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sineala · 2 years ago

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What do you think was the better* “later addition to canon”?

Steve being frozen post WW2

Tony being an alcoholic

Because those aspects weren’t part of the original sell of the character but it’s such a big part of each

Or a third option!

*better can be “I think this adds the most interesting things to the canon from a writer’s perspective” or even “I like this most 🙂”

Interesting question! Thank you for asking! Honestly, I feel like both of those things are very different from each other, in terms of narrative function, and if you're actually looking for moments in canon that added something new and major to Steve and Tony's characters that wasn't there before, I wouldn't pick either of those moments for either of them.

I have some thoughts about this!

Steve getting iced was basically just a retcon to put Steve in the comics at the age that they wanted and not having to deal with him having reached the ancient and decrepit age of 40, an age that is clearly forbidden for superheroes. It's not really much different from how they keep adjusting things as the timescale keeps sliding -- Sharon is Peggy's niece and not her sister, Tony's origin story moves to wars that are later than Vietnam. It's just one of a number of changes Marvel makes regularly to keep character ages consistent; sure, it might even be the first of them. But I don't think the icing itself is a fundamental change in who Steve is as a character.

Now, you could argue that the Man Out of Time aspect -- which came in as a direct result of the icing -- is a fundamentally different part of Steve's character that wasn't present in earlier comics and changed who he was. But in response to that, I would argue that, in a lot of ways, Golden Age Captain America isn't really the same character at all as later Steve Rogers. I would say that the Steve we know and love is one who has pretty much only existed since Avengers #4 and in a sense has always had the ice in his backstory. Sure, a character with the same name, powers, and origin as Captain America existed in the Golden Age -- but that guy, he doesn't really seem like Steve, and modern canon sure doesn't treat him like Steve. The fact that there was also a discontinuity in publishing -- unlike how DC, IIRC, never really stopped, Timely kind of isn't actually Marvel, and everything from before Fantastic Four #1 kind of doesn't count. I think.

I don't know how much Golden Age Captain America you've read. I haven't read all of it. I've only read about a dozen issues, but I feel like that's enough for me to get a sense of the character. So the thing about Golden Age comics is that they all just feel… really weird, compared to anything from the 60s and later. You get a sense that everyone at the time was still working out what a superhero comic, and maybe just a comic at all, was going to be like. The plots are weird, the villains are… okay, the villains being usually Super Racist is sadly not unique to the Golden Age, but it's really prominent. The characters don't really behave in ways you would expect. Bucky is treated as an actual child would have been in the forties -- like, there are panels of Steve threatening to spank him as discipline -- and the characters just don't feel the same.

Other than the fact that the super-soldier serum turned Steve Rogers into Captain America, and the fact that Bucky is his sidekick, and what Steve's powers basically are, nothing in these comics really feels a lot like the same character. Canonically, most of it isn't the same character! Everything after Captain America Comics #48 has been retconned to be people who aren't Steve, which shows you how much he isn't like Steve. Even the stuff that supposedly happened to Steve and Bucky doesn't really get referred to all that much. When later comics talk about Steve's time in the war, it's almost never the events of the Golden Age comics themselves -- instead, Marvel created a whole lot of stuff via flashbacks and then they refer to that. You never see Steve and Bucky talking about, say, the time they had to be in a drag show as punishment, although I swear this was a real comic. Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos? Not in the Golden Age. The Invaders? Not in the Golden Age as a team! The All-Winners Squad was, but again, that features Captains America who were later retconned as not Steve (William Nasland, Jeff Mace). Most of Steve's villains other than Red Skull are not really there. It's just… not really the same character and there's not much of a meaningful sense of continuity between any of the events in the Golden Age and later comics. Later comics are working mostly from their own retellings and flashbacks. So I feel like Steve basically starts anew in Avengers #4 and thus has always been a Man Out Of Time.

Okay, so what about Tony's alcoholism? Tony before and after Demon in a Bottle is still Tony Stark, but the thing is, I feel like Tony's alcoholism isn't a drastic alteration to the character, and it fits very well with established canon, and it has been easily accepted as part of Tony's character, unlike something that just comes out of nowhere and is true now and everyone is all WTF at it (looking at you, adoption arc).

Tony's worst villain has always been himself. Specifically, it's been his own body. At the beginning, it was his heart damage and the chestplate, and the terrible curse inherent in Being Tony Stark was that someday soon his heart was going to give out. There are so many panels of him dramatically plugging himself into the wall and thinking about how close he is to death. Tony's origin story was essentially Here, Have A Disability. His body betrays him. His body doesn't do what he wants. He can't control it. There's something wrong with him and it's hurting him. Every so often they take away whatever's wrong with him, but they always revert to it -- his heart's been bad, and then fine, and then bad, and then fine, and here's the alcoholism, and oh no now he's paralyzed, and now it's his brain and he has amnesia, and so on.

In that sense, the alcoholism really feels like a natural escalation from the heart problems and that it fits well with all of this all of this. Here's something else about his body/mind that isn't right, that's causing him harm, that he initially tries to hide from almost everyone, and that he often has difficulty controlling. It's just that it's not his heart anymore.

So what would I pick for canonical moments in comics history that weren't part of Steve and Tony's original character conceptions and that really represented a new addition to his character?

For Steve I'd pick either the original Secret Empire arc (Nomad) or The Captain, because those basically both show the same thing. Sure, Captain America has always been a symbol of all the ideals of America as a country, and sometimes America lets him down, and sometimes he has to lecture people about how they should be better people -- but, as far as I know, Secret Empire was the first time Steve basically said, "Yeah, no, fuck the government." He loves his country. He doesn't always love his government. He doesn't think what happened in Secret Empire (which, yes, we all know, is secretly Watergate) is right, so he's going to… simply stop being Captain America. He's going to be Nomad. The government itself has now massively let him down, and they don't get to tell him what to do anymore. And now we're all like, "Oh, yeah, of course Steve is mad at the government and has decided to stop being Captain America right now! He's gonna go on a road trip to find himself! Here he is in Civil War telling the pro-Registration side they're wrong and becoming a fugitive from justice." But… he didn't start out like that.

This is a character who was created to be a soldier and to do what his country asked of him. Sure, there are early arcs where he gives up the shield for a little bit, but they're because he's going through one of his usual "who am I when I'm not Captain America?" crises and then he comes back pretty quick. It wasn't that he didn't believe in his government; it wasn't that kind of crisis of faith. But then Secret Empire happens and he's like, "yeah, no, I can't represent a country when the president was conspiring with aliens to take over the world" and he's just out of there. Same deal for The Captain. The government wants to tell him what to do because he's Captain America? Nope! Someone else can be Captain America now. Of course, then John Walker does a terrible job and Steve has to come back anyway. John Walker is like your awful roommate who half-asses the dishes so no one will ask him to do the dishes again even though he clearly knows how to wash dishes and chooses not to, except with murder instead.

But, anyway, the moral stance depicted in Secret Empire and The Captain is pretty much the same -- when the government does something he thinks is wrong, he just simply stops being Captain America. He's not afraid to go against the government in Civil War or (for a more modern example) Devil's Reign. And it's not really a stance he had before Secret Empire, as far as I know. If you told comics readers in, say, 1970, that you really liked the fact that Steve wasn't afraid to quit being Captain America to protest unjust laws, they would probably be very confused. Steve is Captain America! He works for SHIELD! He does what the government tells him! Why wouldn't he? Except, well… these days, he doesn't.

And I think you can tell that this is important to the modern conception of Steve's character because it made it into the MCU. Okay, true, any adaptation of Civil War was probably going to have to involve Steve going against some kind of law about superheroes because he thinks it's the right thing to do -- that personality trait is basically baked into the plot. But they put it in the MCU way before Civil War, presumably because they thought this was important enough to Steve's character that it needed to be included. CATWS is an adaptation of Brubaker's Winter Soldier arc that I would say is a lot more faithful to the comics than many of the MCU entries that share names with the comics. But you know what the 616 Winter Soldier arc doesn't have? A plot where Steve decides that he's unable to trust anyone at SHIELD because they're secretly Hydra and therefore we are right to be suspicious of the US government which may not be acting in our best interests anyway because apparently even the good guys in SHIELD were still interested in building helicarriers to shoot people down -- they just had a different target list than Hydra did. The 616 Winter Soldier arc does, in fact, have the Red Skull infiltrating SHIELD. He then proceeds to successfully murder Steve. There's not really a Trust No One plot going on because Steve doesn't get that far, and he dies before any of this is discovered and also misses out on Secret Invasion. Plus, hey, the scene that introduces us to Steve way back in CATFA shows him sitting there staring at a sign saying it's illegal to lie on his enlistment papers and then we find out he's been lying a lot. Because he thinks doing the right thing is more important than obeying the law. Yeah, they went there pretty early.

For Tony, my pick for a similarly significant character development that absolutely wasn't part of his original character is his decision to stop making weapons in Iron Man #78. He was created to be a defense contractor. He spent about ten RL years making weapons and, as far as we can tell from canon, not really experiencing any kind of crisis of conscience about, say, being a superhero and also making weapons at the same time. And then (because readers complained) he meets a pacifist, changes his mind about everything, stops taking SHIELD weapons contracts, and then stops making weapons entirely. This is a pretty significant career change for a character who started out happily making weapons. He just stopped. He doesn't do it anymore. He hasn't in years. And now it's absolutely part of who he is as a character, such that it ends up being a defining trait of his in multiple universes -- even in 1872, Tony stops making weapons. In Superior Iron Man, one of the first things he did when he went evil was make weapons again. If he is making weapons, we know that something has gone very wrong with him.

This also made it to the MCU -- "Tony becomes Iron Man and stops making weapons" is basically the plot of the first Iron Man movie, right? They decided that "Tony stops making weapons" was important enough that it is absolutely had to be right there in the first movie. Sure, alcoholism is one of Tony's defining traits in modern 616 comics and I'm not saying it's not, though I am saying it's not coming out of nowhere -- but that didn't even make it to the MCU. (I'm sure a lot of that was Disney's fault, yes.)

You also might not know this from looking at modern comics, but The Government Wants Tony To Keep Making Weapons is actually a pretty salient arc after Tony stops making them. Half of the reason Demon in a Bottle happens is because Tony is forced to kill the Carnelian ambassador because Justin Hammer sabotages his suit, but the other half is because Tony is incredibly stressed because Nick Fury keeps trying to find a way to make him make weapons for the government and Tony doesn't want to. (Maybe Tony would have fewer control issues if people stopped trying to control him.)

If I had to pick a second new character trait for Tony, it would also be his willingness to defy the government (and, really, anybody else) and do what he thinks is right. (He and Steve are more similar than I think a lot of fandom gives them credit for. But that would be a different meta post.) I mean, they do what they do with opposite reasoning but they both kind of have the same problems to solve a lot, because comics plots are very often Here's The Trolley Problem. Utlilitarianism versus… what's the other one? Deontology.

Anyway, yeah, I'm talking about Armor Wars. The arc when Tony decided that the ends justified the means and he was simply going to steal his technology back from everyone who had it, including the government, and that he was willing to hurt anyone who got in his way (hi, Steve) and alienate both Avengers teams in the process, because he decided that he knew what he had to do, what he had to do was right, and nothing was more important, no matter what the consequences were to himself. This is the thought process that gets you Armor Wars, Operation Galactic Storm, and eventually Civil War. And before Armor Wars, Tony just… didn't do things like this. After Armor Wars, he does, and everyone expects him to, and none of that was there before as part of his character. So I'd say that's a pretty big change.

Interestingly, of the four things I've named, two of them each basically happen at the same time -- Tony stops making weapons in the early 70s, around the time the Secret Empire and Nomad thing is happening for Steve, and of course in the mid-80s Steve is The Captain when he confronts Tony during Armor Wars. I guess those were two very transformative time periods for Steve and Tony.

But yeah, those are my picks for the biggest changes to Steve and Tony that weren't part of their original conceptions -- Steve's willingness to say Fuck the Government and go do what he thinks is right even if it means not being Captain America; and Tony's decision to stop making weapons, as well as Tony's willingness to say Fuck the Government (And/Or Possibly Also All His Friends) in order to do with he thinks is right. There's a sense in which they're really not all that different.

#replies #visitant-dispatch

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kohakhearts · 1 year ago

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tonight's anipoke rabbit hole (actually something i've been largely contemplating since i started rewatching the os, but i've been contemplating it Even More tonight LMAO) is the does gary oak is ash's childhood best friend (established) discussion, which...maybe it's because i already knew the direction of their arc when i went back to episode one, but i think i actually disagree with the notion that episode one presents a continuity error, i.e. that it suggests gary doesn't know ash. to save you all from my ramblings i put them under a cut but tl;dr this is a hashed out conversation i'm putting my two cents into for no reason other than that i can and i want to.

i will say that like...takeshi shudo's novelization does kind of contest my reading here, but it doesn't explicitly say ash and gary don't know each other, either. (iirc, what it actually says is that ash knows gary sort of peripherally and has the impression of him being A Bit Of A Jerk, because he comes from a family of local celebrities and it's inflated his ego - which also debunks the childhood friends thing, just in a different way. all things considered, this does make it pretty clear to me that ash and gary were not originally intended to be childhood friends however the head writers of the silver league arc were part of the team from the beginning or at least fairly early on in the os, so. take that as you will.)

i say this in reference to both the original and the dub, but there are some interesting language nuances that get cut out of the dub because they...obviously don't make a lot of sense. but i was doing my rewatch with the dub, so let me talk about that first. 'cause i actually watched the scene a couple times trying to decide if it really did feel like it challenged the childhood friends thing. and...i don't think it does?

the first line gary says that makes everyone say he doesn't seem to know ash is "well, you must be ash," which. yeah. okay, that'd be a pretty weird thing to say to a guy you already know, but i have one (1) strong thesis here and it's this: that's just how ten year olds are, lmao. the second thing he says (regarding how late ash is) is "at least you get to meet me." that one...okay, fair enough. now i'm starting to sound like the crazy one for saying This Proves Nothing. but you can't tell me ash's response to this isn't straight-up weird, ok, because he just kinda c: and goes "gary?"

this is...a poor translation, for the most part, but i'll get to that in a second. even watching this with no knowledge of the original, that call and response kinda feels like someone playing along with a bit. there's no way that he knows this guy's name just from the cheerleaders he literally bowled over to get to the lab. it's clear he already knows it from somewhere else (and following with the novelization, it's definitely the family of local celebrities thing, although that same novelization stipulates that gary doesn't even attend school in pallet town, so this is all around just a really Absurd series of events - that's why i love it so much, but still).

anyway, then gary says "that's mr gary to you" and ash's c: turns into a o: he's like. flabbergasted lmao. and he only reacts again to be like whaaat you got your first pokemon???

the rest of their interaction is just "can i see your pokemon" and "sucks to suck, sucker," so not incredibly noteworthy other than that ash goes from, like, weirdly polite with his little "um, excuse me" to when gary fucks off and he's suddenly pissed.

so in my efforts to like, dig into this more, i found that fan subs don't...completely translate the intention here, either. mostly i only got to thinking about this tonight because i was making a Joke and i pulled up a scene from this episode and it happened to be this one. for whatever bizarre reason, my choice to download Every Episode Of The Pokemon Anime led me to downloading japanese raws, not the dub. but that's beside the point. i actually sat down and listened to this scene with no english subtitles, and i was like. wait. i think this fits my thesis. let me explain.

