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warrioreowynofrohan · 3 years

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Thoughts on Mistborn Era 2 (Wax & Wayne):

My main take on these was “ah, looks like Brandon’s taking some time off from his magnum opus to write pulp Western/detective/crime novels”, and I was very amused to look up Brandon’s comments and see a ton of interviews with him saying, “so, this is absolutely me having some fun writing pulp Western/crime novels”. It’s nice to have a writer who’s not too proud to - accurately - describe his own stuff as pulp yet still do a good job of it. They remind me a little of the Dresden Files in terms of the mystery aspects, the urban fantasy tone, the wit, the lack of diplomatic/political subtlety of the protagonists and, of course, the rampant property destruction. But Brandon’s a much more thoughtful author than Jim Butcher, and treats his female characters better.

On the topic of gratuitous property destruction: Wax, for goodness’ sakes, stop shooting the ground! That’s infrastructure, Wax! Fixing the streets takes work, Wax! You’re not a dusty dirt road in the middle of nowhere any more, Wax! Just drop a coin like they dud in the old days! Or a shell casing or bullet if you desperately need to be hardcore. But rampantly firing off weapons in urban areas just to get a base for your Allomancy is a terrible idea.

This was a wonderful follow-up to Mistborn because it was a lot lighter and the stakes were a lot lower, which is nice for a change. I was reading the intro to Elantris where it was talking about people in Brandon’s early writing group telling him he needed to raise the stakes, and personally, I like low stakes. Well of Ascension/Hero of Ages were a grind, much as I liked the ending, and I would be up for more stories like Dawnshard, with low stakes and the heroes resolving the plot by non-violent means.

Marasi and Steris are both very well-done characters - I was definitely shipping Wax/Marasi in the first book and had no expectations of the Wax/Steris engagement lasting, so I was quite surprised, but the switch was well done and I liked it. Marasi and Wax’s feelings were a crush/hero worship and a rebound, respectively. And it’s nice to see a relationship grow gradually like Wax and Steris’ did. What Brandon did with Steris, starting out with a portrayal readers are unlikely to lije and letting her grow on them, is risky (especially with female characters) because readers may hold to first impressions, but I thought it worked very well.

Wayne’s backstory and reaction to it hit hard and was one of the best elements in the series. Another entry in the diverse array of Sanderson redemption arcs. It’s interesting because Wayne both is and isn’t haunted by it - he takes it seriously, it affects him deeply, but he doesn’t habitually brood, and it doesn’t prevent him from being a generally lighthearted, funny, silly person most of the time.

Wayne is absolutely right about the value of certain goids being an arbitrary thing invented by rich people. I’ve had caviar, once (as a garnish on a nice pasta dish at a fancy restaurant). It tastes like nothing. Entirely nodescript. The sole purpose of caviar is to communicate “this dish is fancy (and so, by connection, is the person eating it)”.

I’m deeply protective of Sazed and get very affonted when characters criticize him. I think he’s done an excellent job. It’s hard to wrap my head around the sheer scale of Bleeder’s overreaction to the possibility of her boyfriend moving back to the city. Though on one level it makes sense in that the kandra are of Preservation: she is going to see maintwnance of an existing situation as inherently better and more desirable, even if a change could still turn out well and be something Wax enjoyed. And I don’t feel like Sazed telling him about Bleeder being Lessie would have helped anything - it just would have made the decision to kill her harder, not less necessary, because she was incredibly malicious, destructive, and dangerous and there was no other way of containing her.

The resolution of Shadows of Self is exactly the sort of thing I wanted to see, politically: the mass protests and risk of riot over poor wages, unemployment, and mustreatment of workers is resolved by a committment to address those problems, because the workers’ anger is legitimate and their cause is just.

I’m heartily frustrated by Wax, because it is his responsibility - it is literally his job, he has employees and a Senate seat! - to address the major political and economic problems of Elendel, and he neglects them. I don’t care if you’d rather be out shooting things! You have resposibilities! The workers in your factories are the source of the money and prestige that lets you engage in your gentleman-crimefighter hobby, and you owe it to them to see that the city operates in their interests. You can do far more good in that way than by shootin’ bad guys. Do. Your. Damn. Job. Steris seems to be nudging him in that direction, at least.

In general I’m impatient with a lot of the law-enforcement attitudes. Miles is a villain for whom I have absolutely no sympathy. Oh, so you’ve turned evil because, despite your 15 years of work in law enforcement, crime still exists? Yeah, maybe that’s because your belief that crime will stop existing if you shoot and/or hang enough people was never realistic. Likewise with Wax’s skepticism regarding Marasi’s ideas on how crime can be reduced through better urban planning and social policies - no, Wax, it won’t entirely eliminate crime, there will always be people who are just plain malicious, greedy, venal, or violent, but if you can reduce it by, say, 50-70% by better social policy, that would still be a good thing, right?

The period newspapers are great fun. I want a TenSoon plushie! Come on, Brandon, you’re musding out on a fantastic marketing opportunity! The one thing that bugged me was the ‘Pewternauts’ in The Bands of Mourning. In the first place, it’s a nonsensical name - real-world dreadnaughts, of which these are obviously supposed to be the equivalent, were called that because it literally meant ‘these having nothing they should fear’. The apex predator of military warships at the time, if you will. You can’t just create a random fantasy portmanteau amd pretend that it works - it’s like calling a scandal in a fantasy novel something-gate even though the Watergate scandal doesn’t exist in that world! Secondly, dreadnaughts were part of a massive military arms race in a world where European wars had been commonplace for centuries. The Elendel basin had never had a war in 300 years - these aren’t something that someone would invent just off the bat. Having similar technology to turn-of-the-century earth doesn’t mean it will be applied in the same ways, not with a completely different political context.

In general, New Seran’s complaints seemed overblown. Yes, the transit system treating Elendel as a hub and lacking effective connections between the outlying regions in aggravating. (It’s a provlem that plagues urban public transit systems even now - most routes are either local or feed into the city centre, with relatively few goung from one suburb to another, even as trans-suburban commuting vecomes more common.) But it’s not remotely the kind of thing you fight a war over! I feel like Brandon’s trying to recall the American Revolution, a bit, but the distances are so small (Elendel and New Seran are about as far apart as Ottawa and Toronto) as to make that ludicrous. What they really need is some kind of equivalent to a regional district authority, where representatives of multiple local governments can get together to work on issues of regional planning.

#brandon sanderson #mistborn era 2 #wax and wayne #marasi #steris #sazed #dawnshard spoilers #politics

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emptymanuscript · 3 years

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The Cat

I’m about 9 minutes into the movie Bright, and all the criticisms are kind of crystalizing. But one of the things that’s killing me is how they’re setting up the MC, Daryl Ward.

My bet is that the film makers thought they were setting up Ward as the cat. And they’re not.

The Cat is the term for a story abstraction from the book Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder and its sequels.

The Cat itself, is something (and it can be nearly anything that the audience will value) in need of aid that doesn’t HAVE to get it. A random cat up a tree can be the Cat. The cat that belongs to the person you want to get with, who has promised carnal relations if their cat is returned, can’t be the Cat because there is a significant reason and reward beyond simple morality for it to be helped.

If a character saves the Cat, gives it aid, helps it out, etc. when it’s just out of the goodness of the heart, that character is defined in audience perception as heroic. Most action stories will have the MC Save the Cat! in some way within the first few scenes. It’s a short hand way to show that they are “good.” And if you have a Save the Cat! moment then followed by them doing something “bad” you’ve SHOWN the audience the trajectory of the story: this person is a good person underneath but they’ve gone astray and need to find their heroism again to save the day. You’ve told the story in miniature. So it’s very useful.

But that’s not the only way to use the Cat.

In many stories the main character IS the Cat. The story in the first few scenes shows a moment where the character is clearly in need of aid and doesn’t really quite get what they need. They get enough maybe to survive but no one is saving them. This signals to the audience that this story is about growth and confidence. The MC will start out in a relatively helpless state and figure out how to come to their own rescue.

One of my all time favorite examples of that is the movie Ms. Congeniality. The opening scene, which is only about 90 seconds, is playing hard with the Cat.

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The set up starts with the typical over the top Save the Cat set up. Our hero is going to ride into the rescue, save the cat, and be awesome. And then it turns. She’s not saving the cat, remember, the cat is something helped without reward, and she very much wants a reward. She IS the Cat. The real person in need of aid in this microsmic story is her. And she doesn’t get it. To keep going, she turns to her strengths and just barrels through. But, again, in miniature, this scene has told us everything we need to know about the trajectory of her story. She has all of the wrong kind of power, she uses it to mask her need, and what she is going to have to find is the “impossible” how to get what she really needs and how to draw helpers to her.

That’s the power of being the Cat. It draws sympathy. It paints expectations. And it communicates problems very clearly.

Unfortunately, many storytellers seem to believe that injury and/or pain is enough to make a character the Cat, and that just isn’t so. Cats are about choices and character trajectories. So, if you have someone shot in the first few minutes of a story, even though, yes, they NEED help and yes, they’re going to continue to need help to get back to where they were or better, it’s a non optional help. It carries with it its own reward. They’re better for no other reason than that they are recovering.

Go back to Ms. Congeniality and that’s not true. Her “saving” doesn’t intrinsically give her her reward. It gives her the key to then go out and get what she wants. They’re two separate goals. And that’s why it works. Her choice gives her another choice and that gives her her happy ending. If the story was merely a search for feminine power and getting it, it just wouldn’t feel as satisfying because it wouldn’t get the resonance of WHY feminine power is a necessity for her. As a really excellent rule of thumb, think of the Cat as representing the NEED of a character which must be fulfilled in order for them to get what they WANT. This allows for both happy and sad endings that are satisfying because they each deliver on the premise, even if it is a radically different outcome.

Ms. Congeniality has four fundamental outcomes arcing from that initial scene.

She can get the Feminine Power she needs and a boyfriend she wants - that’s a happy comedic story.

She can get the Feminine Power she needs but not get a boyfriend - that’s an “unhappy” comedic story, which can still be funny if she still pops the new not-boyfriend in the nose, happy and unhappy are textures as much as anything.

