#I always try to write this stuff from a very subjective standpoint with what we have directly in front of us

[serenedash]

Hello!! I’m writing a Foreteller fic, and I wanted the opinions of the people I consider to be the Holders Of Arcane Knowledge- how do you think Luxu reacts with his old comrades once they reunite?

Is he a weathered stone, the person he used to be as Luxu worn away into the cynic who is Xigbar? Do they have to learn how to deal with their little brother anew?

Or is he a pearl within a clam, the facade that is Xigbar pried away to reveal Luxu, the child who never got to grow up? Does he revert to his old behaviors and mannerisms, depending on Ira and Ava because he never really had the chance to grow out of that sixteen-year-old boy?

Or is it a secret third thing??? I would love to hear your thoughts!!

first, absolutely honored to be called a holder of arcane knowledge thank you I pride myself in my masters degree in foretellers, this turned into a long ass Luxu personality/character analysis oops! Read more because this one really got me in the zone lol

tl;dr, I think it's the first option you said due to his experiences but he really wants things to be how they were, but it can't be, too much has happened. I can see him and the others trying to act like how they were pre-khux though but it'll be awkward I think since Luxu has given up everything, including himself, for MoM's plans

Anyway love your descriptions here fr, Luxu obviously is a bit of a wild card character, we see him in multiple forms pretending to be different people so the question really is what is he really like? It's interesting to go back and look at Luxu within khux, all of the foretellers are so stern/serious usually especially with MoM but Luxu is the only one who has legit banter with MoM and can get snarky with him (even if MoM always controls the conversation in the end) and he does the same with Darkness in the finale. I used to think that Luxu's whole Xigbar persona deal was him imitating MoM in a way but ngl I now think that that's more of how he just is (albeit probably very exaggerated because I think Luxu wants people to underestimate him as just Some Fucking Guy while he's Xigbar, I mean how often do people laugh when they first meet him in kh2 because he's just straight up a Silly Dude next to dramatic ass Xemnas and Saix). Honestly I would kill to see original Braig just to compare him to Luxu because at this point I think so much time has passed in present day kh and so much shit has gotten fucked up that I don't think anyone has ever noticed that Braig might act differently now, like I totally believe Luxu doesn't care to act like original Braig as much as he would've cared about acting like Bragi in khdr yknow,

Anyway, all this to say that I think if Luxu was going to act like how he really is, it wouldn't be too far off from Xigbar. I ALSO think however, that it would be a lot more subdued and mature. When you go back and watch the kh3 epilogue he definitely still acts like Xigbar but he speaks pretty calmly, the theatrics aren't there. It's such a startling difference honestly and I think that's all the years wearing down on him at this point. I think Luxu is far beyond the point of acting like "the child that never got to grow up," a character going through what he has absolutely has the potential to act that way but for him I don't see it. Despite all the silliness and sass we see from him in khux, I also want to bring up the scene where Ava confronts him because the vibe feels similar to the kh3 epilogue imo. Like yes he starts out kinda silly just saying he was told to watch over and over again but he does get to explaining the truth and I'm sure he was very blunt with it like how he was blunt with Brain in the finale. He can be serious when he needs to, I think he was very much forced to be and I interpret him receiving his role from MoM as the loss of his childhood so from that point on that teenager never existed anymore. Luxu takes his role seriously tbh and stops the theatrics (or what may be seen as immature behavior) when he needs to.

And when the others finally return, I think Luxu really wants to just lay the whole act to rest. In his secret reports it's really clear to me how desperate he is to see everyone again and just how worn down he is, literally he must be like the world's most tired guy and I don't blame him. In the epilogue he seems so relieved imo but the difference between him and the others is a lot, to put it lightly. The others have basically been plucked from the past, exactly the same as they were, but Luxu has untold years of experience and fighting under his belt. He wants things to be how they were but they never will be; he may still be Luxu but the years have not been kind to him. I'm sure Luxu had a lot of expectations for this reunion and it didn't play out like how he wanted it to; the others are most likely still in the mindset of the keyblade war so tensions are probably high. A moment I think about a lot is when Gula and Aced start yelling at him and it's like there's a wall that goes up between Luxu and the others then, I feel like he acts more like Xigbar throughout the rest of the scene. I'm sure moving forward we'll see Luxu go between his regular Xigbar persona and his actual more subdued self depending on who he's talking to. I really do hope we get to him just be himself tho, and I'm sure we will but it'll just make the difference between himself and the others all the clearer. I can totally see Luxu talking with like Invi or Ira about what's happened, he seems to really want to prove that he's still himself. I think he'd try to act like how he was as an apprentice/young master but that's just not who he is anymore

[angelasscribbles]

Complicated Part 38: Homeward Bound

Series: Complicated

Fandom: The Royal Romance

Pairings: Liam x Riley, Drake x Riley

Rating: M

Warnings: Language, adult themes

Word count: 2,973

A/N: Here we are, at the final chapter. It snuck up on me! I started writing this chapter and suddenly realized I'm at the end of this story. Of course, their story continues in Hinge. In fact, I'm already about 1k words into a chapter of Hinge about the night of the Homecoming Ball/the safe house.

List of OC's in this story.

My other stuff: Master List.

“What is this?” Madeleine asked suspiciously as she eyed the other people seated around the conference table in the hotel conference room.

She hadn’t seen or spoken to Liam since the night before when he’d broken their engagement and thrown her out of his room. She was hoping he’d come to his senses. He had summoned her to the conference room where she was now seated around an oblong highly polished mahogany table with Liam, Rashad, the royal press secretary Katerina Trakas, and a woman she didn’t recognized who was introduced only as Audrey.

“We’re here to go over the details of the joint statement we’ll be releasing later today announcing the dissolution of our engagement.” Liam told her calmly.

She felt anger and anxiety surge through her followed by something that stunned her: relief. She felt relieved. Like a weight had just been lifted from her shoulders. Liam would marry Riley and there would be no more princes for her father to try and marry her off to. Still. There was her public image to consider. “And why would I cooperate with whatever story you’ve concocted to tell the gullible masses?”

“I assume you’ve read the article?” Liam asked her.

“Yes.” She nodded curtly.

“It gives you an out.” Audrey spoke up, “I suggest you take it. If you go along with the narrative, you are painted as practically a saint. You stepped up to help out a dear friend and to aid a couple whose love was being thwarted by powers outside of their control. And you did it all for king and country.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Then you’ll look vindictive, like a woman spurned…again.”

Katerina spoke up, “We’ll add a blurb about you donating proceeds from the sale of your engagement ring and wedding band to a charity that helps victims of sexual assault, give your halo a real good shine. This is a perfect opportunity for you to build some good will with the public.”

“And you need it.” Audrey told her, shoving a paper under her nose, “We did a little poll and your approval rating is not very great right now. You’re seen as a crown chaser, indifferent to the common people, toxic to your employees and fake in your interactions with the press.”

“I….shit.” Madeleine studied the graphic.

Rashad addressed the group, “From a legal standpoint, Liam has fulfilled the requirements needed to claim the crown. Breaking the engagement won’t change that.”

Madeleine looked up from the paper, she had one last card to play, “The marriage contract-“

“Was never signed by Liam, or filed.” Rashad replied.

Madeleine’s head snapped around to glare at Liam, “You bastard! You planned this from the beginning!”

Liam sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose, “Madeleine, you’ve always known that I didn’t want to marry you. Besides, don’t you want to be free to pursue someone more, I don’t know, your actual type?”

She shot daggers at him for a few more moments before her face crumbled in resignation, “Fine. Draft whatever you want, and I’ll sign off on it as long as I come out smelling like a goddamned mother fucking rose!”

“Excellent!” Liam crowed, “We’ll issue the statement this afternoon and I’ll attend the UN Gala tonight, alone. Feel free to take the jet back home early if you like. Alec can see to the details.”

It didn’t matter to him if she left early or stayed and went back with everyone else as originally scheduled. He’d already sent for the back up jet. It was smaller, but just as luxurious and more importantly, private. He was not subjecting Riley to a transatlantic flight with the snippy, petty, backstabbing ladies of the court.

He knew that once their engagement was announced those same ladies would be tripping over themselves to get in her good graces, as they should. As far as he was concerned, everyone that had been mean and hateful to her should suffer for it, but he knew she wouldn’t make them. It was one of the reasons he loved her, she really was kind, generous and forgiving.

He felt profound relief swirl through him as he left the conference room. The charade he had started on the night of his coronation was finally over.

Two days later, NYPD headquarters…..

“Riley!”

She turned at the sound of her name and laughed as she found herself swept up into Liam’s arms. “Liam! We’re in public! Anyone could see us!”

“Let them!” He grinned down at her, “I’m a free man now, didn’t you see the news? I can kiss whoever the hell I want!”

“Ok then!” She smiled back as his lips found hers, pressing into them with an urgency born of days apart and the stress and anxiety he’d felt during those hours when he didn’t know what had happened to her.

“Ok lover boy,” Drake clapped him on the back, “We’re still trying to avoid reporters, remember? Let’s get inside the building at least, ok man?”

“Right. Sorry.” He didn’t look or sound sorry as his gaze stayed locked on Riley with unadorned adoration.  

“Liam, you remember my grandfather?”

“Certainly. Sorry, where are my manners?” Liam finally drug his eyes away from Riley as he grabbed Franklin’s hand and shook it enthusiastically, “I can’t thank you enough for getting them out of there!”

“No need to thank me, Your Majesty, I was just helping out my grandson.”

“Please, sir, call me Liam like you did when I was a child, or it’ll be weird.”

Franklin grinned, “Ok, Liam. But then you call me Franklin.”

“Thank you, Franklin!”

Introductions were made quickly as the group entered the building. Drake, Riley and Franklin had brought Logan and Ellie with them, as well as a criminal lawyer Franklin had retained to represent Logan. Liam had Rashad with him to help navigate any legal technicalities that might arise.

They were ushed into a conference room filled with several law enforcement officers, the NYPD chief of police, an assistant director of the FBI, and an assistant attorney general. Twenty minutes later, they exited the room with Logan in possession of an immunity agreement.

“Sir, I can’t thank you enough-“ Logan was gushing.

“If you want to thank me son, do it by not wasting this chance you were just given. Get your life together and keep it that way.” Franklin replied gruffly.

“Yes, sir, I will, sir.”

 “Let’s go get your car out of impound.” The lawyer said.

“Hey, kid!” Drake stopped him, handing him a card with his number on it, “Give me a call if you want a job.”

“Doing what?” Logan looked at him in astonishment.

Drake smirked back, “Driving.”

“What? Really?” Logan stared at him with wide eyes, trying to decide if he was kidding.

“Really. We could use someone with your talent. You’d have to relocate to Cordonia but the crown would cover those expenses. Think about it, talk it over with your girl, get back to me.”

“I….I don’t know what to say.” Logan looked like he might cry.

“Ah, come on kid. Enough of that. Go get your car, and call me later tonight, ok? We’ll discuss details. You don’t have to commit to anything, just let me tell you about the job.”

“Ok, boss!” Logan grinned at him as they parted ways. Logan turned down a hallway to the right and left the building with Ellie and the lawyer while the rest of the group went down the hallway to the left.

“I have to go with Rashad to sign some paperwork to get your phone and com back, as well as the items Riley left behind in the store.” Liam told them, “We’ll be right back, shouldn’t take too long.”

Liam and Rashad approached the main desk while Riley, Drake and Franklin turned into the sitting area to wait.

An older man holding a cup of coffee in his hand stepped away from the counter where the coffee pot was located, his face tightening as his glare fell on Drake, “Well, well, well, look who’s here. Did they finally find you and arrest you? Where the hell is my daughter?”

“I’m not your daughters keeper Detective Wheeler,” Drake responded tightly, “And what would they be arresting me for?”

“You assaulted me!”

“No, I did not.”

“No?”

“No. If I’d wanted to hurt you, you’d be in the ICU sucking your dinner through a straw right now.”

“That right?” The older man sat the foam cup down as he stepped in closer and lifted his gaze challengingly to Drake’s eyes.

Drake’s arms crossed over his chest as he held the other man’s gaze, “That’s right.”

“Ok, that’s enough!” Franklin stepped between the two of them.

“Who are you?” Detective Wheeler demanded, “His lawyer?”

“No, I’m Senator Franklin Throckmorton, his grandfather. And you are?”

“Huh.” The detective snorted, “No wonder he’s not under arrest! Pulling strings for him?”

“No.” Franklin replied evenly, “He’s not under arrest because you didn’t have a warrant for your illegal entry and attempted kidnapping-“

Anger flared through the detective’s eyes, “She’s my daughter and we had a warrant-“

Drake cut him off, “The FBI had a warrant for Logan, you had nothing and were outside your jurisdiction. Furthermore, Ellie is an adult who clearly did not want to go with you.”

“You still assaulted a police officer!”

“I didn’t,” Drake shrugged, “but even if I had, it wouldn’t have mattered.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means,”  Riley answered him, “That Drake has diplomatic immunity due to his post with the Cordonian government.”

“Seriously?” He turned to stare at her in disbelief.

“Seriously.” Riley nodded.

“This is bullshit!” The older man spun to leave.

Drake called out, “Look, Officer Wheeler. I don’t know you, but I do know a thing or two about generational family trauma. You want to fix things with your daughter? Stop trying to control her and start listening to her.”

The detective turned back toward him as he snorted in derision, “With all due respect, you don’t know what you’re talking about. The only thing wrong with my daughter is that degenerate she’s-“

“Logan isn’t a bad kid,” Drake interrupted him, “he’s just had a rough start in life, and made a few bad decisions that set him on a path that was almost impossible to get off of. But he did get off of it. He got his GED, did you know that? He’s been working at a coffee shop for the love of God, when he could still be out stealing cars. And I know I just met him, but he sure as hell seems to love your daughter and I don’t think he’d do anything to hurt her.”

Drake’s eyes flicked over to Franklin then back as he finished, “Plus, she’s an adult. You can’t stop her from being with whoever she wants. What if they get married and have kids? This rift between you, this vendetta against Logan will impact your relationship not just with your daughter, but your grandchildren as well. Have you ever thought about that?”

The other man stared at him for a moment then turned and left without another word.

Franklin took a step toward him, “Drake…”

“Not now.” Drake brushed him off.

Franklin’s eyes went to Riley’s. She gave him an apologetic smile as she rubbed his arm, “Give him a little space. He’ll come around, eventually.”

Franklin nodded, “I hope you’re right.”

Liam and Rashad returned with the items the FBI had seized and the group made their way outside. Drake and Riley were returning to the hotel with Liam, Franklin would be heading back to Virginia.

“Riley, it was so nice to meet you.” Franklin told her, extending his hand, “I’m not sure I understand this arrangement you three have, completely, but I know they do things differently in Cordonia and I can’t deny the positive effect you have on my grandson. I hope the two of you will come visit again next time you’re in the states.”

Riley glanced at his hand, then threw her arms around his neck and hugged him, “Of course we will! Thank you so much for everything!”

He visibly startled then returned the hug with a small chuckle, “I see why he loves you. Be careful, ok? You’re about to be queen, someone will always be scheming against you.”

“I know, I will, and I have Drake watching my back, so I feel pretty good about my chances.” She grinned at him.

Franklin laughed in response, then said his goodbyes to Liam and Rashad before turning to Drake, “I heard what you said to the detective in there, son, and you’re right. I damaged my relationship with you before you were even born, and I regret it. Jackson was a good man, I’m sorry I didn’t realize it sooner. I just didn’t want my baby girl moving to a foreign country, giving her heart to a man in a high risk profession. I may have been wrong, but it was out of a place of love. You’ll understand someday when you have children of your own.”

Drake shook his head wondering if Franklin even realized that the second half of what he’d just said negated the first half. But it was something. “I hope I’ve learned from other people’s example’s not to try to live my children’s lives for them. Not that I plan to have any. But I appreciate the thought. I know it’s not easy for you to admit when you’re wrong.”

They shook hands then hugged awkwardly before Drake ducked into the back of the car.

Two days later, onboard the second Cordonian royal jet.....

The next few days had been a whirlwind, they'd spent a long afternoon and evening relaxing at Coney Island, the outing had been Max’s idea. It was technically closed for the season, but Liam had been able to rent the whole park out, declaring they needed to celebrate. Everyone that had helped them in their journey had been invited. Max and Bertrand had been there along with Rashad, Cassie, Hana, and Callie. Even Olivia came. Alec and Marco had been there as guests, given the day off to celebrate and enjoy the victory they’d help create. Drake had invited Ellie and Logan, with Liam’s enthusiastic support.

Logan had agreed to take the job Drake offered him. Ellie had a passport already, but Logan did not. Rashad had offered to help expedite that, as he was staying behind in the states for a few weeks anyway on Sloane Enterprises business. Logan and Ellie would wrap up their lives in New York while waiting for his papers to come in, say goodbye to friends, pack up their apartment, and put in their notices at their respective jobs. All they had to do for the FBI to allow them to leave was promise to return to the states for the trails they were slated to testify in. Drake had sighed and bitched about it, but in the end, he had agreed to ship the Devore to Cordonia.

Logan had talked Liam into purchasing several Devore GTs for the royal fleet. “If you want speed and dependability, this is the way to go.”

Their last night in New York, Liam had taken Riley to the statue of liberty and proposed properly.

“As if you even have to ask.” She told him.

“I told you in Paris that I wanted to this correctly when the time was right. So….” He slid to one knee and held the ring up to her, “Riley Beth Campbell, queen of my heart, I have longed to say these four words for a very, very long time…will you marry me?”

“Yes, Liam, yes! A million times yes!”