(it all started when i noticed that when gary goes from addressing ash to addressing the crowd around them, he switches from using the pronoun "boku" to using "watashi," which probably is meant to show that he's trying to come across as Serious and Mature. i have not watched all of gary's episodes in japanese, but i've watched enough to know this is pretty irregular. i thought it was really silly, especially when...put in context.)

SO, in the japanese version, that whole "at least you get to meet me" bit isn't there - that was the translators' attempt at working around something untranslatable, because the actual progression after ash bumps into him here is something like:

>you're satoshi, aren't you? >yeah, it's satoshi-san >or should i say satoshi-kun?

which is...where the nickname comes from, obviously. and it's why he gets that Look on his face...you know the one

(this whole scene is very expressive and i love it, lmao)

even in subs, this is a weird thing to translate, so most people seem to emphasize the reference to ash's tardiness, like in the dub. but it misses some of the character beats laid out here, unfortunately. the satoshi-kun to ashy-boy pipeline is very complex. the shortcomings of the english language and all that.

anyway, gary's next line being "that's mr gary to you" does imply something about honorifics, but when ash just calls him "shigeru," he actually says "hey that's shigeru-kun to you," which doesn't suggest that he's telling ash off for being too chummy with him, as a stranger, so much as he's trying to say hey, we aren't friends, make some distance. because the next thing he says is something to the point of "you're supposed to be my rival, but you're already falling behind."

then the polite little "excuse me" of the english dub is actually ash saying "shigeru-kun?" which does seem awfully polite of him, but then he immediately drops it in his next line and just refers to him as "shigeru" again, so i maintain that it literally feels like he's just humouring gary here a bit lmao.

also worth noting, when gary drives off, ash in the dub says "i'll show you," but in the original just repeats the word "rival," looking very Worked Up.

also, just in general, i do think some of gary's lines here are like...pure exposition. he tells ash he's professor oak's grandson because the audience needs to know it. that doesn't really mean that we as the audience need to - or even should - assume it means he thinks ash doesn't know it, because he clearly does. i mean, he knew his name. that probably speaks for something, lol.

anyway, back to my thesis: this literally just reads like classic "first day of middle school" fuckery. gary oak is literally displaying symptoms of 12-year-old girl syndrome and ash is playing along because that's what pals do, right. like all i'm saying is that these two entered sixth grade and gary suddenly was like hey you can't sit beside me anymore and ash just kinda shrugged and was like haha ok, you're so quirky, and then only later when he heard gary shit-talking him realized hey wait a second, you're a bitch, we aren't friends anymore (and if this feels like an exaggeration, i work with children in this age bracket and believe me when i say i wish it were shdfhjdk).

in conclusion? yeah, the childhood best friends thing makes perfect sense. did they have a fight before this scene? has it been Years? no. gary just woke up and decided to start shit one day. most compelling relationship of the century, if i'm being honest.

ADDENDUM: when professor oak sees ash, he says something about "thats right, there were four people scheduled to see me today," but gary already seemed to know ash was going to be there, which leads me to believe they have at least enough of an established relationship for gary to know becoming a pokemon trainer was a goal of ash's and he had in fact gotten his license. because clearly professor oak didn't give him that info!

#taylor.txt #taylor watches anipoke #*meta #...I GUESS?? i don't think im saying anything someone else hasn't already said before #but in case you needed more more reasons to believe that gary is the funniest character in this whole anime #im here to offer you some #anyway. good night #gary oak #goes in the tag so i can always refer back to this moment of genius here #and so anyone who follows me can easily find it and know im NOT normal about him </3

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m1ckeyb3rry · 4 days ago

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LMAOOOO I LOWK FORGOT MEGUMI HAS AN OLDER SISTER wait you really actually just set yourself for karasuism like jjk you KNEW you were cooking was just paving the way for Karasu…wait this is actually crazy down to the details of the accent too and MEDIOCRE this was actually just a sign from the universe there’s no other explanation

OH YEAH those people who are consistently on the chigiri reo bff girlies agenda yeah i agree chigiris definitely closer to nagi imo it’s especially apparent in episode nagi and he DEFINITELY thinks reo is a freak based on BOTH of those additional times i never understood why people decided to put chigiri on the reo defender side exclusively

I constantly forget his name so you’re probably right LOLL also YESS if Shidou can help me get Karasu ill gladly go along with his shenanigans also wait Bachira helping otoya would be so funny because imagine Bachira tells him to do some crazy shit except it’s like a the complete opposite of typical otoya in the sense that it’s all just Bachira’s imagine of what he thinks is sweet and nice and since he was friendless growing up (oops) he’s very inexperienced so it’s on the complete opposite side of the spectrum from otoyas usual rizz shenanigans

Yeahhhh I wonder if a hiatus would’ve served gege better long run but it is what it is…and fr there was no sense of like achievement or the battle finally ending like what happened

LMAOA nagi in freaky Friday would be so funny because nothing would happen and I bet he’d think dealing with it is such a hassle so y/n is busting her ass trying to look for him to solve the issue (actually this would be kinda entertaining just to see everyone being like wtf why’s nagi actually speaking) anyways YEAH it was one of my gateway works into the bllk scene lowk still one of the better ones imo (also like one of the only ones er)

Yeahhhh the title just gives off that whole vibe and I’m immediately like yeah I don’t think I’d watch this but FR the birth of tullirin (??) so goated and OHHHHHHHHHH OK LMAOAAO ok yeah nvm wait actually do you remember the idea we talked about of rin getting second leaded by nagi or Karasu…I feel like those tropes kinda fit back in here and make both nagi and Karasu make sense in a way…I’m a Karasu glazer but I lowk feel like he could work too especially since it’s you writing LOL based off the whole kinda older more mature vs younger immature tropes plus their bickering vs acknowledgement (well this part is more on Karasu acknowledging Rin’s skills but anyways) but YEAH iirc someone just copy pasted the same prompt verbatim and mass blasted it to a bunch of writers I saw so many of those floating around and it had me like damn ok but also yeah im not typically an avid enjoyer of the love triangle with siblings trope either because of the same reason like at least if you’re not related it’s a lot easier to move on and never cross paths but imagine being forced to attend family reunions with that eek I like your take on it though since the source of the triangle is more so inline with their characters and motivations like sae with soccer and Rin’s rivalry as opposed to them really just fighting over a girl yk….anyways NAGI AND KARASU SUPREMACY REAL also that’s so funny Tullia being this aus pursuit yayoi kinda LMAOA

cries I think I really just need a new computer but it’s not at the point where it’s non functional so I don’t want to swap it out quite yet…I usually have to do like an annual storage clean out so I can catch up on any software updates that I haven’t done which hasn’t happened yet this year but hopefully soon

FR omg I had to haul a bunch of brainpower to remember but KUROO yeah the one people keep comparing Karasu to LOL but yeah anyways

LMAO THE POTATO CHIP ANALOGY IS SENDING ME BUT REAL I love finding little hints and Easter eggs so I’m all for the complex stories

Pause idk what you’re on about because this is really good??? Side profiles especially are hard to get right I genuinely think you should be in charge of episode Karasu he looks so good also THE LITTLE CHICK AHAJSJSHSKSJSJS

Cries yeahhhh this entire ship scene is just exhausting like if you can make claims about your popular ship and like “bring evidence” to back it up why do you hate on people doing that with other ships that are considered rare too?? Fr convinced it’s also that people just go with the easiest narrative that also fits their aesthetic values without actually deep reading but WHATEVER I’ll just keep my distance

I REMEMBER PEOPLE HATING ON GOJOHIME SM but I HATE how hypocritical those people are?? Like they were defending their stance with their life saying Utahime hates gojo as if they don’t ship a bunch of other people who were clearly rivals or not on friendly terms just because they thought they looked good (coughcoughkaiserisagivibescough) like hello just let people live gosh and I’m not even a shipper myself HELLO??? Wait did you actually get hate for reblogging that wtf that’s actually insane it’s not even a pair to be considered that rare because Isagi and Nagi interacted so much and have an established dynamic too??? BRO I LAUGH WHEN PEOPLE LEAVE THOSE COMMENTS like what compels you to emphasize the fact that you don’t ship it just say it looks nice and get out of here I was literally about to say Isagi lowk glazes Nagi LMFAO but yeah ANYWAYS

LAMAOAO BAROU HATER MOOD my fav I can so see him saying that about Aiku OTOYA CALLING DARAI STUPID HAD ME FOLDING the bit of hype and like frustration in his voice really came through nicely

SODHAKS DONT WORRY ILL ALWAYS BE HERE FOR SANE NORMAL CONVERSATIONS (if you consider Karasu glazing sane) LMAOAOA but seriously like on every platform too it’s just swarming with insane fans like damn this is why I closet this fact irl too like do NOT associate me with those people!!! Ok wait I think…..I know….but I’m ngl I rarely check notes I think I’ve seen one on your page once??? I can definitely imagine them though I’ll keep my eyes peeled in the future I think I only really ever read the notes for your posts and jeirins oops I also (as you know) have been basically just lurking so wasn’t fully aware of the whole group divide LMAOA I DO know there’s probably a raging faction of middle schoolers somewhere lowk sounds like a drama fest though….maybe I’ll do some research to stay aware but LMAOAOA REAL WAIT feel free to delete this one too after you’ve read and responded or wtv I’ll keep a copy of it in my notes so I know wtf I said

SHSHEHSHS ATAY SAFEEE getting sick is actually the worst experience in the entire world im like constantly washing my nose with saline spray to try to prevent anything

LMAAOOA i remember vividly the octopus but not the full context oops but that convo was SOOOO funny i love bullying miraverse Karasu and Yukimiya becoming his one sided opp is actually one of the best ideas to ever be conceived

LMAOAOA ok considering i know about your horse girl era/actual horse riding activities i feel like it’s not as out of pocket but for people surfing the tags maybe LMAO I actually love your takes on the fantasy genre because I find the cliches boring and usually a little too naive…? I don’t think that fully encapsulates it but it’s usually all the typical happy rainbow stories ykwim

LDMOAOS TY FOR THE OFFER I lowk don’t have any concrete ideas of how id want to pair fantasy but i will let you know if I change my mind!!! But omg I forgot people can deactivate and just disappear wait lowk isn’t that kinda scary like they just fall off the grid never to be seen again um anyways wait im crying that’s such an interesting combo?? LMAO talk about kinda niche but I bet you’ll put some magic into that

Also wait scrolling through your blog again and 1) WTF YOU CONVERTED TO ITOSHISM????? Ngl the moment you started wavering I had a feeling it was inevitable….does that mean it’s my turn too…… also 2) I CANT BELEIVE I FORGOT TO MENTION THE AIKU MEME IS SO FUCKING FUNNY LMFOWOAOSODJSOSKDJSKAIAOAO “wait that’s me” LMFAOSOSOAH sorry that was truly peak comedy also this should not have taken me like 1.5 hours to type wtf

- Karasu anon

HAHA to be fair gege did NOT do her justice like she was mentioned a lot in season one and also was like half of the reason the students got involved in the culling games?? but she was never really an active character or anything until the whole yorozu thing but that wasn’t even actually her so yeah very minor character (i mean at least she has a name which is more than yayoi can actually canonically say but yayoi is like miraverse canon so it’s different SDJFH) but yeah i was looking back and i was like ??? because okay sassy dark haired asshole is one thing that’s common enough there’s multiple characters even within blue lock who could fit that trope (like rin for example) but the single older sister?? the ACCENT?? calling someone MEDIOCRE (it only happens once that i remember but even that is crazy)?? i fr wrote this in 2022 so i was actually looking into the future or smth…maybe karasu and i are actually just meant to be like i love him so much that i influenced my past self somehow

I HAVE SEEN SO MANY POSTS SAYING THAT CHIGIRI AND REO ARE GIVING BFF VIBES IN THE ADDITIONAL TIME i feel like i’m being gaslit or smth like do we not all see chigiri’s face bro simultaneously dgaf and is mildly concerned for reo but they are not giving besties i think it’s time we reevaluate some of our friendships 😭 not making an actual post about this because 100% i’ll get jumped but putting it here for you and possibly jeirin (she sometimes reads our convos i think HAHA) to see

chigiri with reo:

chigiri with nagi:

LIKE I’M CRYING THE DIFFERENCE IN HIS EXPRESSION ALONE SPEAKS VOLUMESSS actually i think part of the reo x chigiri bff agenda is because (perhaps subconsciously) people associate them as being the “feminine” counterparts of their duos?? whereas nagi and kunigami are the “masculine” counterparts so like by that logic chigiri and reo should be bffs in a #girlboss way but that’s inherently flawed because all four of them are guys in the same age group LMAOO like that doesn’t mean you should or shouldn’t ship them but it just means that they’re all on the same level socially?? i think i’m explaining this weirdly but like…chigiri and nagi don’t have a disconnect in any way (how you might expect a 16/17 year old girl and 17 year old guy to have) because they’re both dudes in bllk so there’s no actual default grouping that would connect chigiri and reo over chigiri and nagi the way “oh we’re both girls” might 🧐 i actually think the chigiri and reo bff agenda also plays into what we know about FANON chigiri more than CANON chigiri — we see both in canon and in headcanons that with reo, chigiri is very ‘sassy’ and giving advice and doing his hair and whatnot like it’s all very stereotypical 2000s romcom bff vibes?? whereas in epinagi and the main manga alike chigiri is very obviously a chaotic gremlin of a boy LMAOO like yeah he’s high maintenance but considering he’s on a team with BAROU it doesn’t feel out of place and he’s just very energetic and excited and hype?? for lack of a better word…like the teenage boy energy really comes through there and i think that’s another reason why to me chigiri and nagi just feel like sm better friends — chigiri is actually himself with nagi whereas he’s not really with reo (oops also this ended up being really long i actually went on a similar rant w jeirin earlier so my thoughts are collected and ready this time but anyways you know me always ready to defend nagi even if it’s only tangentially)

