#like shes only ''not like the other girls'' because the narrative compares her to ''Bitch Women'' like jessica or rose

[bbqhooligan]

through all of it, after all of it, ill still be mulling over Bella Swan. unlike other parts of smeyers writing where the glaring issues take the front seat to parts that are well written or interesting, bella remains special to me. genuinely worlds most boring girl, meant to be a mormon self insert but her humanity fleshes out so nicely its hard not to think this is an interesting character who is stuck in a bad premise. i dont know if many fanfics have it in them to do her justice but i be Wondering.

[punkpandapatrixk]

🥀Sad Bitch Lilith ♦︎ Timeless Pick A Card

We live in a world where being too kind, too sweet, too compassionate and forgiving could often lead to disastrous outcomes. This is after all a world where narcissists, sociopaths and psychopaths run free without much repercussion. A sweet girl can’t be pleasant all the time; a goddess needs to carry a machete from time to time.

What most people have yet to grasp, is that Venus and Lilith quite literally make each side of the Divine Femininity coin. Venus represents Light and Lilith represents Dark; even then, they could easily switch roles depending on the situation at hand. Only if you want—you are allowed to embody both Venus and Lilith in their respective glory.

Do you really want to become that kind of idiot who sends love and light to those who have done you much harm? You don’t have to force yourself to be the bigger person in a conflict that was created for the sole purpose of stripping you of power and autonomy. Enablers and gaslighters enforce that kind of idea so you make room for their terrible behaviour. WAKE. UP.

So many women in this world have at some point been a Sad Bitch Lilith at the hands of psychopaths, sociopaths and narcs in whatever role they play in their lives. Hopefully this reading serves to help you turn the narrative into SAVAGE LILITH. The Dark Moon Goddess who delights in revenge for she knows in it lies EDUCATION for the imbeciles who have foolishly disrespected her kind, sweet, friendly, feminine qualities. The Dark Feminine retorts,

‘RESPECT ME OR GET DESTROYED.’

Black Moon Lilith is a Goddess of Redemption. She takes into her own hands matters of delivering nightmare to those who have wronged her. She calculates in the dark. She doesn’t ask for permission. She's a wild woman. She punishes swiftly. She moves history.

She is Karma.

Karma paid in revenge glow up, BITCH🌹

SONG: I’ll Make You Cry by aespa

MOVIE: Gone Girl (2014)

[PAC Masterlist] [Part 1] [Part 3]

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Pile 1 – When My Tears Silently Turn to Diamonds

the way your beauty irritates people – 10 of Pentacles Rx

VIBE: I’m Unhappy by aespa

You’re somebody who’s perceived as abundant and superfluous by others. It’s super obvious from the way you look, the way you carry yourself, or even your family background. You just… exude a rich vibe—whether or not you actually come from old money. Damn, you just have it in you. It’s something you were born with. Even if you didn’t come from a rich background, or even if right now, for some reason you’re struggling with resources, no, honey, listen: it’s your fucking AURA.

People can see either you’re blessed since birth—with money, beauty, talents, whatever—or they simply can smell that you’re gonna make it big someday. Most people you’ve known in your environment, do not like this about you at all. It’s their own fault though, why in the name of fuck are they always comparing themselves to you? Did you ask for that? Never. But they’re always imagining how nice it would be in your shoes without knowing for realz your life story.

They project their insecurities at you even when you’ve never wanted to make anybody feel that way because of your presence. In many ways, I think you’ve tried so hard to make you look ordinary, or in some cases, you’ve tried to show a lot of care and generosity. You’ve tried to make everybody see that you’re just like them even if your circumstances are not exactly the same. It never worked though—maybe it’s even backfired.

Your abundance… is simply irritating to them because you’re surrounded by motherfucking losers, babe.

silencing the negative self-talk – XIX The Sun

VIBE: ASAP by NewJeans

You should be done feeling bad for being radiant. It’s not your fault other people are ugly. It’s not your responsibility that other people don’t have money. How are you at fault when a good company chooses you for the talents and skills you’ve developed which they need? Seriously, it’s none of your business if others wouldn’t work on themselves to be considered an amazing creature in society. You keep being you, honey. You and I know you’re always refining your natural talents and deepening your base knowledge. You’re truly a hustler even if others don’t see that.

When you’re not saddened or confused by others’ terrible attitude towards your blessings, your mindset is really positive like the Sun itself. Of all the Piles, I think your heart is the purest🤣You’re more generous than people give you credit for. You’re always trying to make everyone feel welcomed. If you were a party host, you’d make sure every single person has a good time in ways that suit them. You’re that attentive.

Unfortunately, your Light, indeed babe, seems to attract a lot of harmful bugs. No matter how much you give, it’ll never be enough and nothing you do will stop the gossip and badmouthing and backstabbing. Because essentially, these bottom-feeders are already bitter about their own pathetic lives. They hate you as much as they hate themselves for not having the courage to feel deserving of the abundance you’ve worked hard for.

S A V A G E – 4 of Wands

VIBE: Hurt by NewJeans

‘Leave them at the bottom of the grave they dug for you.’ – something I saw on Pinterest

Because you’re too kind, too giving, I think you’re the type of person who wouldn’t have the heart to leave people behind where they are miserable. Umm… you need to grow up a little bit more and finally see for yourself how pointless that is. You’re just one person, what makes you think you could save everybody? I hope you don’t yourself turn into a megalomania who thinks others wouldn’t survive without your charity.

Leave that toxic environment and you will regenerate yourself. As you do so, you become a vibrational match to some kind of a Soul Tribe situation where you’ll be met with people who aren’t the least bit parasitic. You’ve got to believe you’re deserving of a symbiosis mutualistic kind of relationships and friendships for them to manifest, OK?

As for the anklebiters? Hurt them with your leaving them. Hurt them with your totally ignoring and blocking them. I’m not saying you have to throw a brick at them for all the disrespect they’ve dealt on you. I’m sure your change of attitude will hurt the living shit out of them. And one day, when you’re famous and important, they’ll see you, alright. They’ll see you for all that you’ve always been capable of doing and they’ll regret they didn’t treat you better. And they’ll wallow in immense pain for not having access to you anymore. Nevermore. Leave them hurting in their shame and regrets. That’ll kill them😈

SWEET MOTHER OF REVENGE 🔻💙

VILLAIN ORIGIN STORY – Gold Physician (Herodotus)

Reclaiming Lilith – Priestess of Prosperity

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Pile 2 – You See This Glow-Up? NOW You Jelly

the way your beauty irritates people – Knight of Wands Rx

VIBE: 28 Reasons by Seulgi

First and foremost, you’re a damn rare beauty. I don’t care if you don’t think that highly of your physical appearance; bitch, you’re goddamn attractive. Take it or leave it. Your problem is that you act like you’re ordinary and that irritates the living shit out of your enemies because they think you’re fake. ‘How dare you act ordinary when you’re obviously that pretty. Are you mocking us??’ Yeah… Why the fuck are you surrounded by ordinary beauties? Have you got Venus squaring Pluto? Huehue~

Anyway, in any situation you’re an eye candy and everybody can see that. Maybe you’re dense enough to not see how others see you, but all these friends of yours, they’re hyper aware of how all eyes are on you the moment you slightly move. You stir the air in a way no other human does. It’s because there’s passion and authenticity in you that make you vibrate on a much higher level than most people. Really, you’re a rare gem but this could get you in danger a lot.

You’re the type of beauty that invites enemies actually because of your friendly disposition. Like, there’s this annoying gap that irritates people in ways even they don’t really understand. The gap between your intense beauty/attraction and your general politeness. You’re soft spoken, cheerful and helpful. For the most part, you’re a ball of joy and if you’re a girl, boys like you A LOT. You’re fun. You’re cool. You’re smart and creative. A lot funnier than people assume. You’re the IT GIRL. But the envious ones call you a pick-me LMAO

Envious girls put a lot of effort into brandishing you as a trashy character but by doing that, even the boys could see who’s the real G here. And well, wouldn’t that annoy their trashy asses further?🤷🏻‍♀️They’re literally ruining their own image by trying to ruin you🤡

silencing the negative self-talk – 8 of Wands Rx

VIBE: Forgive Me by BoA

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s have a heart-to-heart. Honey, you’ve got to stop pretending like you’re a sweet Venus all the time. You’re not. You and I know that. Deep down, there’s an evil bitch in you that wants to play with fire. I think you’ve tried to curb your Lilith practically your entire Life. Perhaps on a subconscious level you know this of you and you want to avert your eyes from looking at your Lilith. That’s how you seem fake sometimes.

Highly intuitive people can smell the Devil in you, but you act like you’re an angel all the time. And that’s annoying because your Lilith is literally a men-magnet and this often takes away attention from other girls but you act all innocent💩I’m not saying it’s your fault—I sense that for the most part, you don’t even consciously want this intense attention; I’m saying there’s this mechanism about how you’re perceived by your environment.

Aaand why do you think that is? Of course, because subconsciously, you want all of this attention. You always want to be wanted and liked and desired. You crave that shit so bad because when you were tinier you felt unseen. Un-understood. Unappreciated. Now, doesn’t matter who or how, you just want everybody to see you and want you, but you’re not gonna give them back any of that attention. You want to be unattainable. Actually, you are unattainable. You don’t easily let people get close to you. You don’t want people in your personal space. You just want the a t t e n t i o n.

S A V A G E – 5 of Wands Rx

VIBE: Savage by aespa

You know, this is all just a lil game to you. Deep down, you’re fighting this urge to snatch everybody’s boyfriends and husbands. Sometimes you get frightened by your evil desires because if you were unhinged, you’d want all these married people to want you more than they want their spouses. It’s not even that serious. You just want to come on top of everybody. You’re secretly envious of these little bitches who are—probably—loved by their spouses. And even when you can see there’s no Love in that connection, you’re still jealous that someone wants to commit themselves to these undeserving mediocre asses.

You feel all alone in this world. People are only nice to you because of your looks or whatever else that’s not even that important. And people are also nasty to you because of your looks and everything else that’s not even that important. It’s been one insanely difficult Life for you. You’re sad. You feel abandoned and unwanted in spite of all the shallow praises. And there’s this quiet rage inside that wants to punish everyone for not caring about the REAL you.

Bitch, grow up a little bit and you’ll see that low-quality people get married to their fellow mediocre asses. You don’t play in the same dimension as them so don’t lower your standards🤭One day you’ll see who’s gonna end up divorced and miserable because they all married the wrong people! Nah, that’s not even the important part LMAO The important part is when you’re the one marrying a Soul Mate after all of your spiritual and psychological glow-up that made you a vibrational match to so much REAL LOVE and you’re surrounded by all this money and beauty.

You never needed their kind of a glow-up; you were born perfection. You needed a different kind of confidence to SLAY and be very happy.

SWEET MOTHER OF REVENGE 🔻❤️

VILLAIN ORIGIN STORY – Red Magus (Edward Kelly)

Reclaiming Lilith – Priestess of Happiness

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Pile 3 – You Thought I’d Give It All to You

the way your beauty irritates people – 2 of Cups

VIBE: The Weekend by BIBI

You’re this absolutely weird mix of devil and angel in one body. You attract ALL kinds of people. Young, old. Men, women. Animals and toddlers are either terrified by you or LOVE you to oblivion. People always want something from you, right? They either simp for you or act like you owe them something—usually when their simping doesn’t pay off LMAO That’s really weird… Your entire existence is weird. I like that😉

You’re definitely giving, charitable, although in reality you’re really selective with whom you allow in your personal space. ‘Just because I’m friendly with you doesn’t mean I wanna be friends with you,’ kind of vibe. Nevertheless, people are silly, and they cultivate this weird intense desire within them. They build all these unnatural expectations around you having to give or share with them.

In their sick minds, they demand this. When you don’t humour them their sick demands, they get ULTRA bitter, probably even resentful. And then they seek to destroy you. Weird. Weird. Weird. You never even intended to lead them on. People are crazy when you’re around. The worst part is, they never even had your best interest at heart. They just wanted something from you—energy, attention, favouritism, gentle caress, who the hell cares.

