#but they waited to fully explore it until it was part of the narrative

[thesearchforbluejello]

With the popularity of Ted Lasso, I'm genuinely just so glad that we got such a phenomenal show that has made an impact on so many people, and of course now we've also gotten the first season of Shrinking, which also knocked it out of the park.

But I still mourn Whiskey Cavalier every time I watch an episode of either of those.

There hasn't been a whole lot of tv I've actually enjoyed in the past several years, and these three feel like an absolute trifecta, but WC feels like the holy ghost at this point because there is SO MUCH of it in Ted Lasso and Shrinking-- it's so many of the same writers/directors/producers, but they're also just so similar right to their foundations. All three interrogate tv tropes and relationships (of all kinds!!!!!) and mental health through comedy, and Ted Lasso and Whiskey Cavalier actually interrogate an entire genre. I'd say that WC is more on that side than Ted Lasso even is, because although they definitely interrogate some of the tropes of sports fiction (toxic masculinity, anyone?), WC actually parodies spy fiction while playing itself as straight.

It just makes me absolutely feral to think about what more of Whiskey Cav would have looked like. A second season? A third? The development of the show from the original(-ish, one of the drafts) pilot to what was actually filmed shows so much growth and an acknowledgement that they could really work with what they had-- it turned from a show about a guy (hence the name) to a show about an entire team. Frankie took the spot as the second main character with Will once they cast Lauren Cohan (I don't think that happened before she was cast but I may be wrong) and another character was completely rewritten into Jai when Vir Das was cast. They had an entire plan for how to flip the TV trope of the will-they-won't-they relationship to a how-will-they-make-it-work relationship!!!!!! It would have been so good!!!!!! The amount of character development we got in just one season was far above and beyond anything else I've seen besides Ted Lasso and Shrinking, and honestly I think more actually happened specifically because they didn't have the assurance of more seasons (good thing they didn't assume, I guess) to build on things like the Ted Lasso Method™ but they still managed to do it without rushing it.

Honestly I feel like I could make a venn diagram of how all three of these shows all overlap and it would be hilarious. Excellent theme songs by well known artists without it feeling cheap? ✅✅✅ Excellent episodic music by well known artists also without it feeling cheap? ✅✅✅ Really well executed character development for ALL of the characters? ✅✅✅ Interrogation of tv tropes? ✅✅✅ More specifically, hilariously camp villains who still manage to take advantage of tropes to work? ✅✅ Incredibly well developed character relationships OF ALL KINDS that don't all hinge on only one romantic relationship as the centerpoint of everything? ✅✅✅ Queer characters who don't exist for the butt of a joke or solely as token queer characters? ✅✅✅ Every line is delivered with perfect comedic (or dramatic) delivery and timing? ✅✅✅

Anyway, this has been a barely coherent and very meandering way of saying that the fact that ABC put the episodes out of order really screwed things up, but Whiskey Cav really hit its stride there with the second half of season one and absolutely nailed the vibe they'd been working towards with the foundational episodes that came before them, and I just get SO ANGRY when I watch Ted Lasso and Shrinking despite the fact that they're both so good and I enjoy them so much because it makes me think about just how good a second (and third, damn it) season of Whiskey Cavalier would have been.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

complicated feelings about book 7

Hey, hello, hi!!

I’ve been having a lot of thoughts and feelings about the direction the main story is going in ever since 7-100. I wanted to wait until the hype for the book 7 part 9 and anticipating part 10 settled down a bit before I made this post, as I wouldn’t want to impede anyone’s excitement for it—and now that time has come.

While I wouldn’t say I’m being entirely negative or harsh in this post (I’d say I’m being “worried” in my critique at most), I’d caution you to avoid it if you think it would upset you or mess with your enjoyment of the main story, especially knowing that the book 7 part 10 update is coming later in August.

Thank you for your time ^^ and without further ado…

I started to feel iffy about how the story is going around the part Idia wakes up. At the time, I remained optimistic and brushed it off. However, the inkling I had then has since magnified, especially with the recent Scarabia update.

What is that issue with, you may ask?

The dream hopping and waking segments.

They feel so… for lack of a better term, dissatisfying?? Rushed?? I don’t know, but I’m left still feeling like (just as Ariel says) I want more. I was hype when they first happened, but with each new update, I let myself sit with what happened for a few days and, thinking back on it, problems start to arise.

Don't get me wrong, I'm NOT saying that these segments are lame or that they don't make sense. I love being able to delve into the dreams and see a ton of novel yet absurd things, and I love how genius Idia's plan is. It makes sense narratively and I, of course, appreciate being able to see the dreamscapes and the desires of so many beloved characters. BUT... The problems primarily come down to pacing and the overabundance of contrivances.

The set-up itself is elaborate but also keeps piling up more “but also we need to do THIS” details that seem to overcomplicate things or act as red herrings. Silver’s UM itself is already warranting an explanation, then we got Idia’s video presentation, now we have to account for leaving people and hologram projections behind… all for the sake of limiting how many people travel to the dreams because OH YEAH we also need to consider Malleus catching on. It’s contrived for the sake of the narrative giving everyone a chance in the spotlight before the Big Finale. The universe has to dedicate so much time to explaining how this is feasible or why people need to stay behind in order to justify the pacing and to avoid an increasingly growing group from competing for attention. We spent SO long on just exploring Lilia's dream that the shift to waking up all these other characters seems so much quicker by comparison. It's natural that we can only devote so much time to each character (since we have so many students to collect), but it also results in some people feeling very rushed or not fully realized. For example, Epel only gets 5 parts dedicated to his turn-around but Kalim gets 8. This variance naturally occurs as some dreams are less serious than others, but despite this it still leans into some non-OB boys getting more of the spotlight than others. Additionally, we also see very uneven distribution of lines across individual segments. There is so much information crammed into some parts (like 140 and 141) while other parts are pathetically sparse and not much happens.

When it comes to the OB boys, they of course get longer segments than the others, so it doesn't feel as bad. However, I think the OB boys come with other issues... Namely the "resolutions" to their battles against their OB forms. Not only is there a formula to how they are woken up (which makes things less exciting compared to not really knowing what happens in the main story except for OB boy at the end), but there's also a part carved out for them to give a big speech about how they've changed or how they'll move on from the past, etc. This is especially true of Jamil, who probably had the longest speech of the OB boys thus far.

Now yes, I know it's an anime trope to give speeches (particularly for TWST, which primarily tells its story via dialogue). But does it have to be so... blatant??? Like, the OB boys are usually alone or just trapped with their inner darkness in these moments. Who exactly are they announcing their character change to? It does not feel diegetic at all. This is a lot of telling and not as much showing. That contrasts with the character development we saw in book 6; at least there the OB boys were paired up with other people, so there was someone to bounce off of and butt heads with. It feels like they're having a conversation, actually bonding with their peers, and learning from those tough interactions. (In fact, I would argue that book 6 did this growth in a much better paced and more cohesive manner.) In the dreams of book 7, the interactions have to be shared among several other students and they have to be so much shorter as a result of that.

What we’re seeing in book 7 is character growth we already knew about, but told to us in a more overt way. We are not learning anything new. Waking people in book 7 involves a lot of flashbacks to events that already played out, so rather than any real development being made, it's returning people to the state they were in before (since that "change" was in the process of occurring in the real world).

It feels like book 7 is trying hard to follow through with all the promises the earlier books built up to. And, quite honestly, many of these emotional conversations (like Kalim and Jamil shouting at each other about their flaws) NEEDED to happen. I just don't know if this was the appropriate context for it, because it comes off as an ultimatum or an ending to a story that had so much more left to say.

