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jdrizzle15 · 4 years ago

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Her Second Return

Just like all of you, and especially my fellow Penny fans, I am absolutely devastated by the Volume 8 finale. I had been in quite a state these last few days, utterly heartbroken, and actually nauseous at times. It feels strange to me to be legitimately grieving a fictional character, but it’s not a bad thing to feel this way. To me, this just shows that CRWBY loves her just as much as us to have written her so well that we connect so completely with her, that it feels like we lost an actual piece of ourselves when she’s gone.

But as you can probably tell by the title, this mega post isn’t gonna be about accepting this end, not in the slightest! Today I want to share canon evidence that can point towards another return of our beloved quirky red headed cinnamon bun! I’m here to spread this hope that I and others in the Nuts & Dolts dolts Discord server have!

I have this separated into many different sections to keep these thoughts organized. With that said, here goes…

A Father’s Words:

In Episode 7 of Volume 7, ‘Worst Case Scenario’ we learn the origins of Penny’s aura, and thus her soul. We also learn that it takes more aura each time she’s brought back. This leaves open an option that could be used at a later point.

Many people theorized that Pietro could indeed revive Penny one more time, which he would absolutely do. But there also lies the possibility that someone else could donate some of theirs, I’m not sure about this as I feel like it’s akin to blood donation where compatibility matters or there's a high risk of altering her, but the possibility is definitely there.

Now, the conversation in Chapter 5 of Volume 8, ‘Amity’ that Pietro and Penny have is an important moment for both Father and Daughter. It was there to show how her death in PvP all that time ago really did have a heavy impact on him and is still affecting him to this day.

Instead of continuing to pretend that everything is A-okay, like he had done for most of Volume 7, he finally lets his true feelings about how it come out to Penny for what is quite likely the first time. Even going so far as to say "Are you asking me to go through that again?" when she offers to take the risk of trying to lift Amity with her power. He wants Penny to be able to live her life.

This entire scene with Pietro established “this is what will likely happen” even if circumstances are much different now, it doesn’t negate the fact that this is a key part of Penny’s story. Scenes like these have a purpose beyond simply making an eventual death all the more heart wrenching. Her never actually getting to live her life makes those scenes basically moot. It makes them effectively pointless from narrative point of view. Unless there's more to it.

Building Relationship:

The build up between Ruby and Penny the last two volumes has been absolutely phenomenal with a definite destination in mind, and this doesn’t feel like that destination. So much of the arc of this season was to help Penny. This girl that our main protagonist absolutely adores and treasures, it would just be awful to throw all of that out for what amounts to an avoidable end. Why use so much of their precious and very limited runtime on deliberately building up this relationship only to end it abruptly, and permanently, when they’re separated?

In my opinion, RT is definitely smarter now than to intentionally set up what was really looking like a budding gay relationship only to kill one of them for good. If N&D wasn't actually going in a romantic direction, why would they leave in all of the romance-adjacent stuff that they got, that's not how ‘just friends’ act. And that is not something you use such valuable time building up for absolutely no pay off whatsoever...

Representation of Hope:

At its core, RWBY has always been about hope. It’s not at the forefront the whole time, but there's been an underlying theme of hopefulness that has persisted since it began. Some describe the show as a Hopepunk, I personally find this to describe RWBY really well. This genre of storytelling is about caring for things deeply and the courage and strength it takes to do so. It’s about never submitting or accepting the way things are. Fighting for what you believe in and standing up for others. RWBY fits all of this extremely well. How does this relate to Penny? She has been shown to be a sign of hope for everyone, but especially for Ruby, the main main protagonist. A prerequisite for a Hopepunk story is the hope.

Her first death in V3 was something that fundamentally changed Ruby. For the first time in the series, we see our main character all but broken by this event. With the loss of Penny, immediately afterwards, Ruby’s hope followed. She made up for it through determination and force of will. We see it affect her multiple times throughout the journey to Volume 7. But upon her return in V7, Hope reached a high point for everyone, the sheer relief on Ruby’s face is plain to see!

In V8 chapter 5 ‘Amity’, Penny literally raises hope by lifting the arena into the sky so Ruby could spread her message. And when she falls, and Amity with her, the connection is lost and hope plummets again. From there things take a very negative turn with the hack begins to take Penny’s agency.

In chapter 11 ’Risk’ is the point in the arc where everyone is reunited for the moment, so two separate hero stories are no longer a thing at that point in time. For the time being focus seemed to be shifted to care about the characters and how they’re going to solve the current problems. This is also where Ruby reaches her lowest emotional point in the season.

It’s not huge, but it’s interesting how connected this is. Before Ruby and Yang share a good cry over learning the possible fate of Summer, Yang brings up restoring optimism and hope to Ruby after the younger sister storms out of the room in frustration. This is where Penny’s scenes take up the rest of the episode. Getting Penny back in control of her own body and safe again is what makes the ending of the episode much brighter, when just 5 minutes before Ruby had been distraught and scared. This then spills over into the group coming up with the plan to use the staff, putting the main group in a much better mood. Of all the things to go right, it’s interesting that it’s Penny.

Things go wrong with the plan in the end and Penny dies. I find it interesting that once again, Penny got them hopeful in their chances of doing something right. Given said plan succeeded but at the cost of Penny of all people, Penny is shown to be the beginning and end of hope for them

The highest and lowest points for hope seem to directly correlate to when Penny’s around. When she comes back again, hope will return too, just like it had before. And because she’ll likely be back for good this time, the second return will probably be close to when Ruby is nearing the complete abandonment of hope. This would be pretty par for the course of the show honestly.

A little aside, but in a sense, Penny also represents Unity. The CCT in Vale fell after her first death, knocking out global communications and the unifying connection it gave. When it was restored for the briefest moment, she was there. Her body connected so she could allow for its launch, her soul lighting the night to hold up Amity with every ounce of her strength. So of course when the Hack succeeds and she falls, she takes global comms down again with her. At a smaller scale - even at the Hack's second last attempt to control her, she draws everyone in the Schnee Manor together. At the start of the volume, Yang states the one thing that they all agree on is not surrendering Penny.

Unity seems appropriate for one whose first song and wish was for but one friend, who would go on to find so many more in the process, and permit for a moment the possibility of all Remnant becoming friends once more. Where she first died, the name of the episode devoted to her story - Amity, "friendship", from the Latin root amicus, "friend" - she almost lives and dies with the very possibility of a united Remnant. It's no wonder she's a priority target for Salem, the great divider, and it seems natural that her next restoration may very well allow the next bid to bring the world together.

The Void Screams:

Moments after Penny's death, we hear a weird scream in the void space. It was a guttural, pained, angry scream, almost like the void space itself was crying out. All the portals shuddered and flickered when it happened.

Some think that this scream was Salem returning, but that happens earlier than Penny’s death, her return is signaled with cinder's arm acting up. We know this because after the arm finished flailing uncontrollably, Cinder said triumphantly "she's back." If it were Salem screaming, it would have happened after she fixed herself, but it didn't.

And I doubt Cinder would have been surprised or unsettled by it considering she was happy Salem returned not long before it. And why would a Salem scream affect the portals anyway, she has no connection to the staff or it's magic.

Another thing to consider is the fact sound is not transmitted through the portals. Otherwise, they would've heard Oscar and the rest calling for them, or the screams of the citizens of Mantle and Atlas. This lowers the possibility of that scream being from Salem even further.

The sound really seems to be coming from something else entirely within the void, and that something is not at all happy. There’s also the fact that Penny was the only person who died in the void space, everyone else was just thrown out of it like Ruby and Co. The only logical cause to me is Penny. Her body was a product (or byproduct) of the same creation magic that made the void space, her blood seems to have been a trigger.

Now I can't be sure about it, but this makes me feel like Penny is almost a part of creation itself? For whatever this thing is to be so angry, that is the only explanation I can think of currently. But all of this could possibly relate to the Narnia allusion of 'the willing victim killed in a traitor's stead' that others have brought up, which will be covered next.

Narnia Parallels:

Atlas has several parallels and references to fictional places (putting aside real world ones like the United States). One of those is that of Narnia, both on the surface and on a deeper level. It is a land of winter year round, where people struggle to survive and there is a present divide between those loyal to the current Monarch and those who are not. James is a parallel to Jadis, the White Witch, a ruler whose thoughts and cares aren’t exactly centered around the actual well being of the people. The hologram table in Ironwood’s office is designed to look like stone, like the Stone Table which features prominently in the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. He has a handpicked cadre of special agents/secret police, like how Maugrim and his wolves served Jadis. Another key parallel is how Jadis’s winter sets in to oppress and kill everyone in Narnia, but the Witch provides aid and protection to her loyal followers. She has all the power to spare harm to others, and uses it only for the loyal. As soon as Mantle splits from James and Atlas, no care is taken to protect them from the cold of Solitas even though he has every ability to turn the heating grid back on. His protection is only for the loyal.

Now that the parallel is established, let's look into the details. Starting with how James plays the role of Jadis.

"I had forgotten that you are only a common boy. How should you understand reasons of State? You must learn, child, that what would be wrong for you or for any of the common people is not wrong in a great Queen such as I. The weight of the world is on our shoulders. We must be freed from all rules. Ours is a high and lonely destiny." These are the words Jadis says in the Magician’s Nephew to justify the blood civil war she and her sister had waged for rulership of Charn, before she came to Narnia. She won that war, technically, but only after the last battle had been lost and her sister had marched right up to her so that they were face to face. Jadis’s troops were dead, her followers had surrendered, and the capital was under full control of her sister. But, she still had one card, one ultimate play to win and prove the throne of Charn was rightfully her. The Deplorable Word, a piece of old magic that killed everyone and everything except for her on Charn. It was monstrous, senseless, cruel beyond measure. But it got her that hollow victory. This mindset, the disregard for the people except as tools for her own will, the ultimate ‘aoe’ destructive move that no one had even considered her using, the unwillingness to stop even when by all practical measures the war is over, is a shocking parallel to James. In many ways, he is Jadis in mindset and deed.

Then there is the shared desire for A Thing that both James and Jadis have. For James it’s the Winter Maiden and control over her. For Jadis it’s the Silver Apples from the Tree of Youth. And funnily enough, the Maiden Powers parallel the Apples quiet well. These apples grant power and a life of eternal beauty, but should not be taken or eaten on one’s own initiative. They must be given, a gift granted by another, or only suffering will come from obtaining them. "For the fruit always works — it must work — but it does not work happily for any who pluck it at their own will. If any Narnian, unbidden, had stolen an apple and planted it here to protect Narnia, it would have protected Narnia. But it would have done so by making Narnia into another strong and cruel empire like Charn, not the kindly land I mean it to be.” Jadis’s immortality, and some of her power, come from the fact that she ate an Apple of her own will after stealing her way into the garden where the Tree of Youth had been planted. She gained the eternal life she had wanted and the power along with it, but she did so by taking it and was cursed because of it. Her skin turned pale and her lips blackened as if she were a frozen corpse given life. She will be trapped in a life of misery and hate according to Aslan- oh hey Cinder, how’s having stolen the Power you always wanted working out for you? Cinder had the power she wanted, but she only got hungrier, eager to claim more and increase her might. But in her pursuit she was defeated and humiliated by Raven, had to steal her way out of Mistral, and then suffered defeat after defeat while in Atlas. Only in the end, when she didn’t keep pursuing the Maiden Power, did she get any kind of victory.

The reason these parallels to Narnia are so important is one of the most famous events of the series. The cracking of the Stone Table and the rebirth of Aslan after his death. ‘When a willing victim who had committed no treachery was killed in a traitor's stead, the Table would crack and Death itself would start working backward.’ Well, the ��Stone Table’ in James’s office has cracked, and Penny strikes me as a pretty willing victim. She has never actually committed any actual treachery or harm, as she was the Protector of Mantle, and fought for its and Atlas’s people until the very end. And because of her death, the actual traitor, Winter, who loyally served James until he had gone too far, was saved. Through Penny’s self sacrifice, Winter was saved. So now Death itself will start working backward.

(Major props to my friend @catontheweb for writing this section, I was getting nowhere with it, if they weren't there this part wouldn't exist!)

Norse Mythology:

The tree we see in the post credit scene gives off some serious Yggdrasil vibes. Also called the World Tree, it is essentially all of creation in Norse Mythology. It connects all nine realms, including the God realms of Asgard, the human realm of Midgard, and the underworld of Hel.

Humans are born from the branches of Yggdrasil. The web of Wyrd is woven for every person once they're born, and their path is set from there regardless of how many times the souls cycle over. But at the end, they're destined to end up in one of the worlds, for a myriad of reasons.

I believe Penny landed closest to this giant tree. She was on the center platform in the void space, so if that space is directly above the island(?) the tree is on, it makes sense for her to fall by the center nearest to the tree. This would not only open up all kinds of possibilities for the volume in general, but it would also create options for Penny.

The whole of Yggdrasil’s representations fit well into Penny’s story. Birth, growth, death and rebirth. We can count Penny’s appearance in V7 as birth for now, her growth is all her development in leaving =the military and becoming a Maiden, her death just happened, and her rebirth would be her revival. And this is a cycle she’s gone through before.

The Norse god Odin and Yggdrasil have quite a connection. In one story, Odin cut out one of his own eyes to gain knowledge from a pool underneath Yggdrasil. The only one that fell whose eyes alone are incredibly significant to the story was Ruby. So, they could choose to have her allude to Odin by having Ruby make some kind of deal with whatever entity likely rules over this magical place. An eye for Penny’s life.

There’s another story about Odin, Yggdrasil and the pursuit of knowledge. Odin so loved knowledge, that he sacrificed himself in a quest to learn the deeper magic of runes. It was believed one could only learn the magic spells from runes in death. So, Odin hung himself on Yggdrasil for nine days as an offering, and teetered between life and death. After he mastered the last spell on the ninth night, he ritually died and all light was extinguished from the world. Odin’s death lasted until midnight, when he was reborn and light returned to the world.

This story doesn’t fit Penny perfectly, but allusions often don’t. So If she really did land near the tree, she could be another loose representation of Odin’s story here. What she did wasn’t for knowledge, but to save her friends and keep Cinder from getting the Winter Maiden power. She believed it necessary that she sacrifice herself to achieve this end. As we established, Penny represents Hope, so her death means the loss of hope. This parallels Odin’s story of his death meaning the loss of light itself. So if this theory holds up, it would make this death temporary, until her rebirth and the return of Hope with her once again.

Alternatively, Ruby has the potential of loosely representing Odin in this story as well. Odin later uses the knowledge of the runes to do many things, but the most relevant one right now is awakening the dead. Both of these stories are about making a personal sacrifice to gain something that is desired. Ruby would absolutely make such sacrifices if it meant saving Penny.

It is said that Odin lived “according to his highest will unconditionally, accepting whatever hardships arise from that pursuit, and allowing nothing, not even death, to stand between him and the attainment of his goals." This sounds like Penny's arc of accepting the WM powers. This is more just a general connection between Penny and Odin, but I found it interesting.

Side Note: I encourage anyone who’s interested to look into RWBY connections to Norse Myth, there’s a surprising amount of things that feel eerily similar to the show. Likely just coincidental, but it’s fun to think about!

(If I got any of this wrong, I sincerely apologize by the way. I researched as best I could, but I admit it could have been lacking.)

Ambrosius and the Staff:

Ruby told Ambrosius "we kinda wanna keep her around longer than that" as part of her very specific instructions. Then Penny died about ten to fifteen minutes, at the absolute most thirty minutes later in-universe. I don’t know about you, but to me that seems very short to be considered ‘longer than that’. Technically it is, but when writing a story and a character says something like that, you typically don’t just kill the character they were referring to basically right away. It makes sense for a week-by-week watch, but in a volume binge, which many viewers do, it becomes ironic how fast Penny dies after being removed from her robotic body.

The first time we see the staff of creation being used, it's to save Penny. Using the staff of creation to help Penny is a sign of how incredibly important she is.

They’ve even got this entire transformation sequence for her, so it wouldn’t make sense for them to throw all that away two episodes later. In a meta context, it’s a massive waste of time and budget considering the asset creation for Penny.

Penny is a character who has already hopped bodies two times. And now we're supposed to just believe that this time it really is a final death? Just two episodes after we were explicitly told her body isn't what matters, that "Her soul is who she is" and that "the mechanical parts are just extra"? From a writing perspective, it feels strange, like your breaking a promise right after making it. And frankly, CRWBY is better than that, which makes me think this is not the actual end for her.