She can FAIL to get the Feminine Power she needs but get a boyfriend who appreciates her for who she really is - “happy” tragedy. Remember that comedy and tragedy in the literary sense don’t mean funny and tear jerker. Comedy means “what makes you sick but you get better” it’s about having trouble obtaining a goal but getting it in the end. Tragedy means “what kills you,” it’s about not being able to ever obtain the goal. So this kind of ending is really about saying that the goal was stupid all along.

She can Fail to get the Feminine Power she needs and because of that FAIL to get any boyfriend she might want. This is the pure tragedy. It’s both “sad” and tragic. She gets nothing. BUT this can still be funny. If you watch them closely, a LOT of slapstick comedies conform to this architecture. The characters enter the story as fools and leave the story as fools without having been enlightened one wit.

My extreme suspicion is that Bright wants to set up this kind of situation. Since the first thing we see of Officer Ward is that he feels under threat. All of his motions are indicative of someone who recognizes he is in extreme but non-immediate danger. He’s waiting for it. And then he’s shot. And then he’s clearly still having issues after he has recovered because his wife is urging him out of bed in the afternoon. He is the Cat, right?

Well, there is another relationship to the Cat that I think they’ve actually set up harder and is overriding that narrative.

Kick the Cat

You don’t usually see Kick the Cat in genre fiction. And there’s a very good reason. Genre fiction tends to lean toward “physical” action. By which I mean that the main conflicts of the plot happen outside of the Main Character’s body. The characters either go out and do something or something comes into their lives and forces them to do something. So, even though character growth is likely necessary and choices will be based on what they learn about themselves as people, that is expressed through the exterior plot. The Detective goes and solves and crime and that action results in the Detective’s change. Which means that internal character change is relatively harder to show because it doesn’t take center stage.

This means that a flawed person becoming a kind person works. But a deeply flawed, nearly broken person, who needs to grow into a kind person usually doesn’t. Because genre fiction doesn’t have enough cameras in that area where you can show it.

So when it happens in Genre Fiction, Kicking the Cat is generally an announcement that said character who does it is one of the villains and the reader should prep themselves for the sudden and inevitable betrayal.

Now that isn’t as true in Literary Fiction. Because Literary Fiction is the opposite of Genre Fiction in this way. Instead of the conflict generally being “physical”, the conflict in Literary Fiction is generally “mental.” The main conflict happens inside the body of the Main Character. So the majority of the action and most of the cameras are there. So Literary Fiction allows that kind of deep, essentially broken, flaw because it gives the story the space and insight to work with it. So it’s not as necessarily a trumpeting warning that you’re dealing with a villain. It can mean that this MC has a long way to go to fix themselves, if they can make it at all.

Unfortunately for Bright, it’s a Genre Film. AND I think that this is much more what they’re broadcasting. Remember I’ve only seen nine minutes so far. But the first nine minutes are saying a lot.

The opening credits play out over a visual depiction of a race war between the Orcs and the Police. This is, in visual language, the announcement that the Orcs are poor and oppressed and should be read as the equivalent of POC in our own world.

Ward, played by Will Smith, could open up a whole can of worms with that reading, and there’s clearly some intent to considering his neighbors are absolutely what you would see in a shot of the ghetto in another movie, but instead we go pretty much straight to:

He kills a fairy. It’s not depicted as innocent, it’s clearly a pest. But it’s also not exactly powerful. He kills it with a zealous slap of a broom. This is very plausibly the Cat. Especially with the reaction from his neighbors, who also have zero affection for the fairy but all react viscerally to Ward’s aggression. The essential problem with Cats as devices is that the audience takes them in subconsciously. There’s no opportunity for a sophisticated discussion when butts are in the seats. So the only way to control what the audience thinks is to be careful not to send conflicting messages. And this is a doozy. If it is read as a Kick the Cat moment, which I’ll be honest I am seeing it as, I can’t see Ward as the hero after this. I am waiting for his sudden and inevitable betrayal because he is absolutely one of the cops meant to be depicted up in the graffiti that slid past during the opening credits.

At this point, I’m not looking for his redemption. I’m looking for how he is going to pose a problem for the advancement for the story. Which makes him a villain and not a hero.

Worse, this is set between two discussions about his partner. I have to admit what I was really expecting was an action packed version of:

Not really the comedy aspect but that his partner was new and they had to work through their problems to get along and be their best.

There’s a reason that’s pretty much the gold standard. Because learning to get along is a standard useful storyline and commands both characters to grow. It’s the same basic dynamic as a Romance. The joy is in seeing people figure out how to click together in spite of their difficulties. The tension is ‘will they / won’t they?’ and you know they will but it’s very entertaining to see them work it out.

But that’s not what’s going on in Bright.

By the time the movie starts, Ward and Jakoby are already partners. Coming in in media res communicates that this isn’t really a story about a relationship forming. Which means they can’t really show the full arc of a relationship, and so that’s unlikely to be the focus of the story. Which communicates to the audience that they should have reason to doubt any kind of ‘will they.’

This is cemented by the three conversations immediately around the fairy killing. Ward explains to his wife that Orcs are different, not stupid, just that they think different. It is not him actually saying that the Orc isn’t stupid compared to a human just that they’re naturally different and can’t be held to the same standard.

He then tries to give that as a lesson to his daughter. Orcs are different so you have to keep Orcs in their proper mental categorization.

At which point Jakoby shows up again.

He is not welcome. Pretty much at all.

But here’s the thing, like his initial introduction:

Jakoby is depicted as kind and considerate. Up to where I’ve stopped, I haven’t seen him commit a single act of even aggression. He wants to know what kind of sauce Ward wants on his burrito.

He wants to pick up Ward to help him along. He responds with affection and magnanimous giving to Ward’s daughter. In other words, he’s coming across as the innocent in all this. Which really starts to qualify him for the Cat category. That may be ruined in the next ten minutes but right now, I’m looking at a guy who has been insulted and yelled at for doing nothing, who has only shown concern and kindness, and who exists around a framework of his established partner killing a fairy. If Jakoby is a Cat, then what I’m being taught to worry about by what the film is presenting is that Ward is going to try take him down. Because maybe tomorrow, Orc Lives Don’t Matter.

I’m being taught by the first 9 minutes that Ward is, at best, a potential villain. But that the story is going to be from his point of view. And it’s just not a great look. And I would suspect that’s a lot of what people were responding to when this movie first hit: that it is setting up a very unpleasant story line that usually doesn’t play out in the type of story that it is.

So, no matter how it works out in Bright, which I am probably now returning to, when it comes time for you to work with your own story, be aware of the messages you’re sending and what story arcs you’re selling. Cats as an abstract concept, no matter what they are, exist whether you love or hate Blake Snyder. They existed long before he coined the name. At an even deeper level it’s simply that your character’s actions and events in a story naturally carry a “moral” weight. We, as an audience, expect what your characters do to be representative of who they are, for good and ill. Where what they do conflicts with who they are, we’ll expect an explanation and a counterbalance. So be wary of doing something else. Sending the wrong message with the wrong set up can drive away audiences who would be perfectly content with your story without the conflicting information.

#writing #creative writing #writeblr #Bright #racism #movie

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jasper-appreciation · 5 years

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One last thing before I’m (hopefully) just gonna let sleeping dogs lay.

People are saying “Jasper fans honestly WANT Jasper’s redemption off camera if they’re so mad about her still being a baddy in the new season/short spin-off” and I wanna say

No, I don’t want her arc off screen but the movie and this spin-off are supposedly like SIX YEARS after the main series. Am I honestly supposed to believe that with all Steven knows about Jasper and Homeworld’s ways or even with Amethyst knowing and shown to be understanding (or at minimum sympathetic) of why Jasper is how she is.... NEITHER of them cared to try to hep her until now?

After Yellow Diamond just scolded Jasper into not attacking on sight, that everyone just let Jasper wander off alone and made no attempt to try to bring her into the Earth Gem society? Even from a stupid “Jasper’s just evil” standpoint, would you just let a ‘violent’ rogue soldier just.... leave?

I’m gonna bet they’re gonna go with a “she appears at random, causes trouble for Little Homeworld and disappears” explanation for why she’s never around and still the Bad Guy and honestly I refuse to believe with all those Gem in one area over SIX YEARS, no one would catch her. Even if Jasper is (or maybe was) the absolute pinnacle of all quartzes ever, there’s like dozens of Gems with their own powers that would have HAD to surprise Jasper just ONCE to catch her. Again all of this is going off of them trying to make Jasper having been a long standing issue with the Earth Gems and not just literally living under a rock for 6 years.

It is not AT ALL that I’m not grateful Jasper’s FINALLY being addressed but since this takes so long after the fact and Jasper’s STILL not being helped means the writers are either gonna pull “The heroes WANT to help but the villain is too villainous to be helped until they and everything they love and believe in is completely and totally destroyed by their own pure evilness.” OR “She just left and we figured she’s be ok and what do you mean she didn’t magically get better?”

