#the show is predicated on the tension of their relationship

[literaphobe]

just so people understand whenever i say i want adrienette exes i DONT mean that they’re going to be “exes” in any normal functional sense. i DONT mean they should have some big nasty argument about how their relationship sucks and they’re better off with other people and then they make awkward glances from across the room every three episodes. if anything they get even MORE clingy and make up even MORE reasons to spend time with the other and are tossed into ridiculous situations where they HAVE to do suchhhhhh intimate things under the guise that they’re handling it all SO well and that they’re the most functional coolest exes ever. bet they won’t even call each other exes. they’ll insist that it’s a return to their very strong super stable not at all questionable almost best friendship. also the breakup would probably be based on one (bonus points if both) of them thinking they HAVE to break up with the other to protect them. and yes i definitely want a moment where the tension snaps and they both start making out but then break apart and feel so horrified for what they’ve just done because this goes against everything they promised themselves to do to protect the other etc etc

[cator99]

out of curiosity, would you consider yourself butch?

used to be a blonde underweight twink and now I'm a based jock still got the chanel bag and the sick albeit matured mind of a suckpig to prove it so I'm gonna let you decide whether you wanna call me that word just cuz I got a pussy and short hair. I promise you that there have been enough advancements made in the art of lesbian sexual dynamics in the past 50 years to broaden the vocabulary used to describe the plethora of types of masculine females.

[erisenyo]

Since we’re talking max angst and interesting directions… perhaps something with Azula and Ozai? Not necessarily in a pairing way, though do what you will. Something to do with all the carefully-hidden fear and complete loyalty Azula has for him. If you’d like a prompt, everyone I’ve ever cared about has either died or left me, except for you.

For this prompt game! (And also this one!)

Warning for reference to canon child abuse ahead

“Father!” Azula snaps around, shocked outraged rising so unexpectedly through her control that it’s almost—almost, she’s not sloppy, not like Zuzu—enough to seep into the braziers burning around them. “What is the meaning of this!"

“I’ve decided to lead the fleet of airships to Ba Sing Se alone,” Father repeats, not even—not even looking at her as he says it, staring instead at those banners, at that--that phoenix.

“I thought we were going to do this together,” she grits out, clenching her abs and forcing herself to exhale slow and ignoring the way her fire wants to spark, wants to boil up out of her. She did everything right, everything he asked her to do and more!

She gave him Ba Sing Se, gave him Zuzu and her useless Uncle, gave him the Avatar dead and out of the way and so what if he came back, Azula did it and everyone knew, she did everything she was supposed to and now—

“My decision is final,” Father says, smiling up at the airship festooned with his new symbol, and Azula will perform fifty katas to perfection before dinner because the words unexpectedly burst out of her without her permission:

“You—you can’t treat me like this!” she snaps, nails digging into her palms. “You can’t—"

“Everyone I’ve ever cared about has either died or left me except for you, Azula,” Father interrupts, tone abstract and eyes nearly glittering with intensity as his gaze finally drifts to her, and Azula ruthlessly swallows the rest of it back.

“My brother,” he finally continues into the crystalline silence, pausing as if to see whether she will attempt another interruption—as if she’d be so foolish as to point out that the useless lump of a man left, and three times at that, and that just what Azula knows of it.

“My father.” Dead, and for the best.

“Your mother.” Dead, or she’d better be.

“Your brother.” A dead man walking, and Azula doesn’t permit herself to blink at his inclusion.

“All of them, every one of them, has left me,” Father murmurs, shaking his head as if in sadness, and Azula holds her shoulders back and loose and understands without allowing herself to think about it all the ways that left and died are the same.

“Except, of course,” he adds, almost as an afterthought, head cocked and his eyes hooded and intent on her face, “For you.”

Azula breathes in a steady, even breath, her inner flame perfectly still as she bows, perfectly correct. “Father—”  

“You would never do that to me, Azula,” he interrupts, words soft and still cutting through the noise of the courtyard as she carefully doesn’t think of the everything he asked her to do and the more she gave him. “Would you?”

“Father—”

“You're so like your mother these days, you know,” Ozai interrupts, Azula holding herself perfectly at ease as he reaches out to brush a lock of her hair back into place, his right hand lingering over her cheek, his thumb tracing the ridge of her brow, fingers resting along her temple, her hair, firebender hot just like her own skin. “Do you remember her?”

They have spoken of her, occasionally, why would—

“No, Father,” Azula says, quickly adding on, “And I would never leave you, Father. Never,” she says, firm, confident, resolute with just that edge of brashness the way he likes it and never thinking of the new scar in the stone behind the throne in the catacombs, a scar from lightning she knows Zuzu can’t generate, he’s too stupid for it. But for all his uselessness Iroh on that ship had been able to—

Father suddenly smiles, slow, his fingers pressing over her hair, cradling the side of her head. “I know you wouldn’t, Azula,” he murmurs, and she keeps her eyes open as his palm drifts from the bridge of her nose to her temple, feeling the calm, calm, calm steadiness of her inner flame. “I know.”  

[indelen]

This is my reread of the Lockwood and Co. Books, organized by @blue-boxes-magic-and-tea, I'll make a general summary of several chapters and then post bits and pieces that jumped out at me.

Part I, Chapters 3-4:

Things go predictably bad. And I say predicably because there's these details all through the first chapters about how things went wrong before so you're kind of see it coming when things go wrong again. My favorite detail is that Lockwood once got locked in an bathroom while on a case? (By a ghost he maintained!). But this all builds tension and sympathy for the main characters. Through it all you don't think "oh these idiots!" you think "damn, these are just kids!" of course they mess up, get themselves in trouble, pull reckless stunts, forget stuff, push the blame around, talk shit about each other and so on. Their prefrontal cortex hasn't developed! They act on impulse because literally the bit of their brain that plans ahead hasn't finished cooking! They react differently to stress and fear. And I think the books telegraph this well. Lucy knows logically she should not use Greek Fire indoors and yet when shit hits the fan she uses Greek Fire indoors. And who is really to blame here for the resulting outcome? The kid or the system that entrusted the kid with a thermite bomb in the first place?

Bits and bobs:

Girl, you're 14, you shouldn't be trusted with a soft serve machine at DQ!

And that's the saddest part of all. The kids don't have a chance to look into solving The Problem themselves because they're in survival mode. And the adults are too busy profiting from putting their lives on the line to care.

I like how the closer the ghost gets the more terrifying it becomes. At first you think the fact that she has no face is the worst but, but then all these creepy details start coming into focus...

I'm sorry but all I kept thinking when I read this was:

Lockwood is such a slave to fashion it nearly actually gets him killed. Meanwhile Lucy probably cuts her hair over the sink with kitchen scissors so as to avoid getting ectoplasm on it. Truly they were always meant to fall for each other for our entertainment. A modern day Sophie and Howl.

I find Lucy's relationship with the ghost of Annie very interesting. In the show they made her resemble Norrie which is an understandable move to visually tie her to the main character's past and motivations. But in the book it's different. Lucy goes out of her way to point out this girl is nothing like her and in fact if they had met in real life they would probably not like each other very much (Lucy's very complicated relationship to Other Girls and how she perceives and carries herself around them is an essay for another day). But despite this Lucy feels an enormous amount of compassion for the victim and this effectively jump starts the story. I feel like this is very important, especially in a book for younger audiences. There is no such thing as a perfect victim, but your compassion and your sense of justice must extend to even, or perhaps especially, those whom you might not especially like.

Lucy describes Lockwood's smile count: 3

[katzkinder]

Misdirection

Doing some rereading to get back into the swing of things, and the chapter I happened to start with immediately gave me some very interesting, juicy pieces

From Volume 8, chapter 38, "The Method Called Me"

This sequence of panels caught my attention immediately because initially my first reaction was to go "Lily you FUCKING liar" (understandable lel)

But then Mahiru's portion happened on the next page and I realized that Lily never actually said what question Tsubaki asked him. Mahiru merely assumes he knows what it was, and through him, we readers are ALSO certain that the question Lily was asked was, of course, the same one posed to him and Kuro.

And then immediately after this, while Misono is wracking his brain about how it should have been impossible for Tsubaki to make the journey from between the Alicein grounds and the hotel in such a short period of time, Tetsu interrupts his thoughts to ask Tsubaki "Do you know what happened to Hugh?"

And, well

Tsubaki misleads him. Never does he actually SAY that that is Hugh, as other characters later realize when the trick is revealed. A trick which is very similar, in practice, to the one Belkia used to get Hugh away from them in the first place. I'm going to place the whole next page, both because I find the effects given to the page, what with its smoke and obscuring scribbles (the attention here is flawless btw. Reading back over this scene it's riddled with such clear visual clues that the whole conversation is cluttered and obscured with tricks befitting Tsubaki's animal form, a kitsune, and that we the readers should have been more wary)

The other reason I'm sharing the whole page is because L M A O Strike is the funniest person on earth y'all, they must have been giggling and heehee'ing SO MUCH when putting this scene together. I would not have the patience to hold off on revealing the joke for as long as they did god bless. The joke, of course, being that Hugh and Tetsu's relationship is one built entirely on lies.

The way Tsubaki directs the conversation is also pretty masterful, as every doubt Misono raises is quickly dealt with, reassuring the readers that every seeming mystery we're being presented with has an adequate explanation at hand. Tsubaki himself being an illusion as well is just icing on the cake.

My god though, this panel of the fox obscuring Misono's vision is just mEAN knowing what we do now.

Anyway, back to what I said before, about how Tsubaki uses words in a similar way to how a magician misleads an audience to perform a vanishing act. If you've ever seen someone perform sleight of hand or seen a stage show, you'll know immediately what I'm talking about. Magicians make use of misdirection and lies of omission, of making you focus elsewhere or not telling you the whole truth, in order to perform their tricks. When an audience is hyped up with excitement and eager to watch the magician perform, they will easily follow commands, hoping to catch the moment of the "trick," or else follow along with how the magician is moving without meaning to. In a similar fashion, Tsubaki leads the conversation, not allowing the other characters to think too deeply about things in a situation that is already extremely high tension, given that he has hold of Lawless's Item.

Which brings me to the final page, and something that if not an outright lie, potentially paints a sobering picture of how Tsubaki's views himself

If the only "person" who can create a Servamp is Germaine, and Tsubaki intends to revive him, then either Germaine will not be brought back as a Servamp, or...

Tsubaki doesn't see himself as a "person".

This view of his seems to be further reinforced with how he speaks in volume 15, chapter 87, "If you are going to leave me behind"

When he speaks of Servamps and their distance limit, he predicates his words with "To the instruments in this world, to the systems" and speaks of how he believes the distance limit is a prayer to never be apart again. Earlier in the chapter, he also claims that he believes his purpose for existing, the reason he was created, is to make Kuro "complete."

