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itsclydebitches · 5 years ago

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RWBY Recaps: “The Enemy of Trust”

Welcome to the finale, folks! A quick fun fact for you all. Total length of RWBY Recaps Volume 7 is:

68,611 words, or 115 pages single spaced. Yeesh. No wonder I never got anything else done on Saturdays.

Overall thoughts on the finale? There are pieces embedded in this episode that I really liked. Meaning, all these conflicts and reveals could be seen as truly wonderful bits of storytelling... provided you ignore the horrible, messy context it’s all situated in. For example, I greatly enjoyed that fight with Neo... provided I ignore the stupidity that was the group keeping the relic in the first place. I love the idea of Penny becoming the Winter Maiden... it’s just too bad there wasn’t any setup for that in the form of Penny’s emotional growth, either by re-bonding with Ruby or by something amounting from that frame job. I adore that Ozpin is finally back!! ...So I guess I just have to ignore how he pretty much only existed as thematic exposition and that his bad treatment by the writers hangs over his return. It’s all very “Could have been good if the rest hadn’t been so astoundingly bad.”

First though, before the plot, I wanted to dip by toe into some of the questions we went into this volume with and some of the primary ones that sprung up along the way. Simple answers are attached.

Will the group’s dangerous attitude be addressed along with the introduced hypocrisy in regards to secret keeping? Ha! Not at all. Everything was thoroughly reinforced and last we saw the group---besides generic airship shots---they were triumphantly defeating Ironwood’s evil Ace Ops. So that’s that on that.

Will Ozpin come back and will there be reconciliation with the group? Yes! But also no! Why have a volume tackling with the biggest personal conflict the group has ever faced when you could instead just have another “Ozpin speaks a handful of words during a life-and-death situation”? Yes, yes he gets that massive monologue. We’ll get to that, but suffice to say it doesn’t exactly accomplish anything. Just hammers home how desperate I am to have his character back that I’ll take anything they’re willing to give me.

How will the group handle the death of Adam---one of the most significant deaths to date next to Pyrrha’s---and how will the reveal of his brand impact Weiss and her time at home? It won’t. Blake and Yang vaguely reference him once and that’s it. Apparently killing your abuser in self-defense creates no lasting trauma we should deal with and major reveals from villains straight up don’t matter.

What will the story do with their new character Maria? Uh, nothing. She exists off screen for the entire volume, only popping up in the last second to (maybe?) help Pietro get the scrolls working again. Oh, and she’s stolen another airship.

How will Qrow’s alcoholism continue to impact the group and how will he learn to start managing his addiction? No idea because that happened off screen. And then was presumably erased when Clover died.

Will the group ever discuss the hopelessness attached to their mission and come to the realization that their fight is worthwhile even though they can’t kill Salem? Sort of...? Because yeah they come to that realization but, again, it happens off screen. More significantly, it happens so well, apparently, that the group is now willing to feed Ironwood’s own false hope (like the fandom claims Ozpin did to them) and will be able to stand in front of Salem herself and announce that she’s totally beatable. And we’re going to risk a whole Kingdom on that came-out-of-nowhere confidence.

What does the Staff of Creation do and how will our characters potentially use it in their plans against Salem? We learn that the staff keeps Atlas afloat and it’s definitely a part of Ironwood’s plans, so there’s that.

How will Ruby continue to train and improve her Silver Eye powers? In the messiest and most contradictory manner possible. We’re shown twice in the last three episodes that she can’t get them to work and then suddenly they’re working again when the plot wants Cinder to skedaddle because there’s five minutes of the episode left. Like Qrow’s semblance, Ruby’s eyes are based on a switch that the writers turn on or off depending on their whim.

What will this volume tell us about Nora given all the hype surrounding the importance of her character this season? Nothing, really. All Nora does is solidify her relationship with Ren in a non-consenting manner and yell at Ironwood about Mantle while helping to orchestrate the city’s lack of resources. Even ignoring the issues inherent in these scenes, what we “learned” about Nora this volume is that she loves Ren, is protective of those who come from a similar background as she does, and will run to hug Oscar when given the chance. So...nothing.

Now the reason I provided this long-ass introduction is so that a) we can remember what we actually hoped/expected the volume to accomplish now that we’ve reached the end (RWBY introduces so many things that viewers---myself included---outright forget that we were supposed to tackle certain plot points or character beats) and b) to demonstrate just some of the writing problems that are impacting this finale. This is what I mean when I say that this finale could have been really solid if not for... all of that. And “that” is just a small sampling of the issues we’ve built up over the last two years.

But on to the actual plot.

We open on Jaune yelling, “Give up!” at Neo, which isn’t a heavy-handed reflection of the entire RWBYJNR group or anything. As said though, I did really enjoy the choreography of this fight. Oscar gets that excellent moment where he catches the relic with his cane, as well as when he grabs hold of Neo’s legs to keep her from fleeing. Jaune manages to protect them with two different kinds of shields now embedded in his shield. It’s a shield-shield. And Neo herself is always a joy to watch, demonstrating so much personality as she teases her way through each attack. I was thinking throughout this scene that I’d love to see her and Tyrian fighting together. That would be an excellent blend of insane/arrogant enjoyment.

The problem is that Neo is just having such an easy time of it. Which, I should be clear, is what I wanted based on the logic of the situation. Neo should be able to kick their asses with relative ease. The only reason why this is an issue is because it severely complicates what we saw last episode. How was Oscar able to survive her attack for however long? How was he able to land such a solid punch when now Ren and Nora fly at her with the same kind of obviousness and Neo deflects them with ease? I’m thrilled that the finale gave us such a long moment with Oscar, but the series as a whole still has a problem with relegating most of his development off screen. Seeing the comparatively vulnerable farm boy face off against one of our strongest villains should have been a focus last episode, not something that happens in the ether of, “Well I guess all that worked out somehow despite Neo kicking their asses here.” It’s an issue of consistency and convenience primarily. The show seems to have the characters on a very malleable power scale nowadays. Oscar isn’t strong enough to help with the geist, but he’s strong enough to land the first solid hit on Neo. Team RWBY is strong enough to take out the most elite group of huntsmen in Atlas, but Team JNR isn’t strong enough to take out a single villain four to one. It makes it harder to invest in anyone or anything because we’re always on shaky ground. The viewers never know when the writing will obey the rules it has set up or chuck them away on a whim.

The fight is interrupted though when the guards spot them. Did Ruby mention that they were being arrested in her announcement? Did Ironwood announce that before or after Ruby called? I honestly can’t remember and right now I’m too lazy to check. I was just a little surprised that Jaune immediately knew to run from the guards, rather than going, “Hey, crazy woman attacking us please help.” But eh, I’m happy enough to chalk that up to either my own shaky memory or a small connection lost. RWBY has way bigger problems than details like, “How did so-and-so know about such-and-such?” Not unless that information holds way more weight.

So they flee and we actually get to see some reaction to fighting for once. Oscar in particular is clearly exhausted and his clothes are done-in from the battle. Later, while hiding in the training room, all four of them will be leaning against the wall, heaving after facing Neo. Again, this is good. This is how newly-minted huntsmen should be reacting to fighting people way beyond their skill level. It’s only a problem when we compare these details to what we got last week with Team RWBY. Showing JNOR’s exhaustion from a quick bout with Neo no way aligns with RWBY’s perky, totally fine, no auras broken and no tiredness characterization after facing off against four Ace Ops for a significantly longer period.

So there’s some serious plot armor at work there. It became even more clear this episode that Team RWBY won because Team RWBY always gets what they want, not because it makes any sense in-world. But we’ll have to deal with any other consequences of that next volume because they’re barely in the rest of this episode. Instead, we return to the Winter, Penny, and Cinder fight where Cinder casually tosses Penny aside with her grimm arm. She’s briefly held back by Winter’s summoned birds, but that’s hardly going to faze her in the grand scheme of things. In fact, Cinder still has enough energy and confidence to start some philosophizing while she fights. She tells Winter that she may think “hoarding power means you’ll keep it forever, but it just makes the rest of us hungrier.” Self-fulfilling words from the woman hell-bent on acquiring and hoarding all the Maiden powers? As absurd as Cinder’s beliefs are, that “And I refuse to starve” line was pretty badass. On the whole I think she’s a boring villain, but every once in a blue moon Cinder will have a cool moment before she becomes irrelevant again.

The fight continues as Penny returns to the fray and it sounded to me that she was making more noise during this fight than normal. Granted, we’ve rarely seen Penny engage in an all-out brawl that lasts for more than a few seconds, but the additions certainly help with where she’s heading this episode. Particularly moments such as when they’re outside and Cinder’s sword blows up in Penny’s face, causing her to outright scream. It’s a very human sound, setting up the reveal that yes, an android is human enough to take on the Maiden powers. And if you go by some fan theories, “woman enough” (for lack of a better term) given that her aura is a man’s, Pietro’s. Penny is a girl regardless of starting out with male aura, leading to some wonderful and interesting takes on her as a trans character. Now I’m not giving that praise to Rooster Teeth---this isn’t them giving us representation---rather, I’m praising the fandom’s ingenuity and ability to adopt characters into their own communities. You don’t need “evidence” to headcanon transness, but having a girl born of a man’s aura go on to acquire woman-only power can definitely help.

Granted, Penny’s vocalizing here is just a tiny detail that I’m choosing to apply positively to an outcome. I nevertheless stand by my early belief that Penny simply didn’t have the development needed to land her in the Maiden position. Having her grapple with her own death, Ruby her resurrection, and the loss of Mantle’s support would have achieved that. It’s clear now why Rooster Teeth brought her back, but that doesn’t mean they’ve treated her character well for the last twelve episodes. Instead, in true RWBY fashion, a lot was introduced with no followup.

As said though, they take things outside to give us a decently cool battle between three characters who can fly. While in the air though Winter’s aura is broken and she starts to plummet. Obviously Penny catches her, to which Winter replies, “What are you doing? My life doesn’t matter!”

