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smolslothloaf · 5 years ago

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Yo as the only Micheal Crew fan (prolly), can I just say I’m so fucking salty that he died how he did?

Homeboy’s been hinted at since the fourth episode in this entire goddamn series, he’s been repeatedly connected to the Leitner books (which I guess are less important now that we’ve met Jurgen Leitner and we’ve got Gerard but uggggghhhh), he’s got a cool lightning scar and backstory and everything!

And once we get to meet him? He’s so intriguing-he ‘s polite even as he forces Jon to just fall through the air, he has a great voice (both literally and writing wise), and once he explains his backstory it doesn’t dissapoint. You get the image of this scared child whose been searching for protection and meaning his whole life. This creature’s been following him ever since he’s gotten his lightning scar, you kinda get that it’s the personification of his past even if he connects it all back to the Vast. To an extent, he kinda describes his relationship with his scar and his journey in self discovery all as both finding meaning and acceptance in the Vast. The moment he figures out what’s been calling to him is also the moment he accepts his past and his trauma. It all makes sense and comes together.

What I also find particularly interesting the way he laments about never being able to remember the most important events of his life, as I feel it’s something we all can relate to. Traumatic or not, negative or positive, many of us have trouble recalling the most life-changing events of our lives. We feel frustrated over this, we beat ourselves up for it, it’s just apart of life. In Mike’s statement this is such a small detail but it’s one that resonates with me deeply.

They set up Micheal Crew in such an engaging light and make him feel so real. I will admit that I’m not sure how much more they could do with him as this episode tied up pretty much all loose ends in his story. That being said, I would’ve absolutely LOVED to see more of him! He has an intruging personality, a cool backstory, he could’ve been a neat reaccuring character or something.

But no! Daisy Fucking Tonner just needsa bust down the fucking door and be like “YO THIS BITCH HUMAN?” And Jon’s like “uhhh ig not” and Daisy’s like “WELL THAT MEANS HES GONNA CATCH THESE HANDS.” AND JUST FUCKING SHOOTS HIM???

FUCK THAT NOISE.

YOU BUILD UP A CHARACTER OVER THE COURSE OF THREE SEASONS, WE MEET HIM AND HE GIVES US HIS LIFE STORY, THERES STILL SOME ROOM FOR HIM TO GIVE US ANSWERS OR SOME SHIT, THEN YOU HAVE THE A U D A C I T Y TO JUST YEET DAISY IN AND HAVE HER SHOOT HIM OUTSIDE?

O K A Y

LIKE,,, IG THEY NEEDED TO SET UP DAISY’S STORY AND GET MICHEAL OUT OF THE STORY OR SOME SHIT BUT. NOT LIKE THIS PLEASE?? IM FULLY WILLING TO ACCEPT THAT IM JUST UNREASONABLY SALTY ABOUT THIS BUT SERIOUSLY?? SHE JUST. SHOWS UP. SHOOTS HIM. THREATENS JON. BITCHES FOR AWHILE AND WE’RE SUPPOSED TO BE OKAY WITH IT?

MICHEALS NOT EVEN BROUGHT UP AFTER THAT HE KINDA JUST GOT SHOVED TO THE SIDE FOR IMPORTANT PEOPLE PLOT(tm). HE GETS. PUSHED. TO. THE. SIDE. IN. HIS OWN. FUCKING, EPISODE. WASNT JON GONNA QUESTION HIM MORE? WASNT THAT WHY JON WAS THERE? I MEAN I GUESS HE COULDNT CUZ MICHEAL COULDDA DEFO KILLED HIM, BUT HE DIDNT EVEN DROP ANY BREAD CRUMBS FOR JON’S INVESTIGATION. JON LITERALLY GOT JACK SHIT FROM THAT INTERACTION ASIDES FOR MORE FUEL FOR HIS STATEMENT KINK. AS FAR AS THE PLOT’S CONCERNED, JON DIDN’T NEED THE CONTENTS OF MIKE’S STATMENT. THE KNOWELDGE WAS GOOD BUT HE GOT NO FURTHER ON HIS INVESTIGATION OF THE STRANGER. HE WAS DIRECTED TO MIKES DOOR FOR THE PLOT BUT THE PLOT AINT THERE, THE PLOTS AT DAISYS HOUSE

TO REVIEW:

THEY

DEADASS

JUST

THREW MICHEAL CREW IN THERE

HAD HIM EXPLAIN HIS BACKSTORY

THEN KILLED HIM OFF

AFTER HYPING HIM UP

FOR

THREE

FUCKING

SEASONS

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME???

ARE YOU ACTUALLY FUCKING KIDDING ME???

YA KNOW THATS PROLLY THE ONE BIG BONE IVE GOTTA PICK WITH THIS SHOW. THEY BUILD UP INTERESTING CHARACTERS OVER THE COURSE OF FULL SEASONS, THEN THEY’RE ONLY GIVEN THEIR TIME TO SHINE FOR ONE EPISODE BEFORE BEING ADRUPTLY KILLED OFF AND NEVER MENTIONED AGAIN. I HEARD IT GETS BETTER BUT ITS A PRETTY BIG PROBLEM FOR THE FIRST TWO SEASONS.

JANE PRENTISS COULDDA BEEN COOL! AND SHE WAS COOL! BUT SHE ONLY ACTUALLY DID SHIT FOR ONE EPISODE THEN WAS KILLED WITH LITTLE RESISTANCE. SHE DIDNT EVEN MAKE A COMEBACK OR ANYTHING, THEY REALLY JUST WENT “THAT BITCH DEAD AND DID JACK SHIT” AFTER HYPING HER UP THE WHOLE SEASON. LIKD OKAY SURE GO OFF. THEYRE BUILDING UP BREEKON AND HOPE A BIT MORE NOW, CANT WAIT FOR THEM TO BE KILLED OFF AS SOON AS WE MEET THEM.

LIKE I GET IT I GET IT. MICHEALS STORY WAS COMPLETE. NOT EVERY CHARACTER NEEDS TO BE PLOT RELEVANT. NOT EVERY CHARACTER THATS BUILT UP NEEDS AN ELABORATE PLOT. NOT EVERY CHARACTER NEEDS A SATISFYING SEND OFF.

BUT IM STILL FUCKING MAD ABOUT IT CUZ I FEEL NOTHING. I LOVED HIS STATEMENT AND IT WOULD’VE JUST BEEN FINE IF MICHEAL WAS JUST LEFT ALONE AFTER THAT OR SOMETHING. OR HELL HE EVEN COULD’VE BEEN KILLED IN A DIFFERENT WAY I JUST HATE HOW DAISY CAME IN THERE OUT OF BUTTFUCK NO WHERE, SHOT A GUY SHE BARELY KNEW CUZ “he spoopy” AND ITS JUST NEVER BROUGHT UP. MIKE DIDNT EVEN NEED TO BE THERE. JON WENT THERE FOR ANSWERS, MIKE GAVE HIM NOTHING CUZ INSTEAD OF HAVING AN INTERESTING LITTLE CONVERSATION, DAISY NEEDED HER CHARACTER ARC. IM REPEATING MYSELF AT THIS POINT BUT IM JUST SO FUCKING ANGY ABOUT THIS.

FUCK DAISY, ALL COPS ARE BASTARDS

I am fully aware that I’ll wake up tomorrow and deem all of this as invalid and unreadable, I just needed to get this all off my chest. In all honesty the main reason I’m upset is because the Vast is my personal favorite entity and Micheal’s statement is a good summation of why

People affected by the Vast are just that-people. Well, all statement givers are people, but the Vast’s statments I find are much more grounded and down to Earth. They aren’t as out there or over the top like the Corruption or the Stranger. They’re just little ‘tweaks’ in someone’s perspective that shakes their core. It takes mundane occurances and pushes them to their extreme. All the Vast did in “High Pressure” was make someone feel as though they were sinking forever and forced them underwater. It’s some you could probably picture happening to yourself more clearly then say, being attacked by War Ghosts. (NOT bashing on War Ghosts btw, they’re just a different brand of spooky.) The type of fear that the Vast victims have is also kinda different to me. I’m not sure how well I can explain it but best I can describe it is that it feels like geunine trauma that someone with that phobia would experience? I still don’t think that’s quite right but take “A Long Way Down” for instance, where the statement giver’s brother suffers from Acrophobia. That’s a real boy with Acrophobia! I feel who he is as an actual person as I follow his life, I know his worst nightmare, and once you see what happens to him, you completely feel both from him and his brother. Or in “Freefall” where you see a mother mourn for her son’s trauma and death. She saw something he loved suddenly turn him so, so afraid then saw the very thing he feared swallow him up.

It’s just any average person greiving their loved one’s trauma or being pushed to a limit you can see yourself being pushed to. It’s all very grounded in reality and makes it all feel that more real. And I feel like Micheal Crew’s statement just summed that up so well. He’s such a perfect face for what I love about the Vast. He’s just a person at his core, who was scared and needed guidance.

