#or analyze as if they’re characters. and that’s Not Great actually! no matter how much everyone wants to claim it’s just ‘fun and whimsy’!

[charcubed]

.

[alicefromwhichplanet]

Why Optimus being a good person in upper class/ Megatron being an angry rebellious lower class is a great and meaningful plot

Recently, with TFOne coming out, I’ve learned that the new movie made changes to Optimus and Megatron’s backstories and instead of giving them different backgrounds, like coming from different classes (like in tfp or idw1), they’re put in the same class as colleagues in mines. I’ve already seen people celebrating this as “an innovation/ something new” and an uplifting of Optimus’s character, because as the lower class he gets to rebel, therefore Megatron’s character aura won’t overshadow his. But actually, I am quite disappointed at this change. I think such arrangement is a worse one, not a better one, especially to those who love character depth and realist plots.

First of all, I want to argue that Optimus and Megatron carry every different roles in all transformers shows in general. By this I mean no matter how the plots change, the foundation of their motivations are different—maybe only except for Shattered Glass, where their roles are exchanged. Megatron’s foundation of motivation is: war/chaos. No matter how much his actions are justified, Megatron is still a bad guy, because he sticks to a path of violence and destruction rather than peace and negotiations. In contrast, (I put Megatron first because Optimus’s motivation is clearer if compared with Megatron) Optimus’s underlying logic (the foundation of his character motivation) is: peace/order. No matter how brilliant the battle scenes were, no matter how much he talked about “stopping Megatron at all costs”, Optimus’s final goal is to seek peaceful solution to the conflicts he engaged in, and find a way to resume order. That is also the basic logic of every transformers show, and how the playwrights justify autobots as the good guys, decepticons the bad guys. (This can be easily understood through series that give Megatron and decepticons fully justifiable motivations, like tfp and idw. They started the war because they were angry at the unjust treatments, and became villains because they eventually became a source of ongoing chaos and destruction)

With this premise, it is not difficult to see how brilliant and intelligent it is to put Optimus and Megatron in two different classes. Because people’s thoughts vary with very different experiences. In the past successful shows like tfp, the conflict between Optimus/Megatron is perfectly explained with an idealist/realist contrast.

Being an idealist advocate of freedom and equality is a successful way most Optimus(es) are portrayed. Under this premise, Optimus is basically a good person with strong sense of morality. He is aware of the problems in his system, seeks a change, but because he is from a more “privileged” class, or to say, closer to the power holders, he tends to develop an idealistic view of solving problems with milder approaches: handing in proposals, talking with congress members, or growing his own influence and trying to persuade the congress. In any of these cases, Optimus’s ideas are in line with his background. And like any well-written character, he is limited by what he can see in the class he belongs to.

As we’ve analyzed at the very beginning, Megatron’s characterization mainly revolves around “war and chaos”, one clever way (tfp and idw) playwrights used to make him more than just an evil stage prop is to make him more of a realist, in contrast with Optimus’s idealism. This usually comes with the backstory of Megatron coming from the bottom of the society, rebels with violence against social suppression he could not endure— at the same time, he also has a natural tendency to seek radical solutions. With this disadvantaged background, Megatron’s violent behaviors and refusal of peace are not groundless actions. It is a clever way to reflect the reality and increase plot depth. In my opinion, explaining “why the villain does evil” is the key to a successful story.

Another thing I want to argue is that, I don’t think giving Megatron and decepticons a justifiable backstory is diminishing/ “overshadowing” Optimus’s character. Because as we analyzed above, Megatron and Optimus have different roles to play. One overthrows the old system, the other rebuilds the new system. One raises the question, the other spends more efforts to find a feasible solution. Optimus and Megatron are two sides of the same coin. The depth of Megatron’s motivation actually decides how brave/noble/meaningful Optimus is in the act of “defeating” Megatron. For example, If Megatron’s “evil” is flatly portrayed as a bad-tempered child throwing a tantrum, Optimus’s “act of justice” is merely an older child calming the naughtiest kid in class.

Some believe that “not being able to stand up and rebel against suppression (like idw Megatron did)” made Optimus somehow “uncool” compared to Megatron. But he’s not. In fact, Optimus’s journey is not a bit easier compared to Megatron.

Instead of “suppressed class rebelling when there’s nothing to lose”, Optimus’s growth arc follows the route of a compassionate upper class who can look beyond where he stands for, and resonate with people who’s living under him and away from his life. Compared to Megatron’s “outward rebellion”, Optimus’s rebellion is “inward”: he has to fight himself to reach the higher ground— fighting the urge to step back into his conventional ways of thinking, fighting his self-doubts and inborn modesty to step back from leadership (very well presented in TFA and TFP), and by the end of the war, in most Megop fictions, Optimus has to fight back the urge to continue the war as he is used to, and step forward to “see” and “move” Megatron— understanding him, reaching out to him, loving him. Many people take “fighting on with the villains” as a braver, manly act, but actually stopping the conflict takes more courage and wisdom. And in the long run, it’s always a superior choice.

In short, I still think writing Megatron as the rebellious lower class and Optimus a compassionate upper class is a genius idea beyond comparison. They’re bound to be different, and there’s no harm in creating separate backstories for them. Like I’ve read in an early megop novel that has become a classic: “I’m here to do things you wouldn’t, so that you can do what’s right.” (Megs to OP)

In my own impression, Megatron is a radical revolutionary, and Optimus is an idealist reformer. The two carry different aims and functions in the plots, their values contradict and supplement each other, and so when they’re finally united, sitting down and listening to each other, their unity is incomparable.

[littlemisspascal]

Rockford & Roan

Pairing: Tim Rockford x Female Reader/OFC 'Roan'

Word Count: 2.8k

Summary: You meet Tim Rockford in the true crime section of the library of all places.

Rating: T 

Warnings: Language, reference of self-harming + assault, meet cute, Reader has a dog, Reader has military background, Superpower AU, They Were Roommates AU, self-esteem issues, soulmates-ish, original characters, worldbuilding

- Reader has no first name and no physical traits described in detail except for being shorter than Rockford

Author Note: Elements of X-Men and Sherlock/Elementary mashed together because my brain said so. I've got more of these two (plus another Pedro Boy *cough* Thief *cough*) outlined if y'all are interested in seeing more of this world. It was a lot of fun attempting this new guy 😊

Special thanks to @beecastle for beta reading and encouraging me 💜💜💜

Part 2

The Session

You cross your legs, trying to get comfortable, immediately grimacing when the plush leather couch squeaks as a result. Your psychologist’s office smells overwhelmingly of lavender from the burning candle on her desk. Dr. Odair insists the smell has a calming effect to combat anxiety, but you remain unconvinced. You’re unconvinced about a lot of the advice these mandatory sessions offer, actually.

“How’s your search going?” Dr. Odair asks, pen poised above a fresh sheet of paper. “Have you connected with anyone?”

According to the internet, Dr. Charlotte Odair is one of the leading experts on empaths, telepaths, and other similar mind-gifts in the world. She’s also renowned for helping discharged military personnel integrate back into civilian society which meant you didn’t have much of a choice seeing anybody else.

Most people’s emotions are a finicky and erratic mess, shifting and fluctuating depending on the countless number of influences stemming from one’s surroundings. Some feelings are easy to identify at once, others are too obscure or complex to be named. The latter are the ones which overwhelm you. The ones which bury beneath your skin, an itch you can’t scratch no matter how harshly your nails dig into your arms, deeper and deeper until they’re stained red. 

Dr. Odair’s emotions resemble crystalline waters, transparent and blatant. There’s no second-guessing with her, no hidden tricks. She’s been trained, masterfully so, to carefully bind her feelings to her will.

“Yeah, it’s been going great,” you answer, then nod down at your feet where a small, golden brown dog lies with his chin on his paws. “Connected with Banjo here over the weekend. We’re a total match for each other.”

She fixes you with a look over the thick rims of her glasses. “Is that so?”

Compared to humans, animals have a much smaller range of emotions. They broadcast exactly what they want like a neon sign, whether that be food, shelter, or a good petting. And if their desires are met, the hum of their contentment is a far more pleasant tune than most songs on the radio nowadays.

You’d actually been looking to get a cat when you went to the pet shelter, dismissing dogs as too needy and energetic for your liking, but fate had other plans. One look at the little mutt, with his tangled fur and deep, froggy bark, and you were signing the adoption paperwork within minutes. And still, even after that unexpected love at first sight moment, Banjo continues to surprise you with how easily he adapts to your routine, standing by your side like he always belonged there.

You tell Dr. Odair as much, but there’s no response even though you know she’s absorbing every word out of your mouth, turning them over in her head, analyzing each syllable. Her mood remains almost frustratingly steady, giving no indication as to what she’s thinking. That look remains though, blue eyes narrowing even further. 

“You never said my match had to be another human.” Your hands tighten around Banjo’s leash, hoping she doesn’t catch the defensive edge your voice has taken. 

Her pen starts to scribble a note across the paper, too similar to a doctor’s chicken scratch for you to read upside down. 

You bite the inside of your cheek, glancing towards the flickering candle. Damn it. 

“Miss Roan,” Dr. Odair begins, and you taste blood on your tongue, “I know it’s annoying, being forced to attend these sessions every week, but the fact of the matter is, empaths aren’t meant to live alone. Especially not after what you’ve endured. Finding someone to match with is what your empathy needs to finally settle down.”

She makes it sound so easy, like the rest of the world doesn’t have any issues with mind-gifts and the lack of privacy that comes with them. Like there isn’t a set of laws specifically written for people who can read thoughts with a single touch or predict the future through dreams because their gifts aren’t as flashy, as visible, and thus in the eyes of the government that makes them the scariest threat of all.

On the battlefield things were different. The laws of polite society didn’t apply, not out there amongst the pools of blood and ceaseless gunfire. Your mind-gift was a tool to take advantage of, capable of numbing pain away faster than drugs and boosting the troop’s morale to a near fever-pitch. There was no time to stop and assess the damage you were self-inflicting unintentionally by overworking your empathy. Nobody who cared enough about you as a person to recognize the warning signs—not even your own self.

It was a miracle, as your commanding captain would later put it, when enemy forces staged a midnight raid on the camp and a man pinned you to the floor, radiating nothing but vulgar lust, that your lapse of control only resulted in putting every hostile within a mile radius to sleep instead of killing them instantly. 

