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royalequeenofships · 3 years

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HSMTMTS Season 3 Predictions and Character Analysis

Ricky & Nini:

Ricky and Nini have a complicated relationship. I feel like they have the whole dynamic of “right person, wrong timing” vibe. They have chemistry and a bond with each other. However, for them to grow as a couple, they really need to have character development first. Nini really needs to figure herself out and who she truly wants to be and figure out her dreams and how she wants to pursue them. We had the whole YAC arc in season 2, where she goes there because she thought it was something that she wanted, but she realized that YAC was not truly what she wanted and isn’t what makes her happy. So, she’s slowly trying to figure herself out with independence and not relying on anyone except herself. In Season 1, most of her moments were with Ricky, with only the YAC arc really showcasing her independence, but her reliance on others in season 1 and parts of season 2. For example, Kourtney was the one who submitted her application to YAC, and partially her reasons for coming back to East High were also her relationship with her friends and Miss Jenn. Also, the fact that Carlos posted her song online, and she asked Ashlyn for help to write “Ain’t see nothing.” However, in episode 11 and 12, really starts showcasing her independence and stop relying on others for her journey. She BECOMES the one other people rely on, she hypes everyone up for their performances and is really figuring herself out and blossoming like the Rose. It is a great metaphor for Nini’s journey, and the fact that she herself calls Jamie’s brother instead of other people doing it for her, really makes it more special. Gina could’ve easily called her brother and be like “Oh yeah I have this friend who’s a great songwriter, yadda yadda.” But she does it herself, which is really great. Now with Ricky. Many people would agree with the fact that he truly does need therapy. He needs to learn how to handle change, and dare I say, realizing that other people are more important in his life. Personally, I felt like Ricky was very selfish this season. Last season, he was being selfish as he broke up with Nini because he couldn’t say I love you, and once school started again, he wanted Nini back so badly, but he proved himself worthy at the final episode when he stops being Troy to give Nini a chance to perform for YAC. However, this season once he and Nini are back together again, he was being selfish and thinking of himself again. When Nini goes to YAC, all he could really think about was how HER leaving was affecting him and his relationship with her.

For example, he would ask Gina for help on HIS own relationship, and sending Nini the message of how much he missed her and wishes she would be there because HE misses her so much. And thinking that Nini came home for him and him only. Plus, he thinks that the rose song that she wrote was SPECIFICALLY related to him, and then the whole situation with Miss Jenn and his dad, in which he was only thinking about himself and his feelings, with no regards to theirs. However, in episode 10, he finally stops being selfish and really opened his eyes to his surroundings, as he helped Carlos with his song for Seb. I hope this development continues, and once he realizes that he needs to stop being selfish, and is able to handle change and mature as a person, then maybe the Rini ship can happen once again. Another thing I’ve noticed about their “angst” in season 2 was the long-distance relationship, especially in episode 3. Although, Ricky and Nini were in the same city, throughout the episode, it still felt like they were going long-distance, which was probably foreshadowing their breakup. They only communicated through their phones that episode, and even at the end, their songs for each other wasn’t sang in person, but through the phone. As for predictions on the Rini relationship, I think that if Tim only plans on 3 seasons, then Rini will probably get back together at the end of Season 3, but if he has 4 seasons planned (which I am hoping for), then Rini will probably get back together then. Now we also have to take into consideration the career of Olivia Rodrigo. We do not know if she wants to continue with HSM, and even she herself is not sure. What I think will happen is, if Olivia decides she wants to take her music career to the next level, I think a really easy way to write her out without breaking the contract, would be to have her travel to L.A. to work on her music for the summer, so that there will be reason as to why she is absent for most of the season. This will probably take 1 episode to do and Olivia can spend the rest of her time focusing on her music. However, if Olivia decides she still wants to work full time in this season, then she might stay in Salt Lake and do the musical and write some songs for Jamie, etc but personally I think Olivia would want to focus on her music more than the show, as she posts about it more on social media than the show, and even with interviews. Nini might return for the final episode when summer ends and the new school year starts, so Olivia might just be in like 2 episodes. That’s my take on Rini for now, we get back to Ricky later.

E.J. & Gina:

Portwell is literally my favourite ship of the series, and it is just amazing. I personally would not like to see any angst in their relationship next season, but honestly it is probably going to happen and here’s why. Their relationship was built really steadily and took a long time to flourish. With other couples, like Seblos, Redlyn and Kowie, they got together awfully fast, taking 2-3 episodes to truly get together. So, the angst that those couples go through gets resolved rather quickly. Seblos with their relationship gets solved within 1-2 episodes, for the whole “does he like me because im the only gay one” storyline. Redlyn has the whole “Antoine” situation (which I will get back to later) and the “Red’s future” which again, took 1 episode to resolve. And Kourtney and Howie took 1-2 episodes to resolve the whole “Howie is from North high” and “Why Howie seems weird”. The reason is because those couples got together really quickly, and therefore their angst can be easily resolved through that, and wouldn’t really take time to fix. As you can see, Rini took a while to really get together. They were childhood friends off screen and we get to see their past relationship through flashbacks in season 1, but technically they took around 10 episodes to fully get back together. They have their cute., fluffy episodes for the first 4-5 episodes of season 2, but then their angst slowly starts to build at episode 5-6. It drags on until episode 8 where they fully break up, and counting episode 9 with their take on how they’re handling the breakup, so that’s around 5 episodes worth of angst for the couple that took 10 episodes to get together. So, with Portwell, they’ve technically been building them up at the end of season 1, but we’ll truly count the buildup starting from the Quincenero episode, which is episode 5, and they had 7 episodes worth of relationship buildup. So, I think, for the first 4 episodes, we’ll see some fluff and cute moments between the two when summer starts (and hopefully some kisses cuz like please I need to see at least one), but the angst will probably start in the middle of the season. It might take like around 4-5 episodes to fix, but I truly believe that they will not break up, and it will get resolved either near the final episode or the final episode of the season. Now for the REASON of their angst. I truly think the only “angst” worthy storyline is about EJ going off the college. As I can’t think of anything else that can topple their relationship. Firstly, EJ knows about the chocolates, which makes me think that he probably knows about Gina’s past crush on Ricky. Secondly, they resolved the whole “Big Brother” situation, and EJ knows that Gina doesn’t see her in that way. And the character development of E.J. and Gina. Back in season 1, they were arrogant and straight up ambitious people, who really don’t care about how others feel, but they truly changed as people in season 1 and 2, and had their character development moments. The contrast with them and Rini is that Season 1 focused on rini’s relationship development and season 2 and maybe 3 will really focused on their CHARACTER development. For Portwell, I think that would be flipped as they already had their Character development in season 1 and 2, so we probably will see their RELATIONSHIP development in season 3. So, since they already had their character development, I think it would be pointless to have unnecessary drama about their personalities or jealousy or whatnot, since they truly developed as people. So, the only thing I can possibly think of for their angst is EJ college arc. I know that they will probably fix it, but still I’m dreading to see it as I don’t want Portwell angst anymore. ☹ (ALSO PLEASE GIVE ME A PORTWELL DUET!! I NEED IT! Also, an EJ solo)

Ricky & Gina:

Personally, I do not ship Rina. I don’t think they would make a good couple; however, I think they would be really good friends. Someone they could confide in about their issues like Gina said “Sometimes I tell you things I don’t tell anyone else” and Ricky being like “I think we do that for each other.” We didn’t really get to see Ricky and Gina resolve their issues in season 2, partly because of Ricky’s character development. I am hoping to see in season 3, Ricky working on himself and fixing up his friendship with Gina. I think something that might happen is when Gina is going through her angst with EJ, and Ricky going through his own angst with Lily, they might be able to give each other advice and on how to handle it. However, PLEASE for the love of God, do not drag the whole love triangle back, because we do not need it. Gina has truly gotten over Ricky, and Ricky never seeing Gina as someone for his romantic relationship anyways, and he really needs to work on himself more, they should not be together as a couple. However, I do hope that they amend their friendship and is able to confide in each other once more, which I think will be cool and really help with Ricky’s character development.

Ricky & Lily:

Now this one. We know they will not be endgame, and I am 90% sure of the fact that Lily does not have romantic feelings for Ricky. Sure, she might find him attractive (and I mean who can blame her, Joshua Bassett is gorgeous), but she definitely does not like him in that way. We can see it when she “confesses” to him, she said to him “I like your brown hair and brown eyes” which are all physical descriptions of him, nothing about his personality which makes sense because she barely knows him, so how could she develop feelings for someone she doesn’t know. She has also stolen the harness, so we know that there would be no way that she likes him, and at the end of season 2, we don’t even get to see her feeling guilty about doing it, because she likes him. So that definitely setting in stone on how she’s only using him and manipulating him. Now for Ricky, yes you might be thinking “oh he’s calling her, why?” But Ricky does not know what we know. He was not there when Lily was talking to Gina about their roles as Belle, he was not there when Lily was laughing at Big Red, he was not there when she had a conversation with Miss Jenn, and he was not there when she planned with Antoine and when she stole the harness. In Ricky’s eyes, the reason that she was so mean to them is because of the Menkies, and their schools were enemies and rivals for it. He doesn’t know about Lily’s evil and ambitious side, and he believes that the Menkies might have made her that way. For example, he knows that the Menkies has turned Miss Jenn into someone different and a little bit mean, so he assumed the same for Lily, and when she asked for a second chance, Ricky gave it to her as he didn’t know. I feel like for the first couple of episodes, it will show Lily and Ricky “bonding” or getting to know each other, but Lily lying about the whole situation and really planning something behind his back, but we don’t know what yet. Maybe Ricky will be like “Huh, she’s a cool person, I’m starting to like her.” But then figuring out her plan, and finding out that she stole the harness. He then will be very upset and kind of heartbroken as he gave her a chance and she was only manipulating him the whole time. Maybe then, his character development will continue to grow and he will realize that he does not need to be in a relationship right now, and that he needs to work on himself and mature as a person. And I think him and Lily’s “relationship” will be a strong pushing point that he needs.

Seb & Carlos:

Now Seblos is one of my favourite ships in the show, and I love them to bits and pieces. However, as regarding their relationship, I feel like they have already resolved all their angst in season 2, it will be hard to make up angst for them in season 3, if they ever have one. I would like to say this though, I knew there was going to be angst for them in season 2, but the way they built it up, I thought the angst would be about how Carlos’ family is really rich, and Seb can’t compare because he lives on a farm, and it might make him self-conscious. Cause that’s where it seemed to be leading in the first few episodes of Season 2 (the sled, cashmere etc.). However, they brought a completely different angst to them which I thought was pretty surprising. Personally, I think they should’ve done the “class/money” difference in season 2, and then maybe the whole “why are you with me” angst for season 3, but maybe they MIGHT switch it around for season 3, and have the whole “class/money” difference then. Although, that’s probably the only “issue” I see for them ever, cause they’re a power couple and like what other angst could there be? Maybe they’ll introduce a new love interest but I highly doubt it because they already resolved the “I choose you always” in season 2. So, hoping there’s no Seblos angst, but if they do decide to throw in one, that might be the one they’ll do.

Big Red & Ashlyn:

Again, Redlyn is one of my favourite ships and they’re just so amazing. However, their storyline is hopefully again, all fluff for season 3, but one thing I realised that they didn’t really resolve in season 2 was the whole “Antoine” storyline. After episode 7, they never really talked about it again and introduced the new angst next episode with the whole “Career” thing. I feel like Antoine will be a more recurring character in season 3, as he only got like what? 10 minutes worth of screentime this season? (Maybe even less) and especially at the end as he joined Natalie in the final scene. So maybe there will be more of him in the next season, and slowly moving in on Ashlyn and making Big Red feeling like he’s not good enough, and then maybe Redlyn will FINALLY get their “I love you” confession then, because WE NEED IT! I’m manifesting for Redlyn “I love you” next season, and I think the whole situation with Antoine would be a nice way for Ashlyn to TRULY confirm to Big Red how much she loves him and how grateful she is for him, and vice versa. (Also manifesting for more EJ and Big Red friendship moments, like maybe Big Red goes for EJ for advice for his relationship with Ashlyn, and maybe EJ confiding in Big Red for Gina as well)

Kourtney & Howie:

As for Kourtney and Howie, they’re probably still going to work at the pizza shop together and continue to bond. A plot point that I think will be very interesting is maybe Kourtney trying to convince Howie to move to East High, but Howie kind of not wanting to, because he spent like 3 years there and it’s kind of his home. That might be a nice storyline to do, or it can be the opposite, where Howie is trying to transfer to North High, but Kourtney being worried like “Is he going to North High for me? I don’t want that, what if he hates it here”, but Howie confirming that he’s going to North High because the environment for him is better there and less competitive and toxic than North High. That might be a storyline that can happen for these two. I would also like for them to have a duet as well; I think Dara’s strong voice goes well with Roman’s soft voice and it would mesh well together.

Miss Jenn & Mr. Mazarra:

Now this one is a toughie, but I have some theories. Now we know that Ricky has given Miss Jenn permission to date his dad, which is another great character development for him, as he’s handling change and seeing other people’s happiness. However, as soon as he gave her permission, Mr. Mazarra confesses his feelings for Miss Jenn, which seemingly makes her happy, as we did get to see a little smile on her face when he did. Throughout Season 2, Benjamin was really the one comforting her, and giving her courage for the Menkies. We see it through episode 8, when he helped Miss Jenn film the commercial and how he put so much effort into making her coffee and setting up a table, just so she could relax. Same goes for episode 10, when she confides in him, and he acting like a therapist to her and accepting her anxious feelings, and helping her feel calmer and better. They are both opening up to each other. And I believe Miss Jenn truly appreciates him as a colleague and a friend. Now another moment is when Ricky’s dad comes to the show with flowers, and she was talking with Mr. Mazarra at the moment. When he called out her name, she smiles awkwardly and immediate turns to Mr. Mazarra saying something along the lines up “Why we always running into him?” and very awkwardly makes his way to him and you could tell she was slightly uncomfortable, with her awkward smiles and everything. This really contrasts from episode 3, where she herself walks up to Ricky’s dad and starts up a conversation, and how now, it is the other way around. Now, the whole problem of Mr. Mazarra leaving for Caltech. He confesses his romantic feelings to Miss Jenn, and really emphasizes on how she’s the only one who is stopping him from running off the California, which I believe that she is a big part of why, but also not fully. We really get to see Mr. Mazarra bonding with a lot of the students this season as well, E.J., Ricky, etc. I feel like he truly cares for his students, and in season 3, maybe he is thinking about if he really wants to stay in Utah for his students and of course, his budding relationship with Miss Jenn. Now, there was a scene in episode 4, where he was confiding to EJ about his rejection from Caltech. And he admits to EJ how he doesn’t think about Caltech very much anymore. He’s made his peace with it. This kind of mirrors EJ’s situation about Duke. EJ didn’t get into Duke from his own accord, but rather his dad got him in. Same can be said for Mr. Mazarra, EJ’s dad made the call for him for Caltech, and he didn’t really get in from his own as well, as he said previously, He was rejected many, many times. So maybe next season will really show him and his decision of staying at East High back in the fall, or leaving for Caltech. Now moving back to Miss Jenn. Next season, I feel like will focus on her and the students more, as this season, she was a really crappy teacher, and kept pushing them due to stress and wanting them to beat her ex at the Menkies. This season, I believe that she will return to the teacher that she was in season 1, and really focusing and hyping up the kids’ talents. I would love to see that Miss Jenn come back, and really help her students. Of course, the whole love triangle debacle will probably be fixed, I can maybe see Miss Jenn going out on a date with Ricky’s dad but thinking of Mr. Mazarra the whole time, and Ricky’s dad is a good man, so he might notice something is different about her, and tells her to go for it, her relationship with Mr. Mazarra before he moves or something. Also, since in season 2, we got to see Mr. Mazarra comfort Miss Jenn a lot, maybe this season will have Miss Jenn comforting Mr. Mazarra about Caltech, and if he truly wants to leave his students. Another thing I’d like to maybe see is Mr. Mazarra singing a song for Miss Jenn. We know that Mark St. Cyr has a good voice, as we saw from the Christmas special. So, him singing to Miss Jenn even though he doesn’t like musicals that much and all that, would show a lot of character development from Season 1.

Overall Plot:

Now, I have a few theories about summer. I’ve seen a lot of people saying they will go to a camp like “Camp Rock” which I think will be very likely to happen, and they put up a musical. What I can also see happening, is like High School Musical 2, where they go to a resort for work, and then putting up a musical there for the audience as well. Or they could just stay in Utah, and just relax for the summer, and not have any musical but just a lot of original songs about their summer in general and the stuff they’re going through. If they do a musical, I don’t think that they’ll do a musical from a movie or theatre, but rather write their own musical. I think it would be a really interesting concept, it can show us more imaginative and creative concept for a musical and have more original songs for the season. I would truly love to see that.

So that’s all for the character analysis and predictions I have for Season 3, sorry if it’s long lol

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the-desolated-quill · 3 years

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WandaVision: ‘Subverting’ Good Television - Quill’s Scribbles

(Spoilers for the first five episodes)

Hey everyone! Well... it’s been a while, hasn’t it? The last time I wrote a proper review or Scribble, people still thought the COVID crisis would be over within a month. The poor saps. But I thought that as a special way to mark this year’s Valentines Day, we could take a closer look at the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s shittiest power couple in their new Disney+ show WandaVision.

The first of many MCU spin-off shows that nobody asked for, broadcast exclusively on Disney’s totally unnecessary streaming platform, WandaVision is about everybody’s favourite whitewashed Nazi experiment and her red sexbot boyfriend as they try to fit into a suburban sitcom neighbourhood without arousing suspicion.

Yes, you read that correctly. The MCU has a sitcom now. My life is now complete.

Sarcasm aside, I was legitimately curious about WandaVision because of its unusual setting. And considering one of my most common criticisms of the MCU is its total lack of creativity, anything that’s even a little bit subversive is bound to attract my attention. Of course ‘subversive’ doesn’t necessarily mean ‘good.’ I could hand you a canvas smeared with my own shit and call it subversive. That doesn’t necessarily make it good art. And that’s exactly what WandaVision is. A canvas smeared with shit.

So lets split this critical analysis/review/angry bitter rant into two distinct chapters. The first focusing on the plot and setting, and the second focusing on the characters. Okay? Okay.

Chapter 1: Bewitched

Critics seem to be utterly enamoured with the whole sitcom gimmick, and it is a gimmick. As far as I can tell from the episodes I’ve seen, the sitcom setting serves no real purpose whatsoever other than to make the show ‘quirky.’ Which I wouldn’t mind, believe it or not, if the show was actually funny. There’s just one problem. It’s not.

Now in some ways describing why a sitcom doesn’t work is often futile because comedy is largely subjective. What I find funny, you won’t necessarily find funny and vice versa. With WandaVision, however, I won’t have that problem. I can demonstrate to you precisely why WandaVision, objectively, isn’t funny. And it all comes down to one simple thing. The stakes. Or rather the complete and total absence of stakes.

The show makes it very clear from the beginning that none of what we’re seeing is real. The cheesy theme song, the era appropriate special effects (mostly. It’s actually very inconsistent), the joke commercials, and, in the case of the first two episodes, which are in black and white, the appearance of red lights and objects in Scarlet Witch’s general vicinity. (Gee, what a mystery this is).

Basically Wanda has brought Vision back from the dead and created this sitcom world for them to inhabit. I’ll explain the stupidity of this in Chapter 2. The point is none of this is real, and that has a negative effect on the comedy because the very nature of comedy is suffering. Take the plot of the first episode. Wanda and Vision have to prepare a dinner to impress Vision’s boss. If they fail, Vision could lose his job and the couple could be exposed as superheroes. If this were a normal sitcom, it would work. The stakes are clear and it would be satisfying to see the two struggle and overcome the odds. But here, we know it’s not real. If it’s not real, it means there’s no stakes. If there’s no stakes, it means there’s no suffering. If there’s no suffering, there’s no comedy.

It would be one thing if the unfunny sitcom stuff lasted for like the first ten minutes or so before making way for the actual plot, but it doesn’t. Oh no. It doesn’t even last for the first episode. Out of the five episodes I’ve watched, four of them are almost entirely about these unfunny, objectively flawed sitcom homages, each set in a different time period. The fifties, the sixties, and so on. And what’s worse is that nothing that happens in them is plot-relevant. That gets relegated to the last five minutes of an episode. So you’re forced to sit through twenty five minutes of boring slapstick and puns in order to catch even a whiff of actual story. Which begs the question... who is this for exactly? It can’t be entertaining to Marvel fans, who have to slog through all this pointless shit so they can figure out what the fuck is going on. Comedy fans may get a kick out of the sitcom pastiche at first, but after four episodes, surely the joke would wear thin. So why is it in here? Clearly someone in the writer’s room absolutely fell in love with the idea of doing a Marvel sitcom, but nobody put in any time or effort to figure out how it would work in context.

I cannot stress enough how bad the plotting of this series is. As I said, the vast majority of a thirty minute episode is about shitty sitcom plots that aren’t funny and don’t have any impact on the story, only to then tease you with a crumb of actual plot in order to keep you coming back for the next instalment. Admittedly it’s an effective strategy. I was more than ready to quit after Episode 2 until that beekeeper showed up out of the sewer (don’t ask. It’s not important). WandaVision essentially follows the Steven Moffat school of bad writing. String your audience along with the promise that things might get more interesting later on and that all the bullshit that came before will retroactively make sense by the end. Except, as demonstrated with BBC’s Sherlock, that doesn’t work. And even if it did, it wouldn’t justify wasting the audience’s fucking time. And that’s what the majority of WandaVision is. A waste of time.

The only episode that doesn’t follow the sitcom format is the fourth episode. Instead it basically exists to explain all the shit that happened before. The shit that the audience, frankly, are smart enough to figure out for themselves. Wanda created the sitcom world as a way of coping with the loss of Vision, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, we got it. Thanks. It doesn’t advance the plot or anything. It’s just a massive info-dump. But by far the lowest point was when Darcy (by far the most annoying character in the first Thor film and is just as obnoxious here) was sat in front of the TV, watching the sitcom and asking the same questions we were. Not even attempting to look for answers. Just reiterating what the audience is thinking. Like this is an episode of fucking Gogglebox.

In the end it becomes apparent why the series is structured the way that it is. It’s to hoodwink people into subscribing to Disney’s stupid streaming service. If you think about it, there was no reason for WandaVision to be a TV series other than to lure gullible fans in with a piece-meal story buried in a mountain of crap. This isn’t a TV show. It’s what is cynically known in the world of big business executives as ‘content.’ They’re not interested in entertaining the audience. Instead they crave ‘engagement’, which isn’t the same thing. Watching WandaVision is like staring into the void, waiting for something to happen, while Disney charge you for the privilege.

Chapter 2: I Love Lucy

So the plot sucks balls. What about the characters? Surely if Wanda and Vision are likeable at least, it’ll give us something to cling onto.

Well as I was watching the first episode, it suddenly hit me that I couldn’t remember anything that happened to them in previous films. I knew Vision died, but other than that, I couldn’t tell you significant plot details or their personalities or anything. Not a great start.

See, up until now, Vision and Scarlet Witch have been little more than background characters. So already there’s an uphill struggle to get us invested in their relationship, especially considering we haven’t actually seen that relationship develop. In Avengers: Age Of Ultron, Scarlet Witch is killing people because she’s pissed off about Tony Stark killing people (you work that one out) until all of a sudden she stops and joins the good guys because the script said so. Vision meanwhile is introduced as a convenient deus ex machina to beat Ultron and gets no real personality other than he’s a robot. Captain America: Civil War comes the closest to giving Wanda a story and personality of her own as it’s her actions that cause the Sokovia Accords to come into effect, but she never gets any real growth or payoff as the film is heavily focused on Cap and Iron Man’s penis measuring contest. And as for Vision, all he does in the film is accidentally cripple War Machine. No real character or arc there as such. And then we have Avengers: Infinity War, where Wanda and Vision are now sporadically in love and on the run until that pesky Josh Brolin, looking like a CGI cross between Joss Whedon and a grumpy grape, comes along and rips out Vision’s Infinity Stone to power up his golden glove of doom, and the film treats this like a tragic moment, except... it isn’t. Because we haven’t really had the time to properly get to know these characters and see their romance blossom. So instead it just comes off as hollow and forced.

WandaVision has the exact same problem. Apparently Wanda was so distraught about Vision’s death that she broke into a SWORD base, stole his corpse, brought it back from the dead... somehow, and then enslaved an entire town of people to create an idyllic lifestyle for her and her hubby while broadcasting it as a sitcom to the outside world... for some reason. Putting aside the dubious morality of it all, it’s impossible to really sympathise with Wanda or her supposed grief because we’ve barely spent any time with her. Had the Marvel movies taken the time to properly explore the characters and show us their relationship grow and develop, this might have had more emotional resonance. But no, it just happens. In one film they barely speak to each other and in the next they’re a couple. No effort to explore how they feel about each other or any of the problems that may arise trying to date a robot. It just happens and we’re just supposed to care. Well I’m sorry, but I don’t care. You’re going to have to try a little bit harder than that I’m afraid. What’s worse is that, thanks to the whole fake sitcom thing, it’s impossible to really become invested in Wanda and her plight because the show has to constantly keep us at arms length at all times in order to keep up the pretence that this bullshit is somehow mysterious.

