#clever. instead of a rehashed version of a story that already exists and is just as awful when you think about this ‘romance’ for over 2

[dandelionjack]

every other poster on the tube right now is advertising a new musical called ‘the time traveller’s wife’. for a blissful moment i forgot that a ‘wife’ is something that a heterosexual woman can be, and, believing it to be a beautiful lesbian tale akin to tihylttw, decided to google the synopsis to see if it was worth checking out. big mistake. ‘man first encounters his future spouse as a young girl, returns to kiss her at 18 and marry her in the future, remaining the same age as barely any time passes for him meanwhile she spends years alone pining for her distant angel’ blinks. what does that remind me of. oh yeah apparently this came before. i’m already suffering through series 5 at the current moment, so, plenty enough of that for years to come, thank you, and— what a surprise— the novel the musical’s based on was a primary inspiration for you-know-who’s weird fixation on this particular plotline. the worst part about the time traveller’s wife is that there aren’t even any cool steampunk clockwork droids or gorgeous 18th century french dresses to make up for the vomit-inducing implications. i have never been more disappointed. mind wipe, now

[ckret2]

I'm curious about Ford's thoughts on the situation! Is he scared, angry? Does he really believe Bill is as powerless as he says he is? How does he feel about Bill being around his family and other people in town?

So at the end of April I got this question paired with another question about Ford's reaction to having human Bill around, I answered the other question, went "I'll answer this one soon," and then it got buried in my inbox lmao BUT I'M ANSWERING IT NOW!

(Here's the other half of this question I already answered! I also talk a bit about Ford's thoughts on Bill being around here and here so I'll try not to rehash stuff I've already said too much!)

Yeah, "scared" and "angry" are probably the top two emotions Ford's feeling when he thinks about Bill being back.

He's scared that if he does the wrong thing, Bill's human body will crack open and Bill will escape again, and the world will end, and this time they won't be able to stop Bill because they've already used up all the clever tricks they had the last time they tried to stop him. He's scared that Bill will find some slick way to worm himself into somebody else's mind—that he'll talk Soos into doing something innocent-seeming with devastating consequences, or that he'll get into the kids' heads (emotionally or literally) the way he got into Ford's head and turn them against the family, or that he'll secretly make contact with somebody on the outside and fast talk them into being his accomplice when they don't know what he is.

And he's furious that Bill's here, furious that he's NOT DEAD, furious that after trying every murder tactic Ford could think of from every angle imaginable he STILL hasn't gotten rid of this damn triangle. And furious that he's in Ford's life again, in ALL their lives—and that he's acting NORMAL. Like a NORMAL PERSON. He eats and sleeps and watches TV and complains about what's on TV and plays board games and tries to wheedle Ford into playing board games and acts like a person, instead of the monster Ford knows he is. Ford's mad that Bill is both a monster AND a person and he's mad that he has to see Bill being a person and he's mad that Bill has an opportunity to live like a person, waiting here on death row. He feels irrational. He's mad that he feels irrational.

(He's mad that he kind of wants to play board games—with the version of Bill he was fooled into thinking existed thirty years ago, the version that was Ford's "friend," and he's mad that Bill still CAN put on the "friend" mask and DOES put on the "friend" mask even though Ford knows it's all lies.)

Not long into Bill's captivity, Ford's decided he's pretty sure Bill won't hurt people—because right now, it's more useful for Bill to use people than harm people. He's not going to fight his way free, but he could scheme his way free. So, at the moment, he isn't worried for his family's physical safety—but he IS worried about what the things Bill could say to them, what he could persuade them, what he might talk them into. He's less concerned about Stan than the kids. And letting Bill fully loose in the town, to start making up his own story and identity to the townspeople, could be devastating. Ford canNOT let that happen.

(It's already happening. Trying to keep Bill's influence contained feels like trying to squeeze a handful of sand. Ford wishes they could just lock Bill in a tiny room with no contact with the outside world until Ford figures out a way to kill him for good—but Ford really does believe Bill when he says he'd just kill himself in that scenario, and Ford won't risk 50/50 odds that Human Bill dying would mean the return of Triangle Bill. So what can he do?)

