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grokebaby · 4 months

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@magnuficentwo

AYYYY UNDERRATED VARPUNEN FAM TIME LESGOOO. I'm thinking I'll try to say one positive and one negative but I won't force it if it stalls me

P - Negative: See she was born into a warrior family (aka she's the beast variety of demon), which in itself was just not the right lifestyle for her personally. Real stressful. I could pick probably multiple experiences from here but let's highlight the string of clashes between a Plague from those days who ended up killing and injuring several beasts. There are still two living Villagers that bear the scars from this time. P, however, bears the mental scars of having one or her co apprentices and teachers murdered. She has survivors guilt and various other kinds of guilt from this and suffered a bad freeze reaction that has stayed with her for a while.. The victims weren't even super close to her, but it was the sheer horror of the fact that anyone could just die (and in her mind, it'd be her fault bc she failed to help them).

As a bonus, btw, the plague involved in these events is dead nowadays. Please, do take a guess as to how.

Positive: One time, P and Nan were left home alone together for roughly a week, and since P mostly didn't interact with Nan aside from what she deemed necessary, things got quiet and awkward for a bit.. P was honestly scared, bc she had the fear that this was some kind of test from their husband - one she could fail miserably, somehow, so she remained on her tiptoes the whole time. He said he'd be off on a business trip and as the author I can verify this is actually true, and it wasn't a test, but unfortunately Ps mental state was... Not good. Thanks to him. A few days in, Nan approaches P carefully and tells her that it's okay if she doesn't know what to say, and if she needs her alone time. But if she did want to hang out, or talk, or anything, Nan would be here listening, no pressure to come up with anything special. See Nan had thought that the avoidance had more to do with Ps social anxiety and being a very withdrawn person, rather than paranoia over their husband. Although I won't deny she had a hunch..

Either way, this left a very positive impression on P, and she found some kind of strength in the fact that maybe, just maybe, if things get bad enough, she can lean on Nan. That, and she decided then and there to try her best to treat nan better and try to approach her on her terms. It didn't end up happening too much (not enough in her eyes), but it did still happen.

Sighs lovingly. P deserves way more attention imo. I did not hold back from rambling. Anyways!

Pesticinger - Negative: (TW TORTURE FEEL FREE TO SKIP) So it's widely known she's unpopular amongst humans for obvious reasons, so they often plot various things to get back at her, and often try to even capture or kill it. So there's this waterfall. A group of humans really want Pesticinger to have her "comeuppance" for what she's put them through. So this waterfall. They've set a trap there, where there's a rope that ties into a noose when released, and it hangs under the rushing water. Pesticinger is lured into this trap, and here's the situation: she's got a noose around her throat, and it tightens the further you pull on it. If she gets swept up by the water's pull, it starts choking her, combined with the water trying to pull her under. So she has to literally constantly fight the water, or she suffocates (either by drowning, or noose). It is not a good time. Her feathers get soaked the hell out so flying becomes difficult, she's quickly exhausted and it's kinda hard to call for help when you're trying to fight suffocation. She was rescued, of course. Poor bird. But she can barely even look at a noose, and the noise of waterfalls gives her anxiety. So do ropes, if they're put anywhere near her body.

This next memory I'm not sure if I'd label it necessarily either strictly positive or negative but it was very impactful for her. See Pesticinger has the mental capacity to get really, really introspective and existential, but the way her brain works, also sometimes leads it to tie itself into knots and leads her down dead ends she can't think herself out of. So it can definitely overwhelm itself by overthinking. When she was still very young, in one of these cases, she came to speak to her creator henself; the Mistress. It asked many panicked, disjointed questions, trying to untangle it's mind, and getting distressed, it started knocking at it's head with it's foot. The Mistress, gently, places hens hand on Pesticingers face to block the hits, and they share silent eye contact for a moment.

"Dear bird.. You don't have to know all the answers. You might, someday, but you don't need to. You are more than just a bird, or a beast; you are a force of nature. Even still, you can be as ordinary as you want. Just don't forget yourself."

Pesticinger still feels.. Bittersweet, about it. She's frustrated that she didn't get the answers, in fact the denial of them entirely upset her back then. But she can't say it wasn't also comforting. The reason this memory isn't purely positive is mainly due to Pesticingers mindset.

