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lizardrosen · 1 year ago

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Hamlet Liveblog 2011, Act 3 Scene 1

Going through my notebook from twelve years ago with my line by line reading of hamlet, and sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly! I'm just doing scene one for this post because the nunnery scene and the Murder of Gonzago are both long enough and important enough that they should each get their own spotlight!

3.1.8-10 "but with a crafty madness keeps aloof when we would bring him on to some confession of his true state" - but he did make a confession! that whole passage where he goes "man delights not me" and talks about how everything has lost flavor for him

If Claudius already knows that Hamlet is faking (most of) his madness, why does he need R&G at all? Since Hamlet (might be) merely pretending to be crazy, we must take into account that he wasn't entirely sincere when talking to R&G. But some of the things make too much sense for him to not be feeling it to some extent. Or he's really really calculating and knows exactly what to say. Is that a kind of madness?

3.1.30-1 "That he, as twere by accident, may here affront Ophelia" - does Ophelia know about this plan? By now she's probably used to being another prop in Polonius's plans. And then he dies and she is left adrift and freer than ever before

3.1.38-40 "I do wish that your good beauties be the happy cause of Hamlet's wildness" - Gertrude is sympathetic to having a controlling male figure - and they've both had two!

3.1.56-88 (To Be Or Not To Be) Oh God, here it comes! The bit everyone waits for and secretly fears!!

3.1.62-3 "the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to" - it's part of living, Hamlet, and yes it hurts, but life in a box is better than no life at all

3.1.63-4 "Tis a consummation / Devoutly to be wished" - he fervently wants to end it all (primary meaning); BUT - consummation is the sex to seal a marriage, and 'devoutly' is religious, so he sorta becomes a High Priestess of Death; also, is this where he gets the idea of a nunnery? current Will: oh my god. hamlet the high priestess of death. this was definitely a stretch for the meaning of this specific sentence, but it's also pretty true to his character. I'm laughing so hard.

3.1.67 "When we have shuffled off this mortal coil" - slow and plodding, like a breadline or a movie premiere, where everyone is looking forward to the end

3.1.89-90 "Nymph, in thy orisons / Be all my sins remembered" - compare to Othello, who told Desdemona to confess her sins before he killed her; but why does he mention his sins instead of hers? because he knows he's going to be a dick?

3.1.96 "I never gave you aught" - denies ever loving her? he's a different person than the one who gave the favors? She didn't acknowledge it, so why should he? if the emphasis is on "you," he means that she has changed, or he's talking directly to Claudius and Polonius. Also, switched from 'thy orisons' to the formal 'you' :(

3.1.101 "for to the noble mind rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind" - He fears she doesn't love him anymore, and she wants to spare his feelings by returning the favors as gently as possible. Or he is the original giver and has been unkind and frightening to her current Will: I wasn't thinking of this at the time, but it's worth pointing out that this phrasing sounds like the kind of advice Polonius would give his kids

3.1.107-8 "Your honesty should admit no discourse to your beauty" - again with the idea that pretty girls don't stay virgins

3.1.116-117 "You should not have believed me; for virtue cannot so inoculate our old stock but we shall relish of it: I loved you not." - Hamlet makes virtue into a disease, which horny noblemen "cure" current Will: honestly I'm still a little confused by this line but i'm pretty sure this interpretation was wrong

3.1.119 "Get thee to a nunnery - why wouldst thou be a breeder of sinners?" - How serious is he? Does he really believe the world would be better off without men; or that a nunnery is safer for Ophelia, body and soul? Maybe he's mocking her and telling her to go to a brothel; Also, notice the return to 'thou' - is this genuine affection or the disrespect of talking to someone much lower than him?

3.1.121 "I could accuse me of such things that it were better my mother had not borne me" - self-loathing for things he's done or said or thought; if he hadn't been born he wouldn't be tormented by his uncle/father/mother now; also R&G wouldn't end up executed silly version - if his mother weren't so pretty, he wouldn't want to bang her and if he weren't 'born of woman' he could kill Macbeth and have great king-killing practice current Will: I think the bit about hamlet's ~oedipus complex~ was tongue in cheek, especially since I started by saying "silly version" but I also know that for a while I did buy into that theory and it colored some of my interpretations. I'd like to publicly renounce that now.

3.1.125 "We are arrant knaves all" - this is where he realizes that he's being watched, and shortly after asks "Where's your father?" Also, Hamlet calls Claudius an arrant knave in Act One

3.1.128-9 "Then let the doors be shut on him, that he may play the fool nowhere but in's own house" - he doesn't want Polonius to jump to conclusions but since he is there watching him, Hamlet will take advantage of it

3.1.133-5 "or if thou wilt needs marry, marry a fool, for wise men know well enough what monsters you make of them" - cuckolds! current Will: yes, past self, you're very smart

3.1.152 "Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh" - she recogizes the sweetness they once shared, but it's just not there anymore; compare to Hamlet's "the time is out of joint" (1.5.189) headcanon: Ophelia took clarinet lessons when she was ten

3.1.159-9 "There's something in his soul / O'er which his melancholy sits on brood" - Claudius can tell Hamlet's sadness is exaggerated to cover up something else, but he doesn't know it's vengeance

3.1.167 "shall expel this something-settled matter in his heart" - perfect description of Hamlet and his indecision and desperation 3.1.168 "whereon his brain still beating" - makes his brain a muscle that does actual physical work

3.1.172-4 "How now, Ophelia! You need not tell us what Lord Hamlet said; we heard it all" - Polonius honestly cares for his daughter but isn't very good at showing it current Will: this was a generous reading of Polonius, because this line can definitely be said dismissively or impatiently, but i've also seen productions where he drops everything to comfort Ophelia and is only half-listening to Claudius

3.1.176-7 "Let his queen mother all alone entreat him to show his grief" - why does Polonius insist on torturing this poor boy? It's no wonder he loses it. Is he even still paranoid if people really are out to get him?

#hamlet liveblog 2011 #hamlet #claudius #ophelia #my writing #not quite liveblogging my life

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astermacguffin · 4 years ago

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The semantic logic of AMVs

I finally finished the post I promised to @katebushstandean , so here's my contribution to the blossoming field of spn amv studies.

In this post I made about fanworks and intertextuality, I argued that AMVs can be referred to as a "discourse between discourses." What I meant by that (and I elaborated on this in the post) can be summarized in this argument structure:

(1) AMVs are typically a dialogue/discourse between a song and a show/film.

(2) A song is already a discourse of its own (i.e. it's the dialogue between music and lyrics).

(2) A show/film is already a discourse of its own (i.e. it's the dialogue between the visual and auditory elements of the show/film).

I want to push this argument even further and argue for a more generalized theory of meaning that should (ideally) be applicable to any piece of media.

LAYING THE FOUNDATION

Let's start by analyzing at least just one medium at a time. Take music, for example. Without lyrics, how does music convey meaning at all? Now, I won't go too much into either music theory or the psychology/sociology of music (since I don't think I'll be able to give these subjects any justice anyway), but I want us to look at music more structurally/linguistically. (I am certainly not a linguist, but I am a training logician and I think it would be interesting to extract the logical/semantic relations that occur in music if we treat it as a "text".)

If we want to break down music into its smallest possible units of meaning (the same way we break down language into morphemes in morphology), then we would probably end up with notes, beats, and chords as our basic units (among other stuff, like timbre). Obviously, we cannot subject music to the same reductionist approach we do with either natural or formal languages (e.g. breaking down language into morphemes/propositions/subject-predicate relations/functions).

This is due to the fact that music doesn't really agree that much with the principle of compositionality—that "the meaning of the whole is a function of the meanings of its parts and their mode of syntactic combination." (If you disagree with Montague semantics, you might even argue that the same is true for natural languages and that only formal languages are truly compositional, but I digress). Generally, there is "more than the sum of its parts" when it comes to music; the meanings of a chord don't solely depend on the meanings of the individual notes that make up the chord.

Anyway, back to music and meaning-making.

Yip Harburg has this interesting quote on songwriting, which Adam Neely references here at this mark (15:29–16:10), a quote he originally got from Ben Levin. The quote says: "Music makes you feel feelings, lyrics make you think thoughts, songs make you feel thoughts." I think this quote best encompasses what I mean when I argue that songs are "discourses" of their own.

But even without the lyrics, music on its own is already "discursive." A single note played once doesn't really "mean" much, in the sense that we can't really gather as much meaning out of it alone. The note's relationships with other musical elements is what opens up the realms of meanings that we can attribute to it. (This concept is explored much better in here.)

The same thing is true with natural languages. Morphemes and words have meanings on their own, sure, but they don't really say that much on their own until you place them in a specific order with other morphemes/words. A single sentence is already a discourse between the units of meaning that compose the sentence.

I have been using the term "discourse" a lot, but what do I mean when I use the term? Without spending too much time explaining my own theory of discourse, let's define a discourse as a "series of discursive units." A discursive unit consists of two parts: a prompt and a response. What's important to know about responses in a discourse is that you won't really be able to fully grasp what they mean without knowing what the prompts are (i.e. what they are responding to).

When I describe song and lyrics as "discourses", what I think I really mean is that they are "discourse-like" (hence the description, "discursive"). The words of a sentence treat each other as their own prompts/responses; they're not as meaningful alone, but when taken together, meaning emerges. The same goes with music.

Taking this to a more macro scale, we can treat each episode of a show as their own discourses, and each episode "responds" to the others in some way. The harmonies, tensions, and contradictions that emerge from the "conversations" between these episodes are what we often respond to when we make fanworks (fanart, fanfics, meta, and the likes).

Generally, there are two kinds of "conversations" that happens within and among pieces of media:

The intra-discursive (the conversations that happen within a single text, like how a show's episodes converse with each other), and;

The inter-discursive (also called the intertextual, or the conversations that happen between different texts).

Now that we have established these terms and concepts, we're FINALLY talking about AMVs.

THE DEAL WITH AMVS

I've already touched upon this in my intertextuality post, but it's worth repeating. What I believe AMVs do is reveal the intra-discursive using the inter-discursive. What this means is that by making the subject text converse with other texts (e.g. by making clips from Supernatural "dialogue" with a song of your choice), you are somehow extracting the implicit discourses present in the original text.

When we talk about fanworks (and transformative works in general), we often talk about it in terms of recontextualization, as well as adding something new that wasn't there in the original text (e.g. fix-its). But a neglected aspect of fanworks that I believe AMVs bring to light is the revelatory power of fanworks, like the way it makes the people (may it be the audience or the original creators) confront the implications and implicit meanings already present in the text.

(Learn more about the semantic logic of AMVs below the cut)

Another interesting thing that AMVs do is that it often makes the subject text subservient to the song. More often than not, it's the show that has to adjust to the song; it's the show that has to be sliced and diced in order to fit the song. This is simultaneously a form of violence and a form of liberation—violent in the sense that goes against authorial intent (with "author" here used loosely to refer to the forces that brought the piece to life, may it be a single person or an entire production team) and liberating in the sense that the latent or supressed narratives are brought to light.

Even before the AMV is done, this discursive process is already made explicit by the act of editing. In most editing softwares, you get to see the timeline of your material and an explicit divide between the audio and the visual elements. The audio stream is already a discourse of its own, and the same goes with the video stream.

When you vertically slice these juxtaposed streams and cut out a portion of it, you now have what I call a "semantic moment" locked in time. We can imagine the audio being divided into these little semantic moments (e.g. the chords, a key change, a shift in dynamics or tempo, etc.) and something similar can be said with the video (e.g. vital scenes in the show). Now, a semantic moment doesn't have to be special or eventful; in fact, most of them aren't. In fact, all of experience is nothing but a series of semantic moments (i.e. moments of extractable meaning).

Now, imagine an AMV playing in front of you right now. Let's represent the audio as a series of semantic moments from A1 to An and do something similar to the video, from V1 to Vn. If we represent the flow of time from left to right, then we can talk abstractly about experiencing an AMV like this:

A1-A2-A3-A4-A5...-An

V1-V2-V3-V4-V5...-An

Every moment of our experience of the AMV can be divided into a series like this. AMVs are art objects that unfold over time: they are temporal, and therefore we cannot immediately access all parts of the semantic "discourse" of the text all at once—we have to wait for them to happen.

Let's say I want to analyze Semantic Moment number 6 because something interesting happens there: the chord suddenly shifts into a minor key while at the same time, the video shows a character turning their back to the camera. Now, there are three possible ways to handle this (none of which are mutually exclusive; we usually perform these modes of analysis simultaneously):

Vertical analysis - analyzing the discourse between A6 and V6. What meanings are brought up when we take these two elements in conjunction? What associations do we have with minor keys, with people turning around, and how these associations influence the other?

Horizontal analysis - analyzing the discourse between A6 and its earlier counterparts, A1-A5, or between V6 and V1-V5. Earlier, we have discussed that a single chord or a single word on its own doesn't mean that much; it's their relationships with other elements that bring out their "meaning space." What "narratives" or "metaphorical gestures" are brought upon when you consider these semantic moments as discourses/texts as a whole?

Diagonal analysis - analyzing the discourse between A6 and V1-V5, or between V6 and A1-A5. Here, you make the semantic moment converse with the "history" of its counterpart. What are the events that happened in the earlier parts? For example, knowing that the earlier parts of the song were in major key before the turn-around scene might influence our reading of it. Similarly, knowing that the earlier scenes depict a happy relationship might influence how we read the minor shift.

Again, we often do these analytic slices as quick as possible (and often simultaneously); it's not something that we often do consciously (unless the subject text is actually that dense and difficult). It's instinctual to us to bring up these comparisons and engage with the explicit and implicit discourses of meaning happening with any kind of text we interact with.

Now, here's where it gets more complicated. Unless the AMV in question is just a scene lifted from the show and overlaid with a song, it would usually involve a bunch of cutting and joining between different scenes/episodes. What this means is that you're taking an already temporal object and reassembling it into a new order in time. This means that we might've initially thought of as V1-V2-V3-V4-V5...Vn might actually be V3-V1-V6-V19-V8...Vn or some other permutation.

Again, this process is simultaneously violent and liberating—violent because you are destroying its intended order, and liberating because you are negating the tyranny of linearity and contiguity. What I mean by this is that people tend to focus on the discourse of the semantic moments depending on how close they are in space and time. For example, we might focus on how V1 is in dialogue with V2 and how V2 is in dialogue with V3, but the farther the semantic moments are, the less likely we are to notice their discourse.

What AMV editors do is rebel against the tyranny of this habit and bring into light the connections that might have gone unnoticed without the intervention. We often talk about how certain fanworks are more analytical than transformative (e.g. fanfics that function more as character studies and meta analyses of the source text), and there certainly is a spectrum of this among different genres of fanworks. I believe that AMVs, no matter how transformative they are, cannot help but invoke a certain analyticity in their production and reception.

And that concludes my AMV essay. I'll probably add more to this when I gather more thoughts (like how these three posts are related in some way).

Lemme know if y'all wanna hear more about my theory of discourse or something else related. Support your content creators and reblog!

#spn #spn amv studies #long post #aster writes

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franniebanana · 3 years ago

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CQL Rewatch - Episode 11

Is anyone else amazed at how quickly this place cleared out? It seems like it was less than an hour ago that they were still trying to kill each other, and now it’s just pristine and empty again. Magic of television! Also, reminder! Jin Guangyao is still mortally wounded and hobbling around.

I love how caring they both are for each other here. They really feel like brothers instead of a master/servant role. Nie Huaisang is worried for Jin Guangyao, and the feeling is mutual. It’s a relationship that I never paid much attention to on the first watch, so it’s nice to go back and see it again, and notice that it exists. You can sense the bond and the closeness between these two, and it’s quite nice—also makes the betrayal sting more.

Ah, and the little shared moment between Wei Wuxian and Jin Guangyao—it’s sweet that he hasn’t forgotten the kindness that Wei Wuxian has shown him—he always treated him with respect, regardless of his background. Also I wonder if Jiang Cheng feels annoyed here, because Jin Guangyao salutes him second….

See? Nie Mingjue was so pissed that he knocked over all his art and stuff. I like that little detail. We see the aftermath, but we didn’t see him actually do it. We didn’t need to—we know he’s upset and feels horrible that he even had to make that decision, let alone carry it out. We don’t know much about their relationship yet, but it’s very clear that they were close and they respected each other a lot, for Nie Mingjue to be this emotional about Jin Guangyao’s actions and banishment.

NMJ: What are you two going to do next?

WWX: Um, I’m going to go rescue my boyfriend.