A possible connection between Penny, Ruby, and the Staff (thus Creation) can be seen in the intro. As Ruby is falling and being dragged down into the darkness, she is shown reaching for the staff. In the void space, Penny is the one with the relic. So with Penny having this strong connection to Creation, and the lyrics “fight for every life” playing as Ruby reaches for the staff, it’s a safe assumption to make, with the knowledge we now have, that the Staff of Creation represents Penny in this particular moment. Which could mean that V9 will be about, at least partially, fighting for Penny’s life.

Musical Hints:

In terms of music, Friend, as a song for Penny, is very dissonant from the episode itself. The song is oddly cheerful for Penny’s recent untimely death, and it overall highlights the wrong parts of death. It’s simply too happy to be a song about losing one of the most, if not the most joyous characters in the entire show. The song also abruptly ends. There’s no outro, and while this could symbolize the fact that Penny died young, it could be that the song itself is unfinished in a story sense.

What do we hear just before the song finishes, though? A progression of notes that sounds eerily similar to the last line of the opening of Volume 8. The notes for “Fight for ev’ry life” and “Who fin’lly felt alive'' share a similar melodic structure, they aren’t perfect clones of each other, but they are incredibly similar, to the point where it seems intentional. Penny may very well be the life that the opening song is fighting for. It is also worth noting that the line “Fight for every life” comes just after “Sometimes it’s worth it all to risk the fall,” which is the exact wording used for the description in the Volume 8 finale. Team RWBY risked the fall, yet, strangely the opposite of fighting for every life happened with Penny’s sacrifice. Perhaps the time to fight for every life has yet to happen, and we will see it come Volume 9.

For another thing, the lyrics for Friend are entirely centered on Penny’s feelings for Ruby, to the point where they read very much like a bittersweet love song. The music itself is incredibly cheerful, as mentioned previously, creating a mood whiplash with the end of the volume. Why would we hear a song about Penny’s feelings for Ruby, sounding like a love song, if her death is supposed to be a tragic sacrifice akin to Pyrrha’s? The song may very well be giving a clue into its future use in the show proper.

If this was meant to be a good bye song, why make it so cheerful and romantic sounding? There's only one part about her dying and even then, it's just too accepting and goes right back into cheerfulness. The song is also pretty hopeful, telling Penny's story in a fairly chronological order. And the part where she talks about sacrifice is quite pointedly followed up by one about feeling alive. It also ends with the super cheerful chorus, the word "alive" being the last... (Remember the episode title: The Final Word)

(I want to thank my friend @shadow-0f-x for writing the majority of this section! I was struggling to choose how to tackle it as I am not well versed in music theory.)

What We Didn’t See:

It is likely that Penny understood Jaune's semblance better than him and figured something out about it’s abilities in the same way that she understood Ruby's semblance better than her. She had plenty of time to observe his semblance up close as he boosted her aura to stave off the virus. Because of that intentionally timed cutaway in the finale, we don’t get to hear her explain herself after her strained “Trust me.” All of that seems really suspicious to me.

Pyrrha Parallel:

Pyrrha and Penny both sacrificed themselves to stop or stall Cinder. Jaune tried to convince the both of them to stop. With Pyrrha, he failed, while with Penny he actively helped her sacrifice herself. Doesn’t make sense for the guy who was determined not to let anyone else do what Pyrrha did, unless of course Penny assured him she’d be alright.

The Moment:

RT including the suicide hotline in the description shows that they're aware that Penny basically committed assisted suicide, seeing it as a noble sacrifice worth doing to save her friends. They're aware, and I believe they're smart enough to condemn that decision to hell and back.

The best way to do that in my opinion is to pull her back into the land of the living and let her witness first hand the consequences of throwing her life away so freely. This would show Penny how her actions affected others so maybe she could learn to truly value herself. To not think herself expendable. It would be bold and unwise to portray this choice as something good, unless it was going to be called upon later and be pointed out for how horrible it really is.

On top of this, Penny was way too content with her death, happy even. There's no way team RWBY is letting her stay content with it. It’s almost as though we're supposed to join Ruby and Co. in calling bullshit on what Penny is saying and doing because no, Penny, this is not how things are meant to work. It's as if Penny was basically saying "I want to die for my friends" because most of the volume had been about everyone else making sure she didn't die. She knows it will hurt them. She knows.

At the peak of it all, a choice like this will totally destroy Ruby. It may very well be her breaking point for Volume 9. Curiously, the moment itself is written like it’s the first choice Penny’s ever made, yet the entire Volume shows this isn’t the case. However, this is the first choice that Penny’s made solely independently and it’s rather pertinent that the choice she makes is a mistake. Outside of giving Winter the Maiden gift and saving the day temporarily, this sacrifice will not have any lasting positive effects. Jaune will be saddled with the grief of killing Penny. Ruby will have to live with losing her best friend and not being able to protect her a second time, and Winter now has the burden of the Winter Maiden abilities, making her a target of Cinder. This is a bad thing, and Penny needs to see the long term consequences.

Transfer of Power:

As we all know, colors in RWBY are really important and get a lot of focus in the show. That means the yellow we see as Penny gives Winter the Maiden Powers was intentional and likely important, no matter how insignificant it may seem. It’s possible that the transfer effect being yellow could have something to do with Jaune’s semblance. When Fria gave the power to Penny, the effect was very much blue, so this transfer should have been green since she was the one giving it this time. The weirdness of this transfer and the focus on color in RWBY really makes it look like something’s up with how that went down.

A little off topic, but Penny saying "I won't be gone, I'll be part of you." makes me think... Winter is smart, so when she gets time to think about what Penny said, maybe she'll arrive at the same question many in the audience came to; if she's literally part of Winter, can they be separated again? If Winter starts questioning that, the possibility of Penny coming back just skyrockets.

Fria actually tells Penny "I'll be gone" before giving her powers up, which is an interesting contrast to Penny telling Winter "I won't be gone". She may have gotten that line from Winter be all philosophical in V7, saying Fria was now a part of Penny, but it hits differently coming from an actual Maiden. S5o it’s possible that Maidens usually actually will be gone, but Jaune's semblance did something to change that.

This could go well with the theory that they won't need to find an aura transfer machine, or build another one, because Jaune will have a semblance evolution allowing him to do the transfer instead. It might actually be that this evolution already happened and the golden light we saw was Jaune transferring penny's aura to Winter in some way?

An observation that I find interesting is when Penny gives winter the powers, not only is the aura yellow but penny completely glows yellow too, and she obviously starts to disappear, but she doesn’t seem to fully disappear, she just glows.

It's possibly a fading out effect and she does fully fade but animation makes bright light easier, and so we don't actually see her disappear because she's dead and not gone. But it does once again emphasize the color yellow here!

And the color is coming from Penny, it does go up Winter's arm a bit, but Penny is clearly the source. This transfer is so weird and I’m not really sure how to interpret it. There's just actually no reason that we are aware of to make the effect yellow here is the thing. Unless it has something to do with either Jaune or Ambrosius, or potentially a combination of both...

Jaune’s Aura:

The way we see Jaune's aura break in the finale is strange. His aura shouldn't be breaking here. It had been long enough since he was boosting Penny, he's had time to recharge, and it didn't look like it was a strain on him at all. Plus, we know he has a lot of aura, so there probably wasn't too much to recharge in the first place.

He has a massive amount of aura, it has never broken before as far as I remember. Even if it has though, that doesn’t make this occurrence any less odd. It should absolutely never be a one-hit KO. We didn't see anything that would've drained it, that should not have been enough to break his aura. Unless he did something - something that would require a huge amount of aura - that we just didn't see. That amount of aura drain is far more than just an attempt at healing would do, Jaune absolutely did something with his semblance that took up almost all of his aura.

Pinocchio Allusion:

As any Penny fan knows, her character allusion is Pinocchio, the puppet who became a real boy. Penny deviates from the allusion by having always been a real girl, as Ruby is quick to point out, but she shares many story beats with her original story including multiple deaths. In the original story, Pinocchio dies from being hung by his own strings due to his poor decision making and he dies. Sounds a little familiar, does it not? This is where his tale originally ended. Readers were unsatisfied with this ending however, so the author decided to change the story by reviving Pinocchio and teaching him to be more careful.

Unlike Pinocchio making all the wrong decisions, Penny often makes the right ones, or ones she thinks is right, when concerning others. While usually a good thing, this has meant Penny almost giving herself up multiple times during V8, her last attempt being successful. This is where Penny and Pinocchio begin to share similarities again. They are both very reckless when it concerns themselves. This carelessness comes from different places, but it ends with the same result of them endangering their lives and even sometimes losing them.

In the Disney movie, Pinocchio dies by drowning after going to rescue Geppetto and washes up on the shore (like the beach in V8’s post credit scene). His father is devastated and takes him home to grieve, but as a reward for his selflessness in rescuing his father, the Blue Fairy returns and brings him back to life, as well as granting him humanity. Penny sacrificed her life as well, and it stands to reason that she should be rewarded for it, much like her allusion was.

Penny got her maiden powers from someone with blue aura and then gave her powers to someone with blue aura. So it could be that not only Ambrosius, but Fria and Winter as well represent the Blue Fairy. It could be set up for Winter helping to bring Penny back to life once more. It’s an out there theory I admit, but it’s not outright impossible either. The Blue Fairy in Pinocchio saved him three times that I know of, so RWBY having three representations does make sense.

Geppetto wished for him to live as a real boy, but it depended on what path Pinocchio took. This is very reminiscent of Penny and Pietro. Pietro wants to see her live her life, and surely with him absent in V8C14 that didn't work, despite Penny choosing. Her father did not see her happy enough to live her life, and will only be able to learn her death through others. But Pinocchio's themes were life and being alive. So the likelihood that this is not her end yet is quite high!

A Girl That Fell Through the World:

Penny could be the girl who fell through the world. The girl in the story fled the consequences of a choice. The only person who chose her ultimate fate was Penny. The others were pushed into the void, but she chose to die. The consequence of her choice is Ruby’s grief first and foremost, which Penny won’t see. The girl who fell through the world does come back though, and the world will be changed severely with Penny’s absence. Alternatively, it could also be Penny coming back to Wonderland or wherever they currently are, as long as it’s unrecognizable to her.

What Returning Brings:

Others might say another return would have no story relevant purpose, but I wholeheartedly disagree. Penny gives a profoundly youthful, joyous, and wondrous outlook on the world and story that we hadn't seen since Ruby in Volumes 1-3(not the end), Penny returning would bring a much needed levity back in after the despair they will undoubtedly be going through. While not necessarily a huge thing in most other shows, for RWBY, a show largely about keeping up hope, an ounce of such relief is a necessity.

As much as I hate saying it, Penny’s death does actually make some narrative sense because she had to pass on the Maiden powers. (They could have done this in a number of ways, and I personally think they chose rather poorly, but I digress.) Throughout this whole volume, we can see Penny seemingly being set up to join the main cast, but would have been too strong with the powers. This also accomplishes ridding her of the burden of responsibility that comes with being a Maiden and lets her obtain the freedom that’s so important to her character.

Once she returns, seeing this grief that her actions caused, particularly to Ruby, will get her to realize more that her actions can have serious repercussions. She made a choice, but that choice hurt the people she loves. She must have known that it would but I’m not sure she ever realized just how much.

I didn’t want this post to be heavy in the shipping department, so I largely left it out, but I am going to say this one thing that could have an impact. If Nuts & Dolts is on its way to being canon, which this volume makes it feel highly likely, this could be a catalyst.

It could prompt an arc for the both of them in which Penny learns to live her life fighting for her loved ones, rather than sacrificing it for them. A relationship could potentially start from there. And Ruby seeing Penny learn these things may also help her to stop doing the occasional but very dangerous and reckless things she does. Ruby witnessing Penny coming to terms with what she did to the people that care about her would actually make her stop to think “wait, is this how everyone else would feel if I got myself killed?” That would be a very important moment of character growth for her.

I’m certain there are other significant things that Penny returning can bring to the show. And there are definitely more sections I could add to this. At this point though, assuming anyone even made it this far, I think I’ve been going long enough already. So let’s just roll into the outro!

As painful and hopeless as it seems, I'm choosing to trust them with this because there is absolutely no way they didn't see backlash coming. The way this finale went makes me think that they calculated for backlash and aren’t jumping into something they don’t have a plan to recover from. Whether this trust is unfounded or not remains to be seen, but I don’t think it is currently. I do think, however, that the cause of this backlash was a major misstep. Now that it has happened though, they have a chance to do something good with it.

I know for a lot of you, trust in CRWBY has been damaged, some even irreparably so. And for those that feel this way, I don’t blame you. My trust in them took a hit too, but isn’t broken completely yet. There are many ways that they can bring her back that would make sense with the narrative, they have the ability to make it right, and after going over all of the hints and general weirdness of things many times, I think they will.

I'm feeling pretty confident now and I really didn't expect that to happen at all to be honest. But discussing and theorizing with the discord server seriously helped get my hopes back up surprisingly fast! It’s actually thanks to all of them that this gigantic post even happened! So thanks a ton my fellow Dolts! And a special thanks to!!

@arcana-amicus

@catontheweb

@cosmokyrin

@gaydontmesswithme224

@jammatown919

@shadow-0f-x

They really helped get this thing across the finish line!

And thank YOU for reading all~ of this! I sincerely wish it gave you some of the hope and confidence that I now have!

#RWBY #rwby vol8 #rwby v8 #rwby spoilers #Penny Polendina #nuts and dolts #mechanical rose #a little #Essay #more like dissertation #I haven't written this much in #probably ever actually #Have HOPE people!

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ddaenghoney · 4 years ago

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my masterlist is in my blog description

Prompt: Kisses on the corner of the lips (thank you for requesting!)

Pairing: Veil!JiminxY/N (pre-Veil, my fic which you can find here xx)

Genre(s)/warning(s): Fluff, friends with benefits(though there’s nothing smutty in this lmao), mentions of alcohol/intoxication, y/n is a bit jealous and so is jimin lmao

wc: 3037

You recall what Jimin said at the beginning, “This way we don’t have to be obligated to each other.”

At that time you nodded immediately, completely accepting of his words because they gave sense to everything. You are both friends, but sometimes went beyond that in random, sultry rendezvous. After meeting at SoundWave, the two of you found yourselves getting along well, and with Jimin’s debut a project you were deeply involved with, it was only natural to grow closer. Though you never anticipated the connection to become physical, you didn’t want to change it.

Or rather, you do not want to stop, but something about your current predicament of watching him interact so closely with another coworker makes your throat uneasy. She smiles at whatever he says to her while Jimin talks casually to all of those around him at the table. He doesn’t go out of his way to give the girl particular attention, but the way that she bumped passed you as you all arrived in order to secure a guiding hand on his shoulder so that they would sit together told you enough about her intentions with him.

Jimin is not your boyfriend, and no one at the company recognizes either of you as anything more than close coworkers. He’s not allowed to date anyone, so of course everything is under wraps. There’s no reason to say anything about you and him to begin with-- there’s no reason for you to keep glancing from the table you sit at. No reason you should bite your tongue every time she puts a flirtatious hand on his arm.

“Y/N, I heard you’re going to help make our next title track.” A cheerful voice across from you breeches your ears, causing your shoulders to twitch you back to the conversation. You manage a smile easily enough, finding the male appearing quite happy with what he said, as the other member of his group who sits next to him, “You are, right? I want to learn from you about the writing process.”

“I don’t know if I’m good enough to be a teacher.” You take a sip of your soda, ignoring the nudge from Jihyo beside you whose eyes combat your dismissive attitude.

“As if. You could probably teach everyone at this table something.” She presses, earning a roll of your eyes. Grinning at your reaction, she turns back to the two across, “I’d even bet the song you make with her will end up charting for weeks.”

“I’ll do anything to help you then.” The male across you persists with a jovial curl of his lips. “You’re like the company’s golden songwriter.” A loud affirmative from the member beside him causes a ripple with Jihyo and other people at the table to agree senselessly, even though some of them you’re sure are too intoxicated to know what the conversation is. “Cheers to our golden songwriter!”

You giggle at the dramatization of the whole thing, but reciprocate the energy by clinking your glass to his as those around do the same to each other and drink happily. You go ahead and down the rest of your mostly club soda beverage, setting it back down on the table with a small clunk and release a breath.

In the corner of your eyes, you catch Jimin’s head again and don’t stop yourself from angling your face to look. The return of his gaze startles you, making your hand squeeze your glass. The girl beside him remains, but she chats for the moment with someone else. Jimin’s focus forces the air in your chest to remain there as you sit somewhat transfixed and in wonder of what he wants. His lip quirks-- you think it does anyways; it’s difficult to discern from the distance. You wish he were across from you.

