#also like you mean to tell me her whole character arc was for death? feels very god forbid women do anything

[jonathanbyersphd]

Anyways, if they kill Nancy I will consider that a GoT level of bad ending

[anneapocalypse]

On Wuk Lamat, and Female Characters in FFXIV

The Thing with Wuk Lamat is you can tell me you think she had too much screentime; you can give me numbers on how many lines she had or how many scenes she's in relative to other characters or other expacs; you can prove to me "objectively" that she gets more focus than other main NPCs; you're simply not going to convince me that this is something I should be unhappy about. And not just because it's silly to think you can use numbers to prove a story is good or bad and make someone else go, "Wow, you're right, let me just throw away all the joy I experienced with this story and revise my opinion because you've scientifically proven to me that I'm wrong."

Because while I love Final Fantasy XIV and I have greatly enjoyed its story in so many ways, fundamentally one of my biggest beefs with this game has been how much female characters have been denied complex character arcs and growth and agency and interiority.

Minfilia gets treated as a sacrificial vessel who lives for everyone but herself and doesn't even get to have feelings about her own death because that entire arc is focused on a male character's angst about it instead. The game tells us in the Heavensward patches that Krile sees Minfilia as her best friend and then just forgets about that later and never follows up on what that loss must have meant to her. Ysayle is basically right about most of what she's fighting for but harboring a bit of self-delusion is apparently such a terrible sin that she has to pay for it with her life, while her male foil is deemed so worthy of salvation that there's a whole plot point about how important it is that we risk our lives and others' lives to save him. Y'shtola is a major character who's been around since the beginning, and the game keeps dropping maddeningly interesting things about her (apprenticed to a cranky old witch in a cave! saved her own life and the lives of her friends with an illegal and dangerous spell and it worked! reserved and undemonstrative yet regularly through her actions reveals herself to be deeply caring! disabled!) and then shows complete disinterest in following up on any of those things with the kind of depth and care shown to male characters with complex arcs like Urianger.

In general there is also a repeated thread of female characters being portrayed as weak or overly emotional: Minfilia is weak because she doesn't fight and needs to be eaten by a god in order to gain "a strength long sought." Krile is portrayed as not being able to pull her weight with the Scions (despite the fact that she actively keeps five of them from dying in Shadowbringers) and the only thing they could think of for her to do in Endwalker was be yet another vessel for Hydaelyn (hmm, that sounds familiar) and it's not until Dawntrail that she gets much actual character development in the main story and even that has to come alongside "Look, she can fight now so that means she's useful." (And I love Picto!Krile, I'm just saying, there's a pattern.) Alisaie, despite having very good reasons for needing to find her own path apart from her brother, is portrayed as having to prove herself when she returns, that she's "not the girl she once was," and "will not be a burden" (while Alphinaud is repeatedly given the benefit of the doubt and reassurance and affirmation from other characters even after he takes on responsibilities he isn't ready for and fucks up big time).

And if you follow me you know I adore Urianger, and I love Alphinaud and Thancred and Estinien too, so please don't misunderstand what I'm saying here! I'm not knocking those characters, or saying we shouldn't also love them. I just use them as a comparison to demonstrate how the female characters have been neglected.

Lyse has some of the stronger character development among the female Scions, and while she's still kind of portrayed as being too emotional and hotheaded in early Stormblood, I think it's actually explored in more depth in a way that I like; Lyse has good reasons for wanting to fight for her nation's freedom, but having been away from Ala Mhigo for several years now, she needs to understand the stakes for the people who've been there fighting for years, what they've lost and still have to lose. She grows as a person and rises to the challenge of leadership, and I'm even okay with the fact that she leaves the Scions afterward because it feels right for her to stay in Ala Mhigo, and at least she doesn't die.

And by all accounts she was, like Wuk Lamat, widely hated when her expansion came out.

Unironically I think the other female Scion with the strongest character arc is Tataru. She tries to take up a combat job, finds that it's not for her, and decides to focus on where her strengths are instead. In doing so, she both holds the Scions together as an organization in the absence of a leader by capably managing their finances, and also comes into her own as a businesswoman and makes international connections that benefit both the Scions and her personally. In contrast to Minfilia, she's not portrayed as weak because she doesn't fight, and is actually allowed to be an important character who's good for more than being sacrificed. Tataru is still distinctly in a supporting role for the player character, however, and her character arc happens as a side story that takes up a relatively small amount of screentime over several expansions, which I think is probably why she doesn't evoke such a negative reaction.

But there is a pattern of the game's writing showing disinterest in the interior lives of female characters generally, and in making their growth the focus of a story.

So yeah, I'm going to be happy about Wuk Lamat! I'm going to enjoy and celebrate every moment of her character arc, of her personal growth, of watching her put the lessons she's learned into action. I'm going to love and treasure every moment when she gets to be silly, embarrassing, emotional, scared, grieving, confused, upset, seasick, impulsive, and still deemed worthy of growing into a hero and a leader. I will love her with all of my soul and you simply will not convince me that it wasn't worth the screentime after such a profound imbalance for basically the entirety of the game. We've never had a major female character get such a strong arc with this much love and attention put into it and that means more to me than I can truly say. The backlash to it is disheartening, as this kind of thing always is, but I'm not going to let it ruin the wonderful experience I had playing it and how much joy it continues to bring me.

And for those of you who don't want any of that for a female character, thank goodness you have Heavensward and Shadowbringers and Endwalker and no one can take those away from you.

(And if you follow me you know that I love Shadowbringers and Endwalker and have very fond memories of Heavensward despite some issues with it, so not only can I not take that from you, I am not trying to!)

Some of us have been real hungry for a character like this with an arc like this, so, I think, y'know, maybe we can have that. As a treat.

[iamnmbr3]

jk rowling: ok let's create a scene in which ginny is talked even by slytherins and that can be a build up for hinny. Such a hinny scene!!

Also jk rowling: ends up writing a drarry scene in which not only harry feels uncomfortable watching pansy stroking draco's hair, BUT ALSO DRACO SAYS GINNY IS NOT SPECIAL(can we talk about this??????!) *giggles*

I hate how suddenly in book 6 random characters who have no reason to say good things about her are suddenly acting like she's the Bestest Ever TM in order to tell the readers to like her - which really shows how weak as a character she is (in the later books - I think pre book 6 she was actually a good character).

We don't need all the Slytherins to go on and on about how awesome Hermione or Neville are. We don't need the Death Eaters to stage a conversation where they're all like 'dang! that Luna Lovegood sure is quirky and fun but also super good hearted and insightful and totally awesome!" or Arthur and Molly to be like 'you know that Snape sure is interesting and morally ambiguous. And don't even get me started on Voldemort - say what you will about the man, but he's got charisma! And what a fascinating backstory!" That would be ridiculous. And unnecessary. Because all those characters can stand on their own. Ginny can't and JKR over-compensates by trying to have other characters tell us how great she is but that actually just undermines her.

Which is a shame. Because Ginny had a ton of potential and I liked her way more in book 5 (and the previous books) when she actually had an arc and JKR wasn't flattening her out and trying to push her as the Love Interest TM at the expense of her character.

And yeah that whole scene is accidentally such drarry fodder. Here's the relevant passage.

I mean, Pansy mentions that people like Ginny and immediately looks at Draco but she can't be worried about Draco liking Ginny because Draco has literally just dismissed her. In fact, it's Blaise that she seems to be more worried about. And as soon as Blaise insults Ginny Pansy relaxes and looks happy. (So does Draco, incidentally). So Pansy looking at Draco seems more like she knows he might care about boys liking Ginny...boys like Harry Potter for example. Pansy's been hanging around with Draco for 5 years by this point. She's definitely noticed how he is about Harry. And yeah I know she's stroking Draco's hair but they don't seem to actually be dating. I think that's just Harry projecting.

And we know if they actually got together ever Harry would've mentioned it. So clearly Draco at least wasn't interested. And Pansy does end up marrying Blaise. So I read this scene as Pansy crushing on Blaise, Draco possibly lowkey crushing on Blaise and highkey crushing on Harry and also being super jealous of Ginny (bc he immediately clocked her fancying Harry...and Collin Creevey too tbh - just like Harry clocks everyone who even looks at Draco lol) and Pansy knowing it.

AND THEN after all this we get Harry hating on Pansy for looking like she's enjoying stroking Draco's hair followed by him getting hit directly on the head by a piece of luggage because he got distracted by the sight of Draco changing. And THEN he ends up immobilized and alone, entirely at Draco's mercy, while believing Draco to be a Death Eater (and being correct!) and he doesn't even feel worried that Draco will hurt him or hand him over to Voldemort...and he's right, because Draco doesn't. Absolutely wild. Book 6 is the drarry fic of all time. JKR did not intend or want it to be. But it is.

