#she might not have been able to reinvent herself

[thebirthofvenusfly]

okay but i like thinking about the events of ISAT/siffrin's struggles not as them going from a party of normal people with normal struggles to "everyone essentially now has to help Sif heal from That," but as, "everyone in the party has had their own immense, long-term struggles, and this happens to be Siffrin's." like, siffrin is not just a, "problem child," or the standalone outlier in terms of angst

here me out

[major ISAT spoilers, especially for acts 3-5 btw]

siffrin doesn't know all these things in act 1, but:

Odile has had a life-long struggle with identity. Her mother abandoned her family at a young age, her father (presumably heartbroken and betrayed) has never kept any mementos or photos or stories of her and likely avoided speaking of her at any and all opportunities. For the most part, Odile loves her culture but admits she was an outlier in Ka Bue and always stood out from the texture of her hair and eyebrows. She's tried to settle before for the peace of just letting it be, but after meeting that travelling merchant, she realizes how badly she does want to bridge that gap in her identity and has now spent years travelling--all only to find that it didn't quite fix her problem and she hasn't been able to find herself entirely in Vaugarde either. She doesn't dwell too much on her mother, but I feel there is a part of her that could never forgive the hole her mother left behind.

Mirabelle has similarly struggled, though in terms of religion and sexuality. She holds herself to a very high standard of Changing and being a, "good," Housemaiden, and has gone to great lengths to learn as much as she can in efforts to reinvent herself and Change, as she feels she, "should," do, because that's what Housemaidens and diligent followers of the House of Change, "should," do. She is so adamant about this that even prior to the game, even prior to the King's reign--which was several months-a full year before ISAT begins--she is forcing herself to look into relationships to potentially date, bond, and even have children with someone and she doesn't want to do any of that it. She is distraught because she doesn't want to change that aspect. She doesn't want to become what she's not, or try to force herself to feel things she doesn't and can't feel, but she isn't being a good Housemaiden or a good member of her society if she stagnates.

Bonnie's plight primarily comes in with the King's reign, which again, has been for a few months now. They live with their older sister who loves them and cares for them tirelessly, but she is taken by the King's Curse and frozen in time--an event which presumably happens in front of Bonnie, who is encouraged by their sister's last words to just run from the village as far as they can to safety. If that isn't terrifying enough, this leads to them wandering the wilderness for days, exhausted, dehydrated, presumably starved/ill-fed, and lonely, and likely scared out of their mind. Their only saving grace is Siffrin, who happens to find them and save them. The comfort they feel with Sif is called into question when they have to watch Siffrin take a permanent, debilitating injury to the eye to protect them. While the incident seems to roll off Siffrin's worries pretty seamlessly, this is a lot for Bonnie, who by now, has recognized a pattern of the people they love being permanently hurt or altered in some way all just to protect them. They're convinced they're a recurring problem, and after the death ritual talk in the House, has to prepare themselves for the haunting reality that they might really lose everyone they love (and, again, this is a lot. Especially for a child).

Isabeau has tried Changing before, and while it did help him make leaps and bounds, he is still in a constant struggle to love himself fully. Let's be honest here: Isabeau is easily the most emotionally put-together party member, and most equipped to handle the stresses of the party in terms of feelings. This does not make him immune, however, to his own negative feelings. He even cites as wanting to become someone that Siffrin wouldn't be, "ashamed," to know. He also mentions that he is remorseful of the new image he's given himself, as an air-headed, jock type of person, which often leads people into genuinely believing he's stupid and thus treating him that way. Not to mention, as the emotional mediator of the party, I'm sure he occasionally gets stretched thin between helping everyone else manage their problems and altercations.

all this is to say: everyone in the party has their problems, and a good sum of these are not all instantly solved by the end of the story. all of them, siffrin included, are left in a space where they have plenty of healing to do but can confidently and comfortably still rely on one another.

ISAT is just siffrin's chapter of major emotional plight, and everyone else's is presumed prior to the narrative (i can also acknowledge that siffrin definitely got the worst of it though LMAO)

[tokyo-tower-symbolism]

What does Karen mean when she says "I am Reborn"?

Revue Starlight takes place in a time loop. 

For over 60 years, eight students from Seisho’s acting class continue to audition to be the lead in the Starlight Gatherer, each hoping to use the brilliance awarded to the top star to fulfill their wish to perform on the Stage of Fate. And in each of those loops, very little changes. The same leads are chosen, the same wish is made, and Aijou Karen is at the bottom of the rankings every time. 

Nothing changes until one loop where Kagura Hikari transfers to their school from London and replaces Karen as one of the eight participants in the audition, and suddenly everything is changing.

Hikari’s return lights a spark in Karen. The childhood promise they made to perform on stage together is the closest it’s ever been to happening, and Karen refuses to waste this chance.

In the first episode, we don’t get a very flattering picture of Karen. Her roommate struggles to wake her up to get to morning practice, Karen is stiff as a board while stretching, she’s not taken seriously by her classmates at all, and she can’t even picture herself ever beating Maya or Claudine for the lead roles in the play. Don’t get me wrong, her classmates all like her and honestly she’s really funny to watch, but everyone is here because they want to be the star, not to fool around.

It comes to a head when the giraffe who runs the underground auditions points it out. She’s not desperate like the other girls so she has no chance of winning. He says that there is no place for someone like Karen to have a chance at that dream stage. 

But Karen doesn’t care. She ignores the giraffe entirely and jumps on stage to join Hikari. And as she falls, she undergoes a transformation, going from her school uniform to the revue outfit.

There’s a lot to be said about the transformation sequence, like how quick and mechanical and impersonal everything is. Machines sew the costumes and get everything ready and makeup is briefly applied. It’s all the work that would usually be given to the school’s Class B, which works on all the backstage stuff, like the props and the sets and the costumes. They’re out of focus a lot of the time and we only really focus on two characters from Class B, but they still exist! They’re friends with the main class A actors and in the movie it’s because of a speech the director of the play gives that the main characters decide to stand up on stage again. But they don’t matter to the audition. It only cares about the top star.

There’s also how the uniforms are mass manufactured and the very important star buttons, which signify victory or defeat so basically life or death, are unceremoniously tossed in a box, showing how disposable the rest of the stage girls are in creating the top star. Honestly the whole thing is kind of sinister in hindsight once you understand the true nature of the auditions.

But the part that’s all Karen is when she jumps and in the background it says: I am reborn.

Because Karen completely reinvents herself. She goes from getting sweeped in a low dip by Junna in their daily life to doing the same to her in the revue. In the following episodes, she starts waking up early, taking practice seriously, she changes her classmates' worldviews after defeating them, and she even beats Claudine and Maya to earn a lead role in the Starlight Gatherer. Nana specifically says that all the changes in this loop stemmed from Karen, despite Hikari’s appearance being the first major difference.

And in the climactic final revue of the show, Karen is only able to reach Hikari by stating that she will constantly be reborn if it means she can stand on stage with her. That Karen doesn’t mind getting her brilliance stolen or being trapped in the stage of fate or whatever terrible fate might befall her if she sticks with Hikari since each time she will get back on stage, born anew.

But what exactly does it mean to be reborn as a stage girl?

Well first, in order to be reborn you need to die, so let’s start there. And in the show, we see two dead stage girls.

The first is Hikari after she lost the audition in London and had her brilliance stolen. As a result, she loses all interest in the stage and can hardly remember why she bothered trying so hard to become the lead in her school’s play. But what snaps her out of this is remembering her promise to stand on stage with Karen, and how disgusted she is in herself that she almost forgot it. In a desperate attempt to reclaim what she lost, she goes to participate in the Tokyo audition since the winner will steal the brilliance of all the participants to make the stage of fate and become the untouchable top star. Unfortunately the one flaw in her plan is that Karen is also in the audition, so even if Hikari did win, she would also be stealing Karen’s brilliance, making it so their promise could never be kept regardless.

Hikari continues to be dead as a stage girl despite being a participant in the Tokyo Auditions. Although her technical skills are perfect, Maya in the first episode mentions that her heart’s not in it, which we later find out is because Hikari had lost her brilliance. This can be seen in her revue outfit in London compared to now. Over there, she had a sword and a red cape just like everyone else. But now her blade is shortened to a dagger’s length and her cloak is blue, the color of her promise which is her true desire here instead of the red of the top star that everyone else desires.

But Hikari is eventually reborn. By the time of her revue with Nana, Hikari has changed. She’s no longer pushing everyone away and has actually started to make friends with everyone and told Karen how dear their promise is to her as well. Even though Hikari only came here as a step on her path to become a top star and one day fulfill her promise with Karen, she’s instead inspired by Karen that the two of them could shine as top stars together here. Her entire worldview is completely changed, and in this Revue against someone who is in the audition not for a love of acting, but to instead use it as a stepping stone for her own ambitions, just like Hikari, her brilliance is reborn. Hikari’s weapon transforms, not back into the sword from before, but into a new dagger with a string that Hikari can use to maneuver herself and a star shaped hilt, similar to her hairpin, a symbol of her promise with Karen.

She’s not the same as she was before she died as a stage girl, but she’s reborn as someone new with a brand new outlook on life.

And the next dead stage girl we see in the show is Karen herself.

After Hikari wins the audition, she refuses to use the brilliance of the other participants to create the stage of fate, and instead offers to create it herself. This doesn’t really work and Hikari is trapped there for months in a Sisyphean effort where she attempts to build the Starlight Tower but it is destroyed over and over again because it’s impossible to put on a play alone.

But outside the Stage of Fate, no one knows what happened to her. Life goes on, but Karen is constantly searching for Hikari but has no luck. In the meantime Karen has lost the motivation she had back when Hikari transferred in. Even though she can say her lines perfectly during practice, there is something missing that everyone can tell. Her heart’s just not in it anymore. Karen even wonders why she’s been trying so hard all this time. It’s the spitting image of Hikari in London after she lost her brilliance. Even though no one stole it from her this time, without Hikari out there, Karen has no motivation to stand on stage.