No; you shake your head at your thoughts, and return your eyes to your table. You take hold of some of the snacks on the table, tossing them into your mouth swiftly. It isn’t a good idea to dwell in those thoughts too long. In the first place, it should not matter to you where he is in the room, and you should be much less bothered by the lack of his attention on your person.

It’s not like either of you want to let even the smallest detail of your affairs into this place amongst all of your coworkers.

Your phone buzzes in your pocket. When you go to glance back at Jimin, you see him back conversing with those around him. You scoff softly and pull out your phone, smiling a bit wider when you see how ridiculous you are acting for assuming a particular name to appear in the pixels.

Seokjin, 12:10AM: You’re going to regret skipping out on watching the latest episode with us-- the show is getting crazy.

Y/N, 12:11AM: You better not spoil anything.

“Hey, I’m going to head out.” You say to Jihyo, as you reach for your bag hanging from your seat.

“Aw, already?” She pouts, eyes following you as you stand. “You barely drank at all with us though.”

“I have to go to work in the morning.” You explain, laughing as she clings her arms on your waist.

“Want me to help you catch a cab, Y/N?” The guy across the table asks before sipping further at his beer. You shake your head, while you work to gently tug off Jihyo.

“Thanks, but I’ll be fine-”

“You heading out too?” Jimin’s voice feels like it pops a bubble. You turn your head to him, as he walks with his jacket in hand, smiling casual as the inquiry remains in the air.

“You too, man?” The younger member across you asks him.

“Yeah, my manager would kill me if I couldn’t wake up on time tomorrow.” He answers with a smile lazily on his features, then he glances back to you. “I’ll give you a ride to your apartment.”

“You sure-”

“Yes, you need to! She uses too many taxi rides-- it makes me nervous.” Jihyo exclaims into the mix as she finally releases her hold on you. “You better make sure she gets home safe, though, Jimin.”

“Deal.” He’s still looking at you while he speaks, his eyes gentle. If you think about it, you’re sure you could misinterpret his expression, so you don’t. You just nod your head, and follow his lead outside of the restaurant.

—

“To think we’d leave at the same time.” You buckle your seatbelt with ease, as Jimin turns on the ignition. Relaxing your head on the seat, you barely arch your neck, eyeing him coyly. “Almost like we intended to.”

“Well, I did.” Jimin chuckles, wrapping a hand on the gear shift. Then he looks at you, and speaks just as easily, “I only went because you did.”

You try not to acknowledge the way your rib cage constricts for a moment at his words. Like it tries to lock them close to your heart. You half-smile at Jimin, helping the sentence to trickle away into nothing. “Smooth.”

“I think so.” He nods his head as he begins to drive away. The expression of his is nothing bashful or satisfied; nothing in particular at all. It’s just words. You relax back into the familiar seat and stare at the road as it comes, settled in your understanding of everything. You smother the confusion, putting it away before you are able to ponder it and get your flimsy feelings hurt. The last thing you would need is a relationship with an idol at SoundWave.

You can’t even imagine the complications that could entail.

“Are you very tired?”

You perk your eyebrows at the inquiry. Incidentally, his words brought you out of a stupor that was melded with the exhaustion from the day, but your curiosity wins over your response.

“Not very. Why?”

Jimin’s index finger taps the steering wheel as a red light forces a stop. His eyes fixate ahead as casual as ever, but the hesitation in his sentence reveals itself when his lips barely part without answering your question. More curiosity swirls in your expression, maybe too much, but Jimin is not looking at you so you let it slide, and merely hum to press for an answer.

“Do you care if I stay over tonight?” You should immediately throw away that nagging thought in your brain that tells you Jimin really did only go to the dinner because of you. You should cast it away, because this request is not dressed in sweetness. It’s implications are just a testament to the relationship between you: the friends and something more but nothing too much. Not ever to be more. It’s already settled, unlike him and that girl who could still take a relationship in any direction they want.

Your hand curls on your lap in recollection.

“To be honest, I’m not really feeling sex tonight.”

The car continues down the road, smoothly trailing closer to your apartment less than minutes away. The air conditioning’s breeze does more than it needs to as your legs garner goosebumps that you notice with the silence. Only a second passes then another, but it feels slow and you cannot stop your thumbs rubbing against each other.

“That’s fine. I’m not very interested in that either right now.” You glance towards Jimin, but it’s noticeable as your hair shifts and your eyes gleam from the passing street lights. Pondering the implications of his words should be at the forefront of your mind, but they are shoved aside by satisfaction. Satisfaction that he doesn’t just think of you for sex-- logically you never did consider that to be the case, but the words are reassuring. There’s still the friendship; a connection you care about more. “But I understand if you don’t want me to-”

“You can.”

You catch the corner of his lip curling upwards, but he stares ahead at the road. Resting his head against his knuckles as he eases the car around the last corner with a single hand, Jimin hums softly, and your hands close atop your lap with his reaction. You don’t bother smothering the small smile of your own, and can’t stop a tiny, playful scoff as he finally speaks up, “Slumber party it is then.”

---

“Hey,” You begin as the television streams a movie long forgotten about. Though opposite sides of the couch were occupied originally, Jimin mentioned simply through a soft mumble that his chest is comfier than the awkward positioning of your head on the stiff armrest, so the current arrangement of your body loosely entangled atop of his came to be. For a moment before being coaxed by his offer, you tried to play it off, giving a little hum and a small glance from him to the television then back again when he poked your thigh with his toe. His lips were a bit pursed, but he smiled like he knew you were trying to play it coy. Who were you to feign resisting further? “I thought you said earlier that you had to go home so your manager wouldn’t kill you in the morning?”

Jimin chuckles, fingertips easing in a slow trail along your back, before going up then back down like a leisurely gondola ride. You don’t believe you care about whatever reason he gives you for tagging along. You think you just wanted to talk and take your focus away from the embrace that you don’t know how to categorize.

“Like I said earlier too: I just went to begin with because you did.”

“You didn’t even sit with me.” The words come out in a mumble with a tone that sounds too whiny, and you wish they hadn’t slipped out so easily. Jimin shifts beneath you, adjusting your frame with his hands that find your waist and his neck cranes to look at you,

“What was that?” His grin teases you, clearly amused by your little admission. You huff, trying to avoid his gaze as a blush of embarrassment threatens to creep to the surface. “And this whole time I was wondering why you kept looking over at me, baby.”

“Jimin,” You bite your lip, now trying to count the amount of times you may have glanced over at him, and wondering how in the world he ever caught sight of a lot of them. You open your mouth to continue, but find nothing to say further in your flustered state. Jimin’s eyebrows raise as though he awaits for whatever you want to say as a rebuttal. You put your hand to his cheek and gently attempt pushing his stare back to the television.

“No-” He laughs, resisting your lackluster strength and simply takes hold of your forearm with one of his hands. “Go on, baby, tell me what you wanted to.”

You don’t know what you wanted to say, and really there’s nothing for you to complain about in the first place. How was he supposed to know, and given the way things were between them, who are you to ask for a specific seating arrangement out in public? Especially with all of the other employees, and especially when that girl went out of the way to monopolize him herself.

“Well, I wasn’t going to interrupt you and that other girl.” Your lips clamp shut. Thankful you’re not looking him in the eyes as yet another uncontrolled thought escaped, you merely breathe in through your nostrils, briefly considering that you stepped beyond a line you should not have.

“What girl?” He asks you like nothing else in the statement could concern him. Slowly, hesitantly, your eyes find him once more. Jimin’s focus is calm, yet something about his expression tells you that beyond confusion he wants to settle any worries. Whether obligated or not.

“The one who grabbed your arm on the way in,” You say, captured by his eyes that feel more intimate than you’re used to. “She’s clearly in to you.”

Jimin’s head tilts to the side, lips remain in a straight line and there’s nothing to say the idea interests him. “Didn’t notice.”

“Yeah, right.” You press without knowing why. If it bothers you, it would make sense for you to leave the subject untouched further, not to try and peek at his own interest in the subject. “It was clear to me.”

“Yeah?” One corner of his mouth rises. A strong beat in your chest ricochets within your ribcage, and your hand begins to curl a grip onto his shirt as he inches closer. “Couldn’t care less about her.”

The moment Jimin intends to press his lips to yours, you shift your head, causing a collision with his kiss landing on your cheek. Your hand remains tightened on the fabric of his shirt, certainly able to give it wrinkles as time passes. Jimin’s eyes blink as he pulls back, now appearing to be concerned he may have done something wrong, and he nearly verbalizes his worries, but you beat him to it.

“You’re not allowed to kiss my lips tonight.” The matter-of-fact tone stops Jimin’s mind in his tracks. His head tilts again, and a single breathy chuckle leaves his lips in a baffled confusion,

“Am I being punished?”

“Maybe.” Jimin’s head falls back against the couch with laughter at your words. A small fit, but nonetheless finding himself amused and from the appearance of his cheerful eyes when he looks at you again, you think he may even be endeared.

“Just your lips, baby?” He questions with a bright voice, causing your eyebrows to furrow in confusion at his question. Answering the curiosity towards his words, Jimin leans towards you, lips brushing along the bridge of your nose, testing. Your lips tighten into a line, not dissatisfied but instead trying not to show any of the flowers growing meadows in your hearts from his action. Like he graces you with sunlight, Jimin slowly moves his lips to the apples of your cheek, kissing softly.

“Can I confess something too?” He utters the molten words as another peck lands on your forehead, following along a path of his own to continue in tiny ministrations. You hum, feeling your hand relax its grip on his shirt, and your body nearly growing limp from his tender actions. “I didn’t have a great time watching that guy flirt with you all night, baby.”

Your eyes open as you tug your head away looking down at Jimin in surprise. He smiles at your stupor, reaching a hand to cup your cheek and guiding his thumb to ghost over the skin just beside your mouth. “Who was flirting with me?”

“You’re adorable-”

“The guy across from me? I don’t think so-- he’s just hoping I make a good song for their group’s next comeback.”

“It’s pretty common knowledge among the artists that he has a soft spot for you, actually.” Jimin elaborates simply, eyes gazing from yours to your lips. You watch his jaw tighten and can’t help your chest tighten from his reaction to the whole thing. You wonder if he’s ever said anything to the guy in regards to you, but you’re sure not. “Can’t say I blame him, though.”

“You’re pouting.” You smile then grin as Jimin groans softly and stretches his neck to avoid your assessment. “Adorable.”

Your copycat compliment makes Jimin chuckle with a roll of his eyes. His hand on your back tugs you back to him, and you do nothing but giggle as his lips find the space beside your own, kissing in a gentle frenzy. Mindlessly your fingers tangle in his hair, once again content as he follows your silly rule and leaves his lips kissing just next to your lips, warming the skin and making your heart flutter.

“Jimin,” You murmur, listening to his blissful hum as he breaks from your skin only to reposition a kiss on the tip of your nose so that his eyes can find yours when you speak again in a bashful voice, “Punishment’s over.”

Jimin smiles, not even sparing a second of teasing as he mumbles his words against your lips, “Say less.”

#sorry for the delay had a tough week and a half but at least this is pretty lengthy hehe #jimin fanfiction #jimin prompt #jimin fluff #jimin imagines #bts imagines #bts fanfiction #bts prompt #bts fluff #series veil #all

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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The Nevers Star Laura Donnelly Answers Burning Finale Questions

https://ift.tt/3uSp933

The following contains major spoilers for The Nevers episode 6.

The star of HBO sci-fi series The Nevers has never shied away from the fact that the show’s sixth episode would be a big one.

“Six is an extraordinary episode,” Donnelly (who plays Amalia True) told Den of Geek prior to the series premiere. “It provides a lot of the answers to the questions that the audience might have. It seemed like a very natural cut-off point.”

Whether episode 6, titled “True”, is a natural cut-off point remains to be seen. Due to the coronavirus pandemic suspending production, the show’s initial 10-episode first season order was shortened to six and “Part 2” (containing six more episodes for a total of 12) is set to arrive at a later date. It’s hard to argue though that episode 6 is anything but extraordinary.

How HBO’s The Nevers Explores a Very Different Vision of Victorian Girl Power

By Lacy Baugher

“True” doesn’t merely provide some answers to long-running Nevers questions – it basically upends the premise of the entire show. It turns out that creator Joss Whedon’s initial vision for The Nevers wasn’t merely Victorian ladies with supernatural powers, but that of a much larger story about the human race on the edge of collapse and a dimension-hopping alien species intent on helping us.

Whedon departed the project during the production delay so when the show returns it will be up to new showrunner Philippa Goslett to shepherd this bold new vision. To get ready for that, Den of Geek spoke with Donnelly about the many revelations of episode 6 and what the future of The Nevers entails.

For those looking for a more complete rundown of just what happened in this truly wild episode, check out our explainer over here. But here Donnelly does an admirable job of unwinding “True’s” many twists.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Den of Geek: I participated in the press day interviews before the season premiered. Now I’m wondering what was that press day experience like on your end? People ask you “So what’s your show about? What’s going on?” And then you just kind of have to sit back and lie!

Laura Donnelly: It’s the most frustrating thing ever. I wanted to go into some details but honestly it felt like I could say nothing without unraveling an entire six-episode arc. People would ask me “How did you research to get into the role?” I can’t say that I researched what it might be like to train in the army, what combat would be like with PTSD, things like that. So I’m left going, “Oh, I just read some books on what it’s like in Victorian times.” It made me sound like a really lame researcher.

You mentioned back in those pre-air interviews that when you first had the meeting for this show, Joss gave you kind of the “whole picture.” Was this episode what that meeting was referring to? And what was your reaction like when you first heard it all?

Well, it was obviously then that I realized I was not dealing with Victorian X-Men. (That meeting) introduced the idea of having an entire backstory of somebody who has been through so much and then gets thrown into this situation and has to deal with it. I just knew that that was going to be such a deep dive into this character and that there was going to be so much to be able to explore with it. Then it was bringing in the elements of how the show is relevant to today, not just in an allegorical sense, but literally – how they are trying to go back in time to make sure that humans do better.

I couldn’t believe that a mind or a show could hold that much. And I knew that I had to be a part of it. What blew me away about (episode) six was that I didn’t know the details, how the story would be told and everything. Now I just can’t believe that with this single hour of television, they managed to tell all of these separate stories with such beauty and nuance. And not just with a ton of exposition, but instead, showing these things in the most clear way possible and that you find out so much in such a short period of time.

Definitely. The first chapter in this episode is really filled with futuristic sci-fi jargon and there is very, very little expository dialogue. Maybe this is a non-sequitur, but have you ever seen the movie Primer? It kind of reminded me of that in that sense.

No.

It’s a time travel movie made by Shane Carruth a while back (Editor’s Note: 2004). And all of the dialogue is just complete jargon that only an expert in theoretical physics would understand for basically the whole runtime, but the audience is still able to pick up what’s happening for the most part. This episode just reminded me of that.

Yeah. I love it for that. I love it for the fact that it rewards intensive viewing. It’s not the show that you can watch while you’re scrolling on your phone. If you are willing to just buy into that, you realize that on first watch you get the important information: the Galanthi are an alien race that are here to help humanity from itself, and that Stripe is Amalia. Then everything after that the more passion you bring to watching it, the more you get out of it.

I finished my first re-watch right before this interview and I think I finally understand just now how and why Stripe got sent back in time by the Galanthi. Because things are too far gone now. The Galanthi are finally going to really help and their version of really helping is just “We’ve got to go back. Humanity needs a fresh start.”

Yeah! I loved that there were things that I realized from watching it that I hadn’t picked up in the reading of the script. When they suddenly realize that the portal is an exit one and not an entrance one, that makes Knitter (Ellora Torchia) in that moment lose all hope. But what you come to realize is that that is not a moment of despair actually. You realize that the reason that they had an exit portal was because they had a plan and they weren’t coming back. You see that with the Victorian artifacts in the room. In fact, this plan was brought together with the scientists. They were working on that together. That was only something that I caught from watching it.

What was it like watching Claudia Black play your character?

I thought she did a really, really beautiful job. It was strange for me because I wanted them to shoot that before I shot my Stripe stuff, so that I would have a lot more to go on to replicate when I first land in the asylum. But it just couldn’t work out that way and they had to shoot all of Claudia and the future stuff after I’d already shot in the asylum. I went in and watched a lot of their rehearsals and got some video footage of their rehearsals and stuff so I had a good idea of what it was that she was doing with that, but it was just amazing to watch the whole thing put together. It’s like the final piece of a puzzle that I didn’t even have any say in. I was just kind of glad really that it matched up to what I had in my head, because I’d been having to make a lot of guesses when it came to playing Stripe in the asylum.