Looking through the WandaVision tag, it amuses me how many people say that she’s acting out of character. And yeah, her actions are a bit of a head scratcher. Why would an Eastern European’s ideal life be an American sitcom? Why a sitcom? Why kidnap an entire town? Why keep changing the decade? None of it makes sense, but you’re wrong for thinking that Wanda is behaving out of character for the simple reason that Wanda has never actually had a character. In fact, ironically, Wanda mind controlling an entire town and forcing them to do her bidding is probably the one consistent thing about her as she did this in Age Of Ultron. In interviews, Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany described how they used actors like Elizabeth Montgomery and Dick Van Dyke as influences, which is really funny because they’re straight up admitting they don’t have characters and even now they’re still not playing the characters, instead emulating the work of far better actors.

As I was watching the show, it became abundantly clear that not only do Marvel not have the faintest idea what they wanted to do with these characters, but they also straight up don’t give a shit about these characters. Wanda in particular has had a rough time under the tyrannical regime of the House of Mouse. First they cast Elizabeth Olsen, a white woman, to play a Romani character, then systematically erasing her Jewish roots, even going so far as to put a cross in her bedroom in Civil War, and now the character is being butchered even more by forcing her into an American sitcom housewife role that she apparently willingly chose for herself, which is laughable. I mean say what you like about Magneto in the X-Men films, at least they actually depicted his Jewish culture. At least they recognised his Jewish background was important (though not important enough to cast a Jewish actor apparently). Wanda’s steady cultural erasure over the years is incredibly insidious and judging by Olsen’s comments in interviews, where she called Wanda’s comic book outfit a quote ‘gypsy thing’ unquote, it seems nobody has an ounce of fucking respect for the character or the culture she’s supposed to be representing. (and to all those kissing her arse saying it was a slip of the tongue, she has been repeatedly called out for using the slur in the past, so at this point I’d describe her behaviour as wilful ignorance)

If you want further proof of how much Marvel doesn’t seem to care about Wanda, look no further than her brother Pietro, aka Quicksilver. At the end of Episode 5, Wanda brings Pietro back from the dead, except it’s not Pietro. It’s Peter Maximoff, the Quicksilver from the X-Men films played by Peter Evans, who coincidentally is not Jewish or Romani either. So Quicksilver has the dubious honour of not only being whitewashed three times, but also twice within the same franchise. But should we really be surprised at this point? It’s Marvel after all. The same company that whitewashed the Ancient One in Doctor Yellowface and claimed it wasn’t racist because Tilda Swinton is ‘Celtic’. But now I’m going off topic. My point is that this isn’t a simple case of recasting an actor like Mark Ruffalo replacing Edward Norton as the Hulk. WandaVision actually acknowledges the recast in-universe, which makes no sense. Why would Wanda bring back her brother, only to make him look like a different person? We the audience may be familiar with this version of Quicksilver, but she isn’t. That would be like me bringing my Grandad back to life and making him look like Ian McKellen. He’d be perfectly charming, I’m sure, but he wouldn’t be my Grandad.

If Marvel really cared about the characters or narrative consistency, they would have brought Aaron Taylor Johnson back. Instead, now they have absorbed 20th Century Fox into the hellish Disney abyss, they use X-Men’s Quicksilver as a means to keep viewers from switching off and so that people will write stupid articles and think pieces about whether the rest of the X-Men will show up in the MCU. It’s like dangling your keys in front of a toddler’s face to distract them from the rotting corpse of a raccoon lying face down in the corner of the room.

And it’s here where I decided to stop watching the show because fuck Disney.

Epilogue: One Foot In The Grave

You know, I am sick and tired of the so called ‘professional’ critics bending over backwards to praise these god awful films and shows when it’s so clear to anyone with a functioning brain cell how bad they truly are. WandaVision is without a doubt one of the most cynically produced and poorly structured TV shows I’ve ever seen. Its riffs on classic sitcoms are pointless and self-indulgent, the writing is terrible, the characters are unlikable and unsympathetic, and it’s entirely emblematic of what the entire MCU has become of late. And it’s only going to get worse as Disney drowns us with more ‘content’ to keep the plebs ‘engaged’. In short; pathetic.

#anti wandavision #anti marvel #anti mcu #anti disney #quill's scribbles

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whitleyschn33 · 4 years

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Hey, I don't mean to bother you again, but if you're still feeling up to it, I'd still like to see your opinions on each member of the Schnee family. No pressure if you don't want to do it though; I still appreciate seeing whatever you do post.

Hey!

You’re not bothering me, trust me. My motivation for... well, everything, but this blog in particular fluctuates pretty wildly, and that means that asks can sit in my inbox for months. The world going to hell hasn’t helped much. Also, every single time I’ve tried to write this, I’ve ended losing chunks of it cause I was too dumb to just type this in a word doc and copy-paste, so that’s been frustrating, to say the least.

Now that I’ve gotten smarter, though, let’s get into the Schnees!

Jacques

I have mixed feelings about how he was (potentially) written out of the show (and I have a feeling I’m going to be saying that a lot in this reply). I said in this post awhile back that I didn’t want Jacques to become an agent of Salem because something like that would most likely become the focal point of his asshole-ness and shove everything else to the side. That feeling holds true, but not really in the way I had been expecting.

How he ended up benefiting Salem, I’m perfectly good with. Him not knowing about Salem or Watts’ motives for making the deal with him, making the deal because it of how it would benefit him and not to serve Salem/kill people - that I’m good with. He was an unknowing pawn Watts/Salem manipulated around the board, but not a mustache-twirling villain all on board with working with the genocidal maniac/serving on her council of villains, and that’s all I really wanted - for him to not be a knowing member of Salem’s board of evil. Being part of a group that desires global destruction just doesn’t fit his motives – can’t make money off people if they’re all dead.

However, the fact that that’s why he was arrested - that his downfall was due to and focused solely on being involved in a Salem plot that just popped up this volume rather than anything to do with his treatment of the Schnees or the Faunus - that kinda rankles. This goes back to the ask I answered a while back - the focus on all the new plots and characters that meant a lot of the old stuff that’s been built up was shoved aside. Jacques being taken down feels like it should have been this huge emotional climax, tensions running high with all of the Schnees there and a huge release of all of those tensions as Jacques gets taken down for the crimes that we as the audiences most revile him for – his treatment of the Schnees. Instead it was… none of that. Jacques is arrested by Weiss for his aid to Watts… and she promptly cracks a joke about it to kill the tension. Winter is able to get in a decent snap at him, but that’s it from her. The entirety of Jacques’ arrest is focused on the heating crisis. He’s dragged off, and only Willow and Whitley get to witness and react to it, and even that’s just a look from Willow and Whitley running off looking completely done with everything – they don’t even react with each other. There’s nothing in Jacques’ downfall about his abuse to his wife and children or even the Faunus, it’s all the election and Watts – plot points that don’t hold nearly as much weight to the audience as ones that have been set up for years.

So, TLDR for Jacques: I actually hope this isn’t the last we see of him, because that would be a disappointing way to end the Schnee’s arc as a family. At the very least, I hope we get to see him talked about between Winter, Willow, and Whitley if/when they actually get to talk to each other.

Willow

Mixed Feelings: Round Two.

Her design? Love it. Her conversation with Weiss? Gold. Willow as a character? A bit more involved than I would’ve thought from how very non-existent she’s been up until now and implied to have been in Weiss’s life, but I can roll with her being a bit more aware than I would’ve gone with. Willow’s role in this volume? Ehhhhhhhh….

I hate that she literally just has a camera hidden in Jacques’ office and recorded the entire thing. It seems like such a cheap way of Weiss getting the information she needed, and comes out of nowhere after there was already a way for her to get the information set up in Whitley. Seriously – we already had Whitley established as having seen Watts, seen Jacques’ reaction to him, look suspicious at Watts, and hear at least the man’s first name. Whitley absolutely had the information Weiss needed – so why the hell pull “Willow actually has cameras set up everywhere” out of thin air? And actually – wouldn’t Jacques have his office swept for cameras and bugs on the regular? You know, like the head of an extremely powerful organization and high-profile target of at least one major terrorist group probably would? To prevent something like this exact situation from happening? I just find it hard to believe that she could’ve set them up for long without being found, and setting them up just before something important to the plot happened in that room is just very convenient.

And like, there’s actually no reason that it needed to be that way. Willow and Weiss could have had the same conversation, just swap out the lines about the cameras with “I don’t know, but I know who would – your brother”, and you can even have Weiss still say that he wants nothing to do with her and Willow agree with her “you left him here with us” line, prompting Weiss to seek him out to get the information she needs and maybe even have a heart-to-heart with him. Whitley wouldn’t even have to give up the information in that conversation – he could be incredibly stubborn about it and unwilling to help until Weiss is called into a meeting about the heating crisis, which Whitley would absolutely follow into to listen whether he’s invited or not, and hearing what’s going done, decide to step up and come clean, realizing if he doesn’t, thousands of people will die. I can actually picture it in my head, and it would be so much better than just “Oh, yeah, I got cameras that recorded the entire nefarious conversation.”

And I’ve spent this entire section not really talking about Willow. Uhh… again, I really like her design. I like that she’s wearing purple, a color no other Schnee wears (except… Whitley with that wine… hmmm) – a mixture of red and blue, her freedom being drowned in something else until it’s completely tainted. Her voice is good, and for the most part, I really do like her conversation with Weiss. I also love that she finally points out what me and other Whitley fans have been screaming for ages – that you can’t expect someone that you basically abandoned (in his eyes) to look favorably on you, and I like that she acknowledges her own role in that, that she’s been a poor parent as well, and actively a detriment to Whitley.

TLDR, I like Willow, I just hate the damn cameras that seem to only exist for this plot point (since if they existed before, shouldn’t Weiss being hit be what they were meant to capture?).

Winter

Best girl, hands down. Not kidding, Winter basically carried this volume for me – rational, yet having very human reactions to things while recognizing that the emotional response isn’t necessarily the right one, the star of a badass fight with Cinder in which her Aura breaks but she still goes on fighting and holding her own against a damn Maiden, an awesome new outfit, wonderful conversations with Penny and just a very interesting relationship with her overall, actually gets to fight back against Jacques to his face – is there any point where this woman doesn’t exceed all my expectations?

I wasn’t a huge Winter fan before this volume, but I’ve successfully been converted. Second favorite Schnee for sure.

Weiss

On thin ice. Still my favorite of the RWBY crew, but considering how much of a nose dive the other three (in particular Ruby) took in this volume, that’s not saying a lot. A lot of what irks me with Weiss are… little moments. Implying that Winter shouldn’t trust Ironwood because he “could” be keeping secrets when she’s the one lying while Ironwood has been nothing but honest, the implication that Winter isn’t capable of making her own choices in regards to the military and the Maiden and that Ironwood must have been grooming her (I really hate this implication, both for trying to tear Ironwood down and for trying to rob Winter of her own agency – like, joining the military was her choice, her escape from Jacques, and you want to turn that into some kind of long game manipulation on Ironwood’s part? You want to prove Jacques of all people right in that he “stole” Winter, rather than Winter making her own choices and Ironwood recognizing her abilities and offering her the Maiden’s powers? Really?), trying to brush aside Ironwood’s concerns about just how much RWBY has done behind his back, calling Mantle “her home” when it’s never been that in front of Marrow who is almost certainly from Mantle – just, a lot of little things that I really dislike, not to mention that this is probably the worst design she’s had. But there hasn’t been anything that’s just blatantly ruined her for me, and she remains the most interesting and well executed character of RWBY for me.

TLDR, a lot of bratty moments that push me away from her, but still holds promise.

Whitley

My poor boy! He finally got more screentime and some of our headcanons comfirmed, but made the butt of a joke that could’ve easily been replaced with character development and underutilized so much. I’d say mixed feelings, but no – love his character, hate how he was used would probably be the best summary. Of course, I’m very much biased, but let’s not let something like that stop me.

More screentime! And letting him talk to someone other than Weiss! His banter with Ironwood was good, seeing his reactions to Jacques, how afraid and timid he was, was heartbreaking, and even if it didn’t go anywhere, his suspicion of Watts was nice to see. It’s always sweet to see headcanons confirmed too – the painting of him playing the piano was nice, and even if I’d have rather had it come out of his own mouth, Willow’s confirmation of him feeling abandoned by Weiss was such a satisfying thing to hear.

On the other hand, I absolutely hate the wine prank. It was way too drawn out and petty – seeing so much joy on JNR’s face while setting it up over the course of a whole minute and using an stack of food half his size to toss onto him – it was way too over the top. If they had to go for the food thing, having Oscar (or someone else, but Oscar is the one without a huntsman license, so he’s more believably clumsy) just pretend to trip with a regular plate and get it on his shirt would’ve been just fine, and we could’ve gotten a nice interaction between Whitley and someone new and get some character development. But nope. We got to have RBYJNR take way too much glee in dumping a mountain of food on a boy they’ve never met before for… talking to his sister and unwittingly getting in their way. It just puts a bad taste in my mouth.

And of course, what I talked about in Willow’s section, the set up of him seeing Watts going absolutely nowhere. Seriously – you set up the perfect opportunity, and then took an out-of-nowhere cop out. It feels like such a squandered set-up, and really disappoints me.

At least we actually got him reacting to Jacques, and it was given an appropriate emotion and fitting cinematography. I love the shot of Whitley sitting all alone on the stairs, watching the only person that actually gives him attention being dragged away without explanation, and seeing the weariness and sadness in his expression as he looks up – I love it, I love it so much. The last bit of hope that they may actually treat my boy right in the end…

TLDR: My boy!

And there you have it! Months late, my thoughts on the Schnee after the most recent volume! How will these change after volume 8? Hopefully for the better, but we’ll have to wait and see!

Thank you for the ask, and once again, sorry for the wait. I may try and take a few more hits at my inbox, but that’ll have to wait for tomorrow, since I’ve got work in the morning.

Have a good night, and stay safe!

#rwby #weiss schnee #winter schnee #whitley schnee #willow schnee #jacques schnee #rwby7 #ask reply

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fauzhee10069 · 4 years

Text

Tooru, the main villain or the red herring?

aka “Tooru, the underrated villain”

Tooru, the mysterious boy who started from being an unassuming part-time worker and Yasuho’s ex-boyfriend, is currently the main focus in JoJolion since chapter 97.

Tooru appeared first in chapter 81, during the middle of Dr. Wu fight. It happened casually as Yasuho coincidentally met with him and they greeted like an old-friend, it was then revealed that he was her ex-boyfriend. He doesn’t give strong impression to the readers, though his sudden appearance while a Stand fight was still going on is quite suspicious. In the pursuit of HD, he bumped several times with Yasuho (and the gang) with the intention of going steady with her again, while sometimes he acted rather suspiciously.

The mystery regarding Tooru is slowly being revealed, in chapter 97 we begin to see him as a villain: he didn’t come to Higashikata’s mansion to save Yasuho, he seemed to know the situation that had happened in the mansion, he is “somehow” connected to The Head Doctor that he seems to know what is going on there (hospital) and finally, he also wanted The New Locacaca.

Chapter 98 even revealed the bigger twist that Head Doctor Akefu is actually a Stand! It is quite impressive that a Stand can hold an important position as Head Doctor in a well-known hospital, it even held a conference not long ago. This chapter also revealed the connection between Tooru and Akefu, he knows the situation there through Akefu’s eyes. He also mentioned “calamity” which is the keyword for HD’s ability. Another mystery brought by Tooru is that he knows about “the saint”.

JJL chapter 98: Endless Calamity – part 4

Chapter 99 revealed greater information about Tooru, that he is a rock-human. This answers the mystery of how he knows about “the saint”. Furthermore, we found out the name of HD as a Stand, 「Wonder of U」. 「Wonder of U」 also revealed that he had a hand in ruining Rai’s life in the past.

Chapter 100 still affirmed 「Wonder of U」’s involvement in Rai's past and talked about “calamity”. This chapter also reinforced the notion that Araki does eventually change Rai's backstory (so that the story in chapter 75 becomes less relevant).

Therefore, what we got about Tooru so far:

He is a part-time worker in T.G.U Hospital.

He is Yasuho’s ex-boyfriend who dated her during her high-school years.

He is somehow connected to the Head Doctor Akefu.

He is a rock-human.

He wants the New Locacaca.

He knows about “the saint”.

He knows about “calamity”.

Head Doctor Akefu is a Stand named 「Wonder of U」 and Tooru could be the user.

What are still lacking from Tooru are his personal backstory and his motivation, but given that Araki is focused on him right now, I am sure that this mystery will soon be resolved.

How is Tooru underrated?

Many readers doubt Tooru’s role as a big villain, the main reason is because of him appeared in the story fairly late. I myself am still wary and do not immediately believe that he will be the main villain.

However, with those eight points above Tooru had in recent chapters, should be enough to consider him a big player in “the race of (New) Locacaca”. If he is not the main villain, at least he should be a major villain.

TL;DR is available in the end

Tooru and 「Wonder of U」

One of the things that makes readers doubt him is about his connection to 「Wonder of U」. Some have already believed that Tooru is its user, whereas some others haven't. Those who don’t believe it assume that Tooru is more of a partner to the original WOU’s user. Perhaps the thing that makes it difficult for readers to consider Tooru as WOU’s user is because Araki had been building up WOU as a figure, “The Head Doctor Akefu Satoru”.

Prior to Tooru’s debut, HD Akefu became a major player associated with Locacaca and the rock-humans organization. He had been hinted since chapter 76, the end part of Ozon Baby arc. He led the Head Doctor gang, he let Damokan Group to roam around (under his watch), chapter 99 and 100 also revealed that he has been involved in Rai’s past.

When the first hint of HD existence emerged, his subordinates had begun to fall one by one at that time (Urban Guerilla and Poor Tom). HD became the main focus in the pursuit by Josuke’s gang since chapter 83.

HD Akefu has prominent role in the struggle of Locacaca and the rock-humans, HD Akefu to the readers is like an individual character (a rock-human) who has a hand in the race of New Locacaca. Therefore, when he was revealed to be a Stand, it becomes difficult for the readers to accept that.

How can a Stand be able to act like human-being? Of course in the previous parts of JJBA, we already know about the existence of "sentient Stands", such as 「Anubis」, 「Baby Face」, 「Cheap Trick」, and 「Foo Fighters」, etc. But, no Stands have sentience capability to the extent of HD Akefu as it was able to hold a prominent position as The Head Doctor in a well-known hospital and even held a conference not long ago.

As readers, we should also remember that what we are reading here (JJBA) is the work of fiction, with Araki as “the god” in this fictional world. Thus, he has the right to change or add new things in his work and one of them might be: “a whole new type of Stand”.

The problem of some readers nowadays is that they are too fixated on the old rules/establishment, even though every rules contained in fictional stories can be added or changed at any time as the author wishes. JJBA might add new rule or category to its universe, as far as it doesn’t destroy its own world-building.

With the mindset that a Stand should not be able to do so, some readers have speculated that the real Head Doctor named “Akefu Satoru” character might actually exists, whether he is the big boss who is currently hiding or even as a posthumous character whose identity got stolen by rock-humans.

In addition, some readers are a bit uneasy to accept Tooru's plot twist that started from being a part-timer boy to be the leader of HD gang out of sudden. Which I think it’s quite contradictory to Caatofags who want a plot twist from an ex-housewife to be the grand mastermind. However…

In fact, the connection between Tooru and Head Doctor/「Wonder of U」 has been hinted at by Araki since his first debut.

Tooru made his debut in the two chapters prior to the pursuit of HD since chapter 83. His debut was in JJL chapter 81 during the middle of Dr. Wu arc.

Akefu Satoru is first mentioned in chapter 83, then made his first appearance in chapter 84. The title of chapter 84 itself is:

What a coincidence that HD Akefu's debut was in a chapter with its original name as 「Wonder of U」. Though it’s originally titled “The Head Doctor of TG University Hospital - part 1”, but the change of title is still Araki’s decision.

Besides, Tooru who coincidentally bumped several times with Yasuho (and the gang) acted like harmless neutral individual who is willing to help them modestly. As a part-timer in the hospital, he made them believe that he could lead them to Akefu.

JJL chapter 84: The Wonder of You (Your Miraculous Love) – part 1

Yeah, the first time Tooru led them to Akefu was also in the same chapter with the fully debuted Akefu, in the first part of “Wonder of You” arc as well. Six chapters (one volume) later, he was acting suspicious again as he lured Yasuho back into chasing Akefu.

JJL chapter 90: The Wonder of You (Your Miraculous Love) – part 7

Then, in the same chapter just before his suspicious action, Tooru had been talking about wireless charging, with electricity spills out and flies into the sky without the holes in the power lines.

I don’t want to be those Caatofags who’re overthinking everything, but this could be a hint of how he can connect with The Head Doctor, of how both he and his Stand can act independently, despite their great distance, and how both of them are able find out their respective situations at the same time.

Then he also told about the existence of “anxiety” and “anger” side by side. What he said reminds me of the duality in Diavolo and Doppio, perhaps this is a hint that there is also a duality between Tooru and Akefu Satoru/「Wonder of U」 or at least about Tooru’s true nature.

I may be thinking too much though, knowing how Araki likes to put small pieces of information unrelated to the plot yet quite informative. But putting that aside, there is another hint regarding Tooru and 「Wonder of U」, that both have blank eyes for a moment.

In chapter 97, there was a moment where Akefu was seen standing still strangely, like a machine that was turned off.

It is as if Tooru and Akefu take turns moving their consciousness. In addition, the same chapter also showed that Tooru was aware of the situation regarding Josuke in the hospital. Notice Tooru's eyes that didn't look blank at that time!

Endless Calamity – part 3

The recent chapter of 101 further emphasizes that Tooru is indeed the user of 「Wonder of U」.

JJL chapter 101: Endless Calamity – part 7

The Climactic Power of 「Wonder of U」

Out of all the Stands in JoJolion, 「Wonder of U」 is the most powerful Stand that has ever been shown so far. WOU has given a lot of trouble to the many factions in JJL who are actively fighting over The New Locacaca.

Sadly, some readers (especially The Caatofags) downplay its power and the fight that goes with it. They compared WOU arc like arcs with Vanilla Ice (3), Cioccolata (5), Donnatello Versace (6) and Axel Ro (7), that WOU will just be a closing fight between the protagonists and the last side villain, which will lead them to the actual main villain. How are they even comparable to be honest?

First, let's compare the arc length of each:

side villains comparison (by Caatofags)

Keep in mind that up to part 6, JJBA was published on “Weekly Shounen Jump”, in which the average number of pages per chapter at that time was only ±17 pages. Take a note as well that Wonder of U arc is still on-going, therefore the number of chapters on it will continue to grow.

As a side note, Underworld (Donatello)’s arc was dominating only up to chapter 124, the focus of subsequent chapters are then divided on “Heavy Weather arc” with Pucci and Weather Report. It's just that I decided to include them because Donatello officially died in chapter 137 (at the end of Heavy Weather arc).

But actually, that's not what's truly important. We should also consider how their respective arcs were being played out:

Vanilla Ice 「Cream」

Being brutally honest, comparing the WOU arc to Cream's battle is ... ridiculous. Why? Because the storyline of each part is already very different.

Let’s talk about part 3, it started with Kujo Holy who fell seriously ill, it turned out that the illness was caused by the awakening of the Joestar family’s Stands who was forced out by DIO. In order to save Holy (Jotaro's mother), The Stardust Crusaders went to Egypt to pursue DIO and stop him. Since then, DIO’s underlings appeared one by one to block the crusaders.

In short, since the beginning, the main story in part 3 focused on the crusaders' journey to stop DIO. DIO since the beginning had been the main objective for protagonists, in other words, “the main villain”. Yeah, the storyline in part 3 did not hold much mystery and was more straightforward. We knew the main villain since the very beginning and there was no surprising plot twist halfway that distorted the original objective.

Therefore, since the beginning, Vanilla Ice was just a side villain. Since the beginning of his debut, he was immediately introduced as DIO’s loyal servant and nothing more. Even if his battle with Polnareff and Iggy (RIP Avdol) was dramatic and tense, Vanilla Ice from the start was still a side villain whose sole purpose was to lead the crusaders to his DIO-sama.

Besides, the 「Cream」’s fight did not involve all the crusaders: Jotaro, Joseph and Kakyoin were away and uninvolved at the time.

Caatofags definitely need to learn how storylines actually work before they come up with any weird theories.

Cioccolata 「Green Day」 (and Secco 「Oasis」)

Comparing the WOU arc to the Green Day’s fight is just as ridiculous as “Vanilla Ice”. Unlike part 3, the appearance of the main villain in part 5 did happen a bit late. Throughout the Buccellati’s gang’s journey in uncovering his identity, he had remained mysterious.

However, since the beginning, part 5 has also been about Diavolo as the mafia boss. The protagonist joined his mafia, the protagonists gang was his underling. Since the beginning of the story, the protagonists have been somehow connected to the main villain.

