#thrown under the bus in terms of characterization

[clingyduoapologist]

Peak HoO era common fanon interpretation of the 7 be like 🤣🤣

Percy: #hashtag persassy super badass except for when he's busy being The Stupid One

Annabeth: holder of the 1 braincell 🤣

Jason: worse version of Percy, amirite?? what a bore

Leo: blank slate for whump and projection, poor baby uses humour as coping ☹️☹️☹️

Piper: not like the other girls

Hazel: uwu she's so innocent 🥺🤭 can you explain this to her? She doesn't get it she's too sheltered ☹️☹️

Frank: only exists to beef w Leo

BONUS‼️‼️‼️

Nico: where does one begin

easy: Nico is gay. Fullstop.

[shihalyfie]

Why do people like Saban dubbing digimon but really hate 4kids for dubbing anime?

To be honest, I don't think that's quite the case. I think most people who tend to have apologia-level worship of the Saban Digimon dubs also have similar sentiments towards 4Kids dubs. It's "my childhood", so it's sacred and you're not allowed to say anything bad about it.

That said, it is true that 4Kids is the one usually thrown under the bus to blame for radical dub changes while Saban is treated as "comparatively loyal (for the time)". This is misleading at best. If it's loyal for the time, it's by a very small margin, and certainly not enough to claim that it's "practically the same" as the Japanese version as many do.

Saban's Digimon dub looks closer to the original because all of the surface elements supposedly look closer:

They kept almost all of the names in Japanese and only gave them "nicknames", unlike other dubs that changed the names radically! (Except they functionally never mentioned those "nicknames" again after the first time, and no matter how many letters each name may share in common with their Japanese versions, that doesn't change the fact they treated most Japanese names like hot potatoes because they sound too Japanese.)

They left the setting in Japan instead of making it a fictional American city! (Except they tried to do that until the number of Tokyo landmarks made it too recognizable, and it's still something they were able to get away with because the Digital World is prominent enough in the narrative for them to not worry about it too much.)

They didn't cut any episodes! (Probably the only one that does hold legitimate water in comparison to 4Kids actually cutting entire episodes at times, but one also has to consider that Digimon is a heavily serialized narrative where dropping an episode would create serious problems for the story, whereas you could get away with a dropped episode from 4Kids' longer properties with filler episodes since more of their shows were based on manga.)

They didn't make any huge changes to the overall plot! (Almost nobody watched Adventure or 02 for the plot alone, and it's only natural that slowly changing every single line to suggest completely different characterizations from their Japanese counterparts would have a massive effect, especially on 02 where it didn't have an extremely linear in-your-face plot that offset that to some degree -- and even then, Adventure wasn't completely immune, because it didn't stop Koushirou and Mimi's Japanese characterization changes from still remaining relatively unknown in the English-speaking fandom.)

"The Digimon (American) English dub didn't change that much" is the biggest lie the fandom will ever feed you, yet it still persists to this day because people will look at these surface factors and call it a day (and even worse, because this myth persists, fewer people will be inclined to check it out in Japanese and confirm whether this is actually true or not). It's never been about how many actual changes there were; it's about how many were noticeable. Few people talk about how there's actually a significant difference in how dub changes were handled the moment Disney took over (late Tamers to Savers), because it's hard to notice unless you actually have seen the Japanese version. Fusion gets treated like a laughingstock dub just because people were actually able to watch it in Japanese first and see how much got changed later; in terms of actual changes, it's not that much worse than Adventure or 02, it's just that it happened during a time it was less socially acceptable to do that.

So because of that, Saban is seen in the lens of a localization company that did its best to be "loyal" in a market where the 4Kids method of drastic changes were more dominant, when in fact they were aggressive about it in different ways (and you can see a very fair share of derogatory, dangerously-racist-leaning comments about Japanese media, writing style, and content from people who were involved in Digimon localization, so it's frankly kind of absurd to imagine they were doing all of this because they cared so much about loyalty to the origin). On the flip side, it is on record that a lot of 4Kids' radical changes were actually requested by the Japanese side itself, because they themselves wanted to push something that would be appealing to the American market, and 4Kids would sometimes go as aggressive as they did specifically because they got the Japanese licensor's blessing to go as hard as they wanted.

(I actually personally prefer 4Kids' original music and theme songs to the Digimon ones -- they come off to me as feeling like they have a lot more genuine spirit put into them -- but that's just my personal subjective opinion, and everyone has their own music tastes. Anyway, that's a digression.)

I personally don't think it's productive to be mad at the dubs themselves. This was all more than 20 years ago, the market was very different, the attitude towards localization was different, Japanese companies had their own varying stakes in the situation, and most importantly, what happened happened and I'm not going to blame kids for watching the only thing that was accessible to them at the time and developing an attachment to it. I don't think there's any point to speculating how Digimon would have been accepted in the US/UK/etc. if it hadn't been changed so radically, because the fact is, we don't live in that alternate timeline, so we won't get anything useful out of fixating on that idea too much.

The only thing I have negative feelings about regarding the American English Digimon dub is, simply, the way the fandom still talks about it. With things like Pokémon or One Piece or Yu-Gi-Oh, where everyone already understands that 4Kids made super drastic changes, if you say you're talking about the Japanese version because what you're discussing wasn't in the dub, people will easily believe you and acknowledge you're talking about something different, but if you try to claim the Adventure or 02 dub was different enough to merit a distinction, you get called nitpicky or accused of being delusional. This is what I really wish would stop. The dub was different! I know localization discourse loves to conflate "different" with "bad", so people don't want to admit that their childhood dub changed a lot, but it did! That's reality! Please don't make this more frustrating to talk about than it needs to be!

[drill-teeth]

Sometimes I get so swept up in like. The nuances of discourse in mental illness spaces. And how being neurodivergent doesn't automatically make you immune to being ableist to other mentally ill folks. And how routinely mentally ill folks with higher needs or more stigmatized disorders get thrown under the bus or straight up called ableist for daring to stress out their friend who has anxiety issues by needing help. And how actually being a mental health ally doesn't mean you are educated about the spectrum of mental illness type of alters in personality disorders, more severe memory loss or forms of dissociation, or psychotic symptoms. And how most people (yes even if you have autistic in your bio) only have a shitty media tropes understanding of more demonized and debilitating mental illnesses and that isn't an actual understanding. And how most people, even neurodivergent ones (and I have been guilty of this too) will not take the time to sit down and actually read about the symptoms and conditions of people who've largely had their disorders characterized by harmful media portrayals.

That I also forget people still are not really chill about more commonly known mental illnesses, and it's so jarring tbh. Like yeah most people have probably heard of autism but autistic folks still get bullied and harassed for displaying autistic traits. I see literal jokes being suddenly accepted as an autism thing by people who get all their mental health know how from fucking Tiktok. I knew someone who thought autistic people giving each other cool rocks was an actual, universal autism thing. People use the most basic mental health terminology incorrectly so regularly that it loses all meaning. "Delusion" is an actual term for a specific symptom. And I honestly don't know that many people who can define it other than slang for stupid or impulsive. Jokes about being forgetful will reference ADHD so much so that most people I've met couldn't describe a single symptom other than inattentiveness. And it's like. Damn. Okay. Hardly anyone can be cool about any mental illness, I guess. Jeez.

[rutilation]

Does mulching a prisoner of war into shiny little woodchips before burying them alive indefinitely count as a violation of the Geneva Conventions?  Asking for a friend.

(Hi guys, I’m back, and I brought 4,400 words with me.)

First of all, my apologies for the nearly five month wait.  Ever since last spring, I haven’t had much time at all to devote to writing and I’ve only been able to work on this essay in small increments.  And yet, despite the fact that I don’t have the time to do so, this essay somehow turned into a bloated treatise on the failings of gem society.  Truly, I am a slave to my obsessions.

I’ve refrained from reading chapter 80 because I just know that if I do, it will insinuate itself into my brain like a tumor and I won’t be able to concentrate on finishing this essay.  (That said, I did happen to see someone on twitter make a joking reference to third impact in regards to said chapter, so I am certainly Afraid.)  Though my takes may be ice cold by this point, I hope that there are some nuggets of insight to be found in this.  With that said, here are my thoughts on chapters 78 and 79.

While the past two chapters have certainly been…hard to read, I think that their contents have been a long time coming, primarily regarding the parallels between Phos and Kongou, and the uglier undercurrents of gem society reaching their logical conclusion.  (And I gotta say, this display of—for lack of a better term—inhumanity on the part of the gems jives quite well with all the Shirley Jackson I’ve been reading lately. When I get tired of one display of flagrant mob violence, I can quickly flip to another.)  

And then there’s the matter of the gems on the moon…  I remember that when I first got into hnk, which was right around the time when Phos and the others left for the moon, everyone was afraid that Phos would go off the deep end and the gems stuck on the moon would end up as collateral damage in Phos’s quest for vengeance.  But since Ichikawa is too powerful us, she said “what if it was the other way around, and Phos is the one getting thrown under the bus while the moon gems start a death cult?”

So there’s a lot to talk about, but let’s address the earth gems first, because these characters sure do live in a society.  (In order to make my prose more tolerable, I encourage my readership to take a shot every time I write the words “gem society.”)

First of all, I’ve seen a number of people interpret Kongou’s line about the gems forgetting Phos very literally, and assume that the earth gems all have Phos-specific amnesia. I highly doubt this is the case, and he probably just means that Phos is now out of sight and out of mind.

As bleak as the situation is, I think it’s been a long time coming.  From the beginning, one of the major philosophical elements of the story has been how the gems’ desire to give meaning to their long lives has compelled them to create a society in which only those with a concrete purpose have value.  The characters see themselves and each other as instrumentally but not inherently valuable.  With so much of the story focused on how this ethos hurts those individuals who aren’t seen as useful, how much it fosters shame and self-hatred, and how much it makes the gems unable and unwilling to help each other through hardship and depression, it makes sense to me that this inhumane mindset would eventually boil over into something truly cruel, and thus the other shoe has finally dropped.  In a strange way, I have more respect for Rutile’s attitude towards the situation than I do the rest of the earth gems (sans Euclase, who I’ll get to in a moment.)  Rutile is treating Phos like an enemy that must be vanquished, whereas the others are treating Phos as a kid treats their dirty clothes when they don’t want to do laundry—by shoving it in the back of a closet and trying to forget about it.  The former strikes me as less dishonest and dehumanizing than the latter.

Even before chapter 79 made it official, I had a gut feeling that the timetable for figuring out what to do with Phos was nonexistent.  I’ll be generous and assume Cinnabar was being sincere in the moment when they implied that they’d put Phos back together eventually.  But just like how everyone ignored Cinnabar’s suffering because there was no compelling incentive to do anything about it, or how they all turned a blind eye to the Kongou/Lunarian situation for millennia, I figured that Phos would end up as another problem they wouldn’t bother solving. (Regarding Cinnabar, while I hope they’re still on good terms with everyone after the time skip, I would not be the least bit surprised if the earth gems started ostracizing them again once it became apparent that there would be no new attacks from the moon and thus no further reason to tolerate their mercury.)

(Bort, please stick up for them.)

And to be clear, this is a problem that the earth gems are refusing to solve in exchange for a short-term sense of security.  If Phos and Kongou had been allowed to hash things out, and this stalemate hadn’t festered for 220 years, then maybe the moon gems wouldn’t be entertaining the idea of starting that aforementioned death cult.  (Tbh, this mostly applies to 84, Yellow, and Dia, since Cairn has been their own personal death cult since chapter 33.)  Even leaving aside how bad things have gotten already, if this state of affairs had continued to drag on, I think the situation would have gotten very ugly the second Aechmea got tired of waiting.  While playing fruit ninja or whatever with Cairngorm, he says something to the effect of losing a battle here or there isn’t important as long as you win the war in the end, which I’m pretty sure is meant to communicate to the audience that Aechmea is playing the long game.  And since he hasn’t done anything in the interim other than reluctantly and incrementally humor Cairngorm’s pet project, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that he’s biding his time specifically for Phos, and that he’s counting on them eventually being reawakened.  In that case, what would have happened if Kongou had been too meek to interfere, and the gems succeeded in getting rid of Phos for good?  If Aechmea eventually gave up on his current scheme, scrapped working with Phos, and came up with a new plan, I’m betting things would quickly devolve into heinous war crimes since he’s only played nice so far in order to keep Phos on his side.

In chapter 78, we get to see two instances of the most common nugget of gem wisdom: only act when you’re guaranteed to succeed, and never take risks.  It been a common refrain, with Antarc, and more subtly, Dia being the only gems aside from Phos to push back against that sentiment.  And to be clear, I’m not saying any one of these iterations necessarily are bad advice, but it’s become increasingly obvious that it’s the only acceptable mode of dealing with problems in gem society.  More on that in a minute.

So, uh, regarding Euclase, here’s an exclusive picture of me, after I’d spent months writing: “Gee, this Euclase character seems pretty shady, but I have faith in Cinnabar, Bort, and Jade to act humanely!’

That said, I think I got at least one aspect of their characterization right in my Euclase-focused essay—that they have a greater comprehension of their mortality than most.  Unlike the other gems, they’re not childishly naïve enough to believe that ignoring their problems will save them; they understand that death is always around the corner, and that the (mostly) tranquil life the gems lead requires constant maintenance.  Simply sliding down the path of least resistance will come back to bite them all in the ass later down the line, and Euclase knows it.  That’s probably why they at least went through the motions of asking Kongou to pray every day for two hundred twenty years.

