#live out sensible storylines because I know

[chevelleneech]

Crazy thought: Eddie tells Buck it makes sense Tommy dumped him…

This came to me, because it’s said Eddie will have an unexpected reaction to the news, and I want it to be something new.

As in, Eddie isn’t exactly kind in his reaction, not because he is aiming to be hurtful, but because he’s just kicked off a self-discovery arc of his own. He’s being confronted with all the ways in which his own self-sacrificing has harmed him, so he’s “ultra enlightened” and leans a little too far into honesty.

I don’t even know if I’d call it too far, but he sort of over course corrects, and tells Buck they are similar in the way that they both put other people’s happiness above their own. Except he himself does it to punish himself, while Buck does it unknowingly.

I feel like that would be such good tension, without making their conflict revolve around Eddie figuring out his sexuality, as him being queer seems to be the path they’re taking. I don’t really know how to explain it, but I don’t want Eddie to have any inclination he’s queer. I want him to be so unaware that he’s queer, and so focused on finding joy in all the small things in his life, that he doesn’t even realize he’s coming out of the closet. I feel like that would be the most gradual and easy way for general audiences to catch on, while also making sense for Eddie as a character.

Eddie is so repressed and self-punishing that he doesn’t know what he’s sexually repressed. He just knows he’s locked something away for twenty years, and is finally doing the work to allow it back into the light. And part of that could be him becoming almost overly aware of what repression and emotional self-harm looks like. So he tells Buck, “You stayed with Tommy because he liked you, not because you liked him.”

That would force Buck to look inward and question how true that is, and if he’s done it before. So then their conflict would be the fact that Eddie is joyful and excited to see where his release of repression takes him, while Buck sort of spirals as he realizes he’s never took time to confront his own repressed trauma. It would also make it clear their repression stemmed from two different things, and is leading them down two different roads.

Eddie will be discovering the fact that it is okay to enjoy his life and let people in, and find comfort and happiness in himself no matter what that version of himself looks like, with all his mistakes and misunderstandings. While Buck would be discovering the fact that abandonment is inevitable. People don’t always stick around and often times leave without a reason, but that’s okay. It’s not his fault, and he doesn’t need to whittle his own happiness away in order to keep them near.

And that would ultimately bring them closer together, because Eddie will look at Buck as the one person outside of his son who brings him light and joy, and never causes him to feel undeserving. Whereas Buck starts to understand Eddie as one of the only people in his life who has not walked away, and in fact was pissed off when he couldn’t be near him.

And I think this would work on the general audience not feeling blindsided by queer Eddie, because it’s already been explain “how” a gay man (because I’ve been neutral here, but Eddie is very gay) could date, marry, have sex with, and father a child with women while still being gay. As well, it would put the focus on him being religious, and then thrust into a role of adulthood due to getting Shannon pregnant, thus he’s never actually explored his sexuality.

So Eddie not knowing he’s gay the same way the audience doesn’t know, would allow them to take the journey with him in the way we didn’t with Buck. Buck kissed a man was like, “Yeah, more of that.” Whereas Eddie’s journey would be like, “I’m repressed because I’m a former Catholic boy who became a dad at 18 and then got shot up in war.” So the audience would follow him as he tries out different forms of happiness, which would lead to him realizing Buck makes him happy, thus the realization that he likes Buck romantically. Which then sparks both Eddie and the audiences “Oh” moment as they realize his Catholic trauma caused teenage fatherhood which caused his military journey, because he’s been gay this whole time. Boom!

[pepperf]

Genuinely can't decide if the writers intended the Five and Lila relationship to be toxic, or if that's just their idea of romance - just like Rochester, Heathcliff, Darcy, and that dude from Twilight, right???

Okay, let's have a readmore. Note tags, ppl, and curate your experience.

Lila has a relatively sensible approach to relationships, which is consistent, despite her somewhat Machiavellian approach to getting what she wants out of them - she put Diego in his place about having realistic expectations back in s3. She's pretty clear about who she is and where her lines are drawn, and is "weirdly self-actualised", according to Klaus. And Five - romantically inexperienced, thinks everyone should do what he says at all times - tries to impose his notion of How This Should Go onto her, from nearly the start of their brief romance, but leaning hard into it once it starts going sour - which also checks out: he was alone for 45 years and his previous relationship was all in his head, giving him full control, so that's what he's used to. But I couldn't tell if they genuinely intended to show it as him being incredibly selfish in prioritising his feelings over her wishes, or if they honestly thought it was romantic. I mean, the barbed wire-style bracelet is a little on the nose, and there's some symbolism that I'll get into in a sec. Truthfully, I'm not inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt - I think SB at least thought it was hot, judging by what he's said about identifying with Five, and about how he finally gets to have a romance. This seems to have been his pet project for the season, blergh.

It's that tedious old misogynist chestnut, that all women secretly want A Man to take control. It's frustrating, because they already established that Lila likes to be in charge, she wants to be free to make her own choices, she'd already had twenty-plus years of being told what to think and do. And yet she has to remind Five, who really ought to know her better by now, "You do not get to decide what I do with my life!" It's also very disconnected from reality. It's not actually fun or sexy to be gaslighted, to be lied to by some insecure asshole who thinks they know better about what's good for you, that they have a right to stick their nose into your personal relationships or keep you away from your kids. Not cool, Five, not cool. He's lucky she didn't kick him in the nuts on the way out. But another reason I think they didn't do this consciously is that Five doesn't seem to realise his assholery - there's no hint that he's regretting anything other than being dumped.

Lila was trapped for seven years in an intense, claustrophobic situation with Five - and if they'd continued to exist, she could have worked through the feelings that come out of that. Like Ritu said, of course there's going to be love there: they've spent seven years together, on the run. If nothing else, it would be a matter of survival - either you find a way to get along, or you kill each other. And they went in with a fair amount in common already (although being adopted by the Handler at age four is not at all the same as being recruited by her at age fifty-something). So I'm annoyed that Lila's whole arc this season is one of frustration about having to be the grown up in her relationship, taking a break to reassess, going off to do something a bit crazy and fun - and promptly getting stranded with someone considerably less emotionally competent.

Okay, I'm being somewhat harsh - Lila unexpectedly getting the timeout she wanted could've been a decent storyline, she could have some time to reflect, live the child-free life without consequences, and have some adventures (she actively enjoys danger!). And she and Five got to bond, that had lots of interesting potential, especially with their complicated history. But it tipped over from being a potential opportunity into an immensely over the top punishment for her impulsivity, and took them so far from where they'd started that there's a total emotional disconnect with the main story. Which is a fucking weird choice for one episode in such a short season, ngl.

And then, ugh, she's right back to dealing with the apocalypse, visibly thrown by a Diego who has unexpectedly thought about what she said and is trying to be a better husband, and dealing with a Five who has decided to get territorial. It's deeply uncomfortable, Five is gearing up to start trouble, so wrapped up in his own hurt feelings that he's functionally useless for the actual problem in front of them - leaving Lila to deal with the mess he creates, and then leverage said feelings to get him to put on his big boy pants and help. She still reaches out to him in the end, I think she knows him well enough by this point to understand what makes him tick...and she's having to be the sensible one up to the end of her existence. Can't she have someone who's willing to meet her halfway? The reflecting that Diego did, him making a start on making amends (given that it was only a few hours for him, that's about as much as they could squeeze in) was basically just wasted. They start to reconnect at the end, and mutually apologise for the damage they've done - but that's all they get, and it's a travesty.

Personally I think the whole storyline should have been cut, but if - if - they really felt it added something, they could have given it some time in the real world, see how this shaky new romance holds up against a serious relationship that's been massively fractured. In a different show, that might have been a fine story. But they don't do that. Whatever she might have wanted, Lila doesn't get time to even think about her choices. She gets to stop existing. (Or they could just have not gone there in the first place, god I hate love triangle plotlines, they do no favours for anyone involved!)

Given a continued existence in which to do so, I'm sure Five would have moved on pretty quickly. It's his first romance with a real person, he feels it intensely - but once the dust settled, he'd see that they were in very different emotional places (she wanted to get back to her family, the break from reality is way overdue to end - and he wanted to stay in their little bubble and leave all that behind). The actual romance part was actually pretty brief, and lacking in any deep communication - as Lila says, it wasn't real. They're playing house in an attempt to feel normal - in a greenhouse (a fragile structure, not a real home), eating strawberries (a treat more than real sustenance), like children...hey, maybe I'm wrong and the writers DID intend to do that, bc that's some choice visual metaphors. And they're playing roles: all their normal antagonism - what made them so fun and sparky in previous seasons, and even during the earlier part of their adventure! - disappears. Lila is a chameleon, taking on a character is her happy place - and this was how Five kept himself going, last time he was in this situation, so he's slipping back into that method of survival (although he's not as good as she is at separating reality from fiction). So while all that is totally understandable, it's insubstantial. If Five had the space to do some self-reflection, or if one of his more rational siblings (Luther maybe, or...um...or a friend, if he can make one...or maybe that dude in the Losers Department at the CIA...) sat down with him and explained that you need to treat a partner as an equal, maybe he could do better next time - or double down and keep being an asshole, that's also a strong possibility.

idk - I still don't honestly think the show intended it that way, unfortunately. I think they shoehorned the characters into the scenes they wanted, regardless of sense or even plot requirement. There are a LOT of badly-explained or badly-thought out moments in this season, and this whole mess just adds to the incoherency. Or maybe it's just a consequence of TV - you get multiple creative people involved, and the reasoning gets muddied, especially over time. Maybe it was SB's intention from the start, but he didn't inform the actors until the final season, so they've been playing it straight.

