#this is technically a flashback sequence

[moltengoldveins]

writing snippet

.

“Come on then!” The woman cries from above, her voice clattering down the canyon like an eagle in flight. Nebenai laughs, fingers gripping tighter to her precarious hold, shoulders burning as the healing sigils begin to heat the gouges on her fingertips and the pads of her palms. 

“I’m stuck!” She yells back, and the woman sighs, anchor chain clattering. Then, with easy grace, she kicks off her perch and falls, rope catching, creaking, swinging her out and down and past Nebenai’s position, inches from slamming into her and knocking them both off the cliff. She falls away, then swings back, ankles scraping against stone to come to a terrifying halt pressed against Nebenai’s side. 

“Hi.” Her grin is audible, breathless, the noonday sun is streaking around her head and casting her in painful silhouette. 

Nebenai rolls her narrowed eyes, her smile never faltering. “Oh shut up, help me out here.” 

One broad hand clamps down on the makeshift harness, the other on the rope above them both, and she begins to haul them both up the cliffside. Nebenai soon finds places to wedge her feet and push, helping direct their climb until eventually, gasping and laughing, they spill over the top of the cliff and splay out in the sunlight. 

Beneath them, so far as to be tinted blue by the distance, spreads the valley they just spent the day traversing. Behind a hill, a curl of smoke rises from the camp, tracing upwards into the air like an inkbrush on paper. 

Finally, Nebenai pushes herself up on her elbows, throwing one hand out to block the sun. The woman is already upright, perched above the precipice like a church gargoyle, arms spread wide to balance. Her fingers play in the wind like feathers, or autumn leaves. 

Nebenai reaches out with one foot to tap the woman’s ankle. “You know, you’re going to be the death of me one day.” 

The woman’s laugh is like bourbon, like a dagger, like a swallowed torch. It sounds like it hurt going down. “Please, give me some credit. I already am.” 

[dungeons-and-dragon-age]

iyhsb my absolute beloved,,

[robo-dino-puppy]

*chomp*

[todayisafridaynight]

So what's one of your favorite Tsutsumi fits 😉

random as hell question to be askin 🤨 so mysterious...

but since you did ask probably this one <3 from the second episode of pure <3

[hell-is-not-an-excuse]

Helluva Boss versus Achillean Relationships || Chaxxie [1/3]

Let me preface this by saying that I know I'm not the first person to point this out, and I certainly won't be the last. However, it's something that's been tugging at me for a while now. That "something" of course, being the portrayal of MLM/achillean relationships within the Hellaverse, and how they're favoured over everything while bordering into the fetishistic.

I'm going to be the first to admit I have not watched the entirety of Hazbin Hotel. Hell, I made it to the first five or so minutes of the first episode before unceremoniously quitting around the "this body was made to be exploited" line. I'll have a separate post on that later, since my thoughts on that (and Angel Dust as a character, by extension) are long winded and not the focus of this particular post.

So, for today, I will be focusing on one of the three canon MLM ships within Helluva Boss specifically. For the purpose of this post series, I will only be including the ships that have two characters that are named within the series. This narrows us down to Chaxxie, Fizzozzie and Stolitz (which is not technically canon but is clearly endgame, unless the writers are waiting with bated breath to pull the rug out from underneath the audience).

This time I will be talking about Chaxxie, as it's the least touched-upon relationship in the show itself; not only because it's the only past relationship on this list, but it's also the only relationship that contains a one-off character. And yet, I found the lack of chemistry so offensively boring that I felt the need to make a whole post just about them.

So, Chaxxie. There's not a whole lot to talk about with their relationship, as all we get is just over a minute of backstory and a song that screams "unable to take no for an answer". I suppose I could also include their sham almost-wedding, but that comes off less as a shipping moment and more a plot beat, and thus will be disregarded. Even so, I apparently had way more to say about them and the implications of their relationship than I thought, so this post will be long.

Before that however, there's the obvious elephant in the room - Chaz and Millie. Despite being the ex of both Millie and Moxxie, we as the audience never get a perspective of what the relationship between Millie and Chaz even looked like. Not even a throwaway line from Millie herself. Given that Helluva Boss has suffered from a lack of precise characterising of its women up until this point, this is another glaring example to add to the long-suffering pattern.

But what about Moxxie? What do we get as the audience?

In the first of two flashback scenes, we're informed that Chaz and Moxxie meet during Moxxie's induction into the Knolastname crime family. They meet eyes, and Moxxie is charmed right off the bat.

This springboards us into four different instances of the supposed chemistry that these two share with one another, the first being a gunfight in which Moxxie and Chaz reach for the same grenade, with all the flirtation and blushing that could be fit into the few seconds allotted for this sequence.

From there, the sexual intensity ramps up in the next two shots before settling back down into a nude portrait scene reminiscent of Titanic.

In terms of learning about their relationship, we as the audience don't glean much from these scenes, other than the fact that they have an incredibly sexual dynamic. One could also infer that their relationship started as a secret given the request to not tell Crimson that Chaz was at the door in the signage scene, though this is never properly expanded on.

Now, before we venture into the second half of my Chaxxie critique, I want to make two things clear; there is nothing wrong with a couple having an incredibly active sex life. This is true for any pairing with consenting adults, be it Achillean, Sapphic or Hetero. This is something I will expand on momentarily. Second is that despite my griping of the overtly sexual nature of their relationship, I don't find these examples to be "too sexual". By all means, this is quite tame imagery, at least to me. I bring these examples up primarily to highlight that Chaxxie as a ship suffers from sacrificing chemistry for sexuality (whether that be in a manner meant to be comedic, or genuinely sexy).

Back to our flashbacks. In our second and final flashback scene, we are given the unceremonious ending to their relationship. In the midst of a heist, Moxxie is pinned and unable to escape the scene of the crime, as police sirens wail in the distance. Chaz, in a selfish move, makes a grab for the money and leaves Moxxie to the authorities, effectively ending their relationship. This is presented as a great heartbreak for Moxxie, but due to the issues highlighted above, this reveal falls flat.

