#The Hamartia Arc

[kateis-cakeis]

rewatching bbc merlin really has me like buzzing in my mind with so many thoughts. Like I'm kinda watching it backwards atm going from S5 to S4, I think I will jump around 3, 2, and 1 but just,,,, there is so much especially in S5 that makes me !!!!!!!

Honestly, I feel like this fandom has to give the writers more credit. Like they did a damn good job, and to me, it's such a good tragedy. Especially how S5 plays out, it takes everything and just tears you down, and down, and down. It's perfect, perfect with flaws! But still perfect

[bbnibini]

I'm sorry for the countless Scaramouche reblogs and retweets. I've been waiting for him for 2763848383 years. 😭 I was also like this waiting for Solomon to be a dateable I literally didn't use my vouchers as copium around season 1 and 2 but I haven't discovered Tumblr and twitter yet at the time lol.

[onlyhereforangst]

CHARACTER ARC (n): the transformation of a character over the course of a story, sometimes enriched with hamartia to explore the complexities of human nature and endow a sense of authenticity as a character's flaw leads to their ultimate downfall.

being a police officer is my future. i love this job. i love it. i get to help people. i don't feel like a hero. at all.

[artemisia-black]

Sirius’s arrogance about his intelligence is his fatal flaw/hamartia . Both in his secret keeper plan and the way he taunts Bellatrix before his death.

Taking his intelligence away actually derails his canon arc- James wouldn’t ask him to be a secret keeper, he wouldn’t have become an animagus and consequently escaped Azkaban etc.

[greenerteacups]

If there was one major plot element that you could change in the original canon what would it be?

The Marauders' deaths. With the exception of James, I don't think any of the Marauders die in a way that's narratively suitable — or, to be more particular, they die in a way suitable for a narrative I don't like very much. James is an acceptable (though, obviously, tragic) death to me because it completes his arc: he's an obnoxious, arrogant bully who grows into a selfless soldier on the side of the light, and lays down his life as a final gesture of abnegation. It's not Proust, but it's good, right? His death represents a symbolic triumph over Voldemort because it's something Voldemort would never do.

None of the others make the same kind of sense for their subplots. Sirius dies at the Ministry because Harry fucks up and lets his abandonment issues override his judgment, and while that's a compelling moment for Harry — whose hamartia is a trauma-forged combination of hot-headedness and desperate fear of losing people — it's not for Sirius. Sirius's problem in Book 5 is that he's emotionally stunted by his years of imprisonment and refuses to grow up, because he's clinging to the life he thinks — rightly — he should have gotten to have. This is made painfully clear in the Department of Mysteries, wherein some of his last words to Harry are "Nice one, James!" He refuses to treat Harry like the child he is, and he keeps acting like he's this fun-uncle type, blowing off rules and pissing off Mom (Molly), because that's the dynamic he should have had with Harry if Lily and James had lived. Sirius doesn't want to be Harry's guardian and role model. He wants a brother and a nephew, and he's trying to force Harry to be both, because he's all he has left of that family. His death doesn't tie any of those threads; they're left dangling. That's a valid narrative move — every death cuts a story short, and you can't give everybody an arc — but I loved Sirius. Giving Harry the "grieving loss of a parent" arc that was originally meant for Ron (Arthur was the original Big Death of the OOTP, in JKR's drafts) also means that Ron spends a lot of Book 6 without anything to do, whereas Harry goes through what's essentially a more intense version of the grieving-and-recovery arc he did after Cedric's death.

Remus, on the other hand, is just — first off, a Mess, I agree with so few of the choices made with Remus in the later books, but let's say he's deep in the trauma, the grieving, and whatever living among werewolves as a spy does for your mental health. So he gets into this will-they-won't-they with Tonks, gets married, tries to abandon pregnant wife, then goes back and gets to be with his wife and son for about half a year before dying, with said wife, in battle. Okay. So like:

I think the Remus Weirdness in Book 7 is actually an attempt to close a plot hole, which is that the Horcrux Hunt happens completely without adult supervision, despite the fact that there are lots of adults the Golden Trio could and should ask for help. Harry's insistence that he doesn't want to risk anyone's life except for Ron and Hermione's is, while understandable as a character move, utterly ridiculous, because the other Order members are risking their lives anyway. One of the biggest holes is Remus and Tonks, who are (a) both already targets for Voldemort because of who they are, and so have nothing to lose, but also (b) both care for Harry on a personal level, and would never accept his reasons for pushing them away. So Teddy Lupin is conceived in order to bench Tonks, who's safely out of commission while pregnant. But that leaves Remus, who probably in fact would have super complicated torn-loyalty feelings about the situation, and who is scarred and traumatized and probably has enough abandonment issues to try and walk out, but — in my view — never resolves any of those things. He doesn't suddenly realize that he loves Tonks and wants to be with her, or feel a sense of duty to his son; when Harry's justly furious at Remus abandoning his kid in Harry's name, Remus gets pissy about it and goes "well, if you don't want my help, fine," and leaves. Which is, again, fine, a character flaw, it's childish, he's allowed to be, and he is, in fact, similar to Sirius and James — but it left a bad taste in my mouth, because that's one of the last conversations we get with Remus, and it's such an impoverished vision of his bonds with others. It doesn't delve deeply into why he loves Tonks or Harry, or the substance of his conflict between them; like always with the Marauders, he just invokes James, and Harry throws James's name right back at him, and it ends there.

And then he dies, so that baby Teddy Lupin can be an orphan, and we can do a parallel to baby Harry Potter. Even though we don't see Teddy Lupin on the page ever, so we have no idea what that comparison means, or how their experiences compliment or contrast one another, or literally anything more substantive than the series beginning and ending on the same event. Which: great. Okay. To quote a Roger Ebert review that I think about, on average, once every thirty-six hours:

"J.K. Rowling has learned from better novels that authors sometimes create narrative parallels, but she has not learned why."

[st-just]

So I saw your hot take, and I'm just curious, what do you think character development should mean? If a character stays a shitty, pathetic, borderline abusive asshole no one is going to like them, because who would like them IRL? They suck. Thats why they have to be better (although I gotta admit, sometimes they deserve to just die rather than go through redemption arc i.e abusers)

re: (or I mean, I'm assuming)

I'm going to be honest, going off this ask I think we might just want and expect fundamentally different things from fiction.