#Mod Passion Post

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seesgood · 4 years

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ON WHY CAROLINE ALWAYS SEEMS TO EMPATHIZE WITH THE “VILLAINS.” okay so, the first thing that feels important to mention is that, throughout tvd, you have this running theme that separates the “villains” and the “heroes.” villains tend to embrace their vampirism, their powers, the privilege that it gives them and they’re not afraid of using those things for their own advantage. heroes are riddled with guilt over who they are, what they’ve done, what they were turned into. and then as the seasons go on you get this interesting dynamic and these shifts as the villains and heroes kinda straddle / cross that line into more grey area. --- when stefan is in full ripper mode, he embraces his vampirism and feeding and the darkness that’s within him, which is a stark contrast from hero stefan, who as we all know is riddled with guilt over everything he’s done and who is seemingly constantly haunted by the ripper. in the beginning, damon was the true villain, but you saw a shift when they revealed that the reason damon hates stefan and is determined to wreck havoc on his life is because he hates stefan for turning him. it was a similar deal with katherine ( running from klaus made her what she is ), and klaus ( his father ). for this specific headcanon i’m going to focus more on the lines of the villains that were at one point allied with the mystic falls gang ( katherine, klaus, rebekah, etc. ).

i think i’ve mentioned in the past before that caroline finds it nearly impossible to truly hate anyone, especially once she understands the reasoning and motives behind their actions. it’s why she’s able to somewhat-forgive damon for his manipulation and abuse, it’s why she ends up sympathizing with klaus and rebekah, it’s why she mourns katherine’s death and the circumstances surrounding it. none of this means she forgives, or condones the things that they’ve done and there are obviously certain things that she could never forget. but she does understand. and that, more than anything, is the thing that kind’ve separates her from the core group of mystic falls morality.

the thing about caroline that’s been apparent since she was turned in season two is that she doesn’t really adopt the same vampirism philosophy that the others do. quite honestly, she loves what she is. the power. the control. the opportunities it gives her. she knows she’s better as a vampire than she was as a human, and whiles he does feel guilt over the things she’s done ( killing the guy at the carnival, the amount of manipulation she’s done, the deaths she’s played a part in ) it’s not the kind of all consuming guilt that stefan has. and while most of that is attributed to the fact that she hasn’t lived nearly as long as him and therefore hasn’t done or seen nearly as much as he has, she’s able to forgive herself for a lot of it. ( on her god days, at least. on her bad days, she does still feel guild-trodden by all of it and she has a hell of a lot of remorse over things ). but unlike stefan, elena, and ( arguably ) damon, she doesn’t let it control her.

the reason she’s able to empathize so easily with the “villains” on the show is because she understands them. and more than that, she’s able to see how they got to that point. the thing that terrifies her most about being a vampire is the possibility of an eternity spent without those that she loves the most, and the fact that they act as grounding agents. without them, and without someone to remind her of who she is, was, and what she stands for --- she can see how easy it is to lose yourself. ( and she experienced a little bit of this in season 6 when her mom died, when she thought she lost stefan, when she’d already lost bonnie ). so while she can easily see the awful things that katherine/klaus/rebekah/damon have done to her friends and their town, she can also see the circumstances that led there, and she can see how things could have been very different if maybe one person in their history had been there to understand, or support, or just...be different. ---- and yes, this is a grossly optimistic viewpoint to have, but that’s caroline for you.

because of that, she can’t just write people off until she knows that there’s nothing salvageable about them. and as long as she does find something human inside of even the worst monsters, she’ll try and fight to give them a second chance because it’s what she would have wanted if it were her, and it’s what she believes people deserve, and its what she believes in. and until the world keeps proving her otherwise, or until it ends up continually biting her in the ass ---- she’s going to keep believing in the good in people. to the point where it can almost be a fault. either way, she’s not going to contribute to someone’s villany, and if possible she’s going to do everything she can to trigger their redemption arc.

#ʜᴇʀᴇ ʟɪᴇs ᴄᴀʀᴏʟɪɴᴇ ғᴏʀʙᴇs ⸺ headcanon.#this. got. long.#and kinda rambley and repetitive but alas

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kallypsowrites · 5 years

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Are Adapted Characters Seperate from their Original Counterparts?

So here’s a post that has been on my mind for quite some time, partially because, after being in the Game of Thrones fandom pretty regularly, I see people compare the book and show characters a lot. This is understandable as changes through adaptation are inevitable and sometimes a character can be changed for the worse or for the better, depending on your preference. But today I want to address the question: should adapted characters be viewed as an EXTENSION of their book character or should they be able to stand on their own?

Before I get into the weeds of this argument, imagine you are me. I’m a seventeen year old high school student and my brother has decided to show me this rad new show which has already aired two seasons and is several months off of airing the third season. Game of Thrones. Naturally, I am excited and I dive right into watching with him. And of course I love it. I’m a fantasy nut and there’s magic and dragons but also POLITICS and really intriguing character dynamics and dialogue and moral grey areas. All the stuff I like! I know there are books of course, but I want to experience the show and be surprised as it comes out, so I hold off reading the books. In fact, I hold off reading the series all the way through until after season seven airs (in an effort to make the long wait for season 8 less painful. It didn’t work. I read too fast).

What’s important here is that for several years, the show was my ONLY CONCEPT of all of these characters. The book versions, to me, didn’t exist. All I had access to was the characters on the screen. And that’s all many of the GA has access too. Let’s face it, the books are bricks and, for that matter, dense. A lot of people aren’t going to take the time to read them, especially the strangely paced and structured book four and five. So what does that mean? The characters on the screen have to stand on their own. And therefore, you can easily argue that the onscreen characters are seperate entities.

There’s been a lot of talk in the fandom about the show creators white washing male characters and ‘greying’ female characters. That is certainly an issue worth talking about and I’m not trying to discourage that conversation, nor am I trying to say that we shouldn’t talk about adaptation changes and focus on the books and tv show as different entities. They are in conversation with each other. But I do want to address the fact that just because something is present in the book does not mean that watchers of the tv show have to acknowledge it as ‘canon’...especially if the show never mentions it. They are, in many ways, seperate, particularly since the TV show has moved ahead of the books.

Conversely, this means the TV show can’t rely on the books as part of their ‘canon’ to take short cuts. Because if it isn’t made clear in the show and can only be understood by a book reader, then the show has failed in some way. The TV show has, in fact, dropped the ball on a couple of prophesies in this way. The fact that they did not include the ‘valonqar’ section of Cersei’s prophesy takes away from her reasons for hating Tyrion and, for that matter, doesn’t guaruntee either of her brothers will be her killer. It wasn’t in the prophesy in the show, so it really doesn’t matter if it was in the books. Its not part of show canon.

Even more egregious is Mirri Maz Dur’s prophesy to Daenerys. In the books, she says that Daenerys will never bare a living child again. In the show, she does not say anything of the sort. And yet Dany says to Jon that ‘the witch who murdered her husband’ said she would never bare a child again. That’s the show straight up making something up for cheap forshadowing and if the casual watcher went back to view the first season they might be understandably confused. Even if it happens in the book IT MUST BE PRESENT IN THE SHOW in order to effect the show.

This applies to character interpretation as well. And as an example, let’s talk about Tyrion.

The Moral White Washing of Tyrion Lannister

Tyrion Lannister is one of the most commonly cited characters in the conversation about moral white washing, and with good reason. Tyrion is never the best person, but he’s certainly not the worst. Being born a dwarf, he is an underdog who has been ridiculed all his life. But he’s also his father’s son and spends much of the series manipulating people in order to gain power in King’s Landing or elsewhere. It just happens that he is a better person than a lot of the other characters surrounding him. It’s not that he’s not sympathetic, but he’s not an angel.

He, however, has a much darker character arc following the death of his father and his Essos stuff, in particular, really delves into the dark corners of his mind. His father’s cruelty shows itself more than ever and being in his head is almost difficult. In the show, this Essos arc is effectively deleted. Tyrion never meets Young Griff, never meets Illyrio, spends much less time wallowing in the darkness, and actually meets Daenerys pretty dang quickly. And, considering the fact that we’re not in his head, we’re not really exposed to any of his thoughts. It’s left to us to decide how he feels about the situation based on Peter Dinklage’s acting.

But the most contested aspect of Tyrion’s character is his relationship with Sansa and how he treats her throughout the books vs the show. In the books, Tyrion thinks often about how he is attracted to her. Honestly, it’s uncomfortable at many points, considering that Sansa is like...twelve. And he straight up molests her. He doesn’t rape her on their wedding night, but I don’t think we would call him person of the year for that. He sees an opportunity in being married to her and he’s not completely repulsed by the idea.

In the show, it’s a very different story. Tyrion protects Sansa from Joffrey before their engagement (and even from the Hound in a deleted scene), and his kindness to her does not seem to be motivated in any way by attraction. When he is engaged to her, he is very clearly repulsed, and it is painted much more like him being forced into it. He does not make any physical advances on her and in his scenes with Shae, he makes clear that he sees her as a child and is therefore not interested. Again, because we are not in his head, he are able to interpret this at face value if we prefer. That he isn’t attracted to her and is only doing this to satisfy his father.

At the wedding, he prevents the bedding and, while making a few very crude comments in order to play off threatening the king, does not touch Sansa. Does not even let her undress all the way before he says that they don’t have to do this. And he really doesn’t seem all that bitter about it. Because we don’t have access to his thoughts, we never hear him lamenting that his child bride will never want him.

All of Tyrion’s interactions with Sansa on the show, especially after their marriage, are that of someone trying to make a girl’s life slightly more tolerable even though she is a prisoner. He sympathizes with her and is genuinely horrified by her situation. And he never makes a move even once or complains about it. Because she’s a child. It’s easy for show only watchers to come out of watching this relationship with the opinion of: yeah. Tyrion’s a decent guy. Even though it would be expected and accepted in this society for him to press Sansa, he doesn’t, and that’s cool of him. I’m in NO WAY saying that this means Sansa owes him anything. He’s a Lannister and the Lannisters destroyed her family and if she doesn’t want him, she doesn’t want him. End of story. But Tyrion is, overall, a more sympathetic and better person for how he is portrayed in the show. And you can’t blame show only watchers for seeing him in that way.

Of course this is a double edged sword. In the books, it seems that Tyrion is headed toward some sort of dark/tragic end, and his darker personality earns this. But if the show wants to give him the same ending it might seem very jarring. Because the show has not earned making Tyrion a villain. It has not given him an arc that makes that narratively satisfying because of the white washing. Now maybe Tyrion will get a perfectly find ending or at least remain as a hero. It’s possible that he could have some sort of redemption in the books as well. But we’ll have to wait until season 8 to see how that ends up.

There are a lot of characters that have diverged from their show counterparts. Lena Heady has imbued Cersei Lannister with some very genuinely sympathetic moments and the pathos she brings to her role has moved me on multiple occasions. She also plays Cersei as more in control than she seems in the books, very much her father’s daughter. The book, again, has Cersei’s thoughts and we get a view into her increasingly unstable and paranoid brain. The two characters feel very seperate from each other so conversations and interpretations may vary depend on the version.

The whole ‘lack of thoughts’ thing also makes Jaime easier to stomach in the show. Many of his thoughts are shocking and kind of vile in the books. Nikolaj gives Jaime more pathos and softens him. Again, maybe it’s moral white washing, but you cannot blame a show only watcher for that (like me, who fell in love with Jaime long before I even touched the books). I know people like that Jaime got away from Cersei in the books but that was much more motivated by his own jealousy as opposed to any moral problems he has with her actions, and abandoning her to suffer at the hands of the high sparrow always left a sort of sour taste in my mouth. And I say this as a JaimexBrienne shipper, which I’ll talk about later on. But first--

The Greying of Daenerys

@rainhadaenerys made a pretty extensive post on the differences between show and book Dany which I’ll link here . It’s highly show critical so bear that in mind, but one of the things she mentions is that Daenerys is consistently made more impulsive, less competent and ‘greyer’ as a character. There is a more of a sense, especially in season seven, that she must be ‘controlled’ by her advisors and she rarely makes plans of her own but rather listens to other make plans and decides based off of that. Lots of valid points made in this post.

