#THAT DO NOT LEAVE THE CENTRAL ARC OF THE STORY UNRESOLVED

[fictionadventurer]

I would like to publicly debate Mr. Andrew Peterson about his stance on endings please and thank you.

[dattebanasposts]

I created a structured template for a Naruto/Naruto: Shippuden fanfiction that will help ensure that your story flows well, stays true to the source material, and provides room for creativity.

Use as you please! Credit is appreciated!🩷

Naruto/Naruto: Shippuden Fanfiction Story Template

1. Story Concept and Theme

- **Main Premise**: What is the central concept of your fanfiction? (e.g., an alternative universe where Naruto was raised by his parents, a time travel plot, a new generation of shinobi, a redemption arc for a villain).

- **Core Themes**: (Friendship, sacrifice, revenge, redemption, love, loyalty, etc.)

- **Genre**: (Action, adventure, romance, angst, drama, mystery, comedy)

2. Setting & Timeline

- **Time Period**:

- *Naruto* (Pre-Shippuden)

- *Naruto Shippuden*

- Post-War/Next Generation

- Alternate Universe (AU) – if you're diverging from canon.

- **Main Locations**:

- Konohagakure (Hidden Leaf)

- Other Ninja Villages (e.g., Suna, Kiri, Kumo)

- Specific Locations (Forest of Death, Akatsuki base, training grounds)

- Custom locations (if applicable)

3. Characters

- **Protagonist(s)**:

- Name:

- Role in the story: (Main character, hero, anti-hero)

- Canon or Original Character (OC)?

- Motivation/Goal:

- Unique Abilities:

- **Supporting Characters**:

- Name:

- Role in the story: (Teammate, mentor, antagonist, love interest)

- Relationship with the protagonist:

- **Antagonist(s)**:

- Name:

- Role and Motivation: (Villain’s goal and reason behind their actions)

- Abilities/Powers:

- Connection to protagonist:

- **Team Dynamics**: If relevant, what’s the dynamic between the team members (tension, camaraderie, love triangle)?

- **Character Arcs**: How do the characters evolve over the course of the story?

4. Plot Structure

- **Opening/Introduction**:

- Where and how does the story begin? (Flashback, post-war, new mission?)

- What is the inciting incident that propels the protagonist into action?

- How does the world of *Naruto* impact the protagonist’s decisions?

- **Rising Action**:

- What challenges do the characters face? (Missions, personal struggles, encounters with enemies)

- Include any training arcs, mission assignments, or new jutsu discoveries.

- Are there any revelations about the protagonist’s past or hidden powers?

- **Climax**:

- The major turning point: What is the critical battle or moment of confrontation?

- How are the stakes raised for the protagonist and the antagonist?

- What critical decision does the protagonist make here?

- **Falling Action**:

- What are the consequences of the protagonist's actions in the climax?

- Are there any loose ends to tie up or unresolved character conflicts?

- **Resolution/Ending**:

- How does the story end? Is it a conclusive ending or does it leave room for sequels?

- What becomes of the protagonist? (Victory, redemption, sacrifice?)

- How does the world of *Naruto* change as a result of the story?

5. Subplots

- **Romantic Subplot**: If applicable, what romantic relationships are explored in the story?

- **Friendship/Teamwork**: How do the bonds between teammates or friends evolve?

- **Character’s Internal Struggles**: Does the protagonist or other characters face emotional or moral dilemmas?

- **Villain’s Arc**: If the antagonist has a significant development or backstory, detail how this subplot unfolds.

6. World-Building Details

- **Ninja Villages**: What’s happening politically or militarily within the villages? Is there tension between nations?

- **New Jutsu/Techniques**: Are there any new or custom jutsu that play a critical role?

- **Clans & Kekkei Genkai**: Do specific clans and their abilities (like the Uchiha, Hyuga, or Uzumaki) play a role?

- **Akatsuki/Otsutsuki**: If they are involved, what’s their objective in this story?

7. Power Progression & Battles

- **Training & Growth**: How does the protagonist or other characters grow in terms of power? (Learning new jutsu, unlocking kekkei genkai, gaining a new summoning contract)

- **Fight Sequences**: Plan out key battles and fight choreography.

- Who is involved?

- What is at stake?

- What strategies and jutsu are used?

- How does the fight reflect the characters' growth or struggles?

8. Relationships

- **Friendships**: Who are the protagonist’s closest allies? How do these bonds evolve?

- **Mentors**: Are there mentor-student dynamics? (e.g., Kakashi and Team 7, Jiraiya and Naruto)

- **Rivalries**: Does your protagonist have a rival (e.g., Naruto and Sasuke)? How does this rivalry shape the story?

9. Canon Divergence (if applicable)

- **Key Canon Events**: Which major *Naruto* events does your story follow or diverge from?

- **Altered History**: What’s different in your version of the *Naruto* world? (e.g., a character didn’t die, an event turned out differently)

- **How Divergence Affects Characters**: How do altered events impact the core characters’ fates?

10. Conflict & Resolution

- **Internal Conflict**: What personal issues does the protagonist struggle with? (e.g., self-doubt, loss of a loved one, moral dilemmas)

- **External Conflict**: Who or what is the main obstacle? (Villain, rival village, rogue ninja, Akatsuki)

- **Resolution of Conflicts**: How are these conflicts resolved? (Through battle, reconciliation, redemption, or sacrifice?)

11. Plot Twists & Reveals

- **Major Plot Twists**: Are there any shocking reveals? (Hidden identities, betrayals, long-lost relatives)

- **Villain’s True Plan**: Does the antagonist have a secret goal that is revealed later in the story?

- **Character Growth Revelation**: A moment when a character learns something critical that changes the direction of the story.

12. Final Thoughts

- **Foreshadowing/Sequel Setup**: Does your story hint at future developments or potential sequels?

- **Moral or Message**: What message or lesson do you want the reader to take away from your story?

This template provides a structured outline to guide the creation of a Naruto fanfiction while leaving enough flexibility for creativity, original plotlines, and character development.

[blueskittlesart]

So I have been reading you BotW/TotK analysis and I have gotta say that your insight is really impressive. I do have 2 points to make on the subject. Assuming that Calamity Ganon’s (the one that is fought in BotW) purpose is to draw attention to the underground (where Ganondorf’s corpse is) than that has some terrifying implications to how he operated in BotW. If there hero and Princess were successful in sealing away his calamity (which they were), than there is no way that someone like Zelda, who has both curiosity and altruism in spades would ever leave this problem unresolved. She would be determined to seek out the source of the calamity to make sure that no future generations would ever suffer as she and Link did, which in doing so would likely break the seal that was on Ganondorf. And if they failed to stop the calamity than Ganon wins and the calamity would destroy Hyrule (accomplishing his goals).

In regards to TotK, I do believe that Zelda will be physically incapacitated (either dead or in a stasis like state like in SwSd), though she will likely be involved spiritually as there is many ways she tan grow as a character (especially if there are flashbacks to the events 10,000 years ago, and even if she does die, resurrection is something that is present in Zelda so I doubt it will be a permanent death). I have a feeling that the ending will be bittersweet with both Link and Zelda surviving and perhaps breaking the curse of Demise. However I can see the Kingdom of Hyrule being annihilated beyond recovery, bringing additional meaning to “Tears of the Kingdom.”

Anyway love reading your thoughts and predictions of the game, makes the wait for May a lot more bearable.

yeah as to your first point that's exactly what i think is going to happen! because these games operate cyclically when predicting these plot points i'm constantly thinking about what has precedent, and there's a notable precedent in previous cycles for the princess's attempts at resolution to unintentionally lead to more problems for hyrule, forcing the princess to confront her own lack of agency and experience. I think that the calamity is playing into zelda's curiosity and moral compass specifically in beckoning her and link deeper under hyrule castle, knowing that she won't be able to resist trying to confront the problem once and for all but lacks the knowledge that might keep her from unleashing human ganon accidentally.

as for your second point, i sincerely doubt that death going to be zelda's fate in totk. call it optimism, but considering how she's been written up until now i can't see a way that death, even temporary death, would bring a satisfying or thematically cohesive end to her character arc. this is a girl we've seen do nothing but struggle her entire life. She is so, so, SO strong and stubborn and persistent that to cut her life short at seventeen (mentally. we're not getting into the 100 year gap here) just seems like an openly cruel treatment of a character so central to the game. A more cohesive end to her story, narratively, would be to allow her to live and heal when the game is finished, and i hope & believe that this is the direction totk will go. Zelda was the driving force for everything that happened in botw. she is the beginning and end of these games. to remove her from the final chapter completely would be a detriment to both her character and the game as a whole.

I also don't quite agree with the idea that the end of totk will be the complete destruction of hyrule. botw is, at its essence, a story about growth and healing. its characters convey this theme on a smaller scale, but more largely, botw shows us the ways in which hyrule grows and heals around destruction and calamity. to end its sequel with destruction and no hope of recovery is to trample over what made botw so impactful. in my perfect world, totk will end in much the same way as botw--with the promise that link, zelda, and all of hyrule will continue to grow and heal.

[testudoaubrei-blog]

Well, it’s not quite a master’s thesis, but this is (the first of) a series of posts on why Catra and Adora are the best love story in the history of kids TV animation and maybe the greatest love story in the history of TV. This may in some ways be faint praise - romance on TV is generally not very good compared with books or movies. Often it’s just some will they/won’t they sexual tension that is defused by getting characters together and re-heightened by breaking them up. TV is full of nearly shark jumping pointless dramas like Sam and Diane (Cheers, holy fuck am I dating myself, though that was technically before my time), Ross and Rachel (Friends, which was no Cheers) etc, but also some less annoying couples like Ben and Leslie (Parks and Rec) or Amy and Jake (Bk99) who are mostly just kind of cute and fun. Other shows, like the X-Files, teased viewers for years with unresolved sexual tension. In kids shows most romances are, appropriate for their target viewers, mild, sweet relationships based more on self-conscious flirting and blushing than on complex and conflicted feelings or deep passions - which is pretty realistic when the characters are young teens or even mid-teens. Some of these relationships are really well done - Finn and Flame Princess, Dipper and Pacifica (yeah I ship them), the early stages of Katara and Aang (before the showrunners imbued this childhood crush with cosmic significance), Steven and Connie, etc. Catra and Adora, though, are different. Their love story is not a side plot or a sub plot, it’s the heart of the show. It isn’t a childhood crush, it’s a very messy and passionate relationship between two young adults. She-Ra is an emotionally complex lesbian romance just as much as it is a thrilling action/adventure show. Everything about their relationship is baked into the show’s plot, its themes, hell even its musical score. The dramatic tension between Catra and Adora is not the result of stretching out a flirtation for ratings, but a coherent dramatic arc that runs through the entire show. As Noelle said, he made Catradora so central that execs couldn’t take it out without ruining the show. And the show is better for it. In this series of posts I’m going to try to show why, as well as showing why She-Ra is such a fantastic love story.

First off, let’s talk about how Catra and Adora’s character arcs are foils for each other, and how they come together and apart through the series. This is actually a post that I’ve been working on for a while but I keep summarizing the show rather than cutting to the chase, so I’m not going to recite many plot points so much as sketch out what’s going on with the dramatic structure at the time. But also, let’s talk about what each character’s arc is saying, and how they are commenting on each other. Spoiler alert: Catra’s arc is a subversion and critique of stories of empowerment through ruthless self-assertion and revenge, while Adora’s arc is a subversion and critique of chosen one narratives and stories of self-denial and self-transcendence.

When the show starts, Adora and Catra are shown as rivals and friends - their first scene starts the recurring motif of them reaching out for each other as one of them dangles above an abyss, as well as establishing their flirtatious banter and easy camaraderie. We quickly learn that these two young women plan to conquer the world together. These scenes and later flashbacks show Catra and Adora as deeply enmeshed in each others lives, to the point where neither of them (but especially Catra) have clear identities outside of one another. There is so much genuine love on both sides before Adora leaves, but also resentment, envy and fear, especially on Catra’s side, as well as a protectiveness on Adora’s side that deprives Catra of her autonomy. They are both being abused by Shadow Weaver - Catra physically  and emotionally, Adora emotionally. It wouldn’t be too much to say that Shadow Weaver holds Catra hostage to control Adora (this is why critiques that Adora abandoned Catra to be abused are actually kind of messed up, since they accept Shadow Weaver’s premise that Adora is responsible for what Shadow Weaver does to Catra). In addition, Catra and Adora actually see the world incredibly differently. Adora already sees the world in terms of right, wrong and her destiny to right wrongs - this is why it’s important for her  to accept the Horde’s obvious lies - she couldn’t keep living if she didn’t. Catra, on the other hand, sees the world solely in terms of survival and personal loyalty - everything for her is about preserving herself and the person she cares about - Adora.

Then, when Adora finds the sword, she leaves because it’s the right thing to do. Catra doesn’t even have a concept of ‘the right thing to do’ being something she should care about, or perhaps, something she can care about as an irredeemably evil, awful fuck-up. So at Thaymor neither one understands where the other is coming from, and Catra and Adora begin to part. This is the first turning point in their relationship. Adora chooses duty over what she desires, Catra chooses to protect herself (such as she sees it) and nurse her sense of betrayal and abandonment.

Their relationship until Promise is a kind of weird Frenemy thing that is fascinating to watch and sold me on the show. Neither one wants to fully admit to themselves that the other is now their enemy, neither one has given up on changing the other’s mind. Each is furious at the other, and desperate to see her again at the same time. There’s a lot of heartache and just as much sexual tension, especially at Princess Prom. Both of them come alive when they fight each other (more about that in a later post). But they’re already growing apart - Adora embracing her destiny as She-Ra, Catra rising in the ranks for the Horde. Adora now has the purpose she always wanted, plus other friends and a sense of being chosen to do something great, while Catra now has power - the means to protect herself from people like Shadow Weaver as well as the vindication she had always been denied, and even the opportunity to beat Shadow Weaver at her own game.

The next turning point is Promise. Holy fuck, this episode. It’s an episode that is even more heartbreaking after you’ve watched the show because you know just how much worse things are going to get, and yet, it’s a necessary part of both of their character arcs. Even through season 1 Catra and Adora had remained very much enmeshed in each others lives in an increasingly fucked up way as they grew apart but refused to turn away from each other. Even though they aren’t -exactly- a romantic couple (Adora doesn’t recognize and acknowledge her feelings until the last episode of Season 5), Season 1 of She-Ra is one of the worst breakups I have seen on TV. As I said in a couple of previous posts, this is the kind of shit that the Mountain Goats write songs about. Everything that was poisoning their love for each other even before episode 1 bubbles to the surface and combines with them fighting on opposite sides of the war to make a truly fucked up situation. In the end, it’s Catra that makes the choice to turn away from Adora. This isn’t a -good- decision. It’s spiteful, and destructive, and based on an outright deluded understanding of their relationship (inspired by Light Hope’s manipulations and her own issues), but it’s in some ways a necessary decision. Catra has been so wrapped up in Adora for so long that she isn’t going to be able to figure out who -she- is without cutting Adora out of her life. And the same is true of Adora.