This is a bit of a tangent, but regarding my earlier point about the gems not commiserating at all, Peridot and Sphene come across as anomalies in that they helped each other through their grief over their lost partners, but that doesn’t seem to happen all that often.  As we see in the aftermath of the winter arc, it seemingly did not occur to any of the gems who had lost friends of their own to try and help Phos through their grief.  And I think it’s likely that they weren’t given much comfort in their hours of need either.  Yellow bottled up their grief, Alex and (presumably) Red Beryl threw themselves into their work to the point of obsession, and Ghost seemed to have largely withdrawn from everyone else.  But none of them really healed or helped anyone else heal.  Despite their society placing a high value on interdependence, the gems are truly alone when they have to reckon with complicated or inconvenient emotions.

It may be hard to remember, but Phos was once influenced by all these toxic mindsets as well.  Recall Phos’s conversation with Benito in chapter two: it implies that Cinnabar did live with the other gems during Phos’s lifetime, recently enough that Phos expects to find them in their room.  From this we can infer that our kindhearted Phos never reached out to the clearly lonely Cinnabar while they were actually around, and didn’t even notice when they left the school for good.  They may have had the potential for kindness from a very young age, but it was only when they were hit with with the stark truth of Cinnabar’s suffering that they snapped out of the fog of apathy that seems to surround the gems.

In fact, it almost seems like the struggle to drag the gems kicking and screaming out of their comfort zone is a macrocosm for what Phos had to grow out of at the beginning of the series.  You’ll recall that once upon a time they were lazy, wanted easy solutions to their problems, and had no faith in their ability to effect change.  In fact, I’d go so far as to say that in the eyes of gem society, the problem wasn’t really that Phos was lazy, it’s that their laziness manifested in the wrong ways.  They were supposed to be fastidious and reliable about things like crafting, or fighting, or writing reports, but apathetic towards anything that requires more nuance or imagination than that, kindness or cruelty be damned.

All this is cast into even sharper relief if you think back on the arc with Ventricosus.  She was in far more dire straits than the earth gems are now, and had a compelling incentive to throw Phos under the bus.  But in the end, that wasn’t a line she was willing to cross.  Her final line: “If we’re not willing to change our ways, we’ll end up just like the Lunarians,” seems quite portentous in retrospect.  I don’t think Ichikawa is positing that being immortal makes you a sociopath, otherwise characters like Kongou, Yellow, and Padpa wouldn’t be such cinnamon buns.  But I think she is insinuating that someone who refuses to change is dooming themselves to a state of perpetual immaturity, and that being truly kind requires growing up a bit.  It’s a harder for someone who knows they’ll die one day to remain in a state of arrested development than it is for someone who could indefinitely procrastinate on growing up, and just focus all their mental energy into making paper or whatever for all of eternity.

And this seems as good a point as any to stop harping on gem society and start talking about the gems on the moon, starting with my muse, my most problematic of faves.

I brought up in my chapter 77 essay that Aechmea may not be willing to divulge what he was about to tell Cairn, and that was exactly what happened.  Since he’s only willing to share this mysterious information if he literally would not be around for the fall out, I’m guessing that whatever this secret is, it’s not benign.  And while Cairn has probably put it out of their mind by chapter 79, it’s clear that it’s bugging them before the time skip.  I smell a shocking revelation brewing and I dread to imagine what could possibly top mind-control eyeballs.  Make no mistake, I’ve devoted an embarrassing amount of brainspace the past nine months or so to contemplating what it will look like when the other shoe finally drops for Cairn’s character arc.  (Is there a German word for the ambivalence that arises from wanting to call future plot twists for bragging rights, but not wanting to look like a dipshit if your predictions are wrong?)

Their line from chapter 78 that I alluded to earlier in this essay is rather interesting to me, because although they’re referring to Phos, they might as well be talking about Aechmea.  They exhausted themselves to their breaking point trying to look after someone who didn’t take care of themselves, but they’ve nonetheless latched onto someone who is also seeking self-destruction.  And as I pointed out earlier in this essay, this line also serves as yet another iteration of the defeatist sentiment that the gems often espouse.  But, for a while, it had seemed like Cairn was moving away from that.  The decision Cairn made in chapter 67 was certainly…fraught.  But, one can’t deny that it wasn’t a brave one on their part, to leave behind everything they knew and cared about for a shot at living authentically; the only problem was that they undercut that step forward by returning to their chronic doormat tendencies.  And again in chapter 70, they took a risk by sneaking off to earth knowing that Aechmea would pitch a fit later.  But ever since chapter 75, they’ve been backsliding.  As said chapter pointed out, their wish has shifted from wanting freedom to wanting what amounts to eternal codependency.  I also find it interesting that Cairngorm apparently hasn’t bothered with getting a new name, and is just copying Aechmea’s shtick of going by his title.  They’ve gone from sharing a name with Ghost, to having their own name, to not having a name at all.  In conclusion, my child is a god damned mess.

I know I said I was done talking about gem society, but I guess I’m not.  Going back to what I said in the last paragraph, about Phos not taking care of themselves, that’s been a reoccurring element throughout the series, and in my opinion, it was a significant contributor to the breakdown of Phos’s relationships.  The reason Phos never just tried to make friends with Cinnabar—which is what the latter really wanted, and only focused their efforts on following through on their promise, was because Phos’s self-loathing runs so deep that it doesn’t occur to them that anyone would actually want their company for its own sake. Chapter 14 is the most direct allusion to this in my mind.  Phos clearly wants to talk to Cinnabar, but instead they hide away and mutter that they’d have nothing to say to them.  And as I touched on a moment ago, Phos’s self-destructive tendencies wore down Cairngorm over the course of their partnership.  

But, here’s the thing: Phos’s self-loathing isn’t some immutable part of their nature, it was instilled in them by their society from the moment it became apparent that Phos couldn’t slot neatly into a role.  This is very apparent in the early chapters, in which no one ever misses an opportunity to remind Phos of their uselessness (except Dia, bless their heart.)  Back then, they pretended to not care about it by way of snark and bravado, but in truth, I think it warped their self-perception in an incredibly negative way.  

There’s also something that illustrates this which has been on my mind for a while, but I haven’t had the opportunity to talk about it.  When Phos was trapped by their arms during Antarc’s fateful capture, the insult they yelled at their arms to get them moving is the same one that Bort lobbed at them a few times in volume one.  I usually see different translations of the word between the two scenes, but to my non-Japanese-fluent ears, it sounded like the same word to me when I watched the anime.  It was a striking way of implying that this moment of personal growth had been seeded with something more insidious, that their self-loathing is a taint that has followed them across their many incarnations.  I’m not the first one to point this out, but there’s always been a certain tension within the text regarding Phos’s changes.  On one hand, their courage to change is framed as admirable and heroic, but on the other hand, they’re also hurting themselves because of social pressure to avoid being useless, which is kind of awful.  I think the narrative resolves this tension by making Phos’s quest for validation something which would eventually lead them to try and tear down the status quo that they hurt themselves for in the first place.  

Okay, back to the moon gems.  I’ve reread the part of chapter 79 focused on the moon several times, and it just feels more ominous with each iteration.  What exactly was their idea of administering therapy for Yellow?  Why is Amethyst on board with Cairn’s death bullshit?  Why is Dia okay with it?  Why did they stop fixing the dusted gems?  And most concerning, where are the other three gems—especially Alex who would probably be extremely opposed to halting the gem restoration?  It feels as if there’s something terrible just out of our field of view and chapter 79 is dancing around it.  (But hey, my intuition was wrong about Euclase so maybe when I read chapter 80 Ichikawa will tell me that Alex, Goshe, and Benito were at moon-disneyland the whole time, and that Aechmea is a real swell guy, actually.)

(No, I’m not bitter in the least.)

I also find it interesting that in chapter 79, Cairn is espousing a lot of the same sentiments as poor Yellow, but since they can mask the dysfunction better, they’re treated as an expert rather than a victim.  In reality, both of them are in serious need of a therapist, which is apparently non-existent in the post-post-apocalypse.

And finally, Barbata continues to be the truest audience surrogate.  I find it interesting that he clearly doesn’t approve of all the bullshit going on, while at the same time being too reticent to do anything about it, aside from some side-eyes and passive-aggressive comments.  Perhaps there will be some payoff to this down the line?

At this point, let’s talk about Kongou, because both his actions and his role as a sort of parallel to Phos in the narrative are fascinating.  I think this is the first time in the story that he’s really done something proactive.  I touched on this in a cursory character analysis I did for him, but to reiterate, the impression I got from his at times obtuse and contradictory behavior was that he had completely given up on trying to solve the Lunarian problem long before the series had begun, and that the only thing cutting through his despair and compelling him to get up in the morning and not just “meditate” forever was the prospect of spending a little more time with the people he loves, even knowing that he couldn’t protect them in any way that mattered.  But watching Phos’s struggle reignited a tiny bit of hope in him, enough that he wanted them to succeed in their efforts, but not enough for him to believe that he himself could make a difference.  To me, that seems like the only explanation that accounts for both his obstinacy when Phos directly confronted him along with his casual acceptance of the path Phos has been walking.

So for him to go behind everyone’s back to fix Phos is quite the departure from his usual passivity, and it tells us that he’d rather subject himself and everyone else to Phos’s brand of chaos than endure stasis that comes with their absence.  And it really does seem like the world enters a stasis along with Phos whenever they end up comatose.  Nothing moves forward, and the only thing to mark the passage of time are small deteriorations: Morga and Goshe are captured, and Cairn quietly becomes suicidal, and this time around, Yellow gradually loses their mind, the Admirabilis that Phos tried to spare overcrowd the tiny waterways they were released into, and the gems on the moon stop caring about whether they live or die.

For a while now, various characters both gem and Lunarian have called Phos their hope, or their savior, or some variation thereupon, and with each new iteration, the sentiment feels more and more ironic.  Time and time again, Phos rises to the occasion only to buckle under pressure, their noble intentions haven’t gotten them good results since, like, chapter 10, and everyone who at one point had faith in them is completely done with them.  And at the end of it all, they don’t have it in them to ask Kongou to pray on anyone’s behalf but their own, as if they’ve become so exhausted that they don’t have the energy to be kind anymore.  And just to rub salt in the wound, their ambiguous phrasing makes it unclear whether Phos is asking to Kongou get rid of the Lunarians or themselves.

All of this seems to mirror what Kongou is implied to have gone through.  He was created to save the souls of humanity, but was ill-equipped for the task, and he’s spent god knows how many millennia dogged by his failure to deliver.  Aechmea’s line in chapter 55 about how his human creators didn’t bother to think about what would happen to him after everyone was gone, in my mind, parallels how Phos has been abandoned by the people who once supported them once they became too much of an inconvenience.

So now that these two failed saviors are finally confronting each other with no lies to hide behind, and nothing to get between them, what’s going to happen?  I get the feeling that chapter 80 is going to give us some long awaited catharsis, for better or worse.  (Please Ichikawa, make things a little better for once.)

On a related note, I’m hoping this possible catharsis might clarify something else for me.  For all that the series is steeped in Buddhist symbolism and philosophy, I’ve never been able to tell what Ichikawa actually thinks of Buddhism.  On one hand, the assumptions that life boils down to suffering and that the self is ephemeral and illusory are certainly present, but on the other hand, the characters who lean most heavily on the Buddhist aesthetic are villains, the characters most invested in reaching nirvana are portrayed as…let’s say misguided at best, and as I’ve already noted above, our two would-be Buddhas are chronically ineffectual.  If I had to take a stab at it, I’d guess that the aspect of the philosophy that she takes issue with is the idea of relying on a savior figure and the idea that there exists a nirvana that could save anyone from samsara.  But if the Lunarians’ wish were a complete pipe dream, then Shiro et al wouldn’t have already disappeared?  Unless that was a misdirection and their souls were actually reincarnated?  Idk, I don’t have enough brain cells to parse The Most Viable Interpretation at this juncture in the story.

Lastly, assuming Phos doesn’t ascend to nirvana via pure rage next chapter, I think their next replacement is going to be imminent.  All of Phos’s other changes have been accompanied by death and birth imagery: they lost their legs out at sea, which is where inclusions are said to emerge, they lost their arms and their head at the site of their birth, the time they spent comatose evoked the image of a shrouded corpse in a morgue, their first trip to the moon in which they got their new eye apparently lasted the length of a Buddhist funeral, and now, they’ve literally been buried.  (On a side note, it’s interesting that there’s a lot more death imagery for their later transformations, while their earlier changes alluded to birth.)  I’m not the first person to point this out, but it seems likely to me that Rutile made good on their threat to throw Phos into the ocean, and discarded whatever pieces they were assigned to bury.  And indeed, there seems to be a gaping hole in Phos’s torso.  I still think Padparadscha is the most likely candidate for a replacement—the red stone from the lotus sutra has been alternately described as ruby, carnelian, amber, or coral, and Padparadscha is the closest we have to any of those—but who knows.  Ichikawa might even decide to stop short of all seven treasures in service of some greater thematic purpose.

