#attempts to get the audience to sympathize with them did not work on me but i like analyzing why that may or may not work

[caifanes]

me when i start watching a new anime and am disappointed: i take back every mean thing i said about dr stone it’s actually a masterpiece

[linkspooky]

What in particular inspired you to write Burn This City, Burn This City Down? It's a very unique fic.

Oh man I hope you're ready to take my hand and go on a journey with me because this is going to be long ride.

The first version of this fic came from 1) the ending of the Search where Azula runs off into the woods and we were just left on that cliffhanger for years. The first story that ever gave me the inspiration though was Katanagatari by Nisioisin, especially after I read the translated light novel for the first time.

Katanagatari is a story of a former princess who wants revenge teaming up with a human who was raised as a weapon known as Yasuri Shichika who comes from an entire family of martial artists living on an island. She takes Shichika out to the world and they gather twelve magical swords for the shogunate government. Basically, it's easy to see how you could put Azula into this scenario. Except instead of swords it was just going to be Azula wanting to resolve different political issues or, my earliest idea was killing members of the red lotus in the colonies far from Zuko's jurisdiction.

Lio came from this initial idea and he was one, a person in the forest that Azula met, and two a very strong martial artist who is unhealthily devoted to her. Basically it's what Azula thinks she wants in a relationship, a perfect solider who follows her every order and is unconditionally loyal. That relationship eventualyl breaks apart though as Azula eventually has to go back to her real friends, because Lio mirrors like all her bad flaws at her.

I had serious trouble coming up with an overarching plot though, because Katanagatari's plot is just "go to the place, fight the guy, get the sword" and it was just hard to come up with 12 seperate guys for Azula to fight. Also it wasn't feasible because she'd basically spend all her time away from canon characters. I tried to throw Jet in too so it wouldn't just be Azula and this OC, but it never really got past the planning stages.

There were a few manga I read that were also Azula adjacent that helped further my ideas along. I've referenced Akatsuki no Yona before, and TGCF too, but those were a little bit too much like Katanagari. I liked the idea of like Azula roaming the country side with a partner character improving things by herself for awhile like Yona does with Akatsuki no Yona but I ran into the same problem again it would be 90% Azula and this oc with no canon interaction. I did like making Hua Cheng really weird though, and that became Lio like, developing entitled, posessive and borderline stalkery behaviors.

I'm sure you've noticed the fic hasn't become incredibly surreal and weird yet. So the actual tone and the way the fic portrays mental illness comes from three works in praticular. Tokyo Ghoul, which is kind of where I got my start on this blog, Kara no Kyoukai, and Tsukihime. The idea to make Lio a disassoicative disorder personality so Azula would have someone to sympathize with her and understand she's hallucinating came from a character named Shiki Ryougi who is also a character who has a system.

The prose style that is lowkey horror comes from my best attempts to write in a Nasu style in Tsukihime. Basically part of the reason the fanfic is so surreal is because I want to use elements of horror to add to the surrealism in order to make the audience viscerally fear the feel that characters like Azula do when they lose control over the reality in front of them.

When going in the forest for the Search I wanted to lean heavily on the Suicide Forest or the Forgetful Valley being an actually terrifying or unnerving setting to be in. I also thought the Mother of Faces was a cool idea for a spirit that the comics completely blew. So one of the improvements was making Mother of Faces a genuinely terrifying inhuman entity where the entire forest is basically her playground and humans are her puppets. It's a continued trend I want to do in this fic to make spirits like genuinely terrifying, and at the most indifferent to humans and at the worst extremely hostile.

The second was making the forest an actually scary and confusing place to be in. The forest is the head, and Azula is the head, and she's dreaming the forest. The forest is a metaphor for how Azula is lost inside her own head and trapped because no one in the world empathizes with her or tries to understand her, and like, Zuko sees her run into that huge forest twice and just watches her go even though she could end up dead in a ditch.

There's two big inspirations I took for describing the forest itself. The first was the book roadisde picnic and the movie STALKER which are about a zone in Russia which is fundamentally altered by aliens where nothing in that zone follows the laws of physics and instead follows their own abusrd laws. The second was from the book and movie annihilation. In annihilation the strange zone where strange things happen is nature actively like, retaking the earth, and changing the humans who enter that territory into something else.

As for Azula's narration itself and the way her mental health is depicted, I basically got her narration style down especially in her trippy points by reading Girl, Interrupted roughly one hundred times. My general rule of thumb is that Azula's narration is incredibly dry and mechanical and straight to the point, and her prose is very minimialist until it's not. Azula is very high functionning until she is not. Then the self-loathing, and the paranoia, and the voices begin to creep in. Yet on the surface Azula will do absolutely everything to pretend she is not loosing her grip of things until she has, full on meltdowns. This pattern continues ad infinituum, Azula just gets better at hiding her sympatoms and appearing more functional. Girl, interrupted though with the very detached kind of narration, the anachronistic order I employ a lot in this fic.

So the fic rewrite existed for awhile, like there were ten different drafts of the first chapter where Azula just finds a masked man in the woods after running away from Zuko.

So, okay I lied there is one more inspiration for the way I write Azula which is Zaregoto by Nisioisin and specifically the way he writes the main character IIchan and this very detached narrator voice who like, clearly suffers from some type of schizo-type and will have the most surreal moments of narration. That is primarily a mystery series so that's what gave me the plot in it's final form. It's basically like a mystery series that's led by two unreliable narrators Azula and Lio, and Zuko who let's be honest another unreliable narrator, and then Katara and Aang who are the most reliable narrators but they're also kind of like, they're not as aware of the dark side of the world and are more naive. I basically told myself like, I'll write it like a mystery novel. Instead of solving murders though it'll be political intrigue, where we have to follow two unreliable narrators. Two unreliable narrators who we don't know everything about bevcause the narration skips along their history in anancronistic order, and that'll be a metaphor for the weird way that Azula and Lio both experience reality because of how disordered their thinking is now.

The surraelist stuff started to finalize into like a solid plot when I read another fic. I don't know if I should like, mention this fic. I'm going to complain about it so I probably shouldn't mention it by name. Okay I'm just going to be vague about it. There was a Zuko / Sokka fanfic where Azula has been fully redeemed by her brother and they get along great and she is basically, playing political games in the court for her brother's sake. Sokka however doesn't know this and becomes suspicious of her and becomes embroiled in the politics too. In this version Azula is kind of just Zuko's attack dog which was very funny.

It's a fic where I did like Azula and Sokka's characterization, and like revitalized my desire to write avatar fic but I also had just as many faults in it. Basically my biggest nitpick in any Zuko and Azula fanfic is where they protray Zuko as a compassionate brother who helped Azula in her rehabilitation because like, that's just not what happened. So Zuko kind of just felt like a non character because there's no acknowledgment that Zuko can really be just as bad to Azula as Azula is to him and like... I need that drama in my life.

It also like timeskipped past her entire recovery and like I don't want sane Azula, I want barely functional Azula wearing a mask of sanity and convinced she peaked at fourteen and just trying to feel like the way she did when she was fourteen. I need her to be like "oh yes, I'm fixed now" and then have her start to break down again because she never actually learned to deal with stress.

The other was that the ocs in the fic were absolutely boring, like the villains were one note. It was this grand spiraling political plot but the villains behind the plot had no human motivations and Azula killed them in like five minutes. I was like no, no I can make my own ocs. I will have this new fic have actual compelling antagonists who feel like they are characters in the story and actually move the plot and challenge the main characters.

So to Summarize this long ramble, basically my idea for this fic came from the collective works of Nasu and Nisioisin. It started out as like, a journey through the colonies and help people fic to like, taking place entirely in Caldera City. That's where the current idea of Azula dealing with factions who are trying to take her brother's thrown from her, and also she's trying to play the political game that everyone else is playing comes from. Azula is playing political games but like, also, the people she's playing against aren't one note bad guys they're actually interesting characters.

I also want to basically adapt a kind of like, mystery novel character following the mystery through all the political intrigue and finding the answer. I guess you'd call that "Noir". Like the confusing surrealism stuff in the search part of the story shows how lost Azula is in the forest. The confusing surrealism stuff in Caldera City will now be about how Caldera city is a city of liars, where everyone has their own hidden motivation and Azula has to navigate all of that again.

Okay, I hope that answered your qusetion. I can cite some more sources on scenes that inspired me. That scene where Lio saw Azula and the first thing he thought about was how he wanted to stab her a whole bunch is a reference to Tsukihime where Shiki meets Arcueid for the first time.

The story for Azula, Interupted of someone else framing Azula for killing cats and turtleducks comes from a really brief flashback in Tokyo Ghoul where Mutsuki remembers killing cats as a child and gets made fun of for it. Then she remembers running all the way to where she buried all the cat's tongues, and picks the jar up and cries and begs for the cats to forgive her. I know that's kind of a weird scene, but basically that whole chapter came from my idea of Azula remembering getting slapped by her mom for killing the turtleducks and begging someone to believe her and then it suddenly flashes forward to the future and Azula is still crying about it.

That's all I can remember referencing or getting inspired by for now.

[chaifootsteps]

so someone made a tweet about how it's dangerous to portray abusers as 100% evil because they're frequently charming and have lives outside of the abuse they do, etc

and the thing is - they're right about that, but it's a massive stretch to apply it to Valentino

put it this way - if we want to understand abuse and avoid doing it ourselves, we collectively need to avoid othering abusers as incomprehensible monsters who cannot be understood, because then we can't learn how to recognize the signs and help the people who need it, or stamp out those urges within ourselves

but there's a difference betweent that and what Viv is doing with Val. the way Viv writes Val makes me think that she struggles to really want to condemn him for how he treats Angel. to her it's just a dramatic element to a story with the benefit of getting flowers for 'talking about abuse' when her handling of it is frequently cartoonish. most abusers don't hit their victims or abuse them in front of other people, but Val gives Angel a black eye right in front of the princess of hell, before they're due to do a shoot. both Val and Stella are incredibly stupid characters, and just like Crimson Viv's only understanding of abuse seems to be 'whatever makes my characters miserable and therefore sympathetic', instead of what it should be - a means of establishing a pattern of control

same reason why none of her shows allow the characters to escape or even try to kill their abuser despite it being set in Hell. the abusers just have to stick around forever for angst reasons. the only character who has managed to even attempt it is Stolas, and despite him having all the power, money and resources he could hope the show won't allow him to cut Stella out of his life because the divorce plotline is like a never ending nightmare in HB. a better show might use it as a comment on how abusers effectively terrorize their victims in lifelong campaigns for the upper hand, but here it's just an excuse to get the audience to feel sorry for a literal prince instead of questioning why he doesn't think it's wrong to extort sex out of someone far less wealthy and powerful than him

not to mention that part of the reason abusers are charming is to make it harder for their victims to come forwards and be believed. Val by comparison is just a pathetic wet cat who needs coddling by Vox and talking out of impulses that should have exposed him as an abuser long ago. in anyone else's hands I'd assume they were trying to do the thing The Idol attempted (the Weeknd's car wreck of a tv show) of pointing out the charming abuser isn't charming, they're just pathetic, but Viv herself seems to genuinely like Val and want people to simp for him

did Viv even write Angel's prequel comic? the Valentino in that is so much more convincing as an abuser - he restrains Angel's freedoms by threatening him, punishes him, demeans him, tries to keep him in a strict little box about what he is and isn't allowed to do, etc. and he does it in the privacy of a limo, around other employees, not where there'll be witnesses

Well said. I'd argue that it's fine to portray some abusers as 100% evil -- sometimes it works, and the world's no worse off for the abusive dog boyfriend from Courage existing -- but Viv does this thing where she refuses to portray abusers as 100% evil, or even evil period, if they're male characters she likes. Female characters like Stella? Need to be killed, then killed some more, and if you sympathize with them at all Viv will make fun of you publicly. It's so much more dangerous than if she just made them all outright monsters.