Okay, so I know how the story goes, and Wei Wuxian does not go to the Cloud Recesses again for a very, very long time. However, they’ve already added so much, why couldn’t they throw that in? Just saying, I wouldn’t have minded more wangxian moments, okay? But this part makes me giggle a little, because Wei Wuxian does, indeed, want to go after Lan Wangji (the guy left, basically without telling him)—Wei Wuxian is worried about Lan Wangji going off alone, especially because of what the Wen Clan is up to. And of course Jiang Cheng has to cock block by saying that they need to go home, because if the Wens are after the Gusu Lan and the Nie Clan, then they are probably going for the Jiangs as well. Okay, okay, it makes sense, Jiang Cheng—but do you not understand how much I want to see more wangxian?

But the important thing there (important meaning the thing that I like the most) is that Wei Wuxian thinks of Lan Wangji first. It’s not the last time either. It’s part of the growing feeling that Lan Wangji becomes more his family than his family does (and I mean, they aren’t his blood relatives, anyway). Yes, Wei Wuxian loves his family at Lotus Pier, but you can’t say that he doesn’t also consider Lan Wangji part of his family. At this point, he’s already willing to risk his life for Lan Wangji. And the reverse is true as well. I’m not going to go off on too much of a tangent, but I love that this story features two people who fit in better with each other than with their actual families.

At this point, even if I didn’t know the story, I’d be thinking, “Okay, how hard are they going to fall?” Lotus Pier is too idyllic, too perfect, the people too friendly, too happy—you know it’s all going to come tumbling down. And this story is so tragic (we know that right off the bat—the first scene is Wei Wuxian dying) that you absolutely know that something horrible is about to happen.

But aside from that, I like in the book how Wei Wuxian basically has a tab open with all the vendors and Jiang Fengmian has to foot the bill. It’s cute that Wei Wuxian has a relationship with all these vendors (or at least that one in particular)—like he’s willing to be amongst the common people. It’s clear here that Jiang Cheng isn’t. They know his face, because he’s the clan leader’s son, but he doesn’t seem to share the same relationships that Wei Wuxian does. And obviously in this scene, he just wants to get home and see if everything is okay. He’s very family-focused.

I’ve been reading a lot of discourse on Jiang Cheng lately, and this scene makes me feel a lot of emotions. It’s true that Jiang Cheng’s character in The Untamed is different from MDZS. A lot of his angry remarks seem to come from a place of caring (at first), because it seems he really does care about Wei Wuxian quite a bit, and I think he considers him family. But at a certain point, his well-meaning, angry remarks start to become old, and I feel bad for Wei Wuxian that he is so eager to take the blame for things that were not his fault. He goes along with Lan Wangji (without permission), and Jiang Cheng says it’s his fault for putting them all in danger, for being punished, for everything—but Jiang Cheng didn’t have to sneak off either. Is he not responsible for his own actions? Had it really only been about his concern over Wei Wuxian, he could have just talked to their father (who knew about it and basically didn’t care, which is whatever). My heart kind of breaks for the rocky relationship these two boys have, and to know that it will completely crumble in just a short amount of time.

But that’s also what I love about it. What I love about Jiang Cheng is that he’s basically horrible. He’s self-centered, he’s unkind, he’s cold, and he can hold a grudge better than anyone I’ve ever seen. I truly enjoy the fact that he and Wei Wuxian have an irreparably damaged relationship by the end of this.

“In the afterlife, let’s still be brothers,” Wei Wuxian says, and Jiang Cheng pushes Wei Wuxian’s hand off of his shoulder. It’s such a kind of off-hand remark, but it’s so meaningful in this series, since the opposite ends up happening. But I feel like this is their relationship at its core: Wei Wuxian trying to be better and eager to please, while Jiang Cheng is always responding that he’s not good enough, always shrugging him off. No wonder he becomes so close with Lan Wangji, a man who sees Wei Wuxian for what he is, yet loves him anyway.

I’m really inclined to agree with Madam Yu here: Jiang Fengmian is not really prepared for what’s going to happen, and considering in this adaptation, I think he even knows more of what’s going on with the Wen Clan than he did in the book. I believe Wei Wuxian aptly pointed out in episode 10 that this indoctrination is basically to hold the heirs ransom while the Wen Clan tries to take control—it’s to keep the other clans from acting up so they can get what they want (which in The Untamed is the Yin Iron, of course).

But aside from that, this seems like the most unpleasant table to sit at ever, next to these two people who probably very rarely get along. I think in this scene, you find out that Madam Yu thinks that her husband isn’t tough enough or prepared enough for future attacks, that she believes he was cheating on her and in love with Wei Wuxian’s mother, and that Jiang Cheng is unfairly treated between the two of them. That’s a shit-ton of accusations right there!

I actually do wish that we knew more about Jiang Fengmian’s relationship to Wei Wuxian’s mother and why he took him in. They must have been very close. Maybe I’m not remembering correctly and they delve into it a little more later.

But! What I also noticed in this scene is that Jiang Cheng and his mother are wearing matching outfits, while Jiang Yanli matches her dad, wearing purple.

I audibly gasped when I saw this. He’s using one of Wei Wuxian’s talismans!! OMG!!!! But I never noticed that the first time, so I was super excited to see that! How cool is it that Lan Wangji respects Wei Wuxian enough to not only accept one of his talismans, but to also use it? I love that detail! They didn’t have to include a scene to show it, but the fact that they threw it in makes me so happy. And even when they aren’t together, it’s like they’re together! My heart!

And visually, it also looks cool, so I’m always pleased to see some more magic in this series, in particular the talisman magic, which always looks pretty. The butterflies here remind me of the butterfly that Lan Xichen sends Lan Wangji way later.

Oh, it’s also interesting that the characters that come at odds with Lan Wangji always point out his arrogance, but, like, he’s not. They mistake his coldness and his lack of verbosity to being conceited, but I really don’t think that’s the case. There is literally a Lan Clan principle that says not to speak unless you have something important to say. For example, the kind of chattering that Wei Wuxian does is against their rules. Lan Wangji has been brought up in this stark, spartan environment, and he has been a rule follower. Actually looking down on people for the sake of being arrogant is even against their principles—I mean…I don’t expect Wen Chao to know this, but people like Su She certain should.

I like the contrast here between Lan Qiren and Lan Xichen meditating, their incense burning, all the tea cups and knick-knacks sitting just so—and utter death and destruction outside. The Cloud Recesses are literally on fire and you two are sitting in here trying to meditate. I get it. Gusu Lan are probably the most pacifistic of all the clans, so this is totally against everything their clan is about. But really, you’re sending all your red shirts out there to die.

Also I have no idea why Lan Qiren is spitting up blood in this scene. Did he overexert himself…meditating? Maybe I’m being ignorant here. Maybe he’s doing some magic to keep the Wens at bay (even though they’re getting in and all…).

I keep having these moments where I find myself thinking, “I didn’t pay attention to this part at all the first time, but now I see how great it is.” And here’s another one. For starters, I didn’t notice Lan Xichen was crying—I knew he was getting really emotional, but I didn’t see the tears on his face until just now. Here’s a man only a few years older than Lan Wangji, possibly still a teenager at this point (in the book, he was still underage at the start of the Sunshot Campaign if I remember the notes correctly), who has no idea where his younger brother is (who he probably helped raise), pleading with his uncle to take the treasured books in the library and escape.

And then you have Lan Qiren, who also has no idea where one of his nephews is and showing genuine concern that he’s missing (once again), whose other nephew is offering up his own life in order to save his. Lan Qiren practically raised both Wangji and Xichen as if they were his own, so the last thing he wants is for either of them to come to harm. I really love this moment, seeing the Lans’ faces crumble with emotion and show that pain and grief that they are feeling, that they normally keep in check. You get to see that, yes, they are human too. And I think this is especially important with Lan Qiren, who up until this point has just been kind of a hardass. But it’s also great to see Lan Xichen fall apart like this, because he’s been so sage and wise, and so adult up to this point. Now we’re forced to see that no, he’s still young, he’s inexperienced, he can break down too.

I do think it’s kind of ridiculous that the rest of the Gusu Lan Clan is basically useless in a fight, but I will never turn down a boss bitch Lan Wangji entrance (no matter how corny it is). I mean, I guess he doesn’t do all that much. He throws some guqin chords at them and gives them time to hide in the Cold Pond Cave. But ultimately, it doesn’t matter, because he ends up giving up the Yin Iron shard anyway.

I’m sure he’s feeling like he’s let down at least his entire clan and, at most, the rest of the world who would stand against the Wen Clan. But I think he was faced with the choice of seeing his people completely come to ruin or handing over the Yin Iron—either one is bad, but in the end, he chose people over power. I think that’s very fitting with Lan Wangji in any adaptation: he will do what’s right, he will choose humanity over any kind of power. He’s later willing to give up everything for Wei Wuxian, because in the end, it’s not his reputation or his standing among the clans that matters. I like here that Lan Qiren doesn’t try and stop him either—he understands that the people are most important and allows his nephew to make that choice.

It’s a nice scene overall, plus more Cold Pond Cave looks, which I love (I can’t get over the frost in his eyebrows, it’s just sexy). And anytime Wang Yibo gets to show some emotion on his face is a good time as well—I love what he does with his micro-expressions, but that makes the impact of scenes where he shows a lot on his face even greater. Like, if his eyebrows knit together, you know something big is going down!

It’s super cute that Jiang Yanli is giving them all this food to take along. She can’t go, she can’t help them, and she can’t do anything for them once they leave Lotus Pier, so the only thing she can think of to take care of them is to give them food. It’s such a sweet moment, but there’s a desperation to her actions as well. There is such a tension in the air and it’s affecting the entire family. Also not surprising that Madam Yu isn’t there to see them off. (Wei Wuxian’s cute wave at the end—god, he’s too adorable.)

That’s the look of somebody who’s seeing their close friend after a long time, when they were worried sick about them, when they had written letters that went unanswered, when their first thought upon entering this place was, “Where is the Gusu Lan sect?” Either the director told Xiao Zhan, “You’re in love” or he just did it on his own, because I mean, come on.

Basically, Wei Wuxian’s priority here is Lan Wangji, and I won’t hear any different. He’s not thinking about the mission or his creed or the Yin Iron—he wants to know how Lan Wangji is doing. He heard about what was going on in the Cloud Recesses, and he just wants to know if he’s all right. Even after he stops saying, “Lan Zhan,” which he says several times (I didn’t count), he still continues to look at Lan Wangji.

Other episodes: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |

#cql #the untamed #wangxian #wei wuxian #lan wangji #jiang cheng #lan xichen #lan qiren #jiang yanli #jiang fengmian #madam yu #wwx #lwj #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #jin guangyao #nie huaisang #nie mingjue #cql rewatch

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backflipstowardstheroot · 3 years ago

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idk this might get discourse-y but, i just feel like blaming FGO’s repeated grossness on lasengle or aniplex or any of the game devs trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator, and saying how they’ve made fate and TM gross, hell even simply blaming takeuchi seems a little... willfully ignorant? Like it or not, type-moon has had gross stuff in it from the very beginning. i’m sure by now we all know about the edgy rape scenes and incest route in tsukihime. no one forced nasu to do that. yeah, nasu felt like he had to add H scenes to get it to sell, but no one said “you must let the protagonist fuck his adopted sister or else”. also i’ve always felt like the belief that nasu didn’t want to make the H scenes or that he was uncomfortable with it are also kind of ignoring the obvious:

Yeah, TM doesn’t make H scenes anymore, but it does make sex scenes. or at least it has in the past 10 years or so. there’s a sex scene in extra, not explicitly shown but it is still there, and then there’s CCC. Look at CCC. Look at CCC and tell me that nasu does not like putting sexualization into his work. CCC is a PSP game. no one forced nasu to make CCC as unabashedly horny as it is. no one forced him to make a suggestive skimpy punishment BDSM allegory scene for elizabeth, who is canonically 14. now, I still love CCC, and i think that (when it doesn’t involve liz) its horniness can work in its favor sometimes. but the point still stands that the sheer explicit level of content in CCC was under nasu’s control. fate was already very popular by then, he didn’t need to add sex to sell (besides the one sex scene I mentioned before, the original extra had very little sexual stuff), but he simply wanted to

I know nasu is done with his work on FGO now, and that it was probably not him specifically who asks for a lot of the gross things the game can add. but he is complacent in it. even if you hate FGO, if you like any other work that he’s created, you need to acknowledge that fact

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shreddedleopard · 4 years ago

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10 Reasons it would make narrative sense for Levi and Historia’s character arcs to conclude together.

I’ve been wanting to do this for ages, but I’ve been nervous of the backlash. Feels like it’s now or never though, and theorising for/analysing stories is one of my favourite things to do - I’m clearly missing those literary analysis essays from university days. So please excuse me if you think I’m deluded - I probably am - but the analyst in me won’t let me be until I’ve got this all out of my system.

Beware, it’s a long one. There's some thoughts on chapter 130 nearest the bottom!

1. Childhood Parallels - The Abandoned Children

Levi and Historia’s childhoods mirror one another - there are striking similarities, but then also sections that fit together to complete each other, as though they are matching jigsaw pieces. The characters start out in worlds that are opposite - Historia has the comforts of a safe home, food on the table, and fresh air and sunshine. She has all the physical nourishment she needs, but she does not have her mother’s love. On the contrary, his mother’s love is the one thing Levi does have, otherwise living in poverty underground. Both their mothers, however, appear to be using sex and the idea of love as a means to survive or way to try and improve their circumstances, and it is out of this necessity that both end up being born.

Levi is clearly affected when he first hears Historia’s tale of her childhood - Isayama shows this through the fact that Levi’s plate is the only one left untouched at the end of her story. He has been so sucked in by what she’s relayed, and probably saddened, that he hasn’t been able to bring himself to eat as the others have. Historia’s story rings true with some of his own experiences, but also highlights the world he may have found himself in without his mother’s love.

Remember, Isayama consciously thinks about each panel he’s drawing - he wouldn’t include a small detail like that without reason. We see more of these instances of small but significant stylistic choices and minor details as we progress. Isayama stated in an interview that he wants to give fans an ending that fans would never guess, but that when they look back, the clues were there all along.

Continuing on with the theme of their childhoods and Isayama’s stylistic choices, let’s take a look at two significant moments:

Both characters, although experiencing different forms of deprivation initially (Physical vs. Emotional Nourishment) were abandoned at crucial moments in their lives - when they were looking for validation from their primary caregivers and the people who should have been responsible for demonstrating affection. Historia was abandoned when, after reading and taking onboard information she read in books just like her mother, she reached out to hug her, and Levi was abandoned at the moment he demonstrated that he’d absorbed everything Kenny had taught him. The parallel between these images is very powerful.

Kenny is a character that highlights more parallels between Historia and Levi.

Kenny’s words highlight the literal lack of growth in height for both Historia and Levi - both are particularly short, and also look youthful - but we can also take the words to suggest that the characters are still very much defined by what happened to them in their pasts, and have yet to step away from their demons and achieve closure on what has happened to them as children.

At this point, we can definitely say that Isayama has chosen to tie both Historia and Levi’s stories together through their childhoods - their backstories are revealed alongside each other, in the same arc of our story, and in terms of experiences, they are both identical and mirror opposite at different points.

2. Shared Values

Despite being deprived of affection for large portions of their childhoods, both Levi and Historia appear to have experienced glimmers of kindness in their darkness as well, and this has shaped some of their values and behaviours.

Levi experienced his mother's love for a short while until he lost her - we know how deeply she cared for him from her refusal to give him up despite Kenny’s advice to her when she fell pregnant. Historia had Frieda’s kindness instilled in her, even though she's not able to consciously remember her actions until later.

Both display an affinity for animals, with several manga and even anime-only scenes where we see them being affectionate and kind to their horses. We don’t see this as prominently with any other characters.

But one of the biggest shared values is their desire to protect children. I've posted on this before, but here are a few examples of Levi being driven by this value:

It’s clear Levi has a soft spot for children. And Historia? We know her feelings on children from her first action as Queen - realised with the support of Levi.

3. Kenny’s failure … Levi’s success?

These next scenes we’ll focus on represent the moment that Levi and Historia are set up to undergo that ‘growth’ Kenny was referring to earlier in the uprising arc. Note Isayama’s choice of words here, and the symbolism of the whole scene. Kenny doesn’t tell Levi, ‘I couldn’t be someone you looked up to,’ or ‘I wasn’t fit to act as your father figure,’ he literally says ‘I can’t be some kid’s dad.” What does he do then? He shoves the titan serum at Levi.

Isayama pays great attention to this - dedicating several panels to the weighty moment, and Levi’s expression. It’s very dramatic. Notice how the word ‘Dad’ even has it’s own speech bubble. It’s almost as though Kenny is passing the mantle on to Levi - passing that responsibility on to him. It feels as though the passing of the serum replaces the missing words, ‘but you can.’ Isayama didn’t have to have Levi ask that question in the moment before Kenny passed the serum on to him. He could have positioned it so that the discussion about dreams was the precursor to the serum being passed over - which in my head, for the context of the scene, would make more sense. But he didn’t; he chose to have Kenny say that exact line to Levi - to admit his inadequacy as a father figure, with that focus on the word dad - and then hand the item over to Levi.

