#up to viewer interpretation what happens next

[hopeymchope]

The Lazarus Finale and the Internet Hive Mind

With the finale of 'Lazarus' now come and gone, I can say... it wasn't a smooth landing. But it wasn't disastrous, either!

They failed to make this land as the all-time great it could've gone down as, but they also didn't completely fuck it up. It's... just kind of a "mid" ending. I think maybe they sped through things a little too quickly near the end and should've considered trimming some earlier content in the series in favor of building up to and closing things down more smoothly.

Various thoughts (SPOILERS herein!!!):

I really, really liked the ultimate solution RE: where Skinner was. Apparently, some viewers guessed it early; good for y'all!

I think the biggest issue with the finale is that Schneider's motivation never gets explained or makes sense. I wanted someone to drop a line about how Schneider never took Hapna and/or he was a huge self-involved narcissist, but I guess I just have to justify it for myself. Otherwise, who in their right mind would find secrecy and cover-up >>> the end of the world, including their own eminent death??? It doesn't make any sense unless you insert the explanations yourself. It would've only taken one or two lines of dialogue to do it, too.

Possibly the dumbest moment in the entire series comes in Episode 12 when Chris is asked to return to HQ to ID a man in a photograph. They find the photo via hacking (i.e., through the Internet) and then they call up Chris on her smartphone to ask her to come in and look at it. Uh. YOU CAN SEND PICTURES TO SMARTPHONES USING THE INTARWEBS, YOU GODDAMNED IDIOTS. It's barely 24 hours before all society starts dying, FUCKING THINK WITH SPEED.

The second-dumbest moment in the series unfortunately comes in the very same episode when Soryu is diagnosed with Disassociated Identity Disorder by someone who has never once met Soryu. I kind of assumed he was just... using an alias, hiding the fact that the agent was also the assassin, etc? But this lady just leaps to "D.I.D." and we're supposed to believe she's correct, based on.... ?????

Okay, the running gag with the cop who keeps being nearby after encountering Axel in the pilot but JUST missing him, and how it finally pays off? DELIGHTFUL.

Much of made of just how physically fucked-up Axel is after episode 11, and sure enough, he barely limps his way to a final confrontation... where I guess he gets enough adrenaline to suddenly bounce around like he's fine? Mildly annoying but relatively forgivable. Not like I haven't seen similar stuff happen in action movies/tv shows before. And I can't deny how cool that "surfing the collapsing building" bit looked...

Soooooo.... does Axel have a connection to the "Hundun" program or what? Feels like a dangling tease for another season....

I'm going to interpret the kiss from Chris as a "thank you" for what happened in episode 8. Otherwise, it's kind of out of nowhere...

I love the final dialogue with Hersch, Axel, and Skinner in that scene. Deep love. Those lines from Axel and Skinner are just... fucking perfect.

It felt kind of weird for the team to suddenly all believe Hersch was going to betray/liquidate them at the end given the lengths she went to in order to protect them as the series was in its back half. "Leland told us everything." Wait, so Leland was NOT going to get the same punishment??? I thought he was a (failed) spy for a totally different group anyway, not for Hersch or Alan. So how the hell would Leland have even known?

I really liked the shared origin of the team, the reason for the team's name, AND their ultimate fates at end of the series.

...but wait, how did Skinner himself survive the direct exposure to the gas when he was right next to it? Shouldn't HE have a similar mutation?

I naturally assumed, given how close they came down to the wire on the first clinical trial subjects dying from Hapna, that the "gas leak" at the airport was a hint to how they were going to fix this: The cure was going to be gaseous and easily dispersed in the air, of course! But errr... no, it's an injectable medication. Sure, this is all taking place in a higher-tech future, so we can accept that production and distribution means had been significantly improved. But taking the deadline down to the wire still means that hundreds if not thousands of people DEFINITELY died before they managed to create and disperse that cure. Which I guess is a relatively small price to pay compared to the billions expected, sure. But... still kind of surprising, and not something that the ending really discusses.

Doug is the only member of the core team who never gets a clear origin, but I feel like there are vague-ass hints sprinkled throughout. Even that scene during the credits of him looking at a rib cage x-ray could be interpreted as possibly hinting at something about him .They'd undoubtedly give him an origin story if they got a second season; I wonder how likely that is to occur... ?

And speaking of those closing credits scenes... why was Eleina freaking out so much over her chair, anyway?

But now that it's over, I finally started looking into viewer reactions. And it is FASCINATING how different communities almost all seem to agree with each other, even if they COMPLETELY disagree with other communities. The tendency for human beings to jump on a bandwagon and blindly join a hive mind simply cannot be understated or overestimated.

— If you look up this show on Tumblr? Reasonably well-liked/regarded, but not a huge fandom. I think that speaks to there being some variety of response.

— But if you look it up on BlueSky? Largely a big ol' love fest! People are really into it and impressed!

— Okay, but now, if you look it up on Reddit? Lazarus is HATED passionately by every single person who posts. They do nothing but rip it to fucking shreds.

God, people. Your inability to think for yourselves is legitimately disappointing.

"Lazarus" absolutely demands your attention

A wonderous painkiller drug that took the world by storm is revealed, three years later, to stay in the body and slowly transform into a deadly poison. Which means that, in 30 days, the 90% of the world's population who have tried the drug at least once will begin to die. In response, the NSA forms a special team of criminal misfits with useful skills and connections to locate the scientist who created the drug. That man, Dr. Skinner, has been in hiding for three years... and claims to know a cure for the wonder drug's poison.

An extremely compelling central mystery/stakes

Increasingly likable, interesting characters with some damn good dialogue and gradual drops of intriguing backstories

Gorgeously fluid animation and amazingly choreographed action

A surprisingly frothy, fun tone at many points in spite of the heavy stakes

A complex web of plot threads leading to slow-drip reveals

If Lazarus can stick the landing in its last two episodes? It will be an all-timer in the action/espionage category of anime. They'll need to stop calling Shinichirō Watanabe "the 'Cowboy Bebop' guy" and start calling him "the 'Cowboy Bebop' and 'Lazarus' guy" if he can delivery a satisfying conclusion.

......but on the other hand, if they botch the ending, it's going to severely damage the series as a whole.

Fingers crossed.

[dead-dove-orchid]

Deciding Moment.

[vivlily]

can you please explain who these horses are????

You made a mistake in asking me, but I will try anyway. This will go over some general things and mainly focus on white and cyan, not so much the other horses.

They are characters from a Twitter webseries/game(?) hosted by @/snakesandrews. Where viewers essentially vote on whatever horse they think might win. These horses bounce around randomly off of objects like a screensaver of sorts, and a horse wins once it touches a png of a carrot.

