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twdmusicboxmystery · 3 years ago

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Daryl’s Origins Story 😱🎉🎉🎉

Okay! How fun was the Daryl origin story? It’s set our fandom on fire in a way it hasn’t for quite awhile. I’m ALWAYS a fan of that. 😉

There are three major parts that I’ll be discussing today. The part about Beth and S4/S5 (obviously), the very ending of Daryl’s story, and the sneak peek for S11. I’ll go over a couple of other details in other parts as well, but most of the rest of the episode was just going through what Daryl was doing in each season.

Before we go into what they said, though, there’s something very important about how they presented this that everyone needs to understand. As @wdway pointed out, obviously Norman was reading from a script. It’s not just him meandering along and talking about what’s happened in the show.

There are probably a lot of reasons for that. Because they have so much to cover (10 full seasons’ worth, after all) they needed him to stay on track and keep to the important elements of the story.

Perhaps even more important, this is the writers telling us exactly what they want us to remember. What’s important to Daryl’s story moving forward. The unimportant things will, naturally, fall by the wayside.

What I noticed very early on was Norman’s body language. Especially in the way he was moving his arms and shoulders. It was clear to me that he was in character. It’s Daryl that moves like that, not Norman.

So, despite speaking about Daryl in the third person (“Daryl did this, Daryl said that…”) he is actually telling this from Daryl’s point of view. One good example of this was when he talked about pushing Beta down the elevator shaft. He said “Daryl kicks his dumb, tall ass down an elevator shaft.” That’s the way Daryl would phrase it if he were telling his story to someone. (Say Rick or Beth, perhaps? 😁)

And why does this matter? Because if this is coming directly from Daryl, it shows what he’s thinking about all the people and events he talks about. We can interpret everything Norman says here as a thought that’s coming directly out of Daryl’s own head.

So, with that in mind, let’s dive in. The first thing I noticed is that when talking about Merle getting left on the roof in S1, they said he was Daryl’s “first big search.” Now, we’ve focused on Daryl searching for people for years, but it was interesting to hear them say this. They also talked about his guilt in being unable to help Merle.

Of course they covered Sophia, and they talked about each person he searched for and how, in the end, he was unable to save them. So of course he didn’t find Sophia in time. She died. In the end, he couldn’t save Merle. And he basically felt the same way about losing Beth. He searched for her, eventually found her, but was unable to save her. I saw something of pattern in the way they presented this, but I’ll go more into that more in a few days.

I also want to mention something they said about him and Carol in S2. I know none of our fandom cares about Carol, but go with me on this, because it’s important for the point I’m going to make about what he says about Beth.

It shows the scene in S2 where Carol goes out to stop him from leaving and says, “we can’t lose you, too.” And he gets mad that she’s giving up on Sophia and throws the saddle. During that part, Norman says, “Daryl doesn’t know how to accept Carol’s affection, so he rejects it.”

Why is that important? Because this is the writers, in this very episode, showing that someone (Carol) showed Daryl some affection. In other words, she was “nice” to him. Keep that in mind.

So then we get to Beth and Daryl in S4.

Incredibly, they go through the major S4 episodes in about 4 lines and 60 seconds. But good HEAVENS, those were some magical lines and seconds.

Here’s what they say:

Daryl escapes with Maggie’s sister, Beth.

On the road, Beth and Daryl get to know each other better.

It gets pretty intense.

Beth is the first girl who’s been nice to Daryl, so he misreads the situation.

Okay, let’s unpack this, shall we? It’s hard to know where to start.

When he says, “It gets pretty intense,” it shows the fight in Still. So presumably he means that the fight and the emotions flying around are really intense. I’m cool with that description. 😎

This final line is what has both our fandom and other shipping fandoms all excited, but for very different reasons. Let’s first acknowledge that the line is very vague and unclear. And that’s by design. The writers are DEFINITELY hinting at things, and honestly, this gives us a LOT of insight into Bethyl that we didn’t have before, but they’re still not openly admitting the romance aspect. Or at least, not in an obvious way that leaves no question.

So, I’ve been bombarded with questions about how I’m interpreting this line for the past 2 days. I was going to post some comments from my group here, but it’s already very long, so I’ll do that tomorrow or Monday, just so you can get some insights and see how various people are interpreting it.

The overall understanding (with a few nuanced differences) is that this shows Daryl was crushing on Beth. That’s why the other ships are pissed and saying super-mean things. While Norman might not have used those exact words, even the other ships are picking up on that.

I can tell the “he misreads the situation” part is tripping up people in our fandom. As though it’s saying Beth didn’t have feelings for Daryl. But I don’t think that’s what it’s saying at all.

First of all, let’s return to Carol in S2. The “nice” part is one we have to look closely at. Clearly, it doesn’t mean someone just being “nice” to him. Because the writers already told us earlier that Carol showed him affection. (That’s one thing the Carylers are being very loud about. How that doesn’t make sense because Carol, Michonne, even Andrea and Sasha, all had good relationships with Daryl. So clearly, Beth wasn’t the first woman who was ever “nice” to him. But other ships have never been good at interpreting symbolism or reading between the lines. They take EVERYTHING at face value, and you can’t really do that with this show and expect to correctly guess where it’s going.)

So, when he says this line about her being the first girl who’s nice to him, it specifically shows them at the graveside in Alone and the part where Beth holds his hand and Daryl looks down at it. So to me, it’s clear that “nice” means in a romantic way.

And remember, once again, that this is coming from inside Daryl’s head. It makes me smile because this is exactly the way he would describe it. Daryl has no frame of reference for romance. He wouldn’t say she was the first person to hit on him, or make him feel all the romantic feels, or show him romantic affection. He would totally just say she was “nice” to him, with an emphasis on the word to mean nice in a special sort of way.

Here’s what I said to my group yesterday:

I think we kind of have to read between the lines of what he’s saying here. The Carylers are feigning confusion about her being the first girl who was nice to him. And yes, of course Carol was nice to him. Usually. So were Andrea and Sasha and others at various juncture. But that’s not what he means.

My read on it is that this is the first girl Daryl was crushing on that was nice back to him. Sure, maybe as a teen he crushed on some girl or some woman, but she didn’t give him the time of day.

I think Daryl had come to believe he would never find romantic love and he’d accepted that. He was fine with it.

But when Beth was “nice” to him and treated him like an equal instead of a stupid redneck (the way Lori, for example, treated him) he started to hope that maybe he could find that kind of happiness.

She was the first girl who was kind to him in that way.

All our Bethyl dreams are on the verge of coming true. It’s not a coincidence they’re using this to lead into s11.

So when he says she was nice to him, he means she’s the first girl who DARYL ever thought was showing romantic interest.

Then there’s the second part of the line where he “misreads the situation.” What does this mean?

Broken record over here, but I’m once again going to emphasize that this is coming from DARYL. So, when she said, “oh” and was surprised at his feeling, he assumed he’d misread the situation and that she didn’t feel that way about him.

And this actually makes things way more tragic than we even realized.

Because most of us don’t think that’s true (that Beth didn’t share his feelings) at all. If you look back to S3, there was clearly a vibe between them long before they escaped the prison together. We have her crushing on him to Carol after he left with Merle in 3x10. And we have him staring unabashedly at her while she sings two different times (3x01 and 3x11).

So the general consensus among our fandom theorists is that we think she definitely DID have feelings for him (a crush at least), she also didn’t see herself as worthy of him and didn’t even entertain the idea that he would ever think of her that way or they might become a thing. Like, she liked him, but “knew” he would never like her, and she was okay with that. She still love and respected and clearly wanted to be close to him.

So when she realized he had feelings for her, she was shocked.

But her shock, and then them being interrupted by the walkers made him think he’d “misread” her.

And that’s more tragic because it means that from that moment on, from the time she was taken from the funeral home, he assumed she didn’t like him that way, even if he liked her.

We could even apply this to what we saw at Grady. The haters like to make the (somewhat ridiculous) argument that they didn’t hug when they saw each other at Grady. And our response has always been that it’s because it was an intense situation (a freaking prisoner exchange, for heaven’s sake) and there would be time for that later. There’s also the fact that nothing actually happened between them physically. If they’d had a full-blown romantic relationship, they probably would have hugged there, but they didn’t. It’s still awkward and they don’t know exactly where they stand with each other.

The point is, Daryl was actually less likely to hug her or anything of that nature because, due to her “oh” reaction, he really thinks she doesn’t feel that way about him. He might even think he made her uncomfortable at the funeral home.

Geez. Just when we thought what happened at Grady couldn’t be any more tragic.

And for the record, I want to address the fact that he did say “but Beth it killed.” I know that always freaks people out and I’ll have people asking if that isn’t tptb confirming it.

No, it’s not, for one particular reason: this is, once again, from Daryl’s point of view. And he thinks she died.

So then we’re going to skip a bit. I want to give you just a short blurb on Carol, Leah, and Connie.

Carol is in it quite a bit, which really can’t be avoided since she’s a huge part of Daryl’s story. But the thing that jumped out at me is that he (and remember, this is coming from Daryl) calls her his friend or his best friend like fifty times.

So this is another reason it’s important to understand that Norman is in character and telling this from Daryl’s POV. For the first time, we’re really getting his inner thoughts and feelings. And it couldn’t be more obvious that he loves Carol, but thinks of her only as his good friend.

There really was no emphasis at all on Connie. It shows that he met her, and they mention his “skills” in learning sign language for her. And then they say that he looks for her after the cave in, but that’s really it. No talk about his relationship with her, or how he feels about her, or that he sees a future with her, or that he likes that she sometimes takes care of his dog. Nothing. Nada. She’s practically an afterthought.

Then there’s Leah. She wasn’t emphasized overly much either, but there were a couple of lines here I want to point out.

The first one is suspicious and I’m totally side-eying it. He says, “Daryl meets Leah. Well, he meets her dog.” What’s the “well,” about? Almost as if to say he DOESN’T actually meet Leah? Just her Dog. And after that they go on to show several scenes with Leah, so they kind of gloss over it.

But guys, we know every single line of this thing was carefully written and purposely placed. So why the “well”? Why are they making that distinction?

I also noticed that he says, “They clash at first, but then end up spending a lot of time together.” And it shows the scene by the fire where she reaches out to him. I’m side-eyeing that, too.

Look, I wouldn’t expect them to go into some super-detailed sexual recall or anything, but why not say something generic like, “he has a relationship with her”? He very specifically doesn’t say that. We’re being made to believe, from the Find Me episode, that he had a serious, semi-long term relationship with this woman. And… “they end up spending a lot of time together?” That just sounds like something from friends.

I’m just saying that they’re really tip-toeing around this Leah thing. (And if we’re going with the FRIENDS interpretation, it specifically means he’s not in love with or committed to Leah. Which, we already knew.)

Finally, he says that the reason he left and didn’t choose to stay with Leah is that he’s afraid that he if lets someone else in, he’s going to lose them. Clearly that hearkens directly back to Beth, which is what we’ve said all along.

And overall, I don’t think that tells us much about Leah, but what it made me think of is a possible future arc with Beth. Just as Beth kinda forced him to open up to her in Still, I think she’ll have to do that again. I think this foreshadows that he’ll be too afraid to let anyone in, for fear of losing them. And clearly, Beth is the only one that can get him to open up. Carol can’t, Leah couldn’t, Connie can’t. I’m just mentioning.

I also noticed that when they talked about him going back for Leah and her being gone, and him acquiring Dog, it just says that he and Dog go off together. There’s literally nothing about him searching for her, even though in the episode he said “we’ll get her back.” So again, it just feels really contradictory to what they were trying to make us believe in the episode.

The other interesting thing that had, obliquely, to do with Leah was actually something they said about Rick. They said that when Rick’s body didn’t wash up, Daryl holds onto hope that he’s still alive. I don’t think anyone realized that. We just assumed he was searching for Rick’s body for closure. But he actually thinks Rick could be alive. Interesting. I’m sure that will be a catalyst for his future arcs and finding out Rick is alive.

It also has interesting implications where Beth is concerned. And we can’t know what happened without those missing 17 days, but whatever it was, something must have happened to make Daryl believe, without a doubt, that Beth is dead. And I don’t think it was just the gunshot. Maybe it had to do with the horde. He thought she was torn apart by walkers. So no body, but no reason to keep searching either, you know?

Anyway, let’s move on to my FAVORITE part of this origins episode.

Right at the end, Norman says, “what’s next for Daryl?”

And the VERY NEXT thing they show is him and Beth sitting on the porch in Still.

Me:

They have her say the “you’re going to be the last man standing”

and Norman says, “hopefully proving Beth right.”

But to me, that’s just an excuse to show that scene. I take this as a MASSIVE hint. What’s next for Daryl? Beth is. What’s coming next in his life? Beth. What’s next? Romance. Beth, Beth, Bethyl.

You could also argue that if they’re going to prove her right about that, by extension they’ll be proving her right about other things as well. It’s not like this was the only thing said on that porch.

“Maggie and Glenn would have a baby…”

“I wish I could just change.” “You did.”

“You’re gonna miss me so bad when I’m gone…”

It also talks about giving Daryl what he’s been searching for his entire life. It’s actually talking about what he’s FOUND in the apocalypse (family, purpose, etc) but they specifically use the phrase ‘what he’s been searching for’ after showing Beth.

So yeah, I was practically salivating. That was pretty much the best TD thing I’ve seen in a long time. 😍 😍 😍

Okay, let’s talk about the sneak peek.

We see Daryl in the subway tunnel with Dog. He’s just look at what’s there: junk, corpses, and murals on walls.

The first thing that jumps out is this walker. It’s been shot in the forehead, for one thing, and actually is positioned a lot like the one Daryl saw in Them with the deer.

It’s also handcuffed to a suitcase. I definitely have some thoughts as to this theme, but again, I’ll get into them next week. For now, it’s a theme we’ve seen often and have always related to Beth, both because of the imprisonment theme around her, and because every time we see it, there are other Beth symbols around it (i.e. dog food). Here, we see that the walker is handcuffed to a suitcase of cash that looks a LOT like the stuff Daryl scooped up in Still.

It’s also been said that the way this walker is dressed, and the things he looks at here are very reminiscent of the country club. @galadrialjones talked about how there was a subtle class theme going on there (rich people who had everything but still couldn’t keep themselves alive in the apocalypse, juxtaposed with Daryl who had absolutely nothing monetarily, but is the ultimate survivor) and we may have a similar theme going on here.

He sees the words “it comes for us all,” which presumably means death.

We also see what looks like a burning capitol building. If you recall, a week or two ago I posted @wdway’s thoughts on Andrew Jackson (on the $20 bill which was used to burn down the moonshine shack) and his role in the American Revolution and specifically an incident where the Library of Congress was burned.

I’m not going to try and interpret this on a super-specific level, but to me it’s just more evidence of the revolution that’s coming.

But there’s more stuff here that’s truly fascinating to me. He also sees pictures in which some people are wearing golden crowns. There’s a man, woman, and child standing together, but also other single individuals. He sees words that say, “Truth Lies” and another sentence that says, “Your crown for your life.”

This one is harder to interpret because I don’t think we get the entire sequence. The sneak peek breaks off in the middle of it. (Grrh!) But it may be more of the rich/poor/class system theme. We do see some of them being attacked by walkers and it really doesn’t look like they’re going to survive.

So, I’m not at all confident that we can accurately interpret this yet, but if I had to make a guess, based on what we see, I’d say it’s showing that people who are rich, or who have power of some kind.

Keep in mind, this is most likely metaphorical. I doubt we’ll see golden crowns. Power in this world will be in safety, walls, ammo, food, and…water. But those people’s “power” can’t save them. In the revolution that’s coming, their crowns will be useless.

On the other hand, the “your crown for your life” suggests they do have something that others want.

One of the people in the picture above is holding up a sign that says, “no home, no work, hungry.” Which suggests famine but is coupled with the home theme and a revolution at the capitol.

So again, I don’t have a super-cohesive theory here, but I’m very intrigued and it will be fascinating to watch this unfold. I’m sure it has to do with the CRM and the final conflict that’s coming. That makes me excited.

Okay, I’ll shut up, now. Did I miss anything you saw in the Origins episode?

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

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stomp-that-ho-regard · 4 years ago

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Retcon

noun

(in a film, television series, or other fictional work) a piece of new information that imposes a different interpretation on previously described events, typically used to facilitate a dramatic plot shift or account for an inconsistency.

verb

revise (an aspect of a fictional work) retrospectively, typically by introducing a piece of new information that imposes a different interpretation on previously described events.

Retroactive Continuity

Reframing past events to serve a current plot need. [...] In its most basic form, this is any plot point that was not intended from the beginning. [...]

Post-hiatus C2, and the Great Retcon...

(The retconning really started with the playlists, but we’ll come back to those.)

First, some context:

SDCC (July ‘18) - Marisha was asked directly about Beau and Yasha and if she and Ashley had discussed it. “After the first few times that I kinda put the moves on her, we were at break, and I could sense that Ashley was wanting to ask me something. And she was like, ‘Hey, I’m just curious... is Beau- ’ And at that exact moment someone’s like, ‘Yo Ashley! We gotta go! We gotta get on stage!’ And I was like, ‘Bye!’” Then Brian asked, “And you haven’t had a further conversation about it?” Marisha said, “Nope!”

(Seven months into the campaign, and no discussions. Hmm.)

NYCC (Oct. ‘18) - Marisha was asked about who would Beau get flustered over if they ever flirted back, and yes, she said Yasha and laughed, but then said, “It’s like throwing pebbles at a brick wall.” Meaning, she was putting stuff out there and not getting anything back. (And, she really wasn’t. I still remember when a major portion of the fandom, including the diehard shippers [of which I was one at the time], weren’t sure if Ashley was even interested in this. More than that, it wasn’t until the Zuala reveal, that the fandom and the players found out for certain that Yasha was actually into women.)

(To me, Marisha’s answer here also suggests that at this point, there were still no discussions.)

Talks Machina for ep61 (May ‘19) - Marisha was asked ‘What was going through Beau's mind when Yasha revealed her past with Zuala? Has this changed any feelings Beau might have? Or has Beau's character growth allowed her to mature a little more with regards to her feelings about Yasha?’ Which Marisha instantly pegged as a shipping question. And she said, “I’m trying to figure out a way to answer this to not ruin everyone’s internal canon, in their brains. I don’t want people to overestimate Beau’s intentions towards Yasha. But then also, is that on me? Have I been leading everybody on?”

So, you had all of that, all the way up to ep61.

None of this indicates that ‘it’s been happening since ep1′ or that it’s ‘the slowest of slow burns.’ In fact, it shuts that down completely.

Moving forward to the Beau and Fjord convo (ep108)...

Marisha suddenly having Beau say “There was something about Yasha from the moment that I saw her”. She’s retrospectively attempting to give that moment more weight, when (based on the examples above) we know that the over-the-top flirting was just for fun. And truthfully, she really wasn’t flirting with Yasha any differently than she was flirting with any hot female NPC the party crossed paths with.

And now it’s clear that that one line she said is the reason why BY shippers have suddenly clung on to the idea that “It’s been happening since episode one! SLOooOowBuUuuUrn!!!!!” when its clear that it was not planned. (Not before the hiatus-from-hell, anyway.)

