#i. and what about the dragon? - media commentary

[the-cryptographer]

On the one hand, I do think Isabela is a well adjusted person in many ways, and she has a very healthy attitude about her own self-image and not getting self-flagellating over things she can no longer effect. (As compared to all of the other LIs in the game.) And of course she is undeniably very cool.

But on the other hand, I have no idea where people are getting this primo girlboss(tm) energy for her, lmao. This is a woman living paycheck to paycheck trying to keep debtors off her tail. Why do you think she’s in Kirkwall to begin with? Why do you think she runs off with the Tome of Koslun? She’s not stealing it for herself. She’s stealing it so she can deliver it straight to the slaver crime boss that has her balls in a vice. This woman jumped straight from abusive mom to abusive husband to abusive crime ring. And when she caught cold feet and released her cargo during a trafficking operation, that crime ring decided to light a fire under her and wring her dry. She cannot get out. (Does joining up with Hawke’s crime ring instead of Castillion’s count as getting out?)

idk, just total wet cat of a woman behind the confident outer shell. Don’t know how you’re all missing it.

[flawseer]

Ok, these time rate me the Jade WInglets

I've been sitting on this work-in-progress picture for so many months now. Maybe if I post it here, I'll finally sit down and finish it.

Very long post incoming.

Discussing the Jade Winglet

Okay. So, you want me to rate the Jade Winglet group. That’s going to be very easy: I love all of them.

It’s also going to be extraordinarily hard because... well... I love all of them. How am I supposed to put them into an ordered list? It can’t be done. So I guess what I’m going to do is: First I will put them into a tier list, and then I’m going to just talk about each of them individually for a bit.

But on account of aforementioned adoration I have for all of these guys, said tier list is going to be very lopsided. The tiers are going to be “I adore them with the intensity of seven suns”, “I really like them”, and “I very much like them, but...”. You’re going to have to imagine that there are five or so more unused tiers below that.

Let’s unceremoniously get that ranking out of the way first. From top to bottom, the tiers are:

I adore Turtle, Qibli, and Winter.

I really like Moonwatcher, Kinkajou, and Peril.

I very much like Umber and Carnelian.

As for more in-depth commentary, here is a disclaimer: When I think about these guys I mostly consider books 6 (Moon Rising) to 9 (Talons of Power) and the first half of 10 (Darkness of Dragons). The second half of 10... if I’m being honest, I didn’t really enjoy it. I don’t want to go into it too much here, if you really want me to talk about my misgivings with the second arc finale, put a message about it in my inbox (it’s not just the obvious thing; it actually mostly pertains to Winter and the absolute nightmare ending he got saddled with, and some very unfortunate character implications).

Some of my musings are also going to be a bit critical. I just want it to be clear that I make these observations as a fan of the series. It’s a good practice to think critically even about media that you like. It helps you better understand why you like it in the first place. Also, I make no demands to be agreed with. This is just how I see it.

Anyway, enough stalling, let’s get into it. Not in order:

Turtle

CW: Parental abuse

Turtle is the most wonderful thing to ever happen in the history of the universe. I wake up every morning and the first thought in my head is “Ugh, another day in this backwards reality where Turtle is not real! No thanks!!” Then I go right back to sleep disappointed until the next day. Okay, maybe that’s a bit hyperbolic. But I do think that everyone’s lives would be greatly improved if Turtle was real.

Turtle is a very vibrant and insightful character who, much like Winter, is unfortunately cursed with a pair of malicious and incompetent "parents". Some of his scenes really hurt to get through if you’re a parent yourself or have ever had parental feelings. The first scene he is in, when Moon observes him arriving at the academy, his mother makes a passing comment about how Turtle has no value because he cannot inherit the throne. Turtle is within earshot when she does this. And he has no overt reaction to it, which to me hints that Coral asserts this about her male children so frequently that he has accepted her line of thinking and internalized it. He just accepts it as the truth. That is heartbreaking.

And then there is his father, mild-mannered and ostensibly gentle Gill, who killed Turtle’s budding interest in writing as well as the entirety of his self-confidence back when he was a kid, by assigning a little boy a task that was well beyond him (and only to him, even though there were more people present who could have helped), and then made him believe he killed his unborn sister when Turtle inevitably couldn’t do what he was asked. The narrative really tries to make Gill sympathetic in that moment by insisting he’s speaking in anger and doesn’t really mean it, but um, no. I don’t buy it, dude. You just gave a little kid a lifelong guilt complex because you couldn’t think of asking more people for help. Or taking the egg with you while you left the hatchery. Or telling Turtle to take a message to the palace guard so someone who didn’t still have their milk teeth could mount a proper, organized search while interim guards were posted in the hatchery. Or literally any of the thousands of other options that didn’t require traumatizing your own son.

As a result, Turtle became emotionally reclusive. He registers to others as dull, placid, unpassionate, and boring, like he cares about nothing and is content to never strive for or achieve anything in his life. He himself explains that writing used to be something he was into at some point, but then lost interest in. But I don’t think he has. He still loves literature and thinking about stories, he's still doing it in his internal monologue. He just denies it because he subconsciously feels the need to punish himself. I imagine he still gets that drive sometimes, to sit down and start writing again. But every time he thinks about it, or catches himself wanting anything, his father’s voice resurfaces in his mind, telling him that he killed his sister and doesn’t deserve it. And then he self-punishes by depriving himself of everything he loves doing and every positive emotion associated with it. Because he is convinced he is guilty for failing his father, when in actuality, the opposite is true.

The tragedy is that, if Gill had known how much damage he caused and wasn’t in a situation where he needed a flowchart to keep his 30+ sons apart, he probably would have apologized. He doesn’t strike me as malicious, just horribly, horribly incompetent as a parent. But as things played out, Gill is no longer able to fix his mistake. The only person who can now grant Turtle the forgiveness he needs is himself. I hope he will be able to do it.

Turtle truly is an endearing character and a wonderful son undeserved by his parents. If I could adopt him right now I would. In fact, I’m gonna do it. Hold on while I get the papers. Wait, I have to finish? Uh... okay.

Moonwatcher

In a sense, Moonwatcher may be the most interesting character in the entire cast. She certainly had the potential to be my favorite character period. But there are a few points holding her back.

The thing about Moonwatcher is that, more than any other character, she requires meticulous care and attention to detail to be written well. The reason for this is that, when you’re writing for Moon, you also technically write for every character she interacts with. She is written brilliantly in her own book, since the narrative is allowed to focus on her; Moon Rising may thus actually be my favorite book of the second arc. It’s very enrapturing, seeing her navigate the academy’s social dynamics after growing up as, essentially, a feral jungle child, and battling with her own feelings of loneliness and inadequacy.

The thing is though... Wings of Fire has a bit of an odd quirk. Something I’ve noticed with regards to its writing is that, whenever a character is not particularly in focus during a scene, they often get reduced to their most basic traits and will rigidly act according to them regardless of prior context or external factors. I call this phenomenon “Auto-pilot”. If you’ve read my Mail Call #3, this is what I think happened to Tsunami during the second arc—Tsunami’s basic traits are that she is bossy, emotional, and blunt, so she spends the entirety of her page time as a deep-sea-themed wrecking ball who yells at everyone and dismisses everything as “ugh, nightwing powers” and “Peril was bad in book 1 once, I hate her forever”, despite having other, more pressing matters to prioritize.

Whenever Moonwatcher gets set to auto-pilot, it is very depressing. She needs careful, attentive writing to shine, and whenever she doesn’t get it she turns from the most interesting character into a dull brick that recites exposition and occasionally exists to be fawned after by boys. Tragically, the auto-pilot hits her bad after Winter’s book is done, and she never manages to escape it afterwards, save for maybe one or two scenes. There is a particularly egregious example in book 10 that, in my opinion, does permanent, irreversible damage to her character. It’s all a bit soul-crushing if dwelt on.

So yeah, I like Moonwatcher. I really do. I just wish the strong way she was written could have carried through the entire arc.

Winter

CW: Parental abuse

I initially didn’t really know what to make of Winter when I read Moon’s book. He seemed kind of like a buttface who was needlessly hostile and unapproachable. But he really comes into his own in his book, and looking back at his earlier scenes with that new context makes it all make sense. He became one of my stand-out favorites after that.

Winter really has a lot in common with Turtle, so much so that I wish those two actually had some deeper interactions with each other. Like, at one point Turtle saves his life, you’d think they would want to talk about that some time. Where Turtle’s parents are one half malicious, one half incompetent, Winter’s are pure malice AND incompetence. Blessed with three children, they managed to completely ruin one of them, almost ruin the other, and then the third one is kind of out of focus so I don’t know how he is faring, but I doubt there is a lot of love there either.

In a way, you can draw a lot of parallels between Winter and Icicle, and Zuko and Azula from Avatar: The Last Airbender—The unfavorite who tries to do right but constantly fails to live up to his father’s/parents' warped standards, and the prodigy who seemingly has her father’s/parents' approval but secretly suffers from the abusive parenting just as much, but in different ways. Hailstorm then tries to take on the role of Iroh, an older figure that acts as a source of positivity and genuine love, and offers a reprieve from the abuse. But where Iroh is an adult drawing from a lifetime of wisdom, Hailstorm is just the slightly older sibling who comes from the same abusive household battling the same demons, so his effectiveness in countering the toxicity is limited.

Where Zuko pursues honor, Winter strives to be strong. Both his parents and his sister perceive him as weak and label him irrelevant. While this hurts him deeply, I don’t think Winter fully surrendered to his inferiority complex until he heard his brother mirror the same sentiment at him. Winter is repressed and struggles with processing his emotions—Thus he heard the words Hailstorm only said to save his life and took them at face value. Even the person he loves the most, the only source of affection and affirmation in his life, thinks he is weak. This is what drives Winter to feverishly desire strength and thus adopt a persona of the strongest thing he knows: a stoic Icewing warrior.

This is why he acts the way he does in book 6: aloof, threatening, unapproachable, invincible. But all of these traits are diametrically opposed to his actual personality, which is warm, compassionate, and just wanting to be loved for who he is. So whenever Moon reads his mind, he comes across as a confused mess of conflicting emotions. Because he is pretending to be something he isn’t.

