#about 1700 words

[katatonicimpression]

It's the middle of the afternoon on New Year's Eve and I have fuck all to do so let's watch the Sam episode of What If?

DISCLAIMER: This is the first, and so far only, full episode of this show that I have ever watched. It did not inspire me to watch more. So, that's my bias I guess.

Background

There was some controversy about all of this. Sam appeared briefly in the zombies episode in the first season of this show. He's already a zombie and is quickly killed (re-killed?) by bucky, who makes a quip about it.

The line feels kinda off, like they're trying to recreate the banter between the characters in the live action (finding each other annoying etc) but it falls flat. There's no love there. In civil war (which takes place before the canon divergence in the show), their banter still has a level of camaraderie to it. They're riffing off each other, and fighting together and saving each other. It's weird to have bucky quip at the prospect of sam's death in a scene that takes place after those scenes.

It feels like reading one of the thousands of "incorrect quotes" posts on this app that write Bucky being horrible to Sam for no reason. It's the exact same emotional experience. Put a pin in that.

There was another controversy related to this, which is that in the same episode, Sharon also dies. Allegedly, one of the main writers (matthew chauncey) said that they should give her a particularly violent death because "no one likes her... he belongs with peggy". This is an open expression of violent misogyny so yeah that's fun. What a piece of shit... allegedly.

Sam does not appear in any other episode of what if s1. When s2 came out, his absence felt conspicuous, and many people commented on it. In particular, there's an episode of s2 that is vaguely medieval/robin-hood vibes, and Sam is noticeably absent from Steve's band of merry men. Steve's best friend, closest partner of over 50 years of comics isn't there. The falconry themed superhero is not in the medieval episode. People rightfully called bs.

The show felt similar to reading posts and fics in the fandom, and the way that people will minimise Sam's existence in Canon. Put a pin in that.

One person involved in making it (I think a writer but I can't remember and I searched for like ten minutes it's NYE gimme a break) responded publically to these complaints. They cited a supposed uncertainty over sam's future in the mcu (specifically whether he was cap or falcon) as a reason for not including him.

This was very funny, because 1) There was no ambiguity over whether Sam would be cap - it was a dead cert since Endgame what are you on? and 2) no one would've been mad if Sam had appeared as Falcon.

This response had the same vibes as when random fans say weird and ignorant things in Sam's tag and, when confronted, will offer weird excuses that don't make any sense. Pin it.

The other bit of context here is the (admittedly heavy) discussion of how What If launched Captain Carter, a decision that had to have been made around the same time that they decided to do samcap. I've talked before about this; it's complicated and the discourse is annoying. But ultimately, it comes across very badly for the mcu that they created a white female british captain america (not captain britain from Excalibur, but specifically a captain america character) specifically to launch near simultaneously with a Black captain america. It looks bad and I don't like it.

Anyway, so after this person who's name i can't find put their foot in their mouth, Marvel released a few stills from s3, revealing that Sam would be in one episode. People were happy to see him, and (aside from the VERY VALID CRITIQUE that WhatIf!Sam doesn't have the eyelashes he so clearly ought to) people were mostly placated.

The Episode

I love mark ruffalo but his voice performance in the opening scene is not it. Also the narration is mixed a lot louder than the dialogue... which is a jarringly amateur mistake. Ok whatever i'm gonna try to keep my salty complaining sam-focused

So, the show opens with a version of the opening samsteve meetcute from CATWS. But this time, without a mutual exchange of vulnerability. This time Sam is just offering Bruce comfort.

Then he literally gives him therapy.

Then he takes him to Louisiana to the boat, a redo of the sambucky scenes in tfatws. I'm not the first person to point this out, but there's a big difference here. Bucky came to louisiana uninvited with a (technically unwanted, but still very impressive) gift for Sam and then spent the day working on the boat as a gesture of friendship. He was performing acts of service (or however you express it) because he wanted to preserve and nurture this relationship. He knew he'd treated Sam badly and wanted to make it up to him.

Then, Sam invited him to stay the night (or, rather, accepts bucky's self-invitation to sleep in his house), because he's nice and welcoming and generous yes sure. But also because he likes Bucky back, despite everything. They both want to be friends and partners.

That's not happening here. It's just Sam offering Bruce his home because he is apparently motivated by a desire to help random white men he meets.

It reminds me of the countless fics and hcs that write Sam exclusively as a caretaker and therapist for bucky or other white characters. It reminds me of the takes that rewrite canon to make him be the one to pursue bucky with a desire to help and nurture him - a thing that has never happened in canon. Urgh. Pin that thought up with the others.