He wasn't born for himself, but for the sake of another.

Doesn't that just... Sound too sad?

[transmutationisms]

Repeat anon from before talking about bodily superiority and piss <3 I can't believe you picked up SO spot on. I've been reading Kropotkin's Mutual Aid for a couple years, revisited it the other day, and I owe that exact read of Succession to the dude. What you said about the show presenting a sharp analysis of the characters' ethical motivations tracks with me too. I did get ahead of myself tho, 100%. I get your point now, Succession really has refrained from telling a clear cohesive politic to imagine different worlds, like anarchism or communism. Came to my next conclusion more after chewing on your reply: its core philosophy runs incompatible to liberation. This has been stuck in my head since I heard it, Jesse Armstrong in Controlling the Narrative for the S3 finale goes, "People's essential selves don't change. In a way that's what makes drama and choices interesting." I do witness that bleed throughout the show. I love that the writers put capitalism and fascism under a microscope through the characters' intimate, erotic relationships with each other. But the thing is, they tell us stories over and over of their failures to change. Like, if Succession's a tragedy about characters stuck in unbreakable cycles of failure, then is it also a tragedy that considers capitalism and possibly all forms of domination unbreakable cycles, too? If so, not a cute vibe! Genuine Q that lingers since day 1, that I don't think the show answers... yet. Unless Waystar crashes at the end with no reiteration in sight, I wouldn't be surprised if the show sticks that landing more firm for the big finale. At best I could read a core story of Succession being that the characters' circumstances (nuclear family, corporation, capitalism) keep setting them up for tragedy precisely because of their more basic senses of cooperation, and the show's input ends there. And I'd love that, honestly. But I have a feeling the show will bring us to a more hopeless place, I only don't know where yet.

ok i knew it.... yeah kropotkin had such a major influence on basically all left-leaning understandings of evolutionary theory. i mean prior to him the options were basically bourgeois darwinian malthusianism or some strain of lamarckism, which latter was 1) increasingly hereditarian anyway, 2) not emphatically structured around 'natural selection', and 3) fundamentally drawing from sensationalist psychology, which meant moral sense tended to be presented as a result of habituation rather than as a rational social interest. so you can see why kropotkin was such a game-changer for anyone invested in defending any version of evolution-by-natural-selection as a non-teleological, non-theistic, materialist view of nature---but without the addition of british capitalism lol.

anyway, to answer your actual question: yeah, this is a huge tension in the show imo, and it follows from it being a huge tension in marx. in interviews jesse has quoted the marx line right out of '18th brumaire' about circumstances constraining men, and talked about how he doesn't think people fundamentally change. there are obvious reasons why, in that particular text, marx was especially pessimistic about the possibility for people to defy their circumstances lol---1849 was his case study in history 'repeating itself' because of (what he saw as) essentially the same class tensions as in 1799 rearing their heads again. but at the same time, marx's entire political project was predicated on the notion that true revolution is not just possible but expected, as an outcome of the historical development of the productive forces in conjunction with increasing labour estrangement and alienation.

frankly i don't think the show will end with waystar destructing or anyone meaningfully changing their social, political, or economic positions. and this would be fine, IF the read is, like you said, that the continued imposition of structures of capitalist production constrains the characters to acting in this selfish, dominance-seeking, antisocial way. like, i'm fine with the notion that the entire show is a tragedy and always has been, and that the characters are incapable of change as long as their circumstances remain the same. but i agree with you that there's a risk of implying (or outright stating, lol) that people are simply and intrinsically incapable of meaningful change for reasons predating capitalism and grounded in some kind of bio-psychological discourse. i would hate this ending and this moral lol and i have been hoping for 3 and a half seasons now that the writers' room is too smart to take us there. we really will have to see how these last few episodes play out.

i'd add that i think this sense of hopelessness and helplessness can add to the show's psychological writing, for example in the cynicism and nihilism of roman. roman essentially sees capitalism as an alien force he can't control or counter in any meaningful way, so why bother? which is certainly true to how many people (even literal billionaires) feel in the face of such a complex and entangled system. and it's not like i expect the show to end with some kind of raising of revolutionary consciousness, but i also don't want it to end with a total denial of the possibility of human cooperation and mutual aid as governing behavioural principles in different circumstances. i don't believe that as a species we're doomed to the way logan roy capitalism encourages us to act, and it'll really annoy me if that's where the show lands after all this time lol.

that said, i do think no one on this show is escaping their circumstances in any material way. i don't think any of them actually want out (certainly not the kids, tom, greg, or the old guard) and i do believe that the broad outlines of the ending have been pretty clear since day one. whether or not they keep waystar they will continue to operate in logan's world because his empire was always just one articulation of this broader capitalist discourse on domination and 'survival of the fittest'. even if a character on this show tried to cash out and dip they'd still be caught in this global financial web, and none of them are inclined to do that anyway because [class interests and family business]. which is i guess to say that i don't think we will see any of these characters change on a deeper level, but i think it's possible for the show to end that way and still frame it in a way that allows for alternate readings of human behaviour and sociability IF placed in different material circumstances. we'll see whether jesse and the writers have the subtlety to stick that landing, though. ultimately yes, the show is a character study and not a political polemic, but i will be really very irritated if it turns out to be a character study premised on a fundamentally reactionary, essentialist understanding of 'human nature' and social behaviour lol.

[inkbutterflyuniverse]

Sooooooo, I finished episode 4.

I... What... Who... How...

Just WHAT IS HAPPENING?!

It's episode 4 and it's already such a mess?

Spoilers below.

About Maddox and Ashlyn almost kissing: I glad they didn't. The song was very cute and I felt the alchemy, but it wouldn't be right. Ashlyn isn't talking to Big Red anymore, but it doesn't mean they broke up. Plus, he deserves to hear from her that she's bi and she likes Maddox. Even if he knows because he saw the documentary and saw the tension.

For Carlos and Seb situation. I was saying, less than an hour ago, that I didn't understand why Seb was so mad because it isn't him. Now I understand. But I don't like this situation at all. Seb CHEATED?! WOW, I didn't see that coming. I like that at least he told Carlos, because I had a situation where a friend cheated on her boyfriend, she told us because she felt guilty, one of the girl's boyfriend was the best friend of the guy who'd been cheated on, she let it slide to her bf who obviously talked his friend.

All this to say that I don't like when you learn it from someone else. You deserve to hear that you've been cheated on by the person who did it. And that's great that Seb did that.

But what's not great is what he said after. "If you had cheated on me it would be fine because we would have been equal". Like no?! It's worst. If the two part cheated then maybe it's a sign that you shouldn't try again? It's not a situation where you can erase it by cheating too.

Jared showing was so funny, I died of laughter. I don't know the guy, I don't really remember him, but I'm curious to see what could happen.

Miss Jen/Michael Bowen/Benjamin Mazara situation is coming to an end. I like that they actually talked like adults. Miss Jen and Michael were nice, but I wasn't very excited for them. As Ricky's dad said, he's still not over the divorce and it's normal. Miss Jen was a nice person to hang out with, but he isn't ready to take it to a step over casually dating. They discussed as real adults of their views on the relationship and decided to call it quit in the respect of the other. It's not something we see a lot on TV shows where everything is over dramatized.

I'm glad that Mr Mazara is still here, he was a great help to EJ when he was figuring out his future. Now he will help the other kids and him and Miss Jen will maybe have a chance!

Now, let's talk about the biggest mess. Mack/Gina/Ricky/Dani.

In what workd would Gina be happy about not being in the musical anymore when she literally said to Ricky that it was important to her and she wanted to do it?

I understand why Miss Jen called Dani, even though at the beginning I thought of Olivia (not Rodrigo, the other Olivia, the blonde. I don't remember her name), when Miss Jen said that maybe she needed a mentor I was like "it could be her", but then she talked about the hotel and obviously it was Dani. I would have appreciate seeing Lily (is that her name? It came to my mind like that), because honestly it would have been very funny. Ricky's ex-girlfriend that everyone hates coming back to be the lead in the musical. Very dramatic.

Anyway, it was sure it was going to be Dani, but I didn't think properly. I'm not a fan of the actress, I didn't really liked her voice in the Descendants party they've done for the third one, and her show about aliens wasn't for me. But from what we heard in the first episode, I think she definitely progressed, she was very great.

So the drama isn't really working for me... It was very predicable that Ricky and Gina would have problems due to the two new people. Of course Mack wants a fake relationship to promote the film. (Even though I'm not sure about his examples, especially the Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, weren't they really dating at the time? And didn't she cheated on the Snow White set, or something like that? Anyway, not important).

I understand Mack, he's a child star, that's all he knows, and faking a relationship isn't a bad idea because people have a tendency to ship co-stars when their chemistry is good.

I also understand Dani, she was expelled from the movie and now it's her chance to do something. She's also a star so of course she would be dramatic about Ricky not telling.

Now about Gina and Ricky. WHY IS RICKY RUNNING AGAIN?! He constantly says that he changed, but it's the same. Gina didn't told her mom and he's angry and wants a pause? Like wtf dude, I'm sure you know Gina's situation with her mom? And even if he doesn't, he said before that Gina's mom wouldn't be happy with him being here (so not about sneaking but being here), so he knows that she doesn't really like Gina having her boyfriend at home which was exactly where he was, even if there was people.

Gina didn't told her mom for a reason, and even if she wanted to talk about Ricky, isn't really the middle of a party the right time? "Oh yeah Mom, do you remember when you said that I shouldn't have a boyfriend to concentrate on my studies? Funny because ahahaha surprise, it's Ricky and he's my boyfriend." I could easily turn into an argument and it's not something you want to happen at your party.

So just why is Ricky running and not letting her a chance to explain to him? I get that he's jealous of Mack, but the running situation is annoying. If you run for something so little, I can't imagine what it will be next time something bigger happen?

[ausetkmt]

On the eve of Black History Month this year, a community group based in Detroit went viral after sharing clips on social media of its members, many dressed in all-black and armed with long rifles, assisting women around the city by pumping gas into their vehicles and loading groceries into their cars.

The group’s open display of guns — broadly legal in Michigan — was greeted by many people not for being threatening but for protecting Black women in dangerous neighborhoods at night.

The group, New Era Detroit, has been carrying out this kind of public safety work in the city’s most crime-ridden streets for almost a decade.

“We do this out of love,” Nilajah Alonzo, one of the leaders of New Era Detroit, told Yahoo News.

The group’s Instagram page includes videos of members escorting child care workers home late at night from a daycare only a block from where a murder had recently taken place. Another social media post shows members hosting a workshop with children on conflict resolution.

