#he just has to make sense in the given frameworks of the story

[ofbreathandflame]

(heavy discussions on sa - this is actually an older post that i made like months ago, and was actually the first draft of the amarantha taboo post, so some things sound similar! just a heads up!)

you know i actually think there is a wider discussion to be had about rhysand's sexual assault - or sexual assault and trauma as it functions in the wider narrative. ive always felt that bc the story puts rhysand in this vulnerable position (i.e. a victim of sexual violence) the story always needs to like...make up for it, if that makes sense? 

what i mean is: the story creates this dynamic where rhysand is a victim; he has no power, control, or say - but it also has a very hard time reconciling to the fact that he was placed in this position. and so there's these weird placeholding pieces of information that often addle or confuse the narrative. and i talked about this before with rhysand's framing of his 'service to amarantha.' i also contributes to the moments of hyperviolence with rhys in the books, as if he constantly has to make up for the fact he was placed into these vulnerable positions in the first, implicitly.

the first book - and other books thereafter - imply that rhysand's court is specificially shielded from amarantha because he aligns himself (action word). rhysand's decision is framed as a 'sacrifice' which implies a choice (that he didn't really have). it always implies that rhysand is the one consciously 'one-upping' amarantha by 'agreeing' to be her 'right hand man' again - notice how despite the fact amarantha is characterized as a sexual deviant, she's rarely the focus. its what rhys 'gave' and not what 'amarantha did.'  

and this is fine if this is the way rhysand chooses to see what happened to him - bc then that's a trauma response. he can't acknowledge it so its better for him to rationalize it - that would have been great writing. 

but thats not how his sexual assault and role utm is discussed. 

other characters view rhys sexual assault as a statement of heroism (which ew) and not a just a statement of amarantha's capacity for sexual violence. tarquin literally says something along those lines. which again is implying that RHYS HAD A CHOICE. we can't frame this as heroism. he was raped, he did not sacrifice something...it was taken. 

in the initial scenario - where we remove the idea of autonomy (e.g. the idea that rhys purposely aligns himself with amarantha) he's a victim. but then - so is tamlin, tarquin, beron, kallias, and helion. in short - rhys being taken advantage of says nothing about him. it's a statement on amarantha's cruelty. but the story isn't satisfied with this bc...how would he be any different than tamlin whose vilified for being directly affected by his trauma, who 'sat on his ass for fifty years' as the book says. 

its the tragedy of how male sexual assault is rationalized in this series. the story literally purposely sets up a mirror position where rhys and tamlin are consistently compared for how they work through some of the craziest trauma ever known to man. the level of trauma the story is asking these characters to 'overcome' is actually quite insane. 

so the story ups the ante, it doesn't want rhys to be 'just a victim,' it wants him to be the MAN TM. bc tamlin and tarquin are 'just victims' so ewww. like even lucien is given another horribly written experience with sexual assault (which it literally has to bend the worldbuilding to accomplish) and then kind of position his complaints abt ianthe as whiny. or how tarquin's trauma is...not 'dark' enough for feyre. these men are often characterized as cowardly or not enough in relation to rhys. helion, thesan, tarquin, and tamlin are all consistently characterized as 'cowards' with little to no initiative or backbone.

so the story does that thing where it provides impossible situations: rhysand is the most powerful being in the world, he's so powerful that even without his 'real' power, he's still light years more powerful than the others when they're powers are ripped away. he can read minds, and has two wraiths that can literally walk through the walls and spy. he's often sent on missions on behalf of amarantha and can waltz in and out of the spring court without any issues (ie. its easy for him to convince amarantha he needs to go to the spring court multiple times. and then when he works for amarantha - he's the mastermind, not her. he's playing her all along and blah blah blah). but then it doesn't know how to write this dynamic with rhys and amarantha. and then it depowers him, while shaming the other men in the series for not doing 'enough' even when the most op character with all of those advantages isn't even able to over power her.

there's little introspection into amarantha as a character and as a villain -- and you'll notice she's hardly ever mentioned after the first book...despite the fact that she was literally the high queen of prythian and was the governing oppressive force for a half-century. as said in this post - the story isn't actually concerned about making a point about male sexual asault.

and that's why i talked about why that amarantha taboo is...kind of important to how the story chooses to conceptualize sexual violence/assault. the choice to create amarantha (and ianthe and maeve too) as these caricatures of sexuality - which is pretty much the case of all of sjm's villains. 

the story doesn't want to fully commit to a tactical scenario, because it doesn't believe that he's a victim in that capacity  - or at least that the victimhood is valid. bc its spends so much time invalidating the male trauma around rhys, the only way to make a distinction between rhys and the others to have rhys "orchestrate" his own assault to save everyone.

#anti sjm #anti rhysand #anti feyre #anti sjm: rhysand #anti feysand #anti sjm: amarantha #anti acomaf #this was actually something ive thought about for while #i can never quite put into words the weirdness in narrative framing around #amarantha #in which the story can never just allow rhys to actually be a victim without having to moralize his actions #believe or not #it actually would be much more compelling if rhysand's behavior were framed #as trauma responses. he doesn't have to be moralized #he just has to make sense in the given frameworks of the story #or the story could just drop the morals an just allow these characters to be shitty in a grimdark way

[lurkingshan]

Dead Friend Forever is a Marvel of Mystery Writing

I haven’t been watching Dead Friend Forever live, because I am not always that into the slasher genre and I figured I would wait to hear whether it holds up before jumping in. I admit, I was a bit dubious about a drama sustaining a slasher narrative for 12 entire weeks and didn’t want to spend time on something that might be too shallow to sustain and would end up falling apart. I basically told bestie @wen-kexing-apologist to vet it for me and holler if I needed to start paying attention. And a few weeks ago, they started poking me with increasing intensity, along with a few other friends, because the writing was holding up better than they could believe. I started asking questions, and once @ginnymoonbeam mentioned that Sammon was the writer, it all started to click and I dove into a binge to catch up.

And they were right! This show is excellent, and its strength is sourced in an incredibly strong script from a writer who knows how to construct a longform mystery. Because it turns out, that’s what this show actually is. How do you sustain a slasher for 12 weeks? By embedding a deeper mystery within the slasher framework and pacing your story so that the entire middle delivers a backstory narrative that is even more compelling than the current events. This show is expertly structured to grab your attention and then get you deeply emotionally invested in the coming bloodbath, which is crucial for a slasher to feel like it has any stakes. Let me also note that the excellent writing here is supported by extremely smart direction and editing and some standout performances from young actors. I am going to focus on the writing here because that’s what I do, but it should be said that this whole production is all around excellent. 

So let’s talk about why the writing in Dead Friend Forever works so well! Great drama mysteries should support two kinds of engagement from the viewer: 

no thoughts head empty engagement from the people who just want to be pulled along for the ride and be constantly surprised

red string board theory engagement for the people who enjoy finding clues and trying to solve the mystery in advance. 

It’s actually really fucking hard to thread this needle as a writer, because it requires seeding strong enough clues that attentive viewers could reasonably guess some of the big reveals, but not giving away so much that you are unable to surprise them. A reveal in a good mystery should have you saying “oh my god WHAT” and “of course, that makes perfect sense” at the same time. And the best mysteries support the viewer being able to go back and rewatch, find new meaning they missed the first time, and realize every single thing that happened adds up. A tight mystery has no loose ends and no false steps; it never lies to the viewer, it only works to draw your attention where it wants it at any given point in the story.

Dead Friend Forever does this masterfully with several of its reveals, but I will highlight the biggest example: the reveal of Phee and Non’s relationship in episode 7. In the first four episodes of the show, the story lets us in on a few crucial facts: Phee is newer to this friend group (along with Tan and White), he was not present for whatever went down with Non three years ago, he has some kind of fucked up not!friends with benefits relationship with Jin that involves lots of sexual tension and dick biting, and he seems interested in figuring out what the hell happened once all these dudes start acting crazy about the videos. The string board theorists had enough to go on there to reasonably guess that he was intentionally trying to uncover the truth—but not why—and the no thoughts head empty crowd could just vibe, enjoying his scenes with Jin and wondering how exactly he ended up hooking up with him and getting involved with this group of people he doesn’t even seem to like.

Once we get to the backstory and see Non’s narrative, additional clues emerge, like the existence of both an older brother and a mysterious sweetheart that is only saved as [heart emoji] in Non’s phone. No thoughts head empty is over here going huh I wonder who they’re gonna be and hey when are the rest of the characters going to show up; string board theorists now have two clear options for how Phee could tie in to Non’s story and why he might care enough to investigate, but no one knows for sure. So when the show ended episode 6 with Phee running into Non’s room and began episode 7 with The Most Effective Five Minute BL Of All Time, everything clicked into place. No thoughts head empty got to experience a very pleasant shock moment, the string board theorists got to feel satisfied that they figured out at least part of the reveal, everyone got to enjoy an unexpected shot of romance in the middle of this stressful narrative, and there were still parts of Phee’s motives and involvement with this group that we didn’t understand and would require additional reveals. That is great mystery writing in a nutshell.

And it’s not only the mystery construction that makes the writing here so smart. It’s also the way Sammon is weaving in tons of social commentary, embedding Thai cultural and religious values, incorporating complicated crimes with lots of players in the mix that somehow don’t get confusing, and drawing complex and nuanced characters whose choices and behavior you understand even if you find them abhorrent. It’s not easy to make a viewer both despise a character and still care what happens to them; when you write a story about despicable people you run the risk of inspiring apathy in the audience, which is a death knell for a mystery. We have to be invested for this story to work. We have to feel deep empathy for Non to the point that we fully support axe murdering his bullies, but we also have to be interested enough in the bullies and why they behave the way they do to watch 12 weeks of them running around being awful to each other and harming everyone in their paths. And Non, too, gets to have real complexity. He is not a perfect little Mary Sue who never does anything wrong. He makes big impulsive mistakes, and seeks attention and affection from the wrong people, and lies to the ones he loves, and doesn’t always ask for help when he needs it. He is a flawed human being and that’s so important, because he is the center of this story and we need him to feel real.

In conclusion: holy shit. I tip my hat to you, Dr. Sammon, and I am very excited to be on this ride for the final four episodes. 

#dead friend forever #dff the series #thai bl #shan shouts into the void

[laurelsofhighever]

Unpopular opinion time: I really don’t care for the Titans as a concept. Or rather, I don’t like the way they fit into the worldbuilding of Thedas. It’s a symptom of this ongoing problem BioWare has where everything has to have some grand, shocking twist and an intricate backstory that connects with the intricate backstory of everything else. It’s like a slow power creep to the lore that honestly reminds me most of Supernatural in how desperate it is to outdo itself.

