#it's almost as if the whole point of it is subverting expected tropes and destroying this type of gender biased bullshit

[ishomieokay]

People who think there's only one Right WayTM to write a character or a ship dynamic are so annoying and weird. Tell me you don't understand self-projection and how it shapes the way we understand fiction without telling me.

[fenmere]

The comment we left in the last chapter, to describe to you better what to expect from this story. It includes specific spoilers, but for a lot of people they're an important content notice anyway (and an enticement to read the story!):

Dear Wildbow,

Once again, thank you for writing another well crafted story that’s important to us.

We’d like to give you some feedback as a transgender, autistic, plural system (with DID).

We’re actually going to gloss over the transgender and autistic representation in this, because a lot of other people can attest to and criticize their quality. And there are also a lot of examples of good writing in this regard out in the world already (at least relative to plurality). We’re just going to say that it pleased us a lot.

But for the plurality/DID, given that each system is very different, and experiences will really vary, we must say:

The evil alter trope is way overplayed. It is the default situation for almost anything written about Dissociative Identity Disorder, or any kind of plurality adjacent to it. We really do not need anyone writing about that trope ever again.

But, it’s so tempting, isn’t it? It’s such a powerful plot device. To the point that we ourselves are compelled to use it in our own stories (though we resist it every time).

It’s also really close to our own personal experience. We are a system with DID, and we have had our own very deadly persecutor who, for a stretch of decades, was very similar to Sylvester’s Infante, though with more of a suicidal bent rather than murderous.

With that said, you subverted that trope in exactly the same way it played out in our own life, by having Sy make a compromise with the “evil alter”, working out a deal, and building a consensus of cooperation not only between him and the rest of his system, but also with his closest friends and family.

F-ing thank you for that.

This is the best circumstance and end result under which the evil alter trope can be used. Amazing to see it in the wild!

And the fact that you did it without using the trope of fusion is also absolutely wonderful.

We have never read a story in which the hero’s plurality becomes not only their strength, but the fulcrum by which they overcome their greatest obstacle (besides our own stories). This is a first, and it was done more thoroughly and with more grandeur than we have done it. Even than how we have lived it.

Now, some may criticize you for using Hollywood-esque tropes of psychosis along with this, with vivid hallucinations of Sy’s phantoms, but depicting plurality, even in writing, is hard, and also you eased into it very nicely with him practicing imposition to begin with. What he experiences is actually possible, according to our peers. Psychosis can co-occur with plurality, and it can also be self induced. There are people who deliberately strive to self induce both, and have reported some success in it.

We think that in combination with how you handled Sy’s plurality as a whole, this was not only OK but obviously necessary for the story and ends up being decent representation anyway.

Some generalized background to our own story, for where we are coming from with this appreciation:

As we mentioned in an earlier comment, we don’t experience hallucinations besides the occasional hypnogogic demi-dream. We do palpably sense each other as presences in our psyche in a way that often feels very physical, but it’s the same way in which emotions feel physical to most people.

We have suspected for most of our life that we had DID, but we didn’t believe DID was a real thing until very recently, and didn’t accept our plurality until after it’s worse symptoms had played a major role in destroying our career and marriage. Mind you, it’s basically C-PTSD expressed through plurality, and the plurality itself isn’t the cause of the damage. It was our unmanaged and unaccommodated trauma that did it.

Anyway, this gave us the experience of having our ex-spouse (not ex at the time) begin to trust us less and less, and start to tell us that we had agreed to things we could not (and still do not) remember agreeing to. Things that were outside of our character to agree to, generally speaking. It got to a point where we couldn’t deny our plurality, and it was very scary and utterly discombobulating.

Also, our original identity as a single person was obliterated and shown to be simply a mask that we had all been working together to try to maintain. And realizing that there was no singular “I” to our being was a really bizarre experience to say the least.

We’ve since found our community and a new family and are doing quite well, but when our darkest and most destructive episodes of blackout amnesia occurred we were met with confusion and rejection from our ex-spouse.

It was such a wonderful thing to read a story in which the hero with DID had his persecutor take over and do horrific things, only to wake up to acceptance and a discussion of reasonable accountability and accommodation, instead of abject fear and rejection.

It was cathartic. It is important. Just as it is when a queer and/or trans person comes out about their true identity and the people around them accept them, just as you modeled between Jessie and Sy.

And again, thank you so much.

Sincerely,

the Inmara

Twig, by Wildbow, is the first story we have ever read where the hero is a taumagenic DID system who wins the day, comes out ahead and gets everything they hoped for, and does it by using their strengths as a system, and not by seaking final fusion at the end.

It also subverts the evil alter trope.

CN: Everything

We think that this story would be cathartic to read for most systems, taumagenic or otherwise. But, if you have a trigger, it's probably in there, so steal yourselves for it and take your time. It ends well, and could be a means of exposure therapy, but don't push yourselves too hard for it.

Just know, it's been written and people have read it and it has a fandom. The real good ending is in the epilogues. Hold out your faith for them.

[wofredone]

You're definitely correct with the tribe stereotypes not even being treated as stereotypes, but just right, almost completely factual 90% of the time, and I don't see enough people talking about this.

Racist stereotypes in this series are often treated as a joke, not just that they're not taken seriously, with protagonists or otherwise good guys frequently making racist comments that are never called out and corrected, but literally played for laughs. On multiple occasions. As if you're meant to find the offensive cultural archetypes being put before you humorous. If you look past the fact they're fictional fantasy animals, it looks bad of every character who speaks any of this, and Tui for allowing this to be treated as a joke. Someone made a post concerning the RainWings and how they’re definitely done the worst because Glory looks forward to meeting her people and having an over-the-top, offensive stereotype of them given to her by racist individuals destroyed, but whoops, literally all of them are lazy, stupid, ignorant and obnoxious expect herself and maybe two or three others. It’s not even a cultural thing, they’re all uneducated.

This is just one of the reasons why I don’t like human!WoF AUs because then you’re applying the stereotypes to different human ethnicities and that’s even worse. But even when it’s not, it’s offensive to apply that stereotypes will even apply to most people of a certain group, let alone almost everyone following it to a T.

Absolutely.

I've actually been meaning to make a whole post about RainWing society and reworking it so it's not just "yeah they're all lazy and stupid, Kestrel was right." I'm assuming the reason that was done is because a lot of times stories tend to go for the "they're all actually super cool and powerful" route and Tui wanted to subvert that trope, but that was not at all the way to go about it.

I'm surprised that, given how critical some parts of the fandom are, not a lot of people talk about this. Pretty much every single background or side character is reduced to a stereotype, and that's an absolutely terrible message to send. And I've seen many people in the fandom reflect that message.

People hate MudWings because they're dumb and slow, people hate SkyWings because they're grumpy and violent, people hate RainWings because they're lazy and stupid. Because these characters are all dragons and not humans, it's not as obvious how terrible that kind of thinking is. And it doesn't help that the books have never acknowledged why that thinking is bad. At the very, very least, the books could have introduced a variety of background characters that oppose those stereotypes.

You 100% have a point about racism basically being a joke in this series. I'm pretty sure many protagonists judge dragons based on their tribe on a regular basis, but I'd have to reread the books to be sure.

I'm not sure how I feel about human!WoF AUs. I don't think ill of anyone that has or participates in one (I think some are very neat!), but I do think it's something to be careful about given the state of WoF.

[variousqueerthings]

Daniel LaRusso: A Queer Feminine Fairytale Analysis Part Two of Three

Part 1

Part 3

6. Sexual Awakenings part 1: Love, Obsession, & Size Differences

[Insert that post talking about the creators making sure that Daniel’s antagonists were much bigger than him so that the audience would sympathise, spawning 10000 size kink fics]

I’m sure this won’t awaken anything in Daniel

Corporate wants you to find the difference between these two pictures

The hallmark of feminine fairytales tends to be growing into womanhood, with all those symbolic sexual under/overtones, searching for a prince, encountering monsters (or evil stepmothers), on the surface tending to be quite passive/reactive, but actually being about young girls and women getting out of their environment and choosing to tussle with those deep, dark desires – monsters. They’ve got to function within the limitations of power that they have – escaping an abusive situation through marriage, chasing forbidden desires under the guise of duress, asking questions about sexuality through things like symbolic plucking (flowers) or consumption (fruit) or pricking (needles), etc.

Daniel isn’t striking out to find his fortune or win a girl or a kingdom Like A Man, he’s not a threat to Silver, who – like Jareth in Labyrinth – is in control for almost the whole of the narrative, he’s not actually able to do much more than react until he makes the decision to stop training, and even then he’s immediately ganged up on and assaulted, needing to be saved by Miyagi while he stands and watches, bloodied and bruised. 

Daniel’s journey in the third movie is to be forced into an impossible situation, seduced by Silver, and then prove that whatever violence Silver did to him isn’t enough to destroy him. It is incredibly similar to Sarah’s in Labyrinth, who by the end declares: “you have no power over me,” and that’s her winning moment. Not strength, not wits, not a direct fight, (although Daniel does fight Barnes and gets beat up again – only winning in in the end by taking him by surprise, unlike in TKK1 or TKK2 where you could argue that he proves himself to be a capable physical opponent to Johnny and Chozen), but by declaring that whatever power was held over her is now void.

Daniel’s narrative isn’t satisfying in the same way, because the dynamic of Silver and Daniel only accidentally emulates this - it’s not an intention on the side of the film-makers.

When Miyagi tells Daniel that he has strong roots, when he tells him not to lose to fear and Daniel wins over Barnes (in an almost fairytale-esque set of events), on paper he’s defeated whatever hold Terry Silver has over him. In the film itself though, Daniel never defeats Silver (which will likely be confirmed once he returns in Season Four). Daniel cannot simply say “you have no power over me,” and see Silver shattered into glass shards. 

The film is a contradiction: It wants to be a masculine sports film, but it exists in the same realm as Goblin Kings seducing young girls with the promise of: “Just fear me, love me, do as I say, and I will be your slave.” Unlike Sarah, Daniel doesn’t claim the power that’s been promised to him on his own terms. His subtextually sexual awakening is so corrupted that all he can do is pretend it never happened.

Still, Daniel proves in the film that his strength is not in his fists. It’s in his praying to the bonsai tree that’s healed despite a violent boy brutally tearing it in two.

These looks on Daniel and Silver though?

So why does Silver become obsessed with him? What’s up with all those red outfits (that he doesn’t wear in Cobra Kai)? What does the temptation reveal about Daniel? How does it recontextualise TKK1 and TKK2? Is Daniel bisexual? (yes).

Ah, beach-Daniel, in your red hoodie and your cut-off jorts. Iconic hot-girl summer vibes. 

If you didn’t want me over-analysing this, you shouldn’t have put him in so many red outfits and then have this man leering at him like he wants to eat him alive.

Surface-level it’s not hard to read into a Dude Story: Masculine power fantasies are about strength in a very direct way. Fighting, control, suaveness – and if you’re not the most traditionally masculine of guys, asserting dominance through being a good lover or intelligent or overcoming that unmanliness in some way through beating the bully or convincing the hot girl to go out with you, levelling up in coolness. Being A Man. It’s not too dissimilar from Daniel’s arc in the first movie, if you watch it without taking later events into account, although Daniel is never interested in proving himself as a man, and more in making Miyagi proud. Still, he does win and gain respect, and arguably “get the girl,” although Ali’s interest in him was never dependent on the fight.

7. Sexual Awakenings Part 2: Sexual Assault, Liberation, and Queerness

Feminine power fantasies are often about sex. Metaphorically. More accurately it’s “owning sexuality.” Even more accurately: “Freedom.” They also inhabit a fluid space in which empowerment through monstrous desires and non-consent can happen at the same time. And on top of that, many of these “fantasies” are actually being written by men, so whose fantasy is it really? A lot of them are based in oral traditions so presumably they were originally from the mouths of women, even if modern iterations (starting with Grimm’s collections) are filtered through cis men’s perspectives.

All of that being acknowledged: In Angela Carter’s “The Company Of Wolves,” Red Riding Hood unambiguously sleeps with the wolf. Belle discovers her freedom from expectations and unsuitable suitors (and in some versions, evil stepsisters) by falling in love with a Beast (the original novel was written by a woman, the 18th century Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve). Jareth informs Sarah of his obsessive devotion to her in Labyrinth. To lean into horror for a moment – Buffy is stalked and eventually has relationships with both Angel and Spike, Lucy in Coppola’s Dracula (which I have mixed feelings about) is raped by the werewolf and Mina is stalked by Dracula, The Creature Of The Black Lagoon kidnaps Kay (the lead’s girlfriend) – subverted in both The Shape Of Water in which Eliza forms a consensual relationship with the amphibious sea-god and in the short-lived horror series Swamp Thing, in which the connection is purposefully framed as seductive…

and in The Karate Kid Part Three Daniel LaRusso punches a board until his hands bleed because an attractive, older man tells him to and in this moment he gives in to what he (thinks he) wants.

Not all of those examples are equal. Some are consensual, some are hinted as abusive and/or stalkery, all of them have large age gaps, and a few are outright non-consensual.

But they’re all fantasies.

They’re all power-fantasies.

Except for Daniel, because he’s a man and the idea that being obsessed (lusted) over by an older man who keeps you in his thrall, specifically because you tickle his fancy for whatever reason, because you’re beautiful, breakable, different – could in any way be considered empowering is a difficult concept to wrap your head around. It doesn’t contain that “but I’m a good girl, I’d never go off the path and pluck flowers if a bad wolf told me to, honest,” societal context or the social context of rape culture. It’s closest comparison is closeted (perhaps even unknown until that point) queer identity.

There have recently been some comparisons of Daniel LaRusso to Bruce Bechdel in Funhome (and everyone who says that Ralph Macchio ought to play him in the upcoming movie: you’re right and I’m just not going to enjoy it as much without him). I’ve written a post about Sam being the heir to his legacy and trauma, specifically as a queercoded man. It’s not dissimilar to the plot of Funhome in a lot of ways.

The other interesting source that’s been going around in connection with Daniel is the essay “The Rape of James Bond,” which discusses the use of sexual assault as a plot device for women and not for men: “About one in every 33 men [in the US] is raped. … [your statistically average, real life man] … doesn’t have a horde of enemies explicitly dedicated to destroying him. He doesn’t routinely get abducted, and tied up. Facing a megalomaniac psychopath gloating over causing him pain […] is not the average man’s average day at the office.” That last bit is just a descriptor of Terry Silver, (although I take issue at the blasé use of psychopath).

