#and what they're trying to break and subvert | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

trainsinanime · 1 year

Text

I rewatched Knives Out the day before yesterday, and one thing I love was the symbolism of the Go board. Marta wins at Go more than either Ransom or Harlan because she's not playing the game their way at all. She literally says (jokingly) that she's just laying pretty shapes, while Harlan and Ransom are all trying to outsmart everyone. And that perfectly mirrors the resolution: Marta wins because she's the one person they're not acting like she's in a murder mystery (Benoit Blanc outright says so). Nice little parallels.

The same thing happens in Glass Onion (spoilers) with the mystery box. The way to beat Miles is not by playing along with the mystery box, but by smashing it open (disrupting it, if you will).

Both movies are in an interesting sort of conversation with the classic murder mystery. They are heavily inspired by them, in terms of settings, plot, even the whole twists and turns of who did it. But at the same time they're also playing with the concept, subverting it and ultimately destroying it. Marta and Helen gleefully break the rules, and are rewarded with justice (and also an insane amount of cash).

It's no mistake that both movies feature characters who are deeply steeped in the murder mystery genre. Harlan is a mystery writer, and sets up his own murder mystery; Miles Bron does a similar thing, but as a game for his guests. Whether mystery writer patriarch or rich tech bro asshole, they fully believe in the world of Agatha Christie and in their own brilliance. And they are proven wrong by people who don't share their class or their pretensions, and really just act like people.

Benoit Blanc is a very interesting point in these movies. On the one hand, he is the classic detective who is part of the classic mystery, and when the movies deconstruct and then rebuild the mystery, he is part of the people on the wrong side. In both movies, he brings the plot together and solves the mystery, but in both movies, he isn't the one that solves the actual underlying problem. It's the actions of Marta and Helen that ultimately save the day and bring real justice.

The most central character of the classic detective story, the detective, is not actually the hero of the movie here; he's here as support for the real hero, who has nothing to do with mysteries and riddles and the like. The Knives Out movies play at being whodunnit mysteries, but they're really discussions of the whodunnit mystery as a whole. That's what makes them so damn compelling.

#knives out #glass onion #glass onion spoilers

3K notes · View notes

mllemaenad · 8 months

Text

Listening to Wyll's backstory in context of all the details we're acquiring on devil's contracts and soul selling is fascinating.

See - I listened to Lann Tarv's three tales to get my soul coins. I felt bad for making Karlach listen to that, obviously, but to be honest I didn't even want the coins that much. I actually wanted the stories. I wanted a better understanding of how this works.

And what I'm learning is - for the gods (and godlike beings) of this world, cruelty seems to be the point. I mean - it's possible there's a god in this world I wouldn't want to stab to death with a rusty fork, but if so I have not met them yet.

These beings have the power to save people and places, to change lives, to do anything. And when someone asks them to - they demand a terrible price. But they don't just demand a price. They subvert the original request in such a way that they utterly fail to deliver on the original promise.

An abused woman wishes to be loved - and her true love appears, but dies instantly. A man wishes to save his children from starvation, and ends up personally growing masses of meat on his own body - not only painful for him, but forcing his children into survival cannibalism, which they were trying to avoid.

Auntie Ethel works the same way. Every one of her customers is left in a tortured state, while Ethel still takes her payment.

The idea is that the person must come to regret their wish long before the payment comes due. Every cry for help must be met with a boot to the face. Or else the mortals will get uppity? Or something.

What is interesting is how consciously Wyll defies that. And how much Mizora is dancing around, trying to force him into that state of miserable regret.

Wyll was manipulated into selling his soul. He was a kid, and he was summoned into a terrible situation - and in that moment, he could see no other way to save the city. Mizora did need to save Baldur's Gate to serve her boss's purposes, so she couldn't take that victory from him - but she did everything she could to take the joy of it.

He didn't get respect, or admiration, or his father's pride for saving the city. He lost his home and his family. He was assumed to have done something monstrous because he was denied an opportunity to defend himself.

That was supposed to fill him with bitterness and regret - but he got to work building his own life instead. By the time you run into him, the Blade of Frontiers is a hero of some renown. He's remade himself, and found a way to enjoy what his powers can do, however he came by them.

So that didn't work.

Then Mizora sent him after Karlach, and that was a mission tailored to break him. Karlach is kind and heroic herself, and that the start she has been sold into slavery, mutilated and forced to fight in a war against her will. If Wyll killed her, and then found out who she really was, then he betrayed everything the Blade of Frontiers is supposed to stand for - and he would lose the life he made for himself.

But he didn't, and that didn't work either. He's got a friend, now, who at least knows part of what he's dealing with.

So Mizora gave him demonic features. That would destroy the life he's made for himself, because no one would trust him to help them.

Except now Wyll basically goes nowhere on his own, and a small army of people can attest that he got those horns and eyes as punishment for being a good man. Mizora might be able to shut his mouth, but she can't silence his friends - and the group absolutely have shouting sessions about everything. Wyll's horns become a battle scar, like his missing eye, and nothing more.

And beyond that, if you are playing as a heroic character, a significant throughline in the game's story is the journey of the tiefling refugees. The story makes it clear that these people experience a constant barrage of racism, due to their appearance and "demonic" heritage. It also makes it abundantly clear that this prejudice is entirely undeserved - they're just people, with virtues and flaws like everyone else, and what is happening to them is terrible. So Wyll turns up to assist a bunch of people whom he now at least somewhat resembles - and with Karlach along, you have two people in the group who technically count as "infernal", but haven't got an evil bone in either of their bodies.

Mizora created solidarity. Oops.

Wyll is deeply suspicious of gods and higher powers. He doesn't want to make more deals with devils. When Elminster arrives to tell Gale what Mystra demands of him, he explicitly says he does not do religion. When you get Mizora to agree to let his contract expire in six months, he starts by casually invoking the gods - but switches to thanking the player character instead, because he knows who helped, and who did not.

But he utterly refuses to regret the pact he made. That can be a struggle. He clearly misses his dad, and would like that relationship repaired. The fact that he was transformed very much against his will is clearly a source of distress from him.

But if he regrets, then Mizora wins. That's it. Game over. She gets what she wanted all along. So he doesn't.

The main companion characters all have this kind of problem, and naturally have different ways of dealing with it. You have characters like Shadowheart and Lae'zel, who were indoctrinated as children, or Gale, who was literally seduced by one of these nightmare deities - and with them you have to start out by convincing them they they were the wronged party in the first place.

But Wyll knows exactly what game he's playing, and he's been screaming defiance the whole time. It's just that, in his case, the "defiance" is grinning and carrying on every time Mizora inflicts some more bullshit on him.

#baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 spoilers

785 notes · View notes

aclockmaker · 1 year

Text

more actors au continued from here

Shooting the first season is a fever dream. Creating and playing in a world that no one else gets to see yet—no reviews, no public, just them. The cast is tight, right away. Eddie, like, loves them. He's already made plans to go to Robin's family's house in Joshua Tree this summer.

Eddie and Steve don’t have that many scenes together. Eddie knows, guiltily, exactly when they’re all shooting.

It’s not just what goes on when the cameras are rolling, either. (Which is, like, still insane. Still makes Eddie feel like he's taken club drugs. And maybe he's not the only one, because—)

It's also that Steve is more likely to ask him to hang out, just the two of them, after they shoot together. Eddie could text him or ask him but he has a complex set of rules for how often he's allowed to be the one initiating it, because, well. He's nursing a pretty bad crush here. It's deeply unprofessional.

In the episode before this, Eddie confides in Nancy’s character, their teen journalist-detective, that he has something he thinks he needs to tell her. Something that’s going to blow her mind. But they’re just in the hall at school, the bell ringing, so he can’t do it right now. It’s his own little “I’ve got a secret, Veronica Mars. A good one.” (He’s watched as many dead-girl tv shows as he can to bone up for the role—all the classics going back to Twin Peaks. Veronica Mars is uniquely applicable because Lily does appear in flashbacks, and even though they’re subverting the trope by having a guy get killed, they all know what kind of story they’re telling.)

