#some episodes they barely even find any kind of evidence

[mrchiipchrome]

Potato

W.C. - 1.3k

Slipping out of bed inconspicuously, you try to make as little noise as possible to not wake up your easily awoken girlfriend. The blonde always looked so extremely peaceful when she slept, almost so that you nearly resisted getting out of bed in order to be able to watch her for a few more minutes.

But alas, you had a mission that couldn’t be interrupted just because your girlfriend was too captivating. Your mission was fairly simple, to prank your girlfriend in so many ways that you could that were harmless.

The creaky floorboards in the older house you had bought did not do you any favors as Alessia shifted slightly in the overwhelmingly soft bed. You stop mid-step hearing the rustling of the bedsheets, Alessia clutching onto the pillow you’d given her as a surrogate for your body and you thank whatever entity that kept her asleep.

Sneaking into the bathroom, you look around for a second before spotting the bar of soap your girlfriend uses to wash her face with. Picking it up carefully so as to not drop it, you quickly make your way to the kitchen and you place the soap near the sink to not damage it, it’s an expensive kind that you’d rather not replace. 

Going into the pantry, you reach into the bag holding all of your potatoes, moving your hand around until you find one roughly the size of the bar of soap. Pulling it out, you pump your fist into the air in celebration before moving back to the sink, looking under it to find the bin you drag it out. 

You take the potato peeler and you start to peel off all the skin from the large potato, the skin landing in the half full bin. You pull out a small fruit knife, cutting the bare potato into a square the same size and height as the soap.

Of course, like usual nothing goes to plan and as you’re putting the finishing touches to make it look as realistic as possible, you can hear footsteps from your bedroom. It startles you so much that instead of cutting the potato, you cut your thumb.

The amount of blood that pours out of your finger is frankly astonishing and you quickly stuff your thumb into your mouth, getting the bleeding to stop momentarily. In your distracted nature, you don’t notice Alessia’s footsteps nearing you until it’s way too late.

You rush to get rid of the evidence, pushing the trash back under the sink and hiding both the soap and potato behind some cooking books Alessia had insisted on buying. You place the knife on the counter just in time as Alessia’s arms sneak around your waist, her head landing between your shoulder blades and as she breathes out harshly through her nose you can’t help but panic a little.

“What are you doing? It’s way too early to be up, even for you” She says, her words muffled due to her pressing her face into your back. You try to fight back the smile but in the end you’re unable to, answering her softly.

“Nothing baby, get back to bed and I’ll get back in a minute” Alessia gets up on her toes to press a quick kiss to your temple before dragging her feet back to your bedroom, and as soon as you hear the muted sound of the bed sheets as Alessia falls into them you kick into action.

Half-jogging to the bathroom, you place the potato on the little dish Alessia keeps it in before washing off your thumb and placing a bandaid on the cut. You waddle back to your bedroom, giggling like a maniac along the way before you slip in behind Alessia, pulling her body into yours.

“I love you so much” You mutter into her hair, pressing a kiss to the side of her head before the darkness takes over and you’re asleep again.

—-

Alessia moving out of bed is the thing that wakes you up next and you soon follow her out of bed, the two of you preparing breakfast and eating together in front of the television, the new show you watch together having released new episodes.

After washing up the plates and putting them in the dishwasher, it’s finally time to execute the prank. Like usual, Alessia goes into the bathroom to brush her teeth and wash her face while you deflect back into your room getting your phone to record Alessia’s reaction to what you had done.

Standing just outside the bathroom, the door slanted open as you start to record. Alessia turns to tap on so that the water flows down into the sink, and she splashes a bit of it on her face to get it wet. She looks at you when she picks up the bar of ‘soap’, it not having the exact same texture as normal.

“Why is my soap so weird? Did you shave it or something babe?” Alessia asks, looking at you through the mirror with a questioning look on her face. You nearly burst out laughing, but you manage to keep from laughter at that second.

“What? No, why would you think that? I just used it” You respond with a question of your own, the disbelief that she would feel the difference between a potato and her soap very apparent.

“Then why does it feel so different, you definitely shaved it. Why, did you think that I wouldn’t notice?” She says, expecting you to answer.

“No, I don’t know” You respond, now barely being able to keep from laughter

Alessia looks at you skeptically through the mirror, obviously not believing your story in the slightest but letting it go. As she picks up the soap again to lather it on her face you can’t help the wheeze that escapes from your throat at her cluelessness.

“Is the soap go-good?” You just manage to get out through the wheeze, the entire situation way too funny to comprehend. 

“What?” She asks, not having heard what you said through the laughter, Alessia looks 10 times more confused by now.

“I-is it good?” You’re full on laughing now while Alessia continues to look on in confusion, the furrow in her brow making her look even cuter than she already was.

“What d’you mean?” She keeps on rubbing the potato on her face, making you fall into even more laughter than before. While she’s incredibly cute while confused, you knew that you had to explain soon or she’d get annoyed at not knowing what you were laughing at.

“Is the soap any good?” You ask for the last time, the ability to hear what you’re saying deteriorating with every word. By now the wheeze from before had turned into a full blown belly laugh, tears streaming down your face as you struggle to keep your phone still.

“What’s happening?” She's giggling slightly by now, your laughter always having that effect on her regardless of her want of it. You manage to collect yourself so that you could get out a sentence through all the laughter, and even then it’s hard to hear what you’re saying.

“It’s a potato” Alessia starts to laugh now that she understands what’s happening a little more than before. Your high pitch laughter conceals the repetition of what you said slightly. “It’s a potato, you-you’ve been rubbing a po-potato on your face” 

You can see how it all connects in Alessia’s mind, and you think that it’s fair punishment for you when she throws the potato at you loosely. You end the video before showing her, the both of you chuckling at her expressions.

Alessia allows you to post it onto your Instagram, and within hours you had hundreds of comments showing their appreciation of the prank. And as you lay there in your shared bed later that day, cuddling with Alessia you think that you’re fully off the hook, she had laughed it off after all. 

Little did you know, Alessia had started to plan her revenge just moments after you’d told her.

Based on this video

[outmakingmoonshine]

Punch Blanch Freeze Fry

I think punch, blanch, freeze and fry are the underlying themes of season 1-4 and the beef (the meat/the substance/the real connection) will be the underlying theme of a possible season 5.

For context in this scene in 1x01 Ebra, who represents an older version of Carmy, keeps asking Carmy for the beef before he can do anything else. Carmy either ignores him or tries to divert him to do other tasks first. Carmy tells/asks Ebra if he can punch 'em, blanch 'em, freeze 'em and fry 'em before the beef.

Seeing as 3 of these words are specifically talking about preparing food, I googled extensively what punch means in terms of cooking and found nothing and you wouldn't literally punch a raw potato or onion, if anything that would come after the blanching. So it's not referring to a food preparation method like the other 3 so it can only mean literal or metaphorical punching.

S1 - Punch

Coincidentally Carmy was literally punched in 1x01

There were multiple metaphorical gut punches in S1 too. In the first few episodes, most of the season really, he was taking metaphorical/verbal punches from everybody at The Beef. Meeting Syd was a less negative, shock to his system kind of gut punch. We saw him being psychologically beaten down by Chef David in 1x02, being mistaken for Micheal in 1x04, the review & Syd leaving in 1x07, finding out Mikey left him a letter in 1x08, then reading the letter and Syd coming back. Tbh there are gut punches for Carmy every season but early S1 was heavy on the theme of him basically being everyone's punching bag.

S2 - Blanch

Carmy was in "hot water" with Syd, their chemistry was heating up and things were getting "steamy" between them at the start of S2

He was plunged into cold, icy water when he ran into Claire, hence all the heavily blue filtered scenes since then. But the cooling process in blanching isn't meant to last for an extended period of time, it's only supposed to be seconds, much quicker than the cooking process itself.

Carmy entertained/endured Claire (the ice cold water) for awhile in the supermarket, then he tried to get out of the ice water almost immediately by giving her a fake number but she (and Neil Fak) kept him submerged. There's also the blue scenes of S2 that got gradually darker the more time Carmy spent with Claire and the implication/imagery of him drowning and being suffocated by her at the end of their very dark blue sex scene.

Also the fire suppression was in S2! "Fire suppression" is basically what the process of blanching is; cooling down/regulating heat. But the cooling isn't instant, there's still residual heat and "steam" as the cooling process is happening:

And even after the "successful" fire suppression in 2x08 the heat was still there:

Blanching isn't supposed to make food frozen or even cold necessarily, it's just meant to cool it enough to stop the cooking process so there should still be some warmth left.

But Carmy spent way too long in the ice water with Claire and ended up too cold or frozen by the end of S2.

S3 - Freeze

Self explanatory. The theme of S3 was Carmy still being stuck in the freezer, frozen and unable to get himself out of the ice. He can't escape the ice cold water (his relationship with Claire) even in his thoughts, he's submerged and trapped in it. There was barely any heat left between Sydcarmy even though Carmy tried to keep the fire going. Carmy was cold and rigid (like ice) for most of S3.

3 out of 4 line up almost perfectly with the themes of each season and if this theory is correct then the theme of S4 will be frying, which means heat, which means the fire between Carmy and Syd is going to ramp up/become evident again somehow. Probably through frustration with each other as they continue to not communicate properly. Mostly I think Carmy's just gonna be getting cooked. By Claire, by Syd, by Richie, maybe even Nat too.

We kind of saw Carmy take a metaphorical step out of the freezer in 3x10 after confronting Chef David and speaking to Chef Terry (I think it started in 3x09 when he asked Syd to go to Ever tbh, he definitely let himself feel some heat for a second there). So in 4x01/4x02 he's probably going to be dropped straight into the frying pan having to deal with the fallout of his actions towards everyone during S3.

If you think about what happens to frozen food when you put it straight into very hot oil; the pretty volatile reaction when the ice hits the hot oil, the splaterring and spitting oil that will burn if you're too close, the loud noises, the steam that gets released as the temperature drastically changes, the hardening of the outer layer etc (which I hope means Carmy grows a thicker skin and is able to finally tell Claire and the Faks no), I'm guessing that process is along the lines of how things will play out in S4. Similar to how the blanching process played out in S2.