The large, pear cut diamond sparkled on her left hand as she gazed out the plane window. They were on their way home, somewhere over the Atlantic. Max had heard from Bertrand and Drake had spoken to Savannah. He was over the moon thrilled that his sister was moving back home. Although Bertrand had offered her a room at Ramsford, Savannah had opted to return to her rooms at the palace, choosing to take things slow with Bertrand, afraid he was only pursuing her because of Bartie. “I want to be wanted for me, not my ability to produce heirs.” She’d told her brother on the phone.

Riley had thanked Justin for his hard work and let him know that his services were no longer needed now that her goal had been accomplished. Her image was rehabilitated, the public was clamoring for an engagement announcement and she was suddenly a media darling again.

They would arrive home at ten p.m. local time, a press conference was scheduled for the next day, in the afternoon to give them a chance to sleep in and recover from the jet lag. They would announce their engagement to an adoring public, Constantine was controlled, Bastien was under surveillance, everything was finally going their way.

A homecoming ball was planned for several days after their arrival. Riley’s things had already been transported by servants from Ramsford back to the palace, but not to her old room. Her clothes had been placed in Liam’s quarters. The life Liam had promised her was waiting on the other side of the ocean. They were finally able to be together, out in the open and nothing was ever going to come between them again.

She relaxed between the two men she loved, who loved her, leaning her head on Liam’s shoulder as her hand slipped into Drake’s, contentment spilling through every pore of her body. The gentle motion of the plane lulled her to sleep as it flew on through the cloudless sky, toward their future.  

*********

Complicated may be over, but their story continues in Hinge.

[eregyrn-falls]

Angsty thing I realized recently about the GF finale: Bill mostly tells Ford to "talk", before and after torturing him (which still breaks my heart btw), but Ford says he specifically has to let Bill into his mind for the equation. Maybe he just assumed Bill would force the more painful option, but given Ford's self-punishing tendencies it's entirely possible he chose it over just telling Bill. (At least he finally saw he didn't need to suffer - poor nerd needs to know he's worth saving.)

You’re right, that really is a very interesting shift!  Although it kind of goes back and forth a bit. 

At first, Bill asks Ford to tell him the equation. (In the penthouse scene.)  Ford refuses, and Bill says no problem, he’ll just rummage in Ford’s mind to get it.  That’s when Ford reminds him that he can’t go into Ford’s mind unless Ford invites him again.  So Bill repeats that he’ll make Ford talk.

In the torture scene ( D: ), Bill asks if Ford is ready to TALK, and Ford answers that he won’t, he won’t let Bill into his mind.  When the Shack-tron arrives, and Ford praises Dipper and Mabel, Bill says that perhaps torturing the kids will get for to talk.  

Finally, when Bill has Stan and Ford trapped and Dipper and Mabel in a cage, Bill says “Last chance: tell me”.  Then Dipper and Mabel get Bill to go after them, and Ford, alone with Stan, says, “I'm going to play the only card we have left. Let Bill into my mind.”

(Just reviewing all of that so that it’s handy; it can be easy sometimes to misremember exactly what was said at which points.)

What’s interesting about all of this to me is that mostly, it’s Bill saying “talk”, while Ford tends to talk about preventing Bill from entering his mind.  I’m even trying to puzzle this out from a writing standpoint, because obviously, the writers wanted to plant the idea of Bill having to go into someone’s mind at the end, to be erased.  So why not have Bill consistently talk about needing to get into Ford’s mind, too?  The main reason Bill has for wanting to go into his mind is to get information that Ford won’t tell him out loud... but basically, Bill is in the position of having to force Ford to do either thing.

Looking at what happens next, after Ford’s line above: he says, “Bill's only weak in the mind space.“

And that’s really interesting too, isn’t it?  That Ford would think of it that way?  It kind of refers back to “Dreamscaperers”, and how we saw that by taking advantage of their own ability to do whatever they could think up, in the mindscape, the kids were able to beat Bill and get him to leave Stan’s mind.  But there was always kind of a question, I felt, about whether they truly “beat” Bill, or whether he just decided, for the moment, to retreat.  (If he hadn’t decided he was done for the day, could they have REALLY driven him out?)

But here Ford is echoing that idea -- the idea that Bill is “weak” in the mindspace almost seems weird, because we’ve been used to thinking of the mindscape as his home turf.  Although, it’s certainly true that Bill attaining physical form in Weirdmageddon is supposed to have made him even MORE powerful. 

Ford’s statement is immediately followed by: “If I didn't have this darn plate in my head we could just erase him with the memory gun when he steps inside my mind.“

But I kind of wonder if the first statement is meant to stand on its own: “Bill is only weak in the mindspace.”  Could that be part of why Ford was redirecting the subject to refusing to let Bill into his mind, previously?  Did he want Bill focused on the idea, because Ford thought it might give him a slight advantage?  And yet, Ford also says, in that final scene, that letting Bill into his mind means “He'll be able to take over the galaxy and maybe even worse, but at least he might let the kids free.”  He’s seeming to take it as a foregone conclusion that if he lets Bill into his mind, he will be unable to hide the equation from Bill.   So even though Bill is weak in the mindspace, he’s still stronger than Ford; and it only means that while in the mindspace, Bill has another vulnerability, to the memory gun.

The only other thing I can come up with, I suppose, is that if Ford just tells Bill the equation, that’s it, it’s over.  But if Ford gets Bill to go into his mind, there is at least a chance that he might be able to hide the equation from Bill and delay the end.  That’s the only difference between the two options that I really see. 

I have certainly always subscribed to the idea that Ford mentioned the equation, and taunted Bill about it, in order to focus Bill on trying to break him and get the equation.  That Ford knew what he was in for, but was confident he could withstand whatever Bill did to him. (Which... he did.)  And that this was a delaying tactic on Ford’s part, although that’s never explicitly said in the show itself.  (Delaying for what?  Did Ford expect the kids and Stan and others to figure out a way to fight back?  Or did he just hope that they were getting away, outside of the bubble where Bill wouldn’t be able to get them?)

And I think you’re right, there’s a degree of self-martyrdom there, too.  Ford was focused on being the one to take down Bill, I have always thought, because Ford regarded himself as the one who made the mess in the first place, and he didn’t want others to risk being hurt or killed to fix that mistake.  (I honestly never thought it was about “being the hero” in the sense of earning the glory of being the one to kill Bill; or about thinking he was the only one who would be able to do it. He thought the chances of dying while doing it were high, and he felt nobody should die but him.)  In the end he’s still ready to sacrifice himself for the chance of getting Bill to save his family.  (That’s why it’s poetic that he has to give up control, and give up martyrdom, in order to pull the trigger on Stan. Doing that was much harder and more painful than just dying himself would have been.)

In the end I guess I’m still not sure what to make of it, what the Watsonian explanation is.  The Doylist explanation is that the plot needed Bill to think he was going into Ford’s mind. But what Ford thought he was doing, why he was insisting on -- or being resigned to -- Bill having to go into his mind, remains open to various interpretations.

Good ask, though!  Interesting stuff to think about!

[redantsunderneath]

VAL and BILLIE EILISH: THE WORLD'S A LITTLE BLURRY

I shouldn’t be allowed to watch documentaries. All that any documentary seems to be about (at this point, to me) is the relationship between itself and the truth. I don’t know if it’s 2000's reality TV or that one time I watched Capturing the Friedman’s and Waco: The Rules of Engagement back to back that broke me, but what interests me isn’t the subject matter but standpoint epistemology of the thing. These two docs are very different, diametrically opposed in almost every way, but both are defined by the ways in which the text struggles against reality. Val is about an old man who used cameras (himself) to capture his entire life as he pretended to be someone else on film. He is infirm, occluding his laryngotomy tube to talk, and his handlers try to manage his naps around meet and greets where he sells the shell of the person he once was for the fans who still care. It’s forbears are archeological dead celebrity docs that try to find the elusive star at the center (Robin Williams, Heath Ledger, Amy Winehouse) and those about reclaiming memory (Alzheimer Project, Waltz with Bashir) but it’s just… he’s the cameraman and he’s still shuffling around. Closest comparison (minus the age part) is probably Kid 90, which was being cut at the same time. This doesn’t get at how weird this is, though. He used to make movies with his brother, who drowned during a seizure and haunts the movie (he would put up his brother’s drawings in shots on film sets, the talks about or around the event constantly). He often hands off the camera to people so he can be seen in his world with complex instructions (when I walk off, focus in on that speaker so when I go onstage you will hear my first line) and when the camera hits a mirror he lingers (as in the video of his newborn baby). He seems to always be performing, an aspect of life we are all familiar with by now but less common when this footage was taken. His wife is uncomfortable on camera, usually mugging or hiding, and you get the feeling the distancing from his life is intentional as he focuses on internal transformation away from ego resolution, but he still needs to be seen, his sense of self tied up in an object permanence issue. The movie is structured as someone trying to sort through memories of their life and come to terms with them, although the memories in this case is a small warehouse full of video tapes and film canisters. In his current life he can only communicate with difficulty and tries to convey reaction with meaningful-but-of-what glances and gestures. Effacement by time and looming death drench the whole enterprise - when his brother dies he says his father “lost his charisma” (just contemplate that). His current simulacra of celebrity makes him feel like a ghost, signing “you can be my wingman anytime” multiple times for people who this means something to. So he brings up the footage and tries to reconstruct his life (his credit as cinematographer is both funny, touching, and chilling). This thing is full of interesting moments. He is doing a line reading of Hamlet at Juilliard and Peter Kass stops him to ask where the performance is coming from. He responds that he has never considered killing himself which causes Kass to explode, insisting that no-one in the history of the world has not had that thought. This seems to rob us and him of a potentially revelatory moment as Kilmer seems different, spiritual in an unusual way… maybe the reason why he never thought of that was more interesting than that point. His entreaty to Marlon Brando to tell him what his earliest childhood memory is is responded to by Brando asking for him to rock his hammock with repetition of the question only yielding feedback on the rocking until neonatal-fat Brando’s satisfaction at being rocked seems like an answer. The argument with John Frankenheimer who does not want to be filmed is something else. The major things going on are here are being haunted vs feeling like a ghost and an arrested Lacanian mirror phase that complicates his intersubjective context, with the karmic

self-assessment of who he is trying to chill in the middle. The filmmaking knows this and orients itself as a process of evaluating memory where what is true seems elusive, heavily edited, and hall-of-mirrors-like. The question of what is performance is a subconscious struggle. Conspicuous in their absence are his own feelings on his decline beyond the fact that he “doesn’t believe in death,” real insight into his marriage (and breakup, other than an allusion to his method acting Jim Morrison being a problem) and relationship with his kids (who are around all the time, but seem like Sixth Sense characters), and the fact that he’s a legendary asshole on set. This last is, like, the one thing everyone knows about him. But you can sort of sense this stuff secondarily, right off the edge of the screen and in him relentlessly projecting onto his parents. The real crux is the study of a man who never feels seen, but tries to become so by disappearing into someone else, who needs recording devices so that he can capture himself properly, all controlled performance; someone unaware of his own loneliness brought about by not being very good at making himself available because his “self” is externally resolved and constant inner transformation masks the unformed nature of his ego at rest. The film accomplishes this by allowing him to reveal what is absent by his preoccupations and bearing witness to his deflection mechanisms, so that he is no closer to knowing himself but, by being manipulated in a way we can see the frame of, we kind of get a glimpse. Good experience, wish there was more Christian Scientist material (that seems like an angle of understanding the film wasn’t interested in). Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry is about a young girl who is followed by cameras capturing her entire life as she pretends to be herself on stage. She has a Simone Biles flavored psycho-physical compromise that everyone tries to “handle” while she sells herself as the person she isn’t to fans who care, at least right now. This is in the tradition of Truth or Dare mimics that seem de rigueur for female pop stars. Closest comparison is Miss Americana. This movie feels made by spreadsheet to contain scenes to develop the official narrative of an in-her-brother’s-room, in her suburban parent’s house, sui generis composite genius who is on the edge of mental unfitness trying to be as normal as she can in this crazy merry go round called fame. The obviousness of the put on is diffused by the relative lameness of the pieces. In some respects this is the typical documentary “look for the cracks for insight” play, but it is consciously using that as a tool too and doing it badly - the manufactured insight escape moments largely ring false. This comes off as a Zoom background era counterfeit, a series of YouTube clips where Markeplier or whoever lets the mask slip a little in the most forced bit of unbiddenness possible. There is a boyfriend who feels like a story mandated version of “from Canada.” But the interesting thing is the way it recapitulates the way modern pop is put together, not by writing, not by spontaneous “feel your way,” but by putting bits of ideas together and trying to emulate form. There are a lot of moments in the film that feel like they could have been real, but the non-actors were asked to do another take and can’t quite nail it. It actually has such a boner for produced casual that it is pretty much allergic to authenticity, which is quite a thing for a documentary. The major things going on are here are grappling with whether she brings anything musically to the table (the brother seems like the musical force, she’s afraid her voice is bad, they make a point to show her idea notebooks as work product), her wish to only perform if she can give the fans her best show (possibly her version of just wanting to call in sick, understandable) is at odds with her being the center of a machine that has to move, her as a product of a not entirely with it older parents who gave their kids an open creative runway

and now are instrumental in managing her as a resource that is tricky to work with, the work being her and her brother dicking around and making magic happen, and an attempt to paint her as a Beleiber who now is on the the other side of the fan dichotomy. Development of her style, arguably her #1 thing, is sort of left as her telling a video director “I drew this bleeding eye woman, can we do something like this?” and sort of suggesting through letting her point around that she is a de facto co director. At times, it feels like a try at icon forging that someone wanted to fail, but it is probably just the high school conception-to-production level tat ultimately comes off as a larger indictment of making a movie like you make modern pop music - overdetermined manipulation of flimsy elements without a satisfying ethos, that looks too be an insubstantial assemblage of spliced pieces that live of die by their stickiness. But it begins to feel, more and more, that it’s about how non-exciting pop stars can be as people and that a narrative that people respond to can kind of die if you show that’s it’s just work and somewhat normal people trying to be a piece of an illusion. It’s this partitioning away of the hyperreality and an attempt to show the official story acted by the sausage makers trying to pretend the banality is just crazy man. Where Val is a simulation of an habitual performer considering who they actually are selectively sorting their life and failing to confront the loneliness of age and death (more elusive to them than us), this is obvious hoax unintentionally (?) revealing the fabricated nature of the image-music industry by way of demonstrating the strangely normie creatives, green-yellow ombre or no, can’t be arsed to summon a proper freakout (the whining seems authentic, though). Music videos may lie to you, but the official story is strangely correct - kids living in mom’s house cobble together catchy stuff and pull off pop stardom due to social media age production savvy and a little zeitgeisty imagery, it’s just everyone is well adjusted if stressed and someone’s only donning the costume of the online archetype of a specific kind of girl. Val uses the constructed nature of these narratives as a tool wielded in the open to suggest the inner working of a mind failing to be honest with itself while the other is interesting in its transparency and failure to convince us of the loosely conceived fiction, leaving reality apparent as bong resin. Baudrillard would have liked this one more, probably.

[toloveawarlord]

A Rambling about Obey Me and some of the discourse going around:

I’ve finally had a chance to sit down and think hard on the whole Lucifer didn’t listen to the MC say no in the newest event.

First of all, this post likely won’t be spoiler free so read at your own risk. I’m not going to censor myself for those who haven’t played up through Lesson 20 but most of the things I hit on is common knowledge anyways. 

Secondly, I do not condone what they implied that Lucifer did. Consent is important, that’s not the point of this post. I’m not saying it’s okay to do so. This is simply the context of the game and my own viewing of it from a writer’s standpoint.

I put it under a cut because this is a long post.

Okay, now that we have all the disclaimers and stuff out of the way, let’s move into my own thoughts.

Firstly, this was meant to be dream sequence. I know a lot of people gripe about it doesn’t matter that it was dream, but if it’s supposed to be mc’s dream, then likely this particular mc was probably meant to be paired with Lucifer, they just gave options for those who aren’t Luci stans to get more people to play. But was a dream, and likely meant to represent an mc that wants Lucifer.

Was it a good writing choice to add in a choice to say and then do it anyways? Probably not, because this kind of thing always gets backlash from the community (i.e. Arthur in Ikevamp). But they did it, and it wasn’t explicit, nor did it actually say that Lucifer actually went through with it, again, because it was a dream and it ended at that particular point. You can argue that it shouldn’t have been implied, but you can also argue that it didn’t happen because it was simply an implication. The point that is made though, is that Lucifer didn’t respond in a “Okay, I’ll stop” manner. As far as him being a character and a demon, that response would be really strange, to me. Is it right? No, no one should force themselves on anyone. Is it a normal response for a demon who is the avatar of pride and thinks humans are lowly creatures? Yeah, kind of.

Secondly, this game is dark as hell. A lot of people don’t want to see it that way, because it’s an otome game and otome’s are typically solely focused on the romance aspect. Obey Me is riddled with violence, sexual tones (i.e. Asmo outright tells MC that the bar they are at is has sex rooms and can even be bought out for an orgy, and he has participated in those), and the main boys are even avatars of sin. It’s not an otome with a sprinkle of angst and sadness for backstory and character development. It’s a dark and twisted world where you can romance demons.

Speaking of demons, that’s my next point. The boys are demons. They have been around for millenniums, and demons are not known to have morals and live by our human standards of what is right and wrong. (again, see above, I don’t believe what Luci was implied to do was right.) But honestly, you cannot expect demons to have the same moral code that us humans do. It wouldn’t make sense and to be honest, it’s part of the appeal of the game.