But each of them do this in about the worst way possible. Catra embraces destruction, ambition, manipulation and outright cruelty, turning the tactics of her abusers against them and against everyone around her. She first triumphs over Shadow Weaver and manipulates Entrapta into trying to corrupt Etheria itself. Meanwhile Adora ‘lets go’ and commits herself to the self-denying mantle of She-Ra. Over the next several seasons, their respective paths will nearly lead both Catra and Adora to their deaths (in the Season 4 finale).

For the next season (counting season 2 and 3 as one) Catra and Adora are still closely linked, but as enemies. Still, there’s more than enough flirtation between them (that ‘Hey Catra’ in the first episode of Season 2 is something else), and especially on Adora’s side we see her hold back with Catra, and often take responsibility for the harm Catra inflicts, just like she had when they were kids. Yet they still drift apart - after facing off every other episode in Season 1, they spend less and less time on screen together through season 2 and 3. Catra continues her ascent to power and descent into villainy while Adora becomes more of a stressed out mess as she takes the fate of the world and the wellbeing of everyone she cares about on her admittedly broad shoulders. Catra’s one moment of vulnerability is rewarded by Shadow Weaver’s betrayal and her exile, then Catra triumphs in ruthless badass fashion through sheer desperation and aggression. In the Crimson Wastes, we see Catra at her most independent, and she almost seems happy. But once Adora shows up and Catra hears about Shadow Weaver, she’s sucked back into the worst of her resentments, and she makes very clear that being happy is less important to her than making sure Adora is miserable.

This changes everything. Catra completely breaks with reality and tries to kill Adora, herself and the world rather than lose to Adora and Shadow Weaver (I do think it’s important to remember that she does that after Shadow Weaver nearly kills her). Catra betrays everyone around her when she exiles Entrapta, threatens Scopria and lies to Hordak. Then she flips the switch. When Adora tries to fix things, Catra fights to her own death to make sure that the world disintegrates with her. For her part, Adora fights first to understand what is wrong with the world and then to fix it. Finally she tells Catra that destroying the world is her choice and she has to live with it, decks her, and then sees her off with a death glare once the portal is closed. With this, Adora writes Catra off even if, as she says later, she never never hated her. By doing that, Adora casts off the guilt that had dogged her and takes responsibility for her own life rather than someone else’s - this is actually a huge step for her, and one that will become more important in Season 4.

Season 4 is in many ways the nadir of their relationship. They only see each other once during the entire season, in Fluterrina, when Adora tries to blast Catra, much to the latter’s shock. There’s a sense in that scene that Catra is trying to have the same flirtatious enmity she used to have with Adora, and Adora is having none of it. Catra almost seems hurt by this, which is an early hint at how isolated Catra is beginning to feel. Catra spends the rest of the season at her highest and lowest. On the one hand she spends most of 12 episodes winning by every standard she has ever claimed to care about, besting Hordak himself in single combat and making herself co-ruler of the Horde and coming within a day’s march of ending the Rebellion. In many ways it is the ultimate empowerment fantasy - the abused young woman has defeated her abusers, showed up everyone who doubted her and forced everyone to respect her. But I think it’s striking that the show starts with her and Adora dreaming of conquering the world together and in Season 4 Catra nearly succeeds in conquering it alone, almost like she was trying to live out her old shared fantasy while proving she didn’t need her former best friend. 

At the same time, Catra is clearly miserable. She’s always been unhappy, but in Season 4 we see her completely isolated and lying to herself and everyone who will listen in a desperate attempt to justify her actions. Turning the tactics of Hordak and Shadow Weaver against them to gain power and then against Scorpia and Entrapta to maintain it haven’t vindicated Catra, they’ve made her more and more alone as Entrapta is exiled and Scorpia drifts away. Meanwhile Catra reaches out to Double Trouble, and her interactions with them reek of a kind of desperate desire to have someone in her life (the feeling of their interaction is of an unhealthy casual relationship where one partner becomes emotionally invested and the other takes advantage of that while denying the other the closeness they desire). As people leave her, one after the other, it becomes clearer and clearer that Catra doesn’t want power at all - she wants connection, friendship, love, and power is a very poor replacement. As I said in my long Catra rant, Season 4 is both her ‘Walter White as a Catgirl’ season and the beginning of her redemption. Everything comes to head when Sparkles destroys everything Catra has tried to achieve, Double Trouble delivers those harsh truths and Horde Prime shows up and makes it all irrelevant, just highlighting how futile all her struggles and sacrifices and crimes have been.

Meanwhile Adora spends Season 4 becoming her own her and her own woman. After telling off Catra, she grows more and more disillusioned with Light Hope and critical of Glimmer (though the latter has more than a shade of her old habit of taking responsibility for others - Adora’s development is not linear). She’s gained the courage and confidence to strike out her own path, not just follow a destiny. At the season’s end she once again breaks with her best friend to do what is right, and discards the destiny that she was being prepared for. But in this case she isn’t chasing one packaged destiny for another, instead she’s making her own choice and literally shattering the thing that she thought gave her life purpose. It’s badass, and heartbreaking, and along with decking Catra and jumping after Catra into the abyss (see below) it’s the perfect Adora moment.

In many ways Season 5 starts with Catra and Adora farther apart than they have ever been. They aren’t even enemies anymore, they’re completely out of each other’s lives. And both Catra and Adora are lost at the beginning of Season 5 - Catra is useless and alone on Prime’s ship, completely defeated despite ostensibly being on the winning side, and she goes through the motions of her normal plotting without any particular conviction and none of her normal flair. Meanwhile Adora is even more miserable and self-destructive than usual, throwing herself at Horde Bots and working herself until she drops of exhaustion. In a very real way they both stay lost until they have a chance to help the other. Catra takes responsibility for what she’s done and what she can do, saves Glimmer (at least partly for Adora’s sake), apologizes to Adora, and sacrifices herself. Adora only seems to come alive when she decides to turn around, face Prime, and save the cat. And when she does, Catra and Adora’s arcs, which had separated so completely in season 4, come crashing back together to end the series.

Adora during Save the Cat is such a contrast with the uncertain, hesitant and self-destructive wreck we’ve seen so far in Season 5. This is possibly her craziest plan in 3 years of mostly cazy plans, but she never wavers or questions herself. Even when Chipped Catra appears and we see Adora’s heart break while we watch, Adora doesn’t back down or relent. She keeps at it even as the tears stream down her face. She fights better trying to save Catra without She-Ra’s powers than she fought at the Battle of Bright Moon with them. Catra’s just about as desperate - we see her cry and plead, and now is probably as good a time to any to point out how amazing a job both VAs did throughout the show, but especially in this episode, and how good a job the board artists did. 

Seeing each other for the first time in a year, and only the second time since Catra blew everything up, Catra and Adora are probably the rawest and least restrained we’ve ever seen them. There’s barely any banter, no bravado, and no pretense that they are anything other than two women who desperately need each other (Prime doesn’t help with ‘You broke my heart’.) Then Catra is flung to her death, Adora jumps after her, breaks both her legs in the fall (we see her crawl to Catra, as though she couldn’t walk) and becomes the real She-Ra. It’s such a triumphant and deeply queer moment seeing a woman transformed into a warrior goddess to protect the woman she loves, and it’s the reason that, as dark as it is, Save the Cat is my Comfort Food episode.

Let’s not sleep on Taking Control, though. This episode is like a microcosm of what this show does best, especially the A plot with Catra and Adora. Catra’s reversion to lashing out at everyone and her refusal to be open to Adora shows just how much of a struggle this whole ‘being good and trying to connect to people’ thing is. Catra’s outburst gives Adora a chance to stand up for herself and refuse to be Catra’s punching bag, while also not trying to control her. Adora’s ultimatum gives Catra a chance to reach out to Adora (quite literally), and allow herself to be vulnerable. In this episode, we see just how far Catra and Adora have come since the messed up stew of their relationship in Season 1. Adora lets Catra be responsible for her own actions; Catra lets herself be vulnerable to Adora and takes responsibility for her actions. They’re both better people and better friends and better partners than they were, and the show has shown this in a strikingly nuanced and realistic way. 

The important thing to note in the next few episodes of Season 5 isn’t just how much closer Catra and Adora get to each other and how much they flirt (So much. So much, y’all) but just how -happy- they are. We see both of them transformed in the other’s presence. Basically, since they’ve parted, both Catra and Adora have been defined in no small part by how miserable they often are. They have both had their triumphs and their lighter moments, but there’s been a sense of melancholy dogging both Catra and Adora since episode 1. And now that they’re together again, that lifts, somewhat. Catra’s verbal barbs have lost their venom, and she can openly show how much she cares for Adora and even Bow and Glimmer. She’s still herself - snarky, cynical, somewhat devious - but she’s not engaged in a self-destructive zero-sum struggle with everyone around her. Meanwhile Adora has spent 4 seasons being a neurotic and sometimes nearly joyless mess who takes responsibility for everything and often doesn’t let herself enjoy anything other than the odd BFS group hug (exceptions include trying to uh...impress Huntara and reveling with the butterfly ladies of Elberron in Flutterina).  Around Catra, though, she’s a cocky, swaggering jock who gives as good as she gets. It’s a side of Adora we’ve only seen hints of before, and one that’s so much more confident and joyful even as the world is ending around her. Apart, Catra had tried to protect and vindicate herself with power and conquest, while Adora had tried to forget herself in duty and sacrifice. Together, they can be themselves again. This dynamic is crucial to the show’s portrayal of Catra and Adora’s romance because it doesn’t just show how much they love each other, but how they’re -good- for each other now that they’ve grown as people, and that they are so much better than they were when they were apart.

Until Shadow Weaver shows up. Their old abuser reintroduces tensions but even then things are different than they were. Now Catra isn’t just resentful of how Shadow Weaver prefers Adora - she’s  protective of Adora, which is clearest in Failsafe when she calls Shadow Weaver out for being willing to sacrifice Adora. And while Adora takes the Failsafe, it isn’t to follow her destiny or because she has a death wish - it’s because she loves her friends, and she is the only one who has any hope of doing this and living (though Catra’s suggestion that Shadow Weaver take it is a good one). And finally, when Catra leaves Adora, it isn’t because she hates Adora, nor, despite what she says, is it because she really thinks that Adora chose Shadow Weaver. At least, not exactly. It’s because Catra loves Adora, and can admit that to herself, and can’t stay around and watch the woman she loves sacrifice herself rather than choosing Catra. Before Catra leaves, she asks Adora ‘What do you want?” It’s a question that echoes Shadow Weaver’s speech in Episode 1: ‘isn’t this what you always wanted since you could want anything?’ As much as Adora has grown as a person, and defined herself and stood up for what she thinks is right, she still has never answered that question - it’s never been ‘what do I want’ but ‘what do I have to do?’ and that’s how Adora answers Catra’s question. This is Adora’s last gasp as a self-transcending hero, letting go of what she wants (not that she ever dared articulate what that was) in order to do what must be done. And it nearly kills her and dooms the universe, because Adora can’t be the hero that she needs to be by being anyone less than herself.

But it’s losing Catra that inspires Adora to tell off Shadow Weaver for good (not that she’d ever really warmed to her after season 1). And it’s love for Adora that inspires Catra to stand up to Shadow Weaver and demand that she do the right thing. In both cases, Catra and Adora aren’t just standing up to their abuser, but holding her to account for the harm she’s caused, and it’s the love that they have for each other that inspires them to do this. In Catra’s case in particular her refusal to let Shadow Weaver weasel out of finding Adora is a much greater triumph over Shadow Weaver than beating her up and breaking her mask in Season 1 - it’s proof not so much to Shadow Weaver but to Catra herself that Catra really is better than this and that she deserves better than this. It’s not turning her abuser’s tactics against her, but truly holding her to a moral standard and demanding that she do the right thing.

And then there’s Catra and Adora together at the heart. Catra has already come back for Adora and stayed to the end, choosing to die with her even if she can’t share a life together (not out of some death wish, but because Adora needs her). And Adora, who’s been avoiding answering the question for three fucking years, finally let’s herself want Catra when Catra finally confesses her love (breaking the last of her self-protective shields) and asks Adora to stay -for her-. And by admitting what she wants, Adora can truly be at peace with herself and be the hero she needs to be, lesbianism saves the universe, The End.

So anyway, that’s how Catra and Adora’s stories are woven together and how they compliment and comment on each other. Narrativiely, Adora and Catra start together, come apart, find something of themselves, and truly find themselves and each other when they are reunited. Thematically, they are critiquing seemingly opposing narrative tropes - empowerment narratives and narratives of self sacrifice. But by showing the flaws in both types of story and showing how neither self-seeking empowerment nor self-negating self sacrifice can actually make us happy, She-Ra asks and answers more profound questions than most prestige dramas for adults do. I’ll get into how the show sells the idea that the power of love can bring us happiness (and save the world) in a future post. But next up, I’m going to celebrate just how much Catra and Adora’s relationship revels in ambiguity, complexity and contradiction and so tells a grown up love story in a kid’s show.

[nightingaletrash]

How is Blackwood? I took ESO off for the Skyrim chapter because I found it pretty dull, but thinking of going back since my favourite assassin is in it. How does Blackwood compare to other chapters?

Overall I enjoyed the chapter, but I think I'll need to do another pass of it with another character before I really know where it sits in my rankings. And that'll be a while because I'm on a Dragon Age kick rn.

Elam content-wise, it was definitely great to see him again. I actually quite enjoyed how they handled the Dark Brotherhood content in this chapter and how they acknowledged a Brotherhood character, though there was a moment I think that the Vestige was confusing Morag Tong rules for Brotherhood ones at one point XD

Regardless, it was nice to see Brotherhood Vestiges getting acknowledged. There are conversations that, while similar in how they move the story forwards, are written differently between Brotherhood and non-Brotherhood characters with different tones and indicating different relationships between the Vestige and certain characters, namely Elam and Eveli.

I would just say to not expect Elam to be the most consistent participant in events. He's present and is most active in the portion of the story most relevant to him, and after that he provides more of a behind the scenes support role, sometimes popping up with information you might find useful. And if you ask him to come along, his response is ‘nope you’ll not catch me with your protagonist bs.’

Overall his inclusion was a pleasant surprise without being super jarring, and ZOS actually did a pretty good job are handling his conversations with a Brotherhood Vestige vs a non-Brotherhood Vestige. I liked how he was trying to stay out of the ‘saving the world’ stuff because it’s not part of his job, but he still tries to help the Vestige out here and there,

Now while I'll admit to being really curious about where the story is going, in some ways Blackwood almost felt... incomplete? Not unfinished per say, just unresolved. Which makes sense because Q4 and all, but previous chapters tended to resolve a central plot thread - such as Euraxia's occupation in Elsweyr and the return of Anequina’s rightful Queen - while Blackwood doesn't feel like it has. There’s still too many loose threads to feel like we’re close to resolving anything.