If there's a season 5 I think the theme will be beef/substance/real connection, if not it will be at the end of S4 but I definitely think it's coming. At some point we're going back to the beef/the substance/ the real connections that the show was built on in S1.

[bereft-of-frogs]

ugh I think I have another #Theory, this time to the solve to the 'how to kill a Jedi without a weapon' riddle, I truly must be stopped --

I think people are off-base assuming it's with the Force, because I feel like Mae would have already figured out choking/lightning or whatever, I believe the Force counts as a 'weapon', and clearly the poison was a weapon (see: Qimir after 'so you did it, you killed the Jedi without the poison) so I do think it's metaphorical rather than semantic. I believe the theories that it's about corrupting a Jedi to the dark side and 'destroying the dream' are closer than any 'it's because she's meant to do it with the Force/her bare hands' or 'it's about killing an unarmed Jedi' (though that second one has potential, why else is she grabbing for the lightsabers but leaving them after they're dead?). But another solution could be destroying the Jedi's legacy.

I think they're going to frame Sol as the rogue Jedi who trained Mae.

I have like, so little textual evidence for this. This is probably as out of thin air as the 'Vernestra/Indara is the Sith' theories so maybe I who live in a glass house shouldn't be throwing stones about how much I dislike those theories after proposing this one. But I'm really thinking that only Sol is going to make it out of the forest battle alive next episode, aside from Osha and the Sith crew, and there's going to be some kind of chase that leads them away. So Vernestra shows up on Khofar (the lightwhip scene in the trailer is almost certainly Khofar) to find the bodies killed with a lightsaber and everyone else gone.

I think they go off and unpack whatever happened the night of the fire on Brendok, there's all kinds of confrontations/fights/reveals/etc in episodes 6 & 8 (episode 7 is definitely the Jedi POV of the flashback) and the season's going to end with at least Sol dead (maybe Mae too) and Osha turning to the dark side to become the true acolyte. It was already set up last episode that the Order doesn't suspect the Sith, they're pretty convinced it's a 'rogue Jedi' who trained Mae, and Sol did some kind of shady stuff during that meeting. (Not including himself on the list of targets, keeping Mae and her survival a secret.) Even I sort of started to suspect him, but I think that's a red herring, just to set up why Vernestra might end up distrusting him. So Vern's feeling kind of weird about the secrets Sol's kept about Mae (because it's more than just 'he thought she died', Yord said even the existence of Mae didn't end up in Osha's file), but she still trusts him and there are innocent explanations for all this she writes off, so she sends him off with a bunch of other Jedi to go get Kelnacca. But now the whole crew she sent out is dead, clearly killed with a lightsaber (they know Osha doesn't have a lightsaber, and reasonably suspect Mae doesn't either considering Indara was killed with a knife, Torbin poison, and she left their lightsabers behind), and Sol's gone...I think it's fairly reasonable suspicion especially if later Osha turns up as the acolyte.

(There were a couple early things that seemed to deliberately set her physically apart from Mae, the marking on Mae's forehead and her tattoo. Why would they do that if the Jedi believed the identical twin thing right away? Why would they need some proof of their identities unless there's a second role reversal and they need some other way of telling it's Osha and not Mae?)

So yeah in this Sol -- ray of literal sunshine, good Jedi, kind person -- gets his legacy destroyed (one apprentice dead, because I'm pretty convinced Jecki doesn't live out the season, though I'll be happy to be wrong -- the other turned to the dark side) and his reputation tarnished by accusations of being a rogue Jedi training dark side assassins. There you go, you've killed a Jedi without a weapon.

And I feel like this would fit the kind of meta narrative they've got going on, as sort of a mirror of what happened to the Order as a whole at the end of the PT, heroes transformed into traitors.

I have no additional evidence for this. My theories are not spiraling at all. I love weekly releases and am being very very normal about having to wait between episodes. :) so normal *vibrates intensely*

[unsolicited-hotd-opinions]

What is going on with Rhaenyra and Alicent? Why are they making these stupid decisions, that don't relate to the culture they live in, or their character development from Season 1?

I really really liked most of House of the Dragon Season 1, and a lot of that had to do with the story of Alicent and Rhaenyra, how their relationship deteriorated and what that situation had to say about women in this kind of world (some of which relates to our own world).

The two women's rivalry wasn't particularly interesting to me in the book (I also just didn't find any of the royals likeable enough to care much what happened to them). Making them ex-teenage besties added so much delicious heartbreak to the story.

The way they were pitted against each other (and how they each made the situation worse), the different ways they viewed and dealt with the patriarchal nature of Westeros, the role of a woman, purity culture, the fact that in any society so intensely focused on patrilineal descent and male primogeniture a women's sexuality HAS TO BE CONTROLLED. All this made for a fascinating drama for me.

The FEAR of how they could hurt each other further that was evident in several episodes also seemed like such an important part of season 1. Otto told Alicent that she couldn't trust Rhaenyra and that the princess would inevitably come for her children's lives, and that was a very reasonable concern, but it wasn't an absolutely unavoidable outcome. It seemed like a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy that afterwards they continued pushing each other away, the bitterness and paranoia building until there was no turning back. This was also such an interesting way to look at the story, and made both of them sympathetic.

...But then we find out that neither of them had any sort of plan to weather the coming shit-storm that was obviously coming after Viserys died...That seems strange since Alicent was shown to have been paranoid for so long about the fate of her family on Rhaenyra's ascension. Alicent claimed Viserys barely coherent dying words was the only reason she wanted to put Aegon on the throne. I thought this was sort of an excuse at first (since 6 years ago she said that she wanted and expected Aegon to take the throne), but she was so wrapped up in the idea of being dutiful and well behaved person, that she wanted to convince herself and others that she had a good reason to stage a coup, not just fear and/or ambition.

But we then have the awkward talk in the Sept where upon hearing that she misunderstood Viserys' last words, Alicent seemed like she genuinely believed her own bullshit. That just seems so corny to me that it really was just a 'misunderstanding', when the writers had set up that she actually had every reason to want Aegon on the throne.

The whole Rhaenyra sneaking in to Kings Landing thing was totally stupid. Besides what I mentioned above it is very weird that either of them would be trying to make peace at this point when vengeance and retribution are such major aspects of their society. I like the characters being a bit more likable in the show, and having some consciousness about how awful their war is going to be for the people. I like that there was a desire in the beginning for peace from these two characters. But it doesn't make sense at this point. I want them to make realistic decisions, and realistic mistakes, for the society they live in.

And then Alicent just lets Rhaenyra leave!!!! That is an insane decision!!! If war is unavoidable the best thing to do is make it end quickly. And taking their rival Queen prisoner could lead to a much quicker win for the Greens.

I could go on about this but I really didn't even mean to write this much, and I have far too many thoughts bumping around in my head to form them all into complete sentences.

I just don't understand what Ryan Condal is trying to do anymore!

[ngame989]

One Last Starco Sucker Punch

Hey y'all, @seddm was too much of a coward to post this but I'm bored so it's time to light one last fire before I skedaddle on to greener pastures for real. Back in Sept 2022, there was an anniversary Q&A with Daron, Adam, and a few others. One response in particular from Daron is, frankly, so mindboggling that even this many years after my very vocal frustrations with S4 in particular, it still managed to shock me in a new and terrible way.

"In your headcanon what are the characters doing after the finale?"

I'll say, I do imagine that Star and Marco are happy wherever they end up in the future, and I do in some ways kind of see them possibly- you know, hey if they're together, if they're not together, maybe they'll get back together- they're very young. That was always something too that I've had some reservation about, because they do have this really lovely romance where they really come together as this like, you know, two characters who just really love each other but are these two good friends but they are really young and, hey. Most people should not actually get together with the people they meet in highschool, so that's... yeah. But I like to think that eventually maybe they come back and they're happy... but I don't know! I don't know where we might go exactly and I don't wanna say 'cause- if that happens I want the option to not have everybody yell at me if I change my mind about something.

Ahem.

So you're telling me you submitted an episode for an Annie nomination entirely about how the main characters couldn't just go back to normal friends anymore, did it AGAIN via magical asspull in S4 because the tension was impossible to stall off any longer otherwise, DIRECTLY concluded that even that magical asspull meant nothing because it was all real the whole time, and then DEDICATED HALF THE FINALE to how momentous and important Star and Marco's journey had been, but maybe they break up because kids do that sometimes????

Can you fucking imagine a murder mystery that builds up for years and they FINALLY solve the case and arrest the murderer, and then the creator says "well maybe the jury finds them innocent and they're not convicted, who knows, that happens sometimes! The justice system is weird like that!" Well you don't have to imagine, because I've (BARELY) modified the above answer for just that context!

"In your headcanon what does the future look like for the serial killer after they're finally caught?" "I'll say, I do imagine that they'll probably get punished, and I do in some ways kind of see them possibly- you know, hey if they get convicted, if they don't get convicted, maybe they'll get caught again later - it's still pretty early in the justice process. That was always something too that I've had some reservation about, because the heroes did all this work to uncover their murders and found a lot of compelling evidence and the guy admitted to it, but hey sometimes stress makes people confess to things they didn't do and detectives are wrong sometimes! Most people should not actually try and get justice for their family's killer… yeah. But I like to think that eventually maybe they get sentenced to jail… but I don't know! I don't know where we might go exactly and I don't wanna say 'cause- if that happens I want the option to not have everybody yell at me if I change my mind about something."

I've always been a massive advocate for character and relationship arcs not being some lower form of storytelling, there's no reason a complex plot and characters' emotional journeys shouldn't be held to similar standards of integrity and consistency. And I'm not saying a hypothetical future requires them to be 100% perfectly happy forever, I'm absolutely sure they'd bicker and disagree on some stuff. And characters are allowed to grow and change in sequels too, but there's a huge distinction between a genuine character arc and "actually the entire first series' emotional climax didn't matter and its resolution just undid itself because life is random like that sometimes!"