The interesting thing here is that Winter actually is genuinely strong. He is just unable to recognize his own worth, due to the toxic way royal Icewings are raised, warping his perception of what strength means. When he meets Foeslayer, who is said to be an ancient enemy of his people, his mind cuts through the veneer of tradition and old bullshit justifications and sees her imprisonment for the cruel injustice that it is. He then undoes that injustice and frees her. It takes an incomprehensible amount of personal integrity and willpower to just casually defy the will of your entire country like that. This is equivalent to treason; by aiding her, Winter risks becoming an enemy of his people on par with Foeslayer herself. And he does it anyway, because it is the right thing to do.

This dissonance in his perception of strength with regards to his Icewing upbringing, and the actual strength he embodies and has embodied all this time, is something I would have liked to see explored more in the finale or something. As it stands now, he got pressured into putting his life on the line in the battle for Jade Mountain, has sworn loyalty to a people that mistreated him and tried to ruin him from a young age, and then got saddled with an existential nightmare of an ending that leaves me baffled to this day.

In terms of personal misfortune, he certainly is the Starflight of his group.

Qibli

CW: Parental abuse

Qibli is a very charming and versatile character. It is easy to imagine him in a variety of different situations and the scenes almost write themselves, especially when there’s another person with him whom he can bounce off of (figuratively, though I wouldn’t put it past him to try to literally bounce off of someone too). The 10th book posits him as some kind of parallel to Darkstalker; the latter even overtly states this and tries to recruit him as a manner of apprentice. It’s interesting because I think they are actually pretty different.

Qibli excels in situations where his options are limited. He is great at thinking on his feet and coming up with solutions to problems within a restricted framework. He'd be great in an escape room. This ability of his is shown throughout the arc, but it is especially visible in Moon Rising, where his presence in a scene often makes Moon stronger, or more adept at solving problems, because his mind is breaking down the situation for her in a way she would be unable to see on her own.

The twist then comes in when you take Qibli out of that limited framework, by giving him power. His pronounced intellect is very peculiar; it needs limitation to be brilliant. When he has unhindered access to all-powerful magic (i.e. doesn’t have to clear his ideas with another person), he turns into a colossal idiot who buries cities in sand and almost blows up inhabited mountains.

It only follows that, if you were to give Qibli what he wants and make him an animus, it would absolutely ruin him. The great intellect he cultivated would wither and, unshackled from the limitations that forced him to think critically and be his most excellent self, he would end up destroying himself, and likely others too.

Another interesting facet of Qibli is how he works as a parallel to Winter and Turtle (and Peril to an extent). All of these characters come from broken homes and have suffered under abusive parental figures. Qibli’s case in particular is interesting because it showcases how your circumstances can make a difference in how well you handle that issue. Qibli suffered under a tyrannical mother and a pair of cruel siblings, but in contrast to his peers, someone from the outside noticed his suffering was able to intervene—Thorn saved him from his hell and became his rescue parent, restoring his confidence and sense of self-worth.

Because of this, when his turn comes to confront his demons, while it is still difficult and painful (because trauma always is), he is able to navigate the confrontation with comparatively more grace and control than the others. The contrast really shows how difficult it is to escape a toxic relationship if you are still mired deeply within it, and how you need to put some distance between yourself and it before you can see where you are and what needs to be done with improved clarity. That is the path to healing.

I could probably keep talking about Qibli for 15 more paragraphs, but I’ll spare you.

Kinkajou

Every protagonist (and a good deal of side characters) in Wings of Fire is broken, usually has some kind of gut-wrenching past (often due to terrible parents), and struggles to find their place in the world. Luckily here is a pink-and-yellow Rainwing who is just happy and everything is fantastic and wholesome, right?

CW: Forced starvation

Nah, Kinkajou had it pretty rough too. The story plays it like it’s a humorous quip when she finds out Moonwatcher is her roommate and bemoans that nobody is taking her “trauma” seriously, but... yeah, it actually is legitimate trauma. She was captured, bound, and trapped on a hell island without sunlight for several weeks. While there, she was not fed, and she helplessly watched people whom she knew from early childhood starve and die. Death by starvation is not pretty, she likely had to witness her friends slowly being driven mad by hunger until they withered away, and couldn’t do anything about it. Then she was rescued and returned to a home that didn’t believe her pain was real, that claimed she made it up for attention, and that some people who she thought of as friends didn’t even notice she was gone. The only one who believed her was a stranger whom she had met maybe a few hours ago.

Personally, if that happened to me and I came home to that, I’d likely have pulled a Chameleon and said “Screw the Rainwings, I’m moving to the desert.”

That Kinkajou is still able to be positive and full of energy after that is a testament to her immense mental fortitude. She might actually be one of the most stable and resilient characters in the story. Some things shake her up for a bit, but nothing can crush her.

Still, I imagine there are some times, after a really bad day maybe, where she wakes up in the middle of the night. And there, for just a moment, she is scared to open her eyes... because she might be back on the Nightwing island and has to watch someone else die.

Peril

Peril is a bit of an odd case in arc 2. She gets grouped with the protagonists of that arc and the ending implies she is integrated into the Jade Winglet as their new Skywing. I have no real problem with that, in fact it’s good on her that she’s made a little less isolated. But to me, Peril always felt like an awkward appendix to that group. Her only real friend in there is Turtle; for the rest of them they feel more like vague acquaintances, like she's tolerated for being Turtle's friend.

To be fair though, that friendship with Turtle is really strong; it’s an exciting and deep character dynamic. But if I was forced to tie Peril to a group of protagonists, my first instinct would be to associate her with the first arc protagonists instead.

This poor girl has been through it. Everyone seems to hate her and wants her to leave, sometimes for understandable reasons and sometimes it just seems bizarre. I already went into Tsunami’s disdain for her in an earlier post, but I also vaguely remember a point in Escaping Peril where she meets Qibli and he gives her a withering glare for some reason. That confused me, to be honest. I thought “What’s YOUR problem with her? Have you ever even met??” Like, I guess the Outclaws were in direct conflict with Burn since they lived in the same country, and Peril was an infamous elite combatant under the command of one of Burn’s allies, so maybe Peril killed people he knew? But then he gets over his disdain really quickly and with no comment, so whatever happened can’t have been a big deal after all.

My favorite part in her book is when everyone--after having learned about Turtle’s powers--chews him out for not having helped his country during the war, and Peril cuts through the tripe by saying something along the lines of “So if he uses the power he was born with to serve his Queen it is honorable, but when I do the same for my Queen I’m a murderer and deserve to have things thrown at me?” I love all of these guys, but they really deserved to be called out for their double standard and feel stupid for a bit.

But yeah, I really enjoy her friendship with Turtle in the end. And since he accidentally made himself virtually indestructible, it means Peril can now get all the friendly hugs she craves.

Umber

Umber is cool. He has a potentially interesting relationship with Turtle, which is implied in the latter’s book when it is mentioned that they sleep with their backs touching to comfort each other about their respective siblings not being there.

Unfortunately he gets written out of the story arc very quickly. I wish I knew more about him.

Carnelian

I like Carnelian. I feel like she had a lot of potential that gets wasted by her death, for not much gain. It is used to give Queen Ruby a reason to come to Jade Mountain and kickstart the events of Peril’s book, but the same could have been accomplished by having her learn that the Academy is housing Peril and going there to demand the extradition of a (in her eyes) dangerous and murderous fugitive.