The best way to put it would be from the perspective of the Triad Arc. Morrowind established the storyline very effectively without leaving you feeling like you’d barely gotten started - you saved Vivec’s life and prevented the fall of Baar Dau, which preserved Morrowind’s safety for the time being, but then we’re told that this is just part of something bigger and it’s far from over. You feel accomplished, but know there’s more to go. Clockwork City then built upon what we learned at the end of Morrowind about the Triad, and even when that was over, you know you’re still not done because events have yet to reach their final stages, which we then witness in Summerset. So each DLC had it’s core story it was telling, wrapped that story, and left enough to feed into the next part of the story. Greymoor also did that pretty successfully with Markarth, giving you a central threat to deal with while still giving you the running threads to the next part of the story and the epilogue.

And I’ve gotta admit, after the villain we had in Rada al-Saran, Blackwood’s major antagonist pales in comparison. I really liked Rada, I found him to be a very compelling character, and Blackwood’s villain is kinda meh in comparison. They’re a lot of noise and show while lacking in substence. It’s a bit of a shame tbh, but Rada was developed to be all caught up in the backstory of a fan favourite character, and needed to provide a lot of character depth to get people invested in that story and that relationship while Blackwood’s villain is more standalone. So they might not be a big let down, just don’t expect them to be groundbreaking.

The DLC's side-content is pretty fun though. There's a bunch of returning characters, some new faces, and a good ol' Oblivion reference you can come across as a random encounter. And completing certain side quests will allow you to call for the appropriate backup for the chapter's climax which is a nice touch that I always very much enjoy in video games. More games should let you call in favours and make use of everyone available to you. I’d like to see more of it in future content.

tldr; I enjoyed the new chapter overall. There’s a fun mix of characters and stories going on and the environments are gorgeous especially as Imperial architecture transitions into Argonian, and the Doomvaults are really cool to explore as well. I just worry that ZOS is counting on the Q4 DLC to help carry Blackwood’s story. I think the chapters work best when relatively self-contained while having threads that can run into the next DLC, so you can feel accomplished at the end of the main story while knowing there’s more to pursue. Blackwood is relying a little too much on running over into Q4 I think.

[fandomoverflow]

Kairi’s Grand Adventure: An Analysis of Kairi’s Character Arc

It’s a common complaint in the Kingdom Hearts fandom that series director Testuya Nomura doesn’t seem to know what to do with Kairi. Despite giving her a Keyblade in Kingdom Hearts II, he hasn’t done anything significant with her in the story since then. We all thought that Kingdom Hearts III was going to be her time to shine, but that ended with her getting captured and apparently killed by the bad guys right after her first time as a party member. Sora and Riku have been growing and evolving over the course of the saga, but Kairi has for the most part stayed the same. 

@blowingoffsteam2 pointed out parallels between Kairi’s scenes with Sora in Kingdom Hearts III and the events of the 100 Acre Wood in the same game. Pooh has sensed that something about his connection to Sora has changed, and tries to hold onto it while Sora is there helping to harvest Rabbit’s garden. Kairi senses that something about her connection with Sora has changed and tries to hold onto it by sharing a paopu fruit with him. While the parallels make sense when you look at them, it also seemed like something certain subsets of fandom would easily twist out of context to argue that people who noticed the parallels were “infantilizing Kairi” or some other BS accusation. Plus, I couldn’t for the life of me understand why Nomura chose Pooh specifically. 

But then I was watching a video on YouTube by Six Degrees of Kylo Ren Podcast analyzing Disney’s live action film Nutcracker and the Four Realms, and they mentioned something that got me thinking. They talked about how in a coming of age narrative, leaving the romantic tension between the two leads unresolved so the protagonist could go home and dance with her father was the storytelling equivalent of cutting her coming of age short to keep her trapped in childhood. That was when it hit me: 

From the very beginning, one of the biggest aspects of Kairi’s character is her fear of change. She expresses concern over Riku having changed the night before Destiny Islands is consumed, and of course we all remember how she tells Sora “don’t ever change.” And when you think about her backstory, it’s no wonder that she’d be afraid of change. 

Her home world was conquered by Maleficent when she was four, and Xehanort proceeded to fling her out into the universe hoping her powers as a Princess of Heart will lead him to a Keyblade Wielder. She then washed up on Destiny Islands with no memories of where she came from. Of course she’s going to be reluctant to do anything to challenge the status quo. Her life on the islands and friendship with Sora and Riku is all she knows. I wouldn’t be surprised if she wasn’t actually on board with the whole “leave on the raft and explore the worlds” plan from Kingdom Hearts 1 and only went along with it because she didn’t want to be left behind. 

So when I started thinking about that “trapped in childhood” comment, it suddenly hit me why Testuya Nomura chose not to give her more to do in the larger narrative of the Dark Seeker saga. While Sora and Riku are out exploring the universe and growing up, Kairi is metaphorically stuck in childhood. Kairi is actively trying to hold on to the past, staying on the islands where everything is comfortable and familiar, sheltered from all the great cosmic battles her friends are fighting out in the wider universe. 

The reason that the games have explored her past so little beyond her cameo in Birth by Sleep is that in contrast to Sora’s willingness to take on the burden of other people’s pain, for most of the Dark Seeker saga Kairi isn’t ready to handle the pain of her own past. And she won’t be ready to handle that burden until she accepts that the idyllic life she has on the islands with Sora and Riku won’t last forever. 

While it may frustrate the fandom that she hasn’t really done much, there’s a reason that Kairi’s arc hasn’t gotten as much spotlight in the games compared to Riku and Sora’s growth, and it has to do with another Disney parallel. 

In Kingdom Hearts 1, her body ends up in Neverland after the destruction of the Destiny Islands and is kept in a cell along with Wendy Darling, who Hook and Riku initially believe is the last Princess of Heart. The central narrative of the film Peter Pan is that Wendy starts out afraid of growing up but comes to accept that it’s not a bad thing. Part of what helps her come to this development is seeing firsthand what the consequences of not growing up are. 

For Wendy, she sees the pettiness and immaturity of Never Land’s residents and realizes that staying young forever isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be. For Kairi, staying behind on the Destiny Islands means that Sora and Riku continue to leave her behind when they go off on their adventures while she stays the same. 

When I thought about the parallels between Pooh and Kairi in Kingdom Hearts III, I realized that those parallels could be accurately described through the lens of a particular Pooh film. In the 1996 Direct-to-Video movie Pooh’s Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin, Christopher Robin has gone off to school and left a note explaining to Pooh where he is. Thanks to Owl misreading the note, the stuffed animals of the 100 Acre Wood believe that Christopher Robin has been kidnapped by a monster and taken to an ominous cave known as Skull. With a map provided by Owl, Pooh, Piglet, Rabbit, Tigger, and Eeyore set off to rescue their friend. 

While each iteration of the 100 Acre Wood in the Kingdom Hearts franchise includes the iconic locations visible in almost every Pooh film, Pooh’s Grand Adventure is the only specific movie in the Winnie the Pooh franchise to be referenced in a Kingdom Hearts game. The storybook map in the Kingdom Hearts II visits to 100 Acre Wood confirm that the Spooky Cave area is the same Skull cave featured in this movie.  

The film begins with Christopher Robin attempting to break the news to Pooh that he’s going off to school and won’t be able to spend all of his time in the 100 Acre Wood anymore, but Pooh continues to brush over his attempts to bring up the subject. The film’s opening musical number, Forever And Ever, hammers the point home that the idea of things changing and the status quo not being the same forever doesn’t even register as a concept in Pooh’s mind. The rest of the movie centers on Pooh coming to accept that things change but that he and Christopher Robin will always be connected. The words “even if we are apart, I’ll always be with you” are central to the movie’s themes of growing up and accepting change. 

When you think about Kairi’s character arc as a parallel to the plot of Pooh’s Grand Adventure in addition to the Wendy parallels, it solidified that Kairi’s arc over the course of the Xehanort Saga has been about her letting go of her fear of change and accepting that things won’t stay the same forever, and that it’s a normal part of growing up. 

In KH1, we see Kairi trying to stop things from changing, or even deny the possibility of change, when she talks about how Riku has changed and tells Sora not to change. While Riku and Sora were out gathering supplies for the raft, Kairi was making a charm for good luck to ensure that they would return to the islands safely. And when she gives the charm to Sora late in the game, she makes him promise to bring it back to her.  

Kingdom Hearts 2 shows her beginning to acknowledge that things are changing and she can’t stop them. She begins to realize that waiting for Sora and Riku to come isn’t good enough for her, but she doesn’t actively seek out a way to leave the islands until Riku covertly presents her with one in the form of a Dark Corridor to Twilight Town. Once she met up with Hayner, Pence, and Olette, her plan went back to “wait for Sora to come back”. 

By the end of Kingdom Hearts 3, Kairi has finally accepted that things are changing. Regardless of what shippers assume, the context of the game’s themes frame Kairi sharing Sora a paopu fruit as a promise that even though things have changed between them, they will always be friends. One of the major themes of Kingdom Hearts 3 was accepting separation and letting go. While this certainly applies to Kairi saying goodbye to Sora at the end of the game, it also applies on a deeper level to Kairi finally accepting what she’d been trying to deny since the first game: that things are changing and there’s nothing she can do to stop it. 

So despite our frustration at her lack of spotlight, Kingdom Hearts 3 wasn’t Kairi’s true time to shine. Only when she says goodbye to Sora at the end of the game has she finally overcome her fear of change and growing up, and she has a lot of catching up to do. Kairi’s real time to shine will be in the Lost Masters Saga, when she finally starts to confront her past. Kingdom Hearts re:coded involved Data-Namine testing through Data-Sora whether the real Sora was ready to accept the hurt of others into his heart. Kairi’s role in the Dark Seeker Saga was about preparing her to face the hurt in her own heart so that she can move on from her past. 

TL;DR: Kairi has lagged behind Sora and Riku because her fear of change was holding her back from growing up and reaching her full potential, but by the end of Kingdom Hearts III she has finally overcome that obstacle. 

[nichester]

Review: Extracurricular

Media Type: Korean Drama

Genre: Teen drama/Crime/Noir

Summary:  Ji Soo, a diligent but poor high school student is saving for college and paying rent by moonlighting as a pimp.  His precarious balance of school and work begins to fall apart when another student, Gyu-ri, discovers the truth about his job and wants in.  Things spiral quickly out of their control.

Why you might care:  If you enjoy watching teenagers do crime and get realistically in over their heads; if you are interested in dark shows with Really Good performances (in particular from the leads, who have enough chemistry for us to buy their toxic but unbreakable bond) or if you are interested in any of the themes of crime and class struggle.

Why you might not care:  Give this one a pass if you don't like your shows dark and/or are looking for a happy ending. Importantly, pay attention to potential triggers in this show! (Suicidal ideation, self harm, violence against women, sexual assault, hallucinations, and torture all occur, although not always explicitly, on this show.  Feel free to message me if you need more detailed warnings!)

Trope Bingo! Partners in crime/Bonnie and Clyde; enemies to sorta? lovers, literally I have no idea how to categorize their relationship

If you liked _______, try ______!

Can't say I've watched much in this vein! I've heard that School 2013 or Sky Castle are both excellent dramas about struggling high schoolers, but which have less grim endings.  The Get Down is a great netflix show also about marginalized teenagers struggling to pursue their dreams despite the crime and violence they're surrounded by.

~Spoilers (not anything detailed but just to be safe) and overall thoughts under the cut~

Plot:  I'll be honest, I'm not a big plot girl. Unless there's something stand-out about a story's plot, I tend to consider it more as a vehicle for character development than anything else. In this show's case, I was on the edge of my seat in horror for most episodes. The plot unfolds in a seemingly inevitable negative spiral that takes all of our characters down and leaves them far worse off than when they started. This show did rely a lot on coincidence, both positive and negative. Usually I would consider this a flaw, but I think it worked well here as a way to portray a random, unfeeling world around the characters and to emphasize the precarious nature of their situation.

Central character(s):  I was really attached to both of the leads. They had the convincing contradictions and vulnerabilities of deeply troubled teenagers, and their different traumas and personalities played off of each other well. For all of Ji Soo's smarts and skill, he has a startling naivete and a tendency to panic when things don't go according to plan. Gyu-ri is equally smart, but loud and manipulative in contrast to Ji Soo's awkwardness and isolation. Gyu-ri pushes Ji Soo to try to expand his business to make up for his unexpected losses (decisions that drive the plot), but this goes against his every cautious instinct.  Ji Soo tends to focus on maintaining what little he has, while Gyu-ri fully embraces the philosophy "the best defense is a good offense." Indeed, Gyu-ri is reckless to the point of suicidal, but the later episodes reveal a protective instinct that seems to be as unexpected to her as it is to the audience, an instinct which continually drives her to throw herself into harms way in defense of Ji Soo.  The strongest development that both characters had was in their relationship with each other, which led them to be both braver and more open than they had ever been in their lives. But their involvement with each other and their reluctance to cut ties is part of how they got to where the show leaves them--cornered and bloody.

Romance:  Technically this show has no romance, but I think it's fair to say that the leads develop an obsessive, Bonnie and Clyde-style relationship that is partially romantic in nature. Ji Soo has a distant crush on Gyu-ri at the beginning of the show, which she exploits. Honestly, some of the funniest moments in the show come from the contradiction between Ji Soo's side-hustle as a pimp and his complete and total inability to speak normally in Gyu-ri's presence. His disillusionment with her is genuinely painful, but necessary for their relationship to become one of equals. Their grudging partnership is abrasive, but their bond feels very convincing. No matter how much they resent each other, they're more strongly drawn to each other. (Watching Ji Soo pack up her discarded chip bags to bring with him on the run is just….. Its so….. Kids make me cry ok!)  It's clear for both of these lonely and deeply messed up kids that simply having a partner--someone who they can reveal their ugly sides to and depend on--is an intoxicating feeling. By the end of the show, they'd kill for each other and probably die for each other. The show smartly doesn't ever "consummate" the romance--they don't really have enough downtime when they're not actively fighting to make it convincing, and despite everything they've done both characters are still very young.  If there is a second season, this is a ship that is likely to sail (but possibly crash and burn).

Side Characters/Side plots:  In a show like this one, which depicts a marginalized and frequently abused group of women, the presence of sympathetic characters who are also members of that group is crucial, or the drama would feel exploitative. This show's most prominent side plot depicts an underage sex worker, her post-traumatic stress response to a violent client, her struggle over whether or not to speak to the police, and her desire to find genuine human connection, whether it is with her shitty boyfriend or with her pimp. (Their odd father/daughter relationship was one of the most moving parts of the show!) While I thought the writing was sympathetic to Minhee's situation, she is frequently used as a reminder of the human consequences of the other character's actions. This is both good and bad--it's important to remind the characters and the viewer of how damaging their behavior is, but it also risks treating her as a more of a tool for the lead's development than a thoroughly explored character. Up until the last episode I think the writers gave her a distinct enough arc to avoid this pitfall, but depending on her ultimate fate (in a theoretical season 2) I could change my mind.