Look, you could say I'm maybe being uncharitable, and I acknowledge that this is just a casual off the cuff answer years and years after they wrote the story. Even though I've soured so, so much on most of the show over the years, I will gladly sing the praises of the emotional highs in the finale and how good that last few minutes is as a thematic sendoff for the main two dorks, and some unscripted Q&A response doesn't change that. But at the very least it means that whatever conviction she might have had about it is flimsy now, and with Disney's current raging reboot 'rection, there's a terrifyingly nonzero chance SVTFOE gets another chance in the limelight.

My time as a fan has long passed, but as someone who did care very deeply about Star and Marco's journey, it's frankly fucking insulting to see it so casually disregarded like this by the person likeliest to be involved in its hypothetical future.

[luna13e-blog]

Hello

For the asks 3, 8, 13. I was going to be kind and copy and paste but the world is frustrating just now so sorry but I didn’t.

♥️♥️♥️a

Hello lovely,

And thank you. I really like to be asked. So here I come (I warn you, I am bored and chatty so it's going to be a long ass answer)

3. 3 films you could watch for the rest of your life and not get bored of?

Though one. I feel like since the pandemic my attention span shrank and since then I can barely watch 45min episodes so I'm afraid I'd get inescapably bored with any movie now. But I can tell you the movies I hold close to my heart that, perhaps, I can watch again and again even if I haven't watched them in a long time.

- Chocolat directed by Lasse Hallström, 2000. I had to google that but I know by heart that it has Johnny Depp and Juliette Binoche. I can't remember the first time I saw it but I remember it was with my mom in a time we were both having a fangirling time over Depp. I know I watched it at least three times after that, once I forced my crush at the time to watch it when I was a teen and I know that I eventually developed a crush on Juliette Binoche (it was developed because the first time I watched I was 10 and unaware I could like girls, yes, I was already aware that I liked ratty men, blame my mom). What I love about that movie is the story it tells around women (empowered by Vianne and her sensual chocolates), strong women that leave their abusive husbands, strong women that realize the wonders of being throughly fucked, and of course the main storyline: A single mother with a 6yo daughter, trying to make a life, honor a mother and building a village when they had nothing but each other. Is sensual and magic and I love it.

- The lord of the rings trilogy. I believe I don't need to specify actors and directors on this one. I watched it several times and even when I have to admit that watching the three of them in one go is something I'm not going to do ever again, I can still fall into the comfort of any of the three movies at any time. I'm a bit of a geek about how things are done and all the work they put in that movie (the camera tricks to make the hobbits look smaller, the detail in the costume's design, the architecture, the hundreds of extras they had to dress up because CGI was still shitty) still leaves me in awe. That and the fact that I believe the battle of Helm's Deep is still the best night stormy battle ever filmed (cof, not like certain GoT battles in the last seasons, cof). And I like the music. I also spent many hours shredding this movies into pieces with my favorite cousin because we read the books and a bookworm doesn't forgive certain things, but I was 9 (yes, I consumed that fucking huge trilogy at 9yo) and he was 19 and I'm forever thankful for the bonding opportunity those movies provided that otherwise would've been complicated to have.

- Arrival, directed by Denis Villeneuve, 2016. This is probably the only movie that doesn't involve bonding with people I love, but it does involve something I love ferociously: language. And something that fascinates me: Deep space and its creatures and the relativity of time. You already know that I like to nerd about memory, and that I've researched about how memory is altered by the words we use to tell it, how it changes it so deeply that it can also alter the perception of a given fact for a whole community. This movie explores that but instead of memories with the future, with a language so powerful that can alter the way we perceive time. And I find this amazing and beautiful. Because I do believe that words can alter time.

8. any reacquiring dreams?

Sadly, no. I used to have some when I was little but I don't remember them anymore and lately it's uncommon that I dream, and when I do I don't repeat it (thankfully because it's mostly nightmares).

13. what are you doing right now?

A weird question since evidently I am answering this ask, but alas, as I stated I'm a bit bored so I can elaborate. I'm sitting in the dark on the little thingy that's not a stool nor a chair by my living room window in a hoodie and underwear. I was smoking while I was answering the first question but I've stoped now, so in this second I'm regretting the decision to stay here since this thingy doesn't allow me to rest my back, I keep crouching over my phone because I am blind and I don't have my glasses on and my shoulders and neck are killing me. This fact explain why the other thing I'm doing is craving a massage. I'm also singing incessantly in my mind "and for a fortnight there we were forever", just that sentence in a loop. I also am thinking (yes, I type things and think about another) about a draft I was writing about Moody!Barty before I decided I didn't have the energy to pull it off tonight and drifted to this ask and, at the same time, thinking about an Evan's reply I started for you but decided it was starting to get uncannily sad so I moved to sad Moody!Barty and ended up here. I promise if you read all this I'll get your reply tomorrow.

Sending you many many squeezing hugs.

Btw, I don't know if it was a random choice or not, but 3, 8 and 13 are among my favorite numbers because they belong to the Fibonacci sequence. The 5 is missing between 3 and 8, but it'll do 😉

[tvmicroscope]

Hi! Thank you ever so much for sharing your metaphor analytics. I feel like I'm seeing YR in a completely few light after having read them.

I want to ask you (but feel no pressure to reply), if you have any thoughts on verbal foretelling based on sarcasm, fears or simply being hideous wrong. I don't even know what's it technically called. But what I mean is a lot of the stuff that August spew in at least the early episodes of S1 are foreshadowing stuff that will happen to him ("Don't use the school WiFi..., You could kill someone and...) and my personal favourite "Do we want the future king..). So my question is there are some pretty evident lines that foreshadowing events - have you seen some more subtle and systematic usage of this technique throughout S1 and S2?

Actually there is one particular line by Rosh in S1 that I think foreshadows something about Simon, that is "Where are you going?". I really love that line and the ensuing dialogue.

Hey, I really, really have to apologize for replying to your kind ask so very late. I have a huge backlog when it comes to messages and comments right now. Everyone is so lovely and kind, but I can barely keep up with it all. I have a feeling that I will have to take a bit of a tumblr break (and break from other social media platforms, as well) because I can’t do both: write my analysis posts on my blog AND keep interacting on other platforms. I'll have to choose one, and that's going to the writing itself.

Anyway, I know this is no excuse for being so embarrassingly late, but I hope you’ll forgive me for the delay because I do actually find it so very encouraging and motivating when people like you say nice things about my little blog project. It really helps me and keeps me focused, so thank you for letting me know you enjoy the close-reading analysis I’m doing on the show. I’m surprised and a bit exhilarated to find out how many people tell me they’re seeing the whole show in a new light. It’s all very, very much appreciated.

As for your question…

Yes, I totally agree with and I think you are absolutely right: Looking at throw-away lines is very important when analyzing a ‘text’ (be it a novel, play, TV show, film, etc.). When a writer sits down to write a screenplay, they obviously don’t just come up with funny lines (or sarcastic or angry lines, for that matter) to fill the page. Usually, they will try to make sure the line in question is connected to the deeper theme of their ‘text’. Everything in their ‘text’ has to fulfil a purpose, i.e. either drive the plot forward or be plugged in into the broader network of metaphorical subtext.

One of the things we have to keep in mind, though, is the fact that not every line in a ‘text’ is necessarily a metaphorical line. There are lines that are just plain text, so to speak.

In essence, you end up with two types of throw-away lines:

1) Lines on the literal level (the textual layer=plot) that have ONE meaning (even if, at that point in the story, that meaning is still obscure to us, i.e. if the line serves the purpose of foreshadowing future events).

2) Lines that operate on both the literal level (textual layer) AND a subtextual level (metaphorical layer underneath) and thus have TWO different (sometimes divergent) meanings; they can even have three different meanings, when the meta-level is involved.

Let me give you an example: August’s line in s1 during the initiation party that you mentioned in your ask about being able to ‘murder somebody here without it ever coming out’ (I’m paraphrasing). That line is most likely a case of type 1. from our list above, i.e. it operates on the literal level of the script even if we assume it foreshadows some future revelation that we don't yet know anything about. It’s not a line that’s plugged into a metaphor. It’s not metaphorical subtext; it’s text.

If August were to proceed to murder (or try to murder) someone later on. Or alternatively get killed himself. Or if we were find out that somebody else was murdered and it was covered it up, then that would give us a resolution, explain to us why the line was said in the first place and what surprising revelation exactly it was foreshadowing.

This line is however (most likely) not a metaphor. In a metaphor something else represents the concept you’re trying to allude to. Just to give you an example: When Wilhelm in episode two of season one tells Simon in the boat to ‘keep the strokes close to the surface of the water, so as not to expend too much energy’, this is clearly a metaphorical line (type 2. from our list above) because it clearly has two meanings: the literal one (rowing advice) and the metaphorical one (rather dumb and conservative relationship advice). And we instantly see that it’s a metaphor because one thing (rowing) represents another thing (feelings/relationships), one concept stands in for another one.

This is most likely not the case with the ‘murder someone’ line: Here one thing (murdering someone) literally means that same thing (murdering someone). It’s (most likely) not a metaphor; it’s not metaphorical subtext; it’s just text – even if the meaning of the text is currently obscure to us because the show isn’t yet finished.

Why am I telling you all of this (you’re probably bored just reading it because you know all of this already :D)…

Because what I’m mainly concentrating on in my metaphor posts on my substack blog is the metaphorical subtext, i.e. the metaphorical lines, the type 2. lines, so to speak. I sometimes use plain textual lines (type 1 lines) as evidence when I think they are somehow connected to a broader point I’m trying to make or reinforce an argument I’m making, but I don’t really discuss them in and of themselves.

Mainly because, with a line that still hasn’t revealed its meaning to us because it’s obscure at this point in the story, I just don’t really know what to do with it. We can speculate what it means (which is always interesting, of course), but ultimately we don’t know. It’s fun. But if it’s not connected to the metaphorical subtext, I will probably not write about it in and of itself.

