#this would also factor into why he's so uncomfortable being in positions of power

[nitewrighter]

How much does the fact that Moore himself considers "The Killing Joke" one of his greatest writing regrets factor into your thoughts on it?

I mean, I can see why he would have a lot of regrets about it because of the climate of the time and the infamous "cripple the bitch" exchange, and, obviously, because it steered the Joker as a character into the much darker and edgier version we know today and set a lot of nasty precedents in comics with a proliferation of violence against women as shock value. It basically created this situation where everyone wanted their writing to have the impact of Alan Moore, but unfortunately, they weren't Alan Moore and were in fact just kind of sexist dickbags for whom the actual horror and emotional impact of the dark content of the stories is transformed into the cheap and exploitative--I guess the TL;DR version of it is, Alan Moore is George R. R. Martin, but if GRRM realized his writing spawned 800 David Benioffs and D.B Weisses who would go on to define the fantasy genre for the next three decades. I'd be full of regret, too.

I think for me, not to like, disparage Moore or anything, but I do feel like the Comics Code created the atmosphere that was primed for him to have this massive splash on comics: Readers were hungry for stories with drama, lasting impact on characters, confrontation with uncomfortable questions that had long been more or less brushed off by virtue of the temporariness of the medium and the suffocating rules of the comics code. And Moore's content fit the bill.

If it wasn't Moore, it would have been someone else, but I'm honestly kind of glad it was Moore. It's even kind of funny in a morbid way, considering Moore was more or less over superheroes as a genre to begin with--but as I've talked about with my posts with early superman, the edges of superheroes as a genre is porous. I've talked about Superman being a Screwball romantic comedy in a sci-fi setting, so it's not unthinkable that Moore would end up dragging the conventions of the superhero genre to darker places by incorporating more elements of horror, pulp, crime noir, and even some Lynchian soap opera/gothic elements. I mean, it's equal parts fascinating and painful, because even though it sent comics down this dark copycat path, it really should have revealed how remarkable it is you can plug other genres' storytelling conventions into the superhero genre. Moore's stories slap not because they're Superhero stories, but because he's plugging superheroes into his stylistic/genre comfort zone.

But also the thing is, I'm one of those people who prefers Barbara Gordon as Oracle rather than Batgirl, and I do feel like the core of the Killing Joke is really more about the folie a deux of Batman and the Joker and I genuinely really like that. I also think that as we (rightfully) get caught up in the horror of the position Barbara is put in, we completely brush over the fact that Commissioner Gordon was literally being lead around naked on a leash. All the outrage I ever heard about the Killing Joke was Barbara getting crippled and the photos, literally no one mentioned Jim Gordon being lead around naked on a leash and kept in a circus cage! Like, is that not also a shocking violation of his personhood? I think both Gordons were meant to be seen as a unit, they were both humiliated and dehumanized, and they both represent two sides of Batman--Barbara representing that childish, powerful emotional core, the kid in a Halloween costume who hopes if they punch enough faces they can bring daddy back, and Jim representing Batman having to be an adult, having to recognize the boundaries of the law, and having to act as a guardian. Like, yes, Barbara and Jim, are obviously, to their credit, brilliant detectives, but they're also placed in these relationships to Batman of 'mentee' and 'Mentor/Partner.' For the Joker, it wasn't about using Barbara to hurt Batman and Jim, so much as it was about using *Barbara and Jim* to harm Batman. But that's also why ultimately the Joker's focus fell on Jim in relation to Batman--Jim Gordon represents these adult, institutional realities, the idea that ultimately you have to work to protect a society, and Joker wanted to use the adult who represents accountability to that society to prove his whole "One bad day" philosophy. the Joker basically goes through his most famous version of his whole "One Bad Day/Society is a Joke" spiel in that comic. I was going somewhere with this. This was going to link back to Moore somehow--Ah well. See above point of, "Genre-impact wise, I can see why he would have regret about it. But also I think those genre impacts were due in large part to people only valuing the story for its shock value and you can try to make yourself as simultaneously clear and representative of your personal style as possible, but that's not going to stop The Point from flying right over people's heads." Something something "Wow cool robot!" comic.

There is so goddamn much to unpack in The Killing Joke, both in its textual relations to the characters and the potential inspirations Moore was working from, and in its impact on comics. I feel like I'm gnawing on a big mutton bone.

[bestworstcase]

I find it silly that people take the idea that Salem ultimately turning out to not be the bad guy and that she'll end up helping the heroes against the gods as being the same as "SHE'S THE BIG GOOD WHICH IS BAD WRITING".

Did we just forget the concept of enemies working together against a common foe or something? Or the fact that the characters would realistically be incredibly uncomfortable around her and be rightfully distrustful of her even as they recognize that she's as much a victim as she is a villain in this whole clusterfuck? That given that Ozpin has absolutely no idea of what to do against the gods, that they NEED someone who clearly has a plan?

It's like, storytelling 101.

there’s i think a few factors at play here:

#1 - lots of people take what is said about salem by other characters at face value if those characters are in the “salem wants to destroy the world” camp (ozpin, tyrian, raven), because jinn’s framing of the story is presumed to be the whole and absolute truth. characters in the “salem wants to change the world” camp, consequently, are interpreted as either deceived pawns (hazel, mercury), lying (salem), or just memetically transposed into the “destroy” camp (ruby, qrow). 

in part this happens because the people doing this don’t pay any attention to how rwby thematically positions salem relative to ozma in regards to the truth, but it’s also because the (deliberately shocking but also vague and out-of-context) statement she makes in the lost fable—why redeem these humans when we can replace them with what they could never be—sounds damning if you don’t, like, stop to think about it for two seconds in context with the part where salem has been wanting humanity to replace The Gods Who Demand Redemption From These Humans for two hundred million years. i wonder who she meant by “them!”

#2 - this is compounded by the very christianized lens that a lot of the fandom applies to rwby; it’s not even tapered off since 9.10 dropped the hammer on the nonsense about light being the “benevolent” brother, the fandom has largely just pivoted to the blacksmith as the benevolent capital-G “God” (which she’s not) and the idea that what’s wrong with salem is she Hasn’t Learned Her Lesson and Needs To Repent persists as a load-bearing pillar in the standard fanon reading. 

the possibility that salem is right about anything is untenable if salem is read as evil because she is wrong. suggesting that salem is both right and evil makes people extremely uncomfortable, as does the implied corollary that the heroes are wrong even though they’re good, because the fandom’s moral reading of the story depends on salem being wrong. 

#3 - the (countertextual) fanon that has grown out of these two intertwined readings—that salem 1. hates humanity, 2. thinks modern humans are pitiful imitations of real humans because they lack magic, 3. sees only herself and ozma as really human, 4. believes magical power is the only true determinant of worth, 5. views ozma as her possession, and 6. is motivated primarily by spite and obsessive rage because he rejected her so she wants to burn the world down to punish him—is deeply entrenched and, for obvious reasons, makes it very difficult for anyone who buys into it to wrap their heads around how in the fuck salem could ever be persuaded to AGREE to work with the heroes.

because she thinks they’re ants, you know. 

and even if you point out that, like, salem is ready and willing and able to pivot or change tactics if something doesn’t work or a new opportunity presents itself, or that salem in fact states quite clearly that she thinks reliance on strength is ozpin’s downfall, the fanon is too strong to budge. she’s just throwing a tantrum and lashing out in blind rage, actually. or she’s just tightening the leash on cinder even more before turning cinder into another hound, actually. or she’s a hypocrite who’s going to be made to eat her own words, actually. one time i saw someone misattribute “there will be no victory in strength” TO OZMA and i would not be remotely surprised if a lot of the fandom turned out to be misremembering that line as something he said to her. 

if you read salem in this way—as someone who is fundamentally unreasonable and too egotistical to even see other people as people—of course the obvious endgame of the heroes reaching out to her or (as i think is more likely) salem reaching out to them sounds wildly out of character. 

#4 - for some unfathomable reason most of the fandom still hasn’t put two and two together to get Summer Joined Salem and that means they are missing the obvious and crucially important bridge between salem and the heroes. if you say “summer is salem’s general” the average rwby fan is going to hear “summer is one of the bad guys and ruby and yang will have too fight her, ooh so dark and edgy” but the actual point is that salem has someone in her corner who can give ruby and yang a really compelling reason to think that truce might be possible AND that trying to negotiate with salem is a risk worth taking. 

it is infinitely easier to get everyone in this mess to the table if summer is willingly on salem’s side. it’s infinitely harder if salem killed her or broke her into a monster. at this point i am sure the wider fandom is just not going to let go of the latter assumption until they see summer and salem, like, catching up in front of summer’s memorial or what the fuck ever; at which point i’m convinced the fanon is going to pivot immediately to 1. placing bets on when summer will kill cinder and 2. expecting summer to stab salem in the back and redemptively sacrifice her life to save ruby and/or yang because the salem fanon is not going to fucking budge until the peace talk starts. 

