Catwoman going on a mission together and eventually discovering Talia and Batman kissing, which upsets Selina.

(Batman #332)

Catwoman has her own side-story trying to prove Talia’s involvement with shady endeavors, and they talk about Selina’s feelings for Batman.

(Batman #333)

Dick and Selina have good teamwork throughout the story though.  Complete with undercover disguises and other shenanigans.

(Batman #333)

While Talia is ultimately cleared, (also- she dies and is resurrected. As it goes with that family.) Dick makes it very clear to Bruce at the end here, that he is very much “Team Selina.”  

(Batman #335)

Dick eventually leaves to join the Titans and isn’t around Gotham as much, and when Dick does start showing up in Gotham again more in the 90′s/early 2000′s I know that Nightwing and Catwoman are both in some of the same big Bat-events, but outside of sharing panels I can’t think of any really memorable interactions between the two off the top of my head?

We do have things like this though-

 (Gotham Knights #10)

And this-

(Nightwing #52)

They also had a couple of nice interactions during the Dickbats era.  

(Gotham City Sirens #7)

Although not without conflict. (Or weird compliments.  Or Selina referring to herself as Bruce’s possession.  Yikes.)

(Batman #692)

Anyways, this is not even close to a complete collection of Dick and Selina moments and as I disclaimed at the beginning, I’m not up-to-date with recent BatCat-related events.

To be fair, I don’t think Dick and Selina have even had much interaction or connection (BatCat-related or otherwise) outside the wedding arc post-new 52 reboot?  Except kinda Forever Evil, which made it clear she didn’t even know who he was.  Which is depressing.

(Forever Evil #3)

But yeah, I really enjoy Selina and Dick’s relationship, and it’s one of the factors that makes me enjoy BatCat.  (It’s nice when your kid approves of your girlfriend.)  

Dick and Selina are both very adaptable, their interactions tend to be lighthearted and fun (when they’re not too cougar-ly), and they’ve worked pretty well as a team when the situation that calls for it.  When Selina’s criminal activity isn’t getting in the way, they seem to enjoy each other.

From a Dick and Bruce perspective, he also likes that she can bring a different side out of Bruce, and it’s also often a fun opportunity for lighthearted banter and for Dick to get to tease Bruce in a way no one else can.  

(Batman #615)

(Because Bruce can be pretty useless whenever Catwoman shows up and Dick is aware of this.)

(Batman #15)

I do have to say that calling Dick a “BatCat shipper” does feel a bit, I dunno, reductive?  He genuinely respects and even likes Selina a lot of the time, and she’s one of his favorites when it comes to Bruce’s girlfriends because of that, but it’s not exactly his character’s focus.  Dick has his own life without worrying about who Bruce is dating.

With that said– Dick is definitely a BatCat shipper and these are some of the highlights from 80 years of comics proving it.  

He’s a fan.

(Batman #615)

[livlepretre]

ok wait i have some thoughts about acotar that you may or may not agree with... but basically i loved acotar/acomaf but hated acowar and i didn't even try to read acofas. there was a lot i hated about acowar but basically it sums up to 1) hated how sjm tried to retcon rhys into being this perfect amazing flawless person kind of destroying everything that was interesting about him in the first couple books. 2) THE EXTREMELY GRATUITOUS AND NUMEROUS SEX SCENES IN THE MIDDLE OF A WAR. LIKE ??? oh god especially that one scene where feyre wakes rhys up by... yeah. 3) king of hybern fell so flat as a villain i was expecting to get more backstory or smthg on him but no he was just... there. and evil. for no real reason. and then they killed him. like... ok. 4) TAMLIN WAS SO OOC. AND I HATE HOW SHE VILLAINIZED HIM. i also find the whole fandoms take on tamlin to be very bland and ridiculous. like yeah he obviously was not the right person for feyre and he made some serious mistakes for which he should be held accountable, but he was traumatized too! he was a very flawed character but he's not a villain!!! that scene where he's like making rude sexual comments about feyre in front of everyone felt so ooc for him. hated it. 4) mor's coming out storyline was... very bizarrely handled, and frankly i just found it hard to believe that mor's sexuality was something sjm had planned from the start of the series. as a bi woman that whole plot just rubbed me the wrong way. anyway. ya those are my thoughts but i'm curious to know what u think about this series lolol

Oof complicated question. 

I think in general I come down positively on ACOTAR based mostly on the strength of the first 2 novels? I read ACOTAR and ACOMAF back to back right after ACOMAF came out, and let me tell you: I was obsessed. I was devastated. I was enthralled. It filled some very particular requirements for what I really wanted-- it was gorgeous and atmospheric and really frightening and romantic. I thought the characters were well developed, and I just thoroughly enjoyed the world-building with vicious alien faeries and the real sense of danger, as well as the magic and the breathtaking imagery. As a painter myself, I LOVED reading about painting in a way that felt so true to the actual experience of what it’s like-- so much rarer and harder to actually find than one would think-- ACOTAR and An Enchantment of Ravens are the only two novels I can think of that even grasp the experience. I loved Feyre as a human, loved loved loved the trials, and I loved how even after she became High Fae, there was an element to it that was incredibly disturbing-- the idea of having a human soul in a fae body, which meant that things that sort of roll off of the fae around her-- like violence and killing-- profoundly disturb her and wreck her soul. I loved that. (at least, that was how I interpreted the “be glad for your human heart” thing, and also why I assumed she didn’t recognize the mating bond... that maybe, as a human soul in a fae body, it would be lost in translation for her until it was actually consummated). 

One of the things I also really loved about ACOMAF was that it took everything in ACOTAR and subtly turned it on its side. At that point, I was used to 1st love = true love, so actually reading a narrative where a heroine could change partners was really refreshing, and I liked all the ways that, looking back, we could realize that Tamlin wasn’t it-- that he didn’t try to free her from Under the Mountain (wow that should have been obvious) or how he never offered to teach her to read in the 1st book. I also really liked Feyre’s observation that she needed to feel protected in the 1st book because of where she was coming from then, but that by the 2nd book, because of the trauma of her imprisonment, she felt smothered and trapped. I thought the 2nd book did a good job of showing how Tamlin and Feyre could be really trying to make their pieces fit together the way they once did, but they had both been too changed by their experiences to work and had in fact become poison for each other. They both had PTSD, and I felt that was clear in the narrative. And I was happy for Feyre to leave, I loved the exploration of her depression and her slow recovery, and I was okay with how Tamlin was presented in that way because there is a way in which he really was as helpless as her-- yes, his actions were abusive, but I didn’t think that came from having an abuser’s personality. The tragedy was in the fact that he was also suffering and screwed up, and that meant that Feyre had to leave for her own sake, and that Rhysand ended up being what she needed. 

I’ll put my problems with the series under the cut. 

My problems started in ACOWAR, and it was primarily a characterization problem with Feyre that bothered me. To be honest, SJ Maas has this thing where she makes her main characters (male and female) just the most extraordinary over the top horrendous bitches out of the blue and it’s just like what the fuck. I think she does it for drama, and while I love a cold bitch (NESTA IS MY QUEEN)... that’s not Feyre. Her actions in the Spring Court were so much crueler than I would have anticipated. And it bothered me the way that those actions hurt everyone there, which was wild to me, as it was her home once, and that’s not Feyre. She’s the girl so empathetic that she gave those water faeries her bracelet to use as tribute. That she mourned so hard it nearly broke her for those faeries she killed in her third task. The whole point of the 1st novel was that she started with hate in her heart, but that she’s naturally so empathetic when given a chance to think about anything other than bare survival that love comes rushing in. So, I really disliked Feyre being a bitch for the sake of being a bitch. She felt unrecognizable to me. I realized recently that part of this is that Feyre actually completes her character arc in the 2nd book-- at that point, she’s figured out who she is, gained peace, happiness, and empowerment through it, and found a home. She’s answered all of the conflict within herself, so there’s just not really anywhere for her character to go in the 3rd book, which is part of why she feels so weird as a pov character. 