He doesn't believe for a second that Bill is totally powerless. Not even Bill is making a strong effort to convince Ford that he's totally helpless; one second he'll say with a wink and a nudge "I'd try to tell you I don't have any powers left, but even if it's true you won't believe me, will you?" and then the next second he'll casually do a minor magic feat. The problem is, Ford doesn't know WHAT Bill can and can't do. He's trying to mentally divide Bill's skills into separate categories—what things could he only do because he was an energy being in the mindscape? He probably can't do those now. What magic spells did Bill teach Ford to do decades ago? He can probably still do those as a human—etc.

But these are just educated guesses. Even after thirty years of trying to learn more about Bill, Ford still doesn't know enough about him to list what all his powers were, where they came from, and which he might still have access to as a human. 

This is all Ford knows for sure: WHATEVER powers Bill currently has, they're not enough to let him kill the Pines and escape Gravity Falls—or he would have done so already.

[autumnblogs]

Day 8: The Universe Will Eat Paradoxes for Breakfast

Alright, time to get back on this horse.

https://homestuck.com/story/1358

We open with John exploring his planet. This game is a lot shorter than I remember it being, which is kind of welcome. While these little walkaround are fun, it isn’t until some of the later ones that they have some really heavy content, and this one in particular can be effectively skipped since I know we rehash it later with PM. That said, as part of the work as a whole, especially for first-time readers, and especially especially back when it was first being written, these are a lot of fun.

More after the break.

https://homestuck.com/story/1363

The militarist surrenders at the first sign of being overpowered (Bec is a symbol of trauma for him)

https://homestuck.com/story/1365

And is easily subdued.

https://homestuck.com/story/1372

More of the highly-jade-specific interactions.

Most of our opportunities to directly control characters so far have been pretty exclusively John and Jade. I wonder if Prospit players in particular are just more susceptible to the layered narrative true nature of reality in Paradox Space, or if it’s even just specifically John and Jade? We can directly control John through the walkarounds in his house and on his planet, and are implied to be indirectly influencing Jade through the sections where Jade breaks the fourth wall and lets the audience do things (whether literally through the couple of polls so far, or during the memory match game).

I’ve already theorized about all the parts of the story where Jade lets the audience take control as being representational of Jade’s highly overactive imagination - the audience serves as her gallery of imaginary friends, effectively.

Going back momentarily to the walkarounds with John, I wonder if we could read out of them that John’s wandering around tends not to be voluntarily directed by John almost at all - he zones out, and just lets the wind take him wherever it will, not really consciously exploring so much as aimlessly wandering. For John, everything in his environment is potentially a source of meaning, so everything in his environment is equally meaningless.

https://homestuck.com/story/1382

The Pumpkin is far too semantically complex to be rendered as a human-readable captcha code.

Which is weird, because as symbols of Void, shouldn’t Pumpkins be almost elemental? I would have expected a pumpkin to have one or two slots tops.

https://homestuck.com/story/1383

As @mmmmalo​ has already pointed out (or maybe one of the many people who reply to their posts!) this page conceptually connects a pair of hands holding each other with Squiddles, building Squiddles as a symbol of intimate contact.

https://homestuck.com/story/1389

In spite of Jade’s inner desire to go ape shitt [sic] she nevertheless remains by far the character with the best foresight until Terezi enters the comic (and Rose finds her groove as a Seer of Light.)

https://homestuck.com/story/1391

While inquisitive and probing when he comes across something he can interact with, when he talks to his friends, John seems very happy to mind his own business about their inner lives, and not push too much for more details than they are willing to give.

Another line in here has John mirror Dave’s language but end differently, turning the trope “take him out behind the woodshed and shoot him” and turning it into a playful joke. The fact that they both make use of nearly the same language makes me wonder whether John and Dave have talked about Becquerel alone, Dave sharing his discomfort with John leading him to make this remark, or if strange minds just think alike in Paradox Space?

