#Claudia ranting

[kingalistairtheirin]

“Jk rowling hasn’t always been evil’ so all the racism against jewish people, native americans and asians don’t count then. Good to know

[periru3]

I know I’m hella late to the Dragon Prince party, but I have some thoughts

Okay, so I just finished the first three seasons of The Dragon Prince, and it was really good, I really enjoyed it, but there was one glaring issue (or maybe more accurately a handful of closely related issues) that makes it really hard for me to love the show, or to think it quite lives up to it’s reputation as the “new AtLA.” The issue? Pacing. Dear god, the pacing. 

*Spoilers and long-windedness below the cut*

The first three seasons take place over about a month, and during this time a handful of things happen, including but not limited to: 1) multiple people travel across what are implied to be huge distances at GoT-levels of inconsistent speeds, 2) Viren attempts a coup, is foiled by the rightful king Ezran, who spends less than a week on the throne before handing the crown back to Viren, 3) Callum and Reyla overcome all of their human-vs.-elves prejudices and fall in love with each other, 4) Callum becomes literally the first human ever to learn primal magic, never having previously studied it, and 5) a bunch humans and elves and dragons band together to defeat the forces of evil despite hundreds of years of conflict that they have not resolved and there being NO WAY most of those people even know like 70% of what’s going on in the plot of the show. 

Seriously. That happens. In one month. 

I’ve been thinking a lot about why I feel this show was written this way, and I think a lot of it has to do with how TV shows are made now and how that differs from when AtLA was made, for instance. Specifically, most shows these days, The Dragon Prince included, have really short seasons (9 episodes to Avatar’s 20), and are made for streaming (and therefore binging). 

Let’s be real, streaming is doing WEIRD things to how stories get told, and many of them are not for the better. With the advent of dropping whole seasons at a time, the art of writing good episodes of TV that are at all distinguishable from one another sort of feels like it’s vanishing. So much of the goal of streaming shows is about getting you to just keep watching, so the episodes sort of intentionally bleed together. It’s all dramatic cliffhangers followed by autoplay kicking in and suddenly you’re picking up in the exact moment the last episode ended on. And there’s definitely a place for that in stories, but when it becomes every episode, the whole thing starts to feel more like one ridiculously long movie than a season of varied stories that form a satisfying whole but still work on their own. Anyway, I’m rambling and I know all of this has been said before. 

The point though, as it relates to Dragon Prince, is that when every episode flows right into the next, it’s a lot easier to get rid of something that I think is pretty necessary for most TV shows to function: time jumps. Not big ones, just little, normal time jumps that you don’t really notice that let us cover more time with the characters without having to constantly be with them every step of the way. I think when you spend a week waiting for a new episode, it feels natural for the characters to have also passed some time, and instances of this not happening tend to be reserved for two-parters or near the end of a season when the plot is really ramping up. But while many streaming shows do still do this, other’s just... don’t. And Dragon Prince is one of those shows. We’re with the main characters practically every moment of the month this show takes place over and while that does wonders for getting you in a binging mindset (I watched 3 seasons in 4 sittings), it means the actual timeline of the show is ridiculously short. Also, crucially, it means that if we don’t explicitly see something happen (eg the conveying of crucial information), or if something feels to us like it’s happening too fast (eg a relationship or skill developing), we can’t rationalize that by assuming things happened off screen. 

Another huge factor, as previously mentioned, is the nine-episode season, which is simultaneously too short and, weirdly enough, too long. Lemme explain. For all the stuff they are trying to fit in to this show, for the complex political situations and the relationships and the character arcs to all unfold believably, I as a viewer want to be able to spend more time with this story. I want this plot to unfold over more episodes and in more detail, but also I want enough episodes to be allowed a break from the plot. There’s no filler! Filler may get a bad rap, but it’s the filler episodes that give us time with characters and relationships and world-building outside the confines of what’s crucial to the plot! It’s one of the key things that separates TV as an art form from film and often allows us to feel that we know the characters and worlds of TV shows better those of movies. It isn’t just that we spend more time with them in TV, but also that we get to see them in all sorts of situations that movies don’t have time for! Where is Dragon Prince’s “The Zeppo” or its “Lars and the Cool Kids” or its “Ember Island Players?” We need more episodes not only so we can spend more time with the plot, but also so we can spend more time away from it!