But if we were to interpret the show only and look at Daenerys as a character seperate from her very different book counterpart, it begins to make sense why the dark dany theory became so popular, especially after season seven. I’m not going to argue my stance on that theory here, but suffice it to say there are a lot of show!dany characteristics that COULD potentially lend themselves to a tragic fall from grace. Though you could make the argument that this is just a writing error on D&D’s, that does not make the interpretation invalid. One could just as easily argue that yes, the transistion is clumsy but that George will write an even better and more believable fall from grace. Again, not saying it will happen. I know a lot of people on all sides of the debate following. I’m just saying that you can’t blame people for differing interpretations based on the show alone.

Posts like the one linked above are great for thinking about the show in context of what it is adapted from. But in a New Critical reading (which focuses on the text itself), we could analyze the show only to extrapolate that perhaps Daenerys is not going to be the hero everyone expects. It’s equally possible to extrapolate that she will be the hero and I’ve written a post here on the various interpretations of Dany so I won’t go too in to detail on this post. But it’s just another example of a show character needing to stand on their own seperate from the books.

The Inconsistency of Arya

Sometimes an adapted character is different from their book counterpart. And sometimes they are inconsistent in their own adaptation. Such is the case of Arya Stark. She’s one of my favorite characters and despite the butchering of her Braavos arc, I still took a lot out of her stuff there when I first watched it. Watching Arya struggle to hold onto her name and her very identity is quite emotional. For the most part, show! Arya might be a bit different but she’s consistent with herself.

Except for fucking season seven? Arya’s arc with Sansa featured some truly trash dialogue (from both characters but especially Arya). And I have nothing against these characters clashing. Far from it. It makes sense for their to be tension. But it was very bad tension and Arya literally threatening to murder her sister and steal her face was one of the more ‘what’ moments of the show.

I bring this up to say that while it is valid to interpret a character based only on their show version, sometimes there is still bad writing within that version that one has to...deal with. And it’s important for a character to be consistent within it’s story.

There are other examples of this besides Arya’s season seven stuff. The Dorne bullshit, for instance, is the canon show Dorne stuff and all of the intriguing Dorne stuff in the book is irrelevant to a show interpretation.

And then there was that trashy season four scene where the directors UNKNOWINGLY filmed Jaime raping Cersei?? That was especially out of character for show Jaime and apparently the show runners thought so too because they didn’t even think they were filming a rape scene. Because they’re dumb sometimes.

Anyway, this is just in here to assure you that I’m not forbidding ‘the show has bad writing’ criticisms because it super does. But sometimes you don’t even need to compare it to the book to see that.

In Conclusion

We are ALL going to view media in different way. There is no right way to consume it. And certainly if you want to evaluate the show based on what happened in the books go right ahead. I’m not here to force anyone to read the show or the books in a certain way.

On the other hand, in some way, the show and books are seperate entities that must function on their own. And because they are so different in some ways, that makes for more differing opinions. Some people really like Tyrion because of his show verse self. Some people wonder if Daenerys will go dark based on her show self.

Me personally, I’m a big Jaime and Brienne shipper. The other day I saw someone who didn’t like their ship mention the power imbalance and age gap in the book--something I of course didn’t notice during the show because the two characters seemed close in age and on pretty equal footing with each other most of the time. And that person’s opinion is totally valid! We’re just both viewing the pairing through a different medium.

This got a little long and rambly, so I just want to throw out there that this not anti any particular character. Just another one of those, it’s okay to have differing opinions and biases and stuff. Enjoy your Game of Thrones, nerds! I’ll be right there along with you!

#game of thrones #game of thrones meta #a song of ice and fire #tyrion lannister #daenerys targaryen #Arya stark #Jaime lannister #Cersei Lannister

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wackygoofball · 6 years

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you once talked about the parallels between sigurd and jaime I have to point out hat sigurd is a dragonslayer who killed fafnir ( who was a dwarf who became a dragon after killing his own father fafnirAsked his father for gold. tyrion Asked his father for his inheritance (Casterly Rock). fafnir Murdered his father upon refusal. Tyrion Murdered his father in light of multiple grievances. tyrion will end up helping dany with her dragons and/or riding one so what if jaime kills tyrion

Hi megashadowdragon and thanks for the question.

I realized I didn’t meta in quite a while, but ohwell, real life calling and all.

First of all, I am impressed that you still rememberor found a way to dig up that comment I made… years ago. Anyway, I had to revisit my own post to check, butreally, the main intention of that post was to point out the many similarities thatcan be drawn between Jaime and Brienne and Sigurd and Brynhild, less so aboutmaking predictions about how those similarities may foretell the outcome of thestory. I hope that this came across and that I didn’t make it seem like I wasfirmly believing in Jaime and Brienne fulfilling the Sigurd/Brynhild saga frombeginning to end.

After all, GRRM uses tropes and themes rather thancopying word-for-word the narrative upshots of the story he takes from. Like,JB builds on the Beauty and the Beast trope in order to subvert it, but thatdoesn’t mean it’s going exactly congruent to the original tale in terms oftrajectory (I can’t seem to recall zombie!Cat to have been amongst the ensembleof Beauty and the Beast, LOL). So Itry to be cautious when it comes to making predictions based on mythologyparallels I can spot in a narrative. After all, GRRM mixed in a lot of mythology, Norse mythology *atlarge* being the first idea that comes to my mind, wherein Jaime fits multiplecharacters. Like, you can easily parallel Jaime with Norse gods like Tyr, amongothers. Or Christian mythology with the Jacob parallels. So… I am very carefulon that territory, which is why I dare not predict future outcomes based onother story’s equivalents. It’s far too tempting to just go down the rabbithole because every story parallel you choose will give you a potentiallydifferent outcome based on the trajectory of the story itself. I am much moresold on the BatB trope and trajectory because a) GRRM has affirmed that hebased JB on that trope, and b) tropes are not the same as following a storyfrom beginning to end along the exact same lines.

However, as you rightly point out, there are greatparallels to be drawn between Tyrion and Fafnir, both taking part in patricideand developing a certain greed (hence the dwarf turning into a serpent as they aresymbols for greed) for gold, which again plays well into the Lannister gold andred theme. And I am thankful that you brought it to my attention because – alsodue to my clear JB focus – did not even think about how Tyrion very well fitsinto the Volsunga Saga in that regard, and it may well be that GRRM drewinspiration from Fafnir when creating Tyrion’s character.

Yet, strictly following that analogy (for the sakeof the argument here), Regin is the brother of Fafnir who orders for hiskilling and enlists someone else to do it (Sigurd). Now of course, we caneither substitute Regin for someone to fill into that role and order Jaime todo it or we cut out the middleman for the sake of maintaining that parallel.

But anyway, perhaps we ought to see it not so strictin terms of how the characters are related and more in terms of what they doinstead. Again, the trajectory for Tyrion maps neatly on Fafnir, as you assert,even more so in the books wherein he has embarked on a much darker route thanin the show (I won’t dig too deeply into the matter as my knowledge remainslimited on book!Tyrion, not having read those chapters in their entirety justyet).

Though that in itself should be telling, I think, withregards to Tyrion’s outcome in the overall series. I think the general themewill be that most characters will move into a gray area in terms of morality(safe for the clear villains that we have… like, Euron won’t become a graycharacter, Cersei won’t either, I daresay). Characters like Jaime are movingtowards the lighter spots whereas supposed heroes have become/are becomingmorally corrupted or at the very least tested in their morality and balancingit with the need to maybe do acts of dishonor for the sake of the people atlarge. The show did away with the dark tidbits of book!Tyrion’s journey why? We will only know once the finalseason airs, of course, but as others have put forward before me (and far moreeloquently than I do here), it may well be that show!Tyrion will move into moremoral grayness towards the end, whereas book!Tyrion may well get a redemptivemoment of some kind to move him back towards gray.

I tend to think that the show wants to link Tyrion’shaving to make tough choices between his family (Jaime) and the woman of nametitles to the grayness of his character. This has already been party exploredin season 7 wherein Tyrion was kind of hoping for Jaime not to be offed byHighgarden and looking completely devastated when he had to see what the womanwith many titles could do with a flying nuke and a bunch of Dothraki in an openfield. It was surely not without purpose that a) she questioned his loyalties beforeand after that and that b) Tyrion looked so clearly devastated and was made tobear witness of the apparent horror that the woman he chose as the one he meansto support can cause to see the overall goal of her ascending to the IronThrone being achieved. They also could have chosen to have Tyrion stay atDragonstone to await the news, but the fact that he bore witness to both thehavoc a dragon can cause on a battlefield plus the barbecuing of the Tarlys wassurely not without purpose. Which was now a long way of saying that I wouldn’tfind it farfetched if his loyalties were to become ultimately tested in season8, and further, that he will ultimately have to choose between his brother andthe mother of nukes.

While characters are supposedly uniting for thegreater purpose of fighting against the White Walkers now, I am by no meansconvinced that this is smooth transition from war to the Star.garyenRestoration Period towards the end of the series, which is to say that it maywell be that we are headed for conflict among the factions and that maincharacters who offered their support last season may still find their loyaltiesquestioned in their wish to seek power and may or may not ditch the groupeffort at least for a certain amount of time. Now, I don’t want to dig intothat whole matter because that is something people have sent plenty about and Ihonestly can’t be bothered too much about either the fandom-favorite theoriesregarding the restoration period or the hype of the characters mostlyassociated with said theories. I don’t discount their overall importance to thenarrative, I am just saying that I personally have zero shits to give besidethe plot purpose they fulfill for the overall narrative, but I have no personalinvestment in the lady with many names beyond her arc contributing to theoverall series.

