#hopefully everyone reading already understands how consent works and how this compromises that so i wont go into that

[hiruzensux]

concept: Hiruzen giving Enma subtle misinformation about human culture to further his own Horny Agenda™️

(like i'm sure when they first met he already spoke the language and had a decent understanding of the more basic stuff; i don't know how different the culture of wherever it is he lives actually even is to begin with (i haven't given it much thought at all tbh) so it could all be pretty familiar to him... but regardless of how broad the overlap between the two cultures is, if he doesn't have much actual experience in the human realm, then it's totally believable from his end for certain stuff to be slightly or totally different)

this has some EXCELLENT potential re: pranks or practical jokes, but where my mind immediately went with this is misdirections of lustful intent

ex.:

Hiruzen: "ok this next one is called 'french kissing', and it's a human gesture of friendship and mutual respect"

Enma, interrupting him: "i do not respect you"

Hiruzen, internally, trying not to cry: alright yeah i totally deserved that

(Hiruzen maybe has a special advantage in this particular subgenre (claims in the format "[insert sexy activity] is a Normal Friend Thing"), bc if Enma's skeptical, Hiruzen can just be like "no, really! watch, i can prove it — hey Kagami—")

see also: how it's standard protocol amongst humans for comrades-in-arms to sleep spooning ("that's what the 'in-arms' part is from"), or the time-honored human tradition of Underwear Sparring, and of course the Post-Spar Massage

his success is limited though bc Enma just isn't very gullible

however, alternatively... maybe Enma isn't buying (ex.) mutual masturbation as a conventional team-building exercise... but if it happens that he's into it anyway, all he has to do is play along, and then he gets what he wants without having to admit any embarrassing feelings 👍

(honestly though, if he did succeed in a more substantial deception, i think Hiruzen would likely end up feeling too bad to continue with it very long before confessing anyways... so i'm not sure how far this would actually get either of them)

returning to that first example... in that case, if Enma believed him, then when Enma DID finally kiss him (frenchly), it would be an EXTRA meaningful first kiss scenario, since it would mean Hiruzen had finally earned his respect... ohh... that's kind of sweet...

...except Hiruzen would DEFINITELY have to tearfully confess his lie then, in which case Enma would probably be like "oh yeah well. good bc i lied just now too. about respecting you" (the potency of this comeback slightly diminished by the implicit admission that he just wanted to kiss him)

i don't know if Hiruzen ever got to visit Enma's realm, but i hope so, so that Enma gets his turn to use this same mechanic in revenge! idk if he'd go for it or not since it seems less his style... but if he DID, he'd probably be much meaner about it and go straight for that full public humiliation potential that Hiruzen mercifully left mostly alone

[nazm145]

Females in ADOW: My final thoughts on Juliette

(Disclaimer: This is not hate for the show. I actually really like it and as ridiculous and campy as it is sometimes, I love the characters and how the show treats most of its women. I just have issues about their portrayal of certain things. Also, my analysis is based solely off the show, as I have not read the books.)

So I guess they decided to give me death after all. I have to admit, until I actually watched the episode for myself, I was hoping that maybe she would somehow make it.

Now, I’ve seen a lot of discussion about the treatment of women on ADOW and how refreshing it was to see a show made by women, for women. Which I think is one of the main reasons I had dared to put a little more faith in the writers to not go the down the cliched, expected, and problematic route for Juliette, and why I was even more disappointed than I thought I would be when they did. I’ve already talked about (extensively) in my previous post about why I was so drawn to Juliette’s character, and why I was hoping that her story would end differently.

Throughout the course of ADOW, despite a lot of the story being rushed and a lot of the characters glossed over, we got to see the women come into their own, and their relationships with each other grow and develop – leading up to the finale in which Diana masters her powers, Agatha and Satu stand up to the Congregation, and witches, vampires, and demons put aside their differences to support each other against a common threat. Hell, even the Congregation managed to get along in the very end. So in an episode that put so much emphasis on empowerment, support, and even love - especially for women - seeing Juliette meet the end that she did just didn’t sit well with me.

First, I want to address the scene itself. As cool as the fire-bow was, I have never seen a villainous figure get killed off in such an anti-climactic manner. Juliette asking Matthew to kiss Diana was weird, random, and just nasty. In a way I understand where she was coming from, but no. The scene itself also had next to no build-up to the “final face-off” moment. Over the course of eight episodes, Juliette’s entire arc had been focused on her obsession with and desire to get to Matthew, but up until this point Matthew/Diana’s story had no real connection with Juliette’s story. Even her run-in with Marcus and Miriam was never mentioned again. So to have their confrontation be over within the span of literally three minutes felt incredibly forced and inorganic.

