#is he underwritten in acts 2 and 3? yeah

[eternalgirlscout]

people who call wyll boring why don't you listen to magpie by the mountain goats and think about him and maybe you'll fucking get it

[alpaca-clouds]

My Personal Companion Ranking

I saw so many people doing this, and now I kinda feel inclined, because we are going on a full year and the brainworms are still strong.

Halsin: I wrote about this before. I love this man just so much. Again: He does not need to help you. Sure, he comes along to the Shadowcursed lands in the hope to solve the problem that he feels responsible for, but afterwards... He is not responsible for the player character and the origins. Also, he is so big and sweet and gives the cutest kisses. <3

Lae'zel: Toad girl! Ironically I could not stand her originally. But then, on my second playthrough I accidentally romanced her, and I went like: "Oh my god, baby girl, you are so messed up! Let me hug you!" And yeah, now I am obsessed with her. I especially love her development in the game, when you oppose Vlaakith. Even though I like the idea most of all, of her dealing with her feelings towards Shadowheart (and possibly Karlach).

Astarion: Yes, I know, he is surprisingly not my absolute favorite, though I do identify with him a lot. And I just love him with my Tav. I will also say, that the version of Astarion I like so much is especially the one in my head, to whom I gave already so much character development and stuff after the end of the game.

Shadowheart: She is another one, who I originally did not like a whole lot. I was originally so annoyed with her and Lae'zel bickering and with the entire "Shar this! Shar that!" stuff. But while it took the second playthrough for me to warm up to Lae'zel, I got behind Shadowheart after saving Aylin and her becoming a Selûnite. I especially love how she centers herself during Act 3 again. And I love her stupid little jokes and pranks.

Jaheira: No long text. No deep reason. I just love her sarcastic ass.

Karlach: I love Karlach as a character. However, I still do not love what the game does with her. I love how she still finds joy in life after everything. She has such a tragic backstory and all that, but she still has joy, still wants to help people, and still is just good. But oh boy. I hate how much her companion quest is a non-quest. I hate how little interactions you really get with her in act 3, especially if she is not romanced. I just dislike how little care she got in the end of the game.

Wyll: Kinda like Karlach. It is not that I dislike him as a character, but he is just so clearly underwritten and gets shafted by the writers. So... Yeah. Admittedly, I also could not quite get into her whole "Heroism, please recognize my name" stick. But most of all it is just... how little content there is.

Gale: Okay, hear me out. Originally he was among my favorites for the game. But the longer I had him in my team (he does tons of damage in the end), the more annoyed I got with him. No, not because he is a know it all (I can identify with that), but mostly because he won't shut up about fucking Mystra. Yes, partly this is an issue with the dialogue options given to me, less than with Gale. But I just... I reached the point by the half of Act 2 where I was like: Let me shake this man and scream at him. "Mystra is a fucking groomer. Let's just please go and fucking kill her!"

Minsc: I do not dislike him. And my Tav definitely is vibing with him. However... He really feels more like a joke character, and I am not laughing.

My standard party usually still consist of my player character + Astarion + Karlach/Lae'zel (depending on my mood) + Gale. Though with my Durge I currently try a run on Durge + Shadowheart + Lae'zel + Astarion/Halsin.

[a34trgv2]

Fixing Ed, Edd, n Eddy's Girl Problem

Ed, Edd n Eddy is one of the funniest shows I've ever seen. It's got amazing slapstick humor, well crafted animation, memorable characters and outstanding voice acting. All that said though, it has a big problem that has held the show back since the beginning: the female characters are NOT good. That's not me being sexist, I'm genuinely saying Sarah, Nazz and the Kanker Sisters are the least interesting, most underdeveloped and otherwise annoying characters out of the entire show. So in this post, I'm going to explain my problem with these girls and how I would've written them better.

Might as well start off with the obvious: Sarah is a spoiled brat. She's loud, annoying, bossy, rude, and not once gets in trouble. Ed's too kind hearted and naive to tell her off, so I personally would've made an episode as far back as Season 2 that changes this. This episode would've shown Sarah pushing Ed too far, maybe ruining his latest addition of his favorite comic or something. This would've caused Ed to finally snap and let it all out on her. All the pent up rage Ed had inside him from all the beatings and humiliation he had to endure because of his sister would be brought to the forefront and she would finally know how her brother really felt. Sure they would make up by the end, but from this point onward Ed would never again let Sarah push him and his friends around and she would eventually learn to be not just more considerate, but potentially helpful to the Eds and their scams. Optimistically, I'd like for Sarah to no long be a spoiled brat by the end of Season 2 and at the start of Season 3 she would actually help the Eds out into scamming the other kids.