OKAY I WAS RIGHT IT IS IN FACT KEVIN LMAOAOA lowkey niko kinda gives kevin vibes actually like his americasona (?) would be kevin no idea why though LKSDHJFS but SO REAL if shidou’s methods work they work!! i lowkey would trust him to get me with karasu with my LIFE like i think bro would work some magic or smth to make it happen so i think you’re in good hands…okay wait that’s actually what i was thinking with bachira too like he actually makes otoya become rizzless but like personally i LOVE men w 0 rizz so i think it would actually 100% work on me even more than usual flirting 😭 also bachira is kinda childish right so i feel like his advice would be like “bake cookies for her 😄” or smth and otoya would be like hmm okay…ig…and then he’d do it and i would actually be in love with him because i think that’s so cute and sweet and so it all works out in the end (bachira actually has to do overtime keeping me away from the manshine city wing because as soon as i see nagi i am dumping otoya LMAOO…abt to show blue lock a REAL break up)

the saddest thing is like one of my mutuals is playing phantom parade rn and they’re just talking about how there’s so much content and so many scenes expanding on the characters that they wish would’ve been in the main manga and i agree!! i think jjk overall would’ve benefitted soo much from having time to breathe and allow the characters to actually interact/like each other 😩 but oh well it is what it is atp

lowkey nagi freaky friday would be really really funny now that i’m thinking about it especially if reader is like fwtkac reader?? how she’s super smart and sassy and popular and outgoing and whatnot (freaky friday reader is a bit more nagi coded so it wouldn’t be as funny)…i imagine nagi would just make up some “i’m sick” bs to skip school and ofc reader NEVER misses school unless absolutely necessary so no one questions it (they’re just worried about her for the most part meanwhile nagi is at “home” [aka reader’s room] appalled by how low leveled she is in every video game [she never plays]) but then she pulls up as nagi and everyone is like WTF because she’s like dapping people up, absolutely crushing it in PE class, talking and befriending literally everyone, accidentally rizzing people up (since nagi is canonically cute but just kinda weird?? so i imagine if he shows up acting like reader people would be attracted to him) but then literally the next day nagi is back to being a loner except now he kinda follows reader around and nobody understands how that happened because she missed the day that he was actually #chilllikethat but somehow they’re like. in love now. and everyone has to accept that. bonus points if the body switch happens AFTER nagi and reo start playing soccer together so for one precious day reo is like WHAT THE FUCK because nagi is going OFF on the field and then the next day when nagi’s back to normal reo’s like “lmao were you possessed or smth” and nagi’s just like “yeah :x by y/n :x” and reo has no idea what he’s talking about so he just decides to never question it again or smth

okay see i think that would work if they’re both going for the same girl?? because then that dichotomy makes sense but if they have separate love interests i feel like it almost makes it feel a little awkward like oh one of us has a super mature cool love interest and the other…doesn’t…LMAOAO also i think people would think i’m just throwing rin in there because i like him when NO i just want him to be with tullia because it would be funny 😭 so i think nagi might be the only way to go (i think it’s so funny how we’ve had like multiple conversations about completely different stories and i’m like hmm who should i make reader’s love interest be and every time the answer is nagi like atp why am i even questioning it) actually wait lowkey if reader is with karasu i think that could be a good chance to do tullia x yukimiya i was thinking of her and otoya (because bff in fwtkac is meant to be a tullia variant and everyone loves fwtkac bff x otoya) but yukimiya would also work…wait copy and pasting is lowkey crazy work i feel like that would stress me as a writer out ngl because i wouldn’t want someone to think i’m plagiarizing them?? never gotten plagiarism accusations thankfully (i don’t think i ever will hopefully) but yeah that just feels like a sticky situation/drama waiting to happen 😰 and agreed can you imagine your new sister-in-law was almost your gf i would NEVER recover but yeah all of the love interests in that au are very purposefully done!! in the sense that it’s meant to reveal their characters more so than it is just simple wish fulfillment ☝🏻 like sae only understanding soccer, rin’s rivalry and desire to catch up to sae, otoya’s love of picking up bitches (/hj he’s not really a love interest…he tries rizzing up reader when they first meet but otherwise he respects karasu and is his wingman [karasu does not want a wingman but otoya is on it regardless]), how karasu takes the time to understand people (hence why he’s one of the actual love interests — he’s one of the only people who actually listens to and respects reader as a player instead of just being like “ooh girl”), and how nagi is really just kinda searching for someone who cares about him and for how his method of existing in the world (which is why he really just is like “wow nice pretty girl 🙂” for the most part like bro does NOT know what a crush is or anything he just thinks reader is cool but that’s what warms reader to him?? she’s like “damn a man with 0 romantic intentions…#needthat” and then she manifests it and ends up successful) LMAOOO PLEASE tullia is like reverse pursuit yayoi went from isagi to barou instead of vice versa honestly that’s the superior way to go though lbr 🤩 except i think isagi would still be her endgame (barou is kind of like her karasu ig you could say) but the barou arc is real true and valid

LDSKFJD I FEEL THAT like you don’t want to get around replacing it because it TECHNICALLY is working but it’ll be sm better once you finally do…i’m kinda in a similar spot with my headphones they don’t work half of the time but then half of the time they do so i’m like okay it’s fineeee but tbh they do in fact piss me off 99% of the time

LMAOO YES THAT’S THE ONE karasu is better though i think i’ve mentioned this to you before but like the hq characters just have such round heads you could literally use pi * r^2 to find the area and shit so i do not find them appealing in the slightest…one of my mutuals just got into hq so she’s been posting a lot and i’m like nah you could not pay me to find any of these men attractive also i can barely do the sports animanga life with bllk idt i’m built for watching any more and hq is like the most sports animanga to ever sports animanga so yeah you won’t catch me watching i fear!!

HEHEHE THANK YOUUU i feel like side profiles (specifically right side profile because that’s what i tend to sketch fsr) are the easiest for me to draw maybe because i don’t have to worry about the eyes being even and the proportions just make more sense to me or smth idk LMAOAO but i’m glad you liked it!! and YESS THE CHICK i like including silly little notes on my character doodles and at first i had written “he’s literally a baby chick” and drew the chick emoji but then i was like actually wait it’s cuter without the arrow and writing so i erased it and just gave the chick his hair and called it a day KLSDFJ

no because i think the obsession with ships needing to be canon MUST be stopped like yeah i recognize that your ship has xyz canon moments but why would i care?? i want this character to be in love with this other character who they have never interacted with and you’ll just have to deal with it…people use the “well MY ship is implied in canon so it’s OBVIOUSLY the ONLY ship possible” as this like moral superiority thing with shipping which i think is so stupid like this is all fandom stuff nothing is that serious ship what you want you’re not doing a disservice to anything or anyone by doing so

people do the MOST to hate on gojohime like yeah i don’t ship it either but i can see why people would?? like it’s a fairly common dynamic even in anime too and people are always like “no it’s problematic because she actually hates him and so we’re normalizing that girls should be with men they hate and that teasing someone is a valid form of liking them” and i’m just like okay so this is not in fact real life…you don’t see people saying liking toji means that you’re condoning murder right?? same premise (kind of) like at the end of the day it’s not that serious!! and no HAHA i did not get hate for reblogging but i wouldn’t have been surprised if i did yk DHKJDSF YEAHHH ISAGI IS LOWKEY NAGI’S BIGGEST GLAZER i would say behind reo but honestly isagi’s out here calling nagi the “god of soccer” and shit so i do think isagi kinda has reo beat JSFLSJKD

BAROU IN HIS HATER ERA WILL ALWAYS BE FAMOUS unrelated (well kind of related) but i love how the studio has been drawing barou this season i think he’s been promoted to fav status as well as otoya which i am ABSOLUTELY hype about because barou is soooooo 🤤

LMAOOO REAL THIS IS WHY NO ONE I KNOW IRL IS AWARE OF MY FANDOM ACTIVITIES okay but actually once you start noticing it it is SO funny like each group has their own dialect atp too like i can read a comment and tell which group someone is a part of (if any) it’s lowkey hilarious to me none of it is real it’s literally all just people 16/17 and under for the most part (and that does in fact come with drama and silliness as expected…at least from what i see as on onlooker and based on things i see on my dash) LMAOAOA that’s why jeirin is the only mutual i talk to consistently nowadays #adultsunite anyways if any of them happen to be reading this uhhh sorry don’t let me yuck your yums or anything like that 🙏🏻 please continue to have fun amongst yourselves and stay in school and whatnot

BEING SICK IS THE WORST FOR SURE but sometimes i like it because then i can boss my brother around extra and i have an excuse to be super lazy…pros and cons to everything ig but yeah fingers crossed i’ve not been hit with anything too horrible yet so hopefully it stays that way

okay so erm…development…i can now proudly say that i have written a 2k word carnivorous pegasus birth scene LMAOAOOA this is the most insane answer to a request probably ever like i’m still crying over the fact that those words can be strung together and mean something 😭 people who just are browsing the sae tag are abt to be in for a WILD ride if they happen to click on this one LMAOAO horse girl mira truly shining through rn (or imagine someone reads seabird and goes to read this thinking that because i wrote him all cutesy and normal in seabird that’s what the vibes will be again but then they’re hit with. uh. well. 2k word carnivorous pegasus birth scene) but yeah ikwym like people can have a very narrow imagine in their mind for what fantasy is and so it ends up being very cliche feeling and just not really deep in storytelling or characterization or anything?? the worldbuilding also suffers for it because people will rely on genre conventions and general knowledge to write a generic medieval/renaissance europe fusion thing and call it fantasy but the genre is sooo broad honestly that there’s sm more to explore which ends up being so much more fun and rich and enjoyable (if not to read then at least to write) i wish more people would do alternative takes on fantasy but i also get why they don’t…i’m lucky in that both of my fantasy reqs have been from mutuals who trust me and my vision completely and also have read previous insane fics of mine so i don’t have to worry as much about disappointing them but i do think i’d be more hesitant to let loose if it was a req from someone anonymous or who i didn’t know well or anything

LMAOO KEEP ME POSTED there’s a lot of tropes that also just weren’t used at all so if any of those strike your fancy def go ahead and #senditover…yeah mutuals of mine will deactivate every now and again and i always hope they’re doing well wherever they are 🥹 sometimes i contemplate deleting tumblr when i’m stressed out by people being silly but a) i probably/definitely won’t and b) if i do i’ll definitely give you some other place to talk to me like discord or smth so that i don’t entirely lose the people i actually enjoy talking to?? since the few mutuals i talk to consistently all have me on instagram or discord or something along those lines so if i do ever deactivate i’ll still be able to talk to them

HELP I WAS LOWKEY SURPRISED basically they sent in an ask asking for charizard (fire/flying) with hiori and i was like ok…gave it a bit to see if anyone else would say anything and then i was like okay charizard hiori anon if you can tell me who you want as a second lead before someone else sends a req in i’ll add it to the last!! now i was fully expecting like isagi or karasu or maybe rin or something and then they whipped out YUKIMIYA and i was like ??? because me personally i would never choose hiori over yuki…sorry hiori fans but yuki is simply that guy!! but according to them they just like the bm boys’ dorm dynamics and they didn’t want kurona so they were between yukimiya and isagi and just went with yukimiya i was like huh cool ig 😭 i’m sure i’ll figure smth out though even if some suspension of disbelief may be required (because again…why would i go for hiori is KENYU MF YUKIMIYA IS INTO ME)

STOP YES I DID I THINK HE KICKED REO OUT OF MY TOP FIVE it’s nagi karasu barou yukimiya sae in that order now LSKDJFS but i’m still reluctant to admit that i’m a true fan of him…the process of writing the request for him and getting comments on seabird made me realize that he’s actually really fun to write/do requests for (which good thing i think that because i have quite a few requests for him i fear) and then i saw an edit on tik tok and he just looks so SINISTER in it somehow?? and i was like ok i have to admit it i like him…i think i predicted way back in my “finally finished season one” post in the spring that this would happen LMOAO i literally said in the tags iirc that we were in an enemies to lovers arc so ig we’re finally nearing the finish line 😓 dw though i mean i’ll gladly drag you down with me but i will forever be a nagi glazer first a karasu glazer second a barou glazer third and everything else last so like don’t expect me to make a sae theme or anything like that HAHAHAH and PLEASEEEE OMG I WAS CRACKING UP MAKING THOSE MEMES the oaeu one with barou responding to aiku’s comment and niko saying he looks like tyler the creator as well as the nagi + zantetsu ones are my favs i think also i’m annoyed because the otoya and yukimiya one cut the funniest part out but you can’t tell it did LMAO the bottom part says “edit: nvm you can just talk to them” which is so otoya to me somehow LMAOOO like the meme without that part is also funny but that’s the best part #fucktumblrformatting anyways i think a lot of the bllk memes tend to be either very brain rot based or like heavy on the fanon characterization plus they always do the same couples of duos (chigiri + reo, nagi + reo, shidou + sae, isagi + whoever they ship him with) so i tried to switch it up, include some diff pairs as well (like karasu + hiori, oaeu trio, and nagi + zantetsu), and picked less common memes HAHAH OKAY WAIT ALSO THE KAISER ONE IS MY FAV I WAS SOOOO SCARED TO INCLUDE THAT ONE I THOUGHT I’D BE CANCELLED FOR NOT TAKING ABUSE SERIOUSLY BUT IT WAS SO ISAGI AND KAISER like the “my mom’s hitting me i’ll text you when we’re done” “kk no worries” is PEAK kaisagi dynamic sorry not sorry anyways i’ll probably make more at some point because i was literally dying making them but it’ll probably be a bit before my meme stores a replenished enough for another post so that’ll be something that i don’t do again for a bit i think ☝🏻

OOH wait speaking of edits it’s been a while here are a couple more (that AREN’T of sae like the one from the prev paragraph)

NAGI AND RIN WE ALL CHEERED

christmas nagi (sound is fr me)

nanami edit which i’m only including because i need the sound as reference (i’m a nanami hater i think he’s goofy looking tbh) anyways i NEED someone to edit karasu to this sound it just would fit him SO WELL KSDHDH

glorious boyfriend nagi doing his thing i actually have SO many edits of literally the same scene saved it’s just so peak

okay wait actually speaking of audios i need characters to be edited to…idk who this guy is i literally just looked up the audio and picked the first video that came up LMAOO but imagine the audio from this american football player edit used in a ness edit if/when he gets hype panels FJDHHDS LIKE DO YOU SEE VISION…ABRACADABRA…BECAUSE HE’S THE MAGICIAN…anyways

ignore rin anyways KARASU AND SHIDOU MENTIONED

CHIGIRI CLUTCH AS USUAL

canon oaeu moment

this is the shidou and karasu dynamic TO ME LMAAOAO

sigh i’m still not over him in this episode he’s so dreamyyyy

#answered asks

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weareallstardustfallen · 3 years ago

