#the narrative weight of that like holy shit

[floorpancakes]

just got a really cute mental image that i gotta put in the au fic at some point

watanuki winking with his normal eye so you just see the gold..... showing off the gay eye ...being a goof...smiling . ...

#xxxholic #my mental image of this was so pretty i almost started crying. I think catto has the potential to pull this off #cat and canary #i guess #altho it works either way #just requires a level of goofy self actualisation for him to do this sincerely LMAO #ウインク，，，，眩しい、、、眩しすぎる、、 #i want watanuki to be stupid and happy #*hides pics of feral canary behind by back* you didnt see that #like the shinji smile but with a hint of ichaicha and the gay eye open #do you ever think about the inherent romantic euphoria of being able to see oneself literally through anothers eyes #the narrative weight of that like holy shit #anyway #watanuki deserves to shinjismile ™ like how kazuki does in sarazanmai he fits the depressed forest creature protag vibes #im getting off topic

[clockworkdragonffxiv]

Further thought about the dragons in Final Fantasy XIV because my power has grown beyond control because I was bored at work and it popped in my head:

It's mentioned a lot in Heavensward that dragons don't remember things the way humans do. Their memories are perfect to a degree that memories don't fade so for them every trauma is this gushing fresh agony in their mind, like how Nidhogg is so incredibly pissed off because he remembers in excruciating detail finding Ratatoskr's butchered corpse and the Ishgardians gorging on her flesh.

Well, not so much remembers as he's actively experiencing it. All the time. Forever. Dragons live in the now with an intensity humans can barely comprehend, and I really think they don't process time in the same we do. We experience time linearly. Past, present, future.

Dragons don't. For them existence is experienced all at once forever. I'm not sure they even entirely distinguish between present and past and future, because it all feels the same to them, and I think that it impacts them in strange ways.

Like I don't think dragons really plan the way humans do. Everything is experienced in the Now. So I think for the vast majority of them, human tinkering and building completely baffles them. Oh they see the utility but it's not something they'd come up with on their own.

This extends to things like buildings. They certainly have the raw strength to repair the structures there, but it's not something they'd ever think of. Because repairing the castles means scouting out the proper stone, quarrying it, planning the repairs, etc.

Nidhogg's war against Ishgard is the closest thing to planning we see from them, and that was literally "torture them forever."

Also why Nidhogg was batshit insane. Because for him, he's always and will forever be at that one moment in time: finding his sister's corpse as the Ishgardians she'd been fascinated by and befriended feasted on her flesh like a pack of jackals. He never left that moment. I mean, the narrative flat out tells us that, but really holy shit is that a horrifying thing to think about. Like existentially.

It's probably the reason he could bodyjack Estinien so easily: because until the end of Heavensward, whenever Estinien closed his eyes for a second he could smell the ashes and roasting flesh from Nidhogg burning Estinien's family and entire village alive.

Also, consider that Midgardsormr went through far, far worse. The fact that the guy mostly comes off as grumpy and old should tell you about just how ridiculously tough he is. And why he spends all his time sleeping. Because whenever Midgardsormr was awake he was watching his world burn.

That and probably why he loved Hydalen and his alliance with her and devotion to her. She was as tough as he was, and had been through so much and carried on despite unimaginable woulds and pain. And she still gave him shelter when he had nothing left. That kind of compassion and strength was something he respected.

As a side note, I would be interested to hear from Middy about his thoughts on Hydalen's passing. Then again, he might not mourn her. After all, she'll live forever in his memories, as whenever he closes his eyes he still sees the radiant woman with the weight of the world on her shoulders meeting an exhausted and desperate dragon with the last eggs of his kind and providing them shelter and safety. And he feels the intensity of the sudden hope he felt then with every breath. How could he not love her?

She'll always be with him.

#ffxiv #final fantasy xiv #dragons #nidhogg #estinien #midgardsormr

[toorumlk]

Hi I'm so freaking obsessed with your twitter.

Also what's your favorite Romione moment in the books and why?

ohohoho thank you, friend, i’m quite proud of some of the stuff i’ve posted on there B)

and as for my favourite romione moment in the books, when i read the question i first blanked out for a couple minutes, thinking of a bunch of smaller, sillier scenes. but then i remembered that i do have a favourite and it’s from chapter 11 of DH, when remus visited the trio at grimmauld place and filled them in on he goings on of the war -including the implementation of the muggle-born registry. ron’s response upon hearing this (after his immediate outrage) was

and it’s not just the hand holding and the “‘you won’t have a choice’ said Ron fiercely” that played out so vividly in my head like this:

but this scene demonstrates so perfectly the political weight of this pairing (muggleborn/blood traitor) which i think is the immovable narrative foundation of romione. all of their silly moments and idiosyncrasies aside, there is genuine narrative purpose behind this love. ron has always had an astute understanding of the blood supremacist politics of the wizarding world (need i remind that he was ready to curse shitco at the ripe age of 12 for calling hermione the in-universe slur) and just how wrong it is. ron is a pure-blood wizard and by design has so much privilege in this society bc of it, but by virtue of having parents like arthur and molly, he’s grown up knowing the importance of fighting against blood supremacist ideology. always.

so, after hearing about the completely horrifying muggleborn registry ("People won't let this happen," said Ron. "It is happening, Ron," said Lupin.), he immediately turns to his muggleborn best friend and love of his life and says “i’m making you a family member, i’m going to use the protection my family-name has and use it to protect you from the awful injustice of our situation, no you won’t have a choice but to let me help you”

i remember having such a… visceral reaction while reading this scene like holy shit .. these kids, THESE KIDS!!!!! this is the bone-marrow-deep love that makes me feel insane. this dynamic of the blood traitor/muggleborn always there, from CoS all the way to the epilogue. We get to see that romione is the story’s pure blood/muggleborn that finally made it (rip jily and tedromeda :(). we see it in hermione keeping her muggle last name after they get married (oh my god these two actually got married) and we also see it in the hyphenated Granger-Weasley (granger being first!) in their kids’ last names (oh my gof these two had TWO kids). they are a true symbol of change and progress in their world.

also this is one of those moments where i’m so glad that our only window to romiones relationship development is through harry’s narration because it so brilliantly shows the readers this blossoming love story instead of just telling us about it because harry obviously doesn’t have access to the inner thoughts of his two best friends, he can only witness them fall deeper in love. showing the audience acts of love is always more powerful and my god is this an act of showing your love to your beloved.

(and not to go on an unrelated tangent, but this is exactly why i could never ship my girl hermione w any DE or DE-adjacent character. no fucking way. not when the concept of a muggle-born registry exists in this universe, not when the antagonists in this story wish to eradicate people like her from their society. idk about the rest of y’all but im going to keep taking the narrative seriously bc the worldbuilding obviously has real world ties/implications and i like engaging with the canon. tangently to the tangent, i saw someone (a ron basher) on twitter say that ron, OUR RON FROM THE ABOVE EXCERPT, was “one bad day away from becoming a death eater” ohhhh ohhh i ought to beat you with sticks bc HUH? this is the same kid who said he would’ve boarded the train back to kings cross if he got sorted to slytherin, the house notorious for birthing DEs, at the tender age of 11)

anyways, all this to say is that romione is incredibly, realistically, materially romantic and i love them and i love their love <3

#romione #harry potter #harry potter and the deathly hallows #pro romione #bc duh #romione meta #hp meta #harry potter meta #toorumlk #nusreplies #my art #bc the hands #ron weasley defense squad

[lacyscabinet]

Willow Waly

A/N: okay so I'm not dead (to the people who asked me that in my inbox, I see you) 🙌🏻🤗 but I have no inspiration to write requests, I'm in deep emotional despair and I don't want this blog to slowly die soooooo enjoy this nat x ghost reader fic 🤍 the song I quote in the fic is "Willow Waly" if you don't know the song then you probably haven't seen the hunting of Bly manor (would recommend!!)👀👀👀 written in about 15 minutes while I was bawling my eyes out 🎀

Summary: reader is a ghost that hunts an old mansion in Wiskayok and Nat is dumb enough to break in and face her destiny :) also special thank you to Shauna for being an amazing narrative expedient :))))) (people with cars are cool @pinkmoonzzz)

Special thanks to @jollyreginaldrancher my favorite typo spotter 🤍🤍🤍

WARNINGS: death!, reader is dead, Natalie dies.

Enjoy 🤍🤍

"Isn't it violation of..."

"Shauna" Natalie said with a stone cold gaze, fiddling with the straps of her backpack while sitting in Shauna's passenger seat "That house is empty from like...a decade"

Parking her car at the side of the road, Shauna's head tilted and looked directly at Natalie "Yeah because of that story old people tell kids to scare them away" she chuckled "Scary ghosts"

Natalie's brows furrowed, she didn't know what Shauna was talking about at all "What?" she asked in confusion, causing Shauna to let out a big sigh "Guess I'll have to tell you the whole story then" she spoke with a fake mysterious tone, causing Nat to roll her eyes.

