#but tbh that's like completely against her character. it would be more in line for her to sacrifice herself to let him go

[sakurabraches]

see, you're right that glinda is complicit for most of the play, and i think i agree with like 90% of what you're saying, but i would argue your last point is a little imcomplete

glinda IS a warning about the dangers of being complicit in a fascist regime, i don't disagree. she says it herself: "there's a kind of a sort of cost / there's a couple of get lost," which is why she loses elphaba in the end. but she's also a lesson on how to overcome our own complacency and unlearn our privilege, and ultimately discover how to use our the power we do have for good

and the contradiction in glinda's character is that she's selfish, a coward, and willingly blind to the violence of the wizard's regime for most of the show, but she's also the one who ultimately topples that regime and is left with the power to do real good in oz

elphaba does important work on the front lines, but at the end of the day, she's one person against a regime, and she's limited. and as morally righteous as elphaba is (she's objectively a better person than glinda), her good deeds often come back to haunt her, or have unintended consequences. and she eventually crumples under the pressure of it all and crashes out and kidnaps and terrorizes a child (it's a valid crash out, but like holy shit elphaba chill)

elphaba's limited, and by for good she's at the end of her rope, and recognizes she's burned most of her bridges in oz and there's only so much good she herself can do. but glinda "can do all [she] couldn't do," which is why she passes the grimmerie onto her

now, glinda is only in this position because of the decisions she made. had she gotten on the broom with elphie or gone with her at any point, she would have given up all her social capital and either have ended up dead or burned herself out like elphaba and fiyero did

this doesn't mean glinda made the right decisions. she was still selfish and complicit. i'll maintain that glinda couldn't have gotten on the broom, but she could've done more within her role as glinda the good. though tbh i think accepting the role of glinda the good means on some level buying into the violence of the system and resigning herself to complicity in that violence, even if she had intended to overthrow it from within (and to be clear she had no such aspirations until FG).

again, glinda could have and should have acted better, and her guilt and regret is an important part of her character. but elphaba acts almost completely righteously imo, but as admirable as her rejection of the wizard's regime is, it very much limits her in the long run

so as much as glinda is complicit in the wizard's regime and part of the problem, you also need people like glinda, people who can stay and work within the system, but can be influenced by people like elphaba, to overcome fascist regimes--at least within the logic of wicked. the wizard and morrible can only be toppled when elphaba and glinda come together at kiamo ko. neither of them could have done it alone, but together they're unlimited

elphaba couldn't change oz, but she could change glinda. glinda couldn't save elphie, but she could save oz. something something greatest team that's ever been something something doomed yuri

as for the original question of whether glinda deserves to be alone, agree to disagree ig cuz imo "deserving" is a nebulous concept and i don't really know if anyone deserves anything so much as we're given what we're given and should strive to do the best we can with the situation we're in (sorry that was annoyingly philosophical)

glinda suffers from the consequences of her choices, just like how elphaba ends up in exile for her choices. i like glinda's ending and how it completes her arc, and i wouldn't change it. it's satisfying in the way it leaves you unsatisfied. things both could've been different but could've only ended like this

but by the end, glinda is glinda the good, and dedicated herself to doing right by oz to honor elphaba's legacy. she's done the work to redress the harm she's caused and has committed to moving forward as a better person

as someone who tends to favor restorative justice over retributive, i do feel bad the only friend that's mattered to her can never let her know she's alive, just as i feel bad that elphie's name can never be cleared. which is why i'm of the opinion that the matured glinda the good we see at the end of the play and who was willing to throw everything away to save elphie at kiamo deserves to know the woman she loves and changed oz for is alive the same way elphaba deserves to know she was right to trust glinda and her efforts to do good in oz ultimately paid off

again, not saying they should change the ending, cuz i like a tragedy too much, just that i'm left wishing things could be different for everyone and that both women deserved better, which i think all good tragedy does

it's weird to me when people are so adamant "oh glinda has to face consequences for her actions glinda has to be punished for her actions" not because they're wrong, but because what i find most compelling about glinda's character isn't the tragedy of "i was selfish and i lost everyone i loved" it's how she continually does learn from her mistakes and makes effort to be a better person

the ozdust is her first "oh shit" moment where she comes to term with the cruelty elphaba's faced her whole life and how galinda contributed to that. ariana said of the scene that being looked at and laughed at like that was galinda's worst fear, but in that moment it switches to doing something to put someone in that situation again. her joining the dance isn't just an attempt to fix it, but an acknowledgement of the harm she's done

this same arc plays out in act ii, albeit on a much wider scale. "thank goodness" establishes that glinda, despite claiming otherwise, isn't happy as glinda the good and really isn't proud of the role she's stepped into or the person she's become. and then nessa, fiyero, and the witch-hunting mob all happen in quick succession, and she gets a very rude awakening to just how much violence the wizard's regime (herself included) is capable of enacting

so she rides to kiamo ko ready to give up "glinda the good" to save elphaba, but elphaba insists that it's too late for her and passes her cause on to glinda. its also important to note that this is glinda putting the greater good (helping the Animals) over her personal needs/wants (wanting to save/be with elphaba). and as much as glinda is shoved back into a role she hates, i think she's also left with a clear sense of who she is and the power she does have and how she can do good

as much as glinda has regrets and sorrows and mistakes, she also consistently demonstrates an ability to learn from her mistakes and works to remedy them and ends the musical in a position where she really is glinda the good, even if she hadn't always been that. she's the one who removes the wizard and morrible and ultimately works to turn oz into the place elphie believed it could be. and i personally find this more compelling than her just being a cautionary tale about how selfishness and working for authoritarian dictators are bad

[catastrophicdisasters]

apologies, i'm still angry abt TUA S4

so, if we take out all of the blatant issues with the season (character assassination, 'resolutions' that create more plotholes than they solve, rushed scenes that make no sense, side plots that go nowhere, raymond vanishing for no reason, etc etc), what are we left with? let's see:

fatphobia (multiple jokes made about 'chubby Diego', when David just looks hydrated and healthy)

SA played for jokes (it's clear that Klaus having sex while possessed is supposed to be funny, but he's being held hostage and forced to do this for money, when we already know he didn't even want his powers back??)

cheating

problematic / borderline problematic age gaps (either way you spin it, either Five is physically 20-26 while Lila is likely mid 40s, or Five is mentally 70s while Lila is mid 40s; Aidan was 19 while filming, and Ritu was 34)

waiting for the actor to come of age before introducing a romance (we already know what some fans can be like over Five/Aidan, this will not have helped; I would be horrified if I found out the show runners had planned a romance arc with a coworked 15 years older than me and then waited for me to turn legal age to execute it)

sexism (i was reluctant to call it that but i also don't know what else to call it - Lila basically had her agency stripped away to become the love interest two men fought over; Steve wanted Five to have a romance and didn't care who with - use Lila simply because she was there)

complete disregard of character trauma (Klaus being buried alive despite it having been mentioned in every prior season that he was locked in a mausoleum by Reginald, including literally being left to die)

possible overstepping of an actor's boundaries (i've not been able to verify this, but i've seen it said that robert sheehan has requested not to do sex scenes?) (still havent been able to prove this; wasn't an issue with other roles so... hesitant to leave it)

actors requests being ignored (David asked multiple times if the Lila cheating sideplot was required, but clearly it went ahead anyway)

bad cgi

that awful vomit montage

Reginald (im not quite calling it abuse forgiveness but uh. it's not far off tbh)

i don't even know what to call this, but basically told the Hargreeves the abuse they suffered was their fault because they shouldn't even exist??