Moxxie doesn't appear to struggle with feelings of self-worth in the romantic department; this is evident in the way he interacts with Millie, self-assured in his love for her and her love for him. One would think that if this relationship with Chaz was so important to him, that there would be some sort of foreshadowing or hints regarding the feelings or issues that would have been bound to have sprung up as a result of Chaz and his abandonment.

I will concede here, Moxxie not wanting to talk about his past is a fine enough example of why Chaz wouldn't come up in conversation prior to this episode. However, if we as the audience are meant to believe that this relationship was that important to him, it would have been nice to add a hint of abandonment issues to Moxxie as a character.

This could also have had a possible added effect of explaining why Moxxie isn't so quick to leave Blitzø or I.M.P despite his treatment - Blitzø and Loona may be awful to Moxxie, but at least they don't abandon him. At least Blitzø throws crumbs of praise his way. At least Loona comes along with Millie to rescue him and Blitzø from the D.H.O.R.K.S.

Unfortunately, we're still not done here with the Chaxxie scenes, as the biggest and most glaring issue with this ship as a whole comes in at around the fifteen minute mark.

I'll start with the least consequential of my critiques - This scene is just not funny. The punchlines essentially amount to sex, big dick, and the mounting discomfort that Moxxie feels while he repeatedly insists that Chaz leave him alone. There are ways to comedically write a character being uncomfortable with sex or sexual implications/situations. Blatant harassment is not one of them.

Speaking of blatant harassment, this is the moment that any semblance of this ship being worth my time fell apart. The writing is done using Chaxxie as a ham-fisted attempt at giving Moxxie further backstory (at the cost of Millie once again) and is now beginning to decline into the outright uncomfortable.

Even before he begins his song, Moxxie outright tells Chaz to leave. Of course, Chaz completely disregards his demands to be left alone, insisting that he knows exactly what Moxxie wants. This is a common line used by real life sexual abusers against their victims - and yes, though Chaz never actually forces himself onto Moxxie in an explicit manner, his following song is filled with unwanted touch and crude, overtly sexual language.

Look me in the eyes and tell me that Moxxie is enjoying this experience even remotely. He looks put off, alarmed, uncomfortable. And yet this scene is played for comedy, for some reason. This is not the first instance of Moxxie being sexually abused or harassed for comedy either. Even back in Season One, this poor guy was being used for the sort of joke that should have died out years ago.

Overall thoughts on Chaxxie and their contribution to MLM representation.

Do I think Chaz and Moxxie are good queer representation? The easy, fast answer is a resounding "No". Their relationship lacks any sort of depth in canon and looks to be just another vehicle for gay sex jokes, partnered with yet another excuse to harass Moxxie for laughs.

On a slightly longer note, I find them not only to be lackluster representation, but yet another instance in the growing pattern of Vivziepop's achillean ships being either based on sex, or having a heavy emphasis on sex that isn't afforded to her sapphic or hetero pairings. This isn't to say that the other achillean ships don't have moments that are fluffier or not purely focused on sex (after all, Chaxxie is the worst offender of being a pairing based on nothing but sex from a writing standpoint), but the discrepancy between the amount of sex talk from Chaggie and Millie/Moxxie as compared to Fizzozzie, Stolitz and Chaxxie is stark.

It's hard to say exactly what goes on in the heads of the writers, and I am not here to speculate on what they may be thinking at all times. However, the writing behind Chaxxie as a pairing specifically (in the past or not) leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. The inclusion of Chaz does nothing to further Moxxie's character and seems more like a segue into making his bisexuality explicit, rather than taking the time to explore his attraction to men and past relationships meaningfully. Their past relationship is shallow at best, giving me no real reason to care about its end, and does a disservice to the already limited representation in Helluva Boss by painting yet another portrait of a lustful, but ultimately loveless feeling relationship.

[queerfables]

The Rules of the Twist

Given the themes of deception and sleight of hand in Good Omens season 2, I think most of us agree it's at least possible there's some kind of twist waiting to be revealed in season 3. We're bouncing around a lot of theories, but I wanted to take a step back and look at the general shape of what we might expect.

The big twist we've seen before in Good Omens is Crowley and Aziraphale's body swap. (Okay, technically it was an appearance swap. But that just doesn't sound as pithy.) Rather than anticipate an exact repeat of this trick, I'm considering the swap as a sort of model. What does it tell us about the rules Neil plays by when he pulls a twist in this story? What clues can we expect, and what can we not count on? Sure, there's no guarantee that a season 2 twist is going to map exactly onto what we've seen in the past, but I think it's a reasonable place to start. Take these as guidelines and take them with a grain of salt, but if you're sorting through all our fascinating Good Omens theories and trying to decide what you think, you might find them helpful.

So then, what are the rules?

Broadly speaking, Neil plays fair with twists. He foreshadows and includes enough hints for the audience to make a reasonable guess at what's going on, or at least to look back after the reveal and go, "oh, of course". But he still keeps some cards close to the chest.

During the body swap, there are two big gaps in the information we're given:

Key events happen off screen The swap happened between scenes, during a time that it was only suggested, not confirmed, that Crowley and Aziraphale would be together. The transition between these scenes also used film and tv conventions to make that passage of time "invisible" - we see Crowley and Aziraphale get on the bus, and then we see them in the morning going about their days separately, and we're conditioned to think nothing important could have happened in between.

Key tools (eg abilities, items, information) haven't been shown before The swap was not something we'd ever seen Crowley and Aziraphale do, and it wasn't something they'd ever talked about either. It fit comfortably into the established world building but it hadn't been specifically signposted as a possibility.