In the scene they shoot tonight, Steve's character comes to Eddie's house that same night before he can get to Nancy to try to convince him not to tell her. It's not clear what Steve thinks he knows, when he climbs in through Eddie's window, only that he's practically begging Eddie not to do it. He starts off aggressive, like they're yet again about to get into a physical fight. But the fact that Eddie lets him in speaks to the fact that maybe there's a little more to their relationship. And then Steve's character breaks down, cries a little, and it's really—something, to be wrapping his arms around Steve's shoulders in front of the camera and the crew, under the lights. Eddie is a professional, and he's perfectly capable of slotting those feelings into their correct file folders for later perusal, but—it's something. He's given Steve bro hugs. He's pretty sure Steve even hugged him for real the first time he saw him after he was cast (it's a blur). The only time they've hugged like this is on film.

He's not surprised when there's a message waiting for him on his phone when he eventually gets back to it post-short scene with Max, whose character lives next to Eddie's in-story. The message itself is a little surprising. Hey, I'm wrapped so I'm going home but do you want to come by? And then an address in Silver Lake.

It's not so crazy. Steve takes awhile to decompress after filming something emotional; he doesn't like to be alone. Eddie has learned this very quickly and has very quickly come to crave being the one Steve decompresses with. It just typically happens on the studio lot, in Steve's trailer. But this is fine, too. It just makes sense. Steve was done for the day so he went home. But he still wants to see Eddie.

Eddie sends back three thumbs up emojis, bangs his head on his steering wheel, and starts driving. He chews a fingernail, wonders if he should stop somewhere to get something to bring. A bottle of wine. But that’s stupid probably—it’s not a dinner party. It’s just two friends hanging out. (If he thinks it a little defensively, that’s because Mike was leaning heavy on the innuendo when he asked Eddie where he was going tonight. “Oh really, with Steve? Huh. It’s nice you two get along so well.” Eddie had just glared at him and moved on. The kid is such a little shit.)

Steve hugs him when he gets there, which is almost funny—now that he’s acted it out, he’ll do it in real life, like an echo. But it doesn’t seem fake, it just seems like that’s what Steve does when someone comes to his house. He’s a little high strung, maybe, in constant motion while he waves Eddie in and offers him a beer.

They end up on the pool deck, beers in hand, sitting with their legs dangling in the water up to their knees. It’s secluded here, big, old trees blocking them from any neighbors’ view.

“So,” Steve says. “Good scene after I left?” It doesn’t sound like what he really wants to ask.

“Yeah, fine,” Eddie agrees. “You know what Max is like—she’s too cool for school.”

“Don’t let her hear you say that,” Steve laughs.

“Never,” Eddie agrees. The teasing would never end. He glances at Steve, who seems mostly relaxed, maybe a little hunched in on himself.

“Did you ever, um,” Steve starts, looking out at the water. “Date a co-star?”

Eddie’s brain whites out a little, just static. “Uhh. I thought you were going to ask if I thought you looked weird when you cried, or something.”

Steve sputters. “Do I?”

“No, dude, very pretty crier.” Eddie smiles.

“Thanks I guess,” Steve says, frowning a little.

Eddie chews on his lip. “But, uh. No, I haven’t.”

Steve sighs. “Yeah, me either.”

Which is funny, because he’s been linked with a couple of them from previous projects, but Eddie guesses you can’t believe everything you read.

“Is there someone,” Eddie asks carefully, “you want to date?” Steve is close with Robin and Nancy. Eddie can’t see Robin dating a guy, but what does he know.

“I don’t know,” Steve admits. “I feel like. I don’t know if it would be a terrible idea, because we work together.” And then he just stops talking.

“I might be able to respond better if I knew who we were talking about here.”

Steve gives him a look. “You do know. Don’t make me say it.”

“Gonna definitely need you to.” And then, because he can't help trying to make Steve laugh. "It's Joyce, right?"

"Please," Steve says, and does laugh a little. "I wish I thought I had a shot with Joyce." She's a legitimately famous actress who Eddie often can't believe he's going to share an IMDB listing with.

"But, uh," Steve goes on. “I don’t want to mess anything up, though.” Now he sounds careful.

Eddie doesn’t know what Steve thinks he’s messing up—their chemistry, he guesses, if he’s not reading this very wrong. Their friendship maybe. The show. Any remaining semblance of professionalism. Eddie is pretty ready to throw most of that stuff out the window—after all, who says just because they hook up the work will suffer? Maybe it’ll be better because Eddie won’t be crushed under the weight of absurd amounts of sexual tension anymore. Not that it’s been a hardship, but…

“I don’t think you’re messing anything up,” Eddie tells him. “I mean—personally. Who says anything will get messed up?” I think it might be worth it even if it does, he doesn’t add, because it’s shocking to even think it, and obviously too much for the moment. He doesn’t know if he really means it—this show is, like, the opportunity he’s been waiting his whole life for. But he’s already dead on it; there’s only so many flashback scenes they can film as he ages further out of the high school age bracket for a character who can’t get older.

“Yeah, but.” Steve runs a hand through his hair, frustrated. “The way we are on the show—“ he shoots a worried little glance at Eddie, who tries not to react outwardly to that, which is hard. “Don’t you think some of that’s because—I mean, for me at least, it is, I’m not saying—for you—"

“Me, too,” Eddie assures him before he hurts himself. “But—okay, you brought this up, not me. What do you want, then?”

“Dude, I wish I knew,” Steve says. “I mean—“ he glances at Eddie— “I know what I want, but I don’t know what we should do. But I just felt like I was going crazy, and the only person I really wanted to tell was, well, you.”

Oh. “Steve,” Eddie says, almost a warning. He wants to offer that they can hook up and it won’t mean anything and nothing will change. He wants to offer that they can date and nothing bad will happen. It’s all stupid, impossible to promise.

“I know,” Steve says miserably. “Sorry.”

Eddie shakes his head. It’s almost unbearably sweet that Steve is so bent out of shape over him. “Come on, we only have, what, two more weeks of filming? We can make it through two weeks, right?”

“Guess we have to,” Steve agrees, but he moves his hand over a little so their pinkies touch on the edge of the pool.

tagging a few people by request, thank you for being interested <3 @atlas-talks @obsessivlyme @lyriclight @deadflowercollector @thatonebadideapanda @wolfstarlights @eddiemunsonswife @alienace @wishiwasacasualfan

#thank you to everyone for name suggestions instead of taking any of the good ones i've just continued to avoid naming characters lol #steddie #steddie fic #steddie ficlet #actors au #stranger things fic #steve x eddie #also i'm not the boss of you but please don't be too invested in the plot of the tv show... for your own sanity... i will Reveal All but #i can't promise it will besatisfying

613 notes · View notes

voxtek-enterprises · 2 months

Text

Okay okay forgive me if this is incoherent I don't rant very often. I've been seeing a lot of posts shitting on Husk for Loser, Baby, saying he was being an asshole and he was in the wrong or whatever, and that Husk and Angel Dust are bad for each other and toxic and yadda yadda yadda.

And you know? Maybe it wasn't the standard sunshine and rainbows way of going about it. But the show already took the time to show you that Charlie's way, the way that would make these people happy, wasn't going to work! Angel's fucked up as shit. So is just about everybody else in hell. The NORMAL way of going about things isn't gonna work because everyone is jaded, distrustful, and cynical. Hell's denizens think about things differently than we do because their experiences are vastly different and worse than ours. They have to be distrustful to survive.

Ultimately, it comes down to this: the same approach isn't gonna work on everyone because everyone is different. So is it strange and fucked up? Yes. Was it the only way for Husk (who is strange and fucked up) to get through to Angel (who is also strange and fucked up)? Yes.

At the beginning, before Husk calls him a loser, Angel's clearly miserable. He thinks Husk is gearing up for some "Things suck now but they'll get better! Things aren't as bad as they seem!" speech á la little miss Bleeding Heart, Charlie. He thinks he knows what's coming, and he's kind of just waiting for Husk to get over with it and shut up.

"You think your life is wrecked. Well let me just say that you're correct!" Husk has intentionally subverted Angel's expectations, using surprise to get through to him. You can see Angel is annoyed for a little bit while he's trying to figure out what Husk's trying to say. He's starting to think Husk only came out here to make fun of him.

And yeah, Husk sings for a little while about how Angel is a loser. He's not trying to tell Angel that his life is okay or things get better or some 100% positive but ultimately meaningless pleasantries. They've both probably heard shit like that before, like "I hope it gets better" "Things aren't as bad as they seem" whatever. They both know it doesn't mean anything, even if it's well-intentioned. It means nothing to Husk, and since he understands Angel, he knows it wouldn't mean anything to Angel either, so he doesn't bother.