The way these book 7 segments are framed, the students "waking" is meant to mark a pivotal moment in their development. I worry what this means, because the dialogue is very... resolute? Especially for the OB boys. And them announcing how they've changed out loud rather than in a more subtle way (like Kalim saying he is 'frustrated' but not being able to explain why in book 4, Leona saying that Jamil is "not like him" in book 6; implying that there is hope for Jamil but not for himself, etc.)... It gives the impression that this is the "end" of their character arcs, that their growth is now "complete", even if that wasn’t the intention. I don't feel like that's how character development works?????? It's never really "done", it's a continuous and ongoing thing, so the vibes of it feel a little off. I would have liked it more if it were open-ended or at least vaguer. Still hopeful, but vaguer. These are meant to be triumphant moments, yet I don't get that feeling because it's very repetitive at this point. I've pointed out many patterns myself, and that makes future installments VERY predictable and boring aside from the actual dream settings we visit. We have 11 more students to hit up. E L E V E N. That's SO many. Do you realize how far away that is????? I even ran the numbers:

Idia spans 109 - 116 (7 parts)

Epel spans 120 - 124 (5 parts)

Rook spans 125 - 131 (7 parts)

Vil spans 133 - 139 (8 parts)

Kalim spans 140 - 147 (8 parts)

Jamil spans 148 - 157 (10 parts)

That means, on average, it takes 7.5 parts for each character to wake up. With 11 characters left to do, that means we have at LEAST 82.5 parts left (spread across 3 updates, one for Octavinelle, one for Savanaclaw, and one for Heartslabyul). With the current 157 parts out, that means book 7 is going on until at least part like 240... AND WE STILL HAVE A TON LEFT TO WRAP UP, like Yuu going home, Grim OB, Crowley's intentions, the mystery of Raverne’s disappearance, the truth behind Mickey and Yuu’s connection, beating the crap out of OB Malleus, etc. Book 7 is dragging on for a while, and the novelty of each dreamscape can only last for so long before the same old pesky problems creep in again 💀 The pacing is so weird; it simultaneously feels too long and yet also not long enough. Not only that, but because there are so many other characters to collect, it is robbing Diasomnia and Ignihyde of THEIR promised screen time in the second half of the book.

A lesser issue I had was the weird... tonal whiplash? The dream segments are largely silly and they spend a lot of them goofing around with the explanation of having to "investigate" the dreamer's weak point and hitting on that to wake them. (This complaint runs counter to the pacing issues I mentioned earlier; cutting down on the time spent being silly means we'd be rushing the story, but not having silly parts means dragging the story out. It's hard to really balance the two.) Here I am sitting here and thinking 1) there is NO sense of urgency, 2) what a waste of time, and 3) what a wasted opportunity for Yuu.

I'm not a huge game!Yuu fan; I see them as a blank slate for self-inserting, and since I'm not someone who likes to self-insert, Yuu has little to no value to me and just serves primarily as a vehicle to have things exposited to them and as a POV character. But hey, if the story wants to stress Yuu is important and helps these characters change, then why not do it here??????? There's so few times when they actually do something of importance in the main story (with perhaps their most involved points being books 3 and 4, maybe 6 when they took the initiative to go free their friends/rescue Grim).

A lot of it honestly feels like wasted time since most characters outside of the dorm leader do not change in significant way or in less serious manners. It really falls flat because Yuu largely did not do anything to influence those extra characters, let alone the OB boys.

While talking with a friend, they suggested that non-OB boy sequences could have been relegated to vignettes to go with limited story cards (that way TWST could have more banners, assuming one for each character) or as free bonus side-content that unlocks as an optional thing similar to how the collecting wishes worked in Wish Upon a Star; they are not essential. It feels like they were obligatorily thrown in as fanservice before the big closing. The narrative would have still worked and we would get to the point faster if we limited the main story componeny to just the necessary people (Ignihyde + OB boys).

Another potential route: if you insist on hitting up all the characters before the end, why not give Yuu a chance to DO SOMETHING in book 7 since they're the only person in the wake-up crew to have interacted with all these people we're trying to wake up? The only one who has experienced detailed and prophetic dreams associated with the OB boys???? The one who has been tasked with investigating and resolving various students' issues around campus? Why not let Yuu take the lead in discovering the best method to wake each boy up? Then we'd at least get character development on Yuu's part, get to see how Yuu is positively influencing the boys, and it cuts down on the down time of wandering in circles and making no meaningful progress.

*takes a deep breath*

Anyway, those are my thoughts 💦 I would like to reiterate that I do NOT "hate" book 7, I just disagree with the pacing and how they've decided to write in waking up the characters for this current stretch of it. It's no doubt a daunting task and I'm sure the writers are all doing their very best... I don't know if the end product managed to achieve what it wanted to for me though. It’s tiring and repetitive (like bouncing up and down on a roller coaster that cannot decide how it wants to go and leaves you no time to recover/catch your breath), and I’m left still feeling unsatisfied and wanting more.

Theoretically, I like the ideas but not the execution of them… I can only hope that the pacing improves for future updates (especially with the Octa update on the way and attempting to shake up the formula by introducing two story SSRs instead of one), or that book 7 can at least end strongly with that final battle.

[farfromdaylight]

i try not to complain about heavensward. i really do. it's a beloved expansion. people love ishgard. i love ishgard.

however, heavensward FUCKING SUCKS.

listen. so much of heavensward's plot is either badly written or badly paced or both. if you play through it once and don't think about it further, it's a great game. if you even glance back at it, it falls apart like a house of cards.

Actual shit that happens in Heavensward (spoilers):

You fight against the Heavens Ward to prove you're not a heretic. Five minutes later you have to go back to Ul'dah to save Raubahn.

After several levels of exploring Dravania and reaching the Churning Mists, you finally find Nidhogg's lair. You can't get there. You turn around and go back to Ishgard.

While you're fucking about waiting for the manacutters to get done, you go get the sultana back. Literally the entire plot momentum built up from your big road trip across Dravania comes to a dead halt as you go back to Ul'dah.

You slay Nidhogg. You go back to Ishgard. You spend eight quests killing time until the Vault, learn that class warfare is a thing, and fight off one of the Heavens Ward, who BACKFLIPS AWAY FROM YOU.

Immediately after the Vault, you go fight a whale.

The Emperor of Garlemald shows up in the Sea of Clouds just to tell you that you suck.

At the exact moment Y'shtola would be convenient to the plot, she returns.

The archbishop gets to Azys Lla way before you, but helpfully waits until you get there before continuing the plot.

and so on. i'm sure there's more.

here's my problem with heavensward: individually, there are a lot of great plot elements in it. however, they are presented in such a fucking buckwild manner that a lot of them are diminished. let's take the Hilda section for example: it's great to learn about Ishgard's class struggles! Of course this is great worldbuilding! However the actual section where you learn about it feels like (and basically is) filler. You finish the Aery, learn a lot of important Dragon Lore, and come back to Ishgard. You then have to fuck about until you're a high enough level to do the Vault, and in that section you do some of the worst fetchquesting in the game. It is atrocious.

Are there things I like about Heavensward? Absolutely. I fucking love Ishgard. I think the overall worlbuilding is phenomenal. Dragon vs man is a compelling storyline. But my god, the plotting and pacing are SO BAD. You spend an unbelievable amount of 3.0 dealing with the Ul'dah plotlines of post-ARR when you should be fully immersed in Ishgardian politics. It would not have killed you to leave the sultana stuff for HW patch quests, guys.

The best comparison I can make is that it's like if in Shadowbringers, instead of seeing the Meanwhile In Garlemald sections, you instead had to just abandon the First and head back to deal with that shit right before fighting a Lightwarden. It brings the narrative to a dead halt. It just doesn't work.

And like, I get it. It's not easy to write a game like FF14. The fact that later expansions are as well-written as they are is frankly a miracle. This is a huge worldbuild with a ton of plot threads and it's incredible even half of them get wrapped up. But viewed in isloation, Heavensward is one of the most tonally inconsistent parts of the entire story.

[picturejasper20]

Looking back the ending of Gravity Falls while thinking about endings of other series like Amphibia and The Ghost and Molly Mcgee, Weirdmageddon has a message that is underwhelming when it comes to Dipper and Mabel's relationship and Mabel's potrayal in the show.

This isn't about Mabel getting tricked by Bill. She is a 12-13 years old that in that context she was feeling really bad and not thinking well what she was doing. That isn't relevant to the topic at hand and honestly it isn't a problem she did that, it does makes sense in the episode it happened.

What i have an issue is how the narrative makes Dipper feel bad about considering staying studying with Stanford. This is something that Dipper was interested in and he was very fascinated by anything that was paranormal related. Stanford himself told Dipper he had a lot of potential and the kid was digging into it.

Mabel lashing out and not liking the idea of Dipper staying with Stanford is understandable in the episode Dipper and Mabel vs. the Future. She doesn't seem to have much friends back in her home and her parents are implied to not be the best. She gets scared of Dipper leaving, that's a reasonable fear for a kid to have.

However, as i mentioned before, Dipper is made feel bad about considering choosing something he wants to do. It isn't Mabel who has to learn that things change and sometimes this brings things we don't like. She doesn't exactly consider what Dipper wants for himself, she mainly cares about how ¨she is going to be alone¨ and making her brother feel selfish for choosing his own path or do something that could make him happy.

Yes, she learns that things can't stay the same forever and they are growing up, that itself is a pretty good development for her and overall a good message to teach.