And with that, this belated essay is finally done.  Except it isn’t.  This is a complete tangent, but I recently looked up the one and only region where gem-quality phosphophyllite was briefly mined, a mountain in the Bolivian Andes called Cerro Rico.  Hundreds of thousands have died there since the 16th century while mining silver, and that figure may be lowballing it, as some scholars think the death toll is actually in the millions.  It is colloquially known as “the Mountain that Eats Men,” and the miners pay tribute to this fellow in hopes of avoiding cave-ins and pockets of toxic gas, but are otherwise doomed to die young from silicosis.  According to a forum post I found belonging to a mineral collector, the mineshaft where all the phosphophyllite came from had to be walled off with a concrete bulkhead because the poisonous gases that accumulated in the tunnel had killed a number of miners.  The idea of gem mining already conjures up images of exploited workers in abject conditions, but I must say that Maneater Mountain exceeded my expectations.

Okay, now I’m actually done.  I’m going to get some sleep on account of the fact that it’s 2 AM, but afterwards I shall read the new chapter and repeat this whole grueling cycle over again, but like, in a timely manner.

[itsclydebitches]

I can’t help but notice that when you look at the characters who get the most visceral hatred, it’s not usually the villains but instead the inherently flawed yet good at heart characters who are trying their best. I’ve never understood that with this fndm (examples being, Ozpin/ Jaune / Tai )

It’s super fascinating to my mind because it’s kind of the opposite of what tends to occur in most fandoms? Keep in mind I’m only now trying to articulate something I’ve been thinking vaguely about for a few years now—no real arguments or supporting evidence yet—but in my experience fandoms tend to focus their efforts on excusing the villains/non-traditional heroes. Whether it’s justifying Sherlock’s horrifying behavior towards John, claiming that Bakugo isn’t at fault for his violence, or just going on about how wonderful Kylo Ren is, it’s a fandom tradition to take the worst character in the series and bend over backwards to woobify them. Why this happens is a whole other complex conversation covering the 100% legit “I identify/am interested in this villain for a variety of reasons—often because they’re coded as queer, neurodivergent, etc.—and my enjoyment of them is separate from any real life feelings I would have about their actions” to the much more serious “You’ll note that most of these characters are hot white guys and it says something about our culture that we go to such lengths to excuse their objectively horrifying behavior, but chuck anyone else under the bus for the slightest mistake.”

Now yes, when it comes to RWBY we do see this dynamic playing out to an extent. Adam is a prime example of a villain whose actions are excused because he had a Sad Childhood. Abusing Blake for years? Cutting off Yang’s arm? Continually trying to kill them? Well yeah that’s bad but you can’t hold him responsible after all he’s suffered! That’s a pretty classic fandom reaction. Where things get more interesting is with Salem, someone whose actions are also excused… but not because she was locked in a tower and screwed over by gods. The fandom excuses Salem’s murder of her children (I’m still in shock over this holy shit) and her genocidal plans (again: holy shit) not because they adore HER, but because they despise OZPIN. Defending Salem is more of a byproduct of hating Ozpin. It’s not so much that people seem to actually believe she’s blameless, but it comes across that way because they want to blame Ozpin for something. So if he’s in the wrong for not stopping her, leaving her, trying to take the kids, whatever, then by extension Salem must be “right.” 

Which brings us to RWBY’s fascinating gender aspect. It’s no secret that there aren’t many U.S. shows out there with such a large female cast. Let alone shows outside of specific genres like comedy dramas. Let alone shows that have gained this much notoriety. RWBY is… kinda rare. Granted yes, there are plenty of animes out there with all women teams that RWBY is clearly drawing inspiration from, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s an American produced series and, particularly six years ago, it felt really fresh. Having a kick-ass team of women who were given fantastic characterization, and agency, and weren’t nearly as sexualized, resonated with people and in time I think the feminist leanings in the show became a core part of many fans’ love of it… to the extent that (as always happens in fandoms) things grew extreme and it became a “Men are evil” sort of deal. 

So what does this mean in regards to your ask, anon? Just that I think gender plays a crucial role in the fandom’s reaction. Normally women would be the ones crucified for the tiniest mistake and the hot guys would be defended; in RWBY there’s such a focus on women that they get all the excuses and the hot guys are thrown under the bus. To my mind, RWBY’s specific culture and focus have caused a bit of a reversal of traditional fandom dynamics. It’s no surprise to us now that Raven can abandon her daughter and straight up murder people but is still beloved, while Tai cares for Yang in a way she as an individual needs and is crucified for it. It’s no shocker that Salem is adored as a complex character while Ozpin is one of the most hated across the whole fandom. It makes perfect sense that in a group of 8 the 6 women are faves, the one man coded as feminine (Ren) is also loved, but the other more traditionally masculine guy (Jaune) is despised. Jaune is seen as a threat to what RWBY is “supposed” to be. 

In the end none of these fandoms prioritize what the characters actually do. Most of the time you see hot guys defended because they’re just… hot guys. In RWBY’s case the focus is so heavily on women that now any guy is seen as a potential threat and is immediately treated with suspicion, if not outright hatred by the fandom. Like most women in other series, they exist under a “one strike and you’re out” policy. 

(and we can also think about that “threat” in terms of shipping and how normally women are despised in fandoms because they’re “getting in the way” of slash ships, but RWBY has so many women in it—thereby dominating all the major ships—that suddenly guys like Jaune are “getting in the way” of relationships like whiterose, increasing the fandom’s vitriol, and what I’m SAYING is it’s all fascinating and I’m kinda tempted to write a paper) 

[webcricket]

Looking Glass

Chapter 25 - Corollaries

Pairing: CastielXAU!Reader

Word Count: 1683

Summary: Tragedy derails halcyon days in the bunker and forces everyone involved to reevaluate their notions of safety. Warning for minor (canon in ep 13X23) character death. I’ve decided to stop pretending I know how many chapters this beast will end up being - this isn’t the final chapter as I originally intended (mostly because I want to keep them at the original 2K word limit and there is too much story left to cover and clearly I have no concept of what will make it beyond the final edit).

Miss a chapter? Have a Masterlist Link!

Raining cats and dogs. Under the weather. Flying by the seat of one’s pants. Speak of the devil.

Castiel never fully appreciated the expressionistic origin of idioms peppering human speech until he glimpsed the vibrant magenta of your jacket fitted to a lifeless female form lying on the leaf-littered trail ahead and he experienced the resultant  precipitous leaping of his heart into the upper echelons of his throat.

Swallowing hard against the ‘What if it were you? What if I failed to protect her?’ rise of anxiety to relocate the obstinate organ back into his vessel’s ribcage where it belongs, he closes his eyes in concentrated effort; in the lidded distancing from the light of day, he reminds himself the shattered shell, limbs limp and radiating residual heat, crumpled in the mist of cooling rain belonged to some other unfortunate soul, not you.

He left you safe in the bunker’s kitchen, breathing, physically intact, and very much alive, as you helped prep a mass lunch for the multitudes mere minutes ago. The knowledge, the fresh imprint in his mind’s eye of the slight questioning smile hovering on your mouth soundlessly saying you expected to hear the story later as an agitated and secretive Sam dragged him away from the task of scrubbing dishes to help handle a situation – this situation – however comforting in recollection, barely makes a diminishing dent in his reflexive fright at the sight of your jacket and the scent of you still lingering in the damp cloth mingling with the unmistakable odor of raw death.

The hitch and pause in his gait, the sharp gasp and blanching of pink lips as they press tautly together – the outer projections of disquiet as he battles to suppress his rebellious nerves and rapidly beating heart – presents the split-second opportunity for Jack to sprint past the distracted seraph.

“Maggie!” the boy shouts. Surging ahead, he circumvents Mary and Bobby on the well-worn path where they stand sentinel, gravely watching over the dead girl. Ruddy cheeks paling, his sneaker slips in the mossy earth, smearing through bloodied mud as he stumbles around the boulder where she drew a final breath and collapsed.

Sam’s lengthy stride and rational senses move him to the site in time to prohibit Jack from disturbing the scene further; grappling with the Nephilim’s shoulder to hold him back from kneeling to take the girl up in his arms, he manages to keep the boy from eroding what little detail remains that might clue them in to what happened.

“I-I said I’d protect her, and,” Jack’s guilty lament suspends fog-like in the air as he speaks, fingers uselessly flexing and balling into fists, “Sam…”

Cas forces his feet to convey him closer to the carnage. Blinking between Jack’s anguished aspect and the waterlogged coat, he tears his focus from the more personally emotionally unsettling elements to study the statically fixed girlish features of Maggie’s corpse; the peaceful ghostly skin-shade of pre-rigor smoothing the minute muscles of her face is perverted by brightly painted crimson where the bone cracks cleanly at her temple; rivulets of blood and rain mat her hair, the latter diluting the congealed edges of the fatal wound.

“Stop, Jack. This isn’t your fault,” Sam consoles in the rain-pattered hush, stating what they all – save the grief-stricken Jack – are thinking.

A pang of empathy at Jack feeling personally responsible for whatever befell her resonates in Castiel’s heart; the angel knows from long practice it’s often easier to assume self-blame and contend with the tangibility of failure in place of the seemingly unsurmountable impossibility of accepting that senseless tragedies do happen no matter how many vows one makes to prevent their occurrence. For all the fight for a righteous cause, free will and destiny coalesce into unpredictable outcomes. It’s a hard lesson to learn – one with which the angel constantly grapples and one made bearable by the bonds of friendship and love.

“What happened to her?” Dean huskily murmurs the question as if uttering it aloud will provide an instantaneous answer.

At the thought, Cas casts his blues skyward at the roiling grey abyss of clouds above; tiny droplets of rain smatter and collect on his unshaven cheeks, blending with the brimming brine of unshed tears to pool in the divot of his chin when his gaze again drops to settle on the distraught boy. If he could, he’d take this pain from Jack; he knows, in their way, Sam and Dean feel the same; since that feat is not within the realm of possibilities, perhaps Dean’s on to something and they can relieve the burden some by figuring out what really happened here.

“I don’t know. Doesn’t look supernatural,” Mary supplies to flesh out the unknowable.

Cas silently concurs with the assessment; someone, not something killed Maggie. Given the ambient air temperature, the wicking capabilities of water to rapidly cool core body heat, the angel determines the girl can’t have been left here more than a handful of hours ago.

Always ready with a surly remark in any incarnation, Bobby pipes in, “Looks like some son of a bitch beat on her until…”

“Who would do something like this?” Interrupting, regard drawn once more to the magenta fabric, remembering your walks together on this very same stretch of trail, the solitary outings you’ve taken since trusting in your safety, Castiel masks the fear in his tone with anger.

A lesser being might call it a tragic case of mistaken identity; for Lucifer, it was a fairly typical Thursday evening with a dash of prodigious fate thrown in for fun. The single regret clouding his glee and veiling the red glow of his pupils as the girl’s skull broke with a satisfying pop and an even more gratifying gurgle against the unforgiving mass of the boulder on the third strike was that – although she initially tricked his senses into thinking she was you wandering in the wilderness on account of outerwear absolutely reeking of his brother – she was not actually you.

Unfortunate for fulfilling his nefarious need to revenge an innocuous smack upside the head back on the bus, certainly; although he wouldn’t characterize it as a mistake. He knew before he throttled the scream in her throat and flicked her – sputtering for air like a boneless fish – onto the ground he had the wrong refugee. Too bad for her, on he devil’s non-existent moral compass, wrong exists as just as compelling a direction as right.

Finishing up the last of the dishes in the sink, you lay a gleaming plate carefully on the pile with a clink to dry and swipe the wetness coating your hands across the towel tucked into the waistband of your jeans. At the familiar bass angelic utterance of your name, you turn toward the doorway.

“Cas!” The smile skirting your mouth falters into a frown at the serious etch of lines hardening his countenance. Yanking the towel free and tossing it aside, you navigate the counter between you with an arm extended to meet him halfway. “What happened?” Your fingers delve beneath the hem of his coats, flattening to the rigid plane of his torso.

“We need to talk.” He peers beyond your fretfully widening eyes at the two other apocalypse expats currently inhabiting the space to aid in lunch clean up. One of them averts her inquisitive gaze back to the tabletop she’s polishing. “Leave us,” he growls; the order emerges significantly less kind than he is capable of being. “You too.” He gestures at the young man organizing a shelf.

“Cas,” you hiss chidingly under your breath, prodding his side. You’ve made great strides these past weeks in terms of angelic PR and here he is throwing everything out the window with rudeness.

He rolls his eyes almost imperceptibly. Almost. There isn’t time for niceties given the circumstances, although he knows you’re right. “I need to speak to Y/N alone. Leave us, please,” he amends and softens the request, punctuating his words with a strained smile for their benefit. It’s disingenuous, yet you appreciate the effort.

You mouth a polite thank you to your nodding cohorts for their understanding as they abandon their chores to slink out into the hall.

Upon their exit, Castiel engulfs you in a hug.

“Hey, I’ve got you,” you whisper, acquiescing to his tender demand for contact; rubbing circles into his back, sliding a palm to comb the chestnut curls at his nape, you wait for an explanation for his strange behavior.

Standing there, he lets the heat of you sink into his shrouded skin; he listens to the steady thrum of your heart and shallow respiration of life moving in and out of your lungs until nothing but the grounding succor of your body and soul quiet his senses. Exhaling a sigh into the crook of your neck, he shudders against you and pulls away to look into your eyes. Grey glints of somberness gild his irises. “Maggie’s dead.”

“Wh-what?”

“Mary and Bobby found her body in the woods, on the trail leading to town. That’s what Sam-”

“An accident?”