This show has an...interesting tendency to do something that you think is totally unacceptable and just gloss over it at the time, and then address it next season (like Luther apologising to Viktor), as if the writers all brought it up in their respective therapy sessions during the break, and worked through the issues - so maybe if they'd had another season, they would have gone into all that. Maybe. But we're clearly not going to get that, and they're all gone from existence so I can't headcanon that in this universe, they eventually sort it out. So I'm putting it down to one thing:

Break out the dodgy facial hair (I see you're ahead of me, Five) and let's get kicking babies!

[spotlightlowlife]

Writing for Millie should be hella easy

Stereotypes and cliches can work.

Right infront of us we have a tought southern farm girl, already a half written character. Millie's family, the first full family we meet, who don't even get to say much were actually crucial for her character building, they're a big family who are set in their ways, they're loving but not supportive of Millie's choices in a very passive aggressive way.

All these episodes later, these points are barely touched upon.

We would learn the Millie likes attention, she enjoyed playing a character who was the coolest person on the scene who could show off

which makes sense if you look at her rowdy upbringing, which could also explains why she is giddy at Moxxie's grand gestures and adoration of her.

Yet why did she have to play a role and take herself out of her usual setting in order to enjoy herself? This made sense for Moxxie who's sensibilities and hesitations aren't heard and is constantly frustrated, but why give Millie a similar storyline (not the first time a couples stories were awkwardly and disproportionately merged)? Having moved far from her family, having a supply of attention on tap from her biggest fan of a husband, working with a coworker she gets along fine with Loona and Mille worked together just fine when Blitzø and Moxxie got snatched, there were no differences between them, they actually appear to have hardly engaged with eachother?

and a boss who she's on excellent terms with in their small company, a boss who's intrusive ways she sees no issues with

which could also go back to having a big, noisy, busy body family who are slack with respect and boundaries something many people can relate to, why exactly did she need this moment in the spotlight?

Perhaps she's phased by being friendless?

Loona is

I she even friendless? Who knows. Her relations don't matter outside being a plot device, she even got sidelined in her families episode several times because it served to introduce Striker and show how much of an outsider Moxxie is.

On the topic of relations

Why do Millie and Moxxie have the same ex?

Why did neither of them know this?

What difference did it make?

Why such hostility?

No reason, nothing matters, none and ?

An ex would have been yet another person needed to give her some content but it would have been character building none the less.

Where did they meet and what would have been the mutual setting that lead to this guy being in both their lives then them coming together?

Has Millie had a life away from the farm as a single woman or did she leave home for Chaz? So many possibilities. Being that she is the stereotype rough and tumble country girl, she could have consciously decided to go to the city to hang about in places where those supposedly unlike her are so that she could stand out and be appreciated without having to compete with anyone. She would have her own thing going on and this would be a good way to meet hipster Chaz and thespian Moxxie.

Of course, Millie could have shown up one day and met Moxxie on the job.

Blitzø and Moxxie being the buddy cop type lead characters is fine, it's clearly the dynamic that's intended and on the few occasions we see them working together this is what we get.

The lack of characters doing the jobs we are told they do is an issue that affects all characters.

Being a side character should offer a load of flexibility, not having to carry the story offers room to be busy doing irrelevant stuff, or serve as a voice of reason or scepticism to help move the plot forward, side characters can wrap up side plots writers can't be bothered with, but side characters being ignored serves nothing.

There have been shows that have a leader and their more competent sidekick who quietly does the work and never shares in the credit.

This could work for Mille, however dispite her lack of content, she is not the quiet sidekick. We are sold a praised and admired bruiser whose performance isn't up for criticism, someone not always clued up when faced with a challenge but that's fine, challenges are rare and she's someone we have no reason to believe is a pushover, she is also someone happy to have more of a say but also fine with how things are. OK, what next?

Neutral.

Why not commit and tone her up?

Play on that country bumpkin casting. So far Millie is the fun and violent scrapper which fits but this role is also totally appropriate, someone is going to fill it, other than that she's, just there, with no say.

In and out of work, why not have her behaviour be socially neurotic, inappropriate, possessive and apathetic?

Why doesn't she stand up for Moxxie more? Is the casual workplace bullying something she's used to, comparable to the regular fun mockery that circulates throughout the family home/town banter etc? Is she used to not being heard? Growing up not having her own things, having to answer to someone, ignorance, comparassion and lack of personal space could result in someone who doesn't like being challenged or ignored, doesn't like a lack of control but has been sheltered enough to not take consequences too seriously? Anything goes after all.

It works for Blitzø, whose modest and tragic past, isolation, guilt and loneliness has lead to a sympathetic, overbearing and desperate hustler

I actually think Millie's character is fine but is she just a decent side character who is only 'fine' because she's underutilised? I'm not sure?

[codenamesazanka]

Its not even a matter of being a villains fan or not, the writing is just genuinely bad because it contradicts dekus character and interrupts shigarakis storyline. Deku was written to set himself apart from others by using his stablished inherent goodness to save (not kill) the "unredeemable villain", that was his narrative challange/conflict, like it was done with uraraka and shouto (except they are not the MC). This is not a overanalysis, its literally how the author was writing his mc lmao.

Hi anon, again(?)

I'm not disagreeing with you! About Deku being bad writing. Sorry if it came off that way. I think the story really did mostly tell us about Deku's attributes without showing them, and also effectively gaslit us about Deku's uniquely great drive to save and that all the stuff he did was in service of that 'saving'.

I have to point out, though, that technically killing was never off the table. Nana asked him if he had the resolve to kill, and Deku said 'Dunno. Maybe there will be no other way', and only after that says he wants to try saving first. Gran Torino gave us the "killing is salvation" and Deku never contradicts him, and now it seems like that was the thing Deku took to heart.

The thing about 'saving' is that - I think - it's in a Buddhist context that this Japanese manga takes place in. Though take what I'm saying with a grain of salt. Idk about Horikoshi's religious beliefs and HeroAca isn't an explicitly Buddhist work, but Buddhist thought is part of Japanese culture, so it's inevitable that its sensibilities and ethics show up everywhere.

'Saving' here means ending suffering, being freed from things like anger and hatred. It doesn't necessarily mean 'not kill' or 'no death'. Sort of like saving the soul. Which is why Deku smashing Shigaraki's hatred is him 'saving' Shigaraki... and then he can just let Shigaraki die. Deku even talks to Shigaraki in the latter's final moments about basically trying to end the cycle of sadness/grief/misery - with him releasing Shigaraki from it.

(I don't think this is unique to Buddhism either... Saving the soul is also a thing in Christianity, right? With death still okay. That's something I know even less about, though, so pardon me.)

Quoting @bnhaobservation :

It's similar to how Midoriya saves Shigaraki's soul and we aren't impressed, but Japanese readers are.

In the western culture when someone dies, at most, we only worry about the soul regretting his wrongdoings or he'll end in hell (that and that he won't look deserving of being forgiven by the audience if he doesn't regret them).

In Japan, when someone dies in a violent way including murder or suicide or dies leaving behind unfinished business or do not receive appropriate funeral rites upon their death, they believe his spirit remains trapped in the world of living and can't move on and this is torture for said soul.

So the idea that Shigaraki's soul was soothed, that was put to rest, is really important and equates to salvation in a Japanese mind-setting... but, to us, it's only a last smile before death.

Deku was indeed written to set himself apart from others - by even bothering to care a little bit about Shigaraki and 'not ignoring the Inner Crying Child'. (But then there was Uraraka, feeling the same way about Toga...) No one else on the Hero side cared, not even All Might and Gran Torino with their connections to the Shimura Family that Shigaraki/Tenko is part of. Deku's inherent goodness means compassion, which, again, he shows by 'not ignoring the Inner Crying Child'. He takes the extra step of trying to save Shigaraki's heart, which technically he didn't have to. He could've just killed Shigaraki from the start. And so that's his great heroism.

Furthermore, he's actually unhappy about being unable to save Shigaraki/Tenko's life. That's a sign of his amazing kindness.