Sometimes I wonder if Rooster Teeth bothers to think about the dialogue they put in characters’ mouths. I mean seriously? Winter is not stupid. Nor is she so hard that---as the episode hammers home---she wouldn’t experience fear. So:

Anyone is going to be happy about being caught from a 100% deadly fall. In a situation like this survival instinct trumps responsibility. Even if it didn’t “responsibility” doesn’t make any sense here because:

They’re not giving up on the Maiden. Penny isn’t making a decision here that requires forever and always choosing Winter over Fria. They’re gonna turn right around and continue the fight

Seriously, it takes a few seconds to catch her. This isn’t that big a deal

The fight thus far has clearly proven that they need all the help they can get. Penny can’t take Cinder on her own and indeed, even with her aura broken Winter manages to be incalculably helpful

Fria still has her powers, which she’s about to demonstrate. Does Winter really not realize that Fria is still pretty capable of defending herself?

In short, this line is stupid. More than just stupid it’s twisting a character to get them to fit with the volume’s badly imposed theme. Oh look Winter cares sooooo much about her orders that she would needlessly die for them. Penny must teach her the value of her own life and how “blindly” obeying Ironwood is a big, bad thing. Come on. Lines like these---Harriet claiming the Ace Ops aren’t friends even though they clearly are, Qrow blaming Ironwood for Clover’s death when he’s not even there, Yang sniping at Elm about how she can’t think for herself---only serve to say Protagonists Good; Ironwood Bad. Rooster Teeth really loves to introduce justified and sympathetic characters, only to have other characters go OOC to backtrack on that verbally. Ignore what you’ve seen and just believe the nonsense words that never would have come out of this character’s mouth otherwise. And yes, that includes Yang and her comment to Elm. She is by far the most loyal character, considering that she’s canonically done things she did not want (following Ozpin) purely because Ruby was doing it. If the story had any sense embedded in it Yang would be the one who understood where the Ace Ops were coming from in their devotion to Ironwood, or at the very least the narrative would call her out on her hypocricy. As it is, the story functions around the “fact” that following Ruby is just intrinsically good. No matter what Ruby herself might do and how it does or does not compare to others’ actions. She’s the hero, always. In the same way, having Winter spout such a nonsense line works only to say, “See? Following Ironwood destroys all your self-wroth. Following Ruby? Like Penny does? You learn the value of friendship!” Never-mind that the first thing Ironwood does this episode is congratulate and apologize to Winter when he thinks he’s coming down into the vault...

Enjoyable pieces aside, I’m obviously still salty, but we’ll get to Ironwood in a minute. For now, Oscar is seriously dragging behind JNR and manages to get separated. He’s hidden from the guards by “Nora” who is, obviously Neo. Within the span of a second she’s gotten the relic and will keep it until she hands it over to Cinder.

Congratulations, team! Not only did you allow Ironwood to harm Mantle for weeks on end when you knew his plan was doomed to fail, you’ve also lost the relic you came to secure in the first place, thoroughly betrayed the one powerful ally you had in this war (just like you did Ozpin), have destroyed any hope of escape as---surprise!---Salem actually showed up, and you took out the one elite team who might have helped you fight her. Oh, and Qrow, you got arrested in the end anyway so congrats on getting your friend killed along the way. Seriously, how does anyone---how does the narrative---insist that these people are heroes? At this point this is a story about fallen heroes, but rather than emphasizing precisely how badly the group has screwed up the last two volumes and taking them on a journey back from the brink, they’re still being painted in a perfect light.

So... yeah. Relic is gone. Which we all saw coming the second Ruby happily agreed to keep holding onto it, then got protective when Ironwood mentioned taking it back. Loyalty aside, you cannot possibly think the relic is safer on your or Oscar’s belt than it is in a freaking magical vault. The group should be denied the title of “heroes” for their stupidity and arrogance alone. Especially when they never bothered to tell Ironwood that there was still a question left. That might have changed his mind about letting them carry it around.

Thus, relic in hand, Neo makes easy work of the rest of the team. Most notably by keeping Nora’s face and giving Ren sad eyes when he tries to strike her. This is a really good moment of visual storytelling and more how RWBY should be using their fights to do double-duty and develop characterization. Neo’s trick not only demonstrates her cruel skills, but tells us precisely how deeply Ren cares for Nora. Even knowing that’s not her he hesitates. Then, obviously, we’ve got the tears as the team runs off. So obviously things are still eating at him and their relationship is a big part of that... which just makes me all the more frustrated that the story passed over his fears at the party. I really don’t care how eager everyone (myself included) was to finally get a renora kiss. We never should have seen Nora ignoring those problems and insisting on moving the relationship forward in a way he clearly wasn’t ready for yet. Ren’s words told us that, as does his grief now. Everyone was wondering if ignoring his anxiety would come to a head in the form of Ren siding with Ironwood, but we didn’t get the chance to find that out this volume. Which, I get it. RWBY doesn’t have a lot of time, but that’s precisely the problem. Tiny tid-bits are dropped and then ignored for weeks, if not years on end. That moment between Ren and Neo was excellently crafted and told us a lot about both, but ultimately it’s just another moment cast adrift from everything else. Who knows if this plot-line will actually continue in Volume 8’s premier, if at all.

So Neo wanders off in an Atlas disguise and hands the relic off to Cinder. What’s Cinder going to do with the relic precisely? Not sure. Gonna have to wait on that one. We do have some decent setup for Neo’s betrayal though. She not only looked pissed at Cinder just snatching the prize, but sad about it too. Neo has always been driven by her own, messed up love, notably for Roman. Now that he’s gone it seems like she was looking for someone else to latch onto. Now that Cinder has proven that Neo is only a tool to her, she’d better watch her back.

Returning to Fria. She, as said, still has a lot of kick in her and easily pushes Cinder back. “That’s the power of a fully realized Maiden,” Winter says as crazy power shoots into the sky. Again, good setup... if I believed RWBY was capable of following up on anything. Remember at the beginning of the volume when Harriet dropped setup on Ruby’s semblance? Yeah, nothing came of that either. And though it still might, again, when? I know I use this example a lot, but you can’t introduce Raven speaking with Tai, drop that for three years (or longer), and then pick it back up like that’s still a relevant thread to follow. By having Winter proclaim that this is a “fully realized” power we imply that others, such as Cinder, may be able to become more powerful as well, but there’s little faith on the viewer’s part that such a line will actually amount to anything. Or if it does, it will happen so far in the future that most viewers will have forgotten about it.

For now though Fria is super-duper powerful. Cinder and Winter can’t even get near her. So it’s up to Penny, the one person not made of flesh and blood, to get the job done. I like that. Great use of difference as a strength. So she dives in and gets Fria to calm down, reigning her power back in. They discuss transferring the power and when Penny tries to remind her of the consequences we get, “I’ll be gone. I know I have a hard time remembering, but I remember that.” Hey. Hey, hey. I want the entire fandom to pay attention to this line because a lot of you still have a tendency to erase agency so as to more easily pin the blame on characters you don’t like. Pyrrha didn’t choose to fight Cinder against Ozpin’s orders, Ozpin killed her! Qrow didn’t choose to fight Clover and team up with Tyrian, Ironwood killed Clover! The Ace Ops didn’t choose to be loyal and maintain the responsibility they swore as military huntsmen, Ironwood just brainwashed them into being obedient puppets! Here, we get another glorious reminder that yes, these characters can actually think and act for themselves. Even the characters with dementia. Asking someone to do the hard thing (Pyrrha) is not in any way comparable to making them. It’s crystal clear from Fria’s line here that Ironwood spoke to her about the situation. He, like Ozpin, was upfront about the consequences. She in turn decided to accept this duty. Yes, I know I’ll die. I’ve accepted that. I have a job to do and I intend to complete it.

So yeah, #stop-taking-away-one-character’s-agency-just-because-you-don’t-like-another-2020.

Penny is thus faced with a glaring responsibility of her own: will she take on the Maiden powers? Because Fria may remember her job, but not who else was supposed to complete the job with her. Was it you? Penny, meanwhile, is looking at all that ice and wondering if Winter can even get here in time. It may well only be her... unless they want it to be Cinder.

As she thinks through this decision we return to JNR. Ren has a brief freak-out about how “We weren’t ready to become huntsmen” but instead of a truthful statement about their maturity and skill levels, the story twists it into a false statement by having Ren start yelling at Nora and placing unnecessary blame. We’re not supposed to believe him here because he’s irrational and lashing out... even though I think “We weren’t ready to become huntsmen” is a 100% truthful statement. The last two volumes have proven to me, if no one else, that having a job with that much power and responsibility isn’t just about whether you can swing your scythe really well. It’s about having the emotional fortitude and, as said, majority to treat it as a job and put that responsibility ahead of your own desires. RWBYJNR has consistently demonstrated that they’re unwilling to do that. It’s their way or the highway, damn promises, responsibility, loyalty, or consequences.

Before things can really break in the group though more soldiers show up and as they’re hiding behind Jaune’s shield he realizes that Oscar is missing. Over the comms Oscar says that he has something he needs to do alone, heading for the vault. I really appreciate this moment because Oscar is the one person in this group who has actually extended some of the unity and sympathy that RWBYJNR keeps yelling that everyone needs to give to them first. He apologizes to Ironwood whereas Yang sticks her nose in the air and insists she did nothing wrong. He approaches Ironwood and asks to find a way forward together while Ruby yells that Harriet has to do what she wants or no, I won’t stop attacking you. We get that moment where Ironwood thinks it’s Winter descending and goes, “I know that must have been hard for you. I’m so sorry,” demonstrating his own care and compassion. We see Oscar embodying Ozpin in his folded hands, use of the cane, and harder eyes, despite the fact that it’s still him in control.

He has a piece of that maturity the rest of his team lacks. He’s open, Ironwood is open, they’re poised to do what the others around them can’t...

Too bad it all goes to total shit.

You know, I feel like I should be more mad about this but at this point I’m just kind of numb. Why in the world would I be surprised that Rooster Teeth would erase all the work above to turn Ironwood into a generic villain? They did it before, or did I suddenly forget the twenty-minutes that humanized Ozpin only to be followed with two volumes of bashing him non-stop? I knew Ironwood was going to get screwed, I just didn’t think they’d go so far as to do it like this. And shame on me because I should have.