The two part youtube essay  Sexual Assault of Men Played for Laughs posits that there is nothing more de-masculinising than the threat of sexual assault and therefore any narrative that features this “rightfully” must mock any man who has been a victim or who fears being a victim of sexual assault. It is feminising. There is nothing more humiliating – and therefore unheroic – than a man dealing with sexual assault.

So what do we feel when we see an attractive young man being put into a vulnerable position by an older man? A trope associated with female characters, a trope that is considered unpalatable for men (see reactions that happened when the hint of sexual assault was introduced in Skyfall).

Was it the fact that he was being threatened, or the fact that James’ next line is: “what makes you think this is my first time?”

Some thoughts added by @mimsyaf​ are around the idea of safety in how a lot of cis women might relate to this narrative through Daniel’s eyes. He’s not a woman, he has – societally – more power than a girl or woman would have, which makes this a different watch to, say, if Danielle were to go through the same narrative. Daniel doesn’t carry that baggage of rape culture, or of the male gaze that you might find in a similar scenario of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Christine in Phantom of the Opera (and once more the age differences between these characters and the men who love/lust over them are substantial), which makes the narrative “safer” to engage with.

I agree with that, although as a transmasc person I also come at it differently. I specifically like to headcanon Daniel as a trans guy and find his fraught interactions with masculinity through his own non-toxic lens relatable, as well as the way other boys and men react to it – also I think Terry Silver is hot. I know there are people who write Terry Silver with female OCs, which is also a form of empowerment.

On the flipside putting Daniel in this space runs a risk of fetishising him as a queer youth who is either Innocent and Pure, or a bisexual stereotype that deserves to be assaulted for not being a real man. After all, Real Straight Men don’t run the risk of sexual assault.

 Alas, the road to empowerment never did run smooth. 

The comparisons between the way Daniel is treated by the text and how female characters are often treated in texts are undoubtedly there. Through Ralph Macchio and TIG’s casting and the direction and acting, but also within the text itself. 

It might not be with the same purpose as Neo’s symbolically trans journey, but it puts the whole narrative that Daniel’s going through from TKK1 under a different light than if there had only been one movie that ended on a triumphant sports win and a girlfriend.

Johnny’s masculinity and the use of tears as liberation, now that’s a whole other analysis….

[him-e]

what did you think of shadow and bone? have you read the books? i only read the duology

Thoughts on Shadow and Bone, now that you've probably seen it?

I think the show is alright? It lacks a real wow factor as far as I’m concerned, but it’s enjoyable. It’s especially enjoyable in those parts I didn’t anticipate to like / didn’t even know would be there. 

Whereas the main selling points leave a lot to be desired.

The good stuff: the visuals. The aesthetic. The overall concept. Production, casting and costumes are excellent, the setting is fascinating. The worldbuilding isn’t perfect and is sometimes confusing, which is probably due to the show jumping ahead of the books and introducing elements that happen much later in the book saga, but I’m loving the vague steampunk-y vibe of it mixed with more typical fantasy stuff and slavic-inspired lore, the fact that it’s set in dystopian Russia rather than your usual ye olde England.

I find it interesting that in this ‘verse the Grisha are simultaneously superstars, privileged elite, legendary creatures and despised outcasts, according to the context and the type of magic they wield. It’s A Lot, and so far it’s all a bit underdeveloped and messy, like a patchwork of different narratives and tropes sewn together without an organic worldbuilding structure. (there are hints to a past when they were hunted, but how did they go from that to being, essentially, an institutionalized asset to the government isn’t clear yet. There’s huge narrative potential in this, and I hope future seasons will delve into those aspects)

Many of the supporting characters are surprisingly solid. I appreciated that Genya and Zoya eventually sort of traded places, subverting the audience’s assumptions about them and their own character stereotypes, despite the little screentime they were given.

Breakout characters/ships for me were Nina/Matthias, and even more so the Crows, i.e. the stuff I didn’t see coming and knew nothing about (having only read the first book). (I thought the entire Crows subplot was handled in a somewhat convoluted way, at least in the first episodes; it was hard to keep track of who wanted Alina and why, but the Crows’ chemistry is so strong it carried the whole Plot B on its shoulders).

HELNIK. As an enemies to lovers dynamic, Helnik was SUPER on the nose, I’d say bordering on clichéd with the unapologetic, straight outta fanfiction use of classic tropes like “we need to team up to survive” and “there’s only one bed and we’ll freeze to death if we don’t take our conveniently damp clothes off and keep each other warm with the heat of our naked bodies” (not that I’m complaining, but i like to pine for my ships a bit before getting to the juicy tropetown part, tyvm). And then they’re suddenly on opposite sides again because of a tragic misunderstanding - does Bardugo hate high-conflict dynamics? It certainly seems so, because between Helnik and Darklina I’m starting to see a pattern where the slow burn and blossoming mutual trust is rushed and painted in broad, stereotypical strokes to get as fast as possible to the part where they *hate each other again* and that’s... huh. Something.

^That’s probably why I’m almost more interested in Kaz x Inej, because their relationship feels a bit more nuanced, a bit more mysterious, and a bit more unpredictable. (I didn’t bother spoiling myself about them, so I really don’t know where they’re going, but it’s refreshing to see a dynamic that the narrative isn’t scrambling to define in one direction or the other as quickly as possible)

-

Now, as for Darklina VS Malina... I found exactly what I expected. 

Both are ship dynamics I’m, on principle, very much into (light heroine/dark villain, pining friends to lovers) but both are also much less interesting than they claim to be, or could have been with different narrative choices. I’ll concede that the show characters are all more fleshed out and likable than their book counterparts, and the cringe parts I vaguely remembered from the books played out differently. And, well, Ben Barnes dominates the scene, he’s hot as HELL, literally every single second he’s on screen is a fuck you to Bardugo’s attempts to make his character lame and uninteresting and I’m LOVING it, lol.

But yeah, B Barnes aside, Darklina is intrinsically, deliberately made to be unshippable. 

It makes me mad, because it’s - archetypally speaking - made of shipping dynamite: yin/yang-sun and moon, opposites attract, COMPLEMENTARY POWERS AND SO ON. And what does Bardugo do with these ingredients? A FUCKING DELIBERATE DISASTER:

^ Placing the kiss so early on (season 1, episode five) effectively kills the romantic tension that was (correctly) building up until that point, and leaves the audience very little to still hope for, in terms of emotional evolution of the dynamic. 

Bardugo lays all the good stuff down as early and quickly as possible (the bonding, the conflicted attraction, the recognizing the other as one’s equal, etc) only to turn the tables and pull the rug so y’all sick creepyshippers won’t have anything to look forward to, because THEY’VE ALREADY HOOKED UP AND THAT BELONGS TO THE PAST, IT’S OVER, THEY’RE ENEMIES. This, combined to the fact that she falls for him *without* knowing who he really is, is the opposite of what I want from a heroine/villain ship (it’s basically lovers to enemies, and while that can be valid too, I wanted to see more pining and more prolonged, tormented symbolic attraction to the Shadow/Animus on Alina’s part). 

But here’s the trick: it’s not marketed as lovers to enemies - it has all the aesthetics and trappings of an enemies to lovers (the Darkling is, from the get go, villain-presenting, starting from his name), so it genuinely feels like a trollfic, or at the very least a cautionary tale *against* shipping the heroine with the tall dark brooding young villain, and I don’t think it’s cool at all. It makes the story WAY less interesting, because it humanizes the villain early on (when it’s not yet useful or poignant to the story, because it’s unearned) but it’s a red herring. The real plot twist is that the villain shouldn’t be sympathized with, just defeated: there’s a promise of nuanced storytelling, that is quickly denied and tossed aside. So is the idea of incorporating your Shadow (a notion that Bardugo must be familiar with, otherwise she wouldn’t have structured Alina and the Darkling as polar opposites who complement each other, but that she categorically refutes)

Then we have Malina. The good ship.

Look, I’m not that biased against it. I don’t want to be biased on principle against a friends to lovers dynamic that antagonizes a heroine/villain one, because every narrative is different, and for personal reasons I can deeply relate to the idea of being (unspeakably) in love with your best friend. So there are aspects of Malina that I can definitely be into, but it troubles me that in this specific context it’s framed as a regression. It’s Alina’s comfort zone, a fading dream of happiness from an idealized childhood, to sustain which the heroine systematically stunts her growth and literally repressed her own powers, something that in the books made her sickly and weak. But the narrative weirdly romanticizes this codependency, often making her tunnel vision re: going back to Mal her primary goal and centering on him her entire backstory/motivation, to the point that when she starts acting more serious re: her powers and alleged mission to destroy the Fold, it feels inorganic and unearned. 

Mal is intrinsically extraneous to Alina’s powers, he doesn’t share them, he doesn’t understand them, he has little to offer to help her with them, and so the feeling is that he’s also extraneous to her heroine’s journey, aside from being a sort of sidekick or safe harbor to eventually come back to. People have compared him to Raoul from Phantom of the Opera, and yeah, he has the same ~magic neutralizer~ vibe, tbh.

The narrative also polarizes Mal’s normalcy and relative “safety” against Aleksander’s sexy evil, framing Alina’s quasi-platonic fixation on the former as a better and purer form of love than her (much more visible and palpable) attraction to the latter. This is exacerbated by the show almost entirely relying on scenes of them as kids to convey their bond. I’m sure there are ways to depict innocent pining for your best friend that don’t involve obsessively focusing on flashbacks of two CHILDREN running in a meadow and looking exactly like brother and sister. LIKE. I get it, they’re like soulmates in every possible way, BUT DO THEY WANT TO KISS EACH OTHER?

Which brings me to a general complain: for a young adult saga centering on a young heroine and full of so many hot people, this story is weirdly unsexy? There are a lot of shippable dynamics, but they’re done in such a careless, ineffective way that makes ZERO EFFORT to work on stuff like slow burn, pining and romantic tension, and when it does it’s so heavy handed that the viewer doesn’t feel encouraged at all to fill the blanks with their imagination and start anticipating things (which is, imo, the ESSENCE of shipping). The one dynamic that got vaguely close to this is, again, Kaz and Inej, and coincidentally it’s also the one we didn’t get confirmed as romantic YET. Other than that, where’s the slow burn? What ship am I supposed to agonize over during the hiatus to season two? Has shipping become something to feel ashamed of, like an embarrassing relative you no longer want to invite in your home?

Anyway, back to Alina/Darkling/Mal, this is how the story reads to me:

girl suspects to be special, carefully pretends to be normal so she can stay with Good Boy

the girl’s powers eventually manifest; she’s forcibly separated from Good Boy

the girl’s powers attract Bad Boy who is her equal and opposite but is also a major asshole

girl initially falls for Bad Boy; has to learn a hard lesson that nobody that sexy will ever want her for who she is, he’s just trying to exploit her

also, no, there is no such thing as a Power Couple

girl is literally given a slave collar by Bad Boy through which he harnesses her power (a parody of the Twin Scars trope)

you know how the story initially suggested that the joint powers of Darkness and Light would defeat evil? LOL NO, Darkness is actually evil itself and the way you destroy evil is using Light to destroy Darkness, forget that whole Jungian bullshit of integrating your shadow, silly!

conclusion: girl realizes being special sucks. She was right all along! Hiding and suppressing her powers was the best choice! She goes back to the start, to the same Good Boy she was meekly pining for prior to the start of the story.

... there’s an uncomfortable overall subtext that reads a lot like a cautionary tale against - look, not just against darkships and villain/heroine pairings, but also *overpowered* heroines and, well... change? Growth?

Like, it’s certainly a Choice that Alina starts the story *already* in love with Mal. That she always knew it was him. The realization could have happened later (making the dynamic much more shippable, too), but no. 

[nemesisvariant]

Willy’s Wonderland Review

look okay I don’t review movies. Sometimes I do a half assed live reaction, but this is different. I just watched the best movie I’ve seen in AWHILE and I certainly didn’t expect it to be Willy’s Wonderland.

This movie stars Nicholas Cage as ‘the Janitor’, the film’s silent protagonist (this film is art I won’t even call it a movie). He rolls through this random small town in the middle of nowhere, and runs into some definitely-not-manufactured-by-the-police car trouble. Now $1000 in debt, the Janitor must spend the night in Willy’s Wonderland, an abandoned pizzeria which was closed after a series of brutal ‘accidents’ and a dark past. His job is to restore the restaurant to its former glory before daylight, but little does he know, the animatronics inside are out for blood.

Now I know what you’re thinking; this is Five Nights at Freddie’s. This is a fnaf ripoff. And I would’ve thought that too! In fact, that’s why I watched it in the first place, in hopes of a ‘bad scary movie night’ with the boys. And while it has similar elements to this game series, I can say with certainty that Willy’s Wonderland is its own beast, and subverts the many tropes and story beats of fnaf and other media of the genre.

For example, one way it differs is by having, get this, a truly competent protagonist. To explain exactly how, I gotta get into spoiler territory, so proceed with caution.

So, competence. The Janitor has this in spades. I cannot stress this enough. When faced with these supernaturally possessed animatronic creatures that have been massacring people for the past many years, he doesn’t do what one would initially think, turning this into a typical ‘survive the night’ flick and avoiding the threat at all cost. Instead he, to put it simply, goes hog wild and dismantles them, piece by piece, often with his bare hands. Fatalities straight out of mortal combat, oil being flung through the air, metal spines being removed. It’s sincerely a joy to witness.

But even more than that, the Janitor is, at least for me, extremely compelling. We don’t get much- any, actually- background on this character, so we can only speculate why he does what he does, or why he’s so good at destroying demon robots. He keep his secrets well by not speaking at all throughout the entire film. He has a job to do- restore the restaurant- and he keeps to it, even as he’s being attacked by horrifying Freddie knockoffs. He keeps to a strict routine, taking scheduled breaks even during the midst of a battle to drink a single, specific brand of soda and only focus on restoring and playing an old pinball machine. While he is incredibly powerful in combat, he isn’t invulnerable, being overpowered by the titular Willy the Weasel via usage of loud noises and flashing stimuli.