I largely disagree with this. I think 'saving' should've meant also physically saving Shigaraki. I think Deku's kindness was bare minimum, and this is absolutely not "extraordinary heroism". But that's me. I've seen a few Japanese readers also take Shigaraki's ending to mean that he couldn't be saved, or disagree with Deku's violent mind-invasion actions. But most of the reactions I have seen from Japanese readers do agree with Deku having did his best and succeeded in saving Shigaraki's heart, and that was what was needed, and so Deku is a great Hero. This isn't unique to Japan either - good portion of people in Western fandom also seem to agree.

Writing is still bad, though, with Deku being so bland and boring and empty of a character and the story often insisting that Deku doing a regular old thing that other characters have also done is actually the epitome of heroism. Then there's everything else in Act 3.

Thanks for the ask, anon! Sorry you were disappointed.

[arcane-ish]

Reading the old creator interview for League!Ekko again made me think.

I totally get Ekkomains who say that if they ever progress Ekko's storyline in a meaningful way, him finding love with a new person and finally getting over his childhood crush would be a very sensible place to take it. I could picture it feeling very meaningful for him to open up to somebody new, heal some of those trauma scars and be healthier etc (and unlike Riven and Yasuo for whom the angst status is deeply tied to their identity as a character, I think it would actually feel very in character for Ekko to be like that).

There is an argument that Ekko being stuck on Powder is representative of him being stuck in the past which is of course extremely thematic and on point for his character (Warwick to Ekko in game: "The one person in Zaun who runs to the past."), but not exactly the healthiest thing.

But reading the statements again:

[Ekko] thinks [Janna] gave up on Zaun, which is something Ekko will never do.

Let me also state that Ekko does not think Zaun is perfect. He knows very well how is city is perceived and why it has the reputation. But he hopes that things will get better one day.

made me think that Ekko's attachment to Jinx makes a lot more sense if you consider that in a way Jinx is the perfect distillation and representation of Zaun (ie wild, brutal, creative, hurt).

Ekko stays in Zaun because he knows that it's not all bad. People like Ajuna (the friend he lost in the comic) live there. He believes in Zaun, and in it's future (although currently in a somewhat childlike and less forward thinking way, he's still a kid, still learning). 

Ekko isn't dumb, he knows Zaun is a rough place, but he owns that. Zaun made him strong, taught him to be resourceful and make big things out little. He's starting to envision a different Zaun, a better Zaun, but he doesn't have the complete picture yet as he is a teenager and still has some growing up to do.

Basically, if you think of Jinx as Zaun and how his entire goal and motivation is tied up in Zaun, then the idea that he both fights her darkest impulses but also won't and can't give up on her makes a lot more sense and is something different than "loser pining after girl who has no interest in him because he thought she was nice to him in childhood and needs help now".

The idea of "he knows that Zaun has bad sides but still believes in its potential" is a lot more appealing than "it's just childish nostalgia".

[itschaniesims]

a birthday shoot, shameless slander, and a peeping tom. Man, what a weekend the girls have had.

Started off great with a night at the media studio for Chenai’s birthday shoot. The girlies got all prettied up and had themselves a good time trying out the newest photo hub in town.

Looked like the night ended on a perfect note. That is, until Marie and Batsi started with their cliquey act again…

Like she’s right there you guys. At this rate Chenai might be considering new living arrangements. These girls can be so fake sometimes.

-Next Day-

Marie decided she’d go on a date with the new guy she met some weeks ago at a chill spot. What she didn’t expect though, was to get followed into the restroom literally 15 minutes into the date…

Our girl was NOT having it.

Told him off and the creep had the nerve to try and downplay it, talking about some “wE’rE bOtH rOmAnCe SiMs So I kNoW yOu WaNtEd iT” like ??? Sir?? Goodbye. Date immediately cancelled. He’s lucky she didn’t call the police. She was just too shocked.

Audacity.jpg

Yeah. Never again.

—

So I never did character intros bc I hated the first batch of screenshots I got for this household which means I’m posting in the middle of the story. Nonetheless I’ll still give a brief description of each girl:

Chenai, the one in red. - she’s supposed to be my main sim for this storyline. She’s freshly graduated from uni with a physics degree and no sensible job prospects. So far she’s in education but she’s only there for the money. She wants to save and get her home place since right now she’s renting a cheap dorm with 2 other girls. She’s tried to be friends with them and on the surface they seem to get along, it’s just that those two tend to exclude her sometimes and she’s not sure if she’s all about that flaky business. She’s evil, a tinkerer, and unstable.

Marie, the one in blue. Nobody knows where she came from; but rumour has it she’s some D-list celebrity’s secret child and she’s trying to climb the ranks to make a name for herself in the entertainment industry. Currently in the slacker career she’s well on her way but shows no signs of talent or unique skill that would make her stand out. The most she’s got going for her rn is her charisma and good looks. She’s found a best friend in Batsi, though no one can figure out why they get along since they couldn’t be any further from each other personality-wise. Marie is a diva, coward, and has a green thumb.

Batsirai AKA Batsi, the one in pink. Batsi had a harsh childhood that set her up to join the military as soon as she turned 18. She’s often perceived as abrasive and intimidating because of her resting expression and aversion to speaking unless she likes you. As she rapidly advances through her military career, Batsi begins to wonder what the next step will be for her with 24 on the horizon. She’s been wanting to start dating since she never had the luxury as a teenager. But it’s hard when you’ve got her reputation and the men around you are all so beneath her standard. In the meantime, she embraces and enjoys the bond she has with Marie. She likes Chenai too, but that girl tends to keep to herself too much so it’s hard to stay close. Batsi is an angler, absent minded, and has commitment issues.

[lavideenrose]

"Basic dynamic in life: there is nothing meaningful enough to make you happy that could not make you sad if you lost it. This is the paradox of feeling, and it’s inherent and existential. If things inspire real positive emotion in you then they are necessarily things in which you are sufficiently invested that you would feel negative emotions when they’re gone. One of the fundamental choices that you face on Earth is the degree to which you’ll pursue deeper but riskier fulfillment or practice avoidance that exempts you from bad feelings but leaves you bereft of good ones. We all move in one direction or the other, from one day to another, certainly including me, but it feels to me as if our society is decidedly embracing the latter. Depth and intensity of feeling risk too much; Xbox and hard seltzer and HR culture anesthetize. Pop culture soothes and placates with a steady series of uncomplicated morality tales in predigested narratives where nothing ever really changes and so there’s no worry that the storyline will move in a way that hurts your feelings."

...

"I find it very very bleak! Here you have kids talking about why they prefer online life and identifying precisely the conditions that make me despondent: they like being online more than living their real lives because their online lives serve as an intermediary and distraction from what they don’t like about themselves and their world. They’re too young to know that you’re not supposed to admit that the point of being very online is to avoid the self. They say the quiet part out loud. Online life is more “peaceful and calming” because online you’re permitted to be a vegetable. Online you can mute yourself, render yourself an unperson, remove yourself from existence and in so doing avoid the pain of being alive. The attitudes here are indicative of young people who have been failed by the adults around them, who in addition to the responsibility to keep them alive should be forcing them to contend with the inevitability of sadness and the need to come to terms with themselves. Someone has to tell these kids, “wherever you go, you’ll find yourself there, and you have to start to do the work of accepting who you are, as much as you may not like yourself.” The stakes are high. I don’t mean to get dark here, but a kid who fantasizes about the ability to mute himself in real life is a kid I worry about someday muting himself permanently in real life."

...

"What would a healthy culture and caring parents do for those kids? They would be pulled aside and told: you are you, and you will always be you; we live here, on this planet, in this culture, as this species; you live in the times you live in, and you will never live anywhere else. There’s no escape, for any of us. The world gets better and it gets worse. Your life gets easier and it gets harder. Progress happens. Happiness is possible. But the world is an irredeemably broken place, tragedy is the endowment of our bodies and our gods and our world, and you will always, always, always be you. You can hide in your room, but you’ll still be you. And you’ll still be you when you head off to college and make brand new friends, and you’ll still be you after you come out to your parents, and you’ll still be you after you get that job or that promotion or that raise, and you’ll still be you after you lose those last 10 pounds, and you’ll still be you after you fall in love, and you’ll still be you after the AI revolution or the socialist revolution or the love revolution or any other revolution. The only sensible path forward is to learn to accept the brokenness of human life, to develop resilience in the face of its petty cruelties, and to learn to live with yourself. Not to love yourself; I mean, if you can love yourself, great, but in general I find the commandment to love yourself paternalistic and annoying. Even with all the therapy and meds and growth I’ll never be someone who loves himself. But I have learned to live with myself. Young people need to be gently guided in that direction, but the anonymity and disconnection of online life directly obstruct that goal."

[gabenvrhappened]

BooksOr... Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Read my post about the movie;

Throughout the times I sat to read Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (most of it when I was getting ready to sleep, but once in Primrose Hill), something inside of me screamed for the chance to put into a song all the love the book was making me feel. Just like the movie, living the story of Ari and Dante was incredibly cathartic. Unfortunately, until now at least, I wasn't able to write anything — which is shocking and definitely not usual. All that I know is that I felt the love in Benjamin Alire Sáenz's writing jumping from the page to my chest, in a warm and welcoming way.