These horses are typically referred to by their color until they win and are thus given a name, for instance, orange, eventually becoming jovial merryment.

How much or how little these horses win as well as what goes on during a race end up leading to a lot of fan made content. And for the most part, any characterization of these horses is largely up to fan interpretation.

For these two horses, white and cyan specifically? White and cyan and brown would go on to not win one match for quite some time, leading to them being put into a race all on their own. Which brown would eventually go on to win and attain the name Door Knob. Leaving white and cyan in their own little race. With a special little map, file this special little map for later.

It is important to note that these races do not usually last much longer than around 2 or 2 and a half minutes. Cyan and White would go on to race for a whole 7 minutes and 9 seconds. This led to a lot of fans depicting them as sort've not wanting to win, usually because of enjoying one another's company or something similar. I'm a yuri minded individual, so you can probably guess how I decided to interpret it.

As you probably realized, since they had a defined time for the race, a winner also exists. This is where White had won, earning the name Superstitional Realism. This led to a lot of fans depicting Cyan as either feeling betrayed or upset by white winning. Some also show Cyan being happy for white.

It here that white, now superstitional realism(I will refer to her as Sup from now on), would join the next days' race and proceed to not win. And in the next day's race, white would be mysteriously missing. It is in this race that Sup is missing that something unusual happens once the race is over.

Cyan has lost every single race, every single one. This race where Sup is missing is followed by a video in which Cyan was racing all alone in an empy room with only herself, eventually obtaining her first win. But did such a win even count? There was no one for Cyan to even race against after all. It was assumed Cyan would get a name for her victory, but the fanfare screen would simply continue listing her name as Cyan.

People expected that Cyan would finally join the next race proper, only for the next race to be a race between what looked to be 7 distorted horses (6 a form of cyan, and 1 white). Despite there being 6 cyans, they still lost to the distorted white horse, whose fanfare screen read "a Mysterious figure." Leading many to think this might be cyan reliving her worst moments, and more specifically, the moment where she get left behind by white.

The latest race as of this post was with the regular set of horses interspliced with the 6 distorted cyans having a race of their own. It's unknown if this "nightmare" world is real or in cyans head. But one of the 6 distorted cyans does win and is rewarded with the name of Garbage Bin. We then cut back to the "normal" world where Sup remains missing and jovial merryment wins the race(go figure).

Now, do you remember that special little map where cyan and white initially raced in? The "normal" world race was taking place on the very same map, just with more color and rounder edges. This leads to me and probably a few others believing that that last race was the other horses looking for cyan.

My assumption for why Sup has been missing for the last few races is because white had already gone back to look for cyan ahead of everyone else.

As for how the story might end? Well, you can find out both today and Friday as the series seems to be having it's last to races.

Will jovial win once more? It's possible. It's annoyingly possible. And will cyan and sup have a happy ending? I SURE HOPE SO. SAVE YOUR GIRL.

Whadya mean I'm getting emotional over screensaver pngs?!?

Apologies if this was long winded, I'm not used to typing this much and suck at using words. BUT you made the mistake of asking me, dear Anon. Always remember there is always yuri for those with eyes to see. Now go consume some fan content, there's a lot of really good writers and artists out there, show them some love.

[blueanima]

God, I'm very sleep-deprived... But even so, I'm still here. Analyzing 8 old artworks at 3 a.m.

Reading comments on a forum, I learned that the images used for the Zettai BL Acrylic Stands (also posted on the author's Pixiv site) could have some hidden (or maybe not-so hidden) similarities among them. Like, how all the young students have teddies with blue and gray stripes and university students have plain orange ones, or them wearing black or white shirts.

But I noticed that, if we pair the characters together (like, if they were pair of cards), we will find they are natural opposites of each. Let me elaborate.

These two are the only ones holding one rose, instead of a full bouquet. And become obvious that the first difference between them is the bow on the flower (a tiny bow vs a long bow), but I also noticed how the poses in the illustration are facing in opposite ways, with Mind-reader guy facing to the left, and the mangaka's face directed to the right. These differences are equal to the two characters, making them easily paired.

When I realized this, I started looking for more differences in the other photos by separating the boys into pairs.

The obvious next choice was the main couple, Toujou and Ayato. These two have very much in common (long bow for their bouquet, and their faces close to the teddy's head) but they also complement on the differences, with Ayato hidding the flowers bouquet and Toujou exposing all the flowers to the viewer, and Toujou's bouquet bow with a lightly impressed roses while Ayato's is plain. Also, just as the previous pair, their faces are positioned to the right/left.

With these two I must admit that, at this point, I was starting to believe I was reading too much into this (like pulling out crazy shenanigans and seeing things that weren't there... damn all-nighters) but luckily for me I'm not a lost case... yet. Kansai boy and the MC's favorite underdog have an explicit difference, their height, and I realized the way they are holding the teddies enhance this difference. Having Yanagi hugging the teddy and almost hidding himself behind (kinda showing it's very big for such a small kid) and Misato easily carring the teddy on his shoulder, as if it's no big issue for him to hold it along with the bouquet. Regarding the bouquet, Yanagi's looks smaller than Misato's, and just as Toujou and Ayato, their bows have this difference in the color. But for them, one is brighter (maybe pointing out that Misato is quite loud) and Yanagi looks duller (as he normally doesn't stand out as much like the other boys).

Now, up to this point, I think the differences are more obvious and can be easily pointed out. However, with the two remaining characters, things get suspiciously more complicated.

At first, anyone can say it's easy. Like, MC is full displaying the teddy while Hatano's teddy is hidden, Hatano's bouquet has a long bow ribbon but MC's apparently not having one (maybe is just a smaller bow), or even with Hatano not showing the flowers but we can see MC's. But aren't these differences also shown in the other pairs? Like, both Misato and Hatano's teddies are behind them and MC and Yanagi are hugging the teddy (hiding themselves behind it), Mizumoto and Hatano's bouquet ties are long while Mayama and, probably, MC's having a very small tie that is a little hard to notice (maybe not so much for Mayama but surely for MC), and the display of the bouquet flowers being similar to Ayato and Toujou ones.

So, what's happening here? Why would they have some similarities to the other pairs, being apparently easy to exchange with, but impossible due to the other differences that these pairs only have between them?

Maybe it's only natural for MC and Hatano to be a pair as the others have already their clear partner that shares the equal opposites. But maybe, if I think a little more about it and try to interpret it, it's because in a world full of points easily to spot and pair (with MC escaping from them if he wants, as if he was just a false card to complete the pair), there's only one that can be full of them but it's hard to skip, as he always will find him in the end. Ironically, I believe that both having similar opposites with the other boys is the main similarity of their own pair.

