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leamy-world · 3 years ago

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Reaction to The Devil Judge (spoilers for ep. 11-12)

Hello everyone! I hope you’re doing well this week!

Here we go! Again i’m really sorry for the english & my personal interpretations which might go a little bit overboard (❁´ω`❁)

THIS GOT VERYYYYYYYYYY LONG PLEASE BEAR WITH ME!!!!

tldr: i am in shambles haha

Have a nice week and take care! ♥

- Huckleberryfinn’s new OST, The Nights, was released this saturday and it’s truly a gem! The guitar/bass’s place in BOTH OSTs they composed is awesome. The lyrics destroyed me haha (i’ll shortly talk about it below!). The soundtrack during these two episodes was awesome btw ;;

- Sun-Ah’s visit to the mansion felt nostalgic and shattering at the same time, she sees she doesn’t belong in this house but still indulges a little in this illusion, « wanting to fall for his trick even just for a little while ». Her expression made me feel for her for a little while too ;;

This shot above is funny because the bokeh effect (✨ the little sparkles ✨) is used in the background every time but this time it plays in front of Sun-Ah’s view: she sees in Yohan and his mansion a « shining » thing she desired for a long time. The bokeh here served also as a transition to the flashback right after.

Well, it could just be the streetlights’ reflections on the car and me reaching but there are so many symbolic visual shots in this show already i just couldn’t dismiss it in my brain haha

I liked Sun-Ah’s depiction of her choice to go against Yohan: she drops the necklace (symbolizing Yohan, this scene followed by Yohan’s cross-like scar) and not herself, like she did in the past for/because of Yohan when she was a maid + Yohan’s reflection disappears, Sun-Ah only focusing on herself: the ‘us’ she wanted for some time disappeared. And this event makes Sun-Ah’s rage on K more upsetting than it already is, but maybe i’m reaching haha

This scene also shows Yohan and Sun-Ah want two different directions to their relationship: to use her and to have him reach the top by her side respectively. They both look at the mirror, but their focus is different and they’re set in different plans on the shots.

In My Mister, (SPOILERS) the wife has a serious affair with her husband’s superior, but throughout the drama, they have divergent opinions on their affair’s developments: the wife wanted to leave her husband and settle with her lover, while the latter didn’t think any of it and, among other plot reasons, only wanted her because married women are the ‘safest choice (ending the relationship while she still loves him would be more troublesome) and always kept the affair secret’.

This was particularly symbolized by their song preferences, but also by this shot in the beginning of the series: after the wife shared her hopes about their relationship (and her lover staying most of the time silent), they both look to the distance (their affair’s metaphorical future) but their eyes almost never look in the same direction.

- « I did it because i need you (by my side?) », Sun-Ah and Gaon’s parallels:

"[To Gaon on ep. 8] I wanted you to be by my side.”

“[To Gaon on ep. 5] I don’t need you to understand, but you need to make a decision. Will you stand in my way … or stand on my side?”

"[To Gaon] If i needed to, i would’ve done something even worse. Whether it was switching him or something else.”

- When Elijah and Gaon play jenga, Yohan might have let the door to his bedroom open (even after leaving them the first time) to continue hearing them have fun in the living room. It parallels to the scene in ep. 5 where he watches them play in the garden with Kkomi through the little gap of his curtains: what piques his curiosity first is the playful conversation he hears from his bed even from the closed windows. The flashback explains it all and i’m glad Gaon insisted to have him play with them despite the front he tried to put on, Elijah’s and Yohan’s expressions in this scene ended me ;;

Look how quick he turned his attention to Gaon, as if he waited for something to happen, to get to play with them!! His eyes lit up in an instant i can’t with this —

I loved how Yohan delayed his defeat to Elijah by asking Gaon questions about the game hahah

Elijah and Yohan’s relationship growth here reminds me of 2 parallels i didn’t catch the first time (but the desperation i felt when Gaon left because everything could grow cold again between Elijah and Yohan):

“That’s everything i think about”:

Elijah getting in & out of the car (ep. 6-9):

- And Gaon’s « Once everything is over, i’ll definitely … » — you’ll definitely what, please tell the audienceeeeeeee ;;;; this screams a death flag for Soohyun (or was it just foreshadowing their confrontation in ep. 12? idek anymore haha), but let’s hope it’s not!!

- After CKH’s suicide: we can’t expect people to make perfect choices every time they are challenged, and i think this story shows it well: Soohyun when she was with Elijah, and now Gaon carelessly touching the minister’s body for the files. As judges, they could have searched the body and the room using a fabric to hide their presence. But they’re both shocked: Yohan looks dumbfounded, standing and watching (even though he’s quicker to react when he sees Soohyun and he puts on a composure at the house saying it was ‘nothing’, he looked very sour when Sun-Ah called him to rejoice in her death) and Gaon panic-stricken. The fact he might have relived his parents’ suicide when he discovered the Minister’s body … And in the worst way possible (in a daze, searching her dead body for her files and realizing he didn’t give the body minimum respect) … oof

At least Yohan could have thought about it since the story shows how prepared he is in his plans, but this scene shows even him is at a loss at what to do. After all, the minister was the way he targeted to bring everyone linked to the foundation down. They were so close, i think he was too convinced her « self-pity » would mean her survival despite everything (« Do you have any other options? ») to see what was coming. After all, when they last met, he saw she was about to shoot him.

Sun-Ah was the only one he thought was ‘unpredictable’. When Gaon talked to CKH, he let him speak and approved his speech, surely thinking everything went along his plans and the minister would surrender. And i think that’s also why he gives Gaon all this speech, to reassure himself and them, since they work now as a team.

- Ep. 9 foreshadowing ep. 11 and 12 (Soohyun facing Yohan and Gaon). It’s interesting how the two shots from ep. 9 seem to put on the same plan the three characters, as if Yohan is literally standing between Soohyun and Gaon, as if he was the one protecting/separating him from Soohyun. This is very telling of the whole dynamic between those three.

- When the minister said she didn’t want to clear her name regarding her son in the live but still does so anyway, this is pure preterition haha! It’s also why she reminds the public opinion the first case Yohan handled!

- Cha Kyung Hee’s demise (ep. 11-4 parallels):

(+ a cinematographic reference to the 2000 movie Malèna, which was recently used in Hwasa’s MV for the song Maria)

- The scene right after where Soohyun wipes Gaon’s involvement to the suicide was moving in regards to her character, we get to see how torn she is by this situation + when she faces off Yohan in the parking (and the ‘let go’ could also have referred to Gaon) … i felt bad for her!

- About Soohyun & the professor: I find interesting the way the professor and Soohyun shelter Gaon’s existence was clearly shown with these two episodes and through their rage. At the beginning of the drama, their hold on his life’s values and choices was almost impalpable but not anymore, now that they’re facing Yohan’s threat.

In these shots, Soohyun looks like she is covering Gaon’s ear, turning him away and protecting him from outside (from the pain, Yohan, the rest of the world).

And on professor Min’s part, it’s almost infantilizing, de-responsibilizing Gaon to say the least (« What are you making Gaon do? That child has been through so much. He suffered and struggled through the worst to get there. »), given he’s the one who planted him on the court’s bench to find what’s happening behind the scene: he could have asked Gaon for explanations (as Yohan underlined, « Did you hear it from Gaon himself? ») but he just snaps at him. He should have foreseen that he could’ve taken Yohan’s side.

For his defense, his family just got targeted but still, it’s the first time Gaon came back since then!

(By the way, that whole conversation with professor Min confirmed to Yohan Gaon didn’t admit to their plan to Soohyun nor the professor)

As for Soohyun, her deep concern for Gaon makes her antagonize Yohan and, in her POV, it’s pretty understandable: her friend got locked up in this judge’s house for days with no phone or permission to go out + said judge seems to not let her niece go out with her new friends, got violent against Gaon + he seems to be plotting something behind the trials he biased + Gaon’s description of the man in the first episodes wasn’t that nice but DESPITE IT ALL her friend still seems to be empathizing with him?

She’s maybe thinking he got manipulated by Yohan given the evil picture he depicted her & must feel helpless in front of Gaon’s sudden change of heart. I think that’s what she wanted to ask him when she got cut by the professor’s arrival. The lack of honest conversation between them is what’s making it worse: on one hand, Gaon goes to her every time he feels sad or confused to get comfort & advice without telling what truly is going on (or eventually telling her when she insists), on the other hand, Soohyun always tells him to give up his investigation on Yohan and never asks him his point of view to understand the situation.

And she discovered he lied about him not being involved with this man in the worst way possible, finding him by CKH’s body with Yohan. He was her reason to dedicate her life to protect people under the law (he does not owe her anything in no way, but it was her wish), and she ended up dirtying her hands for him. Her gut reaction to her moral principles being violated by both Gaon and her right now is stronger than wanting to hear the truth from Gaon. She continues to investigate Yohan on her own, to protect him. It was interesting to see this sententious side when she confronted Gaon after all this! The only time Soohyun saw him cry and didn’t support him, it hits hard ;;

But i believe the whole crisis that’s happening by the end of ep. 12 will make them team up again at least for a while. And on that note, will she meet Sun-Ah? It would be interesting!

I’m glad the professor raised as a concern on the live trials the due process & fair trial, which are essential for the rule of law to prosper.

In fact, the live trials slowly become a place of majoritarianism/ochlocracy/mob rule as the cases progress (the two best examples being the actor and Juk Chang cases), the protests against professor Min are another example. Even if Yohan has the last word on the defendant’s sentence, this issue is still there.

Maybe the viewers’ voice will turn against Yohan one day?

- The minister … Even though the story showed us how cruel her family could be, i can’t help but feel sympathy for her son with her suicide. And that is accentuated by the fact her family’s grief is not even showed, covered by the mediatic chaos. She could have fled the country as her son suggested, but she thought she was « nothing » without her accomplishments and her path to glory. As the former president of the foundation killed by Sun-Ah’s hands, she died in her office as the Minister of Justice, while her image wasn’t torn to shreds yet. The photograph she held showed her at the center and, ironically, it’s the only figure from the photo who is clear-cut, her husband and her son are out of focus (or it could just be the episode’s image quality misleading me haha). Even though she loved them (well, at least in her manner, which was kind of narcissistic tbh), she cared too much for her success and her death was her act of self-pity.

- This isn’t the first time Gaon was warned about Yohan and i find it interesting it’s the people closest to him that say that, especially K despite (or precisely because?) his loyalty to him. Elijah also warned him before.

- The whole argument … It’s a progression of ep. 5 & 8 scenes (’will you stand in my way or stand on my side?’ & ‘i wanted you by my side and if i needed to, i would’ve done something worse’). You can tell how desperate Yohan was when he reached out to Gaon. His gaze faltered, showing his hesitation to do it, but as the realization he was going to lose him dawned on him, this touch became a necessity in front of the exigency, making up for everything he couldn’t say out loud. It was a sad & hurtful mess. Yohan truly looked short on ‘arguments’ after Gaon’s question (‘what kind of monster am i turning into?’), he seemed to not even know what to say to make him stay, making him pause before talking about Soohyun.

The way his eyes lit up, almost smiling, full of hope, when he finished laying his ultimatum and how he regained a composed expression, thinking Gaon would take his side maybe?

I didn’t catch it on the first time, but Gaon’s sadness to end/put a hold on their collaboration (thus their whole relationship, stepping out of his life) transpired through him weakly rejecting Yohan’s hand with his own hand sliding down the latter's arm, as if he was unwilling to let this life with the Kangs go. You can see it’s hard on him to leave with the tears in his eyes.

I think Gaon’s response outran his thoughts, as a quick riposte, it was to make Yohan stop this. The way things went (well, it escalated QUICKLY), hurting him like that was the only effective way, and he knows it will hurt him: before saying Soohyun is his world, he tears up because of that (in addition to everything Yohan said and it was A LOT), and didn’t even have the strength/will to get angry like all the previous times:

the fact Yohan laid this very ultimatum and wanted to persuade/manipulate him into thinking this was the only choice. Even if he knew Yohan would be capable of doing this since ep. 7-8 (”To achieve his goal, would he not use another man’s pain? If the devil really did exist among us.”), he got a confirmation and it still hurts.

+ the fact he knows he has to hurt him with something as much as hurtful before he takes it too far.

+ the fact he knows he can’t live in this house any longer because of this argument when he made all these memories with them.

And (let’s hope for it) if Gaon wants to show Yohan there’s another way out of this ultimatum, Gaon’s « Soohyun is my world » might be a counter ultimatum (‘to stay by your side, you’ll have to deal with my world because there must be another way, there is no question, or else you’ll have to deal on your own’). He’s still not said anything to Soohyun (well, he didn’t have the opportunity to anyway but even during their confrontation, when she asked for details, he said nothing) nor the professor, so maybe that’s it?

- « Of course it doesn’t matter to me, but … » ELIJAH NOOOOOOOO ;;;;;;;;; After Yohan, Elijah tries in her way to hold Gaon back — and she makes a valid point tbh (look at what happened by the end of the episode!), but seeing her putting all her efforts and realizing it’s failing is heartbreaking … Given the preview for ep. 13, please let me hope this conversation won’t be their last one!!

- Utter devastation when the next scenes show how Gaon still shines even in his absence: the « You never apologize » + the scene with the nanny & Gaon’s last prepared meal + Gaon’s portrait by Elijah … ugh

- Elijah’s painting game is too strong, can’t relate haha! I wish they could show the BTS for this painting, respect for the artist behind!!

- On metaphorical images, Gaon took care of the Kangs like he tended to his plants at home. On a regular basis, he provided them attention and care, making them lively as his plants got lush. On ep. 8, we got a shot of Elijah smiling at Gaon’s plants, sort of a confirmation she loved how their house became warmer since Gaon’s stay, which led her to open up to his uncle.

- Now they’re only four! It looks like the mafia game haha, i look forward (am i though?) to the day Sun-Ah sits by herself haha

AND THIS MAN

This is true pig behavior, especially considering Sun-Ah’s past … I felt her reaction when he said all this bs to demean her, she had all her struggles with men thrown back to her face, soiled by these « jokes ».

- The monsters, the abyss and Nietzsche:

« He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee. », Nietzsche

- « I don’t care if humanity falls, as long as i have you two ». It was what he wouldn’t say to Gaon nor Elijah, and yet they’re his world! This sequence parallels Gaon’s inner wish when he leaves the Kang’s house + the flashbacks of his fond memories with the Kangs. Will Yohan give his vigilante ideals up for them? Will Gaon pursue this dream but in his own way that won’t threaten their « worlds »?

(Now we know what his whole world meant)

- The light from the chandelier (ie. their newfound family) is out of Yohan’s (metaphorical) reach, shown by its blurred silhouette, as if it’s gone from the room which regained its initial colder tones. But it’s not: once it’s made its way in the room, it remains and lingers, as a keepsake of the lost warmth. His fond memories with Gaon and Elijah flashed back through the window’s light.

On a similar note, Gaon’s room, albeit having warmer tones than the Kang’s ones since the beginning, looks dark too. The contrast with earlier episodes is clear. This reminds me of My Mister’s (SPOILERS) full shots of Lee Ji An’s room, getting warmer as she gets to know Park Dong Hoon, and losing all its fond colors when she has to leave for his sake. As if the room and inanimate objects were given life by their owner, imbuing them with their feelings. It becomes an outer expression of their feelings. Sorry for the rambling but i just love when they do that in fiction, and i think it sometimes leaves more impact to the viewers if emotions are conveyed through various angles (eg. through another character’s point of view, sounds, looks, the use of light i mentioned below, etc) !

- I wonder … since the flashbacks are giving us Gaon’s conscious point of view on this separation, was he awake when Yohan came back from his (forced) encounter with Sun-Ah? It’s a really minor point but it could be an interesting detail since this show always shows us there are some sides or spots to the stories we didn’t have yet!

The jenga scene also flashed back but this time we see Gaon’s POV seeing Yohan’s smile & we got Gaon’s angle when Yohan had a nightmare in ep. 5: while from Yohan’s POV, Gaon’s irruption truly felt like an invasion of his intimacy (the quick succession of shots expressing his panic and defensive reaction), from Gaon’s POV only one angle showed the scene, the tension was conveyed only when Yohan slapped his hand away.

We also got Yohan’s POV when he admitted to Gaon he needed him by his side (and a closer look at Gaon’s troubled expression)!

- Ep. 5 and 11-12 parallels:

Yohan’s tentative look at Gaon and Elijah playing outside, as if he wanted to join them like in ep. 11, the curtains mainly closed and only pushed by one of his hands. It let the daylight in his dark room through this sneak peek.

