#tbh the least representative thing about this list is the fact that there aren’t any taylor swift songs
Explore tagged Tumblr posts
Text
This is from my Ineffable Husbands playlist, because of course it is lmao (I have thought about nothing else for months on end, please help,,)
Just Like Heaven - The Cure
Bad Idea - Original Broadway Cast of Waitress
Take a Chance On Me - ABBA
Ready Now - dodie
I Love You - Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers
Up the Wolves - The Mountain Goats
I Hate Myself for Loving You - Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
You’re My Best Friend - Queen
All the Things She Said - t.a.T.u.
I’d Love You to Want Me - Lobo
tagging @darlsbardlife @jthedino12 @sentientsky @illiophop @journal-three @yeahthatswhatimtolkienabout (only if you want to of course!!)
tagged by @wikipedianna :D
Shuffle your on repeat playlist and post the first 10 tracks, then tag 10 people.
prediction: there is going to be So Much Lord Huron on here
1. Hurricane (Johnnie’s Theme) - Lord Huron
2. NWFMB - Hozier
3. The Long and Winding Road - The Beatles
4. Wasteland, Baby! - Hozier
5. Penny Lane - The Beatles
6. Let It Be - The Beatles
7. Two Of Us - The Beatles (okay I listen to a lot of Beatles but cmon Spotify)
8. Ludwig, the Holy Blade (DOOM Remix) - Geoffplaysguitar
9. Fool for Love - Lord Huron
10. The World Ender - Lord Huron (lol that’s the order they go in on the album as well)
I’ll tag @every-eye-evermore, @crystalcatgamer, @fennzer, and @sagewiththyme <3
#@yayroos the spoilery songs have been skipped so you should be good!!#good omens#ineffable husbands#music#the thing about this playlist is that I went through my entire music library to make it#so any given sample of songs from it is probably relatively representative of my overall music taste#tbh the least representative thing about this list is the fact that there aren’t any taylor swift songs#but I did have to skip one bc it was a spoiler so it works out lol#also. to promo the playlist again. it’s called ineffable husbands brainrot and it’s on spotify :o
122 notes
·
View notes
Text
Reviewing My Anime 10/10's *Relatively* Spoiler-Free
Note: What I rank a 10/10 is very specific and obviously very subjective to my own. Something can only be a 10/10 if I already consider it a 9/10 AND I must have rewatched it. I am someone who typically does not rewatch/reread anything, unless it's something I truly absolutely enjoy. With that being said, because of the requirements, I only have 4 animes that I rank 10/10, and tbh only one of those animes would get that ranking from the general anime audience. The rest are SO SO SO specific to my particular tastes that I would be absolutely stunned if someone also had the same four as me, because the requirement is so specific. Imma make another post eventually for my 9/10's because I think that list makes a lot more sense for a general anime audience lmaooo.
Soooo, in order of least personal to most personal (although obviously they're all personal to me lol) we have:
1. Psycho-Pass
Recommended for people who: are really into that dark dystopian future society vibes, are fans of Ghost in the Shell, like detective/crime stories
Okay, for a few people, this one actually probably makes some sense. At the moment, it has an 8.37 on myanimelist which means this anime is super well liked. I've watched this anime twice, first the original and then the second time I watched the director's cut (yes that exists lol). Overall, I'm a huge fan of the entire Psycho-Pass anime series as a whole. I've watched all three seasons, as well as two of the movies. I didn't watch any of the Sinners of the System ones cuz tbh I literally couldn't find an english sub of that anywhere, it just doesn't exist lol. I think it's okay cuz the ratings for the Sinners of the System trio of movies seems meh. I've actually watched Psycho-Pass the Movie like three/four times LMAO but that's simply cuz a movie is obviously much quicker to watch than an entire anime season. Like just objectively, the Psycho Pass series as a whole is very inconsistent in quality due to the fact that it's all original, so they do technically just make up everything as they go lol. Season two is all right (I think it gets more hate than it should), three is good but season one by far is the absolute best in the entire series. I'd argue the movie is technically my absolute favorite out of the whole IP, but I actually give the movie an 8/10. The movie, because of being obviously way shorter, simply does not have the deep controversial and philosophical lines of thought that season one has. It lacks that extra depth that would make me put it anything higher than an 8. The two main characters have good chemistry as a crime-fighting duo and the main villain's rivalry/relationship with the male lead is super compelling. The female lead is meant to be relatively naive/more on the innocent side which works with the plot as it allows the show to naturally explain and give more exposition as to the actual world and rules of Psycho-Pass without having it seem so ham-fisted or just throwing info to the audience.
2. Violet Evergarden
Recommended for people who: cry to sad movies, like gorgeous animation, are very empathetic, like vignette-esque storytelling
All right if you even remotely consider yourself an avid anime fan, then this anime is probably also somewhere on your 10/10 list or at least an anime you consider to be "very good." That is, unless you are that very vocal minority who simply really just REALLY do not like this anime for some god forsaken reason. However, in my honest opinion, I think an anime like this just really doesn't sit well with ... how do I put this blunty ... people who do not give a fuck about other people or anyone else's feelings but their own. Basically, IF YOU ARE SELFISH, A NARCISSIST, EGOTISTICAL, OR ANY SORT OF COMBO OF THOSE THREE, YOU WILL NOT LIKE THIS ANIME. And if you do, you probably don't think you're any of those things. Because of the anime's very premise, I find it very difficult to see a very self-centered/heartless person particularly enjoying this anime. The whole premise of this anime is that the main character who, because of her upbringing, doesn't understand feelings/emotions, especially the concept of love, grows as a human and slowly begins to learn what love is. The show does this by showing multiple sets of characters meant to represent different types of love (romantic, familial, platonic, etc). The vocal minority of people I've seen give Violet Evergarden bad ratings all typically argue that although beautiful, the anime doesn't have any substance/doesn't really mean anything. If that's honestly all you got after watching the entire show, then you deadass just don't get it, and you probably will never ever get it. If you've seen or heard of Vivy: Fluorite Eye's Song, than just know that these two animes are VERY very similar in vibe despite being technically different genres. However, I personally found the themes and concepts in Vivy are done much more masterfully in Violet Evergarden which I think is due to Vivy's heavier focus on a story-driven overarching plot/action as opposed to Violet Evergarden's focus more on emotional impact/an episodic format. I've watched the entire series and I've rewatched the main show twice. TBH you can probably skip the gaiden movie AKA the one set at the girl's academy it was highkey pointless. Compared to the opera episode they added as a "special", the gaiden movie was still good but I wish resources were dedicated to something that actually added to the story. ALSO YES I KNOW ITS A GAIDEN AKA A SIDE STORY AKA FILLER SO YES NO DUH IT DIDNT ADD ANYTHING, BUT STILL. As for the main show, I think I cried for three episodes (the one about the playwright/author I forgot lol, the mother and daughter, and the soldier). On my rewatch, I didn't cry but I still deeply cared for and related to the characters. Violet Evergarden is a beautiful anime with a beautiful story.
3. ACCA: 13-ku Kansatsu Ka
Recommended for people who: like bread and bakeries, don't mind a very chill and slow-paced story, like stories about political intrigue and hidden agendas
Based on a relatively short manga, ACCA: 13 follows the main character Jean Otus as he performs his job of auditing the 13 districts of his country Dowa, while rumors and politics brew in the background that threaten to entangle Jean into a complicated plot. To be honest, I think properly reviewing this anime is impossible for me, because I just can't really explain the vibes of this anime besides "chill" and "intriguing." I think trying to explain anything more than the basic premise I just wrote would spoil a lot of what ACCA is, because it's plot is actually relatively quite simple and straightforward. Compared to Psycho-Pass which has a relatively good cult following, and Violet Evergarden which is universally praised, ACCA is an anime that I've yet to personally meet anyone who has ever even heard of it LMAOO. And almost everyone I know watches anime, so that's saying something oof. ACCA is made by Madhouse, which if you don't know, is a super well known anime studio, producing big hits such as Death Note, Hunter x Hunter, One Punch Man, etc. That's why I'm surprised that ACCA has flown just SO under the radar, but that may be due to the overalls nature of the anime itself. ACCA is an anime where all the characters hold their card close and no one seems to really share their real thoughts. One main criticism the anime has is the lack of deeper connections to characters and that for a main character, Jean Otus is very bland. To be honest, I think that's a very fair criticism and I can understand why this would prevent people from rating this anime higher than an 8 or 7. Due to the very nature of the anime and its plot, I do agree that there is a huge cast of colorful characters that we unfortunately don't really get to know more about. To be honest though, I don't mind this because I feel that's honestly quite realistic, especially factoring in Jean's job. All these places he's going and all these people he's meeting, it's literally just his job. He's not on vacation, these people aren't his friends, so the anime has no real reason to dwell much longer on places past its specific episode. Just like in real life, you encounter so many people and go past so many places that you probably won't ever see again. So for me personally, I didn't mind that the anime didn't explicitly show much about the backstories or lives of the cast, save for the very main characters (as their backstories were plot relevant). I think as viewers of not simply an anime, but a whole other world, I think it should be satisfactory to inherently understand that these are whole "people" who have entire lives that we are not exactly privy to. So although admittedly our understanding of many of the characters was all around quite shallow, I think that works for the scope of the anime, which was relatively simple and focused on just Jean living his life and the political plot stirring in the background until it was brought forward in the second half of the anime. Also I love Jean Otus. I actually completely absolutely adore him. He is literally my profile pic for myanimelist LMAO. I think calling him "bland" is fair from other people's perspectives, especially as the supposed main character of an ANIME, but I feel that if ACCA was in a different format like a novel, I think his personality would have been less criticized. Like I said, I love him soo much. I don't find him bland at all, but actually very interesting and highkey attractive LOL (if only he'd quit smoking but it's part of his charm 😞). Yes for an anime "protagonist," he is quite underwhelming especially compared to others, but I think that makes him very charming!!! Like all he wants to do is just chill, vibe, and do his job lmaooo. I think as a person, he’s very charismatic, and in the world of ACCA the rest of the characters see that as well. Because like, if he really were such a bland person, why would so many people like him and actually trust him lol? As for why it’s technically my favorite anime of all time (my ultimate one is a movie), I can’t give super detailed reasons why to be honest. I just really like the overall vibes of the anime itself, and I think the anime is just super unique and original. I’ve watched a ton of anime over the years, but I’ve genuinely seen nothing like ACCA in the slightest. I mean, just look at the recommended animes on the myanimelist. The recommended animes are all stuff I’ve also personally really liked (like fugou keiji unlimited and the great pretender) but yeah there’s just truly nothing that’s close to what ACCA is, and because of that, it reminds my absolute favorite anime show. I’ve seen the dub and the sub, even though I am a vehement dub hater lmaooo (except for very few circumstances, and this also applies to all non-English media, not just anime). There was only one thing in the entire show that slightly confused me/ seemed slightly unbelievable and I won’t spoil but it had something to do with the overall timeline of some events, but it doesn’t detract from the story at all. Oh and the art style! I really love the art style of the anime. It stays pretty true to the manga, but is also just an overall kind of art style I really like. I really enjoy the more like 2d/flat/drawn art style versus really clean and really detailed stuff, and I’m typically not a big fan of very obvious use of CGI (unless done tastefully like in Demon Slayer). All the backgrounds in ACCA have this painted/drawn style and the anime itself has this like muted(?) filter over it that makes the anime seem like someone’s drawings just put up on display in a way that’s really refreshing and nice. I highly recommend this story for anyone who wants a breath of fresh air and to get away from the typical action-packed high energy of big name anime.
4. From Up on Poppy Hill
Imma make a whole separate post JUST for this movie so I can explain why I love this movie so so much. And honestly, Imma need a whole separate post in the first place to address the elephant in the room when it comes to this movie (if you’ve seen it, then you know what I’m talking about). And if you’ve haven’t seen the movie, maybe you’ve heard about one of its controversial themes. I’m not gonna say what it is, cuz I KNOW it’ll be super off-putting for a lot of people, but please omg just hear me out. I just love this movie so so much. I’ve seen it like 7 times and counting. I have it downloaded on my computer and on a flash drive. I’ve watched the sub AND the dub however I’ve stopped watching the dub because it makes me sad every time I hear Shun’s voice actor ;-; This movie is legit an honest-to-god comfort movie for me that I could watch over and over and I’ll fall in love with it again each and every time. And once again IMMA MAKE A WHOLE SEPARATE POST BECAUSE I SWEAR PEOPLE ARE GONNA BE LIKE “Yo ain’t this the movie with the -----” and it’s like PLEASE LET ME EXPLAIN. The vibes of this movie, the themes it addresses (yes even THAT theme), the music, the art, the characters, is perfectly presented in a way that I will never stop watching this movie. The only other film that has come close to the amount of times I’ve watched From Up on Poppy Hill would be Legally Blonde lmaooooo.
#anime#anime movie#from up on poppy hill#psycho pass#acca: 13-ku kansatsu ka#violet evergarden#anime review#myanimelist
20 notes
·
View notes
Text
20 questions, writer's edition
I was tagged by @lambourngb - This was harder to fill out then it first appeared, btw.
1. How many works do you have on AO3?
118
2. What's your total AO3 word count?
516,223. I never looked that much at my statistics page before so that’s exciting to look at.
3. How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?
Oh my gosh, so many. 25 different ones on ao3, 9 more that were never cross posted from the pit of voles, and at least 5-10 fandoms from prior to either of those sites. LJ, Yahoo Groups, BBS boards, etc. A partial list includes: Roswell New Mexico (2019) (My most prolific with 40 fics on ao3 and more here on tumblr I never cross posted there.), Hetalia, Yuri on Ice, Supernatural, Samurai Warriors, Uta no Prince-sama, Voltron, Shadowhunters, My Hero Academia, Pirates of the Caribbean, Animal Kingdom, The Old Guard, The Walking Dead, Dynasty Warriors, The Witcher, Xyber 9, Shadow Raiders, Mummies Alive, Babylon 5, and Star Trek.
4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?
Before you judge a man, walk a mile in his shoes (The Old Guard) (Yeah, I had this one on anonymous for awhile.)
Until the TIme is Through (Roswell New Mexico) (Part of my Canon Divergent To the Moon and Back Series)
I Want You (Roswell New Mexico) (NSFW Malex)
Crash and Burn (Roswell New Mexico) (Part of my Canon Divergent To the Moon and Back Series)
Snow (Hetalia) (NSWF IvanxAlfred)
5. What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?
I’m torn between three actually:
Dormant (Hetalia) I always say I love two endings, happy endings and greek tragedies, but I rarely write the greek tragedies. Dormant is one of my exceptions. Hetalia has one character who is hinted at being immortal, and I took that and wrote a fic about an Extinction Level Event and him watching the other characters die around him while he can’t. I’ve always been really proud of this fic, despite it being one of the saddest things I’ve ever written.
Unclean (Roswell New Mexico) Which is almost the darkest fic I’ve ever written. It’s about Michael’s time in the home of the “Fundamentalist Religious Freaks” and the exorcism he mentioned. It ends after the drifter and is very much hurt, no comfort.
Hell is… (Roswell New Mexico) This is a ficlet I wrote for a prompt. And it’s a dark take about what could have happened to the pod squad if they’d been caught after the murders.
6. What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?
Almost all my fics have happy endings. So, what is the happiest? Probably either:
Deck the Halls (Roswell New Mexico) An Echo & Malex Christmas fic that is as fluffy as a fic that involves the Pod Squad, Christmas, and being attacked by anti-alien paramilitary groups can be. (Also, Echo has a cat called Grisabella the Glamour Cat because Max should not be allowed to name anything and nobody can convince me that wouldn’t be absolute canon in a committed Echo relationship.)
Or
In Over Their Heads (Yuri on Ice) A Seungchuchu with a fake engagement and unrequited feelings that aren’t actually unrequited. (And where Sara is Seung’s best friend because apparently I always write them that way and have no regrets.)
7. Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you've written?
I don’t write crossovers. Because I rarely find myself sold on the idea that the two stories exist in the same verse or can think of a way the characters would interact that would inspire me to write a fic.
8. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?
Yes, and pretty much anything. M/M, F/F, M/F, and Poly. Plus a large variety of kinks. (Yes, I was often on kink memes back in my LJ days.)
9. Do you respond to comments, why or why not?
I try to? I used to never respond because I didn’t know what to say, and then I tried to respond to every one, but there would be long gaps between when I checked and then I felt bad for responding so late, and sometimes I still don’t know what to say so I just end up not replying. XD
10. Have you ever received hate on a fic?
Surprisingly very little. Some harsh criticism - one in particular actually hit young me hard enough to stop writing for a while back in the day. But I tend to get more hate for my meta than my fics. Which is odd since my fics are usually very much representative of my meta.
11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?
Not that I’m aware of.
12. Have you ever had a fic translated?
Only one - a Dynasty Warrior fic of mine about the bond between CaoCao and Xiahou Dun was translated into Chinese. I mean, Dynasty Warriors is a video game literally based on The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which is based on chinese history, so for someone to want to translate one of my fics about it was incredible to me. Links below.
Honor
Translation: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4589910
13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?
No. I would probably drive a co-author nuts, tbh. I’m so inconsistent. And at the same time, I have a thousand thoughts.
14. What's your all time favourite ship? to write for?
I don’t actually have one? RNM has become my top fandom to write for, there’s no doubt. And while I think Malex is in the most fics among them, I’m not sure if that number surpasses other ships in other fandoms I’ve written for altogether. In fact, according to ao3, only 15 fics of my 40 RNM even have Malex in them at all, and not all of those are Malex-centric. In fact in at least 3, they’re a side ship.
I’d say that I probably write almost as many fics that are gen, friendship, family/found family feels, and character introspection as I do shipping fics. Which doesn’t really leave room for any one ship to be at the forefront.
15. What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?
None, I hope. LOL. There’s definitely a few that I have left uncompleted for a long time and feel guilty about but I’m not ready to say I’ve abandoned them yet. There’s a ton of ideas I have written down that I may never actually write. But none I have started that I don’t want to finish.
16. What are your writing strengths?
The three consistent compliments I’ve gotten are: I capture the characters’ voices in my dialogue. My writing tone is unique. My smut is super hot. XD (I have no explanation for the last one, because to be honest ¾ of my smut is always foreplay.)
17. What are your writing weaknesses?
Action scenes. I have been told before that my action scenes are very confusing. Also, I rarely give physical descriptions of people’s appearances because I honestly rarely stop to consider what they’re wearing or how their hair is done.
18. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?
It’s common in a couple of fandoms of mine, and I actually don’t mind it. Depending on the fic, it can be more realistic to me than otherwise. (I just appreciate it when the translation is also provided.)
19. What was the first fandom you wrote for?
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. But I never posted that one. Um… I think Ranma ½ was the first one I ever posted for others to read?
20. What's your favourite fic you've written?
Oh, gosh. Um… I know at one point I listed Dormant. But I think right now if I had to choose I’d say either
School of Hard Knocks (Roswell New Mexico) Which is my Michael-centric fic set in the lost decade.
Or
Duty First (Shadowhunters) My Magnus and Raphael “missing scene” from 02x20.
Tagging @manesalex @lovecolibri @islndgurl777 @ninswhimsy
#about me#writing#fanfiction#I'm actually gonna poke at people for once#but feel free to ignore my poke
7 notes
·
View notes
Note
2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 26, 27 from ask game
2. Are there any popular fandom OTPs you only BroTP?
oh, it's actually hard to answer bc pretty often my otps can work as brotps for me as well. it also means that when i can't ship some characters they don't work for me as friends either. not to mention that in asoiaf i'm open to many ships, and if i'm not very passionate about some it's not a sign i can't see them in romantic light.
5. Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?
may i say any sansa ship? 😭 as well as sansa herself lmao. idk generally i can't ship characters i don't like because i'm just not interested. and it's not to say i don't like book!sansa (show!sansa is another case 💀), i just don't find her arc as intriguing and epic as arcs of some other characters. however, it's absolutely her obnoxious fandom's fault that i don't want to touch anything about her now, pairings including. sansaery? pass. sansan? i used to have a soft spot for them in my heart but now? nah. sansa x anyone? pls have mercy, she's already a fandom bicycle.
and jonsa ofc. i would never mind some crack ship as i do this one if not for their obnoxious stans that did way too much to list there right now. but this burning desire to persuade every rock on the street that your crack ship is canon will never stop being ridiculous lmao
also braime. tbh i used to low-key like them but some of their stans weirded my away lol. i get that not all of them are like that but still. it's generally my great pain when i see braime/brienne/jaime stans who are also dany/targ antis. every time i see them i cackle and run away as fast as i can crying from disappointment lmao. it's really a pity because i'm either very neutral or like in my own way all three of them.
6. Has fandom ever made you enjoy a pairing you previously hated?
jonrya it is! i never hated them, you know, but they never were more than siblings and brotp to me. however, later i encountered the deluded crack ship fandom that shall not be named and understood that if there is any possible romance for jon with any of his sisters-cousins we all know which one it will be lmao. also their stans are very sweet and i really like many of their takes on arya and jon! i generally love relationships of jon and arya very much so it wasn't that difficult in practice to see them in a quite different light.
7. Is there anything you used to like but can't stand now?
meta culture lmao. reading different analysis and interpretations of the text used to be very interesting to me (and still is tbh but in other fandoms) though asoiaf is a different case. imo many people aren't honest in their so called theories and analyses. i get that all of us are biased but some "meta writers'" denial of their own biases influence fandom in a bad way. it looks like too many people run to them to get answers to their questions about any minor detail as if they were grrm himself. yk instead of using their own reading comprehension lmao. you see how this meta culture ruined fandom just looking at the most delusional stans and shippers who spread their agenda by writing endless text posts full of nonsense and bullshit but styled as oh so intellectual and thoughtful analysis. it's insane how many people actually buy it and don't check canon accuracy of such claims themselves. it got to the ridiculous point when random people try to argue with you with some far-fetched embarrassing "theories" as if they were canon facts or quotes straight up from a fanfic because they read somewhere some other confused soul's post and got from a context that this quote is canon (despite the fact that it wasn't written in grrm's style at all but some people can't use their brains even if their lives depended on it it seems).
anyway it's become too long and rambly already so tldr. because of such "neutral unbiased" analyses i got the habit of fact checking almost everything i see in such posts. there's only a small amount of meta writers from targ/dany/jon/arya stans that i trust because i know by practice and following them for some time that they don't pull anything out of nowhere, back up everything they say with canon quotes, don't decontextualize anything and (that is the most important thing to me) are reasonable and open to discussion unlike so many bnfs nowadays.
8. Have you received anon hate? What about?
ah, not in this fandom yet, god bless! i think i'm not loud enough for the needed amount of time to deserve it lol. but since i'm not going anywhere soon maybe one day i will 😂
9. Most disliked character(s)? Why?
robert baratheon and tywin lannister, obviously. tbh it's pretty hard for me to hate any characters because you know. they're fictional lmao. just lines on paper, they can't hurt you. and even such dudes as tywin or robert don't get real distaste from me if they're written well enough. my problem with them lies not only in their canon crimes and shitty consequences of those but in fandom's (or at least some parts of it) unwillingness to acknowledge that they're canonically written as shitty, not as stan/pity/worship material. tywin isn't as clever as some think and robert is a coward outside of battlefield, not to mention some absolutely disgusting denial of his nature from targ antis only because the man happened to be the most vocal targ hater in-universe so these folks feel like he is their main book representative and whitewash him completely lmao
10. Most disliked arc? Why?
uugh idk even. i'm either low-key interested (or used to be at least so i can stay pretty neutral for the sake of nostalgia lol) or too indifferent to really care.