Yet her being codependent on Dipper doesn't get brought up nor addressed, in fact the series seems to praise this behavior of hers. In how Dipper has to do what she wants if not he is a bad brother. Mabel's clinginess and controlling behaviour to an extent isn't called out, which that itself is a problem.

Small edit: I want to add an extra point here that Mabel does have a short scene near the end of the episode that she tells Dipper that she won't get in his way if he wants to stay with Stanford and she was ¨acting nuts¨ in the dream bubble. This is good for her but it does still feel in part that her issues weren't fully acknowledged and it doesn't help she didn't say this until after Dipper told her that he was going to stay with her and not be with Stanford, which is rather questionable in my opinion. It would have been more appropiate in the episode to have this brought up and getting adressed better than for her to wait for Dipper to do what she wanted.

In contrast in Amphibia, Marcy Wu has a similar arc about change. The series explores how she can take her escapism too far and how she can be very selfish in plenty of ways, something that is potrayed as an aspect she has to learn from and realize that it isn't healthy.

Her being too codependent on Anne and Sasha and their overall friendship is potrayed as toxic and the series explores this relationship a lot, having the girls grow over time and think about different aspects they have to work on.

In ¨True Colors¨ it is revealed that Marcy Wu learned about the Calamity Box the same day she got told by her parents that they were moving away. Very afraid of having to leave her friends behind and having to be alone in a new city, she found the Calamity Box and told Sasha and Anne about it. Worth of mentioning she didn't know if it would work but it was a desperate act of her just to not having to move away from her friends yet.

When Sasha and Anne find out about this they are, not surprisingly, very pissed and push from Marcy away for a moment, making Marcy realize her mistake and eventually apologizes for what she did.

In ¨All In¨ Marcy finally comes to terms with how she can't force Anne and Sasha to be the way she wants them to be and that her codependency on them isn't a good thing. She realizes that has to move away to her new home at some point, that things change but that doesn't mean the three of them have to stop being friends.

As you can see, there is a clear difference between how Mabel Pines and Marcy Wu’s characters and flaws are potrayed in the narrative. While Gravity Falls makes Mabel’s codependency and controlling behaviour to be something acceptable and that Dipper should conform to, Amphibia does the complete opposite and presents Marcy Wu’s actions as flaws she has and that can hurt other people, including her friends. She is the one that has to make a change and understand she has to work on herself if she wants to have new friends and keep these relationships as times moves on.

Since we are on topic, one thing that really bothered me is how Mabel created a version of Dipper that is ¨cool¨ and says yes and goes along with everything she wants to do. (Weirdmageddon Part 2)

This has… interesting implications of how Mabel believes that relationships should work, or at least with her brother twin Dipper. A lot has to do with how she and Dipper have very different personalities and she maybe wishes that he was more like her, but expecting someone else to say ¨yes¨ to everything you want is a toxic mentality to have. And the episode itself doesn’t address this enough, it doesn’t bring up to Mabel she can’t expect people to work like this and she should try thinking more about what others wants.

Lets talk about The Ghost and Molly Mcgee. In this series Molly Mcgee often has episodes where she has to learn certain lessons. One of them she learns over time is that often she has to give up control and let what others want to do instead.

A good example of this is ¨Ready, Set, Snow!¨ in which she is constanly trying to make Libby and Scratch to go and play outside in the snow with her without considering they would rather stay inside and sit near the fire for the moment. She spends most of the episode trying to find ways to make them go outside until she gets angry and goes out on her own. She has… quite of a mental breakdown in a sequence song. Scratch goes to check on her but he tells to her that she can’t do always what she wants and what it is important is for her to be spending time with her friends. Molly realizes she was wrong, goes back to the house and she apologizes for how she acted.

Molly has quite a lot of episodes like this, and all this becomes important in the series finale ¨The End¨ when she sees that Scratch has to go back to be Todd even if that means forgetting the memories he got as a ghost, her included. She tells Scratch that she is going to miss him a lot but she knows that forcing Scratch to stay wouldn’t be right. She encourages Scratch to go and ¨live his life¨ because she cares about Scratch being happy.

Similar to Marcy Wu, Molly learns that she can’t force people to do what she wants and she has to let them choose for themselves. She knows that encouraging Scratch to do what he always wanted to do as human is the right thing to do, even if it means saying goodbye to him.

I do understand the idea that Gravity Falls was doing at with something among the lines of ¨Dipper and Mabel not repeating the same mistakes that their uncles did¨ but that doesn’t mean Dipper has to give up his dreams at expense of what Mabel wants. As Dipper said in VS The Future episode: he can still visit and they can still talk to each other. They don’t have to fall apart the same way Standford and Stan did. Just like in Amphibia, if Marcy still was able to remain friends with Anne and Sasha over the years, the same can be applied to Dipper and Mabel as siblings.

If not, it could be rewritten in a way that makes Dipper reconsider that he would like to wait a few years before joining Stanford in his adventures. That he is still a kid and wants to spend a while longer figuring himself out and be with Mabel before making a decision. That way it feels more like a decision he wants to do for himself and goes along with his character arc that he doesn’t have to rush to grow up.

As for Mabel, she has a lot of growing up to do. She has to learn overtime that Dipper is his own person and he can take is own path. That if she wants to have friends or have in general healthy relationships with others, she can’t make it always about herself and people have their own needs as well. She would have to work on her codependency and clinginess she has on others, specially her own brother. This would help her with being a more mature capable individual when she grows up.

This post on itself isn’t me hating on Mabel’s character since she has moments she can be good and i feel a lot of her behaviour comes from not being taught properly and being a teenager. The problem is that the series doesn’t address this behaviour enough and, as result, it comes off as the series giving an unintentional underwhelming message of potraying Mabel’s issues as something that should be acceptable and not her having a dynamic with Dipper that comes off as toxic. It is important to understand to learn to support others and not always make things about ourselves. That sometimes relationships change and we can’t force people to be in a specific way.

[jewishrizahawkeye]

hello fellow members of the tortured poets department.

apologies for my absence from meeting, was being a little to tortured and not enough poet lately 😑.

but i would like to enter into evidence the songs for the days i missed. because it is late i might combine some songs together if they’re next to each other and if the idea for both over laps.

because of that this post will be analyzing fresh out the slammer and florida!!! but specifically how these songs start to explore more about the “american dream” theme that runs throughout the album. i’ve been waiting until these two songs to fully explore it as florida!!! is well… the most obvious place for me to start.

previous days: fortnight; THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT; my boy only breaks his favorite toys; down bad; so long, london; but daddy i love him

references to america are prevalent throughout the album. this does make perfect sense actually considering taylor had set up home base in london and even wrote songs mentioning certain spots (and even liking a boy from london). so taylor choosing to focus the next album on america and coming home after being away fits very well. taylor spent years away because she was afraid of people and moved to a different country to get away. but when she was left all alone and the relationship ended (so long, london) she had to go back home.

this is what we see in fresh out the slammer. the song feels more like a transition song, ie. moving from one location to the other. the song over all is not one of my favorites on the album as while it is nice i don’t feel like it adds as much depth. though i do think it adds more details to certain things touched on. specifically with taylor personifying london as her former partner transitions a bit to this song as she refers to him as a place and what that place did to her. it’s especially interesting to me seeing her refer to it as a prison at times considering in reputation there was also those motifs too but with fame and she felt more sheltered with her then partner. but now it is shown to be also caging her. she ran from one cage to another to protect herself, which is valid, but is now realizing that instead of seeing it as a safe haven.

the main part i want to focus on the song though is how she refers to her next partner viewing her as “the girl of his american dreams”. this is an interesting line and totally not referencing the 1975 as it paints a very distinct picture. the phrase “the girl of his dreams” means the person he thinks would be the ideal partner. this is shown in the media though as negative or in a overwhelming personification with the “manic pixie dream girl” archetype. so already the phrase is on shakey ground, but there’s nothing wrong with saying a partner is “your dream” partner. it can be a compliment.

however, taylor specifically adding the “american dream” to the phrases changes it entirely. she’s now evoking the idea of the american dream that’s the pull yourself up by your boot straps and end up with a house, a car, a wife, and two kids idea. i’m not going to sit here and dissect THAT cause that’s a whole ass lecture. but taylor saying this man views her as “the girl of his american dreams” is saying that she is the ideal partner to settle down with and start a life with. to have a family and get married. which is also noted on many other tracks as something a partner did to her but never followed through. which is ironically what the american dream is. it’s a lie sold to people to keep working and they can hope for a better future. but in actuality they have to keep working and climbing relentlessly to achieve it and never can reach it.

so by taylor saying she’s the girl of his american dreams, he’s selling her a false narrative that she desperately wants and craves but he has no intention on following through and will just use her until he’s done. it’s a very interesting word choice i really like.

