#anyways i obsess over these two particular scenes/the narrative between these two in episodes 4 and 6 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

meg-noel-art · 4 years

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Why do you believe that Catra never got over her what you called "obsessive and selfish love" for Adora? Because I didn't see that.

-gestures vaguely to all of the show-

Okay, you know what, let’s get into this. Because I’m honestly tired of it all. First let’s start with this: In popular media, is there a common theme of erotic subtext between rivals? Uh, yeah. Hell yeah. Tension between two people looking to one up each other that can be read as romantic or sexual? Oh absolutely. So, let’s, for the sake of argument assume that was the type of dynamic that Noelle and Co. were going for all along, as they’ve stated. Because they weren’t the first to play with this dynamic and they won’t the last.

So again, tension and subtext between rivals that escalates into passion or eventually real love? Yes.

On the other hand: betrayal, emotional manipulation, physical maiming and injury and outright seeking the utter demise and failure of you ‘rival’ because they made you sad by making a better choice than you did? That doesn’t equate to love.

But, for the sake of argument, let’s approach Catra’s motivations as all based around this deep love she has for Adora, which I will argue through this post is more of as passionate and selfish obsession than actual love. (And honestly, that’s a super cool character motivation, but pretending that it’s an epic love story is gross and I hate it.)

So, let’s return to Season 1

One of the first real battles we see Catra and Adora in takes place at the end of the season. This comes after ‘The Promise’ wherein Adora tries again to get Catra to come with her, but Catra doubles down on her desire to spite Adora for hurting her and leaving her, by being as nasty as she possibly can and putting Adora in just as much emotional pain. Here, she not only fights Adora, but cuts her down to her deepest insecurities. Catra knows Adora and she knows how desperately she wants to be a hero. It’s an aspect of Adora that Catra has always disliked because it made her feel lesser. In order to fully cripple her rival here, Catra tugs at the strings she knows will hurt the most.

“You will fail them (you failed me)”, “You’re friends will hate you (Just like I do)” “You will never be the hero you want to be (I will be the reason you can’t)”. If you want to talk about subtext in this scene, Catra’s unhealthy and obsessive desire to be the only thing Adora needs/wants/thinks about is literally all over the place. If you want to argue that she’s saying all of this because she’s hurting, then it’s literally the cruelest possible way she could say it. And the show doesn’t bother selling us on the fact that Catra is in pain here, it just hammers home the idea of how badly she wants Adora to fail so she can feel that pain too.

In no universe, would I call that treatment of someone love.

Next up, this moment in Season 2:

I remember everyone losing their minds over this scene, and again, arguing a sexual tension between rivals, then yes, that makes sense. But in the context of this entire episode and the ones leading up to this point? This statement from Catra is disgusting. And it gets worse.

In the next scene, we see Catra literally planning to use Adora as her own personal weapon (an aspect I find personally icky when considering the struggle Adora has with destiny/her own autonomy at the end of Season 4 being use by Light Hope as a weapon. Catra literally has the same idea.)

And moreso than that, Catra won’t just use her as a weapon. She will use Adora to cut down anyone else who has ever cared about her or shown her affection. It’s a new level of jealousy/possession that is touched on even moreso as the series goes on. But what’s crazy to me is that it seems to have developed from Season 1. In the Battle of Bright Moon, Adora could only fail them. Now, however much later this is, Catra wants her to hurt them too. Adora will hurt, her friends will hurt. Everyone will hurt like Catra does. Because she’s possessive of Adora’s affection. It makes her feel like she has meaning. Which is an entire other can of worms about Catra’s motivations and character, but we’re gonna move ahead to season 3.

This is a fascinating moment to me. At this point, Catra has essentially flunked out of the Horde, but she’s NEVER been more determined to prove herself to Hordak, to SW, to Adora, to everyone. But here, Scorpia points out how truly happy she is when Adora isn’t even in the damn picture anymore. The poisonous environment of the Horde is gone, Catra is claiming respect for her abilities and personality. Adora has nothing to do with it and she’s happy.

And then:

Look, I am remise to sound like a total asshole, but the entire show is pointing this out for me through even it’s dialogue. Catra’s pain and hate and obsession returns when Adora mentions that their shared abuser Shadow Weaver has chosen her yet again. Suddenly, nothing matters. None of Scorpia’s kind words, or the achievments she made in the Waste. All that matters, is beating Adora. Hurting her. Being better and more loved than her.

Honesty, at this point I’m losing the thread of ‘love’ entirely. Now it just feels like a total mission for vengeance. But, once again, okay, let’s argue she’s really just angry and wants Adora’s love back. So what does she do to get it?

She opens the Portal to hurt Adora. As Adora screams don’t, begs her not to, tells her what it will do to their world, Catra does it anyway. Because Adora must hurt. She broke Catra’s heart and Catra must break it back. That’s how love works, I guess.

Once again, if the show was working on selling me on Catra’s motivations being sympathetic and fueled by love all along. It is failing.

Now, let’s talk about the Portal world that it takes them into. What everyone called their “perfect universe”.

So we have this moment, where Adora gets to the heart of the issue and asks Catra about her real pain. Catra avoids it, once again. Yes, of course she’s wanted this, they both always have. I suppose at this moment you could argue her true motivations come through, but it also just emboldens my point that Catra is not growing. She’s not gaining any character development. If she did just always want Adora by her side, this scene shows us that Adora has moved past these Horde induced childhood dreams they have. She has seen a bigger world and a bigger issue and Catra is still holding onto the hope that they will keep this promise to always have each others backs.

Which, is an ironic thing to hold onto considering Catra was the first to break this promise, by not going with Adora when the time was right. And yet she believes Adora is the one who owes her the apology. Now, this would be great set up for an arc about Catra coming to terms with the fact that she is the problem and Season 4 seemed ready to set that up but then... didn’t.