Innocent and pure is the best way to describe it. The words that follow us through the reading, that come from Ari, are just as simple as you could expect them to be from a 16-year-old, but they hold so much weight and sincerity. It's not a mystery why this book is famous because it blew my mind how the author was able to capture the essence of growing up so perfectly, that it became an arrow that could look deep into my soul and fish my inner secrets to the surface. Just like the movie, reading the story unfold made me come back to many moments of my life, but, mostly, made me reflect on where I am right now. Made me hope for the simplicity of falling in love.

As we grow up and discover the power of attraction, everything tends to become a road to the finish line. We look at people on the street (or at the gym) and wonder what it would take to have this person in bed with us. We forget to create connections, we forget the moments that could lead to a kiss, because we have our eyes on the prize. I wonder if that's just me, or if we really lost that sensibility. I won't lie; I always pictured how cool it would be to live an enemy-to-lovers story, but reading this book made me want to live a friend-to-lovers experience because, after all, that's all we should want in a partner: a friend.

Here, Ari has a special friend in Dante. The book, of course, runs more deeply into their friendship than the movie. I love, for example, how they are always laughing and repeating each other's sentences. I loved reading the small clues of Ari's hidden love throughout his thoughts. The book does a good job in building up his character, and I found it fascinating how his parents helped him understand his love for Dante, making him, in a special way, come out. It was different and touching, and it felt so right. I wished Dante had the same development, but it was infatuating seeing all the love and affection he shows towards life and his parents (something I missed in the movie).

However, nothing, I said nothing, prepared me for the chapter where Dante asks to bathe Ari (page 145). Nothing and I can't stress that enough. I had to read that chapter twice (maybe even more) while I was drunk at a bar in SoHo. I never had read something so honest and touching. Again, innocent and pure. It was the most beautiful thing in the world, and I don't know why exactly, but that chapter, of only two pages, will be forever marked in my mind. One of the desert chapters, though, comes really close, where they are smoking pot (page 273). When Ari says he wouldn't know what he would do if Dante touched him while they were laying naked on Ari's truck after running around in the rain, was like the fist on my throat had grabbed my heart.

It's impossible not to draw parallels, especially because I saw the movie first (and rewatched it as soon as I finished the book). While the book brings more into Bernardo's drama, it's in a way that feels more palpable than the movie. And, just like the part where Ari beats up Julian, the book gives more context of why there weren't any consequences. These two things made me see this storyline in a better light than the movie did and made it feel more real and understandable. And even though the movie failed to do justice to Dante's letter — which is acceptable —, it gained more depth with Aunt Ophelia's presence. Overall, the adaptation was amazing (but I wish we could see the 2:47 hours cut the director mentioned one time on her Twitter).

The thing is that, in London, my creativity flows in so many different ways (at this Tumblr, at the gym, in my acting classes) that my songwriting started to become less current than it used to be, and, even though I understand that, I hated it because I wanted so badly to write a love song about this book. It's so insane to imagine that I didn't roll my eyes at this book not once when I'm constantly doing that throughout some passages in Adam Silvera's books, for example.

That's why I'm so excited to read the sequel to this, and I couldn't be happier to know that it has more pages than the first one. I'm also scared because sequels tend to have less magic than the first project, but I'm glad that I'll be able to dive into the story as it goes, something I missed while reading this because I already knew everything. I wonder what will take my breath away in the second book, just like the thought of Dante dying took mine during those minutes in the theater last December. I'll let you in on this secret of Ari's and Dante's universe when I delve into the waters of the second book. Thank God it's being delived in two days.

[castlebyersafterdark]

I like that you are excited about Ted because this whole fandom seems to think he's this abusive/neglectful homophobic asshole when he's just some guy. He's a typical 80s dad. Not saying he's perfect but the way people talk about a person who has 2 seconds of screen time each season is overinflated. I actually saw someone say that he is the reason Karen always has a drink in her hand LMAO. I guess she's an alcoholic then 😂. I think this has only happened twice so far and once it was when she was relaxing in the tub. Not a sign of distress. Obviously they are both more comfortable in this marriage then Karen would like. She wants a bit more excitement but there is stability so she stays with him. There are a lot of people who seem to expect them to get a divorce next season and I'm sorry but that isn't happening. I don't think any of the Wheelers are going to end up being homophobic to Mike or Will either. Ted's comments are more in a passive way because he doesn't understand Mike. But I think he will get past this. Especially since it seems like there is maybe a scene with Will saving/helping Holly. I think he would move past his passive aggression if something like that happens.

Exactly!! I think an issue is there are two schools of thought in this fandom that are kind of at odds, but are thematic on a lot of the analysis and not discourse, but disagreements? It seems like with Mike and Will, people tend to give them the same arc and the same problems but also there's those who think "well if one experiences this, the other character can't." (Polls like: "who has more internalized homophobia?" As if that's a useful question? What is more? They both do and they're on different journeys, that's the better discussion)

I think with the Ted situation, people also want to make him out to be this homophobic figure and almost make the Wheelers to be abusive? I think because - to be honest - making things more surface level and dramatic is easier to either talk about or write. But is this Ted? No, not at all. The Wheelers are slightly neglectful, but not in an abusive way. It's very of the era, suburban apathy? The prevalent attitude of the times where you really don't know where your kids are a lot of the day. Out of sight, out of mind. They don't routinely hug or have heart to hearts naturally, not like the remaining Byers fam. They're kind of awkward with each other, because I think Ted is just like a lot of dads at that time. Karen tries, so hard, to maintain what a normal home should be, do what a normal mom should do. It's fine. They're not doing anything wrong (except vote for Reagan, but he won 49 states in 1984. The Wheelers are not unique. The 80s were bright, crimson red). Conformity.

Ted is not an abusive homophobe. Lonnie was. Ted probably makes some underhanded comments when he watches the news or reads the paper, but he's not going on tirades or calling people fags. Lonnie does, with passion. Ted probably doesn't hug Mike a lot, but he's not beating his children. He's sweet to Holly. So he was probably sweet to Mike and Nancy as little kids, but they're older now and in a sensible conservative, suburban, upper middle class family, you also become sensible. Self-reliant. You're thirteen, Mike, becoming a man. time to start giving away your toys and wise up a little, huh son? Lonnie did not hug Will or Jonathan. Lonnie downed his fifth beer and told his kids to clean up the fucking mess in the living room or they had it coming. Lonnie was so far from sensible the town openly called him and those by association fuck-ups.

I'm sure the Wheelers have their views, I mean, they hammer that home with little nods like Karen on the phone talking positively about Margret Thatcher, etc. but like I said - this is so normal, typical 80s. I think we're going to see something transformative with them season five. I envision once the supernatural storyline is known to the parents of the Party, things change with them. I see Mike being a target and Karen stepping up and protecting and defending her son, instead of not knowing where her kids are and what they''re going through. I see Holly being targeted by Henry and Ted shaking his apathy and doing something to wake the fuck up to the bigger world around him. I like your point about him viewing Will differently after Will does something to help Holly. Maybe he's always liked that Will kid, what a nice, polite kid, but maybe there's something there to the rumors and truth about who/what Will is, but that doesn't matter now. This is the same sweet kid, his son's best friend, who's been staying with them and now he's helped protect his youngest. And later, if the group knows what's going on with Will and Mike once they get together, after all that I'd doubt he'd make some little bigoted comment. Growth. The Wheelers are the blueprint for 1980s middle class Americana. But they can change and grow, too, and surpass what's considered normal, as is our show's big theme.

[insfiringyou]

GOD… THANK YOU for mentioning the “feel at home” with the each other thing, because I’ve spent a long time breaking my head trying to understand why YG and JS always felt more than love.

While I read the other boys fics I was always thinking “they clearly love each other” but I always thought “WHY THEY DON’T FEEL NEAR CLOSE TO WHAT YG AND JS HAVE???” and clearly YG loved his ex gf. despite them being honest, only in the begging coming from her, after I got back to re read I was like “god, it feels so empty somehow when it’s not with JS”

but now everything seems clearer lol kinda dumb that I didn’t realized this home thing before because to be honest it’s always in our faces how they don’t have idealized expectations with each other and therefore always makes them feel like they can always be their most authentic, raw, true and spontaneous selves.

At first I was thinking JS was a bit harsh for breaking up with him all of sudden and not trying to talk and solve things together, but how YG was feeling at that time it really felt like being separate was the right choice… I understand her now, he needed to be shown that he didn’t had to depend on her that badly.

I want to compliment how beautiful and well written your work is, truly is my favorite fanfiction of all time and helped me A LOT on understanding my own emotions and perceptions of life and love. Truly, thank you so much. You really deserve a lot of recognition for making things realistic and not epic at all, I love this kinds of stories, it makes it more reliable to apply the lessons we learn while reading in our own lives.

