#But I'm also VERY real about her flaws and her strengths and that's why I love her so much

[comicaurora]

If you still have Sailor Moon on the brain, did watching it at all give you any options you wish to share about other magical girl esk media you wish existed or your own take on how you would create a story in that media space?

If not, then maybe, if you're inclined to, recount some interesting findings about the connections that exist between shojo and shonen media?

(If neither then please disregard, sorry for imposing)

It was interesting! I was surprised at how much it had in common with shonen action anime. Half the boss battles get resolved with a beam clash and the only difference between Super Saiyan and Neo Queen Serenity is whether the hair or the outfit changes.

The one part I found myself sliding off of - due to personal writing preference - is how Usagi is the defacto center of the universe and everyone else is very explicitly playing support. That's part of why I liked the Outer Senshi so much - because they've all got their own ludicrously OP stuff going on, they feel more like equals to Usagi than glorified bodyguards. The inner planet senshi get their own character arcs, which is excellent, but after a while it's pretty clear that none of them can ever finish a fight without Sailor Moon. And that's fine, that's the pretense of the story - their jobs are very explicitly to protect the turbopowerful demigoddess moon princess while she gets her act together enough to remember she can win - but I prefer writing an ensemble cast where everyone feels like the hero of their own story, not the support in someone else's, and that's pretty much antithetical to the core premise of the show.

It also has a lot of the hallmarks of a soft magic system that I personally struggle with - the old "you win by believing in yourself" thing basically means "you win when the plot demands it would be most interesting for you to win" - but again, they can get away with a lot by letting the actual core premise of the universe's power system be stuff like "a pure heart gives you strength" and "the power of love will legitimately make you more powerful." And I respect that the show doesn't just give people powerups whenever - one of the parts I found most emotionally impactful was in the finale of season 3, when Sailor Saturn is going to fight the big bad all by herself and will 100% definitely die in the process, and because Sailor Moon has sacrificed the season's macguffin, she can no longer transform into her powered-up form to help - which doesn't stop her from screaming the transformation phrase over and over, because she is desperate to save Sailor Saturn even if she's been told it can't possibly work. When she gets her The Most Purest Heart Ever powerup at the last possible second, that feels excellent because it's a profoundly impactful character moment that's being supported by the plot with a tangible powerup. It's pretty telling that we don't even see the final bossfight; it's not about the spectacle or the beam clash, it's about the character arcs that surround them. I think that's a really interesting way to handle it and to add depth to an otherwise basic "whose number is bigger" style struggle.

I'm also deeply fond of paragons, and as the seasons go on I really like how Usagi's ultimately kind personality drives her to constantly help, no matter the personal cost or how aggressively people try to dissuade her - and I like that she gets angry and frustrated and even says or does harsh things sometimes, but will ultimately always do what she thinks is right. It makes her feel like a real human being, and the "weaknesses" and flaws in her character - aka the parts that make her something more complicated than a perfectly stoic problem-solving machine - are a lot of fun to watch.

Personal preference, I'd like to see more magical girl stuff where the central pillar of the plot is not a constant will-they-won't-they het romance - but I also like how Sailor Moon as a series is legitimately aware that this is not actually the de facto most important relationship for everyone. Surprising multitude of gay characters aside, I recently caught a season 2 episode where Makoto donates blood to save a close friend, and explains to Usagi that she isn't in love with him, but they have an incredibly profound friendship that's more important to her than any boyfriend, a concept with startles and confuses Usagi. It seems to be a case where the heroine has a Foundational Romantic Subplot that defines the course of her life and the plot, but the rest of the characters get to have more complicated dynamics where their life goals aren't "omg boys", and I liked that a lot!

When comparing and contrasting it to shonen action anime, I think the magical girl genre manages to integrate the lower-stakes slice of life elements significantly more smoothly, and to great effect - the 90% of the show that's silly and ridiculous makes the 10% of it that's extremely serious and gutwrenching much more impactful. That's something that a lot of shonen series struggle with, where the tone goes from "moderately serious with the occasional goof" to "extremely serious with major character deaths." The magical girl genre going from "the dumbest episode premise you've ever heard" to "extremely serious with major character deaths" is a much more precipitous plunge into icy water, as it were.

When I think about how I would write a magical girl story, I basically just smack into the premise of Exalted. Its worldbuilding has exactly what I want - an interesting system of powerset-reincarnation into worthy hosts that allows for complex interpersonal dynamics through varying levels of memory preservation, several different flavors of magical transforming person including Evil Versions, and the one thing I prioritize in my own writing - a world that feels like it can have a lot of main characters and heroes of their own story. Everyone in Exalted has their own shit going on and their own past-life drama, including former friend groups/adventuring parties, soulmates (both regular and evil versions), and anyone who might've previously killed them. Most importantly for my preferences, there's no default main character of the universe. If I were to make an urban fantasy magical girl setting, I'd probably use an extremely similar premise because I find the ramifications of it unbelievably interesting in a way the system itself is not designed to explore.

#asks #not aurora #media recs #writing stuff

[markantonys]

i'm thinking about nynaeve's line to egwene in the testing vision about how egwene will be a better "servant of all" than nynaeve ever could be. i love that moment so much! because it plays into one of my very favorite Themes from the books: the difference between heroes who focus on the greater good, sometimes at the expense of individuals (egwene, rand, moiraine, elayne) and heroes who focus on individuals, sometimes at the expense of the greater good (nynaeve, perrin, mat). and neither is inherently better or worse than the other, it's just two different ways of looking at the world! for each character, we see moments where their outlook is a strength as well as moments where it's a weakness/flaw.

i saw someone say that nynaeve undersells herself in that line because throughout the show we've seen HER be a servant of all. and that's very true............IF we define "all" as "the two rivers." nynaeve would die & kill for Her People, and for any other individuals she comes across who need her help, but she doesn't care so much about broader causes or ideals. her arc is really unique because it's an inverse leadership arc, i.e. she starts off in a leadership position but then as the story progresses, she realizes that she is not suited to leadership on the huge scale that's needed for the last battle and steps aside to let people like egwene and rand, who ARE suited to it, take up that leadership.

(if you will allow me a bit of #gawynposting, gawyn actually has a very similar arc in this respect: he starts off expecting to become first prince of the sword, but then when he gets his first real taste of large-scale leadership as the leader of the younglings, he's miserable. he doesn't care about the younglings' cause, he just wants to protect his specific loved ones, elayne & egwene, because at heart he is an Individuals Guy, not a Big Picture Guy. and so in the end he rejects his role as first prince and dedicates himself to protecting one specific person, egwene, as her warder. but the tragedy of his character is that even after all this he still can't shake the My Duty Is To The Big Picture conditioning that's been drilled into him since childhood, and thus focusing exclusively on protecting one single person during the last battle makes him feel selfish & guilty about "wasting" his fighting abilities and he decides it's his duty to sacrifice himself for the greater good. sob!)

anyway, i love this line because it's not true and also it's true. nynaeve IS a selfless servant of all, but egwene will be a better servant of all-all than nynaeve could be. because egwene is more able to set aside her personal feelings to focus objectively on what's best for the greatest number of people, whereas nynaeve just can't stomach the ruthless calculus of war (which, again, is not a knock on either character, they're simply different kinds of people and BOTH kinds are needed to win the last battle). and that's why it could only ever be egwene who got the amyrlin arc, even though you might initially expect it to go to nynaeve due to the setup of her being the most powerful aes sedai of the age.

#wot #wot on prime #the wheel of time #wot book spoilers #nynaeve al'meara #egwene al'vere #gawyn trakand #this particular Difference In Outlook is also part of what makes gawene so interesting & enjoyable to me esp their TGS/TOM conflicts #because this really is what's causing those conflicts at the root of it #egwene is focused on her big-picture duties and struggles to make room in them for a personal relationship #gawyn is focused on his personal relationship with egwene and struggles to make room in it for the big picture #but in the end they're able to help each other meet in the middle <3 #gawyn learns to understand the difference between egwene as his girlfriend & egwene as his amyrlin #and to modify his behavior with her to be appropriate for the respective situation #and egwene learns to allow herself work-life balance and to metaphorically take the stole off when in private with her partner #and to share her burdens with him and ask him for help with them

[familyagrestefanblog]

Clarification I definitely should have done ever since season 4 and the Ladynoir conflict started escalating, but hey, let's just get it out:

There are reasons why I'm harping down so badly on Miraculous' Girlboss feminism and defend Adrien as much as I do.

To get the feminist (in-universe) explaination out of the way first:

I would be lying if I said that I like the direction the show has taken Marinette's character and the story in general. But regarding her specifically I simply have to say that most of my problems with her are how she is written as Ladybug, Guardian, and especially leader & partner. Not in her civilian self. Hence why you won't find that alot on my blog, only when it contributes to the overarching double standards problem from s4 I take issue with.

I simply cant deny it, Ladybug is a kind of leader I just came to not be able to respect alot anymore in how she operates most things bc she doesn't really ever look passed how things look & stand for herself, and what SHE needs & wants. Marinette is a very low empathy person in the sense that she struggles putting herself in other people's positions, or remembers considering that at all.

But that's not the reason why I can't respect her as leader. I have ADD, that would be really hypocritical of me.

What leaves me unable to respect her as leader though (& honestly kinda even wanting Alya to take her position) is the fact that the show doesn't see much wrong with Maribug doing that.

They don't properly depict this as flawed leadership she actually NEEDS to grow out of by making up for her shortcomings by, for example, making other people her official co-leaders. Instead the show since s4 (& kinda s3) will proceed to put it's feminist foot down if Maribug isn't actually in the end 100% correct and "totally girlboss justified" in any given case - with CN & authorities specifically - no matter the context. Ergo she's barely ever truly improving her weakpoints in partnership skills for example & continues doing the same mistakes over n over.

like she genuinely would benefit from having Chat Noir as her co-leader too, not just Rena Rouge. But no. The neurodivergend low-empathy girl can't have a high-empathy boy co-leader bc apparently thats misogynistic now, huh ?