I've made it no secret that I don't like girls portrayed as nothing more than eye candy and Nazz is one of the most egregious examples of this. I hate how throughout the entire show, Nazz is never once seen by the boys as anything more than a pretty face. Not helping is the fact that she's severely underwritten, only makes scattered appearances throughout each season and when every she does show up, her personality is almost nonexistent. The way I'd change this is to take an element from Season 5 and have that be her character throughout the show. In Every Which Way But Ed, Nazz is shown in one flashback to have been rather plump in size at one point. Not sure if that's officially canon or not, but I would've just made Nazz an insecure plump girl who grows more confident and slimmer with each season until she's a healthy, athletic and confident young lady in Big Picture Show. Also, NO romance between her and Kevin because it just doesn't work. Maybe her and Double D, but I'd rather the show focus more on slapstick comedy than romance.

Last but not least, there's the Kankers. I'll admit, when I was a kid I did find it funny that the Eds were constantly kissed by these characters. As a grown man who supports the #MeToo movement and strongly stands against any and all forms of harassment though...yeah, these characters have not aged well. Personally, I would've had the characters get their comeuppance during Season 2, maybe with Sarah and Nazz teaming up to fight the Kankers in a girls vs girls brawl, with Nazz and Sarah coming out victorious and the Kankers never bothering the Eds again. Just thinking about what that would look like in my head puts a genuine smile on my face. As for who would be recurring antagonists for the rest of the show, I'd just make new characters, hopefully ones that won't age so poorly like the Kankers.

For as good as Ed, Edd n Eddy is, it's important to acknowledge the the show has it's problems. Among it's other problems though, such as the lack of other characters residing in Peach Creek and some jokes not landing as well as others, it's biggest shortcoming is failing to make good female characters. Most people's favorite characters from the show are either one of the Eds, Rolf, Johnny, Kevin, Jimmy or even Plank. I've never seen anyone say Sarah is their favorite character from the show, nevermind Nazz or any of the Kanker Sisters. That's what's most disappointing about these characters: they're NOBODY'S favorite and unfortunately it's for good reason. To conclude, I know Ed, Edd, n Eddy is never getting remade so long as Danny Antonucci still owns the rights, but if I were to make my own slapstick comedy, I'd do my best to make the female characters just as funny, memorable and quotable as the male characters.

[psi-psina]

Dracula was.... shit.

I’m enraged. That third ep is a disaster nightmare WOW another final act that makes the first two almost unwatchable. I absolutely despise it they are fucking morons lmao the irreverence they treat the material with in ep 1 starts to feel more like contempt in ep 3, i HATE it.

Also fucking infuriating seeing them explicitly deconstruct so much vampire mythology and lore as being a mirror of anxieties/fears/self-loathings...except for when it comes to homosexuality/desire, which they directly equivocate with vampirism in eps 1 and 2 (they ONLY sexualise his feeding this explicitly with 2 male characters in 1&2), and do nothing to deconstruct the homophobia of that equivocation AT ALL, and then has absolutely ZERO pertinence in the denouement of Dracula’s arc, along with the other gay subtext/themes in 1&2? (Except, essentially, for Jonathan Harker being Lucy 1.0 but choosing death bc homophobia...and then the heterosexual narrative triumphs in the final act with both Lucy AND Agatha/Zoe...DIE). Did Dracula even HAVE an arc? He actually doesn’t. The whole thing was about Agatha’s obsession with him and quest to understand him, he was just the centrepiece of her story lmao. 

And throwing ALL the themes of 1&2 totally out the window in the final act made the gay characters in ep two feel particularly insulting tbh and WORST made Dracula’s stepping into the light and acceptance of death feel completely hollow and contextless FUCKING PRICKS there was NO build up and it had no payoff!! like what the fuck I felt absolutely nothing during this moment that should have been cathartic, because Dracula as a character was SO underwritten it was just completely unearned. He had no emotional arc! I fucking can’t believe it! And I’m sorry but "he’s afraid of death”? like THAT basic-ass shit is what is at the heart of your 2020 adaptation of Dracula? Die.

