#BESIDES STORY BECAUSE HER EMOTIONAL COMPLEXITY CAN BE GREAT TOO

[2manyythoughts]

Arcane S2 Review/Random Thoughts

Look at them. They're so happy.

Btw I'm not familiar with LoL lore so my thoughts are just as a casual watcher of the show. I'm gonna be very critical in this post. Keep in mind, these are just my opinions. If you think differently, that’s cool

tl;dr Arcane season 2 is entertaining but doesn’t carry nearly as much emotional or thematic weight as the 1st season imo

Likes

• Gorgeous animation I mean obv

• Soundtrack is still pretty amazing (besides my unpopular opinion)

• "What's wrong with my pants?"

• I liked the siblings bonding again

• Timebomb. I love Jinx and Ekko. They both can stand alone as characters and the relationship they have adds more to them imo (doesn’t take away from them, unlike another ship…)

• JayVik is cute. Platonically, romantically, whatever. Their love transcends space and time. They are soulmates

•I liked the Ekko scenes a lot in general. I think he was one of the only characters that felt consistent with how he was in season 1. Ekko, Heimerdinger, and Jayce seemed more in-character than a lot of the others.

• Episode 7

•Jinx seems very alive!! I liked the blimp callback to the first season.

•The 3D, 2D, music, character design, storyboarding, etc. artists of this show are all amazing. I can’t thank them enough for bringing us this flawed visual masterpiece.

Dislikes/Disappointments

•Character conflicts were way more surfacey. I don’t recall any being about ideological clashes, which the first season was rife with. The conflict seemed much more physical than ideological.

•The conflict of the story suddenly became large-scale, which was to the story’s detriment. This is a pitfall of many fantasy works. The 1st season was great because it focused on the small-scale, the conflict between the sisters Jinx and Vi. This small-scale conflict was so impactful because it was personal. Also, we understand it was caused by a larger issue, that being the divide between Piltover and Zaun. We can relate the themes of estrangement and classism back to our own reality. There was a shit ton of complex and nuanced ideas in the 1st season. That the desire to help could cause irreparable damage, that people who seem villainous can make genuine connections (show genuine love), that the wealth of one society is built on the exploitation of another, etc.

•And then season 2 was just all over the place. It wanted to do way too much with too little time. It didn’t have a clear focus like the first. Worst of all, it became a “defeat the big bad” type of story in the end, when the first season showed us that it was never about defeating some villain to end all conflict, but about systemic issues and flawed decisions that are almost impossible to prevent and inevitably lead to tragedy. The story of Arcane was bastardized into becoming a near black and white story, when initially it was all about the grays in between.

• Where did the class conflict go? I don’t agree that the conflict was magically solved at the end by having Piltover and Zaun team up, they (tbf, very briefly) showed us at the end that the counsel still showed contempt for Sevika representing Zaun. But then I wonder if their themes about societal oppression were even what they intended to do with the story to begin with. I think it’s wonderful that we could interpret this story as a meaningful commentary about the oppression of the lower classes (and other things), but ultimately season 2 shows us what the writers actually intended. It seems they weren’t ever trying to deliver that complicated a story. Their main goal was to write an entertaining story about LoL characters. So, I personally don’t criticize the show for this, but I fully share the disappointment. We were at the cusp of greatness.

• I was all for Caitlyn dictator arc but ig it wasn't meant to be. No, she is simply Vi's girlfriend. Vi's girlfriend who is part of a society that actively oppresses/exploits her people and later gasses them (why was Vi okay with that and why was it just tossed aside??).

• Oh boy, Jinx. I was all for Jinx becoming Zaun's symbol but that was only dangled in front of us and not really fleshed out. In this case, it was too much show and not enough tell. Also Jinx's psychosis just sorta disappeared.

•Don’t get me started on the jail scene. We understand you want your sesbian lex (the scene itself was hot!), but there’s a time and a place. When your sister obviously looks distraught like she’s about to kill herself, maybe don’t start banging your girlfriend.

• Vi. You are a fighter. What happened? Okay, I can understand that maybe it all just became too much for her. That’s why we see her self-destructive habits, like drinking or entering a fighting ring to just punch away her feelings. But none of these moments are significant (the first is played mainly as a joke, the second as a music video montage), nor are they elaborated on. They don’t really develop her character, either. It’s a shame.

• Loris or that guy who looked like Vander. What was the point of him? That he was just a normal guy who died unceremoniously like they do in war with no fanfare? Sure, you can argue that. I still think it was odd how much attention they brought to him only to have virtually no impact in the story

• Viktor went from Hex-Jesus to destroyer-of-worlds way too fast and it felt very out of character

• So Silco knowing Jinx and Vi's mom makes his interactions with them in season 1 retroactively less compelling, especially his interactions with Jinx. I'm just gonna block that out and say he got amnesia

•Practically every character was flanderized and not nearly as complex as in season 1

• The Black Rose plot line should've been cut out. It took way too much time and only advanced Mel's arc, none of the others

• Ambessa and Viktor becoming the big bads was really weak. You had an intricately nuanced and complex plot, what happened

• I still don't understand how Viktor manipulated everything at the end and Idk if I like that plot point anyways

• When I watched the ending, I didn't really feel anything but confused and I wished I hadn't felt that. After I let my opinions stew, I simultaneously appreciated the season more and saw more of its flaws.

Unpopular Opinions?

• The opening was misleading... I'm not a great theorist, but I saw the Macbeth, Phantom of the Opera, and L'Miserables theories and got so hyped but none were fulfilled. I'm actually not criticizing the show for this but it would've been so cool to have those elements.

• The lyrics of Wasteland are too on the nose and the beat is clunky

• I liked Vander being brought back but I feel like he only really was there to bring the sisters closer together and tug at our heartstrings

• Characters acted too silly at times imo

• I could hear the sad music but not feel the sadness (unlike season 1 which wrecked me, “ripped out all my parts”)

• I was only slightly saddened by Isha's death. Imo she didn't have that much development so I didn't feel it that much. I still like her but alas she wasn't fundamentally much of a character

Misc

• Damn the shitposters, fanartists, fan fiction writers (I don’t read those but I bet), etc are cooking

• Violyn is still an amazing ship name and I like it on a surface level (if only the characters weren’t botched and the relationship development was as good as it...)

• "Our Love" is one of the best Arcane songs and I think it's my personal favorite. It's just so cozy and nostalgic

[dizaryswrites]

Hello! Based on your last reblog, if I may be so bold... :) Who are some authors or what are some works that you've found rich for inspiration–either within or outside fandom? And what is one element of storytelling that always makes you reach for the notebook/go "wow"?

This is such a good question that I had to sit with (and stare at my bookshelf while pondering lol) thus the delay!

I love allllll parts of storytelling and trying to puzzle out why one thing worked for me and another didn't. Besides character (because that will always be my fave) I mostly take note of descriptions. Physical, emotional, and especially environmental! That part of writing doesn't always come as naturally to me. Plus I can't really picture people or places exactly in my head (they're like vague images and blurry Sim faces) so when a writer really captivates me and makes the story feel alive without being overly flowery or long winded, I take note! Combine that with great character work and you can make even the most straightforward plot a delight to read. Complexity is no substitute for good pacing, characters with depth, & satisfying arcs.

Within fandom there's a lot of amazing fic writers. I have over 100 bookmarks and a TBR a mile long that I'm so behind on. But I picked a few for the very specific atmosphere and character work they create that I liked as inspiration for my current OC project.

Laws of the Universe by @minnow-doodle-doo The tenderness and tragedy here...I weep....

The End of Infinity (With You) by @lurkinglurkerwholurks This fic captures desperation and despair soooo well

Shelter by Ptelea The emotional tension between Jason and Dick and how much they say with actions and silence is fantastic

Comics have art instead of written description so character is mostly what stands out to me. Tomasi's Nightwing run was a really enjoyable examination of Dick and had great interactions with Tim and others. Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen is top notch humor and inside jokes but slips in the most poignant emotional moments that are so genuine. Batman and Robin (2011) focused on Damian and his relationship with Bruce and I adore the use of callbacks to the first volume to show his growth.

Outside of fandom, I'm gonna list some standout and favorite books that I go back and reference for craft. All of these have fantastic descriptive writing and characters!