The other big twist that Good Omens pulled was the romance between Gabriel and Beelzebub as the explanation for Gabriel's disappearance from heaven. Both of these information gaps are involved here too. The offscreen event is obviously the meetings between Gabriel and Beelzebub that lead to them falling in love - up until Gabriel's flashback sequence, the only indication they'd ever met each other was a brief conversation at the airbase during Armageddon. The tool that we haven't seen before is Beelzebub's ability to create a fly vessel for Gabriel's memories (protecting him in much the same way that Crowley and Aziraphale protected each other with their body swap, in fact).

These are pretty big gaps, really. And given that Neil knew there'd be years between seasons 2 and 3, I expect he would have leaned pretty heavily into them if he wanted to hide something. So how do we predict a twist if we can't know where it is and haven't seen what it might involve?

Unanswered questions

This is the big one. Looking at where the furniture isn't, you might say.

What's interesting is that the questions that point to a twist aren't usually subtle or ambiguous. For the body swap, the two converging questions were: what did Agnes' last prophecy mean, and how could Crowley and Aziraphale survive their executions? In season two, some of the unanswered questions signposting Gabriel/Beelzebub were: how did Gabriel lose his memory, why was he carrying a box, what was the significance of the song he kept singing, who was he at the Resurrectionist with...

I think guesses about upcoming twists are most convincing when they seek to tie up loose threads from the show. For this reason, I'm a little skeptical of theories proposing the kiss between Crowley and Aziraphale involved some kind of twist. It isn't impossible, I just don't see any unanswered questions there. (Savvy readers may note that I too have speculated about a twist hidden in the kiss. I do find the possibility fun, but it's not a theory I'm seriously committed to). If I was going to really buy into one of these theories, I'd want it to explain one of my big unanswered questions other than "but how could they get into a fight that hurts me so deep in my soul?" That's definitely a question I have, but not technically a mystery.

It's worth noting that in the case of the body swap, we were initially given a false answer to the question "how did they survive their executions?" The angels and demons watching attribute it to Crowley and Aziraphale having "gone native", believing that their natures had fundamentally changed, making them immune to holy water and hellfire. It might be the case, then, that some of the apparently resolved questions this season warrant further investigation. Is there more to the story of Gabriel's disappearance than we know, for example?

2. Unexplained details

If examining an unanswered question is looking at where the furniture isn't, then this is where we take all the pieces of furniture piled up in storage and see if we've got anything that fits. Everything is fair game here: script, acting, music, props, sets, costumes, editing, camera angles, audio effects, visual effects, everything. If it's on the screen or coming through the speakers, it was put there on purpose by multiple teams of highly skilled and attentive creators all working together to create the final product.

I think you could probably do an entire meta on all the little details pointing towards the season 1 body swap, but here are some of the big ones:

"Crowley" sees the restored Bentley, but takes a taxi instead of driving it

"Aziraphale" circles "Crowley" when they order their ice creams, the way Crowley more typically moves around Aziraphale

"Crowley" says "tickety boo", an extraordinarily Aziraphalean phrase

The collar on "Crowley's" jacket is a beige tartan rather than its usual red

There are general differences in the ways David Tennant and Michael Sheen embody the characters throughout the swap

Similarly, Gabriel and Beelzebub's romance has lots of small details pointing to it. The big one that keeps showing up is the connection between Gabriel and flies. He mentions them and interacts with them repeatedly, and although it isn't obvious at first glance, there's a fly in the box that he carries to the bookshop. This all culminates in the reveal that it's the same fly, Beelzebub's gift to him.

Here's the problem, of course: if everything in the show is intentional and crafted with meticulous attention to detail, how do we know what actually matters? This is why I think it's so important to look at the unanswered questions first. There's a joy in seeking out Easter eggs and connecting all the dots, and sometimes you might strike gold this way, but there's also a lot of noise in the signal. It's helpful to know the general shape of what you're looking for, so you'll know when you've found it.

You can reverse engineer this. Start with details that jump out at you and then look for a puzzle they might explain. This works, but it's a little easier to get lost in the weeds, struggling to sort out what's significant and what's a fun reference to another piece of media or a hint to a question that's already been resolved. Going back to the twists we've already seen on this show, the unanswered questions around them were really big and obvious, so I think it's a good idea to ask: if I hadn't noticed this detail, would I have thought this was a mystery that needed solving?

Okay, but what do we do with this?

Well, maybe nothing. These criteria can't confirm or rule out any theories, after all. I'm laying it out like a rubric but it isn't really, I'm just describing a few storytelling patterns we've seen before and making some rough guesses about how they might show up again. If I were really serious about this I'd probably take a look at other examples of Neil's work and see how well my model holds up there, but the truth is I'm not really familiar with enough of his other works to do this. (Confession time: I was always more of a Pratchett fan).

The main reason that I've laid everything out like this is it informs my thinking when I stress test my own theories, and I figured other people might be interested in it. I'm also hoping it will help me to be able to refer back to this when I write meta in the future. For my own purposes, I find a breakdown like this helpful because it gives me a sense of how a writer approaches their story, where they'll tip their hand and where they'll hold things close. It's no guarantee and it wouldn't be any fun if it was, but in a lot of cases we're not aware of our own patterns, so it can be surprisingly illuminating.

[guardian-angle22]

Is TK a Christmas baby? Aka born in December because it’s his birthday this ep and I’m not seeing any Christmas decorations unless I’m mistaken

sooo... technically, yes. we had a flashback/dream/memory sequence in 1.09 that was labeled 'DECEMBER 2001' and Owen and Gwyn are arguing in the background about Owen not showing up for TK's birthday.

However, I think you should treat dates, timelines, ages, etc with the smallest grain of salt you've ever seen when it comes to our beloved 911 Lone Star.

The LS timeline is a bit.... Jeremy Bearimy.