Also I don't know if Faustisse wrote the Angel prequel comic, but it wouldn't surprise me. The writing was too mature to be all Viv.

[mdhwrites]

how do you know a character is too far gone to be redeemed? I know it's partially based on the work itself and what rules it establishes, for one work blowing up planets is something you can work hard on redeeming yourself from and another will have small scale bullying be considered murder and how much we sympathize with the character committing the acts but I know it's more complicated than that. How far is too far?

So you essentially pointed out the problem with even asking this question. Whether a redemption works or not is entirely context dependent, even down to the person viewing it. Like if one person believes in excuses X, Y, and Z for redemptions but another only believes in A, B, and C then these two people are going to have vastly different opinions on what too far is. One might be that any murderer is irredeemable. One might make it that you cannot be redeemed if you kill innocents. Another might have it be that it's only once you do it with malice.

So... What does an author do about this? Well for me, I think the question is less "What line is crossed where they can't be redeemed?" and more "Where is the line where I'm writing someone who is nuanced to someone who is a caricature for this setting?" So long as evil is not all they are, redemption to someone is likely to be possible and you can breadcrumb the way to that redemption. Once you have someone who kicks a child over, takes their candy and lights them on fire while gleefully laughing, you have probably dropped any pretense. Even Unikitty, a show who's boundaries are almost non-existent, has Master Frown still do mostly things that are annoying instead of actively cruel so that he is still redeemable because genuine cruelty might be where that's starting to go too far, even as he laughs in glee at making people, well... Frown.

In a romantic story, it'd be the moment when a character fakes the fact that one of the love interests is cheating on the other because they are doing something anyone would know is wrong and would only be done by someone with zero human empathy. In a martial art's movie, it's the asshole who pulls a gun during what is supposed to be a fair fight. It's the mafia stooge who targets family. Stuff that any sane, normal human being would feel revulsion at even the act of doing it... They do it without caring. If they feel remorse, are pressured to do it, etc. like that, or even did it long ago but have changed since then, they can still be redeemed but when you have them, in the present, without a second thought, perform actions that anyone would tell them they're a monster for... Yeah, no one in your setting is going to let them be redeemed short of a heroic sacrifice.

Because that last line is the important one. What can a character get away with before the people in the setting themselves would consider them some sort of monster? Because your story is playing by its own setting, logic and ideals and so the irredeemable characters in that story have to actively go against those, not just our modern ideas of right and wrong because, you know... Fiction. It's not our world.

And as a writer, that's what you need to focus on. If you want to redeem a character, you have to make it so that whatever they did CAN be forgiven in story. The act they commit to try and make up for what they did before has to somehow be equal or even bigger than what they did previously. This is also why there is a point at which death is the only way for them to make up for what they did because they have been so horrendous by the rules of the story that only the ultimate sacrifice can even attempt to balance the scales.

So long story short: Don't worry about what your audience will find acceptable. Remember that for a redemption to work, it must be believable in universe and that will shift between stories, or even between chapters, and that that's what's important. Those are the people the character wronged after all, not the reader. See you next tale.

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I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[devyuence]

Guess who is the writing team's favorite character in Only Friends? Easy edition

Let's lay out every single thing we know about the characters in the series:

Boston: Playboy and likes to have sex with everyone no matter who they are, hates betrayal, loves photography, has problems with his dad who is a politician, initially a free-loader in their group project but started to contribute, does not care about repercussions to his actions because he's going to NY.

Nick: Obsessed with Boston and willing to be nasty for him, works at the electronics shop even if that is not his dream, willing to be with Dan or whoever but goes back to Boston if he can

Top: Top-tier, asshole, smug, rich AF, has trauma with fire and smoke but not explored well, not used to sleeping alone that he needs pills, drugs or Mew, CHEATER (as what people say), playboy but we haven't seen him kiss another dude in this series except Mew and Boston

Mew: Virgin and cute, table-keeper aka care-taker of the gang, has two moms, likes to read, wants to have good grades, knows what he wants, got LASIK, willing to party and use drugs after getting his heart broken by a top-tier guy, self-confidence got destroyed, dated his best friend but did not work

Sand: Poor boy (not really but sort of), singer who is in a band, works every day that we even have a breakdown of his source of income, sells plum wine but is cautious because it is prohibited, has an ex and mad at Top for stealing the said ex, has a mom who works in a club and a dad he has never met, dreams of traveling and going to music festivals, mentions songs and bands he likes every chance he can that audience can make a Spotify playlist for him, addicted to Ray no matter how Ray treats him like a door mat for the most part, willing to throw Nick under the bus and steal that recording to have his revenge on Top, paid by Ray's dad, has a dedicated Birthday episode

Ray: Rich that a simple project turned to be a large-scale hostel one, uses drugs, always want to pick a fight with everyone (as established in EP1), hot-headed, chronic alcoholic, has attempted throughout the show to drunk drive, crashed the car that he had to go to community service, treats other people like shit (looking at Sand), obsessed with Mew and/or the idea of Mew, multiple offender of kissing people without their consent, had the guts to force people to have sex with them, goes to people's houses unannounced or gate-crashes campings just because he wants to, CHEATER and two-timer (Top and he are in different fonts but is more nuanced and developed than Top due to screen time, anyway move on), gaslit Mew during their talk that even if they are both at fault Mew is the one who is extremely apologetic, has daddy issues that people can relate to, have extensive mommy issues that are left to be resolved but serve as way for the viewers excuse his behavior, has been given several breaking down scenes to fully sympathize with him no matter what happens

Tell me, based on what I wrote, who is the showrunner's favorite character/s? Tell me who is the character that is fully developed in the writing room? Raise your brows but I am letting this list speak for itself.

[defsiarte]

Posting here too bc this has affected mutuals of mine

The current drama about a Twitter user allegedly losing their job in the animation industry due to a callout post is simply not true. I read that person’s entire 156 page document about the drama they were dealing with.

The people that were sent the callout were former employers. One cut personal ties due to the things in the post, and another said that the document had no bearing on the person’s employment, their contract simply expired. All claims that they had been blacklisted are conjecture.

Within this same document, the person admitted that they did have other freelance work, but failed to complete their other work due to continued mental and physical health struggles linked to trauma.

The fact that a certain crowd is treating this like a planned action, attempted murder, by the “anti-shipper movement” is like… ridiculous. If someone says they don’t want to be friends with you anymore bc you made them uncomfortable, that’s not harassment. It’s not blacklisting. ???

Putting my personal opinions under a readmore. There are so many vile people within the animation industry with genuine allegations of bigotry, harassment, and so on out against them that I wish!! a single callout post sent to an employer would result in you being fired and blacklisted. But that’s not how anything works dude!!!

While I sympathize with the Ang person to an extent for being a victim of sexual harassment/abuse— the way that they attribute every bad thing that’s happened to them online to a friend group they had that like… didn’t even drop the original callout. It’s asinine to me.

People not wanting to be friends with you bc you draw pedo/incest porn is not abuse. It’s not harassment. Like that’s a pretty common opinion to have outside of the internet. I intentionally try to steer clear of the “proship/anti-anti” crowd because that type of content makes me uncomfortable.

The way that the community based around that sort of stuff has acted the last week is deplorable. I’ve seen about a dozen people I follow be hit with racialized abuse, attempted doxxing, anons telling them they deserved to be raped as a kid, and so on. It’s just… weird to call anyone who doesn’t like what you post online an abuser, but get mad that they call you a pedophile in turn for creating sexualized content, depicting minors, with the intent of arousing one’s audience.

Idk. I don’t want to argue with anyone I just have seen firsthand how horrific this type of harassment is. And like!!! All of this shit over someone who didn’t even get fired. They have no insurance bc the US is a nightmare. They have no job bc the US is a nightmare. They lost their friends because they were into shit that they knew their friend group and professional connections wouldn’t like. Not bc of supposed “anti-shippers”.

[lastbluetardis]

Oooh hunger games fan, yes okay!(Spoilers FOR THE FIRST BOOK/MOVIE) What are your thoughts on the Peta and Katniss win in the first book and their ship in general? (I hated it. You're telling me, in all 74 years no one tried to unalive themselves together, or the capital couldn't have let Peta die the plane) I could go on—and have on multiple occasions—about the headcanon's I have for this series, but I digress and have you read the prequel? And if so what are your thoughts on them. Sorry didn't mean to word-vomit at you.

Haha! No worries Nonnie.

I actually loved Peeta/Katniss. I'm a really big fan of soft male characters, and Peeta is the epitome of that character archetype. It's one of those moments of alliance by necessity grows into a true and genuine friendship which eventually grew into a true and genuine love. Even when Katniss is romantically uninterested in Peeta, she loves him enough as a human being to be willing to sacrifice everything for him.

I think their ruse with the berries was really clever, but I do see your point. I have read the prequel, and I'll get to my thoughts on that in just a sec, but I think the prequel kind of supports my thoughts here.

The prequel showed that many of the tributes of the earlier Hunger Games weren't willing participants, and a lot of them died due to other factors. So there really wouldn't have been many instances of two tributes threatening to kill themselves to end the Games. Usually the winner would have been on their last leg because they were simply able to outlast the competition. Plus, for those first 20-ish Games, there really weren't stakes, because nobody really watched the Games or rooted for them.

But gradually, the Games grew into a fierce competition, especially with the Districts that sent their Career tributes into the arena. We the readers have been told countless times that those Career tributes were ruthless and would basically hunt down the other Districts' weaklings while also turning on each other, so it doesn't surprise me that none of those Tributes thought of a double-suicide to try to pull one over on the Gamemakers.

And so I think that the stunt with the berries was likely the first time anything like that had been attempted. And even if it wasn't, the Gamemakers likely would have put a stop to a stunt like that in any previous Games. However, in this specific Game, they were marketing the starcrossed lovers angle for the Games in order to draw more people into it and to make the folks in the Capitol more invested in the Games, so the Gamemakers had to tread carefully to keep the romance alive long enough to appease the audience.

But overall, I really love Katniss and Peeta. I think they're excellent complements to each other and work well with each other's strengths and weaknesses.

Back to the prequel, I just read it this past winter and really liked it. I was a little wary of it, hoping that the author wouldn't be trying to pull one of those "oh, Snow is actually a good guy, he was just misunderstood". Thankfully that wasn't the case. Sure, he was charming at times, but we already knew this. Only a charming, charismatic person could rise to power as quickly and completely as Snow did.

The author had me sympathizing with him at times, but also raising lots of red flags about him as well, showing the snake beneath the man so well. And I think it was a beautiful way to highlight the fact that every villain doesn't come out of the womb completely "evil". It's usually a gradual progression.

Anyways, now I'm the one apologizing for word vomiting 😂 Thanks for this ask, Nonnie. It's been a hot minute since I've gone on one of my analytical ramblings, and it was quite fun 🤓

[fantasticalleigh]

This was the most eventful voting day I’ve had so far

I get to the polling place with my brother and we got in line. I pulled out a book and read to pass the time.