I also like to think that (in my own interpretation of the illustration) their poses show how they interact together. With Hatano always presenting himself to MC and MC always hiding from him, Even trying to make another person or subject “say hello” and drawing his attention away from him... unsuccessfully. The last thing I'd like to point out is that Hatano's eye color is purple, so for this interpretation, I'd say his gaze will always be fixed on his "purple target," haha.

Maybe I am, in fact, reading too much into this. But as the night is long and my curiosity is annoying enough to let me sleep, I can't help myself but to stare directly at these photos trying to find any hidden message I was missing out. It's funny to me seeing how much I was able to find just now, even when I knew about this images for so long. Also, I'm still very very curious if this was actually intentional and if these pairs will become canon one day. Er, that's not me to decide but, to be honest, it would be very cool.

If anyone read this very very long analysis, thank you! And I apologize for any typo or wrong-word phrase that this sleep-deprived woman has commited without knowing (english is not my first language, so that's not helping me either lol). I hope anyone find this interesting or, at least, entretaining. ♥

[sunsetsentiments]

am i the only one who thinks that elphaba's promise was cut for good reason??????

i love the scene sm but tonally it's off considering what happens next at the train station. it unloads insecurities that elphie and glinda have that are more appropriately addressed and explored in part 2. we do not have time to cover all this ground in this first movie 😭

and the dialogue,, again i love the openness and vulnerability but it's rly blunt. i like the final cut of the movie where moments are up to viewers' interpretations bc everything that glinda and elphie talk about can still be seen in the movie but through their actions and the editing ((ex. glinda being insecure over being left behind shown through the shots of her waking up in between the fiyero and elphie forest scene)). it's fun discovering the nuances in ari and cynthia's performances,, elphaba's promise also has that going on but it does spell out things too obviously.

i also think the audience doesn't need to hear elphaba make that promise ???? her actions later speak louder than words,, and it's also nice that we don't have to go back to that promise to explain elphie wanting glinda to come with her at the end. it's not just bc of a promise that elphaba wants glinda to come with her,, it's bc glinda is her best and only friend and she still desires companionship. she doesn't want to lose her. we don't need a verbal promise to understand that.

[accio-victuuri]

i wanna talk more about the two bros capture from xzs vlog because i can. lol. and because it makes me think how deliberate it is. the start of the vlog, you can see what appears to be a straight couple. okay cool. then for the two bros, it starts from when gg is inside some building/museum (p1) then you see a close up of him (p2) like he is a spectator, from the inside, looking into that free and open space. next he takes a photo (p3) but you can’t clearly see what the view is. so the narrator tells you exactly what it is (p4) , the two bros by the water. as a viewer, this feels like a story.

xz and his team have always been masters at this. telling a story in their vlogs. not just snaps of xz looking all handsome — there is a plot. some sequences ( if not all ) have a meaning and purpose. i don’t think it’s a coincidence at all that for a 1 minute ++ video, they took the time to add this bit. and the genius is there is still plausible deniability on their end. like any work of art or media in general, it is up for interpretation. it kinda reminds me of his ideal life painting as well. the two boys and the water.

XZS REALLY SAID GAY RIGHTS ONLY. 🏳️‍🌈

and oh, this paris vlog being out a day after wyb was on hs + lots of media outlets because of him being a torchbearer for the olympics — therefore going to paris soon.

plus someone figured out that where xz took his selfie that he shared before is close to wyb’s torchbearer route. this means he knew wyb will do it. XZ went to Orsay to check in at a very niche arcade on the first day of his arrival in Paris, and took a selfie in a toy store. the store happened to be on the edge of the torch route, very close to the street.

dude. what are the chances. was he scouting the route for yibo? i can’t.

i’m done. my job here is done. i don’t even have to try. these things just happen. bjyxszd. 🫶🏼

[shut-up-danny-kun]

I've read hundreds of Star Trek TOS fics by now and it never ceases to amuse me how many different ways there are to fuck up Spock's characterization...now hold on just a minute - this post has a more interesting point than “fanfic writers stupid”, I promise you.

Every time, it's a spin on the massacre wheel. It's kind of amazing. Will he be overly emotional to the point where he's not himself anymore? Will he be so cold it's unpleasant and kind of hard to understand how he's lived to this point? Will he be extremely horny for no good reason? Will he speak in a way that sounds complety wrong?

I chuckle and shake my head. Of course, I KNOW what Spock is like, and MY interpretation of him is the most perfect and correct one. Obviously. He's just a very nuanced character, formed by many people in an unconventional way, with traits that seem to contradict each other at first but ultimately form a rich and unique character that so many people fell in love with specifically because he's so complicated...

Or...is he?

Let's entertain the idea that there isn't one correct interpretation of Spock, that all of these messy bits of characterization are not part of a bigger picture, but...just what they are: a product of many people with starkly different visions, working on a show that refuses to properly develop its characters. What then? Well, then Spock is a Rorschach test. Each viewer connects the random dots in their own way, and ignores the ones they don't like.

Let's use an example: me! In my interpretation of Spock (the most correct one, of course) he is, first of all, gay and on the asexual spectrum, reserved, largely uninterested in casual flirting or sex. When he is interested in the aforementioned things, he tends to be quite ashamed of it.

Makes sense, right? I can show you plenty of evidence for why that could be true. However, in the beginning of the first bloody season, Uhura sings a song about how Spock is actually kind of a heartthrob who likes to drive women insane with how hot he is, and Spock smiles. He smiles at her, as if agreeing and being very amused by all this! This interaction goes against pretty much everything I think about Spock. So what do I do? I explain it away in the most bizzare fucking way possible. See, Uhura and Spock are friends (there is no evidence for this), and Uhura knows everything I've just told you about him (through telepathy I guess? Not like he'd ever tell her!) and she's just trolling him (why would she do that? That is NOTHING like Uhura!). I need to do some Olympics-level mental gymnastics here, the opposite of Occam's razor.

“But Danny,” I hear you say, “it's just the start of the show! They hadn't figured out his character yet!”

To which I say: you can say that about anything! You can blame it all on a bad writer for that episode, and ignore virtually any scene that doesn't jive with your headcanons. It's there, and I can't ignore it.

So...how am I different from the people that want Spock to be thar heartthrob Uhura is singing about? That evidence is as much a part of canon as my favorite lines. Well, I'm not any different, that's the thing. And all those writers I complained about also have a point.