11. Is there an unpopular character you like that the fandom doesn't? Why?
all my faves have their own crowd of haters i'm afraid 😭 but let me say rhaegar. even among some dany/targ stans my man is so misunderstood lmao. it's not even his fault i dare say it's fanon about his half-imagined crimes that somehow got widespread to the unbelievable degree. and when i say they're half-imagined i'm being very generous actually. ofc he isn't perfect, no one in asoiaf is. and yes, he's a pre-series dead minor character but almost all little information about him is actually positive, not to mention the narrative itself that doesn't paint him as a villain or just a shitty dude. on the contrary, he's an idealized to some degree dead prince who could've been a good king (like some other historical targaryens, jacaerys, baelor breakspear, aemon son of jaehaerys, etc.), a mysterious yet tragic figure. i have much to say about why it's so popular to shit on him in fandom but yeah. his haters should send their complaints to grrm instead, no one forced the man to write him like that lol. and i mean that no one has to like him ofc. but it's misinterpretation of the text to claim he was intentionally written as a villain or smth by grrm.
12. Is there an unpopular arc that you like that the fandom doesn't? Why?
i don't know if it counts as unpopular but i would say tyrion's arc as a whole because i enjoy his character and like in my own way. i can get why some people don't like him but this man will always have his own place in my heart i must admit.
13. Unpopular opinion about XXX character?
is this unpopular tho?.. ok but renly wouldn't make a terrible king. i dare say he would be better than both robert and stannis. yes, he wasn't shown as perfect and i don't claim this. he wouldn't be the best or the most brilliant or the most just or noble. yet still better than his brothers. his flaws weren't anything other high lords didn't have, his mistakes weren't anything other lords and kings didn't do. in many ways he would make a better job than robert or stannis, too bad he died so early, even though i get why it was important for the narrative.
26. Most shippable character?
well generally for me it's the ones i love the most lol. jonerys/snowstorm is my never dying otp but i admit my sins, sometimes i just see dany with other characters (often from other fandoms pls don't @ me). however, since dany is THE fave of mine it means i would rather twist the other guy or girl to fit into the good match for her than twist her for another character in my new born crack ship lol. and i never stay for too long with the ships with which i feel they don't really fit and don't do justice for each other lol. maybe that's the reason i'm not much of a rare shipper / crack shipper afshdjdb
27. Least shippable character?
everyone i don't like? 😭 as i've said sansa for the reasons above lol. you can insert many others in her place lmao
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
Given my profile picture, I should contribute here.
Well, I think he was largely screwed over in-universe and by Rick.
Writing camp Jupiter as “Greeks but more aggressive” (at least that was their introduction) was just a bad move. Because if you like Roman history, it’s genuinely not hard to justify a lot of Octavian’s “terrible actions” as a matter of different values and traditions. I can go into detail but this post will be long either way, so this time I will spare you.
Main point is - Rick didn’t write his story well. He assumes that we all believe the narrator so there’s no need to try and make the guy actually unlikable. The fact that the main characters don’t like him is enough. Bc we know that the main cast is doing good! So anyone who goes against them is bad. Yeah, no.
There’s no disprovable evidence that he is evil. His doubts about Greeks? Pretty fair tbh. Especially considering that CHB is really eager to dismiss any. Like, we know it’s bc they would never. But it would be suspicious to me too.
Also he is dismissed by most (if not all) characters. What was meant to be those clever owns, to humour the readers, it only made me personally go “oh so it’s not entirely unjustified that he’s like that”. He’s not taken seriously, his competence is questioned constantly and nothing he said really matters.
All he’s ever introduced as is a scrawny, unattractive kid with no real powers due to his, less exciting/powerful (compared to other characters), lineage. His abilities are doubted left and right and you can’t tell me it isn’t because of him being a legacy.
Which was honestly more so an issue with Riordan’s writing. He was meant to be this rich influential heartless guy. Someone who can screw with the seven, someone who (unlike the new guy Percy) has many people to support his actions. But all that was given up in the name of “knocking him down a peg” for the readers’ entertainment.
Like, people aren’t afraid to laugh, gossip, talk shit, disobey him. And considering his position- that’s not good. Like, if anything Rick gave me a reason to sympathise with the guy. He’s at the strong-people camp, respect-and-discipline-above-all camp. And he cant go “fuck it, I’m going back home after summer” bc that is his whole life.
He has to represent his family, has to care for the camp (like, where else will he go if sth happens lol), has to live up to being an augur even if people think he’s a straight up fraud.
So I can get it. I can technically understand where he could be coming from, even if Rick didn’t want me to. Plus, to me personally, playing the devil’s advocate at first was a part of it. Because honestly half of his “terrible traits” is the writer’s bias.
At first I just wanted to understand him, but I stayed bc of his personality tbh. Like, he’s so fun. He’s such a dramatic guy fr.
And, unlike many characters, he genuinely obeys orders from his superiors, even if he thinks they are wrong. Not bc he can’t be a leader, but he has respect for power and position. I can get in details how that is different than his last moments before death, but only if anyone is interested. Because this will get very long. Well, longer than it already is.
Also the guy was trying to do something for his people, was trying to help the Gods only to have Apollo disown him after he failed. Apollo is straight up like “that thing 🙄🙄”. The very family he tried to honour just forgetting him because his attempts only worsened the situation. I think that if Rick wanted to write him well, many ppl who like Hunter or Amity from owl house would also add him to the list of faves
Anyway, I want him so bad fr
Can someone please explain to me why people like Octavian? (/gen)
308 notes
·
View notes
Note
asking since your harry potter post was really interesting and made me wonder - are there any magic systems you really like or think are well-constructed and consistent? what are the traits of a good magic system?
oh i definitely don’t feel qualified to make any broad statements about what makes a magic system Good, it depends so heavily on what kind of story you’re trying to tell. i do want to say more about why i think the magic system in HP is ultimately bad though, and i have at least one example of a system i like to compare it with. under cut
very very early on in the HP series — i’m talking about the first few chapters of book 1 — we get the impression that magical ability does symbolize something? like think about how the series opens. the first chapter of the first book follows vernon dursley, a man who lives an extremely mundane life, likes it that way, and is highly perturbed by anything unusual happening or by anyone who seems out of the ordinary. he’s, what, CEO of a drill company or something? some comically boring but well-paying job. petunia is a housewife who passes the time spying on the neighbors. their infant son is already being spoiled and treated more like a prized possession than a human being. and these people hate anything they think is weird, which of course includes anything to do with magic. the dursleys know for a fact magic is real and it pisses them off and they hate it.
when harry is left at their doorstep, mcgonagall protests and says the dursleys could not possibly have less in common with magical people like them. either she or hagrid says something to the effect that the dursleys are the biggest muggles around, which stuck with me because it implies that magical ability lies on a spectrum and the dursleys, who are outright opposed to anything the slightest bit unusual, are the furthest from magical anybody can be. this implies all sorts of things about what magic could represent for the series going forward — creativity, rejection of social norms, etc. — and, since these people are harry’s only living blood relatives but he winds up finding community for the first time once meeting other witches and wizards, it appears to be setting up a found family theme. which all sounds perfectly good, and people will still cite this as being a theme of the books. the main problem with that is it isn’t the intended theme going forward at all.
JKR’s weird obsession with blood lineage honestly needs to be unpacked in a whole other post and i don’t think i’m the guy to do it but... obviously as the series goes on, the importance of blood family gets underlined again and again. it turns out harry is being protected by some sort of sacred maternal blood magic (which is never explained) and this is why he has to live with the dursleys, people he hates and has nothing in common with. the fact that they’re his blood relatives trumps anything else. magical ability generally is passed down within families, and in the later books much time is spent going over various magical lineages (voldemort’s family, dumbledore’s family, sirius’ family, the malfoy family, the hogwarts founders and their descendants, etc...). any notions of magic symbolizing creativity is undermined by the lack of actual creativity in how the magic is presented going forward (like i said in the other post, it winds up serving mainly utilitarian functions in the story) and as for rejecting the status quo, the series embraces the status quo. the happy ending the characters work 7 books to achieve just has everything “returning to normal” — voldemort is killed and the remaining death eaters dealt with, the ministry gets a new PM, hogwarts gets a new headmaster, and things continue on as they were before. issues of systemic injustice are left unaddressed, the subplots about magical beings fighting for full personhood status (centaurs, merpeople, house elves, etc) are left unresolved, slytherin house is allowed to continue on as an institution and presumably many wizards are still just as bigoted towards muggle-borns as they always were, and — oh yeah — the idea that muggles are innately inferior somehow? never explained or addressed. the takeway is just that if you can’t do magic, you suck. it’s so disappointing. all the pieces are there for a way better story (hey guys i think there might be some systemic problems with your magic school and your magic government do you wanna try fixing that maybe?) but JKR was never gonna write that story because it’s one she doesn’t believe in.
to summarize how magic works in harry potter just so i can really make it clear how boring it is:
magic ability is innate and the vast majority of people lack it. with relatively few exceptions, the ability runs in families — it’s rare for someone without magical ancestry to have the ability and it’s also rare for someone with magical ancestry to not have the ability
with only a few exceptions, all wizards are able to learn all spells. some wizards are stated to be unusually powerful but how much of this is due to raw magical potential and how much comes down to other factors like education, general intelligence and ability/willingness to learn, desire to cause harm in the case of the unforgivables, etc is unclear. some magical abilities, like being able to speak parseltongue or being a metamorphmagus (or whatever the fuck shapeshifters are called in this series) or being a seer, are innate and can’t be learned by most wizards. like magic itself, whether or not you have any extra ability seems to be genetic (these are all traits we know run in families)
in order to perform magic, devices like wands, cauldrons, etc are used as instruments or vessels to direct the user’s innate powers. there is no summoning, channeling, or ritual use involved and spells typically only go wrong if the wizard in question is inexperienced or something is wrong with their wand. with very few exceptions (the main one i can think of is divination, which is handled very ambiguously and most of what trelawney teaches is implied to be complete crap), magic works in very predictable and straightforward ways
so it all boils down to “you’re either a wizard or you aren’t, and you almost certainly aren’t unless you come from a magic family, but if you are — good news! you have basically the same abilities as any other wizard. don’t worry there’s nothing even vaguely pagan involved.”
which, like. how utterly dull. there are so many other ways one can approach these issues and nearly all of them that i can think of / have seen done are more interesting than this:
you could have a magic system where magical ability is much more specialized. instead of all magic users being all capable of more or less the same stuff, let’s say person A, B, and C are all magic users but each has a unique magical ability (say A can fly, B can talk to animals, C can become invisible) and, while they might be able to develop their individual talents and become stronger, they can’t learn each other’s skills. charlie bone, which is a crap series overall but which i do think has a more interesting magic system, falls into this category, as does a lot of superhero stuff although it’s generally not called “magic” in those stories.
another, similar, approach would be to have more specialized branches of magic that characters train under — say pyromancy, necromancy, etc. — and so, while it might be possible for a water mage to learn a fire spell or two, characters have much more individualized skillsets. RPG magic tends to be this, obviously. harry potter kind of vaguely gestures in the direction of this trope in that the professors obviously specialize in their particular subjects, but it’s not as if snape doesn’t know charms or whatever — it doesn’t amount to much of anything in practice as all the adult characters are capable of performing a diverse range of spells.
how does one wind up with the ability to do magic in the first place? is it innate, and, if so, is it random or does it run in families? is it associated with any other traits? are there drawbacks to being a magic user? can non-magical people acquire the ability to do magic through some other means, and, if so, does this represent an irreversible change? are magic users really “human” or are they something more? are non-magic users lesser? is there any loss of humanity associated with magical ability? do magic users channel their own innate power or are they channeling something else — if so, is it a godlike entity, demonic, or does it defy moral classification? is there “good” magic and “bad” magic, and, if so, is the delineation clear? if these are different branches of magic, are they wholly distinct in how they work or is there overlap? etc, etc, etc.
ultimately i don’t think anyone should be worried about finding the most unique combination of these tropes, because they’ve literally all been done 10 billion times — if i started off listing popular examples of how these tropes are handled in other media pandemic will have ended before i’m done. what’s important is how writers choose to handle these questions when telling their story. like, what does magic mean to the characters? what does their use of magic say about them? what does magic symbolize? etc... these are opportunities for the story to have Themes and Meaning and impart something to its audience! tbh i think it really says something that the magic in harry potter is so ultimately unimportant to the story that people didn’t bother asking the usual questions about what magic itself / the magic system might symbolize... if you look at what rowling might actually be trying to say with any of that, well, it’s not good.
i guess to end off with an example i like. in the bartimaeus trilogy, which is an extremely good YA series and i highly recommend, magic ability isn’t innate at all. magic in this universe is all done via summoning “demons” (energy beings from another plane of existence basically) and binding them to one’s will, which as you might expect is very dangerous if you fuck it up and summoning is on such extreme levels of academic bullshit that you basically have to study your entire life to do it safely (learning dead languages, being able to draw elaborate pentacles with perfect accuracy, etc etc). in practice, this means magic is something only the ruling class does / can afford to do. anyone in any significant position of power is a wizard, while everyone else — the “commoners” — is a second-class citizen under the thumb of what are essentially superpowered politicians. while the fact that magic exists isn’t a secret, the majority of commoners have no idea how it actually works, that it’s really just summoning and anyone can learn it. they’re being encouraged to think of wizards as innately superior/gifted and to defer to them as their betters. yknow, Or Else. there’s much more i could say about this but it’d wind up being its own post and i’d probably have to just break down the entire plot of the trilogy, but i think from what i’ve said you get a sense of the themes / commentary here.
this has run long but point being, magic systems Can be used to say something about the story and the characters and to make some sort of thematic point or provide social commentary perhaps, and i think it’s cool when they do. harry potter tries its best to avoid having the magic mean anything and when you do try and analyze what it means, you just get a story about how some people are just way better and cooler than others because of. uh. their blood. so rather than further unpacking that suitcase i say you could just throw it away and, as they say, read another book
#LONG poast under cut. sorry except i'm not#anon#inbox#many thoughts on the subject as it turns out i do apologize that it's messy#i have english major disease
9 notes
·
View notes
Text
Phi talks factions, ruling families, and endings yet again
After long long last I finished my talk about the factions! So let’s talk about them! There is some discourse about it on here and most of it is really interesting and I wanted to throw my own takes into the mix.
Also, will put this in the very beginning: This essay is very long and hinges on a lot of analysation of very broad topics of the game. It is very possible that I make mistakes in it. I would be delighted to know about them and engage in discussion, but please stay friendly. I tried my best to research and to stay analytical, but I am firstly human and secondly human with a memory that can fail me.
Anyway without further ado: Let’s begin the faction talk!
Prologue: Personal sympathy
This is supposed to be more of an analysation about how the factions work in my opinion. It is not supposed to be an explanation why my favourite faction is the Best™. Still, my opinions will obviously influence my own analysis. So for the sake of levelling the playing field and not even trying to play coy about it – or in case you were curious what my personal opinions are – I will start by listing my own opinions about the factions, the families and the endings.
I consider myself a Utopian but also have a soft spot for the Humble ideology. I just really like progress, I am an idealist who thinks striving for a perfect situation has value (even if I do not believe in practical perfection) and I just really like the Kains’ visions okay? Not their executions, mind you, but their visions. (I am just really really obsessed with magic that involves time and space as a concept…) And I think the concept of human potential is one of the most hopeful and important ones to society and trying to get more out of being a human being is just an important concept to me. But I also think the personal responsibility is really important and interesting and the thought about individuality vs. society is something that needs to be discussed, so the humbles are just really interesting to me and I sympathise with a lot going on there as well. Not that much of a Termite person though. Sorry
Concerning the endings: If I would be in a position to choose any ending for the town, I would choose the Termite Ending. I would just be really unhappy about it… But it is the only ending that doesn’t involve any direct sacrifice of life and I value that the most, even if I think the trade-off is still pretty devastating. I am still a Utopian, but potential lives in people. The ending I consider second best is actually the Utopian one and by process of elimination I like the Humble ending the least. You will probably learn why this is the case when we get to talk about the endings, so I am saving my argument for later. If it is about how much I like the endings from a narrative perspective: I am a passionate fan of the Utopian ending even though that is very frustrating since I see it in a rather… peculiar way, I think. I also love the Humble ending a lot and it just has the most personal tragedy and a lot to think about. The Termite ending… eh. It serves its purpose and is necessary but not really pleasing in analysis. Or if it is, it’s still a bit frustrating to talk about. It is very useful for writing fanfiction though. ^^
I don’t really have a favourite ruling family. I think the Saburovs are the most sympathetic, but I am also fascinated by the Kains. My favourite members are Victor and Capella.
Okay? Cool, now that we got that out of the way let’s start with the actual faction talk.
Part 1: What the factions are (and what they aren’t)
The factions are categories that are very broad and not very concrete. It is probably a good idea to talk about what they are first, before we make any statements about them. So, let us start how I look at them and what the factions stand for, before debating the rest.
Firstly: The factions are a part of classic Pathologic. From what I can tell and remember, they haven’t been mentioned in Pathologic 2 at all. Of course, we can see the struggle of different worldviews there as well, but the split cast of important NPCs is not mandatory in any shape anymore and in fact Artemy is now responsible for everyone in town. While the politics between the ruling families are mentioned and the Kains as well as the Olgimskys still share their beliefs, neither the term “bound” not “faction” is introduced in the game. However that might be because we are starting with the Haruspex as our protagonist. The factions are a bit more important in the other two routes of classic Pathologic after all. The Bachelor being concerned with its politics and the Changeling with its ideology itself. So the terms might be introduced later. For now, their conflict may be a part of Patho 2 and certain aspects can be definitely seen, but they aren’t present yet. So we are mostly talking about Classic Pathologic here.
The factions are introduced in two different ways. First and foremost, they are three different ideologies that are present in the town and by definition in the entire story. It is also told, that the whole town is split into these factions and that roughly one third of the town each belongs to either faction. It is also explained, that the factions are purely made by the ideology and that people of different gender, heritage, age and class can align with different factions. (Which means that they aren’t equivalent to the different parts of town that are at least roughly divided by social status). There is also a philosophical level that strengthens the ideological importance each faction holds, but in this essay, I will focus on the ideological part and how it affects society. That means there is another layer that we won’t be touching today, but believe me, we have enough to do as it is.
The other aspect of the factions is the bound of each healer. All of the bound collectively are described as “Simons friends” at least in the Bachelor route and all of them are now split into the three factions. The name “bound” however is to be taken literally. The characters are part of the agenda each faction follows, however, that doesn’t necessarily mean, that the person one hundred percent shares the ideology of the faction! Most of them do, but it is important to keep in mind that peoples belief-systems still vary and the aligning criteria is the importance to the goal of said faction and not necessarily their own way of thinking. People’s mindset and beliefs can vary after all and some of them even have dynamic arcs (tbh Most of them have). The other way around people can be not a part of the bound of a faction and still share their beliefs. This will be important later! For the Utopians the specific bound criteria is “people who have the potential to overstep human boundaries in any way or form”. They are needed for the creation and upholding of the Utopia as it is imagined. Its goal is in some way after all to create something that oversteps the boundaries of what should be humanly possible. For the termites… well… it’s children. It’s all about the children, it is the children who are able to carry the town in the future. And for the humbles it is the sinners, whose souls are rotten to the core (I guess…). That isn’t only because the Humbles just really like sinners but they are directly needed for Clara’s solution and the Humble’s ideology of willing self-sacrifice in order to maintain society.
Okay. But what are the factions? What do they believe in?
Let’s start with the Utopians, because their whole schtick is kind of in the name. This faction is all about the potential of humanity and striving to create perfection. This is happening with the awareness that such a feat is at least deemed impossible. So, their goal is the defeat – or the power to overcome depending on who you ask – of the nature that prevents them from this kind of progress not being achievable. They value this progress and the possibility to overcome those odds over personal as well as societal comfort and justify it with the belief, that said growth would benefit society in the long run. That being said, not every Utopian thinks this strive for growth needs to be shared by everyone, though a society collectively working towards breaking limits as a whole is preferred. (An example would be Maria's explanation of the town, stating that mundane human life is very much necessary to sustain a Utopia). The Utopians are prone to brash decisions, since part of their ideology is that they are necessary to disrupt the status quo and change – even enforced one – is needed to get rid of complacency and provoke new development of the unforeseen (which is very much needed since we are working against “nature” (the literal one as well as the nature of fate and possibility). Their drawbacks are that brashness and the disregard of comfort. Their potential elitism is shown by their value of humans who try to disrupt the status quo and their adamant protection of people who can move society as “more important” and thus worthy of more protection. (However it is noteworthy that a lot of this thinking was introduced by Georgiy in Pathologic 2 and Marble Nest. I still think it is a legitimate drawback but much less used in P1, where the factions are a thing.) This doesn’t necessarily relate to elitism of an elite class (it can though!) but more so to academic elitism. On the other hand, they have the drive to move things forward, they literally are the builder of society and developers of indescribable magic.
The Termites can be considered the opposite of the Utopians. I have struggled to put a definitive description of them for quite some time because they are the group whose representatives have vastly different ways of thinking. Anyways, I have seen the Termite ideology being described as “preservation” by RagnarRox in “Pathologic 2 is an underrated masterpiece” and I think, that fits amazingly. It is about protection and regaining a status quo where everyone can live their daily lives content and as it was before. The children are supposed to be leading the town into the future, but especially in Patho 1 this is more about taking what the past has already shaped and using this as a guide instead of implementing new ideas and philosophies as the utopians and the humbles do (for better and for worse). If we look at how Capella describes her vision of the town, we can also see that it is about togetherness and comfort. Which makes sense if it is the antithesis of the utopian dream. It doesn’t sacrifice progress just because it wants to but because it endangers people’s comfort and personal safety. Disrupting the status quo can lead to catastrophe and make people unhappy, therefore it should be avoided. People should serve the community but that also means not committing to self-fulfilment that can endanger this togetherness. Khan needing to give up on his own ambitions to serve Capella’s vision of the town might be a good example for that. While there is this bond of togetherness there is also the need for leadership. Again, preservation and comfort are highly valued with the Termites and it is established by a leadership that is supposed to act as gentle but firm guidance. With the children being the bound, there is a strong emphasis on parenthood and again Capella – as the white mistress and the termite's leader – is accepted as taking the leadership together with Khan who are ruling together with love as well as fierceness. Artemy also has his journey of establishing leadership within the kin and dethroning the person who is unfit for the role. It is implementing change but to restore balance and only inside the already established rules. I would say it fits more as a case of rightful leadership that still stems from the menkhu families and Artemy proves himself while using his father’s lessons and notes. And the kids themselves are fated to lead the town itself as the chosen ones that Capella implored Isidor to protect, and set its rules, so that there are the boundaries to keep a way of living established while not needing to change this status quo and what hopefully is a harmonic way of interaction between people. So. Now that we have established what the Termites are, I think with this specific faction it is still important to also name what they aren’t. Firstly: The Termites are an ideology of the town’s future. They aren’t the kids club. Yes, all the Termites are kids, but as mentioned before the factions in themselves are a third of the population with varying members who believe the Termites to have the best solution for the town at hand. There are other members (and I will later talk about the Olgimskys and big Vlad specifically as representatives of the Termite ideology) but the kids are the bound because they are specifically needed to set this new order that they want to established. I would argue that some of the kids have principles that are more adjacent to other ideologies. The obvious one would be Khan who has goals that do not align with his family but similar dreams and more radical ideals about overthrowing the status quo. But Grace also seems to be more of a humble, focusing on caring about others and being quite selfless and self-sacrificing in her care for the dead. That means, the kids fill an important role but we have the strange conundrum that most of this factions bound isn’t together because of their ideology. I will try to take them into account still, but if you see me focusing on Capella and Artemy, this is one of the reasons. There aren’t that many people who clearly speak about the Termite’s vision. The Termites also aren’t the Kin. They are connected to each other but again, the Kin is a specific part of the town which the ideology clearly avoids. (And parts of the Kin are not part of the town and actually stand in opposition to it. Moreso in Patho 2 but with the conflict of the herb gatherers we catch a glimpse of that.) And the children are also representatives of different parts of the town and not of the Kin. The Kin are obviously linked to the towns ancient tradition and preserving their traditions honourably is Artemy’s specific journey. Still, they aren’t the same and with both Aspity and Oyun we have characters who are Kin and also part of a different faction.