[coraniaid]

Buffy Summers is my favorite character on Buffy and (with a couple of exceptions that I prefer to put down to bad writing) I will always find her sympathetic, but. The only reading of the second half of Season 7 that makes any sense to me at all is that we are supposed to think Buffy is doing a pretty bad job of taking care of the Potentials, and that this is why they all end up choosing to gamble on Faith's leadership instead of hers. Like, yes, obviously Empty Places is a badly written episode and the central conflict isn't motivated very well and Dawn kicking Buffy out of her own house is absurd.

But I mean ... look, let's just pick a few of Buffy's inspiring speeches at random, shall we?

From Showtime, in which Buffy 'inspires' the Potentials by ... uh, fighting a powerful vampire while reminding them all how much stronger than them she is:

"Looks good [for the Turok-Han Buffy's about to fight], doesn't it? [The Potentials] are trapped in here. Terrified [...] and there's nothing they can do but wait. That's all they've been doing for days. Waiting to be picked off. Having nightmares about monsters that can't be killed. But I don't believe in that. I always find a way. I'm the thing that monsters have nightmares about. And right now, you and me are gonna show 'em why."

Or from Potential, the very next episode, when Buffy follows that up by telling the Potentials over and over again how likely they are to die:

"You’re all going to die. But you knew that already because that’s the cool reward for being human. […] Don’t kid yourselves, you guys. This whole thing is all about death. You think you’re different because you might be the next Slayer? Death is what a Slayer breathes, what a Slayer dreams about when she sleeps. Death is what a Slayer lives. […] The odds are against us. Time is against us. And some of us will die in this battle."

And from Get It Done, speaking after they just found out that a young Potential called Chloe killed herself:

"Anyone want to say a few words about Chloe? Let me. Chloe was an idiot. Chloe was stupid. She was weak. And anyone in a rush to be the next dead body I bury, it's easy. Just…think of Chloe, and do what she did. […] I'm the slayer. The one with the power. […] I've been carrying you - all of you - too far, too long. Ride's over."

See also, Buffy's speech in Selfless ("there's just me ... I am the law".) See also her admission in Conversations With Dead People that she thinks she's better than all the guys she's ever dated.

To me, it feels obvious that the intended arc of this season, however imperfectly executed, is that Buffy has a sense of herself as uniquely and especially "the one with the power'", but that she's never had any real leadership or mentorship role before and she doesn't know how to use that power to look after all of the Potentials. That she's afraid she won't be able to protect them all and so doesn't want to make emotional connections with them and tells herself (and them) over and over that some of them are going to die no matter what and they just have to accept that. That she tries to keep them at arm's length and hide how badly their deaths actually do affect her, and that she adopts a protective tough-love approach which backfires spectacularly. And that eventually she realizes this approach isn't working and that she should be trying to share her power with them instead of using it to tell them what to do.

And yet so many people on here seem to think that when the Potentials get (understandably) upset about this -- upset about being called weak and stupid by a woman who barely seems to know their names and can't seem to stop reminding them that she has power and that they don't -- that we're meant to think "oh, they are all so ungrateful and unpleasant and Buffy is a saint for taking such good care of them anyway". That her "arc" this season is that she is perfect and doesn't need to learn anything and doesn't have to change in any way, all while people keep giving her shit for literally no reason.

And I just don't see how that makes sense! I just don't find it an interesting narrative and I don't really see how the show itself supports it. The Buffy Summers who gives the speeches I quoted above wouldn't think of sharing her power with others. That's an idea she only comes to when she realizes that being "the thing that monsters have nightmares about" is no substitute for being a good leader and making real connections with other people.

[shadowed-dancer]

Villains and Their Fates - A Tragedy Would Have Been Fine By Me

I've seen a lot of people who try to write off frustration with the league's fates by saying "you just wanted them to survive" or "you're just upset your favourite character died". And while that may be true for a few people, I know that it's at least not true for myself (which must mean there are others who feel the same way). So today I'm here to share my thoughts. Despite liking the villains and wanting them to be redeemed, I was also willing to accept a well written ending if they died. I just wanted to ramble a bit about the three main villains (mostly Toga) and how I felt a tragic ending could have been improved.

The only villain I felt should have lived is Dabi, but that's more because of the awkwardness his unconfirmed death caused for Shoto (read this beautifully written analysis for more). If Dabi had to die, he should have died on the battle field OR in the hospital surrounded by family where he gets a few last words in. Leaving his fate unconfirmed leads to the ruined Shoto arc, but is also just weird for a character who has existed for so long. You're telling me that even Overhaul gets a confirmed ending but DABI doesn't?

I've also talked a bit about how Endeavor's survival ruins the subplot, and in 426 he continues by making Touya's final appearance about him (rather than the two brothers) but that's something I've talked about too much. If Endeavor has to be alive and hogging screen time, the least Hori could do is imply Touya will survive rather than die, so at least Enji isn't literally stealing time from his other family members to have some interaction with Touya.

If Touya has to end up in that machine, an ideal ending would have been the doctor saying "it will be a gruelling and near-impossible uphill climb to recovery" and then Shoto can smile and say "he's done it before". Boom. Simple as that. Leave it open, but at least on a positive note so we can assume that the family will have plenty of time to reconcile, as opposed to an unknown (but limited) amount of time that Enji vows to use to talk to him (yeah I know it's supposed to be a sweet gesture but even Touya calls bullshit on it). Let Shoto and Touya eat their soba, damn it!

For Shigaraki, my grievances extend to the writing of the entire final battle between him and Deku. As such, I don't have much to say aside from that because it really is just a product of poor writing. Neither were really allowed to talk before the big moment (hell, the vestiges were narrating Deku's emotions half the time like "he must be upset, this quirk meant so much to him". Why not let him tell us???) and the back-and-forth of Shigaraki being destroyed and then not only to be destroyed again was too much. It felt sloppy and hard to follow, and once you figured it out it just felt dumb. It's as if each chapter needed some massive reveal, but the story had done it so much at this point that it just felt tired and like it was happening "because Hori said so", and that should never be what drives a story.

Speaking of "because Hori said so"...

Oh Toga. Out of all the villains, I actually liked her confrontation the most. (Lies. If Dabi vs Shoto was the end of Dabi's fight, THAT would have been the best. But the Endeavor fight ruins it). Despite having limited screen time, Toga and Uraraka had a surprisingly well-built dynamic. Their few interactions were actually meaningful and created a strong foundation for a fight, and at the very least they had more of a personal connection than Deku and Shigaraki ever did. I think that Toga giving her blood to someone she loves (as opposed to drinking/taking their blood like she had said the whole series) is a beautifully tragic end to her character, but still something that could have fit.

To me, the problem comes with how she died. Let me replay the scene for you: Toga stabs Uraraka in the stomach and Uraraka bleeds too much because she keeps moving around. Toga then realizes she doesn't want Uraraka to die. To save her life, Toga has to do a blood transfusion with herself as a donor and she dies because she has to give ALL her blood.

Now... sure. Ok. Fine. Yeah. Maybe by real-world logic this makes sense. I guess. Whatever. But within the world of MHA, this setup is laughable.

Here's a list of things characters survived (or at least, they survived LONG ENOUGH to get to a hospital rather than dying on the battlefield): Deku shattering his bones with 1 million percent, whatever happened to Best Jeanist when AFO attacked him, Nighteye getting a massive spike through the torso, All Might with "his entrails strewn across the ground", Bakugo becoming Swiss cheese, Grand Torino being punched so hard a crater forms beneath him, Touya being a literal flaming skeleton, Bakugo's heart exploding, Edgeshot becoming a worm. Mirko getting a limb ripped off and then running full speed at Shigaraki. That's just off the top of my head, I know there's probably more.

But you want to tell me that Uraraka getting stabbed and then moving was a fatal wound that required ALL TOGA'S BLOOD? ALL OF IT? The reason Toga's death bothers me is that the setup cheapens the actual moment of sacrifice. It feels preventable, so when she tells us that Uraraka is going to die without her blood, all I could do is roll my eyes because I'm not allowed to use critical thinking skills, I have to just accept what Hori says and take it at face value.

If the author wants you to live as Edgeworm despite saying you were gonna die, you can. But if the author needs a stab wound to be fatal and require ALL of someone's blood? Well tough luck bud, that's just how it goes. Mirko can run and move all she wants after having a limb ripped off, but moving a bit after one stab wound is fatal. Why? Because I say so.