It also felt like the whole scenario was blatantly used for shock value and to conclude Juliette’s story according to the books even if it didn’t yet work within the TV show. Another narrative issue that got to me was that really, Juliette wasn’t the main villain of the show. At least I didn’t feel like she was. Yes, she did some really bad things like kill the tourist and attack Marcus, but in the grand scheme of things these incidences were little more than mild inconveniences – and not even for Diana or Matthew. Gillian did more to cause them trouble – telling Knox about the book, breaking into the lab. Her actions were a danger to Matthew and Diana. Juliette’s actions were mostly a danger to herself.

For me, it would have made more sense to keep the focus on the Congregation throughout. Of course, this isn’t my show and the writers can take it in whatever direction they want. But I definitely think it would have improved the cohesion and flow, especially in the last episode. Because from a narrative point of view, Juliette’s death didn’t actually do anything. I haven’t read the books so I’m basing what I know off the show, and I’m sure the deal Diana made with the goddess will come back to bite her. But the whole incident didn’t have any lasting effects apart from Diana’s whole “I’ve never killed anyone before, but I don’t regret it” line, and emphasizing how amazingly talented and brave she is. I like Diana, but the whole scenario of tossing aside a black woman who has been manipulated and abused her entire life just to (barely) further the arcs of two white characters and serve as subpar shock value is not something I’m her for. Maybe it’s because I actually loved her character, but Juliette’s death to me just felt unnecessary, wasteful and empty. Like, is her death even going to be addressed next season? Will we get a reaction from at least Gerbert and Domenico, the two people who probably knew her the most aside from Matthew? What did they do with her body? I know Juliette wasn’t a “good” character, but she was a person and I feel like she deserves at least that much.

Which brings me to her treatment as a character, something that bothered me even more than the narrative inconsistences. I’ve spoken in length about why Juliette’s story so interested me and why I wanted her to not only survive but to grow from her situation. And there were a couple of things from episode 8 that just really drove the knife in on why I felt so torn up about her death.

For one, the exchange between Satu and Gerbert, where he asks her why she set Meridiana free and she replies that “no one should have to suffer centuries of slavery.”

Gee, Satu. You make a very interesting point there. You know who else suffered centuries of mental and emotional bondage and torture? Oh yes. Juliette. 

I included these gifs because you can clearly tell that the way this scene was framed, Juliette’s physical confinement was being directly paralleled with her mental entrapment of being taught to crave Matthew and unable to move on from him. Which is why Domenico asked her why she never ran even when she had the chance to. We also see this when Juliette attacks Mathieu the tourist. Realistically, there’s no reason for her to pursue a man just for sharing Matthew’s name, much less to kill him, because when you crave someone you crave that one person specifically. But it just highlights that Juliette has been mentally and emotionally damaged by everything she has gone through and to an extent can’t control her actions. Because there’s no way she didn’t know what Gerbert would do to her if and when he found out. 

Look at her. She’s terrified. Now I realize that this in no way justifies or excuses her actions, but you can’t ignore how absolutely disgusting Gerbert is for what he did, and how much responsibility and fault falls on him.

He literally stole her life and sanity away from her.

Before the finale aired, there was some discussion about Juliette’s death and how hopefully the show would focus on the fact that in the books she was specifically trained to spy on Matthew’s family and make him fall in love with her to keep him close. And that if she were compromised, she would have to kill him. Not that this would have made her death any better, but at the bare minimum it would have somewhat given her a purpose greater than the tragic, scorned woman whose white male lover left her for an even whiter woman.

But unfortunately, that’s exactly what they did. 

Juliette realizing that she has been nothing but an object in the mess between these two men and saying that she has no value actually broke my heart. I don’t even care if people think she’s intrinsically horrible, which I don’t believe she is – having to live with that knowledge, even subconsciously, for centuries is just so sad. I wanted to give her a hug. This poor woman. Even her being a trained assassin with a mission in the books doesn’t improve things. It doesn’t change the fact that Gerbert specifically created her to do his bidding and then shamelessly used her for whatever he wanted. 

At this point I was thinking about it, and I highly doubt Gerbert even asked for her consent before siring her, and that’s clearly a big deal amongst vampires. If this is addressed in the books, someone please let me know.