Speaking of the Humbles. What’s up with them?
The Humbles also have a name that speaks for itself: It is based around the main idea of being humble. There are different consequences of this main core. The first and in my opinion most important one revolves around responsibility and self-sacrifice. The Humbles expect the individual to sacrifice part of themselves for the whole. I mean… that is quite literally what the ending is about. As with the Termites there is a togetherness but this one doesn’t revolve around looking out for each other (at least not specifically) but about looking at oneself and what you could and should do for society to work best. It puts responsibility not on a collective and its leaders but on yourself and needs you to ask what you did right, what you did wrong and how to take consequences for your own actions. This includes a chance for redemption as well as condemnation. For the purpose of evaluating yourself in contrast to society it is also about self-reflection. You need to look at yourself and at your deeds constantly and this analysation and the realization that you can and will fail as well as that you as a human being have your own limits you cannot and should not cross are what lead to humbleness in the first place. Yulia as a sinner, whose very sin is shaping the very ideology and establishing her ideals over the self. This brings us to the second pillar of the humble ideology: fatalism. It is also to see yourself in context of a greater scheme and accepting these very boundaries. Fulfilling your duty in the way the universe demands of you and seeing yourself unavoidably as a puzzle piece of said force is a big deal for a lot of the Humbles. Yulia is the prime example. Lara actively dislikes her fatalism but still follows her father’s footsteps in her attempt to assassinate Block. Aspity moves in the constriction of the Kin and her fate while still being the one who advocates most for change. The Saburovs are all about law and order albeit in different ways. Oyun cannot do what is entrusted to him which causes his horrible deeds in the first place, because he cannot accept at first that he is not fit for the position (or as the words of a humble: not destined for it). And Clara is struggling with what her fate imposes on her and her very being while trying to control her circumstances as well as the fate of the people entrusted to her. It all is about analysing but also about abiding to the whims of fate and facing the consequences of acting either against it, failing it or resorting to violence against society to fulfil it in the first place.
As you may see, all of these categories are rather broad. Of course, they are, they are made to encompass very different views of the world from different characters. When Victor speaks about working towards overcoming bounds he sure as hell means something different than Andrey. Hell, Dankovsky has no idea what Georgiy is talking about half the time! Lara and Yulia are both Humbles, yet Lara explicitly states that she hates the way Yulia weaves her fatalism in her ideology about the self. And well… the Termites are a very special case regarding the factions in general, being more of a symbol of their ideology than its actual believers. So let's get to the meat of this whole post. We now have a grasp on what the factions are about, but… why? Why are they in the game, what are they trying to say?
Part 2: Presentation of the factions and the ruling families
Well… after making an incredibly long introduction, let’s stop talking around the bush. Here is my conclusion about the game’s stance of the factions: … … I am sorry to conclude, that all of them suck. All of them. They are the worst and none of them are worthwhile in themselves. I am sorry.
Okay, okay, okay. Obviously, they are not only terrible. They have their upsides and all of their ideals are rather beautiful. Making potential become a reality is great! So is comfort and stability, we all could sure as hell use some of that! And the principle of giving something of yourself into society, taking responsibility and the ability to care into consideration… boy is that a good idea! But still… the factions suck. And that is an inherent aspect of them just because they are ideologies. And very unsubtle and uncompromising ideologies at that. To quote novel author Dorothy Sayers “The first thing a principle does is killing somebody.” A principle, if it is used without reflection, always has destructive potential. Even if it is the principle to save as many lives as possible. Put into the wrong dilemma, it will kill. (A single glance at the healer’s path’s is enough to confirm that.) And all three factions have some really potentially bad implications exactly because their ideology is so vastly applicable. It isn’t only about emergency situations, but a lifestyle that regards one way of setting priorities as absolute. Of course, that on its own must go horribly wrong! Leave one single way of thought unattended and it will guide you into fucking catastrophe!
I think the easiest way to highlight this theory and the best prove of the game’s acknowledgement of this line of thought is to take a look at the ruling families. The fact that there are three of them is no coincidence. All three families do not only represent one of the factions but also the destructive extreme this faction can develop.
Let’s start with the Kains again, because their case is the most obvious one and the theme of Utopia and thus uncompromising perfection that has a destructive force is in the fucking title of the game. And creating a project that causes the plague in the first place, forcing the Kin to dig the very hole that tears into the heart of the earth – which they sure as hell did not agree with! – conducting human experiments with their buildings and manipulating the situation so that the Polyhedron gets saved even sacrificing the town for its sake… yeah these are some pretty shitty things to do and they all relate to the Utopian ideal and their strive for development, progress and forming humanity as well as society. And sacrificing everything in order to elevate progress is… obviously a bad idea, especially if it involves using people who never consented to such a sacrifice in the first place! With only development – social as well as personal – in mind the scope of said sacrifice cannot be measured at all, leading to devaluing peoples well-being. It is a horrible thing that harms a lot of people and the strict enforcement of the Kains bring a lot of harm to the town. This damage doesn’t only turn against the town but also has a self-destructive tendency. The self-sacrifice that is demanded to keep the spirit of Simon and Nina is eating the entire family alive. Their strict family loyalties seem to have driven Khan off in the first place (though since his role is “The Termite of the Kains” and he holds a strange middle ground I think he is kind of excluded from the “most extreme faction”-stance). Victor and Georgiy are losing their own identity and eventually their life for the sake of a soul that they consider of higher status than them. And Maria loses her own self to become the next mistress and lead what is left of the town into a new age, which Victor laments as her father because he is literally losing his daughter! The family – even if they “win” the whole town conflict – is actively falling apart and is completely fractured if not destroyed in the end. Not only is the sacrifice the town has to endure obviously morally unacceptable but the disregard of comfort in favour of a greater cause is inherently self-destructive. Which leaves the question: Who is this Utopia even build for, who benefits from it, if everything but it is sacrificed? So yeah, what the Kains are doing and especially the way they are using the Utopian dream in its purest form is absolutely and incredibly flawed.
Sooo… what are our alternatives? How about the Saburovs? They are righteous and they care about people! I mean… yeah. They do! Buuuuut… their handling of the situation is also very… debatable to put it nicely. Let’s start with the obvious: putting everyone in prison who seems mildly suspicious while a highly contagious plague is ravages the town is just… horrible. It is a prolonged and cruel death sentence to many people either desperate or innocent. And yes, he himself did it with the utmost desire to protect society as a whole from the criminals and organized street violence but… surprise, that is what the humble ideology is about! Judging the individual according to sin without taking circumstances into account is one of the extremes the Humble-ideology has. You should stay put and work towards the common good and acting against that should be judged harshly!! If taken to an extreme it disregards personal circumstances and even a human approach towards the individual. And even if it hits innocents, the few have to take personal sacrifice for the many. Giving your life to uphold stability should be considered a good thing… right? Of course, the faulty leader should also be held responsible… So the judge becomes the judged and the executor of the ideology is destroying himself. Again, we witness the ideology's self-destructive aspect when taken to the extreme. Judgement and assigning responsibility for overstepping with no account on the human situation, looking out for the other individual or questioning where established boundaries should be pushed, will lead to draconian law where the single human being doesn’t matter in the first place! And that… doesn’t sound like a society one wants to live in, does it?Katerina has her own case of judging people albeit in a religious way. Her view splits the world into the sinners and the righteous and sentences the former to death while the others will survive what she is seeing as the plague's judgement. Do I have to elaborate why this is a bad take and why judging people to death based on being a sinner is… just awful? Especially when we look at the humbles and how some of them may have done some shit but definitely not something that warrants death. (Yulia and Rubin being examples, but I also think Lara shouldn’t like… be judged with death. Well, truth to be told I think nobody should be judged with death… Ever.) So seeing the Changeling’s power as a saintly sign is… bad not only on a societal level but also bad because pressuring a teenager like that is just a the worst. Which brings us the Humble’s second point and the one that Katerina personifies as well: Personal responsibility. The Humble ideology isn’t only about sacrificing the individual and applying judgement but also about self-reflection and taking responsibility. Which sounds really good but can be devastating when taken too far. Which brings us to Katerina’s journey of becoming a mistress and her devastating experience of trying to fit into a role that was expected of her to fill. Desperately trying to fulfil a fate that seems to be yours can destroy you. Her despair of not fulfilling as a mistress as well as a wife (in her own terms) are honestly soul wrenching and tragic. And it is an example where letting go of personal duty and seeing to oneself would have been for the best.
Okay so the Saburovs establish a society that seems awful to live in and also actively destroy themselves (they also die with their ending, something they share with the Kains). Which leaves us with… the Olgimskys. And yeah… I think we all agree that they couldn’t exactly be called a beacon of goodness in the world… The way the bull enterprise is handled is exploitative to say the least, dividing the town and enabling even more racism and class distinction. But what does that have to do with the Termites? After all, only Capella is part of the bound. Which is true but the Termite bound is also the children bound and I would dare to argue that the Olgymskys are unassigned because they represent the ruling families of the Termites but cannot apply as their bounds because of age reasons. Capella is pretty much the head of the Termites, the way Maria and Clara or Katerina are the mistresses of the other ideologies and Big Vlad… well Big Vlad is what the other ruling families are to the other factions. The best reason to stay away from it. (And I could make a point about young Vlad but to not stretch this too much, I will keep it short. Let’s just say that he has a dynamic role in the factions and more or less grows to be a Utopian and is not even really acknowledged at the Bachelor Route. I would put him in the same category as Khan and say that the Kains in themselves still are connected to the Utopian ideology. There are some really interesting parallels between Khan and Young Vlad btw. Both have strong parental issues and feel confined in their role, both appear in the letter about the Bachelor’s and the Haruspexe’s decision as a hopeful addition that isn’t fixed… I am pretty sure there is something to say about that, but this essay is not the right place for it.) There are two main themes with the Termites that are very present in the Olgimskys: stagnation and oppression. I think how the Olgimskys are specifically oppressive and moreso than the other families is pretty self-explanatory. They do not want to bind people to the law or their ideas but to themselves and especially big Vlad is very keen on ruling the town and leading its people directly and forcefully. (And while Capella is obviously the kinder part of the family, she too shares this sentiment. Her alliance with Khan is to align the two families but also to gather force with his dogheads and establish rulership.) They want to be obeyed without question or an established guidebook that gives specific reason to their judgement. But why is this specifically a problem the Termite ideology faces? Well the Termites are about ensuring peoples comfort and life and they do this for any cost. One thing this entails, is saving people from their own ambitions and forming them according to this belief. (Again, Capella’s alliance with Khan and how she sees it is a nice example). They are establishing that humanity should remain in their natural ways, complacent so to speak, while a few chosen individuals lead the town and its people. (The Termites are supposed to do this in the future that is why they need to survive in the first place.) And if we drive this belief and this “ruling as family” ideology, we arrive at Big Vlad’s doorstep. He is the father, he will take care so exactly obey to his wishes without question. Preserve the system that allows you comfort without overstepping your boundaries. Preservation of a system also means preservation of the ruling system without further questions. (And I will remind you that Forman Oyun gets overthrown because the place is not rightfully his and he sucks because of this and the right order gets restored with the right ruling family watching over the Abattoir upholding their alliance with the Olgimskys even if it is now Capella.) In its extreme the Termite ideology can lead to oppression on the guise of guidance and questioning this is not only almost impossible but only allowed to the few people already chosen as the leading caste. (Also if you want to have another look at the connection between preservation and oppression, have a look at “The Void” or “Turgor” and its Brothers which is another game by Ice Pick Lodge. Their whole stick is preserving their realm by oppressing the sisters. The Void seems to reference similar themes in general and can kind of seen as the game’s antithesis… But I digress and just wanted to recommend the game. It’s good!) Why the other problem – stagnation – is a part of preservation is easy to see, but how does it afflict the Olgimskys? Well, firstly it is a big theme in the infight the family has and the conflict that tears the Vlads apart. While Young Vlad wants to follow his legacy, he doesn’t want to follow the exact ways leading to the family breaking apart. Vlads stubbornness and his unwillingness to rectify old mistakes and… I don’t know… open the Termitary is also part of this. Closing it – while done by Young Vlad – is done to preserve the status of the town and deny the plague and its changes to society for as long as possible. A plan that is very, very costly in the long run betraying the Olgimsky’s own duty to ensure their peoples life and safety in the first place! Again, the ideology eats itself.
Of course, only talking about the most extreme and negative example isn’t entirely fair. And I think there is worth in every faction. They obviously aren’t all bad and the ruling families are twisting and radicalizing what could be a good idea. So… was this whole talk about the ruling families just some intellectual pastime that proves how the rulers are shitty but the factions in themselves aren’t? Do they only kind of suck? Or can we actually find the games stance of this radicalization and how each faction alone could affect the town negatively on a larger scale?
Part 3: The endings of the game
So let’s talk about the endings, since they are literally established as the “successful” outcome for each of the factions. And with that I mean that the fate of the town is decided in favour of one of the factions, eradicating the others and their own hopes and ambitions in return. Best it is seen with the Utopians and the Termites, whose dreams are mutual exclusive by the destruction of the town or the Polyhedron alone. But if we consider that the ending also establishes a new way of living in town and a certain social system, we can see the same with the Humbles. (We can also see this if we think of the Humbles goal as a means to restore the town at its best in favour of personal sacrifice, which still doesn’t happen in the other endings, since part of the town gets destroyed.) For the factions, the plague also brings a chance to shift the power dynamics of a town to their direction and this is referenced by several characters trying to make use of this situation or at least struggling to maintain their power. (The ruling families are again the worst offenders of this. The Kains try to guide the Bachelor to their cause from the very beginning and a lot more deliberate in the second half. The rulers’ unwillingness to even acknowledge the plague, Saburovs’ abuse of administrative power, the way Katerina urges Clara to convert townsfolk, Capella’s alliance with the Haruspex… I can go on, but I think we have talked enough about the ruling families.) Long story short: The endings are distinctly aligned with one side of the power struggle. (By the way this isn’t necessarily the endgoal the healers are striving for. I think it is apparent by now, that I align the factions more with the ruling families rather than the healers, because the healers’ first priority is getting the plague problem solved one way or the other and there are different motives for their solutions. Also they can choose a different healers opinion so they aren’t like… one hundred percent absolutely bound by their ending even if they still align with it. But I digress yet again.) So, they – as the “win” of each faction – are a good way to see how they would hold up on themselves and without the other factions interfering. I will analyse the sacrifice they put on the town as well as the society they are striving to build up (since this is what the factions are about. Changing society). Will one of them hold up and present us with a good solution?
I will not even try to create suspense. We all know, I think that they don't. They all bear sacrifices in contrast to what we had before that make the situation actively worse. A video that sums it up better than I can is SulMatul’s “Heroism in Futility; Pathologic, The Void and the Hero Narrative”. The video is really good in general but it also makes a point of pointing out, that Pathologic as well as the void do not offer a standard “good end” where the hero saves the day, because every possible solution is tainted in one way or another. The heroism Pathologic shows (as well as “The Void”) is struggling against a doomed cause and a hopeless situation despite the odds and not about becoming victorious in it. The Artbook of Pathologic 1 states as much, describing the whole scenario of the game as a trap, where the problem is that every ending can be seen as a victory as well as a failure. So, we have some strong sources but still: Let us look at the endings again and see, if my thesis holds up, that it is the ideology of the factions and the remaining of one in each ending that amplifies the problem the town will face after the catastrophe.
We’ll start with the Utopians, yet again. I think they make the most immediate impression and are easiest to describe. Because, you know… destroying a town and killing the sick is really fucking bad. (Though I feel sometimes it’s forgotten that the healthy get “vaccinated” (immunised for some hours) and evacuated before. It’s not about eradicating all townsfolk. And if I would be a true hypocrite I could be like “Do you find any infected districts and sick people on day 12 that you can’t heal, huh?” But that would be… quite ridiculous and I’m sure the sacrifice of the sick is very much intended here. Let’s just assume that it does kill the sick.) It seems hardly worth it and it very much represents the harshness of the Utopians. So, let’s see how it applies to the ideology. The ending for the most part sacrifices life and comfort for humanities progress. This is what the protection of the Polyhedron is about. The Utopians are not protecting it because they find it kind of pretty and it also is not a preservation of something culturally cool (which would be more the Termite way of thinking) because the usage of it is supposed to vary after the end of the story. (The children are leaving the tower so that the soul of Simon can be housed in the building.) But it is supposed to make the impossible possible and ensure humanities triumph over nature, break boundaries and create new impossible ideas. The visions of the new town Peter describes, tell us as much. It is not only about a building but about a new order, where the impossible is created and where the amount of energy is a crucial aspect of the vision. So, if we weight the different solutions against each other from out outside player perspective, we can see how tied the concept of the solution is to the Utopian idea. We already have a very steep sacrifice for the Utopian ideology here. The other aspect of the Utopian ending establishes this “creation through destruction” mantra that the Utopian ideology can impose in a different light: The Utopian end focuses on eradicating the plague. Which is… actually a good thing for once but still tied to the themes of the Utopians and making their involvement in it stronger. If we look at the Utopian end from a cold analytical perspective, it is literally destroying the playing board creating a tabula rasa, to start this whole town project again. (Or at least that is what our mistress Maria alludes to and who is in charge after the whole ending?…) Which is a very radical use of what the Utopians are about, carry out your vision rash, immediate and drastic and if it doesn’t work, then leave it behind and try again (the stairways to heaven tell a similar story). Which ultimately leads to a sacrifice that is way too big because the losses aren’t supposed to be considered at all.
So what about the counter thesis? If the Utopian ending is so bad, then the termite ending must be the solution. Well… it solves some problems. Mostly people not dying. Which definitely is a really good thing! But it also comes with its own drawbacks. Namely the destruction of the Polyhedron first and foremost. Which you know… doesn’t seem like that important… It's just some building. Until we reapply the meaning of eradicating the chance to work for the impossible – which the Utopian ideology enables – and a strive to triumph over nature and improve humanity as a whole. Then it suddenly becomes a huge deal. Destroying the Polyhedron is not only about destroying some cool architecture project of some very bored capital graduates (even though this is sure a thing we are doing) but about preventing humanity's progress. We are saving life but we are also preventing the chance to develop a system where humanity can grow, develop new amazing and helpful things and might even reject their mortality as a whole. And even if the last part sounds kind of insane, please consider, that Pathologic is still very much set in a world where magic and miracles exist. We rely on the magic the earth provides in both other routes, see the prophecies of the mistresses and the theatre, visit a talking rat prophet and we can see the magic of the Polyhedron when we visit it as the Bachelor on day nine and of course in the secret ending. Acting like the ambitions as well as the magic of the Utopians is completely unreachable and should be outright rejected, undermines the cost the Termite ending takes to ensure their own victory. So I would argue that there is at least the possibility of the development of humankind and progress into new developments that can help people in general that get destroyed to ensure the lives of the sick as well as the old rules of the town. And that is definitely a costly exchange! This also brings me to an argument that I hear a lot and also want to deny here: “But if the town exists, more towers and miracles can be build again so its not really that great of a loss.” And while this can hold true for the very similar Diurnal ending (if we are really nice and not deny every form of magic, which is kind of the point of that ending… but I digress), the ending in favour of the Termites negates this. Firstly, it explicitly invents a “town of men” where this strive for destroying nature should be prevented. Secondly… the whole underground fluid thing still isn’t really fixed… because that is what gets saved by the Haruspex this is his goal. Which allows for the Panacea but also means that the plague and the traditions that cause the infection aren’t actually off the table. If we would create another Polyhedron the plague would appear again. The old ways of the town are hardly questioned, and they actually cannot be – at least in a way that implies substantial progress over nature – because the laws that get re-establishes actively prevent exactly this. The thread of the plague isn’t gone completely – even if certainly postponed because of the Polyhedrons removal. And that resources run out and the knowledge gets obscured is shown how littler there even is knows about Isidor's earlier experiments. So, we are either creating a word, where humanities progress is distinctly stopped or we create a situation in which the same mistakes that will cause the plague aren’t prevented at all and humanities mistake will repeat themselves. We created a situation, where movement is not possible and actually actively prevented.
The third one – the Humble ending – establishes a balance where both structures can be preserved but movement is still possible. Which first sounds like all is good and the life of only a handful of people could be worth the cost, if we outweigh them against the systematic costs the other endings provide… right? Well… apart from peoples life’s never being a “cost”… this only can hold true if we cannot find a societal problem with this. And we can. Again, with all endings we can see the broad ideologies coming into play and so the very problem of the endings are, that they follow the factions rules so exclusively and absolute. The Utopian end sacrificing life and comfort for progress and vision, the Termite end sacrificing progress and vision for comfort and life and the humble end… what does the Humble Ending do? Well the Humble end saves the precarious balance between the Town and the Polyhedron but at the cost of personal sacrifice. While all aspects of the town may exist the same is true for the plague that gets neither destroyed nor subdued but instead is still active and handled by constantly applying a cure. A cure made out of the humans blood of those who sacrifice themselves for sustaining this very system. Which does mean we will need constant human sacrifice to sustain this system at all. And since a town and a societal system should last for quite some time and there is no other solution in sight to deal with the plague without firing a shot after all… we are facing a plethora of problems. Firstly: If we assume that for some reason the Changeling – or at least her miracles – are now as immortal as Simon was and she will not suddenly disappear leaving us with no one to even make the cure that we need, then what happens if the sinners we have chosen at the end of the game run out? And if we assume that the town will not like disappear after some years – which shouldn’t be the goal at all! – that will happen eventually. Who gets chosen and for what reason? I remind you again, that this is not a personal thing that people can do if they want, there is a societal need for people to die, it is integrated into the very system of the town. So how do we decide that? Are we just sentencing people to “cleanse themselves by human sacrifice” and just choose the worst criminals? That can be faulty and – again – the death penalty is something that we shouldn’t apply to society! Do we accept a willing sacrifices? Great, now that sounds like important and innocent life being taken for all the wrong reasons and can also hit someone who suffers from suicidal depression! Do we hope that our dear mistress continues her burden and selects who should die next.? That sounds like a horrible fate for Clara and also like a very unjust system. But sentencing someone to death because of a systematic need sounds incredibly unjust in the first place! Plus… you know with a highly contagious and deadly plague sometimes roaming the town, a cure doesn’t mean that nobody will die because of the plague. There still is a high lethality, personal reasons to obscure things and just a frightening time limit. Not to mention that the sandplague hurts before it kills so the pain aspect and the fear of the disease is still lingering. It sure is better then everyone contracting it and dying and the cure is a solution but… not exactly to every aspect of the disease, especially when we do not have the means to subdue it, that we have in the other two endings.
I hope that I was able to show that the endings might solve the catastrophe at hand, but all of them with a cost so huge that the specific solution can become debatable. Defeating the plague for good while saving the possibility to proceed further is really amazing, but destroying the entire old structure and killing the sick is a horrible tradeoff. Subduing the disease is definitely good, but at the cost of destroying the potential to enhance future life or even save more people in the long run and with integrating the enablement of repeating the same old mistakes doesn’t sound like a complete solution and more like turning the wheel and waiting for it to reappear at the same side (or you know… stopping it from turning all together). Preserving the town as well as its wonders is absolutely miraculous but allowing the plague to partake in this new system and requiring human sacrifice as a societal solution is a pretty dystopian thought. Again, the Artbook of classic Pathologic describes the whole scenario and its solutions as a trap. And it is! Because there is no right answer, we have to choose what we apply as a necessary evil and this is all we can do. There is no good ending we can find.