Again, I have ADD and I'm also a woman. In fact, I actually have alot in common with Maribug (hence why it hurt so much once s4 took her away from me), so forgive me when I still say: I am NOT going to lower my standards of my believe that neither of those aspects get to be an excuse on everyone else's expense regarding LEADERSHIP (which I do also am in the position of in my life).

And I repeat: LEADERSHIP. Not Marinette herself as a person necessarily & esp not her civilian life.

People always say that her critics wouldn't be so hard on her if she were a man, but I strongly disagree. In my experience, if Marinette were a boy people would actually draw a line nowadays and call out that Mariano is too stuck in his own head to be a good leader (& partner). And maybe even demand that he shouldn't be in that position anymore either at all or until he's in a better head space.

Bc with male characters people are actually drawing lines now in important factors when it comes to power & the accountability coming with it, bc in the end being in change means it ain't about you

Hence why e. g. Steve Rogers (Captain America) was then a fucking fugitive from the law when shit got real in the MCU. They had to do that bc of his leadership morality not being able to exist well within a corrupted & complex law system under fire and attack. My man's an amazing battle leader, but the MCU did VERY well leaving taking care of all kinds of social & political matters to Tony Stark. This kind of nuance ain't Steve's strength. Marinette & Steve are actually a EXTREMELY similar type of leader and it's interesting that I don't exactly vibe with him too much either in that regard, but like him as person the way I did Marinette. So for me it's definitely an issue with their type of leadership.

But the mainstream female leader characters are often still "too female" to get held to the same regular standards bc telling a female leader character in a complicated and not entirely beneficial situation & position 'yeah, it's sucks but you're not the center of the universe'' is now more often than not still "too mean/ sexist"

again, Steve was made an outlaw for a reason and you can bet if he had been a Stephanie people would have made all her struggles about sexism & called the 'outlaw leader' route after Civil War misogyny, merely bc "society doesnt respect women". This is whats happening with Maribug & it clashes with her leadership style.

Hence why there AREN'T ALOT of mainstream female leader characters. And if we get some, most of them are narratively defined by how powerful & in control they are for THEIR OWN BENEFIT and it being depicted as 100% right & just in general (like with Marinette) which goes against what a normal leader should be, so alot of people don't like them (ignoring the actual sexist people for a sec)

The first Wonder Woman movie for example was so well-received for a reason. They did it RIGHT (& may I please also recommend Wakanda Forever? Fuck, that movie was GOOD)

--

But yes, it's notably how Maribug treats Chat, who is supposed to be her partner and friend, that I take alot of issues with.

And yes, I would say the same if LB were male and CN female. Ladynoir is so rooted in toxic femininity that this "partnership" (or just the entire LS) the way it is could NOT exist today in gender bend. S4 and the s5 finale in particular are unthinkable in gender bend and they sold it as "justified female empowerment" & "unparalleled loving treatment" from Ladybug's side Chat Noir needed to learn to be GRATEFUL for.

All while, and I will never stop stressing this: the show has never stopped writing Marinette to treat Chat Noir as if he basically just spawns into existence once he puts on the mask. He's HALF a human being. Even once she falls in love with him in s5.

This is the fundamental and deep seeded problem of where my issues come from here. It never stands in question if Adrien views Marinette and Ladybug as full human beings, but the other way around that very much is the case. In whatever way it's depicted. Yes this is a line I draw, especially because of the whole Sentihuman thing.

I personally am alot more like Adrien regarding Friendship and partnership (or what his character initially started out). They are heavy & meaningful topics for me. So seeing Marinette being utilized to girlboss all that into the ground with Chat Noir, esp in s4, while she apparently barely ever even noticed anything wrong with how she treats him in the first place as she literally replaced him with Alya/ Rena in everything but name

cause buring him under a wall of secrets & lies meant she can still 100% benefit from his eternal devotion by letting him believe she's too alone to be a partner anymore AT ALL. (Kuro Neko onwards and then NEVER stopped letting him think she's just as alone as he is. NEVER. She's still doing it in s5 while leaving him 100% isolated which was then his demise in the s5 finale.)

and gives Alya the deluxe partnership entirely on his expense, while barely ever sparing him even the most basic thought in anything; & by "Risk" then literally having them switch status. Rena is her actual partner she fully treats that way and he's merely her favorite temp hero with no rights, which Rena was previously.

And the only reason why Chat was treated with something resembling to fairness or dignity again in season 5 (& finally wasn't a rag doll for her every little mood anymore...) was because Maribug plainly had no other choice and had her team & position of power taken away by force while Alya renounced for her own safety. And yet she's still treating him as half a human being even by the end of S5. AFTER her character development. He's Chat Noir and that's where his existence ends in her leadership & friendship. CN and Alya in s5 are literally 2 halves of ONE PARTNER.

All that was painful to watch to say the least. Bc it's imo honestly a disgrace to friendship and partnership. I can't put into words how ashamed I would be of myself if I treated someone the way Marinette treats Chat Noir (again, HALF A HUMAN BEING).

Much less a friend I claim to love dearly and don't want to loose (another thing the MCU did better regarding Steve's fall-out with Tony over Bucky... I should really make that comparison post why Steve works for me & Marinette doesnt)

Just the mere fact that Marinette in "Elation" even told Chat "It doesn't matter who's underneath your mask" is honestly outrageous.

Because thats simply what it is for me. If s4 & 5 Marinette were portrayed from a similar morality angle to Emonette in the Paris special I would have much less issues with her. Cause thats ironically an angle female characters barely get & is mostly used to redeem the broken bad boys with a hidden heart of gold™.

Double irony: s1-s3 actually DID put civilian Marinette often into that angle, hence why I really liked her, but then s4 suddenly said "well, her methods & actions really dont matter. She's wrong, but actually not really; ergo she should get rewarded in the end. Always. But with a few exceptions. Here n there she loses to claim otherwise. But actually the world just needs to learn how right & amazing she is."

She makes countless mistakes but often either doesn't really learn from them anymore or they just don't "count" bc that's 'what makes her quirky & loveable', so having any issues with her now means you hate women. And she's a very flawed leader but actually never did anything wrong. Ever. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

I will be VERY blunt now: The moment you put a female character into the leader role the FEMALE aspect is supposed to be of secondary importance. And a leader, by the nature of the position, ALWAYS has to be questioned morally wise in my opinion bc of the fatal blindspots that will automatically occur in every leadership.

And it happened here too: Chat Noir's treatment. But they demanded that her being the (female) leader means she's OWED to treat him badly & gets to keep him as blindspot on HIS expense bc she doesn't like thinking about him existing as civilian person.

A leader is ALWAYS somebody who is NOT going to sit well with everybody regarding their approach. That's a normal instinct, and in fact it would be highly dangerous if that wouldnt happen at all. So if I, or other people, don't respect her as one that simply means she has an opposition the way every leader has & is being held to normal standards a leader should be held to, regardless of gender.

Sorry if you think thats sexist, but in my opinion that's a YOU problem. I personally respect female leaders too much to not acknowledge them as anything else but the potential threats they are. The same way I do with male leaders.

You're leader first, woman second. If you can't handle that get out of the leadership position (yes, oc that also applies the other way around). Feminism was about making sure that women cant be excluded from e. g. position of power just bc we're female. The goal wasn't to have yet another group of people stomp their foots, now claiming that they are OWED power once they wanna have it to feel powerful. But that's what Marinette was used to teach an entire generation of children, especially girls.

The last thing you will EVER get me to do is accept that I should be holding women - specifically for equality, female empowerment and leadership - to LOWER (moral) standards as I would the men in her position.

Buddy, I am NOT gonna fucking do that. Just the thought is pissing me tf off, and has ever since s4, cause it directly plays into the misogynistic thinking of:

"Women can't be given power, status or even too much focus as human beings because they're too irrational and immature to be able to then lay proper priorities & take rightful accountability for their shit like a man in power could; and not just scream and cry while playing the oppressed victim card the moment things don't work out & they aren't being given the special female treatment to let them mostly off the hook consequences wise.

Leading to everyone around them, especially the MEN, having to step up, do the work & basically babysit the women like children - while still having to give her the credit as person in charge - turning the women more or less into toddlers wearing a queen's crown"

Which, by all means, Adrichat in every dynamic of the love square by season 5, Gabriel at the end of "Recreation" and even Luka & Félix (& "thankfully" Alya too since s4) had to do for Maribug in alot of ways.

Pick up all of her slack in several major areas & catering to her while simultaneously having to still give most of the credit to HER or else they would be "mean to the female lead" (it's also telling that Alya is treated the best here, & goodness dont get me started on Su-Han...).

And with that out of the way, a few more meta reasons:

1) I'm NOT watching a damn documentary. Marinette is NOT a 14 year old, she doesnt exist & isnt based on a real person or story. She's a fictional main character and narrative tool, so forgive me for approaching this differently than a real life case.

and 2) in everything I watch I automatically look out for the narrative's blind spots and victims of the writings' favorites. I take it this seriously because this is career related for me.

Hence why I have barely ever liked a main character and ironically Marinette/ Ladybug was once one of the few exceptions (alongside Korra from Legend of Korra and Blitz from Helluva Boss)

Look, when I for example watch Helluva Boss or a Yugioh show I will automatically pay extra attention to how the female characters are being treated bc they are obviously treated worse by the writing and much more neglected and scapegoated than the male characters.

Meanwhile when I watch Miraculous and She-Ra, I do the opposite and pay attention to how the male characters are treated bc now they have the gender-biase against them.

And when I for example watch Avatar the last Airbender or Legend of Korra [and She-Ra, that show is great], then I actually get to be mostly fucking happy for once in my life jfc

I'm not going to elaborate too much more on this because I already named by my main point in the beginning: Chat Noir's - not even Adrien's, I mean CHAT NOIR - sometimes honestly awful treatment being the biggest moral and narrative blind spot of the entire show, and honestly where most of Maribug's problems then are also rooted in. Hence why I started focusing so much on Chat Noir since season 4. I look at the overall narrative and circumstances and look for the blind spots that needs to be solved to get to the core of the problem of this whole mess, to get effective results.