Regard falling to the sliver of space between you, he shakes his head.

You suck in a juddering breath. Choking on a wave of guilt, you remember your conversation when she took over your living quarters. “I-I told her it was safe here. I promised her-”

“This isn’t your fault. This isn’t anyone’s fault.” Repeating Sam’s earlier assertion to Jack – the words sounding no more reassuring to his ears than before – Cas folds you to his chest, tangles his fingers in your hair, and angles to kiss the top of your head. “We need your help. You’ve gotten to know these people better than any of us – is there anyone she was close to? Anyone who would know why she was out alone?”

“Yeah-” You nod in the solid casing of his embrace, sniffling back tears– “Allene. They’re friends.”

“Good, that’s good.” He balances a prickly cheek on your crown; feeling the warmth of your tears saturate his shirt, he resettles his arms to envelope you tighter.

Next: Ch. 26 - The World Ender (Final)

[queenletalestrange]

Not to be That Bitch™, but following on from a few really good posts I’ve seen, I take some issue with the treatment of the female characters from in Fantastic Beasts by fandom.

Tina Goldstein takes a lot of heat and I often see her framed as an annoying or otherwise whiny character, most of the time for doing what is actually her job and an area that she is obviously passionate about (i.e law enforcement). It strikes me as particularly hypocritical because Newt will be praised fiercely about his morally grey actions (at the best of times) to defend his creatures at the risk of human life and safety because they are an what he is passionate about, but Tina raises her voice due to distress about a significant law being broken in a politically charged time and she is instantly thrown under the bus for it.  It does a disservice to Tina to paint her as a whiny, bitchy damsel in distress when in fact she is a formidable witch in her own right who obviously had a track record as a well-respected auror, was able to hold her own against Gellert Grindelwald in a duel, disarmed Theseus Scamander and put her own life on the line again and again in order to help or support others.

Leta Lestrange is another character that I tend to get really riled about; despite everything we’ve been shown that she is a tragic character that is the result of constant neglect and being ostracized by her entire community, people still seem to be determined to make her out to evil or worse, corrupted in some sense. I’m also not a fan of her constantly being pitted against Tina, when we’ve been shown no hostility between them, and in fact the few times we see them in scene together they show support. A connection by a love interest does not mean that two women are reduced to bitchy, squabbling and jealous stereotypes. Furthermore, it is once again a disservice to Tina to paint her constantly as insecure and petty in the face of other women.

Seraphina Picquery gets put on absolute blast for being incompetent in her handling of the New York scenario, or for showing a lack of sympathy to our characters after everything has gone down. Let’s not forget that she was dealing with an unprecented high-pressure situation while being actively undermined by the second in command of her entire government, and reconsider how this would have affected the outcome. I doubt someone who is incompetent would be able to hold Gellert Grindelwald for 6 whole months. Furthermore, in terms of her lack of sympathy for our heroes: she didn’t press charges for multiple laws broken and agreed to reinstate Tina. I’m at a loss at what else would’ve been appropriate in this situation? Once again, we have Tina pitted against another woman, as if she is not a rational human being who is capable of processing her own feelings or understand the actions of others.

The final one that really gets my hackles up may surprise some people, but Bunty. We haven’t seen much of her, but a lot of the characterization I see of her leaves me...unimpressed. Yes, it is made narratively very clear that she has an unrequited crush on Newt. Somehow, this has been taken to transform her into a petty character who is actively out to get Tina/Leta/who knows who else, who would throw a tantrum at the first sign of any of them. Bunty runs the operation when Newt is away: she clearly is talented, brave and skilled at what she does, regardless of her feelings. Why do we have to take a talented woman and reduce her to a jealous, and often even actively petty unrequited crush? Justice for Bunty man.

There is a lot more I could say about these characters, and I haven’t even started on Queenie and Vinda. The thing is, criticism is allowed, and characters do have both positive and negative traits which influence their behaviour, relationships and how they interact with their world. However, if your criticism is coming from a place of stereotypes classically placed on women or as a way to villianize another woman to make your ship feel more valid, reconsider. Don’t disservice the strong cast of female characters that we have so far.

[jehilew]

Can you describe some of your feelings for Rogue? You and some others in the Romy fandom have expressed some ambivalence about her history and behavior, but excluding some moments of outright bad writing, how do you assess, connect, or not connect with her?

Rogue.

This might turn into a ramble, fair warning. Because Rogue is a meaty character who deserves meaty metas.

Rogue is a character that I find utterly fascinating, in the sense of her mutation, with its potential and just the sheer as-yet-explored aspects of it (psychological, limitations, passive vs active in terms of controllability, etc). I also find her backstory interesting, and also largely unexplored. Or at the very least, not at all consistent. And that’s not even touching on just her general badassery without her powers–because you know that woman is way more than her mutation. Trained and groomed by Mystique, and likely influenced by Magneto to some degree during her time in the Brotherhood? Fuck yeah, that bitch can fight. And she can spy, infiltrate, steal, and is likely a clever little whirlwind with weaponry. Not to mention, there’s that leadership potential she’s exhibited on more than one occasion!

To go with that skill-set, though, is an interesting personality and moral code kind of at odds with it. She really is a pure-heart. She wants to fight the good fight, and she’ll sacrifice herself to see it through. She’s fiery, passionate, stubborn, a work-aholic, and just plain good. Sure, she tends to see the world very black and white, and she’ll double down on the most idiotic things, but honestly, I chalk that up to her constant struggle with her mutation. A headcanon of mine, probably, but I kind of see her latching on to her opinions, her values, her initial impressions, her intuitions, and refusing to let them go for fear of those parts of her getting lost in the sea of psyches’ thoughts, values, etc.

But anyway, I digress. I said she’s good, and yet you’ve definitely heard me tear that girl to pieces in chit-chats. A lot of things I’ve held her character to the sun over were things I’d consider very against her characterization. Like, leaving the love of her life to freeze to death in Antarctica. Like, in later issues, she’s depicted as reveling in a ‘duel for her affections’ between Remy and Joseph. Both of these situations were gross, and wildly out of character for her. Just by the very nature of her power, Rogue is incredibly compassionate–she has to be! Think of what absorbing a whole person, all the great, average, and awful parts of them, would do to you. How it would color your take on another human. And multiply that by however many people she’s absorbed. If she wasn’t so sensitive to character nuances, she’d tell the human race to eat her entire ass, and watch it all burn. With that in mind, no way would she hold Remy, with all his issues, to an impossible standard he couldn’t meet (could anyone meet them?), and Erik to a much lower one. No way she’d pit them against each other, either.

Situations like those? Where she’s actually being a horrible person? I shrug it off as bad writing, and if I’m in the mood to explore it, or rationalize it, I’ll jump through hoops and give her reasons for being that way. Other situations, though, where she’s maddening and frustrating, I tend to see as other facets to her personality. She’s not perfect, and I don’t want her to be. A lot of her less endearing traits–the running, the fear of commitment, the shutting people out, the self isolation, etc– are direct result of her background.

Think about it. She lost her parents very young. Then, she was with uber-strict Aunt Carrie (which had to be a nasty shock to hippie-dippie-commune Anna-Marie). Then…Mystique as a mother figure? Yikes. Now, factor in that god-awful mutation, where she practically kills her first crush, during her first kiss.

Boom. Love life, affection of any kind, comfort at another’s touch, all that, gone in a matter of seconds, and she’s only, what, thirteen? Fourteen? And then, she’s essentially trained to be an expert terrorist, a mercenary? Assassin? She’s trained for ruthlessness, and quality that is so ridiculously at odds with the very nature of her power?

Yikes, again.

That woman has had all forms of human comfort stripped from her, lost her parents and a foster parent young, has been trained to ‘conceal, don’t feel’, is routinely thrown under the bus by her ‘mother’ over the next several years, and the love of her life turns out to be pretty damn shady, and people wonder why she has trust issues? Why she runs so much?

Color me not at all shocked that she ran from Remy, who isn’t exactly the most trustworthy or reliable character ever created by Marvel, yet who also consistently demands things she can’t give, is scared to give, or doesn’t know how to give, to a ‘safer’ man she’s kinda had the hots for off and on for years, and demands none of these things of her. A man, who, while very against many of her morals, and who did, indeed try to kill her first lover, is also considerably more stable? Consistent? Reliable and responsible in his own way? Comfortable?

Remy was none of these things for a very long time. Even now, that boy is like trying to grab water, and he’s a wild as they come.

Color me even more not at all shocked that now, while married to Remy, after promising him she’d always find her way back to him (which, she does, I might add, more than once in MMX), she falls back into old ruts of walling up and shutting him out when he pushes and pokes at her boundaries.

Maddening? Yes. Frustrating? Yes. In character? Yes! Am I mad at her for being flawed? No! Will I continue to pick her apart when she’s being a moron? Yup!

Remy literally has half a lifetime of horrible shit, nasty habits, and piles of resentment, fear, abandonment, anger, hell, some PTSD, while we’re at it, cuz show a super who doesn’t have that, and ugly coping mechanisms to help his wife undo. All while also dealing with his own insecurities and psychological issues (you just TRY to tell me he doesn’t have any, and it’s fuckin’ on). That’s not going to happen overnight, it’s not going to happen in a year, and it surely won’t happen (believably, anyway) in a span of twelve issues covering only a short amount of time.

As for connecting with her, I honest to goodness can. I mean, on the surface, there’s the whole green-eyed Southerner thing she and I have in common (as well as a love for Remy, lmao). But on a deeper level, like her, I have a tendency to run off from scary confrontations. Now, I don’t have her traumatic backstory, but emotional and verbal abuse run rampant on both sides of my family, and my parents–god love them, they tried their best and are much better now–are products of their environments. Yours truly learned a long time ago that it’s much easier to pretend to listen, make appropriate noises, and then go do whatever the fuck later on, anyway. Engaging in arguments never ended well, and I figured out that dodging them altogether was easier. Makes for an adult who is spectacular at communication, let me tell ya!

It took putting a kid on the ground six years ago for me to grow a backbone and dig in rather than nod and skitter off (to do exactly as I pleased, anyway). I’m still not the greatest at communication, and I dread confrontation like I’m approaching my own execution, but I’m much, much better. To me, it’d be a pretty disappointing thing, and a disservice to her growth, to see Rogue rushed through this process. So, while I might lose patience with her being a dumbass in this regard, I’m actually very okay with it taking a while to work it out. Or even with it being an ongoing thing that she has to continually overcome, so long as she does, indeed, overcome it, and keep finding her way back to Remy!

@narwhallove I hope this is the sort of answer you were looking for, and I hope you like long-winded, quasi-ranty meta posts, lmao! 💗💗

[nellie-elizabeth]

Suits: Harvey (8x16)

Wow, okay, I'm sorry... I'm not convinced. I feel bad, but that just did not work for me.

Cons:

I'm talking about Donna and Harvey. I'm sure there were plenty of people watching that episode who were overjoyed that their ship had finally set sail, but I was just completely underwhelmed. I promise you, this isn't just about me shipping Marvey, either. On its own merits, Harvey and Donna hooking up just does not work for me on a fundamental level. I'm going to break down some of the reasons why.

First of all, on a superficial level, I just didn't buy their chemistry in that final scene. It wasn't embarrassingly bad or anything, but I found Donna and Thomas much more compelling in terms of chemistry, so that's a bummer.

Then, there's the hit-you-over-the-head-with-a-hammer script. As the episode ends, Robert makes this big declaration about how going through something difficult makes you realize what's important in life - and for him, that's his wife. Then, Alex repeats the same thing, saying he needs to get home to his wife. So here's the problem with this - Harvey had just asked first Robert, and then Alex, to go grab a burger with him, and they both turned him down to go be with their wives. This doesn't read like Harvey is secretly pining for a specific woman, it reads like he's just generally lonely.

Then we have a moment with Samantha. She makes a comment about what she's going to do without the one person who she always wants to go to when she has good or bad news, and Harvey abruptly has a light bulb moment and leaves, to rush off to Donna because he's apparently just realized that Donna is that person for him. I mean... that's a cliche, for one thing. And for another, this whole narrative doesn't bear itself out in a satisfying way at all. What I realized watching this episode is that the last several seasons of Suits have made a convincing case for the fact that Donna is still pining for Harvey, but it hasn't made a case for the reverse of that. Sure, Harvey loves and cares for Donna deeply, but Harvey's sudden realization here doesn't bear out under what we've seen over the last few seasons. I just don't buy that he loves her. This is sort of a lose-lose situation for me, because I didn't like the implication that Harvey just realized what had been right in front of him all along, but I think I would have been equally annoyed if they'd tried to imply that Harvey had been pining for Donna and had just decided to act on it. The fact is, I'm just not convinced by them as a romantic pairing anymore. And on top of that, Harvey was rude to Samantha! She was trying to share her feelings about Robert leaving, and Harvey just left! Ouch.

This show has positioned Donna as a strong female character, and has given her an arc about self-confidence and going after what she deserves for herself. That's a great concept for a character, but I find that often the show doesn't follow through on its promises with her characterization. This episode is a good example of that. The episode is called "Harvey," and that final scene between Harvey and Donna is supposed to be this big, exciting, culminating moment for the two of them. So... why did Donna get so little of the run time this week? As far as we could tell just last week, she had serious and genuine feelings for Thomas. Now, it seems that was a red herring. A way for her to lie to herself about her continued love for Harvey. And we only get a few little snippets with Donna to see that play out. She's not in the majority of the episode, so pretty much the whole emotional journey is Harvey's. That's fine, but it has the unfortunate consequence of sort of framing Donna like a prize to be won. The episode didn't take its time to convince me that Donna wanted this, and that Thomas wasn't that important to her.