...so my thought is that the Janitor is an autistic protagonist, but that’s not for me to decide. I do find him to be sympathetic and far easier to root for than many other horror protagonists (and I am talking about a lot of B movie horror here, I know plenty of good shit has come out in recent years), but these traits also make me really kinda relate to him. I want him to succeed, and he does! And his victories feels earned!

There are other characters, of course. Most of these fall more into typical horror genre cliches, such as a group of... high school seniors? College age kids? Hard to say. Anyway, they’re basically just the cast of Until Dawn. Not a slight on them, but they do fit nicely into pre-established horror tropes. Especially when two of them start fucking in the murder cult room. Classic.

However, that being said, these cliches almost feel intentional and acknowledged in their absurdity. They dismiss and act casually around animatronics until they get killed, even as one is staring at them having sex and inching ever closer. One kid, who I haven’t bothered to learn the name of, gets immediately tricked by one of the animatronics and dies. The police are useless and even complicit, this is all stuff we’ve seen and know. Except, with the addition of Nicholas Cage’s character to the scene, we get a whole new genre of absurdity; anti-horror.

Now, the parts of this movie played as straight horror are fantastic as well. Some of the effects might fall a little short, but the ones that do are during combat and I was distracted by the action, so I didn’t mind. The animatronic effects were incredible and legitimately unsettling at points (if yall watched this and recall the fairy girl? yeah she freaked me out a little, no lie). The cinematography might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I legitimately enjoyed it. This movie had a style and boy did it run with it.

So... anyway, go watch Willy’s Wonderland. You won’t regret it, seriously.

[joanna-lannister]

Meta: Will the Lannisters end like the Targaryens?

WARNING: possible mentions of spoilers/leaks

@fcrncody Thank you Ana, my partner in crime, for being my beta reader! 💖

First of all, this theory is purely for the show, not the books (even if I'm gonna use some quotes from it). I do believe the fate of some characters will be different, I could be wrong tho.

"History is a wheel, for the nature of man is fundamentally unchanging. What has happened before will perforce happen again." I'm quoting G.R.R.M here but as a big History nerd, I always say that History repeat itself and I think that what's going to happen with the Lannisters : their downfall will be a parallel to the Targaryens one at the end of Robert's rebellion. I have this theory in mind for almost 2 years now and since I keep thinking about it, I needed somewhere to write it down.

During the rebellion, we had 4 Targaryens still alive : Aerys, Rhaella, Rhaegar and Viserys (plus Dany and Jon on the way). I'm not sure if I should count Maester Aemon since he took the black and I don't count Elia and Rheagar's children since he disinherited them. Now for the Lannisters, we have Cersei, Jaime and Tyrion still alive, plus baby!Lannister on the way. I think their deaths or possible survival will be a mix of how these last Targaryens died or survived.

First, the Lannisters have always been connected with the Targaryens one way or another:

Tywin wanted Cersei to marry Rhaegar and she wanted it to

Tyrion and his obsession with the dragons

Jaime killed Aerys

Tywin used to be friend with Aerys and his Hand

Cersei and Tyrion both used wildfire

Joanna was harassed by Aerys

And I could go on...

But one of the biggest connection we can make between the two houses is the incest. The perpetual incestuous marriage between the Targaryens slowly brought their house to the extinction and Cersei and Jaime's relationship caused the war of the five Kings and thus, their own downfall. They have been compared to the Targaryens more than once, by themselves or by other characters.

The Targaryens wed brothers and sisters for 300 years to keep bloodlines pure. Jaime and I are more than brother and sister. We shared a womb. We came into this world together. We belong together. - Cersei, S01E07 You Win or You Die

Tyrion: Sins? The Targaryens... Cersei: Wed brother and sister for hundreds of years, I know. That's what Jaime and I would say to each other in our moments of doubt. It's what I told Ned Stark when he was stupid enough to confront me. Half the Targaryens went mad, didn't they? What's the saying? Every time a Targaryen is born, the Gods flip a coin. Tyrion: You've beaten the odds. Tommen and Myrcella are good, decent children, both of them. - S02E07 A Man Without Honor

You think I disapprove? Why? Because people disapprove of that sort of thing where you are from? They disapproved of Oberyn and me where you are from. Here no one blinked an eye. 100 years ago, no one would have blinked an eye at you if you'd been named Targaryen. - Ellaria, S05E09 The Dance of Dragons

We could marry him to Myrcella, once we've sent Sansa Stark back to her mother. That would show the realm that the Lannisters are above their laws, like gods and Targaryens. - Jaime, ASOS

"I am sick of being careful. The Targaryens wed brother to sister, why shouldn't we do the same? Marry me, Cersei. Stand up before the realm and say it's me you want. We'll have our own wedding feast, and make another son in place of Joffrey." She drew back. "That's not funny." - Jaime, ASOS

Then, we have Tywin and his ambition. He wants to outshine the Targaryens and build a dynasty that could last 1000 years.

The future of our family will be determined in these next few months. We could establish a dynasty that will last a thousand years. Or we could collapse into nothing, as the Targaryens did. - Tywin, S01E07 You Win or You Die

Cersei wants to emulate her father.

I understand we're in a war for survival. I understand whoever loses dies. I understand whoever wins could launch a dynasty that lasts a thousand years. - Cersei, S07E01 Dragonstone

The parallel is clear here, I have even made a gifset. The funny thing in that conversation between Tywin and Jaime is the fact that Tywin points out they could collapse into nothing when it's already happening, because of his own children. And again, he compares himself to the Targaryens. Foreshadowing?

Before talking about each characters, I want to say that if this theory is correct, I don't think Jaime and Cersei will die together. This show is full of plot twists, irony, parallels and yet, anti-parallels and the characters don't get what they want, this is not a Disney fairytale. And dying together is something they both want, they expressed it numerous times, in the show and in the books, maybe too much?

Bronn: How do you want to go? Jaime: In the arms of the woman I love. - S05E04 The Sons of The Harpy

We've always been together. We'll always be together. We're the only two people in the world. - Cersei, S06E06 Blood of My Blood

I cannot die while Cersei lives, he told himself. We will die together as we were born together. - Jaime, ASOS

We will leave this world together, as we once came into it. - Cersei, AFFC

If he were dead, I would know it. We came into this world together, Uncle. He would not go without me. - Cersei, ADWD

It's so obvious, as viewers (and also readers sometimes), we expect it to happen. The cast keep telling us how unpredictable the end is, I honestly take everything they say with a grain of salt but I think I'll make an exception for this time. Also, the writers omitted the Valonqar part in Cersei's prophecy. On purpose? So we are going to be surprised if Jaime is indeed the Valonqar? I find it weird when it's already obvious like I said and when they dropped clues back in S7.

Cersei:You murdered your own brother. Euron:You should try it. Feels wonderful. - S07E01, Dragonstone

Olenna: She'll be the end of you. Jaime: Possibly. - S07E03, The Queen's Justice

But I could be wrong and the writers will choose the easy path... However, while it's tragic for Jaime and Cersei to die together, killed by each others, I think it would be even more painful for their characters to die apart. Like us, they expect to die together. They are twins, they spent their whole life together and they think it will always be that way, Cersei only feels complete with him... and ripping Jaime away from her? Yeah, sadly poetic.

And now for the characters...

JAIME: ↳ Rhaegar / Aerys

I start with Jaime first since I think he's going to die first.

Source: (x), (x)

In the first still (from the 8x02?), he's wearing a Northern regular armor, similar to the one Robb used to wear. In the EW promo, the armor is almost the same but more more redish, more Lannister, and looks a little like bit the one Podrick used to wear back in the previous seasons.

I presume the costume change will happen after the battle in 7x03. My guess is that battle will not be the last. Wrapping the White Walkers storyline in 1 episode? No, impossible. The war will happen in two times: first that battle, Winterfell is destroyed and the White Walkers are still a threat, Jaime comes back to King's Landing (with the Starks?) [if I remember Nik was spotted on the King's Landing set, could be for this or something else] and then another battle and Jaime dies during this one by the hand of Night King.

Why the Night King? Simple. One of the most important moment in Jaime's life was when he killed the Mad King, a man obsessed with fire. He was mocked all his life for breaking his vows, nicknamed Kingslayer, when he took the right decision.

And then when the king turned to flee, I drove my sword into his back. "Burn them all," he kept saying. "Burn them all." I don't think he expected to die. He ... he meant to... burn with the rest of us and rise again, reborn as a dragon to turn his enemies to ash. - Jaime, S03E05 Kissed by Fire

Most people in the fandom think he will kill either the Night King or the Mad Queen, I bet on the other way. I admit I also thought about Dany becoming the Night Queen and killing him, a nice parallel since he killed her father but I don't see her branding a sword even if she becomes the Night Queen so I stand with the idea of the Night King, a creature made a ice. Honestly, a Kingslayer murdered by a king? What an irony... And, A Lannister always pays his debts.

That was for the Aerys part, now for the Rhaegar part. They are both warriors and if Jaime dies in a battle, it will already be a parallel with Rhaegar dying at the the Trident. Nik also said that Jaime's obsessive love for Cersei "follows him until his very last scene of the show". At first, I was; okay my theory is wrong but then I remembered that quote about Rhaegar:

Rubies flew like drops of blood from the chest of a dying prince, and he sank to his knees in the water and with his last breath murmured a woman's name. - Daenerys, ACOK

We don't know for sure who was the woman Rhaegar mentioned but Jaime murmuring Cersei's name would completely fulfill the parallel with him. And again, a bit ironic here since Cersei wanted to marry Rhaegar.

CERSEI: ↳ Rhaella / Aerys

Now, Cersei, the next who's going to die, in my opinion. I think she will behave somehow like Aerys at the beginning of the season but her death will be a total parallel to Rhaella, and by extent, Joanna and possibly Lyanna.

Source: (x), (x)

Like Jaime, with the costume change, Cersei is wearing the Lannisters colors again. Someone on tumblr (I don't remember who, I'm sorry) said that her grief is over and it could mean she will subvert the villain trope or something along the line. I do agree with the grief part, that's why I don't think she will lose baby!Lannister. Why would she wear her house colors if she had lost her child?

Source: (x), (x), (x), (x), (x), (x)

Notice she has the Lannister sigil back too, as a necklace. It was a link with Myrcella and after Tommen's death, she never wore it again. Only as embroidery on her gowns. The pendant is strategically placed on her "bump", it fits her character; she's (was) a mother, she's pregnant and that child is the future of her house. Also, some people said we can see a baby bump. I personally disagree, I believe it's only the dress.

I know part of the fandom will scream at me that she's not pregnant or she will have a miscarriage because of the prophecy. First of all, I do believe she's pregnant (or at least she thinks she is) and of course, a miscarriage is still a possibility. Second of all, prophecies are tricky, ask Melisandre. The prophecy was already debunked back in S1 when Cersei told Catelyn about the black haired boy she had with Robert.

I lost my first boy, a little black-haired beauty. He was a fighter too... Tried to beat the fever that took him. - Cersei, S01E02 The Kingsroad

Yet, Maggy still mentioned 3 children:

Maggy: The king will have 20 children and you will have three. Cersei: That doesn't make sense. Maggy: Gold will be their crowns. Gold their shrouds. - S05E01 The Wars to Come

Since she was also pregnant with Robert's child in the books, we know pregnancy doesn't count for that prophecy to work. Now, in the show, she gave birth to that boy. He was sick, or got sick, but was alive. My conclusion is that the birth doesn't count either. The only fact that matter is if she raises the child. So Cersei could carry her pregnancy to term and give birth to an healthly, surviving child if she dies in in childbirth or soon after. Which brings the Rhaella parallel.

And again, I know most Cersei stans (and JxC shippers) hate that idea. I confess I wasn't pleased at first but now, the more I thought about it the more it feels like a full circle. Motherhood has always been an important theme in Cersei's journey.

First, her mother: Cersei was a little girl when Joanna died in the most gendered way. She was traumatized by her death and she grew up resenting her little brother for this.

Second, her love for her children: one of the main reason that drives her to do some... things. She repeated countless times how much she loves/loved them and tried to protect them and yet, they all die. Cersei "sacrificing" her life for her last child and giving him a chance to survive is not so far stretched.

Now, how it's going to happen... Maisie said :

After reading the scripts I went back and watched season 1 again, because so much of it refers back to that season. There are so many scenes that will look similar. And also I watched just to remind myself of the arc I've taken already. I wanted Arya to go full circle and try for some kind of normalcy like when she was younger.

I'm not sure if Maisie is only talking about Arya here, however we already know we are going to have a parallel with Jon and Daenerys arriving at Winterfell like Cersei and Robert back in the season 1. Then, if the leaks are proven to be true (Euron forcing Cersei to have sex with him and her saying she "enjoyed" it as much as she did with Robert), we can assume their relationship will be similar to the one she had with her previous husband. I think Cersei will lie and pretend that baby!Lannister is Euron's child just like she did with Robert and Joffrey, Myrcella and Tommen.

Jaime: Who will you say is the father? Cersei: You. - S07E05 Eastwatch

Remember that? I'm pretty sure it was a red herring for Cersei playing Euron in the season 8. Now, we all know what happened to Robert before he had the chance to learn the truth so I bet on Cersei killing Euron in the middle of the season, maybe during the 8x04? Or maybe Jaime. Could be another parallel with:

Ned: Has he done this before? Cersei: Jaime would have killed him. - S01E07 You Win or You Die

After Euron's death (or shortly before), I predict the Starks (moslty Jon) coming to King's Landing to seek refuge or an alliance because Winterfell is destroyed and they have no other choice. Lena and Kit were spotted on set (and I think Sophie too). It could be a decoy but let's say it's a real scene. Jon looked like he bent the knee to Cersei, I believe we will have a replay of the famous scene with Ned in S01E07.

You must be gone by then ... you and your children. I will not have their blood on my hands. Go as far away as you can, with as many men as you can. Because wherever you go, Robert's wrath will follow you. - Ned, S01E07 You Win or You Die

I think Jon will propose the same deal to Cersei : giving mercy to her and her child (and maybe Jaime and Tyrion) if she leaves King's Landing/Westeros after the end of the war if she accepts to help them (bet we'll see Qyburn's scorpion again). I see her somehow accepting it unlike the first time and maybe that person who said she will subvert the villain trope was right, after all we have that quote:

You love your children. It's your one redeeming quality. That and your cheekbones. - Tyrion, S02E01 The North Remembers

Once the war is won, and Jaime probably dead, the Starks break their promise and want to judge the Lannisters for their crimes, which would be a little parallel with Aerys, when he opened the gates of King's Landing and let Tywin take the city. And like Rhaella, she will escape to her ancestral home, maybe with Tyrion and the help of Qyburn.

