#or get me cancelled idk

[rebuke-me]

be more chill : hero, heroine, both or neither

or, jupes cares way too much about the journeys of media and audience reception

to start, am I allowed to flex my (near) college degrees? I'm going to. I'm doing college level research into the heroines journey, writing, and how audiences respond to it, and I have a fascination with fandom experiences. this is going to be mostly intellectual, but also be an attempt to be accessible for non-obsessed nerds like me. but this will assume you have at least a passing knowledge of the plot of the musical be more chill, a semi-awareness of the heros journey, and care about storytelling/writing.

now that that's out of the way, there's one more thing I want to get out of the way: my critiques of this show and it's writing is not reflective on the fans that enjoy it. I am a fan of it. I also like media analysis and criticism of things I love. if you are the type of person to take media criticism personally, this post may not be for you. 

on with the actual crux of my post! 

most (fictional) media falls into one of two categories: the hero's journey or the heroines journey. if you've dabbled in media criticism or storytelling, you've probably heard of the hero's journey. if you haven't, maybe you've heard terms like the Call to Adventure or The Death of the Mentor. if you still have no idea what I'm talking about, it's okay, I'll explain beat for beat later.

the heroines journey is more complicated. most writers aren't taught it, it's swept under the rug. which sucks, because it's a very popular storytelling medium, arguably more so than the heros journey. it's just frowned upon and ignored because it's mostly used in genre fiction, like romance novels. I don't have time to unpack misogyny right now. just know that the reason you probably haven't heard of this is because of misogyny.

also, to clarify: a hero does not have to be male, and a heroine doesn't have to be female, at least in the context of journeys. male characters can go on a heroines journey, and vice versa. stories also don't have to hit every single plot beat of a journey to be considered one- it's more of a guideline than a checklist. 

onto the actual topic of be more chill.  I saw a post that sent me on a rabbit hole, that mentioned bmc in the context of a heros journey. and I was like, hold on, no, it's a heroines journey. sure, it has some plot beats of the heros journey, but it's a heroine. right? 

kind of. 

but also kind of not. 

see, be more chill is an interesting media, because it follows, at its core, both journeys at the exact same time. 

we'll start with the heros journey first. it's more familiar to people, and therefore easier to explain. 

the Hero usually has a magical or fantastical birth. strike one against bmc- Jeremy, at his core, is just some guy. he's not special or magic. he's some teenager. 

however, he does get the Call to Adventure- rich, offering him a squip in the bathroom. Jeremy is promised everything he'd ever want. popularity, girls, respect. and still he Refuses the Call at first. he hesitates, then goes and seeks answers on his own, bringing him to the payless, where he buys his squip. 

the squip acts as the Supernatural Aid/Mentor figure. usually, these are male parental figures, or wizened old men. the squip guides Jeremy through his new life and prospects, giving him help that's almost magical. it is the reason he does a lot of things in the plot. this is jeremy’s Withdrawal/Quest- he wants to get popular, get the girl, so he Abandons his Community (his dad and michael) to do so. he metaphorically leaves his home, and it’s all self-motivated. he chooses to leave. 

the next part of the journey is encountering obstacles which is, in fact, the rest of the show. between brooke and chloe, christine liking jake, the halloween party, etc. if there’s a part between jeremy taking the squip and him getting rid of it thats hindering his goals, it falls into this category. 

then there’s the Visit to the Underworld. this is, in most modern media, purely metaphorical. it’s a place where there’s intense pain, death, the main character is at rock bottom. for our purposes (both here, and in the heroine’s journey) this is the play. its entire thing is zombies/zombified people, which is a big thing in metaphorical and literal underworld areas. 

this is where the hero’s journey falls apart. usually, the hero has to face the villain one-on-one, drawing strength from his isolation. he deals the killing blow, he takes down the whole thing, either in a noble sacrifice or with his own wit/skill. 