This line in particular has always stuck with me because it broke their relationship entirely for me. At this point, Catra could apologize all she wanted in a possible redemption arc, but the damage was done. She admitted a pain so deep that it would change her and Adora’s relationship forever. Her hurt ran so deep that she would rather die, see everything end, than see Adora find happiness outside of her.

I could stop this post here and honestly, my point would have been made. But we’ve got more to go.

I was so excited after the moment. After an entire season of snapping under the weight of her own choices. It is the image of Scorpia, who loved her unconditionally, who tells Catra that she is the problem and she always has been.

At this point, I was ready. Catra had hit rock bottom, there was nowhere to go but up. She would approach her pain and figure out who she wanted to be as a person. She would team up with the Rebellion because she knew it was the right thing to do, she would atone for her mistakes. By the end maybe she would go on her own adventure to find herself?

And.... No?

She doesn’t.

Season 5 rolls around and suddenly she is right back where she started, scrambling up the ladder for power and respect. It sure doesn’t work for Horde Prime, putting her in real danger. She even gets a few moments to connect with Glimmer (maybe apologize for the Portal...no... oh okay.)

In fact, she saves Glimmer! But.... why does she do it? Certainly not for Glimmer’s sake, a character who has been stated by the crew to be literally her narrative foil, her other half. But...

Like...? At this point I don’t even know what the show is going for anymore, it’s a fucking mess. You could even argue that up to this point, Catra HAS been manipulating Glimmer to trust her so that she could in turn save Adora. Which is all kinds of fucked up, as we see in the conversation with the BFS squad that Glimmer WANTS to save Catra, and trusts her.

And then this memory that incited Catra’s desire to save Adora was:

I could have just answered with this screenshot and saved myself an hour. You wanna argue love? Fine.

Then Catra has NEVER let go of her frankly concerning obsession with Adora’s attention and affection and that is no more clear that this memory where she also physically assaults her and steps on her, and Adora goes crawling after her trying to comfort her.

Oh? Are you, Catra? Well that’s cool. You are allowed to be sorry. But that doesn’t mean Adora owes you literally anything at this point. No one is ever obligated to accept any apology no matter how heartfelt it might be.

At the end of the day, this love story their trying to sell me on is so twisted I can hardly stand to watch the final season. Because it’s never worked out!! Adora immediatedly forgives every moment I’ve listed in this post and more. Catra never apologizes to someone who deserved it most, Scorpia.

And more than that, Catra never grows into who she should have become as a character. She is stuffed into an OTP the show wanted from the beginning but failed for 5 seasons to make convincing or compelling.

Also Adora has such a huge heart she deserves someone who would treat her better than Catra could. Catra can’t. Catra can’t even treat herself right.

Like... Yeah. I don’t even know what to say anymore. Hope this answered your question.

Obsessive, possessive....Gross. I’m tired. C/A won at the end of the day I guess, but at what cost?

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paradife-loft · 4 years

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Close reading all the Jin Guangyao scenes: episode 10

Episode 11 | Episode 22 | Episode 23

So, when I was talking to @fatalism-and-villainy the other day, I mentioned how while doing this third watch of The Untamed, I was feeling really quite tempted to make a semi-liveblogging project out of doing a close analysis of basically every episode where Meng Yao/Jin Guangyao has a substantial scene.... Their response was only to encourage me in this further obsessive descent, and well, here we are.

I’m starting with episode 10 where we are in this watch right now, rather than going back to episode 4, because while ep4 is utterly delightful, I don’t really feel like I have a lot to say about it that hasn’t already been hashed to death.

Meanwhile, episode 10... oh boy! So much going on here. This episode is most interesting to me because the main theme we see in a majority of Meng Yao’s scenes, is how wholeheartedly invested he is in advancing the cause and prominence of the Nie Sect that he serves. Particularly in light of how we see him later giving the same loyalty and effort to the Jin sect, it’s a really cool (and tragic, tbh) precursor that shows a lot about how much he’ll make a point of doing well by those who’ve elevated him in turn.

So he first shows up with Nie Huisang, when WWX/LWJ/JC are all discussing with Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen what they ought to do with Xue Yang. Noticing the latter two (who are established already as being well-known heroes throughout the cultivation world), he asks if they wouldn’t come along to Qinghe to figure out how best to punish Xue Yang, and also what the best course of action would be for dealing with the Wen sect. Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan rebuff this offer... because they understand, accurately, that what Meng Yao is suggesting/asking about is for them to establish a relationship tying them, however informally (for now), to the Qinghe Nie sect.

(^This, incidentally, is the face he makes when they say “yeahhh, but no thanks,” or specifically, “We give less value to blood heritage and more to like-mindedness. We don’t want to depend on any cultivation family.” This is the face of “oh, okay, tell me no in such direct terms, when I went to the trouble of phrasing my suggestion a bit more obliquely, thanks so much,” and also, “Wow, doesn’t that sound nice to be able to do :/”)

Then a few minutes later, we get this wonderful facial expression! ...which I don’t actually have a whole lot to say about, except that I take it for... curiosity, mostly, about someone who’s had such an outsize effect on the local area, what with murdering a handful of minor cultivation clans? Interest in what inter-clan strategic advantages could be gained in one way or another with Xue Yang as a bargaining chip, source of information, etc.? Possibly also interest in the sense of, this is also someone who came from nothing and has been able to get a lot of important people to pay attention to him (even if not for a good reason), depending on how much he’s heard about Xue Yang as a person? There’s a lot of possibilities this is opening up, and I think he’s basically curious to see what happens.