A lady walked in and then right out. I thought she noped out because of the line but she came back fifteen minutes later with stuff from Dunkin Donuts and offered munchkins to everyone waiting which was so sweet

Halfway down the line, everyone jumps as a tornado siren goes off. It’s LOUD inside the building. For a split second everyone panics until we remember today is the first Tuesday of the month. We have a sensible chuckle. My brother is playing Pokémon Go as we wait. I make a joke that we did PokémonGo to the polls and he laughs. The woman behind us in a Women Don’t Owe You Shit t shirt hides her laugh. I have a captive audience waiting there in line with me but I don’t submit them to any more bad jokes. It’s early and we’re all tired anyway.

The line moves forward at a crawl. Voting is taking a long time. I see the poll workers/officials hurriedly leaving the voting room talking to each other. They look stressed. I hear mutters of a machine malfunctioning.

After about an hour of waiting it’s finally my turn. I hand in the ID sheet to the lady at the desk. She’s on the phone with someone else talking about how the ballot submission machine is pretty much broken. It takes multiple attempts to accept a ballot and that’s what’s holding everyone up. (This being my local voting site, I’m not surprised. Every time I go to vote there, there’s some kind of issue with the ballot box. But this time it seems it’s done for good.) I’m handed my ballot and I go pick a standing station to work on my ballot. The lady with the munchkins is behind us in line and she gifts the workers the rest of the donuts because she’s seen how stressed they are. They’re very grateful. It’s only ten in the morning and apparently no one is able to come fix the machine until three pm.

Halfway through the ballot. My marker dies. I go and ask for a new one and go back to my ballot. The little standing desk things are not optimal height for me. I’m bent at the waist squinting to make sure I fill the ovals correctly. My back aches. The married couple beside me are asking each other questions about the ballots. The husband goes into the wife’s station to help her out and they’re talking so loud I can’t concentrate.

Five minutes later an election proctor? Official? Idk. Asks another poll worker why there’s a citizen working on their ballot openly on a table in front of everyone instead of a partitioned station. The poll worker gives his reasoning and she says that’s not allowed, she’ll have to write him up for that. They argue over this for five minutes because the male poll worker doesn’t seem to understand why what he did was wrong. This argument is loud enough for everyone to hear in this small, cramped room as everyone in the cubicles around them are trying to vote. It’s awkward as hell. I text my brother “😵‍💫”.

I’m done. I take my ballot sheets and carry them to the machine to submit it. There’s a long line waiting but the machine is revolting against its overlords and the poor poll workers have thrown their hands in the air. We are at the mercy of outdated tech and slow response times.

We’re asked to just submit our ballots physically into this large ballot bin with a slot on the side. One of the officials mournfully tells me she really wanted to get this location the touchscreen voting machines and I sympathize with her. It was a long shot anyway for this dinky little local park. I drop my ballot into the slot and am handed my sticker. I exit the building but notice the line is longer now. Everyone looks exhausted. I feel for them but am glad the turnout is high so far.

[ephemeral-roses]

Talking more about this because I was watching The Moomins (1990s) and kept on almost crying whenever Moominmamma talked in the Invisible Child episodes since she is so sweet to Ninny, and it just made me more frustrated about authors' attitudes towards mothers.

Lore Olympus was the one who made me realize this about modern feminist greek myth retellings.

Demeter falls into both categories of rewritten just to be villainized and scorned for being a decent/good mother. She essentially made what was a paradise for nymphs and tried to keep them safe from gods like Zeus, was nervous about letting Persephone go to college in Olympus but still let her anyway, under supervision of people she could trust, and genuinely seemed to love and care for Persephone, but all of these things are ignored.

We find out that she was going to be Queen of The Mortal Realm, everyone else voted for her except for Hades, who begged Zeus to change his vote (which wouldn't even matter since the majority voted for her, but for some reason that doesn't matter) all because he didn't want to lose his volcanoes, which aren't even his to begin with, they are Hephaestus' and it is wild not to have him have volcanoes as his domain. Hades also insults Demeter's appearance when she rightfully confronts him about this, so there's that, too. Instead of having the reason why Hades brought up volcanoes as his reason why Demeter shouldn't be Queen of The Mortal Realm be that it would complicate things considering Hephaestus, it makes it so volcanoes are actually Hades' domain and was given them by his mother, for some reason??? We also find out that Zeus promised Demeter that she'd be his wife, and having sex with her, he decides to ditch her for Hera, who becomes his wife. Instead of being sympathetic, we get a whole monologue from Hera how she doesn't care about what Zeus did to Demeter and that she deserves to be Queen since she did so much during the war. During the Trial Arc, when Persephone is tried for killing a whole city of mortals in an Act of Wrath, Demeter receives the harsher punishment, which is to live 10 years as a mortal, meanwhile Persephone is sent to go back to work as Goddess of Spring as she has always been back home at her mother's nymph sanctuary, but we are supposed to believe and are urged to believe by the author that Persephone recieved the harsher punishment because she's away from Hades. In fact, Persephone's first thought when banished is not concern for her mother, but her wanting to be with Hades. During her punishment, instead of trying to communicate with her mother, she tries to communicate with Hades. After her punishment, instead of going to her mother to see if she is alright, I am not kidding, she cuddles with Hades and goes, "It feels like I'm missing something." Cut to the next panel later, Demeter waking up from the horrors. We are not supposed to sympathize with Demeter, according to how the author writes how Demeter is treated. When Demeter gained sympathy from the audience, Demeter was made to have a whole intervention to shame Persephone into returning back to maidenhood and the nymph sanctuary, an attempt to reverse the sympathy for her. At the same episode, after Persephone had told Hades that she wanted to wait and enjoy things as her own individual person, Hades shows up, proposes to Persephone, and takes her away.

Opposed to Demeter, the readers are supposed to believe that Hera is a more fitting mother figure for Persephone, despite Hera calling Minthe "nymph trash" (it is okay to not like someone as a person, but to bring up their race in an insult is just her straight up being a racist), insulting her own child daughter and making her make her alcoholic drinks, starts of as rightfully scolding Hades for being a creep for going after Persephone and knows that she is too young for Hades but then goes along with it after she realizes that Hades hasn't been married yet, completely ignoring Persephone's safety in favor of Hades, has a strained relationship with all of her children and does not go to see them after not having seen them for 10 years, instead goes to see Persephone first thing.

The story tries very hard to create conflict between Demeter and Persephone, even randomly adding in a mother-daughter heated argument. And what was the argument about that it got to the point of them screaming at each other? Persephone didn't like commuting for college, which 85% of college students already do with no problem. This is supposed to be a very tense scene, by the way.

Instead of addressing the real issues, it blames everything on Demeter's upbringing during the Titanomachy.

For Demeter's flaws, Demeter makes Persephone join a group of eternal virgins consisting of Hestia, Athena, and Artemis, and the story tries to paint it as a critique of purity culture, despite barely touching the subject at all and uses a very Christian idea of virginity, rather than how the Ancient Greeks viewed virginity. Demeter pushed Persephone to compete in many subjects as a young child, but this isn't to be trusted as Persephone has a very inconsistent recollection of her upbringing, and it changes depending on who she is talking to and what emotion is expected from who she is talking to and the reader; according to the story, Persephone is either the burdened golden child who has been pushed to be the best at everything and has traveled to Olympus many times or is just a naive farm girl who has never been to Olympus before or even seen a man before. A trait that is too similar to The Joker, who is also very inconsistent about his backstory and picks one, depending on who he is talking to.

Demeter isn't the only mother Lore Olympus chose to misrepresent and villainize (Hera counts as misrepresented heavily, but she is not villainized like the other mothers, instead her bad traits are praised).

Thetis is no longer the adoptive mother of Hephaestus in Lore Olympus and seems to have no relationship at all with him. Instead, she is Zeus' secretary and one of the women he frequently has an affair with, despite being one of the only women he strictly wanted no romantic or sexual involvement with in the myths. She is turned into a toxic friend who is willing to ruin her friends' relationships instead of a kind figure who cares for those in need. She seems to have little love for Achilles when he is born, being disgusted by the fact that he is mortal, but is tolerant of him because he is good at stuff.

Leto is no longer the titan goddess of motherhood, childbirth, modesty, and the kindest out of the gods, but another sun god who is an antagonist in the story. At first, she is unaware that Persephone does not like Apollo, and when she finds out, she opts out of trying to get them married, but in a poor attempt at having conflict, turns out she was helping Apollo all along to overthrow Zeus and marry Persephone. She prefers Apollo over Artemis, scolding Artemis more than she scolds Apollo.

In the myths, Nyx was a mother that Zeus was very afraid of, threatening him in return after he threatened to punish Hypnos, which caused Zeus to back out on his punishment. But in Lore Olympus, she ditched Thanatos when he was a child because he wasn't interesting enough for her. She dumps Thanatos on Hades, who adopts him, and their father-son relationship is revealed in a courtroom full of people as Hades scolds Thanatos, saying that he gave him his job (despite Thanatos being the god of peaceful death and was going to get the job anyways) that he put clothes on his back, and that he should be grateful that he took him in after his mother abandoned him. After people pointed out this was borderline abuse on Hades' end, the author wrote Hades giving Thanatos a very poor apology, saying that he was afraid, so that's why he was a terrible father. By the way, in multiple instances, Hades fantasies about starting a family with Persephone, acting as if that would be his first time being a father, with Thanatos nowhere in sight or mind.

I've been starting to realize that a lot of modern greek myth retellings that proudly claim about how feminist they are, have a weird and strong hatred towards mothers, either doing everything in their power to completely rewrite them so they are a bad person, or not change their actions or character but just scorn them for being an either decent or good mother. I need to start a list soon that I will present to everyone while losing my mind.

[stunningaspie]

Emerald-Man Issue 8 Commentary

At the tail end of last year, the first “wave” of Emerald-Man stories finished: the origin story, and two supervillain stories featuring Ms. Matter and Dr. Plague. I felt these were necessary to place to the reader that these are still, indeed, superhero stories at heart. Ms. Matter and Dr. Plague were also very old characters of mine that I wanted to finally show to the world.

But now, it was time for Fetch, who I had kept from the audience for so long, working in the shadows. As a writer I am one who enjoys serialized storytelling, so I sprinkled Fetch in the other stories to make us anticipate his inevitable return. So now he’s back, and I decided that I needed to show a bit of personality for him that was lacking in his first few appearances.

Fetch, as a character, is a bit whimsy. He is always raising a leg as if he is in a constant Irish jig. He has a quirky smile, a pleated outfit, and looks like someone who is having too much fun. This is mainly to hide the fact that he is someone who has lived for a thousand years, and feels no joy or pleasurable sensations.

This distinction led me to writing the scene where he gets food for himself delivered, a scene not in the original script. It was admittedly something I found funny, but I think it also delivered the point of the futility of his way of living. He can eat all the lavish food he wants, have possessions and things to make him happy, but none of it does.

Until Fetch can reverse his curse, he is stuck living a life of painful futility. This is what I think makes him very fun for me to write. His only goal is to reverse this curse. There is some inspiration from Barbossa and his crew in Pirates of the Caribbean there, true. A bunch of undead pirates who desire to return to enjoying food, drink, and pleasure. Also like them, we wonder if they truly deserve to be freed from it considering their are brigands and killers. Fetch is very much this, a killer, a hedonist, and a freak.

