#there seems to be a lot of contradictory stuff in both characterization and time travel methodology going on around here

[sailor-cresselia]

How clever IS Sougo, anyway?

(keeping in mind that I initally wrote this on Oct 26, and Ep 9 hadn’t come out yet. I still haven’t seen it anyway, because I don’t speak Japanese so I’m waiting on subs.)

Okay, so Sougo's definitely Not Good At Socializing, not with normal people. We can TELL that - he doesn't seem to have friends at school. This isn't just from the Fourze arc - there's pretty much nobody interacting with him at all during the first part of Ex-Aid’s arc, to the point where the nerd he winds up with in the gym closet is surprised to see him. One of our first introductions to Sougo is him getting judo flipped to knock some sense into him about the whole "I'mma be a king" thing - and he compliments the guys technique and offers him a job when he makes it.

So he's not good at direct interactions with people, at least average, baseline humans.

But what about indirect interactions?

But he covered for the gamer in Ex-Aid part 1 - Sougo blocked the teachers view of inside the closet, so only he got caught trying to have a private lunch. The gamer classmate wasn't caught. (I mean, there's the Another Ex-Aid problem, but that's a whole different issue. And since Sougo was there, he was able to get help right away.)

He's definitely book-dumb, at least so far as we've heard with academics. Tuskuyomi says as much - his only good subject is history. He was able to tell they were in the Edo period pretty much right away. I dunno if this is a Japanese thing that 'yup, time travel means we're definitely going to be in the Edo period because that's just how it happens', but it might be that he recognized it right off.

And in Edo, when the guys were getting into a fight, what was his go-to method? Asking them politely to stop fighting. (What was Tsukuyomi's aim in shoving him forward, anyway? That's been bugging me - how could she have used that to see if the kid who hadn’t realized he was holding a ridewatch was the evil overlord she assumes he is?) But asking them  to stop doesn't work - technically. But they work together to toss him in the river, and walk away laughing, as friends. Like Sougo basically said, "They're not fighting anymore, are they?"

He broke so many rules of time travel at the end of the Wizard arc - ‘don't meet yourself’ being key among them - but he took the simple approach to finding out if the guy was Another Wizard - he asked. And since, if i remember correctly, the year was hidden under Another Wizard’s cape, he asked the woman when it was that things changed.

In Fourze'n'Faiz, wasn't he the one to point out the fact that the Another RIders have their years on them? He noticed Fourze's year before Geiz did, I think. Sougo's good at making sure Geiz goes along with the plans, too, however loose the definition of 'plan' may be. "Well, if you want to make sure I don't turn evil, you should probably come with me to this magic show, ya know, just in case."

It's not like he anticipated Another Wizard, but Geiz wound up being the one to remember that Wizard existed to begin with, as opposed to Tsukuyomi, who is the one carrying the data-pad. Convincing Geiz to come along to the hospital is how they got into Another Ex-Aids Game World - Geiz knows German, and there's no way Sougo could have anticipated either that or that Emu wrote a note in German in the first place. (Emu stop with the codes man I get it you're clever but oh god at least this one was in pencil)

We might not be looking at Emu or Eiji levels of 'better to be underestimated' and 'beware the kind ones' here, at least, not completely or not yet.

We might be dealing with a variant of Jinno's "You wind up feeling really guilty about deceiving him so you try to live up to what he thinks you could be."

(( An addition from original draft, since I’ve seen the W V-Cinemas now: That might be more apt a comparison than I first thought, actually. Jinno did really well in the fight in that warehouse in the Accel special - the only real hit he took from the mooks was at the end, when one basically sucker-punched him. He was beating them down with the power of slapstick. “Crouching moron, hidden badass” indeed - what brought him down was a GUN, he didn’t really stand a chance there, but unarmed combat? For a guy we never really saw in a fight in the series, he put up a good fight.

And again with the guy from Ep 1, Sougo was thrown onto his back, on cement - and didn’t seem more than a little winded. The Drivers seem to instill a basic sense of fighting competency to anyone who wears them - Jonouchi from Gaim, anyone? Emu and Nico? Takeru? But Sougo hadn’t put one on yet - didn’t even have the blank RideWatch, IIRC. Noodle-arms McGee probably shouldn’t have taken that as well as he did. ))

He doesn’t seem to have goals in half of his actions, but Sougo IS still coming up with plans when he needs to. Some of them seem to involve a fair amount of "LucasArts Point-and-click Adventure Game" logic, but they ARE plans.

He got Geiz and Woz to listen to him at the same time - and they had been literally fighting the episode before, and clearly dislike each other.

“You’re from the future, so you have one of those phones, right?” (Wait. How did Sougo know what number to call. Did. Did Woz have Geiz programmed in? They were friends, or at least allies, once upon a future. Was Geiz in Woz’s speed dial?)

(My concern that Woz is going to go the Alain/Parad variant of Yandere still stands - maybe without the literal possession stunts that they both pulled, but he definitely seems to be heading down that route.)

In ep 5, Sougo tosses himself down the stairs, so that Tsukuyomi and Geiz can get into the nurses office - and he doesn't tell them that it means they'll have access to the computer, so they don't have to hack one, but they figure it out as soon as the nurse leaves.

Ep 4: "I know your son is unwell, but this guy works at the same hospital as this one genius surgeon and can probably help you out with that." This is combined with what is technically foreknowledge, with what Hiiro had said in 2018, but Sougo is currently in 2016 - and Emu has known Hiiro for like three days, four max. Geiz arrived literally DURING episode 2. Clever, clever Emu, who just met both Hiiro AND this strange, skinny boy, and doesn't know the circumstances of the distraught father who had become Another Ex-Aid, catches on quickly.

The question really is, how much of Sougo's plans working is all chance, how much is him reading people, and how much is things all going according to keikaku?  (And who is the one with the keikaku in the first place?)

Because this is pretty clearly a genuinely good kid we’re dealing with, and he doesn't seem to have a mean bone in his body. (oh, look, another Emu and Eiji parallel...) But his recent encounters with Woz indicate that he's getting pretty genre savvy - if he wasn’t already - he's just USED to Woz appearing out of nowhere at this point, and is only surprised by it when the guy shows up directly behind him. He’s not surprised because Woz appeared, but because of the location. (Woz, how did you get upstairs? When did you get upstairs? WHY did you get upstairs? Please stop teleporting sir, my yandere concerns only grow when you keep doing that.)

“If you’re on my side, then let me do this my way.” Sougo says this to the man that keeps appearing out of nowhere, presented his driver on a velvet pillow (wtf), and heralds his every action as Zi-O. He says this to a man who he has seen stop a punch from Another Fourze because he was going to interrupt Sougo’s transformation - and Sougo is sassing him and using the drive that Woz has to support his overlord against him.

How many steps ahead is Sougo thinking? No one in show seems to know. We certainly can’t tell.

It’s bad enough I don’t trust your great-uncle, kid. Don’t make me not trust you, too.

[magicmastered]

Plot Holes in Thor: Ragnarok

If you don’t want to see criticism of Thor: Ragnarok, I suggest that you a) don’t read this, b) filter your tags, c) block me, or d) some combination of the above, instead of complaining in my notes. Then again, if you’ve spent any time on my blog, you know that.

Now....

I’ve already addressed that what with contradictory backstories and nonsensical characterizations, Thor: Ragnarok doesn’t seem like part of the MCU. As it turns out, those aren’t the film’s only failings. Ragnarok is loaded with plot-hole after plot-hole. Loaded. Some of them come from continuity from other movies. Some of them are completely within Ragnarok itself. Either way, the plot of this movie is a mess.

How many plot holes? In no particular order, here’s all the ones I’ve thought of....

1. How did Thor get to Muspelheim? He said he hadn’t used the Bifrost in a while, he can’t teleport or make portals, and we don’t see a spaceship anywhere when he comes to surface level. What happened?

2. What’s with Thor’s sudden disinterest in the Infinity Stones? He was pretty urgent about finding them in AOU. Now he just...doesn’t care, and is off investigating some recurring dream he’s been having.