How much Neptunian/Pisces/12th House energy do you have for you to be this way?😷HAHAH

silencing the negative self-talk – Page of Pentacles

VIBE: KAZINO by BIBI

Unlike the other Piles, you don’t seem to have a lot of neg self-talk. You’re sassy, bitchy, and you embrace your negative qualities because you see the value in them. Society ain’t perfect either anyway, what’s so wrong in being me the way that I am? You go, girlie~ You’re a total believer in revenge and vengeance. You ARE the definition of Lilith incarnate. Were you born with it? Did you develop yourself to be this way? Who the fuck knows—that’s your very own secret ingredient~

You’d rather let the mortals hurt and rot in their own stupidity than let yourself be the one to hurt. Unless you’re defending those you care about, you’re never sustaining hurt. You hurl lemons at all your enemies before they could get closer. Any step closer, you squirt that lemon in their eyes. Their fault. You warned them already! ‘Hey, I’m nice but I ain’t no saint,’ is your philosophy.

And when you’re really, really, really done with someone’s bullshit, you ain’t afraid to spill some blood. You’re gonna be smart about it though. You plan quietly and attack unexpectedly with a demonic angel smile on your face. ‘Send a message to your god; you’ve messed with the wrong bitch, BITCH.’

You are a menace to society👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

S A V A G E – XII The Hanged Man Rx

VIBE: Vengeance by BIBI

See, you are one sneaky bitch. Though you are a fucking menace to society, you know how to act righteous. You also know how to act like the victim should the occasion arise—but this is rare because you like to appear on top of everyone. Still, you’re quite masterful at creating sad or horrendous backstories that would justify your wreaking havoc upon your enemies, or even just society at large. Your sense of morality is kinda shrewd LMAO And I think that’s because you’ve been at the mercy of someone else’s shrewd behaviour before, probably when you were a lot younger.

That made you realise you never wanted to be the victim anymore. If anything, you’ll terrorise everyone so you maintain your own safety. WHEW. You’ve got your trust broken in authority. Their rules didn’t protect you or even hurt you. So, you believe new rules should be made in their place. You make your own rules and you don’t care if that hurts some people. You have this dicktionary explaining what kinds of dickhead are worth sacrificing to your new-world agenda.

🤣🤣🤣You’re CRAZY!

I believe in you. I think you could change the world. But I think you’re largely only interested in your own world. The whole world? That’s too much trouble. You aren’t keen on destroying your small queendom/kingdom in exchange for world domination—you smart like that. Keep at that. WHOA.

SWEET MOTHER OF REVENGE 🔻🧡

VILLAIN ORIGIN STORY – Green Magus (John Dee)

Reclaiming Lilith – Priestess of Divination

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[taldigi]

If Sabrina does get added to fashion club, I'm curious to see where she falls on hero-villain spectrum. Personally, I could see two options for her. First is she's like Claude, still "evil" (though she more so just a bitch) but the whole ending the world and nullification/ erasing all emotion thing is way too far for (especially when she see what it did to Amber). The second idea is that she's like Orochi in Fav & Mad, someone to pure acts on her whims and desires and it's those whims and desires that dictate in what circumstances she's either a ally or foe to the heroes.

So, we have two designs for "precanon sabrina."

We have "Sabrina Ratif" The bible describes her as a "rule stickler" and she seems to have access to a "class call" notebook. She definitely has a "teacher's pet" energy about her. She is also described as a chatterbox- talking nonsense in order to seem interesting- and can even lie to inflate her sense of importance... turning lying into an art.

sounds a bit familiar, hm?

and we also have this design. Which still seems to lean into her "class president" or "uncool nerd girl"

wait hold on this is official documentation how did that slip through... i'm going to assume that was a translation error...

I'm assuming this piece of info about her is about the same time that art was made, as Juleka was described as "She’s a bass player in a Goth band" and her design in this line up.. lines up with the description.

(the design, if anyone needs a reminder.)

Reeling back to Ratif, (and by extension the later design) is that she is very wooed by Chloe: "She worships Chloe, whose beautiful blonde hair, matte skin and personality she admires."

(what Chloe looked like btw. Still rocking "Melody from the QK's look", while slowly transitioning into the villainess we know today.)

A pale white girl admiring someone's "matte skin and blonde hair" feels like something I am wholly unable and unequipped to make proper commentary on. But I get very very bad vibes with how Sabrina is portrayed as "worshiping her beauty" and, considering how this attitude is carried all the way through the canon show..

Well.

I understand that teens tend to judge themselves harshly compared to their peers, and that someone like Sabrina (who has a cop for a dad) might pressure herself into being someone who dresses "properly" and gets top grades. Kids get that way, desperate for approval... and when she encounters Chloe- who seems to pull off her looks flawlessly and with confidence- it's no wonder she is drawn to her, even if that relationship makes her self-esteem worse.

"Ah, her hair falls so easily into waves, and my hair is so unnameable." "Her clothes are nicer than mine" "She's able to say what she wants so freely without worrying what people think of her."

I think this is a great bedwork to elevate Chloe as a character, to show the extent of her selfishness and to use and abuse others who are emotionally fragile or are in less than ideal situations. (a thread that canon lost because she does this to ONLY Sabrina and her father... then backpedal entirely because they later have the narrative state that this is what they want. Everyone else tolerates her at best.)

Sabrina doesn't need to be a complicated character, tertiary characters don't need tons of depth and character development, and they exist to elevate other. more important characters. However, it doesn't mean that their stories can't be meaningful. Sabrina breaking free of Chloe's influence can suggest that "Even the most hopeless can break free of being star struck"

While directly unconfirmed, I think this IS her as Dragonfly. Greenhopper and Killer Bee are clearly Alix and Chloe, and the three were depicted and planned to be a trio of bullies. Plus, her red hair and green eyes pop aren't on any other character. At this time of development, it was known that the miraculous could erase disabilities, so her need for glasses was probably erased as well.

Anyway, on to how I would adapt her for FC

I think her wild hair makes her stand apart, but pulling it back into something more controlled hybridizes her design a bit and since it still translates that she's a bit more conservative and trying to keep herself together. I kept the glasses. Below the knee dress, big puffy sweater... she's got self-esteem issues and wishes so desperately she could be as bold as Alina, carefree as Alix, or as much as a shining beacon of confidence as Amber (so many A names!). So much so, that she has become a bit worshipful of Amber- swayed by her golden voice.

Her lack of self-confidence is made manifest via "Garmitt" her faerie, who is SO full of confidence that he is dead-sure that he is actually a dragon, rather than a dragonfly. It is him that pushes Sabrina to assert herself, and try to become what she wants to be.

When she sees a rule broken, she stands up for it- just like her papa- regardless of whether or not the rule was good or bad or even fair or appropriate in context: because rules are rules. She wants to make her dad proud, but he is too busy being focused on taking down the vigilantes: Ladybug and Chat Noir. So much so that it takes time from his private life- meaning his daughter is often left to grow up on her own. She wants to hate them too, but she admires them very much- Ladybug's wild creativity and Chat's confidence- and their genuine kindness to her, causes her to question what she strives to do.

For the first part of the story, she is a direct threat- the hall monitor, the enforcer. She shrieks to the teachers when something is up- she bars Marinette and Felix from escaping to deal with a wish-maker or renegade villain. She watches Marinette in the bathroom to make sure she's doing bathroom things rather than escaping class. She offers to do tasks that would help our heroes escape and threatens to debunk their alibis.

She is part of the Journalism team, working on the school paper. She's a great reporter when she tries, but her lack of confidence makes her stories lack a certain touch (for example, a new exhibit at the museum written by her is great, but she fails to interview people.) and she also fills in the gaps with white lies. However, Alina is helpful to her here, giving her genuine feedback and patience.

Unfortunately, Alan sways her easily, feigning interest in her in order to learn details- after all, she is the police chief's daughter. When Garmitt is stolen from her by the order. She is finally able to put her foot down- her indecision breaking and slowly building confidence is given a boost by the loss of her Faerie, and what the villians thought would be a person too lilly-livered and spineless to spill beans ends up being a catalyst to terrible losses. Specifically the threats of Amber & the police force... who are being heavily bribed by Fury and TsuTec.

so to summarize. She's a teacher's pet, and her story intertwines not only with LB and CN's, but Alina via the journalism club. Ultimately, she does the right thing, because despite what she does, she does view it as the right thing. She's ultimately a narrative payoff to the heroes being heroes & good people. She shows how dangerous some of the villians are- through her loss of Garmitt, manipulation by Alan and Amber, and the neglect of her father- who's obsession is fueled by corruption & money.

[crithaus]

I wanna make some things like very clear to the new Vox Machina fans coming from the animated show to our humble home. Really I wanna settle some of the score about my best girl Vex'ahlia.

Now I know, I know that with so incredibly much source material to try and condense into just 36 22 minute episodes naturally some stuff is gonna be cut out or missed or edited, and TLOVM is it's own canon true, but what with it being Vox Machina but abridged it makes sense to me that it can be directly compared and perhaps found a bit lacking in regards to its source material, and so here I go.

They're not treating Vex with total fairness to be honest. A lot of her best early moments in VM are taken out or given to other people in TLOVM, like her first brush with death with Delilah in the Briarwood arc (it was her that got attacked by Delilah and almost died, not Keyleth, but like this one I get ig. The Twins and Percy held like the campaign record for being down and hurt the most like Sam had to deliberately change that so this wasn't hours of the twins just being near death like I'm not happy but I get it), or season two changing how she found Trinket (Vax was nowhere near her when she ran into those poachers) and mainly the portrayal of Vex as this snippy, mean, jealous, callous, unfeeling bitch without any of the uncertainty inherent in her or the tender moments to flesh her out.

Like in VM proper she's rude and a little snippy sure but that's borne of an established backstory of emotional neglect and the crushing trauma of poverty and Vax literally being the only other person who genuinely loved and cared for her after the mother who's arms she was ripped from was burned alive, (y'know after Syldor the worst dad god ever created literally abandoned them with their mother for 10 years while they were dirt poor (but happy, Elaina is the best mom to live ever), dragged them away from her for 5 in which time he destroyed her and Vax's self esteem, let the whole racist ass town he was ambassador of harass them along with harassing them himself and forced them to be the perfect quiet little doll heirs he only decided he wanted after 10 years of no 'true blooded' kids of his own) and then when they ran away, saw their mother had been murdered in her home by a fucking dragon had to spend the next several years at only like 15ish stealing (in Vex's case haggling and hunting) to survive! Like Vex's hangups around money are from the period in her life where she as controller of her and Vax's meager finances was in charge of making sure they didn't starve to death in the woods somewhere, at 15 she and Vax had to keep themselves alive with no help from anyone but each other, her haggling any and everyone down is a direct response to that.

And oh boy Syldor? Syldor? And his bullshit expectations and neglect are the reason she's so chronically unsure of herself and so desperate to keep being Vax's favorite. You think Keyleth is unsure of herself? Buddy you have seen nothing. Vex's confidence in herself is a facade and literally the longer you know her the more obvious that becomes. She's so slow to let other people in and equally slow to trust cuz she's been hurt so brutally and the few times she relaxes enough to do something for herself (side eyeing the broom incident), she gets narratively punished for it! Bro, the night before meeting with Syldor Percy finds her in tears obsessively polishing her armor cuz she's so desperate even after all this time to prove to Syldor that she is someone, that she isn't the diluted little half-breed Syldor always looked down his nose at (and then Percy, who never again was fooled by her false airs and stepped up to do The Sweetest thing god ever created), like...she's fucked up! And lonely! And wants nothing more than a stable home and people who genuinely like her.

Them leaving their home in when the conclave first attacked Emon drove her to tears because it was the first home she'd had in so long and now they had to leave it. She's got so much depth and she is so endlessly kind too. Every time she sees someone whose circumstances mirror her own she doesn't hesitate to open her purse for it. (her freeing those kids??? Anyone???) She's no Keyleth or even Pike to be sure but she's so sweet. Keyleth goes tearing off up the Sun Tree, Vex follows. Grog gets swindled by some punkass merchant? Vex goes tearing off after him, all her interactions with Vax to be honest she might have Little Sister disease but still, she is so endlessly kind and good and it's not as overt as Pike's genuine goodness or Keyleth's earnestness, it's slightly more subtle but always present. She's the beating heart of Vox Machina, she encourages them all, (just look at what they tell Pelor I mean.... And and I could go on and on about how the fact that she's the champion of the god of Life, Light and the Sun means so much narratively but I mean I doubt I need to I mean it's Pelor), They all look to her and Vax for guidance, look at what they do to fucking Saundor for him merely taunting her, (yes it's more deep than that I know), they literally get stuck in hell and wait there, in the middle of HELL for her cuz they can't/won't move on without her.