Same as with Umber, really, I wish I knew more about her. I already said this during my Smaugust drawing session, but I like to pretend that she and Bigtail didn’t die, and instead had a mini arc about recovering from their injuries. It also has the side effect of averting some very unfortunate implications that come with Bigtail’s death.

~~~

I think that’s all of them. Good lord I talk too much. Please don’t throw crocodiles at my face for it. Tumblr is my queen, and--much like the Queen's former champion--I was made to do it.

[locuas642]

One Piece 1125

Me and some friends like to jokingly call manga "that very apolitical thing from Apolitical Japan" mostly in regards of poking fun to dudebros who are convinced their lack of understanding of Japan as a country while consuming their media is the same as that media having no commentary or the creators of the work having no opinion or politics of their own.

That is to say that, while an old tired thing to say, the manga One Piece has always had been political to a degree. that is to say, Eiichiro Oda, as a person living in Japan, has and always had opinions and politics like all other human beings. which sometimes he intentionally puts into the page, or which show by how he decides to portray certain things (despite writing about Pirates, he likely doesnt support the illegal download of Movies, for example, but it's likely he believes a good ruler is one who sees themselves as equal to the common people, with how often that type of leader comes again and again as the "right" kind of leader).

This is to say that when I say this latest arc of One Piece was very political, it's to say this might be the most clear Oda has been in making a statement with his art.

through a transmission across the world, the characters just had a massive reveal for the series in the way of an allegory for Climate Change: the world is going to sink. and this is not a natural phenomenon, but it's going to be a Man Made disaster carried out by the people who are in charge of this world. As a result, we see those same people in charge reacting to the fact most of the world has learned the truth.

One Vice Admiral, a rank that the series has given an animal motif of being Dogs (government dogs, get it?) asks one of the elders wether or not it's true.

And they are immediatly punished.

That same elder, who failed to stop that transmission, is killed and replaced by the leader of the world. Meanwhile, the Celestial Dragons, who represent the super 1%, have their concern be not with the state of the world, but with the minor inconvinience of not getting to eat as much food as they want. Because the plan was always for them in specific to be safe.

this is as we learn that the effects of these news will be what happens when a major crisis leads to desperation among the common people to survive: War is coming.

if that is not using your work to say something about the world i dont know what is

[ettawritesnstudies]

For this definition, the craft of storytelling can refer to the coherency of plot(holes), character development, worldbuilding, the style of the prose.

I'm excluding fanfiction because I'm trying to do research on the published fiction market for my own sake.

When I refer to tropes I'm broadly speaking about genre and categories (e.g. if you typically read fantasy romance, what would you rate a psychological thriller?) as well as the conventional archetypes and tropes within the genre (if you enjoy high fantasy with dragons and elves and stock creatures versus high fantasy with wholly unique worlds. Either could have good or bad worldbuilding on the Y axis depending on execution but the inclusion of the beings themselves is a trope that aligns with personal taste.)

Feel free to label the graph and share it in the reblogged with your commentary, and also share whether or not you're a writer and how that's changed your point of view. I'll share mine in a reblog.

[t4le-4s-0ld-4s-t1m3]

So I'm on youtube, looking for reviews of Damsel because I loved it and wanted to find a comment section with like-minded people. Only I never ended up participating in any discussions. Oh there were a bunch a reviews, some of them positive. But I got distracted by the overwhelming amount of reviews made by middle-aged white men with horrible titles.

Now did I expect everyone to like it ? No, of course not, taste is subjective. Do I think the movie is perfect ? No, it's a B-movie if we're being honest, the plot is very basic and there is not a lot of depth, though I think there is more than meets the eye. It's a power fantasy movie, with all the suspension of disbelief and fun that entails. A turn your brain off, you leave feeling badass kind of movie.

All the same, the heartbreak and frustration I feel after clicking on a few of them, watching about a minute, and going through the comment sections is immeasurable. Because the commentary was always the same, "this is anti-white men" (media literacy is dead by the way, because how ? How was that a conclusion ?), "hollywood pushing the girlboss agenda", "worse movie ever", "why do all female protagonists have to be strong, why can't they be soft", "feminists and their anti-marriage propaganda". Guys, I don't know if it's just because I'm in my mid-twenties now, or because more men have become radicalised, or both. But I am so, so tired of this shit. So tired of feeling like some men want to put me in a very small box and keep me there because they feel entitled to it. And I'm by no means someone who doesn't largely fit in the mould to begin with. I'm a girly-girly with no desire to act like a man or fight like one. I appreciate book Sansa Stark so much for the symbol of soft power that she is, and I do agree that there should be more women like her in fiction. But that these men feel not only comfortable, but entitled to throw so many tantrums trying to shame and force me to never stray from the mould, and watch as they do the same to women who do not and should not have to fit into it, more and more grating. Why can't we have power fantasy movies ? Why does it make them so angry ? I've never seen their power fantasy movies get dunked on. Hell, we usely enjoy them alongside them. Why can't they do the same ? Why must everything targeted at us be something for them to ridicule ?

And do you know what the worse part is ? While watching the movie, I caught myself thinking "most of this isn't unrealistic for a fit woman with magical healing slugs, she only really survives because the dragon is sadistic and enjoys prolonging her suffering, surely the filmbros won't get too annoying". I already knew on some level what was going to happen, because it's what always happens isn't it ? I wast just too hopeful it seems.

[blackautmedia]

It ended up being way more intensive than I had planned, but I did finish the writing for the Zelda video.

I managed to grab that James Somerton video he made about queer portrayals in Nintendo before it was privated. I haven't located any evidence suggesting it was plagiarized given the extent he's done it in nearly all his videos but that doesn't mean it hasn't occurred. I'm still trying to search and see if I can find any evidence of plagiarism to credit its proper author(s) if it is in fact stolen. There will be a section discussing the intersection of queerness and race with queer readings of Link and the Gerudo.

That aside, I wanted to share a bit! I picked out paragraphs out of order from how they're actually written, but these are a few of the points in the section about "the natural order of Hyrule."

Both film and TV westerns purport to be based on US history: the past is reframed as a glorious undertaking, the fulfillment of God's wish for his chosen people or as a rescue mission designed to rescue the pitiful other from himself or from some demonic other. Such fantasies serve to justify and legitimize colonial norms and practices. Stam and Spence explain that the colonial enterprise was often presented as a philanthropic "civilizing mission," reframing the colonial presence as a humanitarian intervention rather than an invasion. - Native Americans on Network TV : Stereotypes, Myths, and the 'Good Indian'

In Zelda Lore, it's said according to an entry in Hyrule Historia that "Hylians possessed a special power: it was said that their long ears allowed them to hear the voices of the gods." there's an inherent birth connection to the gods and to divinity in this series.

The best examples of community portrayal in the game exist when you remove Link from the equation. There are numerous instances of the different tribes providing support to one another--the Gerudo providing aid to refugees of Lurelin village, people providing resources to the Rito in their time of crisis, and the construction town helping in the rebuilding effort.

But a central part of what separates gaming from other types of media like books and TV is that you're not just a reader or viewer, but a player--you're asked to actively take part in the narrative and influence it yourself.

That community commentary also conflicts with the desire to treat Link as a demigod with the most major figures in the story continually sacrificing their autonomy and personhood to become resources that Link is ultimately to wield. Rauru gifts Link with some of his powers to save him from the Gloom. Mineru becomes little more than a rock 'em sock 'em robot for Link to pilot with little to no actual concern for her as a person.

Zelda is given the illusion of having agency in this story with how she orchestrates the conditions for Link to be able to defeat Ganon, but ultimately that doesn't come from her utilizing her research skills or building off the things her family provided her. Rauru even says he believes Zelda arrived to them for a reason, and based on what happens, it was ultimately so she could sacrifice herself yet again.

I'm not in the camp of people who wanted to see Zelda permanently stay a dragon at the end, I just want Zelda to not continually be sidelined in a series that constantly asks to sacrifice herself so she can't be an active part of the story.

The land and society once owned by gods must be restored and brought to its former glory as it is fated to be led by the divinely chosen Hylians. To that end, to defeat the evil and violent Middle Easterner who has defied the natural order of Hyrule, everyone must sacrifice themselves for Link to become the divine governor of power.

(This portion is part of the conclusion)

In thinking over what to write for this last portion, I came away feeling Nintendo's patterns here are a good example of why we should heavily value and take seriously the talents of artists and character designers.

It's important because art is so valuable in how it shapes the implications of the story, intentional or not.

I'm not here to convince you to boycott or stop playing Zelda because the issue goes beyond the scope of this individual franchise. What I ask more than anything is to see the people being propagandized as human and to equip yourself with the tools to better detect and resist the narratives both in fiction and non-fictional media.

[haljathefangirlcat]

My dealer: got some straight gas 🔥😛 this strain is called “Beowulf” 😳 you’ll be zonked out of your gourd 💯

Me: yeah whatever. I don’t feel shit.

literal years later, when I least expected it: dude I swear I just saw Cain's spawn lurking in the fens

My buddy the narrator pacing: Hrothulf is plotting against his uncle

The thing about Beowulf is... I never quite got the hype about it. (Yes, we're not Supposed to use words like "hype" about world literature Classics, especially from ancient times, or to make light of them in general. Shut up and contemplate the fact that social media posts expressing nothing more than personal opinions and feelings aren't generally meant to be the same thing as academic work to be shared between academians in an academic context.) Ofc, I understood its historical value, including in terms of linguistics and philology. But in terms of "would I pick this as reading material to obsess and fall into a research hole over"? Despite trying a few times, I never quite got past ALL the references to God every other line. ("Snorri was an Evil Zealot who set out to knowingly and purposefully Christianize Norse mythology For The Evulz" crowd, I will tattoo each and every single one of those all over your body so you can't look into a mirror without accidentally reading one ever again.) The apparently disjointed "Beowulf fights Grendel and then Grendel's mother in Denmark. Years later, after going back to Sweden and becoming king, he also fights a dragon but this time he dies" narrative didn't really appeal to me, either. Nor did the presence of (afaik) exactly one (1) named female character. (Wealhtheow, babe, in hindsight I'm so sorry.)