Oh and of course, we can't have a story about samcap without paying tribute to our holy special boy steve for a bit. Whatever it was just a few overly long shots.. still annoyed me though. Wow I really am a hater.

Oh and Bruce is the one with the arc? He's the one the episode is about? But his change of heart happens entirely off screen and with no implicit turning point? Lol. Lmao even.

And "friends who accept us for who we really are." I want to take this entire writers room aside because no. You can't end with a thesis statement that wasn't the theme of the story. Go back to school.

Am I Nothing but Negativity?

It was nice to see sarah again! Shame all she got to do was scream then get violently shoved to the floor.

Ok but in general, once the episode gets started in earnest, it's fine.

I did genuinely like seeing Sam again. I like him in the lead, even if the episode was about Bruce, Sam was still the main character and that was fun to see.

Mackie's voice performance is strong.

I enjoyed the 0.0003 seconds of sambucky. I liked seeing Sam and Monica together.

"The man wants to have tea with Lenin." This line is so bad it's good again. Yeah he probably would. And he'd be fine. Vlad would love the guy, everyone does.

I like the visual of Sam facing down a giant kaiju and just chatting to it. That's very sam coded. That and Sam with the shot of the monsters walking past him and him standing strong.

What is the Point of this Show?

There's nothing spectacular in this episode. The dialogue is astoundingly predictable, the jokes fail to be funny.

At times, the animation style (much like TDP which recently finished) feels like it's holding them back. A lot of the quieter, less actiony, shots are ugly frames with people walking less naturally than sims do. And they do have some more expressive stuff in the busier scenes, so it's not artistically empty, but it's not doing a lot for me either.

Maybe it's an interesting technique for those who know more about these things, but honestly regular 2d animation would've been (i assume) cheaper and potentially better. Then again, if it wasn't visually distinctive, what else would it have going for it?

Conceptually, a mcu what if show is an amazing idea, but in practice IN MY VERY BIASED OPINION, it's done very little with that potential. The comics offer such a rich trough of ideas that could be spun into very entertaining short episodes with versions of the characters that would otherwise not be able to encounter those story beats. Hell, Sam in particular has an entire massive part of his character cut from the mcu (his powers) that they could explore... and that would be really well suited to animation!

But they've stuck to the comparatively shallow mcu lore for most of it.

I've seen people express disappointment that it's ending after only 3 short seasons and I see why. This is obviously the sort of thing that you could do so much more with. But I also feel that the writing is uninspired and betrays a real lack of interest in the worlds of most of these characters.

I Hate its Vibes

So let's take a look at those pins, shall we?

We have:

Ignoring Sam most of the time

Mischaracterising his relationship with Bucky

Writing him as a caregiver, a nurturing therapist only

A lack of an internal world and motivations beyond his desire to help others

Ignorance over his character's history including his powers and the depth and longevity of his relationship with steve

Nonsensical excuses when faced with criticism, unintentionally displaying even more ignorance and incuriosity over the character

I mentioned that writers comment about sharon earlier for a reason. The vibes are not good. They are rancid. They are reminding me of every dumb post I've ever read on this site. Every weird jab at the character for stupid, racist reasons. Every fic with the "magical negro" trope. Every moron i can think of tbh.

Yeah, so maybe I'm not being fair to this show. The episode was uninspired, but not bad. I liked seeing sam do things. If people gif him looking cool in it, I'll reblog it I guess. But I'm not gonna watch the rest of the show, and I won't mourn the fact that it's ending.

I guess my conclusion is that it's very funny that Marvel placated disgruntled sam fans with a still from this episode, and then when it finally comes out, it's everything we've ever complained about.

[theshadowrealmitself]

I fucking love when characters see themselves in someone else

Current thoughts rn is an oc who’s half human and half a species I made up that’s not well known in the federation and only recently joined it awhile ago

And they wanna be a good representation of their non-human species, but stuff keeps happening that makes them feel like they fail at it

And in many ways, they��re different from Spock, cause Spock looks like a Vulcan and wants people to look at him and see a Vulcan who succeeds at being a Vulcan, whereas this oc looks like a human, but wants people to see them as [species I made up]

But they still have some similarities, and they’re crying cause all this drama happened around them, like their fiancé calling off their engagement during the ceremony, and how they feel like their fiancé wouldn’t have done that to them if they weren’t half human, etc

And Spock is just to the side, distinctly aware that he’s had the same thoughts

[thesweetnessofspring]

Katniss Wants Kisses: Part Four

Drabble series: Katniss is fed up with getting no physical affection from Peeta during their training for the Quarter Quell, so she takes matters into her own hands. Rated T.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Read on ao3

My living room has been cleared of its smaller furniture, leaving the only items on the floor the ornate area rug and couches pushed up against the wall where Haymitch and I sit in front of Peeta.