Graceling by Kristen Cashore - The romance, tension, yearning, soft moments! I adore this romance and think about it often

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn - Vivid world, descriptions, and such fun characters.

The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem - THE enemies to lovers with such good character work, I love the MC and her internal battles

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher - The perfect balance of descriptive but not flowery/too bogged down by prose writing.

The Buried and the Bound by Rochelle Hassan - This trio feels like they were meant to be together, they just fit.

When Among Crows by Veronica Roth - Roth packs so much into a novella, I was stunned. The world felt rich and I want more from these characters

Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia - So much unsettling atmosphere and mystery going on here

[rawliverandgoronspice]

I absolutely love your analysis of the gerudo and Ganondorf because they put into words what bothers me about how TOTK portrays Ganondorf. That being they remove his agency as a character in favor of having some great evil against the good guys.

[Major story spoilers ahead for the end of the game]

At the end of the game, when you’ve defeated Ganondorf, he swallows the secret stone and becomes a dragon, like Zelda, fully knowing the consequences of what happens when that happens. And it’s just kinda left me with a bitter taste in my mouth? In the context of the story it makes sense, he’s portrayed as a egomaniac who just wants to destroy Hyrule. But compared to other versions of him, this one just feels more openly biased against him and the gerudo, with no reason or justification other than “he’s evil, hate him.” As far as I can tell… They never really show us that he’s done anything horrible or deserving of being feared before the show of fealty cutscene, other than not submit to Hyrule, attack them once, and generally have bad vibes. It feels forced how much they want us to hate him and the people who follow him. I’m not saying character in video games always have to be nuanced or complex but comparing like, Wind Waker Ganondorf next to TOTK Ganondorf…. 🙃 Waste of an excellent design imo.

Heyyy sorry for being a billion years late with this ask!! I was busy finishing the game!!! among other things!!! Thank you so much for your kind words, I'm super happy it resonated with you in that way!

I mean, the whole draconification plot beat doesn't really work for me. Like yeah, sure it's sad that Zelda is now a giant dragon and it's cool to have her soaring above your head while you have no idea where she actually is (a situation that isn't nearly tapped into enough in the narrative imo, like it gets obvious way too fast if you happen upon the wrong memory, etc), and I actually think the whole sequence of you removing the Master Sword from her head was the best scene in the entire game in terms of mood and emotions --even THOUGH it would have been so much better with a stronger story and stronger stakes-- BUT. How does that build up thematically?

I think what doesn't work for the Zelda side of this plot point (I'll get to Ganon next) is that... she doesn't make that choice. It's not like she's being tempted by an easy way out and decides to sacrifice herself for the sake of Hyrule or Link or whoever: she has no choice in the matter. Her powers activate (?? somehow? once and never again also, talk about dropped plot threads), she finds herself in the past, is the passive witness to a bunch of shit that only tangientially relates to her --it's like she's visiting estranged family in a foreign country and watch their drama awkwardly before being dragged into it against her will even though she was just trying to renew her passport and get back home (if there had been any callback to her relationship with her father it would have landed better, but it's just completely ignored so vOv). Then her relatives all die or corrupt or something, and she still can't get back home. What is she meant to do besides draconify? Grow old and die in the past? What would that accomplish?? Her adventures in the past are just basically about solving a shrine puzzle with a particularly weird solution --but the game treats it like a huge sacrifice when it's basically her only way out, and she lost absolutely nothing making that sacrifice (and then she... cries about the weird family drama? sure. Honestly I think it would have worked better if the tears were Rauru's, it's his bullshit everyone is dealing with right? He's the one who feels broken and aggrieved by the whole thing.)

So, if we ignore the draconification precedent builds up to zero thing thematically beyond cheap drama that reveals nothing about neither the characters nor the world, I think Ganondorf's case is a little more compelling because he does make a choice here: dying as he tries to achieve his weird lofty goals (and fail), or postpone his victory eternally by sacrificing his objectives but reject death and defeat --while also barring himself from victory. In a better crafted story, this could be utterly excellent and it feels very Ganondorf to me. BUT, my beef with that plot beat isn't that he chooses the second option, making him kinda active for the first time in the entire game (and makes an appropriate hideous smile: *loved* this second one, the first one didn't land for me but this one really captures the ecstatic insanity and transcendance and desperate madness of the act --I have nothing against Ganondorf offputting smiles and cackles when they feel earned, and the Sonia one just... doesn't to me, it just feels like weird rigging and mesh deformation choices getting out of control).

My problem is that his existence as a dragon contradicts everything we knew about dragons before --both for him and for Zelda. I thought the big issue with draconification was that you'd lose yourself to the act entirely, and would become this sort of organic landmark of infinite power and eternal life but without will to act on your precedent goals and understanding of yourself. But the second the big man becomes an evil dragon, suddenly Zelda zips in to the rescue (apparently remembering who you are? understanding she's meant to fight Ganondorf? I mean, this kind of works emotionally as a climactic ending and the power of love or whatever, again it would have worked better in a better story), and Ganondorf is still very much into destroying the world as well as you and Zelda.

Also, he's very definitively mortal (and he has the stone on his head again? And so if you destroy it you destroy his immortality? why???)

So... What I dislike here is the suggestion that he was somehow so evil and rotten and bad that all of these rare moments of interesting worldbuilding and ambivalence gets completely swallowed in the bossfight logic, making his choice (and Zelda's) completely meaningless in retrospect.

also: let Zelda remain a dragon you cowards, that way Hyrule gets any sort of chance to escape and reimagine its horrying eternal monarchy instead of re-establishing it even harder than before!!!

[ghosthermione-reads]

The Golden Enclaves, by Naomi Novik

Saving the world is a test no school of magic can prepare you for in the triumphant conclusion to the New York Times bestselling trilogy that began with A Deadly Education and The Last Graduate.

The one thing you never talk about while you’re in the Scholomance is what you’ll do when you get out. Not even the richest enclaver would tempt fate that way. But it’s all we dream about, the hideously slim chance we’ll survive to make it out the gates and improbably find ourselves with a life ahead of us, a life outside the Scholomance halls.  And now the impossible dream has come true. I’m out, we’re all out–and I didn’t even have to turn into a monstrous dark witch to make it happen. So much for my great-grandmother’s prophecy of doom and destruction. I didn’t kill enclavers, I saved them. Me, and Orion, and our allies. Our graduation plan worked to perfection: we saved everyone and made the world safe for all wizards and brought peace and harmony to all the enclaves of the world.  Ha, only joking! Actually it’s gone all wrong. Someone else has picked up the project of destroying enclaves in my stead, and probably everyone we saved is about to get killed in the brewing enclave war on the horizon. And the first thing I’ve got to do now, having miraculously got out of the Scholomance, is turn straight around and find a way back in. 

The first two books in this series were the fun and entertaining kind, an inclusive take on the magical school genre - the kind of schools where the heroine is a bisexual indian-british sorceress and trans kids just need to buy a couple of spells in lieu of gender confirming surgery. So, a nice refreshing change from the, uh, main reference in the genre.

It also dealt with the trauma of being The Chosen One(s) and the implications of having to fight all kinds of monsters when you're just a kid, and trying to stay alive while the adults around you do nothing. So, while fun, the series always had a depth to it.

The third and final book in the series brings a lot more to this universe, as El is finally out of the school and free to roam the real world. And, apparently, save it from itself.

As we learn how enclaves are built, and El struggles with intricate ethical questions, Novik asks us to contend with what one would do to protect one's children, and what price is too much. And above all, never to trust prophecies.

I was truly moved by this book. I was reading at a coffeeshop at one point and had to stop, and go home to finish, because truthfully I did not feel like crying in public. El, our narrator, remains as wry and sarcastic as in the first two books, but the conclusion to the story is also a lot more complex and emotional under that layer of humour. Besides the ethics aspect, the characters are really well fleshed out and you can't help but care for them. Not just from a life and death perspective, but that this ptsd-riddled heroine, who did not trust anyone 2 books ago, learns to trust and rely on and help her friends in turn? Yeah, that did something to me.

[bigsoftmarshmallow]

Okay, I'm sorry, but I gotta know. Not now, but one day off into the distant future perhaps.

What do you think would deeply touch or even just fluster (in a good way) each of the Dorfs? (Because I'm an obsessed romantic. I own up to my flaws.)