But to try and answer your question, 'character development' imo just means the character changing in personality or priorities over the course of their arc - it's an entirely amoral term. The tragic hero being consumed by their hamartia until they destroy everything they care about falls under the heading as much as some degenerate sinner having a Damascene conversion (or secular equivalent thereof).

(I ran out of fire emojis to respond to, but: my related hot take is that works/fandom treating being a good friend or devoted romantic partner or being willing to sacrifice and suffer for the sake of your child as being automatic proof that you're fundamentally a good person is both aesthetically boring and morally repugnant)

[vinnie2757]

Vincent has reached a turning point; stay, or leave. He knows which he needs Lucrecia to do, but convincing her is the hardest part. [Vincrecia au; she leaves the Jenova Project while pregnant, leapfrogging off of hamartia's pregnancy arc]

‘We need to leave,’ he tells her again, cups her face in both hands.

‘I can’t go,’ she says, her eyes hazy and unfocused. ‘I have work to do.’

‘It’s going to kill you.'

Her skin is clammy, her cheeks cold.

‘No,’ she assures him, with a lazy smile that is too soft, too vacant, for her usual knife’s edge. ‘It’ll be fine. Pregnancies are hard, Vincent. I’ve done the reading.’

He scoffs, and lets her go only long enough to wet a cloth to clean her face of sweat and blood. Gast cannot come quickly enough, he finds himself thinking, waiting on her to brush her teeth and get herself dressed. She is finding it difficult to do her trousers up; he will have to take her further afield to purchase new ones. Perhaps that is how he gets her out. He spirits her away under the guise of maternity clothes. Once they are gone, they can just not go back. She can’t drive, so she wouldn’t be able to stop him.

No, that is an unfair thing to do.

[linkspooky]

THE TRAGIC DEATH OF BAKUGO

Hamartia, also called the tragic flaw, (Harmartia from the Greek hamartien, “to err”) is an inherent defect or shortcoming in the hero of a tragedy, who is in other respects a superior being favored by fortune. Aristotle inroduced the term casually in poetics, in describing the tragic hero as a man of noble rank and nature whose misfortune is not brought about by villainy but by some “error of judgement”. Most importantyly, the hero’s suffering and it’s far-reaching reverberations are far out of proprotion with his flaw. An element of cosmic collusion among the hero’s flaw, chance, necessaity, and other external forces is essential to bring about the tragic catastrophe [x]. 

I start out with the lecture because, this week’s chapter, and the dramatic turn of events where it looked like the heroes had the advantage for most of this fight so far, only to have those advantages undone in a catastrophic turn of events, follows this idea of Hamartia. Just to be clear, I don’t think Horikoshi is specfically referencing Aristotle or anything like that. I just think the way the story is structure d right now is heavily reminiscent of it, the mistakes of the heroes are what brought about this current tragic turn of events. The events of this chapter are essentially the mistakes the heroes made so far going into the valley, catching up with them and benefitting the villains side of the fight. I’ll explain under the cut. 

This is a list of all the mistakes and oversights, the heroes made so far, and just to be clear this isn’t really about whether I think personally the heroes are good or bad people. Hamartia is an intentionally written flaw in a hero character, that the plot is supposed to challenge, the hero rises or falls based on this flaw. 

Peter Parker AKA Spiderman AKA the greatest superhero of all time (this isn’t an opinion it’s just objective fact fight me)  is a character written around the central flaw of responsibility, in his origin story, because of him acting irresponsibly and wanting to selfishly use his new superhuman abilities for his own gain, he lets a robber go right by him, and as a tragic consequence his uncle is shot by that same robber and as he lies dying in his arm he tells Peter “with great power comes great responsibility.” This isn’t a moral judgement on the characters, but rather the flaw their arc resolves around and how there are consequences like Uncle Ben being shot when they don’t work on said flaws. 

Tragic Mistake # 1: Escalating rather than Talking

Before the fight even begins, we’re introduced to a conflict that’s unique to the kids, that they’re starting to think of the villains as more than just people to be stopped and put down. Uraraka remembers that Toga cried when she felt rejected like a person would, Shoto wonders what kind of food Toya likes and considers sitting him down for family dinner, Deku says he can’t ignore the little boy inside of Shigaraki. They are considering the idea that their might be another way of dealing with the villains, but they are all also still using the language of “stop” rather than “save.” 

If the central question of MHA is what makes a true hero, a hero who “wins” or a hero who “saves”, the adult heroes especially Hawks, Endeavor and Jeanist are all firmly on the side of “win” and so fixed that it doesn’t even seem to be a question, whereas the kids are sitting on the fence but they’re still using langauge like “stop” Touya, rather than “saving.” 

Whether or not you think the villains deserve to be saved, further escalating the conflict instead of trying to seek out alternative means to deal with the villains is a conflict for pure strategic reasons. The reason it’s a strategic mistake is because the heroes already tried this in the war arc, they amassed every single force they had for a pre-emptive strike, to put the villains on the defensive. The language of the War Arc was even that if they didn’t stop the villains here, they probably will not have enough forces afterwards afterwards to keep fighting them. That’s the exact language AFO uses in this chapter when analyzing the situation, both the mass retirement of heroes, and also the losses in the War Arc, have made it so a full frontal assault against the villains and essentially going to war with them is no longer viable. 

Like, let’s set the matter of forcing the 1-A kids to essentially fight on the front lines because they simply don’t have the numbers with the retirement of professional heroes to the side for now. This is just the situation of the heroes going into the fight, they didn’t have the numbers they had in the War Arc, and so going into this fight they tried once again with a pre-emptive strike, and a divide and conquer strategy to make use of their lack of numbers. However, they are essentially trying to do the war arc again with less numbers, and less preparation. 

And the War Arc strategy did not even work in the first place. Despite Hawks having months of perparation, the complete element of surprise, Shigaraki, Toga, Dabi, Spinner all got away. Despite the execution of Twice, Toga still has Twice’s blood and Sad Man’s Parade is an option once more. Despite Hawks’ spying, Gigantoamachia got out. Hawks didn’t see the Touya reveal coming. 