There are times when things happen on screen... but by god it isn’t canon. Because it’s just too stupid to be canon. It’s so horrifically out of character that the only explanation is that this is an impersonator and the writers just forgot to tell us that along the way. Because James Ironwood would never kill a child. Or hell, maybe he would, but it would have to be under RADICALLY different circumstances from these. People realize right that this is so beyond out of character as to be laughable, right? We get:

A man who has devoted himself to fighting the biggest evil his world has ever seen

Learning the importance of care over brute strength, adopting Ozpin’s lessons by giving Mantle Penny

Has spent the last year trying desperately to keep all his people safe, making the hard calls in order to achieve that

Was beyond delighted when the group first appeared, kneeling down before Oscar and hugging Qrow

Has frequently asked after Ozpin throughout the volume, demonstrating a strong desire for him to return

Immediately forgave the group even after learning about Salem’s immortality, still pushing forward with them

Just sacrificed his arm in an effort to continue protecting those around him

Finally realized he didn’t have allies in this team and called only for their arrest, not any violence or mistreatment

Hired the Ace Ops, a group whose conflict was their need to perform that arrest pushing against their desire not to hurt anyone

Ironwood just began the scene by extending sympathy and apologies to another

And you’re going to tell me that this man, this man defined by his compassion and desperate need to protect others... is going to shoot the 14yo kid housing one of his oldest friends? Shoot to kill?

Because make no mistake, that was a killing shot. Ironwood knew Oscar was at the edge. Even if it hadn’t broken Oscar’s aura, that fall isn’t anything you can survive without Humanity 1.0 magic---magic Ironwood clearly wasn’t counting on to save him. They literally took this man and erased EVERYTHING that made him-him, deciding that randomly Ironwood kills kids now because he dislikes a conversation. Kills Ozpin too. It makes zero sense... but you know all precisely why they did it. Because Ironwood is the villain now. He dared disagree with Team RWBY and now that he’s an antagonist they had to make sure he did something he couldn’t come back from. You don’t try to kill the youngest of the group and then come back into the fold. Ironwood is finished. He’s either going to die next volume or the group is going to lock him behind bars as a “witty” parallel of him trying to arrest them, dropping a one-liner about how they’re sorry it came to this.

Which, obviously, I absolutely despise. The rest of the episode? Had a lot going for it. Cool and interesting developments that might have been great if not attached to the horror show of the last twenty-five episodes... but still cool and interesting nonetheless. This? This is the worst thing RWBY has done to date because they not only irrevocably messed up one of their best characters, but they did so in a way that highlights everything that has been wrong with the show the last two years. There was no buildup to this. None. Don’t @ me with “But Ironwood is unstable and the Tin Man has no heart.” No and also no. Rooster Teeth simply decided that they wanted him as a villain and made that happen in the span of a few seconds. It’s just as absurd and insulting as if, last volume while angry at Qrow, Ruby had picked up her scythe and cut through Weiss as a form of anger management. Ironwood aiming to kill the kid he’s been bonding with all volume and Ozpin to boot because they’re having a slightly heated conversation is insane.

Which isn’t to say that conversation itself helped matters. Because Ironwood remains right. Those are all pretty, philosophical questions, Oscar, but what are we going to do about our situation? Oscar might express more sympathy then Team RWBY, but he’s just as naive and dangerously stubborn. He doesn’t have a plan either, just a continuing insistence that they try. In fact, his arguments are really... nonsensical in places? He says that if Ironwood abandons Mantle they’ll lose hope of uniting the whole world, even though we’ve never established why that’s still a goal when a world-wide army can’t defeat Salem. He likewise makes the absurd claim that because Ironwood is thinking about the big picture “Then you’re as dangerous as she is, James.”

No??

If RWBY is going to incorporate philosophy and moral conundrums into their writing then they actually need to do the work to think them through. Because sorry but the man making a currently still necessary sacrifice in order to keep the world as a whole safe is not the same thing as the genocidal grimm queen hell-bent on destroying it. Again, do they think about the words they’re putting into the characters’ mouths? The worst is how many viewers just eat it up. Because Good Boy Oscar said something vaguely wise-sounding then it must be true...never-mind the absurdity of the statement itself. I love Oscar to bits, just not when the writing uses him as a prop to promote these absurd themes. Not to keep dragging Witcher into every possible part of my life, but it immediately reminded me of this quote from Geralt. “You wizards are all the same...

Just because Oscar says it with confidence doesn’t mean it makes any sense.

Which is where we end up. Oscar falling, Ozpin arriving, the two of them managing to survive the fall. I have to admit that at this point Ozpin’s return just felt damn underwhelming to me. Like yes, of course I’m thrilled he’s back, but watching them mangle James like that just kicked all the enjoyment out of the rest of the episode. That, combined with the fact that Ozpin’s return actually was pretty lackluster. I mean, I feel like a shit for complaining about the thing I’ve wanted since the beginning of Volume 6... but is that really all we get? Ozpin doesn’t save him, Oscar saves them both, because he apparently has complete access to the magic and memories now. What does Ozpin matter then? Ozpin doesn’t speak really, just says Oscar’s name and is then cut off because Oscar doesn’t want to hear anything he has to say unless it’s about saving Atlas. He does express something like gratitude though--- “You’re back, aren’t you? You saved me”---so that’s more than we’ve gotten from anyone else. And Ozpin does narrate... but who is that to? Obviously very reminiscent of our series’ premier, but is he speaking to Salem again? We’re not told---or shown---and as it is that monologue exists purely for the audience. It’s a speech we could have gotten from any character and just happened to get it from Ozpin. It’s not being spoken to Oscar and therefore not forwarding any of the relationships that still need to be mended. In fact, this could well be a speech Ozpin gave years ago, disconnected from who he is now. Perhaps the biggest issue is that the speech is all about fear, further hammering home the finale’s BS stance that Ironwood being afraid of actual, legitimate threats made him into an unhinged child-killer.

Because his “paranoia”? It’s about this. This is what Ironwood was afraid of.

And oh look it’s here.

So yeah... I just can’t fall in love with this moment as I feel I should. RWBY has burned me too many times lately---the last time seconds before this scene---and frankly now that Ozpin is back I don’t trust them to treat his character well. So his return is automatically laced with more worry than excitement to see what comes next. Because if they do this to Ironwood, somehow who has done nothing but try to help this whole volume, what the hell are they going to do to Ozpin, someone who actually lied to and kept secrets from the precious team? I want him back, but not while we’ve got these themes going. I’m legit worried about how the group will react to his return and what the narrative is going to make Ozpin do as penance for his supposed sins. I’m not really thrilled about the prospect of watching more assault that’s painted as heroic justice. Normally I’d be going, “Well you never know, RWBY could prove me wrong...” except that after Ironwood? I really don’t think it will. Because Ozpin may ask, “Will you forgive them? Will you understand why they felt the need to do the things they did?” but it’s “staring back at you is the very thing you should have feared from the start” is what we get when Ironwood is shown again when he’s told Winter doesn’t have the power, he can’t open the vault, and he has no way of escaping this army. Rather than painting this as a tragedy that’s on our “heroes,” Ironwood is just made to look deranged. The story doesn’t encourage us to forgive him, no matter Ozpin’s words.

The scne was pretty though! lol. Stunningly gorgeous, really. If I just turn my brain off and don’t think about everything surrounding Oscar falling while Ozpin re-joins him, it’s an absolutely fantastic scene...

Yeah, the rest of the episode is mostly things I’ve already covered. Maria picks everyone up in their “getaway ship” because her character apparently only exists now to provide comic relief in the form of illegal actions.

Penny takes on the Maiden powers while Winter holds Cinder off with no aura. That was badass as hell. Go Winter, you’re still one of my faves this volume.

Ruby conveniently uses her silver eyes even though they’ve failed twice in the last three to four episodes.

Qrow is arrested and holds onto Clover’s blood-stained badge.

Robyn is apparently just fine.

Watts is potentially getting freed by Tyrian, or else was just distracted by the arrival of Salem, I honestly wasn’t sure.

The only other thing of consequence is that Winter and Weiss acknowledge that they’re on different paths. They can’t support one another in who they’re loyal to, but Winter will still give her sister a head start.

Oh, that moment and this, of course.

I’ve already spoken about my very iffy feelings about introducing Salem as an actual enemy before the final volume and those feelings are compounded by this absurd denouncement of hard, practical choices. I mean... seriously. What is the group going to do at the start of next volume? “These readings can’t be right,” an Atlas soldier says, horrified at the number of grimm that are appearing around them from an ominous red cloud. That entire army we saw at the end of Volume 6. Plus a giant whale grimm that could easily swallow any of our heroes (Pinocchio reference, anyone?), plus the immortal sorceress who could do any number of things to obliterate you---and take all the time in the world to do it. Like... they’re screwed. They are dead and Ironwood was 100% right to try and take whoever he could to safety and regroup. Except that obviously the series doesn’t end in tragedy here so they’ll wiggle their way out of things somehow. It just won’t be satisfying. Because we absolutely have a hopeless situation here and the story hasn’t allowed the group to acknowledge and then try to circumvent that in any practical manner. Ruby’s silver eyes will inexplicably get crazy powerful. Or Salem will randomly decide to leave. Or they’ll discover some new and untapped skill through the power of friendship. Then, at the end of it all, we’ll be told to look back at Ironwood and call him crazy for trying to save lives with a realistic approach because see? We managed a miracle after all.

I can’t believe I’m going to watch that nonsense. But I will. Because RWBY was a show that I loved and some small part of me still hopes it’ll return to what it once was. At the very least I need to find out what happens to these characters---no matter how stupid and insulting---and this episode, despite all my expectations, did give me tiny glimmers into what RWBY used to be. Moments that were fun or badass or legitimately touching. I almost wish it wouldn’t, just so I could make a clean break with the show. Absolute trash is better than trash that demonstrates skill just enough to make you think there might be hope for a better written story the next time around. Ah well. At least writing the recaps is always fun!

So I’ll still be here, answering asks and chucking out nonsense. Feel free to come join me if you’re ever inclined.

Until next volume 💜

#rwby #rwby volume 7 #rwby volume 7 spoilers #mymetas #rwby recaps

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jackoshadows · 5 years ago

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Say what you will about Sansa in the show, even though I disagree and think she’s an awesome character and is one of my faves in the show. But what’s with the bashing of Sansa in the books? She’s also a great main character in them. She’s compassionate, intelligent and her inner strength after enduring horrible abuse for the past few years is admirable. I’m excited to see how her arc will go in Winterfell.

