#it didn't go well...and i may have...taken actions that led to the bad save NOT being saved and becoming canon so to speak... | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

morally-grey-girlbosses · 10 months

Text

The top two characters will be eligible to proceed into the bracket!

Propaganda under the cut.

Dahlia Hawthorne:

did a lot of murders and poisonings but they deserved it imo so she’s ok

She has committed so many crimes. And in an outfit that wouldn’t look out of place on Barbie at that. She’s the DEFINITION of girlboss, and she can poison me any time.

Aura Blackquill:

her brother got framed for the murder of her wife and she became bitter and evil because of it. this led to her holding an entire space center full of people hostage to get him a retrial

So she may have a robot army to take a couple people hostage, and blamed an 11 year old child for killing their own mom (who was her work partner and maybe sort of girlfriend), but in her defense her brother was about to be executed for a murder he did not commit and there was definitely some evidence that pointed towards the 11 year old being the culprit. So what else was she supposed to do? Just sit by while another important person to her is taken away and the real killer gets to go free? She tried to do things right and go through the police but that didn't work, and sometimes when you run out of options and run out of time you have to use unconventional methods. And in the end it worked and the execution was cancelled and the real killer was found (it wasn't actually the 11 year old child, now 18, but that's beside the point), so in the end things were ultimately better as a result of her actions so you can't exactly say she shouldn't have done it. So she did some things wrong but they are also understandable. I don't think she's a bad person deep down, she just got screwed over by the broken justice system.

Kidnapped a bunch of people but it was like. So the courts would do a retrial for her brother because she believed he was innocent (he was) a day before his execution, and so who she believed the true killer was (she wasn't) would take his place (she didn't) Also a lesbian <3

Franziska von Karma was submitted without propaganda, but I know AA well enough to attempt to write my own. She is obsessed with the idea of crafting the "perfect case" and goes so far as to hide evidence, manipulate witnesses, and also physically assault everyone with a whip in order to achieve it. However she was only doing it to avenge her adopted brother and at the end of the game she comes around and ends up delivering the crucial piece of evidence to save the protagonist's assistant from being killed by an assassin.

Dee Vasquez was submitted without propaganda. My attempt: She has ties to the yakuza and blackmailed one of the actors at her studio into basically being a slave to her. When he gets fed up and ends up trying to kill her she kills him in self-defense, making her one of the few "true culprits" in the series who would actually be found not guilty in an IRL court of law.

Ini/Mimi Miney was submitted without propaganda. My attempt: She was overworked to the point that she accidentally killed about a dozen people by switching their meds while sleep-deprived, then felt so bad about it that she got into a car crash, stole her sister's identity, and pretended she was dead for years. Then she killed a guy because she was worried about him revealing her secret.

Jezaille Brett / Assa Shinn:

prime example of god forbid women do anything. like cmon she just killed a bunch of people and left no trail behind so masterfully she up and haunted the entire goddamn narrative. her name is mentioned in secret messages in streets in papers in fear in mystery and we don't know her motivations still; why does she do what she does we do not know, and will never find out. fucking girlboss she's there for one case then the next we see her she's dead. what is up with this woman and why is she so important despite not seeming so ever.

Olive Green:

She qualifies as after her fiancé died from gas inhalation, she had questions about his death and suspected one of his fellow tenants to have murdered him rather than it being an accident. She consequently attempted to murder him. She rocks because we have to stan a vengeful woman!!!!!

Iris Hawthorne / Sister Iris Hazakurain / Sister Iris of Hazakura Temple:

well she’s more morally ambiguous than her sister!!!! she covered up a lot of crimes and lied about her identity to her (long series of hand gestures to indicate how complicated the boyfriend status is) Sorta Boyfriend for. like nine months i think. and she would have gotten away with it too if not for her co-conspirators fucking everything up

93 notes · View notes

vaugarde · 1 year

Note

hello! same anon that was asking moonscape about pmmm stuff. i've been looking through your pmmm-related posts a bit after i saw your reply and i love the way you talk about the characters and really seem to understand them! do you maybe have some more headcanons or general thoughts you'd want to share? i can never get enough of hearing fan's cool thoughts about the show

AHHH thank you!! im really flattered omg i'll put some general thoughts and rambles under the cut so my mutual who hasnt seen it yet wont see

-i know you said you saw my reply already but just gonna repeat it so its on my blog: homura was a foster child who lost her parents when she was young, and because of her heart condition she was passed around to several different (usually christian) families that usually didn't care much for her, only about the check. this led to her initial meek and self deprecating personality. the reason she latched onto madoka is because she's the first person to ever show her true kindness. when she changes her hair style, she cuts off from her current foster family entirely and lives on her own (and may have stolen the foster checks and other cash to do so)

-on top of that she struggles with her feelings with madoka and feeling like she's cruel and selfish for loving her because of her christian upbringing and going to catholic school. families likely didn't take well to her being gay

-hitomi is a closeted lesbian

-kyosuke gives me egg vibes so.