It occurs to me now that for five episodes you’ve been playing a woman with a North American accent doing an old-timey Victorian British accent. What was that process like?

It allowed a little freedom actually because, on her part, it’s a learned accent. I didn’t have to be hugely strict about the rules of what would be particularly Victorian. I allowed myself to bring a little more modernity to how she would phrase something. I kind of hoped that people would pick up on the idea that Amalia seemed, in some indistinguishable way, slightly anachronistic. I also then kind of hoped that there would even be the odd person going, “Oh, well her accent’s slipped there, she got it wrong there” or whatever, because I kind of felt once you then see episode six, they’d see why.

When you think of the character in your head, what name comes to mind first: Molly, Zephyr, Amalia, or Stripe?

Amalia, actually, but the second one that would come would be Stripe. It’s funny, “Zephyr” is the last one I think of and I think that that is probably true of Amalia as well in that it is so far pushed down. It is so far into her past for so many different reasons. It would be too painful to have all of the implications that the Zephyr name carries in the forefront of her mind. In her soldier way of being, she just needs to constantly move forward.

Again, back before the season premiered when I spoke to you and Ann (Skelly), my first question was about characters’ names and how they were a little odd. Perhaps that was a bit prescient because in the far flung future names are sacred. What was your impression of that concept and why do you think names have become sacred?

I wonder if it’s just the idea that it’s the only little bit of recognizable humanity left for them. I think that people will always find a way of making something sacred. You need what is sacred to you at times when things are most difficult. You’re looking at a human race that doesn’t even have real food. Everything is engineered and they can’t even breathe the air outside. The sacred can be very important in moments of deep, deep despair like that. A name is something that everybody can have, and a name is something that everybody can therefore keep for themselves.

At the same time, it also speaks to the idea that everybody then is involved in that war on one side or the other. It doesn’t seem to me that you’ve got the army and then you’ve got citizens. It seems to me like everybody at that point in humanity as they’re coming towards the end is on one side or the other and is fighting. That means that everybody is being called by their rank, and so Stripe is known as Stripe That also makes a name more sacred because it’s the part of you that isn’t involved in this war. It’s the last vestige of true humanity that you might have left.

Any updates on the production process for part 2? I believe last time you had yet to see any scripts.

I’ve had lots of conversations with (new showrunner) Philippa Goslett and with Ilene (Landress), our producer but I have as yet not read a script. I’m just waiting, but I’m in prep. I know enough about the next couple of episodes to know what fights I need to learn and things like that.

I cannot imagine being in Philippa’s shoes right now. Showrunner changes happen all the time but this is one of the more unusual narrative circumstances to fall into, I think.

Absolutely. I mean, the show is wild, but I think that, whatever else happened, we were so fortunate that episode six became this very natural break point in the story for obvious reasons. So much has been wrapped up. I feel like the world is built and the characters are established, you know. It really could go pretty much anywhere from here and it just needs somebody’s brilliant imagination to do that.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Now that the real plot behind the curtain was revealed, does the name “The Nevers” have any more added significance?

Not that I’m aware of, no. I think the only thing that I have to go on about the name is something that Joss said several years back about the idea that these people never should have existed. They’re anomalies or even the more pejorative term – abominations.

Do you think future seasons and storylines of the show will take things past Victorian England and inch closer to that dystopian present?

I mean, I would love for it to. It makes sense to me that it started in Victorian times because that was a key moment of change in so many different ways in how the world communicates. There are kind of several revolutions going on at once, technological being one of the main ones. But it would be really interesting then to see how that progresses, and the issues at hand get dealt with, depending on the social aspects of different countries or different decades. The key to all of that is can you find a really cool way of doing it? Because my head isn’t able to come up with that. Whatever keeps the storyline the most interesting, keeps the characters true to themselves, and doesn’t jump the shark, I’m well up for.

The Nevers season 1 part 2 is awaiting a release date at HBO.

The post The Nevers Star Laura Donnelly Answers Burning Finale Questions appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3uUOxF8

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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straykidsupdate · 6 years ago

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Stray Kids on Growing Up, Taking More Creative Risks, and Dealing with Self-Doubt

Stray Kids are following their own path. And that reluctance to play by anyone else's rules is precisely what makes this group of teens and young adults stand out. They've been releasing some of the boldest tracks in K-pop since making their debut with the blistering "District 9" a year ago, a song that harnessed their teen angst into a dizzying mix of hip-hop, rock, and EDM and quickly established them as rookie group to watch.

It's their ability to channel that raw emotion into their music that has resonated with fans all over the world, many of whom are on the cusp of adulthood themselves. As such, the group's signature sound can't be contained in a single genre; it's more of a state of being — a deeply earnest one.

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"Stray Kids music is music that's relatable and can help you out when you're having a hard time," leader Bang Chan tells MTV News over the phone from Seoul, where the group is preparing to embark on their first solo U.S. tour. Though, he quick to add, "It's got a lot of energy, doesn't it?"

And nowhere is that empathy and energy more apparent than on their latest single, "Miroh." Inspired by the word miro, or "maze" in Korean, the boisterous track — produced by members Bang Chan, Han, and Changbin, otherwise known as 3racha — is a cacophony of sounds, rhythms, chants, and animal noises. The hook is massive, a perfect stadium-sized banger that shows off the group's grit and potential. "It’s not hard / in this rough jungle," Bang Chan sings. "It was me who ran into it / I'm okay."

"'Miroh' was a really big attempt," the 21-year-old singer and producer said. "It shows that as we're getting older we tend to take more risks and try out new experiences, challenge ourselves."

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And as members Bang Chan, Woojin, Lee Know, Changbin, Hyunjin, Han, Felix, Seungmin, and I.N grow and mature, so does their music. Their previous I Am... series focused heavily on the theme of identity through the teenage perspective. Who am I? Who am I trying to be? And does everyone feel scared and aimless like I do sometimes? With their most recent release, Clé 1: Miroh, it's clear that these questions are still at the forefront of their minds — and they're facing them head-on, charging into adolescent uncertainty with newfound confidence and perspective that comes when you enter your twenties. And of course, a bit of bravado. Their song "Boxer" opens with a cheeky declaration: "Hello, I’m a young man who can fly anywhere."

Within that "long but short kind of period" since their debut, Stray Kids have released four EPs and one pre-debut mixtape, all of which have been primarily written and produced by the members themselves. While 3racha have shaped the majority of the group's discography, all nine members are credited writers and encouraged to contribute to the production.

"The fact that we make our own music is one of [our] biggest weapons because that way it's a bit more genuine," Bang Chan said. "It's the message that we form and want to send everyone."

"It's much easier to express ourselves and express how we feel to the fans," rapper, and fellow Aussie, Felix added. "It's way more honest as well," Bang Chan concluded. "It's really important to Stray Kids."

That creative ethos starts with Bang Chan, who put the group together when they were trainees under Korea's JYP Entertainment. (The Stray Kids logo is even written in his handwriting.) Fans were first introduced to the Australia-raised leader on the group's survival program, aptly titled Stray Kids. Over the course of 10 episodes, Stray Kids — then teenagers with big dreams — underwent teamwork challenges and regular evaluations for the chance to debut together as a group. The series documented the nine individuals as they prepared their blustery pre-debut song "Hellevator," producing and practicing around the clock for a dream that was never very certain. In fact, members Felix and Lee Know were originally eliminated from the project but were ultimately brought back in the final episode, giving even more meaning to the phrase "nine or none."

The group's nonstop pace didn't slow down after their debut, either. If anything, the desire to create and funnel their questions into their music got even stronger because of their fans (called STAY).

As such, they're always creating. And when they feel stuck, they resort to the kinds of distractions you might expect from a group of young men: fresh air, movies (Creed), and anime (One Piece) for Bang Chan; video games and EDM music for Felix, who added, "I've been listening to 'My Pace' a lot."

"I'm always on my laptop trying to make new stuff, whenever we have free time," Bang Chan said. "On the plane as well. I make a lot of music on the plane. I remember I worked on 'I Am You' on the plane to New York last year. And we did use a bit of it, so it was pretty good."

Of course, with that comes its own unique kind of pressure. "There's that feeling of, 'Will people like this music? Will our fans like this music? Will STAYs like this music?' Sometimes, that can get into our heads," he said. "Trying to satisfy everyone is going to be an eternal challenge." Trying to do so while keeping up with the furious pace Stray Kids' set in their first year is also challenging.

So it makes sense that time (examining it, questioning it, running away from it) is a running theme throughout Miroh. Album closer "19" is a moody and personal song, written and produced by member Han, that finds him navigating that age between adolescence and adulthood. "Maze Of Memories" is a hip-hop track in which the cadence matches the various twists and turns one might encounter while chasing your dreams. It starts off slow and foreboding, then evolves into something darker and more sinister — a nightmarish soundscape — before ending with a confident refrain of "never give up." And then there's "Chronosaurus," an atmospheric song that associates time with something to be afraid of.

"While I was writing 'Chronosaurus' I did think a lot that time is something that has a lot of pressure attached to it. Even when you're taking a test there's always a time limit, or when you're working there's always a deadline," Bang Chan said.

"I would love to have a superpower that could control time because then I could do whatever I want," he added, laughing. "But time being something that no one can stop, because it's something that's always going to be with me anyway, you might as well get comfortable with it. Try to take some of the pressure off it."

This candid exploration is something that means a lot to their fans, many of whom are also navigating their own everyday struggles — running into their own mazes and up against deadlines. "We wanted to spread the message that you guys aren't the only ones," the leader told the passionate crowd of fans at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center on Tuesday night (May 14), the first of two sold-out nights and the first stop of the U.S. leg of their Unveil world tour. The two-hour set traces the group's young discography, telling the story of Stray Kids from the beginning.

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#stray kids #190515 #era: clé 1 miroh #mtv #t: article

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calzona-ga · 5 years ago

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Beginning with Thursday's episode, titled "Save the Last Dance for Me" and directed by Jesse Williams, ABC's long-running medical drama welcomes deaf actress Shoshannah Stern to Grey Sloan for a multi-episode arc as Dr. Lauren Riley, a renowned diagnostics expert recruited by Dr. Andrew DeLuca (Giacomo Gianniotti) to help heal a supposedly incurable patient, played by Suits alum Sarah Rafferty.

Stern's introduction on Grey's is a monumental one, as her character marks one of the only times a deaf doctor will be prominently featured on primetime television. (Previously, deaf M.D.s have included Heroes' Emma Coolidge, a file clerk at a hospital, and ER's Dr. Lisa Parks, who appeared in two episodes.) For Stern, who co-created the deaf dramedy This Close alongsideJosh Feldman and has appeared on shows like Supernatural, coming onto Grey's was an opportunity to shine a light on a community that hasn't been given its time in the spotlight.

"I think having a deaf doctor on a show like this could change, even save lives. But I think what’s most incredible about it is the level of collaboration that happened behind the scenes in order to make this come to life," Stern tells ET. "Grey’s didn’t just collaborate with me, they also reached out to several other deaf doctors to make sure that what they were writing was accurate. I really don’t think Dr. Riley could or should have happened any other way. Maybe that’s why she is one of the first. Maybe that’s how she had to be brought to life."

In an interview with ET, conducted over email, Stern revealed how a chance conversation with showrunner Krista Vernoff landed her with a guest arc on Grey's, her experience being directed by Williams and what she hopes the introduction of Dr. Riley adds to the narrative of deaf storytelling and deaf characters on television.

ET: In 16 seasons of Grey's Anatomy, we haven't seen a character quite like Dr. Lauren Riley. How did the opportunity to join the season come about? Was the character written with you in mind? Shoshannah Stern: I’ve always wanted to be a doctor on Grey’s. Always. And when I got the opportunity to meet Krista Vernoff, the showrunner, we talked about inclusion because Grey’s has done really wonderful things with that. One of the reasons I love the show is because it really embraces using the platform it has to educate people. A lot of other shows are afraid of doing that, but not Grey’s. And Krista is brilliant. I think she’s the kind of person who would rather listen than talk. One of the other things we were talking about when we met, was how I was personally affected by the writers' strike. She asked me if I needed a job in the writers' room and in a moment of complete stupidity I said to her, “No, because I want to be a deaf doctor on Grey’s.” In my defense, I was stupid delirious on cold medicine at the time, but the moral of this story might be that I need to be more stupid, because she invited me into the writers' room as a result. I got to sit down with her and all the writers and talk about our ideas for this character for a few hours. It was incredible. I know I’ll never forget it.

This is one of the only times a doctor who is deaf will be featured prominently on primetime television. How does it feel to be at the forefront of crucial cultural moments like this one? I couldn’t believe it when I found out Dr. Riley was going to be one of the first deaf doctors not just on Grey’s, but on all of television. I was like, "No, that can’t be right?" There is a whole organization for deaf people in the medical field called the AMPHL that I followed even before I did this, because I’m a nerd like that, so it’s something that is very real but hasn’t been represented before. And they work tirelessly to make real and exciting change in the field. I’m so incredibly honored to help shine a light on what they do. I think having a deaf doctor on a show like this could change, even save lives. But I think what’s most incredible about it is the level of collaboration that happened behind the scenes in order to make this come to life. Grey’s didn’t just collaborate with me, they also reached out to several other deaf doctors to make sure that what they were writing was accurate. I really don’t think Dr. Riley could or should have happened any other way. Maybe that’s why she is one of the first. Maybe that’s how she had to be brought to life.

What conversations did you have with the producers and writers about making sure Dr. Riley's experiences and abilities were portrayed accurately? Did they seek out your guidance throughout the process? Grey’s was the most collaborative experience I’ve ever had on a show that was not mine. Apart from that initial two-hour-long conversation we had in the writers' room where I brought folders of research I’d done and the ideas they’d inspired, I got to share thoughts on the scripts when they were ready. It didn’t matter if they were bigger character thoughts or tiny things like me not being able to pronounce a specific word and needing to swap it out, they were always super-receptive to them. Jesse Williams, who directed Dr. Riley’s first episode, also asked to meet with me before we shot to map out not just how Riley would communicate, but also the kind of stuff I’d need from him blocking-wise as a deaf actor. He honestly blew me away. I’ve never met someone who understood the deaf experience as immediately and viscerally as he did. Krista even allowed me to work with the editors in order to give visual notes on the cuts. It was next level amazing.

What was important to you in your portrayal of this character? It was important to me that rather than Dr. Riley overcoming this insurmountable obstacle of deafness in order to be great at her job, her being deaf actually made her better at what she did. It was also important to me that her being deaf wasn’t central to her character, and that she didn’t have to continually explain to everyone else that she was a deaf person existing in this world. A lot of times when deaf characters are shown on television, they show the struggle and that’s not authentic. It’s not because it’s never a struggle, but it’s always executed as if it’s something that’s happening for the very first time. And most of the time, deaf people have already been deaf for a very long time, so they’ve got this. In reality, it’s the other people around them who struggle because they’re like, Oh, OK, I have no experience communicating with this person in this particular way. That’s what the new experience actually is, and I think we got to show that in a very organic way.

You've been vocal about your desires for deaf storytelling and deaf characters to be written and approached in a respectful, fully-dimensional way. How do you think the introduction of Dr. Riley adds to the narrative?She’s an incredible example, hopefully, for how collaboration can and should work when incorporating deaf characters, or really, any character from a minority community. I think a lot of times, people are afraid to collaborate because they don’t want to give up ownership. And as a creative, I totally get that. You feel like the characters and the stories you create are your babies. But ultimately collaboration is about empowerment. And empowerment is not about sacrificing power. It’s saying, “I don’t know about this because I haven’t lived it for myself, so please tell me more.” And doing that makes the project stronger as a result. I didn’t write, produce or direct any of the episodes that Dr. Riley is in. But I think the common goal all of us had was simply that we had the project’s best interest at heart, so I was allowed the space I needed to make Dr. Riley as authentic as I possibly could within their parameters. I didn’t come in and set these parameters. It’s not my show, it’s their show, and I’m so honored and grateful to be on it. That’s really the model of how it should be, and that’s so incredibly important. Can you set the table for how Dr. Riley comes into the fold at Grey Sloan? We met Suzanne Britland, played by the awesome Sarah Rafferty, a couple weeks ago. She’s been in and out of the hospital and nobody can quite figure out what’s wrong with her and it’s kind of haunting DeLuca. So he decides to turn to this master diagnostician who’s a genius at what she does to help him figure out what’s going on with the case, and that’s Dr. Riley.