“We're not trying to be crime heroes or anything like that,” Alonzo said. “We're just trying to educate and uplift our community.”

Launched in August 2014, New Era Detroit was founded by Zeek Williams as a call to action for Black men in the city to step up and be more present to combat rampant crime and violence in poverty-stricken areas around the city. The appeal went out as muggings of women in and around grocery stores and gas stations were becoming more prevalent.

The group calls itself a “mudroots” organization because of its approach.

“We say ‘mudroot,’ because we get under the grass, we get into the mud, we get into the community, we get into the streets, we get into the 'hoods, to connect with people and engage with them,” Alonzo said. “So they know that there are people out there that care.”

In the last decade, Detroit has consistently ranked as one of the most dangerous big cities in the U.S. In 2022, while preliminary police data showed an 11% reduction in violent crime over the previous year, carjackings increased by 21%, and other property crimes, including burglaries, saw a significant spike. In addressing these issues, the goal of New Era Detroit, according to Williams, has been predicated on the idea that with structure, Black people can protect and serve their own neighborhoods and streets.

“We want to be in a position to where, if things pop off or something happens in our community, it doesn’t always have to involve police,” Williams told MSNBC earlier this month, adding that the organization's members carry guns not to incite violence, but to protect innocent people. “We believe that able-bodied men can step up to the plate and do more to police their community.”

The group has managed to maintain a working relationship with the city’s police force.

“We have a good relationship with New Era Detroit,” Detroit Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Jordan Hall told Yahoo News. “We even have an understanding where they give us a call [ahead of events], so nothing should be alarming for officers when they see anyone with a rifle.”

Detroit’s challenges are complex and rooted in its Rust Belt history. Once the global center of the automotive industry, Detroit was the fourth-largest city in the U.S. in the 1920s. Its population ballooned to nearly 2 million residents at its peak in 1950. But automation curbed the blue-collar employment boom. Racial tensions grew, and deadly riots rocked the city in 1967, as tens of thousands of white residents left for the suburbs. Detroit struggled financially, and in 2013, it became the largest U.S. city to file for bankruptcy. Today, it has the highest rate of concentrated poverty of the 25 largest metropolitan areas in the United States.

In the past seven decades, the steady decline in the city’s population, of which Black people make up 77%, has left the city with just a third of its peak total.

In a show of progress, the city has been working to turn itself around, with the emergence of new restaurants and bars, a growing art scene and a revitalized downtown area. But a study from Michigan State University revealed that much of the progress has been limited to a 7-square-mile radius, in a city of 139 square miles.

That leaves a wide swath of the city where residents feel they’ve been left behind.

“We are looking at a system that really isn’t broke. It just hasn’t had us in mind — or protecting us in mind,” Williams told NBC. “Why don’t we do more to police our own communities?”

Many people liken Williams’s New Era Detroit to the original Black Panther Party, which grew out of the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, Calif., in 1966, its intent was for Black residents to act as vigilantes in their own communities. As they evolved, the Panthers began to arm themselves, in a show of force, often dressed in a uniform of blue shirts, black pants, black leather jackets and black berets. However, unlike the Detroit organization, which seeks primarily to address issues like crime in its own community, the Black Panthers sought to protect Black residents from instances of police brutality.

“The Panthers were really focused on potential police violence toward people in the community,” the journalist Mark Whitaker, author of “Saying It Loud: 1966 — The Year Black Power Challenged the Civil Rights Movement,” told Yahoo News. “New Era are just as concerned about the danger that ordinary, law-abiding citizens in the inner city face from other Black folks who might do them harm. … So for young people to help protect other people in the community, I think it's wonderful to see.”

Other cities with similar challenges have taken notice. The original Detroit group, under the umbrella New Era Nation, has formed more than a dozen chapters, in cities including Dallas, Atlanta, Cleveland and Baltimore. The movement of self-sufficiency, according to Alonzo, has also attracted interest abroad, in Jamaica, the U.K. and Nigeria.

“We are all leaders, and the opportunity is given to everyone to lead,” she said. “We have chapters in every city, so it’s not going to die with one person. We set up a structure that someone is in charge, no matter what. We appreciate that we are compared to other groups, but if we perpetuate that we are all leaders, it cannot die.”

Whitaker cautions against scaling up too fast, too soon.

“The lesson of the Black Power period is to stay local,” he said. “That’s where you can do the most good, and that’s where people most need you, and people aren’t being adequately served by police or local government.”

[tumblingxelian]

Hi @sruthi9018, I hope you don't mind me sharing these amazing tags!

#RWBY #yeah this is great it outlines a lot of why I don't really like Taiyang too #I was good with him until his messed up ''joke'' to Yang in V4 #nowhere else has that sort of ''humour'' been used and Port and Oobleck were rightfully horrified at hearing that #like.. it might be just how it is between Yang and Tai but idk maybe dont use that really traumatic incident to joke #about how your daughter lost braincells. . #like we have seen how that incident traumatized her in relation to Blake and Adam and she was already questioning her sanity so like.. #I would imagine that it only contributes to Yang not valuing herself and her own thoughts and smarts and decision making skills #because she can't trust her own brain and memories and just herself in general since she's the ''reckless and thoughtless brawler'' #nevermind that she's one of the smartest characters in the show both technically and emotionally #sorry I just have a lot of feelings on this

Cos yes, I too was deeply unimpressed by his humor. I always felt the need to note that if that is "Just the way it is between them" then its clearly a one way street given Yang doesn't fire back about his inability to keep a wife or something equally hurtful.

There is also the fact she only shifted into laughing about it after Oobleck dropped his cup, as if reminding her, "Oh shit, people, break the tension!"

As it is, we have seen that kind of "Humor" used by one person in one relationship to moderately good effect. It was Qrow talking to Yang in volume 3.

I didn't like it at the time but its since been highlighted that despite his sharp tongued delivery Yang was actually quite comfortable confiding her concerns about her mental state with him & was not seemingly shocked or upset by his phrasing the way she was with Tai.

This indicates a level of familiarity and trust, one further emphasized by Yang being a lot more freewheeling with the snarky disrespect with him earlier in the volume. Which sets up as this actually being their dynamic as opposed to a one way street where Tai can just shout insults when Yang disagrees with him & she laughs before giving him what he wants.

Also in regards to other feedback we have, @gimme-tea-bitch with:

Yup yup yup! many reasons here why i kinda hate tai i mean i get his issues and hes a complicated character but the way he treats Yang is so biased and bullshit and he's a shitty father but it all makes me love Yang even more Yang is so far ahead of Tai even at what is her lowest point he's trying to “teach” her stuff she long ago figured out and it's coincidently a perfect example of their relationship because tai wasnt there not for yang i forget who made this post that i think explains it perfectly Tai's advice is predicated on who he thinks yang is. Because he wasnt there to actually see yang grow if he had been there for her he wouldve known how not just physically strong she is but the sheer emotional resilience she has The intelligence she has always had and honed maybe shes not a tactician like ruby but it shows in the vytal festival how she as a freshman is out playing and defeating people older than her left and right. Even someone like mercury who is shown to be a real threat yes he was probably holding back somewhat to not blow his cover but she still bodies him yang even then is a frankly incredible fighter way above her peers

Gonna zero in on the italicized stuff because, yes, so much this.

Yang has highlighted before now that Tai was not necessarily the most checked in parent. People like to claim that after the Beowolf incident he miraculously got better but we never actually got confirmation of that. Especially as it was Qrow who saved them.

So while we know he wasn't 100% gone, we don't know how much he did, especially that was like, serious, hard yards parenting and not easy fun stuff like buying a treat or sending a dog in the mail.

This is especially important because volume 5 has Yang outright state how much of the burden of keeping the family together fell on her shoulders & how much this damaged her. So its clear his was an ongoing and rather drawn out problem, not just a case of a few weeks.

Which ties into him not really knowing Yang as well as he thinks he does. Further supported y Ruby's line from volume 9, regarding who raised her, IE, Yang.

The show has no reason to do stuff like this then turn around in V10 & say "Actually he was the bestest dad to ever dad, roast them kids with your scathing 'critique' Tai!"

Like, it would literally be the show ignoring its own foreshadowing to call Yang & Ruby liars for no reason, while ignoring its recurring themes.

It feels especially pertinant to also note that Qrow's drinking was handled much the same.

IE, he's introduced with this not great, very rough habit, but hey its fun, people are making jokes, he's making jokes, his nieces love him, its great...

Then V5 comes in with Ruby clearly being used to & unhappy with a drunk off his ass Qrow being carted home by a stranger. Followed up with V6 making it clear the "Functional" part of "Functional alcoholic" is not a real thing. That both Yang & Ruby are clearly used to & impacted by this & it explicitly putting the cast in danger & being something Qrow needs to overcome.

Like, this is not a new thematic trend for the writers, ya know?

As to Mercury, I actually don't think he was holding back.

The thing with their plan is it works just as well if Yang loses and he goes up t shake her hand then she shoots him. & while skilled, Mercury's never been presented as threatening in a one on one fight as even Adam was.

Especially given CRWBY don't really go for "Hurting someone makes them stronger, traumatic training is best training, be edgy to be strong."

If anything, stuff like that usually undermines a characters strength. Hence Yang demonstrating to Blake how much she needed rest, rather than to obsessively pursue her goals. Or how Ren suppressing all of his issues, or Jaune falling back on bigger swords & anger serve to weaken them over helping them.

At the end of the day, Mercury may have been told his father training was to make him stronger. But really it was just an abusive means of control.

At least that's my take.

A Necessary Post - Yang, Taiyang & Seeing Red

I debated this being a message or a note or a reblog, but ultimately this warranted an essay. Because a hatred of nuance is not even remotely the reason why Tai is critiqued as a teacher or father.

With that fact in mind, let's begin:

During RWBY Volume 4, Episode 9: Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back Taiyang has a great deal of critical feedback for Yang regarding her fighting style, personality & Semblance.

The issue is that Tai's words and advice when compared to what we saw on screen before & afterwards demonstrate he does not understand how it works or how she used it.

So here for your reading pleasure if a more or less line by line breakdown of Tai's advice and why I don't feel it holds up & more to the point, why I don't believe Yang utilized it.

Taiyang: Do you realize that you used your Semblance to win every fight after the qualifiers?

Yang rightfully points out that her using Burn is no different than anyone else using their Semblances. I would add that Yang's Semblance only serves to enhance her already present abilities with damage taken in a fight. So her not using it would be stupidly holding back extra energy for no reason.

Tai's critique also fails to register that when using her Semblance to take out FNKI, Yang specifically disrupted the ground so Neon could not skate effectively & used the boost in power to turn Flynt's own weapon against him.