Tone:  The tone is dark, tense, and constantly on the verge of slipping into chaos. Hallucinatory sequences play out as Ji Soo and Gyu-ri imagine themselves killing people, destroying things, or being buried alive. These sequences emphasize the character's instability, while also establishing the camera as an unreliable narrator of events in a way that pays off in the ambiguous final moments. The fantastic acting is buoyed by the directing to depict the precarious state of the leads' minds as their situation spirals further out of their control. Ji Soo's scenes feel claustrophobic and paralyzing--when he ventures out of his apartment to talk to Gyu-ri or to go to the café you get the blinking, shuffling sense of something emerging from a cave. Gyu-ri, on the other hand, is a loose cannon, and her scenes have a jittery, dangerous edge to them. As a whole, the show is excruciatingly tense and frustratingly unresolved.

Theme:  This show is a full-fledged tragedy. It is a brilliant example of a negative change arc, with all of the characters taking more and more drastic actions while still managing to retain our loyalty. I think the writer's are clear that although none of these kids have made good choices, the real tragedy lies in how they have been abandoned, used, or neglected by the adults in their lives. The few adults who show any care for them are either relatively powerless themselves (like Mr. Lee and their teacher) or too late to avert disaster (like the prosecutor). Extracurricular is a grim look at how we fail vulnerable children to the point that even a boring, average life seems like an impossible dream.

[cobra-diamond]

A Note on Emotional Continuity in Avatar

In my 3-part article on how to develop the central conflict of a theoretical 4th Season of Avatar (available here), I wrote about the concepts of “scene and sequel” in storytelling. Essentially, “scenes” are where the actions and changes occur, whereas “sequels” are where the characters adjust to those changes. The characters don’t change during sequels; they adapt to their new state of affairs.

In particular, I discussed how the concept of scene and sequel is necessary for properly plotting and writing Azula in a theoretical continuation. In the original show, Azula’s last “scene” was the finale, where she goes from being confident, smooth, and content to being uncertain, troubled, and bitter. That is her change in that scene. What happens to her next, therefore, must be a sequel, where she adapts to those changes. Her time in the asylum would be that sequel.

In the case of The Search, how she comes to blame her mother for “ruining her life” would have to be a scene within her time at the asylum, since it is a change in her frame of mind. Nevertheless, we do not see how she comes to blame her mother (though it can reasonably be inferred how she does), but overall, her emotional state and frame of mind are essentially unchanged from where she left off in the Finale; she remains miserable, confused, bitter and hopeless, signifying that her unresolved problems in the Finale have not been resolved. This shows that nothing major has happened off-screen; we haven’t missed anything. I term this aspect of scene and sequel “emotional continuity”.

Emotional continuity tells a reader (or viewer) that the emotional state of a character has not changed, which means that their abstract goals (philosophical & emotional desires) have not been achieved. Had their abstract goals been achieved, the reader would have to have been shown how.

The following collage depicts Azula’s “emotional continuity” between the Finale and Search:

Just from these pictures, it can be ascertained how Azula’s frame of mind and emotional troubles are continued from the Finale into The Search. She is not exactly the same throughout, but that’s because The Search is a “scene” for Azula; she’s changing from start to finish. Note that at the end of The Search she is not bawling on the ground, but standing erect with tears in her eyes. She has changed, a little, but all of her troubles are not resolved. How she adapts to this new change is for the next sequel and how Azula changes further after that is her next scene...

... Neither of which we got to see. This is improper storytelling. The failure of Smoke & Shadow to follow “scene and sequel” with Azula can also be depicted through an emotional continuity collage, as shown below:

This is a rather stark example of scene and sequel being both successfully demonstrated and ignored in the comics. The Finale-to-The Search transition is quite consistent, with a marked change occurring at the end of Azula’s arc in The Search, whereas there is no emotional continuity between Azula at the end of The Search and throughout Smoke and Shadow.

A character’s problems cannot change off-screen. The viewer (or reader) has to be shown how a character changes and how that character adapts to those changes. It is true that some can be left “off-screen” so as to be filled in by the viewer’s mind (since time and length are practical concerns for storytelling), but if this is done, whatever the reader is not shown cannot be radical and transformative; if a character holds feelings of revenge toward another character, they cannot suddenly have feelings of affection while their desire for revenge is gone; if a character is consumed by fear and those fears are unresolved, they cannot suddenly be humorous and buoyant; if a character is confused with what to do with their life and hates what they have become, they cannot suddenly feel certainty and contentment.

To conclude, if you are working with a character from a existing franchise, look for the problems that were unresolved, and resolve them, but do so in a way that makes that character change (either a little or a lot). If you are writing your own story and a character has a problem, the reader must be shown how that problem is resolved. Then they must be shown how that character adapts to those changes. If you don’t do this, you end up with bumpy, confusing stories that leave the reader more irritated than they are unsatisfied.

[flusteredmountainman]

Bullet-pointed predictions I have for each of the new 3 routes

For like an in-depth prediction I did of Muriel’s one a couple months back see this old thing

So a huge commonality in the first three’s arcs (as I mention in that linked post) is reconnecting with family (both found and blood) and so I first and foremost think that this will be present in each LI’s route; I’ll go into more detail on what I think this will look like for each of them individually, plus upright/reversed end speculation based on the definitions for their patron arcana.

***Spoilers for Muriel, Portia and Lucio’s routes so far and references to Nadia, Asra and Julian’s routes***

I’ll start with Muriel because I’ve already talked to his route the most and I think it’ll be the easiest place to start!

Muriel:

The role of family in his route:

Obviously as we’ve seen so far, Muriel has a lot of unresolved feelings of abandonment, shame, self-loathing and loneliness associated with his family and the fact that they’ve abandoned him. 

He’s already had the very beginnings of opening up to MC in his last book (The Hermit - very fitting), and he will perhaps continue to do so

I think a central theme for his story will be reconnecting with his family and hearing their perspective on what happened for two reasons: firstly because of one of the options for MC’s response to this discusses that he actually doesn’t know his parent’s reasoning and that maybe they Did want him, and the second relates to Nadia’s route and her arc with reconnecting with her sisters

In her route, similarly she vents about how annoying and patronising her sisters were throughout her life and you can either agree or posit that maybe they were just trying to help/showing they cared about her (reversed vs upright choice)

I’m also hoping he generally creates a stronger support network - I think at least Portia, Nadia and Asra (and maaayyyybe even Morga but that might be pushing it) will end up helping him and MC in the confrontation with the devil at the end - just based on who we’ve seen interacting with him the most in positive ways so far

Upright meaning: Look inside yourself for the answers you seek. Take time for introspection in the days ahead.

He’ll recover from his trauma, recognise himself as a person who is deserving of love and support and who has Needs (including like. a bed. lol.)

Honestly I don’t have a lot else to say ‘cept that bc I said it already so kjaefjef check my aforementioned post if you want More for my favourite man

Reversed meaning: Be wary of retreating too far within your own mind. Others still have valuable things to share.

He decides that he needs to handle the confrontation with the devil alone - probably erring more on the side of self-sacrifice than anything else and/or seeing his sacrifice as just (still blaming himself for his trauma, he believes that his only way to “Redemption” is by falling on his own sword, so-to-speak)

Portia:

Oof, Portia’s a tricky one so far.

The role of family in her route:

So, obviously she has a lot of baggage with Julian. Some of this is hinted at just around her arcana’s definitions, but I’ll get to that soon.

She’s a compulsive secret-hoarder and collects information about everyone around her. I think this is probably a hang-up that she has around control - or loss of it. She doesn’t have security or wealth or even anyone to permanently look after her/mentor her (Julian left and Lilinka - her adoptive grandmother - passed away leaving her to fend largely for herself).

I think that information is the one thing she feels that she has control over, because so much of her life has been out of her hands (and also just chasing Julian around trying to clean up his messes)

She’s literally a head servant as her job -so much of her life is being told what to do and also telling others what to do. I think she fears loss of control in her life, but she’s also never been in a position where she’s been able to be an active agent and do things just because she wants to do them. 

She craves validation, safety, and support and that’s why she found herself in this employment role with Nadia - and even then in Nadia’s route (and her own), she’s terrified that Nadia will abandon her in a heartbeat - even though she literally nursed her for years and has been nothing but loyal. Girl has some Mad abandonment issues

Edit: Portia ultimately blames herself for the people around her leaving and thinks that people will only stay if she can be useful in some way - hence why she so doggedly pursues Julian's innocence because she thinks the only chance she has of him staying is if she can literally fix his mess

Largely I think her arc with her family will be about her feeling emboldened to be honest about her feelings and letting Julian know in a meaningful way how much his absence impacted her, but also realising that she Actually Can lean on Mazelinka (who she obviously loves but has made Many excuses as to why she’s too busy to see her - probably again a thing of “if I control when and where I see you, then I can’t get hurt in this relationship”), Nadia, and probably also Asra and some of the other servants even?

Upright meaning:  Believe in your inner light. You may have endured great hardship, but it only makes you shine brighter.

Idk man lol this is honestly quite vague. 

I think this will prolly be a similar thing to Muriel - just specifically confronting that Yes, she’s had a hard time of it but she shouldn’t let that impact her quality of life

Also probably a lot of stuff around her realising she’s worthy of love as a person and that the people who love her won’t abandon her

Reversed meaning:  Now is not the time to despair. Keep believing and let your star shine bright. The world needs you

Again.... aefkjfkae...... very vague.....

I think she won’t be able to let go of her fear of abandonment generically - or alternatively will perhaps? Try to bargain with the devil? I could see a similar thing happening with her that happened in Nadia’s reversed end - perhaps she believes she can save the world/MC by offering her servitude to the devil and being beholden to him? This is Fully a reach, I honestly have no idea :P

Lastly, Lucio:

Don’t worry, I’m not dunking on him lol. I don’t like him but that doesn’t mean I don’t have Thoughts about his route.

The role of family in his route:

Well. This one is clearly quite literally maybe the messiest out of these three (I mean that literally, in terms of, the amount of blood lol)

Obviously, he has a lot of baggage with both of his parents. I’ll disclaimer and say that I personally don’t see Morga as abusive - that doesn’t mean people can’t - but I’m making speculations specifically about their relationship just based on the in-game context clues we have and nothing else

As a person, Lucio is ultimately obsessed with power and attaining it. He’s clearly insecure and is desperate for any sort of validation, which is made messier by his natural sense of entitlement. This combination means that he chronically chases power, thinking that leadership means being able to do whatever you want to do with no consequences (e.g. in his route and also in Nadia’s when he briefly discusses killing people as count/countess) - and especially he thinks that if he has the power, the wealth, and the status then he’ll get the validation that he desperately craves. 

As count, he throws lavish parties and spends a lot of time with the vagabonds in the south end - trying to win petty devotion and admiration with meaningless shows of wealth meanwhile his people are starving and suffering in the flooded district. He just wants to be popular at the end of the day, he doesn’t care about actual leadership or using his power for good, unselfish reasons. He claims his people love him, but it’s hollow, ornamental love based upon flash, not substance

Morga as a parent is harsh - she’s critical and derisive at times, but it’s also clear that she does love her son (specifically how she says she spoiled him by never letting him get hurt). Lucio as a teenager grew up somewhat spoiled and expected that power would fall to him by virtue of heritage from his mother when he came of age. 

I think that Lucio didn’t get what he needed from Morga necessarily as a kid, and as a result he craved that first position of power because he saw it as a source of validation he hadn’t previously had - and when it was denied him, he became resentful and even murderous towards his parents. 

Woof, long fucking paragraph. I do think that Morga and Lucio will end up reconciling in his route somehow. I think it’s central to his character and to filling the void inside of him that he learns that you can’t buy people’s love - also just because his whole story and entry into the world was sparked by that essential conflict with his mother. I think it would feel weird narratively if that weren’t at least addressed - whether or not it ends in reconciliation

Upright meaning:  Shake off his veil: you are not trapped. There is always a way out of even the darkest places.

I think that this will be a redemption arc for Lucio. I think that in order for him to be redeemed he’ll have to relinquish the devil’s influence over him - which will involve addressing the wrong he’s done and apologising/trying to atone for it (whether or not other LIs accept his apology is another thing - as they all have very valid reasons not to)

I think the “way out of the darkness” for Lucio is in giving up his quest for power. He will learn that it’s ok to just be Lucio as a person, that he can be vulnerable and responsible for himself, and that people will love him as he is and not for the way he throws his money around

Reversed meaning:  It is time to clean house: purge the things that harm you from your life. Take back your power.

Now this literally includes the sentence “take back your power” so. whoomp there it is. Lucio can’t let go of his power-hunger and becomes even more selfish and self-righteous.

I think also unfortunately this will mean he will literally probably kill some if not all of the other LIs, and also (especially) his mother. He will see anything that challenges his power as opposition to be removed, and he will rule (alongside the devil? who knows) in chaos and blood.

Ookey!! kajefnkae glad I got that out of my system. If I missed anything/if people have their own ideas/thoughts I’d love to hear them! Have this giant essay lol, we’ll see if anything I predicted comes true in the next several dozen updates eh? B)

[thefantheorist]

Monster Arm Part 3: Tying Up Loose Ends

Hello all my fellow Fan Theorists! Today I am finally gonna be putting out the long overdue Monster Arm Part 3 theory that I promised @sge8 I would do. So thank you very much for your request and sorry it took so long to get out. 

Anywho, let’s talk about Eclipsa for a second, and if you haven’t seen up to the most current episode in season 4 I’m gonna slap a big SPOILER WARNING on here just in case so proceed at your own risk.

Okay, Eclipsa’s presence in season four of the show has pretty much served to turn everything we thought we knew about the mewman hierarchy on its head. She doesn’t exactly seem like she is evil, however, she also doesn’t seem all that innocent. I mean, her monster husband has been confirmed to have feasted on a bunch of innocent mewmans. But honestly, I can’t quite seem to feel bad for them seeing as literally half the mewman population are complete and total dicks to all monsters, even peaceful monsters like Buffrog. Moving on. It seems as though the show is trying really hard to convince us that Eclipsa is good and honestly, I believe that she is. Or at least she is trying to be. But whatever the case, her being the central antagonist of the series is wildly ambitious of them, seeing as they only have like half a season left to wrap up the plot lines of Meteora’s magic powers, Marco’s monster arm thing, Moon’s arc with the old mewman loyalists, Mina Loveberry (who just kinda sprang out of nowhere and seems like she is going to be one of the series’ antagonists), the whole issue with the wand and the death spell, and all the filler crap they’ve poured into this season even though I still love all of it. Just, the fact that we still seriously don’t know who the primary antagonist is means that Eclipsa is probably not going to be evil, since it would mean that there would be yet another unresolved plot line that we have to deal with. So with that being said, let’s try to figure out what is going on with this season and what is going to happen next.