Then Marisha having Beau go from describing Jester as “She's fun. She makes me laugh. I like her ridiculous plans. I think she's complicated and layered.” to “It’s easy to lust after her”. I’ll direct you to Talks for ep85. After Marisha had mentioned that it was a bunch of little things that build, and then pinpointed a few of them, Brian tried to make a joke and said “So you’re saying it’s been more a series, than just one moment that you can point to and say ‘It was right here when I went, let’s fuck!’” Marisha specifically countered that with “It’s not even about 'let’s fuck’. It’s nothing sexual in this case.” (Having her backpedal on this so heavily was such a huge gut punch and was the thing that wholly soured everything for me.)

There were so many better, more delicate ways Marisha could’ve had Beau examine/come to grips with her feelings for both women, but all the reduction and saying they were ‘transferable’ was nothing short of insulting.

On that same Talks episode, Marisha also said this: “Going into this campaign all of us were like, ‘No relationships!’ I didn’t want it! I didn’t ask for this!”, while smiling. What this shows me is that she was thinking of a relationship in regards to Beau’s feelings for Jester. As if she was maybe even anticipating this culminating into something? Why even mention relationships at all if this was nothing serious and was always meant to fall by the wayside?

Brian then followed up with, “In my opinion, as a viewer, Beau’s someone who seems to be on the search for innocence. Whether innocence lost or just innocence in general. And to me it makes sense that you would be attracted to someone who exudes genuine and sort of intrinsic innocence.” Marisha replied with “Fairly astute.”

The next question was, ‘Beau has taken a pretty casual, no-strings-attached approach toward sex and relationships so far. How do her feelings for Jester compare to her previous romantic flings?’ Marisha answered immediately and very seriously with, “Noncomparable. It’s more than that.” She wasn’t playing coy and it didn’t take her a century to find the words. She didn’t even have to think about it. Succinct and direct.

How did all of that ‘organically’ disappear completely, after only 14 episodes?

(Everything felt more genuine back then, because it seemed like Marisha was going where the character was taking her, and not where she thought the character should be going.)

Post-hiatus, everyone and their mother are acting like BY is some epic romance-of-the-ages that was all mapped out, and like Beau having feelings for Jester was just some sort of temporary curveball. That Beau was confused, or was just missing Yasha and projected onto Jester.

That’s really fucked up no matter how you try to justify it. I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen another piece of media backpedal this hard, and this callously.

None of that squares with what we were shown or with what we were told. Until, everybody made a hard pivot and now they've done (and continue to) do everything they can to rewrite campaign history, even though we have plenty of footage that contradicts the new ‘company line’.

Now, where the retconning truly began, with the playlists...

Remember the first round of playlists? Those were released randomly, whenever the cast felt like posting them. I also don’t remember there being announcements every time one came out either.

This time though, they had a fixed schedule, complete with official twitter announcements. As they started to just get back into the swing of things, Yasha’s playlist was released right after the first episode back.

So, right out of the gate, they had to make sure they started to drill home a certain mindset for viewers. That’s why Yasha had a song called ‘Let Me Hold You’. (Lo and behold, a few episodes in, Beau randomly asks Yasha to hold her.) A few weeks later, Beau’s playlist was released, and there was a song with the caption saying ‘Ultimately, all she really wants is someone to hold, and someone to hold her’. (But sure, no planning here! The wording is just a total coincidence, folks!)

The other song, directly about Yasha, mentions ‘a crush forged in battle’ (ok), and ‘awkward flirtations’ (???). Yasha never openly flirted with Beau before the hiatus, until maybe right after the Obann arc, in a very vague way.

On Beau’s playlist, there’s nothing about Jester. The one track that mentions her is actually about Artagan. Which, after all they’ve been through together, is fucking ridiculous no matter how you slice it.

In addition to that, Marisha had made Beau’s time in Kamordah (ep92/e93), and the incidents with her family and the Hag, about the group now, not about Jester, fully contradicting her own reiterated words that ‘Jester saved Beau’.

When Beau was talking to her dad, reverting back to her old self and getting all riled up, Jester helped her in that moment, and saved her. Yes, the group was very supportive, and yes, Yasha said something to him before they left the house (that Beau was out of earshot for by the way), but Jester was Beau’s rock throughout that whole thing.

With the Hag, when the group was having a hard time coming up with a solution, and they realized they might actually lose Beau, Jester stepped up and took control of the situation. She, single-handedly, saved Beau/the group from the Hag. And with that, Jester also became Beau’s hero.

In both instances, Marisha thanked Laura/Jester. First on Talks for ep92 with both of them on it. She reiterated, “You saved me. You saved Beau.” Then on Twitter after ep93 with, “Still processing last night. Saved by a cupcake? Eh - saved by @LauraBaileyVO ... again.”

But now suddenly, it’s the group. Just the group?

Now, don’t get me wrong. The entire party showing Beau support was incredibly important. The M9 showed her that they value her, that she’s important to them. It solidified the theme of ‘found family’, which was beautiful. But, to not also highlight how crucial Jester was in all of this, after making such a big deal about it?

That is very deliberate retconning of some hugely important, highly emotional moments for Beau that directly involved Jester.

Any of Beau’s organic and genuine connection with Jester (which encompasses their deep friendship as well as Beau’s romantic feelings) has been massively reduced (and now erased), specifically to prop up a supposed ‘deep’ connection with someone else that was barely ever there, is still barely there, and has no actual depth at all.

Case in point, the BY date (ep126) showcased this fact to the most extreme degree...

Yasha’s infamous line: “I fell in love with you in Kamordah.” So, Yasha literally watched Beau relive her childhood trauma, and caught feelings during it. I’m not wrong in thinking that that’s just a little disturbing, am I? Also, if that’s the moment she supposedly fell for her, why did she not offer her any form of help? I mean, besides that one sweet moment with TJ, the entire time Beau was in Kamordah, she was the most broken down she’d ever been and needed some real comfort, which is something Yasha did not give her. (Jester did though. In spades.)

So, on multiple levels, this seems highly out-of-place.

Several people have said that that line was not thought through. In my opinion, it actually was thought through and was only said specifically to have viewers completely dismiss everything else that happened in the Kamordah episodes. Despite the FACT that Beau and Yasha barely interacted during those episodes, they have now stripped down the party’s experience there, and twisted it into a giant BY shipping moment. (Further feeding into the retcon.)

Their ‘trip down memory lane’ was laughable. Most of the things that were mentioned, Yasha wasn’t even around for.

Gee, remember when the cast was actually good at separating what they knew from what their character knew? When you start injecting what you know into your character (who isn’t supposed to know, because they literally were not physically there), you are metagaming.

The entire date was one big metagaming bonanza. And it had to be, or else they would’ve had nothing to talk about. There is not one thing they have to call their own. To people who don’t have BY tunnel vision, it was made glaringly obvious that they have nothing in common and their dynamic is fairly shallow. Meanwhile, the rest of the cast are sitting there watching this unfold, smiling and nodding along as if it all makes perfect sense and isn’t utterly ridiculous. (And I’m sitting here wondering when I got shunted into the Twilight Zone.)

The shallowness holds true for FJ as well. Aside from both of them being from the Menagerie Coast, what exactly do they have in common?

While Fjord has grown as a character, as far as Jester goes, he still does not seem to have the capacity to fully understand her as a person, or fully respect her abilities/emotional strength/intelligence. He doubted her often, which led to Jester getting irritated with him several times over the course of at least the last third of the pre-hiatus episodes. He even continued to doubt her judgment (in regards to the Traveler) in the post-hiatus Rumblecusp episodes. But hey, they’ve kissed now (ep118) so all of that gets wiped clean, and he’s being touted as her ultimate romantic soulmate who’s oh-so-perfect for her.

For fuck’s sake, why does that sound like something pulled right out of a CW show?

(I'm convinced that the only reason FJ is ‘popular’ is because the shippers have projected Travis and Laura’s real-life marriage onto the characters. If Fjord and Jester were played by different people, or Travis and Laura were not together, people would realize how paper-thin and half-assed this pairing is and hardly anyone would care about it.)

Beau and Jester had developed the deepest, most genuine friendship and overall dynamic in the entire party, that should have absolutely been given the chance to be explored further. They constructed a pretty solid foundation that could have easily been built upon, and the fact that it’s been unceremoniously pulverized and snuffed out in favor of such overwhelming tepidity and flavorlessness will never not infuriate me.

Finally, to finish this off, I will say with my whole chest, that that is one of many nasty, rotten patterns that I’ve seen far too much of in all kinds of scripted media, which is...

Not wanting to commit to the thing that’s actually growing organically, because it’ll ruffle too many feathers. It’s too inconvenient. It gets in the way. Because of course, nobody wants to do that. Nobody wants to take a risk, or you know, actually follow where the natural fucking chemistry is taking you. Of course not! Heaven forbid, we go down a different road! You have to go with what’s ‘expected’, no matter what, at the great expense of something new that’s come along that’s clearly better. Even when what’s expected is hollow as fuck and doesn’t make sense anymore, because characters have grown and dynamics have changed, they decide to dig their heels in with the most fanservice-y options instead.

Yet this is UNSCRIPTED media. A D&D campaign, that’s supposed to be mostly improvised. D&D, that’s all about taking chances/going with your gut/making bold choices/etc., from people who have claimed up and down that they “like to see things play out at the table”.

So why are those same disingenuous patterns being utilized here too?

One of the big reasons I got into CR was because I naively believed that because the format was different, that the storytelling would be different. I thought I wouldn’t have to worry about running into this nonsense here. That I wouldn’t have to worry about getting bullshitted, jerked around, and having my intelligence insulted left and right, but alas, here we are.

In conclusion... [TL;DR, kinda?]

Reframing past events (between B & J, and B & Y) to serve a current plot need (railroading BY):

Beau playlist ignores Jester’s importance to what transpired in Kamordah. (minimizing/erasure)

Beau playlist doesn’t acknowledge/hint at Beau’s feelings for Jester. (total erasure. could have at least included a song about feelings being lost, or being confused about feelings for a friend, but Marisha took the cowardly route, and didn’t bother mentioning it at all.)

Beau playlist claims that Beau and Yasha have both been flirting forever. (easily debunked by session footage.)

In her conversation with Fjord, Beau says, “There was something about Yasha from the moment I saw her”. (it was just about hooking up then, and stayed that way for a majority of the campaign. This line suggests that Beau has had ‘deeper feelings’ for and/or has been ‘in love’ with Yasha since the first episode, that this was all intentional build-up, which again, is easily debunked by session footage, panels, and TM.)

In her conversation with Fjord, Beau says, “It’s easy to lust after her.” (minimizing/erasure/twisting of Beau’s feelings for Jester, which Marisha had previously stated were ‘noncomparable’ , ‘more than that’, and that her attraction is ‘nothing sexual in this case.’)

This isn’t a fucking conspiracy theory. This is plain evidence of a planned retcon.

#op #super long post #uber rant #happy thursday! ;)#beaujester #i wrote this up back in december but didn't have the energy to finish it until now #it got longer as i went #guess i still have a lot of bitching left in me lol #that's what happens when you feel like you've been getting kicked in the teeth for nine months

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addictedtostorytelling · 3 years ago

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what did you think about episode 4, particularly their scenes with nora cross and the bathrobe and end scenes? i'm going to need a while to forgive them for cutting the kiss.

also, from another anon:

Not a question but I can't stop watching that last scene, the way his voice goes into a whisper "I wanna know what kind of magic you used to put that women under your spell". Add that on top of Sara chilling in bed wearing Grissom's glasses. Don't even get me started on the scene of him checking her out in her robe. I'm dyyyyyyying and I need to to have a fangirl freakout out with someone!!! I wanna know your thoughts on the gsr moments in this ep!

hi, anons!

my thoughts are these:

obviously, super bummed that they cut the kiss. can't understand why they did it. can't believe they learned nothing from the mistake they made at the end of "immortality." don't get why they're so stingy about kisses between two married characters who have literally been in love for twenty-three years. have little hope this problem will be remedied at any point during this season. fully believe i will die having only seen one happy gsr kiss in the entirety of their decades-long fictional relationship.

elsewise, discussion after the "keep reading," if you're interested.

first off, there were, in my view, a few eyeroll-inducing continuity errors (or at least fudges) throughout the episode. namely:

sara actually thinking that she could have possibly signed off on even one case that hodges had worked on—to say nothing of multiple cases—even though she was literally his "supervisor" for all of, like, three hours before she abruptly quit working at the lab;

dating that performance review cross reads to rattle sara not only to after the events of episode 05x13 "nesting dolls" but also well into the thick of s6, even though a) grissom would have already known sara's deal by that point, and, b) sara basically never had another behavioral issue at work again after she and grissom finally got together at least until the later seasons writers regressed her after the divorce*;

acting like sara had never encountered that performance review before even though in the early seasons of the show, it was pretty clearly established that grissom always went over his reviews with his team members after he wrote them (and there's no way that sara didn't want to hear what he wrote about her, both given that she's a career-minded person and also that she cares deeply about his opinion of her);

choosing the diane chase murder to be the compromised case from the "grissom era" of hodges's tenure at the lab, even though it strains credulity that anyone with more than just a glancing knowledge of the case would believe he could have potentially tampered with the evidence, just given his lack of access, the compressed timeline of the investigation, and the fact that the case was already reviewed by iab back in 2006**.

* the incident where she is insubordinate to catherine and ecklie in episode 05x13 “nesting dolls” is literally the last time sara ever individually gets in trouble under either grissom or catherine’s watches. while she still occasionally gets upset or goes overboard on cases, the whole “loose cannon with a gun” thing completely falls by the wayside once she and grissom get together and she has him to support her and keep her confidences.

** while i can believe that the fabricator may have chosen that case to mess with (just given that it is suitably high-profile and already had a lot of confusion surrounding it), i find it harder to swallow the idea that the da and iab could come to the conclusion that hodges actually could have been solely responsible for the fabrication in that case without accomplices. at the very least, wendy would have had to be knowingly complicit, and possibly also grissom and nick, as well. there just wasn't a clear window of opportunity or means of access for hodges to have fabricated the dna evidence otherwise. it's hard for me to accept that the da and iab wouldn't recognize that fact, even if they were eager to make hodges a scapegoat.

as for the grissoms' interactions with nora cross, i like that cross is being written not as straight up evil but rather politic, as that quality is one that both grissom and sara have historically both disdained and also struggled to reckon with when they've faced off against someone possessed of it (cf. ecklie).

as for the content of the interviews themselves:

sara's first interaction with cross, where cross reads off grissom's old evaluation, raises the question of how exactly grissom and sara dealt with the issue of evaluations during the "secret dating phase."

did they have an unspoken understanding that no matter what grissom wrote about sara as a worker, it was separate from their romantic relationship? did they maybe come to a more explicit decision that grissom's evaluations would by necessity have to contain not insubstantial criticism (so as not to arouse suspicions)? did sara just stop reading her evaluations and grissom stop going over them with her in the interest of keeping things copacetic at home?

watching sara's initial reaction to the eval, i initially wondered if we were meant to suppose that she was perhaps been playing cross, even at that early point, pretending she was unfamiliar with and hurt by what she was hearing, even when in actuality she wasn't.

if one assumed that she were really fucking machiavellian, one could perhaps argue that everything sara says and does after she asks "what's wrong with my character?" is an act, meant to trick cross into showing her cards—what dirt does she actually have on sara?—and perhaps reveal her strategy surrounding the hodges case.

on the one hand, this episode does very much make it clear that sara is playing chess while cross is playing checkers, and sara does even say to grissom before she attends the meeting that she is intending to persuade cross, so maybe it is actually possible that sara's just putting on a show when she seemingly gets worked up about what grissom said about her fifteen years ago.

maybe she has already heard that eval before.

maybe she's fully aware that grissom wrote those criticisms of her as part of their old system for keeping their relationship a secret.

maybe she is not at all as surprised as she's making herself out to be, and in reality she just wants cross to think that she's thrown so that cross will drop her guard a bit and maybe reveal useful intel.

perhaps one point in favor of this interpretation: sara refers to the evaluation as “my husband’s words twisted against me” before cross even reads the final (more complimentary) lines aloud to her. does she maybe already know that the evaluation is not wholly negative from beginning to end? is she aware that cross has so far cherrypicked the most damning parts? possibly.

of course, on the other hand, i've already kind of been struggling with this idea of sara as a master manipulator, even with the manipulation that we know about, so i’m not sure if i’m ready to grant that she’s perhaps even more duplicitous than is initially suggested.

for the record: i don’t actually think sara was manipulating cross in that first interview; i just wasn’t sure what the writers intentions were with it to start out.

i mean, don't get me wrong: i know sara is a fucking genius who in terms of raw intelligence can run circles around just about anybody.

—it's just that, in the past, both she (and grissom) always struggled with the human element. she was never as socially savvy as catherine or warrick or even nick. she oftentimes got shown up by manipulators who were better at "playing the game" than was she (such as, for instance, hannah west and heather kessler). she was always too much a "heart on her sleeve" kind of girl to be able to successfully deceive others.

even with her and grissom's secret relationship, they avoided actively lying in favor of simply omitting the truth and being judicious about how they presented themselves in public, not only to assuage their consciences but also because they didn't want to have to test their powers of deception; neither one of them trusted that they could realistically fool anyone if the issue ever were explicitly raised.

that so, i'm not quite sure if i find it believable that sara would be able to string cross—who certainly isn't a dummy—along so completely.

the level of social and self-awareness, people skills, and general acumen necessary to perpetrate that kind of a manipulation would require hannah west-levels of scheming, and for as smart as sara is, it just—i dunno—doesn't exactly feel like a skillset that's in her wheelhouse.

i mean, maybe she has always been capable of it, but certainly we’ve never seen anything like this behavior from her before.

of course, i'm torn on this issue, because the thing is, i love the interview scenes and the fact of sara's plan itself a lot.

watching grissom and sara go back and forth, playing cross like a fiddle—defeating her with the power of love!—is delightful, and i adore how much the plan itself illustrates what an absolute fucking genius sara is.

the whole thing gives me so much joy.

so far, this whole reboot has really been a celebration of sara. she is quite obviously jason tracey’s favorite character, as is reflected not only by the way the narrative treats her but also by all of the characters within the universe of the show enthusiastically agreeing that they all love her.

that so, i find myself scratching my head about the scene, because while i'm not sure that the characterization completely works, i want it to work very much.

i try to rationalize: maybe sara picked up some manipulation skills at some point over the last six years (as part of her eco pirate training), or maybe she's just developed that part of her brain with age.

certainly, i find myself better able to relate to people now that i'm in my thirties than i was when i was in my teens or twenties, so maybe sara is just on a whole other level now that she's fifty. maybe something just clicked for her at some point.

in any case, my questions about sara suddenly being queen of the cons aside, i absolutely adore the interview scenes in themselves and think the dialogue we get from grissom and sara there about each other is absolutely beautiful.