Just something that would get each of them to go all moony-eyed & think to himself, "I'm going to make this woman my queen."

Like, obviously, each one would be different, but I'm just very curious.

Ooo thats a good question! To be honest, I don't see any of the dorfs really getting moony eyed or flustered just because of the core personality of Ganondorfs (they too stony, grumpy, and harsh tbh)

-though I do see Windwaker Ganondorf being softer, maybe a hidden romantic himself. He's got that melancholic, sad old man vibes. He would totally get soft for someone who would tell stories of old Hyrule, perhaps if he saw them make an old recipe or hand make a cloth with symbols of the Gerudo. It would make him imagine a more romantic life with them. I did ask ChatGPT however and here is what they came up with:

Given the different personalities of the Ganondorfs from "The Legend of Zelda" series, each would be deeply touched or flustered by specific actions or qualities that align with their individual characteristics. Here’s what might make each Ganondorf go all moony-eyed and determined to make the woman his queen:

Ganondorf from "The Wind Waker"

Reflective and Melancholic:

Deep Connection: Sharing a moment of deep introspection about their lives, dreams, and the hardships they've faced would touch him profoundly. If she demonstrates a genuine understanding of his melancholic nature and offers comfort without judgment, it would mean a lot to him.

Cultural Appreciation: If she shows a heartfelt appreciation for Gerudo culture and history, perhaps by performing a traditional Gerudo dance or singing an ancient song, it would deeply move him.

Moment: One evening, she softly sings a Gerudo lullaby, a song from his homeland, while looking out over the ocean with him. Her voice, filled with emotion and understanding, would make him realize how much she means to him.

Quote: "In a world filled with darkness, you bring a light I never thought I'd see again. You are the queen I never knew I needed."

Ganondorf from "Ocarina of Time"

Proud and Domineering:

Unwavering Loyalty: Demonstrating unwavering loyalty in a moment of crisis, where she stands by his side against all odds and without hesitation, would deeply touch him. Her ability to match his strength and determination would make him see her as his equal.

Recognition of His Power: If she openly admires his power and ambitions, expressing a desire to rule alongside him and help him achieve his goals, it would appeal to his pride.

Moment: During a fierce battle, she fights valiantly beside him, taking down enemies with unmatched skill. Afterwards, she looks at him with fierce determination and says, "Together, there's nothing we can't conquer."

Quote: "In you, I see my equal, my partner in conquest. With you by my side, I am unstoppable. You shall be my queen."

Ganondorf from "Twilight Princess"

Ruthless and Calculating:

Strategic Brilliance: Demonstrating a keen strategic mind and coming up with a plan that outsmarts their enemies in a critical moment would earn his respect and admiration. Her ability to see through complex situations and provide insightful solutions would touch him deeply.

Shared Ambitions: If she articulates a shared vision for their future, showing that her ambitions align with his, and that she is willing to be as ruthless as necessary to achieve them, it would impress him greatly.

Moment: During a council meeting, she presents a brilliant strategy that turns the tide of a looming conflict, impressing all present. Later, in private, she looks into his eyes and says, "Together, we can achieve anything. I believe in our shared destiny."

Quote: "Your mind is as sharp as your blade. With you, I see a future where we can achieve greatness. You will be my queen, and we will shape the world together."

Ganondorf from "Hyrule Warriors"

Aggressive and Assertive:

Warrior Spirit: Showing incredible bravery and skill in battle, fighting alongside him with fierce determination, would touch him deeply. Her ability to hold her own and even save him in a critical moment would earn his admiration.

Boldness and Confidence: If she boldly declares her intentions and admiration for him, displaying confidence and a strong will, it would resonate with his assertive nature.

Moment: In the heat of battle, she saves him from an ambush, standing back-to-back with him as they fend off enemies together. After the fight, she looks him in the eye, with a confident smile, and says, "Together, we're unstoppable."

Quote: "Your strength and bravery match my own. You fight with the heart of a true warrior. You shall be my queen, and together, we will conquer all."

Summary

Wind Waker Ganondorf: Deeply touched by cultural appreciation and emotional understanding, making him realize her unique value.

Ocarina of Time Ganondorf: Flustered by unwavering loyalty and shared ambitions, seeing her as his equal in power and determination.

Twilight Princess Ganondorf: Impressed by strategic brilliance and shared ruthless ambitions, recognizing her as a key ally in achieving greatness.

Hyrule Warriors Ganondorf: Admiring boldness and warrior spirit, appreciating her bravery and strength in battle as a perfect match for his own.

Each Ganondorf’s reaction reflects his personality, emphasizing what would touch him deeply and make him see the woman as his queen, combining admiration, strategic thinking, and the inherent challenges of dealing with a partner who matches his power and intelligence.

[antivanwine14]

Thoughts on Unicorn Overlord now that I finished, both positive and negative (long post):

Positives

The graphics are beautiful. The models are great and it was a very pleasant game to play in that sense. I also appreciated the fact you can skip the battles when grinding or just doing minor battles.

Game play: the tactics and team building was a lot of fun and challenging. I really enjoyed building the squads and experimenting with different builts.

Characters: I enjoyed a lot of the interactions and thought the characters really carried it. The rapports were good and there were several times where I wish there was more. Some of them were very funny and others really did a lot of world building.

Drakenhold: By far the best developed of the lands. It is a very strong second area to go to and really builds on a lot of things. The story rapport with Gilbert and Alain is actually some of the best and shows a different side of the relationship between Cornia and Drakenhold which I liked a lot. Even though Drakenhold is supposed to be worse than Cornia, things actually have complexity and I enjoyed it.

Negatives:

The story is middling at best. At the start I enjoyed it and I thought the time spent in Cornia was actually decent if not very close to a middle tier Fire Emblem Story. Drakenhold was good and I wanted more of that. Ellheim was alright but very predictable with nothing interesting going on. But then we got to Bastorias and it was literally a filler arc. There was no real reason to go there besides being curious on how they were handling things. The plot in Bastorias was not related to anything else and none of the main central characters really had anything to do with the area. By the time we got to Albion I was pretty over the repetitive story beats (bad person who really isn't SOOO bad and no we are really best friends) and I thought Albion's bad guy reasoning of ‘I did it to protect the church’ was the weakest. I have no issue with him being against you but I almost wish they had just gone mind control on him rather than his weak reasoning.

Also the amount of times a scene ended with everyone laughing was ridiculous and I don’t understand it. This isn’t an after school special, not everything has to end with a laugh. Let there be emotions besides happy. It would have been nice for there to be more conflict in the areas we have been too besides just clearing out Zenoira. Like, if Zenoira went back and tried to take places or something. It was all just one and done and the war was both pretty easy and happy. A big set back would have been appreciated.

Plot hole: Fun fact, if you accidentally missed the Tatiana quest in Cornia, like I did when I went into Drakenhold, you are going to be absolutely baffled by Hilda’s stuff because characters are going to talk like you’ve been there and dealt with that plague and people.

Character design- oh boy is that something. The female design is so unfortunate and what makes it worse is there are elements of good. Some of the outfits are just fine and not all the body shapes are thin and tiny, which is always nice to see. I don’t mind some level of fan service (Hades did it very well) but SOOOOOO many of the women in UO are just designed to be sexual. To make it worse they try to excuse it with Yahna being like I want to dress like this (completely fine, if this didnt mean ALL the witches had to be dress like her) and then the elves can’t wear metal because of the fae which is interesting in concept but why are most of the lady elves in their underwear but the male elves are fully clothed? PS, Scarlet's boobs bobbing ALL the time got really annoying quickly.

Alain- he isn’t allowed to have almost any emotion except mild and happy and that is unfortunate. This is a character who has been through a lot and he should have been super interesting. I know he is supposed to be stoic but there is more to stoicism than being mild all the time. Let the man have character. I almost wish they made him a little more like Alear (good personality, shows their youth) or even something along what Intsys wanted to do with Byleth (very stoic and closed off in the beginning, starts to open up as the story goes along)

Male Romance- they were cowards and very few of the men can even hint at something more than friendship. You can marry your cousin but can barely get anything from a man. Some of the rapport's show some promise and funny enough some of the most random characters have decent romantic rapports. Rolf has almost no connection to the plot or other characters but is one of the best ones. I am fine with not all the men being romantic (Josef's extremely sweet father son stuff being some of the best and not romantic at ALL), but it would have been to see more done with them.