It's kind of a nihilistic take, I know, but maybe the reason Spock is such a cultural icon is because he is...whatever you want him to be: just concrete enough to spur on your imagination, yet vague and contradictory enough to let your brain fill in the gaps.

Don't get me wrong: I absolutely do not believe in this. In my mind, it just so happens that I'm one of the, like, 5 people ever who truly understood Spock (and one of them is Jim Kirk himself). But I still think it's something worth thinking about next time you're mad at a fic.

[pastorfutureletthembe]

I love YINGDU as it is

I don't think I'll read these interviews everyone is talking about :/ I thought hard about it, I've read the general points of it, but I don't think reading them will make me enjoy YINGDU more. Quite the opposite actually.

Me: thank you but no thank you. Later maybe. Love you, still.

I don't understand why they had to get interviewed to clear things up. By why, I mean, this situation is fucked up and I don't get how things got like this in this industry.

First. Can't the fans just wait and see? We're grownups, stop treating us like children who cried to get a lollipop. We'll still be here next year. Trust your fanbase.

Second... in what kind of world were the animators under pressure to the point they created plot holes and new timelines by accident? I'm extrapolating but, for real, how fucked up is it that they decided to rush a show that popular for the sake of airing it early? I'm sorry, was the money we spend on merch every few weeks not enough? I'm just mad at the production, honestly. Because they made a big mistake.

They're rushing in like bulls in a china shop. The character PVs were a mistake as well. They should have been released after YINGDU, to manage our expectations on characters that were yet to be introduced. I used to think it was an actual teaser, a window on how Lu Guang saw them or what they will become because of Lu Guang's meddling with the timeline. Now, I'm starting to think they needed strong marketing to get people's attention.

The whole thing makes my viewer experience less than optimal. So I'll keep writing meta but I won't take these interviews into account. 🧩Meta is for fun🧩, mere interpretation, only fanon, and that's okay. Meta is gamble. Meta is character study and theories on plot twists.

✨And that's okay✨

We're not suppose to write season 3 in advance. So it makes sense to me to keep having fun on what the show and the official content bring us. But as far as I'm concerned, the interviews didn't happen. It's not denial, just-

When I was studying cinema in university, my teacher once told me a very harsh truth: if you have to explain the sequence you filmed, then you didn't film it right. Sadly, in this context, production limitations were at fault but the lasting impression is the same.

Do you realize how insane it is that a creative team has to spell their work out to their fans? How humiliating it must be? There's revealing easter egg, teasing next season, spilling spoilers on accident, and then there is whatever that was. I feel for the creators and animators who worked themselves to exhaustion to bring something as beautiful as YINGDU to life. Because this season? It isn't perfect and it's inconsistent and different but no one can call it ugly. I would lick my screen because the image does look tasty lmao. My heart bleeds for all the people involved in this season.

Meta is trying to understand and noticing easter eggs, honouring the writers and animators' work X

Of course, that's only my stand on the topic. I might take different directions in my interpretation than others, that's all. Aaaaaand? Yes. That's okay 🥰

As an artist myself, I feel like the situation is kind of disappointing for the people who worked on YINGDU. That's why I'll take the canon as it is. I don't want to mourn what could be or should have been. I want to enjoy what is.

Meta is diving in the depth of symbolism X

As a fan, I get that we're happy with every nugget of information on what's coming next. The lore in Link Click is still blurry and while I honestly want to believe it is an artistic choice and will stay under control, I can't help but fear it's the result of bad writing. But. What if it is? Meh, I'm still here, enjoying myself. Because I love this show as it is, I see the flaws and the beauty in it. I'll be there.

Meta is love and each of us expresses it differently X

[zev-rynna]

I’ve had fear of how the time jump between each 3 episodes arc will be awkward and disconnected to us viewers but I’ve come to terms with a bigger picture here:

Before you continue, spoilers alert!

I understand the concern of how it might feel disconnected, rushed, having each year only 3 episodes to story-tell them. But I slowly see the point of the urgency, the disconnect. The storytelling tells the significant part of each year, omitting some details of the more mundane dailies. The nuance and subtle details they show for each arc gives us something to dig and realise about what have changed and how Cassian has grown without providing all context of his growth. The autonomy of “imagination” granted to us as viewers to view all these characters is a space for interpretation and how different people perceive grief, pain, and growth. So each and every one of us gets to insert how we imagined these characters dealt with their pain and struggles which led them up to where they are every time we see a 1 year jump. The lack of context of it all gives us all a chance to wonder, what have they done, what have they been through in those sleepless nights, what did they tell themselves, how did they even get through all those times? Sometimes there isn’t an answer, there isn’t a right way. Sometimes the only way is through. And the “how” of it all, it is up to us to define.

————

In the ending of episode 3, we see Mon Monthma drunk and broken, having to make one of the most cruel decision to assassinate her childhood friend who had helped her through her most difficult times. Then Cassian, Bix and Wilmon on the TIE, leaving behind Bee and Brasso, grieving his death and not able to give him a proper burial, with the ending scene zooming in on Cassian’s face that shows how much pain he is in.

So the next time we see them, on the second arc, it would’ve been a year later. Everyone would’ve had to “move on”, continue with life, continue with what needs to be done to survive. The next time we see Cassian, he’d be different, grown, carrying more responsibility, carrying his grief like a dull pain at the back of his mind. And Mon, unsure where she would be, but definitely no longer drunk, and having to move on from the decisions she made. And Bix, going through the torture trauma and we see her recovering to a certain extent by arc 1, then her SA attempt, and by arc 2 she’s probably another different person, many things would’ve changed.

In the story, it’s been a year. They’ve had a year to grief and push themselves through. But for us, it will only have been a week. Our grieves are being pushed in a way where we carry all those pain with us from each arc and leading up to Cassian’s death in Rogue One. The pain is going to compound, and I think that is the point. That although the characters in the story will go through pain in years, we as viewers are supposed to carry all that pain with us within a short amount of time, feeling the weight of it all until they all crashed down on the moment Cassian’s death happens. It’s exactly what it is meant to do, that we are now living the ticking time bomb of what is going to happen to all of these characters in the show, the urgency of it all. It’s meant to make us feel it all. I think the way it’s being dawned upon us is tragically beautiful.

[otori0]

talent and expectations | arturo giles rant

I was really hesitant to post this here, but it has been a while since I've posted an analysis and I feel like Arturo isn't talked enough, so why not. This was written on a twt thread that was meant for me and one friend so it's a bit messy. Also take into account that we're lacking a lot of info on him so none of this is my definitive opinion and I'm sure my thoughts will change and develop when more DRDT releases. And like in all my rants, this is just my opinion and interpretation, and I 100% respect other different perspectives!