She's brilliant, and clever, and broken and 'greedy' and a bitch yes true, but she's so much more than that, and I'm not even gonna tell you to watch the podcast cuz fuck Orion tbh and y'know I am a hater and a gatekeeper both and am totally fine being in the little niche of of vox machina likers, but if you want substance, if you want all of her because god is she compelling, then take your cues from the podcast and not the show.

The show is new, and still ongoing, and I hope they start letting her shine as she was always meant too in later episodes, but she is the heart and soul of Vox Machina and y'all better put some respect on the name of Lady Vex'ahlia De Rolo, Champion of Pelor, Baroness of the First House of Whitestone and Grandmistress of the Grey Hunt, Coinmistress and Treasurer of the Tal'dorei Council.

[itsclydebitches]

Clyde, I’m angry because they’re doing it again. They had the opportunity to make a complex situation and they’re making black and white again, Clyde. I’m not happy. I’m very angry, Clyde. The fact that Jaune isn’t allowed to lash out for a second when a village he was protecting was destroyed while Ruby can bitch and moan about a burden she placed on her shoulders really makes me fucking angry, Clyde. Duck this SHOW. Christ.

I feel you 🤣

I do understand the fans - RWDE included - who are fully anti-Jaune because yeah, in the grand scheme of things it's a problem that he is again allowed to hog the emotional spotlight when we've got a cast of four to develop. But within the non-meta context of the story and what we have to work with... hard agree. My problem with the focus of Ruby's meltdown isn't simply that she's complaining about something she actively took from others with horrific consequences (though that is a huge part of it), but that it's explicitly pitted against the death of Jaune's village. Yes, we can infer that Ruby is upset about a lot of things - like Penny - but that's not what's written in this scene. So what you end up with is:

Jaune: I'm lashing out because the family I've been protecting for years in my unimaginable isolation have all been killed and my supposed friends are calling me crazy and won't even acknowledge that this is a true loss

Ruby: I'm lashing out because my self-imposed leadership has gotten too hard for me to handle and my teammates haven't noticed that I'm crumbling under the authority I demanded others grant me

The middle part of that is the only part of Ruby's meltdown I agree with - yes, her teammates have been awful to her since landing in Ever After and I HATE that Yang's sisterhood/Weiss' partnership/Blake's supposed pride in Ruby have all but disappeared - but that's only a small part of her underlying complaint which is... that she got what she wanted? Ruby wanted to call the shots and now she's pissed that people expect her to call the shots. Like yeah, you can (and often should) write a character who regrets their choices, but if they don't acknowledge their agency in those choices (which Ruby veeeery much hasn't) they just come across as a selfish asshole. Which is also a great archetype! ... just maybe not in the supposedly innocent, pure soul meant to be a pretty simplistically good hero?

Then you toss in the fact that Ruby's meltdown is contrasted with Jaune's and things look so much worse. Ruby is regretting her own choices. Jaune is grieving countless deaths at the hands of an established villain and the narrative's uncomfortable suicide metaphor. These are not the same. These are not even CLOSE to comparable and the only way you can try to weigh them equally is if you a) toss in all Ruby's trauma which explicitly isn't brought up or b) buy into her idea that the Paper Pleasers are "make believe" and therefore their loss is of no emotional consequence. Sorry, but that doesn't work for me in a story that (originally) positioned Penny as a person despite not being human AND in an episode that JUST had the girls prioritizing the Paper Pleasers' perspective over Jaune's. The story can't criticize Jaune for not listening to the highly-articulate, autonomous beings and then also claim they're nothing but insignificant figments of his imagination. It's one or the other. If the Paper Pleasers are "human" enough to treat their desire to die with respect, than they're "human" enough for Jaune to grieve the hell out of when they're gone. Plus, I know a lot of people won't buy into this because we didn't see the relationship develop on screen, but Jaune spent years with these non-human people who act innocent and silly and a little bit "dumb" sometimes. That sounds a lot like Penny! If Ruby is subtexually lashing out because she's still grieving a non-human friend she had for a year and two-ish months... why would we expect Jaune's grief to be any less after loosing a whole village of those friends after years of living together? He's grieving countless Pennys all at the same time, after all that time being alone. This basically takes Ruby's situation and magnifies it by a hundred: what if you had LOTS of friends die and the world ACTUALLY forced you into being the hero (Jaune becoming the Rusted Knight) and instead of just being ignored for two days, you were without your friends and family for two decades?

Seriously, Jaune's situation is a lot like Ruby's situation just with trauma squared - right down to him being a leader - except he didn't bring much of this down on his own head. Having these two meltdowns in the same scene isn't just a problem because Jaune gets more emotional screentime, it's a problem because I can't take Ruby seriously compared to the insane horrors Jaune is enduring beside her.

[hsslilly-blog]

okay im here w my list :)

celebrity skin (but purely for the sound. like do you think it represents her aside from the lyrics?)

just your general thoughts/interpretation on shes a carnival in relation to claire. same as drive my car and fascination

lastly this masquerade. how does it relate to claire? like what specifically makes it define her character and what does it define?

hii!!! okay you asked me about two songs i was dying to talk about (fascination and this masquerade). sorry for taking some time to reply, i wanted to dedicate myself to this lol. for almost all of these i'll have to talk about other songs as well because of the way i structured the playlist following a character arc of sorts. it's long!!!

(playlist here)

celebrity skin: yeah!! the lyrics are pretty straightforward, but i placed it in a spot so the grunge-y guitar riffs would come out as jarring (right after an abba song and with no comparable examples up to that point in the playlist). claire not only grew up in the 90s, but her high school friend group was comprised of two melancholic goth kids and a self important wannabe filmmaker (and goth-adjacent). she was the preppy token friend, visually. in reality her interests aligned a lot with theirs. i think her interests section on her myspace page show this a little. horror, gothic literature, goth culture and 90s/early 00s alt scene really influenced her since she was surrounded by it almost all the time. also seen throughout her film career. back to the placing on the playlist, it works as a divide after many up-beat, positive (?) songs. most of the songs prior to ir characterise claire, her wants and her way of interacting with people. and then there's a jaded, grunge/alt rock song about being a star in hollywood. since the playlist follows a narrative, i think this would fit right around the time she's almost expelled from hollywood u because of backstabbing, petty tatics and because the industry favours some over others. she knew this, of course, but going through it it's different.

she's a carnival: one of my favourite songs from siouxsie lol. i think it serves to further characterise her/people's perception of her. she's fun. she's an amusement show. a fête.

is she a person, though? does she exist only to fulfill your fantasies? it is true that she revels on public attention, but what does this attention transforms her into? it comes right after bubblegum bitch as well, which is also a song i interpret being about others' perception of her.

this is especially in regards to men, i think. claire is a serial dater (for a pletora of reasons) and i don't think she feels like men see her. florence's dream girl evil would fit here nicely too. men fantasise her, then see her as evil once this fantasy is broken (queentex, latex; madonna/whore)(a portrait of a poison)(you like me better in your head)(je suis la belle dame sans merci!).

and not so subtle, but venice carnivals are famous for their masks. theatre is symbolised by masks. these three talk about archetypes: film archetype, psych archetype, etc. she says she doesn't care. is it true?

drive my car: also forms a trio along with material girl and money, money, money. claire likes money lol and she likes scamming men. <- not outright scamming them, but if they're going to use her she might as well get something out of them. the opening is great. "asked a girl what she wanted to be // she said, baby can't you see // i wanna be famous, a star of the screen // but you can do something in between". she states her goal and men are not the first thing on her mind. they're simply a distraction.

fascination: i've loved the beaches since 2017 this is not important to the ask but damn i love them so much. anyway. this is from side b, after her moment of reflection in what is it about men (last song from side a). in that song, claire consciously acknowledges her behavioural patterns/fears/thoughts about relationships/herself. the next song is national anthem. she wants to be someone's national anthem. and later on you have fascination. this last bit of the playlist is about her relationship with hunt.

this is a song about her approaching this relationship (it's not a relationship yet) in the same way she has always done: lightheartedly and without much thought put into it. it's not serious. why would she be into her professor? lol. it's just a crush, don't be stupid. right after fascination comes stupid cupid. it's the first song in the playlist where she approaches romance in a non-cynical way and it's very silly and it was done on purpose. she feels silly and she's acting in a way she doesn't usually do. she doesn't run after men, this is stupid. and then the next songs approach the subject much more directly and without putting on a front.

also this comes straight out of a scene in red carpet diaries. i've waited years to post this screenshot.

this masquerade: this one works as a reference to hollywood u: the first time hunt and claire have a moment together is in a masquerade ball and they're both wearing masks. literally, figuratively, everything in between.

(i made my friend transcribe this to me so she'd read hollywood u lol). his line about her "seducing" him also call back to femme fatale/bubblegum bitch/she's a carnival. and what is he talking about? do you want her to believe he did not recognise her because of a mask? have you seen claire??!! lol. lmao even. loser. i like her lines about him knowing it was her subconsciously and nothing clouding his feelings and i think it fits here. yeah he wanted it to be her. also psych major moment but you must've noticed there's a theme going through all of these songs.

it's also just representative of their relationship up to the point they actually get together. they're both playing a game they're bound to lose in the end, especially if it's not addressed.

i think that's it. sorry for the lenght + any spelling mistakes, i wrote all of this in one sitting.

[imminent-danger-came]

Your analysis is delicious and thank you for enabling my bitching. We are holding hands.

Your point about the samadhi fire is so right! Like if Red Son got it, it would have to be a completely different arc, everything would have to change. Unrelated but I think Mei, MK, and Red Son all simultaneously being foils of each other is very interesting

TBH I could go on for even more paragraphs about my many problems with how Mei's treated by the fandom so here's some petty complaints I left out of the first ask:

Her getting hypersexualised in a lot of fanart

Her struggles with the samadhi fire only getting used as angst-fuel for other characters and never for herself

Fans only ever addressing misogyny when it's about someone disliking a ship shes in.

She gets compared to Willow from TOH like a lot? I don't know why???

(this one is hyperspecific and very petty) Multiple Youtube vids about LMK that only bring up Mei to talk about how the ship her with Red Son (while making fun of other ships simultaneously for sooome reason...)

girl is canonically into MCR. thats not a complaint i just dont see people talk about it

and thats not even going into how the fandom treats female villains :P

Anyways Mei deserves a gun and LBD and Spider Queen deserve the world

Mei, MK, and Red Son all simultaneously being foils of each other is SUPER interesting. I just talked about Mei and MK as well as Mei and Red Son parallels, and like it SLAPS. I should delve into MK and Red Son parallels, but that's for another time.

On the topic of Mei being compared to Willow, I think it's because they're both green girl characters who are considered "tough"? It's a very vague archetype—but, I think fandom in general likes to put characters into these nebulous categories. Each character gets sanded down to like 3 base traits and everyone calls it good. It's genuinely maddening.

And personally, I don't really ship anyone in LMK (excluding Freenoodles), so the amount of ship art I see and the way ships predominate is very off-putting for me. I think that's mainly because none of the actual show really focuses on romantic relationships (one of it's virtues, I'm an MK is aroace truther), but to each their own. Shipping is super fun, and I totally get it. However, when it gets to the point where no other relationships/dynamics are really focused on, especially on a show so focused on friendship, it just feels off. It feels even MORE off when the only time you discuss the main female lead is to ship her with Red Son.

AND LOL THE FEMALE VILLAINS. MY POOR GIRLS. I don't think I've ever come across a post about Spider Queen (though her henchmans get a lot of love), and really it's a shame. That girl was doomed by the narrative, and BOY was she doomed by the narrative with MK. Granted she's been dead for 2 seasons, but I STILL see Sandy and Huntsman art, so idk. It honestly feels like the misogyny.