"A family moved there in the 70s, mother, father and daughter, I'm talking about rich ass people that ended up gambling all their money way, and, one night, the daughter was killed, they found out the parents did it, apparently she was dating someone and her parents didn't approve their relationship" she took a deep breath. "The legend says that the girl's ghost is still there attempting to kill everyone who gets inside the house to find herself a new lover" she finished off with a dramatic voice

"Damn" Nat exclaimed "Wiskayok has lore, who would've imagined" she said giggling before going back to her usual cold stare "I'm not scared, and it's a free place for me to stay, my father was a real asshole today" Natalie said as she opened the door and got up from her seat, turning on the torchlight and pointing it in the mansion's direction.

"I told you you could stay at my place" Shauna scoffed.

Natalie just shook her head, it didn't matter how much her friend insisted, she couldn't help but feel like her presence would intrude. So she just plastered a small smile on her lips and a wave of hand before closing the door "Thanks for the ride Shauna"

And now that Shauna was driving away, she was alone.

Walking towards the ruined wooden door, she could hear the porch cracking under her feet, screeching and almost crumbling under her weight.

Once the door was reached, she opened it with ease, multiple years of sneaking into places led her to mastering her bobby pin tecniques.

And the second the door was halfway open, she immediately realized that she was wrong, the house wasn't empty at all, several pieces of furniture and decorations still adorned the inside, covered in dust and cobwebs, carrying signs of the time passing while everything remained still and frozen in time, untouched.

That's when the unsettling feeling kicked in.

Taking a last look outside, she started to think that maybe it wasn't a good idea, but what was left for her outside? a bridge? a street? the trailer?

The allegedly haunted house seemed more welcoming than any of the above.

So she closed the door behind her.

Deciding to explore the remains of the house, she felt like she was transported back in time, the calendar dated back to 1975, and after entering the huge kitchen, she didn't fail to notice the old toaster and other visibly dated furniture.

Until her eyes landed on something. Something she wished she never saw.

"Holy shit" she whispered, looking at the knife holder, noticing one single big kitchen knife missing.

It sent chills down her spine, especially after what Shauna told her, so she backed up and decided to go upstairs and find a place to get some rest, trying to ignore it, it's not real anyways, or at least that's what her mind kept telling her.

Turning around, she noticed a big fancy wooden staircase that headed upstairs, old and dirty blue carpet guiding her way up as she cautiously walked up the stairs, noticing the little intricate details.

And then.

Blood.

Big stains of blood caught her attention as she reached the second floor, her breathing grew heavier as she thought about whatever it could be, some animal hunting a prey and leving traces behind?...in Natalie's mind it made sense. After all it was just a legend. Right?

But as her eyes shifted she started noticing that the blood trailed from the top of the stairs to a closed rusty door.

She was already inside the house, curiosity taking over, the urge to explore was too much, she didn't believe in ghosts anyways, but the thought of exploring a crime scene was thrilling enough to convince her to go further.

So she took a couple of steps foreward and opened the door. Instantly regretting it, eyes meeting an unmade and messy bed on the wall right opposite to her, her eyes immediately landing on the sheets, they were almost completely covered in blood.

Natalie gasped in horror, torch falling on the ground and her trembling hands reaching up to cover her mouth, wide eyes darting away from to obscene sight and a grimaced expression written all over her face.

And then she heard it, a soft mumble, a hum, a weak broken whisper echoing both in the room and in her terrified mind, it took her a while to realize that it came from upstairs.

The attic

She didn't understand why, almost as her feet started moving on their own, she found herself climbing up the tiny ladder at the end of the corridor, pushing open the small door on the ceiling and finally reaching the attic.

Now she could hear it vividly, someone was singing, but even there, she couldn't see who it was, some old boxes blocking her view.

" We lay my love and I beneath the weeping willow, but now alone I lie and weep beside the tree..."

The stranger's voice trembling and on the verge of tears, almost sobbing.

"Singing oh willow waly by the tree that weeps with me, singing oh willow waly till my lover return to me..."

Nat's hands trembled, curiosity replaced by fear and fear replaced by terror in a matter of seconds.

"We lay my love and I beneath the weeping willow, a broken heart I have, oh willow I die, oh willow I die"

The stranger kept singing. Louder.

Taking a deep breath Natalie quickly got back to the second floor, not even hesitating for a second and immediately sprinting out and running for the door, the creature's chants echoed throughout the whole house, making Nat's head spin as panic filled her whole body, almost making her legs give out as she ran down the stairs.

"Singing oh willow waly by the tree that weeps with me, singing oh willow waly till my lover return to me..."

Finally she could see the door, finally grasping onto some hope, but of course it didn't last long. Because as soon as she tried to open it just like she perviously did to get in, she relized that it wouldn't budge. It was locked.

Curses left her mouth as she kicked and threw fists at the door, her only result a bruise on her knuckles.

Tears of frustration streaming down her face as she started to feel a presence getting closer and closer to her, hunting her down and refusing to let her go.

Then, all of a sudden all the rage, the panic, the desperation and the misery she felt were replaced by a feeling of extreme emptiness and coldness, she felt lighter as if her body was slowly detaching from her soul, even though she swore she didn't take acids that night.

And then she heard it. Closer then before.

"We lay my love and I beneath the weeping willow, a broken heart I have, oh willow I die, oh willow I die."

#natalie scatorccio #yellowjackets #nat scatorccio #natalie scatorccio x reader #yellowjackets x reader #nat scatorccio x reader #yellowjackets x you #natalie scatorccio x y/n #nat scatorccio x

[mossy-green-aka-ferrythem]

Alright, I have no clue what's going on in Canto VI (haven't read any proper text, haven't watched any of it) (also I'm reading Wuthering Heights first so I actually have a proper literary understanding and am able to understand and behold the true beauty, weight, and power of the original text) but god... Project Moon

I've seen the scene at 6-34...

and holy shit... what an emotional moment like no other... the storytelling here hits so hard, with the music, the weight of everything, and most importantly...

The Bodysack.

What makes it truly special is how it works. How Project Moon utilize the storytelling medium of video games to a much fuller extent. The way it takes a normal "powered up" attack type thing, and not only gives it so much narrative meaning, but also show what that narrative meaning truly means.

The trick they pull is breathtaking, and perfectly gets the emotion, and the power across... the attacks growing so wild you can barely see what's happening... and most importantly, how it handles the damage counter is just... genius. Haven't seen it anywhere else but the idea of the damage counter breaking from an attack being so powerful is so fucking powerful. So thematically poignant. Taking the video game aspect of the medium and TRULY utilizing it to it's fullest extent! (That and the color change into red for Wrath), so fucking good...

and the performance as well!!!! The sheer emotion! Heathcliff truly shines as a character here!

(Also, as I said, I don't know what's fully going on, I don't know why there is a mirror version of Heathcliff, aside from the end battle dialogue where he says he's gonna kill every Heathcliff everywhere just to make Catherine happy, but god damn I can feel the sheer emotion of it!!!!!)

#project moon #projmoon #limbus company #limbus #canto vi spoilers #canto vi #canto 6 spoilers #canto 6 #lcb

[possessedopossum]

I didn't want to romance Solas at first bc of all the angst but the more I played the more I realized how fucked up the inquisitor Lavellan is even without romancing Solas. Especially in case of a mage...It feels like the game is punishing you for siding with mages and elves or being one yourself. Your companions don't like you, you lose your faith, your entire history is one big lie, you can even lose your entire clan. Both the mage rebellion and the dalish are constantly demonized. You have to listen to racist or pro templar bullshit. No one understands you except for Solas who leaves in the end. I gave his romance another try and oh god. This is like ultimate loneliness and isolation. I had no idea why would someone like Solas fall in love with a modern elf but now I know why. Because Lavellan is like the only one who can see a real person in him. In modern Thedas, he is nothing but another pair of pointy ears. An apostate. An elven hobo. During the days of ancient elves he was nothing but a title. The Dread Wolf. A symbol, not a real person. And literally the same thing can be applied to Lavellan who is being crushed by the weight of their title. Who is being devoured by the narrative until there is nothing left of them. They are so alike, damn. Inquisition companions mostly act like a group of coworkers and Solas doesn't trust even his own agents (hi Felassan). The game ridicules a player for certain opinions and Solas conditionally says he was called a liar, a fool, a madman by both his enemies and his allies alike for trying to share his knowledge. I used to think Solas romance was kinda empty and unsatisfying and holy shit how wrong I was. It hit me like a ton of bricks. Solavellan to me is about finally finding a person who understands you under the shittiest circumstances possible after accepting that you will probably die alone. And then...Being completely destroyed by your own sense of duty. With all the Solas hate in this fandom I kinda forgot he actually...Cares about Lavellan? It wasn't an easy decision to leave. And it was even harder for Solas to not let Lavellan join his cause. He had to get rid of his own humanity for the sake of other elves and he doesn't want his vhenan to do the same. And the most tragic thing about this, that there is not much humanity left of Lavellan anyway. They are tired and lost and alone. Inquisition has changed them, they can't go back and pretend that nothing happened. They are not the same person they used to be. Solas greatest fear is dying alone but in the end of the game my Lavellan felt like they are the one who is slowly dying alone.

