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chibimyumi · 4 years ago

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Hi, I hope you're doing well and staying healthy. I've read your post about how Elizabeth attacking ciel is sexism. What about Sebastian getting bully by Frances? Frances is a noblewoman grabbing a servant's hair in front of other people. And fans (including me) are like: oh! What a lioness! Even the devil himself is terrified of her! what if it was the other way around? The idea of a nobleman grabbing a governess's hair calling her nasty and indecent makes me uncomfortable and even angry.

【Response to post: Sexism against men and Kuro Sexist jokes】

Dear Anon,

I’m doing well, thank you very much. I hope you too ^^

Your question is a very good one, and it really had me thinking for a while! I myself admittedly do laugh very hard at Sebastian getting a hard time from Frances. But indeed, like you said, it is still bullying, and bullying is bad. In this post-feminist era, we have been so trained to see women bullying men as ‘funny’ or ‘empowering’, but women getting bullied as unambiguously bad instinctively, that sometimes we forget to check our double standards.

Feelings are feelings, we can’t help what we feel. But how come then that to many of us, Frances bullying Sebas is so funny, but Lizzie almost murdering O!Ciel and Nina bullying men not? This post is merely an attempt to explain this feeling for myself too, but hopefully we can all reach SOME explanation together as well???

Let us first look at in what ways Frances has been making Sebastian’s life hard. From all the interactions we have of these two so far, her main points of criticism seem to be his hair and his lack of professionalism.

Slovenly Hair

Sebastian’s hair is something we’ve gotten quite used to now after more than14 years. In Sebastian’s time however, his hair really would have been the height of impropriety for his profession.

Just like I translated O!Ciel’s looks to 2020 standards, I quickly translated Sebas’ hair to 2020 standards as well. Very clean, innit?! Very professional, innit?!

Even without the translation however, if we look at the worst of wigs from the Kuromyus, we can also see how Sebastian’s hair would be atrocious in any formal setting. Look past the fact that these actors are supposed to represent a drawn character. Just imagine being in a fancy restaurant and encountering a dead-spider feather duster on your waiter’s head.... erm....???

Something that is objectively bad on Frances’ end however, is that chapter 14 is not the first time that Frances has seen his ‘slovenly hair’. If his hair really is so unacceptable, as an authority figure Frances has the right to say something about it. However, as it seems, until this point she has never communicated at all (no, “hinting” is not the same as communicating), so Sebas had no way of knowing what he “did wrong”. She immediately grabbed for Sebastian’s hair without mercy, probably because her crept up frustration got the better of her. This is indeed entirely too harsh for a first time call-out, and entirely on Frances.

Much later in the story Frances criticises and touches Sebastian’s hair again, and this time in public while he was infiltrating as a teacher. Here Frances is even publically humiliating Sebastian in front of his students and other high ranking guests.

Especially when you keep in mind that Frances is a noblewoman and Sebas a mere servant, Frances is indeed abusing her power against a servant who cannot strike back at all.

This is indeed power play. However, though it does not justify anything, in the very least her criticism does have ground; Sebas’ hair is by all measures inadequate for any professional setting. Just be nicer about it, Frances.

Useless Butler

Now, let us look at the other reason Frances disapproves of Sebas. Sebastian is a very competent butler according to most people. To Frances however, this claim is empty. When she arrives, parts of the estate have been destroyed and something very literally exploded in her presence.

Even though Sebas is not the person actively causing the explosion or the destruction, as the senior servant of the household, it is literally his job to manage the other servants. So yes, here too, the fact that things can be destroyed in the household because he either hired inadequate staff or because he mismanages his household, DOES INDEED prove he fails at his job. As the aunt of O!Ciel who cares about her nephew AND her paternal home, Frances is in her right to be concerned and call Sebastian out for NOT doing his job.

In chapter 14, Sebastian’s schedule was all over the place and kept changing the plans for Frances. It is no wonder that she would be quite annoyed and doubt Sebastian’s adequateness. When you know your 13 year old nephew’s household is in the hands of somebody so apparently inadequate, anybody would probably be concerned. However annoyed though, Frances does not overstep any boundaries about this specific issue; she is simply supremely unimpressed. Fair enough?

Compliments where due

Something that is quite interesting though, is that despite disapproving of Sebastian, Frances does also know when to compliment him when due. After Sebastian has saved Lizzie’s life without boasting, Frances recognised how the butler does indeed have some value and the correct attitude as a servant.

She says “though you look indecent what you say is true,” and it is yet another jab at the demon’s expense. But here she is also showing that she is willing to acknowledge somebody’s achievements, looking past appearances.

Before Frances leaves, Frances jabs at Sebas a bit again, but she really is not doing anything dickish this time. Instead of making Sebas think she’s simply chosen him as target to be a prick towards, she concretely states why she doubts his professionalism. She mentions the smashed tea set, bare garden and burnt food; mistakes that are objectively unacceptable. Instead of yelling at him, she actually gives him constructive criticism. So here too, Frances is quite stern, but her grounds are solid.

In the Campania arc Sebas shows up again with the hair Frances disapproved of. Frances clearly wants to do something about it again because in her eyes, the butler simply won’t learn. But given the circumstances and Sebastian’s proven usefulness, Frances actually does shelve her agenda. Just like above, here too Frances shows that she is capable of acknowledging somebody despite their looks.

Later when the zombies dramatically outnumbered the living humans, Frances sends Sebas - who had come to her aid - back to her daughter and nephew. By sending Sebas back, Frances also shows that she in fact trusts this ‘slovenly butler’ with the lives of two children she loves deeply. Sebastian protests, but Frances immediately replies: “don’t you trust our ability as swordsmen?” Here what Frances is functionally saying is: “I trust you with your abilities, so you can trust us back.”

In short, Frances is harsh and doing power-play against a servant, but she can shelve her agenda, and does acknowledge Sebas when due.

Contrast to Nina and Lizzie

So now we have seen how Frances bullies Sebastian, and her motivation behind all her points of harshness. As we have seen, Frances’ only points of criticisms are concrete ones; Sebastian’s lack of professionalism in looks, and his lack of professionalism in management. She goes about them too harshly, but all points are legit criticisms, and something Sebas CAN and probably SHOULD work to improve.

Nina

This is in stark contrast with the way Nina bullies her victims. As far as we have seen, none of Nina’s victims have offended her in any way, nor does she ever give any concrete criticism. She has just decided that because men are men, they don’t deserve proper treatment. Even when providing clothes for men is literally part her job, she refuses to provide the ‘professional service’ she is being paid for. And because she is AN EMANCIPATED LESBIAN!!!!!!! #FEMINISM, it’s FINE (!?!?!?)

Unlike with Frances’ criticism of Sebastian’s inadequate hairdo and managing, being ‘men’ is not something any of these men can do anything about (except Sebas, but Nina doesn’t know). Bullying is always wrong, always low. But it’s EVEN lower when you bully somebody for who they are, and not what they do wrong. What does not help is that Nina seems to only be capable of treating people nicely if they happen to be sexuality-wise compatible with her... but if you are, you’ll get molested. What is wrong with you, Nina????

Yes, Frances is saying: “you are a man, and yet your fringe is so long”. So on the most surface level, it is a woman saying this to a man because he is a man. As we later get to know Frances a bit better though, she would be harsh to anybody who looks slovenly. She just has different hairstyles which she considers appropriate for men and women respectively. Had Sebas been a woman and his hair was the ‘feminine equivalent of slovenly’, Frances would most likely have acted exactly the same. So in this sense, unlike with the jokes using Nina and Lizzie, it is not purely: “Haha, girl bullies boii, lol.”

Something else that is terrible is that what Nina does seems to be systemic. Logically it checks out too; it can’t be that only since the past few weeks she’s decided only women and young boys deserve her kind treatment. For all we know, Nina’s been treating the male Phantomhive staff like this for 2-3 years. Sebastian’s comment about Nina thoroughly ignoring men again with “as always” further supports this theory.

With Frances in contrast, in chapter 14 (so barely a year ago in story time), Sebas seemed to have no clue whatsoever about Frances’ terrors. Sebas announced Frances’ arrival to his master and is very calm about it. It was not until O!Ciel alerted Sebas about his aunt that anybody even guessed what hurricane was headed for them. As such, we can safely conclude that Sebas had only been subjected to Frances’ criticism a couple of times, unlike having had to bear with Nina for years.

Yes, Frances still should have communicated, but I already addressed the details above. Still, the point remains that even though Frances is overstepping boundaries and abusing her power, her criticisms are at least not empty.

Lizzie

Lizzie too just like Nina, had zero grounds for showing that much aggression. She did not give anybody the benefit of the doubt, did not communicate, or even so much as give O!Ciel any chance to explain the situation. So far O!Ciel has given Lizzie no reason to think he’d cheat on her, and yet she hurled so much aggression at him Sebas had to intervene.

Still, Lizzie is marginally better than Nina because she is not systemically bullying O!Ciel. It is a one time event. However, this one makes me more annoyed with Yana because it means that even Yana had to use this stale, stale trope of “LOVE TRIANGLE COMEDYYYY”. Have I ever mentioned how MUCH I hate love triangles and jealousy???

Conclusion

Feeling wise, the most important reason for why Sebas being bullied by Frances is funny is probably because of who Sebas is. Sebas is otherwise an all-powerful demon, but to see him inventing colours to shit at Frances - a human Sebas could crush between his fingertips like a cookie - is just hilarious. Had Sebas been a human though, I would not have laughed so hard personally.

Rationally however, Frances is doing power play against a servant who cannot talk back, so it is still bullying, and bullying is inexcusable.The only bit of “right” Frances has is that she does not seem to be systemically bullying Sebastian, and that her criticisms have some ground.

So if Nina and Lizzie’s behaviours played for jokes are like... a -7 and -9 respectively, Frances’ at least scores a -2 for me?

(Yes, as we’re talking about bullying anyway, I just have to make a jab at Vincent.)

Afterword

Something not really related to why “Frances:Bad”, “Nina-Lizzie:Worse”, but I do wish to mention is Yana’s improved drawing skills. I have no proof, but I think it MIGHT have been where this Frances-joke originated.

Yana’s time in the more traditional mindset of manga-worldview really showed, especially at the far beginning. Besides, she was still in the process of finding a way to draw handsome men. In the more traditional mindset of the early 2000s, handsome men were just not supposed to have slicked back hair - “that was reserved for old men and nasty dudes!!” Yana’s discomfort with drawing handsome men with slicked back hair was clearly visible in Sebastian’s early appearances, and making the ‘”hair, back!!! says old-fashioned lady” was potentially even a way of Yana to laugh at herself.

I don’t know who else is old like me and grew up with 80s to early 00s manga, but at the time, hair for handsome men was a BIG deal. In that world ‘slicked back hair’ just carried a certain laughability about it; a “rule of not-cool”. To me at least at the time this ‘laughability’ really resonated with me, and Yana probably also trusted this same ‘unspoken rule’ to resonate with her audiences.

Much later though, Yana clearly grew more comfortable and maybe even fond of slicked back hairstyles as she confidently chose to portray Sebas as ‘appealing’ while wearing his hair in the style Yana previously disliked.

Again, I have no proof, but I can’t help but think that if Kuro had started 10 years later, the running gag revolving Frances might look altogether different.

What do you guys think? ^^ Cheers, and stay healthy!

Character analysis Nina Hopkins

Character analysis Vincent Phantomhive

Sexism against men and Kuro’s sexist jokes

MASTERPOST Gender in Kuroshitsuji

MASTERPOST Analyses & Info

#Kuroshitsuji #Frances #Midford #Sebastian Michaelis #hair #joke #funny #tw bullying mention #Lizzie #Nina Hopkins

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sevenkittensinatrenchcoat · 4 years ago

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The Broadway Revival Doesn’t Get Comedy

Here’s another long essay hating on the Broadway Revival. I promise that this will be the last one of these, because I think I’ve summed up all the problems I have with it by this point.

The title of this essay isn’t universally true. There is good comedy in the Broadway Revival. But, most of it comes from the actors improvising. When it comes to the comic relief numbers of the show, the changes in choreography and staging, and even in plot in one case, generally fail to understand how the jokes in the numbers work.

Now, I know that explaining the joke makes it less funny, but in order to explain why the 2016 comedy doesn’t work, I’ll have to explain why older versions do. Why is the 1998 film funny, and why are bootlegs/pro-shots of earlier productions funny, in places where 2016 falls flat?

To begin with, you might be wondering, “in a show full of strange nonsense and little concrete plot, what would you call a comic relief number?”. There are plenty of numbers in the show that have a comedic tone to them that I don’t consider comic relief numbers. The Rum Tum Tugger is usually full of comedic bits, for example, but it’s not a comic relief number. Why? Because it does something other than be funny and lighten the mood. It’s a song all about a major character who’s just appeared. Apart form Chorus Tugger in the opening, who usually doesn’t stand out much, we haven’t seen Tugger yet. After the cats leave after The Naming of Cats, we don’t see him again until his own number, where he interrupts the party to tell us what he’s all about. Tugger, as a character, is introduced as high-energy and a troublemaker, which leads to comedy, so the song has comedic moments, but it’s not purely a comic relief number.

Most songs in Cats are like this. They’re songs about what makes a character tick, and because these characters are onstage for most of the show, it’s good to let the audience get to know them. But, there are a few numbers in the show that don’t introduce characters and don’t advance the plot. They’re just entertaining little skits that don’t fit anywhere else. These are the comic relief numbers.

In a full production of Cats, in which no songs are cut, there are three comic relief numbers: Bustopher Jones, The Pekes and the Pollicles, and Growltiger’s Last Stand. The first one might be confusing. Bustopher Jones introduces a character. Shouldn’t it count as one of the character songs like The Rum Tum Tugger? The difference is that, while Tugger sticks around and plays a role in other events of the show, Bustopher is only present for his number. He shows up, there’s a song, and then he leaves and is never seen again. This makes the number into something of a non-sequiter.

Gus the Theatre Cat also revolves around a character who’s really only there for his own song. In productions that cut Growltiger, this is all you see of him. But, Gus the Theatre Cat isn’t a comic relief number because it’s one of the few songs that doesn’t have a comedic tone. There are jokes here and there, and in most stage productions the character of Gus is more comedic than he is in the 1998 film, but the song has a softer tone, no dancing, and Gus eventually leaves in tears. Though the 1998 film stands out in this regard, even in other productions, this is not a comic relief number.

Another thing you’ll notice is that Bustopher Jones, The Pekes and the Pollicles, and Growltiger all come after more serious, less energetic numbers. Grizabella the Glamor Cat and Gus the Theatre Cat are both quite sad, and the play basically changes the subject to lighten the mood. Old Deuteronomy isn’t sad, but it’s slow and more serious. When the tone of the show starts to get serious, a comic relief number is added to lighten the mood. The pattern breaks with Macavity, with the song followed by a fight, to show that the stakes have been raised and things are getting serious. Mister Mistoffelees comes along as a more upbeat number, but the change in tone here is pretty much a plot point. Everything seems bleak and then Tugger starts this number to give everyone hope. Mistoffelees restores power after the light goes out as part of this shift. We were at our literal darkest moment and now there’s a spark of hope.

So, now that we know what numbers are comic relief numbers, it’s time to go into how and why they work, or how and why they don’t when things go wrong. Since the Broadway Revival cuts Growltiger, I’ll focus more on the other two, but the new version of The Pekes and the Pollicles borrows from Growltiger, so the stuff that was borrowed will also have to be discussed. But, before we get into all that messy business, let’s take a look at Bustopher Jones:

Bustopher Jones:

Most of the comedy in Bustopher Jones, though there are a few simple fat jokes in there, comes from how other characters react to Bustopher. Bustopher keeps an air of dignity about him as he formally greets everyone and discusses his clubs. He’s not the joke here. This is a song of Amusing Background Events. With the queens, you have Jenny’s crush on Bustopher and Bombalurina clearly not getting it but trying to be polite about it and not kinkshame Jenny over it. With the toms, you have the kittens getting over-excited and the older cats, desperate to impress Bustopher, rushing to stop them from making a scene, making a scene themselves in the process.

In particular, there are three characters to watch in this number who provide the best comedy: Mistoffelees, Skimbleshanks, and Munkustrap. Two out of the three of them, which two depends on the production, will go into fanboy mode, often competing for Bustopher’s attention. Broadway-based productions tend to have Misto and Skimble compete for Bustopher’s attention, while London-based productions, such as the 1998 film, tend to put more focus on Munkustrap. He barely contains his excitement and is shown to be Not So Above It All, though he’s usually more level-headed than whichever cat, Misto or Skimble, he’s being contrasted with.

Basically, the joke is that Bustopher is considered super-important, despite not having a clear place in the tribe’s hierarchy, and everyone goes nuts trying to impress him, get his attention, and make sure that everything is perfect and nothing goes wrong. This joke works best when Bustopher is actually pretty laid-back and everyone’s freaking out over nothing.