I'm not sure what changed, exactly. It's just that, some time ago, I finally got around to reading Grendel by John Gardner, and I loved it and thought "wow, this would have made me either bawl my eyes out or stare off into space for like five-to-ten minutes after finishing it, had I read it as a teen." And after that, I found myself thinking "well, now I should probably get to know know the original story," and finally picking up my copy of Tolkien's translation of Beowulf, and realzing there actually was a lot going on in the story, and getting way too engaged in the looming "Hrothulf kills Hrothgar's kids" subplot that doesn't even really resurface in any later material about Hrolf Kraki (though those aren't exactly free from fucked-up family dynamics, either...), and going "!!! Volsungar mention!!!!" at the bit about Sigemund and Fitela despite already knowing about the Sigemund and Fitela bit and the whole "who actually killed the dragon first/in which tradition" question, and losing my mind at the bit about Hama and the "necklace of the Brosings" and "Eormanaric's hate" because, yeah, I already knew about that one, too, kind of, but recently I've gone into a little bit of a Brisingamen deep-dive, and a while ago I read a really interesting commentary and translation of the Hildebrandslied that had quite a lot to say not just about the specific hatred/enmity of a powerful king for an adventurous hero but also about the shift from Odoacher to Ermanric as Dietrich' von Bern's enemy, which ofc (?) got me thinking about Eormanaric/Ermanric/Jormunrek's apparent widespread reputation for being an asshole, something there probably has to be some accessible paper in English about somewhere out there...

Ahem. Anyway, I also found myself alternating reading Tolkien's translation with watching Grendel Grendel Grendel, the weird and very simplified and toned down but still somehow very enjoyable and sad kids' movie adaptation of Gardner's Grendel. And Beowulf & Grendel, the one without any magic where Grendel's a traumatized Neanderthal on a quest of vengeance that's somehow also quite a good watch despite the wonky editing, the cast and crew being possibly cursed by the Norse gods, and ofc, the time-displaced Neanderthals. And Animated Epics: Beowulf, which I might have actually watched once as a child, thinking about it. And Simon Roper and Jackson Crawford's read-along, featuring interesting linguistic, literary, and historical notes as well as Australian!Hrothgar, Beowulf making it exceedingly clear that "some of my best friends are Danes!", and some unforgettable exchanges such as "I used to tell my students the story about that time I almost drove off a cliff when they were worried about their exams to make them undestand that I, too, had experienced the fear of death :|" "I'm glad you didn't perish :)" "Thanks. :|" (I'm on the Fits 8-11 video, btw. Even if, when it comes to Tolkien's translation, I'm already at the part where Beowulf says goodbye to Hrothgar and sails back to the land of the Geats. Look, I remebered thos videos existed somewhat belatedly.)

I think eventually I might also end up rewatching The 13th Warrior (which I'm gonna go out on a limb and say might be the true origin of the ahistorical Neanderthals in Beowulf & Gredenl, but I remember liking that one, too). And Outlander (my beloved "aliens crash-land in Viking Age Scandinavia and fight each other while being Sad & Tragic in their own ways" one, not the Scottish one) but specifically as a Beowulf reimagining this time around (rather than as "the movie that could have totally had the Brooding Hero, Fiery But Sweet Warrior Woman, and Hotheaded Rival-Turned-Friend invent modern polyamory, because that wouldn't have been weirder than having a character called Boromir" like every other time). Maybe that weird post-apocalyptic Beowulf that was the first to do the "Grendel's mom's got it goin' on" thing, too, at least if I can find that snarky review of it on Youtube again. Probably not the Uncanny CGI Desperately Trying To Be Live-Action 20O5 Beowulf where the titular hero keeps screaming "BEOWULF!!" and "I'M BEOWULF!!!" just in case the audience's intelligence levels can't be considered to be above the average rock's, and that also decided to add a foot fetish/body paint kink note to its cover of Grendel's Mom, though, unless I can find any snarky review of it. (I remember reading somewhere that the director actually hated Beowulf, as in the poem itself, and accepting the bit of info without question. The high heels-shaped feet are just one of the reasons why I wonder if anyone ever asked him if perhaps he hated women, too. At least his work supposedly contributed to the writers of Outlander being told "there's already too many Beowulf movies coming out!" and going "whatever, we're gong to do our own thing! With blackjack and hookers aliens and shieldmaidens", so I should probably thank him for that.)

Unfortunately, while I'm pretty sure I'll be able to avoid writing down a list of Adaptations I Absolutely Need To Check Out One Day Or I'll Die (i.e. Every Single I've Ever Heard About) like I did for The Nibelungs In Their Every Possible Form, all of this had the unforeseen side effect of reminding me that, even when I didn't have much if any interest in Beowulf, I used to have a bit of soft spot for Unferth. I mean, how could I not, when I imprinted on Hagen von Tronje when I was eleven-years-old? Give me a guy who knows all of The Hero's heroic deeds and still doesn't find him all that impressive from their very first meeting, and I'll just "👀" at him. Though from what I knew, this guy in particular seemed to go against his character type by becoming more friendly with the hero and lending him his ancestral sword, which seemed pretty interesting. Especially because he was apparently a fratricide, too? And you wouldn't expect a guy who killed his own brothers and got a "... and that's why you'll go to Hell!" by The Hero over it to have any kind of redemption arc/sudden reveal of hidden depths in any positive sense. And there was also that paper (which, ofc, I didn't bookmark at the time, and now I want to kick myself for that until I remember the title or at least the author...) arguing that maybe him telling off Beowulf about the swimming race was less about him as a person and more about him having a specifc role among the thanes in Heorot that included testing strangers requesting to speak with Hrothgar to figure out if they really were who they claimed to be or if they could actually live up to their reputation...

Again, I blame John Gardner, at least in part. He has a really crunchy Unferth, who definitely reawakened my interest in the character. The on in Grendel Grendel Grendel wasn't half-bad, either, though very different in some respects. But the original, too, ended up being actually so much more fun (meaning, so much more to chew on/rotate in my mind) than I could have imagined from my vague memories.

First you've got the iconic "didn't you look like a total loser against Breca, and isn't that literally all there is to know about you?" "shut up, you're drunk, a kinslayer, someone I have never heard anyone tell heroic tales about, and also, maybe if you were braver Grendel wouldn't keep eating you guys" banter, and I'm starting to realize that might be already more juicy, in terms of both Beowulf's and Unferth's characterizations and their interactions together, than I ever thought it was. Then you've got a line that sounds an awful lot like "everyone could see Grendel's severed arm hanging from the ceiling and that shut Unferth up" and seems to imply some sort of lingering bitterness on Unferth's side when Heorot is in the middle of the celebrations for Grendel's death. But then Unferth actually starts being described in much more favorable terms, almost as if the narrator were pointing out that, despite what the audience might think after his first appearance, there's a reason he's close to Hrothgar and has a good place in his hall... even if at the same time Unferth's praised for his "mighty heart" (something quite different from cowardice), wisdom, and the trust everyone in Heorot apparently has in his mind, there's actually another reference to him having had no mercy for his relatives "in the play of swords" in the past. (Fun little detail: that line comes right after one to the effect of "Hrothgar and Hrothulf were there and no betrayal had yet happened between them"...)

Until, finally, you get Beowulf preparing to go fight Grendel's mother and Unferth giving him his family's swords, Hrunting. And all kinds of entertaining things happen in relation to Hrunting.

You've got Unferth not remembering his first words to Beowulf because he was just really, really, really drunk when he said them, which seems to go well with Beowulf himself calling out his speech as a drunken boast but not with the "that shut him up" line I mentioned before. (Which leads me to wonder: was he actually too drunk to know what he was saying? Or did Beowulf give him an easy out in case he regretted it, which Unferth eventually chose to take to try and smooth things over?) You've got Unferth being "mighty of valour" yet not daring to go after Grendel's mother himself and "forfeiting glory" while giving his weapon to a "worthier" warrior, but his sword getting some lengthy praise nonetheless, to the point of being basically deemed infallible, and Beowulf not only not making any more comments on Unferth's supposed lack of bravery but calling him a man of "wide renown", praising his sword some more, vowing to succeed in his heroic feat with Hrunting or die trying, and telling Hrothgar that no matter what happens, Unferth must get it back when it's all over. And after that... you've got Hrunting utterly failing to kill or even harm Grendel's mother.

Except, that's literally the first time it ever fails at anything? And Beowulf can only kill Grendel's mother when, with the help of God, he finds a magical sword forged by giants, which implies there was no problem with it (and, by extension, with Unferth?) as the whole situation simply needed a little something extra to be dealt with?

Then, you've got Beowulf actually bringing Hrunting back, even if it wasn't much use to him when it really mattered. And praising it again, making sure to publicly clarify, while addressing Hrothgar himself, that no, it really is an excellent sword. And, after some more "the monster is dead!" celebration, Unferth himself (unambiguously "bold", now) having the sword brought over again not just to lend it Beowulf, but to gift it to him.... a weapon that is both nothing to sneeze at and, as Beowulf himself has acknowledged while praising it, a family heirloom. (From a guy who probably already has enough complicated feelings about his family without running around giving that kind of stuff away, to boot!) One Beowulf accepts once more, and gladly, already figuring it will be "a good friend in war, a power in battle" and saying absolutely nothing bad about it (the narrator goes "oh he's so gallant!" at him after that bit, which is admittedly kind of hilarious in itself, but still, imho, not really much to go on if you want to think he's not being sincere) right before he announces his intentions to sail back home.

I'm gonna be honest: I had already read most fics tagged Beowulf/Unferth on AO3 before this Beowulf binge. And now, I've gone and reread them. I've actually read the ones I'd missed the first time around, too. Not that it took me much time at all, but still. WildandWhirling has two really lovely ones. This innuendo-heavy one is a delight to read, too.

I think I might end up writing at least one more. Maybe canon!verse, if I manage not to spiral into researching Old English attitudes to homosexuality, or maybe Modern!AU, if I manage to find a good way to transliterate "sailing off to another country to slay monsters" in this century in a convincing way. Even just to have more than six works in the tag itself. But we'll see...

I suppose, in the end, the whole point of this random, almost stream-of-consciousness post (besides freeing up my head from at least some of my recent Beowulf thoughts) might have turned out to be just that, no matter who they are, fangirls will, indeed, always make them gay. (... I say, as if this was a surprise and I didn't already ship a number Nibelungenlied-and-adjacent gay ships I got into way before any of this.) It wasn't its original purpose but *shrug* I'll take it.

Then again... come on. All that talking about swords. *grin*

[mdhwrites]

Fantasy Versus Reality As a Theme: Does TOH Have It?