By itself, the scene could be seen as highlighting the ways that Levi is already a better father figure than Kenny. He has been somewhat paternal in his role as a Captain. But it’s the very next scene that brings Historia immediately into focus.

Historia looks suddenly so much maturer here, and the way the scenes sit immediately after one another feels too much like foreshadowing.

If you want the full effect of what I mean here, just rewatch this section of the anime!

We are presented with parallels between them once again. The focus of the crown and power of the monarchy being bestowed on Historia parallels the gift of the serum from Kenny to Levi - drawing on the ‘titan science’ element of the Ackerman heritage, perhaps?

Let me take a moment here, while we have these two visual representations of the Ackerman and Royal bloodlines side by side so perfectly, to point out that Isayama chose to answer a question in Bessatsu Shonen Magazine regarding the nature of a child born of both these bloodlines in 2018:

Q: If a child were to be born between two people from the royal family and the Ackerman family, which blood would take precedence?

A: I think that both [of their bloodlines] would be reflected.

4. Blood Lines, Identity and Destinies - the Acker/Royal connection

We are still missing some information about the Ackermans, and Mikasa’s own Ackerman powers and behaviours have been a focus in recent chapters, prompting more questions. This suggests that the role of the Ackermans will be important in the story’s finale. With that said, lets have a look at what information we have about them so far in relation to the Royal Family:

- They worked closely with the Royal Family at one time, even being described as their sword and shield until they fell out of favour.

- They cannot be controlled by the king’s vow or have their memories tampered with. For this reason, they became enemies of the crown and the two bloodlines became at odds with one another.

Do either of these scenarios sound familiar in a romantic setting? The knight and princess trope has been hugely popular in fiction for as long as stories have been told - Lancelot and Guinevere is a well known classic. And two feuding families finally brought back together through love by the younger generation? Romeo and Juliet, anyone?

Okay, so maybe I’m reaching here. But Isayama has opened the discourse around this connection between the two bloodlines without concluding it, so I am certain it will have a part to play in upcoming chapters. Why create two characters from said bloodlines with such satisfyingly parallel but awful childhoods, if not to use them in some way to conclude this part of the narrative in the future?

5. The Beast Titan.

Another common plot point that Levi and Historia have is Zeke. The Beast Titan is a defining element in both their arcs. Levi is driven forward by his vow to kill Zeke, and this is repeated to the point where we expect this to be realised, or at least to see some satisfying resolution between the two. Historia’s situation is defined by her vulnerability to being turned into a Titan in order to consume Zeke. This threat to Historia’s life as a normal girl is also repeated across the later story arcs, just as Levi’s vow and apparent destiny to face off again with the Beast Titan is. If we link back to the knight princess trope, we could suggest that Historia is the metaphorical princess, Levi is the metaphorical knight, and The Beast Titan is the metaphorical dragon. The dragon must be slain in order to protect the princess, and the one to do this is always the gallant knight, or the hero. We know that Levi has been labelled Humanity’s Strongest, and even a hero, before.

It has been Levi’s destiny from the start. What's more, what is the crux of Zeke’s plan for Eldians?

Euthanasia by preventing reproduction. Zeke’s ideology basically directly opposes the values of Levi and Historia - who wish to save as many children as possible.

6. The Smile

If there is one scene Levi fans lost their heads over, it’s this one. The Smile. Who was responsible for getting the sullen Captain to smile? None other than Queen Historia. The one time we get to see a genuine smile from him, in all 131 chapters of SNK, is when Historia playfully punches his arm. I think by this point, it is absolutely fair to say that Levi has a soft spot for her, although I’m not suggesting this is anything romantic at this stage due to her still being a child. What else is interesting about this scene? Let’s look at it from Historia’s point of view. She’s still a 15 year old girl. I’m hardly suggesting she’s got deep, meaningful feelings for a Captain so many years her senior. What I am suggesting, is that clearly there is the beginnings of her seeing him in a different light, and feeling some sort of fondness towards him too. This is also the stereotype of innocent, youthful infatuation - how many times have we seen teenagers play-fighting or bantering with the object of their affections? Something might just be stirring in Historia towards the Captain as she begins her transition into adulthood.

7. THAT (deleted) Scene

Okay, so we can’t very well talk about the smile in the context of this topic without addressing this scene:

There were a few scenes cut to make the uprising arc in the anime more streamlined. This is one of them, and again, has been one of the most talked about. People either love or hate this scene. In the manga, it absolutely sets up some major character growth for Historia, when she goes from being scared and allowing Levi to threaten her into taking an action, to standing up to him atop the wall at Orvud district, throwing his own words back at him. In contrast to Historia’s willingness, Levi becomes more receptive to her perspective and backs down, which also shows his growth. (More on that shortly!)

So, if it adds to the narrative around Levi and Historia, and is a key part of their development as characters, why did Isayama let the studio remove it? It must be because their influence on one another’s growth is no longer important to the story, correct?

If you ask me, that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Isayama has stated there were some elements of Uprising that he was unhappy with. Just, for a moment, think how this scene would fit into the bigger picture of a relationship (whether that be deeply platonic or even romantic) between Historia and Levi. Could people get behind that knowing that once, he handled her so roughly? Does keeping this scene as canon for the anime open a can of worms in terms of what is and isn’t acceptable (even more so than the age gap already does) when it comes to a relationship? Could Isayama be seen as glorifying abuse and suggesting that female characters are likely to develop feelings for men who have treated them so poorly in the past? I completely understand Levi’s reasoning for acting this way in this scene, and I loved the set up and pay off later in the arc. However, I do believe that animating this, and then having them become much closer later in the story, could make a backlash likely.

My conclusion to this particular section is - if their influence on one another as characters was unimportant, and the payoff of them reaching a stage where they bring out the best in one another wasn’t relevant to the rest of the story, then The Smile shouldn’t have made it in, right? So much of the set up was removed that it would have been far easier to scrap the scene than to try and figure out another reason for Historia to punch Levi, and make him smile.

That punch was important. It remains for a reason.

8. Levi’s Echo

So, since we discussed the impact of Levi’s words on Historia in the previous point, and how Isayama uses them to illustrate her character growth, let’s jump ahead all the way to chapter 130. We’re now post time skip, where Historia is nineteen. She’s matured now into a young woman - a woman old enough to acceptably conceive a child. This is the chapter which caught everyone’s attention due to Historia’s words to Eren regarding the idea of said child. But first of all, I want to focus on a scene which appears a couple of panels before her question:

‘It’s not as if I’ve just been tending to cattle all this time.’

What does this line mean? The only thing we know in terms of what Historia has been doing in the time skip is that she set up an Orphanage that Levi was also very much invested in and supported her with. So she’s not only been tending to cattle, but ... tending to orphans? With the Captain’s help?

Remember how we said that Isayama doesn’t include subtle details unless there’s a reason. Having Levi support her with the orphanage as a way to show how much he cares about the poorer children wasn’t needed - we already know from several instances discussed earlier that he cares about that topic deeply. So surely this must have been a small detail to set up for a later reveal?

This line alone is interesting, but not necessarily enough to suggest a big influence from Levi. But it’s the next line that grabs attention:

‘There’s no need to fight or run.’

What does this echo?

In my mind, the reason served by this dialogue in 130 is twofold. It works with both the literal events of the deleted scene, and also with the reader’s knowledge that the scene was disregarded later:

1. There is no reason to run or to fight, because Levi is on her side now. When he originally spoke those words to her - run from me or fight me - they were used in reference to what he and the corps were going to make her do - ie, become Queen. Now, they are not forcing her to do anything - they aren’t making her comply with the 50 year plan of producing as many royal children as possible and turning herself into a titan. Instead, she’s empowered by them, and very importantly, him, to make her own decisions while they try to figure out an alternative. (Why do I say him? I’ll cover this in the next point). And yet ... she still chooses to bear a child. A child born of love, not necessity. This is the difference between the birth of her child, and her own birth. And funnily enough, Levi’s birth, too.

The cycle of history is being broken.

2. Her words serve as a reminder that in the revised version of events, Levi never even forced that choice upon her in the first place. He’s always been her ally and treated her with care and respect. Even more reason for her to value and care for him in return. There really is no need to run or fight - from the military police, because she will bear a child, stopping them from turning her - or from Levi, either.

9. The Hooded Figure

As promised, let me explain why I say that Levi empowers Historia (yet again) to make her own decisions. My good friend Key made a wonderful discovery regarding the hooded figure panel, and honestly, based on the evidence I’ve seen, I’d be prepared to bet a whole lot on this next claim:

Levi is the hooded figure who warned Historia of the plan to turn her.

I’ve shared Key’s original post previously, but here’s the gist, with some added observations.

Levi from the hallway; Levi from that iconic scene, fits the dimensions of the hooded figure perfectly, without having to adjust the panel sizes.

The jacket worn is lighter in colour than Eren’s standard black one, but is reminiscent of the jackets worn by the Levi Squad in the uprising arc. The only other clue we’re given to work from is that the figure has their hands in their pockets.

Hmm ... you know who else has a habit of stuffing his hands in his pockets?

So if Levi is the one who warned Historia, is that why she subtly uses his words when talking to Eren?

Let me return to chapter 130 once more, and just invite you to read the following panels from a different angle.

10. Mikasa-Eren/Levi-Historia Parallels

Alright, so this is a bit of a head-mash, but just consider what I’m about to say. In our panels with the Historia-Eren-Zeke conversation, Mikasa is never mentioned by name once. Zeke mentions ‘this Ackerman girl,’ however there is no confirmation that Eren was in fact talking about Mikasa when he asked Zeke about the Ackerman traits ...

Isayama only shows us the conversation with Zeke after Eren has just spoken to Historia about her fate and what the Paradis government want her to do in terms of bearing children. If these are just all memory fragments of Eren’s, why would discussing this with Historia suddenly make Eren think of a conversation about Ackerman traits with Zeke?

In this conversation, Zeke puts two and two together and gathers that Eren is asking these questions because of Mikasa. He then tells him how much Mikasa obviously cares about Eren, regardless of any ‘ingrained behaviour.’ What does Eren then link this with?

The conversation where Historia asks him what he’d think if she was to bear a child. What does ingrained Ackerman behaviour and Mikasa’s true feelings have to do with Historia’s child?

I want to suggest this possibility: this conversation has nothing to do with Mikasa’s feelings for Eren, and everything to do with Levi’s feelings for Historia.

Eren even confirms that Zeke has the wrong end of the stick with asking him how he will respond to Mikasa’s feelings.

What are you even talking about?

Here, he is not considering how he will respond to Mikasa, because he can’t even contemplate that with what he is about to do, and how long he has left to live (although this may have then prompted his later conversation with Mikasa after the market - where he sees Levi save the boy that he will later kill - do you see how this is all linking together?)

Here he means the lives of Historia, her child, and potentially even Levi, as well of course as Armin, Mikasa and the rest of his friends. Want to know why I think that? Isayama hinted it. Again.

We have the image of Historia, suggesting the idea of bearing a child, followed by the image of the child Levi saved, followed by the image of Levi himself.

Isayama draws every detail in every panel for a reason. If part of his conclusion to this manga involves Levi and Historia intertwined and the birth of an Ackerman-Royal child, it won’t be a massively random idea.

It will contribute to an ending where the clues were there all along, but we never really considered them.

(There’s more, so much more, but I have to stop somewhere or I won’t leave my computer. If anyone wants a part two because you’re thirsty for more of this crap, drop me a comment!)

#Shingeki no kyojin theory #attack on titan theory #snk manga spoilers #historia reiss #Levi ackerman #Historia dad theory #Historia pregnancy #royal Ackerman connection #snk chapter 130 #snk theory #aot theory

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razorblade180 · 4 years ago

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Overall thoughts on V8? Assuming you didn't answer this already.

I meant to do a volume wrap up review but I got incredibly busy and it fell to the waste side. The thing about me judging RWBY I have to come at it from two angles or I won’t feel like I judged it appropriately. There’s the casual, first time seeing the episodes and seeing this through the lens as a casual watcher who probably only sees the episodes once or twice. But then there’s the other side to that coin. I review these episodes, write aus, theorize, check extended lore, listen to the music, etc; that means I have to go back and watch episodes several times for any given reason and that’s when you start noticing the holes or picking up on things you didn’t before.

As a casual watcher, I’d give this an 8/10. There’s plenty of moments where characters do things that got me excited and plot points I wanted explored. This volume actually gave a decent amount of things I wanted for quite some time and some things I didn’t know I needed. Certainly there are things I don’t like in this but I’m open and curious to see where RT takes their storie because it’s their story.

Okay, now as a someone who’s had to deep dive and take a step back multiple times for a variety of reasons. 6.5/10 maybe a 7/10 if I’m being generous. A lot of my problems with this volume are problems that aren’t new to RWBY and that’s just how surface layer portions of arcs are and how a variety of choices/bonds don’t exactly make sense with what we were previously shown, or they only make sense because the writers don’t want introduce other complexities even though they should be there realistically. I’ll give a couple examples of these and yes, I’m aware what I say doesn’t bother everyone but it bothers me.

Qrow was never angry at or brought up Robyn being the reason their airship crashed in the first place because she started the fight; which aids in Clover dying.

Emerald follows Cinder, not Salem. Even if Cinder is working under Salem, why would Emerald be so willingly to complete shift to the side that actively goes against Cinder? There’s been no grand revelation to make Emerald believe Cinder doesn’t give a damn about her. Leaving made sense because she was about to get tortured. Going full turncoat right now doesn’t. No change happened. Emerald always hated being near Salem but adored Cinder no matter the crimes and the show hasn’t done anything to switch that view point.

I’m happy Whitley and Weiss had a touching sibling moment that implies they’re okay and making/made up, but there was never a conversation about the actual problem and thoughts that had them at odds in the first place. Weiss saving his and Willow’s life shouldn’t be the thing that smooths things over. It would’ve been terrible if Weiss do something to save their life. Whitley helping Penny is okay I guess because he really had no reason to contribute but did anyways. Even so, a person doing a morally correct thing doesn’t automatically warrant the conflict between him and Weiss’s resolved.

We got Cinder’s backstory; it didn’t tell us anything about how she eventually came into contact with Salem. Honestly her back story felt more in line of her main goal through the series was an absolute freedom by the means of breaking down the systems that trapped and didn’t give a damn, rather than her quest for power. Yes you can argue gaining power means it’s easier to maintain her freedom to do whatever she wants but I personally think that’s a little off the mark when you gave her a story that involves her trapped by rules and time rather than being too physically weak to gain freedom.

This show has built up that the Schnee family has suffered various types of abuse because of Jacques and uses Weiss as a medium to build towards breaking free from that. Not just overcoming but confronting the abuse by cementing it’s place below you. We don’t really get that. There will never be a moment where the siblings and mother truly get to break out of Jacques grasps emotionally and then put him in his place because he’s dead! Yeah they never have to worry about him again but even last volume they showed Winter still having turmoil and being able to get strung along by him. We don’t even really know how Whitley perceived his father. It feels so lackluster. Then they care to mention how it’s Weiss’s idea to save him like it’s an empowering moment when in actuality, it would be against her character, values of a huntress, and morality to let a person die in cell when you’re the reason they’re in a cell! Letting him die in there would just terrible. I don’t even know why he wasn’t let out in that scene! He’s a coward! He’d follow their orders to save his skin. All he has to do is shut up and walk through a portal.

Ironwood and Oscar both knew they could remove that staff to use it and Atlas wouldn’t drop immediately. Why did nobody have any kind of compromise with one another since there’s nothing stopping them from using the staff for something and then putting it back? They had this morally gray thing going on which I liked but then they decided to make Ironwood go full evil. I’ve never had to say this before but the song he got in V7 and the character they made him be in V8 just don’t connect. I got upset listening to that song recently because I liked that Ironwood.

Clover’s importance. RT tried making a character who had no more than 9 minutes in the series and one meaningful line of dialogue into the cornerstone of a side plot. Clover is such a nothing character. Vine did more than Clover. They try to make him have such a profound impact to the people around him but we never see him bond with his team; Harriet specifically. We get one scene of Clover telling Qrow the kids are fortunate to have Qrow even if he doesn’t think so. First, I doubt Clover knows Qrow decided to get drunk in a ghost town and the kids nearly died and cellar while he did it so that compliment doesn’t hold much weight for me. Second, We see nothing meaningful between the two. V7 has a time skip and just expects viewers to be on board with Clover being this influential change on Qrow without showing anything outside of a witty remark and Clover flexing his semblance. I would’ve bought it more of Qrow almost relapsed and Clover stopped him then had a real meaningful conversation.