But wait, didn’t I also say nine episodes per season is too long for The Dragon Prince? Yes. Yes I did. Because a story that takes place over the course of a single month being told in 27 episodes is straight up bonkers. That is practically one episode per day. See what I mean when I say we’re with these characters all the time? What we really need is for the show (or first three seasons at least) to take place over 6 months to a year with between 15 and 20 episodes per season. Then we get plenty of time to do the plot justice and plenty of time to ignore the plot for a bit and have fun! We also get more time with our beloved characters and they get to spend some time offscreen! 

Anyway, I think these issues seriously impact the effectiveness of the show in so many ways, and I know I’ve rambled for a long time now, but I’m gonna ramble a little longer just to touch on some of the things I think would be improved with more episodes and a longer timeline. Let’s go list format just to spice things up: 

Callum’s whole arc - He’s the first human ever to use primal magic and he figures it out after I think something like 12-ish days. I honestly really love the idea of humans being able to do magic by attaining a deep understanding of and connection with the primal sources, but this only works if we see, like... lots more work put in than we do. Having Callum really struggle and work and grow in the pursuit of this understanding would justify no one else having done it before and make it feel like he is totally revolutionizing how humans and elves alike even conceptualize magic by thinking about it from a different perspective, and I think that’s rad. As it is, he barely does anything, he does it super quickly, and he has a magic dream give him that final shove, and he comes off as just another chosen one which is way less interesting. Also him struggling with the ethics of dark magic and the decision to use it or not use it and the repercussions of using it could have been just so much more. I mean, I haven’t seen season four though so who knows. 

Callum and Rayla’s romance - As far as obviously-endgame het protagonist couples go, I liked them. I really thought there was a lot of great stuff in their relationship and I think the show did a way above average job giving us specific beats that made it feel like the characters really knew and understood and cared about each other. I just would’ve liked it to have more time to get there. Specifically I would’ve loved to see even more of the lingering issues of being from super different cultures and raised to fear and hate each other, as well as some more time on them each realizing their feelings for each other and sitting with that a while before they get together. 

Janai and Amaya - Give me so much more of this I am begging you. Not (just) because I’m extremely gay but because it’s so interesting and there’s so much potential and it mostly happens off screen and I want more build up to them trusting each other and working together at the end. I know Amaya saving Janai and later warning her about Viren does a lot of trust building, but I also want the slow burn (hah. burn. get it? Cause she’s a sunfi- never mind). Give me Janai awkwardly learning sign language! Give me them realizing they aren’t as different as they grew up being told they would be! Give! Me! More!

Grief - I know it’s a kids show and we want to not spend toooo much time being depressing, and they have very important things to worry about, but like... their dad died. The scenes where they’re actually addressing this are great and super emotional, but the minute it isn’t the focus it’s sort of weirdly upbeat for two newly orphaned children

King Ezran - Honestly his whole plot of going back to take up the throne and then leaving basically right away is sort of a mess. This is on the writing as much as the pacing. He doesn’t have time to do anything good as king, like we get no time seeing if he can even be a normal ruler at all before suddenly he’s shoved into an impossible situation and he takes a strong moral stance, you love to see it, but then there just... isn’t a good solution so for some reason the solution he chooses is to give the obvious supervillain the crown? And all of this happens so fast it sort of makes you wonder... why any of this needed to happen? Like if Ezran stayed with the others and the initial coup had been successful.... nothing changes. 

Villain stuff - One recent trend I’m loving is complex villains in kids shows. Viren is such a good villain, but I feel like he’d be a much better one if we had the time to do a slower ramp up in evil. Like, he starts as the king’s best friend and most trusted advisor, I wish we saw him dealing with conflicted feelings about the king’s death, especially after their last interaction. I wish he spent more time seeming like someone who believes his own justifications and who slowly becomes more ruthless and power hungry and looses sight of what he initially stood for or something like that. As is he’s sort of an instant supervillain.

Evil family drama - This may be the area I think needs least improvement, honestly. I think Soren and Clauda’s arcs and their relationships to each other and to Viren are the most interesting and well-executed in the show by far. They’d just - and I know this opinion might come as a shock to you - be better if they took place over more than the span of a month. Perhaps more than 27 episodes. You know, all that good stuff. 