VERY messy, very incoherent thoughts and opinions.

Much like David, Teruko, Arei and Ace, among other DRDT characters, Arturo is another example of a person who closed themselves off emotionally to the point of losing empathy because they dont want to face their issues. I feel like the fandom fails to see this because he's the icky one, the one that makes people uncomfortable. There's nothing wrong with being uncomfortable with Arturo's actions, he IS a weirdo, but I think it's a shame that he isn't as understood and talked about as the other characters who fall into this. I would even say that this is a huge part of DRDT's message. You have to open yourself up to others and trust, you have to face your reality, and so on.

Arturo outright denies what happened with his sister because he can't handle the guilt that would come to admit that he had some sort of responsibility over his sister's suicide. If we take his word for it, his sister commited suicide because of him leaving to make his own life (although I don't doubt there's more to it), which he absolutely rejects and denies to the point of threatening Eden. This comes from the extreme distress the situation gives him. He often shows being emotionally closed off, being extremely evasive of his issues, and a lack of empathy constant through the game that is in no small part because of this. Because if you hate and reject others and don't even stop to consider the effect your words has on them, then your mind is at peace and you don't have to face these flaws. It's like they don't even exist- just like Arturo himself says, they're all below human to him. In return, he seems deeply affected by J's rejection and attitude, so it's easy to assume that he is generally affected by other people's actions, just shuts that down more often than not. Arturo is a mess, he's full of contradictions, but this is not all that surprising considering his life until now.

We know that all DRDT characters are over 18, but Arturo is specifically 18. As far as I know, Min has mentioned being 18 on her bonus episode, so considering a few years should have passed, she is probably above 18, or exactly 18. Either way, this makes Arturo one of the youngest, if not the youngest in the cast. And yet, I feel like the fandom fails to see this sometimes and always expect better from him— which is another focal point of his character, in my opinion, and the next point i want to go into. Just like the meme says, I feel like a lot of people have fallen for the character's facade that's meant to be dismantled by the viewer, much like David's lies (I will keep bringing him up bc he's the easiest to compare, but this applies to many other characters, which makes me believe even more that it's the case for Arturo too).

I believe the point of Arturo's characterization is that your talent doesnt translate to actual ability when faced with certain situations, and also, that intelligence doesnt translate to maturity. This is more easily seen in David and his complex relationship with his speech persona and the world as a whole, but that's a different topic that many people have already delved into and not the point of this rant. (I will sidetrack for a second to say that one of my favorite things about DRDT is how you can make some sort of connection between almost any duo of characters, it's really interesting to me how they're all just constantly projecting their issues onto each other despite how much they have in common). But we can still see it on Arturo, especially with his attitude during the trial when he doesn't see himself as able to save Levi, of course he doesn't, he's young and doesn't have the type of experience the others assume he has. Adding to this that Arturo started studying ONLY plastic surgery since he was 12, it's easy to assume that he hasn't grown up normally, even more if he did actually leave his house to pursue his studies. I believe that Arturo's immaturity (despite his intelligence) comes from here.

Part of me hopes that Arturo doesn't get a redemption arc like Arei, I hope he doesnt get redeemed at all, because a lot of people can only sympathise when a character shows the specific emotions they can sympathise with (fear, sadness and regret, mostly) but as soon as they break that mold, there's a lack of willingness to sympathise and understand them (I have a separate rant on my twt priv about how characters who display anger instead of sadness are way more disliked and misunderstood, if anyone wants me to post it I'll think about it, although it's even more personal than this one). I think it'd be more interesting if he takes a different direction, although I'm definitely very curious to see how will Ace's words affect him in the future, and whether Levi lives or dies.

Lastly, although obviously DRDT is a fangan and not an official game, I think it's important to remember one of the core aspects of Danganronpa when discussing DRDT, which is how talents affect people's lives and personalities. This is easily seen in many DRDT characters so I won't go too into it aside from Arturo. We have characters whose whole personalities were shaped around their talent (Junko being the biggest example, but many others come to mind), and I believe Arturo is another example of this that goes unnoticed. Veronika herself has theorized that Arturo's initial slight aversion towards ugliness, before it was an actual issue, was worsened by his talent. Obviously Veronika isn't Arturo, but judging by his reaction and her talent to pinpoint people's deepest issues, we can assume this is true to an extent. This also connects to Arturo's quote about Mai: ''A girl who sees the beauty in everyone''. So there's definitely more to his personality than meets the eye, and as ''weird'' (i hate the use of that word esp in fandom spaces) as he is, I don't think he's all that worse or hard to comprehend than the rest.

My original rant stopped here so I don't really know how to end it. But I hope it was interesting!

[blugerine]

I’m just now realizing the geniusness of the dance scene in season 2 and how taking a “comedy” show seriously reveals so many new things about it.

NOTE: I have no idea if Neil Gaiman wrote this scene with the intention of it being interpreted in this way, but I really think it sheds so much light on why Aziraphale and Crowley’s relationship seems like it went nowhere but downhill ever since season 1.

I feel like because New Omens is marketed as a “comedy show”, viewers usually go in with the intention not to take things too seriously (except for the more emotional beats that are signaled by somber music and intense acting *cough cough*), but as a result of that, we (or at least, I did) missed out on seeing some scenes differently because we originally wrote it off as “just a silly bit”. I definitely did that during the scene where Crowley performs the “apology dance” in front of Aziraphale because he left him alone to take care of Gabriel. I kept thinking about that scene over and over again in my head because it always seemed much more intentionally childish to me than any other goofy scene we see the husbands get up to in season 2 and even in season 1, and I just realized now a reason why that might be the case.

When Crowley comes back to the shop and has to apologize to Aziraphale, the first words that come out of his mouth are “I’m back”, and both him and Aziraphale know those words aren’t enough for Aziraphale to take him back, so what’s the next best thing? The apology dance! When Crowley initially resists the idea of performing the apology dance, Aziraphale reminds him that he’s done the apology dance numerous times in the past, listing all the specific years over the centuries to really get his point across until Crowley relents. After Crowley begrudgingly finishes the silly dance, the audience share a good laugh, Aziraphale is content enough to accept him back, and the fight they just had all seems so “stupid” now in comparison to the bigger fish they have to fry.

Now, what’s the problem in this scene? Or rather, why is this scene such a big deal in regards to why they broke up at the end of season 2? That’s because it’s, again, another example of how they always DANCE (quite literally) around the actual problems in their relationship that result in them constantly breaking up. And this has been happening for CENTURIES, time and time again, they always default to pushing their problems under the rug, letting bygones be bygones. They believe they’re forgiving and forgetting, but as Aziraphale keeps recounting all the years he’s done the apology dance, it’s very clear that they’ve actually never forgotten any of those previous instances of frustration and words of venom they’ve hurled at each other. Instead, they’ve opted to pretend they’re over it, onto “bigger and better” things to do as a distraction. The only time they start conveniently bringing up past wounds is when they have YET ANOTHER breakup scene.