Turning to other aspects of the plot - I found the flashbacks perfectly fine in and of themselves, but I don't really understand Robert's guilt over the death of a mugger acting as a catalyst for saving Harvey and getting disbarred. There have been plenty of other times over the course of this show where he could have sacrificed something because of a generally guilty conscience. Why was this particular situation the one that made him decide to act? The connection seemed quite flimsy to me.

Also, this was a finale, and Katrina wasn't in it at all! I call foul. I hope we get tons of time with her in the ninth and final season.

Pros:

Whew. Sorry I complained about the Darvey stuff for so long. I understand that there are a lot of people who are probably thrilled, and while it may sound like I'm contradicting myself, I do understand it on a certain level. I really don't give much of a crap about Donna and Harvey's romance, but I'd rather have them together than keep playing the juvenile will-they-won't-they game. If the writers are smart about this, we now have a whole season to build up their romance and make them a convincing couple. I do appreciate that.

There were aspects of this episode that I actually enjoyed quite a bit, peaking out from between all of the stuff that pissed me off. To start with, I found the flashbacks with Robert and Samantha pretty strong. I think their connection works to humanize Robert, and to bring Samantha into the world of the story with a little more strength. Her character still isn't super interesting to me, but I did find her compelling here. She was angry and scared, and Robert was there for her no matter what. It reminded me of the strength of the mentor/mentee relationship that has gotten so much emphasis on this show. Harvey and Jessica, Mike and Harvey, Samantha and Robert. There's something undeniably powerful about the strength of bonds that stretch past the professional.

There was one moment with Samantha that I particularly loved, and it actually felt like a good moment to encapsulate the appeal of this show as a whole. She's talking to Harvey about Donna - if Samantha's being honest and professional, Donna should be fired for breaking privilege with Thomas. But if she's speaking as Donna's friend, there's no way Samantha would even consider letting her go. She comments that the firm is rubbing off on her, and marvels at how crazy they all are. The point is, she knows that Harvey would never consider turning on Donna, and Samantha wouldn't want him to. They'd all throw themselves in front of a bus, commit career suicide, to protect one another. Mike did it for Harvey, Louis, and Jessica. Harvey tried to do it for Mike, then for Donna. Robert does it for Harvey. It's what they do. It's what makes them a family even when everything is at its absolute craziest and lowest point. And that's why these people are compelling to watch.

I really do like Alex quite a bit. He hasn't been given a ton to do, but his willingness to lie to protect Harvey this week was really touching, and I liked the moment afterwards when Harvey thanked him for it. There's a camaraderie there that I wish we could explore more. It's fun to see him as a team player in this way, instead of relegated to the subplot.

Daniel Hardman was kind of toothless in this episode. By that I mean, he was trying to disbar Harvey, but he didn't get a lot of screen-time to be his villainous self, and I oddly rather appreciated that. We don't need to spend a lot of time focusing on a character who's just returning for one episode. And actually, this episode did something to humanize Hardman. After all, he's sort of... right. I mean, Harvey is guilty of exactly what Hardman is accusing him of, and yet once again, this same group of people manages to pull the rug out from under him and ruin his chances of getting back on top. The stuff between Hardman and Zane was actually a little bit... touching? There's a moment when Robert is confessing to breaking privilege, and Hardman is just disbelieving, and he seems really hurt that Robert is directly involved like this. Hardman expected a dirty trick, but he didn't expect it to come from Robert, and you can tell that he's upset about it on a personal level. That oddly made me a bit emotional!

There was one Mike mention, and it was pretty great. (See, you can tell I'm not much of a Darvey fan when I end this particular review still talking about Mike). Hardman wants to know why Robert has thrown in his lot with Harvey and Louis, and wonders if it's "just because Rachel married Harvey's protege?" That basically implies that even Daniel Hardman knows the importance of Mike to Harvey, since he's comparing it to Robert's love for his own daughter. Or maybe I'm delusional. Don't take this away from me, it's all I have left!

6/10

[dabistits]

1) Thank you for answering! I hope that you don’t mind my continuing this conversation despite not disagreeing with your points - the misogynistic undertones of that forgiveness were heavy enough to drag anyone’s mood down. It’s just that I feel the need to clarify that I’m in no way trying to absolve Horikoshi for writing these people on those circumstances in that way nor to guess if any nuance we extrapolate from it is intentional or not, just to say that an in-universe lens makes it really

(cut for length again and more discussion of fictional dv)

2) easy to empathize with the reactions of the Todoroki women. Maybe even more so than with Natsu’s perfectly natural hope than having their abuser at least recognize how shitty his action were may bring closure, since that puts healing on the hands of said abuser which isn’t constructive. And then there’s Shouto who has been trying to not do that anymore for a while and has felt pressure to work with/under that asshole to achieve his full potential (which, another sadly realistic thing) so of

3) course he can see that for now, regardless of how HE feels about it, the best hope for their mother is that their father’s action reflect this supposed change of heart regardless of genuinity. And I think we are actually supposed to side with that but whether that’s intended for the sake of the victims or the abuser depends on how charitable you are feeling with Horikoshi’s writing. I mean, in the absolutely most hopeful interpretation of his writing we may see that flower thing as a parallel

4) of something the Joker canonically did for Harley and hence a hint of not seeing Endeavour as redeemable but not being the time for his comeuppance since right now their world really needs effective heroes whether they are good people or not… but that wouldn’t have been such an issue if he hadn’t written Endeavour to be as consistently useful at law enforcement as he did. I very much do not feel like dismissing the Doylist readings of complex subjects, that just facilitates the propagation of

5) harmful messages, but I believe that complementing those readings with Watsonian ones can help us more fully tackle said subjects and avoid detrimental “moralizing”. We understand the world through stories, which is why fostering empathy for fictional characters is still used to teach empathy for certain groups. And like you’ve said, at least on the West victims who haven’t ‘fought hard enough’ get thrown under the bus (Cinderella being a great example of a fictional case) so to me

6) encouraging others to see things through the victims’ eyes in fiction too is important even when the author won’t. TL;DR: please do go off on any author that punches down instead of up but why miss out on appropriating representation for those who are down while we are at it?

i’ll say in advance that i know it’s hard to submit long responses through an askbox, so if any of the things i’m focusing on below were just a result of the character limit/poor wording/misinterpreting, then please do let me know and send a follow-up.

there’s one major thing that i think we have to get out of the way first:

i don’t think it’s fair to characterize natsuo (or any other person who refuses to forgive their abuser) as placing healing in the hands of their abuser. being angry and resentful towards the person who abused you is not predicating your healing on that person’s future actions; it’s claiming your emotions and experiences which your abuser has no control over, it’s setting boundaries for what you will accept from that person, and on what terms you will interact. it’s saying “if you don’t get better, then you will not have my love or support” and that’s totally fine! no one is owed our love, thus it isn’t hurting us not to give it to someone who doesn’t deserve it.

i’m not gonna lie, phrasing a survivor’s choice of dealing with their trauma as placing agency in the hands of their abuser bothers me a lot. it also sounds a lot like the things people say when manipulating a survivor into forgiveness, like: “you can only control your actions, so why don’t you forgive them for your own sake instead of waiting around for them to become better people?? :)” not that you’re trying to manipulate anyone, anon, but wording like that can be easily misconstrued and i would be mindful of it in the future.

now, for the rest of your ask: again, i fully believe it’s your right (and everyone else’s) to headcanon rei and fuyumi however you want to fulfill a satisfying watsonian reading for yourselves. the problem with watsonian readings, however, is that they’re all down to interpretation. you may say that fuyumi wants to reconcile for many complicated reasons, while another reader might say she’s just forgiven her abuser, plain and simple. it’s even more open to different interpretations than doylist readings, so why would i just pick one of them to incorporate into my analysis? how would i choose it? what would my biased choice lend to my meta?

i’m also not sure why you say sticking to a purely doylist reading would be ‘moralizing.’ a doylist reading places nothing on the characters themselves—it’s about using narrative cues to figure out what the author intends to convey, and in this particular case, it’s about criticizing the way horikoshi wrote the pro hero arc based on the way he framed the actions of the tdrks’ abuser and the perspective from which he decided to tell the story, all of which only add depth to the abuser’s character. there is no evidence to argue that this arc was meant, canonically, to condemn that character—in fact, all the evidence points to the contrary—and i disagree with the idea that our criticism targeted at the author and at the narrative must be filtered through a watsonian perspective. unless you believe that people adhering to a doylist critique of the tdrks’ narrative is somehow promoting a lack of sympathy towards rei and fuyumi, then what purpose does it serve except for doing hori’s work for him?

there’s a time and a place to discuss headcanons, and for me, within my metas isn’t it. most of them are geared towards a specific message that analyze the narrative at an authorial/doylist level, for instance “this is why hori is so damn shitty at writing abuse.” they’re not about “hori’s shitty and i’m correcting him with these headcanons based on this canon evidence and these real life examples.” if you want to do the latter, then by all means, be my guest! it’s just not a task i’m interested in undertaking, and, again, i don’t believe they’re necessary for message i intend to convey, and i don’t believe it’s actively harmful to survivors to exclude watsonian explanations.

i think it’s fine to feel sympathetic towards rei and fuyumi. i encourage it! i also understand if there are people who don’t want to get involved with them because they’re badly written and because hori uses them as his abuse apologism mouthpiece. it’s very dispiriting, and people are allowed to not interact with messages they feel are dispiriting or harmful.

i think it’s fine for fans to write rei and fuyumi however they please. they can write them as avenging furies or they can write them as complicated abuse survivors with conflicting desires. as i said in the post you’re referencing, i understand that fans themselves are coming from a complicated place, and i sympathize with that.

i think it’s simultaneously important for fans to remember real abuse victims, who don’t always make perfect choices, and who already get a lot of flak from society regarding what they do and don’t do. we must extend our sympathy to these real survivors, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have complicated and negative feelings about the ways fictional survivors are written.

lastly, i want to say quite simply, if you want to encourage people to sympathize with abuse survivors, there are better works than bnha. there are creators who work their commentary about abuse into the text itself instead of making fans invent an interpretation to convince other fans. i think it’s far more straightforward and a better overall experience for someone to read or watch a piece of media that intends to have a statement on abuse than to be left to flounder in the mess that bnha is.

[voltron-stats]

Langst Survey Results – “I Don’t Like Langst”

Third time’s the charm! Here’s another read-more!

Why not?

The answers to this question hit on a few major grievances with Langst, which will be summarized below:

OOC Lance: Lance’s character tends to become woobiefied in Langst, which then turns it into a “Break the Woobie”-fest and that isn’t very appealing. Also, this inaccurate characterization results in Lance turning into a one-dimensional person, with almost all of the canon qualities that make him interesting, like his optimism and humor, being erased in favor of him being a turning him into a “messed up caricature of whining and stupidity”. In addition, there exists Langst in which Lance struggles with certain things that his canon self may not have had the same issues with, which is another disservice to his canon strengths. Langst creators also manage to overwrite his existing flaws with new, less realistic ones. On another note, another characterization error that Langst makes has to do with the fact that a lot of Langst uses Lance as a self-insert type of character, ignoring his issues in order to depict the issues of the writer/artist/etc. While there isn’t anything inherently wrong with this, responders at the very least wanted Langst featuring Canon Lance, not a self-projection with Lance’s name.

OOC Paladins: In Langst, the paladins tend to exist for the sole purpose of either being the problem/causing Lance’s angst or to gush and fuss over Lance constantly. Both of these options mischaracterize them or neglects their characters completely. In terms of being the problem, often what happens is that the other paladins become mean to fit a (false) “"oh Lance is so misunderstood and everyone is mean to him"” narrative. However, Lance’s canon angst comes from his own personal insecurities, and not from the actions of others, which is a narrative that a lot of Langst pushes. Characters like Shiro, for instance, are painted in a bad light in order to intensify the Langst (i.e. Shiro is abusive to Lance), and Keith, in particular, is either abusive or Lance’s Trophy Wife (or otherwise only exists to help Lance and nothing else). Finally, as mentioned earlier, when the paladins are mischaracterized in this manner, their own personal issues and angst fall to the wayside in favor of Lance. For example, in certain Kerberos AUs, Lance goes to Kerberos in Shiro’s place and his resulting PTSD is explored and acknowledged, but Shiro, who canonically went to Kerberos and got PTSD, is dragged for being in the same exact circumstances.

Oversaturated, Overrated: Some responders have noted that it was a bit strange that Lance has an entirely separate word and subgenre for his angst. There is a lot of Langst out there, and some responders feel like this lessens the value of individual Langst pieces. In addition, it always seems to be Fanon Lance that is used in Langst, which weakens the appeal. Also, it’s been overdone and to some, it is now boring.

Over-exaggerated, Uncreative: Lance’s insecurities in the show are turned in to a full-blown angst-fest in a lot of Langst. Lance isn’t as insecure as people are making him out to be, his insecurities aren’t always everyone else’s problem to deal with, and a lot of it ends up overdramatic or badly written. Also, there are a lot of the same clichés, overused tropes, and repetitive/obvious arcs used in Langst that makes it look not very creative in terms of pulling heartstrings.