and how that idea connects to florida!!!

florida is probably one of the most notoriously known states in america next texas and new york. it’s a hub for weird stories and hurricanes and just all together a chaotic place. but people still love it. in fact, it’s also another part of the american dream as the idea for a lot of people is to retire in florida after they lived their life. which is why i wanted to combine these two as they flow into each other.

taylor uses florida as both a place physically but also metaphorically (and technically as a person if we view it as the “miracle move in drug”) which ties into her using london as both a place and person. florida is the “state” your in post break up and leans into the chaoticness of the actual state. she uses the wildness that everyone has of florida to describe a post break up high.

there are MANY things she uses to describe this. but let’s first look at her referring to her partner as a “hurricane with her name/i got drunk and i dared it to wash me away/barricaded in the bathroom with a bottle of wine”. hurricanes aren’t a stranger to florida and have done extensive damage to the state. but taylor refers to it as a storm with her name, ie. he was made just for her and in this state he’s out to destroy her because of how much damage their relationship did to her overall. but she acknowledges that she did tempt it, she did let it get this far and she had to drink her way through while hiding just to make it out alive.

but this florida, no one asks for questions about why you hate your ex because no one else in this state cares. in fact, they’ll help you hide the body if you help them. so taylor can throw her former lovers who she considered her home town (a reference to london boy “home is where the heart is, but that’s not where mine lives”/“but god i love the english”) but he never considered her more than a passing guest or her feeling like she was arrested there, because of her love for him and wanting to make it work or him keeping her locked away is open to interpretation. so she’s pissed, she’s running free and wanting to escape it all and is in the one state no one cares because they’re going through hell to and can’t bother to care about you.

in this case taylor is referring to florida as the clarity of post break up and running wild and free. which also does tie back into my previous days post about but daddy i love him as that plays into the classic romance piece of a forbidden love. it’s a very quintessential american idea of trucks through fences and small town elders saying to stay away from the good girl. and taylor even introduces it in fortnight by refrencing florida and “another night lost in america”. she is actively introducing the listener on page one to the idea of her longing to run away from it all and have freedom, but freedom looks different there than in florida.

bdilh->florida!!! just screams the idea of american hopes and dreams and young love. it’s wild and loud and messy and destructive and doesn’t see the future. which then later gets wrapped up somewhat in i hate it here from the anthology tracks. because taylor saying “i’d say the 1830’s but without all the racists and getting married off for the highest bid… nostalgia is a minds trick if i had been there i’d hate it” which can be her acknowledging that the idea this man sold to her and the freedom she fantasized about wasn’t what it actually was and hates it in hindsight.

this post is disjointed, and i apologize, but the idea of the american dream running through has been something i keep going back to on relistens and i wanted to introduce it to the community for discussion. thank you again for letting this be late.

[annerbhp]

So I think you’ve written some of my fav HP fanfic ever like ever ever and I see you’ve been obsessing over the untamed lately. Is there anything similar narratively that drew you to it or another reason why you’d recommend someone watch the untamed?

Thanks so much! That is very kind of you to say, and REALLY nice of you to give me a chance to blather on about The Untamed!

You know, sometimes I just think the right piece of media comes along at the right moment and just hits all the right buttons. I swear I can never see it coming until it does.

Part of the reason I started watching The Untamed in the first place was because I kept seeing random posts about it and I was looking for something to distract me. It was still during the most isolated time period of COVID. I'd also found that my attention span and ability to focus on one thing at a time was severely challenging at the time? Like I couldn't even watch TV without also playing a game on my phone or doom-scrolling. So when I started The Untamed looking for something to watch, the fact it was in a foreign language and I had to read subtitles like...fixed this for me? It allowed me to fully focus on something for the first time in a long time. I also really like the formats of Chinese dramas in general, in that they are long (50 episodes in this case) enough to get really invested in the characters and character arcs, but are filmed at the same time with a complete plot from beginning to end. It's just so much nicer than the American TV show format of "here's a season, maybe you'll get another, maybe not, maybe the plot will wildly change, maybe we'll keep upping the ante and randomly kill people off when actors get different jobs." So the combo of subtitles and format really appealed to me.

But as for why The Untamed in particular is great, well, there's a lot of reasons!

It's a world that has magic, which I always find fascinating. This fantasy setting is based off Chinese Daoist traditions.

It has the theme of young people forced into war far too young. (Sometimes it feels like the show is actually three different genres in turn: high school hijinks, gritty war movie, and a murder mystery caper, and each one is awesome.)

Which kind of leads to another of my favorite things: the character arcs. I love a show with thoughtful character growth and change over time and this one does that really well.

There are so many characters to love, all with their own drives and interests. I can't say this show does overly well by its female characters when it comes to plot, but when it comes to character development, they are all fully fleshed out and have their own drives and none of them exist to just be a love interest, which is nice!

There are Jane Austen-levels of romantic longing. Like, the show is based off a novel that is explicitly gay, and I do mean explicit. Yet thanks to censorship, everything is subtext that is played so well by the actors and clearly very carefully put in place by the creators of the show through music and things like framing and glances and symbolism and hand touches, did I mention the LONGING GAZES? They know what they are doing. This show is so romantic, I can't even get over it, especially since it could never really be explicitly stated, even though it totally is!! (I am such a sucker for romance.)

There is also absolutely beautiful music, cinematography, and costuming.

Phenomenal acting, even when some of the CGI is laughably bad, and most people playing instruments don't look at all like they are actually playing.

This show has tragedy and humor and highly competent people and complicated evil and historical trauma and a complete denial of black and white thinking. It never holds back from exploring the ways society can fail us and we can fail ourselves. And how we can still find ways forward.

Also, the show has some jaw-dropping plot reveals that I just did not see coming, though maybe other people did. It was one of those, "WAIT A MINUTE" moments when the moment the show ended I was determined to watch all 50 episodes again immediately with my new understanding. I love media that can pull that off.

Look, the opening scene is literally the main character falling to their death off a cliff and you get to spend the rest of the series trying to figure out how that happened and where the world goes from there. It's beautiful!

If you do try to watch it, the first episode or two is SO CONFUSING, and that's fine, just go with it. By episode 10 if you are not completely sucked in, then maybe it's just not for you. We get some non-linear story telling approaches that are so effective.

Also, not really a "why is the show so great" or anything, but the fandom for this show is so active and HUGE. Like, there are currently over 43,000 fics on AO3 for the main pairing in this fandom alone. You'll be reading for ages. Some of them are the best fics I've ever read.

Hmmm. I think I'll go read some Olympics AUs.

[script-a-world]

Submitted via Google Form:

I have no idea if any religious texts explain this or not but when I have a world that has reincarnation in it, how does it explain increases in population and where all the new people come from if they aren't a reincarnation of a previous dead person? Obviously any religion never explains everything and clearly so many things are contradictive, but it might be a bit more important in my story when there is a lot of science that explains things. In my story, reincarnations are also a science and one important invention they have is a high-tech machine that can probe someone's mind/soul that can identify many of someone's previous lives. I'm not sure how to go about though with explanations. Obviously it will need a lot of handwaving. Now, this only happens with humans. I understand that real life religion people reincarnate as animals and so many other realms of existence but this is not true of my world. A part of my story focuses on researching to find the earliest known reincarnation.

Tex: How do they define a soul? How is this defined in relation to consciousness? If there’s the belief that there can only be one soul per body, does this inform their cultural norms on reproduction? Do certain people and their families have a higher priority on who’s allowed to reproduce, because of this? How restrictive would this be, and who and how actually enforce these rules?

Both religion and science are means of communicating to a culture on a mass scale, and because of that there will be inconsistencies in how this information is conveyed and the ability for the average lay person to understand what this information is, and its finer nuances.

Because of this, simply replacing one mode of communication about How The World Works ™ is not going to magically increase literacy on a subject, nor make anyone more likely to adhere to something. It’s the reason why religion leverages indoctrination tactics as a core part of its message - obtaining loyal followers requires a lot of work, and a risk/reward ratio to ensure compliance to a particular ideology. Filing off the identifying words and replacing them with different ones does not change the underlying perception of a “new” message.

Science, historically, has been just as politically-aligned as religion, because both have been deeply connected to money. How your world will define a soul, and consciousness, and how it ranks who gets to have what, will inevitably follow the papertrail that is money - it’s up to you how much of an economy to include, and what concepts like equality and egalitarianism look like in your world.