but jeremy, notably, doesn’t do that. michael brings the mountain dew red, jake attempts to help michael save him, and even in the end, christine is the one to drink it, shutting down the entire web of synced squips. jeremy, as a whole, doesn’t really save himself. potentially, you could argue that him giving the last of the red to christine is him giving a noble sacrifice, but he still had no intent to defeat the squip for himself, get revenge, or get glory, which are the hero’s main motivations and pillars of success. so strike two against the bmc hero’s journey. 

the ending of the journeys are arguably most important. it determines whether or not the media sticks the landing, if its satisfying for the reader. so how does the hero’s journey end? with the hero returning home, fundamentally changed, unable to fit into his previous role. he’s acknowledged for success, rewarded and honored, and receives glory, but also has to leave, isolating himself, but receiving a boon. 

jeremy receives a boon, sure, in the form of christine. (sorry, christine, i wish you weren’t reduced to being a prize to be won, but i can’t pretend that isn’t what you are, from a hero’s journey lens.) but he’s not isolated, he has no reason to leave his community. he gets the best of both worlds. he gets the girl, new friends, new self-confidence, and he keeps his old friends. if this is a hero’s journey, then it’s a terrible ending- jeremy seems to have gone through all of that for nothing. it lands poorly. so, if be more chill is a hero’s journey, it sets it up pretty well, but fails to commit to the ending.

but what about a heroine’s journey, i hear you asking (if you’re still here, that is.)

this is where it gets really interesting. because the heroine’s journey, at its core, is the inverse of the hero’s. it all focuses on community, networking, making connections. there’s a reason a lot of romance novels fall into this journey. It falls into three main arcs- the descent, the search, and the ascent. 

interestingly, if bmc is a heroine’s journey, the Descent starts before the musical does. the first step of the heroine’s journey is the breaking of a familial network. jeremy’s mother has left, leaving just him and his father, who do not get along, and michael, who doesn’t understand, not entirely. jeremy Withdraws. usually, in heroine’s journeys, the heroine withdraws involuntarily, but jeremy chooses to do it. he pulls back from his support network, because of a main factor in the heroine’s journey- Family Offers Aid but No Solution. 

if that doesn’t describe michael’s role in bmc, i have no idea what does. michael’s the one aiding jeremy on his journey, at the beginning. but his aid is “just stick it out,” but that’s a further down the line answer, not a solution to jeremy’s problems now. so he has to pull back from the support system he had, because its not working for him. 

this leads him to Isolation and Danger. because he meets with rich in the bathroom alone. he takes michael to the payless, but he makes the decision alone. and when the squip activates, he’s left by michael, surrounded by people he doesn’t know. he’s isolated, maybe not on the stage itself, but metaphorically. 

this starts jeremy on his Search– he forces himself to withdraw, all to search for unity. he breaks all ties to his previous life, just to look for the one thing he wants. 

in the heroine’s journey, there are two main throughlines– Loss of Family and Disguise. jeremy loses his first family, disguises himself, and attempts to create a surrogate family network. he tries to rebuild his community, shaping himself into something different, trying to find something that he can be or do to be worth it. each of his obstacles is an appeal to a new community, and each one is rejected. 

and then comes the play, which, again, is the underworld. death imagery, loss of control, the literal rock bottom for the characters. jeremy is at his lowest point, everything he’s done is falling apart. and what happens?

his family and friends render aid. as previously mentioned, the hero’s journey focuses on isolation, strength in loneliness, the value of doing things for you and only by you. but the heroine’s journey focuses on strength in numbers, in relying on others for help, in the importance of being saved, sometimes. jeremy’s dad reaches out to michael, who knows how to help, and christine is the one to drink the mountain dew red in the end. jeremy, as a whole, is nothing and would get nowhere without his friends. 

with the defeat of the squip, the Ascent can start. and this is where we, again, ask the question of if be more chill sticks the landing. sure, maybe it didn’t succeed with the hero’s journey ending, but if it sticks the landing for the heroine’s, then its fine, right? it successfully completed one journey, at least!

not really, actually. 