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hello empiresblr i have watched pix's video and i am, once again, back with analysis, because this is just my life now. today's thesis:

pixl and fwhip are narrative foils.

there's a lot of similarities between them, both as characters in the narrative and their role with that and just in general. pixl even pointed out some of them today: they've got similar philosophies when it comes to making use of the corruption, and they're both the kind of extra that it takes to put elder guardians under sausage's base. they play off of each other really well, and it's very fun to see, but i'm getting off topic bc a good dynamic does not a narrative foil make.

their role in the narrative is really mirrored, especially in their character development. towards the beginning of the story, fwhip was one of the main antagonists, alongside sausage; that's obvious from all of their interactions during basically everything preceding the peace ravine. pixl, on the other hand, was quite firmly on the protagonist's (jimmy's) side, and that was also abundantly clear. it was fairly unambiguous that fwhip was an antagonist who was doing bad things, and pixl was a character who was unconditionally on the protagonist's side.

and then the story got complicated, and their dynamic got interesting; specifically, when it came to the dragon fight.

fwhip was, for what's basically the first time (iirc) acting as a heroic figure. he messed up by sending jimmy into the end, sure, but as soon as he realized that he started thinking about what he could do to make sure that the dragon didn't die, and immediately gave back the cod head and apologized, sincerely, to jimmy. it may have been somewhat caused by his own fear of xornoth, but regardless of his motives, he did everything right. if we look at who the protagonists seem to be for this arc; it's less clear than before, but i would say scott and shubble, and of course the anti-xornoth side of things more generally; he was aligned with the protagonists.

pixl, on the other hand, was working against the protagonists. he was trying to kill the dragon, and though he wasn't villainous in the way that Sausage and Joey were in that interaction, he was definitely acting in the interests of the main big bad. unintentionally, perhaps, but he was told that he was doing something that was wrong and he chose to ignore that. it's sort of similar to how fwhip was acting as an antagonist, except for their intent; pixl didn't know the consequences of what he was doing, and he was just trying to get home, but regardless the similarities are there.

like fwhip, pix had a moment of realization that killing the dragon was wrong, but his came after the dragon was already dead. he didn't have the chance to immediately backtrack and mitigate the mistakes he'd made, because it was a bit of a pandora's box situation; you can't shut that once it's open.

(also, unrelated to the thesis- i think it's very interesting how fwhip, of all people, is the one he called out for during his vision. mr riffs explain)

his reaction is different to fwhip's, though, in what i find to be a very interesting way! both of them share the fact that they are so protective of their citizens, and care a lot about keeping them safe- it's obvious with just about everything pixl's done since the dragon fight and how every action seems to somehow lead back to the good of pixandria, and fwhip is often worrying over and checking in on his villagers, like after he returns from the dragon fight, and after the test subject dream (thank you birch for the reminder on that one!) and both of their reactions lead back to that same protectiveness. but where fwhip's reaction is action- building up the empire to keep them safe- pixl's is overwhelming guilt. he acts, with the ghast farm and solidifying his alliances and working towards taking down sausage, but the core emotion that is driving him right now is guilt.

another point- their major mistakes in the dragon fight come down to what they know really well, and how in that moment, their knowledge fails them.

pixl is really, really good at knowing how the world works. in every interaction, he always seems to be the one who knows the specifics of the mechanics they need, and the one who is teaching the person he's talking to- he's very confident in his knowledge of what makes the world tick, and exactly how to utilize that. of course, this could come down to pixl as a player having a lot of knowledge of the game's mechanics, but i'd also point towards things like the vigil- pix is a very experienced character, as well as minecraft player.

and in the dragon fight? he knows he needs to get home, and get his allies home. he knows that to avoid dying in the void, the dragon needs to be killed. he knows how to kill the dragon. his logic leads him to a very clear conclusion, and one he's absolutely certain of- but he doesn't quite account for all the factors. he doesn't realize that xornoth is another concern, and he pays for it.

fwhip, on the other hand, seems to really get people. this is actually most clear in his first act interactions with jimmy- he's fantastic at knowing exactly what buttons to push, how to needle at him until he gets the reaction he wants. it carries over to his interactions with others, too, which is what makes him such a good manipulator. he knows what makes people tick, and how, if he so chooses, to exploit that.

and his fatal flaw in the dragon battle, just like pix's, is the fact that this knowledge isn't quite enough, or he's too certain of himself without knowing the consequences. he knew exactly what to do to send jimmy into the end- he was dead certain, and right, that jimmy would walk into a trap if he thought he could get the cod head back as a result. the problem was, well... he didn't think that jimmy would be dedicated enough to kill the dragon once he was there. he knew jimmy would take the bait; he didn't know he'd follow it that far.

a final note, which i think is probably less intentional (although you never know, they're very clever writers) but is a pretty bit of poetry- the vigil and the deepslate redstone sort of mimic each other. they're both something with a power that hasn't been or can't be quite explained, but is incredibly central to their empire and their character, and they both consider themselves sort of protectors or shepherds of it, in a sense. there is also a nice visual mirror there- a dark stone and a light stone, each full of lights.

conclusion: this story is so much fun to analyze and also gunpowder boys my beloved

#WHOOO that was a long one #pixlriffs #fwhip #empires smp #empiressmp #empiresmp #esmp #empiresblr #empires smp analysis #mcyt #rain chatter

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zephycluster · 3 years ago

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Precolonial HWS SEA Rant Post, feel free to ignore

If you're still reading, then you're probably looking for evidence or some juicy tidbits to throw back at me or to try and find dirt to cancel me, like typical Tumblr/Twitter. Go ahead, I don't really care.

First off, let me just say that If you like Precolonial South-East Asia AUs, feel free to keep enjoying them. I will respectfully support your passions from afar. This post is just to explain why I don't like it, especially the way they keep insisting/portraying PH in it.

Still here? Then let me begin.

Since the recent confirmation that the ASEAN Six Majors (Can't really say ASEAN 10 atm since it's still missing some people) Were completed and the Ma-Phil-Indo Trio was included, there has been a large surge in 'Precolonial' fanarts and portrayals of South East Asians, those three especially.

Even long, long before, circa 2010's ish, a rather well-known fan universe known as 'Maaf' dealt with their story and how their Author thought their intertwined histories went. Written by (my best guesstimate) an Indonesian writer who wants to explore the old, SEA bond.

When I first stumbled across Maaf (I was in Highschool at the time, around age 16-ish), I took a casual interest in it and tried to read it through. But, I will wholeheartedly admit that at the time, Pre-Colonial cultures of South-East Asia in general, let alone Philippine, did not really interest me that much. The focus (I think) was mostly on Indonesia, a country I didn't really know back then, and the liberal use of 'ancient' names and artwork just made it feel like an entirely Original Work (that needed a degree in History to really appreciate) and not something from Hetalia. I also completely disagreed with what I could gather was the story's portrayal of PH but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Do I hate 'Maaf'? No, I don't hate it. Do I wish I never came across it or that it didn't exist? Of course not. Just because I didn't enjoy it or appreciate it that well doesn't mean I wish any ill toward it, its fans, or its creator.

Fast forward to April 2021, the long awaited inclusion of South East Asia to the canon Hetalia verse. I was happy, the other fans were happy, all was good.

Then started the questionable fanarts, fan theories and fan pairings.

Especially the expansion of Precolonial! PH.

Let's go back to Maaf for one moment. From what I understood of Maaf, PH there was a character who once was like all the other South East Asian cultures, trading with them, all around being a nice family.

But all that changed when the Spaniards attacked, so cry the precolonial buffs. They destroyed everything, ransacked and marginalized the tribes, erased everything that PH was!

Did that happen? ABSOLUTELY. The Spaniards had this vision in mind that they must spread Christianity to all of the 'savage, unchristian heathens' of their realm. :V /s

But back up a second, back to PH's portrayal in Maaf. The way she (yeah, she) was portrayed there was that she was slowly losing her memories of being a 'true' South East Asian and grew more and more westernized in the process, like some sort of Culture-specific Alzheimer's or something.

Firstly, that is seriously depressing, and secondly, I just really don't see that happening.

Here's why.

Point 1: Even before Colonial Masters, Filipinos as a people cannot agree on anything.

I'll just begin this segment with a Philippine proverb that outlines what Filipinos call 'Crab Mentality' or 'Crab Bucket Mentality'.

"You don't need a lid for a container when you're keeping multiple crabs. If you keep at least two crabs together, they will just pull each other down instead of helping each other up."

I don't know how it goes with Indonesian or Malaysian history class, but what I know of my homeland, both pre- and post-colonial history, we were never really 'united' or 'together' in the sense that Indonesia and Malaysia were (from what I assume).

Let me pull up a somewhat related question on r/AskHistorians.

The reason I brought this up as it shows the reasons why, in my opinion, a single entity that is 'Precolonial Philippines-tan' is an impossibility.

The answers are long and would extend this already long post to stupid proportions, so I'll just quote relevant sentences. The link is here for those that wanna deep-dive into the answer.

"All this to say that there wasn't a name used for the entire Philippine islands before the Philippines that people now would agree to. An interesting comparison would be the Holy Roman Empire, which might also be characterized as disparate politico-geographic groups of relatively small size that had a history of relations between each other, but one thing they had that the Philippines did not was a common language, or at least a family of mostly mutually intelligible languages, so that the name Deutschland or Germany isn't terribly offensive to anyone. If you called the Philippines the 'Lupang-Tagalog' or even 'Lupang-Tao' the other ethnic groups would protest."

For those in need of translation, 'Lupang Tagalog' means 'Land of the Tagalogs' and 'Lupang Tao' means 'Land of People', specifically. The first one is already exclusive and offensive, as the Tagalog peoples are but one of many ethnicities here.

And for the 'Lupang Tagalog' suggestion specifically, it's even more offensive as they are the majority ethnicity (not by much, just around 28%) From this chart from Geography Now! It would basically be alienating everyone else in the 72% remainder that isn't 'Tagalog'.

And even 'Lupang Tao', the most generic name in a local language you can think of, would be met with contempt because the name itself is in the Tagalog language.

Just travelling between two individual island groups today would sometimes require a translator because the words can change very rapidly and very drastically. Here's a sample of some differences coming from a friend living in Visayas (in Red) vs. the words I know living in Luzon (In blue).

Ate vs. Manang = Older Sister

Ibon vs. Pispis = Bird

Tumawa vs. Kadlaw = To laugh

Takot vs. Hadlok = Fear

Kain vs. Kaon = To eat

Ngayon vs. Subong = Now, at this point in time

Iyak vs. Hibi/Gibi = to cry

Talampakan vs. Tiil = Foot (in Tagalog, the word retains its 'body part AND unit of measurement' meaning)

Tulog vs. Tuyo = to sleep (Tuyo in Tagalog is either a dried salted fish or 'to dry')

The kicker is that just like Tagalog is just one of many languages here, so too is the language my friend speaks. Ask an entirely new person, like someone from Mindanao, they'll probably have an entirely new set of words.

It's not just Luzon vs. Visayas vs. Mindanao, either. Here's a map listing some of the ethnic groups here.

Even the way they're written differs from location to location.

While we're on the subject of Island divisions, a casual skim across Twitter and Tumblr has shown that their Precolonial PH has been one of the following ancient civilizations: Tondo, Butuan, Sugbu, Namayan. There may have been others but that was what I have found.

Notice how even today, the posters of Precolonial PH can't seem to agree on what he's supposed to be? With Indonesia it's either Majapahit or Srivijaya and Malaysia it's usually Malacca iirc.

What is the big deal? Well, let's go back to the Ask Historians post. "Why didn't the Philippines ever change its name to remove the colonial mark that being named after a Spanish King has?" The answer: "If you suggested something dating to precolonial times, the other ethnic groups would protest."

Since we're on a roll with maps, let me bring this up.

As you can see, the precolonial PH posts have a reason to not be able to agree on one thing, as there is a LOT of options. Do you also see how THAT list is also split up?

It's split up into those aligned with China (Sinified), aligned with India (Indianized), aligned with the Middle East (Islamicized), and no alignment (Animist). Now, let's go back to the main suggestions for which Kingdom/Polity/Civilization/whatever Modern Philippines used to be.

If the Filipino peoples' couldn't agree on something as simple as WHAT TO CALL THE LAND THEY'RE LIVING ON, what more a living, breathing, walking, talking entity that is supposed to be a beacon of all of their 'unified' culture? ESPECIALLY if that entity used to be a currently existing Kingdom/Polity/Rajahnate/Sultanate/whatever.

Tondo? "Of course, always the damn Tagalogs. Tagalog this, Tagalog that. First the capital city, then the language,* THE REST OF US EXIST, YOU KNOW! What about us in Visayas? Mindanao?"

*The national language known as 'Filipino' is just standardized Tagalog*

Butuan? "Wait, you want Butuan to represent us? They're they only Indian-aligned city in the Islam-majority Mindanao! They're not even that many of them! I'm not gonna change my religion!"

Sugbu, the other name for the Rajahnate of Cebu on the map? Lemme bring back my Visayan friend again. According to her, she hails from the Hiligaynon part of Visayas.

"Sure :v and the other islands are what?

Chopped liver?

Not to mention the language and writing barrier helloooo"

And Namayan? Well. I'll let this pic speak for itself.

To summarize, no matter who you pick as Modern PH's previous identity, it will not end well nor be accepted by the other Kingdoms at the time.

"So where does that leave Modern PH, he had to have been ONE of them, right?"

Well, not really. He doesn't HAVE to be one of the Ancient Kingdoms that lasted till the modern day. I mean, predecessor representatives exist in Hetalia canon, after all. Like Modern Greece is a different character from Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt and Modern Egypt, heck even England and his brothers have a canon mother that was the rep before them.

Or you could even use the same logic that Germany does, in that each specific region has/had its own representative and that Modern!PH is just the 'mediator' between them (cause gawd does PH need one). There could be a Tondo, a Namayan, a Butuan, and a Sugbu, all arguing and this Proto-PH is just trying to make headway in making them all satisfied.

But, even after all this, there is another reason why I personally don't subscribe to the 'Precolonial PH' idea, and by tangential extension, the Indo x Phil pairing.