You'll be queen. For a time. Then comes another, younger, more beautiful, to cast you down and take all you hold dear. - Maggy, S05E01 The Wars to Come

It would fit the prophecy. She has nothing left, no power, no crown, her brother/lover is dead... She loses the throne and survives the game. Again, a bit ironic since she's one of the biggest player since the beginning and the one who instaured the famous:

When you play the game of thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground. - S01E07 You Win or You Die

And then, she dies tragically giving birth... Yeah, full circle.

TYRION: ↳ Viserys / Maester Aemon?

Tyrion... Oh Tyrion... He's the one I'm on the fence, for every theory that I have, honestly. He escaped deaths numerous times but all good things come to an end. I feel we don't have enough clues about his future death or his possible survival. Of course we have that famous quote:

In my own bed, with a belly full of wine and a maiden's mouth around my cock, at the age of eighty," he replied. - Tyrion, AGOT

Or that one:

One day, after our queen has taken the Seven Kingdoms... I'd like to have my own vineyard. Make my own wine. The Imp's Delight. Only my close friends could drink it. - Tyrion, S06E08 No One

I don't think that's gonna happen but if my theory is right, I assume he will take Viserys place, mixed maybe with Maester Aemon, but like I said, I'm not sure if I should count him as a Targaryen. We still have moment that tho:

Jaime: Tell me you're not thinking of taking the black. Tyrion: And go celibate ? The whores would go begging from Dorne to Casterly Rock. I just want to stand on top of the Wall and piss off the edge of the world. - S01E02 The Kingsroad

If the White Walkers are defeated, I see no reason to build another Wall and no reason to have another Night's Watch, I think it's more like a metaphor for Tyrion being casted away from Westeros and going in exil, and raising his nephew/niece.

Source: (x), (x)

Unlike his siblings, Tyrion's new costume is more subtle. He doesn't seem to wear the Lannister colors and yet... In the first still we got for the S8, he is wearing the usual outfit he has since he joined Dany Team: same shape, same colors... and in the EW promo, his clothes doesn't look really different at first because they are still black and he still has the Hand of the Queen's pin but they are! The shape of the jacket is similar to the one he used to wear in the first seasons, the clips are back and golden and the sleeves have hints of gold.

Source: (x), (x)

The patterns aren't the same tho but we can guess the connection with his family will be back once he comes back to King's Landing after the destruction of Winterfell.

Like I said for Cersei, once the war is over, I believe the Starks will want to judge him for his family's crime. Not sure if he's going to escape with his sister, it would fufill Viserys parallel but I think he will be captured/imprisoned for some time like he was during the S1. Then, he either escapes or the Starks send him in exil with baby!Lannister.

Now, why would he raise baby!Lannister? I think the clues are in the S7 finale. When Tyrion learned Cersei was pregnant during that emotional scene, they made a secret pact. No one know what is it about, neither the viewers or the characters (including Jaime). The only thing we can speculate is that this pact will ensure the safety of the child. And maybe the throne.

You say you can't have children, but there are other ways of choosing a successor. The Night's Watch has one method. The ironborn, for all their many flaws, have another. - Tyrion, S07E06 Beyond The Wall

Our child will rule Westeros. - Cersei, S07E07 The Dragon and the Wolf

During the S7, Tyrion was concerned by the possible lack of heir after Dany's death, now he has a potential one. The fandom think Cersei betrayed the pact by not sending her troups in the North and that Tyrion is too naive for believing her but... is it true? Yeah, Cersei said to Jaime she didn't trust their brother and she was lying the whole time but nowhere she informed him about the pact and the fact she broke her promise... Why? I always wondered if Tyrion wasn't the one behind the idea to not send the soldiers North. And from the leaks, it looks like he's trying to buy some time. And honestly, look at his costume in that episode:

Source: (x), (x)

Like for EW promo and the previous seasons, the jacket have the Lannister shape and the pattern, while slightly different, looks similar to Tywin's jacket. Everyone always screamed how Cersei's gowns was inspired by Tywin but here...

That pact is gonna bite him in the ass, but maybe not the way we can imagine. I mentioned above a possible parallel between Cersei and Lyanna and it wasn't only about the "dying in childbirth" trope; it was about Cersei asking Tyrion to take care of her child, like Lyanna did with Ned. Unlike Lyanna and Ned, Cersei and Tyrion have a complicated relionship; they hate each others but yet, I think deep down they somehow "love" each others. And Cersei knows her brother loves(d) her children (except Joffrey but that's another story).

I loved them. You know I did. You know it in your heart if there's anything left of it. - Tyrion, S07E07 The Dragon and the Wolf

I don't want to destroy our family. I never have. - Tyrion, S07E07 The Dragon and the Wolf

Cersei: I only care what it cost us. It cost us our future. Cersei: If there's no future, then why are we here? Why did you allow me to come? - S07E07 The Dragon and the Wolf

She knows her child will be safe with him. Add the fact: Cersei asking the man; she blamed her whole life for the death of her mother and dying the same way, to take care of her child and Tyrion, who was considered like the black sheep of his family, raising the future of his house: again full circle.

BABY!LANNISTER : ↳ Daenerys / Jon?

I'll be quick here. While I do think in the books that child will never exist, if this theory is correct, in the show, I believe he will survives and take either Daenerys or Jon role, but mostly Dany. If Tyrion dies, then I assume the Starks will raise him and he will not know who are his real parents like Jon but seriously, a blond baby? LOL. If Tyrion survives, then Dany.

We already have a little parallel with Dany and her conception during the 7x03, even if the circumstance are a little bit different. And if Cersei dies like Rhaella, it would be a complete replay of Dany's birth.

Then, Tyrion raises him like Viserys, but in better way, you know. I don't remember if D&D spoke about a flashforward for the end of the show but I could see that happening: the Starks living happily and the last scene is baby!Lannister being introduced and saying he wants to avenge his family/take what should be is. What goes around, comes around... for the Lannisters, for the show.

TIMELINE :

I have made a little timeline of how I think these events are going to happen but some of them can switch, I guess?

Great battle in 7x03, Winterfell is destroyed

Jaime comes back to King's Landing

Euron dies

The Starks seek refuge/an alliance with Tyrion

End of the war - Jaime dies

The Starks betray the alliance

Cersei escapes to Casterly Rock and die giving birth

Tyrion takes care of baby!Lannister

I'm not sure if my post makes sense, it feels more clear in my mind to be honest and I feel like I forgot a bunch of stuff but I really wanted to post it before the premiere. Now, I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who have that theory in mind and if you have read all of this, first thank you and second, you probably think I'm crazy so I'm gonna hide under a rock...

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

The Forgotten (#11) for the book reviews?

Short opinion: I’m happy to forgive this book for its imperfect plotting, given its many moments of sheer awesomeness.

Long opinion:

Bless this opening.  Seriously, bless it.  I don’t know of another scene that captures the excruciating social weirdness of being in middle school better than this sequence.  The very soul of being 13 years old is the knowledge that, as awkward as it is to square-dance with one’s cousin in gym class, the only possible situation that could ever be more painful would be square dancing with a girl who isn’t one’s cousin in gym class.  Although I think there’s a lot of important commentary and character development in the apathy toward all things school-related that Jake experiences later in the series, I absolutely love all the moments with Jake being awkward in school early on.  Plus, who doesn’t adore all of the moments where Rachel goes through heroic efforts to save Jake and Cassie from themselves through throwing them at each other, sometimes literally?

Speaking of Rachel being the true hero of the series (all the others are just her sidekicks), I love Jake’s growing awareness throughout this book of how he deploys her as their first line of defense — and just how shitty it is that he encourages her to take on that role.  Sure, he’s right there by Rachel’s side when the two of them go charge off to throw themselves between an army of hork-bajir-controllers and their friends yet again, but he still sends her out there to go take the forty-odd controllers on the left while he takes the forty-odd on the right, and he’s aware that there’s something sketchy in asking that sacrifice of a friend rather than making it himself alone.  Overall he does a lot more delegation in this book than in previous books in the series: he uses Tobias as a diversion to get the rest of them on the downed Bug fighter, he puts Marco on watch when he more-or-less collapses after talking to Polo, and he sends Ax to sabotage the Bug fighter while the others all make a run for it.  And every single time he does it, there’s this moment of terror and self-doubt and occasional nausea that follows like clockwork.  This Jake is still terrified of the responsibility that his friends have handed him, and terrified that he’s going to get one of them killed with one wrong move.  He’s still obsessed with the idea that everyone expects him to be perfect and that they’ll turn on him the moment he admits he doesn’t know something.

The first book is such a mess of uncertainty, and the sixth is such a frantic scramble for survival, that this is really the first time that Jake’s narration takes the time to show us his leadership philosophy from his point of view.  He’s definitely still in the mode of rejecting the idea that he should be in charge of anything, having not yet embraced the role the way he’ll do with enormous effectiveness in #20 - #50 and with probably too much enthusiasm at the end of the war.  When Jake’s most effective as a leader is when he’s going “yeah, I think we should turn into moles — everyone else okay with that?” which is the happy middle between the amount of “oh god oh god should we turn into moles, I don’t know, we’re all gonna die” he does in this book (and to a lesser extent #6, #16, and #31) and the amount of “we’re turning into moles and anyone who says differently is going to have a Problem” he slips into in #52 and #53.

Other things I freaking love about this book: that scene at the very end with Jake talking to Ax about the fact that they both tend to hold Elfangor up as this mystical quasi-omniscient paragon of leadership, but that if they’re honest with themselves then they both know that he was probably just a lost kid like them.  The line “the taxxons could be rainforest natives” which A+ FOR SUPER-EARLY FORESHADOWING, KA APPLEGATE.  The wacky sequence with Ax awkwardly attempting to pilot the Bug fighter, only topped by the similar scene in #45.  The classic sci-fi trope of the mysterious alien ship crash with the mysterious innocuous-looking but heavily-armed locals converging on it from all sides — and the way that Applegate subverts the X-Files premise through showing the Animorphs’ super-pragmatic approach to the whole rigamarole.  The creepy and ultimately unresolved ambiguity about whether Jake died and collapsed a timeline back in on itself, whether everyone except Jake died and his memories are all that remain of them, whether it’s even possible for Jake to prevent a timeline that he can only prevent through having already experienced, whether everyone would be trapped in the loop forever if Jake didn’t end it accidentally, whether Jake dreamed the whole thing or instead has real memories for real events that are the only evidence it ever happened, whether that entire other universe was ultimately destroyed when the loop closed with Jake (or everyone but Jake) still alive…  So on.

I’m also a huge fan of this book in spite of it being less popular in the fandom because it introduces probably my favorite running motif of the series: that, if given the chance, the planet fights back.  I know it’s corny, but I love the way that totally random humans (Polo, Derek, Yami, the governor of California) just get on board with helping the Animorphs about five seconds after going “so you’re here to fight the aliens that are currently destroying my home?  Cool.  Sign me up.”  It’s a really cool way of affirming that — self-doubt or no, moral greyness or no — the Animorphs are almost certainly doing the right thing by doing their best to stop the yeerks.  The series does it with animals as well: the real monkeys fight back against Visser Three in this book, the whales help Cassie find Ax in #4, the kangaroos injure and kill several hork-bajir in #44, the crocodile that Rachel “burps” out saves Marco in #12, the orcas attack the Sea Blade in #36, etcetera.

It’s an awesome way of getting to the bottom line of what the Animorphs are actually doing: they’re protecting the people like Polo and Derek who only need one glance at the scene to figure out that the kids trying to use home team advantage against the landscape-annihilating spaceships are the ones who both need and deserve their help.  The Animorphs are fighting for the right of random humans to keep living their lives free not just from yeerk control but also free from the threat of annihilation by foreign powers.  They’re fighting for the right of the planet to keep on being itself, from the most arrogant jaguar or python all the way down to the most dislikeable piranha or ant.  People like Polo give the series a much-needed reminder about the really really big picture of what’s at stake in this war.

[worryinglyinnocent]

My Thoughts on Star Wars Episode VIII

Opinions, observations on The Last Jedi and predictions for episode 9 below the cut. Naturally there are spoilers ahead.

Before I start, please be aware that whilst this post is not at all focussed on shipping, there are anti-reylo sentiments at a couple of points and the post is generally anti-Kylo. 

So, I saw Star Wars last night. Before we went, my friend and I were discussing some of the things we had predicted, or had seen predicted online, that would happen in this episode, our main theories being:

Kylo and Rey would swap places, with Rey being seduced by the dark side and Kylo moving back towards the light. It nearly happened and I’m incredibly relieved it didn’t.

Reveal of Rey’s parents as Luke and Mara Jade Skywalker, with Kylo having killed Mara Jade in the massacre at the Skywalker training temple, and Luke having rescued Rey and taken her to Jakku for her own protection. I don’t know anything about the expanded Star Wars universe so I leave this one in Miran’s hands. 

Since neither of these actually came to pass, I’ll move on quickly to my thoughts on the film. 

I think this film can be summed up thus: “The Resistance spends 2.75 hours running away from the First Order in the universe’s slowest space chase.”

OH MY GOD THIS HAS TO BE THE LONGEST FILM I’VE EVER SEEN. Seriously the film was great but it was just too long. Every time I thought that they were coming to a logical ending point and thought I could foresee an ending taking shape, they tacked on another climax point. This film could have ended sensibly five times before it actually did. 

Five possible alternate ending points were:

Finn and Rose’s mission to turn off the tracking string is successful with various other mishaps along the way; Poe has to perform incredible feats of flight to make sure they get back on the resistance ship before it jumps to light speed and leaves them behind, as well as the three of them getting Rey from Snoke’s ship and getting her back as well. 

Everything proceeds as with the film, but the evacuation to the mine planet is done successfully and the film ends with them in hiding on the mine planet. 