“I want one thing to be very clear,” Peeta says, “Hand-to-hand combat isn’t the way either of you are going to take out another tribute. If someone attacks you, we’re going to focus on getting out and running away. From there you can regroup and make a plan.”

“Save the running away for Katniss,” Haymitch says. “If it comes down to my running, they’ll catch me. I’d rather fight.”

Peeta’s flashes me a look that I can’t decipher. Annoyance? Arrogance? But I know what he’s thinking. That Haymitch can’t be in the arena with me. That Peeta is determined to go in there and protect me. I have to push the thought away to keep focus on the lesson.

“Fine, we can work on that, too,” Peeta agrees. “But the focus is going to be on getting away. And to start off, you’re going to learn about the weakest points in the body.”

Peeta lectures and demonstrates the body's weaknesses–breaking against thumbs instead of four fingers, twisting away from the stronger muscle, and of course for the men hitting them between the legs. Peeta also points out that sometimes the key is getting close to the attacker, as if giving them a hug, and not further away, so the angle is too awkward to strike. 

We start with practicing maneuvering out of someone putting us in a headlock from behind and then choking us against a vertical surface. Peeta is always the attacker, with Haymitch and I taking turns as the defender.

I get so absorbed in learning the fighting that everything else fades away, even at times the fact that it’s Peeta’s arms holding me and hands grabbing me. Instead, I imagine us in the arena, the chance that Haymitch’s slip gets called and Peeta volunteers for him, and the balance of his life or death comes down to me escaping the attacker. I cry out, I snarl, I push Peeta hard onto the rug several times, to the point that he starts rubbing his hip and wincing.

“Did I do it too hard?” I ask.

“Just a bruise,” Peeta says. “It’s good. We want you to be able to throw down like that in the arena.”

We practice all week, Peeta coming up with different scenarios and positions someone might attack us from. Behind, straight at us, grappling at our feet, even attacking from above, if they drop down from a tree. The one position that keeps giving me trouble, though, is on the ground when Peeta is on top of me. Even though I know I’m safe, even though I know Peeta won’t really hurt me, Clove and her dagger against my cheek come to mind and the technique Peeta drills us and I complete the technique fine slowed down. Any skill disappears the moment we put it into a semi-real play,  though. I thrash, trying to get out, and do everything wrong. And outside of it, I know I’m wrong, but I can’t stop myself from getting flustered and then resorting back to flailing under Peeta’s weight.

By Friday, it’s the one area I’m still floundering in and I’m beyond furious with myself for it. We finish in the late afternoon but I’m not satisfied with waiting until Sunday to pick this up again. I ask Peeta to stay and help me practice the position on the ground after, and he agrees. 

My mother and Prim leave us to it in the living room, which I’m grateful for because having any audience only increases my distress. 

Peeta starts in the position he always does: knees on the outside of my hips, hands around my throat as if coming in to choke me. Going slowly, I can break his hold from bringing my hands between us and forcing his arms away completely. But as his hold on my neck tightens slightly I start pushing my hips up to try and force him off and pulling at his arms, unsuccessful in getting him off, and the panic begins to build. 

After Peeta gets off, gives me a chance to breathe, and hands me a water bottle to drink from, he says, “We’re changing tactics. Going to practice a different situation.”

I begin to stand, but he shakes his head. “On your back again.”

I’m confused but obey, the vulnerability clawing at me in this position. Peeta kneels by my side, hip to hip as we face one another.

“I think being on your back is difficult for you because of what happened with Clove,” he says. “You’re stuck in how you fought her then.”

I give a small nod in confirmation.

“What I want to do is teach you how to get out of it,” Peeta says. “If you can do that, then the others will be easy. How’s that sound?”

I swallow. I don’t really like the idea of being in that position again, but I could very likely end up there again. So I say, “Go slow?”

Peeta gives my hand a reassuring squeeze and settles on me up higher, nearly on my chest, his knees bumped up against my triceps, which are stretched out so my body forms a T.

“We’ll just pretend I’ve pinned your arms for now,” Peeta says. “How do you think you get out of this?”

“I don’t know,” I say. “It’s impossible!”

“Stop. Think. Right now, what’s free? What am I leaving open?”