I want to dispel any ideas that Fetch is anyone we should sympathize for. I have already displayed his sins of theft, murder (and attempted murder), kidnapping, and his lust for Carolina who strangely gives him any sense of happiness. This man is evil. The only mystery that involves him at the moment, is why did he get cursed? This will be answered in the future.

One might think, “well clearly he only acts this way because he got cursed.” I will dispel that with a simple thing: Danu cursed him for a reason. What is that reason? We shall see.

I wanted to talk about Stephen here for a second, too. I have seen the criticism that Stephen Barnes is a blank slate character. This is unfortunately true. I originally tried to make him a little more “everyman” to get people to relate more, but he just came across as vanilla. So instead, I am giving him both positive and negative personality traits.

A negative trait is how quick Stephen is to getting angry. One thing I see a lack of in heroes of today is them being very quick to anger. This is, of course, a big flaw. However, I find it to be oddly a heroic trait too. I point to Tahu from BIONICLE. He was a hot-headed and incredibly stubborn. Now this would often detriment his ability to lead at times. However, I’d argue it was also one of his most heroic traits, especially when fighting evil. Tahu would not stand down in a fight, and would show evil the very ferocity it deserves to have inflicted on it.

Another trait is that Stephen, despite being very charismatic and charming, is anti-social. We saw this in Issue 6 with the spring gala. I am trying to lean into this more, to explain why he can be emotional and so shut off from people, or even selfish-thinking. I hope my efforts to give him more personality has made him more likeable. Making likeable and in-depth characters is important to me.

I will say, however, that good plot is very important to me too. In fact, I find I prefer to enjoy a good plot rather than just character-driven stories, even if character driven stories are good too. Hence why I try to prioritize that. That’s just how I write.

Now with Emerald-Rat. This issue was really filled with moments where I was honestly just being silly. Such as Fetch ordering what is essentially Doordash and now Emerald-Man polymorphed into a funny little rat. I imagined it a little more terrifying in my head, but on paper it turned rather cute and charming. I suppose that is what I get for doing a largely cartoony style.

As for Carolina, I have been trying to build up to this with her slowly unravelling Emerald-Man’s secret identity. I actually showed signs of her doing it subtly already, actually.

It likely was not noticed before (or at least, nobody mentioned it on the forums or twitter), but in issue 3 she was looking at the emerald itself rather than her rescuer. Also her uncovering of the memorabilia in issue 5 seemed to confirm some of her suspicions. Hence why she tried to confront him at the end of that issue. Then in the following issues she tries to use her charms to get him to confess.

She also mysteriously made off with the Druidic Magicus after uncovering Stephen’s identity, a book that seems to have spells and other magical secrets. Why would she need that? Why did she reflect a spell that Fetch tried to cast on her? We will have to find out around July, when I return to the regular story.

As for drawing, this issue had some of my favorite panels to color largely due to the sunset. I enjoy the colors of the sunset sky, especially here in cloudy Oregon. I also got to display my enjoyment of drawing transformation scenes! Most folks don’t know this about me, but I enjoy drawing a good transformation scene. Especially creepy ones. I am glad I got to do that with this issue and Emerald-Rat.

That’s all I have to say for now. Look forward to the next two issues, it’s a two-parter about Danu and Fetch and their backstory. It should be coming out in March.

If you have any questions or comments, be sure to email me at writerlamping@gmail.com.

[anti-katsuki-lounge]

Tumblr doesn’t let you reply using your side blogs so this is the best I can do 😭.

Anyways, here’s why I hate Hitoshi:

Simply put, he’s a hypocritical dickhead.

The first time we meet him, he’s taunting 1-A for getting attacked by villains, a traumatic moment for the class. That already doesn’t paint him in a good light, which would be fine if his writing’s good, but it’s not. We then see him mind control his OWN TEAMMATES, which is fucked. Him doing it to an enemy team I understand. It’s part of the competition. But he did it to his own team, who didn’t even get a chance to answer him before he did so? That’s kinda fucked up and breaks a lot of consent boundaries. He also leeched off of them and relied on their abilities to win. Other than the basic “hide in the shadows technique” he did nothing but spam his quirk.

Secondly, a lot of people criticize Izuku for not training his body beforehand, but the fandom somehow forgets that Hitoshi doesn’t either. In fact, he’s even worse in that he hasn’t trained at all. Izuku at least took to analysis, but Hitoshi does absolutely nothing. He got beaten by an Izuku with a broken finger, and in that fight all Izuku did was push him and then flip him. Hitoshi throws a hook at him and it does nothing. I get that Izuku’s at peak physical strength, but if Hitoshi actually trained his body, he’d be able to at least stun him or try judo throwing him or something. Instead he just flops around pathetically and cries. While we never see Izuku learning how to fight prior to U.A, I have two theories on this: either the extra training he did while working for OFA that made him collapse was fight training or he knew how to fight beforehand but wasn’t strong enough to really use his skills effectively. Keeping these two possibilities in mind, what’s Hitoshi’s excuse then? And if Izuku never learned how to fight, it just makes Hitoshi look even worse since somehow Izuku was instinctively able to pick up on some basic hand to hand combat skills while Hitoshi was bitching about his life or some shit.

Third, he’s a hypocrite in that he hates 1A and the other hero courses for their powerful quirks yet he has a powerful quirk himself. Yeah, it’s not flashy, but it’s still stronger than Toru’s (and despite what the fandom thinks, it’s not canon that the robots have an off switch of some kind so if the invisible girl can get in, he has no excuse). He also solely relies on his quirk for the Sports Festival, unlike some of the other characters who’ve actually utilized strategies (Izuku literally didn’t use his quirk for the first part of the Sports Festival or when fighting Hitoshi after freeing himself from the mind control). So Hitoshi seemingly hates people for doing what he does, which is dumb.

The narrative also sucks his dick off, trying to make the audience feel bad for him and letting Shota train him despite him not doing anything that shows he’s worthy of receiving said training. Sadly any attempts at making me sympathize with him doesn’t work for me cause he comes off more as a whiny bitch than someone screwed over by society. If anything, in his flashback, we actually see people praise his quirk, which lowers the impact of his backstory. He also comes off as entitled, as if he thinks just because he got bullied for his quirk it means he’s deserving of being a hero. Sorry, but he didn’t do shit to achieve his dream nor does he possess any heroic qualities. Literally the only reason he wants to be a hero is because his heart desires it, which I’d let slide if he didn’t feel like he was owed a seat despite not working for it. You got other characters who suffered and still worked their asses off to reach their dreams, characters he made fun of and demeaned after they faced such a traumatic moment (the USJ) just because they were born with “strong” quirks (which again is kinda hypocritical of him since his quirk’s better than a good chunk of 1-A and 1-B’s).

In conclusion, he’s a hypocritical dickhead who gets handed things on a silver platter, kinda like Katsuki. I honestly consider him to be Katsuki-lite. Both are dickwads with a superiority/inferiority complex who think it’s ok to be a jackass and never get punished for doing so. The only difference between them is that Hitoshi isn’t a vile abuser who nearly kills his victims, hence why he’s the “lite” version of him. Once again, he’s another character with a solid concept but is poorly executed because Hori forgets that the little things are what makes a character. Had he shown Hitoshi training and more of his backstory, he’d be in a decent place, but Hitoshi comes off as a whiny hypocritical bitch rather than a passionate individual filled with cynicism due to having been dealt a bad hand in life.

[jazzythursday]

I’m about to go into another very long Marvel rant/dissertation here— mostly for myself— that I started writing soon after the Loki Series finale so please feel free to just scroll past this, because honestly I think I kinda overdid this one. It’s jaded and overly dramatic even for me. You have been warned:

The last 4 Marvel movies/shows I’ve watched left me feeling so completely depressed and unsatisfied and hopeless about the future of popular entertainment and story telling in general, and I know I’m not the only one. The fact that fans are going into these experiences hoping for a good story and character arcs that make sense with prior characterization, and leaving feeling… empty is a very clear sign that their approach leaves a lot to be desired.

Infinite War had some valid reasons to end the way it did, because by having our heroes fall so much harder than ever before, it built up the tension and high stakes for the next film. But what does that do when Endgame leaves us feeling even worse? I wanted them to triumph and finally come together to be better. I expected there would be losses of course but not enough to negate the wins. Instead the characters were subjugated for plot, characterization was watered down, and we lost all the original Avengers besides Thor and Bruce (who was no longer even Bruce). Peter loses Tony, Thor’s previous loses are permanent, and so many other things that, in spite of loving a lot of the movie, mean I haven’t been able to stop being sad about it for literal years. And the amount of thoughtless destruction that seems to be at an all time high when it comes to character’s lives and disregard for properly exploring emotions just doesn’t leave much to be expected at this point. Far From Home was good. It was. I liked it a lot. The acting was wonderful and there were some really interesting themes they grappled with but I still walked out of the theater feeling like there was still so much detachment surrounding a lot of the decisions, a little too much thoughtlessness (that, and the gaping hole of Tony). I’m not going to talk about WandaVistion but I’ll say that I was invested until the start of episode 8, and finished episode 9 feeling drained and tired and sad.

Then we get to Loki, a show which has plagued far too many of my thoughts since I started watching it, and has crushed my hopes for ever truly being happy with a Marvel project ever again. Loki is a character who’s ostensibly felt alienated and unseen for most of his life, and that’s before finding out about his parentage. His first movie ends with his suicide attempt and subsequent fall into the void. His second takes place a year into working under Thanos and ends with him being taken away in chains (yes I know he’s the villain he’s done bad things etc. etc. but for the purposes of this I’m only focusing on his pov). Then his third involves his solitary imprisonment, his mother’s death, and his near-death (considering the likelihood that he was actually stabbed), although it does end on a lighter note with his acquisition of the throne. Then we get his redemption and reconciliation with Thor in Ragnarok, immediately followed by the utter tragedy that is the first 10 minutes of Infinite War, which I don’t think I need to explain.

So what I suppose I’m saying here (very very inadequately) is that after all of that, I can’t believe the proper story to tell in his first chance at being a main protagonist was one where he’s constantly degraded and beat up, convicted of things he didn’t actually do, given no focus on backstory or implied/established motivations, and labeled as a clown and a narcissist! His powers are weakened, he displays almost no recognizable mannerisms or competence, he’s held to a higher moral standard than every other character, shown no respect, and ultimately loses EVEN MORE. We’ve seen him lose and lose and lose and lose again. We’ve seen him die THREE TIMES, we’ve seen him redeemed TWICE. So who in their right mind thinks that the most compelling story to tell after all of that was to see him LOSE AGAIN?! And not only lose, but lose without any real triumph, dignity, or acknowledgment beforehand. Death to the author aside, reading the utter nonsense the team behind it have spread, it’s so clear that it wasn’t made in good faith. Whether in ignorance or true maliciousness, they just don’t care. They didn’t research. They didn’t try and see things from his point of view. They didn’t truly sympathize with him as a person while writing. They didn’t understand. And they truly, truly wanted him to fail.

I’m tired of feeling hopeless at the end of everything, of leaving the theater or turning off the TV wondering why I even bothered, why I even care when I’m just being strung along with as little consideration as an audience as my favorite characters. I wanted to actively see him strive to be better, not just be told he could be. I wanted to see him triumph over his demons, not forget them. I wanted to see him be the “master of magic” that every other damn movie has alluded to, and to use his powers effectively. I wanted him to be powerful. I wanted him to, if not win, then win on a personal level at least. I wanted to see him take agency in his life and PROVE EVERYONE WRONG! And, though it’s now bafflingly controversial to say, I wanted it to be told by an experienced and competent writing and directing team that knew and understood his character and were passionate about telling his story.