Part of the underlying themes and tones of this game is that romancing a demon is taboo. It’s not going to entail the same trials and character problems that other otome suitors deal with. These aren’t boys. These are demons, powerful demons with their owns sins and they also believe that they are above humans. So, being above humans, of course Lucifer doesn’t really care if you say or not. He’s a demon and he is used to getting his way. He’s also the avatar of pride so he can’t fathom why you wouldn’t choose to be with him. (Again. I do not think it’s right for Lucifer to force himself on anyone.) From a writing standpoint, that was a perfectly acceptable thing for Lucifer to say, because of who he is as a character and a species. (But that doesn’t make it okay. I never said it was okay. I said it was normal for him as a character. I do not condone forcing anyone.)

Was it necessary for the story? That’s a little more difficult to define. I understand that this can be triggering material for some, and you are perfectly valid to say you didn’t like it and it was wrong. I don’t personally think that they made a huge mistake and should be reprimanded for it. It’s a story with dark themes and violence so it’s reasonable to assume that things like this are going to occur. They are demons with a very skewed sense of morals. But I totally get that there are people out there who don’t like reading that kind of triggering content.

I think a good middle ground would be to add some kind of warning to events or chapters. I don’t know how they would implement something like that, but it might be a more peaceful solution instead of going to the creators and telling them that they are wrong to add that content. Because, let’s be honest, not everyone is bothered by that kind of thing and creators can’t always cater to everything that might be a trigger to someone. For some, that kind of content is wanted and there aren’t any otomes that I’m aware of that has the option to explore those darker kinks. (Please don’t bring up Princess of the Moon Ultimate. That game is not what I mean.)

Obey Me really teeters on the edge of being too adult for minors, but there is plenty of content in the games that are okay for a younger audience. No matter what anyone says, the younger kids are not going to stop playing just because a stranger on the internet told them to. It’s not going to happen, so really, it’s only stirring up drama. I will say that minors should stay away from explicitly adult content created by us adults, mostly because of legal reasons, but again, I don’t think it’s going to stop anyone from doing it if they want to. Just know, that as adults, it’s really uncomfortable to think of minors engaging in explicit content. You are still children, whether you think so or not, but you’re going to play the game regardless (I know because back in my day, I did too). I think the middle ground for this is for minors not to engage with adults in any explicit or sexual themed content or talk. That’s about the most we can ask. Telling them not to play the game isn’t solving anything. (Please don’t come at me with this drama. I don’t want to hear about why they shouldn’t play or why they should be allowed, I don’t care about it.)

This kind of rounds me up to a big final point. I got off track with the content thing but back to the demons and their morals.

This why Obey Me is such an interesting story to me. The point of the whole game (so far) is that YOU are the one controlling the demons with the pacts. It takes a while for Lucifer and Belphie, but in the end, you get a pact with all of them. This really eliminates a lot of the dangers with the brothers. They obey you now. So, in the main story game (after lesson 20), if that Lucifer scene had happened (remember, it’s a dream), if you had chosen the NO option, then he would have no choice but to listen to you. Because the pact allows you to control them (we see this time and time again with MC telling Mammon to do things or stop doing things).

Which opens up the opportunity for you as the mc to teach them. I know this isn’t a prominent part of the game (it’s still real early to tell what’s going to happen) but now that you have them under a pact, you have the opportunity to reign in their sins and teach them to be decent demons. And honestly, it’s really one of the only ways that they could have handled the demons and a human in a romantic relationship. There is no such thing as a morally righteous demon. That would be angels (hello simeon). It’s going to be very interesting to see how having a specific suitor under a pact will effectively even the playing fields in a romantic relationship.

Take Asmo for example, as the Avatar of Lust. Before the pact, the scales of power were completely in Asmo’s hands. As a human, you literally couldn’t do anything to stop him from doing anything (hence the fact that Belphie literally kills mc, and there has been very dangerous situations). He’s a demon with enormous powers and the mc is a lowly human. And honestly, with Asmo being a narcissist, he probably wouldn’t understand why you wouldn’t want him. He’s Asmodeus. He’s wanted by everyone.

BUT

With the power of the pact, the scales of power in the relationship tip into the MC’s favor. Will this stop them from trying? Not at all, but now MC has the power to make them stop. And that’s really the only way that a relationship could happen. The power difference is simply too great for a human to date a demon without that added layer of control in MC’s hands.

I know that this is an otome game, and it’s supposed to be about romancing them and all that, but the story is riddled with dark tones and themes and it will most likely have more triggering material. I think that’s something that everyone is going to have to accept in this game. It’s not a lighthearted romance with angst and sex. It’s definitely not as dark as like Diabolik Lovers, but like vampires, demons have a whole added layer of twisted and taboo subjects that are going to play a large role in the game.

And I think that’s part of the point. This game is not going to be like Cybird’s games. It’s not going to be like MLQC. Personally, I like the idea of a darker game with wiggle for more adult oriented themes and content that we miss out on in the other games (i.e. I would have loved to seen a part of Edgar’s route where Claudius orders him to kill MC and he struggles with doing it or not and maybe even harming her in the process of figuring it out. Because, Edgar is kind of brainwashed by Claudius and it tracks for his character. But its romance otome, so of course, they weren’t going to take it that far.). Exploring the darker sides of romance, allowing for more raw and twisted concepts.

All in all, if you want a happy go lucky, suitors with cute romance and just a bit of angst and sex, this is not the game for you.

I also don’t think that going after the creators and saying that they shouldn’t put out darker content and having Lucifer do what he did in that event was right. This game is going to have uncomfortable topics and ugly moments. They are demons and this is devildom (see also: hell). Warnings would be great, I think finding a balance is good, but the creators are making this content for a broad audience. Not everyone is going to be happy. You can either take it with a grain of salt, and continue playing. Or you can not play it because you don’t like some of the content. The content creators don’t owe us anything. The whole “well this is for a western audience” is mute. There is likely going to be other triggering content because of the nature of the game. You can’t expect a dark otome to not have that, just because it triggers you. Warnings, yes, I think that that would help, let people know what they might be getting into in an event or chapter, but catering to the needs to every single player of a game is not going to happen, and it could cause the game to be shut down. This game is more adult oriented so it’s going to have more adult content that might not sit right with you.

I’m gonna end this by saying: Obey Me is an amazing game, and it has quite dark content in places. That’s the whole point of the game. It’s not a standard romance otome and trying to change it to be one is not okay. That doesn’t mean that your feelings toward it aren’t valid. It simply means that we cannot expect the same content as other otome games when it involves darker content. I don’t really want a watered down version of this game where they ignore the dangers of demons for the sake of romance.

I am gonna repeat a few things: I do not condone Lucifer’s actions, that’s not what I’m about. No one should force themselves on you. And this is filled with my opinions, yours can differ, but I’m not looking for anyone to come tell me why I’m wrong. This is just a few points of why I personally think that the game is doing just fine and doesn’t need to change.

[ober-affen-geil]

This is probably going to be less analytical than the rest of my metas, because I want to talk about an aspect of Roswell that affects me personally. (I do plan, eventually, to do a post about the writing on this show and while this does address some of the impact the writing has had on me it is not about the writing *overall*. Just to make that clear.) 

There have been several overarching concepts that this show has done a wonderful job of addressing in various lowkey ways. As a female viewer, I am invigorated by the strength and variety written into the women on this show. As a queer viewer, I am encouraged by the depth and focus given to the queer characters on this show. But this isn’t about either of those things (though they are important to me, obviously). This is about how Roswell depicts the military aspect of the show.

*A caveat, I have never been a member of the US military. I am a dependent and I come from a military family; I am approaching it from that standpoint.*

To me, Roswell is the first time I have ever seen the military represented in TV in a way that relates almost exactly to how I see the military in my actual life. And I’m not talking about the detailed stuff, there are issues with that as with all things. (Seriously, can we please settle on a rank for Alex? But in all fairness, they did correctly use the word “airman” instead of “soldier” in dialog so I will give them that.) I mean for the first time the military is not depicted as a force for good or evil, it’s just there.

Alex is a good person in his own right, not because he’s in the military. Jesse is a bad person in his own right, not because he’s in the military. It is emphasized, several times, in dialog that the government is responsible for Project Shepard and all the horrors it brings with, not the military. The way I’ve always seen the military, and the way I interpret this show as depicting the military, is that it is a weapon. But whether a weapon defends or strikes out is entirely dependent on the wielder, which is and always has been the US government. 

When Michael asks Alex how he knows about aliens Alex answers “Massive government conspiracy.” When Alex is talking to Kyle about the massacre they witnessed at Caulfield he says “You just watched your government blow up a building full of elderly people. Your brain is trying to justify the slaughter so that your government can be right.” Military resources and personnel are involved, yes. But the military is a tool, not the engineer. 

And the way that military service is written as having affected the characters is also telling in its variety. It is clear that Jesse Manes has taken the lessons of discipline and structure the military teaches and interpreted them in a very different way than how Alex has. And it is also clear that this is, as in real life, a reflection of the character of the individual, not a reflection on the lessons themselves.

While I’m on the subject of Alex I want to expand on him a little more, because he is to me the most direct link to my personal experience with the military. Alex has a complex relationship with his service. He admits, to Michael, that he may not have entered the Air Force for the best reasons, personally. He indicates several times that going to war has changed him mentally (I left “nice” back in the Middle East) and active combat has also obviously changed him physically. In his speech to Kyle, he talks about “the coldest reality of war” is that “you realize that the evil is you”. Alex is very aware of the negative aspects of military service. But he never once actually blames the military for what has happened to him. In fact we see him wearing an Air Force t-shirt in 1x13 and actively using his military training/resources at various points throughout the show.

This directly relates to the mindset of one of my immediate family members who has served (coincidentally also in the Air Force). I have had a conversation with them about their experience where they have told me, almost verbatim, exactly what Alex tells Kyle. “I saw things that made me think we’re not the good guys.” They have been affected negatively, both physically and mentally, by their active duty service (though not in the same ways as Alex). I can personally attest to the fact that this person, whom I love dearly, was called to war and did not return the same. And yet they are proud to have served. They wear Air Force hats and t-shirts all the time and continue to use surplus pieces of gear (like socks and PT uniforms) in their day to day life. (Though as anyone associated with the military can tell you, it’s actually very difficult to avoid picking up a crapload of excess clothing through your service.)

tl;dr Alex Manes is one of the truest, most honest characterizations of a service member I have seen in fiction. Ever. (If I’m being realistic, so is Jesse Manes, but he gets less focus/development.) And the way the military has been written as simply an entity is perfectly indicative of the way that I relate to it in my personal life. For that I give Roswell a lot of credit, and I can only hope it continues in season 2.

[centaurianthropology]

The Magnus Archives Season 3 Q&A – What We Learned!

So this isn’t my usual analysis, but I did decide to collate a little bullet-point list of all the things we’ve learned from the Season 3 Q&A for those of you who can’t/don’t want to listen for whatever reason, but still want the delicious information that we got.  I’ll also be including my own thoughts about some of the points, so there will be some tasty meta.  This will just be a bit more of an informational post than most are.

·         The metaplot is known through season 5 (which will be the final season), and is hashed out in more detail at the beginning of each season.  The individual spooky stories are not necessarily known prior to the week before writing.  There is usually a general idea, but no specific details until far closer to the deadline.

·         Martin’s crush on Jon was known from the beginning of the series.  No specifics were given about when and how it came about on Martin’s end.  I imagine we’ll probably get more into this as we go forward (I lean toward it developing while he was living in the Archives, as his attitude toward Jon definitely shifted from “I have to prove myself to my boss who doesn’t believe in me” to getting very emotional when he thought he left Jon and Tim to die in the tunnels). But it was known that the crush would or already had happened from the inception of Martin’s character.

·         Tim’s background was known 2 seasons prior to now (so end of season 1).  It only came about at that point because, prior to that, Tim was going to be the one to be replaced by the Not-Them at the end of season 1 rather than Sasha.  There had to be a last-minute change because Lottie (the woman who played Sasha) had a scheduling conflict that meant she couldn’t commit to the continued large-scale time commitment.  So Sasha got replaced, Tim got a backstory, and the rest is history.  Very interesting to think that the descent into bitterness and potentially even the ties to the circus were originally meant to be Sasha’s. Is that why she was so interested in the calliope in season 1 perhaps?  Having the only main female character also be the first to die was also one of the big reasons why they added a lot of major recurring female characters from then on.

·         Basira and Daisy becoming as significant as they were was a combination of the characters being interesting and the actors being fun to working with.  They also very much fulfilled certain necessary narrative roles.

·         They knew Melanie was going to become an assistant from shortly after Lydia’s recording of her initial episode.  I’m guessing this is partly to do with Lydia being already available, but I also have to imagine it was due to the instant, nasty rapport she had with Jon.  She was certainly the character from season 1 who I most wanted back when I initially heard her.

·         Jonny’s original pitch for the show was the 13 fears, though the Slaughter and the Hunt were initially the same, but as he worked through them he realized that the root fear was very different.  It became especially apparent due to the fact that extremely different (and likely very poorly cooperating) sorts of people were driven to each of those powers.  This is interesting, because it implies that Melanie and Daisy, though we have not seen them interact, would not get on at all. They’re driven by instincts that are too close but too different.  

·         Poor, poor Jonny is haunted by Elias’ surge in popularity during season 3, particularly the large contingent of fans who found him suddenly and definitely attractive.  He blames Ben Meredith for all his woes: “It was only after [episode] 92 when he started to be properly, overtly villainous, and everyone just decided how sexy he was!  When we were planning things out, there was no way for us to foresee how sexy Elias was going to be.  Something I blame entirely on Ben.”  And Alex cackled in the background.

·         Melanie’s clap-marker as her statement beginning was actually improvisation on Lydia’s part (and works wonderfully with her background in video production).  By and large, though, there was little improvisation from the actors. There was a lot of lean-in to certain qualities that actors brought out if they were particularly good at it.

·         Jonny’s favorite power to write is the Flesh because it’s super weird and lets him dig into really odd writing.  His least favorite is the Dark because it’s so easy to fall into tropes and clichés, and he doesn’t actually share that particular fear.  He also finds writing the Desolation particularly challenging, as it treads the closest to his biggest distaste in horror: linking spooky fictional stuff with real-life trauma.  The very nature of the Desolation lends itself to trauma-porn, so when writing it he has to be especially careful not to do that.  Alex’s least favorite from a production standpoint is the Spiral because it’s always a nightmare editing it, but the Vast is his favorite, because he adds high amplitude low frequency noise to induce an on-edge feeling in the listener.

·         Alex really enjoys killing all the characters you love.  Sasha’s replacement might have been his favorite moment in the show, because it was subtle enough a lot of people didn’t catch it.  He also seemed positively gleeful when joking about how very dead Tim is.  Of all the changes in personality from character to actor, Alex is always the one who gives me the most whiplash.  Which, I suppose, is a testament to his acting abilities.

·         Perhaps Jonny’s greatest regret is naming the main character after himself and not thinking that would become … complicated.  Apparently, in the earliest drafts he was just the host of the anthology series, and not a character in his own right, which is why he originally just went with his own name.  Then he didn’t think to change it as they made Jonanthan Sims his own character with only vague similarities to Jonny (he was basically all the bits of Jonny that would make a good horror protagonist, exaggerated for effect, right up until about episode 20, at which point the character began to develop along his own lines and moved farther and farther from Jonny), who would like to believe that his own personal decisions were less “overtly horrific” than his fictional counterpart.  Alex described Jonny vs Jon as “I’d like to think that you’re less of a hot garbage-fire of a person”.  They both agreed that Jon (the character) was the absolute king of terrible decisions, and that it was hysterical to listen to Jonny’s parents eviscerate Jon’s incredibly awful decisions.  I love Jonathan Sims, Head Asshole of the Magnus Institute, but I will agree with their assessment of his character.

·         A similar regret was naming the assistants after Jonny’s then-roommates.  Not only did it cause confusion (as all 3 have now also been in the show at some point), but he brutally killed off his fiancé’s namesake first.  Oops?

·         It sounds at least probable we’ll get the last bit of the Daedalus space station story in season 4.  On that note, I found it interesting that all recurring story themes, etc, are mentioned to recur in season 4.  There was absolutely no mention of season 5 at all.  Which makes me leery.

·         US distribution and ratings for podcasts are … interesting.  Jonny could add in all the violence, explicit gore, and even sex he wanted.  The only thing (literally the only thing) that gets a podcast marked *explicit* is swearing.  Which meant that the podcast, in order to not be marked as explicit, had to scale back the language and nothing else.  Every time a character swears, it has to be well-thought-out, and Jonny has to sell Alex on why it’s important.  On the up-side, the lack of swearing was apparently what convinced Sue Sims to be a part of the cast, so I think getting Gertrude is well worth adherence to a laughably odd rule for US ratings.  Also, on that same note, Alex’s imitation of Jonny’s mother nearly made me snort tea up my nose.  So thanks for that, Alex.

·         Jonny believes that what he writes is ‘escapist horror’.  It’s a way of indulging in fear and spookiness in a controlled, safe way, when it won’t suddenly turn deeply unpleasant and traumatic.  He believes that his audience needs to trust that they can enjoy the horror without worrying that it will unexpectedly cross lines. He separates that from literary horror, which often does dig into very traumatic issues through the mechanisms of horror in very thoughtful ways.  All horror, in his opinion, needs to be respectful when it tackles very traumatic subjects.  The reason that Jonny personally doesn’t write literary horror is that he has no personal experience with those sorts of traumas, and would not feel qualified to dig into them in a genuine and thoughtful way.  He therefore sticks to escapist horror that his audience knows they can enjoy without worrying about it suddenly veering from spooks to trauma.

·         The sound of the Anglerfish is a baby crying, slowed down 100x.  Nikola had record scratches layered under her voice very subtly.