The Dalish Creators aren’t apocryphal characters used to impart moral lessons or explain natural phenomena – they were real, and they weren’t really gods, just super powerful mages who enslaved a bunch of people and used them to build statues!

The Fade isn’t just another, natural layer of existence that only a few can tap into – it was created by Some Guy who decided to fight the Actually Real Elvhen Gods and then had a nap about it for several thousand years!

Lyrium isn’t just a toxic mineral that causes neurological degradation but also happens to enhance magical ability – it’s actually the crystalised blood of an ancient race of giant beings that were hunted to extinction by the Actually Real Elvhen Gods!

The dwarves don’t have Stone Sense because of their specific cultural identity and because their society that’s based underground needs to know how to navigate without the sun – they were literally created by an ancient race of giant beings who decided to make them to the same vague shape as other bipedal mammals for some reason!

(these aren’t the only examples, they do it with everything from character backstories to religious schisms)

It’s like they don’t trust the player to suspend their disbelief in a fantasy world where magic and dragons are real, and the ironic thing is that by dissecting everything instead of just letting these story elements just be, it makes everything about Thedas feel smaller, and less like an intricate, organic world.

In DAO, we’re introduced to many gods – Avvar, Elvhen, Andrastian, as well as the dwarven concept of “the Stone” – and they exist in the role that gods fill in the real world: cultural artifacts that create a shared sense of identity. It makes sense for there to be similarities between the Elvhen Creators and the Avvar pantheon, given the amount of interaction between the two groups before they became isolated by persecution. Similarly, it makes sense that dwarves would have an entirely different theology structured around the material that literally encases them their whole lives and marks them as distinct from the surface-dwelling races. to reduce these belief systems to single, quantifiable truths makes as much sense as trying to claim the Real Zeus was [specific guy] from [specific time period]. It also does such disrespect to the individuals who make up these cultures, and who would have, through history, changed it simply by being part of it.

With the Titans specifically, they weren’t needed. We already had a concept of dwarves that worked well as a framework for the stories being told in the games: insular, rigid caste system, hub of the lyrium trade, collective PTSD from a millennia of fighting darkspawn. It’s cultural background radiation that adds motive and flavour for character actions, and that’s all it needs to be.

We don’t need to know precisely how Stone Sense works, just that it does. We don’t need to know where dwarves – or elves, or qunari, or humans – really come from, it’s enough for the story that they exist within a collective cultural identity. We don’t need to know what lyrium is, we just need to know that bad things happen when characters play with it.

It's fantasy. A wizard did it. The wizard shouldn’t feel the need to pull back his own curtain and then also rip the casing off the mechanism, just to prove how clever he is.

#dragon age meta #bioware critical #let a little ambiguity in guys #just a little mystery #like with chinese painting you want the suggestion of mountains #the imagination fills in the rest

[shannankle]

My Top Shows 2023

Doing this at the last minute but here goes--the top 10 shows I watched in 2023!

*Note: I rate my shows on a letter scale cause I don't like narrowing it down to a specific number. (S-standout As-Strong Bs-Fine Cs-There's some problems Ds-ooof)

1. Oh No! Here Comes Trouble

This one instantly became an all time favorite. It covers themes about grief and loss in a deeply empathetic and humanizing way along side the supernatural elements. I don't know if it's because I've experienced loss myself or because it's a universal experience, but I love shows like this that help you understand what it means to grieve and heal in a familiar yet new light. It reminded me a lot of Natsume Yuujinchou (another favorite) in that respect.

Aside from the larger themes, you have a distinct directing style, quirky sense of humor, well-rounded cast of characters, and excellent acting (the lead actor was also in Your Name Engraved Herein and he's just as standout here). In addition to all that, the show gives us a main trio of characters whose strengths are deliberately not their wits. This is used for humor but also to make more meaningful points about connection, empathy, and different ways of thinking (yes, I headcanon the main trio as neurodivergent).

Rating: S+

2. The Eighth Sense

This show! Another piece that is deeply rooted in exploring trauma and loss. This time within the framework of a romance. I'm usually pretty hesitant with stories that bring disability into romance, especially mental illness. There's a tendency to lean into the idea that love cures all and other not so great tropes. The Eighth Sense does a great job balancing that line, giving us romantic beats without wading into them uncritically. In the end, healing and love are things we choose not something guaranteed, but there's still an immense hope in that. I'm an giant sucker for shows that tackle both queer and crip experiences with nuance and grace, and the Eighth Sense hit that mark for me (so much so it even had me writing a little meta). On top of that it has beautiful cinematography and visual choices.

Rating: S

3. Moonlight Chicken

A beautiful show all around! P'Aof constantly knocks it out of the park with every show he directs, but I felt particularly strong about Moonlight Chicken. I adore the way it centers on themes of home and community. It even inspired some meta and a bit of personal reflection for me on what it means to choose home as someone who is queer and disabled. The show gives us the messiness that comes with navigating new and old relationships and somehow also the simplicity of it all. And of course, the show includes a Deaf character and handles his story with nuance and clear care.

Rating: S

4. Shadow

Singto, Fluke, and Fiat in a queer horror show--sign me up! It wasn't as scary as I expected, more psychological (which is good because I am so picky about what types of horror are too much for me vs what I enjoy). I loved the way the show played with time and reality and drew upon various religious practices to create a unique atmosphere. I also adored the attention to small details that make the piece ripe for analysis. I will probably be eyeing clocks and tech in many shows to come. It's also a show that is bringing up themes about queerness, mental illness, domestic violence, and historical trauma. I'm continually drawn to pieces that are queer and crip, so I suppose it's no surprise that this one drew me in too.

I know this show was divisive, about as many people thought it stuck the landing as didn't. I happen to land in the former category. I adore media that makes me stop and think, and given the amount of meta the show had/has me writing, I'd say it well and truly tickled my brain. The show didn't always go where I most wanted or expected but I think that challenged me even more to really think about what the show might be trying to do (my thoughts on that here, spoilers though).

Rating: S

5. Our Dining Table

Japan does a lot of things well, but I'm particularly fond of their slice-of-life. Our Dining Table fits right in there with food and found family at the center. It's warm and cute, but has a depth beyond it's soft exterior, delving into loss, loneliness, and what it means to be fully seen by those around us. All of this tied up in a queer bow. It was easily the show I was most excited to watch each week when it was airing.

Rating: S

6. Mysterious Lotus Casebook

Another one I fell in love with this year! While it has plenty of tropes, cutting through the core of all of this is the growing friendship between the main trio, especially between Li Lian Hua and Fang Duo Bing. Their relationship and personal growth as characters was really beautiful to watch, on top of it just being a fun show with a great balance of humor and drama. Plus Fang Duo Bing's mom 😍

Rating: S

7. One Room Angel

Another solid entry out of Japan. As much as I love Japan's bright slice-of-life offerings like Our Dining Table, they also excel at stories that don't shy away from heavy or complex emotional themes. And I'm noticing as I tackle this post that I really resonate with heavy themes. One Room Angel has it's lighter moments and own quirky humor. But it also tackles depression and suicide as it explores the journey of finding enough connection and meaning in life to keep moving forward.

Rating: S

8. I Feel You Linger in the Air

I Feel You Linger in the Air was such a beautiful show! I'm so happy we got a historical thai bl this year and that it was so so lovely. I really liked last year's To Sir With Love but it does have it's Lakorn/soap style that is a bit more of an obstacle for me. IFYLITA certainly has it's drama, but it feels more tightly drawn. Throw in a little time travel and beautiful love scenes and it was a delight to watch.

Rating: S

9. My Beautiful Man S2, Eternal

When I watched the first season of My Beautiful Man I liked it but wasn't exactly sold. I read a bit of meta from the community which changed my tune a bit. But it wasn't until watching season 2 and Eternal that something really clicked. I immediately went back and watched season 1 after finishing the film and oh boy did I fall in love. Not only do S2 and Eternal give us great character growth and forward motion to Hira and Kiyoi's relationship, and they feel like a natural expansion of the first season in the best way possible. What can I say, I love the whole series!

Rating: A+

10. Kiseki: Dear to Me

Kiseki: Dear to Me feels like an outlier to me. It's hard for me to put my finger on just what made it click for me, but I was so into it when it was airing. I recognize that plot wise this show is a bit of a mess, but at the same time it hit something just right in my brain. Perhaps it was the emotional intimacy the actors portrayed? They did a fantastic job drawing me in. Apart from that I couldn't take my eyes off of Ai Di's impeccable fashion choices, and the many many cameos were quite fun.

Rating: A+ YMMV

A few close contenders:

My School President (S) *split airing 22' and 23'

Tokyo in April Is... (A+)

Laws of Attraction (A)

Bed Friend (A)

The End of the World with You (A)

Me, My Husband, and My Husband's Boyfriend (A)

If it's with You (A)

Our Dating Sim (A)

Love Tractor (A)

The Warp Effect (A) *split airing 22' and 23'

The New Employee (A) *split airing 22' and 23'

La Pluie (A-)

Midnight Museum (A-)

#i completely flaked on doing one for 22 #but this year I made it just in time #80% of these are queer pieces #my top shows #my top shows 23 #my posts #bl series #oh no! here comes trouble #the eighth sense #moonlight chicken #shadow the series #our dining table #mysterious lotus casebook #one room angel #i feel you linger in the air #my beautiful man #utsukushii kare #my beautiful man 2 #my beautiful man eternal #kiseki dear to me

[see-arcane]

Lucy, Jonathan, Mina, and the Bastardization of Their Horror Story

I’ve been chewing on this one for a while. I thought it kind of went without saying among all us bitter bookworms when it came to the TV and movie treatments of Dracula and the characters/arcs therein. A lot is a given by now; a running joke. But goddamn if rereading today’s entry didn’t just tick me right off all over again. So here we go.

Lucy Westenra is best known by public osmosis as ‘Mina’s Hot Best Friend’ and/or the ‘Maneater/Heartbreaker,’ what with her small-scale Helen of Troy setup with the suitor trio and Dracula gunning for her first once he hits England. Most people know the Francis Ford Coppola version which not only distills a lot of her and similar damsels’ treatments in Dracula flicks, but also specifically includes…a lot.

Like this:

It happens for a whole blink, and is never mentioned again or returned to as any kind of meaningful romantic relationship beyond, ‘Lucy hot, Lucy gets around, Lucy makes out with everyone, lol.’ It also includes, and very much highlights, this:

TW: Sexual assault/implied rape/impaired consent

Yeah. That’s Dracula, halfway out of his wolf form. Doing that.

