#apologies if i got any episodes mixed up or put the wrong titles/numbers

[funnywormz]

top 10 lobby boy looks please and thank you rate this man like he's in an issue of cosmo and we're ripping him asunder

this was a toughie bc idk anything abt fashion and his outfits aren't described in as much detail as the manager but i still had fun!! decided to only use publicly accessible canon episodes for this (no bonus eps, nothing patreon exclusive) hehe. also let me reiterate once more that i have the worst fashion sense in the entire world

NUMBER 10: 4.10 - audrey burns

awesome episode but this fit sounds boring as hell. it doesn't sound BAD but just...... boring.......... doesn't even have a hat. sad

NUMBER 9: 4.1 - perry sherwin

he doesn't like it and i don't either. white is definitely not the best colour to be wearing when you're employed at a slimy gross murder hotel lol. maybe it looked kinda cool but thinking abt him trying to get the stains out makes me a little sad. also plain white is kinda boring imo....... although it could look cool in a kind of stark way i suppose

NUMBER 8: 4.17 - debbie houston

putting this one low on the list bc it's uncomfortable for him and he didn't like it which is sad. but it's at number 8 not lower bc i instinctively know he was serving cunt here. like i know he looked kinda sexy in it. but he doesn't like it and comfort should always come before fashion imho, hence its low spot on the list. also he didn't even get to wear it out of the closet.......

NUMBER 7: 4.16 - alex potenski

made the manager cringe but i think it sounds kinda cute in an ugly way. like he could wear this to a barbecue or to the beach or something. i like it when madam hotel puts him in pink.........

NUMBER 6: 4.7 - dorothy rennup

it's giving librarian. it's giving tumblr history teacher aesthetic. unfortunately i have a weakness for that kind of outfit so i think it sounds cute. it also sounds comfortable and warm which is important! and the collared button up under a sweater look is always something i enjoy................

NUMBER 5: 4.3 - the habers

we never actually get this one properly described to us which is why it isn't higher on the list. based on the hotel taking on a 70s aesthetic in this episode and the fact that even THINKING about this made the manager cringe kinda fills me with joy bc i know it was ugly and campy as hell. in my heart i know he was so garish and awkward looking and sweaty in this episode and i love it.

NUMBER 4: 4.9 - mr platt

i think this sounds cute sorry miss manager. once again i like it when the hotel puts him in pink outfits. by "coral" im assuming it's a pink/peachy coral type of colour which i think would look cool in combination with black. tidy but a little bit ugly in a way that i enjoy greatly. idk exactly why i like this one as much as i do. but i do.

NUMBER 3: 5.2 - it watches and it smiles

LOVE THIS THANG! underrated episode imo. i love the way this episode combines ominous terror with like, pleasant night time tropical beach vibes. it's rlly good. the description of the lobby boy in this episode is also rlly good. something chunky and very low to the ground that can't move fast but has very very long grabby arms and bulging big eyes and an evil grin........ i love it. sounds very spooky. love it when he's at the window menacing the guy inside. it's easy to get a vague idea of this creature in my head but hard to pin it down to a specific design which i think is intentional, and i rlly like it. very shaped animal. sounds like he might look at little bit silly if you caught him in the daylight perhaps, although that isn't necessarily a bad thing

NUMBER 2: 2.2 - cracker man

sadly we don't get much of a description of cracker man but im putting him high up bc i think he is awesome. bones sticking out everywhere, joints and the wrong angles, all skinny and tall and bulging and swollen and creaking........ love it. i bet he looks so scary. the idea of the monster chasing you being all broken and sad and in pain itself is very compelling. also the body horror side to the cracker man where he's constantly creaking and snapping with every movement is so uncomfortable (in a good way). also as someone with very creaky and sometimes painful joints i can relate to him.