-im basic i like madohomu best but like polyam holy quintet is so real also

-people who say madohomu is one sided are so wrong. how do u explain any of madoka's actions towards homura when walpurgisnacht happens

-some of my favorite moments in the show relate to homura stuff bc GOD all of her scenes are just. enhanced by the plot twist

-wait ive mentioned this but people who think homura doesn't care about the other girls are so??? literally yes she does care about them, she loves madoka the most of course but she cares about sayaka's life when she goes to retrieve her soul gem and her telling sayaka she'll kill her to spare madoka the pain is clearly just her doing the worst thing she can to force sayaka to act. she's kinda distant from everything she's done at this point and is willing to act cruel to get what she wants.

-i kinda love that canonically mami is the strongest magical girl. mami is underrated tbh, i know she's a main character but her spinoff manga was SO good and she's such a tragic character in her own right. she's a deeply lonely person and even if i didn't care for magia record season 1, i really like the approach they went with her character there, where in this universe she's the one who convinced madoka and sayaka to contract, and when she learns the truth, she becomes ridden with guilt and joins the magias to save them because she feels responsible for their fates now. it's such a good place to take her character (and im kinda sad they eventually go "oh no it was brainwashing nvm")

-i absolutely adore this show's brand of horror. the entire thing is just Off in a lot of ways but it's in ways you struggle to place, and the whole thing is thanks to shaft's editing. there's a youtube vid i watched where like the tilting shots up to where the girls look down on the "camera" or random close ups on objects with quiet sounds adds to the feeling that something is wrong even when the show hasn't taken it's dark turn yet. i think focusing a lot of the actual horror elements on the terror of everyone's situation and gradually revealing how much worse everything is is so perfect, it's all paced perfectly to be as hard hitting as possible. and the actual violent moments are done well, none of them are really THAT bad but they're blunt and shocking enough to hit where it hurts. idk if im describing it right but augh its so good

-on that topic the theory that pmmm is framed as a stage show is also so good. i gotta find the post i reblogged about that bc man it adds to the show

#mail #anonymous #ty again!!!

5 notes · View notes

smoothshift · 5 years

Text

Comprehensive coverage of the Ford Explorer Carbon Monoxide problem - and the fix that didn't work. via /r/cars

Comprehensive coverage of the Ford Explorer Carbon Monoxide problem - and the fix that didn't work.

Hi. This story is long, so I will include a TLDR; at the beginning. If you or someone you know is included in the title subject group, I encourage you to read this. In-text citations are included and a reference list is at the bottom (APA6 for those who care). While I see there are links to certain articles about this subject, I believe my article is more comprehensive in coverage. Mods, if you feel this falls too close to the duplicate rule, I understand. This is something I'm dealing with currently and I wanted to share the results of my findings. I have put a great deal of effort into researching and citing this, so I hope it meets the standards.

TLDR:

Fifth Generation Ford Explorers have a problem dating back to 2011 with exhaust leaking into the cabin. Ford claims to have fixed it but it hasn't. This has caused accidents, lawsuits, and a large potential scandal to be swept under the rug. Get an inexpensive Carbon Monoxide detector to keep in the car if you fall into this category, it may save your life.

INTRODUCTION

I am writing this post as a precautionary tale to others who may be in my shoes. I own a 2013 Ford Explorer Limited 4WD with 110,000 miles on it. On Friday my wife complained of a migraine, which happens from time to time. On Saturday, the migraine was so bad she had to go to the ER. Her Check Engine light came on by Monday, at which point she took it to a trusted mechanic who read the code and told her that one of her catalytic converters was going out.

For those that don't know, "a catalytic converter is a device that uses a catalyst to convert three harmful compounds in car exhaust into harmless compounds" (HowStuffWorks, 2019). According to Popely (2019), a catalytic converter should last 10 years. This equates out to around 160,000-185,000 miles. The fact that this was failing after 6 years and 110,000 miles was a big problem. If a catalytic converter fails, it's usually a severe symptom of something else in the engine going wrong.

That same Monday, she noticed an odd smell in her car, something she described as a permanent marker type smell. The mechanic informed her that this was carbon monoxide and extremely dangerous. For those that don't know, according to The Mayo Clinic (2019),

Carbon monoxide poisoning occurs when carbon monoxide builds up in your bloodstream. When too much carbon monoxide is in the air, your body replaces the oxygen in your red blood cells with carbon monoxide. This can lead to serious tissue damage, or even death. Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas produced by burning gasoline, wood, propane, charcoal or other fuel. Improperly ventilated appliances and engines, particularly in a tightly sealed or enclosed space, may allow carbon monoxide to accumulate to dangerous levels.

The symptoms of CO Poisoning include:

Dull headache

Weakness

Dizziness

Nausea or vomiting

Shortness of breath

Confusion

Blurred vision

Loss of consciousness

Carbon Monoxide does not simply leave your body as soon as you hit fresh air. Brain damage can occur and effects can happen even after leaving the CO filled environment. My wife was a sufferer of migraines but had taken steps to mitigate them, so it startled us that they had been reoccurring in recent months. I was looking online about this and found this was a systemic problem to the fifth generation Explorer that Ford simply doesn't know how to fix.