[shootbangdang]

Lord Shen forged his own spear

A theory...

ok there's a chance some of you eagle-eyed Shen studyers already know this. But a few months ago I was checking out models from the game Showdown of Legendary Legends, and I noticed this:

"Huh, that's weird, the blade is all messed up." I wondered why the game devs decided to make his spear so assymetrical and imperfect. Until I compared it to his spear in the movie:

Clear as day, the thing has a very pronounced curve along its axis. Now I wondered if this was just a technical gaffe, so I looked further back into Shen's development:

Still there. But just to be sure, I went back to the clay model:

And all the way back to the drawing board:

Yep! Fully intentional.

Now I can only guess as to why it's forged so crudely, and my only conclusion can be that he made the "guandao" himself. Perhaps he took it as a sign of pride for him to need to forge his own weapon with zero outside help.

This could be supported by the fact that the weapon he used in the panda massacre is completely distinct from this one:

And no, it's not just a stylized version for the flashback. It's a real weapon that actually exists, and is seen in Kung Fu Panda 3:

So, Lord Shen lost or discarded this weapon after the panda massacre. Thereafter, he forged himself a new one with a lobed blade, one less connected to his old home's "flame" theme and more with his own "eye" design. There is only one small issue with this theory, however...

The durn thing shows up in the 3D portion of Po's flashback. So, it's a wash? Not quite. There's still the possibility Shen forged it himself before he was banished, or that the filmmakers forgot to switch his spears out for this sequence.

If he did make the weapon himself, that also means it was his decision to add this cute goth collar to the crossguard:

That's the end of the theory. Hope I gave you some cold hard steel to chew on.

[ultfreakme]

Kyora & Hakuri: The meaning of 'Storehouse'

So we got our very first non-Chihiro Color Page and it's Hakuri! It's a shock of a page because for the first time in forever a cover isn't red, and doesn't contain our protagonist. Even more shocking is the way Hakuri is donning clothes that resemble his father Kyora in a backdrop that is very similar to the old Sazanami Auction Storehouse.

During the final showdown in the Rakuzaichi Arc, we get a flashback sequence where we see a young Hakuri saying he'll be the head of the Sazanami Clan.

Technically, with the dissolution of the Rakuzaichi and through possessing Storehouse + Isou, Hakuri is pretty much the Head. But in doing so he has redefined what the Storehouse means.

With Kyora and the remaining Sazanami legacy, the Storehouse existed to exalt the owner. It's a treasury, it holds all the 'valuables' meant to increase the power and value of the Owner of the Storehouse. The Storehouse exists to service its possessor. It's exploitative and inherently dehumanizing and was used exclusively to strip others of their agency- by registering the people that were trafficked and even his own family.

It was used entirely to devalue people.

With Hakuri, who's guilt-ridden for his own role in the Rakuzaichi with the fresh memory of how he dehumanized Ice Girl, the Storehouse (and Hakuri himself) exist solely in service of others. Storehouse is physically taxing and Hakuri is constantly endangering himself when he uses it. This is because of practical reasons where he has little experience, but also thematically- he is devaluing himself in service of others. It costs him every time he activates it, but he doesn't care about the damage to himself.

Hakuri has turned the Storehouse from a treasure hoard to what it's name suggests its use is- a place where people can keep and take things they need. He has reduced himself down to pure utility.

This view of himself as a "tool" is specifically highlighted in him giving Tobimune to Samura. His assigned goal along with Chihiro is to protect the Wielders. Hiyuki makes a very interesting comment-

Hakuri is sort of established as someone who isn't functioning for himself or on his own anymore. He follows others. With Chihiro gone, he's now a tool to be used by Uruha, Samura and the Makizumi.

He also knows the damage of dehumanizing people or determining value based on like, a merit system of any sort so to him the Makizumi aren't any different from the Wielders and he wants to help them too.

With Samura basically declaring what he needs and what he wants to do, what is Hakuri to do here but to oblige to his requests? He services them, he's going to be useful to them.

I think that's what the new cover is meant to highlight. While Kyora fought so hard to protect his Storehouse and the things within, Hakuri fights to protect everything outside of it, everything human and autonomous.

[chirpsythismorning]

Crack Theory: Will Byers is Twelve (12) - Part 1

Hear me out!

With all the theories swirling around about Will potentially being connected to the lab pre-season 1, maybe even a lab kid himself, I had to go back and rewatch the lab scenes from s4.

I honestly thought I wouldn't find anything. I think a lot of people assume it's not possible for Will to have been a lab kid, or at least not to have been a lab kid present at the same time as El.

However, upon rewatching those scenes in particular, I noticed something. Suddenly, all the puzzle pieces began falling into place.

The first time we ever see Twelve on screen, we focus in on him picking out a couple of boxes of crayons to play with...

Now, I know you might be thinking this isn't anything substantial, especially seeing as a lot of the kids at Hawkins Lab utilize drawing as a technique to test out their abilities... but honestly, it only get's more interesting from here.

Let me start by acknowledging that the lab kids tend to rank in age. One (Henry) for example, was the oldest. Two appeared to be the second oldest, and so on and so forth.

And so hypothetically speaking, if Will were to be an og lab kid, it seems he would really only fit into the spots near El since they are believed to be roughly the same age; one year apart, more or less. Which would make Will most likely Ten, Twelve, or Thirteen.

Twelve in particular though, fits the bill because of a few key details.

Lets start at the beginning of season 4:

4x01: The Hellfire Club

For reference, on this date, Will would've been 8 years old.

First, we open to the Rainbow Room in Hawkins Lab.

The camera lingers on a few different kids, some very briefly, while others are given a bit more time on-screen. Though,Twelve is arguably given more focus than any of the other kids in this scene (besides Ten, followed by Eleven at the ending of this scene).

When we first see Twelve, we stumble across him picking up these crayons. Then we follow him as he finds a spot to presumably color.

Just to confirm the (pencil) crayons:

And as Twelve goes to sit down, that's when I realized... He's sits next to Eleven...

If this crack theory ends up being true, the framing/blocking of this shot might have been very, very intentional:

(above) El and Will sitting side by side over 8 years later, in the exact same episode

Even though I was intrigued, I was still mostly skeptical. And so I kept looking for more hints that might help support this as a possibility.