There were other things of course. Rhys had lost that edge I loved in him so much. (what was the point of that prologue, btw?) This is a little thing but giving Lucien a last name really wrecked a lot of the wonderful strangeness of the world building and I resent it. Especially since no one else has a last name. Sarah was on the right track when she gave Rowan the last name “Whitethorn.” THAT is a faerie last name. I don’t know what this Vanserra stuff is. What else. Hybern was supes whatever. Feyre making bargains was pretty much what we’d seen before. I didn’t mind the sex scenes because that’s just what you can expect from an SJM novel, and I don’t really have any comments on Mor’s coming out story. I also suspect that she was originally written as straight in ACOMAF, but then SJM changed her mind while working on ACOWAR. I’m not going to fault her for attempting to write more inclusively and more diversely (which, as we know, is already not something she excels at). I did find the hook up with Lucien’s dad real awkward though for everyone involved though. YIKES. TOGAS. YIKES. SJM also does this thing in her finales where too much of the books tend to be about the battles and the actual war, and that’s not nearly as interesting as the character moments that might occur because of the war. 

So, that leaves my primary complaint, which is Tamlin. I kind of think that it’s not even a matter of him being OOC, so much as Feyre being completely hateful toward him. Like, I remember thinking he was wildly OOC when he was siding with Hybern, a human hater, as he had specifically said in the 1st book that he would always fight against that. I remember being THRILLED when it turned out that he was playing Hybern, and how disappointed he was in Feyre for ever thinking him capable of actually siding with Hybern and bringing up that conversation they had in ACOTAR. I also loved it when he helped her escape the POW camp, and when he told her to be happy at the end. But honestly, after Feyre fucked him over SO! HARD! in the beginning of the novel, not at all surprised that he showed up at that meeting ready to talk smack. I was on his side during that whole thing, because by that point, I was like, get wreckt Feyre. (Which KILLS ME because I LOVED Feyre in the first 2 books, I think SJM really does mistake just horrendous bitchiness with confidence or something? It just horrified and embarrassed me the whole novel). I really do hope that Tamlin gets some sort of arc going forward. I was so depressed by our visit in him in ACOFAS-- sitting alone in that crumbling manor. I think he actually does deserve a “redemption” arc, although I don’t think he actually has to be redeemed. 

On the subject of bitchy Feyre: I do NOT like the way she treats Nesta in ACOFAS. I guess we see that Feyre has an empathy problem in ACOTAR in that she totally misreads her sisters in the first few chapters and thinks of them in the most uncharitable light possible, and of course, once she decides she’s done with Tamlin, she always assumes the worst of him, but wow. The way she handles things with Nesta just horrifies me. I just can’t imagine treating my siblings like that, or extending them so little empathy. 

And ACOFAS made me think about building snowmen and other horrible fluffy things and it was not my favorite. 

But all this being said I know myself and I am definitely going to read A Court of Silver Flames. I think it might be really good, actually. 

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

Why (most of) the 2010s Marvel legacy characters didn’t work

For Marvel characters I think it comes off as profoundly undermining when they get legacies, at least in the specific way Marvel attempted this throughout the 2010s.

To explain this we need to actually first look at DC’s characters in order to compare and contrast why legacies for them tend to work out better than they do for Marvel.

Simply put back in the 1930s-1950s (if not even later) DC’s characters were almost always created as powers first, people second. Wish fulfilment fantasy figures over flawed mere mortals.

Consequently you could legacy Green Lantern and the Flash in the 1950s and then do so again in the 1980s-1990s because so so long as you had a guy with a ring and another guy with super speed you were retaining the essence of both characters, the fundamental point and appeal of them.

But the Marvel characters were the other way around and practically deliberately designed to be so. 

Thor was the story of the life and times of Thor Odinson. Spider-Man was the story of the life and times of Peter Parker. The Fantastic Four was never the story about a brainiac who stretched, a girl who could go invisible, a kid who could burst into flame and a guy who looked like a rock monster. 

It was about a stern scientist obsessed with his work. A nurturing young woman who loved him but was frustrated by his tendency to get lost in his work. Her younger brother interested in sports cars, girls, excitement and other typically hot headed teenage endeavours. And an average Joe who was tortured and depressed that he was no longer human. 

Ben Grimm could’ve looked like any kind of monster and the central point of his character would have been retained. The F4′s specific powers, complemented their personalities, but they were not the driving point unto themselves. 

In contrast let us consider Captain America, probably the Marvel character who’s done the ‘replacement legacy hero’ storyline the most (at least within 616 canon). How comes he  lends himself so much better to this type of story than the other Marvel characters? 

Simple, because unlike most of the big name Marvel characters you know of, he wasn’t created in the 1960s or beyond. Cap was the product of the 1940s and was a peer to those same early days super heroes from the Golden Age, including the original Green Lantern and Flash. Like them he began fundamentally more as a symbol and powerset than a person. 

But now flashing forward to the 21st century many (most in my view) Flash fans were upset (and continue to be so) Wally West’s ascension to the Flash mantle was undermined and ultimately undone for the sake of restoring Barry Allan to the spotlight. The reason for this upset when Wally himself had replaced Barry? Wally had proven himself a far more flawed, nuanced and complex character than Barry had ever been. 

He demonstrated a degree of characterisation in the Flash role that Barry never had. It wasn’t even that he simply had more of this than Barry, but that Barry, just like Jay Garrick preceding him, had little to speak of in the first place. Thus the contrast between Jay and Barry was mostly superficial but the contrast between Barry and Wally was as stark as comparing Spider-Man to 1950s Superman.*

But Wally West, and the entire DC Universe from Post-Crisis onwards in fact, were in that mould precisely because they were trying to be more like Marvel comics has been since the 1960s onwards. 

DC in effect began prioritising the people beneath the costumes over the powers.** But Marvel starting in the 1960s had pretty much always been like that with their heroes.

Consequently when legacies popped up and those new characters were pushed as being just as good, just as worthy, or (in some cases) lowkey pushed as being better  than their predecessors it naturally rubbed those fans with decades of emotional investment the wrong way. OBVIOUSLY  a woman or a POC can be just as worthy and just as capable as a man or a white person as a superhero. But series to series, character to character, it was almost like Marvel was taking away your beloved pet.

Imagine for a moment you had a pet named Rex that you’d known and loved for years. 

Then Marvel insisted on taking Rex away from you when there was nothing wrong with him. In his place they give you another clearly different pet with Rex’s collar, who gets Rex’s bowl, Rex’s food, Rex’s toys, Rex’s bed and even Rex’s name and asks you to treat them not as just a new dog but straight up the new Rex.

Except he isn’t Rex. Rex is Rex. The ‘new Rex’ playing with Rex’s toys, doing the same tricks as him or having his collar doesn’t change that.*** 

Because Rex was more than a collar, his toys or his tricks. He was an individual that you’d known and loved. And even if you know Rex is going to come back ‘eventually’ having Rex taken away from you at all, having the new Rex supplant them (especially if old Rex was screwed over for the sake of new Rex’s arrival) and having so many people insist new Rex is just as great or more great than old Rex (to the point where many people loudly proclaim they don’t even want the old Rex back and the old Rex was kinda lame and boring) is going to create a massive dissonance. Maybe you would’ve been chill with the new Rex is he was just another additional pet called Rover or even like RexY who was similar yet different to Rex, but not actually promoted AS Rex or as his replacement. 

Maybe you would’ve been okay with the new Rex if the old one got too old, died naturally or accidentally. But you aren’t okay with it because there was nothing wrong with Rex, you LOVED Rex and Rex had been with you and been around generally forever. So the new Rex felt like he was undermining him, especially undermining Rex’s individuality. 

That’s how I think most Marvel fans felt about practically EVERY legacy situation that’s ever cropped up from the 1960s onwards, not even the ones just from the 2010s. I remember  the outrage when Bucky was announced as the new Cap. I know there were people salty about Eric Masterson as Thor and the Spider-Man Clone Saga speaks for itself.

Compounding the situation is that more than a few media outlets (despite imo not representing the feeling’s of the majority at all) promoted (and in some cases still promote) the new characters as not just better than they are (see the dozen or so lists talking about how great Riri allegedly was) but along with many fans tear down the older characters whilst doing so. 