But with no clues left to find where Hikari has gone, Karen instead has to understand Hikari. She reads Hikari’s Starlight Gatherer book in the original English like Hikari did. It’s hard and she needs a dictionary to translate it, but she puts in the effort to understand Hikari and why she left.

And on her way to confront Hikari once more with this new understanding, she is guided by her classmates. In the background the song “Knowledge of a Stage Girl” is played as each of them tells Karen what being on stage means to them.

Karen is reborn and ready to face Hikari after being dead as a stage girl, and it’s only because her worldview changed after understanding everyone else. Karen at the end of episode 10 couldn’t have convinced Hikari, she was absolutely blindsided then and had no idea what Hikari was doing. But now Karen was ready after having understood a variety of perspectives.

Because that’s what being reborn is, to change yourself. You will never be anyone other than yourself. But every time you understand someone, learn from someone, or get inspired by someone, you are reborn. You suddenly see a path someone else took that you hadn’t thought of before. You’re suddenly given a whole new way of life to live. You can be reborn as someone brand new. And even if you choose to stay exactly the same, you’ve still grown since you now know they exist.

When the stage is reborn in the final revue of the show, it’s only because Karen offered a new ending: that after falling, Flora ascended up the tower once more to meet the trapped Claire. Karen couldn’t change the past, she can’t make it so Flora and Claire never ascended the tower in the first place, she can’t make it so the two of them never took part in these auditions, but she can change what's gonna happen next.

This is also seen in the movie. Throughout the movie, Karen is wandering along a train track and reminiscing on how she became a stage girl. We see Hikari and Karen’s first meeting and the first play they saw with each other. We see how Karen had been the lead in her middle school plays and took dancing and singing lessons ever since elementary school. We see how she had to give up video games and hanging out with her friends so she could get into one of the best acting schools in the world. We see how scared she was that Hikari might have forgotten their promise. 

And once Karen arrived at the end of the tracks, she decides to give up on the stage, having realized that she had fulfilled her dream to shine as the lead with Hikari and now there is nothing left for her future on the stage. So Karen dies as a stage girl, for real this time. It’s still a metaphor but it’s real, her body goes limp in front of Hikari and there is tomato juice everywhere.

It’s real bad. Hikari starts crying and cradling Karen in her arms, which is a big departure from how stoic she usually is. But Hikari is finally truthful about why she left, having been symbolically reborn herself, and she tells Karen her true feelings, that she wants Karen to come back to the stage where she is waiting.

Karen falls again, and just like the first time she transformed, it even has the sign behind her that says I am reborn.

Her body rides down the tracks on a train, reliving the memories and burning up everything she already gave up before. But this time when she returns to the end, she is alive and reborn. The circumstances are all the same as before, she still fulfilled her dream and has nothing left. As she later says, she’s the emptiest she’s ever been. But she’s here now, all because Hikari said she was waiting for her, and that’s enough of a reason to stand on stage.

This is just like the first episode, where the only difference from all the other loops was that Hikari was there, and that’s all Karen needed to change and be reborn.

Because Karen can’t redo her whole life. Even within the time loop everything happened more or less the same each time. Karen already gave everything she had into acting and fulfilling her promise. Like the song playing in the background says, “I would be reborn as myself.” 

It’s not like she ever acted differently to try and become the top star, she doesn’t imitate Maya or Claudine or any other top star. She is unabashedly herself, always kind and energetic. The only difference is that she’s just more focused and motivated and understanding with each rebirth because the only thing she can change is what she is going to do right now, and that’s what it means to be reborn. 

Karen is transformed over the course of the revue, her sword snaps and her future is changed. She gains a better understanding of herself and why she stands on stage. And instead of desiring to stand beside Hikari on stage again, or longing for the stage that had already passed, she finds a new ambition, and chooses to stand against her as rivals who won’t lose to each other. And as established in a previous revue (that Karen wasn’t there for), the revue of rivals never ends, no matter how far apart their stages are. So instead of giving up on the stage like she said prior, we see the reborn Karen auditioning for a brand new role during the credits.

Revue Starlight is all about these little transformations. As the stage girls take part in each of the revues, they learn a little bit more about each other, which helps them learn more about themselves. They grow and change because they clash with each other, and become stronger for it. The giraffe changes from the proctor to becoming a bunch of fruits and vegetables, symbolically the fuel they need to ascend to the next stage instead of using each other’s brilliance. The revues themselves change from being part of an audition to being entirely for the girl’s satisfaction, with previous win conditions such as cutting the brooch or claiming position zero becoming worthless as they move on to bigger things.

And all of this was a choice. The first choice was that Hikari didn’t want to give up on her dream with Karen, so she got back on stage. The next choice was that Karen wanted to stand on stage with Hikari, even if she wasn’t part of the auditions. In the movie, everyone else gets the chance to see themselves as a dead stage girl. At first they are in shock, but then they hear a speech from the director about how they are all scared together. And after that, each of them chooses to get back on stage despite the risk, because they aren’t facing it alone.

In the final revue of the show, Karen said that every time she gets on stage, she is reborn. And we saw that! Before every revue, Karen had her “I am Reborn” transformation sequence. And it’s not just her, in the recap movie, the other stage girls didn’t get the full transformation sequence, but they did get an “I am Reborn” card before their revues. Because everytime a stage girl chooses to stand on stage, someone else is there. Someone else is going to be facing them in the revue. Someone else will be acting across from them, or will be supporting them off the stage. And even when they are apart, they are going to be thinking of each other.

Even from the very beginning, the reason that any of them chose to stand on stage was because of someone else. Maybe they were inspired like Karen, Hikari, or Junna. Maybe it was expected of them like Maya, Kaoruko, or Mahiru. Or maybe it was because someone else was already there, like with Futaba, Claudine, or Nana. And sometimes it’s a mix because people are complex and have so many different reasons for doing anything they do. 

But still, they chose to do it, to change and to take a risk and put it all out there and accept whatever comes with it.

And that is what it means to be reborn.

[arogustus]

Splatband Analysis: Ink Theory

(Disclaimer: This analysis in based on what I get out of looking into the character descriptions we have of the splatband characters. If you disagree with what I say, that is fine, we are all beheld to our opinions. Just don’t be a jerk about it.)

Edit: Put a Read More on this cuz now I realize this is long.

I’m gonna start this series with Ink Theory. You might have expected this to go in chronological order and have started with Squid Squad, but I have a good explanation for that. None of the other bands are Ink Theory. Plus this band has at least three pieces of artwork to them (and Yoko has an additional one thanks to Yoko and the Gold Bazookas, that’s how you know she’s special. Kitamura as well, but we’ll get into that later), so I feel there’s more to work with.

So, let’s start off with a band wide reading, since I feel they warrant it. 

To start with, here’s the main thing we know about the girls, their knowledge of academic music theory and classical training. They’ve all been practicing since youth, making music a big part of their life, and studied music theory. However, of the six, Mayaya, Bibi and Karen are the ones noted to have graduated from music academies, while Yoko, Kitamura and Oonie are left unmentioned of their education. While it could be the writers simply didn’t want to repeat themselves too much, it’s just as likely that Yoko, Kitamura and Oonie went to less notable institutions like regular colleges that didn’t warrant mentioning. Just a thought.

The second thing to note is their rivalry with Bottom Feeders. While most of what we know comes from the Bottom Feeders side of the rivalry, which is appropriate considering their more volatile, chaotic personalities, the Haikara Walker magazine does mention the two bands got into a music battle during a concert in ZAPP square, fueled by their rivalry into an epic performance. So while it is clear Bottom Feeders started it, it’s also clear that Ink Theory reciprocates the rivalry, or at the very least indulge it for their own reasons.

With that out of the way, let’s focus on our ladies, starting with best girl:

Yoko

The first and foremost thing we know of her is her mutation and her unknown illness. Her hair is multicolored due to a mutation that is only aesthetically pleasing and not useful otherwise. Considering that her hair turns gray as it reaches the top of her head, and even her eyebrows appear to be gray, it’s safe to say it involves her ink color not being able to properly change. As well, she has a weakness to atmospheric pressure that essentially makes her always miserable. Despite that, her determination and hard work is highlighted as a strong suit of hers, being the frontwoman of the band and absolutely slaying on the trumpet. She’s someone who works through everything, regardless of her obstacles. 

On the other hand, she’s described as being insecure about being overshadowed by her own bandmantes’ personalities (you should read how they describe her on Inkipedia, it’s just rude). It’s safe to say that at least three of her bandmates being well regarded academy graduates might have something to do with it. It’s probably why she gets nervous before large performances too. She feels she needs to work hard to keep up with the others and gets nervous because of it. It makes sense why she went off to “reinvent” herself in Splatsville  according to Splatoon Base. Speaking of Splatoon Base, it mentions she comes from a conservatory background. Looking it up, the meaning I get out of it is that she studied at a smaller university where the focus was on the practical basics of performing, with less focus on the academic side (If I’m wrong, please tell.) 

On the more minor stuff, she clearly likes the design of her hat. Like, it sounds like a stretch, but when you own three hats that share the same design element (the horns), then there’s probably something going on. Three makes a pattern after all, or however it goes. Also, in the Valentine’s day artwork, while everyone except Oonie  and Mayaya has ice cream, she has fries and a drink. She’s probably not a fan of sweets.