Conclusion: The meaning of “Utopia”
So where does that leave us? And what does that have to do with the factions? Remember the quote I used at the beginning of my argument? “The first thing a principle does is killing somebody.” And we can see the effect of this with every of the factions. The rashness and costly sacrifice of the Utopian ideals is seen by the way the Kains’ act and the loss of live the Utopian solution provides. The Termites disregard of progress and the oppression that is its result can see in the way the Olgymskiys’ handle its people as well as the sacrifice of the Termite ending. The Humbles enforcement of punishment and their harsh self-reflection influences the Saburovs’ judgement and leads to their solution at the cost of constant human sacrifice in the end.
So… does this mean that there is no hope? Should we assume that all of these solutions and ideas suck and leave this whole essay this depressed? That would be a shame and also missing the mark of what Pathologic is about. It is a tragedy, that much is true, but it is definitely not without hope and humanity. Because all the examples I use have one thing in common: They are examples of the radicalization of each faction and in its sole survival against the other factions. A principle on its own might kill. But that is why there shouldn’t be only one principle. Clara is right when she reminds the other two healers that killing one part of the town of is still killing. That there is a balance that must be uphold and we can see this balance in other characters. We can see Notkin’s idealism that is still rooted in earthly matters and a deep care for his people. We can see Eva’s kindness being born of idealism combined with her will to give herself away to other people (although this also gets taken too far in the end). And there is beauty in all three ideas. Fighting against impossible odds, caring for what is right and should be maintained, watching ourselves to help your surroundings… all of this is good! And all of these things hold solutions for the other factions. When striving for progress we need to watch our own wellbeing and the negative consequences of our actions. When preserving what is old, we have to see what should be changed, where chances for progress are and we also need to look at ourselves and not only the concept we want to preserve. Looking at our own sins and self-reflection is important, but so is our own comfort and our own goals, even if they might seem outlandish at first. By applying the different ideologies on top the one we hold dear, we can balance them out.
The best ways the ideology work – the real utopia – is a balance of all three ideologies together. That means that the best state of the town is what we witness in the beginning of the game (even if I would never call that perfect either! The exportation of the kin shows as much!) But debating and changing through the reflection of all three ideologies is in my opinion how society can be driven to it’s best. Progression is useless without looking out for each other and keeping what works and helps. Preservation leads to oppression and stagnation if self-expression is forbidden. Responsibility and duty are needed but can lead to condemnation and self-destruction if it isn’t balanced out. But comfort while allowing progress. Duty while allowing self-expression. That is what can only be archived through active dialogue. This is, why this game is a trap. This is why every ending falls apart: Because we have to choose. Every end is a victory, but it also is a failure. Something has to be destroyed. And even a miracle can only work on the back of its people. But this choice is the exact reason why. Being only allowed to follow one of the factions by radicalizing all three of them at the end of the game we are not allowed to make a decision that could benefit everyone. And this is – at the end of it all – the tragedy of Pathologic.
39 notes
·
View notes
Text
Movies (I saw) of the 2010s, ranked
Because I had lots of better things to do but no inclination to do them.
As I went through all the new releases I watched this decade, a few things came to mind:
I missed so much! Most recently, I still haven’t seen Parasite, The Lighthouse or The Irishman. I’ve also seen only one of Disney’s live action remakes, two out of four Star Wars films of the decade, and I’ve missed quite a few of Marvel and DC’s outings. My tendency to mostly watch older films came to bite me in the ass here. But c’est la vie, there’s only so many hours in the day!
A huge part of my viewing history took place during film festivals, so festival movies are way over-represented here. I’m not mad about it.
There’s not too many outright bad movies on my list, because I tend to avoid movies that look bad or like I might not like them (shocker, I know). Even the ones in my bottom ten aren’t as dreadful as I was expecting.
There’s no way I can rank all these films numerically! What about movies that I can tell are good but just aren’t for me? What about movies that are bad but enjoyable? How can you compare tired Oscar-bait with soulless blockbusters? It’s impossible!
Hence these categories. I’m doing a top 10 worst and best, and the categories go roughly from worse to better movies, but otherwise this isn’t based on quality so much as what clever category names I could come up with (or couldn’t, as the case may be). I’m also listing the movies within each category alphabetically because that’s even less ranking I need to do.
Buckle up, this is over 6000 words...
Oh, and if you don’t feel like reading the whole thing I still encourage you to reply with your own favorite movies of the decade!
The Worst Exactly what it says on the tin. These movies aren’t just unenjoyable or disposable, they are actively unpleasant to watch.
American Hustle (2013) Wait, this got how many Oscar nominations again??
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013) This movie is so bloated and yet they couldn’t find any time to actually develop most of the main characters? I had such a bad time watching this one, I ended up skipping out on the last part of the trilogy.
Hurricane Bianca (2016) This looked like it might be enjoyably bad but it wasn’t. I still love Bianca Del Rio, don’t get me wrong, but her humor is not the kind you build a whole movie around, yet alone two. And yet…
Hurricane Bianca: From Russia With Hate (2018) Yeah, I watched them both. I’m a simple woman: I see Katya in a trailer, I watch. I really shouldn’t have bothered, this one is even worse.
Iron Man 2 (2010) Superhero fatigue got me bad in the past few years but even before then I hated this movie. Literally nothing enjoyable here, I was aggressively bored while watching. The Lack (2014) This is a movie about women, written and directed by a man, called “The Lack”. You might think I’m being uncharitable to say this movie is entirely about penis envy but the writer/director himself confirmed this at the Q&A I was at. This is why Q&As are always a bad idea, people!
Left Behind (2014) This one tips into “enjoyably bad” at times but in the end, it’s still two hours of your life wasted on a movie meant to make its Evangelical viewers feel vindicated in their horrible beliefs. Morgenrøde (2014) I have a fairly high tolerance for slow movies but this movie is sloooowwww and literally nothing happens in it. This is the movie that taught me not to trust it when festival brochures use the word “contemplative”.
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010) Just dreadful. This is the worst kind of film in my books: the kind made to follow a trend, not to tell a story.
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011) It’s been eight years since the fourth PotC movie came out?? God, it’s been a long decade.
The Utterly Disposable I didn’t exactly have a bad time watching these but they left no impression on me.
Alex Strangelove (2018) Netflix has released so many unremarkable-looking teen movies this decade. This is one of the few I bothered to watch and it’s cute enough, I guess.
Fyrir framan annað fólk (2016) I am Icelandic but I don’t watch a whole lot of Icelandic movies and I feel kind of guilty about that. Not guilty enough to give a boring movie a pass, though.
Ghostbusters (2016) This super did not need to exist and not even my love for Kate McKinnon makes it any less disposable.
The Great Gatsby (2013) At least it’s pretty.
Hot Tub Time Machine (2010) I remember this getting a few laughs out of me but that’s about it.
The Imitation Game (2014) I think I just… don’t like Beneditch Cumberbatch? Sorry. This movie is the perfect expression of the bland, middle-of-the-road biopic, with the added mishandling of the subject’s sexuality.
Isn’t It Romantic (2019) I love a good satire but this ain’t it, chief. This movie isn’t doing anything that Crazy Ex-Girlfriend hasn’t done 100x better.
John Carter (2012) If you’re gonna throw this much money into something, you could at least hire a charismatic lead actor. Then again, it seemed to work for Avatar. Magic Mike (2012) I did like that this sexy stripper movie kept showing how unhappy the main character is doing what he does as if that wouldn’t totally ruin the fantasy.
Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016) Watched this on an airplane, which is fitting. This feels like a quintessential airplane movie; it’s mildly entertaining but ultimately disposable enough that it has completely slipped your mind by the time you reach baggage claim.
Paul (2011) Occasionally funny, I think? Barely remember it tbh.
Planetary (2015) There’s some interesting points buried in here but the movie’s too busy trying to look important to actually get them across effectively. Also feels surprisingly padded for just 80 minutes. Valentine’s Day (2010) Taylor Swift was actually kind of funny in this, which was a pleasant surprise. Zero impact otherwise.
“I Have No Memory of This Place” Movies I literally could not remember watching until I had read the entire synopsis, but for one reason or another was not comfortable calling “disposable”.
Bobby Sands: 66 Days (2015), The Departure (2017), Hell Is Empty: All the Devils Are Here (2016), Innsæi (2016), Last of the Elephant Men (2015), Late Summer (2016), Speed Sisters (2015), Una (2016), The War Show (2016) Lumping all of these together because they’re all festival movies I have hardly any memory of and that I may have in fact fallen asleep over.
Incendies (2010) Chalk this up to me seeing it almost a decade ago. When I finally remembered it, I could vaguely recall finding it affective. Probably due for a rewatch.
Prisoners (2013), Rush (2013), Warrior (2011) Around 2012-2014 I was working my way through IMdB’s top 250 list and I saw so many forgettable movies about men committing various violent acts. Literally can’t remember a single thing about these movies.
I’m So Sick of Superheroes Dear God Make It Stop I’d probably like some of these more if not for superhero fatigue but that is the trade-off for total global dominance. A couple of superhero movies did escape this category and you’ll see them later on my list.
Thor (2011), Iron Man Three (2013), Thor: The Dark World (2013), Captain America: Winter Soldier (2014), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Ant-Man (2015), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) Lumping all of Marvel’s movies in this category together because I don’t really have a lot to say about Marvel anymore. Special mention to Winter Soldier for being the movie that soured on me the most and to Age of Ultron for in hindsight being the beginning of my superhero fatigue.
The Dark Knight Rises (2012) Boy, this trilogy ended on a sour note. Man of Steel (2013) Confused story structure aside, this movie is utterly grey and joyless. It’s also army propaganda!
X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) The only reason I watched this was because it was on IMdB’s top 250 list. Peter Dinklage was good in it, if I recall correctly.
Don’t Like This Nope.
12 Years a Slave (2013) Very uncomfortable to sit through, which I get was the point, but I’m not sure it was the right choice. It honestly feels like misery porn.
Black Swan (2010) I’ve long made peace with the fact that Darren Aronofsky will just never click with me.
The Broken Circle Breakdown (2012) This movie is exhausting to watch because of the near constant country music playing. Loudly.
Kate Plays Christine (2016) This is a movie about a really interesting topic but instead of the real tragedy that actually happened it chooses to focus on an actress’s fictional struggle to connect with her role. I think the movie wanted us to think the struggle was real (heh) but for that they would’ve needed a better actress. La La Land (2016) I love classic musicals and I really wanted to like this movie but in the end I just couldn’t. As a movie it’s okay but it’s not a good musical and the whole white savior of jazz thing was……….. an odd choice.
Last Days in the Desert (2015) I’m a sucker for good, thoughtful religious films. The idea of Jesus and the devil being played by the same actor was intriguing to me and I liked that the devil wasn’t evil so much as just tired. But ultimately, this movie felt a little too cold for me.
Magic Mike: XXL (2015) I have no idea why every critic on the planet seems to love this movie. Strippers aggressively thrusting their crotch in your face is not sexy, it’s uncomfortable!
A Silent Voice (2016) Melodramatic and not in the fun, over-the-top way.
Vonarstræti (2014) It’s good but it’s just not for me.
Wir Monster (2015) I saw this at a Q&A screening and decided I didn’t wanna stick around after the credits rolled. On my way out, I tripped and almost fell onto the actors as they were walking past me. That experience had a way bigger impact on me than the movie itself. Make of that what you will.
Guilty Pleasures/So Bad They’re Good An enjoyably bad movie is a better watch than a middlingly competent one.
#REALITYHIGH (2017) Incredibly clichéd and tries way too hard to be “hip” or “lit” or whatever it is the kids were saying back in 2017. Don’t care, I’ve seen it four times.
Bridget Jones’s Baby (2016) The first Bridget Jones is a highlight of the genre. The second one is just bad but the third tips over into enjoyably bad. I also loved having Renée Zellweger back on my screen!
A Cinderella Story: Christmas Wish (2019) Recently watched this with my sister while baking and wrapping Christmas presents. It’s a terrible movie but we had fun (mostly by making fun of it).
Descendants (2015), Descendants 2 (2017), Descendants 3 (2019) I’m not apologizing for this even though I feel like I kind of should.
The Kissing Booth (2018) This movie is like a 13-year-old’s first fanfic come to life so of course I’m gonna love it. Even if the love interest is incredibly unappealing.
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010), The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 (2011), The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2 (2012) Who would’ve thought at the start of the decade that Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson would turn into indie darlings starring in one critically acclaimed film after the next? I love that for them.
Oscar Bait but I’m Not Biting Not sure the Oscars weren’t a mistake tbh.
The Artist (2011) I kind of enjoyed this but ultimately it’s watered-down Hollywood history made appealing to modern audiences and its aim is far higher than its reach.
Birdman (2014) It was a fun watch but it left no impression.
Darkest Hour (2017) Technically a good movie but such obvious Oscar bait I just couldn’t fully enjoy it.
The Help (2011) Let’s leave the white savior narrative behind in the 2010s, shall we?
The King’s Speech (2010) I love Colin Firth. I barely remember this movie.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) Don’t love that the racist cop is the most fully fleshed-out character in this movie while the black characters are all unnamed extras.
Whiplash (2014) It’s just drumming, J.K. Simmons, it’s not that serious.
I Feel Like I Should Like This More This category is mostly three camps, as you’ll see.
120 battements par minute (2017), 69 Minutes of 86 Days (2017), Fire at Sea (2016), I, Daniel Blake (2016) All important movies with a worthy message that I just couldn’t connect with on a personal level.
Adieu au langage (2014), Before We Vanish (2017), Bridesmaids (2011), Jagten (2012), A Separation (2011), Timbuktu (2014), Transit (2018), Winter’s Bone (2010) Critically acclaimed, maybe it’s just me?
Her (2013) The rest is all movies I expected to like more than I did. I’m not sure what didn’t click with this one. It’s been a while since I saw it.
Get Out (2017) I wasn’t gonna watch it because I don’t really watch horror so when I finally caved, I knew pretty much everything about it. Watching a movie the first time knowing everything that happens in it and after seeing it dissected for months on end by every critic on the planet does take a lot of the enjoyment away, as it turns out.
Gone Girl (2014) Really thought I’d love it. It’s good just didn’t click with me.
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) It’s pretty. Liam Neeson is always fun.
Pacific Rim (2013) Mako is great and I enjoy the chemistry between her and Raleigh but ultimately this one just kind of slipped out of my mind as soon as I’d seen it.
Toni Erdmann (2016) It’s too damn long!
The Tree of Life (2011) I just watched this the other day so it’s very possible my opinion will change. I was expecting to love it but I… didn’t. It felt like this movie was trying too hard to be profound and important, at the cost of actually saying something, well, profound and important.
No Strong Feelings One Way or the Other I actually have nothing to say about any of these movies and most of them are good but they had to go somewhere.
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011), Boyhood (2014), Brave (2012), Creed (2015), Django Unchained (2012), Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010), Flavours of Youth (2018), Frozen (2013), The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012), Interstellar (2014), Intouchable (2011), The Jungle Book (2016), Monsters University (2013), Rogue One (2016), Schaste moe (2010), Shutter Island (2010), Three Identical Strangers (2018), To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (2018), Undir trénu (2017), Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
Middling Festival Fare I have nothing to say about these either but I couldn’t lump them in with the others. I mostly liked them more than the movies in the previous category and they took bigger risks. Some of them might even be great, just very much not my cup of tea.
3 Tage in Quiberon (2018), Acid Forest (2018), Amateurs in Space (2016), Barakah Meets Barakah (2015), Der Andständige (2014), Disappearance (2017), Dreams by the Sea (2017), En fremmed flytter ind (2017), Føniks (2018), The Girl Down Loch Aenzi (2016), God Exists, Her Name is Petrunija (2019), Gods of Molenbeek (2019), Jag är Ingrid (2015), Já, Olga Hepnarová (2016), Looking for Oum Kulthum (2017), Mister Universo (2016), Neruda (2016), The Raven and the Seagull (2018), Rester vertical (2016), Slow West (2015), Sugar Coated (2015), Summer Survivors (2018), Tickled (2016), Worldly Girl (2016)
Maybe Not the Best But a Lot of Fun Better than those guilty pleasures but generally pretty flawed. Austenland (2013) A very cute little romcom. Extra points for Jennifer Coolidge, the most underrated character actress of this century.
Baby Driver (2017) I feel like revisiting this one might not be as enjoyable for reasons that have nothing to do with the film’s quality but I had fun watching it in the theater.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010) I was a fan of this franchise from the start so even though this movie is kind of dour and dark, it was still a blast to watch. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) Do I love every choice this movie made? No. But I saw this at a midnight screening, in full cosplay with my friends, in a theater packed with fans. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
I, Tonya (2017) For a movie that contains so much abuse and such a bummer ending, it’s surprisingly entertaining!
The LEGO Batman Movie (2017) Lego Batman is my favorite Batman.
Nothing Like a Dame (2018) I just really love Maggie Smith.
On - drakon (2015) This movie feels like it was pitched as “Twilight but with dragons!”. It’s fun, though, and it’s got an interesting aesthetic and a proactive heroine who gets herself out of trouble with ingenuity and bravery.
Sing Street (2016) I love the soundtrack to this movie and the characters are incredibly endearing. The story is very simple in not a great way but it doesn’t need to be deep to be enjoyable.
Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) I like that they skip the origin story for once and keep the scope of it fairly limited. A very nice little slice-of-life teen movie combined with a superhero flick. Tom Holland is a good Spider-Man. Would’ve been better without Iron Man tbh. Star Trek Beyond (2016) I feel like they got the characters right here, which was a problem for the first Star Trek of the rebooted trilogy. It’s a fairly inconsequential movie but it’s a blast.
Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015) I’m not the biggest Star Wars fan so I don’t have a lot of opinions here. It’s fun! Not a lot more I want from Star Wars. Ultimately didn’t intrigue me enough to wanna see the rest of the trilogy.
Ten no Chasuke (2015) This movie is a little weird, a little goofy and a lot of fun. I like the guy who just constantly lives through different movie plots because the angel writing his life can’t think of anything original, that tickled me.
Good Movies I Don’t Have a Clever Title Here They’re good movies, Brent.
Barbara Rubin and the Exploding NY Underground (2018) An enjoyable, well-made documentary but considering its subject matter disappointingly conventional.
Black Panther (2018) This movie could have been much better had it not been under the constraints of the MCU. Still one of the best offerings of the genre this decade.
Boy Meets Girl (2014) We need more movies like this. Not just for representation (although that is important) but also because cinema needs a greater variety of stories than are currently being told.
Brooklyn (2015) The scope of this movie is very small but the characterization is nuanced and every aspect of the film goes towards furthering that.
Bugs (2016) The focus of this movie is split between its very interesting subject matter (the use of bugs as food around the world) and the chefs we’re following around who kind of seem like dicks and honestly drag the movie down a lot.
Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) Steve Rogers is one of my favorite MCU characters, purely on the strength of this movie. In a world where no one seems to know how to adapt Superman to film, it’s nice they got this one right.
Cloud Atlas (2012) This movie has such lofty ambitions and I admire it for that, even if the execution is off at times. But the use of yellowface is..... bad. It’s very bad and the directors should have known better.
Cold War (2018) I love the music in this, which is good because it is near constant.
Damsel (2018) I love a deconstructed western and I love Robert Pattinson. It’s a shame that the female character at the center of the story wasn’t better developed, considering how much screen time she got.
Damsels in Distress (2011) This movie is quirky and cutesie, which isn’t everyone’s cup of tea (and usually isn’t mine) but I love it. Some solid acting goes a long way.
Der kommer en dag (2016) This movie is two hours of children suffering yet it comes across as so optimistic? I think it’s the space race stuff. Who doesn’t love the space race?
Frantz (2016) I am always down for stories that reckon with the effects of WWI.
Future Baby (2016) There’s a scene in this movie where a surrogate mother gives birth and it is both very graphic and heart-wrenching. If the rest of the movie were more like that one scene, it’d be on my shortlist for the best of the decade.
Fyre (2019) How was Fyre Festival a real thing that happened?
Girls Don’t Fly (2016) Girls don’t fly because the man training them to be pilots is a dick and treats them horribly. It’s a bummer but important to uncover.
Hidden Figures (2016) Kevin Costner’s character needed to be written out - black stories that don’t involve “good” white people are both possible and necessary. But I adore all three main actresses and they do some amazing work.
Hjartasteinn (2016) The subject matter is cliché but it’s handled beautifully.
The Lego Movie (2014) Everything is awesome! Everything is cool when you’re part of a team!
Journey to the Shore (2015) I honestly wasn’t sure how to feel for most of the run time of this movie but by the end it got me.
On Body and Soul (2017) This movie feels like a dream and I mean that in a good way.
The Salvation (2014) Have I mentioned that I love deconstructed westerns? Mads Mikkelsen is always on point, even with garbage material, but he’s got some good stuff to work with here.
Searching for Ingmar Bergman (2018) This movie made me more interested in its director, Margarethe von Trotta, than Bergman himself. Everyone should check out The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum!
The Shape of Water (2017) This movie is very much like a fairy-tale, which means it’s not particularly nuanced or complicated, but it is beautiful.
Still the Water (2014) This movie starts with a cow being graphically slaughtered and yet the only word I can think of to describe it is “gentle”. But maybe skip the first five minutes if you’re sensitive to blood or animal death.
Studio 54 (2018) How were the 70s even real?
Sumarbörn (2017) It’s a rare feat to get such good acting out of child actors.
Thor: Ragnarök (2017) The best MCU movie. It’s a lot of fun without once losing its heart, which is a rare thing for Marvel (just google the words “bathos” and “mcu”, other people have covered this already).
Warm Bodies (2013) The cutest rom-com of the decade features a zombie as its main lead. I’m not mad about it.
Wild Tales (2014) The dissonance between the realist shooting style and the cartoonish violence often results in some excellent dark humor. The rest of the time, it just feels kind of off.
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) Jordan Belfast is both a lot of fun and utterly despicable and the movie is not afraid to go as balls to the walls as it needs to.
The Young Karl Marx (2017) So like... Marx and Engel were into each other? At least a little, right?
Great Movies Also No Clever Title
Andið eðlilega (2018) Okay so I don’t watch a lot of Icelandic cinema but from what I have seen, I am incredibly encouraged by the direction it is heading. Call this exhibit A.
Ága (2018) This movie is very slow and not a lot happens but that’s kind of why it works so well. It hooked me in and had me genuinely interested in every uneventful scene.
Brecht’s Threepenny Film (2018) I walked away feeling like I’d understood maybe one third of this film but it left me with a feeling of exhilaration that’s hard to define and that few films manage.
Les aventures extraordinaires d'Adèle Blanc-Sec (2010) Adèle Blanc-Sec is like Tintin and Indiana Jones combined except way better. In a just world, she would be a much more popular character and the reported film trilogy would have actually happened.
En duva satt på en gren och funderade på tillvaron (2014) This movie is delightfully weird and messed up. Nothing more to say here.
The Favourite (2018) I was honestly expecting to be let down by this movie after all the overwhelming praise but as it turns out, it deserved all of the accolades and possibly more.
Gravity (2013) This movie was kind of marketed as “realistic sci-fi” and while I can’t say it felt particularly real, the emotional arc sure as hell did.