Also Solas is bisexual to me I don`t care what bioware say.

#dragon age #dai #art #solas #solavellan #m!solavellan #solas x male lavellan #dread wolf #inquisitor lavellan

[lazuliquetzal]

Whee Fight Scenes! (This Is A Seirei no Moribito Advertisement)

For the past couple of years I have been almost exclusively writing fanfiction for action-fantasy video games which has led to me developing opinions on writing fight scenes. I used to hate writing them because what even happen fight, really, like what the hell??? But now I’ve learned to tolerate them! Sometimes I even enjoy writing them! So now I will share my wisdom with you. 

(Disclaimer: This post was written so I could avoid writing a fight scene.)

My credentials: I occasionally write fight scenes in my action-fantasy video game fanfictions, and I have seen Seirei no Moribito the anime several times. I do not claim to be an expert on fight scenes, but I do claim to love Seirei no Moribito to bits.

Part 1. The Set Up

There’s this excellent anime about a mercenary on a life-long quest for redemption who ends up taking a cursed prince under her protection. It’s about unraveling propaganda and colonialism, and also about kicking ass. The first time I watched this anime, when I got to the episode 3 rice field fight, I thought, “holy shit, I see now that a good fight scene requires not only a kick-ass fight, but also narrative/emotional build up in order to give the scene weight and tension.”

Like, lots of anime have excellent and extremely iconic fights, but this was the show that really made the writing aspect of it stick in my brain. Seirei no Moribito is also an adaptation of a book, which might why this stood out to me: the way its fight scenes are constructed are not as reliant on the actual visuals so much as they are on everything else (the animation for the fight is gorgeous, too, like, just watch this show please it’s so good). That said, I haven’t actually read the book. But I have seen this show several times and the rice field fight gets me so hype.

(And also every other fight scene. I’m never over episode 13. If you have to watch only one (1) episode of Seirei no Moribito, watch episode 13. But also, don’t do that. Watch the entire thing you coward.)

Anyway. What’s going on in Seirei no Moribito episode 3?

Part 1a. The Narrative Stage

Ep3 is early on in the series. The rice field fight is not the first action scene, but it is the first fight scene. This is what we know going in:

Balsa, our main character, is a formidable mercenary with a practical mind and a strong sense of honor. She has sworn to protect Chagum, the prince of the Empire. Her goal is to keep Chagum alive at all costs, because saving his life is crucial to her personal goal of redemption.

The Emperor (Chagum’s father) has dispatched his elite warriors to kill the prince, as they believe that he is possessed by an evil water spirit. Their goal is to kill the prince because the evil water spirit is a bad omen for the empire, and they believe that killing the prince will save the kingdom.

Balsa’s spear is damaged, and she is outnumbered. She has the disadvantage.

We are, of course, rooting for Balsa and Chagum at this point in the story. Balsa’s our main character, she’s super cool, and child assassination is a bad look. We know that Balsa is strong: we’ve seen her do athletic stunts, and it’s been alluded to that she is extremely skilled with the spear. This fight is the first time we get to see her use it, so it’s very exciting to the viewer. We want to see her in action.

Part 1b. The Emotional Stage

Chagum doesn’t have much of a personality at this point: we know he’s a child prince, and we know his dad wants to kill him. So we don’t know him well, but he’s already sympathetic due to circumstance.

When Balsa and Chagum get to the rice fields, they are almost home-free. They’ve spent a lot of effort trying to redirect the emperor’s warriors and the plan almost worked. We are extremely close to safety, so the fact that this is when the emperor’s elite catch up is very tense and frustrating.

All this puts the audience in the mindset of: oh man, they’re so close, I really need Balsa to win! I don’t want the kid die! You can taste the safety, you are almost there—it’s the type of tension that gets you invested in the outcome of the fight.

Part 1c. The Physical Stage

The first half, and the faster-paced portion of the fight takes place in a rice field at night (a classic). Wide open, with water to splash in, and nowhere to hide. It’s right on the edge of the thick forest, which gives Balsa and Chagum an immediate goal: get to the denser terrain so that they might break line of sight of their pursuers.

The second half of the fight is less of a fight and more of a close-up, emotional moment of action. It takes place in a clearing by the edge of the forest.

The physical location of the fight ties in with the short-term goals of the characters: the open field forces Balsa into direct confrontation even though she wants to run, and the clearing by the edge of the forest gives Jin (one of the emperor’s warriors) the illusion of privacy when he tries to kill Chagum, and it gives Balsa cover to hide until she can intervene.

Part 1 – TL;DR

Even before you get to the actual fight, the setup of the fight has inherent tension and intrigue. One can reasonably assume that Balsa and Chagum will survive, because this is episode 3 of a 26 episode anime. But you don’t know if her damaged spear will hold out. You don’t know why the emperor wants Chagum dead. You don’t know if Balsa will kill the emperor’s guards, or if she’ll be able to make a clean getaway with the prince. All these uncertainties create mystery, which creates tension. And tension is what makes the fight fun.

Part 2. The Purpose

I mentioned earlier that this is the first actual fight in the show.

It’s the payoff for a bunch of little questions that have cropped up so far. How strong is Balsa? Is she good enough to win, even when outnumbered? What does her fighting style look like?

A lot of action stories have big fight early on, and that’s because a well-done fight scene squeezes in a massive amount of characterization. In this fight, we learn a lot about Balsa, and we learn a lot about the Emperor and the difference between the Emperor and the people who work for him.

Some questions that get explored: How do they think under pressure? What kind of fighting do they do? Are they strategic? Reactive? Brute force or trickster? How do they solve problems? How far are these people willing to go to achieve their goals?

There’s a moment in this fight when Balsa is wounded, and the emperor’s warriors retrieve Prince Chagum. Balsa ends up retreating into the forest. Jin says something along the lines of: she’s a mercenary, she works for money and she’s already been paid; she won’t risk her life to come back and get the prince.

But she does. Even though she’s been wounded, and even though she had the perfect opportunity to walk away, she comes back and saves Prince Chagum at the expense of her own health. Balsa keeps her promises; Balsa’s personal quest for redemption is more important to her than her life. We know her, now!

Fight scenes are great for characterization because it’s a deviation from status quo. A person’s default state is not “battle,” and stories thrive on extraordinary circumstances. “How does this character change/act/perform under pressure?” is a really great characterization question, and a fight scene is the opportunity to show the answer rather than tell it.

Fight scenes are also great for thematic debate. You get the opportunity to literalize the conflict between different philosophies via characters fighting each other. EZ story moment. You know that one Howard Ashman quote about how, in musicals, the characters sing when they’re too emotional to speak? That’s what fight scenes are to me. The characters fight when they can’t talk to each other.

And then, of course, a fight scene is also moving the plot along. The conflict is happening, information is being exchanged/discovered/buried. Some characters life, some characters get hurt, some characters die. A fight scene is a way to physically bring characters to the state they need to be in for the story to progress (in the right emotional state, the right physical state, the right location, etc). Lots of things going on, which is good—you want all of your scenes to be purposeful.

Part 3. The Details

All of that had to do with the zoomed-out, overall story view of the fight (how the fight fits into the overall story). I am now going to continue to gush about the episode 3 rice field fight up close (how does the fight scene work in isolation). Because Seirei no Moribito rocks.

Part 3a. The Setting

I already mentioned the open rice field/dense forest dichotomy and how that affects the characters’ short-term goals. It’s also a great choice to establish Balsa’s superior technical ability with her spear. The rice field is wide open and relatively flat—no obstructions or distractions, with everyone on equal ground. There are no tricks to pull, no environmental quirks to exploit: this is a clean fight between Balsa and the emperor’s warriors. When she comes out on top, it’s because she’s better than them.

Depending on the character, it might be better to change the terrain. Have the stealthy warrior fight in a forest, where they can appear and reappear and use their sneakiness to their advantage. Put a trickster in a situation where they can improvise traps. There is an aspect of your character that you want to show off, so set the stage so that they can show off. It’ll be totally badass and fun.

Part 3b. The Short-Term Goals

When you read a story, you can reasonably assume that the protagonist will stay alive (especially if you are not near the end of the story). Knowing the outcome can make a story stale if you're not careful. You can lose tension if there’s no risk. Some stories try to create a world/tone/atmosphere so that anyone can die. A lot don’t because that’s a little depressing.

