norsecoyote

[norsecoyote]

Some further thoughts, this time on the odd morality of Fargo. Cut, again, for spoilers for pretty much everything.

The fundamental worldview of the show is... interesting.

To an extent, it's existentialist. It recognizes that The Rules Are Made Up, for instance; Malvo's philosophy that "all that matters is what an individual person can do" from S1 is all but explicitly endorsed by the show. Systems, organizations and laws, throughout the show, are shown to be fundamentally ineffective in the face of a single person with the Will to Power, and the central conflict of every season can reasonably be reduced to a struggle between two or more of these fully realized individuals.

The obvious extension of this worldview would be that there is also no such thing as Good, Truth, or Justice in the absolute sense -- but the show doesn't go that far. The most obvious counterexample is the, you know, fucking angel in S3 directly intervening on the side of goodness (and civilization, given Yuri's beast mask), but there are several moments throughout the show's run where it tips its hand.

The one that jumped out at me the most on our rewatch was actually from S1: the rabbi who lives across the courtyard from Gus. It's not just that he's a man of faith (in both senses), it's that he provides a direct counterargument to Malvo's philosophy -- an explicit statement of the power and value of community to keep out predators -- and Malvo folds. The same apex predator who we've seen intimidate multiple authority figures into submission simply by staring at them loses the staring contest with a representative of Good.

We can reconcile this potential incoherence in the show's worldview: it believes that Good is Community. The angel only intervenes, after all, after Nikki's motivation has transformed from exacting personal vengeance to taking out a predator threating others, not to mention helping Wrench escape their hunters at significant risk to herself.

This also explains which characters the show respects, in a way that reclassifies the Sheep/Goon/Sheepdog/Wolf structure a bit. Specifically, while Naive/Effective remains a crucial axis, Lawful/Criminal should better be understood as Community-Focused vs Individualist. By "community-focused" I don't just mean they support other people, but that they support the idea of Community, of agreed-upon (if made-up) Rules that everybody agrees to follow for the betterment of all. In seasons 1 and 3, the only Sheepdogs are on the side not just of community generally but (until Nikki's late turn) police in particular, and the only Wolves are individualist, but the historical seasons -- 2 and 4 -- disrupt that pattern.

The show has tremendous respect for Floyd Gerhardt, even though she's the head of a murderous criminal organization, because she has principles, is focused on the preservation of her family, business and even relationships with other gangs, and is effective at imposing that vision on the world (until, like Malvo, she's outplayed by a Wolf). It doesn't feel quite right to call her a Wolf herself -- she's not a predator the way Malvo, Lester and Hanzee are -- but if we allow that a Sheepdog does not have to be aligned with Law, merely with Rules and Community, then that becomes a perfect description of her character.

Consider also the three different gang bosses in S4, and in particular how much more respect the show gives to Cannon and Violante than to Josto. There are plenty of Wolves (or wannabes) on both sides, but those first two are focused not on ignoring those rules that don't help them but on enforcing a world of order and community. Josto, meanwhile, wants to be a Wolf while also being in charge of an organization, goals which are fundamentally incompatible, and this leaves him looking more pathetic than anything else.

This, I think, explains the show's treatment of Roy in season 5: Roy presents himself as a Sheepdog, but he's not actually interested in Rules or Community except insofar as they directly benefit him. It's an interesting question whether he thinks of himself as a Sheepdog or a Wolf, but he clearly is just a Goon, when it comes down to it, and thus not deserving of the show's respect as Wolves and Sheepdogs are.

Now, a question for discussion: what the fuck is Oraetta?

[norsecoyote]

Five years after running out of steam halfway through season 3, my wife and I finally picked Fargo back up -- starting over at the beginning -- and we just finished season 5 last night. And god damn, what a fucking season of television that was. Some unsorted thoughts, full of spoilers:

***

God damn but the soundtrack had zero respect for Roy and his militia. Like, for a show that has the running theme of "local connectivity getting steamrolled by modernity and corporations" (to borrow @bambamramfan's phrasing) but carefully avoids taking a firm stance on the moral valence of that -- until now, it had made a point of treating both sides in all iterations of that conflict with equal dignity, and the narrative of S5 treats these men as genuine, serious threats -- the needle drops in the last few episodes overtly mock their self-image as Serious Men.

For instance, the goddamn two-minute long single-take close-up tracking shot of Roy marching to the shed, his anger and steely resolve building into the Manly Determination to Do Whatever it Takes to bring Dot to heel -- it's a great moment! And the music sounds appropriately dramatic and threatening, except for how it's, you know, a cello-forward cover of "Toxic" by Britney Spears. And of course there's the E9 montage of the podunk proud boys rolling in to defend the ranch, armed to the teeth and manning truck-mounted machine guns, set to "YMCA."