It’s just that the way it ended and how adruptly he was killed left a sour taste in my mouth.

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ncfan-1 · 7 years ago

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ncfan listens to The Magnus Archives: S1 EP017 (’The Bone-Turner’s Tale) and S1 EP018 (’The Man Upstairs’)

Body horror and another episode that reminds me of Ito Junji’s work. Not a good pair of episodes for people with weak stomachs.

No spoilers past Season 1, please!

EP 017: ‘The Bone-Turner’s Tale’

- Sebastian’s gushing about the power of books is kinda sweet, though the power we see displayed in this episode is anything but. (And I happen to have in my possession a few books—not first editions, of course—that have outlived the societies that produced them, so I get the wonder on that account.)

- And Michael Crew (mentioned in ‘Page Turner’) has snuck another Evil Book into an innocent Chiswick library. What the hell, man?

- And we get static when Jonathan reads out the title of the book—‘The Bone-Turner’s Tale.’

- Jared Hopworth sounds like a piece of work, though the fact that he still seems so fixated on a guy who was his friend and now he seems to want to believe he hates is a little… sad. I doubt Sebastian felt much, if any, sympathy for him, but I suppose that as a listener, I can feel sorry for him. Or, at least, I feel sorry for him now. All sympathy dies soon.

(And I’ve since learned that I was mishearing the name ‘Gerard Keay’ as ‘Jared Key.’ Personally, in Sims’s voice the names ‘Jared’ and ‘Gerard’ sound frankly identical, but okay. I’ll call him ‘Gerard’ from now on to avoid confusion.)

- And we have an intermission and our first proper introduction to Elias, where he proceeds to tell us just how badly Jonathan’s first attempt to interact with a statement giver went. And that the creepy, creepy Lukas family is one of the Institute’s patrons. I’m sure that’s not a bad sign at all.

- “I’ll… be more lovely.” No, you won’t.

- Yes, I’m just sure Martin’s off sick. Normal sickness, being shut into your apartment by a living hive of flesh-eating worms.

- Sebastian, I understand not wanting to create unnecessary drama, but it might be better to tell your coworkers if someone’s harassing you if you think there’s any chance he might drag them into it as well.

- It’s odd that Jared would walk off with the book even if he seems a bit frightened by it. Some sort of compulsion, perhaps? Or maybe he’s run into Michael Crew before and recognized a book that had once been in his possession.

- The thing with the poor rat is the reason why I will not be revisiting this episode, not unless I just do a big re-listen of the series in general. It’s also the thing that completely evaporated my sympathy for Jared (Even before we saw what he did to his mother). That was his pet, an animal without any significant ability to hurt him in its own defense the way a cat or a dog could. It probably trusted him unhesitatingly, didn’t even consider Jared might hurt it until he did. And I know a lot of people don’t like rats, but tame rates make for really cute, cuddly, affectionate pets. I do mean affectionate—they have the same capacity for empathy and bonding with owners that cats and dogs possess. And Jared did that to it. I will not go out of my way to listen to this episode again for the very simple reason that animal cruelty, especially cruelty towards your pets, turns me right off.

(I probably would have scooped the rat up and taken it to the vet once I realized it was a tame rat. Of course, given the state it was in, probably the only thing the vet would have been able to do was euthanize it so it wouldn’t suffer any more than it already was. But I can understand Sebastian not wanting to pick up a strange animal.)

- I can understand Jared’s mother taking her anger out on Sebastian. It’s probably a lot safer being angry at him than at Jared, considering the new skill Jared’s picked up. I note we never see her again after she presumably steals the book to take it back to the library. I doubt that bodes good things for her fate.

- We get static again when Jon reads out the title of the book.

(I listened to the first episode again today, and there was static when Jon read out the “Can I have a cigarette?” spoken by the entity of the episode, too.)

- I was curious as to whether pseudo-Chaucerian tales were a thing, and sure enough, it turns out that during the Medieval era it was for a time the fashion to write pseudo-Chaucerian tales in an effort to “finish” The Canterbury Tales. Some people decided to add on to the Cook’s Tale, which Chaucer died before he could complete, or to write new ones whole-cloth. One is called The Plowman’s Tale, another is called The Tale of Beryn.

- It’s a pity the thing with the rat affected me the way that it did, because the rest of the story is quite engrossing.

- And ‘The Bone-Turner’s Tale’ is so evil it makes other books bleed. That’s… definitely something.

- And we get static when Sebastian describes the books bleeding.

- Sebastian pointing out how ambiguous it is as to whether the bone-turner is traveling with the other pilgrims or if he’s just following (stalking) them feels… right, for this kind of series. Horror thrives on ambiguity, on puzzles where there’s just enough empty space or there’s a couple of pieces missing, so we don’t know what the whole picture is supposed to look like.

- The fact that the technical quality of the prose is mediocre is oddly hilarious. Because, you know: evil book that gives people the ability to manipulate bones.

- More static when Sebastian quotes the book.

- Why am I not surprised it’s a Jurgen Leitner book? From now on, I’m just going to assume that any weird book that shows up in this series is a Leitner book.

- The description of Jared’s “modifications” is excellent. Especially the extra limbs and the ribcage modified to be a mouth. Pushing the boundaries on what counts as human, aren’t we?

- I wonder how Jared was running. Was he scuttling along like a giant spider, or something?

- I do wonder what the cops (and the library staff, for that matter) thought about the bloody books. How do you look at something like that without having some kind of comment?

- And Jonathan is predictably rather ill with the thought of another surviving Leitner tome having slipped through the cracks.

- Yeah, Jared attacked and mangled Sebastian so severely that he died, and had a closed-casket funeral. I really doubt Mrs. Hopworth is still with us.

EP 018: ‘The Man Upstairs’

- Here’s another one that reminds me of Ito Junji’s work.

- I understand that in the U.K., the floor numbers in buildings go top-bottom, instead of bottom-top. At least, that’s the impression I’ve gotten. So the fact that Toby Carlisle is said to live on the first floor I take to mean that he lived in what in the U.S. would be called the second floor.

- The smell Christof associates with Toby in the beginning—a combination of pavement after rain on a hot day and spoiled chicken—makes me wonder when exactly Toby started nailing up the meat. Did he start small at first, so that you’d only notice if you got a whiff of it through an open window or door? Or was it his association with the entity in question that made him smell like that—did he just carry the odor of decay with him wherever he went?

- It’s interesting that Toby did the hammering meat onto the walls once every two weeks, on the dot. Did he have a schedule he had to keep to?

- The description of the carpet in front of Toby’s door… ick.

- Interestingly enough, I think we got a little bit of static when Toby said “What do you want?” Do the distortions extend to human agents of the entities we’ve seen in the series?

- Oh, God, I’ve finally figured out what the viscous, off-white liquid seen in the episode is. It’s liquefied fat, isn’t it?

- The plumber’s visit… You know, my senior year working towards my anthropology degree, the washing machine in the dorm above the one my roommates and I lived in broke down and flooded the upstairs dorm—and ours, too, eventually. I can’t begin to describe how fortunate I feel right now that the only thing that came pouring out of the light fixtures in the kitchen was soapy water.

- The interior of Toby Carlisle’s flat, this is what reminded me of Ito Junji’s work. Can’t you just imagine him drawing something like this? I’m pretty sure he has drawn something at least vaguely similar to this before; I’d go and check, but that would require me to look at it again, so no, thank you. (I think it was in a oneshot manga called ‘Greased.’ Only vaguely similar, but way too similar for me to want to look at it.)

- The description of the flat is actually quite good. Probably the only reason I can deal with it is because I don’t have to look at or smell it.

- Was… Toby trying to summon some kind of meat entity with this nailing up meat all over his flat? Was that why the meat thing with all the eyes was in the kitchen? And I suppose it just sort of winked out of existence when it realized it had been spotted.

- “It opened its eyes. It opened all its eyes.” I’ll… just leave this here.

- It’s interesting that the cops, the fire department, and the hospital all give such different accounts. I would have liked to see what the inconsistencies entailed. I feel like that could be very telling.

- I’m glad Christof got some counseling.

- I think the stinger in this episode is the best one up so far. Where was Toby getting all the meat?

#ncfan listens to The Magnus Archives

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demonzdust · 7 years ago

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Do you think Scott knows all about what Theo did for Liam in 6x09, 6x10, 6x16 and 6x20? Because that would imply that Liam talked with Scott about it.

Scott definitely knows about some of it (Scott directly told Theo to help Liam in 6x20). The other stuff he possibly knows about, but it’s not as clear-cut.

We have to assume that there is a lot of “team debriefing” that goes on between scenes on Teen Wolf. They’re working with limited screen time and due to budget restrictions, tends to limit how many characters appear in each scene/plot. But we have to know the pack coordinates off screen with one another for the story to make sense.

The pack coordinates very closely in 6B. We see several meetings where they discuss their plans, but we don’t see all of them. This implies that they meet off-screen.Does the pack give a blow-for-blow recount of everything that happens? Probably not, but I’m sure that most of the pack discusses the highlights. Theo’s behavior, as he’s been a problem in the past, is probably something Scott would inquire about.