Slowly he starts singing more about how he and Angel are similar. "You're a loser, just like me." "You're a power bottom at rock bottom, but you've got company!" "There was a time I thought no one could relate to the gruesome ways in which I'm damaged." He's not trying to exclusively shit on Angel, he's trying to acknowledge the true shittiness of their situations and how they're similar. He's doing it in a fucked up way because they're both fucked up and it's the way they understand.

This is where Angel is starting to understand what Husk is saying.

Husk: "We're both losers, baby, we're losers! It's okay to be a-"

Angel: "Coked-up dick-sucking hoe?"

Husk: "Baby that's fine by me!"

Husk is accepting Angel for who he is and the situation he's been forced into. They've both made very similar, very terrible decisions that have led them to their respective shitty predicaments, and Angel is realizing just how similar they really are now.

Both, singing at the same time: "You're a loser, just like me!"

Husk has managed to break through Angel's shell and get him to open up. They're friends now! I could go on and on but I'll skip to the end because I think I've made my point.

Ultimately, Husk's point is "We're both kinda pathetic and in terrible situations, and we may both be losers, but there's no need to hate ourselves or self-destruct or pretend we're anyone but who we really are." And he goes about it in a way that may not make sense to normal people, but makes sense to each other because of how similarly they're fucked up. It works.

It's really annoying when I see people who think you can't like a flawed character or a relationship (friendly or romantic, doesn't matter). Like oh no, the weird little freaks are doing weird little freak things and understanding each other in weird little freak ways. I don't really get what their point is anyway. So what if they're weird? So what if Husk is kind of an asshole about it? Nothing else was gonna work. Real people who are scarred as much as Husk and Angel are usually sick of the sunshine and rainbows bullshit anyway, many of them would much rather hear the truth and receive support than be hit with the Charlie approach. I'm not shitting on Charlie because I love her and her approach is great (and also normal) but as I said before: the same approach won't work on everyone. Hers worked on Vaggie and Sir Pentious but didn't work on Angel Dust, hence why Angel's character development was really kickstarted when he became friends with Husk.

I think these people are just chronically online and media illiterate tbh. Anyway, sorry if this was long or drawn out. I have too many opinions about people who don't exist and they're very disorganized.

#huskerdust #husk #angel dust #hazbin hotel #tbh im not a huge shipper of angel dust. i care more about their emotional connection #(platonic or not)#than whether or not they're fucking #personally i think if huskerdust becomes canon it should be after they both have time to heal #neither of em are ready for a relationship #and if they don't date? thats cool too!! deep important friendships are highly underrated in media. both r good

98 notes · View notes

odesofmeddea · 2 months

Text

trying on an argument why sam and dean were in factual canonical enmeshment: their bond presumes the absence of nuclear family or any long-term partner in the lives of either; the very formulation of this rigid condition - me or her, - is telling, overtly so, how their relationships are rooted bog-deep in the belief in its crucial self-sufficiency. the bond between related people devoid of such an incestuous tilt generally endorses that a relative builds and commits to a family of his own and puts not a stipulation of choice. that is, ‘it is fine if my brother marries - how and why would that affect our connection?’ - is not fine with sam and dean. if it was so, sam would've kept dating ruby, amelia, etc., etc., without dean putting him under the exigency of picking, without the uncontrollable invasion of his sexual and general privacy by dean (‘did you have sex with her? first madison then ruby now cara then lilith’, dean eavesdropping on sam's calls and going through his phone, or interrogating him concerning his whereabouts, if there's a woman he doesn't know about), and, moreover, without sam feeling an unspelt obligation of either concealing (why, right?) or rescinding these side hook-ups. oh, also it's him or benny. same with lisa, who knew the fact of her secondariness when competing with sam and that the existence of one naturally excluded that of the other. why can't they all be a big family performing roles socially allotted to them?.. because sam fills in all the roles. because dean and sam want to live in one room and they brush their teeth together and share one car and invariably solve cases together and own a dog and coparent jack and even their afterlife is a shared homoheaven bereft of other love interests. where a woman is to put herself between, in what inextant interstice? ultimately she is reduced to a blur in the background while sammy raises his kid, dean ii, and she is not addressed, not once, in the script, her only definition is of a nemo-womb sam cohabits with to conceive a replica of dean he can nurture as a solace during his lifelong premeditation of reunion with his brother, his nóstos - this is an awful lot of all women and possible partners of have been and to be. one would say that's rather too much. were sam and dean a girl and a boy conforming to gender binarism & heteronormativity the ambiguity of their relation would've been acknowledged more widely, the incestuous codependency interpreted more obscene. but since they're not and also are very uneasy with the innuendo (‘the most troubling question is why they keep assuming we're gay? - we're just brothers!’), it's very convenient to diminish it to just a strong fraternal love. which it is. but not only that.

the potentiality of erotic subtext inside of their greedy proximity seems scary and stupid and is eschewed by both - how are they to subvert and subsume their relationship into non-brother categorization when it's just their life, just the only thing they've known, being this close? still, the only affairs permitted are the ones that are treated as and are simple, emotionally untethered one-night-stands because sam and dean are not sexually available to each other. nor they're resolute into directly consummating their relationship - the need to is either lacking or suppressed and is to be interpreted variously because covert incest is not primarily about coition but miscellanea of things, more often than not of un/subconscious genesis and procession. sam and dean know their relationship is bonkers. they don't necessarily have to know or admit they're a couple. what else they know, though, is they can't have sex. they cannot consciously translate their enmeshment into overt eroticism. that's why the siren episode is titled ‘sex and violence’ - there the mutual violence unleashed onto each other (along with the symbolic penetration through knife and breaking of the door) serves as a surrogate for sex. that, along with impulsive hugs, is the only form of lingering physical contact they usually have. but the yearning, although not experienced in one concreteness, compensates and provides for itself in a safer realm of sam and dean's emotional spaces. they can't have sex but they can fall into possession of each other's feelings. that's why once the personal attachment to anyone else is developed it is construed as betrayal by either. if you need another person, if you feel something for them that you're supposed to feel only with me (intimacy, trust, love, loyalty, belonging) - that's when you abandon me because we can't coexist with others.

#spn #wincest #samdean #spn meta

128 notes · View notes

time-is-restored · 1 year

Text

by the way this is not gonna do the subject NEARLY enough justice BUT i do really wish there was more keeley appreciation in the main tags... like not only is she an Extremely explicit parallel for ted, but she's also at the heart of SO much of the show's themes - and you'd never know it from reading most of the meta that goes around!

[content warnings for sexism, sexual harassment, Locker Room Talk™]

okay, so like, in no particular order, here some of the criminally underrated + under-explored things we know abt keeley jones:

she has an almost identical social strategy to ted: being earnestly, and oftentimes defiantly herself, regardless of what assumptions it pushes other people to make abt her (i.e.: her description in the pilot, 'used to having her book judged by its cover'). and then, in spite of the ppl around her belittling her/writing her off, she STILL approaches them w genuine intent to connect + get to know them.

i think it was an EXTREMELY deliberate choice in episode 3 for both keeley and ted to give rebecca 'a compliment she's never heard before'. they're not merely skating by on small talk or doing the bare minimum to show their appreciation for killing the photo (which rebecca would be prepared for), they're subverting her expectations by going for genuine (if bemusing) compliments.

then ofc w keeley's s3 arc, you can see how she's trying (and slowly succeeding, judging by that nervous worker guy's attempts to start joking around with her) to get her PR firm's culture to the same, easy-going, more-friends-than-coworkers vibe of richmond. she even specifically asks ted for advice (and, again, i think its relevant that the advice he gives refers to his most effective team building moment - the ghost banishing ceremony). it's very important to her that ppl feel comfortable in her presence, and we can see her getting genuinely distressed whenever she struggles with this.

she says EXPLICITLY in that one exchange w sassy + rebecca that she freaks out whenever she thinks she's being abandoned - she delivers it like a joke, but she's visibly off-kilter and nervous while she says it, apparently still coming down from the anxiety of thinking she'd been ditched. and again, after the gala when she goes to (presmably) get back together with jamie, she says outright that she really struggles to ever break up with people - even people she's no longer interested in, like jamie! - because she second guesses her own judgement so much. on an adjacent note, imo the melt down she has when roy was crowding her was only as abrupt + extreme as it was because she had been repressing her feelings about it for so long. which is SO interesting in the context of her being one of the most upfront and outspoken characters in the show!!!! like. she literally contains multitudes!

and, also, while i do think there's some genuine critical analysis to be done abt the normalisation of what is, essentially, sexual harassment at richmond (it's... extremely uncomfortable to go on such a long tangent about how attractive a stranger's boobs are, even if ur also a woman), i think keeley's active flirtation + general horny-on-main behaviour is ALSO extremely under-explored. bc, in the context of her being a WAG, and also a model, keeley recieves completely unprompted + unwarranted comments abt her body all day every day. when sassy told her that her ex-husband used to masturbate to her photos, she's hardly shell shocked. it's pretty clear that that's something she's used to being known for, and being told about in gratuitous detail. in this context, you can really see how the way she leans in to flirtation, and talking about sex and the hotness of various ppl around her (ie: her entrance in the pilot, making a show + joke out of how she must Obviously want to see all of the footballers naked), is her way of pushing back against the way others don't respect HER boundaries. ie: 'if my body's fair game for everyone to talk about + sexualise, so is theirs!'. it's an extremely interesting coping mechanism, especially in the context of it leading to her oftentimes perpetuating the cycle of harassment herself. and then there's also how the locker room culture OF richmond involves a significant amt of talking about sex, past partners, etc - since she spends so much time in that environment, you can pretty clearly see how that'd influence her decision to go with the current, rather than against.