See every article ever talking about why Peter Parker in the movies (and sometimes in the comics) NEEDS to die for the sake of Miles becoming the new Spider-Man in spite of their rationales rarely making sense from a creative/financial POV and utilizing misrepresentations of both characters to varying degrees. Even fans that appreciate the social/political relevancy of the new characters are going to naturally be upset in response to that and angrily voice opposition when the character they love gets dragged through the mud like that. And that then gets exacerbated when they are labelled as bigots for feeling upset by the changes or reacting against the character they love being dragged through the mud.**** 

Especially considering they would’ve reacted the same way regardless of who was the replacement hero.  Again, fans at first didn’t take kindly to John Walker or Bucky as the new Captain Americas so the idea that backlash against Sam Wilson was entirely or primarily racist was itself profoundly ignorant. Especially when you consider black reviewers such as those on the Hooded Utalitarian were calling it out as bad storytelling and bad representation for black people. SpaceTwinks went issue by issue through Spencer’s Sam Wilson run and called it out as racist, ignorant and naive. NONE of which is me saying that there isn’t more than a little bigotry going around detractors of these new characters nor that there aren’t obviously bad actors.

But those people did not and do not represent the majority and framing the situation as though they do is disingenuous and highly unethical. In conclusion, the backlash against the 2010s Marvel legacy characters was entirely natural, understandable and for the vast majority came from a place of love for the original characters not a bigoted hatred for the new characters skin colour or sex. 

It was a testament to Marvel’s, and the wider media, misunderstanding the psychology of most comic book fans. 

P.S. In regards to that, though it isn’t exactly talking about what I’ve spoken about I’d highly recommend checking out this video which touches upon the disenchantment Star Wars fans felt over the Sequel Trilogy, which itself could be viewed as doing the same thing Marvel did with it’s replacement legacy characters.

P.P.S. The reason I think the likes of Miles Morales or Kamala Khan succeeded where others failed is chiefly due to their rise to the role of legacy replacements stemmed from their predecessors not  being sidelined for their rise to the spotlight. Miles never ever replaced the 616 version of Peter Parker, widely considered by most fans and Marvel internally as the true and legitimate version of the character. Kamala Khan meanwhile picked up the Ms. Marvel only when Carol Danvers discarded it and became Captain Marvel. She was still in the spotlight in her own right, Kamala simply got her own spotlight using Carol’s obsolete name. Which isn’t all that dissimilar to fan favourite Cassandra Cain’s rise to the Batgirl mantle now I think about it.

P.P.P.S. A possible counter argument to all I’ve said is the success of the Superior Spider-Man/Otto Octavius. After all why was he embraced when Sam Wilson and Jane Foster wasn’t? Was a double standard rooted in bigotry at play?

No, but the answer isn’t neat and simple.

I think Ock as the new Spider-Man was more embraced partially because Ock had been around essentially as long as Spidey himself. But more poignantly  pre-Superior Spider-Man was so atrocious that a sizzling and sexy idea like Superior (which generated tons of cheap novelty) felt utterly refreshing, even to people who had actually LIKED pre-Superior Spidey under Slott. It’s like how people praised the early Big Time stories despite their problems because compared to BND they were genuinely better.

Plus Superior, for all it’s god forsaken writing, didn’t exist to clearly workshop potential movie ideas or chiefly in aid of a social/political cause. Someone can agree that there should be more black or female superheroes but disagree that the older characters should be sidelined in the attempt to achieve that.

Especially when there were better alternative options such as introducing those newer characters within and alongside the established hero’s narrative or simply introduce them independently as has happened recently with the likes of Lunar Snow.

*This is also why I suspect Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman survived from the Golden Age into the Silver Age. Because they were the DC characters who (more than any of the other ones) had actual personalities/substance to them. **Of course this didn’t begin wholesale with the post-Crisis era. But noticeably the characters who had worked with this new shift in priorities prior to Crisis on Infinite Earths stayed generally the same thereafter (E.g. the Titans, Batman) whilst characters who had largely vacillated or struggled (e.g. Superman and Wonder Woman) were given fresh starts which proved critically and financially successful.  

***Not even if he does everything just as well as Rex did or does some stuff differently that’s still good (although the overwhelming majority of the time new Rex is clearly not as good as the old Rex).

****I’ve seen people be called racist and misogynists for calling out Riri Williams honestly ridiculous degree of competency as a hero/tech genius in spite of her age. This is not an invalid criticism, yet disliking the character because of those reasons is grounds to be labelled as something ugly by another (imo minor yet also vocal) contingent of fandom. 

Hell I was called a Trump supporting Breitbart reading bigot for calling out Marvel as two-faced due to never putting a black writer in charge of Sam Wilson as Captain America or a woman in charge of Jane Foster as Thor. It isn’t exclusive to comics either as I and other people have been accused of racism/misogyny for disliking the Last Jedi in spite of that film to my eyes being itself racist and sexist anyway.

[ghostmartyr]

I am so sad and mad about how Isayama ruined Historia's and Ymir's story arcs and their characterizations. Two girls who have been hated just for being born and existing decide to live for themselves and for each other.... but then the other one decides that she should die and the other one decides to become a baby making machine?! That makes no sense! What happened to that promise about living for themselves? Why would Ymir suddenly decide to die?

I’m going to answer several of these in the same post. I don’t know if they’re all from you, but they are all of a similar vein, and I think having them together might help some.

So first of all, this is exactly why I have to believe there’s more to it. Because you have the two characters who are defined by their fights against fate bowing to it. Before I left the fandom, comments about the inevitability of both of their storylines were fairly common.

That is partially why they make no sense, and disregarding that is disregarding an essential theme of both characters.

The fact that it seems inevitable that Historia is doomed to have children to continue her line (even before this latest stuff, that was one of the most common criticisms of her having the happy ending of marrying Ymir), and inevitable that saving Reiner and Bertolt for two months would cost Ymir her life–

That’s what both of them are trying to fight.

“Evennow… There’s no way the three of us can make it back safely, is there?!”“There is.”

Ymir is the one who looks at impossible situations, and through the power of fuck you, gets herself and the people who matter to her out of them.

Marley stones her and will kill and rape the girl she loves. Her decision to help Reiner and Bertolt gives them an extra weapon to help that along. She calls Reiner and Bertolt small fry. They have very little influence. Helping them achieves nothing for her and gives people who began her personal nightmare a present. With how things are in Marley, it’s very unlikely that Reiner and Bertolt’s failure would have led to either of them losing their Titans; they’re too well trained.

Ymir’s sacrifice, as written, is meaningless and empty, and stands in opposition to everything about her character that has been established.

Something being “inevitable” for these two is a sign of something for them to fight, not something for them to endure.

Then we have Historia.

           I am really confused about the direction Historia’s character arc has gone. Ymir inspired Historia to live a life she’s proud of and to live for herself….only for Historia to become a tool, a baby factory???            

I have said previously that I have no issue with her agreeing to take on the Beast Titan. Jumping at sacrifice is pretty well ingrained, even with her knowing that maybe she shouldn’t. She’s brave, and willing.

She also doesn’t think.

Kristoria has zero intention of killing Daz. She still comes very close to killing him because she’s so caught up in her own personal drama of depression and death that she misses the way out. When she realizes that, she’s horrified.

Historia condemning any child to eating its mother and dying thirteen years later is bullshit. I’m not saying it couldn’t be done, but the way it’s written as of the moment, Historia gets zero thought bubbles. She is not given any agency; she’s the damsel in distress.

She’s the one who has the best understanding of what doing this to children would mean. She’s lived that life.

She is given no material about how profoundly she’s rejected exactly this in the past before it appears to happen. She’s just caught in the crossfire of inevitability. Of a new cycle of sacrifice. A figure for everyone to look at and say oh, how sad, but what did you expect.

It is a complete destruction of everything we know about her character, and it is done with no attention to how it would impact her or her emotions. She is thrust into the position of bystander in her own life.

I don’t talk about this stuff very often anymore, because I can’t talk about it without losing my temper. I can’t talk about it without remembering how deeply I hate this fandom. I can’t talk about it without remembering how fucking pissed I am about all of it.

So when I respond to this and the rest of these, I don’t want to come off as patronizing. I get it. I get it better than I want to. I get wanting to light every volume of the manga on fire, because with where the story is, it feels like everything that’s come before it is a colossal waste, and if the author isn’t going to honor his story’s internal consistency, why the fuck should I even care.

And that’s why I don’t think things are as they look.

The idea that both characters have been abandoned this thoroughly is very easy to jump to, because on the surface, that’s what’s going on. Their characters are introduced and established solely to be brought to their utter ruin.

That is not the story that’s been told so far.

It takes something like sixty chapters for us to find out how Grisha and Keith know each other. After one throwaway line. Annie and her crystal disappear outside of flashbacks for around seventy chapters.