But I derailed now again, sorry, I suppose I justwanted to position myself so that I don’t then get questions about a character Iam not invested in and don’t want to be bothered to bash on because, really, Ijust don’t care. The point I was heading for but kind of got away from is thatI am not entirely sure whether Tyrion *will* remain Team Lady of Many Names bythe end of the series. The fact that Tyrion’s and Jaime’s conflict has not beenwholly resolved just yet (while they wereon friendlier terms again, Tyrion did only so much as dodge the big questionsstill standing between the two – namely the consequences of his killing Tywinthat had direct impact on people Tyrion did not intend to harm with that, e.g.Jaime, Tommen, etc., for his own purposes of getting revenge on his father andI think the narrative set it up in such a way that when they met again for thefirst time in the vaults of the Red Keep that it was meant to show that Tyrionwas giving Jaime the same old argument as always instead of owning up to it)has me sold on the idea that something else is still coming with regards to thequestion of where his loyalties will eventually lie.

Now, to come back to the Volsunga Saga and theparallels to GoT/ASoIaF: I would also suggest another thought experiment justto explore the many ways of looking at it: Trade in Fafnir for the woman ofmany names (undeniable, the dragon connection is strong with her… and while sheis certainly no dwarf… she is not exceptionally tall, LOL, but now I digressfor sure). She had Khal Drogo kill Viserys with gold (hence, arguably, substituting Hreidmar, the father of Reginand Fafnir, for it), hence also having the gold aspect on her side and the ideaof greed being potentially subsumed in her ongoing quest for power even aftershe achieved to establish herself as Boss in Essos. Now fast-forward to (forthe show here) season 7 and Spoils of Warand have Sigurd (Jaime) go up against Fafnir (the woman of many names) afterreceiving orders from Regin who wants to see Fafnir gone (Cersei). Yet again,gold also plays a large role, and while Jaime is not successful in killing her,he was definitely going for it right there.

So, you see, I think that you can spin this manydifferent ways (which is the wonderful thing about literary analysis that Ilove so very much) and arrive at similar results. It neatly fits with GRRM’smode of paralleling and mirror characters. So the woman of many names does wellfit Fafnir the same way you can find reasons to see Tyrion being paralleledwith the serpent/dragon.

Now, to go back to the suggestion that Jaime may killTyrion… within the narrative, I just fail to see how he would pose such a*threat* that would make it necessary for Jaime to kill him. Tyrion… is only asdangerous as is the power he is granted. If Tyrion were to go completely rogue,hotwire a dragon and ride it into battle against his brother et al., then thatwould require some… serious turnaround and it would still make the dragon the more immediate threat to get outof the way.

Now, he could use wildfire to trigger Jaime into goingagainst Tyrion and make an attempt on his life, but I have my doubts regardingthe matter. I think wildfire will be vital to the plot in defeating the WhiteWalkers, and that it won’t be only limited to being at Cersei’s disposal,because let’s be real, it kind of loses effect and is in itself a gun she issitting on, waiting to be fired. And while Jaime will certainly be triggered byit, I think it makes much more sense for him to either then help evacuate thecity or help set up the trap for the White Walkers to walk into, seeing thenecessity. Now, if we spin this into the woman of many names going rogue andwanting to torch the capitol to thus blow shit up in red and green, then Jaimewould still have more incentive to be mad at her than at Tyrion.

If we spin it in such a way that Tyrion commits utterbetrayal towards Jaime a second time and Jaime found himself in a position ofauthority in the post-war times, then this would come close to Jaime having tosentence Tyrion to death, which I don’t really see happening, to be honest. Atleast I can’t come up with scenarios that would map with what we have been setup for in terms of character development over the past few seasons. While Jaimesaid that he would kill him, he evidently did not whenever he had a chance forit (if he was serious, he could have offed Tyrion in that vault with even justone hand and a tourney sword). Because just as evidently, Jaime loves hisbrother still, which made Tyrion’s betrayal burn ever the harder for Jaime, butthe more organic conclusion to such a conflict is that they talk it out or that Tyrion makes good onhis promise of when Jaime freed him from the prison where he said that he owedJaime his life, which makes him indebted to Jaime.

So I can actually see self-sacrifice to a certainextent far more prominently being one possible upshot of Tyrion’s arc than himgoing rogue on a dragon to require Jaime to slay his own brother instead ofhaving Jaime go through the motions of committing an additional act ofkinslaying. Generally speaking, I just don’t see Jaime offing any more of hisfamily members (and yes, that includes Cersei, the whole valonqar thing beingJaime and then going into suicide for *reasons* is nothing I am getting behind,but yet again, I digress and, yet again, I think people have written enoughabout that by now, so I would much rather focus on literally anything else). Because it would be sovery repetitive for Jaime and the Lannister clan at large. Cersei killed Lanceland Kevan and the in-laws Margaery, Loras, Mace… and kind of gave rise toTommen’s fall by making him watch that shit show *ahem*… Tyrion killed Tywin. Jaime(at least for the show… for *reasons*) killed a cousin and in-law Olenna uponCersei’s order. Like, honest to the Seven above, I don’t see the Lannistersdoing any more internal family murder. I think another family can well take aturn now.

So… to somehow tie those loose threads of thought togetherthat I have been spewing out now, anon… I think the parallel of Fafnir andTyrion most definitely fits, and I think there is a lot to be said about thesymbolism and even potential trajectory of the overall story, especially if youlook at book!Tyrion and his dark journey which neatly maps on Fafnir’s fallingfor the gold/greed. However, such analysis only ever takes us so and so farbecause, as I hope to have highlighted, we can recreate similar parallels byexchanging the players and it still matches. Because that just correlates withGRRM’s way of writing, which heavily builds on involving themes andpre-existing tropes, mythology, and narratives. That doesn’t mean we can takeone narrative and go to the end to determine future outcomes for GRRM’scharacters, though. It may well be that it will turn out eventually to be truefor one case, but at this point of time, it is simply too hard to guess whichone he may pick or subvert or abandon.

Though more on a sidenote, I will say that I would notfind it entirely unlikely if Tyrion ended up riding a dragon, as you pointed toin your ask. In fact, I would find that muchbetter than Jesus I mean King in the North riding one because Tyrion has builtup a significant relationship with those scaly nukes and I would much rathersee the dragons being okay with being ridden by a guy they learned to trustthan one that has the right Targ smell to him. But then again, I think dragonsare dicks, so maybe that is why they are more sold on the King in the North orthey just really want their mom to bang her nephew… so, who knows?

Now, speaking more in terms of *just* the show/books,I don’t think Jaime will kill Tyrion because I just don’t see where they would getthe conflict if the show has already hinted at it that there is more things toconnect them than keep them apart. If the woman of many names is supposed to bethe reason why, then Jaime should direct his anger towards *her* rather thanTyrion, and I do think that Jaime canmake that kind of rational decision, even with all those feelings involved. Thenarrative would have to make some true 180° to go back to where we basicallywere in season 5 to have Jaime be again all “I will murder him first chance Isee him.” And all atrocities I can come up that may trigger Jaime would almostalways relate to the woman of many names instead of his brother.

So, in sum: Tyrion and Fafnir parallels are awesome and I am grateful that you brought it to my attention because I missed the connection before. Ithink Jaime and Tyrion will pull themselves back together. I hope that Tyriongets to ride a dragon to prove that you don’t have to smell of Targ in order toearn yourself a ride on a nuke. And I most certainly hope that Jaime’s andBrienne’s narrative will end on an entirely different note than that of Sigurdand Brynhild because I remain sold on the idea that they are, against whatseems to be commonly believed by many people, headed towards a happier endingthan most will have in mind. Naturally, I may be totally proven wrong on thematter, but for now I reserve for myself the luxury of being in the hiatus ofsweet, sweet oblivion, wherein I can imagine all kinds of scenarios where Jaimeand Brienne live happily ever after, to finally get started on the Braime Bunch™,and that if Tyrion is meant to live till the end of the series, will spend his daysin good companionship with his brother.

*flies away*

#anon #ask #game of thrones #jaime lannister #tyrion lannister #jaime x brienne #meta #got meta #essay #kind of #it's long enough to be one lol #thanks for the question

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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My Hero Academia Season 5 Episode 18 Review: The Unforgiven

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This My Hero Academia review contains spoilers.

My Hero Academia Season 5 Episode 18

“The sole thing a person gets to choose impartially is how his life ends.”

The concepts of fate, justice, and agency are always crucial tenets in My Hero Academia, yet these principles are placed under intense scrutiny in “The Unforgiven” when a face from Endeavor’s past returns and threatens to destroy his heroic advancements. Whenever it seems like Endeavor’s redemption arc reaches a satisfying and cathartic conclusion there are suddenly more skeletons from his closet that tumble out that he needs to manage. This is worthwhile development for the tortured character and it’s enough to finally turn those that are ambivalent towards Endeavor into fans. This has been the subtext to the entire season, but it’s the driving force behind the events in “The Unforgiven,” which is of course a title that refers to Endeavor and his cavalier past.

“The Unforgiven” jumps between the past and the present, but in a way that naturally introduces the fresh conflict at hand. A Cape Fear-esque villain named Ending emerges and he doesn’t just recent Endeavor’s success, but for years he’s obsessed over him and how to best systematically ruin his life. This development becomes considerably more tense because Endeavor barely remembers this lunatic, whereas Ending can’t do anything but focus on his revenge plan against Endeavor. This makes Ending’s goal oddly tragic to some degree. The way in which he expresses his rage and frustration is obviously unacceptable, but the lack of impact he’s had on Endeavor’s life does reinforce the villain’s twisted ideologies to some extent.

Endeavor’s redemption is still a work in progress and it initially seemed as if the reemergence of Toya Todoroki would be how Endeavor must face his past sins and truly move on. However, the addition of this extra rogue individual who directly relates to Endeavor’s less polished past and has zero interest in any of the hero’s recent rehabilitation turns him into an even more exciting obstacle. My Hero Academia really wants Endeavor to fight for his redemption and it’s given him more to overcome than anyone else.

It’s true that the role of Number One Pro Hero isn’t anything to take lightly, but at this point Endeavor has had to overcome more than All Might and many other Pro Heroes. This season has largely been about characters coming out of their comfort zones and learning to open up and trust new people. Endeavor isn’t always the focus, but these lessons are more applicable to him than any other character. “The Unforgiven” begins to examine what happens when Endeavor overextends himself and doesn’t follow his own advice that he preaches to his Hero Agency.