Everything proceeds with the film as expected until the sonic boom cannon thing makes an appearance; I was honestly expecting Rose to shove Finn’s speeder out of the way and take the suicidal run to blow up the cannon herself. I didn’t want her to because I like Rose and want to see her in future films, but considering she’d already lost everything, it seemed like it was going that way. 

Resistance allies arrive and deal with First Order ground troops either before or after the cannon fires.

End on a cliffhanger with Luke appearing in the base and/or going out to meet Kylo. 

It just felt that every time they could have ended the film, they decided to add more on. 

Other observations:

 - ALL OF THEIR PROBLEMS (well most of them) COULD HAVE BEEN SOLVED IF POE AND HOLDO HAD JUST FUCKING TALKED TO EACH OTHER!!!!! If they had actually talked to each other about their plans, then everything would have been solved. 

 - I loved how anticlimactic and ignominious Snoke’s death was. 

 - I am incredibly, incredibly glad that they decided to completely subvert Kylo’s redemption arc and not fall into the trope of ‘pretty white girl’s tender affection is what redeems problematic white boy’. They came so close and I was there with head in hands fully expecting it to go that way, but they didn’t. 

 - I almost feel sorry for Hux in that his leader is now basically a whiny teenager, only this whiny teenager has the ability to force-choke him whenever he gets angry. 

 - Does Kylo even have a plan moving forward? His only plan seems to be ‘wipe out the resistance’, but if he doesn’t have a plan for the resistance to resist... What’s the point?

 - Finn v. Phasma = two thumbs up from me. One of the best fights of the film. 

 - The entire thing with the codebreaker just jarred me. Maz told them to find the guy with the red buttonhole. They found the guy, and randomly decided to go off with another guy whom they had no idea who he was and who had not been vouched for by Maz instead. Sure, he got them out of jail, but they had no proof that he could do any of what he said he could, they literally met him two minutes before, and they were discussing delicate military tactics in front of him which ultimately cost them hundreds of lives. It just felt like the characters were making stupid decisions for plot purposes. They could have easily broken out, found the buttonhole guy they were meant to find, and still run into a whole ton of problems and ended up the same position, but it would not have been as a result of blindly trusting the wrong people. 

 - I am sure that there is more to Rey’s story than meets the eye, because why did she see her younger self being left on Jakku when she touched Luke’s lightsaber in Force Awakens? All the other images she saw were through Luke’s eyes, which is why I assumed that Luke had been there when she was left on Jakku for some reason. WE HAVE TO GO BACK TO JAKKU!

 - At first I thought they were setting it up for Poe to be the new Han, Rey and Finn together to be the new Luke, Kylo to be the new Vader and Snoke to be the new Palpatine. Now it looks like they’re setting up Poe to be the new Leia, Rey to be the new Luke, Finn to be the new Han and Kylo to be the new Palpatine, with Snoke as a red herring. 

 Major theories and predictions for episode nine. 

Miran and I came up with the theory that the final trilogy is mirroring the original trilogy, but in sort of in reverse, thus ending up where the series began (in chronological order of film release, not in actual film order)  and bringing the films full circle, with the prequels standing alone as a history. Fantasy and sci-fi sagas very often move in cycles (it’s a major plot of the Belgariad and Mallereon), and it’s not too much of a stretch to believe that Star Wars is moving likewise and is on its second cycle now. 

As such we’re predicting various events of episode nine based on events of episode four. 

This is just our personal theory and we’re probably reading way, way too much into it, but we’re having a lot of fun with it. Also, it made us see just how similar in plot New Hope and Return of the Jedi are.

So far, Force Awakens mirrors New Hope in various ways (find a jedi on a desert planet, escape in the Falcon, droid in charge of delicate information vital to rebellion etc), but also mirrors Return of the Jedi thus:

 - Junkyard/scavenger society on Jakku sort of mirrors Hutt society on Tattooine. 

- Resistance base in TFA is on a planet very similar to Endor in RotJ.

-  In TFA  they know what they’re up against (Starkiller) and pretty much know already how they’re going to defeat it. It’s a huge space station that destroys planets. In ANH, the Death Star was something new, the likes of which they had not seen before. By RotJ, they know what they’re up against and how to defeat it: It’s a huge space station that destroys planets.

 - A very well-known and pivotal character dies - Vader in RotJ and Han in TFA. Arguably Han’s death mirrors Obi-Wan’s in ANH, but at the time of release, Obi-Wan was not as well-known and pivotal as he later became. 

The Last Jedi mirrors Empire Strikes Back thus:

- Ahch-To mirrors Dagobah. Complete with sunken x-wings!

- Rey learns from Luke mirroring Luke learning from Yoda.

- In both, the hero (Luke/Rey) is tempted by the dark side but chooses the light (Luke throws himself off a radio tower, Rey chooses to fight Kylo).

 - In both we meet the big bad and find he’s not actually all that impressive close-up.

- Both begin with an evacuation and end with the rebels on the back foot. 

- Both have major parentage reveals, but here’s where the reversal starts coming in - Luke’s parent who was assumed to be no-one particularly special turns out to be Vader. Rey’s parents who were assumed to be important are revealed not to be. 

- ESB starts with the rebels escaping a white planet and ends with them drifting in space. TLJ starts with them drifting in space and ends with them escaping a white planet. 

So based on these parallels and reversals, our predictions for episode 9 mirroring and reversing New Hope. 

- Mentor figure will die - Obi-Wan in ANH, naturally this will be Leia in Ep9. I think it likely that she will die off screen between the two films and her passing will be referred to in the opening text scroll. 

- They will face something they have not faced before. The Death Star was something new in ANH; they were ready for it by RotJ. They were ready for Starkiller in TFA, so they’ll face something brand new and even deadlier in Ep9. 

- We’ll end up back on Tattooine, where it all started. Or, if Jakku is now standing in as resident desert planet, we’ll end up back on Jakku, where this particular story cycle started.

- ANH begins with Luke losing his family;  we predict Ep9 will end with Rey getting closure about her own, I am sure that we’ve not heard the full story. 

- ANH opens with the government being disbanded, we predict Ep9 will end with government and democracy being restored. 

Unrelated to the story cycle:

 -  We also think that the distress signal that went out to the resistance allies that was ignored was not in fact ignored - the resistance allies knew that if Leia was using her personal call then pretty much all hope was lost to the main resistance band, and instead of helping that little core group that would most likely be lost by the time they arrived, they used Leia’s signal as a rallying cry for the rest of them to come together and form a much larger resistance elsewhere.

 - Linked to this, I like the idea of the Resistance not having a major base somewhere but actually being based out of the Falcon, able to pack up and move on at a moment’s notice, but just with little outposts here and there where they store munitions, supplies, fighters, fuel etc. I also like the idea of the Falcon being a decoy figurehead, with the Resistance still mobile on a different ship, but Chewey flying the Falcon all over the galaxy sending Kylo on a wild goose chase, whilst the Resistance move on in another direction. 

Only another couple of years to wait to see if we’re right! 

[zezeryous]

i just finished drv3

i just finished the game like 15 minutes ago and i’m torn. very torn. short initial thoughts under the cut (huge spoilers obviously)

okay i’m gonna start off by saying i was spoiled on the identity of the mastermind by my own stupidity and also that Kaede wasn’t actually the main character via tumblr. so i went into this game not entirely blind and i think it affected my experience with it in a minor way.

i think it’ll be easier for me to start with what i liked about the game so i’ll do that. the thing i liked the most about it was how it differentiated itself from the previous games and broke a lot of the tropes from the previous games. i went into the game expecting it to be another normal dr game with the usual tropes and around the third chapter i realized that what i thought was gonna happen based on my knowledge of the previous games wasn’t actually happening. and i fucking love this. drv3 feels fresh it feels different. it’s still a dr game but at the same time it isn’t and that’s what i like the most about it.

Kaede. sighs. out first female protag was gone too soon. however, i thought having the protag be a culprit was a fucking brilliant move and while i wasn’t sure about it at first because i was worried about how they were gonna do it, i think it was a great move and kept things fresh. it kinda expanded on how Hinata was sort of the mastermind of sdr2 and i really really liked it and think they pulled it off really well. i do wish they hadn’t pulled this during the very first chapter though because i would’ve liked to have had Kaede around a little more. though to be honest i think Saihara is my favorite from this game so i’m not complaining that much.

i also really kinda liked how they handled the aftermath of the twist (more on that in a bit because O H  B O Y do i have Feelings about it) i thought it was brilliant to have everyone break dr tradition and reject both hope and despair. this point goes back to what i was saying above with how this game just subverts a lot of the tropes from the previous games (not all though - i’m looking at you general themes of the cases)

another thing is how the cast as a whole was a lot more friendly and trusting of each other compared to the other two games, especially the first. had there not been any motives, no murders would’ve taken place. again this is yet another thing under the “drv3 did this differently than other games” category but it was really interesting to see this dynamic still hold after all the shit various people did.

i also wanna talk a little bit about Ouma. i’ve heard a lot of people saying he’s a lot like Komaeda, so i was kinda expecting that going in, but in the end i don’t quite get it. i don’t understand his character as well as i would like and i don’t feel like the game (or at least the localization anyway) didn’t do him justice. so if anyone who really loves Ouma is reading this i would absolutely love it if you could please explain him to me because i don’t understand his character like i should be and i want to as a big Komaeda fan (and one that thinks that the fandom really fucked with his character a lot)

okay. the twist. the motherfucking bullshit twist. i legit wanted to scream at my computer because i thought it was a flaming pile of bullshit. i hate the twist with a burning passion and it almost ruined the entire series for me. the ending of drv3 is very vague and really leaves it up to the player what is a lie and what is truth. is their world actually fiction or is it part of the dr world? we don’t really know. it’s kinda like the ending to the first game where we don’t really know if Junko was lying about how the outside world was fucked up or if she was actually telling the truth. it turned out to be the latter once sdr2 was released, but the idea is similar. so it’s up to our interpretation. but there’s also a third option. it’s the option where drv3 is its own beast in its own universe completely unrelated to the main dr games. this is the option i think i am going to go with because i can continue to love and adore the previous games like i always have while still respecting what happened in drv3 and what it was trying to do as a dr game.

the thing about the twist that really got on my nerves above all else though was how they portrayed the fans of the “series”. to me it was a kinda negative portrayal of the dr fanbase. because if Tsumugi is to be believed and it was all a work of fiction, real actual people in a supposedly peaceful world wished for 53 different real life killing games, which is really kinda fucked up. i got a “y’all are crazy for loving this series so much” vibe from it and it left me feeling vaguely insulted for being a huge fan of the series for so long. granted, i don’t know if that was the intent or if it was supposed to be a more positive “the fans keep this series alive” message, but i’m sure i’m not the only one who came out of the game feeling vaguely insulted for being a fan of the game. and if multiple people got that feeling when that was not the intent, then it was a poorly written message and one that should’ve needed to be reworked.

if the twist hadn’t been what it was i would’ve been okay with the backstory being what it was. my biggest issue with it though was naegi and hinata and the others fought so hard to fix the world only for it to be completely destroyed again by something they couldn’t control

i’ll probably try and find other peoples’ thoughts on the game because i’m not sure how i feel about it and maybe someone will have some insight on it that’ll make me decide one way or another

tl;dr i have mixed feelings about the game because of the bullshit twist but i love the characters and i like the game for what it was (a dr game, but not) and what it could have been

[emperorren]

on reylo being one-sided

(and why I’m not a huge fan of this scenario)

This is something I’ve wanted to address for a while---the fairly popular idea that the “only” romance we’re going to get in canon between Rey and Kylo will be one-sided on Kylo’s part. That there’s no way Rey can ever return his feelings (or, more accurately, his obsession), and will never forgive him for what he’s done.

I’m curious as to why this became so easy to believe in our corner of the fandom (and I mean specifically reylo shippers). Is this because we want to keep our expectations low? Is it because we recognize that some of the arguments “against” this ship are valid? Is it because, despite all meta and character analysis, we ultimately see Rey’s character as incompatible with Kylo’s, or we don’t believe in the writers’ ability to make her compatible without “ruining” her? Are there any actual signs of this dynamic being necessarily, intrinsically unrequited? 

The answer to the last question, in my opinion, is no. Kind of the opposite. But I’ll get to this later; meanwhile, I’ll concede that this is probably the easiest, safest scenario to speculate on. Kylo being fixated on Rey is already de facto canon, we’re not exactly making wild speculation here. From “what girl?”, to "forget the droid, we have what we need”, to the way he watches her for who the hell knows how long while she’s unconscious, to “I can be your teacher”, it’s clear that our bad boy finds Rey fascinating, and it’s not a stretch of imagination at all to assume that this fixation will only get worse from this point on---that he’ll probably try again to kidnap or lure her again to his side, now that he knows how powerful she is. Villainous crushes are a Thing, so there’s nothing particularly outrageous or unrealistic about this. 

Rey, however, is much more problematic. Her developing some feelings (whatever their nature) for Kylo really seems at odds with the way her character is portrayed and with her other main relationship (Finn). She doesn’t seem to feel anything but unadulterated hatred for Kylo at the end of the movie, and she has every reason to feel this way: the guy killed her newly found parental figure, hurt her best friend, is complicit in genocides and the destruction of an entire solar system, his every action proved that Leia was wrong about him. That Rey can ever feel even the slightest sympathy, let alone attraction, for such a person does sound like a stretch. "Falling” for Kylo would either irreparably taint her likability as a protagonist (what kind of person is attracted to someone who hurt her friends?), or, as many ant*s fear, turn her into an ooc, pallid imitation of the strong willed, independent, loyal young woman we’ve seen in TFA. Rey doesn’t have any real “reasons” to fall for Kylo, and the authors can’t make it happen unless they bend her character in really unpleasant ways. That’s the assumption.

But we shippers still want to see some romance---because what we saw blossoming in Kylo is unmistakable and too juicy not to be explored by the narrative. A tragic unrequited love on Kylo’s part that ends with him embracing the fact that Rey will never return his feelings, but still sacrificing himself for her safety, and redeeming himself with this purely selfless act---that sounds like a good compromise, right? Right. It’s not bad. It’s feasible from a storytelling perspective, it leaves Rey’s agency, personality, motivations etc. intact, while giving a payoff to Kylo’s anticipated *pull to the Light* without turning the story into a cheesy, bad trope-ridden romance in which the bad guy “gets the girl” as a prize for becoming good.