And that was and even by the end remained the fact that Adrichat is treated so badly, scapegoated in every possible way in the name of "feminism" and kicked out of the story where HE is at the core of most everything going on, just so the show can force Maribug into everything, make things about her that have no business being about her

Just so she can then be made to constandly turn around and scream, cry and stress about problems - and go about them in the least effective way - that wouldnt be there in the first place if she wasnt the main character of a story that isnt hers.

Mate, I dont know what to tell you here, but the fact that we are following Marinette Dupain-Cheng ,who has nothing to do with anything besides being the cool action girl, is and will always remain of the of core problems of this show. I WISHED that wasnt the case. But for the love of everything, Kagami would have made so much more sense as the female lead, but no.

Anyway, I will leave it at that now cause I already elaborate much further than I initially wanted to, I just wanted to finally have all this stated.

This Blog is not a full representation of how I lay priorities in (feminist) media in general, my view adjusts to the piece of media I'm watching.

And unfortunately, ever since season 4 Miraculous turned into a full blown extreme case and has only gotten better somewhat recently. So I will continue doing what I always do: focus on the fucking VICTIM whose bad treatment pulls down the whole show's quality, and here that's plain obviously Adrien Agreste/ Chat Noir.

And with all due respect: Die mad about it.

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous #Sexism in Miraculous #ml critical #Season 4 critical #Marinette's leadership is simply my main issue here #Marinette critical #My opinion on leadership #Ladynoir critical #Ml #adrien deserves better #Chat Noir deserves better #Marinette deserves better #And Ladybug DEFINITELY deserved better #I just miss loving this girl so much #I remember how happy I was that she was one of the few main characters I liked and also a female leader #And then s4 came around and took all that away from me #I just cannot respect her leadership 100% on Chat Noir's expense #Sorry for respecting female leaders too much to not drop my fucking standards bc Marinette doesnt like thinking bout Chat existing #That's shit leadership #And even worse partnership and friendship

[hacash]

I know you’re a huge Nate supporter and love to talk about all the microagressions against him, and one I noticed when rewatching is that in 2x3, when ted tells Jamie he’s starting on the reserve, he’s immediately playful with Will (“Mr. Kitman! Hit me!”) and it got me thinking how badly Nate must have felt seeing the ringleader of his bullies come back and immediately be nice to his replacement. Sort of like, “oh so you were capable of being a decent human being to the kitman this whole time but you just chose not to”

I think there’s such nuance in the way the the team getting nicer grates on Nate, who put up with their bullshit for years, especially since no one ever offers him a real apology. I think he’s definitely crossed lines, but when you look at it from his perspective, it’s easy to see how he got there. Anyway I just appreciate your nuanced takes on Nate and I can’t wait to see nick mohammed pull off another stellar performance in season 3!

Absolutely!

To be fair, I think Nate's aggression from Will stems a lot from power going to his head and being a perfectionist in his work; I'm a big fan of Nate but my God, the man is flawed. However I also think Will is a walking, talking reminder of how the team used to treat Nate, simply by dint of how they don't treat Will. He comes to Richmond and immediately gets handfuls of cash from them at Christmas, he's included in their little bonding rituals, he's part of the gang...whereas we all know the treatment Nate got whenever he tried to help the team.

(And that only finished after a particularly brutal show of strength from Roy. Which, uh, certainly gives Nate an interesting impression of what tactics do and don't work with the footballers.)

So yeah, from Nate's incredibly damaged perspective, having poor Will around must be unbelievably frustrating. He's pissed, and though he handles it badly, it's obvious why he's pissed. It's the moment when Eleanor in The Good Place, seeing her emotionally abusive mum parenting a new daughter, tearfully says that if her mum was capable of parenting the little girl then she was capable of parenting Eleanor but just chose not too. It's the moment in How I Met Your Mother when Barney screams at his absent dad 'well, if you were going to be some lame suburban dad, why couldn't you be one for me?!' - because clearly the team were capable, they were willing to be nice, they just didn't want to be nice to Nate, it must be about him, how they see him, he needs to change to earn their respect, he needs to perform those shows of strength....

...Of course, an outside perspective would tell you that the team's change of attitude from Nate to Will has absolutely nothing to do with Nate, and everything to do with how Ted's philosophy has impacted the team. (If Will had joined Richmond at the beginning of S1 I've no doubt that pre-reformation Isaac, Colin and Jamie would have eaten the poor boy alive, and the rest of the team would have been egging them on or wouldn't have dared stop it.) But Nate's not in the right place to see that. And considering all the history between him and the team, I don't think he should have to just 'man up' and accept that; he deserves that acknowledgement and those apologies. Which I am very much hoping we get this season.

#ted lasso #nate shelley #will kitman #the little things #ted lasso speculation

[hamartia-grander]

Please I’m begging you on my hands and knees please elaborate on Luis and Ada being foils

I am SO happy that someone finally asked me to talk about this I know I asked you to ask me I love you so much thank you because once I had this realisation it made me love both of their characters - and the re4 remake as a whole - so much more than I already did.

Explanation below the cut:

So first lemme define what a foil is when it comes to characters, not because I think you personally don't know Wilfred but in case anyone's reading this and wondering why I'm calling these characters aluminum wrap. I'm not, I promise it's a real narrative device. A literary foil is "a character whose purpose is to accentuate or draw attention to the qualities of another character". Essentially, a foil requires two characters to be identified, and they exist to contrast, reflect, or exist in an opposite way to their co-foil so as to highlight the other character's weaknesses, strengths, and personality. However, they are often also very similar in technical ways, and thus their behaviours and/or quirks that set them apart show the audience how some things just work for one character but not the other. Think of it like an inverted image, how some details look better in negative space but worse in positive space. This is true of narrative foils. In the remake of Resident Evil 4, Luis is written as a literary foil to Ada.

We first meet Ada in re2, and she's introduced as this mysterious woman who claims to be of the FBI but reveals no further details about herself. We as the audience/player behind Leon have to trust her to get to where we need to go, and she proves herself worthy of that trust. Leon doesn't question why she's helping him, because he believes that she really is FBI and that helping people is her job. He doesn't know her goal, but he's willing to help, and receive her help. However, at the end of re2, we find out that she's actually not FBI, that she was using that as a cover and she is actually a mercenary and spy, whose goal was to acquire a sample of the harmful G-virus and bring it to Wesker who was obviously going to use it for nefarious purposes, and she knew that. Leon (the audience) doesn't know this until the very end.

We first meet Luis in re4. Now in the original, he barely had any substance as a character, and his personality was simply an expression of cultural stereotypes and misogyny, masked under "charming flamboyance". In the remake, however, Luis does have substance as a character. We not only get more out of his personality, but we now know his goals, his flaws, and his interests. And just like Ada, he is a mysterious character with a dark past that led to him making bad decisions and aligning himself with bad people. However, the difference between them and the beginning of what sets them up as foils is that Leon (the audience) finds all of this out about Luis almost immediately. Unlike with Ada, where Leon took her word and went the entire game believing what she said, Leon was sceptical of Luis and had Hunnigan look him up - and sure enough, Hunnigan was able to find all sorts of information on Luis, despite Luis actively trying to make that information as well as himself untraceable. So rather than having the audience trust Luis outright like we did with Ada, and then having that trust threatened when we learn who she is later one, we learn who Luis is immediately, setting him up as someone who we should be sceptical of.

With Ada, by giving us a character to trust and see good in for an entire game only to end it with the reveal that she's actually working for the "bad guys", we are led to think that all of her actions up to that point were fake, that she was simply putting on a cover of kindness and care for Leon. And of course that's the wrong idea, as she clearly does care for him, which we see when he stupidly dares her to shoot him. And she refuses. IDK, even if I loved Leon, I would've shot him then just because he was being a cocky shit about it, but Ada is certainly stronger than me. Ada's actions prior to us finding out who she really is now are tainted, and we're led to see her actions as that of a facade. Adversely, with Luis, by giving us a character who's bad past we know outright and repeatedly meet up with throughout the game, we are led to see all of his actions from that point on as acts of redemption.

We first see Ada as a Good character and therefore all of her actions are that of someone just being herself, but with Luis we first see him as a Bad character, and therefore all of his actions are that of someone who must redeem himself. However, they are both very similar characters; but in the way the stories introduced them to us, and in the order they revealed information about these two characters to us, the narrative influences how we see these characters. Imagine if we had gone the entire game not knowing Luis used to work for Umbrella, thinking he was just Some Guy who happened to live in this village. Leon most definitely would have trusted him much quicker. But that 'Umbrella' background being the first real thing we learn about Luis means that his dark past will always be on our minds when we see him next. And it makes sense to us, given the events of re2, that Leon wouldn't trust Luis, even if the audience does. (Same with Ada; the audience could be distrusting of her, but narratively we see why Leon would've trusted her implicitly in re2.)

Both Luis and Ada are mysterious characters whose real moral alignment we are uncertain of for almost the entirety of their games. Both Luis and Ada tell lies to protect themselves or their cover. Both Luis and Ada withhold information they either feel too ashamed to admit or can't admit, again, to protect their cover. Both Luis and Ada - specifically in re4r - have a recurring theme of change. They both speak to Leon about people changing. They both show their own relationships with change. And yet, their endings are vastly different.

Where Ada withholds information and succeeds, Luis withholds information and is found out by Hunnigan. Where Ada can double cross Wesker and escape, Luis attempts to double cross Los Iluminados and gets found out and captured, which is how we meet him. Where Ada gains Leon's trust almost immediately and loses it at the end, Luis doesn't gain Leon's trust until the very end. Even when Leon shows situational trust in him - accepting Luis's help in the safe house, agreeing to partner with him to get the suppressant for the plaga for Ashley - he still doesn't trust Luis's motives, his goal, or even his character. Leon constantly questions Luis throughout their interactions, unwilling to believe this man would help them unless he had some ulterior motive.