Romance in General- honestly, I know they would have taken out all the guys but they should have not made every character available for Alain. It takes away from their individual stories. I honestly wished they picked a handful of characters (men and women) and allow them to build the story and romance with Alain and allow the other characters to form their own relationships without worrying about Alain. Sharon and Ochlys have something going on and it really annoys me that they can up with Alain.

Overall:

I had fun and it definitely kept my attention, but I don't know if I can recommend it. Maybe get it on sale.

[llycaons]

I'm struggling to find words to describe ninth house. on the surface it's all very well-put together, but it feels like it's missing something

first of all I find it extremely unlikely that a group of the richest white men in the country would be so concerned over their secret magical experiments killing unhoused and mentally ill 'vagrants' that they'd create a whole task force just to prevent that from happening. call me cynical but white doctors and scientists have been subjecting those exact demographs, and specifically black patients and prisoners, to medical experimentation and torture for decades. and they're so so serious that this is NEVER going to happen again and nobody's ever going to die or be permanently harmed by their magic? and this started in the early 1900s? when their main targets are 'vagrants' I just find that hard to believe. maybe in more recent times I can see this happening, especially if forced by public pressure or scandal, but back then? there's no reason for them to really care. oh except the bursts of magic that make people go briefly wild ig

and the people they're targeting are the kind of people who can be murdered and vanish without it causing too much of a public outcry. it just seems uhhh, evil? like it seems evil. it would make more sense if they were actually torturing and murdering and disappearing these people

which maybe they are! maybe we're going to discover the corruption lying at the heart of the institution? but there's one main lethe guy and we get povs from him...he's kind of annoying but I think we'd know by now if the entire house was a lie

slightly related to that, but the story just seems weirdly detatched from a racial and political context even when it attempts to incorporate those complexities. they're using a stolen artifact from machu piccu because they really need it. they recognize it's bad it was stolen but like, they REALLY need it. is that all there is to it? also the writing for her other characters of color seem like....like colorblind in the sense that their identity doesn't actually matter. idk if I'm explaining this well but it feels false and superficial and artificial, as if she's writing from a default white perspective and just painting on aspects of x culture or race

the only time I don't feel like that is with alex herself - I actually felt there was a great deal of emotional honesty and rawness in her talking about her family history. it can be hard to know so little about where you came from

also this IS a me problem but i have to laugh when I remember everyone is like 20 in this book. they're literally in college. despite the more mature-sounding and better organized prose, it feels a little juvenile sometimes. because they are children. danglton or whatever (stupid fucking name, by the way) is a 23 yr old at MOST looking at a 20 yr old and going 'damn...she's just a kid' she's probably been through more than you have, idiot!

I do like alex's history of drug use as an aspect of her character. idk where it's going to go but you don't see users/dealers presented sympathetically too often. alex being like 'yeah just because someone's a dealer doesn't mean they're a murderer' made me be like so true. the fanfic author who made xue yang a drug dealer should read this

I'm almost three hours in and nothing besides all those inconsistensies is particularly aggravating me enough to quit, and the plot is decent, so I'll keep reading, but...idk we'll see how it goes. nothing has swept me away yet

[semper-legens]

136. The Enemies of Jupiter, by Caroline Lawrence

Owned: Yes Page count: 202 My summary: The plague that has raged through Italia has struck Rome. Jonathan’s father, Doctor Mordecai, has been called upon by the Emperor to help treat the victims - but there’s more going on under the surface. Jonathan has been behaving very strangely. And his mother is just there, in the Golden House. Will Jonathan bring them back together, or will his actions doom all of Rome? My rating: 4/5

More Roman Mysteries, and things are going to get dark. Poor Jonathan's books are always the edgiest, and the most melodramatic. That's not necessarily a bad thing (who doesn't love a bit of pre-teen melodrama?) but it is a present thing in this book. We've got the fever from the previous book still running rampant in Italia. We've got a great fire on the horizon. Titus is about to kick off a hundred days of games in the Coliseum, rampant bloodshed and slaughter. And he's getting headaches, making his mood more and more erratic. As the Emperor of Rome, that's something of a red flag…so let's see what happens under the cut.

As I said, this is a Jonathan book, and a Jonathan book where everything comes crashing down for the poor kid. Thanks to an ill-advised attempt to get his parents back together by forging letters from the Emperor, Jonathan ends up inadvertently helping to set the fire that threatens to destroy Rome. It's heartbreaking to read as an adult, because here are the two sides to Jonathan's personality - on the one hand, he's a jaded, depressive fatalist who organises things to work to his best interests, and on the other, he's a bruised kid hoping beyond hope that he can get his mum and dad back together because he loves them. Jonathan's ongoing cynicism about Titus is well-founded, too. The story takes pains to point out that, though Flavia and her friends have found themselves in his favour, Titus did awful things to the Jewish community - sacking Jerusalem, burning the Second Temple, and enslaving and killing countless people. While the series never necessarily comes to the conclusion that killing Titus, as some characters want to do, isn't bad, it does portray sympathetically those who would wish him ill. Like Agathus here, or Rizpah in earlier books. It's a surprisingly balanced approach for a kids' book.

And really, this book deals with a lot of complex, more adult emotions. Beside the mystery Flavia and her friends are trying to solve, there's Mordecai's heartache, Susannah being torn between her sort-of-lover and her family, Jonathan's near-suicidal pain towards the end - all of it is handled with a maturity that befits the audience. Sure, the books aren't going into all the complex details, but they're not sugarcoating or dumbing them down either. There's this lovely understated moment between Jonathan and Mordecai before it all breaks bad; Mordecai asks Jonathan if he's finally bringing him to Susannah, and Jonathan reacts with shock, but Mordecai gently points out that Jonathan had spoken about Susannah in his sleep and that he was waiting for him to decide it was the right time to bring them together again. There's so much emotion in that little exchange, and it's played brilliantly.

This is, however, the book where the kids getting involved in every major event in history starts to get a little silly. Jonathan accidentally causes Rome to burn, all the kids are hanging out with the Emperor, Jonathan interferes in the Emperor's love life…it's justified in one sense with the fact that this is a series for children, meant to teach children about history, but still, if you stop and think about it for long enough it begins to stretch credulity. However, the book builds up to this crescendo. Mordecai is a respected doctor in Ostia, it makes sense that the Emperor might invite him to Rome to treat patients, and the kids investigating a mystery for him makes sense given that he's seen their prowess on the previous occasions that they have met him. It's not so much that it would necessarily break immersion for older or more savvy readers, is what I'm saying, but it's still a factor in the story as-told.

Next, the aftermath, as Flavia searches for Jonathan amidst the rubble of Rome.

[gaykarstaagforever]

New Animation Review

an ill-advised series where I talk about newish animated shows, and will inevitably get swarmed by angry stans for not 100% liking a thing the way they like it.

I'll watch the premiere episode of a thing, then a more recent one, at time of publishing. That should give me a fair view of a thing.

Inb4 "YOU HAVE TO WATCH THE WHOLE SERIES BEFORE -- !"

No I don't. You're just trying to get me to inflate the watch numbers so you get a second season of your blorbos doing kissing. That's not my problem, and is very much yours.

(Also I'm not getting into any associated problematic shit or drama surrounding the creators of these things. Studio animation immediately implies grossly exploited labor anyway, and...apparently we don't care about any of that, because we shrug and demand product-as-escapism either way. And I yell into the void enough about that on here. I'm just going to evaluate the artistic results of the projects with this.)

(...I actively boycotted Amazon for FIFTEEN YEARS after I stopped working for them, and that led to Jeff Bezos becoming a trillionaire while I eat 75 cent cans of beans. In the dark. And most of you just got another pile of Smiley Boxes delivered as you were reading this. So don't whine at me for not virtue-signaling properly about how cartoons are made. That monkey rides YOUR backs, not mine.)

Let's get started, shall we?

Hazbin Hotel

I watched the 4-year-old "indie" premiere, and the 7th episode of the Amazon series.

The design work is consistent and good, and the shot composition is effective and smart. I don't prefer the hyper-distorted style, with its over-the-top character facial reactions to everything, that is going on here. But that's a personal preference, and the show does what it's doing well. Even with my bias, I still liked a lot of the scenes and character designs.