I REALLY wanted to make this a Jumbled Thoughts blog but honestly talking about The Owl House’s elements in this regard, and if it’s even capable of the theme properly, is too all encompassing to use as simply an example. That’s what the media references in my Jumbled Thoughts blogs are meant to be after all: An example to help reinforce and demonstrate the main point of the blog. For this though, I want to talk about the fact that I talk a lot about The Owl House having this theme. Fantasy versus Reality. Kind of like calling Belos boring, it’s one of those concepts I still fundamentally agree with but I’ve never properly supported in argument so I want to do that now because anyone who disagrees has good reason to do so. After all, the majority of TOH is fairly basic adventure fantasy. For all of its attempts at subversion, most of its answers to problems are either classic or lazy fantasy answers. How it brings characters together, the outcomes of situations, etc. like that map pretty closely to normal fantasy. And... I actually don’t mean that in the way of magic. When we talk about this theme, it’s much more about escapism. It’s actually what makes Luz’s commentary in the second episode so important. She explicitly talks about escapist and romantic literature tropes that she is hoping to fall into. That she is destined for greatness. That this is where she always belonged. The escapism King demonstrates in the first episode and many of his B plots where he doesn’t see the world around him as it is but this romantic version where he is its ruler is actually in theory playing into this as well. Both characters want a version of reality that is not what is actually around them. This is not a terrible base... And it’s also not anything special when it comes to criticism of the fantasy genre. When it comes to trying to subvert it. As an example: I really like a game called Sunless Skies and it has DOZENS of different takes on fantasy and eldritch stories. There’s one where you help lead a rebellion on a work world, look like you’re going to make a real impact... And it barely improves anything. The revolutionary you helped just becomes the new governer of the place because if the workers stop working, if the conditions are changed too drastically... Everyone there will freeze and die. From their lower position, the workers can’t see that so the main thing you gain for them is that instead of forcing them to pretend to be happy for tourists, now people can go see the actual work conditions and sympathize with these people trapped in fantasy sweatshops. Also, they will rebel again if you do not keep them happy on subsequent visits. And this is just ONE story in that game. I can’t 100% recommend the game because it is a TIME SINK (I have over 50 hours into my most recent file and are by no means through all the content) but it is a very good one and I suggest checking it out to see if it looks like something you’d like. I bring this example up partially because it highlights two of the core elements in making this theme work: Consequences and follow through. See, one of the biggest problems for the fantasy genre is that a lot of things get cleaned up a bit too neatly. You beat the big bad emperor and the entire empire gives up. You do something nice for a dragon and that dragon is now a proper ally and going to win you the war effort. When used bluntly and without follow through, this stuff, from people who don’t like the genre, can feel cheap and bad. It can feel like just bad storytelling while a lot of fans of fantasy will say that the journey to beating the big bad or the cost in order to get the dragon to help is what makes it compelling and makes them suspend disbelief for the ending. Consequences and Follow Through demand two things though: Focus and complexity. If the consequences don’t make sense, the theme is going to feel cheap and so they need to be reasonably complex to the solution presented. You also need focus so that it feels like what is happening is actually because of previous events and not because of it just being the plot of the day. I have talked at length about how TOH lacks both of these, though much more the focus than complexity so let’s talk about complexity and we’ll do it with one of the most obvious failures of this: Willow and Amity. A common trope to escapism and kids shows says that once you have your big emotional moment, you two are friends. It doesn’t matter what came before. You two are now allies and ready to fight for each other, if maybe not die. This is done because it allows whatever cost it took to get here to have a satisfying payoff and now the characters can interact freely without having to come up with reason as to why they’re hanging out. It can feel cheap but it’s a very useful narrative tool to boil it down to one act of kindness and one act of forgiveness. But that is fantasy. In reality, if you’ve hurt someone for years and the original mark was incredibly cruel, it can take much more than that to heal. This is why Willow states that she isn’t ready to be friends yet. The problem is that this won’t get brought up again for over half a season and by that time, Amity will have been made into a full good guy, full stop, the girlfriend to the main character and also played Grudgby side by side with Willow in order to save Luz’s ass.

So, to put it mildly, follow through is fucked here. How about complexity? Well, that comes down to how the two actually do finally become friends because the show does decide to pretend that the statement wasn’t just a blatant lie. Amity shows up at Willow’s house and asks if invading her girlfriend’s privacy is okay. Now... A reminder. Willow has categorically had the best morals in the series. She spoke up multiple times throughout S1 about those morals. Anytime someone wanted to break the rules, she was the first to say something besides Hooty’s Moving Hassle. She’s the one who makes the broadcast in support of saving Eda. As a note, this is part of why I think Willow repressing emotions is kind of bullshit. And here is Amity, her bully for NINE YEARS, asking for her permission to betray a friend’s trust and privacy. And yet Willow doesn’t lose it, doesn’t say it’s wrong, doesn’t call Amity out for not having actually changed but instead shrugs at the question and comments on it being weird to have Amity over at her house. Then she asks for her hair to be braided. And then the only other time this gets brought up has to do with Willow wanting Amity to respect how strong of a witch she is which frankly at that point makes Amity appear to be blind and deaf since how powerful her magic is is like 80% of her character in S2, if not the show in general. Which... Brings it back around to Amity needing to just have a heart to heart with Willow and now they’re best friends fighting together. Which just loops us right back around to the initial point with a lot more time wasted. And this is EVERY time that the show tries to make this theme have any bit to it. You do have Eda in the first half of S1 actually making statements for it because she’s just mean and sarcastic at Luz for most of that portion of the show and openly mocking every attempt Luz has about the world being fantastical or trying to apply normal fantasy or escapist tropes to things. But none of it really sticks. In fact, for half the show, the writing just isn’t willing to be mean enough to Luz in order for the escapism to be questioned and make Eda feel like she’s making real statements. After all, ALL of Hexide is textbook escapism. Two immediate best friends who are at the top of their fields and love you, a rival who you can show up, bonus points for them actually being your romantic interest because BOY is TOH not the progenitor of rivals to lovers, and you immediately are the most special kid in school, logic be damned. Worse yet, Luz straight up equates shit between her and Amity to the Azura series and NOT being refuted on it. Not having that bite her and have her lose points with Amity. Instead, those wants for escapism and re-enactment explicitly lead to some of the biggest moments in which she grows closest to Amity. Adventure in the Elements is even like this where her wanting a shortcut with magic to play the witch is what leads to her getting a power up and saving the day. So... Why do I claim that TOH still was at bare minimum trying to go for this theme even if it so obviously failed? Well... Because it is the explicit theme of Luz’s character for HALF THE SHOW. In a really smart show, Yesterday’s Lie is when that other foot drops. It shows how much damage Luz’s fantasy has done to others and calls her out properly for it, forcing Luz to actually change how she behaves and interacts with things. Hollow Mind does the same thing but even more severely. Luz states the latter multiple times while Vee herself screams at Luz about how good her reality was and yet she threw it away for a fantasy. That is explicitly trying to make this theme and change Luz’s behavior for it. The problem is the inciting incident of one of these two is AFTER THE FIRST ONE. Elsewhere Elsewhen is S2B after all where Luz doesn’t question her lies, how a person is reacting to things, the fact that things are going so easily for her, etc. like that. She’s treating it still like a fantasy tale. So Vee’s words obviously didn’t stick. This is even more demonstrated by the fact that her promise to her mother is haunting her far more in Falls and Follies than anything to do with her having actually fucked up. She’s more worried, explicitly, about losing the fantasy than introspecting on what she has in front of her. Now yes, this all is handled EXTREMELY poorly. I’ve talked about how Luz’s ‘trauma’ is really poorly written, especially from a fantasy standpoint. If we want to talk about escapism and simple answers to complex problems, we just have to look at Luz’s character finish. She takes the question of accidentally having helped bad people achieve bad goals and somehow turns that into “All I needed was to be understood” and that gets her to stop questioning her actions or feeling bad. It is... bonkers how badly the fall outs from Hollow Mind and Yesterday’s Lie are handled. But it almost doesn’t matter for this blog. How poorly or well it’s handled is good to interrogate but the question is if this is a theme of the show? Is it proper to criticize the show for not following through on it, contradicting it, etc. like that. And normally how well a show does a theme actually does determine if it’s a theme of the show. But TOH states it. TOH makes it explicit. They have, in multiple episodes, stated as a thesis of the show, character arcs, etc. like that, in the text of the show, that this is a theme. That this is the point. That there are consequences to you living out your fantasy and denying reality. It makes arguing that it doesn’t impossible because the writers make it clear that this was part of the intent. Much like how you have to judge Eda, King and Luz’s relationship as found family rather than just as friends because the show makes them explicitly a family. Explicitly tries to make itself about found family. Regardless of how true that is.

It’s another one of those elements of the show that make it appear to be BEGGING to be analyzed. After all, most shows prioritize, I dunno, showing off their concepts more than their themes because the concept matters more. The themes people get out of the work is a secondary, more academic enjoyment. This is, yes, normally considered a higher class of enjoyment but I think as a content creator, if that’s your focus then you need to get your head out of your ass unless you are explicitly writing something that’s trippy as balls where the symbolism is also the substance. An adventure, comedy show for kids is not that. The themes should be a secondary priority after just telling a good, engaging, morally rich narrative. Avatar the Last Airbender has themes but when the show starts, those aren’t the point. It’s about meeting Aang, Zuko, Sokka, Katara, understanding their dynamics, understanding their world, their viewpoints etc. like that. It focuses on engaging you through these elements before it gets into its deeper lessons or goals. Even then, those elements are usually still explicitly tied to the characters. Episode 2 of TOH doesn’t do that though. Most of the elements in that episode will be contracted by season 2 (cool to be threatening the child you adopted with rent Eda. Real cool.), we don’t learn much about any of these characters that we didn’t know from the first episode, it doesn’t really establish their dynamic because S1 struggles to have a dynamic with the three of them because Luz is so busy with Hexide stuff and so... The point to the second episode is about that theme. About having a message of “There are no chosen ones” and “Luz, you can’t treat this like you’re the hero in a fantasy book.” And the only reason I’m not commenting on how much the finale is a complete failure of these themes is because I’m waiting until Saturday to do that. But trust me, a show as loud and blunt as TOH as to have thesis statements in the show really couldn’t finish without admitting it had failed to stay on point, somewhat like this rambling blog. And a final note while I’m rambling: It is good for stories to have themes. I’m not saying they shouldn’t. Some will even state their themes, like Amphibia did at the end of its series. But... They usually do it at the end either from a position of strength where they can go back, evaluate their story, etc. like that and say it with confidence, or it can feel like they’re pulling nothing out of their ass right at the end to act like there was a deeper point to the story. TOH is more unique in that it pulled shit out of its ass MID STORY and then didn’t follow up on it. It knew, explicitly, what it wanted its themes to be and still failed to properly follow through or execute on the majority of them and that’s MIND BOGGLING. After all, if you have a theme in mind, your narrative and characters should support that. And I hope I’ve made it clear how much that’s not the case, bare minimum with this theme. ======== I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too.