I mean, that’s my subjective opinion about a fictional character based on her relatability, characteristics and actions in the books. People are allowed to not like characters right? And IMO, my posts on book Sansa are not exactly ‘bashing’ - rather, its about the actual character in the books versus a fanon made up version of her that some of her fans keep stating as fact. If you think talking about GRRM’s Sansa is ‘bashing’ …. well then ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The reason I end up writing so much about Sansa is because her fans keep insisting on shoving her into everything, making the story all about her, insert her into relationships where she does not belong, take away from other characters to give to her etc. This has had the unfortunate side effect of me writing quite a few Sansa posts, the irony of which has not been lost to me 😂

My rambling thoughts on book Sansa under the cut…

I don’t even really dislike Sansa in the books. I have quite a few mutuals and people I follow who love book Sansa and her story and that’s totally fine. Different tastes and all that. And while I loathe the badly written Mary Sue propped up by other characters on the show, I am indifferent to book Sansa. I found her annoying and unrealistically naive in the first book and boring in the later ones. Tbh, I could not care less about the Vale Lords or Sansa organizing feasts in the Vale. I don’t think she’s all that important in the books in the grand scheme of things and GRRM’s original outline only confirms that.

Basically, I don’t care all that much about the character. And funnily enough, neither do many of her self-proclaimed super fans considering they keep attributing the qualities, characteristics, relationships, plots and themes of other characters to Sansa. My posts are mainly about addressing this disparity.

Number one Sansa fans David Benioff and Dan Weiss are prime examples of this. They give interviews talking about how great a character Sansa is compared to her supposedly ‘one-dimensional adventure seeking’ sister Arya… and then they pretty much give Show Sansa Arya’s book plots, themes and narrative arcs. Show Sansa’s story arc is a patch-work of plots from book Jeyne Poole, Arya, Jon, Stannis, Theon, Bran etc.

For reference here is a recent post from @circe1fanatic,

https://circe1fanatic.tumblr.com/post/190902121511/ew-interview-whenever-i-read-posts-about-how-more#notes

https://ew.com/article/2015/04/26/game-thrones-sansa-ramsay-interview/

where D&D admit that they find book Jeyne Poole’s story more entertaining than Sansa Stark’s. They think the story in the North is more important compared to what Sansa is doing in the Vale - and dumped their fave there to give her a more important role on the show.

Sansa does not stand out in any special way in the books. Your description of her here is a perfect example of that - ‘compassionate and intelligent’. There are several other main characters who have proved to be more compassionate than her. Even attempted child murderer Jaime Lannister has demonstrated compassion in the books. Intelligent? Book Sansa is still being manipulated and led around the nose by LF and made a correct guess that one time about Lyn Corbray being on LF’s payroll. Her peers in the meantime have become leaders, rulers, FM, greenseers and are actively changing and influencing the world around them.

In a lot of ways she is superfluous in terms of skill sets. Jon, Bran, Dany, Arya, Tyrion all know politics as well. Unlike the show, the books don’t give only one specific skillset to one character. In the show, they designated Bran - warg, Arya - killer, Jon - military man, Sansa - politician. That’s not how it works in the books. Bran, Arya, Jon are all wargs. Jon is a savvy politician and diplomat. Arya has learned FM skills of manipulation and detecting emotions. Bran has ruled. Arya has learned how the North works from Ned. Jon has played the game, outwitting the Karstarks.Sansa can learn at being underhanded from LF, I guess.

One reason for why Book Sansa is popular in fandom is because she is still in many ways a blank slate. While her peers are actively moving the plot forward, she stagnates as a prisoner and pawn, stuck with giving us descriptions of marriages, feasts and a view into other characters like the Tyrells. That’s why it’s easy to imprint on her the desires and expectations of the fandom and why she is the subject of a lot of fanfiction.

This is why she is often seen as this great queen, great ruler, great player of the game, expert politician etc. - despite having done nothing at all and despite GRRM’s actual rulers being human beings who make mistakes and have flaws and can only learn to lead through doing and experience. It’s the same reason she’s the fandom bicycle when it comes to shipping - the character is traditionally beautiful and is into romance. It’s why nonsense like ‘Jonsa’ exists.

Book Sansa must indeed be appreciated for her inner strength to endure and withstand abuse - just like Arya, Dany and Jeyne Poole endured their abuse with great strength. Consider Jeyne Poole - got trapped in KL because Sansa tattled all her father’s plans to Cersei. Send to LF’s brothel since she was not a Stark like Sansa. Then send off to Ramsay Bolton to be raped and tortured. And still have the presence of mind to escape with Theon. I do indeed admire her strength. All their strengths.

Sansa was a vain, selfish, snobby brat with lofty ideals in book one and by tattling to the enemy - because she wanted to be queen - she loses her father, gets stuck in KL as a political prisoner and realizes the error of her ways. In later books, Sansa tries her best to help others including poor Dontos and that’s a compliment to her that she’s changing for the better and trying to help the little guy like Arya tried to help Mycah in book one.

She now understands that fairy tales are not real, there are no true knights in reality, beauty/appearances are not everything, appreciates her home and family more, and even finds herself attracted to the Hound. She’s lady like with courtly manners and after seeing her interact with KL nobles, Tyrion thinks that she would have done well as Joffrey’s queen.

Currently she is enmeshed in LF’s plots and learning from him in the Vale. She wants to go home, she wants to be loved for herself and not for her claim. Can she outwit LF at his own game and still be Sansa Stark. One cannot play the game by being honorable. Even Jon Snow was breaking his oaths playing the game at the Wall. Would Sansa go along with murdering her little cousin to gain power in the Vale? Would she go against her family in the North or support them? Sansa was originally created as a foil to Arya and as someone who causes conflict among the Starks. Is that where we are still headed or will her character head in a different direction in the books? The show depicts her as being self serving and LF like in the end. I am not sure if this is a reflection of the book character. We will have to wait for GRRM to write the books to find out.

But yeah. I got into this series as a fantasy fan and hence my investment is with the characters involved in the fantastical - Jon, Arya, Dany, Bran - and I don’t really care one way or another about Sansa.

#anti Sansa?#Maybe anti-Sansa #anti sansa stark #unpopular opinions

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calliecat93 · 4 years ago

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Stat Trek Episodes 64-66

Plato’s Stepchildren: And just when I thought that we made it past the stupid. This was utter cringe. The idea isn’t bad, powerful God-like beings wanting to keep McCoy due to his medical skill and screwing with the crew loke play things. Maybe it’s just my beed for McCoy being seen as important talking, but that could have worked. But the way they do it is just... goofy, and not in a fun way. The episode is also famous for the kiss between Kirk (a white man) and Uhura (a black woman) which at the time was a big deal since interracial relationships were very much still controversial back then. I can give the episode points for bwing brave enough to do do that... but as the characters were FORCES to do so non-consentually, it feels incomfortable than progressive unfortunately. Again, 60’s. But the episode was just cringe. Heck it made me look back at The Squire of Gothos, an episode I ranked very low, and have a bit of a better opinion on that one. Not a bad plot idea in theory, but the execution ruins it. 1/5.

Wink of an Eye: Very much an improvement over the last one and overall perfectly fine. Man poor Kirk, gets put into an accelerated state where everything is frozen around him aside from the aliens involved and the leader is trying to force herself on him. The man just cannot catch a break. I really like how during the scenes where the crew is frozen, the shots are in an angle. It creates an unsettling effect, like something feels just off-balance. It helps make things feel unsettling. There’s nothing too nktable about the episode, we’ve had these ‘alien forces take the Enterprise/interest in one of the crew’ stories, but the execution is perfectly fine. Especially love how Kirk acted like he was submitting finally... and promptly steal Deela’s weapon right off of her, haha! Nothing grand, but perfectly serviceable. And again, it’s an improvement of the last one. 3/5.

The Empath: So I had actually watched this ahead of time weeks ago. I’m a sucker for Triumvirate feelings, what can I say? I had enjoyed it the first time around, and I did so again here. Asmittedly there are some plot holes, like was tormenting the trio for Gem to heal REALLY the only way the Vians could solve the problem? I also found out that this was a fan-submitted episode which is really cool and makes sense since it DOES feel like a hurt/comfort fic. A good one though. Of course the best part is our main trio and especially after the Vians tell Kirk that he has to pixk between Spock and McCoy as to who gets tortured. McCoy makes the decision for him, hypoing him and then doing the same to Spock when he intends to hand himself over. This was when McCoy became my favorite character because he willingly sacrificed himself to protect his best friends knowing that he’ll die painfully by doing so, and even took the moment to tell Gem that the two will take care of her. Which in turn taught Gem the power of self-sacrifice for others and the powerful feelings behind it. And even then, McCoy refuses to let her because if she does, she’ll die and he will NOT let others be harmed especially for his behalf. God I love him. Then what happens when they find him again... yeah that image of Kelley’s dead stare while hanging in chains still freaks me out. Then he lays there dying with even Spock concerned and trying to make him as comfortable as possible. It really shows the bond that the three have and why I love their dynamic so much. The actress for Gem was also freakin’ fantastic, conveying so much emotion through expression and body languge without saying one word. Freakin’ excellent acting. It’s not a perfect episode, not even the best written objectively. But I love it for demonstrating those character relations and some good character moments, McCoy especially. Oh and it has bucket loads of shipping material for Spirk, Spones, McKirk, and McSpirk so everyone wins! 4/5.

Was hoping to get five episodes done, but I failed. So here’s the current plan. There are around 12 episodes remaining. I am going to do three a day (barring any weather issues), then next week we plow through the movies. I did Motion Picture a while ago, so counting the reboot films that’s eight in all. HonestlyS3 has... not been the best ride. There are a few good episodes, but... let’s just say that it’s gonna be easier to pick the least favorite episodes over the favorites. It’s not horrible, but I can definitely see why the show got cancelled after this. And as I’ve reqd the summaries, I know there’s more stupid to come. But hopefully we geta couple of gems (as a Spones shipper I’m greatly looking forward to All Our Yesterday XD). We’re gonna do three episodes a day, then S3 episodes list post, then overall series post, and then we dive into the films. May overlap into early March, but ah well. Just means getting to watch these characters a little more.

#st watchthrough #star trek tos

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pass-the-bechdel · 6 years ago

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Marvel Cinematic Universe: Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

Does it pass the Bechdel Test?

Yes, once.

How many female characters (with names and lines) are there?

Five (29.41% of cast).

How many male characters (with names and lines) are there?

Twelve.

Positive Content Rating:

Three.