A miracle for the unit maybe, but for you it marked the abrupt conclusion of your military career. Loss of control of one’s gifts stipulated their immediate release from serving, even if in your case it saved lives. Your discharge papers were officially signed and filed by the higher-ups before you regained consciousness three days later with a pounding headache from hell. Your mind-gift, once seen as a helpful aid to win battles, was now a time bomb dumped into the hands of Dr. Odair to deactivate. 

And what is her brilliant solution? Matching. Or, as it used to be called back in the olden days when gifts were thought to be divinely bestowed instead of being entirely unpredictable mutations in one’s genetic code, soulbonding. A powerful connection forged between two individuals, locking their gifts together and intertwining their lives until death splits them apart. 

Movies and fairytales will describe matching as the ultimate manifestation of true love, but love’s got nothing to do with it. Matching is a direct result of a human’s innate instinct to survive. It most commonly occurs when one or both members of the potential pairing possess dangerous gifts likely to cause harm to themselves. Supposedly, the bond is instantaneous once the two meet, causing their gifts to settle down, easier to control. Balancing each other out as if they were two halves of the same whole.

Sounds wonderful. In theory, at least. The biggest problem with matching is it can’t be done with just any random person. It can’t be forced either, not even between established couples. The bond happens solely on the choice of the gifts, not the will of the people involved. The hows and whys and other intricate details of the fateful decision-making process remain a mystery, one perhaps beyond mankind’s ability to ever solve, but regardless, it’s hard to argue against the overwhelmingly positive end results. To date, every recorded pair has admitted their match stabilized their gifts and saved their lives from an early death.

So until your mind-gift figures out who it wants, all you can do is walk the streets of Fox Leap, searching for just the right stranger in a sea of wrong strangers, empathy buzzing like a live wire pressed against your brain with each disappointing encounter.

“I am looking.” You’re being honest, despite what the dropping of your eyes to the floor might suggest. It’s too difficult to meet her gaze, afraid of the pity you might find shining through her carefully maintained facade. “I’m just not sure they want to be found.”

The Meeting

You meet Tim Rockford in the true crime section of the library of all places.

Fox Leap Central Library has essentially become your second home ever since you sought shelter from the rain one miserably gray afternoon two weeks after moving there. It’s one of the few places in the city that doesn’t make you feel like ants are crawling along your spinal cord, designed with dozens of cozy spaces to curl up with a good book and cup of coffee and zone out for a couple of blissful hours.

Your eyes are drifting over the colorful covers of fantasy books offering to transport you to alternate universes full of mythical beasts when you feel it. A flash of anger, stronger and more intense than anything you’ve ever felt, illuminating your mind-gift identical to a streak of lightning tearing through the darkness of night.

The emotion fades just as fast as it made itself known, but your empathy bays like a bloodhound picking up a scent trail, urging you to follow it to the source. Your fingers twitch at your side. Not with the desire to scratch, you realize with surprise, but to soothe. You haven’t felt this kind of compulsion since you’d been on the frontlines, taking away the pain from bullet-stricken soldiers, but that had been your purpose back then, a duty expected to fulfill. 

This…This is a purely selfish want.

You bite your lip, glance down at Banjo, tail wagging as if to say what are we waiting for?, and then surrender to the temptation.

Three aisles down stands the library’s only other occupant in sight: a tall, broad-shouldered man in a white shirt and tan trench coat with dark, unkempt hair like he’s been running his fingers through it lately. He’s rubbing at his stubbled jawline, brown eyes glaring beneath furrowed brows at a book on serial killers. 

He’s the perfect example of tall, dark and handsome but it’s not his looks that has your pulse quickening, a flutter of something dangerously akin to hope beginning to stir. If Dr. Odair’s emotions are a crystalline pool, then this man’s are an ocean in the midst of a storm. Turbulent on the surface, rough and irritable, concealing unexpectedly mesmerizing depths luring your mind-gift to dive deeper and deeper–

“Psychic or empath?” the man asks without looking away from the shelf, a slight raspiness to his voice that has your stomach flip-flopping before full awareness of his question even registers.

Startled back into your own head, you can only manage an eloquent, “Huh?”

He finally turns, piercing you with his gaze, intense yet not unkind. The storm afflicting his temperament lessens some, followed by a series of feather-light curious touches along the edges of your mind-gift.

You suck in a breath, expecting the stinging bolt of displeasure that usually follows when someone interacts with your empathy. Whether they’re being delicate or not, it’s never fun to have the most sensitive part of yourself poked and prodded and toyed with. But there are no symptoms of a headache in the seconds that follow. Only a strange sort of thrill at the connection. A sense of rightness.

And there’s that damn fluttering again…

Once again, you find yourself caught off-guard, unsure how the roles have swapped so quickly from you seeking to comfort a stranger to now you being comforted by him.

“Empath,” he says after another beat, answering his own question with a confidence that’s neither tentative nor arrogant. It sounds like a regular fact of life. The sky is blue, the sun is hot, and you’re an empath. 

��Y-yeah, that’s right.” You nod your head, hands trembling where they are clutching Banjo’s leash. God, you don’t understand what’s wrong with you, why his stare has such a strong effect on your galloping heartbeat. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to–”

The man looks down at Banjo then, taking in his snaggletoothed grin and perked ears with a soft smile of his own. “Cocker, poodle, schnauzer—interesting ancestry. I bet you have quite the story to tell.”

How did he–? You shake your head, getting your thoughts in some semblance of an order now that you’re no longer the sole focus of his attention. “This is Banjo. I adopted him from the shelter last weekend. We’re still getting to know each other.”

“Oh, good,” his soft grin widens, revealing a dimple in the side of his cheek. “It won’t take long to catch up then. How do you feel about takeout?”

You blink, frowning because huh? Is he just asking your opinion or is he asking something…more? It’s been so long since you’ve been asked on a date, you’re not even sure what the common etiquette is anymore. Isn’t everything arranged online nowadays? Swiping left or right and all that app rubbish?

“My schedule is unpredictable which leaves little time for cooking or grocery shopping, so at least three days a week I order takeout,” he continues, seemingly oblivious to your increasing confusion. “I also have frequent bouts of chronic insomnia, sometimes I’m up for days without any sleep.”

“Why are you telling me this?” 

The question comes out sounding ruder than it had in your head, but if he’s offended by it the man shows no outward sign. “I figured if I were in your shoes, I’d want to know upfront the annoying traits of who I’ve matched with.”

“Who I’ve–?” you choke on the words, eyes widening.

Oh, you think faintly, a strange clarity sweeping over you, at last connecting the dots that seem so incredibly obvious now. What better reprieve for an overwhelmed mind-gift than an underwater safe haven muffling the chaos of the city. It’s you.

The Offer

“Rockford,” the man—your match—says, extending a hand to shake, warm and calloused. “Tim Rockford.”

You introduce yourself, probably looking a bit unhinged with how wide you’re grinning but you can’t help it. You finally found your match. The urge to run to Dr. Odair’s office and jump on her sofa, screaming he’s actually fucking real! at the top of your lungs is near irresistible.  

“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you,” Rockford says. “I had a feeling our paths would cross soon once I settled into my new place. An apartment a couple blocks from here. Three bedrooms. One for me, one for my office, and the other is yours if you’re interested.”

Your eyebrows lift incredulously. “Seriously?”

“A good roommate is hard to find these days,” Rockford responds easily, shrugging. “Who better to live with than my match?”

You think about sharing a space with someone else. Someone who's human that you can have a two-way conversation with over meals, who doesn’t react to your mind-gift with repulsion or contempt. He makes a good point; good roommates are hard to find. A yes sits on the tip of your tongue, held back by a little voice in the back of your head insisting it’s too good to be true. He’ll grow tired of you eventually. Get sick of you dipping in and out of his head like a parasite. You should say no. There’s too much of a high potential you’ll wind up hurt and alone again. It’s too risky.

But, another voice chimes in, deep down beside the fragile hope, if it worked out for all the other matched pairs, then aren’t the odds in your favor? 

“You barely know me,” is what ends up coming out of your mouth, a weak extending of a shovel for him to dig himself out of his offer.

He hums a thoughtful note, head tilting to one side, and your shoulders start to instinctively tense up in preparation of rapid backpedaling. A sudden wave washes over your mind-gift, though, steady reassurance drowning your budding fears.

“I know you’ve recently been discharged from the military,” he begins calmly, that same matter-of-fact tone from before. “I know you’re new to the city, not by personal choice but because you must attend mandatory sessions with a psychologist who resides here and has an excellent reputation with patients sharing your similar background. You’ve begun dreading the appointments—possibly because of trust issues, more likely because until you meet your match there’s very little she can do for your empathy and that frustrates you. And I know you adopted Banjo hoping he would pass as a substitute for me, but while he’s been helpful providing companionship, your mind-gift has continued causing you pain up until our meeting.” A pause for a quiet breath. “I think we have quite a solid foundation already, wouldn’t you agree, Miss Roan?”

“I–you–what?” You blink dumbly at him, brain function short-circuiting. Seriously, what? “How on earth…?”

“We all have our gifts."

And maybe it’s because he doesn’t elaborate further, meeting your quizzical stare evenly, still emanating steady reassurance, that makes it surprisingly easy for you to make a decision. You want to know this man. Not just his likes and dislikes, no, you want to know his happiness, his hurt, all the miserable shades of his sadness and every sharp pang of his rage. You want to look at him the way he looks at you: confident and steadfast. Unique to him in all the world.

If the stories are true and he’s going to be a part of your life for a long, long time, then you have the distinct feeling you’re going to need every one of those precious seconds to understand the infinite depths of Tim Rockford.

So, you nod your head. “Okay,” you tell him, lips curling at the corners into another wide grin when you detect how pleased he is with your agreement. “Let’s give it a try.”

“Meet me there tomorrow afternoon,” he says, grabbing the book he’d been burning holes into earlier with his glare. “445D Albatross Lane. Bright yellow door, can’t miss it.”

Then, turning on his heel in one fluid movement, he heads for the front desk, leaving you to process how a single meeting has just shifted your entire world on its axis.

[yuseirra]

I do think deeply when I read a work. Of course, whether my ways of thinking is a common way of experiencing a story is up for debate, but I take it seriously.

I’m not incapable of seeing a story as a whole and summarizing it. I’ve done that kind of analysis several times before.

Onk, however, is simply unfinished. You can’t properly evaluate something unfinished—it should be returned, rewritten, and resubmitted. That’s what this is.