My friend @yellowocaballero has an excellent post on this regarding OP protagonists, but to summarize: if you know the protagonist is always going to win the physical fight, you have to make the win condition not about that. Balsa isn’t OP, but giving characters goals beyond “win the fight” can make a fight so much more interesting.

In the rice field fight, Balsa does not have to defeat the emperor's warriors: she has to get Chagum and herself away alive. Her goal is to make a clean getaway. When the warriors show up, she makes the decision to confront them, and her goal is not just to win, but to win so decisively that they won’t be able to follow her. When Chagum gets caught, she changes her goal to ‘keep him safe at all costs, no matter the harm done to myself’, and she gets seriously wounded. She can succeed in some goals, but fail in others, and the story reacts and keeps changing. It’s the same principle behind why rolling a nat 1 is so entertaining in D&D. The more you fail, the more creative you have to get. 

Part 3c. Monkey Brain

There is just something so cool and so satisfying and so fun about seeing a character kick ass. There is also something very cool and very satisfying about seeing a character get beat up. The rice field fight has it all: Balsa kicking ass, and also getting beat up. It’s fun! Fight scenes that know exactly why they are cool are just so good. Hell yeah, overindulge and use every single weapon despite how impractical they are. Yes please show someone pulling off an unrealistic move for the coolness factor. Absolutely include the explosion-that-would-definitely-kill-but-doesn’t. 

Part 3 — TL;DR 

If you want the fight to be cool, make it cool! Set it in a cool place! Give your characters opportunities to show off! Make it interesting by changing the win conditions! Conflicting goals forces characters to prioritize and it makes scenes fun!

Part 4. Words???

Unfortunately, as mentioned, Seirei no Moribito is an anime and I haven’t read the book so I cannot analyze and gush about its prose in this section. Otherwise, the advertisement would continue. You’re safe for the moment.

Re: prose, there’s probably a post out there that goes over the language of fight scenes better than I ever could. I write with the diction of a middle-grade author because I read PJatO too much as a child and it rewrote my DNA. This is not a bad thing, this is just a fact. So I’m just gonna fire off fight scene writing advice I heard from around:

Filter words — if you want a more immersive reading experience, you want to avoid filtering the action through the narration. So use sentences like: “Her arm hurt” as opposed to “she felt her arm hurt”. But if you’re trying to distance the reader, like recreating the feeling of shock/dissociation, then filter words would help achieve that effect.

Make the rhythm of your prose match the energy of the fight. Short and choppy feels fast in the brain. Long and wordy feels overwhelming. Fragmented sentences and run-ons are chaotic. Customize the vibes.

Establish the important details of the setting beforehand so that you don’t have to stop the action to describe the specific placement of a relevant tree stump. I think I heard this one from Brandon Sanderson on a podcast somewhere, but I think about it a lot when I write because blocking is hard enough and it's even harder when you have to stop and attempt to translate the movie in your head into words. I can’t tell you how to block a fight scene. We need to find someone else who is smarter that can tell us.

Part 5. The Point

Fight Scenes are Fun, actually. They can be really effective if you set them up properly! If you know what you want to do with them, you can arrange it to be as cool as possible! You don’t have to be in a visual medium to make fights fun. You just have to figure out how to translate the cool bits into prose, which I think is mostly done through giving your fight cool shit on both the macro story level scale and the micro scene level scale. 

Also, watch Seirei no Moribito.

#i got a comment somewhere that was complimenting my fight scenes which. thank you! fight scenes stress me the FUCK out #but i do think i've gotten a lot better at them since i've started writing so i figured i'd write something about what i learned #and by what i learned i mean. gush about #seirei no moribito #tav this is not a response to your one post about fight scenes earlier that was a coincidence #lazuli talks #writing

[unlikelyjapan]

s2e5 rewatch notes

Ah, "Pop" - it's so weird to have one of the least-satisfying episodes of television you've ever watched be sandwiched in the middle of one of the most satisfying television series you've ever seen.

"But the viewer uneasiness, the juxtaposition, that's the point of the episode!" cry future Storer/Calo** in unison, tearing at their shirt collars and throwing themselves prostrate in the middle of their 7th podcast interview moderated entirely by men "in the spirit of John Hughes, we wanted to convey....."

** For the record, I respect/love them for creating my 2nd favorite TV show of all time, they just grind my gears with the offensive stance on these narrative choices that were, in fact, very bad.

It was an over-reach, an unenjoyable viewing experience for most people outside a specific segment of uncritical (mostly white) men and the women who placate them.

Alright, preamble over - let's dig in!

We open with Tina getting a crash-course in Syd's vision. I bet this woman has never been exposed to breaking food down in the abstract - "earth, air, fire, water" , nor the overwhelming prep of the daikon and the fennel - but her just being like "this is a lot for a tasting menu" and then reassuring her with "it's okay ma, I got you!" - she has my full heart.

Tina's intuition on the food is good, though - it is, in fact, too busy. Sydney is still learning how to be a mentor, and she negates that Tina's background isn't automatically going to make her know what a play on an XO sauce is, or even how to identify a panzanella.

Remember Carmy explaining Japanese plum wine to Marcus? That's how you do it. Sydney still has a learning curve to go through, but Tina will weather it gangbusters.

Sydney - "It's a lot, it's a lot...I'm seeing that its a lot"

I see that iterative recipe development between Carmy + Syd fell into oblivion three weeks earlier when he blew her off, and she's suffering greatly.

Carmy is trying to get the 7 seconds down to 5 between stations when Cicero comes in, and Cicero sees it as a fruitless exercise after Natalie points out that he's been at it for over an hour. I can almost see the flash in Carmy's eyes where we're back 5 years ago, his family seeing him and his work as weird and irrelevant. This was probably the first blow of the day that led him to flake out completely.

I'm including all of Cicero's dialogue here, because I didn't realize it was so weighted on my first pass through the show:

"I'm a little concerned that we're taking our eyes off the ball here, and I want to be hyper-clear - if I ain't seeing no progress, I don't want to keep pissing money away. I'm calling this out now, because we are - How far from open, Sug? - Six weeks! And I somehow anticipate that the coming six weeks, there will be more pissin'.

The thing is, I like to control the pissing to the best of my ability....your schedule is kinked. You're doing whatever the fuck you're doing here. Thundernuts is out there making sandwiches for his entire family? I mean, look, as much as I look forward to selling this place - and trust me, I do look forward to it - I think it's just in all of our best interests if we have a maximally efficient place of business. I really would like to tell you a story of complete and utter failure...."

Syd interrupts.

Holy shit - this is the second time he's tried to tell his Gonzalez/Bartman story. I can't believe I missed this, TWICE (s2e1).

Instead, he tells it to Carmy on opening night - and I think by then Cicero has seen the writing on the wall and knows that Carmy is the only person who really needs to hear it - this is a big CP.

The scenes that follow just reinforce Ciceros current narrative - it's too casual for essentially being a House of Usher - everyone is interrupting, Fak's pal/contractor wandering in eating a sandwich the electrician made him, the drywall falling, Timmy's "no worries, it's still billable hours" crack. Mobster uncle or not, the man has already spent $550k just to witness this.

Tina telling Ebra that it's weird she hasn't spoken to him in a few days, and can't recount the last time that happened - it's amazing that with all the talk of platonic relationships this season, no one is pulling this one out of their hats in comparison *smirks*

But again (like Sugar faux-charming Cicero moments earlier). women be managing men's emotions along with their own lengthy lists of challenges, as the men retreat wounded and overwhelmed.

Cut to Syd perfectly laying out dining wares for Carmy while Fak blathers about 'Can't Hardly Wait' being "the greatest High School Song ever written" while his contractor friend sits idle....

"That's $55 a plate for that silence" - "Okay, then we can use the shitty ones" - Carmy is being so frigging childish and dismissive, right after he called Sugar "fucking disgusting" for being cutesy with Cicero to de-escalate him, but both women are doing what needs to be done - not what they WANT to be doing.

This is when Carmy completely checks out to call Claire for the ridiculous errand run to Winnetka. In my memory, I felt like "oh, he wanted to see her and he took the first opening to bail", but watching this episode now, he feels defeated and infantalized, and so he runs to a guaranteed source of flattery/unchallenging comfort. I don't think it was initially his M.O for the workday, just "later".

He exits with "Um....chaos menu. I dunno? I'll get back to you?" after we already watched Syd suffer on it until the wee hours - he's off to provide himself with amusement and enjoyment, so he can take care of Syd others- he just wants to give the menu to her straight-up (as he thinks this will please her), and this is his way of apologizing for bailing.

The same goes for his non-thank-you to Natalie as he's leaving. "You're not doing this because I'm pregnant, are you?" - No, he's doing it to provide himself with amusement or enjoyment so he can be better for you - enjoy working the entire day at the restaurant pregnant, though! If it makes you feel better, he appreciates you.

"Total Control" by Motels is playing as Carmy and Claire drive to the suburbs - I included the link to the lyrics, because it was an....interesting choice.