I forgot to mention in the Valentine's Day artwork that Yoko wears a hat (shocker). But on that hat is text that, oddly enough, is not in the Splatoon font, but in perfectly legible Japanese. 可憐, which translates to “pretty”... and is pronounced “Karen”. Seriously, find one of those translators that speaks out the word, that’s what it says. Now, what this means is entirely unknown. The most obvious of course is that the artist is a Yoko x Karen shipper (how romantic to wear your girlfriend's name on a hat), and deliberately left the word as is to fuel the flames of shippers everywhere. Or we are all just insane and it means nothing. I know it keeps me up at night thinking about it.

Karen

The only based Karen in existence. She’s one of Ink Theory’s big name graduates, having been top of her class in her university, and even having gone on several competitions overseas. She went around the same time as Taka, who was her senior and is the main inspiration for the formation of Ink Theory. She’s clearly the main Eralien of the band, though the rest of the band doesn’t seem to mind having to wear uniforms inspired by Hightide Era.

She’s mentioned to be nervous about her popularity in Ink Theory, despite looking self-assured otherwise. Considering she’s been in several competitions and has won a ton of awards, it’s a safe bet to say she’s not used to the lack of attention she’s getting as part of the band. Not that she seems to want to bother the others with it. She provides emotional support to the team (Yoko lucked out on that), so she doesn’t really intend to feel that way. Trying to be humble but failing internally or something along those lines.

Bibi

Bibi’s another academy graduate in the band, and plays the kazoo because apparently she’s so good she can just do that (and it works). Much attention is put on the fact she’s essentially “The Face” of the band. She’s closer to the public, the fans adore her enough to pull her in front of the camera, and they even call her Queen Bibi. Clearly someone who’s aware of her popularity and relishes in it (Yoko and Karen are in the corner right now, just pointing that out). She’s also implied to be from a wealthy background, as she’s a large spender who’s never much struggled financially. 

It’s never actually explained why she chose the kazoo over any other instrument for the band. Maybe she wants to show off a goofier side? Or maybe just regular show off? Food for thought.

Oonie

Now we return to one of the none-famous academy graduates. Oonie is stated to have parents who are famous musicians, possibly the classical kind, and who were strict with her upbringing. As a result she favored music genres of a different style before she eventually started appreciating classical again. Classic rebellious teenager case here, observing other genres as a form of rebellion and who only started appreciating classical music under her own terms. Her new outfit in Splatoon 3 outright supports it. Someone managed to find a pinterest picture a while back of someone in the exact same fit as her, it’s called Harajuku. Look up the word to learn more.

She’s also described as romantically inexperienced, and with a habit of falling for self-degrading people. She must be hunting for a relationship but keeps ending up with the self-deprecating type. I kinda have a theory on that, but I’ll save it for a headcanon post. And the final thing is the observation in the valentine’s day image that she’s ridiculously indecisive. She’s still staring at the menu after everyone else already has their orders. Also, she’s a Squid Squad fan, she’s got a charm of them on her bass case. Cute.

Kitamura

Kitamura has the shortest description, but I feel it tells plenty. Another not famous academy graduate, instead she’s highlighted as the mascot of the band. Everyone seems to know she’s cute and she’s fine taking advantage of that it seems. She’s mentioned to have a high singing voice, so she must sing, either casually or as part of the band and we just got unlucky in not getting any vocal music. Bummer. 

She’s stated to live on her own, but following a curfew. Outside of implying she’s independent and diligent, adulting on her own and following her own strict rules, it also implies that the rest of the band lives with other people. Possibly with families or other friends they have. She’s also a trend chaser, following whatever new fads she hears about. She does seem to have some set in stone tastes though. If we can believe the urchin in that one Octo Expansion chat image is her (the one about Pearl’s early metal days, there’s an urchin wearing bows on their hair. If so, that gives her artwork number 5), then she’s got a taste for punk/metal stuff. Her new outfit in Splatoon 3 supports that, being a flowery white shawl worn over a dress studded with spikes around the base. I love that fit so much.

And for her place in the Valentine’s day image, she’s about to eat an ice cream sundae the size of her own head. And Yoko’s looking at her with what I assume is concern. Small people eating big food is a trope you never get tired of.

Mayaya

The final big name graduate of the band. Well, just graduate, as unlike Karen and Bibi, they just say “musical academy” without the famous adjective. Maybe they left it out? Anyway, she at least impressed her professor enough that they recommended she start teaching music immediately after graduating. She likely showcased that potential in a way, maybe as a tutor for other students, and she also had a close enough relationship with said professor to willingly listen to that recommendation. As is clear with Ink Theory, she chose instead to go out and make her own music first, to develop her skills before she decides when she wants to become an instructor.

She’s a freelance percussionist. Ink Theory seems to be her main band, but she also performs with other ones. Like she said, she’s focusing on creating her own music first, so freelancing is a nice avenue in getting tons of experience in other genres.

---

The first band is done. seven to go. Give me your thoughts if you have them, and criticisms too. Discussions are good for getting multiple perspectives after all. Especially if you all know something I don't.

[mizuki-foreshadowing]

Imprisoned Marionette, Episodes 5 & 7

This entry is almost completely wishful thinking, but, I think this story is trying to make Mizuki's contribution feel important. And if it is important, it could be very important.

This post relies on a number of things being true. If any of them aren't true, this is nothing more than a headcanon.

Objects from the real world can't remain in SEKAI indefinitely

Mizuki did not teach Empty Miku cat's cradle before visiting the doll exhibit

Having fun is genuinely a strange and exciting experience for Empty Miku

At the doll exhibit, Mafuyu has a panic attack when she sees a caged marionette; she lost her true self letting her be her mother's puppet. Kanade can't write a song that can save Mafuyu without understanding her feelings, something not even Mafuyu can understand. When Kanade urges the shaken Mafuyu to delve into the negative emotions she only just recovered from, Mizuki steps in to get her to lay off. Mafuyu refuses Mizuki's offer to walk her to the train station and leaves abruptly.

Kanade can't figure out why Mafuyu had such a strong reaction to the doll and goes to the place formed from Mafuyu's emotions to ask Miku. There, Kanade learns Mizuki has already taught Miku to play cat's cradle.

Mafuyu can't understand her emotions about the doll, but wants to be able to help Kanade. She goes to SEKAI to ask Miku for guidance. Miku reveals two things, that the SEKAI only appears to be empty but more objects show themselves as Mafuyu finds herself, and that she cut the strings from the marionette to play cat's cradle.

That last detail is what makes it so I can't ignore this idea.

There are two possibilities for what happened behind the scenes. The first one, perhaps the more likely one, is that Miku has any number of strings she could play cat's cradle with, but cut the strings from the marionette as a way to communicate to Mafuyu that even if she feels like an imprisoned marionette, she can still change, and reinvent herself.

The other possibility is that Mizuki, who was visibly worried for Mafuyu at the doll exhibit, visited SEKAI after they all went home, thinking she might find Mafuyu there. Instead, she finds the marionette that became visible after Mafuyu's panic attack. Really, that would be an upsetting thing to realize is now one of the very few objects in that empty once-peaceful place. She teaches Miku cat's cradle, not only because it's a game one can play alone, but because it requires string to play, knowing that there is only one place in all of Empty SEKAI Miku could find string.

Cutting the strings from the marionette is what Mafuyu needed to see to have her revelation. Miku understanding this is natural, and that's an easier way to read the event. But Miku seems just fascinated enough by having fun, and it's just strange enough that Mizuki visits SEKAI before either Kanade or Mafuyu do, that it could have been Mizuki who realizes that seeing the marionette freed from its strings is what Mafuyu needs to see.

The N25 initial story is shaped by Mizuki relating strongly to Mafuyu on account of her knowing personally how suffocating it is to lose who you are in meeting the expectations of those around you. Mizuki's response, of course, was to run counter to all of those expectations and become exactly herself; in transitioning, she took all the strings controlling her and cut them. Is it a stretch that she would think to help Mafuyu through something similar?

[weirdefilippis]

Hello there! Thank you for being so open about answering questions here, it's so interesting to see your processes. I was wondering if you might feel comfortable going into your thoughts and intentions behind your writing choices with Rahne Sinclair in your New Mutants run? It's probably the most controversial part of the run - especially to fans of the character from the original run from the 80s. Do you have any thoughts on the fan reaction as well?

A lot of comic writers fall into the trap of trying to energize a book or a fanbase by doing something shocking and new.

We are not above that temptation, and have fallen prey to it a couple of times, two in rapid succession.

The first was when we were asked to pitch what we'd do with Iron Man (years before the movie came out or was announced). We did the shocking thing - we killed him. Pitched an arc where Tony Stark was dying and did all he could to prevent it before he realized he couldn't. He'd die at the end of the arc, and his personality would go on to become the AI that powered the suit while others wore it.

We loved our grand, bold idea - not knowing how bad this would be if they were planning a movie featuring Tony Stark.

We didn't get that job, and all they told us is that they "had plans" for Tony and didn't want him dead.

Now, when we pitched New Mutants, we wanted to update some of our favorites from the classic team. And with Rahne, we knew the accent would likely have diminished over time - as it does with a lot of immigrants. But having had it spelled out on the page the way it had been during the classic New Mutants run meant this would be really noticeable.

Writing Rahne's return was right around this time we had that chance to pitch for Iron Man, and we didn't take the right lesson from not getting that gig - we'd chalked it up to bad timing. So we did it again, going for the big change - we decided to lean into how jarring losing the accent would be to the readers, and make it a deliberate choice on her part to reinvent herself because the wolf was no longer with her.

It made sense - she lost this part of herself and found herself inexplicably missing it. So she wanted to shake things up, shake herself up. Prove herself more adult, more American.

And that led to her being someone who would make a huge lapse in judgement as a teacher.

We thought it would get people talking.

It did, but not always in positive ways.

Like we said, writers do this a lot in comics. They want to make their mark, and shake things up.