what did i miss? (im sure there's something)

from the replies:

the song in the ep3 dance scene uses a slur for romani people (and is also about a man and an underage girl)

SA dismissal (it's literally never addressed that Allison SA'd Luther last season. like, at all. everything's just a-okay now!)

more sexism (Allison's arc was also reduced to serving men; there's a single line to explain that Ray left, with no mention of why (i could go OFF about this but this post isn't supposed to be about mishandling of characters); even after everything, all her bonding with Claire comes through Klaus's storyline. also, Sloane is just gone and nobody gives a shit - Luther has one line and that's it??)

so many issues with consent (all of the girls shown in the place Klaus works look drugged / Klaus doesn't want to be there and doing any of that, it's all against his wishes / they all get their powers back against their wishes - although they do tell Ben that wasn't his choice to make / Klaus gets his powers back against his will when Allison is pressured to do it to save his life)

[mordredpendragon]

Hands you an Agravaine (for the ask meme) :3

hi ram !!!! thank you for the ask! here's an agravaine for you <3

with a bonus laurel!

ask game under the cut

favorite thing about them

tbh i was pretty neutral on him until i started reading vulgate, he's so much more fleshed out and layered there (i started reading arthuriana with le morte d'arthur and he does fuck all there lol)

i think he's an incredibly compelling character, especially with his interpersonal relationships. there's just something about gawain having a younger brother named essentially not gawain and being a huge contrast to him, and i also really like his relationship with mordred in vulgate as an older brother who raised him. he's the kind of character who's wedged in between characters that are larger than him (i'm sorry agravaine but you're related to gawain, mordred, and arthur and being someone who's related to them is kinda your whole thing) and that in itself is interesting. especially considering that he dies during the fall of camelot, arthur mourns his death

vulgate, death of arthur

rereading this for this post put a tears in my eyes IT KILLS MEEEEEE. AGRAVAINE...... but yes tl;dr my favorite thing about him is being related to gawain/arthur/mordred and him dying. its sooo so so fun (not for them but its fun for ME)

least favorite thing about them

tbh, i find him to be severely underutilized (and if not, completely done dirty) i hate the characterization in which he's just mordred's lackey and there to pretty much die to lancelot and nothing else.

i think it would be way more impactful if he was fleshed out as a legit character. adds to the tragedy that he was somebody the audience actually cares for and not just some NPC lancelot murders lol.

also, really dislike how prose tristan stuff writes him (and the orkney brothers in general) where he's an irredeemable villain but i digress. it doesn't help that i don't care for the orkney/wales blood feud. it's never done in a way that resonates with me.

also the character assassination TH White has done to agravaine PISSES ME OFFFFFFFF ALL THE SHITTY AGRAVAINES IN MODERN ARTHURIANA IS HIS FAULT I SWEAR. aka making him morgause's killer throwing in some added incest in which he lusts for her. GROSS !!!! agravaine get behind me!!!!!

favorite line

tbh i could put anything that he says in mordred, a tragedy by henry newbolt but i really love this one in particular. talking about their brothers and that they're on mordred's side.... it brings a tear to my eye i love the orkneys so much. they're BROTHERS !!!!!!!!

brOTP

obviously him and his brothers! gawain and agravaine is great. so is mordred and agravaine. among his brothers those two i think he has the most interesting dynamic with. this post is already stupidly long and i could make an entire post in general about agravaine's relationship with his brothers, so i think i'll focus on agravaine and mordred.

for one, i love agravaine and mordred in BBC Legend of King Arthur 1979. the orkney brothers in general are great in it (minus gaheris bc he isn't there RIP) but i adore how it expounds on his dynamic with mordred AND his aunt morgan. mordred and morgan are both schemers with plots against arthur and guinevere, morgan wanting revenge on her father gorlois' death and mordred having (in later episodes) vying for the throne, agravaine on the other hand is a lot more sincere and earnest. he had no ulterior motives and his undoing was his honesty. he loved his uncle arthur, and he meant well when he wanted to report guinevere and lancelot's affair to him, because he saw it as a betrayal on arthur, not an opportunity (like morgan and mordred). those two had to "corrupt" him in some way, which what happens during the guinevere apple murder trial because mordred and morgan essentially make agravaine an unwilling accomplice. its soooo so fascinating i highly recommend that show.

second, i'd love to talk about agravaine and mordred in henry newbolt's play: mordred, a tragedy 1895. genuinely has got to be one of my if not THE favorite retelling i've ever read. if anyone reading this hasn't, i'd just urge you to read it bc it's just that good. mordred is the main character as the title says, and agravaine is one of the main secondary characters, he takes on an almost paternal/guiding figure to a young yet incredibly idealistic, passionate mordred and acts as his voice of reason.

JAW DROP..... LIKE THIS SCENE WAS CRAZY. the earlier conversation where it was just them is top notch, and this kind of dynamic between agravaine and mordred is something i'd love to see more often.

BIG fan of agravaine essentially being the logical/reasonable one between his brothers. i've compared him to dinadan because i think they're similar characters (except obviously agravaine isn't a jester/bard like he is) but they function similarly, in my opinion.

OTP

AGRAVAINE AND LAUREL 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖 i love them so so soso much it drives me insane. they're so perfect. i don't care that laurel is basically just a name in malory, i also love the HC that she's his lady love who (alongside a young mordred) takes care of him when he was suffering from a curse in vulgate.

admittedly i am biased to how i write them and how my peers write them (shoutout to @queer-ragnelle AGAIN lmao this is literally your fault)

nOTP

anything incestuous. looking at you TH White.

random headcanon

my favorite headcanon is that he's got some sort of facial scarring and he's blind in one eye. for me personally it's no reason just vibes, in my project he's got some kinda magic sigil under his eye (he can't see through it though obviously)

and like, obviously as a disability it affects how he fights. one of my favorite things about him in vulgate is comparing how he navigates battle and combat in comparison to his brother gawain, he's a lot more careful and discerning in his encounters rather than just going berserker mode. you can see this in agravaine vs druas the cruel, i think

vulgate lancelot part v

he knows his limits, lol

since i made him blind in one eye, he knows his blind spot and his weaknesses. (in my lore he's referred to as sir agravaine the one eyed swordsman for this reason) and he's a lot more calculating and cunning in his fighting style, more relying on wits + terrain (funny the guy with one eye is more observant than most people)

unpopular opinion

nothing i haven't said earlier. for whatever reason he has this reputation for being a crazy misogynist (likely thanks to Fate/grand order because of his infamous over meme'd to the oblivion line about hating women) and also again because of T.H White's depiction of him. and whatever the hell BBC Merlin did to him.

i just really hate that kind of depiction of him and honestly? there's worse characters. breuse sans pite's whole thing is being a rapist, and geraint/erec spends the entire time in his respective romances brutalizing his wife enid.

free my man agravaine he doesn't deserve this slander 😭or at the very least, i would like to have more nuanced portrayals of him for variety.

favorite picture of them

really love this image of him from the short story by P.G Wodehouse. really cute short story about agravaine!!