AND OFC. HOW could i get this far w/o talking about the sheer narrative weight that's given to her relationship with rebecca!!! not only is she arguably the first character to befriend rebecca (beating ted out by several episodes, at least by my count), she is ALSO the reason that rebecca ever tells ted the truth ('it would change how i feel about you'!!!!!!! AGH!!!!), and honestly i think keeley's disappointment in her is what leads her to finally accept that. sabotaging richmond is a cruel thing to do and she doesn't want to do it anymore! like. keeley's unabashed admiration of + love for rebecca, and rebecca's eventual reciprocation is quite literally the driving force for both of their arcs ('thank you for teaching this panda how to be a lion'!!!!!) and i just!!! i care them!!!!!!!!!!!!

tldr; keeley jones is a blorbo of absolutely apocalyptic proportions PLEASE let her into ur heart the next time ur writing analysis + meta....

#ted lasso meta #keeley jones #ted lasso #i basically wrote this whole thing just so i could plead for ppl to accept narrative parallels keeley : ted #into their hearts. like u can learn SO much abt keeley by analysing ted and vice versa!#the anxiety the Baggage the motivations the fears..#even their professional goals + ethics and shit!!

251 notes · View notes

deramin2 · 15 days

Text

One theory is that Orym's pact with Nana Mori is fulfilled because they jaunted back to Exandria briefly so she'll make him serve her despite not all of them coming back from the mission alive. (Personally I doubt this because it breaks the spirit of what Liam thought he was agreeing to so much that I don't think he or Matt would find that fun or satisfying.)

More likely the deal is null because FCG is dead, and Orym is free to go.

But I would like to propose a third option:

The first deal is null, but Orym feels like he failed his family again and can't stand the thought of losing one of them to Otohan, even as a self-sacrifice to kill her. So he reaches out to her for a second deal with the same offer in exchange for bringing Letters back. Before anyone knows or can stop him.

My impression (contrary to most people's) is that Liam seemed like he'd love to explore working for Nana Mori and hanging out with his bestie and her weird grandmother in their home as a way of settling down. I'm not sure he views that as a tragic outcome.

Nana Mori doesn't feed off abject misery, she feeds off cringe if people don't hold up their ends of the bargain. And she likes collecting things and people. They're hers and she exerts some control, but Fearne isn't trapped there forever and she's been clear that she had a wonderful and fulfilling childhood. Orym could just live out his life in peace trending to the topiary garden and scaring off intruders and both he and Nana Mori could be perfectly happy that way. His friends would be welcome to see him and he might even get vacation days because crucially she likes him and Fearne likes him. And that story would subvert so many expectations about hag deals while being perfectly in character for everyone that it's rich soil for the kind of story telling Liam and Matt really like.

It would fit so well with Orym's constant appeals to a greater authority, desire to serve, difficulty returning home, and dogged desire to keep getting up and trying again if he fails. He's so close to stopping the people that ruined his life 6 years ago and making sure they can't hurt anyone else. After that he has no purpose and no plan, and I think that would make him way more miserable than serving Morrigan the Fate Stitcher while knowing his current family is she and whole. And Mori gets a rare collectors item of a man who went to the moon and stopped the gods from being eaten. Partly because of her plucking the threads of faster through him. Quite a prize.

#critical role #critical role spoilers #critical role meta #critical role campaign 3 #Bell's Hells #Fresh Cut Grass #Orym of the Air Ashari #Nana Morri

28 notes · View notes

sapphic-agent · 7 months

Text

Let's Talk About the Sports Festival

*Note: this is a long one so strap in*

Oh boy, here we go.

I did touch briefly on this in my first ever post on here and I mentioned it a few other times. But I've got a few thoughts and I think this arc deserves a little exploration as it plays a crucial part in setting up our characters for the rest of the series.

I have a love/hate relationship with the Sports Festival overall. I think it does well for some characters, not so well for others. I'd like to take some time to break down how some characters benefit and how others don't and really evaluate the arc as a whole.

Uraraka

I think Uraraka's a great place to start. Now, in my Bakugou analysis I did say that I was unhappy with the match, mostly because it panders to Bakugou to make him seem better than he was. And I stand by that, the narrative was trying to shove a "positive trait" of his down our throats since all we had seen from him up to this point was all negative. It was Horikoshi's first attempt at subverting expectations, I think.

However, I actually do think this fight was good for Uraraka as a character.

Uraraka isn't the fastest or strongest or smartest in 1A and previous to this that was fine because being those things wasn't her goal. She wanted to be a rescue hero and provide for her parents, she didn't set out to be particularly ambitious like Izuku or Todoroki or her other classmates. However, this proved to be somewhat of a hinderance to her succeeding as we see in the Cavalry battle. She pairs up with Izuku because she needs to rely on him if she wants to stand a chance of winning. And because of that, she feels like she can't fend for herself.

I think pairing her up against Bakugou was a good thing. Not because he treated her with "respect" or as a serious opponent (because he didn't), but because it pushed her to her limits and forced her to think outside of the box. She refuses Izuku's help because she knows she can't use him as a crutch going forward so she devises her own plan. And even though she loses, she still gets to shine and prove herself (we'll get back to this point with a certain character later). It also acts as a hallmark for her character, that she has to really push herself if she wants to be able to stand with (or even against) her stronger classmates.

Now, whether or not this setup pays off later is for another post, but I think Uraraka is one of the only characters this arc really does justice.

Izuku

If I'm being honest, the Sports Festival is far from the worst arc in the series for our beloved main character.

The race was great, of course. Because he can't depend on his quirk like everyone else, Izuku has to put all his critical thinking skills and strategic prowess to the test. The race is actually one of my favorite parts of the show because a kid from the bottom of his class (at the time) rises above everyone else and absolutely no one (including us) saw it coming. He has a major disadvantage and still comes out on top. It really ties in well with All Might's advice to stand in front of everyone and say, "I am here."

Now, the Cavalry Battle is a different story. To be fair, I don't think it really hurts or helps Izuku's character all that much. He has to think on his feet and strategize carefully, but he already did that in the race. His leaderships skills aren't really displayed all that much either (it's present, but Bakugou, Todoroki, and Monoma take much more of the limelight here). They could have taken more time to develop this role for him, but it's nothing really major to complain about.

The tournament is a little different. Obviously, Izuku couldn't win because if he had it wouldn't have been realistic. But his fight with Shinsou shouldn't have happened. The only reason they're matched up is for Izuku to break out of his hold with One For All. It doesn't do anything for his character (I might even say it hinders it because Ojirou specifically told him what to do and he ignored it) and really only serves as Shinsou's introduction, which could have been done with any character.

(Bakugou should have gone up against Shinsou. It would have humbled him; he would have lost to an "extra," one of the very people he talked down to. It would have also taught him that having a strong quirk or a weak quirk isn't what makes a hero and that power isn't everything)

However, the Todoroki fight does do Izuku's character justice. Because Izuku has always put helping others over winning or being the best. It's what makes him a true hero. He still makes Todoroki work for it and gives his all in the fight, but he does it with the genuine intention of helping. And that's what it means to be a hero. If the race was showing off his skill, then the tournament was showing off his heart. Those are the two sides to being a hero after all.

(If only the pro heroes had any semblance of sense to realize that)

So overall I am split on if this arc is good for Izuku or not. It does well with some things, poor with others. However, I do think that if Horikoshi had kept a similar approach with him throughout the story, it would have done him a lot more justice.