You work closely with Giacomo Gianniotti on a medical case involving Suits star Sarah Rafferty, and you even share a moment with Ellen Pompeo. How would you describe your experience on set working alongside this cast? It’s the craziest thing because when Giacomo was introduced on the show, he resonated with me because he spoke Italian. That episode where DeLuca and his sister, Carina, argue in Italian in subtitles and nobody around them understands them, as well as him dating someone who didn’t know his native language and was learning it for him, all that reminded me of This Close. There was just a feeling I had about that character, so when Krista told me that DeLuca would be the character that Dr. Riley would work with, I was just like, "OK, yeah." It was almost like something that had already been written. I have to say I was totally shvitzing about working with Ellen just because she’s a legend, but she’s so refreshingly and passionately invested in what she does. She asks a lot of questions and was super great to work with. Sarah is a dream. She’s so cool and talented. I had just started watching Suits when I was sick in bed a couple months before, and so I asked her lots of questions about all her awesome outfits! This is just the beginning of your time on Grey's. What is in store for your character beyond this episode? I think her first episode is a lot about establishing her as a force because Dr. Riley is a fighter. I think a lot of that is because she knows she has to be kind of like a dog with a bone with the sort of job that she has. If she spent her time educating everyone in the room about how they should communicate with her or making sure that everyone was OK with her personality, the patient would be dead by the time she finished. She literally doesn’t have the time for that. But I think the more Dr. Riley hangs around, the more we’re going to learn about who she is beyond that initial impression. She’s had a lot of practice with advocating for herself, so she’s definitely someone who’s not afraid to speak her mind or stand up for herself and others. I think that might end up having an impact on other people and their interpersonal relationships in ways that may be surprising.

#grey's anatomy #scoop #Shoshannah Stern #etonline #16x13

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pedanticat · 6 years ago

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Marco Diaz Wasted Character Development

Over the course of the series, there have been a couple of characters who have come a long way from their season one version om Star vs the Forces of Evil. Star went from an irresponsible teen who could care less about her royal title to someone who used said title to fix the strained relations between monsters and mewmans, Tom went from jealous ex with anger issues who couldn’t let go of Star to a more laid back guy who accepted that he needs to find someone who actually makes him happy and Buff Frog went from an evil minion of Ludo’s to becoming a proud and loving father. However, there’s one character who hadn’t fully developed despite being at the forefront of the series right with Star and that character is none other than Marco Diaz. Now you may be confused as to why I think Marco hasn’t developed as a character, after all, he has come a long way from the safe kid he was back in season one. Now while it is true that the Marco we have now is much different from the version we had in season one, I wouldn’t call his development necessarily great.

What I really liked about Marco character when the show first started was how he was able to fight side by side with Star. Despite being a regular human who has lived a normal life, he was able to go toe to toe with monsters and magical creatures due to his training in karate. Season one and two really focuses on the fact that Marco is a skilled martial artist and take pride in his combat skill with him also aiming to become a better fighter such as in the episode Red Belt where he seeks to move on from a green belt to a red belt. Marco also became more confident, less insecure and more daring as the show went on, which was expected given how it was an obvious direction for his character to go in given how we’re told he's known as the safe kid at Echo Creek Academy. However, the biggest misstep in Marco development was the episode Running With Scissors.

Running with Scissors was a good episode when it first came out with many people, myself included, enjoying it. Though as you can tell from my previous paragraph, my thoughts have changed since then. The episode mainly focused on Marco getting back Star scissors by blowing out Hekapoo flame. After 16 years of traveling, maturing and hardcore training, he tracks down the real Hekapoo, blows out the flame and even gets his own pair of scissors. Now he ends up going to Earth due to Star convincing him that he should come back with him then reverting back to his 14-year-old self. The episode ends on this somber note with Marco realizing he doesn't even remember the password for his laptop before deciding to take the laser puppies out on a walk. With how the episode ended, it seemed to implied that after traveling 16 years through various dimensions, that he’s no longer the same person anymore and things are going to be different. Yet that wasn’t the case at all and the whole plot point about his 16 years of travel was basically abandoned and never brought up again. In the second Marco Diaz live stream that aired a while after the episode, it’s revealed that’s Marco memory of the sixteen years in Hekapoo's dimension are slowly becoming like a hazy dream or an old childhood memory. Now while this line did make the episode pointless in hindsight, I didn’t really mind since the episode was still a fun one and it showed how determined Marco could be when he put his mind to something. So I continued to enjoy the rest of season 2 without giving the 16-year plot thread any serious thought. However, despite it at the time seems like the episode wouldn’t’ really be important later on in the series, it ended up affecting Marco development in season 3 and 4.

Season 3 shifts the focus from Earth to Mewni, which resulted in Marco moving to Mewni also where he became Star’s squire. Now Marco becoming a squire was an interesting idea and we’re told that he has participated in activities with other squire’s. Now, this is where we enter the first road bump with Marco character development: we don’t his journey from squire into becoming a full-fledged knight. He’s made a squire in Lint Catcher and then he becomes knighted in Knight Shift with no episodes showing his training as a squire. This was a big moment in Marco character development yet it was never shown and focused on. Just like how we saw Star slowly become better at magic due to episodes focusing on that development, we should have had episodes that showed Marco training in becoming a knight.

The second road bump that occurs in Marco development as a character is retconning how much Marco remembers from his 16 years of travel. In the episode Divide, he says to Star “You forget I have 16 years of experience fighting thousands of Hekapoos.”. Now I hate this line for two reasons. First, they have him say that instead of saying that he improved as a fighter due to his as his training as a squire, which honestly would have made more sense considering that what he was apparently doing in season 3. And secondly, it contradicts with what we saw from Marco character after the events of Running with Scissors and what Adam McArthur said in the Marco Diaz live stream about him soon forgetting almost everything about the 16 years. By keeping the fact that Marco remembers what he did in those 16 years, the show ended up giving him 16 years of character development without showing any of it! Sure, the same could be said about the Squire plot thread but its worse since instead of months its 16 years of him becoming a more skilled fighter and growing as a person. Furthermore, if he developed in those 16 years, it makes his behavior strange in places since he should technically be more mature, but as we saw in the aftermath of Running with Scissors, that didn’t seem to be the case at all. Based on that, it makes the staff seem to be very selective about which aspects of Marco character developed from the 16 years of travel and exactly how much he remembers. The problem is particularly noticeable in A Boy and His DC-700XE since he’s apart of a dragon cycle gang that love going on thrilling rides and doing crazy stunts with the reason Marco is cool and great at it being due to his 16 years of training, which again, wasn’t shown.

Tom and Star development worked because we actually saw them developed as characters in the series. If we didn’t see Star practicing her magic or Tom working on his issues, those arcs wouldn’t feel as satisfying as they ended up being. Marco did have solid on-screen development in season 1 and 2 but the staff then started making a lot of his development in season 3 and 4 ties into things that we never got to see him do. It also doesn't help that he was pushed to the sideline for a good chunk of season 3. Running with Scissors did more harm than good for Marco character development and started dozens of arguments about his age that I don’t even want to begin to get into.

#pc discussion #marco diaz #star vs the forces of evil #svtfoe #hekapoo #star butterfly #tom lucitor #Running With Scissors #buff frog

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yyrz · 6 years ago

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breath, faith, taste

note: IT’S VALENTINES and you know what that means!!!

also, an entry to @bnha-angst-week day 7: roses // time

the title lyric is from face my fears by utada hikaru because im kh trash. and also because i wrote this with no title in mind and that just started playing and there, here we are

disclaimer: blood mention, vomiting mention, death mention

(all my, all my life)

ao3 link! | fic masterlist!

The petals littering her floor cover the blood she’d spit out hours ago.

White dahlias. Those are white dahlias, from the google search she did hours ago. Kyouka doesn't know what they mean. What they are, really. She doesn't want to continue reading the page she skimmed quickly, doesn't want to know why she's coughing them up whenever her thoughts stray towards Momo—

Momo, who's in the process of meeting her partner-to-be, trapped in a marriage meeting with her parents. Momo, whose excitement felt palpable from the moment it was announced that she'd finally be wed on the eve of next year’s winter solstice. Momo, whose tears ran tracks on her cheeks, all of which Kyouka kissed away, wishing her a bit of simple good luck before letting her go.

Happiness, Kyouka told herself, watching as the Yaoyorozu family car drove away, taking the person responsible for the festering feelings in her chest. Momo was crying tears of happiness.

Don't be selfish Kyouka. She’s not crying because of her freedom and marriage to a stranger feel like a ticking time bomb. Not because your hands cupping her cheeks feel like a goodbye.

Not because you’ll stop being her friend after this whole ordeal is settled with signatures on a contract, irreversible in the eyes of the law. You’ll never stop being her friend.

Not because— not because it feels like you’re giving her away— like you’re not fighting— because you don’t want to just be her friend—— don’t be silly.

ii.

The eve of the New Year looms closer and closer, each day making Kyouka fold into herself with anxiety that, in other circumstances, wouldn’t be present in her overall demeanor. But then, those other circumstances aren’t always so filled with thoughts about Momo. And ever since her winter break, it’s been nothing but Momo in her head.

All she can do is wait for the news. Momo hasn’t called or texted her at all. The break is almost at its end — by next week, they’ll all be back in class.

Maybe Kyouka can wait until then. Maybe Momo’s busy.

An itch makes its way up her throat at the thought of Momo being busy with her... with her fiance. She suppresses it, desperate to keep the flowers from spilling from her lips. A fist is shoved into her mouth, and she forces herself not to let out the dinner she’d eaten earlier, as well as the flowers churning deep in her lungs. Knuckles white, grimace clear on her face, Kyouka finds herself losing as she succumbs to the feeling of dread forcing itself up her throat.

Her dinner comes first, and then the flowers, caked with blood, splattering against the hardwood floor. She’ll have a hard time scrubbing it away, she notes, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. Not that she can leave it alone unless she wanted to explain to her parents just why she’d been throwing up flowers.

With that thought in mind, Kyouka sets off to clean up her mess.

As she picks up the last clumps of bloodied dahlias, her phone rings. The sound of Satie’s Gymnopedie No. 1 makes her drop every she’s holding, fingers fumbling to answer the call. No matter if her phone's smeared with blood now — it’s Momo who's calling her, so of course she'd answer with the promptness of an ignored soul.

“Jirou-san!” At once, everything in Kyouka’s mind clears as Momo’s voice echoes from her phone speakers, almost bouncing with glee.

They talk for hours. Kyouka’s forced to keep her coughing to a bare minimum as Momo gushed on and on about her break, asking Kyouka for details of her own. Stories fill the gap between them, and Kyouka's heart soars when she hears Momo laugh. The growing flowers seem to shrink every time she listens to Momo.

That’s good.

The ski trip she wanted to invite Momo to rears itself to the forefront of her mind. But Kyouka refrains from saying anything about it because she knows Momo will feel bad for not being able to come. Not that Kyouka had the guts to invite her, even when the opportunity presented itself, but that wasn’t the point.

Eventually, their conversation comes to a close. Momo bids her farewell (with something about her tone gives Kyouka pause) and the call ends with Kyouka's goodbye.

Her phone chimes a beat later.

momo: I missed you Kyouka! I’ll see you next week!

momo: :*

Her heart lurches in its place behind the thick foliage growing beneath her ribs. She stares at that small emoji, a kissing face, and wonders if Momo means it or if she thinks it only a gesture of friendship.

kyouka: no prob mo. missed u 2! see u next week.

iii.

Every day, her chest aches. Every day, the pain multiplies. Every day spent with Momo is a day spent agonizing about her future. No one knows about the flowers.

Or, no one would have known, had she not run into Kaminari during an episode.

A trembling hand reaches for the blonde, as he stares in shock (and if it weren’t so serious, she’d hear him laugh at the pun). She twists in her seat, fisted hand clutching her chest as though that would alleviate the pain of flowers growing in her lungs. Dahlias don’t grow with thorns, but Kyouka feels as though a thousand have been piercing her since this all started.

She swallows a cry (and the blood, the bile, the petals) back. A shudder runs through her shoulders. Kaminari can do nothing but watch, horrified as a dribble of blood makes it past her fingers, which she wipes away.

There are questions on the tip of this tongue, and the fact that he’s yet to crack a joke at her expense makes her believe that he’s taking this as seriously as she has. It’s odd for Kaminari to do so, but the appreciation she conveys for his somber manner is still well

No one’s there to notice anything. She’s lucky. She’s lucky Momo’s not here to see her. She’s lucky Momo’s out with her fiance.

Ha.

iv.

Momo doesn’t know anything apart from the fluttering in her stomach; she doesn’t care about anything apart from a nagging insistence residing in her belly, urging her to spend time with Jirou. She has always known what she wanted, even at a young age. But right now, she doesn’t why her desires tell her to always be within Jirou’s range.

There’s something there. A spark? She can’t pinpoint it and for the love of God, how she wants to name the restless feeling she gets whenever she isn’t near Jirou.

She’s meeting with her fiance today and a feeling in her swells to an uproar. I don’t want to! I want to stay here! But her mother had their lunch date arranged, had planned everything and it would break her heart if Momo says that she’d rather stay with her classmates, spend the night idly chatting with them in the comfort of their common room. She already can imagine herself, sprawled on the sofa, teased for keeping her feet firmly on the floor while everyone has theirs up on the coffee table, while Iida shouts something about respecting the one who made it.

Which was her, for a dare.

It seemed like a lifetime ago. Fooling around with her classmates, when she hadn’t the slightest clue to her future. When her mother had yet to tell her about the engagement; when she had yet to meet the person she’d spend her eternity with.

They were nice. Friendly. Almost too much, like it was a farce for them, wrapped in printed paper and topped with a colorful bow. Maybe that’s what they think of Momo — a gift by her parents, or an offering to appease them.

Stop that line of thinking Momo! She feels silly for allowing such thoughts in her head when they’ve been nothing but understanding with their predicament. An arranged marriage was such an old custom, and yet here she is, here they are, in the middle of it. Ready to go through with it.

Are they really ready though?

Momo’s thoughts drift back to Jirou. She was such a supportive friend, crying with Momo when she expressed frustration for the plans her mother spewed. She wanted nothing more than to turn her back on that plan, but mother’s disappointment loomed above her head, a stormy look overshadowing the words that would’ve brought her respite. Jirou tries to lift her spirits up, easing her into the thought of a future carved into stone by her parents.

But the longer she waits, the lower the spirits drop, the deeper the pit she feels herself falling into. Momo makes her circumstance a show of happiness, even with the judgment she can feel pouring out of Todoroki and Iida’s intense gaze.

Are you happy? Is what they always ask, the pair laced with concern and anger, both at her inability to say no and her cowardice.

And she knows. Momo knows how deep her weakness falls. But she pushes aside everything that her mother has expressly forbidden her to do, ignores the own throbbing of her chest whenever she refers to Jirou has her friend.

Because deep down she knows — down to the cells making up her body, the rushing blood against her veins. She knows that friend can’t explain that throbbing; friend can’t explain the misery. The word friend can never explain the enormity of her feelings, yearning yet confined within the small space she could never let go.

When she exits the common room, eyeing the scene of a happy Jirou nudging Kaminari, laughing at the stupidly content grin on his face, something prods against her chest. A heavy feeling, foreboding in all its glory.

The roses littering her floor cover the stench of her disappointments and regrets.

Dahlias and roses surround her, around her body, like a protective shell. Her body is floating, carried by the current.

Jumping off the cliff was her decision. Sudden but not unwanted.

Momo follows soon after. The shouting behind her ignored as she plunges headfirst into the ocean, splitting it for a moment before she’s submerged. Her eyes sting, but she’s undeterred in her quest to locate Kyouka.

The sea seems to glow when she opens her eyes, when she feels hands cupping her cheeks, when she finally stares at Momo’s paling features, watching her cry at nothing, tears mixing with seawater. Kyouka can’t seem to speak anymore, not when water is already entering her mouth, her nose, burning her lungs into oblivion.

She breathes salt and sea, shame and desire, pulling her deeper into the abyss that was the ocean. She smiles, letting her lips touch her cheeks, letting her face bloom with heat even in the freezing depths. She finds that her hands have taken Momo’s own, holding as tightly as she could (as she can, in her weakening state).

Momo replies with the same gusto of the dying, closing her eyes, letting everything else take her. Letting go of her unhappiness, bleeding agony until only the truth remained.

Too late to say, but at the same time, it was just the right time to realize.

vi.

They’re found together, blue and no more, holding each other close.

#momojirou #jirou kyouka #yaoyorozu momo #bnha-angst-week #boku no hero academia #this is so bad bUT I LOVE hanahakis o k #yyrz.fic

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castyourpodtothewind · 6 years ago

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CYPTTW Review #8 - Welcome to Night Vale

Who the hell are you?! Hi! I’m Taylor and I recently dived headfirst into podcasts! I have since binged on several of them and decided to make reviews of the ones that really stood out. These are not going to be big, professional reviews (I’m lazy) but they should hopefully contain information to help you get into some great new listens!