3. “I thought my father killed you, like, half a million years ago.” What? Odin’s father Bor was king 5,000 (or 10,000, I’m not sure) years ago, wasn’t he? That’s what it says in TDW. How was Odin around so long before that? That doesn’t make sense.

4. The prophecy in Thor’s dreams involves uniting Surtur’s crown and the Eternal Flame to destroy Asgard. With that in mind, why does Thor proceed to bring Surtur’s crown to Asgard and send it to the Weapons Vault, where the Eternal Flame is kept?

5. When did Heimdall get banished? He was clearly still there in AOU, when Thor last called him, or Thor wouldn’t have been surprised to see Skurge controlling the Bifrost.

6. Speaking of AOU. When Thor called Heimdall then, where’d he go if not to Asgard? It sounded like he was going back to Asgard to find answers then. By the sound of it, he hasn’t been there since TDW. This is never addressed.

7. Where’s Sif? Apparently (according to Kevin Feige, I think) Loki banished her as Odin. Why? Did she get suspicious? Did she do something he didn’t like? Why does no one even mention her?

8. The Avengers are now “too corporate”. Huh? He hasn’t been around them since AOU, and he only left to investigate the Infinity Stones. Why are they suddenly “too corporate”?

9. Minor point, but who operated the Bifrost while Skurge was getting his “stuff”? He couldn’t have just left it open; that would’ve destroyed wherever he was.

10. How did Odin keep Hela a secret? There were obviously other Asgardians around when he was conquering the Nine Realms. What did he do to keep them quiet? Can he do mass memory-manipulation or something? Did he just have anyone he thought might tell killed?

11. Who’s Hela’s mom? She clearly wasn’t Frigga. No other wife of Odin was shown in the murals. Hela never mentioned her. Odin never mentioned her.

12. Where did Odin banish Hela to, anyway? To Hel? How does that work?

13. When was Hela banished? Odin only lost his eye a little over 1,050 years ago, at about the time of Loki’s birth. Presumably baby Thor was around at that point—and a whole lot of other Asgardians. She’s supposed to have been banished for so long that no one except Odin knows about her. So how does she know that Odin was missing an eye when it happened in what is (to Asgardians) recent history?

14. Why does Loki call the Bifrost back to Asgard when Hela’s within range? As I’ve seen someone put it before, this is like running into your house to escape a robber or murderer and leaving your door open. It’s not that hard to figure out.

15. How did Hulk get to Sakaar? Did he fly the Quinjet into a wormhole or something? How would it not have gotten torn apart? Valkyrie’s ship is made for space; it can go through some of the wormholes on Sakaar—but only some of them. Others can destroy it. The Quinjet isn’t meant for space travel. It’s just for transport on Earth. Wouldn’t it make sense for it to have been destroyed by a wormhole instead of just going right through it?

16. How did Loki not know that Hulk was the Grandmaster’s champion? There’s a massive sculpture of Hulk’s head on that tower, and Loki’s been there a couple weeks. It’d be hard not to notice. Add to that, the Grandmaster’s not shy about his games. Wouldn’t he have mentioned “his beloved champion” at some point?

17. When Hela’s making herself an army, she resurrects the fallen soldiers she led when she and Odin were conquering the Nine Realms. Then she completely ignores the horde of Einherjar that she’d just killed. Wouldn’t it make sense to zombify them too? That’d make a bigger army, wouldn’t it? Why does she ignore them?

18. “I thought all the Valkyries had died gruesome deaths.” Mostly they did. Hela killed all but one. Except nobody except Odin knew about Hela. So who did Loki think had killed the Valkyries? Why would Odin allow people to tell stories about the Valkyrie when that would inevitably raise uncomfortable questions as to where they all went? What was his official story?

19. Hela’s urgency in finding the Bifrost sword. Is that now the only way to operate the Bifrost? Odin and Loki have both used Gungnir to open the Bifrost before. Does that not work anymore? Does Hela not know about that? Is it a recent addition? Or is she just ignoring it so she has an excuse to go hunt down the rebels?

20. “The reward was simply too great.” The Grandmaster never mentioned a reward when he ordered Loki and Valkyrie to bring in Thor and Hulk. He said that he’d woken up that morning thinking about a public execution. Basically, one of them would bring in Thor and Hulk, and the other would get killed. Nothing about any money or reward. So why does Loki say he’s betraying Thor for a reward?

21. Thor and co. took down the obedience disk system when they were starting the rebellion. Then Thor puts an obedience disk on Loki and it still works. How? Does that disk have its own individual system or something?

22. How does Loki not pass out from the obedience disk? It makes Thor pass out within settings. As some have suggested, does it have different settings? Does Loki have a higher pain threshold than Thor after his time with Thanos? Why doesn’t Thor notice this?

23. Thor leaving Loki in the hangar with the obedience disk. He couldn’t possibly know that Loki was going to get out of it at any point. Loki could’ve gotten killed. No telling what would’ve happened. Did Thor just not care?

24. The Grandmaster and Topaz came into the hangar to escape the rebellion. Loki is also in the hangar, incapacitated by the obedience disk. How do they not see him? He’s not exactly hidden or anything.

25. Does Gungnir suddenly echo through all of Asgard when dropped a little to the floor? Before it only really echoed in the throne room itself, and served as a signal to the Destroyer. Can it now be heard all the way from the mountains? Apparently so.

26. More on Gungnir. Loki and Odin have used it to shoot blasts before. Thor uses it only as a spear/staff. Wouldn’t he want to use its full abilities to fight Hela? Does he not know how to make it blast like Loki and Odin do? Can Gungnir only blast when Odin’s alive or something?

27. Why does Loki come back to Asgard after Thor basically told him that he wasn’t quite good enough as he was, and that he had to do what Thor said to be good enough? Historically, Loki doesn’t take rejection well. And Thor just left him getting his blood superheated for an unknown length of time. Is he simply that loyal to Asgard? If he’s still that loyal, why did he try to stop Thor from going back in the first place?

28. “You’re late.” How did Thor know Loki was going to come back? He had no way of knowing that no one would find Loki when he left him incapacitated in the hangar. For all he knew the Grandmaster or Topaz or some of the Sakaaran guards could’ve found Loki and executed him for killing some of the other guards.

29. Where’s the rest of Asgard’s population? Asgard’s got an army big enough to control nine Realms. That size of an army would need a big population to support it. Heimdall’s not leading that big of a population. Where’d they all go? Did Hela kill them all? Wasn’t she only killing rebels? They can’t all have rebelled. Were they all still in the city? Does that mean Thor and Loki basically killed their own people via Surtur?

30. WHY did Heimdall not see Thanos’s ship coming? Wasn’t he supposed to be looking ahead for danger? Doesn’t that massive ominous-looking ship carrying an omnicidal cult count as danger?

Wow. Ragnarok’s plot would be shaky even as a standalone. With the rest of the MCU around it? It shatters.

@lucianalight @mastreworld @lokiloveforever @miskiett Am I missing any?

[dramionediscussion]

Thanks Lisa and Anon for answering! I don’t think I really disagree with either of you. I think, we share quite similar views, or at least something quite close to each other. Those answers got me thinking, and gave me a lot of food for thought. It’s not exactly the first time, I’ve pondering this. It always happens, when I am trying to find AU Dramione fics (semi-regular occurrence. I especially enjoy regency Dramione, which compliments HP and the pairing marvelously. As I see it, HP is unconsciously reminiscent of and models certain aspects of wizarding world after Victorian and Edwardian Great Britain). I just cannot help myself with stuff like this.

I imagine, there aren’t many people who find something like this riveting to think about or discuss, so thank you for indulging me. After all, people get by splendidly, without ever considering what is the formal definition(s) of AU. In almost anything people can operate exceedingly well by just going with their their gut instincts (kind like, I know what AU is, when I see it serves people well).

I’ve seen roughly three different main interpretations for the term AU, each with some internal variations and nuances. Differences are mainly on how encompassing they are, as they tend to overlap and include each other, because they are formed from common basic principles. They are just applied differently, or more accurately it goes from broader to narrower, but broad definitions also include narrower ones.  