I wiggle my body, feel the length of my hips and legs that have nothing pinning them down. 

“My legs.”

“Good. Now how can you move them?”

I experiment, but I’m not very tall so they can’t kick him well. I’m about to snap at him again when I realize what it is. I rock my hips to get momentum and then throw my legs over and around Peeta’s chest, crossing my feet, and pull him back as I thrust my legs down. Once he’s on the ground I wriggle out from underneath him and get on my feet. Sprawled on the floor with a smile on his face, we both start to laugh, with surprise and relief. It’s the first time we’ve laughed in a long time. 

“All right, think you can do it if my knees are on your arms?” Peeta asks.

“Let’s try it.”

We get in the same position, this time with Peeta’s knees pressing down on my arms. I do the move again, only this time as I roll us backward, his legs straighten behind my arms and he locks his real foot against his prosthetic one behind my head. With my arms free I turn to my side and try to drag myself away, only Peeta isn’t as easy-going this time and latches his hands around my knees, our legs still tangled together.

In the arena, I would fight dirty. Kick him in the nose, knee him between the legs. Anything. But we aren’t, and some other predator instinct comes over me. I propel myself up and onto my knees before he can make it onto his. The momentum rolls him back, one of my legs between the two of his. As I kneel above him, something in the dynamic shifts. For the first time this week, I’m on top of him while he’s on his back. And there’s something there in his eye, the way his chest moves up and down rapidly, the parting of his lips…somehow, it’s not about fighting anymore.

He could overpower me at this point. He’s a wrestler, he knows what to do to knock me down if he chose to. And so when I lean down, my hands bracing the space between his head, and my braid falling across my shoulder, it’s clear what we both want.

My lips find his as eager as mine, and we kiss like we’re one another’s last meal. We angle to get as close as we can with our mouths open and tongues stroking and I let my entire body weight drop on him, my fingers raking his hair. His arms wrap tightly around my waist, a more solid pinning than anything he’s put me in this week. When I pull his bottom lip between mine and give it a hard suck, I catch a groan that vibrates against my lips and sends a shudder down my body and to the pit of my stomach. 

Kissing Peeta…it’s never felt quite this good before.Not even that kiss in the cave that made me want more. Was all we needed a little privacy this whole time? 

Then I’m surprised with Peeta rolling us over so he’s hovering on top of me, and when his eyes open, curls from his forehead hanging over me, the moment breaks. We remember where we are, what we were doing, and why. For me, it makes me curl my fingers tight around Peeta’s shirt in hopes that he’ll stay, while he scrambles off of me.

“This didn’t happen,” he says, bending down to shove his shoes back on while I barely sit up.

“Yes, it did,” I say furiously. “It did happen, and don’t pretend you didn’t want it, too!”

“The fuck does it matter what I want?” Peeta practically shouts as he makes a quick tie of his right shoe, not even bothering to double-knot.  

“Because we only have a few more months,” I say, standing up over him while he finishes the other shoe. 

He shakes his head, the only response I get from this as he straightens up and turns away without looking at me. I grab for his hand and beg, “Peeta–”

He jerks his hand away and practically sprints toward the entryway door where I follow him, desperate to make this right. I don’t want us to fight again. I don’t want him to be distant anymore, or be this hard coach he’s turned into. I want my Peeta back. But I don’t know what to say. He glances back at me, and he must see something in my face, because there’s a crack in his own frustration now, a sadness he hasn’t let me see since the announcement of the Quell. 

“Please, Katniss,” he says, voice rough. “Please forget what we just did.”

I shake my head. “No.”

He closes his eyes and grimaces at my refusal. And then, he leaves.

[especiallyhaytham]

Never thought I'd be parsing AC3 for refs of period-accurate streetlamps but here we are

[eugeniedanglars]

the cool thing about this being my blog is that if i want to write a literal essay recapping an album that exactly one of my followers (my sister) has ever heard i can just. do that

i talked about this a few days ago but seriously, the man from god knows where by tom russell is such a good goddamn album. it's a concept album chronicling his own ancestry--specifically following four key immigrant families, the russells and malloys from ireland and the larsens and olsens from norway--as part of the wider picture of immigration and westward expansion in the united states. it was released in the 90s, so if you do choose to listen to it don't expect it to be perfectly woke or up to date, but this album's general political sympathies are made pretty clear by the lyrics "oh beautiful for spacious skies and amber waves of grain / grain distilled to make the rye that pickled old tom paine / old georgie built the white house with slaves that died in pain."