This is followed by her swooning away in bed, becoming more vampy (in both senses) and so forth. Is she still a victim? Yes. But the framework of it has been entirely distorted. She’s the Whore to Mina’s (Marriable! She’s the brainy brunette destined to be with Dracula!) Madonna.

“She was susceptible to Dracula’s seduction because she was already the hot/promiscuous one! It was practically a monsterfucker meet-cute, guys!” –Francis, probably

Then we turn to today’s entry. Hell, the past couple entries in which Dracula’s been zeroing in on Lucy. He abused her sleepwalking, yes, but ultimately resorts to visits, stalking, and—as with today—idly playing with his food by sitting in plain view, watching her watch him, knowing how her mind is struggling between the sleeping trance and the innate dread.

(I know those eyes. I know them. I know him. I fear him. Why?)

This girl, barely nineteen, has been made a target. She has a pliable medical condition being used against her, like pulling a puppet by its strings. She can’t not sleep. She can’t avoid his tugging at her. No more than she can hide from him now that he’s tracked her back to the home she’s sharing with Mina and her mother. And yet, for now, what does Dracula do?

He toys with her. Just a bat at the window. Just a little taste, dear. Back to bed now, I’ll see you tomorrow. And the day after that. And the day after that. Because I can.

There’s no bodice ripping, no overt sexual assault, but the violation remains intact. Along with a far more palpable helplessness. Mina won’t be there to guard her forever or keep the room all shut up against Dracula’s visits. (No spoilers for future chapters, but suffice to say, the Count does not suffer being rebuffed very well or very long. Shit gets intense. Wait and see.)

We saw with the Demeter how Dracula behaves when it’s just a matter of gluttony with victims he has no interest in beyond casual cruelty. Kill, toss, kill, toss. It’s nothing to him.

Willing Lucy to open the window so he can drop the bat form, become himself, and get far more visceral in his playtime would also be nothing. But in Lucy’s case, as with Jonathan’s, when Dracula decides to take a true interest in a victim, he not only likes to savor the game, he prefers psychological torture. Especially with characters established as 24K sweethearts. (Sorry, Lucy. Sorry, Jonathan. Sorry, Mina.)

Right now? Lucy’s just barely at the start of her nightmare. And the most tactile the Count has been with her, period, is a couple nibbles. Everything else is down to the slowly shrinking noose of the situation she’s in. She doesn’t know that yet. Neither does Mina. Mild spoilers, there’s a period coming up where everyone will sigh with relief. They aren’t living in Whitby, after all. They’re on holiday. They’ll leave. Lucy will get better. All is well.

…Until Dracula gets moving too. Back to bloody business. And the volume gets cranked up past 11.

Now let’s swivel to the bizarre (if not unexpected) character flip of Jonathan and Mina’s situations. It’s been gone over a dozen times now just how screwed Jonathan Harker is in every adaptation. He’s either practically nonexistent or transformed beyond recognition into a walking snore. Explicitly ignoring the two months he spent as a captive with Dracula in one-on-one castle time. Canonically, this man spends the most time with Dracula in the entire book. His story could be its own book! Its own movie! And yes, Dracula gives some bullshit excuses about ‘learning how to speak like an Englishman,’ but the core of it was just…he wanted to.

He wanted to keep Mr. Harker in that big stone box with him, just to play mind games, savor that solicitor flavor, then pass him off to the Brides as a present before, presumably, forcing him to turn and join the undead girl gang. And while past directors have loved the idea of a trio of sexy voluptuous vampire babes pawing at a man and each other, that appears to be literally the only purpose Jonathan ever gets within a show/movie. Everything else gets scraped off.

They harvested his devotion to Mina and gave it to Dracula.

They harvested his fucked up Beauty and the Beast-style plush and predatory imprisonment—here, enjoy a cigar, some fine dining, a pretty room, lots of books, nonconsensual touching, being forced to lie to your loved ones, the cannibalization of two children, a woman eaten alive by wolves, knowing your own death date (Which won’t get you out of this castle! You’re here forever! We saved a coffin for you, buddy!), and all the Evil Monster Man Seeks Virtuous Damsel bells and whistles—and gave it to Mina.

Because if they kept to the book that’d look too Ell Gee Bee Tee. And not even in the hot unfulfilled lesbian way! Can’t have that. Nope, we’ll just hand all the creepy-amorous hospitality stuff to Mina.

And oh God. Mina. Poor, poor Mina.

The travesty of what gets done to her character in so many adaptations. She ranges from Classic Bland-Pretty Damsel to Miraculously Sensual-Spiritually Awakened Dracula-Wife (Not a sultry harem Bride, though! That’s for Lucy and the trio of sexy whats-her-faces in Transylvania. Who Dracula always seems to have no matter how romantic and suave he’s being. Can’t drop those standby chicks even for a reincarnation love story, eh, Francis?). We’ll see later how vital she is to the plot and tackling the problem of Dracula.

A problem she will be extremely vehement about destroying, considering the fact that this undead bastard is responsible for tormenting the two most important people in her life, in ways that are intended to terrify, convert, and low-key enslave the victims to a damned eternity. Once she’s clued in to all Dracula has done, our girl’s going to be livid and instrumental to helping the Vampire Hunter Gang in taking him down. But who needs that!?

Just have her go ‘Eek!’ or swoon into Count Fuckula’s manly liberated embrace!

Which really does sum up all of these characters’ crappy deals in media.

Lucy Westenra? Having a nuanced and increasingly horrifying ordeal situated on having a supernatural stalker walking you around like a windup toy in your sleep and preying on you in a fashion meant to ultimately destroy your happiness and humanity so you can join his undead sexdoll collection?

Who needs that!? Make her a redheaded Lilith caricature who barely needs a nudge to give it up to her sexy wolfman-monster-master! She’s the side chick anyway, who cares? :)

Jonathan Harker? Being the character who spends the most time of anyone in close proximity with the Count, the only one to share multiple conversations with him, gets forced into the damsel-in-distress role while Dracula and his Brides make sexually-coded predatory moves on him, gets traumatized by the death and horror he witnessed in the castle he barely escaped, all saturated with the driving force behind his determination being his love for Mina from start to finish?

Who needs that!? Just turn him into a stuffy English scarecrow who gets felt up by the Brides and then we can forget about him. Get that homoerotic shit out of here, we don’t need to see that. Oh, but keep that ‘Loving Mina to the Point of Corruption’ stuff—we can save that for Dracula. :) :)

Mina Murray? One of the earliest examples of intelligent and capable women in all of literature, let alone gothic literature, taking an active role in pursuing Dracula and being exactly as passionately in love with Jonathan Harker as he is with her, said love for him and Lucy being what drives her to participate in a hunt for a monster who wields the threat of not just death, but an infinite horror of existence, a fiend she loathes as much as fears?

Who needs that!? Slap a corset on her, heave up those breasts, and let’s make us a fine Victorian final girl for the Count to woo with his sexy badass vampire charisma. :) :) :)

Fuck :) you, :) Francis. :) And every book-bastardizing director like you :) :) :)

If someone wanted to do a real, fresh and, (yes!) romantic take on Dracula, I think the key would sit with two things.

One: Leaning into the healthy unconventional romantic relationships as much as highlighting the unhealthy/predatory undertones Dracula and the Brides bring to the table. It is possible, even while staying period-accurate.

Lucy can still accept Art’s proposal. But maybe point out that he, out of all the suitors, has the best financial arrangement—and that she and all the suitors basically stealth-conferred with each other. She, Art, and Quincey (Sorry, Seward, you came on too strong, too fast, too weird. Please reapply next year with a new polycule resume, sir.) are a throuple in as close a way as they can manage with Arthur ‘Son of a Lord’ Holmwood basically planning to set up a lifestyle in which they can all still remain together.

Hell, the Suitor Squad should have their own hints and confirmations among each other. Lucy might just be the latest addition to their group, who knows? Play with healthy large-scale LGBT and poly romances! Pool’s open!

Lucy and Mina? Lucy and Mina. In their case, I picture a somewhat past-tense romance, riding in tandem with Mina and Jonathan’s relationship, but open to renewing once all is settled with Mina and Jonathan’s wedding. We’ll say Mina has an open invite, Jonathan too.

Let Jonathan and Mina have the Most Intense Bi4Bi Gothic Romance of All Time the book explicitly lays out for them in coming chapters. They are sweethearts. They have been in love since childhood. They would die and kill for each other. (Yes, that is foreshadowing. Brace yourself, first-time readers.)

Let Jonathan flex his asexual/biromantic horizons. We all read into the ‘thing’ with him and Dracula, and even the hypnosis of the Brides—zero interest in reciprocating/invitation on his part. But if upcoming chapters are any indication, he’ll be firing sparks off with Quincey. Mild spoiler, they have a mutual love of knives! Fun! (Bigger spoiler, Seward, that repressed little bug of a man, is going to start having Thoughts once Jonathan enters the scene. You’ll know when you read it.)

Yes, vampiric and general monster media is often used as a vehicle to explore (or, sadly, demonize/fetishize) the Other. Carmilla did it with lesbians, Dracula does it with—gasp!—a male monster preying on/damselifying another man, the sultry and powerful women being monsters, and with the ‘evils’ of polyamory (No, not just the Bride harem thing. There’s a bit about blood transfusions that takes a unique turn. Again, you’ll know when you read it. Ugh.).

A new adaptation would win a lot of points in depicting all the positive reflections of non-heteronormative relationships and the heart of the last lap of the book, which is a group of good and valiant people taking on a dangerous task for others, and, I cannot overstate this enough, Jonathan and Mina’s love story.*

*Which I’ve mentioned before, could have taken a very spicy and sinister turn in and of itself. If any darkfic-loving directors out there want to take a chance…well. You know what to do with that kukri blade.

Two: Break the story up into three acts!

1.     Jonathan—The two months in Castle Dracula.

2.     Lucy—The perils of being Dracula’s first ‘special interest’ victim in England.

3.     Mina—Everything coming to a big, grisly, race-to-the-finish crescendo.

If you want to add extra salt to the wound, have a prelude and/or interspersed highlights of the fact that, according to the text and its implications, Mina, Jonathan, and Lucy have been friends since they were little kids. Yes, really.

Three friends who have known and loved each other all their lives, all on the verge of their respective happily ever afters, attacked and tormented one after the other by the same immortal sadist. That’s a horror story.