The flashbacks in “The Unforgiven” strengthen Ending’s motives, but they also provide greater context on Toya Todoroki and how the rest of Shoto’s family still carries internalized pain from Endeavor and the lasting damage it’s left on Rei, Shoto’s mother. Natsuo, Shoto’s older sibling, basically considers Toya dead to the family and that Endeavor is directly responsible for his absence. It’s Natsuo’s harsh words to his father that inevitably trip up Endeavor in the height of battle and leave him vulnerable.

Endeavor is the Number One Pro Hero who has been able to withstand incredibly dangerous Quirks, but nothing is more debilitating than the harsh words of his own children. Endeavor freezing on the battlefield is a powerful moment that’s only topped by his loving hug to Natsuo once everything is over. Endeavor seems genuinely scared and grateful. He knows that his family is important to him, yet in this instant Endeavor finally understands just how much power they hold over him.

My Hero Academia Season 5 Episode 17 Review: The Hellish Todoroki Family

By Daniel Kurland

My Hero Academia Season 5 Episode 16 Review: Long Time No See, Selkie

By Daniel Kurland

Everything about Ending works really well, even if he’s more of a catalyst for change than anything else. His animosity could have been seeded in the background of previous seasons, but My Hero Academia continues to juggle so much at once that it’s an acceptable omission. This new villain comes out of nowhere, but “The Unforgiven” does its due diligence to provide the proper context and backstory for this fresh threat. Ending’s manipulation of lane markings on the street is also such a simple, yet arresting Quirk.

“The Unforgiven” crams a lot of Ending into just one episode, yet he operates in such an atypical manner that none of it feels forced. It’s an excellent change of pace that he targets Endeavor’s family–as a way to better dismantle Endeavor’s public image–rather than directly attack the hero. Ending’s ambush also hits harder because the villain used to truly admire Endeavor until he began to resent him and his privileged life. He’s essentially My Hero Academia’s equivalent to Frank Grimes from The Simpsons. Ending cannot understand why his life is an embarrassing mess in contrast to Endeavor’s and so he’s determined to re-balance the scales and leave Endeavor with nothing.

The climax of Ending’s plan is more twisted than most villainous plots that My Hero Academia explores. Ending is so broken that he wants to push Endeavor to the point of killing him, which will not only bring him a strange sense of peace and control over his wasted life, but it will more importantly demolish Endeavor’s ideals as the Number One Pro Hero. He forces him into an impossible ultimatum where the safety of his family is leveraged against his reputation as a hero. It’s obvious that Ending is going to be eliminated either way, but he still accomplishes his goal with whatever decision Endeavor makes. It’s the plan of a truly desperate individual with nothing to lose, but that’s exactly why it makes such an impact here.

Endeavor is often able to put on a brave face, but when he’s presented with Ending’s scheme he looks absolutely terrified for the first time in the series. All of Endeavor’s growth and progress is irrelevant in this moment where Ending forces him to become a puppet that’s no different than the role that this villain has fulfilled in society. Ending goes from idolizing to demonizing Endeavor, but in this tense moment the two individuals are the same.

Endeavor has a lot to worry about at this moment, but naturally Midoriya, Bakugo, and Shoto all lend a hand against Ending. Their plan is to alleviate some of the pressure off of Endeavor, only for them to completely take over the operation. It’s fantastic to see how well these three work as a team and the shorthand that they’ve all established during their brief time together at Endeavor’s Hero Agency. The slow motion segments where these heroes jump into action while Endeavor’s heroic advice echoes in their heads is so powerful and visually gorgeous. It’s also kind of hilarious that through this battle Ending continually chastises these “work study kids” for “ruining his death.” It’s not that this character wants to die, but that he specifically needs Endeavor to snuff out his flame.

All of the heroes excel during this peril. They not only save Natuso, but they completely minimize the rest of the casualties in the area. Midoriya is even able to make effective use of his volatile Blackwhip Quirk while in the heat of the moment. It’s such a touching and inspirational sequence that makes up for Endeavor’s panic. If anything, the altercation is even more effective because it proves that Endeavor has done great work with his students and that they’re fully capable of picking up his slack. Society still needs a Number One Pro Hero, but it’s reassuring that in a pinch his protégés can still get the job done. It’s maybe time for U.A. High to appoint a new Big Three after the work that Izuku, Shoto, and Katsuki do during the Ending incident.

Once the action begins in “The Unforgiven” it doesn’t stop, but the first half of the episode is able to probe these characters in a more subtle manner. Bakugo barking a request for some of the Todoroki family’s recipes is just excellent and it’s another reminder that these characters can sometimes work best when they’re not involved in high stakes battles, but rather just in normal situations. In many ways, these characters now feel more like heroes than they do teenagers, so it’s always appreciated when their more juvenile instincts get to rise to the surface instead of battle strategies.

That’s not to say that My Hero Academia should indulge in a bunch of relaxing filler episodes, but it’s helpful how this season effectively explores the duality of these heroes and doesn’t forget that they’re still human. Bakugo also needs to immediately spend more time with Endeavor’s chauffeur. These two explosive personalities are required to be locked in a room together and be given a whole bottle episode where their tempers can flare.

“The Unforgiven” is one of the strongest episodes of this season of My Hero Academia and it’s the crowning achievement in the anime’s repeated efforts to redeem Endeavor. “The Unforgiven” continues the ideas and themes that are addressed in the previous episode, but there’s enough of an unique story here that justifies why this material isn’t just combined together with last week’s conflict. The development of Midoriya, Bakugo, and Shoto as heroes continues to delight, but it’s Endeavor’s simultaneous vulnerability and strength that makes this installment such a success. It’s the perfect mix of action and emotion, which authentically triggers change that’s difficult, but necessary.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Darkness may never go away in My Hero Academia, but at least the heroes are more prepared than ever to keep the lights shining bright.

The post My Hero Academia Season 5 Episode 18 Review: The Unforgiven appeared first on Den of Geek.

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thewaronsyd-blog · 6 years

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Kylo Ren/Ben Solo: The Case for Redemption

Hello fellow humans who are interested in the possibility of a Kylo Ren/Ben Solo Arc. I, like you, was curious on how this potential redemption could/would be carried out so I decided to do a little research! And I got carried away so I basically wrote an informal essay on the subject… what can say? Below you’ll find a summary of the typical “temptation arc” a villain figure follows on his way to redemption (Zuko and Spike are other examples of this form of arc so Ole’ Benny will be in good company) as well as some of my jazzy commentary. There are two other types of arcs, the first is the “sacrifice arc”, but this is unlikely to be used since it is the arc Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker followed, and I highly doubt J.J. will be THAT repetitive. The second is the “forgiveness arc”, but this arc only takes place with villains who have already turned into a hero, and Ben/Kylo certainly isn’t there yet.

The original template for redemption arcs in storytelling I used is linked below if any of you are interested in learning more :) https://mythcreants.com/blog/crafting-a-redemption-arc-for-your-villain/

1. Something Changes for the Villain:

This is the seed that will grow into a change of heart… hopefully hehe

- It Is Established Why the Villain Is Evil

The typical reasons for this are that they wanted to do something good so badly that they were willing to do evil in the process, they have blind loyalty for something or someone who saved their life, protected a loved one or manipulated/brainwashed them or they believe the good side/members of the good side were responsible for their misfortune.

Through Bloodlines and TLJ we know that Ben/Kylo turned to the dark side due to the discovery of his heritage (Grand-daddy Vader), brainwashing/manipulation by Snoke and the betrayal of Luke that lead Kylo to destroying the Jedi Academy. These motivating factors certainly follow a hypothetical redemption arc for Ben/Kylo.

- A Good Influence Is Introduced

This good influence can be found through meeting a new person(typically the hero), discovering something sacred or being reminded of better times.

*cough* Rey *cough*. Need I say more?

- The Villain’s Loyalty Subtly Shifts

As they spend more time with their influence they will grow more attached and may hesitate to commit crimes or question the orders of their leader.

Okay so I’m not sure if you can call murdering Snoke in order to protect Rey and “bring a new order to the galaxy” subtle, but clearly he is doing some serious shifting. Ben/Kylo himself admits that he is “feeling the call to the light again”, Rey tells Luke that she saw good in him and she believes he will turn him to the light and Snoke got all pissy in the beginning of TLJ because he could see that killing Han had split his soul and left him unbalanced. It cannot be denied that Ben/Kylo is conflicted, meaning he is still very much following the redemption arc up to this point in the films.

2. The Villain Is Caught Between Sides:

This is basically a form a grey area or limbo state. The Villain is no longer evil but he definitely isn’t good either. This is the “bread and butter” for temptation arcs and is usually, but not always, quite drawn out.

Now here is where things get tricky. I can’t say for sure whether Kylo/Ben has entered this stage yet. His big “shift” happened so close to the end of TLJ that we haven’t spent enough time with Beautiful Ben, err I mean Ben/Kylo, to see how he has changed since the killing of Snoke. However, things don’t look very good for everyone’s favorite Dark Prince in the last act of TLJ. He sort of tries to murder Luke (which could be justified seeing as the last time he saw him Luke tried to kill him) and then he attempts to destroy the last of the rebels… But, who knows? Maybe Ben/Kylo has this huge renovation plan for the First Order! Some new none-murdery guidelines he’s going to implement into Star Trooper protocol? Fingers crossed.

- The Villain Switches Sides for Selfish Reasons

- The Villain Is Unhappy In Team Good

- The Villain Goes Back to Evil

- The Villain Is Unhappy in Team Evil

I don’t really see this stage going passed continuing the inner-conflict Ben/Kylo has with the light/dark side of the force. There simply isn’t enough time for Ben/Kylo to become good then become bad again just to ultimately turn good yet again. On the other hand, you could potentially count Kylo/Ben’s team-up with Rey to kill Snoke and the rest of the praetorian guard as his brief switch to the light.

3. The Villain Turns Into a Hero

- The Villain Must Stop a Great Evil

The villain must be the only one who can stop something very bad from happening. This typically occurs when the villain is ordered to do something by their master, but it can work for villains who are their own bosses as well. While carrying out their evil ways they may have unleashed destruction on a level they did not forsee.

It seems entirely within the realm of possibility that Kylo/Ben could set something up through the First Order that gets out of hand and he must intervene to stop it from coming to fruition.