The 2016 version doesn’t get this. You do see characters scrambling around, trying to make sure everything’s perfect, and get Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer as far away from Bustopher as possible, but, at the moment when it’s the most important to get this right, it fails.

The biggest problem with the number is Bustopher’s solo. It’s performed well enough, like most of this production. That’s not the problem. There are two main problems: a staging problem and a writing problem. The staging problem is where the above explanation comes in: When Bustopher sings his solo, no one gathers near him. In other productions, a group of toms gather around Bustopher where they hang on his every word, try to get his attention, and try to look important in front of the others. There’s always one, Misto, Skimble, or, more rarely, Munkustrap, who tries to stand way too close. But, 2016 Bustopher is given plenty of room to just stand there and face the audience. No one seems to be paying that much attention to what he’s saying.

There’s also a problem with how the solo is edited and the break that follows it. The problem isn’t that Bustopher’s solo is shortened. Lots of productions do that. The problem is in what’s cut.

The full solo consists of four quatrains: sets of four lines. The second and fourth lines rhyme with each other, so each quatrain ends on a rhyme: rules and Schools, Blimp’s and shrimps, bones and Drones, Glutton and mutton.

The original Broadway run of the show, and many other productions copying it, the second and third quatrains are cut. You go from Joint Superior Schools to “If I’m seen in a hurry”. The 2016 version cuts the first and second quatrains, only including the second half of the solo. The problem with this is that it cuts the first quatrain.

Cutting directly to the third quatrain is musically awkward, because there’s no build-up to this point in the song that’s song loudly with a choir backing it up. But, when it comes to the joke that’s being told in the solo, cutting the first quatrain removes the set-up and changes what the joke is. With the first quatrain, the solo is about the various clubs Bustopher goes to. Starting at the third quatrain, the joke is mainly a list of foods that Bustopher likes, even though the clubs are mentioned.

The first quatrain is the only portion of the solo to not mention food at all. It’s all about the social etiquette of gentlemens clubs. A gentleman in the early 20th century wasn’t supposed to belong to more than one club. So, in order to go to eight or nine, as Bustopher does, one would have to make sure that the clubs didn’t meet too close together, so that someone from one club might see them at another. It’s part of his strategy in going from club to club: he imitates the etiquette of the humans on the surface, while actually breaking all the rules behind their backs.

But, the point is, Bustopher is listing the various clubs he’s managed to get food from. He’s sort of cheating them all, though I doubt they’d care that a cat was frequenting more than one club. Going to different clubs that are located far enough apart that people from club A are unlikely to walk past the meeting place of club B is quite a feat and it takes a lot of skill to pull off. Bustopher knows what clubs he can do this with and what food he can get from them. If he wants seafood, he goes to the Stage and Screen. If he wants curry, he can go to the Siamese or the Glutton. Foxes is too close to one of his other clubs for him to go there, but he can get fresh meat of the same quality at Blimp’s.

The first quatrain sets up and explains the joke. Without this set-up, the joke becomes one about gluttony, making it more of a fat joke than it is when the first quatrain is included. To make matters even worse, the 2016 choreography adds this instrumental break where the cats put together a restaurant for Bustopher and give him various foods, doubling down on the joke being purely about Bustopher’s gluttony, not how he messes with high society. It’s still a joke and people might still find it funny, but it’s not the same joke and comes very close to being “it’s funny cuz he fat”.

The entire point of the number is that Bustopher’s weight is part of why he’s celebrated. He’s fat because he’s clever, managing to trick a bunch of rich humans into giving him fancy food off of their own plates. Because he looks like he’s wearing a tuxedo and spats at all times, the gentlemen at the clubs see him as fitting in, even though he’s most likely a stray. If he had an owner who was feeding him, he wouldn’t have developed this whole routine for getting food. The people who probably wouldn’t give food to a homeless human, seeing it as “feeding strays”, will literally feed a stray just for looking like he belongs. It combines two things that cats tend to love: food and messing with stupid humans.

So, the lack of emphasis on how other characters react to Bustopher and the reason why they react that way weakens the joke. But, to give credit where credit is due, I do like how they double down on Bustopher being Tugger for older women but have Jellylorum seem to be just as into him as Jenny is.

The Pekes and the Pollicles:

Here’s where the Broadway Revival goes completely off the rails. Both The Pekes and the Pollicles and Growltiger are often cut from productions to save time. They’re both “play within a play” scenes, which can be a bit confusing in a show that rarely ever uses dialogue to introduce the numbers. The Pekes and the Pollicles in particular seems to come out of nowhere. “Yay! Old Deuteronomy is here! Now let’s make fun of dogs!”

So, the Broadway Revival, like every production, had to decide what to do with these numbers. Would it keep them? Cut one of them? Cut both of them? But, for some reason, they invented a new option: Combine the two.

2016 Pekes and Pollicles isn’t The Pekes and the Pollicles. It’s a combination of The Pekes and the Pollicles and Growltiger’s Last Stand. The song is moved to where Growltiger is normally done and parts of the melody are mixed in. The Rumpus Cat, as a character, is equated to Growltiger as a character Gus played back in the day. This is where the trouble starts.

Now, I’ll once again stop to give credit where credit is due: The 2016 opening to The Pekes and the Pollicles is really sweet, with Old Deuteronomy encouraging Gus to play the Rumpus Cat one more time. Growltiger is basically a dream sequence of Gus flashing back to when he played Growltiger. Getting to see him actually relive his glory days one last time is nice. If they used this opening for Growltiger instead of The Pekes and the Pollicles, it would’ve been a good addition to the number.

So, Growltiger and The Pekes and the Pollicles are both plays within a play. Why not combine them? Well, the main problem is that The Rumpus Cat is not Growltiger.

Now, a lot of people hate Growltiger’s Last Stand and I’m not going to act like it’s some kind of masterpiece. I personally find the number to be sort of middle-of-the-road. If you see it more than once, the shock value of the cringey Asian stereotypes starts to wear off and, with a few exceptions, the number feels kind of dull. Andrew Lloyd Webber himself said that he was never really pleased with how Growltiger turned out and the London Revival rewrite might be worse than the original, at least musically. But, I’ve seen a few productions of Growltiger that I thought were kind of funny, usually by taking the racial stuff and sort of saying, “We know it’s bad and we can’t make it better, so we’ll just make it worse” and playing it up to the point of absurdity, like a parody of the sort of Yellow Peril stereotypes the song includes. I’ll also give credit to the Tecklenburg non-replica keeping the Siamese in silhouette behind a sheet.

When I say “The Rumpus Cat is not Growltiger”, I mean that how the two characters work comedically is completely different. You can’t just swap one for the other without rewriting the comedy of the entire number to match.

You’ll notice that Growltiger is in the title of Growltiger’s Last Stand. The song centers around Growltiger as the main character. The Pekes and the Pollicles includes the Rumpus Cat in the full title, but said title is so long that you rarely ever hear the song called that. The Rumpus Cat plays a key role in the story, but he shows up later on. The song isn’t about him. He’s not onstage for most of it.

This means that the comedy surrounding Growltiger and the comedy surrounding the Rumpus Cat work completely differently. The comedy of Growltiger is the comedy of Growltiger’s Last Stand. It all revolves around him. This is a joke based on a wacky character. The joke in The Pekes and the Pollicles isn’t about a single wacky character. It’s about a play where everything that could go wrong does with Munkustrap acting as the straight man. He’s the only one taking this seriously, perhaps a bit too seriously. The Rumpus Cat is just another thing that goes wrong. He’s funny, but so is everyone else who calls attention to themselves throughout the number.

Putting Gus as the Rumpus Cat into the Pekes and Pollicles is performing the number but with the joke from Growltiger. The Rumpus Cat enters the story too late for this to work, so Gus spends most of the number onstage, sharing the narrator role with Munkustrap. Furthermore, in order to include Rumpus Catified versions of Growltiger’s jokes, pretty much every memorable joke from The Pekes and the Pollicles is cut. Nothing goes wrong with the rest of the cast. The first Peke and Pollicle say their lines correctly. The March of the Pollicles and the Scottish Pollicles are cut, removing all the gags there, including Tugger playing the bagpipes at such a fitting moment that only Munkustrap is upset at first.

The fact that nobody messes up is especially weird in this version, because it’s spontaneous. Old Deuteronomy decides that Gus should get to play the Rumpus Cat again and everyone just automatically knows their role in the play. The Pekes and the Pollicles is a show Munkustrap put together for Old Deuteronomy. He had everything planned out. There were rehearsals. But, nobody showed up to rehearsals and nothing goes according to plan. If the play were spontaneous and everyone messed up, it wouldn’t be as funny, because that’s what you’d expect. Nobody had time to learn what to do, so they don’t do it right.

Instead of having the comedy come from the cast of the play messing up, the comedy is about how over-the-top Gus is. He’s narrating now, so why is Munkustrap even there? He does sort of play the straight man to Gus’ antics, but, because Munkustrap isn’t in charge here, he can’t show as much frustration. He can only awkwardly question things and be ignored. The worst case of this is with the “heathen Chinese” line. Most modern productions replace “heathen” with a less offensive word. It almost always feels a bit forced, but it works well enough. Some productions just leave the line as is, which makes it seem like they don’t care, but it doesn’t make the problem any worse. 2016 instead decides to call attention to how bad the line is by having Munkustrap question it, with the line being the older Gus’ fault. Not only does this make Gus less likable, it doesn’t actually solve the problem. The song can’t stop to acknowledge it, so, even though Munkustrap questions it, he still says the line anyway, making the whole thing a waste of time. They should’ve either changed the line or left it alone. But, they basically tried to have it both ways.

Trying to have it both ways is the fatal flaw of the number. They could’ve cut Growltiger like the 1998 film did. If you hadn’t seen any production of the show before seeing the 1998 film, you’d never guess that there was supposed to be a song between Gus and Skimbleshanks. It can be easily edited out. They also could’ve kept Growltiger and used redesigned, less stereotypical costumes for the Siamese, like the Vienna Revival did. It wouldn’t solve everything, but an effort would’ve been made. But, by combining Growltiger with another number, they both did and didn’t cut the number. Instead, the messed with and weakened The Pekes and the Pollicles so they could reference Growltiger without actually performing it.

The places were Growltiger’s melody is used for lines in The Pekes and the Pollicles feel forced, because those words weren’t written for that tune. That basically sums up the whole problem. One song was combined with another in a way that felt forced and awkward, because the elements of the two numbers weren’t meant to go together.

In conclusion, I think the Broadway Revival’s comedic downfall came from a sort of indecisiveness. They wanted to keep things the same but also change them, possibly not even knowing what they wanted to change them into, only that they wanted to change them. They wanted to shorten Bustopher’s solo, but not the way it’d been done before. They wanted to cut Growltiger, but not in the way it’d been done before. They wanted to do Cats, but not in the way it’d been done before.

There’s nothing wrong with wanting to try new things. This could’ve been the template for an interesting non-replica if they really committed to doing things in a different way. But, they got stuck in between, wanting to be different, but not wanting to be too different. So, they tried to fix what wasn’t broken and sell it as New and Improved. This paved the way for the 2019 film to do the same, but with even worse comedy and without the advantage of the numbers being performed well by a devoted cast who knew what they were doing.

TLDR: 2016 messes with comedic numbers in ways that weaken them. It makes Bustopher Jones more completely about gluttony and tries to combine The Pekes and the Pollicles with Growltiger, failing both.

#bustopher jones #gus the theatre cat #the pekes and the pollicles #growltiger #cats 2016 #taking comedy too seriously tbh #do the thing or don't #you can't have it both ways

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cooloddball · 4 years ago

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Hi! Anon with the long ranting post here. Thank you for answering! I definitely don’t think that most pro Misha/Cas blogs are anti Dean/Jensen, just that sometimes I’ll come across posts or comments from destiel or cockles blogs that obviously lean more towards Misha/Cas (which is totally fine. Like you, I’m pro Misha/Jensen/cockles/destiel, so I love Misha/Cas) that sort of sound like they are, so I do understand when some fans get a bit defensive when they see other destiel fans seemingly not always showing equal love to both characters and/or actors. Which, and this is why I can never tell if it was truly intentional or not when I see said posts/comments, I think may just stem from their frustration about the amount of undeserved hate Misha gets and how around every con you see people making posts about how the people asking questions need to demand answers from him about destiel. They turn those frustrations around onto Jensen and say he’s the one who people should demand answers from, when in reality, no one should be doing that to either of them. They’re just the actors, and as such, they have very little control over storylines, etc. If you want to demand answers? Go to the writers/producers. And I’m not saying people shouldn’t ask Misha or Jensen any destiel related questions. By all means, ask away. Just be respectful about it and understanding of the rather complicated position actors are often in when answering questions like that and don’t get upset if you don’t get the concrete answer you’re looking for. And yes, it is human nature to feel those frustrations when you don’t get an answer you want. I get it. Just try to stop and think about it from Misha’s and Jensen’s points of views before lashing out at either of them on social media about it.

…and what was supposed to be a clarification about a comment I made on my previous ask turned into another long, ranting tangent, so I hope you don’t mind. 😆

It's fine, rant away. I like long asks . LOL.

Yeah you are right, people should go to the writers/tptb because at the end of the day, they are the ones propelling the story, the actors are just vessels through which the story manifests.

And I agree again, it's okay to ask the actors questions but Jensen has made it clear he's not comfortable talking about it for whatever reason. People have come up with all sorts of explanations as to why he doesn't like talking about it but I think it's majorly what you said last time — he doesn't want to choose sides because he's caught in the middle and being the star of the show, he would be alienating some people while choosing others.

Misha on the other hand chose his side, he is okay with talking about it though lately he has been answering the questions in a vague way. IDK how to explain it but the perfect example is the cameos he has done about what Cas would do if he saw Dean in heaven etc. I think he has also reached a point where he doesn't know what to say about the topic anymore because no matter what he say, someone is going to have a problem with it. He's had to apologize so many times for trivial things last year after being attacked by the same people he has been supporting all these years. Can you imagine how much it must hurt him when the people he has been supporting all these years vilify him for the most ridiculous things until he agrees with them even when they are wrong? Don't get me wrong, sometimes he has said some things that he needs to be checked for and so has Jensen—they are human after all—but Misha gets attacked for nothing at all mostly, both by his fans and his haters. I think that's also another reason Jensen stays out of the fandom drama.

As for people being defensive, I think it comes down to people preferring one person over the other. For instance, some people ship destiel and like both Cas and Dean but don't like Misha or Jensen. And vice versa —some like the person but hate the characters they play. I have seen cockles shippers who don't ship destiel and also the reverse so it's a very fine line. But I think for us who are pro (cockles, destiel, jensen and misha) the experience is totally different from the others who have an anti perspective of one or the other.

I know your ask wasn't necessarily an ask but I had to chime in and add a few thoughts I had. And if you want rant some more, feel free to do so.

#asks #anon #destiel #jensen ackles #misha collins

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therewrites · 4 years ago

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We Are Who We Are Overall Thoughts *spoilers*

This review will be discussing briefly some of the episodes so far, so SPOILERS

So I started watching the HBO original series, We Are Who We Are, and I am conflicted. When I initially watched it, the dialogue made it hard for me to enjoy it so I stopped. Then after a couple of weeks after its airing, I thought, what the hell? And this time, I was pleasantly surprised. I always maintain the belief that pilot episodes are either boring, messy, or just bad so I try to push past it in order to get to the good shit. The pilot for We Are Who We Are was...I’m not sure how to explain...different? It certainly wasn’t bad and it made an impression on me, but this show as a whole is hard to limit by just a few words. It’s really something that you should watch and experience yourself.

It was only after the first 3 episodes that I began to understand the tone and mood that Luca Guadagnino was trying to convey. A lot of the time, the dialogue is abrupt and choppy and can make no sense. It can be frustrating, especially when you have two characters that aren’t communicating effectively. But I think that was the point. Guadagnino is a very realistic director, he captures the most realistic elements in a film. A lot of the conversations between characters is meant to emulate real life. Like, what the hell do you say when a conversation becomes awkward? Well, nothing sometimes.

While Guadagnino’s typical cinematography may suggest whimsy, in WAWWA’s case the small structured and synthetic model of the military base is juxtaposed to the very concrete characters. When I started to view the show less as simply a televised airing of fictional characters and problems, and instead looked at them as people, I began to really enjoy it.

Take the main character of Fraser, played by Jack Dylan Grazer. Fraser is meant to be seen as an extremely complex and troubled kid, but the difference between him and every other teen in a coming-of-age drama is that he isn’t polished. His drinking and drug habit isn’t framed as romantic or beautiful, in fact most of the time it’s portrayed as his weakness of sorts. In the first episode, Fraser has one of his mothers drive him home after getting pretty wasted and Luca graces us with a direct shot of him throwing up. And before that, Fraser is stumbling on a bridge when he drunkenly falls and cuts his face. Everything the character does is messy, uncoordinated, yet extremely real and relatable. Hell, in one shot you can clearly see him do a Naruto run!