It’s not that it’s incomprehensible. Actually, it lines up really well with mythology. But then it makes me wonder, "Was I supposed to know Japanese mythology to understand this manga?" Like, seriously? (No, really, Kamiki overlaps with a specific god so much that it feels intentional. Down to the detail of not being officially married to his wife in the myth—there’s speculation among the people, but it’s never confirmed. And, in the myth, there’s a story of this god drowning. I think that’s why Kamiki drowned in the story, but I’m not even sure he’s actually dead himself. We didn’t see his body. I feel like he might have survived, unlike Aqua. So many things about this character are too strange and he was never explained. What if the author intends to use him somewhere else?;; I doubt this but my friend was suggesting this a pretty serious manner and it made me ponder)

Oh, and did you know? Just yesterday, I found out that Sarutahiko has this characteristic of his eyes sparkling brightly. Apparently, his eyes literally shine, as if something is in it.

Even so… leaving aside whether it’s a masterpiece, a failure, or something in between, the fact remains that this story doesn’t provide the necessary explanations within itself. You can’t understand what’s going on without analyzing it on your own.

A friend suggested that some of the shared settings might be explained in other works by the same author, but…

"Should I care?" That’s the thought that crossed my mind, it made me genuinely frustrated. That’s the author’s business, not the readers’. People spend their money and time expecting to see a complete story. This is just wrong. You shouldn’t write stories this way. If they needed to work on something else, they should’ve put this on hiatus. Even so, when it comes to serialized works that are published for years, sold as volumes, and turned into merchandise—this is unacceptable. No matter what, you need to tie up loose ends. This story wasn’t tied up; it was just left hanging.

That’s how I feel about this piece right now.

I think I understand what kind of mindset led the writers into writing like this. But I don’t want to be so understanding about it, because I actually cared so much thus far. It makes me angry and very frustrated. I’m not usually the kind of reader who fights with authors, but this kind of ending makes me feel like, “Is the author trying to pick a fight with me?” It really feels that way. It’s too much. The author is so mean. Maybe not intentionally, but still, how could someone treat their readers—especially the ones who truly love their work—like this? Knowing and still being careless is worse. This kind of author doesn’t deserve readers who genuinely care for their work.

They should do it properly. Don’t just brush things off vaguely. Whether it turns out great or terrible, sincerity is visible if it's there. But as I watched the ending, all I could think was, “Ah, they’ve really given up.” I get what they’re trying to say, but they’ve just dropped the ball here.

Is it just their personality? Like, they have something they want to say but are afraid of being clear about it, so they’re just like, “Oh well, that’s how it was, I guess!” and then quietly leave without a plan for what’s next. There are probably people like that in the world. Must be a comfortable way to live. But then don’t use such heavy material if you don’t have a plan! Why didn’t they just end it at Volume 1?

I’ll take some more time to think about it and work on my own art.

Reading this manga made me realize I really need to write my own story. So, I’m finally planning to create something original. Before I die, I want to share my story with the world too.

[arizonaaaaaa]

Glee cast sings Born This Way by Lady Gaga

Marry the Night sung by Elliot ‘Starchild’ Gilbert in “A Katy or a Gaga”

-I’ll say it right away, I think this cover is better than the original, I’m not ashamed to say it, maybe just a bit, Elliot’s version of the song is just so good you can’t love, would be better if he was in drag but that was too woke for Ryan Murphy

Born This Way sung by Kurt, Mercedes and Tina in “Born This Way”

-this is one isn’t better than the original but it’s also very good, I couldn’t imagine someone other than Kurt to say the little monologue at the start, Mercedes and Tina also kill in this song, however I’m still pissed they cut the “no matter gay, straight or bi, lesbian, transgender life” from the episode when Kurt just came back and Santana is dealing with her sexuality, it just fits so much, I also don’t like the shirts, I’d do something like Wanna be Startin’ Something and have all of them dance while wearing a Gaga outfit

Government Hooker sung by Puck and Rachel in “The First Time”

-I imagine this as Rachel trying to prove to Artie that she can be sexy while being a virgin, she would ask Puck to help, and while he does great with his bad boy charm she would once again rock the “sad clown hooker” look, I’m not sure if Puck could do a Dutch accent but it’s worth to try

Judas sung by Joe Hart in season 4

-two words, Kitty Wilde, Joe had no storylines this season, and if I’m being honest I think they were trying to push a romance between these two before deciding to create that random romance between Kitty and Artie, either way it could be interesting seeing Joe singing this, as if “Judas” was tempting him into sinning, and I mean, what is Kitty if not a little satanic version of Quinn Fabray?

Americano sung by Cassandra July in “The New Rachel”

-I don’t like this mash-up🫣, I would either stick with Americano or Dance Again, since this is a Gaga post that’s what I’m sticking with, it’s not all that spectacular but it gets the job done, Santana could do the song justice but I rather not have the only Latina sing this

Hair sung by Quinn Fabray in “The Purple Piano Project”

-Skank!Quinn deserved a song! This song feels almost like a coming out scene, making a connection between hair and freedom, since it’s the only body part we can change without judgment, guess what happens with Quinn’s hair this season

Scheiße sung by Brittany, Quinn and Santana

-honestly I just want Quinn and Santana singing a feminist anthem, their voices would work a lot, and it kind of matches their season 4 selves, just throw Brittany singing the “German” parts and there, you have an amazing trio

Bloody Mary sung by Tina Cohen-Chang in “The Sue Sylvester Shuffle”

-this would be PEAK goth Tina, she and the girls would be in their zombie make up on stage teaching the glee guys and the football players how to be scary and zombie-y, Mr Schue and the gluys would hype them up while the football guys would be confused and a little scared, Tina was really robbed of solos on the show and I think she deserved this one since her only actual solo in season 2 was cut less than halfway through

Black Jesus † Amen Fashion sung by Mercedes and Quinn

-this was hard to choose, but after analyzing the lyrics as well as the background of the song I think these two would fit quite well, Black Jesus represent a different view on both religion and life in general, which for me fits Quinn’s character, while Amen Fashion represent how easy it is to change just like your fashion, which after thinking really represents Mercedes personality change from season 3 to 4, she obviously became more mature and a better friend for me, they’re also Christian which was another reason to assign them this song

Bad Kids sung by Noah ‘Puck’ Puckerman in season 3

-this song is very Puck coded, especially his “Lima loser era”, the song starts with a heavy guitar solo but the guitar is barely used after that, if Puck would sing it, I would make the song way more rock n’ roll to fit his vibe during the end of the season, also the song is about embracing yourself for however you are, and I guess Puck would embrace his bad kid side

Fashion of His Love sung by Mercedes Jones in season 5

-this song was made for Mercedes Jones in her adult phase, being a tribute to Alexander McQueen and Whitney Houston, it fuses elements from McQueen’s fashion, Whitney’s inspired beats and several references to religion and god, this had so much potential on being a church choir song

Highway Unicorn (Road to Love) sung by Brittany and Kurt in “I am Unicorn”

-I was actually dumbfounded when this song wasn’t featured at all in the episode, like, the episode is named after unicorns what do you mean, this could be one instance where a character just starts singing, which would be Brittany and another one joins in after being confused with the sudden singing, which would be Kurt

Heavy Metal Lover sung by Kitty Wilde in season 4

-this would be the song Kitty would choose to confess her love for Ryder, which would be actually very funny since this song is so kinky and bdsm-y and Ryder is objectively the most vanilla guy ever, I can totally picture him being all 😃 during the whole song, sadly for Kitty, Ryder doesn’t reciprocate her feelings

Electric Chapel sung by Elliot and Santana

-I actually don’t have idea for an episode or season where this song would fit, the only reason I chose this two is because I think their voices would fit the song, also because this is my favorite song from Gaga ever, and I think they would do it’s justice

The Queen sung by Marley Rose in “Diva”

-Marley doesn’t sing in the episode at all, she could sing this to show that despite being shy and sweet and kind she can still be a diva, or in this case a queen, also this song may be a tribute to Freddie Mercury and it’s kind of a coincidence since Blaine sings a song by him on the episode

Yoü and I sung by Shelby and Will in “Mash Off”

-I’m not a hater or this mash-up but I am a fan of this song, so no mash-up, Will does sound really good but he sings more of the other You and I so I’d distribute the lines a little more equally between the two, Shelby does a decent job, the song originally talks about a past relationship of Gaga, but I guess lyrics wise it can also be a song of Will wishing the New Directions could be together again, it was never shown but I know he was sad over the girls leaving, they were kind of his daughters, Shelby is just giving support, hate this woman

The Edge of Glory sung by Mercedes, Quinn, Santana and Tina with the Trouble Tones in “Nationals”

-this song was done great, I have no complaints, Santana sing in the start is the best part for me, Quinntina slay their verse and Mercedes does excellent as usual

And that’s it, this was really fun to write, I absolutely love this album, it’s by far my favorite, the next one is ARTPOP, and I’ll admit I didn’t like this album at first, but upon re-listening to it opened my eyes to its perfection, see you next week or so :)

[petrichormore]

AND ONE MORE THING: DRAMATRIO IS FINE

(Also to be clear: I like analyzing these things. I enjoy “arguing” over these characters - it’s like enrichment to me, it’s fun, I’m never actually mad I just like writing long posts. And yeah the following is about the characters, not the CCs.)

I see a lot of people talking about how the election is tearing apart friendships - specifically the dramatrio and how Bad and Baghera don’t trust Forever anymore and yadda yadda

And to that I say: Are you sure?

(loooooong analysis below cut)

Are you sure? Because last I checked all three of them greet each other warmly. All three of them care deeply about each other and get along well. All three of them have repeatedly stated that they wouldn’t mind if one of the others became president - and that’s still true. They are at odds politically, maybe, but I think people are overestimating exactly how much they disagree. They argue about politics and they criticize each other’s points, yes, but that doesn’t mean they don’t trust each other or that they think anyone would “become a dictator.”

And I’m seeing that a lot too, on twitter and on tumblr: this idea that Bad and Baghera are convinced Forever and Cellbit will become dictators. And while I think it’s interesting… it isn’t true. I can only imagine this came from the debate where Bad and Baghera criticized insaneduo’s perceived embracing of centralized power? (So did Gegg/Slimecicle, btw) But once again, it’s not Forever and Cellbit that they distrust (well Cellbit maybe a little), it’s a position of centralized power that technically only has to listen to the Federation. Which is a valid ground on which to criticize an opponent’s platform, at least in my opinion. (I agree far more with socio-anarchy aka Bad’s position than a centralized government of any kind so I’m aware I’m biased on that.) But I’m not biased in saying that Bad and Baghera definitely don’t think Forever and Cellbit would become dictators, they’re simply wary of what the Federation could do, and also aware that absolutely power corrupts absolutely.