But in ep. 12, the curtains are drawn, Yohan taking the (moon)light fully in. And this time, he doesn’t reach out to his late brother in the flames, but to the moonlight. He gets up, as in a trance, from his nightmare like the last time, but he goes to his window instead. And it reminds me of both Huckleberry Finn’s OST’s (in Tempest, « you said i’ll live in the sun / moonlight » and in The Nights, « my / your night shines on you / me »), the suffer is here. And see how the light reveals his tear? I nearly missed it!

The fact he could not find sleep anymore after this night + he slept on his sofa where the moonlight could be seen + has kept his phone right next to him (in case Gaon called him or to know if something happened to him) ➾ 🌝 pure devastation 🌝

- I really love the show’s use of light/dark tones to reveal and contrast its characters’ emotions! What you can’t see in the light gets revealed in the dark, and vice-versa. The OST The Nights touches on this subject as well.

And it ties up very well to the plot so far: everyone has his or her own motivations and intentions, background, and makes choices, but depending on the perspective, their story changes and sparks off different reactions. Everybody’s story is interconnected.

As @skylessnights pointed out, one of the books found during the series (when Yohan revealed his past to Gaon if i’m correct), The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, depicts this angle well in its plot and epigraph: « Never again shall a single story be told as though it were the only one. » - John Berger.

When Gaon and Yohan go back to the mansion after CKH’s death, the route lights flash Gaon’s hands red, caught (literally) red-handed by Soohyun. He begins to recollect his recent memories of what just happened, and panics, short-winded, until Yohan touched his arm. He’s startled but calmed himself down, and we don’t hear him out of breath anymore. It’s interesting how the light’s focus was on Gaon’s hands, the core of his panic, until Yohan’s arm came into the light, as if our and Gaon’s attention went back to Yohan’s touch, his anchor in his panic, and begins to think clear-headed of what they had done. (btw, getting Phoenix Wright desperate vibes from Gaon’s pose haha)

Gaon’s emotions show when his phone lights up, trying to reach Soohyun again.

When Yohan’s inner wish brings him back to their happy times, the end of the flashback shows a shot of his eyes dazzled by the light of these memories and back to the present, the light now gone out from his eyes.

Yohan’s reaction to Gaon’s cry in the prison yard in ep. 7: what i loved to see was how his restraint told more about the emotions he held back. The light shifting on his face revealed his jaw clenching & frowned brows, his glassy eyes and him averting his gaze, which he often does when he’s in front of sensitive topics and it’s too much.

+ other instances he looked away:

When Jinjoo decides to accept the foundation’s offer, she steps into the dark side of the room where the two chairmen are. Up till now, she stood where the light could reach her, away from them. It symbolically seals her involvement with the foundation, and by the end of ep. 12, it is confirmed by her message on behalf of the foundation (about the plague) displayed on the screens. By the way, i love the fact so much things unfold while we focus on Yohan and Gaon’s story!

On the subject of ‘subjective’ truths, examples, besides the flashback with the priest about Yohan in ep. 11, could be the truth behind the cancellation of the donation by Yohan or Sun-Ah’s fall from the window when she was a maid. We got Sun-Ah, Elijah, and then later Yohan’s point of view.

- I think Gaon tried to call Soohyun and not Yohan (though the subs say otherwise) because the contact above has the ‘thug’ nickname with the fist emoji! It made more sense, Yohan would’ve answered right away! But i believe he will have regrets/worries in the next episodes (Yohan and Elijah seem to be getting in real danger so maybe he’ll come back to save them).

- Metatextuality in The Devil Judge — Beauty and the Beast (written by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont & Disney’s 1991 animation movie)

I’ve always loved transtextual relationships between fictions, my french teacher in middle school gave us this passion haha! Ever since i read this interview translated by @deviljudge, it’s true i’m getting more and more Beauty and the Beast vibes, especially from ep. 12’s argument (and the whole premise Belle got locked up in the mansion in the beginning)! The original fairy tale and Disney’s adaptation are both relevant, some plot points differ from one another (Belle’s sisters vs Gaston, the mansion personnel turned into living paraphernalia) even though the core of the fairy tale is left untouched but for the sake of this bit, i’ll use the 1991 movie because its inevitably longer format delves more into the fairy tale moral lesson.

(Cheesy time incoming haha) The beast lets Belle go see her father he knew she deeply cared about, and let her go because he realized he loved her. He thought she would never come back, but despite it all, she came back and saved him from Gaston. Belle (Gaon) broke the spell that was casted on the mansion (the Kangs and their loneliness, especially when Yohan said he’s tired of this house). Yohan fails at not hurting the people he cares about but learns step by step, by Gaon and Elijah's side, how to live again and reconnect with his ‘human’ side.

Even the secretary looks like the modern version of the whole cast in the Beast’s mansion (Cogsworth, Lumière, …) haha

The movie intro is self-explanatory:

« Although he had everything his heart desired, the prince was spoiled, selfish and unkind. But then, one winter’s night, an old beggar woman came to the castle and offered him a single rose in return for shelter from the bitter cold. Repulsed by her haggard appearance, the prince sneered at the gift and turned the old woman away. But she warned him not to be deceived by appearances, for beauty is found within. And when he dismissed her again, the old woman’s ugliness melted away to reveal a beautiful enchantress. The prince tried to apologize, but it was too late, for she had seen that there was no love in his heart. And as punishment, she transformed him into a hideous beast and placed a powerful spell on the castle and all who lived there. Ashamed of his monstrous form, the Beast concealed himself inside his castle with a magic mirror as his only window to the outside world. The rose she had offered was truly an enchanted rose, which would bloom until his 21st year. If he could learn to love another, and earn her love in return by the time the last petal fell, then the spell would be broken. If not, he would be doomed to remain a beast for all time. As the years passed, he fell into despair and lost all hope, for who could ever learn to love a beast? »

Belle’s characterization in the movie is also interesting:

« With a dreamy, far-off look and her nose stuck in her book what a puzzle to the rest of us is Belle ».

« There must be more than this provincial life (…) I want adventure in the great wide somewhere — I want it more than i can tell — And for once it might be grand to have someone understand — I want so much more than they’ve got planned »

& when Belle got locked up in the mansion: « I’ve lost my father, my dreams, everything. » (similar to “Soohyun is my world”).

Gaon, since his parents’ death, lived his life believing in the illusion of justice the system gave him, along with Soohyun and professor Min, his two pillars who kept him steady this whole time. Once he was showed it was an illusion, he wanted to fight this world.

Before the movie’s climax, this conversation reminded me of ep. 12’s argument:

« - Belle? Are you happy here with me?

- Yes. [looks to the distance]

- What is it?

- If only i could see my father again just for a moment. I miss him so much.

- There is a way. This mirror will show you anything. Anything you wish to see.

- I’d like to see my father, please. [The mirror projects the image of his father in danger and sick] Papa. Oh no. He’s sick. He may be dying and he’s all alone.

- [Glances at the wilting rose] Then you must go to him.

- What did you say?

- I release you. You’re no longer my prisoner.

- You mean i’m free?

- Yes.

- Oh, thank you. Hold on Papa, i’m on my way.

- Take [the mirror] with you, so you’ll always have a way to look back and remember me.

- Thank you for understanding how much he needs me.

(…)

- I let her go.

- [Cogsworth] Yes, splen … You what? How could you do that?

- I had to.

- Yes but … Why?

- Because i love her. »

Yohan did nothing to hold Gaon back even if he needs him (as shown when he clutches his hands together after he left) because he was forced by Gaon to understand how precious Soohyun is to him, this point was already made multiple times in the series (when Gaon thought he was the one who pushed Soohyun in the stairs and already threatened him about it, when Gaon told him he couldn’t live as a conman in front of Soohyun and his parents). Since his ‘to have you by my side, i would have done worse if it was necessary’ + ‘this is a life or death situation, sacrifices are also necessary’, he seemed to think Soohyun was expendable in his own world, which he shared with Gaon. With this argument, his world looks definitely incompatible with the one Gaon described (« Soohyun is my world »), and even though they already went this far in their plan, he lets him go and respects his choice. Will it make him change for the better or for the worse? Will the whole ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’ apply to him?

Other moments i found interesting to note:

« Come into the light »:

When Belle goes to save the Beast from the village:

« - Please, i know he looks vicious, but he’s really kind and gentle. He’s my friend. - - [Gaston] If i didn’t know better, I’d think you had feelings for this monster. - - He’s no monster, Gaston. You are! - - If you’re not with us, you’re against us. » (pretty similar to the professor’s rage in the hospital)

When Belle’s father goes to save her: « I don’t care what it takes. I’ll find that castle and somehow, i … I’ll get her out of there. » (when Soohyun talks about and to Yohan)

The Beast possessive behavior in the beginning of the story: « [To her father] She’s no longer your concern, take him to the village. » (similar to Yohan’s behavior towards Soohyun) & « [To Belle] The castle is your home now » (and towards Gaon)

A monster:

When the Beast observes Belle playing from afar:

- And i saw some Jane Eyre vibes (SPOILERS) from the whole fire haha + Wuthering Heights on Sun-Ah’s & Yohan’s mixed parts!

- And well … Sun-Ah’s character loosely reminds me of Simone in Nier Automata (which in itself is a reference to Simone de Beauvoir’s life and works), with the whole « I must become more beautiful / But he still won’t look my way », to whoever knows this game!

- These thigh boots holy hell Sun-Ah!!!! i loved this outfit!

- As soon as he said he didn’t feel anything from his revenge, K got the biggest death flag in this episode, i can’t believe they did this to the poor boy … When i asked for more scenes THIS isn’t what i meant aaaaaaaaaa

- A very random and weird note: Yohan’s almost silent and held back pain by the end of the ep. 12 fits his character so far, as well as his ‘calm’ tears. Given his past, it’s as if he’s always kept his pain bottled up and quietly bears it all and almost never got the space to properly let it all out (he had his brother, but with their father, i think they didn’t have this ‘chance’).

- My sick mind thought Sun-Ah was going to bring Gaon to the scene just in time for him to witness Yohan getting shot, but i guess it will be when she will get in the Kang’s mansion again according to the preview (since she asked Juk Chang for a « favor », i think they’ll knock Gaon out after beating him up for his own fun to leave him to Sun-Ah). Sun-Ah looked surprised when Jae-Hee shot him, so i guess only hurting K was part of the plan.

- The ‘I know i’m fucked’ look hahaha

+ the softer version:

- I now have BIG trust issues since these last episodes’ previews, and the cliffhangers kill me haha

- On another note, i find it amazing how Ji Sung and Kim Min Jung keep that upsetting atmosphere whenever there’s a scene between them that involves them and skinship, but it still conveys Sun-Ah’s complex feelings for Yohan and Yohan’s interest in her! The soundtrack really does a good job to convey that mood as well!

- In conclusion: How Dramatic do you want these two episodes to be? The devil judge: Yes

#the devil judge #tvn drama #my ramblings #got veeeeery long #i'm sorry

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bengiyo · 3 years ago

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This or That: BL Edition

✨Choose what you prefer! ✨

Thanks for the tag @absolutebl!

friends to lovers or enemies to lovers

slow burn or love at first sight

college setting or high school setting

short episodes or long episodes

10+ episodes or movie version

city setting or scenic views

original soundtrack or popular songs as soundtrack

angst or fluff

plot focused or relationship focused

deep and metaphorical or lighthearted fun

big coming out scene or coming out not included

wedding/proposal episodes or no wedding/proposal episodes

cheesy pickup lines or smooth flirting

dorky and smiley main or dark and broody main

@negrowhat, @hashtagteamwin, @gawincaskeyy

and anyone else who wants to play

I really like friends to lovers! I like seeing people who enjoy each other earnestly move to something new. Probably my favorite instance of this is Ae and Pete from Love By Chance

I’m a huge fan of slow burn. I myself move at a slow pace romantically and I love seeing the characters take their time to figure that out. There are some great examples of this, but I think A Tale of Thousand Stars is my favorite right now for it.

I absolutely love long episodes. I want to see the show take all the time in the world to deal with it’s stuff. Probably my favorite use of good long episodes is in I Promised You The Moon. I don’t think that show works if it doesn’t focus on the theme of each episode within the episode.

I am here for 10+ episodes! Lovesick was one of my first shows and I still can’t believe it had 36 episodes in its second season.

I am also here for scenic views! It feels like double dipping, but I’m going to give it to ITSAY. I loved Phuket as much as I loved the characters.

I adore original soundtracks. Boy Sompob comes to mind with all of his work with Director New, but I still think about this song from Make It Right regularly.

youtube

Fluff is almost necessary for me. I can’t enjoy a deep show if there aren’t some genuinely lovely moments. Cherry Magic has some of the best scenes for this.

Plot-focused shows are the ones I find myself returning to the most. I think it’s easier to invest in the romances when the characters have other things to focus on in their lives. I’d like to highlight Manner of Death here.

I have a lot of thoughts in my head all the time, so I’m usually drawn to the deep and metaphorical shows. I love when a story wants to interrogate the mechanism that links the characters. I’ll highlight Color Rush for this.

I’m not always a fan of coming out scenes. I tend to enjoy when the characters have a working dynamic with their communities before we get into the show. I’m more interested in stories about people staying together, so I’ll highlight What Did You Eat Yesterday.

I honestly like wedding and proposal scenes. It’s only something we’ve really been able to enjoy in recent years, so I love seeing them. I’ve enjoyed how much characters in Taiwan talk about marriage. The marriage exchange between Si Qi and Zhao Gang is a highlight for me.

Finally, I love dorky and smiley mains. Broody characters can be compelling, but I love when a character is positive. I’m going to highlight Gavreel of Gameboys for this.

Thanks for reading!

#This or that #tag meme

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ettawritesnstudies · 4 years ago

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Meta Tag

I was tagged by @writingamongthecoloredroses, so thank you for that!

Rules: Infodump any cool meta about your wip! This can be anything you like: lore, worldbuilding, character development, metaphors, themes, symbolism, etc. just any cool details about your wip that makes it what it is.

“Laoche” is the name of the entire world/planet in which my stories take place. I haven’t built up a whole solar system or liteary universe yet that would house my other projects too but it’s a WIP. “The Laoche Chronicles” refers to the whole trilogy arc with Seth, Madelyn and co. as well as Storge. I still need to name the trilogy. I’m also planning a short story anthology for after the series is done I’ve been working on The Laoche Chronicles as a whole since I was in 8th grade which is about... 6 years ago now? Laoche is a word and location now but it actually started as an acronym: I was calling the world “Land Of Continuity Hell” before :P

All of my stories have strong themes about home and good families - I know it’s really popular to have orphan characters because dealing with parents is really inconvienent when you need your child and teenaged heros to commit war crimes but I wanted to portary more healthy family dynamics because I think that good example is as important as relatable bad examples so people can recognize what a healthy marriage and sibling relationships look like.

I talk a lot about fantasy religions too becasue the sheer number of speculative ficiton stories I’ve seen that are just compeltely secular and sterile of any faith systems is insane to me. Humans have had religions for literally all of history and the way they impact society is complicated and fascinating to me and I want to represent that. My Catholic faith will impact that too in the background, but of the various religions and sub-groups that exist in Laoche, I never actually say in-story which religion has it “right” in-universe. No one has all the answers and I let the reader draw conclusions on their own.

My casts are pretty diverse but it’s not really a statement in universe? Like inequality exists but it’s mostly based around econimic class or magic, not race or gender. People exist and do cool things and that’s that.

I will try to make my magic system and worldbuilding make scientific sense sometimes but I fully reserve the right to throw giant spider crabs into my forest for the Rule of Cool becasue I Say So and the Square-Cube Law is irrelevent. Things are color coded and glow because if you don’t have colorful glowy magic in your nonsense fantasy world, are you even doing it right? I have at least 1 nerd character per story too.

My Strong Female Characters also wear skirts and dresses and stays and do needlepoint gasp.

There are three different plots going on at once and I do that annoying thing where I jump from POV to POV and leave you on cliffhangers every time yes I know it’s evil and I’m not sorry but EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED

I don’t understand romance or crushes or societies obsession with any of it and so I just.. don’t include it if I can help it? It’s just not the focus of the story at all. I am planning one (1) singular slooooooooooooooowwwwwwww burn romance eventually but it’ll still take a back seat to the plot stuff and there’s no explicit content or innuendo or anything depsite being books that handle other adult themes.

I don’t actually have that much lore and worldbuilding for Laoche despite working on it for so long because most of that time has been spent working on developing the plot and characters, learning about prose, story structure, and the writing process. Most of that progress has been in more recent years once I’ve gotten my act together, and it’s a safe bet that I’m procrastinating school or real life obligations whever I do work on my stories, unfortunetly. I’ve got to go back now and fill in all the gaps in the world and give the stories context without messing them up.