Also, there are more possible definitions, which could be derived from same principles, if one would on look at them entirely divorced from how they are actually used anywhere in the fandom. Just by looking at the word AU totally atomized, and then forming principle from it, and applying deductive-logic.

The first principle is canon divergence. Whatever AU is, it’s clearly related to divergence and alterations from canonical events, characterizations, and universe. The differences are mostly about how widely or narrowly this is applied. Sometimes also what exactly counts as canon, or what is believably canon compliant. The second principle seem to be avoiding redundancy, though this is applied a lot more randomly, and its usage seems to based mostly on conventions and popularity of certain tropes.

By redundancy I mean, that certain more commonly used tropes and descriptors often don’t use AU, because they are well-established terms by their own right, and they obviously by their own definitions are AUs. Like mentioned 8 Year, EWE, time travel, Marriage Law, creature fics like werewolves and veelas, and many others. Sometimes all non-canon pairings intrinsically are omitted in similar manner, but sometimes they are not. Like said, this seems to be more up to fandom conventions and mimesis, rather than applying logic rigidly from first principles.

By using these foundations, one could establish quite many similar but slightly different definitions, depending how HP universe / canon is understood. People seem to go with mostly with 2-4, but logically one could use 1 or 5 as well, but it’s impractical for other reasons. First one is broadest, and fifth is narrowest, and first includes all others within it, second everything except the first, and so on.

1. All fanfics are AUs. If HP universe / canon is understood very stridently as single chain of events and singular universe, which is authored only by JKR. Every fanfic forms its own universe, which will be slightly different from JKR’s one, by adding literary anything what wasn’t already in it. Even if a fic doesn’t contradict JKR directly in a knowable way, but it still won’t be the same, because we cannot know if events or characters would’ve taken that exact particular path, or if any description or characterization would exactly match the one true timeline and universe. We can only asses whether something is more believable or likely to happen in canon, but we cannot ever ultimately confirm them, because the final reference point is JKR’s works.

As an example, saying that Harry Potter drinks a cup of tea at Burrow at midday 2.10.2015 might not be exactly contradicted by anything in canon, but the event itself isn’t canonical, and it is contradicted by saying that Harry Potter drinks a cup of tea at Grimmauld Place at midday 2.10.2015. Both are equally true and likely to happen canonically, yet neither is canonical event. They are differing alternate universes, despite being about equally compatible with canon. If canon is understood as single non-contradictory universe with single timeline with exact properties, then all fanfic is AU.

2. All fics which diverge from or directly contradict canon are AUs. In this definition antonym for AU is canon compliant, and every fic can be classified as either AU or canon compliant. This is quite common definition out there. It certainly is workable and there’s nothing wrong in using it. However, like with all definitions it’s not entirely free of problems and ambiguity, especially how it’s applicable and to what it fits exactly. Some say that adding anything to already covered timeline is AU, even if it could believably happen between gaps not covered by canon. So, in order to not be AU, it has to set before or after HP heptalogy*. You could say, that we cannot know anybody else’s inner-voice or mindscape except Harry’s, thus anything written from any other perspective is AU.

Most people can agree that certain events are canon, and that’s fairly uncomplicated (Sirius dies at the end of OftP, Bill and Fleur have their wedding at Burrow, etc), but almost everything else gets quite murky very fast. So, if this definition includes anything beyond those canonical events, like characterizations, descriptions and mechanics of how HP universe functions exactly, then it can be fairly difficult to determinate whether a fic is AU or not. As almost everything except those canonical events are easily contested and ambiguous to being with. Usually there’s multiple equally plausible interpretations for almost anything not covered explicitly or in great detail in canon (sometimes even when they are covered extensively).

Personally, I am not too found of this definition. Not because aforementioned difficulties, but because it’s too broad and encompasses too much. All non-canon pairings are AU as an example is just too large portion of fanfics, because we only use AU in context of fanfics, thus it’s better that the terminology reflects and helps us to distinguish and categorize fanfics. Multitude of fanfiction has grown so much beyond canon, and spiraled so far and wide, that terminology which is so pivotally anchored to canon is more detrimental than helpful.   

3. All fics which diverge or contradict canon in some major or significant way are AUs. This is something I see used a lot, and I believe this definition of AUs was what the person in Dramioneasks was referring to. Typically this means absence of some major characters, such as Voldemort or Dumbledore, or that major canonical events are changed, such as Wizarding Wars are have starkly different outcomes, or that golden trio never became friends, or main characters are sorted into different houses. Also, widely different characterizations (Evil Harry or Hermione, or good Voldemort) are counted as well.  

I found this to be quite solid definition, and this is my personal threshold of what I consider to be AU. Ofc, its not unproblematic either, because what exactly counts as major or significant is very open-ended. There probably is very strong inter-subjective consensus on certain matters, like everybody probably agrees that Harry, Voldemort and Hermione are major characters without any doubt. Also, they’ll probably agree that Oliver Wood is a minor character, but what about Draco, Neville or Luna? How about if or when Harry joins the Gryffindor quidditch team. Does alterations in stuff like that count as AU? Can many minor changes create a cumulative effect, in which the fic in question is so different from canon universe, that despite no major changes, it should still count as AU, because so many little things are different.

Quite a lot of characters, details and events fall into that gray zone, so often it can be quite difficult to determinate AU by this definition, because so many things fall into that gray area of what is exactly significant change and what isn’t, and from what perspective. The only way to really determinate something like significance is an inter-subjective consensus by the fandom, and that might be either uncharted or too arbitrary for some people.

4. Only fics which change canon or the established universe in some foundational or fundamental way(s) are AUs. These are fics, which are not set in a same timeline at all (at the end of the 21th century UK), such as medieval, regency, prohibition, and they might only have slight parallels to canonical events. Also if some common defining elements such as presence magic or muggles are entirely absent, or changed beyond recognition (everyone’s magical, or nobody is, or muggles are aware of wizarding world, and actively hostile towards it). No Hogwarts at all, or the entire wizarding world is modeled differently, etc.

I see this used quite a lot as well, and these tend to be automatically labeled as AUs by almost everybody. It’s quite narrow and specific, thus it’s not very problematic, except it borders of being too narrow or rare to be really useful. Personally, this is mainly what I am seeking for, when I look for AUs, but I can see that it doesn’t cover enough ground for many. This is what I am primary thinking, when I see tag AU, but I can see why including previous definition is necessary. Problems are quite similar as in previous, the similar ambiguity of what is foundational or fundamental, like in beofre. But I believe there’s way more common ground and shared understanding with this one. It’s very rare to see a fic, which would qualify as something like this, but what isn’t described or labeled as AU.  

5. Only fics which change some determined core component(s) are AUs. This is merely taking similar logic one step further, and saying that some specific element(s) is absolutely crucial and at the core of HP (like the presence of magic), and as long as a fic fulfills that condition, it isn’t AU. Nobody actually uses this definition, but I added it as more as demonstration of logic and principle, and how it can be applied further, exactly like the first definition (logically totally sound and sensible, but empirically mindless and useless).

Ofc, one could use this logic even further to either direction. Sort of logic ad absurdum, to a point in which, either every Harry Potter text out there (even those published by JKR) are actually AUs. or nothing is. Already not everybody considers everything JKR has said or published as canon, and by restricting what counts as canon one could get to a point that nothing actually written is really canon (something like real canon is what JKR intended HP to be, but failed to accomplish by her writing). Or that only one particular fic counts as AU, or that no fanfics are AUs, because by labeling them HP fics in some manner is meaningful enough to consider them just as a re-interpretation of multifaceted canon.

The first and fifth definitions are closing into the absurd territory, and I’ve not seen anybody using them. Words are more than stiff logical proposition, and there’s other considerations, which sometimes overrides internal logical consistency (reasons relating to things like aesthetic, social, and utilitarian concerns). Like the first definition would be totally unproductive and redundant. AU is always used in the context of fanfiction, in order to distinguish different fics from each other, thus a term which contains all fanfiction is tautological and useless for that purpose. Also, too narrow or specific terms are not useful either, because they pile on unnecessary accurate and too specific information, which ends up distracting people by cluttering them with overabundance of details and needless complexity (human mind is nothing if not finite after all).