I will be addressing Mercury further down but she used it effectively and intellectually here and to great effect.

What's more, every other fights fighting style, weapons or both were literally built around their Semblances. Yang's threat level remains fairly consistent without her Semblance, all three of these other characters take a huge dip.

Taiyang: Because not everyone else's is basically a temper tantrum.

Ignoring that calling the manifestation of Yang's soul a temper tantrum is another in a long line if dickish things Tai says to Yang. Her Semblance literally does not work that way.

Her anger has jack and shit to do with it, this has been explained & demonstrated time and time again. Yang only gets a power boost when she's been injured, the fact she tends to be angry when using it is because being hurt sucks and she's usually in an intense fight. When the fight is going well and she still gets to use it she's not angry, as seen with a pleased smirk here:

So as before, Tai's critique is bereft of any merit, Yang's Semblance does not work that way.

Taiyang: I'm serious! Once you take damage, you can dish it back twice as hard, but that doesn't make you invincible!

Cite a time Yang thought she was invincible, cite it provably that Yang thought, said or indicated that she felt she was invincible. You can't because Yang never indicated as such this is something Tai is assuming about her at best.

& no her jumping in the Nevermore's mouth is not an example because she was not using her Semblance, did not take damage, it was a very effective strategy & seemingly either part of the plan, or was so easily understood that it could be safely and reliably worked into the plan. She wasn't using her Semblance here but finding evidence of risky behavior was hard, especially with her Semblance, go figure.

In fact every time Yang used her Semblance she did so only because someone landed a blow, which just happens in fights sometimes.

Taiyang: It's great when you're in a bind, but what happens if you miss? What happens if they're stronger? What then? Now you're just weak and tired!

We know what happens when Yang misses, she can swing again!

After the first blow on the Paladin she missed & needed help to catch it, her missing had zero impact on her Semblances.

As to what happens if they are stronger, um, she loses, that sometimes happens in fights. Its not something Yang can do anything about by holding back on extra strength. Not to quote Qrow but sometimes bad things happen. Other characters losing to stronger opponents don't get given this kind of diatribe's because its pointedly obvious that there was nothing to be done about it.

& on the final piece, she was very pointedly not weak and tired after using it. The only times she has been shown to be is when she was extremely low on Aura regardless in which cases not using her Semblance is a death sentence.

So again, we've established Tai's critique comes from nowhere & his understanding of her Semblance is nonexistent.

Taiyang: But you gotta keep your emotions in check. Keep a level head, and think before you act. Your Semblance is a great fallback, but you can't let yourself rely on it.

This is so painfully unfair it hurts.

No other character gets this kind of shit for expressing emotions in combat. In fact we see characters expressing emotions in battle all the time. Nor has she stopped displaying emotions in combat:

I already outlined how in all two of the Yang fights Tai actually witnessed she used strategy and retained excellent combat form. So again, baseless claims from Tai.

What's more, Yang primarily does use her Semblance as a fallback rather than rely on it in these fights. She only whipped it out against Mercury when he'd unleashed his seeming kill move on her and was confident he'd won.

Not using it here would be dumb and make no sense.

Yang doesn't rely on it to save her, she deploys it when it makes sense to & she has the energy or the need. This is more than we see from many characters.

Taiyang: It won't always save you. Obviously.

So now he is critiquing her for a fight he didn't even witness & knows jack shit about. So let's break this down once again:

Yang has spent the last 24 hours questions her sanity.

Yang's new home (Her words) is burning down.

Yang's sister is missing in all this chaos.

Then Yang's partner gets fucking stabbed, and the guy who did it is standing between them with a sword & gun, with fire all over Grimm all around.

Anything Yang can do he can counter, she tries to go around he only has to pivot. If she tries to fire from long range she might hit Blake. She tries an earth shock wave, she launches Blake into the fire.

She quite literally had no others options & zero time to try anything else because he can just shoot or stab Blake whenever he wants.

Taiyang: You definitely have your mom's stubbornness.

This, this right here is where all this is actually coming from. Tai is once again projecting Raven onto Yang despite them frankly having almost nothing in common.

With most of Yang's visible personality tells being inherited from Summer, such as the mother daughter shoulder check of V9. Thanks to chittychittyyangyang for the GIFs

Or as outlined in some songs with Yang's side of the lyrics explicitly citing how she is trying to fill the Summer shaped void in their lives.

Like the smell of a rose on a summer's day, I will be there to take all your fears away.

Taiyang: Your mother was... a complicated woman. Like everybody, she had her faults, but those faults are what tore our team apart. And, it did a real number on our family.

Tai blames Raven for tearing their team apart. Save that by all accounts, barring her absence things seemed to be going fine. Qrow seemed to be present in their lives, Tai looked happy, the girls were happy & Summer at least seemed happy though we know she was covering up a lot of dread.

Keep in mind Tai is projecting Raven, the woman he blames for destroying the team and damaging the family onto his daughter who literally kept the family together after Summer died. Yang's established this, Ruby has established this, its canon.

Yang: I had to pick up the pieces. I had to keep things together. Alone. (pause) Weiss, if you have something to say, then say it. Ruby: If you thought we wouldn’t come for you, then you must’ve forgotten who raised me.

Tai was not the one holding that home or family together. Unless you think the writers are gonna randomly swerve & say both Yang & Ruby are big whiny liars for some utterly nonsensical reasons. So no, I don't take him seriously as a narrator or critique of Yang, I have no reason to.

But let's push on, because I'm not done.

Taiyang: You both act like the easiest way to tackle an obstacle is through it. (pointing at Zwei) That strength is all that matters in a fight.

Ah yes, Raven, the woman famously known for thinking the easiest way to deal with an obstacles is to tackle it head on. That's why she spent years adorning herself in a Grimm helmet that hid her eyes & raised a False Maiden to serve as her body double.

A woman so inclined to rely on her own raw strength that when she was ambushed by Salem's forces she decided to trick them into an ambush.

Then when fighting Cinder and was at a disadvantage she freezes her in place while making Cinder think she is going on the offensive leaving her to be crushed by Stalactites & also utilized mind games to distract her & deal the finishing blow... Cos she only relies on strength.

As to his final piece of advice I already address it up above, there was no way around Adam, the situation was fucked from the start.

Saying it was Yang's fault she was dismembered is no more than victim blaming, I stood by that in Volume 3 to to this day & beyond.

Taiyang: But if you just take a second look, then maybe you see... (walking toward her, stepping around Zwei) there's a way around as well.

But let's actually look at Seeing Red & if Yang listened to Tai's advice or if she not only ignored it but did the opposite of what he ordered.

Let's see she goes in with open aggression & emotions, and also takes many blows rather than going 'around' them somehow.

Yang, as if she were 'indestructible' outright tanks a massively charged up Aura beam for the purpose of increasing her strength.

Then burns through all of her Aura & Semblance energies delivering one direct blow, relying on it to save her & leaving her weak & tired.

Or in other words, she:

Yang didn't miss, but we know that isn't a real issue anyway.

Yang used her Semblance to 'win' the fight & very much did rely on it to save her.

Yang expressed anger & many other emotions in the battle & still continues to does so.

Yang willingly took huge risks that involved her being able to take tons of damage rather than go "Around" the problem.

Yang knew Adam was likely stronger given it was 2 V1 but relied on her Semblance to get her out of that bind and she was in fact left weak and tired.

This is also the first time she has done several of these things, or otherwise demonstrated these traits, such as being left weak and tired or willingly tanking big attacks rather than just being hit by surprise or due to being overwhelmed.

I don't take Tai's advice seriously because none of it was accurate or aligned with the Semblance we saw in action or had described to us.

I don't trust Tai's opinion on Yang because his take on her is explicitly informed by Raven & not the Yang we spent four & then five more volumes getting to know.

I don't take Tai's words over Yang's, Ruby's or what we see on screen because Tai is at best a secondary or minor character & a recurring theme in RWBY is the failure of older generations.

These failures are not just in the past but how they have been consistently failing the next generation as the story is being told. There is zero reason to think Tai is some magic exception to this narrative trend when much more well explored characters like Maria, Qrow, Ozpin, Ironwood, Raven, and hell, Summer Rose are not.

& that is my stance on that, thanks for tuning in!

[every1studio]

“sour apples” [harry potter: draco malfoy]

genre: fluff 

ficstyle: bulletpoints + mini series  

prompt: you're a hufflepuff, you could never fall in love with a slytherin.. let alone draco malfoy, can you...? / inspired by the lyrics from “sour grapes” by LESSERFIM  / fem reader but can be gender neutral 

note: I'm kinda back? sorry for the wait.. I'll try to get into writing again. still sticking to writing for k-idols but I'm going out on a limb and writing for HP characters as well // enjoy~

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“I don’t see what you all see in him.. he’s still an asshole..” you muttered as the slytherin prince walks passed your group of friends

“but he’s hot” your friend murmured as they noticed him look over 

“and rich”

“and he smells good..” 

he sends a wink to the group and every girl in the vicinity just about dropped their pants  

basically anyone who even thought the prince was attracted dropped their pants

all except for you 

he’s rude

he’s arrogant

he’s narcissistic 

but all is forgiven because he’s good-looking, his family’s got money and he has proper hygiene?

who’s this slytherin prince that all of these simps are drooling over?

draco

lucius

malfoy

you couldn’t be bothered by someone like him

you’d rather spend your time with someone who was the complete opposite of that self-centered, self-proclaimed “prince”

someone like harry potter

or so you thought

the more you hanged out with him 

the more predicable he was 

you wanted some spice in your life and all he was giving you was sugar

there’s nothing wrong with sugar but he was literally giving you diabetes and you could feel your arteries just clogging up

“hey y/n”

you knew by the cheery yet mellow tone of voice that it was harry 

your friends nudged at you before leaving 

“hiya harry” you sighed through a smile, “what can I do for you?”

you can tell he was nervous, he’s probably going to ask you out to get some sweets at honeydukes or madam puddifoot’s tea shop or sometime of the sort

“did you want to go to honeydukes some time this weekend? or maybe even madam puddifoot’s tea shop?”

bingo 

you got up from your spot

brushing off some invisible dust to try to shoo off the unwavering tension in the air 

“harry.. can I be honest?”

you could see his bright eyes slowly dull and his sweaty hands hide in the pockets of his robes 

he nods

you tried to look anywhere but into his sadden eyes

“you’re... you’re not the guy for me, harry.. and I know there’s a girl out there who’s just waiting for you to be in her life but..”

at this moment you felt like you owed him a sincere eye contact moment

“..it’s not me.. it’s just not me..”