Now, as for the Rosh’s line that you mentioned (and thank you again for reminding me, my brain is like a sieve sometimes), that one arguably straddles the boundary between text and subtext, between type 1 line and type 2 line: Rosh, Ayub and Simon are pretty much talking figuratively already at that point, i.e. when Rosh says, “Where are you going?” she isn't asking whether Simon is literally leaving the room, this is meant figuratively (‘where are you going in life?’). It clearly foreshadows Simon’s path that’ll lead him away from Bjärstad not just as a place, but away from the narrow confines of his working class upbringing. So far the line is not a metaphor yet (there isn’t one concept that stands in for another one like, say, ‘water’ for feelings, or a ‘suitcase’ for a burdensome role, or ‘music’ for love, or the ‘ear’ for the heart, etc.). But it’s definitely meant to be understood figuratively. So far it has had only a tragic meaning (Simon only ‘went viral’ in the context of a crime that was committed against his privacy), but when it comes to leaving Bjärstad and the confines of his working class upbringing behind, I could very well see this at some point mean something along the lines of: going to university or study music at a conservatory - something often frowned upon in a milieu with a working-class background (the age-old, “What do you need that highfalutin' stuff for? Learn a trade like everyone else in the family!”). I still have a tiny hope that, “Where are you going?” might mean the famous Verbier Music Festival. If Simon gets at least an invitation in the mail and that’s the third time Verbier is mentioned (in a much more positive light than before), I would be over the moon.

Ultimately, it’s again a line that can foreshadow a lot of things, but it’s (probably) not meant to be understood entirely metaphorically, which is also why I most likely won’t discuss it on the blog itself where I’ll try to stick strictly to the metaphors.Does that make any sense?

I feel I’ve written too much, but I hope that makes up at least a little bit for the long delay.

Thank you again for your kind words, and you’re always welcome to read more on the blog. Even if I take a tumblr break, I will keep posting a new article every week (usually on the weekend).

All the best!

[waheelawhisperer]

It's finally here... my review of the final episode of RWBY Volume 9. Criticism under the cut. Don't like it, keep scrolling.

Yang and Ruby still got bigass heads

I'll immediately digress for a moment to talk about how funny I find the discrepancy in head sizes between the characters in this show

Winter got that Megamind-lookin-ass head

No but for real every female character in RWBY seems to have a significantly wider skull than the men it's so funny to me

Winter's brain has infinite wrinkles

So the first thing we see Summer do after putting the kids to bed is, potentially, lie to her husband (Qrow mentioned that even Ozpin was in the dark about Summer’s final mission, and I’m assuming that we’re seeing that mission here). Seems like she wasn’t quite the paragon everyone in-universe seems to believe.

The Summer/Tai scene was kind of cute I guess

Raven what the fuck are you doing did you just hang out in a tree so you could make a dramatic entrance to impress a girl

Fucking loser-ass bird

Okay, so I was right and Summer is definitely lying out her ass, and Raven’s in on the deception.

I’m guessing whatever this is is what broke Raven, maybe? She's evidently already left her team and probably the fight, but maybe this is what utterly destroyed her hope?

Lmao Raven you’re such a fucking dork you have no rizz like mother like daughter I guess

Not that you had any right to claim Yang as your daughter even before she turned into Yuck

Damn, Summer, throw some shade. Raven deserves it tho, fuck her.

At least Raven’s well aware of her failings as a parent.

Summer just walked through her just like Yang did at Haven iirc like mother like daughter 2.0

I’d care more about this bit of Summer lore if she was an actual character instead of a Macguffin that had barely received any definition over 9 Volumes despite supposedly being important

Looks like Ruby has to come to terms with the fact that her mother wasn’t a perfect paragon after all, which is what actually matters right now, inasmuch as anything that happens this Volume actually matters

I’m vaguely curious about what her mission actually was but frankly at this point it’s too late to get me invested in Summer. If the writers wanted me to care about Team STRQ as an entity or any members other than Qrow and maybe Raven, we needed to learn a lot more about them a lot sooner.

Great. Back to Jaune. It appears Weiss failed to adequately remove him from the narrative. Try harder next time, Weiss.

You love seeing Weiss and Yang working together. Here’s how Freezerburn can still win...

Brilliant. We free Neo with the power of magic marijuana. Can this Volume get any stupider? Can we get a decent action scene at any point? Find out next time on JauneyBall Z

The weed made the Cat stronger lol. Stupidest villain of all time.

Lmao get wrecked Jaune.

Again.

Hooray, Ruby’s learned an important lesson about how she’s actually enough and doesn’t have to constantly struggle to meet everyone else’s expectations of her. If only she’d learned that in a way that didn’t involve killing herself and then getting magic tree therapy.

At least the reprise of her theme is decent I guess

No hesitation left about taking up her scythe at this point, but then that magically disappeared 2 episodes ago

Ruby looks competent in a fight against something more intelligent than your average Grimm for the first time in literal years, we love to see it

Team RWBY really is so much stronger when they work together than when they try to fight alone. At least we managed to be consistent with a theme here.

Fight was anticlimactic as hell. Would’ve been fine as a mid-Volume skirmish, but not as the capstone fight that’s supposed to serve as the pinnacle of the Volume.

RWBY’s fights have been pretty lackluster since the end of Volume 7, but Volume 9 was especially bad about it. I can barely even remember that this Volume had fights in it, much less name any that were actually compelling. For a show that built itself on badass fight scenes, RWBY has really fallen far.

“Weak… confused… incomplete…” Are you talking about humans or yourself, buddy? (It's both)

And of course Ruby’s teammates place her right back up on a pedestal because the entire theme of this Volume seems to be “learn as little as possible”

Like seriously way to instantly undermine your own theme with zero self-awareness. Really makes WBY seem like they understand and care about Ruby.

Like was the whole point of the Volume not Ruby grappling with the fact that she was, in fact, those things her team said she wasn’t?

Wow okay having the Cat be messily devoured by a bunch of Jabberwalkers was certainly a choice. 2 major nonbinary characters in this show and both of them are a) animals and b) violently killed. Wonderful. Rooster Teeth’s progressive storytelling strikes again.

Now that Ruby’s looking back at Neo I bet we get a fucking redemption arc I fucking hate it here

At least Neo’s too exhausted to pose a threat while everyone else hugs it out. You’d think they’d be a little more wary of her given her track record but whatever, I don’t even care anymore, I just want this to be done with.

Roman's new voice still bothers me. It's not annoying or flamboyant enough to fit the expectations set by the old one

WHAT IS WITH THIS SHOW AND PORTRAYING SUICIDE AS THE SOLUTION WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK WHO ON THE WRITING TEAM HAS A SUICIDE FETISH

It can’t be Miles or Kerry because this shit only started showing up in, like, Volume 8, so it has to be Eddy or Kiersi.

Why are we even wasting time on Neo she’s done absolutely nothing to deserve sympathy at this point

Boo hoo she has a sad backstory that we don't even learn in the show proper, doesn’t give her carte blanche to be a sadistic little cunt every time she’s on the screen

I’m sure that if this show ever gets that far she’ll show up as an ally later on. Fucking Christ.

Yes, Blake, I do think you made things worse, but also I don’t care because the Ever After sucks. Please just walk through the door so we can finally be done with it.

If you did any good, Ruby, I can’t name it.

Great, the mouse is back. Woohoo.

Guess it was Little’s mask the Blacksmith was forging after all

Oh look Ascension does wipe your memory

Almost like going through with it would’ve resulted in a death of personality for Ruby, but hey, it’s just magic tree therapy, right? This is a good thing, yeah? Fuck you MKEK.

Finally.

They’re back in the Tree. I had hoped we were done with this shit.

Looks like a carving of the hawk guy on the table, so I guess he’ll be okay

Damn, are those carvings of the Brother Gods? It’s already been implied that they’re connected to the Tree somehow, but I’m starting to think maybe it predates them.

Okay didn’t take long to confirm that lmao

So they’re the first beings born from the Tree, huh? Can’t imagine the tree is proud of its kids

No wonder the Ever After is so strictly regimented and has so many things mashed together, it’s Baby’s First World

Of course they immediately dump the problems on the Cat lmao

God there really is nothing likable about the Brother Gods for real

Oh look the God of Light is bitching about balance again. Good to know he’s consistent, at least

Aaaand Jaune is young again. I knew they’d never have the balls to make it permanent. Characters might have to grapple with the implications of the changes if they did, and RWBY doesn’t like grappling with the implications of anything

Are we gonna have bullshit time travel shenanigans after all this too

So we get our first glimpse of Vacuo (with the Mexico filter applied at full power) and it looks like somehow the people still on Remnant managed to fix up Amity Colosseum and get what’s left of Atlas’s air fleet to Vacuo. Interestingly, I think I can see aircraft designs from Mistral/Vale, which doesn’t make a ton of sense when Volume 7 established that telling the world about Salem would cause mass panic and we know both of those Kingdoms are currently struggling to survive as it is (Vale has to deal with the impact of the Fall of Beacon, Mistral lost a bunch of Huntsmen because Lionheart sent them out to get killed), but whatever. I’ve given up on this show giving a shit about consequences or consistency.

What even was the point of this Volume? Anything remotely relevant could've happened in an hour-and-a-half movie instead of wasting resources on that dumbass Justice League crossover no one wanted or asked for

Hell, all of it could've been trimmed down to like 2 episodes if you just drop them into the Tree with the Blacksmith, have them confront their insecurities and shit, and then send them back to Remnant

Honestly, literally all of it except maybe the stupid-ass lore dump could've happened in fucking Vacuo instead of this dumbass knockoff Alice in Wonderland crap. The Bees could've confessed there and done it organically instead of being forced to admit their feelings by a rogue weather condition. Ruby could've had her breakdown there. Idek what else of relevance even happened besides Jaune's manpain and frankly at this point I don't care about that. Even the loredump could've been worked in somehow with a little effort tbh

Instead we get this stupid fucking mess that doesn't even give us any reusable assets lmfao great allocation of the budget when your company is already struggling financially and all your hopes are pinned on this dogass show specifically

Anyway I hope Volume 10 never manifests. Not only is Rooster Teeth shitty and bigoted and deserving of a violent death as a company, these writers are painfully incompetent and actively promote harmful messages like “suicide is the solution to your problems” and “minorities can be equated to animals for comedic effect”. This shit does not deserve to continue, and neither does the company that makes it.