·         Jonny’s favorite thing to record in season 3 was his [MUFFLED FEELINGS], and he revealed that he managed to sound like he had a gag in his mouth by trying to stuff as much of his fist into his mouth as possible before trying to deliver lines. Which produced a really amazing amount of saliva, apparently.  They also had a lot of fun trying to record one of the larger group scenes in which most of the participants shouted at one another, because they used up most of the oxygen in the studio and all got very dizzy.  Alex really enjoyed recording his scenes in episode 100, because it was one of the few times he got to improvise, and he and the actress spent the entire episode trying to make one another laugh.  

·         Also, all statements in episode 100 are confirmed to have been supernatural events, simply told badly.  The actors got a paragraph telling them what really happened, as well as some bullet points detailing how they might get side-tracked or otherwise be terrible statement givers.  The rest was slowly improvised, with frequent checks for canon-compliance.  And, yes, episode 100 was absolutely a funny way of answering the question: “Does the magic power also make them really eloquent storytellers?”  “YES. YES, IT DOES.”

·         Alex misses his old analogue mixer.  There was about 2 minutes of eulogizing.  

·         Tim is 100% dead.  They also specify that they will never resurrect characters or bring them back from the dead (which makes Jon’s current situation particularly worrisome, as he’s not quite dead, but he’s inches from it).  Dead characters may still make appearances via tape (Gertrude’s been dead the whole time, and it hasn’t stopped her from showing up plenty) or speak from beyond the grave (thanks Gerry), but if a character dies, they will not come back to life.  This also means that Michael will not be coming back as the Distortion.  The distortion is now Helen, and the story of the Distortion is about what and who she is.  Michael may return as audio, of course, but not in the form of the Distortion.  Likewise, Gertrude and Leitner in the season finale were not ghosts; they were mostly Nikola, with a little bit of Unknowing reality-bending-weird thrown in.

·         Georgie will be returning, but she will be an occasionally recurring character rather than a regular.  

·         The Usher Foundation is the American sister foundation to the Magnus Institute, which is similar to it but different.  It’s a way to broaden the world and give a nice hook for fanfiction/RPG settings/etc. The same can be said of the other institutions like the Chinese research institution.  It’s a way to expand the world and to give a sense of scope without a locked-down story.  There’s just too much story to fit into two more seasons as is.

·         There is a nexus of timeline discrepancies that is 100% part of the plot, but the rest of timeline issues are probably just mistakes.  Mary Kaey’s dates are almost definitely oversights in writing, but Jonny doesn’t discount that he might do something with the discrepancy to make it an interesting plot point in the future.

·         Gerry’s father is not confirmed to be Eric, the research assistant of Gertrude’s who took the statement in ‘Upon a Stair’, as Jonny refused to answer the question.  He did, however, state that whoever asked had been listening very closely.

·         Any character who believes they understand how the powers work is absolutely wrong. This does include Gerry’s interpretation of Robert Smirke’s cosmology, though Jonny did state that what Gerry said is about as close as we’re likely to get to the truth of the cosmology (no exposition dump is a lie, but it’s only a decent approximation).  However, the powers are going to defy any attempt to nail them down or perfectly sum them up.  Plenty of things will not line up with the way Gerry described them, because the powers work on nightmare logic, not normal logic.

·         The tapes are NOT neutral.  They are not simply objects to record.  There is more to them than that, but we don’t know what.

·         Jonny is a massive history nerd.  He got very into Wolfgang von Kempelin, and his imitation of von Kempelen’s speaking machine was hysterical.  His favorite episode to write was ‘Tale of a Field Hospital’ for similar history nerd reasons.

·         The first trailer for the series (with the chanting) was meant as a mood piece, but has absolutely nothing to do with the meta plot.  It was recorded before half of the meta plot was even established.

·         The Magnus Institute, beyond the Archival staff and Elias, is just a legitimate supernatural academic research institution.  The library does exactly what it says it does (house and catalogue valuable texts on the supernatural).  Artifact Storage really does just store and experiment on supernatural artifacts.  Research is mostly students working on dissertations and theses.  They are even confirmed to run on an academic fiscal year (thanks to whatever fiscal nerd asked that particular question!)

·         All the supernatural things encountered in the show are tied to the powers, but Jonny does not categorically deny that other supernatural stuff exists in the TMA universe. It very simply won’t be addressed in the show, as introducing other supernatural stuff beyond the powers wouldn’t work this late in the story.  The powers play with folklore, but they do not necessarily generate folklore themselves.

·         For purposes of the story, every power only has one ritual we need to be concerned about.

·         BIG ANSWER: no power has completed a ritual to date.  The rituals are now confirmed to so radically change the fabric of reality that there is no one on the planet who wouldn’t notice a successful ritual or be effected by it in a massive way.  We are not living in a world in which the Beholding has already succeeded, or any other power.  Jonny would not answer whether or not it was possible to reverse or somehow mitigate a successful ritual.  And that makes me very suspicious that the season finale of season 4 will be the successful completion of the Watcher’s Crown, and season 5 may be trying to reverse or mitigate it in some way.

·         Leitner is likely to return (one would imagine in one of Gertrude’s tapes).

·         Jonny and Alex have made the deliberate decision not to overly describe any of the major characters beyond their plot-relevant descriptors (Tim is described as attractive, but we will not get any details of that attractiveness).  Jonny doesn’t even have confirmed ages for most of the characters. He thinks Jon is his age (almost 30).  Martin is either a bit older or a bit younger than Jon.  Tim, Sasha, and Melanie are ‘young adults’, which Jonny defines as somewhere between 25 and early thirties.  Elias is middle-aged.  Gertrude and Leitner are old.  Trevor is “old as balls”.

·         Jon is 100% on the asexual spectrum, but may not use that term to describe himself.  He would instead avoid the question, and avoid thinking about it too deeply in general.  He would be very uncomfortable describing his own sexuality. Also, Jonny made it very clear that the way Jon grapples with his inhumanity is neither a parallel to nor a comment on his asexuality.  He approaches them very differently.  He didn’t specify this, but so far as I can tell, he avoids even thinking about his sexuality, but he actively agonizes over his increasing inhumanity.  I wonder if we might end up getting a bit more of how Jon thinks about his own asexuality if he and Martin ever get their shit together enough to discuss things.

·         The statements are 90% Intangible Horror colonizing Jon’s brain, and 10% Jon is a massive drama queen secretly.  They also agreed that, if he did amateur theatre as a younger man, he would have been insufferable.

·         Tim, prior to his revenge kick, was into lots of socialization, adventure vacations (rock climbing, kayaking, scuba, etc), and may have also been a bit of a console gamer.  “Lots of socializing; adventure holidays; dead.”

·         There are no specifics at this point on the characters’ families that haven’t been addressed that Jonny was comfortable discussing, as he wanted to hold those details in reserve for later relevance.  He doesn’t want to be beholden to random answers he might throw out right now.  He would say (potentially joking) that Martin has a spider (or a series of spiders) that live in his closet over the past year, and he calls it/them George.

·         The Admiral is a composite of all the cats in Jonny’s life, which all seem to have odd rank-names (Sir Pouncealot, Ambassador Cat, the Colonel).  The Admiral is a reflection of all Jonny’s favorite things about cats.

·         We are not going to be meeting any other plot-integral characters we haven’t already heard of.  There will be new voices, but they will be names we recognize.  There will be no new archival assistants.  They’ve played that card.

·         The characters with horror-writer last names (Martin, Tim, Sasha, Georgie, and Melanie) all have paranormal research backgrounds.  This is why that convention was used for them specifically.  Given that they were not certain of the direction they were going to take Basira and Daisy when they were first written, their last names did not follow this.

·         Jon cannot compel dogs.  Probably.

·         Why an owl is the crest of the Magnus Institute (officially): “Owls are weird.  They are considered very wise, but actually one of the stupidest animals in the world.  They have a very strong field of vision.  And, some species of owl, if you look in their ear you can see the side of their eyeball.”  

·         To serve ANY of the entity is to bring fear and suffering to others.  That is what your existence is twisted into.  

·         Alex is most frightened by the Vast.  Jonny is most frightened by the Corruption, but worries his lack of tidiness might tempt its attention.

·         My favorite question and answer: if they could fight any writer in hand-to-hand combat, who would it be?  They both agreed on HP Lovecraft, because “I could almost definitely take him, and it would be so satisfying.”  They both agreed that neither of them would feel bad for punching Lovecraft, which, even as someone who does a yearly reading of a lot of his works … yeah.  I’d agree.  He had amazing creativity and really laid out my favorite horror sub-genre (debatably Robert Chambers invented it, but Lovecraft properly expanded it into a genre), but there are few authors as in need of a proper walloping as HP Lovecraft. They agreed that others—for Jonny, DH Lawrence, for Alex, James Joyce—were also in need of some fighting, but had serious doubts whether or not they could beat them in hand-to-hand combat (“We’re not exactly prime physical specimens”).  Maybe just kicking them in the shins.  Jonny admitted to an embarrassing love of a lot of literary ‘classics’ people like to shit on, like “Ulysses” and “Moby Dick”.

And that was that!  This is the entirety of the MASSIVE Patreon Q&A.  Apparently the one that went up tonight on the website is a very pared-down version of this Q&A (website version is 43 minutes; Patreon version is 1 hour 48 minutes). Not sure which of these answers didn’t make the cut, but here you go!  All the delicious meta and answers you could want, fresh from the Patreon!

[headlesssamurai]

Has everyone asked you about Jupiter Ascending?

@godzillaapproved

Yo, I ought to apologize to you for taking hella long to properly respond to this. It’s holiday season over thisaway, sure, but I ain’t nearly vain enough to assume just anybody gets why that can suck up a dude’s time. Reckon I’m sure there’s tons of national celebrations all over the world I’d never know about otherwise. Bah, I say! Going out and socializing is one of the few things more overrated than all those shitty Apple products. But yeh, in my case it was less the celebratory spirit of holiday festivities and more a sudden spike in workload, so my mental energy was roughed up by that, plus I was doing a new workout at the same time. Thus, whatever free time I had left was spent obsessively hammering away at the Steam sale items I’d recently bought. It’s like a coping mechanism. Well, that and cheap wine anyhow.

Regardless, regardless—holy shit what an obnoxious fucking way for me to open this up—this Ask of yours came at an unusually coincidental time. A friend and I have been meeting up every weekend to watch like semi-recent crappy movies just as a way to enjoy a bad drink and a good laugh. She likes to laugh, and I like to drink, so it works out. After working our way through every Transformers film by Michael Bay, then Cameron’s Avatar, Terminator: Genisys, The Amazing Spider-mans, Spielberg’s Crystal Skull, Ready Player One, and some of the more abysmal DC films, our last escapade into nonsense was the estimably hilarious Gods of Egypt, which reminded me of one of those excremental quicktime-event video games. You know, like Detroit Becomes Human or some shit like that (Oh wait, is it Detroit Coming of the Humans? Meh).

As luck would have it, like, the day before you asked me about it, the next film at which I suggested we take a crack was the Wachowskis’ own Jupiter Ascending, which my friend had not seen at that time. Nor had I, since first viewing it in theaters.

>>SPOILER WARNING: IF YOU CARE ENOUGH TO, UH… YOU KNOW, CARE

I was intrigued to give this movie another go. It’s struck me that I’ve got an odd streak of pleasantly enjoying movies a lot of people can’t seem to stand, or which some people even hate with utter vileness on the verge of hunting down the producers with a roll of duct tape, power tools, jugs of petrol, and a matchbook. I’ve enjoyed, for instance, Hardcore Henry, Elysium, and Joseph Kosinski’s Oblivion, all of which not one person I know in real life could offer a single word of kindness. After my first viewing of Jupiter Ascending, I was left to consider whether or not it was the sort of movie I should enjoy and allow others to hate and disparage, or if it just wasn’t that good. I recalled leaving the theater with a sort of “Hm” sound, and not much else. But given my history with rooting for an underdog, was I wrong? Is this movie actually good, or cool in some way? I couldn’t defy the sensation that I’d missed something.

The answer, it seems, is more complex than a simple yes or no. Then again, as Mason and Goat Han Solo often remind us, “there’s no nuance on the internet”, so even my assertion there about complexity may be in gross error.

For the unfamiliar, Jupiter Ascending is a science fiction tale with vibes of less-cliché aesthetic choices for its visuals, some cool references to UFO conspiracy theories, and aims at a more expansive universe that would no doubt have been further explored in sequels had this film been better received by audiences and critics. I’ll say outright, it’s a disappointment to me that we weren’t given the chance to see more films in this mythology, because there’s some really cool stuff going on in this weird, imaginative universe. The story centers upon the character of Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis), an average working-class young woman in Chicago who is shocked to discover not only that aliens exist but that she happens to be the reincarnation of a galaxy owning empress, which entitles Jupiter to ownership of a large portion of the cosmos, the least part of which is Earth itself. But as the Aussies say, something’s a bit suss about the whole affair, and the wondrous glamour of this technologically advanced universe is concurrently party to a dark truth.

An immediately intriguing element of Jupiter Ascending is its attempt to set-up something which, while perhaps greatly inspired by a few other fictional works, is an original property, not a sequel, reboot, adaptation of an existing work, nor a spiritual successor to something else. Rather than merely being intrigued by this fact, I also respect it, because high-concept science fiction films aren’t something a studio likes to go for unless they have a preexisting audience, like adaptations of a book series or something. So it’s always bold when someone can cobble together the resources to really take a chance on something like this, even if it isn’t well received. After all that’s how films like The Matrix, The Terminator, Ridley Scott’s Alien, George Lucas’ Star Wars, and John McTiernan’s Predator come to be in the first place. Another example, I didn’t quite enjoy The Last Witch Hunter, but I recall respecting that film’s risk in its attempt at a new property for similar reasons.

Irrespective of your own personal tastes as a moviegoer and consumer of science fiction, it can’t be denied that the Wachowski’s are measurably talented filmmakers. Their doubtless skill at framing shots, blending effects with reality to present an integrated experience, and choreographing action sequences with such lethal precision it’s always incredible to watch; all of these things can’t be argued, and this attentiveness for the craft is all very present in Jupiter Ascending. Toward the beginning of the movie, there’s an aerial chase sequence that promptly accelerates into one of the most engaging, gripping action sequences in memory, heavily fantastical sci-fi elements intermixed with almost Fast and the Furious levels of insanity. The sense of gripping speed alone as two characters cling to the outer hull of a spacecraft was helplessly intense and left me quite keen to see what else the movie had to offer further down the line.

Additionally we have some awesome art design and stylistic choices regarding the look of this sci-fi universe, both the appearance of aliens and the design of their technology was familiar and unique at the same time. There are beings referred to as “Splices” which are intermixes of humans and various animals, giving some people bestial characteristics which are just weird enough to be cool to me without verging over the edge into absurd territory. There are cybernetic enhancements, gravity boots, phalanx style energy shields, neural synthetic wings, motherfucking jet-bikes of course and, though I never would have dreamed, motherfucking lizardmen! That blew me away, dude. Others may think it’s stupid, but lizardmen are one of my favorite sci-fi/fantasy creatures of all time, and they look so badass in this movie it was unbelievably awesome to realize I was actually seeing a proper lizardfolk on screen. With lizardmen and jet-bikes, Jupiter Ascending quickly marks two-out-of-five on my Generally Awesome Things I Like To See In Science Fiction list. It’s a real list, in my head, I swear.

The starship designs were inspired by art deco architecture in cities like Chicago, lending Jupiter’s cosmos a feeling more of Herbert’s Dune-iverse than something like Star Trek, which I appreciated since we don’t see that type of style quite as much. Top all that off with a fantastic score from Michael Giacchino and you’ve got some great tools to tell an awesome story.

So the thing is, it’s not just skin deep either, while the film does lean heavily on its visuals and action set-pieces, this is a genuinely interesting universe. Michael Bay’s Transformers, for instance, also has cool visuals, some passable action scenes, and dazzling special effects, but is it interesting? The answer is no. Because Bay’s movies, while briefly entertaining, are ultimately hollow. There aren’t any subdermal layers beneath the facade of spectacle. But in Jupiter Aescending there’s clearly something else going on, the touch of true filmmakers for one, yet also the potential for so much more. The groundwork, the craftsmanship and attentiveness is all here. It’s really what they choose to do, or not do, with that potential which ends up disappointing. Not, as in the case of Bay’s movies, the utter lack of potential for greatness from the start.

Though some fandom-card carrying ideologues may acerbically disagree, an acceptably comparable film whose potential for greatness was also mostly wasted for middle-of-the-road mediocrity is the recent Solo: A Star Wars Story, by Disney Interactive– I mean, by Disney behind the appropriated guise of Lucasfilm. Whatever else you think of that film, and while I agree from a mythological standpoint its very existence was in extremely poor taste, the talent, the production value, the mark of the craft was there. None of this was, however, capitalized upon to create anything truly profound. Jupiter Ascending’s unfortunate drawbacks are of a similar form.

I’d like to state emphatically however, I’m not trying to punish the film nor act as its apologist. Reckon I always end up saying this, but I am really just some dude. Sure, I read a lot of books and stuff, but that doesn’t appoint me some grand authority on the subject of fiction. These thoughts I try to convey in my write-ups are meant merely as opinions, framed in the form of investigating the quality of a film or game or whatever. To that end, I’m compelled to side with most folks in that, whatever else its got going for it, there’s some major deficiency holding back Jupiter Ascending from rising to a higher form of entertainment. So if the production values are high, where’s the casus belli all the angry critics are seeing here?