Where do you listen to your podcasts? My personal recommendation for listening to podcasts is the Pocket Casts app, available for Android or iPhone. It costs $3.99 to buy, but I think it's super worth it, since it has a lot of great features and zero in-app ads, which to me is worth every penny. But if you like free apps or just don't have the scratch right now, my runner up is Podcast Addict. It's free and has some (but not all) of the features Pocket Casts has, plus you have to deal with the ads. But if you don't like either of those, do some searching! There's lots of options out there.

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Name of Podcast: Welcome to Night Vale

Creators of Podcast: Joseph Fink, Jeffrey Cranor, Night Vale Presents

Genre(s): Horror, Humor, NPR-style

Start and End Date of Podcast: June 15th, 2012 - Present

Number of Episodes: 134 (as of 9/15/2018)

Release Schedule: New episodes every 1st and 15th of the month!

Where Can I Find It: http://www.welcometonightvale.com/

Donation/Patreon?: Can be found on their official site!

Age Rating: This show is notorious for getting pretty violent and creepy at times. PG-13.

Where I Am Now: Caught Up

Official Summary: Welcome to Night Vale is a twice-monthly podcast in the style of community updates for the small desert town of Night Vale, featuring local weather, news, announcements from the Sheriff's Secret Police, mysterious lights in the night sky, dark hooded figures with unknowable powers, and cultural events.

Representation?: AND HOW! This podcast has one of the best reputations for representation, and it’s well deserved. Whether it’s LGBT, Jewish, Muslim, POC, Non-Binary, People With Disabilities, any combination of those things and more, this show is extremely refreshing for those who love a diverse cast that is treated as the most normal thing in a strange town.

Transcripts?: There are two illustrated transcript books available for sale so far, but a diligent fan has been making up-to-date transcripts and they’re awesome, so go check them out! @cecilspeaks

Trigger Warnings?: Death, Body Horror, Gore, Unpleasant Sound Effects, Disturbing Content

How Long To Listen Before Giving Up?: I fell in love with this show instantly, but if you’re new, I would listen until at least episode 13-20.

Anything Else I Should Know?: They do tons of live shows and sell recordings on their Bandcamp page! They also have released two novels and the aforementioned transcript books. They have also confirmed that FX has picked them up for a TV series!

If You Like This, You Might Also Like: King Falls AM, Limetown, Alice Isn’t Dead

Pros

This show is known as “The Gateway Podcast”, and I feel that’s a very deserving title. This show was, like to many others, my first podcast, and it definitely deserves a lot of credit for opening our minds to what this medium could be. The show told a new story in a very creative way and I love how many people it’s inspired to make their own podcasts. While it eventually led us to find other series to sink our teeth into, I think we still definitely owe it praise for how much work got put into making this a very special series. It is still a wonderful podcast and if you’re new to the medium, this show is an excellent place to start and will probably be the first on people’s list of recommendations.

Changing Carlos’ voice actor was a great choice. For those who don’t know, Jeffrey Cranor, co-creator of the show, originally did Carlos’ voice, but stepped down from the role when he realized it wasn’t a good thing to have a straight white guy play a gay Latino character. Dylan Marron was brought in (and his voice is ADORABLE) and they even gave a believable canon reason for why the voice was different. It warms my heart to see people actually do the right thing as far as diverse casting is concerned.

Cecil and Carlos are CANON. It’s easy to take for granted, but still, it’s amazing. It’s a slow burn until their relationship really starts to take off, but I felt that was a very realistic view of them finding each other. The show is great at dropping little hints every now and then that they’re getting closer, then finally bringing it to the forefront when they become official. And you get to see their happy moments of domesticity, their adorable conversations over text and on the phone, hear why the two love each other more than anything, and even get to see realistic arguments and realizations of your partner’s flaws. I feel like their relationship is written very believably and Cecil Baldwin and Dylan Marron have excellent chemistry with each other. A lot of fans are divided about the Desert Otherworld arc, and while that arc did drag on for quite a while, I think it was a good way of showing conflict between the two of them without having them outright fight or go for cheap drama. Like Joseph Fink said on Twitter, (paraphrasing here as I can’t find the exact Tweet), “If you think being long-distance is the worst thing that could happen to a couple, you have a very dim view of relationships.” And as someone who was personally in an extended long-distance relationship until a few years ago (Hi Eileen~), that really hit home for me. It was nice to have that represented on the show.

If you’re one of those fans (like me) who missed the original piano riff that opened the show, it officially comes back in Episode 114. That was nice to hear again.

THE CONCEPT EPISODES, ESPECIALLY EPISODE 133. HOW DO THEY KEEP DOING THIS. THEY’RE SO GOOD.

Cons

The biggest complaints I can really think of with this show are arc fatigue and plot lull. While this show does have numerous plot threads (and the plot threads actually go somewhere, even if it takes a while) it can be a long time after you first hear about a plot before they ever mention it again, or, like with the Desert Otherworld arc, can take over a giant chunk of episodes where it seems like nothing is moving. This can also make things confusing, like in many cases where you can’t remember this person or thing the show is suddenly referencing if you haven’t listened to the show a second or more times.

Not really a complaint the show can do anything about, as I know he’s got his own projects going on and is technically a guest star….but I really wish Dylan Marron could do more episodes. As of Episode 133, there was a 33-episode gap between appearances.

MY RATING: 7/10 GLOW CLOUDS - This podcast will always have a special place in my heart. After a long break away, somehow I always keep getting drawn back to Night Vale. It’s a podcast that excels at taking you on a journey to a strange and mysterious place that seems frightening, but also comforting, where being who you are without questions or apologies seems like a fair trade for danger. I always recommend this show to people who are still confused about what a podcast is, and while many other shows have taken up my attention since, this will always hold the mantle of the first one to make me dive into the medium. So turn off the lights, turn on your radio, hide under the covers, pretend to sleep, and fall in love instantly.

#Welcome to Night Vale #WTNV #CYPTTW #Cast Your Pod To The Wind #podcast #podcasts #Podcast Recommendations #podcast reviews #Podcast Review #Cecil Baldwin #Dylan Marron #Joseph Fink #Jeffrey Cranor #Night Vale #Night Vale Presents #podcast recs

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acsversace-news · 7 years ago

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At this point TV viewers tuning in to Season 2 of American Crime Story will have sensed that something’s up. Promotional materials promised a glitzy, pulpy dive into the high-fashion world of the Versace family and a grisly murder in sunny Miami. But after two episodes with nary a Versace in sight (don’t worry, they’ll be back), audiences must have realized that producer Ryan Murphy and writer Tom Rob Smith actually had a different—and, in my opinion, better—show in mind. The star of Episode 4 is not any of the A-list names like Penelope Cruz, Ricky Martin, and Darren Criss or even one of Ryan Murphy’s regular players like Finn Wittrock. Instead, the breakout here (and, perhaps, of the series) is 30 year-old Australian newcomer Cody Fern playing Andrew Cunanan’s second, most personal, and misunderstood victim: David Madson.

Speaking with Vanity Fair’s podcast Still Watching: Versace, Fern admits that this episode and American Crime Story as a whole represent a bait and switch in order to get audiences to care about Cunanan’s less famous victims and the plight of gay men, more broadly, in the 90s. In this episode specifically, Fern and Smith are determined to redeem Madson who was, for so long, erroneously accused of being Cunanan’s accomplice rather than an innocent casualty.

Last month at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour, when asked about the slightly deceptive title The Assassination of Gianni Versace, both Ryan Murphy and Tom Rob Smith were quick to defend it. The People vs. O.J. Simpson, they pointed out, wasn’t a show primarily about O.J. Of course, they’re right. Along with a searing look at racism, sexism, and the rise of reality TV in the 90s, the main takeaway from American Crime Story’s first season was the redemption of maligned prosecutor Marcia Clark.

Madson, of course, is not nearly as well-known as Clark and that, Fern argues, is what makes Season 2 even more extraordinary. “Everyone was ready for this to be a huge, splashy, fashion drama,” Fern tells Still Watching “but [Ryan Murphy] really honors the victims who came before. Four people who aren’t fashion designers but who had a family and were loved and were brought into the sordid world of Andrew Cunanan and went down because of it. [Their] stories are equally as vital as Gianni Versace’s. For Ryan to really focus on those stories is incredibly brave and does great justice to those people.”

Madson’s mysterious role in Cunanan’s murder spree baffled law enforcement for over a year (and beyond). Why would an innocent man go on the run with a killer and stay with him for six days? For a detailed breakdown of the main clues and theories swirling around Madson’s role at the time, you can go here. But for Smith and Fern, Madson’s driving concern in his final days was clear: internalized gay shame. It’s true that American Crime Story had to do a lot more theorizing than usual in this episode—with both Cunanan and Madson dead there is no way to know exactly what happened on their six-day journey. (We do know, however, that Aimee Mann never serenaded them in a Minnesota dive bar.) Smith tells Still Watching: Versace: “There’s a dilemma [with this episode]. You are, ultimately, joining dots rather than dealing with transcribed or videotaped evidence. I tried sticking to the fundamental truth which was that a) Andrew was a liar and was trapping David and b) David was full of love and ambition and wasn’t involved in the killing in any way.”

Fern admits those six days on the run were the most fascinating to him. “What the series deals with is not only how the police bungled the investigation because of homophobia at the time, but also this internalized of gay shame. David is dealing with a shame that’s been following him around his whole life.” As the show depicts, Madson was out to both his immediate family and his Minneapolis friends and co-workers, but what the episode theorizes is that he wasn’t ready to to be out to an entire world of strangers.

Smith calls David the hero of Episode 4 and used his own life experience as a gay man to extrapolate what Madson might have been feeling. He tells Still Watching:

Andrew’s cleverness is that he plays on a very deep-seated fear which we’ve always felt as gay men and women that if somehow you open the door to our private lives, everyone looking in is going to be shocked and appalled and we’ll be disgraced and exiled. Now, suddenly, by killing Jeffrey in that apartment that lingering nightmare becomes true because David knows that if he opens the door to that apartment the world is going to be shocked and appalled. They’ll think he was involved somehow. It’s going to be very hard for David to extricate himself from the trap that Andrew’s sprung around him.

Smith’s efforts to redeem Madson entirely in the span of an hour may have resulted in a bit of white-washing of this particular character. The real Madson was a bit older than Fern (and a good deal older than the baby-faced Fern looks here). According to Maureen Orth’s well-researched book Vulgar Favors, Madson was a beloved but forcefully charismatic person who dated a good deal and was hardly the Midwestern babe in the woods this series would sometimes have him be.

Neither Fern nor anyone in the cast reached out to the surviving family members of Cunanan’s victims while filming the series—though Ricky Martin, at least, has since been in contact with Versace’s life partner Antonio D’Amico. It was conscious choice they made as a group out of sensitivity to such a great loss. However, the Madson family, specifically, was at the forefront of Fern and Smith’s minds as they constructed this episode. “There was a cloud of suspicion over David,” Smith explains. “The police declared him to be the killer at first and the parents really struggled to clear his name. Such a gross injustice.” Episode 4 of American Crime Story rescues Madson not only from ignominy, but from anonymity as well. Anyone watching this episode and Fern’s irresistibly vulnerable performance won’t soon forget Andrew Cunanan’s second victim—even if he didn’t have a name you’d find on a fashion label.

And as Fern points out, the reverse chronology of American Crime Story acts as another kind of redemption for David Madson. It’s no spoiler to say that Fern as Madson will return for a few more episodes as the season spools back in time and we learn how he and Cunanan first met and fell in love. “There was something nice about leaving this man, David Madson, with a moment of beauty rather than a moment of terror,” Fern explains to Still Watching. “The way we remember David in the series is not the way we see him in Episode 4.” Smith notes that by the end of this hour of television “there’s a sense of David being an inspirational figure rather than someone who people have forgotten.”

To find out more about the true story of David Madson and Andrew Cunanan, you can listen to the full interview with Smith and Fern as well as past guests Maureen Orth, Ricky Martin, Max Greenfield, and Judith Light by subscribing to Still Watching: Versace on Apple Podcasts or your podcast app of choice. New episodes air every Wednesday night.

#acs versace #vanity fair #still watching: versace #interview #cody fern #tom rob smith #article #february 2018

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tuchimuchibrainvomit · 7 years ago

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A Weekend of Emotions — A Review of Puella Magi Madoka Magica Rebellion ft. Philosophic Discussion

Last weekend, I hung out with my big brother and my best friends. This was always normal, we’d game, get drunk, eat good food, etc. However, something happened last weekend that I didn’t expect. A lot of emotions were expressed. Like A LOT... And I wanna talk about that and more in my Brain Vomit review for Puella Magi Madoka Magica Movie: Rebellion. Let me explain...

As you guys can PROBABLY tell by now, Puella Magi Madoka Magica Rebellion is my favorite anime movie. But, I’ll say it now, Rebellion is my favorite movie of all time. I believe it is the perfect film for me. Even with its flaws. Even with its pacing issues. Even knowing how controversial it is. In fact, that’s probably 60% of the reason I think the ending works so well. And while this isn’t a play by play of the movie and everything I liked...

What I want to talk about are emotions, philosophy and how Rebellion — and Madoka as a whole — tackles different responses based on one’s philosophical views. First, context: When “mah bois” and I were wrapping up the Madoka Series, we were going through Rebellion (I was the only one out of us who saw Rebellion and had a blast trying to deflect theories on the twists and turns) but then something caught me really off guard. And it was something I hadn’t expected...

SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE ENTIRE PUELLA MAGI MADOKA MAGICA SERIES!

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At around the 2/3 of the way through, Homura realizes that the Magical Girls are all trapped in a false representation of their town, Mitakihara City. A good portion of the film is just figuring out what the fuck is going on. And it is a very compelling mystery. Revealing that it is a Witch’s Barrier, a distorted world created by a Witch.

(Tangent: I’m currently writing a case study on the Netflix’s Death Note Movie and writing a mystery. I recommend reading that when I finish it, as well to see these ideas come back in the forefront.)

The strength of the mystery comes down to the series’ ending. As in the series’ ending, titular character Madoka Kaname wished for a world where Witches — the antagonists and unfortunately the final stage of a Magical Girl’s life — could not exist. In this action she becomes a concept known as the Law of Cycles — where as a Magical Girl falls into despair, instead of becoming a Witch, The Magical Girl will be taken to Magical Girl Heaven. But in this wish and action, Madoka’s existence is erased, becoming a concept -- a God.

All except Time Turning Magical Girl Homura Akemi (and Madoka’s little brother for some reason) have forgotten about her... In Rebellion -- which takes place shortly after the series’ epilogue -- Homura realizes that the false Mitakihara City is the work of a Witch and realizes that the only person who could become a Witch because she knew about them as well as Madoka’s existence was Homura herself. In a powerful scene where her false Mitakihara City collapses, she pulls out a pistol and shoots her Soul Gem, realizing that she is the Witch —

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— And while that scene still shakes me, and we watched it in English and honestly, some of Cristina Vee’s best work (just sayin’).

In that moment, I look to my brother to see his response and for the first time in my life, I saw him cry. In fact, my best friend was also caught off guard by his reaction. We wondered if he was OK — I even brought over tissues from the bathroom. We thought something was wrong, but in reality, he was emotionally broken by the scene. The fact that Homura’s effort was for not and the crushing weight of that moment was powerful for him. And that’s when it really hit me just how powerful a philosophy can really bring out certain emotions. The feeling of failure, the pointlessness of effort was something real for him. And yet, from my perspective, it was something I couldn’t relate to.

In all honesty, I’ve never been disparaged by the idea of pointlessness in one’s actions — but I tend to be more of an Absurdist philosophically.

This is where the real meat begins...

In layman terms, the idea of Absurdism — a derivative of Existentialism — and states that the universe is SO illogical, that trying to find meaning and logic in it is a fruitless endeavor. The idea is that it is better to accept the absurdity of existence and find personal happiness in spite of it. embracing what life has to offer is the core theme of Absurdist theory. Similar to Existentialism, the idea is of taking one’s freedom in the universe to make something out of it.