*What are canonical texts of HP is can of worms I am not touching. Most agreed consensus is probably that at least HP heptalogy is canon, so for purposes of this that’s what I am sticking by. There’s some differing opinions about CC, Fantastic Beasts, her online commentary, Pottermore stuff, interviews, and QAs. I’ve only met one person who didn’t consider the whole HP heptalogy as canonical (because he was convinced that books 5-7 were written by a ghost writer, and they didn’t count). Everything else seem to be quite disputed.

[terramythos]

TerraMythos' 2020 Reading Challenge - Book 2 of 26

Title: City of Saints and Madmen (Ambergris #1) (2002)

Author: Jeff VanderMeer

Genre/Tags: Weird, Short Story Collection (kinda), Horror, Fantasy, Metafiction, Mushroompunk (yeah), LGBT Protagonist, First Person, Second Person (sort of), Third Person, Unreliable Narrator.

Rating: 8/10 

Date Began: 1/7/2020

Date Finished: 1/17/2020

This edition of City of Saints and Madmen is a collection of 4 short stories and a massive “appendiX” of other stories/notable worldbuilding pieces, all of which explore a fictional city called Ambergris. Ambergris’ world is not unlike our own, with technology that somewhat mirrors ours, but is nevertheless distinctly surreal and fantastical. One Ambergris’ most notable elements are creatures called the gray caps (or “mushroom dwellers”), who are basically humanoid mushroom people that play a role in each of the stories. 

More details and a look at each of the stories under the cut. 

Surely, after all, it is more comforting to believe that the sources on which this account is based are truthful, that this has not all, in fact, been one huge, monstrous lie? And with that pleasant thought, O Tourist, I take my leave for good. 

I’ve read VanderMeer before-- the Southern Reach trilogy (which he’s most well known for) is one of my favorite series of all time. While I haven’t seen it yet, the film Annihilation is loosely based on the first book, and I hear it’s quite good as well. This will be my first foray into other stuff he’s written.

While this may put some people off, one thing I really liked about this book was it DIDN’T paint a clear picture of Ambergris. Each of the stories focus on particular details their respective protagonists find important, so the view we have of the city is always incomplete. There are tenuous and sometimes contradictory connections between the stories that often made me wonder what’s true/real, a recurring theme throughout the stories. Several of the stories are works of fiction within Ambergris, which skews perceptions even further. To me, all of this made the setting much more interesting, and the actual revelations more rewarding.

My personal favorite stories were The Hoegbotton Guide to the Early History of Ambergris, The Transformation of Martin Lake, King Squid, and The Cage. I’ll go into more detail on all the individual pieces under the cut, but rating them individually doesn’t much sense due to the weird format.

The Main 4 Stories 

Dradin, In Love 

An unsuccessful missionary priest named Dradin comes to Ambergris to plead assistance from a former mentor. However, when he spots an unknown woman through the window of a shop, he becomes convinced he is in love and becomes obsessed with her. As an event called the Festival of the Freshwater Squid looms, the city itself begins to change in startling ways. 

From what I can tell skimming other reviews, this one trips people up because Dradin is just... a piece of shit. He’s terrible. There are some sympathetic traits to him -- he’s a fish out of water with no one to help him, he had a traumatic childhood, etc. But the more you learn about him the worse he becomes. He believes he’s superior to pretty much everyone he meets, has committed various atrocities you gradually learn about in the story, and he believes he’s in love with someone he’s never met and spends a great deal of the story fantasizing about her and their future relationship. It’s pathetic-- but it seemed pretty clear to me I’m not supposed to like him, so I read the story knowing that. 

Anyway, this wasn’t my favorite, but it is an interesting introduction to Ambergris. It’s from the perspective of an outsider, so alongside Dradin you learn things about the city such as the various religious sects, the gray caps, and the Festival. It is jarring when the Festival starts out as this whimsical parade and then goes full Purge for the rest of the story. That feeling pretty much lasts the rest of the book. 

The Hoegbotton Guide to the Early History of Ambergris 

The conceit of this one is that it’s a travel pamphlet written for tourists to provide a quick rundown of Ambergris’ early history. But the writer Duncan Shriek is so obsessed and passionate about the subject that he goes into way more detail than necessary. He also makes extensive use of the footnotes (often longer than the actual page) to (1) insult the reader, who he assumes is a stupid tourist who will skip them, (2) go on long rants about various other historians, and (3) go into intricate, intense detail or speculation about seemingly innocuous things in the main text. Honestly relatable. 

Personally, I love a good history text, so a well-done fictional one is lots of fun. The stylistic choices are engaging and a great characterization tool. The “story” really came together for me in the third act. Super eerie and surreal, and a lot of details about the gray caps and a vast underground kingdom-- but there’s still a sense of unreality, because the account exploring this may or may not be a fake. Anyway, I really enjoyed this one. 

The Transformation of Martin Lake

This one is technically two stories at once. Martin Lake is an unknown painter looking to make his big break in Ambergris, when he receives an anonymous letter inviting him to a beheading. Alternating with these novel sections are excerpts written by art critic Janice Shriek (recognize the name?) which analyze the creepy and grotesque paintings made by Martin Lake-- Ambergris’ most famous artist. 

This piece was by far my favorite of the main four. Janice evaluates various paintings created by Lake and speculates on the meanings behind them. The Gothic horror story sections star Martin, and the events within reveal the true origins of each painting. The horror story is very creepy and well written, and I really like Martin more than most of the protagonists. It’s also amusing to see just how incorrect Janice’s analyses are. Overall this was a very well structured and entertaining read. (Side note: to whom it may concern, this is where the LGBT Protagonist tag comes from.)

Also, Janice and her brother are apparently the central characters in the next book? I enjoyed both of them so I'm excited for that.

The Strange Case of X

A psychiatrist interviews a mental patient known simply as X, who believes he has invented the world of Ambergris, and he’s actually from a place called Chicago. 

I'm torn on this one because I feel I accidentally ruined it for myself. The premise sounds like a pretty cliche setup, but there's a  twist at the end that keeps it interesting. The only problem is I went into the story assuming that twist was the case. It's not even like I guessed it or picked up on hints or whatever... I just assumed the twist for whatever reason, so I got to the reveal and was just like "...yeah?" 

Anyway, this one’s a good read, just not my favorite. X is obviously a fictionalized version of VanderMeer. I didn’t find him as important in the context of this story, but notes found in his cell make up the appendiX. I *did* really enjoy the story excerpt within this one that starts like a children’s book with very simple sentences, then slowly evolves into more complex language over time until it’s like the rest of the book. The swap between third and first-person in the story, then the narrator commending himself on how clever he is, was pretty funny and good characterization. 

The appendiX 

Dr V’s Note + X’s Notes 

Technically this is 2 “stories” but they’re presented together. Dr V’s note is just an outline of the stories in the appendiX, which are apparently various notes, pamphlets, writing journal excerpts, and pieces of paper he found in X’s cell. He speculates on the meaning behind some of them. It’s a handy reference that I turned back to a few times. X’s Notes are literally just some misc author’s notes/ideas. The final note, though, draws back to the surreal scene I mentioned from The Hoegbotton Guide, which implies it is in fact real. 

The Release of Belacqua 

This one is about an actor named Belacqua who’s been typecast into a specific role, which he plays every single day. One evening at his hotel room home, he gets a super weird phone call from a woman looking for someone named Henry. Based on what happens in the story, I’m guessing Belacqua was probably supposed to be a character in one of the stories but got scrapped, and this story is literally about scrapping him. It was kinda meh for me. 