there’s parts where it does land. jeremy’s new network (the popular kids) is established, meaning he has more friends, more opportunities and advice handed to him. his previous network (michael and his dad) is re-established in an altered form. his dad is going to attempt to be better, more involved, and michael is more understanding of where jeremy is at. jeremy also establishes his connection with christine. the defeat of the squip is, as a whole, kind of irrelevant, from a “villain defeat” perspective. there’s no revenge or glory in it. it’s not even entirely gone, but the defeat is more metaphorical. 

so why doesn’t this work? i just told you that it mostly succeeds, that it fits almost all of the criteria. but there’s one fundamental issue with the ending of be more chill as a heroine’s journey. 

see, the heroine has to make a sacrifice, to make negotiations, to give a compromise. otherwise, it feels too easy to the reader. so what sacrifice does jeremy make? he keeps his previous friendship with no issues. he makes new friends who don’t question his decisions. he gets the girl. he gets (mostly) rid of the voice in his head, or gains the ability to ignore it. he gets a happy ending, and it doesn’t feel earned.

so, is jeremy a hero? a heroine? did i just draw you into reading this to leave you with a wishy-washy answer of “he’s whichever you think he is!” maybe a little bit. 

the hero’s journey doesn’t land because there’s no isolation, no sacrifice that jeremy makes to his own connections. he doesn’t draw away and stay there. the bad is defeated, and he doesn’t have to make sacrifices. the heroine’s journey doesn’t land for the same reason, because he doesn’t make a compromise. there’s nothing to prove that something’s changed, that he’s grown, because he’s given everything he wants in the end. 

this is why the story of be more chill, as a whole, doesn’t land for most people, even subconsciously. critics, especially those who love the hero’s journey, are upset that there’s not a satisfying ending to the hero’s journey, that it feels too childish. the happy go lucky “everyone is friends at the end” moment falls flat for those looking at the journey from a hero’s journey perspective. the bones are all there. the plot beats make sense, for the most part, with some minor flaws, right up until the end, where it trips and falls flat on its face. 

but what about the heroine’s journey lovers? well, if you’re in this fandom (or any fandom, for that matter) it’s probably you. (its also me, hi, im calling myself out here, too. i wouldn’t be writing this if i wasn’t so into this.)

the heroine’s journey is particularly attractive to those who are active in fandom. there’s a reason there’s a lot of fanfiction focused on relationships, connection, group dynamics, and not so many on the characters put in a vacuum where they have to defeat the big bad alone. not to say that there aren’t any, but fewer. so how do people who love the heroine’s journey cope with the lack of a satisfying ending? 

fanfiction, mostly. fanart. alternate universes. seeing potential in the bones of the thing, the messages it offers, and making it our own. and there isn’t anything wrong with that. i do it, if you’re reading this, you probably do it, or like when others do it. 

personally, i am more intrigued by be more chill as a heroine’s journey. clearly. i’m biased, i know. because, while it doesn’t stick the landing entirely, it has the messages of a heroine’s journey. that your strength is with other people. that you are not alone. that you should ask for help, you should be kind, you should find the people who care about you. your friends matter, old and new. isolation and disguising yourself as someone you aren’t is never going to help you achieve your goals. and that’s an important factor. 

maybe you see jeremy as a hero. maybe you see him as a heroine. maybe you think that both of these journeys suck and you don’t think it matters which one it follows, or if it follows one at all. but clearly, there’s something to love, to latch onto. there’s flaws, which give us something to analyze, to pull apart and make art and creative works and essays about. it’s not perfect, and that’s why we love it. 

[ because im a library science student, i’m going to give brief sources. i drew my knowledge of the plot of be more chill from my own brain, if i missed anything, its because of that. feel free to point out if i said something wrong, if i did. the hero’s journey is the one by john campbell, and i used the heroine’s journey structure from gail carriger’s book. some other heroine’s journey sources may not fit this as well. if you’re interested in any part of this concept, read The Heroine’s Journey by Gail Carriger, its a fascinating read, and its pretty tongue-in-cheek, and goes way more in depth with a lot of the stuff i touched on. ]

[ also, this should not be used in any actual classes, this is a 20 year old college student with autism and a hyperfixation, i did not do in depth research, i have not graduated yet, i am simply a bitch with a weird brain. do your own research babes <3. with that, thank you for reading this, if you got to this point, feel free to reblog this or like it or leave a comment or whatever. ]