The nature of the boss is so mysterious to the point that his underlings questioning him. Giorno as supposedly the main protagonist was targeting him, he intended to approach him via Buccellati and then overthrow him. Buccellati gang's first assignment (as Capo) was to escort the boss' daughter, during that mission they were blocked by the traitor gang, La Squadra Esecuzioni.

Apart from the boss's identity, his role initially was not very clear. Would he only become Giorno's boss to be eventually dethroned, or would he become their main enemy? However, after the end of La Squadra and Bruno successfully escorted Trish to the boss, that was when “the status of the boss” became clear: that he ultimately became the main enemy of the protagonist's gang.

Since then, Buccellati’s gang had been pursuing the boss while trying to uncover his identity. A character named Vinegar Doppio appeared, whose character had been closely tied to The Boss. Just then, Cioccolata and Secco made their debut as the members of Unita Speciale to stop the protagonists.

VA chapter 113: Pronto! On The Line – part 2

And just like Vanilla Ice, Cioccolata and Secco were not the main villain since the beginning. The Boss was talking about them to Doppio. Therefore no way that Cioccolata is the main villain.

The length of Green Day arc was quite long, though keep in mind that Vento Aureo was released weekly on WSJ, which made the average number of pages per chapter was about ±17. Besides, the fight with 「Green Day」 happened alongside with 「Oasis」. Therefore, we didn't just witness a single Stand battle in that arc.

The battle also didn't involve all the protagonists: only Giorno, Mista and Bruno. Although Green Day's ability was quite menacing that it made some parties and almost entire citizens paralyzed.

Anyway, Green Day (and Oasis)'s battle hardly be compared to WOU, because it was clear that Cioccolata and Secco were not the main villains.

Caatofags definitely need to reread JJBA.

Donatello Versace 「Underworld」

Still published on WSJ, Underworld arc alone only happened in 6 chapters, hardly comparable to Wonder of U. Besides, the fight did not involve all protagonists: only Jolyne and Hermes.

After his solo arc ended, Donatello betrayed Pucci by stealing Weather Report's Memory Disc, Weather eventually regained his memory back. Thus, began the Heavy Weather arc where Donatello was no longer the main player. The focus shifted to the family drama between Pucci and Weather Report Wes Bluemarine. Donatello eventually died in the hand of Jolyne and Anasui, thanks to 「Whitesnake」’s illusion.

It was clear since the beginning that Donatello was not the main villain, he was introduced together with his half-brothers: Rikiel and Ungalo. Since the beginning of Stone Ocean, we followed Enrico Pucci’s character as antagonist.

Pucci started from being shady until a few arcs later, we can see how he dominated the clash against the protagonist, that he sent his underlings, that he was a villain with grand purpose, that he had the most powerful Stands compared to other antagonists, thus made him the main villain. All of that was revealed even before Donatello’s first debut.

Caatofags definitely need to realize that JJBA has a broader plot and concept in every part than their fan-made parallelism.

4. Axel Ro 「Civil War」

As part 7 was started to be published on “Ultra Jump”, the average number of pages per chapter became greater than on WSJ, it is ±35 on average. Civil War arc only last for 4 chapters, which is ridiculous to even compare it to WOU, though I’d say that it had troubled most of the protagonists (excluding Lucy).

Civil War arc has been very meaningful arc, and it had paved the way to the beginning of confrontation with Funny Valentine, the main villain. Since then, the long battle between the protagonists (plus Diego and Wekapipo) and the main villain has begun. The D4C arc itself was slightly punctuated by the Chocolate Disco arc, albeit very briefly.

Funny Valentine, as the US president, had fairly major role since the beginning. He had also clashed with Johnny's gang several times in gathering the Holy Corpse’s parts. But, the direct confrontation between him and the protagonists (with other factions) eventually began after Civil War arc ended, thus his status as the main villain became very clear.

Axel Ro himself only appeared in his arc Civil War, which of course it made him absolutely NOT the main villain.

Caatofags definitely need to improve their reading comprehension.

「Wonder of U」

main villains comparison

Wonder of U arc began at the same time as the investigation and the pursuit of Josuke's gang on HD Akefu's identity. Since then, WOU has been attacking them with "calamity". It has directly been attacking major factions that are fighting over The New Locacaca: Josuke, Yasuho, Rai, Jobin, and Mitsuba.

If we also consider the "calamity" that WOU said in chapters 99 and 100, that it also affects those around the target indirectly:

The calamity that happened to Rai's family, starting from the insects’ infestation, the death of Rai's father by a landslide caused by a typhoon, the destruction of his pear orchard, the debt trap that had caught his family and the death of Rai's mother.

Then it can be assumed that what is happening in the Higashikata family right now:

Mitsuba has met Tooru, the school incident involving Tsurugi happened, Mitsuba saw the Head Doctor on CCTV, Jobin committed murder on Ojiro and Makorin, Tsurugi's illness that is getting worse, WOU which once again attacked Mitsuba exposed the New Locacaca, Norisuke IV’s investigation to the New Locacaca, the murder committed by Jobin got exposed, Jobin attacked Norisuke IV fatally, Norisuke IV’s dying, the terror of WOU to Mitsuba which eventually led to Jobin’s dying.

All of those happened because WOU had been attacking Mitsuba!

Don’t forget that Yasuho is also seriously injured and lost an arm at the moment because she was pursuing the HD.

And that’s how Rai is fatally injured by Josuke’s Soft & Wet.

WOU had successfully been causing chaos to the major parties: on Josuke’s side, Yasuho is seriously injured and Rai is also fatally injured. On Higashikata family, Jobin and Norisuke IV are dying and Tsurugi’s condition is getting worse, the rest of the family is also in panic.

And all of that happened in the chapters titled “Wonder of You (Your Miraculous Love)” and it’s still being continued with “Endless Calamity”, which is the keyword for its ability. Then how can the outcome in “Wonder of U” fight become comparable to the Cream, Green Day, Underworld and Civil War fights?

I think it’s kinda fortunate that Caato on her first debut has already revealed her Stand. If not, I'm sure Caatofags will take their opportunity to say that she is the real Wonder of U’s user.

Read further: The Climactic Battle of 「Wonder of U」

Read also: Wonder of U and its mechanism so far

The (weak) buildup of Tooru as “the villain”

Many readers have complained about Tooru's late debut and their lack of familiarity to him. They think that his role as “the big villain” was too sudden and out-of-nowhere.

I myself also don't want to rush to think of him as the main villain, at least until JJL's story is completely done. But for me, he deserves to be considered as a major villain. He alongside HD has provided greater tension than the previous villains in JJL.

Let’s get back to the readers’ doubt regarding Tooru's connection to 「Wonder of U」, I have just explained how powerful 「Wonder of U」 is with its ability that has been troublesome for most major characters, all “the calamity” that befell Rai’s family in the past and the Higashikata family (including Josuke’s gang) in the present are the work of 「Wonder of U」. Then…

The cover chapter of 99 really suggested that Tooru is connected to all the events that are happening. I do not know where the event in question began, is it only limited to the WOU arc? Or is it all the events that happened in JJL since the beginning? Or does it include the past as well?

Whatever it is, seeing 「Wonder of U」 which is also behind him, this made me even more convinced that he might be its user.

Suppose that he is the main villain…

Unlike most of the main villains from previous parts, in which they have started to play an active role at least halfway through the story, Tooru's debut happened when JJL seems to be entering its final arc.

That is also the reason for Caatofags who believe that Tooru will only be the final side villain, and they prefer Caato as the real main villain just because she appeared earlier in the story (despite her very limited appearance and development). Some of them also believed that JJL would have 40 or 50 more chapters to properly develop her. Only time will tell.

Tooru and Diavolo

The previous main villain who has a problem similar to Tooru is Diavolo. Diavolo's official debut happened when Vento Aureo was about to enter its climax. Since the beginning of part 5, Diavolo was just a mysterious figure who preferred to hide behind the scenes. His identity was unknown to his underlings. We had never seen his face until his debut in the beginning of the final fight. We don’t really know his personality (other than being hysterical and protective to Doppio).

But with the existence of Doppio, Diavolo and Doppio can be considered as one individual (who later experienced DID/split personalities), then Doppio's personality can also be considered as part of Diavolo's personality as well.

But there is a dispute between the opinion that believes them to be “two souls in one body/possession” and those who believe them to be “a case of DID”, that there are also readers who regard them as completely different characters. Regardless, I am pleased that Araki keeps this thing ambiguous.

However, Diavolo's role existed long before his fully appearance, we know that he was the boss of the most powerful mafia in Italy named Passione. We followed Giorno who joined the gang as a rookie. Starting from there, we knew the existence of "The Boss" and his mysterious nature.

Starting from Buccellati’s gang who carried out The Boss' orders to protect and escort his daughter, then turned into the betrayal from the gang. The boss who started as their superior turned into their main enemy. All of this happened before Diavolo even showed his face.

A bigger problem with Tooru compared to Diavolo is that: from the start of the story, we did not follow his character. We never heard about this part-timer who is also Yasuho's ex-boyriend. Let alone Tooru, we did not follow Head Doctor’s character as well since the beginning, both were built-up fairly late to the story.

Tooru and Kira Yoshikage (part 4)

While Kira had appeared much earlier than Tooru and Diavolo, Kira in part 4 also had a bit similarity with Tooru, namely that there was no foreshadowing of his character at the beginning of the story. He was only mentioned a few chapters away before his debut.

The beginning of the story in Diamond is Unbreakable did not start with Kira as a serial killer, but began with Josuke meeting his distant relative (Jotaro) and learning about his father (Joseph). After that, the story developed into the discovery of Stand users who had sprung up in Morioh.

Kira's existence was mentioned for the first time during the adventure of Rohan with Koichi. They met a ghost girl named Reimi who told them about a murder case in the past and the fact that the killer was still on the loose. A little intermezzo with Shigechi's arc until the official debut of the serial killer.

Kira was first mentioned in chapter 69 (volume 8) and officially debut in chapter 77 (volume 9) with the number of chapters in part 4 totaling 174 (18 volumes). Thus, Kira entered to the story right in the middle of part 4.

Unfortunately, Tooru had appeared much later than Kira in their respective parts and also with no apparent foreshadowing about him (prior to his debut). Of course, complaint from the readers become legit, especially for those who has a habit of comparing each part.

“With the lack of foreshadowing, Tooru as the big villain feels out-of-nowhere.”

Let us reexamine how the story works in part 8 since the beginning, a mandatory quick recap (just skip this if you find it boring):

It started from amnesiac Josuke who was found by Yasuho, together they were looking for Josuke's identity. They found about Kira Yoshikage, a ship doctor. Then Josuke met Norisuke IV and got adopted by the richest family in Morioh, The Higashikata.

Being adopted to The Higashikata gave Josuke chance to investigate the family tree, through the record, he found out about Holy Joestar, Kira’s mother and a doctor as well. The mother currently is seriously ill and being admitted at T.G.U Hospital. Josuke met Kyo and discovered about the “equivalent exchange” ability on Higashikata’s land.

Later, Josuke got attacked by Yagiyama Yotsuyu, the architect who works for Higashikata. Yotsuyu revealed the existence of rock-humans and Locacaca, the miraculous fruit. Apparently, Tsurugi, Norisuke IV’s grandson is hit by hereditary rock-disease, The Higashikata’s family curse.

Tsurugi’s illness is similar to Holy's condition, Locacaca fruit is believed to be able to heal them. Josuke intends to get the fruit to cure Holy, the fruit is connected to Jobin, Norisuke IV’s son. Josuke then investigated Jobin and found out about Damokan Group. Jobin and the group had been doing illicit business of smuggling Locacaca and money-laundering. Their business was discovered by Kira two years ago.

Josuke (Yasuho and Tsurugi) had been attacked several times by Damokan Group, who turned out to be the rock-humans. Sometimes ago, he met Karera and discovered about Josefumi, a part of his identity.

Josuke and The Higashikata family got attacked by Damo, the leader of Damokan Group. Damo revealed that Kira and Josefumi had stolen the Locacaca from them some months ago. The group got rid of them, but then it is revealed that Kira and Josefumi got fused and became Josuke because Locacaca fruit planted on Higashikata's land is consumed by them, which then dubbed as The New Locacaca. With the last of its member died, Damokan Group was disbanded.

The Higashikata's land does have healing properties, the Higashikata mothers (Tomoko and Caato) had been using the land in the past to cure their son of the rock-disease using a method called equivalent exchange.

Josuke and Yasuho were investigating Jobin, it was revealed by Dolomité that Jobin was a gofer aka not the big player in the “Locacaca games”. Dolomité hinted the existence of a bigger organization than Damokan Group.

Josuke set his eyes to get The New Locacaca in order to cure Holy. Josuke met Mamezuku Rai, a plant appraiser works for Higashikata, to identify The New Locacaca. Josuke, Rai and Yasuho got attacked by Urban Guerrilla, whom then also revealed as a doctor in T.G.U Hospital, he was instructed by Poor Tom who was also a doctor in T.G.U Hospital.

Meanwhile, Jobin worked with Poor Tom, to get rid Josuke and the plant appraiser. Jobin got tricked by Poor Tom and in return, he tricked Poor Tom (and Josuke) back by burning the orchard and using Tsurugi’s illusion). Poor Tom was eliminated by his own comrades who were disguised as ambulance drivers and Jobin secured the branch of The New Locacaca, which he would plant and use to cure his son.

Josuke and Rai were investigating the ambulance, meanwhile Yasuho was in T.G.U Hospital. She met Mitsuba, then both got attacked by Wu Tomoki, another doctor in T.G.U Hospital. In the middle of their fight, they met Tooru, who works as part-timer in the hospital. Wu revealed that Holy created the hidden Locacaca lab at the hospital but she failed in her research. Josuke finally came to finish off Wu.

Josuke, Yasuho and Rai began researching T.G.U Hospital and discovering its history and profile, they learned that Wu Tomoki, Urban Guerrilla, Poor Tom, and the unseen head doctor of the hospital were the only people to have entered the secret laboratory. Unable to find any information on the mysterious head doctor, they began to investigate him and that was where the Dangerous Pursuit with The Head Doctor had begun.

Josuke’s gang (with Yasuho and Rai), Jobin’s side (with Tsurugi and Mitsuba) and The Head Doctor gang, all of the factions are actively fighting over The New Locacaca for their respective objectives.

Just focus on the bolded words! Rock-humans, rock-disease (illness), equivalent exchange, Locacaca (the cure), doctors, hospital, etc, those are the core points in the story of JJL.

Problem 1: “The lack of foreshadow in Head Doctor gang as the big villain group.”

Part 8 which began with the search for Josuke's identity, also began with medical/health theme with “doctors” and “hospital” from the beginning (besides the motherhood of course). Just after Josuke got into a fight with Joshu, the setting moved to the hospital.

JJL chapter 2: Soft & Wet – part 1

Then, Josuke and Yasuho discovered Kira, a ship doctor.

JJL chapter 6: Soft & Wet – part 5

Later, Josuke found out about Holy, Kira’s mother who was also happened to be a doctor at T.G.U Hospital. She is currently being admitted at said hospital.

JJL chapter 11: Family Tree

Then we learned about the rock-disease, a mysterious illness that afflicts Higashikata family from generation to generation:

JJL chapter 26: Tsurugi Higashikata’s Goal and The Architect

and Locacaca, a mysterious fruit with healing properties:

JJL chapter 32:” I am A Rock” – part 2

38 chapters later, after Josuke finished dealing with Damokan Group (and Jobin), Dolomité gave him a hint about the existence of greater organization.

A flashback with Yasuho also had hospital as one of its settings.

JJL chapter 71: Hairclip of the Qing Dynasty

In a flashback of Jobin’s first meeting with Damokan Group at a stadium, he had a quarrel with his father a moment before. He mentioned about the doctors from T.G. University who have indirectly interfered with their family business:

JJL chapter 72: The Northern Higashikata Estate, The Orchard

Josuke’s gang had been fighting with Urban Guerilla, another doctor and a rock-human:

JJL chapter 70: Urban Guerilla and Doremifasolati Do – part 3

Josuke, Rai, with Jobin and his family were against Poor Tom, the rock-humans. The losing Poor Tom got eliminated by his comrades disguised as medics in an ambulance.

JJL chapter 77: Head to T.G. University Hospital

Said ambulance led Josuke’s gang to the T.G.U Hospital, the fight with one of Poor Tom’s comrades, Dr.Wu also happened there. And Tooru also made his first appearance there as a part-timer:

JJL chapter 81: Doctor Wu and Awaking 3 Leaves - Part 3

The fight with Dr. Wu revealed the Locacaca lab created by Holy. Josuke’s gang began investigating to anyone who has ever entered the lab and found a group of rock-humans who work as doctors in the hospital:

JJL chapter 83: The New Locacaca

In the same chapter (83), Tooru also revealed to Yasuho that he is a med student:

And the main fight with 「Wonder of U」 has been happening mostly in T.G.U Hospital.

Therefore, since the beginning, “doctors” have been prominent in JJL story, “the hospital” also becomes the dominant setting in Morioh (besides Higashikata’s house).

JJL has main themes such as "breaking the curse", “family” and " motherhood", but what can link all those things in JJL’s storyline are medical-related such as illness, the cure, hospital and doctor that are reflected in the presence of “rock-disease”, “Locacaca fruit” (as a miracle drug), the profession of majority characters as “doctors” and “the hospital” being one of the main settings.

Albeit subtle, having a villain group as the rock-humans gang who work as doctors is in line with the theme JJL has. As such, they have more involvement and closest influence in using Locacaca fruit or conducting research on it.

Besides, “doctors” and “hospital” as profession and place for taking care the sick and the weak often traditionally associated with the nature of nurture in “motherhood”.

Problem 2: “The lack of relation and coordination between Head Doctor gang and the previous villain gang, Damokan Group.”

The Head Doctor gang only debuted after around 2/3 of JoJolion’s story up to the latest chapter (100), without apparent foreshadowing either. This becomes problem for some readers, so their opinion is divided. Some of them think that Head Doctor gang and Damokan Group are separate groups that operate independently, besides the plot hints that Damokan Group is connected to HD.

Therefore, readers find it a little difficult to think of HD gang as Damokan Group's superior. They consider Damokan Group and HD gang more as “two separated & independent villain groups” than as “one structured villainous organization”, and then concluded that HD gang is not an organization belonging to the main villain.

Such way of thinking is not false, the manga itself has implicated several times that there is a lack of coordination between HD gang and Damokan Group, even more so than Passione with its mysterious Boss.

JJL chapter 70: Urban Guerilla and Doremifasolati Do – part 3

JJL chapter 92: The Wonder of You (Your Miraculous Love) – part 9

The only things connecting them are: the fact that they are the rock-humans, Locacaca which is in their interest, and that they know each other. So, it is the case of yes but actually no.

The rock-humans and Locacaca, those two things are what defined JJL (part 8). The rock-humans came as the race of mysterious beings, who live side by side with humans but do not have mutual relations.

Araki has several times provided information regarding rock-humans, about their biology and also how they work in society, while he has made rock-humans into “the villain”. As both HD gang and Damokan Group are the rock-humans organization, let’s focus on the info regarding “how the rock-humans work in society”.

JJL chapter 46: Love Love Deluxe – part 4

From the beginning, Araki had emphasized that the rock-humans have incompatibility relationship with regular humans, that they have differences in the ways of life, philosophical views, and so on. Since the beginning of their debut through Yotsuyu (who had stolen a man’s identity), the rock-humans’ nature is antagonistic to the humans.

Therefore, it's no wonder that Araki made them “the villains” for the protagonists (and regular humans). It’s a reminiscing of The Pillar Men from Battle Tendency (part 2).

Based on Araki’s narration, rock-humans shouldn't have been created to conflict with carbon-based (regular) humans, but rather to serve as a backup instead those carbon-based beings fail. But over time, their existence has become like “day and night”, “sun and moon”, “black and white”, etc. Eventually, the rock-humans will always conflict with carbon-based (regular) humans.

Chapter 99 also said that even with each other, rock-humans do not have close bond or affection for each other. Starting from the rock-women who have no affection to their babies, the rock-humans live without parental figures and rely only on survivability.

The fact that since the very beginning they were born, the rock-humans were not familiar with the concepts of affection and intimation. Even in working together, there is no love and friendship between them.

JJL chapter 99: Endless Calamity – part 5

Therefore, based on all the explanations regarding the rock-humans, of course it makes perfect sense that the relationship between HD gang and Damokan Group were so lacking, it would not be any further than just mutual benefit.

Even when compared to the relationship between the teams in Passione, where there were (still) competition, selfishness and hidden agendas between them, HD gang and Damokan Group feel less coordinated than Passione.

But that's how rock-humans work in collaboration and organization, that’s how they operate. A sense of detachment is what truly defines rock-humans:

Rock-human babies are detached to their biological mothers.

Damokan Group is detached from HD gang.

The members of HD gang are detached from each other (as we don’t really see them communicated to each other “on-panel”).

Tooru, as the leader of HD gang, is detached to his underlings (as we never see him leading his men “on-panel”).

Suppose that Tooru is “de facto” leader of HD gang…

A brilliant Anon from 4chan summarized a possibility of Tooru as the big villain, orchestrating the plot in JJL:

Tooru as the true mastermind in Locacaca conspiracy through Head Doctor gang represents exactly how the rock-humans work (in society). “Blending” and “not standing out” in society are their nature. Tooru as the hidden leader of HD gang has also successfully made us the readers completely unable to predict his existence (something some readers complain about as: the lack of foreshadowing).

JJL chapter 92: The Wonder of You (Your Miraculous Love) – part 9

Tooru and Diavolo are both “The Boss” who lead their underlings in the shadows. But in the case of Diavolo, we can still see him giving instructions to his men remotely (via message), his underlings aware of his existence while questioning his identity.

And in the case of Tooru, who was impersonating as The Head Doctor Akefu Satoru, using his Stand 「Wonder of U」, his subordinates (perhaps) were completely unaware of his true existence, let alone his identity, which ultimately rendered himself unknown to us (the readers).

Tooru and 「Wonder of U」 are Diavolo’s wet dream. Diavolo who had been desperately hiding his identity was still terrorized by his former underlings who were after him. However, until now, Josuke, Rai, Yasuho and the Higashikata family who has been terrorized by WOU still don’t realize that Tooru is the source of all this.

Thematic Parallelism and Aesthetical Points

Rather than using story progression, action sequences and information (such as narrative box and mentions), JoJo fans nowadays prefer to focus on thematic significance (such as parallelism) and symbolism (aesthetical points) in determining “who will be the main villain”. It’s not that Tooru is lacking in those things, it's just that the fans overlook them in favor of hyping another character.

For example, in the panel above (just now), it is the members of the Head Doctor gang, taken from chapter 99 when we got new information regarding the rock-humans and their purpose to exist in this world. HD gang has become the antagonist group after Damokan Group finished.

Tooru is placed at the back (which coincidentally, he also appeared the last). The positions of the other members in front of Tooru are placed in a zigzag manner. Even Poor Tom, who is at the very front, leans slightly to the left.

Tooru’s position is in the middle of the panel and the most obvious, with his body also clearly visible, that he is standing behind them as if everything the other members were doing was under his instruction.

What is even more interesting: there is the absence of Akefu Satoru, I think this should be an implication that Tooru might indeed be HD Akefu's true identity, not his right-hand man as readers (wanted) to think initially.

Tooru also has little accessories that adorn his attire, as readers often think that JJL has a "motherhood" theme, the accessories on his attire could also be a symbol representing that theme:

Yeah, it’s a “bear”, so what do bears have to do with motherhood? Forgive me for answering a question with a question, but have you ever heard the term "mama bear"? Like many other mammals depicted throughout history as predators, bears are actually passive animals, and won't attack humans unless provoked. Despite this, if you even think about getting between a mother bear and her cub she'll tear straight through you. Threaten her children, and you are in for a world of hurt.

Of course, Tooru doesn’t have to be a mother to be the villain as Josuke the protagonist himself is not a mother (LOL).

JJL chapter 99: Endless Calamity – part 5

In addition, rock-baby Tooru also took over the body of hornet queen, “mother among mothers” which kinda implied that he became “the mother" of the hornet colony (for multiple generations).

Interestingly, in the cover of chapter 99, Araki has drawn a part of Tooru's trousers with Locacaca as the motif. Perhaps Araki really wanted to say that Tooru has a hand with Locacaca.

Then, regarding the parallelism, what is popular among readers is about "selflessness vs selfishness" that both protagonists and antagonists might represent. In mothers, it has been represented by Holy and Caato. It could also be represented by Josuke and Jobin, but what about Tooru?

His appearance which is still far less than Jobin makes it difficult for us to judge his true personality. However, his latest revelation as a rock-human can be used as a reference to his true nature, that being rock-human is not much different from being selfish. At least, we have seen that he has no intention of saving Yasuho (an act of selflessness) and he chose to continue his objective to acquire the New Locacaca (an act of selfishness).

Lastly, the Head Doctor gang and Damokan Group, both are the rock-humans villainous organization where one represents “medical experts/specialists” and the other represents illegal “pharmacy” that supply Locacaca (the cure) like a drug cartel… and Tooru supposedly was behind them.