Licorice: This sounds to me like a question the scientists in your world would be busy exploring. In fact, from a narrative perspective, I think it would be more interesting if this were an aspect of reincarnation that they themselves did not understand yet. They could have many different theories floating around, different schools of thought endorsed by rival academic cliques. 

In our world it is often the case that scientists devise practical applications for natural phenomena that they don’t yet fully understand. They’re not sure why it works yet, but they know that it does. So it would be perfectly possible for your scientists to have plenty of unanswered questions about reincarnation, while at the same time inventing a machine that can read people’s past lives. 

For example, does reincarnation in their world operate like a parking garage, where no new cars can enter until a space becomes available? No new babies can be born until a body dies and frees up a soul? If this were the case, how would human beings deal with it? Would people remain pregnant for months or even years, waiting for a newly-liberated soul to enter the foetus so it can become a person and be born? Or would it not be possible to get pregnant at all unless a soul was available? In that case, might people who were desperate to have a child go out and murder randos? Would older members of the community be encouraged to hurry up and recycle their souls? 

Or maybe we can go the Philip Pullman route and argue that souls are made of Dust - space dust, star dust, magic dust, what have you - free-floating in the universe, which can be attracted to your earth by a variety of means. 

Or maybe they have actual gods in this world who simply create more souls as required. 

It would also be interesting to know what social distinctions - classes, if you will - might be created based on one’s soul level. For example, do souls that have undergone a certain number of reincarnations enjoy higher social status? More rights? Or maybe more responsibilities?

Another possibility is that souls can split, like amoebas, if they cultivate enough mana or whatever. Perhaps society is structured around ways of encouraging people to do this?

And finally, in your world, is there any end to the cycle of reincarnation? And is this something to be desired, or avoided?

I think you have a really neat idea there with a huge amount of potential. 

[vivacissimx]

[ASOIAF 2024 Official Calendar Cover Art by Justin Sweet]

couple things: obviously i love this new art although i was very surprised to see it (yes everyone knows r+l=j but george you haven't gotten to this part in asoiaf yet!!), particularly as the cover art for the whole calendar. i know there are plans for the harrenhal play in 2023/2024, and that twow seems to be looming so a possible clue that the reveal of jon snow's parentage may very well be in this coming book?

regardless, about the actual art: justin sweet is certainly a conceptual artist from a quick overview of his website & that really shines through here, i mean the placements, the metaphors, the whole composition is soft as forest moss truly.

i love the interplay of light & dark given what we know of these characters: rhaegar with his sense of grief/doom is fully in the shade of the enormous heart tree while lyanna is in the half-light half-dark, perhaps representing her own more optimistic and less convoluted worldview. she's exploring, finding balance; he's watching & seeing something he admires that somehow exists in all the twists and inescapable turns of the forest engulfing them.

the third 'person' in the art is the heart tree itself, old/wise/frowning, but also cradling both lyanna and rhaegar. they're both connected to it, representing in a sense that their fates are sealed & known. this is a stolen moment they're having (it's a false spring!) but despite the simplicity it's still connected to the much larger world around them.

another point i like is the lack of sigil etc on their clothing—we know who they are but the interaction is not one of targaryen to stark on it's face. [there's also this other art by the same artist which parallels lyanna & jon's poses + rhaegar & jon's clothes WE GET IT OKAY]

LAST & MOST IMPORTANT THOUGH: the blue roses at the bottom that are firmly in the light! both rhaegar and lyanna are looking in that direction, the blue roses are of course deeply intertwined with their story but also are connected to their narrative successors in jon & daenerys. daenerys sees the blue rose in her vision in the house of the undying as part of the prophecy on her romantic relationships / jon is told the story of bael the bard & the blue winter rose as a nod to his own hidden identity. the flowers aren't connected to the heart tree directly, just in it's presence, perhaps because the upcoming fate of those two & the entire world is still in the air. at best: they find each other and spring blooms. a dream of spring. at worst: they're swallowed by the weight of history as the tree itself is.

only thing i would have liked to have seen is perhaps some of the deep gashes that daemon targaryen left on the heart tree of harrenhal while waiting there for aemond one-eye to surface. assumedly this is harrenhal as it's spring here & rhaegar/lyanna didn't see each other following harrenhal until winter had reasserted itself. the connection of the targaryen family to the god's eye/harrenhal/the rivers that make up the trident is an interesting and extensive one but! beggars can't be choosers!

all in all very much a treat, the gentle romantic setting of the calm in the storm is Such an ASOIAF vibe and this piece truly captured that

[carmineskiesandspidereyes]

Ok ok so listen up ok c'mere yeah get close and settle in alright ok

It's a long one gang. and not wholly important but. I finally defined this for myself and now I really wanna share.

When I say I love body body horror, I'm almost never talking about straight up gore...

When I say body horror, I mean it as in metamorphosis.

I want body horror that remakes somebody. body horror that re-challenges the question of what it means to be human.  Body horror which explores how someone could define personhood, humanity, and overall identity for themselves, when they have been irrevocably changed.

I finally found the words for it, and that right there is the shit that I absolutely devour. The stuff that makes me grin manically off into space when I think about it too much. The stuff that has me kicking, near-falling out of bed late at night, whenever I find a fic by an author who really sinks their teeth into that narrative and doesn't let go.

—

Another subsection of this is...a little less clear. Maybe not even body horror at this point but I wanna talk about it too, so hear me anyway: Body horror that invades the mind as much as the body.

Think, like, “ship of Theseus,” but of the mind. 

In terms of symbiotes In terms of parasites  In terms of overlays and integrations and merging, fusing, or otherwise mind-reshaping connections. Mind(?) horror in terms of additions. 

I'm talking about the pervasive (or maybe undetectable) something-is-here-that-was-not-before. 

And maybe there’s a clear line of separation between you and it or maybe it’s just…you. 

and hey! wait a minute pal. "You?" let's struggle to redefine that too while we're at it.

I'm talking about mind(?) horror (gonna call it mind horror until somebody corrects me) in terms of searching, unable to find where you end and this Other begins, (if anywhere.) Desperately trying to find the draw the line where you would no longer be considered yourself.

Because what is the self? (identity and personhood cropping up once more, I see. nice✨)

But--no, really. How do you define your self? Change is natural, yes, and everybody evolves and shifts who they are over time. But maybe there's nothing natural about this. There is something not-you that is now-you and how, how, how do you know.

it could be mind horror in the sense that you feel as though a part of you has been missing. Maybe you’re somehow complete now--still yourself, but simply more.

But it could also be an overload, too much of this self entirely, where you become unfamiliar with what should be the most intrinsic part of you.

--

As a final wisp of what I'm grasping for, (we are now in the "figuring it out as I'm typing it" phase,) I'm gonna try for the last piece of this, the darkest bit I think, which is:

What if it didn't feel horrible? Something about how that sort of metamorphosis, be it mental, physical, or a secret third option, can be...a really specific kind of awful. Violating, even, if conjoining with something Other. (though that depends highly on the consent to who's being changed, and all the same they could have no idea what they're fully getting into,) Or, aside from that, majorly dysphoric if the body decides to up and morph/mutilate/restructure all by itself.

It could logically feel like the worst thing to happen, but at the same time...be painless. Maybe, at the end of it, something in the body is lit up, more content than ever, saying "yes. this is right. this was always right."

Something about maybe wishing it hurt, wishing it was as painful or horrible as it felt like it should be, but instead finding it to be sickeningly correct. And how do you deal with that?

Of course, in the other vein, we have:

something joining you.

You hate it.

it loves you.

(yaddayaddayadda something something---reaching a point of what is it and where are you and who is who and the nightmare cognitive dissonance mindfuck identity crisis that would likely be induced. Can you trust your emotions? does something else have a hand in them now? etc. etc. etc. guh.) --

o. k.

ooookayy

ok ok.

ok.

I...was GONNA touch on free will some more, and if it's possible to determine if autonomy can exist when a mind has been fundamentally altered, but my words are running dry. Also, I didn't think that "you are remade" and "something joins you, remaking you (plural)" would pull me in two separate directions so hard. Because yeah those two hold wildly different implications and different potential for questioning/addressing all that shit and more.

I may come back to this later when I'm coherent again, but--y e a h.

Anybody who explores this in their writing, you are awesome. I want you to know that reading it makes me physically ill in the best way possible.

[thisworldisablackhole]

Sprawl Trilogy first impressions

God damnit, Gibson really did it this time didn’t he? The man really knows how to string you along and then ghost your ass mid dinner - dipping out of the bathroom window to leave you calculating the tip on your own.