To puzzle that out, we ought first to determine by what criterion a truly good story is shaped. In that regard it’s likely the wisest to begin by reckoning what sort of story we’re dealing with here. Most people are wont to jump straight to the whole Hero’s Journey every dickhead YouTube reviewer read about in some sparknotes book while using the shitter at Barnes & Noble. But Joseph Campbell’s mimetic architecture isn’t the only sort of story that exists, not even in science fiction. Consider, for instance, anything written by H.P. Lovecraft, Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain, Kubrick and Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, Jonathan Glazer’s Under The Skin, Philip K. Dick’s various works, Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker, Stanisław Lem’s Solaris, Alex Garland’s Ex Machina, or Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar. These stories, while very sci-fi in their scope and measure, are far more introspective, and very contemplative when contrasted against fiction of the more traditional heroic adventure genre. Hell, even Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers while appearing a mindless war movie on its surface is fundamentally a cautionary allegory. While conquering adversity is certainly a theme of its own within each of these stories, the breadth of that adversity’s effect on the narrative varies wildly, as well as the nature of adversity each character must face. Other heavier components, like displacement, post-humanism, philosophical allegory, are also usually present in such stories.

All of this likely seems a bit excessive to point out, but I promise it’ll get relevant later. But, uh… yeh. The next time some liberal arts asshat tries to tell you there’s only one real way a story can go, you can be safely justified in telling them to get bent. I mean read, yeh, tell them to read more shit, and watch more movies. That’d probably be more productive. But also tell them to get bent, the fuckers.

There can also, however, be stories that blend styles. The 2004 rebrand of Battlestar Galactica incorporates several philosophical elements, self-reflective, and meditative thematic ideas into its narrative of what would otherwise be a fairly standard science fiction conflict in outer space. The Wachowskis’ own The Matrix is a perfect example of a classic hero’s journey which also incorporates introspective themes into its lore, plot, and mythology, wherein the internal conflict of the protagonist is just as important as whatever external adversity he is meant to overcome. Where Battlestar Galactica 2004 uses its thematic material to craft a sci-fi adventure story, The Matrix uses a sci-fi adventure story to explore its thematic material. Seen in that light, I think the Wachowskis wanted Jupiter Ascending to have similar weight to its narrative, but they ended up recycling a sort of “human harvest” idea already seen in The Matrix (and arguably done in a more engaging way).

Jupiter Jones herself is a catalyst for an inter-familial conflict within a wealthy interstellar hierarchy. Though alien races do exist, the most dangerous aliens happen to be humans themselves, extraterrestrial humans of course. In Jupiter’s universe, it turns out that the wealthy and powerful have the ability to live forever (an idea also explored in the Neftlix adaptation Altered Carbon), but only by seeding countless worlds with humans, then harvesting these humans like crops and breaking these millions of people down into a sort of primordial youth serum by which the lives of the affluent may be extended.

Advanced genetics in Jupiter’s universe are the highest form of technology, and it is stated in all the cosmos the most sought-after resource is time. This is the reason these advanced humans out among the stars are able to splice human and animal genes, essentially creating entirely new races, and the reason why Jupiter herself is seen as a reincarnation of a woman who once owned countless stars and planets. Genes, to the wealthy and powerful, have a near spiritual significance. Jupiter is referred to as a Recurrence, a person who is long dead but whose gene-print inconceivably reappears in someone who is born centuries or even millennia later. This is seen as a near miracle, and thus is recognized by interstellar law as a legitimate reincarnation, giving this new person the same rights and privileges, and inheriting all the property previously held by the deceased person whose gene print they share.

And that’s where the conflict comes up. Jupiter is sought out by three siblings of the Abrasax family, one of the most elite and powerful families in the universe, of which she is the reincarnation of their mother and thus entitled to re-inherit all of their resources and capital which they currently control. The kids are Kalique (Tuppence Middleton), the well-to-do, but compassionate one, Titus (Douglas Booth), the more two-faced of the three who acts innocent but is clever as a viper, and Balem (Eddie Redmayne), the stereotypical villain of the piece who seems to have nervous ticks and an inability to raise his voice above a certain octave except in times of extreme stress. Of course, since Jupiter’s now meant to control everything they currently own, none of the three Abrasax kids can be fully trusted. Jupiter doesn’t have to face these three one-percenters alone however. She is accompanied by Caine Wise (Channing Tatum) an ex-soldier and wolf-splice, known as a Lycantant, who is hired by Titus to safely retrieve Jupiter from Earth before his siblings can get to her. Caine’s former commanding officer, a bee-splice known as Stinger (Sean Bean) also appears from time to time, as well as officers of the Aegis, an interstellar law enforcement agency.

If you are having a hard time following the characters here, it’s probably because there just isn’t much to any of the characters other than what I’ve already written about them. And therein lies the primary flaw with this film. The characters aren’t interesting, and the greater tragedy is that the characters are written to be uninteresting. Where a ton of care and attention went into crafting the look, feel and depth of the wider universe acting as the story’s setting, the characters within this story are criminally underwritten.

Earlier, I went to great lengths to illustrate the wealth of variety throughout genres of science fiction, just how many different types of stories we might get within this narrative framework. The purpose of explaining all of that to such a degree was meant to show you that not everything has to follow the same narrative flow. Sometimes stories can be more abstract, less character driven, less action heavy. In that regard, a story exemplar like Blade Runner doesn’t really need to have strongly written characters because the interpersonal aspects of its journey are less important than its atmospheric setting and stylistic momentum. The gravitas comes from a different place than in stories which are more character driven.

However, if a story does want to give us something more conventional, then it’s extremely important that the characters are strongly defined, well established and, even if not likable, at the very least interesting. Though a bit out of this wheelhouse, Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is notorious for featuring a dramatis personae of terribly vain, horrible sociopaths, but many of these characters are still written in a way that makes them interesting. Jupiter Ascending fashions itself as an epic space opera, a stylized adventure journey which goes from scrubbing toilets in Irving Park to rocketing through a wider spectacular galaxy. Within that story structure, the characters need to be given their proper attention, especially the protagonist. Only, this is not the case with this movie. In fact in Jupiter Ascending, the characters almost appear as afterthoughts, which is most unfortunate.

Despite being the protagonist’s love interest, Caine seems to have been given the most depth, as a literal lone-wolf personality, an orphan of a sort, a former soldier disgraced for an act of savagery, who longs to regain his military status as a Skyjacker, and was sprung from a prison called Deadland to rescue Jupiter from the clutches of filthy rich egomaniacs, a class of people he seems to utterly despise. Yet even Caine’s various portions of characterization are never fully explored, and he mostly serves as a vehicle to come dashing in and pluck Jupiter out of trouble over and over again. Secondary characters, other than Stinger (more on him later), are hardly there other than to function as a taxi service or exposition dump where appropriate, which is a shame since some of them have a great look but nothing else going on in the writing department to make them memorable. The Abrasax siblings are basically three different flavors of the same smug Soylent privilege, though Kalique seems to exist only to explain things for the benefit of the audience, and Balem seems to be accidentally memorable thanks to Eddie Redmayne’s unusual performance. Titus has some cool psychotic vibes with his underhanded motivations, slippery silver tongued bastard that he is, but even his role as the trickster doesn’t get its due in the end.

Stinger, Caine’s former commanding officer who is now an Aegis Marshal, is also written slightly deeper than even the Abrasax siblings. He took the fall for Caine’s misstep in the military, so he also lost his wings and was disgraced for it. Despite this, he is willing to help Caine and Jupiter throughout the story, and though begrudged he seems genuinely good at heart. Stinger’s point of interest however comes from his traits as a Splice between human and bee DNA. Yes, this leads to a funny line of dialogue, but there are some great examples of show-don’t-tell with Stinger, in that having bee instincts he seems superhumanly able to anticipate motion and react to it ridiculously quickly compared to most people. This ability gives him an edge in everything from fistfights to navigating massive fields of hunter-killer mines. This is hardly important to the plot, but I thought it was cool since it’s never stated outright, just displayed through his actions. Another example of a great idea that’s mostly left adrift.

Jupiter herself starts out as a typical protagonist for a Hero’s Journey. She’s a Jewish Russian immigrant who leads an unglamorous life cleaning bathrooms and tidying fancy homes for her family’s housekeeping service, apparently has bad luck with romance, and hardly ever has time to really do anything she enjoys. Typically, once these elements are presented, there will also be a revelation of something more intimate about the protagonist, her dreams and ambitions, something she longs to one day achieve, her hobbies or personality, perhaps a personal drawback or fear she wishes to overcome. But the most we get about Jupiter is that she wants to buy back a telescope which was once stolen from her astronomer father by the same thieves who murdered him (which we see early in the movie in an awkwardly directed scene). It’s not made clear if Jupiter herself has a genuine interest in astronomy, nor even what any of her interests happen to be.

This becomes a recurring problem throughout the film. Since no real internal conflict or personality of any kind is established for Jupiter, she isn’t led through any personal journey or self-exploration, nor anything which allows her to grow or evolve as the narrative opens up and accelerates. She’s basically just along for the ride, one of those wrong place wrong time sort of things. Her journey is entirely surface level, external forces dragging her around the stars without her having any real say in the matter nor agency of her own. She as very little idea of what she wants or who she is, from what we can tell, because we have no idea of those things either. Mila Kunis does a fine job with the material she’s given, but the material just isn’t much to run with, and if there is a drawback to her performance as an actress I promise in this case the fault is not with her.

The terrible lack of characterization hurts everything in the movie from its ethical conceits, plot momentum, all the way up to the romance subplot which only feels forced and lacking chemistry because the two leads aren’t properly written. They could have had chemistry, but its difficult for archetypes to interact without endowing them with personality. It’s a fundamental flaw from which all other flaws of the film stem because the personality, the character of the protagonist in this type of story is a fundamental element from which many other elements of the story stem.

Even towards the end, when Jupiter is forced into dangerous heroics and aggressive bravery it doesn’t feel like much of anything because for all we know she was brave all along, or maybe she wasn’t. We’re never given the chance to find out. Her larger moment of heroism comes not in a violent action of conquering the badguy (though she does beat him with a pipe later... in self-defense of course), but in refusing to compromise to Balem’s ultimatum, either resign her ownership of Earth or allow Balem to murder her family. It’s interesting to note that instead of rocking up and blowing his head off with a blaster, she just tells him to get fucked, which is a cool idea, non-violent protagonists are few and far between. Though the climax would have been far more satisfying had we gotten to know Jupiter much better before she gets to this point. Ultimately, the lack of strong characters make the progression of the movie feel awkward, and the denouement seems to come out of nowhere. It’s really too bad, since many facets of this film’s setup seemed to bear promise, and it’s more tragic than infuriating, leaving an audience with a countenance more in sorrow than in anger.

Like Jupiter herself, thematic elements are also only half-explored. The idea that genetics have advanced to such a point that life-regeneration has become a reality within this star-spanning civilization (albeit a reality exclusively available to the filthy, insanely wealthy) is an interesting idea, and there’s a lot of potential for the ethical quandaries related to that sort of technology, and what makes it possible. Yet little of this is given attention beyond the horror of Jupiter discovering the Abrasax family regularly kills billions of people for longevity and profit. Is their life-extending operation the only one out there? Or is it an industry? Are there black market dealers who develop and trade their own youth serum off the books? It’s all kind of muddy and little of it is given any explanation or nuance.

As we’ve established, Campbell’s hero’s journey isn’t the only way to go about a sci-fi story, but in Jupiter Ascending it’s like half-started without any of the follow-through, and the characters which should be the heart of the story are greatly lacking any depth. The film’s been compared to a Disney-style princess story, and even references Cinderella at one point, though it does seem to be aiming higher than this. Yet, the lackluster character writing and flat dialogue all make the story somewhat impotent, whatever its aim, leaving the movie looking like a majestically beautiful gild-feathered eagle, which just happens to be blind. Fun to look at, but has absolutely no idea where it’s going. I can’t articulate enough what a shame this all is, since there really are some cool ideas and sci-fi content here. I truly wish, as a sci-fi enthusiast, that Jupiter was truly able to ascend.

I’d recommend it as a fun romp through an intriguing galaxy, but it’s more useful as an example of how to get everything right with a movie, everything other than the thing that really holds it all together: a well-written protagonist. Still, I’m no intersectionalist, but it’s nice to see the girl get the guy at the end of the story, the way guy protagonists get to get the girl at the end of all their stories. That was a pleasant feeling, even if it wasn’t quite earned with everything come before it. Plus, you know; lizardmen, and jet-bikes. The Wachowskis are generally great at what they do though, just maybe have a tough time channeling it. Here’s hoping they can get back to us with something truly badass in future because the level of commitment to the craft seen in this movie is extraordinary, even if the reach exceeds the grasp in this particular case. 

                     侍    headless                                     

[trainthief]

Hey I was wondering if you'd ever consider doing like a top 20 fav classical music albums or composers list or something. Obviously if that just sounds stressful disregard this but I know you are like, into classical music & I grew up with my parents playing it & recently got, like, into the classical station but aside from like 3 artists I like I don't know where to start & I like your blog and would be interested in hearing about like, your taste

Sorry for responding to this so late, I’ve had a real week and I wanted to make sure I had time to put some thought into answering this ask. I’d definitely love to help, I always like recc’ing classical stuff to people! The idea of 20 absolute all time favorites is a difficult one for me because I love so much stuff and it’s really difficult to compare like… Caroline Shaw’s modern experimental chorale stuff to Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos. Anyway, instead I will give you some full length pieces in different styles that I think are great for new listeners, and explain a little about what each one is doing and what I love about it, and some more pieces I recommend if you enjoy what you’re hearing. Hopefully that will help! 

In no particular order: 

Appalachian Spring by Copland: Let’s just get this one out of the way up front. If you’ve been following me for any amount of time at all, you know I’m deeply in love with Copland. He essentially invented the American compositional style by adding jazz elements to the established practices, which caused an absolute uproar at the beginning of his career as people then considered it an unholy mix of high and low culture. He doubled down on this concept when he wrote “Fanfare For The Common Man” which essentially stands as a celebration of the working class and those who couldn’t afford to see the symphony anyway. He was, I should also note, both gay and Jewish. A real icon. Anyhow, although I love so much of his work and could go on forever, I consider listening to Appalachian Spring in its entirety a spiritual experience, no exaggeration. Take it on a hike, listen to it while you look at the trees and think about whatever crosses your mind, and by the time the Coda hits you… well I personally can’t tell you what experience to have, but I feel for a second like I can see and be seen. Anyway, aside from that, just good music, very pretty. If you’d like similar music that incorporated jazz effectively into classical work, I’d of course recommend another favorite of mine: Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin. 

Russian Easter Festival by Rimsky-Korsakov: As a general rule of thumb, Russian composers are ALWAYS good for some drama. This piece in particular is great because it’s not only fanfare and excitement, there’s a touch of pastoral calmness that I really love (more on that as a concept later) at the beginning, but we still get plenty of wildness. There’s a frantic octave part the violins play around minute 5 that always makes me want to scream. If you like this, I’d also recommend checking out Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol. The man knows how to write sexy. 

Romance in D by Berkey: I recommend this partially because it’s a lesser known and very beautiful piece, and also because it’s a good lead-in to a whole subset of classical called Furniture Music. Essentially called that - originally by the composer Satie - because it’s nice to put on in the background. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still fun to listen to, and from a compositional and performance standpoint it can still be very impressive. But it’s just good and calming and you could certainly sip tea to it in the restaurant area of a ritzy 1920’s hotel while you read a novel and ignore your rich husband asking if you’d like any marmalade. A good example of the same effect is the soundtrack to Phantom Thread. It’s also good for studying. If you like that conceptually, I’ve got a whole playlist here. 

Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky: A really excellent intro to classical and one of my favorite works, AND like the last one, also a lead-in to an informal format. Pictures was written with the idea that each song was a separate painting that the listener could imagine they were looking at in a museum. For that reason, each one has a different style and personality, and feels very descriptive and exciting. A collection of small related pieces is called a suite, but I haven’t yet been able to find a technical name for that specific kind of storytelling structure within a suite. It’s not uncommon though, and in that same vein I’d also recommend The Planets by Holst (about the planets, as you might assume), and Carnival of the Animals by Saint Saens (about… yeah you get it). 

Spem in Alium by Tallis: We’re taking a wild left turn now and veering into the Christian choral tradition dating back to the 1500s. Like anyone else who isn’t even a Christian, there’s a few things about Catholicism that I’m obsessed with. Namely the hymns and the stained glass. Focusing only on the hymns, Tallis is one of the best examples of polyphonic hymnal work. Polyphonic, essentially, means that the different voices in the piece are moving around each other and will frequently change their notes in a way that will compliment - but is not necessarily in line with - the direction of the piece as a whole. It makes more sense if you just listen. The style, however, was developed in an attempt to capture the idea of the stars and planets circling each other in their own independent orbits, because at the time people had just started to turn their gaze to the sky for answers about their own lives. Aside from that very cool background, I just find the really human side of the choir format in particular paired with the elevation of music being this untouchable but powerful thing paired with the holiness of the concept paired with how awesome the acoustics of a chapel can be…. It’s just a lot. If you like this I’d also recommend Miserere Mei by Allegri, Ave Maris Stella by Dufay, and O Magnum Mysterium by Lauridsen 

Peter Grimes by Britten: Classical music is so rooted in every musical tradition, and visa versa, that it’s almost impossible to separate it conceptually from a lot of genres. Technically, “classical” refers to a period of time more than it does a genre anyway, but let’s not get pretentious about it. While we’re pushing the boundaries of what can and can’t be included in this list, let’s talk Opera, and specifically Peter Grimes. When asked to describe it, Britten said it was “a subject very close to my heart—the struggle of the individual against the masses. The more vicious the society, the more vicious the individual.” More specifically the struggle was an allegory for gay oppression, and ironically Britten wrote the lead role with his lifelong partner Peter Pears - an opera singer - in mind. To give a taste without giving too much away, the Prologue establishes that Grimes, a fisherman, is being questioned over the death of his apprentice. The townspeople are all convinced before the questioning even begins that he must have done it, but the coroner decides the death was accidental. Grimes is let free and advised not to get another apprentice, but he of course ignores this…. If the vocal side of opera doesn’t do it for you, there are 4 Sea Interludes from this work that are really great independently. If you want even more opera with even more drama, I’d recommend looking at Tosca or Turandot both by Pucccini. If you think classic opera is too high brow and you want something a little sillier, try Mozart’s Magic Flute. If you want something more new age and weird, try listening to Two Boys by Muhly or selections from Einstein on the Beach by Glass (but probably not all 5 hours, Knee Play 5 and Spaceship would be my top 2). 