I'm pretty much done RWBYposting at this point. Just gotta clear out 2 or 3 asks and then I can finally be free of this hell

[basingstokemercury]

Okay. They asked for it, and I am unleashed.

All those seasons of noting and storing every tiny hint, finally put to good use.

I present:

Why That Twist makes no sense at all.

(spoilers for DS9 S5E16, and many episodes along the way. this is a thorough analysis of everything wrong with that episode's revelation.)

First, I'll go over what little may support this plotline.

We know that Bashir either has no family or a poor relationship with them.

Evidence:

Armageddon Game - When Sisko believes Bashir has been killed, he asks Dax to "find out how I can contact Julian's family". Clearly this isn't a family he speaks about much or has introduced to his Starfleet circle.

Homefront - Before Odo leaves for Earth, O'Brien asks him to check on his family. Odo asks Bashir if he can do a similar favour, and is answered negatively.

However...

In "Melora", Bashir says his father was a Federation diplomat on some remote planet. Is this the irresponsible drifter we see onscreen? It hardly seems likely.

Let me also note that mirror!Bashir doesn't seem developmentally disabled in any way, and surely he wouldn't have had access to this gene therapy? (this doesn't prove anything, though - it could just support our Bashir's indignation that his parents made this decision after judging a six-year-old.)

Now, to break down the actual claims of the episode.

First, the idea that Bashir's physical ability has been greatly improved - to practically superhuman levels, if that ending "gag" (I use quotes because it feels incredibly mean-spirited and I hate it but that's another matter) is to be believed.

This is pretty easy to contradict.

He's a good athlete, yes. Captain of the Academy racquetball team according to "Rivals", and a good enough tennis player to at least consider playing professionally - the statement in "Melora" that he was out of his depth in official tournaments seems to be contradicted by "Distant Voices", but this is said by someone trying to mentally break him and he doesn't seem fazed by the claim.

But surely if that were the case, we wouldn't see him lose fights nearly as often?

He gets better at defending himself with time, but is rarely able to take on a capable opponent single-handedly. If I may make an analysis...

Dax - His combat style is clumsy and amateurish. He goes down within seconds. This could be attributed to being unprepared for a fight, but considering how easily the guard takes him out I'm highly skeptical.

The Storyteller - He bursts into combat to help O'Brien fend off an attacker, but is barely able to hold his own; in fact, he becomes the one in danger after intervening, and it's O'Brien who pulls the now-distracted opponent off him.

The Alternate - His struggles appear to be completely useless here, from what I can tell the tentacle releases him of its own accord.

Armageddon Game - He spends most of the fight taking cover, and when he does attack it's from behind. His tactics are again clumsy, his struggle to take down one man very obvious besides O'Brien's skill.

The Wire - Garak has a lot more experience, and he's holding back so as not to hurt a friend. Even with that considered, though, he doesn't come off too well.

Crossover - He manages to stun a guard and grab a phaser. Considering how he goes about it though, I honestly think he got lucky and the guard simply wasn't expecting anything of the kind.

The Search pt 1 - The fight scene is difficult to follow, but he seems to knock down one soldier and then get pinned. His combat style does look marginally better, I think.

Past Tense pt 1 - He takes down one man, then seems equally matched with the other. At the very least his technique has improved.

Our Man Bashir - The opening scene doesn't count, as it's very obviously programmed to happen the way it does. I'd say it's pretty telling that he only grazes Garak, though - holding back on a friend could be an excuse here, but if the dialogue is to be believed he was shooting to kill. And surely, with his supposed skill, he wouldn't have missed?

Nor The Battle To The Strong - This is an extreme situation, but it's still possible that improved reflexes should have enabled him to reach the runabout without being knocked out.

By Inferno's Light - He takes an occupied Jem'Hadar by surprise with an improvised knife. This is the most effective he's ever been at close quarters, and honestly I was surprised even allowing for the fact that he's not unarmed.

Honestly, after actually going through every fight he's involved in he's even less of a soldier than I thought.

And that's not mentioning that he and O'Brien are canonically evenly matched at darts according to "Accession", and the excuse that he's been letting O'Brien win feels very feeble considering he could have done the same with Morn if he were rigging the game for fairness.

I think the idea of physical enhancement is adequately debunked.

When it comes to the mental side, things appear less clear. There's no doubt that he's highly intelligent, so I won't contest that. (Note, however, that according to Dax in "Armageddon Game", he had to work very hard to graduate as well as he did - and we know from multiple accounts that he only graduated second in the end.)

What I will take issue with, however, is psychology. He doesn't act like a person in his situation would be expected to, and we get no hint of it from our looks into his mind.

Begin psychological profile, Dr. Julian Subatoi Bashir.

Comes in very naïve, even dangerously so. His early episodes have shades of Simon Tam to me: a pampered boy from a wealthy family, who's had everything handed to him until he didn't. This is what I expected out of his backstory reveal.

Highly extroverted, slightly in love with his own voice. Enjoys making new friends (and lovers), but gets nervous around less outgoing people. Doesn't always pick up on social cues like when to shut up.

"Ambitious" is the word used in-universe, but I think "enthusiastic" might be a better descriptor. He wants to see everything, do everything, have every exciting experience he can.

Very self-assured, bordering on arrogant. He's thoroughly aware of his skill in the medical field, and proud of it.

Excellent bedside manner, and high emotional intelligence. More than any other character, he can handle difficult emotional situations competently and give good advice, especially on matters of the heart.

Always determined to come out on top, whatever the odds.

Gentle and compassionate, unable to let anyone suffer or die when there's the slightest chance of saving them. Refuses to become hardened or cynical in the face of a moral dilemma.

And he does have a very boyish side to him, delighting in role-play and friendly banter.

As to his inner conflicts, we have little information.

To return to "Armageddon Game", Dax says that his school diaries mention a constant fear of failure. (We'll be coming back to those diaries one last time before this is over)

In "Distant Voices", Altovar tries to rattle him by claiming he always gives up when a situation gets tough. We see this to be false on countless occasions, though, including in that same episode.

The only real insecurity we see from him is in "Explorers", when the valedictorian of his class arrives on the station, and it seems he still hasn't gotten over placing second. As it turns out, his competitive streak has misled him and he mentally blew the situation far beyond its actual status.

Now, let's compare that to how this backstory reveal would likely have affected him.

Being developmentally delayed as a child is actually a detail I like. It explains his tenacity and pride in his accomplishments. Unfortunately, that's just about all I approve of here.

At the age of around fifteen, he finds out that his parents, disappointed by his early struggles, had him genetically enhanced to remedy them.

The people whose job it was to care for and support him decided that, instead of trying to figure out why their son was having difficulties or accept that, at the age of six, he was lagging behind his peers, it would be easier to have him fixed through radical alteration.

(I'm not going to discuss the parents' side of the story or whether the justification holds up. It's not their psyches being examined here.)

A teenage boy, shining at everything he does and happy at his success, realises that he was born a totally different person.

He feels betrayed, all his accomplishments suddenly undermined. He feels as though his true self were murdered in that hospital as a six-year-old; himself a literal changeling, a perfect child replacing fallible humanity.

(This casts an interesting light on his being the only cast member effectively replaced by the in-universe changelings, let alone twice. But as I refuse to consider this twist canon, it won't be analysed here.)

And he knows, or soon finds out, that if this were ever made public, his life and his parents' would both be destroyed.

So:

He has a life-changing secret to keep. The people responsible for him betrayed that trust when he was too young to understand what was being done.

Would he really be so naïve about humanoid nature?

Would he not only allow but encourage Dax to read his diaries, even if he thought he'd edited out everything suspicious?

Would he be outgoing and eager to make friends, when every close relationship is a new person to guard his words around?

Would he be so pleased with his talent, knowing how he came by it and feeling so guilty about those means?

So excited by intrigue and espionage, when he himself kept such a deadly secret?

And would he be so willing to forgive those who hurt him, if that first betrayal is always there to torment him?

I don't know about you, but I highly doubt it.

[galactic-pirates]

Ok so it’s a day ending in Y and so I am thinking about Star Trek.

What keeps echoing in my head right now is the “all men are born equal but some are more equal than others.”

I’m newly pissed because at its core Trek is that frustrating, maddening dichotomy of hope for the future vs. the reality and inability to really break away or imagine something truly different.

The thought of a post-scarcity sort of utopia especially given the current political hellscape is such a comfort. The future can be better if we let it.

Where the maddening dichotomy comes in is something that has always threaded through Trek. In that people are people, they are imperfect and so while they always try, they sometimes fail. But the characters we root for, they are ultimately supposed to be the good guys. The Federation might make a misstep, but our hero, is supposed to call them on it or wryly accept the hypocrisy and that they still have work to do, or something along that lines. That doesn’t always happen obviously because people are writing the show, and those people have biases and prejudices and those blinkers come through. There have been some damn uncomfortable Trek episodes that went wide of the mark.

I’m rambling and I’m not sure I’m making my point. Narrative framing. Once Upon a Time was absolutely awful for this. The objective facts of the events said one thing like a certain character was a bad guy, but the writers made the characters say what a hero he was. Evidence didn’t match. There was a real dissonance. It made for bizarre viewing.

Picard has the same kind of shit going on. Jack Crusher got upset, and threw one hell of a tantrum. Hours went by in which he stole a shuttle and of his own free will went to the Borg cube. Yes he was then assimilated, and yes I would usually argue that the assimilated are the Borgs first victims and are not responsible for what they do as drones. They aren’t in control of their own actions. Except Jack broke his own link to the collective so how deeply assimilated was he? Seems like a lot of free choice here. And his “fire fire fire, kill the unassimilated” killed a lot of people. They aren’t specific how many but with 50 ships, and space dock, and planetary defense etc. I’m thinking a few hundred bare minimum, probably more like a few thousand.

