#(or setup for sequel of trying to get power back on. there’s room for metaphors or literal depiction of depression n such)

[transmechanicus]

Ongoing/very recent apocalypse story where the protagonist only ends up finally leaving their house because they’re on a quest to get their package which is stranded one postal stop away, and all their interactions with people are singlemindedly in service to this goal.

#my stuff #writing #the world is burning but i’ve been waiting 5 years for this game so nothing will stop me from playing it #(and of course they finally get their game and return home only for the power to finally go out and maybe they’re ok with it due to Growth) #(or setup for sequel of trying to get power back on. there’s room for metaphors or literal depiction of depression n such) #(the whole I Just Need To Get Through This Week mindset that plagues me)

[argentumcor]

Paracausal Refit Future

This series has lived in my head for a long time, ideas bouncing about, but I wanted to badly to keep it to canon that I put a lot of them on the backburner. (Oooh, that's numerous mixed metaphors, I'm almost proud.)

I find, generally, canon is more a gift than a restriction. Writers, especially pros, who complain about it are pussies and/or egotists. Art needs limits and discipline, because otherwise it gets out of hand...and the artist might be tempted to even greater self-indulgence than he or she already endures by nature of being an artist.

However, Destiny just...I don't know, since Stasis was introduced as a power Guardians could get, kind of going in directions I found I didn't like. The underpinnings of the Light and Darkness conflict, as well as the interesting ideas involved in how paracausality worked, were being abandoned. (Knowing what I do of the development and watching the writing, I think there was a lot of philosophical conflict in the writers' room for this game, applying to both the overarching story and characters). I'd say Plunder was the real start of the true downward swing, though. Just a lot of wasted potential, from Spider's heel-face turn to the lackluster fight between Eramis and Mithrax to the effing Nezcafe, just slapped together. Others have gone at length upon the issues with Lightfall's story, I have nothing of note to add there.

It all feels so perfunctory. It feels like these epic, interesting, fun setups and just no...funds or time or interest or skill to finish them off properly.

Seraph so transparently existed only to tie up Rasputin's loose ends. As well as the loss of the potential of a mortal Exo Rasputin, what else is there for Ana to do? She's just some other Hunter with a tech interest as far as the story cares with Rasputin utterly gone. I don't like her, but people do, and she is there, but what is she left to do? Live a life out of one of those boring modern Marvel comics? (The answer, I am 99% certain, is yes.)

Someone must have lobbied to tie up Asher's long-dangling plot thread and promised it would be done in as cheap a way as possible. There was an exotic mission with some fun stuff, but we didn't learn anything much, and then Asher- the fighter against all odds, the man so irritated that he refuses to die- just offs himself because the odds look hopeless. We don't even learn anything about the Veil, Osiris did that with no connection to that questline at all. (I know they could bring him back, but that thing with Ikora and Mithrax felt final).

I think Savathun is going to really die at the end of this season as part of Eris' plan, which will wrap that up and waste a brilliant character.

I am sure The Final Shape will be fun. I'm not sure it will be a satisfying story. Going to the Cayde memberberries well makes me very apprehensive. There's interesting potential there, for sure, but I doubt it will be properly explored.

This is a very long way of saying I'm not really satisfied with the way canon has been handled. Dissatisfied to the extent that I feel driven to do something about it, which isn't often. I'm dissatisfied with the lack of a follow-up to Dredd (2012), but am not driven to write a sequel. I found The Mandalorian Season 3 deeply dissatisfying, but I have no desire to try to fix it in fic.

I find myself driven to tackle Destiny's story in Paracausal Refit, in much the same way I was driven to write an admittedly very strange (and long, how did that happen) work following up on Cyberpunk 2077. I should use the time and ideas for my own work- I've got a novel to write and more in the mental queue- but I will add this to the mix anyway, and not scrub the serial numbers off. There's a sense of writing it being the right thing to do, a sort of righting of a creative wrong, while Orpehus After the Fall was, hm, a commentary that needed to be made.

It's so far from purely that, I enjoy writing and I enjoy having fun with the characters and worlds, but the motive is not just that. It's not to get off, either, literally (I will never write a sex scene; among other things, it would be badly written) or in an ego sense.

I have some ideas to organize, I guess.

[popwasabi]

“The Matrix Reloaded” deserves a re-watch in 2020

Here’s a burning hot take for, y’all; “The Matrix Reloaded” is not bad actually!

In fact, it’s more than not bad, it’s actually pretty good and perhaps a bit misunderstood by the fans.