We don't get any more major Hawkins Lab scenes again (disregarding a couple intense quick flashback sequences El experiences) until 4x05.

4x05 : The Nina Project

As El walks into the Rainbow Room for the first time officially this season, we get a shot of her looking to the right to see Sixteen, Seventeen and Eighteen all playing together. The focus on them is brief, followed by a reaction shot from El, who just looks confused.

Then we get a shot of her looking to her right, and even though there are three people technically in this shot, the camera only really focuses on Twelve. And what he's doing doesn't just feel like a kid playing mindlessly, it feels like something else is going on here...

Why have El look at what Twelve is doing all cryptically? Is he just building a red tower and she's super intrigued? Or, could it be something else the Duffer's are trying to hint at?

I just think it's interesting, that despite Twelve's role being extremely minor, he's still focused on in a way that's more present than most of the other numbers. His scenes are nowhere near as major as Two for example, but they're also not as brief as the other younger kids.

What then follows is El getting stuck in the Henry time-loop.

As this is happening... besides Henry and El, look who else just so happens to be in the frame, with that peculiar red block tower:

TWELVE? WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!?

Like come on, isn't this standard Will Byers behavior? Will just lingering in the background? And this trend only continues.

But first, lets not forget what follows directly after this:

OKAY I have to make a part 2 because there's still a lot to go through and I don't want this to get too crowded! Meet you there!

Part 1, 2, 3, 4

[nocturnal-nexu]

Oh my gosh guys, guys, guys!!!

Idea time!!!

I personally can't see Arin going fully evil.

I can definitely see his frustration and anger, but he's a good kid, and I dont think he'd do anything malicious on purpose. But I do think he's in a prime position to get manipulated right now. He's at his lowest point, and he could possibly be willing to do anything to impress and prove himself to Llyod.

What I think would be really interesting is if, via manipulation, Ras could get Arin to let his guard down and maybe even get him to listen to his point of view a bit.

("I lost my parents too, you know, and I found a way to make it on my own. I had to be strong. I learned that i didn't need anyone else, only myself." I don't know. That might be an angle that Ras could exploit, effectively drawing Arin away from his friends.)

(I mean, I'm assuming, according to that flashback sequence, that Ras's parents weren't really around.)

Maybe Arin would even start to trust Ras a little. Or at least start to doubt Lloyd's methods of teaching. (Which to be honest, Lloyd, you're not doing yourself any favors with your teaching technique, buddy. I know you're trying to encourage the kid, but you're giving him an unrealistic idea of a future self he has to measure up to.)

I think Arin is putting a lot of pressure on himself too.

So Arin doesn't necessarily join Ras, but somehow ends up facing off with him a bit more than usual during fights or something. Ras singles him out, trying to plant more of those seeds of doubt. Maybe Ras gets him alone, and, either willingly or by force, Arin ends up wearing a wolf mask.

I mean, is Shatterspin technically evil if you're using it to fight bad guys? I mean, it's not like his own spinjitzu is helping anyway.

Maybe, Lloyd or Sora look over and see Arin wearing the mask. Maybe they run to him, and ask what the heck he is thinking!

Maybe Arin is embarrassed. He feels sorry and ashamed. He knows he made a mistake. He goes to take the mask off.

But before he can, the gong is struck, and his soul is shattered.

All of the emotions come flooding out. He's angry. So very angry. Angry at Llyod for putting all this pressure on him. Angry at Sora for progressing so far and leaving him behind. Angry at himself for not doing something, SOMETHING, more to find his parents.

We get a scene similar to that bit in Season 4 with Kai and the staff of elements. Arin just loses control, and all the anger, doubt, and fear come spewing out.

That's what I want.

I want him to voice his frustrations to his friends. And at the moment, I think Arin is just so nice that he doesn't want to bother anyone and isn't going to say anything.

But as the saying goes, "even a worm will turn"

In other words, even the nicest and sweetest people will show you how dangerous they can be if pushed too far.

So, um. Arin deserves to go feral. Just as a little treat.

[kismetconstellations]

If you ever find yourself questioning whether or not the Voltron: Legendary Defender showrunners truly despised Shiro, or Shiro fans are simply being melodramatic and hyperbolic when we state as much, contrast the staff's treatment of him with their handling of Pidge.

Compared to their teammates, whose appearances were relatively unaltered, both characters underwent extreme cosmetic makeovers for this iteration of the Voltron/Beast King Go Lion! franchise.

While Takashi Shirogane reclaimed his name and ethnicity from the original 80s Japanese anime, his appearance much more strongly resembles that of a famous character from a completely different franchise.

Pidge Gunderson was gender-swapped, renamed, and de-aged from a "little man from Earth", to Katie Holt, a fifteen year-old girl, with Pidge being a childhood nickname and the alias Katie assumed to disguise herself as a boy when she infiltrated the Galaxy Garrison to uncover the truth about the fates of her father and brother.

Both Shiro and Pidge were given their own unique backstories flavored by varying degrees of tragedy.

And, yet, when Shiro dies two seasons in, we're treated to no dramatic scene of the people who became his found family dropping to their knees, crying out in anguish, and shedding tears over what should be a devastating loss. He's simply gone. No body left behind because it was completely destroyed. By the next episode, Changing of the Guard, with no real sense of how much time has passed, Lance, Hunk, Pidge, and Allura are all referring to Shiro in the past tense, when they refer to him at all, and show no real signs of grief or mourning until the very end of the episode's run time. (Coran doesn't matter, as he's Wacky Comic Relief Man until the plot requires him to fret over Allura, offer exposition, or handle a technical issue on the Castle of Lions.) Even then, each one of them offers perfunctory little sentiments about how Shiro affected their lives (past tense), extending solidarity to Keith for the express narrative purpose of convincing him to move on and let Shiro go.