If only the writing were as solid. It is okay, but not great. Charlie as the protagonist is self-righteous and whiney, and I cannot be bothered to care about her. Some of that is because I don't find the whole "Disney princess as Queen of Hell thing" interesting after exactly 7 minutes of that gag, but most of it is because she is a shallow character with no clear emotional motivation for anything she does besides "I am doing this because I think I'm important."

She ends up being the least interesting part of whatever is going on, and that's not what you want from your main character. Also - and I hate bringing this up because it is such a troll comment at this point, but - she is UTTERLY a Mary Sue. Like, hardcore. Any motivation or appeal she is supposed to have is a fanficky mess that demands you know who created this and who they see themselves as, as a person. And I thought that BEFORE I read a thing where the creator got all personal about how that is 100% true.

Her weird abrasive-for-no-reason girlfriend / bodyguard fits the same bill, because she was also created to be just that. VivziePop has admitted as much. Charlie and Vaggie are the two "sides" of her, that are here, and dating. Which is...well. It is what it is. And what it is is obvious and flat.

There IS good stuff here. The other characters, messy demon bitches with messy personal motivations, are sharp and funny and compelling. And that carries the show. And I don't HATE Charlie and Vaggie, I just think their motivations aren't as complex or intriguing as they need to be. They come across as less well-defined than Sir Pentious, a comedy snake-demon character with political pretentions and an army of sycophantic egg creatures. And that shouldn't be happening.

[X]

The voice cast is great in both "versions," and the songs are fantastic. The whole plot scheme may be a little too complicated for the situations and gags, a common problem with "new" Weatern animated stuff that is clearly aping anime-style conceits but doesn't understand why any of that worked (Steven Universe being the most egregious example). Like, I get that you have a story to tell that is important to you. But it still needs to work hand-in-hand with the character beats, and in the end should primarily serve as setup for intereating scenes, be they comedy or tragedy. Think Berserk. Instead, the fun here has to keep stopping to deal with plot crap that is, necessarily, emotionally secondary.

This is a hard thing to nail down, so I'll be kind. But it's still a problem.

As are the random bursts of weirdly regressive politics...?

This is set in Hell, and that always leads to the problem of, How dark do you get to effectively show what Hell is like, but stop before it stops being fun and starts being inappropriate? That's a tough problem (I know, because 20 years ago I did a comedy webcomic about a guy whose brother was the Antichrist; no, you can't see it). This show handles it by nonchalantly dropping in queer relationships and lots of cuss words.

And, fine. That's a solution. But then there are weird sexist and racist things, and sexuality-shaming things that clearly come from inverting standard American Christian ethics. And again, I understand why, in concept. Christian hell would indeed be filled with gay sluts!

But is this Christian hell? It doesn't seem to be. And why, at any rate, would the people who live there care that someone was a gay slut? This is what we do here! And yet they seem to.

The race stuff makes even less sense. Again, sure, racists would be in Hell. But would Hell itself be racist? What race even are any of these demon monsters? It would seem a moot point down here.

These really are minor quibbles with what is, overall, a pretty good show. I really like the musical numbers and quirky cast of sneaky weirdos, and there is some great, classic 2D animation work here. I might watch more of it.

Solid B.

(The title is awkward and doesn't really fit the central plot. "The Happy Hotel" would have worked better, and has story justification. Hazbin Hotel seems like shoehorning SEO / branding contrivance into it.)

[variousqueerthings]

OKAY SO REBEL FLESH/ALMOST PEOPLE

it's got a lot that I like in it. and then it also occasionally undermines its messaging about who is/isn't a person, because those two have humans who sacrifice themselves, but the Ganger Doctor is okay to die (I guess there's a higher purpose, which is the Doctor's jam), and mainly... ganger!Amy who has been alive for months (nine... months... thereabouts) is also destroyed to make a point that she has never been Amy

anyway, will be rating these episodes sans the plottwist at the end, because that will be next time when I yell at things... this time though

sexism rank objectification (female character is ogled/harassed/turned into a sex joke by the doctor and/or a lead we’re supposed to root for and/or the camera): 10/10

sexism rank plot-point (lead female character is only there to serve plot, not to have her emotional interiority explored, or have that interiority given agency): 5/10

interesting complex or pointlessly complex (does the complexity serve the narrative or does it just serve to be confusing as a stand-in for smart, this includes visually): 8/10

furthers character and/or lore and/or plot development (broader question that ties into the previous ones, at least two of these, ideally three should be fulfilled): 5/10

companion matters (the companion doesn’t always have to be there, but if the companion is there, can they function without the doctor– and overall per season how often is the companion the focus or POV of the story): 5/10

the doctor is more than just “godlike” (examines the doctor’s flaws and limitations, doesn’t solve a plot by having it revolve entirely around the doctor’s existence): 8/10

doesn’t look down on previous doctor who (by erasing or mocking its importance, by redoing and “bettering” previous beloved plotpoints or characters, etc.): 7/10

isn’t trying to insert hamfisted sexiness (m*ffat famously talked a lot about how dw should be sexier multiple times, he sucks at writing it): 9/10

internal world has consistency (characters have backgrounds, feel rooted in a place with other people, generally feel like they have Lives): 8/10

Politics (how conservative is the story): 6/10

FULL RATING: 71/100 (if I can count….)

this was actually quite hard to rate, because I understand why certain things were done in certain ways, but I didn't always like it. and also Rory and Amy are both companions, but the action is wildly skewed between them, because in the end it feels like Amy was bound by the constrictions of what comes next

OBJECTIFICATION: I would argue... that there is none. in this episode. wow. I mean, wow. the fact that I think body-horror is sexy is besides the point

PLOT-POINT: I wrote that thing above about Amy and... hmmm yeah. I don't believe in her emotional journey in this episode so much. I don't think her having these opinions, or changing her mind on these opinions so fast tracks. it's perhaps a tad reductive of me -- companions aren't perfect -- but I also don't think she's been characterised that way beforeeee

I guess she could still be quite immature ("my" Doctor is better than that other Doctor), but it just... idk it doesn't work for me aaaand to actually bring up the plottwist for a second, it feels like it's specifically serving that particular plot, so not even this story

yes it's also there to Insert Drama, but it didn't quite work for me

I do think the other women serve better in this story, especially as counterparts of each other, so it's not too low rated. it's just Amy...

COMPLEXITY: It's relatively simple once you get the first five minutes or so out of the way, and then it's a game of Among Us, and then it's big monster person, which I enjoy

I think to some extent it almost doesn't justify two episodes, and not because it could have trimmed things and been done in one (I mean, maybe), but because I'm not always in agreement with the way it did use its time

but that being said, it has some great moments and I think it's underrated on the whole. that body horror! the idea of being left alone to decompose while still being alive

CHARACTERS/LORE/PLOT: Not much in any of this, the main character-dynamic that's sort of explored is Amy and the Doctor in the sense that she's just sitting/standing around and going "no, I know which one is the real one and he's great," which... not so compelling to me, on the whole

argh, but on the surface I'm kind of into the idea that she tells the seemingly "other" Doctor about his upcoming death (not knowing it's the OG Doctor), but maybe it's that I feel they should have toned it down, or had her be on the side of the Flesh/Gangers on principle, but then have these little moments where she shows unconscious bias, culminating in that moment

I think unconscious bias would have been more interesting, considering we have a bunch of highly consciously loud biased people in the room already

I don't think the Gangers have ever appeared again on Doctor Who?

COMPANIONS MATTER: Rory certainly does, and it's a neat continuation of his character as someone who wants to help, wants to heal, and so instinctively sees life and gives that life respect

so we put it at half, because... and maybe this belongs in the point above, but anyway... I think it was a shame that this didn't give Amy and Rory a dynamic, because they're barely ever in the same room. how would Rory feel at seeing Amy quite coldly dismissing the "realness" of the Gangers, and having those attitudes even before the second Doctor shows up?

is that cause for some strife?

“GODLIKE” DOCTOR: there are two Doctors and they're mostly just trying to get away as fast as possible, and it's quite delightful seeing their plan in action. I like there being two Doctors!