In retrospect, a milder version without the kiss with Josh may have worked better. Perhaps having Dani able to talk about the other changes with her would have made them make sense a bit more.

But whatever the mistake was, we look back at it as mishandled. Not by Marvel, by us. We swung for the fences and didn't connect.

Live and learn.

These days, we're less inclined to want to shake things up so dramatically.

We've also seen enough teacher-student stories to know we don't want to write any more of them, so we totally get why that kiss still bothers Rahne fans to this day.

As we said, live and learn.

There isn't much we'd change about what we did on New Mutants and New X-Men (regardless of reactions to it), but there are a few big things.

And that kiss is one of them.

[notoriousbeb]

This reading from Oct. 16 is about Harry’s future spouse (I love these).

She encourages him to embrace the unknown and question the establishment.

She also wants him to listen to his body and trust himself when he needs rest and time away and to let go of things from his past and childhood that might have held him back.

Her characteristics: She’s okay with operating outside expectations; she switches up her look from time to time (white hair, green eyes and dark lip stick); she colors outside the lines intentionally in terms of creativity.

Their relationship is about major spiritual lessons for both of them, and inspires them to be motivated and creative.

She may need to move around a lot or experience new places when they were younger and now for their job. She also recreates her identity/reinvent herself. She uses her life experiences to grow.

She’s very confident in who she is and what she wants.

The afterlife and spiritual concepts intrigue her.

She’s very resourceful and self-made in pursuing her passions.

Sometimes, things haven’t come easy for her. Could be why she has had to be so resourceful. She’s always been going after what she wants.

She is very creative and imaginative. She’s likely in the entertainment industry. It’s tied in with her belief that life is a mystery and exploring the “what if’s” in life.

She might have been raised in a strict or rule-abiding household with a sense that it doesn’t matter what you’re born into, because if you embrace your passion that’s what matters.

While she hasn’t had it easy all the time, she’s been very fortunate, on the whole, because she’s worked so hard and not let other people tell her how to dream.

Their relationship requires Harry to adapt and accept things as they come and understanding how he or they need to change and embrace life experiences, transforming confusion and fear into a sense of personal power.

She can be guarded with her heart. She can’t let everyone into her world or inner circle.

They’re going to be able to have a smooth relationship, because they’re going to be able to communicate well from a place of knowing themselves and knowing what needs to be shared.

Currently, she’s definitely being guarded and busy connecting with her higher purpose.

She’s someone who is passionate, outspoken, and not afraid to go after what she wants. She also wants to help others do that, too.

What she offers the world: she’s an example of taking up space and being in touch with your own dreams and desires and abilities and not letting other people make you back down.

She has a lot of masculine energy (confidence, knowing who she is, having life experience to know what she’s talking about). She’s a leader who takes care of herself financially. A lot of fire energy—she could be a fire sign (I’m sorry guys, but this is all a Ms. Swift).

She could act, produce, have her own business (yes, yes, and yes).

She’s okay being the center of attention and gossip. She just does her thing anyway. What’s important to her is trusting herself and the people she lets into her life.

She is all about transformations (back to the white hair, green eyes and dark lip stick…Bleachella, is that you?).

She pushes the envelope and creates a stir—something that can be shocking to others—that makes her even more powerful and in the lime light.

The reader feels like Harry’s FS is in the spotlight, and there’s a lot of news articles about them.

[sun-marie]

2, 4, and 12 for lydia <3

2. How did Rook get the nickname? What do they think of it?

Being born into slavery in the Tevinter Imperium, "Lydia" was the only name she had as a child, separated from her parents. When she escaped and joined the Lords, she sought to reinvent herself as a free person, and wanted a new name to reflect that. After playing (and mostly losing) chess a few times with her fellow Lords as a teenager, she liked how subtly strong the Rook piece was, you could never see it coming before it was too late. If she didn't already see herself that way, she at least wanted to aspire to that. "Lydia" (while not as strong as like a deadname) is different person in her mind, a scared little elven girl trying to survive in a world of humans.

4. Which faction did they join, and why? How long has it been?

The Rivaini Lords of Fortune! I don't have the exact details yet, but when she was anywhere from 7-12, the ship she was serving on was attacked by the Rivaini coast, probably by the Felicisima Armada. In the confusion, she managed to sneak onto their ship (she might have also killed someone out of self defense during this) and stay hidden long enough to make it to Rivain proper when they docked for supplies. She had a rough few years until a Lord of Fortune (not Isabela) found her and, seeing her sailing experience and magical potential, offered to recruit (and partially raise) her. By the time we meet her in the game, Rook has (officially) been with the Lords since the Kirkwall Chantry Explosion, about 16 years.

12. Does Rook have any family? Do they keep in touch?

Sadly, no. Or rather, if she has any family still alive, she doesn't know where they are. As soon as she was able she was taken to be a galley slave, separating from her (also enslaved) parents. When she finally settled in Rivain, she tried to find them again only to realize she didn't know anything about them, not their names, not where they served, and barely what they looked like years ago. While she hasn't fully given up hope of seeing either of them again, she's accepted that the Lords are her new family, particularly her (currently unnamed) magical mentor and Isabela.

fifty questions for rook ask game <3

[ceescedasticity]

fic: well-behaved women (rarely make history)

Sixteen times Artanilmë Angarátiel failed to make it into the historical record.

1. Finwë's first great-grandchild might have drawn a great deal of attention. But Angaráto and Eldalótë were aware of this, and wary of it; they dwelled in Arafinwë's house near Alqualondë and visited Tirion only discreetly, until Artanilmë was no longer a child and also was not Finwë's only great-grandchild. (Nor was this itself notable: Curufinwë and Turukáno in turn also strictly limited their children's public appearances while they were children.)

2. Studying and practicing healing is just not a notable thing for a Noldorin woman to do, even in the royal house. It was more notable that she was one of the first to treat (accidental) sword injuries, and studied Lindarin techniques not dependent on the Valar in order to do so discreetly, but not being obvious about that was the entire point.

3. Artanilmë did not join the debate at the bonfires; with her brother, grandfather, father, uncles, and aunt already there, she felt any opinion she might offer would be superfluous. There were still many people suffering the effects of the Unlight, and others who had been injured in the panic of the Darkening. She was needed more elsewhere.

4. Perhaps it would have been noted had she acted on her impulse to refuse her aid to any Noldor injured in the Kinslaying at Alqualondë. (They had no right to expect the teachings of the Lindar to help them now.) But she looked to her duty, and swallowed her grief and rage to tend the wounded, though in stony silence.

5. No one was writing history while crossing the Grinding Ice, nor did anyone wish to speak of it afterwards. The brutal learning curve of the limits of healing when the healers themselves were at their limits was not discussed. Artanilmë nearly killing herself failing to save a child was not discussed. The reinvention of amputation was not discussed.

6. Arameldis was never the only one bringing Doriathrin medical knowledge to the Noldor and vice versa. There were healers of the Falathrim and the Northern Sindar who crossed the borders as freely, and the odd healer of Doriath who came forth, and Galadriel also learned and shared many things. And, regardless, none of that was thought interesting enough for anyone's annals.

7. Many Noldor reached out to provide aid and wisdom to the Edain. Not so many sought to learn from the Edain in turn, but Arameldis was certainly not alone in the House of Finarfin in doing so. The treatise she wrote on best practice for elven healers treating injury or illness of Men was of limited interest outside of the community of healers and some conscientious leaders.

8. Perhaps it would have been noted had Arameldis died with her father and uncle in the Dagor Bragollach. But she was ordered to lead the retreat and evacuation to Nargothrond, and followed those orders, and the journey was not as perilous as some.

9. When Beren came to Nargothrond, Arameldis was in the Falas, lending her skills to those without a hidden city to keep them safe. Had she been present, perhaps her strength and her counsel might have made some difference, or at least captured enough attention to be recorded; but she was not.

10. Had Arameldis returned while Celegorm and Curufin ruled in Nargothrond, she might have been able to stir the people to drive them out: She was not wounded as Orodreth was, and she was older and taken more seriously than Finduilas, and a battlefield healer must be able to stand her ground against irrational princes. But she suspected nothing of the state of things at home until Finrod's death.

11. Some in Nargothrond witnessed the debate of Orodreth and Arameldis over the Union of Maedhros. Voices were raised, tears were shed, and many of the arguments for and against joining were neatly summarized. It would likely have entered the histories of the First Age had any of the survivors of Nargothrond spoken of it. They did not. Survivors of Nargothrond seldom spoke of the Nirnaeth Arnoediad.

12. That Arameldis appeared for the Fifth Battle was far less notable than Gwindor's small defiant force. She went where she was needed in those days; it did not need to be said. No one thought she would be needed at Gwindor's side. If she tried to scream any orders from the rear no one took note of it.

13. Arameldis shed her share of the tears. She kept working until she was forcibly carried away by Mablung of Doriath. And she did not speak of it for anyone to write of it, save only: "I can recognize a mortal wound." This was, perhaps, too cryptic to be thought worth repeating.

14. Finduilas did not seek Arameldis's insight on the matter of Túrin. Why would she? Her aunt was very open that she had no experience in even simple matters of the heart. Arameldis was involved in what healing they could offer Gwindor. Obviously.

15. On the matter of the bridge and later Círdan's warnings she was publicly silent. When Orodreth sought her counsel in private, she had little to say. Venturing forth to seek battle was a terrible risk, evacuating in a large group was a terrible risk, and if they stayed where they were and did nothing they would surely die of internal injuries, metaphorically speaking. She had no conclusion.

16. Of course Arameldis rode out with the warriors of Nargothrond. Of course she was at Tumhalad. Of course she was slain. Of course none of the handful of survivors saw her fall. They could only say she was definitely dead, not captured, and while that was preferable it was also not noteworthy.