NUMBER 1: 4.5 - robert watson

maybe this sounds underwhelming but hear me out. HEAR ME OUT OK! this is one of the few episodes where the lobby boy is described as wearing the classic red lobby boy uniform, and it's extra shiny and fancy and pretty this time. i think he was physically at his peak of lobby-boy-ness here. the red outfit with the hat and shiny buttons is a classic and it's his most iconic look ever. most people in the fandom including me draw him this way. it might seem boring or generic bc it's so common but to me this outfit is just His Outfit. it's the lobby boy outfit. unbeatable imo. if he was a cartoon character and wore the same outfit every episode i just KNOW it would be this one. it's a classic. i will not be swayed on this.

[skellebonez]

Could you do number 46. They have amnesia? With Monkie King and MK If you’re still doing the request/prompts

You didn't say who had to have amnesia, anon. Spoilers for episodes up to S2E6 inside.

They have amnesia?

"How is this even possible?" MK asked softly, not wanting to be heard but knowing that Wukong’s superior hearing would pick up most of what he was saying. Though given how distracted he was...

"It shouldn't be!" Tang exclaimed equally as quiet, watching his hero with a mix of curiosity and dismay. "He's the Monkey King, nothing should be able to hurt him like this."

"Maybe he wasn't hurt," Mei offered, watching Wukong herself as Pigsy held up another photograph and only recieved a confused look in response. "Maybe it's magic. He can be affected by magic that isn't directly hurting him, right? Even if it takes something big to hurt him physically a spell or curse could still something."

"That is a possibility..." Tang muttered under his breathe. He ran his hand through his hair, sighing as Pigsy seemed to exhaust photographs and illustrations to show the Monkey King. Sandy stood beside them both, Mo curled up in Wukong’s arms instead of his usual place on the big guy's shoulder, and said something in hushed tones that made the Monkey King's ears pull back. "There are no shortages of either that could cause memory loss, hopefully for us temporarily so. And he didn't seem injured in any way when we found him outside the shop... though he shouldn't even be here, he was on vacation! Wouldn't he have told you he was coming back?"

"Maybe..." MK started slowly, watching as Pigsy held up a group of photos and Wukong pointed to one of them excitedly. "But he's been acting... weird since he left anyway. Like he was distracted. I kinda just tried not to worry about it but..." He trailed off, jumping as a loud snap was heard and then wishing he had the staff out in his hands to wrap them around it instead of the mop he just snapped in two. "... crap..."

"You're worried," Mei said softly, laying her hand on her best friend's shoulder. "I am too, even though I may not know the Monkey King that well. But once we find out exactly how much he remembers we can find a way to help him."

"Yeah, about that," Pigsy's voice broke through their conversation as he made his way over. The chef looked perturbed. "So we went through all your pictures MK. He remembers going on the journey, though the details of it are lost, and he knows Mount Huaguo like the back of his hand. But he doesn't remember like 99% of the journey, can't remember any of his monkeys, can't remember us, can't even remember that he's the Monkey King or what that title means." He sighed, pinching the bridge of his snout for a second before continuing. "What he does remember clearly is that he lives alone on an island and that it's the modern day, he went on some big journey he barely recalls... and that he knows MK and that MK is important."

"What?" MK looked away from where he had glanced over to Wukong, staring at Pigsy in disbelief. "Wait, you're telling me I'm the only person he remembers!?"

"Barely!" Pigsy elaborated with another sigh. "Kid, whatever happened to him really messed up his memories. He knows your name and face and that you're important. He kind of remembers training you. But that is it. He doesn't recognize anyone else. And I don't know him that good, but he doesn't seem to be acting like his normal self either."

This was bad. There was no other way to put it. And they needed to figure something out fast.

"MK?" Wukong said suddenly, having wandered up to the group. He still had Mo in his arms, the cat looking up at him in concern. "Is everything alright, Bud?"

It most certainly was not.

~

"This is my house?" Wukong asked softly, one of the first things he had said since MK and he had arrived back on Mount Huaguo. Getting him home was easy enough, one of the few things he remembered was where he lived after all, but he seemed confused regardless. Perhaps he didn't remember the mountain as much as Pigsy thought he did. "It's... cozy!" He laughed, rubbing the back of his neck. "When your boss told me I was a king I kind of worried that... well, I don't know why, I was just worried for some reason. Weird."

Weird didn't even begin to cover it.