Travel - Okay I know sometimes they’re on animals and sometimes they’re on foot and sometimes they fly and that all impacts how fast they get from one place to another but like..... there are times when that isn’t the case or where it is but it still doesn’t justify the drastically different amounts of time it takes people to travel certain distances. How did a massive army on foot catch up with the protagonists who’ve been traveling for 2.5 seasons in 2 episode? How did Soren get to the mountain so much faster than the main gang? How did the sunfire elves get there before the human army? These are the examples that are freshest in my mind cause I watched it like an hour ago, but I swear to god this is all over the show. This is another half-pacing half-writing issue.

Communication - And yet another “equal blame goes to the pacing and to wonky writing” thing. I literally have no clue how or when so many people found out so many things in this show. I’m struggling with specific examples on this one, it’s more of a constant vibe of “I do not remember seeing this person find out about this situation, there’s no way news of this had time to spread, what is going on?” Like people knowing enough to show up in the right place at the right time, or to suddenly change their stances on centuries-old global geopolitical conflicts even though I swear no one has specifically told anyone all the relevant information for this to make sense and there isn’t enough time for me to buy them finding out some other way. Anyway speaking of global geopolitical conflict...

Global geopolitical conflict - This! Just! Needs! More! Time! How did Viren have time to get this popular? How did How did Lyanna Mormont Queen Aanya know where to go or have enough relevant information to feel this was worth joining a war over, technically on the side that killed her moms? Why is there suddenly a critical mass of humans who suddenly want to end an ancient conflict with people who literally just assassinated their king just because they I guess found out their side didn’t assassinate the prince of the opposite side???? I swear I find this plot good I just need it to go so much slower and so much more... thoughtful I guess? I need to understand why individuals and groups other than the main characters are making the decisions they’re making, and things happening very fast makes that difficult!

Anyway, I swear I really did like this show a lot, despite my ranting. I think I’m so hung up on this because I liked it so much. Like, I think it could be on the level of AtLA if it had better pacing and it really really frustrates me that it doesn’t. I’m also sure these aren’t very original complaints but here I am anyway, extremely late to the party, having basically just mainlined three seasons of a show and immediately sat down to write an essay on it without taking in even a hint of the existing fandom or discourse so.... sorry? If I’m just repeating something many other people have noted? It’s 4:30 am what am I even doing with my life.

TL;DR - Great show, it’d be an A+ if it could only have the “giving TV shows actual good pacing” of a decade ago while retaining the “kids shows are allowed to have gays in them” of today

[redfirerai]

It’s only been 5 episodes and the iwtv fandom is already a shithole.

First off, the fifth episode SHOULD have had a trigger warning; I agree on that fact. This is not to say that the writers poorly wrote this episode/ made Lestate OOC because, after having watched the episode, I honestly don’t find it surprising that show Lestat would do something like this. It makes sense; he only loved Claudia because Claudia is both loveable and an extension of Louis. Lestat has shown an incredibly large capacity for violence and cruelty. He is not a good person. He is not a hero and he only cares about being Louis’ top priority. But some of you are acting like it wasn’t jarring to watch. As much as I love Hannibal, this is an extremely different situation from the finale of season 2. Louis and Lestat were in a relationship. They were functionally MARRIED. They were never perfect, but this was never even hinted as happening. He’s not had any previous slips with harming Louis or Claudia so people have every right to be shocked.

Second of all, some of you people are acting like Louis and Lestat are equally abusive towards each other, and that is 100% false and reeks of racism. Every moment that Louis rejected or hurt Lestat was always in reaction to Lestat. He was recently human and his current disposition as a fledgling comes with all of his humanly attachments. He cares about his family. His brother died which permanently destroyed his relationship with his mother. His sister became alienated. He was being targeted from every angle for being a black, gay man who dared to move up the social ladder. It’s like half of you blanked out for most of episode two/three until you heard the words “this is why you’ll always be alone,” leave Louis’ mouth. At the very moment he needed humanity and support from the one person he was risking everything for, he was met with complete apathy to his struggles. Not only does Lestat completely misunderstand Louis’ core—the very foundation and set of rules that form his values—he want Louis in a way that is not possible. Louis is a monogamous man that craves family structure—louis is fundamentally a different creature. And that’s okay. That is the story and I’m fully on board to be entranced by its beauty and suffering. But getting mad on behalf of Lestat? Justifying literally any of his actions towards Louis is fucking insane. If he wasn’t conventionally attractive or white, this wouldn’t even be a topic of conversation. You can like him—I absolutely love TV show Lestat for being this unhinged, devoted, and brutal. But don’t fucking twist the canonical story of the TV show to justify the Lestat you head-cannoned in your brain. People do this; this is very real behaviour. Love-bombing and isolating is part of toxic relationships. Many abusers seem like perfectly loving people until things don’t go their way. Seeing only the sacrifices Lestat made for Louis is ignoring the time, context, and attachments Louis had to his human life. I am not saying Louis is an angel, but he definitely is not the abuser in the relationship

Lastly, Claudia’s implied SA is completely unnecessary to the story and her journey as a character. There was no need to do this to her; she could have arrived at the world being a cruel place without this.