Lady Bone Demon and I are best friends and I love her so much. Truly one of the most villains of all time. "No staff and no backup—so, your plan is to fist fight a child?" OH MY GOD SHE'S SO ICONIC. That AND she has fucked up parallels to MK (sorry my boy foils just about every character in this show, he's a reflection), what is there not to love?

She TRIED to go about helping the world the "right" way, attempting to lead someone with real power to be better (as shown in the 3x11 flashback, but on god that scene parallels her whole relationship with spider queen), and IT DIDN'T WORK. So then she tried to "help" the world by starting with a clean slate, and that didn't work. And then you realize that she was doomed by the narrative just as much as anyone else. I'm fucking obsessed with her. Seriously, the "to pain" scene has been in my head for 5 straight months. I'll never stop yelling about it.

I've been listening to Lady Hell by Dirt Poor Robins on repeat thinking about LBD, and I can't help but rotate her in my mind. She captivates me.

[stargirlfeyre]

Both elriels and lucien fans need to stop talking about the abuse Feyre went through with Tamlin.

A lot of Elriels only use her abuse and Lucien’s reaction to it as a way to prove why he’s not “good enough” for Elain. They don’t genuinely care about it, they just use it to paint Lucien out to be a terrible person(he is but besides the point) and therefore unworthy of Elain. And I’ve also noticed how people like to compare Feyre and Tamlin’s situation to Elain and Lucien’s. Elain is not being abused or controlled by Lucien. Literally the only reason y’all are desperately trying to push that narrative is because you want to make it seem as if Azriel is the better choice for her.

And Lucien stans are entirely incapable of sympathizing with a 20 year old girl being abused. I’ve even seen them say “why does he have to be her savior? I thought she was a badass?”. There’s something incredibly sinister about saying “why doesn’t she save herself if she’s such a badass” in regards to a young woman being abused and controlled by a man that is so much older than her. I don’t think his stans realize how much they give themselves away when they say shit like this to defend him. I genuinely hope that y’all don’t actually act this way towards victims of abuse in real life. I genuinely hope that y’all don’t actually have that “she should have saved herself” mindset. Just a bunch of psychopaths.

And it’s funny because the same people saying Feyre should have “saved herself” are the same ones crying and trying to get people to empathize with what Tamlin did to Lucien. You don’t feel bad that he didn’t do shit to help his “friend” not be abused because “she could have saved herself” but you expect other people to feel bad about Lucien being too much of a bitch to stand up to Tamlin? If y’all don’t care about how Lucien treated Feyre in regards to her abusive relationship then I don’t care about how Lucien is treated by literally everyone in the books. I don’t care that he got the shit beat out of him by Tamlin and I don’t care that he’s “bullied” by the IC. He should invoke that blood duel so he can get another ass whooping.

[emissary-of-dog]

humbly asks your for your geara hc.......

MEL U A REAL ONE !!!!  🙏 🙏 OKOK HERE GOES.

headcanons for my favorite little emo beast! [ DOES A SPIN ]

MY (VERY LONG) ANSWER IS RIGHT BELOW...

Sexuality Headcanon: You take one look at this man and tell me with the straightest face you can possibly muster: “Geara isn’t gay. He’s not into men.” This motherfucker wears eyeliner, has the full MCR fit, constantly talks about Zetta in ways other men in-game have not, he literally SENT Giratina to Zetta on Terajuma Island so he could pick him up like a prom date. THIS MAN??? 🌈🌈 WOULD KISS ANOTHER MAN. AND WOULD ENJOY IT. CHECKMATE BITCHES.

Gender Headcanon: He is the most cis-acting motherfucker ever and yet they are, simultaneously, one of the most trans-looking characters too. Truly a paradox!

AMAB. Transmasc as fuck. But DEFINITELY nonbinary. This guy screams “He/They.” Madame X gives her gayest battles (Valor Mt) to her trans-est soldiers.

A ship I have with said character: Valorshipping VALORSHIPPING VALORSHIPPING V A LOR SHIPPGINGF VALORSHIPGFGFMGHMHG ZETTA X GEARA!!!!! AAAAAAAA UAUA UA GH HG UAUGJJF J GFHGFH GH RGUUHHUGR

( In other words they are SO much to go into, narratively-speaking, and I can’t get all of my words out here but just know I’ve been unabashedly autistic about their dynamic since December/January of this year. GODDD. )

A BROTP I have with said character: I’ve NEVER played Insurgence in my life but I know for a FACT that Zenith and Geara would be best friends/brothers. But I’d also say that it’s probably a good thing they’re in separate games... I can only imagine the opposite, honestly. And what I imagine is pure hellfire. Don’t put these two in a room together they’ll probably bond over their sick-ass legendaries they’re weirdly religious about; explosives and hating children. And dick jokes.

Madelis + Eli are also characters I’d say have a funny dynamic with him... Eli in previous versions used to interact w/ Geara and Geara would treat him with more respect than Sharon so SDHGJFGH that’s definitely something I think about often!

A NOTP I have with said character: Honestly any ship that involves him and a woman. Not only because he’s straight as a swirly straw but because I personally think she could do way better. I think every single girl forced to look at him at least once in their lives deserves financial compensation. Sariah I’m giving you all the therapy money you need once you grow up and have to confront your previously poor taste  🙏

A random headcanon: HEADCANON SPEED-ROUND! 🎇 (woo!)

Geara wears so many cosmetics it’s insane. Earrings, eyeliner, foundation, hair gel, dude definitely uses a hair ironer, SOOO much cologne THIS GUY STINKS, aaand glitter. He puts glitter in his hair, yes. He claims it’s the manliest shit ever.

He enjoys EVERY single Ghost Pokemon. All of them. Not a single one he dislikes. Ask him if he hates one and he’ll punch you in the face and spit on you.

He smokes. Why? Because he thinks it makes him look cool.

He owns a bass guitar, and it sits right in his room! Does he know how to play it? No. He owns it because it makes him look cool... Or so he believes.

He is 5′0′‘. He’s so short you could pick him up.

And finally... He’s actually an AMAZING singer. I’d compare his vocal range to that of Devin Townsend’s. Operatic, can hold notes -- but can also SCREAM like he’s in a metal song. His voice is relatively deep too, so he surprisingly has a pretty silky singing voice! Will he ever sing? No. That’s embarrassing.

General Opinion over said character: i kinda think i’m in love with him but i also wish he’d die

[pink-strawberry-kissess]

I'm don't dive deep into the fandom because I've had enough with toxicity so I get all my news secondhand, but now that you reminded me that ID exists, I'm just so uncomfortable that cl*eon shippers will scrutinize every word that comes out of Ada's mouth but Claire and Leon literally had a disagreement that ended their friendship and the shippers just gloss right over that like it didn't happen.

I did see one tweet that was wanting Claire to be Leon's partner in RE6 instead of Helena and I'm pretty sure Claire was either super far away or busy at the time so I don't know how that would even work or why she would be there to begin with. Just seems like nostalgia and people ignoring the development these characters go through. Like, no one is the same person they were in RE2. IDK, I'm rambling, sorry.

for sure the fandom is extremely toxic in certain spots.

i think that's always going to be an issue with a growing fandom, as well as a younger newer fandom joining as also. lots of opinions and theories that have already been talked about and a lot of misinformed opinions because they're new to the lore. there's nothing inherently wrong with having a new misinformed or uninformed opinion- but just don't get angry at people who come back at you with facts from the canon because they've played all the games already.

i can immediately tell if someone has ONLY watched/played re2make because they usually end up saying some dumb shit because they don't know anything else about the rest of the games. again, nothing wrong with that, it's just a misguided opinion.

i really do believe that cl*on shippers use the canon whenever it's convenient to them. not to say that other shippers don't do the same. but there's such a formula to how they ship leon and claire. it hardly deviates from this formula. and if you "attack" it in any way. well you're a hater or automatically an ada stan or something or "a supporter of a manipulative bitch"

"oh so we support manipulators. okay"

a lot of them use tactics to try and argue their way out of it, the only problem is that i can see through it.

i don't need to go over the obvious points already. leon and claire are no longer friends in the canon. and he has specified that he sees her and treats her like a kid. he does not view her as a romantic partner. they seem to gloss over this.

no one (NO ONE) has EVER said that leon and ada's relationship is HEALTHY. but as adults, we realize that relationships are much more nuanced than that. not every single relationship is wholesome and pure, and if that's what you strive towards in real life, then that's gREAT.

people like the aeon ship for a multitude of reasons. because it's canon/interesting/captivating/a nice play on and reversal on the whole "damsel in distress / strong hero man." but no one has ever claimed that the relationship is healthy. so let's get that out of the way.

when you ship cl*on and you SPECIFICALLY do things where you mod ada out, and replace her with claire. you are SPECIAL PLEADING. you are choosing to allow claire these special privileges. and the reason why people tend to call cl*on shippers racists or misogynistic, is because you are FALLING into these thinking patterns.

if you NEED to "call out" ada on her sexuality. or compare her to claire in a way where claire is placed on this "pure wholesome" pedestal, and ada is a "slut or whore," you are catering towards misogyny.

that women who are sexual in nature, are automatically not worthy.

and YES YOUNG GIRLS ARE PERPETUATING THIS IDEA.

when you replace ada with claire in re2make, and you play out all these ada scenarios with claire's face, but ada's voice, and ada's narrative and mannerisms. but you ALLOW these things to be "okay" then you are BEING RACIST. boil it down. you are replacing ADA's FACE with a white girl's face. and suddenly everything she does is okay? all these scenes with ada previously, where she was "so manipulative" and "evil," they're suddenly okay now that it's claire's face?

explain to me why.

explain to me why in cl*on fics, ada is portrayed as an "asian whore."

tell me why these things are OKAY in any way shape or form.

sorry on HUGE TANGENT

lots of people have already stated that in the canon, claire was nowhere near them in re6 time, so they couldn't have had her in it. helena was written instead and it actually makes sense to have her there. leon and helena's campaign is entirely helena's story with ada popping in occasionally to help them.

i understand that people like claire. it's an easy character to like, and she's very much a self insert. and that's how a lot of the resident evil characters are written.

what i'm not going to tolerate is when people use misogyny and racism to back up what they think is appropriate discourse on characters. i'm not going to take misinformed opinions as truth, and im not going to entertain delusional ships that i do not personally enjoy. and in that being said, i do need feel the need to shit on characters to get a point across.

being in the fandom for this long, all i've seen are toxic shippers, and people being racist and misogynistic. some of the good ones are the ones that i follow and keep up with. and i try to allow myself to some discourse occasionally to ensure that i don't rely on an echo chamber of thoughts and opinions.

don't ever feel bad about rambling. i literally ramble all the time. i have so many drafts filled with random rambles

[lollytrees]

People did not ship Beth and Daryl without cause, it's a lot due to the fact that people ON THE SHOW talked about them with "romantic potential." You don't remember the affiliated Talking Dead episodes hamming this ship up? Here's Lauren Cohan on the Talking Dead saying as a sister, Maggie would definitely support Beth and Daryl dating, and comparing the relationship to Glen and Maggie.

Emily Kinney saying Beth's time with Daryl was the closest to Beth being in love. Director Greg Nicotero saying he thinks Daryl was falling in love with Beth, and Norman Reedus saying if Daryl had these feelings for Beth he didn't understand them at first. Even the less interested Robert Kirkman framing it with potential, "whether or not that is going to evolve into a romantic relationship remains to be seen. They’ve already been separated, so my hopes for that to happen are pretty low.." Kirkman conveniently compares her to Sophia AFTER she dies. I know you probably hang on tight to that incorrect comparison (the only thing being right is that Daryl deeply cares about people in his group), but it's incorrect because the writers did not frame Beth and Daryl with a little girl narrative. (other than the additional fact that Beth was 18 years old).

Daryl got very DRUNK with Beth. He called her a dumb college bitch. He whipped his literal dick out to piss in front of her. He manhandled her and was too grabby. They got into an explosive personal fight, where Beth had to physically comfort him. That is NOT how he would have treated a child he was sworn to protect. (and it's not okay to treat anyone like that but it does get to the meat of Daryl's inner conflicts and Beth was able to confront him back because she is an adult). Their next episode at the funeral home was domestic lighting the entire time, with Daryl revealing he wants to stay there with her, until she is kidnapped.