And before I get to how Bad and Forever are still clearly besties, I do want to hesitantly broach the idea that the position of president - as it’s presented by the federation - is not inherently democratic. In fact, I’d argue it’s kind of more similar to a dictator role, or maybe that of a monarch. The president is not required to listen to anyone, the president does not have to have the peoples’ agreement. The only force the president is actually required to answer to is that of the federation. Just because the president is called “the president” and the federation is making people vote for it doesn’t mean the position itself is democratic in nature - just the process by which the position is decided. You could call the president “king” or “ruler” and it would fit just as well.

Anyway.

Bad said just today that he thinks Forever would make a great president; his problem is not with Forever, his problem is with the Federation. In fact, Bad is still completely okay with Forever entering his and Dapper’s home, and if Bad really felt like Forever was a threat? I assure you that permission would be immediately revoked. And yet it hasn’t been.

Bad and Forever literally spent time with each other on stream today, and neither of them discussed politics because politics doesn’t matter in regards to their friendship. This has always been the case, and nothing has really changed. People claim Bad got more distrusting of his friends due to the election and I’d say he didn’t get more distrusting of his friends in particular - he just got more distrusting in general, because people were being secretive. He’s paranoid, and he’s right to be. Also I know Bad told Etoiles that he might (MIGHT) help Foolish kill other candidates (besides Gegg and Baghera) and I’m saying: He’s not serious. He’s not being serious. He’s a silly guy. Like try and picture Bad genuinely trying to help Foolish kill Forever. You can’t. I know you can’t. Because he’s not serious. If anything, he’d probably just want to watch Foolish get killed trying. This is the same guy who proposed a whale pit of death as a viable assassination method - he’s not actually out to kill anyone (except elquackity) he’s just messing around. He thinks it would be funny, and he’s right. If Bad actually kills a candidate (that’s not Elquackity) unprovoked I will be so so proud of him.

Because if Bad wanted Forever dead - if he truly thought he needed to kill Forever or Cellbit to save the island - they would be dead. And Bad would do it himself; he would do anything to protect the island’s inhabitants, and he’s fully capable of it (I recall Baghera getting upset with him specifically because he refused to promise not to, under any circumstances, kill her.) Bad will kill if he feels like he has to - he just honestly doesn’t really want to. It’s that shrimple.

[rickktish]

Today my mom and I finished the 90’s superman TV show Lois and Clark and it’s a really great series and I think every superman fan ever should watch it because Henry Cavill has nothing on Dean Cain, but that’s not actually what this post is about. This post is about the fact that in a pre-Superboy Jon Kent world, the central arc of Clark Kent’s character was that he wanted a family of his own, and this culminates in (spoilers) the last episode being centered on the question of what to do about having kids since Clark’s biology is not compatible with humans’ for making babies, and my anthropology major brain couldn’t not analyze this through a gender/sexuality lens since I took a class all about the cultural impact of gender and media portrayals of it.

Here’s the thing: in the vast majority of media (I almost said western media but then I thought about it more and I think it’s actually pretty darn universal) infertility is a female plotline. It’s one of the few plots that is inherently feminine in nature because for so much of history we’ve viewed infertility as a woman’s concern. If a man and a woman can’t have a child, after all, it must be something wrong with her, right? (Ha. Ha. Ha. It’s not funny, actually.) But this means that this silly little superman show from the 90’s is portraying an infertility plot line, but the problem isn’t the female character’s fertility, it’s her husband’s. Except that since fertility is an “inherently” feminine plot line, we get almost no emotional impact of this news on Clark himself. Lois, after all, is the one who spent the second to last episode going through the question of whether or not she’s ready to have children and deciding that she is. It could perhaps be argued that this is because Clark has been ready for a while, because a family is all that he wants, but I think it’s also because the question of a working woman choosing to have a child is, culturally speaking, a very different question to a man choosing to have a child, and has been since women became acceptable in the work place.

Here’s my point though: Clark gets the news that he can’t reproduce with Lois, goes to talk to her, and ends up holding her as she mourns this loss of something they were hoping for. She doesn’t comfort him, except by coming up with actions they can take to try to get around their incompatible biology. Lois is the one who gets to mourn, while Clark continues to emphasize that they will be okay no matter what because they love each other. And all I could think about watching this was how removed Clark was from his own fertility. How completely separated he was from it. Because in spite of the issue being his fertility and not hers, Lois is the one who gets to have an emotional arc about it, because she is the woman in the story.

One of the solutions they come up with is to ask Lois’s father, who (in rare fashion) is not a general but instead a handy-dandy generalized “scientist,” to see if there’s anything he can come up with for them. In order to do so, though, they need to reveal to him that Clark is Superman. The whole scene where they’re trying to figure out how to tell him feels a little bit queer, because I can see a modern writer turning everything from it into a trans reveal instead of a secret identity, but that’s a little beside the point. The point is that still, at no point does Clark seem distressed for himself, but instead for how Lois feels about all this— up to and including the point about her mother’s lack of maturity meaning that she doesn’t feel safe telling her they’re trying to have a baby or that they’re facing infertility.

And from all this, somehow all I can think of is how far we’ve culturally removed men from power over their own fertility. It feels like the only things that get discussed on the news or in shows, up to and including the abortion issue, is women’s fertility. We rarely talk about giving men education about and control over their fertility, only women. Women’s bodies, women’s rights, but what about the fact that the men don’t seem to be attached enough to their own fertility to know or even consider what they can do to control it for themselves? I actually wonder if the requirement (historical or present, depending on where you live) for women to get permission from their husbands to get their tubes tied has more to do with men’s fertility than with their wives’, because in some ways it seems that the only control a man is offered over his own fertility in our culture is by exerting control over his wife. There’s an alienation between men and their ability to procreate that honestly baffles me now that I’ve thought about it. It’s separated from them by their relationship with their partner’s body, and I wonder if somehow giving men more control over their own fertility, and educating them about it and how they can reclaim it from where it has been outsourced to another body, might be a positive step. I wonder if our cultural disconnect between fathers and children might take a few steps if men were taught to view their reproductive systems as more than just pleasure centers, as a part of their personal fertility.

I don’t really know where I’m going with this, I think there’s more to be explored with this idea but I’m not fully prepared to go on the biological tangent with it yet so I think I’m going to leave it at that. I just. What would it take for men to reclaim their own fertility from where it has been culturally outsourced to women’s bodies?

[mdhwrites]

Why Can I Say So Much About The Owl House?

I effectively got asked this on Twitter and A: If not for all of yours asks, I probably would not even half of the blogs I do about TOH, if not closer to a tenth. B: I’m an analytical person, like talking about things like this and writing is my passion. Above all else is C though. The writers of TOH obviously know what a good story looks like... But they don’t know WHY it looks that way. They understand that character arcs are good so the more character arcs, the better. They understand that rivals to lovers is a great archtype ripe with storytelling possibilities but also that people complain about couples only getting together at the end. It understands that fantasy tropes are mocked so it’s good to mock them or lampshade our own use of them instead of asking if that mocking is in good faith. This one especially rings true for this concept to me because of how many times the show will try to claim they’re not using a fantasy trope before going “OH! We actually NEED to use the trope to make our story function, almost like the thing we’re mocking is actually just a part of fantasy storytelling as much as it’s a trope.” It’s very much so a “What do idiots on Twitter complain about” method of learning writing. You learn it by what people criticize as much as you learn by what is praised. The Cinema Sins approach effectively where there’s no nuance. The point is to attack every ‘problem’ you can claim in a product mixed with the question of “What do people praise the most about Avatar?” And for a simple story... That can work. It’s part of why S1 works. In general, S1′s storytelling is very much so nothing special but it’s done with charm and confidence. The only problem is that the show is setting itself up for larger topics, themes, concepts, etc. that it also isn’t prepared to tackle at the same time because there’s not enough thought put into each element so that they don’t contradict each other. Or, for that matter, function as a whole instead of disparate parts. From a narrative standpoint, this is a NIGHTMARE. You’re in effectively a narrative uncanny valley where all the elements for a good story are there but the skill of the writers, their priorities, etc. like that are NOT equipped to cash the checks their pencils are writing. It’s effectively a mindset that will ALWAYS have a crash happen narratively where things just fall apart and you’re going to divide audience the second that happens depending on where they land on the twin sides of the Uncanny Valley. And while ruinous for a story... It’s amazing from the standpoint of a teaching perspective. Most bad works after all have a core rot to them. Their main character is bad, the concept from go is flawed, the writing is just atrocious, etc. like that. Most have works one or two glaring flaws that tank the rest of the work, or that rot is purely in the form of lack of effort and it’s just boring with little to even care enough about to analyze. TOH IS different in that way. There is obviously a lot of love put into it. A lot of passion and a lot of confidence. It understands ALL of the tropes that work well for the type of story it’s trying to tell. On paper, TOH actually has a really good story and the different elements have a lot of potential for different ways for that story to go. But you need to know WHY those elements are useful for the story being told. If you don’t... You’re making a stew without the meat. There is no core flavor because you’ve shoved everything into it regardless of if it clashes, if it needs to be prepared in a certain way to work, if it needs to be cooked in an entirely different way before being added, etc. like that. It can’t even really have any real inventiveness to it like using bread as a scoop because it’s checking boxes. It’s saying “X is liked so we do X.” You need to know the why before you can give a unique answer to the problem that X solves or the like. This is probably why things most praised about TOH are titles. Swap Luz for a guy and how much changes, especially since Luz is bi? But because Luz is female, she’s heralded as part of a new wave of female protagonists that she is nowhere near the start of. Amity could have been an asshole dude and not much changes with her either but making her female as well gets you titled as the first openly gay, Disney TV cartoon (which god if that’s not a lot of caveats). It’s stuff that is frankly more easily answered in a panel than ever on screen because they’re elements that don’t matter to the show, as much I appreciate it for inclusive. It’s not an LGBTQIA+ story though. It only happens to have those characters. It’s not a story about race and ethnicity and being an outcast, Luz just happens to be Afro-Latina and no one rejects her simply for who she is. It’s not a story about gender because the show steadfastly refused to say racism and bigotry exist outside of just being a part of how we know the bad guys are bad people. It wants to be praised for these elements, it wants to appear smart about and unique for having them... But it’s a basic fantasy story at the end of the day. It’s none of these other things and it hardly wants to be any of them, even as it also won’t commit to just being another fantasy story. And... I guess that is kind of the personal motivation behind this. I LIKE basic fantasy stories. I LOVE fantasy as a genre in general. I think it gets WAY too much shit and that people try way too hard to claim to not be like other fantasy stories, either with gratuitous sex and nudity (Hi Game of Thrones) or constant subversion like The Owl House. TOH giving a middle finger to its genre though, while also not being willing to actually commit the proper care and attention to be something more complex is INFURIATING to me as a writer. I mean... I’m still angry just from a conceptual standpoint that Reaching Out has this setup:

Character A is normally brash and impulsive and energetic. Due to issues with their father, they are acting more reserved, scared and cautious, specifically because he DIED. Character B is normally more reserved, cautious and thinks things through. Due to issues with their father, they are acting more brash, impulsive and putting themselves in danger to prove themselves. And they’re dating. And Reaching Out does NOTHING with what is narrative GOLD. What is usually so hard to setup in a story because you want to show these sorts of contrasts, you want these sorts of changes of pace, you want this sort of reasonable, unreasonable conflict sources because they are such perfect ways to show how characters interact with their own problems, with others, what other sides of them can look like, etc. like that, LET ALONE WHEN THE TWO ARE IN A COMMITTED RELATIONSHIP! And the whole episode the two aren’t actually different from their normal behaviors, including Luz lying since that’s not new behavior for her, outside of Luz showing that despite death and loss being on her mind, she doesn’t give a fuck about that Amity is actively putting her life potentially at risk in this tournament. She literally gets BORED watching Amity fight and so joins herself for the sake of a distraction. Which... Different blog. I’ve made my point on how misguided these writers are but GOD there’s so many reasons why Reaching Out is one of the worst episodes of the series in my opinion. But that is also an example of what I’m talking about. They are trying a LOT. And failing a LOT. And instead of being really basic failures, figuring out what went wrong is an interesting puzzle and it’s understandable why some may not see the flaws, unlike with a more blatantly bad work like The Room or Teen Titans Go. Talking about either of those would be boring and almost pointless because... Look at them. Their flaws are so obvious and blunt and simple that you could teach with them but it’s not exciting and you’re going to run dry pretty quickly because neither ambitious enough not to be making the same mistakes over and over and over again. And for someone who’s brain NEVER turns off... I find ambition that obliterates itself far more compelling than something that is just straightforwardly bad. So I want to talk about it. Talk about the whys that the writers didn’t get. ======== I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

[margridarnauds]

To clarify how nervewracking being online can be when you’re in this kind of job: 

Like, we want to be enthusiastic about the texts we study! Great! I’d love to do nothing but write 100k words of fanfic about my favorite medieval Irish texts! ....but, especially with the less studied ones, that would tie it directly back to me because it isn’t like people wouldn’t be able to narrow it down. 

And then you have the thoughts of “If my colleagues find this, will they think less of me? Will I become a laughingstock? Will they be able to see the divide between me as a genuine fan of this material VS me as a scholar?” Academia actually IS aware of fanfiction these days, yes, to the point where we’ve had a couple of papers look at some of the texts from the angle of transformative work, and a few of my colleagues + professors even know I do write it, but there are limits. If I write a fanfic featuring a particular character as queer and then write a paper about a queer interpretation of them, will I be judged as just wanting to force my interpretation of that character onto them because....I have a ship? I take some amount of personal pleasure in it? I enjoy the medieval texts that I have to read multiple times as stories alongside whatever cultural or literary value they have and can talk about them on both levels? 

Every time I bring up that I’m writing a queer retelling, not a fanfic, a proper™ retelling™ of a medieval Irish text, people act like I’m writing gay porn. And there wouldn’t be anything wrong if I was! But that’s not what I’m writing. Now imagine that with the sometimes lurid connotations of fanfic. It’s fine for straight male scholars for decades to sexualize female characters or extensively analyze all the swords and spears that show up as phallic symbols, but god forbid you write content where there’s any hint of *enjoying* it if you aren’t a straight cis male. 

Alright, let’s say I don’t write fic about the field, it’s gone, it’s out the window, I give up on it. If someone is super dedicated, they can still figure it out. What about any E Rated fic I write at all? Will they think less of me for that? Will they read it purely to find something to pick apart? What about 5 years down the line when I’m dealing with the job market? Will they take one look at my application and, even if they’re aren’t homophobic, decide that I just Don’t Fit The Image They Want to Convey? What about 10 years from down the line when I have students? What about 30-40 years down the line when I’m (hopefully) a senior scholar, or at least....okay, an older scholar? Will what I write be the subject of grad students snickering at conferences? “Professor X, when they were a grad student, wrote slash fiction!” I’ve seen grad students making fun of each other’s social media, this is something that is a legitimate risk. And this is me talking about the generic term “slash fanfic” -- this is not going into things like A/B/O fanfiction that, while they’re wildly popular, are often associated very much with a level of fandom cringe. This is not talking about sexual expression, which, tbh, should be protected anyway. 

Plenty of people in my field adopt false names online for the sake of their privacy, as much as they can get, at least. Plenty of us hide or obscure our names. But the truth is that anything we do is a risk. And it shouldn’t be this way and of COURSE it’s biased against AFAB and queer academics (do you KNOW how many times I’ve been to a conference where the subject matter is just....Straight Male Writers™ writing poems or stories about medieval Irish texts that we then have to analyze because they’re Part of the Canon™ now? While I have to fear for my career for writing...oh wait, very comparatively mild queer content that generally acknowledges that women are people), it makes me furious every time I think of it because it is so *deeply* unfair to the point that I start to shake a little bit like a chihuahua whose rage has exceeded its body mass, but...I don’t believe any of us have delusions that these are the rules we’re playing by. 

...you go into this sort of thing because you’re passionate about it and then you find that you have very few ways to express that passion. 

[befuddled-calico-whump]

Okay, I’m really sorry, but I am unhealthily obsessed with this. If I’m being annoying, please let me know, and I will stop. But I love this so much.

It’s really interesting that Sahota has a bird tattoo, because birds represent freedom, but he doesn’t seem to be free. He doesn’t want to be doing this, and I can’t decide if he actually likes Vic or just respects him out of fear. I assume fear, because he says “Who do you think I learned it from” when asked if Vic would want him to do this. He has done a lot of black ops, which is part of the reason he is so desensitized, and also part of the reason he is proud of Hunter for not tapping out-- in black ops it is seen as a good thing to not stop; at least that’s what I’ve found from my sources. 

Kaius is really interesting because he analyzes what is going on around him, but he also picks and chooses what he wants to pay attention to. What actually matters. Also, he kicks during the fight with Sahota rather than punches, which is really interesting, because usually kicking is done when you are unsure about your skills, because legs have a longer range then arms.

Jericho doesn’t hit first, and he doesn’t want to hurt Sahota, and he hacks so he can fight against stuff without hurting anyone. It is already mentioned that he is the most empathetic person in the group, but I think he is also a logical person, even moreso than Kaius. He thinks before he acts, and when he does act, he goes all in. He reminds me a bit of a character in a Douglas E. Richards book.

Joy seems to be the most empathetic after Jericho, but she likes weapons. Guns are a distance weapon, and therefore help to stay separated from the death. She doesn’t seem to want to fight, getting the fight done as soon as possible. I’m assuming she wanted to go first as well.

Benji is amazing, and my favorite, so I’ll probably have the most thoughts on him. The sleight of hand tricks are amazing to me, especially considering he doesn’t have sleeves, which makes it harder. Not impossible, mind you. Musicals being his coping method is great, because that’s how I cope with stuff. His talking to get himself out of situations is pretty great, and on brand for a theatre kid. A tongue as shiny as the Chrysler Building and twice as valuable. 

Hunter is my second favorite, I love his hair! Lots of people say that black is a protection method, a way to shield yourself from the world, but I think it’s the opposite for Hunter. I think his bright hair is a way to protect himself; people aren’t paying attention to him anymore, they’re paying attention to his hair. Also, the tech in his head is really interesting. I think that maybe when people are annoyed their shade gets darker and when they’re amused their shade gets lighter?

please don't be sorry I am incredibly delighted at all your comments and analyses 😭😭❤️❤️❤️

You put a lot of thought into this and I LOVE it. Pretty on point with your delves into the characters (particularly Sahota, which is impressive considering he hasn't gotten much in way of bio or screentime)

You're super right about Jericho and Kaius in terms of logic. Kaius is the stereotypical 'analytical logic minded' guy, but Jericho is waaaay better at judging people's intentions, which is far more helpful in an everyday situation

The guns thing with Joy too! I had that thought, but couldn't figure out how to put it into words, so I'm glad you could 😂

Benji usually wore a coat when he was starting out with sleight of hand, but he's learned quite a few tricks since then

And Hunter's hair? 100% lol. It's a unique sorta defense mechanism for him

Again, thank you! Stuff like this does wonders for my motivation to work on a story, and I really appreciate it 😄❤️❤️❤️

[tokyo-daaaamn-ji-gang]

So what do you think about the writing on Takemichi breaking up with Hinata?

On first viewing I was cringing because “Why would you choose to say that Takemichi!?!?!?”

And I was laughing when Hinata just decided to box with him to the point of jumping on his body and continue to pound him, not because I view a girl hitting a boy as funny but because I didn’t expect that at all, also I was baffled at Hinata because that felt extreme “There’s no reason for that Hinata! There’s other fish in the sea.”

But now looking back because of the anime adaptation I realize the scene wasn’t as bad as I thought.

It made sense for Hinata to be angry because Takemichi is clearly lying and Hinata’s been nothing but honest with him so I understand her anger

And with Takemichi I realize that him saying he likes someone else to be a little smart because that would have Hinata question the least then to say it’s dangerous for us to be together because why would you wait to tell someone that.

But I do view the scene as a little flaw because what I remember from the manga translation Takemichi says he’s fine with this because Hinata will have a better chance of living in the future where they’re not together.

HOWEVR, in the last timeline when he’s Toman top dog and she still ends up killed so the writing makes Takemichi look really stupid for not realizing that fact

But I’m curious how you feel about the scene because the fandom feels pretty dead to me for this season because there’s not a lot of people talking/ analyzing it (and the fandom on Reddit is pretty negative about it)

I actually really love this scene in both the manga and anime, I think it does a good job at showing Takemichi's and Hina's chatacters. For Takemichi I think him going along with Hina's dad's advice and breaking up with her makes a lot of sense. It's what Takemichi has been shown to do best, he's running away from the situation. He's scared for Hina so he's leaving her behind. This was something he was especially shown to do in the original timeline, when something gets too much for him he runs away, he abandons it and in a way that's what he's doing here, he's fallen into his past behaviours.