The dance is performed so childishly because of the childish way they deal with the problems that arise in their relationship. Despite knowing very intricately about the infinite vastness of the universe, of mankind’s greatest strengths and weaknesses, they were not made to view themselves as having human emotions, and they were not trained to make compromises that did not threaten their very existence. Crowley and Aziraphale both started as angels, and Crowley wanted God to compromise with him about keeping the universe around for more years than She had planned. But God doesn’t take suggestions, so Crowley’s angelic status was quite literally burned from him as he was sent down to Hell, which traumatized him greatly, and made Aziraphale exist in fear of the divine punishment that came to those who disobeyed God.

As such, Aziraphale and Crowley have so little understanding of how to compromise in a healthy manner, because the first time one of them tried to do it, it ended terribly for both of them, and they subconsciously vowed never to do it again. That’s why, when one of them wants to apologize, it’s almost like a child’s idea of what one is. There’s no addressing of why Crowley’s so desperate to abandon everything and run away, or why Aziraphale is so adamant on staying, even when it clearly hurts him to do so. There’s NO reasoning or compromise. There’s NO talk other than “I was wrong, you were right”. It’s either your side or my side, or we never see each other again.

Aziracrow represents a very realistic on-and-off relationship, where two broken and codependent individuals cannot compromise for fear of divine punishment or even just fear of losing the one that means the most to them. And their little dance? It’s just one of the many times they’ve tried to ignore their very real and important relationship (and character) issues, and it just continues to rot away their relationship time and time again. It’s like putting a bandaid over an infection, but they’re both immortal and everything’s working against them to actually work on healing that infection from the inside out.

So yeah, the dance scene is fucking brilliant because no one saw that coming until you actually finish season 2 and think back on it. Again, maybe I’m just being delusional reading into a scene that wasn’t a big deal, but if Neil did write it with this intention, then I think the way he disguises meaningful insights into broken relationships, tortured characters, and religious trauma through the use of comedy to be really. fucking genius.

And really sad.

I think I might cry a bit after this actually.

(Also, hello, I still have no idea how to use tumblr 💀)

Edit: Just made a couple clarifications here and there! Also, thank you so much for all the positive reception 😭!!! Reading all your reblogged tags gives me so much serotonin agsjdgs it feels so nice being in this fandom so far ❤️

[rowaelinscourt]

Rowaelin Month: PROMPT LIST

HERE IT IS! The Rowaelin Month 2024 Prompt List! We're so excited to spend the entire month of September celebrating our favorite Fireheart and Buzzard! By popular demand, we're posting the list early this year to give everyone plenty of time to plan and work on their lovely creations!

We’ve included a handy calendar image for you all, but if for any reason the image isn’t working or is hard to read, the full list is written out below the cut.

Please Remember:

1. Participation every day is not a requirement! You can create submissions for as few or as many of the listed prompts as you like! 

2. Please remember to tag your creations with #rowaelinmonth so people following the tag can find your works and give us a mention @rowaelinscourt so we can reblog it!

3. Please remember that all works MUST have appropriate tags/or content warnings. NSFW content is welcome, but MUST be tagged clearly and hidden below a ‘Read More’ cut. We want everyone to have a fun and safe time engaging with content!

4. All genres of work are welcome, but please note any major warnings at the top of the work so that readers or viewers can have some idea of what to expect. 

5. Canon week will be September 15th through the 21st ( indicated by the green squares on the calender/prompts marked with C on the prompt list below. As well as a special canon day on the 30th to end the event. While we encourage Canon Week prompts remain specifically for canon scenarios, remember that any and all prompts are welcome to be interpreted as a canon/canon inspired setting as well. With creativity and imagination, the possibilities are limitless!

6. Any kind of fanwork can be submitted for this event so long as it can be applied to the prompt. Fanfiction, fanart, headcanons, playlists or anything else you can think of! There are no requirements and you can submit multiple works for the same prompt if you so wish! 

HAPPY CREATING AL!

- Your Friendly Rowaelin Month Admin Team

2024 Prompts List

1. Long Distance Surprise 

2. Spies / Heist

3. Idiots in Love 

4. Accidental Nude

5. Birthdays 

6. Misunderstanding Leading to Disaster

7. All Dressed Up 

8. Ocean/Beach

9. Meet Ugly

10. Concert/Music Festival

11. Song fic

12. “But Daddy I Love Him!” / Forbidden Love

13. Rowaelin finding out they’re pregnant 

14. Survival

15. C: What if...?

16. C: Opening of the library or royal theater

17. C: Hobbies

18. C: Anniversary 

19. C: A day with the kids

20. C: Nature

21. C: What happens next?

22. Performers

23. Second Chance Romance

24. Family

25. Strangers on a train

26. Matching Tattoos

27. Single Parent

28. Eloping

29. Percy Jackson / Star Wars / Barbie & Ken au 

30. C: Alternate/Missing Scene from Canon

[samsayswhatever]

On Saxloch and Consent

A continued response to this anon inbox message.

The Threesome has made a lot of viewers question Saxon's consent.

But there isn't ANY explicit verbal consent from ANY of them, and they are ALL drunk and high. So due to the inebriation, I think none of them could technically consent, but that doesn't mean there is a perpetrator.

However, I think Chloe is slightly more responsible since she bought the drugs and discussed wanting a foursome many scenes earlier. She was the one who wouldn't take no for an answer when Saxon denied the drugs, and she is the one who started the "do it!" chant until he took the drugs. But Saxon wasn't very drunk at that point, and Chloe doesn't have much power over him. He could have said no to the drugs.

Despite not knowing if there was initial consent, I actually think there are a lot of signs of possible continued consent between them throughout the night: The high five, the third kiss, locking eyes with Loch as he cums etc. I agree that Saxon's initial enthusiastic consent isn't shown, so there is no way to know for sure what happened off screen, as you said anon.

However, Saxon also previously discussed wanting Loch to fuck Chloe, and his position of power as an older brother is still in play. I agree with you anon that Lochlan has the least power in the situation as a new adult and an underage drinker. But again, as I mentioned in the post linked above, the "happy = villian" theme pops up again because he's so smiley as he jacks him off, and that messes with peoples initial interpretations of Loch's innocence.