Additionally, we pretty much have to assume that Scott and Theo have had several conversations behind the scenes as well (Teen Wolf shows them coordinating both with the pack and 1-on-1 in 6B).But let’s look at some of the places you mentioned, as well as some other episodes where we can assume that off-screen conversations involving Theo took place:6x09 - Theo throws himself into danger, giving Liam the chance to escapeI feel like there’s no way that Scott didn’t ask Liam “Hey, how’d it go at the hospital?” and although Liam is still suspicious and unliking of Theo, he would mention that he’d helped.

Also, remember this is actually a proud moment for Liam because his decision to bring Theo out of the ground (that was a huge risk that could have blown up in his face) actually paid off. Even if Liam wants to keep Theo as far away from the pack, he’d still want to share that information with Scott because he wants his alpha to be proud of him and trust his decisions in the future.Additionally, Scott already knows that Theo was helping because he showed up to fight the Ghost Riders at the end (when he could have ran or left it to them) and he was already quite bloodied:

^^From this Scott probably also can tell that Theo wants to get back on his good side.

However, they have little to no reason to actually trust Theo at that point. Theo is very capable of pulling a long con, and Scott had been highly susceptible to Theo’s antics in the past. Theo could be doing all of this only to stab them in the back again. They just don’t know.

Nonetheless, after these events, Scott obviously lets Liam take the leash off Theo, and he allows him to stay in Beacon Hills, as we see when he shows up in 6B.6x15 - We have to assume that Scott and Theo had some type of conversation with one another after everything went down at the station.

We see that Theo is still with the pack after they pretended to flee Beacon Hills (although he is in the back against the wall like some kind of misbehaved child xD).

Theo and Scott must have talked about him staying with the pack and helping them in their conflict with Monroe’s people. From this point onwards, Scott actually treats Theo as if he is a member of the pack. He asks him to support Liam and Mason through several “missions” (for lack of a better word) and trusts him to do so. He listens to Theo’s counsel and treats him with respect in all of their interactions.

Likewise, after this point, Theo follows Scott’s instructions to the letter. When Scott tells Theo to go protect Mason, that’s what Theo does. When Scott tells Theo to go protect Liam, that’s what Theo does.

6x16 - Liam & Theo work together to distract Gerard’s people, Theo prevents Liam from killing Nolan

Scott obviously knows about and approved Theo and Liam working together to distract the hunters, as the pack constructed this plan together.

I’m not sure if Scott knows that Theo prevented Liam from hurting Nolan.

Although this is a very important moment for Theo (I want to do a separate post on that because I feel that it’s actually so much deeper than a simple “oh he’s helping!” because it very specifically addresses Theo’s largest problems in the past. But is probably beyond the scope of the ask.) there’s no clear evidence that the details of what happened at the zoo were conveyed to Scott.

Given the characters and their motivations, if Scott did find out, I think it would have happened one of the following ways:

A) Scott asks Liam how it went, and Liam reluctantly tells him “Not as good as it could have, I almost lost it…” and then told him how Theo reeled him in.

B) Scott asks Theo how it went and Theo tells him something along the lines of “Well, Liam almost went off the rails, but it’s all good…” (I think Theo would try to leave the fact that he helped implied/understated because if he emphasized it too strongly it would make Scott suspicious of his motives.)

Or both possibly.

There isn’t enough evidence to say one way or another in the show if Scott found out about these details or not, but I’d lean towards him knowing because we see Scott’s trust in Theo grow in the episodes that follow.

6x19 - Theo works with Mason, fails to take his painEarly on in the episode, we see that Scott trusts Theo enough to send him with Mason, who unlike Liam, would not be able to defend himself if Theo turned on him. This reflects a growth in trust on Scott (and Liam’s) part.

I don’t think Scott knows about this because it doesn’t seem like Mason would be petty enough to go to Scott and recount how much he thinks Theo sucks. Likewise, I’m not sure Theo would go to Scott crying about how he failed. Theo really wants to look good in front of Scott still, and this story doesn’t paint him in a particularly great light. Also, based on his shocked and upset expression, it seems like he’d probably be struggling with this on his own.

[[But side note now I REALLY want to write a fic where Theo does confide in Scott about this – or maybe a fic with all of the “behind the scenes” Scott and Theo interactions.]]

Also if we flashback to 6x15 we have evidence that Theo is being very cautious of how he presents himself to Scott. In this scene we see how when Theo disagrees with him he pulls Liam aside and tries to get Liam to raise concerns to Scott for him.

This is because he is trying very hard to change how Scott sees him. He doesn’t want to challenge Scott’s authority or disagree with him directly, because he wants Scott to start seeing him as a supportive ally. (He’s still happy to act like a little shit to Liam tho, and gets himself clocked in the face xD)6x20 - Theo supports Liam in protecting people at the hospitalWe know that Scott knows Theo was at the hospital to support Liam because we have a scene where Scott asks him to do so:

This gives us some good insight as to what Scott and Theo’s communication has been like behind the scenes. If you’ll notice, Theo doesn’t tell Liam this when he shows up:

This also makes it quite likely that Scott and Theo have been coordinating in this manner without Liam’s knowing. So when Theo shows up at the high school in 6x17 we know he’s doing so to look after Scott’s interests:

But he might also have talked to Scott about it, as we now have solid confirmation that Scott and Theo do coordinate with one another one on one in private.6x20 - Theo Takes Gabe’s Pain

Melissa, Liam, Mason, Nolan, and Corey all witnessed what happened, I think one of them might have mentioned it to Scott at some point.Even though none of them like Theo and are probably a bit concerned about Scott trusting him again, I don’t think any of them would withhold information like that.

Still, I doubt any of them is going to rush to tell Scott “Oh we think Theo is good now!” because we have to remember that Scott was Theo’s primary victim.

Not only were Theo’s S5 antics all about removing Scott, but Scott was also the most susceptible person to Theo’s manipulation. Theo is Scott’s kryptonite because he knows how to garner and exploit sympathy.

A conversation where anyone is trying to sing Theo’s praises to Scott to try to get him to warm up to Theo is going to be highly unlikely because the pack still wants to protect Scott from this danger.

Also it’s likely that Liam in particular still feels some guilt over how he let Theo manipulate him into attacking Scott.

But they would probably bring up Theo’s ability to take pain if it ever became relevant (i.e. a conversation where they are debating if they can trust Theo to do XYZ).Another way in which it might come up is if one of them were to come to Theo’s defense from Malia or Stiles. I did a longer post about how Scott doesn’t verbally or physically abuse Theo in any way (in fact Scott defends him - not even because Theo has “earned” it, he does it simply because Theo needs help) but Malia and Stiles are definitely not above that.

I think that if Malia or Stiles were very aggressive about Theo (telling Scott that he will never change), that Liam/Mason/Corey would likely site this incident as a “Well, yeah Theo’s definitely problematic, but he might not be as evil as he once was….”

They would feel an obligation to give Scott all of the information. Both for Theo’s sake and out of respect to Scott.

But even if no one tells Scott about this one particular incident with Theo, it really wouldn’t matter because Theo has changed on a deeply personal level and there’s no way Scott wouldn’t see that.

Scott doesn’t have to be there to witness Theo taking Gabe’s pain because Scott’s actions in 6B demonstrate that he already believes Theo has become a better person.

Scott treated Theo like a changed man from 6x15 onwards.

It was only the rest of the pack that needed to witness it in the hospital. Mason/Melissa/Liam/Corey were the ones that needed to be convinced at that point, not Scott.

Some other aspects of this that might be at play in Scott’s belief in Theo is that Scott is the only one that actually knew Theo before he was corrupted by the Dread Doctors. Unlike the rest of the pack, Scott probably doesn’t dismiss Theo as a “bad apple” because he knew him when he was a vulnerable and innocent child.

Scott is already an incredibly forgiving person that’s optimistic about even the most lost-seeming causes:

Likewise, Scott has demonstrated on numerous occasions a desire to help people (even after they’ve hurt him) simply because they need the help:

But Theo’s struggle he likely feels on an even more intimate level because they were friends as children.

In many ways, Theo in S5 represented exactly what Scott always feared he would become himself (someone that was altered after an encounter with the supernatural and became a monster) and it would make sense that he wants to see Theo turn around.

But getting into that could be a whole other post on its own…

#teen wolf meta #theo raeken #scott mccall #teen wolf #sceo

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mytherapistthinksimfunny · 5 years ago

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The Endless Thirst of Grace Michaud

It’s almost 11 pm, and in the four hours that I have been home from work, I’ve been reading articles about Adam Driver. Alone in my apartment, I snort to myself as I read The Cut’s “I Want to Be Adam Driver’s Baby” and “21 Things I Would Like to Do With Adam Driver” which I relate to a little too well. I, too, want to “peruse real-estate listings” with Adam Driver.