Again, we just have him being very good at working the angles to get an advantage to the Nie sect (compared to the Wen sect in this case). Jiang Cheng even comments on him being thorough and formidable! (And Huisang mentions that Nie Mingjue really admires him; and Wei Wuxian says it looks like Jin Guangshan doesn’t know how to recognise talent... anyway.)

Mmmm, yep, douchebags gonna douchebag.... Nothing terribly interesting here that hasn’t already been noted a zillion times, since the basic fundamentals of his character relate to how poorly others treat him for his birth. (It is noteworthy though, I think, how the condensed timeline & events for Meng Yao killing his superior and ruining his relationship with Nie Mingjue in the process compared to the extended version in the novel, alters the first bit of screen time we get here seeing what Nie Mingjue is actually like as a leader. In the novel, his men in the army have a bit of a nasty gossip problem, but the person who mistreats Meng Yao and takes credit for his ideas later is a part of the Jin clan; in the drama, various Nie sect disciples have a gossip problem that he berates them for, but even so he still is, at best, ignorant of how his men’s mistreatment of the person he promoted and thinks highly of has continued.)

Oh boy, here’s where it starts to get fun! This is Meng Yao’s face as Wen Chao has just threatened to do “housecleaning” of the Nie sect if they don’t hand over Xue Yang, and it’s looking as though Nie Mingjue won’t be able to contain the conflict in a single one-on-one duel with Wen Zhuliu. It’s curious - he has a smirky face looking over toward Huisang when NMJ initially throws Baxia out in front of Wen Chao, like he’s thinking clearly the offered duel would go their way. Was he expecting the duel to be between NMJ and Wen Chao, who he’d clearly clean the floor with, and Wen Zhuliu stepping up instead took him off-guard? - Because that’s when he looks down thinking very quickly for a couple moments, and then tells Huisang he’s going to go check on Xue Yang.

As @veliseraptor and @ameliarating and I hashed out as this scene continued: what makes the most sense here is that, seeing how things might be going downhill for the Nie sect very quickly if something isn’t done to get the Wen sect off their backs, Meng Yao makes the snap calculation that the best course of action to keep them from getting massacred would be to free Xue Yang to hand him over. He doesn’t really look happy as he heads away from the entrance here; he looks like someone making the unpleasant decision to let a known murderer avoid justice because it will be better for his immediate concern of preserving the sect and clan he serves. Mingjue is uncompromising, but Meng Yao will look for the most advantageous option he can see and go for it, even if it’s a bit shady and perhaps not what his sect leader would prefer. Nie Mingjue respects him and listens to him well when he explains, after all, so with so much at stake, taking this gamble is probably worth the risk.

Aaaand, then we get to the part where he quite deservedly stabs the army commander who’s been treating him like shit for the past while! It’s not terribly clear (especially at this point) the exact chain of events that occurred before NMJ showed up, but from the number of other bodies in the back of the scene, I do think it’s quite plausible that Xue Yang actually did kill most of the dead Nie disciples there, as that would be... a lot of people for someone with a weak cultivation base to off very quickly. And the commander himself - I take that as a highly relished stroke of opportunism, honestly. Meng Yao picks up a Wen sword to use to kill him because he is good at quick thinking to avoid self-incrimination, but I don’t think he’d been intending on multiple homicides when he initially went back to grab Xue Yang before Wen Chao ordered his men to attack everyone and all hell broke loose.

Oh, ow! NMJ is getting ready to attack him, as Meng Yao frantically tries to talk him down - and Meng Yao still instinctively jumps in front of a sword for his sect leader! Like, truly, honestly, I do believe he had great regard for and loyalty to Nie Mingjue at the very least up through the end of this episode. Whether or not this particular sword thrust could have been fatal to either of them, it still says quite a lot about how he values Chifeng-zun’s person more than his own, even as he’s quite possibly gearing up to kill Meng Yao for what he’s done. That is just... a real intense instinctive sense of obligation and value differential between the two of them that he has, here. Ouch, ouch.

When they resume in the throne room, I think there’s a lot that’s already been said and/or is obviously central, with the line about “fame for merit” and how much it matters to him being the big one. (Why should being recognised for your merit matter so much??? says the one who essentially always has been - lining up one of the central conflicts that continues between the two of them until the ends of their lives.) But I do think it’s pretty fun and telling how seamlessly (performance-wise) Meng Yao slips in the definite lie about the army commander freeing Xue Yang, amongst all the other (pretty certainly true) reasons to condemn him, and then claims it’s all true. I think it definitely speaks of... familiarity with being in a position where others won’t take your own actual reasons for doing something as a good enough justification, and so you develop an intuition of how to mix in motives that also target and appeal to the person you’re talking to as well, to avoid harsh punishment.

Also... hmmmm..... >>>

Hey look, I’m just saying there’s some interesting thematic comparisons going on in this show regarding moral worth and who a person considers to have enough ethical standing and goodness in them to judge them for their actions and have them accept it, okay?

Jin Guangyao and Wei Wuxian are amazing narrative foils and I am probably never going to get tired of saying it.

Bonus round!