Upon writing this, I have just finished Mona Lisa Overdrive, so I’m full of post-book emotions. Mona Lisa Overdrive took me the longest to read out of the 3 books. Part of that is due to the fact that I was getting distracted and spending full days writing posts on this blog about music and other stuff, and part of it is due to the fact that it is simply the most narratively dense book in the series.

After reading all three I have to say that Neuromancer is still my favourite. It had the most satisfactory ending by far, and perhaps the most cohesive vision. Count Zero is the only entry in the series that was kind of a dud for me. Upon finishing the trilogy, I think there is still some important world building information in that book that is worth revisiting, but the semi-boring characters mixed with all the weird heady spiritual stuff just didn't click for me. Not to mention the finale was much like when you try to pop a bubble on a sheet of bubble wrap and it sort of just softly squeezes out the air without making a sound. Virek going from being on the verge of unlimited power to completely ceasing to exist within the span of a few pages just made me go... "oh.... alright then".

Many people claim that Mona Lisa Overdrive is the best, and I can see where they are coming from, but I must admit I am just not a huge fan of the multi character perspective switching that happens between every chapter. Neuromancer still had it's fair share of innate complications that come from being based in a highly technological word (and written by an author who trusts the intelligence of the reader way too much), but it had a single driving perspective that was easy to stay engaged with. Count Zero caught me off guard with it's perspective shifting right away and it took me almost half the book to really pin down all the who what and where's to a point where I felt connected to each thread. Fortunately Gibson improved on this method of writing A LOT with Mona Lisa Overdrive. Even though he upped the narrative threads from three to four, the characters felt more fleshed out and were easier to connect with.

There is still so much I don't fully understand about the story. The end of Mona Lisa Overdrive wrapped up a lot of loose ends from the previous two books while simultaneously opening a pandora's box full of new questions and theories to explore. I do feel like Gibson added a bit of unnecessary information for the pure sake of complicating the plot and throwing you off balance, but it was nonetheless fascinating. Kumiko's entire involvement in particular was a huge question mark for me. Not to say I didn't enjoy her character. I loved the interactions between Kumiko and Colin. The whole idea of a handheld maas neotek personality construct that acts as a guide/companion that only she can see was really fun, but I kept waiting for her involvement in the whole switcheroo deal to make sense and then it turned out she was never really involved in that aspect of the story in the first place.

On that note, one of the beautiful things I learned to accept about Gibson's writing is that he loves to leave the reader in the dark. There were many times where I felt like an idiot for not fully understanding what was going on, only to have Gibson drop the answers straight into my lap in the last quarter of the book. I found reading this series a lot more enjoyable when I just relaxed and went along for the ride instead of asking questions. The knowledge and context you gain by the end of the books almost beg you to read them again, and that is why I refuse to do a full in depth review until that happens. I just can't do them justice until I fully understand.

[variousqueerthings]

I didn't take notes during this episode, foolishly

it's Mummy On The Orient Express, and Clara is leaving... after one last hurrah! and there's a Mummy!

sexism rank objectification (female character is ogled/harassed/turned into a sex joke by the doctor and/or a lead we’re supposed to root for and/or the camera): 9/10

sexism rank plot-point (lead female character is only there to serve plot, not to have her emotional interiority explored, or given agency to her emotional interiority): 7/10

interesting complex or pointlessly complex (does the complexity serve the narrative or does it just serve to be confusing as a stand-in for smart, this includes visually): 8/10

furthers character and/or lore and/or plot development (broader question that ties into the previous ones, at least two of these, ideally three should be fulfilled): 8/10

companion matters (the companion doesn’t always have to be there, but if the companion is there, can they function without the doctor– and overall per season how often is the companion the focus or POV of the story): 3/10

the doctor is more than just “godlike” (examines the doctor’s flaws and limitations, doesn’t solve a plot by having it revolve entirely around the doctor’s existence): 6/10

doesn’t look down on previous doctor who (by erasing or mocking its importance, by redoing and “bettering” previous beloved plotpoints or characters, etc.): 6/10

isn’t trying to insert hamfisted sexiness (m*ffat famously talked a lot about how dw should be sexier multiple times, he sucks at writing it): 10/10

internal world has consistency (characters have backgrounds, feel rooted in a place with other people, generally feel like they have Lives): 5/10

Politics (how conservative is the story): 5/10

FULL RATING: 67/100 (if I can count….)

okay okay, we're a little higher, although as mentioned about this era, it feels a little more complicated to rate with this system than s5-7

OBJECTIFICATION: considering Clara's wearing a flapper dress, it's remarkably, refreshingly free from "sexy" commentary

we do forever have Clara's suit in Time Heist to compare to...

PLOT-POINT: this episode is about Clara figuring out her Stuff around the Doctor and yeah, "I'm fully addicted to the power of travelling the universe and affecting events and will allow other facets of my life to be shit in service of this" feels like a strong Character Moment

Clara is giving me a bit of Rose Tyler energy in this idea (not in personality as such but... some things for sure), but I'm going to wait until I've seen it all to get more into that

of course, the actual way the Doctor treats her in this episode isn't... great... but that, I think, is part of it. the Doctor continues to get away with this behaviour, because the upsides still outweigh the downsides

COMPLEXITY: I'm keeping this for now, because I cannot remember if the train computer mastermind Gus comes back to this or is relevant... as it stands it's reeelatively simple on the whole, but with some curveballs in relation to why it matters that they study the Mummy, which we still don't know

I will allow this, it's giving a little teaser for something in the future, potentially.... technically the Mummy going after the weakest first is kind of silly, surely a soldier would be going for the strongest first? or am I showing a lack of understanding in good tactics... eh, I'll allow it

the ending wraps up kind of abruptly though, we're told what happens rather than shown

CHARACTERS/LORE/PLOT: Clara is now going to keep hold of her incompatible parts of life with an iron fist, and keep travelling with the Doctor

there's another mystery with who Gus is and why they gathered people to study the Mummy

the Doctor was respectful to a soldier + there's another one onboard in the main cast, so that tendril is still with us

COMPANIONS MATTER: Clara doesn't actually... do much. which undermines part of the Thing around the power that comes with travelling. M*ffat-era once again is really really weak in giving the companion just... Things To Do in the episode plot, beyond having emotions about things

“GODLIKE” DOCTOR: Ohhhhhhhh the Doctor. is still a dick. there's a speech at the end of this, where the Doctor explains that sometimes there are no good decisions (which is oddly echoing what Science Lady from last episode said in order to justify killing the moon, which the Doctor didn't agree with, so...???) and so he needed to be pragmatic about the situation

but does that explain the sheer dickishness with which the Doctor treats people with a minute to live, who know they're going to die, who are scared?

does it engage with this line, explaining why the Doctor is cold and rude to people who have just seen aforementioned death, and wonder if they could be next?: People with guns to their heads can’t mourn

does it give a good excuse for the Doctor calling everyone around him "idiots" for not knowing what's going on?

now, this is presumably a part of the ongoing exploration of this Doctor's abrasive nature, but I do keep going back to Time Heist, which had the Doctor be abrasive without being cruel. this Doctor is often incredibly cruel, for no reason

character regression continues

PREVIOUS DOCTOR WHO: there's a few little callbacks, nothing special in one way or another

“SEXINESS”: I will say this season seems to be blissfully free of this post-Deep Breath!

INTERNAL WORLD: yeah, I won't think too deeply about this, because it would break immersion a tad. the idea of this train in space. the way it works. the reason it's there. the recreation of a British era of colonialist and classist ideals. the fact that most of the guests turn out to be holograms and nobody onboard realised this. how big is this train? are there other guests elsewhere? why these scientists? what do those characters bring to the table a single time in the episode? why was that woman on there with her grandmother? etcetc. stretched a bit thin for The Bit

POLITICS: aforementioned Orient Express In Space concepts are a bit unthought-out. it's not egregious, it's just there. more soldiers

I'm noticing soldiers, because it wants me to notice soldiers, but what is it telling me about soldiers? on the whole? I'd love it if there was more... Substance in the soldiers being shown. the concept about soldiering

FULL RATING: 67/100 (if I can count….)

I would appreciate it if eventually the soldier Stuff pays off, both narratively and politically, but I'm not convinced M*ffat has enough of a political opinion on the military

would appreciate it if the Doctor's dickishness pays off/is explored, but oh boy are they running with this for over half a season!

Clara's trajectory is quite interesting

hope the little teasers pay off also

[soul-dwelling]

Man, maybe its just confirmation bias because I heard this take many times, but yeah, rereading the manga fully for the first time really makes it seem that after the baba yaga arc the whole thing kinda lost steam, with chapters just meandering about, charachters getting introduced while being boring, established charachters just turning into evil caricatures (Justin, Crona) and the good guys just being kinda anoying and acting like unlikable brats.