Like it’s supposed to be, FRANCIS.

tl;dr: I respect a good monsterfucker narrative, but Dracula is absolutely NOT THAT STORY. It is horror, and it deserves to be portrayed as such. There’s a whole other essay in how absolutely unrecognizable Dracula himself is in so many media depictions, turning him from a formidable and horrifying entity into ‘Heehee Hoohoo Sultry Vampire Man, give me your love bite~~~.’ They pulled his fangs out and made him into a Ken doll. But that’s a ramble for another time.

#Francis meet me in the pit #lucy westenra #mina murray #mina harker #jonathan harker #dracula #dracula daily #adaptation #bastardization #francis ford coppola #(he is not the only director to do his shit but his is the most well-known/damning/influencing example) #rant rant ramble ramble #dracula spoilers

[diedikind]

TGCF and the Detachment from Outcomes

in Buddhism, detachment refers to the relinquishing of attachment to desires and the outcomes of actions. it is the understanding that attachment leads to suffering. (re: suffering, i have also written a meta about it in relation to the pursuit of dreams in TGCF.)

it seems paradoxical to say that given dreams are what we use to makes sense of our suffering and create meaning for our life, we should detach ourselves from it, especially since Xie Lian stubbornly persists in (which has the connotation of latching onto) his dream, and so does Hua Cheng, whose obsession maintains his existence after his death. but there is a nuanced distinction between deeply engaging with the process of chasing one’s dream and not caring about the outcome of it. i would like to argue that both Hua Cheng and Xie Lian don’t “care” about their dreams in this latter regard, and that the crown prince of Wuyong’s downfall lies with him caring too much.

starting with Hua Cheng, in being Xie Lian’s most devoted believer, he does not expect any reciprocation on Xie Lian’s part. even though Xie Lian is his dream, he does not care about whether he “achieves” his dream or not. he does not allow his sense of fulfillment to depend on the extrinsic nature of what his god could give him in return, though of course, he would be extra happy if Xie Lian did acknowledge him, the key is that he does not depend on it to motivate himself. instead, he is good to Xie Lian, respects his wishes such as praying without kneeling, develops himself to be strong enough so that he can protect his god.

moving on to Xie Lian, there are two lines from the novel that stood out to me:

1. from when xie lian was conversing with Ban Yue outside Puqi Shrine, 【This phrase [that his dream is to save the common people] was clearly his favorite before he turned seventeen. In the centuries that followed, he shouldn't have mentioned it at all!】

2. during the ultimate battle with Jun Wu, and actually throughout his history with Bai Wuxiang, 【He's probably right. Xie Lian cannot win. But even if he can't win, he must fight!】

it doesn’t matter if he can’t win, doesn’t matter if he can’t “achieve” his dream, the important thing is in trying itself, in which Xie Lian no longer talks the talk of “i want to save the common people!” but instead embodies it, taking action in saving people whenever he gets the opportunity. his dream ceases to be a distant outcome but a way of living.

in contrast, the crown prince of Wuyong was adamant about sacrificing people, albeit criminals, into the kiln in order to stop the volcano from erupting, because he was attached to the outcome of saving the common people as well as the image of a god who never fails. in order to achieve this outcome and sustain his image, he gradually deviated from his principles, saying that he wants to save people while killing them. (i will not personally assert that this is wrong, though, because this is just a utilitarian framework of ethics, and i believe that people are free to adhere to their own ethical frameworks without any standard being intrinsically more valuable than another, but i will say that under TGCF’s narrative, Jun Wu’s actions seem to be at odds with his ideals, which is what led to his dissonance and dichotomy.)

by the way, i don’t think this analysis would be possible under the old version of TGCF, because while i can sense that a deontological/Kantian argument is what the story hints at given the two lines i quoted above, Xie Lian at times expresses inconsistent standards. i do not wish to get into this, mainly because back then it gave me a headache. just know that in the revised version, 1. Xie Lian did not kill any soldiers in the Yong’an war and 2. Xie Lian did not kill Lang Qianqiu’s parents.

#tgcf #heaven official's blessing #xie lian #hua cheng #jun wu

[themostineptthateverstepped]

Obviously, I am very tense about the Loki finale tonight, so this post may not age well, but I just have to say this.

The kiss in the season 1 finale was super weird. Not just because it was some strange version of selfcest, but because there was no real chemistry there. It genuinely felt like Sylvie's last-ditch effort to distract/confuse Loki enough to achieve her goal of killing He Who Remains. And that is exactly what that was. She kissed him, he looked completely defeated during said kiss, and then she kicked him through a time door, killed Kang, and then went about her life.

She did not look at all pleased to see Loki again, and there has been no spark of anything between them the entire season. Even when they join hands to use their magic, it looks like siblings. THEY READ LIKE SIBLINGS. There really hasn't been any effort put into developing their chemistry or connection romantically. Even in their most recent interaction at the bar, Sylvie is playing the detached therapist, trying to guide Loki into admitting what he already knows, the true "why" behind his mission, and it isn't her. She even explicitly defines that she has her own story and path and advises him to write his own. Separately.

Now all of this is a long way of saying that, if they move forward and push Sylkie on us at the eleventh hour, I won't be angry because it's not my ship, I will be angry because they did absolutely nothing to grow it, to nurture it, to have it make any real narrative sense.

Yes, this is Tumblr, and we all love a good gay ship (because we are sad and gay and starved for representation), but Loki and Mobius actually make narrative sense. Not only do they each represent the other's turning point and catalyst for growth and change, but they are also two characters that have developed into something together. Their evolution is incredible, and we have been given scenes all season that parallel their growth, in the way Mobius doesn't hesitate to trust Loki, how he embraces Loki's mischief, how Loki comes back to Mobius again and again, defends him, comforts him. They have actively built the framework for Lokius, even heavily implying that Mobius is the "who" that guides Loki's time slipping.

However they choose to manifest Loki and Mobius' relationship, if they leave it ambiguous, if it's queer-platonic, if it's whatever, they at the very least need to make it abundantly clear that THIS is the fundamental relationship. Their bond is the heart of the show.

Loki needs to love Sylvie because he needs to be able to love and embrace himself as he is, all of his strengths, and all of his weaknesses. Sylvie, who is still so impulsive and bent on revenge, is an excellent opportunity for him to see where he came from and love her anyway. But we've seen him face her impulsive violence, and instead of him meeting her there and joining in, we saw him become calm and compassionate - we saw how Mobius had helped him to grow. We need Loki and Sylvie to love each other, because that is how they are going to heal, it's how they aren't going to lose. But it's self-acceptance, it's the love you have to have before you can truly love someone else, and I think given Loki's long arc as a character, we need to see him beak out of his narcissism, move beyond just loving himself, and truly love someone else.

They more than paved the way for Mobius and Loki, and if they through that away for Sylkie, it won't just be sinking a perfectly good ship, it would be horrifically ignorant, wasteful storytelling. And this is the God of Stories, so if you fuck this up... I mean. Just don't okay?

#loki #pre loki finale #lokius #loki season 2 #long meta post #i really just went for it #loki laufeyson #mobius m mobius #sylvie laufeydottir #sylvie #loki series #get ready clowns

[alpaca-clouds]

The Crusades (and how they Influence Castlevania)

I will just happily continue to do some historical framing of Castlevania, especially in regards to Nocturne, as it really has a ton of historical details in there. But I also noticed a ton of people refer to Mizrak as a Templar or a crusader - both in the positive and the negative sense. So, let me talk about two things today: Historical context of the Crusades and (in the evening, when I have a bit more time) also the Knight Orders that participated.

Understanding the crusades is also very important when it comes to understanding colonialism in how it happened, which doubly influences the plot of Castlevania Nocturne.

First: The first crusade happened mainly in 1096, though there were two years of things happening up to it. And make no mistake: The reasons for the crusades happening were entirely political.

Of course, the official story went like this: "Muslims have laid claim on Jerusalem, which is this important city for Christianity because it is where Jesus died (and according to some sources was born as well)! Now how can we do a pilgrimage there?! We need to reclaim Jerusalem!"

But that story was a lie. Yes, Muslim held Jerusalem at the time, but... here is the fact: Muslim at this time were very chill with other religions. So Christian could do their pilgrimage through the Muslim held territory no problem. They even build infrastructure for the Christian pilgrims. No problem.

No, the reason for it was different. For once the Byzantine had lost a lot of land to the Ottomans and Turks. And they petitioned the Western European nations for help reclaiming it.

But also: Pope Urban at the time had kinda the problem that there was another pope. (Yes, that happened a lot in history.) And he had been thrown out of Rome. So, he had the genius idea that if he build up the Muslims as this horrible enemy, he could unite the Christians under himself in the fight against them.

And thus the first Crusade started. It was chaos. They killed more Christians throughout eastern Europe than Muslims, because they just went pillaging and all those things.

But over the next about 200 years a ton more crusades happened. Like, officially eight crusades, but there were actually so many more, just that those eight crusades were happening with more nations participating.

Technically speaking the crusades did not even stop after 1291. Rather there were more smaller crusades. Often these were not about Jerusalem, but about reclaiming other areas from Muslim rule. But also about pillaging a lot of Muslim land and riches.

To relate this back to Castlevania: Isaac has probably been taken as a slave during one of the later crusades. And given we know Hector lived on Rhodes, he also would have seen one crusade trying to reclaim the island from the Muslims.

Now, why was this important in regards of colonialism?

Mostly, because the entire framework of thinking that influenced colonialism later came from here.

Until the crusades racism was not really a thing that existed. There was xenophobia, yes, but that was bound to culture, not to the color of skin or the shape of a face. But the crusades created a very effective image of the "dangerous other" in Arabs and Turks. And thus as the crusades progressed the idea that darker skinned people were inherently bad spread more and more throughout Europe and was pushed a lot by the church.

By the time the original Castlevania series is set the idea was the official church doctrine, which included that Black people were created by God to be slaves. It is this that made the colonizers turn to Africa to get their slaves. Because it was so interwoven with church doctrine by that time that it was just considered truth.

Now, at the point that Nocturne is set in, the crusades were very much over. But the fallout from them continued a long while onwards - technically speaking through to this day.

Some of the Knightly Orders that were created during the crusades were active in the French Revolution. Technically speaking some of them are active to this day. (Yes, the Knights Hospitaller included - just that they do not call themselves Knights anylonger.)

If you wanna learn more about the first crusade and the chaos that ensued, watch this little series by Extra History.