[utilitycaster]

A lot of people who try to analyze religion in Exandria need to watch the Adventuring Academy episode where Brennan and Matt talked about worldbuilding, specifically when Matt said “In a game like dungeons and dragons, or a lot of role playing games where ultimately part of the game is to overcome villains and rise up and become a hero, there has to be some level of universal antagonism… there is a pure and defined entity or force that is evil, it may not be realistic to some stories out there, but that’s [how it works in DND].”

This is true, and it's really interesting to watch this happen because Matt will make a huge, unambiguous evil like Lucien or the Vanguard, or Brennan will do so with Asmodeus and people will do everything they can to try to come up with reasons to woobify them or argue why they're justified...but I haven't seen this happen in most of the D20 seasons, and I think it's because the villains in most D20 seasons have been things that reinforce people's beliefs, namely, capitalism and abuse of religious power. And to be clear, capitalism and abuse of religious power fucking suck, but it's telling that people assume the villain is capitalism in places where that doesn't apply on a wide scale, or in some cases, exist (EXU Calamity, Neverafter); or that the Ruby Vanguard or Tomb Takers, both of which have pretty much every single hallmark of a cult but just aren't affiliated with the main pantheon, are actually the good guys.

Incidentally: this is like, quite literally how people get sucked into cults. One of the leading cult researchers in the world, Janja Lalich, is a survivor of a now dissolved explicitly leftist/anti-capitalist cult. Abuses of power, which is, ultimately, what both Brennan and Matt lean on as their Universal Antagonist traits, rely on confirming people's existing biases and exploiting them - even if those biases are broadly good! This is in fact why I can get so fucking adamant about what is mostly silly fandom shit, because I do, on some level, look at some takes that completely lack critical thinking and am like oh you'd 100% buy into all kinds of dangerous patterns of thought if someone packaged it nicely; even something as stupid as the Caleb Werewolf Theory relied on circumstantial evidence and false information that you could easily verify was false. And it's annoying but mostly harmless in the context of fandom, but it always makes me wonder - does this person do this with political posts on social media?

Anyway getting back to the main point, I think watching/listening to Brennan commentary on Adventuring Academy is generally a really good idea because he is a very smart guy with a philosophy degree and has a strong grasp of the genres in which he works as well as TTRPGs as a storytelling medium, and talks to other people who also have a good understanding of the morality of fantasy stories. And if you listen to this, you will in fact get that the basis of evil in these stories is not something as specific as "capitalism" or "religion"; it's quite literally as basic as "exploiting other people simply because that is an option available to you and you don't care about them." And obviously that's the whole basis of capitalism, and it's a serious problem that exists within organized religion, but like...not to repeat myself from this weekend but I keep thinking about the "Suvi without the imperialism" and it's like...she is a 20 year old woman whose parents died for a cause and we have had ONE episode with her as an adult. We know nothing about the Empire except that it's an empire and it is at war. Like, can you look at imperialism and understand why it's bad? Can you separate the concept of imperalism - which, to be clear, is based on power structures - from say, your 21st century understanding of empires in the real world? Or do you see the word Empire and go "Bad Thing" without any capacity to analyze because that's how you end up looking at two flawed things in a story (well, if we're lucky; see the middle paragraph) and deciding one is perfect and correct for no reason other than because it opposes the thing you think is worse. And Brennan is REALLY good at skewering that, and Matt is REALLY good at portraying multiple complicated and flawed perspectives, but you do have to like, use your brain slightly.

[annierosaart]

Ask game:

Fandom: RWBY 3, 19; Arknights 13, 15, 16.

Ship: FiaExu 10, 16; TexLapp 1, 9

Character: Exusiai 5, 7; Gavial 17, 20

Forgot to answer, my bad!

RWBY:

3 - ...which scene I would like to erase from the universe and why.

Weiss getting stabbed so Jaune could unlock his semblance. Yeah.

19 - ...one behind-the-scenes trivia fact I've learned somewhere and my thoughts on it.

from the Volume 9 commentary. get this shit away from me.

Arknights: (presume when i say fanon, i mean the queerer part of it, not the very reddit part)

13 - ...which canon or popular fanon relationship I can't stand or feel 'meh' about and why.

i've talked about how on the best of days i'm neutral towards FiaMos, and usually just don't like it, but here's a 'hot' take specifically for the side of the fandom i'm in:

PL just. does not read as a polycule to me. for various reasons i won't get into, you can DM me about it, but i'm really just meh on it, they don't feel close in that way.

also despite loving Mumu, SaMuel as an actual thing just doesn't do much for me, soz.

15 - ...which character I would choose for the chopping block if I knew the writers wanted to kill someone.

I think one that has the potential to end up being a meaningful death would be Hoshiguma or Swire. Note that I don't dislike them, far from it, I just think the death of either would shake things up for the LGD gang's dynamics in a compelling way.

16 - ...which character's death would (or did) make me rage-quit.

knowing Outcast's fate has made it difficult for me to start catching up on Act 2, haha. but not enough to rage-quit. if i had to say... Blaze. her hypothetically dying at this point would be for cheap shock value alone.

FiaExu:

10 - ...rate the level of stupid they reach in their pining.

on a scale of "regular" to "no media literacy" in stupid... burns ramen in the microwave. hopelessly pining, thinking the other has no interest in them, when it's mutual, extremely so. like lovers exchanging sexually charged letters in the 1800s.

16 - ...three of my fic recs for this ship. And (in the event that I've written something for them) one of my fics involving them that I'm most proud of.

brother there's barely that many to begin with. but!

Birdhouse In Your Soul by burstfoot on Ao3 (and tumblr! hi @burstfoot)

The movie was a pretense to curl up on the couch with you. by inRemote on Ao3 and tumblr as well, made for me as a gift!

aaand the Arknights Drabble Collection by wolfgirlsmooches, the FiaExu sections :3

... aand of course, the one I'm most proud of?

Night Running BAYBEEEEEEE

TexLapp:

1 - ...about my absolute favorite of their scenes and why I love it so much.

a tie between the sexually charged chocolate feeding (for obvious reasons) and the truck scene. the truck scene has a place in my heart specifically because it is the most direct homage Arknights has made to Yakuza/Lika A Dragon, specifically to Majima's various truck stunts!

9 - ...what my ideal endgame for them is.

what Kiryu and Majima end up having: a bittersweet, tenuous rivalry that at the same time is lined by an understanding that only they are allowed to kill each other, no one else.

Exusiai:

5 - ...if I feel like the writers mistreat them or if the story would be better if they were taken down a peg.

please for the love of god let her participate in laterano events i'm begging on my knees it's literally her place of birth

7 - ...the scene that I think adds depth to their character or the relationship this character has with someone.

2-7 after. despite an earlier comment of Exusiai's showing she still has a lot to learn about Infected, this is one of the first... and also few examples we get of a Sankta directly sympathizing with others.

other examples of this always come from Ezell and herself, which I think is no coincidence.

the anime emphasizes this further by having her get mad on the Infected's behalf

Gavial:

17 - ...how well they'd do if they got dropped in a horror movie.

gavial is half serious, half gag character. that gag half protects her from any serious harm a horror movie villain could do to her.

20 - ...my queer headcanon for them. Unless they're canonically queer, in which case whether or not I think they're good representation or kinda badly explored.

Bisexual, demiromantic!

[herotome]

i'd like to know more about what you mentioned in the tags then, about taking inspiration from outside media! i remember when i first played the demo it hit just right cause i'd just watched the boys and i was hungry for more hero cynicism lol

Aw hell yeah!!

Okay so actually - I take very little inspiration from modern hero media, if any. I did grow up watching Justice League (2001-2004), Static Shock, and Batman the Animated Series and take some tonal inspiration from my memories of them (in which heroes generally try their best and it isn't always enough, villains tend to have sympathetic motives, also Mr Freeze is there and he's my big favorite), but that's about it.

When I started taking an interest in game design, I took deep inspiration from games with stories and mechanics that really resonated with me:

Mystic Messenger: I took heavy inspiration from how the love interests talk to each other, and how they all participate in every route. And the banter!! This game genuinely made me feel a personal connection to all its characters, and a lot of the player's dialogue choices were pretty damn funny for an otome game. (I have since learned that many, many indie otome games are similarly charming and I wrote a whole big list of recommendations, but didn't know they existed back in 2016-or-so.)

Undertale: Its sense of humor and meta commentary blew my mind. You could just do so much and have the game remember and react to your actions/choices, such as taking too much candy and making the whole bowl spill to the floor, or having the Mad Dummy rant about how you treated the dummy from the beginning of the game. Undertale is probably responsible for my deep interest in variable-tracking, and having characters respond to different things. (Dammit, Undertale, it's been so much work... but it's worth it I guess.....)

Disco Elysium: I played this a short while after MM and UT, and it just solidified my idea of what "my favorite game" would look like. Because I'm trying to make Herotome into my favorite game, that's my secret cap, etc etc. Anyway... Disco Elysium is fucking crazy. It's full of heart and camaraderie and also you can loudly beg for money and punch a literal child in the face and sing karaoke really badly and joking that if you find three racists you will be granted three wishes like??? It's unhinged. I haven't even mentioned the stellar atmosphere, plot, and how you have a bunch of voices in your head suggesting various courses of action and how you play as a recovering addict and you can go right back into your addiction with smoking alcohol and drugs... Describing it like this, it feels like an impossible game, that there's no way a game like this exists, but goddamn it do. And I take inspiration from a small.. SMALL aspect of it, because if I tried to fully emulate Disco Elysium I would probably die. It's just so much. And it's beautiful. Anyway DE inspired me to be more unhinged.

Dragon Age Origins: I'm listing this last because I actually played it well, well before I started game development, but it was such an impactful game for me that I'd never forgotten its scenes, characters, and how it made me feel. The CHARACTER BANTER... The sheer wealth of choices, and the emotions involved!!! There was such a general sense of world building and gravitas and then you find this mystical holy urn that's been important to a major religion and one of the characters quips "Nice vase. I should get one for my house." like??? Gah. I guess it inspired me not to take my own game too seriously, but the characters are also very,veryvery charming while also being quite diverse - everyone has a unique sense of humor and a unique background. The player can ALSO have a unique sense of humor and a unique background, which is super cool. I am absolutely not doing separate Origins for Herotome because that's way too much work-- but the diversity of the love interests did inspire me a great deal. Oh-- and the APPROVAL SYSTEM. I loved how you could get characters in the negative and have really, really interesting dialogue from antagonistic interactions, so DA:O really taught me early on that I didn't have to shy away from such things.