that being said, i won't pretend everything about it aged well, especially regarding its depiction of native americans; tom russell's fascination with native american cultures and sympathy for their oppression is a common theme across a lot of his music, and he does devote several songs (primarily "the man from god knows where pt. 3" and "sitting bull in venice") to the fact that the entire story of this album is playing out on stolen land, but the way he does it comes across as pretty stereotypical and patronizing, at least to me, a white woman. i think, since the songs are specifically about sitting bull performing in bill cody's wild west show in europe, he's trying to be ironic and contrast the stereotypical native character that sitting bull would have played in the show versus the horror and grief he must have felt at watching his culture and home be destroyed by invaders, as well as play with the irony of exporting native americans and their culture to europe as entertainment while the real thing is wiped out by european colonizers, but he doesn't do a great job of parsing out the stereotypes from reality imo. it's a theme that could have used a lot more room to breathe on the album, preferably with input from an actual native american folk singer.

naturally, there are a whole host of content warnings, including but not limited to racism, ethnic cleansing, starvation, suicide, death of children, children being separated from their families, alcohol, slurs (though all used in an overtly sympathetic/satirical way mocking injustice and prejudice), gambling, incarceration, and basically anything you would expect from mid-1800s to mid-1900s america. it's also long as fuck: 26 tracks, 1 hour and 14 minutes. in short, while i adore this album, don't say i didn't warn you if it does something you don't like.

musically, the album is simply stunning. it's this gorgeous, lush blend of american, irish, and scandinavian folk performed by a whole host of folk icons like iris dement and dave van ronk. there are leitmotifs and throughlines and callbacks throughout the album that weave its incredibly ambitious scope together into a cohesive tapestry. aside from that, tom russell just has one of the most beautiful voices i've ever heard, plain and simple. (in fact, he got his big break when he was a cab driver and picked up the manager of the grateful dead on the way to a show. they were looking for an opener, tom russell told the guy he was a musician and sang him some of his music, and he opened for the band that very night.) a truly staggering amount of my musical taste and general personhood can be traced back to the fact that my mother heard a radio interview with tom russell and, after hearing him sing "rider on an orphan train" from this album, immediately called my dad bawling her eyes out and insisting that they had to buy this guy's music.

the album opens with the title track (part one of four), wherein the titular man from god knows where introduces himself as an ageless revenant roaming the earth, and calls upon the spirits of the dead to rise from their graves and tell him their stories so that the past won't be forgotten. the wayfaring stranger (iris dement singing just the first verse of the 1917 song "wayfaring stranger") explains the immigrants' unifying belief that america offered greater opportunity than existed in their homelands: "i am a poor wayfaring stranger / traveling through this world of woe / there's no sickness, toil, or danger / in that bright land to which i go." with this, the spirits obey and begin telling their stories. some of their songs are straightforward autobiographies ("patrick russell", "mary clare malloy (american wake)", "ambrose larsen"), while others are more broad and speak for whole groups of people.

this is where we get to "the outcast," which gets its own beat-by-beat analysis because 1. it was my favorite song as a child and whenever i told people this they thought i meant "hey ya" by outkast and 2. the fact that it was my favorite song as a child explains just... so much about me. so this song, performed by leftist folk icon dave van ronk, portrays the character of the outcast like a carnival barker luring people into a freakshow, shocking the audience by proclaiming that "your promised land was settled by bastards, drunks, and thieves," only to reassure them that he is "the worst of all of these" as the outcast. the first verse seems light and humorous, a joking tribute to the people cut out of the family tree for being embarrassing and abnormal (i.e., disabled or queer).

with the second verse, however, he brings up another type of outcast: the marginalized people who did much of the invisible work building this country. this is what i meant about slurs being used in a sympathetic and satirical way--the outcast is a personification of all oppressed communities, and he sarcastically refers to himself by all the slurs that are hurled at him while he carries society on his back. he's the chinese immigrant who built the railroads, he's the enslaved black man who picked the crops that built the american economy, he's the native american who was forced off the land that now houses and feeds us.

the third verse expands its scope even further to the systemic, inescapable nature of ethnic prejudice: every ingroup has an outgroup that they hate and degrade, no matter how outwardly similar they appear, and that aspect of human nature is not diluted on a country-wide scale but rather amplified. he mocks politicians and founding fathers, making it clear that he was not actually joking about them being "bastards, drunks, and thieves" (here's where the line about george washington building the white house with slaves that died in pain comes in!), and wryly observes that newcomers to the united states have no idea they're signing up to be the crabs at the bottom of the bucket. ultimately, the song functions as an absolutely scathing indictment of the united states as a nation built on hatred and brutal oppression, from the microcosmic (ostracizing family members for not fitting into the mold) to the systemic (slavery, racism, exploitation of marginalized labor, the perpetual othering of whoever the newest minority is).