So, I already talked, in detail, about the Monster Arm plot line in the first two parts of this theory, here’s the links if you wanna check that out:

Monster Arm Part 1 Theory

Monster Arm Part 2 Theory

So leaving that plot line behind, we are going to talk about an easy plot thread that I think we can tie up: Star/Marco/Tom/Kelly love square(?). I am sad to say it, but in tv shows, especially those aimed and younger demographics, the writers have typically already established which couple is going to be endgame and while that can fluctuate over time, the writers of the story usually stick to the first couple. Why do you think they booted Jackie off the show as quickly as humanly possible once Star found herself a new love interest? Either way, I am pretty sure that Star and Marco are set to be endgame, but really, it doesn’t matter to this theory so maybe I’m wrong! And if you are a Tomstar shipper or a Kelco... Melly... Marcelly--yeah I like that best-- shipper or a Starco shipper, I love all of you and all of your ships are great so please don’t hate me. Either way, this is one of the least important theorizable elements of the show for me and for this theory so let’s move on.

Mina Loveberry... she’s pretty much the wildcard of the situation because I literally have no clue what she is going to do half the time, aside from overreact and punch something. However, I do have some speculations as to where her plot line is going to go. So, it seems that Mina is crafting a large suit of armor for... someone, probably one of the people who fought in the war against Globgor and is completely loyal to the throne of Mewni and former Queen Moon. I also think that they are someone who has a great power like Mina does, except they are much stronger, and they are obviously someone that Mina loves and respects, so maybe a family member or former colleague or something, however, that doesn’t really matter. What is important here is that we remember that Mina holds to her belief that Queen Eclipsa is a traitor and that Moon is the rightful heir to the throne.

Alright next: Eclipsa. Like I said before, I definitely don’t think that Eclipsa is going to be an antagonist, but I also don’t think that she is going to be aligned with Star when it gets down to it. Eclipsa, while not wanting to have conflict between the monsters and humans, definitely has a preference towards the monsters, since they respect her more and actually treat her with kindness, but also because she has a kindred spirit with them and whatever happened in the past with Globgor, which seemed to have been pretty bad, Eclipsa sided with him rather than the mewman people, so I suspect that when push comes to shove, Eclipsa is going to protect the monsters rather than the mewmans, which is important for reasons that I will get into in a minute.

Speaking of Globgor, we already know that in the past he killed many mewmans, I suspect because he was protecting Eclipsa, but what does that mean for the show going forward? Well it seems to me that when Globgor is let out of his crystal prison, which he will be I can promise you that if anything, then he will probably be fighting alongside Eclipsa and the monsters in what I imagine is going to be a giant civil war. Yeah, you heard right Star vs. the Forces of Evil: Civil War is upon us, with one side being the mewmans, led by Mina Loveberry and the person in the giant armor, and the other side being the monsters, led by Eclipsa and Globgor.

Now I’m sure after leveling all of these lengthy claims at you, you’re a bit skeptical, so let me back this up a bit. So we know that monster and mewman tensions are high amongst the adult generation in the show, I mean, they had a whole episode centered around it in Cornball.

I mean, pretty much the whole episode is like this. So we know that monster and mewman tensions are high. We also know that most of the mewmans don’t like Eclipsa, I mean take your pick of pretty much any season 4 episode with her in it and you’ll figure that out pretty quickly. Even in the newest episode, Queen-Napped, where they seem to be taking a liking to her, that is only because she got kidnapped. And even then, Ponyhead had to lie to the mewmans to make them think that Eclipsa’s life was on the line and had to live stream the gang trying to save her in order for them to get anyone to care. So there’s that, but there’s also the fact that most of the old mewman subjects have just resorted to Anarchy. Oh and also there is this line from Moon at the end of Ghost of Butterfly Castle.

Segue to...

Moon. What is her role in all of this. Well, aside from the fact that she has created a camp of Mewmans who all would rather go back to their lives living without monsters, than try to assimilate and change, she doesn’t exactly seem to be doing much in this season. Unlike in the past seasons, where Moon was always a very active player in the final episodes, I don’t think that she is going to have that central of a role in season 4, partly because I think that the cast of characters is getting too cramped, but also because of the aforementioned picture. This picture seems to tell us what Moon and her mentality are about this war and her place in it. When the time comes, she’ll want to avoid the fight and conflict, much like she did in the final battle with Toffee, and her only real goal in the matter will be to protect her family, because that is who Moon truly cares about. Sure she cares about her people, but she doesn’t care enough about them to interfere in a war, especially if it means losing someone she loves again. Speaking of, what about Star? Where is she going to be in all of this? Well, it seems pretty obvious to me that Star--and Marco, Tom, Janna, and Kelly probably--will be stuck in the middle. The new generation of people who are going to stop the fighting and save the world. The most accepting generation. The tech obsessed, rebellious, post-millennials, you might say. *cough cough* gen Z *cough cough*

Yeah... if you didn’t get the symbolism this show was trying to hammer into your skull, then this is what it is. Now this isn’t just speculation, the show pretty much blatantly says it in the Cornball episode.

So now we’ve got all of those plot threads wrapped up, but what is happening with Meteora. Well, it seems pretty obvious to me that the “extremely powerful magic spells that haven’t been used for centuries” is Meteora, and if it isn’t then Christ does this show have a problem with too many antagonists. However, I can’t tell you for sure where Meteora’s story is headed. The best that I can do is suspect that either Meteora’s story is going to be happening concurrently with the civil war that I mentioned, or it’s going to end with Glossarick sending Meteora back in time to grow up as Heinous, which would be why she stayed alive for all those years since her parents were frozen in the crystals, which is why Glossarick is training her to do magic in the first place. I like the last one better because it is just inherently more interesting, but it probably isn’t going to happen. But moving on now to the thing I titled this whole theory on: Monster Arm.

Yeah I know I said that I was gonna drop it, but I have to tie this all back together. Remember how I said that Star and Marco would probably be in the middle of this civil war and all, well I do think that will be the case, however, I think that there is more in store for Marco. Marco has this innate pull towards the darkness and dark magic. Remember his wand?

Yeah, I’m definitely not the first person to point this out, but those little bat wings seem oddly out of place, until you look at the title card:

The star inside of the ‘r’ in Star’s name obviously correlates to her wand, the little skull that dots the ‘i’ in evil correlates to Ludo (remember the first Quest Buy episode where Ludo tries to use Star’s dying wand and a little skull comes out of it), but the little wing on the ‘e’ in evil doesn’t correlate to any of the wand’s former users, or even Ludo in his dream sequence about the wand, but it does match up with the little bat wings on Marco’s wand. Essentially, the title card is telling us how this show is going to end. In the end, presumably in this civil war between mewmans and monsters, Marco is going to get corrupted by Eclipsa’s magic, perhaps because she uses that dark spell, that seems to be important again, on him or some other entity and it drives him towards evil, and after he turns, the finale of the show will be about Marco and Star battling it out

Star vs the Forces of Evil

Star vs Marco

Thank you guys so so much for reading all the way through this, I know it was a long post. Finishing up this post was actually really tough for me because I absolutely love this show and I am so sad that it is going to be ending, but I genuinely hope that the finale for this season lets the show go out on a bang and not get bogged down by the multitude of characters. I know that this theory couldn’t address all of the plot lines and characters in the show, like Janna and Marco’s family on earth, but I hope it at least gave you something to chew on. Like I said before, I don’t think that Eclipsa is going to be evil, especially now that it seems like Mina is going to be a pretty heavy antagonist. Honestly, I did my best to give all of you a theory that tried to tie up all the loose ends of this series, but I really can’t, especially with the Meteora thing. Also, would you guys like the ending where Meteora gets sent back in time (since the whole time travel episode with Glossarick made it an actual possibility)? So that’s all that I got for you guys today. Thank you all again for sticking with me and I hope you all have a wonderful week.

Monster Arm Part 1 Theory

Monster Arm Part 2 Theory

[gorogues]

Spoilers for Flash #69!

You can see the first few pages here.

Well, the good news is that the leg amputations were indeed a Sage Force illusion.  It was cruel of James to make Barry believe it even for a little while, but fortunately "gore and mutilation" are still not his M.O.  The bad news is that there's no given external explanation for James' behaviour, so this appears to be all on him; he's just a mean jerk now.

James was looking for validation from his parents all this time, and is at first so pleased when they finally give it to him.  But whether their approval is legitimate (it probably is, because he is a success by their warped standards), he quickly becomes paranoid and angry about it and pushes them off the main building at Iron Heights.  So there are clearly a lot of unresolved psychological/abuse issues going on here.  While that's not rare for a Rogue, James isn't really one of the characters I want to see torn up with severe trauma which causes him to violently lash out.

Barry saves the Jesses from falling to their deaths, and James gives him the old villain ultimatum of saving the city or catching him and the Rogues.  Barry does save the people of the city -- with some help from Henry -- but James blows up Iron Heights and he and the other Rogues escape, meaning they're loose for future stories.  That just leaves the fallout: Warden Wolfe finally experiences some consequences for his abuse and is imprisoned in Belle Reve (supposedly next to Len, although we don't see that), Kristen is understandably devastated that her boyfriend was evil, and a reporter ponders on air whether James is the greatest criminal Central City has ever seen.  That will obviously please James a great deal, because he managed to achieve everything he wanted.  This entire arc was a win for him.

And at the end of the issue, Barry encounters a guy with the Still Force named Steadfast, who tells him that he needs to remember his past "for the Multiverse to survive what is to come".  This leads directly into Flash: Year One and is undoubtedly a prelude to the upcoming story with Godspeed's mysterious boss (who is likely the Anti-Monitor).

But as noted earlier, there's no apparent external source for James' behaviour, and he's just a colossal dick now.  I still feel very strongly that this should have been Roscoe's story -- or another harder-edged villain -- and that this role doesn't work for James.  He needed to have a lengthy past in Iron Heights retconned in to make this story happen, while Roscoe canonically spent years in Iron Heights being abused by Wolfe.  And while James has never had a nice father, his parents were never this bad and what little we knew of Roscoe's parents** was that they constantly pressured him to succeed and he bent under the strain of never feeling good enough.  And he's even got psi powers already.  This absolutely should have been Roscoe's story, and James shouldn't have been pushed into it.  That's why I theorized last issue that Roscoe was ultimately behind James' actions, and while it didn't come true, it'd be more in-character than what we've seen in the story.  I do recall the comment in the interview about Roscoe 'unhooking' James in Rogue War, but that never comes up in this story and thus is not hard evidence of any external influence.

(For that matter, I wouldn't be thrilled if it was all blamed on Roscoe in a story he only makes a cameo in.  I'm fine with him doing bad things if he's a significant focus of the story, because that gives him character development and makes him a fully-realized antagonist.  Blaming things on him in a story he's not really part of just makes him a plot device boogeyman, and we've unfortunately seen that before.)

So as a whole I'd say this arc didn't work.  It could have been really impressive had the villain fit the role; he succeeded at his goals and really kicked Barry around, and that's a great showing for an antagonist.  His plan was solid and extremely challenging.  But ultimately it feels like he had to be pushed into a role that doesn't fit him, which is disappointing.  I think this story could have been great if it'd had a more suitable villain, so I'm bummed that it was James.  It's entirely possible we'll find out ten issues from now that somebody else was influencing James (this is an ongoing medium, after all, and things change and get retconned all the time), but we can only analyze this story by what we've seen.

**it seems that Williamson might be changing or at least adding to the history of Roscoe's parents, at least if what he said about Lisa's skating coach being Roscoe's mother is accurate.  So things may be somewhat different in Rebirth, and I'm hoping the coach will appear in Flash: Year One since it's been hinted as having some early Lisa.

[aion-rsa]

The Expanse: A TV Fan’s Post-Finale Guide to the Books

https://ift.tt/34RZ9N3

This article contains The Expanse spoilers.

Many fans of The Expanse on Prime Video who haven’t already read the James S. A. Corey novels upon which the series is based probably have at least thought about checking out the books at some point. But the floodgates likely opened after the series finale aired for those looking to answer the questions left unresolved by the show’s untimely cancelation with books seven through nine still unadapted.

For those still on the fence, we’ll attempt to outline the plot of the remaining story without spoiling the big moments that should be experienced firsthand. The good news is that Persepolis Rising can be a starting point, skipping the first five books with only minor catching up to do. That’s not the recommended path, of course (read the whole thing!), but here’s what’s in store for anyone who takes that shortcut.

Duarte and the Protomolecule

It’s probably obvious given the events of The Expanse series finale that Admiral Duarte is the main antagonist of the final story arc in the books. Given that he traded MCRN military equipment to Marco Inaros in exchange for the protomolecule sample the rogue Belters stole from Fred Johnson, it’s clear that he felt that the devastating price he paid for the final bit of blue goo was worth it. If it weren’t for this deal, millions on Earth would still be alive, and the Free Navy would have been completely impotent without ships or rail guns to attach to the ring station.

It was all a distraction to allow Duarte and his loyalists to set up a colony on Laconia, a planet with an unusual alien artifact in orbit around it: a construction platform that can create space vessels with advanced capabilities based on protomolecule technology. In The Expanse season 6, we hear the obsessive scientist Cortazar telling Duarte that they have been able to use the stolen sample to activate the orbital station, the same way phantom-Miller was able to activate the artifacts on Ilus in season four. Let the fireworks begin!

The Strange Dogs, Cara, and Xan

But that’s not all the protomolecule can do! We’ve also seen that Laconia has some unusual wildlife that appears to be modifying “broken” things in a semblance of repair. Remember, the protomolecule was discovered in season one on Phoebe, one of Saturn’s moons. Miller (as an eventual spokesman for the protomolecule) informed Holden that it was designed to modify anything in its path to the specification of the alien race that created it. It lay frozen and unused until Protogen dug it up.

If you look closely, however, you’ll see that the “strange dogs” in The Expanse season 6 make changes to the drone and the mama bird which leave a soft blue glow, such as we see with anything protomolecule related. After Xan is brought back to life with black eyes and increased perception, it’s clear that the repair creatures made modifications less destructive than but certainly just as radical as what happened on Eros in the opening season. Without Cara and Xan’s involvement in the later books as a result of these changes, humanity would have little hope of understanding the alien forces around them.

Needless to say, Duarte has his own discoveries to make about what this more stable form of protomolecule can do for the dominance of his new empire. Considering the hardiness of Martian efforts to terraform their own planet back home, it should come as no surprise that this same discipline will become the central tenet of a new political force bent on doing what’s best for the survival of the human species… at least from Duarte’s point of view.

Read more

TV

The Expanse Finale Ending Explained

By Kayti Burt

TV

The Expanse Series Finale Easter Eggs: The Sci-Fi Heroes Who Helped

By Michael Ahr

The Trade Union and the Gates

Drummer was put in charge of the new independent Trade Union at the end of The Expanse season 6, and that’s exactly where she ends up in the books, too. But her position of leadership becomes far more important to the solar system than perhaps Avasarala or Holden could have possibly anticipated, and it’s a glorious thing to behold. The many fans of this great character will be excited to see her rise to power.

Taking into account the strategy Naomi employed to defeat Marco in The Expanse series finale, one of the main dangers the Trade Union must manage involves the entities inside the gates that eat ships for breakfast. Traffic must only pass through the rings at a regulated pace to avoid “going Dutchman,” as they call it, referring to the famous ghost ship. But even with the careful coordination there are no guarantees, and the pressures that arise from increased colonization will take their toll in the later books.