PREVIOUS DOCTOR WHO: there's a bit when the second Doctor is trying to acclimatize to a body with memories of... other bodies, and you get a bit of three and four, which is fun

also a line about "let it go, we've moved on," which I presume is about those bodies/lives, but also feels quite... emotional in terms of it being written like that. idk, I like that line

“SEXINESS”: there's this bit where the Tardis is called sexy again, by both Doctors. fiiiine. this rapid moment also includes another bowties are cool, which isn't sexiness but I wish would stop

INTERNAL WORLD: yeah, it's a pretty neat set-up. it's quite isolated, so the world politics aren't making it too difficult to follow what's going on, while still having a sense of the Gangers

POLITICS: so this is messy. who is worthy of life? the episode comes out on the side of the Gangers, but sometimes feels unsure of itself, especially with the Doctor Ganger and the Amy Ganger... and I kind of wish it had allowed there to be human and ganger survivors of the same person, living together, and exploring that

I think there's juuust something in its structure that needed tightening, but I cannot say exactly what -- a bit of the Amy as perspective, a bit of allowing more Ganger politics perhaps

I wouldn't call it conservative so much as... lacking a bit of form

FULL RATING: 71/100 (if I can count….)

Pretty much all covered, but a solid episode on the whole. Loses points on how Amy is characterised and what she does in the episode, and needing a bit of tightening in places

wiiiiins on that sexy sexy body horror! and it's a fun episode, with in my opinion well-drawn single-episode characters! and I liked the characterisation of the Doctor in this one quite a bit!

the body horror of the rebel flesh/the almost people is highly underrated I think

[hekatiane]

I just love Syndra she's my little meow meow Also the little meow meow: *Has family trauma, anger issues, omnipotent power and defies God in multiple universes*

[eternally--mortal]

So I’ve seen a couple comments lately specifically associated with the ever-growing comment chains of @buggachat’s bakery enemies au where some fellow readers are claiming that a lot of us are hating on Marinette.

It’s not a lot of comments, but it’s enough that I wanted to say something. You don’t have to listen. That’s ok. You can scroll if you want to, but the thoughts are here if you wanted or needed them.

Here’s the thing:

When you write a realistic character, or adapt a character realistically from a tv show, there are going to be moments of pain and frustration on all sides. Yes, Marinette is allowed to feel her own pain and frustration, but We as an audience are Also allowed to have second-hand frustration based on her actions.

I’m allowed to like Marinette and acknowledge and validate her frustration while still Also Being Frustrated at her. That being said, I understand that We can see the whole story and She can’t. Even apart from that knowledge, I am allowed to have compassion for her and Still Disagree with the way that she handles things. That is not me being a Marinette salter or me hating on Marinette. That is me recognizing that this very human response of Marinette’s is placing Adrien — and herself — into unhealthy situations.

People aren’t good and bad all the time. You don’t have to love them all the time. And even if you Do still love them, you don’t have to agree with them.

I’m not trying to start a fight, but I wanted to put all of this out there because . . . I’ve read through the comments. And I haven’t really seen a great deal of people genuinely trashing Marinette. They’re just responding to the direct situation with their very-normal emotional reactions. Which is sort of part of the point, isn’t it?

And I’m sorry @buggachat . I know I tagged you. It’s mostly to give context to this post. I’m not trying to pull you into the discussion or force you to comment on it or pick a side. Please continue on with your beautiful life and enjoy torturing us every 24 hours. You’re doing great, sweetie. This post isn’t really for you unless you want it to be. I don’t know. You might not even agree with me. And that is your right as a human being.

To everyone who feels this Does apply to them, I just wanted to say, here are some general facts of life that the world continues to beat into us, whether we like it or not:

Good people can do terrible things. In fact, some of the worst things are Genuinely Awful to that degree because they were done by good people. Just look at Adrien’s situation. He’s seen how Marinette has So many friends who love her. He’s seen that she’s capable of being an absolutely wonderful person. To him it looks like she’s choosing to be a terrible person to him specifically. Real people go through this in the real world, too. When a good person does something horrible, it doesn’t change the fact that they’re still a good person to Someone out there — maybe to multiple someone’s. They’ve just chosen not to be a good person to You. Or chosen to be a Bad person to you. And that Hurts. And it’s Worth acknowledging and talking about. (This is the real tragedy of evil, in my opinion. It’s why children of abusive and negligent parents often struggle so deeply with the question of why they still feel a need to earn love from their parents and whether they should leave them behind.)

People are constantly experiencing growth and change. There’s something great called the Theory of Positive Disintegration that describes the process. It’s super cool. Look it up. It’s healthy to acknowledge that we all make varied choices as our worldviews change and as we experience new things. People we see as ‘bad’ don’t have to stay that way and likely aren’t what we expect. People we see as ‘good’ are not always strictly good. (Besides this, How many people do we call “Good” because of whom they decided to be evil to? Who gets to decide who the enemy is anyway?)

Literature is designed with complexity in mind. Stories are often made with fleshed out human beings. Sometimes stories are written Specifically to show us questionable behavior so we can see the world through a new lens and decide for ourselves whether we agree with that person. Just take a look at Restoration Drama if you have any doubts. Old white men debated for ages about whether or not their audiences were smart enough to notice questionable behavior in cases of, for instance, rape or cheating or manipulation. Did they ever ask the audience? Not really. But the point is that we Do sometimes get suckered into blindly supporting characters without really watching what they’re Doing. It doesn’t mean we’re not smart enough to notice or talk about it. The danger comes when we try to shut that conversation down by Never showing evil or Never acknowledging it when it’s there. —No one is perfect. So we have flaws. So what? That’s normal. It’s human. It’s normal to empathize with a character. It’s ok to openly express second-hand embarrassment or frustration for their actions. If you don’t want strangers on the internet to point out Marinette’s flaws, then maybe You shouldn’t be pointing out the flaws of strangers on the internet.

I’m not trying to attack anyone in particular. Or anyone at all. I just wanted to put some of this into perspective. Some of you making these comments might be joking! I can’t really read emotional subtext on the internet. Some of us are bad at reading it in real life, too. This is just me putting some thoughts out there to remind you that we all have complex emotional lives, and that discussing a person’s flaws isn’t the same thing as hating them or rejecting them or making them out to be the enemy. If no one ever talked about the bad parts of good people, we wouldn’t have compelling stories.

[writingquestionsanswered]

What are underrated tropes you would like to see more in books?

Personal Q&A: Underrated Tropes I'd Like to See More Often

1. Secret Identity - my favorite trope in the world is when a character is hiding their true identity from everyone around them. It's so much fun watching them interact with other characters who HAVE NO IDEA who they're really interacting with (a princess, a superhero, a celebrity, a supernatural being), and waiting for the big moment the secret finally comes out.

2. Hiding a Big Secret - for me, this is actually a subset of the Secret Identity trope, but it's a little different because whereas "secret identity" usually happens when a character is hiding their true identity from new people, "Hiding a Big Secret" is more about hiding something big from people they already know. One of my favorite examples is the TV show Alias with Jennifer Garner, or at least the early episodes. She's a regular girl who discovers she was secretly programmed to be a super spy, so she's off doing super spy stuff in disguise, beating up dangerous villains and risking her life, and then she goes and meets her BFF for coffee and he has no idea she was in Barcelona last night recovering stolen plans for the CIA. (I mean, that's not an exact example, but you get the point...)

3. Beauty and the Beast - I think this trope is underrated because although it's been done, it's rarely done well. Too often writers don't want to sacrifice a "hot" main character for the "beast" role, so they default to problematic behavior instead. And it's so unnecessary. You can put a character in the beast role without having them engage in problematic behavior. And you can even use physical aspects without doing something problematic in your portrayal. I'd love to see more of that.

4. Found Family - I think this one has taken off a lot, so it's maybe not that underrated anymore, but I love found families and would still love to see more. Especially really unusual, complex found families in unusual situations, who forge their family bond while making the best of a non-ideal situation. Strong friendships in general are great!

5. Siblings - I'm thoroughly disheartened to look at my shelf of completed novel first drafts and find that only 4/10 of my characters have siblings. And in one case, it's step siblings. Looking at my book shelves, the situation is much the same with my favorite books. Siblings are so often either missing entirely, or if they exist, they're just minor characters. But I LOVE stories where at least two of the main characters are siblings, or where the protagonist's sibling/s play more than a minor role in the story. Especially when the sibling is supportive of whatever the protagonist is doing and they have a healthy and realistic sibling relationship.