I would ascribe to the notion of “don’t like it, don’t watch” if I could but I care to much to not be affected by this obvious decline in quality and awareness. And I’m a relatively recent fan. I haven’t been waiting for Loki to get his moment in the sun for 10 years. I’M NEW HERE, and my heart breaks so much for fans of the original movies who have lost their love of Marvel or Loki because of the way it’s been handled. No one should fall further than they can climb up from, and I’m tired of watching loss after loss and never getting the release of gaining enough of it back. What’s the point of caring about these characters if the writers won’t? Of investing in a connecting cinematic universe if it lacks continuity? Of looking for clues and foreshadowing when there isn’t any and the only twists are random and pander to shock value? The way these pieces/characters are being created and interpreted is reductive and incompetent, and for once I’d like to watch something that feels crafted, inspiring, and gratifying to see to the end.

If some people like the Loki show we got, I have no argument against that, because my own opinion is just as subjective as theirs. Though, I’d like to think that if what I want is for the show to be better out of love for the same character, then what they enjoyed from the show can coexist in that. If anyone’s actually read up to this point, I have to admit I’ve forgotten mine. Mostly I just wanted to express my frustrations over how unfeeling and stale most entertainment, specifically from Marvel as of late, has been.

TL;DR: I care too much, waaay too much, Marvel cares too little, Disney doesn’t care at all, and I don’t know how to accept that.

[purgemarchlockdown]

#i don't think people have to think over those details if it's not fun for them but they really do interest me#those things to me add an extra layer of depth to the prisoners#it's easy to synpathize with someone if you like them but it's much harder usually#for people to objectively hold the people they like accountable outside of doing something objectively jarring or heinous#i feel milgram is trying to teach people even if you like someone even if you relate to them or sympathize with them#it doesn't mean you shouldn't hold them any less accountable then you would someone else who did the exact same thing#we all have reasons for behaving the way we behave or reacting how we react what makes their reasons any more soecial than those they hurt#kotoko highlights this more in her second voice drama by calling to attention#we didn't care about her killing bad guys before but since we know these bad guys it's suddenly different#it'd be nice if that habit of attempting to understand the motivations of the prisoners could be extended to those around us as well#that's what i hope at least#also it'd be fucked up if those voted guilty got let out while those voted innocent were executed#kind of like going you thought innocent meant freedom just because guilt came with punishment but#a person can only avoid consequences for so long and if you don't give it something else will @archivalofsins Yeah! A Lot of Milgram is built on ideas of understanding I've been thinking about it recently. There's that one interview where Yamanaka says he wants people to see people on the news and think that they could be like the characters in Milgram. To extent that sort of understanding that these people are People, capable of both good and bad and everything in-between.

I feel this a lot especially with characters like Mahiru. She's such a Nice and Friendly person that I think it becomes really hard to reconcile how horrible she can be to people with that. But she can and I think it's important to recognize that. Especially since I feel like a lot of people's judgements can be extremely.....extreme? I guess, In the sense that they seem to lie on the extremes of infantalization and demonization. Muu especially is a good example of this where people went from seeing her as the pitiful victim to the evil mastermind.

I think Milgram really tries to make the audience Critical of the narratives that both the Characters and Milgram Itself is feeding you. It's never as simple as it seems and convenient narratives should be given the most suspicion (T1 Mikoto)

But again, to also remember that they are still people at the end of the day and that there should be an attempt to atleast Understand if not anything else. It's a really interesting part of Milgram, and I think it's really Awesome of Yamanaka really to create a work this centered around getting to know and understanding characters even when the circumstances are so grim and serious.

Also that Would Indeed be fucked but I wouldn't put it pass them....really curious to see how they handle not forgiven and forgiven in T3....

I like treating the murders less as actual crimes and more like a concept that just showcases the harm that extreme situations and mindsets can cause. I dunno a better way of explaining it but like- I treat it less like a murder mystery and more like "okay what Made them do something so Extreme and Harmful and Why" if that makes sense....

[disco-tea]

You’re so right, Seeing Red really did not have to happen like that. Spike’s epiphany that he needed to get his soul back didn’t have to happen in the form of any sort of horrible violence, whether it be attempted rape, murder, or anything else in that ballpark. It could have just been a simple realization. But nope, Whedon HAD to choose the shock value route despite both everyone on the writing team AND the actors involved telling him it was a bad idea.

Oh op…the unbridled rage I have within me over seeing red…one of those things in canon I would truly like to legitimately light on fire. One of the things that makes me think, yeah, I could actually strangle Whedon. Admittedly, this kind of turned into a bit of a rant and I’m sorry op I just sorta dumped all my thoughts because I have a lot of them, but I don’t talk about this a lot because it’s a subject that makes me uncomfy. Anyway, imma put the rest of this under the cut.

But anyway, you know…I don’t *personally* vibe with most of S6, I just don’t vibe with it because I don’t think it had to be that way. And I totally get people who do think it’s interesting, it is to a degree, but I don’t love it because it feels inconsistent to me, because I don’t feel like it fits with where the characters were development-wise. I don’t think it had to be that way, and to me, it feels like a poor attempt at a slap in the face to the audience who wanted Spike and Buffy together. Like “see. See how bad this is? This is why it won’t work and you were stupid for thinking it would.”

But all that aside…I could’ve gotten over the rest of the season, I could’ve dealt with anything but THAT. People talk about like…’ violating the trust between audience and creator.’ THAT DID IT. Every other stupid writing choice aside, there was NO REASON to subject your audience and your actors and your writers to that. It’s one thing when the actors and the audience go into something knowing they’re going to be dealing with that subject matter, but to throw that in 6 seasons down the road and furthermore with the purpose of demonizing a character you were mad the audience was sympathizing with is truly one of the shitiest things you could do as a writer and just a person in charge in general. To do that to the audience that is invested and to the actors who are IN CONTRACT. And in the last leg of the season no less, when nobody knew it was coming and didn’t have any prior warning.

And see…that’s the other thing. The thing about it that really pisses me off…it didn’t add anything meaningful to the conversation about that subject. It didn’t tell an impactful story about the subject, literally the only reason for it was to manufacture an excuse for ‘redemption’ he low key already had and to prove to the audience he was a bad person after they’d spent 3 seasons showing us how he was becoming a better person and really wasn’t that bad.

It was shitty and a cheap shot, and not something anybody asked for.

And again, it just makes me so mad. Not only that they did it in the first place, not only because it was out of character, but then because they went there and did THAT...later on they started acting like he was that kind character all along, (as of he wasn’t the type of person who seriously preferred monogamy and who loved his vampire wife so much, and was mostly interested in the violence and fighting aspect of being a vampire)

And yeah, I get they felt like they were trying to line up with continuity, but the way S7 pushed the ‘yeah, soulless Spike was always a r*pist’ narrative is one of those things that really rankles me. Because they act like it was a given, like this has been something canon all along, as if they didn’t start season 6 leaving him and trusting him with the care of a freaking teenage girl. A teenage girl who then they had Spike drag into the conversation about that, and yeah, don’t get me wrong, I like the latter half of the speech in Never Leave Me, and I get Spike is trying to get Buffy to kill him and that’s a good way to do it, but it’s the way they bring Dawn into that and frame him that way as if he was ever anything but good and protective and caring towards her. As if he’d ever lay a finger on her.

And my final thought in that vein, about how it was stupidly out of character, is that if you ever watch Spike’s reaction in Crush (when Buffy implies the only chance he had with her was when she was unconscious)…it’s the look of realization and then horror and disgust as he processes her words, and I will take that any day over whatever the hell Whedon thought he was doing with seeing red.

But yeah…anywho, circling back around to the original subject, it certainly didn’t have to be THAT, to make him go get the soul. You know what would have worked just as well, and literally would’ve lined up with canon? Spike being heartbroken and upset and somebody saying something harsh to him and it pushes him over the edge. THAT CANONICALLY HAPPENED TO HIM TWICE. That’s what ultimately led to him becoming a vampire, that is literally why he tried to stake himself in Doomed, because he was already upset, and Xander had finally had it with him and said something, and then he literally tried to stake himself.

There was just so many better ways to handle not only the subject of the soul, but Spike’s character in general.

[rachelbethhines]

Tangled Salt Marathon - Race to the Spire

Today’s episode is extremely detrimental to the ongoing story arc, yet it’s ironically one of the least painful plot episodes to watch this season. Let’s just get into it and hopefully by the end you’ll see what I mean. 

Summary:  Cassandra returns to the Spire to steal the Mind Trap from Calliope. Calliope sends a letter to Rapunzel for help, and she and Eugene set out by hot air balloon. They pass through the frozen tundra of Krestin Lock where they are shot down and reunite with Calliope who claims to have escaped. They battle their way through the fish like natives, but Rapunzel rescues a couple as they leave. They arrive at the Spire where "Calliope" asks for the key to unlock the chest containing the Mind Trap, but Rapunzel sees through the ruse; Cassandra reveals herself and "Calliope" is Zhan Tiri in disguise.

This Is The Only Episode That Ties Back To Season Two In Any Meaningful Way 

Yes, Edmund has a bigger presence this season, but he wasn’t introduced until the season finale, and the Island’s Apart episode that brought back Tirapi Island winds up being pretty useless to the over all arc. In contrast, Race to the Spire is the only episode in season three to feature season two’s locations and characters while also pushing the the story along. 

This means that ninety percent of season two was pointless filler. I think you could skip over half of the episodes that season and it wouldn’t matter in the slightest. Conversely you could also skip over about a third of season three’s episodes and it would not matter either. That’s poor time management right there.  

This is damning with faint praise, but it’s also one of the few reasons why this episode is more watchable than some others this season. It’s also just nice to see Calliope again. 

This Is A Really Poor Way To Introduce This Plot Point 

I mean this is some really fucking lazy exposition here; like, embarrassingly bad exposition. 

You had three seasons to foreshadow this plot point, but you didn’t. Instead the writers just threw the mind trap in here at the last minute with zero explanation what-so-ever. Which just tells me that this wasn’t planned out, and that the crew literally pulled this out of their ass cracks at the last possible second because they forgot that they had to do something with the Brotherhood characters that they fucking created! 

Over four years of development time, plus an additional three years of production and the show can’t even get their bare bones basic plot right!? There is zero excuse for such shoddy work, and no this isn’t a case of them being screwed over by the network like with Korra or Ducktales. 

Chris and Ben knew from the get go that they would only get three seasons. They had time to rework things to fit into that timescale and they still overfilled the series with meaningless filler. Moreover, they wouldn’t have had to scramble to come up with a quick fix for the Brotherhood plot, if they hadn’t of scrapped the original plot during the middle of production to begin with!!! 

So What Did Cassandra Do To The Real Keeper?

At this point, Cassandra has kidnaped, assaulted, and attempted to murder several people by now. Because the series fails to show how Cass snuck into the spire and stole the cloak, along with never showing where the real keeper is at, I and many others automatically assumed that she just straight up killed the dude off screen when this episode first aired. I only know that he isn’t dead because he makes a very brief cameo in a crowd shot during the end of the finale. 