Basically what AFO is saying in this chapter is the Heroes had a situation where they had the villains scattered and fighting on the defensive, and they failed to finish them off this time. Now, they are trying to exact same strategy over again with less numbers, and that advantage of surprise and preperation gone. The heroes can’t afford to keep escalating the conflict and trying to put down the villains by overpowering, simply because it’s not strategically viable. 

I’m going to quote Class 1-A kids to essentially seal the point I’m trying to make about the turn of the tides of battle in this chapter. 

[Class 1-A Kids] like after this development, with Bakugo down, Shigarki still putting up a fight when the heroes essentially have him in a cage designed to neutralize all of his powers, Dabi back up, AFO at least partially healed even when Hawks’ strategy of breaking his mask completely successful and Endeavor hitting him with his strongest prominence burn, and also Toga still has Sad Man’s Parade in reserve as a surprise and hasn’t used it yet, then what exactly can the heroes do to turn the table at this point? 

Either Deku showing up to the Shigaraki battle will somehow fix everything by being so overpowered, or you know, the heroes will have to try a different strategy. As Class 1akids says. The idea of saving the villains has been floated for 100+ chapters, the villains have now gone from Shigaraki a leader they were extremely loyal to, to AFO a leader who is mostly using them as pawns in his conflict, and Shigaraki himself is in need of saving, as Spinner has said over and over again he’s continuing the fight for Shigaraki’s sake to save him, not for AFO. There are several characters who could be turned against AFO if given reason to by the heroes, and also it gives the Villains a chance to work to undo at least some of the damage they did. 

Mistake #2 PISSING TOGA OFF 

So essentially the War Arc right now is focused on what are five individual fights, Toga vs Uraraka, everyone else Important vs Shigaraki, Shoto, Iida and Endeavor’s sidekicks vs. Touya, Hawks and Endeavor vs. AFO, and then the riots led by spinner and the heteromorphs. The last has gotten the least focus so I’m going to break the other four fights down in order. Toga is interesting because we have probably gotten the least focus on her fight, we didn’t even cut to her this chapter, and yet Toga is essentially the jenga brick that got pulled out of the tower in the heroes strategy. 

The heroes decision to bet everything on Deku being able to take down Shigaraki with the support of everyone backing him up, was pulled out of the jenga tower when Toga grabbed him and dragged him out of the portal when Danger Sense didn’t trigger. 

Interestingly enough, Toga not triggering Danger Sense did not have to be the disadvantage it turned out to be. As I said, there are clear mistakes and missed opportunities that he heroes mistake in each major battle. Fourth even says, that the reason Toga didn’t trigger the danger sense is because she doesn’t hurt people out of hatred. 

Ignoring the Yandere aspects of Toga going “Deku, please be my boyfriend”, there is a lot of emotional complexity to Toga’s basic statement that she wants to become more like the people she loves. The entire time Toga a high schooler herself has been fascinated by the UA kids, especially Deku and Uraraka and wondering what the difference between them and herself is. Toga’s entire character revolves around the idea that she was labeled as a deviant the moment her quirk manifested and shunned, and yet she desires acceptance for who she is, especially after repressing herself to such an extreme extent to try to be “normal” and “good” lead to what was essentially a psyhotic break and a violent incident. 

Shigaraki and Touya are perhaps the most self destructive of all the LOV characters, while Toga is someone who has questioned whether the heroes will ever come save her, or if what she really wants is acceptance rather than just destroying things. 

Toga is the one questioning if things have to be a life or death battle between them, and Izuku and Ochaco both have the opportunity to show Toga there are other ways, and then they don’t. 

Toga’s trajectory as a character is pretty clear, when people reject her, she rejects them back even harder. If you try violence on her, she will get violent back, and so Ochaco and Deku both pick the option of choosing to just defeat her in a physical battle is just a bad choice in general, because Toga is essentially sitting on a bomb. She has the nuke codes here. The biggest advantage of the fight is going to be when Toga uses sad man’s parade, so either Ochaco just defets her in a physical battle before Toga has the chance to use it (but if this happens then why does Horikoshi devote several chapters in a long running plot thread to bring up the possibility that Toga will create another Sad Man’s Parade, and also give Toga the ability to copy the abilities of people whose blood she drinks in the first place if not to make this happen), or Toga is talked down or even persuaded to turn against AFO. 

But as for Uraraka herself, what is her tragic and central flaw in this scenario that she cannot overcome. It is essentially Uraraka who is the most empathic of the hero characters, and the one who is so sensitive that she can notice the struggles on other people’s faces and gave a big speech on how the heroes are essentially humans and they need help too. She even flashes back to Toga’s crying face in that speech, it’s a deliberate showing that Toga is being left out of this speech. If the heroes are still human, and need to be helped like any other human beings, then villains as the other side of the coin are just as human as the heroes. Yet Uraraka still fails to reconcile Toga with that idea, Toga is given the impression that Uraraka still doesn’t see her as a real person and that pushes Toga into more extreme forms of violence. 

So anyway, what Ochaco and Deku essentially needed to do here was not poke the bear, and not only did they poke it, they shot it, threatened its cubs, and also the bear has rabies. 

MISTAKE # 3 ENJI TODOROKI NOT FACING DABI

So yes, everyone and their mother has pointed out that Shoto has a better chance of actually reaching Dabi and empathizing him because they faced such similiar abused and lived experiences. And yes, apaprently it was Shoto’s idea himself to face Dabi alone while Enji handled AFO. I think since then, the plot has pointed out several times that Enji choosing to run away from Toya and not face him again, is him not improving on his central flaw as a character, and was the wrong choice in this situation. 

If Shoto facing Dabi alone was the right choice, then Shoto using his best move against Dabi, his speech about everything he’s learned from his friends, and also his begging his brother to stop, would have stopped the fight there, but even after Shoto leverages all of that....

Dabi just gets back up and demands to see Endeavor again. 

So, I think Dabi needs to face Endeavor. But like, to prove my point with actual in text citations. Number one, if Shoto’s objective is to get Toya to come home (something he has implied but not vocalized) and Enji’s intention is to take responsbility for Toya and the damage they did to this family, they both went into this fight with the wrong head. The conflict with Dabi is also another iteration of the central conflict of the story, what makes heroes “winning” or “saving.” We see another repeat of the language of Shoto’s objective of “stop” Toya, rather than saving him. This might not be Shoto’s intentions, deep down he might want to just bring his brother home, but we don’t see him vocalize that. 