In my nearly 26 years of living, Adam Driver is this month’s Grace Michaud’s “It Boy.” Last month it was Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Next month? Who knows, but Henry Cavill is looking mighty fine in The Witcher.

For anyone who has ever known me, this causes little concern. To everyone joining the Grace Michaud journey: welcome. You are about to experience an everyday occurrence.

New friends, or people who only interact with me via social media: I suffer from being infinitely thirsty. My thirst can never be quenched. Usually the thirst comes at a normal level, like any thirst, and starts out as a simple tickle in the throat. If offered a drink I wouldn’t say no. But I don’t actively do anything about it. I could go for a drink, but I’m not about to get up and get one. Then the thought becomes nagging, that maybe I really should get up and get a drink right now. I’ll crave water, a simple free drink that comes from the tap. Soon my thirst becomes more distinct. I’m craving an Arnold Palmer and I need that Arnold Palmer now. I drink and drink and still I’m thirsty, drinking like I’m in the desert, about to die unless I drink the world’s entire water supply right now.

I am, of course, not talking about liquids. I’m talking about men.

An attractive male on a film or show catches my eye, and I make note. Soon I’m watching every movie they’ve ever made until I’m in a downward spiral of interviews in the trenches of YouTube and Google.

I’ve been attracted to the male species since before I could form a concrete memory. The evidence is in a video of my dad teasing me at three about a crush I have on a boy named Ricardo. Wracking my memory, the name sounds familiar, and I’m aware I had crushes when I was in preschool.

How in the world did my tiny brain comprehend the very idea of crushes? That one could feel something more than just friendship with someone? That I, a mere three-year-old just learning how to not urinate my pants, was able to identify that? I’ve dated 30-year-old men who are nowhere near that level of emotionally intelligent.

Who were you, Ricardo? Why was I fascinated with you? Was I attracted to you? Do three-year- olds recognize attraction? Where are you now Ricardo? Have you met your metaphorical Lucy?

So we begin, reader, towards an agonizing life of never-ending attraction to men. Now, I am absolutely not going to go into my dating life. That is just one long humiliating and questionable series of life decisions that even I don’t want to get into. Let’s just say, at 11, there was an entire diary entry of pictures from my yearbook of a kid named Kyle who once took a pinecone out of my hair. I shudder at the thought. And don’t get me started about junior year of high school.

I mention Ricardo to show you that my thirst for men was always there, whether I knew it or not. To me, it seems, it was just a normal feeling that was a part of me. Nothing unusual. My karate teacher was a hottie and probably why I loved going to karate. I loved men so much that I wanted to be them. I dressed in boy’s clothes, even boy’s underwear, and occasionally asked my parents to call me Michael. Now, you’re probably thinking: “Wow there is a lot to unpack here.” But this was 1997 and my parents just went along with it, not really caring as long as I went to bed when they told me to. While others may think something entirely different, I just chalk this up to being that boy crazy. I didn’t start wearing dresses until I hit puberty….but I’m already getting off topic and I don’t want this to turn into an episode of Big Mouth. Let’s try and remain focused here: I’m an obsessive person.

This is my Kindle library as of March 20, 2020:

There is a home movie of my two-year-old self pointing to my Tweedy Bird hat excitedly. “I have Tweedy Bird on my hat!” I repeat over and over with a lisp, clearly very excited I had something I loved on an item of clothing. Even then, when I loved something, I was all in.

Combine my obsessive personality with my attraction to the male species? We descend into madness, my friends. From cartoon characters, to television shows, to actors, to rock stars, to actors again. I obsess most over men I don’t personally know. Think 25 years of pictures covering walls. Merchandise. Staying up till 3 am diving into the corners of the internet for every last drop of information I could get.

And it all started with Bugs Bunny.

Bugs Bunny was my first foray into fangirl territory. It was that episode when Bugs Bunny dressed as a Viking woman that drew me into the Bugs Bunny portal of obsession. I wasn’t attracted to Bugs Bunny in drag, necessarily; I was more fascinated by the idea of Elmer Fudd falling in love with Bugs Bunny. That Bugs was a character that could be loved romantically. I know this sounds really bizarre and heavy, but I fully believe that I was fascinated by romantic love that early in my life.

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Soon I didn’t stop talking about Bugs Bunny. I had an entire Bugs Bunny tracksuit, slippers, and a doll. There’s a picture of me in my entire ensemble while holding the doll, ecstatic. For my fourth birthday my mom made me a homemade Bugs Bunny Halloween costume. Bugs Bunny was even my imaginary friend for a bit there. I must have worn out the Space Jam VHS tape.

Note the Bugs Bunny watch.

That’s childhood obsession for you. When I loved Pokemon all I would do was talk about it and dream about it.

Then it was Digimon. In twenty six years, it hasn’t stopped. Up until December of 2019, it’s been one TV show after the other, examples being Avatar the Last Airbender, Total Drama Island, The Office, The Vampire Diaries, Supernatural, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Sherlock, Game of Thrones, Mr. Robot, Fleabag, Frasier, and most recently, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Harry Potter has always been a love for me, and I’ve been obsessed with two different book series: the comic books The Umbrella Academy (the show is a DISASTER compared to how good the comics are), and The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod (a book series about a vampire; as a bonus, see how many vampires you can count). A common theme for all of these things was the fact that I was attracted to a singular male character and their relationship to others.

In preparing to write this I wrote about 6 pages worth of notes, all ranging in obsession. To completely write about every single one would take a novel with each of my multiple obsessions being individual chapters. For example, during the Total Drama Island years I was constantly up till 3 am on the weekends making YouTube videos for the show. If you can find them...I’d be impressed. (But actually, please don’t.) I’ll try to provide a list and a little comment, as I split my obsessions into various categories.

At 11, I discovered the Sprouse twins and my object of desire went from cartoon characters to actors. I was known as “the Sprouse twins” girl, specifically Cole, during sixth grade. This was the first time I covered my room and locker in posters.

A year later, we jumped dramatically and came to my obsessive emo phase. While I listened to a lot of bands, my attention was turned mostly to Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy and Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance. (The latter I would later meet after MCR broke up when I was about 20 years old after his solo show, and it was just as awkward as I could imagine). That’s when my room was completely covered in Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance posters. I wore a lot of black and those years were honestly my cringiest moments. Hey, we were all 13.

I started to shift more from short, skinny, guyliner-wearing men and noticing tall, muscular, and handsome ones. I can pinpoint when I started to first feel sexually attracted to a man (at an appropriate age! I was going through puberty!) when I saw the trailer for Fantastic Four, and Chris Evans came out shirtless in a towel. Oh GOD what an ICONIC moment. Goodbye Sprouse Twins, hello six packs.

The summer going into high school, I saw The Dark Knight 3 times because of Christian Bale as Batman. He walked in wearing that tight black shirt and my expectations for men from there on out would never match up to Batman. Gaston from Beauty and the Beast seemed hotter now (you all know what scene I’m talking about), That attraction became the strangest when I remarked to my friend that Ultron was pretty hot for a robot.

Maybe that’s why I love Kylo Ren so much. He’s the combination of two of my great loves: a buff emo.

The high school years followed a somewhat similar pattern, but mostly actors more so than musicians. To be fair, in high school Fall Out Boy broke up and didn’t get back together till I was in college, and My Chemical Romance only released one album in my four years. So during high school and college there weren't really any “emo” guys or musicians to lust over.

Now in 2020 I live in Brooklyn where every man and their mother is a “musician” so the whole idea turns me off. It was fun while it lasted though, and I’ll always be an emo kid at heart. I’ve seen Fall Out Boy 7 times in the last 10 years, and I paid an insane amount of money for My Chemical Romance reunion tour tickets.

High school was a time where everyone was entering a more mature phase of their puberty journey, and for me, that was lusting after men over the age of 30. I had a hella crush on Zachary Quinto (who I saw walk past me once in the Village and I almost pooped my pants) even though I knew he was gay. I went through a Freddie Mercury phase for a bit too, I mean, come on, that chest hair.

I had a few months lusting after Colin Farrell after seeing him in Fright Night (which I recently found out was written by my favorite Buffy writer! seventeen-year-old me foreshadowing the present). In The Phantom of the Opera I sided with the Phantom the entire time, wishing that I could be seduced through opera in a hidden Parisian cave. My mom introduced me to Ryan Gosling who became my dream man. While reading Great Gatsby I had a huge crush on Seth Meyers who I would imagine Nick Carraway as. He does sort of look like Toby McGuire? He was the first of many goofy men that would lead to John Mulaney, Rob Delaney, Nathan Fielder, Ben Wyatt, and Niles Crane. Chris Pratt still fits into that category, though he’s the perfect combination of goofy and buff. When The Avengers came out my senior year of high school, I saw it 4 times in the theater.