(At least more than whatever Dark Deku was supposed to be)

Iida

I don't have much to say on him other than that I think it would have been beneficial to showcase his skills a little more. He's supposed to be the second most intelligent in 1A and he got fourth on the quirk apprehension test. It would have been nice to show him off a little more like they did with Todoroki and Bakugou.

However, I do understand that his performance in the Sports Festival is meant to take a backseat to what's going on in his personal life. And for the most part that is done pretty well. The tension build up his actually really good and it sets him up to shine in the Stain arc.

I also appreciate his approach towards Izuku. He respects him and sees him as a friend, but also knows that Izuku is still an adversary. It's a unique approach to rivalry in anime and also sets up his role in the Stain arc well.

So it's not a terrible arc for Iida, but it could have been better for him too.

Bakugou

I know, I know I don't want to either but let's just get through this okay?

Obviously above I said what I said about how he should have fought Shinsou. And I stand by that. The Sports Festival was the best way he could have been humbled and taught humility. Having Bakugou fight Shinsou and lose could have aided his redemption in the long run.

Now, one thing that bothers me about the Sports Festival is that it seems like the narrative constantly goes out of its way to make him look better. Oh, Bakugou meets his match from a student with a copying quirk who rightfully calls him out and catches him off guard? Let's have him overcome the (truthful) assumptions and beat him and still qualify even though he was completely focused on the wrong things. Oh, the crowd thinks Bakugou is being overly harsh on someone who clearly isn't on his level? Let's have Aizawa vehemently defend him and tell everyone he's showing her respect when he obviously isn't (and even doubles down after the fact). Oh, Todoroki has just embraced a part of his quirk that's more than enough to beat Bakugou? Nah, let's have Todoroki throw even though he just had an epiphany about how his power was his and not his father's.

You see where I'm going with this? No matter what, this arc absolutely bends over backwards to portray Bakugou in a positive light. Where our other characters lose, struggle, and get put through the wringer, Bakugou is handed a win (literally and figuratively) multiple times. It's part of what pushed me from genuinely enjoying the Sports Festival to somewhat disliking it.

Bakugou is never allowed to struggle unless everyone around him is struggling too, most of the time worse than he is. This is a pattern that persists throughout the series. And it started in this arc.

Todoroki

You know how I said that Uraraka was one of the characters that this arc did justice? Well, Todoroki was the other one.

His set up in the Sports Festival is fantastic. Before this arc, we knew he was important. He was strong, aloof, and the only one who could intimidate Bakugou. The way they ease us into his character is very well done from his little mannerisms to revealing his backstory.

I know most of us agree that he should have beat Bakugou. However, him winning or losing the final match never really mattered. What mattered is that he made peace with his quirk and his trauma. And through Izuku he opens himself up which not only leads to him being a loyal friend, but also makes him a better hero in the long run. He is undoubtedly the character that develops the most.

(It's also through Todoroki that we get a bit of world building. Endeavor is the first example of a corrupt hero we see and we're introduced to the concept of quirk marriages)

Unfortunately, like Uraraka, this setup doesn't pay off that well later, but again that's a story for another day.

Yaoyorozu

An unfortunate flipside of Todoroki is that Yaoyorozu's character goes through the opposite.

A pattern with Yaoyorozu is that Horikoshi seems to fluctuate between wanting to treat her as a serious character and going out of his way to screw her over. In the race, she's a victim of Mineta's perversions (there's also the cheerleading bit, but that happened to all the 1A girls so it doesn't pertain to just her; it's still shitty though). She's barely present in the Cavalry Battle, only serving as a support prop for Todoroki's team.

And then the tournament is the final nail in the coffin. Yaoyorozu before this was shown to be calm, collected, and intelligent. She also- by the Quirk Apprehension Test results- has the most control and prowess over her quirk in 1A. So it's odd that she lost to Tokoyami so easily.

Not to say that she necessarily should have won, but for her to not realize what Tokoyami was doing was out of character to say the least when she was shown to be very observant. And if Horikoshi was going to add this insecurity aspect to her character in the Sports Festival, she should have gotten more attention beforehand. At least then it would have made a bit of sense. But to give her this vaguely hinted emotional moment out of nowhere was... weird. She has barely any screen time and no growth or development to lead us into this point. And she barely gets any after this moment. There's almost no payoff or point to this.

(*cough* maybe focus less on Bakugou and give other characters a chance to shine *cough*)

Yaoyorozu might have been the character screwed over the most in this arc.

Shinsou

Wasted potential. Like I said before, having him take down Bakugou would have really hammered in how dangerous his quirk can be. It shows him as an actual threat. Having him get ringed out by Izuku in the first round doesn't do anything for anyone's character. It makes his entire introduction lackluster.

Final Thoughts

So yeah, those are my thoughts on the Sports Festival. Good for some characters, not so much for others. I always like to read fics where it gets rewritten because so much could have changed for the better. What do you guys think? Did I miss anything?

#mha critical #bnha critical #anti bakugou katsuki #sports festival arc #sports festival arc critical #long post #anti bakugou #anti bakugo katsuki #momo yaoyorozu deserves better

69 notes · View notes

gayofthefae · 4 months

Text

I just realized what the trick is. The GA knows that Mike looks like he reciprocates feelings. But they also know that we're in Will's POV a lot of the time. And they're equating the two. "Oh, Mike only looks like that because Will has false hope so they're making it look that way"...but both can be and are true. Yes, we are in Will's POV, good eye. But that also is objectively Mike's behavior.

They aren't as invested to think about it harder so I understand why you wouldn't think of it that way, but that's what it is. It isn't that they don't see it, it's that they dismiss it as being Will's biased point of view. Anything you noticed is because Will noticed it. If it seemed romantic, that's to demonstrate Will's wishful thinking. But it's not. It can be. both.

It's clever. To say "this is Will's POV, which is biased" and subvert the season theme of biased narrators to essentially use reverse psychology. "Here is a biased point of view of something that is actually happening to make you dismiss it as just his perspective," to make him dismiss it as just his perspective. Because his perspective is even larger than you think it is. You think it extends to just his wishful thinking but it goes beyond that, it includes him acknowledging it as wishful thinking. They place in his shoes only to set up still being in them at the time of his doubt and self deprecation. So that you, too, believe that Mike's destined for El and that he'll never reciprocate Will's feelings.

THAT'S the real unreliable narration. The unreliable narration is that Will's narration is unreliable, almost. Will thinks anything he sees is just wishful thinking and dismisses it. So so do you. You think the writers are trying to convince you and you're dismissing it, but they're not. They know you. They're convincing you to dismiss it.

They're convincing you to see it as unrequited while also putting it in plain sight. And when you do rewatch, you'll see that it was always there. And you knew it was the first time, too. You just got tricked into believing it wasn't real. But it was.

The false truth wasn't that Will believed Mike reciprocated. It was actually in volume 2, when he believed that he didn't.

You didn't break out of Will's POV by commenting on how you don't think Mike loves him back, you only immersed yourself further without even knowing it. His biased narration is of Mike's relationship with El, not Mike's relationship with him. But he thinks the opposite...and so so do you.

It's funny the organization and order of it all. Because your brain picks up patterns. You know there will be some falsehood to his story, like everyone else's, so you latch onto the first one you see, his hope, without noticing the little moments:

El and Mike are laughing and holding hands, but Mike says that he wasn't happy all day because he was focusing on Will.

Mike tells El he loves her and they're more in love than ever, but Mike tells Will they've hardly spoken in two days.

Mike tells El it was love at first sight, but Mike tells Will it was happenstance - even specifying that it "wasn't fate or destiny"

The direct contradictions are there, you just have to look. They don't look and that's fine. That's the definition of general audience. That's why I'm analyzing. That's the intention of the writers. And when you look surface level for a falsehood, the easy answer is that Will is wrong to believe Mike reciprocates, but not only am I personally not sure he even believed that, but if you look closer there's another right in front of you with direct contradictions with Mike telling you flat out that Will's perception of his relationship is incorrect.