Enji himself, is the emblem of the hero who always prioritizes victory over saving others. Dabi is the shadow to Enji’s flaws as as hero meant to call out that flaws. To simplify the complex Todoroki drama in one central flaw, it’s established to us in the Touya flashback chapters. Like, for Toya himself, what is the origin as a conflict. He has a hero as a father, and he has a father who only cares about the world of heroes, and the potential his children have to be heroes to surpass all might. Enji even before he started to physically abuse Shoto, withdrew entirely from Toya, Natsuo and Fuyumi’s lives when they were no longer potential candidates for his dream to surpass All Might. 

Enji’s central flaw as a character is that he chooses being a hero, over being a father and his responsibilities to his family ever single time. The only reason he had a family in the first place was to create a child who could carry on his dream as a hero, but Enji is given several opportunities to just give that up when he sees the way it’s hurting his family, and he just never does he always doubles down every single time choosing his ambitions and heroics over his children. 

Enji is a hero at the expense of everything else, even atonement Enji who is supposedly facing the things he did to his family, does so as a hero first before anything else, and it’s shown in the choices he makes during the battle. 

I don’t know if you’ve noticed but Toya shouting “Look at me” his entire childhood, and Dabi repeating “Look at me” makes it pretty clear with what he wants. If that’s not obvious enough, AFO helpfully points it out for the audience. 

Hawks’ justification for the choice to just, not have Enji face Dabi is that he wouldn’t be able to objectively face Toya and fight him like any other villain. Once again we have the language, Enji couldn’t “FIGHT AND BEAT” Toya. 

Hawks’ thinking is pure strategy, using Endeavor as their biggest fighter with Hawks’ support, they pound everything they have against AFO to take him out of the fight as quickly as possible since he has effectively taken leadership of the villain’s forces, and while he still is their muscles he’s also essentially a glass cannon due to requiring life support with all the injuries All Might left on his body. 

It is a sound strategy, that is if it had worked. Even with AFO taunting Enji and shaking him up, we basically see everything in the fight go completely the way Hawks envisioned, they smash his mask, and not only that but Enji uses his strongest fire on AFO. However, as I said Enji in doing this has ignored his central flaw, putting his duty as a hero over his duty to his family. Yeah, he says that, after this he will watch Toya, but hasn’t anyone ever told Enji, the most basic rule of storytelling is show don’t tell. So anyway, everything works out exactly the way Hawks wanted... and then AFO just gets back up. 

We see a similiar result in the fight against Toya. I think Enji’s mistakes are much clearer than Shoto’s in this situation, because like it’s not really Shoto’s fault that Enji destroyed his family he’s a victim in this too. However, to briefly touch upon why Shoto alone isn’t enough to Toya, and why he didn’t reach Toya. 

Well, to put it simply he didn’t really reach out much in the first place. Dabi is created by his family not seeing him.  Shoto chooses not the path of relating to his brother, but by beating him down with his strongest move, putting a stop to him above all else. 

If anything I think shoto is a little bit mixed about what he wants going into this fight, and it is in Shoto’s character to being in two minds about things (he is quite literally split down the middle, fire and ice, mother and father, family and heroics, etc. etc.) Is his big brother a villain to be stopped, or someone suffering in need of saving, and I think (I use I think because honestly I’m not sure what to make of Shoto’s character here entirely and where he plays in on this it’s less clean cut than what Enji needs to do. Shoto hears Dabii out for the reason why he ddin’t come back home so he did try talking, but he also like, doesn’t make the leap that Dabi didn’t become a villain in a vaccum.)

So Shoto hasn’t made up his mind, whether Dabi should be dealt with as a villain, or as his brother and fellow abuse victim, and his choice is to simply try overpowering him. I’d say this analysis is supported by the way Shoto fails to take down Toya, by not seeing Toya and underestimating him. By underestimating Toya, he forgot that Toya is someone who spent years honing his quirk on his own, so Toya essentially copies Shoto’s move and Shoto doesn’t see it coming. Failure to see his brother therefore, leads to Shoto making a strategic oversight and Dabi gets back up stronger. The tragic flaw then for both Shoto and Enji is acting as heroes first, and treating the conflict as another hero villain conflict when it’s not, Dabi isn’t just a villain, he’s Toya Todoroki, he’s there brother and son and the person their family failed and let die the first time who is at risk of just dying all over again. 

MISTAKE #4 SHIGARAKI IS A VIDEO GAME BOSS FIGHT

So, to quickly recap. The heroes have tried several times already, to take Shigaraki out. They got him in the tube and stopped his heart when he was only halfway through the surgery, and Shigaraki got back up. 

The heroes amassed every single one of their best members against him, with the decay quirk mostly deactivated, and his body incomplete and therefore breaking down on him. Deku completely lost his mind and went full violence, activating his quirk in his desperation. Shigaraki was burned by Endeavor, had his quirk neutralized by Eraserhead, was pummeled by Deku into oblivion, was tied up by Jeanist, and then... he got back up. Not only that but when Deku and Shigaraki are together in the vestiges, it’s pointed out that the more the heroes fight against Shigaraki, the more his hatred increases, and more he fuses with AFO. The more Shigaraki hates, the more it eats away at Shigarki, the more the lines between him and AFO blur. 

It’s also been said by Shigaraki several times, the more the heroes reject him, the more that Shigaraki will reject him back, his desire to destroy comes from the fact that he knows society has absolutely no place for him. The american hero shoots a missile at Shigaraki, and... he gets back up. 

Definition of insanity, trying the same thing over and over again, and all that. Basically, two long running threads have been established by Shigarki, that the more he is hated, the more he will be hated in return, grow more violent, lash out wildly, and the more control AFO has over him. However, no matter how much AFO tries to possess him, a small part of Tenko remains, there is a crying child inside of Shigaraki. 

If Shigaraki is beyond saving and needs to be put down, why not only the continued showing of Tenko inside of Shigaraki as a child trapped in horrifying imagery of hundreds and hundreds of hands he can’t escape from, but also people like AFO and Deku both insisting that some small part of the childhood victim remains inside of Shigaraki.