https://homestuck.com/story/1393

Jade and Dave’s interactions with each other continue to be priceless. I think Jade’s guilelessness and lack of pretension makes it considerably easier for Dave to exist around her and just be himself, he doesn’t feel too competitive the way that he does around John (who is another boy/man - a significant part of Dave’s future arc is the level of insecurity that he feels over the way that John is arbitrarily powerful and he can’t catch up. Bro’s version of manhood is one where men have to compete with one another to establish dominance. I keep mentioning Toxic Masculinity in relation to Bro, Dave, and manhood in Homestuck in general, and instead of writing on the subject myself right now, I’ll direct you to Cinema Therapy’s excellent video about the subject.) or Rose, whose non-traditionally-feminine characterization and superior affectation eggs him on in a similar way. Dave can just be Dave around Jade.

https://homestuck.com/story/1394

Unlike Jade, John does negotiate with terrorists! I think that John is definitely only tolerating Karkat here specifically because the game is giving him reasons to believe that Karkat is actually an alien. But I also think that if Karkat had contacted anybody other than John he would have been shit out of luck. While in other places it manifests as gullibility (like when Terezi tricks him into getting killed by his denizen), John is generally extremely tolerant, willing to accept apologies, and believe the best of other people. He will kick the shit out of you if you’re an unrepenant jerk like Caliborn, but John has faith in just about everyone.

https://homestuck.com/story/1401

If it feels like I can barely be bothered to stop talking about the genders for twelve seconds, these characters can barely stop talking about the genders for twelve seconds, or sex, or psychosexuality, or being tangle buddies. Sometimes, they’re just talking about being friends though, and that’s alright too :)

https://homestuck.com/story/1403

The way that Jade deploys Sburb machines is nearly the opposite of what Rose does. Rose looks for pre-existing places within John’s house to deploy Sburb’s apparatuses, filling space that isn’t filled yet. Jade removes Dave’s bed to deploy the Cruxtruder there, his Television to put the Totem Lathe there... you’d really think a Hero of Space would display better spatial reasoning!

https://homestuck.com/story/1431

Rose, like Terezi, is more cognizant of Narrative Prompts meddling with her internal thought processes. I feel like that probably feeds into her paranoia in a vicious cycle.

Dave does not like being watched.

https://homestuck.com/story/1442

I’m pretty sure that this is the first time the Bluh imagery gets used but I could be wrong? I feel like I might have missed an earlier one if there is one.

John’s expression of disgust here does recall an earlier panel that has its basic theme repeated with all three characters though, and I forgot to comment on it completely until now!

Characters have intrusive thoughts, and intrusive trains of thought like this all the time in Homestuck, as they think about random shit that doesn’t pertain to their circumstances at all, ideas that they don’t want to have, and then reject. Dave’s train of thought here in particular immediately recalls another intrusive thought - Apple Juice and Urine are linked in his head now, so he can’t think about one without thinking about the other now, unfortunately - it’s not a conscious decision.

The quartet of Intrusive thoughts I’m thinking about are

Squawk like an imbecile and shit on your desk.

Writhe like a flagellum and puke on your bed.

Bleat like a goat and piss on your turntable.

Squeal like a piglet and fertilize some plants.

Interestingly from amongst the aforementioned establishing intrusive thoughts, the only character who humors hers is Jade, who proceeds to do exactly that. Go Ape Shitt Jade.

Really, this entire little aside is a bit of an intrusive thought made manifest.

Dave is extremely clever, thinks on his feet, and ruthlessly cunning. I think these are the hallmarks of a Knight, who exploits their aspect (as a weapon, if all the references to Knights as specifically warriors are to be believed.)

https://homestuck.com/story/1452

More intimacy symbolism with squiddles.

https://homestuck.com/story/1483

https://homestuck.com/story/1484

John and PM are in pretty much the exact same predicament.

https://homestuck.com/story/1487

John’s powers manifest just by his being there, without him even really doing anything to trigger them.

I wonder if an Heir of Light would passively cause outrageously lucky happenstances in self-defense like, all the time? Like the dude from that one episode of X-Files with the Rube Goldberg machines.

https://homestuck.com/story/1501

If we go with the theory of AR as a Bad Cop, he is extremely quickly rehabilitated by his community, as almost all such cops are. Again, this reading of AR is extremely experimental and is probably bullshit.

https://homestuck.com/story/1504

More juxtaposition between what is going on with the Exiles, and what is going on with the Kids. I forgot how rapidly Homestuck switches back and forth between perspectives.