Still, I'm skeptical.

I’m 100% here for angst and a conflicted, tortured Kylo Ren who doesn’t know what to make of his feelings for the enemy, but do I really want to watch him chase a recalcitrant, disgusted Rey around the galaxy for the next two movies? Hell, no. Not only I’m afraid I’d find this repetitive and quickly exhausting, but the discourse around him would only get nastier, the “stalker” reading of his character more substantiated. Honestly, I don’t want to hear any of that.

But more importantly: even if it’s done well and the stalkey vibes are kept at minimum, it would work for Kylo, for his arc. Rey, on the other hand, would remain crystallized in her rejection of everything Kylo Ren is and stands for, which reeks of character stagnation, tbh. Especially compared to the enormous development that Kylo would undergo should he start to genuinely care for Rey. 

You know, if you put all the burden of character evolution---of “meeting halfway”---on Kylo Ren and none on Rey, the inevitable risk is making him much more interesting than her. (honestly, he already is, because the writers bothered to give him some complexity, some flaws that read as flaws, and not just as endearing quirks that don’t compromise the overall adorableness of the character.)

I personally don’t see Rey as already whole, and I strongly reject the idea that “she shouldn’t change anything about herself”. Not changing anything about yourself doesn’t sound like a great idea if you’re the protagonist of a trilogy that is simultaneously a hero’s journey and a rite of passage into adulthood. Rey needs an identity arc, a trajectory. She starts as a character with a rather black/white sense of morality, that the narrative doesn’t really challenge or present as even remotely problematic. That’s definitely less complex than, for example, Finn, who has a moment of “fuck, I’m getting the hell out of dodge” and then comes around, who lies repeatedly to Rey, to Poe, to Han, to the Resistance, who has this huge shadow of his former identity as a stormtrooper looming above him for 3/4 of the movie. Finn is conflicted---he doesn’t share Rey’s unflinching loyalty to bb8 (although, unlike Rey, he did meet bb8′s owner), and his primary concern is getting the FO out of his system and saving Rey. Rey otoh jumps on the good guys’ bandwagon almost immediately, the only thing holding her back (her desire to go back to Jakku to wait for her family) conveniently pushed aside to shove her into action. Amazing, but two more movies of Rey never questioning herself, her loyalties, her assumptions, never showing a single flaw, never even being tempted, sound absolutely dull to me. Luke is so memorable as a hero because he evolves throughout the movies; he’s not stagnant. He begins his journey as an idealist, naive farm boy with a very black/white mentality (the same we find in Rey), but then he’s broken, he learns something that forces him to reconsider his place in the war (in the universe) and his perspective shifts, and he sees a man to save where he used to see only an enemy. 

Of course, Rey’s arc doesn’t necessarily have to be similar to Luke’s, and her evolution surely doesn’t hinge on her relationship with the main (anti)villain. But the way they’ve framed her interactions with Kylo---including the fact that their duel represents the climax of the movie---tells me that this dynamic is going to be crucial. It would be a missed opportunity if Rey’s feelings weren’t as complex and layered as the ones Luke has for Vader.

I see the word “agency” tossed around a lot when promoting the idea of Rey never *falling* for Kylo. It’s a legitimate concern. But I think there’s a difference between:

a) feeling something for a person; b) acting on those feelings; c) letting those feelings define all you are or, worse, destroy who you are d) becoming a passive object of someone else’s desire

I definitely don’t want options C & D for Rey, and I only want B with... reservations (that is, if Kylo stop being an aggressive, self entitled ass, and changes himself in turn) but I think A is crucial---not for Kylo, but for Rey’s arc and complexity as a character. Feelings don’t have to be explicitly romantic, and she might continue on her path without giving in to them (i.e., refuse to let them dictate her actions)... but that she’s never going to feel sympathy for him in her heart is nonsensical given the way they shaped them as each other’s foil.

It’s important to note that Rey’s esteem of Kylo has already hit rock bottom by the end of TFA. Henceforth, it either rises or remains static, and I think we can all agree we can’t just watch two more movies of Rey thinking of Kylo as a monster. Well, I suppose someone could, but I for one would be bored to tears. (storytelling-wise, a character screaming their hate against their enemy in such a transparent, literal way in the first act is only a good choice if it’s going to be subverted later.)

Unrequited love is also at odds with my perception of this dynamic as intrinsically mutual. 

Everyone commented on the yin and yang subtext, that was possibly a source of inspiration for a lot of imagery surrounding Rey and Ren (starting from their curiously similar names). The thing about yin and yang is that they both need each other---they both strive to incorporate the other to achieve wholeness; it’s a two sided feedback. If Rey, the yang, doesn’t need, or care for, or feel temptation for Kylo, the yin, then you can throw the whole yin/yang narrative out of the window. There’s no yin/yang dynamic if the yang doesn’t need, or want, the yin. 

Even at this early stage, it’s a give and take between them. Kylo invades Rey’s consciousness to grab the map, Rey turns the tables on him and “steals” power and knowledge from his mind. The duel is a power play, a battle for dominance where each of them gets to have the upper hand at some point. Everything Kylo does to Rey, Rey returns in spades, almost mirroring him. So far, their interactions have been essentially violent, but should Kylo begin to feel something akin to affection, or compassion, or attraction for Rey, it makes sense to me that this would stir something of the same nature in her, an equal but opposite reaction. Why? Because they’re linked through the Force, she “feels” him as he “feels” her. Because she learns his story, and realizes that he wasn’t born bad. Because she starts dealing with her own darkness, and this makes her see Kylo’s in a different... light, no pun intended. I think these issues are already solidly rooted in canon, and in the hands of a skilled writer (and I think the authors behind this trilogy are skilled, if maybe lacking a bit of courage), can become a perfectly realistic premise for Rey to start feeling “something” for Kylo while maintaining her complexity 

tl;dr; “Rey redeems Kylo by doing absolutely nothing” is infinitely less interesting to me than “Rey and Kylo change and redefine each other through their collisions and interactions”. If I had to choose between a one sided romance on Kylo’s part and no romance at all (but rather, a mutual... friendship? ambiguous antagonism?) I’d choose the latter without blinking. I’m more interested in the mutual nature of whatever’s going on between them (even if it’s just platonic), than I am in any explicit (but one sided) depiction of romantic feelings.

[aion-rsa]

Loki Episode 2 Holds Out for a Hero and a Villain

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This review contains spoilers for the second episode of Loki

Loki Episode 2

“Up where the mountains meet the heavens above. Out where the lightning splits the sea. I could swear that there’s someone somewhere watching me.”

When Marvel’s Kevin Feige discussed Loki’s evolution recently, he noted that “putting Loki into his own procedural series became the Eureka moment for the show.” This became a talking point between fans because Loki was simultaneously hyped as another “six-hour movie” and the two concepts seemed to clash a little. Would Loki’s overarching story blend well with elements of a crime procedural?

The first episode of Marvel’s latest small screen project gave us a little good-cop/bad-cop stuff, with some interrogation room tactics weaved in as Owen Wilson’s Mobius M. Mobius went down the “get inside the mind of a killer” route, and the second episode of Loki continues to embrace the procedural vibe.

A fairly traditional teaser sets up episode 2 as C-20 (Sasha Lane from American Honey) and her squad of TVA Hunters arrive in Oshkosh, Wisconsin in the mid-80s to investigate a reported Variant on the loose at a renaissance fair. The team is ambushed by the Minutemen-murdering Loki Variant mentioned by Mobius at the end of the last episode, and Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out for a Hero” accompanies the rest of the scene in what may or may not be the most extremely online deep cut I’ve ever seen.

TERRIBLE MISS MINUTES IMPRESSION: Hi there! You may be asking yourself what a “teaser” or “cold open” is! Let me get you up to speed. A teaser is a narrative technique used at the start of a TV episode to intrigue the audience just enough to stay tuned. In crime procedurals it’s usually the first building block of that episode’s mystery. A good cold open makes us feel compelled to stick around and find out “whodunnit,” why, or how!

Back at the TVA, Loki is learning – or half-learning – about what happens when a Nexus Event passes the red line and they can’t reset it: the destruction of the Sacred Timeline. During the lesson Miss Minutes acts as a Gal Friday who Loki has little appreciation for despite her enthusiasm, and she ends up calling him a jerk. Which he absolutely is. Nevertheless, the scene is delightful. If there has to be a Who Framed Roger Rabbit? remake in our future, put Tom Hiddleston in there as Eddie Valiant and you could craft a sturdy bridge out of my suspension of disbelief.

Some specific temporal energy has informed the TVA that the Loki Variant was indeed responsible for the ambush on C-20’s team. The Hunters are used to dealing with Loki Variants – apparently they prune Lokis “almost more than any other Variant.” Slippery little bugger though he may be, this stands out as fairly important information. Are these Variants like raptors unwittingly testing the fences? Also, can we take a guess at who might be leading the pack when it comes to Variant numbers if Loki is in second place? Keep checking the background at the TVA! We’ve already seen a Skrull and Peggy Carter.

Our Loki is being teased with the possibility that he could snag an audience with the Time-Keepers if he’s useful enough, leaning into the tried and true cop show “you could get immunity or a reduced sentence if you cooperate” trope. Loki buys it, but it seems incredibly unlikely that this is anything other than manipulative bullshit on Mobius’ part. 

We also get to spend a little time alone with Mobius and Judge Ravonna Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) in this episode. The pair have clearly known each other for a long time but Renslayer now has the unenviable task of riding the line between boss and pal. She’s steady and calm, but you can still envision her as Loki’s own police chief: laying down the law with Mobius, calling him a “loose cannon” for allowing Loki into the fold, and asking him to turn in his badge and gun – or whatever the TVA equivalent is. 

His interactions with Renslayer are perhaps supposed to be charming but they’re actually kinda unsettling, though I can’t quite put my finger on why just yet. 

Mobius emerges from the meeting even more determined to see Loki pick up the pace. He tries to out-manipulate the manipulator with his firm but soft-spoken psychology by telling him that the troublesome killer Variant is a “superior version” of Loki. Our Loki is just a “scared little boy”. I mean, why are you booing him? He’s right.

Loki is put to work in the bowels of the TVA on the research beat, poring through case files and having a fun interaction with a live-action Roz from Monsters, Inc. The stakes are high here. Loki’s life pretty much depends on him finding a breadcrumb or two, and luckily he manages it during an emotional montage during which he processes that Asgard, the home he grew up in and then abandoned, is gone. And he didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye.

He digs deeper into the destruction of Asgard and finds that there was no variance energy detected at ground zero and has an epiphany (mmm, we’ll come back to that, no one here is ready for more of my Miss Minutes shtick yet, least of all me) that the show seems to be hoping you don’t ask too many hard questions about. 

Loki reasons that he’d hide in zero variance energy apocalypse events if he were evading the TVA, and is excited to prove himself right. Mobius is dubious, but they try out Loki’s winning theory in Pompeii just as the city is being destroyed. The buddy cop energy is strong in the scene, with Loki acting as the mischievous rookie who won’t play by the rules and Mobius as his older, weary partner. 

Hiddleston and Wilson’s banter remains effortless, and I can admit that it works a lot better than Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan’s in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Maybe it’s that Wilson’s “bird noises” bit truly feels like improv being done by someone who’s good at improv – the kind of thing you’d usually see end up in a Marvel gag reel. There’s a lot of fun stuff in this episode, but just passively watching Hiddleston and Wilson’s undeniable chemistry even when they’re having an existential chat about life, the universe, and jet skis has proved to be enough for me honestly.

Speaking of which, Loki uses said chat to plant a much-needed seed of doubt in Mobius’ mind about whether the Time-Keepers and the TVA are really the good guys. I’m on his side here: all that Variant killing and near-religious predetermination has left a whole lot of blood on their hands. ATCAB – All Time Cops Are Bastards! No, wait, that’s Jean-Claude Van Damme erasure. I won’t have it.

Anyway, ding-ding, maybe these two mismatched detectives have more in common than they thought, and it all leads to Mobius having his own Kablooie epiphany.

EVEN WORSE MISS MINUTES IMPRESSION SOMEHOW: A sudden epiphany during an episode is often called a “Eureka!” Moment. The protagonist has some good evidence and the case is almost cracked! All it will take is a little bit of inspiring information to help them cross the finish line. If you’ve ever seen an episode of House, you may already be familiar with these moments, and the look on Hugh Laurie’s face when he finally works out that it’s not lupus or sarcoidosis. Come back soon!

Mobius’ “Eureka moment” places the murderous Variant in 2050 Alabama, so Loki, Mobius, Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku), and a bunch of other Minutemen eventually find themselves inside a slightly futuristic shopping haven called Roxxcart. I love that this show could go anywhere and do anything but will just as happily cut to a file room or a barely-disguised Walmart as it will to apocalyptic fucken Pompeii. 

The Roxxcart mission indeed unveils the mystery Variant: it’s Sophia Di Martino! And the credits identify her as Sylvie aka Enchantress and not Lady Loki as we may have expected.

Depending on your grasp of Marvel lore, this reveal will be quite surprising, thrilling, and perhaps confusing. Pros: we didn’t have to wait as long for this unveiling as we did for WandaVision’s Agatha Harkness reveal. Cons: no catchy theme song. But the fact that this reveal has come so early on in the series is pretty exciting – it probably means bigger surprises lie ahead.

But it’s here that the episode subverts our procedural expectations somewhat. It’s not Sylvie who is revealing her grand plan upon being discovered, it’s Loki. And she’s way ahead of him. “This isn’t about you,” she tells Loki, somewhat echoing the Ancient One’s dying words to Doctor Strange. 

Again, this feels very significant. Ol’ Tilda spent a long time protecting our reality, and her successor is about to deal with a multiverse of madness in his upcoming sequel. And lest we forget how the Ancient One set that truth bomb up: “Arrogance and fear still keep you from learning the simplest and most significant lesson of all.” It feels like Sylvie knows something very important that we don’t, and her own “glorious purpose” goes beyond selfish aspirations. 

Loki might be a little closer to shrugging off his self-absorbed nature than Sylvie realizes. In my favorite part of the episode, he checks to make sure B-15 is okay when she’s left unconscious by her possession. This is a guy who just killed a bunch of people, just absolutely has nothing but contempt for people, and he’s concerned about the wellbeing of a Hunter who has shown him nought but derision. Loki isn’t holding out for a hero. He might just be on the path to becoming one.