 Why is AFO so concerned about the fact that Shigaraki is resisting him in some small ways, if the heroes are not capable of reaching Shigaraki? Why is he suddenly worried about the loss of his total and complete hold of Shigaraki right now. Why suggest that there is a fission within Shigarki, if it’s not possible for Shigarakito break free of AFO’s control? 

Onto the fight itself, even without Deku there we are shown not only the trap that the heroes laid against Shigaraki by building an entire arena to neutralize Shigarki’s decay ability, and also copying the erasure quirk to keep it focused on Shigaraki the entire time working, but even without Deku there, the heroes being able to work together and pull off several combo teamwork attacks. Rumi and Bakugo getting close and landing several hits in spite of the mutant hands,the big three of UA landing their three way combo attack that consists of a giant chimera hybrid that shoots lasers. Even without Deku, everything is pretty much working, so why does Shigarki not go down? Two answers, once again the strategy going in was wrong. It’s even mentioned several time, just building a giant arena to contain Shigaraki and trying to unite everyone to destroy him like he’s a video game boss, is the wrong-headed strategy. 

Most of all because they literally already tried that. They had the entirety of the strongest heroes unite their forces against Shigaraki in the war arc... and he got back up again. 

However, my second reason, to show the central flaw, the Hamartia of Bakugo in this scenario I want to ask the question, why didn’t Deku show up to this battle in the first place? 

I mean physically we know why he’s not there, he got dragged into the wrong portal, and now he’s flying making his way there. However, thematically why is Bakugo essentially fighting alone against AFO, and what does that represent in story. 

By viewing Shigaraki as just a video game boss to be defeated, all of the heroes here, but especially Bakugo are choosing winning rather than saving. Yes, I do think that winning is still important to being a hero, because without winning Deku will just break his own body over and over again trying to save others.

But Deku is the emblematic hero who wants to save everyone. His entire character revolves around the concept of having an overwhelming desire to save that doesn’t follow any logic. Deku saves people without thinking like it’s an urge inside of him. So of course, Deku is absent from a fight where the main strategy is to win against Shigaraki no matter what. Deku is not ther,e and Bakugo leads the fight. 

Bakugo is not only the one who has always prioritized winning, he has also always worshipped All Might as the perfect symbol of victory. 

Shigaraki even calls attention to this fact, when delivering his one-sided beatdown. 

Bakugo worships All-Might’s triumphs, but without Midoriya there to balance him out, Bakugo only thinks about winning and overpowering the enemy. Bakugo’s only focus is victory, and he himself leverages absolutely everything he has against Shigaraki, his biggest move, and it doesn’t work...

Whether you believe Bakugo’s death is going to be permanent or not, there’s also something truly tragic, about the fact that Bakugo even after his full power not being eough to fight Shigaraki, getting back up and trying again, and practically unlocking a new ability in his quirk. He pushes himself to extremes taking down Shigaraki, then pushed himself even further, and even started to threaten Shigaraki all on his own. And then, his heart literally just gives out on him. 

Bakugo gives absolutely everything he has fighting on his own, to achieve the perfect victory against the villains with zero casualties on their side, and he becomes the first casualty himself. 

B/c Bakugo’s philosophy of winning, is only half of the philosophy. Bakugo needs Deku not because he needs a strong quirk or because Deku is stronger than him, but because both of their philosophies when brought together balance each other out enough. It’s not winning, or saving, it’s winning and saving. There is no saving without winning, and there is no winning without saving. If there’s anything to be learned from Deku’s solo arc, is that Deku focused too much on the saving aspect of being a hero, at the expense of himself and taking care of himself, and it’s Bakugo who shows up and not only convinces Deku to come home and accept people’s help and stop sacrificing himself, Bakugo even apologizes to Deku for bullying him all these years in an effort to get him to value himself more. 

Midoriya needs to learn Bakugo’s self-assured image of victory, to be able to save people without feeling the need to sacrifice himself over and over again. However, Bakugo himself hasn’t learned to balance Midoriya’s philosophy with his own. Bakugo even goes halfway to acknowledging that he needs to do things more Midoriya’s way. 

Saving people is how we win. Save by winning, and win by saving. While trying to tell Deku he needs to take care of himself and accept their help, he also accepts Deku’s ideals for the first time, Deku’s method of being a hero is just as valid as him but what they need is to work together. 

So the problem with Bakugo fighting alone in this, isn’t that he’ll never be as strong as Deku, or that he’s like Deku’s supporting character or something, but they haven’t reached a true compromise on their ideals. Saving people is how they win, but Bakugo doesn’t even consider saving Shigaraki the way Deku has, and he instead rushes in guns blazing, and leverages everything he has into winning against a villain.

Not only is Bakugo’s sudden death, emblematic of his flaw that he hasn’t learned to compromise his ideals between him and Deku, to become a hero who surpasses All Might bey winning and saving. Bakugo’s flaw has always been the focus on winning above all else, his own fears of inferiority to Deku and his fear that his beliefs don’t make him a good enough hero which causes him to push himself too far (like maybe I don’t know, charging straight at the villain when he’s already injured in order to prove himself) and only seeing half of what made All Might the greatest hero. I mean even on a tactical front, Shigaraki even asks, why was Bakugo, a long range hero who shoots explosions at people... running in and turning things into a close ranged fight? When trying to blow Shigaraki doesn’t work, it leaves Bakugo open to be physically brutalized, and all the injuries that cause his heart to give out in the first place, are a direct result of Bakugo just... charging straight in and trying to win by overpowering Shigaraki. 

However, Bakugo’s death is also emblematic of the tragic flaws of the heroes as well. By prioritizing winning over everything else, they’ve inadvertantly caused Bakugo���s death. Shigaraki said at the beginning of the fight he no longer thinks Eraserhead is cool. 

What caused Shigaraki to admire Eraserhead in the first place, was his actions of prioritizing the student’s safety above everything else, and fighting on the front lines himself. However, Eraserhead is no longer doing that, and Shigaraki voices the reason for his disappointment this chapter. 