The British invasion didn’t happen until my senior year and defined my college years, with posters of Tom Hiddleston, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hardy, Michael Fassbender, Eddie Redmayne, and James Norton. My feet ache thinking about the times I waited in line at a movie premiere or a film set to get a glimpse of any of these gents. When I saw Benedict Cumberbatch on set in Boston my knees gave out. Domhnall Gleeson is also in that group of fine British men despite being Irish. It’s why I always have a moral dilemma whenever General Hux comes on screen in Star Wars. Twice I had a hardcore crush on Seth MacFarlane, going to the Ted 2 set living in Boston, waving to him as he got into his car. I would meet him again 3 years later when I worked on Harry, looking like a total disaster. But he said “hi” to me which sent me to cloud 9. I once waited in a lobby of a show to meet Lee Pace even though I didn’t see the show.

All of these men at one point adorned my room, desktop background, dorm room (which was covered in posters, no wonder I rarely ever had a boy in there), and phone background. Today my phone background is the throne room scene of Rey and Kylo in The Last Jedi. Why do you think I had Tweedy Bird on my hat? I need my obsession with me at all times and I want the world to see.

(Thank God tattoos are expensive and I was too young to get them during my hardcore obsessions. Imagine if I had a giant Total Drama Island tattoo on my back? I shudder.)

While a lot of the attraction for these men was based on personality, looks, and accents, I also have a tendency to become enamoured with villains and dark characters. In 1999 I was in the movie theater seeing The Phantom Menace. Up until that point, there were virtually no children featured in Star Wars films, so when a young Anakin Skywalker graced the screen, my five-year-old heart would not stop beating. I loved him so much, I carried a Pepsi bottle with his image on it everywhere I went. I slept with it. My comfort blanket was a Pepsi bottle with a picture of a nine-year-old boy.

I had the famous Phantom Menace poster with young Anakin Skywalker with the shadow of Darth Vader behind him. I distinctly remember my dad telling me in the theater, “That’s Darth Vader as a little boy.” When I saw Return of the Jedi my favorite scene was when Luke took off Vader’s mask, because you got to see Vader’s real face for the first time. That Vader actually was a human and not a monster fascinated me to the point of obsession which, as you probably have figured out, still carries over to the sequel trilogy.

Bugs Bunny established my fanaticism, but Anakin Skywalker determined my type: men presented as villains but actually are redeemed over time. Through the years I think I’ve enjoyed getting to figure out someone. Their character is presented as one dimensional, and then even the tiniest thing that strays from that is seen as fascinating. There’s a great quote from an Adam Driver profile in the New York Times that I think encapsulates it:

“A manner so resolute that when some emotion does manage to escape - whether through a glint in his eyes or the unpredictable undulations of his voice - that transgression can’t help but take you by surprise.”

Now my therapist says that probably comes with my need to help and fix the real boys in my life. We both joked that our favorite character in A Haunting of Hill House was the drug-addicted little brother.

I think it is totally unfair, because I know that I can’t personally help them... though ok, she may be a little right.

While I enjoy “complicated” from afar, it does subconsciously fulfill the need for what I can’t do in reality, which is being someone’s reason to change. Mostly through love. Turns out, in real life, it is far less romantic to be dating someone with a lot of emotional issues! Who knew!

You decide for yourself. Here are all the fictional characters I’ve obsessed over who fit this category:

-Kylo Ren (I mean, duh)

-Prince Zuko (the original Kylo Ren)

-The Phantom of the Opera (Thank you, Leslie Knope)

-Damon from Vampire Diaries

-Hot Priest from Fleabag (ok not a villain but he’s supposed to be a holy man and you think aw he’s never gonna...AND THEN HE DOES!)

-Mr. Darcy (again not a villain but he was to Elizabeth at first!!!!)

-Duncan from Total Drama Island

-Draco Malfoy (that bleached blonde hair attraction still hasn’t gone away, oops)

-Spock in JJ Abrams’s last good movie Star Trek

-Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (oh if my heart could beat it would break my chest, how many times have I cried over that sweet platinum blonde baby?)

Look, I know this is all fictional and in no way real. None of these men exist and are all a fantasy. Hey, I watch You and am extremely creeped out by Joe! I don’t root for him! I also hope I don’t stay this way forever. I really don’t want to be a Twilight mom. I’ve calmed down in my old age, ok? I don’t wait in the cold for hours at a stage door anymore, and I go on real dates now. I’ve even had a few boyfriends in my days who were nothing like the men I lusted after nor did I even compare.

I completely agree that all these men would be horrible to date! Draco Malfoy was totally a bigot and bully. Kylo Ren killed his dad, and I have a good relationship with my dad, so I can’t really relate. And yes, Spike before he got his soul is nothing to wish for in a boyfriend, even if it was fun to watch him. Kylo Ren and Spike have killed multiple people. I’m not down to date a murderer.

One day I’ll be able to consume something I enjoy and move on after a week. Growing up, mundane suburban life was a little more interesting when you get lost in a fantasy for a while. To be focused on something other than school, work, or even your own anxieties. If anything, I think my obsessive personality towards men in particular just pushes me to look for more and to yearn for more instead of being depressed that I don’t get to live it. I don’t just settle for the first boy to like me back. I strive to one day not to marry a celebrity, a comedian, or an anthropomorphic cartoon character, but someone who makes me feel like I’m the heroine of my own show.

For now, I’ll just wait for the Phantom to spring me into his underground lair.

Taken 2 minutes before I published this.

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medschoolash · 8 years ago

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Let’s talk about TO’s increasingly Racist Narrative with the Mikaelsons and Marcel Gerard.

Disclaimer: This is VERY long. I’m putting most of it under the cut because of length. I thought about cutting it short but this is a topic that’s very important to me so I decided to not cut words.

So after Friday’s episode many viewers, especially black viewers were left with a very real feeling of discomfort following Elijah’s speech to Marcel. Because of that discomfort many of us have expressed how the narrative, and Elijah, has skewed into racism, an accusation that makes some viewers feel uncomfortable.

Here’s the truth though, in a way it should make some people uncomfortable. If you didn’t feel uneasy about the idea of racism in a narrative that you like then I would have to question some things about you. With that said, I’ve seen a lot more efforts to shut down discourse about the accusation or explain away the behavior many people find problematic than I’ve seen to actually understand it and why we might feel that way. That’s a problem, it’s a big problem when this discussion is something that’s actually very necessary for this show, and many TV shows. When writers take on the task of crafting a narrative that includes minority characters, there is a certain level of awareness and delicacy that many are going to expect then to have when it comes to these characters. When they offend their audience and mishandle the characters they have been entrusted with then they deserve to be taken to task for that. It doesn’t matter if the offense was intentional or unintentional. This is especially the case when you have a writing staff who pats themselves on the back for trying to be aware of social and racial issues that are currently at play in our society.

I personally don’t think that writers are obligated to treat every black character or every character from a marginalized group like a delicate flower that can’t be harmed in any way shape or form. That’s not what I’m talking about here. What I’m talking about is when you take characters from marginalized groups and carelessly handle them in a way that ends up pushing a racist narrative.To give an example, killing a black character doesn’t automatically make a narrative racist but pushing an idea where a black character is consistently targeted by white characters, denied humanity and is treated as disposable flesh then that is indeed a racist narrative. That kind of dynamic has historically been an issue in this world and it is still an issue. We can discuss whether the racism that seeps into our fiction a little too often is intentional, and I don’t personally believe it always is, but we have to acknowledge that it’s actually there first.

That’s why we need to talk about The Originals and Marcel.

What they did to Marcel in Friday’s episode, what they had Elijah say to him, and the narrative that built up to that moment was racist.

From the very beginning of this show there was a very troublesome aspect of the narrative around Marcel and the Mikaelsons. Marcel was a former slave who was rescued from slavery by Klaus and adopted as his son. They used a white savior idea to explain how this black man became the son of this powerful white man and got integrated into this all white original family. Instead of tackling this dynamic on screen the completely glossed over it. They never tackled how Marcel felt about that, if it had any effect on his mentally, how the mikaelsons adjusted to his presence in their life given his different racial background. It’s convenient to just pretend that the Mikaelsons and Marcel never even blinked at the racial difference because the Mikaelsons have been around for so long that race doesn’t register to them at all. Just like it’s convenient to pretend that Marcel never cared that the people that he now lived with were just sharing a table with and share the same skin color with the very people who have abused him and people who look like him. They basically painted a narrative where Klaus was an empathetic white savior for marcel...even went as far as to have marcel actually call him his savior more than once in canon, and Marcel was just incredibly grateful to have been saved. That’s as far as the discussion went.

They never addressed this aspect of the dynamic on the show and I suspect that it’s because they never sat down and thought about the racial implications of having a black former slave be adopted into an all white family that saved him from slavery. The choice was careless and problematic from it conception.

The only reason this aspect hasn’t been super unsettling for 4 seasons now is because that little bit of history has been pretty much background noise in the narrative and they’ve avoided addressing anything about race explicitly. We all know that the way it was set up is troublesome but we don’t actively think about it during every interaction because we believe in Klaus’s genuine love for Marcel and their father and son dynamic. They basically took the easy way and lazy way out and said “let’s pretend that a racial difference doesn’t exist here” and they’ve gotten away with doing this for 4 seasons now.

