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jockpoetry · 3 years

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supernatural sees women as a tool for development and strengthening of narratives/motivation and dean sees his body as a tool. is that anything?

When I saw this ask I really made the 🥴in real life. So, yeah anon, I do think there’s something to this.

Quick Disclaimer before I actually launch into my thoughts™: A lot of my read of Dean stems from my experience as both an oldest daughter and a transman. Being the oldest daughter was an experience I lived for many years, but I am also a man. I wasn’t raised as a man, I wasn’t socialized as a man, and even though once I came out upon reflection my masculinity was obviously there. Like I was a man™ before I knew I was a man. Even when I actively tied my identity to femininity for a long time! A lot of my prideful moments were based around statements like: “I was the only girl who (fill in the blank).”

So I am just putting that out there before I launch into my spiel about Dean/Gender/Tool because they all interlock for me.

I am also going to apologize in advance because I know this has fully gone off the rails and I’m not even done writing it yet. If this is incomprehensible ! Well, happens to the best of us.

First off, most importantly I guess before we discuss womanhood and Dean and the way both are utilized on the show I need to say that I personally don’t subscribe the whole Dean is female coded thing.

It’s a read I can absolutely understand. But for me..he’s not.

He’s a hypermasculine man to the point that when (and because he is written as a punchline, as the stupid™ brother, as the whore™, as the mother/father™, as daddy’s blunt instrument™, etc) Dean deviates from the pre-accepted definition of hypermasculine it’s Wrong.

It’s Instantly Feminine.

I think the internet has made the world very black and white, or blue and pink maybe. This point, I think, colors a lot of these discussions. Dean cooks, he cleans and so therefor he’s female coded. When that really just feeds back into the whole toxic masculinity loop. You can’t be masculine and cook and clean and cry. That’s for feminine people only.

I get the argument! I do, I just think that Dean’s actions are not inherently feminine, it’s just in the vacuum of Female and in the Absence of Traditional Masculinity it makes sense to assign him female coded and move on.

IN FACT the way that Dean is the action hero of the show, the Masculine™ one on the show - but he cries, and he rages, and he cooks (Again and Again) and cleans (Again and Again). The fact he’s macho and confident but he has so little self esteem. Is frankly insane to me. You have this blaze of glory character who is so depressed that they have him kill himself. Twice. In explicitly “I hate myself, I hate hearing all the things I hate about myself, I want to destroy myself” ways.

On just a regular ol’ network show that is just ungodly bad at times. They let their Male Hero cry - all the time (if I linked every example of this the essay would be...longer than it already is, but just take my word for it). Dean tears up and grieves and shows more than just Angry Horny Violent™ (he shows plenty of that, don’t get me wrong) but he’s Emotional (Again and Again and Again). In many different ways!

I mean, beyond even just tearing up, they make their Male Hero™ face sexual violence in pretty, uniquely horrifying - and queer! - ways.

Let’s make it clear, they did a lot of this unintentionally.

Or they do it as a joke.

Off of dean for a moment to say women are plot devices in this show. I could probably count on one hand female characters who have sincere depth to them that have roles outside of progressing plot, filling a filler episode, and who are still alive. Like even characters such as Charlie who are wholly developed, and interesting, are only remembered/mentioned/utilized to progress plots or fill an episode out - and then she dies. For pain™ for plot™ for no other reason than to traumatize a character.

Which let’s also make it clear Dean’s trauma is also only used as a plot device (as is Sam’s but in a different way, and Cas’ trauma is a whole other barrel of fish we’re not gonna dive into right now). Like wholesale full stop they don’t actually care about what happened to him. Unless it’s relevant in an episode.

Oh that boys home he was left at when he was 16 for months? Sure we’ll sprinkle that in in the back half of the series. Oh he was covered in bruises and said it was from a hunt (when it’s clear contextually they were from his father but saying the fantastical but true is easier than saying the uncomfortable but true). As Dean says though the story became the story, he was sixteen. He just went along with what John said.

We only see Dean ever truly rage at John, by the way, when either Dean is dead (when he’s between life and death and he rages at John, right before John “apologizes” for traumatizing him, for putting too much on Dean’s shoulders, and fucking dying) or John is dead (the Djinn episode where Dean is straight™ and John is dead™ and he goes to his grave and just yells and rages like he should have to his father in the real world).

Dean’s trauma from being both tortured and torturer in hell? Yeah, we don’t talk about that after it’s Relevant™. Even though it’s clear - especially in the demon!dean, mark of cain era, all those years later - Alastair still has his hooks inside of Dean. I stopped watching originally after s8 ended. I was fed up with the show, and with this whole renaissance I’ve been doing a rewatch and I’m into season twelve now and it really has never come up again.

Even when he had the mark of cain and he was tasked with questioning and accused of torturing it was “the mark has changed you” and not “you were victim and victimizer in hell for forty years, which is longer than you’ve been alive on earth” (and, was about as long as he wound up living. Which is desperately sad.

Because we talk about Sam’s desire for a “normal” life but, Dean wanted out too. He was tired in the first few seasons of this show, he never had a chance to taste freedom (we don’t count the boys home, because that was a different kind of regimented life, and it was a false freedom) the way that Sam did in Flagstaff with Bones or at Stanford with Jessica. Love for Dean is sacrificing, it’s putting himself/his happiness/his well-being last.

Because Dean only knows love in the context of violence (like all of these fun examples, for starters) is a phrase that I’ve said a lot both in private chats and on here, and I absolutely think it goes to him being a tool (a blunt instrument, a plot device, so both textually and metatextually) instead of a person. Which Cas sees Dean’s shame/guilt and sees that side of Dean because he touched his soul, and saw more than just the Righteous™ man, more than just the tool, he saw A good man, not a machine.

On the other side though you have how “bad guys” view Dean: Desperate, Sloppy, Needy, Dean’s hole (Again), which is again so wildly counterintuitive to the story of a Macho Man Hero™. You’re using vocabulary that is both queering him and feminizing (and I know this a meme format, but sincerely it is done in a derogatory way it is feminizing. It’s breaking him down to bare parts, to a sloppy hole).

My whole rewatch I have been absolutely fascinated by how identity and free will is utilized/conceptualized on this show. Castiel has been my main focus, but Dean and how he is framed by himself and others is...fascinating - and frustrating. The writers inconsistency lends itself not only to this unintentionally queer character, but also one that again is incredibly easily read as a non-traditionally masculine character.

As a feminine character.

This show has so few female characters that of course it had to foist the roles/behaviors/plots that a female character might have onto a male character. Which I think is part of why reading Dean as trans (either transmasc, or transfemme) is so easily done like.

Half of these are shit posts, but you can find trans allegories/textual evidence in this show again, again, again, again, and again. And this is unintentional, they don’t want you to look at Dean and see woman, former future or present. Like a lot of these I’m sure are punchlines for them, because women/queer folk are punchlines to them.

Sometimes the only women in an episode are random witnesses who get two sentences of dialogue, and then the main guest character is a man. Who flirts with Dean, and Dean is receptive to it.

They paint themselves into a corner, there are female Rabbi. So easily could Aaron have been a woman instead of a man, but they made the choice to play up the HaHa Dean & Men card.

Because, again, Dean has filled the slot of Woman™ of Female Lead™ and the flirting would’ve been straight if Dean was a woman. It’s a plot device, they needed to have the guest character be disarming, be cute, make the main character flustered.

It’s just the main character is a man, because they’re allergic to women. But they still need those female plots, tools of femininity, to move their show forward. I mean I am a big subscriber to transmasc Jo (no idea if anyone else is with me on this one, but let me explain). Jo is in love with Dean (concept) not Dean (actuality). Which, we’ve all had our eggs cracked by someone like that. We were in love with them until we realized we just wanted to be them.

He loved her like a little sister, she loved him like a lost idol. He’s a golden calf and she dies for him, because she believed in him, she was the original character dashed at the altar of the Winchesters.

I fully believe if she had lived and if this show had a crumb of actual good writing Jo could have been a deeply compelling transmasc character. But I also think she’s a fascinating inversion of Dean. Dean is a Masculine Character who subverts Toxic Masculinity, Jo is a Tomboy™ she’s not your (if you take it straight, literally and metaphorically) average female love interest. She’s angry, she’s not soft at all, all edges and corners and thorns. She isn’t helpless, she’s stubborn but not in a “you’re going to get punished for this” way. She’s right when she’s stubborn. She’s helpful, she’s a martyr.

I could do a whole other essay just on Jo (and Ellen, and Ash, what a fucking trio!) but needless to say Jo was one of the first...plot device feminine tools sacrificed to this show. She was a regular, she was unique, she was an engaging character, and she still died (to progress the plot? no. for man pain? yeah, for like three episodes maybe, and then it’s forgotten just like the rest of Dean’s trauma, as we mentioned above).

Dean and Women and Love is a very interesting tool used too because. Boy they sure try to make Dean love women and it fails in small ways, and in big, meaningless, failed het domesticity (again) ways. Not to mention whatever Lust (in the form of a woman) having no effect upon him, when they could have used that moment to assert his Masculinity and Heterosexuality. He behaved normally? And...also...whatever the fuck the Adios thing was!

Like they have these opportunities to make him Traditionally (toxically) Masculine, but make the choice to...not? To soften him. Because it’s a tool. He’s their female lead, textually he had to take on the role of mother(/father) to Sam, but...I mean this is a million miles long already. I know, but we absolutely can’t not talk about his Paternal/Maternal behaviors. (Which appear again and again again and again, outside of his relationship with Sam even/especially). He’s the mother hen, sage, safety net, beacon, home to so many side characters they meet.

I mean in many ways Jody is also a Dean comparison. Lost her family. Found a new family. She is non-traditionally feminine, but easily flustered and Silly™ (let’s just drop the entire sex talk over family dinner scene with Alex and the boys and looking to them for help, even though she was already a mother, and she’s a cop, and a hunter and this confident no nonsense individual.... She’s not). We are meant to see her as this hard ass, but she makes extra food for the boys to take back to the bunker. She’s deadly in a fight, but also still easily overwhelmed and put into damsel mode, and she cares so much even in the face of adversity.

It’s also fun to see how Jo | Jody are reflections of Dean at different points of his life. Younger, cocky | Older, settled.

Even when the text tries to tell us that he’s not.

When it reminds us that he’s violent. That he is his father, even if he says that Sam is more like John (which was reflexive, which was angry because of Adam and how Sam was behaving like Dean in that episode, and yes there are parallels to be drawn between Sam and John, the show barely dives into them). Instead we’re told that Dean is John (Again and Again and Again and Again).

So intensely that a fanfictionalized version of the Winchester Gospels makes it an entire fucking musical number.

And yet, despite the texts insistence to make Dean Macho Man Father Reborn™ We get this Dean who is silly (and directly compared/contrasted to the female character in this scene), soft, in heels, nagging, and... Sully (you know Sam’s imaginary friend who has the same Haircut Dean has, who is a softer, shorter, friendlier, campier, version of Dean who was a replacement For Dean until the real one let Sam back in? That? Sully?) it’s hard to take them seriously.

Hell, even when he was A DEMON? What did they do? They had him sing off-key drunken karaoke, they had him doing this ! Like that’s your hero, unhinged, free to be as bad as he could be, and you put him in a cowboy hat in a romance with the king of hell.

The Female Lead, everyone. Who’s biggest betrayal(s) comes at the hands of his love interest (again, a man even though it was an angel who could’ve taken any vessel! who could’ve been recast, who canonically dies admitting his love to Dean - that one), who he tries so hard to be loyal to.

The contradictions of his character are laughable. He is so emotional, but if he is engaged about his emotions? He shuts down, or he’s exasperated about being asked about them. It really is Female Lead/Only Here For The Plot disease, because everything is more important than him. How’s he doing? Doesn’t matter outside of the context of how x character is doing or that y character is dead. Or his emotions only matter if they’re done in penance.

They also really do frame him as Pretty Boy™ in a violent way, or in a derogatory manner. They’ll give us homoerotic shots like this or these and never really acknowledge how these are gay shots. Sorry the gun scene is a a straight up sex scene, the beer sip spilling out over his mouth is oral, the scene where Cas fills up Dean’s glass with whisky is also a sex scene, they do this shit on purpose but accidentally queer it up. If Dean was a woman these scenes wouldn’t even matter. They’d be passing moments, but because he is not just a man but A Man™ they’re insane to see.

Not to mention all of these scenes and all the ones I haven’t linked where Dean dresses up. He performs masculinity, but he performs femininity too. He’s a plot device that is slotted in to whatever role they need. He’s Super Straight Butch Man™ but coaches the lesbian on how to successfully flirt with a man. He’s Action Hero™ who sits through a montage with the same lesbian and yays and nays her outfits, and enjoys himself.

Fuck he loves dressing up, he feels better in these costumes because performing a character is easier than being himself. Because who is Dean? He’s a tool, both textually and metatextually. It is exactly how the women and because of the women on the show that Dean is the way that he is. If there was a more steady female presence Dean would not be half as much of a plot device or half as camp/gay/feminine/non-traditionally masculine/queer coded as he is.

In conclusion....

#dean winchester #supernatural #spn meta #spn #gender #anon #replies #messages #my writing #ANYWAYS PHEW okay anon i don't know if i even fully got to your point but i woke up at like 3:30 to this ask and i've been fixated on it #HOPE THIS IS EVEN JUST a little bit coherent #the way i meant for this to talk so much more about transness and eldest daughter syndrome and just FORGOT #oops #oh well

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chris-evans · 5 years

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MAY 17, 2019 —

As this petition approaches a million signatures, I figured I should give a real update and explanation.

I made this petition some few days after Episode 4, “The Last of the Starks”, aired. I was just so disappointed and angry. It was simply me venting a bit. I posted it to r/freefolk on Reddit, it got nowhere, and I shrugged and went about my day. I had forgotten all about it. A week later, a coworker caught me before I was leaving for the day and asked, “Hey, is this you?” The petition had almost reached 500,000 signatures. I was blown away. I hadn’t checked the thing for a week! And look at how far it has come!

I haven’t heard from anyone HBO-related. I don’t think people can reasonably expect HBO to completely remake the season, or any part of this particular series (keep in mind the prequel spinoffs). It costs a fortune to shoot one episode, and I think most signers understand that. Will HBO lose gobs of money over this? Eh probably not. As Heath Ledger’s Joker once said, “It’s not about the money, it’s about sending a message.” And I think this message is one of frustration and disappointment at its core.

There is so much awful crap going on in the world, people like me need to escape into things like Star Wars and Game of Thrones. We fans invested a wealth of passion and time into this series. I’ve been watching religiously since Season 2, myself. I’ve read all the books and eagerly await the next two. I love this story, and I, like most of you, was crushed to see how the last season (and Season 7, let’s be real) has been handled.

Is Dany going to succumb to madness in the books? Probably. Is Arya going to kill the Night King? Well he doesn’t exist in the books as of yet so…maybe? Is Jaime going to sacrifice his entire character arc to go embrace Cersei? I’d doubt it, but that’s GRRM’s decision. The issue I have is not necessarily with what we got, it’s HOW we got there – A rushed, laughably inconsistent mess of a season fraught with cringe-inducing, arc-slaying dialogue and “everybody is stupid” syndrome. We can expect that the books will describe a more sensical path toward the ultimate conclusions that we will see on Sunday. No pressure, Mr. Martin.

D&D adapted those books in the beginning and it became one of the greatest TV shows of all time. No one can doubt their talents there. But they seemingly became tired of the series and rushed to the end, thereby doing the show and its fans a great disservice.

I feel for the actors and actresses too. I am sure some of them are happy with their arcs or perhaps are just happy to be done with the series so they can move on, but I am also sure that many are disappointed with the writing of their characters and the plot here in the end. They put their souls into these characters, and they could be every bit as disappointed as we are.