[secc0]

So I have meta on Karma and Midnights as a whole and I have to extensively rant about it because Taylor made a genius genius masterpiece

I just watched the Karma music video and I've been mind blown. Pls follow me

So, the song makes a pretty clear reference to CCS's song, Music Is My Hot Hot S-x.

The structure of both songs is the same, they make a list of what Music/Karma are for them: Music is my boyfriend Music is my girlfriend... Music is my beach house... Music is my hot hot s-x Music is my back rub 'Cause karma is my boyfriend Karma is a god Karma is the breeze in my hair on the weekend Karma's a relaxing thought

Both songs share the idea that music/karma is something relaxing and pleasant, and Taylor makes an obvious joke on the fact that her karma/her revenge on her enemies is her hot hot s-x, BUT there's more:

If we follow the parallelism karma = music, first of all Taylor is telling us that music is her positive karma. Thus, she's acknowleding that she's very good at making music (and navigating the music industry, eg. by keeping her side of the street clean and focussing on releasing good work instead of 'talking sh-t' and 'betraying' to keep relevant). She's telling us that her music abilities are what allows her to still be here while 'so many fade'.

It's also interesting how everything ties together with the time imagery (and I promise it has to do with the music=karma parallelism). Time is super present in the video, with hourglasses and clocks, and I'm pretty sure they've added a tickling clock sound to the beat of this video that wasn't there in the og version of karma.

So, the song suggest that time is running out for Taylor's enemies, because 'karma is on their scent like a bounty hunter'. The fact that 'it's coming back around' for them evokes the final image of the hour hand of the clock, which moves in circles, coming back around to were it was. Since these guys are apparently doomed to fade, their fate resembles a hourglass more than a clock: clocks keep going cyclically on their own, but in an hourglass, when the sand has all gone down everything has ended. Also: 'you'd see the glare of everyone you've burned just to get there': when you get burned, you turn to ashes: if the hourglass is a metaphor for Taylor's enemies' careers, the powder inside represents time, in particular their time in the spotlight: the powder inside their hourglasses/career is literally made of the ashes of the people they've burned. Aka, the only thing that keep them relevant is burning people down; but they haven't managed to turn Taylor to ashes, since she's comfortably sitting in the hourglass in one piece. Anyway, if they are 'terrified to look down', it might be because if they did, they'd see that the sand in their hourglass has almost run out, their career is almost over. In fact, they're represented as skeletons/ghosts.

On the contrary, time is not a concern for Taylor, who comes back cyclically like the hour hand of a clock (see 'I come back stronger than a 90s trend') and she's able to do so because she's terrific at reinventing herself with her eras and her music keeps being consistently good (as this masterpiece shows). We know this from the first shot, in which her record moves in a cycle and releases some sort of fairy dust: unlike her enemies, her hourglass powder, aka her time in the spotlight, is not made by the ashes of people she's burned - it comes from her music. She may have been caught in her enemies' hourglass game, but with each new era, she turns her hourglass back up, taking advantage from the situation (and that's why the camera often turns around to the next scene, as if the video itself was shot into an hourglass). So: karma/her killer music skills might ultimately be a 'relaxing thought' because they allow her not to worry about fading or staying relevant.

Ultimately, this makes her stable and immortal in music history (she represents herself as a literal mountain) and makes her so powerful that she can control any time cycle, even the orbits of planets.

This is all SO striking to me because the theme of 'my art will make me immortal' is what poets have been saying for decades and she appropriates the trend in such a gloriously camp and confident way. Edit of the edit: The idea that she doesn't have to worry about time because she's confident in her own skills mirrors back You'Re On Your Own, Kid: 'make the friendship bracelets, seize the moment and taste it, you've got no reason to be afraid'. And now that I think about it, You're On Your Own, Kid is all about time from the very beginning: 'summer went away, still the yearning stays': she's getting older, but her yearning for making good music remains and that's what keeps her afloat. I might have underestimated how deep the reflection on time in Midnights is. Ultimately it might be an album about time and what you do with it, mostly.

Edit: oh, and of course I love the final image suggesting that midnights are the darkest point of the day, but they also make the beginning of a brand new day, suggesting that there's power in every dark moment + new awakening and reversing the darker connotation that she originally gave to midnights as dark times of brooding ('Anti-hero')

[fetabathwater]

Alone midnight and skin for ms lamby lamb my lov <33

prompts here!

alone: How does your OC deal with loneliness? Have they ever been completely alone before? How do they act when there’s no one around to see them?

Loneliness to Jennifer is like an itch. It's not enough to call it a phantom limb, even though that has increased exponentially since the vote, but loneliness as a child was her purposely standing in the middle of the house and screaming until someone came running. It was the outbursts in class and the clawing for attention, only to rebuff it as she hit her teens and thought she was above it all. Loneliness crawls all over her brain and down her spine and it eats away at her, because Jen never really had her parents, and her grandmother passed, and her grandfather sits in his chair or in the garden, just waiting away each day. Her other half is gone, through actions of her own too, and yeah, Jen can stand in a room and feel the separation, because she doesn't want to go through the motions again. Noise isn't enough to scare the loneliness away, when no one else has her in their eyesight. Lights are on, tv blaring, music playing, and Jen's fingers do itch to start taking something a bit heavier to ease it all away.

midnight: What keeps your OC up at night? Do they have nightmares? Fears? Anxieties? What do they do in the small hours of the morning when they should be sleeping?

Thinking and re-thinking and replaying the fight. In her mind, she's got variations of the vote running, sometimes hard enough that she convinces herself that is real. Her phone keeps her up, hovering over Seven's number, and no matter how many times she throws it to the other side of the room, she still gets out of bed, picks it up, rinse and repeat. Jen's nightmares about no longer being palatable. About never being enough. All the sites say their voices work better apart, but Jen sees how expendable she is, because what if she stops appealing? What if the band doesn't need her anymore? Kicking out a singer never stopped anyone before, historically. Those small hours of the morning are the worst, when she's on her phone and the independent journal sites and the odd vid dedicated to breaking down what happened. Jen tells herself if she doesn't stay on top of this, then the worst will happen - but she also knows that's bullshit.

skin: How comfortable is your OC in their skin? Do they grapple with anything that lives inside them—a beast, a curse, a failure, a monster? How do they face the smallest, weakest, most horrible version of themself? Are they able to acknowledge it at all?

Jennifer stands in front of the mirror and feels like she's a marionette and the one pulling her own strings. The curse she bears is the word 'palatable'. It was an offhand comment, a reason for her to stay lead, but something in the way she was already so broken after the vote ate that word up, as if it was glue to keep her together. Palatable. Easy to digest, pleasant, constant. Just as easy to replace for something better. Jen dyes her hair and brushes her teeth, does her makeup and puts on the clothes but she doesn't recognise herself, really. She should cover the tattoo, remove it, burn it off, anything, to sell the image that the band wants. They can't have someone who is walking a very fine line, right? What would that say? She's still stamped, even though that ended swiftly, all those years ago. Reinvented herself into the star that would appeal; Jen digs her nails into the skin around the tattoo. Half-moons, as if she might be able to take it off herself, because having it still there means that Jennifer Lamb, duet partner, carried by her former everything, still exists - and she can't face that any time soon.

(and when she saw that Seven still had her initials, her carefully constructed everything ached, as if who she was might still be alive, and not this version of herself she's trying so hard to be)

[sapphim]

so I don't think I've ever really sat down and done a full writeup of my canon multiwarden worldstate, and it's been a hot minute since I've posted bits and pieces of it, so I'm gonna do this as a series of posts until I lose interest and stop abruptly partway thru ☺️

first, the origins~ or, one of them, anyway~

Duncan's hoping to find a few more good Warden recruits on this tour of Ferelden, but his main impetus for this trip in particular is because he has reached out to Orzammar about a venture into the Deep Roads to confirm the Blight has started, and he has received word back that the Wardens are, of course, formally invited, and they'll throw their honored guests a party while they're there. So Duncan and a few other wardens—including Alistair, who has only recently undergone the Joining and not done much Warden stuff beyond scouting in the Korcari Wilds around Ostagar—make the journey to Orzammar.

Duncan purposefully chooses a route that will take them past Kinloch Hold, and sends the other wardens to travel ahead to Orzammar to start getting things set up while he takes a quick detour at the Circle.

Bound in Blood and Magic

The three OCs of interest here are Rowan, Rafael, and Spiro Amell.

Rowan is an apprentice at the Circle. She's ~17 years old, nearly six feet tall, and half-elven, albeit not very visibly. She was raised in the Gwaren Alienage, where she assumes her mother still resides. She's friendly and extraverted but also gangly and awkward. In a kinder world she'd be sporty. She attaches herself to Jowan and Lily's plot to destroy their phylacteries and flee the Circle early and eagerly.

Rafael [Surana] is ~20 and a lil nerd who just passed his Harrowing with flying colors, although his aspirations to study spirit healing under Wynne have been dampened as she's been recently dispatched to Ostagar. He's a bright student and believes in the promises of the system—that by excelling scholastically he can overcome any prejudice introduced into the meritocracy from external sources. He seized the opportunity to reinvent himself with a new identity when he was brought to the Circle at a young age, and they've provided support for his gender transition. He's got a nerdy lil elven boyfriend, Eadric, he's been seeing on the dl. He's pretty content with his lot in life and he really doesn't want to confront anything that could ruin this for him.

When Jowan approaches Rafael about his fears about being made tranquil, Rafael 100% believes Jowan's in a conspiracy theory-fueled anxiety-spiral, and relays his concerns to First Enchanter Irving, who manipulates Rafael into giving up more about Jowan's plan than he intended and extracts an agreement that Rafael will monitor his escape attempt for him. Raf will spend the rest of the origin trying anxiously and unsuccessfully to talk Jowan out of the escape without giving away his role in the ordeal.