Neglects others’ angst: Several responders were irked that the angst of other characters was being ignored in favor of Lance’s perceived insecurities. Everything seems to revolve around Lance, probably due to his popularity in the fandom, but Lance isn’t the only homesick one or the only character who has angst. For people who prefer other angst, it can be disheartening to try to search for that angst and scrolling through pages and pages of Langst to find even one thing. Also, in ignoring the struggles of other characters, Lance himself is absolved of any crime, i.e. if he hurts others it's mostly overlooked and he isn’t required to apologize or make it up to them, and sometimes other characters’ angst is reassigned to Lance (for example, Shiro’s struggles are Lance’s now).

Racist: When portraying Lance’s Cuban/Latino heritage, Langst can fall into some unfortunate stereotypes. As one responder put it, “A predominantly white fandom brutalizing the attractive, brown main character? No thanks…It makes fans who should be able to relate to Lance as a Cuban and latino teen fucking uncomfortable with even showing their content in fandom…He's also an openly emotional boy, which you don't see often, and yet people turn him into personal wank material and spread it as a popular, proudful idea. It's not...”

There were also responders who don’t understand why people would intentionally hurt Lance, as they believe that he has already suffered enough in the show and that he deserves love and happiness. Conversely, other responders simply don’t like Lance, so Langst doesn’t appeal to them as a result. Still other responders disliked Langst due to specific prompts/tropes, i.e. they would rather there be less character death and more ship-free material (Klance likes to appear hand-in-hand with Langst, to their dismay).

Other issues responders had with Langst include:

They portray Lance’s family as evil sometimes

Not being a fan of angst

The tendency to put Lance through continuous hell with little to no positive resolution

It’s “unnecessary to constantly take lance's anxieties and beat him over the head with them”

Presenting elements of Langst as canon despite it all being based around headcanons

Ignoring canon

Are there any good Langst prompts/topics/tropes that you like?

13 of the people who responded said that there weren’t any good prompts. Of the people who chose a prompt, the most popular ones were Homesick Lance (missing his home or family) and prompts in which different team members come to comfort him (e.g. Hunk or Coran).

People also liked prompts that included Lance’s insecurities – as long as they were handled in a satisfactory manner. For example, one responder didn’t want to include “Keith apologizing for Lance being jealous of him.” Other related prompts include scenarios that involve his insecurities coming to light, hiding insecurities to both take care of the team and their issues and not worry them, and Lance dealing with his insecurities about his place on the team. People also liked prompts that looked more into Lance’s character and how he doesn’t feel as useful and looked deeper into his canon psyche/insecurities (as long as, again, it’s done in moderation).

Miscellaneous good prompts include:

Canon-based Langst

Insecurities about his place on the team

Lance worries he’s not enough

Lance-centric hurt/comfort

Paladins comforting each other as a family, and acting as a support group for each other

The team tries to cheer Lance up but makes things worse

Conflicts that aren’t completely resolved

“Lance realizing that he shouldn't lash out when he's feeling insecure and thus damaging his relationships and going on a self-discovery making painful realizations that he doesn't need to be the best and accepting he's fine the way he is realizing validation while nice is not essential.”

“I ship Lance x happiness”

What is your least favorite Langst prompt/topic/trope?

4 people don’t like most, if not all, Langst prompts.

Many people noted OOC Lance and/or the other Paladins as a least favorite Langst trope. For the paladins, responders disliked when they were demonized and turned into bullies. Subcategories of this include: Lance isn’t appreciated enough by the team, "Everyone hates Lances except Trophy Husband Keith", “Keith blows up and tells Lance he's worthless/will never be good enough/anything of the like”, Shiro neglects his needs, and Shiro is mean to Lance. For OOC Lance, as one responder aptly put it, they dislike prompts that go along the lines of “Keith is mean to meee, I cry myself to sleep and no one caresss, The team won't listen to me even tho I'm righttt”.

Other unpopular prompts that multiple people mentioned are: Lance dies, Insecure Lance, and Lance feeling suicidal/cutting (suicidal ideation, being caught self-harming, etc.)

Other least favorite prompts include:

Lance being “singled out for unending hell”

It’s Keith’s fault that Lance is insecure/compares himself to Keith

Lance feeling like he shouldn’t be a paladin (especially when the feelings are triggered by things the other paladins say)

Lance is injured

Violence, abuse, neglect

Non-/Dub-Con

Pining for Keith

Kidnapped, tortured, brainwashed by Lotor

“sex makes things better”

Homesick Lance

If you could change anything about this microgenre, what would you change?

Firstly, one of the things responders wanted more of is a focus on angst for other characters besides Lance. Similarly, responders wanted more variety in Langst, giving Lance depth as to why he’s sad or depressed, instead of making it due to, say, pining for Keith. Related to that, people wanted less Langst (or any angst, for that matter) being used as a ploy for ships; this is mainly having less Langst be from a romantic standpoint, and also making it less “Klancey”, since in those scenarios Keith tends to lose a lot of personality in an effort to make Lance Happy™

Speaking of Keith losing his personality, the main thing that this set of responders wanted to change about Langst was to let everyone remain in character. Characters shouldn’t be thrown under the bus or reduced to something they’re not in order for Lance to achieve maximum angst. The other paladins value Lance as a member of the team and are supportive of him, and their characterization should reflect that. In addition, the team’s characterization should remain intact, allowing them to be fleshed out characters in their own right, rather than one-dimensional foils. Good angst can still be done with canon characterization. Furthermore, some responders singled out Keith and his characterization; he seems to be used as a prop to deepen Lance’s angst, and this may involve altering his canon personality.

In regards to Lance’s characterization, he also needs to be written better. He should be portrayed as a stronger, more confident character (some Langst portrays him as less intelligent or a “pushover woobie”, which irks responders). Moreover, Lance’s loud personality and sense of humor should be allowed to shine, even though he’s experiencing angst; liveliness and humor and angst are all able to coexist at once.

Of the people who responded to this question, 4 of them said that would change the entire subgenre, and/or its very existence.

Other things people would change are:

Create Langst in moderation

Normalize characters showing vulnerability (Don’t ignore their flaws)

Let Lance be the cause of his own problems

Let Lance be happy

More believable scenarios

More of other paladins reacting to Lance’s problems (i.e. Pidge)

More team support (Team is part of the solution, not the problem)

Less plotless/baseless angst; don’t simply suckerpunch Lance constantly

Less horribly cliché/sappy

Less association with Lantis/Klantis

Don’t romanticize things like (internal) homophobia, depression, self-harm, abuse, non-con, etc.

Do you enjoy angst focused on other Voltron characters? Which ones?

[miss-musings]

Why I want to stop watching the Blacklist (a.k.a., A Rant by Me)

This used to be my favorite show. Hands down. I would legitimately schedule things around it; I would leave events early to make sure I could watch it live; I would post about it on Tumblr and read other people’s posts the rest of the evening; I would search through multiple review site’s posts the next day.

I loved the dynamic between Red and Liz. I loved the mysteries and the little morsels of answers that we would get. I loved how, in the S1 finale, it felt like no one was safe: Meera got killed; Harold got attacked and nearly killed; Tom was shot and left for dead.

But, over the past few seasons, this show has become the bane of my TV-watching experience.

(EDIT: this post, which quietly keeps gaining notes, was written post-S4, pre-S5. So, there’s still plenty of relevant things in the post, but just keep the timing in mind.)

I would watch it, sure. But that was because I didn’t want the folks on Tumblr spoiling it for me. It was because I thought we were finally getting answers – which is what they teased us with every other week – only to feel so disappointed.

This last year, I made reaction videos for a friend of mine for every single episode. You know what one of the most commonly said things in those videos is? “Well, at least next week’s preview looks good.” Only to be disappointed in that episode, and to say the same thing about next week’s preview, and the cycle repeated itself until we actually got a half-way decent episode (which was usually some kind of finale or premiere, because that’s the only time actual shit can happen – during Sweeps Week).

Over and over again, both online and in person, I compared this to those scenes in cartoons where someone puts a carrot on a fishing pole in front of a donkey, and the donkey runs so hard to reach the carrot, only to never get there.

That’s how this show has felt the past season or two.

It’s only a shadow of what it once was, and I’m tired of it. I wish I could stop watching it.

So many other people I follow on Tumblr have said they’ve either stopped or thought about stopping. By comparison, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad and the Walking Dead seemingly increase their viewership every season; the Blacklist has been NBC’s lowest-rated show in the demo for the last year, IIRC. The ratings for the Redemption spin-off were so low, the showrunners tried to pass it off as a one-off miniseries, when it was ALWAYS intended to be its own full-length show.

I understand that the show does well in DVR viewership numbers, and it was the most expensive TV show that Netflix had purchased when Season 1 was released.

But, this show continues to disappoint me. There’s hardly anything I like about it anymore. Hell, even James Spader, who’s a master at his craft, seems to be bored with it. His monologues are becoming more and more cliche, and even his amazing performances can’t save this dumpster-fire.

Its protagonist, Liz, is all over the fucking place in terms of characterization. First, she was naive and learned her “husband” had used and abused her. Then, she went to the dark side, chained him up on a boat and said she’d never forgive him for what he’d done. Then, she apparently forgave him, slept with him, had his kid, tried to remarry the guy, and then faked her death to get away with him and is now living her happy dream life with her little girl and her ‘perfect’ husband.

What happened to the dark, morally questionable, grungy Liz? What happened to the Liz who was jaded and afraid after being on the run for several weeks, or months?

She just settled down with a guy who she used to hate and she’s living the dream.

What in the literal fuck?

And, for all the time that has been invested in Liz, she has made little to no progress in her characterization these past few seasons. In fact, she’s done more of a 360. She’s right back where she started, more or less.

Why should the audience give a shit about her journey if she’s not making any progress? Why should we care that, halfway through this show, she has everything she’s ever wanted?

The side characters, like Aram, Samar, Ressler, Cooper and others are there just to serve the plot. Any time there’s a semblance of some character development or plot progression, the showrunners regress everyone back to Stage One so we can do it all over again. Aram and Samar look like they’re making progress in their possible romantic relationship? Fuck that, we’ve got to make sure Aram runs back to his abusive girlfriend and string this thing along another season! Remember when Ressler got shot, had prescription drug problems, and was in Narcotics Anonymous? Yeah, me neither.

Mr. Kaplan, who was best when she was on-screen to sass and help Reddington once every few episodes, gets pushed into the spotlight for some made-up bullshit reason that had never been discussed or hinted at previous to the “Mr. Kaplan used to work for Katarina Rostova” storyline. And while Susan Bloomaert is a fantastic and underrated actress and did her absolute best to make those scenes between her and Liz feel emotional, I didn’t really care about their dynamic at all because it felt so forced, underdeveloped, and out-of-nowhere.

Whereas the relationship that I care the MOST about – that between Red and Liz – that has been the most built-up and developed over the course of the show keeps getting thrown under the bus as Liz does the whole “love Red, hate Red, forgive Red” song-and-dance routine. She claims she agrees with Red when he tells her not to go back to Tom in Season 2… only to go back to Tom later in Season 2. She’s totally down with asking Red to help her whenever she’s a criminal on the run… but the minute her wedding gets shot up, she yells at him and says it’s his fault.

And now, as far as the Lizzington fans go, which I count myself as one of them, the show has written itself into a corner. Because all the amazing chemistry and romantic tropes throughout the show feel incredibly creepy now that Liz believes Red is her dad, regardless of whether he actually is or not. I don’t care how they try to pull themselves out of the ginormous hole they’ve dug for themselves on that one – why the hell would a woman ever end up with a guy that she once thought was her dad, even if it turned out he actually wasn’t?

And the only real way out of it is the Impostor Theory – a well-written and well-researched theory, but one that makes people have to do fucking mental gymnastics for it to work. You have to assume a lot of people like Naomi and Reddington’s former roommate from the Naval Academy who’s now an admiral, are in on it. Whereas dudes like Finch or the Director aren’t…

Don’t get me wrong; I think it’s a wonderful theory and it explains a lot. But, if it ends up being true, it means one of two things:

1) The writers didn’t plan this from the beginning and lucked their way into it

OR

2) The writers DID plan this from the beginning, which means they have the ability to be really good writers, but then they fell into all this other bullshit – like Liz’s weird arc and other things – which really means that they’re not that good of writers; they just had the one good idea.

And if the Impostor Theory DOESN’T end up being true, in some form or fashion, that means that Red really IS Liz’s dad, and this whole fucking show – Red’s entire characterization, his relationship and dynamic with her – has been a lie. Canon can be throw out the window to rot in the sewer and fuck itself in the interim, because the writers don’t even care any more.

Which, I realize is unfair, because I know there are hundreds of people who work really hard to make this show happen, and while it’s not, like, the worst show of all time, the fact that it had such potential and has fallen so far, almost makes it seem worse than a show that was so bad from the beginning I never invested time in it.

And what makes it even WORSE is that the showrunners continue to act like this is the most groundbreaking show on television, and put it on a pedestal On High, along with the likes of Game of Thrones, The Americans, and The Sopranos… you know, actually good shows.

That would be the equivalent of the Taken director demanding that his movie should’ve gotten an Oscar. It’s like, you know it was a fine movie, and I had a good time watching it, but like, bring yourself back down to earth. Taken is okay, but it is NOT Oscar-worthy material, so get off your high horse, dude.