Pigsy wasn't lying when he said that Wukong hadn't been acting like his normal self. Instead of the loud and boisterous and kind of, admittedly, self important Monkey King MK expected, Wukong was oddly subdued. Maybe it was the amnesia making him weary, but he was acting so much like he had for just the shortest moments at the Lunar New Year festival (both before the fireworks had cheered him up and after the fight with the Spider Queen) that MK was starting to wonder...

"I really do live alone except for my monkeys, huh?" Wukong said softly, one of the aforementioned monkeys looking at him in their own concern.

When he saw them face to face he seemed to recall at least a bit. That he cared for them in some capacity both as an actual caregiver and as "I guess a King is right" as Wukong put it. But while he knew each one on the island by name before he couldn't recall a single one now. But MK remembered that the little one that followed them inside was called Yue, partly because he had been the one to help name her.

Knowing that Wukong likely didn't remember that day, let alone how important it had been to him to include his student in this endeavor, made MK's chest hurt.

"Yeah, it's, uh... yeah," MK attempted to confirm, coming off as awkward as he felt internally. Everything about this was awkward. But MK could not, and would not, leave his mentor while he could only barely recall how to navigate his own home island. "So... we didn't exactly get that much to eat at Pigsy's... you hungry?"

~

The two ate in moderate silence. MK didn't want to force Wukong to feel awkward by asking him about topics he couldn't remember (the last few confused and then apologetic smiles made him feel too bad to try again). He managed to find something, at least, however small it was.

Wukong seemed to remember little bits and pieces about himself. Not everything, obviously, but he remembered some important things. He knew he was immortal and invincible. He knew that he was very very old. He knew he was technically not a regular demon monkey but a stone monkey born out of a... well, a stone. And he remembered his dietary preferences.

This last one was news to MK, who had never actually seen him eat more than peaches and peach chips and food made from his own hair (which was not something he was looking forward to trying again). But it made fashioning something for them to eat easier. Something simple, rice for both of them with fresh peaches (he had so many of these things in his fridge and MK did not know how they lasted without spoiling, but he did not ask) for his mentor and rice with some tofu and green onions for MK (simple, but with seasoning and sauce that for some reason had his own initials on it tasty, he had to remember to ask about that... after).

It was... kind of nice, the situation aside.

"... am I your... absentee dad?"

And there that went right out the window and right into the volcanic inferno of the flaming mountains!

MK nearly choked on his rice, barely managing to chug a glass of water before managing out a "HWUH?" in his mentor's direction.

"I-I'm sorry!" Wukong stuttered out, the uncertainty in his voice sounding wrong. "I just... I thought... there's stuff in here with your name on it but there isn't a place for you to stay, the second room is just storage, so I thought..." He trailed off, biting his lip before sighing. "You told me you were my student. But that... it's doesn't feel right. It doesn't feel wrong but it feels... sorry."

Taking a moment to breathe in deeply, MK steeled himself.

"No, don't apologize," he started, setting his bowl to the side and staying quiet for a moment. "No, you're not... my dad. But I noticed those things too. I've never really been inside your house all that much, only a couple times before you left and only twice since. You don't..." He paused, trying to find the right words to express himself. "I guess I'm just realizing there's a lot of things you don't tell me."

"... it'd be kind of awkward if I just ruined some kind of big thing I was gonna tell you when I got back," Wukong said through another bite of a peach.

"Yeah, I doubt you were gonna tell me you'e adopting me," MK laughed out awkwardly... but that awkwardness lingered long after the conversation moved on to how much of the stuff in the house he remembered.

~

MK woke up in a sleeping bag in a room that didn't belong to him. He was confused at first, sitting up quickly and looking around before realizing that he was just in Wukong's house. On the floor of Wukong's bedroom, actually. The Monkey King had insisted that he could not sleep on the couch, comfortable as it looked, and they looked around in his storage room for any alternative until they found this.

It was comfortable enough. But not so comfortable he slept through what had woken him.

It sounded like crying.

Not loud, not enough to wake most people. But MK was already highly stressed from the situation and had developed much better hearing since obtaining the Monkey King Powers (how he had thought he needed to learn super hearing that one time he did not know now that he thought about it). So he picked up on the soft sniffs and whimpers and shakey breathes and now he would not be going back to sleep until he figured out what was up.