Caitlin/Harper is a character that I enjoyed watching, as well. Jordan Seamon did a fantastic job and I really connected with their character. Initially we see Caitlin as this mysterious girl, and in the pilot we are meant to assume that their relationship with Fraser is supposed to develop into a romantic one. This is not the case as it seems that Caitlin is trying to come to terms with who they are. The biggest shift in Caitlin’s character isn’t their friendship with Fraser but probably when they get their period.

This was a moment that even I related to, even though I am cis when I first got my period I didn’t tell my mom until the day after. The possible confusion and shift in their reality that Caitlin felt was only heightened with the conflict of their boyfriend wanting to be more physically intimate, and Fraser’s eventual discover of Harper. I would have like to see exactly why Fraser seemed drawn to Caitlin. I’m assuming viewers were supposed to think that Fraser is attracted to her, or something. But both Caitlin/Harper and Fraser are queer coded and their respective sexualities are alluded to not being straight. It would’ve made their standing as platonic friends more clear if this had been established stronger.

I definitely think the writer could have devoted more time to giving certain characters proper conversations. It would’ve given more development to certain characters and better context for things. However even without that, there is a lot that the audience is showed that can’t be told through dialogue. The power struggle between Sarah and Richard being one. So far, there hasn’t been any explanation as to why they have a such a volatile relationship other than Richard being a homophobe.

Through deeper inspection, I was able to interpret it as: Richard may heavily resent the fact the Sarah was promoted to Colonel and not him. It is never made clear who has the better credentials, Sarah or Richard, but assuming that she was the one promoted it is a safe guess. This may be highlighted by the fact that Sarah is a women, and also gay. Even before episode 7, it was clear that Richard did not respect her authority. I also interpreted it as Richard being upset that and openly gay women was promoted instead of him, a black man.

Of course this is just based on my own personal knowledge of how the U.S. military can be towards people of color and LGBTQ+. Regardless, the competitive tension between two parents is palpable without needing dialogue to explain.

When conflict happens, I can kind of figure out which characters are going to react and which one’s will stay silent. I think the show is trying to accomplish a drastically realistic and raw series. It took me while to adjust to it, but by maybe the 2nd or 3rd episode, it starts to grow on you. Despite not liking a good majority of the characters, I was very surprised by how invested I was in them.

Like, Danny is my least favorite character because he displays very abusive and explosive tendencies, and doesn’t seem to care about the world around him. However, getting glimpses into his character and seeing how Richard ignores him for Caitlin/Harper, his suicidal thoughts, and how he is trying to reclaim his cultural and religious background makes me empathize with him.

Even though I hate his character, I can see that he is struggling. I appreciate the way that this show freely shows dark skinned black boys dealing with mental health issues, and personal development. Rarely are issues like suicide talked about in the black community, so seeing Danny talk about it and Craig offering(admittedly poor)comfort was touching. This is a general vibe that I get from nearly all the characters on WAWWA. I also appreciated the how Danny is actively trying to convert to Islam. In shows, rarely is Islam ever portrayed in a positive manner. Especially when female characters are shown to be struggling with their religion, Islam is shown as this barrier that prevents them from living life. Hopefully it goes without saying that the “taking off the hijab” as a way to show that a female character is “liberated” is overplayed and does not offer any respect to the countless Muslim women who choose to wear hijabs.

Now I think the pacing of some of the storylines could have been handled a bit more gracefully. Like how we jump from Fraser and Harper being kind of enemies(not really but you know what I mean), to just them hanging out in Richard’s boat was jarring. I would have at least liked to see the scene of them talking on the rocks at the beach. It would’ve given more insight on Caitlin/Harper’s character and also on Fraser too. Also how quickly Maggie and Lu(Jennifer but I love the name Lubaba, it’s my aunt’s name)jump into a physical affair. I just would have liked to see a build up of tension between all these characters but I don’t think this entirely ruins the plot.

I was very iffy when I learned that the show would be focusing on trans identity and gender and sexuality, but not actually hire a trans male actor. I was afraid that the show would completely botch the experiences of being transgender, and honestly I don’t have the authority to speak on whether or not this affects the quality of the show. I am cisgender, and only can empathize with this particular situation as much as I can. But I would like to hear to the opinion of someone who is trans and elaborate on the ways that they did/didn’t like Jordan Kristine Seamón’s portrayal.

Now at the time I’m writing this, the season finale has yet to come out. But I’d also like to briefly discuss the most recent episode and how it developed Jonathan and Fraser’s relationship. I was VERY worried that Guadagnino was going to take their relationship in the direction of inappropriate. While nearly all the depictions of Jonathan and his actions have been trough Fraser’s pov, it didn’t stop me from side-eyeing some of the interactions they shared. Of course after it was mentioned that Jonathan was supposed to be in his late 20s, nearing 30 I was immediately uncomfortable with the very flirty behavior he exhibited.

So when the scene of Fraser going up to his apartment after Craig’s death, I was very on edge. If Guadagnino had gone the extra mile to show an even larger age gap then I would’ve been pissed. While I enjoyed Call Me By Your Name, the implication that sexual relationships between barely legal teenagers and adults well into their 20s was sensual is something that I see as very weird now that I’m older. So seeing Jonathan as the object of Fraser’s affections made me extremely warry.

And honestly, I’m still surprised that the scene even happened in its entirety. I’m sure that Jack was not in any danger of being exploited but there were definitely points while watching I thought, what the fuck is going on? I was very worried that it would escalate, but I was happy to see that Fraser was the one who stopped it from going further. It made sense to me that this scene took so many liberties to be as graphic as possible without being too graphic, in order to show why a situation like that would be scary and confusing for Fraser. It wasn’t lost to me that Marta and Jonathan were the one’s initiating all the sexual advances. They held all the power in that scenario, even more so because Fraser is younger and has the tendencies to not make the best decisions. Though it seemed that Fraser was trying, he knew that the situation was fucked up.

I’d like to hear what JDG felt and thought doing this scene. What was his character’s thought process?

I’ve seen a lot of people compare the show heavily to CMBYN, which is fine. Besides certain cinematic parallels that people pointed out, I don’t see the clear comparison. CMBYN is more of a love story and it’s more polished than WAWWA. Now when I say tat, I don’t mean it as a negative. Rather, We Are Who We is obviously more devoted to realism and its characters. I appreciate the inclusion of more LGBTQ+ people and black main characters with development, something that CMBYN lacked. And for some people who didn’t like the show based solely on the fact that it wasn’t a CMBYN tv show, I suggest just going into it with no expectations and enjoy the mess.

And I’d also like to take a moment to commend Jack Dylan Grazer for his job in We Are Who We Are. All of the main cast are amazing actors and actresses and did a really good job bringing their characters to life. Though, I had always associated JDG with supporting roles that, while highlighted his acting talent, only put him in a one-dimensional light. As good as It 2017 was, JDG’s role of Eddie is only meant to be seen as a comic relief. In WAWWA, I was able to forget that he was teen actor, Jack Dylan Grazer, and really see him as Fraser. It’s worth mentioning that in a GQ interview, Grazer also mentioned how this role made him reevaluate is approach to acting.

And after reading an interview he did with a Interview Germany, with him saying he spent months in Italy reading the script and trying to perfectly craft this character, I was immensely impressed. I hope that he knows that all his hard work payed off and made a really dynamic and interesting character. I really hope that in the future JDG continues with more mature or multi-dimensional roles because he displayed that he has the talent to do so. Him being so young makes me optimistic in knowing that he is definitely going places in his career. I also hope that there will be a season 2 of WAWWA because despite having hour long episodes, the show still felt way too short. There is a lot about Fraser’s character, and all the others’ characters, that I want more information and analysis on.

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blackjack-15 · 4 years ago

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(Pachin)Koping Mechanisms, KuroSAWa, and Putting The Ring On It — Thoughts on: Shadow at the Water’s Edge (SAW)

Previous Metas: SCK/SCK2, STFD, MHM, TRT, FIN, SSH, DOG, CAR, DDI, SHA, CUR, CLK, TRN, DAN, CRE, ICE, CRY, VEN, HAU, RAN, WAC, TOT

Hello and welcome to a Nancy Drew meta series! 30 metas, 30 Nancy Drew Games that I’m comfortable with doing meta about. Hot takes, cold takes, and just Takes will abound, but one thing’s for sure: they’ll all be longer than I mean them to be.

Each meta will have different distinct sections: an Introduction, an exploration of the Title, an explanation of the Mystery, a run-through of the Suspects. Then, I’ll tackle some of my favorite and least favorite things about the game, and finish it off with ideas on how to improve it. For this meta and the next (CAP), I’ll have a section entitled “The Faerietale” where I break down the issue of genre within the game and how it adds to the experience.

If any game requires an extra section or two, they’ll be listed in the paragraph above, along with links to previous metas.

These metas are not spoiler free, though I’ll list any games/media that they might spoil here: SHA, SAW, MAJOR SPOILERS FOR SPY, GTH, Rashomon.

The Intro:

Full Disclosure: draft titles of this meta include “Yurei-sing the Tension” and “Using Your Girlfriend’s Mom’s Horrific Death For Fun and Profit”. They ultimately don’t fit the tone of the game (or the meta), but I thought they were fun…so you’re being subjected to them anyway.

Freshly out of the games of growing pains, Shadow at the Water’s Edge is the first of our two Faerietale Games, where we delve fully into Theme and Allegory and other such literary devices — which happen to support some pretty fine mysteries as well. As such, in case you didn’t see it above, both SAW and CAP will have a section diving into the Faerietale-ness of it all (partially because it’s That Interesting and partially to keep the intro section from being like 2k on its own).

SAW is interesting for a number of reasons (which I’ll go into throughout the meta) but one of the things that stuck out to me on a replay was how much it leans on Rashomon for its story about the past. For those unfamiliar, Rashomon is a Japanese film by Kurosawa Akira from the 50s that deals with the rape of a woman and the killing of her husband, a samurai, as told through four different points of view.

Nowadays called “a Rashomon episode” or “false flashback”, the idea of different, opposite points of view being shot and filmed to present to the audience is almost a cliché, but Kurosawa was the first to really bring it to film and to popular consciousness internationally.

Like in Rashomon, we’re presented with different views of the situation at the ryokan (including but not limited to Kasumi’s death) from our characters’ perspectives — and, like in Rashomon, no point of view nor opinion on what happened is ever confirmed to be the Honest Truth.

Was Kasumi’s death accidental, and on whose part was it accidental? Does the world stay the same inside the ryokan, or is it just as prone to change as the rest of the world? Is the ryokan a resort or a prison? Should you respect what your loved one wants for themselves, or is it your job to want something better for them? Takae, Rentaro, Miwako, Yumi, and even Kasumi all have different opinions on these questions, and we’re never told who’s correct, nor to what extent.

Finally, like Rashomon, the game is content with leaving a few answers undiscovered. While shooting the movie, Kurosawa was approached many times by the actors, who wanted to know what “really” happened in the movie — and each time he refused to say, wanting the story to be truly Alive in a way that it wouldn’t be if he answered their questions.

Nancy’s job is to expose the malevolent force in the game for what it is, not to heal the family, nor to make decisions for them.

And speaking of their decisions, let’s talk about what motivates our characters in this game. I know, this intro is already kind of long, and I normally keep this kind of talk for the Characters section, but given how much they intersect in this game, we’re gonna go into it here. All of our suspects here in the game are driven and informed by one thing: their coping mechanisms.

C’mon, no surprise here. It’s in the title of the meta for more than just the pun.

Because our suspects are living in the “Once Upon a Time” section of the faerietale — aka the past — it’s their coping mechanisms that drive them. Takae is driven by guilt over her daughter’s death and fear of a changing world; Miwako is driven by anger towards her family and personally-assumed responsibility over Everything That Happens; Rentaro is driven by selfish pride and concern over his loved one; Yumi is driven by avoidance and individualistic willpower.

These are all common when dealing with loss, and each of these tell us exactly how our characters are going to act throughout the tale. In a very real way, SAW is a game about how we, as humans, deal with the stories that we tell ourselves (another thing that it has in common with CAP), and how that changes the way that we perceive the world.

It’s the breakdown of Rentaro’s coping mechanism — his pride in always being correct — that causes him to Do Evil while claiming that it’s The Right Thing. Everyone else’s mechanisms are what allows for him to be as influential as he is; Kasumi is already haunting Takae, and Miwako is already feeling the world crash down around her. Even though the yurei is just wires and metal and Upsettingly Damp-Looking Hair, its presence in the ryokan isn’t physical – it’s psychological.

Remember, “a ghost doesn’t need to be real to haunt you”.

The Title:

Let’s be real here, we’re getting into the segment of Nancy Drew games where the (most of) titles just kick butt and aren’t afraid to do so. Like, Shadow at the Water’s Edge? Gives you creepy vibes right off the bat even without the yurei on the front giving you The Ring flashbacks. Properly atmospheric without being too specific, and “shadow” gives us the idea that we’re dealing with a monster that’s more ghostly, rather than flesh and blood.

I don’t even have anything negative to say about this title, that’s how good it is — plus, I mean, the acronym is literally “saw”. Awesome.

Let’s move on then to the faerietale behind the title.

The Faerietale

SAW and CAP both function, genre-wise, as a faerietale — a story with few characters, big pasts, legends and magic, and a moral at the end to tie things off. In both cases, interestingly enough, it’s our villain who gives us our “moral” — the Truth that ties the plot, history, and characters together, able to be said in a single sentence. In SAW, it’s this (rather chilling) statement from Rentaro that does it:

“A ghost doesn’t need to be real to haunt you.”

But let’s start at the beginning.

Like in a lot of faerietales, we have two sisters who are as different as can be, an inheritance (a ryokan rather than a crown or a prince), absent/dead parental figures, a wizened mentor related to our main characters (Takae), and a Monstrous Force opposing them and their ‘kingdom’. In this story, Nancy is the Dashing Outsider (not unlike the Prince from The Twelve Dancing Princesses) who vows to learn the secrets, defeat the monster, and save the kingdom, restoring balance to the ‘royal’ family and allowing them to prosper.

(And no, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that in this game Nancy’s the Knight in Shining Armor when CAP and Renate’s talk about them is right around the corner, but we’ll save that for next time.)

Having established that the game is a faerietale, let’s talk about why that actually matters (beyond the fact that it’s kinda cool in itself) when we’re looking at the game.

It basically matters for a handful of reasons: it allows us to figure out the suspect Fairly easily, it allows the writers to Allude to subject matters that are a little Dark for the E/E10 rating that Nancy Drew games normally get, and provides a bridge between the (overall) concrete games of the past and the more thematic, character-development-focused games that we’re coming up on. So let’s break that down.

Assigning our characters faerietale roles lets us see immediately that Rentaro is Missing an easy assignation. He doesn’t fit the prince, doesn’t fit a sibling — he doesn’t fit anywhere, in short, which is our first clue that he’s the villain.

Even ignoring the fact that the yurei is obviously mechanical, that Rentaro has free access to the entire ryokan in a way that no other character does, and that he’s responsible for upkeeping the ryokan (which is why it’s suspicious that he’s not the one Dedicated to figuring out the mystery) — which are all excellent things that point towards Rentaro, his absence in the faerietale points to a hidden role.

Since the only role worth hiding is either an 11th hour ally or a villain, and Rentaro is present from the beginning of the game, it’s pretty clear which one he is.

Situating the game as a faerietale also lets HER play with a few more themes than they normally can, given their target audience. Starting with a rather blatant implication of suicide, the game spins on to abusive relationships, overpowering guilt, and Nancy being, well, downright mean with her questions about a family member’s death.

While Nancy’s always been a bit insensitive, the mystery surrounding Kasumi’s death sends her into the realm of bullheadedly rude (to the point where you can get a game over for it). We see why this writing choice was made in SPY (which we’ll cover in that meta), but it’s one of my favorite things about this game; it takes a slight character trait of Nancy’s and gives it a character-driven purpose.

The last function of SAW (and CAP) as a faerietale is to provide a bridge between the older and the newer games. The older games tended to be self-involved entities: they began with Nancy’s room and ended with the letter to Carson/Hannah/Ned. As the game technology improved and the player base got older, however, that started to not be good enough; Nancy and her mysteries needed to become A World rather than simply a string of cases held together with a handful of familiar names and archetypes.

The first step towards this was the inclusion of the Hardy Boys back in our Expanded games, but it’s really SAW and CAP that show an Active Transition. Faerietales are often thought of, literarily speaking, as the bridge between children’s fiction and adult fiction; they involve simplistic plots and archetypes that children can easily grasp, but teach hard lessons about the world that adults will understand and resonate with.

The earlier Nancy Drew games, on the whole (there are of course a few exceptions), are largely concrete, like the children’s fiction they’re based on. The good and bad guys are simply and easily divided, Nancy and co. are always the heroes and always do right, and the bad guys always go to jail.