I mean, if you’re re-engaging with the same work more than once, you’re bound to find details that you scrutinize more. I hope my negativity isn’t leading to confirmation bias, and I hope on re-reading you find details that you appreciate more that can balance out what new stuff you’re finding that you’re scrutinizing more. 

The post-Baba Yaga era is a bit of a story reboot--without going far enough. We start strong with showing Soul’s new power set, setting up an opponent in Gopher, teasing out the mystery of why Justin turned and what Noah is up to and why he wants Giriko. We show what the other students are up to, including Black Star looking for Crona, and the Thompsons and Team B looking for Medusa…

…and then things kind of feel like missed opportunities. 

It’s not all bad, but some things fall apart. 

Soul is a Death Scythe, he and Maka have to learn a new balance in their relationship when it comes to the form of the Grigori wings. And while flying is cool, how many times did we really see it between the Gopher fight and the Moon arc? Flying wasn’t as integral to, say, the Book of Eibon arc or the Black Blood Bubbles arc. It’s not that these arcs needed to have flight--but we don’t even get just action panels showing Maka flying to destinations? 

(The revelation that Maka has a Grigori soul and what that means going down the line also feels like it is swept away. It’s neat trivia and worldbuilding, but it isn’t explored much. It feels like a logical tie-in to finally bring Maka’s mother into the story--except, first, it doesn’t seem like Maka’s mother had the Grigori soul either, so, second, she would just end up repeating the info dump we already got from Spirit and others.)

The mystery of what Noah is up to collapses once you learn he is an extension of the Book of Eibon. I think it could have been saved if the Book had a bigger victory over Asura at some point in the final arc, but it didn’t pan out that way. 

Giriko’s story ends in a fitting way. 

Justin’s story collapses on its own, until you put it into context with Fire Force to read Justin’s character arc as much as an indictment against organized religion and fanaticism as it within Soul Eater a reflection on how isolation and unquestioning faith are bad things. 

(This is a whole other tangent as to how Justin’s story does and doesn’t work, seeing as we don’t get a sense that anyone really cared to intervene in Justin’s isolation--perhaps because they didn’t notice?--and not even some regret on the part of others for not seeing the signs earlier--you would think, with how smart Azusa and Stein are presented to be, that you’d hear far louder regret from one of them at this screw up.)

Black Star and the others finds Crona and Medusa’s clowns…and then they disappear again. Cool action scenes, new powers unlocked--but just kind of happens. It makes me think you could have combined this part with the last arc of the manga and have a faster pace that would make the developments more impactful on the reader. Instead, you wait until the Black Blood Blood arc to get back to Crona and Medusa, just to have Crona kill Medusa and wrap up this narrative. 

Maybe I’d push back against saying the new characters introduced are a bit boring, or that the good guys become annoying and unlikable. 

I think there is lacking potential in some new characters. Tezca and Enrique should be hilarious--but we rarely get to see them outside of some brief interactions. Show us some weirdness, like how the DWMA reacts to Enrique running around; we got some of that with Free commenting on him to Eruka, but that’s about it. Tezca is a fan favorite because of his design and limited background information on him--and he’s funny, but we get so little of him. Does anyone remember the name of the person who made the airship to the Moon, Gen? He was here for a corny pun on “ecchi” and that was about it. 

And I actually like the good guys being a little annoying and unlikable. There’s the debate about whether what Lord Death is doing is right--it’s underdeveloped, but it’s a worthwhile question, one that should have been explored more so that his death and his faith in Kid hits harder. Maka being indecisive about what to do about Crona is earned and is a legitimate debate, one that opens up her teammates to debate as well, finally giving some of them some personality, including making Harvar a hardass and, yeah, unlikable, which is the point, to add some conflict to the story. It’s a little late to do more with Harvar (he and Jackie are sidelined in Baba Yaga, and that arc also reduces Ox and Kim’s conflict to a love confession--not bad, especially how Ox sees good in Kim, but kind of limited).

[lilpsychslut]

A Letter from Me to Him for the World

“You sound like someone I'll keep close for long” 

I guess I'll keep my word, and this is my effort for you.

This story, I believe, deserves both its preceding chapters and the moments that followed, but there's a certain intimacy I wish to keep just between you and me. In the last few days of my life, I experienced an old, lost, sinless romance. Ones you read about in novels—a romance that feels almost otherworldly. Getting to know someone and then wanting them to be yours, but then you just can't.

Thinking back on the memory of his smile, the way his eyes lit up, I realize that these are some of his glances I want to preserve. His talking about Maccain (his dog) had me captivated; words flowed like a melody. Those playful giggles and glimpses of his canines added to his charm, and I found myself wondering what it would be like to feel his lips against mine.

He crafts a bouquet from the surrounding weeds, and a sense of tranquility washes over me—a feeling that time was standing still, just for us. Sitting by the dam's edge, I felt an unexplainable urge to reach out and take his hand. It felt like a simple yet profound gesture that could bridge the gap between us. The candid pictures I have of him are like little treasures I want to create an album of. The flowers he gave me aren't just pretty blossoms—they are a symbol of the day etched in my heart, a day I want to always remember, keeping every flower in each book I read to you. 

Reflecting on his personality, I see a mixture of stubbornness and keen perception that intrigues me. He feels to be made up of the last sunbeams of summer, which gently caress the ground. His irises, resembling the warm soil, held their most captivating hue when viewed from a side angle. When he smiled, fine lines appeared, which, when observed, felt like ripples of water. He held a deep gaze of understanding that transcended spoken words—an unspoken language that held volumes.

Getting to know him has uncovered layers of myself that I hadn't fully explored. While I might not express it verbally, he seemed to read chapters of my narrative that I avoid revisiting.  “We are on the same page of that old self-novel,” but on opposite sides.

As we descended the staircase together, his casual remark, "Surprisingly, there are always flowers blooming around you," flattered me. I gathered a handful of flowers for you, each a symbol of our shared moments. You looked pretty, just more mine. 

His words seemed to possess a remarkable power. They reached deep within me, delicately tugging at the strings of my heart as if they were mere threads of emotion waiting to be plucked. His ability to effortlessly draw feelings I hadn't acknowledged, felt like watching a musician play the melody of a cherished moment.

What a day full of events it turned out to be. Should I single out the part that stands out to me the most? He might already be aware of it. It was raining heavily, causing everything to blur in my vision. A new and intense energy surged through me as raindrops struck against my bare chest. I could sense your eyes fixed on me. Was it this newfound life coursing through my veins, or was it your gaze that fueled it? You asked for my hand, and I held onto you. I remember the storms outside. It was one of the seasons I cherished most, and out of nowhere, you parked the car on the sidewalk to meet my gaze. Emotions flooded my bloodstream, and your warm skin met mine. Your heated breaths grazed my lips, and hands gently cradled the face. My ability to speak seemed to abandon me. Captivated, I was acutely aware of the tension building between us. Surprised by this sudden change of actions, he made me nervous and excited. I was aware of your touch around my nape, my breath got heavy and loud until you relaxed back into your seat. 

What games were we getting into? I found myself hooked. Just a short distance away, he parked once more, leaning in towards me. If I had to say, and he might agree or not agree,nature was constantly moving and thriving when we were together. It felt more human and alive. It saw us walking in the gentle floral meadows or kissing in heavy, soaking rains.

In the instance when I caught you gazing at me, your eyes shifted from my gaze to my lips. You caught your lower lip between your teeth in an intense grip, and then you finished that incomplete kiss. The rest of the world seemed to fade away, leaving only two of us. I remember exactly how your hands cupped my face as our lips met-a tender yet powerful connection that seemed to encompass everything. I couldn't help but wonder if this was the work of a novelist on Wattpad or simple luck beyond measure. The moment felt flawless, evidence of being fully present. My instincts tell me that we both existed in our purest and most genuine forms, without any masks or barriers. Nothing felt definite or planned—the rain, the kiss, or the affection that I'll carry for you as long as memory serves me.

He says that my way with words is something special, and while I'm thankful for the compliment, I still find it hard to describe just how much our experience meant to me. No matter how many words I use, they don't seem enough to truly capture that day.

Sometimes people don't come into your lives as lovers or pals, I believe it's the promises they made, which goes beyond our understanding, that brings them together. They meet each other probably once in their lifetime to repay the debts that have been carved deep into their souls. To what feels like eternity of hollowness, they give the universe unforgettable love in a moment. 

If this were a glitch in the matrix and I borrowed those certain hours from an alternate universe, I would want us to find a forever togetherness in that realm.

You said, “my heart felt heavy, and it beat faster than you rode.” 