@bartramcat described the dual interviews with grissom and sara as “love letters,” and i couldn’t agree more.

even with sara’s initial interview, i love the final lines of grissom’s evaluation of her. considering that for him, “the job” has always been a kind of loose synonym for himself, him saying “she was made for this job” is tantamount to him saying “she was made for me.”

which is something i’d like to think that sara picks up on when she later repeats the line as she’s talking to allie.

but speaking to the dual interviews specifically, what i keep coming back to is the intimacy of the descriptions they give of each other and how much those descriptions in some ways counter the ways that they tend to be publicly perceived.

grissom says of sara, “naïveté, by definition, is a lack of experience, wisdom, judgment. the antonyms are intelligence, perception, enlightenment—and that would be my wife.”

while pretty much everyone who knows sara agrees that she is intelligent and perceptive, the idea that she is enlightened/wise/not naïve isn’t one that everyone would agree with—and especially wasn’t one everyone agreed with back when she first joined the lvpd.

folks like catherine and ecklie used to think of her as a hotheaded “kid” who oftentimes got ahead of herself and jumped to conclusions about things.

even more recently, folks like nora cross herself have assumed that her emotionality equates to her having a lack of judgment.

but grissom sees her differently.

to him, sara has always been a kind of oracle—a diviner of his feelings when they’re confused, an answerer of his questions, someone who understands him even (and especially) when he doesn’t understand himself. and it’s not only as an expert in him that he trusts her but as someone who is wise in the way of the heart more generally; who knows what matters in life and is aware of how to treat people. that’s part of why she “restores his faith in the human being” (see episode 16x02 “immortality” pt. ii): because she is possessed of an intuitive kind of compassion that grissom believes in above everything.

meanwhile, on sara’s side, when she talks about how methodical grissom tends to be and how he won’t allow any gears to shift until he sees how they work, she means what she says in an entirely complimentary way—which is such a difference from how most people talk about that side of grissom’s personality.

while lots of folks would agree that grissom is “pragmatic” (to phrase it diplomatically), they typically view that as a negative trait in him, tying it to what they see as his overall detachment and “insufficient humanity.” to them, he is an unemotional automaton who always sticks to a protocol.

but that’s not how sara describes him at all.

to her, there’s beauty in how steady his is—that he won’t allow himself to be rushed to conclusions and that he is devoted to finding the truth. in her view, there is nothing inhuman or callous about how he goes about things; to the contrary, she thinks that his commitment to finding answers is deeply connective and something that ties him to people. she obviously admires his integrity so much.

not only are grissom and sara’s assessments of each other true—much more so than the surface-level glosses other people make of them—but they demonstrate a nuanced understanding and also so much love.

they obviously adore each other and each think of each other so highly.

i’m so glad that we were given this scene just to listen to them each explain the philosophy of the other; to speak so knowingly and lovingly as soulmates.

it really is a gorgeous moment.

elsewise, other thoughts about gsr throughout the episode:

the bathrobe scene is funny.

and i have no doubt that sara eventually got what she wanted that night, after grissom’s experiment proved successful.

as for the end scene, for one thing, i’m very glad that they put sara back on her side of the bed. for another, sara just casually wearing grissom’s glasses so she can read is everything.

the scene itself is so warm.

the way sara perks up in bed when grissom comes in, eager to hear his news, and he just stares at her in pure adoration, so in awe of his brilliant wife and her brilliant plan and how tenacious she’s been through this whole effort to clear hodges’s name.

“i wanna know what kind of magic you used to put that woman under your spell” has rocketed up to near the top of my list of favorite grissom lines ever just for the sheer romance of it.

a scientist who starts to believe in magic because he loves his wife so much!

i also adore sara’s about-to-jump-out-of-her-skin-with-curiosity energy through this whole exchange because a) it’s so on-brand for her, and, b) it speaks to the fact that she had perfect faith that grissom would deliver. she gave him an objective—to come home with a name—and she knew he’d achieve it.

we love one (1) married couple of who know each other so well and believe in each other so much, guys.

then, of course, there’s the final face touch, which is just so wonderfully intimate.

i have no doubt that sara probably also got what she wanted after the scene cut there, too.

overall, i feel like we saw so much unity from grissom and sara in this episode; we’ve not just been told that they’re “old marrieds,” but we’re really seeing it in action. this is a longstanding relationship in which the participants know each other on an extremely intimate basis, not only in terms of their characters but also in terms of how the other person will behave in a given situation. their trust in each other is immense, as is their belief in each other’s capabilities. it’s so obvious they are each other’s favorite people, and i really love that.

i do feel like this episode was light on the “landsickness” storyline, so i wonder if there will be more of that in tonight’s episode.

i’m also interested to see what the grissoms do now that they have a suspect in their investigation.

anyway, that’s all i’ve got.

thanks for the questions! please feel welcome to send more any time.

#answered #anon #asks: csi #**#my meta #meta: vegas #cv 01x04 #let's talk shop #csiverse

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sullustangin · 4 years ago

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Okay, strange question for Theron. I hat does he believe in. Beyond duty and doing things for the greater good.

That’s a good question! It’s going to get long, so some of this is beyond a cut.

Theron was raised as a Jedi until adolescence - his belief system is rooted in the existence of the Force. It exists in all living things, and some people can access and use it, while others cannot. The Jedi are the good guys. He was also raised as a citizen of the Republic. He believes in the Galactic Constitution, which bars slavery and grants all sentients certain rights. The Republic is a representative government with elections and enfranchised people choosing their leaders.

Duty and the Greater Good

“Duty” and "The Greater Good” concept have to be defined with Theron, because he is not a lawful character. He’s a neutral, leaning chaotic character in D&D terms. Lawful characters go by whatever society approves of; chaotic characters have their own internal compass. Neutral considers both. A great example of this is when Director Trant of SIS and Jace Malcom the Supreme Commander of Pub forces tell him to get the job done and basically ignore the fact that two planets full of people are going to be sacrificed to do it. Lawful characters do as the authority says.....and Theron decides to go rogue and disobey with a Jedi in order to at least save the second planet. His “greater good” is a lower death count, rather than guaranteed Republic victory. I would argue that Theron interprets his duty as belonging to a larger galaxy rather than exclusively the Republic and its political/military objectives; he is pro-Republic, no doubt about it, but there are limits. He’s also pro-Jedi, but there are limits -- some of them can be real asses. I discuss his alignment further here.

Going into Forged Alliances in SWTOR, we have a man who works for the Republic and endorses the ideals of the Galactic Constitution. He knows the Republic is not perfect. He does believe the Jedi are “right,” but he does have some issues with their attitudes toward non-Force users. They are not perfect. We get some very vehement statements in Annihilation about Theron’s experience with the Jedi after he was found not to be Force sensitive: the arrogance of the Jedi, how they looked down on non-Force users. He even applied this metric to Satele in their first real conversation with each other. I discuss this more here. This doesn’t make him anti-Jedi, but he doesn’t view them with the same rose-colored glasses he did as a youngling. Individuals aside, he follows the Light Side of the Force.

The Dark Side decisions that a Pub can make to please Theron in Forged Alliances/Shadow of Revan involve deceiving the Empire -- first, by destroying the Revanite cyborgs on Rakata Prime; second, by setting up perimeters around the Yavin base that track Imp movements just a little bit closer. The blowing up of cyborgs rather than fighting them is to prevent Lana and the Empire from scavenging them later. It’s not about killing them -- they as individuals are already dead. You have to kill them to get to the next room anyway. It’s just a matter of whether you give the Republic an edge by not permitting the Empire the opportunity. It’s a chess match. On Yavin, it’s about the Republic having more information than the Empire here as well. These aren’t traps or weapons that would hurt Imps -- it’s just about having more information. That is his duty to the Republic as an SIS agent while still supporting a cross-factional alliance to defeat a shared “Greater Bad.” So while dishonest and Dark Side and ‘anti-Jedi’, Theron still does things in support of a government that has the Galactic Constitution while doing no direct physical harm to the Sith Empire’s operatives (a rather Light Side-y solution).

What else does Theron believe in, besides all that?

Theron believes – most of all and with the most optimism -- in the future. We saw that at the end of Lost Suns. We see that when he chooses to save civilians on a planet he’s never met. We even see it in his Dark Side decisions in-game; he anticipates that the war will resume against the Empire, and he wants the Republic (and its Constitution) to have the best odds winning. I believe that Theron would rather have a rough life himself and save others in the future from the same work and suffering he’s gone through. Does he do it like a Jedi? Nope. He isn’t honest or honorable all the time, but he draws the line of sacrificing innocents or excessive for a cause. Does he do it like a traditional agent of the Republic, taking orders without question? Good Lord, no. Trant complains about that all the time in Lost Suns and Annihilation. Theron is Trant’s best agent, but half the time, Trant wants to throw him out a window or down a trash compactor because he doesn’t do things by the book.

I discuss in that alignment post how beat up Theron gets because he does things that are “right” in his mind, but not protocol. Theron fights for a brighter future. Based upon what he’s willing to do personally to ensure that happens, his life comes second to those yet to be born and a better galaxy for them. Call it Jedi virtue, call it a zealous belief in the Galactic Constitution -- Theron does it (and he meets his end that way in the Nathema Conspiracy, if the player chooses that path). This is also partially why he doesn’t have an SIS partner. Theron might be assigned to another agent, but he wants to do all the work himself, his own way. Trant has learned it is pointless to assign Theron a partner because the partner is left out and doesn’t even know when Theron gallivants off. His risk, his way.

So to be very specific, Theron believes in the future for others, not necessarily himself. Theron has a certain lack of selfishness paired with stubbornness that makes him put himself in danger because he believes there is some greater cause; he, the individual, doesn’t matter as much. We see this in other SIS agents -- they’d die in the line of duty without much of a second thought. I read about Lana’s early experience in the Talay initiative, and the SIS agents she encountered were particularly devout.

For Theron, that duty isn’t just to Republic or SIS -- it’s for the better future of the galaxy as well. We can also use this as part of an argument that suggests why Theron isn’t shown romantically involved with anyone unless he gets with the player. Theron thinks it would be nice if he survived to see this great future he wants for the galaxy and the Republic, but he understands he may not live to see it. That’s not fatalism or pessimism however. He knows what Jedi did during the Fall of Coruscant. He was always told by Ngani Zho that he was so loved by his mother that she had to give him up, so she wouldn’t have divided loyalties when it came to the good of the Republic. His personal happiness doesn’t rank very high here; it is virtuous and right for individuals to make choices that cost themselves something rather than others. Theron doesn’t like to be selfish.

During KotFE Theron leaves the Republic after they’ve accepted the political fiction that Saresh is out of office. Everyone knows she’s pulling the strings and promoting constant warfare against the Sith Empire, while bending the knee to Zakuul the entire time. They are oppressed, but she gets to have her little wars. Theron joins the Alliance because it is resisting an oppressive power that the Saresh doesn’t seem interested in throwing off and that the Empire can’t seem to throw off. In KotFE, you have Theron as a companion. He does NOT accept Republic memorabilia in order to raise influence -- I don’t think that’s an oversight, since Lana takes Imp memorabilia with enthusiasm. Theron believes in the Galactic Constitution and all of its principles – but the Republic is failing to do that right now by tolerating Zakuul and their systems of slavery. If you recruit Bowdaar, you do so by Fight Club or “Eternal Championship” or whatever, and it runs off slaves and people owned by others. This was what Theron worked against during his career in SIS prior to the whole Korriban thing….and now the Republic tolerates Zakuul’s use of it, as long as Saresh has her little wars with the Empire.

By KotFE, Theron no longer believes in his duty to the Republic, but in the Galactic Constitution. Now that the Jedi are gone, he doesn’t believe in them as much as the broader, greater good that the Republic never fully reached for due to its conflict with the Sith Empire.

This also brings us to the idea that Theron believes in the player. When all the things he valued in the Republic and SIS went to dust, he went to the Alliance, knowing that a key element was the rescue of the player from carbonite. Somehow, he thought this person – this key figure that he had worked with previously – would be able to head an Alliance that would save the galaxy one last time from the Sith Emperor.

With KotET, the player can decide whether they are a peacekeeper Alliance or a new Empire. Theron supports the player and doesn’t make any move to leave or go back to the Republic, regardless of the decision (a flaw in writing, in my personal opinion, but it is what it is). This is the game’s mechanic, but we may also interpret this as Theron’s belief in truth: we are what we say we are. A benevolent empire may not have elections, but it has a greater good in mind. The Republic claims to support all of these ideals in its constitution…but it doesn’t under Saresh. Even with a more brutal Eternal Empire, there is truth in advertising. We are doing this, that’s the way it is. We’re not hiding behind some Constitution that’s pushed to the wayside in favor of continued war with the Sith Empire. I know this is spinning the wheels hard to try to make it work, but Theron has to have rationale for staying, and it’s not provided in game. In Onslaught, we see a return of Theron’s temper; players who permitted high casualties on Corellia had Theron stomp out on them in anger. That is consistent with what we’ve seen previously, but the writing had made him somewhat of a sycophant to the player character for awhile; it was a good surprise for character development, bad if you were romancing Theron since you don’t get a smooch off him for that ending.

Now, if you go all Light Side for Theron, then it’s more easily explicable as to why he stays with the player – the Alliance does what the Republic will not, and he rather be in a place that does what the Republic should be doing, rather than be in a Republic that’s all talk and no action. He’s happy to return home to the Republic, if you make that choice in Onslaught. He’s also accepting of remaining independent. He only expresses concern with an Imperial alliance because he doesn’t want his home ground to dust....and all the people in it. All those little individual futures that we as Alliance commander can control -- and if we’re working to make them better, that coincides with Theron’s own beliefs.

Does Theron Shan believe in love?

The virtue of love, in the sense that one cares for the good of others and the galaxy, is approved of by Jedi. The idea of having someone, of bonding to someone and wanting to maintain that relationship – and the associated fear of losing that relationship – can lead to the Dark Side. Now, Theron may not buy into that as much as he did when he was a kid, but it might stick in the back of his mind, since unless the player romances him, he remains single. He’s also devoted to his ideals and his work, his duties. He’s a self-admitted workaholic -- that sort of kicks romance and personal love down the ladder of priorities.

On the other hand, Theron hasn’t been treated well by ‘love.’ Ngani Zho loved him… and left him without telling him the truth. Zho also told Theron all the time that his mother Satele loved him so much that she had to give him up….and we have yet to see her ever admit that to him, face-to-face. We can argue that the latest patch, Echoes of Oblivion, points toward that happening, but even then, she only indicates that to player, not to Theron himself. We saw Jace Malcom’s rejected paternal overtures in Annihilation and then alienation from Theron during Iokath. Player choices decide whether that relationship is recoverable or not.

In an unromanced game, Theron is alone, but not necessarily lonely. We can view this as sort of a holdover from his Jedi youth and as his adult life as a spy – love is a good thing in the galaxy but attachment is not, given the risks he takes. There is no suggestion that he’s romantically involved with another NPC, unlike other games or even the Lana/Koth thing -- which is ultimately left up to player interpretation as to what exactly that was.

This next bit is more subjective, because it’s how I’ve interpreted the Theron romance to this point on neutral/Light-leaning characters, specifically a smuggler. I think prior to the playable character, Theron believes in love, but once again, not for him personally. If the player romances him, it’s a whole different bantha wrangle.

Love is difficult. Being mutually attached is difficult for Theron, because most normal people want a certain back-and-forth, a certain amount of information sharing before they really commit. Theron can’t give as much as they can. Hook-ups are physically satisfying, but emotionally lacking.

I know some authors have him as a someone who slept around a lot, while others have him as a serial monogamist. Many just don’t discuss the idea of him being with anyone else besides their playable character. I’ve written him as someone who can get hook-ups, can do a relationship or two seriously, but also has long spats of celibacy mixed in because he’s busy working. The greater good isn’t going to happen by itself, so Theron works at the cost of his personal relationships. Because of being a spy and the issue of his parentage, he can’t disclose his work routine or why he’s come back with a new scar – it’s easier to let the relationship fall to the wayside than explain. Where are his parents? Who are his parents? Easier to let the relationship go than explain.

Theron is a consummate professional. Even in the era of KotFE/KotET, Miot and Koth refer to him as ‘stiff’ or ‘stuffy’ and not knowing when to “not work.” His duties come before his personal desires. This is why we have to get through all of Rishi before we even get to kiss Theron, plus another few weeks/months on Yavin before they playable character and Theron hook up. However, if we take a look at the player’s path from Korriban or Manaan (Pub and Imp side encounters with Theron), it’s a courtship over the course of a half-year or more. There are a lot of headcanon explanations for this, ranging from playable character inexperience, demisexuality, “behind the scenes” action that emphatically states that they were hooking up long before we saw them, and so on.

I took what I saw on screen to be a signal of Theron’s professionalism -- no time for lovin’ until the job is done -- but also his attachment issues. I’ll do another post on this later, but I’m writing him with the label “fearful avoidant attachment” in mind. Basically, Theron wants to be attached to someone, desperately, but he is terrified of it. I don’t blame Satele for this one – this is all about Theron not only being ditched by Ngani Zho, but also then being dismissed from the Jedi Order because he wasn’t even Force sensitive to begin with. Suddenly, the father he knew and the way of life he thought he was going to follow til the day he died – gone. Now he has to integrate with ‘normal people life’ where you’re supposed to do the personal life attachment stuff that Jedi frowned upon. In my fan fic, Theron confesses that SIS and his duty to the Republic – more accurately, to the future – take the place of the Jedi order. He attaches himself to that more readily than individuals.

The playable character changes Theron; he says that in his “I’m back at SIS” letter. He’s more open to teamwork and reaching out to Satele. Again, fans have run with this, including having Theron in a relationship with the player until the Eternal Fleet incident, having them just hook-up and leave it at that (particularly if Imperial), or something in between. Ziost marks a time where Theron is both relieved and embarrassed the player is there to catch him when he falls. The last we see of Theron in-game Pubside prior to Popsicle Time, he says he won’t hesitate to reach out (unlike what he did this time).

Then we get the “For When You Wake Up” letter. It reveals that Theron is in love, whether or not he wants to openly acknowledge it yet. He doesn’t send a letter to an unromanced player stating that the fact they’re still alive is “the thing that keeps [him] going.” And he’s also worried, nervous, or even scared that the feelings are not mutual -- “I don’t want to presume.”

The Theron romance starts in KotFE the night of his arrival. The kiss can be a tentative “let’s try this,” and then dating starts. I took it as “let’s go back to my place” and a full-blown committed relationship starts between Theron and my smuggler. There are other interpretation in between. Any way a person shakes it, Theron had been holding on to his Yavin hook-up for five years in his heart. Based upon letters you get throughout these two expansion pacs, Theron still has workaholic tendencies. He still struggles with the writing of words and expressing love publicly – but he is attached, and painfully so, as we see in Chapter 12, when the player goes on an impromptu camping trip with Marr and Satele. In my interpretation of all of that, love is still difficult – but not because of the reasons Theron had prior to Eternal Fleet, when he was fully committed to SIS and the Republic. It’s because in order to save the galaxy from the Sith Emperor, the player may have to be sacrificed for the greater good. Theron can’t step into their shoes on this one; he can’t take their place.

After the main KotET chapters, we see the Traitor arc and all of its flaws – but also the consistency of Theron’s character, if we remember how he believes in a better future, even if he doesn’t get to live to see it. That does include potentially sacrificing his romantic relationship with the player and possibly his life as well. If the player chooses to kick Theron out of the Alliance, the question of where he goes next is valid – he won’t go back to the Republic, and he’s not an Imperial. Where is Theron Shan, in those player universes?