[t440]

Hello! I'm curious about the 24/7 aspect of your relationship. This might be a silly or weird question, but do you like. Still do fun stuff with your partner? Like, watching movies and sending eachother memes and stuff. Is there constantly an element of power imbalance during this time? Also, how have things changed between you two since you first agreed to a 24/7 contract? Please answer as much or as little as you feel comfortable with, including not answering at all. Please have a good evening!

so i am very sleepy rn but wanted to answer this bc it was a genuinely nice and well worded question. i may rb with more info in the morning :)

first off, not silly at all! ik a lot of people have similar questions and i am very happy to respond (within my comfort zone obviously). 24/7 is kind of strange from an outside point of view, bc so few people do it, so it makes sense

we still do fun stuff! we watch movies, send eachbother funny posts, play games, etc. but it’s always with the context that i am his little brother. or for other parts, different relationships, but still the same dom and sub relationship. he can do what he wants to me (within limits we have discussed!) whenever, and he does tell me what to do, but we still have a lot of fun. sometimes he plays toys with me :) and i enjoy being annoying to him in a bratty way, it’s a kind of fun that is hard to get outside of this!

to add a little context to why 24/7 is right for me: i have found in past relationships that i am a bit uncomfortable with switching in the dom/sub sense or of “turning off” the dynamic, bc on a personal level, i desire a level of… consistentcy? that can’t be attained without it. no shade to anyone who likes that!! just not for me- i am both into domming and subbing, but i would be uncomfortable doing both with the same person. similarily, idk if i would be truly fulfilled in a relationship where the d/s is not always a factor. which somewhat lead me here tbh! my big brother and i have the same power imbalance always, just in different forms, which makes my need for consistency/stability very happy

our relationship kind of evolves with who we are at the time, but honestly, being 24/7 just makes it way better for me. absolutely nothing but positive changes. it requires a lot of trust and work, but there’s nothing more fulfilling to me than being his ngl. we’ve also moved in together and have figured out how to navigate that, and living together makes a lot of stuff easier, including this. it’s very hard to have 24/7 online… not that it’s impossible, we did it! but it isn’t the same thing.

feel free to ask any more questions! i am not shy about this at all and i am very happy to share. & thanks for being so nice & respectful in asking, it made me happy. sniles :)

[hand-stuck-in-shredder]

ok so, dominant gortash, right? its great, but so is sub gort, there's so many different ways u could look at this guy man,.

cont. below. warning long & a bit nsfw

i think it could be reasonably argued that he's a switch. im not very knowledgeable with every single note revolving around 'im but he slept around for a lil bit of moola and power right? i think that if need be he'd serve as either or. getting stepped on by Lady Jannath, givin' it to Franc, but again, it's all transactional, leverage on his climb from arms dealer to archduke and used as a stepping stone, a means to an end?

with Bane's and his own thing about power and being in control as a means to be "safe" (ill maybe get into that another day bc that fucks me up big time) i think maybe he's toeing a dangerous line between "giving up" that control - because lets be real with sleeping his way up i dont think he'd really be in a non-dominant position regardless of Who he's with (even if the idea of him being forced into a position he's most uncomfortable and unmatched with is appealing, maybe with someone far more imposing than himself?) - and keeping up appearances, because shit spreads fast in those circles if you're not careful. BUT. then you factor in durge. again i think their dynamic could go either way- gortash really is dom in streets dom in sheets, or .. not? theres so many facets to this, but in particular, consider- he'd definitely top from the bottom, but he'd be submissive for -durge-, like as close to actually submissive he'd be for someone other than himself. it's not just about a power exchange, it's maybe not completely superficial, it's not necessary to their alliance (or maybe it is, if u wanna look at it that way, smth smth manipulation?), its enjoyment, its carnal/mutual attraction w/e, and it also fits the bill for being a little defiant shit even if the god he's defying is Kinda Why he's even there in the first place.

so thats why im thinking that durge would have to earn his submission, perhaps a power struggle ensues, they REALLY gotta work for it tooth n nail, because to gortash nothing is really given, it's all earned. doubly so for something as precious as his trust, however flimsy it might be but he's letting durge tie him up so? it's neither here nor there but it's -actual- submission he'd be a total pain in the ass tbh but still worlds more workable than if he had the reigns entirely. he'd still delude himself that he's in control of their situation, of course, but in reality it's the opposite. i dont think the term "brat" would quite fit him but he'd 100% be bossy as fuck par for the course, everything's gotta go HIS way, gotta call him this gotta call him that do it that way etc etc., but its totally just a coincidence that it's also what durge wants to do.

[angelsandemons]

I've been seeing a lot of "why do people hate Valentino so much when plenty of other characters in the series are just as bad or worse?" on my dash today, so I wanted to share my thoughts.

I firmly believe it comes down to two factors:

What we do (and do not) see on screen

How relatable the situation is to the viewer

What We See

Valentino is in a unique position because we actually have the negative effects of his abuse shoved in our faces within the narrative, while that's not the case for many others. Take Pentious getting dragged into the sex room in "Welcome to Heaven," for example. I won't deny that this was narratively framed as a humorous moment (if slightly dark humor) because it came right after he told the whole bar he was going to have sex with everyone. But it's not actually any less non-consensual than a lot of of Angel and Val's interactions. The difference lies in the fact that we do not see Pentious have any meaningful ill effects from the assault; he just comes out a little flustered, and it's never addressed again.

Another example of this could be when Moxxie was assaulted by Verosika and her crew in Helluva Boss. This again was not really focused on as a serious conflict, it was more part of an (again, admittedly somewhat dark) humorous aspect of the scene. But the worse we saw in terms of repercussions was Moxxie needing to go lie down, and immediately following that, the scene switched to Blitzø storming in and yelling at Verosika, so the narrative just moved forward. It never came up again.

I'm actually pretty confident that people would not hate Val nearly as much if "The Masquerade" never aired (and possibly the "Addict" music video too, since that got uncomfortably real as well). This wouldn't have significantly changed what we know mind you; the story still implied the abuse all the same outside of these two parts, but it was never really put in the spotlight in a way we can't ignore outside of this episode (and the music video).

Relatability

There is one more aspect I think that comes into play here, and that's how much a situation parallels one that is accessible to the audience. I think you'd be hard pressed to find a Harry Potter fan who hates Voldemort more than Umbridge, and that's because a lot of people have had a teacher on a power trip that made their lives miserable. Very few people have had to deal with being targeted by a homicidal cult leader, even if this arguably objectively a worse situation, so it doesn't really resonate the same way.

So let's look at someone else in the series who we do get to see some degree of the results of the abuse of: Alastor. Alastor and Husker's relationship is actually fairly similar to Valentino and Angel's relationship, and we do actually get a pretty in your face look at how that affects Husker in "Dad Beat Dad." And that scene is not played for laughs at all.

So why is the fandom's overall reception of Valentino and Alastor so drastically different? I think it's because while the two are both inherently abusive relationships held together by fear and a literal soul contract, only Valentino's and Angels is heavily coded as a sexually abusive relationship...the kind that (unfortunately) a decent number of viewers have probably had experience with, either directly or through a loved one who confided in them. I think there are very few out there who have been stuck in a toxic relationship with a serial killer.

There is also the issue of the fact that we get to see a lot of redeeming qualities from Alastor outside of this relationship, and that simply isn't the case for Val. But that'd be a whole other post.

[dolphin1812]

“The ocean defends the water, the hurricane defends the air, the King defends Royalty, the democracy defends the people; the relative, which is the monarchy, resists the absolute, which is the republic [ . . . ] the right is not, like the Colossus of Rhodes, on two shores at once, with one foot on the republic, and one in Royalty; it is indivisible, and all on one side; but those who are in error are so sincerely; a blind man is no more a criminal than a Vendean is a ruffian.”

Once again, Hugo’s sympathy for Louis Philippe may not result in the most accurate portrayal, but I do think it’s funny that his take is that “Louis Philippe was so wrong that we can’t blame him for being king.” It is also fair to say that his position as king made him resist republican government, as his rule was inherently contradictory with such a principle.

We also return to why Louis Philippe was in an uncomfortable position as a ruler, trapped between both legitimist and republican anger. Gillenormand’s attitude is a great example of the former; if he objected to the Bourbons having any restrictions on their rule (like the charter), how enraged must he and other royalists have been at a “Citizen King?” The latter brings us back to Enjolras and the “logic of the revolution;” this revolution lacked “logic” even to the legitimists, and while their aim was wrong, their critique was right. Enjolras and other republicans can’t be satisfied with Louis Philippe because the people have been deprived of self-rule, the initial motivation for revolution. As a consequence, they maintain the right to revolt (as defined by Hugo here). This “logic,” when defined with Enjolras, could explicitly lead to violence (as it was contrasted with Combeferre’s softer “philosophy”), and that’s the main issue for Louis Philippe here. Revolt against him is justified to many republicans, meaning that his rule of compromise is constantly threatened by the possibility (or really, to speak like Hugo, the inevitability) of uprisings. By the end of the chapter, Paris and Lyon are already ablaze, enraged by political and economic injustice and the outbreak of cholera.

A quick note on cholera: Hugo mentions legitimist insurrections like that of the Duchesse de Berry in the Vendée, but cholera was a major factor in popular protests in 1832. It was the first time the disease had reached Paris, and since it primarily (though not exclusively – the Casimir Périer said here to have died of “exhaustion” may have just died of cholera) affected the poor, it further exacerbated economic tensions. There was widespread fear that the disease was caused by the poisoning of wells, for instance. Combined with high costs, issues with harvests, and – of course – the unsatisfying end to the July Revolution, it’s no wonder that 1832 was a turbulent year.

All of this is complicated by the international aspect (another reminder of Feuilly’s broader perspective!). First, some of the problems affecting France were not limited to its borders. Cholera, for example, struck Europe as a whole in the 1830s, and there weren’t just protests over it in France. Similarly, questions over the best kind of rule and economic system were debated across the continent as well (with, at that moment, monarchical governments seeming to have more power). Here, all of these issues are presented as part of the general climate of the early 1830s (“the sombre roar of tumult of events to the sombre roar of ideas”) and as points of reference for France (England’s wealth and issues with inequality, for example). Much of the context would likely be more familiar to a French reader in the 1860s, but the uncertain and unstable environment of the 1830s is still clear.

[glass-onion-soup]

Thanks for this long, thoroughly considered ask. I think you're completely on the money on both points here, that John continued to abandon Julian because it was too uncomfortable to make the effort, and that his Bermuda trip might have been a turning point that made him re-assess his first father-son relationship. I'll explain why I agree tho.

Re: John's comfort zone - I think his "what can ya do?" abandonment of Julian had two factors to it. The first was shame, and his shame-based self hate. John was a classic example of a "thwarted perfectionist" thanks to Mimi's emotionally incestuous and narcissistically stifling upbringing. If you can't do something perfect immediately, there's no point in doing it at all, otherwise you will be subject to ridicule and abuse. Thwarted perfectionists often check out and either don't finish/start projects, or engage in performative self sabotage (John was more of the latter, though he evolved into the former for a while in his 30's). I think his attitude with Julian was "I already fucked this up, I fucked it up right away, there is no fixing it because I was destined to be bad at it, etc". This might not have even been on a fully conscious level, but I can't imagine seeing or thinking about Julian made him feel very good about himself. It was psychologically easier to start with a new kid and do it "right" from the beginning this time instead of fixing what you already broke. In this psychological frame of mind, raising Sean can also simultaneously become redeeming the fuck up with Julian (symbolically; this still left Julian out in the cold). John seemed to view going back to Yoko in 75 in general as an act of maturity based on insight over how he let his first two "marriages" (Cyn, and Lennon-McCartney) fall apart as soon as they got difficult. I would disagree with this personally lol, but if he were talking about anything BUT his codependent relationship with Yoko he'd be totally correct. Like, the sentiment is not wrong, and it says a lot about where his head was.