Ruby goes against Ironwood only to then want to do a plan that’s aligned to longer term thinking than even his, talks about how everyone should be working together, but then adds a part in her video to actively antagonize and vilify Ironwood. Afterwards, she wonders where everything went wrong and doesn’t think of a plan or do anything to immediately help either kingdom until the final hour between the ultimatum being made, to everything getting destroyed. The inciting incident was disagreeing Mantle should be left in favor of Atlas but the main character didn’t do anything to help Mantle 90% of the season and hindered Atlas’s safety up until the final plan.

Yang is used to be the devil’s advocate in a bunch of situations, but she’s wrong most of the time or her lines just don’t make any sense. They weren’t doing just fine before Atlas. They almost died every step of the way. The team didn’t beat a Leviathan; silver eyes and a robot take credit for that. Why would Blake think less of Yang for wanting to go save people immediately? Blake was never mad at anyone to begin with. Yang consistently calls out people for following orders as if it’s objectively wrong, but is never called out on the fact she hasn’t followed anybody’s orders but her own and added discourse to every situation. I get RT is making her ask questions because that’s what Raven told her to do, but all she’s really doing is picking fights and disobeying every order. Yang states to Ruby they accomplished more than they expected. That’s false, getting Oscar back is correcting a mistake caused by her own plan that she didn’t even complete.

It took 6 volumes before Yang had anything to do with the Summer Rose subplot again and 7 volumes before her and Ruby had a sister to sister conversations; 5 if you wanna count Yang telling Ruby to leave at the end of volume three. The reason I bring this up is because in V8 , they treat their argument as if it’s a big deal but then have every character say it wasn’t that big a deal; but then have two circle back to that conversation later after having neither character discuss to anybody that the argument actually did weigh on them. Yang doesn’t think about Ruby until she sees her again and the closest we get with Ruby is Blake reassuring her that people need her and how Blake admires her. I like that scene but it’s not the same as Ruby actually airing out the specific point that Yang said something that Ruby found hurtful. Vol8 in general people trying to comfort others but nobody ever actually addresses what made them uncomfortable to start with. Except Ren.

This one is a nitpicking but I’ll say it anyways. Penny getting hacked only served as a purpose to go to the vault, a thing Ironwood already wanted them to do. Nobody got her because she was hacked. You can’t even say her getting hacked is the leading factor to her actually dying because Penny became a vulnerable human afterwards that can’t be rebuilt. Pietro was gone, and already stated last volume he doesn’t have the aura to build Penny again. If she died as a robot then it’s still permanent death. No core, no Pietro, and no aura; hacking her was just to create a Hound reveal situation and make them go to the vault on a different set of terms. I’m not exactly upset with this, but I don’t understand why the extra steps. The Hound was hunting her anyways. I would’ve brought some kind of value if she hurt a friend and it caused them to potentially hinder the plan later on or remove them entirely. Penny could’ve rekt Yang and it only adds value to Yang getting one shot later. I don’t know. I’m rambling.

I think I’ve wasted enough people’s time. Honestly, I do like this volume. I’ve enjoyed a bunch of it. But there’s things that legitimately make me think it’s not as good others and makes V7 even worse.

#rwby #rwby volume 8 #ask me stuff

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kickingstonesandbones · 4 years ago

Text

What I’ve gathered from the 3 Episodes bc some of y’all seem confused or asked

Disclaimer: For the past 10+ years, I've made it a hobby of mine to thoroughly analyze fictional characters and plots, so I feel pretty confident in predicting characters. There rarely are plot twists that can surprise me. BUT that is obviously no guarantee that I am absolutely perfect at it and never wrong! Nor do I believe that I am always correct, just quite confident in reading between the lines with characters.

There are some theories and posts I've seen (on different platforms) that, I think, are doing a good job of getting the general gist of stuff, but nonetheless, they all seem to be overlooking minor details that can turn around meanings (like the way Hoshino acts). Also, many of you seem to either be ignoring or unaware of the mindset of older JAPANESE generations (of Insanely Rich Families™).

So yeah, I am just going to put statements/theories I’ve seen and go through them one by one. They’ll be obviously marked, so just read the ones you’re interested in? (Also, I absolutely love a good discourse, so if you have something that would challenge my own theories, or would like to discuss something that I haven’t touched up on in this OR want me to elaborate on something, feel free to comment, reblog, or dm me with your opinion or question! Whatever you’re more comfortable with 😊)

#1 Haru killed the woman. (I see this as a kind of side-comment a lot?)

#2 Hoshino feels 'torn' about Haru. // He has turned cold/harsh towards Haru. // He dislikes Haru now. (Why it’s more complicated than that and also different than you think – explained more lengthily than I intended to, but still shorter than I could’ve lol)

#3 Why that entire first scene in Episode 3 exists.

#4 Because of that scene, WHAT really is Suzue to Daisuke now? (Just brain farts, pls kinda ignore this one haha I just wanted that one theory written down to get back to it)

#5 Older Japanese Generations In General... (aka Daisuke’s behavior in Ep 3 explained)

#6 Daisuke and Haru are NOT as close as some of you might want to believe right now.... Yet, at least. Yet.

Extra: I've seen a post where someone wondered whether Daisuke's and Haru's pasts are somehow connected. (I haven’t seen a single post about the 1998 Files and the Parents in this context, for some reason, and was wondering.)

I’ll put a Read More here because this is going to be long, very long.

#1 Haru killed the woman.

Absolutely not true. (I do see people mention that like “he killed her in self-defense” in case you're thinking "well duh, Sherlock.") Choice of words is ALWAYS important.

In Episode 2 when Haru and Daisuke talk on the stairs, Daisuke relays information about Haru. He says, "you misfired and seriously injured the target" when talking about the reason why Haru is not in First Division anymore.

Now, Daisuke does not seem the type to sugarcoat facts, which means he would not leave out "which resulted in their death" at the end, or just straight up say "you misfired and killed the target." Now, 'seriously injured' means that the woman's life WAS in grave danger and she was close to dying, but she DID NOT DIE in the end. She survived. Being shot in the chest does not mean inevitable death. In fact, you can survive injury to any organ (even the brain) EXCEPT for the stomach (bc inner walls are covered in a protein that protects the stomach from digesting itself -> injury that would let the acid leak from it -> acid will burn away other organs -> you die of multiple organ failure bc you cannot stitch up a stomach)

It hits her in the right side of her chest, maybe even right below the shoulder. It’s hard for me to tell the exact position from the frames. But anyway, it most likely pierced through her right lung, which in itself is already deadly enough. But yeah, she did not die. No one in the anime ever even alludes to it.

I think some people believe he actually accidentally killed the woman because Haru was so devastated by it IMMEDIATELY. No, it wasn’t because of that per se. He was absolutely devastated because he. LOVES. PEOPLE. (As shown by his entire conversation with the boy on the train before he gets off and his faith in the good in people in Ep 3.) And it just left him so shaken that he (seriously) injured an innocent person. (In his eyes innocent because someone who is about to shoot you out of anger/other strong emotions is not necessarily innocent to me but that is an entirely different discussion.) Anyway, I think he was most shocked about the fact that he had pulled the trigger on her out of reflex (because he instinctively knew she WAS going to shoot him DEAD in that moment and his body reacted before he could think about it – as his immediate reaction to shooting her shows).

See the absolute shock in his eyes? Like he only realized what he did right after shooting her. Reflex.

#2 Hoshino feels 'torn' about Haru. // He has turned cold/harsh towards Haru. // He dislikes Haru now.

Yes, but no. I don't quite agree - and I don't agree mostly with the explanations given why (but also parts of the statements). And the reason for that is simply Hoshino's different facial expressions and exact choice of words in the interactions between them. To me, he seems like the type who would have an indifferent kind of face most of the time since I literally screenshotted every single scene with him (solely for this analysis lol), and he does have variation in expression, but only a little bit most of the time. His feelings are kinda subtle.

But before I explicitly explain what I mean, let me define something. 'Being torn' about something in general means that one cannot decide between two things, mostly two opposite (or at least quite different) things. And since some say Hoshino 'feels torn,' it would mean he would have two opposing feelings towards Haru, which I honestly don't think is true. It is just one very complex feeling that manifested over time.

Let me start by how Hoshino views Haru.

Haru is Hoshino's senior (senpai). Hoshino is Haru's junior (kohai). As we can see in the flashback in Ep 3 on the rooftop, Hoshino admires Haru. Like, this baby has complete and utter admiration in his eyes.

(He likely also thinks in that moment that Haru is insane, but that is besides the point right now.) He admires Haru for being able to do things fearlessly that he hesitates about. He looks like he’d like to be just like Haru as well. He looks up to him.

Then, the incident of Haru shooting the woman happens. Haru leaves the First Division and 'gets demoted' to the MCPTF. The two of them only speak to each other with higher level (distant relationship) honorifics. (I have a point about Hoshino calling Haru senpai in the first episode, but I will get to that.) Why they fell back into stranger honorifics will get more obvious in my second main point.

In the flashback we get in the third episode,

we get a Hoshino who stays on the side, also looking kind of dejected. I do not think that he is disappointed or angry at that moment. He just stares at his senpai in silence. Since he admires Haru so much, I guess he always wanted to be a cop JUST LIKE Haru, so he is... grieving? with Haru. I don't really know how to put it into words, but you could say he is HURTING by seeing his amicable, precious senpai BEATEN. Do not forget that Takei (Haru’s former superior) also puts a reassuring hand on Haru's shoulder. This interaction shows that they DO NOT blame him. (I am saying this bc I've seen people angry about what Hoshino says to Haru in Ep 3, saying "why would he hate him so much now and be so mean" - he doesn't. He absolutely. Does. Not. Hate. Him. He is frustrated and disappointed, but not hateful towards Haru.)

Having explained that, let me get to my first main point here:

I don't think I need to lay out Haru's work ethics for you guys because they're so clearly shown in the anime. So considering those work ethics of his, I truly believe that Haru ASKED to be removed from the First Division (which is why I put gets demoted in ' ' earlier) and be switched to one where he does not need a gun. Hence, he's now in the MCPTF. We do not SEE him getting demoted after that incident, which is why I firmly believe that that was Haru's decision and that he was persistent about it. When he packs up and leaves

he does not seem sour to HAVE to leave the division, but rather that he still seems to dwell over the reason WHY he's packing his stuff up. (You can see turmoil in his eyes. And that he’s lost in thoughts. He seems regretful, but also kind of set on something.) I mean the train scene really shows just HOW MUCH it still affects him

so I am pretty certain that he's thinking about exactly that and that he does not deserve to be a cop because of what he has done in that exact moment, and so on.

My second main point:

My first main point is exactly the reason why I think Hoshino acts the way he does towards Haru. It explains his expression that we see as Haru packs up his stuff.

He does not look angry.

He is hurt. And disappointed.

He feels let down.

In a sense, also betrayed. Like this isn’t reality.

The oh-so-great senpai, whom he has always looked up to all this time, who seemed so amazing, is pulling in his tail between his legs. Giving up. And running away. Just like that. Just because of ONE mistake. One mistake ALL of them probably would've made in that situation if they had been in his shoes. It made him realize that the senpai he had idolized all this time might not be as invincible as he had thought.

And. It. Hurts. Hoshino. To. No. End. (I mean, just zoom in on the pic and look at those eyes.)

I don't think he has ever let Haru know just how hurt he was just watching him leave and accepting the work he'd do in MCPTF (which is literally just desk work and filling in missing men force, as far as we’ve seen), which probably would mean that he let the hurt foster and foster inside of him until it slowly started to turn into coldness/curtness towards Haru. (Also could be that they fought before Haru left, which would also explain some remarks Hoshino makes.) He was hurt, and he somehow needed to show it.

Hoshino looked up to Haru, and was left feeling let down by his former partner. That stings. Deeply.

(I mean you can literally see the small changes in his eyes. His expressions slightly soften and harden. But the words tend to be more direct and harsh. And honestly, that is the result of disappointment and hurt speaking. But nevertheless, he still lets Haru and Kamei listen in (bottom right corner) even though he does look slightly annoyed; probably because he knows that he won’t be able to get rid of them, especially Haru. So the admiration is still there – probably had never left – which can give him moments where he “gives in”. Also, look at the bottom left corner.)

I mean Hoshino probably used to ALWAYS call Haru senpai for a longer period of time because he NEVER ever calls Haru senpai in the anime except for that one time when Haru startled him in the first episode. People in general react out of reflex and instinct whenever they're startled because reflexes and instincts are not a thing your brain CONSCIOUSLY processes. Those are subconscious responses.

If you don’t believe me, here is the other times Hoshino has called Haru – and when he did, it was literally only “Kato-san” (there aren’t a lot of other examples bc he literally only says Haru’s name like four times so far, but when he is NOT surprised, he addresses Haru like this):

(Completely taken aback by Haru just stealing the ear-piece, surprised face, afterwards not even aware that he did call Haru senpai, which he never does again (so far))

Which means Hoshino did not (more like COULD NOT) think about the way he'd call Haru, so that "senpai" slipped past his lips out of pure old habit. (Which goes to show that they used to be really close.) I'm not crying, you are.

I also have to bring up that first conversation on the train in Ep 3.

Kato: “That was rather fast.”

Hoshino: “Why are you here?” (he says Kato-san in Japanese, not “you”)

K: “I happened to be on the train. The perp is male. He said he failed the college entrance exam, so his age is somewhere around 19 or 20. I’m guessing he’s from somewhere around Hyogo.”

H: “How do you know-”

K: “I was sitting next to him, until moments ago.”

H: “Any other information?”

K: “No. I only started talking to him when I was close to getting off.”

H: “Understood. We at First Division will be handling this case. Kato-san, please take your leave.”

K: “It’s alright. I’m not a stranger in his light. Let me do it.”

H: “Do you have any authority to be on this crime scene?”

K: “What do you mean?”

H: “Why don’t you ask yourself that question?”

Look exactly at the changes in their eyes in each single picture here. Notice how Hoshino goes from surprised to somewhat indifferent to challenging? Someone might even argue that he looks angry, hostile, or that it’s resentment in his eyes, but considering that he is asking “Why don’t you ask yourself that question?” it is neither of those, because he is challenging Haru to defend himself. But Haru doesn’t answer, and they just stare each other down for a few seconds.

Just by the way Hoshino says it, and the way Haru reacts and how it immediately triggers the flashback/memory afterwards, I think this might actually be something Haru has said TO Hoshino (about himself) back then when Hoshino might've tried to change Haru's mind on leaving the First Division (that he does not deserve to be a cop, investigate crime scenes like that, etc). At least that interaction and just how Haru reacts to it seems to be implying that to me.

I refuse to believe Hoshino did not try at all to persuade and hold back Haru back then (I mean just that pic of Hoshino staring at Haru when he was packing his stuff and leaving the division literally SCREAMS INTO YOUR FACE), so I believe Haru told him at least SOMEWHAT how he feels about the whole thing, and I think Haru probably definitely said something along those lines. Like, he “did not deserve to investigate crime scenes LIKE THAT” (I mean the trauma and the train scene are literally the same hostage scenario with the culprit having a firearm (even if the kid's was a model gun and not real)) nor that he “deserved to be a cop any longer (because cops wouldn’t hurt the innocent).” He might’ve said something like that to Hoshino, which only frustrates and disappoints the latter further.

So in this complicated mess, what is it that Hoshino is actually feeling? That mixture of hurt, disappointment, betrayal and being let down has manifested itself into frustration. Hoshino is frustrated with Haru.

He’ll probably explode (in Haru’s face) at some point in the anime, too.

(I think Hoshino is an interesting character.)

#3 Why that entire first scene in Episode 3 exists

I was so confused about that scene in the beginning and had to check whether I WAS actually watching the third episode lol

The main thing I get from it is that it's entirely about INFORMATION. That is probably entirely because the Hong Kong episode got deleted and instead we'll get that in a drama CD? In Hong Kong, Haru probably would've learned that HEUSC is an AI butler, not a real one, and how to use him. (Among other things.) I mean, he somehow needs to first get to learn about HEUSC before he can use him for the whole train scenario later in the episode? And that hadn't been done yet, and probably would've happened in Hong Kong, but we aren't getting that in the anime so that information needed to be given another way. Which is probably why that first scene even exists. If anyone knows well about script writing for that and how that in general works, and knows more about this, please let me know, I am interested in learning lmao

#4 Because of that scene, WHAT really is Suzue to Daisuke now?

I do not want anyone to comment that it was confirmed that they are siblings or some shit. NOTHING has been confirmed. She still could be his wife. She also just could be his sister. Or a cousin. We will get to know eventually, but as of right now, NOTHING AT ALL HAS BEEN CONFIRMED. REMEMBER THAT, NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU HATE IT.

I, in general, do not really care for ships. So idgaf if she is his sister or wife, but I DO have a theory of my own. And it is all because of how Daisuke's grandmother introduced herself.