General Film Quality:

No matter how many times I watch this, I’m always surprised by how excellent it is. If any other future Marvel film wants to be ‘the best’, this is the movie it has to beat for the title.

MORE INFO (and potential spoilers) UNDER THE CUT:

Passing the Bechdel:

Natasha asks about the ballistics on the weapon used against Fury, and Maria responds. I’ve heard people argue that Natasha was not asking Maria specifically and therefore this does not count, but since Natasha clarifies a detail of Maria’s response (to which Maria responds again in order to confirm), I definitely think it qualifies. I have allowed a pass for far, far less in the past.

Female characters:

Natasha Romanov.

Peggy Carter.

Maria Hill.

Sharon Carter.

Renata.

Male characters:

Steven Rogers.

Sam Wilson.

Brock Rumlow.

Georges Batroc.

Jerome.

Jasper Sitwell.

Nick Fury.

Alexander Pierce.

Aaron.

Arnim Zola.

Senator Stern.

Bucky Barnes.

OTHER NOTES:

They start this movie by having Steve go for a jog and make a new friend, with a conversation ensuing that is by touches casual, light, humorous, insightful, serious, and sobering. It’s a pretty weird way to launch a much-anticipated superhero comic-adaptation action movie sequel, to be honest, but it’s also rock-solid character establishment - for the never-before-seen Sam Wilson, and for Steve Rogers whose mental state and coping skills in the modern era are kinda an open question at this point - and by getting us on level with Steve’s day-to-day (rather than Captain America’s, which comes after) they’ve immediately prepped us for a story in which this character confronts and reassesses who he is and what he stands for at a core level, and not just in a symbolic/legacy kind of fashion (a la Tony Stark). It may say ‘Captain America’ on the tin, but this is Steven Rogers’ story. This is a fantastic and well-condensed first three minutes of this film, before they fly off to deliver the action sequence we may well have expected to have received up-front.

Oh yeah, also this opening scene involves jogging around the Washington Monument, which is not a subtle detail, but I can dig it. If they’d had Steve draw attention to some Major American Landmark at some point in the movie and make a patriotic declaration of some kind, then I’d cry foul, but as-is the use of Washington DC as a setting is the hardest they bother to hammer the AMERICA button. The absence of self-fellating patriotism which I appreciated so much in the first film continues to be a virtue in this one. I do dig.

Remember how I really love it when people get hit and fly off the screen? Steve just kicked a dude off a boat and I made the dorkiest ‘hee hee!’ noise ever. Sure am glad the only reason anyone knows about that is that I just told y’all, and not because anyone actually heard me.

One day, we’ll stop getting these kinds of gratuitous butt shots of female characters in tight clothes. But it sure ain’t this day.

In a world of equal-opportunity sexualisation, this Cap-butt would be forgiveness enough for the aforementioned offense. But it still sure ain’t that day, friends.

Other reasons to love that opening scene: they low-balled Sam’s counseling skills to us by having him quickly identify the best way to speak to Steve and to engage with him (as Steve, again, not as Captain America; that’s the key), and that’s what allows Steve to bond with him enough that, put in a tight spot and not sure who to trust, he shows up on Sam’s doorstep later in the film. Really tight characterisation and dynamic-building.

ALSO, Steve’s adventure to the Captain America museum exhibit reminds us all of what he’s lost - specifically, Bucky Barnes - and contextualises his encounters with Sam Wilson within the emotional landscape of Steve’s desire for close male companionship, highlighting the need which compels the formation of that bond while also accentuating the sense of Steve’s present isolation and uncertainty, robbed of any understanding confidante (the bittersweet reality of having Peggy Carter still alive, but losing herself to Alzheimer's, really hits that one home). Again, Steve’s emotional landscape is actually a vital part of the story of the film on both character and plot levels, so there’s a LOT of great show-don’t-tell demonstration in the interconnections of all these scenes, PLUS they’re doing the good work for all the other characters involved AND reminding the audience of the score so that the film can continue to draw from the past as the movie continues, without losing any viewers for whom this might be the first foray into the Captain America story. This movie is just...really well put together, guys. It’s a little shocking, how good it is.

Winter Soldier intro is too cool. Not a pun.

Steve takes a chance and asks his neighbour out for coffee; she declines with a soft no; he accepts even-tempered and assures her he won’t trouble her any further, and she lets him know that he’s no trouble and there’s no hard feelings. It’s all a very painless and respectful navigation of boundaries, and taken on face value (ignoring the part where she turns out to be an undercover SHIELD agent, and everything which unfolds from there), it’s a welcome example of how easy it is to take rejection graciously. Guys, be the Steve Rogers that women want to see in the world.

I want a metal arm. I don’t want to not have my current arms, they’re fine, but in an abstract version of the world where you have things purely for cool points, I want a metal arm.

The fight choreography in this film is great. It’s good watchin’.

Also the soundtrack is top-end.

“...Specimen.”

The movie didn’t need a hetero kiss thrown in there, though. I sure wish there wasn’t a random kiss in there.

“The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it.”

Urgh, why Senator Stern gotta show up, be a pig about women, make his little Nazi declaration, and leave? The answer is, he really doesn’t gotta. You know what’s good shit? Not using misogyny and objectification of women to demonstrate that a bad guy is a bad guy, unless it’s actually a relevant part of the story. One day...

I can’t deal with how cool the Winter Soldier is. I’m almost embarrassed by how much the whole Silent Sauntering Assassin thing works for me.

Sam Wilson brings a tiny knife to a gunfight and still gets the upper hand because he’s perfect.

THE FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHYYYYY

The Winter Soldier is barely in the film in the first hour, and Bucky is referenced in the museum but not discussed by any of the characters, so there’s no lantern hanging on either the mystery of the Winter Soldier’s identity or the conspicuous reminder of a supposedly dead character (another reason why tying the memory of Bucky in so tightly with Steve’s present state of comfortless seclusion is important and clever). If you somehow managed not to be spoiled for it already, the Bucky reveal is a real kicker of a twist.

The degree to which I adore Sebastian Stan’s attention to detail in his performance has increased tenfold since The First Avenger. Dude has got nuances on his nuances.

The part of me that is emotionally susceptible to heroism is very moved by all the nameless SHIELD agents who stand up to HYDRA and die for it.

I join the rest of the world in being really disappointed that what appeared to be Jenny Agutter’s councilwoman kicking Strike Team ass was actually just Black Widow. Sorry Natasha.

The Winter Soldier shows up and murderises a heap of pilots, and the part of me that is susceptible to heroism finds itself in conflict with the part that is susceptible to the Winter Soldier’s ineffable coolness (which is itself at odds with the part of me that wants Bucky Barnes to be safe and happy). This movie got me good.

Rumlow talkin’ some shit about pain and Sam’s just like “Man, shut the Hell up,” and it’s perfect. I love him.

I love this film. I mean I really, really love it. Like, I mean this is one of my favourite movies in the world. Like, if we were playing that ol’ game of ‘if you had to pick ten movies, and those were the only movies you were allowed to watch for the rest of your life’, this would be one of my ten movies. That’s how much I love this film. There’s so much to get into here, so much to enjoy: it’s light and easily-digestible enough for when you just want to be entertained by something that doesn’t demand too much from you, but it also has serious depths for when you’re in the mood to dig in. It has well-crafted action scenes, but also a strong plot with powerful emotional currents. It has wonderful, charismatic actors playing intriguing characters, and most of them are good eye candy, but none of them are just eye candy - there’s a lot of complexity to unravel in the motivations and personal narratives of the leads. It’s a superhero movie, sure, but it’s also a political spy thriller. And, to top it off, it’s not only an excellent stand-alone film, it’s also a fantastic example of how to do a sequel right.

Sequel-making can be a fraught business; you’ve got sequels that are basically just pointless retreads of the original, sequels that are so different they hardly count as sequels at all, sequels that are so busy trying to be ‘bigger and better’ than the original they become ridiculous, sequels so busy attempting to capitalise on the spectacle of the original that they forget to have any of the same heart that gave the original meaningful impact, sequels that ignore that the original had a plot and themes and that maybe that stuff was relevant to its success, etc, etc...there are lots of great sequels in the world, certainly, but as Iron Man 2 and Thor: The Dark World already attested for the MCU, it is very, very easy for sequels to go wrong. For this film, I think it goes without saying that I feel they passed all of the above sequel-killing quality tests with flying (low-key red-white-and-blue) colours, hence my adoration. But, just for kicks, lets talk about how they did it.

For starters, you can pretty much guarantee that this isn’t gonna be a pointless retread of Captain America: The First Avenger, since this movie takes place seventy years later and there are certain essential world elements that have fundamentally changed, such as technology, characters, and the fact that WWII ended a good while previous. But, that’s exactly how they make this story work as a sequel: they use the nature of change to give the film its shape, thematically, politically, emotionally, and in doing so they assure that everything which is different in the present builds directly from the past. Steve Rogers has not fundamentally changed, and that’s a critical anchor, considering he’s the titular character and all, but he is in a state of flux due to everything else that has changed, and his doubts inform the narrative landscape. This is not the world he remembers, and yet, as the plot unfolds and he digs into the conspiracy at his feet, there’s plenty there that is hauntingly familiar, because this is a story about how the past is still alive and kicking in the present, it has just updated to keep with the times.

It’s worth noting that despite Captain America making the jump from the forties to the modern age without any stop-offs in between, the film doesn’t linger on or wallow in the differences in his world in any strict sense - even Steve himself (in that EXTREMELY well-crafted opening scene with Sam) is somewhat dismissive of the specifics, because he’s not dwelling on the oh-woe-things-have-changed, he’s just trying to get his head around it, adapt, and move forward (and the practical realities are easy enough, but the emotional facets? Yeah). The thing is of course, no one else shares this problem with Steve; they’ve all been around, variously, for the parts in between, and the story is still concerned with the context of the world which made all of its characters what they are, and particularly with the war that came after WWII, the war within which HYDRA reseeded and began to grow anew: the Cold War. In particular, it’s the ‘70s/’80s era Cold War, built into the political-thriller superstructure of the film itself and driven home most overtly by the Winter Soldier, heavily Russian-coded and steeped in the potent psychological horror of brainwashing, but there are other signifiers littered across the story as well. There’s former-KGB agent Black Widow, and the reference she makes to WarGames, and there’s Arnim Zola frozen in time by the ancient computer system which now acts as his ‘brain’, and then there’s the stroke of subversive genius in the casting of Robert Redford - the positively Captain America-esque blue-eyed-blond hero of many a seventies Cold War political thriller - as our primary villain, working within the United States government for the benefit of his secret European-originating agenda in true foreign-infiltration style. Of course, we can adapt all of this to fit the radicalised terrorism and technological paranoia of modern times (and those elements are alive and well in the text with the surveillance-state fears represented by the helicarriers), but the historical timestamping is important to the trajectory of the film; times change and things grow increasingly subtle and complicated, but the core dilemmas that call people out to fight are instantly familiar. In that sense, Steve Rogers hasn’t missed much at all.