That’s poor presentation. The series leans heavily on the idea that Cassandra can be redeemed because she is someone who the audience should sympathize with. If the audience’s first assumption is that she murdered an innocent man in a quest for pretty vengeance and power, well, then she’s not very sympathetic now is she?  

The writers really should have had the Keeper make an appearance at the end of this episode if they didn’t want us thinking Cassandra was a murderer. 

Also I’m sure, many people are wanting me to point how Cassandra revealing herself prematurely here is a stupid move. And it is. However, it’s clear from this reaction that Calliope knew what was up this whole time and was stringing Cass along anyways. She and Varian are the smartest people in this whole dumb show, and both are severally underestimated.  

Oh Yeah, You’re A Real Saint, Ain’t Ya, Cass? 

Cassandra refusing to harm animals while threating human beings does not make her secretly good deep down. It just means she’s a hypocritical jackass. It’s stupid to think otherwise and anyone who argues this belief is very sus. Like as in ‘are you associated with PETA or ALF, and if so, please go out and like interact in the real world and speak to real people for a change’, levels of sus. 

Don’t You Have Duties to Attend to Rapunzel?

Ok, so I honestly believe this episode was meant to come later in the series, and so I could understand it if several months had past since Cassandra’s Revenge and we had this scene. After all you can’t expect people to be on their guard all the time. However, since someone decided that this episode needed to air right after Cassandra’s Revenge, then this just comes across as Rapunzel being very irresponsible. 

Did we just forget that Cass threatened the entire kingdom and attempted to murder you and your friends? Are you just going to ignore the giant ominous tower that’s looming along the horizon? Hey, what about all the other queenly duties that your in charge of Rapunzel? I mean we haven’t established that the King and Queen are back to ruling yet, so Rapunzel should still be busy over seeing the kingdom, right? Who’s in charge right now while she’s wasting her time dancing? 

Look, I’m not saying that Rapunzel can’t have any fun ever, but there’s a time and place for it and now is not the time. If this season was all about having Rapunzel accept her responsibilities then this scene really undermines that.

Once Again, The Series Seems To Forget That Magic Is Suppose To Be Rare In The World Of Tangled 

As I’ve pointed out multiple times in this review series, the consequence of using ill defined and under explained magical objects to move the plot along, is to undermine the previous movie’s setup.  

Magic is suppose to be a rare occurrence. Not everyone believes in it because most people don’t come across it. That is why a world-weary street-wise traveler like Eugene is such a skeptic and why he’s constantly surprised by the weirdness around him. That’s the point of his character in the movie. He acts as the audience's surrogate and we discover the world of Tangled through him. 

Here though, magic is everywhere. No one questions it. It’s even recorded in easily attainable books apparently because it’s so common. Therefore, Eugene now has no logical reason to be the skeptic, and yet he still somehow is because they don’t want him to be out of character. It just no longer makes any sense. 

Oh, Please...

Show, Don’t Tell!

This series has spent three damn seasons assassinating Rapunzel’s character by slowly morphing her into a bully and calling it character development. 

Just because you verbally repeat something over and over again does not make it true and actions speak louder than words. 

The audience knows she’s not compassionate because she neglected a child for three damn months, left him in a dungeon for a year, and then upon finding that such treatment of individuals has consequences decided to manipulate and guilt trip him into become her ‘friend’ again instead of just admitting she was wrong. 

Having Eugene blindly worship her selfish ass and repeat such hollow lies is nauseating to listen to and does nothing to endear the audience to Rapunzel again after squandering away any good will we may have had towards the character initially.    

I’m Still Irritated That Varian Has Been Reduced To Being The Plot Convince Fairy 

And just to rub salt into the wound, I know he only has even this small cameo because Chris wanted to entice viewers to tune in and watch his stupid Moonassndra plot, not because he’s an actual important character to the plot anymore. 

A lot of people enjoy the fact that Varian actually shows up in season three, but I don’t because it’s so poorly handled. It’s rather like working at a restaurant and a customer gives you a five cent tip, even though you know they have a couple of hundred dollar bills stuffed in their wallet and aren’t hurting for money themselves. I know the series is capable of giving the audience more than just these meager scraps but yet it refuses to actually feed us a decent story. 

Yeah, I guess it’s better to have something rather than nothing, but at this point, it’s really more a slap in the face than anything. Especially to long time viewers who’ve stuck it out this long. 

The Maps Don’t Match 

The Spire should be Northeast of Corona not South. Unless they headed south first and then went northeast... But that still doesn’t make sense. I know Corona is a peninsula and that they would have had to go southeast a little ways to get to Vardaros, but after that they should have been heading north for all of season two according to this map from Rapunzel’s Return. 

It doesn’t help matters that nothing is to scale, but still just a little consistency is all I ask. 

And of fucking course the show never mentioned this glacier before during season two. I have no idea where it is suppose to be in relation to everything else nor how Raps and company avoided it last time. 

Why Is No One Allowed To Worry Over Rapunzel? 

It’s a minor complaint, but like it bugs me how dismissive everyone is of Rapunzel’s safety in this show. She’s not invincible, or rather she shouldn’t be, and it isn’t unnatural to care about someone’s well being. 

But somehow the show has gotten it into it’s collective head that Frederic was wrong because he didn’t believe in Rapunzel’s capabilities not because he was an abusive controlling asshat. Therefore, no one can ever doubt or question Rapunzel in any way or they’re baaaad! Don't ya see? Unless they’re Cass because she is the only other woman in the show...that matters anyways.

This isn’t empowering. It’s just another form of condescension. It’s like, baby talking to a grown woman, going ‘you can do it!’ when no, I can’t do it. In fact most people can’t do it, and I’d appreciate it a lot more if your were honest with me and held a conversation with me like an adult. 

Placing female characters on pedestals is just as bad as making them damsels in distresses. Because it’s lazy stereotyping. Rather then treating women as people, with strengths, weaknesses, and all the complexities therein, they're instead boxed into being only one thing and one thing only. 

Unless, Varian is just subtlety hinting here that he really doesn’t give a shit about Rapunzel at all and is only pretending to be her friend in order to avoid jail. That I could agree with. 

What Is This Box Made Of?

Cass can’t just break the chest open because the writers want to force this stupid dilemma over the key Rapunzel now has. However, it’s incredibly lazy to just suddenly announce that this one random box is now the strongest material in the world when we’ve spent three fucking seasons insisting that the rocks are unbreakable!!!!

Unlike Adria’s sword the chest isn’t made from the rocks and it hasn’t absorbed the moonstone’s power like Rapunzel has, soooo what’s the deal here? We never get any explanation either. Consequently, I’m now thinking that everyone should forget the stupid mind trap all together and just fight over the box because clearly it’s the most powerful object in this world now.

What’s Up With The Sudden Curses Call Back?

This episode has nothing to do with Curses, because Curses was pure pointless filler and arguably the most useless episode in season two. There’s also nothing about flying in a hot air balloon that should logically remind Eugene of that adventure. This is all just lazy set up for a very cringe joke that is indeed... you guessed it, very pointless and useless as well.

This Isn’t Cute, Show

Being a dick to you’re significant other isn’t funny, especially when it’s so one sided. Playful banter has to have actual banter in it. There needs to be a back and forth; an agreement that both sides can dish it out and take it.

By only allowing Rapunzel to take cheap shots while Eugene can do nothing but sing her praises tells me that their relationship isn’t equal. Now add in all the other bullshit Rapunzel puts Eugene through during season three and what we have is a very toxic relationship. One that I am desperately wishing Eugene would just walk away from.

So congratulations show, you managed to kill New Dream....

Wasn’t this series pitch originally about how they got married? What the fuck?

So Is No One Going To Question Calliope Just Showing Up Conveniently In The Middle Of A Glacier?

I know that Rapunzel is keeping silent because she doesn’t want to tip off this fake Calliope, but it’s very out of character for Eugene to not be the skeptic and question shit. He would naturally wonder why, upon wining her freedom, Calliope would run into a blizzard rather then head literally anywhere else. Especially since you can apparently get to and from the spire without going through the frozen loch anyways.

I repeat, the series has to actively dumb down the deuteragonist of the original movie in order to make the main character look good.

Why Are We Conveniently Forgetting Quirin Again?

Both Rapunzel and Eugene know that Quirin is a member of the Brotherhood. They were both right there then Adria told them he was back in The Great Tree. Yet for some unexplained reason the show just pretends like Rapunzel and Eugene are in the dark about this for several episodes? Or rather it acts like Eugene never knew and Rapunzel never mentions it ever because the show is trying to avoid blaming her for what happens next, but guess what? I, the audience, still blames her.

These Are Just Recolors

Once again the series wouldn’t need to resort to such budget cuts if it had been been better managed. These loch monsters aren’t written to be the same as the Vodniks from There’s Something About Hookfoot, they’re treated too much as mindless foes, and yet they so clearly are just recolors of those models.

And all this does is remind me of how fucking useless Hookfoot was and that I miss Serafina. Like why didn’t we ever get a follow up to that, or a return to Varados for that matter? It’s all so poorly planned out you guys.

Don’t Kiss Rapunzel’s Ass For Doing The Bare Minimum

Yes, saving the Ice Vodniks is the right thing to do. Yes, the series should be promoting such heroic actions. However, it should not be using such unchallenging actions as the gold standard of behavior, especially when the main character is super awful whenever its convenient for her.

True strength and compassion means doing the right thing even though its hard. Doing the right thing isn’t always easy and I’m not going applaud someone who only takes the easy way out.

Saving the vodinks here wasn’t a challenge. Nothing was at risk. Rapunzel didn’t have to do anything uncomfortable to rescue them. Yet whenever she’s asked to actually make a hard decision or face the consequences of her behavior, she just completely fails at being a decent person.

And that’s the problem with the series as a whole, It refuses to challenge it’s protagonist in any meaningful way. Praising Rapunzel here is so hollow and cringe inducing, because it’s so utterly tone deaf.

Now That Was A Dumb Move

Yes, Rapunzel had suspected that she was the fake Calliope all along, buuuut she hadn’t figured out who she really was yet. Nor was Zhan Tiri aware that Rapunzel knew she was fake. So what’s the point in revealing herself now? Wouldn't she logically have a better chance at picking Rapunzel's pocket for the key by still staying undercover regardless of Raps’ suspicions?

Also if Zhan Tiri can invade minds and brainwash people, supposedly, then why not just do that to Rapunzel to begin with? Why insist that your big bad has such power and then never have her use it? Unless you’re implying that Zhan Tiri no longer has any power since coming back to the real world, and in which case she’s no longer a real threat and shouldn’t have any hold over Cassandra any more.

Stop Wasting Time Bragging About Yourself, Rapunzel

This is so cringe. Last I checked this wasn’t an episode of Scooby Doo. The audience doesn’t need to hear a break down of how Rapunzel figured everything out. They especially don't need to hear it from Rapunzel herself when there’s more important things she should be doing, like oh, say, actually rescuing the person she came here to save. 

And yes, it’s confirmed here that they had to dumb down Eugene in order to make Rapunzel look smart, when in reality what she did was not all that clever. Tangled the Series nether respects it’s characters nor it’s audience. The creators keep insisting that ‘it’s not a kid’s show’ but then constantly talks down to it’s viewers as if they were toddlers. 

This Does Nothing to Make Zhan Tiri Intimidating Either 

Actually Do Something You Stupid Little Gumdrop!!!

Why doesn’t anyone just stomp on her, right here, right now? 