If Theron (and his romance) survives to Echoes of Oblivion, we see a letter that is downright gleefully sweet. His mother isn’t dead, and it’s because of you that he has a chance to try to make something of that relationship…again. I’ve expressed my skepticism about this, since this is the exact set-up we had prior to Eternal Fleet, and then Satele ghosted Theron. We’ll see; I may be a bit of a cynic or an angstmonger. The point is, the way the romance is written to this point, Theron is happily in love with his partner/spouse. Love is for him, after all.

Even without the romance, a living Theron in the Alliance (or whatever it is now) in Echoes of Oblivion is one that has attachments to friends and potentially family again. There is a future -- and he’s in it. That may have been more than what Theron was anticipating when we first met him at 23, nearly 17(!) years ago.

#swtor #theron shan #headcanon #character analysis

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raayllum · 4 years ago

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You mentioned serialized plot in that Anon Carmen Sandiego ask. What, in your opinion, makes for a good serialized plot?

I think at the end of the day what makes a good serialized plot - besides adhering to ockham’s razor and making there’s continuity without things getting super convoluted (which also applies to episodic series) - also, again, applies to episodic series: the strength of the characters. Are they interesting, compelling, likeable, endearing, etc? A series lives and dies on the strength of its character writing.

I’ve seen series fall by the wayside because they cared more about plot than character and emotional continuity. There are also series, like Carmen Saniego, where I felt like there wasn’t enough plot. A lot of series balance both being episodic and plot heavy, such as the Owl House, Steven Universe, ATLA, usually leaning more way one than the other.

Characters are really important in something more serialized, because they’re our emotional anchors. While they can sometimes understandably be put on the back burner sometimes for plot - especially if a series markets itself from the beginning as being more plot heavy - if there’s no emotional investment in characters, you’re not gonna care about any of the big dramatic reveals or twists and turns.

For example, Viren’s fake out illusion death in 3x09 would feel cheap if we weren’t emotionally attached to Soren and Claudia’s relationship, because the consequences it has for those two last past the reveal that it was all fake. But if we don’t care about Soren and Claudia, then it’s just a “oh wow” moment and nothing more. We don’t actually care. For a movie example of this, I always think of “Star Wars: Rogue One.” I was sad that (spoilers) Jyn lost her dad, because I can imagine that losing a parent would be hard, but I wasn’t invested in their specific relationship. It was “oh I’m sad a character lost their dad,” not “I’m sad Jyn lost her father.”

Which is to say that the Dragon Prince is very serialized, but also knows how to prioritize character by having their plot, generally, be extraordinarily character driven at every turn, especially for the main trio. Things hardly ever happen to them (passive characters). The plot continues because of their specific choices and decisions (active characters).

For an episodic series, or an episodic part of a series - like all those that have been discussed so far except, technically, TDP - having strong characters is even more important. Plot can be a buffer, something to keep someone going when you’re not invested enough in the characters. But when you don’t really, or don’t always, have plot, that buffer is gone. An episodic series (or episodes) are entirely built on the characters.

Steven Universe has a lot of Filler (episodic) eps, but I enjoyed all of them just as much as the plot episodes, because I loved all the characters or enjoyed all of them at the very least. It’s also why I enjoyed the Owl House and a lot my favourite ATLA episodes are some of the most ‘filler’ ones (i.e. “Tales of Ba Sing Se” is entirely filler in every sense of the word, but it is many people’s favourite episode in the series).

This is also why for shows like Carmen Sandiego or She-Ra: The Princesses of Power, having such a low level of character investment - i.e. strong emotional investment in maybe 3 or 4 characters from each series max, for a variety of different reasons - made the show boring when there wasn’t plot (or, in She-ra’s case, worldbuilding) to help prop it up. I never cared about any of the various Carmen Sandiego villains (or particularly enjoyed them) or Zach and Ivy, or any of the side princesses or adults from She-ra (save Angela). And when that’s more than half your cast, that’s a problem.

It’s a very personal preference problem (someone could feel the exact same way about TDP, for example, of only being emotionally invested Claudia and Janai, or something) but it’s more your problem.

So, usually in a story, the problem lies in the characters. Either them being too passive, not logical enough in how they affect the plot, underdeveloped or too developed yet uninteresting, that’s the key. Serialized or otherwise.

#writing advice #thanks for asking #imjustheretoseetheprivateblogs

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greensaplinggrace · 4 years ago

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(1/4) The issue I have with Ada and Leon is that their relationship is portrayed way too unclear for my liking. I like it when there's room for interpretation but I shouldn't have to turn to 5 different media to fully understand the concept developers had behind their scenes. I shouldn't have to listen to the interviews with the VAs to have the "ah, ok, now I see it" moment.

(2/4) I know these days game developers like to think that with modern graphics you can do everything but that's not true. Animated characters will never be as expressive as real people. Sometimes you just have to say something openly to get your point across. That's cool that the RE2 remake director discussed with Ada's VA how much vulnerability she could show to Leon but her inner conflict didn't translate into the screen in my opinion.

(3/4) It goes for their entire interaction. It looks like what was going on on the set between the actors was much richer than the final product. And that we are better at analyzing it than developers at delivering it. It's not actors' fault. It's developers' who can't write. Everything about Jill and Carlos' characters and their relationship was clear to me precisely because the characters were talking not only to each other but they were also voicing their doubts.

(4/4) I also didn't have that issue with Leon and Claire's relationship. I also don't have that issue with any of the characters seperately. Ada and Leon on their own are awesome. But the developers are so hung up on making their relationship confusing that it just annoys me.

---

Tbh I’ve never listened to what the VAs have to say, but it’s so neat when other people tell me about them!

If, in terms of media, you’re talking about the rest of the games, then I also don’t think it’s fair to say that you shouldn’t have to reference them to get a clear picture of the relationship when their journey throughout the games over time is what makes their connection the strongest. However, if you’re talking about extra content like VA overviews and stuff like that, then I happen to agree! No media should rely on the extra content people might not see as a means to convey a point. It pisses me off to no end when the fandoms I’m in tend to rely on that so much.

And yeah, micro-expressions and other complicated displays of emotion will never come across fully on screen the way real actors can pull off. Resident evil especially seems to have a hard time with that, as I’ve often found their characters lacking in any sub-contextual emotions or subtle displays of feeling. As a result, when characters don’t speak or the exposition isn’t explicit enough, things the writers mean for players to understand tend to fall to the wayside.

Resident Evil is crippled a lot by it’s poor writing. The inability to carry out a full and cohesive storyline over multiple games as well as the oftentimes shocking level of disconnect between installments will always make it less than it could be. Resident Evil has such strong characters but it also fails to deliver fully on the complexity and depth of their characters. This doesn’t just go for Ada Wong, it pretty consistently applies to almost every character in the franchise (although I will admit that Ada is hurt by it more than most simply because she’s already so secretive - Capcom also being so secretive leaves us with little in regards to her and her motivations).

With Ada and Leon, the developers of the games really need to come out and say things clearly. It was fun at first, but at this point it’s hurting both the characters and the relationship the writers are trying to build. Once more, however, I will disagree that the connection between them isn’t clear (at least to me), but I feel as if I’ve already said why and I don’t wont to repeat myself lol (I hope you don’t mind).

But I will say that I also happen to disagree about the level of vulnerability conveyed in the sewers scene. I’ve never needed the VAs or any kind of overlapping conversations to guide me through it or tell me what was going on. Since the very first moment I saw that scene I got a pretty solid impression of what was happening and how it translated for Ada’s character and her relationship with Leon. The vulnerability and Ada’s struggle with it (especially in regards to him) has always been something I’ve noticed in her.

I’ve also never had a problem with Leon and Claire’s relationship either! XD I love them so much. I just had a hard time reading them as romantic like so much of the fandom seemed to? My first impression of them was so solidly platonic that it was actually surprising to me when I saw people shipping them romantically. Which actually tracks, because I played the Leon A playthrough first. So I never actually got what people meant about “tension you could cut with a knife” because the flirting and interest on Leon’s end is almost nonexistent compared to Claire’s. As soon as I played Claire B is saw what people meant, because you can hear her interest a lot more than you could ever hear Leon’s.

I always got a strong impression that Claire had a bit of a crush on Leon at first that eventually faded into feelings of friendship when nothing continued. Although as soon as I started to ship it I enjoyed the idea of those shallow crush feelings turning into something deeper and more authentic as time went on instead, with Leon returning the feelings.

And yeah XD, Capcom characters are always much better on their own. Ada’s character thrives when she’s on her own, and it kills me that we don’t get to see more of that. Like absolutely murders me. I am begging Capcom to give us an Ada game. Not an Ada movie, an Ada game.

Please Capcom I’m literally dying over here. I’m being starved! Ugh.

Lol anyways. Thanks so much for the ask!! It was really interesting and I honestly agree with so much of it. I hope you have a lovely day 😊💕

#asks and answers #anon #this is good!#thanks again for the ask :)#ada wong #resident evil #re2 remake #resident evil 2 remake #aeon #leon kennedy #capcom #re games #myramblings #ada wong appreciation post #ada positivity hours #mymetas

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palmviolet · 5 years ago

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hii! may i just ask you why/how the mom steve meme is sexist?

thank you for asking so politely!! i’m happy to talk about it (and i think it ought to be discussed).

okay, so let’s talk about mom steve.

steve is a teenage boy. the foundations of his character were set as the stereotypical 80s high school douche, a kind of foil to jonathan, whom nancy was always ultimately going to choose over steve - regardless of how steve’s character developed later on. then the duffers met joe keery, and decided to take his character in a different direction. he starts the series as your high school bully, though the take on the trope is more nuanced than it was originally, but by the end of season 1 he’s starting to redeem himself.

this is all good. it’s more interesting, actually, than the more typical archetype fulfilled by billy in season 2. the duffers are all about nuance.

so let’s go to joyce in season 1. joyce embodies another archetype - the stricken, frantic, hysterical mother. the narrative could easily dismiss her, but instead a large proportion of the series is from her perspective: we see her use of the christmas lights not as a delusion but as a rational, logical experiment. we as the audience are desperate for the others to believe her. so here, too, there is another subversion of a trope - and when her beliefs are validated by hopper, literally part of the institutions that dismiss her (he is ex-army, the police chief, a man), she is still a fundamental part of uncovering the mystery and finding her son. he doesn’t take over. without her, they never would have succeeded.

all this she does in aid of her child. she gets called crazy, delusional, a mess even by her own son, jonathan - but she doesn’t give up.

to summarise so far - in season 1, both steve and joyce subvert tropes. joyce overcomes institutional sexism by her strength and belief as a mother.

onto season 2. the crisis - the monster du jour - isn’t so glaring this time, but creeps up on the narrative. will is present and for a while joyce can be more relaxed. she has a boyfriend now - bob - and they seem happy together. we learn than she and hopper went to high school together. we discover she - and the other characters - are still heavily traumatised by the events of season 1. nancy is too, and she’s struggling in her relationship with steve. but instead of framing their breakup around her trauma, around how they simply don’t work together anymore because they’ve both grown to be different people, the show seems to favour steve and make it less than amicable. we are made to feel sorry for steve, poor, dumped steve, instead of placing the two on equal ground.

@jancys-blue-bayou made a good post about this a while back, when the teaser for s3 came out. in it they discuss steve in season 2; ‘they began […] by making him “a loser” through his relationship with nancy ending in a way that humiliated his frail male ego and then king steve losing his crown to billy, so he’s not popular in high school now. just like jonathan’s never been.’ essentially they begin to shape steve into what jonathan used to be - a loner, an outcast, someone the audience should sympathise with. the kind of character stranger things has always been about.

meanwhile the whole mess with will begins, and joyce has no other focus once again - her relationship with bob falls by the wayside, unless he becomes relevant to will again (calling him up about the tape, inviting him in to help them solve the map). within the narrative this is perfectly understandable - her son is going through something horrible, again, of course he’s all she cares about - but we lose any sense of joyce the person, again. she’s just joyce the mom. contrast this with hopper, who is treated very differently by the narrative. he has multiple plotlines, emotional beats. as @nancykali puts it, ‘the duffers didn’t want to deal with their only main adult female character having a storyline outside of will and hopper. oh but wait - hopper could get his storylines as joyce’s love interest, a support for will, and an adoptive parent to el though, couldn’t he? that’s unbalanced and sexist storytelling.’

so, to recap - while joyce is reduced down to just the Mom (which was fine in s1, because of the urgency of the situation and the fact that this was a new show, none of the characters had been developed much yet, but starts to become alarming in s2) which by default makes her less relatable, less of a figure for the audience to connect with, steve is deliberately cast as a multi-faceted, sympathetic character. joyce’s ‘story is no less than hopper’s but it’s treated as lesser by the canon because she’s a woman and her role is Mother First, Human Second. but if a man decides to be a father he deserves to be lauded, where for a mother to adopt a little girl, that’s too predictable to some people.’ this last bit is in reference to hopper, but it works for steve too. steve giving attention to the kids and acting protective over them for what amounts to one afternoon is celebrated far beyond anything joyce has done, because it’s breaking type. and sure, that can be a good thing. when the series first came out i really enjoyed babysitter steve.

but that’s all he is. a babysitter. joyce is a real mom, and yet because she’s a woman, that’s her job description. but because steve is a teenage boy, who used to be something of a bully, he gets praise far beyond what he might deserve.

being a mother is what drives joyce’s narrative arc - and that’s wrong, and misogynistic, because she deserves to be fleshed out and given other plotlines too - and her character would literally have nothing without it. it feels like a slap in the face, then, for it to be steve who is labelled ‘best mom’ - steve, who has multiple facets to his character, steve who is a teenage boy, steve who is affluent and male and up until recently embodied the trope of 80s highschool bully. joyce is quite literally a single mom and we are shown that she often struggles to make ends meet. she’s had nervous breakdowns in the past, she works weekends and nights and holidays, she relies on jonathan almost as a co-parent to will. she’s a flawed mother, but she does her goddamn best because her life is hard - and despite all this she finds time to actively know and engage with her sons’ interests, to play with them, to have jokes with them. this is being a good mom.

‘mom steve’ is perpetuated by fandom, but it is rooted in the show. take the first s3 teaser: ‘they have him work a menial job that has fans of the mom meme write stuff like “steve got a minimum wage job to take care of his five kids”’. both joyce and jonathan work/have worked menial jobs to support their family, possibly both at minimum wage - while steve is very notably and explicitly affluent. in fact if any character in the show who is not a mom deserves to be called one, it’s jonathan, who is in all but name a co-parent to will. i think @jancys-blue-bayou and @nervousalligator have written on this in the past.

however, applying the term ‘mom’ to these male characters at all is sexist by itself. it promotes the idea that only women can be caregivers - that parenting is only the duty of the mother, and is nothing to do with men. this is highly misogynistic, links back to age-old gender roles that it’s high time were erased, and yet the meme perpetuates them. steve is male. if anything, he should be called ‘dad steve’ - but people won’t run with that, because it’s all a joke. because motherhood is a joke. joyce is defined by being a mother and yet she gets no recognition for it, while steve is not a mother, has multiple plotlines and facets beyond that meme, and yet is lauded as the best mom of all.

it’s actually a manner of woobifying him. he’s not a perfect character, not of them are, yet this ‘mom’ caricature somehow strives to paint him as such. it’s the same with hopper, in his parenting of el - his obvious flaws are dismissed across the fandom because of sweet father-daughter moments. i love hopper as a character, and i can appreciate steve, but often people simply don’t understand them. as @paris-geller-was-straightwashed puts it, ‘y’all will soften the males of this show all the way down until they literally don’t have any sharp edges anymore.’ the male characters become perfect, can do no wrong, while the women are criticised for their every mistake (see the treatment of nancy post s2).

it’s a cycle. the show began it, when they tried to promote steve the best way they knew how - by shaping him into a prototype of jonathan, except without any flaws and much, much richer - and the fandom picked it up and ran with it. this led to fanservice, with the scoops ahoy teaser and the stranger things twitter (don’t think i’ve forgiven the mothers’ day tweet). with any luck the fandom will wise up a little or the creators will stop pandering to them, but we’ll have to see the outcome of s3. regardless, it’s time to stop calling steve a mom. if anything, he’s a big brother to dustin - yet another role that was somewhat snatched from jonathan (see the scene at the end of s1 when jonathan comes down to mike’s basement at the end of the d&d game - he’s a big brother figure to all the boys). people call steve a mom because he gave dustin advice - horrible, sexist advice (‘treat ‘em like you don’t care’) - and put a tea towel on his shoulder. that’s it.

so maybe appreciate steve as his own character, a babysitter at most, because you’re doing him a disservice by woobifying him and calling him a ‘mom’. appreciate joyce, who is an actual mom, and maybe start lobbying the duffers for more development for their female characters rather than for more sexist memes.

TLDR; joyce is defined by being a mother and yet she gets no recognition for it, while steve is not a mother, has multiple plotlines and facets beyond that meme, and yet is lauded as the best mom of all.

#steve harrington #joyce byers #jonathan byers #st meta #stranger things meta #st3 #asks #sorry this is so long lmao #it's been swirling in my mind for a while and i needed to do this issue justice

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justalittlelitnerd · 6 years ago

Text

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

"No mourners. No funerals."

God I don’t even know where to begin with this book. I guess I’ll begin with being honest: I fully expected to not like this book. In fact going into it I wasn’t even convinced I would finish it. I can’t really explain to you why that is since I didn’t really know what it was about. I think it was because of how often I saw people post about it.

Now obviously I don’t have anything against fandoms because I love (most) fandoms and think they are great and I love being a part of them, but something about fandoms for books instills a sense of caution in me. So I approached this book with the kind of hesitation usually reserved for approaching strange animals that may or may not bite you before running away.

But eventually (obviously) I gave in partly because with each post my patience wore away a little more and partly because enough people who’s bookish opinions I’ve grown to trust recommended it to me, but mostly because a copy was readily available at my library and when I saw it I thought what the heck.

I have never been so happy to have been so wrong. I am only disappointed that my own stubborn nature stopped me from reading this book long ago. Don’t be like me. Don’t be a fool. Please go read this book and enjoy all that Bardugo has to bestow.

Now that the truth is out, I’m still not sure where to begin.

Do I start with the fact that so much happened in the course of the story, but also not enough? So I’m left in that limbo of wanting more, but not wanting the story to end (I know I’m not the only one who draws out reading a series because the thought of closing the door on that world (at least canonically) even if it’s temporary while waiting for the next book is excruciating). I want to live in that space where there are so many possibilities and every one is alive. But I also crave more which is why I immediately went to Tumblr to look at Six of Crow posts after I finished the novel.

“I have been made to protect you. Only in death will I be kept from this oath." - Matthias (pls don’t tell me what I already (possibly) know/fear)

Or do I start with the world that Bardugo has so precisely created? A world that is somehow at once familiar and unfamiliar. Every moment I thought I had a grasp on the word that these characters inhabit Bardugo would remind me that it is not my world, but something a little different, a little better, a little worse. It’s a world that I wanted to recognize my own in but at the same time I wanted it to be vastly different because I read to escape the world we live in. I wouldn’t say that it is a magical world, but it has a little magic in it and that balance is hard to strike, but Bardugo does so skillfully and without hesitation.