Point 2: Even without intending to, Precolonial Indo x Phil just comes off as patronizing

This second point is just ENTIRELY personal preference and barely has any facts to back it up.

Again, if you like the pairing and disagree with me, You do you. I will respectfully support you and your passions from a distance.

But for me, Indo being Phil's seme/bae/boyfriend and consistently bringing up precolonial times just comes off as patronizing.

Just one more time, I'd like to point out that I am NOT bashing Indonesia, its people or the subscribers of Indo x Phil. This is just how the pairing feels to ME specifically.

The way I see it, Indo x Phil as a pairing, especially if it extends back into precolonial times, reads the same way as a long-since married couple where the husband/wife CONSTANTLY brings up that ONE outing you had together, or that ONE prom night where you kissed while dancing, even it happened like 30 some-odd years ago and so much more happened since then.

Even in a platonic sense, It reads like two besties where one ALWAYS mentions stuff like 'Yeah but you looked so much cooler back in High School' or 'Back in Grade School you would've known that', or 'Remember back in Pre-school we did X? How could you forget that?'

How does one respond to the notion that no matter what you do now, it will never compare to a past you've already forgotten or barely remember? That the best version of 'you' is already long gone?

"That's because the westerners made you forget your culture! You gotta take it back!"

While it is true, yes, as a collective we barely remember the Kingdom that commissioned the Laguna Copperplate, or created the Banaue Rice Terraces, or created the millennia old bonds that we still share with Indonesia and Malaysia.

But to keep pushing the precolonial identity would be to neglect and cast aside the one REAL binding belief and culture that spans the entirety of these islands we call the Philippines.

We take on all the bad stuff that happens to us, conquer it, and make it our own. Be it natural disasters, foreign powers, or negative stereotypical mentalities.

Yes, we've forgotten the ancient kingdoms of old and are just now digging through the closet for those remnants of the past. Yes, the colonizers imposed that on us, and made us forget. But in the process we've also taken everything that they left behind, everything that they threw at us, and created something that can only come from us.

The lanterns that the Spaniards used to light the way to the morning masses they made us attend became our globally known symbol of Christmas. The junked vehicles that the Americans left behind in World War 2 are now rolling works of art that announce themselves loud and proud on the streets (for better or for worse). The iced dessert recipe that the Japanese forced us to learn while they were occupying the country is now so distinct and famous it is synonymous with us, and is so delicious even Italy has taken notice.

Even after all this? Even after all the 425-ish years total we have been under a foreign power, with all the progress we've made as a country, a people, and a nation, you would still imply our fragmented, jigsaw puzzle state of being in the past was better just because it was pure 'South East Asian' like everyone else?

We might not be as well put-together as Indonesia or Malaysia, but we made this melting pot of angry, leg-pulling, dogpiling, Native, Mestizo, Chinoy, and Fil-Am crabs OURS, damnit!

It's now 4:30 AM and I have work in 5 or so hours. I'll be going to sleep now.

#hws #hws philippines #precolonial philippines #hws theory #hetalia #hetalia world stars #hetalia world series #hetalia headcanons #aph #axis powers hetalia #aph philippines #hetalia philippines #aph hetalia

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kellyvela · 4 years ago

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Has GRRM ever said in any interview or on his blog that he hates Sansa's complete storyline after 4th season? I dont really follow all of his fan/media interactions but from what I can recall he has spoken abt how LF in books wont give sansa to ramsay or how noone had issue when Jeyne was given the Ramsay storyline in books etc. Asking this question to you bcs you rightly point out how ppl misunderstood his interviews/posts ( sansans/targ stans etc) & I cant recall him ever saying he 'hates' sansa's story in the later seasons of the show ( not s5 in particular but even s6 to s8).

Capclave 2013:

A change that has repercussions for season 4 is Marillion’s tongue removal from the first season. Martin said that the change was made (from an anonymous singer being the victim of a de-tonguing) because they wanted Joffrey to maim someone the audience would recognize. He believes this is an issue because of the part the singer plays in Sansa’s storyline, how he affects her interactions with others in the book, and he doesn’t believe another character will be fulfilling that role on Game of Thrones.

—GRRM talks season 4 & beyond - Winter is Coming - October 13, 2013

2014 Fan Reports about Capclave 2013 (*):

In a convention panel this year, George said on the record that he had no idea what they were doing with Sansa or where they’re taking her storyline, which now makes sense perhaps. He was not pleased when he was talking about it, so who knows what’s going to happen with her! Knowing GRRM, that could mean they’re going off the canon reservation, and/or that they’re going to be making a lot of shit up

I have notes I’ll be responding to (thanks!) but enough people commented about Sansa that I thought I’d share that tidbit, since it happened back in September iirc (was the same panel where he criticized the exclusion of Tyrell brothers)

—starkalypse - June 3, 2014

GRRM’s comments at capclave about Sansa (which I was in the third row for, for those asking about legitimacy) were among others during the panel that had a general theme of dissatisfaction with show changes. He was not in good spirits for that con and didn’t really have anything positive to say regarding the show. So take it with a grain of salt; there are deviations away from the books in the episodes he gets writers credit for, so maybe they’re doing something stupid or they really don’t have a gameplan!

—starkalypse - June 4, 2014

(*) These reports were posted in June 2014, during the airing of Game of Thrones Season 4, about Capclave 2013 that happened in October 2013.

Just after the rape episode:

How many children did Scarlett O’Hara have? Three, in the novel. One, in the movie. None, in real life: she was a fictional character, she never existed. The show is the show, the books are the books; two different tellings of the same story.

There have been differences between the novels and the television show since the first episode of season one. And for just as long, I have been talking about the butterfly effect. Small changes lead to larger changes lead to huge changes. HBO is more than forty hours into the impossible and demanding task of adapting my lengthy (extremely) and complex (exceedingly) novels, with their layers of plots and subplots, their twists and contradictions and unreliable narrators, viewpoint shifts and ambiguities, and a cast of characters in the hundreds.

There has seldom been any TV series as faithful to its source material, by and large (if you doubt that, talk to the Harry Dresden fans, or readers of the Sookie Stackhouse novels, or the fans of the original WALKING DEAD comic books)… but the longer the show goes on, the bigger the butterflies become. And now we have reached the point where the beat of butterfly wings is stirring up storms, like the one presently engulfing my email.

Prose and television have different strengths, different weaknesses, different requirements.

David and Dan and Bryan and HBO are trying to make the best television series that they can.

And over here I am trying to write the best novels that I can.

And yes, more and more, they differ. Two roads diverging in the dark of the woods, I suppose… but all of us are still intending that at the end we will arrive at the same place.

In the meantime, we hope that the readers and viewers both enjoy the journey. Or journeys, as the case may be. Sometimes butterflies grow into dragons.

—The Show, the Books - Not A Blog - May 18, 2015

Report about the last Game of Thrones Script that GRRM wrote:

No Wedding for Sansa and Ramsay: Without question, one of the most controversial changes the show made in trying to streamline the books was by slotting Sansa into the role of Ramsay’s wife and rape victim in Season 5. In the books, Ramsay marries and assaults Sansa’s best childhood friend, Jeyne Poole—who is being forced to impersonate Arya—instead. (You can actually see Jeyne briefly sitting next to Sansa in the show’s pilot.)

At the time Martin wrote this script, though, substituting Sansa for Jeyne was not yet the plan. Martin has Roose Bolton tell his bastard son: “We have a much better match in mind for you. A match to help House Bolton hold the north. Arya Stark.” It should be noted, however, that in Martin’s script, Sansa isn’t free from menace either. At his own wedding-day breakfast, Joffrey still threatens to rape the older Stark sister—once he’s “gotten Margaery with child.”)

—Game of Thrones: The Secrets of George R.R. Martin’s Final Script - Vanity Fair - December 7, 2018

A month before the Game of Throne S8 Finale:

Sansa’s story, in particular, has really deviated from the books. Ramsay Bolton — that marriage obviously was with a different character. When they start deviating like that, did you initially have any emotional reaction, even though you worked in Hollywood for many years yourself?

GRRM: Well, yeah — of course you have an emotional reaction. I mean, would I prefer they do it exactly the way I did it? Sure. But I’ve been on the other side of it, too. I’ve adapted work by other people, and I didn’t do it exactly the way they did it, so ….

Some of the deviation, of course, is because I’ve been so slow with these books. I really should’ve finished this thing four years ago — and if I had, maybe it would be telling a different story here. It’s two variations of the same story, or a similar story, and you get that whenever anything is adapted. The analogy I’ve often used is, to ask how many children did Scarlett O’Hara have? Do you know the answer to that?

I know it’s different in the book and the movie …

GRRM: Three children in the book, one by each husband. She had one child in the movie. And in real life, of course, Scarlett O’Hara had no children, because she never existed. Margaret Mitchell made her up. The book is there. You can pick it up and read Mitchell’s version of it, or you can see the movie and see David Selznick’s version of it. I think they’re both true to the spirit of the work, and hopefully that’s also true of Game of Thrones on one hand, and A Song of Ice and Fire on the other hand.

—George R.R. Martin on the Stark Sisters and Ending ‘Game of Thrones’ - RollingStone - April 22, 2019

James Hibberd’s Book:

GEORGE R. R. MARTIN: Jeyne Poole was included in the pilot—she’s shown giggling next to Sansa—but she’s never seen or referred to again. I actually wrote Jeyne into “The Pointy End,” my first script, when Arya killed the stableboy. I had some stuff with Jeyne running to Sansa being all hysterical and dialogue in the council chamber with Littlefinger saying, “Give her to me, I’ll make sure she doesn’t cause any trouble.” That was dropped.

DAVID BENIOFF: Sansa is a character we care about almost more than any other. We really wanted Sansa to play a major part in that season. If we were going to stay absolutely faithful to the book, it was going to be very hard to do that. There was a subplot we loved from the books, but it was a character not involved in the show.

GEORGE R. R. MARTIN: I was trying to set up Jeyne for her future role as the false Arya. The real Arya has escaped and is presumed dead. But this girl has been in Littlefinger’s control for years, and he’s been training her. She knows Winterfell, has the proper northern accent, and can pose as Arya. Who the hell knows what a little girl you met two years ago looks like? When you’re a lord visiting Winterfell, are you going to pay attention to the little kids running around? So she can pull off the impersonation. Not having Jeyne, they used Sansa for that. Is that better or worse? You can make your decision there. Oddly, I never got pushback for that in the book because nobody cared about Jeyne Poole that much. They care about Sansa.

—Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon: Game of Thrones and the Official Untold Story of the Epic Series by James Hibberd - October 6, 2020

GEORGE R. R. MARTIN: My Littlefinger would have never turned Sansa over to Ramsay. Never. He’s obsessed with her. Half the time he thinks she’s the daughter he never had—that he wishes he had, if he’d married Catelyn. And half the time he thinks she is Catelyn, and he wants her for himself. He’s not going to give her to somebody who would do bad things to her. That’s going to be very different in the books.

—Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon: Game of Thrones and the Official Untold Story of the Epic Series by James Hibberd - October 6, 2020

I hope it helps you.

Thanks for your message.

#sansa stark #grrm

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atlasira · 3 years ago

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So, I’ve been speaking to some ex Fusebox workers and a lot of them let me in on some scoop. None of the FB team worked on the seduction games, art for mm wasnt theres, and the writers were never allowed to write MLM or clear gay relationships. Hmm.

okay i actually have a lot to say on the mlm content in the season(s) so im gonna make a separate post about it bc >_> but as for now:

hearing the staff wasn’t given freedom to do all they wanted with the writing, artwork, and even representation is one of those “i didnt know that, but knowing it now, how did i not know” kinda things. because the more you think about it, the more sense it makes. the mlm content both in season 2 and in season 3 was clunky at best and uncomfortably seen as just smthg of a joke at worst.

and as for the artwork, it being used without permission also matches up. people joke about the LITG characters’ designs in matchmaker looking weird, but that was probably done on purpose. with tweaks the company can still claim it as theirs while not giving the original artists their due. “the characters arent the exact same as the ones those artists did so they don’t have any claim over them” is an excuse they can mostly likely use in court (iirc i’m not a lawyer).

ever since the end of season 2 FB has been slowly but surely changing into smthg ugly. even before hearing from the employees’ themselves, we just as players could tell smthg was up because of the writing in the game. and now with recent situations (s4 being removed and ignored, employees being laid off, etc.) it feels like things are coming to a head. i said it earlier as a kinda joking kinda not post, but i do genuinely think the way FB is moving now, not only will things not get better any time soon, i have a feeling LITG will be another interactive story app that goes under.

(edit: here’s my post about the mlm content)

#asks #anon #litg #love island the game

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agarthium · 4 years ago

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not to gush but speaking as someone who recently came to terms w physical disability that's been present since childhood (although i don't have BBD and welcome input from those who do), i'm rly happy that the ppl response for joker's writing did such an excellent job of portraying a physically disabled person?? like maybe it's just me but in thinking about it he's like, really well written in that respect. he's the best physically disabled (or maybe specifically mobility-impaired) character ik of in media that i've indulged in.

like, the first time shepard talk to him he expects you to be all weird towards him about the fact that he's disabled, and expects it to be obvious even though it's not really while he's sitting down doing his job (since it doesn't impair him in that respect). that's pretty realistic imo and says that he's probably dealt with a lot of ableism in his career, which makes even more sense in the context of him talking abt working his ass off in flight school because i bet being disabled he had to work at least twice as hard as his peers to be taken seriously anyway (both due to ableism and also due to the fact that meeting academic standards can be fucking hard as a physically disabled person, if you're even able to attend academia in the first place, that is).

and then in the 2nd and 3rd games, he gets an "improvement" from cerberus (i forget what he exactly explains) but his disability isn't "fixed." he's still visibly disabled/mobility-impaired and has a pretty significant limp despite being able to walk around now without nearly the same amount of risk as he did prior. i'm really happy the writers didn't choose to just have him "fixed" and be able to walk around normally (which would have been bad writing anyway since his condition is obvs a significant part of his character).

and then later in me3 they even have you catching him in a conversation with mordin about him trying to find a way to have sex with edi with respect to the fact he's physically impaired, which i rly like the inclusion of since a lot of people tend to desexualize physically disabled folks, either assuming we don't like sex or that we can't have it even if the reality isn't the case (which, being disabled and not liking or being able to have sex isn't a bad thing).

the only thing i could think to improve it are being able to romance joker yourself (listen...i love him) and seeing joker actually use mobility aids in casual moments of the games (he mentions using crutches in the first game iirc which would have been cool to see, or a wheelchair/powerchair, or a cane, etc.) ofc in my dream world my shepard is symptomatically hypermobile (like myself) and they swap stories about stupid times joints have dislocated or subluxed and then for joker stupid times that bones have fractured.