The Time Jump

Because it takes time to build the Laconian Empire, The Expanse novels necessarily jump forward almost three decades, but this leaves our favorite characters much older and scattered to the far corners of the galaxy at times. Readers will perhaps be unsurprised to find Bobbie Draper, for example, in a combative role against the immense power Duarte has amassed in the intervening time. Likewise, Naomi cultivates relationships with an underground element that put her in a position of prominence in old age.

Holden has, shall we say, more direct interactions with the Laconian leader, and the devotion Amos shows towards his captain in the later books takes on new levels of heroism. Even Alex, who is very much alive in the continuing saga, finds his place alongside his fellow Martian, Bobbie, and explores new ways to reconnect with his family by the end of the last book, receiving a fitting reward for his service throughout The Expanse story. Oh, and remember Elvi Okoye from Ilus? As humanity’s foremost xenobiologist, she’s back in a big way!

But speaking of time jumps, The Expanse saga has one final leap to make at the end of the final novel, Leviathan Falls. Many TV fans agree that the Prime Video adaptation had a pretty spectacular ending, providing an amazing sense of closure considering how unresolved much of the story was. That’s nothing compared to how the books end; if you don’t fist pump after flipping the final page, you’re dead inside.

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Don’t think for a moment everything will be wrapped up with a neat little bow, though. The Expanse doesn’t do that. Do, however, expect answers to long-held questions. What is the nature of the protomolecule makers, and how can the aliens who killed them be stopped? Will humanity find a way to come together in common cause? Who lives and who dies in the end, and was the sacrifice of those who don’t make it worth it? All will be answered, and it’s a promise: you’ll be satisfied.

But just like those who only watched The Expanse, you’ll still wish there was more.

The post The Expanse: A TV Fan’s Post-Finale Guide to the Books appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3qtXy8D

[hansoloschubbybrother]

My Opinion On The Last Jedi...For What It’s Worth

Having just watched The Last Jedi again and having seen way too many YouTube videos from people who hated the movie, I just had to write down my thoughts on it because I disagree with so many of the things that people hated about it.

It wasn’t perfect but, on the whole, I still think it is a great movie, mostly because of the choices made regarding the story arcs for the main characters.

But before I get into that though, I’m going to confirm some of the things where I can agree with the haters.  Firstly, Mary Poppins Leia.  It’s a nice idea that, by being blown into space, Leia’s survival instinct kicks in and enables her to use the force in a way she hadn’t before but I thought it looked awful and by just not having her blown into space in the first place would have been better.  The moment with Kylo Ren deciding not to shoot would have been more poignant and instead of Holdo being needed, Leia could have remained in charge and Admiiral Ackbar could have been the one to sacrifice himself by using light speed to obliterate the First Order fleet, giving him the noble death such a character deserved.

Just on that whole using light speed as a weapon thing, I’ve listened to people using it as another reason to put down the film, saying that if it was a plausible weapon it would have been used already so having it in TLJ doesn’t make sense.  Rian Johnson or someone had a cool idea that looked great in the movie and if other people involved in previous movies had thought of the idea then I’m sure they would have used it too.  It was a great moment in the film and people need to stop trying to find reasons to dislike the movie that aren’t there.

Next up is some of the humour.  Whilst I enjoyed some it, overall it felt a little out of place in a good Star Wars movie and harked back more to the prequels.  It may have been an attempt to appeal to children, but I felt the same way about Luke milking that animal and going fishing and the way BB-8 is used. In the original trilogy, R2-D2 would never actually ride a AT-ST, he may have found a way to control something by interfacing with a computer terminal but not actually driven something himself. This step toward children’s comedy was just one of the reasons I mostly disliked the prequel trilogy and wasn’t necessary here either.  The original trilogy didn’t have that and it didn’t stop those films from becoming an obsession for most children at the time.

My final gripe about TLJ is the over arching story of the slow chase.  Not only does it seem silly that the First Order would need to wait to destroy them, it created the need for the whole Canto Bight scene.  I enjoyed Finn and Rose’s scenes when they were on Snoke’s ship and I also enjoyed DJ as a character, but they needed to find a better way to make that all play out.  I really enjoyed the film’s opening battle with the dreadnought and the end battle on Crait but the story they created to get them from one place to the next was very underwhelming.

In spite of these issues, I still really enjoyed the film and that was mostly because of how they developed the story of each of the main characters.  On the whole, I thought they got this spot on and is generally where I seem to differ hugely from many of the online posting star wars fanbase.

I will leave Luke until last as I think his treatment in the film is what has caused the most hate from the fanbase, not least from Mark Hamill himself.  Instead, I’ll start with Rey as she is probably the character where there is the most common ground.  Undoubtedly for me, Rey is far too much of a Mary Sue.  As the central character of this new trilogy, this is not great film making.  If they needed her to have these abilities/skills from the get go, they shouldn’t have made her an orphaned desert girl at the start.  The journey they needed her to make was too far, too soon.  I know they are trying to explain how this is possible by saying that she basically downloaded Kylo Ren’s skills but it’s not very believable.  This said, I don’t actually believe that TLJ is what makes her a Mary Sue.  This problem is one created by TFA.  In TLJ, she doesn’t actually advance her skills set a great deal, other than to move a bunch of rocks, which is Jedi Training 1.1. Therefore, this is not a problem with TLJ, it’s the knock on effect from a big failure with TFA…which is not the last time I’ll say that.

We then have the issue of Rey’s parents, the source of much speculation between the two films.  I mentioned in a post I wrote after the film came out that I’m glad that her parents are nobodies.  Star Wars is a vast galaxy, why does she have to be some blood relative of an existing character.  It would be difficult to realistically explain that she is a relative of one of the key characters from the original trilogy and very unimaginative.  It is far better that her heritage broadens the Star Wars landscape, not enclose it furthermore.  For those that wanted her to be a Kenobi or a Solo or whatever, there is always the possibility that Kylo was lying.  Rian Johnson did, after all, include the mysterious but unresolved scene with Rey and the mirror thing on Ahch-To.  So for me, it was a positive that Rey’s parents were nobodies.

Finally for Rey, there is her connection with Kylo Ren, which brings me to another aside.  Many people are up in arms that Rian Johnson would use the force in a way that they have never seen before but for me this is just ridiculous.  It’s a sci-fi fantasy film.  If you can extend your disbelief in the originals then why not now?  The Jedi’s are supposed to have kept peace for thousands of years and we have only followed a handful for a few years but somehow we have seen the force used to its fullest extent.  Come on now.  You wouldn’t have worried about this as a child, so why now?  It’s totally not important and totally possible.

Anyway, back to Rey and Kylo.  For me, their connection is the most interesting arc of the new trilogy and using the force as a way to further develop this relationship was an important reason as to why I enjoyed the film.  Without that, they would not get the chance to interact as frequently as they do, thus removing important character development.  Many people, have said that it is not realistic that they would feel some kind of connection after knowing each other for such a short space of time but I see it completely differently.  Maybe it’s linked to personal experiences when it comes to relationships but, to me, it is perfectly plausible that two people with so much in common and who both share the same insecurities would feel an immediate connection.  They are in the same position as each other just on different sides of the force.  It’s natural to feel drawn to someone who is going through a similar experience to yourself, so that you don’t feel alone and for support.  For me, their relationship is an intriguing way to consider the force and how idea of light and dark sides exist.

This leads us nicely onto Kylo Ren.  Many people disliked the fact that in TFA he was basically a power brat.  For me, I was immediately drawn to this idea that we are seeing the proper development of the main bad guy.  His journey in this trilogy is much more what I was hoping to see for Anakin’s journey in the prequel trilogy.  Unfortunately, in the prequels, we a got a few brattish comments and then he basically became a full on bad guy after a short conversation with Palpatine/Sidious.  Kylo Ren’s character development is far more considered than Anakin’s.  He is a powerful brat but, especially because Adam Driver is as good an actor as Hayden Christensen is bad, you can understand why. You can also see that has not completely turned to the dark side, that it isn’t a switch.  This is developed even further in TLJ and, as I said before, I have enjoyed his development and how his character has mirrored Rey.  Kylo Ren has become my second favourite character in the Star Wars universe after his father.  I enjoyed how he first appears to be a Darth Vader clone, evening looking up to his Grandfather, but then falls way short.  I enjoyed the line TLJ when Snoke reminds him of this and tells him to remove his helmet.  I suppose some people don’t want to see their bad guy go through some dark coming of age story but I think it makes it much more interesting.

It is the same reason why I thoroughly enjoyed that Rian Johnson just killed off Snoke.  No back story, no big bad, just everything opposite to what people might have been expecting.  For me he was Sidious 2.0.  A powerful bad guy who we thought was going to be defeated at the end of the third film. To me he was unoriginal and another reason why TFA was described as a love letter to the original trilogy.  He felt very “Star Wars” but that was it.  People felt short changed after Snoke’s back story was ignored and became insignificant but thought it was exactly the right decision.  He played his part and moved aside for Kylo Ren to become the main bad guy for the second half of the trilogy.  On the subject of his back story, I just don’t get this obsession with needing to know everything about every character’s back story.  We never got that in the original trilogy.  We didn’t get told a single thing about Darth Sidious.  He was just the powerful bad guy that ruled the Empire.  We didn’t need to know more and we didn’t care.  That we got to learn more via the prequel films was great but it wasn’t a vital part of the story that was missing from the original films. This is the same with a whole host of other characters from Jabba, Boba Fett, Lando and even Han and Chewie.  Why do people now suggest that the new films lack characterisation or some shit because we don’t know the back story of every character?  It’s just not necessary.

Poe was another character whose story arc has been criticised.  When I first watch TLJ, I also thought that having Leia and Holdo hold back their plan from him seemed like a stupid decision but this felt more and more reasonable with each watch.  In order to avoid him being just another boring hero pilot character that destroys lots of enemy ships and always survives, Rian Johnson clearly wanted him to have some kind of journey to help develop his character.  It makes total sense to me that a hero pilot would have an ego that is too big and gets in the way of strong leadership decisions, so Rian Johnson develops this through the film, from Poe unnecessarily sacrificing lives and ships to destroy the dreadnought at the start, to his demotion and subsequent exclusion from leadership decision and then redemption at the end by choosing to pull the Resistance fighters back when they’re being picked off easily on Crait.  I can’t help but think that having two women leaders decide not to let the male hero pilot in on the plan goes against male sensibilities in this situation.  He’s the hero, the man and, in all previous eras, would be the one who knows what the right thing to do is.  The truth is, that if it were two male leaders and a female hero pilot who was denied knowledge of the plan, we probably wouldn’t bat an eye-lid.  Is it feminist politics unnecessarily introduced to Star Wars?  I don’t think so.  It’s not forced down our throats, just used to help develop what could easily become a boring character.

The final character I’ll focus on before Luke is Finn.  As mentioned before, I enjoyed his scenes on Snoke’s ship with Rose and Captain Phasma but really didn’t like how they got him there.  It’s a shame that it made his character seem marginalised.  The only part I did enjoy was how DJ made him question his defection from the First Order and whether there is a good or a bad side in war.  This is quite deep stuff for a Star Wars film and quite political but I liked that they asked these questions and it seemed fitting that Finn’s character be the one to contemplate these ideas.  Again, it’s a shame they couldn’t have found a better way to do it, that made him more integral to the story.

Finally, we come to Luke. More than anything else, it’s people’s comments about Luke that get me shouting at my screen.  Maybe it is because I was never drawn to Luke as my favourite character as a child but, for some reason, I just don’t see things the same way as all the haters.  For me, Luke’s story through TLJ needed to follow on from what we were told in TFA, in a manner that is both realistic to how you might think someone would react having been through that experience and also realistic to how Luke, the character, would react.

So, what were we told in TFA?  We learnt that Luke is in hiding and has cut himself off completely from his family and friends as a result of the part he played in the failure of his Jedi Academy and turning his nephew into Kylo Ren.

This leads me to the first of the things that annoy me about some of the arguments laid at the door of TLJ and Rian Johnson.  People claim that Luke would never abandon his friends and cowardly hide away and cut himself off from everything.  This idea is played out in TLJ but this story was clearly set in motion in TFA.  If people can’t believe Luke would act in this way then be angry at JJ Abrams because it was his idea.  Rian Johnson continued Luke’s story from this situation because it’s the only place he could have started from.

Next is to decide whether Luke’s reaction to what has happened is a realistic way for someone to respond.  This is obviously subjective but his failings have led to the creation of a potential new Sith Lord, the death of many young fledgling Jedis, the estrangement of his nephew from his family and the break up of his sister’s marriage to his best friend.  This is quite a heavy burden bare, considering this is on top of how someone would naturally feel after failing so badly.  Imagine someone is revered as a hero around the galaxy, a new Jedi Knight to help bring peace.  Your self-esteem would be sky high.  You would be pretty happy with how your life is panning out. It is clearly absolutely plausible that someone could react to what happened the way Luke does in TLJ.  If people were happy to believe Luke’s set up in TFA, then they have to accept that someone could react the way Luke does. I believe that this is a far more likely way that someone would react than to remain positive and not question your beliefs and the part they played in what happened.

Therefore the question is whether Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight and hero of the galaxy, would react this way.  Clearly many fans and Mark Hamill say he wouldn’t.  I just don’t see how they can come to this conclusion based on his actions in the original trilogy.  The main argument I hear is that he was a great Jedi who saw the good in Darth Vader and defeated Sidious.  This just doesn’t stack up I’m afraid.  How do we know Luke is a great Jedi?  He was only taught by Yoda for a little while and clearly never finished his training. In fact, choosing to be so loyal to his friends was against his Jedi training.  Additionally, he beat Darth Vader, not by being a great Jedi but by turning to the dark side and using anger to fuel his fight with him.  Vader threatened Leia and he threw anything Jedi out the window and got plain mad.  This made him a hero but certainly not some grand Jedi.  Then we come to Sidious.  Luke didn’t defeat Sidious at all.  Seeing the good in Vader pulled him back from killing his father but he was about to be killed by Sidious.  It was Vader/Anakin who killed Sidious.  So, Luke was a hero, a bastian of hope but he was not some infallible human or a Jedi dedicated to their code.  If anything, he was the first grey Jedi.  For me, the fact that he felt so strongly for his family and friends is a reason why he would have reacted the way he did when he caused it all to go to shit.

People have also suggested that Luke would never think, even for a second, about killing his nephew. Again, I just don’t have this picture of Luke as all things light and good.  He is not so squeaky clean that when faced with the prospect of a new Sidious or Vader and acknowledging that he is not able to control him, that, for a second, he wouldn’t think that right thing to do is kill him.  Everyone has thoughts they shouldn’t have for just a split second.  Again, why is Luke any different?