This is getting long so I’m going to cut it here! Tagging (if you want to participate): @inkwell-attitude @siarven @abalonetea @the-starlight-chills @a-smol-biblophile @piyawrites @viawrites-andacts @zielenbloesem

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rachelbethhines · 4 years ago

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Star Wars Novelizations Ranked

I’m only covering the official novel adaptations of the main saga. No spin-offs or extended universe.

9. The Empire Strikes Back by Donald F. Glut

I can just hear old time fans choking back gasps right now. “How can you put the best film last?” To which my answer is..

It’s not the ‘best’ film. All Star Wars films are of equal quality, no matter what the entitled ranting fanboys say

We’re talking about the how well the books adapt the movies not the movies themselves

Going by that metric The Empire Strikes Back is easily the weakest of the bunch. It’s a basic script to prose retelling with nothing added. What you see on screen is what you get in the book. It’s serviceable, but it doesn’t take advantage of the medium. You might as well just go watch the movie again and not bother with the book. Unless you’re a completionist like me.

8. The Last Jedi by Jason Fry

Two steps forward; two steps back.

All Star Wars films are created equal, but not the same. They each have unique strengths and weakness to them. A job of a good novel adaptation is to smooth out those rougher edges while keeping what makes the original film good.

The Last Jedi does some of that, like how it better explains Kylo Ren’s fall into darkness, but fails to do so in other areas, like with the pacing. Multiple subplots and multi-climaxes should work better in book form but here they noticeably drag, arguably more so than in the film. Everytime you think the story is going to end, it doesn’t.

Then it also winds up making things actively worse than the movie. I don’t mind Rose Tico in the films. She’s arguably unnecessary, but she’s charming. The Rose in the book however I want to punch in the throat for being a self-righteous prick. Other minor characters, like the hacker and the general, are also not made any more interesting regardless of how much extra focus they get in the novel. At one point you have to ask yourself if the deleted scenes should have stayed deleted.

7. Return of the Jedi by James Khan

This is starting to get more on track. There’s not a whole lot of added scenes, but there’s more focus given to the characters, their inner thoughts, and how the dynamics between their relationships work. Far more so than what The Empire Strikes Back did. As RotJ pretty much hinges on these character dynamics, it makes for an interesting read.

Though there are a few flubs as this story was written before the prequels were conceived. Like, how Obi Wan claims that Lars was his brother and not Anakin's. Or how Leia remembers hiding in a closet with her birth mother.

6. The Rise of Skywalker by Rae Carson

This reads like fan fiction.

Now before you jump down my throat, that’s not a comment on the quality of the writing nor a judgement of the story direction. What I mean is that the very style in how it is written reads like a fanfic on A03. It’s how I would write something.

Reading this book was like holding a mirror up to my own writing and forcing me to critically think about how I present information to my audience. What works, what doesn’t work, and what should stay in the realms of the fandom and what should be left out for wider audiences. (There’s even a typo in here and it’s so much like the kind I would make.)

There’s not enough atmospheric detail and description. It relies too heavily on the idea that you’ve watched the films first and doesn’t treat itself as a story in it’s own right. The side characters, the ones that get like one or two lines, are expanded upon but not in any way that matters and it becomes distracting. And much like the original movie it tries too hard to be all things to all people and winds up leaving some things unfulfilled, like Rey and Finn’s unresloved dynamic for example.

What it does do right though is expand upon the characters’ inner thoughts and feelings, adds back in needed character interactions, explains the mythology and new force concepts better than the film, and it made Rose likable again. It doesn’t fix her story, but I no longer hate her here as I did in the other book.

5. The Phantom Menace by Terry Brooks

Now we’re getting into standard adaptation stuff. The Phantom Menace is no masterpiece of writing but it does tick all the boxes that are needed in a decent novelization. The world is expanded upon, deleted scenes are added in, characters are given more depth and their relationships explored more, there’s lots of nice detail to help paint a picture in your mind, ect. It doesn’t fix the midichlorians stuff though, (I just headcanon Shmi as a liar) so I’m afraid we’re stuck with that.

4. Attack of the Clones by R.A. Salvatore

This and The Phantom Menace are on equal levels in terms of writing and are pretty interchangeable on this list. Ask me any other day and the two may very well switch. I personally think the fight scenes are a little weaker here than in the first book, but it makes up for it by fixing Padme’s and Anakin's relationship. I can barely go back to rewatch the movie because I’ve been spoiled by this book.

3. The Force Awakens by Alan Dean Foster

So this book is also of the same level of quality as the last two and does all that they do, but it gets an extra bonus for doing the one thing that they can’t. It actually fixes the biggest plot hole in the original film. It explains how the heck Poe manages to survive the crash and get back with the Resistance. That’s like a major plot point that they inexplicably leave out of the movie. In what is mostly a solid film, that’s like a jaw dropping anmuture mistake.

To anyone who enjoys the new trilogy you need to read this book. It’s just better than the film. Period.

2. A New Hope by George Lucas (Alan Dean Foster)

The book is credited to Lucas since he did write the script to the film and this is based off his original notes, but Alan Dean Foster ghost wrote the actual novel adaptation. A fact that I did not find out until years afterwards. Of the two novelizations he’s penned for the series, I think this is the better one, hence it’s ranking.

This story just oozes atmosphere. The detailed descriptions just pop right out at you. The analogies and metaphors are just delicious. It’s as if Charles Dickens decided to write a modern space opera and I love it!

The fact that there are deleted scenes and old school world building that are left overs from Lucas’s rough drafts is just icing on the cake really.

1. Revenge of the Sith by Matthew Stover

You knew this was coming. If you have even a passing knowledge of these books you know that Revenge of the Sith is the highest regarded of them all and for good reason. It’s not just a good adaptation, it just damn good book. Period.

Even if you knew nothing of Star Wars, never seen the films, never heard the memes, you could still pick this book up and enjoy it. It’s that well crafted.

And that’s the goal of any novelization really. To be both an expansion of the original and a solid story in its own right.

#star wars #star wars novels #ranking

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centrally-unplanned · 4 years ago

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The Phantom of the Opera Movie: How (not) to Adapt Your Fanfic to Stage & Screen

I recently watched the infamously-maligned trainwreck that is the 2004 Phantom of the Opera film adaptation of the stage musical, which lived up to its reputation! Rehashing the atrocious casting of literally-sang-for-the-first-time-two-weeks-before-filming-Music-of-the-Night Gerard Butler as the Phantom is well-trod territory, but I don't think that is the real crux of the film's failings. Instead, I think it serves as a quintessential example of the failure to transition from stage to screen - and how lucky the stage adaptation was.

For the "PotO" uninitiated, despite the endless shipping the titular Phantom and the female deuteragonist Christine do not have a romantic relationship. Oh the Phantom is trying to get down with that, for sure, but she sees him as either a ghost, an angel, or a terrorist at various points, never a credible love interest. In the original novel this is extremely explicit, and it is actually preserved in the stage adaptation - though as you realize with this film not intentionally.

In a stage musical, audiences don't really "suspend disbelief" the way they do for something like movies. There is one or more human beings, right in front of them, being real people in a wooden box with minimalist decour - the artifice is inescapable. Which is fine, actually! Instead of being immersed in the worldbuilding the audience can appreciate the craft of it all, the acting chops of the leads and the high notes they hit and the cool set designs around them. As such strong plots for musicals aren't really required; details are skipped over in exchange for focusing on other aesthetic elements. More importantly for our purposes, in a musical like Phantom of the Opera the audience isn't set up to expect a tight directorial vision, with instead the characters being the a product of the choices of the actors themselves - people even look out for the different interpretations different leads will bring to the same script. Each performance is itself an adaptation.

This lack of verisimilitude does wonders for the musical version of Phantom of the Opera. Honestly, plot-wise and arc-wise? Phantom of the Opera isn’t that great. Christine, one of the supposed leads, has no motivation for like 90% of run-time, instead being buffeted about by the whims of other, more powerful characters (just like early 20th century France ooooh, eat it Leroux), and Raoul, her earnest, wealthy suitor-cum-fiance, is the dried cement of love interests with no arc to speak of. Lots of plot elements are covered quickly and left vague as to their meaning. But really, who cares? You get to watch a tortured, corrupted genius offer a panoply of shadowed delights to a beautiful ingenue in a rock-opera baritone, and Rage Against The System so hard when spurned they drop a God-damn chandelier on the stage - that’s really all you need!

In the stage musical there is often - lets be honest very often - sexual subtext between the Phantom and Christine. But that is the choice of the actors, it's not in the script, it stays subtext. You are there to watch those actors put their spin on it and take it to the limit - let them have fun with the material! On stage it serves a great metaphorical function; to be tempted by music, by the mystery of darkness, has been metaphorical sex for so long it needs no more explication.

Now, however, we loop back to the movie adaption, with two key points to establish. First, movies do not work like musicals. There is no live person in front of you, every shot is the product of a dozen takes and as many hours of editing choices, and as a viewer you are dragged along lockstep seeing the results of these choices. All of this is in the service of building a cohesive vision that allows the audience to fully suspend disbelief. The price for this immersion is that now every moment of the film is imbued with intent. Everything has to be there for a reason, the way things in reality are - or more accurately the way we want reality to be. To quote Best Girl Mizusaki:

(Just when you thought I was going to write a media essay without being a huge weeb for once, huh?)

What's true for animation is almost as true for film, all of which means that how characters act is no longer an actor on stage doing their spin but the cohesive narrative of a story.

Second, the movie takes all of that fanshipping sexual subtext and cranks it all the way up the nosebleed seats, while changing none of the relevant plot points. In fact, it adds plot details to strip away the musical’s ambiguity! One of Christine's opening scenes, only briefly touched on in the stage musical, explains cleanly that she considers the Phantom the angel of her dead father come down to protect and guide her. Later in the show, as the Phantom's villainy becomes more apparent, when propositioned by Raoul her only objection is to how the Phantom might hurt her if he found out. Well after all of his temptations, rage, and villainy, near the climax of the film, she still sings in a graveyard about her uncertainty over whether or not he is a literal ghost or spirit of her father. So the plot structure is preserved and explicit - Christine is drawn to him due to his musical talent and offerings of instruction, is unsure if he is even human, but realizes his corporeality, villainy, and fundamental pitiable humanity at the end. Raoul throughout is her explicit, engaged-to-be-married romantic partner.

So then why are her and the Phantom fucking??

Seriously, I cannot undersell how sexual their scenes are.They are all over each other, fingers gliding over skin, and the next scene after this one is her in his bed with sex-hair all over the place! This subtext is continued in every scene they have together, long after he has been revealed as a murderer. At one point he confronts her in public, with her fiance watching, and it's still played like he is the Tuxedo Mask to her Sailor Moon. Even the scene where she takes off his mask is shot like it was foreplay-gone-wrong, and the Phantom just forgets to say his safeword in time (This is why you pre-negotiate about your kinks, all!).

Any movie-goer understands what the intent of scenes like these are, why a director would choose these actions & shots; they want us to know that they are getting busy off camera, even if only by implication. We know they don't actually do that because there is a book to refer back to but damn does this movie want us to forget that...in these scenes. Which is the problem, of course - the rest of the movie operates as normal! In the above scene Christine thinks the Phantom is, again I must emphasize this, the ghost of her father; apparently she is going for the reverse-Oedipus achievement but no one told the rest of the script. Is she lying to Raoul about her love and her reasons? Is she actually tempted? Stop telling me you are unlovable via haunted monologues Gerard Butler, you look like testosterone on a stick and y'all boned literally five minutes ago, I am not buying it!

The subtext and the text are at war with each other - and given that, as we established, the dynamic between the Phantom & Christine is really the only interesting part about this story, strip that down to a muddled mess and you really have nothing left. And in a movie, subtext like this is just another form of text - the director chose these shots, it's intended. Beyond the terrible vocal performances and sometimes baffling shot direction, the movie's biggest failing is this schizophrenic mismatch between the script and the actions on screen which is a problem the stage musical honestly didn't have to worry about. These scenes are not set up like this, and the ability to add subtext by the actors is just fundamentally limited by the medium; it cannot touch the story itself, which isn't even the focus of the audiences. Even if these contradictions did exist more in the stage musical, they wouldn't doom it due to the nature of said medium.

Which is very, very fortunate, because there is one final point to make - Andrew Lloyd Weber, the creator of the stage musical, wholeheartedly approved of this direction for the movie. He produced the film, wrote the screenplay, chose the director, the works - this is his film. And, as is apparently from interviews and a...not fondly remembered stage sequel to the musical that he wrote, he ships the Phantom and Christine hard. Not in the "oh I love their dynamic on screen way", but in the Ao3 sort-by-fetish-tags "they are my Trash'' way. And I would never begrudge a man his ships, but apparently he was not content to keep it away from the canon. He absolutely reads the stage musical this way as well! It's just one of those interesting ironies of life - one of the most successful adaptations of a book to a stage musical was made by someone who, in my opinion, did not grasp the fundamentals of the story he was adapting. We just didn't notice because the medium didn't care, and also damn can he write a score that slaps.

I would not be the first person to say that this movie for Andrew Lloyd Weber is something of a George Lucas moment for him, a creator completely missing the appeal of his own work; but after seeing it the comparison rang deeply true. The Phantom of the Opera movie is truly the Phantom Menace of musicals.

No, I don't feel bad for that last line, why do you ask?

#I had to edit the Eizouken screenshot because the subtitles appeared at an awkward moment #So I just took a adjoining frame that looked much cleaner and had a better pose and re-inserted the subtitles #I def went way too far for a random Eizouken reference - anything for the Brand I guess!#poto #phantom of the opera #media essays

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gffa · 6 years ago

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do you have any ObiWan recs? Because I l've read ReEntry and all of akathecentimetre's but I'm at a loss for other good prequel based ones