The episode immediately following, Red Paladin, Lance is set on proving himself deserving of the new Black Paladin title, and Hunk and Pidge are cracking jokes and fooling around inside of the cockpit of the Black Lion, the very location where Shiro's life came to a violent end, as if nothing ever happened.

Aside from Allura donning pink armor to honor lost and fallen heroes, and making a point of specifically naming Shiro as one of them, It's Keith and Keith alone who seems at all seriously emotionally affected by Shiro's absence.

And, even he is over it by the third episode of the season.

And, this was intended to be the permanent status quo. Shiro was not supposed to be brought back in any capacity.

Pidge, on the other hand, is given an appropriately emotional sequence, complete with poignant flashbacks, atmospheric backdrop, and swelling music, when she believes she's found her brother's grave and was too late to save him.

No one cracks jokes or attempts to make light of what happened. She's allowed the appropriate space and time to mourn before realizing that Matt isn't actually dead, and immediately resuming her journey to find him.

Arguably, both Takashi Shirogane and Pidge Holt were altered so extensively, they might as well have been the showrunners' Original Characters. But, it's only the gay, disabled trauma survivor (whom the showrunners intentionally turned into one, as Takashi and Ryou Shirogane in the original Japanese/Sven Holgersson in the English dub was neither forcibly disabled, nor gay) who is cruelly cast aside after suffering repeatedly, while his able-bodied teammates live on to fight another day.

[leikeliscomet]

We Failed the First Black Doctor (Part 2)

After the high of Fugitive of the Judoon ended, the fandom waited for her next appearance. In The Timeless Children, Fugitive appears to help Thirteen. The version we see is of her however actually isn’t her in the flesh, it’s a projection in the Matrix or a hallucination in Thirteen’s mind. Either way, she gives our main character her ‘you can do it’ speech before Thirteen makes her great escape. And that's it. The big showdown was between Thirteen, Dhawan!Master and surprisingly Ko Sharmus who’d give his life to save our main cast making him MVP of the episode. Having Fugitive save the day could’ve given her character a greater role but killing off our First Black Doctor without any explanation of who she was yet definitely would’ve been a terrible idea, so maybe saving her for the Matrix would've been okay. But her backstory was still in a vague place. Whilst the Brendan flashbacks gave us this context and pulled us into the mystery further, wouldn't it have made sense to show us Fugitive in those scenes? We knew she was the Doctor so we could’ve easily put two and two together. Even the Timeless Child reveal itself came across as disappointing to most of the fandom. Technical things aside, making Fugitive the Timeless Child also could've been a way to fully flesh her out and give her more to do in the finale. Running away from Division after they’d kidnapped and experimented on her, taking the form of the Doctor to blend in and help others also exploited like her and being highly skilled in combat for her own protection could've made for some great storytelling and yet…. nothing. Normally in RTD stories the mid-season informs the finale. Dalek showed us a dalek and in the finale… we got Daleks. The Cybermen from Pete’s World returned for Army of Ghosts/Doomsday. The Family of Blood/Human Nature fob returned for Utopia and gave us a three-part finale. The missing planets throughout series 4 would lead us to another major Dalek return in The Stolen earth/Journey’s End. So to copy RTD Who’s format to introduce Fugitive, but not follow through in the finale was very strange and disappointing. With that in mind, I waited for her hopeful return in series 13.

The next time we saw The Fugitive was in Once, Upon Time. The new fam have found themselves trapped in their own timestreams and Thirteen gets a flashback of her past. In there, she sees her reflection and that reflection belongs to the Fugitive. The entire sequence is essentially a Fugitive-era episode. Swarm and Azure were her villains. Karvanista represented by Dan, Lee likely represented by Vinder and likely Gat represented by Yaz were her TARDIS team. Fugitive has a more militaristic approach due to her control by Division but also delivers a decent speech before capturing the Ravagers. She has a calm and controlled presence same as before giving her an interesting dynamic with them. Chaos defeated by order. Once, Upon Time gives us a glimpse of what a Fugitive Doctor episode is or at least could be… and still couldn't commit to it. Thirteen and Fugitive constantly flick back and forth between each other and impressive VFX aside, this was completely unnecessary. We know Fugitive and Thirteen are the same person and that they're both the doctor and yet the episode doesn’t trust the audience enough to let us see the scene carry on without her. The filming of Flux was affected by the pandemic and this is given as the main reason for the flickering but it’s a poor excuse that doesn't hold up. If Jo Martin filmed a fully completed socially distanced take of the Doctor’s lines why did we need Whittaker’s layered over it? Just show us the Martin cut! Again, once Fugitive’s purpose of helping Thirteen was fulfilled, she was gone and the fam moved on. The main Flux storyline continued without her presence. Similarly to Timeless Children, we were teased with a Fugitive appearance that still sidelined her to a cameo role.

In her final appearance, the Fugitive comes back for Power of the Doctor. She’s a hologram… again. Her main role is to save Thirteen… again. She tricks the Cybermen into shooting each other and helps Yaz, giving her one last iconic moment but again, she exists to serve Thirteen's narrative and not her own. A smaller but still interesting part of the scene was her remark about the Master being a ‘rubbish schoolboy’, breadcrumbing us about Fugitive's backstory and her relationships with other characters but this is another question that remains unanswered. Some fans hoped this left a door open for an RTD2 appearance but as Fugitive is a Chibnall character, RTD has no obligation to bring her back so yet again, her fate is still in limbo. There’s some hope as RTD has shown interest in the storyline and has picked it up in a way for the new era but until Jo Martin is on screen again nothing has been confirmed as of yet. The Fugitive Doctor will return instead in a Big Finish audio announced in April 2022. The audio isn’t coming out until 2025.