- The Villain Makes a Great Sacrifice

The sacrifice must be enough to prove their devotion to good but not enough to wipe their hands clean. The sacrifice can be in the form of the villain giving up the goal they had pursed at the cost of doing evil (their motivation for being evil), destroying their own forces, land, palace, or other assets, or giving up their own life.

So we know, or at least we hope, that Ben/Kylo isn’t on a sacrifice arc and that means his sacrifice won’t be giving up his own life.

4. The Hero Humbles Themselves

- The Hero Begs To Be Allowed To Help

Just because the villain is a hero now doesn’t mean everything is sunshine and daisies. They will try and help with a big problem but the rest of “team good” will be very reluctant and will most likely throw the previous crimes of the hero in their face.

Just a guess but I have a strong feeling Finn is not going to be a fan of Kylo’s lol

- The Hero Toils Thanklessly

The new hero will work hard to make things better and complete selfless acts with no expectation of reward.

- The Hero Proves Their Worth

Another crisis occurs and the hero is put to the test. This is likely a crisis that the new hero is uniquely suited to solve. Maybe because of their villainous experience or because their skills are a strong match for the task at hand.

I’m going to go ahead and assume that Kylo/Ben’s previous role as Supreme Leader of the First Order will equip him with some useful insights. Plus he is super buff and that could definitely be helpful. I also believe that if Kylo/Ben gets redemption this problem, and it’s solution, will be the climax of the movie.

5. The Hero Is Forgiven

Not all the characters have to forgive the hero in order for them to complete their arc. Instead, what is most important is that the hero forgives himself. They are now at peace and they no longer have to worry they’ll fall back on bad habits. Yay!!

So do I want a Ben/Kylo redemption to happen? Yes, 100%. Do I think it will happen? Ehhhhh idk. Maybe? It took two full movies to get him through the first stage (jury is still out on the second stage), and now he’s supposed to go through the last four in one movie? It seems unlikely. But on the other hand he has undoubtedly started on his journey to redemption. Whether that is because Rian Johnson intended him to finish that arc or was just using it as a plot line to make his eventual descent into full-fledged bad guy super sad, I’m not sure. Introducing Kylo/Ben as a villain with conflict and vulnerabilities that forces us sympathize with him certainly makes him a more compelling character. And even though I will be bummed if he doesn’t end up redeemed (and in the arms of Rey) I’ll eventually get over it because they have provided us with one of the most interesting villains in blockbuster history (in my opinion).

If J.J. Abrams does decide to continue the Kylo/Ben redemption arc into the final film it is going to have to be central to the plot and will most likely be interwoven into the climax of the movie. Here’s my prediction:

I’m assuming there is going to be a substantial time jump in between TLJ and episode IX so we will be reunited with Kylo/Ben there, after the time jump, at the beginning of stage two (caught between sides). Around the middle of the film he will enter stage three (turning into a hero) and be faced with stopping a great evil (most likely of his own creation) and as a result must make some sort of sacrifice. After or during his sacrifice he will reunite with Rey and the rebels, having embraced his light and/or found some sort of “force middle ground” with Rey that all the TLJ symbolism was hinting at. Next, he will go back to the rebel base with them and sulk a little bit about how everyone except Rey hates him because he used to be a supremely evil murderer. Then something is going to happen and he’s going to have to team up with Rey and the rest of the Scooby gang to take down the First Order for good thus proving his worth (stage four). And then they will defeat the big bad and he’ll be redeemed so he and Rey can make out during the sunset. Canon. The End.

Thank you so much if you took the time to read all of this nonsense! I’d love to hear what you all think!

XO, Syd

Oh, and if that isn’t how episode IX plays out one of you better turn it into a bombass fanfiction. Many thanks.

#reylo #ben solo #kylo ren #tlj #the last jedi #the force awakens #kylo ren redemption arc #rey #reylo is canon #episode IX #star wars #adam driver #adam driver I love you #episode IX spoilers #episode IX predictions #star wars predictions #kylo redeemed #give me what I want #j.j. abrams

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mst3kproject · 6 years

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Bride of the Gorilla

That’s a promising title, isn’t it? Among the stars of this movie are Lon Chaney Jr. from The Indestructible Man and Tom Conway from The She-Creature, in a racist and geographically-confused story about a weregorilla. It’s been featured on a couple of MST3K tribute shows, but I deliberately avoided watching those before I did this review, so that the thoughts below will be entirely my own.

Klaus Van Gelder is a plantation owner in the Amazon jungle. His wife Dina is having an affair with his foreman Barney Chavez, a man who fondly remembers slavery. Klaus is aware of the affair and fires Barney, but Barney retaliates by beating him up and leaving him to be bitten by a venomous snake, in order to marry Dina and have the plantation for himself. The murder is witnessed by an elderly servant named Allong, who puts a curse on Barney, saying he shall hunt like an animal in the jungle. On his wedding night, Barney leaves his new wife to wander off into the jungle and transform into a murderous gorilla!

How do I put this? Eh, I’ll be blunt: there are no fucking gorillas in the fucking Amazon.

Okay, I guess since it’s magic it doesn’t need to make geographical sense, but come on! This guy is suffering from a curse put on him by an Amazonian woman using an Amazonian plant. Surely it ought to turn him into an Amazonian animal, like a jaguar or a caiman or, I don’t know, maybe even a smelly, flea-bitten anteater!

If it had to be a gorilla, why not set your movie in Africa? Everything you need for this plot is in Africa. Jungles, plantations, resentful native peoples, racist administrators… that’s the whole movie, right there! Maybe their unfamiliarity with gorillas is what leads the local people to describe it as a legendary shapeshifting demon, the Succarat. Or maybe the writer, Curt Sidomak, is just a fucking idiot.

Okay, that’s out of my system. What else is in this movie?

Well, there’s racism! Obviously we have the trope about ‘primitive’ peoples commanding forces beyond the white man’s ken, but it gets far more offensive and far more explicit than that. While minor Latin characters are played by Latin actors, major roles like that of Barney, Allong, and Commissioner Taro are filled by whites, and only Allong, the old mystic, speaks with a non-white accent. One of the symptoms of Barney’s illness is that he begins to trust native medicine more than ‘your quack doctor’. Dr. Viet spouts all kinds of stuff about how living in jungles brings out the worst parts of humanity, and particularly calls Barney ‘an animal, with animal instincts’. Taro claims that he knows the jungle and ‘out there my senses are those of an animal’. The equivalence between ‘natives’ and ‘animals’ is stated over and over, impossible to miss or excuse.

The portrayal of Commissioner Taro is slightly more sensitive than any of the others: he’s a native of the area who has been to school and gotten a career in law enforcement. Putting a Latino character in what a movie of this vintage would normally consider a white man’s job is fairly progressive, and it’s interesting to hear Taro complain that since he took up his position, he’s no longer welcome among his own people. Although it’s never explicitly stated, they seem to consider him a traitor, somebody who has allied himself with the Europeans against them, and actively obstruct him in his efforts to find Klaus’ killer. Barney is one of their own, and they will take care of this themselves. He also talks about struggling with his beliefs, between his ‘native’ intuition (other characters also mention how he always seems to pop up when people are talking about him) and his white education. It’s not great, but I get the impression Sidomak was trying here.

In other places, he was trying entirely too hard. For example, Allong seems to curse Barney three times in three different ways, and it’s unclear which is the one that has the actual effect. Is it the leaf and the incantation she says over Klaus’ body? Is it the prayer she later offers to the magical plant? Is it the apparently drugged drink she gives him, which is what seems to actually begin the transformation? Were all three necessary? If not, why did she go to the trouble? The multiple curses are redundant and confusing, and since there’s no suggestion of a way to break the curse and nobody ever suggests it, they don’t even give us any meaningful information. The existence of dead animals and descriptions of a mysterious monster suggest that the transformation is physical, and yet other scenes, as when Barney sees his reflection as an ape while he remains human, imply that it’s all in his head.

Still elsewhere, Sidomak wasn’t trying at all. When Barney returns delirious after his first transformation, Dr. Viet believes he has malaria and accordingly prescribes bed rest and quinine. Later he must have recovered somewhat, since Viet and Taro find it believable that he’s gone into the jungle on a hunting expedition, but we never see this. This is particularly disappointing because the early stages of Barney’s metamorphosis, with him hearing the jungle in a whole new way and ignoring Dina’s protests that he was scaring her, were kind of cheesy but otherwise nice and ominous. More development of this, of Dina watching her new husband become a stranger while Barney himself wonders what’s happening to him, would have been far more interesting than endless scenes of Barney wandering in the jungle. We never see Barney and Dina fight until after we’ve see them already reconcile once, which is just confusing.

Barney himself is a despicable asshole – he’s not only sleeping with Dina while her husband’s still alive, he’s cheating on her with at least one of the servants, and possibly several. I can’t imagine what any of these women see in him, besides maybe a way back to civilization. He’s callous and lazy, shirking his work and not caring if his underlings are ill or even dying. Having married Dina, he immediately rejects her, claiming he wants to be left alone and refusing to sleep with her. This is supposed to be because the curse is messing with his mind, but considering how he treated his other girlfriend, the servant Lorena, it doesn’t seem like something he wouldn’t have done anyway. When he tells Dina not to talk to the doctor or anybody else, it seems as much an attempt to control her as to keep his secret.

Bride of the Gorilla really has no hero – the fact that Taro narrates suggests that it might be him, but he doesn’t really do very much except shoot Barney at the end – but it’s also deeply confused about who its villains are. Maybe the bad guy is Allong, whose actions in trying to punish Barney bring about several other deaths and cause no end of pain and trouble for Dina, Viet, and Taro. She lies at the inquest because of her mistrust of Taro, preferring to practice her own form of justice… and yet the movie suggests that she is dispensing justice, both for Van Gelder’s murder and Lorena’s broken heart. She’s very similar, actually, to Molly from Zombie Nightmare, in that the movie is simply not interested in the morality of her actions.

Barney himself is definitely not a hero, but once he becomes a victim of Allong’s curse he is treated more and more like a sympathetic victim. We’re definitely supposed to feel sorry for him when he’s in his fever, for example, or when he gets caught in the bear trap, and I think we’re supposed to be genuinely moved when he seems to have come to appreciate Dina’s love, only to later reject her all over again. His can’t be a redemption arc, though, because he’s never redeemed! He never admits he killed Klaus and he certainly never apologizes for it. In the end he just dies in misery.