If Uraraka's wound was actually serious then this ending would have been a beautiful tragedy. But as it stands now, the ridiculousness of her wound makes it all feel preventable.

Oh, there's also the fact that Toga switching blood types when she transforms was never established, but I've rambled enough.

That's it. Thanks for reading!

[lollyposp]

okay im only slightly going insane right now about how MUCH i adore the way agatha is being portrayed in agatha all along. she's this awesome mix of horrible and sympathetic BUT not in the way that excuses everything she does. like, the other witches dislike her for good reason and even when agatha is nice to them or they realise she's got her own issues too like, that doesn't change what she's done in the past to get her reputation.

but ALSO it's so obvious that 90% or something of Agatha's personality is either a facade or an exaggeration of her bitterness because after everything we know of that's happened to her ("i can be good" "no you cannot", her son dying and rio's obvious involvement in that) it's like. how can she love. how can she trust when those she loved made her feel betrayed, or she lost them, or even both.

i think the first clue that a lot of her personality is a facade was the whole "just blast me" situation, because to me it felt like "well yeah Agatha's clearly nasty but how much of that is because she needs to annoy people into trying to kill her so she can grab their magic?" but I hadn't quite realised that there could be more to it than that

but episode 4 had SO MANY examples. i mean, Agatha's entire "no fucks given" attitude just fizzles out when the teen is dying and i feel like even the other witches picked up on it, like jen was clearly stunned by Agatha's grief as well as by Teen's condition. and then her sitting with Teen until he woke up, not even taking her eyes off him but as soon as he wakes up she pretends she just Happened to check on him Just as he woke up and that she didn't stay there the entire time.

and don't even GET ME STARTED on everything else. the scene at the fire where she very clearly struggled through having a positive interaction with the other witches?? and also the whole "she is my scar" but if i think too much about that i will actually go insane.

the scene that REALLY hasn't left my head all day is the scene where rio tells agatha that Teen isn't hers. ALL THE PROPS to kathryn hahn here she's an INCREDIBLE actress, but the way agatha just says NOTHING and slowly puts on a smile....😦 i was watching the episode with my housemates and the only thing i could say to them was "i literally saw the moment she put her act back on". because for all that agatha is so brash and loud, and no matter how much she might seek conflict with others, she runs away from all her emotional pain because it's too much for her to bear. because how do you even move on from the woman you loved being at least partly complicit in your son's death? whether agatha really DID trade him for the dark hold and regretted it immediately or whether the rumour IS just a rumour and nick and the dark hold aren't connected at all, RIO still is connected to either of those ideas.

(honestly as it stands right now im in whatever camp believes he WAS traded for the darkhold, but agatha somehow didn't realise he would be traded until after it was too late, because i feel like it's what explains her actions in WV and her hallucination the most. also it makes rio's actions all the more painful to agatha because it would have been a mistake she didn't mean to make, and rio would not budge even with that knowledge and OUCH. but that's neither here nor there)

honestly this whole incoherent essay was just to say that i love Agatha's character. i love that the question surrounding her isn't really "is she good or evil?" or even "can she be good?". i feel like it's clear there IS a good person in agatha but because she's ignored it for so long (some of that is probably due to the darkhold) the question kind of becomes "does it matter that she's got good inside her if she refuses to show it?". she's so firmly in the morally grey camp that while i do kind of want her to have a redemption arc and to have a whole found family thing go on, i honestly don't see it happening and i also at the same time DON'T want her to be redeemed when she's so interesting because she's this person who clearly has the capacity to be good and chooses not to out of pride and fear of being vulnerable and all the trauma she's accumulated.

oh i completely forgot to mention that im also obsessed with the sound booth scene???? i honestly can't figure out if she's just shit stirring when she projects her and rio's conversation for the fun of it, or if it's like a fucked up agatha way of trying to protect her new coven by giving them reasons to distrust rio and be wary of her, specifically because she thinks rio will betray her/betray them and reap them. I can't figure it out. it might even be both.

anyway live laugh love agatha

[girl4music]

Those last 2 episodes. Appropriately titled ‘Heart Part 1’ and ‘Heart Part 2’ because my heart is so full. I have so much to say and have no idea where to start with it.

So much happened. Every lead character’s individual arc was thoroughly concluded in a very satisfying way. Even some of the recurring ones got an endgame so there’s a lot to cover in this recap of a fantastic finale and I feel so fulfilled on great storytelling and great representation packed into a neatly tied up ending.

MAJOR SPOILERS: do not read this if you have not seen the finale of ‘She-Ra and the Princesses of Power’.

I guess I’ll start with Shadow Weaver because she had an endgame that I had predicted. Well, sort of. I said that Shadow Weaver’s arc can only go in 1 of 2 ways. I said it was either personal attainment (villainy) or personal sacrifice (heroism). So I wasn’t surprised when it was the latter. But I wasn’t able to trust in her going that way sincerely until she started attacking that monster, told Catra that she was proud of her, took off her mask and then told them both ‘you’re welcome’. I couldn’t trust that she was sincerely helping them to achieve releasing and channelling the Heart of Etheria’s magic… which by the way, is what almost brought them to the brink of destruction the first time they tried to do it. However, I understood that because She-Ra was the conduit for that, that it could have a different outcome. Still destructive but destructive only to the opposition. I think anyway. I might have to rewatch that part again because I don’t think I fully understood what was going on there. But yes, Shadow Weaver went out in a heroes death rather than was the cause of her own demise out of hunger for power and a desire to attain the magic of the Heart Of Etheria for selfish aim. I was happy with it.

Glimmer and Bow: I decided to talk about these 2 lead characters together since part of their arc involves each other. It was no surprise to me that they would declare their love for each other. I mean Glimmer has always had a crush on Bow and they’ve been the very best of friends since they were children. I wasn’t sure about Bow at first but I knew intense romantic feelings would develop and I’m glad it was Glimmer who said it first. I am a bit disappointed that there wasn’t a kiss on the lips but I think I understand why that was. I’ll get there. Be patient. There’s way too much to talk about first and I really want to save Catradora until the very last section because I’ll have the most to say about them as a lot of their arc informs well… pretty much the whole TV show.

Glimmer individually had more of an arc in the TV show than Bow did so a significant amount of my meta goes to her. It was mainly how she was fairing as Queen but also how useful she could be to the team because of it. Then of course there was Micah. Reuniting with him but having to battle with him because he was an unwilling agent of Horde Prime. I laughed with pure joy when the influence on him ended and he said “Hi, I’m your dad.” I really felt for Glimmer when she was desperately trying to heal him and she said “I won’t lose another parent!” So it was so satisfying for me to realize she healed him and that she poured all the love she could into that heal and when she succeeded, the proud smile that he wore must have made her feel like Queen of the world, never mind just her little town of Brightmoon. She deserves it.

Likewise it was wonderful to see how proud Bow’s dads were of him when he gave that rousing battle speech to the reawakened masses of Etherians, telling them to be their own warriors and fight for their home. It was right that it was Bow to do that rather than Adora or Glimmer because that is what he had trained himself to do from the beginning. He wants to be an archer battling on the side of the greater good and not a historian. So to see his dads holding each other, proudly watching him… it brought a tear to my eye, I have to admit. So beautiful!

Hordak and Entrapta: I had no idea that I would get a closure for Entrapta, let alone Hordak. I did and I’m so happy about it because even though she was only a recurring character, Entrapta buried her way into my science, tech and engineering loving heart (with a spanner and a blowtorch? You will never know 🤣) but I am glad that she got over her obsession enough to focus on what really mattered. Saving her friends.

The fact that what stopped Horde Prime wasn’t Adora or Glimmer or who you would expect, but Hordak and Entrapta? That hit so hard with me. To give THEM the hero moment of defeating the villain. I was like “Oh my god! That’s brilliant!” Because it is. Think about it. Who do you think Horde Prime tortured the most? His Little Brother! I still don’t know if that was literally or not. 🤷‍♀️ Was he actually related or was he just another clone because he did call Catra his “Little Sister” too? That’s still so creepy to me. But yeah, for Hordak to get that moment of retribution was absolutely delicious for me and then for Entrapta to reach him when Horde Prime tried to take over through the Hive Mind? So, so, good! That made total sense and it was brilliantly executed!

Scorpia and Mermista: The only reason to lump these 2 characters together is because they were chipped and controlled the longest that they caused significant damage to Etherians. There’s not really much to say about them other than that they’re going to have huge headaches now that this is all over due to how far gone they were. I mean I’m glad that they were able to save them but I just don’t know what the aftermath will be for them or whether they will be the same ever again.