The past few games leading up to SAW start to shift slightly; while generally our heroes and villains are still sharply divided, nothing is quite as simple as it seems (look at TOT, where at least a few bad guys get away and actually profit from their bad actions).

It’s here in SAW, however, where we see that take a sharp shift. Those who should be good guys (Rentaro is a Love Interest, he enjoys puzzles, he’s a ‘fixer’ by trade) aren’t good at all; those who should be the bad guys (Takae and Miwako behave a lot like early Nancy Drew villains with their cageyness, dislike of Nancy, and ability to get Nancy to Second Chance) really aren’t.

In case this point is a bit obtuse, Logan is the perfect example of what I mean.

In SHA, Charleena Purcell has a receptionist (well-voiced by JVS) that at first prevents you from talking to her, but isn’t much of an obstacle. It’s a cut and dried ‘solve this one puzzle’ and then Nancy can talk to the author as much as she chooses — it’s barely an impediment, honestly.

In SAW, we’re dealing with another famous author, who also has a receptionist — Logan Mitchell. Unlike the receptionist in SHA, who’s just Doing His Job and exists long enough for a puzzle, Logan is a rather spiteful character who enjoys hanging up on people, and does it to Nancy with Great Joy.

As a character, Logan matters; he has his own viewpoints, loyalties (that are explored in SPY as well), and his own idiosyncrasies that make dealing with him — repeatedly — a bit like dealing with people in real life. The receptionist in SHA isn’t a character, no matter how much I personally like JVS’ voice work with him. Logan is. And that’s a huge difference in the approach of the games and the shift from the concrete, insert-puzzle-and-go nature of the older games and the more abstract, thematic nature of the newer games.

Whether or not that’s a good thing is up to you, the player, and your personal preferences. But it can’t be denied that there is a shift, and it’s the genius of SAW (and CAP)’s genre-shift to a faerietale that does it.

The Mystery:

Our mystery picks up where TOT left off, with Krolmeister sending Nancy to one of his favorite ryokans in Japan as a thank you for her help in the previous case.

This is how we find out that Krolmeister is apparently Spooky AF, as the ryokan is haunted.

Nancy decides to pick up a job while she’s there (the ‘how’ of her obtaining employment and an E-2 visa so promptly is ignored) as an English teacher to some of the cutest (and one of the most disturbing) children in Japan, which is how she spends her days — and how the game gets away with it taking place Solely at night.

The more time Nancy spends at the ryokan, however — and the more people connected to it that she meets — the more that she suspects that the ryokan might actually be harboring a malevolent entity bent on wreaking havoc and shutting down the place once and for all…

As a mystery, the game is solid; you spent most of your time “on-site” at the ryokan, soaking in the very well-done atmosphere, with only a few moments in-game spent at other locations (such as the pachinko parlor, Yumi’s apartment, etc.), and the amount of work that went into every detail of the ryokan is staggering (especially the garden).

Normally, I wouldn’t hang so much on the atmosphere when talking about the plot, but it’s actually relevant here, since the atmosphere is part of the plot — i.e., is it the ‘atmosphere’ of the ryokan that makes the hauntings happen, and did the ryokan kill Kasumi.

Speaking of Kasumi, she’s one of the biggest open-ended mysteries in this game. Did Shimizu Kasumi kill herself, or was her death an accident, or was it caused by a Paranormal Entity, leading to her becoming a ghost herself?

The game tells us how Kasumi died — cleaning a bath that she had never cleaned before, leading to her drowning — but the circumstances outside of her death like her will and her premonitions about her death speak less to an accident alone and more towards Something causing her death.

In my own point of view, Kasumi — remember, this is the Nancy Drew Universe, where ghosts are actually real — had a bit of Prescient Awareness to her, and knew that her death was coming, though not by what. While there’s evidence towards her knowing about her death that could, if looked at in that light, lead one to suspect Kasumi of suicide, it’s unexpectedly hard to kill yourself via drowning in a shallow body of water. Add to that her future plans, and I think it’s pretty safe to assume that Kasumi knew she would die, but she didn’t plan and execute a suicide.

Of course, there’s good arguments to be made on the other side. Whichever way you look at it, I’m just happy with the presence of loose ends, as that’s not the mystery that Nancy’s there to solve — and, indeed, without the presence of an actual suicide note from that period, is a mystery that simply cannot be solved.

The Suspects:

We’ll start with (and yes, the names will all be in Japanese rather than Western order) Shimizu Miwako, the Younger Daughter in our faerietale and the current force behind the ryokan.

As the one (via a faerietale’s rules) destined to succeed, Miwako sure does get the short end of the stick when it comes to her relationships. Her causing/contributing/worsening the rift between herself and Yumi aside, her boyfriend is actively sabotaging her and her grandmother doesn’t think she should be the one running the ryokan, no matter how good a job she does.

As a culprit, however, Miwako would have been a bit confused, given how much she likes the ryokan and the good job she does with it. For a Miwako ending to make sense, she would have had to been influenced by an actual ghost, sabotaging the ryokan without wanting to and having your usual blackouts that come with Psychic Interference. It would have been interesting, but out of the faerietale genre (and out of the Nancy Drew game genre as a whole) and thus not a very good story.

Next up is the Elder Daughter, Shimizu Yumi, who left the ryokan as soon as she could and instead sells bento boxes in Kyoto. Framed as a sort of free spirit, Yumi doesn’t see any need for her to run the ryokan and instead does something that she likes and is obviously very successful at.

As a culprit, Yumi would have, to be frank, been a major disappointment. Already taking fire from her little sister and her grandmother for the Abject Sin of not taking on the family business, Yumi would have been way to easy, both character-wise and tonally for the game as a whole. The Elder Daughter in a faerietale is usually the one who fails (the Youngest Daughter almost always succeeds), and so it’s refreshing to have everyone but herself consider Yumi a failure.

Their grandmother and quasi-mentor, Nagai Takae, is the other person who helps run the ryokan — much to her displeasure, as tradition dictates that Yumi, not Miwako, help run the family business.

Because someone who resents being there will definitely be a much better worker in the hospitality market than someone who loves the ryokan.

Takae has absolutely no head for anything but her own ideas and clings onto tradition not for its sake, but because change is scary, hard, and (in the case of her daughter’s death) heartbreaking.

As a culprit, Takae would have been interesting, but absolutely impossible — unless she was working with someone else. And as interesting as a Takae/Rentaro team-up would have been, Takae simply has no motive for scaring everyone else out. She needs the ryokan to survive, to do well, if she’s going to be able to cling on to the things that she wants.

Rounding out our main faerietale cast is our Malevolent Force, Aihara Rentaro, the ryokan’s handyman and tech expert, who secretly builds robots resembling his girlfriend’s dead mother and uses them to scare people out of the ryokan.

He’s a peach.

Not only is Rentaro our only option for a faerietale ending, but he’s also just the best option for the culprit in general. Handy enough to build a “ghost”, expected in any place in the ryokan without suspicion, and with a strong (if dickish) motive). Like all Evil Wizards/Malevolent Forces in faerietales, he wants to ruin the kingdom and steal away the Daughter — though, unlike a lot of faerietales, he’s convinced himself it’s For Her Own Good.

Which yeah is super gross, but hey, he’s our Villain. Villains should be a bit gross.

Lastly, we’re going to look at two characters who are inseparable from one another for the purposes of discussion: Savannah Woodham and her assistant Logan Mitchell.

Savannah (as we meet her in SAW) is a former ghost hunter who now writes about technology (hence her presence in Kyoto) who mentioned the ryokan in a book about the paranormal. Not being fond of interruptions, she pays Logan to be her assistant so that he can deal with the calls that she gets.

She also brings in a nice little easter egg talking about CAP, where Castle Finster is implied to be the castle she mentions in SAW.

As a character in the Nancy Drew world (as it becomes a world), Savannah is an odd presence, in that she’s a sage without being an academic. Most of the ‘authorities’ that Nancy calls for information are professors, researchers, etc., but Savannah doesn’t quite fall into that designation.

Sure, she’s written a book, but ghost hunting isn’t exactly a…respected profession or topic — and yet, Savannah is clearly the smartest person in the game (and one of the smartest people that Nancy encounters as phone friends). This is great — Nancy herself is no academic, and I do get tired of the prioritizing of Academia over actual knowledge.

Savannah also gets the best lines, and her VA absolutely smashes it out of the park. I’ll talk more about her as the Nancy Games (beginning in ASH), as a lot of her dialogue is foreshadowing for our next games, but suffice it to say that, other than the Hardy Boys and the Drews, Savannah probably fights only Alexei for the most significant NPC in the ND universe.

Her assistant is no slouch in the Significance department, though.

MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR SPY AHEAD, IF YOU DON’T WANT THEM SKIP UNTIL THE NEXT ALL-CAPS PARAGRAPH.

Logan (according to him) started working for Savannah to make some money during spring break and found the job too weird to quit once break was done (according to him). He loves hanging up on people, resulting in Savannah referring to him as her “lil’ Georgia bulldog”, and would like to go out on a date with Bess (according to him).

Yeah, pretty much everything about Logan should be taken with a grain of salt, as he’s the one who tells it to us, and…well, Logan is a spy. A spy who’s assigned to Nancy at least as far back as SAW, who gets close to her friend(s) and reports back to Cathedral that Nancy’s obsessed with her mother’s death and thus will probably be used by those who want to know Kate Drew’s secrets.

He ‘fires’ Savannah from being his boss prior to GTH because his work is done; he’s completed the mission he’s been assigned and is now working on other things. Logan isn’t a ghost hunter, nor a receptionist, nor a guy who wants to take Bess out on a date — until he needs to be. Like any good spy, Logan is all things to all people, and it’s his tiny bit of backstory in SPY (easily missed if you’re not paying attention — remember, in Nik games especially there’s no such thing as “optional reading” — that makes him so significant in SAW.

SPOILERS END HERE, YOU’RE ALL GOOD TO CONTINUE.

The Favorite:

There’s a lot to love about SAW, so let’s dive right in.

The first thing I’ll mention, because I just mentioned it, is Logan, who is one of my favorite parts of the Nancy Drew universe, let alone this specific game. His VA is great, his dialogue is great, his character is great — he ticks all the boxes, and I love it.

Savannah is, of course, also a favorite; any game with Savannah in it automatically moves it up a few clicks in my estimation. Savannah (and sage-type characters like her) is where Nik’s writing really shines, and her dialogue is always a joy to read and hear.

My favorite moment is actually a tiny moment, despite it being the titular incident: the shadow at the water’s edge. It’s easy to miss, but when Nancy looks in the bath and sees Kasumi’s shadow for that split second…it’s the haunting that games like HAU and CUR really wanted to have — subtle, upsetting, and fully within the bounds of the Laws of Haunting that the ND universe has set up.

My favorite puzzle is hands-down the bento boxes. Longtime readers of this meta series (which will be two years old this summer!) will know that there’s nothing that I like better than a good logic puzzle, and the bento boxes are a great logic puzzle. It’s fun, cute, and I love that you can do it as much as you want.

I do love, lastly, that this game is a faerietale. Having read and analyzed faerietales for a good portion of my life, it’s nice to see that niche interest represented within another niche interest.

The Un-Favorite:

There are a few things in SAW that I really don’t like, as much as I think this game is great.

The most important is my least favorite puzzle: the frame puzzle. This puzzle is one of the few puzzles that actually make me white-out in Rage and refuse to play further, which is a problem given that SAW is actually a great game and I enjoy playing it. It honestly stops me from replaying the game as often as I really should, given its significance to the ND universe, and for how just good it is. I usually make my sister or my best friend play it for me, but I do actually have to leave the room while they do it because it infuriates me that much.

My least favorite moment in the game is a little different, given how good the game actually is; it’s the very end where, depending on the choice that Nancy makes, Rentaro’s apology is accepted by Miwako. Sure, Nancy says it’s unlikely that they’ll date again, but this is a case where the choice to tell on him or have him tell himself should result in the same result: him having to leave. Handymen aren’t thin on the ground, and the ryokan needs help, rather than the same toxic influence that helped bring it down in the first place.

While I appreciate the choice for Nancy impacting the end — I really do — it should say more about Nancy as a character than it should about Miwako and Rentaro. That it doesn’t is a failure in storytelling at the 11th hour, which is a shame in a game this good.

The Fix:

So how would I fix Shadow at the Water’s Edge?

First things first, I would obviously change the frame puzzle a bit. I don’t think it needs removed per se, but I would definitely shift it. Give an option to skip it, perhaps, or make it easier the more time you spend on that screen, or make it easier if you go in and out of it a few times. Heck, even having it reset when you back out (or having a reset button) would be better, since getting stuck in the puzzle results in Hours of Frustration.

Other than that, I would only change the ending choice. Like I said above, the choice is great, but it should be changed to show us exactly who Nancy is (not unlike the choice in GTH). Is Nancy the kind of person who would not trust Rentaro to tell himself and thus does it, or is Nancy the kind to give him just enough rope to hang himself?

Either way, we’re given a view of Nancy that we’ll see more and more — that she is not always kind, nor infallible, nor impartial. She lets her feelings interfere with her cases, and while sometimes that’s good (again, GTH is a prime example), sometimes the only impact her choices need to have on her is to show us her character.

All in all, Shadow at the Water’s Edge is a good, mature look at the Nancy Drew universe, and continues the thread of connecting case-to-case. While it’s ultimately imperfect, I believe it’s not only one of the most fun games to play through, but also to consider in the larger realm of Nancy Drew games and in adaptation of genre altogether.

#nancy drew #nancy drew games #clue crew #shadow at the water's edge #nancy drew meta #SAW #my meta #video games #long post #i didn't really go into the whole Japanese Culture influences in this meta b/c frankly it's not what the meta is about #but shoot off a message to @tinkchick555 if you wanna hear about it; she's the Expert

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hyotenhyakkaso · 4 years ago

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So I’ve talked about twin Zanpakuto before and its been interesting. We can’t assume that Kusaka and Toshiro are the only two people to ever had this phenomenon happen to them. Either because they’ve hidden it from the Soul Society and somehow managed to slip under the radar or they were eliminated like Kusaka. The Soul Society has been around for a really really long time, and while it might be rare... it’s not impossible like everyone makes it out to be.

Like I mentioned before, it could be a thing of Soulmates (Platonic or romantic depending on the situation) two (or more) people tied together. Meeting again and again. Lifetime after lifetime without fail. Zanpakuto’s are the matter of the soul, unique to a wielder.

But that brings up a question. Why haven't the other twin Zanpakuto incidents been brought to attention?

Kusaka was realized to have existed because of the events of Diamond Dust Rebellion. He was able to go so low under the radar until Shunsuei realized what happened and set Nanao and the others on the right path.

He acts as if he’s seen it happen before and while no, its not his first thought its certainly an option that has crossed his mind. Either that or he’s a really good actor and can hide shitting his pants well.

Lets assume the former and go a step further as to say, they just haven’t had the right reasons to come forward with that information. They are a Military based society with higher penalties. I’ve joked about this a lot, but they were going to execute Rukia without trial for giving her powers away to Ichigo to save their own lives.

Yes, it was Aizen’s doing. But the fact that none of them seemed to question this order directly speaks volumes. They mention that its wrong, and a few of the senior members try and stop it. But they don’t question it directly. Central 46 is a mystery of how exactly it works and they die too early in the series to really gauge how corrupt they were or what their reasonings behind certain things really were.

The only explanation to a rule we’re given is why Substitute soul reapers were frowned upon and why Yamamoto mentioned they may need to lighten up a bit on said subject.

The twin zanpakuto falls into this category. Something that is a rule but not questioned nor do we know the origin. For it to be a concrete rule it has to have happened before. So my theory is a long time ago, sometime after the society was founded and found its footing.. Something happened. I’m not quite sure what it could have been. Perhaps it was an order that most of the society frowned upon but did halfheartedly because it was a relatively new military, and thus there were bound to be some bumps and hurdles.

The two people with twin zanpakuto stepped up and nearly took over the new society. Fighting together and stronger than one could be alone. That was until the strongest Fire Zanpakuto wielder stepped up and stopped them within their tracks.

But I don’t know. and we’ll never know. all we do know is that two of the same Zanpakutos are stronger together. As evidenced in the Regai Momo fight with Hitsugaya.

That's a huge bitch-

and while its filler. it still proves my point. But this is all just speculation. So take it with a grain of salt

#~Oh it must be nice to spend each day in paradise you wonder why you've never failed your lifes a goddamn fairy tale (Meta)~

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tearsofthemis · 4 years ago

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Tears of Themis : Chapter 2 “Unbearable Love“ Part 15

[Previous Part] | [Masterlist] | [Next Part]

youtube

▌Location- Crime Scene

(Jiang MingYue’s lie about the rooming arrangements combined with the strange position that Shen Xi was found in… tells me that the missing piece we needed to crack the case was about to be revealed.)