I don’t know if you ever heard of the tv show “normal people” (probably yes because is a British show, I just don’t know if you ever watched), but I felt the exact same thing with your writing that I felt with the show: it feels like I’m invading someone’s privacy, like I’m watching a person’s personal life in real time. Reading all the YG stories made me feel a lump in my throat because it felt like someone was writing what they truly watched happening in his life.

Just… beautiful, really you have so much talent and sensibility, I love it so much, your stories will always have a special place in my heart, I will carry with me forever.

Thank you. It was actually a reader of ours some time back that vocalised that they are each other's homes - so in a way we are stealing their words! But it also captured exactly what we felt when writing them all this time. What we love with all the storylines is how different the relationships feel so each other. Not that any are necessarily superior, just as in real life - people mean different things to each other. But Yoongi and Jeong-sun have always had a very special place for us because of how they interact together. There is a wit to their conversations we love - a quickness that has been there since they met in the closet, and it's always a pleasure to be with them again when writing.

I did actually watch 'normal people' when it came out (the pandemic I think) and I liked parts of it. I actually think some people said at the time it reminded them a bit of our fics, which I guess is a compliment because it was a really successful show. I will say that with Yoongi and Jeong-sun in particular, there is something about them that I could see working in a TV show. Like - I can imagine their interactions so vividly and I think it would work with British actors (of all the couples, with them our Britishness probably comes across the most, but also I think that's because we've always seen Yoongi's humour as being quite relatable to us, as we love dry humour).

Thank you so much - it means a lot when we see how our fics have impacted people especially because when we started writing we didn't think ANYBODY would read them and I was even reluctant to post them on the internet.

[mellifiedman]

I'm not done talking about my media consumption! You're not safe yet!! I'm on my lunch break and I'm gonna tell you about the latest season of

ANIME

Tengoku Daimakyou/Heavenly Delusion - it's the post-apocalypse, life is hard, and there are fucked-up beasts with a killer design sensibility roaming the countryside. Two dumb teens are on a mission to find some people, find some place, kill some monsters...that kind of thing. Somewhere else, a bunch of goofy kids with mutant powers are living the good (?) life in a walled garden, hanging out with robots and a handful of actual adults. So far, this is a fun watch! The character designs are really charming, and you gotta love a big central mystery that's clearly leading up to some really horrific reveal. It's apparently following the manga VERY closely, which might explain why the episode-by-episode storylines feel kinda meandering, but I still recommend getting in on the ground floor here if you enjoy the classic canon of "fucked-up supernatural disasters happening in Japan, specifically" anime.

Mobile Suit Gundam: the Witch from Mercury - I thought the first few episodes of this show were sooooo boring, but I kept watching because people said it was good. They were right! It's really good. While it starts off as a mecha Utena retread with the worst hairstyles I've ever seen, it pretty quickly becomes a wild story about war crimes, capitalism, scientific ethics, and the worst hairstyles I've ever seen. I'm deeply invested and can't wait to see what kind of awful, soul-destroying shit will happen to my space waifus next.

Oshi no Ko - I'm still trying to figure out which specific breed of pervert this show is meant to attract. The pitch: what if you were an adult man doctor who got murdered and came back as the newborn baby of your favorite teen jpop idol...whose babies you yourself were supposed to deliver?! And then what if your hot mom/bias ALSO got murdered, so now you have to solve both murders even though you're a hot teen? Would that be fucked up, or what? As it turns out, yes. It would be fucked up. If this were just a (comedic??) show about an angsty teen trying to solve his celebrity mom's murder, that would be one thing, but the reincarnation angle really adds a layer of...charm? Is charm the word? All I know is that if you, like me, enjoy shows with wildly convoluted premises where the characters often stop dead to deliver lengthy, detailed monologues about their lives and motivations (once again, raising the specter of my beloved Death Note), then you're gonna have a great time with this one.

[jack-yells-about-webcomics]

Once again, it's time for....

Who's That Secondary Character?

with me, Jack, your one-stop-shop for catching up on ancient backstory for EGS, Girl Genius, Questionable Content, and more! Today on the show:

Noah

Noah has appeared again in recent El Goonish Shive comics, but who is he? Where does he come from? And why is he following Diane? (And yes, he's always had that androgynous Link-from-Legend of Zelda style, it's one of his defining features.)

Early Appearances

Noah is a trickier character than most, because the storylines he's connected to have been retconned multiple times. (Although it might be more accurate to say that he was simply planned long ago, and changes to the story happened over time.) Noah first appears in the comic as a mysterious shadowed and hooded figure who had sworn revenge on Damien.

From there, Noah largely disappeared from the main comic for an extended period of time. I seem to remember him occasionally appearing out of nowhere to help the good guys and then disappearing again, but I can't actually find any main-story comics where he does that. I could be conflating him with Magus, another shadowy figure who was hinted at for a long time. Noah was also popular in the non-canon sketches and comics, as well as fan theories, during this period. It is eventually confirmed in canon that Noah is the shadowed, hooded figure, but my impression is that readers were meant to have already figured it out at that point.

Tragic Backstory

Noah's parent(s) were murdered by Damien, because his father was part of the cult that created Damien. Noah didn't get a chance to enact his revenge before the events of Painted Black happened, but he did get a hint about what kind of person killed Damien, and planned to seek her out.

After his parents' death, Noah appears to have spent his time focused on becoming powerful enough to face Damien. Noah is almost matched with (non-transformed) Elliot for being extremely strong, fast, and athletic. He is also obviously in-the-know about magic, immortals, uryuoms, and possibly more. However, beyond his near-superhuman athletic abilities (and the flying), it's not known whether he actually has magic of his own or not.

Noah feels immense respect and kinship towards his guardian, Raven, whom he lives with and views as an adoptive father. However, due to Noah's personal history and a lack of social experience, he doesn't know how to bring this up. Noah also typically speaks with an overabundance of caution as a method of controlling his emotions. Therefore, he had defaulted to addressing Raven as 'sir', and sneaking around the house. However, Noah and Raven finally had a heart-to-heart after Pandora's death, and now refer to each other as father and son.

Love/Hate Quadrangle

Noah's girlfriend Melissa is also Justin's childhood best friend/ ex-girlfriend. Justin blames Melissa for outing him as gay and exposing him to extensive bullying. (Reminder: because of the time-bending nature of long-running webcomics, Justin was outed his freshman year in essentially the cultural equivalent of 2003 or thereabouts, when blatant homophobia was more socially accepted. Dan has generally opted to use the currently-preferred (at time of publishing) LGBTQ+ terminology and concepts as the comic has gone on, ((side note: I want to do a separate blog post on the different approaches different webcomics bring to this issue)), resulting in characters using 2022-esque LGBTQ+ vocab& sensibility in the end of Justin's senior year, regardless of the fact that only 2-3 years have passed in-universe.) Melissa herself had a... very rough time accepting Justin's sexuality. Depending on the point in continuity, she gets jealous of any girl who talks to him, stalks him to harangue him for dates, deludes herself into believing the two of them are in love, or (most recently) has urges to act like they're still best friends/ dating but recognizes the urges as harmful compulsions.

Elliot accidentally becomes involved when he meets Noah by chance at an IKEA and strikes up a friendship with him. When they eventually put the pieces together, Elliot, Noah, and Justin all end up angry with each other to varying degrees. The tension is exacerbated because Noah has something he urgently needs to ask Justin, directly. The questions are aimed to figure out who summoned the fire monster that attached the comic book shop (when Cheerleadra first appeared), but because Noah keeps on being interrupted, we don't actually find this out until the moment before the second magical attack on the comic book shop, when Noah assists Cheerleadra in fending off the dragon-summon. He also assists Grace and Greg at the martial arts dojo as part of the same fight. Justin never actually answers Noah's questions about the first Cheerleadra fight (thus preserving Elliot's secret identity) because the summoner's identity becomes clear at the end of the fight.

Following Diane?

Noah goes to Moperville South, the same school as Ellen, Grace, Nanase, Justin, and Diane. Diane (who has known since she was a child that she was adopted) recently found out that Raven is her biological father. Raven (who until recently believed it was impossible for him to have children) found out at the same time. They both have complicated feelings about this, and haven't talked to each other yet. Noah likely knows all of this. Raven is Noah's guardian and adoptive father. For that reason alone, Noah might reach out. In addition, Noah likely knows about a lot of the big, magic-related things that have happened to Diane recently. They potentially have a lot in common to talk about.

Incidentally, they also both have a habit of sneaking, and are both adept at getting places quickly.

I'm sure the title of the current arc is just a coincidence...