Now, I’m not here to tell you it’s the best Matrix film. That honor will remain always and forever with the first movie, as it remains not just one of the best action films of all-time but one of the best science fiction films ever, period. It’s a classic and simply one of my all-time favorite films.

(Not to mention turned me into a Rage Against The Machine fan.)

But somehow, over the course of my lifetime, you know what movie I have watched exponentially more than “The Matrix?” The fucking “Matrix Reloaded!”

I used to think maybe it was an ironic infatuation. To a certain extent, I think it still is, as its overly indulgent action, bad lines at times, cringey new characters, and over the top moments can make it about as comical as many so bad it’s good movies. But growing up time can change perceptions, sometimes for the better, and can help you see things in new ways that you didn’t before and “The Matrix Reloaded,” especially this year, was one of them for me.

(My plans vs 2020)

I could defend the much controversial sequel by going in on its ambitious action film-making (the car chase is still my all-time favorite in any movie), pulse-pounding score, or its eye-popping cinematography that, honestly, holds up even to today’s standards but I think these are all things that even the film’s detractors generally agree on. 

No, I’m going to defend this film by talking about its most controversial scene: The Architect room.

I can hear the groans already and I don’t blame you. I found this scene preposterous and mightily confusing when I first saw it.

“The One is actually a part of the Machines’ system?? WTF!?”

(I remember having a similar feeling after playing Mass Effect 3...)

To be fair, its set up is a bit muddled, given the clunky script and pacing issues of the movie but when you start thinking about the message more deeply, given current events, and its relation to the real world it hits about as hard and fits as neatly as the first film’s more positive message.

The first Matrix film has a pretty dark setup, obviously. Neo finds out that he’s a part of gigantic computer program meant to create the illusion of free will for humanity while they are quite literally eaten for power by the Machines like cattle. Of course, Neo discovers he’s more than just another human connected to The Matrix but a prophesized messiah who has the ability to combat the system beyond its considerable control. By the end of the film he fulfills his destiny by becoming The One and beginning a new revolution against the Machines that control the human race.

(And looking fucking cool and totally 90s while doing it!)

It’s a pretty positive and uplifting story when you really break it down. It shows the viewer the lengths at which power tries to maintain its control and the Machines are a worthy avatar for this metaphor, but it also shows that power can be fought against when someone begins to empower themselves. When Neo says he will “show you a world where anything is possible” at the end its an earned moment of catharsis for not just him but the audience as well. We begin to start to believe in hope and beating the system too.

“The Matrix Reloaded” however goes several steps further showing that power can maintain its control in far more nefarious ways. Throughout the film Neo is told about the illusion of control and choice by characters like The Oracle and the, admittedly cringey, Merovingian. It feels strange at first because Neo is supposedly someone who is above the system but you can tell there is sense of jadedness, with some optimism of course, when The Oracle explains his role in saving Zion, like someone who has seen someone try to do this before, and The Merovingian simply mocks him for being another in a long line of “predecessors” who is completely “out of control.”

But then Neo finally does get to the Architect after being led there by The Key Maker and it’s here he learns his true nature; that he is the sixth in a long line of previous “Ones” in the Matrix and a part of The Machine’s control. He is less a prophet and more just another cog in the machine meant to lead humanity in one direction over and over again in order to create an illusion of free will for the resistance, the same way The Matrix does its human cattle.

Neo was a part of their plan and had been from the start.

(In case y’all need a refresher...)

There were tons of fans, including myself at one point, who couldn’t square with this strange narrative turn. Like Morpheus at the end of the film, there was refusal to believe it. It seemingly rewrote how one could view the first film and Neo’s role in it.

It changed the way a lot of people could see the positivity of the first film and understandably that could, and did, make a lot of people upset. Neo wasn’t sent to save humanity; he was there to keep them in line. It was like saying “actually Emperor Palpatine always wanted Luke Skywalker to blow up the Death Star.”

(I mean he does say this a lot though...)

But “The Matrix” was always about the lengths at which power works to maintain its control over the masses and “Reloaded” asks how can a corrupt and evil system be a part of the solution? How can it be reformed?

It can’t.

Way back in 2008, I cast my first vote as an eligible American for Barack Obama for president. Like many millennials at the time I found his mantra of “hope and change” sincere and uplifting and I truly felt the country was going to take a turn for the better the night he was inaugurated. For a moment it really did feel like things would be different after eight years of Bush.

Fast forward to 2011 however, and things changed dramatically for myself when I found out about the drones.

I’m aware of the fact that in leadership positions hard choices are made but after spending the previous decade vociferously calling out the Bush Administration for what they did in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars this was a truly rude awakening for me. Combine this with finding out about him continuing Bush era tax cuts, re-upping the Patriot Act, the mass deportations, the major corporate donors, his mishandling of Flint, and The Standing Rock Crisis it became clear Obama was just as much a part of the machine as Bush was.

