#fucking narrative foils

[phoenixkaptain]

Novel A New Hope Vader is my favourite Vader (so far) because he Is Anakin, he is everything Anakin is set up to be. He is intimidating, he is overwhelming, standing next to him feels like standing next to a black hole, he is-

The biggest little shit in the entire galaxy.

You canNOT convince me that he didn’t say half his lines with a shit-eating smirk. He is awful to be around, he is the worst person to ever exist, he is SO annoying.

And Novel Vader is so Anakin because the book can give us details the movie can’t. The book gives us the author’s choice of wording, the way the author intended the scenes to be, and Vader is such a little shit almost constantly but my FAVOURITE will always be when Tagge talks back to him about the Force, saying it isn’t as powerful or scary as he makes it out to be and Vader just-

“I find,” Vader ventured mildly, “this lack of faith to be disturbing.”

-the WORD CHOICE. The fucking WORDS chosen.

“Ventured”??? “Mildly”??? He is CHOKING this man!!! This man is DYING!! He is being such a little shit right now, this is it. This is the Him, this is Anakin Skywalker right here. He is using unnecessary force and being a bitch about it and there will never be anything that so perfectly encapsulates Anakin Skywalker than this fucking scene in this fucking novel.

On the topic and as a brief aside, the novel is what makes me think that Leia was planned to be Vader’s kid, or at least a narrative mirror to Vader, right from the start. She is also such an Anakin.

“Darth Vader… I should have known. Only you would be so bold— and so stupid.”

She just… also. Encapsulates Anakin. Like. Yeah. Yeah, this is what he could have been. He could have been a terrifying figure that people rallied behind. He is loyal to the death, as is Leia. She spits on Darth Vader while he’s having her dragged away. She mocks him to his face. This is the character that the Anakin Skywalker of future movies mimics. Her passion, her anger, her being a little shit and insisting throughout everything that it WAS a diplomatic vessel and they WERE on a diplomatic mission.

Leia is the first character to face down Vader in this novel and not show fear. She is the first character who refuses to submit in the face of the scariest guy in the galaxy. She continues to refuse to submit. She’s just. A great fucking liar.

Leia puts all her trust, her very life and the sake of the entire rebellion she’s fighting for, in a droid. An astromech droid. She begs for them to take the droid further, not for them to find her. She’s willing to die, and she trusts her death will not be in vain because she trusts a droid.

And that, if nothing else, is all the proof needed that Leia is what Anakin could have been.

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

not "i ship these characters" or "i want them to bond platonically" but a secret 3rd thing (I want them to be forced to interact by the Narrative bc they would HATE that)

[kandelia-mangrove]

Can we talk about how in the show Lestat and Armand are framed as narrative foils. Armand and Lestat who are both so aggressively theater kids, but Lestat who acts, who draws in the attention and holds it, and Armand who directs, who shapes and manipulates the narrative. Armand and Lestat's obsession with Louis and his love and frustration with his melancholy over Lestat and Claudia respectively. Who both felt second in his heart. Who fear loneliness above all else. Lestat taking what he wants to excess - no impulse control, and Armand letting things happen to him and trying to manipulate situations to get what he wants but never taking it. Armand, who even in the end, so much more powerful, never physically imposes himself on Louis. Armand who seeks complete control in subtle insidious ways. Lestat who seeks control in the physical. Armand and Lestat brought into vampire life in horrifying ways tangled up with SA. Armand who still talks about his maker with reverence, Lestat who hates his maker. Armand who pours all of himself into his partner, willing to shape himself into what they desire but ultimately needing control to feel safe. Lestat who pours all of his love into his partner but unwilling to change himself and ultimately cedes control in moments to maintain the relationship. Armand who clings to his breaking apart relationship for 77 YEARs, Lestat who let Louis go. Lestat and Armand who watch Claudia die, but one as a father and one as a murderer. Lestat and Armand so intense in their love but Lestat so painfully external and Armand so painfully internal as characters. Both constantly acting and putting on a face. Lestat as Mozart and Armand as Salieri (in the flashback scene!). Armand who loves routine and structure and repetion, Lestat who craves change and excitement. The calling cards are echos, who learned from who. Armand teaching Lestat the vampire gifts, Lestat teaching Armand a new way to live. on and on....

[mithrandirl]

THE LORD OF THE RINGS || THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING

[eliotquillon]

i think a lot about john and ian and their strange, implicit estrangement. it is never explicitly addressed but it is there. blunt going out of his way to say that ian was a good agent but john was a better one. alex always being compared to john despite ian being the man who raised him. ian never telling alex anything about his parents. john never sparing a thought for ian in the snakehead coda. ash being chosen to be the best man at john's wedding and alex's godfather instead of ian. ian being recruited to mi6 straight out of university while john went military and none of it mattering in the end because it was still john who was chosen for the scorpia mission, john who died the hero, john who got blown up and martyred while ian's own death barely registered. you're twentysomething years old and your older brother has just been murdered after being better than you at the one thing you are defined by and you will spend fourteen years raising his son, and none of it will matter. here's a question: why does ian hate being called 'uncle' so much? here's another: can you still be an uncle without a brother?