Known Cases

Since 2016, the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration (NHSTA) has been investigating this problem. As far as I can tell, the problem was first detected in the Police Interceptor model of the Ford Explorer (in commercial use) with incidents such as (Martyn, 2019) :

A Newport Beach, CA Officer passing out while driving, which led to him crashing into a tree.

An Auburn, MA officer also passing out while driving, rear-ending another vehicle (the department claims 4 officers have experienced CO poisoning).

A Henderson, LA officer losing consciousness and flipping her vehicle.

Five Austin, TX officers experiencing CO poisoning over a period of four days, leading to the department pulling 400 Explorer patrol vehicles from service.

Additionally, a Fall River, MA officer was hospitalized for CO poisoning in his cruiser (San Miguel, n.d.).

Furthermore, six Washington state troopers filed suit against Ford after receiving CO poisoning (Howard, 2019).

HOWEVER, the actual discovery of the problem dates back to 2011, when a Ford employee discovered this. Ford stated that they found "the circumstances needed to recreate the problem to be outside of typical customer use," (Hyatt, 2019).

For its part, Ford blamed the Police Departments, citing modifications found that were not factory standard. However, Ford does not have an explanation for the over 1,300 civilian complaints made to the NHSTA regarding the same problem.

Furthermore, "Captain James Thibodeaux of the Henderson Police Department responds that Ford has never inspected the Explorer involved in the crash that injured his officer. He says that the automaker contacted the police department’s insurer about arranging an inspection, but has yet to do so. As for Ford’s blaming the carbon monoxide leak on vehicle modifications, 'they can’t make that determination from this point at the case because they haven’t looked at the vehicle,'" (Martyn, 2019).

The Center for Auto Safety has pressured Ford to initiate a recall for the 1.3 million Explorers sold in that period, citing the over 1,300 documented cases. The NHSTA has stated it has received over 2,000 complaints as well that might be related to the exhaust problems because they mention "an exhaust smell, burning eyes, drowsiness, headaches, and nausea" (Riddle, 2019).

Although Ford has repeatedly denied responsibility, "Ford has reportedly issued technical service bulletins that pertain to the issue. The manufacturer acknowledged in a deposition that there appears to be a “design issue” that is still being evaluated" (Smith, n.d.). This slipped out in arbitration for one of the more than 50 legal grievances filed against the company (Beene, 2019):

Ford representative Bob Gray testifying in January 2015 that the Cassidys (one of the plaintiffs) couldn’t pursue warranty claims because the company had tried but couldn’t solve the problem. “It’s a design issue, not a defect,” Gray told the arbitrator, according to a transcript of the proceeding. “The fact that it’s being reported across the large number of vehicles would show that it’s not a defect in this particular vehicle.”

Ford quickly backpedaled, distancing themselves from the representative and saying that he misspoke and there were no design problems.

HOWEVER, another Ford representative in the Washington State Trooper lawsuit said this:

"During a Florida Better Business Bureau proceeding on Jan. 2, 2015, Ford's representative said, "We do feel that it's a design issue, not a defect ... It's simply a vent leading somewhere where it doesn't need to be; and, you know, it's just being set in a certain way that's — that's allowing it to draw it into the — into the vehicle," according to a transcript cited in the Washington State lawsuit" (Howard, 2019).

Ford backpedaled on this as well, once again citing the safety of their vehicles and a representative misspeaking.

What is this design issue? TO be honest, no one is exactly sure.

While Ford says that its vehicles are perfectly safe, "a police department in Montgomery County, Maryland has found that some vehicles have cracked exhaust manifolds, which is a part of the car that goes from the engine to the tailpipe" (Eklund, 2019).

This is supported by the NHTSA, according to Levine (2019), "In July 2017, NHTSA indicated the most likely culprit for the exposure of Ford consumers to potentially lethal amounts of Carbon Monoxide was cracked exhaust manifolds."

"The leaks were mostly found in the exhaust manifold and the catalytic converter, which in the Explorer are welded together to form a single part. Problems identified in the records included porous welds, cracks and poor fits with other components that allowed exhaust to escape before exiting the tailpipe," (Beene, 2019).

Furthermore, the probe into this from the NHTSA has not included 2018 models, although complaints have been registered about those as well.

Did Ford do ANYTHING?

Ford implemented a program in 2017 that it said fixed the problem, with Explorer owners complaining of exhaust odors being able to bring their vehicle into a Ford dealership. Dealers will reprogram the air conditioner, replace the liftgate drain valves, and inspect the sealing at the rear of the vehicles, Ford said. All work will be done free of charge. This program expired on 31 December 2018.

According to Levine, (2019), "Ford issued a Customer Service Program (CSP-17N03) focused on less expensive and potentially less effective repairs such as reapplying weather sealant and reprogramming the climate control in order to give customers “peace of mind” but stated the “vehicles are safe.” The CSP did not vary dramatically from previous technical bulletins Ford has quietly been issuing since 2012 to address the same issue (See: TSB 14-0130, and TSB 16-016.)."