And no one can question the talents of the casting department, and cinematography, and music, and costuming, and the CGI team, and all those technical fields that went into keeping the show such a beautiful spectacle through to the end. They deserve all the accolades they can get and this petition is not a comment on their contributions to the show.

In closing, I didn’t make this petition to be an entitled, whiny fan. I made it because I was immensely disappointed and needed to vent. Do I have a solution? I’ve got plenty of ideas, but no, I’m not a Hollywood writer. But you don’t need to be a mechanic to know your car is broken.

Thank you to everyone for signing this silly thing. I will post another update if something tangible happens.

Valar Morghulis

-Dylan

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ordinaryschmuck · 4 years

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What I thought about Adventure Time: Distant Lands-”BMO”

Salutations random people of the internet who probably won't read this. I am an Ordinary Shmuck. I write stories and reviews and draw comics and cartoons. And today, I'm going to do one-fourth of what I do best by reviewing "BMO": The first hour-long special of Adventure Time: Distant Lands. Seeing how it's been a week since the special premiered, and that most fans saw it by now, I thought I'd share my thoughts on BMO. Keep in mind, if you haven't seen the special yet, you're final warning against spoilers stops here. Because I'll be spoiling the heck out of this special, by listings everything I like, and don't like. Things like characters, plot elements, and little touches that I thought were worth mentioning. Without further ado, let's start this review off by listing-

WHAT I LIKED

The Animation Quality: You know how Steven Universe: The Movie had animation quality that was ten percent better than the original series? That's basically what the animation in “BMO” is like. It's not the smoothest I've ever seen, and probably not the best Adventure Time has ever looked, but it's still pretty good. There's definitely more attention to detail, shading, and lighting to help make “BMO” look more cinematic than the series. There is one issue I have with the animation, though. But I'll get into that with the dislikes. For now, it's safe to say that the animation is still pretty darn good.

BMO (The Character, not the special): What can I say about this little rascal that hasn't been said already? BMO is still his adorable little self, and more so. There are times when his naivety can be kind of annoying, at least to me, but I'm sure BMO fans will love how he's presented in the special. Especially given the fact that this is the most active BMO has been in the entire series. Throughout most of Adventure Time, BMO has primarily been a source for comedy as well as a tool for characters to use. Even in episodes when BMO does save the day, it's either by accident or by him not understanding the situation. In "BMO," the little robot purposefully solves many problems, and fully understands the situation. The special still manages to keep his naivety by having BMO just not completely understanding how serious the problem is. Weirdly the writers found a perfect way to make BMO a more active role while not giving him a different personality. And personally speaking, the writers executed that idea well.

Y-5: This special may be about BMO, but Y-5 is the real star here. Y-5's personality, design, and overall arc as a character was so much fun and downright adorable to see. It was so surprising because I did not expect to like any new character introduced in Distant Lands. I just assumed that any newcomer would divert attention from the main character that the special would focus on. And while Y-5 does do that, I'm ok with it for three reasons. First, BMO is not a good character to work on his own. He actually needs characters that fully know what's going on for the plot to progress. Second, while Y-5 can hijack the story, sometimes, there are still segments that make it clear that "BMO" is about BMO. Third, Y-5 is already an incredible character, so I'm not going to waste time complaining about her inclusion. She plays the perfect straight man to BMO's antics, and it was so endearing to see her grow as a more confident character. So much so, that I actually consider Y-5 as one of my personal favorite characters. Not just in the special, but in the series overall. Also, I’m sure that there’s some symbolism behind her wanting to be called Y-5, but I’m not touching it. Mostly because I have no idea what I’m talking about in that regard.

The Comedy: There's not much to say here. The jokes are all worth a good chuckle but were never funnier than anything in the series as a whole. Except for that hard-cut to the elf looking angry as he drifts off into space. That was pretty hilarious.

The Drift: I love everything about the Drift. From its design to the background characters, and even the backgrounds themselves. Everything about the Drift just screams hard work and dedication from the cast and crew. It's almost as if everyone involved knew this would be the last time they would work on Adventure Time, so they just poured their hearts and souls into it. And given the fact that they worked so hard on the first special, makes me even more excited for the other three.

Martin returns...sort of: Let's be clear: It is understood by everyone that Mr. M is Martin Mertens. He has the same voice actor, the same mannerisms, and even the same body type. However, what I like isn't the fact that Martin returns. What I love is the fact that "BMO" never reveals that it's Martin. I'm sure some fans might be upset about not getting an official reveal, but I personally don't think it matters. Mostly because it doesn't matter to BMO. BMO doesn't know who Martin is, and has very little connection to the scumbag. So making a big reveal that Mr. M is Martin would just be unnecessary. Overall, I'm ok with the fact that the writers had Martin return to be nothing more than a glorified easter egg. Because honestly, it's what he deserved.

Hugo’s backstory: Again, there's nothing much to say here. It's yet another twist reveal about how a character who seems nice turns out to be quite the twat. There are two things worth mention, though. One, Hugo's personality stays the same. Look back at all Disney twist villains who become vastly different characters before and after the big twist. Compared to Hugo, he seems like a twist villain done right. Once you figured out that Mr. M is Martin, it should be pretty clear that Hugo's not a saint to be partnered up with the guy. Plus, when it's revealed Hugo really is, he still keeps up this charming persona that he uses around people...up until he ditches them like a twit. Another thing worth mentioning is the animation used for the flashback. Dedicated fans might remember that it was the same style used for "Water Park Prank," which might be the worst episode of the series. So it's nice to see the art style used for something good rather than something...not as good.

The solution to “save” the Drift: Most people use the special as an allegory for climate change. Which is why I put "save" in air-quotes because the citizens didn't really save anything. Similar to how we all play our part to save our planet. What the citizens do, though, is come up with solutions that might work as long as they have hope. And I. Freaking. LOVE that! The lesson that "BMO" is trying to teach is incredibly important, both to children and especially to adults. It's so easy to assume that the best solution is to abandon once it gets too hard and take the easy way out. Same as how some people believe it's better to just abandon this planet we call home, rather than put in the work to save it. And to those people: Let me ask you a question. Do you really think that you'll shoot off into space with the people planning to colonize another planet? Or do you think that those people are going to be like Hugo, who will only take along close friends and the rich? Personally, I think it's more likely going to be the latter. Which is why I adore the lesson being taught in "BMO." It might be hard to save the planet at this point, but it's still worth doing. And I can hope everyone else will come to agree with that conclusion.

WHAT I DISLIKED

Olive: I feel bad for saying I don't like Olive because the truth is that I'm more indifferent to them. To me, Olive feels less like a character and more like a plot device. This is because Olive has little to no personality, and all they do nothing but be something that furthers the plot. Although, I do like how Olive can stretch, as well as how they are overprotective over BMO. Other than that, there's not much to work off of.

Inconsistency with Character Designs: This was the problem I had with the animation. At times, characters are pretty inconsistent with how they're drawn. Some scenes, Y-5's eyes are large and cute, and other times they're normal-sized. There also times when BMO's height and width can be pretty inconsistent with what scene he's in. Now to be fair, this is nothing new to Adventure Time. It's a problem that the show has had for quite some time, and fans have come to accept it. However, just because you accept a problem doesn't make it any less of a problem. If anything, it makes it worse because the showrunners still refuse to fix it.

KS-2: Is it weird that the best character in "BMO" is the daughter of the worst character? Because to me, I don't understand how someone as amazing as Y-5 came from someone so rotten as KS-2. To be fair, I get what the writers were going for. They wanted to make a mother who was just another adult that "just doesn't understand." I can see that, but the problem is that the writers went too far with the idea. The way that KS-2 just constantly berates Y-5, as well as refusing to listen, comes off as too cruel. And the fact that the father pointed out how KS-2 never said the words "Y-5 was right," does nothing more than add fuel to the fire. But what's tricky is for all I know, this could have been the intention. And if it's true that the writers wanted to make KS-2 so unlikeable, then they more than succeeded. Although, I will give the crew credit for subverting gender norms by making KS-2 buff and the dad scrawny. I just wish that good intention was put into a good character.

The first chase scene in the Jungle Pod: This is mostly a nitpick, but it's still something that bothers me. Because having BMO getting chased away from his radio, to then have him end back where he originally was, felt like padding to me. Because why else would you have BMO go through all of that danger, only to have him end up at square one. Maybe the writers included the scene to build tension, but even if that's true, there could have been a better way to do it. Like while BMO's being chased, he somehow gets closer to his goal, rather than end up in a loop. And if the scene really was just for padding, then pad that time with literally anything else. Like maybe use the time to show KS-2's gentle side, or doing more to tease Hugo's true self. I know it would only be a few minutes, but actually make those minutes count for something.

It’s a Prequel?: After my initial viewing, my reaction to the ending was, "Oh, BMO found Finn and Jake's descendants." Then when actual smart people pointed out that "BMO" was a prequel, my reaction became "Oh, that makes way more sense." But then I started thinking about the fact that the special was a prequel, and the more I thought about it, the more holes I found. Or, at least, two holes that I found. First off, why does BMO have a heroic nature in this special? At first, I thought that maybe the years living with Finn and Jake taught BMO how to be a hero, but BMO hasn't met Finn yet. So I guess BMO felt like a heroic personality the entire time? Even though he never acted like this before in the series, unless he thought he was playing a game? Another thing I noticed is Martin's line about kids calling out their deadbeat parents. Why would he say that? Martin hasn't met Finn yet, either. Therefore Martin doesn't have the experience of being called a deadbeat parent. So does this mean that Martin has other children in the universe who calls him out on his crap? Or is it most likely that the writers wanted to give another clue that Mr. M was Martin, but briefly forgot the series timeline? I think it's most likely the latter, even though the former sounds way more interesting. And before people want to kill me because they actually love the story being a prequel, I want to point out, this is another nitpick. The fact that "BMO" is a prequel doesn't bother me too much, but I still can't help but feel confused when thinking about it.

As a whole, I give “BMO” an A-. BMO is as adorable as ever, Y-5 is an astounding character, I love the moral that the special is trying to teach, and the entire thing just screams effort. Is it perfect? No. Does it have problems? Yes, but not anything that makes me think the special was unwatchable. I enjoyed it, and something tells me that if you're an Adventure Time fan, you enjoy it too. "BMO" was a great introduction to Distant Lands, and here's hoping the other specials will be even better.

(And here’s also hoping that “Obsidian” will deliver that sweet, sweet Bubbline goodness that fans have been demanding for years.)

#adventure time distant lands #bmo #y-5 #adventure time distant lands spoilers #what i thought about

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bat-lings · 5 years

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Opinion on Jason Todd/Bruce Wayne relationship as a father-son?

ALRIGHT the human rambling disaster that I am struck again

Jump to the conclusion if it’s too long!

It’s just really hard discussing anything about Jason without acknowledging the sheer mess that DC’s whims made of him. To take that inconsistency into account let’s consider his relationship with Bruce from three angles:

Before Jason’s death / during his Robin days as portrayed before Starlin;

Before Jason’s death / during his Robin days as portrayed since Starlin and up until Jason’s resurrection, through mentions & flashbacks;

Post-resurrection.

Sadly enough the first era is the only one that bothers to portray a father-son dynamic with enough content to have a real opinion on, but I’ll take what I have. And what we have then is pretty great.

Jason’s Robin days

We’re in the 80’s, and Jason & Bruce’s relationship is the most ridiculously pure thing to have graced our poor souls. It’s soft and good.

They have great interactions, a real proximity, and overall bring a lot into each other’s life. Alfred and Bruce are happy to have another kid at home, and Jason is as much in need of guidance & of a family as any other kid. Jason doubts himself a lot and Bruce does his best to reassure him. He’s also is a teasing little shit and that’s great.

[Batman #377 || Detective Comics #579]

[Detective Comics (1937) #573]

JASON YOU’RE TOO CUTE. Also the tired dad feel is strong in that one lmao. Jay, lad, my son, my life,, what have you done to the newspaper,,,,

Ahem right, less gushing more commenting.

As you can see, Jason and Bruce’s relationship before his death/resurrection is pretty peachy. The slice of life sequences strengthen their father-son bond into the reader’s mind. We’re shown they’re father and son rather than just told so.

At some point Bruce’s custody of Jason is temporarily threatened, and that arc is a vivid telling of how strong their bond is.

[Detective Comics #542 || Batman (1940) #377]

Just. That whole speech. “Only Jason is real.” Definitely one of my favorite papa-bat moments.

And as Robin? Jason is clever, often brings valuable insight during cases, and respects Bruce’s teaching and authority. Bruce makes a good job at addressing Jason’s insecurities and guiding him, both through his training and by honing his moral compass.

(Note that I said honing, ‘cause Jay’s moral sense is very much present well before he meets Bruce. He was cool with stealing to survive but Ma Gunn’s school was too much for him.)

He’s initially nothing like the violent angry kid he’s now known as. Pre-Starlin, the only times Jason acts brashly is when confronted with his father’s killer. When Bruce addresses the matter, it’s not about blaming or judging him. ‘Cause he gets it, but it’s also his job to make sure Jason’s not compromised.

[Detective Comics #580 & 581]

And when Jason promises to keep himself in check, it’s all it takes for Bruce to take him back on the case. That’s how much he trusts him. Read the end of the issue and see how Jason proves himself worthy of that trust.

Not only does Jason understand Bruce as much as Bruce understands him, but he’s very perceptive in general. He tends to be straightforward with what’s on his mind… at least when it comes to calling out Bruce lol

[Detective Comics #579]

(They’re talking about Leslie on the last one btw. She was Bruce’s surrogate mom after his parents’ death and they have a great dynamic. Another pearl straight outta the 80′s!)

They get each other, they trust each other, they respect each other. Honestly Bruce’s relationship with Jason was the most healthy he’s had with any of his kids.

We can kiss all of that goodbye after Starlin has his way with Jason. And since Starlin’s “““characterization””” is the one that crossed the years, of all things, we can consider Jason’s initial portrayal pretty much retconed— and his relationship with Bruce with it. Shame, huh?

Of Flashbacks and Victim-Blaming Robin days, 2.0

From the 90’s to the reboot there is… few material about Jason’s relationship with Bruce. Or about Jason outside of his death/Robin.

Whether Jason is mentioned or appears in a flashback, the goal isn’t to recall a father-son relationship. It’s to drive through the point that Jason was reckless and violent. That new portrayal has its predictable impact on their relationship, and that’s pretty much all there is to say.

[Gotham Knights #43]

Obviously Bruce doesn’t trust Jason, since Jason is now a “reckless angry kid who likes to inflict pain on criminals”. Beatty delivers cool stories, but if you read that arc you’ll see that he lies it very thick when it comes to victim-blaming Jason.

Depending which writer/comic book you’re reading, it’s implied or affirmed that Jason is Bruce’s son. You’ll probably have a line about Bruce’s unending guilt, or Jason’s (*sigh*) recklessness. Mostly Jason’s a cautionary tale addressed to either Tim (who never gave much of a shit about Jason btw) or Cass (Batgirl #7 is a rare instance where it’s done without victim-blaming because Pucket is da bomb).

But there’s legit no material about Jason’s childhood in the Manor, or how him and Bruce acted around one another, what they talked about, Jason’s personality aside of “angry”, how Bruce addressed his son’s self-doubts – oh right modern!Jason is an arrogant brat who claimed the Robin mantle for himself so that’s out.

DC rolled with Starlin’s portrayal, and didn’t bother to construct anything else between Jay & Bruce to replace the parts they chose to erase.

[Batman (1940) #645]

The point is: Jason and Bruce’s father-son relationship before Jason’s death is barely spoken of. We don’t know shit about how Jason was as a kid. Bruce loved him but didn’t trust him since his “mean streak” made him sooo dangerous and unmanageable. That’s it. Jason is the bad Robin first, the dead Robin second, and Bruce’s son last.