What happened next? Was there any justice? No. Daddy is a human Admiral. So fast-tracked through StarFleet, assigned to the Flagship as a special officer.

Brings back an old sore point of Picard and his legacy vineyard estate. The events of Romulus happened, Picard was on the right side of history in terms of wanting to help the Romulans but when he failed to convince StarFleet he just fucked off to his large country estate, and what was sad? 15 years, nice comfortable life, staff to take care of everything. Raffi had a small broken down trailer in the desert. Maybe that was partly her choice, maybe she could have had an apartment in the city or whatever, but not everyone can have huge legacy country estates.

So much privilege and yeah that’s the unfortunate nature of reality. But it makes me so damn frustrated. The Federation is an ideal, principles and hope, and the best of Trek shows how they try but people are flawed, so they make their best effort. Power corrupts and institutions can be rotten but our heroes are supposed to be better. To try.

The changelings might have infiltrated StarFleet but they wouldn’t have replaced all the top brass. Some but not all. Which even if I am generous and say the changelings suggested some things, the rest of them agreed. It’s like The Winter Soldier where Hydra won because Shield sleep walked down the road to trading freedom for security. Our heroes are supposed to call that out but Picard at least is leveraging his position of privilege and benefiting from it. If the narrative framed that as a mistake, I would find it compelling, but that’s not what’s happening, and it feels bad.

I’m all for the struggle that Trek embodies of reality vs dreams of something better but the narrative needs to frame it that way. And it’s not.

[gigifluidcat]

There is so many things wrong with these "sOuRcEs" that it's fucking mind boggling how these can be considered credible if you don't have the mental stability of a TikTok Toddler.

I didn't say shit about beliefs. All I did was ask for proof.

Bc all in the notes you were saying all these wacky accusations without viable proof, and this Reblog here just proves it.

Here's the corrections here:

1. "He is a massive racist and misogynist."

So yeah... About that proof that I asked? Where is it?

2. "His co-host Dan Avidan is also a Groomer and a Zionist."

This is based off of allegations which has been proven false. Everything that happened with Dan was consensual (As they were both grown adults), and even then the evidence wasn't that credible in the first place.

As for the zionism? Again, proof? (There's also a possibility that Rubberross doesn't know shit about the Zionism in the first place)

3. The source for Joel supporting the creator of FNF is barely credible, bc all it leads is to a Tumblr ask, with info that is also not really credible bc it just shows a screenshot that barely shows anything. It just shows Joel showing disdain for "cancel culture" which was a popular discussion at the time, with a couple threads here and there. For all one could know, the image might not be about the FNF creator at all.

4. Kekeflipnote's animation was from 10 years ago, in an era of the internet where this kind of offensive humor was rampant and many people were uneducated about what people found offensive. (Aside from the N word/F word). Much like with many internet celebs that have been called out, Keke might've not even known that "Ladyboy" was a slur.

(Also, where's the Pedophilia? It just shows a critter chasing a butterfly and some drag)

5.

Where's the racism?! All I get is a tweet from 6 years ago about Sr Pelo likely being uneducated about the word "Transexual". (Which is a word that is still DEBATED to be offensive or not by the trans community.)

Yes, he was ignorant about it considering him saying that "this was created this year" and "why being aggressive to a drawing?", but like with Keke, straight up assuming he's a full on bigot bc he was uneducated about a word is ignorant.

6. "Psychicpebbles defending Shadman"

From 9 YEARS ago.

I couldn't find when specifically Shadman was first outed, but from the difference between the newer comments and the older comments on this episode I'm assuming that this was before the knowledge of his atrocious art became mainstream.

If you can find a more RECENT thing about Psychic defending Shadman, then maybe this point can still stand.

7. For the third time in this reblog, I ask you of this:

Proof?

(Also just bc an artist is a pos doesn't mean the show is a pos)

Speaking of asking for it, now that everything is addressed, Imma just call out the fact that like most of this is just yapping about random bullshit with little to no reliable sources, if ANY at all.

The funny thing is that you wouldn't be involved here if you were literate enough to READ TAGS!

So even IF they were all true, it won't matter anyway. Bc in the first place this isn't about morality but more about listing good projects (Since Anon was saying Tracy, Glitch, and Vivziepop were like "corporate empires" in Indie animation and are "exploiting people".)

Like, why would you even bother anyway?!

I hope you know that literally nobody is going to be able to live up to the standard you, V*v, and Glitch have set and your arrogance and exploitation of your fanbase and connections has screwed millions of creatives out of their dreams because Hollywood is a joke that isn't worth telling and wealthy e-celebs like yourself have claimed the indie scene all to yourselves and moved the goalposts into the stratosphere.

Nope. This isn't a zero sum game. There is not some limited, prescribed number of indie trophy slots that a few studios greedily filled up, blocking everyone else out. That is not how it works. Nothing any other creator is doing - short of personally sending hired goons to your doorstep or stealing your credit cards - is taking anything away from you or preventing your success. In fact if an indie creator can manage to demonstrate that they've got something viable going, it may help to map out a pathway for others.

I think I'm not going to bother trying to address whether or not cartoons in return for support from fans - an entirely voluntary exchange - constitutes exploitation. And I'm living in the Midwest driving a 2007 economy car with 200k+ miles on it, but let's just skip past the assumptions that I'm wealthy and connected too.

Instead, let's get to the weirdly myopic notion that the indie scene is held captive by three studios. Maybe YouTube algorithms or Twitter bubbles are somewhat to blame, but in actuality there are so, so many individual people, friend groups, and small production houses out there making independent animation, I cannot possibly name them all.

Here are some anyway:

Far-Fetched Worthikids Satina | Scumhouse Noodle and Bun Punch Punch Forever Ramshackle Noodle Papajoolia | Pipi Angel Hare | The East Patch Jonni Peppers Salad Fingers Monkey Wrench Studio Heartbreak Felix Colgrave JelloApocalypse Odd1sout (started indie, got picked up by Netflix) Allie Mehner JaidenAnimations Lumi and the Great Big Galaxy Cloudrise | The Worlds Divide Telepurte RubberRoss James Lee ENA Godspeed | Olan Rogers Ollie and Scoops Meat Canyon Port by the Sea Kekeflipnote Boxtown Kevin Temmer Weebl Joel Haver CircleToons Long Gone Gulch Atlas and the Stars Animist Skibidi Toilet A Fox in Space Alex Henderson Talon Toniko Pantoja Sr. Pelo Hullabaloo Kane Pixels (started indie, picked up by A24) Homestar Runner Fennah Gods' School Alan Becker Dungeon Flippers JazLyte Psychicpebbles (started indie, Smiling Friends picked up by AS) Piemations vewn Metal Family Dead Sound chluaid Jacknjellify Betsy Lee | No Evil My Pride Cranbersher GeoExe | Gwain Saga Horatio the Vampire

By no means a full list. That's just YouTube, and mostly just English language stuff, and I didn't even get to the multitudes of Warrior Cats animation collabs.

The point is, the indie landscape is vast and populated by creators new and old, making all kinds of animated media from skits, to shows, to ARGs, to films. Audience sizes vary as much as the content, stylistic approaches, subject matter, and budgets do. There are no compliance standards, no gateways to entry, no goalposts. There's not even any preset definition of success except what you decide for yourself.

Anyway, instead of nurturing your resentments, consider making something. I assure you, it's a far more rewarding use of your time and energy, and pretty much no one can stop you. ------------- EDIT- Made some additions to the list based on comments. Thanks!

[deathiscoldbatman]

Any thoughts about Matt Hagen being the Clayface DC reforms?

This post may be a bit longer than my usual affairs, as I feel he's deserving of analysis both on the comics side and the [major] animated appearance side of things. So, since I mentioned comics first, let's break it down by comics to start. That'll be a lot shorter. Also my dog is giving me a migraine rn because the air conditioner cleaner people have come over.

In the pre-Crisis comics, Matthew Hagen is a petty art/jewel thief who decided to keep thieving when he found out he could shape shift for limited amounts of time before needing to refuel himself. There's...really not much I can say about comic!Matt, as that's literally his entire character. Sure, I've personally expanded upon him in fic, but fanfiction isn't canon and that's kind of the entire point of fanfiction. Literally this man was so irrelevant that DC killed him off in the 1980's and no one batted an eye. Afaik, they never brought him back either, except in tie-in material for the Young Justice series. In which his origin is entirely different, but we'll talk about that if/when I can get Rue to stop screaming at the repairman because she's getting on my nerves. In short, I guess you could redeem comics!Matt, but there's no canon evidence that he would ever want to stop committing crimes. Maybe that would be different if he was brought back and his origin reinvented. But I don't always deal in hypotheticals.

I'll be going over his animated appearances next.

- Batman: the Animated Series/The New Batman Adventures/Justice League: first of all, I fucking hate BtAS as a whole and could barely stomach my way through Feat of Clay pts 1 and 2. It makes me ill, and not in a good way; about the only episode I tolerate is the Mr. Freeze origin. But, ignoring the fact this version of Matt's backstory is entirely lifted from what the comic books and other media would do to Basil Karlo as there was no canon basis for Matt ever wanting to be an actor [although I guess you could swing it, Matt's greatest flaw is his greed], it's a decent enough introduction that doesn't fail to make the character it's introducing sympathetic; note that I haven't watched any of the later episodes of BtAS where he appears, but I've heard things. It's not awful within the context of the canon it comes from, and I could definitely see that version of Matt becoming a hero if not some normal guy again. The accident wasn't his fault, and in later appearances he still didn't seem to be all that thrilled about the crime thing. Also what was up with "Growing Pains" as an episode. At the very least, it showed his desire for a normal life, even if he had to create an entirely separate person [who became her own thing] to experience it.