Additionally, if you didn't know (we sure didn't) (Beene, 2019):

As part of a 2016 deal to resolve a national class-action lawsuit alleging carbon monoxide problems in 2011-2015 Explorers. That nationwide settlement, which was finalized last September, provided $175 to $500 to customers who paid for repairs that didn’t work; extended warranties for the exhaust issue; and required Ford to issue a new bulletin to dealerships recommending repairs, which it did. In the settlement agreement, Ford didn’t admit to any liability. Drivers of 2016 and 2017 Explorers not covered by that settlement filed a separate case seeking class-action status in federal court in Detroit in October 2017. That case is ongoing. Meanwhile, proposed class-action suits have been filed in federal courts in New York State and New Jersey, both on behalf of law enforcement personnel who used Police Interceptor models.

Ford also did a buyback on approximately 100 of these Explorers as a "goodwill gesture", although they are not all completed and the owners are still using the Explorers, albeit with CO monitors.

Why not a recall?

While NHTSA has not finished its investigation and has not ordered a recall, other aforementioned groups have called on Ford to execute one. However, this recall would be in the seven figures and likely cost Ford somewhere in the hundreds of millions of dollars neighborhood.

As an example of how costly recalls are, (Beene, 2019):

Recalling the 1.3 million fifth-generation Explorers would be costly, but precise estimates are hard to come by—chiefly because it’s unclear what any fix might entail if NHTSA requires a new one. For context: Ford said in September that it would take a $140 million charge to recall around 2 million F-150s for faulty seatbelt components that could cause fires. In 2017, the company took a $267 million charge to recall 1.3 million F-Series pickup trucks in the U.S., Canada and Mexico to correct faulty door latches.

Did the "Fix" work?

Short answer: No. The Center for Auto Safety has received multiple complaints from consumers after they got the "fix", according to Levine (2019). Jason Levine is the Executive Director for the Center for Auto Safety and says that " Ford owners continue to file complaints with NHTSA about exposure to exhaust and carbon monoxide in their Explorers. Scores of consumers, even after receiving their “peace of mind” fix, continue to report experiencing the same symptoms as before their visit to the Ford dealership."

If you fall into this category of driver, I highly suggest you keep an inexpensive carbon monoxide detector in your vehicle.

Silver Linings

According to Hyatt (2019), "the good news, if there is any in all this, is that Ford is introducing an all-new Explorer for the 2020 model year, and the powertrain and exhaust setup are not being carried over wholesale." Even still, this is a company that is actively choosing to ignore a problem it discovered in 2011 and not do a recall. I know that I will never trust Ford again, and I am trading it in (with full disclosure to the dealer) tomorrow.

Caveat: While some reports have said this resolved the issue (Beene, 2019), further reading states that complaints persist (Hyatt, 2019). The free fix program concluded on 31 December 2018

REFERENCES:

Beene, R. (2019). Ford Explorer Owners Say Their SUVs Are Making Them Sick. Retrieved from https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2019-ford-explorer-owners-say-suvs-making-them-sick/

Eklund, J. (2019). Carbon Monoxide Leaks In Ford Explorers May Lead To Large Recall. Retrieved from https://thomasjhenrylaw.com/blog/product-liability/carbon-monoxide-leaks-ford-explorers-may-lead-large-recall/

Howard, P. (2019). Police lawsuit alleges carbon monoxide poisoning from Ford Explorer. Retrieved from This link has been removed from this post on this subreddit due to the blacklist domain rule. The article can be found by googling the headline.

HowStuffWorks. (2019). What is a Catalytic Converter and How Does It Work?. Retrieved from https://auto.howstuffworks.com/question66.htm

Hyatt, K. (2019). Ford Explorer owners getting carbon monoxide poisoning in their cars, report alleges. Retrieved from This link has been removed from this post on this subreddit due to the blacklist domain rule. The article can be found by googling the headline.

Levine, J. (2019). On Second Anniversary of NHTSA Investigation into Carbon Monoxide Leaks in 2011-2017 Ford Explorers Center for Auto Safety Renews Call for Ford Recall Based on Consumer Complaints the Ford Fix Does Not Work. Retrieved from https://www.autosafety.org/on-second-anniversary-of-nhtsa-investigation-into-carbon-monoxide-leaks-in-2011-2017-ford-explorers-center-for-auto-safety-renews-call-for-ford-recall-based-on-consumer-complaints-the-ford/

Martyn, A. (2019). Ford blames police modifications for carbon monoxide leaks that sickened officers. Retrieved from https://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/ford-blames-police-modifications-for-carbon-monoxide-leaks-that-sickened-officers-013018.html

Popely, R. (2019). How Often Should I Replace My Catalytic Converter?. Retrieved from https://www.cars.com/articles/how-often-should-i-replace-my-catalytic-converter-1420683869829/

Riddle, G. (2019). SHOULD FORD EXPLORER CARBON MONOXIDE LEAKS SPARK A NATIONWIDE RECALL?. Retrieved from https://justicecounts.com/auto-accidents/ford-explorer-carbon-monoxide-leaks-spark-nationwide-recall/

San Miguel, M. (n.d.). Fall River officer exposed to carbon monoxide in cruiser. Retrieved from https://turnto10.com/news/local/fall-river-officer-exposed-to-carbon-monoxide-in-cruiser

Smith, C. (n.d.). Cop Sues Ford Over Carbon Monoxide Poisoning In Patrol Car. Retrieved from This link has been removed from this post on this subreddit due to the blacklist domain rule. The article can be found by googling the headline.