It seems to me that people who loved Luke in the originals can’t face the idea that he is somehow a flawed human being and a flawed Jedi.  This character that they idolised as a child is actually a human and not some unrealistic hero type.  For me, it gave Luke something interesting to contribute to this trilogy.  Did people who hated it just want Johnson to forget what was set up for him in TFA, something he is criticised for in other areas, and suddenly have Luke forget all about why he was where he was?  Was he supposed to return to the Luke from the original trilogy just because some girl he doesn’t know turns up with his old lightsabre?  That would have been bad film making in my eyes, not good.

Another criticism is that he died a coward.  I just don’t see it that way.  Was it cowardly to hide away? Possibly but, as mentioned, this wasn’t Rian Johnson’s fault and also not an unrealistic way for him to react to what happened. Having been put in this position, you then want Luke to redeem himself and I thought he did that.  As the film progressed, he slowly became his old self. First he saw Chewie, then the falcon and news of Han’s death, he then agreed to help Rey a bit, then he saw R2-D2 who played him Leia’s recording for Obi-Wan and finally Yoda’s force ghost helped him come around.  There was a progression to his arc and, in the end, his actions were both brave and saved the day.  He would have known that using the force to project his image for all that time would lead to his death but that it was necessary to save the rebellion.  His death gave hope, renewed the idea of Luke the idolised hero, and then echoed the death of both Obi-Wan and Yoda, so was more than fitting, especially with the twin suns setting.  I thought it was a great way for him to “die” and not at all cowardly.  He will almost certainly be back as force ghost in IX as well.

As before, anyone moaning that force projection has never been done by a Jedi in any other material, needs to open up their imagination a little.  Also, if Luke is supposed to be such an amazing Jedi then surely he could find ways to use the force that others before him hadn’t.

My final point about Luke, and of this ridiculously long essay about a film, relates to how people have criticised the idea that Luke could ever feel that the Jedi order needed to end, the idea that an order that kept peace for thousands of years could ever need to move on or evolve.  I can’t believe people even say this without thinking about our own history. Religion, the British Empire, slavery, etc have all been institutions used over 100s of years to keep peace and maintain the powerful but there always comes a time when life and people learn and move forward.  They find better ways to live.  The Jedi might have kept peace for 1000s of years but in the recent past, and Luke’s understanding, they have not kept the peace, they have only been one side of a conflict.  Luke would be absolutely right to reflect on his Jedi beliefs and could easily be correct in his new found stance that the Jedi need to end.  He comes round again at the end of the film, when he corrects Kylo that he is not the last Jedi, but in my eyes his questioning of the Jedi order is not only right but interesting and made for a great film.

[lazydarth]

The Mandalorian was near-perfect, and that’s why I wish they would stop making more episodes of it

There is Good Star Wars, and there is Bad Star Wars. As we all know.

The Mandalorian is Good Star Wars. It’s not perfect, but none of the things that I can point to and call imperfections bother me.

The show has given us something that for much of the past four-plus decades has seemed plausible, but impossible: a good, live-action half-hour episodic format Star Wars TV show.

It used to be that producing anything to the level of visual quality of Star Wars required movie-sized budgets, and demanded movie-sized profits in order to make sense as business. For a TV-series, it was simply infeasible to replicate the show’s scale and scope, its sets and costumes and effects. The Mandalorian must still be an incredibly expensive show to produce, but so much has changed in the way fx are done, that it’s now feasible for a mega-budget TV show to do what used to only be possible for feature-length blockbusters.

I’ve now watched the first two seasons of the show, and I’m so happy with it, I wish that they would stop right now and make no more episodes, ever.

What? Why? How could anyone possibly say that?

Because it’s good. It had a story to tell, it told it, and now it is done.

A good storyteller enthralls the audience. A great storyteller knows when to stop. And you should always stop when the audience wants more.

Because, what’s the alternative? Stopping when the audience is sick of you! And who wants that? I don’t!

The Mandalorian is mysterious, and I’d like him to remain so. Forever. He’s got a lot of adventures left in him, and I’d like those stories to remain locked in the imagination, where they will be forever great. We get to share his journey for a brief time, and learn the story of how Jedi Master Luke Skywalker came into the life of a young Force-sensitive creature of Yoda’s race. And we get that story told to us in an interesting way that focuses on an unknown, nearly faceless character, through whom, we learn a great deal about the Mandalorians, yet with so many unanswered questions.

And that’s damn near perfect. I don’t want any more, because I’m left wanting more, more, more.

In the late 70’s, comedy genius Bill Murray did a lounge singer tribute to Star Wars, and crooned on SNL: “Star Wars! If they should bar wars, please let these Star Wars… stayyyyyy.” That’s kindof how I feel about this show. Bar them from ever making another episode that could risk ruining what they’ve done, but let’s let these Star Wars stay.

As a series, The Mandalorian feels like so many other adventure serials, from Kung Fu to Xena: Warrior Princess and The Adventures of Hercules from the 1990s. Each of those shows wasn’t attempting to be highbrow entertainment, and had their moments of kitchiness or campiness, but for what they were, they were good entertainment. The Mandalorian is perhaps a notch above, if for no other reason that the simple fact that being set in the Star Wars galaxy elevates it.

To be clear, there’s still a lot of unresolved plot threads that they could explore in Season 3: the Darksaber, the re-taking of Mandalore, the fate of Moff Gideon, the story of how Boba Fett survived the Sarlacc at the Pit of Karkun on Tatooine, Grand Admiral Thrawn and Ashoka Tano. So many other things.

I’m telling you: it’d be completely fine if those were left to the imagination, untold, and forever green and pristine, and not fucked up by the inevitable milking-it-for-all-its-worth-until-it’s-completely-ruined that is The Way of showbusiness.

I love that each of those plot threads is set up and then left hanging. It gives the universe a vastness that only an unexplored universe can have.

I’m sure that if they ran the series for five, six, even ten more seasons, they could probably tell a lot of those stories. But imagine if, like with Game of Thrones, the writers were told that they had to cut it short, and ended up rushing to wrap up everything, and did such an awful job of it that it ruined the entire series. Wouldn’t it be best not to do that?

Wouldn’t two great, solid seasons that wrapped up cleanly but left open a possibility for later attachment to other stories in the same galaxy be better than a series that goes on too long, runs out of steam, and fizzles out after making too many wrong turns, and leaves wide gaping holes in the plot and so many loose ends to subplots that were promised but then forgotten about or abandoned?

Besides: most of those threads are not Mando’s stories. They’re stories that Mando briefly brushed up against, in the service of a story about Mando, which is really a story about The Child, Grogu, and not about the Mandalorian at all. If they could have written the series as a fixed, two season story where the Mandalorian dies to protect Grogu long enough to see him safely delivered to his people, that would have been perfect. And even just leaving The Mandalorian character live, I think this is as much of him as I truly needed to see. We gained a sense of his character, we know who he is, and it’s important to recognize that’s all we really need.

Of course we want more than that, but just as we might want to eat all of the cake, and all of the ice cream, or all of the pizza, maybe that’s not what is really best for us.

I do want many of these stories told. But I think many of them would be better served as stories told not around Mando as a central character. I think Ashoka Tano could support her own series. (For that matter, she’s been the focus of some animated series that I haven’t watched, so if her story is already told there, or in video games or comic books or novels, then maybe we don’t need a new Disney series for the purpose.) I don’t necessarily need Grand Admiral Thrawn, when we have Timothy Zahn’s novels, and if all Disney did was bring Thrawn back into official canon by mentioning his name in an official canon series in one episode, I’m honestly more than satisfied with that.

And so on.

What I’m getting at, I really like a well-told story that takes a seemingly minor character, but gives that character focus and depth, makes them relatable, makes us care about them, but they don’t have to end up being the hero of the galaxy, a secret prince, a chosen one foretold by prophesy, or any of that kind of crap that writers think audiences always want to hear stories about. Mando, The Mandalorian, a foundling, apparently nobody, taken in and trained by an fringe order of a group of warriors in exile, but not necessarily one of them by birthright, who, in hard times since the loss of their homeworld, have turned to becoming mercenaries and bounty-hunters, but follow the Way, which gives them Honor, and fleshes out much that was never even so much as hinted at with the bare-nothing that we knew from our only previous glimpses into these people, the foreboding and formidable-seeming, yet apparently hapless and too-quickly dispatched Boba Fett. Mando, who’s real name we never even know, and who’s face we see for probably under a minute through two seasons worth of episodes, is a man of heart and conscience and integrity, a person who keeps his promises, and lives by a code, as he makes his way through a rough, uncaring galaxy, almost insignificant, but for a brief time when he quite accidentally found himself in a situation that forced him to break his code in order to do what his heart told him was right, and committed him wholly to a mission of his choosing, the fulfillment of which elevated him from a mere bounty hunter to a genuinely selfless hero.

I don’t need any more of his story than that, do you?

A great way of continuing the story would be to have Mando ride off into the sunset, as the camera drifts away to something else, at first seemingly of no interest at all, which our eye lingers on just a little too long, and suddenly we find that we’re drawn in and hooked on some other character, and we follow their arc, which intersects with many notable others, some perhaps familiar, even famous, but many not, until it too reaches a deliberate and well-written ending.

That’s what I wish Disney would do with Star Wars: Tell some great stories, know when to quit, and leave us ever wanting more.

[apathetic-revenant]

Consider this ask as a request to get that rant on Roadside Attraction STARTED!

Hoo boy. 

Okay, first of all, I sincerely apologize for leaving this unanswered so long. Things…happened. 

Disclaimer: I haven’t watched Roadside Attraction in a while so I might be slightly misremembering some of it. (It’d probably be a good idea to rewatch it first, but honestly just writing all this has got me riled up enough already. (look emotions are hard okay)

Disclaimer 2: I critique because I love, I swear. 

So when it comes down to it, I guess my problems with RA basically boil down to two big things:

1. The overall ‘message’ and how it treats the characters.

2. The weirdness of it existing at that point in the show in the first place.

First things first: look, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for media messages about not being a skeevy jerk and treating women as objects, but the way it was done in this episode was, honestly, just…weird. It basically introduces a character trait for Dipper (and, to a lesser extent, Stan; I mean I know Stan is…Stan, but did anyone really get ‘sleazy pickup artist’ as the vibe from any of his interactions with women that we saw before this episode?) that he was never shown to remotely have before or after (though admittedly there’s not a lot of ‘after’ to begin with), just so he could be taught a lesson about it that he never should have needed in the first place. 

Dipper’s problem has always been that’s he’s obsessed with one girl, and he certainly got plenty of embarrassment and woe out of that general experience, but ultimately that was good for him: he loosened up (somewhat), became more understanding and accepting of Wendy’s autonomy, and moved towards being able to deal with rejection while still being friends with her. That’s a satisfying arc and it makes no sense to me that they would suddenly partway reverse it and then use that as a reason to try and take Dipper down this weird incredibly short character arc that he didn’t need.

Is it realistic that you don’t just immediately get over someone even if intellectually accept that you’re not going to be together? Absolutely. But frankly, this is a weirdass time for Gravity Falls to be invoking realism. And regardless, realism does not automatically make for a better story, especially when that story has to be told in 22 minute intervals.

So it’s already weird that the show is portraying Dipper that way, but then what he does is really not all that heinous to begin with. The thing is, Stan is right. Dipper does need practice talking to-well, everyone, really, but especially girls. For God’s sake, the poor guy needed a massively oversized list, a bunch of clones, and a Rube Goldberg-esque plot just to ask Wendy to dance with him, a task he ultimately failed at anyway. (Which, honestly, even aside from intent, makes the whole idea of him successfully managing to actually lead any girls on to any degree pretty dang unbelievable.) And that’s really all he does with any of them, is talk. He doesn’t promise them anything except maybe to stay in touch, which we don’t really have any evidence he wasn’t planning on doing. Hell, even Stan, for all that we’re supposed to see his behavior as Not Good (which, to be fair, it usually is) doesn’t really do anything more than flirt with an apparently receptive woman and then take a walk with her, which is honestly way more honorable than most of Stan’s interactions with people. We’ve certainly seen him treat people way worse than that without getting condemned for it.

And then there’s the whole thing with Candy, which is…really frustrating. She puts Dipper in a situation he’s very, very obviously not comfortable with, demands something of him he never gave her an indication that he was interested in, and then when she doesn’t get what she wants…he has to apologize to her? By ‘admitting’ that he was being an idiot? What? 

Like, I know they were going for ‘don’t be a pickup artist’, basically, but what it came off as was more like ‘never interact with women because if you do they’ll immediately start acting like you’re in a relationship with them and expect you to act the same way and sometimes they might do that even if you don’t interact with them (also sometimes they might turn out to be spider women who will eat you)’. 

Basically, any time you set out to give the message ‘treat women with respect’ and instead wind up with ‘women are strange, irrational and sometimes horrifying’, I think you’ve really got to step back and reconsider things for a minute. 

But what’s especially weird to me is the contrast between this and the way the show treats Mabel’s behavior. Mabel’s been spending pretty much the whole show doing what this episode punishes Dipper for doing. We see her hitting on three boys in rapid succession within the first ten minutes of the show, her desire for a relationship and rather aggressive pursuit of that is the formation of a lot of plots during the show, and she’s only called on it when it gets to the point of hurting her friendships or literally imprisoning boys in her room.

I mean, I’m not trying to pick on Mabel here, or say that the show should have been calling her on that except when it got extreme (like, say, literally imprisoning boys in her room), at which point the show did call her on it. But it’s weird to me that the show then goes out of its way to condemn Dipper for doing basically the same thing except to a lesser degree. I guess you could argue that Mabel was looking for a relationship and Dipper was looking for ‘practice’, but that still doesn’t really work for me; in both instances they have a goal in mind for which the specific other person involved is basically a variable. Why is Mabel wanting an Epic Summer Romance with more or less any boy worse than Dipper wanting to just talk to more or less any girl? And at any rate, Dipper’s attitude in RA hardly seems any worse towards the girls than the attitude Mabel, Grenda and Candy went into the Northwest party with towards the boys, but we’re supposed to take one as being terrible and the other as being perfectly normal girl behavior. 

So yeah, there’s that. Now, part two. (Still with me?)

The pacing. This episode makes absolutely no sense to me where it is. You spend 3/4s of the show building up to this big reveal that completely alters the atmosphere, plot, and character dynamics, and now you have all of five episodes to explore all the ramifications of that while ramping up the tension towards the big finale…why would you make one of those a filler episode that has no impact on the plot at all and is so disconnected to anything that it could have been stuck pretty much anywhere else in the show without next to no changes? 

Like, okay, I’ll admit, part of why I don’t like this episode is because it doesn’t have Ford in it. And hey, that’s a personal thing. But it’s not just about me wanting MOAR FORD. The thing is, regardless of whether you like him or loathe him or whatever, Ford is, objectively, an incredibly important character. He’s the catalyst for the central plot and driving mystery of the show and the principle catalyst for the oncoming confrontation, his appearance changes pretty much everything that we took for granted about the show before, and just by existing he has a huge impact directly on Stan and Dipper and indirectly on Mabel (in that his interactions with Dipper in turn impact Mabel’s relationship with him). And, again, you have five episodes to explore all this. In one of them Ford’s barely there at all and then in this one he doesn’t even get mentioned. We don’t even get an explanation for why he’s suddenly absent. (I know we do in the Journal, but not in the show itself.) I just…that doesn’t make any sense to me. I mean, maybe I’m showing favoritism here, but-no offense to Candy-I really don’t get why she gets more character focus in this episode than, y’know. The long-lost close family member with massive unresolved issues and a huge amount of secrets. 