The decision to win at the expense of everything else, for the heroes, and for Bakugo, causes Bakugo himself to put way too much responsibility on his shoulders when he’s just one person, and instead of stepping out of the fight and hanging back when he was too injured to continue, he pushed himself too far and his body gave out on him. The Heroes strategy overall of prioritizing winning against the villains over all else, and refusing to try any other strategy other than overpowering him, causes them to put kids on the front line.

Bakugo’s death, almost works perfectly as an example of a tragic flaw causing a hero to fall. Literally in this case, because Bakugo is a hero, who has quite tragically, fallen in the middle of combat. Whether or not Bakugo can come back, or even he heroes can come back from this as a whole, it will require to heroes to battle against and overcome all the flaws I’ve pointed out in the previous sections of this post. Because that is essentailly what makes the heroes journey, a hero struggling against their flaws until they overcome them. 

[stringcage]

a while back i made this post about adam parrish and max caulfield being really similar characters and lately i've been thinking about that a lot and i think it really has to do with the duality of their relationships with supernatural power and autonomy.

both of their character arcs are very reliant on receiving supernatural abilities at the beginning of their series and the aftermath this has on their self esteems. both of them gain confidence as time goes on and they master their abilities, with adam becoming the magician and max using her rewind to help bring people to justice. the confidence that comes with this power helps both of them to overcome their hamartia (adam, learning to ease the chip on his shoulder and accept help from others when the situation calls for it; max, becoming comfortable with interacting with the world around her and take some control over her own life as well).

but even though we can see that what their power is doing to them is a net good for their own personal growth, it offsets the balance of the world around them. the universe seems not to believe that they should wield this power. we see adam get possessed by the demon through his bond with cabeswater, and the reckoning of max's tampering with time causing the storm that can only end in death. i think it says something really interesting about sacrifice, which is also a huge part of both of their characters down to literal word choice in the narrative.

and of course this is resolved in a way befitting of the cyclical nature of time that is prevalent in trc and lis: even though their powers are what got them to this pivotal point against the universe in the first place, the way that their relationship with magic helped them grow as a person allows them to be capable of getting themselves out of this situation (adam letting his friends help him when he gets possessed and max being able to make a choice, one way or the other, to save someone, no matter who it may be, instead of shying away from any sort of autonomy). the universe grants them a hubris of sorts, punishes them for possessing it, but that hubris allows each of them to save themselves in spite of it all

[human-still-developing]

The Secret History by Donna Tartt is just so stunning! I've almost finished the book (just a chapter to go that I'm holding on to for so long because I don't want it to end) and I'm blown away. It's truly a work of literary fiction; the gorgeous John Donne-esque study of humanity vs rationality is such a powerful lens to explore the complex relationships (and demise) of the six university students the novel circulates around. I'm in love with their nuanced relationship with each other (lingering somewhere between romance, hatred and brotherhood - this actually really reminds me of the relationship between men in ancient greek texts that modern translations are always conflicted if they are in love or just close friends). I'm in love with the study of how language enriches, tears and shapes the characters. I've been ranting to a friend about how its giving me Great Gatsby crossed with Macbeth crossed with Lord of the Flies vibes because it pays homage to the origins and development of the novel form throughout time with its delicate character arcs and novel progression. The hamartia of all the main characters leading to their downfall, the unreliable narrator (Richard is one of the most interesting protagonists I've ever read and such a creative perspective to tell the story), the beautiful and symbolic prose that glows even when it's pulled apart.

This is something that I'd definitely recommend everyone to read!

[nonbinaryphantom]

roleswap danny’s arc hits very similar to a tragedy where he’s the tragic hero but due to his own hamartia he’s leading his own downfall he even has a revelation on his own self and his relationships which leads to him getting Worse. but unlike a lot of tragedies he’s. not a high status person or a great hero he’s just a kid who just got lucky/unlucky to become half-ghost and everything that comes with growing up snowballs

[jumpscaregoose]

lyserg diethel in hell is neat basically

lyserg's always had my favourite arc out of the main five guys and I wanna talk about it but mostly the culmination of that arc when he goes to hell. because it is neat and I get to sound ridiculous

lyserg is different from the other main characters in that instead of following a more linear character progression he hits absolute rock bottom and winds up only a few steps ahead of his introduction by the end of the manga. this fucking slaps and I love it.

the crux of his character is similar to the concept of aristotelian hamartia, or a downfall based on a morally neutral fatal flaw (the most pretentious series of words I've ever written). lyserg's parents are killed by hao, he wants revenge, he winds up in the echo chamber of the x laws for a while and spirals. the way lyserg differentiates from a class tragedy is in that he doesn't crash and burn but instead quietly returns to around where he started (but not exactly. like 4 steps ahead).

unlike the other main guys, lyserg doesn't get a big bombastic culmination of his arc (well he does, but considering the rest of them all went to hell at the same time I don't think it counts). his is a lot more understated. and I like that because I'm a loser who likes going over this manga with a fine toothed comb.

for a bit of context as to where lyserg is as a character before this scene we're busting out these scans I have again

^ this scene is about as fucked up as he gets. for most of the second half of the manga the angst is more subdued ^

at his lowest point, lyserg's #1 priority was his revenge on hao. he was willing to do a significant amount of murder and other fucked up shit for this goal. the niles match is this mentality crystallized.

when he's not being put in situations where he can kill people to further his revenge, lyserg is more... quietly depressed. just sitting in the corner all ����. he is There

and then we get the mastema hell scene (what do you even call it). the character's individual hells are clearly meant to demonstrate traumas/important stuff in relation to the character (the tao mansion, a flooded forest, mount osorezan, and a dante's inferno reference I think?). lyserg's is in london. the area around big ben specifcally. the last moments of happiness he had before his parents' deaths

and actually the big ben thing was a lie. he spawns in next to this building

I'm assuming it's meant to be a church but given how busted it is it could be something else. church is my first guess based on the christian imagery of the x laws as a group. if we take this building as a church meant to represent the x laws, it's also of note that it's broken, like the current state of the group with almost all its members dead

out of all five hells, we only see two significant demons. the first is oh-oni in yoh's, clearly calling back to the osorezan arc. the second is mastema in lyserg's. the demon being named mastema is significant because, at least according to my googling, the name mastema means hatred in hebrew. it's also explicitly stated as a symbol of hatred in the text

my absolute favourite part of this scene is this part though

(my absolute favourite part got bodied by my phone scan rip)