Also like, you could read Agatha as a lesbian in ep 1 but given the ending it doesn’t work. The show is a romance-redemption between Agatha and Dracula. I mean you still could kind of but it’s narratively meaningless lol. Yeah they bait you with that line “some morning’s I can’t look sister rosa in the face” but the line has one of two readings, being: she can’t look the sister in the face bc thinks about fucking HER at night OR, bc she thinks about fucking GOD (aka DRACULA) at night. And given the ending, and literally everything else, the LATTER is the correct reading lmao. (all their dialogue, the scene where he first feeds off her, their naked entwined bodies in the CENTRE of the SUN etc etc) 

Also the whole tone of the last episode absolutely does not work, the switch-up between victorian and modern times in Sherlock worked so well bc its a DREAM and it is worked THEMATICALLY and TONALLY into the story BEAUTIFULLY (the abominable bride is a masterpiece i’ll die on that hill) and Doctor Who is a fucking sci-fi time travel show aimed at preteens? What even is this shit?

They literally pulled this stupid-ass gimmick so they could play around with modern set pieces and one-liners about TV’s and smartphones and so Mark could fucking say “Count Dracula has rights” in a modern context, which WAS fucking hilarious YES, but I would trade it and EVERYTHING ELSE for an actual satisfying and watchable final act!!! They literally could have had the SAME denouement (which still would have sucked for me personally) in a victorian set third act in London which built on the first two eps and rendered their show actually watchable oh my god they are so horrible i want to DIE!

For future reference i’m just gonna edit the second ep to end when the ship sinks, Agatha dies and Dracula sinks to the ocean floor in his coffin lol, its a somewhat more satisfying endpoint for if i feel the desire to watch it again. Despite some genuinely funny scenes ep 3 is literally too terrible to watch. I really loved ep 1 (its less enjoyable in retrospect of the following 2 eps) despite it’s issues so... :(

[ruffrowdyboiz]

TEEN WOLF DISCOURSE !!!!!! HELL YEAH

Right so, I thought today’s talking points could be:

1. Alison Argent not getting a proper funeral. Fuckin amazing character, awesome, likeable, capable and smart. Miss fan favourite dies tragically and while all the characters at the time react appropriately, fact she doesn’t get a funeral scene? Total mess. And all the mentions of her after in later seasons were cute but hardly proper tribute to her character, like every single one of the main cast should’ve been bawling their eyes out in the season finale and THEN some.

2. The writers not knowing what to do with reformed villain characters, specifically the twin alphas. While not the most interesting of the alpha pack that terrorised season 3, the fact that they stayed on as cowed omegas trying to get into Scott’s pack was quite frankly, embarrassing to watch. Love it. They’re intro to the show wasn’t at all threatening, and their fusion gimmick was one of the more ummmm.... questionable additions. Like, werewolf fusion??? That’s the most crackhead idea ever but at the same time I’m fascinated if it were at all possible to make a sort of giant werewolf voltron. Now that would be a gag lmao. Anyways my point is is that they’re boring even in terms of lgbt rep, I’m supposed to believe two serial killers wanna play second fiddle to captain goodie two shoes Scott McCall? Don’t think so lmao.

3. Lydia Martin learns both like, black widow level martial arts skills and some black canary cry gig, then subsequently never uses these abilities again in following seasons? Lydia is one of my favourite characters on the show, starting from an unashamedly brilliant and cruel popular girl in the first season and going on to be one of the more interesting creatures in the teen wolf universe? Her Banshee status was poorly utilised as the show goes on since her abilities are in a constant state of being undefined, she can sense death? Traumatic but cool, she can communicate with half dead hallucinations? Sick I love it, gimme more of that. Making her a character that could fight multiple grown men twice her size with both hand to hand combat and weird sonic banshee powers? I’m in heaven tbh. But she only ever does the more interesting things with her powers only once. Her character seems to be constantly growing to fill certain aspects of the show and then retracting back immediately to a... let’s say less capable version of herself.

4. Malia And Scott??? Hello??? Fijgkffkkfkfkfjj crackship is somehow canon and it’s laughable like I do not get this pairing at all lmao. This basically just chalks up to the fact that the show wrote of Kira (before they could do her character a modicum of justice), and the writers needing Scott to be in a hetero relationship forever and ALL TIME! these two together make not even a lick of sense tbh, I’m gonna get into malia later but really there is legit nothing there that makes their attraction to each other even remotely possible/probably or even enjoyable imo. Also who else forgot that Lydia and Scott hooked up in season two? Now that would’ve been a much more interesting relationship considering everything tbh

5. Peter is a sniveling little bitch, so why does his ass always keep coming back? Also the deadpool from season 4? Shoulda been scrapped at the writers table if you ask me. While it would’ve been interesting for Malia to deal with the fact that she has not one but two trash ass serial killer parents, we don’t actually see that growth of a relationship between her and her annoying thotticus of a father. Cool idea, utterly squandered. And while not being a serious villain from season 4 on (which was ass if I didn’t mention it already.) there’s no point to his character at all except for just being a creepy asshole who’s rude to teenagers that could all quite literally kick his ass if they wanted to.