[genericpuff]

(I am the anon who recommended Ulysses Dies at Dawn) I hope you like it!!!! Udad is one of my favourite albums especially because of the world building around The City, so I hope you enjoyed it too!!

I did finish it, I quite liked it! Recommended it to my husband as well as he's a huuuge Epic fan (he's more of a musical theater person than me overall tbh) and probably would also love The Magnus Archives if he ever gave it a shot haha (I haven't touched TMA but I'm aware of its fandom presence on this hellsite LOL)

Overall it was a really cool concept album! Turning the setting of The Odyssey into a sort of post-modern steampunk epic was pretty unique and cool, especially with how they adapted some of the stories into said setting. Turning the riddle of the Sphinx into a literal disease that ages infants from birth to death within a matter of hours? Genius. And while it does take some massive creative liberties by incorporating other mythological characters like Herakles and Ariadne directly into the cast, it still did a pretty good job at creating a unique, thought-provoking, well-rounded plot with overarching themes and motifs in only an hour! I especially appreciate the little lore details they hid in the video descriptions and thumbnail art, I always love hunting for secrets like that haha

My favorite songs were probably My Name is No One, Riddle of the Sphinx, Sirens, and Favoured Son, the vocals are all wonderfully delivered (especially in Sirens, it gave me chills in the best way) and the narrative progression within the lyrics was very compelling especially in relation to the world-building.

I had a couple of least favorites too though, and unfortunately they were Orpheus' and Ariadne's songs which I wish I could love on that basis alone but alas, they just didn't hit the mark for me.

My issue with Trial by Song is largely personal, I can get what the vocalist was going for but that constant high-note vocal waving / shaking just doesn't do it for me, I've never been a fan of that delivery style so even if it was intentional and driven with purpose, it's just not something I can force myself to enjoy. But again, that's largely personal taste, not something I'm gonna hold against the vocalist because aside from that one personal ick they're doing a great job at hitting and maintaining those notes, if it weren't for that one thing I'd probably be way more into it haha

As for Ties That Bind, that one actually isn't a personal issue, at least as far as I can argue LOL On a technical level, the mixing felt very off, the instrumentals were often just way too loud compared to the vocalist which made it difficult to focus on what was being sung (and the mic quality itself didn't seem all that great either). And that problem was compounded by the vocalist's own stylization which threw me off because of how deep her voice suddenly sounded compared to how she had been speaking up until that point; it felt very forced and strained, especially when she tried to switch from those deep chest notes to those higher throat notes. This stylization clashed with the lyrics too, the line deliveries often felt "cramped" where the vocalist almost seemed to be slurring / rushing the words (sometimes they even felt completely off-tempo) which made it hard to make out what she was saying even when I could hear past the instrumentals. And that's not exactly ideal for a musical where the plot is literally being delivered through song LMAO It just felt like it could have used a bit more time in the oven IMO. I don't doubt that the vocalist is skilled, it just felt like the song was often working against her skills rather than with them.

All that said, in spite of those two criticisms I have of it after my first couple listens, I do think this is a great concept album and I was shocked to see it doesn't seem to have much attention on it judging by the view counts, it really deserves more attention and love because the amount of thought and detail that went into creating this world and its narrative and its characters is incredibly impressive.

So if you're like me and also had no clue this album existed until now, I highly suggest checking it out! It's not as big a time commitment as Epic or Hadestown, it only takes an hour to get through. And if you're into gritty steampunk film-noir stuff with lots of mystery and intrigue and twists, it'll probably be right up your alley!

[chaifootsteps]

i should've mentioned it when we were talking about tuca and bertie and them doing things right, but the arc bertie goes through with her SA and reclaiming it thru taboo fantasies is very similar to what ive been through, right down to a therapist opening me up to this new side of sexuality, and while it all happened to me years prior to the arc happening in the show, it broke me out of my anti shipper mentality that gave me this sense of justice and rigid rightness in what i was doing.

just thought now would be a good time to bring it up too because of the allegations against you and how what happened to max is basically the same thing that's happened to me. it's such an uncomfortable feeling to know someone who brought you into this world sees you like that, and having a fictional character similar to that person to self insert with in writing has helped far more then feeling disgusted with myself ever did or has, because i can stop anytime i want, or just get to a point where i move on completely from being able to gain anything from this personally. (which im leaning towards for now,) it's like bertie's therapist said, "because this time, you're in control."

i just wish antis could at least be more open to the idea that maybe, just maybe, shaming victims for coping this way isn't helpful, and that the lack of nuance implies shaming these uncontrollable fantasies (because you can't control your thoughts and like bertie's therapist said, "brains are weird!", although ive also heard the fear and arousal part of your brain is closely related which explains so many kinks to me tbh,) is the only form of healing and getting better, which it never will be. this kind of thing, of re-exploring your trauma thru fiction like this, definitely doesn't help certain people and that needs to be respected, but for anyone it does, they shouldn't just be written off as "normalizing their abuse", because im aware enough to keep this to myself, and to other people like me.

come talk to me about me "romanticizing" horrible things in fiction when you remember vivs shows have millions of views, and THATS why her writing like a fanfic author is bad - not because she inherently is one at heart. a large audience of adults should engage with these heavy topics, (and deserve to have them be written well, even if the stans swear they don't because nuh uh it's Da Best cuz mama viv made it,) not literal children. regardless of this unfortunate demographic that's naturally been formed and then unnaturally encouraged by the creator to line her pockets with their parents money, i think people have a moral obligation to tell a well written story about dark taboo subjects when they have such a large scale of production and connections like this, with some gray area in between, because theres some pieces of media that aren't as big as vivs creations or as small as fanfic writers (compared to other indie creations like video games or shows,) either, like mouthwash, or that one horror game with a sibling incest ending. that's what i mean when i said you aren't gonna make anyone want to fuck a lizard, but that vivs story's spread sentiment that would give 1970s victim blaming, "well, what was she wearing?" arguments a run for their money in how gross they are. i don't think max is gonna make anyone want to fuck their own dad either.

i hope this all makes sense! i think this is the most vulnerable ive ever been in your ask box. thank you for being someone who makes me feel strong enough to talk about this.

No, no, it makes perfect sense! Thanks for sharing your story, Anon...that was an incredibly vulnerable thing to talk about, and it couldn't have been easy.

I don't know if it's due to social media or what, but people have gotten really, really terrible at the concept of "I do my thing that works for me over here, you do your thing that works for you over there, and even though we don't understand each other, we mind our business about it." Like you said, it becomes a different conversation the more widespread and professional your piece of media is -- the same way that feeding 1,000 people a day is different than cooking for yourself -- but when we're talking about you and me and Max and all the randos on AO3? An appropriately tagged piece of work that makes a sharp distinction between fiction and reality is harmless.

What isn't harmless is telling someone that their intensely personal coping method is wrong and shameful and that they're a dangerous, evil person because it makes you uncomfortable, and that they're either a bad survivor or lying about being one.

Here's the scene from Tuca & Bertie, because it's so well done and always relevant.