#castlevania #castlevania netflix #castlevania nocturne #history #crusades #crusaders #colonialism #religious history #byzantium #Youtube

[bestworstcase]

okay

let's talk about alchemical readings and rwby.

as the resident crank it would be remiss of me not to begin this little jaunt with a very important disclaimer: like all esoteric lenses, alchemical philosophy is an analytical framework that relies quite heavily on symbolism, and because of that it is really important to be mindful of how you're engaging with the text. symbolism services narrative, not the other way around, and you should always let the narrative guide your understanding of its symbolism. if that doesn't make sense to you, don't worry, because there will be lots of examples to illustrate what i mean.

before getting into the weeds, we're going to lay out some basic alchemical concepts.

in simple terms, the core philosophical idea of alchemy is a gradual process of transformation from base material into the sublime; conceptually the transmutation of lead into gold is also the perfection of human body and soul. alchemy is about change, refinement, rebirth, wholeness.

the prima materia—first matter—is the perfect and formless primordial matter of which all forms of matter are derived. if you're familiar with certain other alchemical readings of rwby you'll have seen it defined as the "raw material" that is transformed into the philosopher's stone through the alchemical process; that is not inaccurate but it must be stressed that the idea here is that ordinary matter comes from the prima materia and the philosopher's stone IS the prima materia, made perfect and whole again through the great work.

<- rwby directly invokes this idea in 'all things must die' ("all bonds dissolve/infinite matter/will always evolve").

yliaster is another name (coined by paracelsus) for the prima materia, which he described as "completely healed human being who has burned away all the dross of his lower being and is free to fly as the phoenix."

the great work is the actual process of alchemy. it is classically broken down into four (or three) stages, each represented by a color:

nigredo, black, involves putrefaction and charring—symbolically, death. decay. rot.

albedo, white, involves purification and separation. the undifferentiated mass of the nigredo stage is clarified and divided into two opposing principles.

citrinitas, yellow, is the "dawn" or reawakening.

rubedo, red, involves coagulation and recombination after the separation undergone in albedo.

citrinitas is not always treated as a discrete stage, instead sometimes being combined into a single stage with rubedo or understood as the transition between albedo and rubedo. hence "four (or three)." there are also a great variety of other stages, mostly given in sets of seven or twelve and listed in myriad sequences, but for our purpose this four-or three-stage model is the most useful.

now!

ordinarily with an alchemical reading, we would begin by finding a narrative pattern of symbolic death and rebirth, but for rwby we first need to interrogate the goliath in the room, namely:

YES, IT'S ABOUT SALEM.

there is a tendency in alchemical readings of rwby to interpret salem's immortality as a lifeless unchanging stasis, and thus to read her as an embodiment of the anti-theme, and surprising absolutely no one i find this to be… well, just not right at all.

rwby initially sets up the pattern through the mantra pyrrha recites when she awakens jaune's aura: "for it is in passing that we achieve immortality. through this we become a paragon of virtue and glory to rise above all, infinite in distance and unbound by death. i release your soul, and by my shoulder protect thee." 'rising' explicitly calls back to this ("we are paragons of virtue and glory/death can't bind our endless story/infinite and unbound") and 'indomitable' reiterates the idea ("when we strive, we transcend/even death cannot end our climb"); this is important to note because the repetition correlates with revelations about salem's story.

the key thing to understand here is that 'the lost fable' is narratively structured around salem's deaths:

first, the god of light bites her and she's drowned in the fountain of life (notice her last breath leaving her mouth; she chokes for air and her eyes rolls back as she loses consciousness, sinking into the depths)…

…and then the god of darkness brings the moon down on her head and she wanders in a haze until finding her way back to the pool of grimm, where she seeks her own destruction and is created anew.

the brothers cast salem into the fountain of life, which pools under the roots of a tree and appears to be infinitely deep. she drowns as she sinks into its darkness—then abruptly reawakens hitting the water again, now only a reflecting pool, and the water-light of aura shimmers over her hands as she rises.

"for it is in passing that we achieve immortality…" the reprisal of "infinite and unbound" in 'rising' draws a line from pyrrha's mantra to the lost fable for a reason; it's to help us understand the truth behind the story jinn is telling. it is not even subtext—it is text. especially after volume nine, which clarifies the symbolic meaning of the tree growing above the waters.

through death, salem became immortal—infinite—and the infinite waters of life and creation became finite.

that water was the prima materia of the brothers' world; it combined with salem—the prima materia changes itself and combined with all imperfect bodies that it touches—and thus she herself became yliaster, "the perfectly healed human being who has burned away all the dross of his lower being and is free to fly as the phoenix."

the dross in her case being the brothers and their divine order, she rebels against them, and they destroy their world. she is all that remains. they leave salem behind in the end of all things and, phoenix-like, she rises out of the ashes of her destruction. yliaster is the prima materia; it contains everything, is everything, and everything is released when it is broken apart.

"this force of pure destruction could not destroy a being of infinite life, so it created a being of infinite life with a desire for pure destruction." destruction exists within creation exists within destruction: salem embraces death, throwing herself into the "blackened pools of annihilation" in the land of darkness. nigredo.

she's torn apart and reborn, and remnant is born with her, a pure-white being clambering into a revitalized new world she cannot touch; after a long separation, her partner returns to her and she experiences love, connection, freedom for the first time in years, until she learns that he seeks the destruction of this world and a return to the old and they burn each other alive in a violent parting. albedo.

salem's arrival in atlas literally at dawn incites the struggle between herself and cinder, which culminates in salem beginning to relinquish control and as her true feelings come to the surface. citrinitas.

thus, what remains of her story is rubedo: reconciliation with cinder, reunion with ozma, peace between humans and grimm (<- unity of opposites), and finally symbolic transcendence over death by convincing the god of light to ascend, with "death" being specifically the threat of annihilation represented by the divine mandate.

ozma's arc, of course, mirrors hers very closely: the god of light breaks him apart, the god of darkness burns him (nigredo)—his reincarnation divides him very literally into two, and symbolically divides him between duty and desire (albedo)—he awakens with the dawn, reconciles with oscar, and begins to face the truth in atlas (citrinitas).

as alchemical readings go, this one is not difficult or arcane or remotely ambiguous. it isn't even symbolic; the deaths and resurrection are explicitly literal and occur onscreen with the accompaniment of helpful explanatory notes. the goliath in the room is making aggressive eye contact.

but we are not done here yet, because i never do anything by halves and we have symbolism to talk about.

THE GREAT WORK.

salem, you will recall, is yliaster, the prima materia of remnant. you will also recall that the prima materia is the formless primordial matter from which all other matter is formed, and thus it is both the raw material of the great work and the philosopher's stone. yes? good. rwby interrogates this contradiction through the idea of balance, which the god of light conceives of as an inviolate order that must be designed and enforced. but, as the blacksmith explains, his understanding is a limited falsehood:

"balance is not two forces locked in never-ending battle. balance is an ecosystem, an organism, a living, breathing thing; thus balance cannot be restored by force or calculation. it only requires love and the patience to see things through to the end."

here is where i think a lot of the fandom—not people doing alchemical readings necessarily, but in general—miss the mark by interpreting this to mean that opposition and balance are antithetical to each other, that a system with two opposing forces is inherently out of balance. rwby's metaphysics are grounded in hellenistic philosophy, plato in particular (<- neoplatonism had a significant influence on the western european alchemical tradition), and the philosophical ideas undergirding the ever after follows herclitus.

(i recommend perusing the category pages for λόγος, justice and strife, the harmony of opposites, φύσις, ψυχή, cosmology, fire, water/the river, life/death, and waking/sleeping—i know that sounds like a lot of reading, but it isn't, as what we have of heraclitus is only fragments and the summaries provided are brief and accessible.)

the two key ideas we're interested in here are flux and strife. the world exists at rest in a continual state of change; a river is always the same river, but its flowing waters change from moment to moment. this conception of the world—"changing, it rests"—is flux. strife incites change through the tension between opposing forces. strife is not discordant but rather harmonious: "men do not know how what is at variance agrees with itself. it is an attunement of opposite tensions, like that of the bow and the lyre." (B51) just as a bow could not fire and a lyre could not sing without tension on the strings, so the world could not be without strife.

this is what the blacksmith means by balance. true balance is not war; it is strife. not two forces locked in never-ending conflict, but opposite tensions in harmony with each other. destruction and creation are opposing forces, but each exists within the other and they are both interdependent and inseparable.

salem embodies this theme. through death, she became life, and by destruction she was created. human and grimm, light and darkness, creation and destruction. she seeks to tear down the huntsmen academies and incite revolution in pursuit of a new world. she is balance—and the god of light inflicted his punishment upon her not because she failed to understand the importance of life and death, but because her dedication to change challenged his false and hollow conception of what balance means.

this guides the alchemical reading of the wider narrative in significant ways. salem is the prima materia of remnant—yliaster, broken apart to release everything contained within—and thus both the subject and the aspiration of the great work. when we examine other characters through this lens, it is in relation to her.

we'll begin by discussing the narrative's big symbols: the rose, the broken moon, the tree, grimm, silver eyes, and fire.

traditionally, the rose symbolizes rubedo. in most alchemical readings of rwby, ruby rose is accordingly presumed to represent this stage for obvious reasons—however, if we pay attention to how the narrative itself symbolically identifies the rose:

ruby's emblem, which she inherited from her mother, is a burning rose.

our first sighting of it is on summer rose's grave, above an epitaph—"thus kindly i scatter"—taken from a poem which uses the death of a rose as a metaphor for the speaker's loneliness and despair.

"red like roses fills my dreams and brings me to the place you rest," and "red like roses fills my head with dreams and finds me always closer to the emptiness and sadness that has come to take the place of you"

adam's emblem is a withered rose.