[sukunasdirtylaugh]

university professor gojo who teaches ethics asks your class to please explain if 'anonymous' is a cyber terr*rist group? and the reader goes on, giving a detailed explanation on how this organization is unorganized and criminal, therefore unethical. little does she know, her professor who also happens to be madly obsessed with her is part of said group

[daemonhxckergrrl]

hot take: trying things you've had adverse reactions to in the past (including full-on sensory-related meltdowns) to see if you may enjoy it now is good, actually. how you processed Bad Texture 10 years ago may be different to how you do now. or it may not. but the only way to know is to try.

[arcanegifs]

[todayisafridaynight]

[romanticatheartt]

I have a hot take and it might piss some people off specially the ones who believe Nesta didn't need a redemption arc (???) so please don't read this if you have this mindset

You saving your sister at death bed doesn't have redeeming quality. Because anyone in that room, specially Rhysand, would've jumped to help her without hesitation if they had the power. Nesta herself would've helped even if she hadn't finished her healing journey and was still distancing herself from everyone.

I'm not talking about how in those 12 days she didn't help the IC to find a solution, I'm talking about her seeing her baby sister at death bed. Because she didn't helped Feyre for 5 years and let her put herself in danger because Nesta knew she would survive. But the moment Tam/in took her, Nesta goes after her and searches for her. And this is exactly what happened, Nesta thinking IC would find a solution so she didn't even bother to offer a little help. Or even think about it...

In both situations the moment Nesta sees Feyre in absolute danger and is sure there's a huge chance that she might not make it alive, she makes a move to help/save her. I don't want one single person to come here and tell me it's not her job or responsibility- just shut it... don't embarrass yourself

You know what would've been redeeming?

The moment she realized Feyre might die during the labor, she should've started searching alongside the IC, she was literally working in a library at the time.

She should've talked to them and convinced them to let Feyre know of the danger.

She, talking with her sister, properly apologizing and try to bond with her and mend the bridge that's been broken between them.

Not sucking your trainer's d*ck the moment you find out. Not climbing down 10000 steps because you were so "angry" of the injustice you were facing and tell your sister she's about to die and made it about yourself. Because you wanted to show her that IC doesn't "respect" her as much as they don't respect you. And put her in danger in the process because you knew how the stress might hurt the baby but again you were thinking about your own hurts and pains.

I love Nesta and her book helped me to understand her so much better and realizing how similar we are and how much I share trauma with her. Not my trauma response tho.

I just hate the way sjm wrote her healing journey because she made it about herself lol. She projected her trauma and her experience during her process of healing and wrote it into Nesta's story and never cared how it might look at the end. Now Nesta saving Feyre, her blood sister, sounds more like a favor she gave and give *some* people the opportunity to make what Feyre did for her sisters a chore, a responsibility, something she enjoyed to do because she wanted to hurt herself. (and that's definitely not true) Don't even try to deny I've seen it many many times and I have proof.

And that's my problem with her book. I love that she made friends along the process and had her own found family, it led us to meet two beautiful characters. Her book gave us context of the reason behind some of her actions. We get to read how ashamed and hateful she is toward herself for neglecting Feyre. But the rest? No.

Sjm could've give us Nesta, fixing her relationship with the people around her and making new friendship with her found family at the same time but instead she wrote so many smut scene that has no purpose and doesn't help the plot moving. I'm throwing hot takes after hot takes jeez

In conclusion acosf didn't help people to forgive Nesta. Understand her? Yes. But forgiving her and give them the opportunity to considee her as their favorite character? No. I'm not talking about all but the majority, because as you see even now people can't seem to forgive her even tho they understand her much better.

To be honest acosf is one of the weakest book sjm has ever written and she hasn't wrote one single good book ever since... I wanted to make all these takes in different posts but fuck it, we ball<3

[observethewalrus]

PLEASE DO NOT GIFT ME BADGES

Tumblr is getting rid of avatars and no longer showing where a reblog comes from in post headers to “afford more room for badges.”