Oh, dear anon, you don’t know what kind of paralysis this gave me for a good solid minute, because I HAVE SO VERY MANY, HOW CAN I POSSIBLY NOT GIVE YOU LITERALLY 200 RECS? There are so so many good prequels writers out there LET ME YELL AT YOU ABOUT SOME QUALITY FIC.✦Fire and Ice by Yesac is the fic that really got me into prequels fic and is an incredible story about the duel on Mustafar going differently, where Anakin wins and basically takes Obi-Wan and Padme hostage, while he’s this unstable font of power, who actually has to learn some really hard lessons before he can really start to earn his way back to the side of good. It has some of the best Obi-Wan characterization in any fic I’ve read, the balance of his care for Anakin versus staying true to his morals and the sheer solidity of who he is is *kisses fingers* perfection.✦ starbird by imaginarykat is one of the best characterizations for Obi-Wan I’ve ever read. wicked thing tends to be more popular (and is also wonderful) but for my money, starbird is the one that really helped me get Obi-Wan as a character, in addition to having some of the most sharply hilarious moments ever. You really feel the weight of Obi-Wan’s presence and character in this one.✦ Equinox by lilyconrad is gorgeous all the way around! Even if Sith!Obi-Wan isn’t usually your thing, I would gently encourage giving this one a shot anyway, because it’s not really about Obi-Wan falling into darkness, it’s about Obi-Wan, but it’s not actually Obi-Wan himself, and it’s complicated, but it gets at the heart of the character, while still showing how much of the light he is. It’s a deliciously lush gothic horror story + his relationship with Anakin that explores who they both are and has some truly stellar smut. I love all of Lily’s stuff, she writes a lot of Obi-Wan’s character, so you can pick up anything by her!✦ Cataclasm by dendral is amazing as well, it’s a story where Obi-Wan is whammied with some extra Force visions and so he has to walk away from everything he knows to go do some Force-related shit, but he remains so very much himself (and such a Jedi, in such a beautifully told way) and there’s worldbuilding and plot and it’s just gorgeous. someday when i’m gone away we’ll be all okay is also stellar and made me cry the kind of tears where my throat hurt from the lump in it and yet it’s perfect for the characters. (It’s deathfic, but worth it, imo!)✦ I really love panharmonium’s fics as well, who hasn’t written much, but always has such clear affection for the world and the characters! The Mathematics of Repair is probably my favorite, it’s sparkling and wonderful just-post-TPM early days of Obi-Wan & Anakin’s relationship!✦ The Living Force; Parables for Padawans by gloriousclio is this really stunning fairy tale-like exploration of Obi-Wan and the Jedi, not just feelings but beautiful wordcraft, too.✦ Smitty has written three STELLAR fics about Obi-Wan and Anakin’s early days and what’s amazing to me is that they were written in NINETEEN-NINETY-NINE and yet utterly NAILED their dynamic! The House That Obi-Wan Built + Sofa, So Good + House of Cards. The hilariously written snark + underlying care is spot on to their dynamic.✦ In all the World by Ammar is an amazing combination of the early days of Obi-Wan and Anakin’s relationship, worldbuilding, AND case fic! I remember thinking that this could have been a novel published by Star Wars itself and I would have still been impressed at all the things it absolutely nailed right and built up!✦ Supreme Chancellor Kenobi by stonefreeak is another amazing series where it’s not just about Obi-Wan, but he’s a central figure in it! And even when she writes other characters she does an incredible job with them, like, the Quinlan piece is one of the best I’ve ever read for him! Basically it’s exactly what it sounds like–Obi-Wan finds himself suddenly elected to the position of Supreme Chancellor, which means everyone now has breathing room to actually FIX THINGS since Palpatine can’t make them worse, but also it’s HILARIOUS because he kind of really hates it, no matter how good he is at it!✦ The Dark Path Lit by Sun and Stars by A_Delicate_Fury is a gorgeous time travel fic that does an amazing job with his character. There are small moments with Luke that just floored me with how many feelings they gave me, but also the fic just nails everything it wants to do. Plot! Characterization! Keeping me on the edge of my seat! Action scenes!✦ Soldier, Poet, King by Glare is a fave because I’m weak for Soft Sith stuff in fandom, especially when there’s such a charm to the writing of his and Anakin’s relationship. I still remember these great scenes of Anakin’s mental landscape form and how Obi-Wan interacted with him, that sense of all that power and Obi-Wan’s hand metaphorically on the back of his neck, their dynamic is so good. Plus plot! \:D/✦ I love everything by Ripki, but you can start with The Atlas of Our Ruin, which is a time-travel fic that forces Obi-Wan and Anakin to really tear into all the difficult stuff from their pasts and spill everything out everywhere, in an attempt to lance the wounds. It’s a gorgeous look at both their characters and the relationship between them, it’s SO TASTY to read and ouchy-but-cathartic in the best way.✦ The Journey of the Lights by Pandora151 is more time travel fic (this fandom is really good at them) that just consumed me while I was reading it, where Qui-Gon is dumped forward into the future and it winds up forcing some things to come to a head early, and there’s a lot of Obi-Wan having to juggle a lot of different relationships and difficulties, and it’s SO GOOD.✦ Remedial Jedi Theology by MarbleGlove is the kind of Legends-based (instead of Canon-based) fic that I love to see, because it’s so THOUGHTFUL about the Jedi and their philosophy/theology, as well as some really stellar Obi-Wan characterization. He’s going through A Lot in this fic, but he faces all of it and himself and his growing understanding of everything (because we never stop growing and understanding) with such cleverness and skill. There’s some quality Mace moments in the fic as well and some great Anakin stuff, but it’s at its heart an Obi-Wan fic and it was a joy to read.✦ Seed by belldreams is one of my favorites for how much heavy lifting it does with Obi-Wan and balancing his feelings with being a Jedi. There’s such good, thoughtful characterization here, where he really has to look at himself and he really thinks things through, there’s such a solidity to his character here that is SPOT ON. Also, FUCK OR DIE FIC, we were blessed by this one. (Upfall also has some really quality Obi-Wan thoughts, too!)✦ In All But Name by Mirror and Image is one I read early on in fandom, so I can’t speak to how well it would hold up for me re: the relationship with the Jedi (I suspect not as well as my fond memories would suggest) but that’s a personal quibble and the point is that it’s really good Obi-Wan focus and it’s all about him beginning to train Anakin on Naboo instead of going to the Jedi Temple, there’s a whole lot of focus on children’s education, because that’s what the authors teach as well, so this one totally engrossed me. I remember Coalesced Matter was a good Dooku & Obi-Wan & Anakin fic, too!✦ In fairness, I haven’t read Reprise by Elfpen yet (I’m hoarding it) but I’ve enjoyed the other fic I’ve read from this author, so I feel confidence giving this a rec. Plus, it’s all my favorite things, like TIME TRAVELING OBI-WAN. :D✦ The Exchange by MissLearn is another one I loved, where it’s centered on the Obi-Wan & Anakin relationship, as they exchange places in time and that forces a lot of things to come out, but it gives me SUCH FEELINGS and the characters around them were written wonderfully and UGH SO GOOD.✦ Shadows of the Future bystormqueen873 is one I haven’t read since the very early days of my reading, so I can’t say how it would hold up, but I remember being utterly IN LOVE with this story and how much it fixed. One of the things that it really did well was building up to the big reveal of Obi-Wan’s time traveling, that the fic really knew how to ratchet up to that moment so that, when it finally happened, I had SO MANY FEELINGS about it. Plus, lots and lots of warm-hearted, fluffy slice-of-life moments as everything gets fixed!✦ I like all of anecdotalist’s fics, but starting with Clarity is probably best, it’s a nice long fic that fixes a lot of what goes wrong during ROTS and just utterly engrossed me. Plot! Action scenes! Anakin being a disaster, but listening to people who actually want to help him! Though, The Fallout of Anakin Skywalker’s Knighting will always have a special place in my heart for making me cry over feelings about Obi-Wan.✦ Tano and Kenobi by Fireflyfish is time traveling Ahsoka this time, who becomes Obi-Wan’s Master and everything starts slowly shifting towards the right (or sometimes just straight up blowing over to the right) and it’s a DELIGHT to see their dynamic, to see Ahsoka really growing into the role of being a Master, to see Obi-Wan’s relationship with her grow.✦ The Hand Dealt by not paranoid enough is one I read awhile back, but it’s a Canon Divergent fic, where things go a little differently on Tatooine and it’s sort of a mix between a slow burn and just being about the early days of his relationship with Anakin, and I remember it being REALLY GOOD.✦ I like everything of Valairy Scot’s that I’ve read, she’s another Legends writer that really is a lot of fun, and I’d say start with A Good Place To Die. It’s pretty much an entire novel of Obi-Wan whump + recovery, which it REALLY embraces and is super satisfying if you’re into that sort of thing! Plus, man, Anakin is SPOT ON in this fic, for how deeply he cares, how brilliant he is, but also what a disaster he is when he can’t get out of his own head. I also remember really liking Our Honored Dead.✦ I also like wreckageofstars’ stuff as well! Echoes of Mortis is an ensemble piece, but it’s satisfying for his character and has great plot and action and things diverging from canon in a fascinating way! Also a HILARIOUSLY GREAT read is Obi-Wan and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad (Life) Day which is just as funny as promised.I AM MISSING SO MANY GOOD OBI-WAN FICS, BUT THIS WILL GET YOU STARTED. I LOVE OBI-WAN KENOBI AND I LOVE THIS FANDOM FOR PROVIDING ME WITH GOOD STUFF.

#Anonymous #obi wan kenobi #anakin skywalker #ahsoka tano #fic recs

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elizabethrobertajones · 6 years ago

Text

14x05 watching notes

filed under: episodes that demand a written apology from the writer

Morning, I opened the episode to check it worked and the first thing on screen was dead Maggie, so I guess skip the preamble, let's get rid of that D:

Meredith is going to look after Maggie. Who so far this season has just been the human representation of the :o emoji

Er, she's not going to look after us, after the THEN card we abruptly drop into Dean having his beach retirement chat with Sam

A lingering reminder of how Jack would help - if he had his powers - but Sam asks "then what would we do" and cut to Dean being Michaeled. At this point I can't tell if we need to remember 13x23 for Reasons or if they just don't trust us to remember the recent history of the show at all and are catching up people who might have dropped by to see how their favourite guest star, Maggie, is doing.

I mean I love her but she isn't the headliner normally :P

OH GOODNESS SHE'S THE COLD OPEN GIRL. Maggieee no. She looks so scared. Why are they sending her hunting on her own??? She is a smol scared bean who was not prepared for the apocalypse and surely must be able to find other off-the-radar jobs for a person from another universe in this world that don't involve throwing herself at monsters!

She's wearing pink trousers for a stealth mission at night. She makes Sam's orange jacket look like camo

Also she's recording herself... Maggie... What are you doing........ hon......................

I have adopted her, but it turns out I have another stupid child among my many, many stupid children and just once I wish they didn't turn out like this :P

So she's like, attached a go pro to herself to record her hunt for... training purposes? reporting back to Chief? because she's become an adrenaline junkie after all the time she was nearly eaten by supervampires?

MAGGIE

Gad dangit

He was slow moving and you heard him behind you. Swing first, ask questions later, when it's a growling noise in a dark crypt.

Has anyone been counting the apocalypse world peeps because I'm pretty sure they're relying on us not to recognise them because they're a crowd. At this point we almost certainly have like 50+ distinct individuals instead of the 25 they purportedly rescued.

I say this because I feel like some of the white guys from the original batch appear to have metamorphosed into a more diverse group

Sammy setting homework.

Sorry, not Sammy. The Boss.

Dean comes in to observe class.

Sam immediately sheds all his confidence and goes back to being Sammy. He does seem to have a slight layer of scruff more, or maybe it was just that he was looking particularly clean-shaven last episode out of shock

Dean offers to get him a camp counsellor whistle, and Sam gets even more awkward about hunter check ins. I can see this feeding itself here, with Sam blustering and getting weird about his position of authority in front of Dean, and Dean who is both latching on in a brotherly way, and lashing out in a recently emotionally maimed Dean way, but can't yell at the apocalypse peeps they rescued and graciously allowed to stay because, you know, Michael destroyed their world, so taking it all out on Sam... Unfortunately, Dean being the wounded, irrational party, it's down to him to realise he's being a lil too harsh on Sam OR Sam to stop rising to the bait.

In this case, I would say the ball is firmly in Sam's court, not because he's at any particular fault for instinctively reacting like the needled little brother when big bro wanders in snarking at his attempts to do his job, but because he is the one behaving like the adult already in this scenario when he's facing the AU peeps and being The Chief in a natural way where he's thriving in the environment, and crumpling immediately in the face of this one random element is a clear part of his growth and maturity arc. As it is he's feeding Dean's reaction a LOT by getting embarrassed and changing his behaviour and not standing his ground and continuing to act like a mature adult, and giving Dean the little brother teasing opening he feeds off in the dynamic.

In other scenarios this could flip with Sam doing his best and Dean being a dick who's seeking an opening and trying to get Sam to crack and in that case it would be all on him to correct his behaviour, but in this case, I'm leaning Sam being the problem despite the appearance, because he crumpled just to hear Dean coming up the steps, never mind how it went from there. He's acting ashamed of being the leader, because he knows it's emotionally infringing on Dean territory, as he sees Dean as a natural and more rightful leader, and doesn't recognise his own strengths and skills being applied in spades here; his self-confidence immediately is put under the microscope when he knows Dean is there, and it topples his precarious house of cards of self confidence.

He has also put himself in a position of managing Dean, coming in last episode all, alright champ how's it going? and had a success by a country mile with getting Dean to leave his room, open up, and have some fun, and that's not even comparing it to the same time last season when in 13x05 he completely failed at the same task. He has been working gently on Dean to help him, but he can't when it comes to getting Dean used to having the AU peeps around and accepting Sam's new job there, if Sam acts like it's something to be ashamed of and is too horrified by usurping Dean to focus on letting his instincts talk and continuing to blatantly be a wonderful leader.

These AU peeps are also seeing their venerated war hero general just crumple into an insecure mess as soon as his brother walks into the room >.>

Sam gets coffee, turns into coffee!Sam (Lizbob's on the record favourite character in the entire show), finally snaps back at Dean about how many hunters he's keeping track of right now when Dean stops needling in a funny way and asks about Sam's health - of course, now it's all built up into Dean bothering Sam so instead of being a nice request, Sam snaps.

It's possible that while Sam now runs the hunters, delegating to Mary and AUBobby and even Dean if he'll accept it, to help keep track etc, will really benefit in the long run.

Slick way to work where Cas and Jack are into the same breath as where Mary and Bobby are - rugarou, which is code for off screen case - and throw it all out there as plot and ongoing character work AND the requisite where is Cas comment to keep fandom happy.

God, I haven't even gotten around to what I meant to say immediately that Sam dropped down into his codependency seat at the table and Dean is unintentionally mirroring 9x13's final scene of all the many times they've been around this block - off the top of my head but as someone who has been keeping a very close eye for a very long time, I can't think of another significant instance where Sam was sitting and Dean was standing while it got heated.

Of course 9x13 was working very hard to show their divisions, while of course here Sam is just sitting in his Dean Is Upsetting Me chair and Dean's not sitting at the table which just means not engaging with Sam on his level in a very literal as well as metaphorical way - in character, that's a body language dissonance as well as making Sam look up at him. In staging terms, it carries the weight of years of directorial and acting decisions about how to portray the brothers in crisis that I've been noting in case of a pattern.

"Yeah, but a war isn't hunting" good grief Sam is making their entire lives sound even worse than ever given they grew up in this and now he's listing off all the stuff they need from the perspective of being the Bobby. I mean, when they say they were raised like soldiers, they're adding in the fact they do zillions of almost completely unsupported 2 man raids into hostile territory with limited gear or recon. The recap at the start, showing them going in to fight the werewolves with an angel and a nephilim on their side, was an easy hunt for a reason and not just because there were 4 of them :P Without that, no matter how many hunters they accumulate, it's always looked like a losing battle because many of these things you'd want to call the national guard on if civilians could be alerted to the danger.

See, Dean is acting needle-y but as soon as Sam gets an unnerving alert on his phone he's concerned and asks who it is - remember last episode where he was like don't know don't care about the guy Sam was Bobbying from the car? - and when he says "maggie" ... well, they're all clearly protective of her in particular D:

Oh good, the body cams thing was a Sam innovation and therefore a good idea and we can pat his head for it

Bobby never had that and I bet he'd have LOVED to keep track of his peeps that way.

The other hunters meet up on the last thursday of the month to watch the highlight reel from Garth Cam, BYOB, popcorn provided

Nyooom

This shot should win awards for the fuckin horrifying perspective that I, as a non-mountain-dweller, can barely comprehend that it looks like the sky but then you keep on looking up and there's trees in there. Is this something people in big countries are used to? I mean I've seen my share of mountains in Scotland and they're way too cramped to fake you out like that.

You have to understand that in my town, wedged between two cliffy cliffs, the entire old town is like 500ft wide at best before more cliff. There's only 2 directions - up and towards the sea :P You don't need fancy camera tricks to contain everything... I'm getting agoraphobia just looking at this. I mean I don't think it's intended to cause existential horror but mission accomplished.

Dean getting morbid talking about how having a private cemetery would be nice. I mean, they practically need one behind the Bunker after all this time, wherever the final resting place is of at least Kevin and Charlie's bodies as well as anyone else who died in and around there who wasn't dumped in the sewer like Ketch was :')

During day this place isn't half bad, with its whimsical overgrown look, the slanting fence of the bridge to cross to get there, the jungle closing in around the little plot...

But remember, Dean. Beach holiday. Eyes on the prize, man. You and the rest don't get to hang out behind the Bunker for eternity at least until you're all old and earned it.

Dean defends knowing what a walker from the Walking Dean is... in 12x15 he was playing with a Negan bat which I assume he still has somewhere, washed off and placed in the armoury :P Sam is at least being a bit more authoritative here in the sense of reeling off info as the Chief in charge of Maggie's fate and knowing her mission etc...

Honestly this makes me feel like the dynamic of Dean drives, Sam rides shotgun can mature too, in the sense that Dean is no longer taking control from Sam - back in season 10 that was very heavily used as part of their toxic dynamic and there's definitely shades of season 10 dynamics on the chopping block around these parts - because Sam needs all the extra time to manage his army from the road, with his hands free to check the phone and read up on everything, while Dean is free to drive and be Dean.

Sam being all I FAILED SHE IS DEAD at every turn and Dean being all "hey check it out, drag marks! :D" "but no blood!!! :D :D :D"

As a student of analaysisisign things I have no idea what was just implied by Sam and Dean being called back to the surface followed by the sound effect of spooky cold breath, a wonky focus on a statue of a bearded dude and smol cherub, and then being interrupted by a 1900s gardener.

Apron plus hat seems like Michael coding but god knows what it means.

I bet they're actually talking to a ghost but he's so busy just defending the ancestral land that he's passing as a real alive person and it's one of those completely harmless cases where the ghost just lurks around protecting the land, doesn't go vengeful, and wards off people who hang out there... Not that he had much luck with the drunk teens.

1900s gardener stands outside, unable to go into the house, surveying it with a weary eye.

The garden is completely and utterly overgrown, almost like no one has gardened it for 100 years, even though there appears to be a gardener on the property.

*rubs chin*

1900s gardener gives them one last suspicious look before wandering back to work, significantly enough that we see it with a whole separate shot

what is his deal

why is he dressed like that

Does Meredith feel guilty for MURDERING JOSHUA and side note, can we really trust that it was him who got murdered. Maybe he's in retirement dressed in an olde timey shirt and waving antique gardening implements at Sam and Dean for kicks.