This too is probably a kind of circumstantial simultaneity - events that coincide or follow each other not because of geographical continuity, but because they are both related to the same set of information.

https://homestuck.com/story/1521

I think it’s neat that Sburb has built in mechanics like this to ensure that it is played as a cooperative game, but also places limits on how much members of the team are allowed to use each other’s stuff so that douches like Eridan don’t steal the entire team’s Grist Cache to make something stupid.

I wonder if the Red Team and the Blue Team could use each other’s grist? That’s probably one of those things that hinted that they were actually one bifurcated session.

https://homestuck.com/story/1524

Terezi’s use of the phrase Hyper-Flexible Mythology here reminds me of an essay with that phrase in its title that discusses the way that elements like the Classes and Aspects are extremely constructive toward building a story that will have endless room for original characters, and with them, other kinds of fandom engagement.

Other than that, I notice two things here. The first is that Terezi informs Rose and the crew about the Exiles, and by doing so, helps us, the audience, understand why we keep flashing sideways to them.

Terezi also names the setting of Homestuck, Paradox Space, and in nearly the same breath, she alludes to the nature of reality in Homestuck - reality in Homestuck is self-fulfilling. Its only meaning is its own existence - Paradox Space exists just because it does. It needs no external justification for its own existence, it does so because it will. People who live in Paradox Space are like this too. While this is literally, materially true for Gods like John, Rose, Dave, and Jade, it is probably more spiritually true for everyone who lives in Paradox Space.

Nobody in Paradox Space is alive on accident. Everyone assents to their own existence. Everyone gets what they want. Everyone gets what they deserve. Even if they don’t know that those are the same thing, or that Determinism and Karma working together to create a system of distributed responsibility where no one actor is entirely to blame for the ultimate final outcome, but everyone simultaneously played a part in having it end up where it is, and in ending up where they are in all of it.

And with that, I’m going to pause here. We got a lot of information from Terezi, so before we get too much further into Troll shenanigans, we’ll take a break for an evening.

With some luck, I’ll get back to an even number of hundreds in terms of pages tomorrow.

Cam signing off, Alive, Not really feeling like myself today, but still Not Alone.

[leftlovetragedy]

Why BBC Sherlock was ruined by bad writing - Part 1

This post is a part of a long summary of some of the problems with BBC Sherlock which in my opinion ultimately caused the show damage which seems practically irreparable now. One of the related problems actually is that it seems Moffat and Gatiss didn’t get why S4 was met with disdain by fanbase, why reviewers picked it apart, why ratings dropped. It means they don’t want to learn from their mistakes or simply can’t. In fact Gatiss outright refused to believe ratings dropped and that does speak about very huge denial as ratings are facts, not opinions. Both Moffat and Gatiss also suddenly lost enthusiasm about ACD, Sherlock Holmes, although they were gushing  about it just not so long ago.

But let’s get back to the problems of the writing I wanted to talk about:

1)     The problem with Moriarty

Looking back at first two seasons after clusterfuck of S4, sadly, I could now notice some problems which were already planted in earlier seasons. While S1-2 were the best out of the show some decisions which were made by the writers indicated their true approach to the material even back then. But these problems would only grow like a snow ball and in the end would contribute to the undoing of the show in many ways. Mofftiss were overusing Moriarty from the start. In ACD’s canon he appears in one story (and is mentioned several times) like the nemesis to take down Sherlock once and for all. Since it’s TV series it was perfectly understandable and fair  to expand the role of Moriarty, however it was way overexpanded. Moriarty was connected with the cabby, was behind Chinese mafia, then arranged the whole Great Game with Sherlock and then meeting with him in person took place-all in the scope of all 3 episodes of S1. Had the S1 been longer perhaps it wouldn’t have looked so  jam-packed with Moriarty and would have been more subtle, but since the S1 is only 3 episodes long it did. S1 also told us that Moriarty killed the school boy, the only case which young Sherlock was not able to solve then, thus setting up Moriarty as this ultimate enemy of Sherlock literally for decades.  Then in Ep1S2 we find out that Irene Adler was also working for Moriarty and that he consulted her. Ep2S2 has Sherlock having hallucinations about Moriarty and Ep3S3 have the grand finale where Moriarty tries to destroy Sherlock and kills himself on the roof, and then Sherlock jumps from the roof, faking his suicide.