6. The missed opportunity that is the severely underwritten characters of Kira, Malia and Hayden. I think I’ll elaborate more on this in their own post cuz there’s a lot to say, but just imagine if we got Kira really losing control of her thunder kitsune persona, malia legit acting like somebody who spent the better part of their life as a literal coyote and not a character from a Lele Pons skit, Hayden actually getting a chance to explore her own unique version of being a chimera like??! What the fuck was she even??? A werekangaroo???? we really coulda had it all tbh.... but alas

7. Derek Hail might as well have become a landlord. He has a big ass apartment he owns, he apparently has enough money to drive in whatever that sleek sports car that was, he can legit turn into a full wolf. Like, what’s this bitch even doing in the show??? Nothing :), so they should’ve made him an asshole landlord who housed all the displaced supernatural creatures of beacon hills. For no reason lmao. Also they should’ve really explored all the stuff with his past relationships because he was effectively sexually abused like multiple times by Kate and that other Druid lady (idk I forgot her name)

So that’s what I have to start with lmao but honestly if I think about it some more I’m sure I can come up with lots to say lmao. So what do you guys think?? I like genuinely want to know how you feel because, as you can see from the above I was OBSESSED with this show, garbage writing and all lmao

[mattandsaraproductions]

A Rant, or, problems with Supergirl season 2

Why I’m writing this I’m sure I don’t know, since thoughtful discussion seems never to occur on this website. But I think lack of discussion is terrible, so here’s me, wading into the morass of shipping (specifically, regarding Supergirl season 2, yay).

Firstly, you can like something and recognize it’s problematic. I suppose this isn’t too obvious of a point, or I wouldn’t be writing this whole thing. There exists a block list, of all the damn things, for anyone saying anything construed as anti-karamel. That’s ridiculous. I’m not claiming that everyone’s points are equally well-expressed, but there are problems with the way Kara and Mon-El’s relationship is written. That doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy watching them. I’m not saying you shouldn’t like their relationship. I’m saying you shouldn’t ignore the problematic tropes and toxic relationship norms at play merely because you ship them. Those are two different things.

My problem with the show is therefore largely extra-diagetic. That is, I think the writers err by presenting as unproblematic relationship norms that are in fact toxic. I have nothing against Mon-El as a character, except that his name should be Lar-Gand (but that’s another writing fail, and let’s leave it alone). So the “wah wah you hate the hot dude” – yeah, this is why I detest shipping. Also, “supercorp” isn’t canon either, so let me piss off the entirety of tumblr while I’m at it.

Still here? Let’s talk about Monday’s episode. The lesson that Kara is supposed to learn from Alex and Winn (and the power of musicals) is something like, “You should forgive him, I’m sure he has good reason for lying to you.” This fails for two reasons: 

1. As somebody who’s written a little bit on forgiveness (check out More Doctor Who and Philosophy for my essay on self-forgiveness in “Day of the Doctor.” Shameless plug, huzzah!), I can’t recall that much disagreement there is in the literature about owing someone forgiveness. Probably some philosophers do think that there comes a time when forgiveness is a duty, but that’s a minority opinion. Forgiveness is almost always seen as supererogatory. It’s not a duty; it’s above any beyond anything you ought to do for someone. So forgiveness isn’t something you owe to someone. Even someone who’s done far worse things to me than Mon-El has done to Kara, and redeemed himself far better, would not deserve my forgiveness. Why? Simply because forgiveness is not a matter of duty or desert. So it’s not that Mon-El doesn’t deserve forgiveness – It’s that he cannot deserve forgiveness, because that’s not how forgiveness works.

2. This sort of advice is gaslighting. It refuses to acknowledge the validity of Kara’s feelings, being hurt by what has happened, and angry at Mon-El. The writing does not let Alex or Winn accept Kara’s feelings, instead, the characters are subtlety written as telling her that she is wrong to feel this way, that there’s something about the situation she doesn’t understand, and that she would feel differently if she saw things “correctly.” No, none of this is explicit. But compare the scenes we get with someone saying, “You’re angry at him for lying and sad about breaking up with him? Yeah, it sucks. Here, have a donut.”