The war that calls Cap to arms this time around may be more subtle than the openly-fought battlefields of WWII, but it is no less global or insidious; the new ‘improved’ HYDRA may not be led by a literal Nazi who peels off his own face, but the cold political calculations of Alexander Pierce are much more frightening for their realism (an aspect of the film which has become increasingly prescient for the modern era since the movie was released), and the fascist supremacist dogma that compels these villains to attempt to reshape the world with the blood of millions is drawn from the same poisoned well; this is an escalation of the same enemy that Captain America faced before, only much closer to home. And while the passage of time has benefited the old evils in allowing them to entrench and fester and craft re-branded, more socially-accepted versions of themselves, it has not been so favourable to the positive familiar things from Steve’s past: it has claimed Peggy’s memory, and rotted SHIELD beyond recovery. And then, there’s what it’s done to Bucky Barnes.

Fake-out character deaths are a major staple of the superhero/comic genre, and not one I love, since it tends to take the power out of apparent-death scenes and leaves the drama feeling contrived, and while the Bucky reveal is not entirely free from that cynicism, it sells itself well on delivery. For starters, it packs a wallop in additional drama instead of just neatly undoing that which already existed (Nick Fury’s ‘death’ and reveal, on the other hand, is more in the classic line of cheap and inconsequential), and it ups the personal stakes for Steve in exactly the same way as Bucky’s ‘death’ did in The First Avenger. Crucially, the fact that Bucky is the Winter Soldier doesn’t alter the wider narrative in any convenient way, such as providing Captain America with the key to stopping him or resolving the other conflicts of the plot through his connection; the Bucky reveal reconnects the story to Steve’s emotional journey, which is exactly where it started before Shit Got Crazy - there’s a good reason they spent the first half hour of the movie on charting Steve’s mental state. There’s a sharp division between Bucky Barnes and the Winter Soldier, despite them both inhabiting the same form, and it’s a mirror of the division between Steve Rogers and Captain America: regardless of all assumptions to the contrary, the two are mutually exclusive entities. ‘Captain America’ is not a person, he’s a symbol, and he’s manipulable in that way, he can be propagandised, his image and actions are a tool turned to the purposes of others at the expense of the human underneath; Steve recognises this (and has since the first film), and he holds this secondary persona at a remove and does not define himself through it. This is what Sam’s keen social instincts pick up so quickly in the beginning: treating Steve as Captain America is the wrong approach, it fails to connect, because Steve is not the uniform, Steve has doubts, Steve could give up the shield; Steve is a person. Bucky doesn’t have the same luxuries, in opportunities, in company, or in the cognizant ability to define his own identity, but even without the personal attachment of their history, Steve is uniquely positioned to understand the difference between the Winter Soldier and the person buried beneath the title. If it was not Bucky, specifically, the visceral emotion of the mirrored experience wouldn’t land quite as strong, but either way the Winter Soldier is the realisation of Steve’s deep-seated fear of being made a puppet, an unthinking enforcer too heavily indoctrinated into patriotic subservience to recognise the despotism that has replaced his idealism.

I said at the top that this is, ultimately, a Steven Rogers story to which ‘Captain America’ is an accessory, and not the other way around, and that’s a fact at the heart of what makes this film work - on its own, and as a sequel. The fore-fronting of Steve as a character in his own right and not just ‘Captain America’s real name’ was key to avoiding any cloying patriotism overriding the narrative of the first film, and it’s doubly important now as both Steve and the Captain America brand re-situate outside of their original context. It’s easy to strip back the specific trappings of Captain America and still have this movie function just right, because for all the action and intrigue, it is essentially a character piece about Steve Rogers figuring out his place in the world and reclaiming the moral compunctions which have been presumptuously attributed to the lofty symbol of his alter ego, and not the struggling reality of everyday life. Captain America is what he is and how he is not because it sounds good or because it makes for positive PR or because it’s nice to have legends from the good ol’ days; Captain America is the embodiment of scrappy little Steve Rogers’ grit and determination to live up to what he believes in, come Hell or high water or the gravest of consequences. Steve begins the film at odds with himself, unsure if there’s a place for his shameless idealism within the mess of modern life; he’s going through the motions of being Captain America, but he’s uncertain of what it means to him at this point, or where it’s headed. He finishes the film having gained something vital: a mission, but it’s not a professional job for Captain America, it’s a personal mission for Steve Rogers, and that’s much more important. Captain America is just an idea; Steve Rogers is the reason it matters, no matter what war, what time, what place, or what flag.

#MCU #Marvel Cinematic Universe #Captain America: The Winter Soldier #Bechdel Test #female representation

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crystalelemental · 6 years ago

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FE Fates Replay - Part 4

Fun facts: I remembered having a difficult time with Chapter 8 when I first played this game, so I went in scared. My initial attempt, I was severely over-leveled, and it wound up being hysterically easy. So I tried again with a normal amount of leveling, and it still wasn’t too bad. I’m not sure what past me was having such a difficult time with? If I had to guess, I was really salty about not getting all the towns or something. Flora being able to Freeze your units is rough, but Corrin with her Dragonstone was just so tanky she could take the upper path almost alone, while the rest of the team went straight across the lake. Anyway, I bring that up because I started over from the decision point and got back here in like half an hour, so that was nice. On to actual plot.

Chapter 7! Having betrayed your birth family like the intelligent being you are, you now realize you failed to account for something really important: that your dad is fucking insane. Garon immediately distrusts you, because you’ve been with the Hoshidans, so obviously you know the truth are consider them enemies. Honestly, this isn’t too far out of left field yet. Iago, however, is a putz. “Ooh, I bet she’s a spy for the Hoshidans!” Moron, what kind of spy for the enemy side waltzes in to the fucking throne room to chat up the king after knowingly conspiring with said enemy? Garon’s also a moron though, so he kinda believes Iago, but doesn’t really push the issue. At least, until Corrin decides to ask about the exploding sword thing. Garon says he had no idea what it would do, which...okay, the obvious answer is he actually didn’t, but like...I have played this game before. I know about Revelations, and about the soldiers from Valla, and that guy that exploded the sword seemed to be an invisible soldier from Valla. So...maybe Garon’s not actually lying here? We see in a moment that he’s kinda just following orders of his own, so maybe he’s not as on top of events as he lets on.

Anyway, when Corrin presses the issue, Iago goes on about his spy nonsense, and Garon falls for it entirely, ordering Xander to kill Corrin. Yeah, that’ll go over great. Xander, of course, refuses. Everyone starts getting heated, until Garon announces that he’ll ask the great Anankos for guidance on this situation. Anankos being some ancient dragon that the king apparently communes with, but no one, not even Xander or Iago, seem to know what the hell he’s on about. Thankfully, Anankos states that Corrin may live, if she proves herself with a test. She must suppress the Ice Tribe rebellion, and she must do it alone. Everyone is fearful for Corrin, as a solo mission against an armed rebellion surely can’t go that well, but honestly? I’m a dragon. What are they gonna do? Unless they’ve got Wyrmslayers, their asses are toast.

In order to reach the Ice Tribe, first we must go through the Forest of the Forlorn. Which is apparently filled with Faceless. Go figure. Corrin gets herself immediately surrounded, and announces a problem with the Dragon transformation. It apparently takes time to transform. Which is why, you know, you can shift in and out of that form during combat. It’s fine, don’t worry about it. Jakob shows up, saves your ass, but is immediately reminded that she had to do this alone or it doesn’t count. Of course, immediately after this, Garon does his bad guy thing of loudly soliloquizing about how he doesn’t trust Corrin and just wants her to suffer, so Xander, having some ounce of sense within him, takes matters into his own hands and arranges for Corrin to have back-up, in the form of four new units!

Silas is the first, and he’s your childhood friend you initially have no recollection of. Corrin does eventually remember he exists, but nothing else. I am really hoping support conversations explain how the hell this happened. Elise also arrives, which is great because we can pretty much stop here. For those who don’t know, when I first played the game, I was so sick of it by Revelations that I basically pumped Elise full of stat-enhancing items, turned her into a Dark Flier, gave her a high crit tome, and had her solo the game. She’s really good, both as a unit, and as a character. She’s your little ball of sunshine, and she’s hysterical. Her retainers, Arthur and Effie, also arrive. I remember not caring about these two first time through, but honestly? They’re alright. Arthur’s a bit clownshoes, but he’s a good guy and can be entertaining. He mostly works by virtue of those around him, though. Elise worshiping him as her idol makes a lot of sense, given her youth. His interactions with Effie provide the knowledge that he takes his role seriously, but puts his duty to the common folk before his duty as a retainer. Supports really drew out the interesting tidbits for him. Effie, by contrast...is kind of exactly as “okay” as I remember? I don’t have anything to dislike her by, she’s just not that interesting. Comically strong and fiercely devoted to Elise, but that’s all she’s got going for her right now.

The chapter is really easy, but more unfortunate, there’s no boss on a throne so there’s no way to level grind yet. Worse, the boss moves toward you, so you can’t mess around either. I don’t remember a ton about the different routes, but I remember Conquest getting tough after a bit, so that’s not ideal.

I then went out of my way to get Mozu. Her paralogue involves a small town being attacked by Faceless. Everyone buy Mozu in the village is killed, and she’s hiding out in the woods, until Corrin hears the screams and comes running to the rescue. Jakob advises that the town’s already gone and they shouldn’t waste time, but Corrin’s insistent on looking for survivors, so let’s get the map started. Based on having only 6 units allowed in Chapter 8, but having 8 allowed in the Paralogue, I’m guessing you’re supposed to get Mozu after Chapter 8, but that’s dumb. The paralogue is really easy, even with only six characters. Effie and Arthur are more than capable of plugging the northern bridge, while Silas and Corrin decimate the path to Mozu. The only difficult part of the map is getting Mozu any experience. Fortunately, my Corrin was built with Dragon in mind, and dealt just shy of a clean OHKO on the Faceless enemies. When paired up with Silas, Mozu was just strong enough to get the KO, allowing her to get some surprisingly decent levels. Aptitude is such a nice skill. Thank god for cheaters giving that skill out on everyone else, I tell ya. After clearing out the Faceless, Mozu joins up because really, the hell else is she gonna do? Everyone’s dead. So, hooray for new recruits!