(When you’ve just been stabbed but you’re still really worried about the attack on the Cloud Recesses that Wen Chao has just revealed, because of what it means could be happening to one incredibly wonderful person! Better go make sure he’s okay, right?? ~*~ XiYao feels intensify ~*~)

#holy fuck this was a lot more than I was intending on writing at least for a first post here :'D #BUT HE'S WORTH IT <3333 #jin guangyao #meng yao #the untamed #meta #op #long post for ts #no good things for the poor sad cultivators #CAN'T STOP WON'T STOP

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fantisci · 6 years

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Divide and Conquer: Voltron Series 4 and 5

I knew that there was going to be this type of narrative in Voltron, but I underestimated how long a game the writers were going to play. The writers are running with the idea that Voltron is being torn apart from within, but rather than getting rid of Keith and going “CLONE SURPRISE!” they’re continuing to steadily dismantle the Voltron team...to the point that the three original Paladins remaining on the team (if we assume Shiro is actually a clone, henceforth referred to as “Shiro) are little more than side-characters in their world-saving narrative. Pidge’s concerns are narrowed and familial, Hunk...has always been terribly treated by the plot anyway, so moving on...and Lance, far from having his moment in the spotlight this season, is increasingly isolated and reined in so tightly that he can’t be effective. Meanwhile, Season 5 turns into the Lotor, “Shiro” and Allura show (with a special guest appearance from the Keith-clan).

Card on the table: My pet theory is that Lotor, not Sendak, is Haggar’s puppet, and they are cutting out the team members of Voltron who will cause the most problems so that they can take over the team. “Shiro” isolates and undermines problem Paladins (Keith and Lance) until they leave, while Lotor flatters Allura into assisting him. Of course, there’s a good chance that Lotor is a double- or triple-agent that may betray Haggar - or even become the mask he’s wearing - but at this moment he’s definitely driven by self-interest, not the greater good.

If you want the long version, it’s under the Read More. Remember: my analysis is from the point of view of the mole/saboteur: it’s not that I think Hunk or Pidge can’t lead, but that, from an outsider’s perspective, they’ve shown little inclination or ability in that area.

First, Shiro goes missing at the end of S2. Showrunners talk as if they meant to kill him off (a recent interview talked of the poor guy as though he was just a plot device for Keith’s Rise To Leadership, and that he was supposed to “exit stage left) , but marketing objected. Of course, the showrunners can be trusted about as far as the Eiffel Tower can be thrown, but poor (real) Shiro surely deserves better than being bumped off so that his protege can prove how special he is. Anyway, back on topic...Shiro is a casualty of war in one form or another, and it’s unlikely that his departure was the result of manipulation...but his absence is a golden opportunity to replace him with a mole/brainwash him. After all, Shiro co-ordinates the team, and has the most offensively powerful Lion

Next is Keith. Apparently there were some real life reasons (voice actor scheduling conflicts) behind his departure to the Blade, but let’s put that aside for now. Keith has some fairly obvious issues once he takes over for Black. He doesn’t really bond with his Lion, certainly not the way he did with Red. He lashes out at everyone. He resents leading, and, true to form, acts out and rebels, going into self-destruct mode in order to prove that he’s right about how terrible a leader he is. However: (a) he’d never treat his teammates’ lives with the disregard he shows his own, and (b) Lance manages to lasso him into some semblance of responsible leadership, and props him up as far as he can. By the time they retrieve “Shiro”, Keith’s taken some shaky first steps into at least being a functional leader, if not a good one. He’s learned the hard way that he has to listen to his team.

Then “Shiro” is back.

It would take a spy all of five minutes to work out that Keith’s unhappy. When “Shiro” can’t pilot Black, that’s a problem for a saboteur...but not an insurmountable one. For the rest of the series, we see “Shiro” undermine Keith while still demanding that he continues to lead. He doesn’t teach him how to lead (admittedly, the real Shiro was extremely negligent in that respect too), he doesn’t offer support, and he doesn’t step aside. Instead, he uses the team’s by-now-instinctual obedience to Shiro to reinforce Keith’s idea that yes, he’s a terrible leader, and he’s going to get everyone killed. The team don’t make a very good job of reinforcing the new pecking order, with only Lance acknowledging that Keith remains team leader...and even then, Lance will not (yet) outright defy Shiro in favour of Keith.

Handily for the saboteur, Keith continues his self-isolating behaviour and “Shiro” does manage to get Black up and running. With the distance created between himself and his team, Keith is only too eager to remove himself from the picture entirely. Why he doesn’t take Red back is a bit of a puzzle, but the distance is a factor...as, possibly, are Lance and Allura’s places on the team.

Next on the hit list is Lance. Why Lance? Well, possibly because it’s convenient: he has the most obvious insecurities and, let’s be honest, receives the least back up from the rest of the crew. As the “goofball” (Pidge’s words), they don’t take him seriously except in battle - socially, with his history of flirting and opening his mouth at the wrong time, he remains the team joke. Furthermore, he’s becoming steadily more isolated, as Hunk and Pidge withdraw from him in favour of Matt. It might just be because he’s a soft target, and his emotional reaction to the messages they send home confirms that there really is somewhere else he’d rather be.

However, Lance is the Blue Paladin, and currently the pilot of the Red Lion - Voltron’s DPS Lion. He’s also shown to be capable in battle, a tactician who can spot a trap a mile away and is capable of giving out orders that will actually work. The right side of Voltron seems more forward facing and offensive than the left, who are more thoughtful, so “Shiro” or his puppetmaster may have targeted him as the last remaining member of the original team who was active rather than reactive, and one of the last two who could theoretically take on a leadership role in an emergency. Also? Allura may be the heart of Voltron itself, but Lance is the heart of this particular team.

Every office or department has a Lance: the social one, the one who organises the parties and the group chat, the one who may not have a specialised role but can always be found helping out others or working behind the scenes. Often they’re not really appreciated - sometimes others find them outright annoying. Yet they can mitigate the effects of an ineffectual or slavedriving boss, and everyone realises just how much they did for their coworkers once they leave and life at work becomes much more difficult.