I really tried to analyze their conversation during their first foray into the car, but my raw scribbled notes look like this:

"It's perfect timing, I had all this extra adrenaline after resetting this guys Tibia" - screaming

"Whoa" (but not really impressed/getting it) "Does that shit really fire you up?" - oh my god

"It really fucking fires me up. Plus, I love driving. I'm a horrible driver, but I love the risk." - oh my fucking god

I can't do it. I'm sorry.

I'll only note that the chemistry during the envelope drop is non-existent. I think it was supposed to be scripted as a funny/awkward scene, but it just came off as two actors standing in a mail room - before this moment, I never perceived JAW as a guy who's just acting in this show, and it's jarring.

Why the hell didn't FX exert more pressure to get the chemistry read they asked for?

Sydney and Natalie's sit-down is just them acknowledging that they're managing the feelings and work of all the men that orbit The Bear, on top of the extensive labor demands they already have. Richie's interjections due to lack of purpose, Fak's inexperience with managing contractors, Carmy being checked-out and incapable of participating in things that don't rely on his existing ADHD skill-set.

One of these women is a bit green and needs support, the other is pregnant and overwhelmed, and all the men are mad or threatened by them for one trite reason or another - if season 3 isn't an overt celebration of female competence and resilince, I'm out.

"The menu is fucked - and I need Carmy, but he is....being Carmy, somewhere."

"At least he's hanging out with Claire, that seems moderately healthy, right?" - Sugar delivers this as not good, not bad, just completely ambivalent - a far cry from the Fishes discourse.

And Sydney's eyes fire up with the intensity of hell behind a smile and the "who's Claire?" - Ayo is such an amazing actress, that was a nice palate cleanser after the letter drop.

OK, we're back in the car - again, I couldn't extract much from the vapor, but here are some rough-hewn observations:

Claire saying "We've hung out so much, but we've never actually talked" - add it to the list of "telling, not showing".

I wonder if Molly Gordon is truly a great actress and intended to look at Carmy like that while he was talking about drawing pants (intense psychoanalysis eyes) or if she was attempting to look dreamily at him and just failed the assignment.

It's becoming a bit more clear to me that there's a weird brother-oedipal thing going on with Claire when Carmy talks about how she had so many friends, as Mikey did.

"Speaking of dead brothers, do you want to go to a party?"

Ignoring the totallykookycoolgirl line, I don't believe Carmy wanted/needed the tension to break there, he actually wanted to talk. The 'hmmmm' he lets escape is discomfort on multiple levels.

The party scene - "Pretty in Pink" by the Psychedelic Furs plays as they enter a house filled with 35-year-old fraternity dudes.

For those who maybe missed this, John Hughes also wrote "The Breakfast Club", wherein Molly Ringwald's character was named Claire. They just beat us over the head with this regression repeatedly, and I resent it. I came here for a high-caliber show, and I feel like I'm watching Zach Braff disassociate in a Scrubs dream sequence or some shit.

At least KJ (a 38 years old man with meth face) says that Carmy was in wrestling with him back in high school - maybe this will tamp down the "why is a chef so ripped" debate.

Even when Claire is comforting her friend (which is played by Mitra Jouhari, Molly/Ayo's friend in real life), the delivery is so wooden and sterile and not how adult women console one another in crisis.

Maybe it was the fact that she was forced to maintain the whispery voice through it for consistency in Carmy's presence, but even that seems out of sorts - imagine Syd, Tina, Sugar, anyone consoling a friend in a similar situation - and she uses that consolation to further her agenda with Carmy by dropping that no one has ever made her dinner before (at age 30???)

"Am I stupid?" "No, no....he's the one who sucks".

Wait, these are the lines of a very adult woman who has friends who are doctors getting over a 5-year-breakup? This script is stupid.

Jeremy Allen White is such a serious actor, I'd kill to hear his earnest drunk take on this.

"He's so nice. Why don't I ever meet anyone who's nice?"

*sighs deeply* - Again, y'all are 30.

Tina taking a shot and then getting up to sing "Before the Next Teardrop Falls" by Freddy Fender. I'd love to know if this song has a massive place of significance in Tina's life, but I choose to see it as her being a ballast of support for whoever needs her. Her heart is completely open - no notes.

Hold the phone - they chose "Here Comes The Night" to play as Claire is staring back at Carmy and comforting her friend leading up to the fireworks scene?

Here are the lyrics - Van Morrison/Them is great, but I wonder why they picked this song? Feel free to slap the Syd goggles off me, but this literally just chased Tina's ballad about being there when someone breaks your heart.

KJ saying "busted for having fun, busted for having fun!" as the cops are hauling him away. Loga....I mean, Carmy, was looking for "fun" in his life - I feel like this scene summarizes that pretty succinctly. He's not a man searching for fun, he's a man searching for meaning....and now he's going to conflate the fact that he's completely touch-starved with this type of fun, because the man is emotionally illiterate.

The one lyric from Strange Currencies (when they're driving to the restaurant) that they chose to flare prominently is "where were you when I kissed you" - at least they're driving home the message that these two aren't on the same wavelength.

Carmy walking into the Richie-fight-shitshow and being more concerned about the optics Claire receives when it's obvious that his whole staff has just been through a hellfire of a day, ugh. At least his acting chops are back on display in this scene.

Ahhhh, Claire's sourpuss face as soon as Sydney blurts out "I'm sorry you're here" - it almost makes this episode worth it. Almost.

For the record, I side with everyone who's stated that her introduction to the crowd was exclusively to draw Syd's attention to her.

The same goes for Richie's "Interesting." - if we based everything on what Fishes was trying to sell us, he would have thrown Carmy an arm-punch or something. It's more bemusement, not pride, in Carmy for "bagging Claire". Compare that with the "ooooooooohhhh" when Syd and Carmy are fighting - there's way more tension/acknowledgement of their dynamic.

Ugh - even Richie is like "Cousin, who's going to watch the copper?" as Carmy kicks everyone out. Even if they're ham-fisted about it (as Richie definitely is), everyone is concerned about something to do with the restaurant/their labor except for Carmy, who curtly dismisses them all with fake gratitude.

I won't talk much about Syd's exit, because it's already been discussed to death - yes, he's confused she's leaving. Yes, the only time he can look her in the eye is while Claire is distracted. Yes, he see's she's pissed and it's making him die a little inside.

I will offer a trite story, though:

When I was a young pup, I had a co-worker who had a massive crush on my friend - and the affection was mutual, but unacknowledged due to lack of experience.

He (being a traumatized, ill-equipped man-child) immediately sought out a less challenging girlfriend who even looked like a close approximation of my friend and excitedly brought this new girlfriend to a party I was throwing because he REALLY hoped that my friend would love her. She obviously didn't love her, he came to me confused/upset, and after I explained things slowly and carefully, he dumped the girlfriend a few days later. He dated my friend weeks after (and for transparencies sake, it ended terribly).

Where I'm going with this is that I think somewhere in the recesses of Carmy's damaged mind, he REALLY needed Syd's approval of him being with Claire since he was caught red-handed. He imagined her staying, asking leading questions or chaperoning the situation, or giving him a knowing smile or a "thata boy" - whatever. Even though he told everyone to leave. It's bizarre.

The Fak thing is so cloying - someone mentioned today about the Berzatto clan of fools wanting to live vicariously through Carmy and Claire, and they are 100% correct.

Finally, 30-year-olds don't kiss like this.

This whole thing was as unsatisfying to write as it was to watch. Hopefully, I caught something of use - thanks for sticking with me through this!

#the bear fx #the bear season 2 #the bear spoilers #the bear #carmy x sydney #syd x carmy #carmen berzatto #sydney adamu #tina the bear #richie jerimovich

[evilbeanieman]

For YTTD's 6th anniversary, here are my

Top 6 Most Iconic Shin Moments

Number 6: Sacrificing himself for Kanna

I mean this moment kind of just. Lays it out for itself. It shows his true nature, gives us the reason as to why he has the 0.0% survival rate. We see the most human side of him, the side that's completely and utterly selfless and kind. It's a great act of sacrifice and love and kindness, while equal parts tragic for what he put himself and Sara through. I could say more about it, but that's best saved for a post by itself.

Number 5: Working Together with Nao

I remember playing through this moment and having this strange feeling of surrealness. I thought, "Was Nao really teaming up with Shin? Could this actually be something good?" And even if it was a brief hope, they still managed to form a great team and get everybody together. I think additionally it's interesting that Nao came to Shin for help. Obviously he was the most reasonable choice, considering his computer skills, but it makes you realize that Nao doesn't necessarily see Shin as a bad person. She knows he's a good guy, even if he's done some terrible things in the death game. Again, another thing to be saved for a later post.

Number 4: The First Case

guys holy shit shin drank the grimace shake first holy shit he ate the grimace shake HE WAS PATIENT ZERO

Number 3: High Five!