Yeah, maybe Raps is too ‘nice’ to just punch the grape, but Eugene isn’t. Neither is Casandra for that matter. She has no reason to be following to Zhan Tiri’s orders. Even if she wasn’t sorry and still hell bent on destroying Rapunzel, Zhan Tiri isn’t of any help to her in achieving that goal. She’s dead weight now. Just ditch her already. 

Speaking Of Casandra’s Agency 

Cass just jumps at the bit to kill someone upon Zhan Tiri’s suggestion, no questions asked, as if she was some dutiful soldier or something. But like she can also clearly think for herself and make her own decisions so it’s not like she’s really under Zhan Tiri’s control either. 

So which is it show? Is Cassandra brainwashed and not acting of her own volition, or is she just an asshole? She can’t be both. She can’t have any agency if you want to keep her sympathetic at this point because she has no logical reason to do anything Zhan Tiri tells her too. 

Nothing about the Moonsandra plot makes any fucking sense. What we’re told by the characters is constantly contradicted and undermined by their later actions. 

This Isn’t The Dialogue Of A Victim, It’s The Language Of An Abuser 

Part of the reason why the show utterly fails to convince the audience that Cassandra is being ‘manipulated’ or controlled by some outside force is lines like the above. This is a gaslighting technique that abusers pull all the time, the whole ‘this hurts me more than it hurts you’ hogwash. Cass is trying to shift the blame of her actions onto Rapunzel for not complying to her demands.   

If Cassandra was well and truly being controlled by the moonstone or Zhan Tiri then she wouldn’t have the agency to manipulate others. She wouldn’t have the agency to plan, to desire things, to grieve, or do anything really. We know this because of the Minds Trap itself. Actual brainwashing in this world turns you into a mindless zombie, which Cassandra clearly is not. 

Neither is she being manipulated by Zhan Tiri because Zhan Tiri doesn’t really do anything, ever. She doesn’t tempt. She doesn’t threaten. She doesn’t really mislead or lie, not when it would actually help her anyways. And what truths she does choose to omit is all shit that Cassandra could have easily figured out had she been allowed to use her brain this season. 

So the answer to the previous question is that Cassandra is indeed just an asshole. If she really cared about about Calliope not getting hurt then she simply wouldn’t threaten her to begin with. 

I Still Have Questions About This Mind Trap Thing

Ok let us list them out shall we.... 

Why does this thing exist, in universe? What purpose was it originally intended to serve? 

Who made it? Was it an enemy of the Dark Kingdom or the Dark Kingdom themselves? 

How did they make it? What is it made from? How does it work? What are the magical rules behind it? 

How did it wind up in the Spire? What is it’s history? 

Who else knows of its existence? Were the Brotherhood even aware of the mind trap before coming under its spell? Has it ever even been used before now? 

How did Zhan Tiri and Cassandra find out about it? Why do they even want it? Why don’t they use it right away? 

Questions like these are important to answer whenever establishing any sort of plot macguffin into your story. You have to sell to the audience that this object is a thing that has always existed in your created world. You have to set up it’s internal rules so the audience knows the stakes. And most importantly, you have to connect that back to the characters so that their actions will make sense. 

The mind trap does none of these things so it winds up being a forced and weak plot point. One that just ends up undermining everyone’s character arcs on top of that.  

Why Do You Want A War, Cass? 

That doesn’t actually answer Rapunzel’s nor the audience's question. 

Let me reiterate for the millionth time; Cassandra has no goal nor any real motivation.  

This is bad writing. 

And Cass Tries To Kill Calliope Anyways, Despite Getting What She Demanded 

Once again, serial killers aren’t sympathetic.  

If you want Cass to be redeemable then you need to either have her stop trying to murder innocent people for zero reason, or you have to actually give her a very good fuckin’ motivation, one that ties into her actions. 

And no, you can’t blame Zhan Tiri. Zhan Tiri didn’t tell her to do this. Cass choose to remorselessly kill someone. A person that, just three seconds ago, she claimed she didn’t want to harm. 

Hypocrisy is also not very sympathetic, show.  

This Fight Is Lame

I mean it’s funny, sure, but it also destroys any shred of credibility Zhan Tiri had. There’s no reason to take this character seriously if she can’t even stop a fucking badger! 

Consistency of tone is an important thing to maintain writers.

Also, doesn’t Rapunzel still have that big “fuck you, I win” incantation at her disposal? Yeah, where is that and why isn’t she using it against the rocks? 

Calliope Is The Saving Grace Of This Episode

It’s ironic, and also a testament to how badly written the mains are this season, that Calliope, a character who is meant to be annoying on purpose, is actually the least annoying person on screen right now. 

She’s competent, intelligent, and assertive without being a jackass about it. She says the things the audience themselves are thinking and is the only person allowed to call out Rapunzel for her stupidity without going villain. 

When I say that this episode is one of the more watchable ones this season, it’s solely because of Calliope here. I actually wish she was in the series more. Rapunzel, Cassandra, Faith, and Calliope could have been a good team of female friends that would have fleshed out the series representation more and mitigated some of the worst aspects of the Cass vs Raps conflict.  

This Is So Contrived 

It’s not ‘compassion’, it’s fucking stupidity! 

Rapunzel didn’t even try. 

She could have knocked the lamp out of Zhan Tiri’s hand with her hair whip. She could have pulled Calliope away from them using her hair. She could have used another magic artifact to cause another distraction. She could have used her super Saiyan sun powers to kick both their asses. 

There were a million and one thing things she could have done, but instead she just fucking gave up. And we’re suppose to think she’s compassionate for it? 

And now she’s doomed at least three people, (to her knowledge anyways; there’s actually four), to life as mindless zombies. Zombies that will be ordered to attack their loved ones and homes, and she proceeds to do fuck all about it.

She’s not learned a damn thing since season one. She’s not compassionate, she’s selfish. She only cares about how others suffering make her feel, not about the people who are actually suffering. She wants to avoid any negative feelings like guilt so she’ll do things in the moment that sooths her ego, and then just ignores any real problems that don’t have a quick fix or an outcome that doesn’t boost her self esteem. 

I’m sorry but this is not a character for little girls to look up to. 

It’s not even a character you can really like or root for, not as she’s presented on screen anyways. 

Why On Earth Would Zhan Tiri Reveal Herself Like This? 

What purpose does this serve? What does Zhan Tiri gain by doubling back just to spill her secrets to her opponent? Wouldn’t this just jeopardize her plans, seeing as they rely so heavily on subterfuge? 

There’s also isn’t any larger narrative reason to do this either. The audience could have already guess who she is by this point and the reveal comes too early to push the story further along. Instead things are needless dragged out over two more filler episodes rather than having Rapunzel just use this knowledge to her advantage to warn people. 

That Doesn’t Add Up

How could you physically be the blizzard itself, if you were locked in another dimension this whole time? 

It was suppose to be a curse. That’s what it was called during Queen for a Day. 

Why is it so hard for this show just to connect the dots? They’re the ones who wrote this plot, surely they should know how it’s all suppose to fit together. But no; they don’t. Everything concerning Zhan Tiri is disjointed and contradictory. 

It’s lazy. 

You’re Right, It Doesn't Make Sense Rapunzel. Why Don't You Try Pointing That Out To The Writers?

Pointing out the flaws in your writing doesn’t make your writing any less flawed. 

Why hasn’t Cassandra asked for this bitch’s name yet? Why hasn’t she questioned the little hamburger’s motivations? Where did her fucking brain go this season!? 

Also where even is she during this exchange? Is she just waiting right outside the door twiddling her thumbs? 

I Call Bullshit

As we’ve already established, Cassandra isn’t being controlled by anybody or anything. She’s choosing to go along with this horseshit. And just because Zhan Tiri claims she’s pulling the strings, it doesn’t mean that she actually is. 

Why should I, or Rapunzel for that matter, take Zhan Tiri’s words at face value? If she’s admitting that she’s a liar, then why should the audience trust anything she says? 

I’ve pointed this out repeatedly since season one, but the series desperately tries to gaslight the audience by telling them shit that contradicts what they’ve actually seen with their own eyes and then just expects them to believe the words of the characters without question rather than to think for themselves.    

That’s not how characterization works. That’s not story telling works. And that’s not how people work. 

Also, Why Is Raps Bothering To Indulge This Dumb Ego Masturbation?

Just wrap the boring blackberry up in your hair and carry her worthless carcass back to Corona. 

There, done. Problem solved. 

You can either hold her hostage in exchange for the mind trap, or just dump her ass on the prison barge and wait for Cass to come to her senses. That’s it. 

There’s no conflict here. 

Why Would Warn Your Enemies Like That, You Idiot? 

This is the only foreshadowing for the ellipse we get. 

A single, solitary, blink and you’ll miss it, line! One that tells us nothing about what the ellipse does or why it’s a threat. 

That’s.... That's not real foreshadowing! It’s just more shitty exposition! 

Which is incidentally, the only reason why this scene exists. 

Also, reducing Zhan Tiri’s ambitions to only Corona under cuts her effectiveness as a villain, but we’ll get back that later.   

Calliope Is The Only Character In The Show With A Successful Arc 

I don’t say this because I like her, or because she’s the only person who will tell Raps the hard truth she needs to hear. I say this because, well, it’s true. 

Calliope has a complete arc, one that makes sense, and isn’t undermined by the writers biases. In fact Calliope might be the only character who actually benefited from the rewrites. 

When we first meet her she’s insecure and inexperienced, and keeps covering up her mistakes with bravado and bossiness. Then she learns she doesn’t need to pretend in order to impress people, and finds acceptance for being her self through her mentor. When next we see her she’s confident and competent, and simply doing what needs to be done rather then trying to gain Rapunzel’s or anyone else’s favor. 

That’s how you write a character arc. You establish what the character wants. You explain why they would want that goal. You set up what they need to learn, and then you have them learn it. Thereby changing either their behavior and/or their goal. From there you can either grant them their need/goal for a happy ending, or go the tragic route and deny them what they need/want. That will depend on what type of story you’re going for, but in the end the set up and plot beats will most always be the same. 

This Is A Lie 

And then they proceeded to do absolutely nothing for four fucking episodes, the end. 

Also no, Rapunzel didn't do ‘what she had to do’. She had plenty of other options and she didn’t take them. Stop enabling her incompetence Eugene. 

I Truly Believe This Episode Was Shown Out Of Order 

I mean, I have nothing to prove it, but it’s literally the only thing that makes any sense. 

Why would Zhan Tiri reveal herself so soon? How come Rapunzel doesn’t know who Cass is working with in the very next episode despite this? Why would Cass hold off on using the Mind Trap for so long? Why would Raps and Eugene not warn anybody for three freaken episodes!? 

Grant it, there’s nothing that will save this plot, and this episode shoots both Cassandra’s and Zhan Tiri’s character arcs in the metaphorical foot, but having this episode follow after Cassaundra's Revenge just exacerbates the problem.

It should go right before Once a Handmaiden. That’s the only placement that fits.   

So We’re All In Agreement That This Is The Point Of No Return For Cass, Right? 

I mean look at that creepy smile. 

The bitch is excited to rip away several people’s bodily autonomy and force them to murder their friends and family in cold blood.  

And for no actual reason, I might add! 

There’s also no Zhan Tiri in this scene. This is all Cassandra. She’s the one who chose to do this and yeah, it’s pretty unforgivable.  