From the way I watched and interpreted the TV show, I understood that one of the main narrative themes of it was psychological conditioning and I’ve been in awe that this children’s show was brave enough to tell that very dark story,… let alone see it right through until the end because it’s an ambitious, elaborate and difficult narrative undertaking. Especially to do it properly,… which they definitely did. To tell the darkness of… well… basically radicalization and genocide but to do so in such a way that it could teach and motivate kids to develop on their innate judgement and discernment so if - god forbid - they ever end up in that situation, they’ll know exactly what to do about it. With team She-Ra being their idols, they’ll be able to fight conditioning. I can imagine that’s what the creators intended with this and I cannot acknowledge and commend them on it high enough. I think that ND Stevenson and the entire creative team are incredibly courageous and amazing to make this a main thematic narrative all throughout this TV show and handle it with skill and compassion that it does not once come across as too much for PG.

Catradora: (Yes, I’m using the ship name because the way they tie up their individual character storyline arcs seamlessly also ties in with their romantic arc and you do not know how hard it is to find this with WLW ships.)

First off, I want to point out something that may or may not have been pointed out before with Catradora but this is just how it came across to me in the narrative given I interpret psychological conditioning as a main theme within it. To me, a lot of the reason why Catra is the way she is as a villainous character when it comes to receiving love and affection has do with this factor. She’s so closed off and repressed to the point that she cannot even see that she’s corrupting and sabotaging herself. She is a lot like Xena in this way. But a major striking difference for Catra is that she physically loses the one person in the world that stops her from doing this, whereas Xena physically gains that one person. Trust issues, abandonment issues, parental issues all tie in together - but that was all tolerable when Adora was around her. As soon as Adora leaves her behind in the Fright Zone and, furthermore, begins to oppose her as the hero of Etheria, she spirals so hard and so fast that all of those issues - which were always issues caused by the abusive treatment from Lord Hordak and Shadow Weaver - come crashing down one by one on top of her because she no longer has the person who makes those issues just inconveniences for her. Not only that but … it feels like personal betrayal for her that Adora fights her. She genuinely does think that Adora hates her. I mean who wouldn’t if they were in her shoes (paws?) and had the “upbringing” and “nurturing” backstory she’s had? So Catra has this preconceived notion that Adora never cared about her and left her because she thought she was better than her and was chasing after heroic glory and believes that she was too weak to go with her. In a way it’s a personal vendetta out of misunderstandings Catra has against Adora and those feelings are intense not just because the Horde brainwashing is that deep and severe but also because her love is that deep too and she can’t differentiate which feelings are which. So she becomes She-Ra’s mortal enemy because in her mind, She-Ra is what has taken Adora away from her.

But obviously, from Adora’s side, She-Ra was sprung on her, Etheria was sprung on her. In fact her entire world upended once she recognized her life for what it was. A lie. That she was the villain brutalizing innocent people. She couldn’t go back to them even if she had wanted to because everything she had ever knew was fraudulent and she had been coerced and deceived into being a weapon. And what I really like about Adora’s individual arc is that eventually this was revealed to be true on both sides of the war. She was a weapon for evil and for the greater good. But all she wanted - as all heroes do - was just to protect and defend her loved ones. That’s it. Catra could never see it that way though and it makes sense that she couldn’t given her conditioning was even worse as it involved one-on-one attacks from Shadow Weaver as well as whatever the treatment was with the entire group. Catra’s psychological conditioning was much more personal, intimate and isolated so what was ingrained into her had much deeper and stronger layers added on to it. Hers was a solid brick wall built trauma complex. Those are always much harder to recognize and escape from but with the right therapy,… it can be done. Given her issues weren’t so bad when Adora was around her but got much worse when Adora left her… it is clear that Adora represented a sort of therapy for her. Adora helped her keep all the crippling thoughts of self-doubt and self-contempt at bay. But they were on full volume when Adora left and kept attempting to kill her.

Okay, so let’s finally get on to their romantic arc and how the finale not only concluded their individual character representation and development arcs but also ended their ship slow burn. It wasn’t until the fantastic episode of ‘Save The Cat’ did I realize they were going there. See,… to start with, I knew that they were going to become a canon WLW couple at some point otherwise I would have never started watching it. That was the draw for me. That they were both lead characters in a canon WLW ship in a children’s TV show. That floored me. But I was not prepared at all for what I got to see in the finale. It was groundbreaking. It was phenomenal. In fact I’m sure it was life changing for many queer kids to see that kiss happen the way it did. Or… just happen on-screen at all. Look, I am so used to the “implied” and “assumed” and “disguised” when it comes to WLW physical intimacy that I just do not ever expect blatant leaves-absolutely-no-doubt-whatsoever kisses. I certainly don’t expect WLW kisses written and portrayed as “the power of love” kind. It’s extremely rare. To see it in a children’s show nailed me to the floor. But furthermore - added on to that astonishing feat - is that both lead characters overcome all their issues and obstacles through that very act like… a fairytale story. It’s like… when the Princess kisses the Princess, all is well… there’s no stopping either from that point on. It seems corny but it all just depends on how it’s done. But the fact is you don’t see it done between WLW at all. So to see it done WELL alongside seeing it done at all… I mean Indy knew that he had an assignment with this but the phrase “he understood the assignment” doesn’t cover or justify what was accomplished with this and I can’t believe it’s took me this long to see it.

Every TV art/entertainment creator should watch this TV show and regard this finale as the perfect example of what queer representation can and should provide in TV because this was just the epitome of what true love is. But the fact it was between 2 female lead characters.

I can’t even begin to explain how much it meant to me but I will spend the rest of my life trying to express it because this really was a groundbreaking achievement and I will be adding this WLW ship to my very short list of WLW ships that shape and satisfy every piece of me.

I have had the best fucking time watching this TV show and I will be doing reruns of it for god knows how long because I am sure there is so much more there for me just like there is with Xena, Buffy, Charmed, Dragon Ball Z, Wynonna Earp and Arcane. All these beloved shows are timeless to me for a reason and She-Ra is the same.

I hope you all enjoyed reading my recaps of my very first watch of ‘She-Ra and the Princesses of Power’.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all. 🎄

[nellie-elizabeth]

The Handmaid's Tale: Shattered (6x07)

This was... a singularly frustrating experience, I'm not going to lie. I didn't hate everything indiscriminately, but I was having such a hard time with a lot of what happened here. I'm going to try and untangle some of that.

Cons:

So, the Nick thing. The Nick thing. Ahem. Last week I worried that we were going to be asked by the show's framing itself to be anti-Nick after this, and what we got was such a weird version of that playing out. Here's the thing: Nick doing what he did, it had really bad consequences, and it would totally track for June to be mad at him for it, maybe even think that she hated him. But rationally, Nick is right that this isn't some sort of singular breaking point that's worse than all the other shit the two of them have pulled over the years. And I think the show wants me to believe that Nick is Bad Now because of this, and I just... I don't? I kept thinking about all the ways I could have bought into this more. One avenue would be to do an actual corruption arc for Nick, gradually over time. Show him actually liking the perks of being a Commander, show him enjoying having power, even if he doesn't agree with everything. But we never saw that. He's always been uncomfortable and terrified in Gilead. Another option, have his father-in-law have more explicit proof about the death of those two guards, that could point a finger at Nick, and have Nick explain to June that if he hadn't given up the plan, once the bombs went off Nick would be put on the wall for it if there were any survivors at all.

The framing of this whole scenario, the way June is processing it as this abject, unforgivable betrayal, all the bullshit about "I trusted him for so long that I forgot who he was" like... what do you mean, June? You forgot what, exactly? He's just trying to fucking survive in there. And Lawrence pissed me off saying that June was stupid to trust him all along, because again: footage not fucking found, Joseph. He's actually been incredibly trustworthy and done everything that's been asked of him, putting himself at more and more risk every time, and then when he was backed into a corner he found a way to get himself out of it. The consequences suck, yes, but this isn't some heel turn, and it was bizarre how the characters surrounding it treated it as if it was.

And don't get me started on Luke, calling Nick a Nazi, being all self-righteous and going off on June about the Nick situation. Once again I found myself thinking, well, if this show were going to develop and resolve these elements properly, this sign of simmering anger and resentment from Luke would be the downfall of their marriage at last. June would realize that being scolded back to back by Nick and Luke both, that Nick was the one who had a valid point, whereas Luke basically does not. But instead, it seems like the show wants to frame Luke as the objectively correct one in this scenario, and June has to apologize to him for everything.