Resurrection and onward

Jason and Bruce’s relationship post-resurrection is complicated, for obvious reasons, and has interesting potential. My main problem with it is that it’s seldom addressed after Jason makes his dramatic return in UtH & the arc is closed.

For all that I have a love-hate relationship with Winick’s writing, and for all that I don’t like everything he’s done with Jason, his narrative is mostly coherent (and a good read overall!).

Winick doesn’t talk outward about Jason and Bruce’s bond before Jason’s death, but enough is implied. Jason’s damaged psyche centers around Bruce and what wrongs Jason considers to have suffered from him. He reorganizes his entire identity and actions around Bruce.

It’s not only consistent with Jason’s mental health at this stage, it’s telling of Bruce’s importance for him. The same way Bruce must have been his world after he took him out of the streets, Bruce is still very much his world when Jason is on a vengeance frenzy.

Killing Bruce, taking revenge against Bruce, making a point to Bruce; everything is about Bruce. It’s the whole “the opposite of love is apathy not hate” thing. DC could’ve expanded on that and made it evolve into whatever, but they just, y’know. didn’t.

[Batman (1940) #650]

I like Under the Hood and Lost Days well enough except for the Jason/Talia ugh. Problem is, DC obviously had no idea what to do with Jason after that, so his relationship with Bruce stays at a status quo.

Post-resurrection Jason isn’t so much estranged family than an antagonist who makes some cool appearances here and there— when they’re not so terribly written that they make me cringe.

There are some other interesting things here and there, giving depth to Jason’s estrangement from Bruce & the batfam…

[Green Arrow (2001) #72]

… but those elements are few and far between, and fail to establish a solid construction/development of any kind between Jason and Bruce. UtH!Jason put on some interesting bases but afterwards? Jason as a character is stagnating, and so is his relationship with any member of the batfam.

And then there’s the n52 & Rebirth I guess. It obviously wants to deliver a father-son narrative, but doesn’t do great job at it. Again, aside from a few cute scenes, the “he’s my son but he does baaaad things” eternal dilemma, and Jason’s newfound proximity with the batfam coming out of nowhere (especially with Tim wtf), I didn’t find much content to have a solid opinion on.

(Salty) conclusion

My opinion of Jason & Bruce’s father-son relationship is that it’s hella cute pre-Starlin and that Winick’s version of it makes sense within his Under the Hood & Lost Days narrative (I personally cut out “bad seed Jason” and keep most of the rest).

I think we lost a lot of potential when Starlin’s work became the reference. I think the Red Hood and his baggage with the whole fam could’ve been richer and more interesting if Jason’s initial characterization was kept in mind.

Yes, Jason and Bruce’s initial relationship could’ve used some more tension/conflict in between the sweet moments but… as far as I’m concerned Starlin’s writing wasn’t the way to go.

I think the only way to build a coherent interpretation of Jason & his relationship with the fam is to make a patchwork of canon elements and to fill in the blanks yourself. Thus what I have on Jason & Bruce that takes the Red Hood into account isn’t so much an “opinion” on canon material than a personal construction.

I’m sorry Anon, I bet that’s not what you expected when you sent that ask, but it’s all I have to give :’) Hope the answer is still okay & thanks for the ask!

#jason todd #bruce wayne #batfamily #batdad #batfam #red hood #batman #robin #dc comics #meta #dick grayson #barbara gordon #zae chatters #asks #my stuff

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izzyovercoffee · 5 years

Text

@tiender replied to your post:“I know Republic Commando is a small fandom, but has anyone out there...”:

before or after the head injury? 'cos some weird stuff went on there, you know it did

both, I guess lol

mostly I’m trying to decide if I personally want to devote the time/energy to picking apart repcomm for the meta for these two, when I don’t ... really like Bardan Jusik for a long list of mandaboo related reasons (reasons that are... more about brown-nosing to Kal than actually having any real other reason to “go native” like he did in the way he did, when looking at it from an objective perspective)

I used to love Jusik, back when there was a really, really incredible writer for him in the repcomm rpc, but that was ... idr how many years ago that was actually (5+ years minimum), but it’s been a long time and that blog (and its headcanons and its meta) is long, long gone. generally a good writer can get you to love anyone, really, especially when they pick apart the little nuances of character.

I’m rambling. I’m gonna ramble some more since I’m thinking about it now and since I made the mistake of listening to the Lore podcast before bed

my thing is, I’m looking at a potential argument to concoct for a Fi/Jusik ship. after having briefly talked over an au timeline w/ @thelightreturns that’s completely unrelated to them, we realized that bc KT is so painfully straight it’s a ship that just ... completely reads as an impossibility / not a thing, and it’s a ship that as it turns out most if not the entire fandom has never even considered.

considering that this specific fandom has explored some really crazy/crack ships just because they can, just because it’s titillating or a challenge to write or just fun, even from before AO3, that’s ... a really big surprise.

also considering that it hits some of the big points fandom loves:

hurt/comfort

friends to lovers

closet key (maybe even for each other, idk)

height difference

brothers-in-arms / love on the battlefield

unrequited / one-sided

it just surprises me that there’s barely anything out there.

and like... the thing is, even platonic (or one-sided, whatever), the pros are:

it deals directly with Fi’s internalized homophobia (I can’t find the meta that I’m thinking of rn but I’m also sleep deprived, but someone had done a very thorough read-through of the books and went through Fi’s internal narration, and it was genuinely heartbreaking the ways in which he absolutely sounds like ... someone so deeply in the closet that he can’t seem to even consider the possibility that he might not even be attracted to women. from the way he thinks about his relationship to Parja, to the way he thinks about her, the language he uses towards them vs the language he uses when interacting with men ... it’s a lot. I wish I could find it, and I’m starting to worry it was on one of the older RP blogs that have long since been deleted..... but anyway, it’s yet again another example of how KT thinks she’s writing one thing, but the entire narrative is actually building something else)

it re-contextualizes Jusik’s otherwise culturally appropriative attitudes towards mando culture in a way that actually gives him genuine motivation, respect and justification to learn the language, absorb the culture, learn the nuances to really connect with someone he feels for ... because his motivation extends beyond chasing on the heels of an inconsistent father figure, to actually forming a foundation of a family unit (or a love interest), which I would argue is something more solid. the books give us a “well of course Jusik would” with no real explanation actually being provided to us, only chasing Kal’s approval (and the implication that that is somehow being a totally healthy, totally good thing ....... and it’s not)

it gives an out for the Fi/Parja relationship that doesn’t result in a rushed marriage that has Parja giving up everything for Fi, and I have a hard time actually buying that Parja would see his hesitation and ... not press to understand it better. (there were also headcanons back in the good ol’ days that Parja and Jusik were bffs, so seeing that kind of dynamic would genuinely be wonderful)

it provides an avenue to explore force-healing, force-bonds, and the ... unique ... development of a connection between Bardan and Fi, bc Bardan clearly put more into that healing than just the Force (the graying of his hair, the implication that he somehow looked older or more worn after, he essentially sacrificed part of himself for Fi, and it’s ... never addressed, never explored, never mentioned again)

we can just avoid the horrific Arla bull shit entirely had this been a thing

I am realizing this got really long so my bad, but yeah. you’re right, weird shit happened there, but it’s the kind of weird shit that if it was any other characters in any other niche fandom within star wars, there would at least be SOME jumping on it! the very idea that a soul-deep force-healing happened there, that Bardan sacrificed parts of himself to reverse Fi’s brain damage, that he spent months devoted to Fi in healing him, that he thought of ways to “reach” Fi even through his coma ....

and Fi is free. he becomes a free man after this genuinely traumatic experience, but he doesn’t talk about it with anyone in the series afterwards, and I used to think (and still do, I guess) that Bardan would actually be a good person to talk to about it (not just for Fi, I wrote a short series of Mereel recording his pseudo therapy sessions w/ Bardan, but I digress).

idk. there’s a lot of potential here that’s just totally missed bc KT is so straight she made both these guys straight as boards when they literally potentially have a bond knit together by the force and near-death experience, and that relationship is potentially more compelling than the ones we were given for either of the, as is.

#tiender #replies.txt #icb this is just me riffing ... imagine if i actually put effort into this #where am i gonna find the time #my bad you probably weren't expecting an essay but alas ... when it's not memes it's meta #there's no inbetween #im also still listening to lore ... bc I never learn.

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nadziejastar · 5 years

Note

In a lot of your posts, they have a lot of the texts from the novels and manga. If you were to go off of ONLY the games, would Subject X still be hinted? I think yes, but I'm a casual fan.

Well, I developed my opinion on Subject X based ONLY on the games. I played all the games as soon as they came out. So, that would be many years ago at this point. I didn’t read the novels or the manga until after I beat KH3, which was relatively recently. My opinions on the story/characters were quite solidified by then. I actually read them because I thought KH3′s story was so inconsistent with the previous games.The novels/manga simply reinforced the opinions I already had formed after playing the games. I felt validated by them, but they had nothing to do with my opinion on Subject X.

Now, are you are asking me if I think Subject X—the way it was written in canon—was hinted at in the games? A mysterious time-travelling girl that Lea and Isa were looking for the whole time they were in Organization XIII? LOL. Hell no. Absolutely not. She was never hinted at even once, not even vaguely. And the way Axel and Saïx were written was never consistent with that motivation at all. If you mean Subject X as a concept? Xehanort’s lab rat? Yes, definitely. That was pretty much EXACTLY what I always expected Isa’s backstory to be, based ONLY on the games. I thought Lea and Isa were set up perfectly to be test subjects. When I play the older games, I’m still unable to see them as anything but test subjects. That’s how much support there was for that idea and how little there was for anything else.

I was VERY confused when KH3 did feature a character who was Xehanort’s lab rat. But instead of being Isa, it was a random girl he never mentioned before (but apparently was obsessed with). Them being apprentices was something so farfetched, it never even once crossed my mind. I didn’t understand how anyone could give that girl the backstory that seemed 1,000 times more suitable for Lea and Isa. How could the person writing the story not see that? How do they expect the fans to not see it, either? How dumb and/or incompetent do you have to be to write the story that way? How did that even get approved by a whole team of people? Those were my thoughts when I played KH3, based ONLY on the previous games.

That is NOT how someone will feel if a story is well-written. Some people act like Nomura made the story up as it went along, with each individual game. But that wasn’t the case for the games building up to KH3. Re:CoM and KH2FM+ were released together. And BBS, Days, and Coded were being developed simultaneously. These were all part of one big master plan. The way Saïx was written in Days was connected to how Isa was written in BBS, etc. Isa was planned to be a good guy MANY years in advance. IMO, him being the real Subject X was hinted at MANY years in advance. If you think anyone else was foreshadowed to be Subject X, let’s look at the games one by one.

Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix+

In all the games building up to KH3, the only person from Axel’s past that had any relevance was Isa/Saïx. They could have hinted at Subject X any time they wanted to in ALL these games, but they never did. In KH2FM+, all the new scenes with Saïx involved his relationship with Axel. Saïx seemed to be conflicted about Axel’s elimination. Xemnas made a comment to Saïx about Axel chasing the illusion of friendship. This scene hinted that Axel wasn’t really obsessed with Roxas like people thought. He was really just trying to recover his lost friendship with Isa. I had always suspected that Axel’s “obsession” with Roxas was due to his troubled past, so it didn’t surprise me at all. And Nomura loves twists like that.

They were setting up Isa’s relationship with Lea to have significance, not his relationship with anyone else. It’s absurd for me to think that they were trying to track down a girl they didn’t even know existed. They had real problems to worry about. KH2FM+ also introduced the Chamber of Repose and the Cavern of Remembrance. This all suggested that the experiments on the darkness of the heart would be very important and explored in much more depth. Xigbar seemed to have heavy involvement in these experiments, since he didn’t want to go down into the castle basement. And he’s the one who taunted Saïx about not being able to see Xion and not having a heart.

Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories

Castle Oblivion is all about recovering forgotten memories. The other most important recurring theme in Re:CoM was reuniting with people you miss. Pretty much every Disney world incorporated this theme. This was the perfect opportunity to hint at Subject X, but they didn’t do that. Instead, they chose to keep the focus on Axel’s relationship with Saïx.

Days made a big point of showing that Axel changed a LOT after coming back from Castle Oblivion. Saïx said this to him on Day 193, called “Memories”. He also asked Axel if the past meant nothing to him. Axel said he missed what was gone between him and Saïx. He didn’t mention missing anyone else. There was also a new scene where Axel acted extremely cold to Naminé because she was making two childhood friends fight. Isa was the only childhood friend we ever saw, and he later became an enemy. In every game building up to KH3, Isa was set up to be the most important character to Lea. Subject X? Crickets.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

Axel said in his report that he forgot what friendship felt like after becoming a Nobody. That was the whole point of him befriending Roxas and Xion. He was not focused on friendship until he met Roxas. And Saïx was always cold and indifferent towards everyone, even Axel, who was his best friend that he was inseparable from. They’ve been together for 10 years in the organization. I’m expected to believe that Saïx was able to care about some imaginary girl, but not his best friend? To be honest, I thought that the writers had to be drunk if they thought that was believable or realistic. Or that it made Saïx more sympathetic.

Even in Days, I could tell that Axel had a lot of baggage from his past. He always treated his memories of the past like they were sacred. Day 150 is about having something you can’t bear to lose. He said that for Nobodies, it was their past, because that’s all you have to remember the pain of losing something. Perfect time to mention Subject X. After all, her disappearance was Axel’s motivation, right? But the story made it perfectly clear: Axel was heartbroken over the loss of his best friend. Nothing else was ever mentioned. Axel was good friends with Roxas, but I got the sense that he was much, MUCH closer with Isa.

Personally, I thought Axel was a former test subject ever since the original KH2. It fit him perfectly. He was a sad, lonely, dysfunctional person. When Days hinted that Axel had a tragic past and dark secrets that he didn’t like to talk about, I was not at all surprised. He suffered from something way more traumatic than someone he barely knew disappearing. And it never seemed like he chose to be in the organization. That’s why he was always yearning for his childhood with things like ice cream and summer vacation. My personal belief is that Axel was always written with the backstory of a former test subject in mind. They came up with Saïx‘s backstory later, though I suspected he might have been a test subject too, due to his scar and his berserk state, which made him seem kinda freakish. We always knew that Xigbar and Saïx were unique due to them having gold eyes and pointy ears.

Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep

When I played BBS, I knew that something horrible must have happened to Isa to turn him into someone like Saïx. The difference between Saïx and Isa was like night and day. None of the other Nobodies were THAT different from their human counterparts. BBS also confirmed my opinion on Axel/Roxas/Xion. Lea was WAY closer to Isa than he was with them. Isa seemed like a shy kid. But he was very comfortable with Lea. And Lea acted much more naturally with Isa compared to Roxas and Xion.

After BBS, it was obvious that Isa was not a villain, and that he was going to be on the good side at the end of KH3. This was the game that was supposed to show you who the organization members were as humans. They showed that Braig was always evil. Lea and Isa were only in one single scene, other than the epilogue. So, why would they choose to show him as an innocent kid who was Lea’s best friend? Obviously, all of this was to show that he was the polar opposite of Braig. How is that consistent with his canon characterization? He sold his soul to Xehanort, did icky jobs for Xemnas at a pace Axel couldn’t keep up with, and tried to murder Axel. Why would anyone in their right mind choose to write Lea’s best friend that way, if he was not possessed? Especially if they wanted him to appear in future titles?