I always felt kinda bad when I was gifted badges and then didn’t use them, cuz people spent actual money on them. So I’m asking, please do not gift me badges, or any other tumblr merch for that matter.

I threw them a bone last year and paid for the ad-free because the ads and blazed softcore porn on the app were infuriating, but I’m canceling it. They’re not getting anything from me anymore. I’ll have to switch back to using the Firefox mobile browser. Hopefully the new dash un-fuckers that are going around will work on mobile.

[puppy-wife]

my fucking god damn god fucking shit insurance is the wrong plan for my PCP to be able to accept. so I can't get my prog. I can't do my labs for this month. I have to wait until fucking November to try again. I hate the american healthcare system, eat a dick and choke on it you fucking shit stain of a goddamn idea of a healthcare system. what a backwards fucking garbage dump, I hate it I hate it I hate it!!!!! God fucking fuck why is it so hard to see a goddamn doctor!!!!!! fuck!!!!!! im gonna fucking cry!!!!!!!!! FUCK

[triglycercule]

small leisurely moments like these mean more than expected

ok hi triglycergang. it's AUGUST?!?!?! ugh,,,, anyways here's my like once a month art piece because i am a slow ass artist. the mtt are supposed to be chatting at a park during sunset!!! also new au just dropped

you wonder why killer dust and horror are wearing those DISGUSTING outfits??? you wonder where killer's soul is??? well it's all gone in this au which is called uhhh.

jk fashion au... wooooo!!

first things first to know: this au is NOT my idea. it was originally someone on twitter's idea to dress sans aus up in nanchatte seifuku but i think their account got deleted/banned. and i cant find the account because it was a japanese account and probably has some random username. so just remember that this isn't my idea but i guess my own twist on it. i really wish i could find the og creator,,,,

second thing to know: what the fuck nanchatte seifuku/jk (just kidding) fashion even is. here's the link to read for yourself: https://aesthetics.fandom.com/wiki/Nanchatte_Seifuku. yeah that's jk fashion. i really loved this au when i found it originally because i myself dress up in jk and also i just really love soft fluffy things like this. this au isn't gonna be angsty or particularly elaborate or anything i just wanted cute things and women in my murder time trio. also this isn't gyaru btw

third thing: uhh my inspirations for this??? well my main one that i really wanna focus on is that feeling of happy sentimental melancholy. you know like after you finish a really fun day hanging out with your friends and youre on the drive home and look back at how fun the day was? that's what i wanna encapsulate :3 also i think that the day to day school life is really cute and sweet and i wanna make more designs for the other aus so my trio can have more people to hang out with

well uhhh i think that's it?? mayhaps i shall begin drafting up other designs for the other aus. i wanna make little mini comics for this too like 4koma because i love those short yet sweet comics!!! should i tag this? i think i should tag this perchance. also extra mtt notes/full designs below became i love these three they're my daughters

[recallback-art]

Friend saw some very good crab plushies at the store. Their names are blue raspberry, ibuprofen, and degenerate.

Reminder I have comms open also! Get your own crab for 5 bucks, put a hat on it, world of opportunities.

[foxgloveinspace]

People jumping ship cause of the new masks is very ahhhh. Telling. Tbh.

[lemongogo]

college … wasted on the youth (me)

[raylasgf]

idk if starting to lose hope is a good reaction but i really am starting to think all hope is lost

[raisinushigher]

i am Still thinking about this. its with other stuff that belonged to gandhi implying that it’s his locket which probably means that abe. still has his and that. that one picture of them in the boat is the last thing he has left of him

[teastarfall]

ive never meant to neglect the 2017 comics i just never knew how to draw any of the lil guys in it… until now. my evilness has peaked… a bit

+ sum bonus six’s, bc i need to practice drawing her hood, it’s so hard to draw. why bandai namco…

[unopenablebox]

people around me online are always disclosing their kinks, like by writing fic about them or writing posts about them or reblogging the same photo of lee pace thirty times. but i can't do that. because my kink is embarrassing