So to sum it up – Gerbert, an  old white man in a position of wealth and power, claims the life of a black woman and conditions her to fulfill a singular purpose outside of which she has no value; she is objectified and physically, mentally and sexually abused, and is murdered with the knowledge that she has been used like a possession, ultimately unable to break free from the situation in which she has spent her entire life. All in the same episode in which said white man has been explicitly stated to have enslaved yet another woman. Forgive me for saying so, but big yikes.

Some people had also mentioned how Matthew did apologize to Juliette, and while that didn’t make up for what happened to her, it showed that he recognized that he was partly to blame. I don’t believe that Matthew was responsible for Juliette’s shitty life because he was her target. He also absolutely did not deserve to be killed. But I don’t believe the apology meant that Juliette deserved to die either.

It’s pretty obvious that most of the apology was driven by him trying to protect Diana and wasn’t nearly as sincere as it may have seemed. Yes, I can understand why Diana would kill Juliette for attempting to murder Matthew, but at the end of the day, he lived. She didn’t. I’m not saying that Diana was wrong for wanting to kill Juliette. But a half-sincere apology from Matthew (who wasn’t to blame in the first place) did not justify the horrible life she was forced to live. Nor did it justify her death, which only supported her claim of being valueless considering everyone’s complete apathy about her murder and that she was never mentioned again.

I get that the show writers were trying to follow the books. I get that they needed a reason for Diana to have to call upon the goddess and make a deal to save Matthew’s life. And yeah, I get why Diana would kill her for what she did. But what makes me upset despite all of this is that Juliette’s character had so much potential; both to be a part of the larger narrative, or at least a larger part of her own narrative. There’s little I hate more than when female characters are put into a story just to serve as a love interest for the man (or an obstacle to his love interest), and especially when those female characters are disposed of for the sake of that man’s characterization and/or story.

As a show that is being lauded for its positive portrayal of female power, pleasure and relationships, and elevating its secondary characters from the book to where they have well-rounded stories and personalities, I was really hoping they would be brave enough to deviate from the books in this case. I know that characters, even those who have suffered and deserve better, don’t always get a happy ending. But you know what else ADOW gave us that we don’t usually get? Women being unapologetically in love without it being some contrived plot point, and no one so much as blinking an eye let alone judging or disrespecting them for it. Women not being defined by the men in their lives. Women who are allowed to be angry, cold, upset and morally gray while also shown to be kind, loving and nurturing. Women not being nice or polite all the time without their personalities reduced to being “bitchy.” Women in loving relationships with men where they are equal in power and respect, and where the focus is placed on their pleasure without it being seen as them controlling or emasculating the man. Women overlooking their differences and long held prejudices to come together and offer love, kindness, and support because they can recognize that standing together in the face of adversity is more important than tearing each other down over petty issues.

I’m sure a lot of people are probably thinking that I’m way too invested in Juliette but trust me – I did not make an active decision to fall in love with a character who I knew was not going to make it past the first season after being screwed over for most of it. Maybe it’s because I have a tendency to latch on to side characters, especially the unappreciated “underdogs.” Maybe it’s because Elarica is an ethereal being who brought life to the character and played her so well. Or maybe it’s because in a time when so many crimes and so much violence against women remains unanswered for, when so many women still await justice against their abusers, when so many never even get free of their horrible circumstances and are put down, silenced, and cast aside, I was really hoping that ADOW, a show that has focused so much on female empowerment, would do the better thing and empower Juliette too.

I’m not saying at all that the show has some responsibility to be the poster child for a 100% unproblematic portrayal of women. But you know what I would have loved to see? Juliette somehow teaming up with Satu to bring hell to all the gross men who have held them back (seriously, I would have been so fucking here for this). Or Juliette teaming up with Domenico and ripping Gerbert’s head off.

(On a side note: Domenico half-mocking Gerbert by saying it’s “not like [Juliette] to run away.” He really thinks she left all the shit behind and is probably somewhere safe, but instead she went and got herself killed, just shoot me alive.)

Or you know, Juliette dealing with Gerbert by herself like the badass she was capable of becoming and then living her life. Or not doing anything at all except just walking away. If Juliette’s final scene had been her leaving the church and her old life behind and we never saw her again, I would have been happy. Because at the very least her story would have been one of finally overcoming all the horrible abuses she has suffered. Juliette may have been a villain in Diana and Matthew’s story, but in her own she was a victim, plain and simple. And the fact that she was killed off only to be dismissed and forgotten while her abuser retains all his power and has not faced any consequences for his actions is just not okay.

Juliette Durand deserved a better life than the one she got. And she deserved a happier ending than the one the show gave her.