The other factor is, as you implied, John's belief that he lacked personal agency. This reinforced his thwarted perfectionism, bc the mental hurdle to even imagine himself being able to fix something he broke was too powerful when he was languishing in learned helplessness. It's no accident that the only time he made real overtures to Julian after leaving Cyn was during a period when he was highly productive in a creative sense (and playing a leadership role in many of his creative endeavours to boot) and with a woman who, while she did get sucked into mothering him quite a bit, encouraged him to take risks and uh, like, go outside and shit.

I'm mostly just fleshing out what you've said here with more psychological detail because I think you already hit the key insight: his experience sailing to Bermuda was a huge turning point re: his self perception wrt personal agency. The big elephant in the room, however, is Yoko. It didn't take long for John to start opening himself up a few inches to Cyn and Jules after breaking with Yoko in the mid-70's; it was her who had the zero sum game attitude wrt his first family (which he, don't get me wrong, absolutely went along with at the time, he was so determined and desperate to "break" with his old life; Yoko's "cut everyone out" rhetoric was a useful mental tool and excuse for him). I think the fact that 'Double Fantasy' was originally supposed to be a John-only project that Yoko shouldered her way into indicates that he hadn't actually reclaimed or fully integrated this newfound sense of agency at the time of his death, but the attitude he fostered there hadn't gone away.

So yeah: if John had been able to nurture that positive feeling, if he and Yoko went their separate ways, if he had been able to go back to England and reconnect with his old circle of family and friends, I think it's probably true that he would at least tried to make things right by with Jules (and maybe even Cynthia, but lets not get too crazy here).

As for what it might have looked like, it's difficult to know tbh. I do think that John was one of those people who just had a hard time relating to small children because they couldn't discourse on an adult level (tho notably he was better with young girls than boys). Re-connecting with Julian as a teen/adult who was capable of interacting more as a peer than a dependent probably would do a lot to radically reframe their relationship and give John points of reference and enthusiasm to engage with him. Likely this would have primarily happened through music. However based on observation of similar situations irl, I think there probably would have always been a wedge of distrust present as often happens with adult children of highly irresponsible parents. What I'm saying is that I believe they could have or would have become friends, maybe even close friends, but I don't believe they ever would have become "father and son".

[cazort]

One thing that I don't think gets talked about enough is just how hard it was when I was younger to read flirty / teasing interactions and distinguish them from sexual harassment, and how this interacts with neurodivergence, and how this can play out in really nasty ways when people shame people for what they do or don't do in these situations.

I remember spending literally years watching human interactions and completely puzzling at how and why people responded the way they did. Like this aspect of human behavior just seemed like a black box to me, it was hopelessly complex.

A common example would be watching a man touch a woman in some setting, and the woman slaps his hand away. This situation could have many fundamentally different things going on:

The two people might be a couple who have already established a strong sexual and/or romantic connection, and the whole interaction might be consensual, playful, and positive.

The two people might have established that there is mutual attraction, but the woman might still be marginally uncomfortable with the interaction, possibly because it was too public, so she is expressing a type of negativity but it is not so much "don't touch me like that" as it is "not here, stupid". Sort of like people being uncomfortable with PDA.

The woman might actually be comfortable with having the gesture be public, but might be concerned with appearances to others, so she might have an ambivalence in her message, sort of like "If it weren't for other people, I'd actually want this right here and now, but am insecure about people judging us for doing this in public."

The woman might have an exhibitionist kink or other related kink, and be actively turned on by the fact that she is somewhat uncomfortable with the public-ness of the gesture, and thus her reaction is one of discomfort but also has a strong undertone of her wanting it in spite of the discomfort.

It might be overt sexual harassment and the woman has no attraction to the man and feels uncomfortable with what he did, and wants to express clearly for him to stop.

It might be overt sexual harassment, but the woman has been socialized to be "agreeable" and "polite" and as a result struggles to react to the man's actions in a way that comes across as actually assertive and expressing a boundary, so she is trying to express a strong message but she ends up coming across in a way that her behavior is hard to distinguish from the more "playful" scenarios described above.

It might be overt sexual harassment, even though the woman feels attracted to the man, and perhaps feels a sense of validation or confidence boost at the man trying to touch her, but at the same time she feels uncomfortable with how he did it and her reaction is one of ambivalence. This factor can interact with the above factor.

It might be overt sexual harassment, but the woman might be treading a fine line and trying to avoid sending too strong a message of disapproval because the man might be in a position of power over the woman and she is afraid of negative consequences, which could be anything from career consequences if she is trying to network with the man, to violence. So the woman might actually dislike the gesture and want the man to stop, but might send some messages that come across as neutral to even positive because of the power dynamics. Furthermore, in this scenario the woman's reaction to the man may not be based on the man's actions himself but rather, exposure to past situations involving other men, so a woman might be afraid of violence even in a situation where the man has done absolutely nothing to suggest he would commit violence. Or a woman who is used to men in positions of power or authority over her, overstepping boundaries with her, might internalize patterns or habits of responding a certain way, and then when a man who has no power over her does something similar, she responds similarly out of habit or conditioning because it is the path of least resistance.

This diversity in the points above is mostly focused on the diversity in the woman's reaction. What is going on with the men can also be diverse:

The man might be expressing sexual attraction or interest and trying to flirt.

The man might be trying to express affection and not trying to flirt (regardless of whether or not it comes across that way.)

The man might think the woman is likely interested but isn't sure how much, and might be trying to feel out how she will react.

The man might have seen other women respond positively to these sorts of interactions, either sincerely, or because he misread the interaction, and is doing what he is doing because he thinks the woman wants it.

The man might be groping the woman non-consensually as a way of exerting power or control, trying to "show women their place" in a misogynistic or patriarchal way.

The man might be imitating the behavior of other men in his life, engaging in a specific type of touch without conscious awareness of why he is doing it, what message he is trying to send, or how it will be received by the woman.

And I'm sure I haven't explored all possible scenarios here. And of course, people's intentions can be complex too, like there could be a little bit of many different things going on.

The overall pattern? Layer upon layer of nuance. Absolutely unreadable. Imagine you are someone who struggles to accurately read body language, facial expressions, tone of voice, and other non-verbal cues. Imagine you have trouble with social norms. Imagine you are someone very different from most people, and thus struggle to empathize with them and understand them. And now you're trying to make sense of interactions like the ones above, trying to process them to figure out what is happening. It's completely bewildering.

I remember, not only as a teenager, but sometimes even as an adult, stepping in and trying to intervene in situations that I thought were bad or non-consensual, only to completely embarrass myself in front of others when it turns out I was butting into a fully consensual, playful interaction in a way that came across as rude and invasive. And then I came away feeling shamed, but also angry, angry at a society that repeatedly hammered me with the "feminist" message to intervene when I saw a man harassing a woman, only for me to be publicly embarrassed and shamed when I tried to do this. Similarly for situations involving playful banter which I misread as bullying or verbal harassment. At a bare minimum I came across feeling stupid, but I also remember feeling angry, angry at how harshly people treated me for misreading the situation, angry that they were treating me like I was stupid when I was really trying my best, and angry at society for telling me to intervene in these situations without giving me the tools to even accurately identify them.

So like...it really pisses me off when people say that "it is clear what is going on" to someone watching these interactions. No, it is not clear. This was especially true when I was younger and I did not have as much awareness of issues of disparity in social conditioning, and power structures favoring men over women in careers and other places, and how these shaped these interactions.

But even now, with all my life experience, it's hard.

I think it's even hard even for neurotypical people sometimes, but I want neurotypical people to try to imagine how factors like having trouble reading body language or facial expressions, or having an internal experience that is very different from other people and makes it harder to understand them by analogy to ourselves, could make it even harder to accurately read situations like the ones above.

Why does this matter?

It matters when someone criticizes someone for overstepping a boundary that "was clearly expressed" or "should have been clear to them".

It matters when someone criticizes someone for failing to express a boundary clear enough, when someone harasses them or oversteps a boundary.

It matters when people criticize someone for not intervening in public instances of sexual harassment, bullying, or non-consensual behavior.

It matters when people shame or criticize someone for intervening in a situation that was consensual and playful, but they read as harmful.

I see so many examples of all of these. People criticize women who are sexually assaulted or harassed, for not being more assertive, or say they can't really have been assaulted or harassed because they weren't assertive. At the same time I also see people criticizing men for not better reading situations where a woman seems to be egging them on, as if they are supposed to magically know that "yes means no" and the woman's behavior is coming from a place of trauma and/or harmful social conditioning.

And I can't even count how many times I've seen women criticize men for not intervening in situations of harassment. But never have I seen any of these women acknowledge the times that men, usually neurodivergent men, have been shamed for intervening, or the times men of low status in society, including men of low socioeconomic status, or BIPOC men or visibly queer or GNC men, all of whom are more vulnerable in power structures, have been retaliated against or had negative consequences pushed on them when they tried to intervene.

I would like for us to move away from individual blame and instead focus on tearing down the systems that lead all these bad interactions to happen. Some things that can help:

Explicit communication is good, telling people what you want or don't want. We need to teach people of all genders to explicitly communicate, including both expressions of boundaries, and checking in with people verbally to make sure things are okay, and talking things out if a situation gets awkward or is confusing.

We need to respond severely to people who react negatively to expressions of boundaries. If someone says "no" to an advance or touch, and the person who initiated the advance responds by retaliating, there needs to be an intervention that stops the person. It might look different in different cases, a person charged with a crime in more severe cases, or a person losing their job, or in other cases being reprimanded or pointed out that there is a risk of them being charged with a crime or losing their job. In other cases it might just be enough for a person's social circle to all gang up against them and be like: "Hey, this is wrong, don't do it again, and I'm not going to side with you and protect you if you do."