DAISUKE'S grandmother. Not THEIRS. Not Daisuke's AND Suzue's grandmother. ONLY Daisuke's.

So this either means a harsh canon awakening for shippers, or it MIGHT mean something entirely else. (And I have 3 points to make here.)

(1) That she does not accept Suzue as a grandchild. Now, she did not look like she harbors resentment towards Suzue and wished she wasn't present at all or didn't exist. Buuuuut.... Suzue might be an illegitimate grandchild? Like, I know that sounds wild, but hear me out.

Children sometimes look more like one parent rather than the other (or a parent’s side). Sometimes, not always, but often enough. Animes in general do not make love interests or parents look almost identical. (But then again, you could never know with the devs of this one lmao) Soooo... It could be that they either look like their father, or their mother. And the respective parent had an affair, resulting in Suzue. And why I believe it would be Suzue, if one of them actually would be the illegitimate child? Because she is younger than Daisuke, and the way the grandmother treats HIM. (Honestly, if Daisuke would be the illegitimate child, 1. Grandma wouldn't claim him 2. Why would the other parent stick around for two more years to have another child with a cheater?) Which could be why - considering the mindset of older Japanese generations - why she only introduced herself as Daisuke's grandmother. And also why she is so immensely strict with him. In her eyes, he would be the only heir to the family. So she has to raise him to be a responsible man whom she can hand over the company to with peace of mind.

(2) Daisuke and Suzue are actually married. So get over it in this case. (And don't you DARE hate on a great character (again) because of that, otherwise I'll only refer to ya'll as salty hoes from them on.)

(3) We all (read: I) might be interpreting too much into it and it literally means nothing at all, and she just introduced herself that way because they were going to talk about Daisuke because of his new work place and since Daisuke and Haru are partners. For this case, I already have my wig, red nose, and make up ready 🤡

If I am being honest, (1) does not seem too likely to me – just something I randomly thought of. I actually think it’s just simply (3). But I am presenting it for the VERY small chance that (1) could actually be true lmao I bet I will cringe hard at it later

Highly likely: Since Haru would be more involved with Daisuke than Suzue because of work, it could be that she just found it more logical to introduce herself as his grandma, rather than theirs, so yeah… like I’ve said, these are just brain farts and I just wanted to have them written down lol

EDIT: I’ve been made aware that there seems to be an error in the translation. Since it is too much of a pain to add even more pics on mobile, I will just relay the information of the tweet. You can find the link to the tweet in the comments though. My Japanese isn’t that great, so I am dependent on the translation, so errors can occur, which makes me happy when people point something like this out to me. Basically, what Kikuko is actually saying in Japanese is that she’s the grandma, but she leaves out the pronouns - therefore not really saying whose grandma she is - so it could refer to both of them. Like I said, (1) doesn’t seem likely to me anyway lol

#5 Older Japanese Generations In General...

Are strict. Are very conservative. Especially insanely rich families like the Kambe's. Kikuko is NOT strict with him because she has a bad personality or because she is inherently mean or something. (Though she does seem to consider him a bit irresponsible because she calls him selfish)

(Also notice how she asks “so hasn’t he” instead of “he hasn’t been, has he?” which means she always expects him to cause trouble for everyone. This goes to show that Daisuke can never do enough or do good enough for her, which also explains his character a bit since his grandma took care of him since his parents died, but my point here is not to analyze his entire behavior.)

The Japanese have a culture of respect. Respect your elders. Unconditionally. And grandparents of insanely rich families like Daisuke's also demand respect, which means not talking back, or DISOBEYING THEIR ORDERS. Which brings me to the next point (for which I have written this one because y’all might be misinterpreting Daisuke’s behavior, which is exactly what I meant in the beginning with “ignoring or being unaware of the mindset of older Japanese generations”)...

#6 Daisuke and Haru are NOT as close as some of you might want to believe right now.... Yet, at least. Yet.

Sorry to burst the bubbles.

I see everyone going on about them now being partners, and Daisuke trusting his life with Haru’s judgement.

The second part, yes… kinda at least.

The first? Not so much.

Let me talk about the first half of the sentence first. Like the point before this clarifies – unconditional, non-questioning respect, and no disobedience. Which means that Daisuke would NOT go against the orders of his grandmother. By helping Haru with that case and listening to him, being coached, is literally just him obeying Kikuko. (He might also think that it would be better to just follow before Haru rats him out to his grandma for a second time.)

(I do bet though that that will soon change and be genuine!)

Now, with the part about trusting his life to Haru’s judgement… I am not sure whether I can properly explain this the way I mean it, so I just hope it will make sense. I think Daisuke kind of trusted Haru’s judgement on the boy, but also trusted his own judgement just a little more than that. I think he just made logical deductions from what he witnessed inside (reported that a person was down and that they were probably killed by the boy, then it turns out he is doing all that for his sister’s surgery, then it turns out that gun is not real (after causing a distraction) and nobody is actually injured, but then he gets his hand on a real gun (Hoshino’s) and points it their direction in a panic, and Daisuke notices Haru cannot shoot the boy, so he deducts that if the boy knows that his sister will be safe, he will calm down and the situation will be completely de-escalated, so he steps forward and states he will pay for it (he does not really care about spending money as we all know lol) and stands with confidence because he knows flinching or getting nervous – or even blinking – would make it look like a lie and he would definitely NOT want that). Does this make sense? Like, Daisuke is such a calm and collected person, I doubt he would just absolutely BLINDLY jump into something because of someone else’s judgement BEFORE making sure that their judgement is correct by his own observation of the situation, which would be why he stayed behind Haru and just observed until a certain point where he was absolutely certain that it would be safe to do so.

Though what that DOES mean though would be that Daisuke would probably trust Haru’s judgement without being too skeptical about it soon. (I feel like this might’ve been that part in the Episode 3 Hong Kong PV 3 where a person (looks A LOT like Daisuke, so I’ll just assume it was him) was cuffed and Haru comes to the rescue. It might’ve been that Haru judged that person who ended up doing this to Daisuke to be shady, but Daisuke went ahead anyway and got himself in trouble, which was why he ended up cuffed to something, or something of that sort that would show Daisuke Haru’s judgement can be trusted.) [Edit: I used this simply as a theorizing example of how this could be done in another way with a scene that actually DOES exist (though we won’t be seeing that in the anime anymore it is still canon material) instead of having to make something up, and Hong Kong was just a good example to further show my point.]

Extra: I've seen a post where someone wondered whether Daisuke's and Haru's pasts are somehow connected.

In short: Yes, I think so.

In long: (This theory might be a far reach hahah)

The first time we see Haru enter the office of his division, he is carrying files.

'Unsolved Case Files 1998,' it specifically reads. We know Daisuke's parents have died and he says “it was in Japan” when that one day turned his life around (though we do not have any indication of year yet). I assume they were killed (and that it wasn’t an accident at all) and it is the true reason why he came back to Japan (even though yeeeaaars later bc he needed to be trained)

and why he specifically asked to be in the MCPTF BECAUSE Haru is in it (I’ll explain why soon), instead of the First or Second Division - as the superintendent general had suggested for him to be put into, which resulted in Daisuke declining the offer.

But we don't know much about Haru's family. Actually, NOTHING AT ALL. Now, I think that his parents are dead as well, and that their deaths are connected to Daisuke's parents' deaths. The fact that Haru looks through cold cases (or well, at least old cases), which is only briefly shown by showing the files he carried in the first episode, most likely is meant to be some "foreshadowing/hidden info given” kind of thing. Haru is possibly investigating his parents' (or at least a loved one's) death. His parents' death (if none of his parents were police officers themselves and therefore influenced him in that way) is possibly also the reason Haru became a police officer in the first place (even though he tells Daisuke that it is simply to "nab criminals," maybe specifically the criminals who have to do with that?).

Now, I said before that Daisuke asked to be in the same Division as Haru, not the MCPTF (though he names the division, not Haru’s name but you'll know why I'm saying that by the end of this. I don’t think he has immense interest in the division itself but WHO is IN IT). In the second episode, we get to know that Daisuke has a lot of information about Haru. During the case of Isezaki, we get to know during the interrogation that Daisuke obtains information about a person by having HEUSC scan a person's documentation item

or simply by asking HEUSC.

We never see him doing that with Haru though (I also seriously doubt Haru would hand him any kind of ID, especially in the beginning lol), which brings me to the point that Daisuke probably already had obtained all of Haru's information before he had arrived in Japan; or maybe at the latest after the Bridge incident though I am pretty certain it was BEFORE arriving in Japan, just that maybe he didn’t know the face? Or maybe he even knew the face but didn’t care. (He probably knew more than just about the trauma and why Haru left the First Division, but Haru did not let him speak any further in that scene. It is unclear though, whether Daisuke would've kept talking or that being all of the information he would have delivered in that moment.)

Because Daisuke might already know from the start that their pasts are connected, while Haru is oblivious to it.

So, Daisuke wants to solve the murder of his parents, and he might think that the key to solving it might be by being around someone/doing it with someone who is also connected to it.

(I have no clue whether I am still making sense bc I haven’t slept and worked on this all night, going through the episodes again and again and at this point I am just extremely tired lol)

Like, I know by the fact that we are only 3 Episodes in that this might sound like a far reach BUT I seriously would not be surprised by this. The thing about storytelling is that at one point you would need to introduce the Motive™ of the story. Since animes have very limited time to tell the story in only 20 minutes, at least ALMOST everything in an episode sooner or later needs to give us that information; and honestly? They could’ve started this anime in ANY other way, but they chose to start by Daisuke telling us about his parents. And I honestly just think that it would be odd if that is not of greater importance in the whole story, so I think that that might be the motive that should be revealed within the first half of the anime. The devs seem like the kind of people who would give small hints for something like this (Daisuke’s parents, the 1998 Files) throughout the entire show and then SLAP it into the face of the ones who are unsuspecting in the second half of the anime, ESPECIALLY since they are so secretive with everything lmao I love them.

I am going to bed now, I’m so fucking tired lol

August 3, 2020

#fkbu #fkbul #fugou keiji bul #fugou keiji haru #fugou keiji #fugou keiji daisuke #fugou keiji ryo #fugou keiji balance: unlimited #haru katō #haru kato #haru katou #fkbu daisuke #daisuke kambe #kambe daisuke #ryo hoshino #hoshino ryo #balance unlimited #the millionare detective balance: unlimited #the millionaire detective

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aiyexayen · 4 years ago

Note

10, 30, and/or 55

10. Favourite Fanfic Set-Up: I like exploring a continuous range of fanfic setups to poke at all kinds of new and interesting dynamics of the characters and plot. But I guess as a generic concept, my favourite thing is canon-divergence. Picking a point in the plot and saying “what if this one thing changed--how does that change everything?” And a close second is just post-canon. Everything post-canon. There are so many things that could happen post-canon and it’s fun to keep generating ideas about it.

30. A Ship You Like But People Have A Lot Of Opinions About: I’m not really up to date on shipping discourse, but I assume everyone has lots of opinions about most ships I like. Wangxian, Wangxianning, Wangxianxuan, Zhanchengxian, Chengxian, Chengning, Xisang, Xixian, the junior quartet as a semi-platonic polycule, queerplatonic Zhansang, Yanyao, Yanjueqing, Yanmian...

55. A Story-Arc That Haunts You: All of it? All of it. But probably, if I had to choose, the Dafan Wen. They were always living in the shadow of the Yin Iron shard, and then weren’t ever really able to live a free life once Wen Ruohan started going off, their branch of the sect/family suddenly being used essentially as hostages. Wen Qing grew up with her entire heritage, her people, and her little brother all used against her to turn her into a tool. She still found places to attempt to do good and keep her vows to herself of not doing harm. Wen Ning grew up as a permanent hostage, basically. Underestimated, ignored. And he did so many good things. The Dafan Wens still showed travellers and strangers kindness.

They all suffered through war and turmoil, struggle, imprisonment, torture, separation. They almost faced complete obliteration on a number of occasions and kept surviving, dwindling but surviving. Surviving despite all the odds. Never giving up. Fighting, and living, and living, and keeping alive kindness and family and togetherness.

And then. They just. Stopped. They just turned themselves in. They were building something like a life and a home, at the heart of hell, after going through hell, proving just how human humans can be even at the edge of everything.

But they examined the price of their relative freedom, the cost of their lives, and found it, collectively, not worth it. Even though they each loved the rest. They accepted total annihilation. As a group. At least partially in the hope that Wei Wuxian would be free to go back to his life, having given them an extension on theirs. Perhaps they hoped that he would take little A-Yuan and go live again. Perhaps they thought he and A-Yuan were worth it.

Perhaps they thought that this really would be the end of it. Perhaps they started to believe this was justice. Perhaps they considered their family cursed in connection to the Yin Iron, the resentful energy, the puppets, and believed that people would stop getting hurt if they just stopped trying to exist. Perhaps after they made it to the Burial Mounds they realised that none of them could handle another loss, and they would only stand together or fall together. Perhaps they didn’t think they would actually die. Perhaps they were just tired. I DON’T KNOW. But they just silently, collectively left. After everything. After the lives they’d already endured and everything they’d gone through. They just, as one unit, left together for their deaths. And it HAUNTS me.

That scene haunts me. Their decision haunts me. The outcome haunts me.

Not to mention, Wei Wuxian didn’t even survive! If that was their hope! He completely snapped at that point and ended up dead, himself, anyway. And the only reason A-Yuan survived was because Lan Wangji happened to go to check the Burial Mounds in time, and wasn’t even looking for him. I’m just. Beside myself.

#ask #fandom ask #the untamed

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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The Star Trek: The Original Series Episodes That Best Define the Franchise

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By the time my generation got to watch Star Trek: The Original Series, the episodes often were being presented in top-ten marathons. When I was ten-years-old, for the 25th Anniversary of Star Trek, I tape-recorded a marathon of ten episodes that had all been voted by fans as the best-ever installments of The Original Series. Later, I got lucky and found Trek stickers at the grocery store and was able to label my VHS tapes correctly. But do I think all the episodes that were in that marathon back in 1991 were really the best episodes of all of the classic Star Trek? The short answer: no. Although I love nearly every episode of the first 79 installments of Star Trek, I do think that certain lists have been created by what we think should be on the list rather than what episodes really best represent the classic show.

This is a long-winded way of saying, no, I didn’t include “Amok Time” or “The Menagerie” on this list because, as great as they are, I don’t think they really represent the greatest hits of the series. Also, if you’ve never watched TOS, I think those two episodes will throw you off cause you’ll assume Spock is always losing his mind or trying to steal the ship. If you’ve never watched TOS, or you feel like rewatching it with fresh eyes, I feel pretty strong that these 10 episodes are not only wonderful, but that they best represent what the entire series is really about. Given this metric, my choice for the best episode of TOS may surprise you…

10. “The Man Trap”

The first Star Trek ever episode aired should not be the first episode you watch. And yet, you should watch it at some point. The goofy premise concerns an alien with shaggy dog fur, suckers on its hand, and a face like a terrifying deep-sea fish. This alien is also a salt vampire that uses telepathy that effectively also makes it a shapeshifter. It’s all so specifically bonkers that trying to rip-off this trope would be nuts. Written by science fiction legend George Clayton Johnson (one half of Logan’s Run authorship) “The Man Trap” still slaps, and not because Spock (Leonard Nimoy) tries to slap the alien. Back in the early Season 1 episodes of Star Trek, the “supporting” players like Uhura and Sulu are actually doing stuff in the episode. We all talk about Kirk crying out in pain when the M-113 creature puts those suckers on his face, but the real scene to watch is when Uhura starts speaking Swahili. The casual way Uhura and Sulu are just their lovable selves in this episode is part of why we just can’t quit the classic Star Trek to this day. Plus, the fact that the story is technically centered on Bones gives the episode some gravitas and oomph. You will believe an old country doctor thinks that salt vampire is Nancy! (Spoiler alert: It’s not Nancy.)

9. “Let that Be Your Last Battlefield”

There are two episodes everyone always likes to bring up when discussing the ways in which Star Trek changed the game for the better in pop culture’s discourse on racism: “Plato’s Stepchildren” and this episode, “Let that Be Your Last Battlefield.” The former episode is famous because Kirk and Uhura kiss, which is sometimes considered the first interracial kiss on an American TV show. (British TV shows had a few of those before Star Trek, though.) But “Plato’s Stepchildren” is not a great episode, and Kirk and Uhura were also manipulated to kiss by telepaths. So, no, I’m not crazy about “Plato’s Stepchildren.” Uhura being forced to kiss a white dude isn’t great.