MC: “Even if the hallway was empty, people could come and go as they pleased through the connecting door! This means Li Zhou could have entered Shen Xi’s suite when no one was watching. Officer, when did Li Zhou check-in?”

Officer: “Last night, 7:00 PM.”

MC: “That’s to say, Li Zhou was already checked in by the time Jiang MingYue brought up the box of chocolates. He had time to poison the chocolates.”

Mo Yi: “You’re right. From my guess, Li Zhou and Shen Xi must be associated with one another.”

MC: “You’re so sure of it, is it because…”

~~~Analysis Begins~~~

[Select: Position of Shen Xi’s Body, Misplaced Phone]

MC: “Her cellphone! Last night when Shen Xi returned to her suite, no one entered or left it, but her phone was taken away by someone. The only one who could’ve done so was Li Zhou.”

Mo Yi: “Not only that, judging by the position she was found in and the fact that she was still dressed in formal wear… points that it’s likely she saw someone in the room. Otherwise, the first thing she would have done upon returning to her suite would have been to get changed and remove her makeup.”

MC: “Therefore, Shen Xi must have known Li Zhou.”

Mo Yi: “The fact that Li Zhou was staying right next door and has the connecting keys to her room in his possession, is no coincidence.”

~~~Analysis End~~~

MC: “Did Jiang MingYue intentionally plan the room arrangements so that Li Zhou would be next door to Shen Xi?! If so, then the lies that Jiang MingYue told in regards to the room bookings were told to cover up Li Zhou’s presence. Li Zhou and Shen Xi, what kind of relationship do they have… If Li Zhou wanted to talk to her, why couldn’t he just enter through the suite door?”

Mo Yi: “It’s not outlandish to assume that Shen Xi and Li Zhou would be involved with some kind of secret romantic relationship. Li Zhou avoided entering through the suite door to prevent being photographed by paparazzi and risk exposing his relationship, which would ultimately affect his career.”

MC: “That’s true. There’s a saying that fans will use, ‘when an idol dates, heads will roll’. There’s no way Li Zhou would publicly announce that he has a girlfriend.”

Mo Yi: “Jiang MingYue’s intention behind the room bookings was to facilitate Shen Xi and Li Zhou’s secret rendezvous. She lied to protect her boss and a famous actor’s privacy. Jiang MingYue would have never suspected that her boss’s lover could be the murderer. She, like Shen Xi, believed that this was part of Lu JingHe’s revenge plan.”

MC: “Truly, once you think about it, you can find a reasonable explanation through a sea of doubts.”

(As Mo Yi and I were discussing, another officer knocked on the door and let us know that we could interrogate the hotel manager on duty.)

Hotel Manager: “How long will this police investigation take? We’ve been receiving guest complaints all morning.”

MC: “As long as you cooperate in the investigation, I think the evidence gathering will end soon.”

Hotel Manager: “There goes my yearly bonus, I suppose. Go on and ask what you need from me.”

MC: “When did Jiang MingYue make the room bookings? At the time, were the connecting rooms to room 1817 and the executive suites on the 17th floor already booked?”

Hotel Manager: “Miss Shen and Miss Jiang’s rooms were booked under Venus Fashion’s name. But the room next to it, room 1817, was booked by Miss Jiang herself. We never could have known that Mr. Li Zhou would be staying with us. In regards to the executive suites on the 17th floor, 1718 and 1717, both rooms were vacant. No one booked it and no one stayed in it.”

MC: “Then the suites on the 17th floor, were they connected?”

Hotel Manager: “No. The rooms were renovated last year, and any connecting doors were removed for all suites under the 18th floor. If it goes according to plan, the connecting doors will be removed for suites from the 18th to the 30th floor starting next month.”

Mo Yi: “This confirms our previous suspicions, does it not? The rooming situation was premeditated, whether by Jiang MingYue or Shen Xi’s request, it was intentionally planned. The choice of staying on the 18th floor must have been because of the connected suites.”

(Mo Yi’s explanation could very well be concrete. I nodded as I thought of another key problem.)

MC: “There’s another question…”

[Select the Red Wine in Room 1818]

MC: “I saw Romanée Conti on the wine list, but I didn’t see the actual bottle. Does the hotel really offer this product?”

Hotel Manager: “Of course! It is an expensive wine, and I personally dealt with the request in celebration of Miss Shen’s accomplishments. The servers brought it in after making the room last night.”

MC: “Around what time did that happen?”

Hotel Manager: “It was almost 7 PM.”

Mo Yi: “7 PM? Then the banquet had already started…”

MC: “I saw that room 1817 was already cleaned this morning. Was a bottle of Romanée Conti found in that room?”

Hotel Manager: “No, there were no abnormalities when Mr. Li Zhou returned the room key.”

MC: “What about Jiang MingYue’s room? Was the bottle of wine discovered there?”

Hotel Manager: “Rooms 1713 and 1817 are regular rooms, therefore, Romanée Conti isn’t offered on their wine list.”

Officer: “The police have already searched Jiang MingYue’s hotel room and nothing suspicious was found.”

MC: (Where did that bottle of red wine disappear to?)

MC: “The door connecting rooms 1818 and 1817, is it normally locked? Is there only one set of keys?”

Hotel Manager: “Our hotel is considered a legacy of Stellis City; the connecting doors were built according to old safety standards. The door isn’t normally used, so we keep them locked for our guest’s safety and privacy. There were two sets of keys, one of which we keep at the front desk, and the other was given to Mr. Li Zhou.”

Mo Yi: “What was Li Zhou’s reasoning for wanting a set of keys?”

Hotel Manager: “Mr. Li Zhou asked us whether or not the rooms were connected at the time of his check-in. He says he was afraid of paparazzi or fans catching wind of his whereabouts and the connecting door was a liability. So he requested the set of keys kept at the front desk and took them. The keys to rooms 1818 and 1816 were also given to him.”

MC: “That excuse was so unfounded. If he was truly scared of the paparazzi finding him, he should have chosen to stay in a room without connecting doors. If the other person was determined to harass him and invade his privacy, they would have been able to do so if they picked the lock, right?”

(I tidied up the testimony. Even if there were a couple of murky things, there wasn’t anything else, at the time, that I needed to ask the hotel manager for.)

Officer: “The analysis report of the glass shards has been completed. After a search in the citizen database, the dried blood on the shard was determined to be left by Li Zhou.”

MC: “So Li Zhou has been in this room!”

Mo Yi: “The two of them were in this room. Judging by the shattered vase and the fact that he cut himself, they must have been arguing about something.”

Officer: “Shen Xi’s autopsy report has been completed as well, her fingernails have been torn. Compared with the marks left on the connecting door, Shen Xi’s nails must have broke when she was knocking on the door.”

MC: “Then what about the time of death? Was there anything that could shrink the window of opportunity?”

Officer: “No, the suspected time still falls between 9 PM and 2 AM. To add, forensics can confirm that Shen Xi’s death was caused by the consumption of poisoned liquor chocolates. Other than the minute amount of brandy in the liquor chocolates, Shen Xi did not drink last night. We performed mark analysis on the liquor chocolates as well. There were only Shen Xi’s fingerprints, and indentations made from some kind of silk material.”

MC: “Silk product? That’s to say, when the murderer was tampering with the chocolate, they were wearing silk gloves.”

Mo Yi: “Even if it’s not a fingerprint but a silk imprint, it’s still a clue. Officer, even if there is not enough evidence that points to the culprit being Li Zhou… we can confirm that he has an undeniable association with this case. I suggest that Li Zhou be detained as soon as possible. If he possesses key evidence on his person and we’re too late, he’ll be able to destroy it.”

Officer: “We have updated Captain Yan’s team, and they with the idea, but… we broke procedure by taking in Lu JingHe without proper documentation. If we breach protocol again by detaining Li Zhou…”

MC: “But if we wait for the documents to come through, it might be too late. Can’t we expedite the process?”

Mo Yi: “In the face of these rules you call protocol, does Yan’s team not know how to improvise?”

Officer: “That…”

MC: “Dr. Mo, the police must follow set procedures in the justice system. Because of Lu JingHe, the media already has their eyes on the police. If you add Li Zhou to the mix, the case will be blown out of proportion…”

Mo Yi: “I acknowledge the police’s hardship. I'm simply regretful that when one knows the path one must take to exit hardship, one is walled up by rules, a mere social construct. The road ahead stays in sight, but out of reach.”

Officer: “We don't know where Li Zhou went after he checked out of the hotel, we’ll have to check road surveillance to find out and that requires additional clearance. To do so isn’t difficult, but considering the amount of heat Captain Yan’s team is under…”

MC: “What can we do… I got it, I know where Li Zhou is!”

(Under Mo Yi and the officer’s watchful eyes, I took out my cell phone and dialed Cheng Cheng’s number. She’s a paralegal in our firm and is one of my juniors. She’s been with Themis for less than a year and she’s a die-hard star chaser.)

Cheng Cheng: “Sigh, it’s Sunday, why did you call me so early.”

MC: “Early? It’s literally lunchtime, Cheng Cheng!”

Cheng Cheng: “It’s early for me. I was binging dramas until the sun came up.”

MC: “Alright, it’s early, if you say it so. I'm calling about actual business, can you do me a favor?”

Cheng Cheng: “What is it?”

MC: “Can you help me check Li Zhou’s itinerary for today? See if he’s gone on set for a shoot or maybe at an event?”

Cheng Cheng: “Eh? Since when did you start following celebrity news, and to be Li Zhou’s stan on top of that. Stay on the line as I check. There’s a lot of fan apps that you can search to see your idol’s public itineraries.”

MC: “Then I’ll have to trouble you.”

Cheng Cheng: “Hm… Li Zhou might be out of the province for a shoot. There isn’t anything on the app for this week.”

MC: “But he was staying at the Manny Hotel last night.”

Cheng Cheng: “Then it must be his private itinerary. It's not right to expose stuff like that.”

MC: “Where can I find his current-day plans? Like where he is, right now…” Cheng Cheng: “Oi, why would you want to know something like that! It’s an invasion of privacy and it’s not allowed!”

MC: “It’s not like I want to do this, but Li Zhou is connected to the homicide I’m currently investigating. By the time the police find his whereabouts, it may be too late, so I might as well…Sigh, you know what I mean. I have no other options… So you can’t find out where he is?”

Cheng Cheng: “A homicide? My gosh! Then I… why don’t I help you ask my friends if they know any paparazzi or information dealers…”

MC: “Sorry about this, Cheng Cheng. If you could, please do. I’ve put you in a difficult situation.”

Cheng Cheng: “If it gets out that I was looking for private information, my reputation will be smeared in the fandom! Everyone will accuse me. If things go south, they’ll expose me as a sasaeng fan. You owe me big time.”

MC: “Alright, whatever you want as compensation. But don’t reveal the fact that it’s for a case.”

Cheng Cheng: “Of course I know that. Don’t worry and wait for my reply.”

(After the call dropped, I lifted my head to see the shocked expression on the officer’s face. Mo Yi was trying his best not to laugh as he shook his head.)

MC: “It was an emergency, I was at my wit’s end…”

Mo Yi: “Even if I interact with students daily, I’ve always approached the subject of star chasing as a psychological lecture topic. I thought that it was low, but now… perhaps I needed to broaden my horizons. I should not have held onto prejudice for any group of individuals.”

MC: “I’m not too knowledgeable either, it’s all Cheng Cheng…”

(Just then, Cheng Cheng’s message came through. She sure is speedy.)

(“I found it, Li Zhou is at Stellis Airport, his flight is outbound for 12:30 PM, he’s already through security checks.”)

MC: “Li Zhou’s at the airport. His flight takes off in an hour, he’ll be boarding the plane soon!”

Officer: “I’ll head over right away and stop him.”

(The officer ran out while dialing a number on his phone. He must have rushed to inform Yan Wei.)

Mo Yi: “From the looks of it, we’ll have lots of things to ask Jiang MingYue again. Before that, we’ll need to organize the clues we obtained, so… we need to obtain more evidence that pertains to Li Zhou in this room, otherwise, Jiang MingYue will be unlikely to open up to us again.”

MC: “Jiang MingYue still has a chance to commit the crime, but as it stands, her motives aren’t as clear. Unless…”

(A man and two women, the entertainment industry, a fashion house… my mind conjured up something in an attempt to explain it all, in the most logical way possible.)

MC: “Unless her, Li Zhou, and Shen Xi are in a love triangle…”

(Voicing something so gossipy was awkward, but when it comes to a formal investigation, nothing is impossible.)

Mo Yi: “You’re guessing that Jiang MingYue poisoned Shen Xi out of spite and that Li Zhou was simply arguing with Shen Xi and did not intend to kill her?”

MC: “I cannot dismiss the possibility.”

Mo Yi: “I believe that the culprit isn't Jiang MingYue and that it can only be Li Zhou.”

——-

[Previous Part] | [Masterlist] | [Next Part]

——-

《CREDIT》 Translator: Humi Editor: @cL QC: @hallowsivy 《未定事件簿》Tears of Themis is a 2020 Chinese otome game by 米哈游Mihoyo. All original credits go to 米哈游Mihoyo.

《 VOICE ACTORS 》 Mo Yi | Jiang GuangTao: https://weibo.com/jiangguangtao Lu JingHe | Yang Tianxiang: https://weibo.com/u/1745507755 Yan Wei: https://weibo.com/lengquanyeyue Jiang MingYue | V17-Vila: https://weibo.com/u/7360408881

#tears of themis #weiding shijian bu #otome #tears of themis translations #未定事件簿 #weiding shijian bu translations #tears of themis mo yi #weiding shijian bu mo yi #莫弈

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twdmusicboxmystery · 5 years ago

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Codas, Spoilers, and Music Videos

Okay, so once again I have a ton of little things to post that have come to my attention this past week. Just lots of bits and pieces that are quietly being posted. I’ll try to mention all of them over the next few days.

Here are the first few.

After-Credits-Codas

First, well, this isn’t something that was posted. Just something my peeps and I have been discussing. Even non-TD reviewers of episode 10x16 are really confused. GN’s comment about the last five minutes being jaw-dropping is really confusing everyone. If you’ve read spoilers, you know there’s nothing jaw-dropping in this episode. So I’ve seen reviewers trying to justify it. Like, “well, maybe if you haven’t read the comic books then…it might be…kind…”

No, just no. Based on what they’ve seen, there’s just nothing to justify the “jaw-dropping” comment.

And that’s frustrating for us (because no Beth) but it’s also frustrating and confusing for non-TDers in the fandom who just can’t figure out what he was talking about.

So that made me start wonder if maybe, just maybe, there might be something extra that the screeners didn’t see. You know, a coda, after the credits, kind of like Morgan showing up in 5x01.

And remember, the gray ninja who’s with Maggie has a mask REALLY similar to the one we saw Morgan wearing. And Morgan’s mask is something I really think we ought to talk about more. He wore it for all of 2 seconds in an after-the-credits coda in 5x01. And he never wore it again. Like, NEVER. We never saw, it, got any explanation for why he was wearing it in 100-degree Georgia heat in the first place. Nothing. And why have him wear the mask at all if he was just going to remove it first thing and show us his face? There really wasn’t any functional reason for it.

So I feel like it had to have been some kind of hint or foreshadow or something.

My point is, I guess the last hope we’re holding onto for seeing Beth in 10x16 is the idea that maybe there’s something the screeners didn’t see.

And really guys, it’s kind of a long shot. Chances are this is just another example of tptb over-hyping the show. If that’s the case, as I’ve said before, I’ll be disappointed in Nicotero. Because others, like Gimple, have overhyped the show before, but it doesn’t seem like Nictoero usually does. But, there’s a first time for everything. So please understand this is just kind of a hope on our part, and nothing with any concrete evidence.

However, to this end, @wdway asked me if the 5x01 coda with Lenny James was leaked beforehand. I honestly couldn’t say. I wasn’t part of the online fandom (following, posting, reading spoilers, etc.) until after Coda happened, so I have no idea if Morgan’s appearance was spoiled or not.

I do remember Lenny James telling a story on TTD about how his coming was kept a secret. He stayed in a basement apartment of some locals (who I think often host actors and guest actors on the show) and they weren’t even told who it was who was coming to stay with them. But they had to sign dictionary-sized non-disclosure agreements. Then, when the woman saw him, she obviously recognized him (being a fan of the show) and went, “Oh. It’s you. That’s why.”

So obviously he was sneaked around and everything was kept very hush-hush. At the very least, I doubt any cameras saw him before the episode aired.

I’ve asked around to others who I know were online back then, and no one really remembers for certain. It was a long time ago. Not to mention, technology and even the way spoilers are handled was very different back then.

But the general consensus seems to be that it was not spoiled. Everyone was super-shocked to see Morgan at the end of that episode because no one had figured out he would show up in it.

So, that’s just to say that it’s possible there might be something more.

But once again, I wouldn’t necessarily count on it. It’s better for all our emotional health to not hope too much for that. But I just wanted to throw it out there and say that, especially where the ninja is concerned, I’ll be keeping an eye out for Morgan/Ninja parallels and what they might be pointing to.