We can stop overgeneralizing about people's intentions and repeatedly remind ourselves of the diversity of ways situations involving consent can play out. Too much of the rhetoric around consent makes it out to be simple and straightforward, but, especially to a neurodivergent person, it is far from straightforward. We need to talk about all the different layers of conflicting intentions and how they can make situations extremely complicated to read, and how this can make it very hard for people to develop healthy, functional social norms and behaviors surrounding these things. We especially need to listen to the voices of neurodivergent people who often have more trouble navigating all these aspects of society, and we need to consider their perspectives when talking about this stuff.

[dollsonmain]

I’ve had extra sleep and my brain was kind of working until I sat down. Anyway.

Investments -

I keep getting emails from my bank encouraging me to start investing with them via Schwab and every time I’m like wow, I would love to have some investments managed by the bank’s team since, watching That Guy’s finances, they do tend to earn money instead of losing it (granted it’s usually a few pennies per every $5k).

However.

I don’t have enough money in the bank over all of my accounts combined to start the minimum investments in any of the packages they keep trying to sell me, and don’t know why they keep trying to sell them to me.

Though I still don’t know why I was approved for a credit card, either. I wonder if they’re factoring in That Guy’s accounts since he’s somehow gotten me listed as his married wife at the bank...

Speaking of That Guy -

Lately, mixed in with the union talk, there has been a lot of worker’s rights talks and how to protect yourself from shifty employers and all that, and a post about something that I don’t exactly remember but it was something like constructive release? where a company doesn’t want to fire you because there will be financial repercussions on their part (either unemployment or union action) so they manipulate the office place so that it becomes socially and career hostile toward a particular worker until that worker gets fed up and leaves?

I wonder if that’s what’s happening to That Guy at his current office.

The place he works isn’t unionized, but it might as well be for how difficult it is to fire people.

It started at his previous office right after Danielle (we know how I feel about Danielle) left the position of his direct manager. I think without her encouraging and building up his shittiness and being in a position of power where she got to choose who stays and who goes, the other workers (one in particular tried to talk management into letting him go, or so he said) started trying to get him to willingly leave by no longer placating his narcissistic behavior at that office because they no longer had to, that one woman’s attempts to get him flat out fired didn’t work due to the nature of the job, and without Danielle protecting him, he did. He jumped to another office in the same industry at a major pay cut (120k to 98k/year) because if that other coworker DID manage to get him fired (he got nervous after a while), he’d no longer be able to work in that industry. Being fired is A Big Fucking Deal in that industry.

The current office was fine for a while but he started complaining about the people and the environment and how miserable he is there right around when the pandemic started (which those of you who were here then know is when he really started losing his shit because he can’t stand to not be in control or to have to work to maintain things), his workplace enforced the same precautions as everyone else, he didn’t like it, and he started acting up both at home and at work.

I think that, at that point, the people at the office got to see what he’s really like, didn’t like it, and many moved to get him to leave on his own just like the previous office. The Marrieds both work there, and they seem to be the only people that actually like him.

And he tried to.

He used to say that he’s so important and special and good at his job that he could probe any office within the industry and they’d be like “Oh him, yeah I’ve heard of him” and hire him on the spot, he doesn’t even have to do an interview.

He’s learned that is incorrect. The thing with that industry is that everyone knows everyone, and everyone has to be able to trust everyone else. It only takes a small handful of those trusted individuals saying “Yeah, don’t hire that guy. He’s good at his job but he makes everyone uncomfortable or downright miserable at the offices he’s worked at.” which they can do, now that his bestest buddy that people probably also don’t much like isn’t in a managerial position and in the way for everyone else to start comfortably looking at or talking about him differently or for the people in hiring positions to second think hiring him.

He also made the idiotic mistake of pissing off the hiring people. In that industry it’s not so much that you contact an office and say "I’d like to work with your team.” and then go through the interview and hiring process. You contact the, I guess I’d call them something like an employee management company. You ping them and say “Hey, I’m interested in jumping to another office/team because of pay, benefits, travel, location, whatever.”, THEY look at your credentials, choose the best place for you or tell you “No, you should stay put.”, and start paperwork. He ditched his last hiring guy at the old office because that one wasn’t giving him what he wanted anymore, and then gave the new hiring guy absolute hell over masking policies at work, so he’s likely now on the employee management company’s shitlist and only still has a job at all because it’s really difficult to fire people in that industry and he hasn’t left on his own, yet.

He’s also learned that he has no options outside of the industry. No higher education, no other work experience of any kind at all. Outside of his current industry he’s no more interesting to employers than a kid just out of high school unless he’s applying somewhere that thinks having been in the military over 20 years ago actually means something.

So he’s still at that office and comes home and whines about it every day, and I wonder if it’s not the other employees there trying to get him to leave.

[spongebobafettywap]

Also quick question, wasn't it Abyss and Kiwi Black he also had a strong link to?

correct, it was probably tied to how they each had a power set slightly similar to his like abyss' which is tied to space alteration.

(while i was looking this up to be sure i read that abyss just got killed which is... sad because apparently it was the only way to solve an issue as he still couldn't control his powers. even after being on an island with other mutants and scientists for 3 years. dude is just unlucky)

Also a male writer being unfamiliar with female biology is par for the course in Marvel comics LOL.

oh believe me i know. but this just took every single one of the standard bad i was used to and blew it out of the water. like the panel where destiny is having nightcrawler... this now exists.

i- i don't even know where to start. the proportions are off (how long are destiny's femurs), the perspective is off (the must-wear-a-tie-on-the-job medical 'professional' they had is too far away from her to be of any help or see anything).

for the 22 hours this went on, they let her keep her glasses even tho she's blind and thus wouldn't need them in the first place as they serve no purpose and might become a nuisance real quick... (like the whole process makes you sweat and builds pressure on your head/face so glasses can get pretty uncomfortable). also they'd fall off/ slip from her face especially due to the labor position she's in...

because destiny is nearly sitting down on her hands and knees, slightly hunched over (instead of arched up), in actual pants while doing all of that. it becomes more jarring to see because fake-pregnant mystique next to her is in a more-practical-for-the occasion nightgown even tho she's not gonna deliver any baby any time soon

quick side note on the time taken here for the delivery : each pregnancy is different and complications do arise but destiny already had kids before so it should have gone smoother than what this story implies in both process and positioning besides the doc or mystique could have better advised her on the latter. (the writer might have accidentally leaned on the ' azazel's children are harder to deliver ' route too due to his poor knowledge on anything and in that case that's yet another common factor between nightcrawler and azazel's biological children...)

overall when you combine this panel with any medical knowledge you might have,

it just looks like nightcrawler came out of the wrong orifice okay ?

and if he supposedly came out of the right one, the only possible outcome to this poor attempt at that specific labor position is a dead baby nightcrawler as he would suffocate between destiny's legs before drawing his first breath... on the account of those damn pants

does destiny actually want this kid or is she deliberately dwindling his chances of survival before he's even out fr

Well you know they will have all important Street Brawls as part of the next Marvel Crossover event I'm sure. Marvel: Secret Street Brawls.

mystique just casually organizes encounters between specific heroes and villains after making a poll of "who do you wanna see fight" and "which street needs more wrecking" online then she films everything and updates it to cash in on some good old advert money. that's it, that's how the whole event should be about

It's like everything you're telling me gives me more reasons to never go back to reading Marvel. I felt like my tastes in story telling really matured after I started watching shows like Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul and reading and Watching Jojo's bizarre adventure. Maybe there's a reason why the best stories function with a beginning and an end and don't go on endlessly with too many cooks stirring the pot.

Like seriously wasting Abyss for what? Some storyline no one cares about? You know its interesting how you'll be one of the few people to point that out about how stupid the drawing of female anatomy is. Of course a lot of people just really like the "appearing progressive" angle that Marvel loves to do so they can sell a headline instead of putting thought into it, much like how they did when they decided Bobby should just be gay in such a contrived way like having Jean mindread him and tell him he's gay. Like they couldn't just have him explore his own sexuality? With his own feelings on how his relationships went and what genders he likes? Side note I really hate whenever someone criticises a story thats made to appear progressive gets lumped in with reactionary bigots as if whenever you write something with the intention of progressive you are absolutely free from criticism its just so childish really.

Honestly yeah they do need to just have Marvel Street Brawl be a thing and then they could also try to be deep about it like they did with AvX and pretend like there's this massive moral dilemma situation "Should we destroy this Street or not? That's a big problem and we need to answer it in 50 issues"

[108garys]

Let me wash away the taste of that filth

So Mark fits the archetype of the reluctant hero in the way that he's directionless at the start and initially pushes back on the call to action in his brief moment of agreement with Charlie on the idea that nothing was wrong but when it comes down to the moment of truth he always meets the challenge head on and grows as a person because of it, the heroic arch is then subverted in the complicity and ultimatum paths(imagine if they could exist in the same playthrough) where he reaches the point in his growth where he can be decisive but has fallen prey to Du'met's influence and has either been manipulated into making the wrong call or put in a no win situation where both options are unthinkable and for however long he lives he must have these things on his conscience and he shoulders it

Mark the over thinker, who talked himself out of pursuing his dream, who broke off a relationship with the woman he loves, who is stuck in inertia despite his considerable talent(the camera work was the only thing that got a wholey positive comment in the little hope TV guide), he steps up to choose good or bad, he challenges Du'met and is the only one who can physically contend with him in a straight up fight despite his nonconfrontational and layed back nature

He is artistically inclined, much like his coworkers he sees work as work but his pull to the creative is evident even if he doesn't get much chance to express it, this also makes him one of the few artists in the game loosely next to Charlie, Du'met and Sherman and I think that's worth mentioning in of itself that between him and Charlie there's a lot of respect for what mark does and how invaluable his creative eye is and to further contrast hector and Manny's dynamic where the artistry of murder is a driving factor in it all and the way mark shares a trait that not only aligned him with Du'met but makes his own positive relationship with his boss be an almost inversion of hector's relationship with Manny in which the person with more power is learning from or benefiting from the other(I do feel like this point is a little muddled tho)

His go with the flow vibe naturaly pushes him to the back when the cast is full of strong personalities, it's not his fault that tdim has an over abundance of outspoken characters, even the stereotypical "quiet girl" in Erin is much more opinionated than him and that makes the negative association much more magnified to the point that I feel people tend to subconsciouslay treat his moments as a type of ludonarrative disonence in which they see those things as their acts as a player and not marks as a character which is much easier for players that see the characters as themselves first and characters in a story second