#stranger things #general audience byler #byler meta #byler

26 notes · View notes

elekinetic · 11 months

Note

user elekinetic do you have any tips to spare for outlining fics 😭 i feel like I word vomit any of the concept that I have in my head, and dialogue ,and build off that adding paragraphs as I go and I go so slow bc of it. But ive been trying hard lately to write a list of “scenes” and bullet point the story but yeah.

do you know anything that could help me have an idea of where to go start to finish instead of starting at the random spot I’ve come up with first? I waste so much writing time because I haven’t built a backstory for characters and things like that so i don’t always know how they start the story off, only the situation they’re in. Is that something that could help? Making a list for each character or something? Would love to hear your thoughts thank you! <3

hi! first of all i’m so flattered you asked! to be clear, i am a very slow writer too lmao and i’m relatively new to prose writing, and though in very confident in my understanding of what makes a good story (W screenwriting), i am still figuring out my outlining process. but hey! let’s learn together.

sorry in advance for how long this is. i love talking.

so i basically figure everything out in the outline and write after i feel very good about it. if you have a strong foundation, everything gets a hell of a lot easier. t kind of sounds like your process might be similar to mine, so i’m just gonna explain what i'm doing for my current project.

my key document is my “bible.” i split it up into a couple different sections using page breaks (page breaks my best friend ily page breaks):

pitch/word vomit summary

scene ideas

outline

notes

ok so wtf does that mean.

1. pitch/word vomit summary — explain your concept. bc i've got a film/tv background, im starting off with my logline. (e.g. "after robin learns will is gay, they have a heart to heart in an abandoned video store about insecurity and feeling alone. they learn they're not." sometimes i'll follow that up with a note to myself like, "this fic isn't robin finding out, this is what happens after. starts with her already knowing. will pov, focus on his perception of robin changing. subtly reference toward feelings about mike, dont come out (haha) and say it") then, i write as MUCH of the concept down as i can, like i'm explaining it to a friend. (sometimes i copy and paste rants from dms directly into the document). it can be totally out of order, non-sensical, contradictory. just get as many of your ideas down as possible. you want to be able to come back to this and be like, oh i totally forgot about that. vague chapter summaries, personal notes about themes, whatever you want. i have a list of beats that you find in romantic dramas for inspiration and a paragraph abt ways i want to parallel/subvert s3 of st. just. go ham. 2. scene ideas — this is pretty self explanatory. i take some of the stuff i have in the p/s and flesh it out, or put down new ideas. this is where i'm writing out dialogue in bullet points, or what i want them to be Really Saying. (e.g. "mike: [panics bc he feels seen, tries to flip it back on (redacted) and fails] ") this is for when i can see stuff more clearly or i get out of the shower with a whole exchange in my head. gonna be out of order, a little all over the place. 3. outline — so. this is where you start piecing it together. put the bullet points in order. figure out objective of each scene and what needs to happen to accomplish that goal. figure out pacing, what needs to happen when. this step is where im looking at dialogue and thinking "why does mike say that? why does he feel that way? what needs to happen to get him to this point emotionally?" or looking at scenes and thinking "these are two scenes with people arguing back to back. lets make sure they feel different and give the characters different tactics to get what they want (byler argument where mike is avoiding will vs max argument where max is avoiding lucas. i could use this to highlight similarities and differences in the relationships, but having two scenes with the same tactics back to back might feel repetitive. maybe i move the scenes farther apart or change circumstances. maybe mike and will are having a veiled argument while theyre with a group of friends in a public space and max and lucas' argument is outside max's house.) also asking if conflicts are resolved too quickly, if the miscommunications feel too convenient, if characters disappear or are only around as plot devices. write. troubleshoot. repeat. 4. random notes — everything else that doesnt fit. for me this is literally just taylor swift lyrics (writing the fic vaguely off of a Specific Song that SHOULD BE STREAMED MORE WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE anyway) and links to posts i use as character reference to make sure im staying true to the characters. (remembering will said "i was being a total jerk to el, i deserved it," AND "you're ruining everything, and for what!"/"i wasn't moping!")

i want it to be clear im doing all of this at the same time. im jumping around and pulling new ideas and rearranging as stuff changes. i think the thing that's really hard is that i want to be able to sit down, write the outline, and then move on. but for us scatterbrained writers, you're gonna have to re-outline and readjust like. a thousand times. and that's okay. that's good! it feels tedious as hell but the story is so much better for it.

take your time. let yourself be slow. keep finding holes in your story and fill the world in as you fix them.

here are some more questions i ask myself to make the story better:

What are you trying to accomplish over the course of the story? What is it about? (for the will&robin fic, it was something about feeling seen for the first time.) When you get lost in your story or aren't sure why a scene feels stale, come back to this. is the scene furthering that goal?

What is changing internally for each of your main characters? (yes theyre dating by the end but like. what do they learn.)

Are the side characters people or props? (will pov scene of a party-wide picnic where everyone's talking but will is focused on mike's hands.... where is max's head at in the scene? you don't have to have a super long backstory and she doesn't have to be a big part of the plot, but if she's saying something, figure out why she's saying it. if will is having a heart to heart with el, understand why el is responding the way she is. the scene's goal may be to get will through a breakthrough, but el's circumstances will change in the scene too. figure out how this conversation lands with her. oh, and remember the adults are people too!)

Why is this character saying this/why are they responding this way? (this should answer your "where do i start?" question. start in that random spot and figure out A) why they are there and B) why they are reacting the way they do (see last bullet point).

side note: some of the best advice i ever got was "enter the scene late, exit early." skip the prologue. try starting from that random spot. if it feels like something's missing, figure out exactly what that something is, and go from there

Do the stakes feel high enough?

What do i need to set up to make sure this scene/beat is satisfying as possible? (are will and mike going to have a big argument? oh, so we have to show tension before.... BAM you have another scene to write and your outline is fuller)

i could go on a lot longer but. basically.

i edit while i write. i'm someone who needs a very fucking strong outline and a very fucking clear idea of the story before i can start writing it. i'm putting probably 70-80% of the leg work in at the start so i can focus on making the prose (or script, most of the time) the best it can be.

THAT BEING SAID, this is just the way i do it and i have like. a fic and a half published. im taking my sweet time bc im creatively burned out and this is for fun first and foremost. like i said. i am a Very Slow Writer.

i highly, highly recommend hitting up the ask boxes of writers like @/strangeswift, @/wiseatom, @/astrobei, or @/andiwriteordie. no guarantees on responses bc they are busy ppl with busy lives but i really do think theyre some of the best writers out here right now, and im not just saying that bc they're my friends. abby (strangeswift) and i have been each other's sounding board through a lot of projects and she's almost done with one of her first Big Fics, so its worth asking her about that.

i hope this helps! ah!!

#seriously THANK YOU SO MUCH for asking i feel underqualified but i love talking about writing and writing processes #jesus christ this is 1.4k words #also if anyone seeing this is interested in having a beta reader for story notes hmu lol #outlining

72 notes · View notes

frownyalfred · 6 hours

Note

How do you do your writing? Start writing the story and figure out world building aspects after? Or deep dive into world building than write the story? Personally I write the story then take breaks to write down world building as it comes

Was curious, cause your abo au is very thought out with world building

I think it definitely comes easier with the a/b/o AU since there's a lot of pre-established options within the trope, so I'm usually just mixing and matching the ones I like most, or subverting the ones I don't.

My biggest goal when worldbuilding is to avoid the "this is the world I live in and here are the rules" monologue that sometimes pops up in published novels. I only want stuff to come up that's actually being discussed and thought about by the characters in the scene -- and unless it's being used as a device, they're not usually narrating the rules of the world they live in to themselves at any point. (Again, it depends on the book and if it's being used as a literary device)

So Bruce, in a given scene, wouldn't necessarily be thinking about the fact that omegas use scent blockers to conceal their scents, and wouldn't be thinking about how that works (such as application preference, etc) but he would, theoretically, be thinking about how the new scent blocker he just bought isn't working right, and that he might need to use more than normal. So we get some slightly more subtle worldbuilding within the vein of the scene.

People go back and forth on the "show don't tell" advice in writing, and I know it's contentious. But I'm a proponent of showing worldbuilding whenever possible, instead of outright telling. Whenever I find myself writing a thought/piece of dialogue that seems like it would benefit the reader more than the characters, I take a second to check if I'm telling instead of showing.

Sometimes that means not explaining something until it pops up in the story. An example of this would be in my Mandalorian/Star Wars batfamily AU, where we really don't learn a lot about the batkids' positions or the hierarchy of the Wayne compound until Clark has a chance to talk with various family members and learn.

I think there is definitely an instinct to overexplain off the bat, and it's not always wrong. But if our first scene with Bruce was spent with him thinking over the hierarchy of his own compound, that wouldn't make a lot of sense -- he already knows what it is. He's got other things to focus on in that scene.