“yeah. sure. no worries. don’t worry about it...” 

you could see him ramble; a mix of awkwardness and him not wanting to show how upset he really was

“harry.. you’re a great guy...you really are...” 

you were almost whispery, scared to shatter his broken heart even more 

“but not for you”

you nodded at your feet

“but not for me” you repeated

not wanted to look up at the boy that you left smashed and shattered 

“I’ll be okay, y/n.. honest.. don’t look so sad.. I’m just glad that you were able to tell me now versus later down the line..”

you couldn’t stop thinking about the pitiful state you left harry in

he literally needed his friends to carry him away 

it made you think about what kind of relationship you wanted to be in 

what kind of guy you wanted to be in your perfect fairytale

because if it wasn’t with harry

who else could it be with?

while lost in your thoughts, you accidently bumped into someone

books and papers where scattered everywhere but there was no one else in the halls but you and the person you bumped into

you were already frantically trying to pick up their things

“oh I’m so sor-”

“ARE YOU BLIND?!”

their loud voice ran over yours and you already knew who it was

you scoffed in immediate irritation

“excuse me, malfoy? if I’m blind, so are you! you also bumped into me! what makes you think you can walk in the middle of the hall like you own the place and not watch where you’re going?”

draco didn’t realized that he bumped into you 

he was so close to you

so close that he could see every single lash that flared up to the ceiling 

so close that he could hear your soft, angelic breaths

so close that he could kiss you if he wanted to 

of course he wanted to 

sure, you were a hufflepuff

but ever since he first saw you, he thought you were different

you were kind but strong-minded, strong-willed

you seemed like you were prim and proper, you didn’t care if you got your hands dirty 

you had the qualities of a hufflepuff but you could’ve gone to any house and fit right in

and of course, he thought you were absolutely stunning 

he even deemed you the princess of the entire school

the missing piece to his set; the princess that the prince needed

if only he could voice that thought

he never could though, he’d never let anyone know his deepest and darkest daydreams 

“it’s cause I do own these halls, sweetheart..”

you frowned at his attempt to swoon you

“sorry, I didn’t know you were the headmaster albus dumbledore.. next time I see a head of white hair, I’ll make sure to walk the other way..”

you dropped his belongings on the ground and began to walk away from him

“aren’t you going to help me, y/n?” draco called out to you, wondering why you weren’t infatuated with him like everyone else 

“they’re your things in your halls.. apparently... pick it up yourself!” you shouted without looking behind you 

what a snobby brat, you thought

but what a shame... he really is attractive up close 

after your run-in with draco, you couldn’t stop thinking about what if you were like the other girls 

the girls who were infatuated with him

the girls who wanted a chance with him

would you want to?

maybe he isn’t the same person as he’s portraying to the public eye 

at the same time, draco was thinking about why didn’t you call him by his first name like all the girls who are smitten by him and how he was going to get you to fall for him

how could you not? 

he scratched at his head trying to figure out reasons why you didn’t like him

did you not like rich, successful, smart and handsome guys?

did his breath smelled at that moment?

were his grey eyes too grey?

was his platinum blonde hair too platinum?

he was so frustrated, he ran to his friends in the great hall for advice

“hey you lot, what are my flaws?” 

draco slammed his hands on the slytherins’ table where his friends all sat 

“are you okay, draco?” pansy fawned over the blonde boy

blaise chuckled

“yeah, draco.. did you hit your head or somethi-”

“I’m fine! just answer my questions.. what are some reasons someone might not like me?”

his friends all looked at each other, worried that what they say might set him off

“okay but you can’t get mad,” theo said with stern eyes 

“yeah yeah yeah.. go on... what are they?” draco didn’t know what he was getting himself into

“you can be... a bit mean..” crabbe didn’t even dare to make eye contact with the agitated blonde

“and a bit self-centered,” goyle chimed in

“you’re an ass and a pain in everyone’s asses”

blaise shouldn’t have said that with a smile on his face

“you think you’re all that but you’re not,” theo and blaise were just happy that they got to shit on draco to his face

“I think you’re perfect,” pansy tried to hide her blushing smile 

“that’s not what asked of us, pansy..” blaise was so done with her 

“yeah chill out, he’s not even interested in you..” theo joined in

he was literally just there for the banter 

pansy just slumped back into her seat when she noticed draco wasn’t even going to deny that he was interested in her 

“speaking of interested, what’s your sudden interest in what other people think of you anyways draco?” 

blaise always knew there was an underlying reason draco did anything and he was gonna get to the bottom of it 

“none of your business,” draco muttered as he shuffled away

“what a weirdo..” theo chuckled as he went back to his dino chicken nuggets 

if his friends thought about this of him, what would people he didn’t like think of him?

he wanted to show you his good side, his best side

not the side that everyone saw 

he wanted to show the side that he hid away to his friends and even his parents

the closet romantic who just wants someone who will love his flaws and enhance his good qualities

as if luck was on his side, you were right there, walking along side your friends

you were irritated by your friends because you told them about your run-in with draco and all they could talk about was how lucky you were

and as if bad luck was on your side, draco malfoy stopped right in front of you and your friends

“hey y/n.. I was wondering if..” he had to take a breath in the middle of his sentence, “I was wondering if you wanted to help me study for our potions quiz tomorrow?”

“why are you asking me like someone made you ask me? don’t you have other friends to help you study, malfoy?” you snapped

“draco, I can study with you!” 

“I’m free too, draco!”

your friends started chiming in while closing in on him

hoping for a chance to get any essence of draco malfoy

you were slowly closing into the background but you didn’t care, you didn’t want to be near him 

he probably liked the attention anyways

to your surprise, he weaved his way through the crowd to get to you

the only attention he wanted was yours

“I really wanted to ask you because you are one of the top students in our class and I could learn a lot from you..” 

like a flick of a wand, you saw draco in a different light

you could catch a baby blue sliver of hope in his eyes that twinkled 

is it possible for eyes to even twinkle like that?

is it possible to even trust him? 

did he have any ulterior motives?

if there was any, you couldn’t find it.. not in those eyes anyways

“I don’t even know if I can even help you study in a day...” you furrowed your brows but your voice was soft

you kind of wished that he just said, alright, and walk away

“if anyone can teach me in a day, I know it’s you... I mean.. you managed to help cedric with his OWLs and he passed.. or so I heard...” 

draco kept his eyes down for the most part but occasionally looked up to take a peek at you and was shuffling his feet against each other

have you ever seen draco shuffle his feet before or even for anyone? 

a day with draco malfoy wouldn’t be so awful, right?

“I’ll meet you after dinner in the library.. if you aren’t there by 9pm.. don’t even think about asking me to help you study ever again..” you spoke firmly, you didn’t want him thinking that he can easily take advantage of you

the bell rung for students to get to class

“I won’t be late, y/n! I promise!” draco lit up and started walking away to make sure he wasn’t late to class

but then as soon as you turned your back to draco, he was running back towards you

“wait y/n!” 

you were taken aback by his sudden appearance and how close he was to you

he took your hands into his and placed a chaste kiss onto your knuckles, “thank you.. I really mean it.. can’t wait to see you later..”

and as fast as he appeared, he disappeared 

if he didn’t leave as fast as he did, you would probably catch his redden cheeks and ears 

he felt like a giddy schoolgirl (he probably looked like it too)

but he didn’t care

you, on the other hand, were conflicted by your prior feelings of him and the feelings you had for him now 

you didn’t want to deal with your friends bickering about how you got his attention so you blocked them out and made your way to your class

why was draco so interested in you all of a sudden?

did he actually have feelings for you?

should you even try to go for the impossible? 

should you even try to go for someone as rude, arrogant and narcissistic as draco lucius malfoy?

with all of these uneasy feelings, class was the only thing that could put any of your feelings aside and focus on something else 

that’s what you thought

you couldn’t stop thinking about his twinkly grey eyes, his platinum blonde hair and his...

why were you even thinking about him in divination class?

“my dear...” professor trelawney reached out to you

“you will see that there’s an apple high on a tree, unattainable and basking in it’s glory.. but you have to work for it.. if you want a taste.. only then, you will be happy.. but my dear if you give up... you’ll never know if the apple is truly sweet or sour... and you’ll continue life without knowing, if the apple was worth it or not...” 

you looked at her in confusion (also kind of weirded out)

you just nodded so that she’d go bother someone else 

leaving you to marinate about what she just said

was she really just talking about an apple or was it an analogy for your current inner conflicts with the slytherin prince?

to be continued...

[part one] [part two]

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[ masterlist + guidelines ]

[daisyachain]

wrt Yaoi Lesbians the key dynamics of the classic slash ship are a) inadmissibility of any genuine feelings by/between men, let alone romantic ones, b) strong, plot-driving feelings by/between men because women aren’t allowed to be people and thus can’t meaningfully participate in relationships, c) necessity of doing both at the same time; communicating the strength and meaning of m-m relationships to shore up plot holes while never saying outright that they like each other. Essentially: the slash classic is predicated on show-don’t-tell relationships taken to the extreme. What makes them resonate is the idea that even a moment of normal camaraderie (eg going out for drinks together) is a dangerously emotional and subversive move.

So, in order to create f/f slash (as opposed to femslash), you need women who have strong, plot-driving relationships and nuanced characters. That’s the Bechdel portion of it. Most people get this far. Fine.

What a lot of series miss is that you need some sort of structure in the story needs to make emotional honesty between those women taboo in the same way that toxic masculinity does. You need to have pressure on the characters that will break the immersion if one of them says ‘you don’t look bad’ to the other. The nature of homophobia and misogyny is that they’re one and the same in a lot of places. Male characters can’t have any emotional attachment to other male characters because emotions are feminine and it’s gay to have emotions. Female characters, on the other hand, have no ceiling on how close they can be to other female characters and have it read as not gay, because emotions are feminine and any emotions between female characters are just kind of a natural woman tendency rather than intentional acts, and thus have no meaning.

To achieve the level of tension between f/f pairings you’ve then got to have not only the taboo of your standard non-f/m relationship, you’ve got to create some sort of barrier to all friendly interactions.

Different successful variants go about it in different ways. X-Men comics use superhero angst to stand in. Illyana fears her eeeeevil nature and that prevents her from actually pursuing Kitty. The Expanse (TV) manages it by keeping its women on opposite sites of geopolitics rivalries. Nagata and Drummer will never be able to reconcile their moderate/radical divide, Draper and Avasarala’s banter is kept bro-y by their refusal to actually like an Earther/Martian. Jolyne and Hermes’ dynamic manages to replicate the classic slash arrangement because you get the impression that they’re too preoccupied with punching the monster of the week to be spending time ruminating over their relationship. In order to get better femslash dynamics we need to have louder, dumber, more brooding, and more stubborn female characters.

[fantastic-nonsense]

Semi-serious question: How much should we blame Tybalt for what happens in Romeo & Juliet?