The Mayo Clinic. (2019). Carbon Monoxide Poisoning. Retrieved from https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/carbon-monoxide/symptoms-causes/syc-20370642

#reddit #autonews #auto #cars

1 note · View note

kylandara · 5 years

Text

A very interesting take. I would sadly agree Jon fell from grace, because whether political Jon is true or not, he enable Dany this far to cause the destruction she did. Not that Dany doesn’t get the max blame, but Jon has his share for his own soul. I can almost imagine his PTSD when this is all over. Onwards

——————-

The hysterical reactions to Dany’s dark turn were initially amusing to me because I enjoy suffering, but as this week has gone on, I have grown more disconcerted by 8x05 myself. I am not an emotional person by nature, but each day I am more agitated by the episode rather than less. I didn’t know exactly why it bothered me so much until I realized that I was running through the same stages of grief that Dany stans were.

Both of us lost our heroes.

I had been laughing about Dany stans not seeing where her arc was going when there is ample foreshadowing in books and show as pointed out in articles, metas, posts on Reddit, answers here on Quora, YouTube videos, wherever it is you go for GoT fan content, Dark Dany has been discussed. I thought the proof was so overwhelming that to not see it meant you were in denial.

I did not know I was in denial myself.

I thought Dany stans were watching a different show than the rest of us.

The truth is, I was watching a different show than some of you.

As much as this has frustrated me to no end, I think it has been the greatest success of GoT that D&D have exposed us to ourselves. Or at least, it would be if we pulled ourselves away from our feelings long enough to acknowledge what’s been staring us in the face the whole time.

Dany was not the only hero who fell from grace Sunday. I have been grieving for my own.

Dany burned thousands, tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands of people Sunday, a horrific and inevitable event.

My hero stood by and watched. Worse, my hero knew it was likely to happen and enabled her. Even worse, my hero marched his men South to help her. And still worse than that, when Varys looked him in the eyes and said they knew what was going to happen, Jon refused to even try to stop her.

My hero did not commit the inexcusable evil that Dany did (Yes, EVIL. Yes, INEXCUSABLE.) But my hero did not take a stand. My hero was not heroic. My hero stood by helplessly while children were burned alive. How harshly did I condemn Stannis and the Red Woman for burning Shireen because I loved her? How harshly should I then condemn Dany for the same crime tens of thousands of times over? How harshly did I judge Stannis’ enablers for not stopping him? How harshly must I then judge Jon for not doing something, anything before Dany burned King’s Landing?

Dany stans justified every life she took before 8x05. I justified every life Jon had taken. No, there is no moral equivalence between those, but on Sunday, both committed wrongs that there is no justifying. Again, there is no moral equivalence between Dany’s actions and Jon’s inaction, but I realized my emotions as a Jon fan have been paralleling to a much subtler degree, Dany fans.

They are shrieking about bad writing and OOC behavior, and I have been saying much the same of Jon. But, maybe I was just as deluded as they were, believing what I want rather than paying attention to what I was seeing.

I thought the Battle of Winterfell was bad writing. I didn't think D&D were actually trying to tell us something about Jon, but maybe they were. Yes, his strength is uniting people, but if they are being led by the wrong person, it is meaningless to do so. As seen on Sunday, the wrong leader leads to madness.

The events of 8x05 may be the narrative punishment for Jon not taking up his crown with further spiraling yet to come, or, perhaps it was the rock bottom of him refusing his destiny and what we witnessed is what motivates him to rise up. We might see him well and truly defeated in the finale by what he has participated in, or he might take a stand.

Either way, I don't think this season has been the total destruction of his character I initially thought it was. I think what we’re seeing is writers allowing a hero to suffer the emotional and psychological impact of what he's been through. I wish they would let us experience it with him, I wish they would have give us more that a rare glimpse, but just because I wanted something different doesn't mean they weren't being purposeful.

I resent what they've done because they took my hero from me and gave me a broken man. That's too realistic for me to enjoy, and I wanted to enjoy this season, not suffer through it. I did not want my vision of a victorious hero thwarted for anything. And that’s when it hits me. This is why it hurts. I can either morally compromise myself to pretend like Jon wasn’t wrong, or I have to allow my hero to fall.

Many were upset by Jaime returning to Cersei because we bought into his version of himself as a man escaped from his captor. We thought he had become good. We wanted him to be with Brienne. Yet, how can we objectively say that staying with a new lover is the morally superior choice to trying to save the life of the woman who bore his children? The woman who was pregnant with his child? In falling from grace in the eyes of Braime shippers, Jaime made the right choice.