If it's helpful, I also put together lists sometimes of worldbuilding ideas that don't necessarily make it into the work itself, but help add context while I'm writing. I did this a lot with Borderline, when I was trying to write the Court/LoA into the fic. A lot of those details didn't make it in for the reader to see, but they affected what I wrote.

That's just my take on it, and like I said, there's a lot of conflicting ideas about this. And exceptions, of course.

#asks #anon #writing #writing things #fic #fanfic #fanfiction #myfic #theresurrectionist #a/b/o mention #a/b/o tw

15 notes · View notes

skania · 10 months

Text

Replies to OnK Asks #3

Idk how this happened but I can already do a third round of replies, so here we go!

That's exactly how I read it, too. To me that panel confirms that Aqua has thought of being intimate with Akane, which contradicts his earlier statement about not seeing her as a woman. Which means the way he views Akane did change, some people just don't like acknowledging that.

Can a relationship be endgame just because it's healthy and can a relationship not be endgame just because it's toxic?

I mean, since this is fiction, then that can absolutely be a valid criteria in choosing your endgame ship.

That said, this is just my personal opinion, but I'm honestly not sure I'd consider Aqua and Kana particularly healthy. His feelings for her have been described as an "obsession" and Kana was so emotionally dependant on him at one point that she couldn't shine on her own. Aqua doesn't let her see the real him, the one that is so traumatized and guilt-ridden that he can barely function. Kana doesn't know about the darker sides of his personality which, combined with how easy to read she is, makes her extremely easy to manipulate; case in point, Aqua knows exactly what to say to get certain reactions out of Kana. So Kana is basically at his mercy, if he chooses to manipulate her she's essentially defenseless.

These issues seem bigger to me than anything that Aqua and Akane have going on, because at least Aqua and Akane are pretty much equals mentally. It also helps that they have developed enough emotional intimacy that Aqua feels comfortable showing himself as he is to Akane, and that Akane has an accurate reading of him overall.

So it's just like you say, there aren't any perfect relationships anon! It's up to Aka to decide which relationship works best for his story.

I agree, I think Aka kind of messed up by rushing the Aqua/Kana reunion. And by that I mean that we spent chapters upon chapters showing how dependant Kana is on Aqua and how miserable she is without him. This eventually led to Kana realizing how unhealthy this is and deciding that she isn't that kind of girl. Which is great! More than great actually, that's the Kana I know and love.

Except instead of letting Kana walk the walk, he basically has Aqua enter her life again almost immediately after. Which, again—I get it. Kana realized the issue and thus got the development she needed, so Aka considered it done. But it'd have been much more satisfying to see Kana actually shining without Aqua being in her life just yet lol

Here is to hoping Aka delivers when it comes to Aqua and Akane! Honestly, their big moments are so iconic that I do think Aka will rise to the occasion.

Yeah, even if Aka goes like: Kana is everything Sarina was and everything Aqua thought Ai to be, but since she is her own person it's like Aqua is getting the best of both worlds! I would just be like

Preach it anon! Being Aqua is suffering :(

My take is that Aqua messed up because now Ruby is more attached to him than ever. There is no way he can doom himself without breaking Ruby in the process, and the last thing he wants is to hurt her :(

Your English isn't weird at all, no worries anon! And I agree, I find it really soft too 😭 He is such a nurturing person by nature

I'm with you, Akane's goal is to save Aqua. Since her goal is intrinsically tied to him and to his outcome, trying to write her out on that premise backfires lol

I think Aka is at his best when he is subtly developing something rather than being in-your-face about it, so I can only hope that he subverts the expectations of everyone who is expecting the predictable end lol

That they're falling victim to confirmation bias.

If Akane were "the second option", she wouldn't have been in his thoughts at all lmao

I feel them completely because that's exactly how I felt during my first ONK read. I just think that Aqua and Akane have more potential that people give them credit for, so I'm choosing to have some faith in Aka 😂

So they want Akane to steal Kana's thunder?

Kana is like a mirror, she reflects back whoever you project onto her 😂 Just kidding, but I am glad that more and more people are talking about all the parallels to Sarina and Ai.

Yes, me too!

That's one of the reasons I love her, she is such a dynamic character that she fits the story in its entirety instead of just fragments of it 😭

I went through something similar! OnK came out while I was reading Kaguya, but since I already wasn't very impressed with Aka's writing and the topic didn't interest me, I didn't bother picking it up. I forgot about it until the anime came out, and since I heard so many good things I decided to give it a shot. I already knew Ai would die, but making it through the first episode was a struggle. There were a few things I found interesting here and there, but not enough to keep watching. Then I heard about Akane and got curious, so I decided to pick up the manga and she blew me away. I've been here ever since lmao

#onk asks convos #if you don't see your message here scroll down a bit!#it should be on the first page of my blog #I'm up to date so I'll take a short break tomorrow to try and write my thoughts about chapter 98 #if you send me an anonymous message don't worry I'll get to it! it may just take me a bit longer than usual while I work on that post hahah

23 notes · View notes

fantasyinvader · 5 months

Text

If you think about it, Claude and Dimitri's stories both trash what you're supposedly fighting for in Flower.

Dimitri's route demolishes the ideals she's supposedly fighting for by depicting them as uncaring about the weak and goes so far as to make Edelgard into a monster seeking world domination because of them. Edelgard can talk about how people will be sacrificed by the current state of the world, but if she's willing to sacrifice others to obtain the world she wants as well as writes off those who will suffer because of her reforms, specified as the weak, it becomes clear she isn't doing this for others.

With Claude, we get the true history as well as it being overtly said that Edelgard was merely a pawn for the Agarthans. If we run parallels between him and Edelgard, Tomas trying to slip him information to turn him against Rhea would indicate they did the same thing to Edelgard, which would sync with her claims of secret knowledge passed down from her father who Flower confirms was a puppet of TWSITD. We can also say there's a good parallel between Claude working with the Church and Edelgard working with TWSITD, the both are agaisnt their partners at the onset but while the Church's influence helps turn Claude into a hero TWSITD's turns Edelgard into a villain.

But then you have Flower itself. Edelgard subverts her supposed meritocratic ideals while she gives such a little crap about exposing the truth she's always willing to lie and manipulate others. Paying attention to the script, you notice inconsistencies with her claims at various points, the biggest one being that Hubert suggests that she does know the truth about the experiments and her father but she's still willing to string you along with her self-serving narrative. Hell, she says the Church is bad because the Goddess didn't answer her prayers, but at the end of the route she flat out says she was never a believer.

So we have Edelgard telling lies rather than the truth despite knowing the truth, all to make herself look good. This extends back into White Clouds, where she says she wishes Byleth could have been swayed if they fight and how she'd do anything to do so. Edelgard lies to the player, and part of the story of Silver Snow is breaking things off with her. Breaking things off with your lord character, the one your avatar would usually serve as a right-hand to while the lord serves as a paragon. That relationship is gone in Silver Snow, instead the lord needs to be stopped because they're working with the bad guys and seeking total conquest.

This... actually makes a good bit of sense. The worldbuilding is confirmed to be done to support Silver Snow's story. Azure Moon and Verdant Wind, complete routes in their own right, supplement that story. Moon is the one to tackle and address Edelgard's ideals, while Wind goes actually takes the time to explain who the Agarthans are and what they're after. It paints Edelgard more as a victim of them, but then you play Flower and you start realizing that's not entirely true either. She knows the truth, she's willing to lie and manipulate you in order to get your help, and she can ultimately have the Agarthans taken out in the shadows rather than exposing them to the light. In this case, as well as Moon, it paints her as a legitimate threat in her own right. That while they were the one to push her down this path, she commits to it on her own and they need her probably more than she needs them (especially when Hopes is taken into consideration). She has power in their relationship, and she's using that to gain more power and reshape Fodlan based on her ideals. Ideals they might have instilled in her and are ultimately toxic in nature, but they are what Edelgard believes in and won't give up.