And I don't mean that as in she can’t be forgiven, or is undeserving of forgiveness. I mean that as in I, the viewer watching at home, am given no narrative reason to desire her eventual pardon. 

There’s nothing to latch on to here. There’s nothing to relate to, nothing to sympathize with, nothing to indicate that Cass even wants to be forgiven or cares about how her actions effect others. 

Anything you could come up with to excuse Cassandra here, is all bullshit that you’ve pulled out of your own ass. And believe me, people have tried. Good heavens have they tried. But none of it is backed up by what is shown on screen, because the writers cared far less about the character then the fans watching. 

The Brotherhood Is Wasted

I think half the reason the crew pulled this mind trap BS out of their rear ends is because they couldn’t afford to hire the VAs back. Neither Adria nor Hector get a single line in any of their appearances going forward. Nor does this development provide any closure to their respective arcs. 

Edmund is also screwed over because the writers wanted to keep his involvement in the Brotherhood a surprise twist for later, but it’s poorly set up and under cuts the more interesting arc we could of had of him trying to reunite with his siblings, mending his relationships with his family, and trying to fix his past mistakes. 

Don’t Expect This To Go Anywhere

Remember how excited the fandom got when we first saw this scene? Remember all the fan theories and fanfics/fanart? 

Man, we should’ve of known better.   

Conclusion 

As I said before, it’s not good, but it is watchable at least. I still like both Be Very Afraid and Lost Treasure more, but I can put this story on the very short list of season three episodes that doesn't make me want to bang my head against the wall repeatedly.   

Next up is an episode that I actual slept through when watching the first time, A Tale of Two Sisters, so this should be interesting. Also, I would like to thank everyone over on the TTS and Salt discords for helping me gather screen shots for season three and making this review process slightly less painful. You guys are awesome! 

[lordymaru]

I'm about to refute this entire essay with the simple explanation being:

The only interaction we've seen of these two is when she's a freaking 8 year old. Your self insert shows no boundaries.

And this is probably the last time I'll make a post about the stupidity behind the way the pair is viewed:

Note: I know there's people out there with a brain who ship these two in a more conventional way. In the end you do you, ship whatever you want, no one can prevent you from doing that, just don't be gross about it.

One of the parts being the Significance of their first encounter:

She’s a poor peasant girl who’s suffered immense trauma, suffering, and loneliness. Her initiative to help Sesshomaru came from her generosity

Exactly, she's alone for her family had been killed before her eyes, the villagers treat her like garbage. When she meets Sess he's wounded and simply in a bad state, both mentally and physically. Both of them are, the difference being he's a demon, a powerful one and for him to have ended in such a bad shape only stabbed at his pride- Rin on the other hand is a child, a human tiny child who is vulnerable and to him she poses no threat. Both of them are weak then.

At this point, it’s observable that despite knowing her story, her scars, and her difficulties, humans do not even empathize, let alone sympathize with Rin. It is the feudal era, after all. She’s a young, disabled orphan and the villagers only see her for what she lacks: a voice, a family, and a place of belonging.

Again with your feudal era shit. I can assure you the world is just as ugly today as it was before you and I existed. Next.

When he asks about her bruises, this is the first time anyone had ever afforded her a second glance.

This was a huge step forward for Sess, a huuuuuuge one for he showed interest in another living creature, not just any creature but a human. And for her it was probably like Christmas, for no one had showed her any mercy or interest. Ok you get a point. But oh, boy, how I'm about to spit on the next one:

The audience can see Sesshomaru calculate her body language, recognizing that she is mute. Instead of pressing her further or ignoring her outright, he attempts to comfort her (in his own way), making her feel that it is okay if she chooses not to answer him; that her desire to reply to him should only be a desire, not an obligation. I think, on one hand, that was the first moment of something that would resemble compassion that Sesshomaru had ever administered, trying to put himself in her shoes — if someone had asked him to do something that required, for example, his left arm, he probably would have appreciated them saying “you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to” so to provide him agency for something that he actually cannot do. And the same goes for Rin. He recognizes her disability, maybe even resonates with it and decides to empower her with a choice. Choice is important when it comes to the Sesshomaru/Rin dynamic and it’s a word that will come up often. 

Ok why are you comparing the loss of his arm to her not being able to talk? Not all disabilities are the same, you moron. Or am I dumb for thinking this way? If so, feel free to call me out on my lack of common sense kr whatever you wanna call it. Sess physically couldn't do shit with his left arm because well- it was gone! That's a physical disability. Rin had "lost" her voice after what she witnessed and so she wouldn't speak anymore. Have you heard of Psychogenic Dysphonia? If not, you can click here and give it a reading or do your own research. The more you know: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0892199703000158

So you say he "empowers her with a choice" that is "important when it comes to the Sesshomaru/Rin dynamic" let me get this straight, a choice because why? She's a child? A female? Because you said so yourself, it's the Feudal Era after all and therefore women had no choice in life, no voice, no agency, no nothing. So he was being magnanimous then? You know... This is where you start edging into the gr00ming territory. Can't you see? No? Alright, moving on.

BRUH WHAT THE FUCK?! Are you fucking good? See how you self insert? Bye. Next

The next time Sesshomaru sees Rin, it is suggested that he actively sought her, whether it be by curiosity or concern for well-being

He did... It is not suggested, he actually did asdfhkl. For both curiosity and he probably was worried. He also states he wants to test out his sword, what a perfect chance to do so for Rin is pretty much dead and that's the only way to make his sword work. So she was both being a guinea pig and an itch he wasn't quite sure how to scratch. Next.

Silence Rin.

Rin screams endlessly, annoying Sesshomaru. Firstly, this is the first time we hear him call her by her name. Secondly, Sesshomaru is visibly annoyed by her noises, however, he does not tell her to “shut up” as he normally would with Jaken or even InuYasha. He simply says “enough of that Rin, stop it.” (In Japanese he says, “Silence, Rin. You make too much noise.”) Even analyzing the Japanese dialogue, it is evidently softer than Sesshomaru’s usual ‘kisama’ (貴樣) manner of speech that we see depicted usually. This is the first time he’s had a companion who is not a demon, someone with compassion, and who has had his general best interests at heart with no expectations in return. His softer tone is a logical deduction to make.

Ok... "someone with compassion, and who has had his general best interests at heart with no expectations in return." Bruh... As if he would even consider meeting someone's expectations. Are you sure you're talking about Sess? Another thing is, he always speaks in a calm tone, he rarely yells or loses his composure- he had no reason to be rude to her either, you're excusing his regular behavior simply because she ain't Jaken. Anything else?

Rin doesn't change Sesshomaru overnight, it's a gradual and long process

Well duh!!! Just like you don't lose the pounds you gained from eating in one sit 12 donuts a week ago. Stating the obvious and for what? What's exactly your mf point?

The silence part is important, idk how to tell you there is a power imbalance in their relationship from the moment he tells her to be quiet. He didn't say please, he didn't ask her to, he told her to be quiet. Like a parent would, if I could count the times my mom told me to shush.... That's your first indicator he is not her friend, he is not her equal.

Letting you Be Yourself: The Panther Demon Arc

the first frame the audience sees in the anime sets the scene, painting the Sessshomaru entourage in a serene manner, indicating a level of comfort between group members (episode 75). This is vastly different from our last depiction of Sesshomaru and Rin’s relationship. In episode 44, he was unable to withstand her (albeit annoying) childish antics. But here, it’s observable that Sesshomaru can accept her and her package of unconventional fun. Not only does he tolerate and even more so, accept Rin, but he accepts her influence on his vassal, Jaken and allows them to be free around him.

Is called developing patience. I can assure you that when you're a parent or an older bro/sis and your kid/younger sibling is noisy af you either learn to tolerate that or get used to it for kids are kids abd you have to let them be kids. Next.

She's a child, she's not stupid.

The Abducted Rin: Calling her Name

The respect that Sesshomaru shows Rin is insurmountable. However, the InuYasha franchise is clever to portray the subtlety of Sesshomaru’s respect for her. KV on Twitter points out how highly he regards his companion and never relegates her to anything less than the value that she as a person embodies (@KVndie via Twitter). He consistently humanizes her. 

He only sees how important she is to him after her ass dies a second time. What do you mean? He respects her enough to not coddle her, she is independent and taught her to be self sufficient from the very start. That's respect. He consistently humanizes her because... She ... Is ... Human! OMG WHAT A SHOCKER!

As Naraku remarks on his hostage to Sesshomaru, "Naturally, the girl you're looking for is not here…,” he continues, “the girl is in custody outside of the castle..." Naraku never makes an attempt to give her personhood, leaving her unnamed, disposable, and relegating her to a mere "girl." But Sesshomaru doesn’t take any of this. He is a cold-hearted Daiyokai, yet he still makes an effort and upholds his principle to refer to her as Rin — not a replaceable “girl.”

Naraku is a mf genius. It didn't quite click until now he wanted to see if she was important or not to him and to what extent. For he planned his moves that way, making people turn against one another. While he wouldn't have made Rin turn against Sess he set everything up so he would end up wanting to kill Kohaku and in doing so, Inugang would have engaged against Sess.

Sesshomaru’s insistence on using Rin’s name isn’t only highlighted in this isolated incident though. It pays off. It is an ongoing theme in their dynamic throughout the series.

That's her name ... How you want him to call her? Baby?

I could go on and on but... This is a fucking essay. And then I stumble against more bullcrap:

The second point I want to highlight here is Sesshomaru’s reaction to Rin’s fall and her risky expedition. At this point, it’s unquestionable that Rin has a special place in his heart.

Of course she has a special spot in his heart. I won't deny that. What worries me is how you're trying to justify the way she's important to him since she was a child. As if his way of seeing her had changed.

I'm gonna disagree by agreeing with you in a few pointers. Kagome and Kikyo were rivals, they both romantically love the same guy. Kagome being the only one who could save Kikyo chooses to help her, knowing damn well Inuyasha would have suffered if Kikyo had died- further more, if it was in Kagome's hands to do something about it.

Rin on the other hand, I will applaud to her how she grew past her fear of Kagura after being kidnapped by her, she saw her body in the river and said fuck it and did her best to try to pull her from the water. I loved how stubborn and brave she was, even tho Sess had to pull everyone out of the water- she deserves a gold star. You go baby girl!!!

Rin later makes a cheeky comment, noting Kagura’s romantic interest in Sesshomaru. Jaken brushes this off as childish naivety. But for the spectator, this establishes two things: (1) That Rin does not see Kagura as a rival for Lord Sesshomaru’s attention, let alone affection; and (2) that Rin is still a child. Rin is certainly a child, with a youthful and fresh outlook on life that brings out the best in people. But even as a child, her relationship with Sesshomaru is incredibly healthy, clear, and surprisingly communicative.

Why would she? She's not a spoiled brat

Nah? I thought her double D indicated otherwise. OF COURSE SHE'S A MF CHILD.

Why do you keep mentioning is healthy? Do you need reassurance of it? Communicative in what way? Cuz if you wanna talk about communication let's talk about how he didn't even acknowledge her ass when she gave birth. He didn't even say her name, didn't even look at her. Tell me now how they are communicative and healthy?

I could go on, I really but all I'm getting from this load of bullshit I'm forcing myself to read is how you do in fact need to reassure yourself thr ship is god tier and is... How you said it was? Ah, healthy.

Anyways, thanks for reading and if you see any typo ... My apologies, I tried. Also if you have any input or I was out of line in some way, my apologies once more.