Inception (2010) The complexity of this film was vastly over-hyped but it’s still the best work I’ve seen by Nolan (though to be fair, I still haven’t seen Dunkirk). Kreuzweg (2014) The film is composed of just fourteen still shots, representing the Stations of the Cross. That could have come across as really gimmicky but it works because the shots are well staged and the material is just that good. Loveless (2017) This is the bleakest, most depressing movie I think I’ve ever seen. The Martian (2015) The best thing about this movie is the way it shows the world coming together just to save this one guy. International cooperation is the future!
Paradies: Liebe (2012) This is a movie about sex tourism and it is as unpleasant to watch as that sounds. But it’s also incredible.
Paradies: Hoffnung (2013) The third in Seidl’s paradise trilogy (I missed the middle part, don’t remember why). Just as messed up as Liebe but mildly more palatable.
Une nouvelle amie (2014) I saw this movie with my dad, which was kind of awkward, but that doesn’t take away from its beauty. We really do need more stories like this.
Tale of Tales (2015) I am always here for a fairytale adaptation, particularly ones that stick close to the dark, gruesome, humorous tone of most traditional fairytales.
Welcome to Norway (2016) This movie is just really, really funny.
White God (2014) If you’re sensitive to animal abuse then this is not the film for you. The dogs in this movie actually won the Palm Dog Award and it was well deserved. They’re very good dogs! Tom of Finland (2017) How refreshing to see a movie about a historical gay person that isn’t all death and tragedy! It does have some of that, unavoidably, but it’s also a lot of fun and ultimately is a celebration of a very important sub-cultural figure.
Vinterbrødre (2017) I wasn’t expecting a movie set in a mining community to look this beautiful.
Wonder Woman (2017) The best superhero movie of the decade, despite the slightly messy third act. It’s such an earnest, hopeful movie and unlike most films of the genre, it’s not afraid to take itself seriously or to come across as cheesy. Superheroes are cheesy! That’s one of the best things about them!
Amazing Animation I don’t like animation being singled out from live action as if it’s somehow less, but I wanted to highlight how many excellent animated films were made this decade.
The Breadwinner (2017) I’ve seen this film’s production company, Cartoon Saloon, been called the Irish version of Disney but Disney has never made anything half this daring. Coco (2017) The ending made me sob like a little kid. This movie doesn’t get enough credit for being one of only two Pixar films this decade to live up to their early work.
How to Train Your Dragon (2010) The flight scenes in this movie gave me actual vertigo and I loved it.
How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) The rare sequel that’s actually better than the original! For all the franchises that exist out there just to continue milking that cash cow, it’s nice to see something get continued because the filmmakers had more stories to tell.
Loving Vincent (2017) This movie has been criticized for a weak plot, to which I say: it’s an animated movie made up of oil paintings! Do you really care about the plot? Sometimes the spectacle is all you need, especially when it’s something that touches you as deeply as Vincent van Gogh’s art does.
Moana (2016) Moana’s scenes with her grandmother and Te Fiti are up there with some of the most emotionally evocative stuff to come out of Disney studios. It’s a pity the rest of the movie couldn’t quite live up to that.
Rise of the Guardians (2012) Mostly, this movie just looks incredible. I am also an eternal sucker for Chris Pine, even if his voice sounds weird coming out of a teenager’s mouth.
Song of the Sea (2014) This is the most beautiful animated film I’ve ever seen outside of Studio Ghibli’s best, both the look and the feel of it.
Tangled (2010) I know I sound like an old fogy but this movie would’ve been much better if it had been traditionally animated. Still pretty good!
Toy Story 3 (2010) It’s been nine years since the third Toy Story came out?? Christ, this decade.
Your Name (2016) I really should be watching more anime.
Zootopia (2016) Disney’s best work since Treasure Planet, which is an underrated masterpiece. It’s almost worth the resurgence in furries (jk furries, you’re okay).
This Is Why You Guys Should Be Watching Documentaries Because documentaries are a seriously underrated art form.
Ama-San (2016) This is the kind of cinema vérité filmmaking I live for.
Behind the Curve (2018) The existence of flat earthers remains baffling (well, maybe not that baffling when you look at the rest of our society) but this documentary is excellent.
Dawson City: Frozen Time (2016) This is a documentary about a cache of lost silent films that were found in the 70s and most of the movie is silent, with information being conveyed through text and images. It’s these kinds of choices that elevate a good documentary beyond just educational programming.
Exodus: Where I Come From Is Disappearing (2016) Absolutely heart-wrenching. It’s difficult to watch but the issues it discusses shouldn’t be looked away from.
Foodies (2014) There’s a foodie in this movie who rates his food on looks before he even tastes it and a chef whose signature dish is a dessert called “sex on the beach” which includes a very realistic-looking used condom. I wanted those two to meet but they never did and that is my one criticism of this film.
Free Solo (2018) I developed a fear of heights after watching this movie.
The Great Green Wall (2019) I had never heard of the great green wall before seeing this movie. It’s so surreal to get a window into a society where no one is arguing about climate change because they are already undeniably feeling the effects of it. And by strange, I mean incredibly sad and upsetting.
How to Let Go of the World: and Love All the Things Climate Can’t Change (2016) Speaking of climate change. This movie takes on climate grief and shows why you can’t stop at that, why you need to push past it and keep fighting. I’d argue The Great Green Wall actually does that same thing and better but it’s still a very necessary message.
Into the Inferno (2016) Werner Herzog is just. The best. Especially his documentaries.
Kismet (2014) This movie examines how art affects people by way of one of the least respected art forms out there (soap operas). I just really love that premise and the execution is even better.
Merchants of Doubt (2014) Honestly fuck every single person making money by hastening our descent towards climate catastrophe. Good movie, though.
My Scientology Movie (2015) This was the first Louis Theroux movie I saw and it’s a great one to start with. For all they’ve been treated like a joke, Scientologists are actually pretty scary.
The Other Side of Everything (2017) The personal is the political in this film. What an incredible look at the ways our past shapes our present and future.
Pervert Park (2014) This movie fucked me up.
The Prison in Twelve Landscapes (2016) The conceit of this film is looking at the US prison system indirectly by keeping the camera outside the actual prisons and off actual prisoners. It works incredibly well, just astounding documentary film making.
Push (2019) Just when you thought you couldn’t hate the rental market any more!
Safari (2016) Fuck trophy hunters.
The Silence of Others (2018) I didn’t even know about the Spanish 1977 Amnesty Law until I saw this movie. Maybe that’s just my own ignorance but I feel it shows how necessary documentaries like these are.
Tower (2016) I cried like a baby watching this movie. Using rotoscope animation to tell the story of the 1966 shootings a the University of Texas was I think an excellent choice and made for a unique documentary.
Visages villages (2017) Agnès Varda is possibly my favorite director and it hurts to leave this one off the “best” list (call it an unofficial #11). Still not sure I shouldn’t have swapped out one of the actual top ten for it.
Welcome to Sodom (2018) The world is so fucked up.
It Stayed With Me Movies that left me reeling and that I couldn’t get out of my head for days after watching (call all of them an unofficial joint #12).
The Act of Killing (2012) Speaking of fucked up! It is absolutely surreal seeing these mass murderers try to justify their actions to the interviewers. “I was just doing my job” is no excuse and trying to use it as one is actually reprehensible.
Arrival (2016) I didn’t actually see it until this year and I felt it couldn’t possibly live up to the hype but it did! It’s reminiscent of Interstellar in that in this ‘hard’ science fiction story the ultimate solution is based on an emotional revelation but Arrival pulled it off much better. The Congress (2013) This is basically two movies in one; one is fairly grounded sci-fi and the other is just a straight up acid trip in film form. In any case, Robin Wright is absolutely flawless.
Carol (2015) Cate Blanchett please date me. Grüße aus Fukushima (2016) I’m always gonna be a sucker for a movie about women connecting and helping each other through trauma.
High Life (2018) I saw this one knowing nothing about it and ngl it shocked me a bit. The way it incrementally got more and more fucked up made me feel a bit like a frog being slowly boiled alive. November (2017) The atmosphere this movie creates is unreal. Maybe not the strongest characterization but it balances a feeling of magic and wonder with just utter bleakness and it left me reeling. Paterson (2016) I can’t even fully explain why I loved this movie so much or why it stuck me. Mostly, it’s just so damn cozy. The Square (2017) I mean, that scene with the ape man was fucked up right? Tangerine (2015) I don’t think filming on your iPhone is the future of cinema or anything but it does show how accessible filmmaking is slowly becoming. Also, that scene of Alexandra performing Toyland is one of the best musical moments in cinema this decade and that is not up for debate. Team Hurricane (2017) I’ve never seen a movie with an aesthetic like this before (it’s very vaporwave) but this film is about and was mostly shot by a group of actual teenage girls. It’s a little melodramatic in places but at the same time that feels very sincere and the girls all clearly have a lot of talent and a lot to say. Varda par Agnes (2019) This movie probably wouldn’t have stuck with me so much if Agnès Varda hadn’t died earlier this year. She is a truly unparalleled figure in film history.
The Best According to me, anyway. But I’m right.
Cameraperson (2016) This is a different kind of documentary filmmaking. What it most reminds me of is Beaches of Agnès (no, I’m never done talking about Agnès Varda) but even that is not a perfect comparison. It’s deeply personal while also covering an insane variety of topics. Embrace of the Serpent (2015) This movie feels like a dream and I mean that in the best way possible. At turns beautiful, brutal, and absolutely baffling. The Florida Project (2017) I’ve seen this movie criticized for glorifying poverty and I can’t discount that opinion. For my part, I thought this movie did an incredible job balancing the world as seen through the eyes of a carefree child enjoying her summer and the dangerous, precarious reality of living in poverty. Inside Out (2015) When Pixar gets it right, they get it really right. The Love Witch (2016) I just really, really love witches. The best looking live action movie of the decade. The fact that writer/director/editor/producer Anna Biller hasn’t made another film since is an actual crime. Melancholia (2011) No movie has ever hit me this hard in such a visceral way; I was miserable for days after seeing it. Lars von Trier is an asshole but he knows how to film depression. Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) Believe the hype, it is actually perfect. And I don’t even like action movies! Moonlight (2016) It’s rare to see a movie this deeply, devastatingly human. The final two shots of the film, paired together, are literally the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in a theater. Kona fer í stríð (2018) The best Icelandic movie that’s been made yet. Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir is a national treasure. Shoplifters (2018) I mean, who’s expecting a movie called ‘Shoplifters’ to be so devastating? It’s such a painful film but it is also heartwarming and intimate. Un couteau dans le coeur (2018) This movie is strange and funny and violent and gorgeous. I’ve never had such a good experience at a film festival as I did the two times I went to see this movie.
#well it's done#this was mostly written for an audience of one aka me#but hey this took a while so do check it out if you want
9 notes
·
View notes
Text
Update: Yep, I recommend Whyborne & Griffin series by Jordan L Hawk
In August I answered an ask regarding recommendations for other m/m series, and at the time I said this:
This was regarding the Whyborne & Griffin series by Jordan L Hawk (first book: Widdershins).
Since then, I read the first 10 books twice in a row, then discovered last night that the final book in the series had just come out this month so I read that too. I have now finished the series and can give an update, fwiw.
I have to say that overall, yep, I definitely recommend the series for anyone looking for a new m/m series.
Whyborne & Griffin has aspects of it that aren’t just boilerplate cookie cutter storytelling, and I like that. Plus, as a person Whyborne really represents well that feeling I had for a lot of my life of refusing to bend to society while also feeling isolated in the process despite my stubborn determination to never do otherwise. It’s like you refuse to be anyone other than yourself, and you aren’t ashamed of who you are, but you’re made to feel you should be, and that leads you down all sorts of inner paths; you have a lot of self-confidence in some arenas, and a ton of self-consciousness in others. I really appreciate that about the series; I rarely see characters represent that side of me the way Whyborne so eloquently does.
I don’t want to go into a long ass ramble here since I don’t want to have to put any text behind a read more link, also I don’t want to give spoilers. What I will say is that W&G isn’t overall as dark across the board as I normally gravitate toward, but it does deal with darkness. What I love about it is the characters, and the fact that in terms of storytelling themes spread across the series, it does a really fantastic job in some arenas in a way I can’t explore here without inherently giving big spoilers.
I really love how perspective is dealt with in this series. I also love the characters; it’s one of those cases where I equally love the main characters, including the main couple. Christine is probably my favorite main female character in a m/m series I can think of offhand. Whyborne is so delightfully melodramatic at times, and Griffin is so heartbreakingly human at others, that I just overall really enjoy it.
All the main characters are really strong in their own rights, and yet have a story of transformation across the entirety of the series, based on the sort of person they are in the beginning to what they learn/decide/etc along the way. As characters their flaws are just as evident as their merits, and in the overall story that is embraced rather than denied. There’s good character development for sure, which I really appreciate as a character-driven reader.
There’s enough in the series to love, plus some well done overarching storytelling techniques IMO, that I can say I do include it on my recommendation list now that I’ve finished it. I can’t really give any sort of direct comparison to other series in terms of my list of what series I love most, because first of all AFTG and RBW have been my loves for so long, but mostly because the series are so damn different. They really aren’t comparable, in all honesty, since the things I love about them are very different for each series. What W&G does so well is not necessarily reflected as well in the other stories I recommend, and vice versa.
No series is perfect; I’ve certainly never read a perfect story and will absolutely never write one. So I usually hesitate to go too hard on talking things up because I don’t want expectations to grow higher than reality, no matter what the topic, because when I enjoy something I get really excited and don’t shut up about it. And sometimes that means people expect the universe yet find they don’t get it, at no fault of theirs or the story’s; the fault is mine for being so enthusiastic.
So I won’t go on and on. I’ll just say that if you start reading it and still aren’t sure if it’s your jam, if you can at least read through the third book (Stormhaven) imo you’ll get a good snapshot of the series as a whole, although of course there’s a lot later that would be good for you to experience too. I’d say reading through at least book 6/Hoarfrost would give you the best way of seeing what I’m talking about for shifting perspective and why I love the storytelling themes in the series. But if you’re reading through book 6 of 11, why not just read the rest? Come on. You know you want to.
Also, it’s cool because you can buy the series in trilogies in ebook format if you’d like; that’s what I did and it saves you some money, although I do think it’s worth the individual pricing of the books as well.
Also, I want to make a note for anyone who might go check out the series without knowing anything about the author/etc. Just FYI, in the original author’s notes of the first book(s), Jordan L Hawk is referred to with she/her pronouns, but it then changes to they/them at some point in later books’ author’s notes. Last week, Jordan came out and is now using he/him pronouns. He said he’s working on updating his bios, including in the books, but I'm sure that will take quite some time. I just wanted to mention this for anyone who may only read the author’s notes. He said they/them is still okay, but if you see this ahead of time and if you feel inspired to reach out to him as I did, I wanted you to have the most updated information :) I just didn’t want anyone accidentally being hurt or doing any hurting by using outdated pronouns from bios that hadn’t had a chance to be fixed yet, especially when I imagine the reason for reaching out and the focus of your message would be the aspects of the series you enjoyed. Of which I hope there are many :)
Damnit, I made this post long after all.....
Anyway, go read Widdershins already, kthx lol
(PS if anyone wondered, I think my favorite books might be Stormhaven and Fallow? I can’t decide; I’d want to reread Draakenwood and Balefire in the greater context of the whole series now that it’s finished to see if they’re on the faves list too. Well. I’d just reread the whole series and decide at that time tbh but Stormhaven and Fallow were my on my fave list both times I read 1-10 so I already know I can list them. There are great scenes in every book, though. The horse scene in the latest book/Deosil was great lol)
#long post#book recs#whyborne and griffin#jordan l hawk#Book Recommendations#m/m#about me#recommendations
11 notes
·
View notes
Text
Name ten favourite characters from ten different things (books, tv, film, etc.)
Then tag ten people
Tagged (ages ago, whoops!) by @castiel-saved-me-from-myself
(I’m sorry, I got distracted!)
1.Supernatural. Castiel.
Obviously. I may be out of the fandom now, but I’ve never loved a character as much as Cas, and probably never will.
2. Good Omens. Aziraphale.
Thought I’d put both my darling angels at the top :) I suspect that without Zira there to pave the way Castiel may not even have existed, so I love him double - for himself and for Cas as well :p
While really quite different when it comes to their personalities (just think how Zira would SHUDDER at Cas’ trenchcoat), they share a lot of character traits and tropes (mini-series!Zira anyway, maybe less so in the book, or less obviously anyway), so, no surprise that I should adore them both. I’ve also said before, and I stand by it, that Aziraphale is sort of a combination of my favourite aspects of both Cas and Dean in one, with Cas’ struggle with Heaven/god and trying to be a good angel and finding he loves humanity/earth more, plus Dean’s whole ‘performing Dean’ thing and repression of queer feelings he is scared to admit to (out loud) because he believes they are somehow ‘wrong.’
...just to give a little insight into my feelings about these two that was neither needed nor asked for...
4. Hellblazer. NBC Constantine. Legends of Tomorrow. John Constantine.
Aaaand the other guy I love twice because Cas, and indeed spn in general, kinda owe their existence to him. Though in turn his fabulous live action portrayal by Matt Ryan probably owes its existence to spn and Castiel’s popularity. So... there’s a weird ouroboros situation happening with my favs here that makes my head spin whenever I think about it, but I love it - stories within stories built on stories feeding off stories, which connects to wider themes of story and storytelling being vital and intrinsic to life and stuff.
Anyway, despite his wardrobe, Johnny is NOTHING LIKE CAS. He is, in fact, a lot like Dean. But I like him more. Maybe because he’s British :p He has the whole ‘repressing his feelings’ things, a bit like Zira, but it’s not because he thinks they are wrong, it’s more of a coping mechanism to deal with the constant tragedy/trauma his life/lifestyle/fate causes him to suffer. But whatever the reason, I like my characters facing that struggle :) (actually the British element is probably way more significant to my enjoyment of him than I’ve been fully aware of... that’s probably why I loved Zira so fast as well... obviously they are both a completely different class of British, literally, but the fact they ARE British is INTRINSIC to both their characters, and I guess a little, vaguely patriotic part of me is excited by that... :p)
4. Gotham. Edward Nygma.
Since I’ve started giving explanations - I love Eddie because he’s also got the whole ‘emotionally repressed’ / out of touch with (his) emotions thing going on (as seen in Zira and Cas), but with the addition of various geeky / ‘tech guy’ character traits that I also love.
5. Doctor Who (Classic). Vislor Turlough.
I waxed poetic once about how I liked Gotham’s Edward Nygma because he reminded me a bit of Turlough. That was early on in my Gotham days though and given how Eddie developed I don’t see as many similarities now. Turlough shares some of Eddie’s ‘dark’ traits however - self-centered, often lacking in empathy for others and nonplussed (sometimes even happy) to see them get into trouble or hurt. But ultimately his attempts to be self-serving and cowardly end up thwarted by him developing feelings for specific individuals despite his best efforts, which is what I enjoy about him (and actually that’s a lot like Eddie still, huh... their endgame’s are opposing though ofc - while Eddie goes on to embrace being a villain, Turlough gives up on villainy and even becomes a bit of a hero, now and then). Plus, Turlough is the ONLY Companion (IIRC?) to have joined the Doctor specifically in order to MURDER him and... idk, I just think that’s cool :P
6. Doctor Who (New). Donna Noble.
(I’m trying not to double up on fandoms/shows so I can cover more, but New and Classic Who count as different things, kinda, right...?)
Donna doesn’t really fit any of the character traits I’ve talked about above, though I guess her low self-esteem is something that all my other favs share in various ways (though it’s not such an EXPLICIT aspect of their characters and story arcs as it was for Donna I’d say). What I first loved about her was that after YEARS of New companions (and other randoms) being literally in love with the Doctor, she had a strictly platonic relationship with him. Yeah, I think maybe the show was a bit heavy-handed about it, but even so it came as a huge breath of fresh air and frankly a RELIEF to me. Not that I’m opposed to the Doctor having romantic/sexual relationships, it was just that... coming from a childhood love of the Classic series where that just... didn’t happen (save a fleeting kiss in the TV Movie - which I actually enjoyed fyi!), it just... idk, was starting to stretch my credulity that EVERYONE seemed to be falling for him maybe? Or at least for me it was growing tiresome. So the fact she didn’t have that element to her character/story was a plus. Then I just adore how loud and brash she is when calling anyone, including the Doctor, out on their shit (I envy her that maybe). Plus I like the way she isn’t... traditional TV pretty, you know? (ie. young and slim, like a lot of other companions).
...or maybe I just like redheads *shrug emoji*
7. Spartacus. Naevia.
(she has two actresses okay? and they both deserve kudos!)
Truth is I love FUCKING EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE IN THIS SHOW. Spartacus is like... my PERFECT SHOW. There isn’t a single moment, a single plotline, a single character that I don’t enjoy. I have never even CONSIDERED looking up or writing fic because the finished product is completely satisfying exactly as it is. God. But I wanted it represented in this list so I had to pick someone!
Considering the time period there couldn’t really BE a ‘geeky, emotionally repressed with low self-esteem’ character :p BUT nearly ALL of the characters have the whole ‘struggle to understand/discover who they are’ thing and the ‘who I am and want to be is counter to who I’ve been told I am / should be’ arc, on account of the main cast being rebelling slaves (though the other characters are equally complex and compelling and I love them too - Lucy Lawless in particular is incredible!). Anyone who’s seen me blog about the show before might have thought I’d pick either Agron or Nasir as my favs, since I do like to squee over their romance. But whenever I think about the show it’s usually Naevia who I remember first, because her character arc/development just BLEW ME AWAY. She went from someone I’d kinda dismissed at first as a typical het love interest to a WARRIOR GODDESS and you SEE all the key moments of that growth, you FEEL it, it makes ALL THE SENSE. And her romance with Crixus, which again I was initially a bit dismissive of as a typical, sudden, weak het romance, grows into, imo, one of the deepest, most developed, most believable love stories in the show. So yeah. Naevia. Amazing.
8. Due South. Ray Vecchio.
(he’s the guy not the dog - gifs were limited! ...also the dog is actually a wolf, it’s a whole thing... that doesn’t need exploring at this juncture)
Ray was my first TV crush :P He had a bit of a sidekick vibe to him I guess, which I like (lead characters tend not to interest me as much). He wasn’t ‘geeky’ exactly, but he def had the ‘trying to look/act cooler than I am’ thing going on... also an obsessive attachment to his vintage car... meanwhile his partner Benny was the stoic, ‘British, stiff upper lip, keep emotions in check’ one who was always trying to live up to the ideal persona dictated by his people/employers, in this case the Royal Canadian Mounted Police... HUH, so... it’s actually SUPER WEIRD that I ended up loving Cas and Zira over Dean and Crowley when it seems pretty clear suddenly that my first big fictional fav was CLEARLY the Dean-Crowley to Benny’s Cas-Zira......?? Ray was FUNNY in a way Dean and Crowley aren’t though, I think? He def filled a ‘comic relief’ slot on the regular and I liked that a lot (it also made his serious, angsty moments EXTRA serious and angsty, and extra angst is something I always love!)
9. The Librarians. Eve Baird.
Remember this little show? It was... is... sorta ridiculous. Not amazing. Based on some... very cheap, very OBVIOUS Indiana Jones rip-off films, that were also ridiculous and... not... great (the third one is the best, with an awesome performance by Stana Katic aka Kate Beckett as a vampire, but I digress). But... idek, I am EXTREMELY FOND of the series for some reason :p
There are a WHOLE BUNCH of characters that fit my ‘type’ more than Eve tbh... in fact... probably every.single.other.main.cast.member (save perhaps Jenkins?) shares the traits above that typically make a character my fav. But... EVE! I just... think she’s neat! ...maybe it’s BECAUSE all the others are main/lead characters that makes me gravitate towards her? In a cast where ‘geeky, socially awkward, struggles with emotions’ is the norm, Eve being the no-nonsense, socially competent, badass soldier type therefore becomes different and thus more interesting to me? Also, much like with Donna, I appreciate that she’s an older woman who gets to have a full character and plot of her own. There’s also something about her romance with Flynn that... makes me feel warm and fuzzy.
10. Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Jonathan Levinson.
(tumblr gif search failed me so I had to grab from elsewhere...)
Listen. Look. Okay. Buffy is pretty old school these days so, for anyone not in the know, as a character, originally, Jonathan... he wasn’t even a side character, he wasn’t even REOCCURRING, he was barely a background character. For several episodes he didn’t have a name and it wasn’t until several seasons after he became ‘Jonathan’ that he actually got a surname. Danny Strong was just an actor who happened to be occasionally on-hand when the script called for a random to have a line, until eventually that happened often enough for Joss to think ‘hey, you know what, let’s make this guy an actual part of the show...’
He got a couple of episodes focused on him in S03 and S04 respectively, but didn’t become a regular until S06 (and wasn’t in S05 AT ALL). Other than that he had a HANDFUL of ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ moments here and there, not even full scenes for the most part, usually lasting no longer than the above gif.
I tell you all this so that when I say childhood me (well... somewhere between 12 and 14 years anyway) was OBSESSED with this character in the show, and I mean O B S E S S E D (to the point of spending hours painstakingly making VHS recordings purely of the episodes he was in), you understand how UTTERLY BIZARRE that was. Because this obsession pre-dated S06. Was, in fact, in full swing during the airing of his S04 episode - which was, like, a fucking DREAM COME TRUE for freakily obsessed me fyi, because the whole episode was constructed with him as the LEAD CHARACTER, because he’d performed a spell to make him super awesome. They even changed the title sequence to read ‘Jonathan’ instead of Buffy! And while other fans were no doubt just lol-ing at the random I was bouncing about on my sofa all ‘MY TIME HAS COME!’ and fucking SWOONING over seeing MY CHARACTER suddenly in the spotlight and getting to do crazy fun OOC shit like this -
Then when S06 rolled around and HE WAS A LEGIT REGULAR, omg, I was in HEAVEN! First TV boxset I ever bought that - Buffy S06 :P
So... yeah. A bit of a fav. Geeky. Outcast. Slowly grows more morally grey, what with that spell I mentioned and also the fact he was teamed with the ANTAGONISTS in S06. I guess you could say he was the beginning of a lot of my fav fictional character traits/tropes (though looking back - I think his ‘villainous’ teammates in S06, Andrew and Warren, are more my ‘type’ these days, and I did end up loving Andrew especially a whole damn lot, but at the time I’d been a Jonathan fangirl for so.fucking.long. there was just no chance anyone else in the show was ever gonna come close to my heart!)
THE END.
Sorry not sorry for the tmi. I got a bit too into this one.
Actually sorry I have so few women on the list :( Internalised misogyny/sexism is a real thing and I spent a lot of my life being... somewhat unfairly dismissive of female characters or at least prioritising male ones over them. I’m working on it.
Ten people is SO.MANY. to tag. But I might as well do this right this time, since I’ve come so far. But if you’d rather not play, no worries! <3
@enchantersnight @momecat @bold-sartorial-statement @vampirebillionaire @edwardnashtons @miss-olivia-cellophane @knightinpinkunderwear @supes9 @leaper182 @hamburgergod
Honourable mentions (because I CAN):
Gotham. Lucius Fox.
Gotham. Fish Mooney.
Gotham. Tabitha Galavan.
Doctor Who. The Doctor.
Doctor Who. The Master/Missy.
Supernatural. Hannah.
Supernatural. Naomi.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Andrew Wells.
#about me#a true but boring story#well this was a fun nostalgia fest for me!#apologies to the rest of you.............
16 notes
·
View notes
Text
mystery punk girl
alright fellas i gotta make sure i don’t embarrass myself this time, we got like, stakes and shit now. SO *breaks fingers* let’s make a masterpost of theories
aka i heard someone was interested in some mystery punk girl theories and decided to collect all the one’s i’ve gotten so far
tl;dr: mystery punk girl could literally be anything/anyone. we go over a few theories, notably ones that paint her as a younger sibling to the Calypso twins (Tyreen = First Sister). we also have one where she is a fraternal twin to Ava and mirrors Troy as the non-Siren-twin of a relationship. we also talk about why she hasn’t been getting a lot of cultist worship, like maybe she’s gone missing, or died. also that she may betray the twins (if! she was ever on their side to begin with! 👀) because her color scheme is one of a friend and tbh the twins seem suuuper close and she doesn’t seem to be getting any recognition from the cult.
from the numskull pin page, also where we learned she’s listed as ‘Punk Girl’
so to get to the point, the most obvious theory is that mystery masked girl is the younger (est?) sibling to the twins.
when mouthpiece talks in the beginning of the HBC demo, he calls Tyreen the ‘first sister’. I mention that in a post here (during my live post spamming of the event lol)
it’s mostly interesting because when you refer to someone as ‘the first’, usually the second part of that is what you’re referring to.
@sugar-high-viking brought this to my attention as well when the pins dropped, and also made a great point that she might be either a half-sibling (different colored hair), OR, to tie into my atlas theory about the twins, a similar experiment, but not blood-related (that part is in the notes of said post, i copied it here for easier reading)
which i adore because atlas twins is my favorite theory that’s probably never going to happen. (also hi if you’re reading this, sorry for the tag! i wanted to give credit because that was brilliant)
we do have a biiiit more stuff to go over.
take the mask of mayhem (yes im still working on that analysis, i promise!! i do like a facet a day if im not working on other stuff)
the whole backdrop thing feels to me like an order of importance.
we have the God Queen at the very top and in the middle.
on her left is the vault hunters, who of course are going to have a prominent role in the story.
on her right is Troy, her right-hand man (ala the cosplay guide)
and below Troy we have Mystery Punk Girl. can i call her MPG? i feel like i’m allowed to call her MPG
So her and Troy are about the same level as the Vault Hunters.
We can’t really infer that Tyreen is the oldest sibling (First Sister, with Troy possibly being the Second Brother? Or, Troy is the First Brother, Tyreen is the First Sister, and MPG is the Second Sister. i’d imagine the latter is correct because the former would have to use First Sibling to be correct) but we can guess that things on top are ordered in terms of importance.
And considering we haven’t seen NPG in ANY promo material or trailers yet? yeah i imagine she’s not shown off like the twins are, which would explain her lower level. now if that’s because she’s too important for them to be flashy with her, or if because they don’t think she’s worthy, or they want to protect her, or whatever, I wouldn’t be able to say.
Furthermore, we can also guess she’s not in an Angel-type situation. It’s heavily implied Ava is the Siren successor to Maya (but not officially stated). We know she has feathers on her outfit, but as I found out a bit ago, those (likely) aren’t meant to represent the wings that Tyreen and Lilith have on the MoM. They’re part of the clothing some cultists wear (possibly to emulate her looks like they do with Troy and Tyreen).
pictures for proof:
again, none of this is proven, as Ava nor Maya have wings on the MoM, but it is interesting to note. Also, if Ava does end up being a Siren (say her tattoos take a while to grow big enough for us to see, or they appear after her powers come in, fixing the Angel w/ no tattoos on jack’s desk “plot hole” we see in tps) then there’s no way for Punk Girl to have been a Siren.
unless.
ohohohoh...
okay, we know for a fact Troy’s red tattoos aren’t there because of Lilith.
As of right now, we have officially sourced stuff showing him with his red tattoos during the HBC (on the hologram), which we’ve proven takes place before the Sanc-III scene where Lilith gets her powers stolen.
there are plenty of theories as to why he’s got those tattoos then: because the twins were conjoined, they got the powers from a vault (the one shown on the walls of the HBC), they were experiments, they were experiments because they were conjoined twins, they’re fake Sirens, fake Sirens due to the experiments, etc, etc. i could go on for ages, but im not gonna, cause we’re not here for this.
im going to take the ‘the twins were conjoined’ theory and run with it for a secco. we had that interview where paul sage said at one point either in the development cycle OR in the timeline (the wording is not clear), the twins were conjoined twins. We’ve also seen that the spanish (i believe!) translation of the Calypso Twins yields the version that says they’re conjoined, not just normal twins. so we’re going to hope it’s the right theory.
we know there can only be 6 sirens in the universe. if tyreen was chosen but was still conjoined with her brother, it’s possible he could’ve been messed up by the magic or advanced tech or whatever it is that picks Sirens, and that’s where the red tattoos come from.
So what if MPG is the same way? twin to Ava, ended up not being the one who got the Siren power, rebelled and joined the CoV in hopes of getting her own powers, maybe even to get Tyreen to heal her since it’s possible having a twin with Siren powers can cause an affliction to the other twin.
It’d be really interesting if the two were abandoned at a young age and it ended up being that Ava was picked up by the Order of the Impending Storm and MPG wasn’t, as Ava was a Siren (like Maya) and MPG wasn’t, so she turns to the cult for help/support/whatever and the twins take a shine to her and basically adopt her as their little sibling.
(awww maaan i still gotta do my Maya masterpost. hmmm so much to do, so little time...)
tho, that’s 100% unfounded and me spitballing into the void. mostly cause i think she’s gonna end up looking a lot older in game than she does in the MoM. though, in defense, she is titled ‘Punk Girl’, not ‘ Punk Lady’ or ‘Punk Woman’ or whatever. so there’s that, and it seems wild they’d be introducing 2 young girls around the same age and NOT have them be related in some way. even if they’re just storyline parallels to each other (Ava having everything because she’s a Siren and MPG not)
A better theory, is that she’s the 3rd leader/sibling/figurehead of the cult. The game revolves around the number 3, it’s even acknowledged in universe.
cover art of a high-ranking cultist (the one with the rakk wings on the MoM, im assuming)
which is referenced in actual in-game art
we see it in the background of the behind closed doors intro
and i imagine there must be an in-universe reason for this very important cultist (TM) to be signalling the number three, right?
there’s certainly more than 3 Vaults. More than 3 opened at the time too.
3 pieces to the Vault Map? but the twins got that in its entirety. no reason to look for all three parts.
once lily gets her powers removed, there are 3 Sirens in play (that we know are 100% confirmed atm) Tyreen, Maya, Amara.
yeah, i think the most reasonable answer is that the number 3 is tied to the cult in some way.
while i find it hard to believe she’s something as prominent in the cult as a third figurehead (lack of statues, posters, acknowledge at all whatsoever), i could 100% see her being a third sibling, however.
So why isn’t she being worshipped like the twins? Maybe they’re keeping her out of the light for a reason.
Maybe she’s sick, like Troy, but Ty can’t heal her right away for some reason, or she picked Troy over her or smth (we’re told troy is the smart one, afterall, maybe Ty decided to pick the sibling she’d get the most use out of. or the one she’s closer to, being twins and all).
I had that dumb theory that Tyreen is Demeter (Troy is Demophon) and MPG is Persephone, taken away by the Vaults/Eridians/whatever in the twins’ attempt to heal her and either it locked her away somewhere, or it killed her. (Her being sick could also explain the ventilator she’s wearing, but i have another theory about that in just a secco.) And her being missing/dead is part of the reason Tyreen and Troy are trying to get the ultimate power, they’re trying to bring her back to life/heal her. And it could explain why she isn’t being referenced at all in most worship art, maybe the twins banned it or whatever. but if she is sick, i wonder why she wasn’t just miraculously healed by the Guardians (the Watcher specifically?) like whatsherface in TPS.
She could also be something like their secret weapon, maybe she has knowledge about something we don’t yet- be it warp travel, eridium testing, Sirens, Vaults, Eridians, etc, that’s giving the twins the better edge. Eridium testing could explain the ventilator, plus we see a giant waterfall of somethin’ glowing purple and i would bet it’s slag/eridium.
plus you know im a strong believer of my ‘the twins are using the chemical sludge of elpis to give their followers superpowers’ theory. i mean, if they actually are teleporting the moon (and NOT blowing it up), then it could almost make sense if they want their source of superjuice near their new base of operations/vault/whatever. mostly because we haven’t yet seen Ty give anyone Lily’s powers. As far as we know right now, she’s the sole holder of Lilith’s powers. at the very least, they’re mutating them with eridium/slag. but i wanna believe! so maybe MPG is their way of doing that. giving them insider knowledge of the chemical sludge on the moon, doing tests on it, subjecting the cultists to it, etc. We do see the big boy cultist smack dab in the middle of the mask with rakk wings, which are kind of a corruption of the angel wings we see the Sirens have. and since the Lost Legion Eternal basically have knockoff Siren/Guardian powers due to the chemical sludge on elpis, it would make sense.
she COULD also be our way into the cult. we know nothing about the gal, maybe she’s going to provide us a way to get insider knowledge. im sure whatever the twins post they’re fine with their cultists seeing, so we’d need someone higher up in the proverbial ladder to give us the good info. i do think it’s interesting she does not match the Twins’ colorscheme at ALL. she’s gray and black, yeah, but she’s also pink and orange (yellow?).
compare these two
to this:
it seems off that, if we are to consider them a unit, their colors clash so hard. (seriously, red and pink? oh my god!) I could almost see it as their way of hinting that she’s not 100% conforming to the twins.
I could also kinda see her being jealous of the relationship her older siblings have, how they’re so close because they’re twins and they share this bond over the Siren tattoos/starting a cult together. I could see her betraying them at some point because she’s sick of being pushed into the background. the pink and orange is a nice color combo compared to the reds and blacks. she certainly looks designed to be a friend.
anyway, that’s all i wrote today. im kinda tied, might add onto this later as i keep wrackin’ my brain trying to think of more theories.
#borderlands#bl3#borderlands 3#punk girl#mystery girl#mystery punk girl#ooo i can do this all day#so i won't#you know who she is
17 notes
·
View notes
Text
The more you know. (Part 2 of Fear is an illusion *Badboy!Klaus AU*)
Yes, guys, it's finally here! After centuries, I've arrived with the sequel since I was missing badboy!Klaus 😂
Genre: a romcom tbh
SUPER fucking long tbh. I think.
(Second Person Point of View)
"Okay, listen; I'm not saying you aren't capable of marrying Jungkook; I'm just saying it's rather unlikely for you to have a face to face conversation in the first place!" Guy argues, almost walking sideways to look at Amelia. It was a habit of his when arguing; regardless of what he's doing, he needs to face whoever he's arguing with. So, the fact that you were all walking on a sidewalk of a busy street didn't really prevent him from turning his upper body towards her.
"Well, If I were to carry out the ellaborate plan that I've already come up with in my head, I have a good chance of getting at least 2 minutes with him, and scientifically, guys take what? Like 9 seconds to fall in love?" Amelia insists.
By now, it was perfectly normal for these two to argue about the weirdest things, and you just learned to enjoy it and laugh.
You intervene, possibly keeping the disagreement going, "I don't think that's accurate information, Amelia.."
"Yeah, putting 'scientifically' before it doesn't just make it science, Amelia!" Guy further teases her.
"Why are y'all ganging up on me?!" She huffs, placing her fists on her hips.
You laugh, "We aren-" but before you can finish your sentence, a shop worker cuts you off. You expected it to be one of those 'hey can I have 5 minutes of your time? Cool! How about you donate to save the single-toed-red-nosed-pink-haired wobbly penguins of the saudi deserts; it'll only be 7 thousand dollars a day!' People that you can never escape; Is this the end? Is he gonna talk you to death? Will you be another victim of the never ending advertising violence?? Maybe! But today's not the day; good for you!
"Would you like to try our new unicorn cupcakes? We're handing out a free cupcake for every drink you buy!" You turn towards the man. He stood on one of the few steps that led to the entrance of the shop, displaying a bright smile, as he held a sign with their offer written on it along with the picture of the cupcake.
Regardless of his undeniable beauty, his attractiveness wasn't why you stared too much. It was something else. You'd seen that guy before; you were sure of it! But where?
Before you could pinpoint where you'd seen the man before, your friends cheered in agreement. The blond man chuckles, motioning with his right hand towards the glass doors, "Follow me, then!"
While your friends observed the store in awe, your attention seemed to be focused elsewhere..
The man seemed to draw you in by some strange force; it was like you'd known him before. Perhaps it was just the warm aura surrounding him, or maybe you were exaggerating and you just found him attractive, cuz to be fair, he was. Unable to solve the mystery, you carry on staring at his back till he reaches the counter. His broad shoulders were impossible to miss, and even though his muscular, built body would fit on a Calvin Klein ad, here he was, dressed in a pastel pink button up shirt, paired with light blue jeans and a brown apron. He even had a little, brown handkerchief scarf tied around his neck plus a brown beret, for some fucking reason. You chuckle to yourself as you look at the back of his head, blonde hair peeking from underneath the accessory.
Wait.
"I've waited for it to snow since forever!" You let out a groan of pleasure, staring at the snow flakes as they gently float to the ground, forming a beautiful white cover to coat the streets.
"Would you mind keeping those noises for the bedroom?" Guy fakes a disgusted look.
You playfully slap his arm, but before you could respond, Amelia yells for you to watch out, causing you to jump away from the street in panic. Due to the slippery nature of the snow, your butt collides with the ground, just in time for a guy on a motorcycle to zoom past you.
"Yo, watch where you're going!" You shout, more to show your annoyance than to gain a reaction from the stranger.
The man turns to look at you with a smile, "Sorry, sweetheart, didn't see you there." He yells back.
That smile. That fucking smile and that pretty hair. It's him, isn't it?!
"Man, you're doing great today! You've brought in like half our customers since morning!" Another male, wearing the same uniform (excluding the questionable beret), pats the blond on the back. "You deserve some type of reward for it!"
The brown-haired male stands behind the counter. "So, you're ordering the offer or?" He props his glasses on the bridge of his nose before pressing some buttons on the screen in front of him. Instead of replying, you could only glare at the blond. Your pants were barely even dry!
"Yes!" Regardless, Amelia cheers, "I'll have a caramel frappuccino; Guy?" She turns to her left.
"Hmm. I think I'll have that too." He nods with a smile.
"(Y/N)?" Amelia turns to you.
"Oh, um.." Left hand under your chin, you direct your attention away from the jerk and observe the menu in silence, feeling pressured to pick something quickly, considering everyone was waiting for you. "Just hot chocolate, please." You smile at the cashier.
Everyone's attention was then turned back to the cashier as he recites your orders; however you could still feel a pair of eyes on you. "You left him, huh?" The owner of the lingering gaze muses, leaving you puzzled.
"Huh?" You turn to face him, unintentionally letting your hand float awkwardly in the air. Taking the position of your hand to his advantage, the man grabs your hand, his fingers taking hold of your ring finger in particular. "What are you-" alarmed and annoyed, you attempt to pull your hand away, but his statement momentarily stole any energy left in you.
"Your ring. It's gone. You called off the engagement." You almost thought he was unamused, but he lifts his head to stare into your eyes, smirking in the process. "You listened to me."
"W-what?" That's when you were able to pull your hand out of his grasp, but it merely flew up to your mouth. "..Klaus?" You whispered. The familiar name rolled off your tongue, leaving an aftertaste of nostalgia.
"Awwhh! You remember me after all! I'm flattered!" He mockingly exaggerates flattery and places his hand on his chest.
"Who's Klaus?" Guy wonders aloud, earning a response from Amelia.
"He's (Y/N)'s knight in shining armour." She clasps her fingers together in front of her chest. Leaning closer to Guy, She then proceeds to add her own recollection of the story, as if her previous answer wasn't humiliating enough. "They had a steamy night together in a pool." She smirks.
"It was just a kiss!" Face burning with embarrassment, you attempt to silence your too-talkative-for-her-own-good friend.
"I would say it was rather steamy though." Klaus winks.
"Shut up!" You sputter nonsense, trying to change the subject, "p-plus, what even is this?! Weren't you like a bad boy or a punk or whatever last time I saw you?? Now you're..selling unicorn cupcakes?!"
"Hey, what's wrong with unicorn cupcakes?!" The male behind the cashier protests.
"Yeah, at least he's not selling drugs, y'know?" Guy shrugs.
"What? Bad boys can't earn a living nowadays?" Klaus acts indignant, and for a moment all you could hear is your friends and the staff acting as dramatic as yourself on your particularly difficult period days.
"W-well..ugh! Just nevermind!" Then another accusation came to mind, "wait! Earlier! It was you on the motorcycle, wasn't it?! I fell over because of you! My jeans are still wet because of you!"
"That's what she said." Guy mumbles to Amelia, who snickers, leading you to add this to the list of reasons you don't know why you're friends with these two.
Unlike Guy who tried to keep the joke between the two of them, Amelia ensures you hear hers. "He got you wet twice so far!" They both almost fall over laughing. Do you kill yourself yet?
Klaus laughs, "You have funny friends."
"Lucky me." Sarcasm dripping from your words, you sigh.
"Your drinks." The brown-haired worker pushes your drinks towards you. "And your cupcakes!" He hands each of you a cupcake, adorned with white, pastel pink, and pastel purple icing. On top of the cupcake stood a proud golden cone, representing a unicorn's horn. The glittery wrapping of the cupcakes and the tiny 'pearls' scattered on top added to how cute the dessert look. It was literally too adorable to be eaten.
"Well, we have some catching up to do, so get your stuff, and we'll go." Klaus takes off his apron and walks past a door that held a Staff Only sign.
"What? What are you talking about?!" Raise your voice as much as you please, the only response you're getting is dirty looks from other customers.
"Come on; you wanted to run into him again, didn't you?" Amelia nudges you. "Well, he's right here in front of you; you won't just let him go, will you? You may not get this chance ever again."
"Amelia, we know where he works; what are you-" She presses her index finger to Guy's lips, cutting off his reasonable assertion.
"So? Are you gonna take the interesting, fun, Ameliazing option? Or are you gonna be as boring as your friend here?" She glances at Guy at the end of her last question.
"I wasn't really giving her a choice anyway." A voice from behind distracts you and your friends from Amelia's nonsense.
"Your drink." Klaus, who now looked more similar to the Klaus in your memory, hands you the hot paper cup you hadn't picked up yet. "Let's go." He tilts his head towards the entrance.
"I'm sorry, what? Where are you going? Your shift hasn't ended yet!" The beret-less worker rushes to stop Klaus.
"You just said I deserve a reward, didn't you?" Klaus pats the guy (who only now did you notice wore a badge that said manager) on the shoulder before walking towards the entrance of the café.
"Klaus! Klaus!" No matter how many times he called out, the blond wouldn't budge. "Dammit; he just never listens." He sighs, ruffling his hair in defeat.
"So? Go after him!" Amelia pushes you forward. She throws her hand over Guy's shoulder, "Guy and I will hang out for a bit; you go have fun with your saviour!"
"He only gave her advice; I wouldn't clasify him as a 'saviour', like-" Guy's logic was once again cut off by Amelia's louder nonsense; she nudges him and proceeds to kick you outside into the cold arms of the snowy weather.
"Took you long enough." Your 'saviour' mumbles, swinging his leg over his motorcycle and waving for you to do the same.
×××
"You spilled half my drink, and I think I squeezed the flour out of my poor cupcake.." you look down at the tilted horn and what’s left of the pearls. Even the icing was downgraded from a professional's work to a child's free time in the kitchen.
Klaus sighs, "I work there; I'll make you another."
"Good. And I ain't payin' for it, just so you know."
Klaus face palms, his leather, fingerless gloves in full view, "That drink costs like three dollars but sure. Now can we move on with our date?"
"When did I ever agree to this being a date?" You cross your arm and look away with pride.
"I can always just take off with this baby and leave you here." He pats the motorcycle and shrugs, giving you a challenging smirk.
"Asshole." You mumble.
He sighs. "Can we just go?"