ALSO if this RANDOM BRITTANIA FACTOID is true MISSED OPPORTUNITY FROM TAKEI

six wings for fire and you give the fire guy four. ok. kind of hope this isn't true so we didn't lose anything in the divorce

back to the actual scene, I think the angel form is meant to represent the justice of the x laws as a crutch for actual personal growth. it isn't possible for lyserg to defeat his hatred with the holier-than-thou ideology he's been living with, so he nearly gets crushed

the rest of the scene is significantly less interesting but the cliffsnotes version is that Cool Character Development is implied but happens mostly offscreen in a Takei Moment. read it for yourself if you want the details there because I don't wanna write about them

this next pages makes me feral though

mastema dolkeem. flames of hatred. love it so much. roses are red violets are blue mastema dolkeem has nothing to do with you. yeeessss my boy work on overcoming your need for revenge and grow as a person yesssss

obnoxiously long lyserg rant over thanks for coming

[bestworstcase]

Was Pyrrha's death a narrative punishment for ultimately keeping her friends away and following Ozpin's path of solitude?

no

for one, rwby just isn’t a punitive narrative; that characters sometimes—often!—face serious unintended consequences for their choices is not an act of narrative retribution but an organic expression of naturalistic storytelling; sometimes bad things happen and sometimes people make dire mistakes. even characters like adam and jacques are only people in the end; there is no pleasure taken in killing adam and no justice served by murdering jacques, only painful necessity on the one hand and the cruel excesses of a tyrant on the other. this is not a story that is interested in punishing its characters.

but i think the probably more salient point for pyrrha specifically is that conceiving of tragedy itself as narrative punishment is, well, bananas; that fundamentally is not what tragedy is about. in particular classical tragedy—the aristotelian narrative structure used for pyrrha’s arc—is in essence a reversal of fortune brought about by the tragic hero’s hamartia (not a flaw, but an error or mistake), often accompanied by anagnorisis and always provoking fear and sympathy. the tragic reversal is an unforeseen but inevitable consequence of an action taken by the tragic hero at the beginning of the story but it is, critically, not a punishment (and indeed a reversal brought about by an external force, by fate or the gods or society, is by definition not a tragedy).

pyrrha’s mistake is an exact reflection of ozma’s—she says i’ll do it before fully understanding the burden she is being asked to carry, and for all her anguish and inner conflict she remains true to that promise even as it crushes her—and one that made her decision to make a hopeless last stand against cinder inevitable, because in accepting the burden given to her she accepted responsibility for preventing cinder’s ascension as the fall maiden. but the narrative does not and cannot condemn her for it (quite the contrary, pyrrha’s decision to try despite the odds is honored and framed explicitly as an admirable, noble choice)—because otherwise the tragedy is lost and the thematic coherency of the narrative as a whole unravels.

(as an aside, the “rwbyjnor hate heroic sacrifices because they witnessed pyrrha’s totally pointless one” take common in penny 3.0 theoryposting drives me insane both for the implicit condemnation of pyrrha herself and because “pyrrha made a stupid/unnecessary/selfish decision and should have just run away” is expressly not what anyone in the cast took away from her death.)

[seokjinsonlyone]

OPEN DISCUSSION IS OFFICIALLY OPEN!!!DELUSIONAL HOURS COMMENCED!! the topic on tonight’s table?

u gotta pick a member of your choosing and then create a 7 song bts playlist about ur relationship tell me why you chose each song and how it relates to your relationship as always i’ll go first

the member i choose is OF COURSE✨ seokjin ✨ gotta keep the flame alive while my baby doing his thing gotta let the hoes know he still accounted for 🤧 GOTTA SPEAK OUR TRUTH

FIRST SONG UP IS embarrassed/blanket kick!!! like we would just have soooo much pining in the beginning to be honest but like lowkey pining not lowkey enough that the people who know us best are oblivious but lowkey nonetheless and like we’d be acting awkward around each other tryna figure out who gon make a move first (not me) and like the timing just gon be off for a bit and there’s gonna be the subtle flirting until he goes for it <333

next up is butterfly and i know what you may be thinking like DANG ALREADY???? like THESE LYRICS????

Will you stay by my side/Will you promise me/If I let go of your hand, you'll fly away and break/I'm scared scared scared of that/Will you stop time/If this moment passes/As though it hadn't happened/I’m scared scared scared I'll lose you

but yes <333 we not casual people and all the pining will have gotten to us and it’s gon be like omg 😱 we wanted this so bad what if it doesn’t work? should we just stay friends? i’d rather keep you where you are then escalate this if that’s a possibility like we’re gonna be scared but we finna work through it take the leap of faith

THENNN 21st century girls!!! something cute for the kids something light for the summer time we’ve worked out most of our complexes surrounding the relationship and i just feel like seokjin would have the energy like being my hype man you know like always flirting telling me i’m beautiful encouraging my own individuality this that and the third he’s fun!! he’s a dream!! he’s a man written by a woman!! MY man written for ME specifically 🤨

WE’VE REACHED THE CREST OF BREAKUP ARC in the form of moon like okay you would NOT think that this would lead to our breakup but like FUN FACT!!! i have abandonment and trust issues it’s true 💔 the hot girl’s hamartia like imma get overwhelmed by his affections for me and like how much trust he has in me bc like these lyrics

Though everyone says I'm beautiful/But my sea is all black/A star where flowers bloom and the sky is blue/You are the truly beautiful one/Suddenly I wonder/Are you also looking at me right now? (Oh)/Won't you find out all my painful wounds? (Oh)/ I'll orbit around you/ I'll stay by your side/ I'll be your light/ All for you

LIKE THATS A LOT FOR SOMEONE WITH ABANDONMENT ISSUES AND LIKE and i’d be like woah woah what did i even do to deserve all that we gotta we gotta chill idk if i can do this that’s right i’m the villain of my own story <\3