Note: originally posted before complete because Tumblr kept eating my edits

[kexing]

theo: it’s your fault i defaced this book, i was bored because you left me by myself

theo: you have two choices, help me willingly or help me because i make you

theo: if you don’t come with me, i won’t come at all

i get that some people are upset at the reveal but like, theo has been a manipulative little bitch (affectionate) from the very beginning? and now those same people who were enchanted (pun intended) by this are acting surprised by theo’s actions and by akk’s easy acceptance?

theo, who acts formal and polite and distant with everyone else but bratty, spoiled and demanding with akk? and akk, who always lets him get away with it? were we watching the same show?

anygay, there’s two whole episodes left so we know there’s still some drama ahead but i hope we get as much akktheo being domestic and disgustingly in love as we can before that happens. they’ve earned it and so have we.

i mean… everyone’s free to feel/think whatever they want but i seriously don’t know what’s so surprising about theo being enchanté?

not because of the manipulation in itself but because both akk and theo have trouble communicating with each other and it makes sense! they’ve spent Years of their lives apart, it’s easier to talk to your friends when you’re young and free. even though they did fall into the same old routine of being best friends and their interactions feel comfortable as well, it’s not quite the same. they’re older now, thai is more of foreign language to theo, their feelings for each other keep escalating and especially at the beginning (when he came up with the enchanté plan), theo had no idea how to tell if akk had romantic feelings for him as well.

and since this whole enchanté thing started, as you pointed out, theo consistently tried to keep akk beside him to try and figure out his reactions or if akk would finally say something. it’s all just Right There + none of the other guys made sense as enchanté.

but in all this chaos, theo did not mean to make a huge deal out of it, he really just wanted to find out if akk would be jealous of saifa, if he would step up and face that there’s something going on between them. and then the ambassadors showed up and if telling the truth was hard then, it is much harder now with people he doesn’t even know involved and theo got lost in his lie.

i’m not saying it’s right, obviously it’s not, it’s also vvvv dumb which theo himself said so. but i still believe this could’ve been waaaaaay messier because drama plots tend to be messy and it takes sensibility to handle a storyline like this because it involves manipulation.

but theo didn’t manipulate akk into falling for him, didn’t manipulate akk into dating him, he just wanted to know if akk liked him back and he was actually ready to face the consequences of his actions at the end.

is this Really the worst crime you’ve ever seen in a drama?

and akk. oh boy how do i even begin to talk about him. maybe if i loved him less i’d be more articulated.

but going very straight to the point, akk is a deeply beautiful and kind person. he did everything he did because he wanted to help theo, because he put theo’s happiness and wishes above his own which is why the enchanté thing ended up becoming huge.

he loves theo so much. so so so much. there’s nothing he wouldn’t do for theo. there’s no way he wouldn’t try and see theo’s side of the story.

to the point where when theo revealed the truth he said “i’m sorry for keeping you waiting” because AKK UNDERSTANDS WHAT THEO WENT THROUGH!!! he’s his best friend after all. he knows how lonely, confused and out of place theo feels sometimes and akk is the only true home he knows but so far all theo did was fear that this home didn’t belong to him.

but it does. of course akk’s heart belongs to theo. who else? and in not making himself clear, akk prolonged their pain. obviously, theo’s actions are his own but akk understands him and akk loves him and he would never turn his back on theo, even at theo’s worst moment. especially because it is theo’s worst moment.

this show is a character study and i personally don’t think it’s a black or white story, it’s simply a human story. we make dumb mistakes because we can’t always see the bigger picture. we try to fix things but then get caught up on our lies. we feel afraid, insecure, lonely, we don’t always know how to communicate. and sometimes, as it is in theo’s case, we find people who love us enough to forgive us and help us become better.

i fail to see the nastiness in this but that’s just me.

agreeed!!! we deserve domestic boyfriends SOOO MUCH!!! as they deserve to be happy!!! i truly hope they keep the angst at minimum and the fluff and shenanigans at maximum akdkksks

pray circle! 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

[onewomancitadel]

its literally soooo. idk why people suddenly got so hooked on the idea of j/aune being involved in n/eos storyline but every time i see it im like j/aune has his OWN villain to befriend and help heal (and kiss 😳?) so why cant he leave r/uby's little pink bubblegum gal alone. they dont parallel the girls' altercation at the fall of b/eacon in v8 for NO REASON!!! and yet bc r/oman and p/yrrha died on the same night im stupid and wrong. that parallel IS that deep. c/inder and j/aune's altercations ARE that deep and im SICK of pretend they arent actually wait a second to answer this i have to make something

No no, you don't understand. When we connect together sensible foreshadowing and narrative patterns, we're delusional. When they fabricate canon interpretation out of nothing, it's logical.

Roman and Pyrrha's deaths are connected insofar as they live and die by their ideology. Neo wasn't intended to have a major role in the story to begin with and then was brought back later because she was so popular and figured into Cinder's story. Forgiveness/understanding towards Neo, Ruby, Jaune etc. is a structural foreshadowing as a part of Cinder's story. Jaune is not going to have a romance with a secondary character. The romances in R/WBY for the main characters are all intertwined with other major characters.

Ozpin also died on the same night. He was killed by Cinder. Ozpin reincarnated into Oscar. Oscar and Cinder both share Curses. That's how that is related. Oscar might have a role in getting Ruby to help Cinder. Who knows!

Maybe Jaune does help Neo! You know what! I won't rule that out! Maybe he helps Ruby. Maybe Neo accusing Ruby of killing Roman brings up guilt for Jaune in killing Penny. Maybe this stuff is all connected. I just don't think it's leading up to a big romance with Neo because Neo has a narrative role she's playing very well, and that's accentuating ideas that other characters are forced to explore. Especially when Ruby's going down a path of disillusionment.

But like always, what's the narrative blindspot? Cinder. In a reverse situation, it's Jaune. Lol

[clonewarsarchives]

#102, JUL 2008

THE CREATOR STRIKES BACK

DIRECTING THE TROOPS

THE CREATOR STRIKES BACK

Speaking to starwars.com, Star Wars creator George Lucas discusses the forthcoming animated movie The Clone Wars.

starwars.com: Why was now the right time to bring Star Wars to animation?

Lucas: This is a project we’ve actually been working on since the end of Revenge of the Sith. I’ve worked in animation before with Steven [Spielberg] in A Land Before Time, John Korty on a film [Twice Upon a Time] and a few other things. I love animation. I started out in film school in animation, and I felt it was time to explore that medium, and then at the same time be able to explore a part of Star Wars that is so vast that you can’t deal with the Luke Skywalker/ Anakin Skywalker saga... you get to deal a little bit more with the minutiae of The Clone Wars.

Clearly this has a different look than anything that’s come before. Can you share with us the methods you went ahead and developed to do this, and the thinking behind the design of The Clone Wars, and also the design of the characters?

In order to create The Clone Wars, I had to develop a whole new studio. We’ve really been able to advance our animation ambitions. When it comes to the look and feel of The Clone Wars project, I wanted to do something that was in the realm of anime, design-wise, but still different. So I said, “How can we do this along with a strong storytelling sensibility?”

I have a tendency that — just like with Star Wars, which is based in the 1930s Republic Saturday matinee serials, or Indiana Jones, which is based on the same thing — I wanted to give it a look and the feel of something that’s from the past. So everybody was fairly amused in the animation community that we picked Gerry Anderson and Thunderbirds to be our inspiration. It has a very stylized look. I didn’t want it to look like Beowulf, which we could’ve done, or The Incredibles, and when you’re doing animation about live action actors and everyone knows what they look like, you really do have to come up with a sophisticated and dynamic caricature of these people.

A lot of people are excited about the new characters that you’ve incorporated into the storyline, great new good guys and great new villains.

We added a new character. We needed to change the dynamic between Obi-Wan the mentor and Anakin the Padawan, which is where we left them. That’s how they entered The Clone Wars. We wanted to make that relationship become more dynamic... sort of like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. They’re now equal. They’re now partners. They’re now working together.

But we really wanted to have that Padawan-mentor relationship, so we gave the most unlikely person a Padawan, which is Anakin, and we made the Padawan a girl. She’s very feisty. She’s very outgoing and independent-minded, which gives Anakin a real challenge, because he’s sort of like that too. He’s trying to clean up his act by teaching her to settle down and think and not be so aggressive.

She gets in her share of action.

She’s a great character. She’s turned out really fantastic.

DIRECTING THE TROOPS

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS SUPERVISING DIRECTOR DAVE FILONI—CURRENTLY WORKING FLAT OUT ON THE FORTHCOMING THE CLONE WARS MOVIE AND TV SERIES—FOUND TIME TO OFFER REVEALING INSIGHTS INTO THE EAGERLY ANTICIPATED ANIMATED FEATURE. WORDS: JONATHAN WILKINS

Insider: What prompted the decision to produce a full-length theatrical version of The Clone Wars?

Dave Filoni: George [Lucas] saw completed footage of what it was going to look like. We always watch our dailies in an actual theater, and when we started showing him the results he instantly said “Wow, this looks great on a big screen.” So from the get-go, once George saw what was being produced, he said the fans really should get to see this on the big screen—and the seed was planted. We started to think of it in terms of this really working as a feature.

We are all eager to show fans something they know is Star Wars, but that’s different. It’s that difference that makes us all so excited about this, and the opportunity to work with Star Wars in animation.