Ymir proposing to Historia is one of the most popular gags, and it happens once. In the first chapter of the second volume. Eighty chapters later, it’s referenced.

RAB have a ton of panels dedicated to establishing their shadiness that went largely unnoticed until the reveal.

Historia’s bond with Ymir is what breaks a century of her family’s bloodstained traditions.

The chapter named after Ymir is the one where she shouts about how marching into death is fucking cowardly.

I will agree, wholeheartedly, that Ymir and Historia look to have been screwed over by the story worse than anyone else in the entire series. For all the bad things that have happened, few of them can claim to be an active regression and denial of everything the characters are as people. By which I mean none of them are.

Except, arguably, Eren’s arc and current characterization.

Which receives constant critical attention within canon itself.

Ymir and Historia’s arcs have not yet received such a spotlight.

The only thing contributing to the idea that things are not how they look–is that this story has never been told this way before. It kills people off before it betrays their character.

Historia reads Ymir’s letter and asks if that’s it.

Galliard’s introduction in human form is him being confused by Ymir volunteering to give Jaws back.

This is not a story unaware of what it is doing. Questionable material is not called out just to have a lampshade thrown on it and call it good enough. If something questionable is happening, it has always been recognized as such within the actual canon.

Ymir and Historia included.

Vaguely. With not nearly as many highlighted points as they deserve. But it has not gone unnoticed.

They’ve both, very specifically, been given a script that runs exactly counter to their themes.

Either the story’s crap and it pays no attention to itself, something that the rest of the manga argues strongly against, or something is up.

I want to believe something’s up. The alternative really is a story that doesn’t care about itself, and that has never been this story. The thought of it falling that low makes me really sad.

There’s an entire manga surrounding Ymir and Historia that says it hasn’t. This is not over yet, and until it is over, I’m going to hold out hope.

Because yeah, the writing as it is makes zero sense. It’s borderline impossible for the writing to have failed itself this badly. So:

“How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?”

I get why that’s not a popular perspective. What’s going on with Ymir and Historia is rage-inducing. The fact that there might be a reprieve months down the line, and that being the most positive thing I can say to keep people’s hopes up… yeah. Despair and anger comes a lot easier when things are this fucked.

But I really, really don’t think that’s all there is to it.

           If Historia isn’t truly pregnant, then why does she look so miserable? I myself also hope that her pregnancy is fake, because I can’t understand why Historia would agree on becoming a labor machine and inherit the Beast Titan, when she previously refused her father’s plans about becoming a Titan. Why would she now be okay with it? Also, what about Ymir’s words to Historia about living her life with pride? Why would Historia suddenly not live her life with pride?             

Same thing, right? This backtracks on all the characterization we know, and without even a properly paced bridge showing how minds were theoretically changed. So pretty much all of the above.

As for the misery, though, one of my theories is that the house is being watched. The government is not that friendly towards the Queen. If the plan is for them to believe that Historia’s pregnant, she has to put on that skit. If the people watching believe that it’s a scheme to save Zeke’s hide/step one of the breeding program, she has no reason to look happy.

And she probably isn’t. Even if everything else was okay, Sasha just died. One of her closest friends is dead, and she doesn’t get to go to the funeral.

One of her other closest friends is off massacring people, ruining her country’s public image even further (which how the fuck, it was already terrible), and her role in this. Her mission. Is to stay on a farm, alone, helping none of them.

Historia’s always left behind, these days. She can’t go to Shiganshina. She can’t go to Marley. She can’t even go out in public or help around the farm, since she has to be gentle with her body and care for the “baby.”

She has a million reasons to feel miserable, and no one close to her seems to even give a damn. It’s implied heavily by Hange that sacrificing Historia is moved forward on the agenda thanks to Eren’s actions. Eren doesn’t appear to give a fuck. Not a single one of her friends even mentions her.

The only people talking about Historia are drunk MPs, basically calling her a slut, and bitching about the inconvenience of that; Kaya, who brings her up as a distant figure responsible for good orphan policies; and Hange, who uses her to try and spark a conversation with Eren.

As far as the plot has cared to reveal, no one alive could possibly care less about Historia and her problems.

Even if the pregnancy’s fake, that takes a toll. She’s fighting her battle, whatever it is, entirely alone. Unless we count NPC Farmer Guy. Who she constantly looks moments away from skewering with her eyes.

Of course she’s miserable.

           It’s a pity as Isayama continues to exclude Historia from the narrative as if it were nothing although I must say that this manga has a horrible tendency to the fanatical women of guys who “marked” it until Yelena is a fangirl of shit when I thought I was going to be a great character though What do you think about that? Personally I never had faith in the Yumihisu, not because of its plot, but because the Japanese mangakas always have the tendency that they all fall in love with the protagonist            

Yelena has always been a fanatical devotee of Titans. I can understand why that characterization isn’t as fun as the badass helpful one who shoots people, but Yelena’s backstory is all about looking up at Zeke (possible sociopath, routine mass-murderer) and seeing God.

This is… about the fallout I’d expect from that. She wants the person who currently wields the power of god to embrace its full glory and etc. etc. There’s a lot about that that alarms me, and I do greatly prefer Yelena as the person who’s bright, calm, and helpful over the desperate devotee, but. She follows Zeke. She views power and morality in some pretty terrifying ways. That coming across palatably is up to individual preference.

I think Yelena is still allowed to exist as her own person, though. Extreme worship can be an uncomfortable thing, especially when it’s a woman looking at a role currently fulfilled by men. Blah blah blah misogyny and not letting female characters develop unless a guy’s involved, blah blah blah media is The Worst.

Like, I won’t try to argue that’s not a thing, so it’s usually worth looking at those trappings with a healthy degree of caution.

But Yelena worships the power. She wants Eren to develop his own mind over how to use it. She looks up at these gods, and she wants to watch.

That is not an empty, sexy lampshade characterization. To be honest, it’s kind of terrifying. She’s the most pragmatic about murder among the Anti-Marleyan Volunteers. She’s aggressively against anything that might show even a hint of loyalty to Marley, even people she has close ties to.

She shoots people without flinching. She hates Marley. She’s on Eldia’s side, and what’s coming out makes it look like she’s on Eldia’s side because she sees Titans as a blessing while everyone else in the history of the planet, even Eren’s damn cult, sees devils.

You’ll find unfortunate implications in most things if you stop to look, but unfortunate implications are not the sum total of a character and a character’s arc unless things have really gone off the rails. Yelena being a fanatical devotee of gods that happen to be possessed by men does have its worrying elements, but she’s also a fleshed out character with her own agency and motivation built in. Tropes are where the story begins. If they also end there, yeah, that’s a problem. In Yelena’s case, it’s very firmly only a beginning.

As for Ymir and Historia…

We do not live in a world where trusting authors to handle femslash in mainstream media goes well. You’ll have your gems, but like. One of my favorite ships of all time, where the writers got it, where it had the best writing and best slow burn and best everything–still has one half dying the episode after they’re reunited after a season-long separation.

There are reasons for that, and I do not blame the writers for how they distributed their resources or story’s pacing (I still very much like the story, and enthusiastically dig what was done with the death).

That’s still how it went down. A great story, told brilliantly, and oh look she’s dead.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

The fact of the matter is, a story could roll out the red carpet for every single insulting trope that faces queer pairings, and check each one off the list intentionally, making it as offensive as possible, and the collective fandom consciousness would probably nod and say yeah, that sounds about right.

We have not been conditioned to trust queer ships. We probably have been conditioned to distrust their writers. It’s what makes those fandoms… kind of high-strung. I say that with as much respect as I can, because I’m definitely not above any of that, but yeah. The fandom environment for this stuff tends to be rabid hope followed by burning all concept of hope to the ground, because hope is a worthless daydream that doesn’t actually exist.

Usually because even authors who do genuinely care do not get why people are so damn cagey about this. Not getting it leads to things that feel like pretty basic, conventional tragic writing that audiences eat up, but are in fact the harbingers of fandom apocalypse.

Ymir and Historia are a beautiful story. Maybe it’ll turn out that they’ll be as screwed up as everyone’s been shouting about since 93, but everything in canon has always been respectful of how much they mean to each other.

I understand why so many people are upset and unwilling to hold out for things to be less. this. This sucks. This really, really sucks, and even if it all turns out okay, that’s months away. Optimistically.