"Monkey King? You sure there isn-" MK froze as he turned to his mentor's bed, only to find it empty.

Well. Shit...

That probably answered that question.

MK wasted no time in jumping to his feet rushing out of the room and toward the crying before freezing in the door way to he living room.

Monkey King was sitting on the floor, TV on and VR set still strapped to his head.

"Oh... no..." MK muttered softly, making his way inside to stand behind Wukong. "Hey... Monkey King? What are you doing?"

Wukong flinched, he'd never seen him do that before, and gripped his controller tighter. He heard it creak worryingly under his grip.

"I... I saw this game earlier," he started slowly, and MK didn't need him to explain which one it was. The case, familiar to him now, was sitting in plain sight on the floor before them. "I dunno, it just... it felt important. And I couldn't sleep so I decided to go through some more of my stuff and... and..." He took in a shakey breathe, putting the controller down and taking the VR headset off. "I... it was weird looking at myself. Listening to myself tell me what do to. But it felt familar. So I kept playing and..."

MK put a hand on his mentor's shoulder and looked at the screen. He'd made it to the in game store, the temple. There Tripitaka, Tang Sanzang, resided to give the player passive abilities. "How long have you been playing?"

"An hour maybe?" Wukong offered, wiping the tears from his face. "I made it to Zhu Ganglie but I. I couldn't. I didn't want to... MK, I feel like I should remember these people. I can't look at them without feeling... sad. Guilty? I can't help but feel like I did something wrong to them?"

And MK's chest hurt once again, knowing that somewhere deep down in Wukong he hadn't completely forgotten his companions from his journey centuries ago. He should have pieced it together when he played. The art, the dialogue, the placement of the monk... he'd never seen the game on store shelves before either, never even heard of it.

But Sun Wukong had played this game for 10,000 hours.

"They're, uh... They're the people who were on your journey with you," MK started as he sat on the floor by his mentor. "You haven't gotten to Sha Wujing, but he's there too. So was Bai Long Ma. I could... tell you about them? I don't know all the stories by heart like Tang does, but I can try."

"You don't have to do that," Wukong said much more assuredly and firm than before. "If I did something that made me feel like this that should be my own burden to bear, not yours."

"Yeah... but I want to help you anyway."

The two sat in silence for a moment before Wukong stood and made his way into the kitchen. He returned a moment later with a small bowl of peaches and a wrapped pack of pears (once again with MK's initials on it). He sat on the couch, gesturing for his student to join him before he spoke.

"I appreciate the offer, I do... but I'll be able to learn that on my own before my memories return," Wukong said, biting into one of his peaches with a sad smile. "You said Tang, the guy from the noodle shop, knows them. I can ask him tomorrow... well, later today. But as I said before, that isn't your burden to bear. And I don't want to put that on you. And even though I remember you the most out of everything it feels like I don't know you as much as I should. So, if neither of us is going to sleep again any time soon... tell me about MK?"

"... When I moved into the apartment above Pigsy’s I took on MK as a nickname."

Wukong looked up in confusion for a moment before his eyes widened and he put all his focus on his student with a soft smile. "OK..."

The two talked for only roughly another hour, Sun Wukong listening to MK tell him anything he felt comfortable telling him. When he woke up he was back in the sleeping bag, the soft snores of the Monkey King resounding above him.

As he laid awake, the small monkey Yue having made her way inside to sleep on his chest making a good excuse to not get up, he wanted to mull over everything he had learned. He'd learned more about his mentor in the 6 waking hours they spent together in his home than he had his entire apprenticeship, and the same went the other way.

MK wondered just why Sun Wukong hid all this from him so far. For so long. And he knew now he couldn't have possibly been on vacation. Not when it resulted in this. The Monkey King had been hiding so much from him and it clearly wasn't limited to what he was doing behind his back.

But right now Sun Wukong trusted MK, him coming back with him to Mount Huaguo was evidence enough of that. And MK trusted him as he was now... but didn't know how much of Sun Wukong from the past to trust anymore. He needed to get his mentor's memories back. And he needed to get answers.