While Existentialism focuses on creating one’s own personal meaning, Absurdism focuses on rebelling against the universe — taking Existentialism to an extreme where personal freedom and agency trumps the search for any meaning. Living life for the sake of living life and enjoying it to the fullest, even if no meaning needs to be conjured. It can be compared to Anti-Nihilism, but they share many key differences. I won’t get into that now though. And yes, to an outsider looking in sounds depressing, but if anything the closest thing I could compare it to is a controlled hedonism — awareness of personal agency. To me personally, it gave me back my personal agency when I believed I had none. Absurdism, philosophically, is the innate reaction to the enlightenment of the universal absurdity of life. Noted by Absurdist and Existential philosophers Albert Camus and Søren Kierkegaard. Absurdity being the fact that the universe works on a logic outside of human comprehension and is thus illogical — hence the term “Absurd”. Enlightenment of this existential crisis in Absurdism leads to three possible theorized actions for humanity:

Committing Suicide — Which is in itself absurd and pointlessly ironic. Extremely deterred by Absurdist philosophy. Turning to God — also defined as the “Leap of Faith”, by Kierkegaard. Which can work and Kierkegaard agrued leads to authentic human life. But to Camus, it is attributed to resolving one’s own philosophical agency or “philosophical suicide”. Acceptance of Absurdity — Which is what Absurdist Camus states is the best action. As you both retain agency and a desire to do as you need to to be happy, dealing with the strive of life without wallowing in despair. The key idea is finding happiness in an imperfect, illogical universe.

(I recommend reading the Myth of Sisyphus, written by Albert Camus — which is one of the first insights and expressions of Absurdist theory.) A good way to think about philosophy in Madoka is like this: Kyubey asks you to make a contract, and this is hypothetically that you understand WHAT being a magical girl meant, what would you choose based on philosophical viewpoints?

For example: Rationalism: “No. Being a Witch is inevitable and I don’t wanna die like that.” Empiricism: “From what I’ve seen, No. Waiting for the mental scarring to heal!” Atheistic Existentialism: “Maybe. Depends on how I want to be.” Theistic Existentialism: “Learned the lesson from Kyoko Sakura, enough said.” Absurdism: “Why not? You only live once, right? Better think of a good wish.” Nihilism: “What’s it matter? Find someone who cares about universal entropy.” Anti-Nihilism: “It’s better than wallowing, right. Do it!” Skepticism: “How do I even know all you’ve said and what I’ve seen is even true? Isn’t this an anime? If it’s not, prove it. Then I’ll make a choice.” Macchivelianism: “If that means the universe can continue, my sacrifice is worth it, I suppose.” Or “Who would be crazy enough to do it, and how can I get them to do it to further my gain?” That’s a wide array of answers, but it kind of depends on the person when asked realistically. But I hope that this is a good insight to the line of thinking I want to approach Rebellion with.

And now I want to talk about the Madoka series and its writing thematically, as well as the Philosophies and the relationship they share.

Madoka is a story that is fueled by Nihilism in it’s nature. Gen Urobuchi is a nihilistic writer, even if as a person he may be joyful. One’s philosophy does not always equate to one’s emotions on the outward glance. Nihilism is the philosophy that everything is hopeless. There is nothing to be found in yearning for meaning, so it’s better to do nothing but succumb to the despair and wallow. And yet, Puella Magi Madoka Magica ends with a hopeful message, with Madoka becoming a benevolent god. I found it interesting that the series decided to end it’s 12 episode run with that message. But then again, it could be taken another way. Let’s examine Kyubey — Incubator, as an incubator for the energy created by Witches to return to the universe as a means of preventing entropy and the universe can stay alive.— as a character especially in his action is from a Machiavellianistic perspective. He looks for logical solutions to problems and has only his own end goal in mind, and the consequences are more of a means to justify an end goal more than anything else. Remember his conversation with Madoka, he outright states the needs of the universe outweigh the few teenage girls whose lives are lost. Which in itself is not a “bad” philosophy when taken to a smaller scale, for example as he describes — Livestock. Humans eat them and need them to survive, and by comparison livestock live a better life in captivity than in the wild and thus are able to breed healthier and thrive as well, even if a few die to become food. Technically, it’s a mutual benefit, even if humanity is the one holding the power — a means to an end of survival. That’s Machiavellionism in a nutshell. Of course, it’s more complicated and a lot more corruptible based on context but I need to keep this train rolling... Anyway, back to Madoka... Then there is Rebellion — which title makes a lot of sense when thought about. Many people reacted to Rebellion wondering why the message of hope was so drastically toyed with in Homura’s action — Her Rebellion. However, I find that questioning flawed when the series was NEVER about hope, Kyoko’s death is proof of that. Listen to the conversation Homura and Kyubey have after her death — he gave Kyoko false hope as a means to his end — backing Madoka into a corner to become a Magical Girl. His motives are never hopeful and hope should not be sought after, that’s what I found to be the underlying message of the series. Even if Madoka’s action was just, Homura still failed in her mission — and I saw Rebellion as her having to deal with that. I like to view Homura’s actions in the final act of the film as a turn to Absurdism, rather than Nihilism — If she did, she’d despair and die — and a rejecting Kyubey’s Machiavellianism — He’s her enemy after all. Remember, the basic principle of Absurdism is rebelling against the absurd universe for one’s own happiness. Let’s talk about why Nihilism is often first attributed to Homura and points towards it. Firstly, the familiars: In a scene of Homura kneeling and basking to a stonewall of Goddess Madoka during the revelation of her transformation, her familiars are seen throwing tomatoes whilst chanting “Gott is tot”, which is a concept related to Nihilism uttered by Fredrick Nietzsche which translates to “God is dead” or to better articulate “There is no salvation in God.” The Law of Cycles is a god and a salvation to Magical Girls, but in Homura turning into a witch, the Law of Cycles has failed in its duty as an omniscient and thus salvation is not an absolute. While personally, Kyubey’s a little shit for blocking off Madoka’s omniscience, it did reveal that she is NOT omniscient or all knowing. Often that revelation to man leads one down the path of Nihilism, thrusting the concept of God aside as it is not true and believing in such is illogical. However see this concept both played straight and lampshaded in Kyoko Sakura, a Christian, whom in her death — asks God to give her a happy dream. Even if her outward persona would tell you otherwise, and the tragedy of her history, she still never rejected God — God was still a part of her, but her relationship with the concept was rocky, to say the least. She more so adopts a narcissistic realist’s — yet not Nihilistic — outlook on life for Magical Girls because they are alien, they are territorial and they are dangerous to those unaware. They have immense power, but are not tied down by a singular moral figure or responsiblity besides killing Witches — which is more for survival than a duty to Kyoko. That in itself was a defensive mechanism for her. And in that, while she tried to enlighten Sayaka, it was not something that Sayaka could follow behind due to her pursuit of being a selfless paragon. Sayaka represented the Idealist, who knew not of the unfairness of reality. A hero of justice who was loved for the things she did, was not realistic. Hence, why this I stated her character arc was deconstructive of the Paragon. And just like in her death, all of Kyoko’s attempts were also in vain. Ironically enough, Kyoko and Sayaka represented to halves of Buddhism. The one that knew the truth and desired to enlighten, and the one who upon enlightenment, could not bare it, fell to despair and died. Kyoko, the figurative Bodhisattva — sacrificed herself for the sake of Sayaka, and ultimately died fulfilling nothing. Yet, was at peace with herself — being arguably, the most progressed of the Magical Girls. In Buddhist philosophy, the idea of enlightenment is focusing on the self and fully expanding one’s knowledge of the self to better understand the world. And upon enlightenment, they transcend their mortal desires. Siddhartha Buddha did the same becoming a higher being because of it, thus entering Nirvana. Those who followed suit but decided to stay on earth would be responsible for passing the lessons onto others — these people titled Bodhisattvas. You can see now why Kyoko’s transformation sequence involves a combination of Buddhist and Christian imagery.

With that out of the way, I’d like to summarize the events of the finale to the movie. In the final act after Kyubey’s Isolation Field is destroyed and Homura’s soul gem returned to her. The audience witnesses the Law of Cycles — Madoka Kaname as a concept — come to purify and take Homura to Magical Girl Heaven. But in a twisted move, Homura splits Madoka’s God-like Entity back into the physical exist of Madoka Kaname (it makes a bit more sense in context) and becomes a Demon, restructuring the universe and becoming the concept of “Evil” through her love for Madoka. And although she creates a rather negative world from a viewer’s standpoint, it is closer to human concepts of reality, religion and Dualism — In fact, it’s more ideal to what the girls had been fighting since the beginning. Quickly defining Dualism: It is a concept that two pieces in nature exist, a yin and a yang. Both are in constant battle for victory, but often they are more of a check and balance, thus working in harmony with the universe. This concept can be observed in the final moments of the film, Madoka attempts to awaken her God-like power and Homura stopping her — bringing back balance, where Madoka cannot gain control over the universe and erase her existence. This can be seen as one of two things: 1.) Homura (The Devil) is keeping Madoka (God) away from helping people and re-rewriting the universe again. 2.) Homura is creating a balance for this new world. It is a happy one, where the only tortured soul is Homura herself and she is content with that. Thus nothing needs radical change. Now if Homura actively tried to eliminate Madoka entirely, then this would be a problem. But that is not the case. This second observation is more where I fall in line with to interpret, and that’s where I thought about Homura and Absurdism. In creating a Dualistic System, Homura indeed creates a happy world. Madoka didn’t need to be a Magical Girl, whilst Sayaka, Kyoko, Mami and Nagisa are alive — leading happy lives with their friends and loved ones. I'd like to argue that Homura created her world in spite of the absurd universe that tormented her and Madoka. Her view on this could be influenced by her words with Madoka during the flower field scene, which is often pointed as the birth of Homura’s main crisis throughout the film. But in that, she created a world where they both can exist and in revolting the cruel universe, basically said “Fuck you” to Kyubey’s Machiavellian tactics. It can also be argued as well that she was corrupted by her experience as a Witch inside of her own soul, which I identify as valid. But I prefer interpreting it more in her actions being in spite of the hopelessness she felt. And since there is no one way to interpret the series, as the creators have not said anything on how to interpret it from my knowledge, it is free reign. Like Sisyphus, in being able to create a world where Madoka would be happy, Homura could “push the boulder up the hill” or survive in her personal hell and be satisfied with it. She takes Absurdism to an even further extreme, which realistically should be thought of with more than a grain of salt. But for the sake of this being an anime, I’ll let it slide. And satisfied she appears to be, as seen in her “victory dance” at the end of the movie. Sure, she fell off a cliff (which I can be 100% certain didn’t kill her as she’s been through much worse and it’s more metaphorical to show her fall from God [Madoka] into a new entity), and familiars do represent the true feelings of the Witch, and they are seen committing suicide — that does not matter in Absurdist philosophy, since Homura does not kill herself and finds happiness in saving Madoka’s existence. Even in an absurdist hell, Homura continues to be satisfied and she doesn’t really care what happens to the status quo of Magical Girls and their relationship with her — as seen when she says Sayaka and her may become enemies when the Wraiths are extinct, but so long as Madoka is happy, Homura can live in spite of her personal hell. She has, for all intents and purposes, accepted the absurdity of EVERY universe and performed the ultimate defiance -- her Rebellion. She got what she wanted — Madoka is happy — her wish fulfilled and Kyubey got the just desserts that Homura had wanted to give him for years. This can even be interpreted in that no could understand her reasons for rewriting the universe and her love for Madoka. Though this could also be her being egocentric and her “Love” is definitely more selfish than selfless, but she IS doing it for Madoka. But can it even be defined as “Love”? Sayaka questions if it is more “Obsession” or “Desire”, compare to “Love”.

Thoughts for days... I’d love to hear some more interpretations on the matter.

Ugh, I love this movie! It makes me think!! And with that, I’d like to segue into the conclusion with Kyubey’s words and direct them to reactions to the film as a whole: “Why are [feeling the way you do]? [The movie] has served its purpose and has concluded its existence as necessary.” This very much comes to mind every time I see a new reaction to it.That in itself cannot be answered by just one philosophy or person to collectively represent the whole. It can be answered in as many ways as there are reactions and explanations for the film. And this where I believe Puella Magi Madoka Magica Rebellion is one of the most successful and outright fantastic films of all time. Akiyuki Shinbou and Studio Shaft really outdid themselves with this one. I’ll address the bias that I could be reading too much into it. And yes, Shaft is known for ridiculous amounts of metaphorical imagery and often are chastised as “pretentiously artsy” or “throwing symbols around without meaning” but there are TOO many incidences in Rebellion for that to be “Just coincidence” in my eyes. Gen Urobuchi did say in interviews that the ending to Rebellion would be divisive: From the community’s general hatred of the ending and Nihilism. To my satisfaction with it due to the nature of Absurdism. To my brother’s tragic feelings with it due to the nature of his relationship with God. To my best friend’s questioning of the pragmatism of the ending in being a Logical Skeptic. To my boyfriend’s sympathy towards Kyubey’s desire to preserve the world, even if his methods could be seen as inhumane. And even my sister, who couldn’t finish it and became Existentially depressive. This has certainly held true.

In the end, philosophy is not black and white, nor good or bad. It is more of a way that one articulates the world around them. Whether seeing it as an optimist, a pessimist, or somewhere in-between — to order or to chaos. Philosophy should be thought of with different strokes and philosophical arguments, debates and revelations are always changing with the modern world. I think Rebellion, and Madoka Magica as a whole works as a philosophical piece. A dive into how philosophy in art can be articulated and represented, but also in all the reactions, reasonings and people who have come to interact with it. To finally wrap up this LONG essay, I’ll restate that Puella Magi Madoka Magica Rebellion is my favorite film of all time. I hold the series itself in similar high regards — but I think the series is far less thought provoking compared to the movie (except for Sayaka character arc and Kyoko). (Before you ask: My favorite anime of all time is The Slayers. I love it for more nostalgic reasons than it making me existential. Sometimes, dumb campy fun is just as necessary are thought-provoking introspection and artistic expression.) But in Puellla Magi Madoka Magica Rebellion’s case: I believe a perfect movie doesn’t need a score of 100% on Metacritic. I believe a perfect film needs to be so provocative and thought-provoking that I never get tired of watching it. Rebellion is that movie to me. Flaws and all. Pacing issues of the first act and all. Even in this still rampant dub vs subs debate in anime communities — I don’t care enough to weight in, I watched it dubbed and subbed, both were of good quality. The dub may have lacked the moe-inspired voices, but at the same time, I hate moe — so them speaking in english was fine by me. Neither one takes away from this wonderful experience. I could compare it to the ideas brought about in Bojack Horseman — My favorite TV show of all time. But taken to an absolute absurd level that requires viewing.

I recommend giving the series multiple watches and come up with your own opinions and ideas. Share your reactions and really learn something about other people by how they react to the series as a whole. You can find the entire series and all the movies for Madoka Magica on Netflix.

I’d like to say if you have any other series you’d like me to cover or analyze, send me a question to my Ask box! Or if you want to support me, check out my other case studies and analyses and follow me! I hope you all enjoyed my rambling and have yourselves a fantastic rest of the day. I’ve been Tuchi, This is my Brain Vomit, And I hope you always bloom proudly!

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-- TUCHI OUT!!

References:

Aronson, Ronald, "Albert Camus", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2017 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2017/entries/camus/>. Simpson, David, “Albert Camus (1913-1960)” The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, URL = <http://www.iep.utm.edu/camus/>. Crowell, Steven, "Existentialism", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2016 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2016/entries/existentialism/>. Markie, Peter, "Rationalism vs. Empiricism", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2017 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2017/entries/rationalism-empiricism/>. Nederman, Cary, "Niccolò Machiavelli", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2014/entries/machiavelli/>.

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gyrlversion · 6 years ago

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Stray Kids On Growing Up, Taking More Creative Risks, And Dealing With Self-Doubt

Stray Kids are following their own path. And that reluctance to play by anyone else’s rules is precisely what makes this group of teens and young adults stand out. They’ve been releasing some of the boldest tracks in K-pop since making their debut with the blistering “District 9” a year ago, a song that harnessed their teen angst into a dizzying mix of hip-hop, rock, and EDM and quickly established them as rookie group to watch.

It’s their ability to channel that raw emotion into their music that has resonated with fans all over the world, many of whom are on the cusp of adulthood themselves. As such, the group’s signature sound can’t be contained in a single genre; it’s more of a state of being — a deeply earnest one.

“Stray Kids music is music that’s relatable and can help you out when you’re having a hard time,” leader Bang Chan tells MTV News over the phone from Seoul, where the group is preparing to embark on their first solo U.S. tour. Though, he quick to add, “It’s got a lot of energy, doesn’t it?”