Lance is the mediator (when he’s not needling Keith). He’s observant, and, unlike specialist obsessives Hunk and Pidge, not so wrapped up in his own projects that he forgets the big picture. He’s also outspoken. If “Shiro” starts bullying any of the other Paladins, Lance is likely to step in. “Shiro” needs him gone. So “Shiro” publicly humiliates him, berating him in front of his team, who stand by and do nothing (except for Allura, after the fact, but we’ll get to her). Lance still feels superfluous. He doubts his own abilities. Now he’s getting constantly shouted down, his (in his eyes) minor contributions being dismissed. Throw this on top of Blue’s rejection (an emotional hit to Lance’s heart and self-esteem), Keith’s departure (which saw Lance demoted from his vice-captain role), and Lance’s longing for his family, and “Shiro” might have found the straw to break the camel’s back...that is, if the real Shiro hasn’t managed to relay his message to Lance in time.

The final Paladin to be cut from the flock is Allura - and it’s Lotor, not “Shiro,” who’s responsible for this. Lotor adopts very different tactics than “Shiro”: instead of undermining his target, he flatters her. Tells her how oh-so-very-special she is (like the showrunners haven’t established this already...). He plays to her dreams, her insecurities...and her ego. She isn’t shy about her desire to be like her father, to be the saviour of her people - or at least, to ensure that the last Altean standing is an exemplary one. She feels that she has to be perfect, in order to be worthy of the title of “last survivor”.

In the final few episodes, Allura seems to get an awful lot of what she wants: she awakens the compass, proving that she is truly her father’s daughter in the process, she makes it through the white hole, the ancient Alteans acknowledge her and the white lion finds her worthy...at which point the Voice From Beyond confirms how super-special she is, and has been all along. Moreover, suddenly she has a kindred spirit in Lotor, someone who knows of the pressure of being royalty and who claims to want the same things she does.

You know what they say about something that seems to good to be true.

However, look at what happens in order to get her to this point. Lotor singles her out when he becomes emperor, leaving the three original Paladins to wander around aimlessly and entertain themselves. The implicit message is that she (and “Shiro”) are the only team members worth talking to - the other Earthlings are just making up the numbers. Remember: Hunk, Pidge and Lance have been fighting alongside her for at least two years by this point, yet she dismisses their concern for her out of hand on the say-so of a prince who’s been with them for a few months under dubious circumstances. She doesn’t even question Lotor’s proclamation that the other three be left behind while she does Important Royalty Things - does she really think Pidge couldn’t learn anything from the Galra tech?

We see it even more dramatically in the White Lion incident, where only she and fellow “Chosen” Lotor are worthy of getting past the White Lion. The team is worried...but Allura forces through the plan anyway. She’s riding high on Lotor’s praise and her own recent successes - why should she doubt that she can pull this off?

In short? I think this is Allura’s “Nyma moment”. Blue’s pilots tend to be romantic and trusting. Allura’s romantic ideal of perfect peace across the empire, and her trust of Lotor, could have further reaching consequences than Lance’s joyride.

But Allura thinks she’s covered her bases. She did distrust Lotor. She acknowledged that working with the Galra was difficult. In her eyes, Lotor has proved himself...and the viewer, really, is meant to agree.

It’s obvious why a saboteur would want Allura on side. First of all, she’s a Princess, and the last Altean; she’s a hell of a trophy (we do actually see Lotor referring to Voltron itself as a kind of trophy, claiming that he has “reclaimed” Black rather than admitting to an alliance). Secondly, she’s a threat to “Shiro’s” leadership, and the only person with any clout that could sway the remaining Paladins, or back them up should they refuse his orders. Really, that role should go to Lance, but “Shiro” has undermined Lance’s role of second-in-command so thoroughly that Lotor probably doesn’t consider him a threat any longer. Thirdly, like Lance, she’s sensed that something is wrong, and has shown an inclination to stand up for her teammates (I love Pidge and Hunk, but they’ve been fairly ineffectual in this area). She realised Shiro was out of order and moved to comfort Lance...who, remember, is a Paladin that “Shiro” wants out of the way. Notice the pattern: the Paladin who tries to comfort or protect the current target of “Shiro’s” sabotage becomes the next target. Unlike Lance though, the saboteur knows that she can be charmed by Lotor, and that she’s far more valuable as an ally than out of the picture altogether.

Finally, she’s the last viable Voltron leader - the final right-hand-side Paladin. Lotor knows that Hunk and Pidge won’t follow him, the same way he knew that the Galra wouldn’t follow a non-Galra...but Hunk and Pidge WILL follow Allura. If he can’t take over directly, he may be aiming to make Allura his puppet.

Let’s just hope she’s quick enough off the mark that she doesn’t go from powerful princess to damsel in distress.

#voltron season 5 #voltron s5 #voltron s5 spoilers #voltron spoilers #vld keith #vld lance #vld allura #vld shiro #vld lotor #voltron theory #next time on I have too much time on my hands: what the hell are the lions doing?

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kinetic-elaboration · 7 years

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March 24: Thoughts on 4x07 Gimme Shelter

Okay, I finally watched 4x07... It’s hard to gather my thoughts on it, though. I feel like I have a lot and they’re all sort of jumbled up.

In general, I did like it. I thought it was way better than the last two episodes, both of which I kind of hated tbh, especially 4x05. There were some weak points and some things I didn’t quite get or would quibble over but my overall feeling is a positive one. I liked the two main story lines, I thought there were several really good moments, and I was impressed with the episode’s ability to actually have a coherent and clear theme.

The Arkadia/Bellamy Story:

One of my big complaints this season has been that story line after story line after story line lacks tension because the general structure of the episode and the season make the outcome of the alleged conundrum predictable. This time, for once, I actually felt the sort of tension I felt when watching season 2 (well, okay, a slightly weaker version of it)--I actually didn’t know what was going to happen. Maybe that’s weak of me and I should have known that Bellamy wouldn’t be able to save Mark and Peter but I was still hoping for a last minute solution (unlike previous story lines, saving the Coltons wouldn’t have made overall survival any more or less likely, so it wasn’t completely insane to think that Bellamy could have been successful). The last scene before he loses contact with them, stuck in the Rover, was like... honestly a nightmare scenario for me, I mean this literally, I have had nightmares on exactly this theme, searching for some solution to some problem and finding none, so I was definitely emotionally compromised by it.