I guess, if nothing else, it shows that the showrunners, writers and actors are so talented that they got me to invest in the show to the point where I can’t not watch it, even though it’s fallen so far and I feel like it’s nowhere near as good as it used to be. They hooked me and got me to care about these characters and their dynamics so much that, even though it frustrates me week in and week out, I will still keep watching it.

It’s just that, now, I might be doing it with a bottle of vodka, taking shots every time:

Red has a monologue that proves James Spader is too damn good for this show;

Liz is bitchy to Red for little to no reason, while continuing to be lovey-dovey with Tom;

Ressler survives a fight or car accident or some other action sequence with no injuries whatsoever;

Harry Lennix is completely underused as Harold Cooper in an episode, because he only tells his employees to do the obvious… and literally nothing else;

Samar and/or Aram take a step back from getting together, despite hints that they’ve liked each other since Season 2.

So, bottoms up, Blacklist fans!

[mags-duranb]

My Universe One

aka if Mags gets to put her paws on Jellal (metaphorically).

I know some of you know, Jellal’s characterization has been a big issue, not only for me but for other ppl in the fandom. I know there is hate towards him and let’s be honest, is not entirely unjustified.

If you gonna bring back a character from the dead, make sure that character makes its prolongued stay count for something. If not, save yourself the grief. And as much as it pains me to say this (like ohmygod, I... urgh!) Jellal was better off dead than getting the shitty treatment his character got. Paraphrasing a friend, he got the potential to have a poweful story on redemption, a journey worthy to be told but instead we got the most pandering, bland one. Waste!

It hurts one as a fan but at the same, the posibilities makes you salivate (or at least me)

So I started writing a list of things I so would love to fix about him, which I divided by arcs, parting from the famous Seven Years that the Fairy Tail core guild members disappeared. 

Let’s keep in mind this is my humble POV, if you want to add something, feel free.

SEVEN YEARS ARC

To being with, those seven years will count, not only in terms of character development but maturity too. A 26 years old Jellal living as a fugitive will leave its mark. From a 19 year old teenager who got to be at the peak of the magic world to an adult who hit rock botton and had to claw his way back. However, this gonna be bordering seinen and shonen kids, so not too much darkness, kay?. 

Will keep the bit about Jellal recovering his memory in jail and him using that time to piece together the person he once was, realizing sadly that he would never be the same.

He will learn about Erza and Fairy Tail most likely died in Tenrou, falling  into despair and closing into himself. Is at that time that Ultear appears to free him and most likely saving him in the moment he needed it most.

Jellal and Ultear gonna have a hard time to fix all the shit in between the two. Trust has to be gained and she will have to work hard for it. 

Jellal will be free from jail by Ultear but as I said, things don't go smoothly. Jellal at first goes with what she tells him because he is emotionally and physically too weak. Erza's and Fairy tail "death" is still fresh and he is trying to adapt to the sudden vortex of changes he has been thrown into; learning how to think by himself and have true freedom or as much as you can have when you are still under the care of the person that manipulated you for 8 years, because Ultear may have changed her views but some habits are hard to kill. So at some point Jellal decides to take his own path and figures out things for himself because even if he owes her his freedom and his life there is a lot of hurt, deceit and mistrust between them to go on together peacefully.

Of course Ultear feels like a big failure but can't help to get where he is coming from and to let him go. She will realize she still can’t get rid of her need to control him (in the form of overprotectiveness, and the insidious conviction of believing she knows what's good for him) which will send her into further depression and almost made her give up if it wasn't for Meredy and the fact that the girl needs her. So she forces herself to keep going for her and seek her own answers like Jellal has done for himself (his first act of independence which later on will become a source of pride instead of a source of sadness).

Erza and Fairy tail's dissappearance is the big elephant in the room they avoid to address till the year before Fairy tail came back.

Jellal goes through trial and error to learn how to finally live by himself after 8 years of manipulation. Despite the overhelming feelings, his personality remains in the way he is determined to find his own answers as how to live after everything that has happened.

He will meet people in the way, and this people will help him to shape who he is, the people of his present but also the people of his past.

He is gonna travel all the continent and at some point he will cross to Arakitashia continent, to Alvarez kingdom in his path to find himself.

Since he is a highly intelligent man, he also would want to learn more about magic. So that won’t be forgotten, he will put those brains of his to work. It will be key in the arcs to come.

Do you remember that Kid Jellal was a leader and someone brave who wanted to help people gain freedom?. Welp, that won’t be thrown under the bus. He was kind and determined, so those traits will show through his need to help those in need.

Since he is a wizard saint level mage, he is wanted all across the Ishgar continent. His status as one makes him very dangerous at the eyes of the Magic Council and they fear him as much considering he became a Wizard Saint with just a though projection. His reward is the highest one in all history of Fiore.

At some point he crossed paths with Wally and Sho. It's a rollecoaster, it took time but Jellal apologized properly and they started their first steps to health. Still a long way to go.

He finds out where Kagura is. He keeps his distance because he is not ready yet (he knows it because his first though is to offer his life to her and he is hanging to his life for his promise to Erza and Ultear) So, is not the moment but he knows he has to confront her some day.

He starts communication with Ultear after three years since he was freed by her (the 4th of the seven years). Since then they keep their communications in code. 

He will join Meredy and Ultear at the 5th year of the 7, he had been communicating with Ultear for a whole year now. 

Is at this point that Jellal has gotten his own answer. Which does not means everything is resolved, but that he now can give his first steps to the right direction and can look at Ultear in the eyes. 

Is at the six year they stablish Crime Sorciere.Their goal is to "destroy" dark guilds and give a chance to start anew to those who want to be free from the darkness within their hearts (this is a shonen xD).

Later on Jellal and co infiltrated Era's dungeons and stablished contact with Oracion Seis, making use of his hability as a politician during his years at the council along Ultear, they convice them to join their cause. They accept almost peacefuly (we'll get some minor fight over it but nothing serious). - I have to thank @sassyhazelowl for this one.

Crime Sorciere name and reputation will spread across Fiore for the amount of dark guilds being destroyed by them. Crime Sorciere offers the fallen guilds these options: they can join them, seek a better honest life or go to jail.

Minor Notes about Ultear (She is fascinating, period)

Ultear is second after Jellal with a high reward on her head. 

Jella’s departure hurt her a lot and almost gave up but Meredy’s constant presence helped her to hang to her sanity and will to live on.

She comes with the idea to create Crime Sorciere to seek redemption in her many talks with Jellal through lacrima. Throught those talks they shape their future guild.

She also moved through all the Ishgar continent but never left it. Thanks to her habilities of transformation (which she thaught  to Meredy) she managed to keep a step ahead from their pursuers.

She was thorough training Meredy, so no weak pink girl here. She travels with two powerhouses, so she can kick ass... hard.

Meredy is her ray of light, period.

It’s Jellal who tatooed her back with the new guild mark.

Both don’t talk about how the Grimoire Heart guild mark was erased. Not even Meredy knows, just Jellal and Ultear.

DONE! Next arc later!

cc

@sassyhazelowl

@ajerzaaddict

@bellagill92

[podcake]

Podcasts & Structure

Every time I get around to sitting down and actually writing these articles, I have to seriously consider what I’m going to talk about. It seems the conversation of audio drama is becoming more widespread lately, oozing its way into mainstream media faster than I can keep track of. 

And so many are being made at such a rapid pace, catching up with it all can be its own challenge. A lot of people are starting to see the power and potential of audio plays and it’s a slow burn revolution I am a hundred percent behind. 

When I achieve my dreams of becoming a licensed journalist under that sweet, sweet trademark PodCake©, know that I’ll be somewhere in the front lines, keeping everyone up to the date and in the zone until I’m old and gray and still very, very pink.

So with this exciting idea in mind, I find it appropriate to do a somewhat different type of “Podcasts&”. This is still very much an article dabbling into my specific interests and experiences though also a guide of sorts to those who may be wrapped up in the creative hype. Allow me to pull you starry-eyed artists aside for some well-meaning advice. May you follow in the footsteps of your idols, though know you are above any of their common mistakes.

I had a few options in store to pick from when it came to another topic covering audio drama critique, though I felt that I wanted to address this first. This is another dabbling into the more specific structures of my podcast journalism and the consumption and creation of audio drama in general. 

In a similar vain to my latest article, “Podcasts & Critique”, I’ll be talking about something that perhaps not many are willing to discuss out in the open but is certainly touched upon enough that I feel the merits to bring it up in more depth. What we will be discussing today is the element of effective story structure.

Get comfortable, this is gonna be a long one. 

Let me start by saying that I adore and always will adore a nice, rich setting presented only through words. I adore lavishly designed dystopias and lively apocalyptic wastelands more than the next guy and the idea of a soothing, sweet voice cooing to us over a delicately designed world is a surefire way to ensure a fanbase. This is the popular set up known as The Newscaster or The Fake Radio Show or Handsome Male Character Headcannon Sitting in a Big Chair or whatever you want to call it. 

I enjoy this format namely for its simplicity and ability to relay information to the listener all while still characterizing the narrator as an active part of the world. Though these shows might be more episodic, to a degree, the ideas are still being connected by one single thread. It’s such a regular aspect of the podcast scene that it’s nothing short of being a style.

This style places a lot of emphasis on lore and quirks and memorable little moments that arrange themselves into a little audio scrapbook. We’re given this collection of information, all gorgeously described in luscious detail.

That’s why it’s such a shame how boring it can be at times. 

Don’t get me wrong here, my problem is not with interesting landscapes and rich lore, my problem is when a lot is being said but not enough is being done. 

I fell out of love with Welcome to Night Vale for this particular reason, this inconsistency with stakes and conflict that made any enjoyment to be found quickly tedious. Night Vale is and always will be a staple in the audio drama community, though it doesn’t mean we can’t learn from its mistakes that may go over our heads due to its excellent writing and characters only sometimes overshadowing it. 

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: an excellent audio drama is the sum of many parts and only succeeding in one area won’t always make the cut. But today’s topic is less about writing and more about narrative pacing…which is still kind of about writing but in a different way.

The central issue with these types of single narrator driven shows, being that we are being presented with a setting, problems, and characters who can solve that problem, but an effort is rarely ever made to get to a satisfying conclusion that is worth the wait. Of course, there actually being conflict to resolve can be its own and even more disappointing dilemma. 

A crowning example of this type of flaw occurred in what used to be  one of my favorite audio drama comedies, Kakos Industries. 

I promptly stopped listening to Kakos after a lackluster attempt at it’s first real arc after roughly fifty episodes of filler and build up that didn’t contribute much to whatever the arc was trying to get across. None of the past episodes helped create a central theme that the arc was meant to represent, making its conclusion lack any emotional stakes or a reason to get invested. 

The primary mood of the arc was all over the place with rapid character changes, unclear motivations, and a rushed explanation behind multiple episodes with little to no foreshadow to back it up. Furthermore this supposedly crucial ending didn’t tie into the continuation of season three beyond the absence of the past antagonist who was the center of the whole thing and the victim of a bloated backstory that needed way more than twenty minutes to be summarized.

No one changes from the whole ordeal, not even the protagonist who goes about his daily life as if none of it ever happened, and nobody and nothing is lost from the whole thing besides the character we already knew was bound to kick the bucket because it needed to end somehow. Generally, it does everything arc is not supposed to do as it doesn’t act as a changing phase for the story and doesn’t give us any vital information that will effect any of the characters long term.

The problem also lies in that there are a number of interesting subplots that emerged within the show’s canon as of season two: some more details about head rival  Melantha Murther that imply she may be older than she seems, the relationship she has with Corin Deeth I as well as his involvement with the company, and a theory about cloning being brought up to name a few, but we have yet to even gently nudge at these ideas yet for a good batch of episodes because we wouldn’t want all those penis jokes to go to waste.

This is content with potential to be interesting arcs on their own and functional ones as they key into new information about characters we’ve come to know and gives Kakos Industries the tension and mystery it desperately needs. 

These little bits and pieces of information can keep a listener engaged long enough to keep tuning in, but it can quickly become a chore to go back to something that seems to have been forgotten in exchange for repeated jokes and some new standalone characters that don’t really matter.

These might be in the footnotes of the creators for episode whenever, though to us they feel like throwaway lines pitched as bait more than anything of actual importance. They’re just there to be there.

And when the show peddles back to its roots of everyday shenanigans and jokes, the luster is lost, no matter how funny or well executed they might be. In the end, a lot of gimmicks and a lot of chatter with no real weight becomes nothing short of a series of filler episodes with no purpose. 

I understand that indifference and dissonant serenity is part of the Kakos Industries’ humor though it often comes at the cost of events not carrying any real weight because it’s already predetermined that it’s being treated like a joke or that things will be resolved and go back to status quo with minimal effort. It insists you don’t take it seriously even if the problem at hand would suggest otherwise. To anyone else listening, this makes the stakes nonexistent and the protagonist seem overqualified to handle any problem thrown at him, never giving him a chance to be vulnerable to the slightest misfortune. 

The same could be said for Welcome to Night Vale, a show with many compelling ideas and character drama though one that loves to meander and reestablish how strange and bizarre their world is on repeat instead of doing anything of actual substance, at least as far as season three is concerned. 