Read also: JJL chapter 101: The Good and The Bad of “Symbolization”

Rock-Humans’ & The New Locacaca (Tooru’s possible motivation)

There is a small theory on why Tooru wants to perfect the Locacaca's Equivalent Exchange using the "New Locacaca", it has been written by u/TheNemesisT on reddit:

It's been pointed out during the exposition about Rock Humans birth process how the Female Rock Humans can reproduce with normal humans, but not the other way around. We've been also told in said exposition, that:

They also treasure places and objects that grant them special abilities. (JJL chapter 99)

Rock Humans lack the capacity to form "social bonds", with some exceptions such as the “Damokan Group” and the T.G.U. Doctors.

JoJolion has touched a lot of themes through these 100 chapters, but the recurring theme since chapter 001 has been “family and identity”, the rock-humans have neither of these, they are fabricated beings with fabricated identities, so to speak.

Despite the fact that Rock Humans lack the capacity to form social bonds, we've seen how some of them, such as Aishō tried to form relationships other than business, but ended up failing due to his rock-human nature.

Taking what we've seen up until this point of Tooru and Yasuho's relationship, we can assume Tooru is indeed the kind of rock-human that has tried to form relationships but ultimately, he put his nature to get anything that upgrades his being first.

From the speech given by "Akefu Satoru" we know that the New Locacaca's equivalent exchange is perfect, and it can mix and heal anything so perfectly that it would be unnoticeable. Putting it in simple words: Why would Tooru care about health if he lacks actual compassion for other beings?

The New Locacaca is the object rock-humans need to evolve. If it works as intended and the mix is perfect, it would give the rock-humans the ability to reproduce properly, it would grant them something they've never had, families and identities, the New Locacaca would grant them the ability to become “humans”.

This also relates to the theory proposed by u/Mamezuku from reddit:

What if rock-women no longer exist anymore? We have never seen any rock-woman (besides the flashback), only groups of men so far. What if the Doctors are trying to use the Locacaca in order to create a legacy, a rock-baby? That's why the perfect New Locacaca is very important to the Head Doctor’s gang. Notice how the narrator specified in this very chapter how normal men can make babies with rock-women, but not vice versa. The growth process that a rock-human has to go through is extremely harsh and difficult, hence why there's not many rock-human alive. What if no rock-women survive in this generation and only rock-men are left now? This would be an awesome motive for the rock-humans (Tooru) and so far it looks like it's heading this way.

Tooru and the other remaining villain candidates

Jobin and Tooru

Assuming that Jobin will survive (as his death isn’t confirmed yet): compared to Tooru, Jobin definitely had more screen time than him, which automatically makes him a more developed character. We have been following Jobin’s character much longer than Tooru, thus he left a deeper impression on readers than Tooru.

We already know who he is and are pretty familiar with him, we know what thing he likes, his relationship with his family, and his background is pretty clear. We have seen his flashback, we also have seen plenty enough about his Stand 「Speed King」. His motivation is not grandiose and idealistic but very humane, he only cares to his family and it’s always about his family.

He has a pretty good standing as the heir of Higashikata family, the richest family in Morioh. He was cooperating with Damokan Group in Locacaca smuggling and money-laundering, but Damokan Group's position as underling to HD gang and Jobin status to them as merely a gofer makes his connection to the Locacaca less influential compared to “Head Doctor”.

Tooru seemingly has a greater objective in utilizing The New Locacaca. He is just confirmed as a rock-human being and allegedly is the leader and the mastermind of the Locacaca Organization. As he has the access to assume The Head Doctor of T.G.U Hospital, it’s clear that he’s holding a high position. His Stand, 「Wonder of U」is already considered powerful and very dangerous.

However, his real identity and his origin as an individual is still unknown, his personal motive is also still in the dark. Though slowly but surely, his identity is being revealed. Chapter after chapter increasingly assures us that Tooru will be the actual “Head Doctor” that was in undercover.

Chapter 99 confirmed that he is a rock-human and also the perpetrator who ruined Rai's family & his life in the past. It's clear that Tooru also wants The New Locacaca. It’s also implied that being a rock-human, he is older than he looks and he also knows about “the saint”. There is still a possibility that we will see his connection with the pasts that have not been revealed yet.

Caato and Tooru

Caato had appeared 26 chapters earlier than Tooru, thus making the readers more familiar to her than him. Besides, her first appearance also gives a very strong impression on the readers. Araki totally dedicated her debut by giving her a dramatic shoots in the first chapter she appeared.

Caato's second appearance also added to the hype for readers, the supposedly entertaining family reunion scene also added mystery to her character regarding the murder she committed and the mysterious “15 years contribution” to the family business she claimed.

Caato also got her backstory along with Jobin, making her character even compelling and more solid. But unfortunately, many readers have misunderstood the true meaning of her backstory as Caato is surrounded with the overhypeness her supporters do for her.

Tooru did appear later than Caato, his appearance which was done very natural gives little impression to the readers. We knew almost nothing about Tooru during his early appearances. However, Araki is passionately developing his character in his recent chapters. We got information and solid hints regarding Tooru much more than Caato (and her supporters try to provide).

So far, Caato only appeared in 4 chapters and that's only how much her actual development is. Tooru had appeared in 10 chapters, he had already surpassed her appearance (and development) and will likely more. Unless, Caato will reappear again… only time will tell.

Conclusion (aka TL;DR)

Tooru’s debut which came quite late and with a weak impression as well causes the readers doubt his role as major villain. Even if the main villain's role will be his, readers would probably rate him fairly low (a similar case to Diavolo).

Jobin can even end up being fan-favorite villain, besides him not being “the main”. And if Caato will end up to be the main villain, I don’t think that she will be rated highly too, people will realize how ridiculous her hype was at the time.

So far, JJBA already had 8 story parts in it, and the story of each part is very unique to one another. Therefore, the conflict and the villain’s situation contained in each section should not work similarly.

Based on those eight parts, pattern and formula are getting noticeable. However, we should be aware that those patterns are being played with flexibility.

That Araki might use the "pattern" as a reference so that he doesn't make JJBA deviate from its world-building that has been set since the beginning.

But the pattern should not limit his creativity either, because as “the god" in the world he created, he has the right to add new ideas and concepts that have never been considered by readers before.

Here, I am trying to dig deeper into the story of JJL, in “what is this really about?” By studying the true meaning of JJL, I found that the concept of Tooru as the main villain in this story is very likely to work.

But Araki is not “the perfect” writer, we humans can't possibly please everyone. Using Tooru as the main villain has the potential to disappoint some readers. Because the readers’ taste does not always correspond with what is truly desired by Araki.

That's why I respect Araki, he is such unwavering writer. The opinions of his readers do not affect what he truly wants to say in the stories he writes.

He is also an experimental writer who is often interested in trying (and adding) new things to his world. Stone Ocean's failure did not discourage him, so he was able to create “a part” that becomes the most favorite among today's readers: Steel Ball Run.

Besides, as time goes by, readers are also beginning to appreciate Stone Ocean. In the end, the message that Araki wanted to convey in part 6 finally reached the readers who are willing to explore it more in depth.

SBR's success did not make Araki satisfied in his comfort zone, so he created a whole new story concept that very differs from SBR and all the parts he's ever created, a story with mystery as its main theme named JoJolion.

And with the mysterious nature JoJolion has, Araki makes the identity of the main villain much more mysterious than the previous parts. We as readers are still wondering who will be the main villain even after 100 chapters have already passed. Will it be Tooru? Again… only time will tell.

Of course there was always a risk in making Tooru the main villain, however, I believe that Araki is ready to accept that risk. He is such a writer who writes what he wants to write, not what his readers ask.

Related post: The cacophony of JJL main villains (how JoJolion can be saved)

Read also: Kira Holy Joestar, the underrated 52-years-old mother

#tooru jojo #jojolion spoilers #jojo meta #jojo's bizarre adventure #my thoughts #jjba main villain #satoru akefu #head doctor jojo #character study #jjba part 8 #jojo's bizarre analysis #jjba meta #main villain theory #caato #read this caatofags #before you come up with another weird theory #stfu caatofags

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twdmusicboxmystery · 4 years

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TWD 10x10: Stalker - Details

Let’s talk some details! I’ll start by mentioning all the little things we’ve noticed, and then I’ll get into connecting it all. You might want to grab a beverage. This will be kinda long.

***As always, spoilers abound below for 10x10. Don’t read until you’ve watched! You’ve been warned!***

So, we start by seeing Beta jump into the pit via the RV. Both of those are huge symbols. The RV is a symbol of time that we’ve often associated with Beth. And Beta pretty much went into a dark tunnel…and emerged through a grave. Hmm. No better resurrection symbol than someone digging their way out of their own grave, Dean Winchester style

Then there’s Rosita’s dream. Seriously creepy, no? I knew from spoilers that it was a dream, but if I hadn’t, I definitely would have been freaking out. The thing is, it foreshadowed Beta walking around Michonne’s house, looking for Gamma. That part LOOKED just like Rosita’s dream. So that was a foreshadow of what happened later.

I couldn’t help but notice that when Daryl is following Alpha, he starts out in the dry riverbed. He gets up out of it, but then Alpha comes and he hides in it again. Then later, he attacks Alpha and the other Whisperers right next to the river. I’m wasn’t sure exactly what to read into that at first, but I’ll come back to it.

And Alpha actually led part of the horde out of the caves. It’s not very many—maybe a dozen or two dozen walkers—but they’re with her and the other Whisperers when Daryl attacks them by the river. Again, that’s important.

Also important to note that this season is moving relatively slowly. They made a point of saying in this episode that it’s only been 2 days since Siddiq died.

When Gamma tells FG to get her a map and she’ll point to where the caves are, I slowed it down to look at the map. It pans by very fast. I notice some Xs, but there are lines through them, which makes me think they might be train tracks. I can’t read all of the writing, but near the cave location, it says “unsafe zone.”

I also noticed the caves are 14 miles away. On the one hand, I thought of episode 14s through the seasons. Often Sirius/Beth related characters die in those episodes (i.e. Lizzie/Mica, Noah, Denise, etc.). Or this could be pointing toward ep 14 of this season. We’ll have to see what that brings us. But I looked it up in terms of biblical symbolism, and I found this:

All sound like Beth related stuff to me. And if the caves are 14 miles away, and that represents salvation and deliverance, that’s just another indication to me that Connie and Magna are just fine. They’ll survive the caves. Perhaps be “saved” by someone. ;D

My fellow theorists and I have been discussing the whole Rosita/FG/Eugene dynamic. At various times, we’ve felt that one or all of them might die. I felt that way this episode, too. The symbolism around them is so muddled, and they’re all so interconnected, that’s it hard to say. For one thing, when FG leaves Alexandria at one point, he gives Rosita his hat.

He does return to her after that, but it kind of felt to me like when Carl passed his hat to Judith, you know?

A group leaves Alexandria at the end for Hilltop. Rosita goes with them so she can see the doctor (apparently there’s still a doctor there) so I’m assuming when she arrives, that’s when we’ll get the scene with her and Eugene. But she also keeps talking about her fear that both she and Gabriel will die, leaving Coco an orphan. I don’t know if that’s a foreshadow or not, since it’s very on-the-nose, but it may be.

There’s also a part where Rosita looks up at the windmill and the camera focuses on it for a moment. People are speculating it’s a death omen because Siddiq woke up on its platform not long before he died. I think they might be onto something there, because in the opening credits, we see three turns of the windmill along with Rick’s bridge scene. And while we know Rick isn’t dead, the characters in the show believe he is.

I was also thinking that it might indicate a Whisperer trick. When it happened with Siddiq, Dante was in Alexandria, messing with his head. And in this episode, the Whisperers lured Gabriel and many others out of Alexandria so Beta could enter and get Gamma. But this is still conjecture. We’ll have to see how it plays out.

The gas station:

Everything is red, yellow and blue. There are “wings” on the main sign that look a lot like the Phoenix wings in the moonshine shack. And Alpha passes and old, analog gas pump with some interesting number on it. I’m seeing 32, 8 and 26. Not positive what to make of those, but 3+2 = 5 (for S5, perhaps?). 2 + 6 = 8, So that’s two 8s, which might indicate 16, or just the 8 years it’s been since Coda.

@frangipanilove noticed a rack full of car air fresheners. Just the kind of thing you’d find in a gas station. But what shape do fresheners often take? That of CHRISTMAS TREEs. So yes, there are Christmas trees in this scene. We also noticed some old soda coolers (think of @frangipanilove’s blue cooler theories. It indicates the Sirius/return symbolism.)

Also, there was a yellow mop bucket behind Daryl at one point.

And one of the walkers had fungus growing on its legs. We saw the same thing in Still and with Morgan in 6x06. I don’t know if I’d ever researched this before, but I looked it up and found THIS article that makes for interesting reading. This kind of fungus on trees suggests that the heart of the tree is rotten. That makes sense because each time we see them, the characters are in an emotionally bad place. Daryl, after the prison fell. Morgan, before Eastman helped him. And Daryl here, as also evidenced by when Alpha asked him if he could see past the darkness, and he answers, “No.”

He also uses a fire extinguisher to kill one of the walkers, which is also a Beth symbol.

Overall, it also reminded me of the burnt out greenhouse we saw in 6x06.

And I do have to say that I found the amazing things Daryl did with his leg injury to be…less than realistic, lol. Really not bashing anything, but he was putting all kinds of bodyweight on that leg with the knife still in it. And when he pulls it out, the thing spurts as though he’s obviously hit an artery. We don’t see that he has any way of bandaging it or treating it, yet somehow he lasts the night like that without bleeding out. Yeah, injuries like that REALLY don’t clot all by themselves.

But hey, it’s Daryl and obviously I don’t want him to die, so I’m cool.

And of course the other option is that it’s purposely unrealistic for symbolic reasons. That’s the kind of thing I’m trying to figure out. Like maybe this is meant to be a symbolic parallel with Alpha being Dawn and Daryl being Beth, and the spurt of blood represents her getting shot in the head and—against all odds—surviving. I’m not sure that entirely works out. Just throwing the possibility out there. But if it did, then Lydia could dually represent Beth saving Daryl and also someone else—like maybe Morgan?—who saved Beth after she was shot.

There’s another really interesting shot that instantly jumped out at me. At one point, we see FG preparing to leave Alexandria. He gets into a box and unwraps two, red shotgun shells. It was really the color that caught my eye at first. Next to it is a silver pendant with a cross on it. It’s not in the shape of a cross. The pendant is round but has a raised cross etched into it. (It’s actually the crest from his original church in S5, which is probably purposeful.) So it reminded me of the cross Beth wore around her wrist in Coda and of course there are those bullets. Annnddd… FG is a Sirius character. So once again, does this portend his death? I’m not sure.

What really caught my ear in the scene where Gamma talked to Judith was that she used the words ‘remember’ and ‘forget’ very close together, and I wondered if we would hear all the titles from 5b/Dale’s time speech. We didn’t, at least not in this scene, and I didn’t notice them anywhere else. But it still struck me as interesting.

There’s an “echo” theme in the episode. The other outpost that tells them there’s horde coming, but it’s a ploy and all the people from that station are actually dead, is called “Echo Station.” And when Gamma talks to Judith she says she has only echoes of memories of her previous life. I’m not entirely sure what that’s all about but I just thought that we’ve had nothing if not echoes of Beth over all the seasons since S5.

She also says that she and her sister made very bad decisions after the virus broke out, and then met Alpha (evil) and Judith says that if they’d met her mom or dad, Gamma wouldn’t be in this situation. So that’s just another way that Gamma and her sister are opposites of Beth and Maggie. They ended up in a good place because they met Rick, rather than following an evil, brutal leader.

Judith also says, “you don’t look like a monster to me.” Seems like we’ve had the monster theme in past several episodes.

When Beta goes into get Gamma, he says something kind of interesting. She’s arguing with him that Alpha lied about what this place was. He says it doesn’t matter. She’s Gamma’s Alpha and needs to be obeyed. Then he says, “You think you’re still alive. You were dead the moment you came to us.”

So the Whisperers actually believe they are dead. They don’t want to live as the living do. But we could relate that back to Beth’s theme of “you call this living” and a few others.

Later, when he gets her outside of Alexandria, taking her back to Alpha, he says, “You will fall. You will rise. You will walk with your sister again.” Yikes. Talk about a resurrection/sister theme. And you know, Maggie is returning, so… ;D

I gotta say that Judith shooting Beta was pretty damn awesome. You know, in the way Judith is pretty damn awesome.

There’s also the fact that Alpha wanted Lydia to kill her. So, we could call this a suicide arc of sorts. And when Alpha wakes up in the morning, she says she’s no longer weak, which is a parallel to Beth. I thought of that while watching it. Just the fact that she talks about not being weak anymore and Beth’s “I am strong,” you know?

People in my group noticed that they used some Dutch angles (with the camera askew) when Lydia walked in. Another reason to believe she’s a proxy for Beth returning.

And then there’s also Alpha singing. I don’t have tons more to say about that, but we all know why her singing is significant. And again, all the dialogue just jumps off the screen at me. “Kill me.” Lydia says no. Then Alpha sings. And says “They’re waiting for you to lead.” Beth anyone?

Lydia carved into a table, “your way is not the only way,” right? Well, the shape of the letters looked a LOT like the graffiti from S5 that says, “Wolves Not Far.” We’ve already talked about how the Whisperers were forerunners to and foreshadowed the wolves, but I started thinking about that idea more deeply. Like maybe that writing, while it did foreshadow the wolves (cuz obviously) also foreshadowed the Whisperers.

And think about that. We first saw that that graffiti in 5x09, which Beth was in, and there was an 8 next to her. Now, 8 years later, the Whisperers are here. So, by extension, Beth should be too. Back to that in a minute.

I thought it was interesting that Alpha says to Lydia “I want you to…” And then she passes out. She doesn’t get out the word, “stay” until morning. So, Lydia never heard her mom ask her to stay. Lydia would have just heard the first part of the sentence and assumed it would be a negative request, like “kill me and lead the whisperers.” But she wakes up and says “stay” and Lydia and Daryl are already gone. It just struck me as very tragic. And at first, I didn’t see it as a TD thing, but I’ve reconsidered.

Even when Daryl wakes up and talks to Lydia at the end, it struck me as a possible Beth parallel. Daryl says, “You just been out here this whole time?” Sounds like something he might say to Beth.

Finally, at the end, when Alpha starts reciting her end-of-the-world chant, it pans out. This is the top of the gas station from a birdseye view, with the road next to it. I immediately felt like maybe we should be reading into this shot somehow. I just didn’t know exactly how. The blue colors and greenery might indicate Beth. But I had to put together more thoughts about episode before it really made sense to me. It’s part of the hell theme, which I mention below but won’t go into in a lot of detail here. (The gas station = hell or dark tunnel, and the curving path shows that the character’s arc changes course because of the hell they endure.)

Okay, so this is most of the details I noticed. But the thing is, the details are actually incidental. Or at least, they’re just there to prove the bigger parallels.

I feel like this entire episode is one big foreshadow/parallel.

And it’s probably not possible for any of us to put our fingers on everything it points to, but the more I think about it, the more interesting it becomes. I’ll try to lay a few of them out for you.

1. So the most obvious thing this represents for me is what I talked about yesterday. It’s a replay of Coda and sort of a re-telling of Beth and Daryl’s arc. Daryl stabbed Alpha in the shoulder and then sustained an injury to the head, just as Beth stabbed Dawn in the shoulder and then was shot in the head. Also notice how this happens by the river (water = Beth). So Daryl represents Beth in this analogy and we then see him staggering around, injured, and in a very dark state of mind. I’m willing to bet Beth went through something similar after being shot and left behind. Or it could be literal, as we know there was a walker horde involved. So Daryl fighting off Alpha’s walkers and trying to survive could literally represent something Beth went through once she woke up, surrounded by walkers.

In that case, Lydia represents someone coming to help/save Beth. We don’t know who that is, but I’m sure we’ll find out eventually.

2. This also represents Daryl’s arc after losing Beth, though in that case, it’s emotional. After she got shot, he was sort of stumbling around in the dark emotionally, and unable to come out of his depression for a long time. With this interpretation, Lydia sort of represents…herself. Because Daryl didn’t truly start to come out of his depression until he started parenting her. So Lydia did help save Daryl emotionally.

3. I still think this represents something for the future as well. I think Lydia represents Beth returning and saving Daryl in some way. Will it be physically? Emotionally? My money’s on both. I think one thing this foreshadows is Daryl going into a dark state of mind again for some reasons, so even if she saves him physically, she’ll also save him emotionally by default.

And that brings up some interesting questions about Daryl’s crossbow, I gotta say. My group has been discussing this the past few days. We thought it was odd that Daryl dropped his crossbow before going into the cave in 10x08. Because he still had arrows and he had no obvious reason not to bring it with him. Now, of course it would have been VERY cumbersome when crawling through the tiny passages of the cave, and the writers knew that, which is why they had him drop it. But DARYL couldn’t possibly have know that, so it didn’t make much sense. It was obviously something the writers had him do with something in mind. And now Lydia has found it and brought it back to him.

A lot of us have had head canons about Beth doing something like this over the years, so again, this makes me…kinda happy. ;D

4.This obviously represents the hell/dark tunnel arc. I may end up doing an entire, detailed post about this, but here’s the basic gist. We already know the gas station represents hell, because in S4, the gas station Daryl and Michonne’s group went to had the word “hell” written on the marquee.

So I often talk about the dark tunnel symbolism representing the characters having a great trial, and that’s true, but you could also describe it as them going through their own personal hell.

So no matter how you slice it, we once again have a representation of what happened at Grady (stabbed in shoulder, injured in forehead) followed by the trial/hell/dark tunnel. For Daryl, for Beth, for Alpha… it works across the board.

It always starts with either a terrible injury, a death or a death fake out. Or sometimes literal imprisonment to a villain (i.e. Negan, Alpha, etc.). That’s followed by a period of time in which the character struggles through deep emotional darkness. (The dark part, as Maggie said.) Then, when the sun rises again, everything is okay. And what that “okay” looks like depends on what the first event is. If it’s an injury (think Carl’s eye in S6) then the person finally recovers or starts to recover, but it’s obvious they won’t die. If it’s a death fake out (think Glenn in S6) they show up alive. Other times, it might mean the death of the character themselves. (I’m thinking of Sasha. Yes, she died in S7, but she died so the group would have a fighting chance to win the war. And she was okay with that sacrifice. So we saw a sunrise.)

And let’s just appreciate that, if Lydia in this episode does represent Beth’s return to Daryl, she arrived in the night, kind of during his darkest hour. By the time the sun rose, they were away from the darkness, away from Alpha, and…together in the sunlight.

And the more I thought about and put together all the components of this sequence, the more I realized just how MANY times we’ve seen it. Like I said, I’ll do a more detailed post later, but it’s amazing to realize we’ve been seeing this all along, but for the most part only picking up pieces of it at a time.

(The reason I said the thing above about Alpha not finishing her sentence until the morning being a TD thing is that it’s a representation of someone “falling asleep” as it were and waking up along. You could say that this was Alpha entering the dark tunnel, much as Beth did--through injury--and when she wakes up, her family (Lydia, in this case) has left her behind. Right after that, we see the graffiti-like writing. We saw it with Beth in 5x09, right after Coda. And we’ve already seen plenty of parallels/anti-parallels between Alpha and Beth. Just saying.)

Let’s talk about Beta invading Alexandria for a moment and then I really need to shut up for today.

This is obviously a different sequence than the gas station, but I feel like it foreshadows something yet to come. First of all, it reminded me a lot of the Wolves invading Alexandria in S6. And I’m not saying that foreshadowed this (overall, this thing with Beta was less epic than the wolves) but I feel like both of them perhaps point toward something yet to come.

Let’s look at it with some distance. We have a major resurrection symbol (Beta crawling out of the grave) followed by an invasion in which Judith and RJ were in danger and many people died. So, I wonder if there will be a larger invasion where this is the case.

And honestly, it looks like this might happen with Alpha’s horde next episode, so maybe it just points to that. We’ll have to see.

But there’s also the resurrection symbol. So, I’m wondering if it points to a resurrection happening during this invasion. (And understand I’m just making observations here. I have no idea what it’s pointing to.) And maybe, given that Beta is evil, I’m making this symbolism too positive. I don’t know.

Also remember though that Beta is an anti-parallel for Daryl. (We saw him fighting with two knives in this episode, like Daryl does, so I was reminded of that.) And when Beth is resurrected physically, Daryl will be emotionally too. So there’s that.

So this is super conjecturey (totally a word) but remember what I said above: the first episode in which we saw “Wolves Not Far” was 5x09. Beth was in that episode, along with tons of symbolism about what might have happened during that missing 17 days, and what we think was trying to say that she would return in 8 years (in other words, now, in TWD timeline). And now, the Whisperers are here, which is probably what the wolves foreshadowed. (There were also interesting clocks in that episode, and the deeply foreshadowing radio voice broad casts. Yes, I need to do another post to show you guys this stuff. It’s just too much to put here today.)