--

Every doctor, especially in nuwho, goes on a journey; an arc designed and crafted for them which ends with their character changed by the time we reach their regeneration. War accepted the consequences of his actions but realised he didn’t have to fight alone. Despite having a single appearance, Day of the Doctor gave his character a purpose, a conflict and resolution perfectly wrapping his incarnation up within 1 hour. The future was something to embrace, not fear. Nine was the oncoming storm, haunted by the destruction of Gallifrey who eventually opened up to companionship again and finally forgave himself. Ten was the self-destructive hero, whose brilliance and intellect would fuel his ego to great heights eventually causing his downfall. Eleven was the imaginary best friend, an old soul in a young body, with darker tendencies who brought a sadness to the character. Twelve was the lecturer, having very philosophical and internal struggles eventually giving his life not out of grand gesture but simply out of kindness. Thirteen, regardless of what you thought of her writing, had her own narrative journey. The lonely woman who fell to earth not knowing her origin but letting it go because she gained a found family instead. But for the Fugitive, who cares? Why should Chibnall bother to give a Black woman’s incarnation a purpose? Wants and needs? Conflicts? A drive? Motivation? Why even bother giving her a placement in the main lineup? Why bother giving your Black characters depth when it's just easier for fans to just say ‘No way there’s racism here, look a Black doctor!’ with no regard, care of concern for how she was treated? Even when you look at how Black characters are written and perceived, it's clear fandoms aren’t willing or ready to take on board nuanced representations of Black characters. Both Thirteen and the fandom were shocked by Fugitive’s gun use, some claiming it reinforced stereotypes of the angry, violent Black woman but actually she subverts it. The Fugitive’s gun was a red herring to trick the Judoon and Gat. She wasn’t going to use it, she just needed them to think she would. This was no different to Eleven threatening to blow up the Dalek’s ship with a jammy dodger. The violence Fugitive used was in self-defence, not out of malice. Her telling Thirteen to shut up was because she threatened the plan by revealing they were both doctors, not just because she was angry for no reason. It’s ironic and also worrying that after portrayal, after portrayal, after portrayal of morally grey nuwho doctors each using violence as the last resort, each angry at rightful injustices, each holding a darkness within, that the incarnation that didn’t claim any lives is the most violent because they exist in a dark skin Black woman’s body. The ‘lack’ in the representation of marginalised people is an issue that's prominent in Chibnall Who. The Fugitive Doctor is a Black woman. The gender-blind approach to Thirteen’s writing already raised a few concerns but for the experiences of Black women specifically, our Blackness isn’t something that can be ignored or represented ‘subtly’. From the long history and list of tropes used to represent us, from the outrage and anger in fandoms towards Black characters and castings, this lived experience has to be acknowledged. Even in the Doctor Who fandom, Martha Jones was the first Black woman to be a companion and she was hated. RTD and co. acknowledging Martha’s Blackness could've helped protect Freema Agyeman from the rampant racism in the fandom. So why would casting a Black woman as the lead this time, specifically a dark skin woman, be approached any differently? In a diverse and ‘progressive’ show why is race ignored? 

When Jodie Whittaker was announced as the first female Doctor she got tribute videos from young girls that congratulated her, went on Children in Need, spoke about representation in interviews and went on the runway. When Michelle Gomez was cast as the first female master, the uniqueness of casting a woman as the Master for the first time was spoken about on Doctor Who’s YouTube channel. When Jo Martin was cast as the first Black woman to play the doctor, the BBC did nothing. The Black cosplayers shouted out were done by Jo Martin alone on her Instagram. The events where those cosplay group photos took place were organised by Black fans and other fans of colour just like they had always been (shoutouts to Black TARDIS and Team #TARBIS at Gally1). This issue goes beyond Chibnall and is about representation in TV/Film itself. If creative teams can’t be bothered to support Black characters, creators or our stories then I won’t accept the breadcrumbs. I’m becoming less impressed with simply having a Black companion or doctor there but how. If they want credit for representing Black characters then simply, they need to do the damn work. I am tired of the Doctor Who fandom giving Chris Chibnall, Steven Moffat and Russell T Davies credit for Black representation they didn’t create and for work they haven't done. Give me a Black character in Who whose arc doesn’t revolve around a white one, who doesn’t go through extreme trauma with no catharsis and isn’t just ‘there’ and then I’ll give full credit where it's due. Only then will I start handing out gold stars for lanes of Black representation being paved. Only then will I start singing praises of anti-racism and allyship. Until then, I’m no longer accepting breadcrumbs as a full meal.

<- Part 1

Part 3 ->

[rallamajoop]

Mobile phone screens from Resident Evil Village

One folder in the RE8 game files is mostly just images from smartphone screens. That includes a few you'll never actually see in the game ‒ like this one, which is pretty clearly a shot from the baby monitor we see Ethan activate after he puts Rose down to sleep.

Presumably, you were supposed to be able to view this image on his laptop or phone, but this feature never made it into the final game.

Other assets were technically used, but we never do get a good look at them. For example, remember when Ethan answers his phone in the flashback sequence while he's unconscious? We only see the phone screen display the words 'Calling', and then later, when he gets another call, 'Work'. But between the two, you can almost see a name pop up as he answers his phone.

Turns out it was Dr Castelli. Which (in a neat detail) does look to match the signature on Rose's medical report (you can find it in a drawer in Ethan's home, and I've already talked its significance to death), which plainly starts with a 'C'. Apparently the doctor's first name starts with a 'V'.

In even more random detail, remember when Ethan picks up and answers the broken cellphone after waking up by the overturned truck in the snow?

Turns out the number on it was 'HQ160805'!

I'm sure your lives are all very much enriched by knowing that.

Then there are the photos Chris shows off on his phone during the game ‒ like the four of Miranda at the ceremony site that he shows to Ethan.

But then we get to the other photos he flicks through later, and... look, seeing these out of context just makes them so much weirder.

So, after shooting Mia/Miranda, someone on Chris' team stopped to snap a picture. While they were dragging Ethan's body out of the house by his feet, someone again took a photo, and made sure to send it to their boss.