Spiro Amell, being in his early 30s, is in Anders' cohort rather than that of the elder apprentices. He's another Circle success story: attractive, clever, but most importantly charming. Academically he's coasting somewhat, but socially he's popular, he's likable, and he refuses to get tied down in fraternity politics. Being from a noble family, even a disgraced and foreign one, has absolutely started him with a leg up in the Circle hierarchy that most other mages would have to fight tooth and nail for. He is extremely chill and easy-going, and he doesn't make it a habit to make waves, though he's not unwilling to spend the social capital he's accumulated to help out a fellow mage.

Jowan & co. are not being as subtle as they think they are, and not nearly as subtle as they should be, which is how Spiro gets involved. He can't talk them out of it, but he might be able to keep them from getting themselves killed and dampen any fallout should they get caught. It's definitely not the first time he's assisted someone else's escape attempt.

Spiro may get a little bit uncharacteristically clumsy and in the basement while Jowan and Rowan are taking too long to locate their own phylacteries and Rafael is anxiously unraveling his own robes thread by thread in the corner of the room and—oops, aw dang, there goes an entire shelf. Let's skedaddle, fellas. The Circle won't have completed sorting that mess out by the time Uldred enacts his takeover of the Tower later.

When they emerge, they're confronted by First Enchanter Irving, Knight Commander Greagoir, and a host of templars. Raf's outed as a snitch. Jowan reveals his blood magic and flees. When everyone else comes to, Spiro, Rowan, and Lily are groggily and unceremoniously escorted away to the dungeon to be held until a fitting punishment can be enacted. Rafael is absolutely losing his shit over what he's learned about Irving deliberately entrapping apprentices with blood magic and setting them up to fail. Greagoir would like to completely disregard the amnesty Rafael was promised and haul him off the same as the others, even though he was acting entirely under orders from Irving, and Raf's attitude is not helping. This is when Duncan—who was pretty impressed when he spoke with Rafael earlier in his visit—steps in and conscripts him out from under them.

Duncan and Rafael—after a very brief moment for Raf to grab his things and wake Eadric to say goodbye—leave the Tower and make their way to Orzammar, arriving only a day or two after the other Wardens.

(Not long after this, Anders will take advantage of the chaos caused by Uldred's rebellion to spring Spiro and Rowan from the dungeons in the process of his own escape. The three of them will spend the duration of the Blight engaging in shenanigans just slightly off-screen from wherever the main action is located.)

Next up! Orzammar and the Deep Roads.

[docholligay]

Misty: Ep 2

Hello! This is about up to Episode 2 of Yellowjackets, and ONLY episode 2 of Yellowjackets. I have not seen beyond the second episode, at all, and know NOTHING about this show. Please do not spoil it for me.  Things that are spoilery in nature, for me, include: saying things like  “Just wait!!” confirming or denying anything I put forward, outside information about the cast interviews or creator statements, leading questions like “Do you think “blank moment” means anything?” etc. Remember  that Y’ALL HAVE SEEN THE SHOW AND I HAVE NOT. This informs the way you  talk about things relating to the show. Just be really careful is all  I’m asking. Also: If there is LITERALLY any stance I  could take on this show or character that would make you upset, please  just fucking block the tag

If you WOULD like to discuss the show and my takes on it, the Discord is right here! I don’t go there, so it’s a great place to get every emotion out.

Please thank @sailorsunspot and @moonlight-frittata for backing this odd way of doing a liveblog, and remember my tip jar is always open!

One of the major victories, so far, of this show is the way it handles Misty. Misty is both a victim and a villain, and that is one of my absolute favorite places for a character to be. They also really avoid the “poor, beleaguered nerd cri cri” that I am so opposed to in fiction. 

Don’t misunderstand me, I feel deeply for Misty in that opening scene with the phone call, because I was her, minus that fact that I most definitely did not have my own phone line*. When she talks about Plato and opinion being the wilderness between knowledge and ignorance, but she’s so socially uncanny she has no idea how to respond to the girls on the other end of the line without playing more into their trap, I cringed because that could have described me PERFECTLY from about the ages of 7 to 13. When i was little, it was basically decided by my classmates that no one was going to attend my birthday party, and so, not a single person showed up. I am not unsympathetic to what this shit feels like. 

So I LOVE how the show goes, “Oh, you feel for her, but as an adult, you also would find her offputting and unlikeable” and they throw us into this date situation where Misty is being unspeakably weird, and not understanding how the social game is played. There are many, many of us who were Misty as children, and grew up to learn how the game was played. I learned it so well I actually became a mean girl human nightmare from about the ages of 15 to 22-23. Calling it a game is even a touch dismissive. We are pack animals, and understanding how pack communication is done is a life skill. 

Misty is, even as an adult, unlikeable. Part of me wonders if she, too, is trapped at 17 the way I’ve accused other characters of being. Did it have to be this way? Might her life have changed if she went to college, was able to reinvent herself? I mean, we aren’t really given anything, but in that opening scene, I can see she has a very nice room, with her own phone line, and nice clothes. It SEEMS like her parents care about her at least to some degree. And that is, I think, a major part of resilience. What might Misty have been if she wasn’t out in the wild? Who might she have become, and would it be a more socially appropriate person than she is now? 

Because she found a part of herself out there that I think she’s still clinging to. 

There are people who are born for certain situations, and certain moments. People who are incredibly good in a crisis. I may be an abrasive piece of shit in my day to day life, but I also am fairly good in a crisis. There’s Winston Churchill. Anyway, Misty is also one of those people who is great in a crisis. From the word go, she manages the situation with a very clear head, bracing herself as the plane crashes, immediately looking for the emergency door. She has excellent first aid skills--though I scoff at her having taken babysitter first aid, I have taken wilderness first aid, and that is shit from wilderness first aid and even a bit beyond--and proves herself invaluable to the team. 

All of that is fine. All of that is great, actually. 

But what this leads to is her manufacturing a crisis--well, that’s not fair, let’s instead say prolonging a crisis--so that she can continue to be liked and useful. When I saw the end of t6he episode, I was appalled, but I wasn’t SHOCKED. I think that’s a credit to the writers, who have shown us time and again how a REASONABLE person could not like Misty or find her offputting. This is the first time in her life that people have had nice things to say about her. She helped someone in need. 

And so it doesn’t surprise me that she went into healthcare, and I am 100% sure, though please, don’t tell me, that she wrecked Nat’s car. That’s why she’s joined up with the citizen detectives. Misty has CONTINUED to find ways to make herself the only one that can help. She has continued to chase that high of being in the woods and being the only one who knows what to do and it wouldn’t surprise me if she continued to either manufacture or prolong crises in order to maintain that position of usefulness. If the girls can’t LIKE her, they will NEED her.

[herearedragons]

Self and Future for each!

OC asks: relationship edition

Thanks for the ask! I'll change things around a bit and do these for the Inquisitors.

.... also, I'm answering "Future" first and I'm making it short, because under the cut are increasingly long rants about each of these guys' special flavor of identity crisis, and that's a lot to read already.

Future: Is there anyone your OC is looking forward to meeting or to seeing again? Who? What might that meeting or reunion look like?

Evelyn: she hasn't seen her parents for three years now (that's when she got sent to the Circle), and she's definitely looking forward to seeing them again. I do like to imagine that, as Inquisitor, she's able to arrange a clandestine meeting with them and even brings Sera along; I don't think she would want them to come to Skyhold, since being known in public as the Inquisitor's parents sounds dangerous. I think it would be a happy reunion for all of them, and I think her parents would love Sera; Evelyn's own mother eloped with her secretary(Evelyn's father), so I think they're pretty open-minded when it comes to making a match.

Neilar: the entirety of his clan, oh please for the love of the gods let him go home. In my headcanon, he was there for the Wycome incident; if not for the entirety of it, then at least for the last battle. And, weirdly enough, it was a better reunion for him than later visits to his clan in peaceful times; maybe because then, when there was danger, him being Inquisitor meant something good. He had a place there; he did his part by bringing in troops and joining the fight himself. The clan members are obviously always happy to see him, especially his family, but in later visits it's more bittersweet for him.

Aqun: also his family. They do write to each other constantly, and I think he's been home at least once as Inquisitor; he definitely had people stationed near his family home, since his parents live by themselves in a remote location and if there was any sort of attack, help wouldn't arrive fast enough from the nearby city. His parents are used to him being out on missions for long periods of time, though not as long as years, and I think that when he comes home for the first time as Inquisitor, it's actually pretty casual, and it's nice for him to know that at least things back home haven't changed.

May: her entire storyline is about trying to avoid people from her past, so she's absolutely not looking forward to meet anyone from her time before the Inquisition - except, maybe, for the Andrastian priest who converted her. It would be fun if they ever ended up coming to Skyhold; May would be happy to know they're alright, but also kind of terrified of speaking to them, because imagine converting a struggling criminal and then learning that she's a controversial prophet-kind-of-military-leader.

Self: How is your OC's relationship with themself? Does your OC like who they are? Is there anything about themself that they would change?

Evelyn: her entire thing is lying about herself as an act of self-defense, so her relationship to herself is... complicated! To say the least! It's this funny situation where she should have been fine, like, she's actually pretty good for the role she was raised for (which is the role of a minor noble who represents her family in business deals and the such), but instead she ended up a Circle mage and then a rebel mage and then the leader of a huge religious organization and she's just a stressed out 23-year-old who's really tired of reinventing herself to match whatever's happening around her, so at some point she just starts making stuff up. She tells Cassandra that she's an enchanter (despite not even being Harrowed) and lies about her age. She lies about believing that Andraste spoke to her. Oh, and also her family sent her to the Circle under a different name and legal identity because her magic manifested late (at 20 years old) and it seemed a lot like the Maker-fearing Trevelyans were hiding an apostate, so they made up a story about Rose (her birth name) leaving to study abroad and Evelyn being a whole different Trevelyan who's actually just transferring from another Circle. And initially it's about protecting her family and protecting herself, but inevitably it does start to feel like there's something wrong with who she actually is. If there wasn't, she wouldn't have to hide anything, right? She has no idea what she would actually change, but she would love for that sense of wrongness to go away.