I don't want to harp on too long, but it just felt like if this was the direction you wanted the story to go, it was such a weird way to handle it. Like, what was that scene with Nick and Rita? He's just a pouty little baby now? Is this a way to engender our sympathy, or to make us hate him? I literally couldn't tell, because it just didn't feel like the character we know.

I hate to say this, because I don't want Janine to die, but honestly if she had it would be a stronger emotional anchor for why June is in this headspace now, this idea that Nick is "unforgivable." Because it's not his fault all those women were killed, but if Janine had died, June having the irrational feeling that it was all on Nick would track a lot better, since that's a personal friend and someone she feels so much protective instinct for.

I also want to do a bit of eye-rolling about Serena. I feel like they have a charismatic actor who can imbue her performances with a lot of nuance and depth, and then a script that doesn't actually keep up with who the fuck this woman is supposed to be? Like, June says that Serena's narcissism is going to be the downfall of Gilead. Is that accurate? Is Serena not a True Believer but in fact just power-hungry? I mean, okay, I guess, but that doesn't exactly track consistently through the show. And that scene with the other wives was so weird, like she was trying to bring feminism to them. They're all saying "well, my husband thinks..." and then Serena is like "but what do YOU think" and it's just a little... like... girl, this is all far too little far too late. It's actually blood-boiling to hear her considering the Handmaid's fates now, baffled that these other women don't seem to give a shit, when it's like... Serena! You fucking helped set this shit in motion, and you're only now considering the broader consequences? I don't know what the show wants me to think about this character. Is she going to die in a fiery explosion on her wedding day? Is she going to discover the plot and then learn that her husband sucks and then do a last minute reversal and help May Day pull off the revolution? Both seem equally likely with what they've given us so far, and that's not a compliment. I don't understand her.

A smaller point that I want to make sure I address is that it feels like Moira has been totally wasted this season as a character. It's like they don't know what to do with her, she has to follow around in June's shadow and be pulled into her wake, and that's about it. Sure, we know she feels resentment, we saw that last episode with their fight. But here she is again, following June back into Gilead and then asking June to be the leader and give her inspiring words. I don't know structurally what should have been going on with Moira this season, but it feels like they just kinda stuck her into the sides of things to see if she'd fit, and it's a bummer.

Pros:

Okay, well, I think I need to go back to what I've been saying all season, which is that there are a lot of talented performers in this show who can really lock into some great dynamic moments. Bad architecture, good gargoyles. So if I can set aside the broader context that's bugging me so much, I can highlight some performance moments that I did like.

For one, I like that June didn't yell and scream at Nick, she was kind of cold and numb as she processed what had happened. She was a lot more hurt than she was angry, and I did like that in concept, like, the way it clashed with the May Day people when she gets back and she has to tell them that it's her fault the information leaked. She has to bear their understandable anger, and all the while she feels like she's grieving a breakup. And I like that Nick at least said his piece a little bit, reminding June of all the shit that she's taken for granted, seemingly. He's absolutely right that she's used his role as a Commander to suit her without ever grappling fully with the reality of that. I wish that I trusted the show to develop this idea more fully and have June realize that he's absolutely right, but I don't think that's going to happen.

I like that Lawrence is here to help, because honestly it tracks for his character that he'd only be motivated by his own well-being to do something this extreme, but he's been so uncomfortable and so unhappy in the world he created for so long, you do believe he'd find it worthwhile to tear it down if he can do so without incurring too much risk. It makes sense that we've finally reached his tipping point.

Janine... Jesus Christ. The moment where she comes to the window and Lydia sees her beaten black and blue... it's almost cartoonishly over the top, how much of a villain Bell is, but that small moment of Janine making herself known to Lydia was interesting to me. Was that Janine reaching out in the only way she could to ask for help or to form a connection with someone who, however fucked up it may be, seems to care for her? Or was that Janine's one and only way of telling Lydia: "I fucking told you so." Or was it both? I do like the nuance there. And I like that Nick tells June he's going to try and find out about Janine, and that Lawrence delivers the news to June about her being alive, it's such a weird network of secret-keepers.

I think that's about it for things I liked? I don't know. I wasn't miserable watching this episode, but I wasn't pleased either. This feels like the setup for an endgame that is probably mostly going to annoy me. And that's too bad, because I want a show like this to end in a way that feels big and bold. I'd rather they strike out trying something insane rather than trip and just sort of fall over the finish line. The latter is what I'm concerned is going to happen here. But I guess we'll have to wait and see.

5/10

[thesupernaturalhouse]

So I cant.....I can't anymore, Stolas fucking sucks

Season 2 as a whole sucks and gets rid of a lot of character depth that characters had in s1. But this post isn't about that-

I was recording clips for an edit, and you know in ep9 s2 when Stolas tells Blitz about "you couldn't be bothered to come save me"

Yeah.....Blitz TOLD him why he was unable to go and save him. He was even genuinely concerned and sent milly and moxxie in his place

You wanna know what Blitz said??

"Ah shit Stolas I can't today- I'm sorry I am literally on my way to take loona in for her very important hellvis S-H-O-T" and "it takes years to book it, it took 5 for me to get this one"

Aka, a rabies shot, which, racist will immediately kill you. You DON'T survive that once you get it and symptoms start showing up, it's a death sentence, and considering Loona is basically a sentient/anthropomorphic dog, if she catches it her survival rate is probably 0 percent

And you know what? Stolas gets it, and then in ep9, "the one who tried to kill em and you couldn't be BOTHERED to come help me"

Bitch he told you?? He sent people in his place?? He was getting his kid a really important shot?? Yiu selfish motherfu-

I hate this bird

I hate this fucking bird so much more now

This is just the finale straw for me that breaks the camels back tbh like......

Apology tour is just, Stolas and the narritive/writing basically gaslighting Blitz and its gross

I liked Stolitz and Stolas in s1, it wasnt a healthy relationship. The circumstances for both characters weren't super good, but it understood that and actually showed those flaws, It set up these characters future arcs

Season 2 is, frankly, a shit show. It has its moments, but ep1 ruined Stolas and Stolitz for me, and it just keeps on getting worse and it isn't even in a way of "Oh its rough, but they can bounce back

This is gaslighting. This is hypocrisy. This is guilt tripping. This is abuse.

Instead of building off of season 1 it is retconning it, it is destroying the continuity and timeline, it's making these characters so much worse then what they were

Instead of having Stolas face actual consequences for his actions the narritive is backtracking and going "Oh actually its not his fault" over and over again

Oh he cheated in the marriage? No worries Stella is a bitch so it's okay

Oh, he's neglecting his daughter despite them already having this arc? Oh, it's fine she just needs to cut him some slack

Oh he constantly belittled Blitz and made him uncomfortable in season 1? Actually it was all of Blitzs fault for misreading the signs of love!

He is constantly shown looking down and abusing other imps like his butler? Oh its fine, they aren't the main characters so what he does to them isn't important!!

Another thing is that Blitz tells Stolas how he feels. He points out his shitty actions. And what does Stolas do? He fucking cries like Blitz is being a big ol means for no reason

This trial is just going to further victimize him and make him seem in the right. The fact the sins might even be brought into it is also so fucking stupid.

The writing went from a 8 to a 1 with the characters. And it's only a 1 here because there are some good ideas in s2.

Their basically trying to cover up, retcon, Stolas's actions instead of having him deal with consequences and go through real development

Honestly the best ending for Stolitz would be Blitz realizing Stolas is toxic as fuck to him and just, not contacting him again. Stolas could get some real consequences in that trial and move on and become better in his own right

Butttt of course since Viv likes them so much it's gonna be dragged on for fucking seasons and then their gonna get together.

If I were to rewrite the season, I wouldn't even try to rewrite Stolitz.