Emily Kinney was 29 years old while making this, and they wrote her accordingly. That's why Andrew Lincoln can joke and be like hahah Beth should totally have a crush on Rick hahah. Or Norman Reedus can say "god I hope so!" to Daryl and Beth. And like anyone on that show cared about age differences Lmaoo Norman Reedus was dating a 19 year old model around this time period and she'd hang out on TWD set; none of them cared.

The truth is Beth & Daryl were briefly romantically framed in order to gain further audience interest in a young woman's story, before planning to kill her. Because the show is all about purposeful tactics. That's why the writers barely let Maggie in on Beth's disappearance storyline (she fucking leaves even though she knows Beth is alive within the state). Rick can't be the one to hold Beth's body, even though her father was his mentor and Beth was his child's caregiver. The writers gave the final shot of Beth to Daryl in order to complete their last conversation cliffhanger — "what changed your mind?"(Remember when their first in-depth convo was Daryl telling Beth her boyfriend is dead, and she comforts him instead. Ridiculous).

The Walking Dead has a hugeeeee misogynistic history. You're blind as fuck. Feel free to be grossed out by any of it, the age difference, too. But it was what it was.

Daryl Dixon - some rambling thoughts

I just finished watching and I have a few thoughts.

I know there are plenty of people with greater insight than me, but this is just what I have been left with over the course of the past 6 episodes (and the past 10+ years of the main show)

Firstly I want to talk in general about ship baiting. Now, I don't know if it's because I'm too neurodivergent to see anything other than Caryl, but people talk a lot about ship baiting and I just don't see it. Like, at all. There's no connection at all that I can see between Daryl and any other woman he appears on screen with, other than Carol. Whether that was B*th, C*nnie, or Isabelle. Let's not even talk about L*ah because that was just a dumbass mess that doesn't count, but those other three - if anyone can point me towards any moment at all where there was any indication that Daryl had some kind of deeper feeling for them please feel free to point it out, because I genuinely see nothing. Obviously, people are free to ship whatever they want to ship, but as far as baiting it is concerned? No. NR's acting choices shut down any baiting because Daryl absolutely wears his heart on his sleeve, and he is not showing me anything towards those other women.

Secondly, there has been a lot of talk about Daryl being OOC. Again, watching it, I genuinely don't see it. His entire motivation the whole series has been to get back home, and that never wavered. The OOC bit comes from the main series of him walking away from his family, but as in this series it's showing him trying to get back in every single episode, I don't see the OOCness people are talking about. He's still the Daryl we know and love. He cares about people, he's honourable, he does his best to do the right thing. Check, check, and check. Yes, he shouted horribly at Laurent in one scene, but we all have our breaking points, and that kid had just jeopardised not only Daryl getting home, but all of their lives.

Isabelle - I really want her to become walker chow. She manipulated Daryl from the word go, and that would be bad enough, but her saying to Daryl—a man abused by his father—that he was repeating history by trying to return to his actual family? Gtfo. That was manipulative and cruel to the extreme.

Which kinda leads me to the ending. Daryl not getting on the boat. Her cruel manipulation of Daryl isn't his motivation for staying behind - he's still a man of honour after all, and he's not going to let a young boy be eaten by a herd of walkers. You could see the thought of "for fucks sake" in his eyes when Laurent appeared. There's no happiness in him missing the boat, he's not chosen France over his family, he wasn't given an option at all.

I think when Carol gets to France she'll likely team up with Codron to track Daryl down. I can see him holding out as long as possible to not give up The Nest's location, but she'll rescue him and he'll be able to tell Carol where her Pookie is.

I'm sure there was more I wanted to talk about but my ADHD brain has decided to shut down for now, so if I think of more, I'll come back.

But all in all, my excitement is rekindled. Good things are coming for Caryl fans, of that I am certain.

[tuiyla]

i always found it kind of interesting that Rachel wasn't there for Finn's prom freak out. But lbr, if she was there, she'd have looked the other way. Same as they forced her character to have no real reaction to the outing and to be flattered by Brody's assault. And this is what we mean when we say Finchel bring out the worst in each other. Because THAT girl? Is not the Rachel we actually like. It sucks when writers smother her progressive and assertive nature to coddle her crappy boyfriend.

As in, narratively? Well she needed to be the pity party. I'd like to think she would have tried to stop Finn and reason with him but the version we get of Rachel in these episodes is probably not the one to have done that. More realistically, I have a feeling she'd scold Finn a tiny bit but would be more disappointed by Quinn for having "faked" things. Which she didn't but we know that's what the ep says. But overall I think, confusingly, they wanted to go for a Faberry vibe overall so it was easier not to have Rachel there.

I agree though, Finchel bring out the worst in each other. I think it was during my rewatch of s2 in particular where I really felt like the only times I was annoyed at Rachel were Finn-related. Part of the reason it took me a while to embrace my love for Rachel is the Finchel of it all. They're truly just not meant to last despite this meant to be bs the show tries to shove down our throats. Rachel outgrows Finn so early in the series. Good for her for the 4x04 pre-Scientist speech because she finally gets to assert herself.

In general it's a very Finn thing to take women's agency away and make things about himself instead of their pain and Rachel, the woman he claims to love is no different. People love to say the writers had the sun shine out of Rachel's ass and she's certainly favoured in many, many ways, but when it comes to actions and being portrayed as the ultimate good guy, it's Finn (and Will). Rachel was at least allowed to mess up. She was rarely allowed to call Finn out though because of course. Yet another missed opportunity for a storyline where she realizes this knight in shining armor is a lot more messed up than she thought.

Oh and don't get me started on all those instances when Rachel claimed Finn was a much better person than her. Villain origin story is Fapezberry being framed as heartless bitches compared to the oh so noble Finn.

[7-oh-ta1]

So I've never really talked about why season 4 is my least favorite TWD game, but I'm hoping I can sum up my thoughts tastefully though tbh I get a little spiteful at the end because I am adhfhgk

First things first, I don't hate the game, it's just that it's on the bottom of my list compared to the others. Narratively it's pretty heavy-handed with the "Walkers are still people" idea which isn't a bad idea to explore but it feels out of place or not fully realized. The best example is in the very beginning with the Walker couple in the train station. AJ suggests we kill them for the key, then Clementine tells him "but they used to be people. And as people, they asked to be left alone". Personally, I feel like the note and their hands tied together were enough to get that idea across but they felt the need to have Clementine explicitly speak the other side of the argument just to highlight their point. It wasn't needed, and this happens all the time throughout the game.

Even more frustrating is that Clementine has a set personality in s4 regardless of what your Clementine was like in ANF because ANF is was completely discarded by the narrative. Yet even my s2 Clementine would've killed the Walker couple, but all of a sudden she feels extreme empathy for them. Maybe if you're playing a soft Clementine, sure. But the hardened badass of s3 wouldn't have said that.

If you choose not to kill them, then yes by all means she could say that to explain her reasoning to AJ. But by saying before the decision it makes it seem like killing Walkers is against my Clementine's morals -- which it's not.

And therein lies the issue I take with s4. Unlike the other seasons, where you could do arguably cruel things but still feel justified (lying to Hershel & Shawn, protecting Duck instead of Shawn, saving Doug/Carley over the other, killing the St. Johns, stealing from the car, leaving Lilly, pushing Omid, threatening Vernon, killing Ben, the list goes on--) but in s4, if you're not a complete pacifist the narrative itself beats you over the head with "but what if you were nicer? Hm? Bet you feel like shit. You made AJ a monster because you didn't say thank you when someone held a door open for you." And it's like... no?? What?? Idk why Clementine is acting this way bec I certainly don't feel bad for the choices I made.

James is one thing, he's just one character, and I respect him for standing by his ideals even though I don't agree with them. But it feels like the game was written and coded by James. No one else has different opinions than him or contest him, no one agrees with Clem that sometimes you have to kill people to protect yourself, and the entire story is written saying that his ideals are right. I feel like the conversation was so nuanced in s1 & in s3, a bit in s2, but in s4 it just says, "this is right, this is wrong, and if you choose what we as the writers disagree with then we're going to make Clementine feel like shit" so I feel like my choices didn't even shape the narrative. I was wrong, that was that, and I'd need to play again to see the "good" end.

Aside from the narrative itself, I also did not get incredibly attached to the Ericson cast (Aasim was cool af but got put in a cupboard for the majority of the game & Mitch the Bitch was also cool but he died randomly) so when Clementine was kicked out I was like ... okay, I don't really care. I only feel bad for AJ cause he seemed to like it but personally I wasn't gonna miss it. Then I have to go back and help these people?? Prove myself?? Huh? I don't even like y'all. 🤨 I hardly know you TO like you! I'm hitting the road good luck with the kidnappers.

The community of teenagers also gave me a young adult series vibe, I'm getting Hunger Games, I'm getting Divergent, I'm getting that one with the girl in a crystal ball on the cover, and I don't like any of those series. It feels like s4 was written about a teenager for teenagers, and I'm 21. Even s2, with a 11 y/o protagonist, felt like she was in a very dangerous adult world, s4's world is a teenager's world. S4 doesn't even feel like it's the same world as the previous seasons. The pieces are there, but the way the narrative uses those pieces is just so lackluster.

They also did the "is life precious or not?" thing that ANF did, but this time simplified it to the point that it was literally in the dialogue asking you. ANF handled that theme with grace and nuance, weaving it into the story subtly but still very much present. You weren't beat over the head with the idea, you were quietly influenced by the storytelling until the story beats where you must ask yourself, "Do I hold the authority to decide who lives and dies? Is it my place to decide that? And in the end, do my decisions make an impact? Do I hold the god-like power I think I do?"

Apparently most TWDG players don't read like. Actual books because it completely flew over their heads. I think that's why s4 DOES just outright ask you over and over and over if killing is right because obviously the main audience needed it in big bold letters. This frustrates me to no end because it killed whatever stock I had in the story. Especially when I complied with all James's requests to not hurt the Walkers, but after my walk in the barn I stood by my belief that Walkers are not people, so he suddenly went from being my best friend to hating me and spitting vemon at me??? I never want to hear anyone hate on Jane or Kenny again after that. He demands you be open minded to his beliefs, but he's not open minded to your's!! It's so hypocritical that it's baffling. That's when it all clicked for me. "Ohhhhhhh. This game has a very strong idea of what the right choice is, and if I choose differently I'm going to get a shit ending..."

And so I got a pretty ehhhhh ending!! Because fuck em, that's why! I partly choose to shoot Lilly not because I wanted to, but because it felt like they were trying to force me not to! I ended the game exactly how I started it: Ericson's is eh, okay. The cast has potential but is never fully realized. At least AJ is happy. And that's.... not the feeling you want when you finish a game series.

[cosmicclownboy]

hi- why don't you like Maria?

Oh lord.

Where do I even begin with Maria.

Season 1

Makes a joke about Alex's secret relationship being with Wyatt and finding it funny- (Wyatt who is an abusive racist dude who commits hate crimes and bear in mind she knows Alex was abused for being gay) IT'S GROSS.

Speaks about Alex's secret relationship guy being his home to Alex and literally feels his hopefulness because it is part of her alien ability and continues to pursue Michael in s2.

Maria (straight) outs Michael to Liz. That's not okay on any level.

When Liz tells Maria to speak to Alex before doing anything she ignores the advice and does what she wants.

She's really smug about Michael picking/pursuing her like she won.

Season 2

Pursues Michael at a funeral in front of Alex without talking to him.

Makes Michael's loved ones husband funeral about a relationship status

Slut shames a random woman who makes out with Michael when they were never exclusive

Enters a relationship with Michael where he has to be exclusive but she doesn't because she doesn't believe he could be faithful. That's reeks of harmful biphobia stereotypes.

Ignores Alex the whole time UNTIL she needs something.

When she appears at Alex's door she says they are even. AKA comparing Alex not telling her a secret that wasn't his to share to her pursuing the love of his life in front of him without any empathy and ignoring the whole time.

Bitches to Alex about Liz and wanting fuck all to do with her. Alex has to remind her Liz has a dead boyfriend and is struggling cause Maria only has Maria vision and lacks empathy for her 'best friends'.

Uses her mom's laptop to get the scope on Alex/Michael's relationship which reads 100% manipulative. She even says Michael is pushing you away and then proceeds to encourage the narrative where Michael pushes Alex away because she suddenly wants Michael. And of course Alex is supportive she recognises he lacks self worth and rolls over him.