I was also very pleased that--even though Bellamy’s obsession with the Coltons was obviously from start to finish a surrogate for his worry about Octavia--we finally got to hear someone mention a member of the 100. I really thought I’d have to give up on anyone caring about that particular affiliation ever again. Literally everyone other than the named members of the 100 (by my count...8 people?) has completely disappeared into the ether so I was really beyond excited to hear someone talk about someone else as “one of the 100″ again.

You know how before S3 there was this talk about Bellamy being acknowledged as a hero finally and then instead his character was totally assassinated? LOL I feel like that statement should have been prefaced with “IN SEASON 4″ so at least I could have known how long I’d have to wait for heroic Bellamy to come back from war. I’m not saying this is the first time we’ve seen him since season 2 because it’s obviously not, but still, I loved it, I loved seeing him intense and devoted and trying so very hard.

I also really liked the Bellamy and Kane conversation toward the end, over the Rover radio. This is probably bad of me, but I laughed when Bellamy said “You floated my mom” not because it’s funny but just how sudden it was, like, ‘I hear you trying to be my dad and you’re not my dad!!!’ Also because I like when characters’ pasts are things that like actually still exist since that’s pretty hit and miss with this show. Also because I personally head canon Kane as a prosecutor figure on the Ark and this semi-confirms this view (or we’re just supposed to read the line as being like ‘you, a council member, were generally responsible for my mom’s death’ which is also possible).

I still maintain that Harper has negligible personality but I did like her little mini theme-reinforcing story line here.

Oh also today’s story reinforces what I’ve thought this whole season, which was that Jasper’s little trick about committing suicide by standing out in the “black rain” was not as reprehensible as people think, in fact not reprehensible at all, because if it were black rain he would have felt it right away so like he was obviously not in danger--it’s not his fault that other people are dumb and fell for such fakery lol.

The Island Story Line

This one is more complicated for me. I liked a lot of things about it but I also had some...uncertainties about it and it’s hard to separate the two.

First, the moral issue of the day... Okay, yes, as an initial matter, I still have enough of a soul to be disgusted by the idea of forcibly experimenting on people, like I’m not a completely heartless bitch (even though I think a lot of my episode reactions make me seem that way). But because I have no idea who this Grounder fellow is, and because he really fortuitously just fell into their laps--more on my thoughts on this later--it’s hard for me to feel what I think the full impact of the moral conundrum is. Just as I didn’t really, viscerally, emotionally care about the 4x02 slaves because I didn’t know who they are, I don’t really care about Baylis or whoever he is because he’s pretty much the definition of a rando. I would much, much, much rather a character I didn’t even know existed 24 hours ago die and all my faves live than my faves take the moral high road and give themselves up to death to save some dude I know literally nothing about.

So what I’m trying to say is that I’m stuck between ‘this is really gross’ and ‘this isn’t gross enough.’ The arrival of Baylis is such an obvious narrative out, a having cake and eating it too scenario: you’ll see our heroes doing something bad, but not, like, REALLY bad, don’t worry. But can I really be upset about that? My revulsion is going to limited anyway because disgust at medical experiments is sort of a theme we’ve already traveled on this show so I’ve built up a tolerance and also... if Abby et. al. were really the new Mt. Weather and I felt the same way about them as I felt about,, say Dr. Tsing in S2, I couldn’t still continue to identify with them as the protagonists of the story. So the narrative is necessarily somewhat constrained in that way.

Speaking of Mt. Weather...have the Sky People learned nothing from their own past experiences?? Yes, today’s moral conundrum was about whether to do the experiment to see if bone marrow works as a treatment, but if it DOES, then the next moral conundrum seems incredibly obvious to me and I’m just wondering why no one has brought it up? Like Abby was literally tortured by the last people who thought using others’ bone marrow was a good idea? You’d think she’d remember that. Maybe I’m just missing something, in which case I’m going to feel very dumb, but it’s sort of hard not to associate bone marrow with Mt. Weather in the context of this show. From S2 I learned that one person’s bone marrow can supply something like 8 people with radiation inoculation--if you’re willing to kill the “donor.” So unless Luna’s bone marrow is going to be used in a very different way, for example as like the basis for a synthetic bone marrow style substance, which maybe is where they’re going but it wasn’t very clear to me at least on an initial watch, they can save 8 people if they’re willing to kill her which seems...not great. (Really, thinking about this, their plan HAS to be using something IN her marrow to make a magic solution substance, right? Like there’s no way that’s not the plot.)

That being said at least we’re not going into fucking space I mean WOW THAT WAS SO DUMB I’M STILL NOT OVER HOW DUMB IT WAS. Still a waste of like 2 episodes but I’ll forgive them as long as I never hear “let’s just fly away into space like nbd” ever again.

As I was saying about Baylis. I’m all over the place on my thoughts on this. In general, I do feel like his appearance is super convenient, as I said above, especially since prior to this we’ve literally never heard of anyone else being on the island, of “scavengers,” or of particular Bad People in Emori’s past (besides, you know, her whole family who kicked her out--but that’s fairly obviously not who Baylis allegedly is). We heard some talk about ‘worse things than drones’ on the island but nothing as specific as what we got in this episode. And if random Grounders really are the ‘worse things’ we were forewarned about, by the way, what a disappointment. I was waiting for genetically engineered monsters. Yet again, The 100 meta writers >> The 100′s actual writers. My problem with contrived narratives like this is that they take me out of the story. All I can think is ‘I see you writers, pulling the strings, constructing this narrative.’ That’s a fine thing to think AFTER watching or maybe on a second or third rewatch but a well constructed story shouldn’t feel like a narrative on the first viewing, imo. You should be feeling it too deeply to be analyzing it on the level of construction.