And it doesn’t make any sense to me to have a light-hearted filler episode with nothing to do with the plot so very close to the finale when the tension is so high and the last episode literally ended with a very ominous threat. It certainly doesn’t make sense in plot terms that they spent so much time last episode working to protect the Shack so they had a sanctuary from Bill, and then everyone runs away from the Shack. I just. What.

And, this is a lesser point, but it doesn’t really make sense to me for them to leave Gravity Falls itself at that point in the show. Just, sure, we know weird stuff exists in plenty of other places, but there’s a lot of focus on there being something especially weird and significant about Gravity Falls specifically. And that’s something that gets really dialed up in this last part of the show-Ford specifically seeking the town out to study, the significance of the Mystery Shack and all its secrets, the connection Bill has to the area, the crashed UFO, and of course it all builds up to a big plot point in the finale that Bill’s confined to Gravity Falls. But then right smack in the middle of all that we briefly detour to some pretty much unrelated location for…what reason? It’s like MYSTERY OF GRAVITY FALLS MYSTERY OF GRAVITY FALLS MYSTERY OF GRAVITY FALLS oh by the way there’s some spider people over here too MYSTERY OF GRAVITY FALLS. It’s not a huge deal but it feels weird to me, especially since the show had hardly been going on so long that that they had worn out the setting. 

I know I’m committing the great sin of claiming to know better than the writers, but since we’ve come this far anyway, you know what I think would have worked better than Roadside Attraction?

You’ve already got this idea of the other tourist trap owners annually pranking Stan, so why not just go with that? Have them come to him like they apparently usually do. That way:

-You can keep the focus on Gravity Falls and all the plot points therein.

-You don’t have the problem of everyone inexplicably leaving their sanctuary; in fact, that adds to the plot, because now they have even more motivation to protect the Mystery Shack.

-You’ve got a lot of opportunity for character interplay as the family has to deal with all this (imagine the opportunity for conflict between Ford and Stan over the house, and how much you could build up the oncoming tension of Stan having to leave the Shack by showing how much he had really made it his home over the years).

-You can still hint at the existence of weirdness outside Gravity Falls without taking the focus away from it.

-You could expand on Stan’s past a little-because God knows we all wanted it-by referencing what was going on with him and these other rivals for all these years, and show a bit more about how the Shack actually operates as a tourist trap, which I, at least, would have liked to see.

-You could continue the ongoing character arc of Dipper’s relationship with Ford and how that was impacting his relationship with Mabel, instead of dropping it for something completely out of the blue.

-You could still have a bit of a breather episode before the finale (since that was evidently the reason we got this one here in the first place) without having to completely drop the plot and derail all the building tension to do so. 

-Tell me you wouldn’t want to see a full-scale Pines family prank war unleashed, because I sure as hell would. 

But anyway, in conclusion:

I don’t like Roadside Attraction much. 

[gzw1689]

For the "let's talk animes!" ask meme you just posted, can I ask all of them? XP If not, then #4, #5, #13, #14, #15, #16, #27, #35, and #36. If that's still too many, then I guess just pick whichever ones you want to do out of the #s I mentioned.

I might actually just do all of them at some point, haha. But I think for now, I’ll do the ones you asked, and maybe the rest of them in a later post, if/when I feel like it. (Also, there were two #4s. I only did the second one, since that was similar to #5, which you also asked.)

This got really long, so I’m going to put it under a “Read More”.

4. best ending of an anime you’ve watched

For this one, I’ve decided to go with Shirobako. The series follows Miyamori Aoi, a production assistant at an anime studio. The plot is divided into two main arcs, and each one shows the studio working on an anime series. Alongside the main plot, we also see four of Aoi’s friends pursuing other kinds of careers in the anime industry.

It was actually the second-to-last episode, but I found it to be one of my most satisfying experiences watching anime. To describe it in vague terms from my memory, after a major problem with their currently developing anime reaches near its breaking point, the director of the anime (who is also one of my favourite characters in the series) takes more proactive action to resolve the issue. This serves as a rather exciting resolution of the central conflict of this plot arc, and a high point in the director’s own character development. The episode also ties up the rest of the character and career development of Aoi’s friends in a way that really moved me (I seriously almost started crying). That was probably one of my favourite anime episodes of all time, and the episode after that just nicely wrapped things up.

On another note, I just want to say that I really appreciated Shirobako for the way it portrays the work of storytelling; not just in the nuts and bolts of it, but for its philosophy on it. Around the time I was watching it, I was really bogged down by a lot of the bitterness and cynicism I see when people talk about stories and the work behind them. In Shirobako, there was some of that in the form of things like executive meddling, jaded employees, and people who value commercialism over storytelling. And it also went into some of the problems related to the professions, like how stressful and messy things can get when you’re overworked on a tight schedule, or struggle to communicate with the people you’re working with. But the overall core of the series is that, despite all of the problems, these people are driven by a passion to tell stories and make people happy.

That said, from what little I have read about the real-life Japanese animation industry, I do think animators especially get a pretty raw deal in terms of working conditions and payment. So admittedly, Shirobako comes across as at least somewhat idealized. Even while acknowledging that though, the series still really spoke to me.

5. worst ending of an anime you’ve watched

The big one that came to mind here was Glasslip, which–like Shirobako–happens to be another P.A. Works series. The thing is, the reason I chose it is because I couldn’t even tell you what happened there. At some point (maybe even after the second episode), I started to find the story of that series incoherent and extremely hard to follow. And not in a “this is above my head” or “I didn’t give this enough of my attention” kind of way (which is maybe how I felt about something like Serial Experiments Lain). Ultimately, I just found the whole thing confusing, and the ending didn’t really help matters. In the end, I didn’t really get much out of the series at all. That said, I did think it looked pretty nice, though I think that has more to do with me liking P.A. Works’ character and background drawing style.

When initially considering this question, I kind of wanted to choose an anime that I generally liked where I felt disappointed with the ending. The thing is, I couldn’t really think of any, and if there was one, then I just really couldn’t remember the ending (I’ve watched a lot of anime, and it seems I don’t really have the best memory of a lot of them). So I guess Glasslip is just the superlative example of “ending that disappointed me to the point that I couldn’t even remember it”.

13. favorite one shot (1 season) anime

I’m not really sure what the definition of a “season” is. If a series goes into two cours (like Spring into Summer) without stopping, does it still count as one season? Or is it only allowed to air in one cour? Maybe I’ll answer for both.

For the former definition, I’ll go with Welcome to the N.H.K. It’s been a little over four years since I last watched it, so I might not remember it too well, but I do recall it leaving a rather profound impression on me. From what I remember, it really delved into the effects of extreme social isolation, the mental health issues it can inflict on a person, and how these things can affect one’s ability to function socially and in society. For me, this has been the most resonant portrayal of this kind of story so far. It can be very sad and disturbing at times, but it also has a sense of humour about it. And in the end of it all, I remember coming out with a sense of hope.

As for the latter, I chose The Tatami Galaxy. It’s also been about four years since I last saw that one, but I remember it being a bit more cerebral and exploring the sort of existential issues that come with being a young adult that’s struggling to find purpose. It also does something that I find really fascinating, which is cyclical storytelling (that’s what I call it anyway; I’m not sure if there’s a real term for it). If I remember correctly, almost every episode begins at the same point in time, and shows the unnamed protagonist making a different choice that leads to the events of the rest of the episode. Almost all of the episodes reach some sort of unsatisfying conclusion, and the goal of the series becomes somehow breaking the cycle. I can’t recall exactly how it did that, but I remember being pretty happy with it in the end.

14. favorite completed (multi seasoned) anime

I’ve chosen Mushishi for this one. In my inbox is a question you sent me for another ask meme: “what’s your favorite thing about Mushishi?” I’m going to answer this here, if that’s okay.

It’s been a while since I’ve watched an episode (and I actually think I still have the last one or two episodes to complete), but even so, I think it’s a little tricky to pick just one thing. There are quite a few things I like about Mushishi. Its subdued mood aided by the soothing music which can subtly give way to calmness, sadness, or happiness. The art and animation which bring the world of its stories to life in a vivid manner. Ginko’s value and appreciation of life in all of its incarnations, and his philosophy that everything in nature has its place and purpose (at least, that’s how I remember it).

But I think I’m going to go with its storytelling style, or at least how I perceive it. In a very succinct manner, each episode presents us with some sort of problem, often involving how humans and nature interact. And as each story leads up to its conclusion, it often gives us a very complex and nuanced way of looking at the thing, which often leaves me in contemplation by the end of it. I think it’s really neat that the series is able to do that in each twenty minute episode.

15. favorite on going series

I’m going to say Monogatari. That one’s still ongoing, right, haha? I actually still have to catch up on the latest part(s) of the series…

I think you and I like Monogatari for rather similar reasons (the complex psychology of the characters and their development, among other things). But I just want to add that it really appeals to me as one who studies books and loves dialogue. A lot of the story happens through conversation, which is a kind of thing that really appeals to me. And while the visuals definitely enhance and add meaning to the experience (as I’ve seen described in numerous Tumblr posts, including yours, if I remember correctly), a lack of attention to them–which happens when I read the subtitles–hasn’t necessarily gotten in the way of my understanding of the story.

That said, there is a lot to these characters, and sometimes it takes a while for the concepts in the series to sink in with me. And since my memory of these things isn’t necessarily the best these days, it can be a bit tricky for my memory to retain every important thing that’s happened so far. And when I watch newer installments without the best memory of what happened before, it makes the experience feel rather incomplete. That makes me a little hesitant to go back into it directly with Owarimonogatari part 2. So although I do want to know what happens next in the story, I’m a little torn because of this and the fact that I want to watch other anime and explore other stories as well. Recapping myself on everything Monogatari would be kind of a commitment, and I’m not sure if I’m necessarily in the mindset for that right now.

16. animes you wish had another season

Puella Magi Madoka Magica, definitely. If not another season, then maybe another movie or something. To my knowledge, the most recent installment of the series is Rebellion, which kind of left things off on a dark note and appeared to leave itself open for a sequel. I guess my take on this is that, if this is the end of the story, it kind of feels unresolved and like a contradiction of the more hopeful feeling that the original series left us with. I suppose I can come to terms with that if that ends up being the case, but I would be happy to see another installment imbued with a bit more hope, or at least maybe some sort of middle ground.

It’s been almost five years since then, and from what I can tell, it seems like there may be plans for a continuation of the story, but they seem to be rather vague. I hope it doesn’t end up becoming a situation like Half-Life 3 or the next Tool album.

27. which anime universe would you like to live in/be a part of

This is kind of a tricky one. I definitely wouldn’t want to be in any sort of action series, because I don’t like fighting and I don’t want to be in danger of dying LOL. Ruling that out, it mostly seems to be series in more real world settings (especially high school), though I suppose each one has its own take on the setting and subject matter. Hmm…

I think I’ll go with the Musashino Animation studio in Shirobako, and its admittedly somewhat idealized take on office work and the anime industry. I really like storytelling and entertainment to the point that I studied a form of it for much of my university career, and I’d love to work on something artistic as a sort of behind-the-scenes person that’s not really in the spotlight. Sure, it definitely comes with its stress and pressures, but I would be happy to try and work through them, and hopefully they won’t wear me down.

I was also thinking of New Game!–a video game company work setting, which I’d say is more lighthearted and comedic compared to Shirobako–until I realized that it might be rather awkward for everyone with me being the only male there, haha.

36. least favorite animation style (NOTE: I decided to answer 36 before 35 because I wanted to end with a more positive answer)

Before going into my answers for these next two questions, I wanted to say that answering about animation styles was kind of tricky for me, because I’m not sure if I really respond to animation styles as much as I do to things like drawing and art styles (character designs, backgrounds, and whatnot). Although animation isn’t necessarily a thing that draws me to a series in the first place, maybe it can be sort of an “icing on the cake” for an anime that I like, if that makes sense. So some of the anime I like doesn’t necessarily have the “best” animation, I suppose. All that said, I answered these questions with all elements of art and animation in mind, so hopefully the answers are satisfying.

Going into my answer for least favourite animation style, I’d have to go with the style that was used in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann by Gainax and Kill la Kill by Trigger.

I think I sort of understand the appeal of this kind of animation, as it feels very lively and energetic, which matches the tone of both of these series. In the end, I guess this is more of a personal taste thing for me, because I sometimes find it rather goofy looking in a way that I find somewhat off-putting. The combination of over-the-top elements in both of those series mostly didn’t work for me, and the animation was one of them. That said, I can’t honestly call it “bad” animation, and looking through the gifs, there were a few that I genuinely kind of liked. Some examples:

Gainax, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (2007)

Gainax, Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann (2007) (note: this is one that I thought looked okay)

Trigger, Kill la Kill (2013-2014)

Trigger, Kill la Kill (2013-2014) (note: this was one that I kind of liked)

That said, from what I can tell, Little Witch Academia seems to use a similar style. I haven’t watched that one yet (I’m planning to), and I kind of wonder how I’ll respond to it there. I found the OVAs to be somewhat entertaining, and the overall idea of the series seems to be more up my alley. So maybe if I like it, I might warm up to that style.

35. favorite animation style

Taking into account what I said at the beginning of my previous answer, I’d describe the kind of animation that I think I tend to respond to as sort of “crisp” and “detailed” in its drawings of characters and backgrounds (I can’t really think of better words). The most illustrative examples I can think of for something like this are ufotable, much of Kyoto Animation from Hyouka onward, and Shinkai Makoto’s works. I imagine that this kind of style is really expensive and time-consuming, but in my opinion, it ends up looking really really nice. Some examples:

ufotable, Fate/Stay Night: Heaven’s Feel I. presage flower (2017)

ufotable, Fate/Stay Night: Unlimited Blade Works (2014-2015)

ufotable, Kara no Kyoukai: Fukan Fuukei [Overlooking View] (2007)

ufotable, Kara no Kyoukai: Satsujin Kousatsu (Go) [Murder Speculation Part 2] (2009)

Kyoto Animation, Hyouka (2012)

Kyoto Animation, Hyouka (2012)

Kyoto Animation, Hibike! Euphonium (2015)

Kyoto Animation, Hibike! Euphonium (2015)

CoMix Wave Films, Byousoku 5 Centimeter (2007)

CoMix Wave Films, Byousoku 5 Centimeter (2007)

CoMix Wave Films, Kimi no Na wa (2016)

CoMix Wave Films, Kimi no Na wa (2016)

Hopefully that gives some sort of idea of what I mean.

So I guess that wraps things up for this one. Hope anyone who read this enjoyed it!