#it's the show vs tell but pushed to its paroxysm

[randomnameless]

Reading something about "why won't the CoS open the borders will Almyra?"

Disregarding the fact that the only CoS controlled territory is Garreg Mach and the Locket is located in the Alliance, why won't the Alliance open the border and welcome Almyrans with open arms?

Well, it's basically showcased (tfw show not tell) in a certain paralogue in FE16.

To start, this is one of the few "defend" maps in the entire game, iirc we have this one, the "protect GM" version of chapter 12, Shamir's paralogue and, iirc, Chapter 14 when Randolph tries to earn "merit".

Basically, the objective of this map is to protect the locket from Almyran forces who are raiding them for some reason.

Hilda starts with :

"Most of our allies have fallen."

So confirmation that Almyran forces aren't only coming with mock weapons to play bowling with their Fodlan neighbours, or are asking politely if they can pass, House Goneril's allies were killed.

"He's not here?! Oh... I'm sorry. You must have been absolutely terrified."

She tries to reassure her random (a Goneril soldier) that she will help, so they don't need to be afraid/to panic anymore.

"That's you, Professor. Please help us save our allies and protect Fódlan's Locket."

The first thing she says is to please "save" her allies/her randoms, and then to protect the locket. Emphasis again on "saving" lives, because Almyrans are raiding not only houses to bring souvenirs, but take lives too.

"Support! We're saved!" "Ah, things are looking up. Let's keep going, and save the others!"

Yep.

If a loldier dies :

"Oh no! They got one...but we can still rescue the others!"

Hilda still wants to "rescue" the others. She worries about the lives of her soldiers who are defending the Locket, but not only the locket!

If they all die, a soldier says this "We must defend here, or else... Our house... The Alliance...".

And if the line is breached, an Almyran soldier will say this :

"Yeah! We took Fódlan's Locket! With this, we'll be able to invade, no problem!"

:(

So bar this chapter blowing a hole the size of a 7 floors building in Claude's character across both games, we see here that, well, Almyra uses weapons and isn't afraid to kill Goneril soldiers who want to protect their homes and houses to "invade".

So who is behind Fodlan's general apathy towards Almyrans, the CoS like Claude says in both games (even if he seems to reconsider after discovering water is wet in VW), or Almyrans themselves???

Or, in other terms, who are we supposed to believe, Claude who tells us the CoS is the reason why Fodlan people don't like people coming from Almyra, or the game, showing us Almyrans are trouncing Fodlan people to happily invade ?

[impossibleleaf]

Text vs Subtext, the invisible struggle

Have you ever felt like the text in Sherlock is telling you one thing while the subtext is telling you the exact opposite?

Because that’s the impression I keep having since Season 4.

If we focus only on The Final Problem alone, we keep hitting this wall and the ending brings the conflict to its paroxysm.

“Who you really are, it doesn’t matter. It’s all about the legends, the stories, the adventures.”

These final words from our Mary-narrator drove us mad. No, who you are does matter, Moffat told us for years this was a show about a detective and not a detective show. This is a complete turnabout, what happened to the story we love?

And yet that’s what the text tells us but the subtext? The subtext is telling a very different story:

Play you, Eurus said, but when did Sherlock play Sherlock Holmes? Only at the very end, when Sherlock finally gets what Eurus wanted.

This melody doesn’t come from nowhere, it’s what Eurus was playing while Sherlock was about to meet her. It was the very first notes we heard, the melody she repeats when he finally sees her.

Such beautiful music, Sherlock said to the guards, Eurus said it was right. Maybe it’s both but they can grasp only one aspect separately.

When Eurus gave him the violin and asked him to play ‘you,’ what she meant was: I’ve given you the melody and the instrument, this is you, play it now. Sadly Sherlock didn’t understand that she had already given him the answer. It’s only at the end he does, only when both participants, Sherlock and Eurus, two sides of him, are working in unison that the melody is complete.

The melody is Sherlock Holmes, this is a duet, finally this is ‘Who you really are’. Sherlock has integrated what Eurus is, she is his emotions and he’s accepted his identity, completely.

At the same time Mary is telling us that who Sherlock and John really are doesn’t matter, the music is screaming the exact opposite.

Yes, Mary has taken over the narrative, she’s telling us what we’re supposed to think now but the subtext?

The subtext is resisting.

Mary is telling us what John and Sherlock are is irrelevant but the part she’s trying to repress, Sherlock’s emotional side, Eurus, is having none of it.

In fact, whenever you add Eurus in the equation, she thwarts the narrative’s plans, Mary’s plans every time:

The Six Thatchers could be called: the story in which John is a side character. Mary takes John’s place as Sherlock’s sidekick, she intrudes in the first half and completely manages to make the whole second half revolve around her. The one moment John finally manages to be somehow relevant, where John isn’t passive is when he interacts with E.

Oh yes, Mary’s brillant plan... we could say it worked, mostly. She’s commented everything John was doing, she’s told Sherlock what to do. John is just playing his part, whether he is aware of it or not. Mary told Sherlock to ‘save John Watson’, he isn’t the deuteragonist really, he has become the real case. But for all her brillant plan and omnipresence in the episode, Mary didn’t quite manage to have the last word. Sherlock and John have their catharctic moment because there was a woman on the bus. E is the real reason they manage to fix everything. It’s not Mary’s super difficult case and John saving Sherlock, it’s John confessing his guilt that saved him. E is the last straw that pushed him to finally cry and heal. And then Eurus shot him, she didn’t let Mary’s presence be the last thing on our mind.

The Final Problem, Mary is talking and with Sherlock she’s giving her narrative the middle finger by playing the exact opposite.

“Because I know who you really are. A junkie who solves crimes and the doctor who never came home from the war.”

No, Sherlock isn’t just a junkie and John told Mary he’s not the man she thought he was, both in TST and TLD. Saying she does doesn’t make it true and the subtext keeps saying us we’re right and she’s wrong.

Text vs Subtext, both should be working in harmony and we’ve got them against each others.