- Young Justice: first off I've never personally watched this show. My knowledge of it is still fairly comprehensive though, thanks to my friend Conner being a walking encyclopedia. And I actually really like how Matt is in this show. His relationship with Talia is dare I say almost cute if extremely one sided [as he's just using her to find a cure for his terminal cancer], and the concept of him being part of the League of Shadows is one I feel should transition into the mainline comic series proper as there's really a lot you could do with that. I like how he redeems himself, not quickly but gradually. Re. Young Justice: Targets #1; he's working as a security guard and bodyguard, and seems genuinely content with his life.

In summary; redeeming Matt can work, you just have to know what you're doing as an author. Don't hijack some other Clayface's origin to do it, because people will notice. Maybe not many people, but people will notice. I'll notice.

[conveniencefloor]

A Quick Summary Of Our Thoughts On Supernatural (2 seasons in)

(I’m rewatching because I never finished it, and he’s never watched it at all)

- Our recurring issue is that SO MANY of these problems could be resolved if the hunters just had a goddamn Organization with different departments! Seriously, think about it. Have a department of Therapy and Recovery for your battered and traumatized hunters, because apart from their well-being it’s a good idea because theoretically you could minimize the likelihood of hunters becoming ghosts themselves. After all, they tend to die brutal and unfair deaths, it’s reasonable that they would want to come back to protect people or finish the job. “Sure, but that’s why hunters get burned at their funerals. No remains, no ghost.” Yeah we THOUGHT. Then S2E16 rolls around and we meet Molly the ghost who, despite her body being cremated, is still out and about, because she has a one sided attachment to something on earth still (her husband). Other benefits of an organization include: A GODDAMN CLEANUP TEAM FOR YOUR GODDAMN INCOMPETENT HUNTERS LEAVING BOOTPRINTS, HANDPRINTS, AND EVIDENCE LITERALLY EVERYWHERE ALL THE TIME, YOU STUPID IDIOTS STOP MANHANDLING THE BODIES AND TOUCHING EVERYTHING. Also a fucking makeup department maybe??? I have only seen 9 seasons, and it’s been a long time, but I do not recall a single episode where Sam or Dean changed their hair or wore fake teeth or wigs or aged themselves with makeup for their disguises. “OoOo we’RE wAnTeD bY thE FBI, Let’S jUsT gO inTo eVerY mOteL aNd stOre wE PosSibLy cAn, weAriNg EXACTLY THE SAME FACES WITH ZERO CHANGES” occasionally they wear a different outfit but that’s the extent of keeping their identities secret. Not even a haircut or growing out a beard. You are BEGGING to be caught. You know why else you need an organization? Because you need a goddamn research department. You need a database with TESTED AND CONFIRMED data on these things so you don’t have to keep winging it.

- You guys literally know that there’s some kind of afterlife. You know there’s a hell. You hope there’s a heaven. You know things get out. So why has no one done an iota of research on those places? You have ways to find out. Yet no one cares to. Or maybe someone HAS found out and simply doesn’t feel like communicating. Again, ORGANIZATION.

- Very convenient how all these supernatural beings are in America. I mean you can read the lore of different countries and cultures and learn about their creatures, but if those creatures have been imported you’d think you’d find local lore about something of a different (or same) name describing the same attributes/effects. It’s very weird that your only source for something happening in present day America is an ancient source local to a country halfway across the world. (I think they are aware of that for some things, but certainly not others).

-2 seasons in and the three main characters have already died approximately once each.

-“Sure, most supernatural things are true. But Christianity is the default.” As if you haven’t seen enough gods to consider the Christian god as just another one. As if the word God hasn’t lost authority in all this context you’re wading around in. No reason given for treating it as more legitimate than any other religion or belief, yet still treating it as more legitimate.

-What in the everloving fuck was the Croatoan episode. First, the editors discovered slow motion for the first time and it shows. Second, everything prior would lead you to believe that both Sam and Dean would do whatever they could to try prevent someone from dying. But Dean is prepared to immediately kill someone on the bare minimum of knowledge about the situation? Just some dude? The entire time we were watching it we flabbergasted at the inconsistency of their characters. And the editing. An outlier in our minds for sure.

-although then in S2:E17 they kill Maddie the werewolf right away. Like dude. You already know you can contain her in a wooden room for a night. Contain her in a better room a couple more nights. Then spend the whole month before the next full moon researching a cure. If that doesn’t yield anything, fine, mercy kill, whatever. But we also were aghast at how easily they gave up. Like a couple phone calls?? That’s it??? One more time: ORGANIZATION. Your organization should have an iron/silver/blessed dungeon with safes to keep people like Maddie in so you can actually help them.

-currently confused why the yellow eyed demon wanted a leader for the demon soldiers if all the demons are just going to fuck right off the second they get out.

-also is there a proximity requirement for crossing salt lines? Or could a demon cross it if they just jumped really high? Because I feel like a beach counts as a salt line, and we know demons can go in planes, so what happens when they fly over a beach??

That’s all for now ❤️

(PS: I love Supernatural for the nostalgia and for the utter chaos that trails it. I just also really love complaining about it)

[kindly-gourd]

it’s so funny to me when ppl accuse Shane and Ryan of staging evidence when I’m pretty sure if they were faking it they’d have better evidence 😬

[sarucane]

(Ran into this while poking around tumblr, and the account seems inactive but I can't stop thinking about this so I'll go ahead and write about this to figure out more about what I think (brains are weird))

This essay was about Season 1 of OFMD, and how Ed and Stede each demonstrate coping mechanisms in response to threats that fall into the rough categories of "fight, flight, freeze, fawn." Ed primarily uses fawn (I know, weird right, but OP laid out really solid evidence), and secondarily uses fight; Stede primarily uses freeze, and secondarily uses flight.

So naturally I started thinking about how this played out in the second season, and I think what happens is that both men find the limits of these responses and have to work on coping with stress or threats in other ways--OR, and here's where the show is really clever, exercising these instincts without being controlled by them actually leads to poaitive growth.

Ed's trauma responses fail him completely in the first episode of the season. Fight is clearly not making him feel better--he barely even participates in the raids. And his fawning behavior with Izzy also backfires spectacularly. There's a decent argument to be made that all Ed's external actions in the first half of ep 1 are part of a "fawning" reaction to Izzy, Ed conforming his behavior to the markers Izzy has set. But when Izzy realizes he's made a mistake and tries to get Ed to be healthier, he immediately runs into Ed's pain. And Ed slips into "fight" defense, threatening the crew and himself and shooting Izzy.

When the fight response doesn't work and he's still in pain at the end of episode 1, he moves to flight. That drives his speech about a bird, it drives him to the attempted suicide, and it drives him in the gravy bucket.

Then there's Anne And Mary's, and something interesting happens. Ed demonstrates fawn, flight, AND fight behaviors in that episode, but all three actually end up being constructive. When he's alone with Mary, he remembers that he actually likes spending time with Stede--and he also sets a limit on how similar he is to Mary. When he leaves the room after finding out Stede went back to Mary (Bonnet), he actually moves into a neutral/safe space where he and Stede can talk without (they think) being observed, while limiting the extent of his flight to just going to another room. And when he fights with Stede, lashing out, he triggers a conversation that actually gets to the real issues they're dealing with. He stops being aggressive and actually sits with his own pain--then accepts the possibility of healing.

After that, Ed approaches others in an increasingly self-aware way. He does still demonstrate conforming "fawn" behaviors, like when he offers to let Lucius push him off the ship, but some of these are actually useful, like the speech to the crew that was part of him getting to stay on the Revenge.

And when Ed finds out that Fang didn't like the behaviors Ed thought were charming, he immediately apologizes. Then he chooses not to engage in "fawn" mirroring behavior with Stede, instead asking to "take it slow." The next episode, he apologizes to Izzy in spite of Izzy's lack of interest in any sort of apology. He then baldly refuses to conform to anything Ned Lowe expects of him, practically the opposite of his behavior with literally every other named pirate who appeared in the show.

Ed then has something of a relapse into fawn/flight, going faster than he's ready for with Stede and bailing, then fawning like hell when he's with "Pop Pop." That phase ends on "fight," almost as a kind of fawning--but it's still a deliberate, conscious choice to use this response as a tool to deal with a dangerous situation. There's real progress, though it's a mixed bag (all very human).

But then, although the episode skips over the scene when the decision is made, Ed reaches an end point that moves past all three of these responses. He resists any "fawn" urge resulting from Zheng's suggestion that they team up; he commits to staying in one place with Stede; and he sets aside the pirate identity in favor of a life that won't require him to fight. That's not an ending of his story, but it's a very solid landing point for a middle.

When the second season opens, Stede is well aware that his flight instinct is an actual problem. But he's also already committed to dealing with the results of those problems, and avoiding repeating the same mistakes in the future. His freeze instinct is also still there, but it controls his behavior significantly less. And finally, he starts to cultivate his "fight" instinct, with mixed results.

After being purely reactive to situations for the first two episodes, in the third episode Stede finally has to deal with difficult events. When the Revenge appears, he sets the tone for himself in the rest of the season by doing the opposite of flight, running/swimming for the ship at top speed. Over the rest of the episode, he does actually freeze multiple times (his freeze as he surveys the damage on deck; seeing the crew for the first time; seeing Ed's "body"; confronting Izzy). But that freezing doesn't control him: he's able to "un-freeze" at crucial points. He comes up with a plan to take back the Revenge, and he manages to save Ed.

For the next episodes, he does regularly demonstrate freeze responses to threats--but he also consciously develops other responses. He finally takes his own advice and gets people to "talk it through" in several situations, notably with Ed at Anne and Mary's and with the crew after the cursed suit incident.

But Stede then starts engaging in the exact unhealthy-outcome behaviors Ed's been struggling with. Fight is primary: he executes Ned Lowe, he seems to be trying to provoke Izzy after Ed leaves, and he escalates to dueling Zheng as quickly as he can. But there's also the fawning behavior at Jackie's, which overlaps hugely with Ed's fawning at the fancy party in Season 1. The "fight" fails him horribly, and the fawn doesn't work much better. The conclusion is so rushed, and focused on Ed and Izzy, that we don't see Stede really reckon with all this. Still, he also avoids freezing at key moments in the finale, and comes up with the plan that gets almost everyone to safety.