that was my favorite song when i was in fourth grade. and now you probably understand everything about me.

anyway, the album continues, painting a picture of the lives of these immigrants and the struggles they face: alcohol, lust, homesickness, crop failures, the loss of children to death or poverty. "rider on an orphan train" is an utter heartbreaker, the story of one of anna olsen's children who, along with his older brother james, ran away from home and ended up in an orphanage. james and the narrator are split up in the adoption process. they never see each other again.

eventually the album arrives in the twentieth century and finishes its westward journey in los angeles, tracing the families we've been following down to tom russell's parents, charlie russell and marjorie malloy. charlie is a fascinating and complex character: he's a slick, charismatic, ambitious charmer who works his way up to a wealthy and comfortable life in hollywood, he's a devoted family man who adores marjorie and wants nothing more than to give her everything she deserves, he's a thief and a gambling addict who ultimately costs his family everything, he's an eternal optimist and a hero to his children, he's a has-been blowhard rambling about his glory days to an audience that's no longer listening. "chicksaw county jail" and "throwin' horseshoes at the moon" are two different perspectives on charlie russell's tumultuous life, the former from his own perspective and the latter from tom's. as an adult looking back on his childhood, tom neither idealizes his father nor condemns him, instead treating him with sympathy and nuance that's often hard to achieve when seeking to understand our parents.

having run out of ancestors' stories to hear, the man from god knows where condemns "the lies that i've been told" before turning to the audience and beseeching them to share their own pasts. a calmer, more reflective version of the outcast returns to muse on postwar american society, homogeneity, and the loss of ancestral cultures. the wayfaring stranger returns to sing the second verse of her song, now settled in her new land but wistful about the one she left: "i'm going there to see my father / i'm going there, no more to roam / i am going over jordan / i am going over home."

the album draws to a gentle finish with "love abides," which ponders whether illuminating the past helps us understand our present and navigate the future. ultimately, it concludes, we may be navigating life alone in the dark, but we can persist as long as we have love and hope.

that's the man from god knows where. it was the soundtrack to my childhood. i just spent several hours writing 1700+ words recapping it for an audience of zero. i'm not a music critic or a historian, but i'm someone who was shaped by this album, and i wanted to put all my love and appreciation for it somewhere other people could see. i don't expect anyone to read this or listen to the album. just having this post exist is enough.

[ahhhhhhh-iwtv-sideblog]

I maybe wrote a little thing.

Set during 2x05, Armand goes to continue questioning Daniel, and may start to find Daniel a little bit interesting; or at least he finds Daniel's reaction to being talked down to interesting.

[zishuge]

i woke up last night in the middle of the night with the terrible, terrible thought that one day, hulijing would pass, and then it would be like li lianhua is gone for good

[machiroads]

i should rewrite this scene for the third time, that would be a really fun and neat activity for me to do

[werewolfetone]

Girl is this wheel of fucking fortune &c

[ro-botany]

To hell with it. If I can wring essayposts out of Validar and Groom Robin, I can lay out some extended thoughts about my favourite Fire Emblem character’s new alt: Young Frederick. It would be weirder if I didn't. Buckle up for disorganized unedited blorbo opinions.

Under the cut, though, because this got longer than I was expecting.

---

The inclusion of the pebbles thing is just kind of par for the course with Frederick. It's been The Fred joke since his debut. It was a joke in Awakening, it's present in all three of his heroes units, and they even made a joke weapon about it in Fates. I wonder at what point they'll decide they've worn it out already. It's been 12 years, man.

But it is interesting that they're implying he picked up the pebble-clearing neuroticism so young.

My friend Ana (@/cannibal-lesbian) made a connection a while ago between the fact that Emmeryn had stones thrown at her in the early years of her rule, and Fred's insistence on clearing debris—rocks in particular—from the routes he knows that people he cares about will be taking. I think that's a pretty compelling connection to make.

Young Fred is already so damn worried about the royals all the time, and him overreacting to threats to their safety constitutes so much of his screen time... If he were present for any of the times that stone-throwing happened, if he was there when Emm got hurt badly enough by a thrown rock for it to scar long term, I can absolutely buy him deciding that no one in walking distance of his charges is allowed to have access to chuckable rocks ever again.