Beginning of 2x06 she tries to set up Forlex to get Alex away from Michael. Once again manipulative.

Tries to make Alex feel guilty for being gay in 206 because when she was a kid she idealised being with him and had to come up with a whole new plan. He grew up in an abusive household you know that....It's not okay to say that. You know how much internalised homophobia he has.

When saying he's had good relationships provides only examples of relationships with women......................HE IS GAY.

Asks him if he would change being gay.......jfc.

Alex tearfully saying he dissociates with women because he clearly forced himself to out of internalised phobia, Maria takes it to mean she has a chance. She thinks she's the exception since a touch starved abuse victim liked to be touched by her in high school. That doesn't = consent.

When Alex, a whole ass Airforce Captain tells her it's unsafe to stay at the creepo's place she acts all I am feminist about it and this results in Alex being stabbed and Michael getting whacked on the head.

Earlier in the episode she whinges to Alex about Michael kissing another woman in front of her and how cruel it was and then proceeds to kiss Michael in front of Alex KNOWING how he feels for Michael.

In THAT scene it's clear she notices Michael's emotions towards Alex and is insecure about it. She uses Malex's feelings for each other to her advantage. She's chasing the fantasy of getting with Alex. These are two highly traumatised queer men who struggle to say no because they spent their lives in abusive environments.

Neither Michael or Alex were in a position to consent to sex that night Michael is concussed from a whack on the head . Alex has lost a lot of blood and is completely out of it. And neither would ever initiate that situation. Not to mention the assumption Michael would be down because he's bi is so harmful as a stereotype.

"I think she’s cool with her decision. She wanted some answers, so subconsciously there was an emotional comfort she needed. But she also had a little bit of an agenda. She needed some decisions made about the status of their relationships, so she thought, “Let’s throw everything against the wall and see where it lands.” I think she was just wondering if they made any progress on that front. She said it was OK for their feelings to be out in the open, but let’s just voice them for what they are. As we saw, Michael stepped up and was like, “No, I still love you and I’m with you.” Secretly, that’s what Maria was hoping for. By suggesting a threesome, she’s was basically telling Michael, “Make your choice… and I hope it’s me.” this is what Heather said about the scene. So not only was it coercive and such but she used her best friend like that with no care or empathy whatsoever. It's disgraceful.

The next day both Michael and Alex are confused by what the fuck happened. Alex due to his C-PTSD completely dissociates from the situation and Michael attempts to laugh it off despite him being hella confused. The only person who isn't confused is Maria who is listening to them from inside.

When Michael comes in she turns on the tears just in case he does want Alex afterwards. Bear in mind she is a psychic who can feel everything and she assumed Michael was going to go after Alex. Doesn't that say it all. SHE KNOWS MICHAEL IS IN LOVE WITH ALEX AND VICE VERSA. She does not care, because at the end of the day this is what she wants. She wants to win. She wants to treat Michael like this trophy that she can show off to people I got the great Michael Guerin not a relationship guy to date me.

When Michael wants to have emotional conversations she shuts it down for sex. The entirety of the relationship it has to be her way or the high way. She also recognises fairly on his abandonment issues and plays upon it, reads manipulative.

When Michael who has lost his mom and brother in the span of a few months asks Maria to be more careful about her abilities she doesn't listen. And ultimately breaks up with Michael when she can't get what she wants from him which is a yes man who will do what she says and isn't the idealised Michael she wants.

Season 3

Shits on Michael any chance she gets. She's so mean to him and he goes out of his way to look out for her.

Is dismissive of her own health despite the fact that everybody goes out of their way to help her. Liz is in California working on a way to help her. Kyle is risking his job.etc

Is fine with Liz, her best friend losing the love of her life to get a vision to prevent a murder. A vision she's only invested in because apparently in it she blames herself.

Is fine with Max or Kyle dealing with the guilt of her death had Michael not saved her.

Shoves Michael and belittles him because he's stronger then her. Infers he just sits on his ass and does nothing therefore does not care about anything....rude. There's also a weird superiority complex that her power is more important then Michaels or any of pod squad for that matter.

Creates a situation that is so bad that Kyle risks his doctors licence to give her adrenaline. Just take an ice bath or something there are a 1000 ways to give yourself adrenaline without risking your life and risking others.

Doesn't thank or acknowledge what Liz is doing for her honey has spent a FULL YEAR of her life trying to help and your just like yeah I'll let her soulmate die for my visions.

Emotionally guilts Isobel for not hanging out with her despite the fact she's hated her for two seasons and now has just randomly decided she wants to know......okay

This idea that Maria is suddenly lonely when she's the second of the main cast (first being Kyle) to have scenes with all the mains by Monday. Literally everyone is there at her beck and call but Maria is lonely??? IT DOESN'T ADD UP. Everyone's up her arse 9/10 how is she lonely everyone expresses concern and care for her ALL THE DAMN TIME. She's also narratively never had scenes that give the connotation that she is lonely. Michael has scenes that connotate he is lonely. Max and Alex do too. Maria has yet to have scenes that give the connotation of feeling lonely or depressed.

Maria comparing the alien siblings to her and feeling left out when she acts superior to them and they are literally siblings. Literally every character is somewhat left out with Pod Squad they've lived their lives assuming it's just them three against the world it's not a personal attack.

Maria is 1/8 alien at best so diluted genetically it doesn't show up and somehow she believes she has the capability of the aliens who are 100%. Say you have French DNA you don't expect to speak French suddenly.

This whole Maria never does wrong narrative and it's empowering that she's doing all of this just feels like a crock of shit tbh.

She reads like a 2000's movie mean girl.

All of my bullet points are why I don't like h Maria and it's not biased because I'm a so and so fan. Narratively she just wins up doing shitty things to Michael and Alex the most.

[ladybirdwithoutdots]

..faultless in spite of all her faults

Everytime I read people complain claim that Anya Taylor Joy's Emma is 'too mean', a bitch, or even 'cruel' I always get the impression they aren’t really comparing her portrayal to the actual book, and thus the character as it’s really written by Austen, but they are, rather, comparing her to their favorite adaptation(s) and thus the personal interpretation of those writers, and whether the 2020 version aligns with THAT interpretation. While I totally understand that kind of bias,  and I don’t think I’m 100% immune to it, it’s honestly frustrating and unfair.

For one,  I don't remember where Emma in the 2020 movie is so 'cruel' or mean, or significantly more mean than her book counterpart, anyway.  If anything, all the scenes where she's being unlikable at the beginning are taken directly from the book itself (so shouldn’t you blame Austen for that?). Truthfully, they didn't even really include everything. Notably, in the book she's far more manipulative with Harriet (e.g. the whole passive aggressive 'we couldn't be friends if you mixed with those people' narrative), and she makes some snotty comments about Robert Martin, his family and the Coles, and even about Harriet, that Anya's Emma doesn't make because this version omits these things for the most part or only indirectly hints them (such as when Mr Knightley comments being surprised to see her at the Coles’ party). And let's not even forget the fact the movie ultimately makes her way more likable in the end towards Harriet for, in the book, as much as Emma feels bad for manipulating her and she cares about the girl, she still more or less drops her like a hot potato when she realizes she’s in love with Mr Knightley. Book Emma has her character growth and she matures in the end, but she’s still consistently as classist as you’d expect a woman of her status to be even if at her core she’s good. In that aspect, Austen makes no attempt to apologize for or pretend Emma doesn’t have that side in her (or that it does magically disappear completely in the end).

Back to Anya, I've read some complain that scenes like 'I want to keep Harriet to myself' make her seem too selfish and childish but that phrase is in the novel itself, lol. Other adaptations may omit it but I don’t see why de Wilde should’ve done the same. I believe that phrase is important to illustrate the fact that Emma IS childish and selfish there, even though she thinks she's doing what she's doing to 'help' her 'friend' (and yes, she’s also trying to derail Mr Knightley and deny his accusation that she’s matchmaking, let’s not forget that). She's egocentric and selfish (spoiler: she will realize that) and treats Harriet like a doll to manipulate and turn into everything she wants her to be because she’s lonely and bored and her only female friend got married (the fact Harriet ends up wanting the same guy she loves is, IMO, part of Austen’s wicked sense of humor in showing Emma how much her arrogance backfires). Subconsciously, a part of her doesn't really care about Harriet's happiness in that point of the story even if she genuinely convinces herself that she's doing everything for her good. But let’s be real, one of the big reasons why Emma doesn’t want Harriet to marry Robert is because she doesn’t see herself as the friend of the farmer’s wife; that’s part of the reason why she insists wanting to pair Harriet with creepy Elton instead: because she thinks she knows best sure but also it would be more convenient or easier for her to be friends with Harriet if she’s married to a guy closer to her own ‘world’. Notably, though, she’s hypocritical enough to believe Harriet could be Mr Elton’s equal in spite of her being a lower rank than him,  but when it’s to her that he ultimately proposes, she is outraged and thinks he’s uppity for even imagining he could be at HER level and thus marry someone like her, Emma Woodhouse. She also does a 180° about dear Harriet when the latter tells her that she thinks Mr Knightley wants to marry her: in the middle of entire paragraphs where Emma is very hard with herself and feels guilty for being once again the reason why her friend may end up with a heartbreak, there also is space for her to find Harriet  uppity for thinking that she could get a man like Mr Knightley. She’s actually concerned he may ruin his reputation and degrade himself, essentially ruining his life, to marry his inferior (Harriet) for her fault because she’s the one who ‘included Harriet in the party’ and made her access to a world she would never be allowed to access to without her interference.

Honestly, the movie shows only 2% of that side of book Emma because while they boldly keep her more in character, in my opinion, than previous versions, they aren’t naive and they know that keeping her 100% accurate to the book is near impossible when you want to still sell the movie to a modern audience that likely also has double standards for female characters compared to male ones (e.g., just compare people’s response to Darcy and Emma and how much the first is worshiped and his character growth overinflated, where Emma is only hated for her flaws and her character growth minimized, in spite of him being a male Emma who has pretty similar flaws).

Neverthless, to claim the movie showed only Emma’s bad/annoying side is disingenuos because putting aside the ending where she’s decidedly nicer, there are scenes that hint and illustrate her good/sweet side too and why people care about her since the beginning.

In fact, I believe they did a great job showing that duality in Emma since the very first minutes: the opening scene where you see her acting ‘rich privileged girl’ stereotype with her maid while picking the flowers is contrasted with the next sequence where you see that the flowers actually were for her friend Anne (so you realize she woke up early in the morning to make a nice bouquet to gift to her friend for her wedding) and you do see a sweet, more vulnerable and emotional Emma in their scene; an Emma that kind of seems like another person compared to the girl you just saw a minute before... and yet, both these girls represent the character, albeit different opposite sides of her but both equally true especially at this point of the story.

Similarly, you see other moments in the movie where she’s nice with Harriet, Mr Knightley, Mr and Mrs Weston, and of course her father (I love how subtle and sweet their relationship is portrayed here, such as when she hugs him when he already misses Isabella and you understand why she feels like she can’t leave her father too, or when he tries to comfort her after box hill by just being there with her, sitting next to her on the window).

That's, in a way, the point: Emma is likable only with those she loves and who care about her, that's why those people (saved for Mr Knightley and the reader) are biased about her and cannot see her flaws or faults.

Even with Miss Bates, Anya does a good job conveying Emma's 'inner annoyance' contrasted with her apparently acting nice and polite with the woman.

It’s that annoyance hidden behind even her smiles that is so on point to me, a subtle thing that the audience may see but that Miss Bates is oblivious about until she isn’t in that infamous box hill scene where Anya’s acting is great in showing the exact, subtle moment when she realizes she had said too much and she feels ashamed even as she tries her best keeping her control. Equally effective is the scene later when she ‘apologizes’, in her way, to Miss Bates and you can clearly see how ashamed she feels, how unworthy of the woman’s kind words to her and her respect and genuine affection (the way I see it, and I think it’s realistic, it’s the moment where Emma also really understands - and with her the audience too - that woman’s actual condition and she feels pity for her)

The thing is, in the book most of Emma's real, honest feelings are only in her thoughts and they don’t always coincide with the way she may appear to other characters, or the way she tries to present herself to them.