King Squid 

No, I’m not transcribing the entire title of this one -- it’s, uh, quite long. This one is sort of like The Hoegbotton Guide, except it’s a biological treatise written by a man named Frederick Madnok about the King Squid, which is Ambergris’ main economic staple. Like The Hoegbotton Guide, the author goes into intricate detail on what he considers important and makes extensive use of footnotes. The thing is, Madnok is clearly going through a nervous breakdown as he writes, and the footnotes and tangents grow weirder over time, often delving into vague memories and details about his home life as a child. 

I think this one really shines when you get to the bibliography and notice it’s longer than the rest of the story and seems to list every single book Madnok has ever read. Personally I found a lot of the titles funny, but you could be forgiven for skipping them. However, certain titles have side notes, supposedly to point out notable things about them. Some of these, however, are disturbing and clearly unrelated to the title. Eventually, Madnok goes into a full breakdown and starts to describe himself transforming into a squid -- a phenomenon he described earlier in the text. His breakdown, juxtaposed with the absolutely immaculate formatting of the story, really made this one stand out to me. 

The Hoegbotton Family History

The Hoegbottons are a merchant family. Their company Hoegbotton & Sons is basically the Wal-Mart of Ambergris and is present through multiple stories. This text is interesting for some context for the next story, but not particularly notable on its own. V’s notes at the beginning say as much. 

The Cage

One of the early Hoegbottons visits a mansion which has been condemned after an attack by the gray caps to purchase the remaining assets to resell. Among the items he finds a strange, seemingly empty birdcage which he can’t stop obsessing over. 

This was my favorite story by a long shot. It was insanely creepy and surreal with the best visuals in the book. There are references everywhere to fungi and decay, and there’s something very odd going on with Hoegbotton’s blind wife that defies explanation. And obviously, the cage itself and what’s going on with it is very disturbing. Contains very very very good body horror which is apparently just A Thing for me. Of all the stories this one had the most Southern Reach-y vibe. 

In The Hours After Death 

This one describes what happens to a man after he dies, and it’s not quite what you think. It’s a short piece and I liked the writing; very melancholy and surreal. It’s one of those stories that just incidentally takes place in Ambergris, but would be a good story outside of it, too. Until the end, that is, which ties it back to the gray caps in another creepy way. Thanks. 

The Man Who Had No Eyes 

This one is notable because apparently, in the original release, it was written entirely in code. You had to use page numbers, paragraph numbers, and lines in the rest of the book to decode it. Because this edition is an updated re-release which shifted the pages and format around, it doesn’t work anymore. Instead Dr. V provides a decoded version. However, some of the words are wrong, and the final paragraph is still in code (supposedly because V was afraid to keep going). I had to look up the story online to get the full picture. 

Anyway, I suspect this story is foreshadowing for stuff that’s going to happen in future installments. It describes the gray caps taking the city back over and flooding it, and how they mutilate a writer living in the city so he has to find alternative ways to keep writing. It mentions the goddamn cage again. It’s kind of fever-dream creepy. 

The Exchange 

Depicts a short story about the Festival of the Freshwater Squid (remember that?). Apparently this story is provided by Hoegbotton & Sons for people who purchase a safe house to avoid getting straight-up murdered during the Festival. The story itself is entertaining and has a great twist at the end, but what’s interesting is someone’s made extensive annotations to the piece describing the fallout between the author and illustrator. I found it most fun to read the base story, then go back and read the annotations-- it felt like I was seeing the same story from very different perspectives. 

Learning to Leave the Flesh 

This one’s referenced in The Strange Case of X. Unlike every other story, this actually doesn’t take place in Ambergris, but our world. However, like The Strange Case of X mentions, details and names from Ambergris seemingly appeared in the story even though he had no recollection of putting them there. 

Honestly, it’s an OK work of fiction but was probably my least favorite. Mostly it felt like lengthy flavor text for a story I’d already read. The ending was pretty good, though. 

The Ambergris Glossary + A Note on Fonts  

Putting these two together. The Glossary actually answered a lot of questions I had and clarified some events from the various stories. (”What the fuck is with the Living Saints. What the absolute fuck-- oh.”) It’s implied that some of the entries are written by Duncan Shriek. Hi, again. 

A Note on Fonts describes the various fonts from different stories as if it’s a wine tasting, which was hilarious. 

[harmonic-psyche]

The Finalysis: Ask The Dreadnought Crew

Hellooo again, everyone!

I apologize that it took so long to finish this, compared to my previous Finalysis post of @askgoopi characters. But now that I did, let’s dive right in! Here are the Myers-Briggs personality types of 14 original characters from @askthedreadnoughtcrew:

If the terminology is confusing, see my MBTI Basics tag. Maybe I should have included that in past personality analysis posts. Also, I have not managed to make the pictures show up in high-res on my blog... Anyway, as in the previous Finalysis posts, I explain my reasoning for giving each character the type that I did below the break:

Atlas: Probably INTP.

Since Atlas "is pretty lazy and likes doing nothing," he is probably not a Te- or Fe-dominant, and probably lacks high Si. Te and Fe are known for leadership and motivating action, while Si is generally known for consistency and hard work. His high patience level makes Se unlikely — especially since he does not react to his surroundings, even when they are on fire. Se characteristically is very quick in reacting to the outside environment, whereas iNtuitors are often too stuck in their heads. On that note, his "most appropriate TV Tropes" include "Beware the Silly Ones" and "Brilliant But Lazy," which are both linked to Ne's eccentric cleverness.

Atlas’s dominant function is less clear than his tertiary. On the one hand, he is "The Anti-Nihilist," which shows exactly the kind of positive, hopeful individualist existentialism that often flows from Fi. On the other, his totally apathetic and non-reactive demeanor suggests Ti, whereas INFPs are often far more emotional and reactive. 

Breeze: Probably ENTP.

Ever since childhood, this neon yellow "nerd" programmer "[a]lways tried to bend the rules and find loopholes," showing Ne's nonconformism and Ti's love of logically deconstructing socially accepted rules. Both of those traits have continued and only increased through her love of hacking. NTPs are probably disproportionately common to programmers like her and hackers in particular. As a "Playful Hacker," Breeze shows mischievous Ne instead of serious Ni. Her "weaknesses" include that she "[e]xpects everything to go perfectly and doesn't have a backup plan in case something fails," showing her tendency to think in theoretical (N) instead of practical (S) terms. It also shows that she prefers logic (Ti) to logistics (Te). The "pride," love of "learning new things," and "[s]omewhat high" patience level that Breeze displays further support a Ne-dominant typing: _NTPs in particular show high pride, N-types are generally more fond of learning, and Se-types tend to have lower patience.

I first considered that Breeze could be an INTP because her Charahub calls her "sometimes gloomy," "[s]uspicious of anyone who she's never met," and "sometimes The Cracker," i.e., a "computer criminal." However, she smiles in most of the posts she appears in (as of 2018-08-09; contrast Ti-dominants like Ayjo and Malik), so she is an extraverted edgelord. Also, @askthedreadnoughtcrew said that "I don't think that The Cracker really describes her well - she's more of a Playful Hacker (she only hacks for fun, and almost never with malicious intents)" (PMs 2018-07-27). Even when I thought her an INTP, I noticed that Breeze is surprisingly social and optimistic: the glass is "half full," she is "close friends" with "everyone except for Weldon and Davan," and she "want[s] to get married[,] ... have kids, [and] raise a family." While the half-full/half-empty distinction probably shows a weak connection to personality type at most, an INTP typing cannot easily explain it or Breeze's wide friendship circle.

I next considered that Breeze could be an ENFP, since she seemed to show Fi when explaining that her crew is not under Giegue's authority: "I’ve heard that Giegue is a huge jerk. And we don’t take orders from jerks, hell no." However, this could stem from Ne's nonconformity and the influence of tertiary Fe. But the most powerful evidence against ENFP is her distrust of strangers (PMs 07-27):

"Breeze can be suspicious of strangers or others that she doesn't know well or at all, but once she feels close enough to someone and knows that they aren't a threat, she becomes a lot more relaxed and trusting of that person. She just takes a while to warm up to others."