Symphony No. 6 “Pastoral” by Beethoven: I mentioned earlier when describing the Russian Easter Festival that I love a piece with pastoral calmness. Getting back to that point, I haven’t ever seen one word that’s commonly used to describe this particular sense in a piece, but I personally call it a Pastoral after Beethoven’s 6th. In general, the symphony is one of my favorites as a composer and listener, especially given that it’s really just about taking a walk in nature which is one of only 3 themes music should have anyway in my opinion. A good amount of my music is written with this feeling in mind. Aside from all that context, the first movement in particular is very nice, passionate but not sensational, and is just about being excited to be outside. Nothing wrong with that. This subset of music is probably the most informal of all the ones I’ve listed so far, but if you’d like more “Pastorals,” or pieces that have a nice calm passion to them, I’d also highly recommend Enigma Variations: Nimrod by Elgar, Fantasia on a Theme of Tallis by Vaughan Williams, Once Upon A Time In America by Morricone, Musica Celestis by Kernis, and of course again Appalachian Spring by Copland. (I would also be legally sent to jail if I didn’t mention that while we’re on the subject of Beethoven, his 9th Symphony is generally considered one of the greatest achievements in classical music). 

Rite of Spring by Stravinsky: A lot of these pieces have been good jumping off points into different musical concepts, but with this one I’m sticking my description to the initial piece itself. I got the chance to email with a composer I admire and he at one point described composition not in the sense of writing something “smart”, but in writing something “detailed”. The Rite of Spring is a really great example of detailed composition. It’s extremely experimental with its time changes - essentially the way that you should be counting your notes as a musician constantly changes and always into a pattern that’s difficult to keep track of - and also with its chord structure. The music itself can be jarring and odd to listen to but the composition wasn’t random and when studied shows an obsessive elbows-deep involvement in the work that I really admire. It might not surprise you to hear, however, that at the initial performance the audience was so furious that the lighting technician had to continually flash the lights to confuse them, out of fear of a riot. If you’d like something a bit more fun to listen to by the same composer, however, Firebird is a good one. And if you’d like another great piece that was completely booed off the stage at its premier, I’d recommend Grand Pianola by Adams. 

Romeo and Juliet by Prokofiev: While we’re in the general vicinity of ballet, I should get into that deeper. Ballets can have some of the most fun music to listen to because the timing is required to be so much more specific. Romeo and Juliet is a lot of fun, particularly the “Montagues and Capulets” and “Masks” sections. Another great ballet is, of course, The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky. I’d also recommend Don Quixote by Minkus, and Rodeo by Copland…. I know I know 

Violin Concerto in D by Tchaikovsky: I said Russians bring the drama, and it’s doubly so when it’s a gay Russian. This piece is a classic example of the solo concerto format, which is a staple of classical as a whole. The setup is a single player on whatever instrument the piece is written for accompanied by an orchestra, and is usually a showcase of technical skill by the soloist. This one in particular is basically THE turning point in a violinist’s studies and just about every violinist learns it as soon as they’re capable of taking it on. Personally I still vividly remember when my teacher finally gave it to me, it’s a very specific sense of accomplishment. Similar examples of the solo concerto format on different instruments would be Piano Concerto in F by Rachmaninoff, and Oboe Concerto in C by Mozart, both of which I absolutely love. 

The Revd Mustard His Installation Prelude by Muhly: I’ve gone on forever so I’m trying to be quick. Nico Muhly is one of my favorite modern composers and Revd Mustard combines his classic ecstatic and constantly moving style with an organ, which I’m a sucker for. Contemporary classical in his style can be difficult to listen to because it’s gotten very experimental and as a result, very complicated. But if you don’t go into it with the expectation that you’re going to hear a structured and logical Mozart-like piece and you instead surrender your opinion until the whole thing has come together for you, it can be really interesting at the very least. As a side note, Nico has collaborated with Sufjan, Bjork, Jonsi, Teitur…. lots of people. You’ve certainly heard him before even if you didn’t know it. For more classical from the last few decades I’d recommend Partita for 8 Singers by Shaw, Tissue No. 7 by Glass, Different Trains by Reich, the Red Violin Concerto by Corigliano (especially because I just saw it live a few days ago and am still reeling), Perpetuum Mobile by Penguin Cafe Orchestra, and Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten by Part. Each of which is vastly different, stylistically speaking, but all of which I really love. And for more organ listen to one of my favorite pieces of all time, Symphony 3 by Saint Saens. 

Ok, you know what? I’m cutting myself off because I’ve gone on forever. If you haven’t been put off of asking me questions entirely by now, please feel free if you want even more recommendations in a specific style, or want to know more about something you enjoy. Clearly I love talking about this. Hope that helped!

[avidbeader]

Okay, it’s been a roller coaster of a week for the Sheith community as we dealt with the “leaks”, so I’m going to toss something out here to help make it better. Sorry I can’t share a complete chapter of “Skydancer” or “The Quintessential Bond” or “The Icarists” yet, but I promise, I’m trying to peck away at those with what tiny bit of time I have.

This is a story that should probably end up around four chapters. I started it in June, stress-writing during the runup to Season 6. Current chapter is rated T for a couple of swear words but will probably stray into M territory in Chapter 3. Title is tentative but this has been thoroughly beta’ed by the wonderful @latart. I guess I’ll try and get it on AO3 in the next few days.

Give Me a Sign

Chapter 1 - Graduation

Shiro felt the satin at his shoulders slide to one side yet again and growled in frustration. As he reached to try and straighten it for the umpteenth time, Matt laughed and batted his hand away.

“Here, let me.” Shiro stood still as Matt unzipped the robe a little and looped the hood under his necktie. “Step one, check. Now, step two. Pidge! Need a safety pin!”

A tiny woman, with hair the exact same honey-brown as Matt, eeled through the growing crowd of faculty and reached into the pocket created by her elongated sleeve. She produced a pack of safety pins and stepped into Shiro’s personal space after removing one and thrusting the pack into Matt’s hand.

“Hold still. And don’t forget it’s in here after the ceremony or you’ll rip both your hood and your tie.”

Shiro’s eyebrows rose and he replied dryly, “Yes, ma’am.” He stayed still as her fingers worked quickly at his throat, pinning the hood dead center underneath his tie. Then she pushed at him to turn around. Matt grinned as she adjusted the hang of his hood, turning the point out to show both colors against the black.

Matt returned the safety pins. “Pidge, meet Takashi Shirogane, our new physics teacher. Shiro, this is Katie Holt, comp sciences department chair and my sister.”

Shiro brightened and held out a hand. “Nice to finally meet you. Matt’s mentioned you a few times. Have I seen you at the faculty meetings?”

She shook hands, not seeming to notice the glove covering his prosthesis, and nodded. “Yeah, probably. Nice to meet you, too. Matt told me about your boot camp reviews for the AP exams. If you’ve got some kind of outline that can be adapted to other subjects, I’d love to see it.”

Shiro nodded. “Yeah, I modified it from something the AP Stats teacher did at my previous school.”

“Excellent!” She shot him two thumbs-up and was about to go on, but a cry of “Pidge! Got your safety pins?” from the other side of the crowd made her roll her eyes before taking off.

Shiro chuckled and Matt clapped him on the shoulder. “I swear, you’ll eventually meet everyone here.”

“Really? Because every time I turn around, it looks like you’ve added another dozen faces.”

Matt shrugged. “Yeah, it’s a big faculty, but it’s a big school. We’ve been above two thousand students for five years now.”

Shiro shook his head. His last school, before the accident and prolonged recovery, had been in a smaller town and had a total of about five hundred kids. The graduating class alone here at Glenn High was bigger than that. But being able to step into a job as soon as the doctors cleared him—in the fourth quarter, no less—had been a godsend.

“Have you heard from Ms. Caplan lately?” Shiro asked after the teacher he’d replaced.

“Not for a couple of weeks. She didn’t try to find a job yet; still dealing with the family stuff.”

Shiro gave a tight, sympathetic smile, then jumped slightly as a voice sounded over a bullhorn. “All right, faculty! Two lines, evenly divided! Line leaders, go between the rows of seats and loop around to the front one! Start when the band shifts to the processional!”

Shiro followed Matt, who snagged his sister’s arm as she was passing and pulled her into line in front of him. As the teachers shifted into two groups, Shiro spotted the bullhorn in the hand of a woman in a vibrant pink sundress. For a moment he wondered why she wasn’t in regalia if she were a teacher, then realized as she plunged through the doors into the lobby with the seniors that she’d dressed for visibility against the navy, gold-trimmed robes the students wore. Now she was shouting instructions through the bullhorn at the students, scolding them for getting out of their designated lines.

Matt nodded in her direction. “Have you met Ms. Altea yet? Theater teacher. Always in charge of graduation.”

Shiro shook his head. Pidge leaned around Matt and grinned. “Yep, always and forever. A couple of English teachers tried to take it over a few years ago and it was the sloppiest ceremony we’d had in years. The principal went to Allura and almost begged on his knees for her to come back. She did, but only after she’d leveraged him for doing a fall musical as well as a spring one every year.”

Shiro laughed. He’d only been here for two months and already knew that Glenn prided itself on its arts programs. And the soccer, track, and swim teams. And the fact they offered five languages. And traditionally having the highest average of AP scores in the district.

He was fairly confident that he hadn’t done any damage to the students in the enviro and physics classes he’d taken over. He had simply started on his boot camp review, supplementing the few areas where he noticed weaknesses in the students’ knowledge, and the scores from the practice exams pointed to a robust passing rate. Certainly most of the students had come in from the tests feeling good. The hardest part had been getting used to the fact that everyone here called the environmental science class “APES” instead of “Enviro”.

The music shifted, jerking Shiro out of his thoughts, and he followed Matt out to the rows of faculty seats.

********************

Shiro was dealing with culture shock, yet again. The graduation ceremony was held in the basketball arena of an area university. This was the third ceremony of the day to take place here; the district had nine separate high schools and seven of them were so big that not even the football stands on their campuses would hold all the friends and relatives of the graduating classes. It was so very different from his old school, where they had used the auditorium, or even the small private school he had attended, with the ceremony and reception in a nearby hotel. He looked around as he stood in line in front of his seat, between Matt and a vaguely familiar face from the career and tech department, a large guy who had expressed interest in Shiro’s prosthesis from an engineering standpoint.

Pidge leaned over Matt again as they waited for the students to enter. “You are very, very lucky. This place only got air conditioning a year ago.”

Shiro blinked at that and Matt nodded. “Yeah, it was fucking miserable if the weather was typical June. Last year I think almost all of us cried when we entered the building, we were so relieved.”

The seniors began filing in, following the junior marshals in their white shirts or dresses with gold sashes. Like the faculty, they came in from both sides and did a rather impressive pattern of alternating rows. Even with the very efficient method, it still took ten minutes for the section to fill. Shiro nodded and smiled at a few of the students from his classes, and a couple of seniors actually broke line to fist-bump the teacher beside him, one murmuring, “I made it, Mr. Garrett!”

“Yes, you did, Luis. Knew you could.”

As Mr. Mayfield, the principal, instructed everyone to remain standing for the anthem, Shiro noticed a young man moving to one corner of the stage. He was dressed to the nines in a navy suit, except the jacket seemed to hang one size too large for him.

Then he began moving his arms and Shiro understood. Glenn was the magnet school for the deaf/hard-of-hearing population and the young man was the interpreter. His hands and arms moved continuously through the anthem as he mouthed the words.

Shiro found himself watching the interpreter with growing amusement. He was getting into it, his expression constantly reflecting his thoughts on what he was doing. He showed delight at the jokes the salutatorian included in the welcome, looked overly stern as the senior class president introduced the administration and school board members. Then the student chorus began singing “Seasons of Love” and the interpreter was this close to just dancing across the stage as he signed the lyrics and lip-synced along.

As the seniors who were part of the chorus separated from the other students and filed into the empty rows that had been held for them, Shiro noticed the interpreter change places with another young man who had been seated nearby. The second interpreter was striking, with longish dark hair. His suit was deep burgundy, with a blue-and-gold striped tie to represent the school colors, and his jacket was also a little large to give him greater freedom of movement.

His style was more subdued. He signed precisely and his face showed appreciation for the combination of jokes and serious thoughts that the valedictorian shared, but he was clearly trying to keep general attention on the speaker more than himself. As the interpreter continued with the closing remarks from the student body president and the principal’s warning to the audience not to create noise during the reading of the graduates’ names, Shiro grew more appreciative of his features and began wondering what color eyes he had.

And then Mr. Wimbledon-Smythe, department chair of social studies, began reading the names as students crossed the stage to shake hands with the superintendent and collect their diplomas from the principal. Shiro’s eyes widened when he realized just how fast the man was going. After the first few names, the only noise coming from the audience was the quickest of whoops or claps, because families realized that they might miss the reading of their student’s name. Both interpreters were standing now, taking turns finger-spelling each name. Shiro watched, racking his brain for the ASL alphabet that he learned once as a child for fun, and saw that they were spelling first initials and surnames only.

In a shockingly short time, the superintendent directed the students to turn the tassels on their caps to the left, the students screamed and tossed caps into the air to celebrate, and the recessional began. Shiro followed Matt out and the theater teacher directed them to stay in line, creating a funnel to the exits where families would be coming to find their children. The tech teacher turned to him, grinning openly.

“Okay, Allura just beat her record. Five hundred fifty-seven graduates and we’re done in fifty-eight minutes!”

Shiro laughed. “I can’t believe I’m going to get home in time to watch the game from tipoff.”

“Yeah? Warriors or Sixers?”

“Sixers, I guess. I grew up following the Bulls, so I don’t have a dog in the fight, but the Warriors have enough championships.”

“I hear you. I grew up in Houston. Oh, I think we met but just the once. Hunk Garrett, electrical and mechanical engineering.” “Takashi Shirogane, but call me Shiro. Sciences.”

Their conversation was cut off as the first students emerged from the basketball court and many of the faculty began applauding. Allura was in the middle, without the bullhorn but shouting, “Go, go, GO!” as she encouraged the students outside. As they filed out, many students traded high-fives or ran over to hug a favorite teacher. Shiro was surprised by one young man who exuberantly hugged every single teacher in his line, but played along.

Once the last students were out, Matt and Pidge led Shiro through a side door that let them slip around the growing crowds of family and friends and toward the bus that had been arranged from the school so the faculty wouldn’t have to fight for parking. Pidge unzipped her robe, revealing a loose, light green dress, and unpinned her hood.

Shiro worked his own pin free and handed it back to her. “Thanks for that.”

“No problem. What time are you coming in tomorrow?”

“Nine or ten. I still have a lot of science equipment to inventory and stow.”

She nodded. “I have to go through the laptop carts, make sure everything’s cleared from testing and such. And I still haven’t emptied my desk yet.”

“Emptied your desk?”

“Yep,” Matt replied. “You’ll need to clean out your desk and label all the furniture with your room number. When they do the floors, they just throw everything in the halls. They work so fast you can’t trust them. Get as much as you can into the closets, the big bookcases, or file cabinets. They don’t move those.”

Shiro groaned. “Okay, maybe I’m coming in at eight.”

Pidge straightened, seeing the bus driver headed their way. “Don’t forget, luncheon in the cafeteria at noon. The PTA got Sal’s Catering to do the food, so it should be a nice spread.”

Shiro nodded in response, noticing the two interpreters headed for the reserved parking area. They seemed to be in a heated discussion and finally the first interpreter threw up his hands and got into a car. The second interpreter headed for a motorcycle, trading the burgundy jacket for a leather one from a side compartment and pulling out a helmet.

Shiro hadn’t realized he was staring until Matt elbowed him. “See something you like?”

“You don’t know me well enough to ask that,” Shiro retorted.

Pidge snickered as Matt grinned and answered, “Yeah, I think I do.”

********************

Once again, Shiro found himself comparing his previous school to this one and being impressed. Instead of a basic pizza delivery, the luncheon was a full meal, including two entrees, sides and salads, with everything clearly labeled for a variety of dietary restrictions. There was a raffle with over twenty different gift cards as prizes. Mr. Mayfield quickly but enthusiastically ran through a list of recognitions, and Shiro stood when called upon as one of the faculty members who had joined mid-year.

Pidge grabbed Shiro’s elbow as the meal broke up. “Did you get your room finished yet?”

“Almost, I still have to get a couple more things onto shelves and defrost the mini-fridge in there.”

“Have you covered your shelves yet?”

“Covered them?”

“Yeah, the cleaning crew tends to splash wax on everything. Plus the band kids use some of the rooms for section practice in the summer and you don’t want them messing with anything visible.”

“Um, okay. What do I use? Newspaper?”

She shook her head and called out, “Keith! Hey, Keith!”

Shiro froze as the dark-haired interpreter from graduation turned and headed over. And Shiro found the answer to his question: he had blue eyes that shaded toward gray in a way that made them look almost violet.

“Keith, do you think Ms. Parham still has any old bulletin-board paper?”

He nodded. “Looked like it when I checked in with her this morning. Why?”