As for his excuse of another girl I think it's like you said because it's an easy and obvious excuse that's pretty self explanatory and won't get questioned. But also because it's an excuse which doesn't put Hina at fault, I mean it still sucks to hear this but it's definitely gotta be better then him blaming it on one of Hina's behaviours, I think he's still trying to spare her feelings.

And as for Hina this also a great scene for her, it's definitely not great that she beat up Takemichi because that's definitely something which shouldn't be done no matter how upset you are. But with her doing that it perfectly shows her loss of control and emotions, it shows just how upset she is by this, much better then it would've been if she'd just been crying. What she does here goes completely against her character and her morals, Hina is a pacifist who's opposed to violence.

The only other time we see her getting even a little violent is when she slaps Mikey but to her that was an emergency situation where the guys who kept beating up Takemichi turned up to school and were trying to kidnap him. So for her to completely lose it and go against her morals when Takemichi breaks up with her it perfectly illustrates just how much this break up hurts her.

In regards to the future and the flaw yeah I can definitely see that. The only reason I can think for Takemichi going ahead with the plan knowing that he breaks up with her but she still dies is because he wasn't thinking about her death when making that decision. Maybe instead he was thinking more about the present and the danger of Hina being hurt by rival gangs. Kind of like he was viewing Hina's safety in two separate ways, the first being saving her from dying and the other being keeping her safe in the meantime. I think this works especially well after the confrontation with the black dragons. It works better in the anime since Hina got a lot closer to being hit and hurt but the threat is still there in the manga.

So maybe him breaking up with her wasn't to try and save her from dying since he already has a plan for that but to protect her from the threats of the past.

That's just my take though.

[glassautomaton]

Could you share headcanons or niche facts about Omega-7 / Iris, Adrian, and Beatrice? I really adore them and am interested to see how you interpret them. :]

Hoo boy, Adrian and Beatrice. Those are characters I’ve given a fair bit of thought to, both since they’re important to Iris’ backstory and other reasons I’m sure you’re privy to from ready my sandbox. Fun fact, I originally thought Adams was Beatrice’s brain in Sophia/Olympia Zero’s body, but it turns out I just misread some foreshadowing for other stuff in the original Resurrection run. That’s not really relevant, but how crazy would that be, right?

Unfortunately I don’t have much in the way of specific headcanons to give you at the moment, not like I could with Iris and the lot. I did have some stuff I wanted to put here, but some of it is going to end up in my next tale, so I’ll say to look forwards to that.

I don’t have quite as many headcanons as these characters aren’t really ones I’ve built up in my head so much like original characters, rather than characters I sort of inherited. Then again, not too much with them was actually written - or at least survived the Great Wiki Purge - so a good amount of the characterization is open. I’ve put a short write up for them as well as some headcanons under the cut.

Adrian was put on Able’s team as a psychologist, though this was mostly lip service at the time, as I figure (and it has been made clear in Resurrection) that if anyone was listening to psychological assessments of Able, he never would have been fielded. Able analyzed him, in his own way, as much and he analyzed Able, and over the course of Omega-7, he gradually wore down into a different person, though more on that later.

As for a niche fact, I think this was already shown in Voices Carry, but Iris’ revolver used to be Adrian’s. Having been less deft when it came to socializing with teenagers than Beatrice, he still wanted to bond with Iris a little, and taught her about shooting. Though Adrian was mild-mannered, he was a good shot and even participated in some shooting competitions with the task force. The significance of the gun changed as Adrian began to stress Iris’ role to her as time went on, as we see in Voices Carry.

She could be crass and boisterous, while Adrian generally kept to himself and was more bookish, though the events of Omega-7 affected both of them differently. Beatrice grew attached to Iris, and as time went on and more and more members of the task force were killed, parties stopped becoming an opportunity for revelry and started to function more as a way of her to take stock of who was left standing. She was scared for Iris, but ultimately wasn’t sure what she could do to help her. Adrian, on the other hand, came to see combat as his constant, and everything else was his downtime. Every day, living to fight, and for what? What was he fighting for? At a certain point, he didn’t really know, but he knew it didn’t matter. He didn’t have a say in the matter.

Iris I’ve already spoken about, but Adrian taught her how to fan-fire his gun like a cowboy and how to do all that Revolver Ocelot shit. She occasionally shows it off because she likes getting complements but doesn’t want to seem like she likes getting compliments.

[seeingteacupsindragons]

Yuukoku no Moriarty and Cross-cultural Interrogation

I’ve touched on this before, but something I find most fascinating about Yuukoku no Moriarty is the way it adapts such incredibly well-known works from a perspective so very foreign to the original media’s culture of origin.

Honestly, part of the reason I’ve always like anime and manga is because they aren’t stories that could be created in the anglosphere. They come from a completely different cultural understanding of not only how media works, not only one with different classics and literary inspiration to draw from, different tropes and literary devices, but just completely different values. Their stories spring from a different understanding of humanity and narrative, and it’s one of the most popular (and most accessible to a baby monolingual American) ways to get that kind of exposure to Something Else. I loved books from Ireland and Australia in a similar (but generally less intense) way.

Yuukoku no Moriarty is a very Japanese series targeted to a Japanese audience, but it’s also an adaptation of two very famous pieces of British literature. Two of the most famous and most commonly-adapted pieces of British literature. They’re so well-known that they have oozed into Western media to its core at this point, and you don’t even have to have been exposed to them to know of them, to know names, characters, and tropes that they inspired. Three pieces, if you include Shakespeare and William’s obsession with it and repeated references.

And on top of that, a significant chunk of the material is also sourced from Christianity and references to that, which is…

Well, have you seen the way anime usually does Christianity? It’s always very. Uh. Interesting. Japan is not a Christian culture and never has been; Christianity stands at less of the population and it’s never been so entrenched in it that an…accurate understanding ever took root. A lot of Americans and Europeans see Christian values and rituals as so common and matter-of-course that they think they’re secular or universal. But they are a product of a very specific place and culture, and not everyone shares those values.

Takeuchi-sensei and Miyoshi-sensei understand Christianity in a way I think is much more nuanced than most anime and manga and they seem quite familiar with it. It’s really great! But it’s also very apparent that they are…well, very likely not Christians themselves and, even more importantly, not steeped in a Christian cultural environment. And as well-read as the creators of Yuukoku no Moriarty are in these original works, as many obscure references they can fit in, as much of the series is actually literally in English…they don’t have the same values a British Christian does. They use Christianity the same way they use Shakespeare and Conan Doyle and Fleming: it’s a useful literary device with meaning they can leverage, but they’re not beholden to it.

Now, Yuukoku no Moriarty is a deconstruction of a lot of things. A lot of things that…came from the original sources they’re using, but also of other things. The concept of justice and revenge. Of anti-villains and anti-heroes and morality and. Of the roles of heroes. Of detectives and goodness and darkness and shadow. Of adaptations themselves.

And a huge part of these deconstructions is discussing these very British, very Western narratives and values, taking them apart, analyzing them, and then commenting on them in a way only someone who doesn’t see these values as a matter of course can.

I talked about this before when I’ve discussed YuuMori as story of atonement. Sin, guilt, dishonor, and atonement are incredibly cultural, and the way they’re viewed varies wildly from place to place and culture to culture.

William thinks committing sin, committing himself to sin, makes him the devil. And devils need to be exorcised and sent to hell. There is no reforming the devil. There is no atonement for the devil. The devil is a symbol of sin and punishment. He can’t reform himself, because if he did, there would be no punishment for humanity. Christian theology starts to fall apart without Hell and the devil, because a big factor in Jesus being…relevant…is that he emerged from Hell to save people from it.

But even if William is a Christian, his creators are (probably) not. Hell and eternal punishment in flames isn’t William’s path, because while Christians may punish sinners with eternal torment and brutal justice…that’s not the only way to deal with wrongdoings. And…most religions don’t…rely on eternal suffering as a punishment for Being Bad.

(I’m not saying Christians and cultural Christians are the only people who find some kind of virtue or value in suffering, but it’s not actually universal, it’s kind of horrifying if you think about it, and it is very much a hallmark of Christianity)

The series doesn’t even beg you compare William to Christ—it does it for you. Moran says he looks like a man climbing Golgotha. He’s featured with halos of light as he preaches evil. Albert refers to him as a good shepherd who found a lost sheep (Albert being the sheep). He was reborn on Easter in a wreath of unholy fire, out of the Hell that was the Moriarty manor, to save humanity. He’s done the “reborn in a new world” thing twice, once after a long period of time in isolation alone to repent of his sins and be tempted (by Sherly). I could go on and on about this, but I already wrote about it once. I could do it again, but not here.

Quite honestly, the very excessiveness of the symbolism might not work as well in a Western work. The over-the-top nature of the comparison works for an audience who isn’t going to see it everywhere all the time so easily—and it being so over-the-top I think makes it easier to swallow than if it was tempered in a way that couldn’t be poked a little fun at. Once again, this is being treated and respected as something to use as a literary device, not necessarily respected as a Moral Authority.

It does something very similar with Western history. In case you were not already aware, the history in Yuukoku no Moriarty is. Very inaccurate. Very, very inaccurate. I’ve made jokes before about how Yuukoku no Moriarty is historical fiction to make its foreign readers scream, but it’s not actually meant for foreign audiences, and our reactions are really secondary. Japanese culture is probably taught some of it, but not enough to be wincing through the explanations of things—and, much like it does with Christianity, it twists Western history as it wants to suit the story being told. It doesn’t matter if it’s accurate or not, because it services the story this way, and Western history is no more sacred than anything else.

Because if it’s (Christianly) sacred, then it can’t be deconstructed and commented on. And the series wants to do that. It wants to comment on Britian’s history of imperialism and its proxy wars. It wants to comment on America’s freedom vs inequality vs power vs manipulation. It wants to comment on those things, because they aren’t totally foreign to Japan—it has its own history of imperialism and oppression and manipulation and inequality. But approaching it from the outside makes it safer, easier to deal with—and viewing another culture’s flaws and values can allow someone to evaluate their own.

And, from my own perspective as a Westerner, it’s really fascinating to see these things from my own culture treated as malleable and useful story material. To break them down to useful chunks on a thematic level instead of accuracy to really evaluate what’s true in the stories and what matters about the stories. To see the same tropes I’m so familiar with, the same stories I’m so familiar with just because I Live As A Westerner, being wildly reinterpreted as something else. To see what else they could be and what other shapes they could take.