This is a completely out-of-the-blue ask but what do you know...I have Thoughts™ on it anyway lmao. I actually have two answers to this question, and the answer depends on how you view the family feud and what you identify as the actual conflict in R&J (and thus, who the instigators and people responsible for the conflict are).

Answer A: we blame Tybalt as a primary instigator of the actual events that happen within the bounds of the play and as someone who bears quite a bit of responsibility for what happens. This answer is very attractive because it looks at the play directly through the lens of the events readers are directly seeing taking place: Tybalt is the one egging on the Montague-Capulet servant fights in the beginning opposite Benvolio, who (bless him) wants nothing but peace. Tybalt is the one who wants to kill Romeo at the Capulets' masquerade and is told no by Monsieur Capulet, and Tybalt is the one who issues the honor duel challenge to Romeo in response to this denial. Tybalt kills Mercutio, and even though this fight is initiated by Mercutio and is unintentionally instigated (since he was trying to fight Romeo), Tybalt happily accepts, and his murder of Mercutio is what initiates his duel with Romeo and his own eventual murder, resulting in Romeo's banishment...........which leads to Romeo and Juliet's fatal communication mishap later on.

So if you are just looking at the direct events of the play, I think it's not necessarily a bad analysis to say that Tybalt consciously and deliberately inflames inter-familial tensions (even when given direct orders and specific reasons not to do so) in a way that sparks his own murder-homicide, Romeo's banishment, and (eventually) the deaths of Romeo and Juliet. While he himself is not responsible for the family feud, the R+J romance, or Romeo and Juliet's deaths, he directly contributes to the plot in such a way that those events become inevitable through his actions.

Answer B: we blame Tybalt as a product of his environment who is generally acting within the acceptable bounds of the greater Capulet-Montague family feud, but because of Romeo and Juliet's actions (all of which are outside the scope of his knowledge and predicated on the larger family feud rather than Tybalt's actions in particular), what would probably just be duels in courtyards results in the deaths of 6 people; thus, the Capulet and Montague parents bear far more responsibility for R&J's events than Tybalt.

Tybalt has grown up in an environment where familial honor is paramount and fighting to protect that honor with violence is not only expected but at least nominally encouraged. And of course, it's the broader family feud that causes the play's events; after all, if the Montagues and Capulets weren't feuding, Tybalt would have no reason to feel slighted enough by Romeo showing up uninvited to his uncle's ball that issuing a death duel challenge seems like a reasonable response. Romeo and Juliet would have no real reason to hide their clandestine relationship. Juliet wouldn't have felt the need to create a plan to fake her death and be smuggled out of the city in order to reunite with her lawfully wedded husband. The play's direct events largely occur because of choices Romeo and Juliet make that are directly connected to the one thing overshadowing literally everything else: their families hate each other.

Romeo goes to the ball in the first place because he thinks it's a Fun Time to sneak into a party hosted by his enemies that he's not invited to. Tybalt's angry that Romeo's there because his Family Honor™ is being slighted by a Montague waltzing into a Capulet party uninvited (even though it's not even his party and his uncle is explicitly fine with it). Romeo and Juliet get married in secret because their families won't approve. Because their marriage is secret, Tybalt doesn't understand why Romeo refuses to fight him and feels condescended to and brushed off instead of understanding Romeo's genuinely sincere desire not to fight a fellow kinsman. Because Tybalt feels condescended to (and then laughed at/goaded by Mercutio), he gets into the duel which eventually ends his life and results in Romeo's banishment from Verona.

Meanwhile, because Juliet cannot tell her parents that she's married to a Montague, her pleas to delay or end her impending marriage to Paris are unsuccessful. Because her pleas are unsuccessful, she and Friar Lawrence concoct the plan that eventually ends with the deaths of herself, Romeo, and Paris. All of these things are connected to one thing: the reality that Juliet is a Capulet and Romeo is a Montague, which has nothing to do with Tybalt's actions.

Personally, I put a lot of blame for the events of the play's final three acts on Monsieur Capulet, since the entire R+J marriage and reunion plot is directly instigated by M. Capulet refusing to allow Juliet any freedom of choice or temporal leeway re: marriage (especially to Montagues). Romeo marrying Juliet but being unable to publicly acknowledge it (and thus being unable to justify refusing to fight Tybalt in a way Tybalt will accept) instigates Tybalt's and Romeo's disagreement in Act 3. And while Juliet's marriage to Romeo was technically unconnected to her impending marriage to Paris, she wouldn't have felt such a huge rush to get out of the city and reunite with Romeo post-the Act 3 slaughter event if her father wasn't literally going to force her into an immediate marriage with Paris (even after telling him to wait another two years, until Juliet was 16 and of official marriagable age, at the beginning of the play).

Depending on the results of dealing with the larger parental feud, Mercutio and Tybalt may or may not still fight (I feel like being called the 'king of cats' and Mercutio saying that he would have 'one of [Tybalt's] nine lives' is more than enough to justify that fight independent of the larger feud, especially since Mercutio isn't actually a Montague; he's just Romeo's friend), but the bloodshed would probably be limited to them instead of the 6 deaths that eventually ensued. M. Capulet's actions in the aftermath of that fight might not have saved Mercutio or Tybalt (who both got caught up in and subsequently fell victim to family feuds that ultimately weren't even theirs to fight as a family friend and cousin, respectively), but they would have saved Paris, Romeo, and Juliet.

tl;dr: Tybalt does a lot of shit that directly contributes to the 6-person slaughter event that R+J becomes, and thus definitely bears some responsibility, but is ultimately himself a victim of the plot's Big Villain (the larger Montague-Capulet family feud, which the adults are responsible for) and thus cannot bear sole or even the majority of the responsibility for responding the way he does to events that occur because of larger family systems issues and beyond the scope of his knowledge.

[thefeastandthefast]

Well said!

I think the tension of a conventional love triangle tends to be predicated on the assumption that love is a singular, nonrenewable, and limited resource, a zero-sum game. And in this story, the only person who's operating as if he's in that kind of love triangle is Li Tongguang himself- everyone else (Ruyi, Ning Yuanzhou, Yang Ying, even Yu Shisan and the other Six Realms Hall guys) instinctively understands that though there's no world in which Ruyi would willingly be LTG's romantic partner, there is a potential space for him to belong among them and to perhaps be loved in different kinds of ways if he might allow himself to be slowly brought into the fold.

Obviously they don’t welcome him with open arms right off the bat, especially given his... boundary-pushing behavior when they first meet him, but the door does gradually crack open in various ways. For example, NYZ’s repeated offers to work with him and straight-talking “shifu-in-law” approach. Ruyi immediately going to aid him when he was ambushed and publicly pinning onto him the credit of “killing” her (a brutal but incredibly loving last gift to him that also speaks to her understanding of his long-held ambitions) so that he can ascend. Yang Ying's consistent attitude of honesty and candor towards him, such as when LTG asks her if Ruyi mentioned him at the gravesite. Shisan's genuine curiosity in questioning why he must always speak so viciously when he’s not as callous as he appears.

And though others might disagree, I think even though the Six Realms Hall guys gang up on him a bit, it has the flavor of the kind of ritualistic homosocial bullying that occurs among military types as they figure out how to incorporate or bond with a new group member (recall that early scene where Ruyi briefly fought Yu Shisan and Qian Zhao to cement her "wolf role" in the delegation!) Regardless of whether or not that's a healthy or ideal way of establishing group cohesion, it wasn't open hatred and hostility they showed him. Frankly, their light bullying was already a gesture of grace towards someone who paraded out their injured POW friends and colleagues to beat and humiliate during a diplomatic meeting.

The tragedy is that because of Li Tongguang's mountain of abandonment issues and trauma (dead father, emotionally distant mother slut-shamed by everyone for giving birth to a lover's child, raised by servants who had no authority to discipline him, relentless and malicious bullying from his cousins, an emperor uncle that rewarded only unquestioning submission and ruthlessness, etc.), he is unable to see glimmers of grace when it is offered to him. All his emotional needs are hyper-focused on Ruyi, the one very flawed person he believes ever cared about him, whose grace has consistently been paired with physical and emotional violence. Although as of episode 37, gratifyingly, it seems perhaps Yang Ying might get through.

You’ve astutely pointed out that LTG’s obsession with Ruyi is not so easily defined as simply a romantic one, given his intense jealousy of both NYZ and Yang Ying. I think it’s the easiest label for him (and for many viewers ahem) to assign to those complicated feelings and the most conventional set of roles he could imagine for them because he has no other frame of reference or model for healthy attachment, no model for relationships, romantic or otherwise, in which one party isn't subordinate to another, no understanding of the validity of different kinds of intimacy and love.

And because we have spent the entire story witnessing how love in many forms is a spring that has nourished and transformed Ruyi while Li Tongguang has been completely parched of that nourishment, it’s sad and frustrating (but also kind of delicious in a way?) to see this fundamental mismatch of the kind of love he thinks he needs and chases at the cost of so much versus the kind of love he actually needs to not be such a psycho (affectionate).

it's easy to read the situation between li tongguang, ruyi, and yuanzhou as a love triangle on a superficial level, but looking even one step further, it's clear that there's no triangle about it. li tongguang is obsessed with ren xin; ning yuanzhou is devoted to ren ruyi. ltg's obsession is fervent and all consuming, but it's not devotion. like ruyi herself notes, his feelings to her are on the basis of her as a mother figure in his life, as a replacement for what he never received from his mother. is there an element of romantic/sexual love/desire to it? maybe. more likely he's deluded himself into thinking that, because the truth is, it's doubtful that ltg even understands what love is (platonic, filial, familial, romantic, all of the above, etc), because he has no basis for understanding. ruyi's teachings and actions towards him are the closest thing he has to hold up as an example. what he wants is ren xin, is a replica of the master he had. he doesn't want ruyi, because he doesn't actually care about ruyi. therefore, he doesn't care if she's sad, angry, mad; he just can't bear her 'abandoning' him. we saw this way back when she first meet and left him, both at thirteen and seventeen. although he distrusts her first, she saves his life and cares for him in the way no one else has, hence her first being raised on a platform in his mind. when she leaves for good, ending their master-disciple relationship/training, even though it's for official business and she's not abandoning him, in his mind that's exactly what it is. so now that she's in his life again, he won't let her leave again. he was powerless before, a child with no proper name, but now he's a recognized member of the imperial family, a man who can meet her as 'equals' (even when that's far from the truth). as a child, he could only cling to her legs and beg her, but now he has the power to keep her by his side. it's telling that when he finally gets confirmation of her identity, it's not ning yuanzhou he seeks to harm (even though he detests him and their relationship), but yang ying. yang ying is ruyi's new disciple, and as ltg doesn't know she's a woman, he only sees her as his direct replacement.

ning yuanzhou, on the other hand, is devoted to ruyi. he wants to build a new life and future with her, instead of slotting her into a spot in the life he already has. he's someone who accompanies her on walks and makes her midnight snacks, who holds her when she needs to be held and lets her go when she needs to do things on her own. when she speaks her mind, he listens, even when it makes him discontent/it's not what he wanted/wants to hear. he sees her unabashedly as his equal, and though he acknowledges her skills and abilities, or points out her naivety, he never does it to belittle her; to him, she is his peer, deserving of the highest honor and respect. he trusts her to have his back, and she has come to trust him to have her. he did what she might have thought no man would ever do: he proved himself reliable, so she came to rely on him. yuanzhou gives her freedom and autonomy as both ren ruyi and ren xin. of course they run into problems, but they both learn and grow from them, as individuals and as a couple. yuanzhou's belief in her is unwavering, but adaptable, whereas ltg's is unwavering, but frozen in time, disallowing for any new information to be presented. yuanzhou works with ruyi to accept the changes thrown her way; he seeks the core behind her actions in order to better understand her. li tongguang cannot accept the changes in ruyi's character, because they run contrary to the master he has on a pedestal in his mind.

what li tongguang wants is to return to the past, but yuanzhou offers ruyi the promise of a future, even one that might never come to fruition. there's no triangle about it.