"the moon will sadly watch the roses die"

"maybe red's like roses? maybe it's the pool of blood the innocents will lay in when in the end you fail to save them"

"the rose will grow to be a seed, from every life another leads" (<- evokes an image of deterioration, rot; the rose going to seed)

"some roses will never bloom, some dreams will rot on the vine"

in rwby, the rose represents death. it burns, it withers, it dies, it is scattered, it never blooms; thus, it does not symbolize rubedo but rather the death and decomposition of nigredo. why then is ruby's primary color red? we'll get to that in a little while.

the moon traditionally symbolizes albedo, which is a process of separation, reflection, and illumination. the god of darkness shattered the moon as he departed after slaughtering humanity, and:

"the moon will sadly watch the roses die"

"the sky is turning black, light is fading fast, but we don't surrender; shattering the night, radiant and bright, armored in splendor, shining forever […] we're rising like the moon"

salem falls into and through the reflection of the broken moon when she casts herself into the pool of grimm

the broken moon symbolizes the death and resurrection of humankind, which—as noted—is the beginning of the albedo stage in salem's story.

so in rwby the broken moon does indeed represent albedo.

the tree, obviously, represents the whole circle of life-death-rebirth, with its symbolic meaning on remnant following its actual function in the ever after, where it is the cosmic tree, the river, and the ever-living fire. thus cinder and salem falling into pools of water at the base of a tree are symbolic (and in salem's case, also literal) rebirths.

grimm are "manifestations of anonymity," "the darkness," hates and feared as soulless monsters, destruction incarnate, thought to have no purpose other than to exist as "mankind's greatest foe." rwby is consistent in using the grimm to symbolize ostracism, persecution, fear of the other or the unknown, and salem's exile is justified (in ozma's mind) by her grimmness. which is to say, the grimm represent the separation undergone during albedo; they are the darkness to humanity's light. (hence, the narrative building toward coexistence between humans and grimm, exemplified by the faunus.)

silver eyes are described in opposition to the grimm and likewise represent the separation of albedo; the light to grimmkind's darkness. salem's experimentation with combining them into one being is a faunus for good reason, and i do not think it is coincidental that cinder has become less vulnerable to the glare as she finds balance with the grimm arm. and speaking of her:

the phoenix is another traditional symbol for rubedo, which naturally calls to mind associations with fire. citrinitas, similarly, is represented by the dawn or the "solar light," overtaking the moonlight of albedo, which again connotes fire. in rwby, fire is used to symbolize hope and wrath, which are thematically intertwined (hope ignites fire -> loss of hope incites wrath -> wrath ignites fire, and is thus a form of hope):

"even the smallest spark of hope is enough to ignite change […] nature's wrath in hand, man lit their way through the darkness"

"a simple spark can ignite hope, breathe fire into the hearts of the weary…" becoming "i can't wait to watch you burn"—salem seeks to smother ozma's hope, and thus rekindle her own.

"the light of hope is taken and discontent is the contagion; the blinding eyes that burn a yellow flame, the embers that remain will light the fuse of condemnation"

"we were destined to light the flame of revolution; consider this the spark" + "i think father may have just provided the spark that's going to set this kingdom on fire"

flame imagery used in relation to cinder and salem in the volume eight opening and jaune throughout volume nine.

cinder being… a spark…

as i noted, the paradigm shift between salem and cinder in atlas represents the transition from albedo to rubedo through the dawn. in rwby, the kindling spark symbolizes citrinitas and the changing flame that follows is rubedo. the role cinder will play in reigniting salem's hope is obvious, and the symbolic use of fire to reawaken first jaune and then neo in volume nine only underscores this meaning. in combination with the dust and ashes motif going on with salem and the grimm, the fire becomes specifically phoenix imagery.

now!

why, if the rose is nigredo, is ruby red?

in order to explain this, we first need to examine team STRQ, because the answer is that the great work is cyclical.

in team STRQ, we have:

summer rose, whose red-and-gold interior is masked by her white exterior

taiyang xiao long, who is all yellow

raven branwen, who is an amalgam of red and black

qrow branwen, who is mostly white except for his red cape

the branwen twins also transform into corvids, traditional symbols for the nigredo stage; qrow's scythe harbinger and raven's allusions to the morrígan underscore their symbolic association with death.

if we consider these color associations through an alchemical lens, the pattern that emerges is—by design—muddled and strange, but not actually that convoluted:

raven "tried to leave," but couldn't. she became the spring maiden by mercy-killing a girl whom she loved as her own family, and never having dealt with that grief or guilt, is trapped in nigredo whilst projecting a hollow image of rubedo—her pretense of strength. she runs away from her feelings, rather than challenging or examining them; what she needs instead is to separate and reflect honestly on herself.

summer did leave. her white outer shell—the phantom she left behind—suggests albedo, but her true colors are what she wears beneath the cloak: red trimmed with gold. she found salem, listened to her and awoke to the truth of this world, and then joined her. but in order to do that, she had to separate from her own family, joining salem exile; thus her individual rubedo brings her into alignment with the grimm in salem's albedo.

qrow, shattered by the dissolution of his team, is undergoing his own albedo. like his sister, he wears the trappings of rubedo—he is the one left standing, ozpin's most trusted agent—but this is a false projection which crumbles once it challenged by the revelations of ozma's deceit. his drinking and reluctance to be around people for fear of bringing them to harm make it impossible for him to move forward until he finds new hope and decides to try again. like his onetime mentor, he experiences citrinitas in atlas and the beginning of his transition into rubedo is marked by the introduction of maroon (desaturated red) and tan (desaturated yellow) into his atlas fit.

tai, lastly, is interesting because in one sense, he is citrinitas in isolation, a dawn with nothing to illuminate because his team left him behind, but in another sense, tai mediates the generational transition between team STRQ (albedo) and team RWBY (rubedo). he is yang and ruby's father and—crucially—he raises both in idealized casts of their mothers. ruby feels compelled to live up to the fairytale idea of summer rose; tai tells yang that he sees all of raven's good qualities in her and warns her to be wary of being too much like her mother, in almost the same breath.

ruby's red and yang's yellow represent the culmination of what tai wishes could have been; the summer rose who returned whole and alive, the raven branwen who chose reflection and reawakening instead of running away. but both colors are only things projected onto them—false images.

in truth, ruby represents nigredo. her scythe and the burning rose both connect her to death; her semblance disassembles her into a swirling formless mass of rose petals; her own identity is lost beneath the idea of summer rose and the first nine volumes of the story are devoted to the long, slow journey to her symbolic death at the roots of the tree.

only with her ascension has she begun to undergo albedo (notice the greater emphasis on her silver eyes and the flaring white light as she comes out of the tree; also, "otherside, did you mean to leave me half or whole? will i ever be complete? when will i become all of me?" and "what is left? i know it's you and i when i look inside"—she is beginning to separate herself from the imaginary paragon.

weiss represents albedo—her story is fundamentally about separation from her family, leading to self-reflection and growth, and in the process she has become an emotionally intelligent, insightful person who consistently helps others draw out and clarify their hidden emotions. her mirror motif and her knight summon further represent this: the self and the reflection.

blake represents citrinitas—her golden eyes, her association with the black king, her identity as a faunus, all support this reading. her time with the white fang was her albedo (she lost herself, gradually began to see herself in a new light, and finally separated herself from everything adam represented) and her personal moment of citrinitas is the removal of the bow and meeting with sun after she reveals herself as a faunus, after which she begins her journey of rediscovering herself and reintegrating with her faunus heritage.

finally, yang represents rubedo—her fire, her red eyes, "scathing eyes ask that we be symmetrical, one-sided and easily processed, yet every misshapen spark's unseen beauty is greater than its would-be judgment," "feel like i'm finally unbroken, feel like i'm back from the dead," the whole thematic conceit of bumbleby being the catalyst and the flame, the dawn and the sun, and so forth, two-in-one, "we're protecting each other."

the team collectively represents rubedo in relation to salem, in that they will be the ones primarily negotiating with her and this will obviously not begin to happen until ruby has her personal moment of citrinitas, which is to say not until ruby meets the real summer rose.

as a final point of interest, the four qualities (and relics) of destruction, creation, knowledge, choice map neatly onto the four-or-three alchemical stages—destruction as nigredo, creation as albedo, knowledge-then-choice as citrinitas-then-rubedo—and given the parallelism between yang and cinder, blake and raven, and weiss and penny+winter, it is probably a safe bet that the summer maiden is a) not summer rose, and b) a character foil to ruby, which i think adds some weight to the gillian theory.

anyways.

the philosopher's stone is ozlem.

#to be clear i think the alchemy thing is more convergent evolution from plato than deliberate use of alchemical structure #but neoplatonism did significantly influence western european alchemical philosophy so there is a lot to work with #and putting it in alchemical terms can be a clarifying analytical shorthand #as long as you don't. ignore everything the narrative spells out wrt salem #ANYWAY. HERE. TAKE IT.

[gloriousmonsters]

I kind of dig CQL Su's backstory for how unfair it was. Like, novel him you could see exactly why WWX and co were disgusted by him for his actions in almost handing over MianMian, but CQL him it's like... his friends were being slaughtered??? It just adds this sense of 'yeah king, kill the gentry' that matches Xue Yang more.

eh, for me the two narratives serve different purposes and I'm slightly fonder of the novel one. CQL SMS is good and very crunchy and also just. the sweetest boy and like you said, more overtly sympathetic; but:

Novel SMS sets up a more interesting 'character contradiction' in that he starts as a teenager who does something genuinely bad and cowardly (we know it, everyone knows it, he knows it) who can't quite match the local golden boy in skill... and then he grows up to be a sect leader, a brilliant powerhouse of a fighter, and a brave-to-the-point-of-self-sacrifice, loyal man. And he does it for the villain because the 'good' people treat him like crap. And he does it, crucially, offscreen.

No matter how he grows and changes, he's treated like a failed disciple for the Lan, a failed copy of LWJ. No other reason is given than 'he gets mad at being compared to LWJ and plays the guqin, the most common spiritual instrument.' He's not despised by WWX for being a coward in the past--WWX is pissed off in the moment, and then true to form forgets about it. He mocks SMS for daring to criticize the Lan while having once come from them, and later--when he remembers seeing SMS in the past--he's only concerned with why did you ruin my life, what did I do to you? And SMS' response is, basically, why do you think you're the main character?

SMS considers himself the center of the story when it's not about him. Watsonianly, it takes the form of people finding him arrogant and his anger unjustified; doylistically, it's fascinating to realize that he has a dramatic character arc that we never see, and interesting to read his baffled rage at LWJ--what reason does he have to act arrogant and get away with it? why is fate on his side and not mine? as an almost fourth-wall aware complaint. Why isn't SMS a main character? He just isn't. It's not his story. He was created for a certain role and he wants a different one, but it's impossible inside this framework. It's a frustration at the center of his character that plays in a fun way with other themes of the story (is it only perspective that makes a hero or a villain? etc).

And it's totally understandable that CQL sort of... shifts that an inch sideways and it becomes class-specific rage. What is class jumping but wanting a role you weren't given? The change of his Cowardice Event to something more sympathetic also makes sense in this context, and it's placement nearly side by side with Meng Yao's murder of the captain does drive in his increased similarity to his later villainous friends. I like CQL, genuinely. It feels like a less meta story to me, but that doesn't make it worse--just more self-contained, a little bit different overall.

But the novel's version of events is honestly more about audience perception than the involved characters, imo. People don't despise him later for what he did then, except (possibly; we see no indication but he could be thinking it) LWJ. It's on the audience to still only see him as the cowardly kid who nearly handed over Mianmian, just as the Lan see him as a failed disciple and others see him as arrogant beyond his station. Then Guanyin Temple displays so much that was concealed about everyone, and you find out SMS has been hiding his accomplishments and abilities for years, is not too proud to loyally serve the son of a prostitute, and is willing to die without hesitation.