“For a second Kaz was a boy again, sure that there was magic in this world." - Kaz

Really I want to start with the characters, but if I did that I would never talk about anything else. The book describes them as “a gambler, a convict, a wayward son, a lost Grisha, a Suli girl who had become a killer, a boy from the Barrel who had become something worse,” but they are so much more than that.

Kaz, the tough (supposedly badass) leader of a raucous band of hooligans but is really just a scared, traumatized little boy who’s in love with a girl but just can’t even.

“The old answers came easily to mind. Money. Vengeance. Jordie’s voice in my head silenced forever. But a different reply roared to life inside him, loud, insistent, and unwelcome. You, Inej. You.” - Kaz

“He needed to tell her...what? That she was lovely and brave and better than anything he deserved. That he was twisted, crooked, wrong, but not so broken that he couldn't pull himself together into some semblance of a man for her. That without meaning to, he'd begun to lean on her, to look for her, to need her near. He needed to thank her for his new hat.”

Jesper, my dear, sweet, not so innocent but all too cute, Jesper. Jesper is amazing simply because he is a cinnamon roll wrapped in an enigma. He so easily could’ve been placed simply for comedic effect, but Bardugo let’s him be so much more. He is college educated (a fact that sometimes falls to the wayside) and a gunslinger with a penchant for gambling, a knack for losing, and a weakness for naive boys names Wylan.

"Stop being dense. You're cuter when you're smart." - Jesper

“Maybe I liked your stupid face” - Jesper to Wylan

Wylan, my poor bby, if I could choose any of the characters to just wrap up in my arms for a quick cuddle it would be Wylan. I feel like the poor boy needs it considering he was only really brought along as a hostage and really so he could be Jesper’s love interest (because how unfair would it be if Jesper didn’t have a love interest). I don’t know if I have ever met a character that is so smart yet sweetly dumb and I don’t know if I would ever want to meet another because no one can pull it off like Wylan can.

“Who’s Mark?” - Wylan proving he doesn’t know anything about being bad

Nina and Matthias, the enemies turned friends turned something more turned enemies and so on. They deserve individual comments, but this post is getting long and they were my least favorite of the 6 and therefore get the short end of the stick. Also it’s hard to discuss one without discussing the other because they are so wrapped up in each other from long before I entered their world. I both love and hate their relationship. I hate it because it is by far the most toxic of the three presented (if you think Inej and Kaz are more toxic pls fight me) and the circles they run is exhausting. I understand why their relationship is the way it is and why it is a part of the story and its complexity is what I love because it does show that love, like the world, is not very pretty or kind or nice or always right, but that doesn’t make it any less real.

“She wouldn’t wish love on anyone. It was the guest you welcomed, and then couldn’t be rid of.” - Literally the most accurate description of their relationship ever

And, finally, Inej. I didn’t expect Inej to be my favorite. Coming out of the novel I might have been apt to say that Jesper was (what can I say I love the quirky sidekick - re: Stiles from Teen Wolf). But now it’s two weeks later and I find myself drawn to her character again and again. She is smart and witty and has overcome (quite literally) every obstacle thrown at her.

"They would learn to fear her, and they would know her by her name. The heart is an arrow. It demands aim to land true." - Inej

She has the most brushes with death in the novel and somehow comes back even stronger.

“I’ll die on my feet with a knife in my hand” - Inej

She doesn’t fall at the feet of the man that she loves, but instead calls him the boy he is and demands more.

"I will have you without armor, Kaz Brekker. Or I will not have you at all." - Inej

She is not only an empowering female role model, but a badass who’s not afraid to speak her mind.

“If I want to watch men dig holes to fall into, I’ll find myself a cemetery” - Inej

But mostly she is the hero we all deserve and I’m just a little (okay a lot) bitter that she was subjected the the trope of damsel in distress because she deserves so much more than that and so I hope that is handled well in the sequel (this may explain some of my apprehension in reading Crooked Kingdom).

"For all his selfishness and cruelty, Kaz was still the boy who had saved her. She wanted to believe he was worth saving, too." - Inej

If you have never listened to another of my recommendations, please listen to this one: read this book. If you hate it, that’s fine, I guess, but I think that it will still be worth the read.

#read Dec 30 #six of crows #leigh bardugo #books #booklr #book quotes #book blog #pls read #don't be a fool like me

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hyperfixation-hideout · 2 years ago

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I really, really hope and look forward to Oscar having deeper reactions to the stuff he’s been through. I wouldn’t say he was carrying on “smiling and uwuing like always” -- he looked very solemn in chapter 10 in the aftermath of Monstra & killing Hazel. HOWEVER I totally get what you’re saying and yeah, he kinda hasn’t been given a chance to react to much. We got tastes of it in ch 2 & 9, and those were fantastic! But killing a person is a lot, and I’m interested to see where that goes. I’m hoping it doesn’t fall by the wayside and/or get dismissed with a “you had to” resolution, because it’s a really good opportunity for Oscar to actually break. We’ve seen how he responds to reassurance and downplaying the severity of a situation -- he snaps, he pushes the other person to look past surface sugarcoating, and he doesn’t feel reassured in the slightest. Having someone try to wave this off as “you had no other choice” would prompt a strong response, I feel. “Stop saying that! Stop saying we had no choice for things, we always have a choice, and I chose to kill someone.” Tbh that’s partially me projecting my own frustration with having the characters constantly saying “we had no choice” “there was no choice to make” “we don’t have any other options” you have AGENCY take some responsibility and develop from it!!!! (/lh but also gen)

[putting a read more for your scrolling convenience]

I pray we get some reflection on the stuff he’s dealt with soon -- the torture, the killing, unlocking & using magic thus merging more, “these memories...” & “you say that... like you were there,” meeting Salem, shot by Ironwood, losing his friends, and just the state of the merge in general. The writers have given him SO MUCH to work with conflict-wise, so we see the potential and latch on. He doesn’t need new external conflict on top of all that; he needs to be given depth to his current internal conflicts & experiences. But thus far we haven’t gotten much of Oscar talking about this stuff, especially with others. We have “Who would ask for this?”, “I’m just going to be another one of his lives, aren’t I?”, his monologue about resigning himself to his fate (which I am THRILLED they pulled back on in v8 because having Oscar be still objecting even though he sees it as inevitable is better for his character at this point in time), the bikes scene with “I don’t want that” and “I started to feel like me [...] the me I always wanted to be,” and his talk in Monstra about the girl who fell through the world & how he doesn’t like using magic. Those were all with Ruby or Oz, and the one with the group was just ‘I’m dying but I’ll help till I’m gone’ ‘good :)’

Oh I got off topic a bit. Shocking. But YES 100% I want to see him killing Hazel after all the torture & trauma of meeting Salem/getting a bunch of new memories (seems he has most at this point based on “you’re [...] recollecting my longest-held memories”) have a BIG impact on him. Emerald is the perfect conduit for a Hazel discussion, either brought on by her thanking Oscar or Oscar apologizing to her (or both, please! Or also Emerald apologizing for the fall of beacon leading to Oscar being here in the first place)

As for Penny, I totally agree that having her not react/be shown to be affected by her death & being remade was more than a missed opportunity, but a major misstep. Heck, they have a party in Amity coliseum, where she died, and she was just laughing and having fun. I know the writers said they used Amity bc they didn’t wanna make another setting, so they added IW’s line “what better place to celebrate than here?” which is odd to me cause... you mean the place their friends died and you ALL have trauma from?? But I digress :P Point is, they said they planned on Penny having a crisis over identity after her first death, wondering if she’s the same or a clone, etc., but cut it out for time, which I think was to her detriment. I hadn’t thought about her killing people in those ships... I can understand why that wasn’t a forefront issue/plot point, though. It wasn’t framed as significantly solemn or murder to my recollection, but that’s interesting to note!

With all the memories Oscar has now, I don’t think it’d be a stretch to say he’s experienced death a few times. Oz has been through lifetimes of trauma, and Oscar’s not really gotten the chance to react to it OR the trauma he himself is enduring in this lifetime. I know there wasn’t a ton of time for that in v8 post-Monstra (there was time before that that I feel would’ve been better spent on this, but he didn’t have much chance to talk after killing Hazel, outside of giving him a scene in Risk, which tbh he desperately needed), so I’m hoping v9/10+ will address it more. I want to see what’s going on internally, not just have them tell the audience “btw we’re merging. if you even care.” again and have them acting like each other more -- which IS super cool, but tells us nothing about their senses of identity or how Oscar’s feeling outside of not wanting to merge. I wanna know what merging feels like for him, what it’s doing to his brain. Some of this works well as subtext, but some of it really needs to take a spotlight in his upcoming screentime, bc as it stands it’s not communicating necessary information to the audience that gives us insight to what he’s going through.

Also YES!!! Please don’t bring Penny back a second time, I am begging, my heart can’t take it and I’ll just be mad :’( Before she got squishy guts I held the possibility that Penny might die in v8 and that Pietro, having said if she dies again “I won’t be able to- [coughing fit],” may have meant he either couldn’t bring her back without dying, or couldn’t at all, so he might sacrifice himself to save her. But he only was able to restore her the first time bc they had her core, which has now been destroyed. Bringing her back the first time was controversial, bc it could lower the impact/stakes, but making her the winter maiden made it worth it. Yes she AND the other characters should’ve treated her death as significant, but the v7 finale made me feel good about her being brought back! I mean I was just happy to see her again anyway, but narratively that moment justified her return for me. Making her flesh and killing her again did not.

The v7 finale was SO GOOD! THAT was her “real girl” confirmation. She didn’t need guts to be just as real as the others. It was a powerful scene with a fantastic message. Having her die after that beautiful moment with Fria makes v7 feel less important -- and v8, especially after the hacking plotline that didn’t go anywhere (other than making them go to the vault, which they could’ve done anyway) or result in character conflict not already present via the maiden powers, which was an awesome character moment in ch2! Happening DIRECTLY after Oscar’s parallel identity crisis on the bikes! Chef’s fucking kiss, babes!

Penny was a HUGE part of the Atlas arc, and a ton of screentime was devoted to her, only to have her die again without really capitalizing on her inclusion to further other characters’ development (aside from Winter but we’re talking RWBYALPN). So with her gone, her death will have more impact on the characters than her second life did, making so much of our time in Atlas feel not well-spent. Rewatching v7 now just makes me sad, hurt, or even apathetic to Penny’s plotlines. Instead of the powerful impact of her v3 death adding significance to her life (& how it affected Ruby) in retrospect, while this was still tragic and sad and I cried, it felt more like disappointment. Not in a good writing way either like with Pyrrha, but gratuitous and diminishing the value of the journey we went on with her in Atlas. Bringing her back AGAIN would just make me tired and upset, because she was my favorite character from the start, and stayed in my top 2 the whole show. She deserves better than to be brought back again after that, and I don’t think the writers will go that route given the song and the pre-established core thing, so I have reasonably confident hope they’ll keep her dead this time.

Penny and Oscar both suffer from having amazing, intriguing plotlines and character conflicts, but don’t often get to have them discussed or involve other characters to the extent they warrant. RWBYJNR had little reaction to Penny being brought back to life, or to Oscar being kidnapped and tortured and shot by Ironwood. Heck, we don’t even know for certain whether he told them or not! All we know is he said he blasted a hole in Atlas, so either he did and we didn’t get to see it despite it being a major focus of the v7 finale & multiple “it’s a long story” lines, or he didn’t tell them and they just didn’t bother asking why he blew a hole in Atlas. Penny’s talk with Ruby about the Maiden powers & her friends was excellent setup, but was kinda brushed aside in a lot of ways. Oscar’s talk with Ruby about self-blame and his actions from v7-8 were excellent setup, but fizzled. A lot of Oscar & Penny’s writing is truly fantastic! That’s why it’s so crucial to have it impact them and involve the other characters. Having no one react - and I reiterate, NO ONE react - to Oscar being tortured or shot or using magic or killing Hazel or exhibiting signs of merging diminishes the importance of those plot points conveyed to the viewer. Hence so much of the fndm brushing him off as insignificant and inconsequential.

TL;DR: Penny-Pine Parallels continue to have and break my heart </3 And I want Oscar to react to the shit he’s gone through before having more physical trauma launched at him yet again. He’s a very introspective person, and having him not reflect on all that would feel out of place and a disservice to his characterization thus far. I’d also like more of Blake & Yang talking about/dealing with killing Adam, cause that talk in the van was compelling.

Something that I find extremely funny about RWBY is that both resident cinnamon rolls Penny and Oscar have killed people onscreen (I'm referring to all the ships Penny explodes in vol 1) and they carry on smiling and uwuing like always, while Blake and Yang break down in tears and the experience or killing their shared abuser haunts them months later, you know... Like humans would react.

To be fair, Oscar and Penny also don't react much to being tortured or dying at least once. This is kinda bad writing admittedly, but i think it's a pacing problem. Penny can no longer react*, but i want Oscar to visibly be a little shaken after hours of being tortured and then killing the very same man who did that to him in vol 9, after everything has calmed down a bit.

* unless somehow Pietro rebuilds Penny, which is my greatest fear because it would confirm, in the process, that every new Penny has the same name and memories but it's a different life, so it means Two Pounds (lol) are in the afterlife already, that... That existential dread i do fear. Lol. I mean, his dwindling aura due to rebulding his daughter was introduced so it should go somewhere... Or was that scene just to make us think "well he may die but penny is safe for now at least?" Idk

#quin additions #why #why do I talk SO MUCH #why do I write SO MUCH #quinalysis #crtq #gonna just start using crtq cause when I tag rwde ppl misinterpret my intentions #again: their writing is often VERY GOOD and that is why I want the best for it #penny polendina #oscar pine #penny pine parallels

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darpok · 6 years ago

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Blog Post: On Fan Fiction and Other Storytelling Traditions

When I was twelve or thirteen years old, and even our family finally had DSL internet, I discovered the joys of fan fiction. In case you haven’t been living under the same rock as I have, allow me to explain. “Fan fiction” refers to stories written by enthusiasts of a particular book, TV show, or other creative work. While most “fics” – as my friends and I would call them – take place within the particular universe of the original story, others take known characters and put them in an entirely new setting. (That’s how 50 Shades of Grey was born.) There’s also fan fiction that doesn’t deliberately draw on any work but revolves around real, famous people in imagined situations. (See Graham Norton and Daniel Radcliffe discuss this type on the former’s show.)

The stories that interested me ranged from shorter “one shots” to multi-chapter epics, but most were placed in the Harry Potter universe and nearly all were tales of romance – if you could call it that.

The pairings I read about (and often ‘shipped’ – a verb that comes from the ‘ship’ in ‘relationship’ and means “hoped would bang”) – whether true to canon (i.e. the original books), such as Lily and James Potter, or wildly inventive, such as Hermione and a Tom Riddle to whom she has traveled back in time – usually engaged in the kind of love/hate banter that sends real couples to therapy. The pair would glare at and insult each other (often employing strangely American turns of phrase for a pair of ostensible Brits), their apparent mutual disgust hiding a deeper attraction. For my friends and I, it was riveting stuff.

While I was mainly a Lily/James shipper myself, you can’t talk about Harry Potter fan fiction and not mention Dramione. The fan-invented romance between Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger was a tale of forbidden passion, a defiance of Hogwarts housing norms and the mandates of Potter canon itself. Draco did need to be less of a whiny loser to be a deserving match for Hermione, but this could be arranged without too much trouble. In the fan fiction world, Draco was dark and brooding, and he didn’t bring his dad up in conversation quite as often as in the books. Hermione was clever and empathetic, and although she was rarely depicted with less than Yule Ball-level beauty, her looks were not her main characteristic.

Sometimes fan fiction Draco and Hermione fell for each other while at Hogwarts. In other fics, they met again under changed circumstances years after the fall of Voldemort. Then there were the AU fics in which a brilliant young paralegal named Hermione Granger begins work at the firm where successful lawyer Draco Malfoy practices. You get the idea.

Photoshop creations starring Tom Felton and Emma Watson (no credit belongs to me). The purple one in particular has stayed in my memory for years, and brings on a familiar feeling of excitement at all the great content to peruse in the world. It was the banner for a website that allowed fans to nominate and vote for their favorite Dramione fics.

A particularly sexy iteration of the Draco/Hermione story was called Water by kissherdraco. In it, Draco and Hermione are Head Boy and Girl at Hogwarts. Of course, this means that they must live sequestered in their own dormitory, with its own entrance, common room and adjoining bathroom that ensure they see each other in a state of partial undress when the story demands it.

Water was held by many to be the pinnacle of the genre. It had lust and angst in equal measure, executed with a liberal dose of swear words and aggression. Moreover, Water took the common flaws of the Dramione world’s characters and actually explored them, allowing character to drive plot. In the story, Draco is brooding and cruel as ever, but these traits are linked to vicious abuse at the hands of Lucius. This backstory is not seen as an excuse for Draco’s behavior and he is forced to grow and change as the story progresses (although not quite enough, tbh).

I never finished the story, perhaps because my young brain was alarmed by all the hate-sex, but I revisited it with curiosity for this piece. Here is a relatively benign excerpt from the text, although please skip if you’d rather avoid themes of physical dominance:

“You’re crying,” growled Draco, leaning in and flicking his tongue onto her cheek. He tasted salt.

She struggled then, and he brought his hands to her shoulders to hold her still. “Don’t, Granger,” he warned. “I fucking need this. I can’t fucking…” He trailed off.

He never would have noticed before. Not like he did now, at least. Her lips were wet. They were red and moist and magnificently ripened for him. So full of blood. Hot, heated, sullied blood. He couldn’t take his eyes off them.

Other fics situated romance within a larger plot about the politics of the wizarding world. Prelude to Destiny by AnotherDreamer took place in the Marauder era (i.e. the time of Harry’s parents) and focused on the coming-of-age of Lily Evans and her role in the battle against evil. It begins, “Two cultures and a thousand miles from you, there is a castle on a hill…”

Another fave began life under the title Ancient and Most Noble and is now called Druella Black’s Guide to Womanhood. It is about the diverging lives of the three Black sisters — Bellatrix, Andromeda, and Narcissa — in the early years of Voldemort’s power. The sisters confront the crumbling of the their easy closeness as they make different choices in a changing world.

”It’ll be a laugh, you’ll see,” Bellatrix whispered into her ear, her breath sweet and thick from wine. They were curled in the cool grass, tangled in the layers upon layers of lace and satin that were their dress robes; it had taken them an hour to get them on right and just ten minutes to unsettle them. Andromeda’s head was spinning: from the liquor, from the heat, from far too much dancing. “It’ll all be just like this,” Bella was murmuring, her lips brushing against her ear. Stars whirled by overhead, maybe close enough to touch. Close enough to try.

“Always just like this.”

—

Andromeda swore as she stepped off the train. From inside the nicely cool travel car, summer had looked so charming, green and bright and gloriously school-free…

I was most interested in these fics, the ones that revolved around the generations before Harry’s. There was something compelling about the knowledge of forthcoming tragedy for many of the characters…Plucked away from the happy ending of the books, these fics became an exploration of why life is meaningful even in its flawed and finite scope.

I look back on my fan fiction experiences as belonging to a beautiful time when the internet was less like Janet from The Good Place* (if Janet were selling everything she knew about us to profit-hungry corporations and belligerent, militarized governments), and more like a library you went to when you felt like checking out a book. Nobody knew what I ate and where I went every minute of the day, because I didn’t put that stuff online, nor did I (to my knowledge) carry a tracking device with me when I went downstairs to play with my friends. At 5 pm, our moms would have to call each friend’s landline to reach us and remind us to stop home for our daily glass of milk or what-have-you.