The Clone Wars has a unique look, yet it retains that distinctive Star Wars feel. Was it difficult to ensure it felt like part of Star Wars?

I think that’s something you worry about, since Star Wars is so well known. You want to make it something that the fans are going to relate to, but also something that the average viewer who’s not into Star Wars relates to. I think it grabs both those groups. The first thing we had to do was get a really talented group of people that were familiar with the look—production staff, artists who loved the material—and we looked at the films and used them as a source, because it’s already so well designed. Of course, George Lucas being a big part of it was the capper that really said, “OK, this is going to be Star Wars” because George is the crucial ingredient.

Were there any particular styles of animation that provided inspiration for the project?

We looked at the first Clone Wars TV series that Genndy Tartakovsky had done for Cartoon Network and looked at the design that Paul Rudish had done for it, and used those for inspiration. They had a lot of the same challenges that we did: How do you translate these well-known characters into animated form? We wanted to respect the work that they had done. I had just come off Avatar at Nickelodeon so I was very much in that frame of mind and brought a lot of what I was doing there to Star Wars, so that was definitely an influence. I brought Justin Ridge, one of the assistant directors, with me and several people from Avatar followed; we all love anime, so I think there’s a broad range of influence from that area as well.

How exactly do you direct animation?

Well, it’s collaboration. Animation is a group project, and you need to have a clear vision of what you want to do. Then you need to work with your artists and your writers to make sure that you’re all on the same page and to see what they can bring to the project and to the story. Once you’re sitting in editorial, looking at the shots and pacing out the story, that’s where you really start to get more creative and bring the story to life. Really, it’s the collaboration that’s the important thing. There are just so many people involved, from the initial story idea to what you finally see up on the screen; it’s really an amazing effort.

Is it helpful that everybody knows Star Wars?

I’ll say it time and again at work, “Well, did you look at the reference?” If we’re talking about clone troopers or certain guns, or certain other weapons or vehicles I’ll say “Well, did you watch Attack of the Clones? Because those are in Attack of the Clones.” It’s definitely great to have the six films as our style guide for everything we’re doing.

So I guess you don’t get to shout “Faster! More intense!” like George has been known to do?

Actually I do that all the time! It works for Star Wars! It’s one of the things that maybe I’ve adopted from George, but you need that intensity. It sounds cliched, because as fans we all know he says that, but I can tell you, there’s really something to it! How important is continuity versus storytelling? We’re very aware of continuity, we want to maintain it, and so it’s very important. Yet when you look at what George did with the prequels, there are obviously some things that I think the fans assumed would have been one way but that George decided would be different. There’s Threepio being built by Anakin Skywalker—I never saw that coming! It all depends on what the purpose is and what you’re trying to tell in the story. Then you have to balance that version for the continuity argument. We have tried to stay very looped-in with people who focus specifically on continuity to make sure. Each decision each judgment, is made carefully, so it’s really a balance between the two.

Do you have any parts of the movie that made you think “Wow! That worked better than I thought!”?

It’s easy to cite a lot of action sequences, but I think that Anakin and Ahsoka have some moments where they’re talking and really figuring out how they’re going to relate to one another. Those scenes really work well and that holds the whole thing together.

Is there anything that you’d do differently following the rapid developments in CGI movie technology?

It’s almost a joke between George and me, because when you make a movie, you learn so much in doing it that you would probably do it differently next time. I think that this movie is very much like that. I love so many parts of it, and yet because of the experience, and working with George, I’m a better director now than I was.

I would do things differently now, of course. He’ll tell me “Well, David, you can’t change everything.” I’ll say “Wait a minute!” because, of course, he’s known for making changes!

You’ve mentioned George has been very hands-on with the production: what’s the most important or surprising thing that you’ve learned from him?

I think it’s really editing. Nathan Tucker, my editor, would really attest to that fact. We work very hard on the footage and George comes in and looks at it with us. He’s really amazing, how he can get sequences and move them around to really push the tension and dynamics of what’s going on in the story. I’ve had to be a real student of that in the last few years, and that’s probably one of the most important things I’ve really tried to grasp.

What was it like hearing the fan reaction to The Clone Wars trailer at Celebration IV?

That was pretty amazing, I have to say. Luckily, there were some of the crew from The Clone Wars in the audience. I think that was really uplifting because we work in secrecy a lot, up on the Ranch, and we’re not able to get a reaction from people that aren’t working on it. To finally get some kind of reaction from the fans was great for everybody. We went back to the Ranch doubly energized to really do this, do it well, and do it for the people that care about the movies.

Was there a sense of pressure that you had to live up to huge expectations?

Yes, there’s always that because it’s Star Wars. If I wasn’t on this side, I’m sure I’d be the fan out there saying “Well, this better be good!” You know, we’re all trying to live up to that. That’s our focus.

Given the fact that audiences and fans in particular know the characters really well, what sort of challenges were there in getting them exactly right?

It was very difficult early on when we were designing the characters. It was a real trick to get them, especially Anakin and Obi-Wan, to look right. They went through a lot of interpretations. We had a lot of opinions from the crew because people love and know these characters. In particular, Anakin was very difficult to nail down. Instead of going for a dead-on actor likeness we’d just go for, “Well, what makes someone a Skywalker?” and look at that. That’s what really got us over the hump for Anakin.

Anakin is obviously an established character, but you get to introduce an all-new character. What can you tell us about his new Padawan Ahsoka?

Ahsoka really stands between Anakin and Obi-Wan. If you look at Obi-Wan, he’s the Jedi who believes in the Old Republic, and Anakin’s leaning towards a new order. Then you have this young girl who’s in between. She’s really trying to figure out what is going on and deal with decisions she has to make. She was trained as a peacekeeper, [but] now she’s forced into being a soldier, like all the Jedi. How do these young Padawans react to that? It’s one of the interesting stories that we get to tell. Anakin is so adept at what he’s doing, as is Obi-Wan, so she’s a great character to have. We took a lot of notes from Carrie Fisher’s performance as Princess Leia and how she reacted to very strong characters like Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. We try to get a bit of that into this young girl. That’s a big inspiration.

The movie also features Asajj Ventress. Whose decision was it to use Expanded Universe characters and is this something that we might see more of?

I think it’s always interesting to see which Expanded Universe characters turn up in a Star Wars movie or the Star Wars TV show, like when Aayla Secura turned up in Attack of the Clones—that was a big deal. Asajj Ventress was a natural because of her role in the previous Clone Wars [animated micro-series]. She was somebody that we all thought we could use and develop. How does she fit into the saga, with Dooku and the Sith?

As far as other characters, we’re always looking at it. In truth, there’s so many characters in the films that we didn’t really get to see a lot, like Kit Fisto and Plo Koon. You could go around the [Jedi] Council’s chairs, and have 12 episodes right there.

You’ve compared The Clone Wars to the Star Wars Tales comic books.

Well, the Star Wars Tales are great. You can pick them up again and again. Killian Plunkett did the story about C-3PO and Darth Vader on Cloud City. You see inside C-3PO’s head and he has these reflective moments. It’s great, because Killian’s now working on the show. Those are all great stories and we’re doing similar things, like looking at the clones. You can do so many different stories just about the clones to try and get into the heads of these guys. What kind of soldiers were they? How individual were they? There are just a ton of questions around them, so we look at those and look at the Jedi Council. We were all so excited the first time we saw a Jedi Council member: who were these guys? Why does that guy look like that? What does their lightsaber look like? It’s just exciting to get to explore things like that, if George wants to, and if we find that character interesting.

We know how most of these characters end up—does that create any restrictions on the story?

Sometimes there are certain situations that we just have to observe and be aware of. Obviously, in Revenge of the Sith General Grievous and Anakin have, quite plainly, never met each other face to face. You’re constantly amazed that what seems like a restriction becomes a really creative outlet, something that’s not done the easy way but done the hard way. It’s thrilling and exciting.

Are there any cool Easter eggs that dedicated fans should look out for in the movie?

I’m a fan, and because so many people working on this are fans, there are Easter eggs throughout this movie and the series that fans will appreciate; things that my mother would not have a clue about, but will be nice little winks to the fans. Someone out there will get a big thrill! That’s fun and exciting

[chainofclovers]

Ted Lasso 2x8 thoughts

I am so lucky that the creators of Ted Lasso decided to make this entire show specifically for me. #blessed

If last week felt like a bit of breathing room (albeit tense, poignant, character-progressing breathing room) with distinct narrative lines, this week’s episode was a chaotic yet tightly-written swirl of pain and hope and sadness! No neat subject headers for this one, y’all. Just my brain and heart in the inadequate form of a bulleted list. It is the medium available to me at this time.

I am going to remember the moment when Ted calls Sharon and tells her his father killed himself for the rest of my life.

(I could say a bunch of stuff about his face and what he says and how he tries to hide his tears from Beard right after and how insanely much I adore this character and ahhhhhhhh but I’m just going to leave that scene there in our collective memories.)