Neilar: honestly didn't think too much about his identity/his opinion of himself until the events of Inquisition. It was... fine? People in the clan liked him, he was good at his job, it was all he needed to know. As Inquisitor, things get more complicated, because he keeps ending up in situations where being a good guy and a good scout isn't enough, and it's kind of like Evelyn's situation, except instead of hiding behind a false identity, he ends up breaking and bending himself until he does fit the mold. I mentioned his assassin training in the past and how that was a conscious attempt to learn how to be more ruthless. And it just keeps going. On every turn, he's trying to change himself into the hero he feels the story needs right now, regardless of what it might mean for him in the long run, and that's how we get to him drinking from the Well of Sorrows and being super possessed and no one being happy about that. So yeah, his main thing is being changed by his time as the Inquisitor to the point where he can't ever go back to just being a scout in his clan, because that would be an irresponsible use of the power and influence he now has, and he knows that, and they know that, and he knows that's never going away. A lot of times he wishes he could be just a nobody again, someone who only really matters to his loved ones.

Aqun: definitely has it together more than the other two, but not entirely free of identity struggles either. As I said before, he's a human-Qunari halfblood, and he spent the first two decades of his life living in relative isolation with his parents before joining the Valo-Kas. Which was great for him, in many ways, but also the other result of that is that he doesn't really fit anywhere. His general bearing and upbringing is more human-coded than Qunari-coded, but most of human society will see "tall, grey, kind of has horns" and won't really care about the rest. The Valo-Kas, on the other hand, accept him as he is (eventually; he did have to prove himself during his first runs with them, and he did have to work harder than most), but he's still not the same as them. I think that one of the reasons he ended up drifting together with Adina is because she's kind of in the same boat, just with the spirit world replacing the human world in her case. They both come from very specific backgrounds that literally no one else they know has experienced, and it usually doesn't matter, until it does. And I don't think he would change anything about himself, it's just a weird thing that's a part of who he is. I do think that his and Adina's bond has helped both of them a lot; they might not fully belong with the groups they are a part of, but they definitely belong with each other.

May: Where do I even begin. Her relationship with herself is kind of like Evelyn's in the sense that there's layers, but instead of layers of lies it's layers of guilt. She was born into a crime family. She was supposed to inherit her mother's position as the matriarch of that family. Then she messed up a very expensive lyrium delivery, because her group got ambushed and she chose saving her people over saving the cargo. The fallout of that was her being effectively disowned, in huge debt to the Carta, and being demoted to a rank-and-file bruiser just to make sure that she spends the rest of her life working off that debt. She was in her early 20s. It was bad. She made a mistake she could never come back from, her family wasn't her family anymore, and it didn't seem like she could do anything else but waste away. Then, at some point, she had an encounter with a dwarven Andrastian priest (of the likes of Brother Burkel from DAO), and it gave her some kind of hope. She secretly converted. She began hoping that, maybe, with the Maker's guidance she can figure things out, get some kind of redemption, leave the Carta. And then her wish got granted in a pretty backwards way as she witnessed the Divine getting murdered and promptly became a prophet with a private army and spies and companions that could wipe out her family if she asked them to. It's kind of a dream scenario, in a way, but she's not ready. She's not good enough - righteous enough, learned enough, confident enough - to take advantage of it yet. But it's here, and she has to do something fast, or it all goes away. So she starts working on it, and, if Neilar's attempts to become the ideal Inquisitor are like something being crushed to fit into a mold, in her case it's like metal being hammered into shape. The years in servitude to her own family made her quiet, patient and resilient, and with some actual hope on the horizon, she's more than willing to put in the blood and sweat it takes to be who the Inquisition needs. And, after seeing Blackwall teach the farmers to defend themselves, she decides the Inquisition needs someone like him. She chooses him as a role model, and, while extremely ironic, it works well for her at the time. During the events of Inquisition, she's mostly focused on distancing herself from her past and working towards this knight-in-a-shining-armor ideal, but, funnily enough, after the events of Trespasser she actually comes around to the crime family thing. In one of the possible endings I wrote for her, she ends up dethroning her mother and taking control of the Cadash family, using their resources to aid in hunting Solas, and I think it's pretty fun. She comes full circle, being a leader of the same organizations that once had the power to judge her (the Carta and the Andrastian Chantry).

[whiskeyswifty]

@r-ileyblue I see how you might think that but that could not be further from the truth, in my opinion. The main thing that causes friction between those two brands I think is that Taylor’s brand of music, and personal brand which is important to this matchup, is self reflective, melodramatic, emotional songs on a small, domestic scale. Bond songs, much like the movies themselves in the past 3 or so iterations of bond, have a sexy, devil may care, darkness to them and nothing she’s created has ever been able to use those words as qualifiers. Despite what I think as a lesbian always horny for her, sexy is not part of her brand. She does the pristine and prim and forbidden attractive girl thing just fine, but not the kind of sexy that imply a actually HAVING sex. That’s fine! She doesn’t want to sexualize herself and that’s totally her right. Bond movies also are huge scale, international thrillers tackling things like government distrust and sociopolitical conflicts of the times. Carolina is melodramatic, sure, much like the movie, but that’s about it. That cynical, hedonistic darkness within bond movies that the songs play off of is somewhere she has never gone and probably somewhere she never will, as it’s just not the Taylor swift brand. That’s fine! She has a goodness about her publicly and musically that has been very successful for her and she should stick to it! She might be able to tackle adult themes like bond movies present one day, but currently the Broccoli family and MGM looks at her work and does not see that potential for a brand matchup. We might just see these things differently and disagree on this, but I understand where you’re coming from for sure!

However Craig bond is dead. Bond is going to be reincarnated once again (for the 8th time!!!!) and this character has survived so long due to how it successfully reinvents itself and (semi)successfully adapts to modern eras it finds itself in. It may sound crazy to anyone reading this who is a casual bond watcher but Craig’s bond was a HUGE departure from previous versions. More sullen and brooding and blonde! While that wasn’t all that radical in general, they did take a risk to stay current, So who’s to say that the new bond won’t be an even bigger departure from the past iterations of the character! If taylor is to ever get the call to be the next bond song girl, the serious would certainly have to change in tone and heaviness in a meaningful way. Nobody knows who the next bond will be or what it’ll be like, so it’s a possibility! You may get your wish and Taylor may get her Bond-Oscar yet!

[valiantthearts]

― SPECIALIZED WEAPONS & NAMES . 

Caitlyn has three different weapons that she always has on hand when she goes somewhere. She doesn't use them offensively, but defensively and often prefers to find ways to disarm and wound rather than to kill. This is not to say that Caitlyn would not defend herself, and if it came to a point that it is literally the last and only option (A threat to her own life if she doesn't act) and incapacitating doesn't happen, she will defend herself and those who she considers close to her (Example: Vi and her mother and father)

 ― SNIPER RIFLE - OATHKEEPER

Caitlyn's Sniper rifle is an exclusive design that she got from Grayson. The weapon is made to be collapsible, able to hide in a bag, easily transportable, and quick to put together. The barrel of the rifle and the body connected by a simple snap motion, locked in place, which activates the firing pin so that it can fire. If it is not locked in place, it's like an automatic safety guard and the trigger will not fire. The stock of the rifle has the house sigil on it, showing that the rifle was built to the Kiramman household standards; specially made. Caitlyn also has a couple of accessories she can put on it, three different sights. Most of the time, Caitlyn with at least have one scoop up, and then easily snap into place or stay flat out of her sights. The rest one on the front of the barrel, one in the middle of the barrel connected to the body, and one on the body. The rifle, while exclusive to her family, had been requested by Grayson to be built. Underneath the sigil was two initials. S.G. It had originally belonged to Grayson, but when Caitlyn started to train with the sniper rifle, Grayson gave her that one; the same one she won the competition with. It's a very special weapon to her, as it reminds her of all of Grayson's lessons and the importance of the weapon to protect.

After several battles with Jinx, Caitlyn knew she had to upgrade her rifle, it couldn't just carry bullets but needed to do more. So, she found the best people to help reinvent her rifle. Hextech was imbued into the weapon for more powerful shots, different bullets including regular bullets, concussive shots, as well as electric bullets. She had a grenade launcher installed so that she could fire smoke bombs, electric nets (the ends of the nets had talon-like barbs that would wrap up together like a falcon talons gripping prey).

 ― PISTOL - FOX SONG 

Her pistol was a gift from her mother and father, not issued by the enforcers. It's lined with gold detailing and at the front is a canine creature. Inspired by the Ionian myths, her father had it ingrained. It was a fox, an animal spirit that helped protect the guardian trees in Ionia. There are different kinds of spirit foxes, but for her heritage, spirit foxes were known as good omens, protectors, and known to guide a person through the spirit realm. The pistol is rarely used, but she has it in case of need. For the most part, it stays on her hip when she goes into Zaun or works on a case in Piltover. While she rarely uses it, it doesn't mean she's not skilled enough to know how to fire a bullet from it.

 ― TWO DAMASCUS STEEL KNIVES - FROSTBITE & MOON'S EDGE 

These knives were crafted by Cassandra as a gift for graduating the Enforcer Academy. Cassandra might not like the idea of her daughter as an enforcer, however it was never said that her mother didn't support her endeavors and wanted her safe.