This actually reminds me of Julie Plec’s comment about her practice of “colorblind” casting for her TV shows. Colorblind casting in theory is good for diversity since it would theoretically increase the likelihood of a minority being selected for a role. Colorblind casting is how Kat Graham was selected to play Bonnie Bennett despite the fact that in the books that inspired TVD Bonnie was white. Like I said,in theory this is great...however that doesn’t absolve you of responsibility for how you handle these characters that you have made a minority in your narrative. Making Marcel a black man instead of a white man and having him considered a part of this family could be seen as a plus for diversity, but that doesn’t absolve them of their responsibility to handle the racial difference that are at play in a manner that doesn’t offend or push racist ideas. They don’t get to skate responsibility here by having the characters not openly acknowledge the racial difference, the racial difference is still there at the end of the day even if the writers are too lazy to tackle it.

It’s actually their reluctance to address the racial aspect from the very beginning that makes what happened in the episode last night so impossible to divorce race from the narrative that they have set up concerning marcel. (I have to give credit to my friend Amy being the one who originally raised this point during a discussion)

Let’s take a look at the build up to last night:

Marcel started the series as the King of New Orleans. Klaus comes to town and is envious of what Marcel has built and wants to take it back for himself. We learn that Marcel was actually Klaus’s son, he adopted him when he was a boy and raised him up until adulthood. Klaus was the one who even gave Marcel his name since he didn't’ have one previously due to being a slave. Klaus and Marcel have their share of clashes but in season 1 in particular we learn that Marcel has scars that Klaus couldn’t heal, but that there is still genuine love and a father son bond between the two of them.

This carries over into the rest of the seasons where Klaus and Elijah have an up and down relationship but from Klaus’s eyes that’s still his son. Along the way they introduce a past close relationship between Elijah and Marcel. Marcel was very close to Marcel until Klaus became jealous. Elijah, in an effort to appease Klaus and because he saw Marcel as Klaus’s path to redemption, very harshly distances himself from Marcel without explanation to Marcel. In their present day dynamic Elijah shows an open annoyance and hostility towards marcel. The audience gets no real explanation to the root of Elijah's present day behavior towards marcel and we see the two of them co-exist but it never goes beyond that.

One other wrinkle to the Mikaelsons and Marcel dynamic that was introduced was that when Marcel was a boy, Kol was jealous of how accepted in the family Marcel was while he still felt like an outsider. Kol was the first to truly express the opinion that Marcel was almost unworthy of his position in the family and to show resentment. There is an uneasy idea being perpetrated by Kol’s resentment, a white man resents a black boy for taking his place in the family. A white man can’t comprehend how this black child can be embraced by his brothers but he feels like an outsider looking in and resents the child and his family for it.

Once again the racial dynamics are never factored into this narrative, we are just to assume that Kol doesn’t see Marcel as a black child but just a child. We are to assume that he doesn’t see a former slave as unworthy of a position in his family over him, he just sees this colorless person who’s soaking up attention that he wants for himself. Once again the racial difference and how an idea like that might affect a black child who was born into oppression at the hands of people who look and at times act like Kol is never addressed.

Like with Elijah, Marcel is aware of the hostility Kol feels towards him, but the narrative never addresses how he felt about that beyond a simple “it hurt his feelings”. The narrative wants us to ignore the racial factors and go along with the idea that Marcel doesn’t question if these two white men show hostility towards him because of his blackness even though any child in that predicament would in fact wonder if his blackness is a factor in the behavior of the people he now sees as family. We are to never question if the racial difference is a factor in the dynamic. We are supposed to pretend that it would be exactly the same way if Marcel was white, even though there is no way of knowing that (and it’s highly unlikely) and even though Marcel would have never been a slave if he was a white character. His blackness is just supposed to be ignored for the sake of their narrative that lacks the sophistication required to address it properly.

They were already dangerously close to being blatantly racist at this point, it was mostly subtextual and they didn’t cross any big lines with the problematic things they did have in play so as a viewer it was easy to let it slide. It wasn’t perfect, but I, and I suspect many other viewers, give their narrative the benefit of the doubt.

That changed in season 3. In season 3 we saw Elijah take his disdain for marcel up several notches. His previous annoyance and condescension turned into disdain and open hostility. He constantly talked to marcel like a child, used him as a flunky, and constantly went out of his way to make marcel feel less than. In season 2 they provided some basic explanation for his behavior, even if it wasn’t at all satisfactory, there was something there to explain why there was tension on both ends. However, in season 3 there was no exploration into why Elijah behaved the way he did with Marcel. His behavior got progressively more hostile with Marcel at a time when Marcel wasn’t an enemy. Marcel had aligned himself with their family. He protected Hayley, he protected Klaus even when he was no longer linked to him. He went along with all of Elijah’s plans and yet as the season went on Elijah started to treat Marcel worse and worse.

The way he spoke to Marcel all of last season and at times before has always made me particularly uncomfortable and the longer it went on without explanation the more it became harder and harder to divorce Marcel’s race from the equation. There have been times where Elijah has spoke to Marcel with such disdain and condescension he seemed one step away from calling him “boy”.

If you look at it at its most basic level you have a white man, an elitist white man, who speaks to a black man who was supposed to be a part of his family with open disdain that’s unexplained. None of this is addressed in depth. Marcel is allowed to talk back at times and argue with Elijah but Elijah’s behavior never shifts in a positive way, instead it gets increasingly hostile. Watching a white character speak to a black one with such open hostility consistently was unsettling a lot of times. This behavior was also never checked by any of the other characters. Everyone let it fly, including Klaus. The narrative never treated Elijah as if how he was behaving towards Marcel was wrong, it was just brushed off as just Elijah being Elijah. When you’re dealing with a black character who’s been thrust into a racial dynamic like the one Marcel was placed in with the Mikaelsons, Elijah being Elijah has different implications, especially when you add that to the already troublesome behaviors towards Marcel I mentioned before.

Elijah’s disdain towards Marcel often felt very targeted and unnecessarily harsh compared to his behavior with other characters and at some point it becomes hard to see Marcel as a colorless person who just so happens to be on the receiving end of elijah’s elitist condescension at that moment. When the abuse becomes that targeted and consistent it’s almost impossible to unsee Marcel’s blackness and how that blackness is at the receiving end of behavior that’s often perpetrated against black people in this inherently racist society. It’s also almost impossible to do when the narrative, in an effort to draw the least amount of attention to the racial dynamics on the show as possible, has never actually ruled out his race as a motivator for the behavior against him.

They’ve never had the characters explicitly or implicitly say “marcel what I’m doing right now has nothing to do with your race, your race doesn’t matter to me, your race is not relevant to my current feelings or how I view you”. They’ve never had the mikaelsons express any views on race at all, not even in a context outside of Marcel. Just like they’ve never had marcel himself actually question if his race plays a part in his treatment, not even as a way to rule it out within the narrative. There is only so far you can take a narrative like this, the audience won’t be able to keep pretending that my some miracle all of these characters are the super special exceptions who have nothing race related register to them in a society where race is a huge factor. We can’t just pretend that they are all the most open minded color blind people to ever exist forever. The audience definitely won’t be able to keep pretending that race isn’t a factor when the narrative starts to blatantly push racist tropes and ideas and when Marcel is consistently ostracized by the mikaelsons. That’s where I am with with originals at the moment.

Elijah’s disregard for Marcel in season 3 goes as far as having him take his life. When he killed Marcel I didn’t automatically think “wow this is racist”, but the way he handled killing marcel and the aftermath did leave me feeling uneasy. Marcel was a grieving man who had just lost his surrogate daughter because of a decision by elijah and freya. After initially trying to smooth things over with marcel Elijah reverts back to his usual uncaring and condescending attitude towards him. Marcel is placed in a scenario where Klaus, his father, is trying to convince him of his love for him to prevent him from making a rash decision that could harm them all. Klaus had spent almost an entire day with Marcel, trying to make him see that he’s still his family, that he’s still his son and that he doesn’t have to take this path that he is close to taking. Klaus proclaims that Marcel will always be his family. From Klaus’s POV there is still something redeemable in Marcel, still something valuable even if he’s currently a threat to his well being. That was important to establish in the narrative and Marcel is this close to accepting that and possibly reigning in his rage when Elijah shows up. Elijah comes and immediately contradicts everything Klaus had worked so hard to establish.

Elijah has no such empathy or care for Marcel. He immediately starts to hurl his vitriol towards him. Marcel even goes as far as commenting that Elijah is eying him like he’s a rabid dog. They actually made a black man compare himself to a rabid animal in the eyes of his white family member and they do nothing to suggest that Elijah doesn’t in fact see him as a rabid animal. It’s very hard to hear that and not be reminded of how black people, particularly black men have historically been viewed through a lens of suspicion and seen as uncontrollable animals that need to be brought to heel. The racism is bleeding through the seams of the narrative at this point.