Considering they improv'd the line about the HPS it's very lucky that Mobby came up with that line - I guess showing how they think alike and all

"Just wish you'd checked in with the main office," Sam bobs his head, like, "ME", "before you came out here..."

Yeah, here's the Sam and AUBobby leadership conflict I was hoping for :P

Mary asks for a mo and shepherds Sam out in particular, leaving AUBobby and Dean to handle the architect digest subscriber. She's all momsy with her handling of him, and Dean and AUBobby are left to do the awkward small talk - we know AUBobby really doesn't have it as his strong suite, even though it was Bobby's, like in 6x21 where he was the only one to ever say sorry about your mom to the guy. It also means they have to do the blathering while trying to work out any supernatural history on the property in character, while Mary and Sam are designating themselves the ones who can get to the heart of the problem and handle it like the profession adults. I like the implicit trust/respect bond that gives here.

I mean she has it with Dean too I would think but she's spent more time with Sam lately and it's important now to show she's grown such a bond with Sam, as it's been 2 whole years of her being back before they could begin to properly bond due to various issues.

"It was her first solo hunt and she was nervous" listen Sam and Dean are like 1000 pounds of muscle and "fuck you apocalypse" experience and they hunt together. Maggie was smol and wore pink trousers.

Is. Is smol.

God. I'm turning into Sam.

Lol conspicuous blood transfusion bags. Nice gig, to drain peeps and get a nurse to apply the blood directly to you. Is he a vampire with an olde timey set up?

Maggiieeee

stealing her boots is just mean.

Does she have pink plaid as well as pink trousers?

My god how did they let her out of the house? She's too cute and innocent for this world.

Or her previous world.

Can we shunt her along one more world to one which doesn't have this much monster trouble even, as she's clearly still not found the AU which suits her best.

Heee Dean knocking the mantelpiece and saying the house has "good bones" like he's an expert on houses

The question is, has he watched a lot of junk reality TV about house refurbishment, or is he just faking on the fly

I have not watched enough aforementioned junk TV to call this one

Oh, nope, the daughter validates it by saying her grandpa used to say it. Dean has watched enough TV to pass

Ooooh AUBobby having a go at Sam for his shoddy leadership of letting Maggie come here when she had no idea what was up.

I'm guessing the help over text messaging may have been a bit more backseat hunting from AUBobby, but he didn't try to STOP Maggie, or tell her to wait while he and Mary dashed up here.

In any case, here's the conflict of leadership I've been waiting for since before the season began :') Unfortunately, Sam shaved off his beard before going toe to toe with AUBobby, so he takes the first round by default of bristliness, as Sam ceded some portion of control back to Dean on Dean's return and this has made him weird and jumpy about acting like the chief in front of his peeps, and now AUBobby's taking the opening.

He has such a power stance that Bobby never had

Shoulders back, beard out

Dean defends Sam like when is anyone ready to hunt, because from their perspective of course they were as smol-seeming as Maggie and CONSIDERABLY younger when they were plunged into hunting. She's a grown adult! She can handle it! (she may or may not be a mirror to Jack, who is consumptive, and therefore betraying some sort of inherent unreadiness to hunt and a requirement that the smols among you be protected rather than forced to grow up too young and go hunting as a rite of passage, just as Sam and Dean were given their first beers barely in single digits by gnarly hunters)

"A real leader would have seen that a mile away" Yeah AUBobby is too used to leading his peeps - perhaps he liked a semi retirement where Sam was the leader and the world seemed safer and they could hunt like the old days...

Mary mediates, splitting up the team in the only way that makes sense, hoping that Dean can defend Sam in absentia (and thus be forced to confront that Sam IS a good and thoughtful leader and to stop mocking him and start defending him) and she can comfort Sam and build him back up as the Chief.

Dean goes on such a face journey about this whole thing, from feeling weird about AUBobby to bad about what's going on with Sam to just worried about Maggie and very much taking on that blame for sending a smol out into the field, especially as he has recused himself from responsibility to these people - while fairly taking a mental health break from the frontline as well as competing with how Sam already got there... Anyway that was like 18 distinct facial expressions each with a story and it's too early in the morning... I JUST got my cup of tea and it's still too hot to drink so Jensen's defeated me this round

Sam gets comforted by another trenchcoated figure

"Don't listen to Bobby" "maybe he's right" shush.

"THIS IS WHAT HE WAS BORN TO DO"

ILY Mary. She's coming in fresh on adult!Sam, she doesn't even have the feelings about him as she does to smol scared 4 year old boy Dean, especially if we account for postpartum depression making it hard for her to bond with him as per the entire metaphorical structure of the show from episode one to present. Now she's getting to spend time with him - and especially as her only significant time with him BEFORE this was 12x14 aka Bobo's ode to Sam's leadership round 1... Yeah, she sees Sam as this giant gangly admirable leader guy she happens to have birthed.

"Bobby can't see that... not the only thing he's been missing lately."

Good grief, Mary in the trenchcoat has been making the eyes at AUBobby all Michael-hatted up and being ignored and rebuffed from her sparkling heart eyes. I wonder what this is a metaphor for, Ms Meredith Mixtape "know who you love" Glynn.

Also, Mary feeling comfortable to innuendo her crush on AUBobby to Sam - it really is an adult relationship and respect and emotional trust that I feel never in a million years could just pop up between her and Dean.

Oh boy, this scene is still going.

*Hides behind the secondhand embarrassment cushion* Sam goes there, like, not going to mention it but you - he sounds less bumbling than he has at other points... Sam's awkwardness factor can shoot through the roof to the point where in 3x04 where he attacks those guys and then is like "have a nice day" when they're not demons? I kinda want to reach through the screen and strangle him with my bare hands before he does it just to spare myself seeing it. Also the gifset of that has been on my dash all week, and it predisposes me to loathe Sam's awkwardness. Please god let us get through this in one piece.

Mary is too busy being wistful to realise her son is an awkward bumbling moose who is all misplaced stammering words and wonky legs spinning for traction when he's out of his depth.

Aww now Mary is getting to talk about her deal... She thought she had something good going with AUBobby but since they've been back he's been "hunting all the time and won't take a break not even for a second" - the ole bury yourself in hunting to avoid facing trauma or feelings thing. Of course AUBobby may be struggling with the weight of the world he left behind, the people who he couldn't save there and not knowing what has happened to them. There's a lot to unpack with him that hasn't been explored on screen and a lot of it is casting him as behaving in a Dean-like way, while Mary is the "I'll just wait here then" to his coping mechanisms.

"There's something on his mind, and he doesn't want to talk about it"

Aforementioned trauma, OR a pun about him being possessed by Michael

yeah I'm harping on it as a half-joke half-kinda want to have it on the record in case I'm right :P

"Bobby's not open like your dad"

Mary, you do realise how that sounds to literally everyone else, right? We KNOW you're practically from a 3rd AU aka the past where John was practically the mirror AU to his future self

Unfortunately, Mary is the only person in the room who ever has that particular story, which sucks for her

Anyway Meredith has reached some sort of characterising level with these people that I am just in pure awe of

"Not like your dad when I knew him"

"Bobby's got walls. Big ones"

I do think it's funny that Mary has essentially ended up crushing on a man who is a John-like parallel to the anti-John mirror that Bobby was, who of course had his own Karen who he was a different person with, who was a Mary mirror, and .... yeah

it's an interdimensional timetravelling wife swap

It makes Destiel look straightforward

Part of Meredith's skill here is not just accounting for every angle, but also juggling this nonsense

Anyway Mary doubting she can get through AUBobby's walls and be the person who has to do the emotional labour to get the guy she wants - if she's ready to put herself out there again

this is NOT a conversation to have with Dean in a million years. Even Sam takes a mo

"I shouldn't be talking to you about this!" she giggles and she and Sam smile and set off again, all touchy feely.

Sweet.

Anyway there's another dynamic in these woods.

"You think I was too hard on your brother back there." "He's doing his best. He's doing better than his best." Funny way to phrase it but yeah, Dean can see Sam's levelled up and his new best is this new levels of responsibility and good leadership overall.

LOL at how terse that conversation was. Dean points out that Sam could do with a hand running things, makes fun of the beard, no offence, and cut back to Sam and Mary

Sam explains Karen to Mary, to give her an idea of what might be AUBobby's backstory too.

"he never had any children?" "no"

Scuse me, that's the line that makes me BAWL every time I watch it. HE DID SO, YOU FOOL. IT WAS YOU AND YOUR UNGRATEFUL BROTHER

I am writing a letter of complaint to the management

"Whatever your Bobby" - oh dear, AUBobby is now "your" Bobby, like, they found him first but he's now Mary's :p

Sam is now full on giving Mary relationship advice about how it's worth it to move past those walls and give him a go if she really cares about him.

Has he ever had this chat with Cas, or is this just practice

"Cas, wait, I really appreciate you came to me with this but I am getting killer deja vu for a second here..."

Mary finds a disturbing firepit, Dean finds a creepy hunting cabin. This is about to be a barrel of fun

AUBobby... Don't just run off. Poke Dean and POINT AT THE THING YOU'RE FOLLOWING

... Dean, also, have some awareness in your peripheral that AUBobby just legged it

Again, way more athletic than our Bobby was

That's a human hand

Are those real IDs or hunter IDs

Oh it all came from one wallet, with the same pic on them all, so yes.

"Not one of ours" but part of the wider network/family nonetheless. His bearded look recalls Asa Fox, and there's the unspoken discussion again about sharing resources, if ALL hunters shouldn't be pulled into their network and the word spread that the Bunker is at least a resource, that Sam is there to be the hub even if they aren't all part of the centralised AU hunter squad, and Sam starts Bobbying in earnest for this world as a whole.

Of course they'd never have sent Maggie somewhere that a seasoned hunter had already disappeared.

Dean finally realises AUBobby is gone, and immediately gets jumped, with rather less warning than Maggie had.

I like how the man has had time to dress up in a suit from his sick bed, if indeed that is the case

monsters in suits

Well that's new

Well in 13x14 Meredith wrote Gog n Magog who were a fake out full of sand... Now this monster is a fake out full of ash?

Cut to: Old man still in his hospital bed, definitely not attacking people in the flesh

Oh dear, his daughter hearing something in the house while earnestly getting on with dealing with his estate makes me pretty sure she's not in on anything and she shouted them out of the house in genuine grief-stress, which I already wasn't particularly doubting.

The ole dragging chains upstairs ghost trick, which I honestly wish I could say I have never heard for myself but the ghost next door is not my problem, Victorian walls keep them contained, and honestly if you've been following the saga on random incidental comments on my blog I'm really only inclined to believe in ghosts for the humorous fake hysteria of a moment's entertainment but the odd noises next door late at night really have been going on long enough and yesterday some folk moved in so, you know, first act of a horror movie setting up mere feet away from me, the disinterested neighbour scowling at all the evil poured into the walls of that house by careless landlords and human suffering I witnessed firsthand caused by it >.> Anyway. Unlike this woman I stayed right in this spot instead of wandering around trying to work out where that noise was coming from, because I'm in the house with the wacky backstory where weed dealers sawed through the support beam in the roof and the front of my room collapsed shortly after we moved in :P

I'm sorry, but if a ghost opens a door for you ahead of you in the hall, my advice is not to immediately go up to the door and go in

SUPERVAMP IN THE ATTIC

She does an admirable duck and cover maneouver, only to realise he hasn't chased her. Huh.

Michael's super vamps are super weird.

"You're not crazy" Neil the nurse immediately straightens up and eyeballs Sam a lil harder.

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.

PS where is the ghostly gardener in all this because he wasn't the supervamp so

this is like a murder mystery puzzle but all the bits are so utterly wild... Dead hunter, Maggie being drained for the "stroke" victim who is also attacking people in a suit while made of ash... supervamp in the attic who won't follow her out of the room she found him in

I mean in all this has no one gone back up to the attic where a supervamp is apparently just LIVING?

He's currently just chilling there while they have this conversation

he's just, like... waiting for them????

Dean walks in mid-crisis "You hunt monsters?!" "oh good you told them" He does like when things are all quick and easy and right to the point.

Last episode he cheerfully told Dirk that hatchetman Jordan was coming for them, while Sam blustered over telling Sam even when the EMF was SCREAMING that there was a ghost right in the room with them and the display cases were freezing over.

With Mary's influence at least, Sam is happy to get into telling the full story

"Wait time out, there's a dead body on our property?"

THERE IS A SUPERVAMPIRE IN YOUR ATTIC

BIGGER PROBLEMS

Dean is entirely brushed down... Like... He must have been brushing ghost ash off of himself all the way back to the house.

Sam invokes 8x08 right after I was talking about Fred. Dangit, Glynn.

I feel like Sam is sort of making a jump here, but on the other hand the house isn't under ghostly or vampiric shutdown. The father is here, unconscious, so perhaps projecting and I guess if Sam is wondering how he could be doing it, then astral projections may make sense to some degree... Working out how it all ties together is going to be another huge step though. I know the sell for this episode was partially nightmares and dreams, and we have Maggie in a djinn-like trap and the old man both a sleeping Bobby from 3x10 and also a possible Fred Jones projecting it... The supervamps are something that Dean would have brought here, and "walkers" from the Walking Dead is something the boys could have brought. Which means the other hunter could have been murdered by his own trauma... idk. Why am I trying to piece it together now?

watch the episode, lizzy

LOL the daughter just reeling off her dad's "workaholic with textbook narcissistic tendencies" while also herself clearly being the offspring of such a person (is the manifestation of her dad her own trauma?) and hey no doubt that description of the father might come to bear on some of the father/power figures in the episode. Definitely not what Sam is though he's among the mix - perhaps a dark warning of a guy who works himself to death like this and becomes entirely self-absorbed in the process, but Sam just took a minute to advise his mom's love life so he's hanging in there with his sense of self for now. In the sense that a dark arc doesn't seem to be looming for him in such a way as red flags literally followed pre-Mark Dean around.

Okay took a LOT of me yelling at the screen but they FINALLY realised there's an unresolved vampire in the attic situation and Sam's going up to check

Meanwhile Mary has been separated out in this cursed property to have her own side-adventure with AUBobby

Lol the daughter downs some anti-anxiety medication with whisky while Dean sits behind her tuning his knife in a rather grim melody. What a scene.

He also has his foot on an armchair like the total troll he was raised as

She goes off on one and Dean immediately likes her

"Thanks dad" "no love lost between you two, huh?"

T stands for terrible father

"I get it" "not here for a heart to heart" *pause* *launches into a John Winchester Metaphor Of The Hour rant

"But my MOM" *Dean looks up, eyes all vulnerable* "Depression runs in our family" oh booooy

So she found her mom and Dean saw his mom consumed by fire in a way that is still scarring him TO THIS DAY (re: 13x01 nightmare) and this is our first Mary parallel of even a dead mom but one with a personality, and her own problems... Not the temporary insanity of drowning her children like Constance Welch in 1x01, but a woman who had depression and a husband who wasn't there for her... In 14x01 Mary and Sam's discussion revealed how much she was doggy paddling on the surface of all the awful that's happened to her, but this is our real notable parallel to discuss a family history of depression running through Mary's side of the family, which goes not just for Dean (who, like, really has anxiety himself) but also all of Mary's issues, including in 12x21, begging Ketch to kill her at a lowest point before they got her to entirely retreat into herself.

Glynn still out for Dean's blood: "the most ridiculous thing is... I worshipped him when I was a kid" Dean is feeling like she took that machete and shoved it in his stomach, as she sits there swigging whiskey and telling him how he feels. "Didn't know any better. He's the only family I have left."

"Can I give you a little advice?......... let it go." Oh Dean :')

Emerging from his cocoon, still mostly trapped in there but I think that's a bit of a wing poking through.

"The past is -" *forcefully stops himself from saying "in the past"*

He talks about it as baggage and how every single day he tries to let it go and leave the baggage behind. God he's strong and amazing and working so hard to be the best version of himself.

Oh my god who builds the hall up to the attic as part of the crawlspace? This is horrifying on an unnecessary level and I'm writing into that architecture magazine to complain

This is the creepiest attic. Who KEEPS these horrifying mementos. Give them to a thrift shop for a hipster to buff up and turn into a conversation piece in their living room.

Okay, blood bags and a girl in chains (explains the clinking) are a bit weirder than average.

"Sam... it's here" "What?" "It's heeeere" Sam how long have you BEEN in this business?

File this under your panicky first aid to Stuart last episode

Sam got ashed just like Dean did. Hm.