I always thought Emma was the most complex of Austen heroines (and the hardest to adapt) for this reason too, and I believe trying to convey that dichotomy in a movie adaptation isn't the most simple thing ever because a book and movie have too different narrative devices.   However, I do feel Anya's eyes are expressive enough to display that ‘inner life’ of Emma. It’s those contrasting and contradictory feelings that some reviews also praised the actress for being able to express, and I agree about that. The whole “she’s good and can be nice but she’s still spoiled and she’s naturally influenced by the fact she’s a woman from a specific time and context” subtext is also on point.

I also think the movie does a good job conveying the fact Emma is lonely and Harriet may be the only female friend closer to her age that she has, even if their relationship is, ultimately, problematic and will never be real friendship because they aren’t equals.

The way I see it, even some changes such as the infamous nosebleed scene aren't just a gratuitous thing put there just for the sake of being funny or creative.

The movie is often praised for (or minimized as) the beautiful aesthetic but I think many miss the point that de Wilde was, IMO, trying to actually make there. The aesthetic, the care in which they try to accurately represent clothes and hired an etiquette expert to teach the actors about those people’s mannerism, and when and how it was appropriate for them to do things or touch people, in short all that making everything seem so accurate and tidy and pretty and perfect is also a means to actually emphasize how flawed and human the characters actually are when their human imperfections ‘break’ that perfect aesthetic in unexpected ways.

This is an aspect that no doubt the movie displays with Mr Knightley for example but also, foundamentally, with Emma herself.

From the beginning, it seems she is trying to be perfect (and even her world seems to reflect that with its apparent perfection) but then, in the most romantic moment, she cannot be perfect and her humanity completely destroys that facade she created of herself... but she doesn’t care anymore (and HE doesn’t care because he always loved her even with her imperfections).

It's a different yet interesting interpretation of the book character IMO, but it also is consistent as an attempt to convey something hard to convey in a movie that is the fact that, in the book, in that particular moment she's indeed overwhelmed by feelings (both for Mr Knightley but also how guilty and bad she feels about Harriet), but most of that is something you only read in her thoughts and it would be impossible to show it on screen too without a narrator. In fact, you could argue other adaptations of Emma almost make it seems like she doesn’t care about the fact Harriet had told her she loved the guy too only two minutes ago, which isn’t consistent to her character growth at this point. This to point up the fact that, sometimes, following how a scene goes in the book too closely (in this case, by showing things only from the perspective of how book Knightley can see them versus what the readers actually know by reading her thoughts too) may not necessarily work conveying everything you need to convey because a book and movie are too different.

In the end, the nosebleed is no less a personal interpretation and addition than the other adaptations creating other responses/replies from her where there isn't really one written in the book, or making her and Mr Knightley kiss where Austen has them barely touching (and it wouldn’t be realistic for them to kiss the way most of adaptations show them).

Even if you want to argue about the appropriateness of adding comedy to certain moments, I’m going to remind you that Emma IS a comedy. In a way, this adaptation is effective homaging Austen’s witty sense of humor too and the way she was unapologetically true about her characters flaws and the absurdity, weirdness and yes, hypocrisy of highter class/rich people like Emma and Darcy.

Neverthless, if you really want to nitpick, the whole exasperating some things and making scenes more comical than the book makes them isn’t an exclusive to this adaptation either e.g. Emma 2009′s anticlimactic scene (after the quiet mutual love confession) where she runs to Mr Knightley to be a crying and screaming drama-queen about the fact she cannot marry him because of her father isn’t exactly how that moment is actually written in the book, both in terms of dialog - including his response that is more sentimental with words than Mr Knightley actually is there or in general -  and her tone and overall characterization.

As far as I'm concerned,  Emma 2020 is the version (only followed by Kate Beckinsale's) that had the g u t s to simply portray Emma Woodhouse in a way that is more honest and consistent to Austen's own character.  The other adaptations had always made her way too likable and erased her flaws too much in a way that, I believe, is a bit problematic for an accurate adaptation of Emma.

Autumn de Wilde herself pointed up that were she to make her movie ten years ago, executives, especially male ones, would likely demand her to make Emma a more conventionally likable female protagonist.

And yet, making Emma more likable than she is takes away a lot of her character growth and I feel this movie made the latter all the more incisive precisely because they didn't care about trying to make Emma nice at the beginning, or make you like her when she isn't supposed to be so nice. How can you honestly and truly see her maturation and change, and the fact she becomes more nice in the end, if she’s always nice from the beginning?

Austen knew that her heroine wouldn't be liked. She even said that herself. She knew but she didn't write Emma to make people like her or the people Emma allegorically represents. To me, it's deeply ironic that adaptations for the most part took this character and decided to make her seem more nice than she is, and essentially made the character conform to the very clichè expectations for female characters that Austen deliberaly went against when she wrote Emma.

And it’s ironic that the most popular adaptations of Emma are the ones that altered the character the most to make her more...likable.

Is it possible, also, that Anya’s Emma more poised and ladylike mannerism may contribute making her come across as being more ‘mean’ and ‘cold’ (in short, a well known prejudice) for some people among modern audiences, especially those who are used to adaptations that modernize these aspects giving women a significantly more modern, thus relatable, mannerism? Probably. Most likely, actually. 

I, for one, think Emma 2020 shows a good range of emotion and she even has sexual agency, which I praise them for. It took a female creative team to understand something as simple as the fact that just because she realizes her feelings only in the end, it doesn’t mean she cannot react to Mr Knightley in a way that is consistent to the feelings that already exist in her as a woman in love. Even the book hints her jealousy and feelings way before the part where she realizes being in love with him. And anyone who reads her thoughts about him at the ball, when she isn’t even dancing with him yet, cannot be so surprised by this movie’s interpretation of the dance scene. Given how distracted she is by how hot she finds him from afar, while it’s with another man she’s dancing,  it isn’t so crazy to think she’d have some sort of reaction and not look unaffected when he’s finally dancing with her and touching her.

Honestly, I don’t need Anya or anyone who will play Emma in the future to act like a carbon copy of Garai’s version from the 2009 series to understand she has feelings and see her as a human being.  Because let’s admit it, Garai’s Emma is the issue here. It’s the Emma that is used to hate the others. It’s the Emma that is constantly overinflated and put into a competion with the others even before the 2020 came out; the Emma that, to some, had created a set of ‘rules’ all Emma adaptations must follow now, apparently.

All due respect to Emma 2009 fans but I’m tired of people bashing the new movie and its cast, to the extent of posting negative opinions in both the tags and gifsets, because it doesn’t interpret things like the 2009 series did. If you watched the 2020 movie expecting it to be a remake of your favorite adaptation you wasted your time because it never was meant to be that.

As much as I like the series too, it isn’t perfect and I don’t consider it the definitive Emma adaptation that got everything right. Like the 2020 movie, it’s just one of the many interpretations of the book made by modern day authors who need to sell an Austen-based product to a modern audience.

All in all, the thing I’m the most tired about is people judging all the Emmas by comparing them to Garai's portrayal in 2009, that is constantly getting presented as the most faithful and accurate when...it really isn’t for me.

Like Paltrow’s version before her, Garai’s portrayal of Emma is deliberately far more nice, sweet and likable, too likable,  than her book counterpart really is. This, alone, is an issue for me in terms of accuracy because the main point is that Emma isn’t so nice at the beginning and actually gives the reader plenty of reasons to dislike her, but she has character growth. How can you really see her character growth and the fact she becomes nicer in the end if she’s always nice, to begin with? How can you even see that Mr Knightley is right about criticizing her?

She is supposed to be young like you’d expect a 21 years old woman in that context to be, but she’s not a child. She’s naive and clueless about some things but not THAT clueless because she actually is the most clever of her family.

Austen makes you ‘see’ her thoughts and how much she often does know that her actions and manipulations are not innocent, but she gives herself excuses to silence her conscience because she thinks she’s still in the right. Mr Knightley is Austen’s voice if you will, the reliable narrator of Emma’s character who notices her flaws and does see her real colors, but loves her in spite of that and is still able to see his own faults. Were Emma a clueless baby and too innocent, Mr Knightley wouldn’t waste his time criticizing her or trying to argue with her. He does that because he knows that she does have a conscience that can put her on the right path and tell her what is goor or bad, if she wants, if she listens to that side of her and doesn’t let her more spoiled and selfish side eclipse it. Her cleverness and intelligence is one of the traits he admires the most about her too, but if you turn Emma into a naive, misuranderstood child who cannot be perceived as anything but angelic and ‘cute’ even when she’s clearly in the wrong, you are taking away her cleverness too that is part of the integrity of the character just like her flaws and ‘bad side’.

A problem that many also ignore is the fact that alterning Emma to make her  seem more nice and innocent than she really is actually alters Mr Knightley’s character and their dynamic too for he might come across as far more pushy and paternalistic than he really is. Because if you make Emma too nice, you have to tone down the scenes where he argues with her too, but if you do that too much, how can the part in his final confession where he apologizes for always ‘lecturing and blaming her’ ring true and feel authentic??. If you make Emma too nice and naive from the beginning, he has less a reason to criticize her and his pov and own character growth is essentially erased.

Not less important is another polarizing aspect about Garai’s portrayal that is her inaccurate and too modern mannerism: she is unmistakably much more goofy than how I’d expect book Emma, and the kind of people she contextually represents, to effectively be in real life.

I get their ‘country girl’ interpretation, but I disagree with it. For one, I think her mannerism is just another way to deflect about Emma’s flaws and make her more palatable to a modern audience (2005 P&P, that I also love, probably had an influence on that too). She still does the bad things she does in the book, but you are distracted by her seeming so goofy and funny and cute so it’s easier to forgive her and make up excuses for her behavior even when, perhaps, you shouldn’t do that.

Overall, while I DO see some merit in that ‘country girl’ interpretation,  I think they went over the top with it and projected some quite anachronistic prejudices on country people, tbh. It’s decidedly influenced by a modern perspective that not only clashes with the Emma from the book (she’s a REAL snob but she is believable about it and she isn’t without integrity), but also the context and how Austen herself actually depicts people of lower rank than Emma such as Robert Martin (a farmer but still more a gentleman and educated than Emma’s snobby self would allow him), and all her other heroines of poorer condition and rank who (like Emma) lack experience and also live in the country side and are part of a limited social circle. Yes, Emma's world is limited, she probably didn’t have a ‘London season’ and what have you.. but neither did the others and most of ladies at the time. This, however, doesn’t mean she still isn’t part of her own context where some things would more or less be in her dna because it was part of people’s.. normality. Even the clothes they wore educated women about having a certain posture since they were little because, simply put, there wasn’t an alternative for them.   There is no hint in the book that Emma isn’t poised and elegant or perceived like that; in fact, they all think Jane is the only one who could be her equal.. and Jane is considered elegant.

The series essentially turns Emma into one of the young Bennet sisters where book Emma would frankly snob those characters. 

And listen, you can accuse Emma of having many flaws and yes, she can be a hypocrite with the way she picks and chooses where she has to be classist (or the fact she helps the poor in the same breath she snubs the Coles and Martins), but I believe one thing where she is coherent about and not so hypocritical is the fact I can see why, to someone like her, people like Mrs Elton are gross, and I can see where she can ‘teach’ Harriet about how to be more ladylike in a way ‘improving’ her. This is an aspect I’m affraid adaptations should be a tad believable about.

Her role as a ‘female leader’ in the community, as well as the contrast between her and Mrs ‘new money’ Elton and Harriet should still be obvious and believable, IMO. Mrs Elton in particular is a lot like a caricature of Emma for she shares some of her flaws but unlike Emma, she is delusional about her class, manners and elegance and how people perceive her. She envies Emma and considers her a competition because she likely recognizes that Emma has what she wishes to have but that no money can buy.

The problem with Emma 2009 is also the contrast with how other Austen heroines are depicted. That Emma, of all Austen ladies, would be represented by adaptations (eg  BBC ones) as being less refined and poised as a lady than Elizabeth, Jane, Elinor etc will always be far fetched to me and hard to find believable especially when, if anything, in my mind she’s so much a female Darcy that it’s like someone turned him into Bingley and gave him Mr Collins’ mannerism. It’s hard to grasp for me.