We see quintessential British superspies being reinterpreted as the way Japanese sees superspies. We see The quintessential Great Detective reinterpreted in the way that Japan loves to focus on the human, emotional elements of men instead of the cold logic Holmes is often subjected to in the West because of where we place our values on men. We see the Shakspearian theatrical tradition mixed with traditional Japanese theatre like Noh of Kabuki where performers are expected to wear masks and overact as a matter of course. And it mixes Christian religious imagery and references with a story that does not at all share the same philosophy because Japan is rooted primarily in Shinto and Buddhism.

Yuukoku no Moriarty a great opportunity to see cross-cultural interrogation at work. It’s just. Fascinating to see how it works. And maybe sometimes it doesn’t work. Maybe sometimes the choices are a little strange. But the very existence of the choices is just such a wonderful thing to see and really dig into. But Yuukoku no Moriarty is commenting on Britain and white, Western culture from an outside perspective, and that’s always interesting.

[droppingartintotheinfinite]

Ok! So! Big Goncharov revival has happened on tumblr recently, and I’ve decided to take the opportunity when it’s handed to me to talk about one of the best movies I have ever seen.

Bear with me for a moment.

For those unfamiliar, Goncharov (1973) was a movie directed by Matteo JWHJ0715, a (then closeted) bisexual filmmaker from Italy. Martin Scorsese then lent his name to it to provide a popularity boost for the American release, which is where we get the common misconception that he directed it.

It stars a Russian mob boss named Goncharov (no first name given, for reasons I’ll discuss later) who’s brought a few key members of his gang to Naples, Italy in order to get revenge against Italian mob boss Mario Giglioli. (A good breakdown of the movie’s plot can be found in @mst3kproject’s review, which I would link here but tumblr is being weird)

Along the way, we’re introduced to his wife, Katya Goncharova, his right hand man, Andrey, Mario’s wife, Sofia Giglioli, and a few others.

Goncharov is an almost nauseatingly stereotypical man. What stereotype, you ask? Why, all of them! He’s a tall, heavily built man with a thick accent and a tendency to reference “Mother Russia” in tones of alternatively nearly reverential praise of Soviet era Russia and harsh condemnation of the Russia he leaves during the movie - the Russia directly after the Soviet Union’s fall. The way he does this is heavy handed and obviously written by a man who’s never visited Russia in his life in any era, to the point where my own lax education on the country doesn’t actually leave me unqualified to analyze the film, despite the majority of the main characters originating from it. (Though I’m sure there are great analyses to be made on the cultural inaccuracies within the film, especially given how many are entirely deliberate- but I’ll get to that later)

He’s also exhaustingly heterosexual, and very much being so with an eye towards to the beliefs of the time. There are many scenes in Goncharov that are hard to watch today, and many of the scenes between Goncharov and Katya are among them, especially the dinner scenes.

Here, you may be saying, “But Sol, didn’t you say the director was bi?” And hey, hold your horses, we’ll get to that.

Katya, Goncharov’s wife, is on the surface an ideal 70s housewife, if a bit more murderous than the average due to her mafia husband. She makes him dinner every night, defers to his whims without argument, and spends most of their shared scenes standing behind him, never beside.

She also violently murders him to avenge her lesbian lover, but as I’ve said, we’ll get to that.

Mario Giglioli, Goncharov’s rival, is just Goncharov with an Italian accent. I think if they could have cast Robert De Niro twice and had him play Mario as well as Goncharov, they would have. He has a german shepard and Goncharov makes one of his henchman steal it near the start of the film. I am unhinged about this man.

One of Goncharov’s few named henchmen is called Icepick Joe. He’s an ostensibly minor character who gets a bizarre amount of screentime covering his personal journey of *checks notes* petting Mario’s dog, stealing said dog, murdering his wife, stealing Mario’s dinner, and dying alone due to the poison in said dinner while the dog abandons him to run off into the woods.

He is quite possibly the most important character in the entire movie.

To explain why, I have to introduce two more characters, who fans of the film have no doubt been waiting for me to bring up since they started reading this post.

But first, let me talk about Goncharov’s marriage for a bit!

Goncharov and Katya are often said to have a loveless marriage, but the truth of the matter is a lot more complicated than that. There are moments throughout the film where it’s implied that they care about each other deeply, and that in any other circumstances they might have a perfectly healthy relationship, but they’re so mired in the idea of being the perfect mafia man and the perfect mafia man’s wife that everything they say or do is filtered though so many layers of performance that any actual affection they might hold for one another is suffocated under it.

No one in the film ever refers to Goncharov by his first name. There are a few contenders for what it might be - he signs his name N. Goncharov, which some have hypothesized could stand for Nikolai, some of the early promotional material called him Ivan Goncharov… but there’s nothing sufficiently internally consistent for it to be stated as his first name with true confidence.

This is deliberate. In an interview, JWHJ0715 stated: “[Goncharov] is a man consumed by his work. He’s forgotten how to be anyone other than Goncharov, mob boss, and the lack of a first name is part of this. […] Goncharov is a man who’s lost his identity in favor of the image he projects”

Katya, conversely, is only ever referred to by her first name, even when speaking to characters who would be expected to use her last. It’s not quite as complete an erasure - there are a few moments where she’ll be introduced as Katya Goncharova instead of just Katya, but the vast majority of the time she’s referred to as either Katya or “Goncharov’s wife”.

This, too, is part of an erasure of identity, though in a different way. Katya has so thoroughly separated herself from the role she plays as Goncharov’s wife that in the few moments she is referred to by her full name, you can spot a split second of confusion, like she doesn’t know who’s being spoken about.

There’s a sense that Katya is unable to be herself with Goncharov, that she’s become so caught up in the person she thinks he wants that she can’t be the person she actually is, and it’s masterfully played as this slowly poisons her ability to care for him and eventually leads to her faking her death and later killing him.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

(And, uh. Also ahead of my ability to write. This is getting long, so I’m going to break it here and post the rest later.)

[jennifersminds]

Hey! Hope you are having a great day.

So since I like you opinions and analyzes so much, I wanted to ask, Why do you think people hate Elena?

I know they have some reasons, like her sleeping with Damon and breaking up with Stefan etc... (Which I find terribly hypocritical because no other character is better at that point) but it's like they think Elena was ALWAYS a bad friend or a girlfriend, they ignore the times she sacrificed herself and asked forgiveness from Stefan. Honestly, I've left apps like Reddit or Instagram because of that, I can't stand all this hatred towards a fictional character who has so many fans as well.

Okay I'm gonna start off with - tysm !!! for this ask and I'm so sorry for the tremendous can of mental worms it's going to pop off bc i have thoughts-

There are actually alot of factors in play when it comes to the frankly insane amount of hate Elena receives, and in my opinion they vary between vaguely valid and batshit insane. Now this could very easily turn into an insane rant so I’m gonna try to speak objectively in an attempt to actually explain myself lmao.

The cards are already sorta stacked against Elena as a main character because audiences seem to have this individualistic desire to tear a piece of medias protagonist apart (especially if they’re female). I honestly can’t think of a fandom I’ve been in nor witnessed one where this doesn’t happen to some degree. Media literacy is a dying skill and alot of audience member struggle to grasp that the ‘fun, witty, sexy, bitchy etc’ side character is often a side character for a reason. Main characters are viewed as ‘attention hoggers’ for merely taking up the most screen time as if thats not what they were always intended to do. No matter how snarky or chill a character is people will always get tired of them for wining or crying or taking up too much room. Regardless of a piece of medias contents, audiences have a very short fuse with this sorta thing. So Elena not only being a main character, but a main character who’s literally the centre of multiple spells/prophecies and who is constantly undergoing horrific trauma because of this and therefore crying, makes her an unfortunate target for contrarian viewers who are already desperate to hate the shows lead just to feel different.

The biggest factor is, to likely no-ones surprise, misogyny. Both internalised and not, the shows 12-17 year old target audience combined with the actual blatant sexism displayed in the show itself are a recipe for disaster that implodes with every new wave of tweens that stumble across the show. Now I mentioned how alot of audiences hate main characters out of a need to feel different, amplify that by a hundred thanks to the fun and unavoidable ‘not like other girls’ phase that most of this age demographic is going through and you’ve got yourself an Elena-anti. (I’m not demonising this phase, the treatment of young girls in society makes this an almost impossible thing to avoid, however it is a big reason alot of girls hate Elena). The nature of the show adds to this aswell, as the Salvatore love triangle encourages audiences to pick a side, Stefan or Damon, and once you start choosing between brothers you feel the need to choose between every character. So you’ve got girls who like Caroline feeling a need to hate both Elena and Bonnie because the show makes it feel impossible to like more than one character at once. 

Now, building more on internalised misogyny- the biggest and most insane way people hate on Elena imo is the ‘crybaby’ accusations. This to me comes from a mixture of point one and two, a lack of patients for main characters and their ‘whining’ and ‘not like other girls’ syndrome. Now we can argue until we’re blue in the face about who lost more or who deserves to cry but in my opinion it doesn’t matter. Elena was grieving at every point in the show (something that I don’t think was properly discussed tbh), being actively groomed and abused (I’ll talk more on that later), and dealing with multiple threats on her life at the age of seventeen. She deserved to cry. In fact she deserved to do alot more.

So I’ve mostly been talking about audience and audience perception so far so let’s get into the actual show and its storyline. Now I mentioned how tvd encourages their audience to choose, this in itself isn't wrong or unusual, however with Elena it leads to the entire audience heavily sympathising with one of the Salvatore brothers. The young girls watching the show are told that they need to feel bad/happy for whichever one they like the most because otherwise why are they watching? Now I know it sounds like I’m just describing to you the basic steps of watching/reading anything however this is a problem here because - 

The Salvatore’s are not victims. They are not just love interests. The Elena/Salvatore love triangle isn’t a normal love triangle where all the parties are equally complicated and therefore deserve to be held equally accountable. Both Damon and Stefan hold a highly significant level of power above Elena. Not just because they’r older but because she is a child. And not just because she’s a child but because they both no more about her and the world she’s being tormented by than she does. This would be one thing if they made an effort to share this information with her along the way but they don’t, and not only do they use this to manipulate her along the way they hold her accountable for what she does while being manipulated by one of them.

Not even the way teenagers would hold each-other accountable in a normal high school love triangle, they hold her to the standards of an adult and because they do- so does the audience. And because the young girls watching this show have no reason to hold their fav hunky sassy sexy vampire boy accountable for how they treat Elena. They then hold Elena accountable for not just the things she does ‘wrong’ but the things the Salvatores fo wrong too.