[mlmcaptainpike]

since I just rewatched it actually through the valley of shadows is the best discovery episode and I guess hit keep reading if you wanna know why (tl;dr it’s the one of the only episodes in the first three seasons that prioritizes character development over somewhat contrived plot progression)

anyway part of the reason I think season 4 has been better on the whole than earlier seasons is like somebody finally told the writers to devote some time to the characters. like events are fine and all but I don’t really care about the events themselves as much as I care about how they affect characters and relationships etc and sometimes I think disco struggles with wanting to do cool plot stuff without putting in the work characterwise. recently disco has done a better job at spending time on characters and how they interact with each other and so I care more. not to beat a dead horse but I don’t really care as much about abe lincoln in space or whatever as much as I do about how kirk and spock etc react to abe lincoln in space and likewise I care more about michael and saru then say. diplomatic tensions. and if you want me to care more about diplomatic tensions make me care more about why michael and saru are involved in them. etc

BUT BRAN WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH THROUGH THE VALLEY OF SHADOWS well imo through the valley of shadows (henceforth referred to as ttvos) does a better job with characters then like any other episodes in its season basically. ttvos isn’t so much predicated on where the plot is going next but on how it’s affecting the characters as they are and it makes for a very compelling watch! season 2 was rlly fighting its demons with a time travel plot that felt superimposed over more rational/logical character and narrative progression and ttvos is the one of the only episodes in the season that manages to blend both in a way that makes sense: we have chris pike testing his emotional mettle, we have michael facing her tough past in the forms of spock, gant, and gabrielle, we have tyler finally getting some closure on points that had gone unresolved since SEASON 1, and we have the closest the season ever gets for giving me good reasons for culmets getting back together, and it’s all topped off with some charming and well-written interactions between the cast. feel free to stop reading now because that’s my thesis but I am going to break it down a little

so ttvos is the episode where pike goes to boreth and has that nasty vision with the time crystal. as a matter of plot capt pike doesn’t generally struggle with doing the right thing because he’s written as more of a paragon - he’s never really insensitive or malicious and any disagreement he has with the crew tends to be practical and not moral, which is why it’s cool to put him in a situation where doing the right thing (essentially the basis of his character) comes at immense personal cost. like idk how to elaborate more on that point, it’s neat. it’s an extremely reasonable little adventure to send him on this episode because not only does it show the audience a side of him we haven’t seen (challenged to do the right thing. oh and also vulnerable he doesn’t really break down like… ever besides this) it also reminds us about some facts of his character (he’s a great guy!) and that’s great. bam plot point designed to demonstrate character.

michael is meanwhile investigating a section 31 ship that missed its check-in and happens to run across former crew mate kamran gant (he’s under control’s, well, control, but she doesn’t know that at first). spock is with her and the situation with michael‘s biological mother is a recent and sore memory. once again, by placing michael with her estranged brother in a situation where she’s already struggling with some things family-wise and past trauma-wise is really cool and it gets cooler when they play her off of gant as well, who brings back some of the season 1 guilt from the shenzhou. its successful because it demonstrates how she and spock have really started to repair their relationship. it also incorporates control as a more emotional villain both in that gant is (slightly) more recognizable to michael and the audience than the completely original capt leland and because control can use gant to force michael to confront her pain and shame about the fate of the shenzhou and it just all really works. bam plot point designed to demonstrate character.

im going to incorporate tyler, culmets, and the crew into one paragraph because they’re all shorter and more related. first, on tyler: this episode grants closure to him, voq, and l’rell instead of petering out on the subplot (like one of its predecessors, point of light, did). it’s the closest l’rell and the audience really ever get to reconciling ash’s two identities and it’s the closest ash and l’rell get to reconciling their complicated relationship. it’s not nearly as clear or clean as I think it could have been but there’s more there then like… any other episode about tyler ever. moving on, when later episodes similarly petered on culmets’s storyline, this episode does take time to do some meaningful storytelling about it. it’s the most convincing justification for why they get back together in the finale because it sets out a little time to help the audience understand why they aren’t already together and why they should be. it’s nice and it tightens up the finale a little. oh and finally reno (and briefly the other bridge crew) was a wise addition to this episode. she brings a lot of levity and, while not being terrible complex herself, is excellent in the role of someone for other characters to bounce off of. there were some cleverly written moments between pike and tyler, l’rell and tyler, and michael and spock, but reno definitely wins the award for bringing out the best in everybody. for all these reasons, once again, bam plot point designed to demonstrate character.

anyway to conclude this ttvos’s back must hurt from carrying the finale all by itself. as the penultimate episode (if you treat sweet sorrow 1 and 2 as basically one episode) it really got its act together just in time. watching it feels like watching an episode from some alternate universe discovery season 2 that had a grip on where the plot is going and that’s refreshing! if you like discovery and haven’t rewatched ttvos recently, I would strongly recommend it - it was a treat of an episode in a way I wasn’t expecting, and in some season 4-related ways it was an omen of better things to come. :)

[feanorianethicsdepartment]

some scattered thoughts about what i’ve started calling the homecoming au, that au where maedhros and maglor come back to tirion after the war of wrath, end up prisoners-in-all-but-name in finarfin’s palace, and nothing is beautiful and everything hurts. credit for @sunflowersupremes for writing the au that for lack of a better word inspired me, credit to @outofangband for listening to me blather about this over dms, warning to everybody, this au is dark. it’s essentially about maedhros and maglor being abused for being mentally ill, talk of suicide, late stage fëanorians somehow getting worse, generally not a fun time. caveat lector

i feel like it’s worth emphasising that by the end of the war of wrath maedhros and maglor are in a bad, bad mental state

they’re so inured to violence death means nothing to them, and neither of them really remembers what it feels like to be happy. they’ve lost everything, whether to the fires of war or the maw of the oath. there are so many things maglor can’t let himself think about or he’ll tip off the precipice into madness, so many things maedhros has quietly put aside to deal with after the end of the world. they’ve got nothing left but ash and nowhere to go but their own destruction. they’re fully aware of the monsters they are, and they loathe those monsters as much as anyone else

finarfin’s offer of mercy feels like a miracle. it’s a way - it’s a way out, first and foremost, a way to somewhere else, because what could possibly be worse than this? maybe it’s even a way back to the dreamlike world of their childhood, when they were more than their sharp edges and they could look on the future without despair. i figure this is an au where maglor won that last argument, predicated entirely on the possibility of an existence without pain

maedhros is skeptical, but logics himself into going along. on one condition

‘please’ maglor tells their uncle, trying to let his guard down and show as much vulnerability as his pride will allow. ‘do not give us to the valar’

he’s more successful than he realises. the last remaining sons of fëanor have been growing visibly more and more unstable for decades now. even the elves who were once their closest lieutenants approach them with caution now

finarfin catches a glimpse of what his nephews have become. he makes a conscious decision to choose pity over fear

which - yeah, alright. maglor and maedhros need therapy, they need to process their emotions in healthy ways and build selves they can be comfortable in the skins of again. and the general mood in tirion is one of reconciliation. it was the younger generation that went to beleriand, so many people have children they feel like they’ve failed

but if they can un-fail these two, maybe there’s hope. maybe there’s a chance for them to heal

except, well. nobody who stayed in aman - nobody who’s seen cuiviénen, really, beleriand was nasty - can really process just how much healing needs to be done

like. i’ve said this before, but screeching furiously at each other at high volume for multiple hours is a regular thing maedhros and maglor do. they’re the last people in the world either of them is even slightly close to, their relationship is shot through with as much bitter hate as it is steady reliance, and really, who else can they yell at

it’s a maladaptive coping mechanism. their minders recognise this inside five minutes, i’ll give them that much

it’s just. their eventual method of stopping the fight, after trying and failing to talk the brothers down, is to jump them and gag them to stop them making so much noise

partially they were worried it might escalate into a physical fight, which to be fair, these screaming matches occasionally do. but partially they just wanted them to stop

(this is the first really big incident, but things have been subtly, uncomfortably wrong for a while now. there’s this vibe that everything would be so much easier if the brothers just behaved. acted like the nice normal princes they used to be)

(but they can’t. they’re trying (well, maglor is; maedhros is mostly going along out of resignation) but they can’t. and when all the little tensions of this supposed-to-be-happy-ending get too much, they take it out on each other, like they always do. what are they supposed to do, unleash their own corruption onto the innocent valinoreans?)