In the epilogue, they showed Lea and Isa eating ice cream together. Sea-salt ice cream was VERY important to Axel’s character. Axel defined friendship as people who eat ice cream together. I knew that Isa was very special to Axel if he was the origin of his addiction to ice cream. They also showed Lea and Isa trying to sneak into the castle. This was BEFORE the experiments took place. So, Subject X had nothing to do with why Lea and Isa were originally trying to sneak in. They wanted to sneak in because it sounded like fun. Not because they thought people were being tortured in there. There’s no evidence the mystery girl even existed back when BBS was written. The apprentices were not recruiting kids to be apprentices, they were kidnapping kids. What reason would Ansem have to let them be apprentices anyways? It makes no sense.

Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance

In KH3D, Lea was recompleted. Xehanort was gone. He could have used that opportunity to look for information on Subject X. But he didn’t even mention her. He immediately set off to look for Isa. That was his main priority upon being recompleted, not finding Subject X or Roxas, who had gone back to Sora. Lea wasn’t even concerned that Saïx was trying to hunt him down in KH2. He was happy to look for him, even when he was putting himself at risk using the dark corridors. He used the same lines he did for Xion, which had huge narrative significance. It was clear that he was dead set on bringing Isa home. If Subject X was important, Lea didn’t act like it. KH3D sent the message to me that Lea was VERY devoted to Isa. Why even write him this way if he wasn’t supposed to rescue him eventually? Why make it seem like Isa was kidnapped if he was supposed to be looking for Subject X?

Lea and Isa were also the only two who were wearing the black coats when they were recompleted, which gave me the impression that they were test subjects. The apprentices never wore the black cloaks. And of course, the big revelation in KH3D was that Isa was a vessel. Unlike Xigbar, he seemed like he was being controlled, like a puppet. Lea awakened his Keyblade, the Flame Liberator, immediately afterwards. Xemnas also mentioned mind control experiments in this game. Why bring this up if Subject X was only experimented on for her memories. NONE of the games gave me the impression that Lea and Isa were apprentices, that Isa willingly joined the bad side, or that there was some mystery girl that he was looking for. They gave me the impression that Isa was one of the many characters who needed their hurting mended. That was supposed to be the main theme of KH3, after all.

Birth By Sleep Final Mix+

Xemnas may have called Aqua’s armor “friend”, but that was only because he had access to Terra’s memories. He tried to manipulate Aqua by impersonating Terra in KH0.2. And I got the impression that a similar idea was behind the relationship between Axel and Saïx. In the secret ending of BBSFM+, the camera zoomed in on Master Xehanort’s eyes when he said he had many other roads open besides Terra. Then they zoomed in on the amnesiac Terranort’s eyes, showing that they were brown. They zoomed in on Ansem the Wise’s eyes afterwards, showing that the were orange. And finally they zoomed in on his eyes again when he was in the Realm of Darkness. The implication was that Master Xehanort had so many options because of these experiments. His goal was to create vessels, not learn about the age of fairy tales.

Ansem put his research results in Sora to atone for all the lives he ruined. It can be reasonably discerned that Ansem Seeker of Darkness and Xemnas had orange eyes because of Ansem the Wise probing the depths of Xehanort’s heart, to restore his memory. He gained all of Terra’s memories in the process. And in the games building up to KH3, they specifically changed Saïx’s eyes from gold to orange. This implies that the same thing was done to him as well. We know Subject X was also an amnesiac and that Ansem the Wise hid them away when he released the other subjects. It makes sense that Isa was the same as Terra.

Kingdom Hearts 0.2

When Riku told Kairi that she was going to be training with Lea, she was shocked. She later admitted in KH3 that she was afraid of him, because he kidnapped her. But she said that she found it hard not to like him because all he ever wanted was to help his friend. That’s exactly what I expected to happen. My impression after playing KH0.2 was that Axel’s relationship with Roxas and Xion was meant to provide him with character development. This would allow Lea to fulfill his TRUE purpose in the story: becoming a Guardian of Light and rescuing his real best friend from Xehanort. Axel’s friendship with Roxas was supposed to carry over to Ventus because they both had a friend who was a vessel.

Axel’s friendship with Xion was meant to carry over to Kairi specifically because they were going to be training together in KH3. Kairi awakened her Keyblade because she wanted to bring Riku and Sora home. Lea and Kairi were planned as friends because he also wanted to bring his friend home. Axel’s friendship with Roxas and Xion played an important role in Lea’s development. But my impression was that getting Isa back was the ultimate goal of Lea’s character arc, not Roxas or Xion. And especially not Subject X, who is irrelevant to the Xehanort Saga.

Saïx could not see Xion for some reason that was never explained. He has a large Recusant’s Sigil scar on his face which was never explained. Axel said Saïx’s personality changed drastically, while he stayed more or less the same. This was never explained. Saïx had orange eyes like Xemnas, but this was never explained. Subject X does not explain ANY of these things. But Isa being experimented on as the REAL Subject X just happens to explain ALL of them.

Kingdom Hearts 3

When Lea said he’d always be there to bring his friends back, Xehanort got a really nasty smirk on his face and sent Isa to attack him. It was just to punish him for ruining their plans. Xehanort knew exactly why Lea was there, and how to hurt him. Then during the final battle, it was a repeat of what happened in KH3D. Lea was ruining their plans yet again and Xemnas wanted to punish him. He was so confident that he had Isa under his full control, he thought he could murder Lea right in front of him and he wouldn’t do anything. He turned his back on Isa, literally and figuratively. Isa was positioned to be directly behind Xemnas’s right hand. He was his right-hand man, after all. Everything was all set up perfectly for Isa to finally betray Xemnas. That’s what being a recusant means in the first place.

Lea’s reunion with Roxas and Xion didn’t even feel like an organic or natural development in the story. It felt like shameless pandering. Subject X felt even more unnatural than Roxas and Xion did, which says a lot. Then there was Saïx’s transition into a “good guy”. If they wanted a character like Saïx to be redeemed, they would need to give him an actual redemption arc. Axel was always sympathetic and likable, and even he needed a redemption arc spanning multiple games. Saïx was WAY nastier than Axel. It would take a LONG time to redeem him. But…he was never humanized. The games went out of their way to depict Saïx as inhumanly cold as possible.

It was a deliberate CHOICE not to humanize him in ALL of these games. Yet there he was in the ending, chilling and eating ice cream, like it was the most natural thing in the world. Now, this would make perfect sense if his backstory was a nice kid who was kidnapped, experimented on, then got possessed. He wouldn’t have needed a redemption arc in that case. So it makes perfect sense why one was never planned for him. In every game, the emphasis was NEVER on Saïx being redeemed, but on Lea saving Isa. The power of waking was the main goal of the story. Isa was introduced in the game called “Birth by Sleep,” which IS the power of waking.

Lea and Isa being test subjects would have made the story far more interesting for 99.9% of players, I guarantee it. But it’s not even just that. Every game since KH2FM+ was written to give the impression that they were test subjects. There’s no way the writers weren’t aware of that. They knew exactly what message they were sending to people. And it makes waaay more sense than them being apprentices. I could not understand why anyone in their right mind would waste all of that foreshadowing and change their backstory to something FAR less interesting and also not very believable. If something doesn’t make sense it’s usually not true. I’m no detective or anything, but the only thing that makes sense is that Isa was planned to be Subject X for well over a decade. Then at the very last minute it was changed to this new girl.

There’s three reasons I could think for someone to believe that Subject X made sense the way it was written in canon. They are either:

A. Not looking at the story very closely. Probably a casual fan.

B. A blind Kingdom Hearts fanboy/fangirl who will defend anything in the story.

C. Not very intelligent or perceptive.

#KH #kh saix #kh isa

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whitewolfofwinterfell · 5 years

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Can you do one of your metas on Elena, her strengths, flaws and why you (and I!) still like her despite the fact that many understandably don't?!

Yes! Thank you so much for sending this in. I love any opportunity I get to talk about and defend Elena, because I think she’s such an unfairly hated/disliked character.

I actually wrote a very in-depth meta about Elena before here, but since I did it a couple of years ago now some of my opinions and thoughts have changed since then. What I speak about in the sections about Elena being a Mary Sue and her strengths and weaknesses are still what I think, so it’s particularly worth reading that, because that’s relevant to this question.

The thing is with Elena is, yes, she’s a flawed character, but characters should be flawed because human beings are flawed. Elena’s flaws are exactly what make her relatable and real. Based on what I’ve seen in fandom over the years the main reasons people seem to dislike Elena are because she’s selfish, a Mary Sue or undeveloped as character. In my previous meta I explained why she’s not a Mary Sue, and I stand by that. As for the selfish part, I agree with it wholeheartedly. Elena is selfish, but who isn’t? I don’t understand disliking or hating on a character based on their selfishness because selfishness is a natural human trait that is instilled in all of us. In fact, most of us have to actively try to not be selfish and to be more considerate of others, because we’re naturally hard-wired to think of ourselves first. I would argue that Elena isn’t anymore selfish than any other character on the show and that rather than selfishness, it’d probably be more accurate to refer to it as self-centredness. And you might think those two words mean the same, but to me, selfishness is actively choosing to put your own well-being above others at the detriment of those around you. Self-centredness is a tendency to think about yourself first and to be oblivious to the impact that has on others around you. So, I’d say that Elena was self-centred rather than selfish. She had a tendency to think about how she felt and how things affected her and wasn’t always able to see how others around her were feeling or how they may be affected. The claim that Elena was undeveloped is also a valid argument. I like Elena but even I’m not blind to the incredibly poor characterisation and development she had. I understand the writers intentions with Elena, but unfortunately, it didn’t really work. It felt like Elena never really went beyond her original character profile. It’s like the writers sat down in a room and decided the core traits they wanted her to have in the pilot episode and season 1, but they never really went beyond that. So for me, a big part of the reason I like Elena is because of the potential her character had and the fact that I feel like she’s unfairly hated, as I’ve already mentioned.

Overall, I really don’t think Elena was that flawed, except for her self-centredness and indecisiveness. The biggest flaw of her character was the inconsistent writing that failed to fully build upon her as a character or explore her nuances and sacrificed her characterisation and development for the sake of her romantic relationship. I think that over the years people have exaggerated her flaws in open rebellion against the writers who plugged Elena as this wonderful, selfless heroine whom everyone worshipped and adored. Whenever there’s a character like that people deliberately search for their flaws. This kind of writing also tends to turns people off the character and instead they start to root for the ‘underdog’ or the character that is sidelined (in this case, Bonnie and/or Caroline). So a big part of the problem with Elena’s character comes from the writing and the way in which the narrative constantly centred on her, put her on a pedestal and tried to push her as being special, which people begrudge.

Ironically, the reason I love Elena is because I don’t think she was special. She was just a very normal girl who wanted what most teenagers want - to get through high school, have fun with her friends and live some semblance of an ordinary life with happy moments in between. She wasn’t perfect, she wasn’t special, she was just a girl that tried her best in impossible situations. She didn’t always make the best decisions and she wasn’t always the embodiment of empathy and compassion, but she showed amazing strength and resilience in the face of adversity. Time and time again she experienced tremendous traumas but she dealt with them as best she could, and in the process remained an optimistic and kind soul. Her resilience was undoubtedly her biggest strength. It still astounds me that Elena was able to overcome so much pain and trauma.

When people criticise Elena’s character, I think they fail to consider that although we’re not explicitly told it Elena consistently exhibited signs of depression. She explicitly said that after her parents death she didn’t want to live, she stopped enjoying her hobbies such as writing and cheer leading, but most significantly, she displayed reckless behaviours and suicidal tendencies. Unfortunately, her suicidal tendencies have been brushed off as being acts of “sacrifice” to save those she loved. I’m not saying they weren’t sacrifices, but her willingness to die was not normal for someone with a healthy mindset. I would die to save someone I love, but it wouldn’t be an easy decision. And perhaps that makes me sound like a terrible person, but I don’t want to die. I have a strong desire and instinct to live and sacrificing my life for someone I love is something I’d do, but I’d be absolutely terrified and heartbroken. However, when Elena was faced with the possibility of her own death, she didn’t seem to care. She passed it off as “I’m doing it to protect the people I love”, but whether that was true or not it doesn’t change the fact that she was going to die. The way Buffy reacted to finding out she was going to die is exactly how I would expect a teenager to react to receiving that kind of devastating news (x). Elena never reacted like this at the prospect of dying. In fact, when she died in 3x22 she seemed at peace, as though she was okay with the fact that she was dying. Afterwards when she woke up in transition she literally said, “I was ready to die”. It’s strange, because I always accepted that Elena didn’t want to be a vampire and that she was heartbroken at the start of season 4, but on reflection it doesn’t make sense. Elena has been around vampires and she knew that although it has it’s cons, she could still have a relatively normal life. Plus, she had a support network around her, particularly Caroline who had literally gone through the process of becoming a vampire two years previously and who had adapted to it brilliantly. I look back now and the only explanation I have for Elena’s reaction to becoming a vampire is that she wanted to die. Lets not forget that a few episodes later in 4x06 she tried to kill herself. She was under the influence of the Hunters curse, but all the curse did is bring her own self-loathing and suicidal thoughts to the forefront. And notice how in her relationships with Stefan and Damon she made some sort of reference to how they provided her with a reason to live. About Stefan: “After my parents died I kind of felt like I didn’t know how to live anymore. Like I didn’t want to. But then being with Stefan, somehow I just figured it out. And that’s what love should be. You should love the person that makes you glad that you’re alive.” About Damon: “ I’m not sorry that I met you. I’m not sorry that knowing you has made me question everything, that in death you’re the one that made me feel most alive.” Elena actively searched for something to live for in her relationships with Stefan and Damon, which just demonstrates to me that outside of those relationships she felt she has no reason to live. That’s hardly healthy and also explains why her relationship with Damon became so intense in seasons 5 and 6 to the point that she described him as being the one that defined her and felt that she couldn’t live without him.

I could continue assessing this aspect of Elena but it’ll get too long. The point is that Elena endured a lot of hurt and trauma and people crap on her for some of the shitty decisions she made (none of which are really that bad, they’re just generic incidents of self-involvement that we’re all guilty of) without taking into account the context of her character or her mental state. Even the fact that she entered into relationships with vampires as a human is indicative of self-destructive tendencies. Regardless of the humanistic qualities Stefan and Damon had, the fact that they were vampires was obviously only going to bring strife to Elena’s life, but she disregarded that and chose to be with them anyway. Elena had a lot of deep-rooted emotional issues that she didn’t really ever get to deal with because every time she tried to make progress and heal something else traumatic happened to her. People don’t want to accept that Elena was a victim because the narrative placed her as the victim, and it pisses people off, but whether you like her or not she was a victim. Almost everything that happened to and around Elena was as a result of what she was (the doppelganger) or who she was connected to (Katherine, Stefan and Damon primarily) rather than her own decisions or actions.

She was also a victim of the writing. I don’t want to bring ships into this too much because that’s a separate issue, but Elena’s entire characterisation was sacrificed for the benefit of her relationship with Damon. The writers had to change her in certain ways to make that relationship work and instead of Elena having the kind of development we generally expect characters to have (whereby they change for the better), she actually regressed as a character. Elena’s entire character was built around the idea of her being compassionate, empathetic and nurturing, and being a good friend, girlfriend and sister, but all of that immediately became null and void when she got into a relationship with Damon. How could we believe that Elena was compassionate and a good friend/sister when she willingly entered into a relationship with a man who abused and raped her best friend (Caroline), murdered her brother in front of her and kidnapped and threatened him later on in the series, brutally attacked her other best friend (Bonnie), murdered Vicki and turned her into a vampire and killed Aaron. Those are just the bad things Damon did to Elena’s friends and family that I can recall from the top of my head. And this is also a core aspect of Elena’s character that people have a problem with - her entire characterisation no longer stands when she gets into a relationship with Damon. No matter how much the writers tried to tell us post season 4 that Elena was a kind, selfless and caring person, friend and sister, being with Damon automatically invalidated all of that. For Elena to make sense as a character and exist in that relationship, they had to completely re-establish her entire personality and core traits and the writers couldn’t be bothered to do that so just swept it under the rug. The problem is that fans don’t turn a blind eye to things like that they notice it.