If you actually look at this it shows how Edelgard's path is that of the beast, the antithesis of Nirvana. Edelgard is so attached to her ideals she's going to start and continue the war until she wins or dies trying. Likewise, attachment can also be read as greed, symbolizing Edelgard consolidating power onto herself. These ideals are toxic and it's made out that she knows the truth on some level, just looks the other way. Therefore, it's not a matter of ignorance with her (but it can be with the player) but delusion. Finally, it's not that she's averse to the Church like Claude is, she just hates it because it's teachings go against her delusional ideals. She believes it makes people weak. These factors start feeding into each other, resulting in a ruler who will hurt and kill the innocent in pursuit of her goals. Edelgard represents the three poisons and how they can cloud the mind, preventing someone from turning to goodness. In addition, war is said to be caused by hatred/aversion/anger, while Edelgard's war causes the people to starve especially in the Empire as per Ferdie's paralogue as well as the thieves on the Enbarr map. Famine is said to be caused by greed/attachment. Delusion/ignorance/foolishness is said to cause plague, while Edelgard ends up involved with Remire. And together, the three are said to increase and empower earthly desires, causing false views to flourish.

Not only that, but the war, famine and pestilence would link to Hadou, as those are meant to be signs that the leader has lost heaven's mandate. Edelgard's involved with an outbreak, she starts a war and starves her people. All of this is meant to illustrate WHY her path is hadou.

White Clouds shows why Edelgard needs to be stopped even before she takes the throne.

11 notes · View notes

enderon · 5 months

Text

Okay, was rewatching 'Maleficent' and can I just take a second to talk about a concept that was done really well in Maleficent but horrifically in Frozen.

So, we all remember how Frozen tried to pull the big subverisve, 'oh yeah, we see your criticisms on how the princesses keep getting with a guy she just met and calling it true love', and decided to 'subvert' that by making the 'true love' prince the real villain? Ya know, where it's revealed he didn't actually love her and was taking advantage of her and she ended up kissing and eventually marrying the 'second' guy she met, literally the same night as the first, showing that they didn't actually listen to the criticisms.

Well, in Maleficent, they actually handled that issue much better. It's clear when they first meet that Phillip and Aurora do seem to be genunaly interested in and like one another. It's very cute and sweet. BUT, his kiss doesn't break the spell. Why? Cause it's not true love. But the key thing here is, he's not taking advantage of her or tricking her. He does seem to genuinely like her. But, realistically, he doesn't really know her yet and so any 'love', of course, isn't 'true' yet, just surface level.

THIS is what the criticism has been about. Teaching young girls that true love comes when you get to know someone. Yes you can be interested in and attracted at first, but real love comes when you come to actually know them as a person. And that's where Frozen falls flat in this. Yeah, yeah, it's also important that young girls learn that some guys do just want to take advantage of them, but I really don't think that's what Disney was actually trying to go for here.

I still maintain that Frozen would have been stronger if it didn't have any actual 'villain' other than the rift in relationship between the sisters. I personally think it would have been better if Anna and Hans were BOTH sheltered young nobles who thought they werein love with the first person of the opposite sex that they made friends with who they can relate to, only to find out by the end that they're actually much better as friends (me pushing for more, male & female platonic relationships).

#maleficent #frozen #disney #i could honeslty do a whole essay with evidence on this #but its late and im thinking about it now

7 notes · View notes

pb-dot · 10 months

Text

The Things I really loved in Spider-Verse

Or: I feel like an asshole for ragging on a movie that I for the most part enjoyed a lot.

So, as mentioned in my less-than-glowing review, there are several things that I loved in Across The Spider-Verse that my frustration with the story kind of overshadowed. One thing, in particular, I was very impressed with was the character writing. Across, somehow, keeps the main character count roughly equivalent to Into, but the sheer finesse shown in the writing of the side characters upgrade them from cameos and gaffs to actually really cool characters in my opinion. More gushing under the cut.

First up is the villain Spot. At first, the joke about this walking Inciting Incident seems to be that he's so desperate to be Miles' Nemesis, despite getting no traction and being a profoundly pathetic villain in the process. The fact that he arguably caused Spider Miles' entire existence doesn't help, he reads like one of those current-era retcons that try to make a villain intimidating by revealing he was secretly behind everything, despite this not at all lining up with earlier movies. Looking at you, Spectre.

Then, something happens. It's not a dramatic shift or anything, but little by little the dogged determination and seething hatred for Miles that drives Spot starts to crowd out the awkwardness, and the shift is matched by his animation getting messier (in a good way) until he is this plainly inhuman extradimensional being driven by his seething hatred for our dear Morales, animated like some kind of mixture between an art film's animated depiction of severe mental illness and a late-season villain in a mech anime. Like several of the characters I'm going to talk about today, it's a shame he's not in the movie more, but given the bisected nature of the narrative, I suppose that's to be expected.

Next up to bat is Hobie and holy fuck did I not see Hobie coming. Oh, make no mistake, I knew his general deal and that he's pretty cool after all I am on Tumblr and possess a pair of mostly functional eyes, but I was not prepared for just how cool this guy is. It's not just a style thing, although his delightfully off-beat animation and Daniel Kaluya being the most British I've ever heard him, or anyone else, be, are incredibly cool to experience.

No, Hobie's strongest point is, at least for me, his convictions and how he acts on them. It is, perhaps, not a huge challenge to be the most nuanced take on punk in popular media, but the sheer panache with which Hobie pulls it off is astounding. Yes, he is a contrarian, he vandalizes stuff, and he's a bit of a shit-stirrer by nature, but that isn't all he is. In fact, if I may engage in some character interpretation, I'd suggest that all of this is a smokescreen, meant to distract from what Hobie actually is doing, which is trying to infiltrate and subvert an unjust power structure that is causing real tangible harm. If there's anything more punk than that that you could conceivably get into a mainstream movie, I don't know what is.

Look no further than how he interacts with Miles when they're alone. He nicks a bunch of stuff and acts kind of "too good to be on the team," sure, but the stuff he steals, I think can be safely assumed, are parts he needs for his bootleg dimension bracelets, and his reservations he talks about make an awful lot of sense in the context of the reveals that the Spider-Society is basically an autocratic misery machine unilaterally steered by the deeply wounded Miguel. You can also see it in the way he circumvents the entire morality discussion around what to do with Miles by letting Miles know how to break out and make up his own damn mind.

Schlubby dadbod Spider-Man Peter B Parker is perhaps a bit less of a standout than he was in Into, but he still makes for a compelling character. For a fair bit of the start, I wonder what sort of plot malarkey had Mr. Joke The Pain Away team up with Miguel, perhaps the only Spiderperson to be less about fun than Spider-Noir, but as it progressed, it painted a pretty nuanced picture. Miguel is an absolute world-class stick in the mud in addition to his other traits, but as a fresh father, I get the feeling Peter B is especially sensitive to his "lost my daughter twice over" backstory. It is also possible, although there's that insidious character interpretation thing again, that he feels like he can be a moderating influence on Miguel and perhaps curb his most intense edgyboy impulses, a dream that shatters about the time Miguel attempts to break through the spiderporter with sheer primal rage. He has not helped, he has been an enabler.

I've talked indirectly about Miguel a fair bit so far, and while I wouldn't count myself a fan, he is too emotionally distant as the uncompromising leader and entirely too driven by raw emotion as the dogged pursuer to be super interesting to me, but I do like the effect he has on the plot. Miguel operates on a mix of Comic Book Guy trope obsession and the very boomer "If I've suffered in my past, similar or greater suffering is mandatory," and he does so with such dogged zeal that he kind of bends the plot space-time around him. His conviction that Things Are Worth Doing Because They're Hard to Do And Feel Bad is such that even fairly reasonable spiderpeople like Gwen and Peter B end up doing his bidding.

Gwen operates in a bit of an awkward space in this movie, as the intro and outro seem to cast her as the protagonist, which is out of sync with the literal entire rest of the movie revolving around Miles. It's a shame though, because Gwen is very good in this. While her role in Into was more to be the "kinda too cool for this" Spiderperson Miles can, and should, get to be, her journey through the "actually being a spiderperson feels pretty bad"-wash cycle is compelling. If the story was more about Gwen realizing she's letting her hurt take her to a bad place, I would not mind it one bit. Left as a subplot it still works, but so dearly wanted to see it truly blossom.

So in short, I really liked the character writing in Across The Spider-Verse and I am a little sad most of my favorites didn't get as much screentime as they perhaps should, but I do hope they get their moment in the sun in the sequel. Also, a brief shoutout to Earth 42 Uncle Aron for being both scarier and somehow more sympathetic in his few minutes on screen than Miguel manages for the entire movie.

#across the spiderverse #spiderverse spoilers #Gwen Stacy #ghost spider #spider gwen #Miles Morales #Hobie Brown #Peter B Parker #spider woman #miguel o'hara

18 notes · View notes