All of Damon and Stefans misdeeds fall upon Elena, the people they kill/assault (caroline), the battles they start. She is blamed for all of it because, going back to point one, she’s the protagonist, and she’s at the centre of it all. And while it is true that in the lore of the show everything happens because of Elena and her doppelgänger status, she literally never has any control or autonomy throughout the entire run. She doesn’t bring vampires into Mystic falls. The vampires (salvatores) force their way into it just to fuck her. But because the show would have to sacrifice its perfect love story to discuss this, it doesn’t. So it’s primarily young audience (point two) ignores it/doesn’t think of it, and also blames Elena the way the Salvatore’s do. 

Okay I’m gonna wrap this up even though there’s probably alot more I should say but i will give my vague opinions on a few plot points.

Stefan had no right to be mad at Elena in season 4, at-least not the way he was. I mentioned before that Elena was held to the standards of an adult by both brothers well I honestly think Stefan is the worst for it. His whole self afflicting, tortured “I never thought you’d hurt me this way” thing was bullshit because.... why??? why did you think that? She’s a child. A literal child that your psycho rapist of a brother has been trying to fuck for two years now.

The use of Rebekah by both Stefan and Damon is very gross to me aswell. And I think relevant here too because both of these moments are prime “OMG look how self centred Elena is” things. Both Stefan and Damon use sex with other people as a way to punish Elena for stepping out of line. The choice of Rebekah is deliberate by both of them and to say otherwise is ridiculous in my opinion. Damon sleeps with Rebekah not 48 hours after she tried to kill Elena and Stefan after Rebekah literal did kill her. The attitude of the “You’ve never seen me when I’m not in love with you.” shit is enraging.

Anyway, I’m gonna end this here. I’d be happy to elaborate/get into more specific moments and reasons whenever but thank you again for this ask. Sorry it’s a bit late but I wanted to get as much out as coherently as possible lmao.

[weirdmageddon]

five years too late let’s analyze this. the commentary has gotten me back into gravity falls reigniting thoughts and insights i came to years ago

i love everything about this commentary in general it hits the points of humor, genuine analysis of the characters, but most of all im so glad hirsch addressed that the droid not detecting any fear from dipper here doesnt make any scientific sense because that was a massive CinemaSins moment for me

IDK the fact that dipper can fucking stand after an airship crash because theres a bigger threat at hand is literally one of the defining capabilities owed to adrenaline lol...... IM SORRY im a biopsychology student if i dont point that out iwill seethe and die because that was just . its a grudge ive held for a long time about this episode but didnt rant about because it was something so minor and i’m sure nobody would care.

i was 13 when this episode came out and i’m almost 19 now, i had a special interest in biology and i still do but now i’m actually having college classes in biopsychology so i can give my arguments more oomph now. and i have to say, now that i know more about the brain and autonomic nervous system the more this scene bugs me, if that was even possible. and it says a lot of dipper and ford’s relationship.

if dipper clearly wasnt calm before, why would he be now just because he’s put up an outwardly confident facade? before he was in the flight but now hes in the fight. my boy just rode on top of a spaceship by nothing but a magnet gun that could detach at any time if it failed and then the ship crashed, he sustained injuries, is in emotional turmoil because he thinks his uncle is Fucking Dead and the threat of a security droid that detects adrenaline is on his tail and produces a Big Fucking Gun in response to dipper saying “i hAvE a MaGNeT gUn” and hes screaming and has his teeth clenched but sure there’s no adrenaline coursing through his body in that moment i can totally believe that

when dipper asks what happened, ford says “the orb didn’t detect any chemical signs of fear, it assumed the threat was neutralized and self-disassembled” but i don’t think measuring someone’s heartbeat alone is particularly relevant in detecting ... chemical signs of fear?? they dont really tell you this shit but noradrenaline (and maybe adrenaline too if the acetylcholine from sympathetic outflow always activates the adrenal medulla??, theres two pathways) is always active in small quantities to make sure your parasympathetic nervous system doesnt slow your heart to dangerous levels on its own, regardless of your emotions. it’s just a homeostatic mechanism. your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems are CONSTANTLY modulating control of your organs on a see-saw, literally with every breath you take. simply standing upright causes specialized mechanoreceptor neurons in blood vessels to signal your brain to project signals to release catecholamines via the sympathetic nervous system to constrict your blood vessels so that blood is able to reach your brain and not pool in your legs. i have a deficiency in my body’s ability to adapt to this which is why i know so much about it. if i stand up my heart races to compensate. i’m not feeling fear, my body is just adjusting—albeit grossly and incompetently lol.

but what im saying here is that the security system is flawed. it’s a cool idea to have security droids detect fear, but in practice by detecting adrenaline, and not even directly by detecting the molecule itself—it’s done in a roundabout way by reading the heartbeat, could be a recipe for false alarms. like what if someone’s on beta-blockers. that’s not really an adequate way to measure “fear”; there’s so many variables that could interfere with the measurement the farther you abstract from what you’re really trying to detect. and besides, adrenaline is NOT just a sign of fear, it’s just for preparing the body for action. i know the sympathetic nervous system and adrenaline is constantly linked with the “fight-or-flight” reaponse to a stressor, but 99.9% of the time the sympathetic nervous system is used in your life is to balance out your parasympathetic nervous system to maintain homeostatic equilibrium for mundane things.

i think detecting amygdalar activation would be more efficient in detecting fear. the amygdala sends projections to the hypothalamus which then in turn modulates the autonomic nervous systems. but the amygdala is intensely activated specifically in response to a fear-inducing stimulus (it does activate in response to other emotions but they’re mostly negative and is most activated by startle and fear), and wouldnt be highly activated by many other confounding variables like measurement of the heartbeat could be. the amygala is one of the first stops directly from external stimuli.

to show you how integrated the amygdala is as the first step in registering fear after receiving input from sensory stimuli let’s look at the auditory-amygdala connection for example

see how the auditory thalamus projects to the primary auditory cortex and auditory association cortex? the cortex is where conscious awareness of what the stimuli is comes from. this is the “high road”. it goes sensing -> perception -> emotional response. but sometimes you can be startled without even processing what it is you’re sensing, like the startle response of an alarm or a phone ringing in a quiet house before you even register what it is. this goes sensing -> emotional response, without perception happening until after you’ve already felt the startle. that’s when it takes the “low road”. here’s a simplified version:

even if that were the case with these droids though it’s obvious dipper is still fearful on some level here. his body language, voice, expressions all give it away. for the amygdala, aggression isnt too off from fear so it would be detected equally.

the reason this is so important is because ford uses this as evidence for why dipper is special, “i did it?” “you did it. this is what i was talking about, how many 12 year olds do you think are capable of doing what you’ve just done?”

but like....did he really? i’m not saying this to shoot dipper down or make him out to be more of a wuss, he was incredibly strong-willed here and i dont want to take that away from him because it WAS growth on his part. but the underlying psychophysiological reactions of aggression and fear shouldn’t be that different and this was a total asspull. maybe the droid was so old that it fucked up. maybe dipper being covered in grime and dirt made it harder for the droid to measure the correct heart rate through photoplethysmography (im assuming since they use a camera and are non-contact).

and in all honesty everything i just said brings into question the interpersonal healthiness of ford’s judgements, what he thinks, his expectations, and how he communicates that. in this video alex already talks about how ford is projecting onto dipper. and i think ford may be projecting his expectations for himself onto people who are not him, and the fact that it’s on dipper here makes it far more unfortunate. you realize how much this boy idolizes ford, right? how much impressions matter? dipper even tells himself before he leaves in this same episode, “all right dipper, this is your first big mission with great uncle ford. don’t mess this up.”

even though it’s unstated, the implicit message dipper is perceiving from ford based on their dynamic is: “do you have what it takes for me to be proud of you?” and to accomplish this he must be like ford, even though he’s clearly not and he knows this. he says “i don’t think have what it takes. i was tricked by bill, i was wrong about stan’s portal, heck, i can’t even operate this magnet gun right.” then, by simple chance without even knowing what he did, he activates the magnet gun and pulls out the adhesive, which immediately takes the focus away from what dipper was telling ford about his feelings of inadequacy to ford saying, “yes! dipper, you found the adhesive!”

these thoughts of dipper’s hang in the air without resolve or comment from ford. we don’t know what ford would have said. but it then becomes painfully self-evident in the scene immediately after when the droids emerge and ford tells dipper, “they’re security droids and they detect adrenaline. you simply have to not feel any fear and they won’t see you”, to which dipper replies with an exasperated (and rightful) “WHAT?”

dipper goes in a panic trying to indirectly tell his uncle that this isn’t something he can do. and he is completely right and valid to be freaked out by that full stop. that IS crazy. you can’t control your fear. you can control how you interpret that fear in your higher brain regions but the physiological changes will stick around for longer than it takes to cognitively calm down. it’s easy for me to detach from my emotions to analyze them, but being able to do this does not come naturally for everyone. even i have an irrational fear of wasps and i can’t control it by detaching myself, my body is just automatically primed to get the fuck out of there. i know it’s stupid and i know it’s irrational and isn’t helpful to get myself worked up but i literally can’t stop how my body reacts no matter how i cognitively think about it. expecting composure from dipper in a situation like this when he’s being made to consciously be aware of his anxiety is absolutely fucking insane. look what you did, placing these cruel expectations on him, now he’s afraid of being afraid! this isn’t a case where two wrongs cancel out, they just stack on top of each other.

there’s a good reason these scenes were put side by side but it seems up until now it had remained unanalyzed.

what dipper fears from ford is disappointment. not living up to his uncle’s (quite frankly badly placed) expectations for a twelve year old with anxiety. not once did ford say or subliminally communicate “i don’t expect you to be able to do what i can since you are not as experienced as i am and that’s perfectly okay, no judgements”. you don’t put a child on bike before training wheels. you don’t throw a kid into a swimming pool without giving them swimming lessons. the way ford is doing it, there’s no room for trial and error or mistakes that are an opportunity to grow and learn; instead, it’s life or death. he only seems to pride dipper on what he can do while ignoring the underlying struggles that plague him and never making it known it’s okay for dipper to fail in front of his hero and that he won’t think anything less of him for it.

and that’s why i found the ending scene for dipper and ford’s adventure in this episode to feel so.. wrong. on a scientific and social level. because by the sound of it ford focused more on what dipper had done to dismantle the droid (the droid not detecting any fear) instead of how dipper displayed love and protection for him even if he was truly afraid. what if the science was accurate and the droid detected adrenaline while dipper was confidently standing up for his uncle. would ford still be proud of him regardless?