What a character, what an arc. In a different life (story), he could have been great (the main character).

Not in this life, though.

and that's my extremely too many words overanalyzing essay on why novel!sms is my fave by a slim margin. it's about the tragedy of the meta implications that feel like they aren't really there in the more sympathetic/contained CQL version 👌

#su she #su minshan #sorry you unlocked my SMS emotions again so i just wrote FAR too many words #also i feel like my lens on mdzs is so shaped by reading Scum Villain before i read it #so keep that in mind

[robotnuts]

i dont know much and i havent really Read a lot of theory so id probably be laughed out of the room by anyone that has but even as someone who knows nothing i do think its clear that like. even if the broader political implications werent fully intended by burnie (which, considering the problems with disability rep in rvb, i sure Hope they weren’t), there’s still meat to sink your teeth into there. 

reading the AI as assistive tech in the story creates some really interesting thoughts about biopolitics and the military. there’s interesting stuff about how maine’s disability is treated and how care is forced on him that he doesn’t ask for and how york is treated of course, i just reblogged a post on it, but i think pushing the framework further to extrapolate what it means for characters who Aren't understood as disabled being provided assistive tech highlights some interesting points about disability politics. what does it mean if you consider even the able bodied freelancers being (classified as) ‘disabled’ by not living up to a superhuman standard that no one can access without modifications. 

having an ‘abled’ or ‘disabled’ body isn’t a natural inherent objective state of being but a classification produced by and given to you by sociopolitical circumstances, what is considered 'disability’ is subject to change with shifting cultural norms, etc. so in an incredibly high-control hierarchical environment like the military, with absolute control over your environment and body and goals, the standard of behavior you need to achieve to be considered 'abled’ can be pushed so far to the extreme that it falls out of the range of behaviors that can even exist without assistive tech so fantastical that can't exist in the real world. this view challenges the 'common sense' conceptualization that being abled is just the ‘natural, healthy’ condition of one’s body as an inherent physical state with no societal influences or contexts. instead, disability and ability is produced by the interaction between one's physical body and those contexts, and in extreme contexts, we get extreme conclusions. no one at club errera would consider agent carolina disabled, but under project freelancer, in order to further the aims of the people she works for, her not being able to run 50mph is a ‘disability’ that needs assistive tech in order to fix. 

and also under the control of the military, the abilities of agent carolina’s body are owned by her superiors. her assistive tech isn’t given to her in order to allow her to run fast because she wants to and thinks it would enrich her life, and being granted More Ability is not an unquestioned net good with no drawbacks**, but a material tradeoff that comes with different advantages and disadvantages for one's dayt o day life. it's not for her, it's solely because it would allow her employers to continue exerting power and maneuvering towards their political aims. in short, her own well being is completely disregarded, because, well. duh. it’s the military.

assistive tech’s designs and aims are also not apolitical and always a positive thing. using the AI has extreme physical and mental risks and harms for all the freelancers, as well as just being a MASSIVE interpersonal burden/change in how they’re expected to interact with the world on a fundamental level, which makes sense as a trade-off! in order to be able to perform the superhuman feats required by PFL the tech is fundamentally invasive on the deepest possible level. but it helps PFL look better and satisfies the director’s enigmatic whims,* so get on the operating table. 

this point reminds me of posts i’ve read about prosthetic arms and how they’re extremely difficult to learn to use and how most people give up on them because they aren’t comfortable and aren’t helpful in the long run, but people are still encouraged to be fitted with prosthetic arms, because thats the Natural state of an Abled body and wouldnt it be best if everyone could Return to that, instead of considering assistive tech that might actually treat the needs of an amputee, such as tools modified to be able to be used with only one hand (also, militaries even use soldiers who are given these devices after losing their arms as promotional fluff pieces, calling them bionic arms and showing off how high tech and cool they are, even though from what i understand, they suck! fuck the military!!!)

*(and i don’t think the director’s enigmatic whims are necessarily me being snarky about weird character writing and don’t reflect any real life phenomena either- this being the director’s Pet project and theory and people with power being able to use that power to extreme ends to get incredibly stupid ideas manifested in reality reminds me of the elizabeth holmes, the silicon valley blood girl, and how she got investors excited because they were sold on the story of the idea and not because of any real merits it had. NFTs work as another example. the director decided he’s going to do this dumb fucking AI dissociative identity disorder scheme because it seemed so clever, and there’s no checks on his power as the nepo baby in charge of the big shiny war machine, so he can totally just fucking implode his entire organization and ruin countless lives on this pipe dream fueled by his fucking dead wife angst 

**this is why this essentially just being the case and all we're given wrt wash's disability in zero drives me so crazy lol. i mean most of the stuff i find interesting here is in 6-10, its not really doing the same kind of interesting stuff in 17 either, but i do think a story about a disabled character coming to terms with what his and future will look like is an important story to tell, even if i don't have as many interesting thoughts how the plot intersects with the explicitly political environment of the military in the same way i do with 9/10

#rvb #sorry all the easy jokes and posts have been taken already ive been here too long now all my posts are fucking Weird

[eneiryu]

hi! i've read so many of your fics and I've loved them all! I had a few quick teen wolf prompts for you, if you're willing:

quentin, from the chemult pack(who has the same history with him as he does in 'built a ship in the morning but the hull's worn through'), hears that theo is back and comes after him, either kidnapping him or trying to kill him. the pack has to help/come after him

mason/corey's pov of 'mistakes aren't always regrets'

liam waking up to theo having a nightmare, but theo tries to hide it

theo&malia bonding over being coyotes, and theo explains what it's like to be half of each

theo explaining to the various members of the pack his chimera differences, like senses or healing

i was also wondering where you come up with your titles? they're really cool and seem like poetry. your tags also make me laugh, they're hilarious(like stiles' iron grip on the sheriff's lunch menu? that should be waay more popular)

Thank you! And now, settling in for a packed reply to a packed question *cracks knuckles*:

- Absolutely. At this point, I think I kind of have to write some kind of Quentin-centric fic, given the interest in one and the possibilities. I’ve got some ideas floating around—just need one of them to finish blossoming into a full story.

- 🤔 Intriguing. Definitely will give it some thought

- Ah, my angsty bread-and-butter. If I get the basic framework, absolutely.

- I really haven’t dug into this before, so it’d certainly be interesting. I’ll see if anything comes to me.

- Hmm. There are some possibilities here with combining this with another story I’ve been really wanting to write, where I think this could fit in nicely.

In terms of my titles, I’ll confess: it’s almost total chaos. 😆 It can, quite literally, involving me looking around whatever room I happen to be in, searching for words that feel “right,” like they match the tone of the story. Then once I’ve got what I guess we’ll call the “anchor” word, I start building the rest of the phrase/sentence around it, again mostly trying to stick with the underlying theme. E.g. built a ship in the morning but the hull’s worn through, it was several years ago but from I remember I started with either “ship” or “built a ship,” and then got the rest by randomly repeating sentences to myself until I got a series of words that rang true, but the hull’s worn through seeming to fit the idea of Theo really trying to be a better person (building a ship), but the weight of his past quickly affecting it (the hull around being worn through, and so quickly, e.g. he started in the morning and it’s already worn).

Also: thank you! Considering the chaos, it’s great to hear the titles are ringing true. And I do enjoy having fun with my tags, sometimes. 😊

#eneiryu ask

[chaikachi]

Honestly, I've been pretty stressed about the idea of rg not being canon. I know that sounds stupid but life has kinda been kicking my ass and I could use the win, you know? But your posts analyses and stuff help me feel a little better, so thank you :)

Awe, don't stress friend!! I could sit here and say 'shipping is just for fun' (which is true), but at the end of the day I'll also be really heckin' sad if they somehow don't go with RG in the end. You're not stupid for feeling that way. 💕 I know it's easy to think I'm looking with a biased lens or shipping goggles - and i'll be the first to admit I, just like any other shipper, will reach from time to time - but I didn't start seriously shipping RG until v8 for a reason.

I thought after Oscar's introduction that maybe he would be Ruby's love interest because I genuinely had not seen any other possibilities in show up until that point, but I wasn't certain. Then the fumble in v7 is followed so closely by the blush in v8 (like less than 12 hours in canon) and when you see them so close back to back it's like oh... ohhhhhhhh okay they have been building up to this haven't they? And once you recognize that and re-watch the whole show, it's really freaking hard to ignore it.

Especially when it's following such a similar pattern to all other romances in the story with the conflict induced separation and the whole 'receiving support & what they need most from each other in ways they aren't getting from anyone else' thing.

Ruby supports everyone similarly, but they wouldn't have focused so hard on how well Oscar supports her in turn and how earnestly he tries to share her burdens if it wasn't on purpose. They wouldn't have been the only pair that was split up in v7/8, teased that hug, then kept them separated in v9 if they weren't building to a very strong reunion. "Distance makes the heart grow fonder" and all that.

Also i'm not gonna point fingers or dunk on other ships but there isn't really... anyone else left in the narrative that can fit the role of Ruby's love interest given the framework crwby has set up. pls don't attack me for saying this.

But i'm glad the analyses are helping!! I don't have a lot of confidence with writing them cause ADHD brain makes staying on track very difficult and I'm always worried they're messy or don't make sense. I just have many thoughts about them and it's nice to have a place to put them all. 👉👈 Bonus when people yell with me about them sometimes ehe. I wanna make more when I can but if there are any parts of the ship that folks wanna hear about, i'm always open to suggestions on what to talk about!

#also it doesn't mean anything but eddy liked some of my rg art on twt today so have some hope friend #anon #asks #anono #ask #chainalysis

[quietbluejay]

Further Thoughts on Dorn(&Curze a bit)

On the topic of Dorn and illegal orders: I think he can conceptualize that they might happen, unlike whatever cognitive dissonance Guilliman has going on, and it would give Dorn genuine internal conflict if he received one, and that he would argue against it, but I think in most cases he would fall on the side of duty and loyalty obligating him to fulfill the order, and he considers this to apply to his subordinates as well. But also, it doesn't apply in the same way because he thinks about these things in a completely different way from Guilliman. So, okay, saying "Dorn can't deal with the idea of illegal orders" means something completely different from "Guilliman can't deal with the idea of illegal orders", and I was wrong above. Because he doesn't use an external framework or code for the types of thing that are permissible, he's working off of a hierarchy of virtues, of which duty/loyalty are at the top. So the idea of an illegal order doesn't make sense to him. (As opposed to Guilliman, who could in theory conceptualize it but also can't, because Emperor). What Dorn can deal with is the idea of being given immoral orders, that is what he would have a conflict with. By that I mean, orders that go against his moral code, lmao, he'd obvious be fine with many immoral orders that don't.