Beyond that I believe he is relatable but painfully so, unlike Erin and her quirky song or Kate and her quirky crystal(not to downplay their issues but it gives people something to latch on to), Mark is facing the very comon horror of being suddenly 30 and not making progress in life due to his indecision, he has everything he needs to get ahead in life in theory but he gets in his own way, in this way his own beginning state of arrested development unintentionally holds a mirror up to people's own shortcomings

Combining these factors I think Mark fades into the background and makes people subtly uncomfortable in a way that they can't quite put their finger on and so they overlook all of his good qualities, so in conclusion to this completely off the top of my head pouring out of thoughts, I get why people feel the way they do but mark is a sorely mischaracterised heroic figure that was unfortunately done dirty by the sheer circumstances of being surrounded by strong personalities and louder specticale(not that changing him or them is the answer)

And for the last sorta irony of it all, fair or not if this was said about Alex Smith I would have jumped in about him practically being a playable npc, so I'm not above all that but mark genuinely has more going on than people give him credit for

Well apparently I really get these things happening when I'm tired as all hell so I hope this makes sense to coherent people who aren't me lol

I JUST SAW SOMEONE SAY MARK IS SO BORING THEY HARDLY EVEN SEE HIM AS A CHARACTER I HATE IT HEEERE

[mokutone]

On the subject of dog nose kakashi, there’s a headcanon I’ve seen that the reason he wears the mask is because it helps block out smells so he can focus. I like that one combined with him hiding his fangs to protect his mother’s identity for whatever reason and to hide his ethereal beauty because it makes him stand out too much lol and now to also hide his dog nose!!

i have seen a lot of these headcanons, and they are cool and valid!

my personal take is honestly less that he wants to hide any one specific feature of his face (whether inherited clan attributes like teeth or nose) or facial differences, ethereal beauty, etc,

the one i give most personal credence to is probably the blocking out smell, but even then i'm sometimes wishy washy on whether i go for that hc depending on my mood

but here's something interesting and dog related, i got it from another stanley coren book "How to Speak Dog" again, i have mixed feelings on his writing, but his studies and conclusions are interesting and worthy of note if anyone is interested in dog science and communication. anyway here's the fun tidbit, it's talking about why dogs tuck their tails as a gesture of fear.

"In essence, the dog is making its presence less obvious by preventing the release of the odors that identify it as an individual. Some scientists have suggested that the tail-between-the-legs action is the canine equivalent of an action seen in insecure human beings—especially children—who hide their faces when brought into the presence of a dominant or potentially threatening person."

(worth noting that stanley doesnt use dominant here in terms of the weird stupid wolf hierarchy thing)

anyway. my point is that i don't really see kakashi trying to hide his face as anything specific to his face at all—his students certainly do, and all theorize about what could be so "horrible" beneath his mask that he "needs to hide it", but imo what he's hiding is not physical, it's emotional, hiding his face because he is ashamed/insecure, etc.

i know this might seem a little odd since he's worn this mask since he was a kid, before his fathers death, before obito, rin, etc, and he may have seemed outwardly arrogant as a child, but Sakumo was clearly somebody who carried a lot of shame and guilt, not just for the one incident but as a matter of course, and children can often take on that worldview. similarly, arrogance is also usually a protective mechanism to keep the individual from having to confront the inadequacy they fear, etc etc

[samsspambox]

I love the hc that Artem is ace. I'm ace as well and that puts a lot of his understandable behavior into perspective. Like, saying stuff that could be sugged to mean otherwise and immediately apologizing for it because you didn't mean for it to be taken that way. But also the book! Artem trying to learn his way into someone's heart by watching dramas and a book on "love and attraction"? Yep. Not to mention, the whole thing with intimacy, where he tends to freeze when things get more intimate - not because he doesn't want it, but because he just doesn't know what to do. I've also seen people claim Artem as being dense, which is fair. I would argue tho that it's because he legitimately does not know better. When he does stuff, especially in like Focus Fire or In Sickness and In Health or Two Hearts as One, he tends to think of the "romantic" implications a little bit later - He likes Rosa, sure, but I'm pretty sure his first thought when trying to use his hands as earmuffs isn't "oh gosh, I'm right next to her", but rather "oh, I need to protect her ears." Two Hearts as One is another one - Artem and Rosa are working on the choking scene and Artem is on top of her, Artem doesn't immediately get uncomfortable with the position, he just figures that it's what he has to do for the play (which, fair), it's only after things get a little more intimate that he starts to get flustered. Artem's other autumn cars is another one. Which makes things kinda interesting because it seems like he's judging his own reactions to things between them based on how MC is reacting, when they get flustered, Artem is more than likely to mirror that too. He knows his social cues, hence the apologies for what happens as a result of his innocent intent. Some food for thought.

yEAH YEAH UR SO RIGHT NONNIE, THERES SO MUCH SHIT TO BE EXPLAINED IF ARTEM IS ACE SPEC!

like, his first instinct isn't to think about situations as 'oh this is romantic/this has sexual tension' but more like 'what's right to do in the moment' or 'what's right to do because of the environment'.

like the basketball card! he bought the milk tea bc what else was he supposed to do in that situation, but was only aware it was for couples when the person selling clarified that it was for couples, you know?

i think it's a combination of factors that lead to artem being 'dense' in the act of wooing someone. one has to be inexperience bc he just,, never had a partner at all. but i also think it was a bit of the ugly duck syndrome. a bit of spoilers here but artem's mom mentions that bc artem shot up in height during high school, a lot of people started seeing him as attractive. that makes me think that artem,,, probably had it rough in terms of being a pre-teen. and now with all the sudden attention? he'd freak out. he'd grow distrustful of those around him, shutting down any possibilities of him dating around in his early teens. also bc his parents have connections, similarly to marius, and could have been used as a step to reach his parents' attention.

and of course there's also just the innate innocence of his actions. i think that's why a lot of people like artem— hes a bit of a subversion of the 'cold hearted mf' trope. artem genuinely doesn't hide that he worries for people and wants them to succeed but because of his position of power over them it comes off as cold indifference.

i guess as someone on the ace spec, i wanna dig i to why artem chose mc as the person who'd he'd have feelings towards. how did him and mc get close? how gradual was it? i know we get some answers to their past in future cards but they mostly focus too far back to when they were just colleagues. what was that moment? cuz the game just establishes them as 'really good work colleagues' in the beginning. how did that happen? let me sEE

but you're so right nonnie artem being ace partially solves so many mysteries about artem himself. thank you for dropping by nonnie!!!

[chainofclovers]

Ted Lasso 2x11 thoughts

For an episode that ends with a journalist Ted trusts but has (understandably) recently lied to warning Ted that he’s publishing an article about his panic attacks, it was fitting that this episode seemed entirely about what all of these characters choose to tell each other. And after most of a season of television that Jason Sudeikis has described as the season in which the characters go into their little caves to deal with things on their own, it turns out they are finally able to tell each other quite a lot.

Which is good because, um, wow, a lot is going to happen in the season finale of this show!

Thoughts on the things people tell each other behind the cut!

Roy and Keeley. I absolutely loved the moment during their photoshoot in which they bring up a lot of complicated emotional things and are clearly gutted (“gutted”? Who am I? A GBBO contestant who forgot to turn the oven on?) by what they’ve heard. We already know that Keeley and Roy are great at the kinds of moments they have before the shoot begins, in which Roy builds Keeley up and tells her she’s fucking amazing. From nearly the beginning of their relationship, they’ve supported each other and been each other’s biggest fans. But their relationship has gone on long enough that they’ve progressed from tentative arguments about space and individual needs into really needing to figure out what they mean to each other and how big their feelings are and what that means in relation to everything else. Watching these two confess about the uncomfortable kiss with Nate, the unexpectedly long conversation with Phoebe’s teacher, and—most painfully—the revelation that Jamie still loves Keeley didn’t feel like watching two people who are about to break up. (Although I could see them potentially needing space from each other to get clarity.) It felt like watching two people realize just how much they’d lose if they lost each other, which is an understandably scary feeling even—or especially—when you’re deeply in love but not entirely sure what the future holds. Not entirely sure what you’re capable of when you’ve never felt serious about someone in quite this way, and are realizing you have to take intentional actions to choose that relationship every single day. I’m excited to learn whether Roy and Keeley decide they need to solidify their relationship more (not necessarily an engagement, but maybe moving in together or making sure they’re both comfortable referring to the other as partner and telling people they’re in a committed relationship) or if things go in a different direction for a while.

Sharon and Ted. I’ve had this feeling of “Wow, Ted is going to feel so intense about how honest he’s been with Sharon and is going to end up getting really attached and transfer a lot of emotions onto the connection they have and that is stressful no matter how beneficial it has been for him to finally get therapy!” for a while now. And Sharon’s departure really brought that out and it was indeed stressful. But the amount of growth that’s happened for both of these characters is really stunningly and beautifully conveyed in this episode. Ted is genuinely angry she left without saying goodbye, and he doesn’t bury it some place deep inside him where it will fester for the next thirty years. He expresses his anger. (I also noticed he sweared—mildly—in front of her again, which is really a big tell for how much he has let his carefully-constructed persona relax around her.) He reads her letter even though he said he wasn’t going to, and he’s moved. I don’t think Ted has the words for his connection to Sharon beyond “we had a breakthrough,” but Sharon gets it, and is able to firmly assert a professional boundary by articulating her side of that breakthrough as an experience that has made her a better therapist. And is still able to offer Ted a different kind of closure by suggesting they go out before her train leaves. No matter how you feel about a patient/football manager seeing their therapist/team psychologist colleague socially, I appreciated this story because IMO it didn’t cross big lines but instead was about one final moment in this arc in which both Ted and Sharon saw each other clearly and modeled what it is to give someone what they need and to expect honesty and communication from them. I liked that Ted ends up being the one saying goodbye. (The mustache in the exclamation points!) I like that whether or not Sharon returns in any capacity (Sarah Niles is so wonderful that I hope she does, but I’m not sure), the goodbye these characters forge for themselves here is neither abandonment nor a new, more complicated invitation. It’s the end of a meaningful era, and although the work of healing is the work of a lifetime, it’s very beautiful to have this milestone.