(Also, no matter how much you hate Trump, DO NOT participate in the the gas-lighting of this man’s record...) 

Now, I can already hear the pitchforks picking up and I’m not here to tell you that the Obama presidency didn’t have its moments or that it was worse than what we have now BUT this does not excuse what would be considered awful behavior by liberals under any conservative president.

Each Democratic presidency or nomination I’ve seen in my lifetime, from Clinton to Obama, has always touted themselves as a chance to “fix America” and bring “hope and change” to a largely corrupt system. But neither of these presidencies really changed much of what the previous conservative administrations did, in fact in some ways they got worse. Minimum wage hasn’t risen in over a decade, we still have the world’s largest prison population by far, the wealth gap has only INCREASED regardless of who held the White House, and need I remind some of you Black Lives Matter started under the Obama administration.

At some point the problem goes beyond just conservative stonewalling and political impasse. You can’t blame everything on Mitch McConnell (though a lot of it can too, admittedly). The system is behaving exactly as its supposed to because corrupt people hold power.

(They’re not laughing with you, they are laughing AT you...)

The extremely cynical Biden-Harris ticket we got going right now is being pitched, more or less, the same way as a "fight to fix everything terrible” that Trump has done. Look, I’m not going to tell you Trump hasn’t been terrible because that should be obvious to EVERYONE at this point, but when you have Wall Street goons actively cheering the announcement of the Democratic party nomination, a DNC that is running more conservative speakers in its first day than Latinx across the entire event, you have to wonder to yourself if they are really “The One.”

(A reminder that “Never Trump” Republicans are not your friends either...)

Again, I’m not saying things can’t be “better” right now under a Democratic White House or that some communities would benefit greatly from a change in leadership BUT the bar is FUCKING LOW and the truth of the matter is people WILL be hurt under the next administration regardless of who it is and framing it as “privileged” to think otherwise is actually quite privileged itself.

There are people who can’t wait for medicare for all. There are people who can’t wait for sentencing and prison reform. There are people who cannot survive another wave of US imperialism overseas.

We are being guided to the same predetermined destination that The Architect gives Neo and its what makes all this so aggravating for many.

“The Matrix Reloaded” shows Neo that he is simply another system of control for the afflicted masses but what makes the final moments of the film important is that he chooses to stop playing its game. When The Architect gives him the choice of the door that guarantees the “salvation” of the human race but in bonded servitude to the Machines and the door to make the supposed “selfish” decision to save Trinity from death but doom humanity to extinction, he does this fully expecting Neo to make the same choice every other One did before him did.

But Neo doesn’t, he goes through the door to save Trinity and for a chance to destroy the system in another way. Neo decides to break the cycle even if it might have catastrophic consequences. He challenges The Architect on whether he would be willing to allow Neo any chance at any other outcome and calls his bluff. It’s what makes him a hero and in a strange way gives “Reloaded” a positive ending as well.

(And again, just looking cool as hell while doing it.)

Now, with the way the next movie ends you could make the argument that the cycle continues and this theme gets contradicted but I would argue it’s a bit more ambiguous than that and with the fourth film supposedly on its way in the coming years there is a chance for a more conclusive and satisfying ending. This write-up is strictly arguing the message of the second film anyways.

What a viewer should get on further review of “The Matrix Reloaded” is that corrupt systems have more insidious ways of maintaining control than we may be able to accept. Wall Street goons wouldn’t allow a consistent formidable opposition party to run against them every year, it’s why they are deep in both red AND blue pockets. It’s why campaign financing is out of control. It’s why ultimately both wings of our government are pro-surveillance, pro-big money donors, pro-US exceptionalism/imperialism and the only real difference comes down to mostly minor minutia between the two to maintain their illusion of choice.

In the end to a certain extent, I still believe in the system, given that I donate money and support various leftist causes, progressive primary challenges, and reelections around the country in hopes they run a real left wing someday. However, each year, and frankly each month at the rate we’re going, I’ve grown more cynical about it. At best it is incremental change and at worst its ultimately empty power against the larger juggernaut of corrupt politics throughout our government.

(Me desperately trying to avoid the relentless bullshit of this year.)

“Reloaded” deposits that in order to break the cycle you have to make a choice not accounted for by the system. That in order to truly change anything, as silly and as obvious as it sounds, you have to do something different. Voting for people who better represent your beliefs much more fully and refusing to vote for ones who don’t is one way but as I stated in my “Black Sails” write-up the more active third option should never be off the table.