[alicentsgf]

why are people so pressed about how Alicent ends up this season??? Like hotd hasn’t been good since s1 people also criticized everything back then but tbh Alicent from s1 was always headed to where she ends up?? I thought it was common knowledge that her last choice would always going to be duty vs love and s1 stated very well that Rhaenyra is that freedom for Alicent???? I absolutely hated the things they put Alicent through (alicole sex and for what? All of her sons being a dick to her??) her arc this season was badly executed but to blame and think that the writers are catering to rhaenicents? seems a bit stretch when the ship is hated by the majority of the show. We can argue in the journey of how Alicent get to the point she is now but it was clear for the beginning that the head of TG?? She would never be, sometimes I think that thanks to most of the general viewers didn’t understand Alicent as a character the writers thought if we put her in these humiliating scenes the viewers would understand that she is a victim of the patriarchy and the men who surround her, but I guess not even with that the GA and fandom as whole could ever understand her character and honestly im good with it, she’s a walking contradiction and i have read her character like that since the beginning, good riddance tho to the obnoxious people that kept bad talking Olivia for only doing her job (this is not a dig to you but the extended fandom that are attacking Olivia again for her character)

Why are we upset now? Because we dared to hope lmao. And now we're realising theres absolutely no coming back from this (it was already mostly ruined i know).

I think the issue is the choice between duty and love should have been made when she chose her children and grandchildren over viserys wish for rhaenyra to rule. Choosing love didnt have to and shouldnt have meant choosing rhaenyra. Like finally FINALLY she lets herself cast duty aside, because "what is duty against the feel of a newborn son in your arms", "you never love anything in the world the way you love your first child", "you imbecile (affectionate)", etc etc. That is what works in line with the original story AND the sympathetic sides of alicent we saw with in season 1. Sure motherhood shouldn't define women but this is a story abt a fucking lineage !! What do people expect. Of course its going to be about parents and children.

F&B might have been bare bones, but it at least had a strong political backbone to it thats been completely removed this season. That direction would have offered more oppertunities for alicent to be explored as a multifacted character. The problem is that because they angled this as a story primarily about misogyny rather than a story about the inevitability of the targaryen line imploding, they maybe thought they couldnt do that without making alicent look like an unsympathetic agent of patriarchy. (Most of the audience read her that way anyway so they did a pretty crappy job avoiding it). Rhaenyra represented a certain freedom for alicent in the story, sure, im not against that at all, but for the writers to suggest literally being with Rhaenyra is what alicent needs to do to achieve freedom from duty? To free herself from the shackles or patriarchy?? (🙄) Its so laughable. Alicents little grandson had to have his head sown back on for his funeral and Rhaenyras faction sent the assassin. Her daughter was traumatised. You dont just fucking come back from that. Really we should have known when viserys died how this was gonna go and I think in some ways we did because a big number of us were upset with the misunderstanding then, we just didnt want to believe what this signaled about where they were taking alicent. People are upset now because alicents character has become totally unrectifiable. We just never believed they'd diverge so much from the known plot points of fire and blood.

As for this bit you said:

" I think that thanks to most of the general viewers didn’t understand Alicent as a character the writers thought if we put her in these humiliating scenes the viewers would understand that she is a victim of the patriarchy and the men who surround her, but I guess not even with that the GA and fandom as whole could ever understand her character and honestly im good with it, she’s a walking contradiction and i have read her character like that since the beginning."

I have thought this myself and unfortunately I think you're right. In an effort to make alicent sympathetic they have created the most convoluted character i've ever laid my eyes on. Towards the end of season 1 we were already saying her being so forgiving after driftmark made no sense, but i was compelled enough by her because of olivias performance of that scene with the knife to be willing to wait to see where they took her this season. And its been an exercise in more of the same stupid shit. The issues in season 1 have just been amplified by the realisation that season 2 is just the same thing again and again and again for alicent. Shes just a punching bag and im sure thats in an attempt to get the audience to feel bad for her, because i cant see any other reason for it, but its just so badly written that shes no longer compelling or interesting really at all. Theres nothing to root for when you dont know who someone is. I have so little to say about her this season and that hurts honestly. Olivias performances deserved much better writing.

[zhuoyichenpretty]

Ep 27 Commentary

Again, a little hastily thrown together, but there's a bit of meta in there! Somewhere...If you squint...

Spoilers under the cut:

Lmao I did not make it five minutes into this episode without crying.

I'm not sure if this is the consensus but tbh I'm doubly glad for PSJ's character in the way her relationship with WX sort of throws off the conventional tropes WX's character toes the line of falling into and instead develops a narrative that is squarely their own. It's important to me how much she personally centers WX (and WX returns the favor, bringing PSJ back into the fold every time I worry she's being sidelined). The way she turns to WX in this opening scene, it's distinctive that PSJ grieves for her, alongside her own angst over their friends' apparent sacrifices. And I like the contrast of their gazes, her anger as Ying Long laughs at them, and WX's deadened stare.

In PSJ's presence, WX's words become more than a self-loathing lamentation (which, also, very understandable, if I were her I'd have snapped by this point too) or a monologue to a seemingly uncaring ancient audience; it's a burden shared between two people. And actually, it's a burden that PSJ grabs hold of from WX and forces her to share. That slap was crazy work tbh, the force of it, but ultimately how much more it looked like it hurt PSJ to deliver than WX to receive. And the way WX first looks back up at her after the slap is so painfully vulnerable and young. Something about the tilt of her head and the line of her brow. We don't get a direct shot of it in that specific moment (another thing kept private between characters!) but just from WX's profile, her gaze is so expressive in its hopelessness, its despondency. In the immediate aftermath of the sacrificial freezing, I would wager PSJ is the only thing WX looks at and can actually see.

And while I'm sure PSJ would grieve deeply on her own over losing ZYC and ZYZ, those tears, that sob she lets out, and the way she holds WX imo all very specifically seem to be her heart bleeding for the woman she loves. Such subtext, plus the preceding wordless and purely physical scene of the suicide attempt and slap, is to me altogether kind of uncommon for female characters in this style of drama to be afforded (at least the ones I've seen) so it does make a difference to me that we have that here. All in all, I love the rashness they are allowed, the respective impulsivity that we're offered because they have each other to ultimately fall against.

Gotta love how obviously PSJ is sick of Ying Long's shit. Also PSJ always the master of wasting zero time like thank you girl I do want to see what's in that box.

What do you mean ZYC has preemptively given WX back the gift of comfort after grief and loss, the assurance that it will pass? That he's kept the flowers all this time and has thought through his own potential demise with such clarity and has prepared for soothing the grief of those who will be left behind before he's even gone, precisely because he's been in that very position? I really truly can't with ZYC. I've hardly seen a modern male protagonist with a heart so full of this particular brand of intensely sensitive, complex, attentive, and careful love, and so freely given, too.

Also CDL (Wen Xiao's actress) coming up with new ways to cry is honestly impressive with how many crying scenes the show puts her through. Her sobbing as she explains the flowers to PSJ is so raw to me. I really think she excels at these extreme line deliveries.

Bingyi!!! Also Ying Long your completely unfettered adoration for Bingyi is showing through your gaze man stand upppp (but also I get it).

The barest hint of a smile in Bingyi's expression as he recounts Ying Long fighting alongside him. This man is in looooove.