For me, Emma’s context and yes the fact she’s a privileged rich girl from the gentry is very important and not an insignificant detail to erase or ignore. Both she and Darcy are good but they have flaws that are, or at least should be, understandable and realistic in their context. Were you to take Emma to the modern world or change her context, would the character still be completely the same? I don’t think so unless you could replicate, in modern time, the exact condition of a rich 1800 lady who grew up with no other opinion but her own and that of people who think like her (yes, I like Clueless and it was effective as a modern au of Emma but you gotta admit even that had limits, it’s inevitable). In fact, a lot of my issues with people who hate Emma isn’t really about the fact I don’t think people have a reason to dislike the character for there are plenty; my issue with the hate she gets is the fact people often project modern expectations on her and fail to understand that for a woman in her context it is realistic she’d behave in a certain way and perceive some things in a way that might seem classist and snotty and cold to us, but it wasn’t like that at the time and it would make perfect sense for someone like Emma to see things like that. The beauty of Austen’s writing is the fact most of her characters are closer, in a way, to what was her own condition at the time and she generally shows rich privileged people in a not so favorable light.. and yet, she still creates characters like Darcy and Emma that show she actually had a more complex and wider perception of people for she recognized that there could be good people even among the ones that, for their context and in part for their personality, are the most flawed and can be the most annoying.

Tl dr: the way I see it, Austen’s Emma probably wouldn’t be as sophisticated as Emma 2020 is, but she wouldn’t be as modern, goofy and unladylike as Emma 2009 is either.

What I’m really trying to get at is the fact Emma 2009 fans accept the series’ own modernizations, narrative devices and changes, they accept those things as artistic licence and rationalize the writers exasperating some things, such as the ‘country girl’ interpretation and the more sentimental tone, to ‘convey something’ about the character and the story.. and yet, they can’t accept Emma 2020 doing the same, but in a different way that goes for an opposite direction that isn’t inherently less valid as an attempt to adapt and convey the book character and her story than the 2009 one. If there really was only one valid Emma, you couldn’t explain people who equally like both adaptations in spite of being so different. Clearly, those people must find in both Emma aspects that are authentic to them as a portrayal of the book character.

Like I pointed up before, the last movie exasperates the accurate costumes, the aesthetic and Emma’s apparent perfection (as well as her unlikable side) to convey the influence of her context and insecurities too, and ultimately let her humanity destroy that perfection to symbolize/emphasize her character growth all the more in the end. It’s an interpretation, one no less valid than what previous Emma adaptations, including the 2009 series, had. In the end, whether you prefer one over the other is just a matter of preference and how you also see the book character.

I always avoided discussions about adaptations for a reason, especially when I saw how bad it was in the Pride and Prejudice fandom where it seems like you aren’t even allowed to be an Austen fan if you like the 2005 movie. 

Before I watched 2020 Emma and saw fans of other adaptations non-stop hating on it both in the tags and even the gifsets,  making it a competition (when it really isn’t????), I honestly never felt the need to criticize the 2009 series or other Emma adaptations made before it for the aspects that didn’t really align with my own opinion/perception of things. I was aware that some fans of the Paltrow/Beckinsale versions hated Garai’s version back when the series came out, and I did read those negative comments (including the ones complaing that Jonny Lee Miller was too young for Mr Knightley, LOL the same argument now used against Johnny Flynn and it’s funny because they actually are the actors closer in age to the character). Ironically, a lot of emma 2009 fans are now using for the 2020 version some of the arguments that people used against their fav version too and that likely annoyed them at the time and made them defend the series. It’s like a circle where you always get back to the same point with different people doing the same thing to other fans. If there will be another adaptation of Emma after the 2020 one, probably some emma 2020 fans will turn themselves into that kind of fan too and annoy fans of the new adaptation with unnecessary drama.

[piccolina-mina]

Our girl is thriving this season, but what the fuck is this Wyatt plot? I need your thinks about this one. I just knew you'd be six posts in on this by now. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

*sighs* For fk's sake, nonny. I don't even like talking about it because I get ranty.

What do you want me to say? Honestly, everything you can imagine I would feel about this, you're probably right. Because you know, I'm that b*tch always getting ranty about racism and stuff.

In short, I hate it. I think it's unnecessary, tone-deaf, random, pointless, lowkey offensive, and illogical. I legitimately find it triggering AF. And it doesn't make sense.

It's Unnecessary. There is a fraction of a chance that it will connect to something more significant, but even if that's the case, I'm confident that end result or connection could've taken place without this random reform racist Wyatt storyline. This series has struggled enough as it is properly utilizing all of its primary characters as well as providing them with decent screentime and arcs. It literally makes no sense to spend any of that time that could be used elsewhere on primary characters on a recurring guest star.

This isn't actually about Rosa, it's about Wyatt. Following up on the previous point, this specific arc caters to Wyatt. Revolves around Wyatt. Rosa is just a passive participant and vessel for this Wyatt storyline. So again, the arc itself is about a recurring character. At least when they did something similarly bringing back Cam to siphon time and arcs away from its main cast they found ways to implement it better and tied her to multiple main characters, so it wasn't a total waste.

The intended Wyatt/Rosa parallel is illogical. I know what they're intending to do with this storyline, drawing parallels between Rosa's experience coming back from the dead after ten years and trying to make sense of that and atone for things before and having this second chance to make things right and go down the right path and so forth and Wyatt losing his memory and his racist ways and having to reconcile with who he was to who he can be and all of that. I understand the concept they're trying to sell. It just doesn't work. Rosa's addiction is not equivalent to Wyatt's racism and violence. Her mental illness isn't either. It's dangerous to invite the comparasions with this storyline.

It's not successful redemption. True redemption is Wyatt knowing and remembering his actions and then trying to atone for them. It's not the convenience of amnesia wiping out his memory only giving him distance from his actions rather than really facing up to them. Because of the amnesia, to Wyatt, it's like he's hearing about another person. It's a cop out. He doesn't Actually have to do the work to redeem himself or atone or learn or grow. IF we're supposed to compare it to Rosa, she knew what she did and remembers and knows how she hurt her loved ones or whatever and she's actively trying to make amends for that as part of her program... a program that Wyatt isn't working or anything BTW.

They've contradicted themselves too much and are rewriting their own work and thus twisting everything up just to make this storyline work and it still doesn't. The timeline is all fkd up... what they established already all of it..The Longs were racist before Kate's death. Kate was racist. To suggest that a 10+ amnesiac blackout clean slates and erases all of Wyatt's racism is just wrong. As in it literally doesn't even make any sense. That is not how the amnesia works but they keep playing both sides of it trying to make it work. To sell us what they're claiming, he would have to have ALL of his memories wiped and have forgotten who he was completely.

Wyatt is behaving like he's shocked by racism in this town but they're also trying to argue that he was born into it. Wyatt was surrounded by racists and his friends come from racist families but he's acting like the very concept of him ever being ingratiated in it is some huge surprise. Wyatt looks affronted by things like Confederate flags. Wyatt being steeped in and surrounded by racism predates his amnesia period.

Kyle mentioned that line about Wyatt putting Whites Only on water fountains, and it sounded like a school prank. It also sounded like something Kyle was reminding Rosa of as if she was alive when that incident happened. Therefore, Wyatt was doing racist stuff before she died. Kyle would've been out of school by then so how else would he know that or why would he bother retaining it?

IF Wyatt and Rosa really were friends before (which holy retcon), then it makes no real sense that he would get psychopathically angry about his "friend" who does drugs getting into a car accident with his sister who does drugs. He would've mourned them both not jumped to severe racism and violence. But both he and Jasmine's family (who are MIA for all of this) did that... jumped to racism. So was Wyatt indoctrinated by his family or indoctrinated by message boards and shit? And if Wyatt and Rosa were friends than why was Kate such a racist bitch to Rosa?

They're backdrafting history JUST to make this storyline that we don't need with a character who isn't even a main one to work.

By not actually addressing that Wyatt has to unlearn racism and giving him an out through amnesia, there is the very realistic issue of that latent racism to come out at any given time. What happens when he's drunk? What happens when he's really angry at a POC?

Tying Wyatt's redemption with his clear affection for Rosa is again dangerous and irresponsible. I know we would all like to think that love is the way and through love it can heal racism, but that puts the responsibility on the disenfranchised person to be "lovable." Because if Wyatt WAS friends with Rosa once then that means the second Rosa did something unlovable she was just another *insert racist slur of choosing* right? It means that there's a possibility that if his feelings for Rosa dwindle or things go sideways in some way there's a chance that he could revert back to those racist ways. Loving Rosa(linda) and pinning all of his wanting to be better on her because of her makes his actively learning to be anti-racist conditional. Right now he's not doing this for him. He's doing it because of Rosa.

This entire storyline has placed the burden of forgiveness on Rosa, his victim. Without him ever having to actually make amends. It's this turn the other cheek BS that means there's nothing too big or harmful that can't result in forgiveness. It relies on Rosa and all that she represents to extend an inhumane level of mercy and grace to their tormentor and oppressor that was never once extended to them. It's such a consistent and problematic thing projected on disenfranchised parties that ONLY benefits the majority and makes them feel good. It's a narrative of meeting someone halfway when the playing field was uneven and the minorities are in actuality doing more work and making a longer trek. Halfway and meeting in the middle only works if both sides were even. They are not. It's the reaching across the aisle both sidesms when one side was clearly and actively more harmful than the other and than calling that peace and equity. It is not.

This storyline was meant to scintillate some viewers with this "what if" notion and teach others a meaningful lesson or be this poorly thought out gateway to exploring a complex storyline but it came at the expense of other demographics who actively have to deal with racist crap. And because of their problematic approach what is simply "just entertainment" to some who has the luxury of not having to think about it beyond that, is just gross and insanely triggering and uncomfortable to others. The others who deal with the reality of the subject at hand.

They wrote themselves into a corner with Wyatt so trying to dig him out of that no matter the cost or logic is absurd. This storyline could've worked better if Wyatt's racism didn't also include conscious, constant, extreme violence. But they spent all of this time making Wyatt the face of violent racism and now are trying to redeem him with no real effort. He wasn't just using slurs or making microaggressions. He wasn't some insensitive or aloof white person. He is a murderer. He has killed people. He technically murdered Liz in cold-blood. He knew she was in the crashdown when he shot up the place. The lights were still on. He beat up Arturo so badly he nearly killed him well after his friends even stopped. He attacked and intended to kill Rosa. And his handiwork was a constant thing, enough for Jenna to comment on it. And now we're supposed to ignore all of that because he has amnesia and has puppy dog eyes?

The fact that we can entertain (and for some succeed) Wyatt in all of his hot white dudeness' redemption after everything he has done slips into the inherent racism of society in the first place and is enraging. Because systemically and culturally and inherently society will bend over backwards to find a way to absolve a hot white guy no matter his actions. Flint and Noah couldn't get this type of redemption... So their intended storyline about evolving from racism STILL plays into the racist structures set up in society.

And because some people like it, there's this slippery territory of NO everyone who genuinely enjoys this aren't racist for enjoying it. But yes, this entire storyline and how it is playing out is at the very least racially insensitive.

In order for this storyline to work they would actually have to show Wyatt doing the work. They don't have enough time to dedicate to such a delicate storyline. It's been a C and D filler storyline with 45 second to a minute scenes. That's not enough time to explore this properly. We would've needed to see Wyatt returning home from the hospital. We would've needed to see Wyatt with his friends and it not feeling right and his discomfort. We would've needed to see Wyatt going through his yearbook and googling himself and the horror and disgust he felt. We would need to see this through his eyes. But we didn't have the time for that and we wouldn't have anyway because he's not a main character. We only get Wyatt through Rosa's eyes and they haven't even dedicated enough time to that for it to work. Rosa isn't conflicted at all. She didn't struggle to forgive him. She was reduced to a school girl with a crush and an insane level of grace and they just threw that at us with no buildup whatsoever. I don't know where Rosa's head is and how she got to this to place. Not really. And the only thing working about this is the chemistry between two actors who are allegedly dating so of course there's chemistry.

It literally feels like another instance of a favorite actor being shoehorned into a storyline just for the hell of it. Just because they didn't want to let Dylan go or something. Just to give him something else to do.