That brings back up the theme of change. Luis asks Leon if he thinks people can change, and then Leon asks Ada if she has changed. Luis's death scene could very well be the first time - or at least, the first significant time - Leon has been forced to confront the idea that people change. His confusion regarding Luis's real motives the entire time as a result of learning that Luis used to work for Umbrella seems to be proof enough to Luis that Leon does not see him as someone who has changed, even though Luis desperately wants that to be seen. Adversely, Leon desperately wants to see some proof that Ada has changed, that she's not using him. He's learned from Luis, but he's stumped by his own personal lack of change. Leon doesn't understand how to identify that kind of change in someone; or at the very least, he doesn't know how to voice it. Ada replies "what do you think?", and this could be passed off as her usual way of avoiding the truth, but really she's asking him "Are you even able to know if I've changed? Did you ever pay attention to who I am, or did you lose sight of my character as soon as you learned something bad about me? Have I changed, or has your perception of me changed? Can I change to you if you never really knew me at all? What do you think about how people change?" (And I love this about her.) Luis is Ada's foil because the way Leon perceived Luis's change was so abrupt that now Leon is looking for change in everyone, even himself. And where Luis doubts himself and has to ask Leon - as he's dying - if Leon thinks people can change, Ada is sure of it.

And of course I have to add some serennedy in this. As @thebrokengate kindly mentioned, the dynamics between Leon and Ada, and Leon and Luis, are opposite. Leon trusts Ada and then that trust is broken; Leon doesn't trust Luis, and then that trust is earned, but too late. Luis isn't just a foil for Ada, but his relationship with Leon is also a foil for Ada's. We see where Luis fails in ways that Ada succeeded when it comes to their characters; but when it comes to their relationship with Leon, Luis succeeds where Ada failed. And it makes his death even more devastating as he had the potential to go further with Leon than Ada could, but he was killed, leaving Leon alone regardless. In both instances, Leon lost someone who affected him personally; but where one was lost with trust broken, the other was lost with their life taken.

Again, by giving us Ada's personality first and her background last, we soften up to her as a character before having to question everything we thought we knew about her, as who we find out she is contradicts what her actions have been. However, by giving us Luis's background first and his personality last, we start out sceptical of him, and when his actions contradict what we found out about who he is, we forgive him. I'll also take this opportunity to point out the misogyny in this fandom, as many fans still dislike Ada or believe her to be a bad person, when they love Luis. in many ways, they are the same character. We were just given details about them in a different order that influenced how we perceive their actions.

#this was. really disorganised and all out of my brain so I'm sorry if I failed to convey some things I just have so many feelings ab this #Ada Wong #Luis Serra #Luis Serra Navarro #serennedy #resident evil #resident evil 4 remake #re4 remake #resident evil 2 #resident evil 4 #re4 #re2 #leon kennedy #leon s. kennedy #literary analysis #asks #Thank you sm Wilfred I'm sorry for making you read so many words #resident evil analysis

[borisbubbles]

Eurovision 2024: #15

15. AUSTRIA Kaleen - "We will rave" 25th place

Decade Ranking: 50/153 [Above Systur, below Lesley Roy]

WHEN THE DARKNESS HITS AND WE CAN'T BE SAVED

WIRAM WI DAM DAM DA WE WILL RAVE

Fucking AMAZING chorus. At this stage of the ranking, I don't really give too many shits about the flaws in the product. And that's for the best because Holy Hell Kaleen that was NOOOOOOOT GOOOOOOOD (objectively). Fortunately it was still very entertaining (also objectively?), so.

Also at this point, you may expect some real emotional investment from my part and Kaleen is clear example of that too. SHE, more than anyone else, was the uncrowned queen of Millennial Monroehood this year. Not only did she provide a fucking BANGER from the time I was a middleschooler, she also SERVED:

LOOKS

PERSONALITY

POISE

JE NE SAIS QUOI

ATTITUDE

and also NONE OF THE VOCALS. 😍 😍 😍

And this comes on top of her song being leaked two months in advance off Marvin Dietmann's laptop, and becoming a viral hit among millennial eurotwitter BEFORE its full release ♥ (and I fully buy into the conspiracy theory that the leak was intentional to build hype.)

But yeah, this performance was heavily flawed, I won't deny that. "We will rave" is a great song and it's only 15th on my ranking, that's how far south that went.

It is equal parts comical and tragic that Marvin Dietmann arranged for his PARTNER (I assumed "business partner" at first, but apparently also partner in a domestic sense? Yeah I'm as surprised as you are that he likes the clam.) to be cast for Eurovision and then failed to provide staging for her that capitalized on her strengths.

Kaleen is a professional dancer and dance instructor.

She runs Marvin's Dance School FOR HIM, FOR A LIVING.

The leak showed a vibrant dance choreography that allowed her to (barely) provide passable vocals.

She's a natural born performer of the ~rhythmic arts~

So what does Marvin do?

HE REDUCES HER DANCE ROUTINE TO THE TYPE OF TARD DANCE ANYONE CAN EXECUTE.

HAS HER WALK AROUND THE STAGE. NOT DANCE. WALK.

AND HAD HER DANCERS SHIMMY HER AROUND IN LIEU OF A DANCE BREAK.

ALL SO THAT SHE CAN DELIVER THE BEST VOCAL PERFORMANCE... WHICH IS... WORSE THAN IN THE DEMO BECAUSE UM HELLO EARTH-TO-MARVIN:

YOUR GIRLFRIEND IS A DANCER, AND NOT A SINGER.

And all of that, I mean I'm sorry, is fucking hilarious, foremost. I know the live was "bad" but god it was really good at being bad. Casting your girlfriend and then FAILING to take her skillset (anything involving movement) into account is so uproariously funny to me. The staging was not bad on paper (it tried to increase momentum via the lasers and looks good if you mute), but it featured a slow, aenemic choreography that couldn't keep up with the music's light speed pace. That same dichotomy killed Halo, killed Edgar and almost killed "We Will Rave" too. This is the choreo you'd give to someone who cannot dance either due to being a block of wood (Dons) or old (Meri Bas.).

Even Firefighter, which is a fucking abortive attempt at a "dance song", had more tempo and life and let Nutsa (who is NOT a dancer) perform a break by herself. Christ Marvin.

(Granted it may be the outfit that forced Kaleen to perform a pantomime rather than a dance, but if that's the case... change the outfit? If those boots restrict your mobility, then don't wear them AT ALL, you know?)

However, as much as my appreciation for the live is based on irony and schadenfreude, I also just really love the song that much. "We will rave" is the best written girlbanger of this year - catchy, infectuous, smoking hot, and a wonderful throwback to the good Flemish techno of the early aughts. It's such a fucking banger in the style of Milk Inc, Lasgo, X Session, Touch of Joy, 2Fabiola, etc.

The prechorus and lyrics are delectable, and Kaleen is, despite her vocal inaccuracies, a charming hostess and style icon. Her personality is the saving grace of this live performance and the reason why I still embrace it in the face of its many mistakes. As disrespectful as Marvin's choreography was, she was flawless in its execution. SHE is what turns "We Will Rave" into a ride. The choreo and the results both did her dirty, but eh. Someone had to finish near the bottom. This year, that was Austria.

Now SAVOUR this last ever instance of them being fun in Eurovision because they'll only send salvaduncans from hereonout. If Eurovision isn't cancelled first, of course.

THE RANKING

#eurovision #borisbubbles #esc #Eurovision 2024 #ESC 2024 #Malmö 2024 #Austria #Kaleen #We Will Rave #Youtube

[thelordofgifs]

Writing Year Wrapped

Thank you for the tag @eilinelsghost - what a lovely idea!

3 Favourite Fics You've Written This Year

the fairest stars (T, 78k, in progress). So much of myself has gone into this fic since I started writing it all the way back in February. I love all the characters (Maedhros and Maglor my beloveds!!), I love how much it's taught me about plot and structure and evil cliffhangers, and I love sharing it with all my wonderful kind enthusiastic readers!

Ilimbë (T, 15k, complete). This was a new venture for me, both genre and ship-wise, but it was just so much FUN. I like writing things that make me feel clever, and this is probably my most unabashedly pretentious fic. But also baby Fëanor is everything to me now.

in the breaking (G, 2k, complete). I used to call this my best m&m fic, although tfs is probably my best m&m fic. But in the breaking is still one of my favourite explorations of their tragic tender codependent dynamic.

3 Fics That Stretched You the Most

Inflection (G, 10k, complete). This one was SO hard to write - getting the first draft out was very much blood, sweat and tears. The nuances of the kidnap fam dynamic are very hard to get right, balancing the canonical love with Elrond and Elros' genuine trauma. I'm still not entirely sure I got it quite to my satisfaction, but I'm pleased with the final result all the same.

the fairest stars. Yes I'm listing it twice. I'm very fond of tfs, but plotting it out can be SO hard sometimes (which is one of the reasons why part 31 is taking a while to write). I just counted and there are TEN separate plot threads to keep track of at the moment, which is... a Lot.

the salt of the sea (E, 2k, complete). Shoutout to my first proper smut! Definitely a new venture for me (I hadn't written this pairing before, either). People were very kind about it, though.

3 Favourite Lines You've Written

Maedhros has never loved anyone without making of them a god – it is all tangled together in his mind, worship with affection, ardour with idolatry. (tfs, part 29)

To love Maedhros, he has long known, is to grieve him. (tfs, part 22)

Fëanor had never been kissed before. It took him a moment to respond, but then he found he was kissing Nerdanel back and it was the easiest, most familiar thing in the world; her messy curls were brushing his face and one of her strong sure hands had travelled down to rest against the small of his back and there was nothing that had ever been more real than the warmth of her pressed against him; she was certainty itself, as solid as marble, no crafted thing to be shaped and changed, but a maker and a preserver and a promise of forever; and her mouth against his was hot and sweet and golden as the taste of a Laurelin-ripened peach. (Ilimbë)

3 Characters You Enjoyed Writing (that surprised you)

Lúthien! I didn't have many thoughts about her before starting tfs, but she's one of my favourite characters in it now, and so essential to the themes of the story.