It also looked like one of the crazed hunger vamps from apocalypse world more than one of michael's supervamps maybe? It's really hard to keep track of all these :P

Oh my god AUBobby has a son, who was murdered by angels. This is terrible D:

Something about the immediate moment of him wandering in... When Bobby went off earlier I was thinking of 7x11 where he saw his younger self. This approach seems almost more like 6x04 and Crowley seeing Gavin for the first time.

Anyway this is of course another way to twist AUBobby around on himself - he managed to get a son, maybe Karen wasn't murdered by a demon, maybe he had a different wife. Whatever it is, it gives us a version of Bobby totally different from ours and also in how he will relate to Sam and Dean - not as the sons he never had, but if he's thinking of young men in the fight...

Oh no AUBobby just got stabbed... Er... is this a nightmare or is he just dead?

Is AUBobby really going to -

That's more impressive than breaking a crypt scene mental wall to save your loved one. Then again, original flavour Bobby once stabbed himself in the gut to save Dean so I guess he takes a lot of pain for his loved ones, and honestly gathering the strength to pull a knife out... Maaaybe nicer than putting it in???

The fact this is all going down with angel blades as well.

I swear to god... Meredith, don't make me watch AUBobby stab a vision of his own son to complete the loop with our Bobby stabbing Karen.

"I'm sorry"

*WhOMph grey ash everywhere*

Kinda takes the pure angst out of it at least :P

Dean gets a better look. "You're giving him a transfusion?"

Yeah, there's some fuckery at work here, sir. The nurse seems a lot less flustered answering this one which is almost as suspicious as someone who has been non-flustered suddenly getting flustered

Dean regrets saying "make me a sandwich before he is done asking. Which is the only reason I forgive that request :P Remember in 1x06 where he was bossing Sam's friend around to get them a beer and a sandwich so they could talk in peace about shifters? God. She KNOWS about monsters it's just that he wants to ask a sensitive question here.

Or punch the nurse in the face over the comatose form of her father.

A nod to her that it's a ruse gets her in on it, though. Female!Dean who is a different mirror than Dirk (though still messed up by a father) gets on his wavelength.

AAH He remembered the djinn thing!!! Dean's memory is so good and I love him and he's the best and also Meredith is riffing off 2x20 which is actually illegal, I literally have that written down here in the rules and regulations. Although it does give me my opportunity to remind us all of Dean's long speech about why does he have to be the one to save all these people to John's grave when he was thinking he had to go unwish stuff.

Sadly he didn't show up with a knife tipped in lamb's blood so let's see how this goes.

Oh my god the djinn's literally thought Dean was Michael the whole time. I have to rewatch now >.>

Well, not now, but.

He thought Michael was testing him, and would be back to give him an upgrade, and now he's waxing poetic about the untapped potential of djinn. We're back at season 6, with the hunter compound vs a monster army, except this time the monsters aren't a reaction to the nonsense of angels, they're the direct work of the angel stepping into the place of Eve as the experimenter, his grace vs her black goo. I suppose the weirdness out here is the djinn flexing its muscles with projecting hallucinations.

And I guess that means it hasn't affected Dean except the generic ghost of Mr Comatose over there (apologies to Cas) which I'd assume is part of the generic set up for killing hunters as it was what got Maggie too.

The question is, is that Maggie in the attic, or a nightmare for Sam. Wouldn't she be djinned too?

"Because of him - because of YOU - I can bring those nightmares into the world" well that's a weighted line >.> Dean's guilt for saying yes, for these things done with his face. Literally bringing nightmares into the world.

Which does at least confirm that the nightmares so far have been external and we're not IN a dream which has been worrying me.

On the other hand that means AUBobby really did get stabbed that badly.

"I highly doubt you have a knife dipped in lamb's blood" I TOLD him.

you can't just kneecap the djinn

"I am curious, what are YOUR nightmares"

Literally pausing it because Meredith is absolutely horrible and I hate her and she keeps being mean to my boy Dean and I can't handle this and I don't want to know

(I am curious. What ARE his nightmares?)

Er excuse me did he just prod his way into finding Michael still in there

Because the other option is that Dean's mind is so utterly scared and scary with all he's been through he literally just out-nightmared a nightmare machine by force of personality.

"You don't know my family"

Keep the one liners coming

I'm easily placated by them

Cut to: the next morning. He offers his double a chance to get her apology from her father, and books it.

Nyoooom back along a CONSIDERABLY less horrifying shot of the same sort of landscape

Maggie's back! Everyone loves Maggie. She is the adorable mascot of these people.

Keep the cute pink bunny back at home maybe

Dean gives Sam some affirmation about being the leader of his people.

Now Sam needs to not fold immediately the next time he sees Dean seeing him do something leadery. Deal?

Mobby H/C

You know he's vulnerable not because he has his shirt off, but because he has his hat off.

These "angel wars" in the AU sound pretty formal.

You know, it would probably be PRETTY HARD to get the average American to fight a war against angels until it's way way waaay too late.

I mean, case in point: we call where they come from, "apocalypse world"

"Hunting" "it ends the same." "No." Mary F Winchester puts her foot down. No it ends bloody speeches on her watch! All she has is her optimism but damned if she won't use it!

"I don't know any other way to live" "Then we'll find one"

You are doing a good job and you can save all these dumb guys from themselves.

DEAN TALKED TO MAGGIE. HE'S HELPING. HE WENT AND LEADERED HER FOR SAM.

Now have a beer, bro

"She learned from the best, huh? :)"

":)"

Awww Mary comes up with AUBobby and they're taking a vacation. Let AUBobby go fishing or something. Good lil Cas parallel Mary fixing her broken warrior with a Donna cabin adventure.

...

Do you not worry a lil about what is out there? Donna comes prepared with a flamethrower.

""relaxing"" """vacation"""

Anyway best reason ever given on the entire show for a set of characters not to be in the next couple of episodes, second to "Cas is taking his son out to teach him to hunt some more"

Bobby has a clean new formal black mourning cap to deal with fresh memories of Daniel

Sam getting the leadership baton from a representative of Bobby who he may see more as Bobby than perhaps he ought. AUBobby says he's not sure he ever had it in him to be a leader, while our Bobby was the undisputed best at what he did and as much as he may have complained, his competency is what Sam is now emulating.

Mary being "allowed" to go by Dean. "if you need anything... ANYTHING..." *grabs his shoulder and shakes him* You're starting to turn into the mom in a movie who leaves the kids behind and without supervision they throw a wild party to rebel against you stifling them. SO not the dynamic, but that's the licking a thumb and pressing down a stray bit of hair type momming she's doing all of a sudden.

"Go. Be happy." :')

HUGS FOR THE BOY. That's 2 whole onscreen dean hugs this season.

Aww Dean talking to Garth :')

Sam and Dean in synchronicity, talking to ALL their hunter network, not just Jody plus the AU peeps

Though. Sam has implemented a buddy system.

Dorky camp counsellor that he is.

Dean should get him a ceremonial whistle for Christmas.

"Move on from what I - from what we - from what he did"... Dean. Buddy.

Go lie down.

That's some of the most intense blurring of self ever, between Dean's guilt, whatever made the djinn scream in horror to delve his head, and his symbolic blending with Michael as the Michaelsword...

"Starting to feel like myself again... almost..." shakes his head and starts heading out to go watch more movies, sad that halloween is passed so no more slashers on every channel

"We'll work harder" "how, you sleep 3 hours at night" "then I'll sleep 2" *Dean gives him the NO look*

Well there's a great representation of how their issues mess themselves up and they carve away their sense of self and their health for each other.

Seriously. What did the djinn SEE. What nightmares are in my boy's head? Oh god I'm stressed.

What happened to the 1900s groundskeeper, Don?

#14x05 #season 14 spoilers #my stuff

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rirururu · 6 years ago

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Danganronpa V3 Thoughts + Chapter 5 Rant

Okay so I’m super late seeing as the game released two years ago but after the disaster that was the DR3 anime, it took a while for me to build up the motivation to play DRV3. I just finished it recently. And what do I think of it?

It was... not as bad as the anime. Actually, it’s not bad at all. Far from it.

But there were still so many nonsensical and dumb decisions made. Just like in DR3. I know for most people, it was chapter 6 and the ending that broke the game and made it horrible for them. But those didn’t particularly bug me. It was actually chapter 5.

(Warning: spoilers for the entire DRV3 game below cut)

(Warning: here’s to be to the return of my salty Hajime rants)

Before you ask, no. It’s not because Kaito and Kokichi died.

We can get that whole “who is best boi/gurl” stuff out of here right off the bat. That has nothing to do with it. If it fits the characters’ arcs and gives the game a proper conclusion or progression, then it’s perfectly fine to kill characters off no matter how much you like them.

That being said, I think it’s safe to conclude that most of the running theme of DRV3 is the idea of “lies versus truth” and “belief versus distrust” as opposed to “hope versus despair.” I have no complaints about that. Actually, it’s a much more impactful and relevant conflict to use in a game where finding the truth and being suspicious of friends is such a paramount part of class trials in the first place.

I can see where the writers were going with Kokichi and Kaito’s characters. Kokichi was meant to be the embodiment of lies and distrust, Kaito was the embodiment of belief, while Shuichi himself was the pursuer of truth. Seeing these three characters in particular be able to play off of each other was one of the highlights of V3, possibly one of the most well-written dynamics in the entire Danganronpa franchise. Why?

It’s because despite Shuich being the seeker of truth, we’ve seen him lie in trials before (a nifty and sometimes necessary new mechanic). Despite Kokichi being a perpetual liar, we’ve seen him tell the truth with how he some times encourages the others in previous cases. Despite Kaito yelling poetry about believing in his friends all the time, we’ve seen Kaito lose belief in Shuichi after what happened in chapter 4. We’ve seen how Kokichi’s distrust in Maki backfired in chapter 2′s trial and led to him being incorrect while Kaito’s belief in Gonta backfired in chapter 4′s trial and led to him being incorrect. The whole message here is that people are multi-layered and can never live with only one or the other. There is no wrong side; you need all four. It was honestly a really good narrative theme.

That is, until chapter 5. The dreaded chapter that officially broke the game for me.

The lesson I got out of chapter 5 after the two most narratively driven characters were killed off was simply “lying is bad.” Really, game? You’re taking such a complex and morally ambiguous conflict as finding the truth and lying to oversimplify it so much? I'm baffled to see the game use such a strong topic just to flub it up so spectacularly for no reason. It put a metaphorical coffin on what was four and a half chapters of buildup. If the whole overlap of “truth versus lies” and “belief versus logic” weren’t going to go anywhere, then why introduce them in the first place?

Let me explain a bit more. Chapter 5 portrayed Shuichi’s pursuit of the truth and unwavering borderline psychotic focus on finding the truth due to what Kaede said (which also led to him helping Monokuma in chapter 5 like wtf) as the right thing to do all along. Screw Kokichi. Shuichi will help Monokuma as long as the black-and-white terrorist is trying to find the truth too. ‘Because truth good and lies bad.’ While we’re at it, screw Kaito and Maki and everyone else who ever challenged Shuichi and questioned whether sometimes lying is the better choice. Screw all the previous trials where Shuichi was shown acknowledging that lying was sometimes necessary. Shuichi’s always right, baby. And he gets absolutely zero repercussion for it. He’s canonically portrayed as having done the right thing even though his pursuit of the truth actually led to the killing game ending in chapter 6 instead of chapter 5 like the super-big-baddy-evil-villain-just-because-he-lies Kokichi was trying to do.

While we’re at, I guess the second morale of the story was that Kokichi could never learn to accept the importance of belief and truth until the very end. Kaito continued believing in people and could never learn to accept the importance of distrust and logic until the very end. “Whoever lies stays a liar.” “Whoever has belief in people don’t ever have to be suspicious.” Really, game? You’re taking the idea of humans being multi-layered and growing from that and turning them into one-dimensional personifications of the themes who can’t change?

Chapter 5′s outcome is a direct contradiction to where Kokichi, Kaito, and Shuichi as well as the entire game’s themes of truth, lies, belief, and distrust were foreshadowed as heading for over four chapters. I feel like 50% of the reason people think Kokichi is a well-written character is based off of Kodaka purposely making him ambiguous rather than actually giving him a proper character arc. I mean, yeah, why give him a proper character arc if the fans can do it for us? The only hint of a change I’d seen from him was in that he trusted his plan to Kaito, and even then that wasn’t real belief because he blackmailed Kaito into it. Then of course, he died a death that no one in the game seemed to care about because he’s the super-big-baddy-evil-villain-just-because-he-lies and Kodaka seemed so gungho about making him into another tragic Komaeda troupe.

Let’s not forget the other dumbass decisions made by the writers that contradict earlier events or conveniently plot convenient but actually totally impossible but let’s forget that because it’s convenient twists made in the murder itself. Sure, I totally believe that the Exisals had a voice changer that Kaito magically knew how to use. I totally believe that Kokichi would take off his shirt instead of just pulling his sleeve up while he was in the crusher just to give evidence for Shuichi to find. I totally believe that Kaito and Maki could drive an Exisal when it was clearly stated several times that only the Monokubs and Kokichi could do it to prevent anyone from hijacking one. I totally believe Kaito magically transformed into the Ultimate Imposter to impersonate Kokichi and Kokichi wasted his time writing an encyclopedia of a script that would’ve taken weeks to do when the entire DRV3 took place over a few days. I totally believe that Kokichi stupidly kept the remote control for the Exisals on him when he was crushed by the machine instead of giving it to Kaito just to make chapter 6 more unnecessarily difficult.

I totally believe that Maki was actually dumb enough to think that killing the supposed mastermind was the best way to end the killing game when Kaede already proved it wouldn’t. I totally believe that Kokichi would go on a suicide mission that was doomed to fail when nothing about his character before indicated that he wanted anything but to live. I totally believe that the class thought the best course of action at Kokichi actually trying to stop the killing game is to team up with Monokuma to stop Kokichi from stopping the killing game. I totally believe that Kokichi, already established as arguably the most intelligent character in the entire verse bar Junko or Izuru, would make an unsolvable case just to hand over the exact evidence that let Shuichi solve the case. I totally believe that something as trivial as a one-second pause in a video was enough for Shuichi to change the victim’s identity simply based off a combination of something almost resembling circumstantial evidence and his imagination and with no proof at all.

But I guess at the end of the day, plot holes are abundant in Danganronpa. That’s never been the game-changer for me. Normally, I can overlook logical and emotional plot holes if they serve a purpose. What shouldn’t be abundant is throwing away entire themes and character arcs built up for over four chapters just for the sake of making a case as dramatic and mind-fucking as possible.

What would’ve been a more consistent outcome and a better payoff? Let me go over each character.

I think it would’ve been better if Shuichi’s entire final argument segment in the fifth trial was actually an intentional lie on his part to trick Monokuma and the player. It would’ve been a nice extension to the new Lying during Non Stop Debate mechanic. Kaito should have been the victim and the pause in the video should have been a trap set up by Kokichi for Monokuma and one that Shuichi purposely used. Kokichi being the one in the Exisal makes more sense no matter how you dice it since the game wouldn’t have to try to explain all the bullshit with the script and imposter act that made no sense. This would cause a mis-trial because Monokuma was wrong, and subsequently lose the rights to hold anymore trials. The pursuer of truth, Shuichi, would learn to lie in order to save his friends.

I think it would’ve been better if Kokichi’s entire plan depended on (correctly) believing that Shuichi would catch on to the lies within the murder and analyze the meaning of the pause in the video. Kokichi has no control over what Shuichi does in the trial since he doesn’t want to give the impression of wanting Shuichi to analyze the pause for fear of being discovered by Monokuma. It would be true belief in someone, not the blackmail shit he pulled with Kaito in the canon trial. The real blackened should have been Maki, who ends up not being executed because Monokuma has no idea that she’s the blackened due to not knowing what killed Kaito first. The trial should’ve been deemed invalid after Kokichi was proven to be alive in the Exisal after the verdict is already declared and everyone voted for Kaito because not even Monokuma knows if it was Kaito, Kokichi, or Maki who killed Kaito. The whole setup he did wouldn’t have been a waste. The embodiment of lies and distrust, Kokichi, would learn to believe in someone in order to stop the killing game.