Perhaps most importantly: I like these games a whole lot, they are probably my favorite games. I want to like Herotome in the same way, or at least a very similar way.

A quote I try to think about a lot is "I'm surprised at the success of the show, I'm... I'm not surprised by people liking it that watch it, because... even though that makes me sound like a dick, like, that [sounds like] I knew people would like it, that's not quite what I mean-- I just mean, when you write something, you have to... if it's gonna be good, you have to be, like, its first fan, you have to be like... I don't care if I'm the only person who ever watches this, I love this. So when a second person says 'this is awesome!' You're like, stoked, but you're not shocked[...]"

... Okay I don't think about that entire stuttering quote (it's from Dan Harmon, regardless of how one might feel about him as a person he is an undeniably successful writer); but I do try to internalize "I don't care if I'm the only person who likes this" as often as I can.

I also make an effort to trust in the universe and that Herotome will reach "its people" and resonate with them in the same way my favorite games resonated with me...

... Anyway.

Outside of game design, I also try to pick out enjoyable aspects from everything I watch and read. If a book has a particularly well-written scene, I'll jot down some notes about why I liked it even if I didn't enjoy the book overall. Same with VNs and other games. While watching movies/shows I'll try to remember how they make me feel, and remember scenes that are particularly powerful and why they affected me. Yeah it's a lot of English homework, but it's how I work and indirectly feed Herotome and keep it alive in my day-to-day. I even have a playlist of random youtube videos I might reference while working on the game. Oh, and video essays -- I watch video essays religiously and make mental notes... let's plays, too, are a great way to experience how a game is designed and saving some time--

Uh, point being, you don't have to go hardcore categorizing and note-taking like I do. I just truly believe that every piece of media has something to share that can be molded and used to your own devices... even if it's "what not to do," in situations where I really, really don't like something. I'll just make a mental note to do the opposite thing. (eg, when Mystic Messenger let you choose your PFP and then randomly showed you the default MC kissing the love interest - so much whiplash, so awful, still one of my favorite games but whyyyyyy)

I actually did a meme about characters-who-inspired-my-characters a while back too, so there's that... same logic. Many many games and stories and characters inspired me, very few of them directly concern superheroes.

Thank you for the ask!!!

[emilykaldwen]

Hi! A quick question regarding the callout posts mentioning vampire-exgirlfriend "There is a right and a wrong way to engage with media. That is actually an inarguable fact. And there is specifically a right and a wrong way to engage with Fire & Blood/House of the Dragon." - as far as i understand it, this line in their post was the thing that started the argument. May we know what was the take home message of that? Because from a neutral standpoint it looks like they're shaming anyone who doesn't engage with the canon in the way vampire-exgirlfriend does.

Hello anon! Hope you're having a good one! It is rainy here and chilly.

First off: this is absolutely a question you should be asking @vampire-exgirlfriend about directly and not me. And genuinely, please ask her about it (instead of people who decide they want to name drop her in someone's inbox for... whatever reason).

To your question: That wasn't ever the intent. The conversation that spurred the post was about how fandom and parts of fandom treat F&B as a strictly historical document, and the general sense of feeling like people are forgetting that first and foremost F&B is fiction. It's inspired by historical works and history, but it's not an actual historical document and a ton of information is missing that you normally would have when discussing historical texts (like we see people debating normal historians' takes - have you seen Tudor History tumblr??) And because of this missing information, you have a lot of holes and are having to make assumptions and often times I think it's very easy to turn it into George is a bad world builder, etc, instead of embracing the interesting thematic discussions we had/have about the main book series that are rarely taken over by historical meta.

That's it. That was the intent of the post. It wasn't calling anyone out specifically, it was a frustration in fandom for treating F&B like a real world text and the utter lack of literary discussion about it - discussion that I also think rightfully should be a priority when discussing something fictional. That sort of analysis should come first, and the history second. While George's world is inspired by real world history, it's not 1 for 1 translation. He's making commentary, and often times that commentary is rooted on the patriarchy and harm to women and how we have, for one example, this cycle of brother vs sister in the story and that's the core part of Dany's storyline.

And no one, especially @vampire-exgirlfriend, is saying NOT to have historical discussion about it - again, there has been some really fantastic meta about it! but I think, personally, it's gotten to the 'because this happened in the real world, this is why this side is right in the book' and I think the lit analysis has been lost. I equate it to a discussion I had with my cousin who was going on 'but it was like that back then!' and me taking her by the shoulders and going 'dragons and magic aren't real, this is a fantasy book that's inspired' (when I was expressing frustration with poor Sansa's storyline in the show).

TL;DR: Fire & Blood is not an actual historical analysis therefore should not be primarily engaged with as a historical document because it's fiction, or as I like to call it, a 'mock-u-history book'. The historical analysis should supplement it as framework of George's themes.

[big-meows]

ty @bobtheacorn for the tag!!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

25 written/cowritten, 1 I provided illustrations for

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

161,862 give or take! I subtracted the contents of This is How We Grow by @partly-cloudyskies which I only drew for, but not the self indulgent OC project cowritten with @jofngve, even though they did most of the writing

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently: Twisted Wonderland; Historically: Ducktales, Infinity Train, Luca, Outer Wilds, Trolls World Tour, Zelda, Vtubers. Some of those are only one-offs because I said the thing I needed to say and moved on.

4. Top five fics by kudos?

God Only Knows (Luca) @ 1380

Something to do with my hands (Infinity Train) @ 945

Anthem for the Motel Tamarack (Infinity Train) @ 550

Albireo (Infinity Train) @ 526

Stand By Me (Ducktales) @ 488

Wild to me that the rymin series is so far up there? I was not in IF fandom for very long before the community soured and I bailed BUT I shant complain, those were good boys and I liked the time I spent with them (HASHTAG RENEW INFINITY TRAIN)

5. Do you respond to comments?

I try. Like, especially if someone took the time to write a lot, I try to engage to at least say thank you, because it makes ME really happy when an author responds to MY comments (and assures me I didnt just stick my foot in my mouth or overstep a line or something lol) I have a lot of anxiety about leaving comments because I followed a writer in the Zootopia fandom who was REALLY vocal about how she hated certain comments or commentary, typo corrections or "I've never read this kind of au BUT..." comments and I got REAL in my head about comment etiquette for a LONG time. BUT! Comments and feedback are so vital to me so I try to comment and respond to comments so everyone feels seen and maybe we can make a connection? My Luca fandom friend group is still going strong because we were so incredibly aggressive about supporting one another.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

The Apex of a Bad Decision. It's a canon-compliant Outer Wilds, fic, so. :,)

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Most of the rest of them! I'm squishy!!! But I think the most obviously and deliberately triumphant one is God Only Knows.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I don't think I've gotten hate on a fic since I posted Wilbur Robinson self-cest to Livejournal in 2007, when WHY IS THIS GAY was a common response to slashfic. I've gotten plenty of hate for having an online presence while shipping kids or teenagers, but not on the fic itself (that I can recall!)

9. Do you write smut?

Sure! Not often. It's always a character exploration and I know how that sounds but I promise its true! It's always about being open and vulnerable and baring souls and loving and taking care of someone who needs to be loved and taken care of. I don't think I've ever written genuinely horny smut, not that I'd know because I dont really get horny. People (antis) have this idea that everyone is writing smut with one hand down their pants and that we're "getting off" on it and are perhaps ignorant to the fact that sex is not inherently a base filthy thing, its emotional and vulnerable and full of feelings and teenagers have those feelings too and writing about teens having those feelings does not mean I am inherently jerking it to teenagers fucking. Im EMOTIONALLY jerking it to teenagers having BIG FEELINGS. that's different.

10. Craziest crossover?

I've never written a crossover! FUCK I forgot the mystery teens summer. There was a specific summer (*googles* August 2012!) when gravity falls was at it's peak and Paranorman had just come out and tumblr as a hivemind decided Norman Babcock, the Pines twins, Raz Aquato (Psychonauts) and some other kids from various supernatural media needed to meet and hang out, like a much briefer superwholock or rise of the frozen tangled dragons. the big ship at the time was Dipper/Norman. I mightve done a quick ficlet posted to tumblr in that time frame. When summer ended, the phenom ended abruptly exactly as if we had all left summer camp and gone back home.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nnnnot to my knowledge!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I've had plenty of requests! I don't know if they've ever finished/gone through with it, though. I'd be a hypocrite if i wasnt in favor of it, considering how much time I spend screenshotting jamikali doujin and feeding it through google translate lmao

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I didn't think I ever would, but the time jo and I spent doing OC stuff together was a delight, though tbf they did most of the heavy lifting. I don't know if I would do it again...I feel like the OC stuff worked because we built it from the ground up but idk if I could do a fandom thing the same way, what if we had slightly different opinions on a blorbo and I had to COMPROMISE? idk man

14. All time favourite ship?

ohhhhhhhh idk if i can answer that. Whatever I love in the moment is is my otp. The rest simmer on the backburner but whatever the mental illness deems is the priority is the only thing I could ever conceive of loving this much. I think Weblena might have done the most brain damage to me. I wrote the most fic for it, I made the most art for it, I was team weblena for more years than anything else, I endured the most shit for them without giving up. But at this exact moment in time I'm like "those were very nice girls and i loved them very much and I know they made me insane for literal years but surely they dont compare to the truly unhinged mania i feel for sexy anime schoolboy jafar and sexy anime schoolboy sultan of agrabah" (it is the same level of mania, actually)

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

idek if i want to finish it but I had a few sunfish (iykyk) drafts kicking around that could have been good. Its a good ship imo and I wanted to get into the whole "I know I've kind of adopted you as my surrogate dad but what if that was a hasty decision and we kissed instead" angle but then I developed a severe case of cringe avoidance and I wont be doing anymore vtuber fic lol

16. What are your writing strengths?