I want to say, “I felt mine fading. A piece of me in those mellow winds to you. “

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[corvidcrybaby]

Uh ohhhh I'm back with more rambling on Y/N/reader insert fanfic

Now that I'm a few months out from when I finished a Y/N fic I've been going back and ruminating on the emotions I was feeling that I wanted to give a place to live when i wrote that

When I decided to write a Y/N fic it was largely on a whim. A ton of the time I was flying by the seat of my pants and it shows - for me, that's part of the charm. The death metal aesthetic especially centers on sloppy, unsophisticated and choppy execution of ideas the people creating them find so g-ddamn compelling that they simply can't wait to get them out there. But for me it was beyond this.

I've talked before about how Alucard was my bisexual awakening in terms of my taste in men - I had one when I was a teen but to me that doesn't really count since I was, yanno, a child who knew nothing of intimacy and actual interpersonal attraction. Moreover, I've talked about how when I first watched Hellsing as much as I found Alucard relentlessly compelling, my attraction to him was something I suppressed so deep and so hard that I really didn't process what it was until like last summer.

This, for what I believe, comes from the internalized androphobia I developed over time as a closeted bisexual kid with rampant gender dysphoria. I knew I was into men, but I didn't want men to be into me - because I didn't want to be a man's boyfriend, I wanted to be viewed as a girl. But I didn't fully get that at the time (transfemme egg things). Hence, my aversion. Over time, this aversion grew so strong that I developed this intense complex about attraction to men such that I was legitimately convinced that if I dared to act on my attraction to men in any real capacity, I'd get hurt, badly. Whether out of fear of being seen as a """trap""" or just as a gross sexual deviant, I can't really say. All I knew was, I only felt safe talking to men over text - ESPECIALLY cis men, which was some internalized cisnormativity I had to unpack as I got older.

Nevertheless, it makes all too much sense to me now why I was so fixated on Alucard. 1. He was fictional, and therefore posed no true threat to me, 2. At the same time, being a vampire, he represents the idea of taboo or dangerous sexuality and sensuality, which combined make him a one-two-punch to someone dealing with repressed sexuality regarding attraction to men. 3. being a MAN'S man, is far more outwardly masculine than any irl mascs I had experience with irl (only dated pretty femboys prior to this).

Tying all this together was the time I began HRT and finally began to detangle the mess of emotions that was my sexual and romantic orientation. I've cracked jokes about how shit turned on a dime for me regarding being attracted to that particular fictional man but it was so so so fucking true. I eventually grew so fascinated by this conundrum/Catch-22 of "I'm attracted to men but I am terrified of them" plus "Alucard is a gorgeous deadly attractive man but is a vampire and is therefore designed to be both deadly and beautiful down to the last atom" that eventually I came to view him as this perfect personification of my own personal repression and, eventually, my escape from it.

These feelings grew so strong and I spent so much time poring over them that I eventually decided the most productive thing for me to do for self-exploration was to deadass just write a story about it and build a narrative that would allow me to vicariously experience that feeling of "this seems so stupidly dangerous but I cannot escape how drawn to it I am, until I find out that, sike, it can actually be okay, and there's nothing wrong with wanting things that seem scary just because people around you make it seem that way."

[felassan]

BioWare have announced that Dragon Age: Dreadwolf has hit its Alpha Milestone, a huge step forward in the game's development [source].

A blog post by BioWare General Manager Gary McKay reads:

Game Update

A New Milestone for Dragon Age: Dreadwolf

Moving closer and closer to completion. Hello,

In my last blog, back in February, I talked about the next Dragon Age™game entering the production phase. Well, we’ve come a very long way since then, and the team is incredibly happy to announce a huge step forward in the development of the game you now know as Dragon Age: Dreadwolf™: We have just completed our Alpha milestone!

Up to this point, we’ve been working hard on the various parts of the game, but it’s not until the Alpha milestone that a game all comes together. Now, for the first time, we can experience the entire game, from the opening scenes of the first mission to the very end. We can see, hear, feel, and play everything as a cohesive experience.

NOW WHAT?

Of course, the game is not finished by any means, but Alpha is one of the most important game development milestones for a number of reasons. First and foremost, we can now turn our sights toward bringing the visual fidelity to its final form and iterating on gameplay features. The big question now is, “Where do we focus our efforts?” To answer that, we solicit feedback from a number of sources, including our Community Council members who each have unique perspectives and experiences, our quality verification team, and extensive internal playtesting. Gathering feedback from multiple sources gives us the greatest insight on where we need to spend more time improving the experience.

Additionally, we can now evaluate the game's pacing, how relationships evolve over time, and the player’s progression, as well as narrative cohesion—essentially how the story comes together. We can take the story we’ve written and see if we’re expressing it well through the characters, dialogue, cinematics, and ultimately, the player’s journey. Now that we have the ability to do a complete playthrough, we can iterate and polish on the things that matter most to our fans.

Hitting Alpha was the culmination of so much effort from the entire team and we used this milestone as an opportunity to come together and celebrate. We held a hybrid-style event with people onsite while others joined remotely and the team showcased their work to everyone at BioWare. We even took some time to do something fun and non-work related—a virtual escape room where we had to work together to help someone on camera find their way out. It was a really great time, and no matter where our devs are, it's important to share these types of moments together.

START TO FINISH

Now that we’re finally able to experience the entire game, for me, my favorite part is the characters. Whether followers, allies, or villains, they’re woven into the game in ways that take a concept that’s always been a part of the Dragon Age DNA—stories about people—and push it further than ever before. The characters help contextualize the world and the stakes, and I can’t wait until we’re able to start really discussing them in depth.

It’s also exciting to finally be able to bring our fans to parts of the world that we’ve previously hinted at, but never been able to fully explore—like the city of Minrathous, the capital of the Tevinter Empire. We’ve talked about Minrathous in previous games, and now you’ll finally be able to visit! It’s a city built on and fuelled by magic, and the ways in which that has come through in its visual identity, and what that looks like in comparison to previous cities we’ve visited in Dragon Age, are pretty spectacular.

As I mentioned earlier, the Alpha milestone is an extremely important one for us, but there’s more work to be done. We also want to continue being transparent with you, our community, and keep you up to date on what we’re crafting. Hopefully you’ve been enjoying our development updates on Dreadwolf this year as we’ll be looking to share more in the future.

IN CLOSING

Of course, Dreadwolf isn’t the only thing happening here at BioWare™! We have a team hard at work envisioning what the future holds for a new single-player Mass Effect™ game. And we look forward to celebrating our community on N7 Day next month. The SWTOR team also continues to work on their next update, so keep an eye on SWTOR.com and their social media accounts for any and all details on the coming game update.

It’s an incredible time at BioWare! We have so many cool things to show you in the future. Until then, thanks for being part of our community. We couldn’t do this without you.

Stay well,

Gary McKay

General Manager [source]

[tender-emotional-music]

I wouldn’t freak out about the interviews or the social media accounts posting m*leven content etc. Look always to the show itself, people. It is a narrative. The show stands on its own from social media. It should make sense to a random person watching with no knowledge of what’s going on online. The social media is just background noise, a marketing tactic purposed toward interacting with different parts of the fandom to attract new viewers and engage current ones, so the stuff they post caters toward all demographics. They will never confirm something properly over social media or explicitly spoil something in an interview, especially if it’s going to be explored on the show... because the narrative needs to make sense without all that extra stuff. 

Once more, look to the show: what we have is Mike not being able to tell El he loves her, the camera flashing to Mike during Will’s little speech as he says “what if they don’t like the truth?” If the truth was that he loved her, she would like it. We have Mike ignoring Will again, even tho this was seemingly resolved last season and makes no sense to repeat, we have Will who is obviously gay... you see where I’m going with it. They’re not going to confirm in an interview this plot which they have brought up and will likely be explored/resolved in volume 2.

If after vol. 2 they’re still pulling this shit and being ambiguous/vague, by all means, go off. I probably will too. But until then, we should wait a month and see what happens, and not freak out over something that might happen.

edit: regarding that interview w millie or noah that i hadn’t read fully before I posted this. Yeah, I hate it. However, if Will’s sexuality will be actually addressed in vol 2, I understand why they can’t say he’s gay right now. I’ll be incredibly mad if they’re still being vague after that, but they’re between volumes rn and probably can’t actually confirm it. It still annoys me, but this is probably the way they’ve been told to speak about it, which sucks but isn’t entirely their fault. I hope they’ll be more upfront about it after volume 2. Until then, I’m not gonna let it destroy my hopes. It’s an ongoing plot so we have to wait and see