Marcel is also in a position where a white man who has actually wronged him now gets to use the privilege of his inherent superiority to cast suspicion on to him as if he’s the bad guy, and he has to prove himself to this white man despite the fact that, as I said before, he’s the wronged party in this dynamic. This pushed the racist idea that no matter what, blackness is always the offending party. White people can abuse, kill, hurt people of color as much as they want, but the suspicion of malice will still fall on the shoulders of the person of color and the person of color will always be in a position of having to prove themselves. Whiteness is always given the benefit of the doubt. Elijah is absolved of his wrong doing towards Davina and Marcel because “it had to be done”, but blackness is always seen as inherently malicious, wrong, and intending to do harm no matter what. Marcel’s pain doesn’t matter, his hurt doesn’t matter, him being the victim doesn’t matter, the nuance to his behavior is irrelevant and never considered. He must prove that he’s not the monster in this dynamic despite being the party who has just been wronged and the true monster now gets to use his inherent privilege and serve as his judge,jury, and executioner.

Elijah ends up killing Marcel on the bridge. The funniest thing about this action is that it was allegedly done in the name of protecting the family, the family that Marcel no longer feels he is a part of, but it ends up being the very thing that leads to their downfall. When fandom talks about Elijah killing Marcel it’s always said that “he had to kill him he threatened Klaus” but there was a choice on that bridge. Marcel’s death was avoidable. Marcel could have changed his mind, he could have changed his path, he could have been given the benefit of the doubt. He took the Serum but he could have decided to never make the transition and even if he made the transition his relationship with Klaus could have been repaired. If any of that was considered the outcome of season 3 could have been completely different. Elijah didn’t care to consider any of those things though. He saw inherent evil in marcel, irredeemable evil and therefore he was disposed of as if he never mattered to begin with. It’s very difficult to take the fact that Marcel is a black male out of the equation here, but I tried to, I know many other people tried to, and were successful for a while but I can no longer view these events from a colorless lens.

I personally do not think that if that had been Hope on that bridge Elijah would have done the same thing. I think that the narrative would have shifted towards their being possible redemption for Hope, that some part of Elijah would have wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt even if it was proven to be a mistake later down the line. I do not think that Hope would have been regarded as having pure malice in her heart and as disposable in the way that Marcel was. Whiteness, especially white femininity, is seen as having innate purity and innocence. Even in the worse of situations white women are hardly ever viewed as pure evil completely devoid of any innocence. Black women and black males don’t have the luxury of getting that sort of treatment, not even when we are pure and innocent. If Hope was put in the same position as Marcel I don’t think the writers would have been able to stop that idea from bleeding into how they crafted the narrative. There would have been some sort of innocence still there for her, none of them would have seen her as truly being disposable the way marcel was viewed, they also would have more than likely allowed Hope the room in the narrative to actually be the victim and would have used her victimhood to excuse her threats and justify why she inevitably doesn’t meet a deadly end.

This whole thing is made worse by how they proceed to handle the aftermath of Marcel’s death. Klaus is gutted, and he questions if Elijah’s actions were truly necessary. Later Hayley is sent to Klaus to try to compel him to forgive him for his actions. Klaus makes a very good parallel by asking Hayley is she would be saying this if it had been Hope and Hayley immediately shuts down the comparison. She wasn’t the first character to shut down a comparison between Marcel and Hope, but the question was an extremely valid question. Everyone else was treating Marcel as if he wasn’t truly Klaus son, therefore it should be recoverable.

Their callous attitude towards the authenticity of Klaus and Marcel’s father son relationship is never addressed. It’s never explained why they might feel that way, they just do. By doing that they pushed a very problematic narrative about Marcel vs Hope because in Klaus’s eyes they are indeed the same. Marcel is his son, he looked him in his eyes and told him that he was just as if he was his blood. Hope is also Klaus’s child, so would everyone be telling him to let it go if it had been Hope? This question is never answered explicitly in the narrative but it’s clear that the implied answer is no.I also personally believe that the answer is no because If they truly believed that Marcel was his son they would have been more empathetic towards his grief. Hayley, who grieved the temporary loss of her own child in season 2, would have been able to understand klaus’s grief and would have probably never asked him to forgive elijah mere hours after Marcel had died.Hayley would not be okay with it if it had been Hope, no one would have been okay with Elijah doing that to Hope. So what’s the difference between the two of them?

Any answer you come up with is troublesome because the most basic answer is that Marcel is not Klaus’s biological son, which pushes a very harmful narrative concerning biological vs adoptive children. If the difference isn’t biological vs adoptive then we have to look at race next which makes it even more troublesome. Can we really definitively say that if Marcel was a white girl like Hope, or even a white male he would have been rejected so fervently as an equal to Hope? Honestly we can’t and I personally don’t believe he would have been. So we have this narrative crafted where the black male adoptive son of a white man is not regarded as an equal to his white female biological daughter. It’s a very ugly and racist narrative to have in place, and it’s never addressed or corrected, instead this idea is actually allowed to proliferate further into the narrative later on in the series and it becomes even more offensive.

When the current season picks up Marcel comes face to face with Elijah again, he expresses his rage and hurt to both Elijah and Hayley about how Elijah, who was supposed to be his family killed him while klaus stood back and did nothing. Later Marcel expresses bitterness about how his family, the mikaelsons didn’t stick together with him and Kol completely dismisses Marcel’s feelings and tells him that he was never a Mikaelson so he needs to just get over it. Not one of the Mikaelson siblings correct Kol or show any open feelings of unease towards this statement, not even Klaus.

You have this black man who is very clearly hurt that the family he loved turned their backs on him and the response to that pain and bitterness is that he was never one of them. As usual there is never an explanation for why they may feel he was never one of them. The imagery alone is uncomfortable because you have this herd of white people who have pledged allegiance to each other collectively rejecting the sole black member of their family. It’s all of these white people against a black man. To add even more insult you have Hayley included as a part of the Mikaelson fold, a woman whose sole claim to family relation is through a child she birthed. Hayley, a white woman is eagerly accepted as a part of the family, yet the black adoptive son who they have all played some part in rearing since he was a child is the sole person on the outside looking in for no real explainable reason. It was established that it was only his recent actions making him an outsider it would be different, but that’s not the narrative, the narrative is that he’s always been an outside. It’s hard to look at the scene and not see the racial divide. It sticks out like a sore thumb and yet were are expected to ignore it. It’s hard to look at their rejection of Marcel and not see a rejection of blackness in a dynamic that is exclusive to white people. It’s hard to look at that scene and not see a message that says to a black person that regardless of your proximity to whiteness, ultimately you are not good enough to actually be seen as an equal among them. They might even pretend that you are for a while, but eventually you will get your rude awakening that you aren’t. Black people deal with that harsh reality all too often in white spaces in real life.

I think in the writers minds this entire exchange is okay because Marcel is seemingly the one with the power here. He’s the one who can chose whether they live or die, can stay or leave but that power they give him is superficial at best. Where it truly counts in the narrative he is powerless. They hold all of the power in the family dynamic with is the true core of the dynamic. They hold the power to accept or reject him as an equal and given the racial differences, placing that power solely in the hands of whiteness perpetuates the racist idea that for a person of color equality is not inherent to your identity, it is completely at the mercy of whiteness. Regardless of how powerful you are, their privilege and power always reigns supreme.

They think that they allow Marcel to regain his power here by proclaiming that he’s proud he’s not a mikaelson, but when you look at the character you can’t erase the hurt and pain the he just expressed and the nuance to his behavior. He proclaims that he’s proud he’s not a Mikaelson but it is a shallow show of power, we are all still very aware of who holds the true power in the dynamic because narratively he is indeed still very hurt and bitter about his rejection. His entire speech was given out of a need to cope with his rejection in the first place. So this facade they make Marcel put on is just that, a facade, which does nothing to erase the racism embedded in the narrative. The fact that he even has to feel the need to prove himself better or that he’s perfectly okay without their validation is bothersome because it’s something many black people have to do to cope with a lack of validation we often experience in white spaces.

They could have used that opportunity to assert that Marcel was family, they could have at the very least made Klaus correct Kol, but they did nothing. Instead they just let the idea that Marcel is not an equal just continue sit unchecked in the narrative like they had been doing before.

While we have this ugly family narrative going on the writing also manages to find itself in more hot water by unnecessarily vilifying Marcel. Granted this offense is smaller than some of the others but it’s still an offense.

Hope Mikaelson is affected by a deadly curse. Marcel allows the mikaelson family to return to Nola to help her. It’s finally explicitly said in the narrative that Hope is Marcel’s little sister and he’s empathetic towards her plight and the plight of children so he temporarily ends their exile.