6. People Who Feel Things - I don't mind unemotional characters when it's a specific and thoughtful portrayal of a character living with a mental illness that suppresses emotion, but I'm really over writers who create unemotional characters because they think they're edgy, or because they want another character to "fix" them. I'm so much more taken with characters who are allowed to actually feel things, especially when they're people who put on a stoic outward appearance either because they have to or think they have to, like someone in a military position or position of authority. I love it when a character you'd describe as tough, gritty, hard-as-nails, no-nonsense, etc., can still be giddy over love, melt into a puddle over a cute animal, or scoop a friend into a hug when they're having a hard day.

7. Healthy Committed Relationships - It sometimes feels like the only healthy committed relationship in a story is the one that makes up the romantic story line, but somehow the couples around them are divorced, bickering, "on again off again," or otherwise "it's complicated..." I really love it when other characters in the story, besides the romantic pairings, have happy committed relationships.

Those are the ones off the top of my head! ♥

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[troquantary]

Edward Cullen: That Boy Ain’t Right

So I was doing a reread of @therealvinelle 's collection of Twilight metas, as one does, and in "Edward, Denial, and a Human Girlfriend" she mentions that she doesn't believe Edward is sane. I thought, "ha, yeah, he's definitely not," and also, "but wait, what does that mean exactly, please say more about that." But since she's already inundated with asks, I've decided to use my own head-muscle and explore this idea. (TL;DR: I start out more or less organized, synthesize some points Vinelle has made across several posts (and have hopefully linked to them all where relevant but please tell me if not), touch a little on narcissism, then take a hard left into the negative effects of being a telepath.)

Just a couple things to note at the outset, though. Theses have been written already (probably) about Edward as an abuser. Edward being insane doesn't negate that at all; he's definitely an asshole and just...a disaster of a human being. (I find it more funny than anything, but YMMV.) I'm also going to try to avoid talking specifically about mental illness and how it relates (or doesn't relate) to abusive behavior -- that's territory I'm not really equipped to discuss, like at all. My starting point is "Edward has a deeply warped perception of reality," not "Edward has X disorder."

So: deeply warped perception of reality. The evidence? Goes behind a cut, because my one character trait is Verbose.

Vinelle provides a great example of it in the post linked above, which I'll just quote because she does words good: "[Edward] keeps acting like his romance with Bella is a romantic tragedy, and all the cast of Twilight are actors on a stage making it as sublime as possible." Edward's the one to pursue Bella, but he does so with the full belief, from the very beginning, that it will never last; Bella will "outgrow" him, go on her human way, and he can spend the rest of eternity brooding magnificently over his too-short romantic bliss. [Insert premature ejaculation joke.] Turning her is never an option, even though Alice, Noted Psychic, says that romancing Bella will either end with her dead (exsanguinated) or dead (vampire).

This framing, where he's a dark anti-hero in love with -- but never tainting! -- the pure maiden and eventually leaving her in a grand, tragic sacrifice to preserve her soul? It's fucking bonkers. Bella isn't a person to him in this scenario. As Vinelle points out, Bella's never really a person to him at all; he falls in love with his own mental construct, cherry-picking from what he observes of her behavior and her responses to his 20 (thousand) Questions to convince himself that she is the ideal woman.

Bella's not the only one who gets the projection/cardboard-cutout treatment. Edward sees everything and everyone through a highly particular, personalized lens. He filters his entire reality, which we all do to an extent, but the thing with Edward is that he starts with his conclusions and then only pays attention to the evidence that supports those conclusions. Often that evidence consists of what he admits in New Moon are only "surface" thoughts -- but recognizing that limitation doesn't keep him from taking those thoughts as representative of what people are. Edward then becomes absolutely convinced by his own "reasoning" and won't be swayed from what he has decided is Objectively True. It's obvious with Bella; it's also painfully obvious with Rosalie. (Vinelle explains this and brings up Edward's raging Madonna/Whore complex in the same post, so refer to that again -- she's right.)

He also catastrophizes. Everything. Bella's just vibing in her room, rereading Wuthering Heights for the 87th time? She's gonna be hit by a meteor, better sneak into her room while she sleeps. Bella's going to the beach with the filthy mundanes their human classmates? She's gonna fall in the ocean. Jasper's cannibal pals are stopping by for a visit, but know not to hunt in the area? DISASTER, DEFCON 1, ALSO FUCK YOU JASPER FOR EVEN EXISTING IN MY AND BELLA'S SPHERE YOU UNSPEAKABLE BURDEN. Edward must believe that Bella is vulnerable and in near-constant peril, to support the reality he has created in which he is the villain turned protector and maybe?? hero??? (!!!) for his beloved. So when the actual, James-shaped danger arrives, he goes berserk, snarling and flipping his shit and generally not helping the situation. His fantasy demands that Bella remain human, so instead of doing the very thing Alice, Noted Psychic, assures him will neutralize the threat (and not just a threat to Bella, either, but to Bella's family and any other human James might decide to include in the "game"), he vetoes it immediately, no discussion. Bella Must Not Turn, and he sticks to those guns despite James nearly reducing her to ground beef, despite leaving Bella catatonic with depression (but human! success!) in New Moon, despite Aro's order and his family's vote and, let's not forget, Bella's clearly and repeatedly stated desire to be a vampire. It's going to happen. But he doesn't accept it until Renesmee busts out of Bella like the Kool-Aid man and the poor girl's heart finally, unequivocally stops.

Sane people don't behave this way. I don't want to slap labels on Edward, but I can't help but note that he comes across as highly narcissistic. He's the only real person in his universe, the lone player among us NPCs. That probably has a lot to do with him being frozen in the mindset and maturity of a seventeen-year-old boy, but I think it's also just...him, on some fundamental level. His failure to connect with others and recognize them as full, independent beings with their own wants and priorities isn't like Bella's failure -- she's badly depressed. Edward is...something else, and I get the sense that his sanity has been steadily deteriorating over time. And a cursory google of narcissistic traits turns up some familiar-looking stuff. He's self-loathing, yes, but also grandiose; he hates himself for the monster he is (and hates most vampires besides Esme and Carlisle for their monstrosity, too) but still feels superior to humans, to the extent that he felt entitled to human blood and resented Carlisle for depriving him of his "proper" diet. He eventually returns to Carlisle, but he's far from content -- the beginning of Midnight Sun finds him in a state of ennui, bored and dismissive of (if not outright disgusted by) everyone around him, that has apparently persisted for years and years. He doesn't play the piano, he doesn't compose, he doesn't enjoy anything...at least until Bella comes along and then he becomes obsessed to a disturbing degree with her and his new, romantic tragedy spin on reality.

[Next-day edit: I’m not sure where else to fit this in, but the way Edward casually contemplates violence against people who have, at best, mildly annoyed him is...chilling. I have a hard time writing off his strategizing how to murder the entire Biology class as a result of bloodlust -- it’s so calculated, nothing like the blackout state of thirst Emmett describes when he encountered his own “singer,” and that is probably the default for when a vampire is extremely thirsty. But even ignoring the Biology class incident, Edward still does things like consider, with disturbing frequency, how he might grievously injure or kill Mike Newton, all because...Edward considers him his romantic rival (despite Bella barely giving the kid the time of day). He thinks about slapping Mike through a wall, which might be an amusing slapstick image, except as a vampire Edward’s actually capable of turning this boy’s skeleton to a fine powder. So it’s, y’know, kind of sick when you think about it.

But even worse than that, when Bella tells Edward about how she flirted with Jacob to get at that sweet, sweet vampire lore, Edward chuckles and then, after dropping Bella home, flippantly observes that now that the treaty’s broken, why not genocide? I’m not even kidding, it’s right there in Midnight Sun; he seriously thinks about the fact that he’d be technically justified now in wiping out the entire tribe because a teenager tried to impress a girl with a spooky story. That is fucked. Remember, Edward was there with Carlisle when the treaty was first established. He knows how remarkable it is that they even came to a truce in the first place, that it was only ever possible because Carlisle is...well, Carlisle, and that it marks a pretty significant moment in supernatural history. He doesn’t care; he doesn’t respect it, or he’d never think something like “Ha ha, if I went and killed them all, I wouldn’t even be wrong. I mean, I won’t do it, but I’m just saying, I wouldn’t be wrong.”