So the big question here is why do you, and I, and others still like Elena? Well, I can only speak for myself, but I like Elena because (prior to season 4) she was a genuinely sweet and kind-hearted person that was relatable and had lots of potential but that was done a great injustice by the writing. Elena could’ve been one of the best loved characters of all time if the writers had known how to handle her, but they lost her character amidst the triangle drama and her relationships with the Salvatore brothers (honestly, I think if the triangle didn’t exist, Elena would’ve immediately been a more well-liked character generally). She didn’t do anything to warrant the terrible things that happened to her and has been consistently bashed by fans who nit-pick the minor examples of self-centredness she displayed and overlook all the kindness she showed and the hardships she endured. The horrendous traumas she suffered through have been glossed over but honestly, as a 17 year old girl that went through everything she did, she showed incredible strength and resilience. For that alone, I cannot do anything but love Elena Gilbert.

Also, as a side-note, on a more personal level, I relate to Elena a lot as a character that’s considered flat and boring and that people see as lacking in conviction. I’m always very insecure that I’m dull, that there’s nothing interesting about me and that people will find it difficult to like me or connect to me because I’m a very neutral character. I also worry because I don’t have a specific path in mind for my future or one thing that I’m passionate about and want to dedicate my life to. And I feel like people a lot of people in real life really are like this. Not every single person in the world is super deep and multi-layered with really well-defined personalities. Not everyone is fun, vibrant, charming and charismatic. Likewise, a lot of people don’t know exactly what they want out of life (in fact, I’d argue people who know what they want are in the minority of people). A lot of people are just dull and ‘ordinary’ and don’t have their lives mapped out. We have this tendency to analyse characters based on their traits, their strengths, weaknesses, hobbies, desires, fears etc. which is fun and I love to do it, but real people are more complex than that. If I asked people that know me to describe my core personality they probably wouldn’t be able to (hell, I don’t even think I’d be able to!), because you can never really articulate the essence of what a person is no matter how hard you try. People are contradictory and personalities, feelings, thoughts, morals, beliefs etc. are very changeable. There are core aspects to who we are, but people can change the way they think or behave or what they believe all the time depending upon circumstances and experiences. Elena may not necessarily have a core personality or characterisation that is maintained across the series, but in a strange way, that makes her more human to me than any other character. And I relate so much to the way that Elena never really knows what to do when it comes to making important life decisions. It’s important to remember when analysing Elena that despite Nina looking (and being) older than 17, Elena is supposed to be a 17 year old girl. Most teenagers that age don’t have a clue who they are, what they want or who they want and are just living day to day and seeing where life takes them. That’s exactly what Elena did and since she “made it” it gives me hope that I will one day too.

Thank you so much for asking, lovely! I tried to keep this short, but I have a lot of thoughts and feelings when it comes to Elena. Hopefully I made sense, because I felt like a lot of this was very muddled and explained terribly.

#answered #my meta #tvd meta #elena gilbert #anti-delena #theofficestan

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thunderheadfred · 5 years

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Why I Love Spike But Also Hate Him A Lot: an unsolicited essay by me

OR: Why I personally relate to blood-sucking poseurs OR: dude what if I ever got high enough to rewrite season six?

(under a cut because this goes on for a while. also discourse frightens me)

Okay. I’m like twenty years late. But I’ve been rewatching BtVS s5 during my latest depression spiral and wandering against my better judgement into the Spuffy fic verse. Disclaimer that my grasp of the series’ larger canon is meh at best, and frankly I don’t care.

As usual, I have too many thoughts.

Spike is, hands-down, my favorite character on this show. Maybe one of my favorite characters, period. He’s just... good to watch. But listen. Secret poet or no, he was never an inherently good person. Meek and shy does not equal Buffy’s equal. I squirm at this apparently massively popular canon interpretation of his human character as some kind of adorable perfect cherub, as if William the Dipshit Poet is somehow preferable to Spike the Complicated Murderer or like, we should just automatically assume that cute shy white people who lived in 1880 London are default Lawful Good when in fact... ahahaa haaaa YIKES COLONIALISM?

I actually think the reason Spike is “more human” than other vampires (in the weird, contradictory Buffy soul-canon) is exactly because William was not Pure, he was a Pratt. Sweet? I guess. Loves his mum? He’s got that going for him. But that guy?? Is not Buffy’s long-lost true love, not a weepy ghost to be shoved into Spike’s Billy Idol cosplay bod at the last minute. In a show that, at its best, tries to give us a protagonist who fundamentally believes we must always make the choice to keep living mindfully, accountably, and with purpose... we get a love interest who is... Spike. A guy who, until the very end of his arc, acts as though he has zero fucking free will. Even though, through a combo of deliciously fun and inconsistent writing, Spike is apparently the only vampire in the Buffyverse who does.

I’ll get to that but first, let’s accept for a minute that Free Will + Buffy = good, and people who roll over and say “I had no choice” + Buffy = Mr. Pointy. This counts for her friends too, (*coughWILLOWcough*) and it’s one of the reasons I love the show despite its many textual problems. As a character piece, it’s great. People fail to take accountability for their behavior all the time. It’s an extraordinarily human flaw, one that rarely equals automatically evil, and I love that it can bite characters on the side of good, too. But that’s not the point of this, oh shit!

Okay. William, cute glasses aside, has no free will. He didn’t even sign up for the vampire thing, he just wanted to get felt up by a pretty girl who saw him cry and didn’t laugh at him. At every point, he was an immature, weak-willed, naive dreamer type who wanted nothing more than to be validated by his shitty friends. The vampirism made him a killer, yeah. But it also inadvertently gave a cowardly nobody a lot of good qualities. Now he’s a weirdly observant, relentlessly optimistic, fun-loving, sexually secure Cool Guy who gave up poetry for punk... but still tries too hard to impress his shitty friends. Basically, being a vampire made this guy a happier-but-still-undeniably-crappy version of himself, especially... considering all the murder.

But now, let us transparently and metaphorically link cartoonish Vamp!Murder to addiction. Because wow, death in BtVS is either a manipulative authorial gut-punch or a dumb joke, and either way, it’s almost impossible to take seriously in this show, so let’s not.

How to make a remorseless bloodsucking fiend out of of “boo hoo I’m a bad writer and I wish some jerks thought I was cool?” Ha ha you can’t! Turns out you basically recreate my early twenties but with more murder. Spike is a socially-dependent ADHD art school reject on a century-long avoidance bender. He’s a codependent, moon-eyed boyfriend who learns how to aggressively project not caring while caring Far Too Much, all while clinging to aesthetic as an identity. ALTHOUGH let us not deny that he 100% enjoyed all the killing - wtf so much killing - because for vampires, killing equals pleasure, and charming, “happy” addicts always justify the comforts of their vices. He talks the talk cuz fitting in is his whole deal, but he’s not actually in it for chaos and destruction or any high-falutin’ evil reason, or even really for eating delicious ladies but because, in the end, it feels good and the only girlfriend he’s ever had thinks eating people is cool. Even his whole (gorgeous, splendid to watch) episode-long speech about killing two slayers was written more for Buffy’s character arc than his; we don’t really know why he killed the slayers other than like, “Because they had a death wish I guess. Side note: it was fun.”

There wasn’t much legitimately vengeful or hateful stuff in sad little William for demon!Spike to work with, and apparently William’s soul-or-whatever moved about twelve inches over his left shoulder and stayed there, occasionally poking him for the next hundred years. So it should shock no one that he immediately switches sides when a) his girlfriend dumps him, b) his addiction suddenly hurts, and c) it’s time to impress a new friend group.

I get that Spike’s whole soul-getting between s6 and s7 has been interpreted in fanon as a grand romantic sacrifice (ehhhhhhhhhhhh) and I get why that’s tempting, but the show itself bungled that up way bad and I just can’t get behind it. R*pe idiocy aside, making it ultimately all about Buffy just kinda cheapens what could have been a really fucking powerful redemption arc, one that would have led to a far more satisfying love story. Especially from Buffy’s perspective.

Okay listen.

We have a guy who has been playing the “duh, Vampire!” card for a century, pleasure-seeking and self-centered, pandering to various peer groups, murderous or otherwise, a happy addict, impervious to change. So when finally, after a HUNDRED SODDING YEARS of being a soulless, hilarious dick, Spike has consequences shoved into his gray matter by the government, he doesn’t change. At all. He just starts obsessing over another woman, doing what he thinks she wants. A woman he thinks will give him new pleasures, a new, perpetually fine status quo. But this woman is Buffy, whose identity is rock solid even though her life is constantly full of challenge and change and choices. She “rewards” Spike only when he makes willful, selfless decisions. And the rewards aren’t romantic, either. Not early on. Even in canon, she keeps rejecting him over and over again, for crystal clear reasons. Thank god. Because when he accepts that she’ll never have him, but still does the hard stuff anyway, he’s unwittingly starting to change. It’s not just Buffy. Buffy demands real personhood. Independence. Identity. Choice.

Uh oh. She’s gotten to him, then. Though it starts out selfish, he still makes a CHOICE. Quite literally, he takes on the pain of self-improvement - first by embracing the consequences of his chip, later by going on his fancy sparkly soul quest. Buffy is the catalyst, no doubt, because once a poet always a poet and girls are pretty, but Spike’s path to improvement (if not redemption) was already there, laid out nice and neat. His narrative low point, the lightbulb moment that makes him want a soul again, should never have come out of a season of terrible backsliding, culminating in the shower scene we all regret.

It should have been The Gift.

Death isn’t Buffy’s gift. It’s love. And not that simpering, easy kind of love that just says, “there there,” but the hard, truthful love that makes you want to keep getting that goddamn rock from the bottom of the hill. Yes, Spike’s arc should still be about Buffy, it’s Buffy’s show, but it should have been more about the hole she left behind. Not just in Spike but in the world.

What’s left? This latest and greatest group of people who have so far RIGHTLY rejected a demon whose sole motivator seems to be comfort. And maybe when these particular people hit rock bottom, they have enough wisdom to see a monster down in the dark and recognize themselves. Maybe Dawn (whose humanizing effect on Spike has been nearly as important as his obsession with Buffy) shows him that rare, rare thing called Validation. And oh god, he realizes he’s never actually moved beyond trying to sell effulgence to Cecily Whatsherface, that he’s been sitting on his own grave for a hundred years, waiting for someone to coddle and fix him, and now the only woman who might have, the best woman, literally the one girl chosen one above all others... is gone. This would be a good time to die.

Or...

...maybe there is no magic soul cave, maybe he tries to end it and makes the CHOICE not to. Chooses to stay and help, because what else is there? Then BAM! it just slams back into him in a way that hurts like you can’t even believe, because admitting how bad you’ve fucked up is the most painful moment of a lifetime and I’ve lived it and I wish I’d had a hellmouth to jump into, but the Scoobies pull him back, and he takes care of Dawn until life seems to have some meaning again, then Buffy comes out of the earth traumatized and broken and no one is better equipped to help her than a recovering Spike, not because he’s magically her rock but because he’s also learning how to roll his own rock and keep on climbing, because Camus ruined us all for metaphors...

THE END

Anyway. As a recovering addict and toxic person who has been struggling a lot recently... who wants to improve and be able to give more to the people I love, Spike has an arc that just like... cuts me deep, man. Especially because of what should have been.

#I'm also afraid to tag this as anything #haha aaa aa #uh

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bluephoenixdruidicprincess · 5 years

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Shadowhunters 3x14, A Kiss From a Rose -- Review

Alright, so Shadowhunters 3x14, A Kiss From a Rose, let’s talk about it. I’m finally buckling down and writing this review. I’m sorry for always being super late on these reviews, but this show is just so damn boring. It’s really difficult to just sit in front of my computer these days and talk about this show because there’s nothing I really want to talk about. Everything that I could possibly say about these episodes, I’ve already said a hundred times before in previous reviews. Shadowhunters has never been a “good” show, but at the very least, it was always somewhat interesting and so bad that it’s enjoyable to watch in an ironic sense so once upon a time, I legitimately enjoyed reviewing the show. But all of season 3 (including A and what we’ve seen of B) has just been so boring and directionless, it’s become a real chore to actually review this show. Dare I say it, I think I’m enjoying Lega-Trash far more than I’m enjoying this show currently and that’s saying something considering Legacies makes me feel like I’m dying whenever I watch it. But, I made a promise to you all as well as myself that I would see this show to the end, so here I am.

I would like to preface this review with saying that I am NOT a huge supporter of this show. I do enjoy certain elements of it but I’m not what would be classified as a devoted fan. For me, Shadowhunters is not a good show and I do get very critical of the show in my reviews. Honestly, for me, I watch the show because 1) I’m too curious not to and 2) I find that this show can be so bad its funny and that’s how I reap enjoyment out of it. I am not at all invested in this show or its characters anymore. I’m just watching to see what happens. If you’re a die hard fan and you lash out at everyone who has a different opinion than you, you might want to skip these…I’m just saying. My reviews may not be for you. If you do decide to be a total troll, well then pay attention to the below disclaimer.

This is going to be an honest review of my thoughts and feelings regarding this episode. If you’re the kind of Shadowhunters fan where you only want to hear positive things about the show, this is not the place for you. If you decide to stick around and get offended by what is said, then that’s on you. I warned you. Just know that if you send me any rude comments or messages, I will 100% ignore you. I find that’s the best way to deal with bullies. I work 14 hour days. Do you really think I want to waste my incredibly valuable free time dealing with derogatory comments? Hell no. This review will consist of my honest opinions. Opinions are never right or wrong. I’m not telling YOU how to think and feel. I’m telling you what I, quirky and socially awkward me, think and feel. So please, lets discuss with dignity and respect. If I’m critical about this show, it’s only because I want it to get better. There is, in fact, a difference between hating a show and being critical of it. I do not hate Shadowhunters, I am being critical and analyzing the flaws as I would with any other show. There are positives but there are also negatives. It’s great if you want to promote positivity with this show (and I encourage you to do so) but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to point out the things that are legitimately wrong with it. Also, keep in mind that despite the fact that I do like the books, me being critical of this show has nothing to do with my fondness for the books. I don’t really care if the show deviates from the source material as long as the changes are good, it makes sense, and it doesn’t create plot holes within the confines of the world the show has created. My problems with this show are problems I would have with any show or book for that matter. I think it’s perfectly reasonable to take issue with a show that has plot holes, shoddy world building, and inconsistent characters. There will be spoilers for the books and movie.

3x14, A Kiss From a Rose was…surprise, surprise…super boring. Seriously, it’s beginning to feel like this entire season is filler. This show continues to astound me in its talent for having too much going on but yet nothing also happens at the same time. I must’ve fast-forwarded probably about 70% of the episode because I was just so completely bored. I don’t understand it. There’s so much plot, the show is operating on a deadline but they continue to use filler episodes. It boggles my mind. In fact, I’m actually beginning to wonder just how far in advance the show might’ve known they were going to be cancelled because it feels like no one is trying this season. The writing is bad, the directing is bad, a lot of the acting is very bland and uninspiring, I’m beginning to think that the production staff, at least, had known about the cancellation most likely after 2B and before 3A. Like, if I had never watched Shadowhunters before, never read the books and an episode of season 3 (whether it be 3A or 3B) was my first introduction to the franchise, I would’ve written this show off no questions asked. Whereas if my first introduction to the show was an episode from season 1 or season 2, I still would’ve thought the show was bad but I also might’ve found myself slightly intrigued. The show, while being so completely bad, does have its moments of intrigue where I can tolerate it and there is none of that thus far in season 3, it’s just really bland, boring writing.