Stede ending with Ed in the inn also sets up a situation where he has a better chance than ever to work through his issues. The departure of the Revenge is a pretty firm symbolic conclusion to unhealthy exercises of Stede's "flight," but freeze is still there, and there's all the rest of it. That said, Stede, like Ed, has demonstrated the ability to grow through this trauma, putting aside what doesn't work and engaging with what does.

cPTSD in OFMD, redux

The other day I was babbling to a friend about OFMD, as I am wont to do, and casually mentioned cPTSD and the different types of trauma responses Ed and Stede employ in stressful situations, and, hey, maybe I shouldn’t just assume that’s common knowledge, and also, maybe I'll just go ahead and write a whole essay about it? So first, it’s only responsible to say that I am NOT an expert: I did study psychology in college, and I have researched this condition, but all that was ages ago, and I am not a mental health professional. So take what I say with a grain of salt, and anyone who knows better than I do is welcome to correct me where I am wrong.  With that ringing endorsement...

cPTSD, or complex post traumatic stress disorder, is a form of PTSD that is caused by long-term, repeated trauma as opposed to a single traumatic event (usually, and in the case of Ed and Stede, the result of prolonged child abuse). It presents with extreme mood swings or difficulty controlling emotions, pervasive feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness, difficulty forming or maintaining friendships, dissociative behaviors, and frequent suicidal ideology. Surely this all sounds familiar when applied to our favorite pirate captains, yeah?

Trauma response refers to the coping behaviors used to deal with traumatic situations and inform the way one responds to stress-inducing scenarios. Everyone has heard of Fight or Flight, but less commonly known are Freeze and Fawn. Freeze behaviors can have a physical component (anything from actual immobility to sensations of heaviness, rigidity, or numbness, or restricted breathing, or mindlessly following instructions even when counter-intuitive), and/or a mental component (failure to recognize stimuli, or being slower than usual to process information, inability to communicate, “brain freeze”). Fawning behaviors include being a “people-pleaser”, saying “yes” to requests even when they are inconvenient or painful to you, putting other people’s comfort and needs above your own, and changing your behaviors or mode of expression to try and fulfill the expectations or desires of others. It’s important to note that no one chooses their trauma response; it’s based on what kinds of behaviors have kept you safe in traumatic situations in the past, and is completely involuntary. A given individual will also usually employ a mix of the different responses, though it’s not uncommon for one or two strategies to pop up most frequently.

With Ed’s reputation as the dread pirate Blackbeard, one would expect to see Fight as his primary coping behavior. And while we do see that some of the time, far more frequently we see him Fawn.

Fight

In his childhood flashbacks, we initially see him Freeze when confronted with his drunken father’s abuse, and while that works in the moment, it’s the Fight response that keeps him and his mother safe on a more permanent basis.

On the French Merchant ship, when the captain insults him, we see his Fight kick into high gear. He yells, looms menacingly, and even when Stede calms him down, still demands physical violence be enacted on his tormentor,

When the fickle favor of the French aristocrats turns against him, Ed initially responds with Flight, removing himself from the situation. But that doesn’t let him outrun the feelings of humiliation, so we see him turn to Fight, growling that “No one laughs” at him and pulling his gun with the intention to go inflict physical violence on those who inflicted emotional damage.

In response to Izzy getting in his face and snarling about the real Blackbeard, Ed pins him to the wall with a hand around his throat.

Fawn

He tells Izzy that he intends to kill Stede and take over his life, putting Izzy in the position of captain in order to stop him from leaving after the lighthouse incident.

While initially reticent and seemingly off-put by the French aristocrats, we see his manner change over the course of the party to mirror their behavior. He becomes increasingly braggadocious, louche, and insouciant, eventually even sacrificing his friend on the altar of a crowd-pleasing witticism.

At Izzy’s insistence, he  agrees to go through with the plan to kill Stede, even though it’s clear that he very much does NOT want to do that.

He goes on Stede’s treasure hunt even though he makes no qualms about how cringe-y and uncomfortable he finds the whole ordeal.

We see Ed’s mirroring behavior again with Calico Jack. He’s more raucous and rowdy than we’ve ever seen him, and often looks at him to see how he's acting before he starts doing a similar sort of behavior (like when when Jack starts whispering apologies for the cannon fire that awoke Stede, or when he brings up "whippies" at the breakfast table). Even when the things Jack says are making Ed visibly uncomfortable, we see him returning to match Jack's energy again and again.

When Ed and Stede are at the Royal Privateering Academy for Wayward Seamen, Ed’s adjustment is near instantaneous and flawless. He cheerfully confirms his name on the roster with a cute little rhyme, is visibly excited about the block of soap he receives, throws himself into mundane chores, and even shaves off the eponymous beard that is his claim to fame.

And finally, Izzy goads him in into his Kraken transformation, and Ed goes full “You want my crazy? I’ll SHOW you crazy” even though we see in his private moments how much it pains him.

···

Unfortunately, because Ed is such an emotional chameleon, it’s not always easy to tell when he is acting according to his own genuine desires and when he’s doing what he thinks other people want from him. Did he lean in to Stede on that moonlight drenched deck because he thought that’s where Stede was going with the whole “You wear fine things well” moment, or did he do it because he wanted to kiss those honeyed words off Stede’s lips for himself? Does he concoct a plan to run away to China because that’s what he wants to do, or is he just coming up with a plan to please Stede because he knows that Stede doesn’t want to stay in the service of the British? And even more unfortunately, Ed would probably say that all of the examples listed above WERE his idea, because even the ones that clearly make him uncomfortable are better than the agony of disappointing someone, or pushing a disagreement to a crisis point where he would have to relive the trauma of his childhood violence. 

Stede, on the other hand, uses the trauma responses of Flight and Freeze, the latter more frequently than the former.

Flight

Runs from the bullies of his youth.

Runs away from his family to become a pirate. He’s done everything he’s been told all his life he’s supposed to have done; got married to someone appropriate, even if they would never have chosen one another, not in a million years, made babies, even made sure one of them was male for patriarchal inheritance purposes, but he’s been miserable for nearly the whole of it. So after Mary confirms that their differences are, indeed, irreconcilable (he wants nothing more than to live on a ship, and she HATES the ocean), off he slinks in the middle of the night, (when Louis is about the age real-life Stede was when his father died, which I thought was an interesting way of squaring the narrative with history. Also, real-life Stede and Mary had four kids; three boys and a girl over the 6 years of their marriage; I think it an interesting and important detail that the writers decided to pare it down to two kids, Louis being the younger. It gives a very “copulation for the sake of procreation and NOTHING ELSE” vibe that adds a layer to the misery and desperation of their marital situation. I would not be the least surprised to find Stede had not so much as touched Mary since the birth of their heir. They must be SO touch-starved, and yet mutually repulsed. This parenthetical aside seems to have gotten away from me…).

Runs from Ed in response to the trauma of Chauncy’s screed about Stede ruining everything he comes in contact with, the veracity of which is immediately and fatally confirmed in Stede’s mind by Chauncy’s accidental death.

Freeze

The beheading of the goose in his youth is where we see this first solidified. He is initially frozen in shock as the blood spatters across his face, but it isn’t until tries to turn away that his father remonstrates him, effectively telling him that coping strategy is NOT acceptable. Incidentally, this flashback sequence is an illustration of Stede experiencing an emotional flashback as he Freezes on the deck of his ship, eyes unfocusing and breath shallow, while, all around him, his crewmates gleefully prepare for a slaughter.

We see another emotional flashback at the tea party of re-lived trauma as Nigel wistfully recalls the abuses he subjected Stede to in their youth. Stede sits silently, eyes unfocused and shoulders hunched as he dissociates into the filmic flashback.

After Nigel’s death, he is again Frozen in shock.

The tribal tribunal trial again sees Stede dissociating in a Freeze as he focuses on the mental construct of Nigel’s ghost instead of paying attention to what is being said by those around him, muscles so rigid he’s shaking.

He Freezes when Jackie threatens to take his nose.

When Mary gets upset over the model boat and all the implications thereof, Stede Freezes again, shoulders bent, eyes averted.

Ín the “You wanted to be Blackbeard. This is what it's like” scene from episode 4, we see a prime example of mental AND physical Freezing. As the questions keep coming and the tension mounts, Stede fumbles his words and sputters, repeating himself, and saying “I don’t have an idea. I don’t know what to do!” while his body goes rigid and his eyes go glassy.

On the French party boat, we see mockery of Sir Godfrey: “Oh, Thornrose, will you never cease with your incessant nattering?” to which Stede draws in on himself and falls silent.

Just everything Calico Jack. It’s like Nigel all over again without even the veneer of civility. Stede just spends so much time in stunned, shamed silence from the initial insult introduction (“Who’s the big girl?”) to the crab/turtle battle that no doubt is bringing back goose flashbacks (“Loser gets his head cut off, and winner gets his fuckin’ head cut off!”).

Freezing shows up once more when Chancy wakes Stede with a gun to the face, and again after he shoots himself.

···

I also think the Freeze instinct is tied up with Stede’s death wish. But wouldn’t that be Fawning - agreeing that he deserves disrespect and death? There’s an element of that, yes, but I think it’s less a case of him trying to please his tormentors and more a case of him mentally freezing and failing to process all the very good and valid arguments against passively submitting to that kind of treatment.

I don’t have any real conclusion to draw here,  It’s more of a “Behold this thing I noticed” kind of exercise. Was it all an excuse to make a collage of Stede’s wonderful stupid face looking like a Podling from the Dark Crystal? You’ll never prove anything. Actually, this started out as a very different essay with a VERY different tone, but then I started defining terms and it turned into a whole thing. All of which is to say, I’ve a little more tinkering to do, but more to come soon.