#mass effect #meta #jeff moreau #disability #chronic illness #op

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a-green-onion · 4 years ago

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The He*archate vs Umberto Eco’s “Ur-Fascism”

ok it looks like I haven’t already done this, so! A lot of fictional Evil Empires use the visuals of fascism (iirc the Star Wars original trilogy did this), but not all of them follow through on making the Empire substantially fascist in ideology and practice. Machineries of Empire certainly has fascist visual components, with its regiments of black-shirted soldiers. Umberto Eco, a writer who grew up in Italy under Mussolini, wrote an essay about growing up under that regime and his ideas about key features of fascist and fascist-like movements (I’ll link it in a reblog, I don’t want Tumblr eating this post. I really recommend it, it’s very accessible and well-written). I want to see how much the he*archate correlates with these. It’s easy to get caught up in all the flashy space battles and gory exotic tortures, but YHL is very into military history, and that’s one reason his despotic regimes work so well--they’re taken from real life.

This is horribly incomplete because in my reread I’m only about halfway through Ninefox Gambit, but...I wanna Post.

An important note to start: Eco uses “fascism”, the name for Italian political movement, to refer to a variety of different totalitarian regimes and philosophies, because “fascism had no quintessence. Fascism was a fuzzy totalitarianism, a collage of different philosophical and political ideas, a beehive of contradictions.” Further, “Fascism became an all-purpose term because one can eliminate from a fascist regime one or more features, and it will still be recognizable as fascist.” Thus, the common characteristics he lists are not features of every fascist movement, and are often features of non-fascist repressive movements. The he*archate does not have all these features, but I think it makes sense to analyze it as a fascist empire.

Without further ado:

1. The cult of tradition, including syncretic occultism. “As a consequence, there can be no advancement of learning. Truth has been already spelled out once and for all, and we can only keep interpreting its obscure message” (Eco).

The he*archate does not do this. As I pointed out in an earlier post, there are no foundational religious beliefs behind the High Calendar. No holy texts, no prophets, just a way of life, a set of practices, and endless heresies.

2. Rejection of modernism. “Even though Nazism was proud of its industrial achievements, its praise of modernism was only the surface of an ideology based upon Blood and Earth (Blut und Boden)” (Eco).

I don’t think the he*archate does this? I might be forgetting something though, feel free to chime in.

3. Action for action’s sake. (Eco)

Kel Kel Kel Kel Kel.

4. Inability to tolerate analysis. “Disagreement is treason.” (Eco)

Yeah that’s precisely how the High Calendar functions.

5. “Ur-Fascism grows up and seeks for consensus by exploiting and exacerbating the natural fear of difference. The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders.”

So, we don’t get to see much of the heptarchate in its earliest forms, and what we do see is in the third book, which I don’t remember super well. I think the he*archate does this, but it’s more obvious how in the context of Eco’s points 5 and 9.

6. “Derives from individual or social frustration” and features an “appeal to a frustrated middle class.”

Again, this talks more about how fascism begins than how it continues. The he*archate is an established, stable totalitarian empire, not a burgeoning movement (which is interesting because by rights this house of cards should have collapsed centuries ago). It would be interesting to look at how the hexarchate uses propaganda but uhhh iirc that’s mostly in the second and third books and I don’t remember them that well.

7. Nationalism, and the obsession with a plot, both as an outside and an inside threat.

Reflected in how the heretics (an inside plot) are iirc assumed to be aligned with the Hafn (an outside threat). See also point 9.

8. “The followers must feel humiliated by the ostentatious wealth and force of their enemies. [...] However, the followers must be convinced that they can overwhelm the enemies. Thus, by a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak. Fascist governments are condemned to lose wars because they are constitutionally incapable of objectively evaluating the force of the enemy.”

...I think the he*archate might win too many wars for this to be applicable?

9. “Pacifism is trafficking with the enemy [...] life is permanent warfare. This, however, brings about an Armageddon complex. Since enemies have to be defeated, there must be a final battle, after which the movement will have control of the world. But such a “final solution” implies a further era of peace, a Golden Age, which contradicts the principle of permanent war. No fascist leader has ever succeeded in solving this predicament.”

The he*archate absolutely does live in a state of permanent war, against heresy which is everywhere. The he*archate seems to have solved this predicament by achieving a placid, high standard of living for the majority of its citizenry, contingent upon those citizens’ complicity in the ritual torture of prisoners of this “war.” Thus, every citizen is both invested and involved in the fighting and encouraged to identify with its sacrifices, but also able to live in a true golden age. I’ve always thought about this aspect of the he*archate as in conversation with Ursula K. LeGuin’s short story “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” but that’s an essay for another day.

10. Contempt for the weak and popular elitism. “Every citizen belongs to the best people of the world, the members of the party are the best among the citizens, every citizen can (or ought to) become a member of the party. But there cannot be patricians without plebeians. In fact, the Leader, knowing that his power was not delegated to him democratically but was conquered by force, also knows that his force is based upon the weakness of the masses; they are so weak as to need and deserve a ruler. Since the group is hierarchically organized (according to a military model), every subordinate leader despises his own underlings, and each of them despises his inferiors. This reinforces the sense of mass elitism.”

This one isn’t an obvious component, but I think it’s present, especially looking at how the Kel talk about “crashhawks”. I’m going to keep a closer eye out for it as I reread.

Cheris is “un-Kel” because she cannot do this. One of the first things we see Cheris do is order her soldiers into a mildly heretical formation to keep them alive, and we see again and again how well she knows, respects, and cares for the people and servitors under her command.

On the flip side, Kujen is able to become the system’s architect precisely because he despises his inferiors, and sees everyone as an inferior. As we learn in the third book, this does not come naturally to him, but inducing this state of mind in himself is necessary for his success.

11. “Everybody is educated to become a hero. [...] This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death. [...] In non-fascist societies, the lay public is told that death is unpleasant but must be faced with dignity; believers are told that it is the painful way to reach a supernatural happiness. By contrast, the Ur-Fascist hero craves heroic death, advertised as the best reward for a heroic life. The Ur-Fascist hero is impatient to die. In his impatience, he more frequently sends other people to death.”

Kel Kel Kel Kel.

12. “Machismo (which implies both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality).”

The he*archate absolutely, emphatically does not do this. Plenty of gender equality, plenty of nonstandard sexual behavior.

But! There is another component to point 12. “Since even sex is a difficult game to play, the Ur-Fascist hero tends to play with weapons—doing so becomes an ersatz phallic exercise.” This might be relevant to the commonness of dueling as a form of entertainment, both as a participant and a spectator sport? I don’t think dueling is particularly eroticized but it’s certainly linked to exchanges of power.

13. Selective populism. “In a democracy, the citizens have individual rights, but the citizens in their entirety have a political impact only from a quantitative point of view—one follows the decisions of the majority. For Ur-Fascism, however, individuals as individuals have no rights, and the People is conceived as a quality, a monolithic entity expressing the Common Will. Since no large quantity of human beings can have a common will, the Leader pretends to be their interpreter. Having lost their power of delegation, citizens do not act; they are only called on to play the role of the People. Thus the People is only a theatrical fiction.”

Not a strong theme in MoE, but arguably, this is how the calendar operates: on the Will of the People, carefully channeled by the appropriate authorities.

Also, not strictly relevant, but everyone needs to see this line: “There is in our future a TV or Internet populism, in which the emotional response of a selected group of citizens can be presented and accepted as the Voice of the People.” Hm.

14. Newspeak. “All the Nazi or Fascist schoolbooks made use of an impoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning. But we must be ready to identify other kinds of Newspeak, even if they take the apparently innocent form of a popular talk show.”

Again, I’d like to take another look at the propaganda that gets sent out in later books to talk about this properly! The Kel make heavy internal use of euphemisms, but that’s not quite the same thing.

***

Anyway, that was fun, and I hope everyone learned something about how fascism emerges! I encourage you to read the entire essay, chew on its ideas a bit, think about if they apply to other fictional words and to real life.

#tooth speech #ninefox gambit buddy read #ninefox gambit spoilers #machineries of empire #machineries of empire spoilers #fascism cw #nazis cw #long post

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jensenknowsdeanbetterthanyou · 4 years ago

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1 Hello, I hope it's ok to reply to you about an old post. I think their small age gap was really clever, since Dean's misplaced guilt and responsibility add a lot of nuance to both him and his dynamic with Sam. And classic spn mostly handled that well iirc. The problem is that latter writers have no idea what the word nuance means and they seem to dislike Dean which is why we get such bad content overall sadly.

Hello, anon

Sorry for the slow reply, hopefully, you’ll see this.

You make an excellent point, it is kinda stereotypical for there to be a larger age difference between the main characters with these kinds of chosen one storylines, with the younger character always taking the special/chosen one role and then you have the older as the protector/spectator or sometimes there’s a gender difference where the special/chosen one is a female while the protector/spectator is the male.

For example, you have Luke and Han (where Han is I assume in his late 20s - early 30s whereas Luke is just a “kid” in his early 20s) or Big Trouble in Little China with an adult protector and a special/chosen one child (good example - terrible film) or for a classic example where the special one is female there’s The Fifth Element where Bruce Willis is just the tough, regular guy and Mila Jovovich is the special one who saves the world.

Now as you say, the lack of age difference between Dean and Sam adds a whole bunch of new layers to this somewhat overused trope, and it helped towards Dean becoming (I think) the show’s most sympathetic character because it’s canon that he has always had to be a hero, in a more everyday sense, since he was a small child, even before he began hunting and he out of the entire family ended up sacrificing the most - his childhood, his personhood, his education- all in the name of The Family Business.

And yes in those earlier seasons the writers took advantage and utilised this for the extra drama that would not be there otherwise. Something Wicked is a perfect example, they made the boys look similar in age during those flashbacks, they made it clear that wee!Dean was obviously as much of a child as Sam, so it was even more heartbreaking to see him have to give up food so his brother could eat, or carry a huge gun in his small hands.

So yes, I do appreciate the unique dynamic the lack of age difference brings, the only reason why I wrote this post is because of the more recent writers, with Dabb a particular offender since he started as early as s4 with After School Special.

As I said back then, over the years the writers have begun to simplify their dynamic, treating Dean like he's Sam’s actual parent or at least unquestionably Sam’s caretaker and therefore should carry all the responsibility and blame, with no discussion on how messed up that is because he IS and forever will be just a slightly older brother who was forced into this role. I will never be over Just My Imagination and resent any kind of praise that episode received. I also resent the more recent casting choices, where wee!Sam always looked like he’s about 5 years old with ridiculously big doe eyes (therefore actually looking more like wee!Dean if you think he looks anything like wee!Jensen) whereas not so wee!Dean looks twice his age because the actor IS twice the age, and this sort of casting always backs up the writers.

So my point was, if the writers are going to force the issue that Dean is the older protector, with no discussion on how it affects him because he’s just as young, then I wish they’d just gone for the stereotypical casting with a larger age gap from the beginning.

And then there’s the fact that older!Dean as the protector and younger!Sam as the “child” just doesn’t work so well these days because Jensen simply does not age at the same rate as Jared, so as a result we’ve ended up with Dean sometimes looking younger than Sam and YET we still have parent!Dean and child!Sam scenarios for example The Trials in s8, even though Sam is a grown man who looks the older of the two.

It kinda forces you to question their family dynamic/relationship, you can’t help but ask why is this middle-age man being babied by his younger-looking brother?

#replies #dean and sam #fandom opinions #my opinions #anti-supernatural writers #anti-andrew dabb #Anonymous

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sillyfudgemonkeys · 4 years ago

Note

this came up in a chat; is it possible the P5 team intentionally avoided keeping P5's lore in line with the rest of the series to avoid confusing new fans and also the new writers on the team? Especially after how much had happened in the spin offs and wanting P5 to really be its own thing like how P3 and 4 were their own things before the spin offs?

Hmmmm I....don’t....think so......tbh......... I mean it MIGHT but....I don’t think so....It’s interesting but....yeah...... (under the cut cause ya know I ramble~! ;w;)

I mean the fact that P5′s lore by itself, without the context of past games, is a flaming mess....again...by itself.....(quick/rushed ex: If your cognition changes then the world changes! And Futaba acknowledges that thing isn’t her mom so it should go-oh it’s not going? We’re....we’re fighting it? But cognition..... this doesn’t make any sense! ;w;) Really makes me feel that there was just not a lot of communication with the writers and editors. P5 iirc had a lot of veteran writers, it had 3 main scenario writers actually: the person who wrote P3 and one of the writers for P4 (P4 had two, P3 only had two because of FeMC’s route and that came later), some other guy (might’ve worked on previous games but first being a head writer), and Hashino (the first and only Persona game he had a part in writing instead of just directing).

But on top of that, they had other writes that I believe were also veterans, so I don’t think it’s new writers all around, I think it was them.......doing what they did with Ultimax.....having too many cooks making the soup (which was Ultimax’s undoing, but at least it made some sense lore wise........it was just the quality of the writing that was horrendous~! :D ;w; P5 it’s both, lore and quality)

There’s also the fact they have a lot of similarities and knowledge of previous games: Parallels of ripping off of P1/2/4, heavy references to P(1?)/2/3/4, ideas that even came up in spinoff games (like Haru’s half awakening, Labby experienced the same thing). I think they are very much aware of their old material and even has lore that is in line with the rest of the series: Shadow selves having Yellow eyes established in P4 (which those SS’s are different than P2′s shadows b4 any1 says anything 8U) and the half awakening as mentioned, hell in retrospect a lot of things that could be explained as cognition in P1-4 finally have a term they can use (ironically they keep those ideas simple compared to P5 trying to be cool and complex with them, but even if P5 botched it-it’s nice to have a darn term for P1-4 DX), Mental Shutdowns basically being Apathy Syndrome (and should be called AS to the public/in the game, the different term is only for the benefit of the player since we know the primary difference between the two is the cause but the effects are the exact same), Palaces basically being TV World dungeons....and so on. There’s more but I’ll keep the list short.