It also doesn't help that Chrom, at least when he's older, is known to overwork himself so much he's tripping on random shit from exhaustion. Young Chrom in Heroes is already pretty obsessed with protecting people, so maybe that sort of thing has already started.

As tired as I am of the pebble collection as manifestation of him being a big worrywart, the pouch o rocks in his art is such a cute detail that it's really hard to be mad about it. Look at him. Look at him with his lil rock bag.

---

Some of the most positive things I can say about Young Fred’s dialogue in Heroes actually apply to his part in the paralogue that came with the release of the baby Awakening units, Double Vision. Young Fred is flustered trying to take care of little baby Lissa, and then when she runs off anyway, he’s absolutely beside himself with worry. When she’s found and the kids all get to wondering about meeting older versions of themselves, he starts off anxious about the possibilities... then promptly gets lost daydreaming about how cool it would be to be a knight. The best knight, even.

Very often we see Fred’s overzealous devotion to the Ylissean royals; but it’s not very often that we get to directly confront the undercurrent of worry and perfectionism that in part drives that devotion. Perhaps the most acknowledgement Awakening itself gives us that Frederick’s stoicism is armour over staggering amounts of anxiety is in the spotpass chapter with Emmeryn. I’m happy to now have an example of this that isn’t also heart-breaking!

Besides that, it’s just cute. This little dude has his work cut out for him trying to babysit these chaos kids, and he has such big dreams too! He’s doing his best. I love him.

His profile voice lines continue this characterization trend. He’s earnest. He’s dedicated to his training. He gets all embarrassed that he’s not being a perfect knight yet. He’s being a bit of a dork, honestly, with the line about him dragging around too many pebbles for him to reasonably carry.

I love that so much of the dialogue associated with him is willing to put these personality traits out in the open like this. This Fred is still young and he hasn’t had time to build up that emotional armour yet. He's not had the time to build up his combat skills or figure out how he can best take care of the royals, and he's tripping a bit, and nervous, and throwing himself into it all the way.

I like it a lot. This was a good direction to take a younger Frederick. :]

His level 40 dialogue... dang it, okay, it’s just so cute, I need to gush about it. Fred’s fretting over the comfort of the royals again and decides to hand-knit a wall tapestry for their room, and now he’s come to ask Kiran their opinion of it, and you can tell he’s kinda nervous about it. Kiran looks at his art project and goes “You need to move this somewhere everyone can see. The world must be able to view it.” And listen ok that is my reaction too, Kiran, 100%.

Knitting a fucking tapestry. Generally you don’t... that’s not a knitting project, that’s more of a weaving project. But knitting is the fibercrafting skill that Frederick is familiar with, and he’s allergic to asking for help because he wants so badly to prove himself, so he just puts 150% effort into knitting a whole ass tapestry anyway. It’s perfect. This is a perfect level 40 conversation.

This is how you call back to obscure facts about characters. This exactly is how you do it. You show it off in a natural conversational way.

---

And unfortunately, my emphasis on that is a segue into the part where I have to get more critical.

Castle dialogue is usually some of my favourite to read in Heroes. I enjoy going to my home screen and checking up on all my little guys, seeing what they’re up to. It feels very much like Awakening’s barracks conversations.

I’m not sure if this is the result of an English localization issue, or if it’s also present in the original Japanese (which I cannot read), but the majority of Young Fred’s castle dialogue reads very much like.... someone was just ticking boxes. Like they ran out of enthusiasm after all the stuff above and just slapped some basic lines in to finish up the unit.

To illustrate what I mean, I’m going to pull some example lines off of some other characters first. Just tapping on the characters hanging around my home screen as I write this, I get lines like:

Chrom: I was practicing my swing and wound up smashing a pot. Forgive me, Kiran. Chrom: Back home, my Shepherds deal with outlaws and monsters. It’s strange that here we battle against Heroes. m!Robin: Do you have a moment to go over some tactical options? I’d love to hear your thoughts. m!Robin: Back home, I was always checking on everyone, too. It helps me relax, knowing they’re safe and well. Lissa: Sharena seems nice. I wonder if we could have a “princess chat” sometime... Lissa: I’ll put the frog here and... AH, Kiran?! Awww, you caught me before I pulled the BEST prank! Sully: I know you don’t fight, but I’ll teach you to defend yourself. Don’t worry. I won’t hurt ya too bad! Sully: Your commander seems strict—bet I could learn a lot from her. Maybe I’ll join the Order of Heroes... m!Morgan: Your white robe is too cool! But I’d expect nothing less from the tactician of the Order of Heroes. Say, can we... Swap robes? Just for a moment?!