So I guess what I’m thinking/hoping for is that at some point, the Whisperers will invade Alexandria en mass (or one of the communities; if this does point to next episode, pretty sure that’s happening at Hilltop) and during that invasion, Beth will show up to “save” everyone.

Now, here’s hoping this totally goes down next episode. My good friend @frangipanilove would be ecstatic, as ep 11 is the one she always focuses on, and here’s hoping she totally right. (Cuz, you know, that would mean Beth’s return next week. ;D)

But it’s also possible this is bigger than what’s happening in ep 11 and it will be more of a season finale sort of thing. Or… I could be interpreting this totally wrong and it won’t go down this way at all. This is just the stuff rolling through my head since watching 10x10.

One other thing: my fellow theorists and I talked about how we think this is setting up for three returns. Father Gabriel made the three reference to Gamma, and you could argue that Lydia got a return in this episode. She wasn’t really presumed dead or anything, but we hadn’t seen her in a while.

We also know Maggie will be back sometime soon. So that would be two returns. The third would of course, be Beth. But then there’s also Connie to consider. So who knows?

Yeah, this episode was totally packed with stuff. I doubt I’ve even truly hit on everything here. Lots of hidden gems. And next episode just looks, you know, totally badass. So I’m excited to see what comes next.

Thoughts?

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl

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venus-says · 4 years

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Yes! Pretty Cure 5 Episodes 25-49 + Movie

So... this happened.

This second half of Yes! 5 was... boring.

Yeah, it had its moments, but overall? It was pretty lackluster. And, I know Yes isn't the most eventful season, as I mentioned on the first post, this is a character-focused show so the plot won't move much until it needs to, proof of that is the Pinky collecting thing that is never on the front seat and when we see it they are in the final 4 episodes and there's only one missing for them to complete the collection. The thing is that the characters part was pretty... problematic?

I don't know if it's because they knew a second season would be coming that they decided to go very light in character development in order to focus on something else, but this second half lacked a lot in this department. Again, they had great moments, Milk, Karen, and Rin probably got the best development out of the cast, but when we look at everything together we see that there were still things that lacked quite a bit.

Another thing that was weird was the timing for the villains, the pacing in which a new villain would come and an old one would go was very weird, there were villains we spent more time with than we should and there were villains that we didn't get enough time to leave an impression and you can say that the precure stuff is actually the less important part of Yes so this isn't that big of a deal, but it's still an element that is present so I think it's okay for me to complain about it. Also, I kinda dislike how they ended the villains, not the part of sealing Despariah and such, but they were going for a "let's talk our way out of this" approach and they were building up for a good moment but they brought Kawarino back for that moment and it kinda ruined it.

But the thing I hated the most, and that made it almost unbearable for me to watch in this second half, was the whole romance thing. Pick everything I said about it in the first post, multiply that for 10, and that's pretty much how I felt about it in this second half. On the first portion it was bad, but in the second half this gets horrible, they shove you the romance thing in the face in whatever opportunity they have and it's just hideous. They made an entire episode where the conflict was Nozomi being jealous of Coco. They had an episode about marriage and each girl fantasized about their wedding and in Nozomi's fantasy Coco was the freaking groom. Heck, they even made something romantic out of a ghost. This was gross, this is definitely the worst aspect of Yes, and because it was so present in this second half I've lost a lot of my interest for this season.

But not everything was worse, in comparison with the first half, the animation has gotten a lot better, there are still ugly drawings and clunky animation, but they improved a lot. Also, the action got better, the attack spam is still there, but they had more fights, they were more creative which made things more fun. Heck, they made Aqua joust with one of the villains in one episode and that was freaking cool. Also, I like that despite having a group attack they only use it to defeat the generals so it feels like something that is very powerful and special and I think this is something we've been missing in precure lately. So, as I said, not everything was worse.

I think that's all I have for general comments, let's jump down to the characters.

It was hard to follow Nozomi around, everything related to her character ended up being about Coco. She was there for her friends and everything, but still, every decision her character made was centered around Coco, even when she finally chose a dream to pursue, that dream was because of Coco, and it's sad that a character with so much potential was reduced to just a planet orbiting around this freaking mascot.

Rin was a bit complicated, I think they've picked the "precure of passion" thing a little too literal and almost all Rin focused episodes had a romantic thing involved. They never pair her with anyone, which is great, but is kinda sad her whole thing was just that, we didn't get to see her interact with her family, we didn't get to see her playing futsal, the bare development we got for her was while she was with Karen as they started to tighten their bond inside their friendly rivalry, which was awesome, don't get me wrong, but I wish she had gotten more. But I like that she decided to be an accessory/jewelry designer as her dream because it wasn't the most obvious path for her, or for a red cure for that matter.

Poor Urara got a bit faded, I can't remember much of what she has done in this latter half. She remains great and all, and she had a very sweet bonding episode with Komachi near the end, but other than that she didn't do much other than just tag along for most of these episodes. And that's pretty sad, in the first half she was my favorite character but after this part where her light was a bit dimmed I'm afraid she may have lost the position.

Komachi had a similar situation as Nozomi, a lot of what she has done had Nuts influence on it, but I think it worked better with her because her entire goal wasn't to get together with Nuts, it was more like he was always hanging around her rather than she pursuing her. It's still an awful relationship because it's an adult and a kid, and Nuts freaking sucks as a human, but it didn't offend me as much. Also, Komachi got to do more stuff that didn't necessarily have to be involved with Nuts, we got to see more of her friendship with Karen, she grown closer to Urara and now wants to write a play/script/story that she can act, and she got great interactions with Rin because the whole telling scary stories thing. So I think her deal was more balanced.

The best of this second half, at least to me, was Karen. She was freaking awesome, I like that they paired her with Milk, it seemed like a relationship that shouldn't work because I didn't see how they could bond, but it was great, and I like that was something that was escalating slowly and it reached its peak in the episode where Milk gets sick and Karen wants to take care of her. Karen and Rin were also great, as I mentioned. I wasn't really into their rivalry in the first half but they got to work it very well here in this portion of the series, it evolved from just a dumb thing to an "I have a strong personality, just like you, and I have this vision of world about something that I won't let go of it, but I respect you and I know how to hear you and comprehend you points", it's a simple but complex thing that worked very well and that I'm glad they went with this route for these two.

Milk was also a tricky character, she was unbearable whenever she interacted with Nozomi (though she had a few points some times), she was in the mix of fun and obnoxious whenever the thing was about Coco and Nuts, and she was absurdly cute when she and Karen tagged along, so her character was a bit of a roller-coaster. I think by now I like her because I understand she just wants to be useful to the people she likes and it's a feeling I can relate too, but I admit she has her problems and she can be a handful to deal with.

Coco and Nuts shouldn't exist, they don't have an arc, they don't have development, they don't have a purpose, they're there just to push this ridiculous romantic bullshit that we don't need. Heck, Masuko Mika did in a single episode more than these double-sided plushies did in 49 episodes and a movie, she grew, she developed, she was fun, we should've got more of her and less of them. Thinking about them makes me pissed, thinking about how they're basically two different persons in their fairies and human forms because they wanna hammer down the idea that they're attractive makes me want to jump in front of a truck. I freaking hate them. Sorry, not sorry.

I wanted to talk about the villains, but there's pretty much nothing to be said. Like, from Bunbees subordinates that remained, they were already doing extra hour at this point, Bunbee being relocated to a new section but with less power seemed like could be fun but they didn't do much with it, the new staff introduced could've been great, but they were around for such a short amount of time, I think Bloody had only 4? episode where he acted as the villain, that's less than Pissard and Karehan got and they were the level 1 bosses, it was pretty ridiculous. Kawarino was cool, I think he's very scary and very creepy, but they kinda ruined him when they gave him his monster form, that wasn't 50% as intimidating as "human" Kawarino was. And Despariah was a letdown, she seemed so powerful and menacing but then her wish was to be immortal because she wanted to be young forever? I know this could be their attempt to make an allegory to how beauty standards are very oppressive to women, but this was in 2007 and I don't know if they would do that so early on in the franchise.

I was going to wrap things up now, but I managed to watch the movie before the post went out even though I forgot to download it together with the episodes, so here are my thoughts in the movie.

The Mirror Kingdom's Miraculous Adventure!

This is going to be short, I promise. This movie was a mixed bag, I was entertained, but this could've been way better. The concept of the Dark Precure is great, and they look amazing, but I feel like they weren't used to their full potential, first because it takes quite sometime before the five of them attack, and also the fact they keep cutting the battles to show everyone else kinda weakens them because I couldn't really feel how menacing or how their psyche was. Shadow was pretty bland, and the movie fairies were also very whatever, but the plot was very decent if we ignore the miracle light portion. But the thing this movie does that I can't forgive them is that they give all cures a power-up but they don't fight in that form, they just perform their attack, and that was very anti-climatic, especially considering the action for this movie was quite good

Wrapping up, Yes! Pretty Cure 5 is a decent season, it tried to do something different and that's worthy of praise, sadly they took some dumb decisions about the things they wanted to work, It's fun and has good characters but the romance element ruins it a lot, It's probably my least favorite of the four seasons I've covered so far. Thankfully they have another season so they can pull a Max Heart and be incredible so I'm both hopeful and excited for starting GoGo in the next week. What are your thoughts about Yes! 5? Share them with me in the comments. Thank you so much for sticking with me and reading this insanely huge post, I really appreciate it. I'll see you all around. Bye-bye~

#Yes! Pretty Cure 5 #Yes! Precure 5 #precure

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cherryblossomshadow · 4 years

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Untamed thoughts

Character notes

Okay, it’s official. I’m obsessed. I didn’t think I could be into something so intensely, so soon after Good Omens, but here I am. This is just so the high fantasy, repressed feelings, magic- and sword-fighting stories I’ve been missing 💖

So, I wanted to record some of my thoughts from watching Untamed, before I get too far or watch/read other formats.

So spoiler warning for anybody who hasn’t seen anything, and also warning that I haven’t finished, so I’m guessing at things I don’t know and don’t understand…

BEGIN THE NOTES:

So the first couple minutes was a straight up bloody swordfight. So when they whipped out the magic….like I was nOT EXPECTING THAT! BUT I AM HEEEERE FOR IT. YESSSS! It honestly took me so hard by surprise, and I wish I understood how their magic system worked, but it looks like I’ll have to read the book for that.

Jiang Cheng

Okay, the first couple minutes I rewatched two or three times because I understood nothing. But I latched onto three names to keep track of. Wei wuxian, the guy that everyone inexplicably wanted to kill. Lan Zhan, the Neji-looking dude that really wanted to save him (and somehow wasn’t also being attacked), and Jiang Cheng, the guy that really hated Wei Wuxian and hit him with his sword to plunge him to his doom. He notably did not attack Lan Zhan, too, which like … would have been easier than reaching over the ledge to strike the dude hanging by a hand, but whatev 🤷‍♀️.

Also, nobody was actually paying attention to the man they purportedly wanted to kill because they were all fighting over …. something (was it the Stygian metal? I forgot at this point)

And then flashforward several years, and Wei Wuxian is summoned and he runs into a bunch of Lans and Jiangs? (Not totally sure, but I recognized Lan Zhan and Jiang Cheng! At least their names when it came up on screen). And Jiang Cheng was really rough to whats-his-face, the little Jiang (who seemed like a nutball with some daddy issues, but 🤷‍♀️) which seemed to fit my current characterization for the-guy-who-super-hates-Wei-Wuxian.

AND THEN THE ETERNAL FLASHBACK STARTED. Look, I’m not even all the way through the flashback at this point. I just started the part where they all got summoned to the Wen Clan for “lecture.” And like, he was like Wei Wuxian’s brother?! They were like super close?! It really hurts to see the pure domesticity of their relationship when I know he will be responsible for his death. And he’ll do it with so much … anger.

And yeah, everytime he was around Wei Wuxian, he seemed annoyed and always complained about him. But he really cared (the bunny scene? The how worried I- I mean, my sister was), and I’m so scared to find out what turns him against Wei Wuxian.

Edit: from the second his mom stepped on screen, I was like wholly focused on Jiang Cheng’s face. She stepped up to him and said nice things and he looked so happy, I literally said out loud, “Ah, so he’s a Mama’s boy.” But then she started spitting venom, mostly against everyone else, but no she turned on him, too. Said he would NEVER measure up to Wei Wuxian. And isn’t that the most horrible thing to say to your child. The father was absolutely no help (three wives really?) and no one spoke against her, even when she attacked Ah Li (and who could bear to speak bad about Ah Li?).

Wen Qing

So, I wasn’t sure what to think of her at first. We knew she was working for the “bad guys,” but she was mostly doing it for her brother so, ya know, I kinda withheld judgment for a while. She tried (not too hard, but ya know) to look for the Stygian metal, but for some reason didn’t assault or steal from Wei Wuxian and Lan Zhan when they found it? (Maybe she didn’t know, but they were pretty bad at lying about it). And they were trying to set up a cute little romance between her and Jiang Cheng, which seems cute so far.

AND THEN SHE WARNED HIM AT THE INN. Like, okay, that’s it. I’m hers. I’m sold. Like, not only was she rebelling against what Wen Chao told her, she’s doing it in a smart way that is unlikely to get her killed. Direct defiance isn’t quite her style; behind-the-back subterfuge is. And I am HERE FOR THAT. AND FURTHERMORE, the way she got Jiang Cheng’s attention, and maneuvered a way to get close enough to whisper to him WAS BRILLIANT. I rewatched that scene several times because it was so clever and subversive, I really loved it.

Edit:

I wish she would explain things to her brother. Just saying “stay away from Wei Wuxian, your friend, the guy who saved you” does not work, my dude. You could have at least pointed out the fact that you kind of repaid his debt. Like that was a valid point that you forwent to give him an ultimatum.

Wei Wuxian

Okay, the first thing that sold me on Untamed, I’m not ashamed to say, was Xiao Zhan’s face. It’s just … Undescribable. Beautiful. I could stare at him all day. His smile? Dead. The black outfit with copious red is my favorite. After episodes of seeing him in white, when he changed into that iconic black and red, *swoon* … I think my mind froze. AND THERE’S A RED RIBBON OR SOMETHING IN HIS HAIR? ARE THEY TRYING TO KILL ME?!?!

But of course there’s more to his character. Ahem, that’s arguably more important. But like I’m not blind.

Anyway, he seemed pretty typically lackadaisical, goofing off main character, ya know. Insanely confident in himself, which being a protag, was not unfounded. I felt kinda bad for him whenever he tried to goof off with Jiang Cheng or Lan Zhan and they just … totally shut him down. Cut him off. Ignored him. That hurt. But he was indomitably cheery, and I respect that.

MY FAVORITE MOMENTS HAVE TO BE WHEN HE GOES FROM GOOFING OFF TO BEING BADASS IN 0.03 SECONDS, THOUGH. He’s done it before, but the most recent in memory is when he STARTS RECITING THE LAN CLAN’S RULES INSTEAD OF THE WEN CLAN’S. LEGEND. He’s just spouting off and having a good time and tHAT SMIRK! But then he turns, and his face turns serious, and I just. Chef’s kiss. BDE

Lan Zhan

Okay, I am really anxious to see more because a lot of his interactions with Wei Wuxian have felt … closed off to me. Like, granted, I’m not good at reading body language and subtext, which is why I like reading, so they have to TELL me. But Lan Zhan….you’re killing me here. I’m so blind.

Ya know, when his brother and uncle were talking …. I wonder what he was like before though. It sounds like he’s all uptight for a reason (maybe he used to be different and something happened?) so I’m excited to see Wei Wuxian break through his barriers.

His behavior … it’s super straightjacketed now, but I wonder. He kinda reminds me of Tenya Iida (BNHA), and I think he has Chaotic Lawful energy. IM CALLING IT NOW. (Btw, icydk, chaotic lawful is a totally, ahem, valid alignment defined as: “He has a strict moral code but it’s Chaotic as all f*ck”

Edit: Now, I recently watched some episodes from the Wen Clan arc (or whatever it’s called; I’m currently trying to avoid spoilers, so I’m avoiding the wiki), and he CARES. (Granted, he’s gotta be hurting bc his whole clan was like annihilated? Maybe? Did he give up the Stygian metal? It’s all really unclear?) He yanks the whip out of Wen Chao’s hands like nobody’s business, like Nobody Touches Him Except Me. I’m so excited!

Lan Xichen

Okay, it took me forever to understand that he was the clan leader? I had assumed it was the uncle dude. And where’s their father???

But when he whipped out the flute and magicked everybody’s swords into the ceiling. Yasss.

Also, um, I kinda sensed something with him and Meng Yao. Like, maybe it’s just rare to see men having such respect for each other. But that was such a hard meet-cute, I’m like … I mean, is it just me?

Okay, rant over, don’t mind me. I might keep this updated, but i mostly wanted a record of my thoughts thus far on Untamed, bc honestly, I’m already planning my rewatch 😁

#mdzs #untamed #the untamed #cql #wei wuxian #lan zhan #chaotic lawful #wen qing #jiang cheng #lan xichen #i speak #i rant #i post #i watch things #i watch mdzs

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rwbyconversations · 5 years

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Why Oscar’s writing has been disappointing

Stories rely on their characters. You can tell a grand, sweeping narrative that spans continents and timelines but if you don’t give a rats ass about the people at the center of these events, viewers won’t care. Stories with high kill-counts like Walking Dead, Game of Thrones and Attack on Titan rely on audiences forming an attachment with characters very quickly, so that the possibility of their sudden death is all the more painful for the viewer. Long story short, if you can’t make an audience care about your character, it can be hard to keep them interested.

RWBY has overall done a fantastic job at getting people to fall for its cast; I’m a case in point with how hard I’ll go to bat for Emerald and Mercury. But be it the obvious choices in the main cast, the wide array of villains to obsess over. The fandom even has a few eccentric folk who stan for people not seen in years! (shoutout to CFVY fans, who knew you’d get rewarded over the whole Coco in Chibi thing by getting a book?) But rather unfortunately, while one character has managed to earn a fanbase happy to see them get content, the writing has consistently failed one particular character, through constant refusals to allow them the screentime they deserve and often putting it in the wrong places when they do get morsels of time to shine each year.

Oh no, not you. I’ll get back to you before this hiatus is out.

... actually why are his gloves orange of all colors? And what’s with the banages, is he planning on cosplaying Dazai from Bungou Stray Dogs at an Atlas convention during the off-season?

Yeah, no, I’m talking about Oscar Pine. First introduced in Volume 4, Oscar has now been a part of the main cast for half of the show’s runtime. In that time Oscar has developed psychosis, met a ticket-punching man, got stuck in a house for a month, fought a teleporting staircase man, was involved in a train crash, bought new clothes, and stole military property.

Notice something? Nothing in there mentioned Oscar getting character development. Or rather he does... but it’s always offscreen. Oscar is infuriating in the sense that he has a lot of wasted character potential to be one of the best characters in the show- a simple but efficient design, great voice work from Aaron Dismuke and a charming personality that makes him a likable hero. But in spite of that all, Oscar constantly get the shaft when it comes to his screentime showing him developing from his problems, and each volume so far has had Oscar be faced with a trial that would make for a truly fascinating character arc, only for him to get over it while the camera’s focused elsewhere. And that’s what I’m going to focus on in this essay- I’m going to go over why I think Oscar’s writing has been consistently mishandled, and my hopes for the character in Volume 7.

God damn I don’t like doing this, I want to like the farm boi most of the time

1) Volume 4: All these voices running through my head, I’m on fire, face burning red

Oscar is introduced very early in Volume 4- as in, he’s in the first episode and is the eighth character we see onscreen after the villains. Oscar is in fact, if you don’t count Ruby’s character short, present in Volume 4 before the title characters. His first episode is... a lot of nothing, mostly just Oscar doing some farming. Oscar’s introduction does a good job telling us a bit about his character without him saying much- he’s prone to daydreaming while working on the farm, clearly not enjoying himself and his work. It matches up with what we learn later, that Oscar dreams of becoming a hero. It’s a stock motivation, and a stock background, but a simple and effective way of setting up a hero who desires the chance to prove himself in the wider world. His intro scene is a nice, quiet beat between the dark opening of Evernight and Salem, and the more frantic action of RNJR fighting the Geist. But overall the time the fandom was wondering what was up with Oscar- he wasn’t in the OP and nothing had set him up before now and yet here he was, getting focus before the main girls.

It takes until Oscar’s second appearance, three episodes later in Family, that we get the real reason for his importance- Ozpin’s in his head, but it would take another three episodes, in Punished, for this to be elaborated on in an unintentional Christmas gift from Rooster Teeth; Ozpin’s in his head due to their Auras and souls merging thanks to Ozma’s pact with the Archangel Asshole a few centuries back, and now Oscar is starting to act like an Assassin’s Creed character with all the memories that are in his head that he didn’t create. It’s a cruel irony for Oscar- Ozpin plays on how Oscar wants to be more than just a farmhand to try and get him to go to Mistral, but Oscar’s body language and face make it clear that this wasn’t how he saw himself getting some new life choices. Rather tragically, Oscar finally gets the chance to be part of something bigger but the manner in which it’s offered to him is anathema, as it’s coming from a literal voice in his head who claims to be a dead headmaster, and more importantly, he was never offered a choice- this was thrust upon him, a young 14 year old child who never asked for this burden of responsibility. And the last shot of Oscar in this episode already has him cracking under that burden, stuck on his knees and unsure what to do.

(also btw Oscar’s Aunt tells him to clean his hands but Oscar’s model has gloves on all the time, so... how would he clean his hands? Or does he read books with dirty gloves? Eww)

It’s an interesting place to leave Oscar, at the metaphorical and and spiritual crossroads, and means the viewer wants to see Oscar’s next actions and the deliberation between the easy, boring life he knows or risking everything on a voice in his head telling him to try his chances in the big city. Sounds pretty interesting, right?

Not to the writers, unfortunately. Because when we next check in with Oscar three episodes later during Kuroyuri, Oscar’s already on the road to Mistral with his backpack all ready to go. That deliberation, the consideration, Oscar eventually choosing to trust Ozpin and go along with his plan? All done offscreen. Similarly, Oscar goes from treating Ozpin’s voice as an irritating thing to be annoyed has been chucked out a window- now out on the open road, it doesn’t “feel crazy” anymore. It just feels like such a cheap way to handle Oscar’s writing- rather than show his development naturally, it just fast-forwards until it reaches a point where it skips all that. And unfortunately, this isn’t the first or last time Oscar is victim to the writers fast-forwarding through his development moments. Given how much of Oscar’s arc hinges on this crucial first step, it just seems inane to me that of all of the potential Oscar scenes to cut... him coming around on Ozpin and making the call to leave was what got the cutting room floor. Especially since nothing in his Kuroyuri scene was all that essential for Oscar in contrast, barring setting up the the mystery Hazel and Ozpin’s past.

Oscar doesn’t appear again after his encounter with Hazel until the finale, when during the montage of Ruby’s letter (that consists of half her dialogue this season) we see Oscar on the train to Mistral, which really only caused a problem thanks to all the people who used it to ask why RNJR didn’t take a train. He also appears in the post-credits scene, meeting Qrow at a bar and asking for his cane back, the volume ending on Oscar extending the cane experimentally.

Being blunt, I feel like Oscar should have been cut from Volume 4 and just introduced in Volume 5 with the bar scene. Volume 4 already had to juggle far too much in RWBY and Cinder’s plots, and adding Oscar to the mix unfortunately meant the screentime for some characters had to suffer- especially Yang. His time this season ultimately goes nowhere and only gives him a basic background that most fans would have already guessed from his character design, and the already wobbly Jenga Tower that was Volume 4′s screentime didn’t need more blocks thrown on top. I like a fair few things in Oscar’s arc, but it’s content that ultimately I’d have been fine having left on the cutting room floor. Hell, if nothing else, Oscar’s first scene should have ended with Ozpin’s reappearance, that these are two separate scenes is mind-boggling and left the fans wondering what the hell was Oscar’s purpose for weeks.

Oscar’s debut arc has its ups and downs, much like the volume itself. His intro scene and argument with Ozpin are both well-executed and show the viewer the vocal dynamite of Dismuke’s performance or just set up his base character, but for every good thing to come of Oscar’s arc, it’s fraught with issues- most notably, his scene of choosing to leave his home being omitted and beginning the unfortunate tendency for Oscar to get the short end of the stick when it came to development and agency, which undermine his choice to leave. But overall, Oscar built himself a small but dedicated fanbase with his debut volume, even immediately shooting up to become a potential target for Ruby’s affections in the fandom shipping wars. It was a rocky start, but surely now that Oscar was going to have his plot merged with RNJR, he’d be able to handle his screen-time more effectively, right?

Right?

Volume 5- Two for one on meatsacks

Volume 5 is Oscar’s worst volume so far, being blunt. It’s a lot of people’s worst volumes though (Cinder, Ruby, Weiss, Mercury, Adam, mine) that at least he can share the load. It doesn’t help that he’s not in half the damn thing because his body is being used by Ozpin to regale the audience with expositon that makes them actively yearn for the sweet embrace of death... or just the return of the World of Remnant shorts. Oscar’s first scene in Volume 5 is just a recycling of the Volume 4 post-credits scene, which raises the question of why the scene was used in Volume 4. I don’t think it’s even touched up, they literally just copy-pasted it. Much like his first scene in Volume 4, his intro scene this volume is intercepted by comedy relief- last time it was Jaune’s miserable attempts at being a strategist, this time it’s Drunkle Qrow.