On a side note, I don’t have qualms with her character writing but I do see what people are saying about how she didn’t need to see Louis being half beat to death to want to k*ll Lestat. That is probably the only criticism I agree with when it comes to the writing of that scene. I would have loved to see her and Lestat be at eachother’s throats because that was already implied. And Louis, as a father, is justified in choosing Claudia over Lestat, especially when there’s enough abuse already. Again, I don’t think the scene at the end of season 5 was bad/OOC per se, but I don’t think it was completely necessary.

[javitrulovesims]

Not Them giving Claudia a perfect Mayfair Emerald Necklace as a bithday gift (One of their Easter Eggs i'm sure) And then using THAT ugly key thing necklace with the TINIEST emerald ever for the Actual Mayfair Witchs Show?? I'm pissed! 😡

[hidingoutbackstage]

Claudia now has a split dye and a pathetic boyfriend she’s really the cringe bisexual girl rep we deserve

[wiltingdecay]

https://wiltingdecay.tumblr.com/post/691690409527820288/funny-how-part-of-the-reason-why-i-created-rowan

This is the same reason why I had to change up Claudia's and other Apprentice OC's backstory for the Arcana. Because I don't see them not having any issues with lack of family (apprentice Claudia and Anele), lack of connections (apprentice Bhekithemba and Anele), or the Vesuvians likely fearing them because...They died and now they're back like nothing happened.

You can't tell me there wouldn't be conflict in that category nor that it wouldn't affect the apprentice.

EXACTLY!! LIKE!! even if you add nothing else to the ingame mc and just take them completely as they are, there's still a lot of fucked up shit going on in their life.

imagine how fucking horrible it would be to have all but three years of your life just completely wiped out of your memories. how much would that fuck with a person's sense of self? if a person's identity is built out of their lived experiences, what happens to your personality when you forget every single one of those experiences?

adding to that. the mc has no family that they know of. would it not drive you crazy, not knowing if you had family out there that was still alive? not knowing whether or not they missed you? if they were looking for you?

literally the only friend mc has in the world is asra. you could argue that they have selasi too, but they're clearly not close, considering mc somehow doesn't even know selasi's name (?????). is that not like... super fucked up to anybody else? mc's only friend, the only person they actually know, is someone who blatantly hides important shit from them constantly and who is gone half the time. what happens if mc were to get sick of this and fall out with asra? they would have nowhere else to go. nobody to turn to...

...because of course, the entire town hates them and thinks they're a weirdo freak zombie for reasons that mc cannot even begin to understand. i genuinely have no idea how this doesn't affect mc more than it does. they're shockingly blasé about it the few times they actually bring it up.

then of course there's the chronic migraines that are so debilitating they've knocked mc out cold for weeks at a time, and may or may not be bad enough to actually kill them someday, that they don't even know the root cause of until the events of the game. they're so bad that asra had effectively banned mc from leaving vesuvia, because if they have a migraine away from home and help, there's a very good chance they actually will die.

i will forever die on the hill that arcana's mc is far too okay with all the shit that's happened to them. fair enough that they're a blank slate protagonist, but it is extremely unrealistic (and frankly jarring when you compare mc to the rest of the cast, who are realistically troubled by the bad shit that's happened to them) for mc to be such a well-adjusted and mentally healthy human equipped with the knowledge to fix everyone else's problems.

[drolta]

listen. it’s not a competition Pam. let people like things.

[emileesaurus]

But Claudia rose from the bed and came towards me. “How dare you!” she whispered. “How dare you make this decision for both of us! Do you know how I despise you! Do you know that I despise you with a passion that eats at me like a canker!” Her small form trembled, her hands hovering over the pleated bodice of her yellow gown. 