E_F_ types are generally cheerful, friendly, and trusting even to strangers (see Iso and Manjula), and ENFPs are particularly infamous for over-trusting. I could not even try to explain Breeze's suspicion of strangers using an ENFP typing, since I have said that other characters (e.g. Spooks and Static) are ENFP largely because they are not suspicious of strangers (based on Bayesian logic). I apologize for the length of this explanation, but of all the @askthedreadnoughtcrew characters, Breeze confused me the most. Still, an ENTP typing can reconcile the ostensibly contradictory traits which confused me before. 

CJ: Seems like an ISTP.

When an anon asked what he was planning to pick up at the post office, CJ said "that's none of your business." That reply shows the independence, suspicion of others, and blunt rudeness common to ISTPs. The same blunt rudeness characterized his reply when Ryn asked for help finding Clay and Jaxter. After CJ said that he did not know and criticized Ryn's search strategy, CJ abruptly left without offering to help, which was "pretty rude." Both of these show the inferior Fe apathy for social norms. So does CJ's lack of concern that his loud music bothers his neighbor Lyra. All of these seem to indicate inferior Fe.

CJ's lack of eccentric, mischievous, or overtly intellectual tendencies shows no evidence for Ne, whereas his bluntness seems to indicate auxiliary Se. However, I have not seen a general description of CJ. I am inferring his personality only from his demeanor in a few scenes, so I have low confidence in calling him an ISTP.

Clay: Probably ISTJ.

Since Clay is "constantly, but not always, emotionless," he is almost certainly not a Feeling type. Usually he comes across as calm, quiet, and indifferent, indicating I_T_. His cynical pessimism (the "glass" is "100% empty") indicates the same. As a "Bookworm" whose favorite activity is reading and whose "favorite book" is "[a]ll of them," Clay is a nerd prefers to spend his time on calm (I__J) instead of more exciting (E__P) activities — although he does consider life "boring." Yet fear may be one of his most often-felt emotions (a common problem of inferior Ne), as he is "[u]sually too scared to stand up for anything" and would "have a panic attack" if he suddenly transitioned to our world.

That leaves ISTJ or INTJ, with his fear making the former more likely. As Ni-dominants, INTJs are generally driven by some kind of grand plan for the future. However, "Clay really doesn't know what he's going to do with his life, and he doesn't particularly care that much, either. He just prefers to travel around with his crew and not have to think about the future" (PMs with @askthedreadnoughtcrew 2018-07-29). Clay is then an ISTJ which, although an unsurprising type for a gieeg who is commanding a crew, is ironic since he initially set off into space to escape from the gieeg leadership.

Davan: Almost certainly ESTP.

Davan "dislikes boring stuff, [and] people who boss him around," which shows stereotypical Se impatience and rebelliousness. He is a "very irresponsible mook with a mysterious past that likes to party a lot." It is very unlikely for Te-dominants to be irresponsible as a trait, and even less likely for them to be indifferent about it. The hardest part of Clay's daily rituals is "keeping Davan under control" since the mook is an impulsive pyromaniac. Davan "likes Partying, Clay, [and] annoying Clay." When asked whether he likes parties, Davan was not available to answer — because he was at a party. Parties provide the intense sensory and social stimulation that Se craves, which is why Se-dominants are often stereotyped as party animals. Crude language and crude humor are common to Se-dominants, and Davan is so crude that others try to keep him away from Ryn. The "coolest people he knows" are "me, myself, and I," displaying the flippant narcissism common to stereotypical E_TPs.

However, Davan's Se-dominance is not always a burden to the crew. It once saved all of their lives. When the Dreadnought was about to crash into a huge asteroid, all of the Starmen froze — but Davan jumped in and steered the ship to safety. Heroism may seem unlikely from someone so narcissistic and "very irresponsible." But when an unexpected emergency happens and needs someone to act fast, impulsive and down-to-earth Se-dominants can be counted on to save the day. Maybe "heroism" is too strong a word, since Davan may have only acted to save his own skin. But the fact remains that without his action, the ship and its crew would not have survived.

Deimos: Probably ISTJ.

This poor fellow is "usually gloomy all the time and doesn't like talking to people," showing introversion. His attitude towards life and love is "*shrug,*" showing an indifference to idealism and to relationships which suggests low iNtuition and Feeling functions. Similarly, the "most appropriate TV Tropes" to describe Deimos are "Sour Outside, Sad Inside [and] The Eeyore" (although only "sometimes"). All of those show the cynicism common to I_T_ types. "He can somehow always find the exact supplies that the crew of the Dreadnought need," which either shows the apparent instinct that ISTPs have for being a mechanic (compare Ayjo and Beams) or the ISTJ's excellent memory for practical details.

Indifference seems more likely among ISTPs than ISTJs, but besides that, his traits primarily show ISTJ. Since he "dislikes Nova's short temper" as well as "Atlas' laziness and bad jokes," he seems to prefer to keep others in line. The "kind of student" he would be if he "were to attend school" is a constantly sad kid who "doesn't try and somehow still gets straight A's." ISTPs, unlike ISTJs are not known for academic success because of the impatient, non-systematic high Se. Most importantly, Deimos is "a hard worker" because he "is usually the one who keeps the other starmen in check and makes sure they’re doing what they’re supposed to be doing" (PMs with @askthedreadnoughtcrew 2018-07-27). Enforcing (J) rather than resisting (P) the rules, and a strong work ethic, are probably the most significant noticeable difference between ISTJ and ISTP.

Gemini: Seems like an ISFP.

"Everyone on the Dreadnought is just a little scared of" this badass noodle "tough fighter" who "wouldn't hesitate to beat someone up" even as a child. Even then, she wanted to become a fighter later in life. Since she cultivates a persona of fear, she is probably neither E_F_ nor __FJ. Those types usually try to befriend — or at least act friendly towards — everyone (contrast Ryn).

Outwardly, she has a cold demeanor, smiling in only 1 out of the 9 posts she appeared in (as of 2018-08-04; contrast Ryn's 12 out of 21). A colder outward demeanor is more common among introverts and those without high Fe. From that and her toughness, "other people assume" that "she's rude."Yet she has a few things in common with Ryn: the thing that "brings [her] the most joy" is "[k]nowing that she's being helpful," she "usually" acts "kind to others," and she considers "[e]veryone except Davan" important to her. Kindness and the desire to help others, without Fe's warmth, show strong Fi. Her toughness shows strong Se — especially her kind of toughness. She likes fighting, but not from a desire to harm others. In fact, her favorite sparring partner is Jaxter, who is her partner if ya know what I mean the most important person in her life. Those strongly support ISFP.

It is a bit harder to explain why she is "a bit self-centered" and enjoys "boasting" with an ISFP typing, since narcissism is linked most closely to _NTP types. Maybe Fi sometimes makes her focus too much on herself, and boasting comes from Se's competitive instinct? Although her pride and occasional self-centeredness lowers my confidence in ISFP, that still seems like the most likely type.

Jaxter: Probably INFP, maybe INTP.

Perhaps the most eccentric and quirky member of the crew, Jaxter "Likes [q]uiet places, video games, [and] fixing things." Those completely solitary places/activities strongly suggest that Jaxter is an introvert. An eccentric and quirky yet muted personality usually shows auxiliary Ne (compare Loris, Niiue, and Origen). Also, Jaxter "panics a lot and is very clumsy and awkward." Clumsiness suggests a low Sensing function (contrast Gemini's physical competence), and social awkwardness suggests low/no Fe, although those are both weak associations. "Sloth" is the "deadly sin that best represents" him, which shows that he does not have high Si because that usually produces a strong work ethic (contrast Deimos and Saral). These all suggest IN_P.

While it is not stated explicitly, Jaxter is emotionally sensitive. His tendencies to panic show a high reactivity to stressful stimuli, ones that may not affect less sensitive others. Contrast his screaming, horrified reaction to the engine almost exploding with Atlas (INTP) not reacting at all to the engine actually exploding. Hair-trigger stress and fear reactions usually imply low Ne, a high Feeling function, or both. This fear combines with his shyness and social awkwardness to produce social sensitivity: he withdraws from social situations more often than others out of fear. For example, Jaxter "used to be pretty intimidated by Gemini," probably even more than is normal for the crew. I_T_ types disproportionately withdraw from social situations too, but usually because of apathy and annoyance (contrast Calliope, Malik, and Marie). Therefore, while I thought him an _NTP at first partially from his resemblance to Doc Brown, he is more likely an INFP.