Sun Wukong slept on, oblivious to the conflict in his student's head.

[osleyakomwonkru]

The 100 and the Crab Bucket of Zero-Sum Heroism

This is a feeling I started to get during season 5, and season 6 has definitely confirmed it - since the start of season 5, there has been a definite bias in the writing and narrative framing of the show, designed to make Clarke and Bellamy - and only Clarke and Bellamy - the heroes of this piece, whether it is earned or unearned.

Now, one might say the story has always been about them. And to a point, that’s true. But what happens when your “heroes” have become so morally grey that they’re really just a light shade of dark?

Usually the answer to that would be “make them better”. Yet for some reason, The 100 has taken the complete opposite approach since the beginning of season 5 - there’s been a concerted effort to redeem them not by improving their own actions, but by vilifying others for crimes no different than their own (or even lesser crimes, or no crimes at all). Instead of building their “heroes” up, all they can do is tear others down.

Which brings us to the sociological concepts in the title that are applicable to this analysis:

Crab bucket syndrome is the concept of “if I can’t have it, neither can you” - put into the crab example, it describes how if one crab could escape from a bucket, the other crabs will prevent it from doing so, and thus they all die. In our case, that’s how if Clarke or Bellamy can’t be seen as “good”, then neither should anyone else, and everyone else should be tarred with an even darker brush in order to make them look better.

Zero-sum heroism - a zero-sum game is one in which there’s a fixed amount of reward, so if one person gets a lot, others get very little or none. Zero-sum heroism then would be the idea that there’s a fixed amount of heroism to go around, so for some to have it, others have to lose it.

Now, this is all in how the story is told, not in how the characters themselves act - this post isn’t a commentary on how the characters themselves behave (which is why I’m not tagging it as anti-anyone), but on how we, the viewers, are expected to view and then agree/disagree with their actions and words by the way the narrative frames them.

I started to notice this in season 5, because the target for tear down and villainization was Octavia. In season 6, it is still Octavia, but Raven and Murphy have also been added to the mix, in different ways, but with the same goal - exalting Clarke and Bellamy at the expense of others.

Raven 

With only two episodes to go, our favourite zero-G mechanic has had very little to do this season. She’s had two jobs - glorified chauffeur and Miss Morality. You’d think a character talking about morality and doing better should be good, right?

But that’s not how the narrative has cast her. By making this her main role of the season, the narrative frames her as a catty bitch for wanting people to be good. She’s unreasonable for not wanting Clarke to go on the first exploratory mission. She’s mean for calling Clarke out on her repeating course of bad choices. She has to be convinced to not revolt against the Primes and that they need the Primes’ knowledge to build their own compound, but this is Raven fucking Reyes and when has not knowing the answer to a problem ahead of time ever stopped her before? 

All the narrative has done to her has been to portray her as bad for wanting to be good, because her good conflicts with the narrative’s ability to exalt Clarke. At first I thought this was in preparation for a moral ladder knockdown - that is, that this season Raven’s going to be faced with one of those impossible choices, so that she’s knocked off her pedestal, as has been done to Clarke, Bellamy and Octavia in the past, but more and more I’m now thinking that it is in fact just to prop up Clarke. Which brings us to...

Murphy

Where this setup has Raven as Clarke’s foil, Murphy is likewise Bellamy’s foil - and this last episode really threw this into stark perspective. What Murphy is doing this season is exactly what Bellamy was doing last season - negotiating with the enemy in an attempt to peacefully save their people. Yet somehow the narrative wants us to believe that Murphy is wrong for doing what he’s done, but we were supposed to cheer for Bellamy when he was doing the same.

Yes, Murphy has some aspect of personal gain going for him, in the name of immortality for him and Emori, but I don’t believe that was his motivation. That was a pacifier. He was pretty sure that if he turned Josephine down that he was at risk of death, and he was right - he learned fast that Josephine was not afraid to kill people in pursuit of her goals. The only purpose the mind drives serve is camouflage - a way to put a “selfish” stamp on him, when everything he’s done has been to try and cut their losses in favour of peace, drives or no drives. Plus this last episode, he was working with them to find Josephine not because he gets that immortality, but because if he failed, the consequence would be Emori’s death.