Ted and Rebecca. So, maybe it’s just me, but it kinda feels like these two have a few li’l life things to catch up on?! (HAHHHHHaSdafgsdasdf!) I really adored their interactions in this episode. I maintain that Biscuits With The Boss has been happening this whole time (even when Ted’s apartment was in shambles, there’s biscuit evidence, and I feel like we’ve been seeing the biscuit boxes in Rebecca’s office pretty regularly too), even if it might have been more of a drive-by biscuit drop-off/feelings avoidance ritual. It was really lovely to see Ted on more even footing in Rebecca’s office, joking around until she tells him to shut up, just like the old days. And GOSH—for their 1x9 interaction in Ted’s office to be paralleled in this episode and for Ted to explicitly make note of the parallel in a way Rebecca hears and sees and understands?! MY HEART. In both of Rebecca’s confessions, she is not bringing good news but it is good and meaningful that she chooses to share with Ted. In both situations, Ted takes the moment in stride and offers acceptance equivalent to the gravity of what she has to confess. And in both situations, he’s not some kind of otherworldly saint, able to accept Rebecca no matter what because he’s unaffected by what she shares. He is affected. When he tells her about Sam, you can see a variety of emotions on his face. Rebecca is upset and Ted is calm, and even if I might have liked for him to try to talk about the risk the affair poses to the power dynamics on the team or any number of factors, I also really liked that he just accepts where she is, and—most importantly—does not offer her advice beyond examining herself and taking her own advice. A massive part of being in a relationship with another person (a close relationship of any nature) is figuring out how to support that person without necessarily having to be happy about every single thing they do. It’s so important that Ted connects what she’s just told him about Sam back to what she told him last season about her plot with the club. These both feel like truth bombs to him, and he is at least safe enough to make that clear. These are both things that impact him, things that shape how he sees her and maybe even how he sees himself. He cares about her and is capable of taking in this information; he has room for it. But it’s not something he takes lightly, and neither does she. See you next year.

Tumblr user chainofclovers and the TV show Ted Lasso. My brain is going wild thinking about all the ways the next “truth bomb” conversation could go in 3x11 or whatever. Maybe they go full consistent parallel and Rebecca confesses something else, this time about her and Ted or some other big future thing that impacts him as much or more as the other confessions have. (The same but different.) Maybe the tables turn and Ted has something to confess to her. While the 1x9 conversation ended in an embrace and the 2x11 conversation ended with a bit more physical distance (understandable given the current state of their relationship and the nature of the discussion), the verbal ending of both conversations involved voices moving into a sexier lower register while zooming in to talk specifically about their connection to each other, so I have to assume there will be some consistencies in s3 even if the circumstances will be completely different. I don’t really know where I’m going with this and I obviously will go insane if I sustain this level of anticipatory energy until Fall 2022 but I have a feeling my brain and heart are going to try!

Sam and Rebecca. I know there’s been a lot of criticism about whether this show is being at all realistic about the power dynamics and inevitable professional issues this relationship would create. On some level, I agree; I like that pretty much everyone who knows about the affair has been kind so far, but you can be kind and still ask someone to contend with reality. But I also think that in nearly every plot point on this show, the narrative is driven by how people feel about their circumstances first and foremost. (It’s why the whiteboard in the coaching office and the football commentators tell us more about how the actual football season is going from a points perspective than anyone else.) This episode reminded me how few people know about Sam and Rebecca, and how much their time together so far has been time spent in bed. The private sphere. I thought this episode really expertly brought the public sphere into it, not—thank goodness—through a humiliating exposure or harsh judgment but through an opportunity for Sam that illustrates not only all his potential to do great things but how much Rebecca’s professional position and personal feelings are in conflict with that. Could stand in the way of that. I don’t have a strong gut feeling about where this will go, but I do think Sam’s face in his final scene of this episode is telling. He started the episode wanting to see Rebecca (his most recent text to her was about wanting to connect), and Edwin’s arrival from Ghana really exploded his sense of what is possible for his life. If he’d arrived home to Rebecca sitting on his stoop prior to meeting Edwin, he’d have been delighted. Now he’s conflicted, and whatever decision he makes, he has to reckon with the reality that he cannot have everything he wants. No matter what. And Rebecca—she has taken Ted’s advice and is attempting to be honest about the fact that she can’t control Sam’s decisions but hopes he doesn’t go, and even saying that much feels so inappropriate. And I’m not sure how much she realizes about the inappropriateness of the position she’s putting him in, although maybe she’s getting there considering she exits the scene very quickly. I’ve honestly loved Rebecca’s arc this season. I think it’s realistic that she got obsessed with the intimacy she thought she could find in her phone. I think it’s realistic that her professional and personal ambitions are inappropriately linked. (They certainly were for Rupert. It’s been years since she’s known anything different; even if she’s done some significant recovery work to move on from her abusive marriage and figure out her own priorities, she’s got a long way to go.) I know there are people who will read this interaction between Rebecca and Sam as a totally un-self-aware thing on the part of “the show” or “the writers” but what I saw is two people who enjoyed being in bed together and now have to deal with the reality that they’re in two different places in their lives and that one has great professional power over the other. If that wasn’t in the show, I wouldn’t be able to see it or feel so strongly about it.

Edwin and Sam. I really enjoyed all the complexities of this interaction. Edwin is promising a future for Sam that doesn’t quite exist yet, though he has the financial means to make it happen. He offers this by constructing for Sam a Nigerian—and Ghanaian—experience unlike anything he’s found in London. Sam is amazed that this experience is here, and Edwin’s response is to explain to him that the experience is not here. Not really. The experience in Africa. Sam has of course connected to the other Nigerian players on the team, but this is something else entirely. I’m really curious if Sam is going to end up feeling that what Edwin has to offer is real or not. That sense of home and connection? So real. And so right that he would want to experience that homecoming and would want to be part of building that experience for others. But at the end of the day, he went to a museum full of actors and a pop-up restaurant full of “friends,” and is that constructed authenticity as a stand-in for a real homecoming more or less real than the home he’s building in Richmond? (With other players who stand in solidarity with him, and with well-meaning white coaches who say dumb stuff sometimes, and an a probably-doomed love interest, and a feeling that he should put chicken instead of goat in the jollof, and the ability to stand out as an incredible player on a rising team.)

Nate and everyone. But also Nate and no one. Nate’s story is so painful and I’m so anxious for next week’s episode. For a long time I’ve felt that a lot of Nate’s loyalties are with Richmond, and a lot of his ambitions are around having given so much to this place without getting a lot back, and having a strong feeling that he’s the answer to Richmond’s future. But now I’m not so sure; his ambitions have transferred into asking everyone he knows (except Ted, of course), if they want to be “the boss.” But Nate is all tactics and no communication. When he wants to suggest a new play to Ted, he hasn’t yet learned to read Ted’s language to learn that Ted is eager to hear what he has to say. And while Ted has been really unfortunately distracted about Nate and dismissive of him this season, he clearly respects Nate’s approach to football and was appreciative of the play. Nate just can’t hear that. The suit is such a great metaphor of all the things Nate is in too much pain to be able to hear clearly. Everyone digs at him for wearing the suit Ted bought him (including Will, who’s got to get little cuts in where he can, because he’s got to be sick of the way Nate treats him), but when he gets fed up his solution isn’t to go out on his own and find more clothes he likes; he asks Keeley to help him. And then crosses a major line with her...and no matter how kind she was about it, she was clearly not okay. Everything is going to blow up, and I’m so curious as to whether Nate will end up aligning himself with Rupert in some way or if he’s going to end up screwed over by Rupert and in turn try to screw over his colleagues even worse than he’s already done. Or try desperately to make amends even though it could be too late for some. Either way, I’m fully prepared to feel devastated. (And there’s no way I’m giving up on this character. If he’s able to learn, I truly believe he could end up seeking forgiveness and forging a happier existence for himself. Someday. Like in season 3 or something.)

Ted and Trent. Trent deciding to reveal his source to Ted is a huge deal, and I’m torn between so many emotions about this exposé. I’m glad it’s a Trent Crimm piece and not an Ernie Loundes piece. I’m glad that Trent made the decision to warn Ted and let him know that Nate is his source. I fear—but also hope—that this exposure will set off a chain reaction of Ted learning about some of the things he’s missed while suffering through a really bad bout with his dad-grief and panic disorder. The things Ted doesn’t know would devastate him. I wonder if Ted will want to figure out a way to make Nate feel heard and reconcile with him, and I wonder how that will be complicated if/when he realizes Nate has severely bullied Will, gets more details on how he mistreated Colin, etc. I wonder if Rebecca, whom Nate called a “shrew” right before she announced his promotion, will be in the position of having to ask Ted to fire him, or overriding Ted and doing it herself. So many questions! I have a feeling it’ll go in some wild yet very human-scaled, emotionally-nuanced direction, and I’ll be like “Oh my GOD!” but also like “Oh, of course.”

This VERY SERIOUS AND EMOTIONAL REVIEW has a major flaw, which is that none of the above conversations include mention of the absolute love letter to N*SYNC. Ted passionately explains how things should go while dancing ridiculously! Will turns on the music and starts gyrating! Roy nods supportively! Beard shouts the choreography like the Broadway choreographer of teaching grown men who play football how to dance like a boy band. Everyone is so incredibly proud when they nail it. I love them.

I cannot believe next week is the end. For now. I’m kind of looking forward to letting everything settle during the hiatus, but I’ve really loved the ride.