I think it would’ve been better if Kaito sacrificed himself since he knew that he was ill and was going to die anyway. While we’re at this topic, can I just point towards the stupidity behind Kaito jumping in front of Maki’s arrow to save Kokichi’s life just to turn around and agree to kill him like 5 minutes later? And for what? Because Maki’s life is somehow more valuable than Kokichi’s? Oh go off, Kaito. It makes him come off as a jackass who can’t act on what he’s been preaching about for over 4 chapters. To me, Kaito choosing to not trust in Kokichi’s plan out of desperation to save Maki's life is way more in character than Kaito choosing to kill Kokichi out of desperation to save Maki's life. Him not trusting Kokichi would be a direct result of what happened in trial 4 where his belief made him mess up. The subversion of what his character was capable of would've been less out-of-nowhere and more related to the narrative theme. Kaito forcing the antidote on Kokichi, convincing him not to commit suicide, then killing himself before the poison did to prevent as many deaths as possible all while using his life to end the killing game would’ve made much more sense. Because Kaito knew he was going to die from his disease anyway and would want to save both Maki and Kokichi. Having him be so selfish and only value Maki's life, once again, makes him come off as a jackass in my eyes. He’s right for not trusting Kokichi since in the end, it convinces Kokichi to continue living rather than committing suicide. This would’ve been a way better “fuck you” to Monokuma than relying on luck to use his disease to kill him before the execution did. The symbol of belief, Kaito, would decide not to trust someone in his last moment of living in exchange for sparing Maki’s life and helping Kokichi grow.

All three characters and their continual struggle with truth, lies, belief, and distrust would’ve actually gotten the closure that they deserve. They would’ve all grown past their troupes to learn that all four are necessary in order to become better people. And there’s no way you can convince me that this is a worse lesson than “lying is bad.” And I say it one more time: really, game?

This also fixes a lot of continuity problems I had with the other chapters as well. What Kokichi said in chapter 4 about Shuichi being useful to him would’ve actually made sense. What Kokichi did in chapter 4 with purposely encouraging everyone to blindly trust Shuichi despite Shuichi’s lies during the trial would’ve actually made sense. What Monokuma proceeded to do in chapter 6 by allowing Shuichi to lead a class trial would’ve actually made sense if Monokuma himself was no longer allowed to because Shuichi, Kaito, and Kokichi outsmarted him in chapter 5 rather than just being another Junko brain fart moment of “okay! I'll agree to your conditions because it's interesting!” Shuichi, Kaito, and Kokichi wouldn’t have come off as dumbasses in chapter 5. What Shuichi kept repeating over and over in chapter 6 about wanting to end the killing game wouldn’t have made me roll my eyes so hard when he’s the one who sabotaged Kaito and Kokichi from ending it sooner. Maki would’ve actually had a chance to show remorse for her major fuck-up in chapter 5 and reflect back on what it means to have the skills of an assassin instead of brushing it off because “it wasn’t actually her who directly killed Kaito” even though it was totally her fault that it happened.

The rest of the class (minus Kokichi) being reluctant to trust Shuichi in the sixth chapter due to his lying in the fifth chapter would’ve made that entire segment in chapter 6 with Shuichi gradually reforming bonds and gaining back their trust one-by-one actually make sense instead of being a mindless mini-game. Kokichi would’ve actually obtained his own unique character arc with a proper payoff in chapter 6 by carrying on Kaito’s wish to trust/believe in Shuichi. Shuichi himself growing out of what Kaede told him in order to become a better person who embodies truth, lying, belief, and distrust would’ve made for a well-rounded ending. The trial and whoever’s death happened in chapter 5 wouldn’t have felt like such a waste of time that purposely went out of its way to bend over backwards in being as inconsequential and illogical as possible.

Why didn’t that happen? Well, I can only guess that the writers were so focused on making Kokichi into another tragic Komaeda troupe and Kaito into another tragic Chiaki troupe that they completely forgot that Kaito and Kokichi are their own characters with different values and actual flaws. Kodaka wanted his standard suicidal tragic bad guy unsolvable murder that would mindfuck the audience. And guess what? He got it in exchange for ruining the three most narratively strong characters in the game. Heaven forbid Kokichi not commit some grand suicide scheme, because he’s not Komaeda and because he’s never shown a single indication that he wanted anything but to live, wouldn’t make him popular enough. Heaven forbid Kaito not become the tragic waifu who was “forced” into killing someone, because he’s not Chiaki and because he was never actually forced into killing Kokichi and has too high of a moral code to do it, wouldn’t make him popular enough. Heaven forbid Shuichi lying in a trial instead of finding the truth behind the chapter 5 murder, because he’s not Hinata and because unlike Hinata he had no good reason to, wouldn’t make him popular enough.

I think what really proves that the writers just got tired of the “truth versus lies” and “belief versus distrust” theme and gave it a lackluster borderline infuriatingly awful conclusion is how the DRV3 game abruptly switches back to “hope versus despair” as its main conflict soon after in chapter 6.

And before you tell me that the end of chapter 6 did in fact tackle the concept of truth and lies by saying neither matter as long as it induces the right feelings, I don’t buy it for one second. It was incredibly tacked on in the last minute of game-play and relied so much on telling rather than showing us. As a player, I don’t believe Shuichi has come to appreciate both because he never did anything in the game to prove it. In fact, his actions in chapter 5 directly contradict that he believes there’s any good in lying. There’s no proof that the whole truth versus lies and belief versus distrust theme actually had any merit aside from lies = bad and hence Kokichi = worse than Monokuma. It’s messy. It’s all over the place. It felt like a waste of time.

And that was officially when chapter 5 broke the entire game for me.

#drv3 #ndrv3 #danganronpa #ouma kokichi #shuichi saihara #kaito momota #rant #discourse #meta #bringing out the salty hajime again #there are still good things about drv3 #but chapter 5 was #dumb enough to break the game for me #from a great or phenomenal one #to an okay one #i'm baffled at how #lackluster the payoff #of the deaths were

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macdentrash · 6 years ago

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I have some issues that I want to talk about...

Ok so I’ve been thinking about macdennis (as one does 25 hours a day) and I just wanna share something... so we all know Mac and Dennis are gay for eachother, as does anyone who’s seen them interact in the slightest, and that’s been apparent since the literal first episode of the show (this isn’t necessarily related but I think it’s cute that the literal first lines of the show are between these two gays but to continue on...) and the levels of said gayness have evolved over the seasons. We have season 1 twinks who are subtle (at least for the most part) in their homosexual subtext and this could be played off as two “really good friends” but nothing beyond that (not how I choose to see it but some do and that’s not necessarily invalid just because some of us disagree), moving on through the seasons the gayness becomes more blatantly obvious, it’s brought to the viewers point of focus in a more straight(lol)forward way and the climax of this really shows in season 5 with the tipping point being Mac and Dennis Break up. Other than the few scenes with Frank/Charlie this whole episode is devoted to the blatant codependency of Mac/Dens relationship, not to mention the sexual tension (which is completely unsubtle imo), they literally cannot function without eachother and there is NO heterosexual reasoning that can explain the extended scene (beautiful lips!)... as we progress further in the show the homosexual undertones only become stronger (I could site every point in individual episodes and have a thesis level of critical analysis but for the sake of brevity we won’t go there today) which can be seen in the double parter Mac Fights Gay Marriage/Dennis Gets Divorced, any Mac and Dennis titled episode really and many more (every episode or at least most of them shows some level of interaction between the two that makes the viewer go “hmm well that’s gay as fuck”). Continuing on though, I’m writing this mostly to get into the newer seasons (11/12 respectively) so obviously in season 11 we have the ICONIC suburbs episode where they literally move to a house together and take up their individual “marital duties” (i.e. honey do list, Mac staying at home and taking care of things in his way lol, and Dennis going to work, etc) and we learn a lot about their dynamic and see that the codependency has not in fact weakened over time but grown to incomprehensible levels, in the rest of season 11 there’s fairly limited interaction and Mac/Dennis team ups but in the 2 part finale of The Gang Goes to Hell there are some important pieces. To start Dennis in the beginning is the one who supports Mac’s decisions (saying something along the lines of “you don’t have to mean it, just say what he wants to hear” etc) and it shows how well he knows Mac compared to the rest of the gang, again we have limited interaction until the end of the first part but there’s some really interesting stuff once they do get to interact. I’d like to start with Dennis’ reaction to Mac coming out and how “he always knew”, he always knew and still acted the way he always has (and knowing that he knew, makes one doubt Dennis’ own self proclaimed heterosexuality), moving on, when the boat first malfunctions Dennis automatically reaches his hand out to steady Mac and doesn’t show any real concern for anyone else, fuck even after the boat steadies he keeps his arm reaching out towards him... there’s definitely more in part two but I’m going to skip ahead a little to the tail end of part two. Dennis hid the letters that Mac’s dad sent him from prison and he looks heart broken when Mac gets upset, showing that Dennis actually gives a shit no matter how much he tries to pretend that he doesn’t (this is pre onion that I’m talking about here) and I believe that he honestly was just trying to protect Mac from his shitty father (which could have to do with Dennis’ own daddy issues but we won’t get into that here), also in the end of this episode we have Charlie saying something along the lines of “send us a miracle” and Dennis looks @ Mac in that super love sick way (he is his miracle! i’m so soft i apologize). The last thing I want to touch on in this episode is that when Mac is shoved back into the closet at the end, Dennis makes a very frustrated face... the face of a man who just wants his best friend to come out already... wow ok this is long but let’s move on to season 12, that will continue in the next paragraph break for the sake of breaking up this wall of text...

Ok so in season 12 is where imo everything kind of culminates and comes to a head as far as Mac and Dennis’ dynamic goes...to touch briefly on Making Dennis Reynolds a Murderer, we have “Well if Mac’s going to do it... I’m going to do it” (which speaks for itself) as well as Mac and Dennis just generally being portrayed as spending quite a bit of time together. Moving on to where everything really kicks off in this season imo is Hero or Hate Crime. We have Mac finally escaping from the closet but there’s a lot that’s woven into that, Dennis encourages Mac to come out of the closet until he actually does so (we’ll get to that in a minute) and when Mac leaves Dennis is the one who encourages the gang to just let him enjoy his first day out. The importance of Dennis pushing Mac to come out and then getting uncomfortable when he actually does is because HE NEVER THOUGHT IT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN, and when it does he makes the same fucking face as he does when he’s trying to hide his emotions during the RPG scene... after this episode Dennis becomes “emotionally distant” (to quote Mac himself) and he generally is just kind of weird about Mac being out, I personally believe that’s because he’s too scared to admit his own feelings and scared to have to explore his own sexuality and how that impacts his overall identity. Obviously next we have PTSDee and Mac’s dream/subsequent reality, so at this point it’s well established that Mac has a thing for notorious 5 star man Dennis Reynolds but now we have to ask the question “does Dennis reciprocate those feelings?” (spoiler alert: yeah he does but moving on), in this episode it’s made apparent that Dennis is aware of Mac’s attraction (and has been for a long time) but even though it comes very close, he does not act on that attraction in a substantial way and we as an audience collectively heave a disappointed sigh (in gay) and hope for better next time. Next up is the The Gang Tends Bar, which is a fucking masterpiece... so from the beginning we have Dennis trying to avoid Valentine’s day and get the gang to “just do their jobs!”. Later we have the parallel between Mac trying to talk to Charlie about Dennis and Dee trying to talk to Frank about Charlie (both convos are interrupted by that intruding Jerry) and that is really solid evidence for the Chardee Macdennis Theory™... to get to my point here we have the “I have big feelings” speech and Mac coming in to save the day with his gift. So this is where it goes off, Mac who is now openly out gives Dennis a Valentine’s Day gift and makes no move to clarify this as a friendly/unromantic gesture, and the way that Dennis looks at him (other than being hella gay) is one of realization and just realizing that someone actually loves him (our collective hearts break for the bastard man), and going back to Hero or Hate Crime, he makes that same face when he glances back at the gang which is him trying to hide his emotions and how much Mac/the RPG really mean to him. Lastly in season 12 we have DDL, imo the most crucial part of this episode as far as Macdennis goes is in the beginning when they are coming up with the plan, I’ll insert the script here because it says more than I ever could:

Mac: Look, I think the point is, maybe we got to close the emotion door for Mandy by telling her that you're gay. Dennis: Yeah, right, but I already had sex with her. How am I gonna convince her I'm gay?

Mac: Just go with me here. Brian's not above having a one-night stand with a woman, but he's got no room for her emotionally - because he's in love with me.

Dennis: With you?

Mac: Well, yes, the lover is me, of course.

Dennis: Mm.

So this to me is just the writers pointing out the nature of Mac and Dennis’ relationship, they literally change the dynamic in no way and they’re almost screaming “THEIR IN LOVE YOU FOOLS”... the rest of the episode shows Dennis being confused at Mac’s actions (”why would you say you want to raise the kid?!” and showing discomfort when Mac launches into the same “he’s my bottom” speech from Mortgage Crisis) and Mac becoming more brazen with his obvious huge crush on Mr. Reynolds. Dennis leaves dramatically at the end and takes about 10 times longer to say Mac’s name than any other member of the gang, while Mac looks on with that sad puppy dog look on his face. This is how they leave it, other than Mac and the rest of the gang blowing up the Rover.

So to get to the original point I was trying to make before going the fuck off... now that we’re in season 13 we all are kind of wondering where they’re going to take this. After all the evidence I’ve discussed here, plus literally the entire roster of episodes, I just want to say that something with a capital S is going to happen. I mean, why would they be focusing so much on their relationship (to the point of it being uncomfortable *cringes and thinks about the sex doll*) and not ... take that anywhere? I mean they’ve been upping the anti since around season 10 and I feel like that character development and plot evolution is not for nothing, RCG know what they’re doing and I truly believe that we may get something at least resembling canon Macdennis this season, add in the factor of promo like “The Machelor” and it’s almost impossible that we aren’t going to get anything... also in the promo for the new episode we have Mac and Dennis holding a fucking heart shaped object between their hands...HEART SHAPED and that’s a level of metaphor that’s not even trying to be subtle... anyways I’m gonna go now but these are my surface level thoughts on the matter and if you want to hear some more specific analysis (on episodes/scenes) don’t hesitate to ask and I’ll type out something similar and not as lengthy. If you made it this far, I wish your heart luck moving further in this new season and we can all cry together

#macdennis #iasip #meta #long posts #come scream at me about macdennis

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pagerunner-j · 7 years ago

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I saw a couple comments today from people who felt like Percy’s had too much focus in the CR storyline already, particularly as compared to Scanlan, and I admittedly sighed a bit, although I also had Thoughts. To back up and kinda process them:

- Everyone at the table started with well-drawn characters, but going from those original intro bits, Percy clearly had the most narrative baked in from day one. Taliesin didn’t force it when it came to gameplay; it was there in the backstory and could have stayed there forever, un-investigated in favor of other quests. But Matt took it and ran with it, because let’s be honest, it was interesting, and a great excuse for him to build out that chunk of the world. You can’t really blame him for grabbing that particular gun off the mantel. You can observe, fairly, that not too many of the players put one that shiny up there to play with in the first place.

- On that note, it’s still kind of ironic that Scanlan’s big blowup centered on the other characters not caring about his personal life, because it may have been true, but a lot of that’s on him for not sharing. And I’m honestly still curious how much of that was a long-term in-character choice, and how much of it developed at a meta level because of planning decisions one way or another on Sam’s part. Scanlan wasn’t always played terribly seriously (let’s not forget that his character origin was basically “how do I make the most ridiculous character ever? Okay: GNOME BARD!”), and the path forward from that and into more serious matters could easily have been “we never delved into more than this. Well, let’s make the issue be the fact that we never delved into this.” Either way, Scanlan became a meatier character (ahem) later in the game, but in the earlier stretches there was simply less to build from, and especially in a group that big and that busy, you’ve also got to assume that everyone’s going to go for the big, shiny plot points and that more subtle matters or unspoken problems won’t really get noticed.

- In comparison, Tary got more character development in a handful of episodes than Scanlan got over much longer chunks of time, because everyone played it very differently. It was sort of inevitable since it was a new character to figure out, and that’s going to draw a lot of focus, plus a lot of playing with the new dynamic since of course that’s an interesting upheaval for everyone. He was also on a bit of a timer, although his stay was longer than I think anyone planned. But good lord, was the approach with Tary different from Scanlan. We had all of his family drama and personal goals and conflicts fully drawn and presented right up front, with a lot for everyone to get their teeth into, and it was great.

- Not coincidentally, I came to like Tary a lot. I miss him, and am sad.

- I’m not sure if I have a conclusion to this except to say that character and story development are both goddamn interesting and can happen in a lot of ways and at different paces. That doesn’t mean it’s a competition. It does mean bring shit to the table, because otherwise nothing’s gonna grow.

- ...I did not mean to make that a compost metaphor. On the other hand, I feel like Scanlan would approve.

#critical role #thinky thoughts

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violet--minds-blog · 7 years ago

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‘The Bold Type’ and Surface-Level Intersectionality

Piper Gibson | July 26, 2017

Long time, no write, I know. It’s hard, as a mentally ill person working and going to school and trying to stay politically aware in these trying times, to update this blog. But I’m back with another post, because I am annoyed.