*Janet is a humanoid presence in the afterlife who holds all knowledge in the universe and can create objects out of the void.

Fan fiction was a commerce-free creative space – devoid of ad revenue and the quick accumulation of likes. Since there was neither money nor social capital to be gained, everyone who participated did so out of pure interest. One did have the hope of raking in reviews from other community members, but these were about more than validation; reviews allowed people to have conversations about a shared passion and often included constructive criticism along with praise. There was little need for bitterness – if a fic was well-written, everybody won, since it meant they got to read it.

Below are some examples from the reviews section of Prelude to Destiny. It’s certainly no Twitter.

Written by rach on chapter #13. (March 28th 2009, 5am) Hey,

So I’ve read your whole story before, and now I’m reading it again, because I saw it spotlighted on the site. And this chapter is amazing. I love the end…I’ve never (well, before I read this the first time) compared Lily to Mrs Crouch. But it’s so true. They both gave their lives for their sons and…this chapter is phenomenal. Just thought I’d let you know

Rach

Written by Smith on chapter #26. (April 29th 2008, 11am)

…If I am to find any fault in the story, then I should say that Remus was rather dull. Not that it was completely out of character, but I imagine him being funnier and also good Lily’s friend. Their friendship is mentioned by Lupin in the third film and, I should think, in the book as well, though I don’t have a copy right now and thus can’t provide a quote. Pity, that. [Given my extensive knowledge of canon, I can tell you that the reviewer is mistaken on this last point.]

Thank you very much for writing this story. Reading it was an enjoyable experience that I might repeat in the future. You’re brilliant, to put it short.

Author Response: Thanks for the review!Yeah, Remus was a bit dull. Actually, I didn’t intend for Lily to be friends with any of the marauders besides James. I just wanted them out of the way. But I know what you mean. After Sirius entered the story, Remus was even duller in comparison. Plus, I wanted to make Peter seem like he fit in, and Remus just fell by the wayside, you know?I’m enjoying writing Gertrude again after taking over a story from my friend who used my characters. Anyway, thanks again!Miranda

For me, too, fandom was a more than a casual hobby. Since I was only allowed an hour of internet use a day, I would spend the time copying and pasting chapter after chapter of fan fiction onto Microsoft Word, allowing me to read all I wanted later. (As you might imagine, Water was not stored on the family computer.) I remember scouring for new fics on fanfiction.net and clicking through page after page of fan art on deviantart.com (both of which retain their early-2000s layouts, unlike Mugglenet or JK Rowling’s official site), very differently from how I scroll through Instagram today. I admired works of fandom the way one appreciates springtime’s first flower, or the décor of a friend’s bedroom – I admired the stamp of individuality they bore and that inspired me to create something myself, to express my joys and sorrows, to be a part of the world.

RIP old websites

When I did put Harry Potter-inspired art out there, somewhere around age fourteen, it was of course in the form of fan fiction, writing being my weapon of choice. I wrote two one-shot pieces, one funny and the other sad — or such were my intentions, though perhaps the results were inverted. While some friends wrote longer stories, I never felt talented or inspired enough to commit, which is a typical self-doubting move of the kind I am trying to leave behind. (I now plan to write no matter how untalented and uninspired I may be.)

One piece was about a character of my own invention, a Slytherin guy with the requisite pure-blood, Dark magic-loving family, and a perky, ponytailed Huffelpuff girl on whom he develops an obsessive crush. It was intended to be a BBC-inspired mockery of the character, taking all the gloomy sexiness of the Dramione universe and making it ridiculous. It was also a thorough exploration of really wanting to make out with somebody sitting in the same classroom as you, not that I’d know anything about that myself.

The other short story was a sincere ode to the books and an exploration of some of their core questions on death and loss. It followed Harry in an imagined scene that takes place (SPOILER ALERT lol) after Dumbledore’s death in the Half-Blood Prince. Harry is climbing the steps to the Owlery with a package in his hand, thinking over his relationship with Dumbledore. As I wrote, I found that I absolutely had to include excerpts from a fairly unexpected source, a chapter in the first and most overlooked of the Harry Potter books. The chapter is “The Mirror of Erised,” whose titular object reveals to the onlooker their deepest desire.

“Professor Dumbledore. Can I ask you something?”

“Obviously, you’ve just done so,” Dumbledore smiled. “You may ask me one more thing, however.”

“What do you see when you look in the mirror?”

“I? I see myself holding a pair of thick, woolen socks.” Harry stared. “One can never have enough socks,” said Dumbledore. “Another Christmas has come and gone and I didn’t get a single pair. People will insist on giving me books.”

It was only when he was back in bed that it struck Harry that Dumbledore might not have been quite truthful.

In my story, Harry gazes out at the Forbidden Forest for a little while, wondering who Dumbledore had been behind the mask of calm wisdom and pondering the burden of those left alive and grieving. Harry then ties the package he’s been holding to Hedwig’s arm and sends her off, chuckling a little through tears. In the last line it is revealed that – OMG – he has just sent off a pair of thick, woolen SOCKS. To DUMBLEDORE. Even though Dumbledore is DEAD. Isn’t that profound?

Two years later, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows was released, and to my complete surprise, it delved deep into some of the questions about Dumbledore that had tumbled out of me, stream-of-consciousness-like, in the story I wrote. The text even includes part of the above excerpt from “The Mirror of Erised”. At the outset of Deathly Hallows, Harry learns that Dumbledore’s childhood was a difficult one, the true details of which remain murky and contested by his admirers and critics. Harry regrets never having asked Dumbledore about his past, but recalls that, after all, the one personal question he had asked Dumbledore was not answered honestly…

While writing my story, I had imagined Harry’s pain and longing to know Dumbledore better. Because fan fiction allowed me to externalize my interpretation of the text, the questions in my mind took on concrete form. Their answers, when the next book presented them, became all the more striking and emotionally impactful. It was as though I had written a letter to the series of books that had shaped me and received, in a way, a gentle but meaningful response.

In 2004, JK Rowling released a statement about the phenomenon of fan fiction. She was flattered by fans’ desire to write about her characters, and her only caveats were that fan fiction should remain suitable for children (unfortunately that ship had already sailed, and Water was truly the least of it), as well as a non-commercial activity so that fans’ creative pursuits would remain unexploited. Other authors have not been as accepting, and have asked for fan fiction based on their work to be removed from popular websites. After all, in our current world, a story is classified as property. A sentence, a verse, a character’s name, can belong to someone the same way as the furniture in their house and the dollar figure in their bank account.

In the long history of storytelling, however, ownership is a relatively recent idea. Bear with me while I make an analogy – in pre-industrial Britain, every town had a commons, an area of land where anyone could gather firewood, take their cattle to graze, or hunt and fish to supplement a year of poor harvest. Storytelling has historically functioned as a kind of commons of ideas, one that anyone could pull from when the time came to tell a tale. Want to warn your kid against going near a well? Tell them about the hungry demon that lives in it. Were you hired to entertain a crowd at a wedding? Maybe you dust off an old poem about a prince and princess who meet one evening in the forest but spend years apart, not knowing each others’ true identity until it turns out they were betrothed all along.

Nobody invented well-dwelling monsters or estranged lovers for the first time – they simply existed in a shared cultural space, available when needed (or when it was particularly enjoyable to use them), ready to be shaped into something new and old at the same time. Even today, no one questions the use of familiar tropes in books and movies; we know that all storytelling involves a certain amount of borrowing and repetition, and we deem this acceptable as long as the storyteller has put an adequately original spin on the themes they utilize. The legal line is drawn once you get to the particulars – character names, or sentences and dialogue. These must be brand spanking new if you want to avoid a lawsuit and getting dropped by your publishers. (Does anyone else remember How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life?)

But for thousands of years, people told and re-told stories of beloved and familiar characters, not just unnamed archetypes – characters like Odysseus and Arjuna, Gilgamesh and King Arthur. The Sanskrit Mahabharata (Maha-BHA-rata) an epicly long, genre-defying story from South Asia, especially challenges the idea of a single, canonical text (much like other ancient story traditions from the subcontinent). It was told so many times by so many people that modern-day folks are not always able to agree on what the Mahabharata even is. The story is like a vast ocean — recognizable to all, but appears different depending on where you happen to be standing.

In the 20th century, some scholars collected Mahabharata manuscripts from all over the subcontinent, extracted the most commonly occurring parts to form a text, and detailed the many variations of each verse in footnotes that turned out longer than the text itself. No one can quite agree whether to treat this resulting (multi-volume) “Critical Edition” as the essential Sanskrit Mahabharata tradition, or as some kind of strange, post-colonial Mahabharata scrapbook. All this so that whenever somebody wrote an essay about the story, there was a single text, pieced together as it was, to use as a point of reference. (My Bachelor’s thesis was one of the lesser works of this scholarly genre.)

The plot of the Mahabharata goes like this: The five Pandava brothers, namely the prone-to-gambling leader Yudhishthira, morally-conflicted archer Arjuna, lovable beefcake Bhima, and something-to-do-with-horses twins Nakula and Sachdeva, along with their badass wife Draupadi, are exiled from their kingdom and forced into a year of disguise after a rigged dice game that Yudhishthira loses, and in which Draupadi is stripped and humiliated before a hall full of men. Eventually the Pandavas regain what they lost through a bloody war that leaves both sides devastated and questioning the point of all this conflict. The End.

Does my summary reflect my biases a little bit? For somebody else, the Pandavas might be perfect heroes, Draupadi a whiny ungrateful shrew who won’t stop yelling at them. To me, she is the moral backbone of the Pandavas, unafraid to call for what she feels is right even as everyone around her takes the coward’s way out of trouble.

Interpretations of Draupadi from various traditions

But it’s not just me who has a take on the story: the Mahabharata itself reflects a range of interacting and conflicting views, which might indicate that people from various backgrounds heard it and were able, in some way, to influence it. For example, although the text generally upholds hierarchies of caste and gender, it also pulls at the listener’s heartstrings with stories of characters who must confront these oppressive norms.

There’s Amba, who is stolen from her future-husband at her wedding and rejected by him when she manages to return; she later chooses to be re-born as a man in order to kill her kidnapper in battle. There’s Ekalavya, the talented archer from a forest tribe who trains with the Pandavas in youth and asks to prove his devotion to his archery guru any way he can; the guru, who favors the upper-caste prince Arjuna, asks Ekalavya to cut off his right thumb. There’s Kunti, who finds herself pregnant after an illicit affair with a god and places her baby, Karna, in a river; Karna is adopted by a lower-caste charioteer couple and goes on to fight against Kunti’s legitimate sons in the great battle that destroys the universe. And there’s Satyavati, whose husband/baby daddy pretends not to recognize her in front of his kingly court but gets completely schooled on how not to be an asshole.

“You know very well [who I am], your majesty; why do you say that you don’t, lying like a common man? Your heart knows the truth, and knows your lie. A man who does something wrong thinks, ‘No one knows me,’ but the gods know. If you do not do what I ask, your head will burst into a hundred pieces.” She discoursed at length on the reasons why a man should honor his wife, quoting the dharma texts.

(from The Ring of Truth: And Other Myths of Sex and Jewelry by Wendy Doniger)

Perhaps, among the traveling bards and indulgent grandmas who told the Mahabharata over centuries, there were some who identified or empathized with the pain of oppression and through whom otherwise-marginalized voices could ring out into the millennia.

The many Mahabharatas, along with the many conversations inside the Mahabharata, illustrate how the human imagination is prolific and messy, not content with merely absorbing information but impelled to remake, to take inspiration, to create, create, create. Isn’t that what happens when we read? We see the world we are reading about in our own way. We make up something in our own head as we go along, and that’s where the entertainment lies. The book itself is but a wonderful tool.

Perhaps if I had a right-wing patron who paid me to tell stories, I would tell the Mahabharata a little differently from how I do here, focusing on how the Pandavas were self-made men or how the ethnic minorities they killed were thieving encroachers. Or if I were telling the story to children, I might leave out anything particularly frightening. In the telling of a story, the will and whims of the teller have influence, as do those of the listener (or reader) and the financial benefactor (or publishing house).

What remains inevitable, however, is that rarely is a story told the same way twice. Even in our post-printing press, post-internet world, where stories are replicated identically again and again, we continue to dissect, analyze, and change them, whether it be through everyday conversations, online forums, or the prestige lens of a critic’s review. (A perfect example is the adaptation of works from one medium into another, be it from literature to film or from film to theater.) Sometimes the authors themselves continue to tweak and interpret their work – Virginia Wolf was known to make changes to her books prior to reprinting, and we all know that JK Rowling can’t leave the Potter universe well enough alone (love you Jo!).

For me, fan fiction is a grand storytelling and textual tradition not entirely unlike the Mahabharata. Fan fiction not only illustrates the malleable, generative nature of stories, it also provides a rare space, in our capitalist global economy, for storytelling to be that malleable, generative thing it has always been. It allows for democratic engagement in the storytelling traditions of our time, free from the boxes of profit and ownership. It lets us expand the possibilities of our collective imagination. Importantly, it allows voices from the margins into the story, where our canonical texts routinely fail us.

I’m also thankful to fan fiction for being a rare space, outside overpriced college English classes, where literary discussion can thrive. When I say discussion, I don’t mean mere binary criticism – like book reviews, or the Goodreads star rating-aggregates that help determine book sales. I mean questions about how a text makes you feel, what it reflects or critiques about our world, the things that literary characters, beloved and abhorred, may teach us about our shared humanity and flawed choices. And yes, some of these conversations involve Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy as co-Heads of Hogwarts, using the same bathroom.

Are you a reader or writer of fan fiction? Have you you dabbled in fan art? Or do you engage in a non-online form of fandom, like a book club? Please share!

Thanks for reading.

#fan fiction #writing #storytelling #early internet #dramione #mugglenet #mahabharata #harry potter #feminism #romance #indian history #draupadi #longform #long post

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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The Falcon and The Winter Soldier Episode 6 Ending Explained

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This article contains spoilers for The Falcon and The Winter Soldier episode 6.

Deviating from the Marvel formula a bit, the ending of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier isn’t designed to leave viewers with many questions. There is only one, quite brief, post-credit scene that falls well short of the Nick Fury “Avengers Initiative” watermark.

Before that, Sam Wilson a.k.a. Falcon a.k.a. Captain America basically articulates all of the series’ themes in great detail with an extended monologue to the world at large like he was Stan Marsh at the end of an early season South Park episode. Even the show’s final title card leaves absolutely no ambiguity, changing the series title from “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier” to “Captain America and The Winter Soldier.”

While Disney+’s second major Marvel effort wraps much of its story into a neat little bow, it still does leave some lingering questions at the end of the day. Let’s examine those questions here and offer up some answers where we can.

What Happened to Torres?

Every new Marvel property must introduce a new sidekick for fans to identify with. Hell, that’s how we got Sam Wilson in the first place. When it came time for Sam Wilson to get his own Sam Wilson, First Lieutenant Joaquín Torres of the U.S. Air Force answered the call.

Torres was a consistent presence in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier’s first few episodes. But as Sam interacted more with Bucky Barnes and John Walker, his military liaison largely fell by the wayside. He appears only briefly in this finale as we see him watch Sam deliver his speech to the Global Repatriation Council and smile at how far his friend has come.

There probably aren’t any big plans for Torres to become his own Falcon-style superhero (but remember, he DOES have Sam’s old wings) but as WandaVision and The Falcon and The Winter Soldier have made clear, the MCU always has a need for sympathetic “normal” characters. Don’t be surprised if Torres pops up again in a future Disney+ adventure to support his friend just like always.

Is Batroc Dead?

Georges Batroc learns a very important lesson in this finale: never ask Sharon Carter for a raise. Yes, one of Captain America’s most consistent villains (though he’s more like an annoyance) has been working with Sharon a.k.a. The Power Broker this whole time.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Episode 6 Marvel, Captain America, MCU Easter Eggs

By Mike Cecchini and 2 others

Marvel Fans React to The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Finale

By Kirsten Howard

When Batroc finally fulfills his mission of subduing Karli Morgenthau he demands to receive four times his agreed upon payment from Sharon. Sharon responds by shooting him. Where exactly does Sharon shoot him? That’s unclear. But the French Pirate hits the ground very quickly. Given Sharon Carter’s superb marksmanship, it would appear that the shot was fatal.

Batroc has had quite the run in the MCU. Who would have expected that he would even make it to a Disney+ streaming title after his brief debut in 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier? This does, however, appear to be the end of him. R.I.P.

Is This the End of the Flag-Smashers?

Very early on in this finale, Bucky warns Sam to be careful because the Flag-Smashers could be anybody. That’s what makes this group a bit trickier to stamp out from your usual MCU baddies. The Flag-Smashers aren’t a people, they’re an ideology. Now many of the group’s main players are dead and Sam gave a lovely speech urging for political tolerance. But was that enough for the Flag-Smashers movement to go away?

Realistically, it’s probably not. The so-called “Blip” of Thanos removing half the Earth’s population and the Avengers returning it five years later will continue to have enormous implications for years to come. In fact, in the continuity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it is undoubtedly the single most consequential moment in all of human history. The issues of the blip won’t realistically go away and the Flag-Smashers are sure to become an embedded political movement within the MCU.

Granted, Marvel may soon decide that it’s no longer interesting to continue to harp on one event from a 2019 film for the rest of its filmmaking history and begin to move away from blip-storytelling soon. Rest assured, however, that the Flag-Smashers will still be out there somewhere, smashin’ flags.

How Does the Country Feel About John Walker?

John Walker made history in the Marvel Cinematic Universe by becoming the first human being to face consequences for killing someone. Hell, Sharon Carter is the Power Broker and killed Karli Morgenthau but she gets welcomed back into Uncle Sam’s good graces. The difference, of course, is that Sharon didn’t do her killing on camera for all the world to see.

What’s interesting, however, is that even though John Walker was stripped of all his titles and condemned, he did not face any lasting legal repercussions for killing. And that’s how he was able to throw on the stars and stripes, grab a makeshift shield, and head out to help Sam and Bucky save the day.

That leaves John Walker in an interesting place as the show concludes. He’s certainly not a hero in the public eye but he’s also not a villain. “U.S. Agent” is a bit of a drab branding choice for his new superhero venture (even if it is comic-accurate), as is Val’s choice of a Cap costume that replaces the blue with the black. But Val’s first super-soldier appears to be on his way back to public respectability. And this leads nicely into our next question…

Who Is Sharon Carter Talking To?

As previously discussed, The Falcon and The Winter Soldier’s post-credit scene isn’t too Earth-shattering. In it, Sharon Carter receives a pardon from the U.S. intelligence community. As she leaves the courthouse (which gets A LOT of screentime in these last two episodes) Sharon calls someone and says “start lining up buyers. Super Soldiers might be off the menu but we’re about to have full access to government secrets, prototype weapons, you name it. Should be something for everyone.”

That seems like some bad news! But who exactly is Sharon talking to?