[kiyomitakada]

Sayu

[shaking] you've activated my trap card

okay so first. a confession. sayu reminds me very strongly of a character from a different franchise i am obsessed with. if it feels like half of these answers are hallucinations of a world where death note is much more sayu-centric then that is why. but theoretically you shouldn't be able to tell so Don't Worry About It

favorite thing about them: HER GUILT COMPLEX THE SIZE OF THE SUN. it is implied for exactly two panels. im insane about it regardless.

she thinks being kidnapped was her fault! she thinks the death note falling into the mafia's hands is her fault! girl what is wrong with you!!!!

i also like that ohba iirc said she became extremely paranoid after the kidnapping. i think this is because — well first of all obviously she doesn't want to be kidnapped again, but second of all, if she were kidnapped again she's afraid her family will have to go through even more shit to get her back

least favorite thing about them: [light voice] sayu. ive taught you the quadratic formula at least five times by now. look, here's the proof again. can you not see the inherent beauty of completing the square? [sayu voice] oniichan the scary thing about you is im not even sure youre joking

favorite line: "well, i think you're quite handsome, matsuda." "huh? really, sayu?!" "yup, if only you weren't so old, i might have thought about going out with you. too bad." "URK"

i like that sayu is just as good at maneuvering social interaction as light is. i like that she manages to very successfully defuse the tension in the room with this joke (because sachiko and soichiro are both furious at the idea that their daughter would ever date a cop). you can physically feel the air lighten. i think sayu's had to do a lot of this ever since light left for six months and came back not quite whole.

i also think the fact that she's so good at this means she has to have picked up on the fact that light doesn't actually like misa, and the fact that she deliberately asks him about marriage anyway makes me feel Some Kind Of Way. more on this later

brOTP: i mean it HAS to be light and sayu. i am of the belief that she is the one person light loves more than anyone else in the world. im also of the belief that sayu doesn't know this considering that she thinks light abandoned them. they've never talked about this because they don't talk about anything important anymore.

OTP: the real answer to this question is sayu/reader because one of my first ever fic ideas for this fandom was for a reader-as-sayu's-situationship longfic that starts when sayu gets kidnapped and the reader insert, in a panic to get her back, forces her way onto the investigation team. however if we restrict ourselves to canon only i think that sayu has had the world's worst most misery-inducing unrequited crush on misa ever since she was fifteen. also more on this later

nOTP: unironic matsu/sayu i guess?? i dont think ive ever seen this around though. i ship matsu/sayu the way i ship yaga/mane

random headcanon: she came out to light as attracted to girls (i can never decide if she's gay or bi or pan or what, but she definitely Likes Women) when she was thirteen, and once he got over the surprise light was genuinely fairly accepting of this. he teases her about cute girls at her school constantly. she's still not out to her parents though

unpopular opinion: god her arc is such a tragedy. i don't know if this is unpopular among the fans but im like 99% sure it's unpopular among the creators, i.e. ohba and obata did not do this on purpose. her becoming drastically less mischievous and more mature* in second arc is meant to show that she's twenty years old and all grown up now, does her essays by herself, and so on and so forth. it just so happens that i can and will interpret this as her watching her brother slip further and further away until one day he doesn't come home at all and suddenly the onus of keeping her parents happy rests solely on herself. little sister to eldest daughter speedrun!!!

(*there's probably a lot to be said about how many of o&o's "morally good" female characters, including some i've heard about in bakuman, fall into this Gentle, Mature stereotype. [not all! halle lidner i love you! but many.] they accept that their role in society is to play second fiddle to a man forever. all this is to say that basically i think sayu's arc2 personality is meant to symbolize that she's grown up to be The Perfect Woman and that it's a positive thing; however when you take the misogyny goggles off it reads exactly like repression)

i also think her opinion of misa is much more complicated than fanon gives her credit for? it's like

[canonical] wow my brother's girlfriend is really pretty and wow she doesn't dress modestly at all (<- was raised in a fairly conservative household and gets shocked by things like these)

[canonical] hi misa, i saw you in a lot of magazines! [headcanonical] i looked up my brother's girlfriend and found her website and then went to the corner store and bought all her magazines. for research purposes. 'cause i want to know what's up with this girl who's the first my know-it-all brother has ever been serious about. no other reason!

[off-screen canon: light calls sachiko and tells her that he's decided to live on his own with misa, "but my stubborn dad would be totally against it, so i'm going to be out of contact for a while" (chapter 34)]

[L dies, light moves in with misa for real, timeskip]

[canonical] "oh, light and misa. it's rare that you both come over together." [headcanonical/implied] misa spends time with the other yagamis outside of light? often?

[canonical] "you have a career now, light. when are you going to think about marriage?" okay 1) who are you and what have you done with sayu "light has a girlfriend?! wow!" yagami. 2) as aforementioned i truly believe sayu is smart enough to notice light doesn't like misa, like, he is not subtle about it. so:

[headcanonical] sayu, in a feat of retroactive justification her brother would be proud of, is determined to get yagamane to actually like each other because if they don't then why did light abandon them for so long?

[extremely headcanonical] sayu, in a feat of repression her brother would also be proud of, has decided that surely her crush of five years will go away if misa just marries light for real and becomes definitively unavailable forever.

christ that was longer than i thought it'd be. why didn't i just put this in the otp section

but anyway i think there are a lot of ways you could interpret their dynamic outside of my headcanons. i really like this fic which instead proposes that sayu hates her and is also incredibly in character!

song i associate with them: as i put in sachiko's answer she's soooooo "if you could coddle the infection they can amputate at once / i should've been i could have been a better son" to me. gestures back at the guilt complex. gestures back at the way she becomes so socially savvy to make up for light not even bothering to pretend to like misa. almost like she's making herself a replacement for the yagami family forever losing their perfect son archetype. im normal.

favorite picture of them:

she's so cute here

[kyoteugly]

My issue with this 2-part emergency is that it's mediocre and not done on a scale that would feel like a proper send off... Bobby deserves better, something that shows how important he is, something to celebrate him and something that would leave us all devastated and heartbroken, but also honored to witness his final hour.

It's bad writing. Lack of meaning. Episode 15 should be about Bobby - he shouldn't be just last minute twist at the end... he's Bobby fucking Nash! He deserves better.

Imagine that at the start of the episode we see that Bobby's tube is damaged. We don't know if he noticed it. But by the way he talks with Chim and Hen and Ravi, seemingly about the situation they're in, but he sneaks his fatherly love into those conversations - that tells us that he knows. He fucking knows he's dying and he's saying goodbye to them. And they don't know it!!! 

How fucking emotional that would be?! They would remember every single word, it would haunt them, it would mean so much, it could set up every character into future arcs... and it would make the whole episode about Bobby. He would say his goodbye to each of them but also leave something behind, some sort of legacy those characters would carry on into the new season...

But most importantly we would cry our eyes out, we would feel that this is it, Bobby is really leaving... and maybe in some way it would feel like a farewell to us, fans...

Yeah, but no, all Bobby deserved was 7 minutes (even less than that)... 

Bobby fucking Nash sacrificed himself in a mediocre 2-part emergency and all he got was 7 minutes of screen time to say his last words.

I can accept his death, but this?! This is not how you kill such an amazing character with such difficult and amazing backstory... and I don't mean that he sacrificed himself, no. This part is perfect, this part is very much Bobby, but making his death a twist for a shock value takes away the meaning of his death.

And yeah, I know, it wasn't a twist because of the fucking leak, but imagine if the show actually cared and we wouldn't know about the funeral. With the thing I wrote above, this episode would hit hard. For 40 minutes we would watch him making his peace and we would howl and bargain and beg... 

Instead... we were never scared about Chim's safety... we were just waiting for Bobby part... we were waiting for 118 reactions, which were all in fucking promo... jesus, even this should be a secret... it took away so much from the actual scenes. We had the whole week to watch Buck, Hen and Chim cry their souls out. And I thought those were only the glimpses of their despair... but no... that was it... we didn't hear Chimney bargain, didn't hear Hen losing her breath, didn't hear Buck howl like a banshee... no... we got a fucking music video with the same short shots of their pain... waste...

So that's why I'm pissed off... The plot of the episodes could stay the same, the ending with Buck and Athena also... the only thing I would change were the scenes in the lab... Bobby is more than a fucking plot twist...

Is? Was? Hell, I don't know... part of me thinks he's not really dead...

The only thing that convinces me it's true is Peter's goodbye letter... 

Guess we will find out in 2 weeks

And Eddie? - fuck, don't even start... 

Again, part of me gets it... to have one character who experienced it differently, but for fuck sake it feels so wrong to exclude him so completely... not even a phone call? Really? Nothing? This breaks my heart even more than Bobby's death. Yeah, fuck, sue me...

[aroacebaggins]

TROP Elrond is autistic, here's why

I mean according to my headcanons all versions of him are but this is based on TROP.

@a-sweet-potato-63 I saw your tags on another post and I will happily join you in your autistic Elrond campaign, time to post whatever this is that's been in my drafts for weeks.

So in season 1, there's strain on Durin and Elrond's friendship because Elrond hasn't visited in 20 years. In the show, this is explained as Elrond not grasping how long that is for a mortal because he is an elf.

This would work just fine if it was basically any other elf.