Jett: Seems like an ISTP.

This bug flying a badass, maximally edgy, spike-covered Lil UFO shows apathy to the concerns of others — especially his neighbor Lyra, who he said "is SO annoying" because she complained about him blasting loud music for the "eleventh" time. His dismissive apathy shows low Fe: even if a high-Fe-user did not care, they would probably at least act as if they cared. Also, when Jett's roommate CJ said that he was going to the post office, Jett's comment showed the blunt tone and independence-focused mindset common to ISTPs: "Well, go for it. It’s not like I’m gonna try to stop you or something." While I cannot type Jett with confidence since he has no Charahub entry and so few posts (as of 2018-08-09), current evidence suggests ISTP.

Lyra: Seems like an _STP.

Lyra is extremely straightforward about her motives for working as Morgandy's assistant: "I do it for the money." The concise and blunt (Se), honest description of focusing on rational self-interest (Ti) supports _STP, as she later shows by often complaining about insufficient pay. Lyra has no patience for Morgandy's language humor, whereas N-types are more likely to enjoy that kind of humor and high Fe-types would hesitate to be so rude. She is also very annoyed, and evidently pissed off, by her neighbors' loud music. If not for Morgandy insisting on asking "POLITELY," Lyra might tell her neighbors "to shove their speakers up their asses," showing the _STP's irritability, crudeness, and lack of concern for politeness or social norms. Even with Morgandy's insistence, Lyra angrily yelled at the neighbors who proceeded not to care.

I have not seen clear evidence of introversion or extraversion, unfortunately, so I cannot assign Lyra a specific type. All of Lyra's posts suggest _STP, but since I have not seen very many of them (or a Charahub entry), I cannot claim high confidence in that conclusion.

Morgandy: Probably ENFP.

As the only "[h]yperactive, cheerful, and childish" gieeg from her blog, Morgandy is a bit unusual. Ever since she was a child, Morgandy was "[u]ltra-hyper and very eager to do everything." Her "annoyingly childish and hyper" tendencies suggest E__P (compare Vivek), and so does her chosen profession as an entertainer. Extraverts are usually more energetic, and Perceivers more spontaneous. Both traits are important in entertainment. The fact that Morgandy "dislikes nothing really" rules out E_TP, matching the stereotype that ENFPs love everything and everyone (compare Spooks). However, Morgandy is not afraid to trash-talk her assistant or brag about her own superiority, unlike many Fe-types who hate to ever be rude.

Morgandy "doesn't like to fight," which is more common for F-types (with notable exceptions including Gemini and other badass SFPs). Morgandy prefers non-confrontational solutions to problems, whereas T-types are more direct and confrontational. Like many iNtuitors, she enjoys making incredibly dumb jokes by playing with language (compare Static). While I have not seen much of her on the blog, what I have seen makes ENFP very likely.

Nova: Seems like an ESTJ.

This "Final Starman who ... always tries to be the best that he can, but usually ends up making a mess ... is determined and will not stop at achieving a goal." That kind of strong-willed focus and determination are most common to high Te and Si users. He has low patience, especially for Atlas's laziness and Deimos's moping. STJs have the least tolerance for laziness: Te values hard work on a practical level, Si does on a moral level, and Te is the least afraid of confrontation. His dislike of "glum Deimos" shows the difference between his extraversion and Deimos' introversion. Extraverts gain energy and motivation from the social environment, so E_T_ types are usually more affected by others' moods. His "bad habits" include "[y]elling" (especially at Atlas), a common one for EST_ types (compare Goopi). That makes ESFJ unlikely: ESFJs usually try to act friendly, and even when they are aggressive, they are almost always passive-aggressive instead of straightforward.

Even though he does not eat, he enjoys cooking. The sensory, detail-oriented, highly formulaic activity is probably enjoyed more by strong Si-users (compare Saral). Also, he has a strong respect for authority. More specifically, Clay is his "role model" and "most important person in [his] life." Strong Si-users are more likely than any other type to intuitively trust authority figures (compare Pia).

An ESTJ typing admittedly has a hard time explaining why Nova has a "fear of nobody liking him," since that is seems more closely linked to Feeling types. Maybe it has to do with his extraversion? Also, it seems odd that he would "never" "dare to kill someone," but perhaps that comes from his Si principles. While ESTJ still explains most of his personality as shown in his Charahub and his posts so far, I do not think that I have seen enough posts to type him with high confidence.

Rynault ("Ryn"): Almost certainly ENFJ.

This "cheerful and optimistic" gieeg "likes helping others" since it "brings him the most joy" out of any activity. Altruism is most common, or at least most explicit, among Fe-dominants. From childhood, he has been "[v]ery eager and optimistic." As mentioned above while discussing Gemini, he smiles a lot. All of that shows the cheery demeanor and upbeat attitude most common to E_F_ types (compare Iso, Spooks, and Static). He stands up for his beliefs, but would never dare to kill anyone, showing Fe's claim to the moral high ground but also its squeamishness. The "most important person in [his] life" is "[e]veryone on the Dreadnought," showing the indiscriminate caring for everyone common to high-Fe types (compare Gabe, Manjula, Penini, Saral, and of course Iso). In contrast, many others (especially T-types) only care about those close to them, but care strongly about those people (contrast Gemini, Giegue, and J).

A natural leader who thinks quickly to do what is best for everyone, Ryn has taken the initiative as the "leader of the group" far more than me than one would expect for an introvert — especially considering that he is only "a 12 [!] year old." One of the main differences between ENFJs and INFJs is that the former are more likely to take the initiative and publicly lead. Ryn shows this tendency in the extreme. He is "smart but not nerdy" which completely rules out the IN__ types, although others often assume that he is a nerd. He has a "very high" patience level, suggesting high Ni or maybe high Si, and conversely "is kind of a klutz when it comes to sharp objects." Physical clumsiness is more common in N-types. While the evidence for his auxiliary Ni may not seem as strong as the evidence for his dominant Fe, Ryn's exceptional charisma is far more common among ENFJs than ESFJs. There is a reason that some people call ENFJs "The Cult Leader" type. While I do not expect Ryn to start a cult anytime soon, he arguably has the right skill set for it.

Weldon: Almost certainly ESTP.

Straight outta the 90s comes this hip dude with, like, a totally rad backwards hat and shades, bro. (Yes, that is how he talks, man.) He is a "huge jerk" (according to Davan and to Weldon's own Charahub) and a "douche" who "likes bragging about himself" and claims to be "too cool to ask for asks, dude." All of those show the callous narcissism associated with immature E_TP types whose Fe is not developed. He also "dislikes when people are better than him" and is "too competitive," combining his narcissism with the impulsive, competitive tendencies of high Se. I considered him an introvert at first because of his "laid-back" and "relaxed" voice and demeanor, but he "doesn't like being alone," which may be the clearest possible evidence of extraversion other than wearing a sign that says “I AM AN EXTRAVERT.”

Concluding Thoughts

That took me longer than I expected. But on the bright side, I realized that I have now completed 89 character analyses — of which I still have many to post. My goal of analyzing 100 characters, which I previously thought unrealistic, suddenly appears within striking distance.

Speaking of "within striking distance," I will probably publish my next Finalysis post in much less time than this one. Part of the reason this one took so long is that I could not make up my mind on whose to post next. Since posting the last one, I have spent time typing characters from this blog, @asktheapplechasers, @only-our-regrets (i.e. ComDis), and @take-a-melody. One of those will probably be featured in my next Finalysis post. If you have a preference for one of them — or a different blog — please feel free to shoot me a message! (Especially because I sometimes have questions about characters' personalities!)