I think I'll cap this post here BUT BEFORE I DO I'll include just a little something from Nan bc. My number one Varpunen fam for sure. It'll be under the cut

I'll be vague bc I was actually writing a whole thing about this and it's still kinda in progress. But.

Something that's really stuck with Nan was when she, at one point, took her kids to see their grandpa, aka Nans father. He knew there were kids, but hadn't met them due to life just sweeping everyone up for a while.

He did not react well to seeing them. Their visit became very short and very uncomfortable. Nan had to have a talk with her father privately, (His name is Yngve Surström, btw) while the kids awkwardly waited outside.

This would become the last time Nan sees her father before he disappeared completely. Nobody knows why. Or how.

#Ask #Lukittu oc tag #Pesticinger #P #My ocs #tw torture #Nan #Umm I didn't do as many characters as i planned bc I can't be concise for SHIT #But thank you so much!!!!!#My brain just went okay time to speak casual up here. And I'm kinda digging it? Took the pressure off. Hope it's okay to read though #I HAD FUN!!!! CARES YOU TOO AUUAUHAGU NICE FOREVER #Very cool ask my brother

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matchstickdolly · 3 years

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Lucifer 5B: Cutting off Touch to Spite Your Fans

Spoiler warning: This post assumes you've watched all of Lucifer, season 5, part B.

CW: There's plenty I like about season 5, but this is a negative post. I know not everyone is up for negativity about the things they love. I also generally avoid it and (try to) keep my mouth shut about things I don’t like in most spaces. It’s good etiquette. But this is my space, and I have thoughts specifically about purity culture and the treatment of sexuality and trauma in fiction. You’ve been warned!

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I'm a professional writer (not in TV). I've worked with enough bad clients, editors, and other writers to recognize some hallmark behaviors in how both Fox and Netflix gave Lucifer's writers incredibly difficult, unfair, and frankly weird situations to create through.

Fox did them dirty, interfering and ordering too many eps in S3. Netflix did them dirty, ordering 10 eps for S4 when it clearly needed ~13. Then Netflix ordered 10 "final" eps for S5—then, just kidding(!), 6 more after they'd done their writing for the 10. (What the fuck?) And then Netflix ordered 10 more for a "final-final" S6 after the writers had done their best to tell their whole story in S5. (MORE what the fuck.)

Talk about whiplash for creators, and half of those who consume content don't even care to understand such creative pain.

So, there are problems on multiple fronts. There's much I'll forgive writers, accordingly. I go into most shows expecting plotting/pacing issues. I look, instead, for characters and relationships that will triumph over those issues.

Heart is what the show Lucifer has always had in spades, both in its characters and in the immensely committed, wonderful ways the actors have tried to realize the characters' humor, love, trauma, and—most importantly—struggle to find healing. Yet, when given the opportunity to show health alongside another in a relationship, the writers/directors of 5B chose to remove most sexual humor and physical intimacy from their female lead and bi/pan characters to, I feel, sanitize them and troll fans. What happened?

Well, for one, say hi to showrunner Joe Henderson bragging about how the writers decided to be colossal dicks to the fans who helped secure their jobs:

From CBR's 'Lucifer Showrunner Joe Henderson Dissects Season 5B's Chaos'

Have we not suffered sidelined/repressed female characters, "bury your gays," and, oh, Chloe fucking a serial killer enough? Must we also say hello to neutered relationships once characters find stable love (whether same or opposite sex)? The result of withdrawing more sexual humor and physical intimacy from paired characters is an uncomfortable suggestion that they're reformed by "pure" love—more chaste and aloof, more acceptable in polite society. This is only done to end-game committed relationships.*

The writers seem to think they're edging the viewers, but the reality is they're taking traumatized minority characters who rejoiced in sexual freedom, but lacked and craved an emotional connection, and showing they can't have both, or, if they find both, it will never last. They've taken hypersexual characters and said, here, even they can have the love and commitment they desire, but some physical intimacy, especially sexual intimacy, is what they must trade for it.

There's always one more case, phone call, or coincidence interrupting intimacy. Traumas or deaths deserving emotional and physical comfort go on to receive none or only one aspect. Done sometimes, it's fine. Done always, it's sick. Dan dies, and there's no hugging? Really?†

Don't craft characters who crave a full range of emotional and physical intimacy, only to rob them of related scenes every chance you get. That's not complexity. That's bad writing. To even achieve this in 5B, they must squash banter and sideline their female lead yet again.