[kellinrk800]

my thoughts on episode 11 of wonder egg priority

tw// neglect, possible abuse, murder, human experimentation

holy SHIT is there a lot to unpack.

first of all, everyone except ai and neiru have now experienced the truth of what happens when you complete the total amount of people to save. at the end of episode ten we saw momoe’s breakdown and panic’s death and at the beginning today’s episode we saw rika find out and mannen’s death. (i previously wrote that neiru and pinky had experienced it but after someone kindly let me know after a rewatch that it was in fact momoe, not neiru. sorry for the error)

however, ai is now the only one who knows about frill and what happened to her. speaking of, there are a RIDICULOUS amount of parallels between the two. i’ll be reblogging some posts that explain it a lot better than i ever could right after i post this.

what i really want to focus on is frill. despite her fairly questionable and downright evil actions, i can’t help but feel a shred of pity for her.

born out of quite literal boredom and under strict surveillance, she was almost destined to be unloved. she was not made to be a human, but simply something for acca and ura acca to love. in the way you might buy a doll for a small child. their mistake was adding such severe jealousy and stubbornness to something they had created to be perfection.

stuck at the age of 14 permanently, it’s no surprise her mental state was damaged. imagine the jealousy, the intense emotions, everything you go through at that age.

she is at least somewhat aware that she is artificial intelligence considering how open those who are around her seem to be about it. however, she does not seem to be keen on accepting it or believing it. after all, she is not programmed to. she is programmed to sense things in the way a human would. and that opens a whole world of other doors about how anyone could be an ai and not know it but i doubt wonder egg priority would get that meta this close to the end.

time to tie up all these loose ends. around midway through the episode we are introduced to a love interest (who i have forgotten the name of, apologies) who causes a split in acca and ura acca’s relationship (marriage), and she soon becomes pregnant with a child. a human child.

frill was programmed to be able to understand her parents in the way a daughter would. she begins to taunt ura acca about his husband cheating on him with the woman he loves and once she finally finds out that the baby is a girl, she decides to kill the mother.

the motivation behind frill’s mental deterioration is slowly becoming clearer and clearer. i strongly suspect that she felt she was being replaced with a human child and realised the inherent inferiority she was going to have once the child was born, and became overcome with jealousy. not only would she now have to take on the role to be a big sister (which she was not programmed to accept or do. she was programmed to be stubborn and jealous in the way a 14 year old girl would be) but she would lose the ability she had to be perceived as a human daughter by the parents who raised her.

imagine being created for the sole purpose of being the perfect daughter for somebody to love, and then being replaced. i am by no means excusing murder, but it’s hard not to see her motivation.

as punishment and as relief of acca’s grief, frill was then locked away with nothing but her ai machinery for anywhere between 12 and 15 years*.

enter himari, the child that survived despite frill’s attempt at murder of both mother and child. she is described as having “saved” ura acca and acca from their state after the mother’s murder and the abandonment of their artificial daughter. when we see her able to talk, she is shown asking ura acca to marry her once she is older to make up for the pain of the loss of her mother. she is stated as being in junior high at the time (*my timespan reasoning for the time frill was locked away). while this scene made me greatly uncomfortable, it might be to show frill’s impact and influence on himari. if they had come into contact, frill would arguably do anything in her power to gain back control of her parents.

perhaps himari asked this purposefully to anger frill, which is supported further by the fact himari was found dead (cause of death suicide) the night later.

suicide. what’s the entire theme OF the eggs? i don’t know about you but i can hear lightbulbs beginning to flicker.

ura acca and acca began research into girls suicides at that age, and found a steady surge around the same time as himari’s death.

acca and ura acca are trying to bring back himari, possibly their wife, and maybe, maybe just maybe frill as well. i think that is the real purpose of the wonder egg project.

we also finally have our answer as to why girls and boys suicides are different with wonder eggs! acca and ura acca are indeed sexists, just not about suicide.

i’ll let you do the rest of the theorising.

now for the loose ends that i don’t think can be tied up.

why are hyphen and dot named after punctuation? is their goal to bring frill back to life?

what was neiru’s family’s involvement in the wonder eggs? in fact, where is neiru?

is frill alive or dead? is there even a way to distinguish with someone in her state?

what happened to acca and ura acca to make them.. well, to make them like that? last i checked, turning into mannequins isn’t a symptom of grief. are they even alive?

MOMOE. WHERE THE FUCK IS MOMOE. GIVE ME MOMOE OR GIVE ME DEATH.

there are a shit ton of new, unspecified entities we’re learning about. what actually are hyphen and dot? are they AIs like frill? perhaps not fully formed? and thanatos and eros?

where do the girls go once they’ve been freed? is “freed” even the right term?

what did mr sawaki say to ai about koito? why did koito die? is mr sawaki going to have a bigger role than a consistently fucking annoying red herring after all?

rika’s father? why have that as a big factor in an episode conflict if it’s never going to be addressed again?

the sketchy lesbian representation compared to the consistent positive trans ftm and gay representation? why have the only canonically wlw character be a product of a harmful stereotype after treating everything else so respectfully?

and most importantly, how the FUCK is this going to get cleared up in one episode?

i don’t even think that’s possible. if it is, i’m really disappointed. after consistent excellent pacing, writing, storytelling, and everything else, cramming everything into the last couple of episodes is just cheap and annoying. if i wanted to drone on for an entire series before an explosion of poor plot points for shock factor, i’d just go watch the second season of the promised neverland (/hj).

the only somewhat reasonable explanation would be a second season, but it is a terrible media decision and i can’t imagine much, if any, good coming from it.

in conclusion, what the fuck. how the hell is this going to salvage itself in one episode?

also i wrote this entire thing while on my sleep meds. if there’s logical, grammatical, spelling or just general errors i apologise and i’ll fix them when i’m not half conscious.

[jesuis-melodrama]

LadyNoir Inequality: Chat Noir’s Fall from Significance

How does Ladybug and Chat Noir's roles differ between the seasons? How was responsibility, positions, duties delegated between them? This essay analyses in detail how the LadyNoir fallout of Season 4 came to be, and how Chat Noir ultimately fell from hierarchal significance.

What attracted me to Miraculous, apart from the stellar animation and the potential of the in-universe powers, was the dynamic between Ladybug and Chat Noir. Like the camaraderie of the Phantom Thieves in Persona 5, the partnership between Ruby and Clancy in Ruby Redfort and the hierarchy of respect and power between the Hashira of Demon-Slayer, Marinette and Adrien interested me, because they are two very dissimilar people on separate standings who mutually trusts, supports, and depends on one another despite being different in almost every single way. Their powers, although complimenting, are not comparable, and their personalities, although cordial, are inverse. But despite these odds, Ladybug and Chat Noir are not just friends, companions, and confidants, but equals.

 The first episode of the series, The Bubbler, demonstrates this splendidly (Author’s Note: The Bubbler is the first episode available on Netflix. Chronologically, Stormy Weather is the first official episode, but the same values hold up). It was a jarring introduction to a new show. The audience has no idea who Adrien and Marinette were, what Tikki and Plagg were or why these magical girl transformations suddenly granted them the powers to fight the maniacal butterfly man, but we can recognise the symptoms of two people already deep into the composition of their friendship. The Bubbler threw the smoothness and effectiveness of their teamwork directly into the faces of the audience, and it was brilliant.  

We weren’t weighed down by the gritty details of the beginning, we don’t have to watch the awkward bumbling, the introductions or the unsurety of two strangers who have yet enough reason to trust one another. We were immediately thrusted into the middle of their partnership. The first thing Chat Noir did when he stepped onto the scene was to defend Ladybug and the first thing she did was to joke around comfortably, clearly relieved that he had finally arrived. After watching Marinette obsessively creep around Adrien’s house, trying to show love to a boy she barely knows, and watching Adrien uncomfortably trying to enjoy a social event which he desperatedly wanted but is clearly inexperienced in, the sudden switch of persona and their sudden familiarity and reliance on one another was a fresh breath of air and it made Miraculous a show worth investing in.

We may not know what happened between them, how they received their powers and how they know each other, but it is obvious some catalytic event has tied Ladybug and Chat Noir together. And by all the features exhibited (another great thing, the words spoken were only secondary to the demonstrative body language) the audience was immediately aware that they have stepped into something sacred, something unbreakable. And even with the thick wall of secret and unspeakable identities between them, we feel comforted when we see them together, because they are comfortable and happy with one another.

So, fourteen monster-of-the-day episodes later, when Season 1 presented the first inklings of Miraculous’ overarching plot, watching Marinette and Adrien receive their Miraculous, meet each other as civilians and then as superheroes, the scene is nostalgic and sentimental, and aided by the fantastic animation, the audience can appreciate and remember the defining passage as an evocative and triggering moment for years afterwards.

But that is not to say their partnership hasn’t been without fault.

The cracks were always present, but as the seasons rolled on, it only became more obvious. Their roles were disparate. Ladybug comes up with the plans, Ladybug comes up with the solutions and more often than not, Chat Noir is used as a tool and a distraction for Ladybug’s success. Ladybug had the Lucky Charm and the Miraculous Cure. Chat Noir can stand on his own, defend and attack as an individual, but apart from using the Cataclysm as Ladybug directs, Chat Noir has no outstanding impact on the defeat of any akuma. He does not contribute to any tactics, and he cannot win without Ladybug because he has nothing to offer strategically.  

Assets aside, there is also the matter of leadership.

The audience finds out that Chat Noir initially took the frontman role in The Origins. He attacked Stoneheart first while Ladybug dithered behind. But as Ladybug regained confidence, she took the leadership position in both episodes, and Chat Noir was more than happy to follow. Thus, their dynamic was laid down. They both showed satisfaction with their place in the relationship, Chat Noir often yielding to her judgement, such as in Stormy Weather and Dark Cupid, and Ladybug asserts that Chat Noir was in her team in Antibug.

The first big indicator of disagreement in this mutually agreed arrangement was in Syren. A contentious episode, the consequence of Chat Noir physically rebelling against Ladybug’s decision for the first time. All the way to Season 4, Rena Rogue has stirred conflict and mistrust between the duo. When I watched Ladybug leading Rena Rogue away while Chat Noir stared angrily at their retreating backs, I remembered hoping that the episode would end with Ladybug telling Chat Noir everything, so that they could have their Season 1 relationship back. Where they navigated this confusing and alien new world together, hiding so much from the public and each other, but never their authenticity and belief in one another.  

I wished that Ladybug had told Chat Noir about the Guardian. I wished that both of them had been privy to the information from the very beginning and I wished that both of them knew who the other Miraculous Holders were because they chose them together. Realistically, someone in the show should’ve connected the dots, and realised that most of the Miraculous Holders were attending a specific class in Collège Françoise Dupont and were all associated with a specific person. That was the only reason I could think of why having Ladybug and Chat Noir choosing the Holders together is a bad idea. It would threaten their identity (which at that point, was still a concern).