Which segues nicely into my next point.

Spoilers

Everyone remember the spoilers that came out not long after 10x16 was officially cancelled/pushed back? They said the ninja was a new female character named Melody. Now spoilers are saying it’s a man and that we won’t learn his name or see his face in 10x16.

I’m going to assume these second set of spoilers are true, because we’ve heard them from people who have already screened the episode.

But I’m really side-eying those early spoilers. What are the chances that we’re told someone who is a actually a man is a woman, and one who has a music-centric name (Melody). And even more, that they wear a mask similar to one Morgan wore when he first appeared?

I don’t know where those spoilers came from other than really general things (Reddit) but I almost feel like they might have been put out by tptb to mislead us. And, you know, why would they do that?

I don’t have specific theory, but it’s definitely suspicious to me.

Music Video

Okay, last thing I’ll talk about for today. If you haven’t seen the Marilyn Manson music video Norman is in, go watch it. So, remember when I posted his IG story a few weeks ago, saying it was suspicious but he and MM are friends so he might just be promoting his friend? Yeah, I didn’t realize back then that Norman was going to be in the music video. So he was hyping his friend, but it was his project, too.

youtube

The song is called Don’t Chase the Dead. (Which by itself could be a TD theme.) If you look at the lyrics, it has lots of TWD themes in it (tomorrow, ice cream truck, etc.) which may be why Norman agreed to do it. But I’ve gotten half a dozen messages this past week from people saying it’s giving them Beth vibes, and I agree. I just want you to notice a couple of things as you watch.

At the beginning, they cut some kind of canvas out of a frame. So the back drop is art theft. You could see the canvas they steal as sort of a “treasure” or “jewels” theme. And where do they put this treasure that was valuable enough to break in and steal?

In the trunk. At the end, the woman walks around to the back of the car, opens the trunk, takes out the canvas and walks away with it.

And then there’s the much more obvious tie, which is that someone (in this case, Norman’s character) is shot in the head and left in a car.

So yeah. Check that out. It’s definitely making my TD senses tingle.

Lyrics:

Angels in exile Here lies the dead An ice cream truck in your inferno

Don't chase the dead Or they'll end up chasing you Don't chase the dead Or they'll end up chasing you

If tonight lasts forever It won't matter if there's no tomorrow If tonight lasts forever It won't matter if there's no tomorrow No tomorrow

I got my tickets to Hell I know you so well And I know you wanna be there too

If tonight lasts forever It won't matter if there's no tomorrow If tonight lasts forever It won't matter if there's no tomorrow No tomorrow

Don't chase the dead Or they'll end up chasing you Don't chase the dead Or they'll end up chasing you Don't chase the dead Or they'll end up chasing you

If tonight lasts forever It won't matter if there's no tomorrow If tonight lasts forever It won't matter if there's no tomorrow

Don't chase the dead Or they'll end up chasing you Don't chase the dead Or they'll end up chasing you

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

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heyyyharry · 6 years ago

Text

My Girl Series: Chapter 7 - Birthday Blues

…in which Harry tries to make it up to Y/N for all the birthdays he has missed.

Series description: Y/N falls in love with the older boy next door who doesn’t feel the same, years later they meet again at a funeral.

AU: actor!harry, older!harry, younger!y/n; (4-year age gap)

Chapter 6: This Time - Y/N needs a wedding date, and this time Harry’s not giving up.

wattpad link

After Harry had left Holmes Chapel, every spark of joy in Y/N's life slowly died out with the part of him inside of her. The day she turned fifteen was also the first time she'd spent a birthday alone. Celine was abroad for a three-month exchange program. Her grandma, who lived in Brighton had just passed away, so both of her parents had to go there for the funeral. Since she refused to come along, they left her home with her mother's younger sister, aunt Lynn, who was only twenty-two at the time and didn't even bother to remember her name.

"Sweet baby, do not tell your parents that I invite some friends over, okay? Your mum is gonna be so mad," the young woman said, holding Y/N by the shoulders and the teenage girl could only pay attention to the sound of her aunt chewing bubble gum. For some reasons, Lynn always had something in her mouth. If she wasn't chewing gum, she had to make sure her mouth was kept busy by eating something, or someone. Y/N had met her three times before but each time she was snogging a different guy. Sadly she was the only option for a 'babysitter', just because Y/N's parents didn't believe their fifteen-year-old daughter was capable of staying home alone.

"But today is—"

"Shit!" The woman exclaimed, holding her head. "You're right! It's Friday night, I should throw a party. Play with your dolls, baby. Your aunt has adult stuff to take care of."

"My dolls?" Y/N muttered under her breath as the bedroom door was slammed shut in front of her eyes. Putting on her favorite song and turning off all the lights, she lied down, staring at the spinning fan above her head.

All the kids her age probably spent their fifteenth getting drunk and making out with their crushes, or losing their virginity without their parents knowing. But there she was, locked in her room while her aunt was having all the fun she was supposed to have. For the first time in her life, she found herself alone. She'd always been a loner, yet she had never actually felt it until that night. She stayed utter still in silence, holding Thumper close to her chest. The stuffed animal could probably hear every sound of her heart cracking open. Her mother wasn't there to tell her what a woman she'd become, nor was Harry to sing her the birthday song. It was just her, alone in the dark, with a purple bunny that still smelt just like him.

Celine always said that working in the library was the worst decision Y/N had ever made, because there was no job more boring than organizing dusty old books. But the thing was, Y/N loved her boring job. She mainly got paid for sorting and shelving books according to their categorization, which wasn't really hard work, not to mention that Ms. Florence, the librarian, was really easy-going. Y/N got to spend most of her time in the fiction section, avoiding her responsibilities to read and write as much as she wanted. Besides, she really liked her co-worker, whose name was Alice.

Alice was a year younger than Y/N. She liked to talk and Y/N liked to listen, so they were pretty compatible. Finding a drinking buddy in university was easy, Y/N had plenty of them; the hard part was finding a buddy you could trust. So even though Alice wasn't what Y/N would consider a close friend, she could be someone to count on.

"Why is it that every time I see you, you're reading something?"

Alice's voice pulled Y/N's attention away from the novel on her lap, as she looked up and found the tiny brunette smiling at her. Y/N leaned back against the bookshelf, crossing her legs so there was room on the floor for Alice to sit down as well.

"I have a surprise for you, big sis!" Alice said, making Y/N roll her eyes and chuckle.

"You've found another porn book, haven't ya?"

"No! An actual surprise!" The younger girl giggled, then finally showed Y/N what she'd been hiding behind her back. "Ta-da! Two tickets to see Heathers!"

"Heathers The Musical?" Y/N dropped her jaw when the other girl nodded. "I love Heathers!"

"I bet you do! You seem like someone who enjoys dark comedy with tragic endings."

Alice's comment made her laugh, but she couldn't say it wasn't true. Her life itself was already a dark comedy.

"Are you giving me these for free?" She asked, pointing to the tickets and Alice's lips curved into a smile as she nodded fast in response.

"I bought these to go with a friend next week, but we're both gonna be busy that night. So just consider this as my temporary birthday gift to you. I'll buy you something else tomorrow."

"How do you know today's my birthday?" Y/N's eyes went round as her mouth fell open, yet the grin on the other girl's face only expanded.

"I was cleaning Ms. Florence's desk this morning when I found your CV. I didn't have time to actually get you something so—"

"Alice..."

"I know you hate birthdays, but please accept these tickets or else I'll die!"

Y/N rolled her eyes, chuckling a bit at how dramatic that sounded, but eventually, she accepted the birthday gift from her co-worker, and thanked the girl for being so thoughtful. "By the way, there's really no need to get me something else," she said, making Alice snort.

"Don't be silly! You're getting a proper birthday gift from me." Alice barely stood up when she flopped onto the floor again. "Oh, and one more thing! Do you wanna go out tonight? I know this pub that's—"

"No, thanks. I've got a lot of work to do tonight."

"But it's your birthday!"

Y/N gave the girl a shrug, lifting a corner of her mouth as she replied, "I never celebrate it."

"Boo, you suck!" Like a child, Alice blew up her cheeks, eyebrows knitted together. "But if you change your mind, ring me up, big sis!"

Y/N tried to contain her laughter as she watched Alice hop away and almost fall head first when she tripped over a stool. It was only when her clumsy co-worker had gone out of sight that Y/N finally checked her watch and realized her shift was just over. She rose from the floor to place the book back on the shelf, then put the tickets into her bag before heading out. Usually, she would always be the last person to leave, but since it was her birthday, she still wanted to do something special for herself, even if it was something as simple as going home before Ms. Florence.

Instead of taking the bus, that day Y/N decided to walk home. For the first time in two years living in that city, the girl finally paid attention to what was going on around her; it was also the first time she had realized how boring London had always been. The grey color of concrete dominated the entire city; it was hard to spot a hint of green anywhere, unlike Holmes Chapel, her home.

Y/N missed that place so much, now more than ever.

She missed the meadows behind her house at springtime, when all the wildflowers added vibrant colors to the fading green. She missed the tall pine trees surrounding a field full of white poppies. She used to run across that field, imagining herself in the opening scene of The Sound of Music, and she could still hear Harry's voice calling out "Bambi, wait for me!" as he tried to catch up with her.

He was the green that she missed the most.

The sound of her ringtone cut right through that thought, causing the vivid images before her eyes to fade back to monochrome. His name showed up on the screen, as if he knew she had been thinking about him.

"Hello?" She answered, standing close to the wall on her right so she wouldn't get in the way of the other pedestrians.

"Are you on the way home?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, I'm just a few blocks away. Why?"

"I'm coming over."

She snorted, pursing her dry lips. "I'm busy tonight, remember? Birthday dinner with Isaac?" That lie was as smooth as melting butter coming from her mouth, yet her insides were heating up and her hands started to shake. She was glad he couldn't see the way she shut her eyes and pressed her lips into a firm line after lying to him.

"I'll see you in five."

"Wait, I said—" Y/N began, yet couldn't finish. Harry had already hung up on her.

The sun was sinking fast now, turning the sky to grey tinged with purple and pink. Harry was already waiting by his car outside the building when Y/N returned, standing with his back facing the ruby-red skyline. With golden-rays casting down upon him, Y/N thought Harry glowed even brighter than the sun itself. But of course, he didn't have to know.

"Happy birthday." His voice was husky and deep as he handed her a white poppy. "Just like the ones back home," he said, and the reluctance from her expression made him feel the need to add, "I didn't buy it. I stole it from a flower shop on the way here."

Y/N didn't know if that was true, but his slop-sided grin made her doubt every single one of his words.

"Headline: Harry Styles stole a flower for a mystery girl!" She said, swiping her hand across the air like she was presenting the idea to him, which only made the beam on his face grow twice as big as he pointed to his car. "Get in, kid," he told her. "Before what you said become reality."

"Where are we going?" She asked in hesitation.

"To your birthday party."

"My birthday party?! But I'm—"

"I'm sure we've got a lot of time before Isaac returns from Italy to take you to dinner."

That one sentence got Y/N tongue-tied. The girl couldn't make a single sound, instead, she was gawking at him like a fool. What did she expect though? He would find out sooner or later because he was still friends with Isaac. So all she could do at that moment was try to come up with an explanation, in case he asked her to tell him why she'd lied. However, he didn't ask her anything. Harry flashed a smile as he walked back to his car and told her to come along. But Y/N refused. She couldn't just follow him blindly without knowing exactly where they were going.

"You're not taking me to a fancy restaurant, are you?"

"Bambi, the last thing I want is for the paps to eat you alive." Harry chuckled and opened the car door for the girl. "Don't worry, kid. It's just gonna be the two of us."

The loud music and laughter from downstairs made it almost impossible for Y/N to even hear the voice inside her head. The birthday blues made it hard for her to stay awake, yet she couldn't sleep either, and there was no way she could talk her aunt into ending the party. Lynn was probably drunk off her ass right now, so Y/N knew the only place for her to be alone with her depressing thoughts was the treehouse. She hadn't gone back there since the night she last saw Harry, but she guessed it had become such a big part of her that she couldn't stay away no matter how much she'd tried.

Still in her pajamas, the fifteen-year-old climbed the rope ladder to get to her childhood spot. The floor was still wet from the rain yesterday, so she leaned against the doorway and stood there to ponder on her own. However, it didn't take her more than three minutes to burst into tears.

Y/N hated crying, it was physically and emotionally painful to cry, and when it was over, what was left was just...nothing. Emptiness. Nevertheless, crying was how Y/N understood herself best. When she cried, she knew who she was. And she had always thought, just like a heartbreak, though crying left her feeling empty when it was over, she would still sigh in relief, because, at least, she knew it was the end.

"Y/N!"

When she heard that voice, the girl stepped closer to the edge of the treehouse and looked down at her neighbor's garden, where she found Harry's big sister with one hand behind her back and the other waving in the air. Y/N quickly wiped away the remaining tears on her cheeks, feeling thankful because if Gemma had come earlier, she might have already seen Y/N bawling her eyes out.

"Gemma! When did you get back?"

"Just a couple days ago. I'm home for two weeks to work on my thesis." The other Styles chuckled. "Glad I found you out here, I was just about to come over."

"To see me?" Y/N lifted both eyebrows, pointing to herself and receiving a nod from her neighbor.

"Yeah, come down here. I have something for you."

The teenage girl hesitated a bit because she couldn't figure out why Gemma wanted to see her and had something for her. Even though she used to hang out with Harry, she was never that close to his older sister. But she climbed down anyway, curious to know what Gemma had behind her back.

"Happy birthday," said the 23-year-old as she handed Y/N the birthday gift she'd been hiding that whole time.

A snow globe.

It didn't have a snowman and a Christmas tree like the ones you normally found in souvenir shops. The one Gemma gave her had colorful glitter inside instead of fake snow; and it was a miniature London, with tiny versions of Big Ben, the London Eye, and the Tower Bridge.

But all Y/N could see, was a person.

"You remember my birthday?" The younger girl asked quietly as she received the gift from her lovely neighbor, who was smiling from ear to ear.

"Of course," Gemma said. "I came to your birthday party every year. But I guess you don't like them anymore, huh?"

"Yeah..." Y/N faked a laugh, hoping her awkward eye-roll didn't give away the fact that she was just lonely.

"Well, I'd love to stay and chat but I must get back to work now."

"Sure. Thanks for the nice gift," said Y/N. "Where did you get it by the way?"

"Bought it when I was in London last week."

Y/N didn't say anything else and just watched the older girl walk back to her house. Of course, she wanted to ask Gemma about Harry, but it was so sad to even think about him right now. His sister remembered her birthday and even got her a present, yet she hadn't heard a single word from him since the day he left. He was supposed to be her friend, or was it just another thing she had fooled herself into believing?

Holding the little London between her palms, she thought that maybe it was time to let go of the London inside her heart.

"Don't peek!"

"I'm not peeking!"

Y/N giggled, holding the hand that was covering her eyes as Harry carefully led her up the stairs, giving her directions so she wouldn't trip and cause them both to fall over. She extended her arms once they had reached the top, feeling the cold metal surface in front of them. The creaking sound caused her to flinch, so Harry quickly reassured the girl that it was just him opening the door. She could feel his other hand reaching around her waist to pull the handle, and a cold breeze blew right through her thin shirt. Y/N immediately took a step backward and bumped into Harry's firm chest. She felt the pressure of his fingertips on her hip as he gently pushed her forward, for the third time that night, telling her to trust him.

"If I didn't trust you I wouldn't have walked up all these floors with my eyes closed." She giggled, and his soft laughter sent shivers down her spine.

"Sit," he ordered, holding the girl by the arms to guide her into a chair; and when she was finally seated, Harry leaned in so his lips were close to her ear as he whispered, "open your eyes."

Y/N did what she was told.

Slowly, she opened her eyes.

The girl had begun to envision her surroundings ever since the cool air hit her skin for the first time as she stepped out, yet what she saw was far from her imagination.

They were sitting on a rooftop of a tall building somewhere in London. From her spot, Y/N could see the entire city spread below, tiny vehicles rushing along tangled roads. The city lights looked like stars dropping to the Earth, making her feel as if they were being squeezed between two galaxies. There were no words magical enough to describe what she was seeing, so Y/N didn't say anything, and just took in a deep breath to let it go with the biggest smile on her face.

It was windy on the roof, so Harry took off his coat and wrapped it around her shoulders. They sat side by side on two wooden chairs, staring at the city and the sky above, completely mesmerized by such beauty, which had completely changed Y/N's opinion about London. Maybe from a different and higher view, it wasn't plain and dull after all.

"Almost like Holmes Chapel, huh?" She heard him speak and turned to look at him. Harry was gazing up with a beam on his face as he pointed to the sky, and told her the names of the stars he knew, not aware that she wasn't really listening. She was too busy looking at him, and thinking, maybe somewhere underneath that man was still the little boy she used to know.

