#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.

[mercutio-the-velaryon]

Mel and Viktor being drawn to each other but repelling each other at the same time... Ughhh you know I critique the fuck out of the writing sometimes but someone COOKED HERE

[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....

[garuye]

I'm normal

[mithrandirl]

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

[n-hospital]

you. N and volo's massive parallels. you understand yes?

[autisticrosewilson]

"Oh Steph wouldn't like Jason just because they have similar backgrounds because he kills people/is a criminal/fights the bats!!"

This is in the 90's BEFORE he even tortured her. She doesn't go through with it, but she sees the evil he's capable of and its enough for her to justify it. She only doesn't because it "goes against what Batman taught her" but well.

That's the same man who would let her dad's friends infest her house for MONTHS until BLACK CANARY came to Gotham and handled it

A grown man who would go on to verbally degrade her, withhold the tools he gave everyone else, keep her intentionally isolated and then use her lack of resources against her.

So yeah. I'm sure Steph's faith in Batman and his teachings have wavered plenty. Just because DC casually discarded the way she was treated so she could play happy family with the boys, but she has NO REASON TO. Before she was aged down there was definite tension between her and Tim, and while Babs worked to get that relationship back, Bruce did no such thing. "Oh I'm just as proud of you as I was with the boys" when he thought she was dying doesn't fucking change how he treated her.

And of course, there's her own forray into betraying the family and being a criminal in The Next Batman series.

That's without getting into how she was compared to Jason, the way she watched a murdered east end kid be toted as another violent, reckless, idiot who didn't think and got himself killed.

"Oh but he tried to kill Tim!" First of all, you didn't read that comic. Jason was TESTING him, they were 2 years apart MAXIMUM, and Tim FOUGHT BACK. Jason gave him a little cut and a nose bleed that he slapped a bandage on and was fine. Damian also started his first meeting with Tim antagonistically and even though he was actively hostile to her, Steph still formed a close sibling bond. Her first meeting with Tim she threw a brick at him. He spent a not significant amount of time belittling her and telling her she wasn't cut out for hero work when she came back. This is the same guy who hallucinated Jason just so Jason could be like "Oh I got myself killed don't be like me!" Can we be real she doesn't give a shit. I guess you could count Hush but. I know they retconned it so that was Jason but when the fuck would he have had the time to do that between death, catanoia, the All-caste, and his murder tour.

Stephanie understands better than anyone that desperate circumstances lead to desperate people who do bad things. Stephanie understands being belittled and compared to a rich white boy who never had to fight to survive like you did. She understands being isolated from the hero community. She understands the evil that exists and the ways the system is corrupt, and that the bad guy never STAYS caught. And it's not like she has any big problem with people who kill, Babs said in 90's she would fucking LOVE Joker to drop dead and Dinah has killed multiple times. She literally switched places with Lady Shiva? These are both women Steph looks up to. You don't think Steph would feel any admiration at all for someone who gave Bruce a taste of what it feels like to be shown up? Someone who made Roman's life hell? Someone who made Tim put action behind his shit talking? An alley kid who came back and refused to be another statistic, who showed everyone who spent the last decade calling him stupid and reckless EXACTLY how cunning he can be? None? At all?

I just find it a little hard to believe.

[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?

[hollowflight-propaganda]

Reason #1 of why Lawtsuda is awesome: One of them is a cold and calculated detective who is largely disconnected from humanity as a whole. He hardly shows any emotion and even when he does it's incredibly hard to know if he's really being genuine or not. The other is often associated with dogs due to the sheer amount of golden retriever energy he exudes. He wears his heart on his sleeve and is easily one of the most emotion driven characters in this whole story. I feel if their dynamic was explored more in canon they'd slot together really well, with L's logic and Matsuda's compassion working to balance each other out. Classic opposites attract. And you know what they say, tropes do exist for a reason

Reason #2 of why Lawtsuda is awesome: Light would be so fucking pissed lmao

[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.

[glacierberries]

why do people on pinterest like to act like a victorian man scandalised at seeing a woman's ankle for the first time when encountering art for a ship they have never seen before/don't like? like... "aRe yOu sHiPpInG tHeM????" yes you dumb bitch, next question

[hazmatazz]

literally do NOT get why parksborn isn't very popular. we have literally everything. movies make them toxic and doomed and tragic all the way through. cartoons & the new game make them fight to all hell and still trust each other dearly in the end. and my god the comics??? GAY!!! what isn't there to love at least somewhere

[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.:

[bronze-and-silver-keys]

Unrelated but Amalgamate has been destroying my life and I'm barely 1/5 of the way through