#also this is literally decolonization plotline

[gold-rhine]

you know that post thats like you need to understand the rules of something before you can meaningfully break them? you need to understand the rules of classic tragedy to understand how genshin is purposefully breaking them with furina.

i've seen ppl complaining that furina doesn't have agency and should've stayed an archon when like. first of all, thats the point, tragic heroes don't. doomed by the narrative, all that shit. this is why a lot of tragedies use prophecies, which genshin references as well. like not even getting into how furina is playing off little mermaid narrative, its hard to miss that she's opera themed.

but where it starts subverting the genre, is that furina KNOWS she is a tragic hero. she is given the choice at the very start, focalors told her that she will need to suffer and PERFORM in order to finally save fontaine from the prophecy. Furina is a tragic hero who is given knowledge that she IS IN TRAGEDY PLAY and also given AGENCY TO CHOOSE TO PERFORM. bc it's not a single choice at the start, she has to keep choosing it again and again every day, the game focuses heavily on her distress and she could break the role at any moment, but she doesn't. there are so many moments of game showing her conflict! her confrontation with neuvillette, her grief in Poisson, her wavering at the traveller's offer bc it can be a loophole, then the trial, where she went all the way, where she put her hand into primordial water, thinking it will dissolve her. like! she had so many moments where it would be understandable for her to break, but she didn't, she stayed true, and it was not easy for her at all. that was a choice, a dedication that she had to make again and again, and it only became harder and harder

but where genshin really gets into breaking tragedy rules, is that it lets its tragic hero cheat death using the rules of tragedy itself. this is why i referenced an essay on classic greek tragedy here, because in tragedy, gods have absolute power, but they are also immutable, unable to change, while humans are weak and fickle, but they CAN grow and change. as an essay says, tragic hero achieves something like divinity in a moment his face solidifies into an unchangeable mask, and that moment is death.

fontaine arc is breaking the tragedy rules without disrespecting them, because it does not diminishes the sacrifice and heavy price of death, but instead allows furina to escape bc in the moment when she should have died, focalors put herself into spotlight instead, and she already had an unchangeable death mask of divinity. and her death, her sacrifice allowed furina to achieve greater agency to choose to live how she wants. she escaped the tragedy! she was saved from the narrative! she's a little mermaid who didn't have to die to receive a human soul.

and tbh saying that furina should have stayed an archon is first, conflating power with agency, and second, disrespecting her own choice, because the game goes to excruciating length to show that she hates ruling and being a movie director makes her happy. furina wanting to self-actualize through art is not somehow lesser than her being a ruler.

[bookinit02]

just read the episode seven script. HOLY FUCKING SHIT DUDW

there is . so much. SO MUCH i want to say about it. so many great moments. oh my god. final girl karen wheeler my QUEEN. and the camp scene at the end, witg all the reunions- mr. clark!!! lucas and his parents!!! KALI!!! god im SO EXCITED to see what you do with kali man, i loved that part of season 2 and kind of hated how she was just...never mentioned again... and seeing her in your season 5 makes me so happy!!!!

and now to scream about byler.

*deep breath* .. ASJFBFKFNWIJDKDBFJFBIDBDJD DHHDJDVDJDBDJDHD HEHVDJDBDKDHDIDBJDBDJDBEJEHDJ

HOLY SHIT!!!! THE LETTERS. TYE FCUKGIN LETTERSSSSSZSSS. THAT. THE. MIKE. READING THE LETTER TO WILL. "i dont know how to love people without hurting them" DEAR GOD. AND THEY FINALLY KISSED!!!!!!! IN THE RUINS OF CASTLE BYERS!!!!! AND IT LITERALLY FUCKINNG RESTORES THE UPSIDE DOWN!!!!!! LIKE FUCKING MLP TWILIGHT SPARKLE MAGIC POWER STYLE!!!! HOLY SHIT!!!!!!!!!!

also on that note . i loveloveLOVE how you did the hive mind flashback to before henry showed up, i LOVE the notion that the upside down wasnt always creepy and evil and thats all henry's doing, i LOVE the demodogs and demogorgons being real, sympathetic creatures rather than these mindless drones for the Good Guys to kill. doggie!!!! theyre just doggies!!!! im!!!!!!!!!

clears throat. anyways

YES final girl karen wheeler!! i am so glad everyone is starting to care about her as much as i do bc i have had this plotline in my head for over a year now🥹

actually. confession! karen’s plot was like 80% of the reason i decided to do a script at all, bc i had such a solid s5 vision in my head for her but i couldn’t figure out how to work it into a byler-pov fic. i was thinking about doing separate related ficlets originally, but then i got even more ideas, and the scripts were born!

and yeah, i’m super excited about all the reunions!! i was going to wait for the finale until some of them, like mr. clark, but i figured i’d just get them all done in one big reunion extravaganza. the plan was always to include kali somehow—i want to make sure i close out the arcs of all characters in the show, like terry and the police, etc! and el needs her sister back💗

i’m glad you liked the letter scene :) it’s one of my favorites, and i’m very happy with how it turned out.

thank you so so so much for the comment about the hive mind (and for your notes on the fic as well)! i know that understandably this chapter got overshadowed very much by byler, but the restoration/decolonization of the upside down is a really important theme to me, and i’m looking forward to writing it out. especially because (and i could be wrong about this) it’s not a route that i necessarily see the duffers taking, and i wanted to be able to do it justice.

thank you for the comment!!!! sorry for the long reply, i just woke up from a nap and apparently i had a lot to say😭