I don’t blame anyone for being bitter, or not wanting to stick that through. I am well beyond bitter, and regularly wish I cared a little less so I could just check in once the series is over and not go through this chaos of uncertainty.

However, I do still believe that there’s room for the story that means so much to us to be respected. I do still believe that it’s not over, even if the actual ending still isn’t as happy as we want it to be.

When the writing is this explicitly destructive of everything that’s come before, there’s a story to that, and this series’ stories have always been good ones.

Told with the grace of a month-old puppy, which is what we’re experiencing now, but still ultimately worth experiencing.

The active pursuit of doom and gloom in the manga has always been used to kick off an arc. So far, light has always shone through in the end.

Nothing’s broken beyond repair yet, even if it feels that way.

[juushika]

“I’m not doing too much modding, I’m just making minor aesthetic changes!” I say as I figure out how to change my spouse’s dialog in Stardew Valley

I’d forgotten how modding changes the game experience; you learn to see everything as code and asset, as construct, at the same time that you create a custom, improved (by whatever subjective standard) experience--it’s simultaneously more surreal and more immersive

this time I married Shane for reasons (”the reason I love Shane so much is because he gave me an opportunity to say to someone in my position the things that I wish people could say to me, and to have it work”), but failed to anticipate that I would effectively be roleplaying my partner, marrying my ... self. I wanted to give Shane a safe place free from the demands which were aggravating his native mental health issues, which is a literal & obvious description of my relationship but I am stupid and anticipated nothing. so it’s part power fantasy (to be able to caretake, which I can’t do in real life), part idealization (self-sustaining multiplayer farm commune!), part hugely and predictably triggering

Shane’s vanilla marriage dialog makes an attempt but doesn’t quite manage to balance the fact and limitations of his recovery: he’s sometimes melancholy, he sometimes talks about his improved quality of life, he also drinks heavily in a way that completely ignores parts of his storyline. (he also makes 24823 comments about pizza, but that lines up with the game’s tone.) this is to some extent a pleasant surprise, because his storyline is worryingly optimistic--I shy from narratives about how a little outside help will cure addiction and a predisposition towards depression, because they’re idealizing and erasing, particularly of my personal experience. but it’s so much a reversal as to feel like it just doesn’t take into account his heart events.

farmhand spouses currently can’t use all their dialog (they can’t leave the house, so no patio/outdoor dialog; for some reason it also isn’t using any day-specific dialog?), and I don’t have kids (so no children-interaction dialog), thus I’m seeing the same ~15 dialog lines over and over & the above weaknesses have become glaring

everyone is welcome to use and make any mod in the world, but a lot of Shane’s modded dialog is ... it reads like fanfic ... it’s indulgent and too sexy for the game. (I appreciate that users generally try to hit a balance of acknowledging both his problems and recovery--but it tends in directions which make me uncomfortable, directions like “you, player character, cured or are curing me!”)

writing my own Shane--or just gently massaging existing dialog into better shape--is bizarre as fuck. is it unhealthy to recreate my own bad habits/lack of recovery in a fictional character? probably! where’s the line between wallowing and learning to forgive myself? who knows! I’m profoundly invested in depictions of mental health issues, but avoid most of them, particularly recovery narratives, because I find them triggering: thinking about my crazy is sometimes productive but always aggravates my crazy. engaging this via modding makes it even more bizarre. he’s less real and more--more of a self-insert yet firmly based in preexisting content--it builds a sense of ownership which lets me better fulfill the fantasy of doing for someone else what I want done for me and having it work--work, but not in a way that erases the underlying problems which are fundamental to their (my) personality and life experience

tl;dr I sure do have a lot of feelings & I have invested an awful lot of them in Shane given that I’m  ““barely””” modding the game. his dialog looks great now! I gave him a new hoodie because he quit his job at JojaMart! he has a hint of eyebags because this mod was on the right track! please remove my access to the game files!

[scuttleboat]

so i finally watched the 100 and just got done with season 3. i expected lexa's death to be unnecessary because of how everyone responded to it, but it seemed kind of necessary to the plot. it's not like they killed her for no damn reason, though i think they could have done something a little better with how she actually dies. why did everyone have such an extreme reaction to it? if anyone it's lincoln everyone should have been getting this upset over. his death felt unnecessary and unfair

First, I’m glad you watched the show and enjoyed it!  Welcome to the land of despair and apocalypti.

You’re stepping into a bit of a beehive with that question, lol, but I’ll do the best to lay it out for you. I can see how, coming into the show and bingeing it, a lot of things may feel different as a viewer than when you’re watching week to week with everyone else.  That’s probably the most crucial thing you have to understand about how The 100 fandom went so extreme for a year and a half–when you’re in it, sometimes it can feel like the biggest thing in the world.  There was an incredible amount of emotional investment in her character, specifically because her archetype (apocalyptic warlord love interest) is rarely a queer female character. Usually it’s a strapping het guy like Khal Drogo on GoT.

Through most of season 2, the fanbase around Lexa as a guest character ballooned up in what I’m gonna equate (don’t hate me, fandom, I’m sorry) to a housing bubble. If you’re by chance too young to know what a housing bubble is, then be glad you didn’t own property in 2008.  Anyway, the bubble grew all through season 2 and the 9 month hiatus afterwards, as more fans of f/f pairings found the show, or were actively recruited to watch the show on what the CL fans presented as being an “endgame” pairing that they had always dreamed of seeing play out on an US Top 5 Network science fiction show.  The fact that Clarke is bisexual is a strident step forward on its own, and it’s something that (from what I’ve seen) all sides of the fandom have embraced. The thing is, this is where we get into the problem of the vanishing 4th wall between fans and content creators (writers room, exec producer, actors, marketing), who I’m going to blanketly call the producers.  (dig in, I’ve got another 1000 words below the cut…)

So the fans of Clarke and Lexa got excited to see a real f/f love story become canon on a major network show, and closely following that is the dream that it could have a happy ending (or at least a neutral one). The producers didn’t contradict this assumption (from their POV, why would they spoil their show?). 

Although they never directly promised that Lexa would live and she and Clarke would end happily, they did certain things on social media that encouraged this idea. That includes some shady stuff like having a staff writer visit shipper messageboards, and posting pics from the s3 finale with Lexa’s actress on set.  The producers fanned the flames of CL fandom excitement, meanwhile the show itself put down an enormous, almost overbearing amount of foreshadowing that Lexa would die. This dissonance–not wanting to see the story content for what it is because you desperately want to believe otherwise–I think that’s the suckerpunch that was the worst for shippers.  The bubble broke in 307, and the feeling of betrayal was staggering for a lot of fans.  If you consume endless amounts of storytelling media and you never get to fully identify with the leading romance, until finally a story comes along where you do, and in fact you’re encouraged to invest in it, AND THEN it’s snatched away from you, that’s a gut-wrenching feeling. For a lot of people it was like they’d been instantly invalidated, as if their personal story (and it had become personal) wasn’t worthy of a happy ending.

Is it fair to put all that expectation on one character, on one show?  No of course not, but it happened anyway. That’s what happens with feelings and emotions.  And it wasn’t just about the end of the CL love story, because the manner of her death compounded the anger. She was killed by a stray projectile instead of in battle, and that evokes the death of other queer women in media history. Her death was framed as a byproduct of her romantic relationship with another woman, making it seem to be about her sexuality, instead of it being a result of her character as a leader or a warrior. It sent the unintended message of a condemnation against having hope for a f/f romance.

Broadly, I agree with you that her death did make sense within the plot, and it gave the producers a way to tie their disparate story threads together and give Lexa’s legacy a symbolic meaning that lasted past her death. I thought it was clear since s2 that the romantic storyline was always going to be short-term, because there’s no plausible world where Lexa gives up her divine throne to hang out with the sky kids in their dingy Arkadia cafeteria. Likewise, Clarke could only hang out in Polis for a while, no matter her romantic longing, because she loves her people and Clarke Griffin’s story is bigger than being a princess on a shelf for Lexa to protect (which is why Clarke had already decided to leave in 307.)   I thought that ADC did a beautiful performance in her death scene, and Eliza Taylor did some of her finest acting for the entire show. It was a gorgeously shot, loving tribute to a character that was so beloved by audiences. 