Again: not the thought process or behavior of a sane person. (Or a person that respects life in general -- sorry Carlisle, big L.)]

Finally, whether he's a narcissist or not, I think the fact that Edward has constant, unavoidable access to everyone's thoughts is a powerful contributing factor to his instability. He can tune out the mental noise to an extent, but he can't stop it -- so he comes to rely on it like another sense. This causes issues with disconnect and lack of empathy, of course, but there's another facet to this shit diamond: he's basically experiencing a ceaseless flow of intrusive thoughts. His narration in Midnight Sun suggests that he "hears" the words people think, can "see" what they visualize in their mind's eye, and can sense the emotional "tone" and intensity of their thoughts. Therefore, perceiving Jasper's thirst through his thoughts makes Edward more aware of his own, "doubling" the discomfort. This would be a lot to deal with even from just his immediate coven members, but Edward gets all of this pouring into his head like a firehose on a day-to-day basis because the Cullens live right alongside humans. I know Meyerpires have galaxy brains or whatever, but that's a ton to process.

Besides the compounding effect on his own thirst when he "feels" the thirst of others, Meyer never suggests that Edward has difficulty separating his own thoughts from other people's; even when he was newly turned, he recognized Carlisle's "voice" in his head as Carlisle's. That would create a whole different host of issues around identity, but it looks like Edward's escaped that particular torment. However, I can easily imagine that what he does experience is just shy of unbearable nonetheless, with an eroding effect on his sanity over decades. He can't sleep to escape it; he's on a dishwater diet and probably (like the rest of his family) experiencing a perpetual, low-grade physical discomfort due to his thirst never being fully satisfied; and he's around far more people than is the norm for vampires -- even discounting all the humans, his own coven is unusually large -- meaning more noise.

Honestly, it would be weirder if he were all there, considering.

And even though I feel like I lost a sense of structure around where I started ranting about telepathy, I've written like 1.5k words about Edward fucking Cullen and I think that's enough for one post.

[ladyniniane]

Favorite Chinese dramas 2020 edition

I’m a bit late, but here are my favorite Chinese dramas among those I watched in 2020, in no particular order.

-The Story of Yanxi Palace

My favorite cdrama so far and one of my favorite shows as well. This drama is fast-paced and has a perfect balance between emotion and light-hearted moments. It’s a bittersweet story, yes, but never too dark. There’s always a glimmer of hope. The protagonist is awesome, she’s clever, angry, vengeful and yet fallible. Watching her overcome the obstacles in the palace is delightful. I also liked the emphasis put on female friendship and sisterhood. 

-Legend of Lu Zhen/Female prime minister

I liked this drama for its message about women’s professional independence. For once, it doesn’t follow concubines, but working women in the palace. The cast is dominated by complex and powerful female characters, who serve as foes, rivals or mentors to the heroine. The romance between the two leads is also very cute. This shows takes a lot of liberties with real-life history, though, so it may not be for you if you want a drama that strictly follows reality.

-Oh my general

I admit that I wasn’t totally hyped by the beginning of this drama, but it did improve quite a lot and it’s now one of my favorites. I especially like the relationship between the two main characters : Ye Zhao and Yujin don’t fit in the traditional gender roles of their time. Yet, none of them is asked to change. They love and support each other as they are. Yujin isn’t a warrior, he’s elegant and delicate, but is also clever and observant. Besides, this drama has many awesome female characters who team-up together to save the realm. 

-Maiden Holmes

This show has a perfect balance between cute moments and a dynamic story. The plot isn’t the most original or complex, but it’s highly entertaining. It’s short and it never drags. The characters are likable and the friendship between them is very sweet. The female characters are determined and competent. I have to say that I was sad when it ended because I wanted more!

-Arsenal military academy

This drama is the proof that you can have a story set in a male-dominated environment and still have awesome female characters. The female lead is, for instance, a badass, courageous and determined young lady. I especially liked the aesthetic of this drama, the action scenes and the feeling of camaraderie between the characters. The love triangle takes a bit too much place in my opinion, but thankfully that didn’t prevent me from enjoying this drama. 

-Legend of Fu Yao

Another drama with an awesome female lead! Fu Yao is a total badass and her fight scenes are amazing. I loved watching her grow from a slave to a confidant young woman. I liked the fact that the plot took the characters to explore different locations, it was like a whirlwind of action and adventure. The only reproach that I have is that the ending felt a bit rushed. 

-Legend of Zhen Huan/Empresses in the palace

A classic among palace dramas. This is for you if you want schemes, a cruel and dangerous environment under an appearance of refinement and diverse and nuanced female characters. The drama is slow-paced and depicts the transformation of its protagonist particularly well. I nonetheless felt that the story was a bit draggy sometimes. This is also a somewhat depressing and heavy show, though the ending is quite cathartic. 

-The legends

Another fantasy/martial arts drama I liked very much. The CGI may not be that great and some costumes look a bit cheap, but it’s a very entertaining story otherwise. The drama has plenty of strong female characters, I mean look at the gif above, with diverse personalities. Each character has furthermore a story to tell. 

[papirouge]

I'm the anon who sent you the message about pitbulls.

Yeah, I completely agree with you! I hate when pitbull owners just have to take a picture of their ugly ass pitbull beside their sleeping babies to get some internet attention and to show people just how sweet and loving their mutt is. Literally leaving your baby with any animal unsupervised is super dangerous. I read once a story of a man who was taking care of his niece, and he had his Pomeranian in bed alongside the babygirl, he left for a moment to prepare her some milk, and when he returned the Pom was mauling his niece! Unfortunately she passed away from the injuries. So yeah, dont leave your animals, even the small ones, near your babies...

And yeah, a lot of dog owners put up with their dogs filth and smell, and even sleep with them. I have nothing against dogs, theyre nice and all, but i think some people are just too obsessed with them. Like i dont think its necessary to bring them to restaurants or the market, yet they insist on bringin them. I feel like a lot of people idolize dogs to worrying levels...

Have you noticed how a lot of them absolutely despise children? I was reading a discussion the other day about dogs on restaurants, and most said they loved seeing dogs, and wished they banned children from restaurants and airplanes and other places. Or they say things like they'd save a dog over a child in an emergency...

Maaaan.....even Pomeranians..? 😰 I always thought that small dogs where the exceptions but I guess they can be as much dangerous, especially around babies...

I knew a girl who had a baby dog and for no reason he bit her in the cheek. It wasn't too bad, but she ended up having a visible scar... :/ What's weird is that just after attacking her , the dog snapped out of it and started licking her wound, as if he realized and regretted what he had just done.... Maybe dogs can have mental problems too (was he sckyzophrenic?) :/

I remember that post saying that the reasons some people loved animals over humans was because animals were wired to never question you, obey what you told them do, love you unconditionally, etc. When humans are more complex and challenging to get along with. I also know there's a study linking excessive animal love with narcissism... Tbh it all makes sense when you see how those people act like what they have with their animal is much better than any other inter-human relationship...🙄

I don't mind having dog around outside, as long as they're on a leash, AND their owner collect their poo. Here in Paris we have an epidemic of dog poo littering the ground because Parisians/French are filthy and it's really a pain in the butt the stroll in the streets. I hate dog owners exporting their filthiness outside. They should all be fined and shoved in a pit of dog poo as a punishment💩

Trying to ban children from planes is ridiculous 💀 Sure having noisy children around for hours is annoying, but come on....are we really going to separate families traveling for that? Make planes dedicated for families? (family wagons in train are great though) Sorry but it's not that deep.

Oh and there's this running joke in the Black community about White people being more emotional when a dog dies than when a Black person does, and it's totally true. Even when a dog got killed bc he represented a menace, there's always ppl who are like "oh, was it really necessary? 🥺" people went to an uproar when Kim Kardashian shown pictures of her garage and internet sleuths assumed that was were she kept her animals (there's nothing shocking in putting a kennel in a garage idc). White people have this weird defensive stance with dogs they never have with fellow humans from other races. They'll see an unarmed black man being killed on tape and find all the excuses in the world to argue it was okay, but a dog mauling children being shoot down? "maybe there were other options 🥺"..........demonic behavior