“Shiro here needs some for his shelves. Can you show him to her room?” She grinned mischievously, looking very like her brother for a minute.

Keith looked at Shiro, slightly nonplussed, and Pidge rolled her eyes. “Shiro, this is Keith Kogane, our ASL teacher. Shiro’s our new science teacher.”

Keith rolled his eyes in return, mocking her, before holding out a hand to shake. “Yeah, I heard Mayfield say so. Sure, follow me.”

Keith led him to a hall of the sprawling main building he had not seen before. As they walked, Shiro noticed that students had painted a lot of the ceiling tiles. The theme was Spanish: flags for different countries, logos for popular brands or soccer teams. Keith stopped at one open door and tapped on it. “Sarah? You still have spare bulletin-board paper?”

The woman in the room held up one hand as she finished counting a stack of textbooks and wrote a number down. “I do. Didn’t you already cover your shelves?”

“I did, but Shiro here could use some.”

She flapped a hand in invitation and they stepped inside. Shiro looked at the long swaths of colored paper taped across her shelves. Most pieces showed a life-sized outline of a body with colorful clothing labeled in Spanish.

“Sarah’s chair of world languages and we love her forever. She always does these big group projects and then saves them for the end of the year for just this purpose.”

“I thought you loved me because I throw a temper tantrum every spring to try and get you more ASL classes.”

“That too. Maybe next year they’ll listen.”

Each carrying a few loosely-rolled sheets of paper, they started toward Shiro’s room. Keith began rambling, “My position is currently funded through the EC department, not world languages, so they’ll only pay for enough classes to support the DHH kids. It’s always a feeding frenzy when the rest of the students try for the extra spaces. Sarah knows we could support a full slate of classes, and I really want to be in the classroom full time, but we haven’t been able to convince Central Office to spend the money yet. So I teach half the time and do classroom interpretation and student support the rest of the time.”

“How about your buddy?”

“Buddy?” Keith looked mystified.

“The other interpreter yesterday.”

“Oh! That’s Lance. Lance McClain. He’s one of the support staff for DHH.”

“He...gets into his work, I take it?”

Keith scowled as Shiro led him into his classroom. “He doesn’t pull that crap when he’s doing classroom interpretation, at least.”

“So his style is frowned upon?”

Keith sighed, unrolling the sheets of paper on a lab table. “It depends. There’s studies showing that interpreters tend to adjust how they work depending on their audiences. We tend to mouth what we’re communicating more when we have hearing people in the audience, for example. But when Lance gets in front of a large crowd like that...it’s like he’s performing. And that’s not our job. We’re there to assist communication, not put on a show.”

Shiro nodded, thinking about how easily distracted he had been from the remarks being made in favor of watching Lance’s expressions. “I see what you mean.”

Keith stayed to lend a hand as Shiro covered his shelves and insisted on helping carry the defrosted mini-fridge to his car. “Trust me, the football coaches actively search the school for any fridge not behind a locked door and co-opt it for their Gatorade supply. And then they don’t put them back. Keep it at your place. I’m pretty sure it was Mr. West’s before it was Ms. Caplan’s, so she won’t want it shipped to her.”

They walked back in. Shiro planned to take one more look at his room, check in with the department chair, and go home and binge some Netflix, but he was reluctant to part from Keith. As he tried to think of something to ask, debating between coffee or a drink, the office admin’s voice came over the PA system.

“Any teachers in the building, if you are available the counselors need help stuffing report cards for mailing. Please report to student services if you can help.”

Keith glanced at him. “Want to?”

“Sure.”

********************

One of the counselors set them up with stacks of report cards, transcripts, and pre-addressed envelopes, with envelope glue and a box to hold sealed envelopes. Shiro and Keith shared a table and began working through the sophomores, M-R. Keith had obviously helped out like this before and had a system, creasing folds with his thumbnail and swiping glue on the envelopes in two efficient strokes. Shiro did his best to copy him.

As they found their rhythm, they began chatting. Shiro learned that Keith had been riding motorcycles since he was eight years old, had a second-degree black belt in aikido, and lived alone with a pair of cats. He began learning sign language in his teens after a young cousin suffered hearing loss through meningitis. Shiro shared his own love of cats, his taste for the latest Netflix shows, and his dreams of being an astronaut until he exceeded the height limit in college. They compared other places they had taught: Shiro in a small town between their location and the coast, and Keith at the western campus of the state’s school for the deaf.

“I like it much better here. It’s counter-intuitive, but I love teaching ASL to a mixed population. The hearing kids are usually the ones who drive the ASL club and do outreach, because to them it’s more like a cool secret code than learning a language. And it’s just nice to be in a major metro area; I had to drive almost an hour south if I wanted anything that wasn’t a burger chain, pizza, or a mom-and-pop diner.”

Shiro nodded vigorously. “We had one non-Taco Bell Mexican restaurant in our town. That was it. No Indian, no Thai, no Greek...nothing.”

“Ooh, I haven’t had Indian in a while. I think the best one is Rasal’s, over on Western Boulevard. Have you been yet?”

Shiro shook his head.

“Want to go?”

Shiro froze, nearly dropping the bottle of glue, and felt his face grow hot. “I...um, sure. Yes. Absolutely.”

Keith nodded and fished his phone from his pocket. He unlocked it and opened a new contact before sliding it across to Shiro. “Drop your info in there. Would Friday work?”

Shiro tapped in his name and number. “Yeah, that’ll be great.” He slid the phone back, then playfully touched his fingers to his lips and brought his hand down in the sign for “thank you”, one of the few that he remembered.

Keith smiled and responded with his own gesture, spreading his fingers slightly and touching his thumb to his chest, then spelled S-H-I-R-O, his fingers almost flying.

Shiro felt a sudden urge to shove the table between them aside and pounce on him.

Keith’s near-violet eyes danced but his own cheeks were turning pink. He cleared his throat and picked up the next report card in his pile. “Race you? Loser buys?”

Shiro grinned. “You’re on.”

****************************************************************

Thanks for reading! Next chapter up...when I get it finished.

[jedimordsith]

Comments Are Not The Place For Concrit

I love a lot of the stuff @ao3commentoftheday has been posting about comments /kudos - what they mean, what they don’t, how tentative readers can leave them and authors can encourage them. But one thing keeps really getting under my skin: anonymous authors keep asking for how they can get feedback on “what they can fix” and, generally, concrit under any other name.

I get it. I do. We all want to be better writers and when something isn’t received with rave reviews it’s a knee-jerk response to want to find out why so we can “fix” it. And I hate to be a spoilsport but seriously, guys, unless they’re coming from someone you’ve already cultivated a relationship with online COMMENTS ARE NOT THE PLACE FOR THIS most of the time.

In any arena of life, criticism is meaningful when it flows from one person to another in an established relationship of mutual caring and respect.

This is why people join writer’s groups. Why they get mentors. Why they find betas. To connect with people with people they can get to know and respect and understand and develop solid communication with - so that they have somewhere to get feedback that can account for who they are and what (and WHY) they’re trying to create. Because it’s not a thing you can get in any meaningful way from just anybody who runs across your online path.

Think about this a second:

It is SO hard to say less-than-entirely-positive things in almost any venue online and have them come across in the genuinely interested, encouraging way an individual intends. Even among people who know each other extremely well IRL, it’s incredibly easy for things to come off wrong - especially if either party is tired, already having a bad day, in a hurry, whatever.

Many readers and writers are drawn to online platforms because we DON’T have safe/enjoyable/appropriate outlets for our literary/fandom passions IRL. It’s incredibly important to us to not only provide to others the kind of encouragement and safe spaces we so value for ourselves, but to cultivate an online presence that doesn’t (inadvertently and damagingly) paint us as critics or perfectionists who might end up unwelcome in our precious online communities because we worded something poorly or were misunderstood by someone who felt attacked when we tried to respond to the call for concrit. Trying concrit with someone you don’t know well is risky and a lot less fair to ask for than people tend to realize.

If you’re writing for your own enjoyment (and if you’re not, why are you writing/posting to somewhere like AO3?), there are very fine lines to be walked in terms of what someone can legitimately offer concrit on. Politely noting that a lack of basic editing/formatting sometimes makes it hard to engage with your work just from a visual standpoint is one thing. Critiquing grammar, style, etc. starts to get into sketchy territory because (a) writing is an art and inherently individualistic, (b) you’re sharing it for free, which means I can always just not read it if it isn’t for me, and (c) nobody has communicated (let alone signed up for!) specific standards to which they want/expect to be held... so what am I going to critique you against, and by what logic?

This is not to say that you can never ask for or receive feedback online. It just means that “leave me comments!” and “tell me what you liked/didn’t like!” in the author’s notes sections of AO3/fanfic.net are not the way to go about it.

Consider instead:

Intentionally cultivating online relationships with readers/authors engaging with the same materials you are (or writing the kind of stuff you want to be writing). Follow them on tumblr. Talk to them on tumblr, using their ask feature or PMing if they’ve got those enabled. Leave thoughtful comments on their works on AO3 to start a dialogue. Start building the kinds of online relationships that have enough familiarity/respect to be a solid venue for honest, less guarded opinions. (Yes, it can be a smidge intimidating to start, but people on here because they want to connect!!)

Asking specific, discussion-generating questions based on subject matter rather than your writing skills. (E.g. “I went back and forth a lot writing this chapter because I could totally see x character doing one of two things in this situation: option A or option B. I went with option B because (fill in the blank), but I’m curious what everyone else thinks. Did that feel in character to you? Do you feel like they might have gone the other way, or that a given tweak in the circumstances might have made things swing differently?” This gives readers a chance to talk to you about a character you’re both interested in and the quirks of their character without bashing your writing if they see things differently.)

Join/follow online writer’s communities. There are some GREAT tumblrs, blogs, and other no-pressure places online where you can lurk and/or engage and get a steady stream of wisdom, camaraderie and (really engaging/positive) education on how to be a better writer. Read them. Compare your works and processes to the kinds of structures and standards and checklists they offer and see where you feel like you stand. You’ll be surprised by how much progress you make just by making this stuff part of your regular awareness/thought processes.

Anyway... this was long and I didn’t mean to discourage anyone. We all want to be recognized and encouraged in our art and that’s okay. Just, please - recognize that when you’re not getting the concrit you want, it’s not necessarily about you or your writing at all. It’s about the “where” and the “how” not being a good match for the “what” you’re looking for.

*steps off soap box, folds it up neatly, tucks it under one arm and walks away*

[sophygurl]

Here it goes my meta request. I felt really disconnected from AoS this year. I do love the characters and I still enjoyed some moments but I was like generally not interested in it. Weirdly enough the episode that made me go" YAS THIS IS MY SHOW" was the finale that very much everyone hated lmao. So I'd like to know your thoughts on the season and also your thought on the whole "Fitz has always been capable of being a Nazi" which I disagree with but I'd like to see your take on that too :)

(CONT) Or not only Fitz I guess also May and Coulson. The show overlooked the responsibility of those two in all of it because they were basically enablers of an evil empire and like I know we all are capable of doing bad things but they were playing in another level. All you want to write about the subject I'd love to hear :)

Thank you so much for giving me a meta request! And I apologize about how long it’s taken me to get to it. 

I have to say that I also felt disconnected this season. I’m not sure what it was, exactly, but the whole mysteriously being sent into the future and stuck on the space station thing just didn’t work for me, I guess, and being thrown into this whole new world with new characters and situations sort of confused me for a time. Like WTF is going on? And not in the good-fun way of “I can’t wait to figure out what’s going on!” but more in a just lost and disinterested way? 

I feel like they were maybe trying to make some parallels between the Nazi/Hydra conditions of the Framework but with our characters all scrambling together to fight the powers that be instead of being made to work against one another? Maybe? But I feel like that might have worked better if Fitz had been with them in the future since he was the main one they had to fight in the Framework?

Plus, all of the prophecies causing the things that affect the future circularity of it all just got be a bit too much for me. Perhaps if I had binge watched it all once vs. watching week to week it would have flowed better. I wonder if anyone who watched it that way felt differently about it??

Like, I’m reading a recap of the season to remind myself of everything that went down and I’m like - wait who was that character again? And what was the relevancy of this plot point to the overall arc? And whoa - wait - how did that even happen anyway?! It’s confusing. I like a good mystery in my fiction, but not outright confusion. 

I do feel like the way the show has decided it has to become a whole new entity every season or half-season gets to be a bit much. AoS works better, imo, as a character-driven show. We don’t need all of these complex and ever-changing plots to be interested in what our heroes are doing. 

They can have conflict and drama and climaxes and resolutions without these massive shifts where our characters never even get to take a breath before the next big thing happens. Some of the best stuff is what happens during those breaths, those beats, in between the action itself. And we rarely get to see that stuff anymore. We get a rushed confession here and a quickie kiss there and five seconds of emotional discovery and release before running off to do the next insane thing to save the world from something it turns out they caused in the first place and ENOUGH already, yk? 

It just becomes really difficult to relate emotionally to the characters, and to understand the emotional motivations driving their actions, when we only get maybe half a minute per episode per character of actual character development. They want us to understand and connect with our group, but I feel like they are doing more telling than showing these days. 

Quite possibly, a major reason for all of this extra extraness and convoluted plot twisting is due to their need to be linked with the movie franchise. So the writers of the show have these great ideas, but then they’re being controlled somewhat by what the movies are doing, but likely also aren’t getting all of the info on exactly what happens in the movies, so they just kinda slide around trying to fit it all together in ways that feel less than ideal when it all actually plays out on screen. But that’s just a guess. 

I’m trying to recall, now, if I felt differently about the finale than the season as a whole, but I’m not sure. I did like the installation of Mack as the leader. That felt really called for and well deserved. 

As far as the Fitz always having been capable of being a Nazi, or least Nazi-like, there is a shitton of problematicness going on with that whole deal that I don’t feel qualified to touch on. 

But I did actually like the reveal that it was Fitz himself - and not some fictional other!Fitz - that was making the choices he did in the back half of the season. Because while he didn’t literally become the head of a genocidal fascistic regime, he did make some very immoral decisions. And they were decisions we didn’t think our Fitz was capable of. But he experienced that Framework world, and while he was ashamed and horrified by his role in it, it affected him as any experience would. And it led him to making a terrible decision that hurt a lot of people. Yes, he believed it was for the greater good - where greater good means the literal survival of the human race and the planet earth and all life upon it - so there were some heavy stakes attached there. But they were still immoral choices. 

And we saw all of the team making some weird, and sometimes horrific, choices all season. Which, again, I guess, was trying to make some kind of parallel or at least connection to the Framework world. And these are characters who all, in their own way, already carry the burden of the world with them; and who in this past season were literally carrying the burden of the survival of the world with them. And I suppose the crisis of that burden could cause anyone to make some rough choices. 

But I still have a lot of serious problems with the whole Hydra-Framework-Nazi thing. I mean, the agents aren’t Clark Kent - they don’t have to be perfectly decent and good at all times. But they’re still supposed to be our heroes, you know what I mean? 

And heroes make heroic choices. And heroic choices don’t involve taking other people’s freedom or autonomy away from them. Not in any moral universe I want to take part in, anyway. 

So yea, it’s tricky. I feel distanced from the show not just from the standpoint of the plot being overly and unnecessarily convoluted, but also from an emotional view of just not being sure what they’re trying to say about these characters that we’ve grown to love. 

I guess we’ll see what next season brings. If they just continue to beat down and grind down our team until there’s nothing left of them, the show is likely to go from being one of my faves to something I just have on the background. I need a little light, a little grasp of hope and goodness. This past season just wasn’t giving me that. 

[a-mellowtea]

This is a little bit delayed, ‘cause I’ve been having some issues with internet. It’s back for now, so... lemme talk some Avengers: Infinity War. 

First off, as a non-spoilery general recap of my thoughts: it was enjoyable. It had its problems, some rather large, but I loved it for what it was. I went in with no expectations beyond trailer hype and was thoroughly shaken and surprised.

From here, I’m getting into some detail so there will be spoilers below the cut. You have been warned.

I’m going to start off with what I didn’t like, because while I’m seeing it again on Sunday, these are initial thoughts and I’d best get the bad out of the way before I forget the specifics.

THOR: RAGNAROK

If there’s one aspect of the movie I can say that I outright - or damn near - hated, it’s the unraveling of Thor: Ragnarok. In a way, I can see what the Russos were going for - it showcases Thanos’ warped idea of mercy by mercilessly slaughtering a people with nowhere to run, who had just lost their home, all for the sake of getting the Space stone. 

However, and as the end credits of the aforementioned Thor movie demonstrated, this is directly after Thor: Ragnarok - I’m talking minutes. Realistic in its unfairness as it may be, all it feels like is a cheap shot. Thor: Ragnarok ended with hope; with Thor on the throne, his people bruised but having survived, and Loki choosing to stay. Infinity War begins with Valkyrie dead in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shot (I’m not... too angry at that, but I understand why some are and it’s rightly so), Thor beaten, and Heimdall and Loki’s deaths.

Was it a good punch to start the movie off with? Certainly. The scenes were great. Heimdall’s final act giving Earth a warning. Thanos beating Hulk. Loki not being able to bear seeing Thor in agony, him calling himself ‘Odinson’, using his classic trickery to try and kill Thanos. It was very well done.

Was it worth undoing almost the entire previous movie? No.

On top of that, we see Thor regain his eye (in a way) and a new, more powerful weapon. In the end, it simply felt as though Ragnarok was rendered a little... pointless.

KICKING CHARACTERS WHILE THEY’RE DOWN

This is an odd, sort of bottom-of-the-barrel downside for me, as I went into the movie having read the comics and fully aware that this was meant to be the low point for the characters of the Marvel Universe. That being said, there’s a certain point where it just starts to feel like a bit... too much?