After a short pause, Klaus raises an eyebrow" Why are you still holding onto those?" You look down at the deformed paper cup in your hand and the mess that used to be the most beautiful cupcake you'd ever seen. A moment of silence for that brave fallen soldier.
Or maybe not. Klaus had already snatched the items and placed them on the ground, next to the brick wall that seemed to go on forever. Did he take you to China or something?
"Let's go; my friend is waiting." You wondered what that meant, and where he was taking you, but with Klaus, you quickly learned not to question him, for his brain was wired differently. He'd decided the best way to cheer a stranger up was to sneak them into a pool. It couldn't be any stranger than that, could it?
"A barn? Why are you taking me here?" Flashbacks to horror stories you'd read about people getting murdered in such places popped into your head, and even though it was just Klaus, you started thinking of how you don't actually know Klaus. He could literally be a drug dealer, and you wouldn't know. He could be the murderer that kills people in barns! And! Again! You! Wouldn't! Know! Yippiiee..
"My friend is waiting inside. Now be quiet; we don't want to alarm anyone that we're here, cuz again, this isn't my property." Klaus pulls you by the arm and stealthily begins walking towards the building, slightly crouching while keeping you both in the shadows. You wonder if you should be crouching too, but it looked rather comical, so you quickly decide against it and walk awkwardly behind him - back prefectly straight - instead.
His answer left you with more questions than you previously had had. You felt like a child that was just told there were more candy in the big white van...
Why did you think this was okay? To follow some stranger into an empty area at night like this? It was ridiculously stupid, but here you are.
When you reached the doors to the barn, he facepalmed. "I forgot about this; I don't have anything on me to use...do you have a bobby pin?"
"Uh, I think so.." You fish through your pockets; you had a habit of forgetting stuff in there, so there was really no telling what you might find.
"There." You hand him a slightly chapped bobby pin.
He bends it in some odd shape before turning to stick it into the keyhole of the lock hanging from a chain around the door handles.
"Not to be that person, but what are you doing?" You bend to peek at his hands as they tinker with the lock.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" You couldn't see his face, but you were pretty sure he just rolled his eyes.
"What? You just walk around sneaking into places in your free time?! How are you not in jail?! You said we were meeting a friend!" His head snaps towards you, eyes glaring daggers at you.
"Do you want to go to jail? Because you couldn't be any louder than you are right now. I'm not in jail because I'm good at it, unlike some people. And we are meeting a friend; this is my dad's stable if it makes you feel any better. We're not stealing anything. We’re just borrowing it." He shrugs and gets back to work, lock clicking open a moment later.
"But I don't understand. If it's your dad's, why are we sneaking around?" Klaus pushes the doors open, revealing rows and rows of hourses on each side of you. Why anyone would need that much horses you couldn't understand.
"I don't talk to him anymore, but that doesn't mean I won't be visiting my friends here. Specifically this one." He pauses next to a black horse with a white patch on its forehead, and said horse immediately nuzzles closer to him, rubbing its head to the side of a very pleased Klaus's face.
"Why don't you?" The realization of how little you know about Klaus shifted from scaring you to slapping you right across the face with guilt. Last time, you were so upset with the engagement, you didn't even think of asking about what Klaus is like or what his family is like or anything.
"He's angry I didn't pursue medicine like he did. He doesn't approve of my studies, so I left." He appeared visibly uncomfortable by the topic, so you tried to shift it a little.
"What did you pursue?" Even though the stable was dimly lit, nothing could hide the pink tint on his cheeks.
"Culinary studies."
"Oh, that's pretty cool! When are you cooking me something?" You tease, but genuine excitement was clear in your grin and voice.
"Never. Now, shut up and pick a horse! I'll be taking Thunder here, and since it's your first time, I'd suggest you take-" He bites back whatever he was going to say and resorts to pointing at a beautiful brown horse opposite to Thunder. "That one."
"What? Don't tell me you named it that one. Also, what makes you think it's my first time?" You puff your chest out, a hand on your hip.
"It's not?"
You slump, "It is."
Klaus shakes his head in disbelief, "Just let me strap down the saddles, and then we can go."
"You haven't told me its name! I can't just walk around calling it that one. Why do you get a horse named Thunder, and I get a horse named that one?!" You complain for absolutely no reason other than to get on his nerves because it was always funny to see the chill bad boy lose his cool.
"He has a name, okay? And I'm giving you that one, because it's a gelding, so it's rather gentle and easy to control; Thunder is a mare, so she's pretty aggressive for a beginner. Plus, she tends to not listen to strangers...or to most people to be fair.." He begins strapping down the saddles, stirrups, reins, and a lot of other stuff you don't know the names of.
You wondered if it was a good idea to tease him while he was placing the things that would keep you on top of the horse and not fall to your death. Oh well. "What's his name then?" He mumbles something in response, but you couldn't hear a single letter of it. "What?”
"Sparkle! His name is Sparkle! I was 13, okay?!" You could tell he was seconds away from zipping that leather jacket up to his forehead if he could. And for that reason, of course, you burst into laughter. It was the most unexpected thing you could've heard from him yet also the sweetest; sure, the guy works at a place that sells unicorn cupcakes; you probably shouldn't have been that surprised by how soft this is, but still, you couldn't help but want to pinch his cheeks or something. You prefer not to die though, so you keep the thought to yourself.
"That's so cute! I'll take Sparkle; I love him already!" You giggle.
"Just shut up." He mutters, cheeks still red (You prefer to think it was because he was blushing and not because of the cold weather).
"Come on; it's adorable! Turns out you're not as harsh as you want to appear to be." You wiggle your eyebrows at the male that was physically very capable of bashing your brains in with no weapons whatsoever but one that was also too nice to hurt anyone. Well, he does trespass on people's properties, but let's pretend that's not a crime.
"Remind me why I'm on a date with you?" He hands you the rein strapped to Sparkle. You only giggle in response, following him outside, carefully pulling the horse along.
"Well, that doesn't feel very sneaky." You mumble. You were both just dragging two grown-ass horses in the middle of an empty landscape coated with layers of snow that gave away the positions of your relatively dark horses and yourselves extra easily. "Plus, is it even safe to ride horses in that snow?"
"Yeah, they're able to walk on that type of snow just fine." He replies, still dragging Thunder to God knows where. You follow him, asking no questions.
The only conversations made were between you and Sparkle; it felt kinda one-sided, but you were sure Sparkle was warming up to you.
Finally, Klaus paused, causing you to excitedly stand next to him, so you could see your destination. Your eyes glint in awe; it was an abandoned beach with several cliffs staring down at the frozen body of water and the white cover surrounding it.
"It's Thunder and I's favourite place." Klaus beams. "I don't have to tell you, right? No running onto the frozen water; we don't know how stable it is. Plus, horses don't do well on ice." He warns, and it slightly worries you that he speaks as if he'd seen it happen before. You don't ask.
"Sure."
"Now, let me give you some instructions." He begins showing you the basics of how to control the horse and assures you the horse won't slip and kill you both. "Easy enough?"
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I can do that." You nod, tingles of anticipation wrapping your whole body. Klaus easily gets on top of Thunder, leaving you to stare at Sparkle, whose stirrup was about chest height to you. That made getting on top of it seem like a bit of a challenge.
"Um..how do I..?" He'd explained how to do it, but all of that seemed useless as you wondered how you even place your left leg on the stirrup in the first place.
"Oh, sorry, I forgot I need to hold him for you, since you haven't tried this before." He dismounts and holds the rein for you, looking at you as if he just solved world hunger. He hadn't even solved your how-to-get-on-top-of-a-horse-twice-your-size problem.
He seemed to realize you were still incapable of doing anything after the mini staring contest you had with him. He sighs, shoulders slumping. "Do you always have trouble climbing stuff?"
"I'll have you know I climb stuff all the time, but excuse me for not having a rich dad that owns an entire stable of horses or for not climbing walls to sneak into pools. I'm pretty sure most people can agree with me!" You huff and place your fists on each side of your hips.
"Of course." He shakes his head and approaches you. "I'll lift you up by the waist then you do the steps I told you...as well as you can while you're standing on air, I guess...I'll help; just go ahead." He stands behind you and squats down a bit, wrapping his arms around your hips and pulling you off the floor. The amount of strength this guy has. Does cooking count as a sport?? Cuz damn.
You place your left foot on the stirrup and swing your right leg over the horse while Klaus helps push and steady you on top.
"You're welcome!" Klaus yells mockingly before walking back to the black horse that stood out beautifully in its pale surroundings.
At first, you were extremely tense, trying your best not to fuck up and piss off Sparkle in any way. The horse was gentle enough; you didn't wanna change that. Soon enough, though, you were racing against Klaus, icy wind violently blowing your hair back. The cold air striking your face and entire body felt freeing in some way; you wanted to live in that moment forever, giggling as you try to catch up with the guy that had way more training than you ever did.
You felt unstoppable- unbreakable. Maybe you were high off speed or weather, but whichever it was, you didn't care; you just wanted to enjoy this sensation to the fullest.
"Do you wanna stop here for a bit?" Klaus yells, not bothering to slow down (probably fearing you'd take lead for one second before he beats you again).
"Sure!" You yell back.
As Klaus gets off, you decide to try and dismount without his help. It didn't seem like a good idea, but you did it anyway. It was going well at first, but then you realized how far the ground really is, causing you to stumble back a bit after violently hitting the ground with your foot, which wouldn't have been a problem if your right foot wasn't still stuck in the stirrup.
Of course you had to fall onto your back in the most humiliating way possible. "Great. Twice in the same day." You huff, glaring at the sky, not really bothering to get up.
Klaus clutches his stomach as he doubles over, laughing. It would've been a wonderful view if it weren't for the fact that he was laughing at you.
You sit up to stare at him, "Come on; it's not that funny!"
He merely pauses to take a breather and utter out "Whatever you say." Then, immediately, he's back to hysterical laughter.
Without thinking too much, you find yourself charging at the tall blond, tackling him to the ground. "Now that is funny." You smirk.
His face mirrors yours- a smirk tugging at his lips. "Now that is hot." He whispers, gently pushing his lips against yours.
He props himself up on his elbow, keeping his right hand free to get lost in your hair. You place your knees on each side of his torso, hands cupping his face as you take lead of the kiss.
Klaus sits up, careful not to push you off by accident (now that would be such a mood killer), now placing his left hand on your hip and pulling you closer to him. Both of you snuggle closer to feel as much of each other's warmth as you could.
"I almost forgot how good that felt." You breathe out with a chuckle after you both break the kiss. Your foreheads were still only centimeters apart, allowing you to admire the details of Klaus's face up close. The way his eyes glint, the thick eyelashes you definitely weren't jealous of, the way his lips pull into a smile when he notices you staring- he was beautiful in so many different ways.
"Maybe we should do it more often. That way, you can never forget." You wanted to kiss that smug-ass expression right off his gorgeous face.
"Shut up." You slap his arm playfully and get up. The cold air hitting you hard, now that your mind wasn't focused on kissing an attractive blond.
"You're cold." Klaus states.
"I'm oka-" before you could finish, he placed his leather jacket on your shoulders, leaving him with only a long-sleeved shirt.
"What are you doing?! Do you want to die of hypothermia?! Why aren't you dressed in layers of clothes?! I'm wearing literally my entire closet; why aren't you?!" You place the jacket back on an amused-looking Klaus. "We need to get you somewhere warm; let's go."
Klaus chuckles but doesn't object.
"Well, um, a little help here first." You sheepishly turn back to Klaus when you remember your little issue with riding the horse. "Not a word, Klaus!" You warn, knowing he was trying his best not to burst into laughter.
"I didn't say anything." He raises his hands in defence- a grin still splattered right across his face
The ride back was a lot slower; maybe because neither one of you wanted your time together to end. Both horses walk side by side, allowing you and Klaus to have a normal conversation without yelling.
"Is it okay if I ask you something personal?" Your eyes search his features for any sign of discomfort.
"Sure." He replies with ease.
"Why haven't you tried to fix your relationship with your dad. I mean you can't possibly stop talking to him for something so trivial; he's family."
Klaus sighs, not out of annoyance but more like he hasn't thought of this in a long time. After a few moments of silence, excluding the sound of hooves repeatedly sinking through the crust of snow, his small, vulnerable voice broke the silence, "I'm scared."
He laughs lightly, mockery and insecurity instead of happiness evident in the action. "Ironically." He adds. "I advise you not to be scared, but here I am."
"Everyone's scared of something. It's what makes us human, isn't it?" You turn your head to give him a smile- a slightly tense one, though, since you weren't used to directing your attention to anything but the horse while riding.
"I guess so."
"But you have to talk to him. Just like you encouraged me to do what I was scared of, I encourage you to do what you're scared of. What's the worst that could happen anyway? He gets mad? You already don't talk. You have nothing to lose."
He stays quiet, only giving a simple nod. It makes you wonder if you should've kept quiet about it after all. Did you make him uncomfortable?
"You're probably right." His sudden reply - though quiet enough - startles you, almost knocking you off the horse.
"This time we should stay in contact then you can tell me how it went." You half joke, still not believing that last time you two idiots actually kissed and enjoyed each other's companies but forgot to mention any method of communication. But here you are, together again.
"Of course." He laughs.
"Promise?"
"Promise."
xxx
Your phone buzzes, signalling a text.
SparKLAUS: guess where I am?
You: not trespassing I hope
SparKLAUS: ha ha very funny
SparKLAUS sent a photo.
You smile in awe at the selfie of himself and three other blonds that looked a lot like him; it would be creepy if you didn't know they were his father and siblings. They were all gathered around a fireplace, dressed in layers of clothing to keep themselves warm- Klaus, being the only one dressed in black. However, upon closer inspection, you could see white and blue peeking from beneath Klaus's leather jacket: a sweater. For once, Klaus was dressed appropriately and not trying to freeze to death.
SparKLAUS: you're late Miss Always On Time
SparKLAUS: we might just eat the cake without you
You: noooo I'm omw!!
SparKLAUS: never heard that one before
You: shut up goldstein
You grab your purse and rush out the door, eager to meet up with Klaus and his family. Of course, eager to taste his baking for the first time as well.
#in which I pretend to know#more about horses#than i actually do#anyway#shall we date#klaus one shot#shallwedate#wizardess heart+#shall we date wizardess heart#wizardess heart#klaus goldstein#wizardess heart klaus#klaus goldstein imagine#klaus goldstein one shot#klaus goldstein fluff#guy brighton#wizardess heart guy#Amelia Nile#wizardess heart amelia#elias goldstein#wizardess heart elias#alfonse goldstein#Wizardess heart alfonse#walter goldstein#wizardess heart imagine#wizardess heart one shot#wizardess heart fluff
24 notes
·
View notes
Note
Who do you think are the most overrated characters in ATLA?
What a controversial question xD Well, probably under the cut, for the best.
DISCLAIMER: if you adore any of the characters on this list, this is NOT an attempt to attack you or your peers, merely criticism on how the fandom behaves regarding certain characters.
Undeniably, the #1 overrated character is Iroh. A lot of people give him much more credit than he’s due, and he’s much more problematic than he seems on first sight. No doubt he has his fair share of good points, but he is far from perfect and he definitely isn’t the soul of the show for me, despite it seems he is for a lot of people. Proof of how overrated he is? His mere reappearance in LOK made people who had dropped the show return to it just because of him. Because SOMEHOW Iroh being there makes it all better.Truth is, no, it doesn’t make LOK all better. But how to argue with people who adore Iroh and refuse to see his faults?Iroh is not all wisdom, and he’s definitely not infallible. He’s also not the strongest firebender ever, sorry not sorry to burst that bubble but it’s a fact. Iroh was very questionable at many points in the show, and his relationship with his family is very complicated to say the least. Assuming he’s the only pure and good person in the Fire Nation Royal Family just because he was nice to Zuko is one of the fandom’s biggest mistakes and one of my biggest gripes with this character’s interpretations. Not because Bryke decided to sanctify him in LOK, and make him the franchise’s most enlightened character of all, does it mean he really was that perfect. A genuine analysis of who he is and what he did during ATLA can prove as much. So… Iroh is very overrated. Very. I’m certainly interested in hearing about his past, as any fan would be, but I do think there are far more important things the show and comics should deal with than expanding on Iroh’s life. People who would rather hear about his past than about the grown-up lives of the Gaang (… or about Azula’s uncertain future) really baffle me as Iroh’s endgame is clearly what the show gave us. Do we really need to know more about his past than we need to know about everyone else’s futures? I’d like to know more about his past, as I said, but it is far from a priority for me compared to every other main character on the show.
Zuko would be my #2, of course, only because Iroh’s fans tend to be louder and more annoying when you get them going. But the constant praise to Zuko’s development, and ESPECIALLY the praise to his extremely flawed redemption that still leaves a ton of room for him to improve, and that also made him worse in many ways, makes me roll my eyes more often than not. That recent viral tweet about him getting the best redemption arc in the history of TV makes me wonder how much TV did that person watch at all. If Zuko’s the best redemption TV can do, I guess we’re really facing a terrible time for television shows.Mainly, Zuko is overrated because, just as Iroh, he’s credited for a ton of things that aren’t true. There’s a lot of problems with his character that go unaddressed, and a lot of people are happy to describe him with a lot of praising adjectives that I have no idea what relation they could possibly have with his character. Proof of the messed-up understanding fans have of Zuko can be found easily in fanfiction: have you ever wondered why Zuko’s characterization varies so drastically from fic to fic? Whether fics trying to portray him in a good light or in a bad one, more often than not it feels like people are portraying him as who they think he should be, and not who he really is. Having a grasp on his character is difficult, way more difficult than many people believe, but it’s on great measure because of how hard so many people have it to actually see his flaws for what they are.I am not saying loving Zuko is a terrible thing, it isn’t, but some people love and praise the idea of him, and not who he really is. Careful, less biased inspection of his character can reveal he leaves a lot to be desired for a man who changed his ways and became the ruler that would bring peace to a nation he hardly knows or understands. His character development is a rollercoaster, and that’s mainly because of how deeply flawed he is: but you ask the fandom and he’s a cinnamon roll who never did anything wrong, or at least, whose every misdeed can and should be blamed on everyone but him. Because he is perfect, and so is his character arc. So, overrated, or misunderstood character? Hell knows, but the fandom really has turned me off Zuko’s character altogether.
The third most overrated character would be Toph, who, for all her great traits, often gets praised as a fully rounded character when, uh… to put it bluntly, out of the five top-billed Gaang members, Toph is the one who evolved the least. Her growth was exclusively about developing more bending skills, about becoming a stronger fighter, but she has some serious personality flaws that are never explored the way they should be. She barely ever faces consequences for her wrongdoings, which are often framed as funny, and when she’s in the middle of serious conflicts, she is absolutely never in the wrong, just as it is with her every conflict with Katara. In the end… she barely grows in anything but power level. Yet you look around and find a ton of people praising her as the greatest character of the franchise. While I see the appeal, and in her case I like her a lot better as a character than either Iroh or Zuko, I also think she’s not given a chance by the story to actually grow, and that stunted her as a character. Which doesn’t seem to bother anyone because she’s praised for anything and everything to no end. I appreciate her comic relief moments, the message she gives in regards of disabilities, but the show could have made better use of her character and didn’t, and nobody really seems to notice or care.
This one’s going to get me stoned I’m sure (if the first ones didn’t already :’DDDD) but my #4 goes to Kyoshi. Yep. You read that right.Kyoshi is no doubt a hardass, I’ve seen a ton of people praising her as the greatest Avatar of all. There’s a million Chuck Norris-esque memes with her, presenting her as the most unstoppable force in the Avatarverse, and you see people everywhere dissing Avatars like Kuruk, for being so lazy, or Roku, for not being decisive, blah blah blah, and saying she’s awesome for being 100% the opposite of that.What these funny people fail to notice, or maybe they simply don’t know the Avatarverse’s timeline, is that Kyoshi allowed Chin the Conqueror to take over the entire Earth Kingdom and only made a move against him to save HER island. She didn’t act until then, allowing Chin to take over whatever the hell he wanted to take during his rebellion, which, as far as I know, was practically the entire continent, with only Kyoshi Island and Ba Sing Se as exceptions.And the whole thing to help the Earth King to deal with the Earth Kingdom’s problems, by creating the Dai Li for his protection? It happened AFTER Chin died, she didn’t even do this to save Ba Sing Se from him because this is posterior to Chin’s mad quest. She did NOT act to protect the Earth Kingdom from a raving, rising tyrant until it affected herdirectly, and didn’t involve herself with the politics of HER OWN NATION until after they had boiled over and the Earth King had a peasant revolt in his hands. If she couldn’t be bothered to move to save her own people until the last moment, what guarantees that she did anything to help anyone else? How is she that great an Avatar?Sure, people think that, since she actually got involved in worldly events no matter how late she did, she was better than Roku or Kuruk. But in Kuruk’s favor he apparently had no war to deal with, and his wife’s loss is an unexpected tragedy for him. Roku actually kept Sozin at bay for years, and Sozin only dared act openly with his conquest of the world once Roku was out of the way. Kyoshi had a major war brewing in her nation and her best idea to deal with it was to split off her island so she wouldn’t have anything more to do with it. Because a separatist mentality is the best way to handle your Avatar duties (the greatest illusion is the illusion of separation, anyone?). Seriously, if Chin had been standing just a bit futher back? If he hadn’t fallen to his death? He probably would have taken Ba Sing Se later anyways and Kyoshi would’ve been chilling in her village until she noticed that the Earth King was dead. Oops.Long story short, Kyoshi is considered way too great for the reality of her actions and decisions. The fandom’s concept on her duty as an Avatar is absurdly messed up, and as cool as her character design is, as great as her displays of power were, she was actually a pretty bad Avatar if you get objective about what she allowed Chin to do for so long. So in my very humble opinion, the fandom’s circlejerk around her is more than undeserved.
I was planning on making this a top 5, but tbh I don’t think anyone else gets acclaim to the extreme in the way these four do. Everyone else seems to have a more moderate fanbase, or at least enough detractors that the people who praise them don’t come off as loud and annoying as they do for these four.
I’m not saying loving any of them is wrong, but there’s such abundance of praise for them, often for things they never even did, let alone for values they never represented, and yet they get interpreted by the fandom in whichever way the fans decide they like best. And somehow, the fanon interpretations grow more popular than what’s really there… which is truly annoying because these characters are fine the way the show actually portrayed them. They’re flawed, they make mistakes, their actions can be judged, they’re far from perfect: yet the fandom would have you believe otherwise.
114 notes
·
View notes
Text
Drama thing I took off of DR (any reblogs are being moved onto my personal dw):
@harbormail
Here is the post I was talking about. The first part is a long ass list of anecdotal evidence of discrimination, and further down you will find some more (largely non-anecdotal) evidence.
“Highlights” include:
Medicalisation of asexuality until the last DSM update. You can self-identify out of being medicalised now, but that requires that a) the person knows what asexuality is and b) the doctor/therapist believes it to be a valid orientation.
This exerpt from the first link “Intergroup bias toward “Group X”: Evidence of prejudice, dehumanization, avoidance, and discrimination against asexuals“:
In a recent investigation (MacInnis & Hodson, in press) we uncovered strikingly strong bias against asexuals in both university and community samples. Relative to heterosexuals, and even relative to homosexuals and bisexuals, heterosexuals: (a) expressed more negative attitudes toward asexuals (i.e., prejudice); (b) desired less contact with asexuals; and (c) were less willing to rent an apartment to (or hire) an asexual applicant (i.e., discrimination). Moreover, of all the sexual minority groups studied, asexuals were the most dehumanized (i.e., represented as “less human”). Intriguingly, heterosexuals dehumanized asexuals in two ways. Given their lack of sexual interest, widely considered a universal interest, it might not surprise you to learn that asexuals were characterized as “machine-like” (i.e., mechanistically dehumanized). But, oddly enough, asexuals were also seen as “animal-like” (i.e., animalistically dehumanized). Yes, asexuals were seen as relatively cold and emotionless and unrestrained, impulsive, and less sophisticated.