(as is usual with these shriekfests, it got vicious fast. it was maedhros saying that he should have just killed the both of them back in beleriand that makes their minders decide they have to stop this now)

the whole situation’s a mess. the way the non-exile noldor are thinking, if they can just put all the unpleasantness behind them, things can go back to normal and they can forget any of this ever happened

the valinoreans are trying to help, you understand. it’s just that their definition of ‘help’ involves sweeping everything under the rug so they can all be happy again

and everything the brothers do to remind people of all that makes them... uncomfortable

maedhros and maglor are never left alone. there’s always someone within at least hearing distance, keeping an eye on them. they initially say it’s for the brothers’ own benefit - so there’s always someone nearby in case they need help, like - but the first time maglor gets so frustrated he starts trashing his room he is immediately seized

the valinoreans get very good at stopping the brothers from doing the thing. they are less good at addressing the reasons why the brothers feel the need to do the thing

maglor is by far the angrier of the two. when he has a bad day, everyone around him knows it. he snarks, he glares at people from corners, he refuses to be at all cooperative. even on his good days, his mood never goes far above ‘melancholic’

maedhros, on the other hand, is quiet. he does what people tell him to, mostly. he sits in place and acts the perfect patient and only occasionally tries to kill himself. a poisonous plant picked here, a window’s lock subtly fiddled with there, he’s good at waiting for his minders to lower their guard enough he can take a chance

(neither of them are particularly violent towards the valinoreans to begin with, and their violent tendencies towards themselves, each other, and inanimate objects quickly recede. lashing out like that always, always makes things worse)

sometimes he’ll regress back into behaviours he learned in angband. the first time this happens and the valinoreans figure out what’s going on, he gets a very polite finarfin asking him to please stop equating them with the enemy, finarfin knows they aren’t settling in as well as they might but it’s very offensive to be compared to morgoth

still, they learn. there’s this one incident when maedhros is having a fit, and while all their minders are running about trying to make him stop, maglor, who happens to be in the room, is standing completely still, staring at nothing

one of the minders snaps ‘come on, help! don’t you care about your brother?’

... he does. they’re closer now than they were in beleriand, leaning against each others’ bodies, quietly holding hands. the palace is full of people all the time, but they’re still so isolated from the rest of the world

it’s just hard to protect someone else when you’re barely hanging on yourself

you ever write a perfect closing line, and also it’s 1:30 am? yep, yep, i’m going to bed. more tomorrow, i’d guesstimate three parts in total

[astermacguffin]

The semantic logic of AMVs

I finally finished the post I promised to @katebushstandean , so here's my contribution to the blossoming field of spn amv studies.

In this post I made about fanworks and intertextuality, I argued that AMVs can be referred to as a "discourse between discourses." What I meant by that (and I elaborated on this in the post) can be summarized in this argument structure:

(1) AMVs are typically a dialogue/discourse between a song and a show/film.

(2) A song is already a discourse of its own (i.e. it's the dialogue between music and lyrics).

(2) A show/film is already a discourse of its own (i.e. it's the dialogue between the visual and auditory elements of the show/film).

(C) Therefore, AMVs are typically a discourse between discourses.

I want to push this argument even further and argue for a more generalized theory of meaning that should (ideally) be applicable to any piece of media.

LAYING THE FOUNDATION

Let's start by analyzing at least just one medium at a time. Take music, for example. Without lyrics, how does music convey meaning at all? Now, I won't go too much into either music theory or the psychology/sociology of music (since I don't think I'll be able to give these subjects any justice anyway), but I want us to look at music more structurally/linguistically. (I am certainly not a linguist, but I am a training logician and I think it would be interesting to extract the logical/semantic relations that occur in music if we treat it as a "text".)

If we want to break down music into its smallest possible units of meaning (the same way we break down language into morphemes in morphology), then we would probably end up with notes, beats, and chords as our basic units (among other stuff, like timbre). Obviously, we cannot subject music to the same reductionist approach we do with either natural or formal languages (e.g. breaking down language into morphemes/propositions/subject-predicate relations/functions).

This is due to the fact that music doesn't really agree that much with the principle of compositionality—that "the meaning of the whole is a function of the meanings of its parts and their mode of syntactic combination." (If you disagree with Montague semantics, you might even argue that the same is true for natural languages and that only formal languages are truly compositional, but I digress). Generally, there is "more than the sum of its parts" when it comes to music; the meanings of a chord don't solely depend on the meanings of the individual notes that make up the chord.

Anyway, back to music and meaning-making.

Yip Harburg has this interesting quote on songwriting, which Adam Neely references here at this mark (15:29–16:10), a quote he originally got from Ben Levin. The quote says: "Music makes you feel feelings, lyrics make you think thoughts, songs make you feel thoughts." I think this quote best encompasses what I mean when I argue that songs are "discourses" of their own.

But even without the lyrics, music on its own is already "discursive." A single note played once doesn't really "mean" much, in the sense that we can't really gather as much meaning out of it alone. The note's relationships with other musical elements is what opens up the realms of meanings that we can attribute to it. (This concept is explored much better in here.)

The same thing is true with natural languages. Morphemes and words have meanings on their own, sure, but they don't really say that much on their own until you place them in a specific order with other morphemes/words. A single sentence is already a discourse between the units of meaning that compose the sentence.

I have been using the term "discourse" a lot, but what do I mean when I use the term? Without spending too much time explaining my own theory of discourse, let's define a discourse as a "series of discursive units." A discursive unit consists of two parts: a prompt and a response. What's important to know about responses in a discourse is that you won't really be able to fully grasp what they mean without knowing what the prompts are (i.e. what they are responding to).

When I describe song and lyrics as "discourses", what I think I really mean is that they are "discourse-like" (hence the description, "discursive"). The words of a sentence treat each other as their own prompts/responses; they're not as meaningful alone, but when taken together, meaning emerges. The same goes with music.

Taking this to a more macro scale, we can treat each episode of a show as their own discourses, and each episode "responds" to the others in some way. The harmonies, tensions, and contradictions that emerge from the "conversations" between these episodes are what we often respond to when we make fanworks (fanart, fanfics, meta, and the likes).

Generally, there are two kinds of "conversations" that happens within and among pieces of media:

The intra-discursive (the conversations that happen within a single text, like how a show's episodes converse with each other), and;

The inter-discursive (also called the intertextual, or the conversations that happen between different texts).

Now that we have established these terms and concepts, we're FINALLY talking about AMVs.

THE DEAL WITH AMVS

I've already touched upon this in my intertextuality post, but it's worth repeating. What I believe AMVs do is reveal the intra-discursive using the inter-discursive. What this means is that by making the subject text converse with other texts (e.g. by making clips from Supernatural "dialogue" with a song of your choice), you are somehow extracting the implicit discourses present in the original text.

When we talk about fanworks (and transformative works in general), we often talk about it in terms of recontextualization, as well as adding something new that wasn't there in the original text (e.g. fix-its). But a neglected aspect of fanworks that I believe AMVs bring to light is the revelatory power of fanworks, like the way it makes the people (may it be the audience or the original creators) confront the implications and implicit meanings already present in the text.

(Learn more about the semantic logic of AMVs below the cut)

Another interesting thing that AMVs do is that it often makes the subject text subservient to the song. More often than not, it's the show that has to adjust to the song; it's the show that has to be sliced and diced in order to fit the song. This is simultaneously a form of violence and a form of liberation—violent in the sense that goes against authorial intent (with "author" here used loosely to refer to the forces that brought the piece to life, may it be a single person or an entire production team) and liberating in the sense that the latent or supressed narratives are brought to light.

Even before the AMV is done, this discursive process is already made explicit by the act of editing. In most editing softwares, you get to see the timeline of your material and an explicit divide between the audio and the visual elements. The audio stream is already a discourse of its own, and the same goes with the video stream.

When you vertically slice these juxtaposed streams and cut out a portion of it, you now have what I call a "semantic moment" locked in time. We can imagine the audio being divided into these little semantic moments (e.g. the chords, a key change, a shift in dynamics or tempo, etc.) and something similar can be said with the video (e.g. vital scenes in the show). Now, a semantic moment doesn't have to be special or eventful; in fact, most of them aren't. In fact, all of experience is nothing but a series of semantic moments (i.e. moments of extractable meaning).

Now, imagine an AMV playing in front of you right now. Let's represent the audio as a series of semantic moments from A1 to An and do something similar to the video, from V1 to Vn. If we represent the flow of time from left to right, then we can talk abstractly about experiencing an AMV like this:

A1-A2-A3-A4-A5...-An

V1-V2-V3-V4-V5...-An

Every moment of our experience of the AMV can be divided into a series like this. AMVs are art objects that unfold over time: they are temporal, and therefore we cannot immediately access all parts of the semantic "discourse" of the text all at once—we have to wait for them to happen.

Let's say I want to analyze Semantic Moment number 6 because something interesting happens there: the chord suddenly shifts into a minor key while at the same time, the video shows a character turning their back to the camera. Now, there are three possible ways to handle this (none of which are mutually exclusive; we usually perform these modes of analysis simultaneously):

Vertical analysis - analyzing the discourse between A6 and V6. What meanings are brought up when we take these two elements in conjunction? What associations do we have with minor keys, with people turning around, and how these associations influence the other?

Horizontal analysis - analyzing the discourse between A6 and its earlier counterparts, A1-A5, or between V6 and V1-V5. Earlier, we have discussed that a single chord or a single word on its own doesn't mean that much; it's their relationships with other elements that bring out their "meaning space." What "narratives" or "metaphorical gestures" are brought upon when you consider these semantic moments as discourses/texts as a whole?

Diagonal analysis - analyzing the discourse between A6 and V1-V5, or between V6 and A1-A5. Here, you make the semantic moment converse with the "history" of its counterpart. What are the events that happened in the earlier parts? For example, knowing that the earlier parts of the song were in major key before the turn-around scene might influence our reading of it. Similarly, knowing that the earlier scenes depict a happy relationship might influence how we read the minor shift.

Again, we often do these analytic slices as quick as possible (and often simultaneously); it's not something that we often do consciously (unless the subject text is actually that dense and difficult). It's instinctual to us to bring up these comparisons and engage with the explicit and implicit discourses of meaning happening with any kind of text we interact with.

Now, here's where it gets more complicated. Unless the AMV in question is just a scene lifted from the show and overlaid with a song, it would usually involve a bunch of cutting and joining between different scenes/episodes. What this means is that you're taking an already temporal object and reassembling it into a new order in time. This means that we might've initially thought of as V1-V2-V3-V4-V5...Vn might actually be V3-V1-V6-V19-V8...Vn or some other permutation.

Again, this process is simultaneously violent and liberating—violent because you are destroying its intended order, and liberating because you are negating the tyranny of linearity and contiguity. What I mean by this is that people tend to focus on the discourse of the semantic moments depending on how close they are in space and time. For example, we might focus on how V1 is in dialogue with V2 and how V2 is in dialogue with V3, but the farther the semantic moments are, the less likely we are to notice their discourse.

What AMV editors do is rebel against the tyranny of this habit and bring into light the connections that might have gone unnoticed without the intervention. We often talk about how certain fanworks are more analytical than transformative (e.g. fanfics that function more as character studies and meta analyses of the source text), and there certainly is a spectrum of this among different genres of fanworks. I believe that AMVs, no matter how transformative they are, cannot help but invoke a certain analyticity in their production and reception.

And that concludes my AMV essay. I'll probably add more to this when I gather more thoughts (like how these three posts are related in some way).

Lemme know if y'all wanna hear more about my theory of discourse or something else related. Support your content creators and reblog!