... You know, this scene ages poorly in hindsight given how just one volume later Qrow’s alcoholism is treated with ice-cold severity.

Episode 3 follows up on this and gives us Ozcar’s first major scene of the volume, and unfortunately also sets up their dynamic this volume. Oscar gets some awkwardly charming moments with Ruby but overall the scene is dominated by Ozpin taking over for the first time and explaining his reincarnation powers alongside setitng up RNJR’s plot for the season- “training.” An episode later sees the entirety of this training, with Oscar and Ruby engaging in hand-to-hand combat and Oscar getting a lore dump from Ren (in hindsight this is novel not just because they’re outside during it but Ren’s the one delivering the infodump and not Ozpin). Ozpin barely even factors into the episode barring some fisticuffs and a generic speech at the end. But the scene is overall just pointless to the narrative beyond loosely setting up Jaune’s own Semblance unlocking, and this is the last we hear of RNJR “training” for the upcoming trials at Haven. Hell, even though the story makes a point of noting Oscar still hasn’t unlocked his Semblance, that still hasn’t come up two years later. This scene really only pays off in one immediate way:

This is Ruby’s sole contribution to the Battle of Haven after getting KO’d by Emerald outside of just yelling orders for offscreen fights, and all this helped do was begin to convince people that “MERC’S A BAD FIGHTER WITHOUT EMERALD.”

Lighting the Fire’s training scene is one of Oscar’s only major scenes where he interacts with RNJR to boot for the entirety of Volume 5, and it’s quite sad that nothing really comes of it. It just serves to highlight how little Oscar interacts with the other kids, as most of his dialogue this season is just as Ozcar.

Necessary Sacrifice then, should be great on paper. It’s an entirely Oscar and Ruby scene with Ozpin only chiming in at the end. It has Oscar confronting Ruby and himself on his fears and how Ruby can put up a brace face, and Ruby finally gets to open up a little about losing Penny and Pyrrha at Beacon. But the scene just falls flat on its face and botches the execution. Putting aside Ruby’s own problems in this scene (her speech feels incredibly pre-rehearsed, as if she spent hours practicing it in the mirror to ward off anyone actually prying into her life). Oscar’s anger and fear come out of left field with nothing setting this up in his prior scenes this volume. Ruby needed a scene where she talked about losing Penny and Pyrrha, but it should have been during Volume 4, with Jaune. Having it now with Oscar feels like the writers apologizing for having Ruby get shafted for screenitme during Volume 4... during the volume where she gets shafted by literally everyone else. The scene is frustrating to me, it could and should have been a lot better (musically at least I love the reprises of When It Falls and Lets Just Live), but it just feels like a hasty patch note. Oscar doesn’t really develop from the situation and his fears are just forgotten for the rest of the volume.

Oscar then proceeds to basically sit out Volume 5 barring Chapters 11 and 12. I still don’t get why he wasn’t part of the dinner scene with RWBJNR, since it would have been so very easy for him to be part of the dinner and get the chance to interact with the rest of the kids. Oscar wants to be a hero, so let him... actually interact with heroes his age. Have him brought up to speed on the crazy adventures the team have, let them get to interact with Oscar without having to deal with his backseat driver. You could even make something tragic of the scene where Oscar is forced to go away so Ozpin can take over, and the team’s faces fall flat when Ozpin gets right to talking shop which leads to the YOU TURNED THEM INTO BIRDS exchange. But otherwise, the rest of the House scenes revolve around Ozpin talking. The kids talk past Oscar, and again, you can very easily make something tragic of that as Oscar could grow to resent Ozpin because none of the others see him as himself, just a puppet on strings. But again... Oscar’s just not allowed to develop onscreen in this show.

And perhaps the worst thing about all this is that whenever Ozpin actually is called out on his tactics, one of the most pressings ones in his possession of Oscar,a 14 year old boy, is never used as fuel. Granted, yes, Ozpin has no control over who’s his next host but surely someone, somewhere is going to opine how morally bankrupt it is that Ozpin essentially conscripted a child not even old enough to get a learner’s permit into his eternal shadow war. It’s times like this that my theory that Jaune was going to be Ozpin’s original replacement before the backlash to Jaundice made them backtrack looks more and more possible.

The Haven Battle episodes quickly have Ozpin force control away from Oscar, but it’s not like Oscar did much before then anyway other than serve as the conduit for another lore dump on Hazel’s backstory. He doesn’t try and learn why Leo defected and manages to trounce the headmaster so well one wonders how the hell Leo got put in charge of a combat school. After that, Ozpin takes over (and we admittedly get some of the coolest fighting in the actual Battle of Haven in Ozcar vs Hazel) and Oscar only briefly returns in the last seconds of the finale to drop the sequel hook that they need to get the lamp to Atlas.

Volume 5 is just a bad season for Oscar- this is the one time we don’t get his eternal phantom of offscreen character development because it’s not fair to say Oscar has any development in Volume 5. He’s immediately forced to the back to serve as a projector through which Ozpin can put the audience to sleep, most of his actual scenes are irrelevant or just feel like a waste of time and he basically sits out the entire finale. It’s just infuriatingly incompetent writing- we’ve gone from Oscar being a waste of time in Volume 4 to just being a waste of a character in Volume 5 who barely gets to express himself. Little is done with Oscar that could not be achieved by putting a tape recorder beside a lampshade and calling that Ozpin’s new host. Volume 5′s bad for a lot of characters, but at least most of the rest of the cast had good seasons beforehand to show how well they could be handled or written. Oscar didn’t have that, and while ultimately the blame was placed more on Ozpin for hogging the time, Oscar’s critics began to grow and he was derisively seen as just a plot device to let the writers bring Ozpin back and serve as a mission marker for the heroes. One more bad season for Oscar could spell the end to his character ever having a warm reception among the fans and critics. Drastic action would need to be undertaken in order to regain trust in Oscar.

3) Volume 6- Tossing out the baby with the water

So the big plan to give Oscar some screentime... was basically cut Ozpin out of the story entirely. Oscar is almost entirely himself after the fourth episode, it’s the longest run of episodes with Oscar as himself that we’ve gotten in the show to date and Ozpin doesn’t even surface until the finale. There’s a lovely line of Oscar’s in episode 4 that finally lets him address some of the fears and concerns he should be rightfully worried about- “I’m just going to be another one of his lives, aren’t I?” Oscar’s tone is just so bleak there, it works super well and it was nice to finally see Oscar expressing human emotions. It even my cynical heart hope that Volume 6 would finally see Oscar get the limelight he had been denied for two years running.

But then the ball is just dropped hard. Oscar’s left in a background role for the Brunswick episodes, stuck working on a tire while RWBY encounter the Apathy. What’s already a somewhat rushed resolution to the whole plot of “RWBY express concerns about going onward to Atlas in light of Jinn’s revelations” now leaves Oscar, the guy carrying Ozma’s soul in him, out of the moment. He just gets to be tired and tell Blake to make food if she’s hungry.

Argus at least alludes to putting Oscar in the driver’s seat for his own solo arc where he explores the city alone after Jaune physically assults him (why didn’t anyone stop Jaune from hurting Oscar two people saying Jaune’s name with all the concern of someone stubbing their toe just feels cheap). Even though I was cold on the episode as a whole, Dead End did set up the wonderful idea of an Oscar episode, one where he maybe forces Ozpin to come out so they can talk frankly for the first time in two volumes. Maybe they could even rip off Avatar (some more) and have Oscar meet Ozma himself, using his conversation with the two as his own chance to rally onwards and decide to bring the fight to Salem. It could have been a really sweet moment of him backing Ruby up in her desire to keep going, the two forming a mutual bond of bolstering each other’s hopes as they carry the burden for their team.

But no. Because I can’t have nice things, in an otherwise near-perfect episode where I actually got Mercury and Emerald screentime and the lovely Pyrrha statue scene (which I low-key feel like Oscar should have been a part of but that’s a subject for another day), Oscar just gets over his issues, buys a new outfit and dodges past his problems, getting to develop past them, off-screen, for the third time in a row.

As far as I care, Oscar stole the money for this costume from either Qrow or Jaune and I don’t care if Miles says to my face he earned the money legit, I’m keeping that headcanon. Also, why are his gloves still orange? They don’t fit the rest of his costume.

If there was anything that got cut from Volume 6′s final half, I’d bet money on it being Oscar’s solo arc. Kerry himself has admitted during the RWBY Rewind for the finale that stuff got cut, and it’s very likely (going off comments from Miles that The Lost Fable was a huge resource drain) that this content was going to be part of the entire episode that was cut (Volume 6 initially had 14 episodes but around Christmastime this was remedied down to 13). It’s actually downright insulting and infuriating that Oscar got the shaft again, especially when Volume 6 finally seemed to be addressing the issue of Oscar never getting growth or focus. He was free of Ozpin, and with Ozma’s history revealed it was the perfect time for him to embrace the past forced upon him and resolve to become a hero. But no, the episode count went down so we had to wave goodbye to Oscar’s agency again.

Just think of how beneficial it would be for Oscar to actually confront his sorta-not-really ancestor, who may have had to watch as soul after soul gets consumed for him. Has Ozma ever had someone tell him none of this was his fault? I feel he needs it.

If I was a more suspicious person I’d say it almost feels deliberate, that someone on the writing team doesn’t like Oscar and is purposefully keeping his growth offscreen out of childish spite. But three volumes in a row now, Oscar’s growth has felt artificial and fake, and leaves him feeling like an afterthought. I know it’s not a problem of RWBY not being able to write new characters well, just look at how fleshed out and beloved Maria was after just her debut season. But Oscar just can’t catch a break and it’s frustrating to watch. In a volume that otherwise made huge strides in solving many of the pre-existing issues in Volumes 4 and 5, that 6 still refuses to treat Oscar with anything other than mild apathy is just mind-boggling.

Like, what was even the point of having Jaune say Ozpin was just pretending to be Oscar? To make Jaune look irrational? To plant the red herring in the viewer’s minds? The rest of the volume itself shoots the idea down hard, and it feels like it was going to be used during Oscar’s potential cut scene, but again... it was cut. I can only go off what’s in the volume and unfortunately, Oscar in Volume 6 is only marginally better than he was in past Volumes. Bless his heart, Aaron is trying to save this character but the writing itself is dragging Oscar down every chance it can get.

4) Volume 7- The potential breaking point

Oscar’s character is currently in a make or break spot, and Volume 7 will either finally solve his growth issues or this will be it and his fandom will reach a boiling point. The worst thing is, it’s a very easy solution to fix Oscar.

Just put his character development onscreen.

That’s it, the golden answer to all of Oscar’s problems is to just stop cutting his development and agency short. Oscar has potential to be the most tragic character in RWBY- someone who wanted to be a hero, only for the responsibilities to be forced on him without his consent. He’s someone who the rest of his companions oftentimes don’t see as a person, just a walking telephone to their boss. Imagine how dehumanizing it would be, especially after Qrow’s “Don’t lie to him, we’re better than that” line? Imagine being someone effectively living on borrowed time because sooner or later, your consciousness will be absorbed what makes you you will be but a distant memory? Oscar could easily be a shining example of character growth, he could easily have a great arc of learning to deal with the burdens of Ozma’s struggle, of being the target of Hazel and Salem’s ire when he did nothing to earn it. But it needs to be soon, or all the potential in the world won’t be able to save Oscar.

Perhaps Volume 7 will have a flashback to Oscar in Argus having that confrontation with Ozpin and getting his new outfit. Perhaps Ironwood will be mistrusting of Oscar claiming to be Oz, and Oscar will have to step up and prove he is who he says he is. Qrow never apologized to Oscar for punching him, so an apology would serve both Qrow and Oscar’s arcs as Qrow reignites his spark to fight. A potential confrontation with Salem where Oscar may try something the previous Oz lives didn’t could work wonders for Oscar. Volume 7 could still easily have Oscar get spotlight, but with how many plates the season is already planning to spin (Tyrian and Wattts going to Atlas, Cinder and Neo going after Ruby, Weiss dealing with her family, Ruby learning about the Silver Eyes with Maria, a likely return of Faunus racism for Blake and Yang, Atlas class warfare, the token reminder that Pyrrha died so Jaune, Ren and Nora can be sad, etc.) I’m already accepting that Oscar is the most likely candidate to get the boot again. It’s happened before, and I try to avoid being a sucker who falls for the same thing over and over. Definition of insanity and all that.

5) Conclusion

Oscar is... I hate to say this again, but infuriating to me writing wise. He has so much potential as a character in terms of his growth but despite having had main character status for half the show’s runtime now, it’s hard to really care. Oscar keeps getting the short end of the stick, and if it turns out that the whole reason he got shafted for years was because of M&K’s mystery fetish, I might actually throw a chair out a window.

What makes it worse is that Oscar is not a character with no hopes of being salvaged! There is a very easy way to remedy the problem and it’s just to let him have his time to shine and develop offscreen. Flashbacks covering the lost events such as his leaving his farm or gaining confidence in Argus (or even giving Oscar a character short specifically to address these issues) might be belated and feel like damage control- let’s be fair, after Adam’s short this wouldn’t be the first time they resorted to doing damage control in their shorts- but it would be a step in the right direction and show the team are committed to working to salvage Oscar. But they want to do it, it has to be now. If Oscar leaves Volume 7 suffering from the same problems, he might as well get killed off in Volume 8 because that will be it for his character, no one will defend him and Oscar will fully become the heroic Cinder in that no matter what, you can rest assured they won’t get onscreen development from anything that happens. In the meantime, all I can do is hope that this time, things will work out for the farm boi. There’s a goldmine of a character here guys, someone’s just gotta put the work into finding the first nugget.

In short, Oscar can be a great character, if the writing lets him become it onscreen. But until then, it’s going to be a frankly depressing journey to get there.

Thank you for reading.

#rwby #oscar pine #ozpin #ruby rose #rwde #rwby analysis #ozma #salem #james ironwood #hazel rainart #aaron dismuke #rwby4 #rwby5 #rwby6 #rwby7 #jaune arc #qrow branwen

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amwritingmeta · 5 years

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Hey! What’s your take on where Destiel’s headed with the end of the season? I’ve been unfollowing some people who have been very negative about the show. They’re allowed their feelings and opinions, of course, but I’m kind of at a weak point in my life right now and just can’t handle the negativity. I’m personally ready for the angst, and let’s face it, one of the reasons I love Destiel is because of their unhealthy dynamics.

Hi, love!

Ohhh, good question. I’ve been thinking about this a lot, actually, (shocker I know) so getting to write it out is a good thing. I thank you! :)

I’m sorry that you’ve felt affected by the negativity you’ve seen, but I’m glad you made the decision to put some distance between that negativity and yourself. Self-care and being honest with yourself about what you want to and perhaps especially what you can and can’t handle is so important! And being able to recognise it and make that choice for yourself is an immense strength, so whatever point in your life you’re at and whatever brought you there, I hope you lean on that.

To your question! And, oh, the Destiel question complex, dude!

I’ll start out by saying that Destiel exists within the weave of this narrative as an important possibility for deepening the message of this narrative.

I’ll add that I believe Dean and Cas were set up as romantic from the first episode of S4 (come hell or Eric Kripke bitchslapping me for reading too deeply into things) and that Cas was meant to be a catalyst for Dean beginning to see a reason to face his biggest fear, step out of the role of weapon and into his true identity, yeah?

Okay, I’ll elaborate on that.

But first I want to say that, for all the Destiel meta I’ve posted on this blog, for all the Destiel focused analysis and the flailing and squealing and the tagging of the greatest love story ever told (through subtext) I feel I have tried to be clear about the fact that this narrative, as a whole, is not centred on our love story.

Bear with me, there’s a point to this statement and I assure you I believe Destiel will happen, because I believe the writers wouldn’t spend all that thought-power on baking in such delicious subtext if what they were striving for wasn’t to have that subtext brought into text and doing what it was always meant to do, which is deepen the message of the narrative as a whole. #daretodefy

(let me also be clear that me believing is not the same as me promising it will happen okay?) (I just have complete faith that it will) (let me outline why) (and if you don’t want an earnest and personal dissection of my way of analysing the narrative that is also rather unromantic, but lands in all the positivity, then please look away now!) :)

When reading the love story arc, I can’t dismiss or overlook the importance of the individual arcs for Dean and Cas, because Supernatural’s overarching themes are freedom, choice and identity, which are all interlinked, of course, and the characters are each of them playing a part in exploring these themes and are pushing for these themes to come together into a message related to freedom, choice and identity.

That’s how narrative structure works, yeah?

I love these three men like they were my own. They live in my mind and have a piece of my heart and that’s not just me paying lip service. They’ve changed me, you know? Changed how I understand myself. So it’s not breezily I distance myself from them as people and look at them as basic narrative tools meant to help the writers make a statement about the world we live in and about how to live in it.

But that is what they are. That’s what they have to be in terms of narrative analysis. It’s all about asking the questions What does this mean for his progression? but also fitting that into What does this mean for the whole? How does this fit with what’s come before? And as far as speculation is concerned, landing in: What does that mean for what might follow? Yeah? Still with me? :P

So then, here’s the biggest thing that’s very easy to forget to underline when talking about Destiel: however real the love story is, this narrative does not exist for or revolve around the love story.

I think this is so, so important to remember.

The message of this series will be deepened if the love story is brought to surface text and the ginormaneous fuck you to the traditional (straiiiiiight) way of perceiving love and how love should be and how it should act and what it should look like is delivered by the end of S15.

And the effectiveness of the delivery is determined by the fact that it’s a traditional white male hero set to act as symbol for leaving that closed-minded and societally conditioned bullshit behind.

But the love story, to me, is the bright red bow around the overarching thematic message of facing your internal fears and finding your way to who you truly are. Because that’s what freedom is. And it’s freedom begotten through trial and error. Through learning from your mistakes and all those choices you’ve made. Yeah? That’s the core of the show. That’s what we’re watching here.

*and it is beautiful*

It’s also the thematic premise that unites the individual arcs of Dean, Sam and Cas, and now Jack as well. (but Jack is a mirror for all of them so his arc was bound to be a reflection, right?)

So when I think about what’s right for Destiel, first I look at where Dean and Cas are at in terms of this hugely important, overarching theme of identity, which is what is guiding their individual arcs towards a moment of catharsis.

I just cannot believe that a show that has spent close to a decade and a half exploring the idea of individuation would bring its lovers together and have them make each other whole.

I believe they need to first be whole in themselves, with all the self-worth that would bring on.

Which is why all the enormous internal progression that’s been given to us over the last few seasons, particularly in Dean, but in Cas and Sam too, has been so exciting to me! Because it’s a push for them all to reach a moment of individuation. And for Dean and Cas, that means believing themselves worthy of love and happiness!

Which is why the love story is the bright red bow, yeah? Because through making it surface text and letting them finally get together they’re given this huge reward for doing all that internal work, right?

And both of them reaching a point of individuation and laying the foundation for internal balance (because staying balanced is a continuing internal process of self-awareness and self-care) would be what allows the narrative to effectively send its message out to the world: let no one tell you who you are, you choose who to be, and good things await you if you dare to open yourself up to your true identity.

Well, then where are Dean and Cas at in their individual arcs as of 14x17?

(um got long…) :)

Dean

Dean battled with toxic masculinity representatives pushing awareness on him all through S13, so when Michael came around, Dean could now recognise him for what he was - his shadow.

Only, the awareness brought on an unconscious identity crisis that left Dean incapable of facing down his biggest fears and instead of engaging with the needed shadow work, Dean, in fear, decided to simply give up and give in and drown himself, because he couldn’t imagine what his identity could possibly be without this side to him pretty much in charge of him, yeah?

Taking control means admitting you’re out of control, and for someone so in need of control, admitting that you really don’t have any control over yourself is terrifying. So I get it.

It’s just that Dean’s inability to engage in shadow work and opening up to being honest with himself about the imbalance within him led to his shadow infecting the regressed side to Dean that was always in most need of acknowledgement: his neglected inner child. (represented by Jack)

Here’s what Dean needs: to let Sam go.

No, I don’t mean as in say goodbye forever and move cross country.

I mean, he has to let Sam be the adult he’s been for a very long time. He has to trust that Sam can take care of himself. Because even though I think Dean consciously recognises Sam as a grown man, unconsciously he is very, very stuck in the emotional patterns tied directly to Protect Sammy.

Dean sees Sam as his kid, and this was even underlined in 14x17 through how it opens on a board game Dean used to love as a kid before Mary died, and ends with Dean playing a game with his brother to keep him conscious.

Sam saying: You always put me first. Your whole life.

Honestly it continues to blow me away, because that exactly is the issue here. Dean never puts himself first. Ever.

His purpose is still to Protect Sammy at all costs.

And his neglected inner child is suffering for it, because Dean never had a childhood, and until he can admit to himself that Protect Sammy has damaged him in ways that he has to come to terms with, without feeling like he’s in any way betraying Sam, but rather opening up to acknowledging that neglected inner child, who is so starved for love and affection, Dean will never be able to confront his fears, expel them and in so doing integrate his shadow.

How exactly this is supposed to happen I wouldn’t dream of speculating on, but, to me, it does feel like this is what the narrative is circling for him. Because he’s aware of so many things. He’s aware of what the codependency has done to Sam and how it’s shaped his view on life and their joint purpose.

If we die, we do that together. Yeah?

And Dean doesn’t want that for Sam. And he’s tried to let go this season. And he’s tried to make Sam let go. But they keep coming back to well-worn paths, don’t they? And they still can’t find that balance in their relationship. Like how Dean just decided to leave Jack by himself in 14x16 and Sam’s annoyance at the deception, while Sam didn’t just step on Dean’s decision and override it in the moment, however much Sam was questioning it and disagreeing with it.

Oh, Sam. So much crap bottled up. Gah!

And then we can ask ourselves where Cas is at, and it’s an interesting at.

Cas

If you’ve taken a gander at my 14x08 meta on Cas and his shadow and the glory that is Carl Jung’s doctrine, then you know what I’m about to write, which is that Cas, at the start of S14, had come much further than Dean in his shadow work. In fact, the way I read S13 after Meredith Glynn planted the idea of a Jungian perspective on the narrative in my head is all to do with Cas doing a lot of shadow work and effectively reaching a point, at the start of S14, where he’s beginning to become truly self-aware.

The way he communicates with Jack about family and about belonging at the start of S14 is very different to the lost and rather adrift way he speaks about belonging with Mary in S12. Then Cas didn’t know if he truly fit in at the bunker, but now, and after the brothers markedly fought for him in 12x12, of course, he’s at a point where he’s actively referring to it as his home.

He also confronted the worst side to himself, his worst nightmare, a shadow representative in AU!Cas in S13, and not only killed this nightmare version, but acknowledge that he carries that nightmare version inside of himself.

So because Cas engaged in shadow work the moment he was confronted with his shadow representative (the Empty) in 13x04 and stood up to it and demanded his freedom, leading to all sorts of character progression throughout S13 and leaving him quite balanced at the start of S14, in 14x08, his shadow came to put a goddamn end to Cas’ growing self-worth and awareness, and the shadow came for the representative of that awareness for Cas: Jack.

And Cas, instead of giving into his shadow and handing over awareness, made a deal, trading his happiness for remaining in control of himself. Rather than drown in his fears, he confronted them and said no, I’m not giving into you.

But.

One fear had to remain in spite of this confrontation and saying no.

And it’s the biggest fear of all, for him as well as for Dean. And it’s the fear that stands in the way of either of them being able to fully open up to what they want for themselves.

What is it?

Indeed, it’s the fear of happiness.

Now, it would be grand to say that happiness in all things for Dean and Cas are explicitly tied to them getting it on already. But I would gently argue that it actually isn’t. And if I’m right, because I might not be and if I’m wrong then, omg, bring on the smooches NOW, I really don’t mind, but if I’m right, then I believe it strengthens the love story, rather than weakens it in any way.

Because?

Because then the fear of happiness is tied into the series overarching theme of identity, which makes sense to me that it would be. And it ties right back around to the theory that for Dean and Cas to be happy together, they first have to be happy in themselves. To be together, they first have to answer the questions Who am I? and Who do I want to be?

Essentially: What do I want?

So, real happiness is tied to them recognising and embracing their true identities.

For Dean this is all to do with letting go of Sam as identity marker, letting go of Protect Sammy as life purpose, and putting himself first. (for once) There’s a helluva lot of baggage for him to rummage through to get there, because his entire self-worth has, for practically his whole life, been tied to taking care of and looking out for Sam. Yeah? So I’m curious, if I’m even in the ballpark with this reading and this is what really needs to happen before anything else can really happen, how the writers will approach truly breaking the codependency once and for all.

I’ve always had this sense that it’s on Sam to properly instigate it by stepping out from Dean’s shadow, and Sam is being a research God and getting shit done and solving problems like it’s nobody’s business so maybe… We shall see!

For Cas… Well, anyone following this blog will know what I’ve got to say about Cas and his true identity, yeah?