But “Let that Be Your Last Battlefield,” oddly holds up. Yep. This is the one about space racism where the Riddler from the ‘60s Batman (Frank Gorshin) looks like a black-and-white cookie. Is this episode cheesy? Is it hard to take most of it seriously? Is it weird that Bele (Frank Gorshin) didn’t have a spaceship because the budget was so low at that time? Yes. Is the entire episode dated, and sometimes borderline offensive even though its heart is in the right place? Yes. Does the ending of the episode still work? You bet it does. If you’re going to watch OG Star Trek and skip this episode, you’re kind of missing out on just how charmingly heavy-handed the series could get. “Let that Be Your Last Battlefield” is like a ‘60s after-school special about racism, but they were high while they were writing it.

8. “Arena”

You’re gonna try to list the best episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series and not list the episode where Kirk fights a lizard wearing gold dress-tunic? The most amazing thing about “Arena” is that it’s a Season 1 episode of The Original Series and somehow everyone involved in making TOS had enough restraint not to ever try to use this Gorn costume again. They didn’t throw it away either! This famous rubber lizard was built by Wah Chang and is currently owned by none other than Ben Stiller.

So, here’s the thing about “Arena” that makes it a great episode of Star Trek, or any TV series with a lizard person. Kirk refuses to kill the Gorn even though he could have, and Star Trek refused to put a lizard costume in a bunch of episodes later, even though they totally could have. Gold stars all around.

7. “Balance of Terror”

The fact that Star Trek managed to introduce a race of aliens that looked exactly like Spock, and not confuse its viewership is amazing. On top of that, the fact that this detail isn’t exactly the entire focus of the episode is equally impressive. The notion that the Romulans look like Vulcans is a great twist in The Original Series, and decades upon decades of seeing Romulans has probably dulled the novelty ever so slightly. But, the idea that there was a brutally cold and efficient version of the Vulcans flying around in invisible ships blowing shit up is not only cool, but smart.

“Balance of Terror” made the Romulans the best villains of Star Trek because their villainy felt personal. Most Romulan stories in TNG, DS9, and Picard are pretty damn good and they all start right here.

6. “Space Seed”

Khaaaan!!!! Although The Wrath of Khan is infinitely more famous than the episode from which it came, “Space Seed” is one of the best episodes of The Original Series even if it hadn’t been the progenitor of that famous film. In this episode, the worst human villain the Enterprise can encounter doesn’t come from the present, but instead, the past. Even though “Space Seed” isn’t considered a very thoughtful episode and Khan is a straight-up gaslighter, the larger point here is that Khan’s evilness is connected to the fact that he lived on a version of Earth closer to our own.

The episode’s coda is also amazing and speaks of just how interesting Captain Kirk really is. After Khan beat the shit out of him and tried to suffocate the entire Enterprise crew, Kirk’s like “Yeah, this guy just needs a long camping trip.”

5. “A Piece of the Action”

A few years back, Saturday Night Live did a Star Trek sketch in which it was revealed that Spock had a relative named “Spocko.” This sketch was tragically unfunny because TOS had already made the “Spocko” joke a million times better in “A Piece of the Action.” When you describe the premise of this episode to someone who has never seen it or even heard of it, it sounds like you’re making it up. Kirk, Spock, and Bones are tasked with cleaning-up a planet full of old-timey mobsters who use phrases like “put the bag on you.” Not only is the episode hilarious, but it also demonstrates the range of what Star Trek can do as an emerging type of pop-art. In “A Piece of the Action,” Star Trek begins asking questions about genres that nobody ever dreamed of before. Such as, “what if we did an old-timey gangster movie, but there’s a spaceship involved?”

4. “Devil in the Dark”

When I was a kid, my sister and I called this episode, “the one with giant pizza.” Today, it’s one of those episodes of Star Trek that people tell you defines the entire franchise. They’re not wrong, particularly because we’re just talking about The Original Series. The legacy of this episode is beyond brilliant and set-up a wonderful tradition within the rest of the franchise; a monster story is almost never a monster story

The ending of this episode is so good, and Leonard Nimoy and Shatner play the final scenes so well that I’m actually not sure it’s cool to reveal what the big twist is. If you somehow don’t know, I’ll just say this. You can’t imagine Chris Pratt’s friendly Velicrapotrs, or Ripper on Discovery without the Horta getting their first.

3. “The Corbomite Maneuver”

If there’s one episode on this list that truly represents what Star Trek is usually all about on a plot level, it’s this one. After the first two pilot episodes —“Where No Man Has Gone Before” and “The Cage”—this was the first regular episode filmed. It’s the first episode with Uhura and, in almost every single way, a great way to actually explain who all these characters are and what the hell they’re doing. The episode begins with Spock saying something is “fascinating” and then, after the opening credits, calling Kirk, who is down in sickbay with his shirt off. Bones gives Kirk shit about not having done his physical in a while, and Kirk wanders through the halls of the episode without his shirt, just kind of holding his boots.

That’s just the first like 5 minutes. It just gets better and better from there. Like a good bottle of tranya, this episode only improves with time. And if you think it’s cheesy and the big reveal bizarre, then I’m going to say, you’re not going to like the rest of Star Trek.

2. “The City on the Edge of Forever”

No more blah blah blah! Sorry, wrong episode. Still, you’ve heard about “The City on the Edge of Forever.” You’ve heard it’s a great time travel episode. You’ve heard Harlan Ellison was pissed about how the script turned out. You heard that Ron Moore really wanted to bring back Edith Keeler for Star Trek Generations. (Okay, maybe you haven’t heard that, but he did.)

Everything you’ve heard about this episode is correct. There’s some stuff that will make any sensible person roll their eyes today, but the overall feeling of this episode is unparalleled. Time travel stories are always popular, but Star Trek has never really done a time travel story this good ever again. The edge of forever will always be just out of reach.

1. “A Taste of Armageddon”

Plot twist! This excellent episode of TOS almost never makes it on top ten lists. Until now! If you blink, “A Taste of Armageddon” could resemble at least a dozen other episodes of TOS. Kirk and Spock are trapped without their communicators. The crew has to overpower some guards to get to some central computer hub and blow it up. Scotty is in command with Kirk on the surface and is just kind of scowling the whole time. Kirk is giving big speeches about how humanity is great because it’s so deeply flawed.

What makes this episode fantastic is that all of these elements come together thanks to a simplistic science fiction premise: What if a society eliminated violence but retained murder? What if hatred was still encouraged, but war was automated? Star Trek’s best moments were often direct allegories about things that were actually happening, but what makes “A Taste of Armageddon” so great is that this metaphor reached for something that could happen. Kirk’s solution to this problem is a non-solution, which makes the episode even better. At its best classic Star Trek wasn’t just presenting a social problem and then telling us how to fix it. Sometimes it was saying something more interesting — what if the problem gets even harder? What do we do then?

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The humor and bombast of “A Taste of Armageddon” is part of the answer to that unspoken question, but there’s also a clever lesson about making smaller philosophical decisions. In Star Wars, people are always trying to rid themselves of the dark side of the Force. In Star Trek, Kirk just teaches us to say, “Hey I won’t be a terrible person, today” and then just see how many days we can go in a row being like that.

What do you think are the most franchise-defining episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series? Let us know in the comments below.

The post The Star Trek: The Original Series Episodes That Best Define the Franchise appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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fightingbymoonlight · 4 years ago

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So I watched the old guard with my brother and aunt...

and, well,l I now know the answer to what happens when you watch a movie with two stoned (and later 3) people. Also between the 3 of us I was the only one who had seen the movie, and they both knew it

Guidelines for who’s who:

B= my brother, a college student and fellow queer disaster

A= my 70 year former hippie aunt (she’s the reason there was weed)

me=me

So we start the movie....

A: I have no idea what’s going on

me: That’s cause we’re only 5 seconds in.

*Booker rides to Andy on motercycle*

B: Shit, is that a bad guy?

me: 😬

B: so his name is Booker?

me: unfortunately, yes.

*they go to the hotel, Nicky hugs Andy*

A: Oh cute, they’re a couple.

me: Nope. (internally: Someone please give me a 5+ fic where everyone thinks the two of them are a couple for ridiculously hetronormative reasons.)

We reach the scene where they talk to Copley and both of them freaked out because they thought Nicky was gonna shoot him with his sniper gun.

A: Why are they considered the best?

Me: Well.... you’ll find out.

*1 fight scene later- the team dies*

B: Are- Are they dead??

Me: It’s a bold storytelling choice, I’ll admit.

*the team comes back to life*

*cue my family losing their shit*

later

A: Wait!? If they’re immortal why did Andy need for them to take a year off?

Me: Would you want to be shot at for enternity?

B: LET THEM REST!

cut to Afghanistan

B: Meanwhile in a military propaganda film...

Me: there’s going to be a new immortal

My brother immediately likes Nile, so naturally he thinks she’s too good for the military.

*Meanwhile back on the train- Joe and Nicky are cuddling*

B: (whispering)are they gay?

me: (whispering) yes.

B: nice.

*Andy jumps off the train to go find Nile*

A: the perks of immortality

*cut to Merrik giving a douche ted talk*

me: that’s our bad guy

B: I hate him already

*back on the base*

A: How the hell did she get on the base?

Me: movie logic

*the plane fight scene, beautiful, perfect, 10/10*

neither B nor A had any idea what was going on

*meet the family, Nile asks questions*

Me: there now you get exposition, so stop asking me things.

My family’s reaction to Quynh’s fate

They stayed like that for 5 minutes.

*church fight scene*

A: (literally the same time as Nile) What’s the signal

B: *laughs at the explosion*

me: ( same time as Booker) that’s the signal.

*the van scene Joe delivers the iconic speech, Joe and Nicky kiss*

A: Wait... are they a couple?

Me:

Me: if they weren’t before, they certainly are now.

*Nicky: there’s a tv Joe!

Joe: Champagne?*

B: I love them!

*Merikk stabs Joe*

B: Fuck you!

*Booker reveals his tragic backstory*

A :(has her hand over her heart) Poor Booker

Me: (flashes back to the discourse, starts hearing the jaws theme, grabs the blunt and inhales deeply)

It literally took ten more minutes for the two of them to realize that Andy’s mortal now. I almost slammed my head on the nonexistent coffee table.

*Back in the lab Joe and Nicky talk about “that time in Malta”*

B: please tell me that the cute gay couple doesn’t die.

Me: Um, technically speaking.....

B: Oh my god [name] really?!

Me: *laughs in a non maniacal way*

*Nile tells Andy she’s going back to her family*

A: No! They’re your family now!

Me: I know what you mean, but she needs time to adjust.

*Booker shoots Andy*

A: Booker!! NO!!

B: called it! (btw no he didn’t)

*Copley shows Nile his knowledge board, reveals his own tragic backstory*

B: So, he turned them over because his wife died and then became a conspiracy theorist.

Me: Yep, our villains include a conspiracy theorist, a homophobe [Keane], and Martin shkreli.

B: This is my kind of movie.

*Nile tells Copley to leave then enters the elevator*

A: Don’t go in alone, he can still help.

Me: He can die Aunt [name]

A: Oh, right, I forgot.

B: that’s a hell of a thing to forget.

*Joe briefly yells at Booker because he, you know, arranged for him and his husband to be kidnapped and tortured*

A: Oh, no, don’t be mean to him.

Me: (at this point I’m high, and have dealt with too much internet shit) Oh my God, he was kidnapped and tortured, give him 5 minutes!!!

A: fair enough....

*cue my brother’s favorite part of the movie*

Me: (whispering to B) me and those three men will keep you sake

B: (starts laughing)

*Later*

*Andy starts killing men with an axe*

A: Now we’re talking!!!

*The team decides to go for San Paulo ‘34*

B: What happened then?

*Joe: does *that**

B: I love him

*Nile tackles Meerik out of the building

Me and my brother: *clapping*

Booker: [Nile] you’re going to be great for the team

A: THey might need you too Booker!!

Me: KIDNAPPED AND TORTURED AUNT [NAME] KIDNAPPED AND TORTURED!

B: Yeah, that’s not something you get over in a day.

*Copley joins the team, movie sequel baits*

B: please tell me there’s a sequel

me: not yet

B: damn it

*Quynh shows up in Booker’s apartment*

My family: THANK GOD!

Bonus: After the movie ends

(my aunt has left the room to make her dinner, it’s 4:30 pm)

Me: My theory is she [our aunt] is only forgiving of Booker because she thinks he’s hot

B: Yeah, you’re probably right.

#the old guard #joe x nicky #no nicky is not straight I can't believe I had to explain that #joe is right #family schinanigans

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pseud0knots · 4 years ago

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Please tell me about shatterstar's Childhood

oh my god anon okay I’m assuming in context of what I’ve recently posted you want like... my version of events rather than what’s canon but just in case I hope you know that there’s basically zero canon material that actually describes his childhood/young adulthood beyond “I was a warrior born” or whatever the fuck. if you want to know about that idk go on the fucken... marvel wiki page or something

also--I hate that I have to put this out here and I doubt anyone would actually do this but just in case--I have spent like 1 million hours thinking about this because I have brain disorders and it is very close to my heart so please do not A) use this in fics, etc without letting me know/getting my permission in advance or B) reblog this post

anyways. this is a can of worms so I’m going to do a cheeky lil

first we have to get something out of the way: I hate the “shatterstar’s his own grandpa” paradox. I am sorry if this angers people but it makes me mad so I ignore it. the reason it bothers me is because it means alison blaire essentially married her grandson, which is A) weird and B) bad from a genetics perspective.

in my version of canon ‘star IS the biological child of longshot and dazzler but longshot wasn’t cloned using ‘star’s DNA because..... oh god... another whole separate post can be made about this but... in my head, on mojoworld the way genetic engineering works is not really the same as it is here. here genetic engineering generally means taking an existing genome and inserting or deleting genes. this is how they make, for example, animals that glow, or confer pesticide resistance to plants.

but on mojoworld I think the way they genetically engineer is more like... the way we mechanically engineer. like the entire organism is built from the ground up. there’s a master genetic blueprint which is essentially the “minimal genome” required for a functioning humanoid. this was created by study of Earth humans by arize and the other genetic engineers. they can then go in and customize by adding elements to the genome that code for the signals/building blocks that control things like height, strength, hair color, eye color, having hollow bones etc. so in my head longshot was sort of... designed with ‘star as the inspiration, but not directly cloned. that wouldn’t even make sense anyways because A) different hair color and B) LONGSHOT HAS 3 FINGERS ON EACH HAND and shatterstar has 4!! thats NOT HOW CLONES WOULD WORK!!!!

(side note, the concept of a minimal functional genome is a real thing in biology! some scientists have taken a bacterium that already has a small genome and reduced it to the minimum size required for viability. here is a wikipedia article on it and here is the original paper (DOI: 10.1126/science.286.5447.2165) which I can explain in more detail because I took a class on synthetic biology which this technically falls under and I had to read this paper very closely).

fuck I’ve written 4 paragraphs and not even talked about his childhood yet. I am so sorry. anyways. so the way I think they raise the gladiators on mojoworld is they create them in batches of 5 to 10 identical copies of a certain “model”, place each copy in a different “class” with a set of 2-3 mentors/teachers, and train them to fight until they are 13 or 14. until this time the only names they have are the names that identify the “model”--like for shatterstar that would be gaveedra-seven where the model identifier is “gaveedra” and he is (in the lore that I have come up with) the 7th of 8 total.

the reason they create multiples and put them in different classes is each mentor is going to have a slightly different style of teaching which is going to work better for some and worse for others, so it allows them to have more mass production while increasing the chances of creating a truly great champion. it’s classic nature versus nurture--the genetic engineers create your nature, but you don’t end up exactly the same as others of your model. maybe you get an edge, maybe you don’t.

another thing that happens is different mentors believe in different ways of raising the kids in their care. shatterstar specifically was raised in a class where there was absolutely zero emotional development at all and no attachments allowed beyond fighting alliances. that’s not the case in all classes, and it also had the effect of making him somewhat of an outsider even within the other gladiators as he got older.

at 13 or 14--and yes I realize this is very fucked up but dude its fucking mojoworld idk what you expected--they start participating in fights. the first ones aren’t to the death and they’re as teams and they’re not usually televised they’re more like high school sports games that are attended by scouts (here, they’re “sponsors”--I think that’s a canonical term but I honestly can’t remember) and if you get sponsored you leave your class and join a new “team” that’s really just a bunch of people who all have the same sponsorship. this is where things can get interesting because they’ve all been raised with slightly different fighting styles but more importantly, slightly different degrees of Personhood.

also at this point I should mention that by this time, there are usually only 2, maybe 3 of each model left. either they died or were recognized as not having talent so they were sent to eventually fulfill other roles in the network. in ‘star’s case there was just him and gaveedra-five. once you get to the stage where you’re sponsored and you’re actually fighting to the death one of the first people you’ll fight is any remaining members of your model group.

by the time you’re the only one left of your group, you’re also eligible to earn a stage name. this usually happens if you have a particularly epic fight with a lot of viewers, you win and the commentators will typically say something like “Let’s give this crowd a real name to cheer!” and they’ll have a few candidate names and they’ll kind of just pick one. AUGH I actually have this scene written out in story form but its too long so I think I’ll save it.... :)

after you get a name you also get a cool outfit and usually some kind of mark or tattoo that serves as a brand. this brings me to another important point--shatterstar inherited the X-gene from alison and therefore he IS a mutant. his mutation is the swords vibration thing and the glowing eye. the star mark is a tattoo and teleportation is benjamin russell’s mutation (how he fits into all this is... for another post). basically after he got his name the costuming department guys were like “hey your eye glows, you look like the Legendary Warrior of Old, Longshot, we’re gonna pattern your look after him” so they gave him the star tattoo and the outfit that’s literally inverse colors of longshot’s.

also this brings me to another aside: you’re probably wondering “if he’s the biological kid of longshot and alison how are there 8 gaveedras?” when the genetic engineers got a hold on him as a baby they were like Sick! free baby! free genetic material! thats our job done for us! so they cloned him (in the traditional sense) and made 7 copies. this was also to kind of conceal his identity as technically being from outside mojoworld, which would make him stick out and thus be a target. they DID edit out the x-gene in the other gaveedra models though. this wasn’t a problem for ‘star because his mutation didn’t manifest until he was already sponsored.