Now, Chapter 8. A chapter that I remembered having an awful, awful time with. Corrin and Co press forward, into the snowy north where the Ice Tribe is. Jakob and Elise run ahead because they’re goobers (but they’re our goobers), leaving Silas and Corrin behind. Corrin presses forward, but inevitably collapses. She awakens in a bed, with the head of the Ice Tribe tending to her. Apparently they have a strict “no trespassing” rule and were going to let her die, but they saw her sword and thought hey, that seems important, we should save her. So, here you are. Corrin almost spills the beans on her identity, but Silas successfully plays defense, reminding Corrin that there’s a rebellion going on, and they might not take too kindly to Nohrian royalty in their village. Enter the rest of your bumblefuck party, as well as Flora, who obviously recognizes you instantly. Elise...dear, sweet, stupid Elise...announced they’re here to suppress a rebellion, commenting that she thought suppress meant to sit down and have a nice meal and talk things over. Naturally, the Ice Tribe immediately gets ready to throw down, and you’re treated to a pretty interesting, but fairly difficult, map.

The map is a frozen lake in the center, and five houses around it. The soldiers for the Ice Tribe will be going to the villages, and announcing that there are Nohrians present. If the spear soldiers reach the villages first, more enemies appear. If you reach them first, no enemies appear. Now, ordinarily, I’m all about the delicious, delicious experience, but you’re given a free warning about rewards for getting to more houses than they do. If you get to three of the five, you get the most rewards. I think it’s three out of five because that’s realistically all you can get to without serious power-leveling through DLC. One of them is outright impossible. You can’t cover enough distance, and the soldier is right there, as a demonstration of what happens. That said, it’s still kind of a high pressure map. The soldiers that escape the first village they contact are set up in such a way that the soldier is well defended, so you have to be tough enough to punch your way through, or be able to go around and handle everyone that comes after you next turn. But keep in mind, the other side of the lake has two of the villages as well, and a separate soldier slowly making his way there. Your force needs to be divided in two: one faction heading north to handle the first guard before he reaches the northern village, and one heading directly west to intercept the far west village before the other solider.

Thankfully, you get two more allies to help! Niles, who...ugh. UGH. And Odin! Those of you who played Awakening may know Odin better as Owain, Lissa’s son! How the hell did he get here? Deeprealms. No, we would not care to elaborate further. Odin is a bit more...ridiculous, than he was as Owain. Like, they’re still very much the same, but there’s some difference I can’t quite put my finger on. Maybe as I get supports with him I’ll figure it out. Niles, though? He annoys me. Very little is going to sway me out of that. While Odin’s a goon who wants to show off his power and the usual melodrama he produces, Niles seems actively cruel. Corrin orders them not to kill anyone, and Niles’ interpretation of that is “So I can hurt them as much as I want, but can’t kill. That’s a neat challenge.” He just seems mean-spirited overall.

Now, the map effectively has two bosses. Flora’s here. She doesn’t move, but she has the Freeze staff, which locks a unit in place. So, let’s suppose, for a moment, that Silas tries to run straight to the west village. As soon as he’s in staff range, Flora locks him down. Now, you can still beat the soldier to the village, but the problem is...he gets to the one above you as you arrive. So now Silas is alone, and surrounded. Odin and Niles help a lot here. Honestly, I think the reason I had a hard time the first time I played was not using the pair up system correctly. See, in Awakening, you got all the benefits in one through Pair Up. But in Fates, they actually did a smart thing and broke it into two types of pair up: offensive, where you occupy adjacent spaces, and defensive where you occupy the same space. Defensive allows for the stat increases of the main unit, and a gauge fills that allows a guaranteed block from the unit in the back. Offensive allows for follow-up attacks, guaranteed, as long as the attacking party isn’t defensively paired. If you have a defensive backup, you can’t get another unit adjacent to you to also attack. So there’s a give and take. Knowing me, I probably wanted to be defensive to not immediately die, and defensively paired them up, which led to too little damage in a short amount of time. Offensive is much better, especially since Niles has surprisingly nice resistance. In combat, Flora’s fairly tough, but Effie and Corrin, and even Arthur if he’s doing good with levels can handle her easy. I had Corrin do it.

The boss of the map, though? He’s what we’ve been waiting for: a fairly frail map on an auto-healing throne, also with a tome that heals him. Glory be, I thought this day might never come! Time to farm out those levels, team! Elise got some excellent levels because she’s a good girl who’s done nothing wrong. Niles, Effie, Arthur, and Silas got some okay ones, while Odin is basically dead to us now! Everyone’s level 10 or above, which means it’s go-time. Really, the boss isn’t hard to handle. Niles with a pair-up that gives any form of resistance means the boss can’t even hurt him. So if you need cheese, there you go.

Once suppressed, Corrin tells Elise to go heal up the wounded on both sides. The Ice Tribe leader, impressed by Corrin’s kindness, agrees to halt the rebellion for the time being, believing that she will be the one to put an end to the hostilities and give the Ice Tribe their autonomy back. Flora also comments that she would like to renew her vows of servitude to Corrin. There are hints that Flora never really liked Corrin, and had always planned on some kind of betrayal, but she’s been won over by Corrin’s honest display. Personally, I think it’s bullshit that Flora doesn’t just join you here, but I guess we have to make My Castle relevant somehow. The townspeople also thank you for warning them of the conflict, helping to keep them save, and give you what is probably their lifetime earnings in the form of 10,000 gold! See, everything worked out great! The Ice Tribe rebellion is over, everyone’s alive and happy, and nothing bad happened at all. “Garon told you to do it alone and you didn’t so he’s gonna be pissed when you get back.” AT ALL!

With that, we await the next part where we face Garon’s wrath. If he’s lucid, anyway. Hard to tell with that guy. So far, I’m still not having much to complain about with the game. The story can be a little heavy-handed. Mostly I’m talking about Garon and Iago, who are just so transparently evil, and aren’t even really trying to make sense about it. I can get Garon being suspicious of Corrin coming back after learning the truth, but their explanation for not trusting her and then his insistence on just wanting to make her suffer is just silly for anyone that’s meant to be taken seriously as a villain. They’re just a bit too ridiculous. I will mention that the Conquest maps, thus far, are pretty decent. Chapter 7 and Paralogue 1 are pretty standard “Clear the map” ones, but Chapter 8 is sufficiently inventive. I actually like how it’s designed to have you not just clear the map, but have little sub-objectives built in that can make the map easier or harder for you. We’ll see how things keep up.

#fire emblem fates replay #fire emblem fates

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aion-rsa · 3 years ago

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Doctor Who Season 14 Wish-List: What We’d Like to See

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With the recent announcement that star Jodie Whittaker and showrunner Chris Chibnall will be departing Doctor Who following the next season, we have confirmation that Season 14 will be yet another opportunity to regenerate the long-running science fiction show. In that spirit, we reached out to the many Doctor Who viewers amongst our writers to get their personal fan perspectives on what they’d like to see from the next iteration of Who. Here’s what we came up with. Add your own wish-list items below…

Make the Doctor a Bit of a Bastard

My number one wish-list item for season 14 is I want the Doctor to be a bit of a bastard. Steven Moffat had his flaws, but one thing I loved was his interpretation of what the Doctor *is*. The way Moffat sees the Doctor is that there is this vast, ancient alien god, full of loneliness, grief, and rage that can burn out suns. And when it meets humans it pretends to be this fictional character called “the Doctor”, who is half idiot, half superhero (Of course, I think Moffat would also tell you that, though the Doctor might not know it, if you scratch the surface of the alien god behind the mask, you’ll find that deep down it is part idiot, half superhero).

The Doctor is your best friend, and that’s important, but also, sometimes the mask slips. The Doctor should be a bit scary as well as wonderful, and I don’t think Jodie Whittaker has had much chance to show that side of the character. She’s kind and clever and brave and heroic, but she should also get to bluster and be a massive egotist and look like an actual idiot. I hope her successor does get that. Chris Farnell

Vinay Patel as Showrunner

I don’t know if he wants the job, but writer Vinay Patel is my wish-list choice for the next showrunner of Doctor Who. Patel’s two Who episodes are not only among the most successful episodes in recent Who history, but succeed in different ways. With Season 11’s ‘Demons of the Punjab,’ Patel demonstrates that he is able to work outside the traditional Doctor Who formula, giving us a historical episode that challenges the colonialist framework arguably written into the DNA of the show. With Season 12’s ‘Fugitive of the Judoon,’ Patel was asked to incorporate many, many different plot elements into a single episode, without losing the focus or heart of the story—and he pulls it off. Doctor Who has made a big deal about recent strides in representation both in front of the camera, and in directorial roles—and for good reason—but we have never had a person of color in the most creatively influential role of all: head writer/showrunner. The job of showrunner is much larger than the job of an episodic writer, encompassing producer responsibilities in addition writing choices, and I would love to see what Patel could do with it. Or, if he doesn’t want the showrunner job, find him a good non-writing executive producer to support him in the role of head writer. Kayti Burt

More Solo Doctor Episodes

It’s rare to find the Doctor alone. But some of NuWho’s most memorable episodes―’Midnight’, ‘Waters of Mars’, ‘The Lodger’, and ‘Heaven Sent’ spring to mind―have had a conspicuous lack of companions. These companion-lite episodes run the gamut from comedic to exceedingly dark. But all of them benefit from the increased story-telling space created when the Doctor flies solo. Companions serve an important function in Doctor Who. They are audience stand-ins who interpret, question, and ultimately humanize the Doctor. Taking them away, then, forces both writers and viewers to re-learn who the Doctor is through the eyes of strangers. No companions also, from a practical stand-point, means fewer obligatory characters to juggle in NuWho’s tight 45 minute run-time. The writers are free to spend more time on the one-off casts of a given episode, investing us in the mundane struggles of an ordinary bloke who resembles his couch or illuminating the humanity of a shuttle of tourists before it is ripped away. Of course, Doctor Who without companions wouldn’t be Doctor Who. But sometimes a companion-lite episode is the perfect way to remind us why we keep watching. Zoe Kaiser

Give Big Finish a Crack of the Whip

They may have begun their contributions to the Doctor Who canon with a series of niche audio adventures during the show’s wilderness years, but today Big Finish are a lynchpin of the show’s expanded universe. Playing a pivotal role in 2020’s ambitious multimedia epic Time Lord Victorious, and then squeezing into their garden sheds to keep producing content during the pandemic, the team have repeatedly proven they’ve got the skill and imagination to make the most that all of time and space have to offer.