Night Vale has a much better grip on characters and conflict that Kakos Industries does, though it also suffers from some of the same problems. Night Vale also had arcs, one incredibly well done to the point it’s been considered a crowning moment of the series while another that wavered a bit too long and simply wasn’t intriguing enough to make a huge difference in the end besides being another case of the Put On the Bus trope. And when they concluded, we’re back to square one again.

Once again, we are given a lot of ripe material here: There’s instances of Cecil’s childhood that we must piece together, pretty much anything about Kevin is bound to be creepy and interesting, Carlos and his apparent involvement with a college university, and something about sleeper agents and traffic signs and blood space but I lost count.

The case here is almost as dire as this is something of a multiple choice scenario where there’s just piles and piles of plots being given to us but all of it feels for naught when something else is being added to the collection a second later.

The same way Kakos is so obsessed with its dark and sexy aesthetic to the point it under develops its characters and has an absence of stakes, Night Vale is the same with its surrealism and seems to pull the “it’s a weird show” card whenever something gets unresolved.

There comes a point where a show’s quirky nature can only be used for so long to avoid the big question about what it’s all in service of. If all the oddness has no meaning and the plots are just being pitched with no real agency, then they fail to provide the show with any real purpose.

The point of an arc ending is for another one to start later, namely by picking up leftover plot points from before or starting something else that still entwines with the story’s central lore. 

For a good example of how to manage an arc, I’d recommend Wolf 359 that has at least four in the duration of about forty episodes. I’d go into more detail about exactly what made the individual arcs in Wolf 359 work so well though that would lean heavily into spoiler territory and I wouldn’t want to ruin anything for those who haven’t listened to it yet. 

This too started as a sort of news caster from space format until it flourished into the characters offering their points of view on a scenario and developing as people as they are placed in tight spots. 

We learn more about who we’re dealing with, what is at stake, and grow invested because we never know which direction the events can take us. Wolf 359 has become so successful in its run because of the writer’s ability to admit something is amiss which gives the listeners something to anticipate rather than just tolerate. 

Listen here, I know that podcasts are all for entertainment’s sake and I will always respect that, but even something that is entertaining must have a hook-line-sinker mentality, as I like to call it:

The hook is the first impression: What made you want to listen in the first place? Did the general synopsis intrigue you? Maybe there was just an actor in the show that you really like. Simple. 

The line is the plot: This is the thing that makes you keep coming back for more. You’ve gotten comfortable with the story and its characters, you want to know as much as you can about the lore and the stakes. This is very much literally “a line” the audio drama is following and encourages you to keep up with.

The sinker is the payoff: This is where all the accumulated information you’ve gathered really matters-the climax. This is where we get the hidden motivations of characters, know about the dark secrets and figure out who the heroes and villains might be. We have a winner and a loser or at least some kind of ending, be it good or bad for the protagonists. 

Many podcasts are capable of the first two steps though tend to forget the third. And when we do forget to touch that oh-so crucial sense of conflict and resolution, it becomes the equivalent of a Breather Episode series. 

To those who don’t know, a Breather Episode is a common trope that is put into place to remind the audience that all of the past problems have concluded and we can once again revel in comedy and lighthearted fun.

I am a big fan of the this trope, it’s an implication that the past troubles of our protagonists have been dealt with and they can now relax, getting back to basics, but it’s getting back to the old grind that really matters.

We as listeners are a bit bloodthirsty, to say the least, constantly seeking out what new thing might be out to threaten the characters and disrupt their tranquility. Though in the character’s universe, and, to some extent, the writers, this is a pleasant period to soak in for a bit for just a little while. 

It is prone to overstay its welcome if the average episode is nothing to look forward to.  In short, if there’s nothing to hold on to, people will drop your story knowing it was of no loss to them.

A constant barrage of drama can be very overwhelming to the story’s ability to stay surprising and believable, so it’s good to have that even blend of “the bleeder and the breather”, as I’d like to call it, to keep things balanced. 

But Podcake, you might be saying. This is audio drama! Emphasis on audio. They’re just sounds! Why expect so much when we can’t get visual input?

And you have a point there metaphorical reader. I’m not saying every show needs this epic score, high budget, and groundbreaking editing, I actually encourage shows who rely on this minimalism to try even harder in the writing department. 

It is actually possible to have a consistent sense of tension even with limited sound effects and budget. 

A good example would be The Bright Sessions. The presentation is mostly contained in one room and only occasionally stepping outside of it to overhear conversations. Despite the format being mostly casual and calm, there is still a pressing sense of drama and conflict we keep coming back to. And when we do get “the breather” in between, it’s a welcome change until going right back to where we started.

This is because the show stands on its own two feet in the dialogue department to get their point across and let things flow naturally. No big pizzazz or flashiness, just saying what it needs to say.

And if you insist on the superb audio editing part of this, I’d say Hadron Gospel Hour is always an recommendation, as well as defining the even blend of episodic with tension combination. 

Gospel Hour is a sci-fi comedy with multiple unrelated cutaway gags and strange characters that have events in episodes that may not always be highly relevant to the next. But this has yet to cripple the storytelling since there are always connecting threads our protagonists go back to that develop their backstory or truly emphasize the dire circumstances they’ve been put in, something I’ve begun to notice in later episodes. 

And if you’re still concerned about arcs, The Once and Future Nerd has the decency to have well established and satisfying beginnings, middles, and ends to each chapter. They have a wide and vast world to explore and take any opportunities they can to remind you of the fantastical yet still dangerous and grisly setting.  

And maybe you’re really stuck on the newscaster format. Fine, I like those shows too. From here I’d highly encourage The Bridge: a show with a rather complex world, decently sized cast, and a steady increase in drama that isn’t afraid to step back from the main character’s perspective to tell a complete story.

Sorry to name drop so much in this particular document, though this is a narrative problem I’ve seen so often and so poorly I want to save anyone attempting this style from the same shortcomings. If you enjoy these shows for that exact reason, that is completely fine, though don’t be afraid to ask for something more genuine than just empty world building. 

A good story is what you make of it but a memorable story can be much more. 

[nuttyrabbit]

The pre-boot basically could be sum up like this: Either the character was a ginormous douche, shipping bait, their characterization was slaughtered beyond repair or they were frequently thrown under the bus, usually at the expense of others.

Yup. I can’t really think of a game character that got off well in terms of characterization outside of maybe Shadow later on

[newstfionline]

Mohammed bin Salman Has Thrown the Palestinians Under the Bus

By Dalia Hatuqa, Foreign Policy, June 25, 2018

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met with Jason Greenblatt and Jared Kushner--U.S. President Donald Trump’s hand-picked advisors on Middle East peace--last week to discuss humanitarian projects in the Gaza Strip. The duo then moved on to Qatar for more talks on how to ease conditions in Gaza as part of an effort to promote Trump’s much-vaunted peace plan.

The focus on Gaza will likely raise the ire of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Even before it began, the trip was characterized by top Abbas aides as “meaningless” and a “waste of time,” but Greenblatt and Kushner’s whirlwind visit to Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan, Qatar, and Egypt is happening--with or without the Palestinians.

The Ramallah-based Palestinian leadership has been boycotting U.S. officials since December, when Trump announced he would move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which he then proceeded to recognize as Israel’s capital.

For months, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has eyed the close ties between the Trump administration and some Persian Gulf states with disdain. In a closed-door meeting in New York in March with Jewish leaders, Mohammed bin Salman reportedly slammed the Palestinians for missing opportunities for peace, downplayed the importance of their cause, and said they should accept any deal offered to them.

His remarks, according to the Israeli journalist Barak Ravid, citing a source who was in the room, stunned attendees to the point that some “literally fell off their chairs”--a far cry from when then-Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz threatened to break off ties with the United States in 2001 unless Washington acted to stop Israel’s attacks on Palestinians during the Second Intifada.

Saudi Arabia’s increasingly warm bilateral ties with Israel have not gone unnoticed by the PA, which has also noted Trump’s insistence--from the outset of his presidency--that striking an “ultimate deal” between Israel and the Palestinians would require the involvement of the broader region.

The PA watched in shock as Riyadh gave permission to Air India to fly to Tel Aviv through Saudi airspace and later as Mohammed bin Salman, in an interview with the Atlantic, acknowledged Israel’s right to its “own land.” And while the PA boycotted a White House meeting on Gaza’s humanitarian crisis in March, several Arab countries--including Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia--attended, as did Israel.

Palestinians are no longer the focal point of the regional agenda, and PA leaders have grown increasingly uneasy as some Arab leaders have shifted their attention to Iran, fixating on Tehran’s involvement in Yemen, Iraq, and Syria.

Arab leaders frequently profess support for the Palestinian cause, but Palestinians know that these proclamations are often sanctimonious. Much of the aid pledged by Arab donors for Gaza���s post-2014 war reconstruction never materialized, and the flow of government aid to the region has all but dried up. Instead, the diplomatic focus of Arab governments has veered primarily to domestic woes and stability, regional adversaries such as Iran, inter-Arab disputes, and fighting off Islamic militancy.

Arab leaders “now not only have their own priorities that subordinate the question of Palestine, but they have every incentive” to stop the public from rallying around the Palestinian cause “because they see it as a threat,” said Shibley Telhami, a professor at the University of Maryland and nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Whereas these governments once were able to “use public obsession with Palestine as a distraction, now people use it as a wedge because they can’t confront the government directly” on local grievances such as unemployment and poverty, Telhami added.

Though Mohammed bin Salman has paid lip service to the Palestinians in public--claiming that closer ties between Riyadh and other Gulf states and Israel could only happen with significant progress in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process--he has demonstrated a willingness to leverage the region’s various conflicts and Riyadh’s fear of Iranian influence to shift the focus away from their cause.

Palestinians now realize that they can no longer depend on their traditional allies in the Arab world. The asymmetry of power between Israelis and Palestinians, coupled with the Palestinians’ internal divisions and utter dependence on external aid, has also left them with very little leverage.

One of their last options would be to turn to the international community, as they have in recent years, by seeking to join international organizations, treaties, and conventions as part of their strategy to achieve statehood through global forums or lodging international criminal complaints in the hope that it would pressure Israel and call it to account for its actions.

This tactic has proved successful at times. But the current international climate differs immensely from the one that existed under President Barack Obama, and the Trump administration has made it clear that it will be a strong opponent to the Palestinians at the United Nations.

“The opportunities [for] bilateral engagement to get some sort of recognition of a Palestinian state, which had been the go-to international diplomatic strategy of the PLO, [do] not seem to have as much traction today,” said Yousef Munayyer, the executive director of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights.

The lack of external assistance provides an opportunity to look inward. Palestinians have to deal with a domestic legitimacy crisis: The PA has no succession plan to speak of despite an aging leadership headed by an 82-year-old Abbas, who has been president since 2005.

The progress made on the intra-Palestinian reconciliation between the PA and Hamas last year dissipated after what the PA labeled an assassination attempt on its prime minister, Rami Hamdallah, and intelligence chief Majed Faraj in Gaza in March and the recent crackdown on Palestinians in the West Bank protesting the PA’s punitive measures in Hamas-run Gaza.

Without a unified government or a clear, solid succession process, the PA leadership may very well find itself having to pick one of two bad options. The PA can either participate in a rigged peace process under even less favorable terms than in the past--or forge its own path without the support of Western donor aid that the administration is dependent on to function. This would mean that the livelihoods of 145,000 civil servants in the occupied Palestinian territories would disappear.

According to a report in the New Yorker, Kushner and Mohammed bin Salman have outlined a Middle East strategic alliance that would focus on thwarting Iran and getting the Palestinians to agree on a peace deal. The Saudi crown prince reportedly said, in describing their strategy to get the deal done, “I’m going to deliver the Palestinians, and he [Trump] is going to deliver the Israelis.”

The king-to-be’s comments no doubt came as music to the Israeli prime minister’s ears. Benjamin Netanyahu believes that this new regional reality makes reaching a solution with the Palestinians less pressing--or even entirely unnecessary.

Most of Israel’s traditional enemies have either been weakened or neutralized: The Palestinian leadership has been co-opted through U.S. largesse; Jordan and Egypt’s peace deals have weathered even the thorniest of diplomatic crises; and Iraq and Syria have been carved up by the campaign to oust the Islamic State.

Netanyahu and the Trump administration agree that a deal can be reached by virtue of Israel’s warm relations with Arab countries that will in turn pressure the Palestinians into submission. As far as the Trump administration is concerned, “this is a transaction--you just have to find the selling price,” said William Quandt, a former National Security Council member in the Nixon and Carter administrations, speaking at a conference in Washington in March. “And if the Saudis are prepared to finance it, how can the Palestinians … say no to the Saudis?” added Quandt, who was part of the U.S. negotiating team at Camp David that led to the Israel-Egypt peace treaty in 1979. “We’re stuck with an American policy that leads nowhere, and when it fails, there’s no fallback.”

Palestinians have learned from their past that Arab governments’ support is as volatile as the region’s changing political terrain. Once again, Palestinian leaders find themselves isolated and fragmented while Arab and Western governments ratchet up the pressure. Their choices today are limited: They can end security cooperation with Israel; dismantle the PA altogether and force Israel to take responsibility for its military occupation; or embrace civil disobedience and the tactics of the BDS movement on a national level.

They could also acquiesce to Mohammed bin Salman and his co-conspirators’ plan for the region while focusing on isolating Hamas and punishing Palestinians in Gaza for having the misfortune of being born there--but not without facing the wrath of their own people.