But Elrond is a peredhel? He's part human. He has had mortal family members, including *checks notes* his TWIN. Who would have died a mortal death by this point. Depending on how exactly you think the Peredhels' choice worked and Dior's mortality and all that, Elrond might have BEEN mortal before his choice. I'm fairly certain he is the one elf who definitely does understand mortality.

All that to say, the show's explanation doesn't do it for me.

So if it's not just mortality he doesn't get, what is it? Because it seems pretty clear he didn't ghost Durin on purpose and felt really bad about it. I would like to propose that social rules as a whole are the problem.

Now it's obviously a bit of a generalization to say that autistic people aren't good at socializing, but all I'll say is that I once very nearly accidentally convinced some friends I was dead by not keeping in touch. I wasn't even in the hospital that time, I just forgot that messaging people was something I was supposed to do for about 2 weeks. It was entirely unintentional, but they did not appreciate that. My bad guys.

It's not actually just that though. A few other things that lend credence to this headcanon:

He may be in the court in Lindon, but he's still kind of a social outcast. Autistic people often don't "fit in". This is also kind of implied to be because of his ancestry and/or youth, but the point stands.

The first time we see him he is sitting in a tree talking to himself while writing an overly dramatic speech for Gil-galad. He'd taken off his cloak/fancy court robes and expressed mild annoyance at being found and engaged in conversation. All I'm saying is, relatable.

In S1 at least, he seems to have, aside from Durin and Disa, a grand total of one (1) friend, that being Galadriel, who we find out saved his life/brought him to Lindon in this version. Honestly, their first scene together always reads to me as "oh thank god, the one person who I can actually talk to and doesn't secretly hate me is back".

That being said, this may be kind of a hot take, but I do not like how Galadriel treats him (in the show) a lot of the time. It almost feels like she knows he looks up to her and uses that or treats him a bit like a child. He is younger than her, obviously, but the respect often seems one-sided. I'm not sure exactly how this is related except that autistic people are often infantilized or not taken seriously. (Btw this isn't really criticizing the writing, I think Galadriel is a fascinating character, I just wouldn't get along with her.)

But back to wholesome relationships, I find it telling that really his closest friend (Durin) is 1) not an elf, and 2) kind of a misfit/underdog himself (see Durin's conversation with his father about his childhood)

He has a tendency to think outside the box/accepted social norms in general, like suggesting Celebrimbor get help from the dwarves.

I have to mention him getting excited about Fëanor's hammer while Celebrimbor just looks on, exasperated (I like to headcanon Tyelpë as autistic too but that's less relevant right now).

Moving on a bit, especially in season 2 he seems to have what some diagnostic criteria would call a strong sense of justice. (There's a bit of debate on this as an autism thing I think. But humor me.) I mean, "what is beauty if it is born in part of evil?", "no less beautiful", "not to me"? And his whole arc in S2 really. I mean, he KNOWS what he thinks is right and he is, for lack of a better word, really stubborn about it.

He's obsessed with lore and books. Aside from just neurodivergent people frequently loving learning or taking refuge in literature or fiction, he cares more about scrolls than his own life apparently.

Picked up Khuzdul just by listening to people? If that's not hyperfixation behavior I don't know what is

And finally, he's a healer and I've often seen him interpreted as an empath, which is pretty cool. Autistic people can have a wide range of empathy levels, but both "abnormally" high as well as low (me) empathy levels are more common among neurodivergent folks. If we're going on the high empathy side, some people also have closer connections to animals, see Elrond going batshit crazy when that one orc killed his horse.

I think that's it, but I will inevitably think of more later. Is it kind of a stretch? Sure. Am I projecting immensely? Probably. But I do it out of love.

^ Don't know the original source for that meme sorry it's been on my phone for far too long

Anyway, thanks for coming to my TED talk, anyone's free to add on :D

[lingulaca]

This "Alicent's punished with her grandson's death for having consensual sex for the first time in her life" narrative is beyond stupid. I don't give a shit about Alicent's sex life and it's definitely not a subject I want to be brought up in a show about freakin' Targaryens. The writers didn't even bother to give us a glimpse of Rhaenyra's relationship with Harwin, even of they were involved for about a decade. In a sense they even sidelined Daemyra. Alicent's affair with Cole is totally unnecessary. Maybe it would be easier to accept if the actors had any chemistry, but despite being so "hot" Olivia doesn't have chemistry with any cast member. And making Alicent a victim because having an orgasm was necessary for her to develop as a character is delusional

oh totally. the flaws i find in that are

1. alicent got no real punishment

she gets away with her treasonous plotting, nobody really calls her out on her shit compared to when otto called out aegon for being an idiot. and even when otto did that, it didn't hit hard at all because his whole thing was "omg aegon you're not fit to be the king" even though HE SCHEMED TO GIVE AEGON THE THRONE AND AEGON ADMITTED THAT HE WOULDN'T BE A GOOD KING + HE DIDN'T WANNA BE🤦🏾‍♀️ but whatevs. alicent gets away with everything that other characters would be dragged for. an example is the driftmark incident, her and her 🤮 disgusting little rat children🤮 received no comeuppance for slandering the heir & assaulting her children and i could go on and on about that !! even helaena forgives alicent after b&c, like why ?? is that hbo telling us, the audience that we should be like sweet little innocent butterfly helaena (i'm sorry i don't like her either) and forgive 🤮alicent🤮 ?? call me crazy but i rlly feel like it is !

2. the whole "liberation arc" or whatever is so flawed on a character like alicent

it's really arrogant for alicent stans to act like alicent is getting punished for things out of her control when she was one of the main conspirators behind the dance lol

ALSO just because a character has a lot of sex scenes doesn't mean their sex life is particularly important plot-wise. in this case, it just means the writers have been sniffing a bit too much paint on their work breaks !

it also seems like them absolving her of her blame. "alicent's didn't do anythinggg🥺 it's the evil men's fault☹️" like she's a bitch, accept that !! if you like alicent so much don't portray her as a brainless bambi housewife, since when has that been endearing like ugh🙄

[wilderhyperfoxations]

Chains of Eternity- my biased, terrible little review

This will include spoilers, so you've been warned. Although I like this game (my tumblr and even this post are a testament to that) sometimes things you like can fall short. So, let's get into my various critiques of COE. The start of the story felt pretty strong. I do wish we saw Valen, BECAUSE WHERE IS THAT MAN, but sure, right. I felt like there were too many side characters during the first few quests, and this trend continues through the whole arc. I really liked Faramor… so where the hell did he go? He sort of disappeared without much of an explanation. He had no character development, or it simply wasn't portrayed in a cohesive way. But his VA was very good. Also, controversial, but while I did enjoy Lorsan's cameo- it did not add anything. Same with half the characters this season, they really came out of nowhere, and could have been utilized in a more interesting way. The whole immortality talk also felt unconvincing- sure it's bad but if you're really afraid of death it's a small price to pay, and you'll watch people die even if you're mortal, so… weak argument there. Cyran. God, Cyran, they barely used him, too. Which I really wished they did. Also the King/Duke(?) was kind of barely there. They did nail Yolena and made the ending that much more WHAT THE FUCK. There were some bigger overarching issues, such as: Structural issues, Promise, payoff, Setup, Too much fluff, Pacing, Lore. Structural issues- the story structure did not feel sound nor satisfying due to the lack of promise at the start and the lack of payoff at the end (ex.- in WOI, it's "Merlin wants to leave Rustport, Sinbad wants to be a Captain, Sonja wants to kill her dad" and all of those things come true and make a satisfying story). This is pretty much the same as "setup"- there was not much of that. Too much fluff- too many characters and frivolous parts that I felt could be trimmed. Most characters could be cut out and the story would still work. Pacing- unlike WOI, which felt like it lasted ages, or even the first few storylines that were pretty even, this one was choppy. The start dragged and then the end sprinted. The whole thing whizzed past me and there I was, left befuddled. Lore- confusing! In the story not much is elaborated on, but then in some heart-to-heart's there are comments on why graveborns were made that… actually make no sense, or are unsupported by the wider narrative. How would they improve this? Honestly. Just more editing and more time. This one must've been rushed, or something, because WOI was stellar for any game (and again Sinbad's VA was FIRE, nothing stood out to me this time). And if I were to edit this story, I'd introduce Valka earlier, and give her some clearer goal than just "am sad, don't deserve your praise, blah". State it more clearly that she wishes she could make things right. And the villain, who I neglected to mention- all villains besides the WOI ones have been last-minute. Cryonaia was intimidating, but, she was… not setup. If the story spoke of her earlier, or incorporated her into some legend, her reveal would mean more. Otherwise she's just another hypogean. Also, what was her goal? What was she trying to do? Who the fuck knows. I found her vibe unclear. Tell me if I missed something, but I do doubt I missed anything major. Altogether, if this was a book, I'd give it a 2 or 3 stars for "you tried and you almost got here but your editor must've been drunk and passed out for months or something".