But that’s all ash in the mouth if you believed, to your heart, that it wouldn’t happen, and if it happening feels like a personal judgment of your romantic identity. The reason fandom was so explosive on this topic is that rarely had a screen romance been embraced so profoundly as part of fandom’s identity politics. And when you incorporate something into your identity, your self-image… then hurting that thing feels like hurting you.  It’s not just like Hermione choosing Ron over Harry, or like Bella choosing Edward. It’s so much bigger than that when your sense of self, your dreams, your heart are involved.

That’s the core of why The 100 fandom went insane for a year and a half. Everything that came after–the good and the bad and the tragic and the heinous, the things done by CL fandom and by Bellarke fandom and by trolls aggravating both–that was the fallout from this. 

If there were more hollywood shows with queer characters as leads, if some of them were able to have a f/f or m/m endgame romance, then Clexa ending as a tragedy wouldn’t have been the fiasco that it turned out to be. Ironically, The 100 brought that future one step closer: Clarke Griffin is a bisexual woman, and she’s the lead protagonist on a US Top 5 Network science fiction show. She’ll still be a queer wlw even if she dates a man. She didn’t die with Lexa. She’s alive and beautiful and she’s going to love other women and men before the end of her story.

I want to wrap this up so I’m sorry I didn’t leave much time for your last comment, but I agree with you on that as well: Lincoln’s death was not given an equivalent backlash from fandom, nor was it given as full due within the show itself. He was a series regular from season 1, and he felt severely underwritten in s3. There’s a lot of great writing that’s out there about this, but if it feels to you like an imbalance for the two characters, well–you’re right. Two major characters died in season 3, and the internet only moved mountains for one. Ultimately, and even more depressing, Lincoln’s death was subsumed into the backlash after Lexa’s death, and the racially upsetting optics of his murder scene was used as a talking point after Lexa’s to emphasise how the series is terrible, evil, and should be shut down. At the end of the day, the loudest outragers in fandom made Lincoln’s death part of Lexa’s. The show didn’t do that–fandom did. His squashed storyline in the show was mirrored in how he was squashed in fandom politics. That right there is fucking irony. Hell, I’m probably doing the same thing in this write up. These avenues of thinking are endemic to fandom.

Anyway, this is the most insane, borderline monstrous fandom I’ve ever been in. Doxxing the showrunner, harassing cast members, driving numerous production people off of social media, online bullying, fear-mongering, and a whole lot of people who absolutely know better regularly choosing to make use of racist, homophobic, sexist, and antisemitic messages to harangue the cast, the writers, and the rest of fandom. It’s nowhere near as bad this year as last year, but man… 

Still, if we all learned anything from this mess, I hope it’s that people’s feelings are real, even on the other side of a digital sceen, and playing carelessly with them has consequences. Bad ones. So, I don’t know… writers should write more queer characters, fandoms should keep their distance from writers instead of thinking they can influence the story, and if you’re an executive producer and you plan to use a trope that people are gonna hate, better be prepared to hide in a bunker for 6-12 months.

[harrisonkitteridge-blog]

Sherlock Season 4 – TL;DR: The Fanfiction is Better

SPOILERS AND PALATE-CLEANSING FIC RECS FOLLOW

Season 4 of Sherlock was always going to be a tough sell for me, because the moment they revealed “she’s a secret assassin!” I stopped buying the Mary Watson character. It’s what film critic, Mark Kermode, calls the “Meg Ryan is a helicopter pilot/Keanu Reeves is an architect” problem. Amanda Abbington was just not believable to me as a spec ops assassin, and she wasn’t equipped to perform the action convincingly. And all that was before the problems with the story were even revealed. After Mary shot Sherlock, every time she turned up on the screen, my stomach clenched, because, as presented, she was capable of anything – demonstrating profoundly antisocial tendencies: lying, manipulation, self-serving extreme violence, and disregard for human life. Her total rehabilitation was simply not plausible to me and probably wouldn’t have been even if its foundation hadn’t been the unbelievably ludicrous, glib assertion: “That was surgery.” (Not how guns and bullets work!) Watching her subsequent chumminess with Sherlock, whom she shot in the chest and killed (he flatlined), made me feel like I was being gaslighted. In my mind, it wasn’t good enough for her to say, “I only hurt Sherlock because I love John so much I can’t lose him!” Go down to any battered women’s shelter and you’ll hear similar stories of abusers’ rationalisations for beating up the person their property dared to smile at in the grocery store parking lot. Watching Mary joke and laugh with the people she’d victimised so horribly while continuing to marginalise John made much of The Six Thatchers almost unwatchable for me.

I understand that the undercurrent of intimate partner abuse in the Watson family was wholly unintentional, and it reminds me of the criticisms of 50 Shades of Gray. In both cases, two-dimensional characters (“Action Barbie” and “Sexy Troubled Billionaire”) there solely to serve the plot – not function as decision-making protagonists in their own lives – were the problem. (Yes, I just compared Sherlock to 50 Shades of Gray. At least 50 Shades of Gray had the excuse of a novice writer wrangling with the knottiness of a BDSM relationship as an excuse. Moftiss should know better.) Nevertheless, as much as I disliked the Mary Watson character, as much side eye as I gave her and John’s frankly dubious “love story”, I was appalled by Moftiss icing her so Sherlock could figure out he needs to check his ego. She was just there to sacrifice herself for Sherlock after his douchery got a bullet fired at him and to give John something to shake and sob about. The entire storyline of their “strong female character” was essentially a morality play aimed at teaching Sherlock about the dangers of hubris and a fulcrum to lever up the man-tear quotient. Then they turned their BAMF assassin into the benevolent spirit providing emotional instruction via DVD from beyond the veil. *vomiting emoji*

The Lying Detective at least provided relief from all the incoherent punching and shooting and rappelling of The Six Thatchers, even if it brought with it the lazy construct of the hallucinated spouse as an expression of grief (for real, though, the handling of the Mary Watson character and storyline is a masterclass in what not to do – so incredibly misjudged). One of the major issues I have with Moftiss’s writing is their careless, insensitive handling of serious mental health issues. Using auditory and visual hallucinations as shortcuts to say “I’m devastated by the loss of my wife” really rubbed me the wrong way. John wasn’t just talking to Mary in his head or forgetting she was dead, which happens to many people who lose a loved one suddenly. He was seeing her, hearing her – he couldn’t separate her spectre from reality. Those are not manifestations of grief; they are signs of profound psychological disturbance and distress that require urgent medical intervention, maybe even hospitalisation. They could have tied John’s extreme symptoms to sleep-deprivation from having to deal with Rosie at all hours of the night. The sleep-deprivation could have been exacerbated by insomnia brought on by feelings of guilt. But, no. They did it because real grief, presented the way a well-adjusted, middle-aged adult would experience it just wasn’t sexy enough. 

I never found the “high-functioning sociopath” line funny, but thought they might take it to an interesting place. What is sociopathy? How does it manifest itself? How would it manifest itself in Sherlock Holmes? Why does Sherlock label himself this way? Was he misdiagnosed (he’s obviously not a sociopath)? Was he self-diagnosed? I don’t think Moftiss ever genuinely considered how having a personality disorder would affect a character’s behaviour outside of giving him funny quirks and making him a bit rude. “High-functioning sociopath” was just there as a clapback to Anderson then as something gangster to say before Sherlock shot Magnusson in the face. They never thought it all the way through. By way of comparison, Arthur Conan Doyle described Sherlock Holmes as a law unto himself, as the final arbiter. He was also called “masterful” – able to impose his will on others. When he chose, he had “an ingratiating quality” and could easily earn people’s trust. He was also an accomplished actor and master of disguise, who was able to fool even his dear Watson. There is a grandiose, manipulative psychology at work there that is knitted together with a deep sense of fair play and commitment to justice. While sometimes churlish and short-tempered, he could be profoundly empathetic. He also had nervous breakdowns, what we call major depressive episodes today, and used hard drugs to self-medicate. Sherlock Holmes’s psychology is full of fascinating contradictions. Everything Moftiss needed was in the original text, but they never got beneath the surface. So, while they’ve hit on some of these traits, they’ve never been fully integrated into a complete character because I just don’t think they’ve made the effort to understand mental illness and related drug abuse. There’s actually an interview of Steven Moffat describing Sherlock as “clinically insane”. The fundamental misunderstanding of what that means is why The Final Problem ultimately failed.