What a gift to purity culture, which tells us to be more palatable by bottling and buttoning up. That sex should be taboo, but violence glorified. That there is no heated desire among "Good Women," that sexual minorities of all genders shouldn't experience it much at all.

5A is so good. At the very least, it's on the right path (clearly, since the plot payoff from 5x01 to 5x16 is great). It shows a couple working through difficulties and trauma, toward each other emotionally and physically. It even pokes fun at people who think an established relationship means the death of romantic and sexual appeal (a tired and hugely sexist trope). And then... And then 5B reverses that, pretending established relationships are barely physical during emotional struggle and that the honeymoon phase doesn't exist. It robs characters of joy and comfort through physical intimacy when they need it to move through or push beyond trauma.

It's telling that so many fan wishes for Deckerstar are about healing touch and existing in each other's spaces: amending Chloe's spicy PDA history with Cain, Chloe caring for Lucifer's wings, soft family scenes a la Monopoly night and shared meals, morning-afters, etc. Reasonable fans aren't asking for porn; they're asking for connection and humanity. They're asking for writers not to forget characters (and, yes, including hypersexual characters) on their way from Point A to Point B.

That 5B lacks these things isn't a "tee-hee frustrating" slow burn or a cockblock. It is, in so many scenes, excising from characters a core part of what nearly every human and fictional monster craves. And it's a slap in the face to the "found family" trope. When you remove or tamp down a casual physical intimacy that was previously there, characters and their relationships fall flat, even if only partially. They become blunt weapons creators wield against watchers or readers begging for scraps of warmth.

Minorities shouldn't be killed off with ease, and they shouldn't be stifled with ease, either.‡ And maybe there shouldn't be deep trauma driving a wedge in a romantic relationship if you're not going to explore it through that relationship, too—physical intimacy included.

I'm still reserving some judgment. I loved the family drama and the end. (Although, again, where was the physical intimacy? No intimacy when Chloe or Lucifer return from the dead? Really?) I see where they could do awesome things, and could have done more if not for network BS.

But I no longer trust Lucifer's writers and directors. They thought S5 was the end. And what they gave us of Deckerstar, of the relationship that symbolizes health and healing in their fictional world, is this: cold distance. And they got a kick out of doing it, apparently.

If this is a "love letter" to me as a fan, I'm burning it. I can only hope S6 course corrects. If not, the writers who made these choices shouldn't write sexual minority and/or traumatized characters again. If you don't understand most of us, you should stop fucking using us.

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* If you don't believe me about the differences between casual/short-term relationships and end-game relationships in Lucifer, go back and look at how Lucifer and Maze are with strangers in all the other seasons. Look at Chloe's sex dream, her propositioning of Lucifer in a library, her sex with Pierce in the evidence closet. Look at how much physical intimacy there is between Lucifer and Eve, and then between Eve and Maze (if only as a ploy). Across seasons, there are sex/kink jokes and scenes galore.

Compare this to how these same characters are portrayed when with their end-game loves. Notice the gentle pecks on the lips and the huge general drop in sexual humor between 5A and 5B. How boring. Where's the spice these characters had? Also, give me a damn break. Buttoning up in a relationship is contrary to four and a half seasons of emotional character work that's been communicating security in our relationships is personally freeing.

† I'm not just talking about sexual intimacy in this post, though that is a big part of it because of the characters. 5B lacked crucial found family scenes, too.

Chloe should have been at God's family dinner, but being so would have prevented more ham-fisted angst. Chloe never even has a one-on-one with God, probably because that would demand a straight answer about her miracle status, which I would guess will be used to drive yet another wedge between her and Lucifer next season, but we'll see.

In multiple before- and after-work scenes, there was no reason for Lucifer and Chloe to be apart more, even, than they were in S1 and S2. Monopoly night was in S3, for crying out loud. Most horrifying of all? No one touches Chloe after Dan's death, but Trixie. Meanwhile, Linda, Amenadiel, Ella, Maze, and Lucifer all receive physical comfort. No wonder Chloe's tired of being strong.

‡ If you don't think it's offensive that they stuffed all their wlw content for two hypersexual characters into a few clunky, irrational, and chaste scenes that rushed I love yous, a marriage-like proposal, and the mention of soulmates, I don't know what to tell you other than get off my lawn.

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