More Directionless Incesty Stuff…Yay

We unfortunately continue this story line of Jonathon being super attracted to Clary (for some reason, again, it’s beyond me on why everyone and their mother loves show!Clary in all of her Mary Sue glory, but whatever). I was originally excited for seeing this story line being switched up with Clary getting Jace’s story line from the books but the show is approaching this all wrong. It shouldn’t be about Clary sympathizing with Jonathon, it should be about Clary understanding him and seeing a bit of herself in Jonathon and questioning her motivations and if she can really justify her own actions as any better than how Jonathon justifies his own actions. It doesn’t mean she forgives him, it just means she gains an understanding of him as well as herself. It’s something that I’ve mentioned before in previous episodes that when really analyzing Clary as a character and what motivates her, she’s really not all that different from her father. The only thing that separates them are their ideals. In fact, I’d wager that without Jocelyn, Clary could probably have turned out exactly like Valentine. I think Clary has more in common with Valentine than she does with Jocelyn. At her very core, I actually don’t believe Clary’s this inherently good and pure person. She’s selfish and she’s willing to do whatever it takes to get the things she wants and without Jocelyn kind of curbing those instincts into a sense of social justice values, she could easily have gone the opposite direction. And that version of Clary is a fascinating character…it’s too bad the show doesn’t think so, they keep on wanting to depict her as this pure and perfect and innocent little flower who can do no wrong and deserves zero consequences for her actions and that’s what makes her boring and dull.

But this story line does nothing for Clary or Jonathon for that matter. Jonathon just continuing to have these romantic feelings towards his sister with very little development towards it just further showcases the show depicting him as this “evil” guy. He’s evil so of course he desires his sister in a sexual manner. And this certainly does nothing for Clary as a character. All we’re seeing is Jonathon manipulating Clary and taking advantage of her and her gaining feelings of sympathy towards him, it’s completely unnecessary and gross.

I was also bothered by just how long it took before Clary realized that it was actually Jonathon she was on a date with and not Jace. I mean, the whole part where Jonathon is making excuses for himself, it really doesn’t say very nice things about Jace, don’t you think? So the fact that she just accepted what he was saying as the truth while wearing Jace’s face really paints a very jaded picture of how she sees Jace. So again, it leaves you with the question of, “why on earth is Clace a thing?” They clearly don’t understand anything about each other. Or at least she has zero understanding of Jace as a person.

It was an interesting move for the show to give Jace’s City of Lost Souls story line to Clary in the show but thus far, the show isn’t doing a very good job of executing it. And I still wish that since we’re going for a role reversal here, that it should’ve been a complete role reversal and instead of Jonathon being super obsessed with Clary like he is in the books, it’s actually Jace he’s super obsessed with. As I’ve said before, if you’re going to do a role reversal, you might as well go all the way.

But the date in the ice skating ring was a little cute so I’ll give the show that. I didn’t hate that scene. And early in the episode when the seelie is pretending to be Clary for Jonathon and she blows it by saying something Clary would never say and Jonathon blames the seelie for it, I really like that the seelie points out that it’s not her fault that the script she was given sucks. By no means do I believe this show is that self-aware, but I found enjoyment in choosing to think that there’s a possibility that the writers are making fun of themselves a little bit with that line. As I’ve always said with this show, their dialogue is atrocious and this show is actually known for it’s bad dialogue so I enjoyed that line.

The Return of Magnus’s Magic…Sort Of

So apparently warlocks giving each other magic via magic transfusion is a thing, I guess. Awfully convenient though, right? Something we’ve never seen as part of this world in the show before. But whatever. Magnus goes to Lorenzo and in exchange for Magnus giving up his apartment, Lorenzo agrees to perform this magic transfusion on Magnus. It’s nice to know that this whole plot point of Magnus losing his magic and having to find a way to live without it was a complete waste of time. Although, at least it looks like there’s consequences for it so we’ll see, I guess but I’m not holding my breath that this is somehow going to further develop Magnus in any sort of way other than put him in a victim position once again. Seriously, I’m so sick of this guy always being put in a victim capacity. I’m sick of always being told I need to feel sorry for this guy and that being the entire development of his character. An anon came to me last week talking about how Magnus is basically the Bonnie Bennett of Shadowhunters and to a certain extent I can agree with that but I would never compare the awesomeness that is Bonnie to show!Magnus. Bonnie may have been a victim a lot but she always grew every time she lost and we don’t ever get that with Magnus. There was this inherent strength about her and we never had to be told that. But this show goes way out of its way to tell us how strong of a person Magnus is. If you develop a well-written character, you don’t have to do that. The one time show!Magnus became legitimately interesting to me was the set of flashbacks we got in the first episode of 3B where we got a glimpse of the darker parts of his past and I’m just like, “where’s that guy? I want to see that guy.”

But anyway, there’s was some sort of Lara Croft Tomb Raider shit going on with the Magnus and Alec plot point where they’re trying to find the sword Jonathon is looking for but it’s ultimately pointless, they don’t find it. And we also get a really cringey scene where Alec threatens Lorenzo for being mean to Magnus and dare I say it…expecting payment for what he gave Magnus, I know, a real shock that when you make a deal for something, you should actually have to give up something. And what you give up should have a similar importance to what you’re being given. In general, that’s how payment typically works. But whatever, again, Magnus needs to always be the victim so of course this is what happens. I don’t mind so much that Alec threatened Lorenzo…I do however mind that he’s using the power he has as a head of the Institute to threaten Lorenzo, to me, that was a little uncalled for. Sure what Lorenzo did was distasteful but it’s hardly something where Lorenzo should be threatened by Clave punishment. I’m not saying Alec shouldn’t have threatened him, I understand why Alec did it, I just wish it wasn’t Alec using the power he was given as a leader to threaten him. Threaten Lorenzo individual-to-individual, that kind of thing, but don’t use your privilege for it, that’s distasteful and frankly really showcases how incredibly racist this show actually is. And it also shows a double standard. It’s not cool to use your political power to lord over downworlders but yet it’s okay to use that power to lord over downworlders you don’t like? How very progressive and woke of you, Shadowhunters.

But maybe with Magnus getting his magic back, we’ll have the conversation we were supposed to have in 3A where Malec actually deals with the immortality issue instead of sweeping it underneath the rug where they sweep all their other conflicts.

Jordan’s Underserved Redemption in Maia’s Eyes

I really dislike how Maia’s forgiveness of Jordan went down in this episode. This is something that definitely shouldn’t have happened immediately after Maia saw her entire pack get slaughtered and then have her claustrophobia triggered and oh yeah, Jordan is also dying in front of her. That’s sensory overload right there and it does nothing for her as a character. Really, how the show has been executing this whole Maia Becoming Alpha does nothing for her character. What’s the point of Maia going through this character arc of her feeling weak and defenseless and finally gaining the confidence to be strong if there isn’t a pack left that enabled her to become that being? It all feels just really pointless.

Oh, and I guess Simon and Luke did something this episode. It wasn’t much and really the episode could’ve gone without them and it wouldn’t have made that much of a difference. They find Maia and Jordan...and Luke gets arrested. I don’t know why Luke is so obsessed with giving the wolves the funeral rights immediately after their deaths when that’s never been the case before but whatever. I guess we must continue on this whole plot line of the NYPD cop plot line Luke has been on since Season 1 despite it always 100% being a complete waste of screen time.

There you have it. My review of Shadowhunters 3x14, A Kiss From a Rose. It was boring and another filler that really continues to worry me about the rest of the season. So far, 3B has had 0 direction, 0 character arcing and it’s just been a really dull experience. And what they’re doing does absolutely nothing for the characters. I’d give this episode a C+. It’s nothing special. It’s bleh. I guess I’ll hope for better when I watch the newest Shadowhunters episode today.

#shadowhunters #shadowhunters 3x14 #shadowhunters 3.14 #a kiss from a rose #shadowhunters a kiss from a rose

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capricorn-0mnikorn · 6 years

Quote

The way we laugh, reminisce, and argue about the Doctor might lead some poor, lost soul who wandered into RADW by mistake to think we're confusing him with a biological, historical person. "Never!" I say. Doctor Who is a creation of the human mind, of many human minds. And that is why I love him. If we can imagine *him*, then perhaps we can imagine, and create, ourselves in his image. Despite the inconsistencies, the squabbles we get into over his nature, origins, biology and history, the Doctor remains a hero who takes on the world with humor, charm, and intelligence. He, like the people who create him, has his dark sides. He can be petty, manipulative, and mean. But in the end, he always returns to his core: someone with a strong, flexible mind that embraces the impossible, and with two hearts, that between them, have enough room to love the whole universe. If "Doctor Who" were the creation of one mind, I would be glad and hopeful, keeping the idea of him as an example of what our species may become. But that he is the creation of so many -- all the writers, directors, actors, crew, editors, and fans -- that he has survived, and continued to grow, in the context of a *real* world, through over 36 years of war, crime, greed and indifference -- this, *this* is what brings a heart-warmed tear to my eye. {{{{Whovians}}} I love you guys!!

Me: 29 September, 1999.

This was the first post I ever made on the Usenet group Rec.Arts.Drwho (aka RADW). And rec.arts.drwho on Usenet was also my first foray into Internet-wide “Social media.“ (Before that, I hung out on Prodigy and America Online Bulletin Boards, but those were only open to subscribers of those particular services)

[This was also a good four years before anyone of us in that forum could have dreamed that the series would come back to television as a regular series]

If it weren’t for my love of Doctor Who, I wouldn’t be here, writing on this Tumblr blog.

If it weren’t for rec.arts.drwho, I wouldn’t have had a LiveJournal. If it weren’t for LiveJournal, I never would have had a Dreamwidth Journal. If I had never had a Dreamwidth Journal, I never would have learned about NaNoWriMo.

And, most important, I wouldn’t have ever met most of the people I now consider my closest friends.

If that’s not a reason to celebrate, I don’t know what is.

Happy 55th, Doctor Who!

#Doctor Who 1963-2018 #Doctor Who 55th Anniversary #nostalgia #hope #kindness #Creativity

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onceuponaprime · 6 years

Text

That Which Fades

Chapter 15

Titus is gone but he hasn’t caught on to that yet.

I know its been a while since my last update (2 months rip) but life was kicking my ass and now that my move is done I’m trying to get back into the writing swing. Only 2 chapters left to go (I’m pretty sure) I know this fic has been all over the place and its really more a series of oneshots than a consistent fic but its a start. It’s helped me grow as a writer for the future and feel confident that I can start and finish something of this length.

Also I wanted to contribute something for Titus week and this is as close as I’m gonna get.

Since he left home, battered and broken, he’s learned to flow with the curves life throws him. When he joined Niflheim he accepted the terms, he became Glauca, and he accepted the things that came after. He remembers all the fires, all the deaths, the sound of magitek engines and screaming and Glauca’s power buzzing in his ears. He flows now through a new routine as the days pass him by. The thing that stands out most, he finds, is his time with Cor. What started as a monthly meeting for stress relief has become so frequent Titus finds himself thinking of it almost daily. Their friendly drinks and not so friendly fucking have blended together to the point where Titus isn’t quite sure how to handle it.

Like now, sitting with his back against the headboard, sweat still clinging to his skin as Cor catches his breath beside him, neither of them in any hurry to get away, something that's been happening more often as of late. He knows he shouldn’t linger, knows that it's a dangerous and cruel game he’s playing. But when given the option of a warm embrace and the cold solitude of his own bed he finds himself more often than not choosing the former.

How long is he going to let this last?

“I could go for a drink,” Cor says, and Titus glances over to him as he sits up suddenly. “Interested?” Titus shrugs instead of saying no like he should, and stands to start gathering his clothes.

“Maybe tea,” he finds himself saying as he dresses. “It’s a long walk.”

“Sure, I can do tea.” He flashes a small smile before getting dressed himself and heading to the kitchen ahead of him. A sigh slips past Titus’s lips once he’s alone and he runs a hand through his mussed hair in frustration.

Part of him wants nothing more than to isolate himself and cut this thing apart entirely, but his voice of reason has become weak these past months turning to years. He’d ruined his chances when he’d first accepted the olive branch of drinks now years ago. That one simple kindness, the most human he’d allowed himself to be since Glauca became a part of him, has taken root so deep he’s not sure he can cut it. His body craves the comfort, his very soul the reminder that Titus Drautos was still alive within the shell he’d built around himself.

By the time he pulls himself out of his own thoughts to meet Cor in the kitchen the tea is done, and he accepts the small cup with a grunt of gratitude. He drinks leaning against the counter, intent to leave the moment he’s finished, and Cor makes no comment as he takes his seat at the table.

“You called to that Council meeting tomorrow?”

“No,” Titus replies. “I haven’t been called to a meeting since our last deployment.”

“Hm.” Cor takes a long drink, staring into his cup for a moment before meeting his eyes. “Tell me something, are things getting any better out there?”

“Depends on how you ask.” Titus shrugs because it's the truth, there’s almost no need to lie. “We still win, but we’re taking more losses than volunteers can replace. They’re trying to wear us down, until we can’t push back.”

“So that's a no then.”

“Marshal, I won’t lie to you,” he lies. “Things are bad, but Insomnia won’t fall any time soon, not with the Glaive still kicking and the Wall still standing.”

“You’ve got a way with words, Drautos,” Cor replies humorlessly, but he leans back relaxed, like the response was exactly what he needed to hear.

“Sometimes blunt words are the best tool. If you wanted me to wax poetic you should have asked.”

“You waxing poetic? Hah! I’d pay to see that.”

“The right payment and I’d be more than willing to demonstrate.” He shoots Cor a heated look as he finishes his tea and sets the empty cup on the counter. The man laughs, but the light flush of his cheeks is hard to miss.

“I’ll hold you to that.”

Life moves in it's new pattern and Titus lets it. Some days he almost forgets the Empire, captured wholly by the lie that his life has become, being the perfect Captain to the Kingsglaive, and good company to Cor, the days where he feels like his real self. Of course the Citadel remains a place that forever flays his nerves, and any interaction with Regis is enough to sour his mood, but for a time it all feels normal, with inconsistent reminders to the contrary. Such peace of mind can only last for so long however, Titus is very well aware of that.

In the end, the Kingsglaive are right, Niflheim attacks from both sides, and they are given no aide against the split onslaught. The formerly clear skies of Mizar fill with smoke as the ruins of an already decrepit outpost go up in flames. Luche leads the half of the Glaive deployed to Gabrana, and he doubts they’re fairing much better. Things had started falling apart almost the moment they arrived. Daemons swarmed them in broad daylight, somehow sustained beneath the sweltering sun. Magitek he had suspected, but even his knowledge of the Empire drew blank at this sort of power, and combined with the might of the MT units it felt like the halved unit of Glaives were nothing but ants.

It's all starting to crumble, he can feel the looming inevitability of Niflheim’s intervention, the hour of his vengeance close at hand, but there’s too much death. Titus knows indisputably then that the end is nearing, not here just yet, but it's creeping closer by the day, a dark message telling him to get ready, the first sign of the end. All he can smell is death and smoke, can feel it clawing at his memories, old losses along with new jumbling together until he doesn’t care to distinguish them. He calls the retreat, contacts Luche and orders him to do the same, two days of brutal fighting and surviving wasted against impossible odds.

By the time they return to Insomnia Titus feels hollow, spews his lies to his false king about the division causing the loss, makes hollow vows of defense, and leaves still in a haze. He doesn’t remember much, not the king’s words, not what he said to the Glaives or what they said to him, doesn’t remember the drive, all he knows is their losses were staggering and only set to dwindle more. Keep them alive now, kill them later, when Niflheim calls for blood loyal to Lucis, kill them then. His feet carry him and Titus drifts, not caring where he’s going as he wars to keep himself together, his past, present, and future pulling at each other until all Titus hears is noise that's not there.