I think that’s .... pretty much it for macroscopic lore on what it was like to be a kid gladiator on mojoworld. now let me give you some Tidbits of his life specifically:

like I said he was raised in a particularly cold and ruthless class. the mentors that raised him are like well-known by everyone to produce some of the best warriors but also there’s discourse on mojoworld because some people say perfectly emotionless killing machines aren’t as fun to watch. when he was sponsored there were 4-5 others in the same sponsorship and they were like Theres Something Wrong With You LOL

they speak earth languages on mojoworld because they’re imitating the broadcasts they (the spineless ones) used to hear from earth. however, most of the lower-class as well as almost all arena fighters and other television personalities speak cadre or other languages which are native to the planet. the stage names are all vaguely in english, but the gladiators don’t really understand them at first.

shatterstar got his name before he got the glowing eye, and when he learned what stars are, and saw his eye as a little star, he was like wow :) this is Me :) which is why that name is so important to him. it’s also one of the first things that wholly belonged to him.

(you can’t see stars on mojoworld because of light pollution and also because it’s a pocket dimension and there just aren’t that many stars to see)

I hate to bring up the s**ley miniseries but I do think it would be interesting to have him have a sort of ... mentor/first friend, similar to the concept of gringrave but they were NOT in a relationship. it was more like... another kid who was a year or so older than him got a soft spot for him and helped him not be so clueless. she didn’t make as much progress as xforce did, obviously. but they were.... something like friends.

unfortunately she was used by spiral to get shatterstar to murder the first rebel guy who tried to get him out of there. then she got switched sponsors (this can happen) and he had to kill her, and he was like well I will simply never develop any kind of attachment to anyone ever again.

he almost didn’t make it out of the first training session with his sponsorship group (this is semi-canon--there’s a reference when he’s teaching terry to swordfight to almost not surviving the first time he was in a gladiator class or whatever it was).

the closest he ever came to losing was the day he got the name. that’s why the crowds loved it so much.

the double-bladed sword was a gimmick weapon but when he got his mutation they realized it works way better if there’s resonance between two parallel blades so they redesigned it as an actual weapon.

(forgot this but I feel like I should include it) at 17 he escaped the arenas and joined the cadre alliance. two years later he came to earth and joined xforce.

I think that’s going to have to be it for now because it’s literally almost midnight and I have work tomorrow and I did NOT intend to stay up this late but I did. thank you for this opportunity anon :) feel free to ask me any other questions and also I realize a lot of this probably makes no fucking sense and that’s because I am not a writer or anything I’m just a biochemist with brain problems that cause me to obsess over stupid shit

#answered #shatterstar #GHKDJFDKHGRJ I KNOW THERES SOMETHING WRONG W/ ME THAT THIS FEELS LIKE EXPOSING MY SOUL....#Anonymous #long post #NSCU #<-thats my new tag since other people have asked about this #it stands for nadine shatterstar cinematic universe

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discotreque · 4 years ago

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Disco 3.08: The Sanctuary

This week IRL was a real mixed bag for me: a lot of messy and barely-manageable anxiety about my health, my day job, and uhhhh *gestures outside*—but also I’ve recently fallen in love (from a responsible social distance)—so it’s been equal parts re-writing professional emails to edit the panic attack out of my tone and gazing dreamily at Discord notifications with cartoon hearts in my eyes. It feels like my life is going to hell in the cutest, coziest handbasket—which is to say that Michael Burnham could not possibly feel like a more relatable character to me right now.

I continue to have issues with the writing at a strange medium-level—somewhere between micro, where the dialogue and characters are really good, and macro, where I’m digging the pace of the overall season, it almost feels like something went wrong in the assembly process, and the script ended up a little bit less than the sum of its perfectly good parts. Again.

But that’s such vague criticism as to be nearly meaningless, and it’s hardly the most interesting level to spend time on anyway. If I zoom out, the parallel season arcs of “getting used to the future” and “the mystery of the Burn” are hanging together wayyyyy better than the Red Angel saga did last year.

And if I zoom in? This episode was funny as shit, wtf.

The discourse re: Tilly these past couple of weeks has been bullshit, and I have a whole angry thing to say about it—but honestly, if you can’t appreciate Doug Jones and Mary Wiseman as a comedic duo, I’m not really mad: mostly I pity the lack of joy in your heart.

Everyone on this show is so funny. Doug’s prissy little delivery absolutely slaughters me (“Execute!...?”), Mary will make a face sometimes that has me screaming laughter into my hands, and I’ve gone on before—and will again—about Sonequa Martin-Green’s egregiously underrated comedy chops.

They were obviously casting for folks w/ jokes in the new season too: David Ajada is no slouch in the dry-delivery or the goofy-face department; his energy and chemistry with Sonequa are as suited to comedy as they are to romance (i.e. extremely 🥵). Anthony Rapp and Wilson Cruz we knew about, but Blu del Barrio—a certified tiny baby!!!—holds their own and lands every smartass whiz-kid one-liner just on the right side of “too precious to stand.” (I almost always at least chuckle, and never roll my eyes, and for a “teen genius” character that’s literally as good as it gets.) And living legend Michelle Yeoh is clearly having the time of her life, omfg.

Disco’s not funny-funny like Lower Decks, but they do funny-on-purpose better than any live-action Trek except maybe DS9. They have such a deep comedic bench they don’t even need Tig Notaro—they have her on just to flex, I presume.

(I don’t know if I’m predicting, per se, that Strange New Worlds—with Rebecca Romjin’s deadpan, Anson Mount’s twinkly eyes, and Ethan Peck’s twinkly-eyed deadpan—is going to have a tone somewhere between Disco S3 and LwD—but I mean... it kinda has to, right? And you know they kept the number for Rainn Wilson’s agent.)

***

At the start of this episode, I was “sure, why the fuck not” about First Officer Tilly; by the end, I was completely on board. And to everyone who’s still wringing their hands about “the real military” this (always from people who have no idea how actual militaries work, lol) and “Lt. Nilsson” that (she... already has a job on the ship? And no character traits besides “stoic” and “furrows brow”? Oh, I get it—she’s skinny and blonde)—y’all are kind of embarrassing me.

“Rank” and “position” (and “seniority” and “day-to-day duties”...) aren’t the same thing, in Star Trek or any IRL military. Yes, the permanent first officers of normal-duty Starfleet ships we’ve seen have usually been command-division officers with the rank of Commander—but not always. Star Trek: Discovery-A, if you will, is a unique show about a unique ship in a unique situation: “B-b-but that’s not how they do it on Star Trek!!!” isn’t a legitimate criticism, not of this—it’s the mournful cry of an entitled pissbaby who isn’t having their hand held all the way to the fireworks factory.

Here’s what an argument supported by the text of the first 37 episodes of Star Trek: Discovery actually looks like: Sylvia Tilly is nervous and lacks self-confidence, but once she gets over herself—which she can do pretty much instantly in a crisis, even when hilariously intoxicated—she is competent as hell. In lower-stakes situations, without intense pressure to focus her attention, she sometimes gets sidetracked by her own insecurities; at her best, she channels that anxious energy into ambition, drive, and being scrupulously organized.

The only person Tilly doesn’t always get along with is Stamets, and even Stamets’s husband thinks he’s an asshole. Since Season 1, we’ve seen her easily socializing with the rest of the crew, who seem to universally adore her. And she’s also happy to leave her social comfort zone at a moment’s notice: she aligned herself with Ash Tyler (miss you, Shazad!) when no one else would, and she instantly befriended Po even when Po was in Weird Feral Alien Princess mode and Tilly had salad in her hair. She doesn’t like confrontation, but she’s brave enough to initiate it anyway if she needs to, and she’s compassionate with other people’s feelings while still setting firm boundaries. (Her graceful dodge of Rhys’s tipsy kiss at the party in 1.07 lives rent-free in my head to this day.)

No, Tilly didn’t finish the Command Training Program—but she started it, which is almost certainly more command training than any of the lieutenants whose names we know, all of whom are Ops or Science personnel with, presumably, specialized non-command training of their own. The same could be assumed for any unseen ranking officers on this science ship with an entirely volunteer skeleton crew.

And seriously, about Nilsson: she’s my #3 background bae after Octopus Head and the lady on Pike’s Enterprise with the spiky red face, but her job is Spore Drive Ops, not personnel. If she’s running after Saru with a holo-clipboard, who’s going to look serious and push holo-buttons when there’s a Black Alert? *drops holo-mic* Drumhead!

***

The stuff on Kwejian, though. Ooof. Ol’ Two-Takes Frakes directed this one, and between the kinetic energy he always adds to the camera and the scintillating performances he evokes, things stayed moving so briskly I almost didn’t notice Book’s entire “homeworld” was a rental house outside Vancouver, a couple acres of adjacent woods, and like six or seven people.

It’s a hot mess in retrospect, but in the moment it gave us the intensity of Book and Kyheem trying to hurt each other’s feelings by poking at 15-year-old wounds, which as a sibling with complicated sibling relationships I found both funny and devastating—not to mention Frakes directing “shaky bridge” explosion falls at an obvious intensity of “10” on an outdoor location shoot. It falls apart at the slightest scrutiny, but I can’t lie, on first viewing I was totally along for the ride.

***

I’m dying to see where this Georgiou thing goes. It doesn’t feel like a stretch to assume she got Cronenberg’d a couple weeks ago, probably to get her under the thumb of this century’s Section 31, and that her arc is going to take Michelle Yeoh off this show in a way that sets up the S31 show. But also, I don’t care so much whether I’m right, I just want to watch Michelle Yeoh—and Sonequa Martin-Green, and also David Cronenberg tbh, and bring back Shazad Latif while you’re at it—get wherever they’re going.

It’s also a fun and interesting direction to take the comically-evil comic relief character and show that her performative moustache-twirling is partly habit and partly a transparent emotional defence against very real fear and vulnerability. We’re all products of our circumstances, and a radical enough change in circumstances can afford almost anyone at least the opportunity to change. I can’t say Emperor Georgiou would have been my first choice of protagonist for that storyline, but it’s not like Michelle Yeoh’s not going to fuckin’ crush it.

***

Miscellany:

So the Burn had an origin point, and now that point is broadcasting a signal that’s somehow both a haunting melody that everyone seems to know—but no one can remember learning—and a Federation distress signal. What the fuck, y’all. I have full-body goosebumps just typing that.

Saru workshopping his own captainly catchphrase with the aid of Tilly’s extreme sincerity and organizational skills is probably the funniest thing that’s ever happened on this show—followed closely by the uncomfortably lingering reaction shots when he’s trying them out on the bridge 😂 (And omg please give Rhys and Bryce the dumbass buddy-comedy C-plots they deserve next season, I beg you.)

I would do a little “prop watch” entry on those Kwejianian(?) bolt-throwing rifles, but I’d have to stop drooling over them first. “Curvy polished hardwood” seems to be New Trek shorthand for “extra sleek and futuristic” (cf. the bridge of the USS Titan in the LwD finale), and I have to say: I am fully into it.

Restating my prediction that we will not see Detmer and Owosekun get together this season, because we will find out that they’ve been together for ages. Everyone knew—Pike even knew!—it just never came up in front of the audience before. That would be one of the cutest ways to do it imho, and one of the funniest too, especially as a meta-joke about how much character development didn’t happen in the first two seasons. (That said, if we get to see their first kiss, I will be screaming with incoherent joy for days, so this is a real win-win for me.)

Speaking of cute: IRL spouses Mary Wiseman and Noah Averbach-Katz, both Julliard-trained actors (it’s where they met!), can’t quite hide their chemistry in the scenes between Tilly and Ryn. I loved seeing Tilly be a hardass when Ryn was rude to the captain, but that sparkle in her eyes didn’t quite match the context <3

And speaking of people who are VERY OBVIOUSLY IN LOVE: that last scene with Book and Michael, and his nervous little “yeah, I said it” eyebrow lift, and her irrepressible giggle as she’s walking away... it was almost too much. Especially right after the queer-family scenes with Stamets and Culber and Adira. My poor heart is going through a lot lately, and I guess I’m just glad Season 3’s emotional intensity is melting it with soft sweet scenes like that instead of kicking it down repeated flights of stairs like Season 1.

***

Next week: everyone stops caring about the Burn and starts trying to solve an even more important mystery—why is this (holographic) dude wearing an early-2360s uniform with an early-2370s combadge?

#star trek discovery #disco spoilers #star trek discovery spoilers #amy's episode notes

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themerriweathermage · 4 years ago

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Author Interview

I was tagged by @sleepswithvillains . I’ve never been tagged much before so this is kind of new for me, but I love it! Tag me all the time! Also you did it again, where I got the Tumblr notification like right as I went to bed, but my sleep schedule is so wack right now.

Tagging: @guardianofrivendell @moriamithril @sunflower1000 and really whoever wants to do it. Drop me a tag if you decide to do it because I definitely want to see what you have to say!

I have a lot of unfinished fics and not a lot of published works in comparison.

1. Name: The Merriweather Mage (Tumblr)/ RinzlersGhost (AO3)

2. Fandoms: LOTR/The Hobbit, The Witcher (TV), SWTOR/Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter, Twilight, Underworld (though I’m not active in most of them unless I’m hyper-fixating)

3. Where you post: AO3, Tumblr, and I have an inactive FF.NET account

4. Most popular oneshot: People seem to have a real affinity for Meleth-nin/My Love. I actually hated writing it, because I was in such a bad place after receiving news that my childhood dog had died, but I don’t hate the fic itself.

5. Most popular multichapter: Every Kitten Has Claws which is a Geralt X Druid Fem!Reader. 25 Kudos, 3 bookmarks, 517 hits. Followed by Turuhalme in the Greenwood which is Thranduil X Fem!Reader. 9 Kudos, 1 bookmark, 270 hits. Both contain 18+ Content.

6. Actual worst part of writing: I legitimately hate writing fight scenes. I’m horrible at them and most of my fics contain some sort of fight scene obnoxiously enough. Although the best advice I ever saw on here was to keep your fight scenes short because not very many people are interested in a long drawn out detailed fight scene.

7. Favorite story you wrote: Bards & Beans Coffee Co. Elrond X Fem!Reader. Was the first time I’d ever written anything in the second person. I based it off of a dream I had about meeting Elrond in a coffee shop. I planned it, wrote it, and posted it in the span of four days. It’s basically as if Middle Earth exists on the other side of meridian locks, and it’s set during the War of the Ring but with some of the characters from the Hobbit so the timelines are pretty pushed together. Your side of the meridian locks has a Earth that is basically a continuous strip of land that varies from high-tech futuristic ports all the way down to medieval ports. Basically the farther North you go, the more high tech and futuristic the land becomes. Quite a shock for those who would have never been to the other side of the locks. 18+ Content.

8. Story you were nervous to post: Most likely all of them. Any of my Twilight work though, I always hesitate about publishing. Sometimes it’s because the stories are close to my heart, but I also know that the fandom can be rabid. Most of the interactions I’ve ever had with Twilight blogs are fine, but there’s a lot of discourse about Twilight right now, and while I appreciate that most people are in the right (the issue with the Quileute tribe, the Cullen’s as villains, Jasper and the Confederacy, the actual legitimacy of the Volturi as a ruling body, etc), this is actually one of the reasons I left the fandom from a writing/following POV. (There are many, many things that are wrong with Twilight and not from a literature point of view. For example, Meyers took a real life Native American tribe and treated them highly unfairly in the books, to the point of calling them dogs which isn’t very fair at all, and they have received no compensation for being used and they are risk in the place they live in now. If you have some time and money, I would recommend checking out the Quileute Move to Higher Ground project.)