Well one possibility is that she’s speaking with one of her Mardipoor underworld contacts from her time as Power Broker. But merely selling off government secrets and tech seems like a bit small potatoes for the now very powerful Sharon Carter. It’s more likely that Sharon is preparing to build her own superteam…which makes her quite like another powerful lady from The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.

Contessa Valentina Allegra De Fontaine or simply Val (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) clearly has her eye on developing her own Avengers as well. Because one U.S. Agent does not a super team make. Sharon and Val could very well be joining forces to create a force that could rival Earth’s mightiest heroes. Whether they’re called Dark Avengers, Thunderbolts, or something else, a new crew seems to be on its way.

Will Sam Lead The Next Avengers Team?

Typically the Avengers don’t have an elected leader. Tony Stark provided the funding and Steve Rogers provided the inspiration to go into battle. But now Tony and Steve are both gone. Is the newest Captain America capable of stepping into a leadership role?

Well let’s make something clear from the top. Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, it’s not even a guarantee that the Avengers are a thing anymore. Natasha Romanoff kept the lights on while half the world was snapped away. But even she is gone now. Thus far, Disney+’s series haven’t hinted at an incoming team-up aside from Val’s dastardly plans.

Still, the Avengers (or a team like them) will have to assemble again one day. Once they do, Sam seems to be in a prime spot to take on the mantle of leadership. He doesn’t just have Cap’s shield, he also has his moral clarity.

What’s Next for Zemo?

Baron Zemo, bless him, got everything he wanted out of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. He got to take a little break from being imprisoned, wear a nice puffy coat, and most importantly: eliminate the threat of super soldiers once again. Yes, it was the Baron’s butler who took out the last four remaining Flag Smasher soldiers.

All that’s left now is to retire to a life of quiet contemplation in his Raft prison cell, right? Well, not really. There is still one rogue super soldier out there in the form of John Walker. Zemo is simply too capable a schemer and too compelling a villain to stay in the Raft forever. It’s unclear what’s next for the Steve Rogers “tree” of Marvel movies. But whenever Sam, Bucky, and John Walker turn up in a film or TV show again, Zemo is sure to make another appearance.

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Why Weren’t Sam and Bucky Cooking a Crawfish Boil?

Finally, the most important question. The final scene of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier features a lovely celebration where Sam returns home to Louisiana and brings his friend Bucky for a family food party. While much of the scene is devoted to seeing the novelty of the fearsome Winter Soldier playing with children, we do get some quick glimpses of the food being prepared and I’ve gotta say: grilled shrimp wouldn’t have been my first choice.

I have no doubt that the Wilson family grilled shrimp recipe is superb (particularly if it’s a Cajun recipe). But grilling some shrimp on a barbecue grill just seems woefully deficient for a party this size. Why not just go with a classic Louisiana crawfish boil? That’s a fun activity for the whole crew and will make a lot more food. Plus, they’re already boiling the corn cobs!

Also, it must be said that Bucky appears to come to this event with a pitiful store bought Oreo cake. That’s why Sam gets to be Captain America and you don’t, Bucky.

The post The Falcon and The Winter Soldier Episode 6 Ending Explained appeared first on Den of Geek.

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phantom-le6 · 4 years ago

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Episode Reviews - Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3 (2 of 6)

Slightly later than I’d originally intended, here’s another round of episode reviews for the third season for Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Episode 6: Booby Trap

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

While the Enterprise investigates the asteroid-laden sector of space where the final battle between the Menthars and the Promellians occurred, it receives a distress call from a Promellian battlecruiser. Captain Picard directs the ship to investigate. They find the ancient battlecruiser adrift but intact, and Picard, anxious to see the ship for himself, joins the away team as they transport over. They find the crew all long dead but still at their posts, and a recording by their captain suggests the ship was caught in a Menthar trap. With their investigation complete, the away team returns to the Enterprise to continue on, when they begin to suffer a series of power losses that prevent the use of either impulse or warp drive, and are bombarded by radiation that threatens to drain their shields and kill the crew. Picard orders Chief Engineer La Forge to find a way to restore power while a second away team searches for more clues on the Promellian vessel. They discover that the Menthars had previously used aceton assimilators to absorb an enemy ship's energy and redirect it back as hazardous radiation, and that the Enterprise is stuck in the same trap.

La Forge realizes that the only way to restore power is to reconfigure the warp drive and traces the warp drive's design back to the Enterprise's construction and blueprints created by Dr Leah Brahms. La Forge enters the ship's holodeck to help figure through the engine reconfiguration, whereupon the computer takes an off the cuff remark by Geordi literally and creates a holographic representation of Brahms herself to assist him in his work. As Geordi does so, he asks the computer to update the hologram with Dr Brahms' personality profile, and slowly gains romantic feelings for her. Despite the holo-Brahms' help, La Forge is unable to find a way to safely manoeuvre the Enterprise away, and when Picard orders all extraneous power systems (including the holodeck) shut down to conserve power, La Forge convinces the captain to allow the holodeck to continue to run.

After power is restored, the simulated Dr Brahms recognizes a solution which is to allow the computer to take control of the ship, allowing it to make rapid adjustments to compensate for the trap. La Forge then finds an alternate solution to the problem which is to completely reduce the power output from the Enterprise and manoeuvre it out of the field by manual control with only two thrusters. Picard and La Forge decide that computers cannot account for human intuition and elect to go with the manual approach. Picard takes the helm himself to skilfully carry out the operation, successfully moving the Enterprise from the trap. Once free and with power restored, the Enterprise destroys the Promellian craft to prevent others from falling into the trap. Afterwards, La Forge ends his romance with the Dr Brahms hologram.

Review:

While this episode does have Picard-centric moments, this is basically a Geordi episode and has numerous layers to it, despite the appearance of it being a techno-babble problem of the week episode. Our resident visor-wearing chief engineer is shown to be having issues with his love life, feeling more at ease with engineering issues than with romantic ones, and then while trying to solve a problem that requires some scientific smarts, he finds himself falling for a holodeck simulation that he inadvertently creates to help him.

Apparently, the idea here was meant to be to showcase the love between man and machine, not unlike how a lot of Americans of certain era can often have quasi-romantic relationships with their first car or with cars of certain types. However, I feel that the relationship between Geordi and Brahms combined with his prior romantic troubles make it a more universal story, albeit not quite accurate, story about the idea that romance happens when you stop trying for it. To my mind, this is an idea that has never made sense, because romance is even less likely to happen if you aren’t seeking it. After all, if you’re not making any kind of an effort, anyone you stumble across will be even less attracted, and for that matter you might miss any possible hints about someone having a romantic interest because you’re not actively looking for those hints.

To my mind, the whole struggle with standard romantic relationships as they have come to be in our time exists for one sole reason; the neurotypical obsession with letting interpersonal communication remain a pointless complex and convoluted process. There’s so much about the various aspects of people communicating with each other that, as a person with autism, I can only see as a hinderance to effective communication. Actively seek romance or not, the need to essentially tap-dance around what each person wants and not just say straight out what you each want to or don’t want will always be the biggest impediment to any potential relationship.

Take Geordi’s failed date at the episode’s opening; why has it taken until the date for the woman to let Geordi down? Why let him go through all the trouble of trying so hard to create a nice holodeck program before saying you don’t feel that way about him? Answer: because neither of them actually said what they wanted straight out beforehand, resulting in wasted time and effort for both parties and hurt feelings for Geordi. This episode is basically testament to the folly of the old play-it-by-ear concept of romance that is gradually falling by the wayside, as evolving attitudes to consent advocate more frank and open discussion rather than the pointless conversational meandering that I for one absolutely cannot stand.

Apparently, one reviewer gave this episode a low rating because they noted it as being somewhat creepy, and I suppose this is around the idea of Geordi falling in love with a holodeck character who he could easily program and revise to be his ideal woman. I can see why some people would find that concept uncomfortable, but that’s not what Geordi does in this episode. Moreover, there is something to be said for one day having artificial companions in such a manner. It’s not for everyone, and never would be, but for people who find interpersonal communication hard and who society does not bend around enough to make it easier, it has distinct advantages over being around other people. Overall, I give this episode 9 out of 10.

Episode 7: The Enemy

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

The Enterprise responds to a Romulan distress signal coming from Galorndon Core, a planet near the Neutral Zone with severe radiologic storms that interfere with transporters and communications. Riker, Worf, and Geordi La Forge transport down through a window in the storms and discover wreckage of a Romulan craft on the hostile planet's surface. Worf finds a Romulan survivor near death and subdues him. While Riker and Worf take the Romulan back to the beacon for transport back to the ship, La Forge ends up falling into a hidden hole. Riker and Worf try to find him, but are forced to leave before the transport window in the storms closes. By the time Geordi has climbed out, it is impossible to communicate with the Enterprise.

Aboard the ship, Dr Crusher tends to the Romulan, finds that he is also suffering severe neurological damage due to the planet's storms, and that she needs to locate a matching donor of a rare variety of ribosomes to keep him alive. When Captain Picard asks for suggestions on how to locate Geordi, Wesley Crusher offers the idea of launching a probe onto the planet's surface that would send a neutrino signal that could be detected by La Forge's visor. Following the signal would lead him to the probe, and allow him to use it to signal he is all right, enabling him to return to the ship during the next storm window. As they launch and monitor the probe, the Enterprise detects a communication from Romulan Commander Tomalak. When they hail him to inform him that the Romulans violated the treaty by entering Federation space, he brushes it off as a misunderstanding and explains that the craft went off course due to a malfunction. Picard informs him that they found a survivor, and after getting assurances that the crashed craft only had the one occupant, agrees to meet Tomalak at the Neutral Zone to deliver the survivor. Several crew members suggested a more aggressive response, but Picard warns his crew that they must handle the situation delicately to avoid setting off another war between the Federation and Romulan Empire.

On the surface, La Forge discovers the probe's signal, but while following its guidance, is captured by Bochra, another Romulan survivor of the crash. Though Bochra holds La Forge hostage, he reveals that he is losing feeling in his legs from the crash, while Geordi notes he is starting to have problems seeing through his visor, leading him to conclude that the storms are causing neurological damage, and they need to get off the planet to survive. La Forge manages to convince Bochra to take his chances with the Federation, but as they head out to the probe, Geordi succumbs to the neurological damage and is unable to see through his visor. Bochra suggests connecting the visor to the tricorder, using the combined technology to be able to direct them to the probe, and the two work together to overcome their physical disabilities to make it there.

On the ship, Worf is found as the only suitable donor for the dying Romulan, but he refuses due to his anger against the Romulan race for killing his parents. Picard urges Worf to put his duty to Starfleet over his honour as a Klingon, but it is all for naught when the Romulan succumbs to his wounds and dies. Tomalak, irate that the Enterprise wasn't at the designated waiting point at the agreed upon time, violates the treaty and appears in front of the Enterprise at the planet. Picard is forced to report that the Romulan crewman died, which infuriates Tomalak and he prepares his weapons to fire at the Enterprise. As the Enterprise raises its shields, they discover Geordi has reached the probe with another lifeform. Picard warns Tomalak they are lowering their shields to beam up the survivors directly to the bridge. When they arrive, Bochra reports to Tomalak that Geordi has helped save his life. Tomalak accepts this and stands down his weapons. Bochra cautiously thanks La Forge for his help and is returned to the Romulans, and the Enterprise escorts Tomalak's ship back to the Neutral Zone without further incident.

Review:

This episode really has two focal characters rather than one, each of whom takes a different approach to how they deal with a situation where it is seen as mutually beneficial to set aside differences and help each other. The first is Geordi, who gets stranded down on the planet with a Romulan soldier, and when the planet’s very nature effectively cripples both of them, you get the inevitable Trek staple of adversaries coming together to help each other out. It’s well done in terms of performance and consistent with Geordi’s character as a human Starfleet officer, but it’s also over-predictable.

By comparison, Worf’s situation is very different. In his case, him acting as a donor to the Romulan they beamed up earlier comes down to him having to choose between the demands of duty and those of honour. I imagine this was meant to be some kind of metaphorical exploration of religions that don’t believe in donating blood, organs, etc. However, Worf’s reasoning is far more personal than faith, and while the move to have him keep refusing to volunteer was apparently to make him more Klingon, I’d argue it was an equally human move, albeit the move of a modern-day, real-life human. After all, Worf has had his biological parents killed by the Romulans when he was only six; how many children orphaned by war would forgive the nation whose soldiers killed their parents? My guess would be virtually none, and that is as it should be, because some losses are simply too painful to forgive and move past.

I remember a line from the Ken Branagh adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing from the character of Leonato, when he is playing the part of the grieving father to sell the illusion of Hero’s death, and I think it well encapsulates the kind of emotion Worf is acting from in this episode;

“Bring me a father that so loved his child,

Whose joy of her is overwhelm'd like mine,

And bid him speak of patience;

But there is no such man: for, brother, men

Can counsel and speak comfort to that grief

Which they themselves not feel; but, tasting it,

Their counsel turns to passion”

This is the reality of losing anyone close to you by the hands of others, and I’m glad Worf is reacting in kind in this episode. Even if he does overcome his hatred for Romulans down the line (I can’t remember for the moment if he does or not), you don’t want it to be something he just does overnight. It’s the kind of thing someone would take ages to move past, not unlike what DS9 fans got to see in interactions between the Bajorans and Cardassians. In summation, this is a pretty good episode; I give it 8 out of 10.

Episode 8: The Price

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

The crew of the Enterprise plays host to a group of visiting interplanetary dignitaries who are negotiating for the rights to a stable wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant discovered by the Barzan people, which could provide a valuable and efficient "bypass" through known space. Deanna Troi, overwhelmed by her duties as ship's counsellor, reluctantly agrees to attend the delegations' reception. She meets Devinoni Ral, secretly a fellow empath and negotiator for one of the groups. Ral and Troi fall into an instant, passionate affair.

Meanwhile, talks over the rights to the wormhole are coming to a boiling point. Resolved to achieve success and take over the rights, the Ferengi incapacitate the Federation representative, Seth Mendoza. Captain Picard selects First Officer William Riker to replace Mendoza in representing the Federation's interests. Riker recommends that the Enterprise conduct an exploratory expedition into it before committing the Federation to a binding contract. Picard agrees and orders Chief Engineer La Forge and Lt. Commander Data to take a shuttlecraft into the wormhole. In an effort to prevent being outdone, the Ferengi send in a shuttle of their own. The two craft are surprised to find themselves in the Delta Quadrant, and as they monitor the wormhole, La Forge and Data agree that while the other end of the wormhole may be stable, this end is not, making the wormhole worthless. Further, they detect signs that this end of the wormhole may move soon. The two try to warn the Ferengi about this before they return through it, but the two Ferengi remain steadfast. The Ferengi are shocked when the wormhole vanishes in front from them, stranding them in the Delta Quadrant.

Meanwhile, on the Enterprise, negotiations for the wormhole continue, as well as the sparks between Troi and Ral. Even though she has fallen for Ral, Troi starts to have some second thoughts about him when he tells her in intimate confidence that he is part Betazoid and that he has been using his empathic abilities to manipulate the opposing delegates in the negotiations.

Ral deftly narrows the competition down to the Federation and his own employers, the Chrysalians. Just before Riker can obtain the wormhole rights, the Ferengi threaten to destroy the wormhole, claiming that an "informed source" has told them that the Federation has made a covert pact with the Barzan premier. Picard requests Riker's presence on the bridge to deal with the situation; in his absence, Ral takes the advantage, and builds his case on the Barzan leader's wishes for peace to win the claim to the wormhole for his group. When Troi realizes that Devinoni staged the entire altercation to sabotage the Federation, her sense of duty forces her to betray his trust and speak out publicly. But before the Barzan premier has a chance to cancel the bargain with Ral and the Chrysalians, the Enterprise shuttle emerges from the wormhole and hails the ship, announcing that it is worthless. Ral then says goodbye to Troi and returns to face his employers for purchasing worthless rights.

Review:

This is an ok episode that is notable more perhaps for its legacy than its content, with the wormhole concept being revisited by both of TNG’s spin-off shows; Deep Space Nine is set around a genuinely stable wormhole to the Gamma Quadrant, while Voyager would find the Ferengi missing during the third season as they journey to return from the Delta Quadrant. The episode is centred on Troi this time round, with the underlying subject matter having to do with ethics and people trying to claim advantages that are shades of grey at best and outright disgraceful at worst. It’s an ok plot, but far from brilliantly executed. A lot of this comes from the poor writing in the Tori/Ral ‘romance’.

According to Wikipedia, last year gaming website Gamespot noted this episode as containing one of the most bizarre moments of the series in the form of a relatively blatant discussion about sex between Crusher and Troi while the pair are exercising. To me, this doesn’t seem that bizarre at all, though I imagine it might have seemed that way to some back in November 1989 when the episode first aired. The society we live in now is much more open on the topic of sex now than it was back then, and I imagine that trend will keep going forward, especially given the existence of the Shades of Grey novel and film franchise, Game of Thrones and the Channel 4 TV show Naked Attraction among other things. The reality is that by the time of TNG’s setting in the 24th century, we’ll probably be even more open and less Victorian in our attitudes toward the subject of sex, so I’d flag this kind of scene as less bizarre and more ahead of its time. Overall, I give this episode 6 out of 10.

Episode 9: The Vengeance Factor

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

The Enterprise travels to the planet Acamar III after detecting traces of Acamarian blood at a looted Federation outpost. Sovereign Marouk, the Acamarian leader, suggests that the looting was done by the Gatherers, descendants of Acamarian society a century ago that have turned to piracy to sustain themselves. Marouk initially suggests hunting them down with the help of Starfleet, but Captain Picard convinces Marouk to join him to seek a peaceful resolution, including ending the Gatherers' exile. Marouk and her servant, Yuta, arrive on the ship to help. Commander Riker finds Yuta attractive and tries to get to know her better, but Yuta finds herself unable to open up to him.

The Enterprise crew makes contact with one band of Gatherers led by Brull, and offer negotiations. Brull negotiates with Marouk and Picard, and after hearing the offer, agrees to pass it on to the Gatherer leader, Chorgan. Meanwhile, Yuta meets alone with one of the older Gatherers and touches his cheek, causing the Gatherer to suffer a heart attack. As the man dies, Yuta asserts that she, as the last of her clan, Tralesta, will outlive the Lornak clan. The Gatherer's body is later found but initially assumed that death was by natural causes. However, later investigation by Dr Crusher reveals that a fast-acting "micro-virus", targeted to attack a specific Acamarian DNA profile, was the cause. Dr Crusher believes the virus was purposely genetically engineered, and that the death was a targeted murder. At Picard's request, Marouk has her government send data to the Enterprise to investigate the murder.

The Enterprise meets with Chorgan's starship, and Picard, Marouk, and Yuta transport aboard to begin negotiations. At the same time, the Enterprise crew receives the database from Acamar, and find that fifty-three years earlier, another Gatherer suffered a similar heart attack. This Gatherer was also from the Lornak clan, and a photographic record shows Yuta was present, and clearly hasn't aged since that time. Finding the common clan, Riker discovers that Chorgan is of the Lornak clan, and realizing that Yuta is there to assassinate him, transports over to Chorgan's ship. He interrupts negotiations to prevent Yuta from serving Chorgan a drink, accusing her of the murder. Yuta explains she is the last of five survivors of the Tralesta clan that was wiped out by a Lornak attack, and has undergone genetic alterations to host the virus and to keep herself from aging, allowing her to seek out and murder the Lornak clan to the last person. Riker attempts to talk her out of her revenge at phaser-point, gradually increasing the yield with each successive shot, but she cannot break from her desire for vengeance that she built up over the last several decades. After pleading with her not to try again, she moves once more on Chorgan, and Riker vaporizes her with his phaser.