Jamie. JAMIE. Higgins has given some great advice about love on this show, but his musings about his up-and-down relationship with his own father were not helpful in the context of Jamie’s dad, who is an abusive piece of shit. I really adore that all of the main AFC Richmond staff members are realistically a bit hit-or-miss with their advice and life philosophies (some are mostly miss this season, of course).

And I am completely in awe of the moment when Jamie punches his father. The way he just stands there after Beard kicks his dad out of the locker room. The way you can hear a pin drop. And Roy—Roy who is learning in so many areas of his life about his influence on people, learning that the things he needs aren’t necessarily the same as the things other people need—is the one to cross the room and hug him. Hold him, really, with the tenderness Ted used when he hugged Rebecca outside the gala in 1x4. God.

I’ve thought a lot about how s1 was about giving people a soft place to land. There’s always an angel there when you need one. There’s always an opportunity to be kind. If you look for someone, you find them. If you look for the good in someone, you find the good. And as everyone works through their individual journeys in s2, that can’t always be the case anymore. But there are still so many moments of angels on this show, and it’s not about chance and serendipity and fate [not that it was about that in s1] but about the effort it takes to become someone who can be there for someone else. Or who can be there for yourself. I’m so proud of Jamie for physically fighting back against his father. I’m so proud of Roy for being the one who recognized what Jamie needed.

I have every feeling in the world about how Ted is almost totally frozen both times (s1 and s2) he witnesses Jamie’s father abusing him. In s1, he was still there for Jamie after, and I have every reason to believe he’ll be there for Jamie after this incident as well, but that frozen stance HURTS. He’s in so deep with his pain about his own father that it’s like he physically cannot snap out of it to act in the moment. It seems entirely outside of his control, and it breaks my heart, because Ted wants so badly to be a good father, a good coach, a good friend, a good partner, a good patient. He’s there for people in all kinds of ways, even in his current less-than-capable state. He takes care of Sharon post-concussion and even gets her a new bike! During the disastrous match at Wembley his coaching is ineffectual and everything is chaos but he’s the last one standing on the pitch! But this really awful thing keeps happening to Jamie and Ted is just…frozen in the face of it. Like one of those nightmares where you’re running in place.

The frozen-in-place nightmare also kind of applies to the way the total separation between Ted and Rebecca feels, too. I have never for a moment doubted the writers’ intentions in setting these characters up as soulmates on parallel journeys, and I’m actually really digging (on a story level) how disconnected they are right now. It is IMPRESSIVE that their absence in each other’s lives feels like such a glaring loss, one we cannot forget even as there are so many other things happening onscreen. It is 100% not just shipper goggles making me process information about Ted while thinking about Rebecca and information about Rebecca while thinking about Ted. I know there are a lot of really angry and frustrated people in the fandom right now (both T/R shippers and T/R antis and non-shipping fans who don’t get why s2 is different from s1) and while I understand being frustrated by choices characters make, and frustrated by the feelings the show makes us feel that we just want to feel more of or less of, I continue to agree with pretty much every narrative choice happening right now.

Agreeing with the narrative like this?! This is such a unique experience for me as a viewer—to feel like I’m on a ride that is at once absolutely wild and incredibly sensible and well-crafted, and to feel simultaneously completely invested and anticipatory and speculative but also totally willing to trust where it goes. I long for Ted and Beard to really talk. I long for Ted and Rebecca to stop missing each other. I long for Roy to have a serious conversation with Ted about what’s happening with him. I long for Keeley to find a vocation, something that drives her beyond her projects. I long for so many things! But I wouldn’t long for them if this show was less good. If the show was less good, I wouldn’t have a wish list a mile long because I wouldn’t be so attuned to the details and potential lurking in every scene. THIS IS SUCH A GOOD SHOW, I CANNOT HANDLE IT, I LOVE IT SO MUCH.

(To that end, a great deal of the Ted Lasso tag and so many Twitter reactions reactions to the show feel super stressful right now and I am kind of just trying not to look?! I love this fandom so much because of the amazing conversations that happen and because of brilliant fic and because there are some awesome people I never would have encountered were it not for this show. That little bubble is wonderful and I’d stay in this fandom no matter what in order to keep experiencing those things. But fans’ catastrophic reactions to every little thing that happens, every little choice a character makes that isn’t the “perfect” choice? The takeaway that the writers—on this show of all shows—wake up in the morning ready for another day of torturing shippers rather than another day of writing a beautiful story they genuinely want to write? I do not enjoy those parts at all. I would like to opt out of those parts. I’m having such a magical experience watching this show and talking about this show and listening about this show and writing about this show with a variety of people who feel all kinds of ways. I truly wish I could somehow transfer the energy of this experience onto all the people who are hating it right now. I don’t mind at all that people are having vastly different reactions to this show and are sharing their honest feelings, including the really angry ones (I can appreciate something and disagree with it!), and I get that sometimes the language of fannish reactions is intentionally, ironically hyperbolic. But there feels like this very serious trend of people legitimately thinking writers on this show are targeting shippers and have lost respect for their characters, and I just feel like an alien from another planet when I see that stuff. I guess I just feel like people make art because they want their art to be visible to other people and to themselves, but that doesn’t typically involve specifically catering to or torturing a subset of that audience?)

I am more fascinated by Sharon Fieldstone than ever before. I have been running through every single action with her and Ted so many times. The confirmation that she’s living in club-provided housing (that could not look more different from Ted’s club-provided flat). Ted clearly noticing the many bottles. Sharon’s face while she tries to casually recycle them. (Sharon could legitimately have a more problematic relationship with alcohol than Ted does, and I find that extremely interesting and am very curious to find out what happens there.) Sharon leaving him voice notes while she’s concussed, probably because she’d been thinking about him shortly before the accident. The way Ted calls her and does all the funny voices and it’s not frustrating like all the times he uses his silliness and allusions to deflect during their prior conversations because this time, those behaviors are just a part of him showing care for another person. The way they stretch each other, and Ted is still wrong about the things he’s been wrong about, but they both grow all the same.

While it is pretty much impossible for me to imagine that this show would include an actual romantic relationship between Ted and Sharon (it would be beyond unethical even if they could write it well, and Sharon in particular is so professional and committed to her work, and it would erase so much of the powerful message about the importance of seeking therapy from a professional who is not your friend or partner, and I would totally hate it), watching this episode was the first moment I had this queasy little feeling that it’s possible that Ted could end up developing really complicated feelings about Sharon since, at this point, he’s been honest with her about things he’s hardly spoken about before and you can really form an attachment to people you feel safe with in a new way. (I mean, I’m sure Michelle knows what happened with Ted’s father, but I’m not even certain if Beard does.) He’s so broken right now, and Sharon is such a great person and so different from anyone else in his life (even though Rebecca is also different, and Beard is also different, and Roy is also different, and so on), that I could see things getting really fuzzy for him. I continue to have faith in the way the storylines on this show are handled. I’m just. Putting this here.

(In saying that, though, I also wanna make it really clear that I don’t just automatically assume anytime a new female character is introduced that they’re going to end up becoming a romantic complication. Like, Phoebe is allowed to have a teacher who is an attractive woman and AFC Richmond is allowed to have a sports psychologist who is an attractive woman and Keeley is allowed to talk to Jamie Tartt without it threatening what she has with Roy and all these people can exist as human beings without the introduction of romantic drama.)

Isaac gives every player one haircut per season, OH MY GOD. The JOY during the haircut scene. YES.

KEELEY AND REBECCA. Their text thread. The affirming video call right before Rebecca goes into the restaurant. The way Keeley sits all snuggled up against Rebecca in her office.

I was pretty thoroughly spoiled for the Sam and Rebecca plot through 2x8, and I was bracing for something far more problematic and tortured than what happens in this episode. The words I would use to describe their scenes: awkward, cute, cringy, and understandable. There are a million reasons why this relationship isn’t sustainable, but I felt completely understanding of both their choices here. This show has a lot of thesis statements, but I keep going back to the idea from 2x1 that there are people who enter your life to help you get to the next point, and I think it’s entirely possible that Sam and Rebecca will mutually be that for each other.

I find comparisons between Rupert and Rebecca super upsetting. There are absolutely meaningful things to say about the irony of ending up in a situation with an uncomfortable resemblance to certain taboo elements of an ex’s situation. But that ex is abusive and manipulative and cruel and Rebecca has exhibited NONE of those behaviors, and it makes me really sad to think that people feel that the writers on this show have betrayed Rebecca in giving her this storyline.

As always, I reserve the right to keep blathering about this show. I’ve had a headache for a couple of days, but my head is also so full of 2x8 thoughts that I couldn’t keep them in even if the circumstances for writing this were not ideal. I kind of hate that I’ve included frustrated fandom thoughts within the analysis of what I felt was an absolutely gorgeous, complicated, heartbreaking, near-perfect episode of television, but if ya can’t be a little dramatic on your own tumblr while you’re feeling raw and under the weather, where can ya?