9. How you choose your titles: For story titles, I like to choose the main theme or a main phrase that is used. For chapter titles, I either don’t title or I will chose something that is a main part of the chapter.

10. Complete works: Out of the 21 works I have on AO3, 18 of them are completed, although one is an open ended and may be reopened after I get some of the larger works out of my way. As for fics in general that I haven’t published or have published on other platforms, there is 2 of 5 complete works on FF.NET. Some of those stories I will be pulling and deleting. The two complete works will be migrating to AO3.

11. Incomplete works: Actively: Sadril-nin/My Loyal One, A Hunter’s Circlet, and Beauty in Brokenness (unpublished for now). I have a few other inactive LOTR/The Hobbit based fics that I might try to finish after the main two are finished. Inactive: Literally too many to count. I mean, when I wrote my goodbye to the Twilight fandom, I said that I had been writing for the fandom for nearly nine years. I have so many unfinished Twilight fics, well over 100.

12. Do you outline: Not usually. I’m at the point with Sadril-nin right now where I’m literally following a map of Middle Earth and cataloguing the journey across the map, so I guess that could be considered an outline. Mostly if I’m writing for LOTR/The Hobbit, I want to follow the timeline of progression for the story that’s already been written. I do have a little bit of leeway in that gap between The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings though.

13. Coming soon ideas, maybe? I’ve been giving you a taste of Beauty in Brokenness. I do intend to publish it, but it’s a constant struggle to rework it. I have ideas that I want to cement in the story that don’t always come out the way I want them to, so I am consistently reworking parts of it all the time. I will also be rewriting (eventually) Crown of Thorns, which is Pirates of the Caribbean fanfic, Lord Beckett X Siren!OFC. I also appreciate the idea of Nestadion X Centaur Fem!Reader, but instead of being a centaur all the time, you’re actually a shifter who can turn into a centaur. Really confuses a warrior elf to see what amounts to a small human carrying this massive two handed sword around and calling him “princess” all the time.

14. Ask me anything: Is there anything you miss in fanfic? In comparison to the actual book/movie? Not really. I appreciate the original works, but I recognize that they can be flawed and so can their authors/writers. Which is why fanfic is so appealing-- everyone has a different spin on the original; everyone has a different take on the characters, everyone writes differently, and that’s the fascinating part to me. The only downside, of course with any fanfic, is the fandom and it can be hit or miss with people. It is what it is, and the liberty of fanfic is that not everyone is going to like or enjoy your works, and the same goes for your tastes. Are there right or wrong opinions? I don’t know; I’ve both read and written some morally ambiguous fics, and some I would like to forget that I very much haven’t.

15. Best writing traits: Same as the worst writing traits. I’m a sucker for detail. I love it. I want my readers to see it like I do. When I read books or play D&D or play video games, I see it like I’m in a movie. When I write, I want you to see it like you’re on set and the cameras are rolling and you are perfectly prepared. I want you to feel like you are in the story, which is why my oneshots turn into series, and my multi-chapter fics turn into novel length stories. I find it obnoxious at times, because I feel like I can’t ever turn it off, but by the feedback I get, some of y’all really enjoy it, so let’s get this show on the road.

16. Upcoming Story You Are Most Excited to Write: Uhhhh, let me go browse my WIP folder. I’ve put quite a bit of research into rewriting Crown of Thorns and making it slightly more historically accurate. I know that there will be a Part 2 to Sadril-nin, because I’m not going to time skip a seventy/eighty year gap between the timelines of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. And I really don’t want to submit y’all to this absolutely massive story all jam-packed into one fic. Other than that, I’m also sitting on Through Hellfire and High Waters, which is another Elrond X Reader fic that follows the premise of a modern/medieval world all smashed into one. The Queen of Eryn Galen also needs a proper ending and to be published, a Thranduil X OFC fic; this one will also have a Part 2.

17. Spicy Tangential Opinion: I don’t care if my writing makes the characters out of character. I try to tag that if I can, but let’s be real here. Either I’m writing a character that originally has a limited backstory and a very real chance at an open-ended future, or I didn’t like the canon character and I’m rejecting that reality and replacing it with my own. Does it mean that I don’t or am refusing to recognize character flaws? No, and that’s the beauty of fanfic. You can do whatever you want. You might get hate for it or you might not. For example, I am a fan of Severus Snape (RIP Alan Rickman). Does his character have flaws? Yes. Do I like the way he was canonically written? No. Are his actions justifiable? Hell no. Is that going to stop me from being a fan? Again, no. He is arguably one of the most disagreed upon character of that series. I don’t see a need to defend why I write him the way I do. I don’t see a need to defend him in discourse, and I’m certainly not going to be hateful about it. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion about it. Yes, there was probably some underlying intent when the character was written. I’m not here (unless you’re specifically asking my opinion on it) I’m not here to read in between the lines with characters like Snape. I do not care enough to lose friends over opinions like that.

#long post #i am so sorry #get to know the author

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dailyaudiobible · 3 years ago

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08/31/2021 DAB Transcript

Job 37:1-39:30, 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:10, Psalm 44:9-26, Proverbs 22:13

Today is the 31st day of August, welcome to the Daily Audio Bible, I’m Brian, it is great to be here with you today, today and every day. But today cause that’s the day we’re in for starters, we can’t be in another day, currently. I suppose we could be listening to a different day but it wouldn’t be today and today is today and today is the 31st of August. And I hope I'm ready for all of this, this month ending and getting ready for a new month. I was shocked at how quickly August flew by but here we are, last day of August and we will be continuing our journey through the book of Job, we will be concluding the book of Job tomorrow as we begin a new month and so were getting down to it now. So, we are, just by way of reminder, in the middle of Elihu's discourse. So, we've listened to Job converse with three of his friends, friends throughout this book. And then Elihu, he steps forward and starts talking and essentially says I'm younger and so I was letting the wisdom speak first but there’s not a lot of wisdom here and I have plenty to say and so it's my turn and that's what we’re listening to his Elihu offering just Job straight in his reasoning. And so, let's get to it, we’re reading from the New International Version, Job 37, 38 and 39 today.

Commentary:

Okay, so we, we have to talk about Job today because Job got what he wanted. He wanted, he wanted to find God and he did and God has shown up. So, let’s just look back because tomorrow we will be finishing the book of Job, God will continue his discussion tomorrow as we reach our conclusion of this book, but, we remember when we began Job right at the very beginning, Job had a day like no other in which he lost everything, he lost his children to death, his livestock, his shepherds were attacked and killed in pillaged, the livestock was taken, generally everything that Job cared about was taken from him in a day and we watched Job as he's getting the news and when the news is fully delivered, he stands up and tears his robe as an active, deep sorrow and pain-and-suffering, and he falls down and worships God. It's a riveting scene. He has this posture of the Lord gave me everything I have. The Lord has taken it away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. It's riveting. Job reaches a place where even his own life is like curse God and die. So, that's how bad things have gotten for Job and yet Job doesn't understand why. He doesn't believe he's done anything wrong and he does believe that the tragedy the things that have come upon him are at the hand of the Lord. Just thinking, I mean the bitterness that's available in that when everything is destroyed and you don't know why but instead of cursing God and dying right, instead of going into that bitterness Job uses his energy to hold onto his innocence, to hold onto his integrity, and so he will not speak ill of God in any way, will not sin in any way. He believes he is righteous and innocent before God and all of this and what is happening to him is not just or at least in any kind of way that he can understand it to be just. So, it's not too long before some of his friends show up, three of them. They see him from afar and they see just how wasted away he is and they arrive and they sit down with him and they sit with him in silence for a week. This is called Shiva, sitting Shiva, this is sitting with someone in their grief, not there to fix it, not there to give them promised scriptures over and over, just to offer presence, to acknowledge the pain, to be there and it, to simply offer our presence, not our words, and that's what they're doing. They sit with them for a week until he starts talking, that’s what they’re waiting for. And, he starts talking and he discusses how he wishes he had never been born, how on the night he was conceived that that would've been just blacked out. How he would've just died when he was born, how he would not how to face this. And, then he begins to talk about his innocence and he begins to talk about finding God. And, his friends all respond. And, we read through all of that, they all respond. It's all rational, it all makes sense. It's all in defense of God because Job is essentially saying what God is doing to me isn’t just, I don't understand it. I haven't done anything wrong. They spend the bulk of the book trying to convince him that that's not possible, that he has indeed somewhere somehow done something wrong and they eventually begin to go after him because of the things that he is saying, as if his pride is the issue. Actually, Job's friends sound a whole lot like the kind of things that we say to people when we find them in suffering and it ends up to be a full-blown argument because Job gets mad that they keep trying to insinuate that somehow, he isn't innocent and then they get mad because he's insinuating that he is sinless and righteous and what is happening to him, this judgment that’s happening to him, is unjust. That's not a grid that they can fit the equation into which is the point. When bad things happen to good people, it's hard to find the answers. And, this book wrestles with that fact and in part it does a good job of showing us that we, with all of the wisdom that we have in all of our understanding of God, that we might think that we have and all of the things that we say to people, we really don't fully understand what we’re talking about when we’re talking about the most high God. In fact, it's not that we don't kind of don’t fully understand, it’s that we barely have scratched the surface. We are talking about the most high God, Creator of all things far and away beyond our capacity in every respect. So, in the end, what Job wants is God. What he wants is an audience with God. He's prepared his case. He believes that if God gave him answers, he would then have the answers that he's looking for. He doesn't want answers from his friends. He doesn't want human answers. He feels like everything that his friends are telling him he already knows, he’s already analyzed all that, they're not wiser than he is. They can only offer human wisdom, and he needs God. And then the last person Elihu, the younger one steps forward with his opinions which he offers and we've listened to those opinions over the last couple of days and then God shows up today, “Brace yourself like a man. I have some questions of my own. You’ve been asking a lot of questions. I have some questions and you're going to answer them.” I mean come on, that would scare me to death. Even reading it, it's like can you, I mean on the one hand, God, like how do you get your mind around that God has shown up in some sort of tangible, understandable way and is speaking overwhelming, but what He is speaking is very directly aimed at the fact that for all Job's questions, God is about to reveal that Job nor his friends know pretty much anything about anything. And then God begins to ask these giant, God sized questions, which is what will what we been reading today. And will continue until tomorrow. Let's remember that Job had a case prepared, he knew what he was going to say to God, he just didn't know where to find God but he knew what he would say. And then God comes to Job. So, finally Job's gonna get to say what he needed to say and we’ll listen to what that is, as we conclude the book of Job tomorrow.

Prayer:

Father, we thank You for Your word every bit of it, all of the stories, all of the people, all of the time the passes, all of the different changes in the world that we can see, as customs and clothing change but people don't. So, as we move toward the conclusion of Job, we invite Your Holy Spirit fully and all of our questions and may we watch Job tomorrow and learn quite a bit. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is home base, it’s where you find out what’s going on around here, that's obviously the website. If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible app, you can access the different sections of the website within the app. So, check out the Daily Audio Bible Shop, there are resources there from our own fresh roasted coffee that we roast fresh and deliver fresh to you or tea, all the way to written resources like The God of Your Story, which is 365 days, I don't like to call it a devotional because I guess, because I don't think what we, I mean, even though we do is devotional in nature that’s not what we’re doing here. We are doing life and immersing ourselves in the Scriptures and The God of Your Story is basically that in written form, so it is a fantastic companion through a year in the Bible and there are many other resources in the Daily Audio Bible Shop as well. So, check them out because they have been developed for the journey that we are on and so the resources are available there.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that at dailyaudiobible.com as well or with, in the app. So, on the website there’s a link on the homepage. If you’re using the app you can press the Give button in the upper right-hand corner. Or the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996 Springhill, Tennessee 37174.

And as always, if you have a prayer request or encouragement you can hit the Hotline button in the app or you can dial 877-942-4253.

And that's it for today. I’m Brian, I love you and I'll be waiting for you here, tomorrow.

Prayer and Encouragements:

Hello dear saints, my name is Mercy. I’ve been listening to DAB for many years. I’m calling for prayer. I have nine children, they’re all grown, 22 grandchildren so far. What I’m calling for prayer for is that we had a crushing blow that rocked our family. I would mostly probably actually describe it as more like a train wreck. My husband of 43 years, who everyone thought was a model Christian became evident that he was a pedophile. He took advantage of some of our little ones which cause severe damage and shattered the face of some. Please pray, he’s in prison now. But please pray for the healing of hearts and souls in my children and my grandchildren. I’m doing well, I’m surrounded by a network of Godly friends and family who carry me but please pray for my children. When you pray, pray for Mercy’s Children. Thanks, DABers, love you.

Hey guys it’s Sparky from Texas. I’m gonna try and get through this these are happy tears. I was listening to Dr. John and Jen's call here on the 26th and it just broke me down in tears hearing the praise reports. I know, I know not everything gets fixed and God doesn't fix everything but it just, it’s mind blowing to me how God is still healing and still moving lives and I just, I’d like to pray a minute. Father we thank You for your grace and we thank You that You that you're not gone, Your not dead Father. You’re reaching into these people's lives, You’re reaching in my family's life. And, Father, You're so real and when I hear these praise reports Father, it’s just, it’s so much to take on just the joy and the grace and Your love. Father, be with those that you don't decide to heal and let them know that that's Your plan Father. Lord, I just thank you so much for Your grace. I thank you for everybody on this. Father, we just appreciate You, we love You and just stay with us, help those who need, help us to show those who need your faith. Father, we thank You so much for Your son, Christ, it’s in that son’s name we pray. Amen. Love you guys, I pray for everyone of you. Praise God for praise reports. Have a great day.

Hello, my Daily Audio Bible brothers and sisters, my DAB family. This is Yolanda. After listening virtually every day, sometimes twice a day and lifting up my DABers prayers since 2012 I am moved to call in for the first time. Today I come to you on behalf of my dear, dear friend Birdie. Birdie is a mother of a sweet toddler. She is 37 weeks pregnant and is quite suddenly suffering from COVID pneumonia with fluid around her heart. Her mother and husband are frantic with worry, and caring for their toddler, well, unable to be with her in hospital while she faces labor and delivery, possibly a C-section without them. DABers, please join me as I fervently left Birdie and her sweet baby up in my prayers asking for complete healing for her and a healthy vaginal delivery for her sweet baby. Lord, please give Birdie peace during this time of intense trial, intense pain and sickness. Lord, please give the doctors and nurses, the knowledge and medicine to bring her to full recovery. In Jesus holy and precious name, I pray. Amen.

Hi DAB family this is God’s Life Speaker. While I was praying with my husband this morning as were struggling with our 21-year-old and he, he is depressed. However, he is seeking help for praise God for that. It dawned on us that there’s been some judgment that we've put on, on him, that is not fair. That's the judgment that we use against him, that will be used on us so, this morning we repented. As parents and children of God, and you know, it's the self-evaluation; we want things and people in our lives to look better, look right, fix themselves, yet, are we examining ourselves? Are we walking in a manner worthy of our calling? Are we imitators of Christ? Are we the peacemakers? Because God sees and God hears, He knows our thoughts, He knows what’s going on. He knows our heart aches too and I feel, as someone who likes to speak God's word out into the atmosphere and change it and bring glory to God, I can get pretty low about what I’m seeing in my kids. And it hurts because we want them to be glorifying God and working towards that perfection that He calls us to. Yet, they are in training, even if they’re 21, they’re still in training and we are the ones that need to set that example so we needed to do some repenting this morning, some encouraging each other and spiritual gifts right. So, I asked that we would do that all. I’m praying for each one of your children and grandchildren and us ourselves in the name of Jesus, Amen.

Hey, everyone I just thought I would ring in and update you on how I'm going. It's Margo here, missionary in Liberia. I have made it back to Australia for, we’re back here for a few weeks for my son’s wedding which is amazing because Australia has some very strict rules around travel. And so, getting back into the country actually was quite a miracle and in fact, even leaving the country again is a miracle and we already have our permit to leave in a few weeks’ time to go back. So, I thank the Lord for His help and His hand has been upon us. And I want to thank everyone for their prayers. I rung in a few weeks or maybe a couple of months ago and I was in a really bad way. And, I have noticed that I’ve really picked up. And I have really felt His comfort and His peace much more in my life. All the things that are out of my control, I’ve been much more able to leave them in His hands. And I’m so, so grateful for His comfort. I’m so grateful for your prayers. It’s…I should have rung in sooner. So, we’re in Australia for a few weeks and then heading back and you know, continue to pray for us. It’s not an easy calling we have, mind you, no one has an easy calling. So, I’m just grateful for this community, grateful for the prayers that we pray all for each other. And, God bless you all. Love you. Bye.

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