Ying Long I know you died for the sake of the world and all but the fact that you made Bingyi cry like that.....twice.......and he kept your soul and your dragon bone in his own clan's tomb............oh how he must have mourned you..................Bingyi I would treat you right just saying

Oh god the Bingyi clan's tender-heartedness. Literally one of my favorite traits in a fictional man thank youuuuuu.

That paralleling of scenes when ZYC comes back from the future and we get to see him and ZYZ as Ying Long and Bingyi staring at each other wowowoww the soulmatism is insane. There's so much affection in ZYC's voice and gaze.

Headcanon that ZYC sucks at math because there's five of you/?? wb YING LEI heLLO?

Yes!!! The triumphant OST music as they're brought back!! That shit hits so hard, I really gotta appreciate the soundtrack once again. And oof the first moment ZYZ is unfrozen and just looks at ZYC and then the fact that when ZYC fully turns around and they meet eyes the literal lyrics say, "I've found you" twice, once for each of them. what in the ROMANCE wow

The queer panning!!! On PSJ and ZYC my two belovedssss ouch. But yeah the camera could not be clearer on who's watching whom and pining for and yearning over whom. Maybe a pan to ZYC alone would be ambiguous but both PSJ and ZYC? Gay.

Ying Long dragon bone pulsing like a video game objective to get their attention during the emotional reunion makes me giggle ngl

Oh god the mpreg joke. I've come across this scene so many times by now but I literally cannot sit through it without biting my fist I cannot believe this made it to the final cut lmfaooooo

Also given how many transitions this drama is missing in terms of scene-to-scene flow and continuity, I really love that we get to watch them walk away and pick up the flowers and the box and PSJ her bow and arrows.

The way ZYC waits up for WX after her convo with Bai Yan. His concern for her re: Princess Longyu and the flashback to when they were young...her implication that he's one of the sources of light in her life and how we know she's the same for him...this is the platonic m/f bond of the year for me I think. He loves her so so much!!! And that's her mf bestie!!!!

I devolved into just reactions by the end there I'm sorry!! But I'm running out of time so that's a wrap!

[cartoonsinthemorning]

Hi, I'm the anon that asked you about toudencest. Thank you so much for answering! Seeing you gush so much inspired me to ramble some more myself.

Something that hit me hard is that, dungeon meshi is a story fundamentally about desires. And the biggest difference between the touden siblings is that while laios is very forward with his own desires, falin interiorize her own heavily. That's why she appears so effaced and demure. Falin is a soft spoken girl who put other's people needs over her own against her own benefits. And people like toshiro, and marcille to a lesser extent, very much encourage that side of her. While toshiro connect with her love for bugs, it's no wonder why someone from an highly gender comforming culture see her as an ideal wife. Meanwhile, she hate how marcille dote on her like a child and a sketch from ryoko kui show her wearing large hoodies and baggy jeans to marcille's chagrin. And below, she's seen wearing outfits that marcille approve of (tight tops and skirts) looking deeply uncomfortable.

What I'm getting at is that the image most people have of her doesn't reflect who she really is inside. But with laios, it's different. He's the only one who can get her to be genuinely excited about something. He's the only that can get her to smile for her own sake and not just for other people. The way marcille was dreading to see falin be a gushing mess with laios is crazy. The way he give her that knowing smile when asking her if she wants to taste the living armor is crazy. The way he's the only one to chastize her for putting her life in line for everyone else's benefits is crazy.

In his flashback, we see falin express the desires to travel somewhere without him. It is sad but I also think it's interesting how laios is the only one who acknowledged that falin has her own desires that might contradict with his. In fact, what this flashback prove is that he might be the only one that she's comfortable expressing her true desires to.

Btw, from your marchil art I deduce that you're a Manga reader? My nap gave me an amazing idea but it's very spoiler heavy for the end of the Manga. If I have your permission, I would love to share it with you.

AAAAAAAAAHHHH YES YES YES YES I agree with you completely, thank you for putting that down so eloquently! Absolutely no hate for the other ships, but yeah. All other interactions Falin has, with characters close to her other than Laios, make me various degree of uncomfortable, tbh. In particular, that "gag" of Marcille being so vocally against the look Falin is comfy in, and gushing at the oufit that makes her uncomfortable... ugh. Marcille, I love you, but can you please be a bit less of an overbearing toxic mother figure? fghjkl Sorry if I'm criminally late to reply to your message, dear anon, but I'm all caught up with the manga now, you can send me your idea anytime. I'm super curious about it!

[ivomartins]

I see many people consider Dmitry a redflag LI but to me he's a morally grey character: he finds a strange girl amidst the rift and assigns her a place in the squad instead of, you know, just taking Lane hostage when she's made it clear she's pursuing her own goals and only compels to the squad's decisions because she has to.

I understand why the interrogation episode is icky for many people but for me the devil is in details: Dmitry stops the interrogation because he doesn't want to hurt Lane further, and the whole situation can be seen as a necessary evil from the squad's pov, given Lane's actions. And at the same time, Lane doesn't deserve that shit either: she's all alone in a trust-no-one situation, and now she sees very clearly that the squad is not her friends.

To me that's what moral greyness is: different interpretations of the situation, when you can see motivation of both parties without whitewashing them.

Dmitry's conversation about turning your weakness into your strength adds another facet to his character, just like the stolen babushka gift 😭. I love the way Alexandra shows that he actually cares about Lane through him wanting to give her a chocolate bar or helping her with the work and sacrificing his sleep.

And the soulmatism of their branch is so well done. It's not "your mc is promised to this LI although you'd rather have her killed him in a cold blood" but "yes the situation we found themselves in is fucked up and bleak but at least we have each other because in another universe we'd pass each other by without looking back"

And I love how you can see Dmitry lashing out in the latest episodes, with more and more people in the squad dying, because he's responsible for their lives, he's the leader. And you, as a player, can choose Lane's reaction to his behaviour.

But the thing that truly made me sympathize with him is him telling Lane "It would be sad to lose my humanity while hunting for monsters and become one in other people's eyes. I hope I haven't cross that line yet?.."

That's how you write morally grey characters! 🙌

P.S. His latest CG fucks

i'm shook tbh that some people consider dmitry a red flag LI 😭 like yeah. the interrogation scene was iffy and lane didn't deserve that. but the world has literally gone to shit and this is a man who's been forced by circumstances to blur the lines of his morality for the greater good and the safety of the people around him ??? when we take that and the post-apocalyptic survival-of-the-fittest setting into consideration, plus the fact that lane was sus from day 1 and didn't really make any effort to prove herself trustworthy, the interrogation makes perfect sense

and like you said the morally grey nature to dmitry is the most interesting thing about him especially when it ties into the development of his bond with lane like !!!! with cain there's affinity in their position as outcasts and the apathetic nature they share, suspended above everything, untouched by what otherwise jars everyone else in the squad

but with dmitry their affinity lies in dmitry having a different nature to lane and still being drawn to her despite that, still accepting her to the point where she points a fucking gun at his head and he doesn't even flinch 😭 and doesn't even hold it against her later on like ??? there's so much devotion and unconditional acceptance to it and for me personally as someone who's on the whisper path it's definitely giving "the hero loving the monster and cherishing their blood-soaked hands" kinda dynamic

like it's "human" organic soulmatism like you called it, to balance out the otherworldly ambiguous soulmatism with cain. ugh i can't enough of it

i also love how he's been lashing out too and that not even lane has been exempt from that because he's just under that much pressure. i just adore how every single character has been written with their own role to play in the story, completely independent from lane, and they all get to develop just as much as she does as the story goes on 🥹

(and yes his cgs have been superior, even to cain, since day 1. i will die on that hill)

[glasscoral]

I finished my seventh ending cluster (?) (I'm aware they're categorized as separate routes in game, but they're both branches of the same choice, so...) Ending 01, 2nd Scenario, and Ending 02, Reset.