[pinkcowzz]

finally watching daredevil born again, and i have. THOUGHTS.

everything feels SO intentional. like, i was really concerned for this show cause the first three seasons hold such a special place in my heart but it seems like this show was handled with such care.

there will be spoilers for episode 1 below the cut, so. proceed with caution. (i'll be making a separate post for ep. 2 later because this got way out of hand)

so, to start off with the opening credits. i was. SO impressed. the og credits like genuinely they are some of my favorite credits to have been done. and the new ones, using some of the same symbols but having them be concrete and broken to literally rebuild matt is SO neat.

admittedly, i am not a marvel comic reader, have not touched more than maybe 6 in my whole life. so- please don't take what i have to say about characterization too seriously. that being said!

i have no idea how to feel about foggy dying. i have heard that in the comics, it's karen that bullseye kills. i think narratively it does make more sense for foggy to be the one to die. he was the glue within their group, he was the one who always saw more within matt, who believed in him to make the right choices.

my biggest thoughts on foggy's death is that, AHHH it's about the suit. it's always about the suit. foggy is the person who brought matt the suit, back during the arc with elektra and the hand and everything. and he regretted it. a lot. that much we knew. and then to open this new season with foggy clearly and deliberately keeping matt from the suit. ("look im sorry, maybe i didn't wanna give you an excuse")

then, matt chooses to use the suit to 'solve' his issue. and his consequence? he loses foggy. and immediately he loses his morals, pushing ben off the roof. did he know that wouldn't kill dex? we don't know! but he did it. it's, poetic in a way. foggy was the one person that was grounding matt.

it's also just, a really interesting path to take for matt's character. like, the entirety of season two was matt trying to decide who he was. in one direction was the suit, and elektra and the adrenaline of it all. on the other was foggy and working within the system. matt saw both as a way to help, he saw both as a means to fix hell's kitchen. in the end, he lost elektra and chose to walk away from foggy. but then the series opens with the line

"i like to think that i have- we have evolved"

this means something, at least to me. we are seeing matt once again questioning who is he, why he is making the choices he has been making. is it worth it?

then cut to one year later, and we see that matt is still caring foggy with him- literally. he carries the program from his funeral, what i can only assume is daily. kept on his kitchen counter along with his other daily essentials. a reminder of his failings, of what he has lost.

moving onto karen, i really hate her running off to san fran but i can't say i don't understand it. she ran after her brother died, it's CLEAR that something went down between her & matt after foggy died, she felt unsupported and left alone again so she left. but for her to come back and ONLY talk to matt about the suit, whewwww baby. that's some heavy shit to dig through.

she had always understood the 'devil of hell's kitchen'. until she knew who he was and realized he had lied to her. they have such a messy relationship. idk, her giving matt the horn from his costume but refusing to allow them to actually talk, to actually heal, it's fucked up. she's, in a very round about way, telling him that she only feels he's useful in the suit. that this other person, (daredevil) the one who drove them apart years ago, is the only thing they have in common now.

and then. vanessa and wilson. what the FUCK is going on between them. i think the most important piece of information that we got about them, is the painting that is shown right before vanessa is reintroduced. it's titled "ivan the terrible and his son". for those who aren't familiar, the scene it is depicting is of ivan holding his son right after he murdered him. the motive has been argued, either a political disagreement or perhaps because of ivan's son's wife passing by in her robe (a disrespect at the time).

to me? this is saying that fisk is going to kill vanessa at some point this season. i think it will either be motivated by her making business moves that he disagrees with or perhaps because she has essentially made A CUCK OUT OF HIM HELLOO?????? (no im not not over that, it fits their dynamics so well but is just. so wild)

i also just want to compliment on how it has introduced so many new characters, without making it feel crowded or annoying. i miss the old supporting cast that was present, but this show has managed to make me not hate the new one. mcduffie's relationship with matt seems to be one with lots of history and care. cherry is already in on the secret and seems to not be afraid to use it to his advantage.

even the doctor that matt is dating, heather seems to have genuine chemistry with matt.

onto the next! the scene with matt and fisk is. i could watch it a hundred times and not tire of it. starting the scene with fisk telling matt "im not going to spar with you" to then have one of the BEST verbal spars i've EVER seen is so fun. i truly love the writers of this show, it's so clear to me that they really love these characters and wanted to do right by them. (i also completely forgot about fisk being in hawkeye until this scene, whoops)

the irony of "fisk will fix it" and maga is not lost on me, it's a bit exhausting but, i can understand the statement they were wanting to make with it.

there was an interview with charlie cox and vincent d'onofrio where they both comment how matt can't exist without fisk, and the same vice versa. they serve as such fun foils of each other. they want to catch the other tripping up. they want to be the one to bring the other down. they don't want to prove the other right. GOD it's fun.

last thing, i really like the score. okay! well this got way out of hand, but i just needed to get these worms out of my brain or else they would eat it whole so.

[softantlers]

Are there any head canons you wanna write about that no one has requested yet?

yeah, actually! thanks for asking.

i'm of so many minds of lottie's death at the hands of callie, and i just have to put the whole scene aside because i found it quite underwhelming & not at all up to scuff with what lottie's character arc deserved, BUT--

i want to talk about callie as the platonic idea of the wilderness & the lottie, nat, shauna of it all.

okay, so when i think about the wilderness, i've always said i think about it as this sort of metaphysical reflection of the girls themselves. they give it form; they shape it. if you've read the earthseed series, it's kinda like that. you put into religion exactly what you need from it. you meld it.

so in that way "it is us," i take that statement at face value. "it" is this collective vitality and survivalism of the girls ("it" can also take many shapes, re: i've written about it as self-harm/abuse too). and lottie finds it admirable, finds it beautiful. she finds the yellowjackets beautiful.

my thought with "it" is that lottie is trying to turn their experience of the wilderness into something--she's trying to manifest the carnal drive that led them to survive out there into physical form. the problem is that "it" is cumulative, right? no one is truly "it" on their own; they are all "it" together. and individually, they're insufficient.

when i think about lottie's obsession with wilderness baby, i think of it in terms of community. everything is shared among them now. they are a unit. they share their clothes, their resources--when the going gets tough, they share and consume each other's flesh. in that sense, lottie naturally views shauna's baby as theirs. "our baby," meaning the baby that belongs to all the yellowjackets.

in that sense, callie is "ours" too--i think lottie views her as the culmination of their patronage to "it"--basically the terrible thrilling things that they did out there. the terrible thrilling things that they ascended to, that none of them could have known they were capable of.

how this gets back to lottie & nat is interesting. lottie has been trying since her time in the wilderness to give "it" form, right? she tried to be queen herself, a personification of it, and she found her own self lacking. she wasn't right; it hurt, but she understood it. she had to step down. when she saw that natalie had survived the hunt and all that she had done to help them survive the winter, she crowned her--trying to channel "it" through natalie.

this brings me to "its favorite" because natalie was. she was lottie's favorite. she was every girl's except shauna's favorite. (and fuck, maybe she was even shauna's favorite-- her favorite plaything at least.) even when shauna ascended, natalie was the leader. to the very top of the mountain, she was the people's queen--her ascent completely overshadowing shauna's at the end of the season. favorite's where the heart is, and it's warm and inviting, and it feels like home, but lottie has a mission she has to follow through.

on the other hand, shauna is the closest to "it"--she represents the most intense parts of the wilderness--surviving loss, acts of profound violence & cruelty, all (well some) in service of survival, sure, but horrible. but the thing about "closest" is that it's not quite it, right? shauna's not quite there. she, like natalie, like lottie, is insufficient. they aren't "it" in its perfect form--what lottie is trying to create.

tbh i am still not clear on the ways that callie embodies "it" so perfectly to lottie, but i suppose we'll learn more if we get a season 4. again, i don't particularly like the way lottie died. i guess you could say she died in service to "it" in the sense that she represented "it/callie's" first kill, but aghh?? in any case, lottie does see a perfect "it" in callie, where she didn't see it in shauna. i mean, she's quick to tell callie that shauna's jealous. she didn't really have much of a problem hunting shauna until callie sidetracked her by her "power."

interesting stuff. and of course, it's just my perspective. but i feel like i'm starting to see a throughline between all of the failed queens and how we got here??