Not to mention that all of this comes on Murphy just after he’s endured a traumatic near-death experience, which also plays into his choices, which brings us to...

Octavia

Octavia being cast as the villain (which was all tell and no show, as I talked about here), her PTSD and other mental illness being demonized (see here), and the horrible and hypocritical ways she’s been treated by the other characters is something I’ve talked about at length (here, here, here, here and here). And when I first planned this post, before S6, it was set to be only about Octavia, but I never got to it, and now as S6 is almost over, I saw that other characters fit in here as well. So as this post pertains to Octavia, you can also read the posts that were building up to this one in my series of how everyone failed her (here, here and here).

So with all of that meta already done, let’s get to the meat of how it applies here - by the end of season 4, Octavia’s star was fast on the rise. She saved the human race in a way no one else could. But the narrative sees a flaw to this - Octavia is the tritagonist, not the protagonist, after all, she can’t be more of a hero than the protagonist or the deuteragonist, since she’s a foil to both Clarke and Bellamy (see this post on the head, the heart and the soul) .

So what does narrative do? Make her fall from grace.

But for what? Making impossible choices to save her people? Clarke and Bellamy have done that. Being in charge of who lives and who dies? Clarke’s done that too. Even if you believe that the war against the prisoners was ill-advised (I personally don’t, see here) and something that could have been avoided - Bellamy has also done that.

(Not to mention how the war played out anyway - narrative tells us throughout the buildup to the war that it is something that Wonkru will lose, despite superior numbers and a sneak advantage, ergo why everyone was sabotaging Octavia’s plans. But they won the war in fifteen minutes once all of our protagonists were fighting on the same side, despite having lost half the army and the enemy knowing precisely where they were and when they were attacking. Clearly it was not unwinnable, it was only unwinnable as per narrative because it was Octavia’s plan, as seen here.)

There is nothing that Octavia has done that Clarke or Bellamy haven’t also done. Octavia’s only “crime” is being Octavia, and thus not someone who is allowed to have the hero narrative.

In case there’s any doubt about that, there’s how she’s been treated this season. At the end of season 5, she did what is expected of any repentant “villain” - try to sacrifice themselves, fail, then swallow their pride, step back and be a footsoldier for the good fight. Which is all that’s ever been asked of Bellamy whenever he’s done a Heel-Face Turn (in season 1, and again in season 3).

But that’s not good enough for this narrative. Octavia needs to be kept down. First by being excluded and beaten and abandoned. Then after beginning to find her peace (with no help or apologies from anyone who caused her to lose it in the first place), and in fact finding a peace she’s never had, she keeps having her past thrown into her face by her brother - and a past he wasn’t there to witness, at that, and likely doesn’t have all the facts on. But the narrative still allows him to judge her for something he doesn’t understand and didn’t witness. The narrative is also making her work for forgiveness and redemption, when it hasn’t demanded the same from Clarke or Bellamy (even when other characters have suggested that it should).

Clarke has been through the wringer this season (well, the episodes where she was present and conscious in her body) in terms of how she’s been treated by other characters, but narrative framing says that we should be sympathizing with her - and I’m sure that by the end of the season, all will be forgiven because of what she’s experienced this season. But she still hasn’t done anything to earn that forgiveness.

We are also supposed to believe - because he’s said so - that Bellamy has learned from his mistakes. But this season has shown that he hasn’t. Other people have had to talk him down from genocide twice. That doesn’t show the growth that the narrative tells us is supposed to be there.

With Clarke out of the picture as far as action goes for most of the season, and Bellamy wanting to go back to his emotional “kill everyone” solutions, it is no wonder that in order to preserve their sanctity as the protagonists of the show, that the narrative has had to throw even more people under the bus to accomplish that. I just question why. Why not treat all of the characters fairly? Why do some need to be disparaged for others to rise? Why not let everyone do better, and be allowed to do so without judgment? Those are some questions I’d like answered.