Anon, the way I see it is the show isn't completely disinterested in the concept of consent. The conversation about consent between Belinda and Pornchai was wonderfully refreshing. She was talking openly about consent at stages far removed from the act of sex, like it should be in real life!

However, for this threesome, I think the writers purposely left out the explicit consent. If there was a moment in their memories where they both said, "I really want to fuck you," I think it would have been unrealistic because they aren't at the point where they can verbalize their desires. This isn't to say that they DIDN'T say exactly that, but to say that it wasn't a part their memories focused on. All of the scenes shown were the ones that ran through their heads when they were remembering the night for the first time. And since both of them are freaking out about whether they actually sexually desire their brother, I think they are still in denial about their consent, and therefore actively blocking out and ignoring memories that would reveal the true level of their desire.

The "You guys forced me" is an interesting line that relates to this. I don't think Saxon blames Loch at all, but I can see why he blames Chloe and Chelsea in that convo. He starts to blame the threesome on Chelsea for not sleeping with him, which is stupid, but he's lashing out at everyone to avoid the blame himself. He's freaking out because he knows what he did was wrong, and want's it to be someone else's fault so he doesn't have to confront his true desires. But, as Chloe said, she didn't make Loch do anything. Yeah, she may have pushed the drugs on Saxon, but as Chelsea said, "there's no drug in the world that would make me get with my brother."

The "you guys forced me" is another example of how Saxon avoids "i" statements when he's lying. Like when he says, "We both blacked out" instead of "I blacked out." He wants it to be true so bad, but even he doesn't believe it enough to identify with the lie. So after Chloe and Chelsea gave such strong statements, he has no one else but to blame but himself.

--

I think the show is interested in exploring this more, but I'm also afraid that it won't be enough to change the "Lochlan is evil" mindset some people have adopted. I think the next episode will focus on both of them confronting that they did did something wrong.

Lochlan will likely blame himself because Saxon ignored him, and he'll spiral in the monastery about messing up his relationship with his brother, but I don't think he's going to admit it to piper. He might think telling her means he will lose her too.

Saxon will likely progress in the stages of grief, and dance between anger, bargaining, and depression. He'll possibly do something stupid or reckless to distract himself from his thoughts because he has been taught that even saying the word "genitals" is bad. So the weight of what he's done is going to be so much worse.

[angelinthefire]

Montage and "Cocktail Molotov" pt 1

I think montages sometimes get a bad rap. They're often associated with speeding through a character's training in sports movies or whatever. But when the technique originated with Sergei Eisenstein in the 1920s, it was groundbreaking.

The idea is that by placing unrelated shots next to each other, the viewer makes connections that they would not have made otherwise. It adds meaning and evokes emotion.

"Cocktail Molotov" is a great example of a well-done montage, I think for a couple of reasons.

The scene itself consists of intercutting between Vi fighting in the ring, and Vi spiralling outside of the ring. Creating the sense that her life is a fight, and one that she's losing.

But I actually want to focus on something more specific: shots of coins spinning.

After Vi's initial reintroduction, the bag of money dropping on the table and coins spilling out is the first shot. It really gets the montage going. So it must be important, right? But why would that be if all it's supposed to represent is money?

There's four shots of the coins. here they are in context.

1: the shot takes us from Vi in the ring to Vi at the bar.

2: the shot connects Vi fighting in the ring with her opponents hitting the ground.

3. The shot interrupts a different shot of Vi passing out drunk at the bar.

4. The shot of the spinning coin finally dropping connects Vi looking in the mirror to Vi punching her reflection.

Those four instances invite different interpretations, that build on each other.

In the first instance, there's a straightforward narrative interpretation. Vi fights, she gets paid, she goes drinking.

In the second instance, taken in isolation the implication is that Vi is getting paid for winning fights. But we already knew that, so why include it? There's something else going on.

In the third instance, taken in isolation it might mean that Vi is spending all her money on drinking. But that's not really the main story here. The coins are definitely more abstract at this point. You start making connections between the image and what it evokes, not what it literally is. Spinning thoughts, spinning in place.

In the fourth instance, it's clearly supposed to be more abstract. The coin stops spinning, and drops. Like a thought dropping, like something breaking, something collapsing. It's Vi not being able to take it.

That's what montage does, it creates symbolism through juxtaposition. And in a lot of cases, like here, through repetion. The role of repetition is also really important in this segment, there's a lot of repeating shots, and each one adds an additional lay of meaning.

And then that meaning can be read backwards too. By the fourth time they appear, the coins are clearly symbolic, but did they ever just represent money? No, it was always Vi's consciousness, how she has the same thoughts spinning in her head that keep going around.

In addition, a great detail that's hard to pick up when watching the show at normal speed, is what's on the coin.

It's the events around the bombing of the council chamber that are haunting Vi. The whole story starts with the coins, spinning, like Vi is turning events around in her head, Jinx firing on the council, killing Caitlyn's mother, everything that happened after. It's always there throughout, spinning in her head.

I think it's significant that just before the final bit with the coin, Vi is shown being taken home by Loris, and we see that the Kiramman banner is hanging in the street outside Vi's apartment. So this is something that she really cannot escape.

She's trying to escape into fighting and drinking, but she's paid in these coins, and the Kiramman banner hangs outside her door. It's always there. Like she's trapped, in a pit, in a prison cell.

And that's what the lyrics of the song say as well:

So lock me up, I cannot take it / Lock me up, I've already lost / Lock me up, I've gone and jinxed it / Hold my cocktail Molotov

She was in prison for so long, and she's back to feeling like she's locked up.

[askablindperson]

/Question: I tend to use several languages, (several non-Latin alphabet languages), and i was wondering how screen readers work with them (like what happens if it meets a Chinese/Japanese character? What about a heavy diacritic language like Vietnamese? What if it meets French, will it read it like its English etc;)

If making image descriptions and my intentions are "I'm going to use my own language in this piece of art, and my viewers aren't supposed to know what I drew here", how should I go about doing it, so that I don't have to translate it into English while still being accessible?

Hi! These are great questions. Thank you for asking.

So most screen readers have a setting that can be toggled called “automatic language detection“ or similar. As the name implies, turning the setting on will mean that your screen reader will do its best to automatically detect language changes and read them in that language.

However, this happens with varying degrees of success. With other languages that use the Roman alphabet, this is quite tricky, and whether it will get the language right can be hit or miss. I once was taking a psychology exam in college where the screen reader insisted that segments of the document were supposed to be read in French when they were very much in English. Most of the time though, because guessing the language in the Roman alphabet can be dicey, the screen reader will usually default to reading it in whatever language the user currently has the screen reader set to. So most of the time when I encounter Spanish or French online, my screen reader will generally try to pronounce it like English because I have mindset to English.