And nowhere is that empathy and energy more apparent than on their latest single, “Miroh.” Inspired by the word miro, or “maze” in Korean, the boisterous track — produced by members Bang Chan, Han, and Changbin, otherwise known as 3racha — is a cacophony of sounds, rhythms, chants, and animal noises. The hook is massive, a perfect stadium-sized banger that shows off the group’s grit and potential. “It’s not hard / in this rough jungle,” Bang Chan sings. “It was me who ran into it / I’m okay.”

“‘Miroh’ was a really big attempt,” the 21-year-old singer and producer said. “It shows that as we’re getting older we tend to take more risks and try out new experiences, challenge ourselves.”

And as members Bang Chan, Woojin, Lee Know, Changbin, Hyunjin, Han, Felix, Seungmin, and I.N grow and mature, so does their music. Their previous I Am… series focused heavily on the theme of identity through the teenage perspective. Who am I? Who am I trying to be? And does everyone feel scared and aimless like I do sometimes? With their most recent release, Clé 1: Miroh, it’s clear that these questions are still at the forefront of their minds — and they’re facing them head-on, charging into adolescent uncertainty with newfound confidence and perspective that comes when you enter your twenties. And of course, a bit of bravado. Their song “Boxer” opens with a cheeky declaration: “Hello, I’m a young man who can fly anywhere.”

Within that “long but short kind of period” since their debut, Stray Kids have released four EPs and one pre-debut mixtape, all of which have been primarily written and produced by the members themselves. While 3racha have shaped the majority of the group’s discography, all nine members are credited writers and encouraged to contribute to the production.

“The fact that we make our own music is one of [our] biggest weapons because that way it’s a bit more genuine,” Bang Chan said. “It’s the message that we form and want to send everyone.”

“It’s much easier to express ourselves and express how we feel to the fans,” rapper, and fellow Aussie, Felix added. “It’s way more honest as well,” Bang Chan concluded. “It’s really important to Stray Kids.”

Getty Images

Members from left to right: Bang Chan, Hyunjin, I.N, Han, Changbin, Seungmin, Felix, Lee Know, and Woojin

That creative ethos starts with Bang Chan, who put the group together when they were trainees under Korea’s JYP Entertainment. (The Stray Kids logo is even written in his handwriting.) Fans were first introduced to the Australia-raised leader on the group’s survival program, aptly titled Stray Kids. Over the course of 10 episodes, Stray Kids — then teenagers with big dreams — underwent teamwork challenges and regular evaluations for the chance to debut together as a group. The series documented the nine individuals as they prepared their blustery pre-debut song “Hellevator,” producing and practicing around the clock for a dream that was never very certain. In fact, members Felix and Lee Know were originally eliminated from the project but were ultimately brought back in the final episode, giving even more meaning to the phrase “nine or none.”

The group’s nonstop pace didn’t slow down after their debut, either. If anything, the desire to create and funnel their questions into their music got even stronger because of their fans (called STAY).

As such, they’re always creating. And when they feel stuck, they resort to the kinds of distractions you might expect from a group of young men: fresh air, movies (Creed), and anime (One Piece) for Bang Chan; video games and EDM music for Felix, who added, “I’ve been listening to ‘My Pace’ a lot.”

“I’m always on my laptop trying to make new stuff, whenever we have free time,” Bang Chan said. “On the plane as well. I make a lot of music on the plane. I remember I worked on ‘I Am You’ on the plane to New York last year. And we did use a bit of it, so it was pretty good.”

Of course, with that comes its own unique kind of pressure. “There’s that feeling of, ‘Will people like this music? Will our fans like this music? Will STAYs like this music?’ Sometimes, that can get into our heads,” he said. “Trying to satisfy everyone is going to be an eternal challenge.” Trying to do so while keeping up with the furious pace Stray Kids’ set in their first year is also challenging.

JYP Entertainment

Bang Chan (left) and Felix (right)

So it makes sense that time (examining it, questioning it, running away from it) is a running theme throughout Miroh. Album closer “19” is a moody and personal song, written and produced by member Han, that finds him navigating that age between adolescence and adulthood. “Maze Of Memories” is a hip-hop track in which the cadence matches the various twists and turns one might encounter while chasing your dreams. It starts off slow and foreboding, then evolves into something darker and more sinister — a nightmarish soundscape — before ending with a confident refrain of “never give up.” And then there’s “Chronosaurus,” an atmospheric song that associates time with something to be afraid of.

“While I was writing ‘Chronosaurus’ I did think a lot that time is something that has a lot of pressure attached to it. Even when you’re taking a test there’s always a time limit, or when you’re working there’s always a deadline,” Bang Chan said.

“I would love to have a superpower that could control time because then I could do whatever I want,” he added, laughing. “But time being something that no one can stop, because it’s something that’s always going to be with me anyway, you might as well get comfortable with it. Try to take some of the pressure off it.”

This candid exploration is something that means a lot to their fans, many of whom are also navigating their own everyday struggles — running into their own mazes and up against deadlines. “We wanted to spread the message that you guys aren’t the only ones,” the leader told the passionate crowd of fans at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center on Tuesday night (May 14), the first of two sold-out nights and the first stop of the U.S. leg of their Unveil world tour. The two-hour set traces the group’s young discography, telling the story of Stray Kids from the beginning.

Earlier singles “Hellevator” and “District 9” are full of angst and aggression — teens who balked at societal pressures and followed their own rules — while the energetic “My Pace” is uplifting and anthemic, and b-side “Voices” exposes their deep-seated insecurities. “I Am You,” a song written for their fans, packs an emotional punch (“You shined on me when I didn’t even know myself,” Hyunjin raps) and “Get Cool” is a playful ode to living in the moment (“Doesn’t matter if the world is a cold place ’cause I’m getting cooler,” Bang Chan sings). By the end, it’s clear: Their music is a mirror to their fans, reflecting their innermost thoughts and anxieties — and intertwining their stories in the process.

“At events where we get to meet up with our fans they talk to us about what they’re feeling or what’s on their minds,” Bang Chan said. “Knowing that, we can tell that our fans are changing and getting older with us. It’s really cool to experience that.”

But it’s not just the themes in their music that connect with fans; it’s the members themselves. Despite the number of rappers in their arsenal and their powerful stage presence, Bang Chan jokingly insists: “We’re a mess!” And anyone who’s seen even one episode of their weekly web series or tuned into one of their live streams would probably agree. After all, teenage boys are still teenage boys, regardless of whether or not they’re idols.

Take, for example, their main rapper, who spits bars at a breakneck speed. “Changbin-hyung is different on-stage,” Felix said. “When people see him on stage, they think he’s this dark rapper. But at the end of the day, when it’s just us, he’s a big brother that plays around a lot.”

And then there’s baby-faced Felix, whose deep voice and effervescent personality hardly seem like an obvious pairing at first but are essential to the group’s sonic identity.

“I now know how to use my voice a bit more. As we record for new songs, I’m able to improve and learn from 3racha on how to record,” he said, reflecting on the past year. “And not only that. Since being in the group, I’m learning more about myself as well and who I really am. Being with Stray Kids has made me feel more confident. It made me who I really am. I feel brave these days.”

When asked about the biggest change he sees in himself since being part of Stray Kids, Bang Chan was quick to note that he still doesn’t have any answers. “I have always been on a quest to find who I really am,” he said, pausing. “Honestly, I don’t think I’ve figured it out 100 percent yet.”

“But I have learned a lot about how to be on stage and how to communicate with my members and STAYs,” he added. “Even producing our music, every time I make a new song, I learn something new. And I’m still learning. I’m excited thinking about that now — there’s so much more to learn.”

This perspective — approaching life as a series of shared experiences, not obstacles — is what makes Stray Kids voices for their generation. By opening up, they’re encouraging others to do the same, to forge their own paths and perhaps learn something new about themselves along the way.

The post Stray Kids On Growing Up, Taking More Creative Risks, And Dealing With Self-Doubt appeared first on Gyrlversion.

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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 8 years ago

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The Vindication of Venom Part 3: Expectations

Part 2

Part 4

Now its time to get down to the real business of this essay and tackle the most vocal and frequent criticisms of Venom. Namely his original host Eddie Brock and his motives for hating Spider-Man. The first step to doing this though is to establish the expectations fans had for the character vs the actual intended concept behind him.

In part one I listed what I feel are the major criticisms of Venom and how I intended to address them one by one. In really thinking about it though I’ve realized that course of action would prove too difficult to properly dive into my points about Brock. Many of the criticisms surrounding him and many of my counterpoints to those criticisms are too interlinked with one another to be separated out like that.

As such I’m just going to talk about Brock more generally.

But as a reminder here are the points about him which I listed in Part 1:

· Eddie Brock’s motivations for hating Spider-Man are weak and make no sense

· Brock’s origin story involves rewriting events from the Sin Eater storyline to facilitate his fall from grace

· Brock was a previously unknown character who is unconnected to Peter Parker’s life in or out of his costume.

· The reveal of Brock as Venom, especially in light of previous two points, is a bad resolution to the mystery story seeded in issues leading to ASM #300

· Other versions of the character (such as Spider-Man the Animated Series, Spider-Man 3 and the Spectacular Spider-Man Animated Series) all make Brock to be a much better dark reflection of Spider-Man than the original comic book version

In my introduction I stated that my thesis for defending Venom was that he was more poorly communicated and readers projected unwarranted expectations onto the character. Brock is really where those two aspects come to the forefront.

Venom visually looks like Spider-Man, or rather how Spider-Man had looked for a few year before ASM #300 given that he’d off and on been wearing the black costume. In ASM #300 Venom also displayed enhanced strength and speed as well as the ability to wall-crawl and generate webbing. Half of Venom came from the alien symbiote which had in the past granted other hosts abilities similar to Spider-Man.

And of course Venom’s primary colour was black, a colour commonly associated with evil in Western cultures.

It is my belief that all these things combined caused readers upon learning someone else had the symbiote and consequently in seeing Venom himself, to expect the character to be a kind of evil Spider-Man, a dark reflection of the character.

This expectation coupled with his shadowy build up and debut in ASM #299-300 heightened fan anticipation for the character to be a big, big, big deal. Far bigger I think than if he had debuted in any given issue of Spider-Man that wasn’t a milestone of some kind, especially if it happened in Web of Spider-Man (the youngest Spider title) as originally intended.

After all, an evil version of the hero is a time honoured tradition (especially in superhero comics) and one that for Spider-Man had never directly been instigated in his then 25+ years of publication. The lack of such an archetype in the series for such a long time might possibly have further enhanced fan anticipation to finally see such a character in the pages of Marvel’s flagship character. And for that type of character to debut in such a momentous issue as ASM #300 meant readers were hyped to say the least.

Given these expectations it is no wonder that the character on the page proved disappointing to them.

Furthermore, readers from later generations would have their own set of expectations for the Venom character.

For many fans of Spider-Man of my generation (I was born in the early 1990s), we learned of Venom from the numerous merchandise he was featured on and more importantly from the 1994 Spider-Man animated series. Among the things the cartoon innovated when it came to Venom was the ideas that the costume brought out the darkside of its host, that Eddie Brock was an established member of Spider-Man’s supporting cast before he became Venom and that he blamed Spider-Man for ruining his life due to a series of misunderstandings.

So impactful and definitive was this version of Venom that elements from it were featured in consequent adaptations (including Spider-Man 3 and the Spectacular Spider-Man TV show) and various comic renditions of the character (e.g. Ultimate Spider-Man).

In fact the 1994 cartoon version made such a potent impression that there are long time Spider-Man fans who were around during the original debut of the black costume who believe that those original comics contained elements from the 90s cartoon’s take on the symbiote, chiefly the notion of the costume as a corrupting influence on Spider-Man.

For those fans and the ones of consequent generations Venom is on the Mount Rushmore of Spider-Man characters and villains, definitively standing alongside Green Goblin and Doc Ock as the A-listers of Spider-Man’s rogue’s gallery.

Now something very important to note going forward is the fact that adaptations such as Ultimate Spider-Man, Spider-Man 3 and the Spectacular Spider-Man Animated Series all played Venom/Brock as something of a dark reflection of Spider-Man/Peter Parker.

In USM and the Spec cartoon Peter and Eddie were childhood friends who’s fathers worked together and died in the same plane accident, both later following in their fathers’ footsteps becoming science students themselves.

In USM whilst Peter was presented as a pretty nice kid still very much in love with his recent ex-girlfriend Mary Jane Watson, Brock was presented as a college aged creep who tried to take advantage of the underage high schooler Gwen Stacy (who’d recently lost her father) and derided her as a ‘tease’.

In this version of the story, the alien costume is actually a lab created ‘suit’ Peter and Eddie’s fathers were working on, based upon Richard Parker’s DNA. When Peter wears the suit it mostly works fine but affects his emotions and transforms him into a monster resembling Venom. When Brock wears the suit, partially due to it not being based upon his DNA and partially due to his own mind and emotions, he becomes an even worse monster with even less control than Peter had.

Meanwhile in the Spec cartoon a stark difference is drawn between Peter and Eddie by virtue of, following the deaths of their parents, Eddie being raised alone whilst Peter had Uncle Ben and Aunt May and by extension Eddie becoming somewhat ‘in love’ with death whilst Peter came to appreciate life.

In Spider-Man 3 Eddie Brock was a Bugle photographer like Peter Parker (who was around a similar age), interested in Spider-Man pictures and also loved a beautiful woman from afar (Gwen Stacy), which was not dissimilar to Peter’s feelings for Mary Jane in the previous two films.

What must be remembered going forward was that the 1994 cartoon despite having Brock work at the Bugle (as a writer, not a photographer, although in one episode he did take a few photos) did not play Brock in any of the ways described above as far as being a dark reflection of Peter/Spider-Man is concerned. He wasn’t particularly concerned with chasing stories about Spider-Man, his attitude towards women was not compared or contrasted to Peter’s, he and Peter did not have any personal history, his parentage was never mentioned and he was most definitely not involved with science.

With these portrayals in mind and his impact/legacy within the franchise as a whole many fans going back to check out the character’s true beginnings have been unpleasantly surprised to find Venom and his origin a far cry from what they knew or expected.

I think this plays a very major role in the derision Venom’s origin story has within the fandom as essentially many fans hold Venom in contempt for not being like their wider pop cultural understanding of the character. Or at least not like the version(s) they like and/or are familiar with from adaptations.

In the comics the symbiote never acted as a corrupting force upon Spider-Man, Eddie Brock was not established ahead of his debut as Venom, was not someone Peter had a friendship with, there was no established animosity between the two characters, the symbiote did not act as a corrupting force on Brock turning an already bad person monstrous and Brock was never someone who operated as a dark reflection in the ways outlined above. The absence of all these things results in disappointment from readers who come to ASM #300 expecting to see them in some capacity.

Whilst I feel a lot of these ‘unfulfilled expectations’ are not intentional on the part of fans it is nevertheless very unfair as a point of criticism. After all why should a character or story be regarded as bad because adaptations based upon it went in different directions? If anything, wouldn’t it be at least equally valid to lambast those adaptations of Venom from deviating so significantly from the source material?

Regardless, my point is that Venom in ASM #300 fails to meet the expectations of fans from before and after the issue’s release for different reasons and that disappointment from both camps contributed to the dominant narrative of his origin being simply inherently bad.

My proposal however is that those expectations projected onto Venom’s debut were misplaced and as such not fair criteria to evaluate the character against.

That is to say I not believe Venom was ever conceived to be:

a genuine traditional mystery character

a dark reflection of Spider-Man (not in the way adaptations play him anyway)

someone who’d make a massive impact upon Spider-Man’s life

someone who’d hold an inherent connection to him.

Think of it like this.

When an audience member believes the piece of media they are consuming is (or is trying to be) one particular concept or genre they then (knowingly or otherwise) evaluate it based upon what they feel are the common tropes and ‘rules’ of that concept/genre.

For example someone watching a romance movie will be judging it based upon how believable the romance at the centre of the story is, the chemistry between the actors, etc. But if someone walks into an action movie expecting it to be a romance film and continues to believe it is trying to be a romance movie, the movie is going to seem bad to them. All because they missed the fact that it was never a romance movie to begin with.

This is what I believe is what happened with Venom.

Through some unclear writing and quirks of fate a lot of people just missed what the intrinsic ideas behind the character were and in doing so used the wrong set of criteria to judge him by.

Which raises the question of what exactly were the concepts underpinning the character then? For that you’ll have to read Part 4.

Part 2

Part 4

#Venom #Spider-Man #Eddie Brock #Peter Parker #David Michelinie #spectacular spider-man animated series #marvel #marvel animation #marvel comics #symbiote #symbiotes #venom symbiote #Ultimate Spider-Man #Spider-Man 3 #sony #sam raimi #greg weisman #Brian Michael Bendis #The Vindication of Venom

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