“Don’t you look away from me! I am sick at heart with your looking away, with your suffering. You understand nothing. Your evil is that you cannot be evil, and I must suffer for it. I tell you, I will suffer no longer!” Her fingers bit into the flesh of my wrist; I twisted, stepping back from her, floundering in the face of the hatred, the rage rising like some dormant beast in her, looking out through her eyes. “Snatching me from mortal hands like two grim monsters in a nightmare fairy tale, you idle, blind parents! Fathers!” She spat the word. 

“Let tears gather in your eyes. You haven’t tears enough for what you’ve done to me. Six more mortal years, seven, eight… I might have had that shape!” Her pointed finger flew at Madeleine, whose hands had risen to her face, whose eyes were clouded over. Her moan was almost Claudia’s name. But Claudia did not hear her. “Yes, that shape, I might have known what it was to walk at your side. Monsters! To give me immortality in this hopeless guise, this helpless form!” The tears stood in her eyes. The words had died away, drawn in, as it were, on her breast.

(Interview with the Vampire)

[emilyskinners]

I don't care if it's a show for kids. The Babysitters Club is fucking underrated and it deserves just as much as attention as other popular Netflix originals and should be talked about way more

[lostbutnot-found]

Okay, look. I'm trying to get excited about IWTV. I'm trying. But the more I see on it, the less excited I become. Not that I had high hopes anyway given any sort of content I've ever loved has been botched when converted to a television series or a movie, but this...

Why can people not create their own stories if they're going to stray so far from the source material that it's hardly recognizable? If you have to change the timeline, the characters (and this is not because Jacob is black, the man is a treasure) and completely rewrite the story then why the hell can you not be creative enough to write your own narrative? Or perhaps just say "Inspired by blah blah--whatever..."

I think I know what it is. This is a beloved series and even though there are skeptics, like me, we will still sit and watch the damn thing because of the title. And that's exactly what this is, drawing the masses in with a title.

Think what you want, don't attack me for my personal opinion, but I've been in this fandom a long time, family....and this just isn't it.

[innocenceinyourarms]

Anyone saying Claudia needed to be aged up for any number of reasons should take a look at HBO’s doom patrol.

In the second season we are introduced to the character of Dorothy, a girl who has been shut away by her father for about 100 years for… reasons.

She’s played by a (at the time,) 20 year old woman, Abi Monterey . Throughout the season, the character is shown to “grow up” and change from being in the “real world”.

Abi performed the role very well (I’d argue masterfully), with the assistance of makeup and costuming, It completed the illusion.

I’m not saying Abi should’ve played Claudia, but what I am saying is that there were other options that could have been explored to make an older actress appear much younger.

AMC’s IWTV cost 60 million to make. The second season of doom patrol was just under 10 million.

Money was not the issue.

I’ve stayed kinda quiet about the whole thing because everyone was so very heated about it all, but after seeing what’s on here… well.

The creative decision to change Claudia so fundamentally is what ultimately made me decide I’d lurk before putting my money down for the subscription to peacock.

This was when I felt in my gut that this thing they were making was going to be a mess that was as rough to sit through as that ill fated QOTD.

After seeing what I’ve seen of this latest episode (and I definitely have feelings about that, but I don’t feel like sharing them here, now) I feel very good about my decision to not watch.

No shade to Ms. Bailey Bass. I do think she’s a total (pardon the joke) Doll in this role, and it’s totally not her fault. I think she’d be foolish if she didn’t take the part and run with it. She’s doing well with what she’s given. The whole cast is. I commend them

This post is more of a general comment about disappointment. I feel like there’s a greater conversation to be had about how characters are being messed with on a fundamental level here. You cannot change something so major to a character out of convenience without sacrificing something very important that’s being said.

This seems to be a running issue with the writing, and I’m very sad to see something that resonates with so many be treated this way.

[da-blackgeek]

THAT reveal at the end of the season finale of Interview with the Vampire🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯 I am speechless!!!

[teatitty]

The absolute nerve they had to tweet this last night when the treatment of all five of those female characters gives me and many others such incandescent rage

[sumiaa]

OKAY FUNNY I ALMOST FORGOT WHY I CAME ON HERE BUT THE LAST POST REMINDED ME... I'm not sure I like the new season of the dragon prince :(

[samaspic31]

Star Wars lost stars broke me the handling of race (at least in the first tome of the manga) is so bad it makes me want to bash my head into a wall

[transselkie]

I’ve come around on it, actually, casting Armand to be a 17 y/o would be funny as hell actually. I want Claudia and Armand to serve Euphoria.