Come on, this moment is adorable. You can give him a high five for his good work! Even if it ends a bit awkwardly, it's just such a simple but funny gesture. Shin would be the type to wince when you give him too hard of a high five, but appreciates it all the same.

Number 2: Pleading at the Grave

There's something about this moment that just gives me some goosebumps. It's the way that this is after Kanna dies, after he's sworn to come after everyone who let her die, after believing that he has no control in this death game, after coming face to face with Midori once again. There's so much weight here. Gin has shown Shin little kindness, always wary of him and calling him loner and other things. Their relationship is nothing like the one he had with Kanna, and yet, and yet we get this scene right here. Shin begging Midori, calling him Hiyori, in order to try and convince him not to kill Gin. This is Shin. This is everything he is.

Number 1: The Slutty Sprite

Hear me out. Not only is this sprite half responsible for our collective thirsting over this loser, but it also serves a huge narrative purpose as it shows us that he's a victim just like us. He's not the main antagonist. It perfectly sets up the reveal for the later main game and oh my god look at that collarbone I JUST WANT TO MUNCH-

(fun fact- turns out this moment is a "most replayed" moment on the no commentary run by Mono Chrome)

#evil beanie man #yttd #your turn to die #shin tsukimi

[o-wild-west-wind]

feeling SO many things about those episodes holy shit but the thing that’s getting to me the most (as per usual whoops) is the weight of Ed’s lingering trauma. the contrast seems to be starkest with Izzy and I think that’s SO fascinating.

It kind of feels like Izzy actually died during the gun scene and has since come back entirely rebirthed…he’s basically a new person, and it’s kind of amazing to see. it’s like he had a factory reset and now sees the world as it always could’ve been. he went from being the embodiment of suppression and maintaining the status quo to the exact opposite, creation and art and change—it’s like falling to rock bottom broke the chains he was always forcing on himself and others and now he’s just totally free from it all.

But Ed…he’s still coming back wrong, no matter how hard he tries. I think his throwing things overboard is such an interesting motif, since the things he tosses into the ocean seem to keep having a way of coming back metaphorically if not literally—Stede’s things (ft. Lucius), himself, and now his iconic clothing which represents the Blackbeard persona (which looks like it’s coming back next ep). He tries so hard to wash away the things he doesn’t want in his life anymore and for better or for worse, it’s never permanent.

And I just think that’s so tragic and so interesting and so beautiful somehow, since he truly needs these things to come back to him. But he’s haunted by the guilt of it all no matter what direction he looks in, and because of that, when he tries to remove the reminders they just boomerang back in a new shape. Even Stede is kind of an example of this; Stede is back, for him, but he’s just not the same as he was—he’s killing and he’s flaunting it and he’s not the sweet little goldfish that saved him anymore. Ed’s self-imposed curse appears to have caused one more thing to come back wrong.

It just gets me how he’s so good at so many things, but the thing he can never seem to do is steer the narrative the way he wants. He’s really just trapped in the wrong genre all season. And I can’t fucking wait for him to get episodes of jokes and laughs again.

#hey look my best bud genre returns to me #I have about 8 million more thoughts but I have finals week soooo trying to put a cap on that #actually chewing glass #ofmd #ofmd season 2 #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd spoilers #ofmd meta #our flag means death #edward teach #tw: suicide #trauma

[give-soup-please]

been doing some thinking about good omens (when don't i these days?)

and i've noticed that, especially in season 1, we get a lot more of a 'behind the scenes' look at crowley than we do aziraphale, especially where emotional responses are concerned. we often see crowley's pain, but almost never see aziraphale's. Take for example when he's asking god what she's doing, and the 'i lost my best friend' line.

^ this one too. a very public expression of grief.

these are all extremely vulnerable moments for crowley, any way you slice it. but what i thought about as i woke up this morning was that (besides the finale of season 2, which i'll talk about in a sec) there are no points when aziraphale gets this vulnerable.

i think the closest two we see in season 1 are when crowley leaves aziraphale at the bandstand-

and just after this scene when the metatron says that the point of the war isn't to avoid it. (i can't find that exact expression, this is the closest i can manage to get to it)

right after this, his hopes are dashed, and he has this heartbreaking expression on his face

WOOF. poor angel. but these scenes with aziraphale are much more reserved than the vulnerability we see with crowley. It's still there, it's not as if he feels nothing. Now, is this an example of self control, or repression?

personally, i'm willing to bet repression.

so i think what i'm trying to say is, my initial idea that aziraphale felt less than crowley was completely false. what's been on my mind is that there's so much going on under aziraphale's mask that we just- don't have access to.

there are times throughout the show where crowley is devastated, whereas aziraphale is much, much more restrained. and the truth is, if we look at the narratives, i think there's much more of a focus on how crowley feels (possibly because he's the more expressive of the two? but it feels intentional to me)

a demon is supposed to be miserable, according to hell. it's probably part of the job description somewhere.

which makes me so curious on whether or not heaven has its own toxic counterpart to that, where angels are 'required' to appear happy at all times.

take for example, the multitude of fake smiles aziraphale gives to the other angels.

keeping up appearances? the dude's freaking miserable when he has to talk to other angels. the quick scans, the smile not really reaching his eyes. this is someone who's anxious as heck. doing his best to hold it together as the world crashes down around him. i'm not going to do an analysis of fake vs real smiles for aziraphale, because others have done that much better than i have. but if we compare these with aziraphale's real smiles...

much brighter, huh?

so... i'm not great at critical readings when i let my own feelings and biases get in the way. and i kind of did with good omens.

i assumed that aziraphale didn't feel as much, that his control was greater. in comparison to crowley, he's got better emotional regulation. in a lot of fanfics, he's placed in the role of caretaker, of guardian. and yeah, it makes sense.

then season 2 happened. with that finale. and suddenly aziraphale is just as raw.

holy shit. this entire time, aziraphale has been feeling strongly, struggling under the weight of his responsibilities, and is desperate for things to be okay just as much as crowley is. and it feels like up until these moments, he's been hiding it from everyone, including the audience. i don't want to depart from what's shown on screen, but i'm so curious what's going on under the hood.

is aziraphale supposed to be 'the strong one'? does he he feel like it's not safe to express his emotions? it seems that way, doesn't it?

i assumed (incorrectly) that aziraphale was more 'put together'. more 'rational'. more able to 'control himself' (which i interpreted as a good thing, for complicated and personal reasons. because the toxicity in heaven is very similar to my bio family, and i came to the wrong conclusion.)

no. he's wounded, and struggling just as much. i didn't see it until now. on my first viewing, that's why the ending for S2 felt so out of left field for me. i was thinking to myself, 'where the hell is this coming from? aziraphale's supposed to be making smarter decisions than this. he's supposed to be better, supposed to-'

i was wrong. my anger was somewhat misplaced. he's broken and scared too. he's just better at hiding it.

#aziraphale #crowley #good omens #good omens 2 #go2 #go2 spoilers #analysis #ya boi is back at it again with another unhinged analysis

[thefirstpaleontologist]

OFMD S2E8 SPOILERS

Right so. Izzy is my favourite character. And I don’t mind when characters die. I think if it adds to the story and is a good end for their personal story arc then it can be the best choice. But. I didn’t really like how they chose to go about it.

the story gave him a redemption. he protected the crew and suffered and tried to kill himself. he apologised and was apologised to. he changed and grew and found love and family. he had the respect of his friends and crew, the pirate nation as a whole, and even his enemies. He had the chance to give a speech about the purpose of piracy and a chance to say goodbye to Ed.

Logically this should have meant that his death should have been. Idk like not fine but gratifying.

But for some reason it didn’t feel like that? Usually if a character I like dies I’m some mix of “this is devastating, shouting at the screen, how could this happen” and “holy shit my fav guy is getting so much attention and is narratively important and will get so much fix it fic about them”. But with this i was kinda just like “wait what”.

And I think the reasons for this is because

1. I didn’t think the show would go that far. I personally wasn’t expecting any of the main characters to die. Like ACTUALLY die. This is the show that had Lucius miraculously survive being thrown over board, had stede find his marooned crew on a tiny island in the middle of the ocean, Izzy survived his leg being cut off and was walking on a new prosthetic immediately after, Ed had a canon ball bashed on his head and came away with literally no bruises despite apparently dying… For the muppet cartoon rules to suddenly not apply was jarring. But I suppose Izzy has always operated more in the real world than the rest of the cast.

2. the whole episode was rushed. The pacing was very quick and a lot of stuff happened without much time to process. Having a character die in the last episode means we didn’t get to see much of the other characters responding to it. This isn’t the shows fault cause it was originally meant to have 10 eps but still. i don’t feel it was given the appropriate amount of weight that it should have.