Thoughts under the cut (and huge spoilers, please don't read until you're done with 2nd Scenario), as always. [kind of develops into a general thoughts dump halfway through]

I'm genuinely shocked that the first "half" of the game (the prologue) and the second "half" of the game (2nd Scenario) were as solid as they were.

I feel like there's no way to phrase this without sounding like 'oh, i expected the Danganronpa guy to make dogshit' but that's really not it.

The two 'halves' of the game were both very different tonally (the first half felt like experiencing the highs and lows of high school football (in the most positive way), and the second half was...a story about war asking the question of what the 'right' thing to do would be for people created as weapons, against their will--in a situation where it's either kill or be killed, but to live & continue with their mission and keep fighting is to keep committing atrocities and eventually wipe out a planet in pursuit of their own 'happy ending'.

It would be really easy to have it feel like tonal whiplash so bad it's hard to take seriously, but it's not--all the little things you ignored first go-around (because you were too busy just building up bonds with your friends and just trying to complete your mission- that'll fix everything, right? enjoy your high school life!) build up more and more in the second playthrough until it's impossible to ignore the horrible reality of what you're doing.

The game even asks you--do you want to do something horrible to this woman you have tortured onscreen until her mind breaks? tThe only thing she can do is beg you not to kill her, but you have to in order to know the truth. Do you really, really want to know the full truth about what you're doing, no matter how awful it is?

And then you say yes, and you get the full truth.

And you have to decide whether you're going to keep fighting, knowing that.

If it's worth killing millions of people JUST to have a chance to colonize this new planet. Humanity needs a new place to live, and it's not like the people you're fighting against will just let the war end, so surely it'll be 'okay' to do this?

^this is what a lot of video games about war end up saying.

One of the first things that shocked me about 2nd scenario was how much it really hammered in the point that what they were doing was horrific, but that Takumi and friends were doing it for their own happy ending, and were prepared to live with the guilt and blood on their hands.

So at that point I thought--well, I guess they're going for an 'unsatisfying' happy ending where everyone has to live with the guilt of a genocide on their hands but is going to get through it together?

(at that point i was like, eh, that's fine, i've seen a lot more questionable war narratives i've played xiv so this seems like a step up tbh)

-& then hundred line smacked it out of their hands and went oh you THOUGHT you'd get to nuke the planet and walk away scot free? great news, if you're going to use that as your strategy that means your enemies can too :) what now

-no just genuinely i think it's crazy (positively) that there is NO option that lets you just nuke everyone and get off scot-free as war heroes

-you can choose to not die for people you don't know. to not lose anyone else. and let the nukes go off and give them free reign of the destroyed planet but this is not a satisfying conclusion for the player. the characters as you know them have their memories completely erased and rewritten and are no longer who you know them as! their relationships are completely gone! the implication there is that they'll be expected to repopulate the planet, but oops, this is also the route where you learn that due to the process used to create them as clones they're all very close genetically. this might not matter otherwise as they don't really consider themselves siblings, but if you're trying to repopulate a planet.......this might be an issue!

-if you choose to not stand for anything and anyone else and only prioritize yourself and the people you care about while ignoring the reality, then you'll have the people you care about taken away and you won't be the same you. you'll lose everything you were trying to 'protect' and live in a 'safe' and happy fiction about nothing at all

-the fact that going against the system that created them is what turns them from immortal soldiers who won't stop coming back to people who WILL die and it's still the right choice

-like they knew they were going to die. they knew it wasn't an easy choice. they say multiple times they're prepared to lose everything

-it's not about living for something the only choice they could make was what to die for and by god they made that choice

-god i am so fucking upset it's not every day that you can kill off an entire cast of people and have the one survivor just among the rubble trying her hardest for peace and have me go yeah. that's a fitting ending.

-if anything this has made me realize just how many pieces of media about wars either both-sides it or act like if the people on the invading side are inconvenienced in any way by trying to stop the war then it's 'justified' for them to not try to do that

-hundred line says that no. to go against the system that created you to fight and try to stop the war yourselves will make you pay the ultimate price. it's not as easy as just saying oh we can just stop war :)

-but you have to do it anyway. that's how you can actually save someone

-i also really like that even though vex is the most amoral of the aliens ("aliens") i say but really it feels like they're just humans [on another planet so we don't get in hot water because if we set this on earth it Will be commentary on a specific conflict whether we want it to be or not] everything she's doing is stuff humans did first and none of it is ever portrayed as retroactively 'justifying' what they did to the planet

-genuinely like i said this is just making me realize HOW low the bar has been

-as much as i liked this route right now i personally feel like it's not really a good idea to do it first (we'll see if my mind changes later) because it does hit harder if you the player have been fucking around and doing other things and learning about characters in their actual routes, since they won't get that screentime here, and getting slowly drip-fed information that won't really get elaborated on there--you the player will go 'hey, what does that mean' and the characters will be dealing with other things and won't have time to dig into it so you'll be wondering what it means the whole time, if it's serious or if it's just another joke

-and then you get here and you go Oh they were serious and they did tell me ahead of time

-i really do feel like this game benefits from giving you a bit before you pop open this box and find the awful truth

-this ending was so solid that it's um. making me worry a bit about the 'ending where all characters survive' because at this point i feel like there's zero chance it doesn't involve timeline bullshit. and normally that'd be fine but because everyone's deaths were so purposeful in this ending a route that 'fixed the timeline' to have everyone survive would have a lot of heavy lifting to do in order to not feel cheap

-like, if i want everyone to survive i have fanfic. if i want most people to survive it seems like earlier branches of that route where you DON'T just go along with humanity might have a more hopeful vibe to them. i'd personally prefer an ending where everyone dies but it means something rather than an ending where everyone is magically alive but there's no real meaning to it

ok time to get to what i've been talking about in all of these

Yaoi Rating: 8/10

LOOK AT THIS CALLBACK

Yuri Rating: 4/10

Rip Darumi (girls talked to each other but didn't really have chemistry this route)

Het Rating: 4/10

I have to say, despite Nozomi asking Takumi out on a date after things are all over 1) it feels like he's TURNING HER DOWN BECAUSE HE'S STILL STUCK ON KARUA 2) also they don't even get to go on that date. He dies.