The appearance of the evil, secret sister telegraphed that we were heading into telenovela territory, and I wasn’t surprised by the contrivance of the Maze of Moral Abyss, all those macabre labours for Sherlock, John and Mycroft to perform – a steroidal re-hash of The Great Game. It was like something out of a 90s action film – The Rock meets Die Hard With a Vengeance, and I watched it as such. I half expected Bruce Willis or some other 90s throwback to come bounding in, armed to the teeth, start flinging grenades and just command them to shoot their way out. Even so, The Final Problem was the best of the three episodes this season – at least them spending nearly the entire episode at Sherrinford meant that it was cohesive tonally. I still don’t quite know what to make of them choosing to ground the entire plot – all those games, all those deaths – in Eurus’s cry for help. It is possible to humanise a psychopath within the constraints of their diagnosis. They have inner lives that aren’t limited to the monstrous, but they’re not like us – the emo play is always a loser – you can only out-manipulate them. They have an internally consistent view of the world, and once you understand the rules they follow, you can predict their behaviour and outflank them (it’s the basis of criminal profiling), but you have to empathise with them. Do you see how understanding all that not only helps with characterisation but buttresses the plotting and would have avoided the anti-climax of the ending? Answering the question: “What does Eurus really want?” then having Sherlock, John and Mycroft connive a way to give it to her would have been much more interesting.

The obvious pop cultural point of connection with The Final Problem is The Silence of the Lambs. We all were drawn to Hannibal Lecter – we couldn’t help liking him and felt conflicted about it. At the end of the film when Clarice says she knows he won’t come after her because he would consider it “rude” – now that’s interesting. What is Eurus’s “That would be rude”? My inability to answer that question gets to the heart of my problem with Sherlock – I don’t feel like I understand any of the characters or what is motivating them. Superimposing the tropes of storytelling onto the episodes and trying to read between the lines is the only way to make sense of them. They’ve been building to this Eurus confrontation for literally half a decade, and it still fell flat. They gave her whole backstory, and I still don’t understand her. By way of comparison, The Silence of the Lambs is 2 hours and 18 minutes long, and Anthony Hopkins appears on screen for only fifteen minutes, yet we all understood exactly who Hannibal Lecter was, what he was capable of, what he wanted and why. I’ll grant that The Silence of the Lambs is an unfairly high bar, but it provided a clear blueprint for the complex, charismatic, psychopathic serial killer pulling the strings. At the end of The Final Problem, Moftiss asks us to believe that the answer to Eurus’s “problem” was the love of her family. She obviously coveted Sherlock’s attention enough to murder poor Victor Trevor and set her elaborate stage, but anyone who understands even the basic contours of her psychology knows her shaking and crying in a burnt out house and needing a hug from her brother isn’t how that story ends.

I seriously wonder how much better Sherlock would have turned out if at some point in the last 5 years Moftiss had just googled Cluster B Personality Disorders and spent a few days boning up. They wouldn’t have made such a hash of Mary, and Eurus wouldn’t have been “Female Moriarty Who Lost Her Bottle in the End” – utterly anticlimactic. Or did they do the research, but they just couldn’t give a woman the minerals to be a proper villain?

To be clear: I wouldn’t have many of the complaints I’ve laid out if I hadn’t constantly been told Sherlock is the cleverest show on television. It’s not. It never was. The plotting of the first two seasons got it pretty close to being included in that conversation, but it’s no The Sopranos, no The Wire, no Mad Men. At this point, I’d say any workmanlike police procedural has it beat, hands down. Remember all those arguments about which was the better show, Elementary or Sherlock? Well, Elementary won. And that unsexy police procedural structure is why. The show has an identity, a solid foundation – it’s consistent. Moftiss can’t seem to decide what Sherlock is about, and that’s why so much of Season 4 felt like lurching in and out of a Jason Statham film, a Masterpiece Theatre offering and a Lifetime movie. At least The Final Problem managed to break that pattern. It was essentially the Sherlock Holmes origin story, and it took us back to the ancestral home, back to the first tragedy. Even just visually, we were clearly in Skyfall, which shows that Ralph Jones picked up exactly what Moftiss were putting down when he called them out on the “James Bonding” of Sherlock. (The literary beef that ensued was entertaining, and Jones bodied Gatiss with “The Second Letter” – the cipher in the cipher was the mortal wound.)

The argument about the Bonding of the franchise was really about a lack of depth – the flash of fight sequences over the substance of watching a precise but troubled mind at work – and Jones clearly made a valid point. Gatiss shooting back that Sherlock being a BAMF is canon didn’t address the heart of the criticism. I think the Daniel Craig Bond films are much better than anything on offer in post-Season 2 Sherlock. Even with all the camp, sneering baddies and always slightly ridiculous plots, they never got anywhere near anything as radioactively, intergalactically idiotic as “That was surgery.” In a Bond film, when someone is shot in the chest at close range, it’s TO SHOOT THEM IN THE CHEST SO THEY STOP EXISTING. If they manage to survive, it’s a bit of a turn-up. Guns and bullets don’t magically become surgical implements. Yet Sherlock used this physics-defying rebuke of basic human anatomy to convince intelligent, educated people to go along with the rehabilitation of Mary Watson (why they chose to make her silly storyline so important is baffling). They then doubled down on that narrative in The Six Thatchers, piling on a barrage of action that was essentially extraneous to the story. All to get us to the moment in the aquarium where Mary dives in front of a bullet to save Sherlock, who for some unfathomable reason decided to talk over any attempts to pacify Norbury and all but commanded her to shoot him. Then Mary was kind of a ghost but not really. Then they introduced a long-lost evil sister and an island prison. Do all that if you want; just don’t insult my intelligence by smugly telling me it’s clever then hide behind Arthur Conan Doyle’s skirts when you get called out on it. If from the beginning Moftiss had just owned up to having wanted to write a glossy, slightly absurd, mainstream actioner with soliloquizing villains, I would have gladly gone along with it. But I’ve continuously been told I’m watching The Usual Suspects or some other complex thriller with a sense of humour when it’s clear I’m watching Bad Boys 2 with British accents. Again: that’s fine in the name of pure entertainment; just know that insisting it’s clever feels like a straight-up troll. At some point all the cognitive dissonance had to become too much to bear.

So what’s the result of all this?

The fanfiction is better.

Even relatively inexperienced fanfic writers with a limited set of tools at least attempted to flesh out the characters and give them backstories and lives, fully formed personalities. It didn’t always work, but the effort was appreciated. The superstars of the genre used the hiatus to write stories that surpassed anything Moftiss gave us in Season 4, particularly in terms of character development. When characters’ motivations drive the plot, the story is not only more cohesive narratively, it’s more engaging and lasting because all the shocks and gasps are earned and move beyond cheap manipulation for the sake of entertainment. At the heart of the narrative success of the top-tier fanfiction is empathy. The writers got inside the characters’ heads and asked, “Who are these people? Where are they from? What experiences shaped them? What do they want? What are they afraid of? Whom do they love?” Moftiss seemed to reverse engineer everyone’s behaviour and emotional reactions by working backwards from the plot – everyone is just there to be manipulated, to be made to speak or act because the plot demands it, so those questions can’t really be answered. That labyrinth Eurus runs Sherlock, John and Mycroft through is a microcosm of the entire franchise. If I didn’t read fanfiction, maybe I could have gone along for the ride with Moftiss, but I knew there were fully realised characters out there whose hurt wasn’t manufactured, whose choices mattered beyond setting up a gag or a plot twist, who were protagonists in their own lives no matter how small their roles were.

Not even Sherlock escapes this poor treatment.

Here’s what exactly none of the plot-driven, post-Season 3 Sherlock fanfiction I’ve read failed to consider: Sherlock dealing with the fallout of having been captured and tortured in Serbia then being shot by Mary. Do you know why they all went there? Because being the victim of that kind of brutal violence tends to affect people psychologically, and those effects ripple into the lives of their friends and family. But in Moftiss Land, Sherlock being chained and beaten at the opening of the third season was just there so we could watch Mycroft crack wise while wearing a fur hat. Mary shooting him was meant to “Red Wedding” us, nothing more. There were no lingering physical or psychological effects from Sherlock having been tortured. It’s never come up again, not even as an aside. Really think about that and what it means about the quality of the writing, about the depth of the characterisation, about the empathy being deployed towards the eponymous hero. Sherlock is obviously the character Moftiss hold in the highest esteem, but Season 3 proved Sherlock is just a prop to them – their most beloved prop but still just a thing, a toy. The only real narrative through lines in Sherlock are the twists, and they’re the only elements that aren’t played right on the surface. Everything else is meant to be taken at face value. There is no subtlety, no subtext. There are Easter eggs and other markers laid down mostly for plot payoffs – a puzzle to solve – but no emotional depth, no narrative consistency. Sherlock is and always has been elementary – there were just too few episodes for most of us to suss it out sooner.