Or maybe he was just lifting a weapon off her body and I’ll have to take it on the chin next week.

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[soyosauce]

Living Under Glass In Implanted

The data stored in her blood can save a city on the brink… or destroy it, in this gripping cyberpunk thriller. When college student Emery Driscoll is blackmailed into being a courier for a clandestine organisation, she’s cut off from the neural implant community which binds the domed city of New Worth together. Her new masters exploit her rare condition which allows her to carry encoded data in her blood, and train her to transport secrets throughout the troubled city. New Worth is on the brink of Emergence – freedom from the dome – but not everyone wants to leave. Then a data drop goes bad, and Emery is caught between factions: those who want her blood, and those who just want her dead.

Within a techno-thriller-like framework Implanted’s author, Lauren C. Teffeau, weaves solarpunk and cyberpunk themes into a rich setting. New Worth is structurally crafted to evoke a sense of the outside world after radical climate effects have occurred. The stratification of class is literalized, with the rich living high up, enjoying the sun and the best goods the city has to offer. The poor live in all but darkness and have society geared against them in that there’s more crime and the cleaning robots don’t come around that much in the lower levels, etc.. The layout of the entire city is meant to feel like a vertical urban sprawl with only the aesthetic or veneer of a green space, a neat take on an urban jungle.

Emery comes from the terrestrial district down below, with her parents working her ass off to get her in school and land a job that’ll eventually enable them to move up. She’s short, she’s brown, and she’s completely bought into the status quo. Almost. It’s immediately clear early on that she’s a trauma survivor who goes to a virtual reality arcade to hone her skills. A particular skill set that she uses to claw back some control or agency in her life by hunting down people who prey on marginalized people, usually women; removing their implants and selling them.

In her personal life, she’s closed off and secretive, slow to trust—focusing on her coming graduation and landing a decent, but boring job to help her family move up, literally! Of course, this isn’t to be. A corporation blackmails her into joining their ranks, cut her off from everyone, even faking her death, and trains her to be a courier. Porting important information around in her blood, co-opting her very body for their own agency.

Importantly, she was close to fully synching with Rik, a person she plays the arcades with but has never actually met.

Implants are the heart of the high tech in this cyberpunk fiction. Everyone has one and it’s installed fairly early on, else they lose some of the higher functionality, apparently. It allows people to sync with one another, sharing their emotions and thoughts so long as they’re connected. All of society is built on this technology. Citizens’ identities and the way they interact is completely changed by their implants. Social structure and corporate structure is built on the idea that everyone has one. Except… not everybody does. The Disconnects are people who reject this idea, unwilling to trade their freedom and natural human interactions for a device that essentially keeps the populace under the city’s thumb. All the information that is disseminated from them is outright trusted. People no longer trust their own senses, they trust the information being fed them. Social interactions have gone “Online” even more, essentially.

Joining Aventine, the corporation that has blackmailed her, eradicated the one connection she was building toward having despite her trauma. It’s the ultimate way of letting someone into your life, as their presence would always be there with you.

Fast forward months later and a job goes wrong. The information she’s carrying turns out to be important enough that both the corps and the disconnects are after her and she has to risk finding and asking for Rik’s help, who thought her dead.

What ensues is a fairly typical technothriller structure. The slow lead up filled with infodumps and personal stakes followed by action as she has to use her knowledge of the city to navigate her way to any sense of freedom. It’s a cyclical and satisfying narrative that doesn’t feel bloated but does take a while to get going. Luckily, the whole thing is a fast read so it’s not a big deal.

There are some more interesting aspects to the story though, deviating from cyberpunk and the techno-thriller formula. The underlying feminism to the fiction was always nice, even if it made Rik kind of annoying sometimes. The agency of the story is always with Emery, which means when she screws up it’s on her; just as the bulk of the decisions are her own. Rik is a well-off white guy in the higher levels who is a fairly good blueprint for a good supporting character. He sympathizes with the disconnects and acts of as a lens to fill Emery in on the details of the New Worth she herself is unaware of. It works well. But he’s still a little wrapped up in his own privilege in the story, in my opinion. Which, I think is how it is meant to be.

The story is all from Emery’s perspective. Usually, I don’t end up liking something written in this way but it’s pulled off nicely here. Emery is likable and well fleshed out and her voice, while very casual (the only meh part of it for me), ultimately culminates in good character work. There is less prose but the themes are worked in such that there’s a decent amount of emotional payout because of the perspective.

It’s also somewhat subversive. It’s less frenetic than traditional cyberpunk, which usually has new terminology and infodumps that take place during action that doesn’t relent much. This is decidedly more low-key, making it also more accessible.

It also feels solarpunk in that it’s not entirely nihilistic regarding technology or the future, in general, despite the ecological disaster. There are explorations of being responsible and not simply ignorant when trying to understand the outside world that this society looks forward to. Not doing so having real, lasting impact that’s detrimental to humanity. The characters have low points but even when the omnipresent corporations illicit very little hope, it’s disillusioned later. Emery isn’t looking to simply save herself, she has to consider what her actions will do to others; decidedly not traditional cyberpunk where the protagonists are anti-heroes. Which, I like a lot. This feels like a more relevant cyberpunk story because of this.

The city finding a new use for things is also present but… not in the way you’d expect. It’s a living, breathing thing aesthetically because it has technology to counteract the greenhouse effect of living under glass, but also has maintenance tunnels and spaces for sub-cultures that are used by her as a courier to get her job done, even when that job eventually becomes eluding everyone. It felt like a well-realized setting with a purpose beyond the overcapacity of humanity resulting, again, in a nihilistic narrative more indicative of cyberpunk.

She needs to integrate into a corporation. Dressing like them and doing as they say. There is not the normal freedom of expression found in cyberpunk here, that’s been taken from her and, though subtle, I thought was an interesting way to turn it around later when she’s running from the corporation using the tech and the clothes they gave her. Rather than cybernetics being the thing used to subvert power structures, it’s a more literalized repurposing. Pretty cool.

Implants are both good and bad. Therefore the “good”, the “bad”, and the morally grey are put squarely on the shoulders people. Which ends up getting rid of the technophobia trope, too.

It’s also always great to read a female protagonist that isn’t sexualized. Her voice and thoughts make sense, both in just the case of being a believable character, but also in terms of being respectful of a trauma victim while not skirting the issue. She has internal things to work out as a result and the narrative is about that. It’s not only a blip of a character detail to make her sympathetic. It’s how you come to be able to empathize and understand her thoughts and decisions throughout the entire story.

Surprising, thoughtful, and good; Implanted, I hope, is the start of a distinctly feminist cyberpunk wave of literature striking out against the cyberpunk visual tropes pervasive in visual media today that people seem to be waiting for. People like me!

[him-e]

Why do you ship Reylo? Or, more accurately, what first interested you about Reylo and what do you find compelling about the ship that keeps you engaged in the fandom or rooting for it in canon?

What first interested me about it:

it’s the only thing that actually took me off guard me in a movie (TFA) that was otherwise really cute and engaging but also really, really safe (and predictable). Before watching TFA, I thought I had spoiled myself on every major development: Starkiller Base, Han’s death, Luke’s last minute apparition, Rey and Finn’s playful chemistry… I went to the theatre expecting two hours of harmless entertainment (which I got), the good guys being good and the bad guys being bad, a nostalgia trip at best and an uninspired but ultimately innocuous rehash of the original trilogy at worst… but what I actually did was stumble on a gorgeous and completely unexpected hero/villain ship, the kind that had sadly been lacking in my fandom life for years, at least since the good old days of True Blood season 2. No early review or spoiler had prepared me for that. (no early review or spoiler had prepared me for Rey and Kylo interacting at all, which in hindsight is h i l a r i o u s, and few mentioned how fantastic the character of Kylo Ren was. So not just Reylo, but everything surrounding Kylo was a pleasant surprise to me.) Bottom line: I went to see the movie with several expectations, but Reylo wasn’t certainly one of those. It wasn’t even something I knew I needed in my Star Wars. It just happened.

like, when i say it’s the only exception in a movie that plays it safe, I mean it. Just look at the interrogation scene, and all the pearl clutching it caused. Name another thing in TFA that sparked so much discourse.

it’s also the only dynamic that wasn’t ripped, one way or another, off similar relationships in the OT or PT.

curiously enough, Rey’s parentage wank is also one of the main reasons that got me looking more and more into Reylo. Like most people, I walked out of the theatre fully convinced Rey was a Skywalker and precisely Luke’s daughter. Predictable, but also so typically Star-Warsy, and back then I had no reason to believe they’d go for subverting the audience’s expectations. But Rey’s being a Skywalker meant that she’d necessarily develop at some point some sort of *personal* dynamic with local evil cousin (/brother?) Kylo Ren, a prospect I immediately found more interesting and narratively compelling than whatever relationship she might establish with her presumed deadbeat father, Luke. Were Rey and Kylo going to have a Micheal/Lucifer sort of dynamic, were they going to battle over their “divine” legacy? were they going to feel sympathy for each other? would they see each other as family at all? It didn’t take me long to realize I was actually more into this than into any other aspect (or dynamic) of the sequel trilogy, and it was all downhill from there.

all the post TFA fan theories concerning Rey and Kylo meeting in the middle and what that could entail for the Force plot (a new balance? Grey Jedi?)

yin/yang—opposites attract dynamic—enemies to friends (to lovers) = I CANNOT RESIST

they’ve seen each other’s deepest FEARS

THE STARKILLER DUEL!!!

What keeps me interested in it and makes me root for it in canon:

they’re complicated. Their relationship is complicated. Nothing about them is a simple “good girl redeems bad guy” scenario. Neither of them is willing to accept compromises to pull the other to their side, much less win their heart. They’ll move mountains and cross galaxies (and defy their own masters) to save the other’s life, but they’re not going to give up on their ideals, and if that’s the price to pay they’re fully willing to fight each other to death. They both understand each other deeply, on some instinctual, spiritual level, and don’t understand each other at all. The kinship and intimacy they feel when they’re in each other’s brain and soul dissipates when they try to communicate in person, in the same room, and it’s like they’re talking two different languages. They both want the best for each other, but they disagree on what “best” is supposed to mean. This is all very fascinating to me.

they’re real equals. In the Force, and in terms of narrative weight. See: the lightsaber tug-of-war. (and how interesting it is that in TFA Rey was able to both have exclusive control on the legacy saber and defeat Kylo, while in TLJ they both controlled it to the point that neither of them was eventually able to claim it for themselves?)

I, obviously, root for Kylo’s redemption. I believe Rey will have a huge part to play in it.

lonely eldritch Force children with too much power and too much responsibility on their shoulders, finding solace in each other and crying at the barest glimpse of a bright future together

none of the other options for Rey (or Kylo) interests me. Not even celibate!Rey—as I abundantly discussed before, it’s not the idea of Rey having a platonic/celibate happy ending with no romantic attachments per se that I reject (I’d be fine with it if the context was different), but the fact that, for it to happen NOW, Rey’s feelings for Ben should be inexplicably reduced to some weak sauce *I only care for your well-being as a friend and I’m happy to see you go on your merry way and possibly never see you again* pseudo-platonic thing. The way I see it Rey is super fiercely covetous of having Ben at her side, for her own selfish reasons and not just to win the war or because she has a good samaritan complex. Call it love, call it passion, call it passionate friendship, call it force bond shenanigans but… don’t tell me she’d be perfectly happy without him. 

speaking of which, THE FORCE BOND. Sensing the other’s presence at your side—being able to talk and even touch each other across entire galaxies, feeling what the other feels, but only for a handful of minutes each time, before the vision fades like mist between your fingers and you’re alone again. Dude. It’s the most beautiful trope EVER.

I need to stress it again: the Force is connecting them.

what we saw during the praetorian guard fight—Kylo and Rey fighting together in perfect synchronicity, like the force-bonded warriors they are—kept me awake for many many nights. I want more of that. 

I do believe that a Rey/Kylo alliance / friendship / partnership / romance is not just the heart of this trilogy but also the only satisfying endgame for it, at least for the Force side of the plot. A new concept of balance that’s the result of Light and Dark finding harmony and healing the wounds of the past is imo the only way to give the Force a happy ending that doesn’t feel like a rehash of the OT one (the Light wins = the Darkness is destroyed = the Jedi were right and the Sith were wrong). Also, consider: the PT ended with the triumph of the Dark Side, and the OT with the triumph of the Light. It’s not that much of a stretch to imagine that the ST will end with a combination of the two, or perhaps with a subversion of the whole dark/light dichotomy. 

they haven’t kissed and I live for the day they will

(I also live for the day they fight again and that’s the beauty of this ship: it’s a win-win situation no matter how it goes, and them being sworn enemies is almost as good as them being lovers. almost)

[kitsunesbooks]

How to Write (or Not Write) a Tragedy, an Analysis of Iron Blooded Orphans

SPOILER WARNING: IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED MOBILE SUIT GUNDAM IRON BLOODED ORPHANS TO COMPLETION, DO NOT READ THIS ARTICLE

I previously wrote about what makes a good comedy and how their is a distinct lack of good comedies out there. That being said, it seems that tragedies are oversaturating the media as of late. The latest installment of the Mobile Suit Gundam franchise is no exception to this. Mobile Suit Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans is by far one of the darkest things to come out of the minds over at Sunrise Studio, second to Gundam Thunderbolt. With Iron Blooded Orphans nearing the end of it’s second season and the grand finale, I thought it would be fitting to analyze the tragic elements of show and discuss what it did right and what it did wrong.

The literary definition of a tragedy is as follows, a dramatic composition, often in verse, dealing with a serious or somber theme, typically involving a great person destined to experience downfall or utter destruction, as through a character flaw or conflict with some overpowering force, as fate or an unyielding society. Several aspects of this definition have managed to place themselves at the forefront of the world that Iron Blooded Orphans sets itself in. Mars has been fully colonized and it serves only to provide a boost to Earth’s economy. The galaxy is in the grip of the might Gjallahorn, who are essentially the military and the police lumped into one. Tensions are immensely thick as the people of Mars are all in favor of a move for independence. This angers Gjallahorn greatly as they fear a loss of control. When Kudelia Aina Bernstein, a nobleman’s daughter and figurehead of the independence movement, seeks out our main characters to have them serve as her escort, Gjallahorn comes roaring in. This single battle is the event that kickstarts our story and shows us the sad state the world is in. Iron Blooded Orphans deals with very heavy themes, the two biggest ones being class struggle and child laborers or soldiers. Within the first episode we are given a taste of the world and our oppressive force that serves as the opponent in this tragedy. But we have yet to witness the most important thing in tragic stories, character flaws.