It makes rather more sense to snap a photo of the scene at the overturned truck ‒ it's basically a crime scene, and for once, that's not even a body the team created themselves ‒ but we're starting to build a pattern here where snapping pics of every dead-or-unconscious body they come across is a key part of Dog-Dog-Squad protocol. Does Chris not believe people are properly incapacitated until he's seen photographic evidence? Or is this just a personal collection? Like, "Bad news, boss, Ethan's dead! Good news, I got you this great photo!"

Fuck, but they must've been busy when they got to the village ‒ there were bodies everywhere down there. I mean, is that why they got so little done? They were all too busy running around and engaging Photo Mode on every body they found?

Careful, team, some of those bodies are known to get back up again!

Oh who am I kidding, they've been working with Chris for years, they totally know that already.

[enteringdullsville]

“You learn to tune Marty’s screams of pain out.”

It’s Color Theory Episode 44.

No Strings Attached

Trivia

This is the first episode since his debut Ivan has extended dialogue. Martin and Amber continue to have dialogue in all of their appearances.

This is the fourth episode and the second in a row to feature a character in their youth. In this case, it’s Ivan.

This is the first appearance of Bowie in It’s Color Theory and of Admiral overall. Both only appear via fantasy. Tyler’s brother is also mentioned for the first time.

Sky’s revealed to be able to fly.

Martin and Tyler’s series-wide feud, while technically starting in “Super Dee Duper Powers”, is cemented here.

No Orange Drewmans appear, nor do any of the core six characters. Violet is indirectly mentioned by Ivan as “The boss”.

While Ivan being a fanboy of in-series celebrity Bowie was a plot point since the original continuity, it was only brought up once due to Ivan debuting in Rough Sketch’s final season and Ivan’s general lack of screen time. The height difference between the two is partially a carryover from Ivan (and most of the cast in general) being children at the time, Ivan in particular being weirdly small. Bowie’s silhouette isn’t a stylistic choice; this incarnation of him is actually just twice Ivan’s height.

Amber’s a slightly more orange shade as of this episode.

The song Ivan wrote is actually the beginning of the “with lyrics” version of theme song prepared for if a network is desperate enough to green light this for a show when I inevitably pitch the comic. It was originally going to be “I Just Wanna See You Grow”, his personal leitmotif that came around when I mangled Steven Universe’s theme song and “Giant Woman” together in my head.

Ivan’s flashbacks/fantasy sequences were originally going to cut to Noah’s high school experiences with his band, where it would show Rudy and two random side characters as part of it. Whitney would’ve also appeared, confirming the three to have grown up in the same district. The whole sequence was scrapped to avoid taking too much attention away from Ivan. Amber’s offhand remark about her (and presumably Eloise) going to Noah’s school is a nod to this.

Noah’s band in and of itself is a callback to Rough Sketch, where he roped Gordon, Bryan, and Martin into starting one. Said band will be formed in the second season of this continuity, Martin being replaced by Geneva due to Martin no longer being magenta in this incarnation.

[bitter-sweet-farmgirl]

Loyalty, Honour, A Willing Heart (Prt. 2)

2. Balin’s Storytime

When Fili and Kili attempt to scare Bilbo over the orcs and whatnot, Balin goes into his story about the battle of Azanulbizar, which ties into what I was talking about prior.

It is a glimpse into Thorin's past life and what he is, but it also looks at his character through a different lens.  It shows the devotion his people have to him.  Because at the end of that sequence once we come back from the flashback, you can see Thorin is standing there reliving those memories.  Balin’s telling the story, and he says, “there is one I could follow, one I could call King.” 

And then, we cut to all the rest of the Company awake and standing around, (stark contrast to when we enter the scene and everyone is asleep), essentially silently confirming--and standing as witness--to the fact that they trust Thorin.

There is zero chance that any of them would be going on what is essentially a suicide-mission to reclaim Erebor where they have no idea what they are going to find.  And are probably going to die on the way. 

There is no reason why they would go unless they were 100% devoted to Thorin.  If they had any small bit of doubt about him and his leadership, or just him as a person, they would not be on that quest.  Those people are DEVOTED to him.  They have a choice, and they have decided to trust in Thorin to lead them straight and bring them through this.  Or, if not, they are willing to die by his side. 

For his cause. 

Another thing that I noticed later after thinking about this was how all the dwarves who did join him are technically working-class. There is not a drop of royal blood in their veins. (Exceptions being made for Balin, Dwalin, Oin and Gloin, as they are also descended from Durin, but from a 'non-royal' line).

They’re tinkers, toymakers, miners.  They are not nobles.  The nobles--which would be the council in the Iron Hills that Thorin went out to talk to about the quest--told him no.  They did not follow him.  Which, given that Thorin is their King (in a way) and very powerful and has the bloodline behind him, speaks a lot about what they think about him.

The people who do join him on this quest are ordinary people. "Hardly the stuff of legend", to quote Balin. They are the last people you would pick to go fight a dragon. But they came when the others who are qualified would not.

And seeing who chose to follow him, I think this scene has a very powerful message about how Thorin has been with his people.  He’s very empathetic, he’s very kind with them.  I mean, he worked as a blacksmith for years.  What princeling VOLUNTARILY goes and does blacksmithing? 

It is an extremely dirty and physically taxing job. And, while historically blacksmiths were viewed as important members of their community, how we see Thorin portrayed (in his 9 second clip) makes me wonder if in his case, that didn't hold true.

I'm sure there could be some sort of racial prejudice about having a dwarf blacksmith (which, technically you would want them because of their talent with metals), but despite that, I wonder if he didn't get treated poorly because he was a dwarf in a human settlement.

He was not obligated to take that job. There are many other jobs he could have chosen to go with if he HAD to take a job. He also could have chosen not to work at all!

But he chose to do the hardest job there was out of his options.

Thorin, of royal lineage, who has known no other life, decided to become a blacksmith to earn money for his people. It speaks absolute volumes about his character and him as a person.