"Oh, I forgot!" He suddenly flinched and turned to pick up the box at his feet. "I made this for you. But...the rest of the batch...already ended up in the trash bin."

He opened the box and revealed one single cupcake with a candle on top. It didn't look terrible, still, it wasn't a very pretty cupcake either. But if that was the best out of the whole batch, Y/N couldn't help but snort as she tried to imagine what the other ones looked like.

"Hey, don't laugh at me! At least I tried!"

"Okay, okay." Y/N bit her lip to hold back a smile. She didn't know why it was so endearing that he'd exerted himself to make her one cupcake. Even if he'd got it from a store instead, she would still be overjoyed.

"Can I eat it now?" She asked, but he quickly shook his head no.

"You have to make a wish first."

Y/N giggled, eyes bored into Harry as he looked around to find something else. "Shit!" His jaw went slack. "The lighter! I forgot the lighter."

"Relax, lemme check," Y/N mumbled, reaching inside the inner pocket of his coat to search for the object, and she felt something like a little triangle box, assuming it was the lighter. But when she took it out, both of them froze as they saw what it really was.

A pack of cigarettes.

Y/N's mouth fell open, she was speechless, and so was he. "Harry..." Her voice was quiet when she looked at him. "Do you smoke?"

"No." He shook his head fast. "N-Not anymore."

"Really?"

"Why would I lie?" A blush crept up his face as he made eye-contact with her. "If I still smoked, I would have a lighter with me, right?"

That sounded like a good enough reason for her to believe him. Moreover, he didn't smell like someone who smoked, and she'd never seen him with a cigarette between his fingers before. So apparently he was telling the truth. Y/N inhaled deeply as she nodded, squeezing his hand for more assurance.

"Smoking could kill you. So don't...don't go back to it..." The way she could barely maintain eye contact while saying that to him made his heart flutter somehow. He took her other hand, linking their fingers together as he asked, "are you worried about me?"

"Of course I am," she said without pause. "I can't bear the thought of losing you."

The corners of her mouth turned down and her whole face contorted so he knew she was serious when she said those words. After all this time, he still mattered to her; and knowing that was like getting a heavy weight lifted off his chest.

Harry sank into his chair, holding the mini calendar above his face. "It's already April," he mumbled to himself, but his roommate Isaac assumed Harry was talking to him, so he replied, "yeah, almost time for finals."

It wasn't finals that came to Harry's mind when he thought about April, it was a birthday actually. He rarely remembered birthdays, and sometimes he forgot his own; but for some reasons, he always remembered hers. He hadn't spoken to Y/N since the night he left, and he could never forget the way she looked at him when she asked him to kiss her. It was awkward, yet it was sad. She truly cared about him, and he could never repay the same kind of feelings because she was too young. So he didn't know how to talk to her again after everything she'd confessed. The last thing he wanted was to lead her on and lull her into believing that one day he might feel the same. He knew he could never like her back the way she wanted him to.

However, it would be a lie to say he didn't miss her. He missed her a lot. How could he forget about his little Bambi? She was the only girl he'd spent the best years of his childhood protecting and looking after. She was something more than just the girl next door, and he kept the image on her face on the treehouse that night in his memory as he left Holmes Chapel with no intention of coming back. Every time he thought about her, a part of him wanted to pay her a visit, but he was glad he didn't change his mind. But now her birthday was coming close, and he knew she wanted him to be there with her. He wanted to be there with her. But he couldn't.

"Isaac," Harry broke the silence in the dorm room, turning his head to look at his best friend who was lying on the bed. "What should I give a fifteen-year-old girl for her birthday?"

The sudden question made Isaac lift an eyebrow. "I thought you only had a big sister?"

"Uhm...it's actually for my...my...cousin."

"Well, I'm bad at this stuff. Why don't you ask Niall?"

Harry rolled his eyes and scoffed. "He would just give me crazy ideas."

"Then ask the birthday girl herself." Isaac shrugged, sticking out his bottom lip. "I mean, try to be subtle and find out what she likes without giving away the fact that you don't know what to get her."

If only it was that easy. Harry shook his head and put the calendar back down. He used to be the one who knew about her more than anyone else, probably only second to her mother, he should be able to know what she liked, but right now he didn't. He knew nothing about her anymore. It was only then that he started to feel bad for all the time he didn't spend with her. But had he not kept his distance, their goodbye would've been much harder.

So he tried to think, swirling the pencil in his hand for a couple seconds. And finally, an idea came to his mind. Maybe there could be a way for him to come back to her after all.

For the rest of the night, Harry and Y/N sat in their chairs, eating pizza for dinner while discussing irrelevant topics like the existence of aliens, strange kinds of flowers, as well as their favorite movies, songs, and books. Soon both grew tired so they fell back to silence. He was staring at the city, and she was taking in the sight of him.

"Are you mad that I lied to you?" Her sudden question made him turn around with an eyebrow raised. "You know, about Isaac."

"I'm not mad at you, kid. But I'd like to know what happened..." Harry couldn't say he had heard most of the story from Niall because he wanted Y/N to tell him herself, if she trusted him enough, and of course, he didn't expect her to. But somehow she did. She ended up telling him everything.

"I didn't want Isaac to turn down the job offer for a relationship that would probably never work." She sighed with her chin on her knuckles, hooded eyes staring blankly ahead. "I liked him a lot. And I thought to myself that if he asked me to be his girlfriend, I would say yes immediately. But when it happened, I got scared. I couldn't let him in because I was afraid that if he knew too much about me, he wouldn't like me anymore. I guess I'm just not ready to fall in love again, and I don't want him to wait for me to be ready. My first and only relationship didn't end very well. So I didn't have the heart to let the same thing happen to us." Holding her breath, she said, "He's too good for me anyway. I'm better off alone."

"Nobody is better off alone," Harry spoke at last, a line appeared between his brows. "Everyone needs someone."

"Not me." She shrugged, and the look in her eyes broke his heart in a million pieces. "I'm sorry I had to lie to you...I didn't want you to do anything for my birthday. I've troubled you enough already."

"But you're not troubling me, love. I did all of this because I wanted to. I...I care about you."

She couldn't remember the last time she heard him say those words, or if he'd ever said them at all. So to hear them now made her feel happy and sad at the same time. If there was one thing that she'd learned from their 'relationship' it would be, Harry's words weren't always credible.

"How did you find this place though?" She changed the subject, putting on a smile to lighten up the mood, which had gotten a bit blue since Isaac was mentioned. She could see it from the look on his face that he was also glad she'd brought up something else.

"Niall's uncle owns this building. They're doing some reconstructing so it's closed for a couple months. It might be the only place we could be together without people bothering us."

"Thank you." Y/N took in a long breath as she smiled. "I've never seen London so beautiful."

"Agreed." Harry nodded fast. In this bad lighting, his dimples seemed even deeper than they actually were. "But my favorite is the winter time. The city looks best when it's covered in snow."

Those last words made Y/N's head turn as her eyes went round.

"It was you, wasn't it?" she cried out, causing the man to jump in shock. He was meant to ask, but she didn't even let him have his chance. "The snow globe! You asked Gemma to give it to me, did you?!"

"Ouch!" He yelped when she smacked him hard on the arm. The girl didn't look very sorry when he rubbed the sore spot and his brows drew together in utter perplexity.

"Why did you ask her to lie for you?! I was so sad, I thought you didn't remember my birthday!"

"I thought it was for the best if you forgot about me, after..."

There was a pause, a gap for her to fill in.

"Our first kiss...I know," she mumbled at last.

It was weird to talk about it now, since both of them had been pretending like the kiss she'd stolen from him when she was fourteen had never happened. After all, she was fourteen at the time, he couldn't blame her for acting so impulsive. But recently he'd been thinking about it and wondering if her feelings back then had been all true.

Her eyes darted as she whispered under her breath, but still loud enough for him to hear, "why didn't you send me anything on my birthday next year or the ones after that?"

"I...I wanted to...I almost did." He swallowed hard while fidgeting in his seat. "But Gemma said you were seeing this boy, so I thought I should stay away from your life and let you forget about me for good. Then time passed and I actually didn't think a lot about you, until..."

She nodded without waiting for him to finish, her lashes fluttered as sadness overtook her face. After a moment of thinking, she asked, "if you could turn back time, would you come back to see me?"

"Yes," he answered. "Without a second thought."

Y/N had seen Harry in a lot of different situations, yet she'd never seen him like that, all flustered and ill at ease. She loved the way the rings on his fingers sparkled as he was nervously toying with the hem of his shirt. She loved it when even under the dim lights surrounding them, she could see a blush creep up his face. She knew better, that it was never good when she felt so drawn to him, yet she couldn't stop, so she released a slight laugh, which got his attention.

"Why are you laughing?" He asked.

Shaking her head with the grin still remained, she said, "nothing."

As he walked with her five floors up to her flat, Harry struggled to find something to say so the silence carried on until they reached her front door. He couldn't explain why he was at a loss for words every time he stood in front of her. He knew her well, he'd grown up with this girl. But deep down inside he knew it wasn't like that, not anymore. He knew his heart had more to say about her than it should, and the way it began to race whenever she was around had him frustrated most of the times.

He watched her unlock her front door and turn to say goodbye. But just when she was about to leave, he stopped her by taking her hand. It wasn't the first time they'd held hands, still, he let hers go after about two seconds like it was hot coal burning his skin. Maybe it was, maybe she was, yet he couldn't stay away because he enjoyed the burn. With round Bambi eyes, she stared at him, slightly puzzled by his strange behaviors. Harry asked her to wait. He searched in his pants pocket, finally pulling out a silver locket necklace.

"Your birthday present."

"Harry—"

He shushed her right away, telling her to turn around as he took a step closer to put the chain around her neck. His fingers brushed against her collarbone only once, but it was enough for both of them to flinch at the contact. Y/N gently touched the heart-shaped locket now lying on her chest, then opened it to find a tiny photo of her mother.

"So you could always keep her by your heart," he whispered, his voice was low and hot against her ear.

Slowly, Y/N turned around, but Harry didn't pull away so they were just one step away from pressing against each other. She meant to just thank him and go inside her flat, but as she parted her lip, not a single sound managed to escape. Her cheeks turned pink, her bottom lip was quivering as she batted her lashes. She had never looked into his eyes for that long, and the look he was giving her made her pupils dilated. It was the same look she'd seen him give that blonde haired girl on the treehouse when he was seventeen. He had never looked at Y/N that way before, and now he did. If only she could read his mind, she would know he was also trying to do the same.

Harry knew it was wrong, but he couldn't resist. The last time he had the same feeling, he wasn't thinking straight so he went for it by instinct. Now he knew exactly what was happening, and still, he didn't stop it. He leaned in a little closer, their foreheads touching. He expected her to pull away or even slap him for making that bold move, yet she stayed exactly where she was, chest heaving with anticipation. Her scent was flooding his senses, and the second he finally found the courage to place his hands on her hips, it was she who decided the next move.

Her lips brushed against his. Not innocently, but hot and passionately, he wanted to pull away before he lost control, but like a magnet, she drew him in more and now he was stuck. "Harry," she whispered slowly, making his heart flutter as he clasped his hands on either side of her face.

That kiss wasn't like the first or the second, this time it was an open-mouthed, almost sexual kiss. He pushed her against the door, loving the way her body melted into his as their lips fitted perfectly like they were made for each other. She held his hair and he held her so tight as if he was afraid it wasn't real, and she would disappear the moment he loosened his grip. They broke away after what seemed like ages, and from the look in her eyes, he could tell she expected him to run, just like he had before.

But he didn't. Even if he wanted to, he knew his trembling feet wouldn't let him. She stood with her back against the door, him with one hand on her hip, the other fisted to rest beside her head. He inhaled sharply and she was still trying to steady her breathing. It took almost five seconds for either to open their eyes and look at the other person.

"Goodnight," she mumbled, reaching behind for the doorknob and the next thing he knew, she had fled inside and shut the door right in front of his face. Harry was left standing in the hallway like an idiot, not knowing what to do next. He lifted a fist, about to knock because there were still many things that he wanted to say to her, an apology was one of which. But he thought again and decided that he should probably go.

Harry left the building, stepping out on the street with his head still on the cloud as he kept touching his lips, trying not to smile so big or else people would think he was insane. But maybe he was, because he was too happy to act differently. He got into his car and sat there with both hands on the steering wheel, head tossed back, smiling contently. His whole face was red, but he didn't really mind. He was soaked in the scent of her perfume, and all he could think about was how he could possibly fall asleep with every trace of her lingering on his body.

His phone lit up in the dark, notifying a new text from Bambi which got him to sit up straight at once. His heart could've exploded when he read the first line, if the next one hadn't come on in less than a second.

⌲ Bambi: That kiss was a mistake.

⌲ Bambi: You're gonna have to earn it next time.

⌲ Next time? :)

⌲ Bambi: Don't be smug about it!

⌲ I'm not! But wait, on the scale from 1-10, how great was tonight? (minus the kiss)

⌲ Bambi: 7/10 (including the kiss)

⌲ Heeeeeey!

Sitting at her working desk, chin resting on her palm, Y/N cracked a smile. The birthday surprise, as well as the kiss they'd shared in the hallway, were definitely 11/10. But she couldn't give it to him that easily. She placed her phone down, leaving his latest message on read as she touched the chain around her neck once again.

The London snow globe was still sitting on her desk, and she hadn't touched it in so long that it was a bit dusty now. She kept it there so it could remind her of the terrible birthday she should already forget, but she didn't want to. It was a way of telling herself that sometimes the people you loved would leave you behind, and that was just a cruel fact of life that one should just accept and carry on. But now that she knew it wasn't all true, the way she felt about the snow globe had also changed.

Quickly, she typed down 'Thank you for the locket' and sent it to him, then while waiting for him to reply, she sent another text right after.

⌲ I have two tickets to see Heathers The Musical

⌲ H: Yes.

⌲ I haven't even asked?

⌲ H: Whatever you're gonna ask, it's a yes.

⌲ Have you even watched Heathers?

⌲ H: There's always Google! Send me the date and time, my assistant will get back to you shortly.

⌲ Haha funny.

Y/N rolled her eyes and giggled as she snapped a quick shot of the tickets Alice had given her and sent it to him.

⌲ H: Wednesday night! I'm free!

⌲ You sure there's not another award show that night? I'm gonna kill you if you skip another one for me.

⌲ H: Nah I'm not supposed to attend any event next week. If you don't believe me, google it!

⌲ Oh God.

⌲ H: Say that instead of my name 'next time'.

Y/N's face turned scarlet when she read that line. She sucked in her bottom lip, face-palming herself with her eyes shut and wishing she hadn't moaned his name into the kiss. That couldn't have been more embarrassing. She typed down a few words, trying to come up with a reply that would save herself from the humiliation, yet she kept typing and deleting for three times or so. Then came two new messages from him.

⌲ H: It's late. Go to sleep Bambi. Good night.

⌲ H: Once again, happy birthday! :)

The twenty-year-old smiled to herself as she sent him back a goodnight text. Y/N knew she should get to bed now if she wanted to wake up early for a class in the morning. But she also knew it would take forever for her to fall asleep. This time, fortunately, it wasn't gonna be the birthday blues that kept her up all night.

#my girls series #harry styles #harry styles fluff #harry styles smut #harry styles imagine #harry styles angst #harry styles imagines #harry styles fanfic #harry styles fanfictions #harry styles fanfics #harry styles writing #harry styles fanfiction #bestfriend!harry #older!harry #actor!harry

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das-coven · 5 years ago

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James T. West

Robert Conrad starred as James West. Before The Wild Wild West, Conrad played private eye Tom Lopaka in ABC's Hawaiian Eye for four seasons, 1959-63. Conrad claimed to be the 17th actor to test for the role of James West. (Rory Calhoun was initially announced for the part.) Conrad performed nearly all of his own stunts on The Wild Wild West. "For the first few episodes we tried stuntmen," Conrad explained, "but the setup time slowed production down, so I volunteered. Things started moving quicker when I took the jumps and the spills. We started meeting the budget." Early on he was doubled by Louie Elias or Chuck O'Brien.

On January 24, 1968, however, during filming of "The Night of the Fugitives", Conrad fell 12 ft (3.7 m) from a chandelier onto a concrete floor and suffered a concussion. As a result, production of the series (then near the end of its third season) ended two weeks early. Conrad spent weeks in the hospital, and had a long convalescence slowed by constant dizziness. The episode was eventually completed and aired during the fourth season, with footage of the fall left in. Conrad later told Percy Shain of the Boston Globe, "I have the whole scene on film. It's a constant reminder to be careful. It also bolstered my determination to make this my last year with the series. Four seasons are enough of this sort of thing."

Born July 2, 1842, James West went to college where he was mentored by archaeology expert Professor Robey. He then served in the Union Army during the Civil War, attaining the rank of Captain. About a decade later, President Grant recalls him to service as a special agent to discover why someone might wish to start a war between the United States and Mexico.