Character flaws are the most important aspect of any tragedy and they are more than present in Iron Blooded Orphans. More often than not the tragic flaw serves as one huge death flag in older tragedies, but the difference here is that Iron Blooded Orphans subverts this trope. Despite the situation the characters find themselves in, they are still able to remain positive and strong. Not a single flaw makes itself known within the show’s first few episodes, but we still are given a taste of what to expect in the battles to come. The first episode presents us with a bit of a throwaway character whose death is lightly showcased in the first episode. While his death isn’t terribly emotional, it does serve a purpose. It shows us that even though the majority of our characters are children, the show isn’t afraid to tackle its themes head on and display all of the brutality involved. No one in this show is invincible and that is explained very clearly with this first death. But the first few episodes don’t stop there with its subversion, it downright parodies a certain character type.

Gjallahorn is an incredibly corrupt force hellbent on controlling Earth, Mars, and the Outer Colonies. But they do this out of a perverted sense of justice. Almost every character working for Gjallarhorn uses their twisted sense of justice to serve their own ends and it heavily parodies the idea of being a “hero for justice,” which is a trope all too common in anime. While there are a few of Gjallahorn soldiers who are against the idea of fighting our heroes, the irony is that they have already stained their hands with the blood of children. Even if they don’t want to fight, they can’t change that they have already pulled the trigger in full support of their distorted sense of justice. This entire ideology is what enables Mikazuki Augus, our ace pilot of the series, to distribute punishment for this flaw, and believe me, they suffer greatly. This punishment also extends to the higher ups of CGS, the original company our characters worked for. The higher ups all tried to cut and run while their so called “space rats” fought long and hard against Gjallarhorn. This is the turning point for the series and where the journey truly kicks off. While the higher ups flaunt their power around, they fail to acknowledge their hubris and cowardice. It is this incident that spurs our youthful characters into action. They plan a coup against all of their superiors which ultimately ends in the brutal execution of said superiors. CGS is destroyed and ultimately rebranded as Tekkadan, which translates to iron flower, or flower that never wilts. However, this coup and the subsequent victories is what slowly reveals the tragic flaw of all of Tekkadan. That flaw is none other than the classic flaw of hubris.

One of the things that makes a tragedy such an emotional work of art is the technique of delaying the tragedy. By giving time for the viewer to bond with the work’s many characters, it will be all the more emotional when they eventually fall. This is especially true if you are able to write a story where the reader or viewer can sympathize and root for the heroes. For a majority of the first season’s early episodes, Tekkadan saw success after success. Through this we saw tragedy be delayed time and time again. Were it not for the dark opening episodes of the series, viewers more than likely forgot the tragic nature of the show. With each success, the bond between the Tekkadan family grew, especially with introduction of Teiwaz and their all female subordinate group known as Turbines. Not only that, but the bond between Tekkadan and the viewer grew in strength, and with each victory you can’t help but root for the characters that you practically fell in love with. All of this however comes into great effect when met up against the first major hurdle of the series. This came in episode eleven. In the episode, Tekkadan faces off against the Brewers, pirates hired by Gjallarhorn to take out Tekkadan and capture Kudelia. Up until this point every battle was a success, but we were swiftly reminded of the cold reality of the world this show takes place in. The first major reminder from this arc is a near fatal injury sustained by one of the named members of Tekkadan. The trauma of the event shakes the entire crew as they race to save the life of a precious family member. In that moment it is once again clear to everyone, even the viewer, that life is extremely fragile in this world. To make matters even worse, the Brewers are notorious for their use of Human Debris, which is a derogatory term in this world for child laborers born in space. Tekkadan is set up against an opponent that not only mirrors itself, but its entire past. Adding to this heaping pile of reality is the character Masahiro, who is revealed very quickly to be the brother of Akihiro, the silent muscle of Tekkadan. All of these factors come to a head when the battle finally erupts between Tekkadan and Turbines, and the Brewers. Throughout the battle we receive a grim reminder of how bad the world of Iron Blooded Orphans is as we see Tekkadan board one of the Brewers’ ships and ultimately end up having to kill the Human Debris they were trying to rescue while sustaining casualties of their own. Not only that, but Akihiro ends up having to watch his own brother’s death after finally reuniting with him. But despite all the hardships endured during that battle, Tekkadan is still able to turn it into a victory and make plans for the future. Possibly the biggest moment of this arc was the funeral held after the battle during episode thirteen. This is the moment that makes it all the more apparent how fleeting the lives of our cast are. In fact it is flat out stated in the episode. But things only get more troublesome for Tekkadan.

Probably one of the most important characters in the entire series is the person responsible for Tekkadan’s continued existence. Kudelia Aina Bernstein is the one character in the whole series who has gone through the most dramatic development, and it all started with her very first appearance. She chose the children of CGS (Tekkadan) as her escorts because she thought she could connect with them. She believed that she could make something of those who had nothing. But she quickly realized that she could not be any more distant from the children of Tekkadan. However, as she spends more time with them and remains present throughout their exploits she begins to grow and understand the children and ultimately grows close to all of them. Shortly after the battle with the Brewers, we begin Kudelia’s most important arc of development. Kudelia had been a symbol for Mars’ independence movement. Her power as such a symbol is what allowed the fight for independence to even reach the colonies in the Earth Sphere, Gjallahorn’s home turf. It is in this arc that the focus goes towards the topic of class struggle. The show throws in some dystopian tropes to give the viewers a pretty clear image of what Gjallahorn is. Despite its obvious parody of the “hero for justice” archetype, Gjallahorn is still a very corrupt organization that has an iron grip on the galaxy as a whole. Yet, they are the ones protecting and serving Earth, so no one questions their authority and even if they did the media is easily manipulated. Gjallahorn maintains a large working class in order to keep the economy flowing so that the aristocrats can take in as much as they want while the workers get what is left. For the working class, Kudelia has become something of a propaganda figure. It isn’t long before the title “Maiden of Revolution” gets thrown around rather often. Tensions are thick in the colonies and the working class is growing restless. Talk of revolt circulates and Tekkadan is soon locked in a situation that forces them to choose a side. We begin to see a plot unfold before our very eyes and the life of the young princess is threatened. It is revealed that Kudelia’s guardian and servant, Fumitan, is responsible for making sure that Kudelia finds her way into a sniper’s crosshairs during a union demonstration. When the workers of the colony began their march against Gjallarhorn the tension is palpable. Plans are set in place to have a riot break out between the workers and Gjallahorn with Kudelia’s assassination after the fact meant to serve as the catalyst for future revolts. One perfectly timed explosion causes an extremely one sided firefight break out as Gjallahorn uses the explosion to justify slaughtering the workers union. During that firefight, Kudelia is caught in the crossfire.

In that moment, Kudelia is faced with the very reality she tried so hard to fight against during her time with Tekkadan. Even then she still struggles to face the world’s cold heart that she so wishes to oppose and change. Kudelia’s flaws had been made apparent throughout the series. Her flaws were that of ignorance and hypocrisy. She constantly tried to turn her eyes from the truth because it hurt to look. Because of the pain that the real world demonstrated to Kudelia she found herself becoming more and more contradictory. She worked hard and tried to help Tekkadan and make a difference for those less fortunate, yet she constantly put herself down and said that she is useless. Kudelia, much like the majority of the cast, is just a child. She truly doesn't understand the world as well as she thinks, especially since she had been looking at it through a lens of aristocracy for a majority of her life. Ultimately, it is her own personal loss that spurred her to finally act and take up the mantle that the public placed upon her. After finally facing reality and the loss of a dear friend, Kudelia becomes the Maiden of Revolution and overcomes her flaws.

Before I continue, there is one note I would like to make about the colony arc. During this arc we see that a minor character, Nobliss Gordon, was responsible for planning the assassination of Kudelia. Nobliss also happens to be backing Kudelia financially. In episode sixteen, we see Nobliss and McMurdo, the head of Teiwaz speaking with one another about possible cooperation. It is clear from that interaction that those two characters were meant to play a big part in things to come as they manipulated certain events from the shadows. But the unfortunate part is that it never comes to fruition. I will get to that when I touch upon season two.

The final arc of the first season is where our tragedy comes to a head. I’m going to gloss through the details for sake of length and also so I don’t spoil too much more of the show. When Tekkadan reaches the final stretch of their escort job, they are faced with a final push from Gjallarhorn. Once again we see a bit of a return of the parodying ideals of honor and justice that soldiers of Gjallahorn hold so near and dear to their hearts. But this time, the soldiers Tekkadan are up against are the Outer Earth Orbit Regulatory Joint Fleet. This fleet is designed to protect the space surrounding the Earth Sphere, and their arsenal is more than suited for the job. But their leader, Carta Issue, is not at all a good commander and relies heavily on predictable strategy and formations. It is their superior weapons that pose the only major threat and with things getting tense for Tekkadan, we begin to see some of our characters warning Orga of the potential dangers that await him and his family if they push themselves to hard. This conflict ultimately claims the life of an extremely important member of Tekkadan which in turn serves as the final tipping point for Orga. The final battle of season one is where Orga finally requests that every member of Tekkadan blindly bet all their lives on one mission despite the overwhelming odds. The problem with this is that they still succeed after throwing themselves headlong into far superior threats. This victory is what allows Orga to fall deeper into this flawed belief of his and it carries over into season two. And season two is where things start to go downhill.

I honestly have a bone to pick with season two because it has a lot of bad tragic writing. But first, I need to address the villains. Season two is strange. It has a plot that doesn’t seem to go anywhere and it's honestly frustrating. While the first episode does a lot to acknowledge the effects Tekkadan has on the world after a few years, it does not focus on those issues in the slightest. But a bigger issue that is the fact that Sunrise wanted to keep Gjallarhorn as the villain. The problem with that is that Gjallahorn is on the run, they have lost any position they had once held and the world has become a lot more dangerous because of it. So then why are they still the villains? What makes matters worse as that the named villains we get are not interesting or original. They have no motives, and if they do have a motive it is completely shallow without making the characters over the top and ridiculous like in season one. These people actually believe in their goals despite how absolutely stupid they are. There is Rustal Ellion, who is literally a copy pasted evil general who more or less fills in the spot of Izanario Fareed from season one. I didn’t mention him earlier because he honestly wasn’t worth mentioning. Then there is Julietta, a bland blonde mobile suit pilot who’s only purpose in life is to “protect Master Ellion.” She has literally no motivation other than that simple desire and that desire only goes as deep as the surface. Not once does she say or do anything interesting, nor go through any form of character development. Finally we have Iok Kujan, an absolute idiot who has a very screwed sense of belief in honor and has proven time and time again that he has not earned his rank in the slightest given how brain dead he is. The man honestly believes he is entitled to avenge the deaths of his fallen comrades, despite the fact that he himself was the reason they died. Despite that glaring tragic flaw, the man has an ungodly amount of plot armor protecting from punishment for said flaw. In fact he is straight up rewarded for his stupidity and use of deus ex machinas. However, our fourth villain worth mentioning is a masked man named Vidar. Because it wouldn’t be Gundam without a masked man and the one we had in season one wasn’t enough apparently. Vidar is literally one of the Gjallahorn characters from season one with a mask on and a crooked desire for vengeance, and much like Iok, his flaw goes unpunished. There was so much missed potential with everyone of these characters and that missed potential doesn’t stop there.

One of the biggest events in the entirety of this universe of Gundam was the Calamity War. This war is name dropped so many times throughout both seasons and in season two we finally get to see a remnant of that war. It is revealed that the enemy during the Calamity War was Mobile Armor. Now typically, Mobile Armor is a massive mech that is usually piloted. However, in Iron Blooded Orphans, they are self aware machines and Gundams were designed to combat those machines. While this whole concept is one giant man vs machine trope, it is rather interesting given the nature of the world’s tech. I honestly would have preferred to see a second Calamity War, but alas instead we got Sunrise trying to redo the revolution arc of season one, just a lot longer. Even then, I wouldn’t mind the second season as much if they capitalized on the details I mentioned earlier during Kudelia’s development arc. Nobliss and McMurdo are almost nonexistent in this season and whatever their plot was we may never find out because it seems that whatever was planned for those two was dropped. At least that is the impression the show gave me.

By far one of the biggest mistakes in the entirety of the second season, outside of a crap load of wasted potential and irritating characters, is the use of death. In this season, characters drop like flies and to make matters worse it is always immediately after we are given a happy moment. Sunrise shows us some potential positivity for the season before immediately ripping it out of our hands and killing off a major character. That is just stupid! I’ll be honest, I am getting very sick of this kind of writing. Randomly slipping in emotional death scenes without any actual technique is literally just a flawed attempt and baiting “them feels.” It is honestly something I am absolutely sick of. It accomplishes absolutely nothing and amounts to killing off characters simply because you can. It is something I absolutely despise and it is not impactful or tragic. While one or two deaths in the series did get to me, most of the the extremely major characters’ deaths made me absolutely angry, or alternatively I didn’t give a shit. I was mad simply because the surprise was gone. Every character death followed a predictable formula and I honestly didn’t care about a large majority of them because I saw them coming. Season one’s deaths hit hard because they happened when you would least expect them. Season two has none of that. You will see every death coming about a mile away and it ultimately ruins the experience.

To be honest, there is no real tragedy in the second season because the writing is so vague and uncertain about the kind of story it wants to be. But it is still enjoyable at least for the fight scenes, so I will give it that point. Not to mention there are some moments where the season redeems itself. But overall, season two does drag down the series as a whole. But all in all, Iron Blooded Orphans is still a good tragedy, albeit with a lot of rough edges. It is definitely a show worth your time whether or not you are a fan of Gundam or mecha anime. Its first season is beautifully made and definitely will have you on the edge of your seat. I even made sure to leave some things out in my article to not spoil the whole experience since there is A LOT I could talk about with season one. Overall it is a good show with fantastic tragic writing, it's just a shame that the second season couldn’t live up to the expectation.