3. Izzy didn’t go down fighting in an epic battle. He didn’t die protecting those he cared about. He was hit by an idiots lucky shot and bled out. Izzy is the first main character to die. He was someone that by the end carried the same narrative importance as Stede and Ed. This is just a personal pet peeve but I think his cause of death should have been hard earned.

4. giving an angry miserable character a redemption and letting them find community and happiness only to then. die. is just very sad. Especially coming from a show that before this has been mostly very kind to its characters and audience.

That said, I think a lot of this can be resolved in s3. I think it is very likely that Izzy will remain in spirit in s3, through flashbacks or hallucinations or dreams etc as we have seen utilised for other characters, and we will see more of Stede and Ed and the crews grief (akin to how the goth crew reacted to Ed shooting Izzy at the start of the season). Izzy’s death isn’t meant to be a punishment for either himself or the audience. And I think the main issue was just a lack of time to flesh it out.

tl;dr: The show usually operates on muppet world rules so to have a main character actually die was unexpected. Since the final episode was rushed the appropriate weight could not be given to such a narratively significant characters death. the fact that izzy did not get to go down fighting or protecting others meant it felt kind of random and unnecessary. And having a show that is usually very kind to it’s characters and audience kill off a character right when they’d finally changed and found community kind of feels like a betrayal. BUT having both first mates (buttons and izzy) “leave” is likely symbolically significant to Ed and Stedes development. And the show will likely give due attention to Izzy’s death in s3.

#Izzy hands #ofmd s2 #ofmd season 2 #ofmd spoilers #ofmd s2e8

[dirtboy-merc]

SPOILER WARNINGS FOR THE LAST OF US

watching the hospital scene in the hbo show for the last of us just... it floored me. i mean, it really made me appreciate the differences in the way a show can tell a narrative versus the way a video game can.

video game story-telling is so unique. there’s nothing else like it, you know? you put the player IN the world. you make the player interact with it, and it’s fucking personal. it’s not just watching actors on a screen, it’s YOU doing it. it’s immersive and engrossing, and i think that’s absolutely amazing. especially when it comes to the last of us. it’s brutal in such a unique way. all the different sequences, and the position the game puts the player in. the things we gotta do to survive. the way it makes us invest emotionally, and deeply, in subtle ways. and it comes together in that last portion and it’s really well done.

but that hospital scene in the show just fuckin’ hit different. completely.

in the game, i think the majority of players felt the same way. they were gonna save ellie. there were no qualms about it. we spent the whole game killing npc’s to protect her, and this was no different. and it’s a challenging level, you know? we’re not really thinking about what we’re actually doing in terms of weight and the possible consequences. we’re just saving ellie. just mowing down these npc’s like we have been. it requires some concentration, and that can kinda take away from the emotional weight of what’s going on due to the action and having to focus on the gameplay.

but in the show... that scene is fucking haunting. pedro pascal’s performance was so compelling. the way his facial expression is just... blank. he’s not panicked. he’s not angry. he’s just... on auto-pilot. there’s no reaction from him as he kills all of those fireflies. and us, as the viewers, are just that: viewers. we’re not doing it. we’re just watching. and it’s hard to watch. it’s brutal. and it really drives home how, uh, deranged joel looks. like. holy shit man. this is fucked. this is INTENSE. and the way he does the killing. there’s no hesitation. there’s no emotion at all. even with the firefly who set down his weapon and surrendered. joel just fucking shoots him anyway. and the way he’s just picking up different guns as his runs out of ammo. the way he uses a knife instead to finish the job. when we’re playing it, it feels practical, you know, looting the dead npc’s like we have been. but in the show it’s just like, holy fuck, man. it’s just haunting.

don’t get me wrong, it’s intense in the game, too. but there’s something about seeing it the way the show is able to portray it. with real people. real human beings. the killing and the blood just feels heavier. it’s so visceral. and again, we’re not the ones doing it. we’re not feeling justified or vindicated. we don’t have to defend our actions. it just is what it is. a man killing an entire hospital full of people who could potentially find a cure to save one little girl he’s forged an unbreakable bond with. it gives a different perspective.

tldr: shit is good.

#the last of us #the last of us hbo #the last of us part 1 #joel miller #ellie williams #pedro pascal #bella ramsey #naughty dog #sorry i just have a lot of thoughts #it's so good #i love this story #the different modes of story telling are so good #i appreciate em both for different reasons

[kitsu-katsu]

My complicated thoughts on c!Wilbur's ending (I tried to make this short)

For me, there are things about Wilbur's ending I still don't vibe with because they'd need to be more expanded on to be effective

The whole last arc still feels like a big flop because in the end Wilbur just kinda got stomped all over until in the end he followed Phil's worst advice for the worst moment and went away with that idea of "If they don't forgive me I have to go", and Phil's erroneous message was just kinda never really defied by the narrative

I still wish he would've had a moment to yell at someone and be rightfully mad because holy shit he should've, a scene to parallel Ghostbur's rightful anger at phil during Doomsday that felt to be so easily set up with Wilbur being reminded a few times that Phil, Techno and Dream did doomsday and the crater wasn't from the 16th, and with him having to confront and be pretty disappointed in it just being "his grave" when he had no grave, lighting up at the idea that L'manburg was worth enough to rebuild after he was gone in his conversation with Tubbo on the 3rd of August 2021 stream

The book for Eret and half of what was said in it regarding Eret is still shit in the context of my own Judas being a thing, with Eret only chastising Wilbur for "not apologizing well enough" when Wilbur never did anything to Eret aside from rightfully not trusting them once Eret murdered everyone for their own selfish gain and continued to do shit to the L'manburgians after (which is all in lost VODs and this isn't Eret crit centric, so I won't go too far into this, but the towers to make them feel watched, something like covering the sun on their territory to make mobs spawn, etc). Eret never apologized for real, Eret admitted to wanting Wilbur to be a sort of puppet leader in a new country to essentially make Eret a dictator, as she later said that democracy wasn't good, the only reason why she told Wilbur not to jump off the bridge was because "think of all the resources I wasted trying to revive you", she made the empty gesture of throwing away the crown for like the third time while losing no real power or status, etc

And I don't like that in defending the ending so much in the most literal sense some people have just disregarded what in my opinion makes the ending more interesting, which is that the Utah desert can be seen as a metaphor for the afterlife, but an afterlife in which Wilbur went to his imagined desert instead of the limbo he thought he deserved to suffer in, because that possible interpretation was clearly done intentionally with the Eret book, the Ozimandias callback, the "I never did forgive myself", and we know that Wilbur wants us to analyze the ending as he himself said it

So I understand those who didn't like it, had some problems with it or were dissatisfied, because I myself could never be satisfied by it, because to have that I would need everyone else who isn't Wilbur to own up to their own shit and make it explicit that Wilbur isn't and wasn't at fault for everything

Have Eret actually say a real sorry for killing him and all L'manburgians and it to have weight for real, have Niki own up to the fact that she was never abandoned, but she did betray the L'manburgians multiple times, have Fundy and Wilbur have a talk about the Pogtopia buttons and Fundy disowning Wilbur as a father, have Phil own up to and suffer consequences for Doomsday, let Wilbur actually confront the reality of Doomsday with Phil there, have them talk about the 16th, have Wilbur come closer to an understanding with Ghostbur from that going further than just sending Friend to him, get some deeper understanding of Ghostbur as a part of himself, have Wilbur see that self-love isn't letting yourself be beaten down and stepped over for the comfort of those who wronged you, have him see and others confront that he isn't just a scapegoat and he isn't the source of all evil, have that mythical reddit post that put this all so clearly guide the steps to this

But I get that it all would hinge on all these characters with pretty bad writing in general getting their shit together and actually being written well for longer than just one stream, things should've started changing with them all from hitting on 16 onwards and that just wouldn't happen, so in the context of what cc!Wilbur could do by himself, it's pretty good, and the open ended-ness and little more metaphorical pieces such as the nice afterlife in the desert, the bandage being gone without us ever getting a proper explanation of it, Ghostbur getting Friend sent to him by Wilbur even if Wilbur will forever separate himself from the idea of Ghostbur makes it all feel like at least c!Wilbur himself is... Ok. He isn't doing incredibly good, he still doesn't forgive himself, but hell, he's ok, be it at peace in a literal place or the afterlife, in the end he went off with a smile, he made his decision and got at least Tommy to talk with him one last time on ok-ish terms, in the end at least he knows that Tommy cares, even if it would've been much better to have more

More people involved, more explained and shown, more time, but alas this is it

#c!wilbur #dsmp #dream smp #wilbur soot #wilbur #meta #analysis #critical #eret critical #c!eret critical #niki critical #c!niki critical #phil critical #c!phil critical #doomsday critical #ghostbur #friend dsmp #dsmp friend #tommy #c!tommy #tommyinnit #wilbur's ending #dsmp lore #wilbur's finale #kitsu rambles

[jennycalendar]

if this makes no sense I'm sorry, tired and trying to indulge: how do you imagine a Husbands Of River Song type deal (in-universe fun cute bittersweet, out of universe we owe this character an apology) for Jenny going?