Changing the world shouldn’t come down to a false binary choice like the ones the Machines gave Neo at the end of “Reloaded.” And while, for the record, I’m not necessarily against people making the lesser of two evils choice again, people need to stop ignoring the ways in which corruption keeps its power and start having honest looks at those who call themselves “The One” who will make things right.

If this entire year hasn’t convinced you of that yet, I don’t know what will and the sooner we understand this the sooner we can start a real “revolution” in this country’s cynical politics.

Until then The Machines will continue to win...

*Me getting away from the liberal bullshit that will likely be tossed at me over this*

#The Matrix #The Matrix Reloaded #the matrix revolutions #Matrix #the wachowskis #The Wachowski sisters #Trans rights #LGBTQ #politics #George floyd #black lives matter #BLM #leftist #black sails #keanu reeve #carrie anne moss #laurence fishburne #agent smith #movie #film #review #Pop Wasabi #essay #obama #bush #clinton #mass effect #mass effect 3

[themagiciansreccenter]

Author Spotlight: @ceeainthereforthat​

Every week we interview a writer from The Magicians fandom. If you would like to be interviewed or you want to nominate a writer, get in touch via our ask box.

First things first, tell us a little about yourself.

THE DREADED QUESTION! I'm a novelist, in my public persona, and so I literally write all day long.

How long have you been writing for?

For years, but it was off and on until 2014, when I suddenly just started writing all the time. I started with fanfiction, I wrote original stuff, and I've recently come back to fanfic after being on hiatus for a couple years.

What inspired you to start writing for The Magicians?

I got into the fandom late--my first live episode was 4.11--and I never saw a season finale that so desperately needed to be erased by as much transformative fiction as possible. I was so upset. I went into reading fanfiction to help me move away from the heartbreak of 4.13.

And fic is infectious. Once I started reading stories, I started getting an idea for one. And one day I just dashed off a really short scene of queliot thirst, thinking, I'll just get this out of my system. But it didn't work that way, and now I have a universe alteration timeline 41 story set in an alternate first year at Brakebills that's pushing 70k and it's not done yet.

Who is/are your favourite character(s) to write? What it is about them that makes them your favourite?

I am really torn. Do I love writing Quentin, who resonates so deeply with the part of me that doesn't realize that getting out of bed every day is an act of bravery? I love writing Quentin, because I feel like his headspace is so familiar--but since I'm in control of writing it, I can write these moments where Quentin comes up against his monsters and persistent feelings of self-doubt and show how he resists them by having faith in the people around him.

...Or do I love writing Eliot, who resonates so deeply with the part of me who went through growing up with people who were hostile to who you were, who you loved, how you were different, and how he walked away from all that bullshit and never looked back, and made himself what he wanted to be? I want to clutch Eliot to my chest because he seems like the typical queen bee meanie at first, and he's good at saying, "I don't care" while at the same time doing things that show that no, he cares a hell of a lot, but he's not going to get hurt again if he can help it--but since I'm in control of writing it, I can write these moments where Eliot walks up to what he fears most, and instead of slaying the monster, he embraces vulnerability and the risk of hurt in hope of something incredible.

WHICH DO I PICK? HELP

Do you have a preference for a particular season/point in time to write about?

So far I have been writing about the very beginning. First year. Season One. Where it all started, but different. Writing for The Magicians is a surprise for me because I'm usually writing Alternate Universe RomCom fics, but all my ideas are much more closely related to the Magicians TV universe than I usually ever write.

Are you working on anything right now? Care to give us an idea about it?

Oh boy. Two things! The first one is Enfleurage, the story that was supposed to just be a little flash/slice of (horny!) life between Quentin and Eliot,  but wound up exploding into this plotty epic fantasy. I didn't know what it was going to be when I started it, and so it starts out feeling like a flirty romance fic, and then I found the plot and went, "oh well, I guess I'm writing a longfic."

The other is a series of incredibly porny short stories. The series is called Hedonism for Beginners, and like Enfleurage, it was just supposed to be this simple one-shot. And then I wrote a sequel. And now i have a short list of stories that happen next in the series. I started working on a new story really recently, and ... it seems to want to have a plot. But I think it can progress gradually with each story I write.

How long is your “to do list”?

That's it. I don't have any more ideas for Magicians fic. *knocks on wood*

What is your favourite fic that you’ve written for The Magicians? Why?

Enfleurage and Hedonism for Beginners are the only fics I've written for the Magicians. I think I'm always going to be fond of Enfleurage, because it came in a time in my life where I needed to prove to myself that I know how to write a story, and I can trust my characters and my own sense of story to tell something that will keep people entertained.