BUT FRET NOT BC love is not over like at the end of the day he not gon let a good thing (me) go 💁🏾‍♀️ neither of us are tbh it’s gonna take some time to get there tho like we’re both gonna have to take time to evaluate the relationship and ourselves and i feel like it’s gonna be one of those things where it’s like we gonna meet up for closure but end up with us being like why the HECK are we hurting for no reason like if being apart feels like this let’s just be together

and when all that’s said and done we have outro propose 🥳🥳🥳 that’s right guys we’re getting MARRIED!!! 👰🏾‍♀️🤵🏻‍♂️ even tho i’m the earth to his moon he still wants to give me the world the solar system the galaxy it’s true i’m his everything and he’s mine too and we gonna reminisce on our journey and live happily ever after 💕💞💖

SO WE’RE WRAPPING IT ALL UP WITH best of me!!! now let me tell u about this song like it’s just one that always shocks me bc i usually don’t like songs that sound like this like the edm type feel but i’ve ALWAYS really liked this song like every time it would come up on shuffle i’d be surprised about how i genuinely love it but still bc it’s not the usual sound i gravitate toward i don’t typically CHOOSE to put it on so tbh i never looked up the english translation like SUE ME BTS HAS A GAJILLION SONGS AND THEY ALWAYS MAKING MOVES CANT BE ON TOP OF EVERYTHING but when i was looking up the lyrics for this my jaw was on the freaking floor like the DEVOTION held within these lyrics oh me OH MY like need me some of that desperately like if you’ve never looked up the translation or if it’s been a while I SINCERELY URGE YOU TO DO SO like i can’t put everything here but

I used to rain/I used to snow/I stop all the misfortune/ And I bring the heavens/ Don't speak of it so lightly/ There's no me without you/ You're the best of me, the best of me, yeah

like knees on da ground head in my hands world shook aura combusted i can’t believe they was pop locking when they said these words ANYWAY yeah seokjin is like head honcho of both emotional maturity and wanting everyone around him to be happy especially ME once we’re married and all in like we’re gonna give each other our best and be the best for each other

ALRIGHT IVE MADE MYSELF SEEM SUFFICIENTLY CRAZY YOUR TURN IM PASSING THE MIC 🎤

[gloriousmooseman]

I saw a criticism of the Supernatural finale today that Dean's death wasn't as impactful or meaningful because it didn't serve the wider plot, and I am NOT a fan of the ending, but I think that if his death had been incorporated as a season or whole series arc it would have been even less impactful than the rusty nail because it would have given the impression that Chuck won in the end and got his story where the tragic hero is killed due to their hamartia.

[faceyourfear]

The finale of season 5 is exactly what I expected (maybe as a series finale instead of a season one, but still), but I still didn’t like it. 

It felt reductive, rehashed and repeated. Because it was. Maybe not for Daniel who grows older and becomes mature, but for Terry it does.

So here I’m going to attempt to explore and explain what I would like. Personal opinions and all that (don’t take it personal if you disagree). 

Thomas talks about richness and arcs and the last thirty years being mapped out by the creators… and yes, alright. But is all that used in the narrative? How is everything connected to reach to the semi-end of the character at the end of the season? 

Which made my question what I’d find as a satisfying ending for Terry Silver. In the beginning I couldn’t answer. Maybe the end is still not clear in my mind; what would I like to see? Definitely not the same as the end of Karate Kid III.

But the narrative didn’t set events in a way to have any other resolution. 

I see Terry as a “Byronic tragic (in the same sense tragic is used in ‘tragic hero) villain or antagonist”. The creators have given him all those flashbacks to “flesh out” his character but don’t use them to evolve the story. And this isn’t a Hannibal-like story to have the protagonists fall together… (which I didn’t like either, but it fit the story, it fit the characters that were created by Fuller & their arc and their flashbacks and personal stories). 

That’s not what’s happening in Cobra Kai. 

He’s a Byronic because 

they are to be defined by their rejection or questioning of standard social conventions and norms of behavior, their alienation from larger society, their focus on the self as the center of existence, and their ability to inspire others to commit acts of good and kindness. Romantic heroes are not idealized heroes, but imperfect and often flawed individuals who, despite their sometimes less than savory personalities, often behave in a heroic manner.

See, I don’t call him hero, just Byronic (antagonist or villain) because he’s a imperfect and flawed and focuses on the self as the centre of existence, his behaviour is not the norm and he does reject standard social conventions. 

Byronic heroes tend to be characterized as being:

Intelligent

Cunning

Ruthless

Arrogant

Depressive

Violent

Self-aware

Emotionally and intellectually tortured

Traumatized

Highly emotional

Manipulative

Self-serving

Spiritually doubtful

Often reckless or suicidal

Prone to bursts of anger

Decidedly prone to substance abuse

Dedicated to pursuing matters of justice over matters of legality

Given to self-destructive impulses

Seductive and sexually appealing

Well, look at that! He has all of these traits but he’s not a hero. (or you know, he could be if the writers played the cards they cheated with right)

He’s in the story to antagonise, to be the adversary, to be the villain. 

And I think this is where they lost it, because I think the end would have been different if he was presented now (35 years after KKIII and years of therapy, and accepting his flaws and being a “changed man”) as a decent and good sensei who wouldn’t harm his students, but following the letter of the teachings he was taught against Daniel. 

Basically, being both a changed man and an antagonist. Meaning don’t add flashbacks and a backstory of therapy if it’s not going to be used. If you add them, use them. 

He’s tragic because like every tragic hero he “creates his own demons”, he’s the reason for his own downfall, his inability to see the faults in his teaching and accept the other technique may have a better point. A tragic hero doesn’t pay because “big bad society/villain has it against him”.

“character between these two extremes… a man who is not eminently good and just, yet whose misfortune is brought about not by vice or depravity, but by some error or frailty».

Which could be the character they introduced in season 4 and the young man they showed in flashbacks. 

I can write about hubris, hamartia, peripeteia, anagnorisis and catharsis easily for this character, but what is the point? They could make him a formidable antagonist, make him something different than KKIII because of their own flashbacks. Tremendously easily. And they screwed up, taking him back to the same villain of KKIII. 

See, this kind of character arc doesn’t even need to be redeemed… and they could still have Daniel win, just not in karate. 

The issue though is that everything was awfully superficial and in the end unnecessary & not used. That's just so very sad. 

So about the end? I’ll compare it to BBC/Netflix 2020 Dracula finale (that many didn’t like) and say that it would fit the character perfectly. The character chooses his own end as he did with his life after having his worldview proven wrong and dangerous.