For him to choose to cut out his grace and become human.

Cas has gone through many stages in his progression, but I do believe he’s repressing his true want because it’s such an absolute affront to Heaven, to God, to the strict rule book of angel/human interaction that Cas has been brought up on. (so his conversation with Anael in 14x17 was just manna from Heaven to me)

Choosing a human life, to him, isn’t anything he’s even considering and I think that’s actually telling, because he’s avoiding even the hint of happiness like the plague, and I believe humanity has always been where the root of happiness truly lies for him. Because it’s his true form, you know? Not this in between thing he is rn.

*still makes me want to cry that he called himself a thing*

I mean, the whole Making a Big Choice thing could be circumvented by the fact that Cas cutting out his grace is the same as him not having to fear happiness anymore, because as a human he doesn’t belong in the Empty. So he could essentially realise that he can free himself from the deal, and then, actually, understand (when the Empty shows to nab him in his happiest moment) that humanity is what he wanted for himself all along. Like holy fuck THIS is what happiness truly feels like. *personal freedooooooom* *individuatioooooon*

But I wonder at what would bring about such a choice - whatever the scenario - with drama on the horizon, so I’m doubting this choice will happen this season.

(if at all) (let me be clear) (human!Cas is just what I - and others with me! - see as the narrative push for his progression) (it’s not a 100% has to happen or bust) (I mean it kinda is to my mind and I’ll be hella curious to learn what the big turning point is for him if it’s not realising he doesn’t even really think of himself as an angel anymore) (I feel he’s been transitioning since S4 tbh) (from angel to man…)

Anyway, that was one helluva roundabout way of landing in an actual answer to your question. Phew! Sorry this got so very long!!

The answer to your question is that I’m not expecting any sort of textual Destiel before the end of this season.

I am, however, very excited to see exactly what the subtext is about to deliver with the next episode. And, well, I suppose what the text will deliver, too, because Dean is textually telling Cas that he’s screwed up badly enough that Dean is ready to threaten to shut him out of his life. I mean. Drama. Right?

And, look, the thing to take away is that everything is connected.

The individual arcs are influenced by the joint arcs (Sam and Dean and Dean and Cas) and the joint arcs progress thanks to the growth happening in the individual arcs.

The love story arc doesn’t exist in a vacuum all on its own, but I do believe its conclusion is the needed punctuation mark for both Dean and Cas’ individual journeys, because their individual progression would never have been what it is right now in the narrative without the other there to act as catalyst and northern star.

And you can see it. Because when you take one of them out of the story, the progression of the other stops dead in its tracks. And it’s something I’ve always loved the subtlety of. And it’s really what has me convinced beyond any doubt that there will be a satisfactory conclusion, too. It would leave such a hole if there wasn’t and I think the writers would feel it like a wound in the brain.

(#daretodefy)

And hey, I think that the unhealthy dynamics between them - with the absolutely atrocious lack of communication in moments that truly matter at its core - are all about the unhealthy imbalance within. So fingers crossed they’re getting on that introspection train. They won’t lose the sass and the throwing bitch faces at each other, you know? The fact that they question the other’s choices is actually part of the healthy in their dynamic. But, yeah, man… if they could just know when to speak up and when to share and when to…

Yeah.

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kallypsowrites · 5 years

Text

Game of Thrones, The Lowest Point, and what it means for Season 8

Hello everyone. I’m here to talk to you today about ‘the lowest point’. The lowest point, for those of you who aren’t familiar, is the darkest place in the story. The moment where everything seems hopeless because a character has failed or gone through tremendous loss or died. The lowest point is one of the most important moments in any character arc because it tests our characters. Sometimes they rise stronger than ever and sometimes they succumb to their struggles. This is often what sets apart a tragedy from a drama.

In a three act structure, the lowest point typically is placed at the 2/3 or 3/4 mark of the story. You’ve probably noticed this if you’ve watched a film. With 20-30 minutes left to go the characters are often crying/moping/suffering. But then it’s more satisfying when we see them rise up to face the conflict in the final moments!

Now in a long ass TV show like Game of thrones, lowest points do work a bit differently. There are many lowest points throughout the season. But we can still identify each character’s LOWEST lowest point and see where it is in the narrative. And the show is eight seasons, with a total of 73 episodes. So we can kiiiiinda see where the lowest point fits in by using math (*gag*)In this way, we can predict what that says for each character in their final season of Game of Thrones.

So, the remaining Starks (Jon, Sansa, Arya and Bran) actually all have their lowest point at around the same place, which is thematically satisfying. Obviously the Starks have had MANY low moments, but we’re looking for the LOWEST of the low.

Sansa, for instance, is a character with many rough moments. But while Joffery is awful, her marriage to Ramsay is unquestionably her lowest point. She has been constantly losing her identity as a Stark to marriage but this is the very worst instance. This happens in season five and culminates with her being willing to throw herself off the wall of Winterfell on the off chance she might survive. Her lowest point happens roughly 2/3 of the way through the show because of that.

Arya also is a character of many bad moments from witnessing her father’s death to the red wedding! But her lowest point is when she begins to lose her very identity as a Stark in season five and six. Her loss of vision is what kick starts that lowest point at the end of season five. Roughly 2/3 of the way through the story.

Jon lost his lover Ygritte which was sad, but his lowest point is when he DIES at, you guessed it, the end of season five. 2/3 of the way through the story. Worse than that he is BETRAYED for doing something he thought was right!

Bran is the only Stark who’s lowest point occurs in season six instead, when he surrenders himself to beoming the three eyed raven and the old Bran seems to “die”. But Bran wasn’t in season five at all, so if we just take the seasons he IS in, then his lowest point occurs around the 3/4 point of his story, so not too far off.

It’s not just the Starks who have a lowest point at the end of season five! So does Cersei! Her walk of shame marks her most emotionally vulnerable and awful moment and therefore occurs 2/3 of the way through the story. Losing her son was of course, awful, but this attacks her very sense of self. Again, often times the lowest point is not someone you love dying but when you start to lose all sense of who you are.

Tyrion’s lowest point is when he kills Shae and then his father. It occurs about half way through the story, so he’s set apart from the other five we’ve discussed here. He has tried so hard to be accepted by his family, so hard to prove his innocence, so hard to get his father’s approval. And this is the moment when he says FUCK it. He becomes a Kinslayer and he leaves King’s Landing in a box. He, at the time, seems to have forfeited the game. It’s no coincidence that the next time we see him he is drinking like its the end of the world. A lowest point at the half way mark is unconventional, but sort of makes sense in a TV show. There is Tyrion BEFORE he killed his father and there is Tyrion AFTER he killed his father. He is forever changed now.

But some characters have a lowest point that’s even FURTHER back. Let’s check out Jaime and Theon. They both have their lowest point in season three and...man...could it have to do with a loss of self? Hell yeah it does!

Jaime loses his hand in episode three of season three, about 1/3 of the way through the story. It is stated many times that his LIFE was in that hand. His sword hand. That has always been the one thing he KNEW he could do better than anyone. With that gone he has nothing. He doesn’t know who he is so he must figure it out again from scratch. And he takes a kind of long time to figure it out but we’ll circle back to Jaime in a sec.

Theon SUPER loses his identity through awful torture until he goes only by the name of Reek. His lowest point kind of lasts awhile, but I’d say the end of season three where he first abandoned his name, marks the true lowest point. A little over 1/3 of the way through the series. And he, like Jaime, takes a long time to rediscover it.

And then there’s Daenerys. Do you know when her lowest point happens? Her LOWEST lowest point?

It’s season one.

Now, Daenerys has had other lowest points of course. Locking away her dragons, being picked up by the Dothraki, losing Viseron. But none of them have been quite so intense as her season one loss. Toward the end of season one, Dany has finaly been coming into power, free from her brother. She has a plan to cross the sea and take back her throne! And she has an army willing to take her there! And, even better, she’s pregnant with a son who she already loves!

But then, in a very short span of time she loses her husband, her son and all of her armies. She is left with only a few scattered followers and she walks into a fire with the dragon eggs. At this point, her surviving or the dragons hatching is not a sure thing. This, for Daenerys, is a sort of desperate act to try to retain SOMETHING of the power she had only a few days previous. Fortunately for her...it results in dragons.

Let’s talk about the results of the lowest point real quick. The lowest point isn’t just there to make a character suffer. It’s there to mold them and push them along their arc. It’s there to make them stronger. So how does the lowest point effect each character? Well, Jon is brought back from the dead, escaping his lowest point. And with that, he is actually able to fight for his family again--the family he always wanted to be a part of. He, as a result, becomes King in the North. But he wouldn’t have been able to do that if not for being knifed through the heart. On a personal level thought...he’s more jaded but also more focused than ever on the true threat. The Night King must be stopped. It is the only way to save everyone.

Sansa, after enduring abuse after abuse, is tired of other people deciding her fate for her. Cersei, Joffrey, Littlefinger, Ramsay. They’ve all used her for their own means. She wants to take back Winterfell, with Jon, so they can be safe. That is Sansa’s main desire at this point. Safety. And she will do anything to ensure it. The reason why its so satisfying to see her face Ramsay and tell him to “sleep well” is because she is no longer letting anyone have control over her. She’s done with that. She as become harder and smarter.

Arya, after having her eyes taken, must of course learn to use her other senses and endure physical abuse from the waif. So she gets stronger. But the real struggle here is for her identity. All throughout the arc, there’s this thread that she can’t let go of Needle. It’s what Jon gave her! Its her last piece of herself! And by the end, instead of letting herself be killed or giving up on Arya Stark, she takes Needle and kills the waif before declaring “a girl is Arya Stark and I am going home”. Perhaps she has lost everything... but she will not give up her name or her family.

Bran, interestingly, is sort of still in his lowest point. He has become the three eyed raven and at this point it is uncertain whether or not he will find himself again or whether, as Mira says, he died in that cave. That question will surely be answered in Season 8.

Cersei, in response to being shamed...fucks up EVERYONE. She blows up the sept with the faith as well as Margaery and becomes queen of the Seven Kingdoms. They brought her low and she climbed higher than ever. But this is also at a tragic cost. She loses her final child and thus becomes colder than ever. Cersei’s story is a tragedy after all, so there is never TRUE triumph for her.

Now, Jaime and Theon are frustrating character, partially because they have to be made, unmade and reborn. And that takes time. In season one and two, they both kind of suck. Jaime sucks most in season one and Theon most in season two. Then, through a dramatic, traumatic event they lose themselves and are left wandering in the dark. Jaime TRIES to return to buisness as usual as a King’s Guard, but finds himself more distant from Cersei as she too is changed. And he fails to protect TWO of his children, which leaves him feeling more lost. But really, he’s stuck with the person who brings out the worst in him, clinging to the past that he had with her until he FINALLY realizes that its over and leaves her at the end of season seven.

Theon spends quite a bit of time as Reek, likewise, and even though he escapes Ramsay at the end of season five, he still is left with the fear of him and the trauma that losing himself inflicted. For THREE WHOLE SEASONS he was with Ramsay, and that has been traumatic. So season six and seven focus on him still not truly being Theon anymore. Now, at the end of season seven, he has finally claimed his name again, bathed himself in water (reborn) and is ready to save his sister.

Jaime and Theon are both frustrating characters because we WANT to see them embrace their new selves but it takes them awhile to do so. The Starks are easier to get behind because their reaction to their lowest point is more immediate whereas Jaime and Theon stall for a bit before finally getting it. It is frustrating but like...it’s also relatable in a way.

And then, back to Daenerys. Daenerys, as I mentioned, comes out of her lowest point with three dragons. By the end of season two, she has money. By the end of season three, she has an army. By the beginning of season four, she has Mereen. By the end of season five she has figured out how to ride her dragon and she has new advisors in Varys and Tyrion. By the end of season six she has the dothraki in addition to her other armies, a bunch of allies, and is ready to sail for Westeros.

There are lowest points interspersed in these developments, but over all, she has continued to gain more and more ever sense her lowest point. As her dragons get bigger so does her power. Now, some of that power has wavered as she lost allies in Westeros and now the threat of the dead is coming...but the fact that we haven’t seen Dany lower than the end of season one? That has implications for season eight. So what are those implications?

Of the remaining major characters, I think Jon, Sansa, Bran and Theon have already hit their LOWEST lowest point.

Arya and Tyrion are a toss up for me.

Cersei, Jaime and Daenerys have yet to hit their true lowest point.

I’ll explain. For Jon, he has already died, and even if he dies again...that’s not really hitting a lowest point. If anything, the second time he dies, it will be after completeing his mission and therefore less devestating than the first time. He certainly won’t die via betrayal this time. And, best case scenario, he lives! But this is Game of Thrones after all.

For Sansa and Theon...I really don’t think it can get worse than Ramsay. Even if shitty things happen to them, there’s just...no sinking any lower than that.

For Bran, he’s still in the midst of dealing with his other lowest point so his fate in season eight will sort of be...a reaction that that.

Arya and Tyrion are a tossup for me because it kind of depends. If Arya, at any point, chooses vengeance over family, I suspect she will hit a new and tragic lowest point. If not, I think she’s good. For Tyrion, I’m hazy enough on his motives right now, there is a possibility that he will hit a lower point.

But then there’s Cersei, Jaime and Daenerys. Cersei’s whole life has been barrelling toward this self fulfilling prophesy. And if Jaime is indeed going to be her killer, the realization of that will fucking SHATTER her right before she dies as she realizes that she has been so blind.

For Jaime, the lowest point will likely be Cersei’s death. If his hand was part of his identity, she was another part. Now of course, I’m the biggest Jaime x Brienne shipper in the world and I DO THINK at this point he has left Cersei behind. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t going to be a kick in the balls when she dies (especially if he does it).

And then Daenerys. For a long time, its been a journey up for Dany. Ever since season one she has been rising. What’s the saying? The higher you go, the further you fall? I don’t know what form Dany’s lowest point will take, but I am fairly sure this season is going to be ROUGH for her and will probably have something to do with her sense of self as a Targaryen (since many of the true lowest points have looked at personal identity). On a narrative level, its been too long since the LOWEST lowest point, and its probs going to happen here.

Anyway, just a little story analysis I was thinking about this morning. Let me know what you think the season 8 lowest points will be! As always, keep discussion respectful :)

#game of thrones #game of thrones season 8 #jon snow #daenerys targaryen #Sansa Stark #Arya Stark #bran stark #Jaime Lannister #tyrion lannister #Cersei Lannister #theon greyjoy

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braveleader · 5 years

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*insert catchy klance meta title here*

IT’S FINALLY HERE. Some of you might have read my post earlier today when I said it was three pages long and how I hadn’t gathered all my screenshots nor explained them yet. Well… Now it’s 14 pages long and I rambled a lot. But here we are.

To contextualize this; I was brainstorming while re-reading various Klance Metas and theories a few days ago (because I’m unsurprisingly thirsty for Klance) and noticed what seems to me to be an important detail that people weirdly enough never focused on as far as I’ve seen. (Remember that it might be an enormous reach)

If you’ve watched New Girl, you’ll probably understand where I’ll be going with this along the line, but for those of you who haven’t, here is a quick summary. (Spoiler Alert, I guess.)

All the way back in 2011 during the first season of New Girl, an episode that Ness (Nick + Jess) fans probably still cherish to this day, came out. If you’re wondering where the fuck I’m going with this and what the hell this has to do with Klance, please don’t give up yet, you’ll see my point.

So, in 1x05, Jess’s best friend, Cece, talks about how if a someone is into you, their feet would point toward you. (“And did you see his feet? A guy’s feet point at what they want. His feet were pointing right at you.”).

Later in the episode, Jess can’t help but look at Nick’s feet, and his feet keeps following her every time she turns around him. Funnily enough, Nick and Jess ends up being the endgame couple of the show. Foreshadowing? Hell yeah baby.

If you’re anything like me, you’re probably thinking “yeah, whatever, it’s probably not true.” Because, that’s exactly what I did think. But with my recent brainstorming, I went looking for answers.

And answers I was given.

Judy Dotton (American Author, graduated from Harvard and all that) did some scientific research about sexual behavior and all the science behind flirting and according to her: “Feet typically point in the direction they want to go, so if someone’s feet are pointed toward you, that’s good. If they’re pointing away from you, that’s bad. If someone’s feet are pointed in toward each other, it’s a good sign, since it’s a subconscious attempt to shrink in size and appear harmless, approachable…which may very well mean someone likes you, a lot.”

And you’re probably there: “CELINE WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU GOING WITH THIS DAMNIT.”

Well, patience yields focus my little paladudes.

So another source, to go with:

According to Psychology Major Hanan Parvez: “What a person’s foot does can be the most accurate clue of their emotional state. The more distant a body part is from the brain, the less aware we are of its movements and hence the less we are able to manipulate it. So our feet often give away our true feelings […] it is interesting to note that even before the person orient [their] body in the direction [they] want to go, [they] orient [their] foot. That is to say, foot pointing precedes body orientation. Body orientation, prolonged gaze and foot pointing are sure signs that a person is interested in you. They’re literally asking to be approached. […] two people totally interested in each other […] each of them points their one foot forward towards the other person. If only one of them is interested in the other one, you’ll only see one foot stepping forward. Of course, the person who is interested will be the one who assumes this foot forward position.”

Another one for the road, because I’m nothing if not generous:

“The feet serve as a direct reflection of a person’s attitude. The key is recognizing where a person’s feet are pointed. When the feet are pointed directly toward another person, this is a sign of attraction, or at the very least genuine interest. If, on the other hand, the feet are pointed away, or toward the exit, that is a sign that attraction probably is not there.”

Okay, now we’re going to the juicy part.

There’s probably a lot more scenes that could work for my demonstration, but these ones are “big moments” in the relationships and/or personal stories of the characters, so here I am my dudes. I decided to work only with screenshots starting from season 3 up to season 7 (mostly because it’s the only episodes I had on my laptop for reference). You might also want to take into account that fluidity in cartoons and anime is harder, since there’s ultimately less frames, therefore, details such as those can really be more observed in important scenes, where, well every detail is important. But it’s definitely still here. (That’s why I really worked with one on one emotionally charged scenes, or ones with a third intervener.)

Not to jump the boat or anything but Lotura had more one-on-one scenes in the span of two eps than A//urance did in the whole of the show.

Let’s go chronologically until the juiciest of them all, shall we?

Can’t believe I’m saying that, but I’m going to talk about A//urance a lot, in order to, hopefully, shut it down.

Starting with the scene in 3x02 (Red Paladin) where Lance gave the blue bayard to Allura (a scene, that was ultimately cut short by Keith’s actions lzkajea)

Looking away from blue, Lance notices Allura who just entered the hangar in her new paladin outfit. Where we could have been given Lance’s point of view, like in a lot of scenes having to do with Keith, which would have given, you know, that kind of romantic atmosphere, we’re actually a few steps closer to her and a little on the right. If we look at Allura’s feet, she’s clearly posing in her outfit, but her left foot is pointing at ‘us’, not Lance. Which might be explained by the mentioned fact of her posing. But also, by maybe in fact that she isn’t, at this point in time, attracted in any way to Lance. But moving on to our blue boy:

it’s clearly another story. We’re looking over Allura’s shoulder this time, and we know that Lance used to face blue, but he didn’t just turn from the waist up to look at Allura, he turned his whole body, and his foot is pointing at her, not us. We all know Lance has/had feelings for Allura, and genuine ones. This position confirms it.

As early as the beginning of season 5 it takes another turn. Allura is about to get feelings for Lotor in the upcoming future (as season 5 is the first part of the seasons 5+6 arc). We know it now, didn’t know then. But that’s beside the point. When Lance unlocks the Altean Blade, Allura joins him in the training deck. If Lance’s feet aren’t pointing to Allura, it’s only because he’s still assuming a “fighting” position. Allura is not. And her feet are definitely not pointing to Lance.

Indeed, as she gets closer to him, her feet are still forming an angle, definitely not pointing to Lance. If you take the time to look at the angle, even if her feet are apart, the overall angle is still mostly narrowed. Now, a few seconds later, she brings her feet closer to each other, and like the following screenshot shows, this movement, made the angle even wider. If we’re going the metaphorical road, we can see this wider angle as somehow a wider gap between them. Maybe the foreshadow of a certain distance, a separation? Moving on?

Now. We get to the fun part (nope, sorry, still A//urance, but I promise the Klance talk is coming) as we’re getting closer to the “present” timeline.

The end of season 6, after the revelation of Lotor’s actions when Allura throw him across the room led to well. That hug. (And my boy Keith interrupting the moment like the amazing beautiful boy he is… anyway.)

If after reading the last 1400 words without quitting, and you remember one of the quote I mentioned earlier (“If only one of them is interested in the other one, you’ll only see one foot stepping forward”) this is exactly what seems to be happening here. Lance’s feet aren’t pointing straight to Allura, they’re more like pointing around her (if that makes sense) while Allura’s feet are pointing straight at Lance, and not only that but she also has one foot forward, as if she’s about to walk even more into Lance.

And finally, the one scene that really, really made me tilt:

Many of you out there proved throughout Lance’s general body language and the Macross theory that it’s more the end of A//urance than its beginning. (And for that, I want to thank you all for your amazing-ness). But I’m here to add to the mess.

Not. A. Single. Time. Does Lance turn his feet, or his full body, toward Allura. It could have easily been done to prove their endgame. But it wasn’t. On the contrary, Allura is the one completely facing him, both her feet pointing to Lance, and adding to that, the infamous step forward.

My boy Lance is clearly moving on, his feet are like a 90° angle away from her, only his head is turn toward her. It’s literally the proof that when he’s moving on, she really starts liking him (as in, liking him as more than a friend).

And now, you’re telling me, how the fuck is talking about A//urance for ten years a Klance meta?!

WELL.

Now, I’m telling you, screw chronology.

Time to dig deeper. The following screenshots are of the scene following the A//urance hug, when Keith is being is awesome badass self, saving my Klance heart. These four screenshots are only a few frames apart, and I really want you to observe Lance’s positions throughout all of them.

It’s really subtle, and if you don’t like digging, you wouldn’t notice it: but Lance moves his feet before his whole body… Once again, if you didn’t go crazy with all the information yet and remember the quotes, one specifically say that your feet will move before your body. Not only that, but foot pointing will happen before you’re facing the person with your body. One of Lance’s foot is clearly pointing to Keith on the hologram/screen thingy.

If you catch my drift, Lance is attracted to Keith, he barely appeared that Lance had already turned to face him. For reference, if you scroll up and now look at Allura, you’ll realize that she takes a few frames to turn to Keith, and her body turns before her feet or at least, a somehow exact time (i.e. she’s not attracted to Keith). Those exact feet used to point to Lance for the first three screenshots it’s only once Lance if fully turned toward Keith, only his heels needs to be touching the ground for him to assume his final position (aka alike in the fourth screenshot.)

… I should probably stop there, you know, not overwhelm anyone with information…

Nah.

My dudes, look at this. In the first screenshot, since they know it’s Keith, we can definitely see that Lance’s feet are pointing to Keith. Not only that, but he has a foot one step forward from the other, he’s not slightly turn on the side, which would play on perspective, no, he’s full on facing where Keith is going to get out, and his foot is definitely one step forward.

In the second screenshot, Lance approached Keith with the infamous “bigger”, “cooler” and grizzled” words following each other to form some A+ flirting. Now, you’re understanding the concept. And you clearly see that once Lance stopped walking, he didn’t just stop, simply, no he still has a foot moved one step forward toward Keith. Both of his feet are clearly pointing to Keith.

To end this fourteen page long ramble on feet (I swear I don’t have a foot kink lkeazjaez), I want to introduce you once again my fellow paladudes, after all this patience, to the scene, the scene of them all, the embodiment of kick out of the bonding moment.

The following four screenshots.

Keith’s feet are not only pointing to Lance: they are following every single one of his movements, alike the amazing Nick Miller did before him following the movements of Jessica Day, here is Keith, in all his beautiful gayness. And the object of his attention, one Loverboy Lance, his feet pointing right back at him. Do I need to say more?

Do I need to display even more the kick energy flying out of this scene? Do I really?

Or I could be reaching.... A lot. (If you want any link of the original quotes, ask me, I’m too lazy to embed them.)

#klance #keith #lance #klance meta #klance theory #laith #keith kogane #lance mcclain

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boltsandashes · 5 years

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Game of Thrones - The Bells

Alright, so. My day so far has been waking up to find my parents’ basement flooded, then spending my entire monthly income at my car’s yearly inspection.

And then I got home and watched this episode.

And. I have some thoughts.

Spoilers starting after this.

So I.... did not like this episode. I didn’t hate everything in it. There was some spectacular acting, a few really great character moments. Jaime and Tyrion’s scenes are always brilliant and this was no different, even though I didn’t love the context of this one. Tyrion telling Jaime how grateful he was for him left me tearing up.

Jaime’s reunion with Cersei was also beautiful. Even after everything they’ve been through and done to each other, the way she just broke, seeing him, really made me feel for her. Her last moments too, they were heartbreaking.

I love how the woman we focused on at the start of the episode appeared to help Arya later.