He dies held in her arms, yes, but he's also still calling her Karua as he goes? I guess you could read 'Karua was right here this whole time as' 'you are Karua' but honestly it just felt like he was hallucinating Nozomi as Karua as he died. (and she was also there during his final attack)

Which is really sad. Girl I think you're losing to a fictional OC version of yourself made up for propaganda purposes to convince him to fight in order to 'protect her'. Not that you'd necessarily want to win but . girl

[streetschaos]

just watched season 4 episode 7.... i have so many thoughts about this episode and its mainly about the storyline with street and molly.

honestly the whole storyline pisses me off, i completely understand that with molly losing her mum and working with dv victims, she'd advocate for street to reconnect with his mum. but the fact she completely ignores everything bad his mum has done really gets to me. like for someone who works with abuse victims you'd think she'd have a little more empathy for street? i get that she doesn't know the whole story but from their conversation in the break room, it sounds like she knows enough to understand that street was a victim in this situation too. tbh i found it slightly out of character for molly, i know losing her mum would've influenced her reaction but she's always seemed so sweet and like someone that would listen no matter what, so it was weird to me that they made this a whole thing.

also i love chris but her input on this situation pissed me off too, i love that she said to not let his mum ruin his relationship too that bit was sweet and very in character for her.... but for her to say he needs to apologise and mend fences seemed really out of character. chris very much knows what streets mum put him through, both first hand and the fact that she read the court transcripts. it just seemed very weird that she'd take the side of he needs to apologise when she's been there for him so many times in the past when his mum has hurt him.

overall this episode sits really weird with me, the fact that it gives the message of having to be there and reconnect with someone who abused you just because they're your blood relative is really shitty. i wish we could've heard more of street and mollys conversation so we understood more where both of them were coming from and i really wish people had empathised more with street considering everything he had to go through because of his mum.

another random thing, chris' attitude to the issue in this episode doesn't line up at all with her advising him not to donate his liver in the later episodes? really confused me how she was basically telling him to hear molly out n then against him helping his mum after they did reconnect. idk i love all three characters but this episode did them all so dirty

[hadsephone]

Could you elaborate more on "Amber shaped Persephone as much as Anais and Rachel did"? Like did she actually have say in things like lyric changes or staging or is it more about her actual legacy and how long she was in the role for?

The second one! to my knowledge she didn't have any direct say in the actual book/script, but ever since they started workshopping the show it was Amber's personality, acting, singing, etc that helped to shape Persephone. She's a very unique and one-of-a-kind performer and her specific mannerisms are what made Persephone, Persephone. Like, I don't really know how to describe it, but if you've seen her in other shows or at solo concerts you can definitely see a very strong overlap between "Amber characteristics" and "Persephone characteristics" and how Ambersephone was a perfect mix of acting as a character while also using her own mannerisms.

Amber was in the show for six years, across four different productions, and that's not even counting workshops. Theatre critics and fans genuinely viewed "Amber Gray" and "Persephone Hadestown" as synonymous in a lot of ways.

Many of the replacements have done a fantastic job at continuing on Amber's legacy while still putting their own unique twist on the role, and that's amazing! Amber is not an easy person to follow and I really do love most of her replacements. I love how they honor Amber's legacy while putting their own spin on the character.

Also there's just so many aspects of Persephone's character that are just...Black culture. For example, her dance in Way Down Hadestown is a jazz funeral. And tbh it's really offensive to have white actors in that role doing the same thing. If Amber had never played Persephone, Persephone would be a completely different character.

Persephone was exclusively a Black/mixed-Black role for almost 5 years.

(As a white fan, I'm not going to comment on non-Black POC playing the role. I ADORE Maria-Christina Oliveras and Shea Renne, who both are Asian-American, and I am not going to comment on whether or not it's 'okay' for mixed Pinoy actresses to play a Black-coded role, because while I do think Persephone should ideally be Black, I'm not going to advocate AGAINST Filipina leads. White Persephone is a million times more offensive than nonBlack-POC Persephone ever will be. That being said, since I've acknowledged that Way Down is a jazz funeral, I do wish that Shea and Maria had had the chance to honor Filipino culture in their portrayal, in the same way that every other Persephone honors Black culture.)

Basically: Amber Gray and Amber Gray's specific portrayal of Persephone is literally what built Persephone. Especially from a racial aspect, there's so many parts of Persephone's character that you literally cannot separate from African-American culture and casting white people as Persephone is so disrespectful to Amber's - a biracial black woman's - legacy in the show. Also, if Amber had actual say in Persephone's lines, I can guarantee the Chant II verse would never have been cut.

[utilitycaster]

The answers Marisha gave in this 4SD felt a lot more realized than in the past, which is good! But it still makes me feel like this character concept is incredibly ambitious and when juxtaposed with the various "I don't want to think anymore"/"go with the flow" statements I'm not sure she realized that.

The biggest example is that Laudna has two conflicting traits: she is extremely sensitive to betrayal, and she is very quick to trust even after experiencing a number of betrayals in her life. And when I say "conflicting" I mean that they are in conflict with each other, not that it doesn't make sense for a character to be a complicated person with traits that frequently work against them; in fact that's in my opinion a fantastic way to create a compelling character. But it feels like the why is only just starting to get explored in any capacity, and because of that even good choices raise more questions: why is this only coming out now; why so young a regression; why has it peeked out so weirdly and inconsistently in the past; why haven't the repeated betrayals in the past two months affected her mindset and made her more closed off. It once again makes me really wish we'd gotten a sustained outburst after the party reunited, because that would have made far more sense - a fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me situation.

I agree with the opinion that Laudna conceptually just fits far more with being an actual child herself - her desire to befriend children frankly comes off slightly weirder (not line-crossing or anything, just a little off) than it would had she died younger, as does her approach of dolls, and her failure to do anything with Delilah would make a lot more sense if she was at an age to be much more reliant. It would also make her inability to just blend into a city much more reasonable; no one is going to rent to a lone 11 year old. It really does feel that when the creepy child idea was rejected - which is a valid choice - it wasn't reworked sufficiently to fit someone who died in her late teens or early 20s.

I also don't really get the idea of her childlike nature being without malice. A pretty consistent theme for the various traumatic childhoods the characters of Bells Hells (and, tbh, past parties as well) has been the cruelty children are capable of - Ashton even says it in 3x78. Delilah being stuck with someone without malice would honestly lead to a situation in which Laudna was very trusting of her, which isn't the case, which again goes back to the conflict of betrayal as a trigger vs. being so quick to trust. Given that Laudna was frequently bullied and rejected as a kid, one would think she'd be aware of this. The specific example of Delilah calling Ashton a child and Laudna making him a doll still works wonderfully, but the overarching theme falls apart in places.

I think things have been on an upswing as of late, but ultimately we're at a point where, without some retcons I don't think Laudna will ever truly make complete sense because it's just such an intensive concept that did not get the work that required, and still feels reliant on a now-rejected premise.

[endiness]

i wanna make a real in depth debunking post about s2 at some point given the truly absurd amount of misinformation and misunderstandings when it comes to the season. but as for now, just some points i'd like to address.