Just imagine what the Big Finish team could do if handed the reins for a run of adventures you could actually see. Whether it took the form of a fresh start with the next official Doctor or a selection box of old regenerations romping across reality, a palate-cleansing series of ‘new’ writers giving it their all on Saturday night telly before the regular format resumed could be just the thing to reignite the interest of fans whose attention has waned in recent years. (Also, they’ve got Eccleston’s phone number now. Just saying…) Chris Allcock

More Non-UK Episode Settings

I would like Doctor Who in Season 14 to use the TARDIS to see the Earth’s past and present beyond the UK. In the Classic era, many episodes both modern and period were set in the UK purely out of budget necessity. In addition, the early mandate for the series to teach children about the past also meant a heavy focus on Classic Who to cover many areas of UK history. Modern Doctor Who has filmed episodes or scenes in South Africa, New York, Spain, and Utah. There’s so much unexplored history ripe for alien meddling outside of the UK, especially including Asia, Africa, and Central/South America. The series has mentioned several worldwide alien invasions in modern times and the past. Why not have the Silurians wreak havoc in ancient Nigeria? Why do the Cybermen always appear in London first and not Tokyo? If Classic Who can use a soundstage to mimic the Aztec Empire, what excuse does modern Doctor Who have with multiple times the budget, greater access to research resources, and production technology? Hopefully, by Season 14, most pandemic restrictions would have been lifted to allow international filming to resume. There’s so much human history and modern-day experiences outside of the UK. Fans love reading up on the real history and/or modern references to plot events. The Doctor has seen the whole of human existence, Doctor Who is overdue for reflecting more of this. Amanda Rae-Prescott

Retcon ‘The Timeless Child’ Revelation

I understand why Chris Chibnall was seduced by the narrative possibilities of ‘The Timeless Children’. Now that we know the Doctor has lived countless more lives than the 13 (ish) we’ve come to accept – many of them hidden behind a mind-lock following service to a secret Time Lord sect – there exists the tantalising prospect of a hidden Doctor lingering just over every horizon.

If we concede that it was a master-stroke for Russell T Davies to have introduced the Time War, an event that coloured the first of the modern-era Doctors in heavy shades of guilt and grit and regret, then it’s tempting to conclude that these more recent revelations will serve a similar function; that the Doctor’s seismic re-reckoning of their sense of themselves will unlock reservoirs of dramatic tension. Except… Well, there’s the old adage that says that if anything can be anything, then nothing means anything, and I think that applies here. A tweak is fine. But ‘The Timeless Children’ is a bite too big, a cheat, a rug-pull for the audience and character both.

Red Dwarf, too, plays hard and loose with canon, but if co-creators Grant and Naylor had decided to continue their saga with the mind-bending events of ‘Back to Reality’ cemented as fact, then Red Dwarf wouldn’t have been Red Dwarf anymore. We can only hope that a future showrunner, or even Chris Chibnall himself, is clever enough to ret-con the events of ‘The Timeless Children’ as nothing more than the cunning malfeasance of The Master. Jamie Andrew

Doctor Who: Why Jo Martin’s Ruth Should Be The Next Doctor

By Amanda-Rae Prescott

Doctor Who: BBC Confirms Jodie Whittaker and Chris Chibnall To Leave in 2022

By Louisa Mellor

Make it Scary. Properly Scary

Every time I talk about Doctor Who with my mum, the phrase ‘hiding behind the sofa’ comes up. Though I am a die-hard horror fan, I too had my share of – not hiding – but having nightmares after episodes of my generation’s Who – namely about the Sylvester McCoy era Cheetah People (coming to get me in my bathroom) and the Psychic Circus (my long-standing fear of circuses, clowns and reality TV talent contests was born here). While NuWho has definitely had some good scary ones – ‘Family of Blood’, ‘The Empty Child’, ‘Blink’ – we haven’t had a properly chilling arc in a while. And it does need to be an arc – setting up something terrifying and then defeating it in the space of 45 minutes and then moving along, doesn’t really cut it. I’d love something like ‘The Greatest Show in the Galaxy’ story, which gave us the Psychic Circus and ran for four episodes. Those sofas aren’t going to hide behind themselves. Rosie Fletcher

Writing That Better Reflects the Doctor’s Identity

Perhaps naively, I’m assuming that the Fourteenth Doctor won’t automatically revert to being a white, cis male in the wake of Jodie Whittaker’s departure. (Fingers crossed, I guess!) But, whether the next Doctor turns out to be another woman, a POC, a member of the LGBTQ community, or some combination of the above, I hope that Doctor Who realizes we need to see actual stories that reflect that identity.

During the Chibnall era, the show has been largely content to write a female Doctor as though that character’s experience wasn’t terribly different from any other incarnation of the Time Lord, with little focus on how historical sexism or the general misogyny of society might impact her. There were a few obvious exceptions to this – Season 11’s ‘The Witchfinders’ comes to mind – but, for the most part, Doctor Who hasn’t seemed terribly interested in exploring how a female Doctor might necessarily have to move through the universe differently than her male counterparts did. (I mean, the idea that random men throughout time and space would just… allow a strange woman to take charge and tell them what to do feels less realistic than the existence of the TARDIS). For our next non-traditional Doctor, I desperately want to see them navigate the world differently because the world reacts differently to their identity, rather than simply pretend there’s no real difference between Thirteen and the other incarnations that have come before her. Lacy Baugher

Bring Back a Classic Companion

It’s unlikely to the point of impossibility that we’ll see a Classic Doctor returning full time to the TARDIS for another crack at the cosmos, complete with age-worn face. But there’s nothing prohibiting a classic companion from rejoining Team TARDIS. Sarah Jane’s reunion with the Doctor in ‘School Reunion’, alongside David Tennant’s Tenth incarnation, provided goose-pimples galore, and kick-started a spin-off show that sealed Elizabeth Sladen’s reputation as one of Doctor Who‘s eternal treasures.

It would be great to see Jo Grant or Jamie or Ace meeting a new Doctor, and adjusting to another new face, while we, the audience, would get to see both how the companions’ lives had changed sans the Doctor, and how a classic companion would look filtered through our modern sensibilities. It could be fun, soulful, and touching. It would also introduce a new generation of Whovians to the people without whom the show wouldn’t have lasted as long as it has. Jamie Andrew

Make Kids Want to Play it in the Playground

This is a tricky ask. Children’s TV habits have moved a long way from the time you could stop a random child in the street and they’d be able to accurately recite the BBC One weekday schedule with allowances for interruptions by the chancellor’s budget and Wimbledon. It’s a different world. Less ‘Watch with Mother’, more ‘Watch a 31-year-old Danish man play Minecraft while also watching 2020’s Funniest TikTok Fails and liking a video of a Year 10 vomiting frozen honey.’ Capturing kids’ attention is hard, but if Doctor Who is going to have a future anything like its past, it needs to ignite a young audience. It needs to be doodled on pencil cases. It needs to transform airing cupboards into TARDISes and multi-colour Biros into Sonic Screwdrivers. Children need to careen around the playground yelling ‘Exterminate!’ and imagining themselves as the cleverest and the bravest, an alien with two hearts and multiple universes at their feet. It has to keep on making them feel bigger on the inside. Louisa Mellor

Add a Non-Contemporary and/or Non-Human Companion

In NuWho, the main companion character has often been situated as the audience surrogate. Because of this, Doctor Who writers have always chosen to make the character our human contemporary, which is to say from our own time and also from Earth—more specifically, the U.K. While there have been exceptions to this rule, from Nardole to Victorian Clara, they have always been fleeting and/or tertiary characters, rather than a central character. Classic Who has a history of much more temporally and planetarily diverse companions. For example, Second Doctor companion Victoria was snatched from 1866 England by the Daleks before the Doctor and Jamie saved her and she continued on the TARDIS with them. Elsewhen, Fourth Doctor companion Romana was a Time Lord from Gallifrey, like the Doctor. After so many seasons of contemporary, British Earthers traveling in the TARDIS, I would love to see Doctor Who get a bit more creative with one or more of their main companions in Season 14. If undertaken earnestly, it would be a simple way of challenging the show’s storytellers to explore new cultures and/or dynamics across multiple story arcs. Kayti Burt

Stop Looking Inwards and Attract a Wider Audience

Much has been made, in this ongoing culture war that grinds against our minds 24/7, of the idea that Doctor Who is somehow a woke show now, as if the show hasn’t addressed political, social and environmental concerns since its first story, or fan forums weren’t simmering with threads unironically titled ‘The Gay Agenda’ in 2005. There are some obvious differences now: firstly the aforementioned cultural shift whereby anything remotely progressive is an affront that must be removed, and secondly the fact the show now has a female lead and more Black and Asian actors in the main cast.

Another important difference to, say, Russell T. Davies or Barry Letts’ approach, is that the writing is noticeably patchier. The concepts in the stories are not necessarily bad, but there’s both a cynical edge and a feeling that the characters are defined more by trauma or disability than beliefs or behaviour. The issue is not that Doctor Who is suddenly woke, it’s that the writing isn’t strong enough often enough.

So what I want for Doctor Who to do next is make me want to watch again, but ideally to continue with what worked with Chibnall’s approach – and despite my criticisms I believe there are successes here. The show should maintain all the elements that would annoy Piers Morgan, but also it needs to reach out to a wider audience as it did in 2005. Much as I enjoyed Steven Moffat’s era, it began to look inwards to the show’s mythology more often than it did outwards, and this needs to be reversed. Andrew Blair

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Doctor Who Season 13 will air on BBC One and BBC America this autumn.

The post Doctor Who Season 14 Wish-List: What We’d Like to See appeared first on Den of Geek.

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