Honestly by the end of S2 Moriarty was made by the Mofftiss as this be-all and the end-all guy and that already looked over the top. But it still could have been ok, if the Mofftiss could stop there with Moriarty. And that’s exactly what they couldn’t do. They didn’t know how to stop and so they ran this character into the ground.  S3 teased us if Moriarty really died or not, with “shocking cliffhanger” final,  adding more hallucinations and flashbacks and fake flashbacks with Jim along the way.  But the result was that by the end of S3 Moriarty no longer looked liked some threatening dangerous villain, but rather as a self-caricature. S3 also told us that Moriarty had in fact a death wish and that he would have killed himself anyway, making his whole suicide on the roof pretty  weak.  Instead of some diabolically clever villain with diabolically bold clever calculated plan, we got the guy who just was crazy and wanted to off himself. Big whoop.  It got only worse when TAB special was literally dedicated to Sherlock trying to understand that Moriarty, who shot himself standing right in front of Sherlock in broad daylight, was actually really dead. No shit, Sherlock. Moriarty was again present in Sherlock’s Mind Palace,  grimacing all the way, which probably was supposed to look cool and edgy, but didn’t, and looked like a tired rehash. Then S4 finally completely killed any coolness or sense which Moriarty still had in the show (and there wasn’t much left by the time). S4 told us how Moriarty met with secret super powerful sister Eurus, spent 5 minutes talking with her or smh and even teamed with her, recording some dumb edgy videos for Eurus, which she used when Moriarty himself was already dead. Since Eurus is capable to hypnotize people after talking with them the question was left open if Moriarty was really compromised by Eurus and was just her puppet since then. Either way Moriarty was pretty much destroyed as interesting and effective villain in the show, because a) he either was hypnotized by Eurus, made into her puppet and lost any personal agenda or free will since then; or  b) he wasn’t hypnotized by Eurus, remained himself but was just really unhinged, mad dude, whose unpredictability didn’t seem like a result of his great intellect or scheming or an act, but rather a result of him being a psycho, who wanted badly to kill himself, also hoping that Sherlock would ~ probably~ kill himself as well—and if Sherlock doesn’t kill himself, hey, no biggie,  he got those great choo-choo videos for Eurus which she could  use against Sherlock, though Moriarty wouldn’t be able to see this anyway, because he will be dead by then. But surely choo-choo videos will work! Surely the world's only consulting criminal could always count on choo-choo videos! Great plan! 2)     The problem with women

I already talked once about how Mofftiss treat female characters on the shows and the short answer is: they treat them pretty awful as they pretend to write “strong female characters” while basically doing “Feminism for Dummies: The Male Edition”. 

According to Mofftiss strong female characters mean mostly villainous, dubious, criminal, weaponized psychopaths.

---Irene Adler – twisted rewritten version of ACD’s Irene Adler, here villainized cruel sex worker and blackmailer, who is told what to do by male villain, because she can’t figure it out on her own, loses  to Sherlock because she fell for him and later is saved by him. Moffat literally described Irene as psychopath, in fact he describes Sherlock as one as well, saying: ”He's a psychopath, so is she”. 