OH i had to drag out my laptop for this one!!! so many thoughts!

my initial thing is like -- there is a real crucial difference btwn jenny and river that i think would make it super difficult to write anything husbands of river song-esque. river is mishandled at times but she's always clearly presented as a character we should root for and enjoy, even if we don't 100 percent know her motives -- because she's all but stated to be the doctor's wife, we know that at some point in time the doctor will love and trust her, which means that we as viewers have room to love and trust her too even without full info! her retconned backstory is intended to give us that info and show us exactly why we should treasure her, and imo i think that while i take issue with some of the details/execution, the concept is so fucking sweet??? like holy shit, the daughter of two of the doctor's companions, who we have gotten to know over the course of a season and we've watched fall in love? her superpowers and her alien-ness coming from an act of love in the tardis on their wedding night? she's literally a born traveler. she was conceived in space.

my absolute worship and adoration of amy/rory is possibly jumping out here, but i personally love seeing their baby and getting to go "that's their baby :)" so no issue at all with melody pond. it's hard (for me at least!) not to love river when you look at her as amy and rory's daughter!! so much anger and bitey rage and impulsivity and adventure (amy) and so much unwavering devotion to a partner who is not verbally demonstrative but who shows their love through awkwardly expressed physical affection & grand romantic gestures of devotion (rory)!!! and i am getting SO off track i just. am back in the sauce. my POINT is that we are given a billion reasons to love river, and the show loves river, and you can feel that.

conversely, jenny.... the show is kinda built to ice her out? she's giles's girlfriend, which gives her a pass to exist, and her retconned backstory is essentially constructed to make it sadder when she eventually dies. like, if we think about it, ALL of the weight of her death comes from the fact that she's trying to redeem herself -- for this backstory that was made up in the eleventh hour. jenny is essentially given depth to make her murder a cool storytelling moment, which is fundamentally horrendous, and not at all something i can ever see this show doing to river. (i think there are similarities, but river's death is sorta retroactively given weight through later episodes that turn her into a person, which feels in many ways like the inverse of what happens to jenny. both of their deaths bring them narrative interiority in different ways.)

soooo all of this to say that i have A LOT of trouble constructing a husbands of river song situation for jenny, because i think that would require the buffyverse to have even the slightest iota of awareness as to the scope of how wrong they did jenny! dw i think was very aware of what was done to river, more so as the years went on -- we see that in the name of the doctor, when we're given post-library river who is clearly heartbroken and feels abandoned! and the husbands of river song was such a beautiful way to try and give river a storyline that shows us the rich life she's led outside of the doctor -- to make it feel less like she revolves around him and stops existing when he's not in the picture. it reinforces this dynamic where she and the doctor are travelers in each other's lives. they're both having fun with it, even if there's always grief woven in.

i feel very strongly that the show itself fundamentally believes jenny's death to be a Good Smart Thing, an Important Thing, and so any attempt to apologize for doing it would go against that fundamental belief -- that we so often see repeated verbatim in the fandom! so many people going "i'm so sad for giles but this was such an amazing moment!" which is HORRENDOUS. and which is also probably why i am so "this is my specialest girl" about jenny. she should live.

but if i was to come up with something, i think it would actually be in the form of a post-canon tie-in novel, or maybe some kind of extended special episode -- not the show itself! i would want jenny to be removed from this specific narrative that thinks her death was righteous -- that she exists instead in a story that's for her. and the plot that follows is actually very loosely the plot of a fic i kind of wanna write but have never knuckled down and written. someday!!!

when i was working on figuring out what you make, i gave jenny a cousin (nora) who has awe-inspiring magical powers but who absolutely refuses to use them for anything constructive. she's a very no-nonsense judgy fighty weird-about-her-emotions type, and she's got the world's softest husband & their three babies. i've always liked the idea of writing something where she finds out about jenny's death, goes, "well! FUCK that, actually," and just, like, casually resurrects jenny in a way that (let's throw in some doctor who lmao) is maybe a little time-bendy? like maybe she scoops jenny's consciousness out of her the moment before death, and then manages to revive the body? lots of weirdness so that jenny's not being snatched out of the afterlife. nora's methodical like that. but BECAUSE this is a very weird and roundabout process, jenny's memories are a little scrambled, and that means she really doesn't remember anything about sunnydale in a way that's super coherent!

and all of this coalesces into giles, in some random ass colorado town for no reason, getting rung up at an adorable little family grocery store By Jenny and nearly having a fucking heart attack. so essentially the whole plot is just giles trying to first come to terms with SEEING jenny, then kinda clawing at the walls about the whole thing, THEN trying to figure out what the fuck is going on and maybe restore jenny's memories in the process, while meanwhile nora has snapped into full-on protective mom mode because she doesn't think he deserves any kind of contact with jenny ever. the implicit narrative suggestion would be -- maybe it's better if jenny DOESN'T remember him, yk?

i think it would make the most emotional sense for this to happen over the summer between s2 and s3, because it would be able to be this cute one-off where it also feels believable that giles and jenny's relationship could eventually recover from this. this of course systemically destroys giles's arc in the entire rest of the show and sends the whole thing crashing down like dominoes, because, like i said, show fundamentally believes that jenny should be dead. i can't speak for how the rest of canon would look after that, which sorta defeats the purpose of "adorable little one-off tribute" -- but if jenny does get her memories back, it's always possible that she and giles sequester herself away from canon somehow?

but also, if it's a one-off, it could end in some awfully bittersweet way where giles actually decides to let jenny go, or to let nora keep his memories of the summer, or something. like jenny's memories actually don't come back, even though she and giles are of course spending time together and she is shown to be still very clearly in love with him. i feel like that would probably be the ending that would most hammer home the fact that canon is a cesspool, giles is returning to it, and maybe jenny would do better away from a narrative that thinks she's most compelling when she's dead. (this is the ending i personally feel would be most truthful and make the most sense.)

THOUGH i just actually thought about it for a moment and. if we're being real here? jenny would choose to stay. so that's probably also important. i think there could be something really compelling about giles trying to Make This Choice on her behalf that we as the viewers have been shown is actually a pretty damn good choice, and she knuckles down and goes "counterpoint: i love you enough to want to die all over again." which is insane and deranged and i don't know whether i actually would want them to end this together or not. but that does reflect my general feelings about g/j, on occasion.

#asks #meta #WHAT do i tag this as lmao #jenny calendar #river song #?? #enough adoring river feelings in it to warrant a tag i think! #jess don't look #BELATED BUT I FORGOT THERES A TINY SPOILER IN HERE

[flowers-of-io]

6 and 24 for Eris?

6. What's something you have in common with this character?

The anxiety. No, I mean it. Every time Eris talks about the dark thoughts in the back of her mind and the ghosts of the past never going away and always weighing on her soul and recovery is a spiral not a circle and mine is not a final shape and we must accept the darkest part of us instead of running from it, I'm like yea!!! same bestie!!! That passage from Exegete, "I am afraid I am afraid that if I go on I will lose everything I have regained all my peace all my trusts all my hopes", it went so hard I tried writing a song around it. Exegete in particular is such a masterful recount of how thorny and odd recovery is, how once you've achieved any measure of peace you're dead terrified to lose it, how long it takes to heal, how many pitfalls there are on this path and it's so easy to fall into them, how you undoubtedly ARE better and you're like "i'm recovering! :)" but anyone who catches a glimpse of your mental state is like holy shit mate that's dark. My first Destiny fics were about this, because she was such a perfect character to reflect my own turbulent healing process in. That's also why I'm clinging Crow's arc in Season of the Haunted to my chest like a stuffed toy--the concept of needing to accept the darkest part of yourself, even if you hate it, even if you'd prefer to be anything else, it IS a part of you and not some alien body mistakenly attached to you, and you must accept this in order to find peace. I'm still learning that. There's not too much representation of anxiety as this huge, dark and jagged thing; not a panic attack but a monster with empty eyes baring its teeth at you and smiling and you are the monster. Hanging from the precipice and always in the act of losing your grip, always, always, never truly falling. That's how I see Eris' darkness, because that's what mine is. I've pretty much just stuffed her full of my personal demons and keep putting her in situations for the amusement of people on ao3.

24. What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?

I could give you a list of characters who remind me of Savathûn or Ikora or Zavala or Drifter but in all honesty I can't find any whom I'd parallel with Eris. Tentatively I could propose Dana Cardinal from WTNV, as a case of tragic narrative foil? Both ventured into the unknown and ended up in a pit of monsters and horror, both were irrevocably changed by the experience, both had to bear responsibility that felt far too great and terrifying for them, but while Eris managed to find a way to turn her plight into strength and went on to achieve some amount of peace, Dana sort of... flickered out under its weight.

#thank u!! #eri-223 #reply #ask game #eris morning #npc talk