Jaime is a better person for having died trying to save Cersei than he would have been had he chosen to fulfill his own selfish desire to let her die alone. He wasn’t good enough for Brienne before, he certainly wouldn’t have been if he had let his child die without attempting to save it. In breaking the hearts of shippers and fans around the world, D&D (damn them for making me appreciate them after I decided I didn’t!) turned Jaime into a morally superior character in 8x05 than the Breaker of Chains. A guy who pushed a child from the window attempted to save life while our Khaleesi took it.

Just because we have a version of a character in our head and a path for them to follow, just because we know what we want and are upset when we don’t get it, doesn’t make it better. Jaime chose better for himself than we would have chosen for him. Shame on us for being so morally incompetent that we didn’t recognize it immediately. By leaving her and trying to rescue Cersei, Jaime was closer to deserving Brienne than he ever had been before.

Another surprise in the episode is that The Hound had more moral clarity than Arya. The Hound who murdered for a living became the voice of sanity when he told Arya that if she followed where he led she would only find death. He told her to choose life even when he couldn’t. Arya listened, she chose to put aside vengeance and preserve life rather than take it. And here, we, the audience had been cheering her quest for vengeance, only to then cheer on the new decision, because we are led by our emotions and dumber for it. The Hound had better morals than we did. THE HOUND.

Cersei, that power crazed woman was just another victim. The bells rang and Dany burned them all anyway. And all the Dany stans who are finding ways to excuse, rationalize, or simply crying out “character assassination” are just in denial. Your hero failed the test of basic humanity because she has always wanted to. Her first instinct has consistently been to burn and destroy, she’s just always happened to have someone holding her back before.

That’s not bad writing. That’s making your audience question what we’ve been accepting and reject what characters say about themselves and think critically about what we have witnessed with our own eyes. It’s mental torture, but it’s the right kind of subversive because there are threads we can find that were always going to lead us here.

Some of us had been condemning Cersei and cheering on a woman who was essentially doing the same things. We just didn’t recognize it because we didn’t want to. Because Dany was framed as a hero, and we all know Cersei is a villain, we didn’t stop and think about what Dany has been doing for years and ask if it was right.

Jon didn’t know as much about Dany as we did. Maybe he hadn’t heard of what Dany did before coming to Westeros. Perhaps he didn’t fully comprehend what happened during the loot train attack, but he saw her talking about wanting to burn the Red Keep in s7, he saw what dragons were capable of beyond the Wall and during the Battle for Winterfell, he heard his queen threaten Sansa’s life for the horrible crime of asking what they were going to feed the armies. And yet, he refused to ever question her.

I don’t know that he had a good alternative, but Varys chose to defy the queen and die rather than take part in her plans. Jon refused to help him. Was Jon being a fool or was he being cunning? I still don’t know, but either way, he stood by while an innocent man burned. Either way, he did nothing. Nothing is never the best you can do. Except, nothing is what humans do all the time. I was prepared for Jon to lie, to be sneaky, to outsmart and use people. I was not prepared for that. I wanted clean margins around my hero, and they didn't give them to me.

People wanted Jaime to kill Cersei because we all know she’s evil, never mind the fact that Jaime has done his fair amount of evil, never mind that she was carrying his child. We don’t mind evil, we just don’t want it to upset us. In our heads, murdering Cersei was fine, but hurting Brienne wasn’t. We accept the grey, the dishonorable, the bad, but only when it’s in line with what we want.

I wanted Jon to be darker this season than the Jon we’ve had before, but I wanted it to be in line with the hero’s journey. I wanted it to be justifiable. I didn’t want it to be in the form of a mistake. I didn’t want it to be him misjudging the character of his queen. I didn’t want it to be at the cost of the lives of countless children.

I was willing for Jon to stray from the hero’s pretty, pretty path just enough to make it interesting, not enough for it to matter. This was a detour I did not expect, that I can’t just ignore, and that is a brilliant move by the writers. Oh geez, I’ve just complimented D&D again. Someone save me!

Jon, no matter what he does next, is stained in blood. He can’t be the hero I wanted him to be, there is no erasing this mistake. I didn't want him to fall prey to a cult of personality, I didn't want him to be stupid. I still don't believe he’s a total idiot, but while I watched 8x05 I took notes and when I reviewed them, I sounded like two different people. One screaming at Jon for being a moron, the other entirely sympathetic because he didn't have a choice. Both views were guided by my emotions. Whether he fell in love and was in denial or if Pol Jon is true and he believed he had no choice, Jon was complicit.

Either because he allowed love to blind him, or desperation to take over, while I still have hope for him, I can't deny what I saw. I hated seeing Jon as he is now: a man made less than what he is. He isn’t the hero I had fabricated in my head. I didn’t even know I had done that, but I had. This isn’t what I wanted. It’s not how the story is supposed to go.

But it is how this story went.