Suddenly he stops, and he’s torn from his revere to see his destination. It’s not his apartment, but he knows the door all the same. He shouldn’t be here, not like this and never again. He should leave, but his body refuses, his mind is tired and his chest suddenly aches. Arriving unannounced in the middle of the night was hardly the worst thing he’d ever done. Leave, leave now. Almost by its own volition his hand raises to knock weakly on the door. It opens some moments later, and Titus feels his will leave him.

“You look terrible,” Cor says, eyeing him up and down. “Come on.” He nods his head inside as he opens the door wider and Titus enters in a haze, his feet carrying him over the threshold without much thought.

Once inside he drops to unlace his boots out of habit, fingers fumbling with the clasps until they are batted away. His eyes shoot up but Cor isn’t looking at him, intent on undoing his laces. He doesn’t say anything, and Titus can’t bring himself to break the silence. When he’s done Cor stands, waiting for him to shuck off those damnably tall boots. He manages to free himself in a somewhat timely fashion, and Cor sets to divesting him of the simpler parts of his armor. The leather comes away neatly, and Cor carefully hangs it on the coat rack before working on his shirt, deft fingers undoing the buttons with a quick ease before brushing the fabric off his broad shoulders. When that’s done Cor leads him back into the bedroom with a loose grip on his wrist and he follows easily.

“Marshal-” Cor cuts him off with a bruising kiss, using his surprise to his advantage and moving them until he’s able to push Titus down onto the bed. What he needs doesn’t need to be said, Cor knows, those eyes filled with an understanding brought by experience.

“Lie back,” he urges, and Titus would be more inclined to refuse if he wasn’t so damn tired, so he simply does as he’s bid, moving back on the bed until his feet don’t dangle off the edge and his head hits the pillows. “Just relax, Captain.” And he does, the tension of the last few days easing out of him as he sinks into the sheets.

For a moment he contemplates sleep, eyes fluttering closed, the bed beneath him soft and inviting until it dips and he feels moist lips against against his throat. A pleased hum rumbles up through his chest as Cor nips at his throat, and then trails wet kisses down his chest and stomach, stopping at the waistband of his pants. Exhaustion turns to a growing arousal with Cor’s hands working at his belt and zipper, and he shifts his hips as Cor peals the leather slowly down his legs. Titus expects Cor to stroke him to hardness, anticipates rough jerks from that familiar calloused palm, is more eager for it that he cares to admit. A sharp groan tears from his throat at the feel of Cor’s mouth around his cock and his hand finds its way to the man’s head. Cor lets him guide his movements with an insistent touch, his hair soft against his palm. His hips jerk under the ministration, but Cor keeps him from bucking into his mouth with a hand pressed hard against his hip.

Through the haze he hears a pop, but it's distant, Titus can’t find it in himself to care at this point, unable to process much beyond the velvet wetness around him, that tongue doing delectable things with every bob of Cor’s head. When he’s properly hard and aching Cor leaves him with a parting suck to the tip that makes him see stars. He feels Cor roll the condom down his length, hears another pop, and then Cor’s hand is around him, slicking him with lube. A leg swings over his hips and Titus opens his eyes to the sight of Cor’s back, smooth and taunt. Almost mesmerized by the vision before him, Titus watches as Cor slowly sinks down on his length, taking him all the way in until he’s seated on his lap. Their moans mingle and Titus settles his hands on Cor’s hips, thumbs rubbing against the soft skin of his back.

They don’t speak, Cor simply moves, takes his pleasure as Titus lies back and lets him. Cor’s back flexes with each graceful roll of his hips, breathing heavy and almost loud in the silence. Titus watches him with rapt attention, stifling his own sounds of pleasure to catch each of Cor’s, can feel the way his own heart stutters with each quiet moan. Soon it's not enough to simply watch as Cor’s right hand drops between his own legs and his rhythm stutters and speeds, Titus can’t content himself with doing nothing. One of his hands falls away from Cor’s hip, moving to the mattress beside him to push himself up, sore muscles ignored as his back presses to Cor’s chest and he feels him shudder.

Almost lazily he drops his head to Cor’s shoulder, a simple press of lips against skin. Cor sighs and leans back against him, hand falling away from himself to reach back for him, nails biting against his hip as if to bring him impossibly closer. The angle can’t be easy but Cor manages, letting out breathy sounds near his ear as Titus traces his mouth along the line of his neck. He lets the hand still on Cor’s hip trace up until it's splayed along his chest, pulling him in close as his fingers brush the hard line of his collarbone. By the soft sounds he’s starting to make Titus knows he’s close. How easy it would be to kill him now, his hand slips up that much further until it rests around Cor’s throat, it would be so easy, and before he can gain enough sense to stop himself he squeezes with the lightest of pressure. Cor moans sharply, jerking in his grip as he comes, warmth painting Titus’s thighs. He lets himself be pulled into a sloppy kiss by the sudden insistent tugs of Cor’s fingers in his hair, groans into Cor’s mouth as he follows in his own pleasure.

Boneless and sapped of the last of his strength Titus lets himself fall back onto the bed, heaving for breath and unwilling to move. For a moment Cor remains astride him, hunched forward and catching his own breath. Soon enough he lifts away, and Titus watches the obscene way his cock slips free of his ass as he maneuvers himself off the bed. Cor is kind enough to remove the condom, and Titus shudders as his grip lingers on his sensitive cock before he moves away.

“Rest, it's alright.” Titus grunts, forcing one eye back open to track his movement. “And feel free to use the shower if you’d like, might do you some good once you’re up,” he says, tilting his head towards the bathroom as he hunts for his pants.

“You didn’t seem to mind,” he mumbles back, and Cor chuckles.

“Don’t be too smug.” Cor grins, and Titus feels his eyes flutter closed against the strain to keep them open, a wordless sound falling from his lips before sleep suddenly takes him.

When he wakes he’s not sure how much time is passed, but it can’t have been too long, he’s still tired, but the edge of his exhaustion has been taken off nicely. There’s a large glass of water on the bedside table next to a painkiller that won’t work but he takes it anyway and chugs the water, not realizing how thirsty he was until it hits the dryness of his throat. He eats the protein bar as well, grateful to have something somewhat filling, all together it helps him feel more present and solid. A lingering tiredness still clings to him and the idea of a hot shower is an impossible thing to ignore. Gingerly he stands, muscles sore but markedly less than when he arrived, before he makes his way to the bathroom.

The shower does well to soothe him, the hot water bliss against his skin, and he lingers beneath the spray far longer than he usually does. When he’s motivated enough to move he turns off the now lukewarm water and drys off with little hurry, far too relaxed now to bother with any sort of his usual haste. He finds most of his clothes laid out neatly on the dresser along with a pair of sweatpants too large to be Cor’s. For a moment he wonders if they’re his before he remembers the improbability, but he can’t help but wonder who they belong to. Are the Cor’s? Too large by mistake and kept for this reason? Or did they belong to some ex lover and were forgotten? Titus doesn’t let himself linger on that last thought and the dangerous way it makes him feel. The idea of putting on the dirty tight leather of his pants isn’t a pleasant one, and he relents to the old sweats, pulling them on before draping his pants over his arm and making his way out of the bedroom. He doesn’t remember what happened to his shirt, but he’s sure he’ll find it with the rest of his armor, and it’s high time he take his leave.

“Looking for this?” His gaze snaps over to the armchair, approaching without thought. There Cor sits rather languidly, bare legs propped out and crossed at the ankles, greeting him with a raised glass of amber liquid and an unmistakable black sleeve bunching at the crook of his arm.

“That's my shirt.” Which was obvious, but Titus finds he can’t get much else past his suddenly leaden tongue. Cor nods and tips back his glass, polishing it off with a few slow gulps and Titus watches his throat bob with a growing interest.

“Would you like it back?” Yes, because it's late and he should leave, needs to leave, but he’s rooted to the the spot. Something about the nonchalance in Cor’s voice, the borderline taunt, coupled with the way he practically swims in that shirt, awakens something in Titus that he can’t quite explain. What he does know, is that he wants the man sitting in front of him.

Seemingly able to read his thoughts, or more likely just able to read his desire, Cor stands and brushes past him towards the counter. His shirt is loose on Cor, hanging just above the tops of his thighs. Titus presses against his back the moment Cor sets his glass on the counter, and the man leans back against him, chuckling softly.

“Thought you’d still be tired, that wasn’t much of a nap.”

“Enough to give me a second wind,” Titus replies lowly, nipping at Cor’s neck while his hand sneaks up Cor’s thigh.

“Was hoping you would say that.”

“That so?” His hand finds Cor’s ass and he squeezes until Cor hums before sliding his fingers between his cheeks. He inhales sharply when he meets only slick heat and no resistance, and his first finger slips inside without resistance. “Were you?” He can’t even finish the question, lost already to his task, another finger slipping in beside the first.

“Got a little pent up, been weeks since we had the time.” He rocks back against his fingers as a third joins the first two. “Had to get creative, maybe find someone to scratch the itch.” Cor’s tone is breathy and teasing, but Titus practically growls all the same, wrenching his fingers free and more than willing to stake a claim he had no right to.

“Wait!” Cor gasps. “Not here.” Titus stops immediately, hands falling away without hesitation. He’s met with a needy kiss as Cor turns in his arms and tugs him along with a grip on his arms. Cor lets go only once, to swipe the condom he hadn’t noticed off the coffee table, and Titus stands impossibly still as Cor pushes his borrowed sweats down enough to free his cock and tears the packet open and slides it down his length, slicking him with lube a moment later.

When Cor’s back hits the wall they stop and he knows what that glint in Cor’s eyes is asking for. His palms drift from Cor’s hips and he lifts him easily with his hands on his ass, Cor’s legs spread as they drape over his arms as he brings Cor up against the wall. A sigh slips past his lips when Cor reaches between them to grab his cock and guide it home, Cor’s soft moan music to his ears. At first the pace is slow, an awkward adjustment to the new position, but soon Titus finds his rhythm and seeing Cor with the black of his shirt contrasting starkly against his pale skin and the flush dusting his cheeks is reward enough for his efforts. Lips fall against the exposed column of Cor’s throat and it's hard to resist the urge to leave a visible mark. Instead he trails little nips down past the collar of his shirt to his chest where he sucks a harsh mark onto the center of his chest, the black fabric tickling the sides of his face. A rad mark remains in his wake, framed by black and white. Cor moans and tugs harshly at his hair, pulling him into a fierce kiss. Every moment that passes drives his passion further, his hips snap and his hands hold Cor to him with bruising force as he fucks the man into the wall relentlessly, spurred on by every sound and grasp of needy hands. It makes him feel alive, reminds him that he’s alive, and Cor is here living with him, and that in this moment he is untouchable and so very alive.

They are never particularly loud when they fuck, something he’s always appreciated, but the noises he pulls from Cor now are almost addicting in their newness. His moans, usually so quiet and controlled, ring sharp through the apartment and damn Titus wants to hear more. So he shifts his grip under Cor’s legs and pins him harder to the wall with every thrust. It does the trick, Cor cries out, and Titus feels blunt nails claw against this back as Cor scrambles for purchase. The edge is close now, his muscles burning, sweat slicking his skin. He brushes the collar of his shirt aside and mouths the junction where Cor’s shoulder meets his neck and bites down hard, shifting his grip and grinding into the man in his arms. He feels his own release wash over him just as Cor stiffens in his arms and lets out a shout.

Despite the sudden weakness in his legs he holds them up for a moment, pressed heavily against Cor while they catch their breath. Again he feels exhausted, but this time it is a pleasant feeling, though he’s sure his muscles will protest greatly come morning. When he feels like his legs will hold him steady he lifts Cor of his cock and lowers him slowly to the ground where he sways and tightens his grip.

“I’ll be feeling that tomorrow,” Cor chuckles breathlessly, and Titus grunts his agreement. Pulling back once Cor steadies himself, he rights himself and tries manages to keep his eyes away from Cor’s state of disarray.

“I should go,” he says, almost to himself as he puts distance between them, stifling a sudden yawn.

“It’s late and you’re exhausted,” Cor states matter-of-factly. “You’re welcome to stay.” That has a softer tone to it, and Titus looks at him, now holding his shirt closed as if shy. “The couch is pretty comfortable,” he adds as if able to read Titus’s apprehensive thoughts.

A refusal gets caught and silenced by another yawn impossible to stifle and that coupled with Cor’s arched brow is enough for him to acquiesce. Just this once. Besides sleeping on Cor’s couch is hardly intimate, and in truth he had no interest making the long journey to his own apartment half asleep in the middle of the night. With a triumphant look on his face Cor walks to his bedroom, and Titus simply waits where he stands. Five minutes pass before Cor reappears dressed in simple sleep clothes with a pillow and blanket in one arm and the black shirt draped over the other.

“I don’t usually have guests so I hope this is enough,” he says as he sets the makeshift bedding down on the couch for Titus to arrange as he pleased. Titus tosses the pillow against one arm of the couch so his feet will face the door before picking up the blanket. It’s an old blue thing, knitted he thinks, but soft all the same. From the other side of the room Cor clears his throat, smoothing out the fabric of the black shirt where it now rests on the armchair.

“Thank you,” he manages to say after a few awkward moments of silence.

“Don’t mention it,” Cor replies quickly. “If you need anything let me know, just get some rest, Drautos, Astrals know you need it.” Then he returns to his bedroom, door closing behind him and Titus is alone.

If he wanted he could still leave, but the moment he sits down on the couch the strength to do so leaves him. Accepting his fate he adjusts himself on his back, head nestled on the downy pillow and the arm of the couch and his feet draped over the other thanks to his height. Still it was surprisingly comfortable, almost more so than his own bed. Coupled with the warmth of the blanket, the safety of Cor’s apartment lulls him into a deep and much needed sleep.

Glauca comes forth in the throne room, death and vengeance wrapped in steel. The room is empty, just him and the king, blanketed in a calm silence. He moves forward, footsteps echoing loud through the high chamber as he walks towards the king of Lucis with his sword clasped in both hands. The king does not speak, not until his end is too close to escape.

“Why?”

“For my home,” He replies, then draws back and thrusts the thick blade forward fast and true. Except it's not the king dying by his hand when he looks back to his victim. Blood seeps from between Cor’s lips, red slowly dripping from the corners, splashing to the ground loud as rain.

Surprise jolts him awake and he tries not to let the panic set in, dazed by the unfamiliar surroundings and the freshness of his dream. A dream that has never changed for years. Then he remembers. Soft moonlight filters in from the kitchen window just bright enough for him to recognize the space around him. Damn but Cor’s apartment shouldn’t be so familiar. Titus sits up and wipes the sweat from his brow, taking deep breaths until he calms. The bedroom door is cracked and he’s almost tempted to peek into the dark room just to make sure all is well and immediately stamps the thought. He needs to leave.

The old blanket he’d slept beneath gets folded and set on the arm of the couch before he stumbles half blind through the living room in an attempt to find his discarded clothes in the dark. He finds his shirt where Cor had left it draped over the armchair, smelling of sweat and sex. With only a little difficulty he ignores it, shoves his arms through the sleeves and continues the hunt for his pants until his foot catches the leg of one of the dining table chairs and shatters the quiet. Titus holds his breath and waits, but his luck has run out and soon enough the space is bathed in light.

“You could have turned on a light,” Cor says from near the front door, hand still on the switch, voice hoarse with sleep.

“Didn’t want to wake you.” Just like that Cor’s expression softens, and Titus tries not to notice the slight limp as he makes his way across the room.

“It's still late,” he says, hand hovering over Titus’s arm. “You’re welcome to stay, at least until sunrise.”