Fëanor was a struggle to wrap my head around initially: in my opinion one of the biggest flaws of all those that follow, for example, is the way Fëanor only appears at the edges of the narrative, when I could really have stood to flesh his relationship with Fingolfin out a lot more. Writing Ilimbë really helped me gain a much better understanding of what makes him tick, which was very satisfying, and I do think his characterisation is one of the biggest strengths of that fic.

gonna cheat slightly for the third one and say all my little baby OCs from the glassmaker! OC-centric fic isn't something I'd tried before, but I'm very fond of them now.

3 Unexpected Inspirations

Maedhros' hair in in the breaking is this whole important thematic thing, but the truth is. I also have very long and silky hair and it is a PAIN to deal with. You cannot picture the number of times I have sat on my bed at 1am furiously yanking a hairbrush through it and gone "DID it take long hours to brush out to smoothness again? you fucking bet." Sadly I do not have a codependently devoted sibling to tenderly brush my hair for me, so I have to do it myself.

tfs was initally inspired by some tumblr discourse about Beren and Lúthien's motivations in stealing the Silmaril! which I think is kind of neat. It strikes me as very indicative of the collaborative nature of fandom: a couple of people have a debate, and then someone else goes away and writes fic about it, and then people draw art of the fic... and on the cycle goes.

an ancient song is a very small little ficlet, but it was also inspired by some tags on a tumblr post! Always fun when that happens.

3 WIPs You're Excited About in the Upcoming Year

Ooh, now I feel like I'm committing to having these finished in the next year...

The Unburied: the longfic I am very slowly working on, and managed to put 20k words towards in November. It follows Fingon as he crosses the Helcaraxë and Maglor as he rules in Mithrim, ending with the first rising of the Sun. I am excited about this fic, but it's an ambitious project and very challenging! Also my brain can't really handle working on two different longfics at once, so it's on the backburner until tfs is finished, and who knows when that will be tbh.

boats against the current: another rather old WIP that is complicated and difficult to plot out. This one is the "Maedhros doesn't swear the Oath" AU. Still very attached to the idea! Maybe I'll get somewhere with it soon.

sore must be the storm: my shortest WIP! Surely I can sit down and finish it in the next few weeks (I have been saying, for months). Just some (messy and complicated) russingon after Fingolfin's death.

3 People Tagged to Share Theirs

No-pressure tags for

@searchingforserendipity25

@that-angry-noldo

@welcomingdisaster!

#tag game #my writing

[gavillain]

TAGGED: TEN CHARACTERS YOU IDENTIFY WITH (&&&either add what you admire about each, or what it is that connects you to them!)

I never really saw myself as a hero or identified as one, so all of mine are villains. I don't necessarily think that I'm an evil person or that I'm not a good guy or nice person IRL, but for whatever reason, heroes just don't really do it for me. I'm drawn to the villains because they're such individuals. They're theatrical and dramatic in a way that's fun and engaging, they're confident, they're intelligent, they go after what they want, they're not afraid to be leaders and take control, they're either queercoded or explicitly queer, and they have a dark and elegant sense of style and flair - and all of that is what I really value and seek to emulate and incarnate in my day to day life. All of that applies to ALL of them, but here's why each individual one is on here.

Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty/Kingdom Hearts) - My favorite and the one who is the most me of any of them. I'm generally pretty level headed and having a grand old time doing what I love, but if I get provoked, it's fire breathing dragon time. I have a tendency to be petty, and I have a very low tolerance for disrespect and thoughtlessness. I'm generally content to be kind of isolated up on my own proverbial mountain top, but I have a soft spot for my "familiars" and animals that I keep close. Sometimes overconfidence gets the better of me in the face of my own "Organization XIII"s but I always land on my feet. I also can be a bit of a control freak, a bit bossy, and a bit self-centered at the worst of times, and, well, that's her whole thing XD

Jafar (Aladdin) - To the people who don't know me well, I can appear to be a quiet and no-nonsense strict vizier, but to my personal "talking parrots" who I show the real me, they know I'm a dramatic goofball with a dark mind. I always find myself wanting more and more of the things that I enjoy and energize me to the point where sometimes I overindulge and find myself trapped in a "lamp" of my own making. I also really relate to his deleted song "Why Me" about growing up feeling unappreciated by my peers and carried down by people who were less than worthy of my time and efforts.

Loki (Marvel comics/2011-2013 MCU) - Loki's entire plot in the first Thor movie is one great big "Does this remind you of anything? HINT HINT" with being a gay allegory, and it hit me right at the same time I was coming out so I felt a strong bond with him and drew a lot of strength from him at the time. The way he embraces everything bad anyone has ever said about him and reclaims it to be a part of his own power is very much I try to live my life and why I'm so comfortable with my own flaws and "darkness." I have a mischievous and playful side reminiscent of him, and also just like him, I can be a full tilt diva who has to make a production out of everything (I actually came out as gay on a literal stage).

Hook (Once Upon a Time) - Firstly, we look the most alike of any of these guys. I've cosplayed him many times because of that. I like to think of myself as devilishly handsome, and I love me a good innuendo or sex joke. But I'm not just a sexual person, I also have a vibrant romantic side. And if anyone messes with the people I love, it's all over. I will launch into a centuries long revenge quest for the ones I love, and you don't wanna be on the other side of that. Oh, but I was also raised to be a gentleman and behave accordingly.

Grimhilde (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) - I like to be the best with the things that I'm good at, and I want to be praised as the "fairest one of all" with regards to my talents. And, unfortunately with that, sometimes I have a bit of trouble embracing those who rival me in the things I'm good at, and that can take me to some dark places. I love witchcraft and working with the esoteric, and I love dressing up in costumes and "disguises" like she does. I also have a dark sense of humor that comes out around those who I allow to see my "old hag" form.

Ursula (The Little Mermaid) - Pat Carroll described Ursula as an ex-Shakespearean actress who sells used cars; I'm an ex-theater kid who sells real estate and works with binding contracts on the daily. I love doing voice impressions and voice acting, and the way I connect to characters and people is most immediately through the voice. Also her relationship with her sister Morgana most directly mirrors my relationship with my brother (I'm the Ursula, he's the Morgana).

Russell Edgington (True Blood) - I'm a Southerner born and raised (he's from Mississippi and I'm from Georgia), and we're both gay men in relationships who care very deeply for our partners. Russell certainly speaks to my wacky and fun loving sides, but he also kind of reflects my cynicism towards humanity and the state of the world. We both care about the environment and have some righteous rage over the ecological damage humanity is doing. Vampires in True Blood in general also kind of mirror the experience of being queer in America, and that also comes into play.

Hades (Hercules) - I feel like my relationships with my extended family mirrors Hades's with the Olympians pretty accurately. I have the glorious intersection of dad jokes and dark humor that makes Hades so stinkin' funny XD I'm generally a cool and collected guy, but as previously mentioned, I DO have a bit of a temper that can explode with fiery brilliance. I'm an Aries - it's part of my star sign description XD I also have a strong connection to Greek mythology and that interest, so Hades acts as a connection to that as well. And, hey, I roleplayed as him online more than anyone else, so he and I are tied to each other in a special way through that.

Dr. Doom (Marvel comics) - I've always been "the smart one" in my family. I always excelled at school, I've always won at Jeopardy, I always am the go-to walking encyclopedia for my family to consult, I'm reasonably good at chess. Point is, I connect to Doom by feeling like the smartest guy in the room, but also, circling back to a similar point with Grimhilde, I'm not often the most comfortable with NOT being the smartest guy in the room. I can't stand a "Reed Richards" trying to show me up XD I also am not afraid to admit that I'm a bit of a mama's boy XD I take after my mother more than anyone else, and I've always idolized her. Doom went to Hell and back to fight the devil himself to save his mom, and I'd like to think I'd do the same if put in the same circumstance.

Fish Mooney (Gotham) - I love pretty things. Beautiful sparkly aesthetically pleasing things like her myriad of outfits and her nightclub's décor. I'm very particular about the aesthetics surrounding me and making sure it reflects who I am. I also connect with Fish over our value system - she's all about building a sense of "family" with those she's close to, whether they're by blood or by choice, and I've always felt very strongly that family is who you choose. She looks out for her own first and foremost, and so do I. I also have a competitive nature and like to climb to the top when I can, and being a gay man in settings dominated by straight people often feels similar to Fish being the only black woman in the straight white male dominated mob.

tagged by: @marciabrady

tagging: @eerieeyes, @tampire, @violetrose-art, @gordhanx, @heddagab, @violethowler, @101bangzoom, @corvidreavenart, @thefinalboss387 and anyone else who feels like doing this (and no pressure to you guys if you don't want to either)

#Overtakers #me #about me #marciabrady

[evansblues]

Hi dear EvansBlues,

Red Flower,

I just wanted to share another message I received, because I'll be less present on Tumblr these next few weeks, but I'll stay tuned to all your interventions, of course. ;)

It's about CE's career in general. There's something going on in his team right now, like a kind of catch-up strategy. It's all over the place, because they realize that as soon as they develop something, it doesn't work for very long and quickly the flaws show up. Instead of making things better, they make them worse. There's also a lot of resentment from CE towards some of his friends, I don't know which ones. He can't get rid of them yet because he doesn't have the strength, but as soon as the relationship with AB is over, there'll be a change in tone. During the festive season perhaps, early January. I hear him said : I'm fed up with your bullshit ! You don't help me, you make me feel worse than anything else ! He is going to have a severe row with some.