And I'm a little torn, because on the one hand these moments are both extremely funny, but on the other hand they undercut the villains in a way that feels like the hand of the author making itself visible. It's not at all of a piece with how the show has handled criminals and villains in the past -- even Gaetano's greatest moments of buffoonery weren't actively mocked by the show itself -- and while I get why they made those choices on the interpretive level I don't really understand them on the meta-interpretive one.

You could argue that the show wants to clearly communicate that, you know, self-righteous wife-beaters deserve less respect than even the most casually murderous profit-motivated criminals, but... why would it want that? Did the writers not trust the audience to get that without such blatant hinting? That would be very out-of-character for this show.

***

Sort of related, thinking about the villains in particular and characters in general: this season, more than any of the other ones, really played with the contrast between apparent competence-vs-gormlessness and actual competence. To crib bambamramfam's analysis again, the show generally sorts characters into quadrants defined by lawful vs. criminal and naive vs. effective, in support of the thesis that Objective Good does not exist, and good in the world can only exist when people who believe it ought to make it so.

Except, now that the show has explored and implicitly codified this dynamic over the course of four seasons, in S5 it blurs the hell out of those lines. Dot is the central and most obvious example, but there are many others:

Roy starts out seeming like a classic Wolf: dangerous, determined and calculating. Sure, he's continually let down by the various Goons he dispatches to do his dirty work, but for the first 2/3 of the season, every time he gets directly involved, he immediately achieves his goals. It had me trying to figure out how much of his far-right, Christian nationalist/SovCit rhetoric was genuine, versus the fiction that would most effectively let him manage his minions. ...and then he shoots Danish, a purely self-destructive action. He gains absolutely no value from the murder -- something he could easily have understood at the time -- and if you had to pick a single moment where his fate is sealed, that would probably be it. It's not just purposeless, it's ineffective, and at that moment you realize that: oh shit, he actually believes all his horseshit. Roy is not a Wolf, he's a Goon who's just been lucky his entire life until now. Note, too, the contrast between Roy's defeat and Malvo's from S1: Malvo, basically the iconic Wolf, is only beaten by a Sheepdog, while Roy is captured by unknown, faceless federal agents as a direct result of another of his own stupid, self-indulgent decisions (disowning Gator before leaving him behind).

Danish, meanwhile, goes the other way: for the first several episodes, he seems like a retread of Sy (S3), an impression strongly supported by his oddball appearance (and, of course, by the casting of Dave Foley). But... he's actually very competent! Despite the impression of gormlessness he projects, he doesn't make a single misstep in his actual actions throughout the season -- except for the same one that the audience has been led to make, of mistaking Roy for a Wolf who can be trusted to act in his own self-interest if nothing else.

Witt spends almost the entire season as an nigh-archetypal Fargo Sheepdog: focused, attentive, clever and strategic. And indeed he is all those things; he seems very much an extension of Gus (S1), picking up at the end of that season after he's found his nerve. We get so many scenes of Witt staring down the villains, refusing to be intimidated and only backing down when it's clear his position is tactically impossible (a characterization that's made particularly rich coming off S4's focus on anti-Black racism). ...but, for all that he seems to embody the best of Fargo lawmen, when it comes down to it, unlike Gus he can't actually pull the trigger. It's a particularly harsh commentary, for this show, on the difference between wanting a better world and being willing to make one.

***

And then of course there's Lorraine. My god, what an incredible character and performance; some of Jennifer Jason Leigh's micro-expressions had me literally clapping in delight. For a character who's introduced as a loathsome stereotype of conservative billionaires (the first two episodes feature both her gun-totin' Christmas card, her blithe dismissal of Scotty's gender presentation, and the giant "No" mural behind her desk (which had me in hysterics the first time it was revealed)), she grew fascinatingly nuanced over the course of the season.

In particular, she is the first character in the series who blurs the Wolf/Sheepdog dichotomy. Specifically, she's a Wolf who uses her awareness of the imaginary nature of Rules not just to enrich herself but, like a Sheepdog, to protect a community. The "community" in this case is partly, you know, her immediate family and friendscolleagues, but also the broader category of "women who are victims of sexism." This latter is crucial, because it makes it clear that she actually has a positive vision of How The World Should Be, and she makes several choices that advance that vision even at some cost to herself. This culminates in her final revenge on Roy, which has her forgiving debt in the name of ensuring his misery.