I wanted the fairytale. I wanted Jon to be untouched by what Dany did. I wanted him to remain innocent. I didn’t want him to be weak. I didn’t want him to fall. I wanted him to be above this.

But on Sunday our heroes fell.

What happens when they fall?

We can deny, excuse, insist its solely bad writing, claim it’s OOC, or we can accept that we are simply upset because it isn’t what we wanted. The second step is to acknowledge that this is what it means to have morally grey characters. This is the realism in fantasy GoT has always been touted for, we just never had to suffer so much for it all at once. We never had to face the reality that our heroes aren’t pure goodness, our villains aren’t pure evil with such high stakes before. It’s one thing for Jon to miscalculate and be murdered by his men, it’s another for him to not prevent a city of people from burning alive.

The “grey character” idea only works if you still recognize good and evil. We can’t twist right and wrong to make sure our heroes are always in the clear. Grey characters does not mean we should be morally colorblind. It means that the good and bad still exist, but that both reside in each character and in each of us. We have to choose how to act, and in certain situations, we will wander closer to one side than the other. It’s saying, let’s make heroes falter and villains sympathetic and force ourselves to see ourselves in what we hate, and what we hate within ourselves.

We had seen the good side of Dany intermingled with the bad, but the bad emerged in an unprecedented way on Sunday, and suddenly now we know that how we had masked it was always about protecting our own feelings, not about understanding who that character was at her core. Some in the audience have found strength in Dany, and to see her fall tore at parts of themselves that she had impacted.

Jon is still lighter grey than Dany, but on Sunday, I saw a streak of something repugnant to me, something that is the natural fallout of Jon’s behavior all season, but I had been ignoring it. Before this season aired, I expected victorious Jon. Now I think, even if Jon survives, I don't know how he'll live.

It is shocking to me how much it hurts to let go of my delusions and think, this is it. This is what all those words I’ve been spouting off about complex characters mean, and now I have to accept it. I have to “Look the truth in the face” as Sansa says, and as silly as it is since it is a tv show, it genuinely hurts! To a certain as yet to be quantified amount, Tyrion and Jon refused to do this. To a greater extent, Dany stans refused to.

I refused to.

So, what do we do when our heroes fall?

We must choose to be heroic ourselves. We acknowledge the truth. No more complaints or excuses. Our heroes fell last Sunday because this is that story.

I mentioned in a previous answer that I had a general feeling of defeat this season, and I think this is why. Jon has been slipping off the pedestal, and I have been trying to keep him up there anyway. Whether Jon was a “Northern Fool” or unsuccessful “Political Jon,” he isn’t the man I wanted him to be. D&D emphatically knocked him off his hero perch Sunday. Silly to be so attached to keeping him there, but I was. Emotionally, I was depending on my hero to make it all better. Maybe the point is, there is no hero who can?

Dany climbed too high and fell too far. She isn’t coming back from this. In my eyes, Jon hasn’t. D&D just made him fallible. He made a grave error and thousands upon thousands of people paid for it. I thought he would rise up a hero and prevent this, but there was nothing in this season to indicate that he could or would, and when the time came, he didn’t. I didn’t expect to see consequences for his “My Queen” routine, heroes don’t usually suffer those, but it is right that Jon see where that leads. It is good that we see it.

I think that’s what I’ve been mourning. I wanted hero Jon, not human Jon. Seeing Jon stand there with Drogon over his shoulder while Varys burned was very upsetting. I couldn’t reconcile it with who I thought Jon was, but that’s because I was thinking in the traditional sense of hero. In other books and shows, that wouldn’t happen. But, Jon made a series of choices that led to his presence and inability to do anything at Sunday night’s slaughter. Based on his decisions this season, Jon’s fate of standing there while people were murdered was just as inevitable as Dany’s fate of being the one to burn them.

It is much harder on the audience to endure this kind of story, but GoT has never tried to be easy. I didn’t want this, but it’s okay to not always get what we want. It’s okay for the writers to crack my rose-colored glasses.

Regardless of my misconceptions, in spite of his mistakes, Jon is still Jon. I still have faith in him. He’s just not impervious to failure, and somehow, I had forgotten that. And, for the first time, I genuinely do not know what the cost of this will be. That’s why I am so disturbed. I don’t want Jon to suffer, but his inaction may require narrative punishment. Maybe what we witnessed is the only catalyst that would force him to do what he needs to do, but it may be his mental and emotional undoing.

I don’t want that. I am uneasy after this episode because for the first time, I am genuinely wondering if I was wrong all along. Maybe this story isn’t building up to Jon defeating all odds, maybe the odds defeat him. So, instead of insisting that the writers are wrong, I am wondering what story it is they are telling. Is this a story about what it takes to make a man who can survive the game? Is it about a man who refused to play the game and will therefore be punished? Is it about a man who tried to play the game and learns that there is no winning without losing? Is the point that there is no winning at all?

I don’t know anymore.