[asukiess]

canon felix & marinette is sooooo funny. like for all intents and purposes, their arc is finished. they settled on terms and conditions. he's on her team and they fuck around in adrien's pool sometimes.

but felix literally can't escape her. the two people he holds dearest absolutely love her in every sense. both have shed actual tears over her, for her.

he goes to see kagami? she's been on the phone with marinette for an hour now and Marinette's spiel or rant or raving isn't ending any time soon, but kagami can't bring herself to hang up even if she's doing other things. another time, and marinette is hanging off kagami's back, she's dragging her by her hand, dressing her up, she's all over kagami.

adrien? goner. it's absolutely ridiculous. (felix likes to think he isn't this way with kagami but it's not exactly true at all). and of course, marinette's there: in the house, the pool, the carpool, the fucking bathroom when he needs to use it. felix has the mechanical sound of her vespa mesmerized as it pulls into the courtyard driveway. she spends the night at the mansion and she's an absolute nightmare when she's woken up early, which both he and adrien are getting used to.

she's there when she's not there, for the both of them. oh, marinette said the FUNNIEST thing the other day--well, it actually didn't make a lot of sense, but listen--oh, did you get a tear in your vest? marinette could fix that for you! here, have this extra pastry marinette gave me.

she's there when she's there, obviously. obnoxiously. of course they grab tea together, marinette wants to learn what it means to be in the "accidentally fucking things up with adrien when you only had his best interest in mind" club.

she's there at work, when he's needed. unlike how she is with kagami, or adrien, or himself---it's endearing, like a puzzle he's still fitting together. ladybug, marinette, something close to a found family, both of them taking each other into their worlds.

[radioactive-mouse]

i cannot believe i haven’t seen anyone point out grian’s “i don’t feel good” at the end of 3rd life vs martyn’s “ohh, that feels good” at the end of limlife. it’s insane.

[codename-adler]

neil josten:

i survived despite

they tried to kill me and they failed

i never thought i’d escape

i outlived my fate

I’m A Survivor (‘This Is A Dream Come True’ Version)

jean moreau:

i survived despite

they tried to kill me and they failed

i never thought i’d escape

i outlived my fate

I’m A Survivor (‘This Is A Living Nightmare’ Version)

can you hear the difference now?

P.S.:

[sforzesco]

spartacus and crassus :)

this is actually a rejected panel from a much longer comic I’ve been fucking around with on and off for awhile- I had plans to do a long form spartacus comic for a long time, I just keep missing the last book on my research list in second hand stores 😔 I always have money when the last copy sells out aughhh

anyway! I might call crassus my girl in the group chat, but I’ve actually spent more years wishing that spartacus got to run crassus through on his sword and then read the fate of rome out of his entrails. ALAS. on that note, isn’t it kind of interesting how spartacus’ funeral games for crixus turn roman order upside down and feel like both a foundational sacrifice and a curse? isn’t it kind of fun how crassus will not die in rome, and neither will pompey, who came in like a vulture to take credit for crassus’ work? (it’s VERY fun)

Plutarch, Crassus

[a-memory-a-distant-echo]

do you ever think about how when we see their backstory, di feisheng and jiao liqiao are both victims? jiao liqiao physically restrained and surrounded by jeering, threatening men about to assault her; di feisheng restrained by mind control and jeered at, threatened, until he has no choice but to fight? both of them trapped, her knowing that she can't even hope for the escape of death, him knowing that if he dies here, he'll never be free?

and jiao liqiao takes that terror and violation and sees how it could be a tool she could wield.

and di feisheng takes that terror and violation and sees how it is an unendurable moral injury that has to be eliminated.

do you every think about how they were both so focused, both so driven, both so fully fixated on the single person who was their goal, their reason for everything?

and jiao liqiao let her obsession with di feisheng turn her into someone who would destroy the world, would destroy di feisheng himself, as long as it meant he would be hers.

and di feisheng let his obsession turn him into someone who would save a world he doesn't care about, would give up everything he's worked for, if it meant that li xiangyi would live.

[governmentmandatedryujinstan420]

releasing this from the hj discord dungeon because the public populace was in agreement also i'm chronically offline on tumblr and need to fix that for my chronically online ahh

[marswasnothere]

I’m not a lestappie but I do love the tiny red-string-of-fate moments between Max and Charles that are literally everywhere, and I’m thinking about this because i was reading the wiki article for Oranjegekte (Dutch people wearing orange for sporting events) to look for the colour difference between Dutch orange and mclarens papaya (for fic reasons) and

Guess what the only link in the ‘see also’ section is?

[pixelbumblebee]

I think the most fucked up thing is that when Crystal, in a fit of desperation, tries to appeal to Esther by offering her understanding, for just a fraction of a second, it works. She is visibly taken aback (tearing up, even) by someone reaching out to her, but it's way too late. There was never really a chance at redemption. But the spark of it was there for a second.

[athina-blaine]

genuinely don't understand people who gripe about someone getting into dunmesh for m/m pairings as opposed to f/f when none of them are even close to being the main point of the series

[tillman]

The writing in part 1 of jojos specifically really gets to me because dio is such a fascinating villain for a story with such heavy themes of nature vs nurture and humanity and what not but also they do the “you disagree with this mans morals. He puts dogs into furnaces” bit and constantly go “he was born evil hes the devil its in his Blood” its so fucking funny. I dont know im genuinely obsessed with how poorly it fumbles its very few themes. And I know thats not the point. But its just a hysterical reading to me.

[excitedrainbow]

genuinely baffling to me that after episode 17’s revelations some people are still gleefully hoping that the bad kids mercilessly obliterate the rat grinders, with seemingly no sense of understanding that they’re children who were and are still being manipulated by forces they trusted and are almost powerless to resist

No one is saying they’re totally innocent but people are still out here acting like they’re the worst antagonists this season when Brennan literally gave us ACTUAL villains who orchestrated all this!!!!!!!!