Little is known of the early history of James T. West. In fact, it is not known what the T in his name stands for. He is known to have mentioned his father once but there was not enough information to draw any knowledge about the man.

West was born on July 2, 1842. Many events, however, have contradictory dates unless we assume that the stories are not told in chronological order, which is entirely possible since they are almost completely episodic. What is known is that Jim West graduated from West Point and subsequently served as a Cavalry officer, rising to the rank of Major in the United States Army. He was decorated many times.

In 1865, when he was a lieutenant, near Vicksburg, Virginia, in the aftermath of a battle, he stumbled upon a wounded Confederate soldier. The man’s legs had been severely damaged. West applied tourniquets that stopped the bleeding and saved the man’s life. This particular incident would later have repercussions in West's career as a Secret Service agent.

It is unclear as to precisely when Jim West was recruited into the United States Secret Service. The Service itself was founded in 1865 but it is difficult to construct a timeline using our world’s history as a template because the world James West lived in is clearly a different one. It is possible to say that he was recruited sometime between 1865 and 1870. By the end of 1870, he was one of two agents (the other being Artemus Gordon) who worked directly for and answered only to the President of the United States, Ulysses Simpson Grant.

Even when we first encounter Jim and Arte, estimated to be 1871, they have already been working together long enough to have become best friends and to implicitly trust each other. They are presented as troubleshooters sent by the President to investigate threats to American security.

West and Gordon traveled in luxurious style on a train named the Wanderer, complete with numerous fancy and futuristic gadgets and a laboratory on board.There was never any explanation for how these gadgets existed in that time period of the late 19th century. It seemed normal in that reality.

Unlike his partner Artemus Gordon, Jim relies on his fists to get him past his enemies, or his seductive wiles to charm the ladies. He also has a knack for safe cracking which he picked up along the way in his travels. He travels in style aboard the Wanderer, a specially-equipped private train with richly appointed compartments containing a wide array of special of his suit coat, a breakway two-shot derringer he can assemble from pieces contained in his bootheels, a grappling hook and line that can be fired from his revolver, and a special ring that can cut through iron bars. On occasion, he supplements this gear with more specialized equipment.

Sometime around 1882, West and Gordon retired from the Secret Service. By 1885, West was traveling through Mexico when he received word that the son of the late Dr. Loveless (who had died sometime between 1875 and 1882) had threatened the United States with a weapon that could destroy cities much as his father had once done and they were asked to come out of retirement. They defeated Dr. Loveless, Jr. but realized that he had clones planted all around the world so they may not have seen the last of him.

They were called out of retirement one last time (or just never went back into retirement) although the adventure was noticeably lacking in any fights or battles of any kind. And with that adventure, James West rode off into the sunset, heading west, for the last known time.

James West is a handsome ladies man. Although small in stature, he is a coiled spring of energy. He usually wears a blue western style suit complete with vest, cowboy hat and numerous concealed weapons and devices. A martial arts master, West’s speed is amazing. Regularly defeating groups of at least four opponents in hand-to-hand fights, he was equally unmatched with guns, once defeating even an android in a fast-draw contest.

Sure of himself and quite confident, Jim West is what James Bond might have been had he been living in the United States of America during the 1870's. He is also never one to run from any fight. A notorious gunfighter once threatened Artemus Gordon while he was sporting an injured arm when Gordon said something about the man’s notorious reputation, implying it might not be a good idea for Gordon to have such a good memory.

The gunman said Gordon talked big for a guy with a bad wing (meaning his gun hand). West said, “My name is Jim West. I’ve got a good memory too and there’s nothing wrong with my wing.

#James T. West #Robert Conrad #Wild Wild West #Jim West

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tristis-333 · 5 years ago

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Sorry pal, still not good enough. A response to Eddy Rivas

So a while ago fairgame-is-canon shared a discussion thread he had with RWBY writer Eddy Rivas. And I feel the need to share my feelings on what Eddy said, because they are mixed. Some are sympathetic, but the vast majority are…not. So I’m just going to go down the list of what Eddy said and break it down.

So to start in regards to Clovers actions in chapter 12 Eddy states that Clover has always been envisioned lawful good. That while it does make more objective sense for Clover to work with Qrow to take Tyrion down that’s “not how Clover operates.” Eddy says part of Clovers character is that once you’re on the wrong side of the law there is no teaming up. He then sites Clovers actions in chapter 1 as an example of this attitude.

Ok, so first I can kind of see where he’s going with that. Like Robyn has been described as chaotic good, and Qrow can fit into neutral good. So you have this idea of people with different flavors of ultimately the same moral level having to work together. And the idea that Clover is so dedicated to law, that he sees authority and following rules as so important, that he would oppose anyone who didn’t align with the law as automatically an enemy is sort of kind of interesting. I mean it’s been done well before, early Suzaku from Code Geass is the first example that comes to mind.

But what many others have pointed out is that this doesn’t really feel like the direction Clover’s character was going. Clover doesn’t get much characterization at all, if we’re being honest. I’ve seen quite a few people respond to his death with shrugs because they weren’t really given enough time to form a connection. Even Fair Game shippers, I feel, are more upset about Clover’s death in regards to his relationship with Qrow and within the much larger context on LGBT representation than Clover on his own as a character. Which is another criticism I would throw at CRWBY, that they didn’t give enough time to develop Clover to where his death would be impactful even if the only thing you cared about was Clover himself and not his relationship to other characters. Like, if Pyrrah and Jaune were never a thing I would have still been devasted because I still loved Pyrrah just as her own character. And I don’t know if I could say the same about Clover unfortunately.

And even the characterization for Clover we do get doesn’t really support this idea. Clover comes of a very laid back, levelheaded, and confident. Which makes sense his semblance ensures the odds are always in his favor. Yes he’s a bit more stern around Ironwood but that can be seen as professionalism, Ironwood is still his commanding officer, regardless of how close they are. So this idea of someone who believes so much in law and authority that those who oppose it are always in the wrong and can’t be teamed up with just never comes across. If anything Clover comes off as exactly the kind of guy who would question bizarre orders like this. Eddy tries using “pre-winter soldier Captain America” as an example but Steve has always embodied doing the right thing, because it’s the right thing. In the first movie Steve launches an unauthorized rescue mission to save his fellow soldiers.

And as for his actions in chapter 1, A. Clover doesn’t actually do that much in the chapter besides arresting RWBY & Co. and B. there is more explanation for these actions than we get for those in chapter 12. From Clovers perspective, his kingdom is on high alert and a bunch of strangers have shown up armed to the teeth in a stolen airship. Of course he arrests them, he has every right to. And once the situation is cleared up he’s happy to work with them.

Meanwhile in chapter 12 Clover has no context, at all. He just gets his orders and is like “well orders are orders,” and turns on the person he’s been working with for at least weeks if not months. At least the Ace Ops have the excuse that they were there for Ironwoods turn. They got caught up in Ironwood’s paranoia and even then, some of them, Vine and Marrow at least, are still hesitant. Clover doesn’t even have that going for him.

Next Eddy goes on to apologize that other felt hurt by what happened and that people are working hard to make sure we feel heard. He explains that as a writer he does not greenlight animation, or work for voice actors or anything like that. And from there we get a bunch of back and forth but I’ve narrowed down what I want to talk about already.

First of all I actually agree with what Eddy says when he points out that he’s just a writer. A lot of people are trying lay the blame for this squarely on Eddy and that is not the right thing to do here. Don’t get me wrong Eddy has a part to play in this, but he is just one writer, on a team of writers, who themselves are part of a large production staff within a bigger company. And that company is just a small piece in the bigger systems that have let these problems thrive. That is why I’ve addressed CRWBY as a whole as opposed to signaling anyone person out. Because this isn’t a problem you can lay at the feet of one individual. The treatment of LGBT characters is a larger systemic issue that spread to nearly every facet of the media industry. And those problems bleed out into other areas, from day to day life for LGBT people, to politics and so forth and so on.

But that’s where my sympathy ends because Eddy’s apology and promise that “we’re being heard” without actually giving concrete answers as to what that means are not good enough. First of all, Eddy’s apology is for other people “feeling hurt.” He is apologizing for the people’s reactions instead of what was actually done to cause those reactions. Eddy has said he sees this as an opportunity to learn but this already showing he’s not learned much. He didn’t apologize for that the show baited audiences, and he didn’t apologize for pulling a Bury Your Gays. And before people respond, I know A. It’s not Eddy’s job to do that, but he’s the one putting himself out there. And B. before you say “but they didn’t mean to do that” I. DON’T. CARE. When you hurt someone, especially a group of people who are used to being violently erased from representation, what you meant to do doesn’t matter. What matter IS WHAT YOU DID.

And these promises “that we’re being heard.” Empty platitudes. Too many creators, and company have promised the same thing and have give nothing to show for it. Hell Marvel is currently pushing how it will have it’s first gay kiss in the upcoming Eternals movie. I expect it to be a split second scene in the very last scene of the film that can easily be edited out for foreign audiences. And then Kevin Feige will be completely shocked when I, and other LGBT fans with two brain cells to rub together, say what we’ve been saying for years. This isn’t good enough. Until we’re given concrete answer as to what “being heard” actually means, it’s not good enough. Until creators stop jerking us around and baiting us, it’s not good enough. Until LGBT characters are given the same amount of characterization, visibility, and respect as straight and cis characters, IT’S NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

#rwby #rwby volume 7 #crwby why #crwby #eddy rivas #qrow x clover #clover ebi #clover deserved better #fair game #fairgame #lgbt representation matters #this shits not good enough

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hippychick006 · 6 years ago

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I saw some posts recently with Hellers once again bringing out the old “Jared confirmed the Castiel/Colette parallel” which has always bugged me, so I thought I’d finally do a post on it. Putting under a cut so those not interested can quickly move on, but it isn’t that long (for a change).

Heller Myth: Jared confirmed the Castiel/Colette parallel at Seacon 2015. Suck it antis!

Reality:

This is the question that was asked: I was just wondering, in the Executioner’s Song, the Castiel and Colette parallel was a big part of the plot, or just something that happened?

No explanation given by the fan as to who Colette was, who she was to Cain and what specific parallel the fan was drawing between Castiel/Colette and certainly no hint whatsoever they were actually linking Colette/Cain and Castiel/Dean. The way the question was phrased made it seem like the parallel between them was an obvious and known canon fact, rather than a fan’s head canon drawn from thin air and more than a little desperation. J2 had absolutely no reason to question the validity of the parallel and the question being asked.

First off, let’s all acknowledge that the question should not have been asked at all. Shipping questions (which this obviously was) are not allowed at conventions and yet again, a Destiheller ignored the rules and here we are. That aside;

Fact: There is not a single mention of Colette in The Executioner’s Song, so how on earth there could have been any parallel between Castiel and Colette in that episode in the first place, let alone it being “a big part of the plot” I’ve got no idea. The only time Colette was ever mentioned by Supernatural was in 9.11 (First Born), and a whopping 25 episodes separate First Born (where Colette is part of the story) and The Executioner’s Song (where Colette is not even mentioned).

Fact: There is no similarity at all in Colette’s story in 9.11, with anything Castiel said or did in 10.14. The only reason hellers came up with a “parallel” in the first place was because they started at the point “I want Destiel to exist in canon” so in order for that to read true, the only conclusion they come to to support that is Castiel has to be Colette’s equivalent, he just has to be. But there’s absolutely nothing tying the two characters story together in reality.

Fact: Jared was not involved in filming the scenes in First Born where Colette’s story was told (only Crowley, Dean and Cain were part of those scenes). Jared was also not involved in filming the scenes in the barn between Dean and Cain in The Executioner’s Song, so his knowledge of Colette as a character, let alone a parallel is going to be pretty non-existent. Even within fandom, when this question was asked, people couldn’t remember who she was and had to look it up.

Fact: Seattle convention was 27-29 March 2015. Executioner’s Song aired on February 17 2015. Due to hiatus, only 2 more episodes aired after Executioner’s Song and before the convention. The episode should therefore have been reasonably fresh in both actors’ minds (if they had watched it), which brings me on to…

My opinion based on known facts: Jared rarely watches the episodes. He did not live tweet during The Executioner’s Song and though not concrete proof, it’s highly likely he did not watch the episode. The same with First Born.

So, with all that in mind, let’s look in detail at the answer given.

Jared: Which one was that episode again? (doesn’t know what fan is talking about, even though as I’ve said, the episode was only 3 prior to the actual convention)

Fan: The one where Dean killed Cain.

This prompted J2 to remember at least part of that episode and the only reason they remember it so clearly is that it was the one where Jensen stabbed Jared in the leg - which they then proceeded to spend a few minutes telling and re-enacting, before they got back to the question and the first thing they ask is;

Jared: What were you asking about? (he clearly has no clue)

Fan: whether the Castiel and Colette parallel was part of the plot, or whether it just happens.

Again, the way this was asked, made it seem as if there was a no brainer that there was a parallel between Castiel and Colette, that a statement of fact was being made, rather than a fan’s completely made up head canon.

Jared (to Jensen): I’ll let you take this one (clearly still hasn’t a clue)

Jensen: I think she really wanted to hear from you (equally as clueless as Jared)

Jared (eventually mans up and provides an answer, but he talks about parallels in general terms, and he does that because he doesn’t know what parallel the fan is asking about in relation to Castiel and Colette, because why would he? He’s not a heller and Colette is a minor character who appeared in only 1 episode - and as I’ve already mentioned Jared was not involved in those scenes for that episode and is unlikely to have watched it): “I think that the parallels are on purpose. I think that one of the things our writers do very well is play opposites and parallels… we see it often with Sam and Dean...” (he then goes on to talk about Sam and Dean because of course he does, it’s all that interests him and Jensen and when the show does parallels, it’s generally with these 2 lead characters. He eventually comes back to…), “so I think you noticing the parallel is a kudos to you, because I think it was done on purpose.”

He’s not saying it was definitely done on purpose because it’s clear he still has no idea who Colette even is and what their parallel to Castiel might be, so he goes with what he thinks is a safe answer.

Going back to watch the two episodes, there is no way that Castiel can even remotely be “interpreted” as being Colette, even with the most extreme reaching. This is what Cain had to say about Sam, Castiel and Crowley in The Executioner’s Song (because yes, Crowley was in this episode too, conveniently forgotten by hellers, because who the hell is he a parallel for?!) (transcript extract from superwiki);

Cain (to Dean): Has it never occurred to you? Have you never mused upon the fact that you're living my life in reverse? My story began when I killed my brother, and that's where your story inevitably will end.

Dean: No. Never.

Cain: It's called the Mark of Cain for a reason!

First ... first, you'd kill Crowley. There'd be some strange, mixed feelings on that one, but you'd have your reason. You'd get it done, no remorse.

And then you'd kill the angel, Castiel (I like how he has to clarify which angel – who by the way, Cain himself called Dean’s pet in this episode with this line: “When your pet angel found my burial site”). Now, that one ... that I suspect would hurt something awful. (I mean yes, I agree, if I had to kill my dog, I’d be completely inconsolable)

And then... then would come the murder you'd never survive, the one that would finally turn you into as much of a savage as it did me.

Dean: No.

Cain: Your brother, Sam.

I don’t know about anyone else, but my take away from this is that once again, Sam is most important and Dean could survive without Crowley and Castiel, but not without Sam. I mean it’s right there in the text, why are people looking at non existent subtext in the first place?

Going back to Colette’s story in First Born. This is the important part where Cain talks about her;

Cain: She knew who I was… and what I was. She loved me unconditionally. She forgave me. She only asked for one thing.

Crowley: To Stop

In The Executioner’s Song, no one asks Dean to stop, you’d think if they were really going to parallel Colette, that’s what they would do, but no, Dean gives up the blade entirely of his own volition. Colette is not a factor in Executioner’s song, there’s nothing to parallel to, hence why she’s not even mentioned.

Only one person ever asks Dean to stop killing, and that’s Sam in 9.21 King of the Damned after Dean has killed Abaddon and he’s still stabbing her with the blade:

Sam: Dean! Dean! Stop! You can stop.

Dean does, he drops the blade.

Look, if you’re using what Jared said at Seacon as proof of your ship becoming canon, I don’t know what to tell you, other than you know that it isn’t true. Deep down you know he didn’t intentionally validate your non-existent ship. Deep down you know if you’d asked the question in this way: “I watched Executioners Song which aired recently and I saw a strong parallel between Colette, who was Cain’s wife, and Castiel who I see as being the equivalent of Colette to Dean. So, I’m wondering if that parallel was intentionally put into the episode, and if so, and Castiel is the equivalent of Dean’s wife, is Destiel going to become canon at some point?” the answer you would have got back would have been 100% clear that there was no parallel between Colette and Castiel in that way and Destiel does not exist. Anyone genuinely thinking otherwise, is in for a whole world of disappointment when the show ends.

#not sure what to tag this as #destiheller delusions #destihellers #colette myth

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