A few people saw through all the flash of Sherlock from the very beginning, and I tip my hat to them for being far more perceptive than I. (If they’re running around being insufferable and shouting, “I told you so!” they’ve more than earned the right.) The first two seasons were a fresh, shiny new take on the somewhat musty image of the great detective, and we all got to watch Benedict Cumberbatch take command and come into his own. But the real reason those early episodes were of such a higher quality was the low budgets: they handcuffed Moftiss. They couldn’t get all the helicopters, Aston Martins and rappelling super soldiers on their juvenile wish list, so the plot twists actually had to be interesting not just turned up to eleven. We all mistakenly assumed that character development that would match the level of the plotting would come later. What those early critics of Sherlock understood (and what has come to pass) was that the reverse would happen: the plotting would sink to meet the level of the poor characterisation. What most of us took for slight faux pas we could overlook, they realised were portents of the slide in quality we’ve all witnessed. They knew Moftiss weren’t to be trusted to dock the ship, and they were absolutely right. Once Moftiss were truly given free rein, the true heart of Sherlock was revealed, and it’s just confused but lacks the self-awareness to realise or do anything about it.

Being “the smart kids” is part of the hardcore Sherlock fandom’s identity, and I don’t see many of them being able to admit that Moftiss bamboozled them. (We all got took, guys.) The capricious characterisation, careening plot and disjointed editing have thus far been interpreted as intentional, as Moftiss hiding the ball, as further evidence of their diabolical cleverness – all the incoherence taken as a collection of hidden clues to be thoroughly investigated. Even though Season 3 made it clear the story was spinning out of control and Season 4 has seen it hurl itself off a cliff (but only just miss smashing its head on the rocks), much of the earnest analysis will likely continue. Many of the casuals are in it for the slick deductions and probably embraced all the high-octane thrills. (There will be an inevitable backlash, though – you can’t fool all the people all the time.) The excellent ratings of Season 4 mean the bean counters will want a Season 5, or at the very least more Christmas Specials. Enough of the audience is probably still on board to justify it financially. I can only hope Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman have enough sense to withhold their participation. The Final Problem wasn’t the unmitigated disaster I was expecting, but everything from Season 3 onwards has made it clear the show can’t live up to its early potential and that the problems with the storytelling are baked in. So, it’s best this latest Sherlock Holmes incarnation just come to a close before it becomes a career-devouring black hole.

Thank goodness the fanfiction provides someplace the characters can live on.

  Fics to Cleanse the Palate

TRUTH MAY VARY by @amalnahurriyeh

Seven years after Sherlock's death, John's life is normal.

And then it isn't.

I don’t usually rec incomplete work, but this is close enough to being done to be satisfying. If Season 3 onward had shown even a fraction of the emotional maturity of this story, we would be in a very different place.

Read on AO3.

 STRAIGHT BOY PAIN by @glenmoresparks

Sherlock is in pain. Billy Kinkaid, the Camden garrotter and best man Sherlock knows, diagnoses it. Ademar Silver, a male prostitute in south London, attempts to treat it. Lestrade, kindly Detective Inspector of New Scotland Yard, doesn’t notice it. Eventually, John Watson, healer and registered medical doctor, cures it.

And a beautician called Penny paints Sherlock’s toenails.

Read on AO3.

 FAN MAIL by @scullyseviltwin

“WatsonChick143 has been rather maniacal in her commenting as of late... she’s left comments on everything you’ve posted John, something so obvious can’t have escaped even your attention."

A fan of John’s blog graduates into stalking.

Read on AO3.

 THE YELLOW POPPIES by @silentauroriamthereal

Sherlock is threatened and assaulted in the hospital immediately after having been shot in the heart, first by Mary, then by Magnussen. As he recovers at Baker Street with John and plans the attack on Appledore with Mycroft, he fights to work through the trauma caused by these two visits. Set during His Last Vow.

Read on AO3.

And in an act of shameless self-promotion:

BEFORE HOLMES MET WATSON by Meeeeeeeeeeeeee!

What does it mean to be a detective with no cases to solve? Sherlock Holmes tries not to ponder this question as he distracts himself from his professional failings with bare-knuckle boxing at an underground fight club and vials of cocaine and morphine. John Watson spends his days in an operating theatre on an Army base in Afghanistan, doing his best to patch up the wounded and failing more often than he'd like. The dark, violent worlds in which both men choose to live complicate their romantic lives and cause them terrible suffering but set them on paths that are destined to cross.

Read on Wattpad or Tablo OR download the Ebook on my website.

I’m always looking for recs, so PLEASE ADD A FIC YOU THINK ISN’T GETTING ENOUGH LOVE.

[mytraio]

Parasite - The review

Introduction To begin this review I must say that “Parasite” is among my top ten movies of 2019 so far, it not only it gave me much of the joy of watching it but also it made me want to analyse the film from its core. Consider being the best-watched movie in Korean with subtitles in several languages. “Parasite” is a South Korean dark comedy thriller with numerous points of joy but also the hardship divide of the poverty and rich life the Korean families lived in. The Kim family which they live in an impoverished area of the city living in a semi-basement apartment which it’s a small basement-like apartment that it’s quite common for poor Korean families to live in. Why this film? I picked to review this film because of its artistic impact. It had in me as a young filmmaker myself I rewatched this movie countless times because of its beautiful shot compositions, the storyline itself its quite unique having such a Korean cultured driven story and its montage. Lighting In an artistic point of view, the shots that were shot of the low-income families lifestyle are stunning and smartly put together. Especially for such a small house that the Kim family lived in, showing its conditions of poverty in small streets, very dull colours, filling the mood with depression, loneliness and lack of room. The lighting in these scenes is perfect for its mood, especially the streetlights giving the only source of yellow light in the streets almost giving the message of the only hope they could get in such hard conditions that the main characters lived in. Providing the perfect beginning of the story, enough room for the characters and the story to grow out of their “regular” lives which they lived in. The setting at the beginnings is quite convincing which gives enough information about the Kim family and how they tend to live their lives as two teenagers and two parents. The other setting in this film is shown in the Parks house, the very wealthy family, in this setting the colours are much brighter, the materialistic lifestyle sets the mood the Park family live in which gives a beautiful contrast of the first setting and the second setting. We can see this in the scenes and especially in the Parks family how each character plays in a much higher lifestyle setting. The Environment Bong Joon-ho beautifully created the environment; both environments play back and forth perfectly as the story progresses on which visually makes sense but also they both complement each other. Its put together correctly in this film, hence why it won numerous awards specially for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. Looking closely to each scene surprisingly most of the impoverished streets and semi apartment was a part of a set created specifically to create a particular environment. The right lighting, as mentioned above, it created the perfect atmosphere and setting for the Kim family, especially when the setting is impacted by weather or other people in it. With the big house some green screen was used to create a believably “ visually beautiful” set particularly, but a stage that served the precise needs of Bong Joon-ho’s camera, compositions, and characters, while embodying the films rich themes. He also stated in an interview that the Parks family house wasn’t easy to find for the approach of what Bong had in mind. The music and montage The music hugely complements the scenes in the movie, particularly in the montage that occurs at the midpoint of the story. “Parasite” features mostly original music by Korean film composer, Jung Jaeil with its minimalist piano pieces that set a tense atmosphere for the Korean black comedy thriller. Conclusion I particularly loved this film due to its Korean style and took to it as I had never seen a Korean movie before. I believe its truly a masterpiece for the 20th century. I profoundly disagree with a lot of critics when it comes to the nominations. Where or why an International film didn’t get as much recognition as it should have As a current student of film and media “Parasite” was particularly joyful to rewatch and analyse, to truly understand and get so immensely challengingly to understand the creative point of view of the great director Bong Jon- ho and also knowing that he also adores and praises my favourite director Quentin Tarantino and seeing the influence in the actual film. I truly respect the work. I will look forward to seeing more movies of his in the future. source https://www.mytraio.com/post/parasite-the-review