Whatever the reason Caitlyn might need these, Cassandra found a skilled metal crafter and was able to build her two knives. The blades are dipped in acid that brings out the Damascus pattern, and the hilts are made from wood stained in blue. The bolster is set up to fit her finger for better grip but is also slightly stylized to look like a crescent moon. She uses them for defensive matters in close combat situations.

[xtruss]

One of the Greatest Westerns Ever Made Is Now Streaming After Decades in the Wilderness

After Years of Inaccessibility, Maggie Greenwald's "The Ballad of Little Jo" Is Newly Available on Blu-Ray And Streaming — Here's Why That's a Cause For Celebration.

— By Jim Hemphill | March 25, 2024

'The Ballad of Little Jo'Fine Line Features

Throughout most of the 1980s the Western was assumed to be a dead genre, certainly compared to the central role it once played in Hollywood’s construction of a national mythology. While there were occasional outliers like Lawrence Kasdan‘s “Silverado” and Clint Eastwood‘s “Pale Rider,” for the most part the responsibility the genre had to reflect and shape American values was taken up by either science fiction movies like “The Terminator” (which fulfilled the Western’s function as an exploration of the changes wrought on society by evolving technology) or urban cop films like “48HRS.” and Eastwood’s “Dirty Harry” sequels, which transposed the form’s archetypes and moral questions to a contemporary setting. Although the decade closed out with the successful “Young Guns,” that film was an anomaly whose success probably had more to do with its cast of attractive teen idols.

Then something funny happened in the early ’90s: Right as Hollywood seemed to have given up on the Western, it came roaring back with a vengeance and yielded the most varied, complex, and satisfying group of films since the glory days of John Ford and Delmer Daves. The box office and awards success of Kevin Costner’s “Dances With Wolves” in 1990, followed by Clint Eastwood’s triumphant return to the genre in 1992 with “Unforgiven,” suddenly made Westerns commercially viable again, and filmmakers who had been biding their time were able to will their dream projects into production. Lawrence Kasdan returned to the genre for the underrated and ambitious “Wyatt Earp,” Walter Hill made two of his best films with “Geronimo: An American Legend” and “Wild Bill,” and talented directors like Jim Jarmusch (“Dead Man”), Sam Raimi (“The Quick and the Dead”), and Melvin Van Peebles (“Posse”) made Westerns as different from each other — and as equally nourishing — as one might expect.

One of the best of the ’90s Westerns has also been one of the most difficult to see, but a special edition Blu-ray release in December and a streaming premiere this month have rescued it from years of inaccessibility. When writer-director Maggie Greenwald‘s “The Ballad of Little Jo” was released in 1993, its relationship to the other Westerns of the time was a bit of a coincidence — Greenwald had written the script before “Unforgiven” — but there’s no question that her film, like the best 1950s Westerns of Budd Boetticher, Howard Hawks, and Sam Fuller, benefited from the comparisons and contrasts enabled by being part of a recognizable tradition. Like those directors, Greenwald was brilliant at using the language of the Western as a shorthand, expressing her point of view not only by what she depicted and how but by where her treatment of the material paid tribute to the Westerns that had come before and where it deviated.

“The Ballad of Little Jo” is based on the true story of a society woman (played brilliantly by Suzy Amis in a performance that deserves to be spoken of in the same breath with James Stewart’s work in the Anthony Mann Westerns) who, shunned by her family after giving birth out of wedlock, rides West and reinvents herself as a man – Josephine Monaghan becomes “Little Jo” Monaghan, a successful sheep farmer who, like the characters in “Shane,” “Heaven’s Gate,” and dozens (hundreds?) of other earlier Westerns, defends her land against an evil corporation. Along the way, she sidesteps the advances of a young woman who sees her as a potential husband and carries on a romance with a Chinese laborer (the only person who knows her true gender) while becoming friends with a guide and mentor named Badger, played by Bo Hopkins in a role that can’t help but evoke associations with Sam Peckinpah’s “The Wild Bunch.”

The casting of Hopkins gives the viewer a clue to what Greenwald is up to, as she slyly references and honors not only Peckinpah but a whole history of American Westerns at the same time that she finds new directions for the genre. Much as Hopkins retains the strengths of his performances in Westerns like “The Wild Bunch,” “The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing,” and “The Culpepper Cattle Co.” while also revealing new layers of sensitivity, the film as a whole delivers the satisfactions of Westerns — “The Magnificent Seven,” “The Gunfighter,” “Shane” — that explore both the liberation of a life defined by rugged individualism and its limitations, but deepens and expands on the mythology. Part of this is inherent in the premise, and most of it is due to Greenwald’s probing intelligence and unerring visual sense.

Suzy Amis, 1993, “The Ballad of Little Jo”©Fine Line Features/Courtesy Everett Collection

Most Westerns are about masculinity and how America defines what it means to “be a man,” and many of the best entries in the genre have been films that delve into the contradictions and complexities of the question. By telling the story of a woman who lives her life as a man in the old West, Greenwald explores traditional ideas of masculinity and femininity through a different lens than just about every other Western ever made, even ostensibly female-driven works like “Bad Girls” and “The Quick and the Dead” which, while both have considerable strengths, don’t really engage with the issue on a deep level. Like most Westerns, “The Ballad of Little Jo” takes place in a world where maleness is glorified as a source of power and progress, a fact that Greenwald sharply interrogates via the unique perspective Little Jo’s character provides. Greenwald asks the viewer to consider and reconsider ideas many Westerns (and American films in general) take for granted by posing two simple questions: What does Little Jo gain by becoming a man, and what does she lose?

Greenwald uses familiar conventions both the traditional way and with a spin that gives them a whole new dimension. One of the hoariest cliches in the Western, for example, is that of the “redemptive woman,” the schoolmarm or minister’s sister who exists in the movie to civilize the hero and help him assimilate into society. In “Little Jo,” the redemptive woman is a man, but by making him Chinese — and therefore “lesser” and isolated in the eyes of the white men in the film — Greenwald plays with ideas of power, gender, race, and economics (Jo’s lover works as her handyman) and explores how they intersect in fluid and fascinating ways. The ways in which the viewer is expected to understand these issues are irrevocably affected by seeing them through the eyes of a woman who is pretending to be a man; long before the end of the movie, the line between “male” virtues and “female” ones — a defining feature of many classical Westerns — has been satisfyingly and provocatively blurred.

The pleasures of the film are not merely or even primarily ideological; part of Greenwald’s greatness is how organically woven into the narrative these ideas are. There’s nothing anachronistic about the film, even though, like all great period movies, it’s an equally valuable reflection of the time in which it takes place, the time of its release, and the time in which you’re watching it. Greenwald has the confidence not to force or overstate her ideas but just sets the drama in motion and lets the audience draw their own conclusions.

From left, Rene Auberjonois, Suzy Amis, 1993, “The Ballad of Little Jo” ©Fine Line Features/courtesy Everett/Everett Collection

She also provides a textured and expressive visual experience for the viewer that makes “The Ballad of Little Jo” one of the most purely gorgeous independent films of its era, and also a Western with a distinct look. Other directors had taken pleasure in the small details and nuances of day-to-day living in the old West — Robert Altman in “McCabe and Mrs. Miller,” Walter Hill in “The Long Riders,” Budd Boetticher in his detailed depictions of what it really meant to be a cowboy tending to a horse — but Greenwald takes it as far as anyone ever did, focusing not only on where Little Jo lives, but how and why, and how the simultaneously beautiful and forbidding landscape informs her choices. The movie is filled with specific pieces of costume and production design that allow the viewer to ponder the frontier existence in all its particulars, not just its sweeping vistas; it’s an intimate approach that perfectly complements Greenwald’s efforts for us to see everything through Jo’s perspective.

At the same time, “The Ballad of Little Jo” has a sweeping, epic quality that belies its limited budget, as well as a giddy embrace of some of the Western’s most basic pleasures. When Little Jo, in a sense, “conquers” her territory and succeeds on both her own terms and society’s, it’s immensely satisfying, and her sense of freedom is intoxicating. Yet just as Gregory Peck in “The Gunfighter” or the guns for hire in “The Magnificent Seven” are trapped in their roles, Jo is trapped by successfully becoming a man — she can’t escape her role any more than Steve McQueen could escape his. Greenwald ends the film with an allusion to another great Western, John Ford’s “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,” with her own take on the idea that “when the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” Like everything else in the film, Greenwald’s perspective on this topic is complex, ambivalent, and, to a degree, open-ended, inviting the audience to continue the discussion after the film is over.

In a sense, Greenwald is doing what the best Western directors have always done despite the “revisionist” label erroneously attached to the ’90s films in the genre. The best Western directors have always been revisionist — John Ford cleverly subverted the idea of the redemptive woman back in 1939, for example, when he made her a prostitute in the same movie where he made the villain the most extreme representative of capitalist philosophy. Like “Stagecoach” — or “Red River,” or “High Noon,” or “Buck and the Preacher,” or any of the other all-time great Westerns — “The Ballad of Little Jo��� looks both back and forward.

Also like those films, it’s a singular personal statement. Given that Greenwald was the first woman to write and direct a wide-release American Western in the sound era, it’s hard not to draw parallels between her own journey and Little Jo’s, forging her way forward in a male-dominated field and choosing what to retain and what to discard — and like her heroine, showing everyone else how it’s done. One doesn’t need to know anything about Greenwald or the production history of her film or even its context as a ’90s Western to enjoy it, though; it stands on its own as a masterpiece that has always deserved to be better known and more easily accessed. Its renewed availability is a cause for celebration and an opportunity to rediscover an American classic.

“The Ballad of Little Jo” is currently streaming at Kino Film Collection and is available on Blu-ray from Kino Lorber.