I don’t think they have to worry about feeling like their “own game” tbh, I do think it’s always hard with a new idea, but I don’t think they struggled with trying to make P5 it’s “own thing.” They were able to do it with P1/2/3/4 till now, I don’t see why they couldn’t with this one (which obvie they did). It’s not like they are making a continuation (original trilogy is a bit special but yeah) that’s only for spinoffs (and even then....barring Ultimax and maybe P5S, they try to act as if you might not have played the other games), so all they have to do is introduce or reintroduce terminology (like the half awakenings or shadow selves or just shadows/personas) as if it’s the person’s first time playing it and they’re good. 8U So the lore should be about as sturdy as the previous games but......yeah >.>

The only thing I can see the writer’s team avoid is the year date (still stupid but blame P5 taking so long to get out).....which they’ll have to confront at some point tbh unless they plan to skip a P3/4/5 Arena type game. Only thing I can see them doing is maybe making P5 an alt timeline like P2EP/P3/P4 and P2EP/P3P.....but considering Rise still being an idol.....it def seems like P5 is on P4′s timeline (even if we were to split hairs on the Adachi reference being a fictional drama and not a dramatization of Adachi’s crimes, Rise def wouldn’t still be an idol if not for P4.....because........remember she quit? yeah...) I mean they could still do it, it just means explaining a looooooooooooooooot of stuff. 8U And while it’d be cool multiverse wise, I feel it’d rob us of a Shadow Ops/IT vs PT showdown that should totally happen and if it doesn’t I’m suing Atlus for wasted potential. >8U

-ahem- but yeah......I think it’s more of too many cooks, esp since there’s still some seasoned cooks from previous games on the writing team......I have a list I’ve been working on, I’ll try to finish and publish it sometime so we can see just how many there are and how many worked on the other games

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lizzybeth1986 · 5 years ago

Text

Very Slow Thoughts on TRH Book 1 Chapter 8

• This chapter is meh. It's basically a full chapter of the writers taking the Walker ranch portion of the story, and stretching it like chewing gum at this point. I was pretty much sleepwalking through this one tbh.

• The only interesting bit in this was the Drake childhood scene, but because the initial scenes will always be slight buildup to the actual meat of the backstory - rather than the story itself - its placement in a chapter as dull as this one doesn't exactly do it any favours.

• To avoid seeing these posts on your dash, you can block the following tags: #trh quick thoughts, #trh qts, #trh qt reblogs, #long post

• Screenshot Credits:

Drake: @thefirstcourtesan and the HIMEME YouTube channel

Hana: The Abhirio YouTube channel

I'm sorry I don't have any Maxwell screenshots this time around, since I couldn't find it on YouTube, and I wasn't able to ask permission for screenshots on time. As soon as a video of his route is up on YouTube, I'll try adding the collages with his screenshots up. But I do have a tiny gist of what happens in certain portions of his playthrough, thanks to Tumblr, so I'll put those up as quotes.

• Title: Ride Like The Wind

Alternate Title: There Are Other Things My MC Could Be Riding...But Okay

• We begin with the sisters (yeah Leona and Bianca are back to being sisters now), worrying over how they'll get their cattle to the upcoming auction on time since every ranch hand they'd reached out for help pretty much declined.

• Not only is stubbornness a family trait, but so is the tendency to judge people at face value (I'm looking at you, Leona).

• There are a bunch of parallels between the Walker Ranch situation and the Beaumont house one in Book 1: both for the Regatta and the Beaumont Bash. Only difference is, the writers won't bother to expand much on Beaumont History but throw around every minute detail they can imagine for Drake's family (IIRC, even the mystery in Beaumont House in Book 1 was mostly Savannah related).

• Even in moments of dire need, Leona HAS to slip in snide remarks about people she barely knows.

Slight variation on the third option, if you're married to Drake. The other two highlight either the fact that the MC spent most of her life as a commoner and could think on her feet, and the second establishes that she has at least some riding experience. Leona pokes fun at you for both, but has the sense to not deliver much of her unwanted opinion for the third (besides stating they don't have much of a choice).

• The MC also highlights the benefit of bringing the others along: Hana and Liam have a lot of riding experience, Drake is 'capable' and 'outdoorsy' and for some reason Maxwell is known only for his enthusiasm (even though Beaumont House HAS horses and a stable and the Brothers Beaumont would have had SOME experience at the very least 🤷🏽‍♀ [Didn't the Beaumont Bash involve letting in a couple horses into the house? I doubt those horses would even be there if those two didn't know how to ride and manage them]).

Hands down my favourite line in this chapter (Liam's king voice one comes a close second). I really love this because in stories like TRR/D&D, there's always that divide between nobility vs commoner, aesthetics vs utility...and in dialogues like these you can really see that difference. It reminds me a little of one of my favourite scenes from D&D Book 1, where Briar looks at the MC's embroidery and wonders aloud how a pretty piece like this would be of any use to anyone.

• The suede is fine but there's too much going on with the rest of the outfit for me to really admire it. Our LIs obviously don't agree with me:

Drake and Liam have the same dialogue, Hana and Maxwell have different ones. (in Maxwell's he tells her he is ready to "serenade my amazingly dressed, darlin' wife").

• Everyone gets their horses (Bianca gives King Liam a gentler horse so she doesn't end up indirectly harming a king, and Leona gives Bertrand a rough horse on purpose. Because Bertrand has to be on his best behaviour he agrees despite his initial fears).

• Hmm. Chuck finds out about the lack of help via a rumour. Hmmmm. Bertrand gets as skittish as his horse until the MC and Bianca remind him that they might as well take all the help they need.

• So the task is to ensure that the group reaches the big fair on time (or before) so that the sisters have enough time to prepare for their auction. Since they're short of staff and have a lot of cattle, every minute counts.

• There are roughly 3 tests that can ensure we get there on time if we pass:

- help move a group of stubborn cows from the six dozen we're taking to the auction (you can either say giddyup or scream out silly idioms that they won't understand). If you don't say giddyup, Drake will say it for you.

- Move the herd of cows away from a mud patch on the way. Drake suggests a move he and Savannah used to do as kids called The Cyclone, where 1-2 people get in the way of the herd and the riders come from another side to steer them away. This ensures that they get the cows away from the mud patch. This one is the most time-sensitive of the three, because if we fail this one a lot of time gets spent in getting the cows that fell into the mud patch out of the muck and onto the path again.

- Get a cow wandering through the stream out of it safely using a lasso. The problem arises when the cow starts fidgeting while you're taking them back. Here is where your suede outfit has an advantage, because if you choose "grip the pommel with your hands" and almost fall off the horse, the sturdy outfit will ensure you're safe.

All of this results either in you getting the cattle to the auction way before time with an hour to spare, or so late that they reach after the auction itself has begun. In the second option, Leona is nervous about their chances but Bianca insists that they did better than they could have done alone.

• Some stuff that you learn/that happens on the way:

- Chuck calls Leona Miss Walker, so is Walker really Bianca's surname rather than Jackson's? Jackson is also referred to as Jackson Walker. So whose nickname was it initially?

- Wild West Nicknames:

* Maxwell can either be Mad Maxwell or Maxwell 'Calamity' Beaumont. Both nicknames from the MC speak of his tendency to veer towards chaos, or his boundless energy.

* Liam is simply called King Liam because PB is fucking lazy.

* Drake is called The Lone Ranger by Hana, and Hana is called Lucky Lee by Drake.

* The MC can choose her nickname - Cow Boss, Jewel of the Prairie and Wild [Surname]. The second is a nice callback to both one of Valtoria's House mottos (Jewel of the Earth) and a name that Maxwell gives to a caviar dish for the Beaumont Bash (Jewels of the Sea). Personally I think the second one is a better parallel since the Beaumont House situation was already a precursor to what is going on with the Walker Ranch.

Well yes Liam, on people.

That aside...Jesus Christ is this man adorable.

- Alright, so much as I can't stand Leona? At least she has a legitimate ax to grind with Cordonian monarchy. Why the hell is CHUCK being like her and acting all condescending?? The closest thing to a 'noble' he's been around was Savannah and they barely even had anything together if we go by what Savannah says. What is he, the shit stirrer of Walker Ranch?

I have two points to make about this:

1. Constantine...is a fucking asshole. Most of us knew that. I think TRH just seems to be expanding more on that.

2. Sooo...exactly what was Constantine like before the Nevrakis ppl did what they did coz at this point he sounds like an utter failure in every way imaginable. His wife seems to have serious issues with him at this point, he's too busy fighting to spend any time with his kids (well. at least the one the writers remember), has neglected his friend Hakim, doesn't have good political relations with anyone, screws over the King Guard who he gave a Guardian of the Realm honour to earlier, for saving his life...after the man has died.

3. Leona pretty much doesn't seem to care about anything else besides the money Bianca could have been bringing in. It's the main thing she mentions when we first meet her, and it's the front and center of what she's telling us now. What Bianca was going through, the fact that her kids were left behind in an environment that was seemingly not a good one for them - she hasn't mentioned this so far in any of her more obvious complaints towards the nobility. I mean, is that the first thing you think about when your sister returns to her maternal home after such a devastating tragedy? Really??

4. The other funny thing is...she complains about not getting compensation from the royalty yet forgets that for a whole year or more when Bianca and Leona were not there for her (not their fault obviously, since she likely never told them)...it was a noble family's money that supported Savannah and Bartie. The money of the same Bertrand Leona is now enjoying lording over. I guess she would only know this if she were actually giving her sister's children the time of day, and I have hardly seen her do so, so far.

• Once we reach the fair and the sisters have moved forward to where the auction is happening, we are allowed to check out the rest of the fair. Cue diamond scene!

• I kinda think of this as a Group-LI kind of diamond scene - one where you spend time with the characters, but not separately. In a usual group scene they interact and do stuff together before you get time alone with them, but here, the group interactions are minimal and you get time with each LI in different situations. If you are married to said LI, the dialogues are obviously more romantic.

Drake: Opts for bull riding. He's shocked at the number of waivers he has to sign before participating, has a tough time atop the bull BUT manages to stay on longer than the rest. The rest of the group cheers him on as he comes out victorious, and the MC can either be baffled at his daring, or try it out herself.

The MC who is Drake's wife can opt to kiss him just before he participates and tell him to be safe.

Maxwell: Asks us to join in a tandem pie eating competition with him. The MC and Maxwell can either easily win, or be disqualified for starting a pie fight. Either way, the experience is a blast.

As Maxwell's wife, you get to kiss him after you've won/gotten disqualified, and tell him how his ability to make you laugh and have fun is exactly why your marriage is so amazing. (as Maxwell puts it: "never a dull day and more pie eating contests than you'd expect").

Hana: Has found a dressage-trained horse, and is happily getting the horse to do a perfect figure-eight. What follows is a heartfelt conversation about what home means to her, all the possibilities she can now freely explore, and the changes she has experienced. You can either tell her about her tendency to be competitive (something she apparently did not know herself...uh, yeah, sure), or her love and loyalty towards her friends.

As Hana's wife, you can kiss her, tell her you're falling more and more in love with her each day, and Hana gets to tell you that for her, home is where you are.

Liam: Has learned how to make a lasso from a local at the fair. He speaks of how places like these make him feel like he perhaps may understand his own people better, even if these activities are not what the court would expect or approve of from a king. He can show a few rope tricks to the MC, like catching a chair with a lasso, or be 'captured' by the MC.

As Liam's wife, there's the opportunity to flirt either by using the lasso on Liam, or asking him to tie you up.

• Savannah gives an update from Bertrand on how the cattle drive has gone, and Drake brings along some Texas barbeque. The group love it, but the MC finds it a little too much on the spicier side (bold of you, team TRH, to think I can't handle the seasoning in Texas when I have numbed my tongue on bird's-eye chilis!).

• Gah. The paps again. But this time, we're prepared and able to put a positive spin on our trip to Texas (this is either a romantic getaway to ensure we conceive a child, supporting a local business, attending the wedding of a noble) and the paparazzo runs with it. Chuck comes to our 'rescue' a minute later and Savannah is very appreciative.

• Tensions continue brewing beneath the surface between Bertrand and Chuck. Chuck tries to bond with Bartie, who is naturally a friendly child, and Bertrand isn't able to hide how he feels about this. You get to either deflect the situation by telling Bertrand to show Bartie how a "Beaumont high-five" works, or by telling Chuck not to cut into Bartie's animal petting time.

• Savannah complains. Only improvement is that at least this time she mentions that she's spoken to Bertrand and even then he feels he has something to prove (gee, Savannah, I wonder why. It's not like your AUNT has anything to do with that, for sure!)

• "Whatever's going on with Bertrand, I hope he figures it out before our wedding". 'Because I sure as hell don't care', Savannah forgot to add. Like...the root of his current insecurities is right in front of her. Right in her family. Leona has been rubbing it in that he is a 'useless noble' ever since he's been here (even giving him a skittish horse on purpose) and not once has Savannah ever said a thing - either in front of Bertrand, or secretly to us in all the times she's been complaining about him. That's a...surprisingly cavalier attitude for someone getting married to this guy in a couple days.

• Seeing Bertrand, Savannah and Bartie as a family leads the MC and LI to talk about their own search for a family. Nowadays I generally tap over a scene like this because I personally find the MC having the option to be upset and sorry for herself about not being pregnant, a little annoying. I wouldn't under normal circumstances, considering what this book is about (in fact I would be quite happy) - but I think I'm allowed to feel sore over the fact that the MC unfairly gets the space to feel about this the way others can't. So yeah, for me scenes like these are not worth talking about.

• We're back at the ranch, where the group laughs and reminisces over the last trip some of them (Liam, Drake, Savannah) took to the ranch, and the strongest memory we here about is of Jackson, Drake's father who was once Constantine and Eleanor's security detail.

• In our second childhood diamond scene, we are taken back to their last visit to the ranch, where a rather unwell Eleanor is protected by Jackson, and where the children witness a fight between the king and queen. Drake and Jackson have a conversation in the stables later, where the father evades questions about Constantine and Eleanor from a very worried son, and instead chooses to ask him questions about his future. Here are the things I could glean from the scenes:

- Bianca doesn't get a younger sprite here even though she is present in the scene, and there's a chance that they're maybe saving that for a flashback scene for her (?)

- Eleanor's meant to appear unwell, tired and very unlike herself in this sequence - and even if we've just met her it's quite clear that something is off with her. She is shown looking weary a couple of times, and Jackson says "easy does it" at one point. She shows a lot more frustration towards Constantine than in the last scene, calling him out for his paranoia and asking him if his questions (about her wanting an alliance with Auvernal) are an order from the king rather than a request from her husband. Even Constantine points out that she is not herself.

- Other than Auvernal being her maternal home, what else do we know about her connections there? (besides that telling quote by Bradshaw about Eleanor always graciously welcoming them - which interestingly seems to leave out Constantine). I feel like the upcoming trip there next chapter is going to give us an insight into that.