"why was the season like thatTM."

so, the two biggest reasons for why the show ended up changing a lot of things from the books in s2 and adding a lot of new stuff can basically be attributed to covid delaying filming and henry cavill's interference with the writing. the original version of the season was actually much, much closer to the books, but that was changed (at least partially) because with covid delaying filming so much and thus the premiere, the writers weren't sure how receptive the audience would be to the season if it were more like the books and didn't have as much action and was fairly slow-paced especially on geralt's side of things. (which, in retrospect, was a completely founded fear given the general audience reaction to the end of s3 and how they found it "boring" and "anticlimactic" after the big battle even though the events that take place after that is how the books themselves end.)

on top of that, henry cavill did not want to play geralt struggling with fatherhood in any way and he basically only wanted to play geralt with positive character traits and that's it. and quarantine gave the writers enough time to rewrite the scripts to fit what he wanted. which ended up causing a huge domino effect that resulted in eskel's death (which was basically written because the writers needed some kind of external event and mystery to drive geralt's actions forward for the season as they couldn't write any internal struggles for him because henry cavill didn't want to play that), yennefer's betrayal (which was basically written to 'balance' things out with geralt's perfectTM fatherhood 'arc'), and voleth meir being the big bad of the season (originally voleth meir was just supposed to be in one episode but the writers changed that to tie into the larger mystery of the season that geralt was investigating.)

"henry cavill pushed for more book accuracy in s2 and he was the only one who cared about the source material."

that's just a pr campaign he ran against the writers and the show to deflect from the changes he made that went against the books (like cutting geralt's lines in s1 and either saying nothing or just grunting instead) and because he was mad that he was co-lead with two women (ciri is the main character of the main book series which is what the show started adapting from s2 onward, just fyi) and that the show heavily revolves around women (y'know, like the books do).

"eskel was ooc so that means the writers didn't understand his character."

eskel was intentionally written out of character because he was infected by the leshy. both geralt and vesemir comment on how eskel is not acting like himself. there is a flashback in the next episode of eskel with a disposition closer to that of his character in the books. (also, just fyi, but eskel really only appears in any kind of serious capacity in, like, 2 chapters in boe and that's it. the fandom (and the games, i guess, idk) have really overblown and exaggerated his importance tbh.)

"but why would vesemir try to create new witchers."

because his child had just died and he'd already basically lost the ability to have more children. only to then discover that he could have more children using ciri's blood. basically, he tried to make new witchers because he was grieving as a father and handling it all very poorly. (psst, this is an overarching theme with the season.)

"yennefer tried to kill ciri."

that literally didn't happen. the deal yennefer made with voleth meir was to deliver a completely random girl whom she did not know to cintra. the deal was not to kill ciri. (that doesn't even make sense with what voleth meir wanted, and used, ciri for anyway.) also, yennefer made the deal with voleth meir not only to get her magic back but because she didn't want to die as she was basically about to be dragged off to be executed right before that happened. also, yennefer was under voleth meir's influence the whole time which we know not only because fringilla and francesca were also under her influence the entire season but also because ciri was able to break through it at one point, after which yennefer immediately warned ciri away from her. and then yennefer literally died to save ciri in the next episode. also, like, just to point this out but yennefer's ~betrayal of geralt and ciri only really lasts, like, one episode.

[tending-the-hearth]

stex appreciation month day 2: pearl

favorite actor:

i am so so normal about reva rice as pearl i promise i'm so normal JOKE i'm actually completely obsessed with her she's just everything to me she is THE pearl, when i think of pearl i think of her, her voice is gorgeous, she has the mannerisms of pearl, i just love her so so much

and lmao get ready for more reva appreciation when it comes to poppa/momma day

favorite song/scene

going off of the reva appreciation, "make up my heart" is one of my FAVORITE songs from the show

if we're also talking duets "i do" is literally one of my top five favorite romantic duets it's everything to me

another honorable mention goes to ich bin ich <3 favorite bochum song fr i don't get the hate for it i just smile every time i listen to it

favorite costume:

STRONG tie between super curly-haired bubblegum pearl and sleek silver/white pearl, both from the bochum production!!

i think the pink gives off a very futuristic vibe and goes perfectly with dinah's mostly blue outfit, especially since each character has one definitive color, but i think apparently i'm in the minority when i say i absolutely adore the silver bochum outfit???? it creates the most beautiful juxtaposition between prusty whenever they're next to each other, because the whole point is that rusty is an outdated steam engine while pearl is fresh off the line and brand new.

(also... her name is literally pearl... it makes so much sense that her costume would be pearlescent)

but bubblegum pearl does have my heart, especially when she gets a super cute curly pink wig!! platinum blonde version of the super curly wig + silver bochum costume would be everything to me

favorite ships/friendships:

prusty my beloveds that is my MAIN pearl ship!!!!! do not separate them!!!

friendships obviously the other coaches, but i also do think that pearl and dustin would become such good friends, their relationship just seems like it'd be so sweet, with dustin being rusty's closest friend and pearl being his partner, they'd just adore each other platonically 😭😭😭

tbh i don't know why but i also feel like electra and pearl would end up being really good friends? i can't explain why, but i just think post-race the two of them become close

headcanons:

you know when one person is like, healthily obsessed with their partner? that's pearl. she and rusty love each other more than anything, but pearl can and will make rusty the center of attention. she LOVES bragging about him, and absolutely takes every chance she can to gush about him.

she knows every single constellation, and also has the best navigation system out of everyone in the train yard.

my girl has the biggest grudge against greaseball for a while, she puts up with him purely because he's dinah's partner, but it takes a while for there to be a type of peace between them

[animeomegas]

hmmm i dont know how much youve interacted with him but any thoughts on rex? i adore him and marz a lot

I'm going to start with Marz because I know a lot more about her character! Okay, let me first establish how I view the Stratospheric ship, because I think it will help frame a lot of what I'm going to say. My interpretation is that they are:

A cult.

Failing completely at their attempt to remove class, gender roles, cultural differences etc. and their interest in trying shows ignorance to an absurd degree.

Selfish and creepy. Bringing people so young paired up like that as if they're breeding pairs of cattle, and having children aboard the ship even though they could have easily predicted the untold hardships that would have befallen them.

That's the overview to my opinion on the adults of the colony. Obviously those born on the ship or who were too young to consent, like Utopia, don't inherently fall under those critiques. I should also make it clear that this isn't a criticism of the game, as I believe this is a supported interpretation, and it's super interesting!

The way I view the children is inherently based in this backdrop. They are, mostly, tragic tales. They are victims of the circumstances forced upon them. Each of them is a tragic tale in a different way.

Marz is the tragic tale of someone who loves the Earth and who was denied the opportunity to experience it against her will. She loves the arts, fashion, the ideas of concerts and people and cities... And she gets none of that. She gets a society where survival takes so much energy, there isn't always space for the things she loves. In one of my playthroughs, she only remained Governor for a short while, because she prioritised art, but it simply wasn't feasible when base line survival needed all the attention.

And the adults decided to take a risk on colony life. She never did. And she has to live with the consequences.

(also, wtf is her augment??? Who thought that would be a good idea??? Shame is an important emotion for humans navigating social situations, developing their moral compass, and making friends???)

I really feel for Marz, because she yearns for something more. And the chance of it happening in her lifetime (if at all) just feels so slim.

...

Rex... I don't know as much about him tbh. I think the Heliopause are a group of... absolute nutters, para military dictatorship vibes all over the place. Although it's much more overt in the narrative than the negatives of the Stratos' way of life.

But I haven't found out Rex's backstory really. I think his bar idea is cool, and I love giving him hugs haha. His character design is probably my favourite haha. I'll have to update more specific thoughts when I actually befriend him properly!