Dina is sometimes a point of view character. She’s the first character we see, although the first to speak is Taro in a voiceover, and we’re definitely meant to feel sorry for her as she wonders what has happened to her new husband. Yet she is singularly lacking in traits that would make us want to identify with her. When she’s introduced, she’s cheating on her husband, and she remarries within days of his death. Klaus, Barney, and Viet are all supposed to be in love with her, but it must be for her looks, since she never demonstrates any warmth, wit, or charm. She’s certainly not a villain, but she’s not a hero either. She’s… just kind of there. At the climax, obviously, she screams and faints so she can be carried off, and I think at the end we’re supposed to believe she goes off with Dr. Viet, despite how she scorned him earlier.

About the only entertainment value to be found in this movie is in its shoddy effects and sets. The magical plant Allong keeps in her cupboard is obviously made of paper, and characters wander through studio ‘jungle’ sets full of stock footage wildlife from three continents. Extensive POV cam is used to reduce the amount of time they had to pay for the gorilla suit rental, and when we finally see the monster it’s just another stupid fifties gorilla suit made by somebody with only a vague idea of what a gorilla actually looks like. Scenes that should have music don’t, while others have music that implies something far more exciting and/or romantic than what we’re actually watching.

Bride of the Gorilla is a rare example of a movie that does nothing right. It’s badly-written, badly-acted, badly-lit, badly-shot, badly-edited … it’s too bad to be good and bad in the wrong ways to be so-bad-it’s good. It just sucks in every possible way, and yet for all that, the thing that annoys me most about it is still the fact that there are no gorillas in the Amazon. Fuck this movie.

#mst3k #reviews #bride of the gorilla #episodes that never were #fuck this movie #huge slam on anteaters out of nowhere #50s #guys in gorilla suits

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storytellerauthor · 7 years

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A Rant About Redemption and Bad Guys

Hey! So, the other day I read Aimee Meester's post on her blog about how we need to stop romanticizing the villains and grey morality and it was really thought provoking, especially for someone like me. I love bad guys. I love their backstories and their complex character arcs and I love how their usually super flawed and quirky with dynamic, larger than life personalities. I've always been fascinated by them, even when I was little kid and would sit and watch X-Men Evolution and all the Disney movies and read the Sisters Grimm and Percy Jackson. Maybe it was my inner writer but I loved Gambit and Rogue and Puck and Nico. I loved all the characters with the tortured pasts, the characters with a rough present and a foggy future. And now that I'm older and watch "big kid" stuff I love my Loki and Damon and Spike (just finished binging Buffy and Angel and am now getting into the graphic novels because I loved those shows so much!) and Captain Cold from the Flash and Bellamy and Murphy from The 100. I love them all. Though, on a side note, now that I think about it I can't come up with a whole lot the big bad, grey area, antihero female characters. I'm sure there are but I'm drawing a giant blank right now. Anyways back on subject. The bad guys. But I think what I'm trying to get at is what do all these "bad guys" have in common? Yes their either the villain, antihero or antagonist in the main character's story. They aren't even the main characters themselves. But what they all have in common is the character development arc that is Redemption. I love redemption and forgiveness and can this character come back from all the terrible things they've done? Can they be forgiven and can they change and be good? Can they go from being murderers and horrible people to being heroes? There are a few bad guys that I still love that are bad and will always be bad and they probably will never be heroes or anything like a hero but all the baddies I love are the ones with redemption running through their Journey. I think why I love the redemption story is because it reminds me so much of what I've been promised as a Christian. It doesn't matter the horrible things you've done in your past, God will still forgive you. He changes you from the inside out, transforms you from the Big Bad to the Champion. And that's what love does in most character arcs for those antiheroes and antagonists. The heroes are the ones who are chosen. They're the champions.

I'm sorry not really this was just too perfect not to use.

Chosen to fight the good fight, to save the girl and stop the Big Bad (after watching Buffy and Angel now I just call my villains the Big Bad). Yes they should be dynamic and real and exciting with flaws and character growth. They may mess up and make bad decisions but in the end they're the good guy and they will always be the good guy. Look at Angel in his show Angel. He's frequently called the Champion. He's the goodie vampire with the soul who saves damsels in distress and stops the world from falling apart. Yeah he's done a lot horrible things in his life time, seemingly irredeemable things but that's the whole point of his journey. His entire show is about him atoning for his sins, changing his ways and righting his past wrongs. He went through a few rough patches but at the end of the day he's still the Champion and he's pretty easily forgiven. The same goes for Stefan in The Vampire Diaries. Angel needs redemption and so does Stefan, they've both done horrible things, but the point is they were already more or less redeemed from the get-go. Their stories start with them already being the Champion and redeemed and thriving to be better. These other guys? Not so much. Damon, Spike, Murphy, Bellamy, Snart (Captain Cold) and lots of others, they start their stories off as the baddies. Their not nice people. They steal and they kill and they hurt people. Their charming and good looking sure but if you met them in real life you would be running the other way. Bellamy was a jerk in the first season of The 100. Murphy still kind of is even in season 3. Snart was a thief. Damon and Spike are horrible, murderous vampires (which by far outweighs the others). You look at them and think, yeah they're funny and charming and fun bad guys but man are they royal jerks, I do not like them in the slightest. But then, something happens. The big bad, evil vampire falls for the human girl who may see him as the bad guy but doesn't see him as the monster. Bellamy realizes Clarke's actually pretty smart and that if he wants to survive he'd better listen to her. Murphy... well Murphy only turned semi-nice and not as self-serving as before when he's dragged into the desert and falls for a thief. Snart realizes maybe the Flash isn't such a bad guy after all and gains some mutual respect for one another. Usually the protagonist is the one who at some point brings out the best in these bad "irredeemable" villains. And sometimes things just happens that forces the bad guy to do the right thing even if he doesn't want to which then, with some help, turns them into a better person. What do all those have in common? Love, respect, support. And ok... I'm sorry... I tried to stop myself but I just can't. This post is officially going to turn into me using Angel and Spike and some Faith to tell the redemption story because let's face it: Joss Whedon is a genius and knows how to write a good redemption story. I already got my Angel stuff out (I could write for hours about him though) but Spike and Faith? Those were some wicked good characters. *spoiler alerts ahead if you haven't seen these shows and you haven't go watch it right now!* Faith starts out as the second Slayer (long story). She's edgy and was not my favorite person at all. She had this weird, psycho thing about her and turns out I was right. She ended up going a little crazy and killing and torturing and being a horrible person. Buffy wants her put down or at least locked away and for real, you think this girl can not be redeemed. She's done horrible things and is a twisted person. But then she comes across Angel and he breaks her... in a good way. He convinces her to change and because of his friendly love and support and respect Faith wants to change. She doesn't want to be a killer and horrible person anymore. At the end she actually ends up turning herself in and is willing to take her punishment because she knows she deserves it and that she's done bad things. By the end of her story Faith actually ends up being a Champion just like Angel and Buffy and all the other good guys on the show. She helps save the world! And all because someone believed she was worth saving.

From Fred to Spike

Spike... now he's a fun one. I loved him from the moment I met him, when he was seriously so mean and awful and wanted to kill Buffy. I don't think he had a single redeemable quality, except for his love for Drusilla. I just liked him cuz he was funny and a good bad guy. I had hoped Joss Whedon would do something with him and I was not disappointed. Unlike Faith who saw the error in her ways Spike did not... Even when he had a chip put in his head that stopped him from killing people he still wanted it out and he still wanted to be bad. That was until he fell in love with Buffy. Love is very powerful and very important, especially in a redemption story. And ok, he was still weird and kind of disturbing when he obsessed over Buffy but by the end he got over that and just loved her. He fought at her side, helped her out, sat with her when she didn't want to talk. Even when she wasn't around something had changed inside him and he just did the right thing because it was the right thing. And then, he did the ultimate thing that turned him into a Champion. Of his own free will he sought out and got a soul for himself. He willingly got a soul so he could be a better person for Buffy. And by the end of the show he's barely recognizable from the Spike in season 2. He sacrifices his to save the world, not for Buffy, not for himself, but for the sake of being good. Not to mention in Angel he ended up truly declaring himself a Champion because he wants to be one, not just to spite Angel but because he wants to be a Champion, a hero for himself.

Awww!

I guess what I'm trying to say is what does Spike and Damon and Bellamy and Faith and even Murphy have in common? Love and support. All of their stories showcase the power of love and support in it's purest form. Whether is love between friends or romantic love, it doesn't matter. Either way love wins and that is why I love the bad guys so much. Because usually the bad guys I love reveal themselves as Champions by the end. They reveal the power of love (as cheesy as that sounds) and they reveal the power of someone believing in them and supporting them. Without love and support and belief a person is nothing and can accomplish nothing.

So writers, and fangirls in general, no we shouldn't glorify the bad guys who like killing and torturing and hurting. We should write those characters and make sure their well done because without a good villain there can be no good Champion. But instead of writing so many irredeemable, unsaved characters why don't we write redeemable characters? The ones who have made awful decisions and have done bad things and yet the protagonist forgives, supports or even cares about. The ones who the protagonist saves by accident, just because they respected them and showed them some common decency. The ones who the protagonist saves through friendship. Write messy characters who don't get it right all the time but thrive to be better, want to atone for their bad mistakes and want to be saved. I could go on and on with this post but I don't want to make this super long and exhaust the topic because I might just have to come back to this. The truth is, the first couple of seasons of Buffy may have been cheesy and the whole thing was whack but I learned a lot from it as a writer because Joss Whedon is a Champion in the storyteller universe. So I may just come back to those characters and I may come back to this whole redemption thing because the story I'm working on right now is about an immortal gypsy girl without a soul who is thriving for redemption and a vampire who needs saving. A bit darker than Weapon Icean, so I'm learning some new things about my writing and about myself through Phoebe (the FMC) and Jasper (the MMC). I'm going to end this rant with a bit of a challenge, not only to myself but to the writers reading this: Write those Big Bads and then be creative and find a non-cheesy, new and exciting way to turn them into Champions. Sounds like a lot of work to me, but it also sounds like a lot of fun.

What do you think of my rant? Do you agree or disagree about Champions and the Big Bads?

#Writing #villains #tv shows #redemption #Characters #Books #bad guys

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