Titus wants to refuse, but Cor’s right, and the last thing he needs is to stumble his way home during the night while he’s still exhausted. Instead he nods and lets Cor’s feather light touch guide him back to the couch. Cor flips on the light in the kitchen, dimming it until it's little more than a warm glow, before he starts pulling things from his cabinets.

“What are you doing?”

“What I always do when I can’t sleep.” Is the only answer he gets, but he hears the stove flare to life and decides it's better to just wait, relaxing back into the couch as his fingers idly trace the frayed edges of the blanket beside him.

Titus closes his eyes, letting himself be lulled by the sound of Cor working until the couch dips beside him and Cor is there holding a steaming cup out for him. He takes it, lets the touch of their fingers linger until he brings the drink to his lap and holds it with both hands, the warmth seeping into his cold and clammy palms.

He sniffs, “tea?”

“Chamomile,” Cor says. He brings his own cup to his lips and takes a long sip. “Helps with the nightmares.” Titus shifts, looking at him out of the corner of his eye. “You looked like you’d seen a ghost,” Cor explains. “I know that look.”

The image of Cor dying by his hand still haunts the edges of his vision and he returns his gaze to the steam rising from his mug. After a few more sips and a long minute of silence Cor speaks again.

“Can I ask what it was about?” Spoken so softly that Titus could ignore it if he wanted, but his walls are weak, and for once honesty wins back the reins to his tongue.

“Death,” he replies, looking Cor in the eye and still seeing the dead man from his dream. “Always death.”

A look of empathy crosses Cor’s face, his eyes softening with a sort of understanding Titus doesn’t want to see but can’t look away from. He places a hand, warm from the tea, against his arm and gives it a gentle pat. Nothing is said, Cor stands and pads around the couch and Titus feels his skin tingle at the loss of contact as he goes. Cor stops in the doorway, tea cradled once again between his palms as he looks at Titus again.

“Be sure to finish it, I promise it helps.” And then he’s back in his room and this time the door clicks behind him.

Titus lets out a shaky breath and then finishes his tea, letting the warmth of it sting and soothe his throat in equal measure. Carefully he sets the empty cup down on the table and resumes his awkward position on the couch, staring up into the dark until he can no longer keep his eyes open. When he next drifts off no dreams chase him, just as promised.

#cor x titus #cor leonis #titus drautos #mmck writes fic #ffxv fic #hm yeah not feelin great about this one #but yikes its been a while since ive written #got a feeling my next 2 will be better #and thats what counts right?#im working on it #i missed these 2 i will say that #looking forward to the week thats for sure #glad im running it now because i wouldnt have been able to make shit with how lifes been going #but i think things are finally starting to look up #not for titus though rip we're gonna hit bummer town there soon #but two smut scenes in one chapter has to count for something

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gurguliare · 6 years

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eileen chang? (thanks for the rec btw)

She wrote a commentary on Dream of the Red Chamber, parts of which I’ve been gleefully forcing my mother to translate—from the introduction:

…Recent criticism of Dream of the Red Chamber has all “looked at it standing up,” and didn’t have time to sit down; as to do it oneself, my only qualification is, in truth, to have read the book so many times as to be truly familiar with it. In reading different [manuscript] versions, and without needing to be especially careful, characters that look a little novel to my eyes would jump right out. But because I’ve never written any theory before, of course I would tend to laugh at people who are very precise—and of course I may be laughably imprecise myself. I may have been poisoned by too much classic Chinese prose, as evidenced by the fact that the one sentence I remember most from Shakespeare is “brevity is the soul of wit”—but I don’t think that’s true just of witty conversation. Each character, to me, is as big as a bottle, so being able to do without even one would be good. And because I hate nagging, sometimes even simple reasoning isn’t clearly explained [in my work]. On top of that, I also abbreviated “the complete handcopied version” to just “the handcopied version.” The truth is all these versions were handcopied. No wonder, after “Early Encounter with Dream of the Red Mansion” was published, one of my friends told me they didn’t understand. Of course, their comments were gentler than that.

Another thing I remember now is that some critic said he didn’t understand the title “Zhang Kan [張看 / ‘Chang looks’].” So I’ll take this opportunity to explain. “Zhang Kan” is just borrowing a very common phrase which says “A look at _____,” and you can fill in any subject or person’s name. “Zhang Kan” is “Chang’s opinion”—or one might hear it as “Zhang wang [张望 / ‘peering inside’]”—a most shallow form of double entendre.

Before, the title of my memoir Liu Yan (流言 — rumor/malicious gossip; literally ‘flowing words’?) was borrowing from an English phrase—or poem? “Written on water” in English means the words won’t last, while also expressing the hope that they’ll spread as fast as rumor. I was often doubtful, wondering if people understood the intention behind that title; but I also never asked.

A unique characteristic of Dream of the Red Chamber is the length of time spent on revision—how could that labor have been limited to “revising five times in ten years”? To his death, the work occupied the whole of the author’s adult life. Cao Xueqin’s talent is unlike the goddess Athena, who sprang out from Zeus’s skull fully-grown. Through revision, you see his growth. Sometimes I think that’s the cross-section of his genius. And because he revised for over twenty years, it makes sense that not every major revision (even revisions made to multiple chapters) would incur a whole new copy, to conserve the effort required for copying it. Of course one would try to get the most out of the current version/the copy at hand. Early revisions, at different times, were already being lent out, and the author continued to revise afterward, which also means he couldn’t recover the distributed copies and revise those. This is why all the different versions have inconsistencies. You can’t just determine the timeline of individual chapters as a way to date the manuscripts. This is almost common sense, but it’s one very important aspect of my book, because a lot of other critics didn’t pay attention to this. There are a couple of other things which may make my comments look silly, or almost unbelievable to people. For example, I believe that a great deal of revision happened at the beginnings of chapters, or at the ends, for this reason: each chapter was a sewn booklet, so it was easier to replace the first page or the last page. Is this an indication that our author is very careless/lazy? No! The reason I think this is because sewing the books is Sheyue’s job—Zijuan and Sheyue were real people, and in the end only Sheyue was left by the author’s side—and you can see he’s very loving and considerate of her.

In this “broadcasting age,” it’s hard for us to imagine the very closed society of long ago; in chapter 23, it talks about how Baoyu has four poems, and opportunists saw that these were written by a rich young heir, so they spread the poems about and praised them. When one reads this chapter, it’s difficult not to think of the other side of that—the author himself was poor and living on the west side of Beijing; in the preface, Gao E and Cheng Weiyuan say “oh! it’s lucky that copies weren’t spread around,” so you can see that copies were only handed out in this small circle of family friends. Besides, in those early days, the novel didn’t have much place even in literary circles; it was only for entertainment—self-indulgence. Even compared to today’s underground writers in the Soviet Union, who can actually obtain gratification because the books are circulated widely, Cao Xueqin, in his very poor and lonely environment, really could only rely on the couple of soulmates within his own family circle to encourage him. He seems to have been a warm and emotional person. His popular song called “People need people” … for him to become attached to writing, and to this work, was understandable. Recently, some folks have said that this book was the product of group activity! You can only write Communist operas through group collaboration. He was completely alone.

Even if there was contact with foreign lands at the time, there were no books to be used as reference. The Russian novels hadn’t been written yet. The Chinese novel, at this point, was “early to rise, but late to market.” At the very moment when the development of the Chinese novel approached a summit, it was pushed back. Novels at the end of Qing and in the early years of the Republic were often indebted to The Scholars, which was written before Dream of the Red Chamber. It’s not just that Dream of the Red Chamber was not finished or complete; what’s worse, someone added a dog’s tail to it, and it became like a cancer attached to the bone. Please excuse my mixed metaphor. Dream of the Red Chamber has been made vulgar, and everyone knows about it, just like the Bible in the West. This impacted readers’ perceptions of the book. A hundred years after Dream of the Red Chamber was written, a book called The Sing-Song Girls of Shanghai faintly evoked it… but was twice rejected by readers, down to the edition published in the early 30s of this century. On the one hand, readers are changing, and that’s often influenced by external factors/foreign literature; they have formed a kind of prejudice against old Chinese novels. But also—because the old Chinese novels tended to follow a certain stylized pattern—in the West, to talk to people about Chinese classic novels, we should make analogies to poetry and painting. But the people who understand Chinese poetry in the West are very few. And if they know you are also someone who writes novels, then there’s even more of a sense of “the melon-seller selling melons: he sells it himself, he praises it himself.”

THEN THERE WAS A REALLY MEAN ANECDOTE ABOUT ONE OF HER FORMER LITERATURE STUDENTS which I didn’t take down but. anyway. the thing I like about Eileen Chang is that she’s history’s handsomest monster. glad you enjoyed the rec

#hong lou meng #i should have just made all these answers red mansion related somehow #anoteinpink #no one expects the fannish inquisition

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infpisme · 7 years

Text

Dear INFP, You’re Not A Mess. You’re A SCANNER, and That’s Awesome.

Do you feel like you’re drifting aimlessly in life, unable to commit your attention to just one thing, because that would mean missing out too many other exciting opportunities?

Do you think you’re great at starting projects but don’t have enough focus or perseverance to finish them?

Do you get easily excited about new things and just as easily bored once you have tried them?

I do, and my awareness of this trait doesn’t make my job search any easier. I feel like I need to try everything in order to choose, and the time is running out. Why am I so scatterbrained?

In this post about INFP career struggles, I wrote about my doubts with regard to choosing the right path.

The struggle is real.

What Is Wrong With Me?

I was blessed with parents who provided me with the perfect conditions for self-discovery and exploration. They didn’t sign me up for all those activities like today’s parents do – the initiative was entirely mine. So, by the end of elementary school, I tried tennis, acrobatic modern dance, karate, maths, speed reading, English, arts, journalism, horse riding, more arts, singing in a choir, sailing, and theatre. Not at once, of course.

Later on, I added to the list Spanish, Portuguese, photography, and climbing. I just felt I needed to try them all. Some didn’t last more than a few weeks, but many activities kept my attention longer.

I thought that growing up would make choosing easier.

It didn’t. I kept trying out different professions and jobs to find out what I could do for a living. As a result, I’ve become a Jack of all trades, master of none, with a rich and very inconsistent CV, and without the slightest idea about what career to pursue. By the age of 28, I have already had two major career shifts and tried several other unrelated jobs, only to find out that I don’t want to do those things anymore in my life.

I wish I could live 200 years, or had many lives, or be 20 people instead of one, or possess a time-changer, so I could try everything I want, from kitesurfing and basket weaving to design and upholstery.

My inner child rebels when my inner adult questions the sense of pursuing yet another project, and I can’t help feeling like a failure. At school, willingness to explore was a great advantage. But in adult life, it feels more of a liability.

What is my calling, then?

Over time, and having tried plenty of things, I found out that I want to be a farrier, permaculture farmer, seafarer, dressage rider, bee keeper, traveller, photographer, blogger, and T-shirt designer.

I don’t mean either – or.

I want to be all these things AT THE SAME TIME. Like a one-man band.

It’s ridiculous and incredibly frustrating. Soon, I will hit 30, and I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up.

It wasn’t until recently that I realized I wasn’t alone in this struggle. We are told that the best (and only?) way to succeed is by finding one’s passion and pursuing it till the end of one’s life; that only by specializing in a very narrow area we can actually achieve what is believed to be success. True as it may seem, I don’t think it applies to INFPs at all.

In her book Refuse To Choose, Barbara Sher calls this kind of people “scanners”. Others have called us Renaissance people, da Vinci personalities, generalists, polymaths, multipotentialities, jacks-of-all-trades, eclectics, dilettantes or flakes.

I prefer “scanners”.

Who is a “Scanner”?

Unlike the people who specialize in very narrow areas, scanners are individuals characterized by “intense curiosity about numerous, unrelated subjects”. They’re endlessly inquisitive explorers who don’t want to commit to just one area, giving up all the other interests.

Being a scanner does not equal having an attention deficit disorder, even though the two may co-exist. Scanners simply crave knowledge and want to understand how things and the world around them work.

If you’re not sure if that applies to you, listen to Barbara Sher talk about scanners - https://youtu.be/o29KOV0jYRM

The INFP personality fits the scanner definition wonderfully. With Ne as our auxiliary function, INFPs see endless possibilities to everything. Ne is the driving force behind creativity, and the reason we crave novelty and get bored so easily (at least, until we find THE thing, I believe.). Ne is also the source of INFP’s childlike wonder of the world.

Having said that, it’s not a surprise that we are so unhappy when forced to fit in the world, where you either specialize in something or fail. As great imagie thinkers who don’t pay that much attention to details, INFPs are often criticized for being scatterbrained and unable to commit to just one narrow area.

But, what if our ability to be passionate about so many things was actually an asset?

Can Scanners Be Successful?

Good news! I’ve learned from Sher’s book that there is no obligation to specialize in anything – the preference of specialists over erudites it’s a relatively recent fashion, and in case of scanners, it goes completely against our nature. Let’s be honest: I were to dedicate my life to just one thing, I would probably get bored to death.

It is possible to achieve tremendous success as a scanner. The list of famous and undoubtedly successful scanners includes Steve Jobs (who revolutionized not only computing but also mobile phones, music industry and design), Leonardo da Vinci (artist and inventor, the original Renaissance Man) and Benjamin Franklin (writer, publisher, inventor, statesman among other things).

It is also possible to choose a career and projects in which your talent and love for learning is an asset, not a liability. I learned about careers aimed at researching and providing information, management tools one can use to organize unfinished projects and harness your creativity, and ways to avoid paralysis by analysis and reconcile making a living with pursuing your multiple passions. So there seems to be some hope, after all 😉

Though this be madness, yet there’s method in it, Shakespeare (an alleged INFP) would say.

Tips For Scanners

Here’s a bunch of advice I’ve drawn from the book Refuse to Choose.

Keep a notebook and always carry it with you, so whenever a brilliant idea comes to your mind, you can seize it and save it for later. One day, you may actually be ready to apply it in a meaningful way. You never know.

Organize your ideas. Write a whole list of things you’re interested in and projects you have in mind. You will probably realize that they’re not so many and are somehow related. Grouping them will help you recognize some pattern and decide which to prioritize.

Trust your intuition and do what you want to do. Let go of things that don’t make your eyes shine. I realized that for feeling intuitives, reason is not necessarily a good advisor. This life is the only chance you have to pursue your dreams, so don’t waste on what won’t give you fulfilment.

When you feel like you’re done with a project, move on. Even if you leave it (un)finished, it’s never a waste of time.

Consider finding a Good Enough Job. It may not be your dream job, but if it doesn’t make you suffer, the team is fun to work with, and you get a decent salary that pays for your passions – it may be THE solution.

Scanners, You Are Enough

Some of us don’t have just one true calling, and there is nothing wrong with it. In her TED talk, Emilie Wapnick, the author of How To Be Everything, proves that being a scanner is not a disease or a disorder to be cured, but a unique and invaluable talent.

As a scanner aka multipotentialite, you have access to many points of intersection of different fields, which leads to innovation. You’ve been a beginner so many times that starting from scratch yet another time doesn’t frighten you. The skills you acquire in the process are often transferable between different fields of expertise, and that in a fast changing world makes you extremely adaptable. And the truth is, very few people stick to their initial career, nowadays.

Also, generalists like you make great team members for specialists because they provide the kind of insight the latter are not capable of. Working together, we may accomplish even greater things.

Trying to fit a square peg in a round hole is pointless. You are a creative soul. You can only make a difference in the world if you embrace your scanner personality and do something you’re absolutely passionate about (even if it doesn’t last a lifetime). Let your Ne explore the endless possibilities that this world has to offer, celebrate your talents, and share your enthusiasm and projects with the world… This is your life purpose!

Source - Marta, https://climbingthecliff.com/infp-scanner-superpower

#infp #infp personality #infp advice #infp things

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