I'm told I do good at characterization which is a relief because when I write I feel like the first stage of any "galaxy brain" meme where I'm thinking in only two dimensions orz Also! Its very flattering but whenever I create an OC to fill a necessary role in a fic people really seem to enjoy them.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Action... The boring but necessary filler that gets you from point a to point b.... I can only write in 2nd person and i know I KNOW everyone fucking hates it and people wont even TOUCH 2ndPOV but it flows so EASILY when i dont have to stop and juggle pronouns or even names!!! i feel more thoroughly seated in the POV character's head! it lubricates the process and sometimes I think i only ever get anything done ever because i write in 2ndPOV im sorry!!! Im sorry but I wont change!! its more important that I get the demons out than it is that you read my fic.

18. Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

Sparingly and with Purpose! (<<Bob I'm stealing your answer) (i realize your name is not actually bob but I've been calling you bob in my head for years now sorry) I used italian vocab occasionally in Luca fic because it's used heavily in the movie to create a sense of unfamiliarity for the boys who were trying to integrate themselves into human society but didn't understand most things they encountered. It's soooooo bad when done wrong, though. I'll never shut up about the jamikali fic i opened that had Jamil call Kalim habibi in the first paragraph, I almost threw my phone across the room. Like first of all they don't do that in the source material, any arabic used is very clearly in the context of an "old/ancient language" that no one is speaking on the daily and second of all he would not fucking say that!!!!!

19. First fandom you wrote in?

The Sonic 2 fanfic i tried to write back in 1993 is between me and the lisa frank notebook kept under my bed. My first published-on-the-internet fic was the aforementioned Wilbur Robinson (Meet the Robinsons) self-cest. I went back to ff.net to see if it was still there and if I could rewrite it (it would rule in 2ndPOV actually) but..........its gone. Either it got purged or I purged it myself during the ducktales cyberbullying fiasco. First fandom of current era fic writing was Ducktales. (thank you ducktales for all youve done for me)

20. Favourite fic you've written?

God Only Knows is probably the best thing I've ever written, but picking apart the world building in Outer Wilds for Apex was really fun and rewarding and when I get feedback on it its always (crying emoji) (crying emoji) (sad face emoji) (skull emoji) which is ALSO fun and rewarding but in a totally different way.

tagging @jofngve @partly-cloudyskies and uhhhh anyone else if they wanna!

[the-storming-sea]

also also read ur intro post just now may i politely ask about your opinions of asian media and rep. is it specifically for fantasy? or just lots of genres with general trends or themes youve noticed? 👀

omg i wrote that so long ago and my brain is kinda fried so i'll be a little brief. may expand on it later but eh its all good. these are just rambling thoughts

a lot of asian rep in media mostly revolves around the east asian experience, which is valid bc god knows they need it, except often times it leaves out literally everyone else in its wake, or it keeps grouping up certain asians together. currently south east asian cultures are particular victims of this. But sometimes what ends up happening is that there is a "fantasy asia" world where the world is not technically Asia, but it might as well be given the inspiration behind it. in my personal opinion its kinda orientalist and a bit fetishistic of the 'exoticness' of asian cultures. Like it wants asia but without all of the real people in it

like for example the world in raya and the last dragon. it was great seeing someone who looked at me on screen but goddamn they couldn't at least set it in south east asia, let alone have distinct cultures instead of just taking little aspects of culture and making fantasy. it was a great movie for diaspora sure, but anyone actually from south east asia was disappointed. Xiran Jay Zhao compiled a two part video on it that elaborates more on it better than i could right now–i say compiled bc she doesnt do much talking in them aside from the beginning of the video; everyone else talking in it is south-east asian.

another fantasy world heavily inspired by Asia is ofc atla's world. my problem is that While its a good representation of east asian cultures, south east, south asian, northern asians, and western asians are left behind.

and what bothers me is that there are many places where they can fit in. Like the swampy tribe areas and the ancient firebenders from the dragons era feel like they should be south east asian inspired somewhat, and if you wanted to make a commentary on how these lands have been taken over and colonized (or at least there was an attempt on colonization) would be interesting. or how it feels like it makes more sense for katara and sokka to be more north asian inspired than american inspired. and of course there was the one (1) south asian inspired character who was. more of a caricature than anything else. im not saying the indigenous american rep is bad. obviously any representation is great, especially for indigenous americans. But if you are going to create a clearly "asian inspired" world (like nearly every aspect of this world is asian in culture and the main character is clearly a buddhist monk, it would be hard to argue otherwise), then at least take inspiration from asian cultures?

(side note people making fun of the swampy fog people is not great. does not feel great. regardless of whether they believe they're south east asian rainforests or the american bayou)

other small things are more of fan issues than creator issues. specifically the way people treat some anime characters like they're white instead of japanese/asian and then hold them to white cultural standards. all might is a great example, where despite being named Toshinori Yagi and being from a world where the mc has green eyes and green hair, people still think hes white bc hes blonde haired blue eyes and loves america? which–side note, you dont have to be an american to love america, lots of older people who got really into the american dream still like america. another thing was when i read a bnha fanfic that described someone as looking "asian" which. yeah i sure hope so. the story takes place in japan. and then theres some people not recognizing that asians all look very different from one another even if they're from the same area of the world.

more recently ive noticed the fandom racism in dungeon meshi specifically towards shuro, who despite being from a fantasy world is clearly japanese, and from a japanese-inspired culture. and its his culture which leads him to respond to laios in the way that he does. im not saying its racist to be upset that shuro responded to laios that way, but like. different cultures come with different cultural views and different ways of responding. shuro and laios come from two very different cultures. it happens.

this is kinda a lot and may not make sense bc im super tired rn jhfdbgdhjfbgd but i didnt want to forget this ask and just never respond to it

[nextstopwonderland]

Masterlist of Bryan Danielson content I've posted Part 1

BCC/Bryanmox related content & links to other masterlists

Graphics/collages

(Original post)

(Original post)

(Original post)

Video clips

Bryan Danielson puts over Orange Cassidy during the Forbidden Door II press conference

“Is that real leather?”

“I don’t put myself in high energy situations because I don’t enjoy necessarily frenetic energy” - Bryan Danielson on the outlet wrestling provides

Daniel Bryan calls out Raw for not showcasing women

Bryan Danielson doing a promo in a makeshift crop top while stroking his “sexy beard”

Bryan on Eddie Kingston

Best moments on Rampage compilation by TNT

AWS promo - April 30, 2005

“FICKLE! They’re FICKLE”

A wild Bryan Danielson appears at Starrcast

Bryan puts over Ricky Starks at the All Out 2023 media scrum

Full match: Bryan/ZSJ round 1

“Who’s overrated now??”

Bryan sells his ass (no, he really does)

“Let’s talk about the illusion of free will”

Bryan and Paul London dolphin pod promo

Bryan + Henry’s Gym

Bryan and Brie

Bryan + Blue Panther (includes screenshots)

“I am going to break your arm. I am going to break your right arm and you’ll never be able to do the rainmaker again.”

“I haven’t done a cartwheel in a long time”

“I’m not what?”

Bryan’s commentary promo vs Eddie

Bryan’s pre-match promo vs Eddie

Bryan’s post-match promo vs Eddie

“Oh, I’m on!!”

“I just wanted to subdue him a little”

“My wife and I joke we could turn it into a gimmick”

“That makes me feel alive”

“Put your cameras down, wink wink”

“I can feel the end coming”

“My brain is so focused on wrestling”

“So at what point am I deceiving myself?”

“Im beat up, but happy”

Dragon grr’s, but is merely adorable

WK slow-mo vid

Daniel Bryan + Muppets

Bryan addresses Eddie

Random ROH WRD clip

Bryan is superstitious of a cat

Bryan on his history with Eddie

“I should have given him my respect a long time ago” - Bryan and Eddie, post-revolution

“Because I know what I’m willing to do.”

“Blue Panther has been my favorite luchador since I was 15”

Bryan gets his hair braided in Arena Mexico

“You said you wanted to introduce me to proper Lucha libre.”

Wrestling to me has never been about proving I’m better than anyone else.”

Bryan returns to Mexico City

“My heaven will be standing in a wrestling ring bleeding in front of all of you”

“A BANGER!”

Video compilations/edits

Bryan Danielson sings boy bands

HEY (EW) supercut

Bryan I don’t like frenetic energy Danielson being unhinged

Ring of honor compilation

Bryan’s got legs and he knows how to use ‘em (fanvid set to legs by ZZ Top)

Supercut of Bryan/ZSJ round 2

Wrestling road diaries supercut

“I may suck. I am opening to sucking” - 4 min and 33 seconds of why we should be thankful for Bryan Danielson’s existence

“He's trying to shake my hand, but we're not friends” - Bryan and Eddie in roh (plus some Nigel in the background)

Bryan + Will + doctors post-dynasty

The I have till 5 edits

Bryan has till 5 (a fanvid/fancam set to he’s a rebel & also a scaled down edit)

Bryan and his opponents still have till 5

Bryan and even more of his opponents have till 5

Audio clips

Robin Tran thanks Bryan Danielson for inspiring her to come out as transgender

Part 2

[idkjustletmescroll]

I hate modern media.

Like don't get me wrong, there's plenty of good stuff out there, but for the most part it feels like so little heart goes into most books/movies/shows?

Like--the PJO show, don't get me wrong, it was good...but it was, at least to me, just kind of...fine? Nostalgia can only go so far.

Casting-wise, it was perfect, and it does seem like it was made by people who genuinely love and care about the source material, but who had to rush their story because they just didn't have the time. They had 8 episodes. Each of those episodes was like 35-45 minutes long, but not only is that pretty long for a single episode, if each of those episodes pretty much just covers one part of the story...that's still not a lot??

House of the Dragon? 10 episodes. No matter how long those 10 episodes are, they're trying to show us how a whole ass war got started in 10 FREAKING EPISODES. How Alicent and Rhaenyra's friendship broke down. Both of their relationships with their spouses and children. They still didn't fully explore Rhaenyra and Harwin's relationship. Does Rhaenyra have any more complicated feelings about her father for his role in the deterioration of her friendship with Alicent? Plus all the time skips...we don't have time to sit with these characters and their relationships and get to know them. Not like we did in GOT (at least the first like 4 seasons).

Not to mention waiting like 2 years between each season. Like, one of my favourite shows ever is Arcane because I like to suffer, and between season 1 and 2 there are 3 years (season 2 comes out November of this year). Watchers may not be happy to wait that long, but we expect good quality for that wait because Arcane is insanely good in all aspects--animation, character arcs, world building, nuance, commentary, music, action, etc., etc., etc. A lot of other shows, not just the two I've mentioned above, just don't feel as worth the wait. I still think they're enjoyable, and I think the writers do want to make good work, but that's hard to do with 8-10 episodes. And Arcane has only 9 episodes, and all of them are long, sure, but I feel like since there are so many moving parts and characters and subplots to the subplots, it can a) keep viewers engaged that long, and b) can easily fill up that much time well with clear priorities and a tightly woven story.

Avatar: The Last Airbender, a masterpiece show in my (and many other people's) opinion, had 20 episode seasons, each episode around 20-25 minutes. That's a reasonable amount of time to focus on one adventure or aspect of the adventure. Prioritize what to focus on, and it slays. But you can't keep giving writers 8 episodes, a shit ton of material, and then expect 100% quality every time.