Moffat also considers ACD’s Irene boring, saying: “In the original, Irene Adler's victory over Sherlock Holmes was to move house and run away with her husband. That's not a feminist victory." Moffat is a very big fan of ACD’s stories according to Moffat. No comments here.  ---Eurus “Ebony Dark'ness Dementia” Holmes – OC, secret sister genius with super powers, who killed a child while she herself was a child, tortured her brother Sherlock and has been put to medical facility- prison for life (where she continued to torture and kill people, and even rape them-well, there was one case at least. She also was able to  leave prison at her will and kill people outside). A total psycopath, who fixed her multi-talents on playing some evil games with Sherlock. Turned out to be so, so very  needy, that the only thing she really wants is a hug from Sherlock, cause she loses the minute he hugs her. Obviously Mofftiss tried to build her as this greatest villain on the show who ever villain, but it didn’t work out.  --Mary Watson – practically an OC, since Mofftiss so heavily rewrote her, that she doesn’t resemble Mary Morstan from ACD’s canon. Even her real name is not really Mary Morstan here, she borrowed it from the grave slab of another person. She is ex-assassin who was murdering people for cash, but  retired now, who  lies and hides her past from everybody, then she shoots Sherlock almost killing him for good, in order to cover up the fact that she came to kill her blackmailer and Sherlock discovered her. Then Mofftiss make a big point that her main agenda in show is really a new life with a husband she loves and their baby (Mary shoots Sherlock while already being pregnant). Then Mary leaves her husband and little baby girl (the girl given to Mary by Mofftiss in the show, she doesn’t exist in ACD’s canon) when somebody hunts her ex-fellow assassins (yep, they still out there or some of them).  Then she is tracked down and returns, but then she is killed off because she jumped in front of the bullet meant for Sherlock leaving her baby girl without the mother and her husband as widower. Bye bye Mary’s agenda, it has been destroyed. (Also what an insult to professional  mercenary  getting killed by some institutional secretary, honestly).  Then it turns out Mary recorded some weird ass DVDs which are now regularly sent to Sherlock and John, and while she makes some kitch speeches there she barely remembers about existence of her baby daughter, if at all. In the process  we find out that John, while Mary was still alive, was already heavily flirting with another woman (it was Eurus “Ebony Dark'ness” in disguise)  and really wanted to cheat on Mary. Oh, and Amanda Abbington herself described Mary as psychopath.  --A small shout out to those Victorian ladies from TAB’s Mind Palace - they formed a secret sect in order to kill men, had creepy secret meetings and basically were an underground murder club on the loose,  even were referred to as “league of furies” at one point. Oh look, women are again portrayed as vile, criminal and agressive entities, with attached  aesthetic of KKK.  Straw feminism is strong with these ones. --Ok, let’s remember Molly Hooper, she is not a psychopath, she is not villainous, she is not a criminal, she is a nice, smart, normal, kind young working woman. At long last something different, right? Real potential?  Ehm, nope, Mofftiss still ruined it. Because she is kept in the show as a female character with a deep desperate unrequired crush on Sherlock who is ready to do a lot  for him, but repeatedly mistreated by the object of her affections. Sherlock humiliates, manipulates and abuses her emotionally several times during the show, when it gets better between them, but  Mofftiss make sure that poor Molly still can’t have personal life outside of Sherlock, her new BF/fiance Tom ins S3 is a poor copy of Sherlock, he even dresses like him (probably it was done for laughs in the show “ha ha, poor Molly, got replacement goldfish, can’t really move on” only it wasn’t really funny), but they broke up by the end of S3. Then Molly is pushed aside for most of S4, and then there is that famous “I love you” scene, which deeply hurts Molly and makes her cry.....the scene, which according to Mofftiss was a last-minute addition to the script and was not about Molly or her relationships with Sherlock at all, but only about Sherlock and his emotional development and how he is more human now. Molly was simply used by Mofftiss as show-case of Sherlock’s manpain. There was no resolution to this scene and Moffat simply said that  Molly would get over it, by having a drink and shagging someone. That’s...deep. Not.

It really makes you wonder what’s Mofftiss’s problem with women and why writing for female characters on the show is such a trainwreck?  Well, according to Moffat: --“The original [Sir Arthur Conan Doyle] stories had a huge female following, which I'd never forgotten, and that's because the Victorian ladies liked the way Sherlock looked. (Laughs.) So I thought, use this massively exciting, rather handsome man who could see right through your heart and have no interest ... of course, he's going to be a sex god! I think we pitched that character right. I think our female fan base all believe that they'll be the one to melt that glacier. They're all wrong -- nothing will melt that glacier.”  --"Women are needy. Women are out there hunting for husbands."  Also his understanding of pregnancy and motherhood “Your wife turns into a boat, and shortly after that, you never sleep again and you clean shit off someone. It doesn’t seem like a very appealing prospect”.     Also the infamous “There’s a huge, unfortunate lack of respect for anything male.” I guess all of it sort of explains why Mofftiss write women that way. To be continued...