I’ve caught up with The Bold Type, a new Freeform series which is about three friends who work at a women’s magazine and is currently airing its first season. As I’m writing this there’s four episodes, but each is packed with so much that rubs me the wrong way that I’ve been incessantly livetweeting on my (private) Twitter about it. I don’t even know where to start, so I suppose I’ll begin with a few things I like.

I like that it’s a women-driven show. I like that we get to see women in power and at the top of their game. I like that the side characters are kinda diverse. I like that it passes the Bechdel test in a major, major way. I like that they are at least trying to come from an intersectional feminist perspective. That’s actually why I’m really frustrated with this show, but I’ll talk about that more later.

Firstly. Jane, the kind-of main character (To me, she’s clearly the main protagonist, but it could be argued that her, Kat, and Sutton are all protagonists) is boring. I’m sorry. She just is the human embodiment of plain yogurt. I cannot bring myself to care about her budding career or mediocre hetero love life. I don’t care when she wins, and I don’t care when she loses. I guess to some, her story might be interesting, but I just... don’t... care. I feel basically the same about Sutton, but she’s a teense more likable because the glimpses of her backstory spark an interest in me. For Jane, I think the writers were going for a Gifted-Child-Who-Grew-Up-To-Need-To-Please-Authority-Figures vibe, which I can relate to, except I see basically nothing of myself in her. Maybe it’s the bland cishet girl thing, but she’s not doing it for me.

My main problem with this show is that they focus on Plain Jane (low-hanging fruit, I know, but I had to do it), who has the personality of a lightly-salted potato chip, way more than they focus on Kat, who is IMO the most interesting person on the show. For a series that’s at least kind of trying to be diverse, it’s frustrating to me that 2/3 of the main characters are white and cis and heterosexual, but anyway. They have two cis, heterosexual, white woman main characters and then a black woman main character who is questioning her sexuality. Who do you think a large portion of the viewership for a show that claims to be feminist is gonna gravitate towards? Not the pasty heteros, probably.

Kat is dynamic, and interesting, and good at her job, not to mention gorgeous as all hell. Yet they give her storylines like "Black Girl Who Grew Up Upper-Middle Class Has to Have Poverty Explained to Her by White Girl” and “Black Girl Living In Modern-Day America Somehow Doesn’t Understand Why A WOC Immigrant Might Not Want to Interact With Police” and “Black Girl Who Works at a Feminist Magazine Doesn’t Seem to Know About Bisexuality For Some Reason” and y’all. It’s honestly so tiring. I understand that Kat is the one with the majority of the interactions with Adena to set up the queer romance between them (which I love and appreciate) but this also means Kat is their point-girl to explain xenophobia and immigration issues to the audience.

I would like that they’re showing interracial ignorance issues, because people of color can be ignorant about and discriminatory towards other people of color, but I don’t think that’s what they set out to do. I think they wanted this to be a cool, hip, intersectional show, so they do a few kind of performative scenes where the Muslim lesbian woman on a work visa explains to another woman of color why she doesn’t take her hijab off or why she ran when the police showed up after a man assaulted her. At one point, Kat’s white boss actually explains to her that Adena ran from the cops because she could’ve gotten deported, which Kat hadn’t even considered somehow. What this actually does is tell the audience that Kat is ignorant on issues pertaining to women of color, and since Jane and Sutton literally never have race discussions beside one throw-away line about the Civil War from Jane, it feels like race is a topic secluded to only a few WOC characters. The women of color do all the literal and metaphorical emotional labor on this topic on the show, and the white women characters don’t have to deal with it. Which, I guess, is realistic to actual race relations between women, but I would like it to be acknowledged on-screen. For Kat to have to be the person with the brunt of the ignorance on xenophobia and queer issues while her white friends don’t have to deal with it is upsetting, to say the least. Because the show doesn’t address it, to me, it feels like them saying that white women are just so much better and more knowledgeable about these things than women of color, which is just... straight up wrong. I’d like at least one scene of Sutton and Jane not understanding something about race and Kat saying “Just Google it, I’m not gonna do the emotional labor for the both of you,” please, for the love of God.

This isn’t even all of my problems with the show. It revolves way too much around romance and sex for media that seems to say women’s lives don’t have to revolve around romance and sex, for one thing. Both Jane and Sutton’s love interests are white assholes. Sutton’s boyfriend works for the same company as her and as such, is in a position of power over her. At least the show acknowledges that if this were to get out, the high-up board member boyfriend would not be the one in trouble and probably fired. But he’s still touted as this super sweet guy who tries really hard, despite him talking down to Sutton about how young she is and how he “remembers feeling like” there was no time to accomplish things like he’s so much more worldly and intelligent than her. Ew. Dump him, sweetheart.

Jane’s love interest is the. Literal. Worst. His name is like, Tyler or Aaron or something douchey, and he’s my least favorite guy archetype. Tyler-Aaron works for the “rival” men’s magazine about sex and relationships, with stunning article titles like “How To Make Your Girlfriend Fuck Like a Porn Star.” I know. Obviously, White Feminist Jane hates him at first. But I am a smart person, so when I saw them get in a disagreement in which he condescendingly calls her article “cute” and she storms off, I said, “Oh no. They’re gonna fuck, aren’t they.” Because that’s what happens every time a man and a woman dislike each other in popular media. A woman thinks a man is sexist? Yeah, eventually she’s gonna see the error of her ways and they’re gonna have sex.

See, what bothers me about Tyler-Aaron is that they made him a Secret Male Feminist. He tells Jane, “You haven’t read my articles, have you?” after she calls them sexist, and everyone tells her that he’s a pretty good writer and not a bad guy. He told her there’s nothing he finds sexier than a woman speaking her mind, and he wrote one good article about how women feeling like they need to fake orgasms is the fault of men, so he really schooled her, huh? Jane stands there with her mouth agape as Secret Male Feminist struts away smirking, and then within a day or so she’s kissing him. Yawn. Puke. Etc, etc.

This storyline doesn’t work. It doesn’t work because he already was a dick. He already condescended her writing, said she was sexy when she called him out for legitimate reasons, and wrote shitty sexist articles. Him writing one good article or being nice to her now doesn’t change that. And making him teach her something about feminism or prove her ideas wrong is akin to gaslighting. Women are already told every single day that we’re imagining all this discrimination and violence, that sexism is basically over and we need to shut up, that Congress passed X thing or a movie had Y plot so we “won,” and it’s time to move on. We’re told this despite seeing and experiencing this violence on every level, starting with interpersonal and going up to governmental and global. Tyler-Aaron apparently being an okay guy instead of the sexist douche Jane once thought he was (and I still know he is) is basically the show saying, “Hey, crazy feminist, not all men are bad, and some can be feminist, so calm down, okay? Your gut-reaction of a man being sexist and condescending is a fake reaction and you’re just making things up and jumping to conclusions.” It’s gross. And I expect better.

That’s why I dislike the show. It’s clearly trying, at least a tiny little bit, to be feminist and intersectional. It could be a really great, diverse, ground-breaking show. Instead, it is still so limited, racist, and surface-level white feminist-y. Most of what it tries to do, it fails. And, okay, I recognize that it’s important that a show like this, with a large majority of female characters, even exists. But they’re doing a disservice to characters like Kat, a lot of characters are boring and one-dimensional, and they haven’t even mentioned issues like trans or disability rights. It’s just not great writing, folks. Personally, when a show claims to be feminist, I expect it to follow through.

#piper gibson #blog #text #essay #article #media

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crazy-grrrl-on-the-computer · 8 years ago

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@amateurcatalyst asked: it's very interesting how they focus on Goura while En talks about chikuwabu; could he be the chikuwabu of their own group?

My original response to that Ask was here, but then...

@angry-jewish-magical-girl said: you know why i think the camera panned to goura when en mentioned chikuwabu? Because gora was initially supposed to be a background character who didn’t actually contribute anything to the story, and en was talking about how chikuwabu is pointless and had no reason for existing. The show was lowkey saying gora was a pointless character. I mean ok he’s not actually pointless, he’s yumoto’s guardian. but that early in the show’s development, as far as the writers may have known, gora wasn’t actually there to contribute anything to the plot other than be yumoto’s guardian

THIS WAS IT! THIS WAS THE EXTRA PIECE OF INFORMATION I NEEDED TO COMPLETE THE ODEN METAPHOR!!!!

I had completely forgotten about this interview (thank you so much to @intra-fiducia for the translations and @elucida for digging this up for me!!!) where Takamatsu explained Goura's development in season 1, but now that I have this information I can elaborate on a thought I had started to touch on in my oden post about the chikuwabu and what it represents.

So, prepare yourselves for another spam of screenshots below the cut as we voyage into Oden Part 2: Return of the Chikuwabu!

~.~

First, some things I would like to point out from the interview that explain certain relevant moments...

That’s pretty sketchy *laughs*. Then, why is the first monster chikuwabu? Whose idea was that? Takamatsu: To be honest, while we were sitting at a drinking party, we started talking about how you could only find chikuwabu in Tokyo, and how people from other regions didn’t even know it existed, and the impression of that conversation stayed with me…I suppose that was it? Yokote: Right, right. Then we decided ‘let’s use this conversation as is’. But we learnt that a surprising number of people liked chikuwabu, so I was…a little worried about messing with the chikuwabu. Miyawaki: It’s okay! Zaou likes chikuwabu, so we’re covering for the chikuwabu thing *laughs*.

Ryuu's tone and the way he looked at the others with that cheesy smile seemed more comedic like "Well, I like chikuwabu. Anyone else with me? Huh? Huh?" while the others just give him a look like "wtf, Ryuu?"

And now I know why (although I will still stand by my "Ryuu sympathizes with the chikuwabu" theory). It's an in-joke with the staff poking fun at themselves because they realized how much they were ragging on something that was more popular than they had initially thought and Ryuu's just there to be their mouthpiece like "but chikuwabu isn't really so bad, please don't hate. *sweats profusely*" XD

Speaking of Gora, why does he keep chopping wood for a natural hot spring? Takamatsu: The Kurotama Bath is actually an onsen even though it’s a public bath. So we realized halfway that you don’t need firewood if it’s an onsen. Yokote: It was like, ‘ehh, at this point in time?!!’. Miyawaki: It would have been terrible to correct, so we had him continue chopping wood as he had been, and let Kinugawa critique that before the viewers could. Takamatsu: And then in the last episodes, 11 and 12, we redeemed ourselves since it was foreshadowing!

We all remember this scene from S1E6, right?

Oh, staff... Way to have Goura lampshade the fact that you originally had no purpose for him other than to stand outside the Kurotama and chop wood all day. Yes, Yumoto, listen to your An-chan. Do not become a "useless protagonist" who does nothing but stand with the main group and smile and look cute while the plot happens around you... oh...

Ryuu is smiling at En's attempt to give credit where credit is due, but Atsushi is having none of it.

He looks so tired. Being one of the designated "straight men" of the group (strictly in the figurative sense) is draining when he can see through all the fluffy bullshit that is constantly being thrown up in front of them.

If Atsushi is the staff's mouthpiece here, then En is us. “Eh?” Yes, Atsushi, do shed some light on the situation for us, for we have all been blind and it is the one with glasses who alone could see.

*click*

For about 4 seconds, Goura sweats profusely

before shutting his window.

He can’t answer and neither could the staff.

Look what you did, Atsushi, you fucked up a perfectly good background character is what you did. Look at him. He has anxiety.

Yumoto, why so harsh? But is this the staff taking a potshot at themselves, too? XD

Bless you, En.

And since they can’t just leave it on that unhappy note, we get the other bookend at the end of the episode…

Thanks, Atsushi. You really won't let that go, huh? Look, I don’t come into your house and ask you why you obsess over jigsaw puzzles, do I? Let the man run his business.

Ryuu, you’re not helping. And to be honest, there’s zero point in chasing skirt as much as you do, so what are you trying to say? *raises an eyebrow*

Io, you have no right to talk.

Meanwhile, En is so disappointed in them. LET THE MAN LIVE!

Moral of the story: We accidentally gave a "useless" character an even more useless job, literally defeating his entire purpose for being there, so the only way we could fix it without making ourselves look sloppy and destroying the overall moral of this show that everyone's important was to turn it into his hobby and call it foreshadowing. *thumbs up*

I wish I sparkled like that when I sweat. Wow.

You’ve done good, Goura. Follow your dreams. You deserve them.

Did the previous battle lover, Gora, have any companions? Takamatsu: Umm, I haven’t thought about it at all *laughs*. At first, Gora was really only there for chopping wood, but in deciding the brotherly showdown episode he became a pretty central to things. If not for the developments of the final episode, I think he would have just kept on chopping wood until the end.

I wouldn't know when development for the season 1 finale would have taken place, but I think it's fairly safe to say that, even at this point in ep6, Goura was still just a background character. A staple of the Kurotama and nothing more. Until whatever point it was when they decided to turn him into a monster and play up the brother dynamics to sucker punch our hearts even more. In the interview, they mentioned that the development of the brotherly love message in ep10 was where they started to set us up for the pain because they wanted the brothers to battle.

So, that brings this whole thing back around to the chikuwabu...

Basically, the joke I got out of this when I thought about it made me laugh.

At this point in time, Goura looks like he might have an important role because the camera pans to him. He’s there. We see him. But he’s only ever chopping wood. He doesn’t do anything else. Goodness knows we all remember going through each episode during season 1 and wondering what his story was and coming up with theories about why he was even shown in the episodes and interacting with the other characters as if he was so significant if his peculiar presence wasn’t going to be explained eventually.

That’s it. That’s the joke. En is saying, “He just looks like he integrates into the plot, but he really doesn’t. You can stare at him and study him for hours and hours, but you won’t find anything of real substance. He’s good at blending in without actually doing anything. What you see with him is exactly what you get. He just chops wood.”

And then En goes on to say that he doesn’t know if he hates chikuwabu, he just feels like he’s looking at an unknown lifeform, and it’s funny when you think about how everyone just accepts Goura as the staple of the Kurotama because that’s all he is to them and then they still can’t figure him out when they really have to think about it. (Well, aside from Yumoto, of course. Goura means a lot more to him than to the others.)

But despite the fact that Goura is also chikuwabu, I still wouldn’t go so far as to call him a “pointless” character. Because even before he was given a more significant role in the main plot of the season and before there was any “foreshadowing” (I see what you did there, staff), he still had a purpose. Calling him “pointless” would defeat the point of the metaphor, you see.

In fact, all of the background characters, the loveless, and even the Press Society are the chikuwabu. They are only there as a throwaway character or to serve a single mundane purpose, whether they appear as a significant role in the narrative of an episode or not. But they are all still equally important because the show needs them to fill those roles in order to tell the story. Without them, the story could not have progressed the way it did if the only “important” ones were the main characters.

The background characters who have no lines or only a few lines here and there, whether that dialogue is filler or not, just to take up space on screen or prove a point a character is making…

The loveless, who are only used as pawns in each episode to serve as an object lesson in morality and receive life advice…

The Press Society, who shows up a few times to be a nuisance to the main characters and serves as a third-party antagonist so the Caerula Adamas could be redeemed…

The aliens and, heck, even Tawarayama-sensei, who is only used as vehicle of transportation for Wombat and isn’t even given the decency of respect… because he’s dead, remember, he’s dead and his life is but a mere joke to amuse us and the aliens have a penchant for puppeteering more than just human life and deriving enjoyment out of watching it happen…

And Goura, who faithfully stood outside the Kurotama chopping wood and was only much later on given the title of magical boy.

They are the chikuwabu of season 1. And even the chikuwabu, who we might not initially think of as anything important or significant, is a key ingredient necessary for making our beloved story what it is. They support the story while playing their own parts.

They are all oden, guys. Everyone and everything is oden. This show and even us, we are all oden. Oden is love, oden is life, oden is never over.

#boueibu #binan koukou chikyuu bouei-bu love!#cute high earth defense club love!#boueibu love rambles #random thought #there you go #there’s your chikuwabu #and now I can officially lay this metaphor to rest #I think XD #unless there are anymore surprises; forgotten snippets of information; or unresolved questions #I don't think there should be but I clearly missed this the last time and that's why there's a part 2 so~ ;P #I got a bit carried away at the end with the whole oden thing though oops sorry ^^’#by the way I really appreciate the gentle pats on the head and enthusiastic responses from everyone last time #I never expect anyone to take me seriously #so that meant a lot to know so many people liked and appreciated something that took me a year to do #and I'm still not over the fact that people are STILL thinking/talking about it oh my god I feel honored #a side note on my ‘moral of the story’ comment about Goura’s development:#the writing process has never been more alive. I feel it in my bones. ;;v;;

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