There's also something with his mother, as if contact had been interrupted for many months and the holidays would bring them together, but there's a lot of resentment on both sides. She blames him for recklessly exposing the family, and he blames her for his lack of compassion and impulsiveness.

The Shift is coming and it's for 2024. We will all face it too from a personal standpoint ! If you think that what's happening now is complicated, the time after AB will be just as complex. That will be the real challenge for him.

He won't have much work to do in the coming year. He'll be announcing things but nothing concrete will come of it, it'll just be to say that he's not done, but no major projects will be proposed to him. In 2025 or 2026, he's going to make a very great movie. It's going to be a drama, he won't have the lead but he'll be important in it and people's perception of him will change at that point. It's a film that will allow him to explore his true dark side. We won't see him acting, but interpreting his characters from then on. After that, I see directors who had never thought of him before say to themselves : maybe there's something to do with this guy ? It's as if maturity has given him extra charisma. He's going to be surprised by this sudden change in tone about him in the industry, because he'd made up his mind that he wasn't being taken seriously. He'll want to surprise with every movie, as this will become his trademark.

That's why everything is perfect. What happened recently had to happen for him to achieve this result. Could he have done otherwise ? Of course he could have ! But it was his soul's choice to learn this way. We're just spectators of his evolution. A tragic and pathetic show but you have to admit, it doesn't leave you indifferent. Again, don't get too emotionally invested in this because you have no control over it, as it's not your life but CE's. The only difference between him and you is that any lessons he learns are public.

Once again, thank you Evansblues for everything, your knowledge and great spirit. Take care of yourself and your loved ones, it lifts the ambient energy and that's all that matters.

Namaste. Infinite Gratitude ;)

Ooo predictions.

[amuhav]

1, 2, 3, 5, 13, 23 for E T H E T H

What memory would your OC rather just forget?

I think Eth is second only to Iskaeya when it comes to the privilege of not experiencing too many outright negative memories. He was born not that long after his mother's taking the throne, or not long into his parents' marriage. An only child long enough to have a loving childhood with both parents, with their full devotion, in which he watched and admired as they took a grieving and fractured kingdom and brought it back into the era of complacency it now enjoys. He's also very pragmatic, so he's not the type to believe in "forgetting" uncomfortable truths. To deal with the reality set before you. So even the eventual disillusionment of realising his parents aren't perfect, or the knowledge he will never be either of their favourites... those are things he's taken in stride.

What's something about your OC that people wouldn't expect just from looking at them?

I dunno, a lot of Eth is very on the surface lmao. He's as prideful as he appears, if not more so. He's logical, efficient, and unidealistic. He's extremely unromantic lmao. He has an immaculate level of control over his temper and it would take something monumental to provoke it. He doesn't suffer fools easily, nor incompetence. That said. He isn't quite as cold as he appears. He can be softer in the comfort of privacy, and he deeply cares about the future of his people. He's not a diehard traditionalist, in fact he abhors traditions that lay in the way of progress. And he's not purposely cruel. Contrary to Tay's assumptions, Eth doesn't actually hate either of his brothers, not really. They just... kinda both unfortunately fall into the categories of "fool" or "incompetent" sksksksk oop. If anything, he's actually harsher with Ailos, because he really finds him aggravating in personality and behaviour, and Eth has to constantly clear up his messes. Whereas he and Tay are so far removed from each other that Tay is almost nothing to him, except a thing he doesn't really know how to deal with. They're too far apart in age to have ever had a chance to connect while Tay was young, and too far apart in the social hierarchy to do so now. Kae won't let Eth or anybody else give Tay a purpose, and so to Eth, he just kind of... exists... troublesomely. Over there. Making problems for their parents. With not a whole lot he can do about it.

What is your OC's fatal flaw? Are they aware of this flaw?

Flaw? EXCUSE YOU?? FLAW?? the fucking AUDACITY. Eth is perfect, you monster. Okay. lmao. With that out of the way. As I said, he's very unidealistic and unromantic, especially on a personal level, and he doesn't really respect understand those who won't see things the same way. He sees his father as lacking a backbone in not standing his ground, but he also doesn't understand why Qariel "coddles" Tay either. He sees Ailos as hedonistic with no real interest in understanding why he acts the way he does, why he doesn't just grow out of it and settle down into an advantageous marriage, as should be expected of him. He thinks his mother was naïve in her "mistake" of refusing to arrange any marriages for her children, for promising them all self-determination in that regard. Though he recognises Kae's pathological need to keep Tay "safe" hasn't helped him, he still thinks Tay has never really tried to step up to his role as a royal, that he could do so if he had any strength of character. Eth is just... not much of a nuance guy when it comes to sentiment or sympathy. And he knows this about himself... I'm just not sure he sees it as a flaw lmao. But when any plans fall apart because people are fundamentally people and react with emotion and not logic, he often gets blindsided.

How far is your OC willing to go to get what they want?

Hm. He's never really had to want for anything. His ambition is to be a good king when his time comes, but he's patient and isn't the type to play dirty. He has principles he wouldn't betray simply to "win". Stemming from that unromantic and unsentimental personality, though, there are things he's willing to do or put aside for the sake of "the greater good" that others might not. Marry for politics and not for love, for example. And yet, as infuriating as he finds Ailos, however pesky Eilayna is, or even as much as a burden as he might see Tay as, he has no intention of seeing them hurt or disowned, and has in fact been doing all he can to stop that in Ailos' case. Like, he's not willing to screw innocent people over just to get ahead. At least, not in ways he would consider screwing them over...

If you met your OC, would the two of you get along?

LOL HELP. I don't even know if that would be an option. Eth would just walk past me like I was entirely non-existent, maybe a mote of dust at best. Like. MAYBE assuming I was worthy and important enough to be equal in his company... Honestly probably not lmao. I don't deal well with people who are either too uptight or too sure of their own superiority over everyone else, and I would either be too much of an awkward turtle to even have the courage to talk to him, or be far too chaotic and annoying for him lmao.

What emotion is the hardest for your OC to process? How about express?

wcif emotions. lmao. I half joke but... Eth doesn't really express many emotions outwardly, but he also doesn't really get all that emotional in general lol. He doesn't really get upset, nor angry just... annoyed and stressed and then gets on with it. He doesn't dwell on happiness, just the satisfaction of a job well done, or the enjoyment of personal pursuits. Though there was a time when he had to wonder if infant Tay might be a threat to him politically, he's not the type to dwell on jealousy either. He's not unfeeling. It's not that he struggles to process emotions, either, it's just that he handles them very logically, or simply doesn't acknowledge them. I suppose love? Eth doesn't really have much of an understanding of it, even though he was shown it unconditionally as a child. By his standards he does love his family, otherwise, he simply wouldn't care about them. It's just not something quantifiable he can put his finger on, nor something he consciously factors into his decisions.

#ask my characters #Ethryon Eth'salin #crown prince leo #me: I don't deserve to be in his presence #also me: nah he'd grate on me to hell and back #lmao #like I'm okay with self-assurance and even arrogance to a point #but it's the 'I'm better than everyone and I know it' that I think would get me

[tenebrius-excellium]

I just saw some THW salt again and it makes me sad. Because, you know, I am very openly wearing my heart on my sleeve when saying that THW means more to me than Httyd2. THW's main problem was Toothless. Everything else was on a scale between ok to great... whereas Httyd2 felt grand in vision, yet cold in execution to me. It had grief missing after Stoick's funeral, and some animation issues. Both movies were brilliant in some ways and severely lacking in others. In the end, it's a matter of preference, I guess. Idk if you're really wanting to talk about a 'failed movie', then please take Tales of Arcadia Rise of the Titans, but not a flawed gem that at least tried to do its predecessors justice. I will list up THW's strengths here now again, everything I truly loved about it. To me, these are the reasons why it was worth watching, and why it's worth existing.

❌ Toothless

❌ Grimmel

❌ Deathgrippers

❌ Light Fury (execution)

❌ No Night Furies

✅ The animation - so warm and festive and glowy and colorful

✅ Everyone's character designs, and I mean it

✅ the plot idea and the heart behind it (execution nahh - not so much. but you know that)

✅ Hiccstrid's relationship - sweet perfection.

✅ Astrid, especially, just by herself. Her beauty, her grace, her speech to Hiccup, her common sense. She keeps him grounded yet still supports his dreams. THIS is what I've come to see.

✅ The scenery. Like, the genius idea of making the Hidden World this giant underwater volcano. They could have used a little more lava to highlight dry places in there and create more light instead of using that weird crystal, but the idea itself, and the main entrance shot of the waterfall, were just fantastic. Also every version of dusk and dawn was so utterly magical. When Toothless found the Light Fury, and the storm around the snowy mountaincaps at the last battle - wow.

✅ John Powell's soundtrack alone - that totally saved the day - was worth the entire movie.

✅ The concept idea of the Light Fury. She grew on me. She's aloof and fell short of establishing herself, but she is a character™. It doesn't mean she has to be my favorite. But she's beautiful, and she is rooted in the dragonesque. Why not.

✅ The scene where Stoick taught Hiccup about love and loss. I personally identified with that memory very strongly.

✅ Hiccup's fall. Just...giant ouch. Maybe that's the entire point,,... that even when Hiccup's (and our) expectations weren't met; even though there were no Night Furies in the film and even though the dream of living in the Hidden World evaporated, and even though he lost Toothless to the affections of a random stranger, ... in the midst of all that forlorn hope and bitter disappointment, Hiccup still immediately chose to die for his best friend in a split second. He cares, and he is so so hurt, and it's so, so, so hard for him to let go... but he still chooses to do it. What a massive decision. What a heart.

✅ When Hiccup tickled Toothless' snout to wake him up. It's kinda sad that this felt like the first real, unscripted, intimate connection between them in the entire movie, but here it finally is. They were chiefing too much before this. There was no time for just the two of them anymore. This, again, being the point of the movie.

✅ Toothless looks out to the sky, then back at Hiccup, then back out there... nuff said. No words required.