- There is a heavy emphasis on Liam and Drake's friendship, and Drake's feeling of 'responsibility' towards Liam...which I think is kind of a pointer to the whole question of him returning to court after the assassination and staying with Liam when they're older. Even his conversation with Jackson has the latter mentioning that he would be of the most help if he keeps Liam and his parents happy during their time in the ranch.

- The ending itself shows a significant shift from Drake's attitude towards Liam in the first half (playful, friendly, wants Liam to be safe around his mother's home) to the last (protective, determined to cheer Liam up and more reflective). This scene is clearly a Drake scene through and through and the approach is very different from the first set of childhood scenes. This might be how childhood solo scenes will be dealt with from now on.

- Jackson also mentions not being able to speak openly about the problems between Constantine and Eleanor, and Liam tells us later on that he was kind of a confidant to both of them. Jackson also mentions in the stable scenes that he is responsible for keeping them alive but not for their personal problems. The perfect King Guard. Constantine is an ass for denying his family compensation (but also I wonder if there is more to that story the way they frame it. I hope they don't try to force another of those "it was for the good of Cordoniaaaaa" excuses the writers always keep ready for Constantine.

- If Olivia was so suspicious, why were they leaving her behind?

- There are significant differences between the Drake playthrough and other playthroughs in terms of certain scenes. One lies in the options little Drake can make with regards to his future. The third options in both playthroughs show indicators of his future. If present-day Drake is single in your playthrough, it will focus on his desire for a simpler life. If he is married now, then the flashback will include this:

The other two options are Drake speaking about wanting to be a King Guard like his dad, and wanting to stay Liam's best friend. The King Guard thing obviously doesn't happen, the second one happens because Liam almost died. The third one is more clearly a pointer to Drake's future.

- Another significant variation if you are married to Drake is that you have a conversation with him after the scene is over, about his thoughts on his child becoming an heir to the throne:

Reminds me of the conversation we had at the American bar. On the one hand, I like this because as an outsider in the court and someone close to the security detail at the time, he would think of Liam's life very differently. Kids are impressionable, and ostentatious shows of wealth in front of a kid who cannot afford that much can definitely sting.

- Hmm. Hmm. So Liam's sacrifices only become important to Drake when his own kid might face the same challenges? Until then he will yap about how much luckier Liam is and how everything revolves around Liam? How girls were after Liam and not him (yet the one girl who did like him, he eventually treated like trash)? How he thought of Liam as "leading the MC on" by spending time with her when they first met/during the social season? (that's an actual dialogue he says, in Book 3 Chapter 16). Added to this is the fact that Drake stayed in the palace for free, as Liam's friend, and hardly had to do much (he freely roams around the cities Liam has to visit for diplomatic reasons, he can opt out of court events when he wants, he doesn't even have to dress the way others do - even the MC that doesn't buy outfits has to wear a gown that represents her sponsors/duchy for official events). Now when it's convenient for Drake he chooses to think about the flip side? When that flip side should have been the most obvious to him, the Prince/King's best friend??

• The setup for the next chapter comes in the form of a letter from Auvernal, asking the MC to meet them. Well. It's not Texas, so I'll take it.

General Thoughts:

- I don't have a lot to say about this chapter. There's not much really. It's boring and bland and even the nice Drake childhood scene at the end can't save it.

- Bianca's little line about not wanting to harm a King on her ranch...I feel like part of it may be concern because Liam was after all her son's best friend, and part of it may be wariness because of Constantine? But a lot of this is definitely me reading too much into this one little line 😅

- It does have some decent callbacks though:

* Team TRH FINALLY remembers that Hana has done dressage, which was shown to us as far back as TRR Book 1 Chapter 13. Brava!

* The whole premise of a family struggling with money problems and us offering help and getting the job done, is very reminiscent of the pre-Beaumont Bash sequences where we were scrambling together appetizers, helping with cleaning and setting up the ballroom for the big event. It's kind of ironic because the Beaumonts were in this position once, and now at least 3 books later they are involved in helping the sisters get the cattle drive going.

* The pie fight in Maxwell's section of the diamond scene has some similarities to the food fight in the fondue party scene in Book 2.

* Hana's response to eating barbeque strongly resembles how she approaches eating sloppy joes in Book 1, at the beach party. Back there, she is nervous about sampling the food because it is messy, and here she initially asks about utensils to eat it with, to which Maxwell says "you have ten of them!" referring to her fingers.

* The Jewel nickname for the MC, which we've seen versions of before in Book 1 and Book 3.

* A lighter version of the MC-Drake conversation in the Drake x MC playthrough can be found in the American bar scene in Book 1, where he speaks about how his parents always tried to get him things for his birthday but Liam's parents always went many steps ahead simply because they could afford it.

* Drake being called the Lone Wolf by Hana, which was something the MC could opt to dub herself in her interview at the Derby in Book 1? (a bit of a stretch I know but I'm having fun with this okay 😂)

- Could a kind anon (or not-anon) tell me if there is a reference behind 'Lucky Lee'? In fact behind all the names except maybe the Lone Wolf one for Drake. I couldn't find any hehehe.

- Now that we're going to Auvernal, I think we'll find (paywalled) clues there that might tell us more about Eleanor. Those clues about her changed behaviour and physical condition must have been placed exactly here for a reason.

- Usually Chapters 9 or 10 have been chapters that dealt with some aspect of Constantine and his family (his abdication + news of his impending death in Book 1, discovery of his involvement in the conspiracy in Book 2, and his death in Book 3). So now would be the perfect time to discover the truth about Eleanor and her relationship with Constantine, and what was troubling her.

- One theory I have is that Eleanor's being slow-poisoned, and these may be symptoms of what she is having. @thefirstcourtesan mentioned that pregnancy could be a reason too, and it would be another connecting factor with the MC. One thing that I do feel a little certain about is that this trip to Texas may have been a little while before she died.

- How is it that the narrative has absolutely no memory of the fact that Leo was once heir to the throne? I can imagine him not being very close to Liam-Drake-Maxwell or being a teenager who didn't want to be around his father (esp if that father is acting the way Constantine does in these scenes)...but not even a reference? A mention? You have the time to draw an entire sprite of little Savannah who pretty much has very little to do with this part of the story (or any part of the overall story) but Leo isn't even mentioned? Sounds a little fishy to me.

- I possibly wouldn't have minded Savannah's complaining and lack of proactiveness with the Bertrand situation, if their entire storyline didn't revolve around her being this "perfect angel" Bertrand has to be worthy of, and Bertrand's mistakes repeatedly being pulled up while Savannah doesn't have to answer much for the occasions where she is irrational or hasn't made good decisions. What we're seeing now is just an extension of this particular storyline.

- You can tell that the original epilogue series was meant to revolve around the Walker Ranch coz whatever we're seeing here is probably way way more than we have seen of Cordonia so far. There are frantic attempts to tie this to the overall plotline, but within the larger picture it makes very little sense.

Like I hate the paparazzi in the series and even then I found myself agreeing when he pointed out that it was weird that half the Royal Council was roaming around Texas.

- Speaking of the Council I wonder what the other court ladies were doing while we were at the fair. Sleeping off those hangovers?

- There could be other childhood/flashback scenes coming up. We will need an adult perspective, so Bianca might get one. Olivia needs to be seen as important and relevant to the plot (plus Constantine was shitty to her too), so she will get one.

- I wonder why Bastien had such a loyalty and attachment to Queen Eleanor (as stated in Book 2 by Regina) if he actually wasn't that close to the royal couple then (Jackson seems to fulfill that role here). I'm pretty sure they're probably going to ignore/forget that little detail.

- Will Hana and Maxwell get flashback scenes? They should, and there are ways you could incorporate that even if they weren't involved as much. Maxwell's could (FINALLY) focus on what happened to his family fortunes and you could slip in a little something about the palace there. Hana's could focus on her family and also have Lorelai catch up on Cordonian news/talk to her Cordonian relatives. Liam needs a solo scene of his own too, because after this I'm pretty sure his life takes a turn for the worse. If Hana and Maxwell (but esp Hana) don't get one...that's going to be extremely disheartening because they deserve way more attention than what they're getting now. I'm sincerely hoping we see more of their childhood memories too.

- You know what I'm REALLY looking forward to? Writing TRR 1's Chapter 8 QT. I'm very fond of that chapter and have a whole bunch of points to make about it 😀

- Until the next chapter, everyone!

#long post #trh quick thoughts #trh qts #the royal heir #king liam #hana lee #maxwell beaumont #drake walker #bertrand beaumont #savannah walker

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infinitelytheheartexpands · 5 years ago

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Les Huguenots obv, Don Carlo, Trovatore, Eugene Onegin, Simon Boccanegra, Cav/Pag?

Alright, here we go:

Les Huguenots:

Setting-wise, I’m thinking either full-on period drama or modern present-day. (I mean, have you seen social media? People nowadays are often straight-up vicious.)

Also, little to no cuts, and I would play it straight (as in “no overarching external concept” straight, not “heterosexual” straight because there are definitely some characters who are not straight in the slightest) but I think there’s more than enough in the libretto to keep any director busy.

Lots of action, lots of spectacle, but at the same time going for an intimate focus on the principals, their relationships with each other, and where they stand in terms of society. No wonder this one’s so hard to pull off.

Another thing that’s hard is pulling off the “this massacre is pretty much inevitable” thing in the early acts, because there are little signs everywhere hidden within the ostensibly happy stuff that serious trouble is brewing. It’s necessary, though.

Finally, for Pete’s sake, Nevers will die onstage.

(Addendum that’s not super-related: apparently there was a production somewhere in Germany a few years back where Nevers was an artist and everyone else were either characters in his paintings or people commissioning his work. IIRC [I only read reviews, I couldn’t find any video] instead of dying, Nevers was just kinda there the whole last act and towards the end he started dumping red paint everywhere and the result was a painting of the Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre.)

Okay, after I wrote all that, I found out that apparently people are doing their modern-day cast picks, so mine are: John Osborn or Yosep Kang as Raoul, Rachel Willis-Sørensen as Valentine, Lisette Oropesa or Erin Morley as Marguerite, Nicolas Testé or Michele Pertusi as Marcel, Artur Rucinski as Nevers, Ying Fang or Karine Deshayes as Urbain, and Christian van Horn as Saint-Bris.

Don Carlo:

First things first: I couldn’t care less about whether it’s in French or Italian (both work fine IMO), but including the whole Fontainebleau act and the Lacrimosa is a must. (I’d also include the Eboli/Elisabetta mask switchoff scene.)

I would absolutely go period drama with it, but for sets and costumes, I’d take a little simpler and less elaborate/more abstract approach. Also definitely dark and moody (except for the first part of the courtyard at San Yuste scene).

EXTREMELY GAY IN ALL THE WAYS. That is all.

The more people in the chorus, the better, not just because grand opéra, but also because then it feels more overwhelming. The production should be overwhelming in just about every way, like getting-hit-by-a-wind-tunnel overwhelming.

The ending: just leave the ending alone. As much as I understand wanting it to be a more closed-off ending, I actually really like how cliffhanger-y the ending is. (I’d be willing to play the Fontainebleau act as a flashback Carlo’s having before Act II.)

Cast: Fabiano or Kaufmann, Harteros or Yoncheva, Furlanetto or Abdrazakov, Tezier or Keenlyside, Garanca or A-Rach, and Halfvarson because he’s the classic Grand Inquisitor.

Il trovatore:

Ooh, I really liked the McVicar idea of setting it during the Peninsular War, although I’d also love to hightail the plot to Italy and set it during the Risorgimento.

Manrico is the least interesting lead in the entire thing IMO, but I would find a way to make him interesting, not just the “oh he’s the tenor and the title role so we have to focus on him” deal.

I’d put a lot more focus onto both di Luna and Azucena, especially Azucena (there’s a reason why Verdi wanted her to be the title character). Maybe the production should progressively get more bizarre as it’s clear she’s more and more traumatized/insane by everything that’s happened.

I’d have Manrico die onstage, too.

Cast: not completely sure, maybe Lee, Radvanovsky, A-Rach, and Tezier or Rucinski (considering my first choice is no longer here...)

Simon Boccanegra:

Setting: Either keep it in very over-the-top period or (for a slightly more original idea) start the opera at the end of the Risorgimento movement and end it 25 years later.

Go big or go home on the sets and costumes with this one.

I’d like to stage the Prologue as Simon’s flashback, but otherwise play it completely straight. Also, cranking up the energy on the Simon/Amelia dynamic is a must.

(A very interesting not-playing-it-straight concept I’ve toyed with that could potentially go with the end-of-the-Risorgimento setting: make Simon Boccanegra a parallel to Verdi. That would also be incredibly sad, given that Verdi’s two kids died very young.)

Cast: Tezier (really my go-to current Verdi baritone), Rebeka or Yoncheva, Fabiano, Belosselskiy

Eugene Onegin:

Setting can be summed up as “Pushkin or Chekhov, take your pick.”

I’m envisioning a set that’s half “looks like a charcoal drawing or muted oil painting” and half minimalist, and really beautiful period costumes. Also, snow everywhere in Acts II and III (the current Met production setting the final scene in a snowstorm? Genius. However, I’d probably have the snow raging outside and the two leads raging inside. Related: huge windows for the final scene to see said snowstorm.)

Eugene Onegin is definitely bi and horribly regrets the duel.

I would make this production have a huge emphasis on writing: Onegin is the brooding author/hero, Tatyana is a writer of course, Lensky’s a poet... maybe they’re all writing their own part of the story?

Also, it’s cruel but I think it would make sense for Onegin to commit suicide at the end.

Cast: Kweicken, Mattei, or Rucinski; Corinne Winters; Michael Fabiano; Alexander Vinogradov

Cav/Pag:

I know one’s technically set in Sicily and one in Calabria, but because I tend to like multiple-bills more if there’s a dramatic throughline, I’d set both in the same place and try to connect the two operas’ characters somehow.

To me, both operas are about the personas people project versus who they really are- and God forbid that women don’t fit the perfect public persona and are instead genuine. As a result, I’d try to add a little theater to Cav and for the reverse effect (since Pag does take place on the Feast of the Assumption), a little bit of Catholic ritual (and guilt) to Pag.

I don’t think the aesthetic for the two operas should be so different: we’re talking the course of one day for both operas, except Pag both starts and ends later in the day (IIRC Cav starts at sunrise).

Cast: not really sure tbh, although I heard the Dutch National Opera apparently had a really nice cast for it recently (A-Rach and Ailyn Perez!)

To end: this is probably a good time to share my hot take that I like Cav more than Pag.

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