With all of these lines, you get the sense that the characters are interacting with the world of Askr. They’re thinking about other characters like Anna and Sharena. They’re commenting on what it’s like to be in Askr. They’re talking to Kiran like we’re seeing one half of a conversation—Robin notices how you’re going around checking up on all the heroes on the home screen and talks to you about it, Chrom gets all embarrassed about training mishaps, Sully offers to train you, you bump into Lissa trying to pull a prank and spoil her fun...

All these characters are written to be really integrated into the daily life here in the Order of Heroes. We’re giving them tiny scenarios that let them show off their personalities splendidly.

...And then there’s Young Frederick’s castle dialogue. :|

Lord Chrom deserves only the most well-trained, battle-tested guardian. I hone my skills that I may fulfill that role. Lady Emmeryn accepted the role of exalt quite young. My lord Chrom shares her noble blood. My hobbies? I do enjoy foraging for mushrooms. When I happen upon a rare one, I nearly shake with glee! I fear no man or beast! Well...except perhaps that mountain wolf. Those memories are best left buried... Please, be silent... I am honing my concentration by focusing on this candle's flame until it dies out.

It’s all written in Fred’s voice, they did well at that... but... do you notice how much less lively this all feels, compared to the other characters’ lines above?

Pretty much every unit I’ve encountered in this game has at least a few castle lines where they’re just Saying A Fact about themselves or their backstory or something. But most of them also have conversational lines like the ones I highlighted, and... this Fred just... doesn’t! He just doesn’t.

They hit on a bunch of references to his dialogue in Awakening; even some really obscure ones, ones that you would miss if you didn’t do the right supports or encounter specific Barracks conversations. But they didn’t write them in a way that feels like natural conversation. They wrote them just to be references.

Look, look! We saw the Panne supports, guys! Look we’re calling back to the wolf backstory!! ...But they’re just making him say it outright. He’s listing off a fact about himself, not acting like a human person. Why tell and not show in this instance? Why not call back to that by, for example, having him react to the idea of meeting some of the beast units running around Askr? Make it conversational and make it reference the fact that that line came from a support with a beast unit. Perhaps something like: “Those shapeshifting Heroes... they don’t go around in animal form ALL the time, do they? ...N-not that I’m afraid or anything! I fear no man or beast!”

Ooo you remember how he likes fire? Yeeeaaah, we read his bio, we read that one barracks line! ...But you also chose to include this fact by... making him stand around staring very hard at a candle. This is just such a nothing burger of a line.

Hey guys! You remember the barracks line about mushrooms?! We did! Look, he likes mushrooms!!! ...Sure, and I genuinely am happy that the callback exists. It’s even kind of fun that we’re using the same scenario that was the context for learning this in Awakening, where we’ve asked Fred about his hobbies. But it’s not working for me here because we already have enough lines where he just says a fact about himself. Why would you not, say, have us encounter Fred while he’s hunting for mushrooms in the courtyard? Or perhaps we bump into him when he’s just coming back from foraging with some rare mushrooms he’s excited to tell us about? Or maybe he asks us if the royal library has any field guides on Askran mushrooms?

Just, something! Give me some kind of acting! Natural conversation! I’m happy that someone cared enough to dig up the obscure references, trust me, I am. But this execution is stiff as hell.

---

In the end I can’t really complain too much. New official Frederick content in the year 2024 was a complete shock and I’m delighted to have him around.

I’m at least a little disappointed we got no real opinions or clarifications on his backstory, or many things to speculate about; though I understand you can only do so much with minor characters while adhering to canon. And I wish they didn’t stumble so hard on the castle dialogue, because imo it’s some of the most important dialogue a Heroes unit has.

But the majority of his characterization and individual lines are well-executed. I’m quite pleased. The Frederick fans are eating well. :]

[altruistic-meme]

WIP friday, i guess. let's go!!!

here have some food. i am truly trying my hand out at some heavy hurt/comfort. we shall see if i ever finish and publish it

[mousefluff]

so this is what it feels like to write about something willingly and not just for a school assignment...

[mybrainproblems]

.

[nolassolace]

gonna continue to post my kinktobers in to November that way i can say i actually participated in something and finished it.

[cha1cedony]

Anyway. Feeling #normal and in the club 2nite 😁

[rathologic]

just wrote about all of that p1 autizm explanation video you'd Better throw knives at me from 50m away until it gets recorded

just wrote about half of that p1 autizm explanation video... you'd all better hit me with hammers until it gets recorded