For this reason, most of the time if a blind person is intentionally trying to read a different language in the Roman alphabet, they will switch voice profiles to one specifically designed for the second language They are switching to and toggle back-and-forth as needed. A number of bilingual blind people will have shortcuts set up for this so they can switch quickly and easily. There are ways to make it more seamless with Roman alphabet based languages, but usually this involves marking up/tagging for the language, which is something you can do in a document but not so easily on social media. I don’t know too much about how that process works though since I don’t personally read any other Roman alphabet based languages and I am also admittedly not that knowledgeable about the technical weeds.

However, for character based languages or languages that use a different alphabet in general, automatic language detection is usually much more successful. On my iPhone using voiceover, I tend to keep this feature turned on, because it does a pretty good job of Never switching when it’s not supposed to with the Roman alphabet And switching pretty seamlessly when encountering languages that do not use the Roman alphabet. Most of the time, I can read one sentence in English and the next sentence in Japanese without much issue.

Although, with Japanese in particular, it can be hit or miss whether the screen reader will interpret a kanji as Chinese or Japanese, so if I’m deliberately trying to read Japanese specifically or I encounter Japanese text online that I want to read better, I will switch to the Japanese voice profile to manually flip it over to full Japanese. I have my preferred Japanese voice profile set up as a shortcut so I can easily switch quickly when I want to without going all the way into settings.

As for how you should handle these image descriptions, the best practice for this is usually the same best practice for captions: if a non-disabled person who knows the language would be able to read it, then the disabled person who knows the language should also be able to read it, so your image description should include the text in the language that it is written in the image. If the text on the image isn’t also translated into English, then the text in the image description shouldn’t be translated into English either. This means that only blind people who also know the language in the image will be able to read it, just like how only sighted people who know the language will be able to read it in the image.

And, if a blind person reading that image description does know that language, if their screen reader doesn’t do a good job of automatically language switching to pronounce the words correctly, then they as the user can change their voice profile to the language in question, so I wouldn’t worry too much about whether it’ll be readable. As long as it is still in plane text, a blind person who knows that language should be able to read it if they want to.

I hope this helps! That is a very great question.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

your “sentimonsters vs tropes” post made me realize how sentimonsters don’t work as a metaphor for marginalized people despite what other people say, because even if it was intentional, the show doesn’t acknowledge the fact that the majority of them get killed by the heroes, including Adrien and Felix (who are part of their race). Honestly, it makes me wonder if Miraculous ever did some sort of allegory right at all

(Post in question)

Before we get into it, I wanted to quickly define allegory in case that's a new or forgotten term for anyone as it's hardly common parlance:

An allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory throughout history in all forms of art to illustrate or convey complex ideas and concepts in ways that are comprehensible or striking to its viewers, readers, or listeners.

In the linked post, I chastised canon for not using the sentikids to say anything about personhood or self worth. While I stand by that, I will also give canon credit for the fact that sentimonsters as a race are not presented as a clear allegory for anything. The sentimonsters that weren't meant to be equal to humans are just worthless akuma knockoffs created to act as canon fodder. The human-equivalent sentimonsters are basically perfect humans who happen to have remote controls. You are never supposed to think about the implications of that frankly bizarre difference. There is not meant to be a deeper message and that's the right call because, when you look at the setup we just went over, you quickly realize canon didn't set itself up to make the sentimonster race an allegory for anything but eugenics.

While you can argue that canon is eugenics apologia, that is very clearly not intentional. I don't worry about kids walking away thinking eugenics are good because you only get that as a takeaway if you're actively searching for a message in canon's writing. There is no on-screen discussion of which sentimonsters are okay to kill or any other type of blatant allegory for eugenics. If eugenics = good is the intended message, then it's incredibly subtle.

While plot-level* allegory can be subtle, that tends to be rare in family-oriented media as the point of allegory is to convey a message. If no one is picking up on the message, then you've failed to make your point. That's why no one is watching Zootopia or Elemental and walking away asking, "Huh, I wonder what that film was trying to teach kids?"

Miraculous doesn't have anything that stands out as a clear allegory like I'd expect if the intent was to use allegory to teach kids something. I'd normally say that means there was no intentional allegory in the show, but we have straight up insane statements from the writers like this one about the season five final:

In the next scene, we can see Marinette taking the miraculous that have been standardized and industrialized by Gabriel and putting them back in shape. The writers specify that this is a parable about craftsmanship vs industrial production. The miraculous will now be adapted to every person, but we can’t see what they look like just yet! In this new world, the powers are all shared, among people who they trust and know will work for the common good.

Did anyone get this from the show? I certainly didn't. With the writers making statements like this, who even knows what messages they're trying to send. Between this and the reveal that Lila learned about Gabriel by reading Nathalie's lips in the season four final, I've given up trying to figure out what these loons are doing with their wacky storytelling. It's always fascinating to hear them talk about the story they think they've told versus what the average viewer came away thinking. I have never once seen a fan get the Lila thing. Everyone I've seen thought she was just evilly enjoying Nathalie's suffering, but it's pretty clear that the writers are quite proud of this and think it was a great choice! You know what would have been an even better choice? Letting Lila read lips at any point before or even after that scene to establish this is a skill she has. That's basic setup and payoff! Storytelling 101!

*As a quick clarification, when I said "plot-level allegory" that was me trying to find a term to convey the sort of high-level, in-your-face allegory writers use when actively trying to clearly convey a message to the audience. There are lots of works that have no obvious allegory, but actually contain subtle allegory for those who enjoy analysis or a select group that's in the know. Something the author had fun playing with, but doesn't expect the audience to get.

An example of more subtle allegory that comes to mind is The Little Mermaid. There are many valid queer readings of both the original story and the popular Disney film, especially since the book was written by an openly bisexual man after a man he loved got engaged to a woman and one of the movie's producers/major creative influences was an openly gay man. These fact have lead many to argue that the stories were always meant to be about queer acceptance on some level as opposed to the stories simply being ones that can be used to discuss that topic in spite of the author never intending that. (Which doesn't invalidate the value of a reading, btw. As far as I'm concerned, author intentionality only matters in very specific types of discussion. Most of the time, I'm a death-of-the-author girl.)

However, even if the two works are meant to be an allegory for acceptance of "alternate" sexuality, you'd be hard pressed to argue that the allegory is presented in a way that the average viewer is going to get. Everyone gets that Zootopia is all about prejudice being bad. I generally hear Disney's The Little Mermaid described as a silly fairy tale about "a girl giving up everything for a man" even though that's only true for the original story.