So I thought it was heavy-handed. And I also was sitting there wondering “when is someone FINALLY going to bring up that Baylis would be a great experimental subject???” Because I had come to that conclusion during his fight with Emori--back to the ‘this season is predictable’ theme I guess. I didn’t think the Dramatic Moment of Clarke suggesting experimenting on him was earned because, like, duh, why else was he even written into the show except to be a test subject? However, I will give this point a little bit of slack because of that final scene: finding out that Emori was acting the entire time--that, within the universe of the show, SHE was pulling the strings--made a lot of the earlier obviously-contrived-ness forgivable. Like, okay, it feels fake, but that’s because it IS.

And about Emori... Unpopular opinion time. I liked her, was intrigued by her, when she was introduced in S2. But I found her very lackluster (in terms of writing/conception, not in terms of performance) in S3. I didn’t think the writers really developed her in any way. I realize this could be disputed with textual evidence, for example, how she goes from trusting no one but her brother, to trusting and relying on Murphy, or how she learns to accept her deformity. But I’m talking more, I don’t know, emotionally, I just couldn’t see what difference she made to the story, I just couldn’t connect with her. I feel like she is largely a female Grounder version of Murphy, but less compelling because I know her less and see less of her. Her constant sole motivating factor is her own survival, which makes her very predictable and one-note. Similarly, her relationship with Murphy bores me because we never saw it develop, all of the getting together stuff happened off screen, and then once they were together they basically became like the same character twice over, interacting with itself.

BUT I really did like Emori in this episode. And I finally saw something in her that was compelling to me: how incredibly, incredibly sharp she is. Like that con she played, it wasn’t just on Clarke or on Murphy, it was on ME. I guess in a way I’m saying she earned my respect.

Also Luisa D’Oliviera’s voice is gorgeous, like why have I not noticed that before? When she and Clarke were walking in the woods in particular, ugh, beautiful.

I’m still not really on the Murphy/Emori ship but I will admit they were hella cute in this episode.

I don’t know how Murphy learned how to cook but I like that he does. I also like this “Murphy flirts with everyone” trait they’ve decided to give him these last couple of seasons. I definitely saw him as more ‘awkward boy trying to be cool’ in early Season 1 but I guess all of his experiences have just thrown him into the ‘I don’t give a fuck’ attitude, which frees him up to flirt with everyone for fun and without worry.

But...what the fuck is a randzi?

One (more?) complaint about this story line though: The impact of the Baylis story was lessened considerably as it was told, imo, in that I could never quite get a purchase on WHAT he had (allegedly) done to Emori--maybe this is just my prurient interest, but I thought they cut a lot of corners in just painting him as a generically abusive bad guy. Sometimes I was tempted to read him as an abusive ex-boyfriend...but he also abused her brother and then there’s that ‘scared little girl’ line. Was he one of the people who cast her out? She talks about that event but also says it happened when she was an infant, so this must be someone she met later...I suppose someone who took advantage of her and her brother’s vulnerability while they were on their own. I eventually settled on a non-literal Bad Uncle type. I’m not saying I need a play-by-play on the abuse, but it just...I was constantly trying to figure out exactly what they were talking about and it started to feel a little contrived (again), how generically he was painted as A Bad Person Just Trust Me He’s Bad. But then that last scene makes me think...was it contrived on purpose? Maybe. Still, Emori’s abuser is, apparently, a real person: Murphy’s line toward the end is “He’s not the guy?” not “The story was fake?” So if the story was real, Emori could have used real details if she’d wanted--the details weren’t hidden from the viewer because she was bullshitting the whole thing but because, I can only assume, the writers were too lazy to write them in, and that, I don’t respect.

Oh, also, that line about saving themselves first and then restoring their humanity, that Kane says, is another one of those faux-deep The 100 lines that I always have to roll my eyes at (like “I bear it so they don’t have to” when Clarke says it, or “No one is innocent” when divorced from its original context, or my personal favorite “You don’t ease pain you overcome it” or whatever that 3x16 nonsense was). Again, did Mt. Weather teach you nothing? Once you’ve done something SO BAD that it erases your humanity itself, it’s gone; you don’t get it back. Maybe if someone actually listened to Dante we wouldn’t still be having these problems lol.

Also also: I’m still on the fence about these Ultra Modern Aesthetics like in Becca’s lab and house, but it was nice seeing Clarke shower, look clean, and rest. And I liked the almost horror-movie scene where she first sees there’s been an intruder in the house. But...was there blood on the pillow of that bed or am I just totally imagining things??

Octavia and Ilian

Two hotties I don’t care about, basically.

I honestly cannot conceive of anything Ilian could do or say that would make me care about him ever so.

I get why Octavia is Annoyingly Dramatic: she’s sixteen. She’s sixteen with an added dose of stunted emotional growth from literally knowing only 2 human beings for most of her life. But that doesn’t make her dead inside emo child bit any less obnoxious to me. (I realize I am a semi-hypocrite about this given some things I DO like and even worse some things I’ve actually written myself but shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.)

I know everyone saw I/O coming from a million miles away and so did I but that doesn’t make it any less nonsense. That said...I wouldn’t mind seeing Octavia become a sheep herder. I mean I’m so tired of her current state of being that anything would be a nice change of pace but like a real 180 about-face might be kind of refreshing. It might be nonsense...but when was the last time O wasn’t nonsense? Like at least it would be relaxing nonsense.