Many writers have a fic that they are passionate about that doesn’t get the reception from the fandom that they hoped for. Do you have a fic you would like more people to read and appreciate?

There aren't as many hits on Hedonism for Beginners when you compare it to the audience for Enfleurage. I know that's partially because I locked the series away so it can only be seen by logged in members of the archive, and that a lot of people who enjoy the fic on Ao3 don't actually have accounts there. I think it might also have a narrower audience because the sex is explicit and the story really revolves around writing the smuttiest smut I can manage, ha! and so that probably limits the audience too.

What is your writing process like? Do you have any traditions or superstitions that you like to stick to when you’re writing?

My writing process is all over the place, and it depends on what i'm doing. Usually I outline but for the Magicians fics I've worked on so far, I've been working without much of an outline at all, just seeing where the characters and my understanding of stories takes me.

For tools I use a combination of scrivener and google docs. I'm really nuts about scrivener and I have an elaborate project setup complete with color coding and other bells and whistles. I write the first draft of a scene in Scrivener, and then I copy/paste it to google docs for alpha/beta reader feedback and do editing on it there.

I also track wordcount - I don't try to make a wordcount goal every day; I'm just tracking the work I actually did that day so when I feel like I've been wasting time doing nothing I have proof that's not true.

Do you write while the seasons are airing or do you prefer to wait for hiatus? How does the ongoing development of the canon influence and inspire your writing process?

I didn't start writing these stories until hiatus (and i don't know if I'm going to keep watching for season 5, I'm still really angry) but I think If I was still in progress on a long fic and the season started again, that's cool, but I'm writing for what inspired me at the moment of that first spark of an idea. Maybe something in the new season will be pertinent and maybe it won't. I guess I'll know when I get there.

What has been the most challenging fic for you to write?

The stories in Hedonism for Beginners are the more challenging stories to write. I don't precisely shy away from writing sex scenes, but I did kind of gloss over them a little, and I really felt like I wasn't bringing everything to the page that I could. I'm talking about the more frank descriptions of the action going beyond metaphor and feeling cues into exactly what they did with the envelope (and getting more adventurous with the kind of sex i'm portraying,) but I'm also talking about getting more intimate with the person whose point of view we're experiencing while reading--trying to get into the skin and mind and heart of the character, so we can see how that sex scene changes things for them.

It's been beneficial already. I can see that they've improved me as a writer in general--that working on writing better sex made me use skills that apply to everything I write.

Are there any themes or tropes that you like particularly like to explore in your writing?

I think I'm not good at seeing the recurring themes and tropes in the things I write. But I haven't ever written a story where nobody in the story falls in love. There's always a romance in everything that I write, even if it's not the main point of the story.

Are there any writers that inspire your work? Fanfiction or otherwise?

I think I gain inspriation from everything I read lately. Fiction, fanfiction, essays, non-fiction--it all helps to fill the well and inspire me.

What are you currently reading? Fanfiction or otherwise?

I'm not reading much fiction right now - I'm currently reading a book about city planning and how states try to make living spaces according to the ways in which they have attempted to make their citizens legible, through census data and other records, and how it doesn't always work. After that I'm going to read a book authored by a member of the Black Panthers during the Black Power movement (it's for a book I'm writing)

I'm having decision paralysis on my next novel to read. I'm really behind on novels, it's really quite sad.

What is the most valuable piece of writing advice you’ve ever been given?

Don't hoard your best ideas. Use them right away, and clear up your brainspace to make room for another mind-blowing awesome idea. Another one will come - and the more you use your best ideas, the more excellent ideas you will get.

Are there any words or phrases you worry about over using in your work?

I'm overly fond of the word fingertips. I don't know why.

What was the first fanfic that you wrote? Do you still have access to it?

um. I think it was for the vampire lestat? and I don't have access to it any more.

Rapidfire Round!

Self-edit or Beta?

Both. Betas are really, really important.

Comments or Kudos/Reblogs or Likes?

I love getting comments on Ao3, and I love getting reblogs with tag comments on tumblr. Likes/Kudos are nice.

Smut, Fluff or Angst?

Can't we just have it all?

Quick & Dirty or Slow Burn?

Both. Yes, both. both is good.

Favourite Season?

Season Three

Favourite Episode?

the same as everyone. 3.05!

Favourite Book?

Haven’t read them.

Three favourite words?

petrichor, somnolent, euphoria

Want to be interviewed for our author spotlight? Get in touch here.

#the magicians rec center #author spotlight #author spotlight: ceeainthereforthat