So, in this, I have sympathy for the other side of the fandom that has broken hearts this week. And it isn’t entirely because D&D made bad choices, wrote this season poorly, should have had a longer season. I am upset because I am not liking the story they are telling me. I am not sure that that is anyone’s problem but my own for not recognizing what this was from the beginning. I’m still hopeful, I don’t know what we will see in the finale, but I have to accept that my hero fell on Sunday, and I don’t know if he will get back up. He could, but it is possible that he won’t

#anti daenerys #grey!Jon

2 notes · View notes

goodguyjean · 6 years

Note

(1/2) Hello! First sorry if I'm misinterpreting your take on Jean's portion of 104, or even the panel in the manga. Do you think Jean is going against the potential growth he had back in chapter 57-59? Because he was questioning whether or not he could kill a person. And then the situation with Marlowe and Hitch happened, but he didn't kill them. So based on these things, do you think that Jean still doesn't think he can do it? Should Isayama explore his morals again like in ch 59?

(2/2) Also, do you think fans will be receptive of how Jean is thinking about life and death this way, if the scene gets animated in season 3? Thanks for sharing your meta about chapter 104 too!

Hiya friend! I’m so sorry, this answer is obviously reaaaaally late, since you sent me this after Chapter 104 dropped and now we’re fast approaching Chapter 106. But I think this question about Jean’s development over the series is still really relevant and I’d like to answer it, even though it’s taken me so long. Way too long >

I think this ask was originally about the panel where Jean misses Falco with the thunderspear.

Chapter 104.

Obviously, the situation has since escalated.

Jean and Gabi shoot at each other, chapter 105.

They both survive thanks to Falco’s intervention (interestingly, Sasha spares Gabi, Gabi kills Sasha; Jean “misses” Falco, Falco saves Jean and Gabi), and then we get this.

Chapter 105.

Even after the loss of his friend, Jean realizes that the situation needs to be deescalated. And he manages to do it. This drama in the airship is a microcosm of the greater Eldian versus Eldian versus Everybody conflict. Jean wants a way out of this endless cycle of violence–he doesn’t want it to end only when one side is completely eliminated.

Not that I think Gabi and Falco are going to have a great time as prisoners. Just, Jean resisted the urge for vengeance. Which is interesting because neither Gabi nor Eren (nor many of the major actors in this war; however, Sasha resisted killing too) have been able to do that so far. Jean is just one person, but what would happen if more of the people involved took his view of things, were willing to try to deescalate? It seems small, but that’s what it takes to create peace

Okay, so this is my read of the situation as it stands now, but you asked me specifically what I think Jean’s inability/reluctance to kill despite being a soldier means for his growth as a character.

I think I have a different reading for what goes down in Uprising than many others. I don’t think Jean’s “growth” is that he learns that sometimes you have to make sacrifices and kill people for a cause. I think what Levi actually tells him is that he always has a choice and there will never be an easy answer.

Chapter 59.

This is distressing. We want easy answers. We want an obvious right and wrong. But as Levi says elsewhere in the series, all we can do is what we think will leave us with the least regrets. Jean regrets putting his team in danger and forcing Armin to save them (and he regrets Armin’s emotional distress). If he had shot the MP woman (who was herself hesitating to shoot him), he would have had different regrets. He would have carried the burden of killing her. And, as Levi says here, maybe in the grand scheme of things Jean wasn’t wrong. Maybe trying to negotiate and spare people is the right way to handle situations.

It’s also important that Levi says, “That was then and there. That’s it.” It makes it clear that Jean’s reluctance to kill in and of itself isn’t bad, and this idea is reinforced when Jean spares and then recruits Marlowe and Hitch in the next chapter. Even though Jean eventually does kill an enemy soldier in the Reiss chapel, I don’t feel like we’re left with the sense that killing was what he needed to do in order “grow” and become a soldier. What it shows is that Jean has decided that this is what he thinks needs to be done at that moment, and I think we’re left with the sense in the following chapters that this action still weighs on him (and the others) very heavily. The “growth” I see is learning to accept moral ambiguity. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices for the “greater good,” but those sacrifices still have consequences and may not be good things in and of themselves.

To come back to where we are in the present, I think Jean’s actions in these recent chapters make it clearer than ever that this war can’t end without someone eventually putting down their weapons. Yeah, Sasha sparing Gabi eventually led to Sasha’s death, but Jean missing Falco saved his own life. And it was not Sasha’s individual action of refusing to kill a child that created this situation, but the larger mechanisms of war. Jean is right; throwing Gabi and Falco out the airlock in retaliation won’t solve their problems.

As for the second part of your question, I’m not sure how the anime fandom will react to the cart scene and Levi’s speech; I suppose it depends on how the anime frames it. I’m sorry, I’m not so good at speculating and I’ve not been as involved in the fandom recently, so I don’t think I’m the best person to ask about how people will react! I think the English-speaking tumblr fandom is divided on how to read this scene just based on the manga, so I’m betting reactions will be equally mixed when the anime comes out, if they include this scene exactly as it is in the manga.

Thank you for the note, I hope you’re doing well!

#replies #ice-winged-shorty #jean kirstein #snk meta #levi ackerman #gabi braun #falco grice #manga spoilers

38 notes · View notes