I also really enjoyed the majority of the Clegane fight. (Though... maybe this is me coming from a zombie fandom, but eventually I was shouting for Sandor to just stab him in the brain!! Apparently that wouldn’t have helped, but you’d think it would’ve been a much more obvious choice than a shoulder, just in general.)

Finally, I loved the last Sandor-Arya conversation, and the way they cut between him fighting and her trying to survive later. There were some really great elements in this episode, and I feel like I just listed a lot.

So it’s kind of amazing that overall the episode was just... so goddamn painful to watch. The way they handled Dany was pretty unforgivable. I understand that they’re sending her down the Mad King route, but they shouldn’t be. It’s so out of keeping with how she used to be. It’s so disrespectful to her journey. It’s like watching an entirely new character.

Varys

Varys’ death was horrible and not in the way that Game of Thrones sometimes used to be horrible, where awful things happened but it was thematically satisfying or built to some larger purpose. It didn’t build to anything. No one cared when it happened (or at least, cared in a way where it changed any character motivations or actions). It’s not what signaled to anyone that Dany was going off the rails; everyone continued to follow her just as stalwartly as before. It led to nothing. Added nothing. I’m convinced it only happened because Melisandre made a quick prophecy last year that Varys would die, so they felt the need to clumsily throw it in. And that’s so deeply sad for such a significant character, such an interesting and complex character, to go out in a way that meant absolutely nothing in the end.

(Side note: we saw him writing letters about Jon’s true ancestry at least a day before the one he burned. Killing him didn’t stop the word from getting out, or shouldn’t have. Did no one think to care or question this? No follow up? ...Possibly it’s something that will somehow matter in the next episode and I hope so, because I still want Varys to have mattered. But after what happened in the rest of the episode I don’t see something like a letter mattering much anymore.)

The Fleet

This is just plain plot armor shining through and it irritates me. Last episode, Drogon and Rhaegal faced off against the fleet. Rhaegal was killed, and Drogon forced to retreat. This episode Dany destroyed the fleet, along with all the scorpions King’s Landing had set up, with absolutely no difficulty. You can’t set them up as being some huge threat to her in one episode and then, with no alteration in power or strategy, just have her crush them immediately afterward.

(And... this isn’t exactly about the fleet, but Dany pretty much proves here that she could fly all over the city without much difficulty, so why, why why why, wouldn’t anyone suggest her just flying into the Red Keep, bypassing all the soldiers, and taking out Cersei, leaving everyone else alive? Considering how important a minimal death count was, you’d think that would be the obvious strategy.)

Euron

So... I don’t know what popular opinion is on this character, but to me he’s always been just such a non-character. I can’t even explain it except that every time he’s on screen has always felt like wasted screen time. What I can say is that his fight with Jaime seemed so forced and out of character for him? Like the writers realized that since they’d been setting up a rivalry there they needed to have them fight at some point, so they just squashed it in while the world was already ending, and when it really made no difference.

You know what would’ve made more sense? For Euron to climb out of that water, see that the city was falling and Jaime was going to save Cersei, and say “yeah have her, man. She won’t be a queen anymore once the day’s done, what use is she to me now?” And then, if the writers felt like they still needed to fight, he could’ve gone for the dingy and Jaime could’ve gone after him then, since it was his and Cersei’s only way to escape.

And that would’ve been much more in keeping with Euron’s character, and highlighted the differences between Jaime, who actually loved Cersei and was willing to go back in to save her, and Euron, who only wanted her because she was the queen.

...All I’ve got to say is I’m glad Euron wasn’t actually the person who killed Jaime Lannister.

Jaime

I hated what they did with Jaime last episode. I don’t hate that he went back for Cersei. Honestly, when they said at first that he was planning to stay behind in Winterfell that felt desperately out of character to me, and I was excited when we saw him gearing up to go back. But then he said that he was going back to be with Cersei. As in... just drop every ounce of character growth we’ve seen from him over the series, stand by her side again and watch the world burn.

But I would’ve been so happy with his entire character arc, and his fate, with one easy tweak. Jaime’s motivation should have been trying to get Cersei to surrender in the first place. It’s so frustrating to me because that’s what Tyrion gets him to do anyway in this episode. It makes sense for Jaime to want to protect Cersei, who he’s spent his entire life in love with. It makes sense that he’d want to try and end the war without any more bloodshed than necessary, since he cares about people on both sides now. It doesn’t make sense for him to just snap like he did, decide “screw the rest of the world, I’m gonna go be evil again.” It just... doesn’t.

Nothing would’ve had to change, story-wise, with this tweak. Jaime could have gotten captured trying to get to Cersei. Tyrion goes to visit him, asks “why are you going back to her?” and Jaime says “I was trying to get her to stand down. If there’s a way this can end with her still breathing, I have to try.” And then Tyrion helps him escape. (Maybe in this version Jaime tells Tyrion to pass some last message along to Brienne.) He still goes to try and convince Cersei to surrender or leave with him, but gets there too late. The plot continues as it was, without severely damaging Jaime’s characterization and growth. Easy fix.

Daenerys (and Grey Worm)

Alright, this is the big one. I’m not going to go into detail on how awful that entire segment was. I just... it’s too much, I can’t. But I am going to talk about how that could have also been made much better with one small tweak.

They should have saved Missandei’s death for this episode.

If this is the route they wanted to go down –– Dany losing it, the city burning –– then I could have actually gotten on board with it. But there needed to be a reason. Not just “Dany’s suddenly crazy and bloodthirsty.” Not “Grey Worm’s just kind of an asshole now.” And yes, while you could say that their motivation was still anger over Missandei’s death in the episode, there’s a huge difference between an in the moment snap reaction and one that happens days later. So let’s rewrite just a smidge. Missandei’s still a prisoner at the start of this episode. Dany starts out the episode being fairly reasonable, and agreeing with Tyrion that if they hear the bells, she’ll accept the surrender.

The battle begins and the fighting goes on for a bit. Missandei’s there with Cersei watching the battle, maybe commenting proudly that there’s no way Cersei will win. Daenerys is the true queen and soon the people will realize that. When the bells sound and the soldiers stand down, Dany’s elated. Maybe meets Jon’s eyes across the battlefield and they share a smile. The war’s won, and not many people had to die. It’s everything she’s ever dreamed of.

But then Cersei, in a fit of panic at having lost and the vindictive rage that she’s so known for, drags Missandei out onto a balcony, meets Dany’s eyes, and slits her throat.

Dany, horrified and grief-stricken, takes flight with Drogon again. Grey Worm, heartbroken and enraged, raises his spear and kills one of the surrendered troops. Chaos breaks out. We cut to Dany, see her crying as she ruins the city, as all her dreams shatter around her with no way to fix it. She’s still falling apart, but her actions are understandable. We empathize with her, even as we’re horrified by what she’s doing.

This one change would have completely altered the spirit of the episode, without changing the content of it much at all. This would’ve given us multidimensional characters, understandable motivations, and the heartbreak of seeing Dany rise so high and crumble so completely right before our eyes. Instead of what we ended up with, which was just... demonizing her, honestly.

She deserved a lot better than this. The entire show did.

And... that ended up being so much longer than I’d expected. I’m sorry for the ramble, I just had a lot of feelings on this. Please reply to this or message me with your own thoughts, I’d love to hear what everyone thinks <3

#and now back to your regularly scheduled walking dead content #game of thrones #got spoilers #game of thrones spoilers #got: the bells #b&a opinions #jaime lannister #daenerys targaryen #cersei lannister

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movietvtechgeeks · 6 years

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Latest story from https://movietvtechgeeks.com/supernatural-various-sundry-villains-kill-darlings/

'Supernatural' Various & Sundry Villains: Kill Your Darlings

Okay, I’m going to be upfront, I was ready to be super underwhelmed by last week’s Supernatural episode “Various & Sundry Villains.” All of the promotion focused on the love spell, and frankly, we’ve been there, done that. In fact, I’m shocked that showrunner Andrew Dabb let this pitch go to script given that he wrote the controversial episode “Season 7 Time for a Wedding”, an episode that I can honestly say has only one truly redeeming quality: Leslie Odom, Jr. was in it. While this was arguably derivative of that episode, giving this the go ahead was risky on Dabb’s part. It paid off for writer, Steve Yockey, because this love spell outing was much better than the last. In the opening of this episode we meet the Plum sisters, and I hate to say this, but despite watching this episode three times I don’t actually remember their first names and I could barely tell them apart anyway, so we’ll just call the one Dean “falls in love with” Harley Quinn and the other one we’ll call… Harley Quinn’s little sister? Yeah, sure, why not? Between the cutesy valley girl verbiage and the bloody sledgehammer, I’m sure we were supposed to get an Arkham Asylum vibe off these two. At least, I really hope that was the intention. I’ll be honest, I was not impressed with these characters and I’m not sure if it was off writing, off casting, or off directing, but they felt really forced. From their overly stereotypical Millenial way of speaking to their overtly blatant mirroring of Sam and Dean (yes, we get it, one is younger and brainy, they other is older and protective, they’re obsessed with their dead mom and it could go badly, was that a hammer they were using or an anvil?) the Plum sisters, unlike their Winchester counterparts, came off as grating. Maybe they were supposed to? Again, I hope so. I will say that as a horror buff I enjoyed the return of Rowena’s mad dog spell and the demise of the Plum sisters at each other’s hands. I saw a lot of people say it was too much, too gratuitous, too gory. And perhaps it was, but given the movies I regularly watch and enjoy, well, I embraced it. While I will say I’m glad the love spell portion of the episode was short-lived, it’s always fun to see Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki show off their comedy elbow chops; Ackles with the perfectly timed glibness he brings to Dean Winchester and Padalecki’s Sam Winchester, ever the earnest Abbott to Ackles’ Costello, was subtle, stoic faced gold. Ackles and Padalecki got to play off each other magnificently in this episode; from Dean walking in practically floating on a love cloud, to Sam trying desperately to remind Dean they’ve been down this weird love spell road before, to Ackles’ delivery of “‘cause she’s got a sister”, to their tussle in front of the Impala (though, dang, these boys horseplay hard given the butt dent Sam left on the hood after Dean rushed him) the two actors smoothly show how well they work together no matter the material. But the star of this episode was Rowena. Her entrance was stellar, and she stole every scene. Ruth Connell is delightful in this role and for the most part (we’ll get to that later) I was glad to see her back because I was sorry to lose her last season, especially in such a cheap, off-screen way. I’m hard-pressed to fall for new characters, but Rowena is one that I really enjoy. Connell was able to give us comedy and tragedy in this episode, going from snark to desperation fluidly. I also have to give Steve Yockey heaps of credit for having Rowena not only ask about Crowley but allowing her to have an outburst about his death. Hearing her say that she’d rather have him alive than to have died a hero hit really close to home given that the lack of Mark Sheppard as Crowley has been quite the gaping hole this season. Take a note from Yockey, other writers, because I’m still waiting for Castiel to ask about Meg… Speaking of Castiel, he and Lucifer were locked up. Now they aren’t. And like, they had a whole big penis to penis measurement contest and Castiel for some reason tried to hurt Lucifer by telling him that Jack doesn’t even look like him, which… um, Lucifer is in the image of a seasons dead vessel so, of course, he doesn’t look like him. And also, when did you get to know so much about Jack, Castiel? I think maybe the writer accidentally gave Misha Collins some of Sam’s lines to say. If I sound like I was less than moved by any of these scenes, it’s because I wasn’t. The scenes weren’t objectively bad or anything, and not only has Mark Pellegrino has found his footing as Lucifer again, but he and Collins play extremely well off each other. Unfortunately, their scenes simply didn’t mesh well with the “A” plot and the dichotomy crashed the episode’s momentum. Although, I did enjoy both characters reminding each other what untrustworthy, hypocritical screw-ups both have been. Again, I appreciate it when Supernatural is self-aware like that because fallibility gives depth and interest. Now, you didn’t think I was going to review this episode and not talk about Sam and Rowena sharing their trauma, did you? Because that was a scene that many Supernatural fans have waited years for. In season 11, Sam was forced to not only work with Lucifer, but he had to allow Lucifer into his home, into his room, and wasn’t allowed to voice any grievances about it and while Padalecki did a phenomenal job adding little twitches and moments of tight body language and subtle distance, it was all too obvious that the writers were wary of taking Sam’s trauma seriously because at the time Lucifer was possessing Castiel’s body and the “Cassifer" version of Lucifer was played mostly as a joke throughout that entire arc, nothing but a bratty teenager throwing a tantrum, while Sam Winchester, the boy who had every reason to rip into both Lucifer and God, just stood on the sidelines silently like he was totally fine. But he wasn’t, he hasn’t been, and watching Sam and Rowena both delve into the trauma and abuse they experienced at Lucifer’s hand was fantastically written and acted. Yockey was able to give the characters just enough for them to convey, through their tone, inflections, and facial expressions how much they were, no are, broken by the Devil himself. Having them both admit to seeing Lucifer’s real face, while giving no descriptive details was brilliant. Both Padalecki and Connell were able to communicate to the audience how horrific it was for their characters without any unnecessary detail. Such a great “show, don’t tell” moment; it’s so much more frightening for the viewer to fill in the blanks. And Sam explaining that it isn’t that he’s okay, it’s that he never gets the chance to fully deal with his trauma because the world is always falling apart was both heartbreaking and much needed, not only for Sam to say it but for the audience to hear it. At the end of this episode we got to see the other side of the Ackles/Padalecki chemistry, their ability to rip your heart out, when Sam and Dean have a frank discussion back at the bunker about what to do going forward. Dean knowing that Sam gave Rowena the spell she wanted and instead of yelling and belittling him, he’s simply honest and direct with him and doesn’t question Sam when he says that if Rowena played him again, he’ll personally kill her. It was also good to hear Sam be open with Dean about how defeated he feels, about how he tried to mask that with conviction and hope, but that he can’t fake it til he makes it anymore. And while Dean’s words of encouragement and confidence may seemingly ring hollow to Sam, it’s not because Sam doesn’t have faith in Dean, it’s that right now he can’t see where Dean is coming from. Dean knows, because characters have told him for years, how important he and Sam are, how they keep this world spinning, but Sam has never heard it directly, not from God, not from Amara, not from Death, not from Billie. Those declarations have only been uttered to Dean and then conveyed by Dean to Sam, so Dean knows that they’ll figure out a way, that it’s basically destiny and Sam has no choice but to take Dean’s word for it. I could go on and on about the isolation of Sam Winchester, but that’s an article for a different day. [caption id="attachment_53290" align="aligncenter" width="696"] Photo: Home of the Nutty[/caption] Overall, this was a mytharc episode done well, slightly overstuffed as most mytharc episodes are, but coherent and well paced with a fantastic blend of horror, levity, and angst. That said, the last thing I want to touch on for this episode is something that was absolutely no fault of the writer, Steve Yockey, but I think is an increasing problem on Supernatural; the element of surprise is gone, as are the stakes. Supernatural was once known as a show where rocks fell, and everyone died. It was also a show where Jim Beaver once hid his reprisal of Bobby Singer by trying to convince fandom that he was in Vancouver shooting an abominable snowman movie so that his return to the show wasn’t spoiled Fast forward just a few years and the cast, crew, and network PR are spoiling character reveals weeks, even months in advance. Instead of being shocked by Rowena’s return we all went into this episode waiting for her appearance, and while we saw Castiel stab Lucifer with an angel blade; saw the red light go out of Lucifer’s eyes; it’s all for naught. Lucifer is the focus of the promo that aired right after the episode, and the synopsis for the next episode lays out exactly what he’ll be up to. Even last season finale, no one believed Castiel was actually permanently dead. Hell, it took Mark Sheppard declaring that he refuses to ever reprise his role for fans to believe Crowley was truly dead. No stakes means no emotional payoff. No secrecy means no shock and awe. Take a page from some of the greats, Supernatural, including yourself: what’s dead should stay dead, so kill your darlings and if you must bring them back, stop telegraphing their returns. Check out this week's Supernatural Devil's Bargain trailer above.

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#Featured #Jared Padalecki #Jensen Ackles #Mark Pellegrino #Misha Collins #Ruth Connell #Supernatural

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litrapod · 7 years

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I love superheroes and I love to hear what people love, if you’re so inclined, please take the time to share your Top Three (3) Lists of a) Live Action Superhero Movies b) Live Action Superhero TV Series c) Animated Superhero Movies and d) Animated Superhero TV Series. Invite others to share by tagging or copy/pasting this into a friend’s ask and of course everyone should feel free to gush! (If you’re feeling extra kind tag your post “a superhero lover’s top three” so people know where to look.)

Okay you asked for it…

Needless to say, Here be spoilers.

Top 3 Live Action Movies:

Avengers (2012): First Group movies are hard. I’ve tried to write group stories and that’s hard enough when you don’t have to worry about fitting everything into 2 -2 ½ hours, And balancing out story arcs, and screen time. This movie may not be perfect, but it comes damn close. There was a whole lot of pressure on this movie, because everyone know they were building up to it, and while I would have loved to see more of certain characters *cough* Clint *cough*, It managed to set up basically the entire MCU world from then on. It may not have been a traditional origin story, but this is the movie that kicked everything off.

The Dark Knight (2008): Okay storytime. My first job was as a lifeguard, and we rotated around the pool in increments of about an hour and a half per circuit. In the break room there was a small Tv with an old VCR. We had exactly 2 movies, The Matrix and the old 1989 Batman movie with Jack Nicholson as the Joker. By the end of the summer everyone hated those two movies, myself included, because they were the only things we ever watched. I, myself managed to see the scene in Batman where the Joker defeces the museum over twenty times. To this day that it the only scene I can remember from that movie (and I can remember it in crystal clarity) because with a 15 minute break that’s all I got to see.

I bring this up because that’s what I had in my head as the joker for a long time, and I hated it. I hated the movie, I hated the character, I hated everything about it. There was the occasional flashback to Batman the animated series, but overall, yeah, hate.

Then this movie came out. The first one was good, but this one was going to have the joker, and I detested the Joker (honestly he’s a very good character to hate) and I was floored. Not only was a sequel just as good if not better than the original, but it took the Joker in a different direction. This was something I hadn’t seen before and while I still hated him, this is a portrayal that didn’t make me drown in it and ruin the movie.

Unbreakable: This movie, I don’t even have words for this movie. I know people go on about M. Night Shyamalan plot twists, but forget that for a moment.

Just look at the opening scene. A guy on a train, a little girl making faces. A woman sits down next to him and they start to talk. He takes off his wedding ring. It gets awkward, and things start to fall apart, then boom train crash.

The attention to detail, and character building are amazing. So many superhero movies just don’t bother. They’re too caught up in the CGI or in finding a way to revamp an old character. Don’t get me wrong I love origin stories, but there’s only so many ways you can play them. Instead of making everything bigger in scale in order to keep things interesting and challenging it keeps the focus on the internal and personal conflicts just as much as the external ones, so that they feed into each other.

This movie manages to give us a truly human superhero.

A common failing of superhero movies is that the character development seems forced or clunky because the focus is to get to the big ending fight scene. Not so here. The final big fight scene is important because of what it means to the characters, not because of someone’s powers or who/what they’re threatening. Which is why the ending twist actually really works.

I can’t even describe how much I love this movie.

Top 3 Live Action TV Series:

Daredevil: So I’m going to focus on season one here.

This series took risks and they paid off in spades. It focuses on the villains almost at the expense of the heroes, but because of that we know the full scope of what Matt is facing. This isn’t just “oh I stopped a mugging” it’s full on organized crime. For half the season Matt doesn’t even know who’s in charge, or that there even is one person in charge.

The cinematography is gorgeous. Pay attention to the colors. Everything is clearly chosen for a reason. By the end of the season I was getting nervous when Vanessa wore black. There have been a couple other movies that tried to play up the color thing, but most of them had crappy scripts. It this series, the stark color contrasts only amplify what is already a great show.

It eases you into the weird. This show is canonically in the same universe as the Avengers. Thor, Hulk, Aliens, they all exist, but it’s a distant presence to the average guy on the street. And this series shows that. When an honest to god Ninja showed up I was flabbergasted, because while I knew that they could be a thing in this universe, it still felt like something i’d never seen before. ( This is also a part of my disappointment about season 2 but I’m not going to get into that here. )

In a lot of ways this is actually a season long origin story. We got the time and breadth to fully explore how Matt became Daredevil. Training montages are fun and all, but this gave it depth.

I could go on. The catholic themes, the brutality that never seemed unnecessary or over the top.

This is a wonderful show that set an extremely high bar for the rest of the Netfix originals.

Heroes: I loved this show (before the writers strike ruined it) because there were so many good characters and none of them seemed to know what they were doing. The way everything slowly wove together in the first season was great. The recurring themes that were the paintings and the company.

This show had a lot of potential and it was clear the writers had a lot of ideas. Not many of those ideas actually made it to the screen in later seasons, but despite that, this was a fun show to watch every week and a fun show to binge watch when I need to lift my spirits.

Flash: I had a hard time picking among the CW Flash/Arrow/Legends/Supergirl set.

Supergirl was the show I wished I had as a young girl. Legends has just the right amount of over the top that I love.

Flash ended up winning because Flash is my favorite superhero.

Wally was the Flash I grew up with and when the show came out I kind of wanted to hate it because DC had written him out of existence ( in both the comics and Young Justice… Seriously DC what do you have against him? ) Barry, had featured in Arrow of course, which i Loved to Death, But that didn’t mean he’d be written well or be able to carry his own show… The core of Barry’s character in any universe is that he’s hopeful. He will see the best in people and bring it out in those around him. Despite him being incredibly awkward in the first season he had that. It worked.

And then in episode four they gave us Len and he was so well done I just melted. After that I was sold.

Top 3 Animated Superhero movies:

Justice League New Frontier: If you watch nothing else on this list, watch this one.

The interweaving storylines, the art style, the plot, everything about this movie is gold. I’m a long time DC fan and the number of subtle hints, and worldbuilding they do is amazing, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a movie new fans can enjoy. Because it’s a sort of coming together of the Justice League, you don’t need to know anything beyond who Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman are. All the lesser known characters are given their own small arcs so you know what they’re about.

Then on a deeper layer it’s a social commentary on the cold war, and the space race, and the fear of the unknown. I have watched this movie dozens of times. I own an autographed copy of the DVD. Every time I watch it I notice something new.

Batman: Under the Red Hood: The Red Hood storyline in the comics is a bit of a monster. You have to be a fan and know the history in order to understand all the implications. The movie has a bit of that, but in my opinion it does a good job filling in most of the gaps.

While the Joker is the main villain he’s more of a foil for Jason and to a lesser degree Bruce. (which is definitely a plus in my book, see above rant of hatred regarded the Joker)

It’s hard to pin down exactly what I love about this one. It’s strange to say, but if I had to pick one thing it’d be the pacing. There are individual lines that are amazing but it’s the culmination that makes this a great movie. There’s a balance to it. Lighter moments even though the plot is very dark. Action and quieter moments each given their place.

Planet Hulk: This one makes the list because I have a soft spot for the Hulk and this is the first comic storyline for the hulk that I ever read. The movie isn’t as complex as the comics of course and they have to wrap everything up in a bow rather then lead into the next comic story, but it’s a good depiction nevertheless.

Top 3 Animated Superhero TV Series:

I realize this is kind of a cop out, but they really are my favorites.

Batman the animated series: It set the standard for all other superhero shows for the next few decades. It invented Detective Montoya, Harley Quinn and several other minor characters. It gave several villains backstories that are still used today, Freeze being the one that comes to mind. It was the start of the whole DC animated universe ( Batman animated, Superman animated, Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, Static Shock, Batman Beyond and possibly a few more I’m forgetting )

If there’s a top ten list of superhero shows that doesn’t have the Batman animated Series, then it was probably disqualified for being too awesome.

Justice League Unlimited: Everything Batman was but with a bigger cast. Minor heroes got a place to shine. While still shown as being important to the larger plot, and oh those plots. The Legion of Doom, Doomsday, Brainiac. As much as the hero’s got to shine so did the villains.

Keep in mind a lot of these characters (on both sides) hadn’t been portrayed on screen before this, and for a lot of the lesser known ones the portrayal here is still what people who don’t read the comics think of first.

Batman Beyond: It was my first fandom, so yes, I’m biased. My first multi-chapter fic is still up on ff.net.

Batman is a huge character. He’s the bread and butter of the DCU, so much so that people don’t treat him like he’s human. This show not only admitted he was human, it started asking questions, and opened a whole new world of possibilities because of it.

The first scene still gets me every time, the gun, and shutting down the cave.

Add to that that this was not only in the same world but created by the same team that did the batman animated series and you get a wealth of history that other shows can only dream of. The costumes in the cases, the trophies, they’re all the same ones from the other show. When Terry finally meets the Justice League, Superman references thing that happened in the Justice League show. And you can’t get the end of Mr. Freeze’s character arc unless you watch Batman Beyond.

Not that it’s tied down. It has a history, but with a new Batman it’s a whole different ball game. And Terry is a different Batman. He’s not dark and brooding. He sasses back to his villains like Dick. He’s got street smarts like Jason. He’s got the drive like Bruce. He may still be figuring things out but it’s clear he’ll be just as impressive.

#a superhero lover’s top three

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