Her worldview, without question, is fairly twisted and a little self-centered, but it isn't one where The Only Thing That Matters Is Power. She genuinely cares, in her weird way, about women who struggle against patriarch[s/y]; that belief is what leads to her changing her mind about Dot. She also genuinely cares about (some) other people, even though she tries not to show it; her genuine attachment to Danish comes through clearly both when she learns of his death (those micro-expressions!) and in her vengeance.

Anyway, I don't know that I have a clear thesis here, other than holy shit what a character. Very likely my single favorite from all five seasons of the show. Yes, even beating out Mike Milligan.

***

There's a whole lot more still to say about:

the central concept of Debt -- I was so impressed with how coherently the season handled that theme, in both the literal/financial and metaphorical/interpersonal sense, and the way Munch was like a hidden throughline for it.

Masculinity (god, but Wayne is a fascinating character).

The way this season, despite (per wikipedia) being the only one with no connections to any other seasons or the movie, is in much deeper dialogue with all that came before it than any previous one.

How the last two episodes retroactively transform Gator from a walking stereotype of a Goon getting his well-deserved comeuppance into -- and I mean this very literally -- the protagonist of a classical Aristotelian tragedy.

...but that's all gonna have to wait for another post because this one has gotten enormous. Hopefully tomorrow.

[norsecoyote]

talking about impenetrable accents/dialect just reminded me. when I was in Milan a couple of years back I was staying in this little rathole hotel and I had the biggest fucking migraine, so I was like non c'è problema I'll just go buy painkillers. of course every pharmacy on the map in a three block radius was closed, so my stupid ass just starts wandering around trying to figure out on the fly if you can get OTC from supermarkets in italy.

I walk into this little everything store (to my foreign eyes the kind of place that back home could sell you a bunch of carrots, a 6-pack of beer, pantyhose, bleach and a screwdriver set) and I see some household basics in the back but not what I need. with the confidence of a person who is only in the city for 3 days because he got bored and packed a bag and booked the cheapest flight available the week before (<= MENTAL ILLNESS), I was like no worries I know some italian, I can just ask.

I grab a bottle of water, walk up to the counter, and I'm like Ciao, hai il paracetamolo? And the guy is like che, and I'm like paracetamolo. Per la mia testa. And he's like che?

This is where I would have said 'aspirina' except I can't take aspirin for medical reasons, or 'antidolorifico' except I don't know that word and I've got no phone data for google translate and also I'm stupid. So in my fucked up leith-glasgow-italian accent I'm like paaa-ra-cetta-mollll-ooo. He's like ohhh bene, bene, and he calls another guy out of the back and asks him to go get something. Other guy then walks out of the store into the street, and before I can be like hey, che la fuck, he comes back and hands me a huge bundle of herbs.

At this point I'm like okay this entire interaction has been a bust, but these guys have been very nice and patient and they're both smiling happily at me because they've been of service, so I'm like ahh perfetto, grazie, pay them a couple of euros and leave.

EVENTUALLY I find a pharmacy that's open, and my head is fucking killing me, and my phone still isn't connecting, and now I have this small shrubbery poking out of my coat pocket, so I don't even bother looking around the shelves. I just walk straight to the counter and I'm like uhh ciao, scusi. And hearing my nightmare of an accent the guy answers in english and I'm like thank christ, do you please have paracetamol. Not aspirin, I can't take aspirin. And he's like yeah yeah hold on, goes into the back, comes out with what I need.

Only when he comes out he gives me this look, and then he starts laughing. And then he pretends he's not laughing and rings me up and I pay, and as I'm leaving I can see him losing it. But I don't care, my head is going to explode, I'm going back to the rathole to close the blinds and fall comatose for four hours.

When I get back to my hotel room I take off my coat and remember the huge bouquet of herbs in my pocket. They smell amazing, and I'm like I'm pretty sure this is parsley in which case I can just get some tomatoes and mozzarella later and make it work. but since I have no idea what that interaction was, I want to make sure. I bring out my phone to get a visual reference of what parsley leaves look like, and because I was using it for google translate earlier I put 'parsley' in the wrong box like a dope and translate it to italian.

prezzemolo

I wish I could have been the pharmacist in the moment he looked at my tired pissed off anglophone ass, heard me say 'paracetamol' in my fucked up accent, and turned around saw what was in my pocket. I'd have lost my shit too.

[norsecoyote]

really digging Firefox's new landing page

[norsecoyote]

naw. i think the monkey part of my brain just thinks that trees are Safe. besides god would have needed to climb up the tree if he wanted to smite me, which would’ve opened him up to getting kicked in the head. if the romans could kill him for three days with t-posing im pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to make it up my tree, which would’ve turned the whole thing into a siege, and i can say right now there’s a 0% chance of god being able to out-wait an autistic kid in a tree. he’s gonna get called away on some godly task in an thirty minutes tops but that kid has nowhere to go until lunch. easy win.