The negotiations are successful and a truce is called between the two sides; at the conclusion, the Enterprise is assigned a routine survey mission through the now-peaceful sector. Searching for his First Officer, Picard finds a depressed Riker in Ten-Forward, and informs him that they'll be taking on medical supplies at the next star base, and he intends to extend shore leave to anyone who wants it. Riker says he'll pass it along to the crew.

Review:

Here we get a Riker episode, and under the heading of ‘department of no surprise’, it’s a girl-of-the-week episode. In other words, Riker’s trying to shack up with the pretty little guest star in the same way Kirk apparently did back in the original series. It’s a decent plot, and it had the potential for some issue exploration in Riker wanting an equal out of someone who was apparently more accustomed to acting in a dominant/submissive relationship. However, this never really gets explored because the surrounding plot and its efforts to try and impart a lesson about vengeance gets in the way.

Unfortunately, and by the same token, the Riker-Yuta romance also gets in the way of any possible issue exploration about vengeance, which to my mind was the less interesting option. There’s also a shot where Riker has to kill Yuta to prevent a further murder, and in order for the phaser effect to work while Picard was in-shot, Patrick Stewart had to stay still, resulting in no reaction from Picard where one should have been. Basically, this episode is another example of TNG still having rough areas and not yet being all it could be. All in all, I give this episode 6 out of 10.

Episode 10: The Defector

Plot (as adapted from Wikipedia):

The episode begins with Data exploring the human condition through acting in a Shakespearean play, Henry V. Captain Picard is giving Data some constructive criticism when he is notified by Commander Riker that a Romulan scout vessel is being pursued in the Neutral Zone. The scout vessel is under attack by a Romulan warbird, and they are approaching Federation space. The Enterprise moves to intercept the ship, causing the Warbird to cloak and return to Romulan space. The occupant of the ship is brought aboard the Enterprise, and claims he is Sub-Lieutenant Setal, an insignificant logistics clerk seeking to defect to the Federation after coming across information about a secret Romulan installation on the planet Nelvana III, within the Neutral Zone, that could sustain a large Romulan fleet.

Picard and his crew remain sceptical of Setal's claims when he refuses to provide them with any more evidence, and Picard orders an investigation of Setal's reliability while the Federation relays to the Enterprise that the Romulans are seeking Setal's return. When Setal's ship auto-destructs, the crew is forced to review the records of Setal's arrival, and believe that the Romulans arranged Setal as part of an elaborate hoax. Picard refuses to enter the Neutral Zone on the baseless claims.

Setal confides to Data that his defection came at a heavy price, that he will never be able to see Romulus or his family again; Data attempts to alleviate Setal's feelings by taking him to a holodeck representation of Romulus. Setal dismisses the hologram and reveals that he is actually Admiral Jarok, a high-ranking officer who previously had led a vicious campaign against several Federation outposts near the Neutral Zone. Jarok again beseeches Picard to investigate Nelvana III, but Picard refuses, and demands either Jarok provide the full information or he will be damned as a traitor. Jarok gives in to Picard's request, and gives detailed tactical information to Picard. Picard orders the Enterprise to Nelvana III.

When they arrive, the crew finds the planet completely barren with no evidence of any installation, to Jarok's surprise. Unexpectedly, two Romulan warbirds decloak and fire upon the Enterprise. Picard realizes that Jarok was used as a pawn by the Romulans, feeding him disinformation to lure the Federation into the Neutral Zone and at the same time disgrace Jarok. In response to Romulan commander Tomalak's demand for the Enterprise's surrender, Picard reveals he had prepared for this contingency: at his command, three Birds-of-Prey, sent by the Klingon Empire at Picard's request (as relayed by Worf), decloak and surround the warbirds, rendering the situation a stalemate. The Romulans re-cloak and retreat, allowing the Enterprise to leave. After the Enterprise has left the Neutral Zone, the crew finds that Jarok has committed suicide leaving behind a note for his family. While Data notes that relations with the Empire make delivery of the letter impossible, Picard states that, as long as there are Romulans with Admiral Jarok's courage and conviction, it may, one day, be possible to deliver Jarok's letter home.

Review:

This episode is split in terms of character focus, with Picard and Data being the primary main cast members coming into play. For Data, the Shakespeare play ‘Henry V’ that he is performing at the beginning of the episode, followed by his reaction to the unfolding events of the episode, is yet more exploration of the human condition, which of course is always what Data does best. In this case, Data is trying to figure out how his crew-mates are coming to their opinions about the Romulan defector when the evidence alone is inconclusive. By extension, he is also witness to that same defector using the same kind of deception King Henry uses in the scene Data performs earlier on the holodeck.

At the same time, Picard himself has to work out if the defector is being truthful or not, and trying to make the right decision when the fact is the decision isn’t clear-cut. The captain ultimately makes some pretty decent tactical moves that mostly win the day, but in the process the title character for the episode comes to a tragic end lined with the optimism that Trek is notable for. The whole episode also really fleshes out the Romulans, showing that not every Romulan is necessarily going to be a villain. This is a fun kind of development akin to that used by Games Workshop in developing the novels of the Horus Heresy series in more recent times, with the galactic civil war the novels are named after involving divisions that aren’t strictly along lines of army or regiment. Much as I appreciate the simplicity and predictability of black-and-white hero/villain divides, there should also be some grey areas to balance that out at times. Overall, I give this episode 9 out of 10.

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tvandfilmconfessions · 6 years ago

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Imagine walking into a Hollywood boardroom in 2018 in hopes of selling a big summer comedy. It’s a classic David versus Goliath story — a crew of nebbish geeks outwits a gang of maniacal, grunting bullies. Your pitch goes well at first until one of the execs wonders what sort of delightful hijinks ensue when the nerds and jocks face off.

You explain how the underdogs secretly film women naked, adding that they eventually sell “pies” (really just whipped cream) hiding an illegally taken photo of one of these women. The room goes silent and you pull another idea from the script.

“Also, one of the nerds has sex with a woman by wearing her boyfriend’s Halloween costume.”

The execs shift awkwardly in their seats.

“But it’s okay,” you assure everyone, “because it turns out the girl likes it.”

Is that sexual assault-filled movie getting made in 2018? I hope to god not. But thirty-five years ago that exact comedy was greenlit. In fact, it did well enough after its July 20, 1984 release to spawn sequels, a TV show, and plenty of revival talk.

* *

Watch the movie in question — Revenge of the Nerds — today and you’re likely to cringe so hard you miss all the jokes. Having just seen it for this piece, I can say: It feels dated. That’s no surprise, it is dated. It was released the year LeBron James, Prince Harry, and Katy Perry were born. But does that mean you can’t think it’s funny? Should we push aside all the movies, books, and TV that fail to fit with our current societal norms? Do we burn Gone with the Wind and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?

“I don’t necessarily think we need to dump our problematic past,” says Justina Ireland, a New York Times bestselling author who often speaks, writes, and Tweets about matters of race and gender in America. “I think a lot of times when we sanitize the past we overlook the bad parts and it becomes like ‘the good ol’ days’ ideology. But I do think we need to engage with the past in a way that’s realistic.”

For Ireland, that means thinking critically about art and placing it in a historical context. Though she (like many people starting conversations about creative work that fails our current cultural litmus tests) has been treated like some sort of neo-liberal killjoy, her take on what to do about our “problematic faves” is literally just a call for thoughtfulness.

“You can enjoy something and recognize that it has problems,” she explains. “Like I love buffalo chicken wings. They are not good for me. Buffalo wings are not good for anybody. No one should be eating those. But they’re so delicious, and I wanna eat them. And I wanna recognize when I eat them that they’re not good for me.”

Based on this scale, Revenge of the Nerds is a seriously over-sauced pile of wings. Of all the screwball 80s comedies, the problems are too problematic and the comedy not enduring enough for me to get over. Sometimes things fall by the wayside and for me, this movie has. Especially because I don’t remember loving it as a kid. I watched it, but it wasn’t something I quoted.

That’s not to say that I’m ready to ditch every movie with a cringey moment. There are comedies from the same era, some with similar problems, that I do want to continue enjoying — keeping in mind, as Ireland says, that “movies, they are so much a function of their day, time, year, etcetera. You can’t separate that from the movie itself.”

I was well into my thirties before I stopped considering verbally abusive men more interesting than the nice ones. I’m a little embarrassed to say that it took even longer for me to fully comprehend the scene late in “Sixteen Candles,” when the dreamboat, Jake, essentially trades his drunk girlfriend, Caroline, to the Geek, to satisfy the latter’s sexual urges, in return for Samantha’s underwear. The Geek takes Polaroids with Caroline to have proof of his conquest; when she wakes up in the morning with someone she doesn’t know, he asks her if she “enjoyed it.” (Neither of them seems to remember much.) Caroline shakes her head in wonderment and says, “You know, I have this weird feeling I did.” She had to have a feeling about it, rather than a thought, because thoughts are things we have when we are conscious, and she wasn’t.

This comes from Molly Ringwald’s recent essay in The New Yorker about the legacy of John Hughes and the filmmaker’s blind spots concerning race, gender, and consent. The piece applies the sort of context that Ireland advocates for to a few of Hughes’s creepy-feeling on-screen decisions — setting them in a certain time in history, focusing on the people they affected, and asking tough questions about how a male director portrayed female agency. The actress never bemoans working with Hughes (who died in 2009). In fact, she clearly carries fond memories of him. But that doesn’t preclude her from seeing his work through a critical lens.

This is an important point when it comes to dealing with outdated art: Are we being intellectually rigorous? Are we thinking critically? Are we examining our own biases and how they were influenced by the societal norms of the time?

“The problem is, is for a long time, the people defining what was canon were a bunch of straight white guys,” Ireland says. “They tended to favor things that privileged their perspective. Because even though Sixteen Candles is about a girl, it’s really not. It’s really about the men around this girl. There’s the nerd, who wants her underpants. There’s the hot boy who’s unachievable. There’s even the racist foreign exchange student. I would love for someone to go through and look at the number of speaking roles and how many times men get to speak as opposed to women in that movie. Because if you look at every other female character besides Molly Ringwald, they’re all a mess.”

The fact that straight white men defined the canon for so long explains why — as our culture wrestles with these issues — it’s straight white men who are in a panic. When you’ve enjoyed unchecked power for centuries, even questioning decades-old art seems to smack of censorship. This is a shame for a zillion reasons, but two of the big ones are the most obvious: 1) New, diverse voices and a deeper thoughtfulness about culture, gender, and sexuality clearly makes for better, more nuanced art and 2) considering that white men controlled the conversation for so long, it would be nice if we were introspective enough to help open it back up.

What’s lost when white men pretend that criticism equals censorship is the chance for genuine artistic growth. How quickly we forget that artists have always been forward thinkers and that the stories the creative community produces would surely become more potent if we allowed them to evolve. That’s what comedian Hari Kondabolu wanted when he made the documentary The Problem with Apu.

“I don’t want The Simpsons to just disappear,” he says. “I think it could be better, but I don’t think that’s a unique thing that Simpsons fans have said. Even predating this documentary, Simpsons fans were like, ‘It’s not as good as it used to be.’ And they’ve said that for years.”

Though The Problem with Apu was treated by people who didn’t see it (and onetime social justice warrior Lisa Simpson) as more fodder for the “the PC culture can’t take jokes”-brigade, it was actually the exact opposite. Kondabolu grew up loving The Simpsons and watching him wrestle with the issues that Apu’s character presents is the same as anyone else trying to put something they love in proper context. The big difference is that with the show in question still on TV, changes could feasibly be made.

“There’s a reason why I did The Simpsons,” Kondabolu explains. “It’s still alive, actively making episodes. So, it’s both a snapshot of 30 years ago and our thinking back then as well as an active participant in culture, right now. But you don’t get rid of it. You hope for something better, and if not, you create things that are more contemporary and relevant. That’s the way it’s always been.”

Here again, we see a creator from a marginalized group handling the matter with a deft touch and a propensity to give dated work the benefit of the doubt. Which makes The Simpson’s creator Matt Groening’s flippant “people love to pretend they’re offended” comments seem all the more wrong-headed, as yet another white male seems to conflate being questioned with suppression.

“As much as I hate the word ‘problematic,'” Kondabolu says, “if we were to read into it — it’s saying something has a problem. It doesn’t mean it’s awful, it doesn’t mean that it’s irrelevant, it doesn’t mean that it isn’t still good; it just means there’s a problem.”

In my experience, the boilerplate response from white men when concerns about outdated pieces of pop culture surface is an eye roll paired with some riff on the classic line: “I guess people can’t take a joke anymore.” It’s that dismissal that I can’t abide. My white/male/straightness has bestowed me with a certain degree of privilege and part of the responsibility of that privilege is a willingness to wade into tricky conversations. Besides, it’s fun to think about this stuff. Are you telling me that it’s cool to argue for hours about who Azor Ahai is, but a ten-minute discussion of race, gender, and shifting sensibilities before rewatching an 80s classic is somehow wasted time? Get out of here.

So that’s what I’ll be doing the next time my own “problematic fave” — The Goonies — comes on screen. Discussing it, fitting the piece into its historical moment in time, wondering what the hell One-Eyed Willy’s master plan was, and asking questions about the movie’s continued relevance in my life. If my final answer is, “Yes, I love this and feel like their treatment of Data — though clearly based in stereotypes — is affectionate enough for me to still have fun watching” then I’ll watch. It’s not exactly rocket science.

“Nothing is pure,” Ireland concludes. “It’s also really indicative of what we considered acceptable in the early 80s compared to what we consider acceptable now. I don’t think it’s fair to judge something from a hundred years ago by a modern standard, because you have to understand the place in which the art was created to understand the art.”

When I bring up my enduring love for The Goonies, Kondabolu echoes Ireland’s sentiment. “Just because something has an issue doesn’t mean it’s ruined. Data is a loved character. But there’s still an element that you have to acknowledge. This isn’t shocking for those of us who aren’t white.”

And it shouldn’t be shocking for those of us who are white, either. Because at some point, if you’re railing against even the littlest bit of critique over a movie, book, or show you love, the person it ultimately says the most about is you.

by STEVE BRAMUCCI

@nerdsagainstfandomracism @oldfilmsflicker @profeminist

#The Problem With Apu #White Privilege #Racism #Sexism #Rape Culture

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mdwatchestv · 7 years ago

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The Magicians 3x05/6: A Day in the Teeth

Hello friends!

I know I missed last week, and for that I am sorry. But it is also important to know your own limits and exhaustion levels, and I just could not deliver any worthwhile piece of writing (much less a flashy gif) with the state of my brain. But hey that was last week and this is this week. I have since had many restorative little naps as well as watched quite a bit of sexy ice dancing. I am restored.

Luckily for me, The Magicians decided to help me out and deliver two episodes that conveniently illustrated the most and least successful aspects Magicians storytelling, so I can highlight, discuss, and analyze in one fell depression dragon swoop.

The Magicians is unquestionably a fun show, it revels in its own snark and and cheeky awareness. This successful, flagrant breaking of the fourth wall, is part of what sets the show apart. Many sci-fi shows riff on their genre, but not many riff on their own writing. Case in point, as Margo and Eliot reflected in 306, "We used to be glamorous mega-bitches, what happened to us?", Eliot pointedly notes they gained depth... and character. Not only have these two one-time one-dimensional comic reliefs become fully rounded characters, but this very transformation remains the root of their conflicts and relationships. Eliot and Margo have experienced too much to go back to their carefree partying past selves, but they also can never stop yearning for the simplicity of those former lives. It makes the moments where our favorite royal pair do fit back into their classic patter (see: pop culture code-off) all the more satisfying, and those where they are faced with the full weight of their new responsibilities (field of fairy-fetuses) even heavier.

Therein lies the real strength of the Magicians: the ability to take tongue-in-cheek self-awareness, and turn it into surprisingly emotional moments. I had begun the blog-post-that-wasn't-to-be (about episode 305) with an introductory paragraph about how the show's self-referential nature often made it challenging to write about. I mean, at this point The Magicians is practically penning it's own fan-fiction.

Title: A Day in the Life Author: ~*~*~KiNgELiOT~*~*~ Pairing: Quentin/Eliot Rating: PG-13 "When Quentin and Eliot get trapped together in another dimension in order to find the 'beauty of life', will they ever get out? Or will they find a true beauty in each other...."

I mean, come on. And yet for all the shipper-service set up, this premise delivered a deeply thoughtful conclusion. Namely that the beauty of life is a life well-lived, and lived with love. Any show (or TV blogger) can be snarky, but it is a rare thing to be able to nestle that snark alongside true heartfelt sincerity. This is the bizarrely beautiful tonal tightrope that the Magicians is able to walk week after, and these two episodes especially were able to highlight that particular well...magic trick.

As for the newest episode, Quentin sets sail in search of another key. Not only does he find one, but he also comes across Felicia Day in the wild! Felicia Day aka Poppy is an also a Brakebills ex-pat who has been stranded in Fillory (much like Josh Hoberman - ps where has he been? Isn't he a series reg? Did I make that up?) It turns out Poppy is a dragon expert who stole the newest key from a dragon's hoard. Unlike the previous more helpful keys, this one causes the owner to see a manifested version of their worst selves, or darkest sides. For Quentin this results in a personification of his depression and anxiety, a mirror version of himself that spouts his worst fears. For me the most impactful moment of this episode was Quentin gazing into the black waters, contemplating suicide, and being met with the golden eyes of the (in this case literal) dragon waiting to swallow him whole. For anyone who has struggled with depression, this moment was especially poignant and was another example of how the show deftly grapples with difficult or intangible topics. Sometimes the best way to express the inexpressible is to make it into a giant dragon.

These episodes definitely spoke to what is best of The Magicians, but they also helped to highlight what doesn’t always quite work. It is hard to keep half a dozen storylines firing on all cylinders, and it is easy for other character's journeys to fall by the wayside in the process. It was hard to generate a lot of interest in Julia, Alice and Penny's story this week, when there was vastly more interesting action (and emotional depth) going down over in Fillory. Although admittedly the callback to Alice's magical horse was a nice touch. It's a hard balance to strike, but I would rather the Magicians dance on the tightrope of tone than of storyline distribution. Between Penny's threats to leave, and Dean Fogg's alcoholism (what is that storyline even?) the disparity was especially striking.

But all that aside there is a lot to look forward to next week. Poppy is an especially curious character, she is smart, flirty, and also survived months on a raft with her darkest self. All in all the perfect companion to take on an epic journey to the Underworld.

Also: Alice is back to the peter pan collars. Can Hyman Cooper stay forever? Benedict died :( There was a mini Red Wedding.

But most importantly:

Do you like teeth :D

XO MD

#the magicians #martha writes #the magicians syfy #magicians recap #magicians review #quentin coldwater #eliot waugh #jason ralph #stella maeve #margo the destroyer #tv gifs #magicians gifs #hale appleman #alice quinn #olivia taylor dudley #a day in the life #do you like teeth #depression dragon

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