[gemmassong]

TLJ Thoughts

. Now that I’ve had a couple days to process, it’s time to put this down in writing and get everything I want said off my chest. I doubt anyone will read it since I’m not really a fandom known, but it will be good for me, so. :)

So I’m going to try and move in chronological order along with the movie. So first things first, the opening battle scene. I have so many issues with this scene. Not with the characters per se, but with the whole scene itself. The whole concept of dropping bombs on the dreadnought just bothers me so much, because bombs wouldn’t just fall on their own in the vacuum of space. They would reach the end of the ship’s presumable energy field, and then just float. They were very clearly not propelled downward by any force pressing them that way, and if they were designed to be magnetized to the metal of the dreadnought or something, that needed to be explained. 

Also, the fact that there were three (THREE!) Star Destroyers just hanging out with the dreadnought doing absolutely nothing is absolutely nothing less than entirely shitty storytelling. We can figure one of those three Destroyers was likely the Finalizer, as Hux was manning the bridge of one in the beginning, before the Supremacy showed up. The Finalizer, which was established in TFA as absolutely loaded with guns and weaponry and not a ship to fuck with. And presumably,  the two other Destroyers were of the same Resurgent class and armed similarly, since they were the same size and we know the Resurgent-class Destroyers are much larger than other classes. And yet, those massive warships did absolutely nothing to assist the dreadnought, they just sat there. This just serves to make, not just Hux, but the entire Order, look incompetent as fuck. And I don’t want my heroes to overcome incompetent villains. That’s just taking the easy way out in terms of writing.

One final point relating to the opening scene: the shield around the Resistance ship. Now I’m a fairly new sci-fi fan, so I could be wrong, but my experience with shields like that is that they often have refractory periods, though not always, but they do always require energy to maintain. And taking hits raises the amount of power they require to remain firm. Unless this is a shield that has no refractory period and takes no extra energy to maintain even when being bombarded by hits, then if all three Destroyers and the dreadnought, or later the Supremacy and all those Destroyers, had just concentrated fire on the Resistance ship they could have sapped the fueled reserves far more quickly and taken it out. Possibly me being nit-picky, but this wasn’t addressed at all and it irritated me. 

Hyperspace travel. It seems fairly accepted among fans, and the laws of physics, that hyperspace travel takes more than a split second. The time you spend in hyperspace should be consistent with how far you want to travel. Thanks to the fuel reserve countdown we have a strict timeline for the movie: eighteen hours. Yet Rey is able to spend what seems to be roughly three days on the island with Luke, and then return to where the Resistance is, all within that eighteen-hour timeframe. And we know there are no possible skips around in time because of her scenes connecting with Kylo. So... I would really like that all explained, please. 

Leia using the Force to draw herself back into the ship after being spaced bothers me. As a fan of her, of course I was happy to see her survive. As a logical human being, even with the Force it makes absolutely no sense when even a split second outside the safety of the ship would have killed her; this bothers me to no end. Surviving in space is not a matter of holding your breath and getting back to safety. Its effects on the unprotected human body are immediate and devastating. 

Okay, I have mixed feelings about the casino scene. On the one hand, I absolutely loved it. I absolutely loved Rose and everything we got to see through her during this scene. Being a fan of the gray morality of war we get to see so well in The Clone Wars series, I was so happy to see that grayness brought into play within a movie, because we see that it was both the Order and the Resistance/New Republic that gave those war profiteers their wealth. I honestly thought, for a little while, that they were going to give us definite reasons for why we should be rooting for the Resistance and hating the First Order. Now, I haven’t read the novelizations (yet), and neither have most fans. So while I imagine those reasons exist within the novels, we don’t get them in the movies. From strictly the movies, it seems like we are rooting for the Resistance and against the Order purely based on ‘these are the good guys, and these are the bad guys, and they are characterized as such’. I know they’re technically movies for children, so it’s likely a moot point, but I want to know why the Order thinks the Republic needs to be taken down, why they seem to have so much support despite being the bad guys, and what makes the New Republic so wonderful. Because, quite honestly, I don’t see democracy as an inherently good thing anymore, just look at the current disaster that is America. I want to know if the Republic really is a good thing for the galay, or if the Order has some genuine reason to be trying to take it down. I foolish thought the casino scene was an opening into showing us just that.

But then we moved right back into showing good and evil by shining a good light on the actions of the good character and a bad light on the bad characters. Example: the troopers are seen as inherently bad because they trust their captain and follow orders, trusting that they are following the plan in motion. But we see Poe being chastised for not blindly following Holdo when she gave her people no indication of what the plan was, when she had no logical reason to withhold that information. The only reasoning given is that the troopers follow orders without question, while Poe needs to believe in hope and trust even when he doesn’t know what’s going on and what the plan is. Same thing, in essence, being shown as bad in one light and ideal in another. Pretty damn contradictory, if you ask me. 

I have the same issue as a lot of people with what was done with Luke’s character. I don’t ever believe Luke would draw his saber, even for an instant, on his sleeping nephew because he believed him irredeemable. Not when that boy saw light in Darth fucking Vader and refused to let go of it. Especially since there has to be considerably more light present in young Ben Solo than there was in Vader at that time. If this was Snoke subtly controlling Luke as well: well that needed to be expressed. If it was Luke sensing Snoke’s irredeemable darkness instead of Ben’s: that was piss poor storytelling and did not come off as that at all. If it was that Luke actually sensed darkness in Ben and considered killing him for a moment, I refuse to accept that characterization because it is so wildly out of character and goes against everything Luke is. 

And let’s touch on the story aspect of that as well: it’s just fucking lazy. We know Ben was a neglected kid, that Leia and Han didn’t have enough time for him and were very possibly unnerved by his power at times. Adam has told us that. JJ Abrams has told us that. Foisting his turn to the darkside off onto Luke’s moment of weakness instead of addressing that Han and Leia, two absolutely wonderful people, could possibly be shitty fucking parents, is absolutely nothing more than lazy storytelling and a desire to take the easy way out, ruining a well-established character in the process by going entirely against everything he is.

Now for the fun stuff! Most of my gripes are storytelling related and not character related.

I left the theater absolutely elated. They’re giving Kylo a revenge arc. And while I imagine we’re likely to somehow still get a redemption arc in ep IX just because that’s what SW does, I couldn’t be happier that he’s getting a revenge arc first. As someone who was incredibly emotionally neglected for much of my childhood and teenaged years, all I wanted for him was to kill Snoke and then still turn his back on the people who hurt him so much, remain Kylo instead of Ben. I didn’t think I would see that happen, and it did, and I couldn’t be happier. Whatever happens in ep IX, I’m happy that I got that and I’ll be content. 

And the Kylux shipper in me is happy as well. The Force-choking and shoving doesn’t bother me. They have always been enemies, in canon. I figured Kylo would do awful things to Hux at some point. Hell, he does choke Hux out in a lot of fics already, where it is not shown as something pre-established and consensual. Now it’s just canon. The fact that Hux continues to come back snarking at Kylo because he knows how important he is and that Kylo can’t get rid of him because Kylo doesn’t and can’t hold the loyalty of the troops and the Order as a whole makes me so excited to see them forced to work together in ep IX. I think Kylo will figure out pretty damn quickly he is not cut out for the role of Supreme Leader, and while he’ll hold it in title, I expect to see a lot of that power go to Hux. It’s the evil duo wreaking havoc and bitching at each other I wanted to see and didn’t think I would get. I expect Kylo to be the one to kill Hux eventually, and I’m okay with that, too. That’s the only ending for Hux I think I can be content with. I’d rather it be that than something unglorious like Phasma’s death was. He deserves to go out fighting, when he goes out. 

In terms of fandom, nothing has changed for me. I may write Hux as a little more unhinged when he hasn’t slept and is under immense stress, a little more manic, but that’s the only change. I look forward to seeing all the new fics and writing my own and seeing all the ways people find to let them fall into comfort, and then love, with each other. I’ll take a damaged, imperfect relationship because they are damaged, imperfect people who still, even after ep VIII, balance each other out. So while I’m super minor and doubt I crossed anyone’s mind, don’t expect me to be leaving the fandom any time soon.