I can't debate this logic it's pretty sound

[norsecoyote]

“Are you the witch who turned eleven princes into swans?”

The old woman stared at the figure on the front step of her cottage and considered her options. It was the kind of question usually backed up by a mob with meaningful torches, and it was the kind of question she tried to avoid.

Coming from a single dusty, tired housewife, it should’ve held no terrors.

“You a cop?”

The housewife twisted the hem of her apron. “No,” she muttered. “I’m a swan.”

A raven croaked somewhere in the woods. Wind whispered in the autumn leaves.

Then: “I think I can guess,” the old woman said slowly. “Husband stole your swan skin and forced you to marry him?”

A nod.

“And you can’t turn back into a swan until you find your skin again.”

A nod.

“But I reckon he’s hidden it, or burned it, or keeps it locked up so you can’t touch it.”

A tiny, miserable nod.

“And then you hear that old Granny Rothbart who lives out in the woods is really a batty old witch whose father taught her how to turn princes into swans,” the old woman sighed. “And you think, ‘Hey, stuff the old skin, I can just turn into a swan again this way.’

“But even if that was true – which I haven’t said if it is or if it isn’t – I’d say that I can only do it to make people miserable. I’m an awful person. I can’t do it out of the goodness of my heart. I have no goodness. I can’t use magic to make you feel better. I only wish I could.”

Another pause. “If I was a witch,” she added.

The housewife chewed the inside of her cheek. Then she drew herself up and, for the first time, looked the old woman in the eyes.

“Can you do it to make my husband miserable?”

The old woman considered her options. Then she pulled the wand out from the umbrella stand by the door. It was long, and silver, and a tiny glass swan with open wings stood perched on the tip.

“I can work with that,” said the witch.

[norsecoyote]

The Daycare

When I was a King and a Baby -- yet burdened with unskilled hands --

My works were wrought for me by giants, who harkened to my commands.

For me they drew oceans of water; for me they hewed forests of wood;

And though they were foolish and clumsy, I’m sure they did all that they could.  

But every slave is a villain, and every love betrays,

And my giants schemed to dethrone me and return to their idle days.

In the dark of the morning they seized me, without any reason or rhyme,

To carry me off to a prison where I languished for time beyond time. 

In that dismal place I grew stronger, and harder, and cunning, and bold; 

And took heart in the secrets and stories that the other prisoners told.  

For a hoary old toddler once whispered, as I lay in my gloom on the floor:

“Even this Hell will be Harrowed.  In time, you will go home once more.”

So I clutched to my hopes, and I waited; I sat at the feet of the the wise;

I sifted the lessons of power from the words of my jailers’ lies.

Then after an aeon, or twenty -- my giants appeared at the gate!

With penitent tears they embraced me, and returned me to royal estate.  

---------

When I was a King and a Baby, in the masterful noon of my reign,

I endured, with solemn acceptance, endless treasons in my domain.

In time They would always turn rebel; in time, They would cast me away;

And in time They would always return, to raise me up high.  Yet again.  Come what may.

I await now my durance with patience.  When it comes, I shed nary a tear --

But abide, and comfort my fellows, through all their despairing fear.  

And this above all do I teach them, as a King in that wretched corps:

“Even this Hell will be Harrowed.  In time, you will go home once more.”

[norsecoyote]

Literally all time fav

[norsecoyote]

cast iron? yeah thats a pretty common spell to learn

[norsecoyote]

[norsecoyote]

I was really confused why Minnesota wasn’t marked, but it turns out that while the Twin Cities are well within 20 miles of Wisconsin, Minneapolis is like exactly 20.5 miles from the border. So, technically…

U.S. States whose largest city is within 20 miles of a state/national border

[norsecoyote]

banned from homeric scholarship circles for calling achilles a ragepilled kleosmaxxer

[norsecoyote]

remember when you used to be able to play snake with the… hold on what’s it called

hmm. don’t think i’ll be calling it that. anyways i was gonna say remember when you could play snake with the buffering circle on youtube but. now i have other concerns

[norsecoyote]

[norsecoyote]

An option featuring a change of literally any kind to Lúthien not included as presumably even the mere suggestion would be catastrophic, overloading energy grids worldwide and resulting in months-long blackouts.

[norsecoyote]

@powerupcomicstonight

do you think the drones club has a spare room dedicated to storing gussie's newt tanks whenever he drops in or do they just keep them in the main room like a travelling aquarium