✅ Hiccstrid wedding? What an unexpected blessing!??

✅ Hiccstrid has kids?? Toothless is okay??? Their older designs weren't butchered?? I was so afraid they'd be bad but they weren't!

✅ The credits walking us through all three movies again. Oof, that nostalgia. Wow.

I'm so grateful for all three movies. And that includes THW.

#httyd2 #httyd3 #httyd franchise #wherethekiteflies #httyd thw #httyd fandom

[voidify333]

20 Questions for fic writers

I was tagged by @almarnatiaam- thanks!

1. How many works do you have on A03?

36

2. What's your total A03 word count?

133,211

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Mostly Ace Attorney these days.

I've also written for Les Mis and Good Omens; Les Mis makes up most of my works at 20 (though 4 of those aren't really fics, they're fanart pieces I posted to ao3 for sewerexchange).

And there's a couple random fics that aren't any of these: The Temptation Of Immediate Relief is a Pride & Prejudice missing scene fic that I wrote for high school english class and posted a polished version after graduation, and All Alone is a short War & Peace fic expanding the character of Anatole's wife who's entirely just a plot device with no character in canon (elephant in the room: the name I chose for her was retroactively made weird by my later fandom journeys by being cognate to the name of a completely different character, but like, whatever). I still think both of these are pretty good

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Wilson & Sons (Good Omens outsider POV fic about Aziraphale's barber, a family business that he's been going to since the 1700s), at 1861 kudos

You're Better Off Without Him (Good Omens outsider POV about the guy in episode 4 who says that line), at 763 kudos

perfectly statue-still (Ace Attorney 3+1 fic about elevators being a trigger for Miles, angst with a happy ending), at 433 kudos

driving back in style (in my saloon will do quite nicely) (Good Omens fic, silly cute little A/C getting together scenario), at 303 kudos

naughty list (Ace Attorney fic; angst with a happy ending; the premise is that Gregory didn't get to tell Miles that Santa wasn't real so when the von karma household didn't do santa Miles thought he was on the naughty list for a solid 4 years. If you haven't read it, ho ho ho 'tis the season to read it now), at 241 kudos

Yeah, my good omens stuff is never being unseated from the top of my leaderboard unless I end up getting into an even bigger fandom at some point in the future

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try to, because comments absolutely give me life and I need a constant stream of them, but unfortunately I don't get around to it often enough

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Absolute angstiest out of my published works is probably my very first ao3 fic, not quite nowhere to turn. Valjean sees Javert die and is too late to do anything. The fic is very flawed in that I was 15 and had not learned how to do subtlety, I can't look at it now, but I was a hyperlexic kid with A's in English so I think it's still better than what most people were writing as teens

Second answer is merry christmas., my most recent fic (if you haven't read it yet, HO HO HO TIS THE SEASON), it's Miles' POV for the first bit of Turnabout Goodbyes, it ends on a note of hopelessness that he's doomed to be convicted, but it only debatably counts since anyone who's played the games knows that the turnabout is coming

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Most of my stuff has pretty happy endings, that's just my sensiility as a writer-- even "not quite nowhere to turn" has an afterlife reunion scene-- so I'm not sure what to say here.

There's some fics where the conflict was trivial in the first place (comedy and crack stuff), there's some fics where I feel in hindsight that the ending was a copout and that a rockier path to happiness would have been more interesting if I had mustered the strength to write it (When Tomorrow Comes is the primary example tbh), and there's some where it feels earned (the fics in this category include the ones I like the most)

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I've thankfully never gotten hate on AO3 that I can recall

9. Do you write smut?

Yes I do, but none of it is up on my ao3 account at this time. I have a ton in my google docs though...

10. Do you write crossovers?

I've written a couple. Both of them, funnily enough, of the format "javert meets one of my other blorbos and they recognise what they have in common"

In "and if you fall" (honestly the point of the title would have landed better if I did the full lyric "and if you fall (as lucifer fell)" but at the time that felt too corny), Crowley happens to be in the right place at the right time to talk Javert down from jumping (context: within GO book canon Crowley was asleep for the 19th century except for getting up in 1832 for a loo break)

In "The Choice Of Death" Miles Edgeworth meets Javert's ghost (AA ghost lore notwithstanding) one liminal night during his year away

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

On a tangent though, bc there's no question directly relevant to share this info, I HAVE gotten fanart for a fic before: this amazing fanart by @maym0rin for chapter 2 of "perfectly statue-still" (she gave me permission to crosspost it on tumblr bc she didn't have tumblr at the time but she later got tumblr when the twitter ship started sinking). There is nothing more flattering as an author than getting fanart, I hope this first time isn't the last time

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not yet!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes, I helped with @almarnatiaam's fic A King's Heart and got a co-writer credit.

And outside of cowriting on the level of be listed as cowriter on ao3, my friend who doesn't have tumblr (it's tsl for all the mtnr server friends reading this) and I have been collaborating and bouncing ideas on each other's fics for... wow, it's been over a year now!

14. What's your all-time favourite ship?

Honestly it would have to be Valvert because it got to me at a formative time and has shaped the kinds of ships I like for life

15. What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

What do you mean "the" wip????

I have two dead fics and counting (one for les mis, one for good omens), and that's just the ones where I posted the initial content before realising it's too intimidating to finish. There's so many more in my docs; my friends know about some of them

16. What are your writing strengths?

Here are some that I have no problem bragging about, I reread my own fics often and smile at the moments where I did a banger line

Character voice (especially when the characters are my blorbos)

Using fancy vocabulary with precision in the prose to achieve effect (a skill born from trying to copy the vibes of victor hugo)

Witty prose humour (a skill born from trying to copy the vibes of pratchett & gaiman)

Prose from the POV of someone in a fucked up state- someone in a dark place emotionally, or someone whose motivations are fundamentally misguided or outright malicious. This is THE most fun shit to write for me

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Committing to long term character pain and tragic character conflict when it's not pulled/extrapolated directly from canon. I have many times read a fic where the author puts blorbo through the ringer and thought "damn if only I wasn't such a fucking coward and could write stuff like this". I've become less of a coward over the years and now enjoy

Writing anything long without a detailed plan for the entire thing

The need to use words with precision and write perfectly in character is as much a weakness as a strength. I am not a "write a whole first draft then edit" person I am a "dot points for the bits I don't have perfect words for" person and this sometimes causes issues where I assume I'll figure out how to get from A to B later but then it turns out to not make sense to get from A to B

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I have 4 years of Duolingo French and have used this occasionally for my Les Mis works. The way I think of my Les Mis works is that the characters are all speaking French behind the fourth wall but the fourth wall translates for us, so I avoid puns that only work in English except on a couple super cracky occasions.

For Inspector Javert Chooses Death (a fic with the premise "AU where instead of dying Javert fakes his death like Edgeworth and goes to england and unrepresses his homosexuality") I was originally planning to write the whole letter near the end of the fic in french and put the translation in footnote but my beta reader got confused so I scrapped that and had the prose paraphrase most of the letter and only included one French sentence

19. First fandom you wrote for?

First fandom I published fic on ao3 for was Les Mis. First fandom I published fic anywhere online for was Animorphs (when I was 12 I published a weird dark comedy fic to FFN which was a 5+1 or similar format of Visser Three executing people for slighting him by morphing into huge creatures and eating them. Then people on animorphsforum.com told me the fic was bad so I lost all confidence and didn't write fic again for years)

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

Right now it's between my two most recent AA solo fics: merry christmas. (already explained; 1-4 fic) and the perfect weapon (Manfred POV throughout his revenge plot, SUPER fun to write all that villain pov, grew from the premise "he had to have known about the nightmare to plan all that")

My best Les Mis fic is but i have seen the same (i know the shame in your defeat); it explores my favourite parallel with a cool alternating scene format and I actually still like the writing and characterisation even all these years later which is a rare honour for one of my high school Les Mis fics

Tagging: @squadron-of-damned @kaleran @samioli @ashkazora @azalawa-scroggs

#ace attorney #les mis #valvert #narumitsu #good omens #fanfic

[mdhwrites]

Spectacular Spiderman's One Symbiote Flaw: Venom

I want to be clear here: Spectacular Spiderman's version of the symbiote story is great. The stakes, the pathos, almost everything to do with Peter, except maybe pacing, is phenomenal. OSP recently talked about it and praised it for good reason.

But I want to quickly talk about Eddie Brock: Aka, the person who becomes Venom. See, part of the goal with most classic interpretations of the black suit need for Peter's rise in arrogance to also come with a fall of Eddie Brock. To put Eddie in a position to want to kill both Peter and Spidey once he gets the symbiote. The original story did this by having him be a Bugle photographer who faked photos and that worked well enough. He had no personal connection to Peter.

It's more complicated in Spectacular which SHOULD make it more effective. The problem is that Eddie hasn't been around for most of six episodes. The last two major times we see him is as Gwen's date to the formal where he disapproves of Peter theoretically having lied to Gwen and then before that, him getting pissed, and then asking for space, after Peter took photos of the Lizard, having seemingly abandoned Dr. Connors for the sake of money. These moments put tension between two people who see each other as brothers because their parents died in the same plane accident and they have had each other since childhood. That is sad and tasty narratively but Eddie hasn't really done anything about this. We've seen anger from him but he's seemed like a real person which is one of the strengths of Spectacular.

That means Peter needs to do something reprehensible... and he does. Before literally ever coming into contact with the Symbiote. Because of pure science fervor and a dash of greed, he goes to Dr. Connor's lab to get photos of the symbiote. Without permission. In fact, not just without permission. With a specific reminder that his friends are still kind of pissed about him for prioritizing photos and cash over them. Yes, this Peter is a teenager and they embrace that but this isn't being a teenager. This is being an asshole.