But canonically, Ladybug constantly chose Holders who were dangerously close to the situation. Kagami in Ikari Gozen, Chloé in Malediktator, Rose in Guiltrip and Max in Startrain. The only Holder Chat Noir has chosen wasn’t even chosen by his particular identity. Adrien suggested that Luka might be a good Snake, and Ladybug heeded his words, not Chat Noir’s. I wished there was a single scene where Ladybug and Chat Noir analysed the situation and the potential Holder together, looked at each other, no words needed to be said, just a nod and a telepathic agreement shared through their eyes, and Ladybug would present the next Holder with a Miraculous with her and her partner’s approval both given.

What was the point of keeping their identities hidden?

In Season 1, it made some sense. They had no idea the Guardian existed. Even if Chat Noir was reluctant, they can both agree that they could not take their chances, should one of them be captured. But with the reveal of the Guardian’s identity in Season 2, the need for secret identities is almost eradicated. Clearly, there is someone who is an even bigger threat to their civilian lives than Ladybug and Chat Noir are to each other. Ladybug is now burdened with a bigger cache of knowledge. Should one of them be captured, it can only be hoped that it would be Chat Noir, because unlike Ladybug, he could not spew information about potions and kwami and secret books and the Guardian’s location.

In Season 3, the climax of Miracle Queen places the duties of the Guardian directly in Ladybug’s hand. She is now in charge of all the heroes in Paris, she is now the leading physical and strategic force in the battle against Hawk Moth and she is now officially stated as Leader, not just holding a de facto position.

In Season 4, the need for secret identities is gone. Ladybug is the Guardian. She and her original partner, Chat Noir, has no more safety nets in keeping their identities hidden from each other because there is no longer a background link tying them. Should Marinette be incapacitated, should Adrien meet an accident, there is no one reading their news who is available to inform the other person. The only reason why Chat Noir’s identity continues to be hidden from Ladybug is because she does not want to know. The only reason why Ladybug does not reveal her identity to Chat Noir is because she does not want him to know.

Chat Blanc could be inserted as a contending factor. Chat Blanc saw to it that the reveal of their identities to one another could lead the end of the world.

But Chat Blanc was not the only factor.

Season 4 Marinette is overwhelmed and stressed and guilt-ridden. Season 4 Marinette tore herself apart trying to maintain the kwami, her Guardian duties and continue moonlighting as Ladybug. Season 4 Marinette was at the end of her tether, and at this point, Chat Noir’s presence and his insistence was no longer a support or a comfort but another chore and responsibility to be balanced.

Her support network as both Marinette and Ladybug were extinguished. Thus, in a peaking moment of weakness, she finally revealed her identity to Alya.

Marinette met Alya and Chat Noir on the same day. Two strangers both became her friend, two insistent strangers who were united in their goal to find out Ladybug’s identity. Marinette hid her secret life from Alya, Ladybug hid her civilian identity from Chat Noir. As Marinette, she was supported by passionate, fierce, and rash Alya who jumped to conclusions and unnerved Marinette with her determination to find out the truth about Ladybug. As Ladybug, she was supported by passionate, fierce, and rash Chat Noir who impulsively leapt into battles and irritated her with his constant declarations of love.

But Marinette had connections to Alya as both Marinette and Ladybug. She found herself acknowledging Alya’s true character and learned to rely on her through a multitude of trust falls and confrontations. Marinette made the decision to trust Alya, she made the decision to depend on a person she knows as both a citizen and a superhero.

She had no choice with Chat Noir. She never knew who he was, only that he was thrusted into the same situation as she was. Truth was an important concept to Marinette, she stated multiple times that she could not stand liars. And subsequently, she could never really trust Chat Noir because she does not know who he was.

Chat Noir was an emotional crutch during the finale of Season 2 and Season 3. He was the reason why she found the courage to go on despite the anxiety of her failures and the culmination of her carelessness. Throughout Antibug, Heroes’ Day, Gamer 2.0 and Miracle Queen, it was demonstrated that the only way Marinette could trust him and confide in her vulnerabilities was through Ladybug with him as Chat Noir. She couldn’t afford the trust the boy behind the mask, so, when it came to the end of her line, when she has no other choice, Alya was the one to receive the relinquishment of her identity, not Chat Noir.

Gang of Secrets signified the end of Chat Noir’s reign.

He was a founding member, one of the original team, once upon a time on equal par with Ladybug. But now, his presence only matters as much as a temporary hero’s. The released episodes of Season 4, Mr Pigeon 72, Sole-Crusher, and most noticeably, Optigami and Sentibubbler, demonstrated the redundance of his company. Both physically and emotionally, Rena Rouge (now known as Rena Furtive) has filled in as Ladybug’s partner. Chat Noir has to be sneaked around, shield from the fact that there is a new permanent hero and shield from the fact that now, there is one other person in the world who knows Ladybug’s identity, that isn’t him.

With Ladybug’s circle of temporary allies expanded, she no longer needs to rely on Chat Noir to be her support. She could gather up any number of useful powers she has at her disposal and expend them as she wished. In Megaleech, among the five-men team Ladybug had gathered, each one of them has contributed to the defeat of the akuma, with Polymouse outshining as the victor over the army of mini Malediktators, and each one of the other heroes playing a vital role in Ladybug’s plan. Chat Noir’s delegation? To distract the enemy while Ladybug gathered up her soldiers. In the end, he didn’t even use his power, marking the first time in a Miraculous episode that a hero was called upon and left without use. The Cataclysm is no longer necessary for the defeat of an akuma. But the Lucky Charm and the Miraculous Cure are as relevant now as they were when Stoneheart first attacked.

Optigami and Sentibubbler reached the apex of his unimportance. Both times, he was more of a hindrance than a reinforcement. He unconsciously prevented Marinette from becoming Ladybug, which derails the plan to Rena Rogue’s command. He has to be told by Marinette, the civilian, to stay out of the superhero’s plan, because there was nothing he could do that Rena Rogue wasn’t already doing.

The Cataclysm is a one-use power, Chat Noir is a one-trick pony. He’s still stuck in Season 1 mode while Ladybug has broadened to new powers, new suit, new duties, new partners, and new goals.

Hawk Moth knows the identity of all the heroes but Chat Noir don’t. Chloé knows the identities of all the heroes but Chat Noir don’t. Alya has more privileges and inside knowledge than Chat Noir has, and with Rocketear, Nino is now another confidant privy to more secrets than Chat Noir is.

All Chat Noir is left with, is the comedic side-kick routine he is now entrenched too deeply in to crawl out, the knowledge that his best friend in both his civilian life and superhero life think he’s annoying, and the realisation that Ladybug truly no longer trust him, because the heroes around him, his subordinates in a sense, now ranks higher in prominence.

Did Ladybug mean for this to happen? Absolutely not.

But Chat Blanc is no longer a reason big enough to cover all the discrepancies. And she has grown so used to keeping him in the dark to realise how much the darkness was causing the chasm between them to grow. Chat Noir is now outwardly lying to Ladybug that he’s fine, refusing to tell her that he knows to some extent the secrets she has kept from him. In Season 2, he angrily confronted her about being left behind. In Season 4, now that Ladybug holds all the power, now that he no longer has the authority to demand reasons and explanations, the only thing he could do is keep his mouth shut and hope that the sheer cliff he’s balancing on does not shear away even more.

Because Chat Noir is still fun for him, isn’t it? Being a hero, being himself? Chat Noir isn’t a role for him to act, to fake being happy, to pretend to be something he’s not. Chat Noir is a persona where he can be as expressive, as temperamental, as coquettish, and childish and experimental he wants. An entity where he can safely explore all the emotions children his age usually experiences without consequences. A place where he isn’t held under fear of abandonment or emotional abuse, where he can explore his identity and speak his mind without retaliation or repercussions.  

Isn’t it?

Chat Noir’s presence is still prevalent at every akuma fight because he is a founding member. Ladybug has no reason to tell him to go home, and he’s still useful in the sense that he can provide distractions while Ladybug figures out her plan, and feed information to Rena Furtive who is hiding and watching and waiting. And there is still the Cataclysm, a power that is supposed to rival the Lucky Charm, whose potential is still yet unearthed.

But Chat Noir has no more standing to rely on. He is no longer a principal participant in the encompassing war between Ladybug and Hawk Moth, even if he is a principal target. Each side gathers up their warriors and equipment, and Chat Noir is just another treasured pawn in Ladybug’s army. He is alone in the fact that no one knows his identity. Ladybug has someone, Hawk Moth has someone, and both of them has an arsenal of champions to pick from.

He’s a wild card, he’s an anomaly. He was once Ladybug’s partner, he was a prototype for the modern Miraculous hero, and by himself, he had a visible presence. But he lost the novelty quickly.

Even in Season 1, people preferred Ladybug. She was the one to fix their city, she made the flashy speech at the Eiffel Tower, it was explainable. In Season 2, Hawk Moth began to ignore his Miraculous multiple times in favour of Ladybug’s earrings. Chloé called him Ladybug’s second fiddle. In Season 3, Fu’s obvious favour of Ladybug as future Guardian emphasised Chat Noir’s emerging sidelining. And in Season 4, Ladybug herself begun to omit her partner.

What does this have in store for the future? Rumours and headcanons fly, whispers of an akumatization on par with Chat Blanc looms closer and closer. Personally, I hope that something more substantial is done with Chat Noir’s character. There’s still so much to be expatiated, his family history, his own personality, and his unlocked powers. If the Black Cat Miraculous was truly the harmonizing consort of the Ladybug Miraculous, then logically, Chat Noir should be receiving the multiple new upgrades in the near future.

A climax where an issue that has spanned for four seasons ending within two episodes sounds stereotypically Miraculous and nightmarish. But the show has three more seasons to go, and hopefully this conflict will be used as a starting point for what may be in store for those seasons.

What if Chat Noir decides to deflect? What is he decided to derail, and what if Chat Noir becomes the next villain? ShadowMoth is a recurring joke at this point, and with the development of Season 4, ShadowMoth’s return in Season 5 sounds exhausting and repetitive. Looking at the overarching picture, there is only one person that has enough incentive and power to become Ladybug’s future archnemesis.

Love and hate are the opposite sides of the same coin.

But no matter what is in store for the distant narrative of Miraculous, this essay concludes on the now.

We look at Season 1 Chat Noir, and the Chat Noir of the latest episode. Even if his powers and position hasn’t grown, he has developed into his role emotionally, in an unfortunately negative way.

Chat Noir is no longer Ladybug’s partner, and analytically, no longer as important as he once was.

I really hope the show does something good with this.