And on the trailer: Yes Jasper. Yes Miller is finally back from his extended spa vacation or whatever he was doing.

#the 100 #bellamy blake #clarke griffin #john murphy #emori #s4 reactions #the year 2017 #2017: fandom thoughts #2017: the 100 s4 #the 100 spoilers

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jazzypizzaz · 7 years

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end of the year fic meme

I’m pretending like @multsicorn tagged me in this :-). I would love if other writers were to answer these questions too! I love hearing what people think of their own work and process, so consider yourself tagged if doing this type of reflection is interesting to you.

Statistics: I wrote 22 fics this year (21 for DS9 and 1 for Columbo), ~105k words between May and December, which works out to almost ~500 words/day. 12 Quodo fics, 10 different pairings. I’m very proud of forming this habit of indulgent creative writing, and honestly it’s improved my overall well-being immeasurably. Hopefully I’ll keep it up this year as a habit. (special thanks to trek-rarepair-swap and Quodo, and everyone associated participating and supporting each other)

under the cut for length, ten questions:

1. What’s your personal favorite thing you wrote this year?

Hmmmm maybe this is an odd choice, but at the moment my favorite is Rule One Thirteen. I hit all the emotional notes I wanted to, which was a delicate balance in tone/characterization, and I think stylistically it’s beautiful in a particular bittersweet way.

They’re all my babies that I love in different ways though.

2. What’s your least favorite thing you wrote this year?

Uummmmm?????? They are my children and I love them all dearly!!! uhhhhhh maybe What if Feels Like for a Girl, because a) I have more distance from it as among the first fics I wrote, and b) it was necessary but I like the other fics in the series better, c) the title and description and some of the dialogue makes me cringe a little idk.

3. Which of your fics was most different from what you usually write?

since what I write is rare pairs with odd combinations of fluff and angst and absurdity and poetic imagery and indulgence and too many emotions, “what I usually write” feels like a super broad category???

Messy Desks was the only non-DS9 fic, so I guess that’s an outlier by default, even though small scenes and shipping a one episode character is my bread and butter lol. Morn’s Big Mouth I feel like had a different style than anything else. Rule One Thirteen wins for not having any silly moments maybe.

4. Which of your fics this year was most successful?

For my corner of fandom, this is such an odd question with how to measure it! Because going by pure kudos, the numbers are small enough that factors like a) who reblogged it and especially b) what the pairing is I think almost entirely accounts for variability. That said, Sweet Dreams Are Made of This is by far the most successful in this regard, with ~50% more kudos than the runners-up, many of which fall into a similar range. Odo/Quark is probably a more popular rare pair, plus hurt/comfort I think might draw bigger audiences than angst or smut, plus maybe since it was pre-slash that also upped interest. Who knows, it’s all guesswork on my part.

The bigger measure of success for me is comments. In that regard, Down On My Knees has the most comments from individuals, particularly proportionate to the kudos, which I think is more telling of success within the target niche audience lol. I’ve very happy about that because ~tentacles~.

Honorable mentions to Morn’s Big Mouth -- which also had a high rate of comments-to-kudos, mostly of people expressing delighted surprise aka my favorite reaction -- and Case of the Caged Heart -- which had the BEST outcry of emotional tags on tumblr and in the comments hahahahaaaa I draw strength from your pain dear readers.

5. Which of your fics do you wish was more successful?

ummmmmm idk I think they all drew the audience reception that could be expected! anytime anyone enjoys my self-indulgent absurdity is such a gift, honestly. like I’m so happy that there’s this small group of us obsessed with rare pairs and weird aliens in a show that’s been off the air for two decades??? it’s such a delight, always.

to not cop out of answering this though I guess I’ll say Hungry for Your Touch, even though the fact that anyone is willing to read Sisko/Quark is a miracle honestly.

6. What’s your favorite piece of dialogue you wrote this year?

uhh let’s say Morn’s dialogue in Morn’s Big Mouth hehehe

7. What’s your favorite piece of description or narration?

probably it doesn’t work as well as I think it does, but I absolutely adore all my over-the-top weather elemental imagery metaphors in Breathing Underwater.

8. Which fic this year was most fun to write?

well the month of May was fun because I wrote the majority of Can’t Buy Love series in one long crazed obsessive spree. also Down on My Knees because shut up I like tentacles and angst and aliens and weird consent and D/s okay, it’s fine it’s all good it’s just what I like.

anyway any time that the ideas just ~flow~ and I can write 2k words or more in a single sitting because I’m that ~inspired~ is A+ peak writing experience.

9. If you could go back and change something about one of the fics you wrote this year, what would it be?

listen I go back and change stuff in my fics anyway... but I guess only minor stuff. for something bigger I’d make Odo more stoic and less overtly sincere and maybe more vulnerable in various ways in Can’t Buy Me Love (I was still working out his characterization at that point). there’s PLENTY of other stuff I’d like to be better or change in other fics, but much of that I don’t mind keeping because it’s something I enjoy even if it doesn’t actually strengthen the narrative for the reader haha.

10. What, if anything, are you going to try to do differently in your writing in the new year?

maybe spend more time editing and thinking about the fic before posting. like I always say that, and then get over eager anyway. also, figure out how to extract more honest criticism, because so often I *know* something doesn’t work as well as I want it to, but I need outside perspective to figure out how to even figure out what isn’t working.

probably not use so many adverbs?? idk.... if anyone has suggestions, I honestly honestly honestly do like hearing constructive criticism. like if something bugs you about my writing I LOVE well-intentioned suggestions.

#jazzy liveblogs writing #end of the year fic meme

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