And then they go hardcore on Eddie. He writes Peter off as a user which... Fair at that moment but then uses Mary Jane to get back at him while risking both of their lives and putting people into danger while he's gunning it through traffic on his motorcycle. This isn't ANYWHERE close to the Eddie we've literally ever seen. Just a complete douchebag, complete with making his voice gruffer and more sinister like he's already a supervillain and that's BEFORE he loses his job and Peter writes him off.

And so when Eddie gains the symbiote, it isn't as tragic or satisfying as it should be because paradoxically, the good writing of the series as a whole means you're likely to be sitting here and asking questions as to why this is how things went down. You're not feeling like these are the characters or your sympathies are kind of skewed.

That doesn't stop the arc from being a great season finale that also feels prepared to have been a series finale, it still does it quite well... But it's a bad after taste. Like a drop of something bad was added to your favorite drink. Not enough to hurt you but enough to make it taste slightly wrong.

And that's a real shame for what otherwise is a very good arc.

======+++++======

Yes btw, for anyone curious: I'm on a bit of a Spidey trip due to being hyped about Spiderman 2 by Insomniac. Unfortunately, I couldn't even afford a 16 dollar game today, let alone a PS 5 and a 60 dollar one. Still hoping this enthusiasm might make me write a bit more of my SpidermanxTOH concept: Spider-Luz and her Lumischous Friends.

Because, well, I'm a Spiderman fan and we are the most likely to make crossovers with other properties it seems. XD

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

#Spiderman #the spectacular spider man #venom symbiote #eddie brock

[thatdesklamp]

hihi!! i absolutely love ur writing and was wondering why you dislike using y/n ? i hope this doesn’t come forward as hateful !! much love 🤍🤍

omg no not at all! This is actually a very funny question, so absolutely.

Let's talk about x reader fics, hell yeah.

This is all to do with my personal preference: when I have read x readers in the past, I have literally never imagined 'myself' as the 'reader' character. I've always found it awkward to do--it's just not my thing--and so to combat this, I just imagine the reader character as this... separate character, more of an OC than anything, and I'm just reading a fictional story and oh wow maybe she doesn't actually have a name, there we go, cool.

This then evolves into me reading x readers where the characters are, actually, essentially OCs: in order for the fic, assuming it's multi-chaptered and pretty longform, to be interesting, the perspective character needs to have good and consistent characterisation, and they can't be a bland 'eh' type person that the reader (e.g. me) can just project onto. Give me a character with flaws and personality! That's the type of 'reader character' I prefer. This is even better when authors give them a name--I've often seen authors sidestep the 'absolute OC'-ification of the reader by having the MC's 'real name' never be mentioned and them only be referred to by a nickname, or something like that. I like this! It's more fun when the MC has a name and a personality: it gives strength to the romance and idk man, I just like it, especially since this 'OC-ification' is just what I was doing anyway.

However, I still don't like 'absolute OC-ificaton', just 'partial OC-ification', and prefer a good middle mix. And I know that some readers do like to project themselves onto the MC, so I've tried to go for the same middle mix too.

You can see it in IW, really. This is the type of balance I like: I've given our MC a name, but it's only her surname, so you can pretend that her first name is your name if you want to, or you can lean into the 'partial OC-ification' and chill with the fact that this is a character with a different name to you. I've definitely given Hebi a personality (or, hell, I've tried to), and she's got her own set of flaws that some people will or won't relate to. But IW's got a wordcount of over 150k now, and it would've been pretty tricky to write all that much without feeling like our perspective character was... well. A character, you know?

Despite this, I try really hard to avoid mentioning physical descriptions, because that can be pretty jarring, imo. Hence why Hebi doesn't have the wattpad-y 'long blonde hair and blue eyes and also she's 5'1 and so petite and little with F CUP TITS' etc. I try not to make overt references to hair (like, no-one will ever 'smoothly run their hands through your hair' because, like,,, not everyone has pinstraight smooth type 1 hair, yk? However, someone might 'brush some hair away' or 'curl their fingers in your hair' etc etc, since that's a bit more universal). I'm not infallible, and I've probably slipped up somewhere without noticing, but I try my best to make it as universal as I can, yk?

As for 'y/n' specifically, I just am not a fan, lmao. I find it disrupts the flow of the writing, and takes you out of the story; it reminds you that you're reading something, rather than letting you get sucked in, you know? It also reminds me of 12yo mafia alpha male harry styles wattpad fanfictions and oh lord, I would rather forget those days.

I like my little x readers where the characters have names etc, but I know some people find that to be jarring and off-putting instead of y/n! It's just what you're used to, you know? <3

#asks from la lamp de desk

[batrachised]

please i need your thoughts on perry from the emily books, dump everything into a masterpost, he needs more love and attention <3

perry, oh perry, wherefore art thou Perry?

I'm afraid if you're looking for articulate thoughts on Perry I have very little to offer; my thoughts are more like "I Like Him :)" He's just a very fun, true to life character. In particular I think about how he is somewhat a foil to Teddy. Teddy we rarely get to see speak for himself, while Perry's voice is upfront and present throughout the book. This post is about Perry though, not Teddy, and so Perry away we shall.

There are two things that come to mind when I think of Perry Miller: (1) his support of Emily, which is a sharp contrast to others around her, and (2) his unwavering belief and confidence in himself. Rereading the books, there are frequently moments when Perry either stands up for Emily or protects her, although it can be very clumsily. There's a scene where iirc, she drops her penny in church and it's loud, and so he immediately drops his too. He makes a face during prayer which makes Emily laugh, and immediately takes the blame when she gets in trouble for it. In a typical LMM way this equally translates to Perry's faults (ie, his refusal to take no for an answer and sheer inability to be humbled is a double-edged sword), but a lot of the time Emily is put down by others, and Perry provides a satisfying contrast to that.

Now we come to my favorite aspect of Perry Miller: this boy is determinedly confident. I'm thinking here of this particular scene:

Perry Miller is someone who goes after what he wants and with gusto. What's more, he rarely does it gracefully. We have the repeated proposals to Emily, and we also have the hilarious scene where he's visiting the influential politician for dinner and makes every faux pas imaginable. He writes terrible poetry unashamedly despite everyone groaning over it, he's bold enough to to propose to Emily and thickheaded enough to keep trying. Speaking broadly, Perry is someone who is not self aware. This sounds like a negative trait, but it's actually why he's so appealing. He's an excellent example of how someone's greatest strength is usually also their greatest weakness. I think you could read Perry as arrogant, but in a way, I think his lack of self awareness represents true humility. It's like that CS Lewis quote:

“Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call 'humble' nowadays: he will not be a sort of greasy, smarmy person, who is always telling you that, of course, he is nobody. Probably all you will think about him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him. If you do dislike him it will be because you feel a little envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily. He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all.”

Now I'll add the disclaimer that I'm probably skimming over significant scenes here because my memory is as watertight as a sieve. Perry is definitely flawed; many times, his attempts at being thoughtful are actually very thoughtless, and he is the epitome of bullheaded. But he's also charming, and to me he's charming for the reasons listed in that CS Lewis quote above.

Looking at his character through more of a modern internet lens, I think I also like Perry because he is someone who is not afraid (or perhaps aware) of being cringeworthy. We all are familiar with the internet culture's tendency to denounce things as cringe (is that outdated now?) when a lot of the time, it's just someone trying something new with all the grace of a first timer (or in worst case scenarios, it's literally children playing--like, sure, that 12 year old's cover of her favorite song might not be artistically fantastic, but does it need to be?) Perry defies this. I'm thinking of his poetry; it's awful, sure, but you know what? He created something. It reminds me of that story girl quote where Peter says something about how no matter what people may jeer, he created something that hadn't existed before with his poem (and on that note, Peter reminds me a lot of Perry). Perry shoots for the stars and lands on his face quite a lot, but he doesn't let that stop him. Idk, I don't have much more to say that "man i like that dude."

#perry miller #emily of new moon #lm montgomery

[uncloseted]

what are some good questions to ask yourself to think more deeply about a book or a topic? i admire how deeply you seem to think and analyze the show and the meaning behind the characters words and actions, what sort of questions do you ask yourself or wonder when you interact with media ?

Ooh, I love this question. For me, I usually start with the characters. Who are these characters? What motivates them? What do they want? What are they afraid of? What are their strengths and their flaws? What impacts the decisions that they make, and why do they make the decisions that they do? How do they change over the course of the narrative? These things all inform one another. For example, Effy is afraid of being emotionally vulnerable, maybe because she felt like her parents didn't accept her for who she is and so she had to pretend to be someone else. Because she's afraid of being emotionally vulnerable, she wants to be closed off and avoid her problems, which leads to a lot of partying and running away from any real emotion. She's motivated by a desire to feel safe. And so when we see her put in a situation where she experiences very real feelings for Freddie and discovers that those feelings are reciprocated, she feels emotionally vulnerable and sleeps with Cook to try and get back to a place of being closed-off. Throughout the series, her journey is about learning to become more open with her emotions and to let other people in.

From a narrative perspective, I think it can be helpful to think about the different plot points that happen and consider how those events build on one another to lead to the big events that happen. I think it's also helpful to ask yourself questions like "what are the main themes and messages in this plot? How do we see those themes and messages play out in the narrative and in different characters' arcs? What are the writers trying to communicate?" Once you have an idea of the themes, you can start looking for symbols and motifs that show up in the work and come up with some ideas of what they might mean.

You can also ask yourself things about the way this piece of media came to be. How is it written/filmed, and how are those choices impacting the way we perceive the story? Is it influenced by other pieces of media, and if so, how? What do those influences suggest about what the author is trying to say? Whose perspective is the story told from, and how are we supposed to feel about the narrator? Are we supposed to agree with them, find their point of view repugnant, or to find ourselves sympathizing with them even though we would normally hate someone who has their views? What is the historical or cultural context that informs this work, and how does that context change how you understand it?

I'm sure there are some others that I'm not thinking of right now, but that's at least a good starting point for diving deeper into a piece of media that you're interacting with, whether that's a book, a movie, or a TV show.

#media literacy #media criticism #media analysis