I realize this is a lot of conjecture based on 2 short stories and a novella, and I might be proven wrong.

also an interesting thing to note is that Dorn really seems to be one of the only Primarchs who thinks about the Emperor as a person

I was thinking about Kiritsugu vs Saber and the argument on the nature of war

and here we have Dorn acting in a just manner, if in the pursuit of evil ends, though he believes them to be good vs Curze, who uses evil actions he believes to be just in the pursuit of what he believes to be evil

#bluejay reads warhammer

[troutfur]

How does Brackenstar lead with deputy Brambleclaw? How’s the dynamic?

In the how they work together as a team and the more practical details of the Brackenstar leadership I still have much to figure out, but one thing I do know: it's certainly informed deeply by their personal relationship to each other. The way I like utilizing politics as a story element its main purpose is to elevate interpersonal conflicts to a grander scale. I'm fascinated by the ways in which systems of politics that center personalities make the consequences of personal spats so far reaching and in how even the conflict most dripping in pettiness can be made everyone's problem.

Working within the framework of the pfurr system has also given me plenty of interesting setups for complicated relationships and Bracken and Bramble are a really interesting example. So, let's take a peek into that and see what we find, shall we?

So, we begin with Bracken's wipfurr, that means roughly mother, Frostfur, and his pipfurr, his fathers: the littermates Goldenflower and Lionheart as well as Goldenflower's boyfriend Tigerclaw. Him and his littermate Cinderpelt as well as their eerpfurr, their maternal siblings, Brightheart and Thornclaw were all raised by this collective. By convention a queen does not reveal the sire of her kits, to do so is to strip all other pfurr members of their right to fatherhood, a grave offense.

Either litter could've been sired by either tom in the nest but they never knew nor cared who. I see them all as having differing but all ultimately relationships with each and every one of their pipfurr. Which made it a shock when upon Tigerclaw's exile Frostfur made a resounding declaration that Lionheart had been the sire of both her litters.

This declaration immediately strips the claim to parenthood of both Tigerclaw and Goldenflower; and even though they very much raised them, to near adulthood even!, and they couldn't from one moment to the other flip a switch and not see them as parents, socially they would still be pressured to pretend like they could. It would be a grave slight towards Frostfur to disregard her declaration of true parentage.

She of course had pretty good reason to want to distance herself from him, but the litter as a whole has understandably complex feelings about it. Brackenfur particularly I think he understands the gravity of his father's evil but can't help himself from ocassionally glancing and him and remembering fond moments he had with him. And with Goldenflower caught in the crossfire, not being allowed to call her children hers anymore, she's of course understandably upset. She cuts off Frostfur in return, nesting by her lonesome instead of with the only remaining member of her former pfurr.

Brackenfur in some sense feels like Brambleclaw should've grown up as his myempfurr, his "paternal" sibling for lack of a better term, and not just his cousin, his distant kin. He sees in his young warrior days someone deeply isolated and in need of connection. And the fact he looks like a mirror image of the father he lost certainly primes him to seeing the best in him, even at his worst. As a result I see in Brackenfur someone putting his all into helping him straighten out while also being perhaps excessively forgiving of him.

I don't see Bramble quite seeing it too. Too self-absorbed, too lost in his own problems to really notice the ultimate purpose behind kindness and opportunities he's being given. I think he certainly feels grateful but doesn't think too much about it. If only he opened up more I feel they both could benefit from a long, looooong conversation working out their feelings about their shared father.

#hope you like my rambles #boy does it show what my obsessions and psychological hangups are in this one doesn't it? #warrior cats #wc #warrior cats au #sibling bonds rewrite #brackenfur #brambleclaw #bramblestar

[abnerkrill]

rings of power, farscape and i can't think of anything else so mandalorian for the TV show ask game?? 🫶🫶

GREAT CHOICES <3

rings of power

Favourite character: u know as a known villainfucker i am contractually obliged to say Adar but close seconds are Miriel, Elrond, Elendil, Valandil, and Disa and Durin. I HAVE A LOT OF FAVORITES OKAY THIS IS A LARGE ENSEMBLE CAST.

Funniest character: Disa has some of the greatest comedic beats in the show but i think Elendil's dad humor is underrated as well lmao

Best-looking character: Adar, Miriel, Elendil. you canNOT make me choose here i have written extensively about how beautiful they are and i will cONTINUE to write about it

3 favourite ships: obviously miriel/elendil, but the cracky miriel/elendil/valandil ship ~accidentally~ turned into a real ship, and i wasn't convinced about adar/arondir until i wrote it for an exchange and they won my heart (also intrigued by adar/arondir/bronwyn, you KNOW i love an ot3!) honorable mention: isildur/valandil.

Least favourite character: i've said it before and i'll say it again: modern AU kemen is a college republican. unforgivable.

Least favourite ship: brandishes the sign of the cross at the h*ladriels (exception for like, the cool h*ladriels who ship them in a way that doesn't strike me as incredibly sexist...........)

Reason why I watch it: diehard tolkien fan, loves the 2nd age, was not to be deterred by the fact plenty of people hated it (funny story... i actually looked in my saved photos earlier and realized in like 2020-21 i had actually publicly said "fuck the lotr show!" and then. screenshotted it. because of the nudity/sex scene rumor. hindsight is 20/20 i guess, sorry rop, i'm better now.)

Why I started watching it: honestly pure curiosity about if the show would be good or not!!! and because i could not skip a LOTR show, tbh. (i really thought elrond and gil-galad were not hot at first but their charisma & acting won me over! look at me now!)

farscape... oh you've really awakened the sleeping dragon here i'm gonna readmore this for your own sanity !!

Favourite character: crais & aeryn, which really says a lot about how much the "child soldiers fighting to be their own self" works for me as a character arc. (FUNDIE/EXVANGELICAL METAPHOR??? note: talk about this with my therapist later.) they are both so very sexy and tortured and carry big guns. very hot. very cool. *drooling a little bit thinking about aeryn and crais* what was i talking about..... ummmmm yeah okay-- (wait honorable mention to Pilot, who is LOVELY and my FRIEND. also the fact that crais's actor also voices Pilot has given me a weird hard-on for Pilot as well. sorry. alienfucker present.)

Funniest character: john crichton is actually so fucking funny i hope we all appreciate his comedic chops--same for harvey/scorpy, the comedy in some of those mind scenes is EXCELLENT

Best-looking character: crais & aeryn. im so fucking sorry i think they're both incredibly hot and the leather and scowling and "i could kill you in 12 different ways" energy really does it for me. when crichton is in his long leather coat outfit being edgy, he also is included in this category. zhaan is also too beautiful to look at. this is a very beautiful cast!!!!!

3 favourite ships: crais/aeryn/crichton is... basically the show for me. i know it requires a certain deluded perspective to watch the show through that framework but also it completely makes sense if you have the 3rd eye to see how homoerotic the crais/crichton fights are. they're constantly fighting over their own big feelings and over aeryn and it's just like okay, fuck it out already! i do like zhaan/stark a lot as well--super compelling and very sad but beautiful!!! i think crichton/scorpius is really fun in a fucked up traumatizing psychosexual way, but i also think they'd never actually fuck, scorpy just tortures john and that's as close to sex as they'll get. (@julians-meh-house back me up on this)

Least favourite character: rygel. i know what purpose he serves thematically and in the ensemble cast—and don't get me wrong, it SLAPS that a muppet is like, cursing and shitting and farting and pissing onscreen, committing proper war crimes/acts of immorality—puppets is definitely is the best way to do sci-fi aliens tbh—but he has done so many unforgivable things to my favorites! i hate him a lot, but in the "wow he's a well-written character" kind of hate.

Least favourite ship: honestly most things with chiana give me the heebie jeebies because she's canonically Very Young (teenager/young adult?) and d'argo is a whole-ass 40 year old man. so. i understand why farscape does it, i understand that the show is depicting chiana as someone who's hypersexual because of trauma, i know the chiana/d'argo relationship is FAR from healthy to start with. i just personally want chiana to have some healthy relationships with people her age lol.

Reason why I watch it: it is the best show in the world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but seriously... my major problem with contemporary sci-fi is that it is too clean and shiny and new and sharp and savvy and militarized. and what i really want from sci-fi is the dirty underside of the cosmos. aliens being weird and freaky and kinky and inhuman and gross and ALIEN. (star wars tries to show the grimier side of things but only succeeds in like, rare circumstances.) farscape is so messy and good and it's also from the era of TV where seasons were 20+ episodes long. so much better.

Why I started watching it: @yamelcakes farscape propaganda on the dash worked on me. i am forever grateful. <3

the mandalorian

Favourite character: axe woves and din djarin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! boba fett and fennec shand as well but it feels like an insult to call them characters from the mandalorian when they had their own show lmao.

Funniest character: din is surprisingly funny, but of course it's baby yoda/grogu, he's soooo cute and evil and a menace and i love him! my baby!

Best-looking character: din, axe, koska, fennec! yeah im bisexual why do you ask. honorable mention: i didn't love her episodes but Elia Kane (Katy O'Brian) can step on me anytime

3 favourite ships: call me crazy but i LOVED din/omera back in season 1...... big fan of multishipping din, i've loved interpretations of him with pretty much everyone (omera, cara, boba, cobb, luke, bo, fennec, etc.) i've gotta say axe/bo-katan divorce arc is my thing for real, and i really like axe/bo/koska ot3! honorable mention: axe/paz :')

Least favourite character: i'm wracking my brain and i'm not sure i have one. moff gideon is so fucking sexy and cool i can't hate him even if he's super duper evil. well, maybe greef karga, he tends to annoy me when he's onscreen because i think carl weathers is hamming it up too much and the tone isn't quite right for the show. and cara dune i liked as a character but the acting was always bad!

Least favourite ship: none, i'm a happy multishipper! the antis in this fandom are INSANE though jkdfslkjfdsjlkfds do NOT get into a mandalorian ship discussion with anyone, they WILL eat you alive

Reason why I watch it: unfortunately i am a star war fan in the year of our lord 2023. s3 was... not... good, but i'm so attached to s1-2 din and grogu i couldn't stop. also i love axe woves.

Why I started watching it: i didn't watch it when it first came out--took a few more months and then i binged s1 and live-blogged the whole thing to my close friends' group chat and i was so sold on it afterwards! din and grogu are so special to meeeee

#sex mention tw #trop #farscape #the mandalorian #labhandar #ask games #some miiinor spoilers contained herein but i stay away from them for the most part!