So is this abusive? I don’t think that’s a well-formed question when asking about the writing. In the real world, is stuff like this part of a system of relationship norms where women are supposed to accept men’s bad behavior? Yes. Does it contribute to a lack of self-reflection on the part of people in abusive relationships? Yes. Does watching fictional characters go through this teach women and girls watching to accept these sorts of things in their own lives? Yes.

The rebuttal from Karamel shippers is about how Mon-El grew up as prince of an awful place (a society where the queen laughs at things like treating people as people), and he’s learning how to be a better person (how to be a hero, even). Now, I think the characters are underwritten. I don’t know if we’re supposed to think Mon-El had problems with the system back on Daxam, if he’s reconsidering everything now that he’s on Earth, or if he’s faking being a better person to get into Kara’s pants. Any of those would be a likely scenario. Really, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter, because it is not Kara’s job to help him along that path.

If he wants to be a hero, or redeem himself, or even just do better, it’s on him to self-correct. His every screw-up thus far has led to Kara dragging Mon-El back on the path. That isn’t her job. Have him go to Metropolis and shadow Clark for a while. Have him thrown into the future and train with the Legion. It’s not that I don’t expect people to see this as normal. Women are expected to do most all the emotional labor in a relationship, so of course people are going to see this as normal. Television reflects our lives, and in turn our lives are shaped by storytelling tropes. But our lives, and the stories we tell, are poisoned by sexist norms that tell us how people are supposed to act. Is Supergirl showing us these norms at play in the characters’ lives, as a way to inoculate us in real life?

Well, no. I have no faith these writers are aware of what they are doing. If this were written to teach, to show how these sexist relationship norms function, and that their subtle insidiousness can infect the relationships even of the Maid of Might herself, that would be one thing. But these are the showrunners who’ve given us Arrow season 3 and nonsensical time travel shenanigans in The Flash. They are not writing a complex show here. They aren’t capable of it.

No, what the writers are doing is writing relationships the way they now how. And what they know is the way relationships function both on television and in real life. On television, where complex functional relationships between adults is non-existent, instead giving us romance that lurches from one drama to the next. And in real life, where women are expected to do the lion’s share of emotional labour in romantic relationships, aren’t supposed to introspect, and are supposed to be forgiving to their male partners’ every failure.

That’s why, for example, they didn’t write that Valentine’s Day episode to show us how stupid Mon-El’s jealousy was and how his actions are the exact opposite of what someone who likes somebody else should do in that situation. No, we were just supposed to accept that the metaphorical dick-measuring between him and Mxy is what any guy in that situation would do. It’s also the reason I stopped watching Buffy halfway through season 1, because the writing wasn’t presenting Xander as someone whose behaviour needed to be called out as misogynistic crap; we were supposed to find it funny, typical guy stuff. Is this sort of behavior normal? Sure. But it’s not a fact of the universe that things are this way. It’s not because of gravity; it’s because of sexism.

I loved how in season 1, being angry didn’t negate Kara being Supergirl. It was such a breath of fresh air compared to the moronic New-52 comics (a Red Lantern, seriously?!). It served to flesh out the character as her own person (her anger being an expression of survivor’s guilt), instead of the gender-swapped Clark they started with. It’s apparently a bridge too far, though, to allow her to be angry at her boyfriend for lying about his past and ignoring her instructions in the field, at least for more than an episode at a time. Lately, however, it seems like all the characters, and Kara especially, do not have inner lives. They act, but they seem incapable of questioning their own motives and desires. I have no idea why she and Mon-El like each other, aside from “straight white people.” It’s not that I don’t buy that this is psychologically realistic. I know it is; I’ve seen friends go through this, and in more straightforwardly abusive relationships besides. People can be drawn to each other, and be stuck in a cycle of breaking up and getting back together. It isn’t healthy, but it happens. 

But this is Supergirl, for pity’s sake. I don’t want realism. I want someone we can look up to. That has always been the point of these characters. A better show, with better writers, would be able to deliver a Kara in relationships still being the emotional and psychological center of the show. Between the CW, the writing staff, and sexism, there’s no chance of that.

TL;DR – I don’t give a rat’s ass about Mon-El. I care about analyzing and ending oppressive social norms that prevent people from living well.

Maybe if I keep punching real hard, something will break. It always works in comics.