The character I want to mention most here is Wanda (though the ‘they were so close!’ fight on Titan is an instance of it as well). I was surprised that the Russos went in for her romance with Vision, then ultimately had her actually kill him. The scene was beautiful in its tragedy at that, at least for me - I know some people adamantly dislike their relationship, and that’s perfectly fine.

For a second, while the ultimate outcome is hilariously predictable, the movie gets hopeful again. One of the Infinity Stones is destroyed. The good guys have a chance. But then Thanos gets it anyways, effectively letting Wanda know that she failed, making her watch Vision die again, and actually leading to her ‘death’.

There’s a fine line in writing. Your audience should, under most circumstances and to my knowledge, never feel like things are completely hopeless. That leads to a loss of investment. For me, the Russos just stumbled over that line, and it was irritating.

This also ties into another point about how the movie treats its female characters, which I’ve decided not to get into because I chose to avoid the topic most of the time. All I’ll say is that, while characters like Natasha, Gamora, Wanda, Shuri and Okoye get the limelight and are as badass as ever (whew, man, they were stellar), their treatment from a writing standpoint is somewhat disappointing.

PACING

Another rather minor, very subjective issue I had with the movie was its pacing. Some scenes felt like they lingered just long enough, while other plot threads felt like they weren’t given nearly enough time.

However, I fully understand that there’s only so much the film could do with its 2h 40min runtime and that it’s insanely difficult to balance everything you need to fit in there. Thankfully, I will say that there’s not much if anything I feel could’ve been taken out of the film to lessen this problem.

Upon initial viewing, that is all I can honestly say I disliked. Onto what I did, because there was some incredible stuff in this movie. That basically encapsulates everything I didn’t mention above, but there are a few things I loved that I feel are worth specifically mentioning.

PERFORMANCES

Everyone's acting was stellar. From Chris Evans to Tom Holland and everyone in between, the entire cast brought their A-game and it was a joy to watch.

THE DEATHS

Oh-ho man. It wouldn't be Infinity War without some genuinely heart-wrenching moments, and the film was not short on them. Thor losing legitimately everything made me want to curl into the fetal position. Gamora realizing she’s the one thing Thanos loves and her subsequent forced sacrifice broke my heart. Our baby Peter Parker dissolving into ash took about 5 years off my life. It was good.

I know some people - rightly - feel that almost every death was a cheap shot, and the entire movie itself crumbled at the supports because we know there are sequels coming for many of the ‘killed’ characters, and many others who they’d have to be out of their minds to get rid of. For me, while knowing that takes away from it after the fact, it didn’t so much in the moment.

THE MUSIC

Alan Silvestri was brought back, and I honestly have yet to be disappointed by this man’s work. I cannot tell you how loud the cheers were in my showing when the original Avengers theme first began to blare, nor can I put into words the stunned silence as the soft piano rendition of the aforementioned theme brought the film to a close. It was phenomenal.

THANOS

I love to hate him and hate to love him. He’s not a perfect villain, and perhaps not Marvel’s best - they’ve always had trouble in that field - but for what he was, he was fantastic. He wasn’t sympathetic, but understandable. While his ideas of mercy and universal balance could (and probably should) be easily described as psychotic, you could honestly tell that he genuinely thought what he was doing was right. That doesn’t mean it was, but it’s a step in the right direction for Marvel’s baddies going forward.

Other small, honorable mention/moment-to-moment things I loved were Steve 'I am EXTRA’ Rogers’ entrance; “You’re embarrassing me in front of the wizards”; Red Skull; Eitri and Nidavellir; my girl, STEM super-star Shuri effortlessly schooling Banner; Peter Parker’s continuing saga of pop culture references; Thanos being the definition of amazingly petty and actually doing the snap and; cutting Samuel L. Jackson off mid-”motherfucker” (and just getting to see Hill and Fury again).

All in all and despite some glaring flaws, I can honestly say that I enjoyed Infinity War. I was definitely a sobbing mess at the end (Peter’s death is what pushed me over that particular edge) and I cannot wait for Part II/Avengers 4.

Carol! Please come unfuck this!

[vaguekiwi]

COTD has a great nod here that, of course: fic can be as tasteful or tasteless as the author wants on any topic. That’s fine. It’s fiction.

But OP does have an interesting question about the use of non-con as a pathos appeal. In series’ like GoT and Outlander, we sometimes see non-con ‘for the sake of it’ / ‘because look at how marginalised populations are treated, isn’t that horrible!’ And it’s like… yeah I guess, but it can sometimes make some readers feel the topic is being cheapened / overused.

TV Tropes has a whole page on the use of rape as shock value / tragic backstory / “a special kind of evil” [to quote the page.]

There are no hard-and-fast rules. This is not just fiction but fanfiction; it’s a hobby not a profession. But I have some thoughts about maybe making things more realistic[ish]? Obviously it’s not a one-size-fits-all but more under the cut:

1. Revealing a history of assault/manipulation/etc. is something that a survivor does over and over again in their life with different people they meet and get close to. I’m trying to think of a less horrible comparison but here we go just kick me off Tumblr it’s fine: I didn’t come out once in high school and move on with my life with the whole world knowing I’m queer. I come out every time I mention a girlfriend/nb partner to someone who doesn’t already know I’m queer. Sometimes that coming out goes well, sometimes it doesn’t. In the same way, revealing a history of non-con [or any abuse/trauma] goes differently with different people and the reveal happens ‘over and over again’ because we’re always meeting new people, forming new relationships, etc.

2. Moving on from stuff like this isn’t one-and-done. Suppose someone has trouble having penetrative sex because of a past experience. They meet someone new, trust them a lot, have sex, things go great. Two weeks later they try again and this time things aren’t great [bad memories/bad feelings/who knows]. Two weeks later they try again and things are fine again. The human mind is a weird place, someone’s first ‘success’ is very likely not their last failure and it doesn’t mean the overall journey of recovery is over.

3. Don’t let this become the entirety of your character’s arc. They should have other goals and hobbies and objectives that they focus on and should be 3-dimensional enough to exist as more than the trauma backstory [since this is their MC, I suspect OP has that more than covered.] They’re probably not dwelling on their past trauma 24/7, so don’t let it consume every thought/word/action.

4. From a writing/narrative standpoint I agree with COTD that it would probably be beneficial to reveal this in a timely and appropriate way. MC is probably not meeting people at bars and spilling their guts, so the reveal for this could be really early on just between the narrator and reader. Or it could be a big step with the MC and another character’s friendship/relationship growing closer and more intimate later on. But just make sure the relationship is close enough to warrant what’s a pretty private thing.

And, again, this is all totally optional and just me rambling out some thoughts that I have about characterisation with a history of trauma. Again: no two people are going to have the same experience and this is a difficult subject to write thoughtfully and tastefully. At the end of the day: Write what you’ll write, especially because I think this writing process will help OP to process. Writing is a very therapeutic activity ☺️

So, about Non-Con. Any advice on how to do it tastefully?

I recently realized I am not straight, which has been so liberating to finally accept about myself, but it's also recontextualized some things that have happened to me in the past which weren't exactly rape, but also weren't really as consensual as I thought they were. I'm wanting to use fanfic to work through some of the negative emotions that have resulted from this. I'm considering mentioning an offscreen Non Con event having happened in a canon character's past. It's not actually in canon, but it offers an explanation for some of this character's behavior and is an event for the character to come to terms with, as I am in real life.

The thing is, Non Con is often used for shock value or pity in fic, so I anticipate a lot of eye-rolling. What are some dos and don'ts you follow when it comes to this sensitive subject, so it comes across as a valid experience to grow from, and not just "please feel sorry for my character"?

There aren’t any rules for how to write any topic, up to and including non-con. What one person finds tasteful another will find tasteless. What one person will see as compelling backstory, another will see as an overused trope. 

I think a lot of it comes down to a feeling of authenticity. One thing that makes those kinds of conversation seem eye-roll worthy is if the conversation hasn’t been earned in the narrative yet. If the reader can’t imagine revealing that kind of personal story to another person then it breaks their suspension of disbelief. It becomes a plot device instead of a genuine moment of trust between characters. 

I haven’t written this particular kind of scene myself, so I’ll pass it off to people who have read or written them themselves. How do you go about making these moments work? And if you’re reading, how does an author make it seem real? Or make it seem like just another plot device?

[tenestelapromessa]

I know my musings have been melancholy lately, so I wanted to write a little about the highlight of my singing year: performing the character of Abigail Williams from Robert Ward’s The Crucible for opera scenes in the fall. Amidst a lot of disappointment this was the zenith of everything that made at least my fall semester worthwhile.

Let me preface by saying that while I had never heard of the opera before, I was a huge fan of the play since I was a teenager and an even bigger fan of the history of the Salem Witch Trials in general. History was always my favorite subject in school and I never understood why people thought it was generally boring, especially American history. American history doesn’t fascinate me out of patriotism and a belief in a heroic, pure past - it’s just overall interesting, and the religious roots of the US in general are very intriguing. Plus I’m drawn to the paranormal and the history of witchcraft so....this is really just my jam. (For the record, I don’t believe anything paranormal happened in Salem and please don’t tell me about ergot poisoning, that’s a theory that’s been largely discredited since if it were true there should have been some deaths from it)

Anyway, when we all were gathered into the room to learn what we had been cast in, the moment the director started his preamble about the scene from The Crucible (the finale of Act 1) I was like, “oooooh, what’s this?” And then when he said announced MY name for Abigail Williams I internally started shrieking. “I’m a witch!!!” I actually exclaimed aloud like a giddy 12 year-old.  There were a lot of fun scenes last fall, but I can’t emphasize enough how much Abigail was a dream come true for me and I wouldn’t have traded her to be a character in any of the others. If any other name but mine had been announced for her, I would have been PISSED, especially with how everything else shook down.  Now, I know the opera itself isn’t a total masterpiece, but that scene was so satisfying (probably the most fun musically out of the whole work from an ensemble standpoint). A lot of the satisfaction came from having the different scene - you know what I mean? We were bookended by a lot of Mozart, Handel, operetta, etc, and don’t get me wrong, I like that stuff....but 20 straight minutes of darkness, singing about drinking baby blood, clawing and fighting on my hands and knees on stage, and difficult, borderline atonal music was such a blast that I didn’t care if the audience was like “WTF????” And we had a great sense of camaraderie in our crew - we all really felt that it would be amazing to be able to maybe someday do the whole opera. 

Lastly, it was interesting to me that I have never really been cast as a good person. I don’t believe in black-and-white good-and-evil, but everyone I’ve sung so far (Frasquita, Queen of the Night, and Abigail) doesn’t make conventionally good choices in life to varying extents, and I really get a kick out of that, especially since my voice type is usually the demure maiden. I love those roles, too, but I’d love ride this complex, bad girl wave for as long as I can..

So all I have left now of this is Abigail’s aria that I’m working on. I really hoped to present it this fall at the school music competition - it would be my first competition ever and my last chance to participate in this one since I’m graduating in the spring, but now that we’re starting the semester virtually I don’t know if that’s going to happen anymore. I don’t want to present it because I think I’ll win with it, but because I really believe in it and it’s out of the box. Nonetheless, the full role is on my list of dream roles now for sure and I will insist on singing the aria in my senior recital at all costs.  Just thinking about it sparks a little joy for singing again. I’m interested to see how my voice rehab will go once I’m up north and will try to chronicle my progress here. I don’t know why I’m writing sometimes (especially now that I’m at a low point), but I do believe in at least commemorating the positive experiences like this one.

[melonoverlord]

📖 for Ravi, Val, and Tam

Ravi

Month 4, Day 12

Dear Journal,

I’m sorry I didn’t writein you yesterday or the day before. We were going after the bad man’s ship andwe found new friends! I think my favorite one was Miss Ciri; she was reallynice to me and Crumb and she even gave me a hug before she left for Therion!Well, I actually hugged her but she accepted it so that’s kind of the samething. I know that things haven’t been very good for anything, but I think usbeing nice to them is making them happier! They didn’t fight me when I conductedthe test and that’s always a good thing. When they come back from Therion, Iwant to try talking to them more. I didn’t get to speak to Mister Castor or Mx.Icio all that much but I think they’re really cool! I want to be like MisterCastor when I grow up and be the leader of a revolution. Also he and Miss Cirihave cool hair like Mister Tam and I can’t wait until I’m big enough that MissLuna lets me dye my hair.

Now that the new peopleand Miss Val left, the day’s been kinda lonely. Me and Crumb went to the GameFloor and played bowling for a little bit but I think Crumb’s not strong enoughto throw a bowling ball. I still have some trouble throwing it but I think I’mdoing better. Miss Luna came down and helped me throw the ball correctly and Ithink we finally got to have a long talk! I told her how I was doing witheverything and my problem about sometimes not remembering things. I think she wantsto keep an eye on me and make sure I’m okay but I really want to just be seenas an employee too and earn my keep. It doesn’t make things good that I’m onlyeight and a half and the next oldest person is over ten years older than me(though even then people still sometimes treat Miss Val like a kid) but I justwish people saw me more than just a kid.

Well, I won’t keep youtoo long, journal. I’m sure you have a lot of important journal-y things to dobeing a journal and all. I will write in you again next time somethinginteresting happens. Bye!

 Val

Month 4, Day 10, Hour 16

My attempts to recreateB3rT13’s hardware, at least on a smaller scale, have been somewhat successful.Physically the translation between B3rT13 and version 1.0 of the RedistributionProject, of whom I named Phoebe, is a perfect copy, just several feet smallerand built to resemble factory conditions. I still have yet to test whethercommands and movements will act the same once deployed, but I haven’t gottenaround to building a tiny B-Mark gun. The main differences between Phoebe andB3rT13 lie in their cognitive abilities. Granted, when I built B3rT13’s mentalprocessing systems I was simply building on an older model but now I ambuilding Phoebe’s processing systems from scratch, she doesn’t recognize voicesor faces like B3rT13 can, and has a lot more trouble speaking (where the otherhas the problem of not shutting up), and can only say a little bit more thanher name and my name. And “Ow fuck” because apparently I say that wheneversomething blows up in my face. Environment stress tests will be conducted tosee how Phoebe reacts against other creatures. Reactions against subjectsCastor Rafel and Ciri ???? have proven fruitful with no stressors ignited.

Now that at least thatpart’s done, I can do the personal part of the journal, or how Luna says it“I’m still technically in therapy so I should log my feelings”. It took me fiveyears, but I finally got to meet the famous Castor Rafel. After how highlyeveryone spoke of the Rafels and the fact that they’re war heroes, I expectedCastor to be taller? Like you look at Perseus Wright and I maybe be a hugelesbian, but that guy is hero material. Though I definitely see myself in himwhen I got here. I had my share of breaking shit too. God, I broke so muchshit. Good in a fight though.

Ciri is a fucking breathof fresh air. Not that I discredit any of the biologically minded peopleaboard, but finding someone who appreciates technology is a blessing. PoorNivviah tries to understand when I talk to her about my work but since she’s afish and Theuthida has that conservative backwater politics, she had no fuckingclue what I was talking about. Ciri though at I can have a conversation. Itfeels weird saying this since she’s like five years older than me, but shereminds me of how I used to be before I joined… back when I still had. Anyways,I’m glad she trusts me to keep her secret safe and I’ll do anything I can tohelp her. Tech ladies got to stick together, ya know?

I had pegged Icio as theloner type, but they are incredibly good in a fight. They fucked up my botspretty good and they all passed the “Ravi test” so that’s a plus in my book.When they… molted (?) scales, that was honestly one of the grossest shit I’veever seen in my life. And I’ve seen a lot of gross shit. I mean, they mean wellbut I was thoroughly disgusted. From a scientific standpoint, I will definitelyask Nivviah if that’s happened to her.

Besides our newcrewmates, I think that’s all the news. I still miss you guys a ton and I’mtrying to make you proud. I know I’d do a lot fucking better if you were withme. I love you both so much.

 Tam

Morning?

We finally got our firstnew set of recruits in four years and I couldn’t have asked for a better set.The girl with them is really pretty and she’s super sweet, but that’s not why Ilike them! I mean sure, Miss Ciri is the nicest girl I think I’ve ever met (Imean the only girls I’ve been around in the last ten years are Luna, Nivviah,Venus, and Valerie and although I love them all they’re not entirely known forbeing “nice”, except maybe Nivviah. Don’t get me wrong, Luna’s my best friendand she’s been incredibly kind to me, but I guess there’s something differentabout Ciri.

They left yesterday forTherion to help the Wings of Freedom, so I’ve just been lounging about. Lunaasked me to spar with her and for once I actually knocked her to the groundwith my staff. I think I’m finally getting comfortable with fighting but I knowI have a long ways to go before I’m actually on the ground. I think…. I thinkeventually I will have to ask Luna if I can go on a mission to practice. I’mdefinitely not going anywhere where humans are, but I think I’d be okay goingto one of the outer planets like Alternia or Scylla. I heard the Dryads arepretty nice too.

Also in the meantime,I’ve also started spending some more time with the resident children on theship. Ravi’s been teaching me some biology stuff and been poking around in thelab of various creatures we’ve found on different planets. It’s been reallycool getting to talk to the kid. I think sometimes he gets a bit antsy nothaving anyone to talk to despite how hard the rest of us try. Well, I think Val’strying to talk to him more about science seeing how that’s really where hispassion is, but a lot of that goes over my head. I mean, growing up all thatwas really expected of me was to play the violin. It’s been fun though. I’ll havesomething to show everyone when the group comes back from Therion. I’m tryingto establish more of a bond with everyone on the ship rather than just Luna. I’mtrying. Stars knows I’m trying. I guess that’s it for now. Goodbye for now.