All of the characters are aware that they are only back because Marcel has shown some come compassion. He’s doesn’t even interact with them again once they return….and yet when Hayley decides to go to try to talk to him Elijah feels the need to stop her and warn her to be fearful of him. Marcel has never ever tried to harm Hayley in any way. He’s actually protected her several times. The entire time the original family was put down Marcel never tried to harm Hayley and he actually tried to protect her and Hope from the henchmen of Klaus’s enemies. Elijah has even seen Marcel’s unwillingness to harm Hayley with his own eyes. So you have to ask the question why did Elijah feel the need to instill a sense of fear or weariness towards Marcel in Hayley? Why was he vilified when he was the one currently allowing them back and had done nothing towards Hayley to deserve it? Why did Hayley have to be careful? It was unnecessary and unwarranted, and yet this vilification was still there.

I can’t help but think of the historical context of what was demonstrated. There is a history of portraying black men as evil waiting in the wings to harm fragile white women. White men have seen it as their duty to protect their women from these savage men, you can’t trust them, it doesn’t matter how they behave, they are inherently unhinged and unpredictable. They were seen as rabid dogs just waiting to take a bite out of fragile and pure white woman. White women must always stay on alert when they’re around these black men, they can never be too careful.

If felt like that same idea was being pushed here with Elijah and Hayley. There was no reason to have that scene with elijah and hayley in the narrative it did absolutely nothing for the plot or the characters so I can’t help but wonder if it’s there because once again their racism is seeping through the seams of their writing. It felt completely unwarranted and inappropriate given the racial differences and yet no one in the writers room stopped and said “you know what this isn’t even needed and it has some uncomfortable racial undertones so maybe we should cut it”. If they would have had that conversation they maybe they would have seen some of the ugly undertones, but that never happened.

I honestly wish it had because maybe if they talked about these things we would have never gotten the blatantly racist scene between Elijah and Marcel in the most recent episode. The scene at the end of 305 is was the last straw for many of us minority viewers. There is no way around how uncomfortable it made many of us feel and there is just no way it can be glossed over like many of their past offenses have been.

They made Elijah come to Marcel as he’s imprisoned in a dungeon and taunt him with the idea that he is pretty much worthless because he can no longer serve as a conduit for Klaus’s redemption. He mocks him with the idea that he maybe saw him as a son in the past, further pushing the idea that marcel really wasn’t family at all to him. He throws the fact that Klaus’s daughter, not marcel, had changed Klaus in his face and then harshly tells him that he is not needed, welcomed or wanted. Then he tells him that he’s only still breathing because his brother is weak but then pledges to do to Marcel what Klaus was too weak to do. He’s

appalled that Klaus, when faced with the same decision he had in season 3, would choose to risk it all for Marcel instead of kill him like he did and pledges to show no such mercy to him.

It honestly made my skin crawl watching it. Elijah’s behavior was unnecessarily cruel and the level of disdain he displayed towards Marcel, combined with his words made it all feel blatantly racist.

Here you have a white man admit that the only reason he saw any worth in this black man was because he thought he could be used as a conduit for redemption for his white brother. You have to remember that Marcel was a slave, so the only reason he ever saw any value in his household for this little black boy his brother rescued from oppression was because he made his brother a good man and could be used to further his development into the person he wanted him to be. Now that he sees that he is no longer useful for this goal, and might work against his progress he sees him as nothing more than a pile of flesh just sucking up air and getting in the way. He rejects Marcel in every way possible, completely taking away all of his value. Now that Klaus has his pure white biological daughter Marcel is as useful as a stranger off the street to him. He’s nobody, he’s nothing. All of Marcel’s worth was tied to how he could serve a white character. Having a white man cruelly degrade a black man in that manner to prop up a white character is so blatantly racist I’m honestly flabbergasted that no one stopped it from happening.

How could they see that and not see how horrid it was? Or maybe they did see it but they felt like the blatant racism was just an unfortunate consequence of their writing and the payoff from the scene was worth putting it out there despite the racism. Either way it was such a terrible thing to do. As I mentioned when I first started this meta analysis, they had a responsibility to handle Marcel’s character with care and they grossly failed at doing that. You don’t have to treat Marcel like a special snowflake because he’s black, but because he’s black you absolutely can not push a narrative where his entire value as a living being is tied to a white character and where once that value has been maxed out treat him as disposable flesh. It’s careless and offensive.

It is almost impossible to divorce Marcel’s blackness from that scene and from the dynamic they set up. Elijah sounded like a slave master taunting his property with the idea that they are running out of value so they are probably gonna be dead soon. He lorded over Marcel, cruelly taking blow after blow to his worth as a person before threatening to basically kill him. This is why I had such a problem with the scene where Marcel tells the Mikaelsons that he is glad he wasn’t one of them and called it shallow, because in 3x05 it’s confirmed that the person with the real power is Elijah. Marcel is physically stronger than the Mikaelsons, in every way possible he is their better, and yet at the end of the day this black man is still completely and utterly powerless and this white man is the one with the true power. Marcel lives and breaths according to his will only and apparently it’s been that ways from Elijah’s eyes since the day Klaus took Marcel in.

It was honestly so ugly that I almost couldn’t even watch it all the way through. There is no way you can expect a black viewer to just ignore the historical context of Elijah’s words and actions and Marcel’s blackness to make it all just okay and not be offensive.

Maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad if we had some indication that Elijah isn’t a racist and none of his behavior towards Marcel are racist microaggressions, but we don’t know that and honestly often times that’s exactly how his behavior comes off towards Marcel. Maybe this wasn’t intentional on their part, but at some point a certain level of awareness has to come if you are going to have any real integrity as a writer. There should have been more awareness here but there wasn’t and as a result many of us were left offended and frustrated.

I don’t believe for a second that Elijah would have treated Hope the same way or told her the same cruel words that he told Marcel. I’m sure many people will try to argue that he totally would, but I honestly just do not see it if not for the basic reason that I don’t think his disdain towards hope would ever be allowed to be as strong as it is towards Marcel.Just like I don’t think they would have ever insinuated that Hope’s only value to the world is as a conduit for Klaus’s redemption. Elijah wouldn’t tell Hope that she’s unwanted, unwelcome, and unneeded and then pledging to kill her. What Elijah told Marcel was basically the equivalent of telling him he could have stayed a slave, I don’t think they would ever tell Hope she would have been aborted by Hayley that day she considered it in season 1. They have built her up as this super special child who comes before them all, while Marcel has been the habitual afterthought and torn in their side so to my it would have been different.

Since the episode aired I’ve seen several justifications for Elijah’s behavior. The main one being that Elijah wasn’t being racist, he was just being elitist which is typical for his character. I feel like this is probably how the writers saw it in their heads, but honestly the elitist justification doesn’t fly with me because in most white dominated spaces where Elitism persists racism also co exists. You would be hard pressed to find a real life hyper-elitist like Elijah who is not also racist. White dominated spaces like Academia have always been accused of being incredibly elitist, and one big problem with this elitism is the rejection of blackness in these spaces that often goes hand in hand with this elitism. Many of the people who inhabit these elitist spaces are guilty of stereotyping and having a racial bias that leads to discrimination and racism. Now I know this isn’t a perfect parallel for Elijah, but I think the principle still basically applies. Among white people where an elitist mindset persists usually so does a racist mindset as well. An Elitist enacting their beliefs against a person of color is usually enacting racist behavior.

It’s for these reasons that I don’t think that Elijah can be absolved of his racism in this racist narrative, he’s the tool they used to push all of the ideas they set forth. If this was indeed not out of character for him then Elijah Mikaelson just might have some race issues that the writers need to check or think about when they decide to write for him in his dynamic with Marcel. If they don’t then we will continue to see the racist narrative they’ve set up in the future.

Maybe if they had actually spent time thinking about Elijah as a character and finding ways to flesh him out they could have avoided the blatant racism they showed in that last episode and some of the racist undertones that have been present in the past. They failed to do this, which did a major disservice to their story and If they don't’ check themselves and the messages they are sending they will continue to do a disservice to their show and in the process alienate viewers who at one point genuinely enjoyed the writing.

I used to love this show, I used to see such great depth to the writing, but I’m at a frustrating crossroads now. There is only so many times you can watch a TV show and have the narrative offend you or blatantly insult your intelligence before you completely give up. Based on the responses of several fellow black viewers after the episode I’m not the only one who is at this crossroads. The Originals needs to do better. They have to do better if they are going to keep this show going and keep expecting us to trust them with minority character that are important for representation. How they handle characters like Marcel matters, the messages they send with these characters matters. That’s why despite my initial reluctance I decided to write this long winded take down of their racism. These things might seem small or overblown to some of you, but as a black viewer these things are important, they register to us even when they might not register to a non-black person. As a black woman I don’t have the privilege of being able to escape my race and how my blackness is handled and perceived on the day to day basis, not even when it comes to fiction. This is why more thought needs to be put into narratives that involve people from marginalized groups.

Ultimately as a character, Marcel Gerard deserved better and as every black viewer who has dedicated their time to this show deserved better and considering how several of the writers like to sit on twitter and give social commentary I expected better. They won’t be getting anymore passes for the racism that bleeds into their writing and their hypocrisy.

#the originals #Marcel Gerard #To commentary #anti the originals

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