So as I said, straight people don’t see asexuals (and tbh aromantics either) as being straight and actively discriminate against us. Me being heteromantic won’t save that because guess what:
Corrective rape also happens against asexuals. So I either have to closet myself or run the risk of my partner deciding they want to “fix” me. I personally have had that particular threat used against me as a flirtatious gesture.
Plus much more! Bonus links about the fact that ace people have been in the LGBT+ community for years.
“I just think hetero aces don’t really have enough in common w/ LGBT community to include it in the movement“ - does the above change your mind at all? But regardless I fail to see how a community dedicated to aiding and creating safe spaces for sexual minorities is somehow not able to include another sexual minority? It’s an argument I've seen before but it never made sense to me. Presumably because people use the “lack of sexual orientation” definition to mean “not a sexual orientation, so not a sexual minority”. Or that it’s “easily hidden”...?
Which might not actually be marginalisation specifically, so you’re half right - but it is straight up erasure because it pushes asexuals out of any type of focus around minority orientations and their issues. Although specifically defining it as such so you can push asexuals out of any focus is marginalisation, so... as I said, half right.
All that said you have, in my opinion, a very odd idea of what constitutes being LGBT+ in the first place honestly? “From my experience trans people who arent attracted to other trans people at the very least are often transphobic so I’m not including them!” seems to imply being trans doesn’t mean you’re inherently LGBT+ despite T being in the acronym, which isn’t... I mean there’s an argument that bigots shouldn’t be active in the community or local groups, but not being LGBT+ at all is a big thing to propose. Especially when you consider internalised prejudice is a big issue and trans people not wanting to date other trans people is a sign of that.
However I’m gonna go ahead and focus on this as part of the asexual argument, since that’s why we’re here.
Anyway your justification that to be considered as LGBT(+ or not) you need to be gay doesn’t even make sense. Again, being bi means you aren’t gay, so there’s that immediately. Telling bi people they can only be part of the LGBT+ community if they’re actively seeking or are in a relationship with someone of the same gender, and therefore “presenting as gay”, is classic biphobia, so I hope that’s not what you’re implying with this either.
Additionally your orientation has nothing to do with whether you would date trans people, regardless of whether you’re trans yourself or not. You would exclude straight trans people who will date other trans people, on the basis that some straight trans people won’t, but allow in gay trans people who wouldn’t date other trans people because they’re gay...? That makes no sense. You’re trying to create a LGBT+ vetting process based on a correlation that doesn’t exist.
Dating other trans people doesn’t make a trans person gay, and being gay doesn’t mean you’d date other trans people. A bi person dating someone of the same gender doesn’t make them gay. Why is such a thing a prerequisite for aro/ace people when can’t reasonably be one for anyone else?
Look I dunno if you’re aphobic, it’s possible you’re someone who has radically different ideas about what being LGBT+ is than anyone I have ever seen or spoken to in my life (bar radicals tbh, not to imply you are one though since they tend to also try and drop the T completely and you aren’t).
Unless I’m completely misinterpreting you, or your argument isn’t getting though properly, idk
But yeah. Also any replies to this will be funneled to my personal @solar-wave to keep the drama on my follwer’s dash to a minimum. Also also I know you keep saying LGBT and don’t include the +, but the + is important to many people, largely considered the desired standard, and is how the community includes ace people in the acronym in the first place so *shrug*
7 notes
·
View notes
Text
Pokemon of the California Chaparral!
I was inspired by a recent field trip i went on and couldn’t stop thinking about it until i made this post. Be warned: some of these aren’t completely scientifically based. As diverse as pokemon are, some of these just straight up dont match with local fauna, but i had an empty niche that was bugging me. This is by no means meant to be comprehensive, it’s just for my personal enjoyment. Also im a lazy typer so if you want an explanation on some of these that dont fully explain it, feel free to send me an ask and ill explain my reasoning. Also they arent in any particular order, just the order that i thought of them. ANYWAY!!!!! I put it under the cut cuz it big
Ponyta and Rapidash
Who woulda thought i would have a fire pokemon in the chaparral huh. For those of you that don’t know this extremely specific habitat, the chaparral is characterized by lots of flammable flora that facilitate wildfires. The idea behind this is that herds of ponyta and rapidash were accidentally released when they were brought to the Americas by settlers and, being fire pokemon, gravitated toward the hot chaparral regions. They have a particular taste for manzanita.
Vulpix and Ninetales
I bet ur starting to see a pattern here. These would be the equivalent to the gray fox, just… fire type. Hey, I never said all of these entries would be exciting
Cyndaquil, Quilava, and Typhlosion
Before anyone gets on me, i know they are supposed to be badgers. If you didnt know, the california state flag has a grizzly bear on it. The california grizzly. Who wouldve guessed? Anyway, i needed two things in this ecosystem : a small mammal and a friggen bear. This gives me the best of both worlds let me live also i may have wanted an excuse to include one of my favorite starters
Fletchling, Fletchinder, and Talonflame
Im only on my fourth entry this is going to take forever. I think these ones are pretty self explanatory
Houndour and Houndoom
Now i understand these are a bit of a stretch. My idea is that theyre the equivalent to coyotes. Sue me
Spearow and Fearow
Did you know theres a shit ton of birds that call this place their home? Well I do and what better birds to represent this rough back country than these mean ass birds right here
Doduo and Dodrio
These are your roadrunners. Maybe more of a southern thing than a foothills thing, but it didnt feel right not to include them
Vullaby and Mandibuzz
In heat this bad, you can expect a lot of dead things. Bon appetit
Rufflet and Braviary
Little known fact: in Wallace, CA along hwy 12, theres an eagle nest right on top of a power pole. Its neat. If you ever find yourself in buttfuck nowhere, CA make sure you keep an eye out
Noibat and Noivern
I already know this is the one of the ones im gonna get shit for and i was so so close to not including them. There are pretty extensive cave systems in the sierra foothills though so i feel like im justified
Zubat, Golbat, and Crobat
You can never have too many bats
Tauros and Miltank
At least in the sierra foothills, you see a lot of cows. Its good ranching country and i cant say those gold miners didnt utilize it after the spanish had the valley mowed down of its natural grasses
Bunnelsby and Diggersby
Jack rabbits are very common in this area and of all the rabbit pokemon, these seemed the most hardly and likely to live in satans playground
Deerling and Sawsbuck
These pokemon would only appear in the chaparral during the spring and autumn. In Spring, they would pass through on their way to the sierras in order to avoid the hot summers of the valley and in fall they would head back down to avoid the cold mountain winters. This was a common practice of the native tribes in the area, who based their behavior off of the migrating sawsbuck
Bonsly and Sudowoodo
Idk to me they are reminiscent of certain shrubs that can be found here and thats their whole shtick is to mimic trees
Grubbin, Charjabug, and Vikavolt
Now i know i know these are stag beetles and i know they dont belong in california. i just wanted some shit cool beetle and this is like the quintessential shit cool beetle
Scattterbug, Spewpa, and Vivillon (continental)
Butterflies are a pretty big thing in california. I just dont see the wurmple line being here (no silkworms) , but you could probably put the caterpie line and weedle line too. Maybe even venonat and venomoth. Use your imagination, i just didnt feel like putting a million different bugs in here that are basically the same
Joltik and Galvantula
There are ticks and tarantualas here. nuf said. and there ARE pokes for joltik to feed on they just arent mammals idk throw an electric mammal in there if it really bugs you (pun unintended) that much
Hoppip, Skiploom, and Jumpluff
When i thought of these, I really had the cottonwoods of the riparian and mixed conifer habitats in mind. They have wind dispersed seeds so i can just imagine these guys just floating on through not staying too long. It just felt lonely with no grass pokemon.
Helioptile and Heliolisk
Yes i see these more as desert pokemon, but chaparral is just a step above the desert. Game freak really needs to diversify their lizard selection but tbh i didnt look too terribly hard after i picked out these dudes it was getting late and i was getting tired
Seviper
This is another one i almost didnt include. I wanted something to represent the rattlesnake, but the only snake with a rattle was ekans and thats clearly a constrictor. Anyway, finally a place seviper can be free from harassment by zangoose
Dunsparce
And to conclude our list is everybodys favorite burrowing bee snake thing!
If you actually read through all of this, thanks so much! I dont expect this to get much attention, but it was fun to make so thats what matters ^-^ and like i said before, if you think i missed anything or want a deeper explanation into one of my picks, just let me know!
#pokemon#pokemon headcanons#pokemon biology#idk what else to tag this as but theres so many pokes theres no way im gonna list them all off in the tags#i just want interested people to actually see it ya know?#my posts#long post
7 notes
·
View notes
Text
Kara’s Necklace
I’ve been thinking about Kara’s giving of her mother’s necklace to Mon-El since I read the spoiler on Sunday, and I think I’ve wrapped my head around something that makes it a lot less... terrible.
At first, I was furious.
Especially since that’s all I had to think about in that moment. I got the information that Mon-El was leaving (which wasn’t a shocker, I’d been saying it since they broke up like 8 times in a row that they’re rushing the course of the relationship so she can lose him at the end of the season) and I got some snippets that Lena and Mon-El made it happen and such.
And then a few hours later, I saw that Kara gave her necklace to Mon-El as he left.
Her mother’s necklace?
A part of me is still there.
Because we really couldn’t afford to lose this connection to Kara’s family. To have her give it up as a romantic gesture, when all season everything has been about this romance, forsaking Kara’s connection with everyone else in favor of it.
I would never give up that necklace.
I would tell my friends not to give up any piece of themselves for a boy.
I would tell Kara that he’ll be okay, that it means more to her and was a gift to her.
And I think it’s really a terrible thing to show girls, because they look up to Kara and might now think that they should give up everything for their romantic partners, especially after a season of Kara being used as a narrative tool to make Mon-El a better person.
But I’ve thought about it, and while I think what they should have done was have Kara learn over the course of the season to prioritize her needs instead of Mon-El’s, it’s still very much in character for her to do the things she has.
And not just because she’s a normal lovesick girl.
In fact, that’s the least important part of it.
And that idea is helping me a lot right now because while I’d have been alright with Kara giving her necklace up to Alex, having her give it up to any romantic partner (yes, this includes Lena) would have disturbed me because it’s about her family and her inconceivable loss and it’s part of what makes her her.
It represents a huge part of what draws me to Kara, and she just gave it up to Mon-El?
The writers just gave this huge depth up for some romance?
But the depth is still there, for those who seek it. I’m here to present it to you.
Some of the analyzations coming up are generous to the writers, but they are not unfounded.
I think that the interpretation I have of the season’s events is what the writers (or at least some of them) originally conceived it all to mean, but somewhere along the way they lost track of the point:
That there’s more to how Kara was and is feeling than missing someone romantically.
Though, first, she does miss Mon-El romantically.
Just to clarify, before we move forward. Jokes like “Kara doesn’t even like Mon-El” are to emphasize how the narrative hasn’t given us reason to think that she should like him, not to say that Kara, in canon, actually doesn’t love Mon-El.
While if, in real life, someone was constantly arguing and breaking up with their partner, had to be told they were into them in the first place, and who could only list positive qualities about them that they had forced their partner to acquire, we’d suspect that maybe they didn’t really like them and that something else was going on.
But the writers and performers intended for Kara to have genuinely loved him. May not make sense, but it’s canon. Like the fact that the glasses work as a disguise.
It won’t hurt your interpretation in every instance to read it like Kara doesn’t actually like him.
A fic set before he left where she chooses to break up with him, for instance. Or one where she comes to terms that she was using his relationship for something else, emotionally. But if it leads you to saying stuff like “Why is Kara acting like this? She didn’t even like him! She should be over losing him!” then I think it’s really just a safe bet for you to stick to what the canon is really saying, which is that Kara genuinely loved him.
It’s important to realize the difference between the story you are interpreting and the story they’re intending, especially when it threatens the logicality of what’s happening on the screen and the integrity of the characters themselves.
Let’s start at the beginning of the season, when we first meet Mon-El.
At the end of the two-part introduction, Kara speaks to Mon-El in his coma, saying,
“I know what it's like to be a stranger on this planet. So when you wake up, I'll be here for you. So you never know what it's like to be alone.”
Right at the start, you can see that Kara is projecting her hopes onto him.
On some level, she was projecting herself onto him. You can see that in the manor that she tackles mentoring Mon-El, trying to form him into a mini-me. And you can see it in her empathy for his experiences, and how she initially fears that he’ll be alone like she was (not that she was alone entirely, she had the Danvers’. But she didn’t have anyone like her, and this little speech was given on the back of dealing with Kal’s abandonment of her when he was the only person who could come close to understanding her when she landed.)
Kara’s empathy and experiences give her the capacity and urge to help Mon-El.
But that’s not what gives her the need to help Mon-El.
Because Kara sees herself in him (or the idea of him), but what he really represents to her is the life she lost. Lives she lost.
In one of these lives, Kara landed on Earth at the same time as Kal and raised him, like she promised she would.
But she didn’t get that chance and a part of her will always feel like she let him down. And I think that’s why- well, part of why- it’s hard for Kara to blame him for abandoning her.
She feels like she abandoned him first.
But now there’s this new person, shipped straight to her by pod, that she can look after. Who will need her guidance.
This is an opportunity for her to finally fulfil her promise to her mother, in a way.
The promise she failed to keep that she has been channeling into being a superhero instead (I think she would be one anyway tbh, but part of her current motivations are to live up to what her mother expected of her).
Now, people have already pointed out that having a child be in the pod would have served the same purpose of having Kara mentor someone.
But, I don’t think I would have particularly enjoyed Kara being in a parental role in season two of her own show.
Having Kara act like Mon-El’s mother is a problem, obviously. Especially at the same time as being her romantic partner, because it endorses the idea that women have to take care of their husbands, are replacing their husband’s mothers. He’s a grown man and should figure out this stuff himself.
But having Kara be someone’s actual mother figure would have had similar issues with shifting the focus from being about Kara to being about the child. The child itself would not be at fault the way Mon-El is, but the writers would still be doing the same thing to Kara’s story.
Think of all the times a female character has gone from being a powerful protagonist to a Power Mom™ and the storyline suddenly becomes about protecting the child- who is usually a boy, and usually prophesied to be All Powerful, when the female protagonist used to be the prophesied and most powerful one.
I think that storyline is a sneaky way to shift women into one of the roles that are used for the benefit of men. Or, if the woman is aging, a way to shift the focus to a younger woman that can ‘still be sexualized’, usually by having the baby some how be a grown up right away, or have them be a mother figure to someone just young enough.
Not that a woman having a child or acting as a mother is always used in this way, but in this case it’d be a slippery slope. Especially since the kid in Supergirl would definately have had powers and be heading toward being a hero. And with the way they handled it with Mon-El in this role, I don’t think they’d have done better if it were a kid. In fact, if it were a child, they might not have been compelled to make it a point that Kara will always be more powerful.
But this is why Kara is so frustrated in finding that Mon-El isn’t a good student, doesn’t want to be a hero. If he isn’t the best version of himself on this Earth while Kara is responsible for him, she is failing her mother all over again.
And that brings me to another life unlived, one with Astra.
Someone who could have been saved if only Kara had had more time.
More words.
The right words.
Someone who, with her gifts, could have been a hero of Earth, standing right next to Kara.
Teaching Kara.
And if Kara had been able to make her better, teach her how to fit in the world and make it better, Kara would have never lost her.
And like Astra, Mon-El was a piece of Krypton.
Just like Kal could have been.
It’s been thoroughly discussed on this site how Kal can’t be everything Kara needs from a Kryptonian because she actually experienced Krypton while he’d only been able to absorb his home planet’s culture through the fortress and through her, in small doses.
There aren’t shared experiences to connect with, just second hand stories.
And I think she mourns Kal, the little boy from her Black Mercy dream, who she would have grown up with on Krypton.
Hell, even a Kal on Earth that she would have grown up with would do. Teaching him all about Krypton every step of the way so that it’s, if not experienced by him, ingrained within him.
But when she reached Earth, it was too late. He was already grown and formed and wrong.
And gone.
And then Astra shows up, holding a piece of Kara’s life on Krypton in her hand.
The beacon.
And she remembers what Kara remembers. She holds Krypton in her heart in the same way Kara does.
It’s a little off, what Astra tells her. Different than she remembers.
Her mother was different than she remembers. Darker.
And it crushes her, to find that her memories are wrong. (And she’s losing it all over again. She loses Krypton over and over and over again.)
But she comes to terms with it.
Accepts that her mother was not who she imagined she was, but that she has her aunt right there, living and breathing and just waiting to live through Krypton with her, if she can just get through to her.
And then she’s gone.
And her husband and all the prisoners of Krypton who were wrong so wrong but they knew her home are gone too and there’s no one left who knows it like she does and maybe it was better before when she thought no one survive because at least she couldn’t lose them again.
And then Mon-El arrives.
At first, she thinks he’s a Kryptonian. Wants him to be Kryptonian. Of course she does.
But he’s a Daxamite. And she hates him for it.
And not just because his planet is filled with crappy slave owners.
But because she could have had a Kryptonian.
A breathing Kryptonian who lived a full life on Krypton.
Who would have known even more than her about it and would have been able to share it with her.
But when he eventually does speak of things she remembers, at first, she seems more bothered than anything.
Because it’s not quite right, and she could have had someone who was just like her.
But slowly, she’s drawn in by what they share and what he could be.
He knows things.
Things Kara can never talk about with most people she meets, things the people she can talk about it with will never fully understand.
Planets they’ve both been to.
Customs they both remember.
Air they’ve both breathed.
Kara would have had a normal life on Krypton. Had her family, her work, love. Everything she is constantly seeking on Earth.
(And hey, she was doing a pretty good job despite her difficulties, if you ask me.)
But she can never shake the feeling that it’s not right, like there’s somewhere else she’s supposed to be.
Like she’s late for her real life on Krypton.
Maybe if she closes her eyes she’ll wake up and realize it’s just another normal day on her home planet and she’s not different or weird or... struggling.
She’s just normal.
Not “reporting job at Catco and boardgames with friends on Earth” normal.
Krypton normal.
And Mon-El is a piece of that life.
And so when he reveals that he is interested in her romantically, how could she not try?
Kara would have fallen in love on Krypton.
Met a Kryptonian and had children and had a purpose and lived a long and happy life.
But Mon-El is as close to a Kryptonian as she’s ever going to meet. Ever. As close to the person she would have fallen for on Krypton that she’ll ever find.
And it’s not just that.
There’s so much that separates Kara from everyone around her that Mon-El shared.
Her secret. Of being an alien and a superhero.
The loss of a planet. Family members and culture and the guilt that comes with that.
They both have powers and could so easily hurt others.
But not each other.
She won’t crush his nose from kissing him or break his toes by stepping on him.
She won’t hug him too hard because she’s excited or send him flying if she bumps into him by accident.
And so much of this has kept her from falling for anyone else. She could barely become friends with anyone, growing up, with her secret strangeness and alien mistakes she was still making.
And who knew if she thought she would ever be able to actually tell anyone the truth. Show her full self. Based on her confession to James in season one- that she didn’t think she’d ever have someone who really knows her- I’m thinking not.
And there’s more...
He’ll live.
He’s hard to kill, even in performing superhero duties, and he’ll probably live for about as many years as she does.
None of her friends will live as long as she. Nor will Eliza.
Or Alex.
Kara will be alone, again.
Survive without them all. Again.
But not if she’s with Mon-El.
All this, along with Kara’s idealization of a “normal” life that likely causes her to see a romantic partner as a requirement for a happy life, would lead Kara straight to him.
Personal issues be damned.
She can change him.
(And this isn’t even touching on Kara’s intense need to do The Right Thing. Which, as everyone kept telling her, was to forgive Mon-El at every turn.)
But for Kara, Mon-El was a sign that she was allowed to be happy now.
She’s allowed to have someone who will be with her, always. Who could fully know her and won’t leave her for any reason.
Which brings us to the end of the season.
After Kara has been with him, canonically happily for a little while.
Just long enough to feel like she almost had it all, like she could have really been happy.
Like she wasn’t going to lose it all.
He leaves anyway.
He’s leaving anyway.
And she sees him standing there, ready to go into the pod and-
She sees her culture.
The last person who knew what the food tasted like on Krypton. How the planet looked in the sky. How it’s people spoke the language.
She sees Astra.
Who could have been saved if Kara had been better.
Had more time.
But she was better this time, she did the right thing at every turn.
Time didn’t matter.
None of it mattered, in the end.
She sees Kal.
Who she failed.
Who she is failing again.
When she left Krypton, she took one last hug from her mother, and lost 24 years because of it. Lost Kal because of it. And he lost her.
For an instant, she chose her love over her duty and everyone suffered.
But not this time. This time she chooses the right thing.
She does what she is supposed to do, heart be damned.
And yet she ends up hurting someone anyway. Ends up losing the person she thought would be her redemption for that fateful failure years ago. Still, somehow, she fails.
She sees herself.
She sees herself entering that pod and leaving forever, like she did so many years ago. But this time, she’s on the other side.
This time, she’s her mother.
But she still feels like she’s the one being abandoned, in a way, even though he’s in her place, now.
Because she’s going to survive, like always.
She’s the one who gets to be safe.
And god was she so content to die for the Earth, because it meant never having to do this again. Never having to survive again.
Because she knows what survival means. It means responsibility and it means loneliness. It means being a hero and losing everything else. It means living forever and watching it all slip away when all you ever wanted was for it to stay.
But she knows what she’s supposed to do in this moment. Even as the words ring in her ear, “As long as I have this, I will never be alone.”
She knows who she is in this scene.
She’s her mother, smiling as the world crumbles around her.
And Mon-El is getting into the pod, flying into the darkness of space
So she gives him the necklace, and he’ll be safe.
Because that’s what she’s supposed to do. She’s supposed to give up everyone and everything.
He takes it and leaves.
And she’s alone.
But Kara didn’t give up the necklace for a romance, she gave it up for her mother.
Because her mother was once where she stood, sending her off. And it must have been so painful.
But she smiled, said “I love you,” and gave Kara her necklace to keep her safe.
Gave it to her so that she wouldn’t be alone.
And, in this moment, after surviving instead of so many because of her mother’s actions, how could she do any less?
And we would tell Kara, Alex would tell Kara, “Your mother gave that to you, for you to feel safe.”
But when Kara became Supergirl she told Alex,
“This is the reason my mother and father sent me to Earth.”
To which Alex replied, “They wanted you to live, Kara.”
“No, it’s more than that.”
Kara has always interpreted her parents saving her as them placing responsibility on her shoulders.
So Kara probably wouldn’t have listened to us when we told her that the necklace was for her comfort. An act of love, not legacy.
It’s a tragedy but it’s not a romance. Who it is doesn’t even matter.
Kara could be projecting all of these things onto a rock, and the result would be the same. The bare bones of the story have Kara using Mon-El as a conduit to deal with her massive abandonment issues. The story uses him as a tool to represent all of these actually important things.
But somewhere in the execution, they lost the message almost entirely. Mostly in (badly) developing this new character.
But there is still substance for us to work with in headcanons, fanfic, and our view of Kara that preserves the overall integrity of her character outside of this romantic train wreck.
#supergirl#kara danvers#anti-mon-el#supergirl meta#i feel so much better guys#if it's too long i think starting with the bold parts toward the end would be fine#also i'm very tired so forgive this if it's terrible i guess#i have more receipts for some of these concepts but this already took forever
104 notes
·
View notes